Road trip to Mount Rushmore

Like I had mentioned in my earlier post, I had been to Mount Rushmore on a road trip this past weekend. The first reaction from everyone at work when I mentioned to them that I am going on a road trip to Mount Rushmore on a 3 day weekend was "Are you crazy?". But I just couldn’t get why they felt that way. I told them, since there is nothing else to see over there, all we are going to do is to drive there, see the monument and then start driving back. As simple as that :)

Anyway, here are some random talking points from the trip:

1) These are some numbers associated with the trip:

Distance traveled - 2492 miles (I was wondering how much this would have meant if I had done this drive in India. And what I found out was amazing? The distance between Kanyakumari and Sri Nagar is 3617 kms, which is still less than what we drove)
Gasoline consumed - 160 gallons
States driven through - 5 (Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota)
Monuments seen - Mount Rushmore & Devil's tower
Total duration of the trip - 56 hours
Time spent inside the vehicle - 38 hours

2) One thing that was too glaring to miss was the profiling of cars that we saw on the roads in the 5 different states. Except for Washington where almost 2 out of 3 cars are either Japanese or Korean make, the only cars we saw in the other 4 states were domestic cars. I could have easily counted with my hands, the number of Hondas and Toyotas on the roads in states like Montana and Wyoming. All I could see was Buicks, Chryslers, Dodge and Chevy’s. No wonder these are hard-core red states when it comes to voting.

3) Timeline of the trip

Friday, 11pm - Leave Seattle
Saturday, 5pm - Reach Mount Rushmore
Sunday, 11am - Leave Mount Rushmore
Monday, 7am - Reach Seattle

4) Montana was the toughest state to drive through bcos of the sheer breadth of the state. It is just so huge that the total number of miles driven through the state was 550 - almost half of the total distance between Seattle & Mt. Rushmore. Having to cover that long a distance also means this was the most boring state to drive through too. We would go 20-40 miles together before we would see any town of some decent size. As a testimony to how huge this state is, there were places where the signs on the freeway that said “Next Rest Area After 137 miles”!!

5) Prior to entering the memorial, I was having a bet with my friend as to whether we will see atleast 10 desis in the monument. I was betting for it and he was against it. Finally, my friend lost pretty badly, as the number of desis we came across would have been easily 100 :)

6) Now for some facts about the monument:

- there are 4 Presidents whose faces have been sculpted in the mountains.
- they are George Washington (1st), Thomas Jefferson (3rd), Abraham Lincoln (16th) and Theodore Roosevelt (26th)
- the construction of these statues took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941.
- almost 400 workers toiled to bring this monument to life and the best part was that there were no fatal accidents during the construction of these statues.
- the chief sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, didn’t live to see the finished product. He died 7 months before the completion date and it was left to his son to give the finishing touches.
- there is NO plan to add more Presidents faces to the monument.

7) One tip that I can offer if you are planning to visit Mount Rushmore – while you are on your way to the mountain, there are couple of points (a good 3-4 miles from the actual destination) where you will get a glimpse of the mountain & its faces. I would advise you not to take a peek at the mountain from that point. Reason being, it will kind of dampen your expectations bcos the faces appear too small from that distance. My friend, for example, went “Did we come all the way to see this?”. But his opinion changed once he saw the mountain from up-close. Though in the larger picture, your opinion will be one of awe & admiration, that one moment when you see the mountain from a distance will lessen your experience of enjoying the spectacle, that little bit.

8) We also visited this place called Devil's Tower on our way back from Rushmore. When I was researching for places to visit in that area, a friend at work suggested I stop over at this place in Wyoming bcos this is pretty much on our way. Since I was already looking for places to visit since it shouldn’t be such that we drove all the way from Seattle just to see the mountain, I readily agreed. Looks like this is the biggest attraction of that state (the license plates of that state carried its picture) and also it has been proclaimed as America’s first national monument. This tower was actually pretty cool. It looks like this huge pillar, right in the middle of the desert. There is a trail around the tower which gives amazing views of the pillar. It was also so exciting to see climbers all along the mountain.

9) Contrary to my expectations, I did not come across one stretch of dry area throughout the trip. I was expecting something like a Arizona kind of terrain but it was a pleasant surprise to see lush green mountains and dunes, all the way. It was only in South Dakota it was beginning to get dry but we reached our destination, a mere 50 miles driving into the state.

10) This long a drive guarantees one thing - speeding tickets :) My friend was cruising at 110 mph during a stretch in Montana, but it was not then he got a ticket. Instead, he was stopped when he was speeding at 85 mph on a 65 limit zone. How funny & ironic. And before long, it was my turn to be pulled over. But I fared marginally better, in the sense that I was pulled over for driving at 80 mph on a 75 mph limit zone. I was let off with a warning. So, after that we were joking around, saying it was not a question of if anymore, but it was a question of when and who will be getting the next ticket :) But thankfully, we did not get any after that.

About the drive - to say that the drive was tiring would be a gross understatement. When we got back to Seattle on Monday morning, we didn’t know what hit us and we hit the bed. Literally, each and every part of the body was paining and I can still feel the pain, as I type this. Another highlight of the trip - the SUV we had rented did not have cruise control. Though this was kind of a blessing in disguise in that it helped us stay awake at the wheel, the unimaginable distance covered during the trip warranted a vehicle with cruise control.

And to the final question, was it worth it? I will have to say NO. With due respect to the magnitude of the effort that has gone into making these statues & the historical relevance of the same & the satisfaction it gives of having visited one of the most significant landmarks in the US, I still feel that the trip was not worth the wear & tear that we had to put our bodies through, driving the whole distance. May be, if you are within a 6-10 hours drive at most, this is a definitely a must-see place. But for folks like me from Seattle, a half-hearted NO would be the answer.

Harris Jeyaraj trivia

I had wanted to post this, right after VV audio review post. But somehow it kept getting delayed. No particular reason to post it now but just thought this is an Anyway, here is some trivia about Harris:

1) He has played keyboard for Yuvan, which was the biggest surprise for me. I thought Yuvan was the youngest of the current crop of MDs in TFM and hence Harris, being a senior & the fact that they both shot to fame almost at the same time, playing for Yuvan was a surprise.

2) He continued to play keyboards for other MDs for a few months even after Minnale's release. This again is interesting bcos given the stupendous success of both the movie & its music, one would have expected him to have stopped playing for others completely. Prior commitments, may be.

3) Though he has played the keyboard for all the major MDs except the Maestro, he cherishes his experiences with Aadithyan.

4) He also feels that the difference between ARR & other MDs is that while other MDs just asked him to play the notes given by them, ARR gave him the liberty to improvise on his notes.

5) All he wanted to in his life was to play keyboards for the big name MDs. And interestingly, he says that only while playing for ARR, did he realize that he too could become a composer. And now we have a situation where he is doing better than ARR in TFM. How ironical?

6) He is younger than what I though. Not that he is as young as Yuvan, but he is just 30. Amazing, huh?!

Sources: This interview in Hindu, his official website

On a related note: I was talking to my dad about how much I love listening to Tamil film music (BTW, he does not listen to Tamil movie songs at all). Then he casually says "Dei, I know a friend of mine whose son is doing good, composing music in movies." So, me and my sister asked him who it was and after thinking hard for a while, he goes "I guess his name is something like Jeyaraj, hmm...yeah, Harris Jeyaraj". And then, he goes “Is he really famous?” We both were completely taken by surprise and we told him "Appa, he is a very famous music director who was once an assistant to A.R. Rahman and is now doing very well in the Tamil film music scene". It was so funny when he said that and me & my sister were laughing our hearts out on how he was unaware of even someone as famous as Harris Jeyaraj :)

And I am off to Mount Rushmore, in a few hours from now. More than the excitement of going to watch this great national monument, I am all excited about the road trip. This will be my longest road trip yet. My previous longest trip from Seattle to the Bay Area (to watch Thalaivar’s Chandramukhi) was around 13 hours while this one to Mount Rushmore is a good 18 hours from Seattle. (The only difference between the trips would be that while I did all the driving during my Chandramukhi trip, I have 3 other friends to share the driving responsibilities this time around). Will post lots of pictures once I come back. Folks here in the US, have a safe & wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

To do or not to do

I had to make this tough decision last week. The tough choice facing me was this: to accept or not, money that is not truly yours. So, here is the background story: About a month ago, I had a very minor accident with my car when someone rear-ended my car, on my way to work on a busy Monday morning traffic. There were some minor scratches in the rear bumper and no one was hurt. The guy who hit me was very cool. He apologized and we exchanged our insurance information & left the accident spot.

I talked to my insurance company folks and upon their recommendation, we decided on a rebuild shop to fix it. Over there at the rebuild shop, they said it will take around 4 days to fix it. Since I had taken the rental reimbursement coverage (which means, in cases like this when your car is being repaired, the insurance company will provide you with a rental car whose rental charges will be borne by them), I was provided with a rental car for my use until the time my car was fixed. At the end of 4 days, I went to pick my car from the rebuild shop after it was repaired. The total cost of the repair was 475$ and I had to pay my deductible of 250$ since the insurance company of the guy who hit me, had not yet paid the amount to my insurance company. Apart from that 250$, I had to pay 16$ fee towards the rental car (though the rental car coverage covers everything, due to taxes, I had to pay that 16$ extra). I was promised by my insurance company that I will be sent the check for 250$ once they receive it from his insurance company.

After a few days, I did get the check as promised. But therein, was the problem - the check was not for 250$ and instead, it was for 500$. Looks like they had wrongly sent the check, thinking my deductible was 500$ and the enclosed letter while confirming my doubt, also said that they had closed the file for this case.

Now, I had a difficult decision to make - to do or not to do. Do I go ahead & deposit the check in my name, knowing that I am exploiting somebody's genuine mistake? Or call them up & inform them of the mistake?

It is so strange what the mind tells you to do in such cases. Like, I was trying to convince myself that it is OK to take the extra 250$, bcos there have been so many occasions where I have lost money which I did not deserve to lose & this is God's way of paying me back. It was also weird that this 250$ was coinciding with some of the purchases that I was planning to make - I was planning to buy a non-expensive TV to be kept in my bedroom since my room-mate has a 46" TV in the living room and guess what the budget was? 250$. There was also this around 10K INR that I had to send to India for some expense back home and this 250$ would have come so handily then :)

I even discussed about this with my colleagues at work and they were all like "Phew!! That is an easy one. If we were you, we will go ahead and take it. Or better still, if you feel bad about taking that money, then take us all out for lunch or something :)".

Then, after a long & hard struggle, I made a decision - that I would not use the 250$. It pricked my conscience too much that I decided not to take the money that didn’t belong to me. So, I called them up & informed them of the mistake. They could not say much, except for saying "Sorry for the inconvenience!".

It set me thinking as to what is the reward that one gets for doing something honest like this (slightly recall the scene in Mahanadhi where Kamal laments to Poornam Viswanathan). But when I got the second corrected check, I thought that there was an answer to my question. The second check was for 266$, which included the 16$ that I had to spend for the car rental out of my pocket and something they were not obliged to cover bcos they were due to the taxes out of the rental car. Is God saying something through this?

Weekend movies - ABCD, Bluffmaster, Pachakudhira & Athadu

ABCD - There is a reason why your credit history is such an essential thing over here in the US. Bcos, it tells a neutral observer how reliable and trustworthy you are. Reason I am mentioning it here - equally critical is the fimography of the director before watching a movie. I did not know that this movie was directed by the same director who directed Citizen. Yes, the same movie which had Ajith compete with himself in a strong fancy dress competition, throughout the movie. The reason I decided to watch this movie is bcos I had a discussion/ argument with a friend as to which movie was worse - Kodambakkam or ABCD. My friend had seen both the movies but since I had not seen ABCD, I decided to watch it (to restore parity in during the discussion). Well, what to say about the movie than the decision that Kodambakkam was definitely better than this crap. The biggest culprit of the movie (apart from the director) is Shaam. He sounded like he was already dead. I mean, in trying to sound humble & soft-spoken, he ended up talking like a drunkard in some places & a dead man at some places. In the movie full of clichéd characters and situations, the one soothing relief was Sneha. Ever smiling and acting appropriately, she saves us from the experience of watching this movie turn into a complete disaster. The director has tried to do a la Azhagan (I know it is a crime to even mention the name of this movie along with Azhagan in the same sentence. But I had to mention it here bcos of the fact that both the movies deal with the story of 3 women falling in love over 1 guy.) But has thrown something called subtlety out of the window and thus has failed miserably. And those songs picturization - will make you go crazy on what went through the director's mind when he decided to do that. Weird. A must-avoid movie.

Bluffmaster - In spite of knowing that this is based on couple of Hollywood movies, I completely enjoyed it. Abhishek has this admirable quality of underplaying his character and I have come to admire this facet of his acting. When I saw him in Sarkar, I thought he was ordinary. But now, after watching Bunty & Babli (the Kajra Re song in that movie is a must-watch, one of the best choreographed songs that I have ever seen) & this one, I have actually become a fan of Abhishek. He has this earthly look to him and the way he carries himself & his body language are just too good. I guess it is probably in the genes. Priyanka Chopra was gorgeous. Nana Patekar was as always amazing. The songs which don’t sound like the usual filmi songs are very interesting (they don’t follow the usual pallavi - charanam pattern) and so is the way they were picturized too. Thoroughly enjoyable stuff, this one.

Pachakudhira - I am a self-confessed fan of Parthiban. In fact, it is Parthiban that I admire the most after Thalaivar. His maverick approach is something that fascinates me. So, whenever Parthiban makes a film, I am all excited and it has continued till Ivan. So, it was with high expectations that I started watching this movie. But by the time the movie ended, I was like Podhum Parthiban, torture thaanga mudiyala. It was such a tortuous movie to sit through. I still can not understand why someone like Parthiban can not come up with a coherent screenplay. The songs would come up in completely unexpected situations and just when you thought that the movie is picking some pace, there would come another scene that will completely put you off. On top of it, the most important aspect of the movie - Parthiban's characterization - was so inconsistent. There is no valid reason provided as to why he changes his direction in life. Parthiban looks bloated and completely out of shape. Namitha was a complete ‘revelation’ (again, pun intended). She has tried her best to act but fails unfortunately. But it is very clear that she has tried. Sleaze is one word every review of this movie would refer to atleast once and let me too throw it here - even in the most innocent of scenes, it takes a Parthiban to fuse some sleaze into it. Though this review is completely negative, there were still some of those typical Parthiban touches at many places in the movie. But even there, he got carried away in trying to do something different - having the kids fight the rowdies was just too much. I was expecting another Ulle Veliye (BTW, I liked Ulle Veliye so much that I watched it thrice in the theater) but was completely disappointed. Parthiban can do much better than this.

Athadu (Telugu) - Watched this movie, after it was recommended to me as a must-watch movie by a Telugu friend of mine. I don’t understand Telugu (I had to use the sub titles to understand the movie) but that did not stop me from appreciating this movie. Except for the hero, who has this wooden expression in many scenes, this movie was highly entertaining. The one thing that caught me by surprise was the high quality production values of the film. It was like watching a Shankar film - great camera work, amazing songs picturization to go on top of some very good songs and the grandeur one would associate with a Shankar movie. I particularly liked the way how during every few scenes, they had that time & place of where the scene takes place, showing up at the bottom. In one scene, it goes like this: Time – don’t know (since clock didn’t work) :) The movie was rich and the fight sequences were shot very well. The credits said the fight master was Peter Haines, our very own stunt master who is the master for Thalaivar's Sivaji. Only irritation of the movie was Trisha. Though she did look very beautiful, the scenes involving her were a drag. I just couldn’t stand her. Even if you are new to Telugu films, this is probably a good film to start off. A very well-made stylish flick.

Desi Destinations

At lunch sometime last week, we were discussing about the popular places that everyone of us in the team have visited here in the US. So, being the typical desi that I am, I was listing all the places that I have been to, to my friend and she was surprised that I have been to so many places. Then, I explained to her the popular destinations that we desis here frequent, without which our desi life would be considered incomplete :) So many American friends that I have talked to here haven't been to NYC/ Niagara Falls even once in their life whereas every desi worth his salt would been to both these places for sure. Worse still, many of folks here do not visit even the most famous local tourist attractions. My friend here at work for example hasn’t visited Mount Rainier even once, though he has lived in Seattle for close to 13 years whereas I have been to Rainier twice in the last 2 years.

That set me thinking about the list of places that we as desis have as an unwritten rule to complete visiting during our stay here in this country. So, here are the destinations that I could think of. Not that I have been to all of these places but I know most of my friends have been to most of these places. I am sure either you or your friends that you know would have visited most of these places in the list.

The Usual Suspects
Niagara Falls – This is like the Mecca of desi destinations
New York City – This is probably the second most favorite destination
Chicago
Florida (Orlando, Miami and Key West)
Las Vegas & Grand Canyon (Usually both these will be covered in a single trip, which also would include a stop at the Hoover Dam)
San Francisco (Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, 17-mile drive, Lombard Street)
Los Angeles & San Diego (Hollywood, Universal Studios, Sea World)
Yellowstone National park
Washington DC (The Mall, Pentagon)
Atlanta (CNN center, Coke museum)
Boston
Lake Tahoe
Smoky Mountains
Yosemite national Park

More exotic destinations - meaning most of us would not have been there but would like to go one day.

The Caribbean Islands
Hawaii
Alaska
Cancun, Mexico
Canada
Mount Rushmore

Have I missed anything in the list here?

Weekend movies - Thiruttu Payale & Gangster

Last weekend, I watched 2 movies where the characters of the heroes had negative shades. Both of them fall into the thriller movies genre with some really good & completely unexpected twists & turns.

Thiruttu Payale - The reviews for this movie were mixed, to say the least with someone like Karthik calling it highly entertaining and our own Balaji calling it an OK movie. Like I had said in my Five Star post, I would probably review this movie with a slight bias. Coming from Susi Ganesan after Virumbugiren & Five star, which were some soft movies with love & friendship as their core themes, the crudeness in the character of the hero will jolt you for sure. The movie had so many unexpected twists and turns which will catch you by surprise, no matter how much of the plot you know before watching the movie (like I did). Though the movie ended perfectly, the way it was done could have been much better. The final few happenings in the story were so sudden and fast, that before we realize what is going on, the movie gets over. There appeared to be too much happening in the last 30 mins, with the introduction of the private detective (that is the director himself) and then the abrupt climax.

As far as performances go, as everyone has commented, this has to be Malavika's best performance yet but I personally felt that it still lacked the villainous poise that the character needed at many places. Jeevan was more than adequate. His looks, his voice & his body language all were a perfect fit for the character. Sonia Agarwal was a ‘revelation’ (pun intended) in the swimsuit but she goes back to her 7GRC mode very soon. The less said about Abbas, the better. Looks like Vivek was only paid half of his salary bcos he was outrageously hilarious in the first half (imitating the Sri Lankan Tamil accent) and downright boring in the second half & more importantly, was acting as a speed bump to the pace of the story. Bharadwaj could have definitely done better than what he has delivered in the name of songs. The mind games between Malavika & Jeevan and the way they tried to get the better of each other was captivating, to say the least. There was something that surprised us at just about every scene. But it was in the final few minutes of the movie that I thought the director let the movie meander away with myself screaming at a point 'Kavuthitteengale Senior' (we address our seniors that way in our college). In spite of almost a very commendable effort for most part of the movie, the fact that he lost control of the plot in the final stages is what I will remember from the movie. Nevertheless IMO, 3rd best movie of the year, after Dishyum & Chithiram Pesuthadi.

Gangster - While Thiruttu Payale carried mixed reports, Gangster had only great reviews going around. And I came back from the movie completely satisfied & the movie did live up to all the glowing reviews it has been getting. But at the same time, if not for reading all the reviews that I had read about the movie, I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more. It was like Thiruttu Payale in a sense but the suspense element here is built up, right till the end of the movie and thus will keep you glued to your seat. And the final twist in the story was stunning (the last shot of the movie does remind you the climax of a very famous English movie, though). Most of the film has been shot in Seoul and the locations were just awesome & something different from what we have seen in Hindi movies before. The movie also has a stand-out performance by debutant Kangana. She has really done well, for a first-timer. The one thing I noticed in many Hindi movies is the fact that any CBI/ high ranking investigative officer is always from the South. Recall Mohanlal from Company and this movie has one too. The only thing which stuck out like a sore thumb is the fact that in order to show to us that she is an alcoholic, the director has made her carry a bottle in every single scene. That was the first thing I noticed when they introduced her and soon, it became really irritating. I mean, there are so many other ways in which it can be shown that she is a drunkard.

This movie is already a hit but would have been a monstrous hit if the movie had more recognizable faces instead of a relatively unfamiliar cast which included a debutant as the heroine. Another biggest plus point of the movie is its music by Pritam Chatterjee (though it has to be mentioned at the outset that almost all the songs in the album are direct lifts/ inspired. Source: Itwofs.com). Irrespective of that, 3 of the songs are instantly hummable and I have been listening to them non-stop ever since I saw the movie. This movie is a must-watch. And if you are planning to watch, please do not read reviews with any spoilers. It will kill most of your interest in the movie. Experience speaks....

Fat Man Walking

This is about an interesting real-life story of a man, who decided that he would walk to lose weight. Steve Waught was weighing in 410 pounds and he became sick of this life where he was immobile for most part. So, he decided he is going to lose weight and guess what he did? He decided to walk across the country from San Diego to New York City. Something like what we saw Tom Hanks do in Forrest Gump, except that the person in question here had some valid motive behind it.

It was yday that he reached New York City and that would mean that he has covered a distance of 2800 miles. The results have been awesome to say the least. The news report I was watching on TV said sometime 3 weeks before that his weight then was 270 lbs, which is an amazing 140 lbs lower than what he weighed before. But the only downside has been the time it has taken for him to do this - It has taken him more than 13 months to accomplish this feat. He started on the 10th of April last year and he finished it yday. His original plan was to finish it in 6 months but obviously it has taken him more time than that. Apart from a knee injury that he suffered into the walk, after about 5 weeks, he decided not to rush things up and instead of just walking across the country, he decided to explore the people and places during the course of the walk.

He even has a website to track this historic walk of his. This FAQ page in his site has answers to all your questions. Apart from the apparent benefit of this walk helping him shed loads of weight, he is bound to get richer after this walk. Bcos I am sure he is going to be pounded by just about every channel in cable news for interviews. Who knows, he may even write a book to share his experiences.

When I read about this story, it immediately had my brain cells thinking as to whether I can emulate this person on my own scale. Sure, I need to lose some weight and so I thought why not do something like this, on a much reduced scale though. Say, walk from Seattle to Portland, which is roughly 175 miles apart. But the problem here is the amount of time involved. Now-a-days, I walk around 7 miles a day, which takes me close to 2 hours to do it. So, if I were walk all day long, I would probably cover 30 miles a day, which would mean 6 days to walk from Seattle to Portland. Since that is something that I can not afford, I dropped the idea. (I was seriously considering this for a few minutes :))

Anyway, be ready to see this person more often in the TV shows in the coming days. He has already had a huge fan base going for him and many of them even walked with him in patches during his epic journey. Check out the journal page of his web site where he wrote regularly during the trip. It has accounts of some very interesting experiences.

Mission Possible

This was sent to me by one of my friends as an email and though this was another of those forward it to 10 more people email, this one was a little different, bcos it had something that we all would like to & could accomplish, together. This is an idea to bring the uncontrollably high gas prices down but it would take a lot of forwarding information around to be done so that many people get to read this. Here is the idea:

This idea makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last year! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap?? Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How?? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the next few days/ weeks/ months, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the twobiggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers?? It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point.

Keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people. I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to atleast ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this onto ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

I do think that this might work. Do you?

Weekend movies - Anjali & Five Star

Back to my weekend movies routine :)

Anjali - Wanted to revisit this classic for a long while and just got the time to watch it. Though most of the scenes involving the kids in the first half irritates you to no ends, it is all compensated by everything that happens in the 2nd half. Watching this movie, the first question that came to my mind: Why in the world did Mani Rathnam part ways with the Maestro? (The only down side of such a thing is obviously that ARR would have never come out. But I am sure given his potential & talent, he would have come into the limelight some way or the other). Reason for the above statement - the background score was just awesome, to put it mildly. We all know that he is just too good at re-recording. But he reserves his best for Mani Rathnam. Many of those emotional & heart-warming scenes in the movie, Mani only deserves half the credit for making us love them. The other 50% credit should go to Mottai. Particularly, the 2 scenes where Raghuvaran & Revathi reconcile with each other after Raghuvaran is caught lying & then he convinces her that it is nothing to worry about. One word to describe his BGM would be - sublime. No matter how many amazing songs ARR has scored for Mani, nowhere has he even come remotely close to the feeling that Mottai makes us experience with his BGM in movies like Anjali.

Apart from that, excellent performance from just about everyone involved in the movie - this is true in most MR movies and hence didn’t come as a surprise, with a star cast which includes the likes of Raghuvaran, Revathi & Prabhu. (For Prabhu, this was his second best cameo of his career IMO, after Priyanka where he was just outstanding.) But to me, Revathi was the best of them all. She was just too good, especially in the scenes with Anjali, the way she craves for her love & attention and the way she reacts out of helplessness when Anjali does start recognizing her as her amma. Couple of sour points, other than the irritating kids behavior – first up, there were some ordinary scenes that one would not expect from a Mani Rathnam movie. This scene for example - when Anjali arrives in the household, the other little ones in the house hate her presence & there is this scene where the kids are shown praying to God. The sister asks her brother on what he is praying and he says that he is asking God that Anjali should die. After they start loving Anjali, a similar scene is placed just to show their transformation, which I thought was an amateur scene and something which you don’t expect to see in a Mani Rathnam movie. Secondly, there is this 3-minute fight scene towards the climax which is shot completely in glaring lights against a pouring rain backdrop and that can only mean one thing - we do not have a clue as to who is hitting whom. Then of course, there are the childish looking graphics, which can be forgiven bcos of the fact that the movie was made some 15 years ago. Mani has gone on record saying that this was his most difficult movie to make to date and watching this movie, you understand why. Bcos at the end of the movie, though Mottai’s songs and Revathi impressed you, it is Shamili’s performance as a 2-year old autistic baby that will endear to you the most and Mani deserves full marks for bringing out the same.

Five star - this movie always has a special place in my heart bcos of so many reasons. Reason 1 - the director of this movie Susi Ganesan is my college Senior. Reason 2 - the heroine of the movie is a junior from my high school in Madurai. Reason 3 and the biggest of them all - almost all the college related scenes in the movie were shot in my college premises. I always thought that it is an beautiful idea to pay tribute to your alma matter by shooting some scenes of your first movie in your own college, which is what Susi Ganesan has done and I admire him for that. So, every time I see this movie, I get transported back to my college days and hence all my views about this movie will carry a heavy bias. Five Star is a movie that is so refreshing and which has a very novel storyline. Though the movie follows the standard pattern that the Mani Rathnam assistant directors have adopted in their first movies to some extent, Susi Ganesan stamps his own unique class with his interesting characterization. I am sure almost all of us would like to get settled with our close friends in the same house even after marriage. So, you start loving the characters all the more bcos they are doing something that we all love to do.

Assistant directors to Mani Rathnam have always managed to extract the best out of their music directors and that is one area where Susi Ganesan needs to master. Movies like Dum Dum Dum & Kanda Naal Mudhal (other MR protege debut movies) had just wonderful songs whereas you can not say the same about the music of any of Susi Ganesan's movies. The songs by Parasuram Radha could have been way much better, with only the Rayile & the Thiru Thiruda songs standing out. There are so many cute little things in the movie that one will admire - like the scene towards the end where Vijayan commits suicide and the dog follows him into the well. That is such a touching scene. Another thing that Susi Ganesan seems to be very good at is spotting talent. It is he who introduced Sneha in Virumbugiren and he has also introduced Prasanna in this movie. With 3 good quality movies against his name, Susi Ganesan is a welcome addition to the new breed of young & promising directors in the Tamil film industry.

Monthly Sports Round-up - April 2006

I have been planning to do this kind of a round-up for a while now. I was even contemplating on starting a new blog just for writing about the various sports stuff that I watch. But then I thought it would be too much and hence decided to start this monthly round-up here. Apart from including all the important sporting events that happened during the month, the round-up would also include IMHO, the Best Sporting event of the month and the Best Individual performance of the month. The only other criteria that I set for myself is that the post would not contain more than 10 entries in the list. So, from now on, (hopefully) would be posting this monthly sports round-up regularly and here is the first one for April.

April 2 - The 2006 MLB season starts with the game between the White Sox and the Indians. The defending champs win it handsomely. On the home front, the Seattle Mariners start their season campaign with a loss (what else?) against the LA Angels.

April 3 - The Florida Gators win their first NCAA tournament in their school history. The final was a drag to say the least, with Florida leading UCLA by as many as 20 points at one point. And a day later, Maryland followed suite by prevailing over Duke in the women's tournament to set up their school's first ever NCAA tournament title. The women's final was a treat to watch, particularly so bcos Maryland came back from 13 points to take the game into overtime and thus more than made up for the disappointment of the men’s final.

April 4 - Australia complete their whitewash of the Proteas in the test series, sweeping the series 3-0. Damien Martyn comes good with a determined century in the 4th innings to lead Australia to their 5th victory over the Proteas in 6 tests. The joy of chasing a record 434 runs is short-lived and quickly dissipates into thin air.

April 9 - Phil Mickelson wins his second Masters in 3 years. After going so many years without a major, he now has won 3 majors in his last 9 appearances. The final day of the Masters was gripping, to say the least, as almost all of the top 5 players in the world were in with a chance of winning it. It was only in the last 3 holes that it became clear that Mickelson is safe, so safe that he could even afford a bogey in the 18th hole. As for Tiger, he left the course with his head held high, finishing a respectable 3rd. Having come into the tournament in an emotional turmoil of his father's cancer, he did very well and but for his putting in the final round, he would have almost won it.

April 9 - The old warhorse does it again, helping India overcome the Pakistanis in the 5th match of their Davis Cup tie. Though it was an inconsequential tie, I was simply blown away by this latest heroic display by Leander Paes, just amazed on how he has been able to step up his game whenever he is playing for the country. How I wish he & Mahesh Bhupathi had continued their dream run in doubles putting their egos and personal clashes behind :(

April 15 - India wins the 7th ODI and complete their domination over England in the ODI series. If not for two sessions of madness in Bombay resulting in a rare home test match loss, this would have been a truly memorable series for India. It is really amazing to see the way the youngsters have put their hands up and have come up with unbelievable performances in every single match of the series. Winning 16 consecutive matches while chasing down targets tells a lot about the mental make-up of this Indian team. After the 2 mindless games in Dubai, the boys get a well-deserved rest ahead of the crucial WI tour.

April 19 - Kobe becomes the 5th player ever in NBA history to average more than 35 points a game over the course of a complete season and thus bringing an end to the glorious season he has had, which also included claiming the record of the most ever points in a single season by a Laker and also the 81 point game against the Raptors. What a way to come back after all the rape allegations that clouded him the last 2 seasons.

April 23 - Nadal proves he is the clay court nemesis of Federer as he defeated him in the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters clay court tournament and thus defended his title successfully. Federer has lost only twice during this entire year and both the occasions, it has been to Nadal. All this sets up an intriguing French Open next month, with Nadal being the clear favorite to win it again.

April 23 - Schumacher is back to winning ways, as he wins the San Marino Grand Prix.

April 29 - In a decision that surprised many pundits, the Houston Texans selected Mario Williams, DE from NCSU as the overall number 1 pick in the NFL draft. Reggie Bush went to the Saints, which should give them a major boost in ticket sales & attendance while Vince Young was selected as the 3rd pick by the Tennessee Titans while Matt Leinart had to wait till the 10th overall pick before the Arizona Cardinals picked him as their first round pick. The Seahawks played it safe and drafted Corner Back Kelly Jennings from the University of Miami with their first round pick.

Best Individual Performance - This was a close call between my favorite Kobe and Gillespie, who scored, in what is now part of folklore, a double century. Then, finally I have to give this to Gillespie mainly bcos Kobe scoring points for the Shaq-less Lakers is no surprise but Gillespie scoring a double century is just unbelievable. So, there goes the winner :)

Best Sporting Event - The 1st test match between Bangladesh & Australia is clearly the best sporting event of this month. If only the Bangladeshis had batted with a little bit more purpose in the 2nd innings, we would have seen the cricketing equivalent of David upstaging Goliath. Though the miracle did not happen, to me, it still was the sporting event of the month.