Under the Arc-lights-1

Like any dreamy, hazy eyed youngster,one of my earlies desires had been to act in a movie.I have grown up watching Superstar Rajinikanth deliver memorable punchlines in movies like Annamalai,Batsha,Padayappa and innumerable flicks that appealed to me as a kid.I reminisce how many times i have worn an over-sized shirt( my dad's) over another(mine) and feigned that i was the superstar mouthing those famous one-liners at an invisible enemy,at bliss that i am invincible.Well now i am a bit too old to attempt the same at home or my parents and younger brother would seriously doubt my sanity and counsel for treatment.

Well this summer i was caught unawares when my friend called me up one fine afternoon, and told me there was a small role for me in a short film which a mutual friend is making.Initially my excitement knew no bounds,and acting seemed like a piece of cake .Be it just a 10 minute short film and a small supporting role;nevertheless the prospect of appearing under the camera looked dazzling.Reaching the shooting spot, the script was narrated and frankly i wasn't enthralled by the depth of the story.I shall come to that later.

My primitive impression on films was very much limited to the end-product that we see on the screen.It all changed in about 15 minutes i spent with the film team, which comprises of only teenagers. The first scene we shot needed about 2 or 3 rehearsals and another 2 retakes after the camera started rolling.I learnt from the director, that a particular scene needs to be taken in different angles ;and retakes results in perfections.It was really funny the way we mouthed our dialogues( which are pretty ordinary considering the story of the film which i shall describe later)..It was at this point of time i realised that screen presence is what determines the value of an actor and a good actor has a natural screen presence.As i contemplate about it now i am filled in awe for those superstars on the silver screen,who inspite of their short-comings are unabated and at ease in doing whatever they attempt.Hats off to them.

The shooting schedule spanned over a period of a week and comprised of out-door shoots as well as indoors.Another lesson i learnt here was that the director faces an ardulous task in getting the retinue into gelling as a cohesive unit.Afterall one needs good on-screen chemistry between the co-artists...Though the project i was involved in was just a 10 minute short film and involved no monetary benefits to the artists, the director( my friend ashok) assumed on himself the onerous responsibility of providing us lunches.Being a fellow student himself, it would have been a burden on him.This provided me an insight into the vicissitudes faced by the production crew of muti-million dollar blockbusters which hit the silverscreens.Small hiccups and minor glitches can compound into serious delays ,which aggravagate the losses faced by the producer considering the scale of investment .Phew!! Perhaps the most important aspect of movie-making is witnessed in the finesse associated with the end-product.So the onus of ensuring a clean, watchable, coherent content lies on the post-production unit spearheaded by the editor.It is he who substantiates and decides which shots are to be included and which are to be discarded.

The shooting part of the film now complete,i was informed that the editing work would be completed in a few weeks time.Well it was a memorable summer fo me learning new things .

Hope when the end product comes i have looked better or atleast on par with thala Sam Anderson....

Deja-vu

Finally the day dawned.It was a morning i wasn't really looking forward to.28 days of non-stop freedom had come to an end. 5:55 as the third of my preset alarms went off from my mobile i finally decided to wake up...Blow it was really irritating trying to stay awake when you really want to sleep tightly...It took me around 10 minutes to shave and shower and another 5 minutes to get ready..Breakfast time..lol it was 6:25 am on the clock and i had difficuilty in pushing it down my throat at this time of the day especially when my day never really kick started at not earlier than 11 in the last one month....Anyways i hit the road at 6:35 and it was a 6 minute walk to my bus-stop..Flashes of memory came back to me..I could see a 10 month younger version of myself walking to the bus-stop..It was august last year and it was Orientation/First day in college...After about a 55 minute ride we reached college..I went inside my department and started scouting for my classroom..I found it and thank -god the last-bench was empty and beckoning me to occupy it...8:10 am , a lecturer entered the room and introduced herself..5 minutes later she was briefing us about the subject syllabus and my eye-lids were oscillating;trying my best not to sleep on the very first day first hour..My hopes for a promising start to a new semester ( by trying to be attentive) came crashing down like a pack of cards as the subsequent periods were no less different.Each and every lecturer started his or her subject immediately;As if the whole semester's result would be altered if one day was free...Anyways no more complaints..I had felt a sensation of deja-vu in the morning before coming to college..But perhaps i was wrong that i felt it resembled the very first day of first year..It was more like resuming from where we left off last year.....

We are like this only

Stealthily i tip-toed my way into the kitchen not quite bothering to turn on the lights..I started hunting the shelves.God i found what i was looking for .There it was lying right under my nose ,being illuminated under the moon-light falling through the open windows.The steel blade was glinting and i clutched the handle and crept back to the living room.Sounds like another rip off from a hollywood flick huh?? lol i have been watching a lot of them recently ..My mom was waiting at the dining table as i silently crept upto her the knife pointed at her.Suddenly she screamed," put the knife down after striking the blade edge on the ground".."Oh mom ,i am not a murderer what's wrong with you ?".." Do what i say if u dont want me to be stabbed by anyone in the near future" she replied in a hushed tone..Confused i was,nevertheless i did what my mom instructed me to.If you have been following me so far,then you will understand what i am ranting about.In case you dont,well its our personal beliefs and superstitions,some of which can evoke instantaneous laughter from a skeptic huh...

Hailing from a conservative south indian family,i am rather very much habituated to these beliefs that questioning its rationale has invited a stern look and twitching of the eyebrows from my elders.Well time and again my row with them have just fallen short of me being branded as a rebel ...lol..I recollect an incident which happened a few years ago ,when my late grandma visited us.It was evening time and i was lazing around sitting on the couch.Suddenly my grandma shouted " Get up from there.dont sit on the pillow.it will bring misfortune to the family" ..Dumbstruck..My 15 year old mind wondered " So am i really sitting on a potential time bomb??"..As if this wasnt enough, there was more to come..A few hour later i asked my younger brother to join me for a game of cards."velakkathenapinna cards game vilayada porela" She asked me in her malayalam accent.I was puzzled." Why i am going to be indoors only???" However my mom intervened and an altercation was prevented.Later i asked my mom the reason and she came up with a hardly-convincing answer "Those days in villages people did blah blah..." .My mind was totally dumbfounded that a simple card game was subject to so much talk..
Speaking of beliefs and superstitions i am reminded of a rib-tickling comdey scene from a tamil movie starring vivek.The scene was framed like this Vivek and his onscreen dad were seated with an empty plate each infront of them .Vivek's mother would stride outdoors with a plate of rice in her hands.Stopping her Vivek would debrief her where she is heading towards.Her reply would be that she is going to feed the crow before serving them.Spontaneously he would retort ," then motta madila kaayapotta vetthala kaakka kotha vantha yen amma thoratharenga????".....

Perhaps the most common superstition one would have encountered is that of a black cat crossing one's path would bring in bad luck in our chore..Now the poor cat,she is hurriedly in
pursuit of her prey or maybe she is scampering for shelter from her predators...God only knows what..Then there is this practise common among many of us to insist that we are not inquired of our destination,when we are ready to hit the road..Some go to the extent of changing their attire and gulp down a tumbler of water before restarting their journey!!!! Now speaking of attire and costumes , there are strict dress-codes for certain family occasions which contend that certain colors be shunned.For instance black color is a strict no-no for certain occasions like the birth of a new year or some puja at home.I have always felt comfortable in a black T-shirt and often reasoned with my parents contending my claim.

Incase you have been scrolling down reading every view of mine under the impression i am a skeptic,then its never too late now to change it.Well i am not.Just like these people i have alluded about, i have had my own share of well yeah stupid beliefs if u may address it that way..I am willing to bet that nearly everyone of us would have at some point of time had this notion of a certain pen being lucky or a attiring a particular shirt could garner good fortune.When questioned about the reason behind our action, the only conscientious answer is that we get a certain level of personal satisfaction by doing this.My lucky blue shirt wont fetch me a job, but attiring it boosts up my confidence.Well i just leave it to you to decide but the bottomline is "WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY".

Night Life

The wind blew gently whipping against my blue striped t-shirt,i looked up at the sky.Thank goodness there was little cloud-cover and the moon lit street was visible clearly.i flipped open my mobile phone to check the time.11:15 pm..thursday...travel back in time by 90 minutes..
9:45 pm. I was at home, sitting in front of my laptop ,chatting with a couple of friends on Yahoo messenger...I heard a buzz going nearby and absent-mindedly flipped open my mobile phone.I knew it was my friend Vignesh on the line." machan come down , walk down your street ,I shall meet you on the way"..Now dont jump down to any conclusions, i dont want you to be mistaken .Well my friend was calling me for a late night stroll which we are quite used to these days." catch you in 10 minutes da " i flipped my phone shut...I was dressed only in my shorts and was bare-chested.I scrambled to find a loose-fitting blue stripe t-shirt and pulled on my red track suit.Well it doesn quite complement each other.Nevertheless i was just going on a late-night stroll,not a date....I bid goodbye to my friends on Yahoo Messenger with the customary salutations which most of the net savvy youngsters by now would be quite familiar with...gn sd..tc...bbye...ciao...seems neverending huh..

9:51 ..i steped out of my second floor apartment .Climbed down the stairs ,taking two at a time, reached the ground floor in 20 seconds..I pulled open the iron-gate at the entrance , and hit the road..It was not a new-moon day and i was quite thankful ...duh..It is chennai and one cant quite expect the street-lights to be functional..Be grateful if you can spot those lamp-posts in your street..A few vehicles were parked on the street and i was walking alone..I was reminded of the track " I walk a lonely road on the boulevard of broken dreams"..courtesy green day from the album " The american idiot"..Humming it slowly under my breath i started walking at a brisk pace..It took me exactly 7 minutes to reach vignesh's home and i knew it out of practice.But the impatient fellow messaged me" where are you"..Feeling the vibration, i flipped open and replied him...

9:58...I was standing outside the entrance to Vignesh's apartment.He greeted me with a self-effacing look on his face, which by now i knew shouldn't be mistaken for..lol....Attired in a non-descript Tshirt going with a pair of shorts he looked his casual self..Straight-away we hit the road ...Now put rest to your speculations..We are just a bunch of normal teenagers and between us we had not more than 50 rupees and we were heading nowhere in particular.." so machan how was ur day" he startd." nothing much man..vetti all day been online for sometime till you called up"..In case this conversation seems familiar and sterotypical, i cant help it but this is precisely how we most often start a seemingly mundane conversation..

10:10...We have been walking for exactly 12 minutes and we had entered into a by-road leaving behind the main road..Most of the shops had downed their shutters and the remaining ones were entertaining their last few customers of the day..Walking alongside a petrol-bunk i noticed it had been closed for quite sometime and remarked..My friend replied indignantly" It is closed today in-view of the hike in petrol and diesel prices coming into effect from tomorrow"..It didn require any further explanation from him.I understood the reason.Nevertheless we started talking about the price hike and the consequence it would have on our lives....Our pace slowed down quite and our conversation started drifting towards the soaring inflation which the country is currently facing ..Now you might wonder what a couple of youngsters would achieve talking about this..The answer is just self-awarenessl;nothing more.

10:35...We had been walking for nearly 40 minutes and decided to take a drink..We spotted the nearby Mcrenett;the shutters were half pulled down and we were the last customers to walk in.
finishing our drinks, we paid up and started to leave.10:41..We stepped out of the store and slowly started walking towards his apartments on the main road..10:50..we reached the entrance to his apartments,squatted on the compound wall ,continuing our tirade against the present day inflation without any particular political affliation.11:10 we decided to call it a day,when vignesh got an angry remainder from his mother to come upstairs..lol..Bidding goodbye to him i started walking homewards..

11:15..The moon-lit street was clearly visible and i had two more blocks to go further.As expected i covered the distance in 2 minutes..In case you had been scrolling down all the while expecting something drastic or spectacular to happen, you are mistaken,because as i have mentioned earlier i was just out on a late night stroll with my friend..11:29 I finished up my milk and switched on my laptop to sign into orkut.com for the n-th time that day..11:41...After having reassured myself that there was no scrap left to be replied to, i decided to log out and hit the sack....

First year in college

Having finished my first year engineering exams i sit back and let my mind wander on the changes and transitions that have occured ever since the time i left school 15 months ago.I am quite surprised to discover how much i have changed since then.One year in college has given me enough freedom and exposure to a mutlitude of things.Exactly 12 months ago i was at cross-roads.I wasnt sure of my future then.I took up a course thinking it was where my interest was,quite like most of my counterparts.It is not that i regret that choice,but the past one year has made me realise our insight into certain things are short sighted.


I find that the transition from school to college is quite discernible and maybe it could be attributed to the freedom that is given in my college.There are a few colleges where life is worse than in a military jail, whose students are subjected to so many silly rules and restrictions that even lamenting about the same is stale.Some of these rules include a blanket ban on boys-girls interaction.The plea given by the management of these colleges is that such interactions are an unhealthy trend , students would go wayward resulting in unpleasant incidents.I wonder how such students would be able to face the real world,stepping out of college landing themselves in their first job.In today's scenario where more importantly than the academic record and personal intelligence,the ability to coalesce with colleagues is of paramount importance.Now this being a post on my college life, i dont want to deviate much.However I am grateful to my college for not imposing such meaningless rules on us till now.This made me realize how much valuable freedom my college gives us,expecting us to utilize it discreetly.I do agree too much freedom would spoil students.However one must understand that freedom always comes with a price and this is responsibility.People may or would have fallen by the wayside.Anyways certain lessons in life are better learnt the hard way and they stay forever isnt that so??


Beyond all this serious talk, college has provided me a new environment and a chance to meet new people,friends and acquaintances.I remember how one fine monday evening last august,i was returning home in the college bus after the Orientation Programme ,i was summoned by the seniors to the last row of seats in the bus.I shuddered at the thought of being ragged.There was mild ragging which included singing,speaking punch dialogues,proposing to a fellow first year girl (She rejected it obviously..lolz...) etc.This sort of ragging continued for quite a few weeks and i was initially apprehensive of this.But soon it dawned on me that all this ragging was done only to acquaint the juniors with the seniors .My seniors were really responsible people and never once did they indulge in the excesses that we hear of in medical colleges and IITs ,time and again.

The past one year in college has brought me more friends and acquaintances than my high school life.I would rather say i was able to come out of a shell to which i was withdrawn into during my high school days .It was not that i was a loner in school, but my circle of contacts were quite limited to my closest friends. In any relationship small squabbles and petty misunderstandings are bound to arise and i have had my small share of them with a few of my friends. But i have learnt that it is possible and necessary to shed my ego whenever and wherever mandatory.However i feel i have kind of not performed upto my potential on the academic front and surely i do have a few regrets about them.Here again i have beffitingly learnt my lesson and i now look forward to correct myself in the upcoming semesters.Most important than anything else i feel i have quite matured a lot and grown up as a person.I am no longer the bleary eyed school kid , i am now filled with some kind of purpose.I have three more golden years to spend alongside my friends in college and i am eagerly looking forward ......