My Bookshelf Challenge

So My favorite comic artist Grant Snider From Incidental Comics uploaded this marvellous work recently. The thing about his comic strips are that they are so detailed and the words have as much power as the images. I thought I'll do my annual book update via this structure. So Here goes..

2017 has been a disappointing year reading wise. I read only 13 books of my target 30. I also read out of my comfort zone. Sci Fi , Tamil fantasy , Rural based books and classics are really not my cup of tea and cold the cup remained till I gulped it like a medicine. 

Don't worry I also hate it when they make the movie poster the book cover

The Sci Fi book was Ender's Game. Not bad actually got sucked into the dystopian alien fighting kids fighting monsters schtick in the end. Apparently it is a whole big franchise. Read it if you are into that kinda thing. 

The two tamil books I tried this year were Ponniyin Selvan and Moondram Ulaga Por. 

Must Read

Ponniyin Selvan was every bit the epic it promised to be and I can't wait to read the next books in the series! Kalki is really an artist of mythical proportions. However , since I was reading Tamil after a very long time it took me time to read this book. 

Moodram Ulaga Por was quite honestly Moondram Ulaga Bore. While Tamil flows like poetry to our author Vairamuthu , the subject matter is handled very didactically. But lots of mann vasanai and muyal kari. I can understand why people would relate to this book. However , I didn't think we needed a literal white savior to fix our agrarian scenario. 

I read Gulliver's Travels finally. While it was fascinating at first , some of the adventures like meeting the floating island people and science hating people got boring real fast. Still a fascinating satire which makes us question the nature of Human Civilisation. 

Moving on to the challenge : - 

1) The Book I couldn't put down - Every Jefferey Archer book. Every Damn one. That man knows how to write a story. If I had to pick one , it will be Kane and Abel probably. 

<3

2) The book I couldn't pick up - My law textbooks are heavy af 

3) The book you gave me / which I haven't read - Oops. Quite a lot unfortunately. First on the line will be Jackdaws by Ken Follett gifted by Naveena which I will read ASAP. 

4) The book I brought to the beach - Who does that to books? :O Although when I was a kid I used to sneak Famous Five books into the bathroom so that I can read in between my bath. Yes , I was that kid. 

5) The book I tried so hard to like - More like the book I am trying so hard to like. War of the Worlds by HG Wells. My my I never knew end of the world can be this boring! Another book that I just couldn't sit through was Shame By Taslima Nasreen. How can someone cut paste stuff from wikipedia and call that a book?

6) Book I have multiple copies of - Only Time will Tell By Jefferey Archer. It came out in 2010 right around my birthday and suddenly everyone was gifting me the same thing! This made me lay down a rule that No more Jefferey Archer books as gifts on my b'day ( my brother was assigned to buy me them every year ^_^ somehow every Clifton Chronicle book released around by Birth date :D ) 

7) The Book that saved my life - Well a lot of books have shaped me as a person. Secret Seven Series by Enid Blyton opened the magical pathways to books for me. This saved me from becoming a Tamil Serial addict at the tender age of 8 :P 

8) The Book I lent you - I have a strict no lending policy and catalogue all my books. They are my treasure , how can I risk losing them? 

9) The book I fall asleep to every night - I never re read , there are too many books to be read out there! 

10) The book I mistook for a hat - Blasphemy!

11) The book I am desperately trying to write - History written as fun short stories for kids. 

12) All the books that changed my life - Oh boy. Five Find outers Series by Enid Blyton , Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling , Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer , Perry Mason Series by Erle Stanley Gardner , Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and Paths of Glory By Jefferey Archer. 

You can also respond to these questions in the comments! Will be fun trust me. 

Everyday I'm shufflin' xD

Music plays a vital role in all our lives.It makes the world a much more beautiful place to live in :) If there was a situation where i had to choose one among my 5 senses - I would pick hearing. In my opinion,

'Those who can't listen to music are deaf and those who don't are dumb'

 For a long time music to me was synonymous with film music- that too tamil songs. A.R . Rahman and Ilayaraja will remain my favorites forever and after :P
Harris , Yuvan , Vidyasagar , Anirudh , DSP are my other favorites in tamil music industry.

Even when i was a toddler of 2, I used to dance for 'mustafa mustafa' - the friendship anthem :') Due to my grandmother's influence I was forced to attend carnatic concerts and  much to everyone's amazement I ENJOYED THAT ALSO :O
Adults being adults , mistook my enthusiasm towards listening to music as equal to that of practicing it. and umm... that didn't go too well :P Only after my music teacher passed away due to blood cancer and my keyboard master got a brain stroke did they realize that my learning music didn't augur well for the universe.
Finally left alone to pursue 'listening' ,   I expanded my auditory horizons by adding western ( a bit late i admit) , hindi and anything youtube offered to my repertoire.

Listening to music also means another thing to me - shuffling. I let my shuffle do the talking , in this case singing! Weirdly my mp3 player and my itunes player, read my mood pretty well and have come handy in times of distress and happiness .
So why am I rambling about music all of a sudden?
a) music rocks
b) i have to write something :P
c) I have always wanted to put on my shuffle player and write a song about the random tune that pops :D
So here we go--------!!!-------??-----xD------>

1. This song didn't come in the shuffle. But what the heck :P This song really needs to be talked about and promoted. The song is called 'ezhavu' and it features in the underrated tamil film '5 5 5 ' . So what is so special about this track? Apart from the hilarious one liners sprinkled and the groovy beat that makes this instantly adorable , it is completely based on the creepy theme of 'DEATH' . Kudos to the director for deciding to do a song on death which many usually may find on the wrong side of superstition. This song DESERVES TO GO VIRAL.

2.The biggest tamil hit of 2012 , "sollitaley ava kadhala" ( she has told her love) in the voice of ranjitha and Shreya Ghosal pushed its music director to the zennith of his career. The album kumki has cleaned up all the music awards this year. One listen in to the album and you'll know why. Staying true to its tribal elephant based identity , almost all its tracks are melodies and the folk one is a trendsetter! This particular song though simple, stands out for its melodious tune , voice of the singers and also the stunning visualisation of the hilly forests <3

3. Ah! A kamal song on his birthday = perfect xD Didn't I tell you about the freaky skills of my itunes shuffle? 'Germaniyin' song sung by the legendary S.P.B and Janaki in the film 'Ulasa Paravaigal' ( happy birds) has achieved cult status and is one of the earlier songs of ulayaganayagan Kamal Haasan :') It is one of the favorite songs of my parents and really shows us why Kamal was known as the kadhal mannan ;) ( king of romance ) 

4.'Modhi Vilayadu' sung by Hariharan and Deva is popular for the very reason. It signifies the confluence of two very different legends who are kings of their own domains. While Deva is more popular for his 'gaana' or folk/ mass songs , Hariharan is the undisputed king of melodies. This song inspires and lifts up my mood every time i listen to it . And the fact that it is partly about cricket helps matters xD

          

5.'Runaway Heart' by Glenna is fiercely addictive and literally pulls your heart strings . It is my favorite track from the one tree hill album :'D The fact that a 20 second promo song can refuse to leave your heart and force you to track it down restores my faith in music. And for obvious reasons I visualize lucas and peyton everytime i listen this song. Why did they not end the show after the 6th season itself? :/

6. 'Parda' from once upon a time in mumbai is one of the few songs I gathered from MTV . Till then I didn't have much clue about Ajay Devgn ( apart from the fact that he  was Kajol's husband) and I still don't :P Stylish song , remake of the retro times and Sunidhi Chauhan is really flawless xD Monicaaa oh my daarling!

7 .Last song. c'mon shuffle! 'Bleed it out' by linkin park is a wild wild song ^.^ I listened to the live concert version of this song and it brought about my 'live songs' craze - where I would download the live versions of tracks instead of the official ones , much to the dismay of my friends. 'Bleed it out' is the kind of song where you can scream your guts out along with the song and feel like a rockstar and of course go CRAZY!!

As usual my shuffle has brought about spectacular variety to a small span of seven songs. I really don't know about the end product but i swear making this post and reliving these songs has been FUN indeed :D

Hoping it rubs off on you also , 

Semi :) 

Heart tunes ~

This conniving weather is bad. It has lulled us  into sleep which we never can catch and has made our enthusiasm into bitterness and made us a bunch of bored and unpleasant teenagers.... - more than ever!! This occasional rain...and the ever present moisture in the air which is silently screaming "Sleep. Sleep" is just awesomely creepy.

All the 'pairs' either seem to be breaking up or getting caught , which directly leads them to be broken up. Guys! Be careful. Studies have again taken a backseat. Obviously. The cycle tests are OVER. Term exams are a month away.......jobless times for students. So please don't be surprised by the sharp inflation in the number of fights , tears and the hugs (which invariably come later)  which happen at this time of the year. Also ,  the prices have shot up over the sky. No , this is not about flaunting my GK skills alone. The power / electricity costs have increased by 110 - 120% , which means a frown on my mother's face when I switch on the computer and the bus passengers receive TWO tickets for their fare. Yes , the prices have doubled.
All this mood development is to prove that the atmosphere - geographically and socially - is very negative. So negative that you can feel the static electricity all over you! ( Few may call it mosquito) . It is no wonder that a simple , catchy and a generally abusive song became a hit! Yes. All the tamil people out in the world are singing aloud ' Why this Kolaveri Di' by the one and only Dhanush!

How is the gear change, machi?
Now everyone wants to know the meaning of 'kolaveri' . It simply means 'a fury to kill' or something like that. So , the line means 'Why do you have this deadly fury , girl?' So , all the heartbroken people out there have embraced the song. Haha. The rest of the song is mostly English(!) - so please interpret. What makes the song tick is Dhanush's raw voice. It seems very accessible and even I want to join in with him and complete the song! Watching a song being a made has never been this interesting - Rajinikanth's Daughter and Kamal haasan's daughter in the same studio xO <3 , the cute music director who looks as though he just came out off school and of course Dhanush.

This Bad!

I must say that , once upon a time Dhanush was highly unattractive. People were impressed - only by his guts to come to acting with such a body. A very thin excuse for an actor! The story of his films were good and his boy next door image gave him some stability. Soon , he married Aishwarya - the superstar's daughter xO , won the national award and got a stylist - or at least a sense of it. What has been impressive is his humility and foot to the earth approach - surely learnt from the superstar, one would note. And he has just royally replaced Simbu , is arch rival to become the hottest singer in town.

One must say that Simbu , STR or whatever he call himself is not bad. He only started the idea of understandable lyrics - sung by the hero himself routine. However , as he found himself multitasking acting , direction , dance and everything else in one go we don't see a lot of anything! We do accept that he has taken to singing very seriously - lending his voice to various films and singles over the years. So , the now his voice his not quite that remarkable :P

No one denies that 'Evan di unna pethan' rocked the charts. However his obsession with himself saw him patronize himself in a song about his 'pondatti' or (wife) !   So the situation is pro - Dhanush now. However , no one knows if Dhanush and Simbu are competing at all or if all this a mirage created by weary people in need of the juicy gossip.
I wrote all this without glancing at cinema plus or Sify - I rock! =P I must admit that I haven't updated myself with all the latest gossip though. Everything sounds the same and made up to my expert ears. So basically what I say is this - when my whole personal life is messed up , I look at the magazines and thank god that I have only blood hungry dogs chasing after me and not news hungry reporters....*aargh*
Still depressed? Hear this :

Lets BURST - with Happiness?!

Its been exactly 18 days since I blogged. This time even I don't know why I took a break! The only comforting incident would have been when my friend said ' Semi, its been so long since you posted a link on my wall' . Haha , the ways in which they commute their love for my blog :P and the ways I spam them xD




I know I need to blog something worthwhile but my brain doesn't seem to be working - probably because  my grandmom is gossiping tambhram stuff sitting right next to me!! xO So please don't expect a masterpiece - read with low expectations and close the tab with fulfillment!!

Now please sniff the air around you - what do you smell??? The last few gasps of fresh air I bet. Don't you understand??? Diwali is in the AIR!!! For all those  with an  unforgivably low I.Q  Diwali is the bestest festival Hinduism has to offer!! Not satisfied with this understandable definition? Then suffer. :  

"Diwali (also spelled Devali in certain regions) or Deepavali,^[1] popularly known as the "festival of lights", is an important festival in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, celebrated for different reasons, occurring between mid-October and mid-November"
or so says Wikipedia , which is user defined. *dramatic pause* I have always had this doubt! Isn't the whole of internet 'user defined' ??! 
Yeah. Enough of '??' to cover my lack of content. and lets jump back to the topic - DIWALI. 
What makes this festival so much FUN? Lets go in order : 

• Wake up early in the morning at 4 AM (umm .. not exactly fun. But my mom will be proud x) ) 

• Have this really intense oil bath. Almost all the hygienic problems of India will get solved if we have diwali everyday . Almost everyone has a bath on that day and some have baths ONLY on that day. 

Tool of the trade!

• Easily the BEST and WORST part of Diwali. Yes , the Crackers!!! Start with 'bhusvaanam' or the flower pots , the ashok chakars or the colourful wheels (?) , then moves on to the explosives or the vedi. This includes the atom or hydrogen bombs and are louder than they sound xD also the desi sparrow shots or the kuruvi vedi and other vedis named after deities!! THEN we have the show stealers - Rockets and fancy fireworks! They light up the sky and look beautiful *grr* (just got a goose bump) I would love to yap on more about crackers ^_^  then I wouldn't know what I am saying and it would be 'all smoke and no fire' 

curse me :P

• When you are about to light the 100 wala and just about to start all the noise and smoke - be sure of one thing. Grandmother will play spoilsport. But for a good reason I say ( notice the quick gun murugan slang) - she brings in a plate full of SWEETS and SNACKS. and with all the gunpowder which refuses to let go even when washed you grasp the food  and bite.........YUM! 

• If you really don't want those extra pounds and are not really interested in crackers as such (:O) I have a quick solution for you - MOVIES. All the best movies of the year get released during diwali . PROOF - 7am arivu (the seventh brain) featuring Surya <3 =* and shruti haasan is releasing on diwali!!!! Of course Sharukh Khan's Much hyped Ra. One which I must admit looks too good to be true with a Robot SRK ( he actually looks kinda cute...) and a ravishingly desi kareena kapoor! Also Vijay's Velayutham - where he is a milkman with superhuman abilities and 2 girlfriends ( Swear on god that is the one liner!) and Dhanush's  Mayakkam Enna which has won its first round with the MUSIC xD 
• I know ... getting tickets the first day is tough =( If so , you can always switch on the idiot box. I bet there will be lots on offer ( although the schedules haven't been released yet) Axn is doing a ' x factor' marathon on that day I heard - NO thank you. 

• Get together with family and friends. Bursting with your friends - in happiness and in crackers- is awesome. The day is surely entertaining with at least one person bombing the other!! Last year I burst an atom bomb in my hand xO - No don't feel for me , I didn't follow ANY safety protocols - I rock. More freakish - To help a scaredy cat of a friend ,my cousin yuyu decide to hold that guys hand. After not lighting up the 7 shots for atleast twenty minutes that crazy bugger did light it! Happy right? No :P Yuyu was caught off guard and all the 7 shots hit his eye! 
• Scaring the dogs which scare / chase you for the rest of the year ( I know right? I aM evil. ) 

Isn't the air infected with Diwali - ness already?? At least I am!! For once I am happy to be born this way! 

umm........I am supposed to be a responsible blogger. At the same time , I don't preach what I don't do. So which side do I take? Crackers DO pollute the earth...but so do cars , fridges , autos , factories and plastics. Being a wimp and not bursting anything sux , however being a daredevil and bombing your house is also not very...feasible. So as usual I take all the stances semi in nature =) ( what a cool way to be diplomatic! xD ) 

and We Burst!!!

                                                                                                                               Bosomed with FUN

                                                                                                                                   SEMI xD 

Tamil mass heroes = loss heroes!

It is a widespread fact that Tamil films are not doing well for the past 2-3 years. Very few films are achieving success and our super heroes are the ones suffering the most.A quick look at the top heroes recent success rats is more than enough to showcase this truth.
Ilayathalapathi vijay is having a poor run for last 3 years. All his fan support is going in vain as all his films seem to have the same story and the same fate at the box office.After pokkiri in 2006 all his films are big duds.Azhagiya tamizh magan  didn't run well as it was neither commercial nor had a proper story.After that came kuruvi(2008) , villu(2009) which were big flops which started questioning the actor's credibility as the box office king. Vijay's next venture with sun pictures fared decently at the box office mainly due to sun pictures advertising and promos.The actor's next film is sura where he is trying to straighten is campaign.

Ultimate star ajith always takes a film at a time and tries to give a different product every time. After Billa, a big blockbuster came Aegan, an action comedy,remake of srk's main hoon na  , which didn't run well. Then came aasal , the usual don story, which had an average fare in the box office. Ajith's upcoming film is announced to be a cop story.Hope he strikes a winning rhythm.

      

Slow and steady "Chiyan" vikram as he is fondly called puts a huge amount of effort in every film he works in.After the blockbuster anniyan in 2005 , he worked for 3 years in bheema.But bheema didn't produce the desired results and ended a flop.Then he came as a cop and superhero in kanthaswamy which was heavily criticized and didn't fare well as proclaimed.He is acting in Mani ratnam's asokavanam and raavan and has raised high expectations of the film.

      

Actor surya maybe the only one who tasted success in these years.His film Vaarnam aayiram although slow was well received and appreciated by audience.The next one, Ayan was an action blockbuster and surya's fame increased.Aadhavan raised everyone's expectations and although dissapointed some still showed a success which was rare in the other actor's films.Surya is promising with his new look in singam.

                                  
The main reason for big heroes film flopping is likely due to the lack of emphasise in the story and acting.Unnecessary importance to formulas,cast,style and glamour has led to these losses.But at the same time ayan , a shrewd action film has won because of the story. So, there is still cope for our heroes to make it big!!!!!