My Tryst with the Ladle !!!

It was a bright Sunday morning. Having got up a bit earlier than usual, I was wondering how I was going to spend the rest of the day. I had hoped for a fantastic final day's play of the Perth test match, but unfortunately the match had got over on the penultimate day itself. I was really racking my brains as to how I was going to kill time. My mom showed up at that instant and told me something that really took me by surprise. Here goes the exact conversation.

B - Bharathram ; M - mom

M : ( Entering the room ) enna da, enna pannitrukkey ?

B : ( Sitting in front of the comp ) Onnum illa ma, summa than irukken

M : Seri , appo onnu pannu !!!

B : Enna, kadaiku ponumaa . . . athellam poga mudiyathu po ma

M : Athu illa da, inniku nee than samaikaanum !!!

B : ( Flabbergasted ) Ennathu , samaikkanuma ???

M : Aamaa da, nee than inniku samaikkanum.

( Music Blaring )

B : Yen, yenaachu unakku ? Udambu yedhavadhu sariyillaya ?

M : Muthala volume a kora da !!!

( Noise reduces )

B : Aam, ippo sollu . . .

M : Adhellam onnum illa . yenakku konjam vela irukku . So nee than panrey inniku . . .

B : But ma . . .

M : No further arguments. Poi kulichitu vandhu samaikka aarambi

B : Aiyo , sunday adhuvuma yen ma ipdi padutharey :-(

Hesitantly, I headed for the kitchen after a bath. I told my mom that my previous experience was a very bad one. This couldn't convince my mom & she told me don't worry things will turn out well this time. Being a Sunday afternoon, I wanted to have something special for lunch. But all I knew was just rasam & potato curry. Just as I was about to begin, my mom told me that instead of having rice for lunch, she suggested that I make roti & Dhal Makhani. I couldn't stop laughing at her suggestion & told her " Maa, naa rasame thataka buthaka nu than veppen . . . Yenna poi roti ellam panna solriye maa . . . " She then told me the entire procedure of making the dishes.

I first cooked the Dhal in the same manner as how rice is cooked. Then came the part of preparing the gravy. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger . . . my head was just spinning !!! One single dish - so many ingredients. Three- fourth of an hour is all that it took me & hot Dhal Maakhani was ready. Next was probably the most difficult part - preparing the rotis. Preparing the dough was relatively easy but rolling them was very difficult. Requires lot of practice, if you want them to be circular in shape. Well, mine was neither a circle nor a square. I would term it amorphous, but definitely palpable . . .

Phew !!! Preparing one simple dish had completely drained my energy. After munching down my lunch, I sat back & realized how our mothers toil hard in the kitchen day in and day out. And all, that we ve been doin is to eat nicely & chide her if the dish doesn't live up to our expectations . Spare a thought yaar !!! Atleast one day in a week, if we all take our mother's place in the kitchen - not only would it be relief for them, but would also enable us to learn cooking which would prove immensely useful to us in the future. Long live our mothers !!!

The Sydney Test ~ A mixed Bag !!!

Five gruelling days of cricket and it would ve been a shame if the match ended in a tame draw. Australia emerged victorious in the end barely minutes before stumps were to be called, therby winning their 16 th consecutive test match - an astonisihng feat indeed !!! . India had clung in there for nearly 71 overs before the man with the "golden touch" Michael Clarke wrapped things up for the Aussies. The match had seen everything ~ some wonderful cricket, horrendous umpiring decisions and other controversies as well . . . Phew ! what more can we get from a test match ???

So a quick recap of events in the match starting with RP Singh's exploits with the ball reducing the Aussie score to 134/6. Enter Brad Hogg & Andrew Symonds, reviving them with a partnership of 173 runs. Aus finally ending with 463. India in relpy had VVS Laxman & Sachin Tendulkar carving out wonderful hundreds along with Sourav's useful 50 & some dogged and determined batting by the Indian tail. India surprisingly had taken a 69 run lead by the end of day 3 much to the surprise of everyone especially after the mauling they had taken at Melbourne.

In the second essay, Aus had Matthew Hayden & Mike Hussey slaming hundreds taking the Aus scoreline to 401-7 dec . Aus had given themselves a maximum of 72 overs to bowl at the Indians setting them a target of 333. With just 2 overs left for lunch, India came out to bat & had a horror start losing Wasim Jaffer in the very first over. The Indians tried hard but it was all over in the penultimate over of the day when Clarke had Ishant Sharma nicking one to the slips. Now, all these sequences gives the impression that the match was incident-free isn't it ? But, there were a lot too many of them in the course of the test match which might not go down well particularly with the Indian supporters.

Now many might complain the fact that both Ponting & Symonds had stood their ground instead of walking when replays had suggested that there was contact off the bat. Now the law does not state that a batsman must walk if he is out. Then what are the umpires for ??? I would blame this situation on technology. What technology has done is that, we are now able to scrutinize each and every ball from various frames and ultra-slow motion replays. Whereas the umpires out there have to take a decision within a second or two. Its easy to blast the umpires when we comfortably rest our behind, sitting on the couch and arrive at a decision after watching several replays. One might argue saying why not go for the 3 rd umpire's decision ? Sure, one can do that but it must not lead to a situation where every catch and LBW decision is referred to the 3 rd umpire, then you dont need the on-field umpires at all. Yes, they have made some glaringly bad mistakes in this game. Bucknor is way past his prime & probably needs to be spending some quality time with his grandchildren instead of commiting such blunders out there. Mark Benson seems to have lost everything : he's looking completely out of sorts and probably needs a break from the game.

There were instances when the 3 rd umpire should ve been consulted ; particularly when Symonds was stumped on 148 and the Michael Clarke catch to dismiss Sourav Ganguly. But the 3 rd umpire himself wasn't good either. He should ve given Symonds out stumped when on 48 but instead gave him the benefit of doubt !!! And with regard to the catches, its every players right to appeal for a catch. And I don't have any problems with Clarke appealing for the catch, but what went wrong was that Benson should ve gone to the third umpire instead of going by what Clarke & Ponting had said. They did seem quite confident but again TV replays showed otherwise. In my opinion, Simon Taufel, the best umpire in the world at the moment, should ve stood in this series. But since he happens to be an Aussie, & as the ICC follows a neutral umpire policy, he wasn't considered. If i say bring in Simon, there would be some opposition stating that he'd be biased and favour Australia. As Darwin said, its a survival of the fittest & Simon being the best should ve stood here. The ICC should also reconsider the umpires in the elite panel. Now it really is tough to beat Australia in their own backyard and when the rub of the green does not go your way, it makes matters even more worse. Commiserations to the Indian team but they had come up with a spirited display than what they had shown in Melbourne. Another incident that took the sheen off this test match was the alleged racist row between Harbhajan Singh & Andrew Symonds. I do not wish to comment on that as there are different versions of the story that I ve been hearing. Whatever it may be, there should be a zero-tolerance policy not only in cricket, but in every other sport as well.

The media plays a huge role in sport, no doubt about that. Indian media I feel survives mainly on two words - Glorification & Vilification. Had India won this test match, the media would have simply adored the cricketers stating that they ve beaten the lions in their own den etc. But now that they have lost, the media is using very strong words like cheated. The news channel might just be running a half-hour show to analyze the game but they run these clippings of shocking umpiring decisions for almost 25 mins leaving the remaining 5 minutes for commercials. This repeated telecast just rubs salt into the wounds of the supporters and infuriates them further.

The Indians also need to be disappointed for their dismal display in the second innings. Apart from Rahul dravid & Sourav Ganguly who received bad decisions, the rest just came apart. Jaffer has looked utterly uncomfortable in Australia. Sachin misjudged the bounce and length & played on to one. Yuvraj Singh, claimed as the future of India's batting, lacked application. Yuvi might have scored tons at home where the ball barely comes above your knee. It's here in Australia that he should ve shown his skill, instead he's just busy romancing with Deepika Padukone. Dhoni looked scratchy and padded up to a one that was clearly coming in. Lapse of concentration doing him in. Anil Kumble was the only stodgy performer with the bat, apart from Sourav. The Indians need to rethink their composition for the next game at Perth. Probably bring in Sehwag for Yuvraj and let Dravid in the middle order. It's going to take a lot for the Indians to regroup and come back strong in the next game.

As a strong Aussie supporter, I feel glad that the match has been won by Australia. The Aussies would be going for the kill in Perth where things don't favour the Indians one bit. Its going to be one hostile experience awaiting the Indians at Perth. I'm very eager at the moment to see Australia beat India at Perth & secure a memorable 17 th win on the trot thereby eclipsing their previous record of 16 successive wins. It'd be an icing on the cake indeed since it was India who had stopped Australia's dream run back in 2001. And now to beat them & go past number 16 would be the ideal situation that Ricky Ponting could have ever hoped for !!! Good luck Aussies . . .

Billa Movie Review

BILLA – Probably the most hyped movie after Sivaji in recent times. So why all this hype about Billa – the reason’s pretty simple : It’s a remake of the 1980 Rajinikanth starrer. And as the box-office verdict goes, Billa has been declared a superhit.

It’s the stylish packaging – something new to Tamil Cinema – which is probably an important reason why this film goes down well with many. Starting from the credits added with some neat costumes with a stylish backdrop impresses you definitely. Billa surely is going to be a huge treat for all Thala fans. Ajith definitely means a lot in the movie when he says “ I am back .“

Kudos to director Vishnu Vardhan for his daring attempt to remake a Rajinikanth superhit and this move of his could well go on to become a trend-setter of sorts in Tamil Cinema. But Vishnu could have gone one step further by altering the storyline a bit. Instead Vishnu decides to play it safe with the same story, which probably is disappointing as it leads to a predictable sequence of events. The suspence part is missing in Billa, as it was in Don, one of the huge minuses of the movie. Comparisons are obvious in Indian Cinema and there defintely are going to be comparisons between Ajith’s Billa, Rajini’s Billa and even Shahrukh’s Don. To put it in a more simpler manner, Ajith’s Billa is the same old Rajini’s Billa but delivered in the same manner as Shahrukh’s Don.

Billa ( Ajith ), an international criminal is wanted by the police. DSP Jai Praksh played by Prabhu is in charge of the case and is determined to nab him. Ajith as Billa looks absolutely handsome, the wonderful costumes ( credit goes to Anu Vardhan ) add to the cause. But you get the feeling that he could have been made to look even more menacing considering the fact he’s playing a baddie. There’s hardly any dialogues for him, but Ajith delivers it through his style and looks. Rahman plays an important role in the movie as well. Namitha and Nayanthara have been casted to provide the ooomph and glamour. Nayanthara appears in Angelina Jolie style ( Tomb Raider ) and does look sensuous at times. Thankfully, there is not a single meaningless duet which would have drastically reduced the pace of the story.
There is one dialogue in the movie where Ajith says to Namitha ~ “I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust ”, which has been blatantly lifted from the movie “ The Italian Job .“ The dialogues between Velu ( played by Ajith again ) and Jai are quite humorous. One particular dialogue where Velu says “Ayya adhu aru thala, naan orey thala” has all his fans jump with ecstacy. Not to forget the sequences where Santhanam appears. It ‘s a pity that he has just a couple of scenes in this movie. But Santhanam does makes an impact in the movie.

Yuvan Shankar Raja impresses with his music and background score. Yuvan has come out 6 tracks including the theme music , which is the pick of the lot. The 2 remixes – My Name is Billa & Vethalaiya Pottendi are impressive but Yuvan could have made it less noisy by emphasizing more on the voices than on the instruments. Yuvan definitely gets a thumb up for this work after all.

Dance is probably the missing item in Ajith’s repertoire and it is clearly evident in his introduction number – Seval Kodi Parakuthda . The slightly pot-bellied Ajith disappoints in his dance movements considering the fantastic beats in that number. One more aspect which the director could have avoided is the fact that almost all of the characters sport sunglasses in the movie. I assume that the director has done so for retaining the style factor. Nirav Shah is the cinematographer of this movie and I must say that he has done some splendid work behind the camera. Nirav captures the exotic locations of Malaysia in a scintillating manner.

Billa is defintely going to be a milestone in Ajith’s career and could probably elevate him to the next level, if he does choose his scripts carefully from now on. A courageous attempt by the director and a complete entertainer for all the viewers is the final verdict.