I hate travelling in bus from chennai to vijayawada

When i make a sudden plan to go my hometown, i always end up traveling in APSRTC, i try my best to avoid it. On Thursday morning i call my friends who got access to high speed internet and tell them to book train ticket in tatkal, from 9.30 to 9.55 i call everybody and give the details looking at my login page. You can expect an intelligent film from Sajid khan, but booking a tatkal ticket successfully is impossible. So, i end up booking the ticket in APSRTC bus.

 While leaving the office on Friday evening i pray to God to show some mercy on me this time. With that fear i go to CMBT,  get into the bus and wait for that moment hoping for some miracle. Finally the moment arrives, they switch on the TV, blue screen gets displayed with loading message. I straighten my body, open my eyes wide and look at the screen while the movie starts. When that 'Varahi chalana chitram' logo appears i know what film it is, i know that God showed middle finger to me, it is 'LEGEND' movie acted by Balakrishna and directed by the great Boyapati sreenu.

For the next two and half hours you see the lion in the form of human being dancing, fighting, shouting and romancing. If you are lucky enough, they may play 'Badrinath' movie after that. After watching two great movies like that, it is very difficult to sleep. Last Saturday on 20th December  God showed me his two middle fingers, i booked ticket for direct bus from Chennai to Kothagudem to my surprise they played two good movies 'Uyyala Jampala' and 'kotha bangaru lokam. I felt so happy and slept, early morning at 5.30 when the bus reached Vijayawada i heard Balayya voice, i thought i was dreaming, but slowly the voice became so clear and i woke up to see the legend movie being played on the T.V. Life is not easy and God is so crazy.

P.S: Those who haven't watched LEGEND(telugu) movie, please watch it

Interstellar- this film is for 'them'

Before going to the film i read few reviews on the Facebook about the film telling that they have watched the film second time to understand the film, so in the theater i sat straight, kept my all concentration on the screen so that i don't miss anything. When the film started..for the first few dialogues no subtitles , everybody in the theater sighed, the person sitting beside me started crying-'whaattt tthe frock, this is cheating you cannot do this to us, this is not normal film, this is nolan's film please put subtitles..pleaseeee God, if you are real...prove it, pleasssss', and when i was about to join him, there came subtitles to rescue everybody in the theater.

When that subtitle appeared on the screen, all the faces glowed with smile. But after watching the film the same faces showed no reaction, everybody bent their head down, trying to analyze what just happnd, whether they liked the film or not, what to tell when any one asks 'how s the film ?'.  Few people who tried to understand the film until the climax gave up and left the theater before half an hour itself.

I am not eligible to comment on Nolan's film but after watching this film i came to know that there are two types of 'meaning less' films, one where the director uses no brain at all like my TELUGU films and the other where the director uses too much brain like 'Irandam ulagam' and this film. I feel that for Nolan's films sensor board should give an extra certificate saying only people who did Ph.d should watch this film. This film is about the space, to the people in space and for the people in space...if you haven't watched this film..please don't watch it

NAGALAPURAM- west entrance

 

Want to dive into the beautiful pools ?,want to learn swimming or overcome the fear of drowning ?,  want to do trekking in dense and safe forest along the stream ?, want to sleep under the stars, hearing the sound of running water ?- if you are staying in Chennai ( even if you stay in other places, it is worth to travel all the way) and want to do all the above things, then visit Nagalapuram. Through the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) event i came to know about this place and it is one of the few natural places around Chennai where you can go, relax and enjoy the nature during the weekend. There are so many trekking routes in this place, but mainly two trekking routes are popular- trekking from west entrance and trekking from east entrance.

Nagalapuram hills

 Me and my friends planned to go for trekking through west entrance and i was so excited because for the first time i am going to have camp fire, stay for the night in forest with my friends. Our plan was to start early in the morning and reach the west entrance road as early as possible. so i slept early to wake up early. I woke up- 'did i miss the call from chandru ?', i asked myself, Chandru told me that he will call me at 5 am to wake me up. I took my watch and checked the time, it was 3 am----- this same scene got repeated for every 20 minutes, i get up, check the time and go back to sleep.....getup, check the time and go back to sleep. Finally the clock ticked 5 am, i got ready by 5.30, but there was no call from chandru, i called chandru, he didn't pick up the call, instead he messaged me- 'machi..i am celebrating deepavali da'- his way of telling that he is shitting. This guy 'chandru' is my colleague and he is one of the few unique characters i have met, no one can be like him (chandru, you can take it as compliment). so, what i am trying to say is that i didn't sleep properly because of this excitement and it happens to me every time i plan to wake up early, i don't know why          

By 6 am every one started from their respective places to red hills. It was drizzling and the climate was so cool unlike the usual Chennai climate, we reached red hills at 7 am where Sam was waiting for us with all the food items. We reached the west entrance road of nagalapuram (Aare villiage) by 10.30 am, parked our bikes there and started walking towards the hills. we walked for an hour to reach the 'pool 0'.

Surender. Yerra reddy, Chandru, Selva, Sam and Bala

Our plan wast to go to pool 1 and pool 2, camp for night at pool 2 and return. we don't know the way from pool 0 to pool 1 and pool 2. With out crossing (there is a way on both sides of the pool, you have to cross and take the way which is on the left side of the pool) the pool 0 we just went in the way that was there to the right of the stream. From pool 0 we walked for 5 min, then came a place which was very steep, we started climbingggggggggggggggggggggg...almost one hour got over and we were still climbinggggggggggggggggg.

completed exhausted after the climbing

Then came a view point (we named it as a suicide point) where you can have a look of the forest below, from there we saw a line of smoke coming from the forest down the hill we were climbing, we were confused whether the way we took was correct or not, Bala and Chandru called their friends (yes...fortunately signal was available there) who went there. They told that you have to cross the pool 0 and walk along the stream to reach pool 1 and pool 2. we came in the wrong path...and that one hour climbing sucked every inch of energy out of us, slowly we returned to pool 0.

we crossed pool 0 and followed the path along the stream, sometimes crossing the stream, you can hear the sound of the running water all along the path, after walking for some 20 minutes we reached the pool 1. I have to dig my dictionary deep to get the correct word to explain the feeling we got when we reached pool 1, i don't want to make you guys wait, so i say we felt relieved + excited + tired.

Pool 1

After having some fun in the pool, we had our lunch there. We started to pool 2, on the way we met a group of people who were returning from pool 3, they told it takes only half an hour to reach pool 3, so we thought we decided to go to pool 3 and camp there for night. At 4.30 pm we reached pool 3, pool 3 is very deep (30 ft), if you know swimming very well, then only you should enter into it, so i didn't

Pool 3

   

So. we all decided to enjoy pool 3 by just looking at it except these two guys Surender and Yerra, they know swimming very well, they just dived into the pool and started having fun, we others took photos and videos.

Surender at pool 3

After an hour, it started getting dark, so we collected wood for fire and started cooking Maggie. By 6.30 pm the place became completely dark, eyes closed or open, it was just same. In that complete darkness, sitting near pool 3, under the stars we had our dinner, then we cleaned the place near by the pool and tied the tarpaulin to sleep.

Surender brought a tab in which we played A R songs through out the night, i tried to sleep but these '3 idiots' in the photo below didn't let me sleep

Chandru, Selva and Sam

After 12, with full concentration i tried to sleep and i almost did it, but this Selva, he started camp fire at 3 am, started shouting(singing) and dancing, my sleep gone completely, so i got up and joined them. At 6 we got up, finished our Poo Poo in that beautiful forest, packed every thing and said good bye to the pool 3. By 7 we reached pool 2, while coming, we didn't take bath in pool 2, so we decided to take bath there

Early morning!! 7.30!! taking bath in that beautiful pool!! it was so nice and you should experience it. we just looked around that beautiful place- it was so calm, only our gang was there, it was so silent and at that moment we just fell in love with that place. A dip in that chilled running water just took away the tiredness we got from sleepless night. With that freshness, we left Nagalapuram and returned to Chennai by afternoon

Pool 2

Information

Trek route : koyamebedu- periyapalayam- pichatoor- Aare villiage (west entrance), you can park your vehicles in village. If you go by bus..it will take 3- 4 hours from koyambedu bus stand.

If you don't know swimming( or have fear of drowning like me), take swimming tube with you.

The curious case of A R Rahman song

Do you remember those paragon slippers that we used to wear in childhood. How can we forget them for all the trouble we faced while using them, removing thorns from it using safety pin, putting that rubber thing back in the front hole every time it came out, every time my chappals become old enough to buy a new pair, i used to feel excited coz i am going to have a new pair of chappals. When you wear those new slippers, for the initial two three days, they bite your feet, but after those initial hiccups they stop biting and start serving your feet.

When an A R Rahman album is going to get released, i wait for that date. When the songs are getting downloaded i wait with some excitement, this waiting period increases the expectations on the album and i know that rahman is going to tower over those expectations. Listening to the AR's album for the first time is like entering into a new and unknown world. First time you don't get it, your mind says  that the songs are average and not as good as his previous albums, but then immediately your heart starts scolding your mind -'Idiot, it's A R Rahman, how can his songs sound average, how many times i have to tell you, AR songs are like slow posion, you have to give it some time, you have to listen for three four times to get it, listen to it again carefully'. After listening for two to three times your mind replies to your heart 'yes, sorry i forgot'.

Last week 'I' album got released, the scene that i explained above got repeated again, it's not new to me, it happens for every rahman album, after listening for 4 to 5 times slowly one song after the other started winning me. All you people who feel that 'I' songs are average, just give them some time, just listen to them one more time, you start feeling the magic

Senti ho gaya....

It's been almost 50 minutes since the train started from Palakkad station, it was almost getting dark in the evening and my mind was flowing through the memories of the city that i left an year back. Train slowly entered Coimbatore junction, the same 'salute ramraj ki salute' song was playing in the station. When i stayed in Coimbatore i used to return from my home in Kerala express which comes to Coimbatore at morning 5.30, i get down on the platform and the same 'salute ramraj ki salute' song used to wish me 'Good morning, welcome to Coimbatore'.
After some 5 mins, train started from Coimbatore station and i could see all those familiar places through the window, when the train crossed peelamedu station, my eyes started scanning for my college building. When i saw my college building and Fun mall building, i kept watching those buildings until they faded away. For a moment i just felt like writing Gate exam again and join my college, but then i saw my dad's face who is sitting in front of me, he understood my emotion and gave a 'control..control...don't behave like chiranjeevi' type of expression, i dropped that idea and went back to my memories.
I may join my college again, but the college won't look same with out my class mates, the hostel won't be same without my Telugu batch

MANAM-Akkineni family's treat

The first look of MANAM itself told that this film is not going to be a typical family drama. Generally when a grand father, father and son act together in a film, we can predict the story. Usually in this type of films the story will be something like- father and grandfather gets separated in a flashback due to some love problem, grandson comes and reunites them together. MANAM has no such crap, it is different yet commercial. Director Vikram continued his good work, and he proved that his last hit ISHQ is not a fluke. 

While watching the film and Nagarjuna on the screen, I got one doubt - When will Nagarjuna look old ?, I think for another 10-15 years he can act convincingly  as a 35-40 year old guy. we describe and call our heroes with some different names, for example VIJAY as ILAYATHALAPATHY, PAWAN KALYAN as POWER STAR, etc. I think the only hero who is eligible for that special name is Nagarjuna. Everyone call him as MANMADHUDU and he deserves that name in every way.

This film didn’t follow any of those box office formulas that a star film follows. It has no introduction song, no climax fight ( no fight scene at all), no duet song (I mean leading pair dancing in foreign locations). The film story is really different, and it is perfect for the akkineni family. In the film Nagarjuna is the father of Nageshwara rao, Naga chaitanya is the father of Nagarajuna. Nagarjuna’s name is Nageshwara rao, Nageshwara rao’s name is Chaitanya and Naga chaitanya’s name is Nagarjuna. The way the director executed the story and convinced the audience with the above relationships is excellent.

During UYYALA JAMPALA film success meet Nagarjuna told that he wants to make a film like this, where people leave the theater with a good feeling in the heart and a smile on the face. I think this is that film

Race Gurram- Allu arjun and Kill Bill Pandey's treat

Disclaimer: This review is full of spoilers, but u can read it.

I entered the theater without any expectations because i have watched surender reddy's previous films and i have no expectations on this movie. Film started, a voice over introduced all characters followed by allu arjun's introduction where hero is shown running with horses (director has to justify the title) and then a scene comes where M.S Narayana explains about allu arjun's character. In that scene M.S. asks arjun "bagunnava babu ?", for that arjun gives a funny expression imitating R.Narayanamurthy, that was so hilarious, from that scene the film got connected to me and it never got disconnected.

The first half and first half of second half are full of comedy scenes with some action- the weird life style of sruthi haasan and her family, the bank robbery scene, prakash raj meeting with bunny, posani krishna murali scenes are very funny, in between all these comedy scenes there are some beautifully pictured songs and the interval bang with hero and villain meeting each other for the first time in the film and bunny saying that race gurram dialogue ( director has to justify the title). In two scenes so called comedian Ali also comes and delivers his usual adult dialogues as he cannot do comedy.

when the villain starts taking revenge on allu arjun i thought that the film goes into serious mode, i thought it will take the routine ending that our Telugu cinema is taking from years, but here enters the real superstar, powerstar, megapowerstar of our Telugu cinema 'BRAHMMI', who is the real reason behind the success of the films in recent years. He introduces himself as a frustrated police officer 'KILL BILL PANDEY' to bunny and joins as bunny's assistant. For another 15 minutes, with a powerful background score He dances, He shoots, He fights, He delivers punch dialogues with frustration and single-handedly lifts the film to another level. Whole theater laughed like hell for those 15 minutes.When the film ends, you forget allu arjun's dance, stylish looks and comic timing, you forget all other characters, all you remember is KILL BILL PANDEY.

Allu Arjun's energy is amazing and his comic timing is super, the way he says  'daavuda' was funny and it got huge response from crowd. I want to see how they dub this word in Malayalam version.

Even though it is a pakka commercial film with some logic missing here and there, you won't complain it because of the way they treated every scene. For me it is the best Telugu movie in this year so far

Kerala- God's Own Country

The social studies text book in my school introduced this small state to me saying 'This state has highest literacy'. All those beautiful Malayali heroines (meera jasmine, asin, nayanatara, nithya menon and others) who acted in Telugu films and all those Telugu films shot in Kerala, especially 'yem maaya chesave (vinnai thaandi varuvaaya') created a WOW impression about Kerala. so when i joined PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY in Coimbatore, the first thing i wanted to do is to visit Kerala.

                        
When you go to any Kerala hotel the first thing that you will notice is 'Medicated water'-hot water with some recipe mixed in it. They use this Medicated water for drinking in every hotel of Kerala which is very good for health. The Malayalam language sounds so sweet and it uses a script peculiarly apt for this part of the world. The letters with all round curves and looping twirls, beautifully match the landscape. Fittingly, the word Malayalam itself means “hill region”. The word is a conjugation of 'Malai(mountain) and 'Aalam (valley or depth). In brief, 'mountain peaks & valleys', which is to say 'hill-country'.The houses in Kerala are different, the most distinct feature is long, steep sloping roof and if there is 100% land, they use only 20% of it to build house, rest of 80% contains trees. Even in a city like Palakkad  there is no apartment culture and all the houses are individual houses with a small forest around them.

 Life in Kerala goes slowly and beautifully like a K.J.Yesudas melody song and when it rains then the pace of time gets divided and the beauty of Kerala gets multiplied by the rain drops falling. On such a rainy day i visited Kerala for the first time and i felt that the tagline 'God's Own Country' used by Kerala government to promote tourism is not an exaggeration. There is no Silicon Valley-like activity that you see in Bangalore, Chennai and other cities. Levi's and Wrangler pants have no place in Kerala, all you see is a lungi rolled around the waist.

                           
If we mix the beauty of aishwarya rai, katrina kaif, angelina jolie, scarlett jhonson, kavya madhevan in a mixer, then the result is equal to the stunning natural beauty for which Kerala is renowned. From the stunning beaches along the Malabar Coast in the north to the  backwater canals in the south cutting through the glorious rolling hillside tea plantations in the Western Ghats, every part of Kerala is beautiful.  The way they preserved the forest reserves and ancient arts like 'kalari payattu', Ayurveda, etc is excellent.

                    
 When you are entering into the Kerala, then just listen to the melody songs of A.R.Rahman from 90's, the beauty of the song will be in front of you and you feel so good, it is the same feeling that you get when you see a beautiful malayali girl in that traditional white saree speaking that sweet Malayalam language, when you see those stunning tea estates in MUNNAR, when you see those awsome waterfalls like ATHIRAPILLY, when you see a boat going over the backwaters in ALLEPEY, when you watch those beautiful Malayalam movies. One should experience it to understand it. I hope to have that experience from now onwards in every month, and i will share those moments with you.

                                

                                          

                             
                         
                  

IT Job

Everyone wants this job and almost everyone in our country is doing this job and surprisingly everyone hates and scolds this job. The funny thing is there are lot of people in these metro cities in India who are not doing this job but loves this job like their life. They don't have any connection to this IT field and most of them don't even know the full form of IT, but still they daily pray to God that everyone should get IT job and more IT companies should come near their place. These people are the real estate brokers, house owners, auto drivers, street vendors, etc.

 An IT guy stops an auto and asks to go Guindy from Ramapuram, the auto guy watches that formal dress and the tag around the neck and demands 150, actual meter charge will come around 60 bucks. You will see a To-let board and call the number to ask the rent and other details, when you ask the question 'How much is the rent?', you won't get actual answer, instead you will get another question as reply 'Where are you working?', if you say you are working in an IT company then the other person's answer will be some what different from the actual answer and that difference will be in thousands.

Bangalore, the IT capital of our country is a perfect example for this raised cost of living for IT people. If you are staying in Bangalore and watch films in weekend then you will understand what i am saying, the ticket rate in Bangalore will be tripled in weekends. I feel sorry for those guys who watched Dhoom 3 in Bangalore.IT guy may or may not get health problems, he may or may not feel pressure, but he will surely face the above problems.