The Ego Surfer

Two Peppy Numbers It has been a tough week, fellas. Escalations, failed promises, missed milestones, "con"-calls, colorful reports with incorrect data, attrition, interviews...the usual. So, naturally, I was unusually thankful that Friday had arrived. I poured myself a glass of Grover's Cabarnet Shiraz from the vineyards of Nashik -- the ostensible birthplace of my ancestors; about my only connection with them. It was really not a wine glass, you know, but a stainless steel tumbler with dabara, in order to camoflauge it from the prying eyes and sniffing noses of my mom and daughter, placed unobtrusively on the chest of drawers next to a globe, and me sipping the blood of Christ casually as if I was drinking neer more. The pressures of a brahmin household...! I switched on my iPod, turned on "shuffle" mode and immersed myself into the treasure trove of my favorite Ilayaraja songs from 1976 to 92. I tell you, folks. I have listened to a lot of Raja. But N

Two exquisite songs - Jul 29, 2009 (re-posted here) Just the other day, when I was driving down for the umpteenth time between BLR and CHN, Balu's rendition of two songs just enthralled me...so much so that I nearly ran into a vagabond motorist (drunk, I am sure; me with Balu's songs and him with 200 milli of naatu sarakku or sevutthu mutti). One was "Mandram vandha ...thendral" from Mauna Ragam; the movie that made Karthik and Revathi and umpteen repeat sequences of lovers playing practical jokes with each other's parents..."Mr. Chandramouli"... Anyway, back to the song...the pain, the senstivity, the "feelings" (as they say in Tamil!) expressed by Koman (Kokila Mohan...or Mike Mokan!) - the only movie he acted well - and all of that rendered brilliantly by the plump genius hit me like an errant lorry on NH46 with a tonne of bricks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=bKy6lO-TJvw BTW, there is a recent adaptation in Chenni Kum sung by one of my f