Bali-wonderful experience

Been aware of Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, been unaware of Bali been a Hindu majority javanese island in Indonesia is a surprise that is more sweet than the sugar for Hindus like me from India!!!

There been no symptoms of 200 years of Dutch rule in this Bali, instead it makes us to think that the Dutch would have started building their houses like Balinese and started follow Balinese Hindu culture and finally went back to Dutch failing in their attempt to brainwash with their religion (Christianity) or their glorified architectural tall buildings...

Besides the religious aspects Bali can be descripted as "The Serene beauty that elopes in our eyes with artistic natural bliss, authentic sculptures, volcano, seashores and the ubiquity of traditional cultural values are been felt right through out Bali.

The beauty of the Bali portrayed in Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat Pray Love" which made into Hollywood movie stated Bali as that it is Eden with a swarm of asterisks.

As of my observation Bali has its own signature like that of traditional, cultural..where can there be a status of Krishna and Arjun's in the state of Kurukshetha war? Shiva, Vishu and Brahma in the form of Linga? Where can you have your food and see the live volcano, where can you see the hindu praying with their slippers? Its all in BALI




This places gives more importance for Hinduism in the form of temples, architectures, way of living...as we were surprised to hear from our English speaking guide that till now they prefer to have lunch together will all their family members, and that's the reason the schools are there only till 1 noon.Praying is considered as an important ritual in the life's of Balinese as they have Hindu temples in every house, street, clan, community.



Temples are been build to look old, unpainted grassy walls makes the place more special, statues are crafted for authenticity, wood carving are the greatest highlight of the Balinese culture.The beautiful ganesha status, wooden flute with beautiful craving of shiva and vishnu...That's the reason I was tempted to buy the lots of artifacts which was stopped by my daughters as I am been targeted with nagging sellers wherever I go...some of these sellers had a trick of showing a beautiful artifacts which looks more original and packing a look alike low quality artifacts for the same price!

Ubud meant to be the place for the scenic landscape -Paddy field wake, irrigation system which has age old technique of irrigation in the field around as shown in the photo shown below, we happen to wittness the shooting of a Hollywood movie thought there were no big stars it was interesting to see the crew working with big cameras/umberalla/script pad/recording mics...



Denpasar and kuta(this is where we stayed) are meant for western lifestyle with late night discos, dim light bars to cater the caucausian lifestyle.. the lanes are very narrow and small, thats the reason for hectic traffic jam at 2 pm mid night

"The Australian people have a great love for Indonesia, especially for the beautiful island of Bali,"

"It must be a great love, because last year, more than a half a million of us went there, despite the Australian Government's instruction not to.

To summarise it all...We had wonderful experience and ever lasting memories from Bali.

Well Done Team India

India had won the ICC (International Cricket Council) World Cup 2011!

Well Done, Team India!

World cup cricket matches happens every four years, and this is the second time India had won this World Cup after a gap of 28 years! I could vaguely remember Indian tricolor flags filled the Lord's cricket stadium when Kapil Dev's team carried the World Cup (Prudential cup) for the first time.

Been pampered as the favorite team in this World Cup series 2011, India looked very promising right from the beginning, thought the match with England went for a tie, the great win against Australia, but it was more intensified with semi final win against Pakistan, and finally the spectacular chase for 275 runs.

The finals against Srilanka, the runs needed was 275 and India started with openers Sehwag-Tendulkar who made 18 runs and lost their wickets, with the exit of master blaster Tendulkar's most of us lost interest, and thought it will an emotional drama to loss the game.

Rajnikanth was there in the stadium, partnership between the Gautam Gambhir - Virat Kohli maintained the run rate required, Dhoni has come to bat..it was the moment to be optimistic, it was time to play hard... I too never guessed that we could withstand so much pressure, but an Indian fan is never pessimistic!

I really admired Dhoni's captaincy, his batting style been tactical, consistent for chasing a score of 275 against one of the best bowlers in the world. 125 runs needed out of 121 balls....finally it was 7 runs from 11 balls..what a great way to win the match as the Captain Dhoni (91 runs Not out) made the come back of the game...He deserves to lead a winning team!

India had won the ICC WORLD CUP for the second time!!!

Black swan

If you have not seen the Oscar winning "Black swan" See here

KLCC twin tower today

Photography is one of my hobbies, it was more aggravated when I came to Malaysia. Most interestingly my balcony views, it was a boon to have such a view, most of my friends and family members who visited us appreciated the fantastic panorama view of KL city from my balcony .

I was almost taking the photos of my balcony view everyday when I came newly to Malaysia, but after 4 years now I would still love to do it whenever time permits...

I have seen the twin tower in all the shades and shines, today in the morning I was quite surprised to see the Twin tower, I felt there was an extra gap between the two towers, the upper part of the taller tower was slightly away from the smaller tower in an appropriate manner which was not symmetric to my eyes...I checked with my other old photos and didn't find any conclusions...

Click the photo to enlarge and see the slight dislocation...

Maybe it's because the causal dislocation due to wind or I am seeing this view after a long gap??!! or Is it my illusion after seeing the earthquake/aftereffects in New Zealand??!! Or it is the beginning of the end in 2012??!!

Check out the Solar flare radiation to hit china...

Pongal release 2011

Kerala chips

Kavalan - The story of a young bodyguard who has no job as the villain gone to America, falls in love like Gemini ganeshan and finally marries his real love.

The screenplay and the director touch gives the trick of mixing this simple story line with fights, songs, comedy, making it slow, to make climax interesting. This is the remake of mega hit movie in Malayalam"Bodyguard"

The transformation of Vijay from mass hero to lover boy gives the relaxation and that relaxation from the audience has been sensed as the success of this movie. It is good to see Vijay in love stories and relates to his old hits, mostly love stories as they are apt for his looks.

Of course the signature version of Vijay - the introduction songs with punch lines comes little bit late and punk wig songs as the solace for vijay fans to see him dancing with unusual costumes in unusual locations(Malaysia!!!), all these factors are been forced into this movie to remind the audience that the hero is not Nakul.

The way Asin speaks makes us to check the audio whether it is malayam or tamil. Chechi has lost her looks and joins with trisha et al in the list of old heroines.

The thrilling climax is the total turning point to nail the idea that it is not vijay's movie, it is the director's movie.Well done Siddique!

Overall Saviour for Vijay, after hatrick boxoffice failures of his movies and protest from the theater owners not to release his movie till he settles Rs.8 Cr for the losses. Vijay cames back with success.

Will he campaign for ADMK in the forthcoming election is the MOST question now, then that of how can Kajol and Tabu get padmashri awards!!!

Andhra meals

Siruthai

The story of a policeman and a petty thief who looks alike, and hold the responsibility of the other as the policeman dies.

The initial comedy scene mostly not digestible but what to do lets wait for few more scenes to switch off the movie, fortunately the following scenes are better and makes it watchable at least once after the seriousness of the movie been felt, the game starts when the child calls Rocket raja "Daddy"

The flashback has the strong aroma of Andhra with too much of violence, ignorance, cruelty, vengeance, bravery, which has made interesting sequenced with action comedy in the end with the replace of Rocket raja.

Karthi's presence in dual role has yield the results in making this movie a fast entertainer, with comedies, actions and comedies.

This is the remake of the telugu super hit movie

Madurai chukka varuval

Aadukalam - the story of Godfather's betrayal to his newly successful successor.

In the era of XBox, PSP, Wii game console this movie grandiosely talks about cock fighting(koli sandai), you have history to stress the importance of this game for Tamilians, narration says so with evidence in the beginning with threatening Kamal's voice(??!!)

Tokyo, London or LA cannot be the venue to shoot this movie, where else the crew can go besides Madurai for this story. Hence the movie has been taken in and around madurai to get the feel of the theme, it was a right decision.More than that they have added sourashtra dialogue in the first 30mts of the movie to bring more closeness to Madurai for me.

Dhaush has been very clever in choosing the right role for him, this movie has taken him to a big role to perform which he had done correctly, he made us to believe that the character was lively, with limited costume of lungi, and shirit.

Even in the era of Xbox, PSP, Wii game console, this movie has proved that cock fighting scenes can also bring sentation in the big screen, which gives the ultimate thrill of the game, especially the thrid time when the cock fighting against the Bangalore cock, if it is hollywood, they would have come out with video games to come up with this idea of cock fighting or Rooster booster video games in the market..where as for tamil movie goers, we have the new taste of cock fighting instead of the repeation of bull fight(jallikattu) which has been seen many times in the movies, cock fighting been first time has given more new ventures to the Tamil movie industry.

Director Vetrimaaran of Polladavan fame has shown the same dark shots, with the sharp frame of narration by utilizing all the characters very nicely like vettaikaran, dorai, new heroine as Anglo indian, he has sent the right mood for the film, too much of violence in the climax shows the anger of the character, most brilliant direction is when the twist happens to be the vettaikaran who becomes a natural villian to regain the status which he had lost.