What is the use of handbags?

Why are our female cine-stars always seen in functions, with the cellfone on their hands? They seem to have taken the term 'handset' too seriously.

Not ones to be left behind, the male versions are often seen using the cellfones.

Go, Jo!

, This Jo isn’t the one what most of you think to be. I am talking about one Mrs. Joania, a mid-thirties mom and a full-time employee, who is on a terrific journey that is leading to better and more better places with every passing week. The name of the journey is ‘weight-loss’. When she started it last December, she was 258 pounds (117 kgs) and she weighs now (as of Mid-April) 214 pounds (97 kgs) – a difference of 20 kgs in 4 months. The best part of her journey is that she decided to blog about it, with pictures. So, there are a lot of ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures to compare the weight loss, which is similar to what one can see in ads for weight loss supplements. Only that this time we know for sure this person is doing it by the best possible way – a judicial combination of hard exercise and proper diet. No magic pills, no crash diet, no surgery and no slogging.

She blogs her weight every Wednesday and posts her pictures every weekend. So there are at least a couple of reasons to visit her blog every week, to check the gradual decrement of weight and shrinking of the girth. I strongly recommend everyone who wants to lose weight to visit her blog. One common de-motivating factor that most people face is a plateau often encountered over a considerable time. She has faced it too (look at mid-Feb), but that hasn’t deterred her journey at all. She works out 6 days a week mostly with the help of a trainer. She has set several small rewards along her journey to motivate herself, which is a suggestion most fitness Gurus give.

Some tips to Women for losing weight:

* Weight loss journey begins at home. Eat healthy and resist your temptation for that extra piece of sweet or the fried item.

* Do NOT compare ur pattern of weight loss with that of other men around you. It is usually easier for men to lose weight than for women.

* Mix various workout regimes such as cardio, aerobics, and weight lifting. And, about the last one, dont worry that you will start looking muscular like men. You dont secrete several hormones that men do, esp. Testosterone, the muscle-building hormone.

* Weight lifting will certainly help grow your muscles, and it has several advantages: a) Any weight lifting activity help burn calories upto 36 hours after the workout; b) Mere presence of muscles will help burn calories; c) Muscles strengthen your body, by supporting ur bones, and ligaments better; d) Muscles help you get a toned-look for the entire body. Suppose you do only cardio and aerobics, your body will lose fat and muscles, which isnt the best way of weight loss. You will see your body look 'loose' due to that, rather than 'firm' which will happen only with muscle build-up.

Joania is already getting famous, with mentions of her in some magazines, and a recent TV ad as well. I expect her to appear on Oprah’s show after she attains her target – 157 pounds, which is a good 46 kgs lighter than her weight in December. With the kind of progress that she is making, I guess she will be there by the year-end. Keep going, Jo! Your success story will surely inspire thousands, if not millions of people to take up the same journey as yours.

P.S.: This reward system surely will work wonders. Our brain has the reward zones which get activated when some tasks are achieved. I blogged about a reward system that some of my desperate friends used almost 3 years ago. Whatever works!! Rewards apart, exercising is recommended by physicians to everyone. In the last few months, I have come across a few blogger buddies who have witnessed critical health issues even before the age of 45 and gone on to weight loss regimes after the warnings. So, like my car mechanic says, "you pay less now, or you pay more later".

An Inspired Philosophical Song

Below is a translated philosophical song whose original version , I am sure, all of you would have heard. FYI, I didn't do the translation. Read it, guess the original tamil song and post it in the comments section. As with all the quizzes, I will moderate the comments for a few days.

Revealed this city its trueness

Universe unraveled itself

Birth of the practicality in me

Understanding the numbers in people

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Nourished the disguised snake of cunningness

To get stung by the bitterness of life

Void is the relation of brotherhood

For its self inflicting performances

And meticulous calculations of time

For the love designed by the money

Vain are those blood dropped

To get outcaste

Hurt by the horns of mistakes

Scorpions’ sting my wounded soul

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Past step towards present Philosopher

Disembarked the evil from the river of sins

And dance with my naked naive ness

Rainbow of strung affinity disappear

Heavy heart filled with kinship

Inside are those ferocious animals to eat

The tainted money

And there goes the brave cow

To be chopped into the pieces of practicality

Oh! My Sweetheart!

Ayan Review: Surya's Aegan

Of late, Tamil cinema and expectations are not going along well together. I went into this movie mostly for the director KV Anand and the script-writers SuBa, who had earlier combined together to give a good thriller in Kanaa Kandaen. With Ayan, though, KV Anand succumbs to the second-movie syndrome. So, except a fine cinematography, we get bad screenplay, no story, unimaginative choreography, and some insipid performances.

Deva (Surya) is studying M.Sc. computer science while at the same time working with Das (Prabhu) as a smuggler, who smuggles to and from sub-Saharan Africa and Malaysia. Kamalesh (Akashdeep Saigal) wants to become the #1 smuggler and would go to any extent to achieve his goal. Deva and his friend Chitti's (Jagan) sister Yamuna (Tamanna) fall in love, but Kamalesh's plans threaten the lives of Deva and those around him.

In his recent interviews, Surya was seen yapping about a 'different story that has never been told in Tamil cinema'. No such story is found to be seen anywhere in the movie, even after the end credits start rolling. The main story has liberal borrowings from 'Kuruvi', several of 80's smugglers' movies of Kamal and Rajni, and even from Hollywood movies such as Blood diamond. There is a scene in the movie wherein a Tamil director is shown visiting DVD stores seeking story plots from Hollywood for his next movie. Probably KV Anand self-satirically says that the character is based on himself.

It could have been far better, though. There are several twists in the movie which could have progressed well to break the typical formula of Tamil movies. One such twist arrives at the Intermission, which, if cleverly executed, could have surprised us ala the Hindi movie 'Khakee'. The second half has too many of such twists, but by then we know where the director is taking us - a risk-free zone, so those twists don't amuse us much. Another downside of the second half is the huge increase in the irritability quotients of the female characters. Tamanna and Renuka were so annoying.

The development of love between the lead pair is quite lame. One can see Surya re-enacting his 'SOK' and 'Varanam Ayiram' lover-boy roles here again. His body language and dialog delivery are so predictable nowadays. Time for a change, dude! Tamanna, after a promising role in 'Kalloori', has joined a huge list of talented glamor dolls of Tamil cinema. Prabhu offers nothing new, except half the screen space. Having watched quite a bit of Akashdeep as Ansh Gujral in Star TV's "Kyunki saas bhi..", I know that he is quite capable of a more menacing villainy than what we see in this film.

There are some interesting chase and fight sequences, which have been inspired from the last two 007 movies. In an attempt to prolong the suspense of some scenes by using reverse shots, the director and editor have missed out providing suitable links between some scenes, which make the scenes jump so abruptly. The song sequences are also introduced out of nowhere, and hence they don't gel with the story well. The two songs that I loved to hear the most - "Vizhi moodi" and "Anbe anbe" had very poor pre-song scenes, which took away the effectiveness of the songs. While the dance steps in the former songs were cute, the less said about the latter, the better.

Overall, it is a movie worth watching once, if you go with zero expectations. Otherwise, being a Sun TV production, you can soon watch it in small screen "Ulaga tholaikaatchigaLil mudhal muraiyaaga"...