Back from a fresh visit to Hyderabad, I fell totally in love with the city. It was my second visit to the city in little over a year’s time, where I experienced the cities subtle culture and energetic vibes. I have felt this strongly about Bangalore too.

On reaching back home whilst sipping a cup of coffee I shared with my wife the thoughts of moving out to either of these southern cities, Hyderabad, Bangalore or Chennai. And then we opened our nostalgic diaries, flipped pages and narrated stories that each of these cities had penned in our head.

Here are a few speckled positive observations I made that should be applicable to all of these
cities (read Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad)…
- People are hardworking, honest and humble..
you can’t beat this spirit in any places
- The cleanliness and hygiene factor on the roads and roadsides.
Like this lad working in a Ameerpet tea stall picked up all the paper cups and
litter around his shop all by himself and dumped them in a garbage bin.
-  The maintenance of public transport buses.
Not a single bus in either of these cities did I see unauthorised posters
on piles remedy, astrology, English speaking classes or any other fancy adverts.
- The political posters are present in the city, and are only at designated spots in the city.
A year back when I was in Hyderabad I did see a political hoarding near Hyderabad
Central flyover, and none in and around that area; this year too I witnessed the same.
- The sumptuous authentic and nutritious food that each city offers.
Idli’s Dosa’s, Aapam, Uthappam, Kal Dosa, Vada, Bonda, Bhajji, Iddiappam partnered by the unavoidable coconut and onion chutneys.
-  The unprecedented Cultural Harmony
All speculations and controversy rest to peace about communal discord when
you step into a mall in any of these cities. You can witness the blend of traditional
and contemporary side of each of these cities. I saw young burkha clad girls mingling
with Brahmin boys from their college at KFC in GVK Mall Hyderabad.
- The thattukadda’s (roadside food stalls) that offer you piping hot coffee and tea,
with some amazing array of crispy fresh fried food servings.
- None of these cities display the site of kids , and their elderly folks
lining up along the roadside for emptying their bowels during the different dayparts of a day.

I can go on and on…all said, I love the way these cities spring a pleasant surprise and ensure in making every trip memorable.

If I get doped by these cities with a few more visits in the near future, I might end up buying a small home in each of these cities. A cup of steaming filter coffee, a bean bag seating giving the view of the amazing Banjara hills in Hyderabad,  the evergreen Cubbon park in Bangalore, and the blue and serene  Besant Nagar beach in Chennai and talks on life and music with my wife is all that I would want.

I wish, I dream a home in every southern corner…

As I was cursing and cribbing about those kids within, a small boy caught my attention. He walked along the aisle of the hall slowly and cautiously with a slight stoop. He stretched his back with a big sigh after he locked the small little baby girl into his grandmother’s caring hands; let’s call the grandmother – Hema. The girl was dressed with a glittery silky frock that was not as flaunting as the big black dot on the right cheek of her overly powdered face. She seemed dazed and lost, even as her grandmother was caressing her. I loved that little dopey look on that little girl; she seemed unbothered by the noise and commotion in the hall, serene, wide-eyed, ‘lost in trance look’.

Just as she was settling her eyes onto the gigantic wheels of the fan, she was distracted by another old lady, lets call her Rekha; who seemed to be a friend of her grandmother. She popped the girl out, pecked her cheek only to throttle her mid-air and hold her back and peck once again. The girl still maintained the dopey look, and never looked into the eyes of that old lady.

This act of that old lady, drew attention of one of her friends – Jaya who mercilessly stirred the fleshy hands of the girl to prove her love for adolescent life, by smiling and making faces to amuse the girl, who seemed unfazed by what seemed to her like a ‘toy-clown’ without the cymbals. Jaya grabbed the girl and dilly dallied with the girl for some time, kneading her cheek, making all funny sounds that cut through the crowd and screeched straight into my ears if not anyone’s. (All these actions of Jaya granny would have definitely damaged the little girl’s cheeks and her hearing power for a few hours.) Meanwhile Jaya’s war-veteran looking husband was scouting for her so Jaya had to find someone whom she could pass the little girl to.

She finally found someone, and this time the girl rested in the arms of someone younger, let’s call her Sushma. The little girl reacted like when the first drop of cold water hits her skin before her daily shower. She was jostled and shaken, and confused, all her serenity and calmness vanished, and it was like her muted ears could now hear every little clutter of the noise and commotion of the hall. Sushma, looked straight into the girl’s eyes, almost understanding every little heartbeat of the little girl. The girl started to frown slowly and eventually broke into tears as Sushma caressed and patted her back, pecking her countless times on her cheek, forehead, hands and everywhere else that would comfort the girl. Sushma got the baby to giggle in that teary state of hers; an emotion which is priceless and timeless. Sushma was that little girl’s mother; who knew the pulse of her own blood. It was a lovely short film that I saw, which I gave a standing ovation to for the glorious award it won for the precious relationship between the mother and daughter.

All the female characters in this real story of mine don a fictitious name, except for the nameless little girl, whom now I would like to call – Nirma. So now you can recall the infamous jingle with the words “Hema, Rekha, Jaya aur Sushma sabki pasand, Nirma’.

Probably a message to all those newbie mothers, take care of your kids, and don’t make a mockery out of your little soul, that floats amongst many unknown-known faces who toy-play with the kid without realising what the kid might be going through. Don’t let them be a ‘Nirma’, which froths when stirred(take the kid in your arms), gets soaked with dirty clothes(peck its already wet kissed, pinched and smothered cheeks) and then thrown down the drain when done with( pass the kid to someone after self entertainment ) .

1. Lolalolamay -  Preeti Pillai

2. Swapnathin -  Ranjini Jose

3. Swapnathin – Thump Mix –  Preeti Pillai

4. Ranadheera (Nayakan Theme) - Indrajith, Preeti Pillai, Prashant Pillai

5. Ranadheera (Nayakan Theme) Club Mix (produced by Phi Degrees) - Preeti Pillai

6. Lolamay – Flute Instrumental

ALBUM CREDITS :

Musicians
Guitars : Rajendra Vellury, Pratyush Pillai
Bamboo Flute, Metal Flute : Shriram Sampath

Addl Programming : Spinol Dias, Kanishk Bhatia, Bhuvan Sachdeva

Music Co-ordination and Asst. Sound Engineer : Shreyas Mudholkar

English Rap Lyrics : Preeti Pillai

All tracks programmed and arranged by  : Prashant Pillai

Mixed and Mastered by : Abhishek Khandelwal at Hash Tone Studios, Mumbai

Studio Facilities
Bejoy Peter, Visionkraft Studios
Renganath, Hashtone Studios

Recorded at :
MB Studios, Pune
Visionkraft Studios, Pune

The music and the background score for the film has been designed with a very raw and rustic soundscape. Lolalamay, a soft number rendered by Preeti Pillai is already scaling the music charts, and currently is the most requested song on music channels. The other songs on the album, especially the one sung by Indrajith is gaining popularity, and should work well for him after the film releases.

An art and action film, it stars Indrajith in the lead and is directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery. The music and original background score is scored by Prashant Pillai. The album features 7 songs which features debutant Preeti Pillai, the films lead Indrajith,  and Renjini Jose. The audio is out on Manorama Music. Grab a copy of the cd today.

Sanjeev Thomas ( a brilliant guitarist and powerful vocalist, who works have been featured in the recent works of A.R.Rahman) was scheduled to sing this song; which sadly didn’t happen due to reasons controlled by the creatively draught minded producer.

The track titled “Nayakan Theme” was finally recorded by Indrajith, the lead of the film Nayakan, and I must admit he did a fair job of it. This would be Indrajith’s third track as a singer.

No... he didn't scare me...

Indrajith’s recording session lasted a little over 3 hours, and he was a delight to record to. His no-tantrum, no-ego, no ‘dont-mess-with-me’ attitude, made him easy to work with.

Indrajith the lead actor of the Malayalam Film Nayakan, recorded the films title track at Lal Media Studio, Cochin on February 7th 2010, where he was joined by his wife Poornima, and the films director Lijo Jose Pellissery.

Nayakan Theme track is Indrajith’s third track as a singer and hopefully will work wonders for him and this film. The songs have been mixed and mastered and is ready for release. Await the final date of the music launch function.

This is the story of the two bankers, whom we were privileged enough to travel with, during our 32-hour emotional trip on the Thiruvananthapuram-Mumbai express.

Bankers (especially those who work with the commercial sector) have this rather, powerful ability to build an uncomfortable atmosphere around me, which I admit scares me to a great extent. Well, to know the reason, you might have to dig into my dark secrets, which I prefer to be buried at this point of time. To cut the long story short, I dread bankers and I dread calls from bankers.

Let’s just talk about these two bankers. They had lot in common to talk and probably, shared a senior-subordinate relation amongst themselves.

They suffered from this strange suffering, which for now we can call (FCMS) OR Fully charged mobile Syndrome. I do not know, for some reason, they would continuously want to charge their mobile handsets, depriving me and prashant of the sole electrical plug socket that was there in our section, and thus our laptops would constantly be abandoned without any power to be functional.

I tried to list down the reasons, why they wanted to desperately keep their mobiles charged and managed to come up with a few. My Bad, if you find any of these weird (I believe one of them is surely for real).

1.      Both of them had extremely gorgeous wives back home, whom they had wedded recently. They might probably have appointed a 24-hour surveillance spy, who used to update, if their spouses were cheating upon them.

2.      They had probably robbed their own bank and were running with the booty money. They could have been in constant touch with a RAT IN  the police department, who was constantly giving them updates, on the police’s next moves.

3.      Both of them were probably aliens from mars, disguised as bankers, and the battery power of their mobiles, was actually their own battery powers.

4.      They both could’ve been suffering from STML (Short term memory loss) and forgot that they had just charged their mobile phones.

5.      They were both probably kidnapped by us and we were trying to frisk them to Pune. They wanted to give signals to the Police department of their whereabouts and hence, FCMS.

6.      Also, I guess, they were scared of taking dump in the train and hence wanted to divert all their focus to keeping their mobiles fully charged and thereby, despising all the booty ready to be excreted in their rectum.

7.      They were probably Intern spies from KGB, trying to gauge the quantum of electricity being generated into a 2-Tier compartment of an Indian train. The device that they were using was a Kinetix (which was their mobile phones). This could have been their summer intern project.

8.      They probably had nothing better to do in this 32-hour long journey and hence took sadistic pleasures, in depriving our laptops of battery power

Strange are the ways of  GOD, who has created such strange men.

– K.S.Krishnan

This writing is a part of the conituing series of the 32 hour discoveries, where I share the most craziest, funniest and weirdest of experiences. Read the other parts here…
32 hour discoveries – Part 1 – The toilet design
32 hour discoveries - Part 2 – I shot myself
32 hour discoveries - Part 3 – The fully charged bankers

Chapter : I shot myself

As the train swayed its lulled passengers, the man seated next to me pulled out a syringe and an insulin bottle from a small black pouch. The man seemed relaxed and calm as he uncapped the syringe revealing its 3 inch needle. He then filled the syringe with the insulin, untucked his shirt, faced towards the window that was flashing scenic village landscapes, it almost seemed some sort of a ritual that he had been practicing since ages. Till that point I had no clue what was in store, until he folded his stomach and shot the syringe into it, pushing the plunger slowly till the last drop of insulin got in. The man seemed in obvious physical pain while taking that shot, but did not emote it. Even if he would have, no one could see it. The man, a 57 year banker from Palakkad, Kerala was travelling to Pune for a RBI seminar. I learnt later that he was suffering from diabetes and insulin shots help him keep the blood sugar levels under control. The man has to take take that to keep him breathing, to see through the rest of his life that he has dreamt of. It’s a life no one would want to live or even think of.  It’s a berth that I do not want to reserve, for my journey of life. Who would want to? This writing is a part of the conituing series of the 32 hour discoveries, where I share the most craziest, funniest and weirdest of experiences. Read the other parts here… 32 hour discoveries – Part 1 – The toilet design 32 hour discoveries - Part 2 – I shot myself 32 hour discoveries - Part 3 – The fully charged bankers

Chapter : The Toilet Design

“There’s a basic problem with the toilet design..” said a disgruntled Krishnan whose hand was loaded with a deodorant, a toothpaste, towel and a hairbrush. I paused the ipod, cautiously removing the earlock headphones to ask Krishnan what on earth was he talking about, who a while back was smelling like a rotten egg and now looks like he has taken a dip in the pool. All this happening on the speeding train rattling along the tracks to head us back to Pune from Cochin.

“See..when I was in the toilet taking a dump, I discovered the small steel mug that is chained to the tap is not long enough to reach the desired spot after the ‘download’..” I laughed out loud tossing him a high-five asking him to go on.. “…this is major blunder in the train design, whoever has designed it didn’t think of this and didn’t even try experimenting with the implemented design and make the necessary changes…”

As Krishnan finished his complaint and as he stuffed all things off his loaded hand, I realised what he said was a fact. In my next visit to the toilet I observed, (not researched) that the chain is indeed short and that is the reason why people carry empty (bisleri) water bottles into the toilet.  A crazy discovery it is!
It took me 32 hours to reach to Pune on a recent visit from Cochin, thanks to 6332 Mumbai Express; the longest that I have ever travelled in a train in the last 10 years. With Krishnan’s weird discoveries and my rediscoveries, bizarre observations and unthought-of mind distraction techniques decorated the journey with life enriching experiences. Await for more to come in ‘The 32-hour discoveries’…

This writing is a part of the conituing series of the 32 hour discoveries, where I share the most craziest, funniest and weirdest of experiences. Read the other parts here…
32 hour discoveries – Part 1 – The toilet design
32 hour discoveries - Part 2 – I shot myself
32 hour discoveries - Part 3 – The fully charged bankers

He told me to hang on
And told me to stay put.
He said he won’t let go
But God need’s another “O”

When the times were bad,
And the tides were high.
He told me “Don’t you cry”
Don’t fear, when I’m here.
He said He’s very clear.
And Know’s what he does
But still God need’s another “O”

I wish I could say,
“You’re the best”
Nevertheless, He lost the bet,
He didn’t make it this time.
He fell flat on his face.
He seems to be a big Disgrace.
Yeah , He run’s the world,
But still God need’s another “O”

“Ha-ha” -He always has the last laugh.
But has he ever thought, at whose cost.
I beg to differ, He’s not the almighty.
He takes us for Granted.
At every instance we are hunted.
And the blame is always on Destiny.

He makes us always, fall on our knees.
Raise our hands and sing his praise.
It’s always true, he needs attention.
And he anyways get’s it done.
There are always instances,
I felt he’s a sadist.
But, I cannot proclaim, him to be one.
Because Evidences I have none.
Miraculously, he always comes out with flying colors.
He always succeeds in keeping up his reputation.
But, this time, it might be not on his mind.
He has not been very kind.
He might still be the Best.
But still God need’s another “O”

Debated and struggled, I have within me.
To keep telling myself, “Let it be”.
But this was the last Straw.
I would not be able to bear anymore.
I say”Now the damage is done,
Please be good to others”
Damn, He might be the Ultimate.
The brilliant design might be “his own”
But this time, what he did, was not so good.
God surely need’s to be Good.
So God need’s another “O”

– K.S.Krishnan

This poem is penned by one of my close friends Krishnan. He put these words together when his world was torn apart and devastated.

Here Vipin does an impromptu recording of his version of the A.R.Rahman song, Lukka Chuppi. The talented musician that he is, he almost gave-up music after the trying times he had in Mumbai, where loneliness took him for an emotional bumpy ride.

Right here you get to listen to 2 of Vipin’s songs, one being the one he just sent via voicemail on gmail and the other a track from the OST that I scored for Bejoy Nambiar’s film, Rahu.

Leave your comments about what you think of his singing, it will charge him up!

Lukka Chuppi – Unplugged

Kahin Na Kahin