Raasukutty's

Tag: India

  • Love Marriage

    Recently, I read a blog post from my friend Srikanth on Marriages in India. There was a lot more that I could relate to, so here is my view on it.

    Marriages – In India, this signifies more than the coming together of two people. It is the coming together of two families and relations. It is an event where people want to showcase their position/status to the relations and friends. It means a lot to the parents of both the sides. Each caste/subcaste has its own custom ways of conducting a marriage. There lies the beauty of marriages too, elaborate preparations, sending out invitations, inviting people, booking of marriage halls, cameras, reception, food etc., and the list goes on!

    When it comes to arranged marriages, the process is simple. Everything is arranged. Which also means, everything is taken care of by the parents. This is one last responsibility that every parent wants to handle before considering their children to be mature enough to handle the world! With arranged marriages, everyone is happy, parents, friends, relatives and also the bride and the groom. Happily Ever After!

    In case of love marriages, the process is always complex, excepting in a few rare instances. Nothing is arranged. Since marriages are the coming together of two families, it takes a lot of time. Convincing the parents first to agree to it. If the boy and the girl belong to different caste/subcaste (forget different religions here), there comes the problem for convincing the parents to stop worrying about the society. Then comes the part where both the families have to meet. This is the hardest part. Both families have to like each other 🙂 If all these succeed, then comes the actual negotiation and finally marriage. The thing here is, no one in both the parties will want to hold the responsibility. Everyone will like to escape, to get away from the wrath of the society. So it falls on the heads of the bride and the groom, to do all the consoling and getting everyone to agree.

    One nice thing about love marriages is (as per my understanding), during this entire process, the boy and the girl get to understand and appreciate each other well. This helps in the long run of their relationship. They tend to talk over each and every step. Each one of them start to like the ability of the other to handle tight situations, supporting each other. Fruitful!

    Marriage is the occasion to commemorate the coming together of two people. An event to forget all differences and wish the couple a happy life together! When the life itself is not predictable, why not let people live happily till they are! Let Happiness prevail!

  • Surabhi

    I was browsing the internet as usual. But unusually, I was searching for A R Rahman videos on YouTube. That is when I spotted this video.

    A R Rahman in Surabhi

    Surabhi, if anyone of you would remember used to be aired in Doodarshan (DD1). I still remember that period, when cable TV was not known commonly in India. My full family used to watch them. We never understood or knew Hindi. But we just watched them.

    Krishna, Chandrakantha.. I am remembering these serials as I type it in. Wonderful days. We used to discuss in school, about it. We used to be discussing about Kurur Singh and his “Yakkooo..”

    In this video, that should have been taken by 1992, after Roja release, I am wondering about what he says. Hear Sridhar say, about his sound technique, “Theatrical”.. he says. Rahman wanted not the base sound of the flute but the air from it… And then the song plays… Wow, really A R Rahman… is a genius.

  • Real Police – Thief chase

    Two days back, when I was on my way to the office, at the Park Town station, this incident happened.

    It is not unusual to see people at the Park Town station, crossing the railway paths and not using the sub-way. It has to be partly blamed on the authorities too for such a poor maintenance of the sub way. During the rainy season, it is flooded that people are forced to cross over to the other platform by crossing the railway lines.

    But that day was sunny. As usual, I was there at 7.30 am to catch the morning train to Tiruvanmiyur. When I emerged out of the subway, I could see two Railway Police Force (RPF) Officials hiding on the entrance to the subway. There were talking to the people nearby. As I entered the platform, there were people who were signalling to the men crossing the railway lines not to cross. That is when I realized what had been happening.

    The RPF men could not be seen from the other platform, when someone crosses the railway lines and reaching the other end, they would be caught by these two men and complaint filed. It reminded me of one of our childhood play called ‘Police-Thief’ (‘Thirudan – Police’ in Tamil) where one would play police and others would play thief hiding from the police. The game play was the police to figure out all the thieves from the hiding spot.

    It was happening the other way round here, the police were hiding and the people had to figure that there were police hiding and use the subway instead of crossing the railway lines.

    After all, Life is interesting!

  • What's it about IPL?

    IPL. If you are in India, you should have recognized this word by now. Everyone speaks about it. It has been the headlines for a week now. What is so special about IPL? Let me try to figure it out.

    • In IPL, the players are not playing for the country. So there is no must-win situtation.
    • Cricket is being seen as a game, entertainment sport rather than as a war between the teams.
    • It is the shortest version of the game. Must similar to street cricket to which each and every kid in India can associate to.
    • It provides a place where you can see Ponting (Australia) providing tips to Ishant (India) on how to bowl.
    • It crosses all boundaries and lifts the spirit of the game.
    • It has also brought Sharukh, Preity, Karan and all into the game to add value.
    • It has provided BCCI, the stadiums, the local cricket board, ad-sponsers with more revenue.

    What more can one ask for a complete entertainment. Enjoy watching cricket! Enjoy the stars!

  • IPL: Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

    The big gala event of Cricket started yesterday in Bangalore. Lalit Modi (Chairman IPL) and Vijay Mallya (RCB Owner, UB group) must have been happy with how the crowd responded. There was a grand cultural extravaganza before the actual ‘Karmayudh’ started.

    Surely, there was glamour, high decibel scream brought in by the dancing girls, acrobatics, Shankar Mahadevan, bollywood stars and King Khan himself. The crowd should have enjoyed a lot.

    IPL had a theme for each team. Bangalore was all Red (Why doubt, KingFisher man), and my favourite team for this IPL, Kolkatta were truely attired as Kinght Riders in Black and Gold. Even the helmet was Golden colour. After all the cultural openings faded, the match started.

    Ganguly collapsed for 10 and Ponting for 20. Then came McCollum. He made a massive 158* runs consuming just 78 balls. An innings expected out of Twenty20. There was great cheering for each six he sent out to the gathering. What more could Sharukh ask for.

    Then came the RCB innings, though the local crowd expected a lot, the first blow itself showed what was in store. Ishant Sharma took the first wicket of Dravid in his very first ball. Deadly! and the story continued. Nice game play by KKR and the match was theirs.

    Every news channel, screams the head lines. IPL, IPL, IPL. Just tune in now, you could read something on any news channel about IPL, exclusive interviews …. Indeed Cricket is India’s National Game. We have it in our mind and in our blood.

  • Indian Premiere League

    India – though not the land where Cricket was born; has unofficially become the capital of Cricket. This is the land where cricket is closely debated to religion. Cricket is one thing that brings all the people in India together. People here criticize, celebrate, worship cricket and cricketers. We have a lot of cricketing icons in India. I feel proud when my team wins; and I get upset when Team India loses. This is one feeling common to many people here in India, though we have some few people who love the game over the team.

    A cricketer in India earns more money than any other in the world. ‘If Cricket is religion, then Sachin is God’, ‘Dada is the best’ are some slogans that keep reverberating in every nook and corner of India. Such is the status of a cricketer. They also suffer a lot in the hands of the public when they fail to deliver. Why not! when there is such a huge following, it is the duty of the leaders to deliver. And if the game is against India, then it is not a game; IT IS WAR.

    Each cricketer endorses a brand and earn a lot. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is one of the largest money making boards in the World. To add to this craze, Indian Premiere League has been started. A move to have large corporations to run business with cricket.

    It is more like the English county, but a lot bigger in terms of money. I like the idea of having county like cricket in India, and corporations involved in promoting the game further, but should it mean the players need to be auctioned? A price for the head and skill, won’t that spoil the spirit of the game? What would Gilchirst think about his talent? Is he not a better player than Dhoni or Symonds. Is it not creating inequality between members of the same team.

    Why not pay everyone the same amount of money within the teams. Why not distinguish with  the prize money for the winning teams? Won’t that be a better solution to create better cricketers?  Just a thought!

  • Republic Day!

    26th January 2007 – India celebrated its 59th year of Republic. I was not in the city but in my town neyveli.

    It is traditional in neyveli that during the independence day and republic days, the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) hoists the national flag at our stadium. Following this is accepts the parade honor. This is followed by felicitating people who made significant contributions to the growth of Neyveli Lignite Corporation. After this there are cultural events (drills – as we call it there) performed by school kids. With the announcement of the winner of the cultural events and the singing of the Tamil Thai Vazhthu, the programme is complete.

    I went this year to the stadium after 5 years (all these 5 years i was in my college and last year i was in chennai) to attend the Republic day parade. It brought back old memories of my school days when i used to go with my friends. None of my friends turned up this year for that and i was all alone completely lost in thoughts. It was not quite interesting to watch the events as it used to be in my childhood. We used to fight over whose school will win the first prize and we boo and encourage each others school. That was missing. I have lost that childhood innocence.

    When I came back home at 9 a.m., the republic day celebrations were being telecast on NDTV. I just spent the rest of the day  sitting before the TV and watching all the programmes being telecast.

    NDTV Indian of the Year program was worth a watch.

    Long live Indian Republic! Long live our Heros who got us it!