{mosimage}One of my best friend in Chennai asked me to give a parcel to her sister in UAE, when I went to India on vacation. I met "Chechi" one Thursday evening and gave the parcel. We (I, Chechi, her husband) chatted for long and I was playing with their kids for sometime. I felt at home in this part of the world after a long time. Chechi asked me to drop often whenever possible. I was touched. After a month when Chechi called, I said that since she said that it was boring just being locked at home,I had collected some VCDs for her and would like to give it and I need a home made food as I hadn't got any of friends with family here. That Thursday also came, I forgot this and went with my friends for some electronic goods purchase. When I came back and saw the mobile phone, I saw around 7-8 missed calls from the Chechi's number. I was scared and called her back to enquire had something bad happened.

{mosimage}At last Surya has finally opened his mouth to accept the love between him and actress Jyothika. Infact this is one of the hot topics of discussion among all the layers of people - tea shop to software companies in Tamilnadu. Will they or not? They make a beautiful pair and no wonder every movie goer wanted them to settle together in a marriage bliss. Their growth in career was almost parallel. They both made their debut in "Poovellam Kettu Paar" (Ask the flowers...), both managed to steal the audience's heart with their innocent smile. Both have clean history and a proven track record. To be honest when Surya came open about their affair putting end to all speculations, I really felt happy as if two of my friends are getting married. Infact most of the Tamil families treat Surya's love with Jyothika as their family affair. Actor Sivakumar's, Surya's father, resistance to this affair, kept every fan's heartbeat go faster. Surya replicated his first movie in real life too. i.e not to elope but wait and marry with the parent's consent only. That's how he managed to win the family audience's wishes and blessings. My heartiest wishes to Surya & Jyothika for a succesful marriage life.

{mosimage}Last week there was a gala ceremony at Dubai named IIFA Awards - Intrernational Indian Film Academy Awards function. Even though this is the seventh year of IIFA awards, this is the first time South Indian movies have been added to the section, that too in the non competitive section. Which means the South Indian movies weren't taken into consideration for competition category but mere exhibition category. On the awards function Mamooty, the malayalam superstar, in his speech came strongly on those awards. He had said that it should have been right named as "International Hindi Film Awards" as Indian movies are beyond the Bollywood with exceptionally good movies being made it South.

{mosimage}Haiyyada! This is not a movie pitted against Goutham menon's "Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikalam" nor a take off from a novel. This is all about my experiences in Summer 2006. By God's grace past three summers have been memorable and I am glad that this summer started and ended in a productive note than just being funny or in lighter vein. This summer made a considerable shift in my perspective about Chennai. This summer proved that certain traits are inborn. On the whole this summer went beyond the lighter elements and presented life in a serious fashion.

{mosimage}A news that disturbed me a lot was the rape of a spastic 21 yr old girl, who is also deaf & dumb, in Tutucorin. She was dwelling on the road side and feeding on the alms from the devotees. She had been raped and is pregnant but the irony is that she is not in a position to realise what had happened to her. Someone had filed a case in court for her abortion. The court had approved it and asked to put her in a orphanage. I lost 3-4 days sleep over this matter. I asked my mother whether we can adopt that girl. My mother said that she is not ready because of the legal complications involved and told me to take it easy because she had seen many such cases earlier. What kind of people we are? Why we turned so brutal that we are indifferent towards the injustice of underpriviliged? Will we react the same way if it happens to our family member?

{mosimage}My friend SMSed me that she had changed her religion. Admitted she is bit a religious girl and she was God fearing. Initially I thought she was joking, but then I learnt that she was really serious and had got converted to another religion. When I called her she started giving a lecture about her new religion and she said that all these time she had been doing wrong being in the religion she was before. What to say, it is her personal opinion, but one thing what I can't understand is "Do religion need to be taken so seriously in a human life?" I personally believe that there is a super natural force above us and there is no denial about it.

{mosimage}Last week a news in "Gulf News" was disturbing me a lot. It dealt with the rising trend in the suicide of Indian workers (54 in 2003 to 85 in 2005) and Indian workers form the majority of suicide attemps. Even shocking was the bias of the report that it tried to project that Indians attempt suicide wherever they are, thus washing off the hands against the exploitations here in UAE. Every suicide victim has a wrenching & moving story behind them, some come here for repaying the debts, some for the dowry of their sisters). Many pay downpayment of about Rs. 1 lakhs to the agents to land in the job that fetches Dhs. 750~800 (approx INR. 8500 ~ 10,000) with false promises of overtime jobs.

{mosimage}Today I sighed a relief that all the hype and hooplah that surrounds the Valentine's Day is finally coming to an end. It was really sick to hear the radios and media screaming love all over since February 1st. Whatever might be the story behind the Valentine's Day, my opinion is is that it is fuelled and foddered by the card manufacturers, florists, music companies and jewellary shops to increase their revenues. More numbers of love affairs an individuals have, more merrier those business men.

{mosimages}Sometimes we don't understand how certain things happen. We will be thinking of something / someone from our good old memories and to much of our surprise we would have stumbled on them that day / time. Similiar thing happened to me yesterday. While I was combing my hair this morning accidentally I looked at the calender, it had a caption - "Every journey begins with a single step". Somebody had written and signed with similiar line in my diary on the very first day when they came into my life. She had written in her words as "The secret of getting ahead is... getting started". She is someone special and always close to my heart. Whenever I was in trouble her words soothed me to greater extent. She had more faith in my capabilities... much more than what I had in myself. Physically she was around me for three-four months only, a crazy goose who'll drop just a line as a reply for 10-20 mails I had sent, but whenever I was in trouble she comes reaches out to me without any invitation to bail me out. Yesterday evening I was terribly frustrated and came to room with a headache, to much of my surprise that I got excited, I received SMS messages from her after a lo.....ng time. Sometimes life is really beautiful.

{mosimage}I think I had touched this topic previously but this starts from where the previous blog ended. We all admit that man is a social animal and we can't exist in vaccuum. That means we need others existence to survive, rejuvinate ourselves and populate, but the happiness lies within ouselves. But I believe in due course of time the concept of "social" has taken different form that completely overshadowed the felicity of loneliness. I am proud that I am one of the very few people who enjoy the loneliness among those people who claim that they'll go mad if being alone.