Anuradha Sridharan

April 14th - The day dawned. A welcoming Tamil New Year day. For Rajni fans, one more reason to celebrate the day. After a gap of nearly 3 years, Thalaivar movie is releasing. Critics have written off Rajni and his last movie, Baba. Frankly speaking, being a fan of him from my childhood, I didn't like Baba the same way as I liked Padaiyappa or Annamalai or Veera. But my hopes on Chandramukhi was very high. I had a wish to watch the movie in Bangalore before my brother watches it in Chennai. I browsed through PVR's portal and to my disappointment, found that all tickets were booked for the next 4 days. So I planned along with my friends to watch the movie in Urvasi on Saturday, April 16th. Our good friend, Skely took the pain of booking the tickets amidst myriad hands of passionate fans. I never expected Monu and Debu would also join the party as they cannot understand Tamil. But that was the effect a Rajni movie can have. The show was about to start at 2.30 pm. But we were stil...

The sun waving good-bye to me A cool breeze gently touching my cheeks, A drop of rain cooling my body Lightning flashes welcoming me Bustling trees at the background, I ponder. I ponder about my day, just gone-by day Has it been eventful, action packed? Has it been memorable, peaceful? Innumerable questions passing in and out of my mind, In this serene state, I realize The cool breeze is memorable, The drop of rain is memorable, God given nature is memorable.......

"It is incumbent for us to serve the needy. Altruistic people contribute their best while there are a few who feel vexatious when they just see a beggar on the road. But the situation looks propitious now after the pernicious Tsunami waves. These waves provided a milieu to many who were indolent in such volunteering activities. The quandary of whether to contribute or not is thrown out of their minds after watching the deadly waves obliterate the fishermen families. It is hortatory to see so many young volunteers pouring their efforts to help the affected people recuperate from the tragedy. This makes me feel India is impregnable by any means. The blarney of unctuous politicians is nugatory to them. It doesn't make any difference to these imperturbable youngsters. Cataclysm is not under our control. India is vulnerable to earth quakes. But in case of such exigency, the huge nation is not obdurate to be insular. The positive effect of helping the affected people is pervasive...

I had always been a Rahman fan and never listened to Illayaraja's songs from my childhood. Melodies are always my favorites and I can listen to Rahman's melodies for hours together. In the past one year, I caught hold of a few good Illayaraja numbers and listen to them while working. Bang!!! A change has happened in my music taste buds. How can a person who adore melodies miss this maestro's songs? This was the question that came to my mind when I started liking Raja's songs. Better late than never, I consoled myself. From all possible sources, I got a good collection of the genius works and am listening to them at this very moment. Just like how Rahman and Maniratnam combo works these days, Illayaraja and Maniratnam combination should have worked really well in the 90's. Be it the super star's Thalapathi or world star's Nayagan. Although both these movies are action-packed, the songs are mellifluous. "Sundari Kannal", "Yamunai Attrile", ...

This topic has been in my mind for a long time. We come across this word "peer" in every stage of our lives - right from school to college to workplace. A student who has just completed his 10th std wants to take up commerce, not because his parents are insisting, not because he is interested in the subject BUT his friend has taken up commerce. During my engineering days, most of my colleagues were digesting Barron's word list one after the other and giving GRE exams. Not because everyone's ambition is to do an MS, but they didn't want to stand behind their friends after college. These days, competition and peer influence has gone so high that people hardly find time to identify their interests or talents. Even if a few of them have identified their talents, they don't really take it forward. A first year engineering student is good at poetry. In the second year, he has to go to different computer classes because many of his colleagues / friends have joine...

Lots of thoughts flashing bright and hard in my mind today. Most of them are questions. What is the purpose of my life? What am I doing here? Is happiness defined as success at work, success in career, success in personal lives? Why am I thinking always about only me, myself, my family, my life?. Am I such a narrow minded person? Have I ever thought about the lady asking for alms with a child in her arms? Dropping a one rupee coin doesn't change her life. But I think I have done my duty. I talk a lot about India and I cannot tolerate if an NRI calls my country as a garbage. I don't drop a piece of paper in the streets. I try my best atleast from my side to keep my country clean. I pay my taxes regularly. Is this enough? Am I contributing to my citizens, to my society? A big NO thunders at my heart. I'm not going to blame my parents or the way I've been brought up. It's upto me to decide MY life. I'm thankful to God for giving a sound body with no disabilities...

By the very topic, you might have understood that I love sleeping. I don't prefer watching movies all night or finishing a thriller novel by 4 am. Many of the people whom I know do that. I go to bed around 10.30-11 and fall asleep soon. Sleeping in the afternoons during weekends for a couple of hours is such a nice experience. It tends to relax me a lot. I'm not sure if it is a fact or my mental block. I always think that for a human body to function properly, it needs 7-8 hours of sleep. People argue that one-third of a day is spent in sleep. But if you want the remaining two-thirds to be fruitful, it is essential that you spent that one-third in sleep. People who tend to sleep for just 4-5 hours feel stupored and are sluggish. To keep themselves awake, they gulp gallons of caffeine and disturb their digestive system. Everybody thinks that the number of hours you put in either at your workplace or for your exams is more important. I don't agree. If you are productive fo...