20 Things i found while cleaning my room !

Well, by now its common knowledge that I completed my MS thesis defense a week ago. My room was looking like it'd just been the scene of a cat fight between Katrina and Bipasha (over me i guess.. :P)....It was littered with things that ranged from old torn clothes to wrappers of snickers bars.. Once my defense was over, it was like an imaginary veil had been lifted from my eyes. A few online conversations and a few lectures on cleanliness later, I got down to Project CleanUP: A five day event that would ensure that my room would become livable again, but as things progressed i realized that cleaning my room was like taking part in an archeological dig.

Long lost items of historic and intrinsic value began to re-appear and each of them filled me with the feeling most people call "nostalgia"... what better to do with all these pent up memories than turn them into a nice new post.. So here is a list of 20 things i found while sprucing up my room. Its strange how each of these seemingly banal items represent the many facets of my two years as a masters student here... I thank all those responsible for making my degree here a fun filled riot !


Note: There may be those among you who arent represented in this list. I am still cleaning my room (!) and i am sure i will run into something that signifies you !!

Pragnya's Note: This was from a time when Jesal and Avinash used to ferry me to Meijer every other week. Pragnya once wrote me a note that said "For Raghav's eyes only". It was a shopping list that was filled with 'healthy' foods. Peaches, Oranges and Apples. It was topped off with a command that all these items not total over 10 dollars. (god knows how i managed to do that...)

Jesal's Picture: If there's one person who has been a part of every day of my masters even though he isnt here in EL. Its Jesal....He once sent us a package that had a handmade frame for each of us that contained a picture of the four of us together (Jesal, me, sam and anchita). This is something special. Its been moved from its original location below a pile of papers to my study table.

Madhumitha's Card: A memoir from my first birthday. A card that madhumitha had sent me from india. Full of lovely words. This is one thing that made me feel loved, pampered and cared for.

Varun's Book: I dont think anyone could have substituted for the role that varun played in the first year of my masters. This book called "Building, Environment and Energy" was something i stole from somewhere for him. Looks like he finished reading it before he left.

Boarding Pass from my first India Trip: Nothing else brings back the excitement of my first trip to India . An Air India boarding pass.. a ticket to home...to mom's food, pooji and appa.

A rose Anchita and Durga's bouquet of flowers: Anchita and Durga Akka... Friends forever...I found a dried rose from a boquet they gifted me during commencement this year. This was perhaps the most recent of the items mentioned here

The Bill for my PSP: Aaah.. my playstation portable.. the hours of fun and excitement its given me.. I still remember that snowy winter day when i defiantly went to the walmart in okemos ( i walked...)

Notes from my orientation: Orientation can be a pretty goofy time for all of us. I was trying to write down the names of all people i met and was giving them nicknames, so that i could remember them when i met them next. Some of these were pretty nasty. So i threw this one away

An accounts statement from my first india trip: Planning for an india trip takes more than the trip itself. This was a scribble pad page that me, sam, prachi and anchita had put together. For the record.. I did buy Pooji's camera and Madhumitha's ring. Most of the other items in this list were dropped.. as i found better ones.

A small bundle of Sacred Ash: This was something grandmom packed for me before i left india. A small bundle of Udhi that i used very little after i got here.

The recipt from my first visit to ELPL: I have spent some of my most memorable times here at EL with Abinand. Our first visit to the East Lansing Public Library was in the snow (Abinand was having another of his "i want to walk" days..)

Maps of Downtown Seattle and Downtown Chicago: Two years. Two Christmases. Two trips. Chicago: Year One, Seattle: Year Two. Anand Uncle and Family. Rajima and Family. I will forever be indebted to them for their love, affection and support.

The CD from my first Sargam: Me + Sam + Jesal + Pragnya + Prachi + Nikita + Stage = MAYHEM !

A harmonica that Hema gave me in India: This item represented all the nice things that people in india have done for me over the years.

My first Rotomac Glasse pen: The first pen i wrote with when i arrived in America. High sentiment value... I probably wrote my first masters level exam with it as well.

Notes from my first career fair: A representation of things not meant to be...This had a long list of companies i had applied for. Some clicked.. some didnt. All for the best, i guess. :)

A Batman Mask: My first birthday here. The day i turned 21 was another hell raiser of an evening. this was a gift from all my friends on that day. I wore it for a while.. but batman looked kinda dumb with a beard as thick as mine

A winnie the pooh stuffed toy: I still remember the road trip me, sam, kirit and pragnya took to Jackson. This stuffed toy was from a garage sale on the way to that place. Kirit, Sridhar and Venkat...the holy trinity.. :P

The Package from my first IFT: Sometimes winning is everything ! A large collection of papers and package design sketches from the IFT contest that we won. Thanks to all who made this win possible! Shantanu, Megan, Aileen, Eric, Ashley and Nikki.

A PGA Flyer: The PGA and the rest of the packaging fraternity were awesome all the way. I still remember working with kaushik and turk to get this one set up. I should say it was a
little crude.. but from what i heard.. It worked nicely :)

So... that was it !.. more items coming soon. Comment away people !

Read the original post at http:a-graduate-life.blogspot.com

MJ Tribute

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Hey MJ, Do you remember the time, We were barely out of our ABC's and 123

Life was like a Thriller, Every man was trying to be the Smooth Criminal. Every Woman was trying to be Dirty Diana. You rocked our world, and made us feel Invincible.

Oh The way you made us feel,
Come what may, you taught us to walk the moon and Beat It !

But soon, the Earth broke into Song,
And you found yourself in a Dangerous predicament.

But all through your ordeal... You were not alone,
We know that all you tried to do was Heal the World

We knew that Bad was something you only were in your videos !

Now you're History and we Cry for you, Only your Blood remains on the dance floor.

We are the world and we miss you, love you and remember you for all that you gave us.
Alas ! The King of Pop is no more...

(Loosely inspired by a FaceBook Status message by Pratap Shankar)

Hooray for Prabhu !

I just saw Surya's Ayan a couple of days back and noticed something....something i just haaaad to blog about !

Assuming you're from Tamil Nadu and you grew up in the 90's, Prabhu's Chinna Thambi is one of those movies you Prabhubly (!) saw multiple times. I still remember the boys in my locality fighting over who had seen that movie the most (and I'm sure some of the claims touched 6 figures)...

Jokes apart, Prabhu Ganesan, the son the legendary Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan is a household name in South India, thanks to a career that has spanned over 30 years, with him playing the male lead in innumerable blockbusters. Some of his most unforgettable performances were in the the early 90's... as the disturbed ex-con in Mani Ratnam's 'Anjali'... as the village simpleton in 'Chinna Thambi'...as the Prince in search of his perfect bride in Pratap Pothan's 'My Dear Marthandan'... as the problematic prisoner in Priyadarshan's 'Sirai Chaalai' (released in Hindi as Kaala Paani)..

In the early later 90's and early 2000's Prabhu's career seemed to take a downturn.. I mean.. he was getting older... and he seemed to be putting on a lot of weight. There were a string of flops and a few very unmention-worthy movies...Budget Padhmanabhan, Middle Class Madhavan, Banda Paramasivam...etc etc..These movies were crass, funny and entertaining, yes... but not the kind of movies you would expect someone of Prabhu's calibre to take up.

The upturn however came with the hilarious Charlie Chaplain in 2002, for which Prabhu bagged a TN State Award.


In 2004, Prabhu shared the screen with Kamal Hassan in Vasool Raja MBBS, a remake of Raj Kumar Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS. His rendition of Vaddi (a character made famous by Arshad Warsi in the Hindi Original) left the audience in splits.

I believe it was with this movie that Prabhu began to appear in a string of supporting roles..small, but powerful, dignified and effortlessly rendered. His role as SenthilNathan in Rajnikanth's Chandramukhi featured Prabhu in the now immortal "enna koduma saravanan idhu (Eng: What kind of torment is this?)" sequence. This sequence has been the subject of several Tamil Internet Memes and Jokes. Here's one such specimen (featuring Vijayakanth!!!)



Several of his recent movies have done reaaaaaaly well ... 'Something Something Unakkum Enakkum' where Prabhu plays the brother of the heroine (Trisha Krishnan), Billa, Silambattam (2009) and more recently, Ayan.

Coming to think of it. All the most eagerly awaited movies of this year and the next have Prabhu in supporting roles ... Vikram's Kandhasamy, Ajith's Asal and Mani Ratnam's Ashokavanam....

Now isnt that something to keep you ticking !!!

Paadhai - An Album worth a bookmark

Its a sleepy afternoon at DECS and I'm tapping away at my dusty keyboard, littered with everything from split coffee beans to scraps from my last "in cubicle" lunch. My facebook wall is as always, a flood of things

....people taking "how well do you know XYZ" quizzes... amusing status messages about haircuts.. ogly(adjective form of ogle.. i guess..) comments on photographs.. etc etc...

And suddenly there's a blast from the past. Shammeer (yes...two m's and two e's), a figure from my old life at Anna University posts a link and says there's a new album out for us to listen to. For the record, i did know that shammeer and a couple of his buddies were going down the musical highway, dabbling with instruments, lyrics and vocals.

What followed was something like this.. I snapped on my shiny headphones (probably shiny from all the coca cola i spilt on them over the weekend) and clicked the link... and there it was.. a cool graphic that said the one thing most websites like to say and most web users dont like to hear.

__________LOADING___________

Thank god for tabs in firefox. I was far away on gmail land when a tune began to play. Instinctively, my mouse cursor flew to the red X on the top right corner of my browser (..lame..).. but before my index finger could lay a curse on this entire collection of tabs.. the tune began to progress into something else.... something .... (I spent a long time thinking this line out...)...something special.. A kind of tune that makes u drop everything u're doing and reach for your phone.. to call the one u love (corny.. i know...but thats what i did)...





Presenting , Paadhai - Payanam, an independant, amatuer music album composed, written, recorded and arranged by a set of my friends. Here is my take on the album that comprises 10 full length tracks.

The first thing that caught my eye was the site itself. Being an amatuer web developer, I knew instantly that i was dealing with someone of wealth and taste (thanks mario)....Each of the ten dual named tracks (English/Tamil) tied in with an image that attempted to dilineate the mood and theme of the song itself. This, i thought was a brilliant idea!

Coming to the music.. I would describe the songs as minimalistic at best, but at the same time pleasing to the ears and with meaningful lyrics. The band manages to stick to the same soulful, soft rocksy feel throughout but manages to add in some smart jazz, RnB and Trance undertones. On the whole, a commendable attempt..one that should surely lead to more songs and more opportunities.

My personal favorites include the following songs.

1. Sattenna Thirumbi / Introspection

2. Kanneer Thevai Illai / Move On

3. Oraayiram Naatkal / Another Try

I urge you all to visit www.paadhai.in and listen to the songs !!

A decade of musical frustration - A set of comments on my previous post by The Aviator a.k.a. Guru

It sure looks like i've chosen an awesome topic for my first post. there were several interesting comments on Imann, his music and the state of tamil music in general. Some of the discussions that ensued were thought provoking..

One of the comments that I received from Guru a.k.a. Aviator was an email that filled up my entire Mac wide screen monitor ! I decided that this was too long to leave as a comment and decided to upload it as a new post. Here is the entire e-mail, unedited and uncensored for questionable (!) content

Aviator a.k.a. Guru Says

I don think 90 % ppl remember any other song frm the movie subramaniyapuram other than kangal irandal... " .... Agreed. Its a good raga. But james vasanth had the idea of actually selecting that raaga and making it into a beautiful song. This makes me think wats taking imman so long to surprise me with something like that after thamizhan or whistle. he sould be able to find atleast a handful of good ragas .... which he could make instant hits.

"even rajnikant's fans care about the music of superstars movie" .... some of the biggest music has been in Rajini's movie (muthu,padayappa, annamalai,baasha,billa,sivaji etc ...) .... People actually assume that the movie/ music is gonna be big ..... there r huge expectations ..... so please dont even compare the recent vijay's so called mass movies with rajini's ... Vijay lacks the flair now ....vijays movies used to have good songs in the past ...

"come on wat happened to pasanga? dats wat happens to one song wonder " --- Yes u r rite. one song wonders are unpredictable. The time gap between tamizhan and whistle is atleast 3 years. wat was imman doing between that? I bet he too was a one movie wonder till whistle. may be couple of more good songs in the middle. thats it. Correct me if i am wrong. So its too early to say a 2 movie old music composer James as one song wonder. So wat if pasanga was bad. James still has time to prove himself. Imman had 8 years and still ppl have be considerable to him giving him one chance after another. So lets give this guy James atleast a couple more years we jump into conclusions. But if james vasanth continues to be unpredictable like this .... one day we will be talking abt james vasanth is an under rated music composer .... if u want an audience u have to be consistent in the quality of music which I think imman lacks now.

"whistle, tamizhan , giri... had gud RR and wholesome music" ... almost 8 years in the industry and we r talking about 3 movies. may be u missed few more .... but still it is less.... harris jayaraj started out with imman in 2001 (more or less) .... even excluding the songs that he copied (as u said its a long list) ... that guy has more original/ good songs to his credit than imman with some great BGM (even excluding the ones he copied).

If DSP composes a good song will we compliment the director for doing a good job ??? So why blame the directors for it was his fault continue working with them. Say he had a great song and sundar C refused to use it in any of his movies. Imman should have atleast come up with a hit after sundar C started acting. i just need 8 great songs from him for the 8 years that he has been in the industry. That would make me keep him on the top of the list. But he just accepts some usual masala movies and composes an average number. Its his fault accepting so many average movies. If he just wants to stick around and is not interested in actually doing something out of the ordinary we r going to have this conversation for a long time. To put it simple he is not enuf self motivated to be different. He needs to come out of this mode.

"and w ref to dasavatharam- dsp dint compose the songs, and the masses who are goin to decide whos the best composer are not goin to bother about the re-recording...for him to strike gold- of course fletcher's and agraharam scenes had good bgms, " ------ anniyan had better bgms than dasavatharam.... The bgm of dasa was nothing special. thats the minimum RR that a big movie like that needs. our honourable DSP gave the bare minimum according to me. Also DSP needs a reality check between tamil and telegu movies. they r so different in music .... if he wants a tamil state award for a song (which he says is his dream) ... just compose comething new for tamil audience.... not the recycled ones from telegu movies.

"who can forget the super copy - maddy maddy in the very first film ;) and june ponal , and karu karu and.... oh my god the list goes on for harris jeyaraj :)---- Yeah. the list goes on ...... but harris will always be in a different league than imman ......... here is why ...

first we need to ask the qtion did Minnale album was a hit only bcoz of maddy maddy ??? ...... the guy whoc copied maddy maddy also gave vaseegara, poopol and azhagiya theeye .... in the same movie .... even if he copies couple of songs in a album ... the guy give 2 other good original songs ... thats wat i like abt him though i feel bad when he copies ... and everyone copies....Right from Raja to gv prakash. Even hans zimmer recycles his tune ......

Finally (as u said) all that matters to the masses is that whether it is good or not. When u are inspired by a good song and dont deliver thats wat frustates ppl. Its ok to do it to please the masses. After all its entertainment. Only ppl like me, u and raghav are actually concerned if its copied or not (bcoz we need something to talk abt :) :) ) ... If its for awards ... its a whole different thing. i would be pissed off if someone gets an award for a song which is already composed by some other guy.

I feel that the discussion has been going in the direction that he is not at all responsible for the state he is in now. We have been blaming others (like production, director etc) for him being under rated. Everyone has a downside in their career (even rahman ... vandisolai chinnarasu, pudhiya mannargal, parasuram, mona lisa). But wat imman has to do is that accept that he has lost some of his charm since tamizhan and whistle and convince us that he is on par with others. If he still thinks others screwed his musical career like u said .... he is going nowhere.

Will imman sustain in this industry. Yes.

Will imman take over other leading music directors in the near future. Yes provided he works hard on a fewer movies. Is he at par with other music directors like yuvan/ vidhya sagar. Not yet

@ Varun: ullathai killathey is one of my fav song. Imman just lost his charm with his frequent mass numbers. I would be more than happy to take all my comments back if he gives me another gr8 number. till then I think i will just wait.

@ Imman: Take up movies which actually has some story and scope for good song/ BGM. Please avoid taking mass hero movies. Sundar C is on acting spree, so make use of the time before he gets back to haunt you.

Some info: O Saya is not a one of a kind song" ..... 50% of that song is already there in an old english album .... and Jai ho at one point sounds like " Pokiri Pokiri Pokiri Pokiri Pokiriraja Raja ... Podhume Podhume Podhume Podhume Podhume Thaja" and couple of other hindi songs .... I am still wondering why it was nominated for Oscar ??? Also One of the bgm in Slum dog millionaire is already there in Alagiya Tamil magan opening credits. ARR has done more original stuff with an international feel to it which is recogniseed only by the tamil faternity. any hindi only speaking person should see his tamil scores to fully appreciate him. looks like we have cover every music director inclusing imman. Its been like a confession after several years of frustration. Thanks Raghav. I wil sleep in peace today. "

Raghav Says:

Well, Guru.. thanks for mailing in. That was certainly a cross between a rant and a long string of opinions. I respect some while utterly rejecting the others. I, personally believe (!) that tamil cinema has no dearth of talented composers and everyone, right from MSV to GVP has their own unique place in the industry. Each of them have given us memorable songs that we still listen to everyday. Kudos to all of them for making life a lot happier for all of us.

As a music lover and a student of music, I say this, "There are no good composers and bad composers.. but there're songs that i like and songs that i dont."

That is all. My first post was never to judge whether imann was a good composer or not. we all know that he is a very gifted individual and a talented muscian. It was purely to stimulate discussion and nothing else.

and for the record, I think Oru Vetkam Varudhe from Pasanga is one in a million !

And ppl ..., Comment away at this one. I think there'll be a lot of interesting responses

A new Blog and a discussion about Imann

All Right. I know i've been here before. And i have no doubt that i will be here again..I announce proudly to the rest of the world that i'm starting a blog and i have a couple of good posts in quick succession, but then i get caught up in the machinations of graduate life and forget all about this.

So here I am again with another blog. No specific title, no specific target audience..as the name suggests.. just my two cents on everything from Comics to Crap !

To kick things off i thought i'd reproduce a few bits from a recent facebook discussion we had about D.Imann, a popular music composer for tamil films. I was listening to the new soundtrack of selvaraghavan's Aayirathil Oruvan and i remembered that Imann had attempted a remix of the classic "Adho andha paravai pola" from the original Blockbuster Ayirathil Oruvan which had MGR in the lead. A couple of G-Searches later i was listening to Imann's remix of this song from the 'Action King' Arjun starrer, 'Madarasi'. For the record, the song was pretty good. Had some nice musical arrangements and a couple of neatly sung verses by Imann himself.



This was my opening statement that kicked things off on Facebook: Raghav Prashant Sundar wonders why D.Imman hasn't risen up the ranks of Tamil Music even though he's almost on par with some of the other well known composers in terms of talent. ....anyone?

Here were some interesting responses and my comments on them:

Varun, one of my facebook friends pointed out that Imann hasnt composed for one single so called big-banner production. Coming to think of it.. yes..i went through his filmography and most of his movies have been small-medium budget films.

Shammeer, one of my friends from my alma mater, Anna University echoed the same sentiment, quoting from his comment, "He is cool. He knows more as well. thing is he didnt get good directors, sundar C ruined him :) when he could make good ones for no story, he is capable of making great ones given mani rathnam or any new cool directors. he didnt get one so [f]ar. all masala music.!"

A couple of others said the same thing.. the whole sundar c - arjun - imann combination has been around for quite a while now and the movies were nothing to write home about. Interestingly some of imann's better songs have always been in movies which didnt have arjun in the lead (thiruvilayadal aarambam, thamizhan etc..)

Also, preethy (also from Anna University) was quick to point out that imann's music was either folksy or funky..and didnt have a mix of genres.. Again... in movies where arjun and sundar c werent around imann doesnt seem to have a problem dabbling with different genres.

That said, there was a little bit of talk about Imann's singing. While some said that imann was better off leaving the crooning to others... varun said that he would rate imann's singing better than the oscar winning A.R.Rahman (not sure what to say to that one...)... but i did ask shammmeer what he thought of imann in comparison to yuvan shankar raja, who is also known to croon for several of his songs..albeit in his own non-musical style.

Shammeer, always a die hard fan of yuvan refused to even consider a comparison ! :)

Well, that said.. i sincerely hope that imann finds his way in the industry and lands himself some big projects !!!

Also, if you think we should have some other discussions on topics of interest.. leave me a comment !