Quo Vadis?

Dear Airtel, I really think that my daughter just has to ask me if she wants a better mobile plan instead of pulling these cheap scams. From your ad I doubt I will get her your plan, thank you for trying. There are crappy ads and there are crappy ads. The airtel ad would be somewhere in between the potty and the drain, so horrible it is. I am not sure if family values have sunk to such levels and the fact that this ad is part of a series tells you the kind of value systems that drives the leading mobile operator of the country. I would not be surprised if they are scamming their clients away merrily with such stunts of keeping them happy while inflating bills or usage. How much do we check anyway? Parenting is an art, it is a science, it is everything at once and nothing at the same time. Some of the parenting techniques can be learnt, though most of it comes from within. It is a secret handed down from one generation to another and so “defective products must be blamed...

Dear New Runner, Let me congratulate you for making the decision to run. You may have taken this decision for various reasons but the usual and most popular one of losing weight is a good reason and it will surely make this extra effort of yours fruitful. However please remember that there are no quick fix solutions and you will lose weight gradually over a period of time with sustained effort. Y ou have decided to run and you may have joined one of the many mushrooming running groups across the city and one day you have actually joined them for a run.Hey congratulations on getting so far!!! Make no mistake that the most important activity of a running group is simply that, "running" everything else if not related to running are avoidable diversions. Here you must keep in mind that cross training and core strengthening activities are crucial to running. By now you must be wondering at the new terms that have come up and chances are if you are in a running group yo...

Yesterday I became another year older and hopefully a little wiser than the same time last year. Yesterday was also the second day of my restarted running journey after a long break. Running has given me a lot in the last 12 months and the break managed to undo some of the good; therefore it was good to get back. I run because it is therapeutic almost meditative, a run can start off with self- doubts, negative thoughts, some aches and pains but slowly the body starts cooperating with the will and after some time the mind takes over and the body starts to move in auto pilot mode. I run early in the morning when the clean air and the cool breeze helps to get into this state faster though sometimes the sapping humidity can delay it. This state when I feel I am in “the zone” helps me to think clearly after I manage to empty my mind of its clutter. I meditate at times, plan my day or just soak in the moment while burning calories and holding a conversation with the fellow runners...

I agreed to go for the Uttama Villain show with some trepidation. I am not a big fan of the serious, cerebral movies of Kamal Hassan no matter how good they may be. I would rather settle down and enjoy a mind numbing comedy by him any day, so the name of the movie and the promotional shots made me a little uncomfortable for Kamal in my opinion tends to crowd the screen with him and there will be a lot of self-indulgence on screen. By the interval I had relaxed and the reasons for the same will follow in the lines below. Uthama Villain (UV) is the story of a dying star making an attempt to achieve immortality by doing something what he does best, that is being a star. I will avoid sharing the plot of the movie for it will not do justice to some sparkling writing by Kamal. His intelligence and wit shines right through and sometimes if you do not pay attention you will miss it. The wordplay and the choice of names for the various characters are enjoyable. The characters (there are ...

Dear Suhasini madam, I watched OK Kanmani and I do not have a qualification to review it since I am not from IIN, nevertheless I think I will still go ahead and give my views on the movie. You know it is a Mani Rathnam movie when you see the train and the station, the opening game sequence may have thrown a viewer off and make him / her sit forward in his / her seat in expectation of something radically new happening but then you see a railway station and a diesel engine chugging in to stop. The hero pops his head out from a compartment that usually in these kind of trains would be the unreserved one and packed to suffocation limits with passengers barely holding on; but since this a Mani Ratnam movie and since it is a hero entry, he (Dalquer) jumps off and pulls his luggage easily since nobody else gets off there. By now the viewer would have realized normal service has resumed and will sit back in his seat munching popcorn for some movie magic. The heroine entry is a lit...

There is something therapeutic and even meditative in the relationship between a person and his / her ride. This is not the mundane, every day, commuter ride but a leisure ride of discovery that one takes from time to time. Be it a man powered ride like a cycle or an oil burning one like a RE Bullet this is something only someone who rides will understand. This mysticism gets compounded when the ride is powered by the elements of nature, specifically the wind. A sail boat is an antithesis, on land it is heavy and difficult to move but one the water and the sail up it can go up to 60 kms per hour I was informed today under the skillful guidance of an experienced sailor. On Sunday I had the pleasure of sailing in a J/80 sailboat which is Europe’s and North America’s largest selling sailboat under the guidance of three crew members. Along with some friends I signed up for a sailing programme for beginners by the over 100 year old Royal Madras Yacht club . The oldest sailing...

It's going to be a year since I took a first step towards fitness. It was in the beginning of March 2014 that I started walking & slowly moved on to running inside my neighbourhood park. Thanks to the internet I landed on the Chennai Runners page on Facebook & so on April 2nd 2014 I joined a group of runners and started running regularly. From a barely 3km initial run, I started doing longer runs and decided that by December 2014 I will do a 10km in TWCM & lose some weight. I ticked both those boxes earlier than I thought. By December I had completed 2 half marathons & lost 14kgs weight. A lot of people helped me in this effort but Venu Sir who guided me initially & George who trained me on the basics of better running stand out. I will always be grateful to them. Another person who helped me run was Lakshmi who trained with me under George & slowly we ran together & still do. A running buddy can be a great support for new comers & the high ...