Book Review: Lanthanbatheriyile Luthineeyakal

The first time I heard about this book was when Malayalam Mega star Mammootty spoke about it some 4- 5 years ago in an interview. During one of my many recent trips to DC Books, I chanced upon the book but the weirdness of the title made me choose something else. Later, I came to know about the book from my Boss and decided that I should experience the book no later. And what an experience it was! I have fallen head over heels in love with this one. LL is definitely nothing extraordinary or out of the moon. This is precisely what makes it so special! The story and the narrative is oh so ordinary and natural. The 260 odd page book has been written so well that one can finish it off in a jiffy. The style and language are so easy on one's eyes and comprehension and that sets the right mood to take up the story of Lanthenbathery, an imaginary island off the coast of Ernakulam and the many people who inhabit it. In many ways, N S Madhavan's LL is very similar to O V Vijayan's Khassakkinte Ithihaasam. Both of them have used an imaginary location that acts as a microcosm of the country during the period of time that the story covers and through the inhabitants of this imaginary location, in a way, tell the story of the country in a very different manner. The difference between the two books, however, is in the narrative style. O V uses a lot of imagery, his protagonist belongs to the upper strata of the society and events and incidents in Khassak have been narrated in a very classy manner. On the contrary, N S Madhavan's characters are drawn from the lower strata of the society, his narrative is in very ordinary language, his characters speak the very local Lathin Catholic dialect and he focusses more on the history of Kochi city than the happenings in the country during the time the story unfolds. Jessica, the protagonist, her father Mathevusashaari, mother Veronica, her grandfather Valia Marcose Ashaari, the singer Gilbert, the mathematics teacher Pushpangadan, Jessica's childhood friend Johnson, his parents Edward and Rosy- all these characters have been etched out very carefully and each of them have their own unique personality traits which leave a lasting impression of theirs on the reader's minds. Lanthenbatheriyile Luthineeyakal is not like anything that has been written before and N S Madhavan deserves a pat on his back for having come out with something as unique as this!

Mozhi: Magical beyond words

When you have a specially abled person as the protagonist in a movie, you can definitely rest assured of one thing- your protagonist would definitely be someone waning away time in self- pity and all the characters around him/ her would be sympathisers. I also strongly believed this, till I watched "Mozhi". Pyramid Saimira and Prakash Raaj's Duet Films' jointly produce "Mozhi" (Tamil) written and directed by Radha Mohan. Mozhi is the story of Archana (Jyothika in her career best performance), a deaf and mute girl who comes into contact with a young musician, Karthik (Prithviraaj displaying a never seen before subtlety and maturity) who falls for her in the very first sight. Archana does not consider herself less able than anyone else and believes on living her life independently in her own terms. She hates men and marriage since her father had left her and her mother once he came to know about Archana's disability. She gets friendly with Karthik in no time but starts spurning him when he expresses his love for her. The rest of the movie is about Karthik's struggle to win over Archana and bringing about a change of mindset in her. Providing valuable inputs to the Karthik- Archana affair are their friends- Viji (Prakash Raaj displaying his abundant talent) , a music conductor and Karthik's friend and Angeline Sheela (Swarnamaalya, adequate), a teacher at a school for the specially- abled and Archana's close friend. There are quite a few interesting characters too- Archana's grandmother (Vatsala Rajagopal), the secretary of the apartment where Karthik and Archana stay (a hilarious Brahmanandam) and the Professor who has lost his memory following his son's accidental death in 1984. The strength of Mozhi is its closeness to reality. The characters, incidents and the dialogues in the movie appear very real and natural, and do not even border on melodrama. This gives a strong identifiability to the characters of the movie. The hero might look idealistic when he decides to marry a specially abled girl, but the way the story progresses and the characters have been presented, we feel, anybody would have fallen in love with the strong, gutsy Archana. The humor that runs as an under current in this very serious love story just sparkles with situations drawn from daily life. The strongest aspect of Mozhi is its brilliant music score. Vairamuthu's meaningful lyrics have been set to lilting tunes by Vidyasaagar. Jassie Gift's "Sevvanam Selaiyaketti"; Karthik and Sujatha's "Katrin Mozhi"; SPB's "Kannal paesum" and Madhu Balakrishnan's "Pesamadanthaye" are the best songs one has heard in recent times. K V Guhan's camera spells magic on screen. The editing is perfect. The Art Director goes a little overboard at times though. Radha Mohan's taut script and excellent direction does enough to make Mozhi a modern classic. This one is not to be missed!

Nazrani is good enough

The one thing that strikes you the most while watching "Nazrani" is how script writer Renjith has successfully shifted his focus from Hinduism to Christianity. He is equally at home here, but except for the difference in the religious background of his characters, he has not offered anything new in his script.

Nazrani has David John Kottarathil (Mammootty, 56 going on 35) as its protagonist, a rich planter who is always spending his time boozing with his friends (Janardhanan, Maniyan Pilla Raju, Baburaj, Lalu Alex) at a Kottayam club gets into an imbroglio when a local politician, Benny (Arun, who should seriously start thinking about an alternate career option) gets murdered and his fiancee, Sara's (Vimala Raman, doing nothing other than fluttering her mascara lined eye lashes) step- sister Annie (Muktha George, always keeping a sad face) is suspected of having committed the murder. David tries to protect Annie from the local SP (Lalu Alex, effective) who is investigating the murder and parallely launches his own investigation and nabs the culprit with the help of his friends.

As is common with any Renjith script, you have characters moving in and out of the narrative- David's father (Captain Raju), his nun aunt (KPAC Lalitha), Annie's friend who commits suicide (Radhika), M C Paul, President of Malankara Congress and Benny's father (Vijayaraghavan, inspiring), his wife (Bindu Panicker), their elder son Xavier (Biju Menon making a royal comeback), the resigned minister, Ummachan (a dependable Jagathy Sreekumar), David's constant aide and his driver, Sukumaran (Kalabhavan Mani) and many more.

As the script progresses, the many characters are dumped half way and the film finally reaches a predicatable climax. This might not be his best script, but Renjith has successfully managed to keep it racy and fast. Before the audience can realize what happened, there is another incident thrown in and thus, the script writer keeps the audience interest alive.

Veteran director, Joshiy, who has completed 3 decades in the industry gives it all to this film. Joshiy has successfully adapted his cinematic style to the taste of the new generation and little wonder then that he is still a director to reckon with.

Mammootty has a blast playing David John Kottarathil. His style and mannerisms have been used to sparkling effect by Joshiy and Renjith; and the megastar has successfully carried the entire film on his broad shoulders. Special mention must be made about his looks and the extent of detailing that has gone into his make up and costumes.

Shaji captures the beauty of Kuttikkanam and Vagamon through his lenses. Renjan Pramod's razor sharp editing and Ouseppachan's background score adds to the tempo of the movie. Anil Panachooran- Bijibal team of "Arabikkatha" fame have not been able to recreate the magic with the songs.

All in all, Nazrani is a typical commercial pot boiler which one can enjoy with friends and family during the festive season.

Chocolate leaves a bad taste!

Anantha Vision's "Chocolate" (Malayalam) directed by Shafi and written by debutant duo Sachi- Sethu is the consequence of the astounding success of recent campus flicks like "Classmates" and "Note Book". The predecessors were successful because they had novel concepts, freshness in presentation and well drafted scripts filmed by competent directors. These are precisely the things that "Chocolate" lacks in. The premise is definitely interesting- that of a male student- Syam (Prithiviraaj, displaying ample heroism) getting enrolled for a Post Graduation Course in a leading womens' college in the city. The rogue of the guy (7 dismissals and 2 police cases are his track record) is definitely unwelcome for the awesome threesome girl gang- Ann Mathew (Roma- impeccable dress sense and alluring screen presence), Nandana (Samvrutha Sunil, totally out of place) and Susan (Remya Nambeesan, simply Not Applicable). How the gang of girls try their best to chuck Syam out of the college and how he survives against all odds only to fall in love with Ann is what the rest of the film is all about. Of course, there are side tracks in the story- the war between the Principal and the PTA Association, a local fashion designer Ranjith's (Jayasuriya, repeating himself for the umpteenth time) infactuation for Nandana, Syam's night outs with his friends (Salim Kumar, playing one of the friends, gets the maximum support from the audience for his witty one- liners, most of them laced with double innuendos), Nandana's father suspecting her of having an affair with Syam, Preetha, another student, falling for Syam and how her one way love story progresses etc. The problem with Chocolate is that it never really tries to concenterate on what needs to be said. The script writers and the director, it seems, have concenterated more on adding punch liners here and there, instead of establishing the characters properly and trying to connect each of the characters leading the story to a logical conclusion. Songs and fight sequences have been forcefully dumped into the narrative and consequently, they look extremely out of place. Not much thought seems to have gone into the casting either. Salim Kumar is too old to play Prithviraaj's friend, Samvrutha and Remya do not fit into the roles of ultra modern college going girls, Rajan P Dev's loud character just adds to the irritation of the audience. The less said about the second half of the film, the better. Technically too, the film does not stand out. Azhagappan's camera work is of pedestrian quality. Is this the same cinematographer who gave us the wonderful frames in the recently released "Ore Kadal"? The editor seems to have been on vacation. The art department and the sound department have not really bothered to make much contribution to the movie. The script is weak and the director appears clueless in the second half as to where to take this story. The weakest link in this film is its music score- Vayalar Sharath and Alex Paul- the team who gave us the wonderful album "Classmates" last year- hit an abysmal low with this album. The songs are pain to one's ears and the background score has very comfortably been lifted from Classmates. Except for Prithviraaj and Roma's presence and performances, there is nothing sweet about Chocolate. Unfortunately, the movie is on its way to become a blockbuster. I can only sympathise with the degradation of the appreciation level of the Malayalee audience.

Television Reality Shows- How real are they?

It is the era of Reality Shows on Television these days. You tune into any channel- Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi- all you can find is Reality Shows. Needless to say, they are of different shapes, sizes and content, but all of them have one thing in common- to bring out the latent talent in people some of whom look as if they hardly are talented in anything. Thus, on the various Malayalam channels you have- Star Singer, Super Singer, Super Dancer, Best Actor, Vanitharathnam, Rangoli, blah, blah, blah. Go to Tamil and Jodi No: 1, Masthaana Masthaana, Maanada Mayilaada, Ellorum Paadalaam and the like welcome you. The Hindi channels are the limit- from Comedy shows to music shows to family game shows to celebrity dance shows- they have everything under the sun that can be classified as reality shows. Now the big question here is- how real are these shows anyways? Take the musical talent shows. We did get a Sunidhi Chauhan and a Shreya Ghosal from these shows. Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana and Rahul Vaidya, however, are on their way to become history soon. The new Indian Idol against whom a Red FM RJ made unpleasant remarks, is now riding an even higher wave of popularity. But, the pertinent question here is- are the participants who win these music shows really talented and how much of their real, natural and born talent is being exhibited here and how much of it is acquired, cultivated and a farce? The first episode of any reality music talent show sees the participants coming in their innocent, gullible self and putting in their best efforts into the song to gain appreciation and applause from the audience. Once the judges find some kind of potential in the participant and the nation responds approvingly through SMS votes, the participant goes through a complete makeover. They are made to look like rockstars sporting the weirdest of hair styles, costume and make up. They are made to act and dance on stage. They are made to make frantic vote appeals to the viewers and in the middle of all this, somewhere, they lose that interest in singing which they exhibited in the initial episodes. Definitely, things were not this bad earlier. When Sunidhi Chauhan was crowned winner in Meri Awaaz Suno or Shreya Goshal was crowned winner in Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma, the market was not this ripe for musical reality shows. The channels allowed these participants to sing and behave the way they were as individuals and the results are now out for all to see. Conversely, when it came to the era of Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana, Rahul Vaidya and the Fame Gurukul winners (I dont even remember their names), the format of the whole show changed thanks to increasing TRP's. We had the participants appear in flashing costumes, latest accessories and cool hair- do's shaking a leg or more to the songs they were singing in the presence of celebrity guests who would not mind joining the participants on stage for a jig. All this definitely is good, but not good enough if the soul or the meaning of the programme is lost in between all the addendums. Which I feel is exactly what has happened to these reality shows. Due to the increasing TRP's and the urge to do something different to keep the audience interest alive, the channels are resorting to every trick in the trade to keep their shows unique and comfortably ignoring the quality of singing or the extent of talent that the participants have. No wonder then that the host of reality shows running on various channels these days have not yet been able to produce another Sunidhi or Shreya. When Abhijeet Sawant won Indian Idol, it had become national news. But 2 albums and a couple of Hindi film songs later, he has largely been forgotten. This is definitely another phase in Indian television- like the saas- bahu sagas that ruled the television screens for almost half a decade, looks like it is going to be reality shows for the next 3 years or so. High time the channel producers start thinking about something new soon- you may never know when the reality show bubble is going to burst. PS: It was interesting to read a quote by Malayalam Music critic T P Shasthamangalam this morning- "If M S Subbalakshmi or Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar were to participate in a reality show today, they would have been voted out in the first round itself. They, unfortunately, know only to sing well, not to act or dance" Bang on Target!

Blogging in Malayalam and Kodakara Puranam

Till I caught hold of the recent issue of Mathrubhoomi weekly, I never had an idea that blogging in Malayalam existed. To start with, I have never been much of a netizen in the first place. I started my own blog not very long ago and more than letting the world know about my creative instincts, I was interested in writing down something just to entertain myself. Not many people have been informed about this blog by me directly other than a few of my friends and not all of them who were informed follow up the blog on a regular basis. I don't read too many blogs either. I read a few whose quick links have been given on my home page and beyond that I never get enough time to search blogspot to find out other interesting blogs. That was when I caught hold of this weekly and the report on Kodakarapuranam- the very famous Malayalam Blog and its author, Vishalamanskan, an NRK working in the Middle East caught my fancy. It is extremely surprising when one thinks about the extent of progress that technology has made which makes blogging in Malayalam a reality and even more surprising is the number of hits that Kodakarapuranam receives on a daily basis. Apparently, the popularity of the blog is so much that DC Books has even published selected posts of Vishalamanaskan as a book by the same name. The book, on its part, has become a best seller too. I am finding it difficult not to catch hold of either the blog or the book and I have chosen the book over the blog so that I can go through the posts much more in detail and at leisure. So dont be surprised if you find me writing in detail about Kodakarapuranam sometime very soon. Till then, I wish Vishalamanskan all the very best and congratulate him on having pioneered a movement called blogging in Malayalam. Cheers,

Ee Gopu Monentha Engine?

This is the question on the lips of every Malayalee these days. For all those of you who dont understand Malayalam, well, my subject means why is Gopu Mon like this? Gopu Mon here is defintiely not a character out of a movie or a book or a children's serial for that matter, he is none other than our own Santhakumaran Sreeshanth, the very promising but very aggressive fast bowler in the Indian cricket team. After an admirable performance in the T20 series (especially that marvellous 4-1-12-2 in the Semi Finals against Australia), Gopu these days is in the news for all the wrong reasons- his attitude and aggression on the field and his extreme interest in getting into verbal wars with the Australian team members. Being personally present to watch the match at Kochi, I could understand how difficult it is for anybody to keep their cool when playing against the Australian team considering the kind of attitude they were showing off on the field. For any normal person, it is difficult to be normal anymore and Gopu has always been aggressive as certified by his friends. Little doubt then, that the boy got into a verbal war with the opposition. But what surprised me beyond measure was the kind of media exposure the whole episode was receiving. The cameras were focussed on Sreeshanth and the media went on and on about how bad he was on the field. No one even bothered to check how Symmonds and Hobbs and the others were behaving. Probably, the media wanted enough meat out of a match that was being held on Gopu's home ground :) All said and done, it is always in Sreesanth's best interest that he controls his emotions while on the ground. It is after years and years of toil that a guy from Kerala has made into the team and consolidated his position so well in the team. For a player who is so promising and whom the entire state will be willing to support, it is advisable that Sreeshanth learns to be cool and focus more on his line, length and pace. The boy has already spent a fortune on paying fine and penalty to the ICC. Lets hope that all this makes him a cooler person and that he shifts his focus to where it should rightly belong. Bowl ahead, Gopu! All the best to you!

The Match at Kochi and the road ahead

Consequent to my earlier post on the Indian cricket team's victory in the T20 semi finals against Australia and the team being crowned the World Champions in T20 cricket, it was with bated breath and a lot of expectations that I was looking forward to the Australian tour of India. This, in spite of the fact that I have never been a very big fan of cricket. The first ODI at Bangalore looked as if it was going to be a losing proposition for the Indian team but the rain God intervened at the right time and the team was saved from the disgrace of losing out on the first match of the series. But, lose out they did and how, in the next two matches- at Kochi and at Hyderabad. The Indian team's victory in the T20 series had sort of revived my interest in the game and thus I decided I would go and watch the match at Kochi in the stadium itself. The Australian team's performance in Bangalore was indication strong enough that they were leaving no stone unturned to take revenge on India. But, Kochi, being a ground that has almost always been favorable to the Indian cricket team and being the home ground of India's best bowler in the T20 series, Santhakumaran Sreeshanth aka Gopu Mon, I was quite optimistic that the team would definitely win the match. With so much of hope in my mind, I was at the stadium at 6.55 AM on the morning of Gandhi Jayanthi (Oct 2) for the match that was scheduled to start at 9 AM. Thanks to the incessant rains, the outfield was not looking very good till the previous day and speculations were rife that the match might be called off completely or that it might be limited to 35 overs instead of the usual 50. The sun was playing hide and seek early in the morning and there was no sign of it going to be a sunny day. Thankfully for the 80K crowd gathered in the stadium, the game was on by 9.30 AM. Having won the toss, India chose to bowl first. Zaheer and Gopu started with Hayden and Gilchrist facing the music. The first 2 overs saw Gilchirst and Clarke returning to the pavilion and it looked like all was going to be in India's favour till almost 23 overs were completed. The crowd was in fine form, hooting, howling, clapping, dancing, cheering and making Mexican waves. Even when Symmonds, Hobbs and Hadding were putting in their best efforts to take the Australian totals to admirable heights, the entire gallery was optimistic about India's chances at the game. To give fair share of credit where it is due, the Australian team did garner an enviable tally of 305 in 50 overs, clearly establishing their supremacy over the Indian spinners in the middle overs. The Australian innings ended and the whole stadium was busy preparing to cheer for the Indian batting order. And cheer they did! The Indian batsmen were trying their best to respond favorbaly to the encouragement of the crowd but they could not do much against the strong Australian bowlers. Gambhir, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvi, Pathan- all of them had to return to the pavilion without contributing much to the run tally. Dhoni and Uthappa did their best but India finally lost by more than 50 runs. 10 overs into the Indian innings and I was not really concenterating on what exactly was happening on the ground. There was pin drop silence in the gallery and half the crowd was on its way out of the stadium. In spite of offering the best of support and encouragement to the Indian cricket team, the team was hardly able to even put up a decent performance. As might have been known to all by now, the team lost miserably to Australia in Kochi. The third match in Hyderabad did not evoke much interest in anybody and predictably, the team lost it once again. In the 7 match series out of which 1 was cancelled, Australia is clearly leading by 2- 0. All eyes are now on Chandigarh, which also happens to be the Vice Captain's home ground. Will the 4th match see the Yuvraj becoming the Maharaj of the Indian cricket team and leading them to victory over the very strong Australian boys? Well, only time can tell...

Jayakanthan leaves you irritated...

Reviewing a 6 year old movie is nothing great. But when it is a movie which one was planning to watch for a very long time and made by a director as great as Sathyan Anthikkad, there definitely is a reason to watch the movie and to write about it, notwithstanding how old or new the movie is. Carlton Films' Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka scripted by Sreenivasan tries to look at the social and political scenario of Kerala using a remote hamlet called Paruthippara that serves as a microcosm of the state of Kerala, through the eyes of its protagonist Jayakanthan (Kunchacko Boban) who is entangled in his own personal problems. Confused? Not as much as Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad while they were making this movie for sure. This is a disaster from the word "go". To start with, Sreenivasan's script tries to address a lot of issues and look at a lot of things so much so that it completely loses focus of the story and characters. The effect is that you are treated to a lot of situations that evoke a few laughs in isolation but all through you keep wondering what has this to do with the larger plot and most importantly, where exactly is the scriptwriter taking us. The first half has a few entertaining moments, but post interval the film loses track completely or rather, it starts running on so many tracks that the audience is left clueless as to what is happening. Precisely for this reason, none of the characters attract you or stay with you- be it the protagonist, Jayadevan (Kunchacko Boban trying his best, but in vain), the idealist Panchayath President Priyamvada (Samyuktha Varma looking lost), the scheming Balakrishnan Nambiar (an over the top Janardhanan), his show off wife Sarojini (Bindu Panicker repeating herself for the umpteenth time), their clueless daughter Swapna (Asin, making her debut, looks equally clueless), the crafty politician Thomas Vellikkala (Innocent taking overacting to new levels) and the local money lender Bhargavan (Sreenivasan appearing on screen at the most inappropriate times). To add to these clonies, you have a special appearance by Tamil actor- director R Parthiban who plays Jayakanthan's friend from Kumbakonam. I have still not been able to understand why he was roped in to this mess. Vipin Mohan's visuals of the Valluvanadan country side reminds you of Sathyan's earlier films. (The mango orchard used in canning the songs of Thoovalkottaram have been put to use in this film too. Was it so difficult to find a virgin location?). There is no point blaming K Rajagopal. If he had his way, he would have chopped this whole film off at the Editing table. The Kaithapram- Johnson duo provide a couple of hummable songs that is the only saving grace of this film. Expectedly, the film did not even do decent business at the BO. Thankfully for themselves and the audience, Sathyan and Sreenivasan have stayed away from mistakes after this one! Not recommended to be seen even on DVD or Sattelite Television!

Rajeev Masand- My new Hero :-)

Come Saturday and I am all excited to catch up with Rajeev Masand to get a hang of what is happening at the movies during the weekend. For starters, Rajeev Masand is a movie critic who hosts a Bollywood based show on Times Now which is telecast every Saturday at 10.30 AM. The format of the show is very simple- it starts with the review of movies released during the week, has a celebrity interview, some Bollywood trivia and ends with a movie quiz. What really makes the show interesting is Rajeev Masand's movie review- He never gets into the nitty- gritties, instead he straightaway goes into the storyline in a few words and then takes up the various departments of the movie- actors, script, direction, camera, editing, music etc. Rajeev, it appears, has deep knowledge on all departments of film making and he manages to show it off quite well. His grip on the language and his uncanny screen presence just adds to the pleasure of viewing. And if it is a bad movie, the reviews get even better. Rajeev doesn't hesitate to rip the movie apart and give his honest comments which would sometimes be a bit too embarrassing for whoever is involved with the movie being reviewed. Sample this- "Nisha Kothari is the only consistent actress in Bollywood. She has been consistently bad in all her films till now. The facial gymnastics she does in the name of acting can even put a Mime artiste to shame" (Rajeev on Nisha's performance in the recently released "Go") Or this- "If I start criticizing the script, it would mean that I am accepting there was one in the first place. Now that the movie is out, I really hope someone puts those bunches of paper to good use and the only use that I can think of those is as toilet papers" (Rajeev on the script of Aggar) Being a person so fond of Bollywood in general and analyzing Bollywood movies in particular, I have found my new hero in Rajeev Masand. My Saturday mornings are reserved for him and I have become the greatest fan of his tongue-in- cheek analysis of Bollywood movies. Here is looking forward to more :) Way to go, Rajeev!

Challenges, here I come...

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have moved out of the team that I was part of earlier and I am looking forward to taking up a new project. Things have started falling in place and here I am, working on Notes, Maps, Charts, Dashboards and many other things performing my initial analysis on how things are going to be a couple of months from now (of course with the support of my excellent superiors). I am all excited since this is going to be a first for me and my success in the APM exam has boosted my confidence further. It definitely is not going to be a cakewalk, but then, life is never meant to be one :-) I am all set to take up the challenges heads on and am really looking forward to the tough but exciting times ahead. More on this as I move forward... Till then, Yours excitedly,

Back in the reckoning

...or so I think :-) For all those who would have read my earlier post on my failure in the APM Exams, here is the big news- I re appeared for the exam on 3 October 2007 and managed to clear it. I am a certified Accounts Payable Manager now :) The initial failure in the exam had really put me down and all of a sudden, I had become slightly apprehensive about myself. But, with the constant support and encouragement of my colleagues and superiors, I channelized all my energy towards putting in my best efforts for the second attempt and managed to clear the exams without much ado this time. I am extremely happy about my success and back to the confident self that I have always been :) Yours successfully,

Short and Sweet

That is what one of my esteemed readers want my posts to be :) To the best of my knowledge, I have very few people who regularly visit my blog, read the posts and offer their comments. One of them, a very close friend and a person whom I always look up to, made this suggestion to me. She was of the opinion that though I write well(?), I write so much so that she loses interest by the time she reads an entire post. Based on that wonderful feedback, I am trying to make my posts short and sweet from this one onwards. It definitely is not going to be easy for me, considering the man of many words that I am :) Nevertheless I am putting in my best efforts. Do read my posts and keep on commenting on how you feel about them... Yours shortly,