Kalmaram(கல்மரம்) -The Stone Tree

This is my first book of G.Thilakavathy.Written in very simple language and the story is crystal clear.This book portrays the state of construction worker in India through a family.

The story is about Adhilakshmi and her children - Kaasi her only son, Kanniamma elder daughter and Kauvery the last of all.Adhilakshmi's husband died of accident at the construction site and she alone brought up these three children.She never allowed Kaasi to work as construction worker or any work in construction site.Kaniamma was married and is pregnant,Kauvery is in home.

Adilakshmi arranges marriage for Kaasi,though he is not working they lied and married him to Raagini who was brought up in a good environment.The story takes a turn when Kaasi and Raagini was given a job at a construction site whose owner is RMM.They were secure and started earning more than they expected.Initially everything looked good for them.But as building rises up ,Raagini understands the sacrifices and the suffering of the construction workers.

RMM , the owner is a typical capitalist who never respects the feeling of the workers.He gets anger for delay in the construction and he never minds the injuries and other health problems of the workers.At one point  the workers decided to join the union and they oppose RMM in regards to pending wages. The rest of the stories how these workers came to realize their power when the united. There are two other character's life run side by side with these workers story .One is of Kanniamma and her struggle with her husband and in-laws and other of Sushila the social worker who educates the workers.

As i mentioned earlier very simple story but the way the author brings the emotion and make the reader to feel for the plight of these workers -a victory for the author.She brings the construction workers' unique language beautifully.The episode of Kamsalai's injury is happening everywhere in India and kudos to author for bringing it beautifully.

Hands that build our houses don't have a shelter.. 

Everyday i see many construction workers working near my place for me its tough to imagine to be in their shoes. But as far as i have seen in Singapore ,everywhere safety comes first and the government have strict rules and regulations at the construction site.Its pathetic to see the living conditions of construction workers in India.They do not have a permanent home and proper sanitation and more importantly they are not educated about their rights.As the construction business booms in India, i hope government will protect these hands who build shelter for us.

G.Thilakavathy IPS-Author

Nice to read a book about the forgotten people who built our houses.A realistic portrayal.This book won the 2005 Sahitya Academy award.

Valkyire

This movie is based 20 July plot in 1944 on Hitler's life by Claus Von Stauffenberg ,the German army colonel and  German Resistance.Stauffenberg was a replacement to Major Hans Oster who was searched by Gestapo for his role in previous attempt on Hitler. Their first attempt to kill murder by blasting Hitler's personal flight was a failure.The Resistance movement  was in desperate state to kill Hitler.

Colonel Stauffenberg  devised a plan to kill Hitler and subsequently take the control of the country by alerting the  Army reserves.It was really a good plan ,everything was planned perfectly.They have to detonate a bomb inside the room where Hitler and his generals will have meeting.Everyone involved agreed for that plan and they proceeded.

The plotters .. Resistance movement..

The story was told in a thriller novel style.Very intriguing and pacy.Stauffenberg succeed in detonating the bomb but it failed to kill Hitler.Without knowing state of Hitler, the Resistance movement started to implement Operation Valkyire.Once the army came to know that Hitler was alive, things started going wrong for the Resistance movement men. They were all murdered one by one. After exactly 9 months Berlin was captured by allied troops and Hitler committed suicide.

Tom Cruise as Stuffenberg was awesome.I think this was one of his best performance.Jamie Parker as Lieutenant Werner who helped Suffenberg  in arranging the explosives and was with him throughout the plot had done wonderful job.His confused expression when the bag with explosives was missing ,one sample of his acting skill.Others were also done their role as required.

Director Bryan Singer had done a good job.Composer John Ottman's scores were perfect for this history based movie.This was the last attempt to assassinate Hitler.

About Stauffenberg
Bendlerblock - The German Ministry of Defence
More about July 20 plot
Other attempts on Hitler's life

Illegal Mining in Karnataka

Shame on the local and central government for making this scandal happened.I was heart felt  to the see the resources of our land being misused and illegally used by the rich and power.The scale of corruption in this illegal  mining is again mind boggling.As im typing this, in TIMES-NOW channel the flash news is "Corruption in Common Wealth Games lights procurement -Sheila Dixit involved?".

Is India becoming the land of corruption? Everywhere corruption.

Check out the scale of illegal mining:

Year	Permitted	Exported
2003-2004	25,27,001	45,76,964
2004-2005	64,51,665	1,16,91,183
2005-2006	92,99,600	1,14,71,092
2006-2007	60,55,833	1,08,00,478
2007-2008	89,73,490	1,47,34,538
2008-2009	76,64,125	1,10,60,251
2009-2010	60,71,482	1,31,99,419

In all these 8-9 years , almost they mined double the permitted amount with licence fee for permitted quantity.Loss of crores of rupees to the state as well as to central government.Loss not only to government but to the people of India.

*Thanks to Tehelka for the above data.

Fire in Babylon

I heard and read lots about late 70's and 80's West Indies cricket team but this documentary will rank high up in my list.Fire in Babylon is one of the best sport's documentary or film i have seen.I was and I am a big fan of West Indies cricket ,so for me this documentary - is a treasure.

The film  starts with the West Indies tour of Australia in 1975-76.Dennis Lilee and Jeff Thomson were at their menacing best.Windies were beaten very badly.Lots of players were got injured and they were nick named "Calypso Cricketers". The scoreboard looked pathetic as it stood 5-1 at the end of the series.Bruised and vexed they returned home.

1970's-80's West Indies team 

Search for leader

 The man who was much older than the rest of the team players was chosen as a captain to lead. He commanded great respect and love from players as well as the public. He was the great Clive Lloyd. He understood that to become a winning team they need fearsome bowlers who bowls fast and accurate same like Lilee and Thomson.He went around caribbean in search of the young talents.His effort paid off  as he formed the bowling line consists of  Michael Holding,Colin Croft ,Andy Roberts and Joel Garner.

Fearsome Four! Andy Roberts,
Holding, Collin Croft and Jeol Garner

The new looked team's first match was against India.They routed India and won the series hands down.After some other series , came the real test - series against the mighty Australia.What a performance by the windies, the rocked the Australians on their own field.This time it was the aussies who were injured and vexed.The series was won by the Windies 2-0.It was the starting of the Windies domination of world cricket for next 15 years.

The jewel in the crown for that Windies team was the series victory against their colonial power England.

There were lots of acquisition against Windies team that they were too fast!! They were called " terrorist"!! and so much more.They wanted to restrict the windies off the field. But the spirit of windies overcame all those obstacles.

The great Viv Richards in action..

Then the story of division in windies players whom played in South Africa.The great things happened in politics due to the victories of this great team.Blacks were allowed to sit inside the grounds and they started receiving equal salary.They brought the whole caribbean together and they gave joy to millions of people.People poured in where ever they played.That team not only won 2 consecutive world cup , they beat every testing playing country.

For 15 years they never lost any test series home or away.What an incredible record.Viv Richards carried on from Clive Lloyd and they were one of the best team ever world has seen in team sports.Hats off to director Stevan Riley for his wonderful work.

Deivathirumagal

After watching this movie i thought this was one of the best performance by Vikram and after "Anjali" this was the best by any child artist,hats off to Sarah.Couple of days latter I watched "I am Sam" except the story theme and 2 or 3 scenes both films are entirely different.

Vikram altogether in a different zone in this movie,great acting ,did not overdo anything.Anushka,Amala Paul,Santhanam and Nasser had done their role neatly.Cinematography by Nirav Shah was simply awesome. I do not fully agree with the idea of a girl growing with someone else other than parents even though the parents in this case father is mentally under developed or retarded. We in India do not have legal system to take care of both the child and father in this situation(I may not know Indian Law regarding this).So better court can allow the child to stay with the father and ask government or any institution to look after them. In "I am Sam " , the child can not stay with the father as the federal law does not allow it. The climax of "I am Sam" is perfect since all party agreed to work together for the benefit of the child.

The major similarity is the acting of the lead character. Both Sean Penn and Vikram were awesome.Music played very important role in both these movies and the composers done justice to their role.

Vikram and Sarah

Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning

Watch these two wonderful movies... get ready for  a emotional roller-coaster !