I went on the I2FS site after a long time (following George’s posting about the Karz soundtrack) and found that three of the songs that I have been listening repeatedly over the last few months are all lifts. That raises credibility questions about YSR and to think I was slowly starting to place YSR in a pedestal that was almost equal to IR in terms of listening preferences. And these were just the three songs from Kadhal Konden that I raved about in this post. Needless to say, I am embarrassed.

Karthik, who maintains the i2fs page says (it) turns out that the film’s theme in itself is lifted from a German movie called ‘Klassenfahrt’ (English title, ‘School Trip’)…not only the theme but also the mannerisms of the original’s lead guy, whom the Tamil hero Dhanush apes unabashedly. I remember Dhanush getting loads of praise from the Tamil press for his ‘acting’ in the film…. Hmmm…

Recently, I have been on a number of blogs that escaped my radar earlier. I decided to finally add them to my blogroll. And I have been lazy too. I added some to my blogroll and did not exactly tell you guys about them. So today, ore kallula rendu maanga.. (singing a Kamal-ish tone). Here goes…

Jayendran is my neighbor. He has been my neighbor for quite sometime. We used to play cricket together and then he moved to the same apartment block as mine. He seems to have big plans that he tells us about in a rather poetic manner. He’s an ardent Kamal fan, a up and coming CA and a fellow quizzer. Welcome da….

The Nattu formerly known as “Inter-nettu” is now in Oz where he scribbles quite frequently. By the looks of it, he’s still the net-junkie as he was in the early days of Internet at Tirumalaisamudram. Do not miss any post of his, particularly this one.

Dev is a RSK-ite who was once a fused tubelight (Dev, see I still remember your team name from 1996-97). These days he is a dyslexic atheist, who also seems to be an insomniac. Dev, I think you can be cured. Just read my posts regularly and REM will beckon you immediately.

Hemanth is really a nice guy whose blog actually takes its name from the character played by Chris Penn in Reservoir Dogs. And to think that I thought he was so taken up with himself. He writes about his angst at Madras being renamed Chennai and thinks that its a shame to rename a place after the person who sold it to the Brits at the first place. He’s a movie freak and maintains another blog exclusively for everything to do with Chennai, its movies, the politics and its news at a place quite reminiscent of that standard Chennai fixture where everyone exchanges information with everybody else – the teakada (for the non-tamil speaking population in cyberspace, teakada refers to the local “Tea shop”. Do visit him and his teakada.

I dunno who Ripples is. Ok, I know that Ripples is a she and might also respond to the name Priya. Ok, not so sure about the second part. But all I know is that Ripples seems to be a very private individual and yet she is diverse with her interests. Lives in Chicago and creates ripples in everybody’s thoughts through her words here.

Dubukku is a think tank. Recently he shed his anonymity and had a SunTV-esque Photooo vaaaaram. He claims that he is Rengaraman Sankaranarayanan aka renga and that he has absolutely no claim to fame. However others claim that the image conveyed by one of the pictures that he recently posted might just become his claim to fame if he ever moves to the Bay area. Look out for him if you live in the immediate environs of the Old Blighty where he roams. Welcome to you too Dubukku thalaiva..

Last but not the least, the Mastermind and some of his friends (can I be included in that list too, sir ) put together a blog exclusively for issues pertaining to the finer points of that game favored by the nerds, dorks and the RCs – quizzing. Among the recent topics of discussion was the debate about the pros and cons of the Direct and Passing system and the Infinite bounds system. You can trust us trivia junkies to discuss trivial details like these, but if you know what I mean, you’d appreciate this as a issue of great importance to the quizzing community . So if you are a quizzer, do not miss the notes (and the stones) that accompany Interrobang (particular the post that explains the idea behind the name of this quiz blog) that boasts of, among other features – a question of the week.

Welcome to you all. I have been on your blogs often and I guess it was high time I added you all to my blogroll….

I am still speechless (and hence this post is title-less), an hour after I chanced on this site while searching on Google on 2005 Corvette, wallpaper. For someone who holds his breath everytime he sees a automobile screaming down on the road, this must be pure nirvana! Check out the wallpapers of the Mini Cooper Convertible launched at the Genva Motor show recently. One word… WOW!!!!!

This reminds me of Vallam, the blind turns, the red earth and the thatch roofs on the houses by the side of the road! That picture (caution: Takes long time to load if you are on a dial up) is essentially a aerial shot of one of the numerous desert villages along the route of the Paris Dakar rally, the car section of which was won this year by Stephane Peterhansel followed by Hiroshi Matsuoka both driving Mitsubishi Pajeros. One of the red and white Pajeros can actually be seen in the picture. See the Mitsubishi team picture here.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of the Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu or are not alumni of Shanmugha College of Engineering (aka SASTRA) or Periyar Maniyammai College, Vallam is a small village around 12 kms from Thanjavur (toward Trichy) on the small dirt path that passes for the National Highway between Nagapattinam and Banglore(?). For all the hostelers from Shanmugha (ok.. SASTRA) Vallam was/is like the closest source of really goood food. Sathya’s was a favorite hangout for me on Thursdays usually and on some other days of the week too when the description of hostel food veered towards the unpalatable.

From the minute we sat down at the table, it was as if Kumar was reading our minds as dish after dish made its way to the table. Kumar, who seemed to be the man in charge at Sathya’s seemed to know what each and everybody wanted to eat even before we could order and a steady stream of food (accompanied by genorus amounts of “getti” chutney used to land at our table by the roadside the moment the food in the plate disappeared. My routine used to be four parottas, one omellete, one onion uthappam with (no crushed tomato on top) a generous helping of chilli powder to top it and lastly, one veechu parotta. This would be washed down rarely with streaming coffee. The meal would end with a packet of ARR Fruit Masala (I hate the traditional ARR sugandha paaku that the other guys used to have), from the potti kadai. The whole bill used to be exactly Rs. 17.

Its almost four years since I sat down at Sathya’s. When I was in India in December 2002, I thought I eat there when I went to Thanjavur, but the preceding week was spent in a slew of feasts at three different wedding that by the time I left Coimbatore to Thanjavur, I was sick as soon as I smelt any hint of food. I miss college life and Sathya’s is fondly remembered even now. Hmmmmmmmmm……………..