The greatest Pain

When you love someone, you will be happy when they reciprocate it. Do you feel sad when they hate you? Or is there another act which that person can do for you, which will inflict pain.

Lets take an example, say you show your report card to your father. If he is happy for you - good, if he gets sad and worried about you then it’s kind of ok. What if he doesn’t even care he just signs it and gives it back to you.

Indifference is the greatest pain! It’s the huge insult which can be given by a person to another. We can all talk about doing an act which will make you happy.  Even if you are doing an act socially you are doing it to make yourself happy. So we may say that it doesn’t matter if someone is indifferent.

But it’s not really practical! We may be happy doing the act but when we learn about the indifference of the consumer of the act are we still happy?

But doesn’t a loving mother do a lot of selfless acts for her child, even if that child is indifferent.

Yes, but its an exception because the mother is seeing the child ‘as a part of’ her.

Act of love doesn’t really mean your act towards someone. Act of love also means doing something that you love. It can even be a piece of art; it can be your everyday job. Whatever you do, you touch other’s life and if you put your heart into it and still you get indifference from the other side. Then?

You end up doing nothing at all. If you open your heart into something (or someone), there is a chance that it will be broken, broken by an act of indifference.

How do we handle this?

 First things first, we should not stop our acts. Because if you stop doing what you love, then you don’t exist. Second, we should accept that external things will not change- people may continue to be indifferent. Third, become a karma yogi.

Karma Yogi could be a high concept. But nothing wrong in working towards that if it guarantees less pain.

We should dedicate our work to God, believing that He loves and cares for us. He takes time to see what we have been doing.

 But how could He have time?

 Because He is timeless.

But how can I dedicate an act of love to somebody to God?

It’s basically still karma, still some action. Even if you are thinking about someone now, it’s technically an act, a mental act

It still doesn’t make sense I do something for someone or on something. This is totally unrelated to God?

Everything is God. Both you and that someone and that something ‘is part of’ Him. If you take out God nothing remains.

Does God really exist?

That’s out of topic, we are talking about belief which doesn’t require proof.

If a belief makes you happy, it’s good enough. If you can continue your act of love and can still smile on the face of indifference, then it’s good.

And one more thing act like God.

Be sensitive. When you suspect someone doing something: an act of love, a piece of act, a mundane work which he thinks he has done well. Acknowledge it, tell him.

Now take a moment and reflect on this. God has created this wonderful universe, this is a piece of art from him. It’s so magnificent that we may never able to fathom it. But we are indifferent! Isn’t it? 

Actors Physical suffering - The Sorry state of Tamil Cinema

Wow Suryva developed Six Pack for '7am Arivu'

Vishal displays squint eyes in 'Avan Ivan'

My name is Shaam and I did not sleep for 6 days so that I get a puffy eyes, why 6 days. Hey the movies name is 6!

My name is Arya I did not comb my hair for 6 months. I did the Sirasasanam, which a yoga instructor said that it will take 2 years, but I did in 3 months.

"I mean look how dedicated I'm", the actors shout at you, "See how I suffer and how much I am committed"

It seems Bala had said, "See Arya suffered a lot. I think he needs to be awarded"

This is defeatism., you have technology in place to do a lot of things for you.Why you suffer, is it really justified that a person should go through a hell lot of physical suffering to do the act? All these sufferings are market gimmicks.

Did Shivaji Ganesan took any physical suffering. Did he said that I will do a six pack for Raja Raja Cholan?
Shivaji is considered a master actor, he put his heart and soul into acting.
He would have done his home work on the characters that he need to portray  But I dont think he altered himself physically.
Inspite of him not physically representing the character, he still made us feel that he is the Character. Thats acting!


You can always buy some accessories in those days and can use technology now to get the physical appearance of that character but please don't focus on the physical strain of the actor as the selling  point! This is outright silly!

If A.R Murugadoss made some effort in putting a decent story in 7am Arivu instead of asking Surya to develop six pack. It would have been good for Tamil Cinema.
7am Arivu ended as an one dimensional Tamil Patriotic movie. I am a Tamilian and I was not at all proud watching this movie. I was worried if Chinese sees this movie and declare a war on us!



Focus on the content and on acting and don't make people alter their physique, ask them to work on their diction, mannerism that's acting.

If you want a person with some physique go and look for him,don't ask an actor to alter himself.
If you want a person to play handicap in a movie, will you make him handicap!

It seemed Vikram worked hard for the Blind character in Kasi, but unfortunately it boomed in the Box office.
What was more unfortunate was Vikram's eyes became weak and he had to wear spectacles!

The Actor's life is extremely fragile. Cinema is an extremely unreliable field. He can be a star today and then he is part of several movies which becomes flop and then no one gives him even a guest role and he need to maintain his status. He cannot just come back to the streets.

Lets use the Actors wisely and lets put content first and do meaningful movie. Let the movie speak for itself don't promote it on an actors suffering. Use technology and accessories wisely.

The Passion of Christ is considered to be an authentic portrait of the last days of Jesus Christ. The Lead actor who played Jesus was not asked to grow a beard!
The makeup man did the job!

Share Auto

Once I was travelling in a share auto from Saidapet to Ullagaram, it was around 8 P.M. I was sitting in the back seat, two passengers were on the either side of me. The auto was full: meaning the driver seat is also shared by a fellow passenger.

A middle aged woman who was seated in the corner asked the Auto sto stop when we were between NGO Colony and Mount. That was a place wherein you will not get bus at this time of night and the possibility to get a space in auto is also remote.

The woman said, “Look there is standing a girl. How can she get an auto at this point of time! Let her come on this auto.”, she called the girl and said, “come and sit in my lap.”

The girl was in her late teens and she initially was reluctant but on the persistence of this woman sat in her lap. She got down at Mount.

The auto stated moving but it stopped on seeing another girl (of about the same age). The girl looked inside the auto and noticed that it was full and doubtfully looked at the driver for asking her to get in.

“Sit in the woman’s lap”, said the auto driver.

“How dare you say this”, remarked the woman, “I let that girl sit on my lap because the place where she was waiting, she will never get an auto and she looked like my child. And now you are asking this girl to sit in my lap so that you get extra person and extra money? What kind of man are you?”

The girl did not enter the auto and the auto started moving. The girl would have definitely got another share auto in less than a minute. The rest of the journey the woman near me was talking to me about the behavior of this auto driver.

I did not look at the driver’s face but I presume it would have had a smug smile when he had asked the girl from Mount to sit on this woman’s lap.

Let’s take another look at this incident.

This is a share auto driven by a selfish, sarcastic, uncivilized man. There was this woman who opened her heart for a girl (may be because she identified the girl as her child) and did a (small) sacrifice by asking her to sit on her lap. The woman had to pay the price immediately because the selfish driver wanted to take advantage of the situation.

There was also I, one of the passenger, a mere spectator, but had already internalized the belief that your heart should be stone. I had seen several incidents from which I inferred that it makes no sense to be kind and should not do any selfless acts, because there are vultures wandering around just to prey on you.

Looking back at the incident after several years, I’ve come to realize ‘at least in paper’, that it makes sense to do selfless act and suffer rather than acting smart by being a stone. Because, if you do a selfless act and suffer you are at least alive, but if you are tricking yourself to be an insulator then you are just existing. 

The Margazhi Project 2012-13

Come Marghazhi, Amma will draw beautiful, big rangoli.
This year its decided to document it digitally.
Here is the link for this years Rangoli for the Marghazhi season. 

Srivilliputhur- Travelogue

Srivilliputhur is a small town between Madurai and Thirunelveli. Its famous for the Andal Temple.
Usually people may plan for a pilgrimage in Madurai and may come up to Srivilliputhur as a side track.

But if you have a plan to concentrate just on Srivilliputhur, then here are some details.

The Only train which has a stop on Srivilliputhur is Podhigai (from Chennai), but if you have no tickets in Podhigai, you can try for taking a train up to Virudunagar. (Note: There is no decent Veg Hotel in Virudunagar). Bus journey from Virudunagar to Srivilliputhur takes around an hour. The Bus that I went cost Rs 27.
You need an auto from Virudunagar Jn to the Bus Stand it will cost you Rs 40


There are a couple of lodges in Srivilliputhur, the one that I stayed was Hotel Sashitharan, you can search this up in the web. The other I saw was Hotel Ram.
There is a decent Veg Hotel by name Kathiravan in the main road, 5 mins walk from Hotel Sashitharan (and on the way to Andal Temple) This is an AC Hotel which serves only lunch (Rs 75) and there is a mess near by the same name which serves the breakfast and dinner.
If you want to board a bus to Rajapalayam then stand right outside Kathiravan Hotel. If you want to go to Madurai stand in the opposite direction. There is no need to go to the Bus Stand, which will require a walk for 15 mins from Kathiravan.

Srivilliputhur is famous for its pal pannai. Its a beautiful sight to see milk vendor coming in cycle or bike with a big container behind. This was how it was everywhere many decades ago, then we converted to the plastic bag pasteurized milk. Since we are  in the topic have you heard about the raw milk movement.

Palgoa and Pal Alwa are very famous in Srivilliputhur

The walk from Hotel to temple will take 10 minutes, if you cannot walk get an auto for 20 Rs. Cabs are not available in Srivilliputhur.
There is a Vaitheeswaran temple (not to be confused with the Vaitheeswaran temple near Mayiladuthurai) which is  supposed to be 1000 years old. The Vaitheeswaran temple is in the direction towards Rajapalayam and it will be a walk for 20 mins from Hotel. The Vaitheeswaran temple looked majestic with a beautiful lake.

I also visited Thurvannamalai (again not to be confused with the famous Thirvannamalai and Ramana Maharishi)
This is a Vishnu temple, where the Lord had waited before marrying Andal. There are minibuses from the Srivilliputhur Bus Stand to this temple. The Bus stand is a 10 minutes walk from the Andal Temple.The Fare costs 5 Rs in Minibus and 80 Rs in Auto. The Auto they have here is the Diesel Share Auto and it is very uncomfortable riding in it. The Minubus's last stop is Thiruvannamali, so no need to worry about missing your stop!

Thirvannamalai steps are very steep and when you go up, you will have a beautiful aerial view of Srivilliputhur.

There is another temple in Tiruttangal (very near to Virudunagar) but I did not go there. Buses should be available to get to that place.
If you want to travel towards Madurai then you can hop to Tiruttangal

My Friend Sacho - Review

Amit Varma published the first chapter of this novel in his site. I read it and got hooked!
I want to read the novel, my lending library did not had it so I bought it.
One of the first fiction books that I bought.

First of all why create a commercial scenario where a girl stays with a boy, who she had acquainted  just a few days ago. This girl has been born and brought up in Mumbai and you are saying that she is in a situation that she has to stay in this guy's room.
I can handle this in a commercial movie but not a novel. I expect some substance in a novel.
Why publicize your blog in the novel. I consider that very cheap. There was no valid reason to mention the blog at all in that novel. Nowadays some prominent directors come in one of the scenes in a movie, just to show their face. Has novels degraded so mush so that you have commercial break once in a while like we have in TV!

The story was like The Old Man and the Sea, in the end the net result is zero.
But The Old Man and the Sea is a good example of back to square one genre, because we empathize with the character.
I consider A Farewell to Arms to be one of the worst "Back to Square One" genre (interestingly the author of this novel later went on to write the best back to square one in a short story "The Old Man and the Sea"!)


It was fun to read and has big fonts easy on eyes when you travel in train. Towards the end the protagonist's monologue gets interesting and has substance. But other than that its A Total Disappointment!

But I still have confidence that Amit Varma will delivery next time. 

The Litigators - Review

This is the second novel by John Grisam that I'm reading (the first book that I read was The Runaway Jury)  and I'm really liking this author.
Legal is a genre which I like, that too I did not want a murder mystery, I want something different, like a litigation case against a big pharma!
Street lawyers trying their hands against a big pharma company without doing much research fueled only by their greed.
The story is essentially about David Zinc who one day quit his high paying and boring job and lands up in a boutique law firm run by Oscar and Wally.
The greedy and overambitious Wally tries to file a litigation case against a Pharma company with the hope that there will be a settlement reached by the Pharma company before the Trial begins.
The Pharma company which had faced several litigation cases before for other drugs believes that the  drug in question was good and  it decides to go to trial to show to the world that the drug is not harmful.

All hell breaks loose for the boutique firm and the situation changes and David has to represent the case single-handedly.
David Zinc was now in a situation, a financial crunch, facing experienced lawyer in the court, who were determined to torn the trial into pieces.He was working for $500/ hour underwriting some bonds. He ran way from that job and now he is in a dramatic situation.
Will David regret his decision of having quit from a top notch firm and ending in a small firm, hurting his pocket and dignity.

The story also shows that if you have a passion to serve for society you may be rewarded, but your aim is just being greedy and lazy then you have to face the consequence.

I learnt something about the US law from both my novels.
Good Edutainment.