Safar Ye Zindagi ka

me chala me chala
har ek din, har ek gadi
samasyonko suljathe huwe
rastonko paar karthe huwe
Musafir me chalta raha

kahin door chala
koi manzil na soch ke chala
har ek samasyaa ki jawaab hai
har ek jawab ke aage ek aur samasyaa hai

me jo dhoondhoon wo kisi ke paas nahi
me jo maangoon usse mujhe koi faida nahi
ye daud nahi hai mere jindagi ka daud
is safar ki manzil nahi hai mera manzil

samjhana isse aasaan nahi
samajh jao to bhi kuch asar nahi
koshish bhi mat kar, koi nahi
mujhe jhelne do, aur koi raasta nahi

New York Trip

The places that we visited at the big apple and my opinion on them:

The Statue of Liberty: It's a world wonder. What more to say? The statue and its ambience look awesome. The view of Ellis island on the way back is also good, though I did not step inside Ellis island and check what actually is there. There is also a good view of the New York skyline from the statue. Unfortunately it was too foggy when visited the place that the skyline was barely visible. Not too sure how foggy it generally is, but my guess would be that it could only be better.

Wall Street and Surroundings: The financial street looks like just another street. May be it looks different with the hussle and bussle of a working day. The bull in the adjacent street is also a tourist attraction. The trinity church and the adjoining skyscrapers are a good sight.

Ground Zero: What remains of the WTC building is a huge pit and heavy machinery working in it. The WTC station has a good design in front of it.

Brooklyn Bridge: This Bridge looks great. But the nearby bridge (don't know it's name) looks even better.

Saravanas: The saravana bhavan of TamilNadu fame is the one that I had lunch in. There are a lot of Indian restaurants in Lexington avenue and one needs ot be careful while selecting a good restaurant. There is a "Saravana Bhavan" which is not the one in Chennai. The one by the same name in Chennai runs here as "Saravanas". The food is tasty but a lil bit on the expensive side.

United Nations: The UN office has a guided tour every 10 minutes or so. They take us around the different chambers and provide us a lot of information. After a period of time the information that reflects off the brain but it is still a good place to visit. The sculptures and paintings are very nice to see.

Central Park: Just another big park. By the time I reached there it was too dark to see and enjoy the serenity. The rain also did not help much.

Times Square: If bright lights and huge billboards attract you then this is the place for you. But then, yours truly went there just to add it to his resume.

Ranganatha temple, Pomona: The Ranganatha temple of the Ahobila mutt is a beautiful temple. Atleast for a person of my background it radiated bliss all around. If my memory serves me right, the different sannidhis (sanctum sanctorum) starting from left clockwise are - Adhivan Sadagopan, a painting of Sathyanarayanar, Vedantha Desigan, Thaayaar, Ranganathar, Venkatesa Perumal, Aandal, Ramanujar, 44th Jeeyar of Ahobila mutt, Lakshmi Nrisimhar with Chakkarathazwar, Aanjaneyar, Garudazhwar. When we went there, Perumal was in kannadi aria (glass house) and a lecture was going on in front of the Sathyanarayanar painting.

Boston Trip

Some people have all the luck with flights. Yours truly not being one of them, my flight got delayed again and I reached Boston at a better-than-usual 2 hours delay. Given my trysts with flights, a 2 hour delay is as good as no reaching early.

On Saturday (Dec-22) morning my cousin guided me around the city of Boston showing me the prominent places. We started off with a drive from Natick to Alewife. Then we took the famous Boston subway from Alewife to Harvard. So at last I got to see the place where all those HBRs are produced. Since it is vacation time, no students or activities were visible. All that was there were groups of tourists taking pictures in the synagogue for business studies. I too took few pictures to say that I am a Harvard passout.. err I passed via Harvard. We then took another subway train to Kendall and passed via MIT as well.

The walk along river Charles would be scenic during most of the year. But given my timing I had to concentrate more on the ground to avoid slipping on the snow, than on the river and locale around. Still, it was nice to walk around the river and over the bridge.

We took the redline subway again to Downtown Crossing and changed to the orange line and travelled to the Hay market. We visited the Quinsy market, which is a big place with a variety of cuisines, and the Hay market, which is a farmer's market. The scene near the river was good with a view of the airport at a distance. We then passed through the New England Holocause Memorial. The memorial consists of glass towers with information on the holocause written around. Smoke rises from below the towers as one passes through them.

We ended the tour with a trip to the Prudential tower wherein we had our lunch at the Qdoba Mexican Grill. The prudential tower would have been a shopper's paradise, but then my cousin and I do not fit that bill.

The day was tiring with long walks, but was also satisfying given the extent of the city that we covered

Happy Birthday SuperStar

Written in my broken Hindi... Why write a poem on the Tamil superstar in Hindi? Summa thaan

Janamdhin mubharak ho superstar
Tera agli movie ka hai intejaar
Poore hue baras sattaawan
Ab bhi dikh ta hai angry young man

Tujhe nahi pata ta teri hi taakkat
Isiliye banne aaye tu kalnayak
Ab janta ki mann me hai teri hukoomat
Ye chalega kaafi aur saal tak

Tumne Style shabt ko ek nayee arth diya
Sabke dilon me kushi pehlaaya
Ab sabko achi lagti hai rang kaali
Kyun ki us rang ka Superstar hai niraali

Tu nahi hai best actor
Tu nahi hai best dancer
Phir bhi tujh me hai aisi baat
Jo touch karein sab ki heart

Love Marriage/ காதல் திருமணம்

An attempt at Tamil poetry. Tamil words in English script and inline English translation are at the bottom

Tamil Version/ தமிழ் வடிவம்:

எண்ணிப்பார்த்தான்,
இருபது வருடங்களுக்கு முந்தைய வாழ்க்கையை.

அவள் கண்களில் உருகினான்,
அவள் மொழியினில் தன்னை இழந்தான்.
அவள் இன்றி ஒரு வாழ்க்கை,
அவனால் நினைக்க கூட இயலவில்லை.

திரௌபதிக்காக பாண்டவர் போரிட்டனர்,
சீதைக்காக இராமன் போரிட்டான்.
இவனும் அவளுக்காக போரிட்டான்,
தன் பெற்றோர்களிடம்.

பெற்றோரை துறந்தான்,
சொந்த மண்ணை துறந்தான்.
உயிரையும் கூட துறந்திருப்பான்,
அவளுடைய ஒரு சொல்லிற்காக.

எண்ணிப்பார்த்தான், இருப்பதை
இன்றைய நிலவரத்தை.

அவன் தவறுகளை மட்டுமே காணும் அவள் கண்கள்,
எப்பொழுதும் அவனை வசையும் அந்த கோர மொழிகள்.
வருந்தினான்,
காதலியாய் பார்த்தவளை அன்றே
மனைவியாய் உருவித்து பார்க்காமல் போனதற்காக


Tamil in English Script with Inline Translation:

Ennippaarthaan, Irupathu
He thought about it
varudangalukku munthaya vazhkaiyai
The life before 20 years

AvaL kangaLil uruginaan
In her eyes he melted
AvaL mozhiyinil thannai izhandhan
In her words he lost himself
AvaL indri oru vazhkai
Life without her
avanaal ninaikka kooda iyalavillai
He couldn’t even think of

Draupathikkaga Paandavar pOrittanar
Pandavaas fought for Draupati
Seethaikkaaga raman pOrittaan
Ram fought for Seetha
Ivanum avaLukkaaga pOrittaan
He too fought a war
Than pettrorgaLidam
With his parents

Petrorai thuranthaan
He left his parents
Sonda mannai thuranthaan
He left his home land
Uyiraiyum kooda thurandiruppaan
Would have even left his life
avaLudaiya oru sollirkaaga
For a word of hers

Ennippaarthan, iruphpathai
He thought about what he had
Indraya nilavaraththai
The situation of today

Avan thavarugaLai mattume kaanum avaL kangaL
Eyes that are on the lookout for his mistakes
eppOzhuthum avanai vesiyum andha Gora mozhigaL
Words that always hurt him
Varundhinaan
He felt sorry
Kaadhaliyaay paarthavaLai andre
For seeing her as his lover then,
Manaiviyaay uruviththu paarkaamal ponatharkaaga
And not seeing the wife she would become

Not So Funny

When I read the headline, I found it a bit silly. “FIR against Anil Ambani for mobile jokes on Sikhs” said The Hindu. I felt that it was a hyper reaction for people sending jokes over mobile phones. As it happens, these jokes are not sent by one person to another, but are sent by the service provider on a subscription basis. First things first, I don’t understand as to why people pay money to receive stupid jokes on the mobile phone. Do they think that there is someone sitting in a secluded place and concentrating full time to create jokes? Even the greatest of comedians repeat their jokes. If I can have my take on these mobile jokes, I would tend be believe that there is some silly guy sitting at his desk googling for jokes to be sent for this “value added” service. There is even a content service provider for the jokes!

I initially thought of the reaction of the Sikhs to be a bit more than what was called for. But thinking about it, if they don’t make their voice heard, no one’s going to heed to their requests. Talking on the subject of racist jokes, I saw Russel Peter’s “Outsourced” recently and can’t stop remembering and laughing on his jokes on the different races. If you haven’t heard of this guy before, then go to YouTube and check his 45 minute video (the one in which he is wearing a white shirt). I am being specific on this particular video of Russel as his other videos aren’t that great. Some of them are totally gross.