Destination Infinity's Blog, page 57

Butterfly Walk @ Adyar Poonga, Chennai

Me with Tamil TV Serial Actor Murali Kumar

On Thursday, I went to the Butterfly walk at Adyar/Tholkappiya Poonga organized by MNS – Madras Naturalists Society, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to create awareness about India’s natural heritage, document and conserve it through various activities. During the walk, we spotted and clicked many butterflies and the volunteers helped us identify the species, know more about them, their specialty, etc.

During this walk I had the opportunity to meet and interact with popular Tamil TV Serial actor Murali Kumar, who has acted in ‘Ganga Yamuna Saraswati’, ‘Vizhuthugal’, etc. He is currently acting in ‘Theivam Thandha Veedu’. Mr. Murali Kumar is also a voice artist and (among others) has dubbed for Jackie Chan in Tamil movies

You may not know that he is passionate about photography too. Since my own pictures were only average (at best), I requested Mr. Murali Kumar to share some pics he clicked with his DSLR and he graciously sent them to me. So, with permission from the artist, I hereby present a few pics clicked by him during our butterfly walk:

Destination Infinity

PS: Howzzz it?

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Published on August 14, 2015 03:22

Review: Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga (Tamil Movie)

Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga (வாசுவும் சரவணனும் ஒண்ணா படிச்சவங்க) is a Tamil movie directed by Rajesh M starring Arya, Santhanam, and Tamannah.

Movie review: Nice comedy with a decent screenplay. Santhanam back in form!

திரைப்பட விமரிசனம்: நல்ல நகைச்சுவை படம். சந்தானம் கலக்கி இர்ருக்கரு

This is one of those movies that you can watch to temporarily forget all your worries and enjoy some good comedy. Santhanam is the star of the movie — what a timing sense. His one liners are too good. Sometimes, it’s delivered so fast that before we can grasp and laugh at it, there is another one-liner. That’s the only issue in this otherwise good comedy movie.

Vasu (Santhanam) and Saravanan (Arya) are childhood friends. Vasu gets married and due to some happenings, his wife wants him to ‘cut’ the friendship of Saravanan. So Vasu decides to get Saravanan also married, to solve the problem. Saravanan falls in love with the rep at the matrimonial services office and predictably Vasu decides to help him.

There are so many twists that happen after that, and the events lead Vasu and Saravanan to start a Fast-unto-death rally on beach road. What happens after that? Are they reunited with their lovers? Does their friendship last? That’s the story.

‘பாஸ் என்கிற பாஸ்கரன்’அளவுக்கு கதை இல்லேனாலும், காமெடி துள்!

I feel this is a fantastic performance by Santhanam and whoever wrote his comedy one-liners. The screenplay and story is decent enough for a comedy movie, but it’s the jokes that keeps us glued to the screen. Arya, who is also the producer of this movie, has played his role well but the real star is Santhanam.

The message at the end, for all guys, is conveyed in a relatable and understandable way. High time movie makers start ‘educating’ guys on the nuances of relationships! In this movie, the message seems an afterthought, rather than the story being twisted to suit the message — that’s a big plus.

Nice movie if you are in the mood for pleasurable time-pass. And also learn a crucial message.

Verdict: Watch it in the Theater. தியேட்டர்ல பார்க்க கூடிய படம். சுத்தி இர்ருகரவங்க கை தட்டி சிரிக்கும் போது காமெடி இன்னும் எடுப்பா இருக்கும்

Destination Infinity

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Published on August 13, 2015 23:57

Chocolate Sandwich shop @ Ashok Nagar, Chennai

When fellow blogger Jeevan introduced me to Chocolate Sandwich shop @ Ashok Nagar, Chennai, I was all excited to go. Because I love sandwiches and I have not eaten a chocolate sandwich before! When I went to the shop (Ashok Nagar 9th Avenue, opp. to Puliyanthope play ground), I found they offer much more than just chocolate sandwiches.

They have different types of chocolates, sandwiches, juices, milkshakes, french fries, etc. One of the partners of this shop dropped by and we had a long chat about many things. I asked him what’s special in their shop, and he suggested: Single origin chocolates (cocoa sourced from a single farm), sugar free chocolates, herbal chocolates, Hony Pe ja sandwich (Honey, peanut butter, mixed fruit jam), Hazelnut chocolate sandwich, Chocolate milk shake, etc.

One interesting thing he told me about chocolates is: Don’t bite the chocolate as soon as you put it in your mouth. Keep it in your tongue until it melts, then eat it. I tried it with the white chocolates with nuts that he gave me, and the taste was good! You guys should also try this. BTW, here is the hazelnut chocolate sandwich I bought there:

The taste was good. The tomato sauce was not needed as the sandwich was already sweet. The prices are nominal right now as they have just started a couple of months back. So if you are in that area/will be around there, you might want to check it out soon

Destination Infinity

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Published on August 09, 2015 08:39

Book Reading Event: A Minute to Death by Ganga Bharani

So yesterday (Sat, Aug. 08) I went to the book reading event organized by quickly-becoming-famous author Ganga Bharani, for her second book – A Minute to Death. The event was held at Zha Cafe, Porur. Since I was joined by blogger friends and made some new friends, the evening was super-fun

Here is Ganga’s A Minute to Death book. It’s a thriller/crime fiction with a touch of romance. I went 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start thanks to Salesh Fernando, whom I went with — I thought would he come late, but he was bang on time. I hate going on time to any event

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Published on August 09, 2015 08:36

Madras Day Celebrations 2015: Go Participate!

Every year, the management team of The Madras Day magazine organizes month-long celebrations to celebrate the birthday of our city – Chennai. They organize various events where public can participate like exhibitions, walks, talks, movie screenings, musical events, etc. Most of them are free to attend (some are paid) and the events are related to the history/heritage of Chennai in someway.

Here is the link for: Events Calendar for Madras Week Celebrations, 2015.

Don’t just sit at home this August — go attend at least a couple of events. I am sure they will be educational and entertaining. Yes, I am also planning to attend a few

Destination Infinity

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Published on August 09, 2015 08:31

Cleartrip App for Bus, Train, Flight & Hotel Bookings in India

First, I want to show you the screenshot of my new phone: Xiaomi redmi 2. At 6K INR this is a wonderful phone — I love it! This post is about the Cleartrip Android app for bus, train, flight, and hotel bookings in India which I tested on my phone.

I went to the Google Play store and downloaded the Cleartrip app for free. It’s lightweight, doesn’t take up much space on your device. On my phone, I have a 1 GB RAM and it worked pretty fast, without any lag. When I opened the app, I got an orange screen with a tick mark (Cleartrip logo) and then the welcome screen as shown above. As you can see, there are various options like Flights, Hotels, Weekend getaways, Trains & Buses, and you can choose the appropriate option, based on your requirement. I tried all of them.

One thing I loved about this app is: It’s a single window system for most travel booking necessities. It’s even integrated with our IRCTC Railway gateway and I checked the list of trains from Bangalore to Chennai on Sunday. If I click on a particular train, I can see the availability of tickets for that day and two days afterwards. As simple as that! I guess I will use this app to quickly check the train availability from now on. If I integrate my IRCTC account with this app (which I can), I can even book train tickets from within the app. I like that.

Then I checked the hotel booking list for Bangalore. What a surprise — I got some amazing last-minute deals including the OYO rooms for below Rs. 400. And some of them are two/three star category! Guys, I tell you — if you are going to a trip and are about to book expensive hotels, don’t forget to check on the Cleartrip app for some amazing deals, especially if you are booking in the last minute! I am impressed.

Then I checked the flight prices from Chennai to Mumbai during December. I have previously checked for deals in the same dates from some other websites, and the best I got was something around Rs. 4000. On Cleartrip, I am getting a flight for Rs. 2374! I think it’s a very good deal. Considering, the minimum journey time on train is 26 hours. I was thinking of booking on a train, but now I am tempted to change my mind.

The bus ticket booking section is normal and similar to other services. I didn’t find any great deals on buses between Chennai and Bangalore. But it’s always good to have bus ticket booking too within the same app, instead of having to deal with multiple apps. Have a look at the third bus operator above: Their bus goes from Chennai to Bangalore in 19 hours! I wonder which route they are taking? Chennai – Kochi – Bangalore?

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Published on August 09, 2015 08:29

Do you Need a Horn to Drive on Chaotic Indian Roads? NO!!

The easiest thing there is, is to assume. When you talk to people, especially about driving on *chaotic* Indian roads, they’ll tell you stories and stories about how the most important component of your bike/car is the HORN.

Now let me tell you something.

It’s not.

I have been driving on the same *chaotic* Indian roads — in two bikes, three cities, for over 8 years — without a horn and I am doing very fine. It’s not that I have a horn and I don’t use it — I don’t even have it.

Actually, I didn’t maintain the battery and since the indicator, front light, etc. is working without the battery, I didn’t change it. Laziness, maybe.

But once I got used to driving without a horn, I realized it’s not required. Even, and especially, on the Indian roads.

All you need is a bit of patience. Once you remove the horn from your vehicle, you’ll develop patience — like I did.

You may not believe but there has not been a situation where I wanted to apply the horn or felt the lack of it. On roads, I feel, it’s important to trust people to do their best. Even if a vehicle is not moving right before you, it’s not that they are enjoying blocking the traffic — there might be a genuine reason like another vehicle is blocking their way, their vehicle is not starting, etc.

In these situations it’s better to understand and wait. If you are impatient, move your vehicle back and overtake on the side. What’s the need to keep honking and increasing the blood pressure of everyone around?

I feel, horn should be abolished in all vehicles. Or it’s volume should be drastically reduced. Horn is useless and is only misused. Like all other privileges available to mankind.

What do you think?

Destination Infinity

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Published on July 31, 2015 02:15

Review: Orange Mittai Tamil Movie

Trailer:

Orange Mittai (ஆரஞ்சு மிட்டாய்) is a Tamil movie written and directed by Biju Vishwanath, and produced by Vijay Sethupathi – who also plays the role of the old man in this movie. This movie advertises itself as ‘dark comedy’, but actually tries to be ’emotional’. And fails in both.

Although I didn’t enjoy this movie, I need to compliment the director for conceptualizing and creating a different movie with realistic characters but abstract concept/story. The producer has guts to bet his money on this concept, and I appreciate the attempt. I love experimentation and am glad that Tamil movie directors/producers are experimenting a lot in the recent times.

There is not much of a story. As the motto of the movie goes – ‘Journey is the destination’, similarly ‘Journey is the story’ as well! Two paramedical staff go to pickup an old person in an ambulance who supposedly had a heart attack. Vijay Sethupathi has played the role of the old man, but he walks, talks, and behaves like a normal person.

The incidents that happen during that ambulance journey and immediately afterwards is the story. There is some humor here and there, but it’s very sublime. Now let me come to the emotional connect. The character of the old man is shown as irritatingly stubborn as one can get. How can the lead character (Ramesh Thilak) get emotionally attached to such a person is difficult to understand.

The biggest plus point of this movie is the realistic characterization. All the characters are as real as we might find in the real world, and the actors have done an excellent job portraying those characters. While this adds to the charm of the movie, it’s also a flaw – there is not much of a reason to ’emotionally connect’ with people who seem and feel real!

Even a realistic movie needs some fantasy and that fantasy is portrayed by the situation. The old man uses the ambulance like a call taxi and that makes things interesting for sometime. But once we cross that stage and look forward to a story, a goal, or a conflict — there is none. Nobody wants anything!

The director managed to make me watch the full movie, but there were situations — especially near the end — where I thought when is the movie going to end? There is some emotional connect, but I, as an audience, felt that the characters didn’t deserve those emotions.

This is, I guess, as abstract as a movie can get and the different attempt at storytelling needs to be appreciated. But it was not good enough for me to enjoy. I hope the next attempt by this team will be better. We need more such experimental movies instead of the totally unrealistic super-hero, romance, comedy movies that we usually get.

Fantastic action & characterization let down by a lack of story.

சிறந்த நடிப்பு, சிறந்த கதாபாத்திரங்கள் வடிவமைப்பு, அனால் நல்ல கதை இல்லை!

Destination Infinity

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Published on July 30, 2015 23:39

(Soon to be) Popular Authors Meetup @ Chennai :)

Fiction writers/authors Ganga Bharani, Kavipriya & Me @ McD, Chennai.

Today, since none of us had anything much to do, we four authors decided to meet @ McDonalds, Ashok Nagar. Surprisingly three of us turned up

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Published on July 26, 2015 11:17

My Visit to Regional Science Center, Coimbatore

Regional Science Center, near CODISSIA Trade Center, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu was a pleasant surprise. I went to attend a Wind Energy expo in CBE and saw the board for this museum/park on the way. Curious, I decided to step in and explore. I am glad I did.

This science museum is like Visweswaraiah Museum in Bangalore. It contains scientific exhibits and demonstration models. There are four galleries within the building. The first gallery shows the technologies used in the textile industry, both historic and present times. The above pic shows a handloom machine. The below pic shows a Warping machine.

The next gallery was about the history of Astronomy — right from Galileo to modern day astronomers. The third gallery demonstrated scientific principles. It was supposed to be interactive but when I went to touch a button, the security asked me not to touch any! Some of them were not working. There were detailed explanations next to each exhibit for people to read and learn.

The next gallery had many engineering exhibits and explained the technological principles behind each. The above picture, for example, shows an airplane engine! The working principles of both simple and complex objects was available. Since I went late in the day, I couldn’t read much. You could go in the morning and plan to spend around half-a-day.

There is also a 3D theater where they show a short film about prehistoric-times. I think the ticket costs Rs. 15, in addition to the Rs. 15 entry ticket cost. The staff were helpful and offered to show me the movie, although I was the only one there! The museum works from morning 10 A.M. to evening 5:30 P.M.

There is a “pre-historic park” outside the building. Have a look at the pictures of dinosaurs I took there

Outside, in the park area, there are still more scientific exhibits. But few are in working condition. This and the pre-historic dinosaurs section had boards with information. There is a children’s play area in this park — just in case they get bored with too much science and dinosaurs

They allow photography, but only with cell phone cameras! I went on a weekday so it was almost empty. Perhaps people come on weekends. It’s a good place to take your kids — they can enjoy and learn something. Adults can also try to learn