Earphones and rides

A very disturbing trend that I have noticed among madras two wheeler riders is the usage of the earphone while riding their two wheelers. This might be either listening to music or for speaking to someone. This act of using the earphone while riding is very dangerous inamuch that it throws one's balance away by affecting his/her concentration. One might not be able to hear the honking from vehicles from behind; in worst cases, it leads to ignoring traffic lights and causing inconvenience to other riders / drivers. Many a time, when stopping at signals, if I see someone with an earphone on on both their ears, I request them to take it off. some listen, some snarl and ride away. Riders should avoid using earphones while on their two wheelers. As is the wont with Indians, unless the police prohibit this act of wearing earphones, it is going to stay. 

Revisiting Vaaranam Aayiram

As Gautham Menon gears up to launch the audio collaboration with Ilayaraja, it is time to revisit one of his best collaborations with Harris Jayaraj. Harris seems to have got new listeners with this album since this seems to slightly get out of his "heard before" songs. Adiye kolluthey was leaked on the net and is the peppiest song of the album, and Sruthi Hassan's first one in Tamil.  Turn it on full blast while speeding on the ECR or on the Chennai B'lore NH4! Nenjukkul peithidum has mesmerising lyrics though it brings u memories of Harris' own Mudhal Naal Indru from Unnale Unnale. This is one perfect example of how to reuse your own song. Harris tries to do something new by exluding Bombay Jayashree, a regular feature of his and Gautham Menon's previous ventures by using Sudha Raghunathan in Anal Mele Panithuli, but the carnatic singing genius sounds strangely like Jayashree herself , making the whole purpose of not using Jayashree puzzling! Mundhinam Parthene is perfect rock. Naresh Iyer is growing by leaps and bounds and seems to get the best ones too. There are 3 other nos., one a smaller "trying to be different" version of Nenjukkul Peithidum but the first mentioned 4 carry the day.
The perfect "bubblegum pop" - urban, youthful, - it can't get better than this! Harris, take a bow, man!

Yes to Koodankulam!

Finally, after clearing all hurdles, most of them which were unnecessary, the Koodankulam plant is going to function. Let us hope it clears out all the power woes plaguing the states. It should take care of most of it. An aside - the key to successful functioning of the plant is regular monitoring of the production and safety aspects, which our engineers are more than capable to do. Hope red tape does not stunt its progress.

NEP!

I guess a lot of fans are eagerly awaiting what Gautham Vasudev Menon can do with Ilayaraja. After monster hits with Harris Jayaraj and the maestro A R Rahman, this is an eagerly awaited one! I have not seen any knockout songs from Ilayaraja in the last decade, except one or two like "Ëlangathu Veesudhe" from Pithamagan. So here's hoping that Menon gets it right, the third time!

God helps those....

I had gone to an amusement park with my kid and a friend. When we got to the water park, the rules required us to change to costumes specifically designed for water parks. So i gave m wallet and mobile to my friend. After the water games, i asked m friend to give the wallet and phone. Unfortunately, he had misplaced the wallet. We were frantically searching for it when he had an idea – o to the place where he was waiting and search there. To our sweet surprise, a man came and handed over the wallet to us when he saw us searching. He said if I had kept a card of mine with a mobile number he would have called me. I thanked m good fortune and took that tip. God helps those who help themselves!