Happy Birthday Rajnikanth

Rajnikanth - a bald, ageing person , a grand father, sporting a saint look  in a very simple outfit and having a  fashionable Premier Padmini to his name. Yet you come to Tamil Nadu and say his name, be it a youngster, a senior citizen, a house wife, a kid, a baby or anyone for that matter, the reaction is the same and its something that cannot be explained but experienced.

Being a Rajnikanth fan is more than just a unique feeling. It is being a part of a huge world wide group that is driven by a common factor for the love of one extra-ordinary actor and a human being.

Rajnikanth may never get to do a series like Terminator, he may never get Hans Zimmer as the music director of his movie, he may never get a chance to do a role like Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness or Bruce Willis in Die Hard or Christian Bale in Batman. He may never sport a six pack rock hard abs, he may never perform some daredevil stunt sequence on his own, he may never get to act in an epic adventure like the Lord of the Rings. But the thing about him is, he doesn't have to. 

He is Rajinikanth. Period.

It is very common for people to judge his acting, find his style statements funny/childish or feel that the fan following that he commands is over rated. They make the common mistake of seeing things keeping in mind that Rajinikanth is just an actor. But to us, he is something more. People follow many super heroes and go to comic con or a Halloween dressed as a superman or a batman or a wolverine or a iron man. We don't need superheroes to follow. We have Rajinikanth.

There is no particular definition to the phenomenon, that is Rajinikanth. There will never be. Every person will have his/her own version and will be happy about it.

At 63 years he earns more than anyone in the country in his field, gets instant recognition throughout the world and has his birthday celebrated like a festival. He cannot be compared to any other successful people from any field as he has scripted his own fairy tale and is leading a life that everyone wants to but only a very few have led in the past.

Down the years, he might call it quits for the showbiz industry and continue his simple life. But he will never retire from our hearts. Rajnikanth playing the arrogant cop in Moondru Mugam, a robot in Enthiran, a struggling family man from Aarithilirundu Aruvathu and a flamboyant comedy role in Thillu Mullu will be among the best performances ever. His avatar as Basha redefined what a mass entertainer is.

With New Rajinikanth jokes coming up on the internet every day for the past year and gaining popularity among wide(influenced by the Chuck Norris jokes) audience. If someone were to walk along the roads of Chennai and share a Rajinikanth joke with a typical Rajinikanth fan, there is no second thoughts that both of them will have a good laugh about it. After which, when the person moves on, the fan calmly hopes in his/her heart that one day Rajinikanth will do exactly in the joke in real life and make that dumbass(who cracked the joke) look stupid. 

If some neutral person comes across this and terms me a crazy fan, I would encourage him/her to watch a Rajinikanth movie at theaters in Tamil Nadu, feel the frenzy and read this post again. 

(Rajnikanth songs were played during the whole time of writing this post)

-a humble Rajinikanth fan. 

Happy birthday thalaiva !!

"Nee oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna madri"

Down the Memory Lane

Fifteen years from now, I will still claim Sourav Ganguly as my favorite player. I will still be admiring Rahul Dravid's impenetrable defense. I will still enjoy replays of VVS Laxman's shots. I will still feel proud on seeing Anil Kumble's 10 wicket haul. Cricket will never be the same to me again.

With Ricky Ponting coming out to the press and calling it quits, everyone is expecting the same from SRT. That call will come from him, may be not today, not tomorrow but some day and that day will leave in the cross roads. I can move on and support the Kohlis and Dhonis and Amlas. But I would rather collect all the videos that are there of Sourav, the Waugh brothers, RT Ponting, M Atherton, A Stewart and reminisce what was a golden age of the modern day International cricket.

Its been 15 years since I started following cricket. It was the finals of the Sharjah cup between India and Australia. I will never forget the 24 made by Sourav Ganguly. I will always cherish the days when I used to wake up 5 in the morning to see India bashed by the mighty Australians led by Stephen Waugh day after day, match after match.

There was something about Michael Slater that caught my eye. He proved it was not a bad idea to score at 4+ run rate in a test match. I could see perseverance paying big time for Justin Langer and Rahul Dravid. Adam Glichrist was out of the world. VVS and Mark Waugh were creating magic using their bats. Ylou could high just seeing their cover drives. Sangakkara and Mahela belong to the same class. M Azharuddin's footwork was one of the best.

Sourav Ganguly was different. A horrible fielder, an arrogant man and vulnerable to bouncers. In spite of all these, he can make Eden go crazy just by walking into it. I have seen the sixers from Afridi, Sanatha Jayasuriya, KP and every other strong built cricketer, but nothing came close to the sight of Sourav dancing down the track and lofting one outside the stadium.

Brian Lara was a craftsman of his own league. I always wondered how he could have so much time in having such a high bat lift and even after that he was able to strike the ball so clean. If SRT was Batman, Lara was Wolverine.

M Atherton and M Atapattu tested the spectators' patience. They would sweat it out, grind into the opponents nerves and would never want to leave the field. Rahul had the similar trait. He seemed to hate getting out. He just was not fond of that idea.

Brett Lee and Anil Kumble was warriors. Cricket meant more to them than almost anything. They get hurt, you see them back on the field in no time with a band aid. They along with M Hayden  and the big Inzaman-ul-Haq had such a dominating presence over the opposite team.

Nathan Astle was a different story. He was the earlier version of B McCullum but with less dancing. The innings when he almost took NZ home when they were 9 down against England, those 4 sixes of Andy Caddick's over was quite a sight.

Glenn Mcgrath, SR Warne, Ambrose, Walsh, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram were just too good to bat against. M Muralitharan was a fox.

Gone are the days where the above mentioned players took the field and produced such excellent cricket. I am and will always be proud to have the most of the cricket played by them.

The Chicken Phenomenon

Recently, I stumbled into a piece where the cricketer's take on this was discussed and it was fun, so I thought may be, I could come up with something on my own from my college days.

Disclaimer : Not every one will find this funny and will get every joke !!

Gautham Surya's version: The Chicken crossed road to read my new article on the Indian Cricket team in sportskeeda. God bless that chicken.

Satellite Sister's version: The Chicken crossed the road to get to the canteen, duh!!

Vishnu Gowthem and Nivas Natrajan's versions: The Chicken crossed the road to tease Chezhian who is on the other side

Chezhian's version: Dai evanda enna chicken nu solrathu !!!

A Certain Dancer's version : The Chicken crossed the road..Hmmm..Eats...Falls asleep..Wakes up...The Chicken crossed the road...Hmm...Eats...Falls asleep...Wakes up...The Chicken crossed the road...  - loop continues to infinity

A Certain Malayali Girl's version: What? The Chicken crossed the road? How many times I told it not to.. Thats it...I am not going to speak to the chicken for the rest of my life.

A Certain Sourashtra Girl's version: The Chicken crossed the road as I did not give it any false hopes.

Chezhian's version(again) : Dai solunga da yaaru da anda chicken !! ?

Gautam Ponnu's version: "ok, the chicken..it had a friend....(goes on talking for about 5 hours without telling why the chicken crossed the road)"

A Certain Twin's version: Achicho, the chicken crossed eh? I wanted to ask it "How to find out when you are in love and all"..

Another Twin's version: LOL

Ganesh Subramiam Sivagnanam's version: The Chicken crossed to road to buy poison after reading this

Pooja Ravishankar's version: There is a Chicken ?? Really?

Vinoth Arun's version: See da, the chicken and I joined jobs together only...(talks for 2 hours about rockets and stuff till people start throwing stones at him)

Chezhian's version(one last time): Dai B**tards, I hate that chicken, Vijay Vaalga...

Arun Mozhi's version: The Chicken crossed the road to get tickets for Nadal's next match

Ganesh Skanda's version: Don't talk to me about chickens, I am a Brahmin you see...Dai Ganesh, yenga da unga veetu fish fry ?

Rajkumar RKM's version: The Chicken crossed the road to get a shirt just like mine

Viwaswan's version: Enna anda chicken oru Omm**********************************(83 bad words with no gap)

Sudarshan Nanda's version: The Chicken crossed the road to listen to some Metal music may be?

Shankar Kumar's version: The Chicken crossed the road to take me to the hospital

Vinoth Babu's version: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Uma Ridhi Swathee's version: Hahaha The Chicken crossed the road before taking a picture with me to put on FB Hahaha

Bharathi Srinivas' version: Gowtham, catch that chicken before it crosses that road, I want to take a profile picture with it for Facebook.

Karthik Selvakumar's version: The chicken crossed the road because we have the same hairstyle!! ?

Sivagurunathan's version: The chicken crossed to road? I told I will give it my shirt for its Batch day.anyways its bad luck..

SurjaJith's version : The chicken crossed to road, enna nethu athu adikala daaa !!!

Unithra Akka's version: Dai na than da anda chicken ey, enda enna ipde ootreenga...nimathiyaa oru road cross panna vidreengala !!

I love you forever and after

July 13th

"Dude, I got the toast, its showtime" shouted Shyam. I made some last minute adjustments, took a deep breath and started walking to what was one of the most important events in my life. Barath went ahead as I asked him to officiate the wedding for us."Hey Superstar, all set? Any last minute jitters?" asked Swathi, Shyam's wife. I smiled and walked passed her to see Sunanda aka fire sporting a new saree and was full of smiles.

We took up the stage.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today for joyous union of Raman and Ragini..." started Barat. I was supposed to give a big toast at the end of the ceremony and I practised it a hundred times. Being the groom, I was also supposed to tell my owes before everyone, and surprisingly I was not scared as I knew exactly what I wanted to say. "Raman, you have something to say?" asked Barat and I felt the entire crowd's stare on me. I turned to face Raagini, she wore the same smile when ever I got her doughnuts. I felt ready started,

"Raagini, its been 5 years since we have been together and it has been one hell of a ride. You have been a great friend, an awesome girl friend and a wonderful human being. You constantly gave me one new reason everyday to love you more. You  have grown more stupid which helps our relationship go well. If God were to give me a chance to start over my life from beginning, I would always want you to be girl whom I want to sweep off the feet and fall in love with, off all the girls in the world, which include Priyanka Chopra, Tamanna, Trisha and most importantly Sunny Leone. You will always be the one who I want to crack my jokes with, the one with whom I want to dance with, with whom I want to go to movies, cricket matches, with whom I want to go on trips. I want you to be the one to tell me that Ganguly's IPL team will win IPL one day, that wolverine is  real and I will get to meet him, that i drive like Lightning McQueen, that I can get the bow and arrow used by Legolas and that our seven kids will be awesome like me and pretty like you. I will keep comparing you to all the pretty things in the world, I will keep doing the craziest things ever to make you smile, I will keep holding your hand when we walk together,I will keep fighting for what I think is right,  I will keep making fun of your brother and your friends, I will keep telling your mom is super pretty, I will keep doing what I do best, to love you with all the love that there is.It has been a wonderful opportunity to have known you, been with you, to have gotten your consent to live the rest of my life with you, and I promise you that the rest of our lives is going to be fun, crazy, full of tears , laughter, hustle, chaos and through all that I will always be with you."

and then Raagini had her turn to say what she had in her mind. The final formalities were over and I turned towards Barath to hear the six words I have been waiting my lifetime to hear.

Happy Valentine's day