Disney On Ice- Treasure Drove

Three years before I heard from one of friend about "Disney On Ice". He was so mesmerized by the show ,  I felt his excitement when he started telling his experience.  That time I decided that I should watch this show at least once . The opportunity came through  "Disney On Ice" tour of Singapore in march. We had never watched any show at Singapore Indoor Stadium, though I volunteered there during World Netball championship. We booked the ticket through SportsHub website before 1 month of the show day.

Eagerly waited for that day, in the mean time we started playing "Toy Story" series to our daughter. She was used to animated nursery songs but never animated movies. But I thought this "waiting " period would be a good time to show her some of Disney's characters.  The moment I played "Toy Story" she was hooked to the movie and started asking all kinds of questions. Within 2-3 days she was familiar with all the characters in that movie.

The day arrived (March 21st) with lots of expectations personally. I was as excited as my daughter. We reached the stadium before 7 and waited in the small queue. As the time goes the crowd got bigger and bigger. Once they opened the door we were greeted with some of Disney characters and sales people selling Disney products. Everything looked good but the cost of the toys were too much. Luckily our daughter did not forced us to buy her anything  but she was very curious to touch -queens, Woody , Buzzyear and other characters. We allowed her to touch and feel. She was very very happy.

We went to our seats without much difficulty and found lots empty seats in our section.We were hesitant to change the seats so we prevailed in our allotted seats. The show opened with a bang - Mickey , Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck came skating . My daughter started shouting "Mickey.. Mickey" ...!! I too was wonder-struck by the grandness of the arena. But the biggest shout and applause went to "Woody".. I screamed like anything.. my daughter too..!! "Woody.. Woody...!!" echoed throughout the stadium.

One by one Disney's characters played their famed stories.  "The Lion King " with its beautifully dressed animals was breathtaking. "Peter Pan" with flying characters brought lots of  "Wows.." . The various queens with their wonderful and eye catching costumes paraded with their princes. I was able to recognize most of the characters and stories played. But my daughter as I expected enjoyed watching "Woody, Buzzyear and Queens".  Never seen anything like that before . Just awesome. Throughout the show we clapped and shouted a lot.  The show too was organized in a manner that no one get bored - the sequence of plays were spot on . Never a dull moment.

I enjoyed more than my daughter did. I was transported to another world - Disney's.  I was really fascinated by those wonderful performers. After returning home started researching about Disney's characters and started buying its books.

A must watch show!

Two Conversations

I love talk to people specially old ones (grandmas and grandpas) at food court , market and  book shops. Most of the time I start the conversation after that they will talk non-stop until I say its time for me to go. Many of them are still identifies me even after meeting years back.  Last week I had two very different conversations with one middle ages man and one grandma.

With grandma:

I was returning from market with three plastic with fishes, vegetables and fruits respectively .

Grandma : ah! how are you ? seems like but late?
Grandpa  : hmm .. seems like you bought the whole market!
Me : Fine ma, bit late . Don't know what fish to buy?
Grandma : oh.. you bought fish ...??!!
Me : Yes bought squid...
Grandma : Today is Pangkuni Uthiram you should not eat fish ...
Me : oh...
Grandma : Nowadays these youngsters are not following the traditions at all....
Me :  :(
Grandma : Those days... back in India we never ate non-veg food during these seasons..... we loved those days...  Here they not even wearing traditional dothis... ( I was in shorts and T-shirt!!!)...
Me: ................
Grandma : You should not eat non-veg today(Sunday) and tomorrow(Monday - Tamil New Year)..  Did you celebrate Tamil New Year?
Me: Yes... but in Singapore we don't have holiday...
Grandma : We have to celebrate Tamil new year... its very important ... but who is listening??
Me :...........
Grandma: Ok then, try not to eat non-veg and go to temple... and celebrate...
Me:............
Grandma : Will you go to temple ?
Me: I'm a Christian....
Grandpa to Grandma : whatever you talked to him about Pangkuni Uthiram was waste..!!
Me: No pa... its ok...

Both laughed loudly... but I thought of how we are celebrating our traditional festival... Modernity made us to forget our roots and go behind so called Western culture.

With a middle aged man:

I was coming out of the queue after getting my Run350 race pack. There were many Indians around that area, curiously looking at people collecting the pack.

Man :  what is that bag?
Me   : Its a race pack..
Man : Race?
Me: Running...
Me: It is medium distance running event...
Man: what is in the bag?
Me: The race singlet ....and  the race number (bib)
Man: How to get it?
Me: We have to register online first .
Man: oh... now can I register?
Me: I don't think so .. registration is must...
Man: (he seems to thinking something ...)  running race.. how many meters?
Me :............ 21 Kilometers...
Man : What!!
Me:  Yes ... we have to run 21KM...
Man : From where?
Me: We have to go to particular place on particular time .. from there we have to start and follow the race route given and finish the race...
Man :  after running..??
Me ....................................!!!!!

The man left without saying a word after my expression. I have seen many Indians saying "Why one should pay to run?" . Its obvious that we need pay something to get T-shirt and of course there are other expanses too but I always wonder why people asks these kind of questions. But I always explains them politely about why I run...  sometimes they advise me not to run these many kilometres.

Punyalan Agarbathis

After many months decided to write about a movie which I enjoyed a lot. This movie not so called "world cinema" or "parallel cinema" but something is there in this light hearted entertaining movie. I was very curious to watch this movie just because of its name 'Punyalan Agarbathis'.

This is a story of a common man who struggles  to start / run  business.  The Malaylam movies of 70's and 80's were popular for its social satire . I enjoyed watching many of Sathyan Anthikad movies like Varavelpu , Sandhesam and other such films. I felt the same happiness when I watched this movie, though I can not compare those classics with this movie. But enjoyable.

The dialogues are peppered with social message specially the court scene dialogues about 'hartal'. Most of it are true and spot on. There is a positive vibe in the way the hero talks and behave through out the movie. The relations are portrayed realistically understanding and lovable wife who gets angry when needed , brother who sue his brother and workers who behave normally just like today's - playing Angrybirds .

Jayasurya as Joy Thakkolkaran was just amazing. He has transformed into a good actor and real deal.A performance to remember. I'm not that much familiar with Thrissur slang but he sounds good specially with mixture of English words. Nyla Usha  as Anu was beautiful and perfect match for this story. Aju Varghese as Greenu was outstanding- an apt sidekick for Joy Thakkolkaran. Another memorable character was Sreejith Ravi as Abhya Kumar- the driver. His mannerism and dialogue delivery was hilarious (thithiru thithiru ..!!).

I like the title song which captures the essence of a lively city and "Ashichavan" wonderfully song by Jayasurya himself. The music director did a good job in background score too. The cinematography too was good.This movie is not a perfect social satire like the old classics but there are moments which one can relates to our daily life and remember for a long time.

An aromatic agarbathi...!!

எக்ஸிஸ்டென்ஷியலிஸமும் ஃபேன்ஸி பனியனும் (Existentialisamum fancy paniyanum) - Charu Nivedita

"சுஜாதா இவருடைய எக்ஸிஸ்டென்ஷியலிஸமும் ஃபேன்ஸி பனியனும் பற்றி எழுதும் போது அதை மலம் என்றார் ." -  Somewhere I read the above statement. I think I will not go 'that far' and say something like that but its close to it.  I really  don't understand why Charu wrote this book. On the other hand I may not have understood the plot/ concept properly(??). I don't know. 

Nothing new in this novel, everyone is fighting with everyone. For the first time in my life I can clearly say "I wasted my reading time" . I never felt that I was wasting time in 'reading' but I did for this book. I'm yet to read Charu's 'Zero Degree' I hope it will be a better read.

This is not  good writing by author of so much calibre(may be due to lack of experience?? because he wrote this book when he was 25)  and the concept of existentialism is not clear to me in regards to Charu's writing. I have read books by Burroughs which I can understand and the writing was far more superior. I did not find any review about this book in tamil websites or blogs. I thought reading some review may give some idea of what I missed or failed to understand.

Read at your own risk!

The Harmony Silk Factory - Tash Aw

I never heard of Tash Aw or The Harmony Silk Factory till I found an old man reading this book , curious I note down the name and bought it in the expo. So many times I took it but never got interest to read. After reading "The Good Muslim" I thought that I should read some Asian authors books. I took this book set a time of 5 days to finish and started reading.And I did finish in 5 days.

I'm still wondering what is this book about - part Malaysian history, part unfulfilled love, part gardening and part friendship. But more importantly its about Johnny Lim . Who was he? .The book is divided into three parts. Three different people telling their stories which runs into Lim or I can say Lim as a central figure. First his son Jasper tells how cruel his father was ,  killing his own employer and father-like figure Tiger Tan to inherit his wealth and other such things. He was not happy with what his father did. Jasper fully and clearly expresses what he feels of his father. His search for truth in regards to his mother continues.

Secondly Snow Johnny Lim's wife's narration through her diary entries. The bizarre honeymoon trip along with three others - two Englishmen ( Peter, Honey)  and  a Japanese Kunichika Mamoru arranged by her father made them ended up at Seven Maiden Islands for some days .Though she was attracted to Johnny, she wanted to tell Johnny about her decision to leave him but she could not. They were stranded in a small island and storm killed Honey as they believe. But in reality someone killed him ?. Honey was the only one who understood the reason behind that trip. The trip brought Snow closer to Kunichika . Unlike Jasper, Snow was not straight forward in expressing her feelings.

Third narration was by Peter, the eccentric Englishman who despises Kunichika and adored Snow. Johnny was his 'only' friend according to him. In spite of the friendliness and Johnny's openness Peter's evil will persisted through out his life. Peter thinks Johnny was an innocent child , worrying about losing his wife Snow to Peter. Late in his life Peter designs a garden in honour of his friend. His narration was full of musical details and operas.

For me none of the three (Jasper, Snow and Peter) fully understood their nature of relationship with Johnny.  They narrates their lack of confidence and expectations on him but none of the them took any effort to understand and close to him, No one knew exactly  " Who is/was Johnny Lim?" . Even to readers its bit muddy - we are ended up assembling Johnny from various aspects without getting full picture of him.

Bit sluggish here and there but it was still a good read specially the historical details and the portrayal of everyday life in Kinta Valley. This book received "Whitebread First Novel Award- 2005".  Tash Aw really did a good job in exploring Malay history and make it interesting.

 Notes :

1) Kinta Valley - Centre of  tin mining during British rule in Malaya.
2)Seven Maiden Islands - present day Lankawi Islands.
3) Coolies - Kulhi, the name of a tribe native to Gujarat i India
4)Nanyang - the South seas
5)Kek Loong
6)Mat Hitam
7)Kempeitai - the Japanese secret police

Lazarus' Prayer - St.Gregory of Narek

Grant me life, compassionate Lord.

Hear me , merciful Lord.

Be charitable to me , forgiving Lord.

Save me , long-suffering Lord.

Protect me, defender Lord.

Be generous, all-giving Lord.

Free me, all-powerful Lord.

Revive me, restoring Lord.

Raise me again, awe-inspiring Lord.

Enlighten me, heavenly Lord.

Cure me, omnipotent Lord.

Grant pardon, inscrutable Lord.

Bestow gifts, bountiful Lord.

Adorn me with grace, generous Lord.

Let us be reconciled, healing Lord.

Be accepting, unvengeful Lord.

Wipe away my transgressions, blessed Lord.

so that on that Day of Misery,

when I stare at the abyss on either side,

I may also catch sight of your salvation,

my hope and guardian,

and on that terrifying journey

your angel of peace may sweetly guide me.

Endow me, Lord, on the day my breath is finished

with a clean spirit raised in light among

the joyful heavenly host,

with gifts of your love overtaking me.

May I arrive with the workers for justice.

Grant to my wayward soul an unexpected kindness

on that day of despair...

Will you, I wonder:

Forget to be charitable, my expectation?

Neglect to be compassionate, caring Lord?

Regret your charity toward humankind, constant Lord?

Retreat from your life-giving, everlasting Lord?

Abandon the cheerful fruit of your mercy?

Corrupt the gracious flower of your sweetness?

Dishonour the grandeur of your generous bounty?

Vary the glory of your white-haired exaltation?

Waste the fitting splendour of your crown?

If bliss is for the merciful,

then you, a kingdom unto yourself, filled with love,

will you not grant me full salvation?

I'm a big fan this wonderful poet. Saint Gregory of Narek wrote many wonderful poems and this is one such. I can never get enough of  St.Gregory. Reading and contemplating his poems - divine experience!

Watching Brian Lara

Tears rolled down from my eyes when Lara was given out caught behind against India in 2006 world cup. Everyone in my family was clapping and celebrating the wicket of Lara, i was crying. My father was furious and questioned my patriotism. I just ignored him and kept crying.

Even today I don't know how I became a fan of Brian Lara. Whenever someone pronounces this magical name I get goosebumps. I think it all started with my uncle who is / was a big fan of 70's & 80's West Indies team. I remember him saying that "this tiny batsman will become a great player - watch out! " . A prophesy ! Without me knowing I was addicted to Lara -The Magical entertainer.

I don't know which was the first innings i watched him playing whatever it was , from that inning till his last innings I was a devoted follower. Every time he came to the crease my heart beat faster than normal and I did all sort of nonsense to make him score hundred every time! once stood for three hours till he reached 80+ against Australia! . They joy in watching his batting - no words can explain that feeling.

I had discussed many technical details of batting of different players including Sachin, Dravid, Ponting and Mark Waugh ( we had so many Waugh brothers fans in Pamban!) but I never analyst Lara's batting , I love everything he did on the field. Many of my friends asked me "How Lara scored those high scores?". I replied "He think himself as a entertainer that made him to score!" .Never said a word about his technique or stamina or anything else.  I liked the way the commentators said "dancing" whenever Lara came down the pitch and hit the spinners. No one can match that!

I did not watched live telecast of his 375 against England but was very lucky to watch live telecast of his 153 against Australia and 400 against England . While watching 153 against Australia my whole family supported me as if I was batting . All of us sat before the television for the whole innings - wonderful experience.That was one of the best innings in modern times. The 400 was bit troublesome because of the duration , almost 2 whole nights I watched and prayed and never felt tired- that was LARA!

Even today whenever there is a news article about Lara my friends calls me and updates me. Nowadays this goes to Windies team also. When West Indies won the T20 worldcup  I got so many phone calls from my friends congratulating me. That was wonderful . None of my friends called me or wished me when India won 2011 World Cup. Hahaa!! That is because through Lara I indirectly supported / supports West Indies. Never missed to check his scores even during 10th and 12th class exams.

To be a fan of Lara in India was / is a big trouble. As all the cricket fans knows that its always "Lara Vs Sachin" . I never fought with anyone about who was / is best. I did had some arguments but never a full scale debate. That was how I survived in the land of Sachin. One good thing was that all my friends knew that I was/is a Lara fan so they never argued with me. I always love good spirited game  thats why I don't like so called Sachin fans yelling at others for everything said about Sachin. Thats not the way. A sportsman as a matter of fact will be subjected to scrutiny and analysis by public and one has to take it in a positive way. If you do not agree , rebuff with polite and in a civilised manner.

Im still following(twitter & facebook) Lara and will follow him throughout my life. Whenever I feel dull I watch any one his innings in youtube and I still get those goosebumps like those good old days. One of  Lara fan in my home town Pamban named his boat after Lara !  Brian Lara is my first sports hero.. and he still remains as  one.

Once Lara.. always Lara !!

The Experience of an Alter Boy

One of my childhood ambition was to become an alter boy. A 'prestigious' post which gave all access inside the church . Those days it was very tough to get into those big boys club because there were always more than needed boys for every mass.  I still remember my first day as a alter boy , not exactly alter boy, I was asked to stand outside the sacristy and take care of charcoal pieces for thurible. I was so happy that day and remained an alter boy for the next 8-9 years.

Almost every day I was the only alter boy served during the masses. The experience was something unusual and unique. Most of the time the priests said "you are all angels"!! I did believe that because the dress and the way the people treat us . Rev. Fr. Arockiasamy was the one whom I served for almost 3 years , he used to sing lots of songs. Over the course of time , I knew exactly how different priests will react during the course of mass and I was well prepared for it.. That was interesting! Some priests had a peculiar way of calling me - just turning towards me without saying a word ,some just say some words two times during homily and some other call us with name outright. 

Whenever new priests came we also changed our routines according to their routines, I loved these routines and the preparations before the mass. I used to get some sort of strange feelings while in alter serving. I still feel the same thing whenever I get onto the alter. Even though the job of the alter boys still remains the same but nowadays these boys do more work outside the alter, I mean  charity work ,taking catechism classes etc.  The most happiest day of my alter boy life was the day when our priest gave us the alter boy dress/cassock. Wow!! I was looking like an another priest, at least thats what my friends told me.

Nowadays alter boys's names are mentioned in media for wrong reasons. I had never seen any priests or any one in sacristy behaved wrongly towards me/us . Most of the priests were gentle and in fact very friendly telling jokes and singing devotional songs. Those days built a strong religious foundation in me. When I went to Chennai I was surprised to see alter girls, never seen girls on the alter before. Good to see those little girls! In Singapore, alter boys do lots of stuff, they have their own celebration on particular sunday mass and trip to different countries etc. Very sad that nowadays the young ones are not showing much interest in this wonderful institution . Last year when I spoke to my fellow mates in my home town they told nowadays no one is showing any interest.

Another important person who made those days memorable one was the "kovil Pillai" .I served under two of them both are very old but energetic, never spoke angrily or loudly, always patient with our mistakes. When the first one died I still remember how the whole village cried for him specially the priest who worked with him for some years. The bond created between the alter boy(me) , the alter , the priest and the God is something which will remains in me throughout my life. 

Proud to be an alter boy!

Alter server wiki

The Good Muslim - Tahmima Anam

I heard of Tahmima Anam's first book "A golden age" but I did not get that book in the expo. So I bought this book . I started the book sometimes back finished more than 50 pages and left it, don't know why I did not continue. After almost 2 months I picked the book and started reading from where I left. Good that I finished the book , if not I would have missed a wonderful book.

This is the story during wartime Bangladesh , a bloody war which killed more than " 3 lakh" . I never knew that Bangladesh had this much bloody and horrible history. An eye opener. The story is about a relationship that changes after the war between a sister and a brother. Maya who returns home after a stint at a village as a medical officer (doctor) finds her brother completely changed from his old. Sohail who also fought the war as an Afgan soldier killed an innocent old man which haunted him and convert him to a pious man, in fact changed him to a religious teacher. And a sick mother.

First the author beautifully explores the pain and suffering of a whole country specially the young ones . Sohail and Maya's childhood life was told beautifully , they had their own dreams about future expecting good things from the country as well as from other people. Though they were in muslim country they were grown up with a liberal environment , thanks to their parents specially the mother.  The transformation after the war was dramatic , none of them expected it and no one know how to cope with the situation.

The experience of a doctor during war was told realistically through Maya's character. Specially how the so called "heroines" were treated . By the way 'heroines" means those girls who were raped by the Pakistani soldiers. Sohail experiences death of his friend and fate of a girl (Piya) who travelled with him .These two along with his murder of the old man made him to clung to more hardline practises of religion.

The book explores the clash between secular religious belief (Maya) and hardline Islam (Sohail). Slowly Maya understands her brother's stand on religion and even contemplating praying again. And there is  a story of Zaid, son of Sohail, who was not treated well by Huzoor at a madarasa , was rescued by Maya. But he was killed (?) or died . Maya never forgive her for let him die.

The writing is crystalline and it flows, I did not felt any difficulty in reading it. The story also tells the reader about the courage one needs to let go the nightmares of the war and move on in life. The country side life was told in a manner one can easily find himself/herself in it.  I will never think Bangladesh again in the same manner as I used to do before. This is the second book of the planned trilogy. I have to read the first one and I will definitely read the third one too.

A must read Asian author book !

Eating India - Chitrita Banerji

What a book! Great way to learn history through cuisines. Just awesome. I should say that our educational department should change their history books like this one. Very exciting and interesting. The author who is a bengali food writer living in US goes through different states of India to taste the traditional cuisines.

I love cooking and I still cook everyday so i was so much interested as I turned the pages of this book. Very much eager to try the various cuisines mentioned in this book specially those with fishes. As I expected the author started her journey from West Bengal . I was really surprised about the role of fish in  Bengal food. Very interesting to know that fish plays a vital role during marriage celebrations. I never attended any Bengali marriage but very interesting to visualize a big fish on the plate of the incoming bridegroom's party.Even though we are fishermen we never use fish in our wedding cooking. Its quite interesting how the Bengal people treat fishes. I felt why can't we too use fish in our wedding celebrations and showcase the importance of fish to everyone.

The author beautifully explains the role played by Portuguese ,Dutch, Muslim and other conquerors influence on Indian 'local' cuisines. The question of 'authenticity' is really a big question. As the author explores how the various immigrants mixed their ingredients to the local Indian cuisines. It seems to me that so called 'authentic' restaurants are not really 'authentic' in cuisines sense.None of the cuisine which we enjoy today are not authentic enough to call local or authentic. After coming to Singapore i searched for traditional kerala style 'Puttu' for almost 2 to 3 years but i did not find it but i found something similar to it in malaysian food stall , they also call it puttu. Now I have a doubt , does 'puttu' really an authentic food from Kerala ?

The good thing about this book is the author tells the story of the food through history and how different communities of people gave birth to different cuisines as well as cooking style and how it changed the food habits of Indians.

I did not like the way the author compares every food item with Bengali stuff and somehow directly or indirectly speaks high of Bengali cuisine. Of course , she praises other states cuisine too.  As a Tamilian i felt bit disappointed with the author for not writing or exploring Tamilnadu cuisines. I can understand that she did not had enough time but should have used some of Tamil cuisines in her comparisons specially with the way fisherfolks uses coconut like in Goa and Kerala. The story of how coconut tree became popular among Christians - interesting!

The various tales or historical stories related to different communities are very informative and interesting.The author also feel sorry and sad (me too!!) for the slow disappearance of many traditional dishes across India due to influx of variety of western foods and the business of people. How many of us takes time to cook our favourite food? Its always good to know the origin of food before we eat it.

This book is 'a three' in one : A travelogue , A History book  and  A Culinary book... Wonderful read!

Notes from the book :

Benda Kaal Ooru ( Bangalore) - Town of boiled beans.

Panchphoron - Nigella, Cumin, Mustard, Fennel and Fenugreek.

Vindaloo - Vinho (Wine) , Alhos (Garlic)

Bebinca  - Goan dessert

Sarak- i - Azam - highway built by Sher Sha Suri

Coondapuri Brahmins

Hebara Iyengars - wedding cooks

Manasollasa - Someshvardeva

Nabin Chandra Das  - Inventor of Rosogolla

Milagu tannir - Mulligatawny

Butter chicken - Kundan Lal

Pir Ali - Legendary Chef

Golconda - Shepherd Hill

Frederick Tudor - First man to successfully shipped ice from Boston to Calcutta in 1833.