கயமையிலும் கயமை அபத்தத்திலும் அபத்தம்…

பிள்ளைகளுக்கு  பிரதான தொடர்பு மொழியாக  தமிழ் இருக்கும் பட்சத்தில் பிற மொழிகள் குறிப்பாக ஆங்கிலம் சிறப்பாக ஆளுமைக்கு உட்பட்டு விடும் என்று நண்பர்களுடன் பல முறை விவாதித்து இணக்கம் கண்டு உள்ளேன். இது ஏறத்தாழ 10 வருடங்களுக்கு முன்பு. அப்பொழுது நான் இன்னும் மாணவ பருவத்தை கடக்க வில்லை. நண்பர்களும் ஏறக்குறைய  அப்படித்தான். மொழியின் மேல் அன்பும் காதலும் கொண்ட ஒரு கட்டம்.

10 வருடங்களுக்கு பிறகு பல விடயங்களுக்கு மத்தியில் இந்த மைய கருவை அலசி பார்க்க ஒரு இரவு நேரம் கனிந்தது. பொருள் தேடி பணி  செய்து, தேய்ந்து கொண்டு இருக்கும் இந்த கால கட்டத்தில்தான் நண்பர்கள் பலரும் திருமணம் புரிந்து இருந்தனர். அதில் குறிப்பிட்ட ஒரு நண்பர் தனது மகளது முதலாம் ஆண்டு பிறந்தநாள் விழாவுக்கு என்னையும் அழைத்திருந்தார்.

இந்த நண்பரை எனக்கு ஏறத்தாழ 23 வருடங்களுக்கு மேலாகவே தெரியும். நல்ல தமிழ் குடும்பத்தில் பிறந்து தமிழ் வழி கல்வி கற்று தமிழ் மொழியை பிரதான மொழியாக கொண்டு வந்த ஒருவர். மகளுக்கு தேடி எடுத்து மிகவும் அருமையான நல்ல தமிழ் பெயரை சூடி இருந்தார். சொல்லும் போதே இனிக்கும் ஒரு பெயர். சொல்லி கேட்டு ரசித்து இருந்தேன்.

பின்பு நெருடலை உணர தொடங்கினேன்.

இன்னும் பேசஅறியாத அந்த குழந்தையிடம் மருந்துக்கு கூட தமிழ்   தராமல்  சீராட்டினார்கள். ஆங்கில மொழியிலே கொஞ்சுதலும் சீராட்டுதலும்  நடந்தேறி கொண்டிருந்தது .சற்று பதறினேன். தட்டி சொல்லும் அளவுக்கு உரிமை கொண்ட நண்பர், ஆகையால் சற்று கடிந்து கொள்ளும் தொனியில் தமிழுக்கும்  கொஞ்சம்  இடம் கொடுக்கலாமே என்று  சொன்னேன். அருமையான  நண்பர் என்பதால் அசடு வழிய கேட்டு கொண்டார். 

இருப்பினும் இயல்பாகவே அவருக்கும்  குழந்தையை அணுகும் மற்றவர்களுக்கும் தமிழை தள்ளி வைத்தே இருந்தனர் .

இந்த சம்பவத்தை கடந்து அலசி பார்க்கும் பொழுது குழந்தைகளிடம் ஆங்கிலத்தை திணிப்பது  இளம் பெற்றோர்கள்  மத்தியில் எளிதாக காணப்படும் ஒரு "நாகரீக" பழக்கமாக இன்று காணப்படுகிறது. பிறந்தது முதல் இந்த இளம் பெற்றோர்கள்  மழலை மொழியாகவும்  கொஞ்சல் உரையாடல் மூலமாகவும் தம் குழந்தைகளிடம் இந்த திணிப்பை ஏற்படுத்துகிறார்கள். 

இந்த மோகம் எதனால் ஏற்பட்டு இருக்கும்? வேற்று மொழயில் பிள்ளை கரை காண ஏற்பாடா? அல்லது  தம் சுய ஆணவத்தை விளம்பர படுத்தி கொள்ள இந்த குழந்தைகள் கருவிகள் ஆகின்றனவா?

என் பல கருத்துகளில் முதன்மையான கருத்து, இயற்கையோடு ஒட்டி வாழ்வதுதான் சரியான வாழ்வியலாக முடியும் என்பது அறுதியிறுதியான கருத்து ஆகும். இப்படி இருக்கையில் தமிழ் மரபில் பிறக்கும் குழந்தைக்கு அதனுடைய டீன்எ-இல் இயற்கையாக பதிந்து இருக்கும் தமிழை புகட்டுவதுதானே இயற்கையான வாழ்வியலாக இருக்க முடியும்?. அதோடு  பிறக்கும் அந்த குழந்தைக்கு உரியவர்கள் அந்த பெற்றவர்கள் மட்டும் அல்ல, அதன் மூதாதையர்களும் தானே? அப்படி இருக்கையில் அந்த இயற்கையான தொடர்பை அறுத்து எறிவது அந்த குழந்தையின் உரிமைக்கு செய்யும் ஒரு துரோக செயல்  தானே?

அந்த நண்பர் சொன்னே ஒரு ஆறுதல் " சின்ன வயசுலே ஆரபிச்சாதனே?".

எனக்கு மௌனத்திலே தோன்றியது …கயமையிலும் கயமை அபத்தத்திலும் அபத்தம்…

-வேல் முரளி-

Soodhu Kavvum - A review

I think if Vijay Sethupathi is the most versatile actor in the industry at the moment. While seasoned actors in the higher stars churning our duds after duds, Vijay is picking and choosing his script and walks away with it convincingly.

His recent performance is Soodhu Kavvum is top notch. In this film he carries the role of a petty kidnapper Dass who have five basic rules that he follows strictly in doing his business. The story revolves around what happens when he broke one of the rules. This film proves yet another point that content and the narration is crowd puller by cleverly weaving a story with twists and turn and not to forget a good dose of comedy. When I mean comedy, there’s absolutely no separate track nor double meaning dialogues or goundamani-senthil type comedies. The comedy track is woven in the dialogues and the crafting of the scenes and sure is refreshing.

Now what about other characters? The other characters are given enough scope on the screen to leave their mark. The two most impressive ones apart from Vijay is Simha and Shekhar. Their dialogue deliver and body language were superb and evoke laughter spontaneously. These thwo guys make you laugh without efforts. We also have a psycho police character who is after our gang in the second half. This is a particular character of interest because the character does not have any dialogues. Kudos to the director for the genuine attempt. The character conveys or communicate its character to the audience convincingly nevertheless by other means.

Nalan, the director is a revelation and we sure can expect better things from him in the future. He managed to carefully plan the screenplay to leave no dull moment. He crafted Vijay’s character in a very interesting manner. You will never be able to tell whether the character in the movie is plainly insane or hands down genius. He also scored by introducing an imaginary companion to vijay which is somewhat new and add a dimension to Vijay’s character.

The editing was crisp and the musis is one other area which was refreshing. The background score was apt without too much extravaganza which otherwise would have created a dull sequence. The music director was clever to use the score at minimum yet achieved better. The songs are good and does not drag away from the theme of the movie.

All in all I would recommend this movie to be watched in cinema once as its worth your 10 and believe me its way beterthan 3 per 3 kaathal and ethirneechal.

BUKIT ROTAN TEMPLE

 One fine Saturday Morning on 27.04.2013 i decided to wake up earlier than usual to make a trip to Bukit Rotan, Kuala Selangor. Its about 2 days from the Maha Kumbabhishegam of Maha Mariamman Temple which is said to be the temple which was constructed following aagamas strictly. If it is so it is indeed special. The Aaagams are a collection of scriptures in languages like Tamil and Sanskrit which speaks about methods of temple construction to the minute details from moulding of the land and to the placement of bricks. It is a great science of our fore fathers. I dont recall of having knowledge about other temples in Malaysia which was constructed based on aagamas from the beginning.

It took me about 45 minutes to reach there. The crowd was relatively small. Apart from worshipping my main intention was to observe the construction and workmanship of the temple.  
i was truly mesmerised by the way the temple has been crafted. The temple it self is very strategic in the 
vaastu sense. Now dont question my expertise i did learnt a bit by myself and  
furthermore i had a vaastu compass with me. It was windy and the chanting of the mantras can be felt throughout the temple. 

It is also seemed o be a disciplined temple whereby we should not walk straight to the moolaver. Upon entering the thalaivasal we are required to take left and pray to vinayagar first. It is worth mentioning here that whenever we visit temple we may realise that they would always place a vinayagar first. The reason is to pray to vinayagar who is nayagar of vinay also means master of deeds to bless our prayers and lead us in the correct way. 

 After that theres an array of ammans including durga and saraswathy. In the right nook we have lord Murugan with his consorts. I also realised that in the back of the karuvarai lies Vishnu. straight aheah at the right hand of the moolavar is nadavarasar and thereafter we have the nava graha. a few metres from navagraha  people were doing yaagam. Than we come down after completing one full circle into the temple via the steps at the right.

Amman was truly beautiful and powerful. She is a vortex of power indeed. The wind which blows from the karuvarai carries a serenity and peace. I managed to be part of the abhishegam for which i was truly grateful.

After that and as usual i sit down and start to take pictures. Here i share some of the pictures. 

I would suggest that people in Malaysia are truly blessed with her presence and should take the opportunity for a visit. The temple structure is really beautiful and care was taken to ensure fine touch.


 

I learnt that the temple members undertook a 15 months trip to important scared religious sites in India to harness divine vibrations from all relevant Hindu holy sites  in order to enhance the spiritual footprint of our temple and also to complement its physical attributes. 

They went specifically to all the 51 Shakti Peedams (centres of worship consecrated to Mother Shakti) which are spread out over South Asia comprising several countries including India, Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.  They also visited the following sites:

• The 51 Shakti Peedams
• The Thuasa (12) Jyothirlingam Temples
• The Astha (8) Vinayagar Temples
• The Aru (6) Padai Murugan Temples
• The Astha (8) Bhairavar Temples
• The 12 famous Vishnu and Perumal Temples
• The Sapta Nadi (7) Divine Rivers

Prayers and a homa were conducted at all these places.  Furthermore, at each of the Shakti Peedham, a yantra (a geometric religious metal diagram) embossed with the bija (seed) mantra associated with the relevant deity was sanctified and a small amount of earth from each centre was collected. 

These yantras and earth were said to be installed below the manifestation of the Principal Deity (Mother Maha Mariamman) in the Shakti Temple.  Finally, in order to facilitate the proper worship of these 51 Shaktis, their representations have been installed around the Temple.  Manifestations of all 51 Shaktis have never previously been installed in a single temple anywhere else in the world. Some of the pictures are shared here.

But i must admit that there is a real danger of this temple administration falling to the VIP preference kind of temple because all the signs points towards the same. Hopefully, this temple would remains peoples temple where everyone regardless of the social status would be regarded as same.
 I spent about three hours in the temple and left a fulfilled and peaceful person thereafter. i would encourage pepole to take this trip

TAMIL NEW YEAR

I was duty bound to write this piece after unwillingly dragged myself into the recent spat on which is to be observed as Tamil New Year. Chithirai 1^st or Thai 1st. I mentioned that I was unwillingly dragged into the spat because I was tired and decided not to indulge into this issue this year after throwing my two cents year after year particularly via facebook. But I could not refrain myself when I saw certain people advocated strongly and wrongly that Chithirai 1 which is tentatively April 14 is the Tamil New Year and not Thai 1. Furthermore, this is not about politics of the day but sorry state of a great race which have lost its identity over the last few hundred years.

Now, I don’t set out to correct the wrong or anything. I am just sharing some information which I learnt through my own research and media.  

Now, as always the focus here is Tamil New Year. Obviously we need to ponder a bit on who are Tamils before we proceed further. It is almost impossible to give a definite definition. However one thing is certain. Everyone accepts that Tamils are people who have Tamil language as their mother tongue. The Tamils formed one of the earliest and most sophisticated (if not the best) civilization. There are two schools of thoughts saying the origin of Tamils. One say we are from middle east the other sat we are from Australia. This is pre lemuria (kumari kandam) Nevertheless, I do not want to get into this otherwise this piece will a thesis. One of the core elements of a civilization is that it would have its own time system which includes a calendar, time and classification of season. The Tamils certainly have their own time system.

The Tamils named a year as aandu (a year or the act of ruling) because the way the seasonal changes (paruva maatram) in a year rule over their life. The Tamils divided the prevailing seasons in a year into 6 as ilavenil (early summer), muthuvenil  (late summer), Kaar (rainy),Koothir (cold season), munpani (early winter), pinpani (late winter). The Tamils further divide a day into vaikarai (dawn), kaalai (morning), nanpagal (early afternoon), etpaadu (late afternoon), maalai (evening), yaamam (night). This is further fine tuned into a day divided 60 naazhigai (a naazhigai is 24 minutes).

Having such a sophisticated system in place and everything is referred in pure Tamil words is it not unwise to argue that years which is not in Tamil to be Tamil years?

The Tamils start their calendar in ilavenil or early summer which commence on Thai.  Not only the Tamils every other civilization in world including the Chinese and the Japanese starts their new year on early summer. This trait speaks for itself.

A new year is a time for celebration. Celebration of a new start, new hope and new initiatives. That’s why the Tamils celebrate pongal which also means rise on the start of Thai. It’s a celebration for a rise of a good life in the year.  Not only pongal, the Tamils also do other significant initiatives in Thai such as starting new accounts, having marriages, house warming and other auspicious activities.

If this is the case when does the Chithirai 14 came into being as the “Tamil New Year”?.  Before that it, would be useful to know the story behind this calendar and the 60 years in it. The Hindu calendar which starts at the Pirava year  and ends with the Atchaya year  is believed to be started by a North Indian King called Saalivaganan. This explains why none of the 60 years does not have Tamil name. The purana (“story”) tells that once sage Naratha complained to Maha Vishnu that he was all alone with no companion. Lord Vishnu who pitied sage Naratha took the form of a woman had relationship with sage Naratha and bore 60 children. A calendar system in honor of the 60 children was started with every year is named after a child. After the 60^th year the cycle would start again from the 1^st year.

The practical problem with this calendar (apart from the purana which does not make sense) is that records could only be kept for 60 years. This calendar is useless for long term record keeping. Thus Tamil scholars such as Bharathidasan are against Chithirai as Tamil New Year argues that this calendar is both devoid of logic and is not practical.

Apart from the above the meaning some of the years denote is peculiar for example the third year in the Saalivagana calendar is called “Sukla”  which means sperm, the 23^rd year “virothi” means enemy, the 38^th year “kurothi” means avenger, the 33^rd year “vikaari” means someone ugly, the 55^th year ”thunmathi” means ill minded. It doesn’t make sense to have years in a calendar which denotes such meanings. This is not the way of life of Tamils.

On the historical perspective, anti northern sentiment among Tamil scholars were well known. A large group of Tamil scholars who were motivated by the need to put their feet down on the issue of Tamil New Year and safeguard cultural and lingual heritage of Tamils met sometime on 1921 under the leadership of Tamil Kadal Maraimalai Adigal. This gathering of scholars whom were well versed with Tamil history and culture carefully deliberated the issue of Tamil New Year and adopted the following resolutions:

That a calendar in the name and style of Tiruvalluvar is to observed;

That the above calendar is to nominated and followed as Tamil year.

Thereafter on 1939 another gathering called All India Thamizh Convention was held in Tiruchi, India and the same resolution was unanimously confirmed and carried.

There are a lot of references in Tamil literature to show that Thai has been significant in the lives of Tamil. Some are as follows (in its original language):

 "தைஇத் திங்கள் தண்கயம் படியும்" (நற்றிணை)

 "தைஇத் திங்கள் தண்ணிய தரினும்” (குறுந்தொகை)

  "தைஇத் திங்கள் தண்கயம் போல்" (புறநானூறு)

  "தைஇத் திங்கள் தண்கயம் போல" (ஐங்குறுநூறு)

  "தையில் நீராடி தவம் தலைப்படுவாயோ" (கலித்தொகை)

Apart from the above, we also have proverbs like “Thai piranthaal vazhi pirakkum” which points the significance of the month of Thai.

Chithirai on the other hand is the hottest month in Tamil lands. Tamils do not prefer the month of Chittirai. They avoid auspicious events as the aforesaid on this month. They even try the hardest to avid delivery of child in this month, They call this month “peedai maatham” loosely translated as bad month. Tamil literature and stone inscriptions in Tamil lands does not say anything about auspicious undertakings done in this month. There are even records of Kings such as Rajaraja Chola who was in war most of his life avoid military expedition on this month.

There you go people with the above I rest my case. I might have missed some points here and there. I will happily update in future when I have more information. Finally I would like to reproduce in English what the famous write Dr. Mu. Va has said “… In older times Chithirai was never the first day of a year. The Elders celebrated Thai 1^st as the new year. Their intention was the new year ought to bring new lease of life. It ought to bring newness or novelty or freshness into food, dress, home, mind. They will celebrate the new year with festivals…”.

Aadhi Bhagavan - A review

Aadhi Bhagavan is the 4th directorial venture of acclaimed director Ameer Sultan after Moounam Pesiyathey, Raam and Paruthiveeran. In just 4 films Ameer has chalked up an image for himself.

No one can certainly forget Paruthiveeran which brought nativity of Madurai to our living room. The characters were chosen and crafted to perfection.

After the setting such standards it is easy to understand the hype and expectations one would have going into the cinema halls. How did it fare?

Before we get into the actual review let’s see who’s who and the team behind the movie. Jaya Ravi and Neetu Chandra play the leads. The movie was produced by one Anbu Films and features music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Cinematography is by R. B. Gurudev and K. Devaraj and editing by Ram Sudharsan. The film took a whopping 3 years for completion

First things first. Ravi appears in dual role. Aadhi and Bhagavan. Aadhi is a gangster in Bangkok, living a luxurious life is separated from family for having earned the wrath of his mother for choosing a career she is not happy with. And enters Neetu Chandra as his lady love where he finds comfort and solace. Just as he proposes for marriage, Neetu Chandra says that he needs to go to Mumbai to meet her father and gets his permission. The first half was moving around aimlessly and you start to wonder whether this is another story of a don correcting his ways and blend into society with his love of life.

But then the real story starts to unfold when the second role of Ravi is introduced as Bhagavan, who is a local don in Mumbai, wanted dead or alive by the police  after murdering brother of a cabinet minister.

The story is escalated when it was revealed at the end of first half that Neethu Chandra is actually companion of Bhagavan.  To save Bhagavan from Mumbai police, Neetu Chandra, drafts a plan to lure Aadhi into a trap to create a case of mistaken identity. Did Neetu Chandra managed to score her plan or whether Aadhi escaped forms the rest of story.

There was never a dull moment in the second half. The story unfolds quickly and scenes were racy at the same time clear. We can easily understand why a particular character is acting in a particular way. No scenes were wasted.

Adhi was not convincing as a gangster. He looked like a romantic hero. His performance as a gangster is pretty soft.  However, Bhagavan as a twisted don was convincing. Ravi did a commendable performance. Particularly in carrying the role of Bhagavan who is an effeminate male. The effort he took to portray the body language was perfect. Neetu Chandra was a revelation. She is by far the most original “bond girl” I have seen in Tamil movies. She emotes well and scores a perfect 10 in action scenes. She was indeed the better performer than Ravi.

The Camera works is awesome. Bangkok night scenes were canned superbly. Angles were carefully chosen and scenes were shown from the best angle. Particularly few scenes like Ravi and Neetu embracing, Bhagavan waiting in the room of the politician and of course the chase sequence towards the climax. The movement of the scenes was refreshing.

Music wise, its definitely not yuvan’s best. The theme music was engaging. The romantic numbers should be done away with. The agadam bagadam slowed down the pace a bit. Overall the music was quite disappointing.

One thing which paused me a bit was the way Aadhi knowingly avoided to strike the vital parts of Bhagavan to finish him off after earlier indicating his clear intention to do so. Anyhow, the director has hinted on a sequel towards the end. It would be interesting to see if it really materializes.

Overall, the movie is a entraining watch. I enjoyed this one better than Viswaroopam. I would recommend for a watch.

Managing Clients

Hello all,

Now. All of us meets client under different labels. You could be a teacher, a taxi driver, a professional or even a simple worker. Whether you are running your own business or working in corporate, you often deal with clients. Clients are backbone of any business, so it is important to have good communication with them. Here are three points you should take care while communicating with your clients:

1. Develop comfort level: Client may not care about how much you know or how good your services or products are unless he/she has good comfort level with you. Comfort level means you have friendly behavior and your client feels welcome in your presence.

Let me just remind you it happens sometimes we share few thing with our friends but not with our parents or siblings. The only reason for this is we have very good comfort level with our friends. So if you want to have repeat business from a client or you want your client to refer you to other people, maintain good comfort level with clients.

2. Help to find result: Sometimes a prospective client approaches me telling that she/he wants to go for personality development course. When I do litter question answer session with him/her, I find client is actually looking for spoken English course.

You client is not an expert to give you his or her exact requirement. So it is always the best approach to ask meaningful question, so that you can understand exact requirement of your client. If you want to serve a client without understanding actual need of the client, you will surely spoil your relationship with the client. Hence it is your duty to help client to know what he actually wants.

3.Communicate in challenges in advance: Neither your boss or nor your client will tolerate a sudden bad news. Suppose you are supposed to deliver a project/report on 25th June and this assignment was given to you on 1st June; on 15th June you came to know that project would be delayed by one week.

You were aware on 15th June that project would be delayed; you could have informed your management or client about the same on the same day. Another approach is you inform your client or management on 24th about the same.

If you inform them on 24th, your boss or client can hardly do anything except shouting at you. Had you informed the delay on 15th itself, client or management would have made some alternative arrangement. Situation would have been under control had they got information in advance.

Ok friends i hope the above helped you that bit. I will try to be more active henceforth. Good day people :)