Mahanati Hangover

There is something about this movie. It has invigorated the romantic in me and stirred me so much that I have no option but pen my thoughts on it. It is not that the film is without flaws – the ‘innocent’ phase of savitri tests our patience , the film maybe guilty of being too in love with its protagonist and background score was sometimes just TOO loud and it ( perhaps understandably) hesitates to go too deep into the character’s psyche or action. However , the film soars above because of only one reason – Keerthy Suresh.

Right before I had the lucky opportunity to watch this movie (twice) , Keerthy Suresh was my least favourite actress. Maybe because she acted in Bhairavaa , Remo and Thodari – the three worst films inflicted on mankind. Maybe because she was more Loosu than ponnu in her loosu ponnu roles. She isn’t typically glamorous or stylish ( not that I particularly care) nor did she show any acting skill which would warrant her inclusion in all the latest films.

Until now.

She begun the movie with the usual bubbly , enthucutlet beats. I resigned myself for a dud. But then Gemini Ganesan A.K.A Dulquer A.K.A ‘Ammadi’ dropping Kadhal Mannan entered and the film sprang to life. We could see why she fell in love , even though there were huge warning signs everywhere. He isn’t a bad dude either. It is just life. Then comes her transition into ‘Mahanati’ / ‘ Nadigaiyar’ Thilagam’ . Although I haven’t watched any of the movies which she acted out in black and white I could see the greatness. I could see the Savitri in Keerthy. Ganga became Chandramukhi. There was something awesome about her walking elegantly to the Mahanati BGM. Like Rajini walking.

Then her heartbreak and downfall. Damn Keerthy is good. I’m assuming she used prosthetics for the heavy portions and she emoted so well. Maybe I am praising too much. But she was worth it.

Also , all this throws light on the fact that the tamil and telugu industry really need to pump out more scripts for their heroines. They used to in the 50’s, why can’t they now? When everything is apparently more advanced.

The sets and art design made me nostalgic for a time I know nothing about. Madras with trams and taxis looked so good, I wish there were more period movies made. They have a charm which we somehow are not able to capture in our ‘now’ movies.

The songs are so good. ‘Mouna Mazhayile’ is all shades of romantic and mesmerizing. Mahanati BGM is so regal and ‘ Irudiyil enna Minjum’ is just haunting…. The direction , shots were really beautiful. Telugu Cinema with Bahubali , Arjun Reddy and Mahanati now is showing how to be grand and good at the same time.

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. 

Cinema Kaaram Kaapi

I used to be a cinema paithiyiam. Used to know every Cheran movie , every random flick on K T.V and used to fill journals with my stray observations about a new film , gossip or even song lyrics. Then college happened. And I got more hooked to English T.V shows. However , this sem break I got time to catch up on tamil cinema and renew my love affair with Kollywood. And since I have my own blog now , I thought why not note my stray observations on this space.

1) The movie watching experience  :

  So a couple of days back I was poring through Baradwaj Rangan's blog on Wordpress primarily because I was bored. Also , I found the discussions under his review to be greatly informative and entertaining. Many people were attacking the critic for expressing his opinion over the film. But what else are you supposed to do as a film critic?
The movie watching experience is a very subjective one and depends on what you expect from a film. Brangan likes to watch movies which emphasise form over content , the making must be good. Most front row viewers care about their stars and how they are projected. Some people come to cinema to 'escape' reality and expect wholesome entertainment with no messages. Some people care about what a movie conveys even if the execution eg.Kaththi. And so I asked myself what do I look for in a movie?
For me the film should be engaging and there must be some care gone into it. When I sit in the theatre it should enthral me and hold my attention in some way. Organic twists are highly appreciated too :P If the movie is trying to be emotional it should go all out and stay true to its genre and not try to be reluctant attempt.
One person's mokka is another person's pokkisham :P

2) acham enbathu madamaiyada!

 I ended up watching my first Simbu film and first GVM movie in theatre ( I think) Did you know the film was originally titled to be ' sattendru marudhu vanilai'! I think that title would have been more apt for this film. While the first half of the film is a tad slow it is very natural and shows a steady romance brewing between the leads. The road portions of the movie were very picturesque , however back to back songs bore you after a point. Watch out for the picturization of Thalli Pogathey song ( getting polarising views - I liked it) The second half proceeds at a brisker pace with well staged action elements. However , the last 15 - 20 minutes of the film were utterly inorganic with the entire story , contrived and leave you very confused when you leave the movie hall. It actually ruins the decent work made by the rest of the film I feel. The audience I felt were all overloaded with random info when they walked out of the theatres. And that is why I gave such a detailed review of this film. I do not how to gauge it at all! A very decent experience till the climax and S.T.R at his natural best and A.R. Rahman god level as usual. GVM should really get new stories repeating the same plot and characters movie after movie is just sad when you have such good technical ability and execution.

3)  Kamal gautami broke up gaizzz!!

 More importantly Kamal lost his private space completely. I know even Brangelina couldn't escape it but why are people so obsessed with the personal lives of actors? Do we scrutinise the personal lives of our doctors? Maybe we should , they hold scalpels over our bodies after all. But no , we go fulla into why Kamal and Gautami. Is it because of Shruti Haasan or Gautami's daughter or Ramya Krishnan. Romba mukkiyam. And even if you read all this nonsense don't judge the actor or his brilliant work on the basis of such unverified nonsense. It doesn't make him look bad. It makes you look bad.

4)  Too much youth pa

 I don't want to sound like a paati but nowadays they make movies for the 'youth' pasanga only. While there is sudden acceptability for sci fi , thrillers and other experimental movies and the traditional action , romance being rock steady and horror of too many horror comedies , where are the Family dramas and genuine comedies? I'm pretty sure family audiences don't want to watch skimpily clad heroines and stalker boy romances and Tasmac scenes and unnecessary violence in the name of U films :P

5) Scriptu choose panrathu

While someone should start picking scripts for Vikram ( paavam he keeps wasting his talent in duds) and Surya is decidedly unlucky ( most of his movies sound good on paper) why can't the average star pick a better script or atleast ask for some kadai instead of 2 hours and 20 minutes of the same gangster/cop movie he did 2 films back? There are so many good directors in the industry now yet our star vehicles are reluctant to change.
Not everyone can be a Vijay sethupathi or Ulaganayagan and be ballsy but be a bit Vishnu Vishal atleastnu we are asking.

So what do you expect from a nalla padam?
Did you watch Aym? Ungal karuthu?
What do you think about this whole celebrity gossiping culture?
What kind of genre would you like to see in Tamil cinema?
Who did you think picks the best scripts and who need to improve?
Let's discuss xD

Devil's Paradise

So within a day of pitching the idea , I come up with my latest blog idea ' Devil's paradise' . Here , any original work which wants to get published anonymously gets a chance to be so published. I introduce to you , the first post - a fictional write up of a 11 year old authoress and her writing ethics. Please leave a feedback as the budding writers may continuing writing only on your honest feedback!https://semisharings.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/quandries-of-a-11-year-old/

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Kabali da!

Nothing screams CHENNAI more than Rajinikanth. The fervour with which he is ‘worshipped’ is looked at by outsiders with cynical and smug eyes. No one has ever managed to capture the public’s collective consciousness like him. When he falls sick , people pray for his welfare. He is seen as an extension of one’s own family. This may seem as pretty naive to many. But I feel it just embodies the welcoming and loving spirit of Chennai.

The almost individualistic human spirit which rose to the occasion during the recent floods.Celebrities and common people alike helped many silently and not so silently.

I heard many saying that the hype around Rajinikanth is being Media manufactured. While it does require strong muscle to put up so many posters and achieve visibility via tie ups with 5 star , Air Asia and Amazon they count for squat when people don’t accept it.

The fortunate or unfortunate truth ( however you see it) is that people have accepted Rajini as one of their own. They love him. I love him. There is something about him you just cannot ignore.

Ram Gopal Varma recently posted an ugly tweet questioning the Rajini phenomenon , basically making a joke about his looks. That is another reason why I love us. We don’t really care how our heroes look. ( we do care how our heroines look , but that is reserved for another day) Rajini may not act like Kamal Haasan but he has a villainous streak from his early days in his career which shines through in motta boss scenes of Sivaji or the vasi meh scenes in Enthiran / Robot.

The first movie I watched was Padayappa and to this date I watch it every time it comes on the television. To understand the rajini love you need to understand the emotions a fan goes through when you watch his movies. But how can I explain the gaped mouthed goosebumpy feels every fan feels when they watch a movie of his? The clichéd but mandatory Intro scene where you scream your lungs out , not really caring about the dialogues or anything else for that matter? The necessary SPB intro song where he reluctantly shakes his hips in his trademark style? The way he so coolly throws the cigarette/chewing gum in his mouth and his punch dialogues!!!

Punch dialogues are one line counters delivered in Rajini style. All else is shite.

The man has got style. You don't. That's it.

Rajini's legacy seems to have passed to Ajith and Vijay , who are both trying to capture the whole market which Rajini singlehandedly controls.

Some may say the golden era of Rajini films was the 90s and that those days are over. They are right. Devout passion is a thing of bygone era. And less important things like innovation in story and secondary characters are also required nowadays. That is why lazy clichéd stories like Lingaa don't work anymore. A good rajini movie always had good screenplay and pace though ( BAASHA , ARUNACHALAM , ANNAMALAI , need I say more? )

What makes Kabali more exciting though is that Rajini , the safe one has decided to experiment! He has finally hit the reboot button , move on with the times , and finally decided to show the grey in his non existent hair. He is being directed by a young talent who cares about filmmaking and not just moneymaking and produced by a veteran who cares enough about the moneymaking. He doesn’t seem to have a juvenile looking actress acting as his love interest ( seems to be a trend of 2000s , rajini of the 90s was married mostly or in mature relationships atleast) and there are a talented bunch of secondary actors around him.

And he still has swag.

Some things never change!

And yes , I am proud to be a Rajini fan . I am not going to be forced to be ‘ashamed’ of it because some wrongly westernised idiots think it is not ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ anymore.

What I am trying to say is

MAGIZCHI

KABALII DAA!!

P.S – Someone help me get tickets for the movie . For I am stranded in Pune  and really wanna try FDFS*

FDFS – First day first show for the uninitiated

Finding Fan(ny)

Every one of us are fans of something or someone or the other. Admiring artistry and enjoying entertainment are few of the aspects which distinguishes us as human beings. That being said, all of us can’t be like Mr. Sudhir Kumar Chaudary whose only occupation is to be a fan or a  Mr. Gaurav Chandna who is a kind of person ( albeit fictional ) that most people call a ‘fanatic’.

Very rarely do fans get to meet their icons. Most of the times , they meet their Rajinikanth only in their dreams and even those darned dreams don’t end successfully ( dreams are actually very richly symbolic. Always try googling your disturbing dreams. Trust me , there exist other interpretations apart from your garden variety id and sexual drive) . I once had a dream which involved me having a looong conversation with Mr.Rajinikanth and it was so realistic that it leaves me in unconditional joy to just think of them even today. Un/fortunately most people don’t have such awesome and vivid imagination and dream retention , so they have only a slim chance of meeting their icons. And even when they do , they most often blow it. Not everyone is lucky like my dad to win a contest and meet Sachin Tendulkar in person and have a conversation with him in person. ( No I didn’t create this post merely to insert this fact :P ) 

So what is the point of this post?

Well , let me start from the moment when the seed of this thought got implanted in my head. Facebook is a drab place nowadays until the next fad comes around.  Ice bucket challenge , book gifting schemes , lock screen challenge , the secretive statuses for woman empowerment day?! … the list keeps going. And joining this not so prestigious but certainly fun list is a ‘what am I obsessed with?’ challenge. If a person shares a status asking that question , you have to simply comment what you think they are obsessed with. A simple enough challenge. It really helps you know what type of crazed fanatic the world thinks you to be.

In my case , people thought I was primarily obsessed with :-

a)      Chennai super kings

b)      Grey’s anatomy

c)       Books

d)      Coca cola

This set me thinking. Almost all the things I’m currently obsessed with are either defunct , bad for my health , have overstayed their welcome. And the one thing I should be doing – reading books is getting kicked to a corner. So I’m going to dig into each of these obsessions to get a better understanding of fangirling . Or fan boying – don’t wanna be called a ‘feminazi’.

The csk fan or

The type of fan who still loves something or somebody who no longer exists. We refuse to believe that the thing we love/worship/ look up to doesn’t actually exist anymore. We look back in time constantly thinking about the glory filled days of the past with pride and tear filled eyes. Books get over , Tv shows end and teams get destroyed or suspended for their stupid owner’s fault. And we the fans bear the brunt and have to live with memories of ancient words and scenes and recycle old material on facebook to get likes :P The harry potter fandom is a thriving one which discusses dramione and chickron theories like they happened yesterday. Friends last aired last 12 years ago. This is to say that loyal fandoms always survive. That’s why a reboot of a full house or arrested development has managed to happen. CSK fans will always believe that their team will come back in 2 years and all their players will somehow magically reassemble to re live in the golden era of IPL cricket. Till then IPL is dead to us.

The grey’s anatomy fan is a fan who has stuck by their show for 12 seasons and still crave for more in this short attention span era. A grey’s fan has endured the show’s leads go through  bombing , plane , ferry boat , car crashes , irretrievable break down of marriages and regular exit of primary characters. A grey’s fan is one who cherishes their long history. We know our obsession is not the currently ‘trending’ one and that our creator has herself greener stories to write about. Yet , we still have a beating heart , we win people choice awards and cry every time O’malley is mentioned or when characters leave. We are secretly happy they didn’t get killed off. We are the loyal , patient ones.

The bookworm is an increasingly hard to find species in today’s digital era. Kids of this generation are exposed to so much visual stimuli that books feel like they belong to the dinosaur era. As much as I love technology , I also despise it. I used to be able to read like a monster now I keep getting disturbed by the darned whatsapp. I am sad to say that I am not a bookworm anymore. Only a few books transport me completely to their world – like Jefferey Archer or Salman Rushdie. The excitement has waned. I am now a fake fan impostor-ing by buying tonnes of book and then going through periods of guilt. Sometimes , I get my groove back and devour them though. I’m pretty sure there are others like me.

Coca Cola fan. More like someone who befriended a sexy enemy and don’t know how to ditch them anymore. I very nearly had kidney damage due to it recently , so trying my best to avoid it. It is a very alluring obsession albeit a very dangerous one.

So from this personal analysis I have learnt that :-

1)      Fans are basically Gryffindors. Loyal to a fault

2)      They can get caught in toxic obsessions

3)      And let go of fruitful ones when more junky ones come along.

S

                So what do you readers Fan girl/boy about? Do you have any incurable obsessions? Or waning ones? Do you get addicted or maintain your sanity? Please leave a comment :) 

~The newsfeed of a fangirl~

Said a genius once

Reblogging quotes which make sense to me today.

A Short peek in to my news feed :P shows the toils and randomness of a fan girl's life I hope xP
Happy new year ppl! :)

1.Remembering painful quotes by fav characters! and waiting for your fav t.v show to start again . 

McDreamy is always right!



2.Dismembering the memories of dead characters till it hurts :'( 

Slexie too sexy to stay alive :'(

3.Reading morbidly inspiring stuff like this xP

start clearing that pile this year everybody! (especially me :P)

 

4.Reading depressingly funny stuff like this which indicates how old you actually are :P

kids nowadays :/

  5. Deceivingly deep ones like this :P      

Deep actually.

6. Sadly true ones 

food over bros :P

7. Controversially hilarious ones 

Don't care if I'm reported lol this is just too hilarious xD

8. One tree hill quotes <3 

I hate Peyton but so true.

Lucas sucks though :/

9. You don't say ones 

Let's end it with mindboggling fact of the day :P

10. Then the ones that describe you perfectly!

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 :) 

ek gaon mein ek kisan raghu thatha! :P

It's been a week in Pune already!! :O
and believe it or not  - I have fallen in love with this city! <3
or maybe it is just another one of my defense mechanisms , protecting me from shocks. Whatever this is , it has aroused me enough, to write a post! So let me finish this before reality sinks in .
( Side note :

hahaha

  Defense mechanisms are pretty intriguing . Do you know that I haven't cried a single tear drop yet? My friends think it is some kind of sacrilegious blasphemy from my  part. But hey! If pessimists argue that I have effectively ended one life , I argue back that I have just started a new one :) I do miss chennai . However , I am not going to go gaga over it. Okay I just did . )
I haven't had much chance to discover the city in its entirety yet. But , from whatever I have seen - it is fresh , green , pleasant and mindnumbingly beautiful :')

So here it is . The elusive list of things I have noticed about Pune and my new life in general :

Not THIS adventurous generally :P

1) I was never a nature loving person or that's what I thought. However , climbing the hill in my college ( yes , there is a hill in my college :O ) changed that perspective. The liberating atmosphere , the refreshing smell of pure , fresh air is well worth the climbing - which in itself is exciting and adventurous! Also , I am for the first time realizing that there are four types of climate in a year :P Living in chennai can easily erase this fact into a mere illusion. Back there it is either hot or hotter :')
And in other seemingly related news I got crowned 'Miss Green' by the Mess Bhaiya ( more like a thatha actually :P ) Don't start clapping already - I got called that because i was wearing a green kurthi LOL

2) My new friend rightly said , " Here in Pune , people talk to you in Marathi . If you don't know that they'll talk to you in Hindi and after that they stop." Yeah that's right. English doesn't work with the rickshaw wallahs . Coming from Tamil Nadu , a state which has fervently opposed Hindi often in the past and which doesn't give importance to Hindi in it's education system - I am at a huge loss here . It doesn't help matters that I hated my L3 hindi teacher and in turn conditioned my hatred towards that subject. To all the young readers out there - Learn HINDI. It is very hard to learn later and in this increasingly globalized world it is good to know 3-4 languages . And learning the 'official' language of your country is never a wrong place to start :)

The fundamental problem with most Tamils in this regard ( I am heavily generalizing here ) can be summed up with one joke in a yesteryear Bhagyaraj film , which sadly is still popular. Instead of saying ' Ek Gaon me ek kisan rahta ta' the hero mispronounces it as ' ek gaun me ek kisan raghu thatha' Thatha means grandfather in tamil and raghu is a common name. And ever since then Hindi has been ridiculed and not learnt -_-

3) I love the food here. My hosts may think I'm being overly polite when i say I love roti over rice. Fact is I actually love north Indian food :') Being open to trying new dishes has finally helped this time. Thank you masterchef australia for opening my eyes about food :*

4) Heavily generalizing , yes. I find the pace of Pune to be much slower than Chennai . Maybe it is the monsoon's cozy feel . It perfectly suits a lazy person like me :')

5) It doesn't hurt that folks back home miss me . Makes one feel loved ,you know :P ( even though this may  only last for a short while)

perfectly put by some random citizen :P

6) Lastly but not the least , I am very proud of my new found independence. I make my own bed , wash my own clothes :O , do my dishes etc. Being self sufficient makes one immediately feel adult like :D I was so proud when I wore the tee shirt,which i had washed with my own hands ^_^  P.S - This doesn't mean that I'll do housework when i come back home to chennai xP Home is where the ass lays ;')

Random realization - Blood clots are very random o.O

Semi