NTUC Healthcare U-RUN+Vertical Climb 2011

My first run of the year.The distance was 10KM then we climbed 30 levels of the NTUC building.The Run started and finished at One Marina Boulevard.It was a beautiful morning,nice breeze,perfect for running.

Flagged off at 7:30AM , I started briskly and continued to run without any problem till 8KM after that my abdomen started paining a little , i drank some water and kept water bottle in my hand.The race route was very nice and wonderful and cheering volunteers.

I didnt stop anywhere as i did in my previous runs.I took under an hour to complete 10KMs but to climb the 30 floor/levels i took another 10-15 minutes.Vertical climbing was really tough that too after running 10KMs.On the way top i had seen many runners struggling specially the women,i too struggled a lot. Each step was like lifting a heavy weight.I was really happy to reach the 30 level, the view from the top was just stunning.

On the top of NTUC building

I  met Singapore Blade Runner, who is one of my inspiration to run long distance.I was very happy to meet him but unfortunately i did not take photo with him, hopefully next time.Over all a great way to start my running calendar.I have started preparing for my first full marathon 42KM , Sundown Marathon on May.

Can West Indies bounce back?

After watching Westindies against South Africa i was wondering where this team will go in this tournament.The positive from that match was the batting of Darren Bravo, who played beautifully.Apart from him, his brother Dwayne Bravo's batting, bowling and fielding performance.The over dependence on Chris Gayle's batting is also causing them lot.We all know Gayle is a match winner but he alone can not win all the matches, windies batsmen have to keep this in mind and play.

Darren Bravo must play his natural game and play according to the situation, i hope he can capable of playing long innings.Chanderpaul has to bat better and try to score runs at a faster rate,same apply to Sarwan,he has to play his natural game.If these two players play well, i think WI can surprise some teams.Pollard who will follow those two have to play his natural game instead of playing defensively.The problem with Pollard is he had never scored consistently in one day matches , in fact in any of the international matches.

Another important problem this WI team has  is their tailenders pathetic batting, non of their bowlers bats', including Sammy, the captain.The current wicketkeeper Thomas looks to be a good batsman but we have to wait till he scores big.It will take a mammoth effort from these batsman to make this team a competent and winning side.Now they have more problems as Dwayne Bravo was injured and out for 4 weeks.Will they find someone to replace this wonderful player? I scared that they don't have one.

In Bowling , Roach needs to be consistent in his line and length, he struggled with his line in the match against South Africa.He has to understand that he is the team's main strike bowler.Sammy was better against SA but he also needs to be consistent.I feel very sad that this team don't have genuine spinner specially in subcontinent pitches.Benn is predictable and he has no variations, Gayle not bad but they can not afford to have him bowl 10 overs.Their main bowlers have to bowl well. Its very sad to see Windies struggling to find a bowler, once a formidable bowling nation now ??.

Sammy must attack with field placing and he has to make the team believe that they can win.Having said that each and everyone must play according to the plan. I hope this team will provide something to cherish in this world cup.They have to beat Bangladesh,Holland,Ireland and either India or England to reach the quarter finals, will they?

Eating Animals -Jonathan Safran Foer

Eating Animals - As the name suggests it deals with the food habits and the cruelity to animals.The author chronicles the development of farms and farming techniques.I was fascinated by the staggering growth of factory farming and its influence in our food habits.

The author has done lots of research before writing this book which helps him to convince with the fact that factory farming is destroying the nature as well as spoiling the health of the public.He never urges us to become a vegan but he wants the reader to take 'conscious' decision on his/her food habits.As he is preparing his first thanksgiving day with his son , he wanted to provide something good , healthy and a positive life style by informing the benefits of choosing proper food.

" I realized that an excruciating life is worse than an excruciating death.These factory farmers calculate how close to death they can keep the animals without killing them. That’s the business model."

The above statement is the reality,i can say that on my own since i have seen many videos taken in those farms, very cruel.Even though the United States government has enacted the law to prevent cruel killing of Chickens and Pigs still the cruelty continues in majority of the factory farms which is very sad.Im not sure whether in India we have any law/legislation to prevent cruel killing of chickens and other animals,anyhow most of the Indians still respect and eat less meat when compared to americans or europeans.

The author compares how much meat different countries people are eating,Americans are far more ahead of any other nationalities.Chinese and Indians if they started eating as much as americans, then there will be a big mess in the whole ecosystem.The book first explores the chicken farms and its illegal activities.Infact more chickens are killed for feed than for human consumption, that is astounding!The KFC gets its chicken from the farms where more cruelties takes place than in other farm,another eye-opener for those who eat KFC atleast once in a week.Since the day i vomited KFC chicken in 2010 May, i never ate it again.Good for me!! The author explains the diseases caused by birds.Below is the paragraph the describes it:

"Each mammalian species is vulnerable to only some of the viruses carried by birds.Humans, for example, are typically vulnerable to only H1, H2, and H3 viruses, pigs to H1 and H3,and horses to H3 and H7. The H stands for hemagglutinin, a spike-shaped protein found on the surface of influenza viruses and named after its ability to “agglutinate” — that is, to clump together red blood cells. Hemagglutinin serves as a kind of molecular bridge that allows the virus itself to flow into the victim’s cells like enemy troops crossing a makeshift bridge. Hemagglutinin is able to accomplish this deadly work through its remarkable ability to bind itself to specific kinds of molecular structures, known as receptors, on the surface of human and animal cells. H1,H2, and H3 — the three types of hemagglutinin that commonly attack humans — are specialists in binding to our respiratory systems, which is why the flu so often begins in the human respiratory tract."

Then comes pig farms, i almost cried when i read these chapters, unthinkable cruelities, thanks lord i have never tried pork/meat.One example in page:96,

"Piglets that don’t grow fast enough —the runts — are a drain on resources and so have no place on the farm. Picked up by their hind legs, they are swung and then bashed headfirst onto the concrete floor. This common practice is called “thumping.”

can you imagine the above?I dont know how those employees are doing these kind of things!!
The author explores the fish farming and its impact on our food habits.As our old saying goes "Food is medicine" now its "Medicine is food", we are eating only chemicals .We are waging a war against animals no, no, in fact its animal genocide.

Now i should take conscious decision about eating animals, should i eat animals or not!! Im still struggling with the answer.This book changed me forever how i will look food items here after.It is a book that moves you to do something but can we do ?? There are lots of pictures/graphics in the book which makes the reading even more interesting.The book cover is in green , you would have guessed the reason.I will definitely suggest everyone to read this wonderful book.
About the author
About the book
Wiki

கோபல்லபுரத்து மக்கள் (Gopallapurathu makkal)-கி ராஜநாராயணன்(K.Rajanarayanan)

                                       
This story starts at where the first book "Gopalla grammam" ends.Now the India is under the British empire.Gopallapuram also changed lot.New people with new profession unknown to the village people came and settled.There was a school set up by the government and the kids started going outside the village to get education.

Love Story:
The romance between Kittappan and Achinthalu was told poetically.The author brings the village setup beautifully when he describes the enemity of their families, its true even today that for a simple reason the families fight and they remains that way for a long time in village.Unfortunately this enemity separate Kittappan and Achinthalu,both got married to differen people.As usual fate made them to unite again.The sequence of events relating to their relationship was natural.

Then the author details the another custom in the village, the temple bull. This is/was a very interesting and unique custom those days (in till today!!),anyone can leave a calf which is strong and unique to the temple , those days they have a method to identify these kind of calves.This calf can eat any thing in any home as well as in field, no one will beat or do any harm to it.In this story the bull became very famous and proud asset to the people of Gopallapuram.But the same bull due to it adolescence started causing problem to people,scaring and hurting them.Then comes the act of castration.This act was narrated beautifully.I liked the way the author explains the minute details of the bull life and bull fighting.

The story of country liquor :
For Gopallapuram people this drink is god given, in fact they use this liquid in/after child birth.This liquid was given us votive to gods.The author wonderfully describes the behavior of different drinkers.when i was reading this part ,i thought of alcohol drinkers in my native,they too have a  peculiar behaviors.Those days this drink was part of their life.

The story of "Thommarigal"(தொம்மரிகள்):
Those people travel all around the country,they had their own life style.They were unique.They used to come once or twice in a year to Gopallapuram.The girl who got married to the 'kalai' tree was their head, she can choose her partner on her own and have multiple partners and she was called 'Pangaarupatchi(பங்காருபட்சி)' .This is very unique folk story i ever heard.

Freedom Struggle:
The youngsters who went outside for their education brought lots of new things to the village which included wearing shirts,cutting the backside hair,usage of soap,pens etc and most importantly reading papers. Those things made the people to know the outside world and started thinking about the freedom struggle elsewhere in India.The author beautifully brings the thought patterns of those people specially the youth.Its true that many of our leaders did not do enough to bring peace when it matters in those time.The Royal Indian navy workers strike was the turning point in bringing all the whole of India together in freedom struggle.The Story ends with Indian independence.

The whole book was written beautifully capturing the the ordinary people's life.The author has researched a lot and it is evident throught out the book.This book got Sahitya academy award.I had a great time reading these books.கோபல்லபுரத்து மக்கள் (Gopallapurathu makkal) was a very good reading experience for me.I learnt lots of new things specially the life style of those people and our culture.One of the true classics of Tamil literature.

Black Swan

Black Swan is a psychological thriller set in the world of ballet.Nina(Natali Portman) is aspiring ballerina who spend all her time in it.Her mother a retired ballerina ,support her daughter's professional amibition.Nina gets the prime role in "Swan Lake" which is the opening production of the season.She is so excited and praciting day and night.'Swan lake' needs to be performed by a single dancer as both white swan and black swan,so she has to show subtle difference of expression for each swan. The artisic director is impressed by her performance for white swan but he is not satisfied by the black swan performace. In the mean time the new dancer Lily caught the attention of the director and he  makes Lily  as a standby for black swan. Now Nina is paranoid that lily is conspiring to take her role and her dark side exposed and she loses her mind slowly and the  rivarly between the two dancers heats up.

She is not able to see her mother and increasingly unwilling to obey her.She sees her face in others,harming her own body,at last she becomes the like of devilish black swan.Natalie Portman gives the performance of her life time,simply awesome.It seems that she spent lot of time in practicing minutes of ballerina and the ballet.She is brilliant.I like Vincent cassel as Thomas Leroy(Artisitc director) he has done is job perfectly expressing his love,lust and the anger.Mila Kunis as Lily is free spirited.

The director shows the suffering of the ballerinas like skipping meals, blood stained toes etc. which are unknown to the common man like me.Its like watching a horror movie but the actors and music brings the story alive.Music by Clint Mansell is amazing specially the track " A Swan song for Nina".

Darren Aronosky's adoption of Swan lake and his story telling is wonderful.This guy deserves to be praised for this beautiful work.I like the cinemotography also specially the shots that show the evilness. Its a visual treat.He is the same director who directed the movie "The Wrestler" in which the actor Mickey Rourke got academy award for best actor , i hope this time Portman will get the best actress award.

Of course there some drawback , the director never fully explained the reason for her aversion towards  her mother and her late night party with Lily and friends before the actual performance. Over all a great film , not to be missed.

Click here to check out the accolades received by Black Swan.

Nice Poem by Irome sharmila

when i clicked the link posted by someone in my twitter , i found this beautiful poem by Irome Sharmila.

காதல்
என் அன்பு என்று நான் குறிப்பிடும் நீ
தாங்க முடியாத சுமையாய்
என் தசைநார்களில் புகுந்துகொண்டிருக்கிறாய்
இனிமேல் என்னால்
வேறு யார் தரும் அன்பையும்
ஏற்க முடியாது
கனமில்லாத இந்தப் பாத்திரம்
அதன் விளிம்புவரை
நிரம்பியாகிவிட்டது.

என்னிடமிருந்து வெகுதூரம் போய்விடு
என் நலன் பற்றி இனி விசாரிக்க வேண்டாம்
எனக்காகக் கவலைப்பட வேண்டாம்
காலப் புயல் என்னை அடித்துச் சென்றால்
அனலில் இடப்பட்ட வாழ்க்கை என்னுடையது
காலமெல்லாம் உடனிருக்கும் நண்பனுக்காக
என் மனம் ஏங்குகிறது
யார் ஏற்றாலும் சரி
ஏற்காவிட்டாலும் சரி
அவன்தான் என் வாழ்க்கையின் சாரம்.

என் விழிகள் நிரந்தரமாக மூடும்போது
என் ஆத்மா வானத்தில் சிறகடிக்கும்போது
எனக்காகக் காத்திரு
என் அன்பே.

This lady is fighting to repeal Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in  Sikkim and she is in hunger strike for a decade and still going!!. You can click the following link for more of her poems: Irome Sharmila's poem in Tamil

More about Irome Sharmila
Documentary about Irome Sharmila
Her poem in English:
Poem 1

Gopalla gramma (கோபல்ல கிராமம்) -K.Rajanarayanan (கி.ரா)

Gopalla gramam(கோபல்ல கிராமம்)

 I never heard of this author before but after reading this book i  think i should read all his works.Come back to this book "Gopalla gramam", it tells the story of Telugu people who moved to TamilNadu to escape from atrocities of Muslim kings.I consider this book as more or less this book is like a Chronicle of Telugu people and their habits and customs.
The story revolves around Kottaiyar family. Mangathaayaru ammal grandmother of all tells the story of thier ancestors and their escape with her own story intermingled.
The story juggles between the two different time periods, one their escape which happened long time back and the other the current.Goppallapuram was built by these people who escaped from the horror of Muslim kings.The reason behind the departure from their homeland was told beautifully in a folkfore by the grandmother.Chenna Devi, the cousin of grandmother was so beautiful that the king want to keep her as a concubine but the entire family was against this, so the planned to escape on marriage day.As they planned they escaped and walked far off and they reached this place, which was not yet named.The journey cost them lots of lives including Chenna Devi's.They burnt the certain section of the forest to be used for farming and started to their life as a community,they shared everything.The food was divided according to the number of people in the family.As the time goes, they started to do indiviual food production.

Their history is full of myths and legends.The grandmother in her own unique way explained their history to them.Now they have a place to live and land to farm and have their own customs and habits.Coming back to current story time, there was a murder of a girl by a robber,the robber was caught red handed by one of the nayakkar brothers.The whole village has gathered to witness the the sentencing and the punishment.The author's discription of the elders who were  present in this meeting is simply amazing.He narrates the history of this community as he introduces them. K. Raja Narayanan(Kira)'s writing style is very simple and elegent, he brings the soul of the village setup alive.This is my first book of Kira as i used to say i found another wonderful author with whom i can enjoy my reading.Many words are new to me specially the farming terms but still it was very good read.It's a "folk novella" as mentioned by Proffesor N.Vaanamalai in the foreword.

As im reading this book, i related certain characters to my village people, very interesting.I was able to find many people with their unique talents and  nickname.The author seems to be a very good observer of people, his pinpoint potrayal of each character is wonderful.The author is able to bring the myths and legends wherever we, the reader, get logical doubt,as the rule certain things we can not ask questions but i like these mythological and legend stories.This story also tells how the British conquered villages like Goppala puram.They accepts the whiteman's offer to appoint Govindanayakkar as head(their representative), as they never heard any stories of 'white's" wrong behavior towards women.The story ends with the announcement that Queen Victoria had taken over the British empire and the people believed that she will do good like Queen Mangamma.

Characters:
Chenna Devi               : Beautiful girl whom the muslim king wanted to marry
Mangathaayary Ammal : Grandmother
Govindappa Nayakkar : Head of the family, first son, village head
Krishnappa Nayakkar : Agriculture, second son
Kovappa Nayakkar    : Cattles, third son
Raamappa Nayakkar   : Goats & calves,fourth son
Thaasappa Nayakkar  : Visiting relatives, fifth son
Sundarappa Nayakkar : Buffaloes breeding & feeding, sixth son
Kannappa Nayakkar   : Hand crafts, seventh and last son

The way the author structures the Kottayiar family is unique, each member of the family have to do particular task and they excelled in that.Almost all the families in Gopplapuram have like this structure.
Other characters :
Akkaiya : Govinda Nayakkar's cousin, who takes care of all the activities in Kottaiyar house and he is very intelligent.

Overall a great book, not to be missed.Everyone should read this book to learn how much we are missing in life in terms of customs and behaviors.

About the author
In English
In Tamil

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127 Hours

The movie starts with Ralston packing things for his weekend trip to be spend wandering alone around canyons.He is confident in his ability to climb the rocks and he is very good in that.The story starts when he trapped at the bottom of the canyon and his hand pinned in between the rocks.He is left with a bottle of water,Chinese made knife,a videocam and head light and some climbing ropes.My immediate thought was that this will be like another 'Castaway' but these two films are entirely different except in both cases the main character survives.It's an art to take a film which revoloves around a single character for almost the length of the movie and make it interesting.Danny Boyle again has proved that he is a master story teller.

Once trapped ,Ralston started thinking about what he did wrong like failing to take Swiss Army Knife,phone call from mother to which he did not answer, the Gatorade bottle which he left in his car.He is trying all he can to lift the rock, he fails.He slowly runs out of food and water,he survives the heavy rain and prepare himself for the worst. He started to record himself in his video camera.He thanked  his parents and friends. After 127 hours he cut his hand and free himself.

The story is based on the book “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” by Aron Ralston.The major difference between other films of this genre and this one is making the story interesting without a moment of dullness and any extra commercial things,Boyle as a director excel in this.This movie was Stunningly filmed, the landscape's harsh beauty provides backdrop for the story.For the first time i thought the canyons/rocks looked more beautiful than the greenaries of the forest.Simply awesome cinematography.James Franco as Ralston has done wonderful job, yes he is one of the Oscar nominee in the best actor category.He single handedly carry film with his wonderful acting.His face shows such brilliant expressions of pain,desperation , agony and joy.

A.R Rahman has done a great job, music adds soul to this wonderful story of human truimph.The song "If I Rise" is awesome,hopefully he will get the Oscar for this.In fact the entire background composition is far better than some his latest Indian movies.Overall a great movie.

Click here to find out  how Ralston survived after cutting his hand

Cast:
Directed by :Danny Boyle
Screenplay  :Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
Music       :AR Rahman
Cinematography :Enrique Chediak & Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing     :Jon Harris

Best Translated Book Award(BTBA) 2011

This year's Best Translated Book Award (from other language to English) longlist has been anounced by Three Percent , an University of Rochester's initiative .Looks like a great collection of books.I have already read some of the books by these authors , now i have try and read these books.I like to see some of the Indian languages books in this list.

The 2011 BTBA Fiction Longlist (in alphabetical order by author):

1.The Literary Conference by César Aira, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver

2.The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland

3.The Rest Is Jungle & Other Stories by Mario Benedetti, translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales

4.A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin

5.A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex, translated from the French by Donald Wilson

6.A Splendid Conspiracy by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Alyson Waters

7.The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis

8.Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke

9.Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

10.The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck, translated from the German by Anthea Bell

11.Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar), translated from the French by David Bellos

12.To the End of the Land by David Grossman, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen

13.The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal

14.The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated from the French by Robyn Creswell

15.Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen

16.Cyclops by Ranko Marinković, translated from the Croatian by Vlada Stojiljković, edited by Ellen Elias-Bursać

17.Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb, translated from the French by Alison Anderson

18.I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund and the author

19.A Thousand Peaceful Cities by Jerzy Pilch, translated from the Polish by David Frick

20.Touch by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar

21.The Black Minutes by Martín Solares, translated from the Spanish by Aura Estrada and John Pluecker

22.On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui, translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey

23.Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk, translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns

24.Microscripts by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

25.Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg