Some good articles on Time Management !

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/timemanagement/a/timemgttips.htm
http://www.time-management-guide.com/time-management-tips.html
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/timemanagement/a/getmoretime.htm
http://www.timethoughts.com/time-management.htm

ManiRathnam's interpretation of Raamayan !

Raavan is Mani Rathnam’s interpretation of the Indian epic Raamayan. A thought provoking idea which has been narrated by Mani Rathnam, makes you think about the boundaries & the differences between what’s Good & what’s Evil.

As the story goes along, you start sympathizing with Raavan’s character, though he is initially shown as a symbol of the evil Demon Raavan. The grey shades of the so called Good Rama’s character starts to seem like the Evil one !This is realized through the character Aishwarya plays that of Sita.

Mani Rathnam has used his creative license to tell convey his thoughts in a radically out of the box plot line.

Good aspects of the film are its stunning scenic visuals shot by Santosh Sivan in Kerala, Ooty & some of the forest areas in India. They are definitely a treat to viewers eyes.

Aishwarya looks stunning as ever before & Abhishek renders a brilliant performance supported by the ensemble cast cvomprising of Vikram, Priyamani, Govinda, Ravi Kishen & Nikhil.

Music & background score by AR Rahman is the biggest asset of this Mani Rathnam film. I loved the song rendered by the almighty Rahman towards the rolling credits of the film. Sad that this song is not available on the Audio CD of the film.

Behne De, Beera & Ranjha Ranjha are some of the good numbers from Raavan’s album. I was disappointed that the song Ranjha Ranjha was not shown in the film completely & is used only in parts.

I am not sure if the plot line of the film will go down well or will even be well understood by the mass audience of India. But I am sure the Mani Rathnam’s all time fans like me will surely head towards the theatres to experience Mani Rathnam’s new film.

As I head back watching the film Raavan, & switched on the TV, reports were coming in that the film had not opened really well at many places. But its definitely worth a watch for the Mani Rathnam’s fans !

Here’s a peak at some of the best visuals from Raavan which I think is unfortunately edited out from the film

http://www.youtube.com/user/RaavanTheFilm#p/u/10/I1WIny6Z-Kc

Disappointing Mysore trip (Dec09)

I had been to Mysore this year end (Dec 09). I have been a regular visitor of Mysore every year end with family. Its a pleasure to drive on the 4 track highway from Bangalore to Mysore & vice versa.

Although the journey was pleasurable, this time I was utterly disappointed with the heavy crowd that had gathered already in Mysore. Looking at the Zoo, there was not even an ounce of space to keep your foot step near it... due to such heavy crowd gathering, most of which consisted of school kids in hoards coming in Vans/buses.

Thought of visiting the KRS dam, but the traffic jam was so dis-heartening that after traveling 10 kms with 4 kms remaining, I had to return back to Mysore from KRS due to heavy traffic situation.

Heavy crowd & traffic has really brought down the joy of spending time in Mysore city. It discouraged me from visiting any more nearby places in Mysore too like Nanjangud & Balmuri falls.

Visit to Chamundi hills was my only bet but there too I had to resort to pray only outside the temple again due to heavy crowd in Chamundi temple predominantly consisting of school kids.

The Dasara Exhibition, Planet X & Food street visits were the only saving grace of my trip including the joyful time that I spent there at home with my cousins & family.

On the whole it was a disappointiong trip to Mysore compared to my last few visits to this Heritage capital of Karnataka.

Check out some of the pics of my trip.