Jumping crocs at Top End

"Watch out for the crocs man. They are blimmin everywhere" 

...my good friend, Rossco, emailed me when I wrote him my work is sending me to Darwin for few months. True to his word, after a couple of hours of landing here, many warned me to stay away from the beach and other waterways. Apparently, if the Box Jelly fish doesn't get (sting) you, the Salt water crocs will. If crocs dont get you, the sharks will. Watta pity! Darwin has got lovely beaches - white sand, clear blue water and all that, sunny warm weather...but no one dares to take a dip.

Anyway, back to crocs. I went on a Jumping Crocodile cruise today. It is a one hour cruise on the Adelaide River which is home to about 9000 fresh water and salt water crocs. Trained personnel hook a large chunk of meat (Pig head chops. Oua!) at end of a cloth string, and tempt the crocodile to leap out of the water to grab the meat. We fed about 10 crocs. It was fantastic to watch one of nature's beasts in their natural habitat at such a close range. One of the crocs, nicknamed Bogart, was a BIG one - he was the King of the river stretch, a 5.5m monster, weighing about 650kgs, almost 70 years old, and was missing a leg. When Bogart leapt out, almost 60% of his body was out of the water. It was a spectacular sight.
 
Worth the $38.
 
Here are some pics:

 All aboard The Adelaide River Queen

Even the eagles wanted a bit of Pig's head.

Come on ya Bast..ket!

Treats bucket. Pig head chops.

 Aaa kaatu!

Croc "Bugger"

 Croc "sweetheart" going to its nest for an afternoon nap

Chocolate Krishna - the 400th show

I attended Crazy Mohan's Chocolate Krishna drama few days back at Narada Gana Sabha. It was the drama's 400th show. The Crazy Creations team made it a special event by inviting several dignitaries like K Balachandar, Kamal Hassan, Prof. Nyanasambandham, S Ve Shekar, P B Srinivas etc. Pretty much the cross-belt of persons involved in Tamil drama were present. We made a last minute decision to watch the drama and somehow got tickets. It was my first time at a Crazy Mohan drama and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is based on a God-Man interaction. Though this concept is not new, the approach feels different as Crazy Mohan adeptly balances comedy and Godliness. There were simply too many hilarious punchlines and lol moments to remember. Mohan's wit, clever word play and sharp humour had us in awe. During the interval, Kamal feted the troupe members by giving out silk shawls (ponn aadais). The core group of Crazy Creations had been together for 32 years now. K Balachandar in his speech lauded the troupe's contribution to Tamil drama and Prof Nyanasambhandam had us in splits as he recollected his interactions with Crazy Mohan and Kamal. All in all, an awesome evening!

Wishing the Crazy Creations team many more successful and LOLful years in Tamil drama!

Here are some photos:

The troupe honoured Crazy Mohan with a monstrosity of a maalai.

Kamal felicitating 'Appa' Ramesh

The hero. Maadhu Balaji.

Kamal felicitating the actor who played 'Varadhukutti' in Micheal Madana Kamarajan.

K Balachander in his speech.

Arranged Barriage

Once upon a time
there lived a young lad
Happy, carefree and full of beans
a free bird, by all means.

One day he turned twenty-six
his parents got into the mix
Life is a long long journey, they said
So Kanna its time you get ready to wed.

We'll find a nice girl,
Smartha, someone from Vadama
But please for Perumal's sake,
don't bring home a vellakaara kuttyma!

My son is 26 and 6-feet tall
he's well-educated, brainy and all.
They said it to one, two, many...
Jee..they wrote it even in Tamil Matrimony.

They received a dozen requests
and sent as many,
in the hope of finding their dear
a cute adorable Kanmani.

We like your son's profile,
lakshanama irukaar!
but sorry our daughter doesn't want
a faarin aathukaar.

Still, Jadagams came in
the Josiyer checked for a match.
Nothing much happened
but for the occasional catch.

Inga paarungo, indha varan nanna iruku
This girl is just right!
A chat was quickly organised
via the blimming Skype.

They looked at each other,
one thing was certain.
An invisible wall was between them
with an infinite dielectric constant.

There was, you know,
no freakin spark!
It was obvious
and the reality was quite stark.

So once again for every prospective girl
they got the horoscope data.
And every time they visited the Josiyer
he told them to bid the girl ta-ta.


One day, The Site spitted out a 10/10 match
it said "from the Matchmaking Pro".
But, oh golly molly,
that girl looked more like a bro!

Oh!, he wondered,
Is that God's subliminal message of the day?
That the young lad might as well,
be of the gay?

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Tongariro Crossing - This was one of the highlights from my recent stay in New Zealand. Tongariro Crossing is rated one of best one-day treks in the world. The trek basically cuts across two active volcanoes - Mt Ngaurohoe and Mt Tongariro, located in central north island of New Zealand. The trek is 19.4kms long (one way), it took us a little over 6 hours to complete it. I've done a few treks in Queensland's rainforests but Tongariro Crossing easily beats them in all aspects like scenery, terrain, weather conditions and difficulty. It is the most scenic walk I've done so far.

The best parts of the trek for me are:

a. The breathtaking view from Red Crater. The Red crater is reached by climbing a steep section of Volcanic ridge aptly named Devil's staircase. It took us about 90 arduous minutes to reach the top. Hard work. But boy, wattey view!

b. Sliding, falling...sliding, falling on scoria and damp pebble-filled sand. Sore bums...but it was fun!

c. Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake - stunning colour of the lakes! The lakes, we were told, are small volcanic craters. The lake water is obviously unsuitable for drinking due to high mineral content.

d. Soda Springs

Also,

e. Opportunity to take great photographs. Mum Nature overwhelms you with her beauty. The camera, even if its a DSLR, does not do full justice.

f. Hot spa and a cold drink after a hard days work :D Ahh.

Here are some photos of my photos:

The zero km mark.

The green of Mangatepopo Valley

Are you sure? Signboard at the start of Devil's staircase. They did warn us! :) Photo Credit: Lars

Couple. The gentleman had a Canon 7D.

Track to the base of Mt Ngauruhoe

Mt Ngauruhoe. That's a neat cloud cover, isn't it? :)

Some hikers planned to stay overnight. Look, they even brought their kettle!

Green lake. Check out the steam coming from the vents. It smelled soo....sulphury.

I didn't do the Tongariro Summit climb. It's a 1hr and 20mins of 45-50 degree climbing and back. Too much for this slugger. Next time, may be.

It was great. Tongariro Crossing is a must-do if you like hiking and are visiting NZ.

Luckkage

It's one of the loneliest feelings the world - the sense of abandonment that envelops you as you stand beside an empty luggage carousal. Half hour back, I was surrounded by my fellow passengers, watching expectantly at the mouth of the luggage carousal but standing well back to avoid being knocked down from those who believe if they miss to pick the luggage when it first appears it will be passed through the incinerator and set to fire. When their luggage does appear, they quickly haul it off the carousal with such a force and momentum enough to fell anyone on its way like a pin in a bowling alley.

So. I waited.

The carousal had spat out the suitcase of the lady who was in front of me in the check-in queue, I was hoping my bags would turn up any moment. However a familiar voice from the tiny recess of my mind said "Mmhmm. Avlodhaan. You ain't getting it today. They've sodhapified. Lodge a complaint and go home, boy". This voice, his name is Parattai, is almost always right.

There is a TV programme - Airport - it shows angry passengers who've been bumped off or had their flights cancelled or luggage lost having a real go at airline staff. Sitting on the couch, one may wonder: "Take it eazzy, you morons. What can the airline chick do? Not her fault!". Try telling to yourself as you stand in the luggage hall - a solitary, pathetic figure staring at the closed mouth of luggage carousal with open mouthed anticipation. There is always, however, one unclaimed bag, which goes round and round and its owner is probably waiting for it beside an empty carousal in Honolulu.

I woke up from the denial and went to the Airline Helpdesk. An irritatingly cheerful Customer Rep assured me that my bags would be on the next flight.

"But why wasn't it on my flight?"

"Sorry about that. Sometimes they're a bit slack in Wellington.", she said, beaming as if she's so proud of it.

"Yea. I see that. So I'll have my bags delivered home this evening then?"

"Um. No. You'd be getting it tomorrow, 10AM", she smiled. "At the latest", she added and did a quick flutter with her eye-lids and smiled even broadly.

"Look. I wouldn't be home then. I've got an appointment in the morning. I want my bag tonight. Please, do something about this. Help me out here!"

"Sorry..", she smiled, again, some of the fluorescent light bouncing off her teeth like a sunlight of a glacier. "we don't deliver after 7PM". I fought the urge to say Un moonjila yen peechan kaiya vekka.

I reached home and was awoken late in the night by a bang outside the door. It was my bag. "Yo. They said twas coming in the mor...". The delivery guy cut me off and grunted "I dunno mate. Sign here!". He quickly disappeared into the darkness after getting my autograph.

Ahhh. The good old Kiwi incompetence and rudeness. How nice it was to be back home :)

The Unseen Sea

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen.

This is a collection of time lapses Simon took around the San Francisco Bay Area roughly shot over a period of one year.

Sweat

pic courtesy MamaMandolin

An alarming sign has popped up at the entrance of my local gym. At first read, I broke into cold sweat. People - from boxers, rowers to weight lifters - are refused entry if they don't carry a sweat towel. Heh. So it is no longer appropriate to leave sweat in a place where you go to, well, raise a sweat. I would've shared my piece of mind with the burly receptionist if I hadn't been mopping my sweaty face with a kerchief for the fear of being marched out of the gym. Be gone, you sweaty man! This isn't to say I am a gym junkie. I am not. This was my first visit in the last 3 weeks. I usually visit the gym to do a few laps in the swimming pool or if it's not very humid, maybe a few kms on the treadmill. I usually prefer to hit the pool. You can't dog paddle on the running machine, you see :)

Coming back to the towel issue, I feel slighted on behalf of my fellow blokes. We are fast becoming extinct, allowing the actions of over-zealous sanitary types to erode our natural environment. If we don't act soon, real men will be wiped off the planet by 2030, replaced by gormless, porcelain-like Robin Pattinson-types. Is that the kind of a 'man' the world wants? Some chicks may scream Yessss. But you see, less is not always more. I agree, sweat can be disgusting. No one would wants to see Miranda Kerr walking down the catwalk with a wet underarm patch. No one wants to have their bowl of soup dripped on or have their sandwich sogged up by a sweaty waiter. No one wants to be leaked on by a overheated commuter. On a hot humid day, our Kashkam can pose lots of kashtam for us.

But people and perspiration can live together. In harmony. In some case, it's a privilege. Try telling a ball kid that they are not to hold Rafeal Nadal's towel during a particularly tight 5-setter. I am sure they don't wanna be rushed off to be disinfected in a chemical bath. They wouldn't want to be washed for a week! I've always dreamed of being an Australian Open ball boy.

Take cinema. Sweat is an icon. Who else would pan slowly and purposefully on a worried actor's furrowed brow in a tense scene. Ask Ethan Hunt - sweat contributed to the suspense in that scene in Mission Impossible-1 where he dangled from the ceiling. Rocky, John McLain, why even our own Padayappa owes part of his good fortune to sweat. Thamizh makkal have paid him oru poun thanga kaasu for every thuli of his vervai. So why ban it from gyms? A wise man once said, If you cant handle the heat, you should get out of the kitchen. That may explain why there are many women-only gyms. Hm. Fair enough.

But now, the situation is dire. A species is at risk. Sweaty blokes belong to the gym. It's their jungle. If you don't like it, head to the swimming pool. One request: Make sure you take a leak before you take the plunge. Thank you :)

Momentos - Kaatchipizhai

Momentos - Life's good

I got this video as a forward. It's only 7 mins long. There is no narrative, still it manages induce a myraid of emotions. I was touched. Check it out.

காட்சிபிழை - Parallax

A short film by Karthik Subbaraj.

Tagged: Gender Bender

Ashwin has tagged me. The tag asks me to list "my sins against gender stereotypes". Interesting. Well, here I go:

#1 I cannot cook if there are unwashed dishes in the kitchen sink. I have to do the dishes first before I start any cooking. The sight of unwashed dishes makes me uneasy. I live with 3 flatmates - one flatmate (a girl) is like me and the other two (both guys) think doing dishes more than once a week is a waste of time. Ever heard of kitchen wars? No? Come to my place to witness it live :-)

#2 When I was a kid I used to love having Mehndi applied on my hands. My mum was brilliant in Mehndi decorations that during wedding season we used to have Kalyana ponnus (brides) visiting our place to get Mehndi done. I used to patiently watch Amma do wonders with the Mehndi cone and occasionally help out by topping up the lemon solution (the soln enhances Mehndi colour on the skin). The last time I had Marudhani - not Mehndi cos there were no intricate shapes or patterns, only a circular mehndi patch on the centre of the palm - was during my poonal in 1997. I still have the temptation of having a kutti flower/pattern drawn on my palm whenever I see someone applying Mehndi.

#3 I like cats. Cats are cute but can be a beyatch sometimes. I hate it when people kick cats.

#4 Okay, I am not a soccer fan. The game doesn't excite me like Cricket, Tennis or Rugby Union. Till date I haven't sat through an entire soccer game. The teeny weeny interest I had in WC vanished when Maradona's team crashed out. Post Argentina's exit, I couldn't wait for WC to finish. I really need to watch some cricket to reset my system.

#5 Like #1, I need to have a CLEAN and ORGANISED desk before I start studying. Nothing goes into the brain when there is clutter before me.

#6 I don't watch horror movies. I don't like Sci-Fi either (with the exception of Matrix trilogy). But I lost count how many times I've watched Alaipayuthey, Forrest Gump, Kanda Naal Mudhal, One Fine Day, Hitch... yea, romantic comedies. I like'em.

#7 I hate cigarette smoke and smoker's shaakadai (stench of sewage) breath.

I've written 7 "sins". I'd like to pass this tag to 7 bloggers.

Archana
Nirmal
Pearls of Life
Foreign Desi
Venkatesh
Anjana
Gans

Thanks for the tag Ashwin :-)

Ayers Rock

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

I visited Uluru (also called Ayers Rock) with my parents last week. Uluru is a huge sandstone formation in the middle of Australia. It is one of Australia's popular and most recognisable tourist destinations. Uluru is a UNESCO world heritage site and it is of immense cultural significance to the Aboriginal people. Below are some pictures I took during the trip.

Uluru at sunset.

This picture was taken ~10 minutes before sunset. Uluru is famous for changing colour at different times of the day due to changing lighting conditions. It offers a spectular sight at sunset and sunrise. I saw the rock change colour from rusty brown ->bright orange -> bright red -> pink (just before sundown).


~5 minutes before sunset. Uluru in a beautiful pink-orang-reddish glow.

~2 minutes to sunset. Pink.

My parents.


Uluru at sunrise.

It was unfortunately a cloudy morning so we couldn't see the sunrise. There aren't many cloudy days at Uluru. Thankfully the clouds were only sparsely scattered, so we could see the skies lit up in the early morning light.


...and it was a COLD morning. REALLY cold. The guide told us it was 4 deg C when we reached sunrise viewing area - a secluded sand dune. I did dress accordingly, but did not bring any gloves. I couldn't feel my fingers.

Sunrise viewing area. Desert awakening.


The desert road.
The Aussie outback is known for its Red soil. No wonder Northern Territory is called the The Red Centre.

Ayers Rock
Strong winds. Shucks! I badly wanted to climb the rock. Next time!

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

The other attraction near Uluru is Kata Tjuta (known as The Olgas). Kata Tjuta is a collection of dome-like rock formations. Kata Tjuta means "many heads". It is 50kms to the west of Uluru. Kata Tjuta is also very sacred to the local aboriginal people. Some rock formations were out of bounds because they aren't supposed to be viewed or photographed by the public.

Walpa Gorge walk

Kata Tjuta

Sound of Silence - Stargazing

We did a tour called Sound of Silence. The tour started out with viewing the Uluru and Kata Tjuta at sunset from a great viewing spot, then we walked to the dinner area in the middle of the desert for a candle-lit three-course buffet (the main items were Kangaroo burgers, Crocodile meat, Barramundi Fish fry and Lamb Chops. Being vejjitarians, we had to settle for a onju pona pasta and salad. Hmph. The outback is not a good place to be a vegetarian). While we were getting ready to have desserts, suddenly all the lights were turned off. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch dark. Just then, an astronomer introduced himself and gave us a tour of the southern night sky. In the darkness, the night sky was a breathtaking sight. Just...wow! We could see so many stars, I could clearly see the Milky way spread across the wide horizon.

The astronomer showed us the following:

a. Zodiac signs. Signs like Capricorn, Scorpio, Aries were easy to recognise. Certain zodiac signs required us to use extensive imagination to recognise them from cluster of stars.

b. Southern Cross. The astronomer told us how ancient explorers and native Aboriginal people used Southern Cross for navigation. He showed us how to determine which direction is south by applying simple trigonometry on Southern Cross. Very neat!

c. There were two telescopes from which we could see Saturn and the Butterfly cluster. I've never seen Butterfly cluster before. It was a beauty!

d. Nebulae, Venus & Mars.

It was a fantastic night. I'd do Sound of Silence again just to gaze at the stars in pitch darkness.