Deconstructing Rajini ? Don't bother !

Sivaji gives TN an unseasonal festival. Rajini's Sivaji mania grips US. Sivaji takes Delhi by storm. Every Rajini film is a holiday. Gods take a backseat. Fans offer prayers.

These are just a few of the headlines that I had seen on a few news portals that I am able to recall. There has been so much of Sivaji and Rajini on the mainstream media back home in India over the last few weeks that keeping track of the number of stories is impossible. The below are some news that come off the top of my head now.

Policemen brought in to control crowds.. in Kaula lampur. A report says that the faithful fans are ready to watch the movie standing, they just want to watch. And this happened not in Chennai but in Columbus, Ohio. The movie has been released in 5 theatres in Toronto An IT company booked an entire show in a Bangalore multiplex for its employees ..paying 67 thousand rupees. A special 10 am show was screened in view of the huge demand , at Richmond, VA. Entire first week sold out in Dubai. 4000 plus tickets sold out in Bay area. Sivaji relasing in two theatres each in Sydney and Melbourne.

Even if half of what has been written is true, then this undoubtedly is the most hyped and reported / written about movie in recent times. The kind of craze , frenzy, excitement that this man’s movies generate is just beyond belief and comprehension.

There have been a lot of people who have been asking how did this 58 year old now bald, dark and ordinary looking man become the most loved , adulated and worshipped ( !) icon of our times. How come he has fans cutting across every possible division in the society? People wonder how is he able to have this effect on the audience. How was he able to win over the Japanese ? How come this reclusive, reticent, extremely modest and humble person transform into the epitome of style on the screen. ? Why is the day of his movie release celebrated like the most important festival of the year. How come even if his movies carries below average reports it can do business worth 50 crores. How, why , how ??

And then they also give answers - style, punch lines, dialogue delivery, mannerisms, action, comedy, crazy fans, hero worshipping culture of the Tamilians and a whole lot of other reasons.

I can only say that there is no point in spending too much time on trying to deconstruct Rajini and the excitement he creates. There is no logic, reason, explanation or method to the mania, madness and mayhem that is generated when his movie releases. Those who want to find answers and pin down the euphoria to written down reasons and causes, can try and continue on the quest. While the rest of us fans, will continue to rejoice ,be happy and be thankful to the man for bringing us so much excitement and joy.

Rajini. Don't bother to find reason . Its magic.

Things i miss - the A to Z of Chennai.

When you move from your home to a new place , there are always thing that you leave behind and things that you miss. The below is a list , from A to Z , of things that i miss from Chennai. The list is mainly influenced by what used to be my work routine - office life, sales calls, public transport, weekend outings and the like. Here is an A to Z of things i miss ..

A – Autorickshaws. I had written an entire blog about them. It is but natural that they are on top of the list.

B – Burma Bazaar DVD shops. 6 movies in one DVD for 30 bucks.. ! Lord of the rings and The matrix for less than one dollar. Long live piracy.

C – Cinema posters on the walls. My daily dose of movies. Chandramukhi is reaching 800 days. Would miss that poster.

D – Dum breaks. Giving company to others during their smoke breaks. The best office gossip and inside information is exchanged during such breaks.

E – ECR . Beaches, restaurants, movies, traffic jam, mamool vangum cops , un- potholed roads.

F – Footboard travel on the Tambaram - Beach local train.

G - Goods trains. Counting the number of wagons in them as they chug past in the next track has been a favourite rail travel pastime from childhood.

H - Hoardings - Huge , life size and colouful. Especially now since, Sivaji hoardings i belive are all over Chennai.

I - Iyers. Their Tamil, their English, their Tamil mixed with English ,their food, their tradition, their navarathri kollu sundal , not to mention the iyer girls.

J - Juice kadais ( shops) which mushroom automatically during the summer months.

K – Kutty samosa at the shop next to office. 4 pieces in one packet . The filler between breakfast and lunch for me and Vinay.

L - Lunch time in MAA office . Veg sappadu , Vetti pechu , veen vambu. ( veg food, idle talk, mischevious banter)

M - Madras Tamil and all those slangs and phrases unique to my city.

N - Nungambakkam High road. 5 star hotels, over priced coffee shops , budget restaurants, branded apparel showrooms, roadside shops, clients etc etc.

O – O.C book reading at crosswords and landmark.

P - Ponnuswamy hotel chicken biryani. There was none better. period.

Q - Right from the days of playing "name -place- animal -things" in school, finding words in Q is a problem for me. The trend continues. You could wonder why i didnt mention Queues, but Queing for everything seems a national pastime here in Sweden.

R - Rendu chakkara vandi ( two wheelers- bikes, mopeds, scooters) . My fav vehicle for travel. It can poondhufy thru any traffic jam.

S – Sales calls. ..tholula pai, kazhuthula tie, vai fulla poi. ( roughly translated as .. a bag hanging from shoulders, a tie around ur neck , mouth full of lies )

T –. Traffic policemen ( fondly called mamas) . You ve gotta give it to them. Tough job it is , to stand in the heat amidst all the noise, pollution and reckless drivers.

U - Uchi veyil . 40 deg heat at 90 percent humidity. Prefer that to snow capped dark winters at -10 deg.

V – Valmiki nagar beach. Sentimental place - not for me - but for the one in my gang who had the all important car. So the only beach we go to

W - Water packets. Chilled water for 1 rupee. Best used for washing your face before stepping into a clients office.

X - Oh come on ! You expect me to come up with something in X when i cant find one in Q.

Y - Yelai pottu sappadu..... banana leaves as plates for serving food .especially the ones at Murugan idlys and Saravana bhavan. It enhances the taste of the food, i tell you.

Z – Zara . Pub un-cultured chennai s stand alone argument.

In the land of the Fjords

The good thing with Gothenburg's location in the geographical scheme of things , apart from it being the biggest port in Scandinavia and all that , is that it is located almost equidistant to 3 different Capital cities

Copenhagen is about 3 and a half hours to the south , Stockholm is about the same time to the North East , and Oslo is about 4 hours by road up North. While there are not many others thing to write home about Gothenburg ( being the home of Volvo, Saab, SKF and the Frolunda Indians isnt going to get the excitement going is it ) this nice locational advantage has helped to plan trips to these capital cities.

Since Copenhagen has been an oft visited place and a sort of been there done that feel attached to it , i turned the attention to visiting Oslo and Stockholm.

THE ONE DAY ROAD TRIP TO NORWAY :

The 17th of May is the Norwegian independence day and from what i heard from a few reliable sources , as good a day as any to visit the capital city. Since it was a day trip only it was decided to drive down to Norway and not bother with trains , hostels and stuff. ( funny, it s always "drive down " , even though like in this case we may be driving North). Moi plus my two Czech friends Zdeneck and Vitazlav ( i know there is a bit too much of Z there ) started out from Gothenburg at 5 am. We hit the E6 highway after doing a circle around the city searching for it and we were on our way to the land of the Fjords. The Czechs took turn at the wheel while i lazed away at the back seat - i stil dont have an international license you see - and we hit the Norway border after about 150 minutes.

A good sign that you are nearing a city in these parts of the world ,is the sight of an IKEA store. As soon as we passed one , we were in the Oslo limits. Soon we found a place to park the car and proceeded to follow the crowd that was making its way to the city centre. And i have to tell you about the crowd. Almost all of them were in their best suits and traditional clothes. Almost whereever i turned i could see a Norwegian flag fluttering , from rooftops , on cars , on people's hats ,in the hands of kids. As we walked on , soon I was i guess in the South Asian zone or suburb, for all i could see was Bollywood DVD shops, Pakistani jewellry shops, and an incredible number of people walking around talking in Lankan Tamil . No wonder the peace negotiator between the Tamil tigers and the Lankan government is the Govt of Norway.

Soon we reached the Royal Palace. The palace courtyard, the road leading into it and the park surrounding it was chock a block with flag waving Norwegians. The main event of this day is the Parades. The main event of this day is the Parades. People drawn from all walks of life were walking in a procession, playing music, dancing and generally having a merry time. These bands apparently come from all over town and all of them mil past the palace to salute the Royalty. There seemed to be a never ending stream of the parades and they were being cheered lustily by the crowd. The atmosphere and the general verve around the place were absolutely amazing. It was a wise decision to visit Oslo that day I felt.

It is generally believed that in Scandinavia that the more north you go, the more costly it gets. Denmark is costly, Sweden costlier, Norway costliest. I can only pity those dudes up in the Faroe Islands. And the belief is true. We checked out the prices in McDonalds, Subway and a few restaurants. Costliest is the word. After just about eating the bare minimum to go on, we trudged on. We visited a Fort near the harbor, which has a good view of the harbor and the sea front in Oslo. On that day, the magnificent Cruise liner - "Jewel of the Seas " was docked next to the wharf running along the fort. And OMG what a magnificent sight it was. For someone used to seeing Container vessels of all sizes, this one was an amazing sight. My "to do" list had just got bigger.

Fredrikstad was about an hour from Oslo. It is a quiet little city, the main tourist attraction there being a 17th Century town still preserved as it is. The place has typical cobbled streets, a fairly large square with a statue in the middle and rows of houses built touching each other. The place also had a slew of Canons mounted on the walls and looking out into the river and beyond along its boundary. Next stop was Halden. I was pretty much interested to see this place because the lonely planet book we were referring to said that Halden was situated on a fjord and that meant I could catch my first sighting of a Fjord. Also as part of my work I have to deal with the port at Halden quite often and so I was pretty excited.

Halden was just awesome. It was rich, unspoiled, natural beauty at its best. A friend of mine always used to say that Scandinavia was one of those unexplored and untouched of naturally beautiful places of the world and I must say that she was being right. A quaint little town with beautiful houses, clean roads, lots of greenery and looking straight out of a picture postcard. Halden also had a fort atop a hill. A band was playing the ABBA greatest hits as part of the Independence Day celebrations. (A touch ironic, ABBA is a Swedish band and the independence being celebrated was the one from Sweden). We walked up to the top of the hill and were left speechless at the magnificent view of the Halden fjord. At one side, the fjord, with the sea coming in, the small islands covered in green, surrounded by sparking blue water and on the other side the town with the red tiled houses and asphalt grey roads. And people say the best fjords are on the West Coast of Norway !!!!

After spending sometime atop the hill and drinking in the marvelous sight, we set off back to Gothenburg. We returned around 12 in the night. . It was a day well spent. Norway rocked. Oslo was like many other European towns I felt and a day certainly was not enough and the small little towns along the way, the fjords, those lovely beautiful villages and fields... they were amazing and out of the world. It is a place to visit again.