Unnai Pol Oruvan- Movie Review

One more feather added to the cap of ..........................Kamal Hassan???? Has it to be so obvious as always. This time I am struggling to pen, it is not. Then who???None other than Mohanlal. This would have been a surprise for many but to be honest Lal outplayed Kamal Hassan in this entire flick. Full credit to the team that dared to bring a movie spanning just less than 2 hours exempting the usual commercial formulas.

Kamal Hassan would be credited only for remaking the movie boldly in a tinseltown which has seen abrupt changes in scripts, fresh rural centric successful movies in the last 2 years. Mohanlal on the other hand has done justice to the role of a Commissioner with such finesse. His body language defintely needs to be reckoned. I would still appreciate the whole team with the brand "the remake which was original" similarly like Kuruthipunal(Hindi version-Drohkal). UPO has many "first time in Tamil Cinema" to boast of. Kamal and Mohanlal's combination being the epitome of success. Debut of director and the music director.Director Chakri's work is not hard as his Hindi counterpart had. He had to make sure the essence of the movie is not tarnished at any stage. He is well supported by Kamal's expertise knowledge which is evident throughout the movie. I would not claim Kamal acted with utmost brilliance. He had tried to underplay as a "common" man but the "Kamalism" in him wakes up once in a while. One more significant factor which tends to carry the movie is BGM. This cannot be branded as Shruthi Hassan's debut movie. The score is world class I should say. Her favourite music seems to be Jazz as it is evident in a few places and also in a few albums of hers. But she is clever enough to deliver the amount of score required for this flick. I am afraid will she be able to score for a normal Tamil movie? .The adaption to different scripts is mandatory for any musician. Very few like the maestro and Mozart of Madras have succeeded consistently.She was lucky enough to debut in a movie which needed some western BGM. Hope she recovers from the fame quickly to paddles up for other movies. Overall the movie is fast paced, sans mediocre formulas, spreads a strong social message on terrorism. Rather than questioning Kamal Hassan whether solution for terrorism would be terrorism, it is better to ask the question ourselves.

Pollution Free Diwali after 20- An awakening!!!!!

Diwali or Deepawali has always brought cheers to the whole family, society,city and country. Now it is worldwide too. What is Diwali? A Festival of lights. A sign of Good's victory over Evil. The awareness of inner light. In south India, it is the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon Naragasura. Whatever be the original meaning of Diwali, three things are inevitable, a public holiday, sweets and finally fire crackers.


During childhood, I used to wait one whole year for Diwali just like other kids. Hardly a month or two before diwali, we would start our purchases starting with dresses. I used to have 2 or 3 unfortunate years as I had my birthday and Diwali occuring on the same day. I meant "unfortunate" because during school, the very first working day after Diwali we were allowed to wear the Diwali dress. Also we were allowed to wear our birthday dress on our birthdays as always. Now you would have known how "unfortunate" I was having both my Diwali and Birthday on the same day not having a chance to wear both the dresses on different days. The first unfortunate year passed with so much of "grief and sorrow". My mum pacified me saying I can wear my birthday dress to school on some other day without anyone knowing. That is what she could do to stop my crying. Not that I did not want to do what she said. Right from KG I had a "friend" in class who shared the same birthday as I am. and the whole class knew it. I would perfectly land in trouble if I wore my birthday dress on a different day. So the "sorrow" continued the next year too. This was too much for me. The same drama passed for that year. It was New year Eve. I rushed to my dad's table to open a new diary which had the list of holidays for the New year. Yes, no prizes for guessing. I was cautious that there should not be a date conflict again this year. Luckily there was not one. From that day I started loving Diwali once again to the core.

Years passed. My interest in Diwali slowly started to fade that I was looking forward only for newly released movies. Yes, my zeal for movies was daring to sneak out. As always being an ardent fan of Kamal Hassan I started looking for his movies on Diwali. Either his movie or Rajnikanth's movie would defintely grace the theatres for sure. I would defintely catch up with the movie during first week.That was "my" Diwali celebration. I was not interested in lighting the crackers much then. I had my own reasons. The sole intention of this blog is to gather people of my own thoughts and prepare to face the "global -warmed" future.

Just last week I had read an article on the fast growing global warming recently in a leading Daily Newspaper. The large number of servers used for multipurpose poses a threat to the existing environment. It has been found that the heat developed by these servers have muc h to account for global warming.To maintain the servers in AC chambers lot of gases had to be burnt to maintain the chillness. To avoid this the researchers from Iceland have come up with a potential proposal. The relocation of Internet servers like Yahoo to Iceland would make things easy and would not cater the needs of maintainence of servers but also can avoid using AC chambers. So much studies and surveys have proved that if existence of Internet is mandatory, so is our green environment. Only if we start planning now for future our generation would benefit from our actions. Remember I am not a connoisseur to speak about Global warming in detail. Just a mere Human having a bit of care for our Mother Earth

Similarly Diwali may be a festival of lights for us at present but the air pollution from bursting the crackers defintely has its effect on the environment. A few may argue it is just for one day. Yes, I agree but the amount of smoke on that "day" alone makes the earth warmer by a few degrees. What I am trying to stress out strongly is bursting crackers can be done upto certain age. We cannot set an embargo for children burst crackers as they would have been dreaming of this day for past few months like how we did in the past. Dont get impetuous to ignore this awakening.We can save our earth from getting warmer by not bursting crcakers after the age of 20. It is as simple as that. Rather than being selfish we can sacrifice little for the younger generation's future earth. We as humans can only ameliorate the present state of the earth.

Who Paints Your Picture???

I read this from a forwarded mail. Liked it very much......

After years of terrorizing the countryside, hunting deer, poaching
livestock, killing game, Tiger grew long in the tooth. Finally, he knew it
was time to retire. So he packed his bag: "Poor self-esteem? Check. Poor
body image? Check? Poor self-image? Check. Self-portrait? Uh ... oh, well,
three out of four ain't bad."

Tiger ambled into town and came to stand before the Three Little Pigs
Retirement Home Inc. He rang the bell, and the first little pig appeared on
the landing above. "What do you want?" asked the little pig.

"I come here to retire," Tiger replied.

"Ooooh. I don't think so," the little pig declared. "You're not like us.
You've got big teeth. Very dangerous. We can't let you in."

Tiger, having poor self-image, went to the dentist to improve these apparent
deficiencies, and had his teeth removed. The next day, he returned to the
Three Little Pigs Retirement Home Inc. "What do you want?" asked the second
little pig.

"I have no more teeth. I come here to retire," Tiger replied once more.

"Ooooh. No, no, no. That just won't do," the little pig exclaimed. "You're
different. You have sharp claws. You scare us. We can't let you in."

No teeth, no claws, no self-portrait
Tiger took his poor self-esteem and even worse body-image to the manicurist
and had his claws removed. The next day, he returned to the Three Little
Pigs Retirement Home Inc. "What do you want?" demanded the third little pig.

"I have no more claws. I come here to retire," Tiger repeated.

"Ooooh. Let me see," the little pig muttered as he disappeared from sight.
Tiger heard much whispering and commotion behind the big wooden doors.
"Okay, come in," said the little pig.

Tiger strolled through the doors, and there stood the three little pigs,
grinning ear to ear. Suddenly they jumped on Tiger. Squealing with delight,
they beat him up and sent him packing. No teeth. No claws. Yippee! Finally
they got even with Tiger for terrorizing the animals.

Tiger should have known better. He should have accepted who he is and not
try to conform to someone else's image of him. What tiger in his right mind
lets a pig paint his portrait? He should have painted a self-portrait
instead.

Do you seek to improve your body or your body image? Do you seek to improve
your claws or your nails, or do you improve your self-esteem? What do you
see when you look in the mirror?

So, who paints your portrait?

F*R*I*E*N*D*S F*O*R*E*V*E*R

I have always thought of penning a blog which showcases friends who are very dear to me.Friends mean a lot to me. They have been my strengths all over my life. Its a beautiful feeling to have a lot of friends. I have never considered them as my friends,they are my family. Many have played a vital role in shaping my character and influenced me.I have just picked up a few friends who mean a lot to me. That does not explicitly mean that the rest of my friends mean nothing to me. These people have been with me on a longer course of my life. there is definitely no priority among these good souls who have been in my ups and downs. I would wish to thank them for all they have given me.Also the friends listed dont have any order of preferences.

Karthi- The one and only person I could think of immediately if I need to share my thoughts. He has beenwith me over major part of my entire life, close to 20 whopping years.We were in the same school since 2nd Grade.We most of the time had been fighting those times, being in opposite gangs. finally we found to become the thickest of all friends. Though we both are completely different in characters, we still have respect and affection for eachother's opinions. He has been blessed with a wonderful life partner Raji and I am very happy for both of them. If I reallywant to think about a friend its him.

Dinesh Babu- One among the few who has been with me since childhood is Babu. A wonderful person who always there to share his thoughts and offers a hand even when I least expect. Though we were not together in school and college,we always had some sort of contact to keep it going. I could still laugh my heart out when we both got crushes on a girl in our teens. Knowing the fact, we used to pull each other relating to her. we started laughing even more when we heard the same girl had a crush on someone else. We "consoled" each other and this could only happen because it was Babu and me.

BalaGanesh- Here comes a loud mouthed, centre of attraction seeker like me, of course. He is one of the friends who developed himself drastically from scratch and grew up to be a Manager of an IT firm. I always admired his hardwork and passionateto win over hurdles that came across. He is truly an inspiration for me. He has gone through enough hardships in life and hasfought back gracefully.He was the one who was really responsible for making things work in my sister's marriage. My parents trusted him so much and he easily earned the accolades of many with his responsibility and helping tendency.

Gautham- This tall, hunky guy who did maximum to make people especially girls turn back to him for a glance.He loves to be "all time" funny person. I expected he would change after his marriage but, NO. He is with me from school. We share a very special friendship right from the English class in School. We would never forget those happy days. He always concentrated on his looks and he is passionate on kamal hassan same as me. He was interested in making an entry to the tinseltown and did got a chance. Lucky Tinseltown!It was a narrow escape. He is a wonderful person at heart and always tries to make his presence felt.He has always lauded me and supported in whatever decisions he makes. He used to get me something whereever he goes for a holiday. Thanks da machi!


Ramesh- This guy needs special mention as he is completely opposite to my character and attitude but still we get well with each other as we know each other for almost 8 years now.This guy has immense taste in dressing and he was called Mr.Smart in college. He has amazing helping tendency and he always gives a helping hand to his friends. Last few years we have been having fun going for trips in India. We both make our travel plans accordingly though we are in different continents. I have got a few very good friends through him and we have become the TRIP GANG.We all share a great rapport pulling each other.We had a serious fight and college and we both could not help talking to each other and glued up after a month. Those were great moments. I wish I have him as my friend FOREVER. Thanks da Duck!

Nattu- Nattu or Natpu as I call him is one and only person whom I can boast of his friendship with me. The one and only person whom I can trust even when the Almighty turns me down. Honestly not an emotional testimonial for him. He is the one who has truly understood me at all times. He had always shielded me from anyone who tried to pull me down. He has made me understand and realise whats relationships are about. He has never hurted anyone in any forms. He made me feel home and safe when I ventured into Australia. His recent spiritual involvement has toned up his maturity and ready to face with guts. He believes destiny.He would be the last ever person on earth whom I can give up.TOUCHWOOD.

Vinod- I dont know whether I can term him as my friend. He is more than that to me. I came across this lanky guy when we both werein 10th grade. I did not know that he was my mum's close friend's son as I have not met him. This guy resembled a lot of his mum.I was doubtful and asked his mum's name. I was so happy to hear it as expected. i have heard from my mum that I used to call her as my "girl friend" when I was young. I was happy to have Vinod in my life. We both look as if we are not in good terms for a long time.I have a very special concern for him like a brother.He loved to tease me and boil me to the core and loves to hear me swearat him.Such a shameless sweet friend of mine. I would never give him up for anyone. I wish to be in the same old days where we roamed in bikes,chased girls, the bhelpuri shops, and bakery tea. Never in my life I could find a replacement for those memories.

Reena- This bubbly girl whom I got to know only in Aus at work was the one whom I treaure as a family and sister.We got so close just on the first day we met. She offered me her lunch box when she knew I did not bring mine.She made me eat the whole. Though she fights, argues with me, she always made me feel I have a family here.Nevertheless,she is blessed with a wonderful husband Sharvan who has become a close friend of me in no time. I cannot forget the longdrives we use to go as a family packing up food. Lake entrance was one of the prominent places we wont want to forget.Wishing you the best for your new venture. Thanks a lot for everything.

Ashu - It would have been close to humiliation if I failed to mention her name. A wonderful and bubbly human being,who does not know to think bad or hurt others. I have been blessed to have a wonderful person like her.She was the one who made me come out fighting when I was in chaos. I am always grateful to her any time of my life.We both cherish the friendship we have as it has been the most special in my life. It had no expectations all through.Anytime I had something to share immediately my instinct urges me to reach for her. I wish her the very best in her life.

Shruthi- She would be most trustable friends I have ever had. Always ready to help at any time. It was such a wonderful momenthow we both got in touch. I doubt whether anyone can have and maintain such a type of friendship which means just meeting each other just once and still have the zeal until now. Its more than 4 years and we have been the same good old friends.I always shared a great rapport with her in the world of music. She has the greatest stunning voices I have heard among friends.Wayto go,Shru!She is blessed with an amazing down to earth life partner in Sumanth. Wishing them both a great life forever.

Giri- This guy has to be mentioned specially for his calm and composed nature he maintains until now. Never have I had seenhim losing his temper. A not-so-open guy unlike me, which I have been inspired on many occasions. He is such a hard worker who trustspurely on himself than destiny. His love for music, cars has amazed me.One of the few guys whom I discuss about the world of music. He is a fanatic fan of A.R Rahman and never misses to read even the smallest bits of news about him. He had comeout so strong after having a rough patch of life. I still cannot imagine if I could be the same like him. I am happy to have such a wonderful friend.

Hari- One of the few chaps who has been with me in all times after I moved to Australia. He is one of the few friends whom I cannotafford to lose anytime and at any cost. Though he is younger than me, I have never let the difference show up any time. I always had a brotherly affection on him, next to friendship. I am grateful to his thoughts which made him get back to me out of trust after a small hiatus. Only we both can know that happened for better. He has been for his friends always at any time. I have been inspired by his helping tendency. He has the heart of getting emotionally related to anyone very soon. He trusts people very much which sometimes I am scared of.He has got the best of the best life partner Shankari. They both make the apt pair. I wish the young couple a fantastic life ahead.

Thiru- Not to forget Thiru.I am proud to say I know Thiru and he is my friend. I just cannot term this relation as just friendship.He has been more than that to me. He is more of a respectful person to me. A man of a few words, now he has overcome that and has become a person whose words speak more. He is the person who initiated me to write more and improved my vocabulary skills.Blogging would always been a dream for me unless otherwise he helped me in a easy way. The interest he shows for photography amazes me. I have seen only greeting cards as such professional as his pictures.His passion for cooking and trying new varities stand out. His Temple is INTERNET and his GOD is GOOGLE.Thanks a lot Thiru. This blog is dedicated to YOU as you were the one who initiated it.

I thank all of you people for being with me and wish I could have you all forever in my life.
I thank all of you people for being with me and wish I could have you all forever.

A Selfish Love Story

Is there any way, any one could find out what's going on in a girl's mind? I admit my failure. I have marvelled the technical inventions of mankind. I guess there should have been at least one effort for exploring a girl's mind. Not getting too poetical, I wish I had that instinct atleast once in a life time to try it on Rishika. It's been a thousand years since I proposed to Rishika. Pardon me again. When I see the calender the date I proposed to her was September 26th. Just two months back.

But, experiencing this love-sick-feel has a different time period for me.Yes, it counts to a few thousands of years.I agree it sounds weird. I do agree it sounded the same when friends blabber such things when they are in love. Why is a girl's mind so complicated to read or understand. Does it take ages to decide on a life partner? Guys never take time to express their feelings to a girl. Or is it the girl's thing?

I could not help thinking about her each day for the past 2 months. Why didn't she reply? If looks are her expectations, I am not that bad to reject. If its habits, I am a teetotaler. If its my career or financial background, I am her senior and a Jack-of-my-own-trade and a well- to-do person. She had limited her talks to me. It has become too official these days. She has stopped asking about my family, my music interest. Too much thoughts lingering my mind, I prepare myself to get back to my work. I did not know that day is going to be a very important day in my life.

I was so happy to get a nod finally from Rishika. This is going to be a happy day in my life. Before telling you people what happened, I would just brief my affiliation with Rishika.

She was my colleague and I knew her for past 3 years. Three beautiful years of my life. Right from day one, I could not help admiring her beauty and her gentle smiles. I heard from a few that she was a very stubborn and haughty girl. She was so beautiful that I never had taken a holiday after she joined the office. Call me crazy, but, my weekends have become boring, and I started looking forward to get to the office on Monday mornings just to get talk to her. She had a very beautiful long hair always kept loose.

She had the gift of smiling at whatever was said to her. She was so workaholic that she finished her part of work on time. I could not believe that this beauty was considered to be stubborn and haughty. Slowly, I started to fall prey to her beauty. I felt she was occupying most of my thoughts throughout the day. May be because we were into the same team and worked together on all projects. Never did I realise how quick the time passed by and it was already 2 years since I met her. I strongly thought she liked me as well. She used to listen quietly about my passion for music and would discuss it with me intensely. After each official meeting she would be the first to laud me for my ideas that I spill. It became a habit of turning to her and looking straight in her eyes after the meetings.She knew that too.We had a hearty laugh when she was absent for a meeting and the next day she said,"Jitesh, you were awesome on the meeting yesterday".

Just two months back when I felt I need to propose her, I took her to the coffee room and said,"Rishika, I love you". There was a slight shock in her eyes. She just kept her eyes down and avoided mine. She got up from the chair and was about to leave. I called her and she slowly turned back. "I dont need an immediate reply. Take your time as it's your life. I strongly feel you would be my best partner in life." She did not speak anything and just left.

Though I asked her to take her own time, I was expecting an answer from the minute I proposed. After exactly 2 months of my proposal, she called me up to the same coffee room. From the second I started to believe its going to be the "answer". We did not speak for a few minutes. She was looking seriously into her coffee cup and stirring unnecessarily. I leaned forward and looked into her coffee.

She looked at me and smiled."Jitesh, Sorry for making you wait for quite long. I was taking a longer time to answer you. Rather than thinking of a life

with you, I tried to think about a life without you. I felt the life without you is the hardest thing in my life. I love you too." People say that at such moments, the world around you freezes. Such moments, they say, seem to last for an eternity. If you have never been proposed by the person you love most I bet you will have no idea what I am talking about.

I was breathing heavily until she said the last 3 words. She gave me a warm handshake to unfreeze my world. "I like to go out for dinner with you tonight. Will you take me?" I smiled at her and said I will let her know the time and venue. I thought this would be the best ever time in my life. I didn't know how I got home that day. I booked a table of two in the City's most expensive and luxurious hotel.

I called her and confirmed the time and venue. she said she will be there by 8:30 sharp. I knew its going to be a long dinner of course and booked the table for 3 hours. I started bit earlier than usual in the evening to the venue. I reached the place at 8pm. I was shown the way to my table. I felt very happy. Life suddenly became too light for me.There was a music band playing all time romantic melodies. I felt those were played just for me alone. I smiled at myself. I started thinking about the life I am going to lead with Rishika. I saw the time it was 8:30pm. I was waiting eagerly for her to show up.

Minutes just passed by. The time was 9pm. I became bit restless. what makes her late on the first ever date? I am an impatient person and I usually dont like people coming late. Now the time was 9:15. I tried to call her but did not feel to. But I was getting bit angry. Was it a joke she was playing on me? I suddenly started thinking that she was stubborn and haughty as described by fellow colleagues. I called her mobile number but she did not pick up. This made me very angry.

It was 9:45 by then. I had no patience left. I cancelled the table and started home. I was about to take my car from the car park when I saw a few people

walking suspiciously to the hotel. I did not really care. My mind was not thinking anything but the failuer of my first date.I reached home. I was damn angry. I reached home by 11pm.Rishika then gave me a call when I was entering home.I did not want to answer but still, I answered. Her voice was stammering and panicky. "Sorry Jitesh, my dad had a massive heart attack. I could not call you as I had to rush to the hospital. I left my mobile in the car. I am sorry to have made you upset today." My anger disappeared. I felt sorry for her."Rishika, That’s ok. I am sorry too. Hope your dad's condition is stable now". She started to say something. I could not hear her as my eyes were engrossed on the TV and my eyes were following flash news updates on TV.

Just then I found the flash news in the bottom of the TV screen.I hung up Rishika's call. I was dumbstruck for a few minutes. The ground underneath felt moving. I called her back immediately and said "Good that you did not come to the Restaurant where I booked our dinner" and hung up.

It was the Taj Hotels and it happened on a wednesday night. It was on November 26, 2008 11:30PM.

Vikram (1986)-Re-review

This movie released back in 1986 was an action genre. Writer Sujatha was the man behind the story and screenplay along with Kamal.The role played by Kamal Haasan was actually masqueraded keeping James Bond -007 in mind. The movie opens in a court scene which is blown from an art work by Thota Dharani. The number of female castings are more similar to a James Bond movie. Kamal fits into the role like a glove as its not new for him to take up a cop role. This is one of the very few movies which showed computers to the world. It was clearly a hi-tech movie which was released 25 years back. The stunt choreographer who was debuted in Vikram was called Vikram-Dharma from then. This was Amjad khan and Dimple Kapadia's first ever south indian movie. Both kamal Haasan and Dimple have acted together in Saagar before in Hindi.

A nuclear missile "Agni Putra" gets stolen from the Indian army while its being transported to another army base. Sathyaraj plays the baddie and you cannot help laughing at his dialogue deliveryand humor. I cannot imagine any other person would fit his shoes in this movie. Audience at that period would have been awed at terms like "missile", "computer program" and "codes".Kamal employs himself to find the missile as his wife gets killed. The movie travels without much boredom to a country called "Salamia".Janagraj has tried a morose role as a transgender in this movie. Though it was shot in Rajasthan, the places and desert really makes us feel it as a different country.The palace in the desert is so huge and I am still wondering was it a set or a real one.Kamal saves the princess Dimple in one situation which is fair enough for the lass to fall for him. The computer programmer Preethi who accompanies Kamal develop a soft corner for him and by the end of the movie, both Dimple and Preethi chase Kamal Haasan to win his heart. Lucky guy!.This movie was a great hit those days. The movie was hi-tech savvy due to Sujatha and Kamal haasan for their screenplay. Most of the songs were a hit as it was rendered by the Maestro Ilayaraja. My favourite was "Meendum Meendum vaa" , "Vikram", "Sippikul".

Its a different feeling watching this movie after a very long time. I really enjoyed the movie.

A new (old) approach!!!!

This blog would be a surprising element for a few. We have always been reviewing new movies and rate it across five stars. I was wondering why can't I try writing reviews for older movies. There is absolute difference writing reviews when the movie was released and writing it after a decade or two. From now on I have decided to pen down reviews for a few older movies and highlighting the positives. Though the reviews would be succinct rather than being long, it will hopefully cover all the departments. But I would take a bash on the movie's blemishes as well. These reviews are blogged not to hurt anyone who was involved in that movie in the past. It’s just a third eye opinion on the movie. I will be starting that with a few favorites which set a trend few years back. Everyone is welcome to post their comments and criticize me of my reviews. Hope nobody sues me for not procuring any rights on the movies. That would goad me back to hibernation. I am not involved in movie making but I am fan of movie makers. I really appreciate the hard work they put in to make it marketable. Movies have always been a serious thing in India.

The star status and image worship people get here is extraordinary. A few heroes who still are heroes have been in the field for quite a long time. Its not an ordinary feat too. But at the same time its hard not feeling despicable about the heroes who dance around with heroines who are less half their age. I could feel a few smiles and guffaws when you read it. There is nothing to feel jocose about the age differences. Focusing on their old movies and their current movies, they have come a long way. I am still on a triage of what type of movies I should actually choose to re-review. I am sure a few other bloggers would have tried reviewing old movies. I want try my hand as well. So here we start....soon

Adventure Trip No.2 - India Tour AUGUST 2008

This year my trip to India had many interesting turn of events. Some of them I was prepared while for some, I was not. As usual even this India trip was initiated by my friend Ramesh as he did last time. This time the special occasion being his brother's marriage on September 1st. As being typical NRIs we planned for a few trips well ahead 4 months. Since Rajkumar -Ramesh's brother was a part of it, we did not find much difficulty in planning our trip.But still we had a accrual of options unlike last time and were busy sorting out the preferences. One such plan which interested us was The Island Guest House in Parambikulam, Kerala. Ramesh and myself booked our air tickets well ahead and as per the schedule I landed in India on 10th Aug. Ramesh followed me the same week. The team was the same as last time. After a planned family trip to Ooty on Aug 15th for 3 days which was memorable as ever, the main trip with
my friends followed on 22nd evening. I had to enter another new phase in my life just the previous day in Chennai.Yes, my marriage got fixed with Mohitha,my future wife(at that time). Things became so fast for me which I was struggling to cope up. I was awaiting a bunch of teasings and mockery from my friends. I was actually pulling down Rajkumar who was to be married on September 1st. But least did I expect that my marriage would be on the cards as well. Taking and heeding the wise saying, "everything is for good" I carried on with my plans. Badhri who was lugubrious all the time and Ganesh accompanied me to Ramesh's house in Udumalpet on 22nd evening. We reached there fairly by midnight(which was not actually fair).We were happy to see Ramesh after an year and shared pleasantaries. It was almost 2am when we all hit to bed.

Day 1: Saturday.

The morning we got up around 8am and started packing things. By the time we met the other friends who joined us the same morning. Arun, Dinesh, Vishal aka Dinesh and Rajkumar landed from different places. We started feeling excited as the same team has formed without much hurdles(not forget Badri). Body as we call him seem to be testing tough waters for a while and it took us a long time to convince him for the trip. He was no different from college days.Vishal aka Dinesh a glib minded guy had not changed much. We got our logistics ready and this time it was Bolero a tough vehicle for mountain rides. Vishal was hospitable enough to pack lunch for all of us. Then finally we all hit the road. As usual it was Rajkumar who drove all the way and never to forget that he was the groom to be married soon. On the way we had to buy meat and other cooking stuff until the next day. We arrived to Parambikulam entrance and waited for the guards to escort us. We had our delicious lunch(courtesy: Vishal). We had some problem with a few local domestic/wild animals which were trying to grab our food. Then we had to leave the vehicle as we had a long way to go on water. We got into a row boat which was big enough to accomadate 13 adults. The 5 people apart from our gang were the boat rowers and guides. We were shocked to hear the travel would last more than 2 hours as it was 12 kms. But amazing thing is the island looked not far enough to justify the travel time. The dam is one of the largest in the state of Kerala.It was owned by Kerala Government. It was located on the borders of TamilNadu and kerala. The ride was splendid and fabulous. Though it started getting sunny and temperature creeping up we did enjoy the lustic green sceneries with beautiful mountains and falls. Then the guide gave us the scare of our lives. This dam was housing a large number of Crocodiles. Yes!you heard it right. We were so anxious to see atleast one. Dinesh aka Eli was trying to sight atleast one with his binoculars. Finally we did spot one. It was a large one which was on the banks of the river and basking under the hot sun. The moment we started to sail towards it made it to move inside the waters swiftly. This lone brought jitters in all of us.The guide was assuring us that the crocs wont harm humans as it had plenty to eat in the fishes in the dam. Still we dont want to be the first to be attacked by the predator. The journey finally came to an end after 2 hours of a quiet boat ride. The island looked very exotic. We had to climb a long way on the bamboo steps to reach the guest house. The adventurous stuff that interested us more was there was no power facility in the island. We need to depend on the solar light after hours. We settled our backpacks inside the house.

Famous Eight- Island Guest House-Parambikulam

It was a large lounge with 4 beds on either side. We expected much worse condition but this came as a blessing to all of us. We were provided black tea by the helpers. Everything tasted so good in an isolated and scary island. We started trekking on that island at dusk. It was very very scary and we could feel that we were the only souls on that island at that time. That alone gave a chill down our spines. All our speeches became so volume controlled almost to level 0. Most of the talking was done in gestures and actions. The guide showed us a damp pit and gave us bonus chills by telling an elephant herd was there a few hours ago. The guesthouse actually had a trench dug around it so that dark beasts would not venture in and destroy the bamboo house.We returned to our dwelling after having a long walk around the island. Now dinner time. Since we had bought chicken to cook it was served with chappathi. We had to eat just outside the guest house. Since there was not even a single light except the solar light we had to eat bit fast. It was a different experience chasing away insects which got attracted to the only one solar light. We had to wind up and got to bed. It was still scary around the island and we could hear faint growls from nearby island. That night was unforgettable for Ramesh as he had to get up(sorry he did not sleep at all) n number of times and had a toilet visit each 10 minutes. Poor guy still did not recover from the jetlag he had after he got back from US. No wonder he was half his size the next day morning.

Day 2 - Sunday

The next day morning was sunny. We had black tea and a few good souls sacrificed their tea for Ramesh, who looked at them like a devourer if they did not hand him the tea. Luckily I had mine. We had breakfast and I did not very much like it. But for Ganesh, back like college days, went for a couple of rounds. Ramesh was very much down due to ill health. We planned to get back home as soon as possible. Poor guy did not have his breakfast I guess. Then we we all started back on the 2.5 hour boat ride back. It was scorching heat as it was almost nearing noon time. We reached the shore safely. We all planned to have a good tea as we were starving and were having black tea for past two days. Then we all got some soap bars. We stopped near the dam and had a walk inside. The tunnel was on the other end. We drove there. It was fairly a large dam. We finally arrived in topslip and we had our lunch in a canteen nearby. Then we boarded a cottage just near the topslip. We were making fun and pulling each other. Badri got a few fans all of a sudden from an women's college bus. After "sighting" Badhri those girls got excited and was Badri but he started pretending as usual as if he did not like them. It was time to part for Rajkumar as he had to catch a bus to Bangalore the same evening. We send him off in a town bus that came at 6:30pm. We were not too happy that he left as he is the one who makes the trip active and well planned. But still as he was getting married the next week we could not expect him to stay back. We got back to our cottage and spend some time chatting.We came to the canteen for our dinner. Then we planned to go for a forest ride with a forest guide. Our luck, I should say, except wild buffallows we could not spot anything but a rabbit which lost its way and was jumping to and fro on our track in the front. We got back to the cottage and hit to bed.

Day -3 -Monday

It was Monday morning and time to wind up our cottage and we started packing up our luggages in the car. We started to udumalpet around 9am. It was Ramesh who started his driving as Rajkumar left the previous evening. We dropped Ganesh in the townbus stand as he had to leave for work the same day. Still we were feeling good that he was able to make it.We reached Ramesh's house in no time. We had a good breakfast and slowly started packing for the next trip down the line. This time we were heading to Kodaikanal. We had a good shower and were resting until noon. We all stared after lunch. Now we had to shift cars and it was Ford Ikon now. Now the members of the previous trip were cut short to just 5 as Ramesh, Dinesh,Badri, Arun and myself. We had already booked a cottage in Kodai. The drive was awesome through the hills. We witnessed beautiful waterfalls on the way-Silver Cascade waterfalls. On one hilldrive bend we were awed to see three falls and we did not fail to snap it in. We reached Kodai in the evening. We had a good masala tea with spicy bajji on a corner. We finally reached our cottage with the help of a reference of Ramesh's dad. It was a good cottage which had 2 bedrooms and since it was just 5 people we were able to squeeze in each of the rooms. It started raining heavily the same evening. We all went to a restaurant -Woodlands which was a pure vegetarian. The food was good. We reached our place bit late due to the heavy rain lashing. The rooms were damn cold and we started watching some crap movie on the laptop. Ramesh was the only soul to sleep alone in one of the rooms.Sometimes the duck behaves weird.We hit bed very late.

Day -4-Tuesday

We got up fairly around 8am and had a walk to a teashop near the main road. We became more hungry after the long walk. We got ready to leave the place and packed our luggages. We drove around the lake and went for a walk in the Coakers walk. We drove to pillar rocks and posed for some "extraordinary" snaps and we had a good chicken biriyani in a restaurant. Our hero arun almost lost his coolers, but was lucky enough to get it back. We started our drive back. We started immediately after lunch as we felt it might rain soon. We got down the hill in the evening and had a tea in a small village. After the tea, much to our amusement the car did not start. It was a tough time running behind the car. Ramesh, being in driver seat was laughing his heart out watching us through the rear.We still suspect that culprit. Badri "really helped" us push the car with his right index finger.Finally the car started and we reached Udumalpet in no time. Badri and myself started to pack our luggage to leave for Coimbatore. Badri and myself got dropped in the bus stand and we boarded the Coimbatore bus.We reached Coimbatore around 10pm.

Unlike last time this trip was very short and covered different places and having a few stopovers. Though all of the guys did not get into the second trip to Kodai, it was still enjoyable. I can realise how I have tranformed myself in the last few years travelling more each and everytime I hit India. Now that Iam engaged I hope I would be "permitted" to trip again with friends once in a while.