Loonville

The grand old lady turns 369 today All you pseud b$*%&$ who claim Bglore/Delhi/Mumbai is way better can rot in hell. With all the prejudices associated with someone who has spent most of his life in the city, I really don’t give a damn about all the stats you can throw at me, Madras ( not Chennai) is the best. This, by a far far margin, is the most friendliest city to live in. So here comes a list of my favorite five (descending) from Madras.

Food  – Filter Kaapi, Idli, Vadai, Sambhar, Dosai

Places- Bessie, ECR, T Nagar, Kilpauk (:D), this huge temple in North Madras whose name I can’t remember.

Music – a plethora of Carnatic Musicians, Ilayaraja, MSV, AR Rahman, Panatella ( the kick-ass band from Madras)

Politicians – A tough one. Lemme try. Periyaar, Kamaraaj, Kakkan, hmm.. I cant think of any other person

Movies - Aval Appadi Thaan, Nayagan, Baasha (:D), Kannathil Muthamittaal, Guna/Satya.

Literature – I don’t know enough Tamil to hold a qualified opinion. There are numerous very rich texts in the Bhakthi tradition (Thanks mom). The Dravidan writings (the ones I have read) are also pretty impressive. I am not sure how many of them are from/about Madras. But there is one text that runs away with all the prizes. From our very own Mylapore, Thirukural.

Ogay, here is the biggie. My favorite Madrasi of all time. The list is a long long one with the likes of Thiruvalluvar, Mani Ratnam, Superstar, Vishy Anand, Periyaar, U.Shrinivas and EMM ESS Dhoni from Chennaayy. Contrary to popular opinion, i will choose the kakhi clad auto-rickshawallah over the rest. Before the missiles hit me, let me explain why. The rick-wallah is a lot like Madras itself. Extremely cool, mostly cereberal (read cunning), hard to decipher in the begining but you will learn to love them once you get to know them. If you do speak the language, you will know what I am talking about. If you don’t, god bless and good luck

Why I love Madras ? Simple. It is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get-city. You can go fastidiously to a temple and then discuss Karl Marx/ Neitzche in depth. You can wax elequoent Thoreau and Dosetovsky and then shout your head off at a ‘Thalaivar Padam’ or an raunchy item number. No pretenses, no bandha. Anything goes as long as you aren’t putting pseud. I don’t see why Madras can’t be more hep or more Bglore-ish. The point is we, Madrasis, chose not to What I hate about Madras – the people though really nice, are inherently self-contradictory. It is amusing though

Darn, I know I am going to miss the old lady come october   That is testimony enough to the best-esht city in the world.

I am in one of those doldrums. I have been doing a lot but mostly going through the motions. I feel miserable. Here are some random things over the last month that have no rhyme or reason that i intended to put up as separate posts but never did.

I have had at least seven strangers ( cousin of a friend of a friend types) call me up for funda on the CAT. Quite amusing considering the fact I never even cracked it. Add to that a dozen juniors and a couple of really close friends who insist on calling me everyday for gyan which I don’t have in the first place. All thanks to a **.** percentile on the last CAT. I think i am re-defining the limits of how much bullshit one can get away with. The funniest part was when a class 12 kid wanted to know “which branch to opt for to have a better chance at CAT?” Good luck people. Do let me live in your basement when you have all those palatial homes.

I think Spica’s jinx has passed over to me. One fine day, I happened to foul mouth the Indian Olympic contingent, Abhinav Bindra took the gold. yesterday I tell Vaish that there isn’t a chance in hell that we win an another medal, Sushil Kumar picks a bronze and Vijender Kumar guarantees himself at least a bronze. If the boxer goes one better tomorrow, I am officially jinxed.

Talking of Bindra, incase you are as jobless as me or a psychologist researching insanity, do take a look at Abhinav’s blog and read the comments there. You’ll throw up, trust me.

I also happened to have finally taken a monkey off my back. Over the last eight months, I have been averaging around three books a month. One way or the other, I hit a hurdle at the last fifty pages. The list includes classics, pennybloods, poetry and non-fiction. Genre doesn’t seem to be the stumbling block. Last week, I finally managed to finish one that i started in december last year. I am getting through that half-read list by the end of the month.

I have been watching a few really yucky movies. I missed the Landmark Quiz this time. So no “If-only-I-had-one-more-question-right” ‘vetti bandha’ this year.

Thanks to Ajoy, a colleague from my India Today/BBC days, I got to be at Zara’s Tapas Bar. A class apart from the other watering holes I have been to. The food isn’t bad either. Music is huh kind though. It is a crime that I have lived in Madras for so long and I haven’t been to this place before. It is right opposite Chola Sheraton in case somebody is interested. The place warrants a detailed review.Later.

I have mastered the art of dosa making. Just remind me to add salt before I get started.

When you go out of your way to do someone a favor, they take it and then hate you for it. I never learn.

A friend is going through a bit of a crisis. Good luck macha. You will kick arse real soon dude.

Somebody came off real strong on me. Quite overwhelming (scary ? ) I must say. However things are normal now and she thinks I am gay. So much for my conquests.

I have this real crazy plan. Bhutan – early September if Abhi doesn’t buy that iPhone. I might even do a solo if he can’t fit in.

I am scared I’m getting stuck. The quicksand effect.

Sony Pix. It was late 2003, 2004-ish when I had my first glimpse of Heath Ledger. A Knight’s Tale. A forgettable movie and an equally forgettable performance. Everything about Heath suggested we had one more Tom Cruise/ Dicaprio in the making. A pretty boy. A year later, Brokeback Mountain happened. Heath was great but it was Ang Lee who stole the show.

And then came The Joker, sorry, The Dark Knight. Heath was amazing. A really uber cool take on Joker. Let us get one thing clear at the start. The Dark Knight is a neat film. In the top five percentile maybe but the very best? Let me tell you what is wrong with the movie and why it shouldn’t be at the top on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and I am not even going into how pathetic the rest of the cast was (Aaron Eckhart not included)

Nolan gave us one good movie. The Memento. Prestige and the Batman Series have been mediocre compared to his earlier promise. While Heath has an amazing screen presence, it was quite sad to see everything about his act being so contrived. Also, to nit pick a few flaws with his portrayl of Joker, you find no consistency in the body language. The tongue slithering could have been done away with. A friend tells me Joker is a psychopath, a mad man, so don’t expect consistency any place. Sadly that argument doesn’t stand and I’ll tell you why when I get to the flawed characterization part.  The first half-hour, I love the Joker, then it is only brilliance in flashes. While I can’t think of anybody else who could have done a better job at it (Adrien Brody ?), it still falls a step short of excellence.

Now, where did Nolan go wrong ? He got Batman where he wanted. It was brilliant. Dark and confused. Again Bollywoody at the end but hey it is a super-hero flick. The Joker is an another story. To have come so close and to have missed it is terrible and obscenely gawky.

Heard at Satyam – “Semma comedy da antha clown”

The Joker essentially is not a funny guy. He merely finds a lot of things amusing. He is most certainly not a mad-man. His purpose is not revealed to mere mortals like us. Period. This is where Nolan goes horribly wrong. There is a deliberate attempt to make Heath funny at places, though subtle. His goofiness and whackiness needs to inspire fear, not laughter. His jokes are bad, remember ? And Morgan Freeman is a joke, a rotten one. Caine couldn’t have done much either.

Razor sharp dialogues, a neat plot, reasonably good stunts, amazing Heath Ledger and the suprise package, Aaron Eckhart, who is mind blowing as Harvey Dent/ Two-Face are the highlights. A great super-hero film. A 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 9.3 on IMDb – definitely not. I guess the tragic Heath Ledger factor has a lot to do with that. Nolan effectively screwed up. It is still better than any other superhero movie I can remember.

Heath Ledger died a super villain than live long enough to see himself become a faltering hero-figure.

P.S. The Riddler is my favorite Bat-villian.