Anecdotal Evidence

Since here விடுதலைப்போரும் திராவிட இயக்கமும் - பி.ராமமூர்த்தி சங்கத்தமிழும் பிற்காலத்தமிழும் - உவேசா Lighen up George- Art Buchwald Master and Margerita - Mikhail Bulgakov இந்து ஞான மரபில் ஆறு தரிசனங்கள்- ஜெயமோகன் திசைகாட்டிப் பறவை - பேயோன் ஞானக்கூத்தன் கவிதைகள் Pratidwandi - Sunil Gangopadhyay Our Films their films - Satyajit Ray Darjeeling (heh heh)- Satyajit Ray Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut The Laughing Policeman - Sjöwall and Wahlöö Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez An Autobiography - Jawaharlal Nehru கம்பராமாயணம் - சுந்தர காண்டம் வரலாறும் வழக்காறும் - ஏ. சிவசுப்ரமணியன் நாஞ்சில் நாட்டு வெள்ளாளர் வரலாறு - நாஞ்சில் நாடன் அந்தக்காலத்தில் காப்பி இல்லை - ஆ.இரா. வெங்கடாசலபதி A short introduction to Art History - Dana Arnold பால்யகால சகி - வைக்கம் முகமது பஷீர் கம்பன் தொட்டதெல்லாம் பொன் - கமல...

Imagining the worst is no talisman against it - Don Paterson எங்கள் வீடு தனி வீடு. அடுக்குமாடி கட்டிடங்கள் சூழ மந்தைவெளியில் நாங்கள் மட்டும் தனியாக முறுக்கிக்கொண்டு நின்றோம். குடியிருப்பவர்களை விட வயதான வீட்டை இப்போதெல்லாம் சென்னையில் பார்க்க முடியுமா ? தகர்த்துவிட்டு அடுக்குமாடி குடியிருப்பாக்கி , எங்களுக்கும் இரண்டு வீடு தருவதாக ஒருவர் வந்து சொன்னார். அப்பா மறுத்துவிட்டார். முன்னொரு காலத்தில் அப்பாவின் கவிதைகள் எல்லாம் பிரசுரம் ஆகி இருக்கின்றன. அவரா தன்னை விட வயதான வீட்டை விற்பார் ? ஆனால் அப்படி ஒன்றும் வீட்டின்மேல் இஷ்டம் இருப்பதாக அவர் காட்டிக் கொண்டதில்லை. பிரியமா பழகிவிட்டதா ? ( அம்மா மீது கூடத்தான்).

As shastribot would say, it is important to keep the scoreboard ticking And sedate oldschooler that I also thought I'd keep the ball rolling (sheesh!) இப்பதிவிக்குத் தொடர்ச்சி ஒன்று எழுதவேண்டுமா இல்லை இப்படி லஜ்ஜையில்லாமல் பட்டியல் போடுவதை நிறுத்திவிடலாமா என்று யோசித்தேன். மக்கள் bookfairஇல் வாங்கிய புத்தகங்கள் பட்டியலெல்லாம் போடுகிறார்கள். அதற்கு படித்த பட்டியலே பரவாயில்லை என்று....

முன் குறிப்பு: ஐந்தாறு வருடம் முன்பு, கன்னிமை காக்கும் உக்ரத்துடன், ப்ளாக் ஆராம்பிப்பதில்லை என்று இருந்தேன். ஏன் என்று குடைந்தவர்களிடம் விளக்கம் சொல்லி மாளவில்லை. ஒரு மாதிரி "ஒழிகிறது போ" என்று கொள்கையைத் தளர்த்தி, இரண்டு வருடங்களாக அருள் பாலித்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறேன். முன்பொரு காலத்தில் எழுதியவற்றை வலையேற்ற பயன்படவில்லை எனில் ப்ளாகிருந்து என்ன பயன்? டிம்பக்டூ இருபத்து மூன்றில் கவிதை எழுதாமிலிருக்க முடியுமா ?

Birthdays are notorious as they bring up the dreaded ' what am I doing ' questions. I usually body-swerve these introspective annoyances as they inevitably lead to some resolution or the other. And resolutions are for commonfolk. But then haughty dismissal of the common is also getting common, so I thought I'd get one up on that this time. I observed that five minutes into a conversation with anyone, I start grumbling about not having enough time to read. That becomes my cue to jump to halcyon student days and I start holding court . And when I pause for breath, the audience in question sports a genial party smile and says: "nice meeting ya". If talking about reading is bragging, talking about not being able to read is worse. It would be an admission of being an - pardon the translation - asafoetida box. So, like a makeover movie's fulcrum scene, where one 'takes charge of life' etc. I made a resolution: to channel all available free time (whatever li...

Me: I give up. Ed: Just another few thousand words. Come on.. Me: Hmmm Ed: Uh oh ! I don't like that grin 800 steps up to the 80 feet breathtaking monolith. It is dated around 981 and is supposed to Asia's biggest monolith. It has withstood over 1000 years of the onslaughts of weather and continues to impress people from all over. Though proportionally speaking he is less reassuring that Michelangelo's David. (Exeunt philistine) The finish - for example seen in these nails and fingers is just wonderful. I don't know anyone who can even write a few lines on paper without scratching. Imagine a monolith ! Karnataka tourism was simple and impressive. For the kind of crowd the place handles daily, it was very well maintained. We in TN have inscriptions lying about every place, with no idea what the deuce they are about. Sravanabelagola has hundreds of inscriptions. Every inscription has been given a serial number, has a glass case over it and an explanatory note for those i...

We Tamils are Hindians too. We bellow hoarse about how annoyed we are with Hindians who land in Rameshwaram and expect to be spoken to in Hindi. However when we travel to any place in the South we expect to be understood in our pristine, divine, classical, ancient tongue by the locals, who - after all, we say, only speak a minor linguistic variant. Much worse, the brethren invariably oblige. "That's not true of all us" you say, well its not true of all Rameshwaram visiting Hindians I will say. Then we can talk about percentages and relative weights of our - heh heh - anecdotal evidence (sheesh !) "Kadubu bEku. undhA ?" I ask in my uncertain linguistic babytalk and the waiter pours sweet sambhar on my enthusiasm with "illai saar. Idli veNumA ?" For a state which has its own flag, the part of Karnataka I visited was too all-welcoming. Particularly Mysore. So much so that I couldn't get a taste of the local cuisine. So most of my conversations went l...

I am presently at the age where the loco parentis is gradually reversing. That the pace of reversal can be accelerated has been continually impressed upon me. Based on varying emotional situations I have been likened to Shravana and to Emperor Nero - who played the lute and left for the office when the household was stalled because of a plumbing failure. When the latter situations seem to pile up in memory, in a bid to achieve domestic emotional balance - and at the same time quench our thirst for drinking in all of the world's variety- my parents and I go on vacations. I am usually given a carte blanche in the planning except for one killer clause: any place as long as good filter coffee is available . That leads me to an inevitable digression. > When people like something which I don't, I find it difficult to just walk away. I have to say something. Sometimes I am blunt ("I don't watch hockey...you start watching sports other than cricket then one thing leads to ...

"My boy" said the editor biting into his cigar and letting a puff of smoke envelope his person. He rocked a bit on his reclining chair and toyed with his suspendor straps and continued "we need something new here" " First things first" I said in way of an ahem, "your 'my boy'ness is misplaced. You see, you aren't exactly the blow-hot blow-cold, talent managing rag runner. You are like a publishing consultant guy who will give me inputs. That is all" "Grhmmph" he replied to my curtness, as his smog thickened. "And could your dress be any more clichéd ? Next you'll want me describing your whiskers and liquor cabinet, so we are switching to dialogue mode rightaway",I sai.. Editor : Grhmmph.. Me : Well ? Ed : There is so much about you that the literary public should know Me : Maybe, but this is a family blog, not a tabloid Ed : No no.., what I mean is you could say write a travelogue Me : Pah..I can't even br...

Apparently in one of her scrapbooks when writing Fountainhead, Ayn Rand wrote a note to herself that read: "Don't dialogue thoughts". Guess that's some kind of inside joke, as dialoguing thoughts is what she majored in. Kurosawa apparently used to have a co-writer whose only job was to blow the whistle. i.e. say "Ah...you are cheating. That's a convenient conversation. That character won't speak/act like that himself. You are making him speak/act thus because your story demands it". In Unbearable Lightness, Milan Kundera dismantles characters in full view of the reading public. He pauses to comment:" It would be senseless for the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived. They were not born of a mother’s womb; they were born of a stimulating phrase or two or from a basic situation. " Yet we, I mean I, remain perpetually wedded to notions of credibility. That what we are reading is a life and we can't ...

Publication is the auction of the mind of men - Emily Dickenson Auction 1: அமுதசுரபி ஜூன் '09