LOOKING BACK ... A. MEMOIR!

  Ponniyin Selvan is a masterpiece of Kalki Krishnamoorthy written in 1950s and this novel still is considered as the best ever story on the Chola Kingdom the pride of Tamils which extended beyond the Indian shore upto Indonesia. It was the dream of Manirathinam   one of the greatest directors of our time to make this epic his own way.   PS-1 made a faithful reproduction of Kalki’s classic and introduced all the lead characters. There was lot more to cover in this sequel. How could he cover all the remaining volumes of the great Kalki (2500+ pages) within this sequel I was wondering. Could he live upto to   the sky high expectations from the fans of Kalki as well as the movie goers who had been not exposed to the novel. After seeing the sequel, the concluding part t is one of the most satisfying movie and maybe one of the best movies created in the celluloid. Certainly the 2 hour45 minute movie spectacle made us spellbound and not a single scene shown in thi...

  In January 2023 for Ayyappa Vritham completion during Mandalam  went to Shiva Vishnu Temple (SSVT)Maryland for Irumudi and met our Ayyappa devotees of Virginia/Maryland.  Ekambar Bomma swamy was that day administering Irumudi to all the devotees. I asked him whether he remembers me as we lived in Virginia for six years until the year 2010. He said how can I forget Var De Bhajan which you used to sing? I was taken aback. At Virginia during that  period of our stay (2005-2010) there used to be home bhajans at Ayyappa devotees’ homes. I was involved totally and used to attend bhajans even in remote Maryland areas far from our home at Northern Virginia. My singing was terrible but if it could make an impact after so many years it is because of the original soulful rendering of Jagjit Singh my idol of this bhajan Var De. All the bhajans from this devotional album Maa for the Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry are timeless soul stirring bhajans. Although Jagjit is famous...