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To know who is phenomenon, one needs to watch the gearing up by the fans of this star for the upcoming release – Sivaji The phenomenon is Rajni. I have always been amused by his antics on the screen, truly entertaining! Some tidbits from the upcoming movie Sivaji:

1. Director Shankar used 2500 junior artists for the introduction scene of Rajnikant.
2. A huge set of glass house was built to shoot Sahana song.
3. 4K DI (Digital Intermediate) digital camera is used for the first time in India for this film.
4. Helium Balloon light is used to shoot a song. The crew has to use 13 helium cylinders for the lighting.
5. The team of Shankar saw important footages of most of Rajnikant’s films since his debut in 1975. They found that Rajnikant looked best in Padikkadavan (1985) film. Then Shankar summoned the make-up artist to come up with a similar hairdo for Rajnikant 22 years later.
6. Rajnikant donned 15 different hair styles for this film. He also tonsured his head and shaven off his mustache for a get-up in this film. A make-up artist from France is flown in for this purpose.
7. A few songs of this film are shot in the US of A and Sapin.
8. Rajnikant’s daughter supervised the 600 scenes of Computer Graphics work that lasts for 50 minutes in this film. It took over an year to do this CG work.

I would any day be entertained watching a movie starring this 57 year old actor!

I thought it worthwhile to pay and see his show from the third row on 27th Feb, and it was fun! I particularly liked the imaginative Terminator 8 bit the American guy enacted before Russell took the stage. He was funny too!

I must admit however that the edited videos were funnier, but I guess this is how live stand-up comedies are!

I did notice some of the elder folks were quite uncomfortable when Russell Peters started talking explicit stuff! Surely the youngsters who brought them must have quite regretted it.

With slight apprehension if I was doing the right thing giving up the only day I had free last week, I decided to attend the First South India conference of the Toastmasters International – (District 82P Division B).

After a slightly boring cliche’ inaugural, it was time to hear Mr. Srinivasan (who assumed office as the DG and IG of Karnataka police). His speech was simple for a non-flambouyant person to understand, sometimes colloquial, but so full of humour while being sincere. I have never before admired the captive power of a pause in a speech.

The educational sessions revealed an interesting aspect of public speaking: You may be confident, immaculately dressed, your speech extensively researched and your English impeccable; but if you don’t connect to the audience, or listen (to the active feedback your audience gives) with your eyes, you can be sure you lost it. Like Ken Blanchard says – ‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions’, it is important for a champion speaker to absorb feedback!

The sumptuous lunch was followed by a competition, and some speeches were simply cool. The undisputed winner had me wipe my tears atleast 6 times; I could not control them as I laughed my heart out! It got me more tears than speeches that tried to apppeal to my empathetic self. Well, it was not just me, the whole hall was in splits on the harmless subject of a Home maker!

At the end of the day, I believe it was a Sunday well spent.

But it set me thinking, where the heck did I put in those Aaah’s and Ummm’s in my talk? Too much exposure to amatuer reporters on news channnels? Well, I have turned to reading news!

I have never experienced a silent morning in Bangalore where you hear nothing but just the birds chirp … no automobiles, no noises of domestic help at work, no honks, no hawkers … It was bliss. It was as if I was in my village. But the Bandh came at a cost!

A city with 8 million population comes to a halt
Incurs atleast 610 crores loss
Some losses can be made up by compesating to work on a subsequent weekend.

All this in addition to having recd. a share of Cauvery water considered lesser than acceptable after the cauvery tribunal passed the verdict after 16 years!

So what have we done? We have bled ourselves today for having known what is to come couple of months from now. Makes me wonder if Bandhs are suicidal!

Now there is a 3 month window for all stakeholders (including Karnataka govt) to file a petition. What happens after 3 months?

We need to fight our problems and strongly so, with facts and figures but no emotions in place. While all other stakeholder states have not lost their productivity and revenues for 12 hours, how can we do so for our state?!

How Old is Your Inner Child is an interesting site I stepped upon while reading about the power of paradigm shift at someone’s playground to the internet. It tells me

And it also tells me: The adult world is pretty irrelevant to me. Whether I’m off on my bicycle (or pony) exploring, lost in a good book, or giggling with my best friend, I live in a world apart, one full of adventure and wonder and other stuff adults don’t understand.

Indian Mythological roots of International Names – An awesome take on the Indian megalomania of ranting away past glories and mythologies!

I could be totally wrong on the spelling. Well, my mom took a lot of effort to write to me the recipe on Yahoo Chat. She makes this stuff really well, and I just love it.

4 measures Rice flour
1 measure Maida (all purpose flour?)
15-20 red chillies
2/3rds measure fresh coconut
Salt to taste
2 spooons Jeera
Hing – A pinch

In a kadhai (wok), fry maida on a low flame. Take it off the flame when it is just a little warmer than being lukewarm. Add this maida to the rice flour.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in the kadhai and fry the red chillies in it.

Grind salt and chillies. Grind coconut seperately. Then mix both and grind them together to a smooth paste.

Heat one ladle full of oil on medium flame, till it begins to fume.

Pour the oil on the mixture of rice flour and maida. Mix it well with a flat spoon.

Add to it the coconut/chillies/salt paste.

Add Jeera and Hing.

Mix it all uniformly.

Heat oil in a kadhai on medium flame for frying the kodbali.

Meanwhile take small quantity of flour in a plate. Sprinkle handful of water on the flour & knead thoroughly. The water should be just sufficient, so that the flour becomes soft by kneading.

Take a small lump and work with your palm to make it a long tube (solid), and join the two ends to make it a loop (O). This is the raw kodballi.

Prepare 8 to 10 of those. When the oil in the kadhai becomes hot, put the
kodballi in the oil and fry. Turn the kodaballi in kadai. When they are cooked remove from fire and serve!

Recipe tip: If small bubble like blisters come on cooked kodaballi means you have used more water!

Note on Tradition: Normally we take apiece of one kodaballi of first batch, circle it around the kadai & put it near the stove before serving the rest. Most all south indians do so.

Time to listen to time … The last time I heard it, I was so low and so down and this song echoed exactly how I felt then (4.5 years ago) and how I feel now! Still wondering what is it that I am trying to do here anyway?!

I was speaking the other day to my house maid and explaining to her how my day goes and how I stay up late to watch football and hence have not been finding much sleep. She asked me if they play so late like 12:30 am, and I had to tell her they play in a different country where it is couple of hours earlier than that. And started explaining the whole thing of the earth being a sphere, how the sunlight falls on just a portion of the earth and how while we experience day and night there is another portion of the earth that experiences night and day. She sounded fascinated. Then I started to explain how the poles experience day light and darkness. She got the hang of it. And then I told her if she was literate, she could ask these questions and find stuff to read.

For many in our country education means literacy and especially so for people who come from villages where they are already learning a lot of stuff in vernacular medium.

My maid just studied till 3rd standard and now she does not even know to read and write! So when I asked her if she would learn to read and write, she was defensive and had no confidence. So I had to raise the bar and tell her literacy is only a means to get knowledge written in some language

She was smart again. She got the point. I am so glad she thinks it matters to know things that are trivial!

After I finished the conversation, I was checking on the net how life must be for people living in the poles. And I ran through Aurora Borealis. I had heard this word but never really found out what it is. I am literate but was not curious every time I had heard this word in the past. But then I went about reading about it, learning something new!
So I have been thinking education is knowledge that helps us know facts, events, learning from others to aid us live, interact with people, interpret and abstract the world we live in. Literacy is just one of the aids and equally important is curiosity – the thirst to learn.

How come Radio City 91FM and Radio Mirchi 93.3FM (popular FM channels in Bangalore), competing radio channels host a show only for women at 11:00AM? does it stem from the old Indian way of life when men would be off to work and women at home? I am also surprised they don’t have a men only show! .

Maybe it has to do with the number of women who are employed. It is just 28% of a total 427 million people workforce (as of 2004).
It is not just about being employed for a sense of self-esteem but there is more to women being educated and holding positions. A say in shaping the society! So let us cut down on exclusive matinee shows and log our time to more important stuff!