words of wisdom

I previously wrote a post on how believing in your self and your destination truly and 100% makes that belief or dream happen. But for some reason or the other I felt that in our culture you are never taught about or given this spirit during our child hood or any phase of our life by our parents or teachers or even religion ( I am only talking about Hinduism). I’m sure some parents have done this but mine didn’t I should say or thats what I remember. Most of the parents in our culture spend so much energy preaching us study study study and life is all about going to university getting married having kids but they fail to preach about self acceptance and belief and anything can be achieved in life by simply believing in you and your destination and when you have the true passion for it.

This aspect of our culture and religion really bugged me. Bugged me so much that I was keept on thinking why is it this way in our life? You open a Religious text book and all you find is a bunch of people who opened doors by singing Thevarams and curing illnesses by simply applying Veebuthi. And before the religious examination all we do is cram a bunch of Thevarams and just know which Star the Nayanmar was born in, while we don’t even know our star or don’t know why the hell we have to learn these but simply for getting good marks. The worst part is we make fun of India for not teaching religion in their schools while we simply teach the Hindu version of Harry Potter in our classes and feel entirely proud by knowing a bunch of Thevarams and have no clue what the true meaning of our religion is and complain about how so many people are converting to Christianity and have no respect to their born religion what so ever. Stupid isn’t it? Well thats what I think.

Utter stupidity that we have everything in our religion and culture but have no clue how to execute it or simply not bothered but have so much fun complaining. I’m really disappointed the way a Hindu Temple currently functions where all the Iyer does is memorize a bunch of Sanskrit god knows what they mean and just pour milk and honey and just send us back with smiles and some coconuts and bananas. Well the package increases with more money you give.

But what I found out is a lot of things you do in the Temple is all about making your belief stronger and bringing the courage within you that things you wish for can happen. And that you are not only alone in this journey but asking the god you believe in for assistance. No clue how that works?

Think about it. All the archanais we do. The Ghee lamps we light. The nethikadans we do. The vows we make. And all the other minor kiriyas we do. Its all about making your self believe that god is with you just keep on believing. When we do a archanai what do we do? we tell our name and star and what do we hope from that? That we shall live well in our life. What do we do when we say we’ll crack 100 coconuts if this event takes place or my sickness gets cured? Why do we go light ghee lamps hoping god will hear our prayers? God is all around us? why do we have to go to the Temple and do it? Well its about making your mind focused into your destination and just tell your self be strong i’m doing this kiriya hoping that one day it will come true because lighting this lamp calls the god to be with me. And think about Yoga and meditation. What is its main principle? what does it want you to gain from it? It helps you to be focused so that your destination can be well traveled. I was listening to this interview where they were talking about the real meaning of conducting a Yaagam. A Yaagam is usually done when you want certain things happening and you ask a priest to conduct it for you where he builds up a flame in the temple and puts in certain things in it while saying some mantras. But what is it all about? When you do the Yaagam your mind and body is totally focussed on your destination therefore its making your body tune it self to reach the destination. And each Yaagam has its own set of things that goes in the fire and what do they do? Well the smoke that comes from burning certain things help stimulate certain places in your body which in return gives you this energy to work for what you want.

So common. We have all these aspects but why or why do we fail to realize, preach or understand it and make good use of our religion than worrying which star certain saint was born and what raagam a Thevaram was sung in. We need a change. Our religious books are just garbage. Our preaching about life is wrong. Life should be about dreaming, dreaming big, believing , believing in your destination and achieving in it rather than a set of rules that you follow generations to generations and have life be conducted by someone else rather than your self. Religion in about believing in you. Believe in your self. Dream big!

I vowed when I started blogging that I will never write a post regarding the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, the LTTE or the third grade Sri Lankan politics. Because everybody has their views their thoughts and insights into this matter but by judging other blog posts and forum posts all these thoughts just collide and argue and attain nothing but more hatred and more division among us Sri Lankans. But the event that took place on June 7th simply wanted me to scream to the world somehow showing my anger and hatred and plead god to show some mercy to the country I love. The country I lived for 16 years. The country I call my motherland. Also I could have been one of those people who were kicked out of Colombo, I am Tamil too. I might be going through the same hassles and unwanted suspicions simply because I was a Tamil and labeled as a potential bomber in Colombo!

So as everybody says let LTTE be the terrorists, the uneducated, the stupid idiots that are craving for a separate homeland and killing innocent people. So now what do I call the Sri Lankan government? Testing the AIDS slogan prevention is better than cure as pointed out by a member of the popular forum clublk? What is this stupidity? So basically the definition given by the Sri Lankan government is that Tamils temporarily living in Colombo lodges = potential terrorists. So what if some other idiotic politician discovered his EUREKA! moment and said no I think its the Tamils who already live in Colombo that are hiding the terrorists lets kick their asses out of this place too then what does Rajapakse say, kick them out too?
Now after all the temporary Tamil residents leaves and there is another incident now what happens to their million dollar theory, expand it to other Tamils in Colombo too? They are labeled as terrorists then why the fuck do they care if they live in lodges or bungalows or simply smoking weed in the beach? They don’t even know if they will live to see tomorrow and with all the bombing going in high security areas duh hes dumb enough to say I don’t know why I am in Colombo..Oh fuck high security areas so does that mean the army is hiding terrorists too?

I really don’t understand Sri Lankan politics! Its just getting stupider day to day and a pain to watch the News.

92 people going to Jordan for a simple meeting, Tamils evicted from Colombo simply because they live temporarily, every single bastard a minister , His highness’s son goes to army and the next day hes in UK, MPs playing hopscotch one day in one party and the next day another. Isn’t this like a badly sketched comedy event that simply gives you pain and theres nothing you can do but laugh(cry)? Wow..Sri Lanka was once the center of world trade and tourism and a bright future. Now its seems like a simple world testing site for the ugliest and darkest politics!

p.s: I really appreciate some of the members in kottu for their understanding in this issue or at least analyze the issue sensibly, but at the same time as long as there are racist people like some members in clublk and just beat the bush around talking utter nonsense this country will go nowhere but in the drain.

I am getting pretty addicted to the new FOX reality show On the Lot produced by Mark Burnett of Survivor fame and the one and only Steven Spielberg. Only two episodes have been on so far but I am simply loving the concept. The judges are Brett Ratner (Director of XMen & Rush hour), Carrie Fisher ( Princess Leia of the Star wars Trilogy) and Garry Marshall( Director of Pretty women & Raising Helen). Initially 50 contestants were present and each were randomly given 4 different topics for which they need to write a small story or script in movie words and presented to the judges. Then the judges eliminated 14 contestants from that the remaining were divided into a team of three.

This time the teams have to direct a short film of 2.5 minutes on the topic Out of Time. But at least one scene should be totally directed by one person of the team. They had to write, direct and edit this short film in 24 hours. It was really interesting to see the contestants struggle to maintain a flow throughout the film as there are 3 people involved in the movie making. Some had great stories to tell, some had amazing cinematography some had the whole package but there was this one team that completely stood out not only for me but also for the judges. The team took the topic Out of Time in a different manner and used a lot of technological aspects such as time freeze techniques and all and created a movie masterpiece just in their apple laptop. It was brilliantly executed and was a treat to the eyes.

Once another 12 were eliminated the rest were given the final audition task of directing a one minute movie provided a script individually. I cant wait to see how this episode turns out and it should be pretty chaos for the participants as well.

But the thing that made me wonder just by looking at these contestants’ 2.5 minute short film is that how the Asian cinema( Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese etc) is far behind in technological and other detail aspects in making a movie. Maybe the directors are talented as Hollywood directors but they fail to execute such product that will appeal for all kinds of masses not only in Asia but worldwide. Money is another problem too but we boast of making the highest number of movies per year but how many of them do you think is memorable? Why cant we combine certain budgets and make one memorable movie than just making hundreds that go unnoticed? When I saw the team that did the time freeze technique in their 2.5 minute film where everything was done in an average laptop, it made me think what was Shanker boasting so much by using it in the song Ale Ale from boys. We are always laughed upon saying Indian movies doesn’t have anything but just dancing around trees and changing clothing all the time. I am not complaining about it since its what makes Indian cinema unique and profitable with its less literate population. But I think its about time we utilize the uniqueness we have and take it to the next level where we can have a global audience and make Asian cinema as equal to Hollywood. Some directors are making the effort such as Ashutosh Gowarikers Lagaan, Swades, Rakesh Omprakash Mehras Rang De Basanti, Mani Ratnams Nayagan, Guru and Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Devdas and Black, but I think lot of others should step up too to make quality cinema along with the commercial aspects the Indian audience die for and make memorable movies for the future.

Believing in your self and the things you do is something that a lot of people have hard time doing. You might want things that you do right now to go heights that are quite hard to reach or places that are not easy to get to, and make certain events take place that are not currently happening. It might seem quite weird but to be honest believing in that destination always creates the path to reach it no matter what the destination is. Its not about saying I want to become rich person one day but its all about believing in your self every single day that you will reach it and also doing your part of the work too. People might shatter your belief saying its the most stupidest thing one can imagine and make you feel bad and try to change what you believe, but pushing them aside and just keeping your head up high saying what you believe will come true one day take you where ever you want. Trust me, its true, I am writing this post after experiencing such an event and I feel like I can shape up my own life, my own future how ever I want by truly believing in my self and working hard at it as well. People have said the weirdest things about my belief that affected me when they said it but I quickly moved on and just thought about my destination not bothering about the path or the struggles I need to face. And it worked and it worked out even more than what I can imagine and I am really happy about it. I really am.

Therefore believe in you, believe 100% or more in your belief, maybe the destination is unheard of, or totally out of the order, but it can be created with only you, with only your belief. Hard working is the 2nd step. People might laugh at you, insult you but as long as you feel what you do is right it is always the right thing. Another secret to believing is believe in what you want…not what you don’t want! Trust me!

The clouds are rumbling
waiting to release its pain
howling and howling
making me look
at my own stain

The sky starts showering
I cannot contain
I moistened the soil
as if there isn’t enough rain

I walk alone
path by path
I’m slapping
on my face
for my own
disgrace
and you are running away
from my sweet embrace

Once we shared passion
I know now we don’t
once we shared deep love
do you now?
You cant say no
Oh no you wont!

Love is such a
cursed word
after you left away
the day is full of
darkness
I think,
I am becoming
my own darn prey!

I’m waiting and waiting
till the sun’s all gone
where the world is at peace
and a long way from dawn

In bed I think
the days we made love
the night so long
when we touched
the lord above.
The days without you
I want to say good bye
but until then
its my pillow and I

Lately I am fascinated by the art of photography that it has become one of my newest hobbies. Therefore to improve my amateur skill of photography and learn new techniques in this field I look into various photography done by various different people from all walks of life and get inspired and learn from them. Everyone has something new to offer; the way they look at certain things, their perspective, their depth, their artistic skills and their immense passion towards this hobby that makes them to go into extremes in this field all inspires me. People might be professionals in this fields or simply a beginner like me, but its all about getting the right click at the right time and it becomes a timeless piece and makes you go aw!

While searching for inspirations and searching through millions of pictures I found this special someone in flickr. When I looked at just one of his pictures it inspired me right away. Without doubt I think he has done of the best works in Sri Lankan photography. There are many people who have taken pictures of Sri Lanka but for some reason the way this special person took pictures and the way he looked at certain things in the country I still call home inspired me to a great extent. It had everything you can ask for in a pictures. Different perspectives, artistic quality, 100% professionalism and above all a true masterpiece.

This person is Agron Dragaj. A Kosovar born professional photographer who currently lives in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. He did humanitarian aid work in Sri Lanka during the Tsunami and constantly publishes his works in magazines like Daily News Sri Lanka, UNHCR publications and many more. He is also the founder of the photography agency The wideangle.
Here are some of his photography that might inspire all you as it did for me. Enjoy!

Arugam Bay

Trincomalee

Kantale

Habarana

Thambalagamam

Nuwaraeliya

Colombo

Jaffna

Colombo

Punniyadi

Muhamalai

School Girl- Kinniya

Out of Dark

Fragments of war- Trincomalee

Fieldof thirst

For more information on the photographer checkout his blog, flickr page, SAATCHI gallery and The wideangle agency

Ive read many blog entries and heard many of my friends talk how their late teen years were one of the best times of their lives. And if you just talk to any person whos settled in life, married and all they would say the times they spent in university/ college is one of the most memorable moments in their life’s history and they will live on and pass on their experiences in the years to come. Late teen years and the college years are when a person enters the stage of adulthood and start to discover themselves and start to understand who the real person inside them is. Their thoughts about life changes, their perspective towards certain principles changes, an urge for independence rushes through the mind and the mind drives to discover new territories and live new adventures that become lessons that can be cherished for the future.

All being said I can seem to live with only a few memories from my late teen years and my college years so far. I envy that and I feel dissapointed feeling this way. I do cry sometimes feeling how can god be so un-generous about me that I only got to live a very few of these so called “memories”! The fact that I migrated to Canada during 16 is such a disaster when it comes to living the most unforgettable memories that the others have experienced. By moving here in this stage of my life it was like restarting my life all again in a land so new and losing my friends in the land I once called home. I had to find schools, finish up credits, tag behind teachers to figure out missed courses, buy every single thing from scratch and discover the new world while the rest of my friends were having the time of their lives! I did make friends here some very special and talented that I should be greatful for, but I miss the people who made who I am today. The people I have so much history with. Friends who are better defined as brothers. Who I shared every single bit of happiness, sorrow and excitement with. Friends who I fought with, who I played with, who I sang with, who I shared food with. Friends who I celebrated with, competed with, shared jokes with and cried with. So much said it was short lived. Once all these experiences started I started to pack my bags and waited in line to get boarded. How pathetic is this!

When I see pictures of others and read stories of others and their experiences during their early adult stages I envy them. Jealousy rushes through my body and makes me scream on top of my voice saying how unfair is that I dont get to live it! How can I be so foolish to agree to come to a land so new at the most important part of my life! I feel helpless. Hopeless. But what else can I do? Cant change the past can I? But I have made a decision. I am not letting my 20’s slip away from me. I am going to live the best I can, Experience the most I can, enjoy every single moment with so much passion and look back oneday and say I didnt waste those years, I just turned them into history! and I smile…

People always want to listen to music that makes them forget all their sorrows and give few minutes of relief. Some people just want conventional pieces of music and some want variances. But on the whole I think people like to see change. Even if its conventional tunes, they want something new out of it. Some freshness. No one will listen to the same kind of music on and on and feel good about it. They always look for a change. Something thats never been done before. Something of class. Something memorable. Something unique. Something that has its IT quality that when you listen to such music you feel amazed, you feel something magical and feel all your nerves give some kind fo a shiver and shrill and make you want more! And only a very few composers know how to make this magic potion well. Well enough that its not only good, not only unique but something thats so precious that its worth carrying on for generations to come and makes you feel proud that you live in the same era as such a music genius. That in my opinion is A R Rahman. A person who knows the pulse of his audience very well and is never afraid of trying something new and always ready to experiment. Not only he gives great music butis very experimental and way ahead of time! That it will take few years before other music directors can or will have such guts or talent to incorporate such new trends in their music. One such example was the rap in the song Peta Rap from Kadhalan. When rap wasnt even heard in the tamil cinema music genre he introduced rap and he introduced it well! But only now every other music director has some kind of rap music in their compositions and think they just rock the world! But they are wrong! They are just makign us bored! Now one such example is the music of Sivaji. It just sets a new trend! A new style! A new beginning for the Tamil music scene! Rahman has been very experimental and has worked so hard that every single song is something unique and pleasing to the ears and above all it makes you think ” Ive never heard such music before….but……its cool!” Now to my individual evaluation:

Balleilakka:
This tune just brings back memories not only if you lived in a village before but just basically anywhere! Its a rustic tune with village beats all along which makes it a typical Rajini intro song. I was really pleased by the way the female chorus starts off the song with its ” Sooriyano Chandirano ” tune. It has an amazing cresendo and staccato effect in every single word which makes it sound interesting. SPB’s voice sounds fresh and yound and no other man can do better with singing beautifulyl so fast with all the rettai kilavi present in the song. Rahman is such a fan of the Nadaswaram therefore in every single village folk tune he makes sure he adds a small interlude of it which is fascinating to hear! Otherwise this song is mainly depended on village folky beats and its a great song to uplift your spirits!

Style:
I should say this song just brings a new style to the tamil music or I am pretty sure to the Indian music industry. Its amazing. Its very obvious that this is one of rahmans experimental pieces but it works big time! It has the rnb, hip hop, techno feel to it and the mixture makes it such a hip and cool song. Its very funky and I am sure this is going to be the youths anthem in the comming years! Thesong has a different way of pronouncing tamil and makes you wanna have fun with your own personality. The best part of the song is the interesting interlude in middle of the song when the chorus sings the “Ada Ada” part. The electronic guitar and the funky beats work big time along with the weird sounds from the keyboard! I was reading that many people were complaining about the tamil accent used in the song. To be honest it doesnt bother me a bit becuase I consider it as another tamil accent. An accent you hear when a foreigner speaks our language and it works well for the song. Theres nothing wrong with it.just simple fun. A new singer called Rags has been introduced to the music scene and he does his work well! One of my picks of the album.

Athiradee:
This is my favourite song from the album. Again such a new feel, a new genre of song. To top it all of the singing of Rahman! I dont know how he does it but in every song he sings theres something different about his voice that makes the song extra special. This song has some heavy beats and just makes you wanna dance wildly. Sayanora compliments Rahman with her western voice as well. Again this song makes use of electronic guitars and gives some techno funky feel to the song. Before the 2nd verse is sung there is this instrumental interlude which gives you the feel of a spy movie and spookiness, hold on before you even digest it the lyrics tells you ” James bond pola seyyum spy thaan!” how great is that! Simply perfect. Adding on to this is the lyrics by Valee. I love the way he has used the rhyming words thee, jothi, thil thik thil, anril kunril, sikuthey, sokuthey, thotta potta and it just keeps on going! simply perfect. The only fear I have is that this song might be used as some kind of background score and I hope it doesnt happen. The reason is I cant seem to match up rahmans voice with rajini! so lets hope for the best!

Sahana:
A romantic slow melody sung by one of my favourite Chinmayee. As always Rahman is just the king of making sof romantic melodies and it always has something new to offer. One of the classic examples of class composing is when Chinmayee sings her first line and it ends off with the touch of a mridangam beat! It just nails it! I would have to say Chinmayee out shines Udit in this song. Shes just perfect every note is honey to the ears. One thing I noticed in the song is that the female part never sings Sahana Saaral thoovutho as her first line. Even when she does at the ending its been completed by udit. Theres something spooky about that. The best thign about rahman thats evident in this song is the amount of layering he provides even for a simple melody. Theres a main beat, a minor beat, the beat of the mridangam, a orchestral filling and some flute pieces inbetween along with the song which serves you as a perfect chocolate cake with perfect cream and cherry filling! Another interesting observation is that the lyrics are very little in the song but the song is about 5 or more minutes long and you never feel bored of hearing the same lyrics! Thats the power of this man that no one else can beat!

The Boss:
Some kind of theme music which is the icing on the cake! It starts off with a sound of a coin falling down and then some whooshing sounds that haunts you!And slowly proceeds with some clapping and then comes to some interesting notes made by some new instrument, again bringining that techno funky dancy feel to the song!He uses the elctric guitar again and then comes the best part of the song the weird thumping deep sound that goes up and down and just makes you go aww! It brings a new feel to you and makes you wonder what this man cannot do! Then after the words have been sung the haunting thumping sound comes again accompanied by a trumpet! Then its topped off some intersting deep beats that make you thump hard! Interesting composition and I wish ti was longer than the 3 mins! Its a new experience!

Sahara:
The sad verison of Sahana but doesnt feel that sad at all! again slow melody accompanied by a guitar and amazing flute work by Naveen. Vijay yesudas is good but nothing really special about him. I am still wondering the reason for the additon of the thiruvembai in the song. But it works well! A good piece, feels more like a lullaby. The chorus does great work with the humming as well! A well deserved peace after all the new funky heart thomping beats!

Vaji Vaji:
A conventional rahmanic score. Nothing is bad about it except that Rahman is used to giving such pieces in the past so nothing unique about the sound of it. A typical rajinish song will work well with the masses! Hariharan and Madhushree do they job well as always!

On the whole a splendid journey which is very unusual and funky! You should be ready and be open minded to accept such new fresh pieces in order to appreciate them! Hats off to rahman for introducing us to this new genre of music fusion to tamil music! A well composed album and will serve as a pioneer to other composers for introducing such new fresh fun sounds!
One word: Splendid!

The blanket that covers the sun at sleep and restlessly wavers on golden sands. The salty silk with its blue, green and white, splashing and dashing on dark black rocks; the mighty beach that we all love! The trains travels parallely to this gorgeous sight therefore these uncomfortable trips have some soothing delight! The tracks shiver and roar when the giant beasts trample, but its suddenly calmed by the serene voice of water. The water so salty, but still not guilty but sparkling with glory through the touch of the golden rays. The palm trees guarding this gods treasure and always feels proud experiencing this never ending pleasure. Its honeymoon for some, a hideout for some, two souls under an umbrella enjoying love under the golden sun! Once the sun feels tired of its bright shiny work and slowly drifts to its western world, the beach gets busy washing footprints of you all. Lets kick the ball and run around and just fall on the yellow sand and sing along! The bonfire lights up the night so young, with a bottle of beer everybody dance around! Feeling the cool breeze flowing and making spirits glowing, its never a dull moment at this wonderland I keep adoring. The beach the beach, its heaven on earth, rich or poor, feeling lonely needs some cure? just wade in the blue waters and smell the salty breeze, just close your eyes and feel appeased!

Pic courtsey: redandgreen (Flickr)

here i stand confused
looking around me,
here i stand bruised
seeking for key

its no key thats
gold or silver
oh dont bother
it doesnt have a shape
and i do quiver

its all black and white
in this maze around me
no laughter, no joy
just long lost love
and mind killing pain
running all over
like a mad man
hitting thorn after thorn
im just in vain

im deserted
no hand to hold
im calling out
no soul that unfolds
im weeping all over
washing my dull face
hoping for some success
oh.. im all over the place!

i will fight this battle
ill make my dreams
come true
ill scare those
bad omens
my pains and all? ADIEU!