After several minutes of walking (it should have been 60 minutes), and definitey covering a lot more than 3 kms, we reached a place that somewhat resembled a railway station. A steep climb up from the road took us to our planned starting point – the Donigal railway station. It was 4 am, and it was pitch dark. The station guards were asleep in the rooms, and we did not want to wake them up. We knew that trekking on a functional railway line was illegal, and were pretty apprehensive that they would drive us away from the station. Silently we tip toed to about a 100 yards away from the station entrance and sat down on the platform for the day light to start peeping out, so that we could start our walk on the tracks.

After about an hour, we started. Walking on a railway track is by no means child’s play. It is difficult, it is painful, and it is dangerous. One wrong step, and you would instantly fall down and bang your face into the concrete sleepers. We had to keep all our torch lights on while walking. The width of the sleepers was in such a way that the middle of our feet started paining slowly. Nevertheless, we knew we had to cover 18 kms of such track-walking, and we were prepared. We had to reach Yedakumari – our destination station by noon so that we could make it before dark to the highway. So, we continued our walk in the dark for the next 3 kms or so. That is when we reached the first bridge.

The railway track to Mangalore passes through some of the most picturesque hills of the western ghats. The train pulls up through these ghats chug-chugging along the bridges and tunnels. The whole stretch of the railway line passes through a number of such bridges and tunnels. Walking on these bridges is supposed to be the most thrilling part of this trek. You are high up in the hills, walking on the bridge, with ground at more than a 100 ft below your feet. You have nothing to hold on to, and one wrong step could leave you hurling down to the valley below. You have to be really careful and alert. And the tunnels are another story. If the train comes through when you are walking inside a tunnel, all you can do is wedge yourself in the small 4 ft space in between the speeding train and the tunnel wall, as the train brushes past your face. It is a shaky experience.

But we did not get to experience all the thrill. A metal sheet had been laid all through the length of the bridges, and it took away half the fun already. Walking on these metal sheeted bridges was a piece of cake. Contrast it with the earlier situation where you had to cross planks that were a foot and a half apart, and a couple of hundred feet high in the air. This track was previously abandoned, and train movement started here only in 2005. Around 3 to 4 trains pass through this route every day, most of them goods carriers. Since some repair work is going on in these tracks all the time, the railways decided to lay these metal sheets so that the workers can walk through the bridges easily without fear.

After walking for around 7 kms, we sat down to have breakfast. One of us had brought nice puliyogare, and the hunger made us lick it down to the last morsel. One thing I have to mention is, all along the route, a number of railway workers keep working on repairing the tracks. The kids in these groups keep asking you for biscuit packets. It would be a nice idea to keep some biscuit packets to give these kids.

Along the path, there were steep hills in some places, lining the track, and they had put metal meshes to keep the rocks from falling into the track. Rajesh displayed his monkeying skills by climbing up one of these meshes and posing for the camera.

As the day progressed, it was getting hotter and hotter, and the pain in our feet was tending to unbearable. We were looking for some kind of water source so that we could cool our heels. Soon we found one. A stream flowing through the ghats was good enough for us to jump into immediately. We played in the water for around an hour. The water was chill, and the stream was deep at places. But we had been to a lot of such streams in our treks, that we found no problem with it. The pain in our feet reduced a little, and we regained some of the energy lost due to dehydration. I should say that everyone doing this trek should carry at least 2 litres of water. That is what saved our day.

We had lunch at a small elevated place along the track. I had prepared nice tomato thokku the previous night in Bangalore, and carried it along. We had a feast on readymade chappatis and tomato thokku. A few packets of MTR ready-to-eat sambar rice packets also helped. Re-energised after the lunch, we started walking again.

As we were nearing the Yedakumari station, some of the railway offiicials who were inspecting the tracks stopped us to ask why we were walking on the tracks. They said we could be arrested for tresspassing on railway property. We had to blabber this and that, to escape from them. They warned us, and told us not to walk on the tracks. We sheepishly nodded our heads, and continued once they left. After walking 18 long kms, we finally reached the Yedakumari station, where a new shock awaited us.

By the time we reached Yedakumari, we were all panting and gasping. Our feet were completely sore and it pained like we could not keep another step ahead. We asked the guard in the station how to reach the highway from there. Shock! He asked us to walk another 4 kms, where we would get a forest path on the right. We had to walk into the forest from here, to reach the highway.

Swearing and cursing, we started walking again. This last 4 kms was the most painful of the whole trek. When we reached Yedakumari station, we had thought the trek was over, all the pain was over. But when we were told to walk another 4 kms, our spirits died away instantly. What a pain! Finally when we all made it to the start of this forest path, we could no longer stand. We all sat down to rest. There was hardly any energy left in us for the day. We were wondering aloud how we were going to make it through the forest to the highway, when our saviors appeared.

A jeep magically appeared on the forest path. It was some railway jeep, which was supplying gas cylinders for welding the joints in the tracks. We just casually asked the driver how far it was to the highway. He said 7 kms, and through the jungle, with elephants moving around. What??? We had expected the walk to be 1-2 kms, but never imagined it would be 7 kms. We were shell shocked. Then came the relief. The jeep guy offered to take us down to the highway. He said, it was dangerous to walk through the forest, and asked us if we wanted to hop into the jeep, so that he would drop us in Sakleshpur. We immediately jumped into the idea. What a relief that was!

Later we learnt that the jeep came there only once in 15 days. I don’t know if it was mere coincidence, or something else that the jeep came to the right place to pick us up at the right time of the day, as though it was waiting to carry us only. It was a long and bumpy ride to Sakleshpur. We had to cross a river in the middle, and the Mahindra jeep effortlessly accomplished the task. We also saw a lot of elephant dung along the forest path. In about an hour, we were in Sakleshpur bus stand.

That night, we stayed in a hotel in Sakleshpur, and the next morning, climbed a rustic and bumpy bus to Bangalore, with a whole lot of memories about an unforgettable and painful trek on the tracks.

You can take a look at the trail for this trek here. It has been mapped at TripNaksha

Related posts:

1. The day we were chased by an elephant…
2. A trip to Somnathpura, Talakad and Shivanasamudram

The probability of a remix song becoming sooper-dooper hit heavily depends on how popular and peppy the original was, how much the music director has kept his ambitions out of the remix, and how much the female in the remix shows her skin. Taking into consideration all of these environmental variables, I have made this list.

Disclaimer: This list is a reflection of how much I enjoy when each of these songs is played on TV, and should not be construed that I am being judgemental about the composition.

10. Yemperu Meenakumari from Kandasamy

The highlight of this song does not lie in the kulukkal movements of Mumaith Khan, or the sensationalism exhibited by her pierced tongue, but instead, it lies in the amazing free style body-shaking and hand-swinging movements of the half-naked old man along with her in the bus. If not for him, the song would not have been such an instant hit in all the patties and thotties of Tamilnadu.

9. Thottaal poo malarum from New

Care should be exercised while watching this song. The best option would be to use the turn-off-video button in your TV in case it is available. For the damned souls whose TV does not have this valuable switch, be ready to watch the King of torture S.J.Suryah who will continue to haunt your dreams long after the visuals are over.

8. Yeh Aatha Aathorama Vaariya from Malaikottai

A remix that survives only on the peppiness of the original! Whether she wears a Benares pattu or mini skirt, I don’t understand why Priyamani looks like she has just got out of bed and jumped into the stage to dance. The less said about the hero, the better.

7. Ponmagal Vandhaal from Azhagiya Tamil Magan

Does Shriya look like she has an Eclairs chocolate stuffed into her cheek, or is it just me? Anyway, a neat composition, rendered magical by Asslam’s voice. The music blends with the voice perfectly. A rare Sivaji Ganesan remix!

6. Vachikava unnai mattum nenjukulle from Silambattam

Though Simbu comes back with his serial-set background reused in all of his movies for budget purposes, and repeats his painfully familiar and hysterical ’sit down, stand up, twist leg, move side’ exercise routine once more, the magic and peppiness of thalaivar’s song makes us want to listen to this remix composition again and again. Also it is a consolation that Yuvan Shankar Raja has kept his hands away from the ’sprinkle-some-out-of-the-world-beats’ button, which has paid off.

5. Ennadi Muniyamma un kannula maiyee from Vaathiyar

A song immortalized by T.K.S.Natarajan’s voice, has been neatly remixed by Imaan. I have never watched the video of this song, but listened to the audio umpteen times, and it holds the magic of the original. I guess this is the only hit song in the album.

4. Thee pidikka thee pidikka from Arindhum Ariyaamalum

“Kaamamum kobamum ullam nirambave.. Kaalamum sella madinthidavo…” – when yesteryear superstar MKT Bhagavathar sang this harmless song 70 years back (!!!) little would he have imagined a skimpily clothed chick making out with a ruffian guy at the backseat of a car, in the backdrop of his song, interspersed with dance movements similar to pulling up your loose trousers. Listen to the original here.

3. Madai thiranthu paayum nadhi alai naan from Vallavan (Yogi B)

Though not a film song, this remix from Yogi B created ripples. It could be heard everywhere from Nair chaaya shop to Bangalore-Chennai video coach. Yogi B introduced hip hop to Tamil, and used an evergreen Ilayaraja composition to his advantage. Calling rap ‘Sollisai’ in Tamil is interesting too. One of the better made packages in remix genre.

2. Ennama kannu sowkiyama from Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam

It is strange that one of thalaivar’s most remembered duets is with Satyaraj (a guy!). The remix had enough nakkals and naiyaandies in it that it has overshadowed the original itself. Also, the contrast between Dhanush and Prakashraj is greater than the pair in the original, that the duel of words between them in the song sounds more convincing. One of my favorites from Imaan.

1. Engeyum eppodhum sangeetham santhosham from Polladhavan

The clear winner. Surprisingly, again starring Dhanush, and Yogi B. Music by G.V.Prakash. One of the few songs where Ramya looks hot. The clear winner here is SPB’s voice. Prakash has recreated the magic of the eighties. As Yogi B promises at the beginning of the song, they bring back the classic Kannadasan-MSV-SPB composition in a fine way, retaining the party spirit of the song.

There is still a whole bunch of interesting songs out there. With almost all music directors giving remixes these days, I hope there will be more remix-rains pouring in coming days.

Enjoy some candid photos of couples from my Goa trip…

The sea of Love

Romance on the beach

A long beach-walk

Let’s hold hands dear…

Enjoy maadi…

Dell

My PC broke down one fine day, and I decided to make my long term dream to own my first laptop come true. But hell broke loose from the day I ordered the laptop. (Yes, I ordered it, because DELL does not sell it off the shelf. And, I wanted a Studio 14 with Core2duo and with the maximum RAM memory they can stuff in, which was not going to be available off the shelf anyway). Coming back to hell, the laptop I ordered on Jan 4 did not come to me even after Feb 4.

Life came to a standstill, similar to traffic in Bangalore, which grew to insurmountable magnitudes, all the pleasures of life seemed to hopelessly drain into Ulsoor lake and I had to spend several sleepless nights in pain and anguish in this one month, because I had no PC. Finally, Brahma, the unworshipped god, decided to heed to my prayers and voiced a curse that Dell should give me an Intel Core i3 laptop instead of the Core2Duo I had ordered, and Dell had no other option but to execute the order of the one above. Dell gave me a wonderful looking laptop, and exported me to my ’second life’. Phew!

Marriage

I was admiring the sheer beauty and awesomeness of my new laptop, when I felt a sharp excruciating pain at the back of my neck. I groaned in agony, and reached out my hand to the back of my neck to feel what caused the pain. It was a bite – an insect bite – to put it in comfortable words – a bug bite. Then it dawned upon me. I had been bitten by the marriage bug!

I did not realise that January 2010 – the month I had promised my parents I would signal green for marriage – had already come! I was caught completely off-guard when I was asked to give a photo of mine in which I looked everything but what I really am. Wait! That is not ethical – I tried to say, but was swat down heavily with the ‘Kosu-bat‘, and the photos I hated the most (From the enna-kodumai-sir-idhu list) were ripped off from my Flickr albums. The photos have been doing rounds all over Karnataka ever since, trying to attract a suitable ‘cow-girl’ for my parents (Adhaanga… maattu ponnu).

BMTC

In other news, BMTC has found a new passenger in me. Born with insanely large feet, which only accept shoes of size 12, I realised that I could not reduce my footprint. So, as a counter-measure I decided to reduce my carbon footprint by shunning my car and going to office in BMTC. Nice. The ride in the Volvo buses has been smooth for the past month and a half. Taking a bus to office has a whole set of advantages – right from taking off the tenshun of driving from your head, to letting you listen to the mellifluous voice of Goundamani in your ipod. Come on… everyone knows the unspoken truth – sight adichifying and jollu vittufying (revolutionary terms from Tamil language equivalent to the English term ‘ogling’) at the bus-traveling figars – the best way to spend the 45 minutes to office constructively. (Especially if you work in a detested-by-the-fairer-sex  industry like mine). Mission is accomplished I say.

Watched a Tamil movie called ‘Tamil movie’. (Tamil Padam in Tamil). Ayyoo… how many Tamil…!!! A bold venture into the parody movie genre in Tamil. It was refreshing. Despite having irritating actors like Venniraadai Murthy and Paravai Muniyamma, the movie was interesting enough. For a first kind of effort from a first time director, the movie was commendably good. Hope it yields more movies of the same genre in future.

Related posts:

1. The day we were chased by an elephant…

Aayirathil OruvanThe story is based on the struggle for power between two Tamil kingdoms – the Cholas and Pandyas. The Pandyas destroy the Chola kingdom, and the Cholas are forced to flee their capital, Thanjavur. But while escaping, they take along with them the idol of a Pandya god. The Cholas establish a secret settlement in some remote foreign island, with the hope that some day they will be resurrected back to the Chola kingdom by a messiah. The settlement is well protected by seven blockades, all of which one has to cross, to reach the place. The movie is based in the present day – a 1000 years after the Cholas are overthrown. A group of archeologists and armed men, led by Reema Sen go in search of the lost city of the Cholas, how they cross the blockades, and reach the place. Now, the twists are exposed – the Chola settlement is still alive in the foreign island, and Reema Sen is a descendant of the Pandyas, bearing a grudge to destroy the Cholas and bring the Pandyan idol back.

The movie is an adventure-treasure hunt kind of movie – at least it looks so in the beginning. The first half of the movie is all about the voyage, and the blockades the crew faces one after the other – all done in hollywood style. Karthi sizzles as a cocky coolie, Reema Sen gives a decent performance as the leader of the expedition and a Andrea does nothing more that just appearing in the scenes.The narration is catchy, and the background score is quite indulging. The crew escapes strange creatures, wades through cruel looking tribes, shoots down hundreds of red-colored men and crosses a quick-sand ridden desert to finally reach the lost city of the Cholas. The audience eagerly get ready for the team’s adventures in the new land. And then, the trouble starts…

The director seems to have become suddenly ambitious. He could have finished it off a hollywood-styled adventure movie with bigger dangers and barricades that comes the team’s way, all of which they successfully break to attain their goal. But instead, the director choosed to become adventurous. He keeps the lost Chola settlement alive in the remote land, and makes Reema Sen the descendant of the Pandyas, seeking to destroy the Cholas once and for all. From here, the movie becomes a torture porn, using the excuse of war, superstitions and agony. The director aspires hard to show how barbaric the Cholas are, and how crude things move about in this land, which makes the audience say, ‘Yuck!’. The script becomes slow, and all characters other than Reema Sen bear a zombie like dumbness about them, while Reema Sen becomes the like of a blood sucking vampire. The audience soon start looking at their watches, mocking at the silliness of the things happening on-screen, and how the movie that started off in a great way, was getting into the boring old rut.

Right from the start of the movie, where a voice narrates the backdrop of the story to the dialogues renders by both the female leads, the pronunciation of Tamil is grossly bad. The difference between ‘la’ and ‘zha’ in Tamil has been sadly ignored almost everywhere. Another thing that was odd about the dialogues was the so-called ancient Tamil used by the cave-dwelling barbarian Cholas. It could have been in normal Tamil itself – at least it would have reduced the zombie-ness of the characters. When a lot of logic has been compromised in the movie, I don’t see the reward in painstakingly bringing in an ancient diction of Tamil, which only alienates the characters from the audience.

‘Logic’ is something missing thoughout the movie. Cell phone works seamlessly in a place which has never been explored by humans. The army from India is able to get to a foreign land and kill hundreds of people there, without any issues or implications. If the army could be air-dropped in the Chola-settlement so easily, why should the crew travel over land, facing so many dangers and losing so many lives? Why do the Cholas look, act and behave like barbarian cannibals? Even though they are shown to have magical powers, how do they get cheated so easily by a girl? When all of the Chola women are raped and tortured by the army, how does Andrea escape, always standing by the side, watching all the horror?

Two good things about the movie are its stunning camera work by Ramji and wonderful music by G.V.Prakashkumar. The songs are indulging, and the background score is good too. ‘Un mela aasai thaan’ and ‘O Eesa’ are tunes that linger along. The computer graphics looks amateurish at some places, but the overall cinematography is quite good.

Reema Sen has given a splendid performance in the second half of the movie, as a vengeful and ruthless female. Karthi disappears in the second half and reappears to sum up at the end. Andrea is more conspicuous by her lack of any part to play in the second half. Parthiban is a huge let down. The most hyped character of the movie – the Chola king – behaves no more mature than the leader of a cannibal tribe. He is speechless and expressionless most of the time, except when they show his large eyes in close-up, trying to make up for the boring screenplay.

The movie is a new venture in Tamil. I have always wondered when the Tamil movies would move ahead of love, revenge and sentiments. This could be a first step, at least the first half. If the excessive gore, barbarianism and blood shed is removed, the characters are made to talk normal Tamil, and the movie is cut down by half-an-hour, the effect could have been completely different. Overall, the movie is nothing close to a must-watch!

Related posts:

1. The day we were chased by an elephant…

அவனுக்குப் பிறவியிலேயே வலது கை கிடையாது. அவனுக்கு ஒன்பது வயது நிரம்பியபோது, ‘கராத்தே’ கற்றுக்கொள்ள விரும்பினான். பெற்றோரிடம் தன்

விருப்பத்தைச் சொன்னான். மகனின் துணிவைக் கண்டு மகிழ்ந்த பெற்றோர், அவனை கராத்தே பள்ளிக்கு அனுப்பினர். சில நாட்களிலேயே நன்றாகக் கராத்தே பயிற்சியில் ஈடுபடத் தொடங்கினான். கராத்தே போட்டி ஒன்றில் பங்குபெற விரும்பி, தன் ஆசிரியரிடம் இது தன்னால் முடியுமா என்று கேட்டான். “என் மீது முழு நம்பிக்கை வைத்து, நான் சொல்வதை அப்படியே செய்வதானால், உன்னால் முடியும்” என்றார் ஆசிரியர். அவனும் சம்மதித்தான்.

ஆசிரியர் அவனுக்கு ஒரே ஒரு தாக்குதல் முறையை மட்டுமே கற்றுக்கொடுத்தார். அந்த தாக்குதலில் மட்டும் அவன் நன்றாகக் கவனம் செலுத்திப் பயின்றான். ஆனாலும் அவனுக்குக் கொஞ்சம் கவலையாக இருந்தது. எல்லோரும் பலவிதமான தாக்குதல் முறைகளையும், தற்காப்பு முறைகளையும் நன்றாகப் பயின்றுகொண்டிருக்கும் போது, அவன் மட்டும் ஒரே ஒரு தாக்குதல் முறையை மட்டும் கற்றுக்கொள்வது, அவனுக்குச் சற்று நெருடலாக இருந்தது. ஆசிரியரிடம், தனக்கு மேலும் சில தாக்குதல் முறைகளையும் கற்றுத் தரும்படி கேட்டான். ஆனால், அவர் மறுத்துவிட்டார். அந்த ஒரு முறையை மட்டும் நன்றாகப் பயிலுமாறு கூறினார்.

கராத்தே போட்டியின் முதல் சுற்றில் அவன் வெற்றி பெற்றான். அடுத்த சுற்றிலும் வெற்றி பெற்றான். அடுத்தடுத்த சுற்றுகளிலும் தொடர்ந்து வெற்றி பெற்று கடைசியில் போட்டியிலேயே முதல் இடம் பிடிக்கும் அளவிற்கு வந்து விட்டான். அவனுக்கு ஒன்றுமே புரியவில்லை. எப்படி இது சாத்தியமானது? ஒரே ஒரு கை இரூக்கும் ஒருவன் எப்படி மற்றவர்களோடு போட்டியிட்டு ஒரு கராத்தே போட்டி முழுவதையும் வெல்ல முடியும் என்று அவனுக்குக் குழப்பமாக இருந்தது. ஆசிரியரிடம் கேட்டான். ஆசிரியர் சிரித்தார். “நான் உனக்குக் கற்றுக்கொடுத்த தாக்குதல் முறை என்னவோ ஒன்றுதான். ஆனால், அந்தத் தாக்குதலில் இருந்து தம்மைத் தற்காத்துக் கொள்ள ஒரே ஒரு வழி மட்டும் தான் உள்ளது. அது என்னவென்றால், தாக்குபவரின் வலது கையைப் பிடித்து இழுத்துப் போட வேண்டும்!” என்றார்.

Pirate Latitudes

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton is supposedly his penultimate novel (…another one is slated for release in 2010). The script was found in his computer after his untimely demise in 2008, and has been published posthumously around a year later. That is reason enough for the book to be one of the bestsellers of the year, especially considering Crichton’s prowess in story-telling. The novel resembles heist movies like Ocean’s eleven. It also belongs to the same genre as another of Crichton’s renowned novel – The Great Train Robbery. The novel is a departure from Crichton’s latest works, where the author invariably had chosen scientific themes, especially the hottest discussed topics. On the contrary, in Pirate Latitudes, Crichton takes back the readers half a millennium back to the era of wars, plagues and pirates.

The story is set in the mid-colonial era, towards the end of the 17th century, when the European powers are fighting each other to establish control over the colonies of Central America. The story begins in the English colony of Jamaica. A privateering expedition sets off from here, under the captaincy of Charles Hunter. He assembles a crew of seamen with expertise in different sea tactics, who set out on a voyage to capture a Spanish treasure-vessel stationed in a well guarded and impregnable Spanish harbour of Matanceros. Enemy encounters, hurricanes, sea-monsters, cannibals, escape-tactics, betrayal and retaliation – all these make the story of the novel.

Coming to the review, I should admit the novel has the same characteristics of a Typical Tamil masala movie. A superhero, a heroine who unnecessarily comes around only for adding spice, a loud villain – all of these find place in the novel. The characterization and the sequence of events have been laid out in a neat way, acquainting the reader slowly to the mood of the novel – in this case, the social life in a Caribbean colony 400 years back. However, the author takes pains in detailing the character of Sir Almont – the governor of Jamaica in the initial chapters of the novel, though he doesn’t have much bearing on the rest of the novel, except for brief comebacks – which I felt odd. On the other hand, the protogonist Hunter, gets lesser space at the beginning of the novel.

The novel seems like a summation of smaller incidents, brought forth one after the other. Captain Hunter, similar to the hero in the movie 2012, invariably overcomes all mishaps and emerges victorious, however difficult the situations might be and however stupid his decisions might be. What lacks is a Crichton stamp! A single continuous message line, which the protogonist advocates throughout the lenght of the novel, which could have been a strong connecting wire, is conspicuous by its absence. Nevertheless, all characters in the novel have been portrayed right to the extent required, and accomplish their task pretty well. In fact, I believe the interest in these characters is the one which keeps the reader turning pages. The techniques of the pirates, and the intricacies of sea voyages have been construed very well with enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged.

The novel is relatively short, or looks so because of the lack of details. The incidents draws the reader quite well into the scene of the novel, but it is not a gripping or compelling read. Half way through the novel, a lot of things feel cliched, and towards the end of the novel, it is not a herculean task to guess what would be the sequence of events leading to the ending. The novel is a casual read, and unlike other Crichton’s novels, Pirate Latitudes lacks the elaboration and substantiation that are typical of Crichton’s masterpieces. The novel somehow feels shallow, and a few scenes in the novel, feel like they end abruptly, leaving the readers in vacuum.

I should also mention that having watched a good deal of pirate movies, the readers are left with little space to imagine, and quite a lot of incidents mentioned in the novel come before our eyes straight from the movies. In fact, I could remember exact scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series while reading few parts of the novel, and even an old Tamil movie of the sixties, MGR’s Aayirathil Oruvan during some of the mishaps the voyage encounters. I can only imagine that the novel could have been an incomplete work, or one written in his early stages as a writer, on which Circhton might have had several pending things to add or change, which never found the light of the day.

The final verdict: Though not one of Crichton’s best, the novel is intriguing enough for a lazy read.

Points: 2.5/5

I finished my last year with an eventful vacation in Goa, enjoying all the beaches and birds of the west coast.

What’s more exciting?

The new year for me has already begun thunderously, with my write-up on Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary getting published in The Banyan Trees.

You can read my article here. Many thanks to Dhivya.

The Banyan Trees is a new-age online monthly magazine that gives a platform to display creative content. The Banyan Trees team has been doing a great job, and the magazine has improved a lot since its first issue in November 2009. I wish them all the best in their effort. A neat looking flash version of the magazine…

What’s even more exciting?

Looking at the wonderful show put up by the Banyan Trees, I have been lately thinking about starting my own magazine. It will be a collaborative effort, with the help of friends. Watch out for the first issue very soon…

Related posts:

1. The day we were chased by an elephant…
2. A trip to Somnathpura, Talakad and Shivanasamudram

How can I start my own website?
Is it easy, or is it only for the experts in the field?
How difficult is it to maintain one?
What is the price I will have to pay?

The World Wide Web

In this post, I will try and address most of these questions. I will give a step by step guide for making your own website. Although there is an abundance of information in the internet on this topic, there is not much specific to India, especially for people wishing to have their own personal blog address, like me.

As a prerequisite, all you need is some basic knowledge of computers and the internet, a credit card, and a lot of inquisitiveness. Most of the information provided here is from my personal experience in creating and managing my own website, and a couple of other government and non-profit websites that I have designed.

I have designed, and currently maintain three websites:

http://deepakvenkat.com
(My personal website designed on Wordpress)
http://diya.org.in/
(A social welfare organization site designed on Joomla!)
http://cetl.co.in/
(A government laboratory site designed entirely by myself)

First things first: Who should start a website?

In order to own a website, you need not be a big businessman trying to reach a large audience across the globe. You could be a blogger who thinks it is time he had a website of his own, to build his own brand. You could be an amateur netizen who want to display something creative in a small space of your own. You could be one of those guys who just nurtured a desire to own a website in your name, ever since the dotcom boom happened in India. Or, you could be a small time entrepreuner, trying to advertise your business to net-savvy clients. Believe me, creating a professionally designed website no longer involves huge costs or technical expertise. It can be done just sitting in the comfort of your home, and it can all be done in a couple of hours!

So, even if you are a student with very little pocket money, but with a desire to showcase your stuff to the world, you could just jump in, and create your own website in no time.

Step 1: Buying a domain name

By this time you should have a nice sounding domain name for your website in your mind. Keep it simple, and be ready to go for some variations of the name if what you seek is not available. The most common domain extensions used are “.com”, “.org”, “.net”, “.in”, “.co.in”, etc.

The moment you think of domain name registrars, the provider that comes to your mind is GoDaddy.com. However, I have seen that web domain registration companies operating from India offer reasonably lower prices for domain names, compared to those based elsewhere. For example, I have gotten my site registered at http://www.brainpulse.com, and I have had no problems with it for the past 2 years. Here, you should be able to get a reasonably good domain name for around Rs.400 to Rs.450 per year ($8 to $9 per year).

Some of the popular domain name registrar services from India, which also provide reasonably cheap domain registration are:

http://www.brainpulse.com
http://www.net4domains.com
http://www.indialinks.com
http://www.netlynx.com

Once you have identified the domain name registrar of your choice, just go to the registrar’s website and type in the website name of your choice. For example, if the name of your blog is “Simply Thinking”, you could go for website names like “simplythinking.com”, “simplythinking.net” or something that fancies you. As an alternative, you could name it after your own name (the way I have done it).

Simply Thinking

If the name of your choice is not available, most domain registrars give a list of related domain names from which you can choose one for your website. Choose the name of your choice from the list, or query again with a different name. When you are decided on your domain name, proceed further and purchase the domain name, using your credit card. Now, you are the owner of a domain name.

You will have to pay for your domain name every year. As an alternative, you can pay upfront for 2-5 years in one go, and not bother with payments for the next 5 years. I would recommend sticking to one year, since you might want to change your domain name registrar if you are dissatisfied with your current registrar for some reason. Paying more than $15 per year for a domain name is not justifiable, unless your business badly needs the particular domain name to differentiate yourself from your competitor.

If you can live with domain names that end with “.name”, “.info”, etc., you will find a plenty of discounted offers on the net for such names. Also, rather than sticking to one domain registration provider, a bit of searching on the net for good deals will always yield you the best results. You can get your domain name for as low as Rs.200 per year to Rs.750 per year.

Step 2: Hosting the Website

Though you have purchased a domain name, you cannot do much with it, unless you find a hosting service provider. Hosting is the process of storing your website related files on some computer that is permanently connected to the net, so that people find your site alive at all times they visit.

Hunt for the hosting provider

The same companies listed above provide hosting services too. So, it would be ideal for you to purchase a domain name as well as a hosting plan from the same vendor, as this simplifies the process. On the other hand, you could as well have entirely different service providers for domain registration and hosting, and still it would work without a glitch. The only drawback being, you should remember to renew both of them individually every year.

When it comes to choose the OS of you hosting server, there are two choices: Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting. Some information in this regard can be found here. Linux Hosting is the most widely used, as it is cheaper, reliable and sufficient for most website needs. If you are unsure which one to choose, blindly go for Linux hosting. You won’t regret it.

And it is important to know about some terminologies related to hosting while you make your choice of web hosting provider. The most important of these are— Disk Space, Bandwidth, MySQL Databases, and Email Accounts.

Ideally, a disk space of around 1 GB, Bandwidth of >1GB per month, and more than one MySQL Database are preferred for a simple website hosting. The number of email accounts is a personal choice. Each MySQL database can be used to host an individual blog, photo album, or so on, and if you don’t plan to have more than one, one MySQL database should be sufficient. I have been using Linux Hosting from brainpulse.com, which offers 1000MB space and unlimited bandwidth for Rs.1000 per year. But I get only one MySQL database, which I feel is enough for me.

Bots steal bandwidth

Having unlimited bandwidth is the most attractive option here, for some good reason. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and so on, crawl your website to find information about your website to update on the search results. Although this is favorable to you (getting you more traffic from search results), there is a downside. The search engines consume bandwidth. There are also a host of anonymous bots which simply eat up your bandwidth limit by frequently crawling your website. Though you can individually ban most of these bots by making certain adjustments, it is desirable to have unlimited bandwidth so that these bots don’t become a problem to your site. Because, once you exceed your bandwidth limit, your site will go offline and will not be accessible to the visitors. Unlimited bandwidth eliminates this fear. (The low-cost hosting provider will expect you to use unlimited bandwidth within reasonable limits. If you need to host a number of bandwidth consuming videos and offer them for download, it is always better to switch to a plan with higher cost).

For web hosting, if you want something cheap, you could look at http://www.squarebrothers.com which offers a minimal Linux hosting package for Rs.450 per year. But in my experience, I have found the downtime to be quite high with them. For personal blogs, it is still ok, looking at the price at which it comes.

So, coming to downtime, an important point to be noted while selecting hosting providers is the downtime. During down times, the website will not be available for public access. This could happen due to some unplanned maintenance work in the side of the hosting provider, or when the hosting provider is not able to handle all requests to his server. Ideally, downtime is required to be zero. But it so happens, that there is always a small amount of downtime with most low cost providers. The catch is to find out which provider gives minimum downtime. You can enquire among your friends or website owners to know if their service provider is good with respect to downtime. For example, I monitor my website using a downtime monitoring service, and I have found my provider to be quite satisfactory.

Don't need more cash

Here we come to the end of the spending part of your website launching plan. You can have a domain name, and a hosting service for as low as Rs.600 per year. For everything else you are going to do with your website, you will not have to shell out even a penny more, thanks to all the opensource resources out there. I will discuss more about these opensource tools in the next part of this article.

(To be continued…)

Image Courtesy: americanbedu.com

It is sometimes funny how the simple name of a person metamorphosizes into a hundred different avatars just based on the person trying to pronounce it. The sounds in the names might get beaten black and blue depending on the nasal capabilities of the pronouncer.

Let us take my name for example. DEEPAK. A simple and harmless name with just two noticeable sounds. But the pity is that one of these sounds should closely rhyme with an extra-vulgar super-insultive English word that is often represented by special characters in its written form. So, some cruel callers of my name might choose to call me DEE-%$^#.

Then comes the infamous Tamil teacher at school who prefers to bite hard on the first syllable in the name till it is on fire. The second syllable is, however, monetarily so much valuable. This makes my name THEE-BUCK.

There are more people belonging to the Tamil diaspora who will not be too keen on passing the BUCK so easily. Definitely this sound has to be localized considerably, as in, THEE-BUCKKU – in a coveted Tamil style, or its shortened form – THEE-BU.

Miles away, the English-speaking phoren people, with little or no knowledge of the minute intricacies of the multitude of Indian languages, render new dimensions to the name, munching and punching it into newer shapes, so that my name becomes D’PACK. A better shape would have been a six-pack.

I consider myself enormously blessed and gifted to not have a name as dangerous and diabolic as my brother’s. He is called KIRAN. This name is tossed and torpedoed much violently than a frog on the frying pan. He starts from KI-RAIN and KI-REEN and gets upgraded to KI-ROON and KI-RAN.

If simple names dance with so much glee on our twisty tongues, you can easily make up your mind about the big list of complicated and outlandish names.

The government decided to include the citizen’s father’s name in the electoral ID card, so that people can be more profusely identified, like, M.Kumaran, son of Mahalakshmanan. An unfortunate citizen’s father’s name happened to be ‘Kadarkarai’ (Seashore in Tamil). The hyper-educated officials of the Election commission decided to print his father’s name in the card, in letter as well as in spirit. The result – his father’s name was printed as “The Beach”. May be they found he was a Son of the Soil.

The ancient Tamil kingdom should have been a land of extraordinary scholars and exemplary tonguesmen. How else can you justify the common man pronouncing extra-terrestrial names like Peruncheralirumborai and Thirikoodarasappakavirayar! I believe special tuitions were given for pronouncing these names right. The current Tamils are no less in giving names as long as the Beach-Tambaram railway line. Balasudenthirarajan and Ramanujarajendran are not historical, but very much contemporary names walking around us.

Image Courtesy: givemeaname.com

A person I remotely remember from my childhood had the name “Soodi Kodutha Sudarkodi” – a name actually given to Aandaal – the Meera Bai of the South. For non-Tamil readers, I would like to point out with a slight smirk that this is similar to naming a child – ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge’.

The home minister of India Mr.Chidambaram bears the name of a town in Tamilnadu. However, he is not alone in this feat. Town names such as Madurai, Palani, Tirupathi, Tirumalai, and Kaasi commonly acquire special status as the first names of people.

The Members of the Mallu-land like to KISS… (Keep it simple, stupid!). Rarely would we have come across Mallus with names exceeding two syllables. Biju, Ciju, Ribu, Tanu, Jiby, Simi, Rinu… the list is endless. Of course, Beenamol and Kunjumon have to be interspersed in between these in order to give us the option of breaking the monotony with a smile. Over the years our minds have been rutted to nail names such as George and Mathew directly into the coconut trees of the Mallu-land.

Even the simple names of the Mallus have beware-of-names type of surnames. There is a rumor that certain Mallu surnames are usually generated by writing a random syllable generator in Perl, with only two constraints. (1) It should be a mix-up of syllables, rendering any kind of attempt to remember by a member of the human race, impossible, and, (2) It should end with ‘-il’. Thazhathidathil, Thevaruparampil, Puthenuvetil are some samples. Let us not get started with Prasadaramanakooti!

Funny customs in some families could lead to non-funny situations. For example, I had a friend in school. His family has a strange custom of rotating only 2 names for all male members of the family. He was named after his grandfather, as, ‘Chinnasami’. His brother was named after his own father, as, ‘Chellasami’. So, his brother becomes Chellasami, son of Chellasami, and brother of Chinnasami, also grandson of Chinnasami. I used to find it embarrassing to call his name standing outside his home.

Much ado has been made about the older names. Tuning our focus to modern names, most parents nowadays like to create names for their kids, with combos which have never been used, ever. May be it is their effort to make their kids outstanding by making their names standing out. A person I know has named his kids Migal, Kayal and Iyal. (It is up to the Tamil scholars among my readers to dig into the etymology of these names).

Sanskrit names uncommon in the South like Dhruvesh, Hritesh and Saharshita are among those being commonly conferred nowadays on kids in Chennai. I am sure, when these kids grow up, they will have much more complaints than I had, to write about the way their names are handled by the name-starved public!

Related posts:

1. The day we were chased by an elephant…