Small Things get you Going..

It was that time of the day when you are really restless, idle, bored, tired and what not... I really needed something to get my day started but in a way was too lazy to even have my cup of coffee and then this happened...
The Scene..
Watching Chennai 600028 with English subtitles on it... Majority of the people I know don't like watching movies with subtitles ON for it could be distracting and could spoil the feel of watching a movie, and many might be knowing how irrelevant the subtitles for Indian movies could be, it can sometimes get worse than watching a Hollywood flick dubbed in Tamil. But, as I mentioned, I was too restless to be doing anything and I had to stretch to get the remote, so forget it... For people who have watched this movie will know its about gully cricket and there's this commentator who gives his commentary through all the matches they show on the movie.
There is this scene when the commentator tries to flirt with a lady next to him calling her Inji Idupazhagi, thanks to Kamal Hassan's Thevar Magan for the term and guess what the subtitle for that said? It was translated as 'Ginger Waist Beauty', man gotto give it to who ever had written the translations, seriously I couldn't stop laughing watching it and if it wasn't enough there were a few bloopers which followed, I actually stopped listening to the dialogues and started concentrating on the subtitles. The next scene Shiva calls someone 'Sanniyenne', the subtitle said 'Planet Saturn', 'Dei Pudingi' was 'Hey Remover'. Man, how funny was that? I think that provided me enough adrenaline to get me going through the day..
But on a serious note, I really think Directors who have taken so much pain to take the movie should spend sometime atleast reading these subtitles, leave writing them themselves, for I don't know what people not knowing the language would interpret it as.. especially things like 'Sanniyenne' as 'Planet Saturn' was hilarious.
Then I just happened to open this subtitle file of our Thailaivar's Baasha, just have a look at Rajini's introduction song translated in English.

I am autofellow autofellow
Four knowing route fellow
Justice having rate fellow
Good people mix fellow
Nice singing song fellow
Gandhi borning country fellow
Stick take means hunter fellow
Big people's relation fellow
Mercy having mind fellow da
I am all poor's relative fellow da
I am always poor people's relative fellow da
Achak means achak only; Gumuk means gumuk only
Achak means achak only; Gumuk means gumuk only

Town become big, population become big
Bus expecting, half age over
Life become hectic in time, exist in corner of street
Ada eye beat means love coming they telling
You hand clap means auto coming I telling
Front coming look, this three-wheel chariot
Good come and arrive, you trust and climb up
Mercy having mind fellow da
I am always poor people's relative fellow da
Achak means achak only; Gumuk means gumuk only
Achak means achak only; Gumuk means gumuk only

Mummy motherfolk, danger not leave
Heat or cyclone, never I never tell
There there hunger take means, many savoury
Measurement food is one time
For pregnancy I come free mummy
Your child also name one I keep mummy
Letter lacking person ada trusting us and coming
Address lacking street ada auto fellow knowing
Achak means achak only ; Gumuk means gumuk only
Achak means achak only ; Gumuk means gumuk only

Yeah!! I never knew it had so much meaning!!

Kadalai - An Art

I was inspired to write this article about 'Kadalai' by someones thought of an Ideal date, which was 'A lousy walk on the shore by the moonlight having kadalai and putting kadalai (Tamil slang for light hearted romance) with someone very dear.' Wow!! How could I possibly not think of this before... Somethings like these makes one realise what a wonderful language Tamil is...seriously I cannot think of any other language as effective as Tamil is...
Anyone reading will definitely be interested to know many such lingo's in Tamil language. Do have a look at this. Request you to go through the entire list with the origin/history of the words used..
Now coming back to Kadalai, Wiki defines Kadalai as 'Verbal Flirting' and the origin of the word possibly from groundnut vendors who provided snack food to couples on the beach, or in trains. Connotes flirting without serious intentions.

Some Quick facts about Kadalai..

• Kadalai makes one feel there is no better way to spend time than to have Kadalai
• Makes one a more efficient person professionally and personally since one has to plan their Kadalai schedule accordingly on a day to day basis.
• Kadalai can be consumed in any form, fried, boiled or even kadalai in raw form, though excessive consumption of kadalai in raw form is supposed to cause stomach disorders.
• Kadalai can be a perfect companion to your beers, scotch etc. Maybe we could even try Kadalai with Red Wine for the Classy people out there.
• Kadalai makes one forget all worries in life and can be a perfect Stress reliever for many.
• Kadalai is best served alone or nowadays Kadalai butter is also readily available in the market, however trying to mix kadalai for complex recipes could be dangerous and possibly cause future trauma.
• Refer the previous point, Kadalai is highly allergic to a few and its Universally considered to be one of the highly allergic substance which is readily available and also consumable. So, sensitive people to stay away from having Kadalai in any form.
• Kadalai can also be a very good time pass activity to have, especially the ones with the nuts. Some nuts are difficult to break whereas some can be really easy. A lot depends of luck, practise and skill.
• Excessive Kadalai could be a spot of bother for people around and can also irritate many due to several reasons unknown.
• Mostly 2 Kadalai's could be found inside a shell, however there are cases where only 1 could be found. 3 or more could also be a possibility.
• It is difficult to gauge the quality and taste of the Kadalai's from outside because most of them come with similar outer shells and could be deceptive. Rotten Kadalai's could taste terrible and cause serious discomfort.
• More often than not the last Kadalai to be consumed in a pack will tend to be rotten and could cause a negative feeling about Kadalai itself, though its an pleasure in most parts.

Statutory warning : Kadalai is highly addictive and could be avoided in its initial stages itself, it can also be seriously injurious to health, courtesy - Round the clock consumption of Kadalai.

P.S : I apologize to all those you cannot understand head or tail of this post, and think I've gone nuts, maybe you could ask for help from those people who have a long time expertise in Kadalai, they might be perfectly in sync of what I am trying to say :)

Start Living LIFE

This was one good mail I received recently...
Though very simple, thought it was really meaningful..

Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it.

Here are 10 Ways to get a life and start living it.
1. Give yourself permission to claim your life. That's right ?Permission. You're the only one who can decide you are in charge of your life. Even though it feels like you're not supposed to do so,Turn off the internal editors, the old tape recordings, the "should's, Have to's, and musts", and the rules that didn't come from you.
2. Define what living means to you. It's not as hard as it sounds.Just picture yourself at the end of your life looking back. What words would you want to describe how you lived your life and who you are as a person?
3. Stop living in the future. Every time you think "someday" or "when I have time I will," stop.. Ask yourself, "Why not now?" Think about this sentence, "I always wanted to, but never did." Start doing the things you always planned to do. Choose your life every morning. Plan one thing you will do that day to feel alive.
4. Surround yourself with people who enjoy living. They've obviously discovered how to have a life and live it. Why not hang with the pros?
5. Lay down your pain and your anger. Carrying them around makes living harder and less fun. It doesn't bring anything, and it steals a lot.
6. Let the losers win. Don't argue about things that you don't care about. Unless there's some real threat, let the folks who have something to prove, prove what they need to. Why waste your living time trying to fix what's wrong with them?
7. Create energy. Jump to forgiveness and love, then figure things out. Most conclusions we jump to are not only wrong, they're negative.Negative conclusions lead us to prepare a defense. Being on the defensive isn't living. It's hiding from life.
8. Learn the physical symptoms of when your head and heart become disconnected. We know when we're having a knee jerk reaction, when we're feeling sorry for ourselves, and when we're being blind to people's feelings. We can remember how it felt physically while we were behaving badly. Get to know those symptoms, and you can stop the behavior. Living life will feel a whole lot safer because you won't be in danger of shooting yourself in the foot.
9. Take small risks that push your boundaries in every way. The joy of life is packed in learning that matches our skill set. When we stretch just a bit intellectually, physically, emotionally, we grow. Living is growing. Even your cells know that.
10. Value and protect the people and the places you care about. A job Isn't a life. It's just a part of one. Let the people you care about come first, and let everyone know that you do.
Re-read numbers 1 and 2.
We come into life with whatever we've got.. It's ours to do with. It took me a while to figure that out ? That my life isn't just what happens to me, that I could take hold of it.

Transistions in Life

From the time I was born, I was told that everyone of us are responsible in some way or the other. When I first joined my LKG, I remember my teacher telling me while teaching alphabets that I was no longer a baby and asked me to concentrate on studies. Then when I went to the 1st standard, I was told that I was no more a LKG student and not to behave like one. Year after year, this continued and when I went to the 8th grade, my uniforms were upgraded to full trousers, I remember someone telling me that we have crossed a stage in life and should no longer behave like little brats. Then came the 10th grade and everyone I ever knew was like, this is going to be the most important and decisive year in your life, the year which is going to decide your fate, your future... must have been true.. After a point people stopped telling us these things and we could sense things on our own and at one point I realised 'Our actions were going to determine our destiny'.

Education was, to say quite a struggle.. a struggle which reaped really good results.. By results I mean, all of us are where we are because of what we have done till date and education plays a significant part of it if not the most important.. From then on, most of what we do is because of our own interest and no more a compulsive action. Well, looking back in time it is really fascinating to see how much we have gone through in the little time, so many transitions, so much learning, disappointments and many other feeling which cannot be described.

Failing in exams, scoring 100 in a paper, playing cricket, bunking classes, going for tuition's, pranks with teachers, first day in college, experience of watching a movie FDFS and not missing a single movie released during 4 years of college - language no bar, getting blasted at home for being so irresponsible, thrill of checking exam results online, the various crushes all through life, campus placements, interviews, first day at work, becoming a lead and also some personal moments like someone dear turning against you, dear ones who have changed so drastically when you never realised and then at a point couldn't relate to them anymore.... and many such things..... I am sure we have gone through all this ...

Many small things have led to big impacts in life, somethings make you stronger and somethings make you more determined and motivated... we learn things from so many unknown people... little things everyday. And ofcourse there will be this one living character in life as your role model whom we will be permanently in awe of... Going past all these, living everyday and experiencing so many things, we tend to groom ourselves at a better person, try to be in someones perspective and avoid doing mistakes which we have seen people do... All in pursuit of one thing... 'Being a better person in life'... It might be interpreted in different ways... for some it may be career wise, for some it might be something else.... but it all comes down to this...

But in process of this, there's one thing which comes to mind which most of us fail to see or rather understand.... "We seem to be too keen observing the clouds which pass by everyday and more often than not fail to see the vast sky beyond it, it might seem fancy for a while.. but it just goes away in no time before you realise its gone....." Having a clear vision in life of how to lead life is entirely upto us though it might be influenced by many around us.. and it is a lesson which might seem easy but probably take a lifetime to learn..