1837's Madurai

World Digital Library gives a rare glimpse into 1800s Madurai

This illustrated manuscript made in southern India in 1837 consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of the various castes and religious and ethnic groups found in Madura, India, at that time. As indicated on the presentation page, the album was compiled by the Indian writing master at an English school established by American missionaries in Madura, and given to the Reverend William Twining. The manuscript shows the Madura region's Indian dress and jewelry adornment, as they appeared before the onset of Western influences on South Asian dress and style. Each illustrated portrait is captioned in English and in Tamil, and the title page of the work includes English, Tamil, and Telugu.

Link: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3081

But interestingly only 'low level' - like kuravan, snakemen etc represent tamil people [they come towards the end of the manuscript], most of the depictions are maharashtrians, punjabis, moghuls etc. Felt odd.

Nanayam Vikatan - Zoho

Nanayam Vikatan is the business magazine from vikatan group. This week they have covered Zoho. Good that, they could smell a success story here.

Out of mind

Clear signs of being 'out of mind'. Karunanidhi is trying desperately to hold on to 'இனமான காவலர்'tag but failing miserably..his latest statement is sure to add fuel to the fire.
"Even if Prabhakaran loses, treat him like Porus," the DMK patriarch said, pointing to the historical episode involving Alexander the Great and Indian ruler Porus who was treated with dignity and honour by the Greek emperor despite losing against him in a battle. "When asked by Alexander, Porus said he wanted to be treated like a king, which Alexander duly obliged. "It shows the magnanimity of Alexander who gave equal respect (to a man defeated by him)," he said. [ source: chennai online]

Meanwhile, Vijayakanth has fired his next salvo: Vijayakant has said his party was ready to boycott the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu on Sri Lankan Tamil's issue, if AIADMK and DMK also do so.

All of them are busy scoring brownie points here and the Genocide continues there :-(

Yavanika

Read Sujatha's Yavanika recently...It came as a series in Anandha Vikatan..
Its the usual gripping - Ganesh - Vasanth thriller...In the prologue, he says parts of yavanika were written from Apollo hospital. that shows the commitment..

Liked:
story plot, amazing style akin to slickly edited cinema , humour, the way he takes potshots at tamil film industry, the heroines (i should read kanavu thozhilchalai), and that superb climax (almost looked liked an atheist viewpoint)
My grouses:
Unnecessarily made a local story an international one.. need not have involved international gangs - chumma cinema shooting spot varuvaanghalam - 10 pera sututu poiduvaanghalam..pre-climax could have ended in ganesh- vasanth office- itself...why take ganesh to a building - email - find out that the statue was duplicate - then fight - subham..
also, i felt sujatha was trying to showoff his knowledge - uvamai-lam...over the top, english translation in brackets..trying to fit in 1 or 2 lateral puzzles is O.K..Indha book-le neriya...!!

Tamil Cowboy Movie?

Sometime back, I have seen few scenes from a Dabba JaiShankar movie - based on cowboy theme. Hope Simbudevan, (who gave historicals a new lease of life with Imsai Arasan) doesn't dole out one such movie..Irumbu kottai Murattu Singam is the new cowboy movie on the floors. Raghava Lawrence is the hero, sandhya, padmapriya, lakshmi roy are the heroines.

Veera Thalapathy

Amazing....
Veera Thalapathy J.K.Ritheesh, the super star in the movie 'Nayagan' gets to fight for LS seat in Ramanathapuram. No more movies from him?..sad..we will miss the fun..
http://jkritheesh.com/portfolio.htm

Parenting Bulbs

Bulb No.1. In the process of putting your baby to sleep, the probability that YOU go to sleep FIRST is very high