Interim Solutions

Nodding their heads in unison Bright orange garlands on their neck Marble green eyes dripping innocence On walked the lambs as if on a picnic Walking in rows of two Tethered to a soft cloth rope Bright white from a nice fresh bath On walked the lambs as if on a picnic Past the lush green fields Onto the tarred main road by the lake Accompanied by a loud saffron crowd On walked the lambs as if on a picnic The drum beats became louder So did the chants of the frenzied crowd The temple was looming around the corner and on walked the lambs as if on a picnic Pick them up all and run away I wish Atleast mellow the hearts of stone I wish I could Slowing down,they entered the place of worship !! Celebrate, dance and sing, Eat,drink and make merry - for the gods are being sacrificed by mere humans !! © 2010 Manoj Chennamangalam

Trying my hand at a different genre this time - 'review'.The inevitable phase that all self respecting blogs go through - restaurant reviews, movie reviews, book reviews are some of the common 'sustainability tricks', but end of the day what better way to be creative than feed off some one else's creativity. Pranchiyettan and yes of course The Saint was a charmingly pleasant experience.First and foremost I am amazed at the deftness with which Renjith blends in the essence of Christian theology into what could otherwise be easily called a 'Comedy Film'.I am willing to argue to no end that the movie is a spiritual one - a new brand of spiritual movies that was pioneered by Renjith in his 2002 hit Nandanam (read my earlier post titled Monsoon Wedding for a little more)and almost perfected in 'Pranchiyettan'. What has gotten into Renjith ? Is it the same guy who delivered obnoxiously loud scripts supporting larger than life movies like 'Devasuram,...

Wasn't too sure myself if 'Music is language independent' (as is often quoted), until I listened to the below from the movie Karuthamma. Soulful rendering by Smt. Swarnalatha (won the national award for this song and sadly, passed away last week) goes beyond limitations that language and words pose on music. Results from a few people who I tried this song on (who did not know any Tamil and had not heard this song before) has convinced me that there is at least some Music that is language independent http://www.raaga.com/player4/?id=157251&mode=100&rand=0.3655574460453274 (Courtesy : Raaga.com) If you don't know any Tamil and have not heard this song before and feel moved by this song,let me know.In the spirit of empirical skepticism let me know if it does not 'move' you as well. M

is perhaps the "Ability to look at the world without the need to find signs that strokes one's ego" -from N N Taleb's persuasive book - "The Black Swan".Cannot miss the convergence with another persuasive body of knowledge - The Zen. - M

For a change another of the short stories I have scribbled, copyrighted. Also – please note it is a fictional piece of work set in a narrative style, resemblance to any person/s known or unknown is coincidental. © 2010 Manoj Chennamangalam The train was gradually approaching the gray coloured cement platform of the station. A bright yellow board announcing the name of the station in three languages characteristic of the Indian Railways slowly started becoming visible. Station names are written in black bold letters in 3 languages – English, Hindi and the local one. I remember as a kid when I used to travel in trains, I used to read the English alphabets, followed by Hindi and finally Malayalam. All that has changed - reading, writing and dreaming in English has made me thirsty for reading the well rounded letters of my mother tongue. I read only the Malayalam alphabets – ഒറ്റപാലം (Ottapalam) and blissfully ignore English and Hindi. In a smaller font at the bottom right of the boar...

Made couple of path breaking discoveries over the long Onam weekend.Of course the discoveries are on myself and I am amazed at the scope of experiments one can do on one's own psyche and rest assured one will be doubly amazed by the outcomes.By the way the title may be misleading, post did not turn out to be as complicated , kept the title unchanged for the kick it gave. Discovery 1) Cribbing seems to be a general theme of my posts. Did a wordweb on "cribbing" - apparently doesn't mean what I meant, so please replace("crib", "complain'). What does that mean ? should I be worried ? am I becoming a 'bellyacher' ?? . Time to get the towel - DoN't pAnIc (mixed case helps as well in keeping it down) ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Panic_(The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)#Don.27t_Panic)) Discovery 2) I am not punctual as I used to be say a few years back.I clearly remember that some 20 years back I used to be on the dot (so w...

There was this tragic incident where in the hand of a college professor in Kerala was cut-off. They have apparently got hold of the chief pepertrator and guess what every single image of the culprit that flashes on the TV channels has a tiny toddler's arm extending across his shoulders. News channels/ law enforcement have obviously cut his photograph out of family albums for display and in the process have cut the rest of the toddler's image off. How ironic - tiny, beautiful, loving arms around the "hand decapitator". Weird world we do live in .. M