Why is he bleeding from his head? Who is he?

Nanganallur, Chennai. 2000/01 Season.

"Why is he bleeding from his head? Who is he?"
"David Beckham."
"What team?"
"Manchester United."

And there began the story of my love for Manchester United, the greatest club in the world.  Looking back at it now, I don't even remember the scene when I asked my cousin those questions. I can't remember the house, the TV set or the time of the day but what I can remember is that it was David Beckham bleeding from his bald head, both hands clutched on top of his head, looking a bit shocked. It was a commercial before the game against Bayern Munich in the champions league Knockouts. Of course, I know all this now because I did my research but back then I was only 8 years old and knew nothing about football except that Man United was a "4-bars filled" team in FIFA 2001. I remember that clearly because everything in that game was about bars. The first "Power bar" in the FIFA series was introduced that year if I am not wrong.

As a kid, I was more into cricket, like most Indian children. I moved to Delhi a year later and would occasionally watch Football. I used to pronouce Manchester United as "Manchesters United" for some reason but I corrected myself soon.

I often get stick for from members of forums from different countries who call me a glory hunter for supporting United.

Usual dialogue - "F*ucking glory hunter, must have been supporting United once the won the treble."
Fuck, I didn't even know United won a treble till late 2004.

04/05 was the season I started reading a lot about United and following games regularly, I'd be reading about the fixtures and results but won't talk about the style of play or tactics. Cricket still seemed like the bigger sport. I grew up watching cricket but somewhere during that time, Football overtook it.

I became a Die hard United fan from the 06/07 season. Watching Ronaldo rip apart teams with Rooney, The great UCL campaign ended by the amazing but aging force of Milan, reclaiming the EPL from Mourinho's Chelsea. My first full season was filled with excitement and joy.

07/08

Ronaldo. 42 goals.
United Double Winners.
That Scholesy goal against Barca.
The Holy trinity of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez.

Ripping apart teams in the champions league with counter attacks, the traditional way United play. I can never forget this season. As United grew stronger, so did my faith in them. I was not destined to be a United fan, I chose to be a united fan and I am glad I made that choice. I started reading about united, I started learning about the history of the club, the trophies it was won. Sir Matt busby's babes. The Munich tragedy. Sir Alex Ferguson and the class of  92'. Started downloading full season reviews of previous seasons and watched Roy Keane, Cantona, Schmeichel and others play their heart out for this great club. I started reading posts about out youth products coming through that season, Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans, Magnus Eikrem, Corry Evans and the recently poached from Roma starlet, Davide Petrucci.

The love for the club only grew stronger as I read more.

Today, Manchester United is so important to me that without United, I wouldn't be able to define myself. I have missed deadlines, work, school, tuitions, wedding receptions, sleep to Watch United play. Heck, I have even skipped a meal till the half time whistle so I can watch the game without missing a moment and when I tell you that I missed a meal, it's as big a deal as when Joey Tribbiani says the same.

I have tried really hard not to bring up "The retirements" topic. I just want to thank Sir Alex, Scholesy, Beckham, Owen, Neville, Albert Morgan the Kit man and all those who are retiring from United at the end of the season. I would like to thank Wenger for giving us Van Persie and Klopp for giving us Kagawa.

A new era awaits all of us United fans, an era where we have to have more faith than we ever had on United.

Off to Moyes now..

Holy Shoot, that was fun!

27th March. 2013. Chennai. (Yes, Holi in Chennai.)

Woke up at 5 am(*Achievement Unlocked*) and set out with a bunch of college mates for Sowcarpet, the North Indian hub of Chennai. This was the first time I was going to shoot holi and so I did a lot of research on how to protect your gear and how to shoot in testing conditions. I will share some of those with you later.

If it's your first time, it is going to be a very memorable experience shooting holi because it's about two things that photographers love the most: Colors and Smiles, all over the landscape.

Here a few things that you need to take care of before you set out to shoot:

1. Protect your gear:

It's easier said than done as I witnessed first hand that however you protect it, a little bit of powder will always slip through the smallest of openings. But powders are easy to get off of your camera, it's water that does most of the damage and you should do well to not let that happen. There are professional solutions for this such as this. But if you cannot get it before your shoot, you can always make such a thing yourself. Here's what I did, actually @enthupotato was the one who made it for me so I guess conjuring up a sister works well, if you don't have a one.

Don't let rubber bands over your focusing ring or your zoom ring.

2. Reach deep into your wardrobe

And get em' old clothes. Nobody cares how you look, at the end of the day you'll be all purple, blue, pink, yellow and green only. If you have old t-shirts that are white, use em, you'll have something to keep as a souvenir from your first holi shoot.

3. Mustard oil helps

I hate mustard oil's smell but if you apply it on your face the night before holi you'd have an easier time removing the rang off of your face. Didn't do this myself so I can't vouch for it personally, especially because it's mustard oil. But hey, if you are a office goer then it sure will be nice to get rid of the color ASAP.

4. Don't carry all your lenses

For the simple reason, you won't be able to change them while you are shooting with all kinds of colors splashing around. All your hard work will go in vain if you let even a little tinge of water seep into your sensors. If you happen to have a couple of cameras, that'd be awesome. You can mount each one with one lens, a prime lens and a wide lens would be my choice. Some people prefer telephotos, I don't really see its use. Also, make sure you have charged your battery fully and have spare memory cards.

5. Evaluate the situation

When you get to the location where you are shooting(In my case, it was sowcarpet.) evaluate the environment and situation before you start shooting, talk to the public on how they usually celebrate, where you could find more action, which places work well as aerial vantage points of wide shots of the crowds. For all this, you need to reach a little early and do some groundwork.

6. Stay safe and enjoy

After all, HOLI HAI! :) 

As for me, I live in Chennai and went to Sowcarpet, North madras, to shoot this year and had a wonderful time. We reached at around 6 am, which is too early the land looked deserted, no one was awake, yet. We all had a cup of tea and some biscuits and headed to "Mint Street", where we found some children just getting ready for the day ahead. We took some shots of people who had celebrated holi the previous night and were sleeping, all tired. You know I can keep going on about how great it was, but a picture always says more and so here are my best pictures from the shoot. I do feel a bit sad that I couldn't get more shots of holi in "action." but nothing I can't rectify next year. Cheers. :)

Done and dusted.

Poser.

Burst of yellow.

Captain Planet.

Krishna.

Odd women out.

View all photos at:

https://www.facebook.com/shotsrk

or

http://www.flickr.com/photos/innovation_station/

What a bummer, Amish!

Har Har Mahadev.

Feb-March 2013. Chennai.

Hey are you guys able to sleep at a proper time like 11 pm or so and wake up at like 6? This question has nothing to do with what I want to write, I am just asking.


Okay, Amish bhai, to be very honest with you, I have only one question to ask you: WHAT THE F was that man? 2 amazing books and then a 500 page crap. Yes, the crap had its moments but on the whole, what a bummer!

First of all you tell me why you named it "Oath of the Vayuputras" and didn't even dedicate 100 pages to them? All they do is give one bomb to Shiva, that too, just like that.

"Hi, I am neelkanth, give me pashupathiastra." "Here, take it and go."

Could have named it "The tragic ending to my Shiva trilogy".

Also, Bhrigu is one Maharishi who is a mind-reader means all he should have done is meet Shiva once and look into his eyes and give clearance for destruction of Somras. And because one important girl called Sati dies he automatically changes his views about Somras? what raa..dei!

What about Brhaspati and Shiva bro, were they ever good friends again? You dedicated on whole passage to Brhaspati feeling sad about Shiva not being as close with him as the times before the destruction of Mount Mandar but after that, nothing about them. Also, terrible narration bro. One girl I know is not even able to imagine Karthik fighting.

Okay, fine, you decided to call it a day on Sati, why so brutally da? what she did nu she deserves 4 fingers to be cut off of her and all? You could have made her a Naga in the first book itself for this kind of brutality at the end. :'(

Pashupatiastra should not be used no and Shiva used it, but no repercussions? Not even one letter from Vayuputras telling Shiva, "Bro, that was so uncool of you." Poda dei!

WORST THING OF ALL, throughout the book I am expecting to see the battle of all battles between Parveteshwar's army and Shiva's army. The Meluhan's tactical acumen versus the Neelkanth's warrior spirit. The love for homeland versus the love for greater good. BUT NO!

Awful bro, awful.

Maybe all this rant is because the story didn't end the way I wanted it to or maybe it's because whoever I come across who has finished the book tells me it sucked. Also, with so many sub-plots not taken care of and how the other 2 books were only like 300 pages, one feels you made a mistake by calling it the Shiva "Trilogy". I mean, there is so much more you could have told us, there is so much more we wanted to hear.

Anyway, it's over. On the whole, it is a series I would recommend people to read, at least for the first two books which were absolutely fantastic.

At the end of book, neither Shiva nor me, smiled.

Also this is a rant, not a review.

P.S. Spoiler alert. Oh and Devagiri is turned to ashes by Shiva because he uses nuclear bomb on the city because one irrelevant prince orders a bunch of Egyptian assassins to murder Shiva but instead they kill Sati.

Ok, bye. 

To judge a "Full-meals" by the taste of the "Aviyal".

Random TamBrahm function, Chennai, Mid 2000s. 

Mom: "Hand wash enga?"
Dude with sambar bucket points where.

Mom: "Sapadu okay dhan, service poor. Appalathula ore ennai."
Perima: "Aama saandhi, enaku onnum pudikala."
Mom: "Naa aviyal taste pannoneve kandupudichuten sapadu okay va dhan irukun nu."
Me: "Adhu epdi verum Aviyal taste panni kandupudicha?"
Mom: "Adhu Apudi dhan, Aviyal panna theriyale naa cook is not good nu artham.."

What is this Aviyal? Well, Aviyal is a beautiful coming together of vegetables such as carrot, beans, potato, drumstick and peas(optional) with curd, grated coconut and coconut oil. In the end, you garnish it with curry leaves. Also, the signature dish of a south-indian thali meal. The Mallus will tell you that it originated in their "Sadya" but don't believe them, they are telling "simblee". It's very difficult to get this prepared perfectly and a lot of chefs struggle to get it just right, so you can understand when my mom says that it is the make or break dish of the meal.

So, with those words from my mom, I started judging each and every meal by the taste of its Aviyal. Sometimes the food would have been really good but the Aviyal would have been piss poor and sometimes the food would have been mediocre but the Aviyal, much to your surprise, would have been excellent. Usually when Aviyal sucks, so will the rest of your plate.

When you see vegetables that should not be present in an Aviyal sitting on your plate as part of your Aviyal, you can be rest assured that the chef tried to experiment with the wrong dish. This one time I had an Aviyal that consisted of only pumpkins, cucumbers and beans. What the F, bro? (Can't say the F word, my mom knows  I blog. F my life.)

Yes, I am aware that different states use different vegetables in their Aviyal and yes, I am also aware that the Keralites use plantain, yam and all. I will tell you something about them Keralites a? They keep rubbing your nose in the fact that they are the most educated bunch in India but look what they actually do:

Green "PAPER" leaf. What sorcery is this?

Went to Gavi, Kerala for a wildlife photography trip and had to eat my food which was served on a green paper, basically.

The guy who came up with this idea must have been thinking, "Okay, let me cut this banana tree which naturally provides awesome leaves to serve food on, take that to my factory, make paper out of it and color it green." He's not too mainstream, no? Stupid fellow.

This green paper is not even thick to hold one teaspoon payasam, how is it gonna hold up when they pour rasam and all?

As I conclude this post, I want to tell you two things cut and right:

1. Aviyal is very important.
2. No matter how good the Aviyal is, it'll never be as good as how your mom makes it.

If you mom has never made Aviyal or you have never had it, you are missing out on something really special.

P.S. Tell me what your favorite vegetable in an Aviyal is in the comments section, okay?

EDIT: Here is a contribution by one of my friends, Anusha, who gave me the link which talks about real banana leaves and artificial ones:

http://www.consumer.org.my/index.php/food/safety/559-paper-banana-leaf-is-cheap-and-unhealthy-substitute-for-the-real-one

The origin of KuttiJetti.

Chennai, 2001. 

To begin with a cliche, it was hot day. I had just gotten back from school, extra tired because the last period was PT. To make things worse, there was no electricity. I drank some water and sat on the sofa, opened the doors of my apartment wide open so at least the least bit of air could circulate around my hall. It was 2:45 and my nose was sweating. I screamed, "Paaati, kaaapii." I could hear my paati's voice, i knew she'd come down with my coffee in about 10 minutes. I waited.

Couple of girls lived just opposite my house. I used to play 'Paandi' with them partly because I liked it and partly because the corridor leading towards my flat looked custom made for jumping around boxes. The tiles were aligned perfectly that we never had the need to steal chalk from school. Sometimes, if a couple of friends from other flats came over, we'd play 'red-letter, blue-letter.' I think I was the only guy in the whole street and Ramya and Shilu were my best friends. *fuck*  

Paati came with my coffee and a few biscuits. I ignored the biscuits because i don't like to dip shit in my coffee.So I had my coffee and paati told me to put my uniform in the bucket in the balcony and to put on some 'draayar and satai'.

Here's the thing; I like my thing AFAP. As free as possible. I was not going to wear a 'draayer' and go play 'paandi'. I was going to go out with a baniyan and my jetti(yellow with mickey and minnie on it.) and fucking jump around with a couple of girls. And that's what I did.

As my Paati was looking down on us from the terrace, she shouted what she'd shout everyday that it became  a ritual.

"Raaama, kuttijetti potundu velila pogadha daa."

"Sorry, Paati but this is how I roll. Okay, jump. whatever."