What gives you a high?

It all started with a random lunch-time conversation, after a particularly heavy pizza party at work. We were stuffed, satisfied and generally at peace with the world – you know the feeling, don’t you? – and got talking about other things that gave us a similar high.

Somehow, after that conversation, I’ve been thinking a lot about things that satisfy us the most. This list – what I call the ‘High list’ (wanted to say Orgasmic, but no) – can probably be the best tool to know more about a person’s personality.

Anyway, will cut the complicated psychoanalysis and present my own list of things/moments that make me happy – in no particular order:

-         Food. Good food. Nothing like a satisfying meal to achieve world peace.

-         Chocolate. Any time of the day. Any mood I am in. Sure shot happiness drug.

-         That first touch of water on my feet at the beach.

-         Applause for my performance. Be it speaking, singing, acting or whatever else. Yes, it feels good when you’re appreciated.

-         Laughter. You know that moment when you have laughed all you can and can’t laugh anymore?

-         A sip of chocolate milk shake after a long drag of hookah. Whatae.

-         Work. Doing things I love doing and being so completely engrossed in it that I don’t know where all the time went.

-         Sharing a moment of silence with a friend and realizing how lucky you are to have them.

-         That first smile after a long crying session.

-         Getting that perfect photograph with the light, frame and moment captured exactly the way I want it, after repeated attempts.

-         Yamuna Kalyani and Chandrajothi.

-         Singing along with the sisters and pretending to be carnatic rockstars.

Will add more as I think of them. What’s your list?

Goals 2012

List of things I want to have accomplished by this time next year. Will make earnest efforts to get there, with all of you chugging me along.

1. Find a job I like.
2. Make money.
3. Stop biting nails.
4. Buy a car.
5. Travel to at least 5 new places, Hampi being one of them.
6. Make better music.
7. Starting writing that book.
8. Become fitter.
9. Understand my friends.
10. Know my enemies.
11. Learn to say No.

Phew! Now for the difficult part - putting that into action.

Happy 2012, everyone. And no, the world will not end.

How I became a Vijay fan and how it changed my life

I used to hate Vijay. I mean really, hate him. I couldn't stand his films. Nor could I sit through them. Torture, is equivalent to watching a Vijay film without getting up to put dum during interval. How can I not hate him?

We're talking Vijay here. That undescribable human with extra-ordinary powers of sensational movements, superamazing stunts and extremely tear-jerking sentiments, all of which are entirely (read ENTIRELY) imaginary. This rare human features in feature films featuring all his extremely imaginary superpowers, of which a whole new species called 'Vijay fans' are fans. Why, I could not understand.

And so life went on with this hate-hate relationship between me and Vijay and his fans. I abused him, they abused me. After such a period of prolonged outrage, I started making fun of him, thanks to my sarcastic gene, funny bone and what they call the Thanjavur nondu, And man, was it fun!

From status messages, SMS forwards, chain emails, plot analysis, Vijay-gounder marana kalai videos, posting pictures of films wherefrom his plot was brutally CCP-ied, I did it all. At a point of time, I had gotten addicted to this.

And then - I started watching his films.

Quite honestly, they are a phenomenon. Nothing makes any sense at all. None of it. And what is even more fascinating, is you will never know why you are clapping along with his fans. Or laughing uncontrollably. You will not know why you are whistling at that horrible 'intro song' which is the same in all his films. But you will do it. I did it. Maybe because I have that tamil gene that whistles at any hero's introduction. I don't know.

It thrilled me to join that species of Vijay fans, who are all much wiser than us self-proclaimed intellectuals. We expect reality in cinema and get disappointed. They expect cinema in cinema and are happy.



That's when you realize, that life is not about Martin Scorcese or Satyajit Ray or Mani Ratnam films. Life is about that crass and silly pleasure derived from watching one big meesa vecha body builder being beaten up by our puny hero. Life is about believing that a rich super figure ponnu can fall in love with our pichakaara hero. Life is about the belief that you can become panakkaaran in one song. Even though none of it is even remotely possible.

Vijay movies are about believing in the impossible. They are about that thought you get while watching him do one of the impossibles on screen - " 'Tha ivanaalaye mudiyum na, ennala mudiyaatha?"

I am a proud Vijay fan today.

I don't know.

Dew on my glass window,

Drops down to say hello.

The blinking cursor winks,

I don't know. I give up.

Somebody walks in

Calls me a friend

And then they walk out

I don't know, I give up.

There is nothing to be done

but always something

I must do it all

I don't know, I give up.

I remember a smile,

A hug, a kiss for a while,

And then suddenly it's gone,

I don't know, I give up.

Excitement, fear,

Love that I hold dear,

I refuse to feel them

I don't know, I give up.

Maybe I'm a whiner,

Guess that's a no brainer.
So what now?

I don't know, I give up.

Unbowed, till the end

“It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees”, is how Dr Wangari Mathai described her phenomenal Greenbelt Movement. A movement that has planted more than 40 million trees across Africa and given employment to thousands of African women. She was a woman who brought to my mind a picture of vivacious energy, that mad drive to do right in the world and that warm glow of love for nature. All this from just reading about her and seeing her pictures.

Wangari Mathai after receiving the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2004

Dr. Wangari Mathai was a woman of many firsts. Born on the first of April, 1940, she was the woman from East and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D, the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004) and finally… just after her death, she was the first African woman to trend on twitter.

Known to the world as an environmentalist, Dr Mathai was also a teacher, politician and human rights activist. She spoke up for the women of Africa on various issues and was particularly known for taking to the streets with the mothers of many political prisoners and demanding their release. She led high-profile efforts to halt construction of a skyscraper in Uhuru Park, an oasis of green in Nairobi and to stop the grabbing of forest land by cronies of the then-president Daniel arap Moi.

She made lots of enemies this way, our Mathai. The government did not like her guts. Se was beaten, jailed, vilified and evicted from her office. The landlords were too scared to rent out their space for her offices. So she promptly moved all her staff (more than 50 people) to her home in the city. Her husband divorced her, because she was “too strong, too stubborn and too successful” for a woman.

Like it remains for all to see, it is obvious that none of that could stop this daring woman.  She took it all head on, fought her way through and left a trail behind in whatever she did. She proved to the world that a woman from a little town in Kenya could stand up and demand that the world take notice. It is only fitting that her autobiography (published in 2006) was called Unbowed: A memoir. Because that is how she remains till today. Unbowed, in spite of all the struggle, obstacles and political vendetta. In spite of a divorce, ovarian cancer and ultimately, death. Wangari Mathai remains. As an inspiration. As an unseen energy within women worldwide. As history that has been rewritten. Even in death, she stands. Unbowed.