5 People You Meet in Gym

1. Muscular Men - Guys with little soccer shorts.

They are the real macho ones..the 'Bouncer' material. U can recognize them not only thru ur sight but thru your auditory - due to their "arggggggghhss" while weightlifting.

2. Wanna be models who don't work more than 5 mins

They'll come in long fitting clothes with navel exposing slits. And, oh yeah , they also come to gym wearing makeup.

3. Skinny guys and gals

You wonder why the heck they come to gym, and all of a sudden u pick up on ur self conscience and start doing xtra minutes of workouts.

4. Monotonous ones

Those who go, workout, shower, and leave..they dont flirt around. They look constipated working out and they wear damn loose clothes.

5. Mega serial gang

Aunties and uncles in 60s. They come to gym only to catch up with their buddies and bitching abt each others family matters.

PS: My 'Current fav video' changes now.. to 'Meenamma' of 'Aasai'.. It is among my 'All time favorite songs'. I love this song for the following reasons:

---- The beautiful backdrop of Himalayas
---- Great chemistry between the pair
---- The dancing by Raju Sundaram's troupe of two behind a screen
---- Melodious voices of Unni Krishnan and Anuradha Sriram
---- Different picturization : The romance moves from wild (when Ajith throws a big snowball on Suvalaxmi at 00:41 seconds) to soft (the huge checkered sheet on which they are lying and talking starts sliding.. 2:25); the Roman costume (1:30) the Hare Krishna guys dancing to the tune towards the end ...

Advice

(Pic adopted from Behindwoods)

Kamal to Top Star Prashanth: Seminar mudinjadhum ennai vandhu parunga.. Thondharavu panRa poNdAttingaLai eppadi samAaLikkiradhu eppadinnu tips kudukkuren..

A New Avatar

I have been pretty busy in the past 2 weeks bcos of a new role. Suddenly I was offered a chance to teach in a college for a month; in the US, the summer has two sessions, each about a month long. My chance was to teach my fav subject -Organic Chemistry to UG students in a college at Queens. The morning had a 2 1/2 class and immediately afterwards, the lab session for over 3 hours. Though I was never seriously interested in taking up teaching, I was interested in this new avatar since it would tell me how good I am at it.

It turned out to be OK.. A few of my students were kind enough to come and tell me that I am teaching well, but that was during the first week when I was teaching quite slowly, without realizing that, in this crumbled semester, I need to teach pretty fast. I am doing that now, and the students are complaining that there are two many reactions already. The course is somehow setup that way; hundreds of reactions to understand and memorize. But, that is what organic chemistry is (in)famous for.

The worst part about the whole thing is the long drive to the college. Though it is only about 30 miles away, the drive involves some of the busiest highways around Manhattan. With me having been blessed with ~ 1 mile commute to work in Florida and here until now, this long drive is quite frustrating. At times, it takes even 2 hours to commute. Worse was yesterday, when the sudden storm/tornado made me get stuck on the road for 4 hours and I had to leave home very early today to avoid any delay due to a predicted storm. Just today, one student recommended me an alternate route, which sounds promising, and looking to keep my travel time to about 80-90 minutes.

Tamil Movie Quiz - 4

1) A youngster, who hails from a family of cinema artists, did his MS in State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton. During his stay there, he was a brilliant student, and was one of the "Student Employees of the year" in 2002. His project included setting up the main web page for the Research in SUNY-Binghamton. After working for a few years in the US, he returned to India, and has picked up a career in Tamil cinema, thanks to a movie released in the last 12 months. Who is he?

2) Some (anywhere between 2 and 30) years ago, an artist sang a beautiful song and was almost about to win the National award for 'Best Male playback singer' for that year. Due to a silly reason (he was not a registered member of the playback singers' association), he couldn't get it. For the same movie, he won another national award in another category though. Had he won for his singing as well, he would have probably been the only artist to have won two awards for the same movie. He has won national awards in his main profession twice more, once before this movie and one after. He has been singing sporadically in his movies (and occasionally in some other movies in which he is not primarily involved) from about 10 years before the release of this movies, until now. Who is he?

3) A singer, who is trained in Carnatic music, rendered his voice to the songs of a famous Tamil film and was all set to win the National Award. The problem was that, the juries of the award committee decided not to give him the award, just bcos he was already a 4-time recipient of the National award, and they thought that someone else s'd be given the honor. This angered the singer. The very next year, he was selected for the award, but, due to the anger, he didn't go to receive it. It took him a few years to cool down, and when he was selected again twice, he went to the function to collect them. His son has also followed his footsteps. Who is the singer?

Satham Podathey - Songs

Yuvan teams up again with one of the first directors he worked with - Vasanth. This album is like 7G Rainbow Colony; some songs have the same 'haunted' feeling and remind in tunes, of the songs of 7G. Nevertheless, they are very good. I started liking them from the very first time I heard 'em. Na. Muthukumar has recreated the magic with Yuvan. So far the best album of Yuvan in this year.

1) Pesugiren - Neha Bhasin:

After Anushka, Yuvan introduces another member of the famous 'VIVA' group of girls to Tamil. To her credit, she has sung beautifully; despite being from North. The saxophone and guitar bits in the interludes, especially in the second interlude, are great. Somehow the voice can be easily related to that of Padmapriya. Superb song. 95%.


2) Azhagu kutti chellam - Shankar Mahadevan:

If it was 'Aarariraro' as the best song of the decade for mother, this song is for a toddler. The beat of the song, which is a combo of 'Thavil' and some 'kilukiluppai' is surely foot-tapping, and gels well with the mood of the song. The lyrics are cute too.

Unakku therindha mozhiyile enakku pesa theriyale
Enakku therindha baashai pesa unakku theriyavillai

Lots of 'konjalgal' in the song; very well rendered by Shankar Mahadevan. 90%.

3) Endha Kuthiraiyil - Shreya Ghoshal and Rahul Nambiar:

This reminds me of 'January madham' from 7G.. but the fast beats and some catchy lyrics makes the song likable. Shreya is awesome, as usual. After several generations one can hear 'Praananaatha' in a Tamil song.. :) 90%.

4) KAthal periyatha - Sudha Raghunathan:

Yes, you read it right.. After 'Ivan', she is back.. The 'Krishna Krishna' bit used is a surprise piece and Yuvan has blended it very well with the song. This competes with the first song for the my vote for the most favorite song of the album, thanks to the clever innovations spread throughout the song. I wish Sudha sings more songs for Tamil films.. 'Kadalil kulikkumbodhu' part also suddenly pops up and amuses, as does the short punjabi folk bit used subtly. 95%.

5) Oh Indha Kadhal - Yuvan and Adnan Sami:

This song surely sounds familiar, donno which song though.. Adnan manages to pronounce Tamil better than Yuvan, especially the 'La'. Just a routine song, IMHO.. 70%.

Overall, a must-hear album.

PS: Watched 'Koffee with Anu' in which Kadri Gopalnath and Vinayakaram were the guests. Nostalgia time, listening to Kadri's sax.. which made me change my current fav video to 'En Kadhaley' from Duet.. Kadri was just awesome in that, esp. in this song and in 'Naan Paadum Sandham'... An unforgettable song!! Another 'Anjali' memory.. :)