Chak De....

It's not a well known fact among my friends that I am a loyal Shah Rukh Khan fan. It's true that I don't have his posters adorning the walls of my bedroom or the desktop of my PC (Those are reserved for a Green eyed beauty.......). But I watch any movie as long as SRK is in it. I have endured movies from the really painful Badshah to the overhyped underperforming KANK. I even watched a dud named "Shakti" just because SRK had a guest role in it (and also because it featured a certain someone in the "Ishq Kameena" song). So it was just a case of time before I churned out Rs.90 for a ticket to SRK's latest movie..."Chak De India". A sunday matinee at Satyam Cinemas, Chennai and all I can say is "Wow".

Chak De is an out and out sports film. This genre has been largely overlooked in Hindi movies. Except for some utterly forgettable movies like "Avval Number" and a real rarity like "Lagaan", Hindi Cinema has seldom focused on Sports. Even in Lagaan, the cricket was just a means to an end. Although the movie focused on the match, there was always a bigger picture. So I wouldn't call that a real sports movie. In Chak De, Hockey is the means and the end. Hollywood has had lots of real good sports movies. "Remember the Titans", "The Replacements", "The Mighty Ducks", "Coach Carter","Any given Sunday"....the list goes on. When I mentioned to one of my friends that "Chak De" is not doing good overseas, she remarked with typical innocence "Foreign teams ko haraaya hai na...Isi liye nahi chal raha hai...". Well maybe she is right...or maybe it is the fact that they have seen loads of such movies and its not a new thing to them....Whatever be the case, this was certainly the best movie that I have seen since Lage Raho Munnabhai...

Now coming to the movie, The topic is nothing new to those who watch English movies...Firstly, there is a disgraced player who was supposed to be the best of his time...then you have a team from which noone has any expectations...then you have the amazing turnaround...standard formula for a sports movie...Kabir Khan was India's best Centre forward in Hockey till he missed a crucial penalty stroke in the world cup finals against Pakistan. Then ignominy follows and he disappears for 7 years. He then surfaces to apply for the coach position of Indian National Womens Hockey team. The team is a mish mash of players from various states including Jharkand and Mizoram. It has some really interesting characters like Komal Chautala, who according to my friend is a "typical" Haryanvi and Balbir Kaur who is a "typical" Punjabi. The rest of the movie is all about how the team bonds and how they reach the pinnacle of glory in the World Hockey Championship. There are some really good scenes in the movie...one that needs to be mentioned happens when the girls take on a gang of boys who were hitting on them...one of the boys try to hit a girl from the back with a cricket bat. SRK stops him and says " Hamla karna hai to mardon ki tarah saamne se karo...Kya hai ki hamare hockey mein Chakke nahi hote"....The writer couldn't help taking a potshot at Cricket. Afterall, hockey is supposed to be our national game and it has been largely looked over in favour of Cricket. The Hockey-Cricket divide is also portrayed in the relationship between one of the team members and her boyfriend. Anyways...the best scene of the movie belongs to none other than King Khan. It happens when India wins the world cup. There are no dialogues...just acting at its best....the look of a man who has found a meaning to his life that was lost till then....You gotta see it to believe it....News is that the DVD print has already hit the IITK LAN. So I will be getting a CD written...coz this is a movie for the collection....

This makes it all worth it....

Base camp 2

Taking the first steps..

The Gang - 1

Boys Gang in front of Oneness University

To Mother Nature's Lap...A Trek to Tada Falls...

Well….how do I begin….It often happens that when you plan something to more than a certain extent, you build some expectations around it and when finally you are there, you feel let down…as your expectations were much higher than what it actually turned out to be. We had done our share of planning for this trek to Tada falls…For the uninitiated, this is situated near the Tamil Nadu- Andhra Pradesh border, in the district of Nellore…It is about 80 km from Chennai and is a piece of the world that commercialization has seemingly forgotten or overlooked…..So as I said we had done our share of planning for this trek….meticulously go through every blog written about treks to Tada, try to forsee any eventualities that might occur, etc…what we were not able to do was get an idea about how the whole thing is going to be….thats the difference between knowing the path and walking the path. When we finally walked the path, it was beyond our wildest expectations...one of the best saturdays in my life...The call of the wild was heard and heeded to...and back we went into the embrace of mother nature...

We had planned a 5.30 A.M start from Chennai. It should be said that our planning was a success because we were on our way by 5.50 A.M. Our gang consisted of 7 people…Seven is supposed to be a very powerful number in the world of Magic..thats why Lord Voldemort wanted to have seven horcruxes and all…anyway…I am drifting from the topic…7 people, 4 boys and 3 girls. Selwyn, Vinayan, Vimal, Aswini, Nandita, Vibitha and myself. One thing bothering us when we started was the tax for crossing the border of which we had read about in the blogs….I’ll come to that in a moment. Our first photo opportunity was the Oneness University.

The Construction of this University is something worth looking at. It reminds you of palaces of the old…We spent some time there clicking photos and were soon on our way. Then came the border crossing….our fears proved to be unfounded as we just had to pay a toll of Rs.15 and move on…We reached the town of Tada by somewhere around 7.30. Hunger pangs were striking most of us…some of us are used to having pretty heavy breakfasts…so they were on the lookout for a hotel…finally we got into what seemed like the last hotel available…Had our breakfast…Iddly for some and Puri for others….We hadn’t lost our way yet, thanks to the blogs and the local support…but after breakfast, we took a wrong turn somewhere and added about 4-5 km to our total distance…the mistake was soon rectified and we were on our way ( the right one this time..). Tada to Varadiahpalayam and from there to the falls…with locals willing to offer help throughout the way, it was quite easy. Then the going began to get tough….So finally we decided to get down and start our trek in earnest.

We had done our homework and knew that we need to walk for about 3 km before reaching a waypoint in the form of a Shiva Temple. We were in no hurry at all. So we took our time. At the first sight of flowing water, some of us could not resist it and had to get their feet wet…aah..what the hell…time for some more photos

Finally we were able to get everyone out of there and continue on our way. The first phase of the trek is actually climbing up a hill…we took a break when we reached the top of the hill. We sat there for sometime taking in the raw beauty of nature. Soon it was time to start marching again. Now the journey was downhill. At the bottom of the hill we came to a stream with an Idol nearby (which we nicknamed Indian Idol). This could be called Base camp 2 (Atleast that was what they called it in the Blogs). Another stream to cross and after a fruitless effort to keep my shoes dry, I crossed the stream.

After another short break, we were again on our way. Finally we reached the last point on the path that was the Shiva Temple. Thereon, there was no clear path to the falls. It was all about charting your own course. The best thing to do is go upstream…or you can also follow the litter…cross the stream..climb the boulders and keep walking until you reach a situation where you can see the falls and a seemingly insurmountable rock formation. This was our greatest challenge….It is almost impossible to scale this thing unless you are an expert trekker or you have friends….I was the one who had most difficulty climbing this..and took what looked to be a nasty fall attempting this climb…But as always in life…in tough situations, there are friends to see you through…and finally I was there on top. I had hardly laid down and there came the next problem…cramps…My leg muscles were cursing me for making the work so hard without any kind of an advance warning…A bit of flexing and a lot of Amritanjan did the trick. In the mean time Vinayan managed to strike a rapport with one of the bees nearby and was rewarded with a sting at the back of his head...I had taken a fall and Vinayan had a sting to his credit. Little did we know that Selwin was planning to better both of us...the final tally was Vinayan: 1 sting, Venu: 1fall, Selwin: 1 fall and 1 sting. As there was nothing to see on the top, we climbed back down..which was surprisingly easy and it was time to give meaning to all the effort…to take a shower under the Tada falls….Pristine ice cool water falling on top of your head…the feeling of being embraced by mother nature…that few minutes spent under the falls made it all worth it.

A few minutes under the fall, a few more minutes to take it all in and we decided to start our return journey as the falls were a bit too crowded for comfort. It seemed we had chosen a very popular day for this trek as wherever there was any water to be found, there was also some company that we could really do without. So we continued our journey back in search of some peace and quiet where we could spend some time in the water. This was found only at BC2. There we stayed for about an hour. On the return journey, one main agenda was to see if Aswini had fallen down...it was more of a question of when rather than if. She had taken to falling to such an extent that we were thinking of changing the name from Tada falls to Aswini falls...But as someone said "Its not about how many times you fall...its about how many times you get up..." To her credit, she was on her feet after each fall in no time...

And finally it was time to bid adieu to this beautiful place. We made our way back to where our vehicle was parked..singing songs all the way and having a great time. Once we got into the van and the return journey started, it was time for some fierce Antakshari. In the end, as always, we showed why boys are better , beating the girls 2-0. All in all, this was a fabulous experience with whole lot of fun and a little discomfort. But after all, as someone has said, “Adventure is discomfort recollected in comfort…”

Belated.....

The beginning of First world war.....Birth of arguably the best all rounder of all times, Sir Garfield Sobers....Birth of the City of Miami....Passing away of the Father of Nuclear Chemistry , Otto Hahn....the birth of the Blog titled "Venu's World"....Whats common in all these.....It all happened on July 28th.....So belated Happy birthday to my Blog.....I am happy to say that unlike my Diary writing habit, I have been successful in posting regularly in the blog (don't u dare mention quantity over quality..). I hope to continue this until i start getting death threats from my readers....As it is born on July 28th, My blog is a Leo...So here's what my blog's nature is like

"Leo is the fifth sign of the Zodiac and is popularly associated with the keywords magnanimous, generous, hospitable, caring, warm, authoritative, active and open.Leos are typically pictured as very dignified and regal. They are hard-working, ambitious and enthusiastic,however they are prone to laziness and can often take "the easy way out." They are known to be exuberant, extroverted, generous with a natural dramatic flair and very creative.They are typically very self-assured, and love taking center-stage in whatever arena they are in."

I guess that describes it quite well.....So thats all for now.....Will be posting shortly with details of a trek that has been planned( if everything goes well...). So Auf Wiedersehen........

The Wizarding hour is nigh......

July 21st 2007......

Alone

This post is inspired by a friend who told me that she was feeling lonely. When noone is there with us, there are 2 states of mind that we may adopt. One can feel lonely or one can feel alone....and No these are not the same thing. When you feel lonely, you miss others....you feel sad...you don't feel like doing anything...overall you are in a depressed state of mind.....But being alone is not so.....aloneness means you enjoy your own company...you enjoy the fact that you are alone...your mind is at peace and you take the time you are alone to talk to yourself....in daily life we talk to all people around us but not ever to the person inside you....Being alone gives you time to resolve any heart vs head conflicts you may have....all in all being alone is being in your own company and that is never boring...Someone has said" If you don't like your own company then why impose it upon others?" So on this note..let me present to you my latest work..titled "Alone ".

Just waves of Silence till the unseen shores
And the road of my life has taken this uncharted course
They may say I am lonely
With no one around to keep me company
But I say I am alone
With no one around to stop me from going on
They may say you’ll be cold
With no one around for you to hold
But I say that I have fire in my heart
That will keep me from falling apart
They may say it’s all silent out there
With not a voice till the end that you can hear
But I say there’s music in my soul
And as long as there is music I’ll always be bold
Loneliness is a curse, a terrible one at that
With your heart weighing a ton, you’ve fallen flat
But aloneness is not what it seems
It doesn’t stop you from shining like a sunbeam
When you enjoy your own company
There is no need for another one or many
With a smile on your lips and peace in your soul
You just need to go on as if you will never grow old.


So That's it for now folks...so always remember...you may be alone...but never feel lonely....

One wonderful thing that photography does is that it changes the way you look at the world around you....you begin to notice the smaller things, which are ignored usually. You begin to see the beauty of nature....Like the photo above. This was taken in a rubber estate, the last time i visited home. If it had not been for the camera around my neck, I would'nt have given these mushrooms a second look. But there was...and I did...Thats why I love being a photographer....

Shadows by the Bright Moonlight...

A moonlit night in God's own country

Beautiful Dreamer, Wake unto me...

Starlight and Dew drops are waiting for thee..

My Worldcup Memories....

I was about an year old when India won the Cricket World cup....Like any other Indian, Cricket was in my blood from the time i learned to hold a bat...I don't remember the 1987 world cup...But I have some memories of the 1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup. One day when I came back from school, India was playing Pakistan...the scores and the situation escape my memory but Imran Khan was just coming in to bat when I arrived...With typical childish knowledge, I declared..If Imran goes for a duck, India will win...and thats how it happened....Imran was out for a duck and India won the game...The next memory I have of a world cup is also an India Pakistan encounter...you know how that clash means the world to both countries...This was the Ajay Jadeja's destruction of Waqar Younis in the 1996 world cup..I remember being devastated when Sachin got out in the semi final (Well I feel devastated every time Sachin gets out..)...The 1999 world cup was more closely followed...that being after my 12th standard exams....Memories from that include..India's 373 against Sri Lanka in Taunton, with Sourav Ganguly scoring 183 and having a 300+ run partnership with Rahul Dravid...I remember being torn between wanting them to bat on and having a wicket fall and have Sachin come in....I remember being baffled in the India- Zimbabwe game as to why Sachin was not there...I remember Sachin's hundred against Kenya after he came back from his father's funeral...But of all these, the world cup I would cherish the most (the same might be the case with almost all the fans of my age) was the 2003 edition...I love it the most not because of India's progression till the finals...But for one man's mastery over the rest...Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar at his best...Thrashing Akhtar over the point boundary.....Hooking Andrew Caddick out of the ground...Missing 2 centuries for the want of 5 runs...Maybe fate thought it all was getting too perfect...I don't have any memories to share of the ongoing world cup, mostly owing to the fact that I have not seen a game in its entirety....No motivation to stay awake till 3.30 in the morning...I hope the last 2 games left will do something to redeem it....

Courage

There comes a time in everyone's life when you feel totally down and out. You feel miserable to the extent of contemplating suicide. I've had such times too...When you have lost everything but the courage that you can face whatever is thrown at you. This courage can come from amazing sources. One of it is the reluctance to cause sorrow to your loved ones through your lack of courage. But you will see that this courage will carry you through the worst of the times. Ok..enough of intro. Now to my latest poem and surprise......It is titled Courage.

A lonely boat in a stormy sea
Facing the forces of nature
Lightning of Bad luck, Thunder of Confusion
Waves of Misery and Winds of Damnation
The boat had in it riders four
First one was man without whom this story is no more
Second rider had faith as his name
Faith, that the path he had taken was one without blame.
Third rider, Hope was a shining maiden
She said, “All these troubles will soon be at an end"
One named Courage was last one on board
He vowed that whatever comes, he'd stand his ground
Now you know the passengers four
Let’s see how the story unfolds
The storm was raging on all sides
Not a ray of sunlight anywhere in sight
It seemed that the world was at its end
The amassed fury seemed too much to defend
Faith was the first one to burn,
Hit by a lightning, he said," Maybe somewhere I took a wrong turn"
Saying thus he breathed his last
The journey ahead was worsening quite fast
Hope was the next one to die
"I don't think this will ever end" was her last cry
Even when left alone, Courage refused to give up
Through the devilish storm, he managed to keep his chin up
It took what might have been a lifetime
For the storm to vent its fury and start dying down
The winds began to slow, thunder and lightning ceased
The waves started losing their malice and the sea was coming to peace
Then courage did a wonderful wonderful thing
With a kiss, he breathed life into his kith and kin.
Faith and Hope got up with sleepy eyes
"Well what do you know" said faith, "Maybe my path after all was right"
Hope looked about taking in the scene around
"Forward my friends" she said "There is a shore to be found"
And a shore indeed did they find
A shore with peace and tranquility of mind
Once at shore, Man turned to courage, with tears in his eyes he said
"Thank you my friend! Without you I'd sure be dead"
Courage smiled and said to man “Never bother my friend"
"Stay with me and I'll take you to any journey's end"
"Never think that I don't feel fear in each breath I take"
"But what keeps me strong, what drives me on is that there's no choice to make"
"I know fear but I also know that something else is there"
"Something that is more important than all the fear everywhere"
"This something that keeps me driven until the road's end"
"Is the knowledge that I can bring you happiness my friend"

Guess Not!

Let the self denial begin.....

Will a Billion Prayers be enough?

March 23rd 2007. Friday. This is the most important day of the year till now for all the Indian cricket fans. India faces Sri Lanka in Queens Park Oval, Trinidad for a berth in the Super 8 of the 2007 ICC World Cup. A loss here would mean that India would be out of the world cup, barring a miracle of Bermuda beating Bangladesh. A loss here would mean that normal life will resume starting on Saturday. But no fan of Indian Cricket would want normal life to resume so soon. It has taken us 4 years to forget the thrashing in the 2003 World Cup finals. It has taken us 4 years to hope again for the pinnacle, to hope again for a 1983. We just cannot let all these hopes die in just 2 weeks. Being an ardent cricket fan myself, I know that it is not possible to passionately support any other team than India. It is not possible to forget the world cup and start following EPL from tomorrow. In the football world cup when Argentina fell early, we coloured ourselved Canary Yellow for Brazil. But here our souls are coloured Blue, the blue of Team India. Try as we might this colour will not come off. So if India falls at this step, then it is a weekend of self denial ahead of me. To tell myself that this does not matter and there are better things to be done rather than losing my sleep watching world cup. As difficult it might be, It will have to be done. That is why right now all I can do is pray. It is said that One day Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities. If a prayer can tip those uncertainities slightly in India's favour, then why not? But here lies the bigger question. With the sort of form the team is in right now, Will a billion prayers be enough?

Full Moon rising.....

Full moon rising, be with me forever stay with me tonight

Full moon rising, take the stars from the sky and put them in my eyes

Dark Side of the Moon

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear,

You shout and no one seems to hear.

And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

A dash of colour in my otherwise grey life...that's what you are to me.....