Superstar's superhit Sivaji - $$$ all the way!!

Me and Govi set out on saturday to see Sivaji- the Boss but we reached a good half hour late so bought tickets for the sunday afternoon show and came back in anticipation. I am a mini Rajni a.k.a superstar fan. The sunday show was full. Four weeks after release, the movie is running to full houses in Singapore. Newspaper reported that in Tamil Nadu, the movie has been running to full houses daily. Back in the movie, Rajni's entry was greeted with the familiar whistles and hand claps. We had a couple with their 7 or 8 year old daughter sitting next to us and the little girl didnt bat her eyelids and watched the superstar with wide eyes and a smile. Some even screamed " Thailaivaa" in delight. I had missed all this action after being outside India. My last Rajni movie in a theatre was Baasha and i had watched it in Bombay's Aurora theatre where the rich and poor would come to see the Tamil movies. It was i think the only theatre screening tamil movies in Mumbai. People showering the screen with coins and some joining Rajni in the song and dance numbers with great enthusiasm, so much so that they would take off their shirts in the frenzy and dance. My mother got scared and barred me from going to the theatre especially to watch Rajni movies.


A look at our watch suggested that there still 2 plus hours of the movie remaining for us to watch. A look of disbelief came to our faces, we had sat through only an hour of the movie and it seemed like we were ready to see the end. We decided to be patient and sat through the saga and at the end of the third hour, Sivaji dies but 10 minutes later, he rises again with a bald head and new name MGR (M G Ravichandran). Dialogues go this way : "Six ka apparum seven, Sivaji ki appuram heaven. and Sivaji - sivaji daan , MGR mgr daan. Sivajium naan daan, MGRum naan daan."

Govi shook his head at the dialogue and i was splitting with laughter. This movie didnt have any standard Rajni punchline but had a couple of different styles. Bounce a gum on the palm and it will land in rajni's mouth and the second one is the coin toss. I wish i could tell you about it but it is a little complicated and something only Rajni can pull off.

A long stretched out movie for the superstar and the audience was happily sitting through it after paying almost double the usual price. The movie tickets were priced at S$15, so i didnt buy any popcorn.

A friend who's seen Die Hard 4.0 and Sivaji said that Willis saves the world and Rajni saves TN. So Die Hard is the english version of Desi Sivaji. Having survived Sivaji, we plan to put ourselves to another test. We will go and watch Die Hard 4.0 this weekend.

Vaaji Vaaji Vaaji ------- Sivaaaaji!!

Brand(ed) Asia

A month since our visit to HongKong and one image still loomes in front of my eyes every time i see a LV bag or similar brand items. I became aware of the acute conciousness in terms of brands here in Singapore. Owning a LV, Guess,Gucci, Prada etc. was a must as it signifies your status and image. So when ACK started school i got out my branded handbags to showoff as well. The HK trip was even more enlightening in terms of the brand conciousness. The designer brands had huge stores there leaving me to think, who would have so much money in this small island country. My pondering was pretty short lived as we saw a queue outside the LV store. People all dressed up and some of them carrying different shapes of LV bags too were standing patiently outside the store waiting for their turn to get in. Surprised, we checked with the well dressed usher at the door if there was a sale going on to prompt the long queue. He replied that this was a common everyday occurence outside this store. People were always waiting to get in to buy. The store was always busy, bustling with customers so they had to regulate the number of customers at a time. Wow!! We came back the next day with our cameras, this was a picture i had to have in my album. There was a pretty big queue just waiting to be clicked. At some point all of us would like to have some nice expensive branded stuff like a Rolex watch or a LV bag or a Tumi computer bag etc... but would i stand in a queue to buy a LV and still pay the huge acquisition money?? Nahh. i dont think so. Is my husband thankful that i am not a very brand person?? Maybe yes. er!? maybe...

Memory Lane

I took a mini trip down memory lane last week. I was reminded of my working days when i had a day book ( not for dealing but a tasks to be done book), appointment book and reminders on my phone. Last week my reminders became active, the tiny appointment diary came out and it was getting filled as well. I had things to do every day at different time slots. I was also in a meeting. Earlier it used to be a meeting with my team of dealers, the bankers, corporate finance heads but this was a tad different. Meeting with the organisers, co-ordinators and Parent association members and last week a very vociforeous group of mothers had a meeting to decide on the agenda for the global picnic to be soon held at ACK's school. Utter chaos and cheerful banter preceded and almost an hour and more later, a few things got finalised. The number of samosas, idlis, aloo parathas, gulab jamuns were decided. Ideas to decorate the stall included dolls and sarees and dupattas. So what if i was not negotiating deals in money market instruments anymore, i still had a chance to negotiate the price for a lot of "masala Vadas". From money markets to edible commodities market, that is interesting and we are still not done yet, not until the picnic is over. An expected crowd of 4000 - 5000 people from different countries are expected to pounce on all the food on display. We still have to negotiate for the "samosas" and "gulab jamuns". Will i put away my diary and stop using the reminders on the phone, maybe not. I will use them to keep track of the bills for groceries, newspaper etc. and note the time slots for my voluntary work at the school and also for the "Coffee Mornings" with the other mothers. I can sense some exciting time ahead.

The Day

It's been a while since i added to my earlier blogs. I have been busy, really busy these past weeks. Last wednesday night when i hit the bed, i wanted to get a good night's sleep as i was to be up early morning. I first sat up at 2 am and realised that i still had possible 4 hours left to sleep and so i slumped only to keep waking up in half hour intervals. Finally a few minutes after 6 am, blurry eyed, i tumbled to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and made myself a cup of tea. Wah Taj!!!

Then i started labelling all the things that had to go in the bag and made sure i didnt miss anything including a set of spare clothes. I was nervous and excited. Looked at the clock, it was getting close to 7 am. My excitement level was creeping up. I went into the bedroom and gently kissed and tried to wake up the man in our house. He turned and continued to sleep but i had to get him out of bed, we couldnt be late today. Finally he opened his eyes and looked at me with a scorn. I hustled him out of the bed and made him brush his teeth and then handed him his cup.

It was Achyuta's first day for school and i was most nervous. GK is travelling and i have been running around filling up forms and getting the tiny uniforms, meeting the teacher in the past few days. I guess i didnt ever remember feeling this nervous when i was appearing for exams without preparations or on my first day at work.

One idli for breakfast and ACK was in no mood for more so finally it was time to go. He kept repeating after me that he wont cry or scream and that he will have fun at school. I was hoping that would be the case since he was very calm and good in the taxi on route to school.

Then we were there!!! I even tipped the taxi guy a few extra cents that day and rushed the little fellow to his class. Just outside his class, he clutched me and tears started rolling down and he said " no school. i dont want presents. no toys. i want to go to my home".

I was melting and in a few seconds would have been ready to take him back home but the teacher gently lifted the crying kid and took him inside and i turned and rushed to the parents lounge. I was a little shaky but i did have a tiny smile plastered on my face. First day of school!!! wow!!!!

I did it. Our little guy was in a regular school wearing his uniform. At the parents lounge i got myself a cup of black tea and sat down and waited and looked at the clock. It was only 10am, so i waited and after some time went to see how ACK was doing. He seemed fine, picking at the apple pieces and cheerios i had put in his snack box. Whew!!!

That was his first day and today was day four and he sent me off from the entrance to the auditorium. He actually turned me around towards the gate and said" you go amma, bye". I was stunned. No tears, he was fine. He had waved to his teacher and held her hand and went and took his place with the other kids. So what did i do??? I got myself a cup of tea at the parents lounge and waited for the malls to open and did some window shopping. When it was time, i picked up ACK from school. He was smiling and hugged me and happily chatted away about the day.

It was nice. He has been teasing me saying"amma no school", he also has the sheepish smile on his face.