Let’s begin with the Trailer of the Movie:

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya is one long flow of emotions and events. As the tagline says (“A different love story, yet again!”) it is a different as well as an interesting story about falling in love, the emotions, the confusions, and the innumerable roller coaster sensations associated with it. The movie title “Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa” means “Will You Cross The Skies And Come To Me?” and is inspired from the lyrics of the song ‘Vennilave Vennilave’ from Minsara Kanavu (Sapnay). Gautham Menon is the writer and directer of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. In this movie, Silambarasan Rajendar plays the main character as Karthik. Trisha Krishnan plays the role of Jessie. Academy Award winner A. R. Rahman is the music director of the Movie.

Our Hero is Karthik, a Mechanical Engineer (yet again!) who dreams of making it big as a Movie Director. And our Heroine Jessie, a Malayaali Christian is an IT Professional. Karthik falls in love with the gorgeous Jessie at first sight, similar to Surya’s Love at First Sight for Meghna in the director’s previous movie Vaaranam Aayiram. He comes to know that she’s a year older than him, but still proposes her. Jesse doesn’t want to pursue the love, as she doesn’t want to hurt her conservative father, who is against love. But she is courageous enough to break away from the marriage arrangements made by her family. Karthik is thrilled by this development but Jesse wants more time to convince her father. The film drags on with no significant happenings but it takes an artificial break when Jesse decides to break the affair for an unconvincing reason, which as my friend Srivats explained, showed the character’s indecisiveness and uncertainty about choosing love over family. The rest of the movie deals with what happens to them and their love. And we also have a twist in the climax.

I wondered what the title Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (Will you Cross the Skies for Me?) implies. After watching the movie, I guess it is about Jessie’s reluctance to come into the life of Karthik, crossing the distance between them, because she can’t decide what to do.

The dialogs and the execution of scenes are top-notch. Simbu and Trisha perfectly fit in the Characters. Simbu has given us a nuanced performance, never seen from him before. He steals the show with what I would call, an underplayed overacting! Trisha looks her ravishing best, in Saree. Good Job by Nalini Sriram as the Costume Designer. Chinmayi has lent her wonderful voice to Trisha which needs a special mention for the exact Tamil and Malayalam accents. Love her Voice! ARR’s music is one of the main reasons to the much acclaimed hype. Music has been the greatest asset of the movie right from the beginning till the end. The re-recording and the background score are really amazing. Though, I didn’t like the songs initially, I am hooked to it now.  Cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa is Brilliant and is a Visual Treat to Watch. I didn’t see Gautham Menon giving his trademark guest appearance in the Movie, though he had given his voice to the rugged brother (bad casting here!) of Jessie. Did any of you see him in the Movie?

Verdict: On the whole, the Movie is a Must-Watch (atleast once )!

To sum it all up in a few words, I am quoting Sudish Kamat here: Well Written & Performed, Stretched & Indulgent but very Romantic!

Irani Kovil is located in Iraniyur (10.2284°N 78.6504°E) near Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the 9 Kovils of the Nagarathars, built around 1278 A.D. And I belong to this Kovil. This Kovil is dedicated to Arulmigu Aatkondanathar and his consort Arulmigu Sivapurandevi. It lies 24 kms from Karaikudi. This Nagarathar temple is a magnificent piece of South Indian architecture.

Here is a Story about the Temple which our Ayya told us when we were kids. Lord Vishnu killed Iraniyan after attaining the form of Narasimha. After killing Iraniyan, no one was able to calm Narasimha’s fury. It is said that Lord Vishnu worshiped Lord Shiva at this Temple and only then he was able to regain his calm self. And hence this Name for the Temple. According to me, it is one of the most Serene Temples in the World.

This is a dedication to one of my most favorite Temples in the World!

You cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely!

I had registered for a course on “Sustainable Manufacturing” the coming semester and surprisingly this video suggested to me by Gowtham today, coincidentally provided me with an introduction for the course. “The Story of Stuff” is a 20-minute take on the perils of consumer culture. Though it is exaggerated, the video gives us a sense of the life cycle of material goods!

Activist Annie Leonard wrote and narrated this film. It was first launched online on December 4, 2007. The film exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Yesterday we roamed around the campus till 1.30 in the night, looking at the sky, in expectations of catching sight of the Leonid meteor showers. The Leonids are considered to be one of the most spectacular meteor showers. Updates showed us that it was supposed to be clearer around 3-4am. But, we were not able to stay back any longer, because of the sub zero weather and a early morning shift. Maybe, i will try to watch it this Friday.

Watching the Sky during the Night Time is Magical! It brings back old memories as well as expectations about the future! I can recollect so many Good Old Memories, but writing that here might bore you out. So, i am skipping that part, so that you can fill it with the Good Times that you spent under the Sky! The Cool Breeze! and the Sound of Night! Staring up into the sky, pointing out at star constellations. It is one of the best ways to relax and enjoy the Gift called Life. Priceless!

Update: I witnessed the Leonid Meteor Shower, the next day after writing this post. Thanks to the Astronomy Club of Syracuse, who took as to a wonderful place on South Campus where we were able to get a clear view of the sky and the stars!

Unquenchable is man’s thirst for happiness. As I said in my earlier post, whatever we do (study, work, earn, learn, for that matter… anything) is geared towards making us or the others around us happy. There is a Golden Rule for happiness, that, happiness comes to him who gives happiness to others.

Nothing Gives More Happiness than a Random Act of Kindness, with No Expectation of Reward!

Do that today… Make someone Happy! and share your experience in the comments!

I recently came across this Short Film and wanted to Share it with you…

The following is the description of this Video by Nikos Pilavios:

The scene is in the backyard of an old house. In the middle of the yard is a simple bench. Two men, a father and his son, are sitting together on a bench. They are silent. The son is reading a newspaper, turned slightly away from his dad. His father is sitting in the middle of the bench, looking ahead, hands in lap. The silence continues.

A bird lands in a nearby bush. Dad looks at the bird; his son continues reading the paper.

“What is that?” asks dad.

The son looks up. “A sparrow,” he replies, and continues reading the paper.

A little later, the bird lands on the lawn in front of dad. Dad sits up, looking at the bird.

“What is that?” asks dad.

“I just told you, father, a sparrow,” replies the son, with a little annoyance.

They sit in silence. The dad sees the bird again, and asks, “What is that?”

His son becomes very angry, drops his paper and yells, “A SPARROW, A SPARROW, S – P – A – R – R – O – W!! (spelling it). WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? I TOLD YOU SO MANY TIMES, IT’S A SPARROW!!!

His dad stand up and turns away. “Where are you going?” asks the son. His dad does not speak, but motions with his hand for his son to stay there. Dad goes into the house.

The son remains sitting on the bench, somewhat slumped over, looking glum. Dad returns, sits in the middle of th e bench right beside his son. He has a book. He opens the book, flips through a few pages, and hands the book to his son. He does not say anything, but pulls his son’s hand up, indicating his son should hold the book. Dad taps a place in the book, and says, “Loud.”

The son reads:
“Today, my youngest son, who a few days ago, turned 3, was sitting with me at the park, when a sparrow sat in front of me. My son asked me 21 times what it was and I answered 21 times that it was a sparrow. I hugged him every single time he asked me the same question, again and again, without getting mad, feeling affection for my innocent little boy.”

Dad nods. He remembers what happened many years before. There is a pause. Then the son extends his arm around dad, holds him and kisses him on the side of his head, many times. He continues to hold his dad. The words he read have re-awakened the admiration, the appreciation and the love he feels for his dad.

Up in the tree above them, the sparrow looks down at the men below and then happily flitters away!

I saw an Interview of Kunal Nayyar when i was at the Slutzker Center. I wondered what’s this Indian Guy doing in American Television and asked Abhijeet. Abhijeet Bhanoori, one of my colleague cum friend at the Slutzker Center, told me that he is an Actor in the famous SitCom “The Big bang Theory”! He said that it is really good. I have been hearing about many TV series like 24, HIMYM, Scribs, etc etc for a long time now but I haven’t had any time to watch any of that – until now. As I write, I have finished watching all of season 1 and am going through the season 2 of  TBBT.

For the benefit of those who have not seen or heard of “The Big Bang Theory”, the show focuses on the life of two geek roommates, Leonard and Sheldon. Their IQs add up to 360 combined but they have no clue as to how to interact with people beyond their circle. Penny is a hot blonde who moves into the apartment across their hall. Leonard is immediately interested in her (saying “our babies will be smart and beautiful”), but Sheldon feels his friend is chasing a dream he’ll never catch (adding “not to mention imaginary”). I have to say, these Hilarious dialogs and Kaley Cuoco(Penny) got me hooked to the Series!

Leonard Hofstadter, Sheldon Cooper, Howard Wolowitz, Rajesh Koothrapalli, Penny are the main characters in the Series. Jim Parsons who plays Sheldon has been nominated for the Emmy Award. All the Cast, the dialogs and everything in the series is really good. Though i can’t understand the Physics part, it is still hilarious how they interact with each other. The Third Season is going to begin this September, and I can’t wait to see if that’s as good – or better – than the first two!

There are times when all of a sudden, scenes from my life flash in my mind. Right from my childhood to the present, everything! It feels like a movie fast forwarded from the first scene and exactly stopping at whatever i am doing at that time. And at that moment I feel like why am i doing this? Why am i attending school? Studying? For whom am i doing this? Why does my dad earn for the family? Why me and my brother go to school? Why does everyone in the world do the same? What next? What is the purpose of this all? Knowledge? Money? Love? Pleasure? When all the scenes come to an end, i feel my head whirling for a few seconds and after that i come back to my senses! I have never really thought in detail about all this. I just forget it and get back to whatever i was doing.

Today i thought of writing about it and put my thoughts down in paper… er… Blog. I would like to quote this verse from the Bhagavad Gita, ‘You came empty handed, you will leave empty handed.’ This is what i come to realize after some thinking. Happiness is what we live for. It is what our hearts and entire being craves for! Virtually everything we do, every activity we engage in, is geared towards making us or the others around us happy. The Pursuit of Happyness!

The Name is R. Vivek Shanmugam. To know more about my name, go ahead and read the entire post (at your own risk)!

Before we go into all this, let us first see what is the naming convention in Tamil Nadu (the State in India where i hail from). Many Tamils use a “Vilasam”. That gives the initials (a syllable in Tamil) of the person’s paternal ancestors up to, say, seven generations. This keeps every one readily identifiable. For example, in a reasonably sized community Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Er. Ganesh would be the cousin of Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Ka. Ganesh. This form of naming is not used anymore. We just have one initial and that is of the Father. But, when we are at a traditional celebration or function in our Ancestral Temples, they still use this format followed by Chettiar (the Caste Name) to officially call out the Person.

When the initial is expanded it refers to the name of the father, and not the person bearing the name. So the final name in the sequence is the actual given name of the individual and first name stands for the father. For example, C. V. Raman (who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect) was from Tiruchirappalli, a town in South India. His full name is Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman (C. V. Raman); Raman is the given name of the nobel laureate, and Chandrashekharan is his father’s name. Raman is not the family name of the nobel laureate, as many in Europe and the US mistakenly believe.

Usually the father’s initial is used with the given name. This Initial is expanded and used only in legal documents such as passports, court proceedings and wills. For more details, check this wiki article.

In some parts of Tamil Nadu, we have the habit of naming the first two male children after the Grandfathers and the female children after the Grandmother. So, i am named after my Grandfather. And as you have read about the concept of initials, i was also given the initial of my Dad i.e. R. And so my official name is R. Shanmugam. This is what they entered while registering me in the School. My mom named me Vivek and everyone in the family, the relatives and those who know me in any way other than School call me Vivek.

Now, what does my name mean? The Name Vivek is quite common all over India. It has its origin in Sanskrit and it means  Wisdom or the Power to discern between Right and Wrong. I could also have been named after Swami Vivekananda. Shanmugam is one of the many Names of Lord Murugan, in South India. This name is common only to the Tamil Speaking population of India. Many Tamils will have the name or the variations of the name of this God, like for example Karthik, Saravan, etc.

So two common names make a unique name! I know it must have been too confusing to understand this post. I apologize! The Conclusion here is that I prefer my name to be “R. Vivek Shanmugam” and that is the reason for naming my website this way. You can call me by whatever name you feel comfortable with.

Yes! That’s right. Enough of Social Networking. I have decided to quit Orkut n FaceBook. I thought of deleting both my Orkut and FaceBook Profiles. But, then again, creating a new profile will be a pain in the back, just in case i change my decision!

I am not Politically or Morally against Orkut or FaceBook like Tom Hodgkinson or Techno Llama (But I completely agree with both of them) nor I would say i am not interested in social networking at all. It has been Good for certain things. I might even come back after a few months. But as of now, i am just going to stay away from it.

I estimate that for me Orkut/Facebook easily eats up at least half an hour a day. That’s more than 180 hours a year. Quite some time! I have lots and lots of other stuff that need my attention. My time is so valuable you know. Therefore, I am just downsizing!!!

Why I joined Orkut?

• Helped me Connect with a few of my old buddies
• Everyone else in the World joined.

Why i am quitting Orkut?

• It is Eating my Precious Precious Time
• Too much Hype
• Groucho 2.0 Rule
• I just feel it is a Public Popularity Contest
• I Got Bored with it

That’s it for now. I would like to hear from others who also have quit or decided to quit Orkut/FaceBook.

PS: You can always follow me in less Intrusive and Unnerving Social Media, such as this Blog.

This weekend me and all my roommates went to the 30th Edition of the Syracuse Balloon Fest at the Jamesville Beach Park which is nearly 9 miles from our place.  I didn’t fly on the Balloon coz i was broke. A ride on the Balloon would cost you $150, not much if you earn full time. For a student, it is quite costly. But, it was a great opportunity to get up close to the balloons and see how they fly it. It was awesome! And there was a Music Show by the Night Rangers.

Yatish Hegde has posted more Pictures and stuff about the Ballon Fest! Check that Out!

I watched this Movie yesterday after hearing that my brother and parents are going to the Movie. I wanted to see a Trailer of the Movie at least and searched for it in You Tube. Surprisingly, i found the entire movie in You Tube. Here is a Review of the Movie…

The stroy is about two families who live opposite each other in a small town called Virachalai in  Pudukottai District. The narration of the story is based on the Children’s Point of View, where one kid is a Good Guy (Anbukarasu IAS) and the other kid is the Baddie(Jeeva)… Not a Baddie exactly, but a little less Good Guy than the other.

The story starts with a Cinematic entry of the Kids, with the Children imitating Kaakha Kaakha and Vettaiyadu Vilayadu in many scenes. It then shows the enmity between the two kids which later becomes a feud between both the families. In parallel, runs a sweet love story between Anbu’s uncle (MeenakshiSundaram) and Jeeva’s elder sister (Sobikannu). Then there is a fight between the parents of Anbu which affects the Children. Jeeva’s Dad who is also a Teacher in the School and is portrayed as a villain in some parts before, then advises Anbu’s Dad and everything is resolved. “Naama thaan uyiroda irukuravangala paaraatamaatome“. The love story gets a nod from both families. And finally the two kids get together in the Climax. Though, the Climax is cinematic and we have seen numerous other climaxes like this before, this Movie right from the beginning till the Climax is very interesting and nice.

I would also commend the director for staying focused on the kids throughout the Movie. Even though he handles the love between Anbu’s Uncle and Jeeva’s Sister, he makes sure that the movie does not lose track.  The Scene between the two with the dialog “Avan Pitchai eduka koodathu nu nee ninaikira, Avan Thirudanaida koodathu nu naan ninaikiren” was the best of all. Sometimes, the Scenes between the two gets boring, but still it is fun to watch the subtle Village based love story. When the parents are first informed about the love affair by the kids, they individually discuss the issue with their respective family and then without much hue and cry they agree on each other’s choice. No Screaming, No beating up the Couple, No locking them away… They analyze the pros and cons of this relationship as adults and decide to let the couple marry. And the way the two kids act at home, when the parents discuss the issue is funny. This part of the movie shows the maturity that the current generation expects from its parents.

I loved the Songs Anbaale Azagaagum Veedu and Mazhai Indru Varuma Varuma. Nice Lyrics and Music. The Back Ground Music Score is wonderful. Very good work by James Vasanthan.

On the whole, Pasanga is Refreshingly New and a Must Watch Movie for Tamil Movie Fans.