From and including: Monday, March 21, 1977
To, but not including : Wednesday, March 21, 2012

It is 12,784 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date
Or 35 years excluding the end date

Alternative time units –
12,784 days
1,104,537,600 seconds
18,408,960 minutes
306,816 hours
1826 weeks (rounded down)

I was somewhat faceless, like a nomadic traveller. There was no friend who spotted me when walking in Pondy Bazaar, no mael veettu aathi pinnal ponnu who chuckled at me atleast once a day, no paalakaran who asked when I dropped by, no librarian welcoming me like a bakra to his shop. Ok, a distant distant related maama actually found me in some kutcheri and asked me, ” ambi eppidida padippu poguthu?”. Something he should have asked me 10-12 years ago. That apart, I was a literally anonymous in my own city. And I’m grumpy about it but not then.

While I was enjoying the new found anonymity that I never had in Chennai, I’m irritated that Chennai has lost its small cityness. You know what I mean, more places, more automobiles, more people, more everything. This again sounds like a desi rant or cheran’s nostalgic movie episode but its very true.

Anyway, I find travelling so invigorating and its because of this anonymity but not in my own city. No.

On the other hand(pun intended) alarm clocks have never won a battle with me. Including the ‘smart’ phone’s snooze clock that just stops vibrating after some time. Don’t mistake, I’m not a crazy 10 hour sleeper. I totally control how much I sleep or vice versa but never a clock decides its time for me to wake up. Occasionally banging doors and cooing sounds from a family member have worked but they have given it up too.

Today(30 mins past m.night now), I need to wake up by 6 and I have it all tuned in the alarm clock. Will let you know if it worked…for some reason, miraculously.

At the closing of another not-so-eventful day, same sunrise, same highway drive, predictable news, email, people and I’m thinking, Is there a point?

Watched Angadi Theru last week and actually liked it. Candidly made. I’m usually the one who hates tear-jerkers but this one had some genunity to it. Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru wasn’t all the great as I expected. Except for Mouli who just melts easily into a character. Probably the missed Morgan Freeman of kollywood.

And Paiyaa. Surprise, I liked it. It was cliched but nevertheless wasn’t all that boring. Atleast Karthi with his extra make-up pulled it very well. Plus the songs made it easy to watch.

Watching Avatar on DVD killed the spirit of the film that I enjoyed watching in IMAX. On the big screen, I couldn’t pick up the animation as much as I did on DVD.

Raavanan album was a bummer. Sometimes experimentation can go over-board as you could…hear. Maybe I’m disliking Mani’s films since Sujatha isn’t around to ground it to the Tamil senses. With very low expectations, anything more than that will be a bonus.

Reading: Poetry after a long long time.
Writing: Short Short Story.
Listening: Dylan’s Simple Twist of Fate

Caught up listening to the latest episodes of This American Life. How I wish we had an Ira Glass for All India Radio.

Did someone realize, Idai Vazhi Oru Modhal Sei from Goa has some subtly written sleazy lyrics? The moral police of Chennai seems to have missed the whole point. I actually liked the way Vaali managed to sneak in the sleaze. BTW, as discussed elsewhere, Goa was terribly boring. Didn’t find anything interesting except a single situational comedy.

Pedro Almodóvar’s film noir flick, Bad Education was a disturbing watch but nevertheless very interesting. Just like the Ira Glass comparison, I only wish we get a Gael García Bernal for kollywood. I dont even think anyone comes closer to his acting caliber. Such a pity.

High: My feed reading activity has picked up offlate. Been reading some good ‘critical thinking’ feeds for the last few days. Do we need critical thinking is a different question for a different time. For now its just good food for thought. No, not the 140 character types.
Low: Lots of things to catch-up. Quite a bit of read/writing to do.
Also saw: Horton hears a Who and loved it. ‘A person is a person, no matter how small’ – how true. Now thats a good book to gift a kid with.

So I was indeed shocked looking at the new pack today. When opened, to my relief, I found it had the same design. Somehow they haven’t changed the design, atleast yet, for the exports. So that’s good. And that’s how I got my biscuit back.

More Biki love, here and here.

I wish and hope that I could be as raw, naive and unfettered as those days.

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.

- Gautama