Coovum, a state river

Along this line, I as a Chennaite, demand that Coovum be declared as a state river - if not a national river. That way, the TN Government might one day take the necessary steps to clean up this river.

I wonder the same ...

"The Holdings and the Athertons say I am one of the top three left-arm spinners in the world... People say I am the best left-arm spinner in India, but I am not playing for India."
Murali Kartik rues that he doesn't seem to be in the frame despite the retirement of Anil Kumble

When cricket takes a backseat ...

This is what happens when cricket takes a backseat. Stanford 20/20 is simply just not cricket.

"The ECB has pawned the national team off for little more than a rich man's ego trip. English cricket has become Stanford's WAG."
Michael Atherton looks at the big picture, in his column

Picture courtesy: cricinfo.com

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin on her Foreign Policy experience:
"Our next door neighbors are foreign countries. As Putin rears his head ..."

Ladies and Gentleman, we will not miss Dubya if McCain/Palin win the November elections. Oh, that is really scary.



With Sarah Palin providing such entertainment, who needs Tina Fey? Maybe, Palin takes Tina Fey seriously and tries to imitate her.




Quote of the Week II (from MMQB)

"It was such a bad pick, I thought Al Davis made it.''
-- Chris Rock, on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Radio, on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Such a good line, Rock thought; I'm going to repeat it on Larry King Live. And he did.

Hindustan Times "Reporting"

Deepika joins Ranbir in Ooty!

I love HT for such outstanding reports! I am eagerly waiting to know what they had for dinner.

"Darshan" takes too much white space !

I'm sure that Director Priyadarshan is not amused with this headline.

The movie Billo Barber is a remake of a Malayalam film. Irfan Khan and Badshah Khan are playing the lead roles in this much awaited film. The film is based on the fabulous relationship between Sudama and Krishna and is expected to hit the silver screen by this Diwali.

It seems like every friendship story between a rich man and a poor man can be extrapolated as a relationship between Sudama and Krishna. Whatever !

Tennis - Random Thoughts

1. Normalcy Restored

Normalcy was restored in Men's Tennis with Roger Federer winning the US Open Men's Championship. This has been a down year for Federer with just only one Grand Slam Title (US Open) and 2 Grand Slam Final appearances at French Open and Wimbledon and a semifinal loss at Australian Open. Oh at Wimbledon, he lost to Rafa Nadal in the finals, arguably one of the greatest matches ever played in the history of the sport. Ya, down year, only by his standards. Now he has won 5 in a row at Wimbledon and US Open. Roger "Freaking" Federer !

I also read that Federer attributed his net play success at US Open to his Gold Medal winning doubles performance with fellow Swiss Wawarinka at the Beijing Olympics. It looks like even the greats need some change in routine to inspire them.

3 more goals for Federer:

1. Win the French Open
2. Get past Sampras record of 14 Men's Singles Grand Slam titles.
3. Olympic Men's Singles Gold.


2. Andy Murray

It was good to see another rising star in Andy Murray at the US Open. He has tremendous ground strokes. He will cherish his fantastic win against Nadal in the US open semi finals. The arm chair expert (or should I say, the Lazy Boy) thinks that, he must improve his net game to win against Federer on a consistent basis. Federer tortured him with his net game at the US Open final. If he can stay out of injuries, men's tennis would be a lot more fun in the near future with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray at the top.

3. Women's Tennis

WTA has plans to allow on-court coaching during matches, starting next year. The interesting thing is that the coaches must wear a microphone so that TV audiences can hear the conversations. This will make it more interesting for the TV viewers. I am not sure how they are going to ensure that opponent coaches don't get to know the strategies from this approach. We will have to wait and see.


4. Serena Williams

If Serena Williams is completely focused on Tennis she could be the best ever to play the sport, in spite of her frequent nagging injuries. Currently, she has other priorities like acting and fashion that seems to overtake Tennis. US Open is a fantastic win for Serena. She was lucky that Venus choked a bit in the semifinals.


5. Jelena Jankovic

Great player - still to win a major Grand slam event. I noticed that she spent watching the big screen TV quite a few times to adjust her hair and make up during the change over. I guess this is one of the reasons why she can't get the big one. You need to be mentally tough to win the big events and these acts affect your mental focus on the game.

Usain Bolt's Yams

Get me some yams !

Bolt quotes are funny.

"I was looking at myself and I'm like, 'that guy's fast,' " he later said. Some woman in the back--evidently overcome by emotion--laughed deliriously at everything he said.

No wonder IOC is screwed up with their misplaced priorities. Yes Mr. Jacques Rogge, Bolt is the problem with this Olympics !

Olympic Thoughts

1. Micheal "Freaking" Phelps !

2. Usain "Lightning" Bolt: Bolt just went on cruise control and chest thumping the last 15 meters of the race. Amazing performance. He could have clocked under 9.6 seconds if he had ran the last 15 meters with the same intensity.

3. Bela Karolyi: Bela Karolyi is the NBC Olympics Gymnastics Analyst. Having said that, I did not hear any intelligent analysis from him. He was whining all the time. I understand that Gymnastics is a very subjective sport to judge and there have been some questionable scores/medals awarded to gymnasts. But, I get tired of hearing from Bela Karolyi on how American gymnasts where robbed of medals without any intelligent analysis from him. He should stick to coaching.

4. Rafael Nadal: Fantastic year for him. He has won French and Wimbledon along with the Olympic Gold in Men's Singles. One of those years for him.

5. Roger Federer: This is one of those years that he would like to forget. Having said that many players would like to have his accomplishments this year. He made it to the finals of all 3 grand slam events held so far this year along with the Olympic Gold in Men's Doubles.

6. Olympic coverage is stunning on high definition TV.

Reminiscing the Grand Old Man In Our Family

Years ago, when Director Sankar produced a seminal classic 'Indian', starring Kamal Hassan in two contrasting roles, the film caught the attention of the public, amongst other reasons, for Kamal's make up. A man in the late 40s was neatly transformed as a man in the late 70s. The creases and crinkles on the cheeks, the skin folds elsewhere seemed so real. However, what attracted my attention was the hair style of the old man. His silvery, gleaming hair, always neatly combed reminded me of another old person. My thaththa. While he went by the name Natesan, not many dared to call him, even affectionately as Natesa Thaththa. He was simply 'thaththa' for all. For me, he was the only 'Thaththa', since I had lost my paternal grandfather even before my birth.



Well, whenever I refer to my 'thaththa', it should be complemented with a reference about his wife, my paatti. By the time I was mature enough to understand them, they were well into their sunset years. However, I could see the distinctive difference in their personality. They were like the peas in the pods, never the same, yet together. Paatti was always the domineering character. She always wore a mask of dominant nature to her face, to the extent that one could easily suspect that the husband is merely a hen pecked one. Or that's what I had thought. How wrong I was!

Later events proved how assertive thaththa was. After his death, paatti lost the command in her voice. Her so-called authoritarian look was lost completely. Her eyes failed to portray her officious nature. She looked completely lost. So she remained until her own death…

Looking back, I could realize the role my thaththa would have played in shaping up the destiny of not only my paatti but also many others. Most of his grandsons and granddaughters, many not have realized what exactly they owed to him. He was a silent teacher for all of us. Teacher, yes. Silent? Not quite. As any retired Headmaster would do to his third generation, he left us a language legacy. For all the grandsons and granddaughters spread around the world, he sowed a seed. A seed of learning English correctly. Unlike any other schoolteacher, he pinched us rarely. He had no 'ruler' or 'scale' with him…yet his firm ways helped us to learn the nuances of the language.

Though I was not fortunate enough to catch him young, I could distinctly recall his interests in finer aspects of life. If our wives have complaints on our overbearing interests in games like cricket and tennis, they may have to probably blame him. I didn't catch him play those games, but his expertise in these games left us with rich knowledge. If any 'pozhudu pogadha' scientist is willing to find out the reasons for most of his progenies reading 'The Hindu' newspaper from top to bottom, the scientist would easily trace the genes back to thaththa. Though he was quite knowledgeable, he was never opinionated. He would happily discuss many topics with us, from Venkatragavan's fielding to Borg's drop volleys.

In his last days, his locomotor senses started to deteriorate and his mobility curtailed. It was sad to see the frail figure confined to the house. For a man who was affectionately called as 'Loco Thaththa', his 'imprisonment' caused much consternation amongst the relatives. Even when he moved to Thirunindravur, what was then a god-forsaken place, to be with his eldest daughter, he silently endured his pain and never uttered any complaints. His death was as silent as his personality was.

However, as one of the grandsons, I strongly believe that he has left us a different legacy. No, I am not talking about the inheritance of his language skills. What we had learnt was only miniscule. The one thing which he never taught us was the one thing we should have bequeathed from him. His ability to be silent when even some of his sons-in-law were ruffling him. His silence was never a sign of frailty. I never knew if he had a gift of gab. But his choice of words, however few it is, were strong enough to convince and convey the messages. Thaththa, you must have taught us these things. Nowadays, these are hard and tough qualities to come by. Why don't you make a come back?

- Your loving grandson
N.Rajaram

Remembering Natesan Thaththa …

Natesan Thaththa retired as an Assistant Head Master Andrews High School, Arakkonam. He was always a wonderful school teacher and he never stopped teaching until his health deteriorated during his final years. He was someone who led us by example with his patience and harmony.

Speaking of Thaththa, I have to mention about patti and how they managed to have a great family. He was a wonderful husband to Nagoji patti and a great father of 2 sons and 5 daughters. The interactions between Nagoji patti and Thaththa were always interesting. Patti was a high energy person - sensitive, angry, caring, loving, and affectionate – all in one interesting character. If patti was upset and raised her voice Thaththa would speak softly and calm her down. They had a perfect balance – sort of yin – yang thing. He was very affectionate towards my mother. Of course, he shared special and a wonderful relationships with my dad and chittappa.

He managed to successfully conduct marriages of all his daughters, a fantastic achievement with the meager teacher salary those days ably assisted by my father. He even saw them succeed as career women. 4 of the 5 daughters went on to work in Government and Public Sector Units.

I have some wonderful fond memories of him. We were very fortunate to have him living with us for many years when we lived in Madras and Coimbatore.

Eleven things I recollect about Thaththa at this time …

1. He used to feed my sister and younger brother regularly when they were toddlers. In fact, both my sister and brother used to pick up the feeding bottle from my mother and take it directly to Thaththa and sit on his lap and finish the milk. Sometimes, he used to tell stories and sometimes he would ask them to recite nursery rhymes.
2. In fact my younger brother would always sit on his lap and drink his milk and he would insist on me/my sister reciting his favorite rhymes while he drinks his milk.
3. Thaththa had a unique way of yawning and for a long time my brother’s favorite show as a toddler was to mimic Thaththa’s yawn to the visitors. Thaththa was a great sport and he enjoyed this act.
4. I remember him teaching me English Grammar. I think he knew “Wren and Martin” by heart. He taught me all the fundamentals of English language when I was 6/7 years old. I can still recollect his Active Voice/Passive Voice teachings using “Rama killed Ravana” example. I can say with absolute confidence that very little English that I can read and write now is mainly due to the solid fundas he instilled on me at an early age. He was a wonderful teacher. He was patient and a thorough teacher. He never got angry while teaching. He gave me a lot of exercises from “Wren and Martin” and used to correct them diligently and point to my mistakes with love and affection. He even pointed to some typos and errors in the Wren and Martin book.
5. He taught me how to read cricket scores printed on newspapers, how O stands for Overs and M stands for maidens, etc. He was a great cricket fan. He used to regale us with stores of yesteryear stars like Alec Bedser, Tony Greig, etc.
6. He also introduced me to the writings of RK Narayan. He used to read RK Narayan’s article in “Frontline” regularly.
7. I will cherish the time we spent listening to cricket commentaries BBC (Christopher Martin Jenkins)/Radio Australia (Keith Stackpole).
8. He introduced me to Tennis. Yes, to watch Tennis. He taught me the nuances of the game (let/double fault/tie-breaker, etc.) as we watched together the great Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon finals in the early 80’s.
9. Thaththa was a great fan of “The Hindu”. He will wait patiently for the morning commotion to die down (when everyone in the house was busy scrambling around getting ready for the day) and then he would pick up the paper and finish reading it by mid-morning. In fact, he would sort of revise it later in the afternoon.
10. He was a voracious reader. I have seen him read The Hindu, Ananda Vikatan, Gnana Bhoomi and novels from authors like Fredrick Forsyth, Irving Wallace, etc. In fact, some of my elder cousins would drop by to bring some novels for him to read. My aunts used to send my cousins to thaththa to learn English grammar and he taught them with great care and diligence.
11. His hair was always combed, neatly greased and in place all the times. In fact, if I remember right, my patti used to tease thaththa that whenever he woke in the middle of the night to attend to nature's call, he would ensure that his hair is combed before going back to bed. Not sure how much of this is true, but having seen him all the times with every strand of his grey/silver hair in place, I can't reject this theory outright.
    

Thatha, Wish you a very very Happy Birthday! Hopefully you are pleased with lives and achievements. We will always cherish you.

Your loving grandson,

Arun Shantharam