Role reversal

Yesterday i went to Spencers daily - Ashok Nagar. It was literally empty with only one or two customers. They have changed the entire set up and the display patterns.
Logic and the strategy behind the display and arrangement of products were pathetic. It was not customer friendly at all. I could see so many unwanted products on display and a clutter of the products. The products were just thrown in their shelves and were packed. I think same disorganisation drove Subiksha - the once pioneer in the departmental stores segment out of the market. And it seems Spencers too is following the same mantra. The staffs were just acting disoriented and without concern.
This reminds me of the book "As the crow flies" - Jeffrey Archer. He would have dealt beautifully the rise of the conglomerate and the strategies and policies that goes into the upbringing of the largest store. Right from the AGM to appointment of directors to the motion study all aspects related to the accounting and commerce would have been methodologically dealt with. Even the world wars would find its place and the impact of the same on the trade and commerce would have been dealt. Instead of maintaining bitterness towards the British who held us, we, at some point of time would feel sympathy towards them.
On the whole I like Archer simply for the fact that he not only deals with the plot of the story but also with other information related.
Now to the original context of the post, In this story he would enlist how one should deal with the customers and the importance of display and strategical placement of goods.
Local departmental stores seems to have caught up with the trend with their personal attention to the details and customer friendly approach.
Is this called role reversal?

Movies

Watched both BEB and Endhiran. Two very contrast films. Where do i begin first?
BEB - Out and out entertainment. Even if i turn around to get the water bottle i miss a one-liner and deprived of the joke which P and aathukarar share. Surprise! Surprise! Nayanthara can humour us with her expressions rather with her costumes. She attempted similar in a sarathkumar movie and vishals satyam. Both cannot be sagichufied merely for the reason she tried to copy other heroines. This one was really original. Story - Why do we need one when you can laugh non-stop? Did we have any thing of that sort in Thillumullu or MMKR? All we had to do was laugh our lungs out.


Endhiran - Aathu being a hardcore rajini fan didnt like the film. He expected sort of - singa mugam, singam thaniyaathaan varum, bajji venuma sort of dialogues. And saying all this he saw the movie on first day first night show paying Rs.1000/- along with his brother.
Avaroda complaint ennannaaaa Rajini padam how do you suppose to hear the dialogues and that too first day athuvumaaaa people were quiet and at the end of the film everyone stood up and started clapping ... grrr.... is this the sort of response u give a rajini film.....Die hard fans are unable to accept in any other roles......His verdict was this is not chitti chitti robot film but chutti Tv robot film......
On the other hand, i liked the film. The thing is iam not able to appreciate the acting of Robot Rajini simply for the fact that i was not able to relate him to rajini or a character. I just saw him as robot. It is evident in the scene when he intends to find the black sheep in the fleet of robots. Your heart skips a beat when he slashes the robots trying to find the scientist. P enjoyed the film but said at the end of the movie that -Amma i liked the good robot only not the bad one.


P.S - A robot drawn by P while i was doing his holiday homework ;)

P's art corner

First, third and fourth pictures were drawn from a coloring book. Second one own imagination - influence -FAQ on POGO - After drawing he said amma see the chemicals it is an experiment.

I was really taken aback by the observation and the table beneath.

The first one was really a surprise for me. He got the curves and eyes right. I think in any picture the eyes and the nose had to be in its place and proper to get the entire face. It came as a sweet shock to me.

Shock of the life

While returning from a trip following conversation took place between father and son..
Before proceeding a snippet of an evening...
P : Amma oru vishayam sollava... enna thitta maatta illa apparam yaar kitteyum solla koodathu.
Me : Illa thitta maatten onnum solla maatten (as if enkitta romba bayam irukkara maathiri)
P : Amma S illa L ah love panraaaan
Me : (suddenly became alert and trying hard to sound casual all the time with two bulbs burning brightly) oh appadiya hmmm L is studying in ur class ist?
P : Illa maaa last yr S was in X sec and L kooda athe class thaaaan bt ippo ava Y
Me : hmm.. good we should all love each other, see i love u and appa and paatti and same way u should also love everyone seriyaaa (definitely was muzhichifying for a proper answer and even now not sure whether i did my part right)

Now to the current situation....
P : appa S illa L ah kaathalikkaraaanaaa
Aathu : (was driving and was shocked bt all the more disguised ) hmmmm....
P : avan sollraaan ava oru devathai yaaan
(ippo both were perplexed at the direction the conversation was steering )
P : Enaaakum kathalikkanumnu aasaiyaaa irukku paaaa
Aaathu : P nee enna padikkkara ippo
P : I std
Aathu : so ippo unnoda vela padikkanum apparam vera enna sollu
P : (jus that day we were lookin at various houses) hmm veedu vaanganum velai pannanum
Aathu : correct appa paar hard work panren illaya so nee nalla padichuttu atha pathi think pannalaaam okay.
I thought i should save these things for teen age , but at the jet speed think i should be well-prepared for the unexpected. Donot know whether i would be able to do justice or we were right in talking to him in this. I know some might disagree saying these are all unwarranted thinkings and fears but with the Cartoon shows shown now-a-days and the exposure the kids have these days it is wise to be frank with them rather putting aside everything as childish. Do correct me if iam wrong.... Still thinkin of thousand other ways we could have handled the aforesaid conversation but nothing seems to be appropriate.

Indebtedness

The very thought is killing me. I donot know how long i would be able to manage. It leaves me with a kind of crap feel which questions the utter sanity of life. It constantly reminds of the persona u r as been stated by various persons constantly drumming up in the mind - orphan. Isnt a strange thing when one refers though u r left with father who blissfully ignores your traumas and the feelings and leads his life as any other person.
When the son of the mother, d-i-l's and the father of the person happily forget their responsibilities why should I alone let it go to my heart and rather not mind. Is anything fundamentally wrong? Why can't I be settled in my life with no frills or whatsoever like my contemporaries living abroad by occasionally staying in touch with facebook or orkut or skype for that matter. Should i be the one who carry the torch all along. Sometimes the gratitude and the repayment feeling overshadows the real love and affection and i am afraid that at sometime it might turned into hatred. It is indeed a tricky situation where u r not the affected party but somehow all the burden lies on your head. I know iam sounding like a moron with this post. The thing is this is like my outburst where you can go on ranting without the need to explain.
I am badly in need of some vent where i can be who iam without the nagging worry - What he/she would think? Will this affect them? I think the only person you can be who you are is ur mother- I miss you amma. Though the memory is very vague i relish them and the need didnt arise for me till i was in my teens. Now i miss so much.

Impressions and Observations

Toy Story - At last watched the movie. And more than P it was we, the adults who enjoyed the movie to the max. The hall was packed to the max capacity and the movie is still running to packed houses crossing more than 50 days - awesome isn't? Aathukarar made the mistake of ordering the popcorn along with the ticket while booking online. The mistake proved to be a costly one - in the sense i vowed i would never have more than a handful of popcorn again. Antha alavukku thegattipochu(large one). When he went and asked for the popcorn while entering the hall , the attendant said that he would bring it in once the movie starts. So, we went and sat and almost everyone especially the ones who were sitting next, previous and the opposite rows were happily munching their popcorn amidst drinking their colas.

Avvalavuthaan P started his paattu - appa popcorn venum every 60th second. Aathukarars reply was "dei 80 rupees * 3 - 240 extra pay panni irukken da kandippa vanthurum". But instead of watching the short film "day and night" (shown before the actual movie) he was keeping his eyes firmly on the entrance and repeating the japam every 60th second. At last it came. And ippo eppodaa intha tub mudiyumnu aayiduthu.

On to the movie - I actually enjoyed the whole episode and the scene which i especially liked was the last one where Andy plays with the little girl after giving all of his toys to her. Though he was going to college he didn't mind playing with the small girl especially his imaginary games with his favourite toys.

While going through forums esp parentree lots of discussions would be centred upon one topic - My child is playing with her toys and speaking to them . She also plays imaginary games and speaking to herself. Ist good or bad? But after watching this movie i really feel the fear is unwarranted.

Naan Magaan alla - Ippo i think the trend is to make realistic movies. Okay i agree, but the realism is turning out to be ugly and unimaginable. Iam not into the argument that the movie is inspired from real life incidents or the criminals are influenced by movies. Lets not get into that. Atleast lets not glorify the incidents and highlight them. This was the feeling i got after watching half of the movie. I didnt really have the inclination to watch the rest. Though the movie had some original scenes (mind original) rest of them were usual like showing the girl and her family as one loosu, ever fighting sister esp for the remote and shouting annna at the top of her voice and sentiment scenes with amma and appa .... sss appaaaa thaanga mudiyala ...ithukku paiya ve better.
OKAY - a big ok why means - iam sick of seeing all the sophisticated villains who find new ways of doing the crimes. I simply hated Vettaiyaadu and vilayadu, kaakka kakka and anjathey for the portrayal of sensitive scenes. It really has its own impact. Though i watched only half of the movie it kept on coming in rewind mode. Such an ordinary soul kke intha impact na think of the sensitive persons over there. Movie is for pure entertainment. Okie u give message like showing the plight of bonded labourers as such in angaadi theru or like shankar movies who thinks he gives some message.(though its like the energy drinks claiming to give you extra energy - people donot think of the energy at the end of the day but only a means of pushing the milk into the kid in some form or other).

Madras - My memories

Somehow i like to say it as Madras than Chennai. Have been grown calling it Madras and hearing from relatives and people calling by that name. May be the name Chennai sounds better when read in news or seeing as such in flash news or to see the north indian news readers struggling to get the pronunciation better, mind i say better and not correct. ;)
All of my first 23 years i have been in mambalam and see things unfold before me. Usman road, panagal park, Venkatnarayana road or the Ashok Pillar. The only road which remains unchanged according to me is 11th avenue - Ashok nagar.
The earliest memory - after watching the prashanth starer sembaruthi (i love the song nila kayum neram - one of the evergreens of Ilayaraja - one of my all time favourite song) in Kasi theatre with my aunts and cousins. We walked all the way from the theater to our home in mambalam. Relishing the shade, greenery and neatly stacked houses. Those days there was no underground drainage and the house would be connected to the road by a slope over the drainage canal. Hardly we felt the stinking smell those days and used to admire it. The road was more similar to those in bangalore those days.
Then Usman road - So much has changed from my good old school days. I studied in one of the then popular school in T.nagar. Now, both name and fame had been to the winds and in its place remains only the IT companies (school is still there magnificently managed to shrink itself to one fourth of its original size ). I think more than anything you need passion to run an educational institution which went missing after the demise of its founder. I dont know why the roads seem to be shrinking with the passing of years. Same buildings but the road seems to me smaller than it used to be. Though T.nagar had been the hub in the past too it was not like anything we see these days. I think the main culprit would be letting those Saravana stores and other Silk stores open their shops and infecting the area with more parking vehicles and hawkers. I like the look of usman road and ranganathan street in the morning hours of the day when there would be only few shops open - especially the tea kadais and the fast food thallu vandis and the hawkers would be undoing their ropes over the big bundle of sheet covering their stocks. Mamas outside the siva-vishnu temple briskly eyeing the passersby. They would be so full of energy and enthusiasm and covered fully from head to waist with vibuthi pattai. That would itself give them a unique image. Reservation counter of mambalam railway station where people would be queuing up to book their tickets immediately on opening of the counter.
All these are etched in my memory cos i love the journey of 20 minutes by walk from my home to school. Today you cant reach t.nagar within 20 minutes even if you go by two-wheeler with todays traffic flow. sigh...

(to be contd)