RIP Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

From the small town of Rameshwaram, from what looks like a severed link to the island of Sri Lanka, came this young boy who finished his schooling in Schwartz Matriculation School while supplementing his family with additional income by distributing news papers early morning, who moved on to Trichy to graduate in Physics at St Joseph’s College. With the dreams of becoming a fighter pilot he went to Madras and graduated in Aerospace Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet.

A life in the IAF wasn’t in Dr Kalam’s destiny having narrowly missed out in getting selected and joined the DRDO as a Scientist getting to work under greats like Vikram Sarabhai and Raja Ramanna. Dr Kalam moved to the ISRO and led India’s efforts in developing high-technology to greater heights despite budgetary constraints and at times international sanctions like the one right after India’s II nuclear test in May 1998.

Dr Kalam led from the front in operationalizing the Agni and Prithvi missiles right from conception, development, testing and adding them to the armed forces kitty. Dr Kalam’s contribution in the field of medicine is without any parallel. He’s steered DRDO to design easy to wear prosthetics for the disabled. He also helped design a low cost coronary stent. Dr Kalam’s account about the devastating effect of the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone and how it changed his outlook towards life is awe inspiring.

Dr Kalam  loved students and children and spent a lot of time interacting with them and sharing ideas. It’s almost poetic that his end came at one such stage in Shillong, Meghalaya. Dr Kalam has authored (or co-authored) a total of 15 books which remain best sellers. Dr Kalam was also a scholar of Tamil and could quote from the Thirukkural, Thiruppavai, Kurunthokai and many other old texts verbatim at will. He was also an exponent of the veena and was a discerning listener and fan of Carnatic Classical music.

Dr Kalam is a sterling example of what’s destiny can make off if one puts one’s heart and mind to a purpose using the limited means of the state in the idea that India became after 1947. That a little boy from an almost under privileged background at the southern most tip of this country could make it to the top of the country becoming it’s President by sheer hard work. A devout Muslim who had a truly secular outlook, who bowed to none nor expected anyone to bow before him.

RIP Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. God bless your soul.

Geo’s Talkies – OK Kanmani

‪#‎OKKanmani‬ is vintage Mani Ratnam, even if it sounds like a cliche. The GodFather of modern romance at various points of time right from Mouna Raagam right up to Alaipayuthey has written a story that involves a man and woman of today, wonderfully played by Nithya Menen as Tara Kalingarayan and nicely portrayed by Dulquer Salman as Aditya Varadharajan.

Conversations over cell phones, professional aspirations and goals, values (some would say the lack of it) all have been woven into the story. He layers these troupes with those of an ageing couple faced with their own problems in day to day life. Its almost like a plant blossoming under a giant tree the two couples separated by age. The movie is also about Prakash's Raj's Ganapathy, in one of his finest roles ever, and Leela Samson's Bhavani though the trailers focus on Adhi-Tara.

The hip upper class crowd, for a change isn't portrayed as scheming and lacking in moral and ethical values. After a series of botched up female acting calls, the ace auteur nails it this time with his cast. Ramya Subramanian gets a good role to play in her first full scale movie outing almost like Swarnamalya and Medha got in Alaipayuthey. Buses, trains, rain, sea front, telephone calls, bikes all get a fresh take in this story. Though Mani's characters are mostly upper-middle class / upper class they always travel by public transport.

The story is light weight, entertaining and lacks serious drama or tension building moments. AR Rahman's re-recording (an Indianism for background score) has a higher amount of piano this time and the BGM is co-credited to Qutub-e-Kripa (KMMC composers). PC Sreeram's camera is inventive in it's angles, particularly featuring Adhi and Tara. The first series of conversations between the couple is beautifully staged and immaculately captured. Another Madras Talkies' regular Sreekar Prasad has edited the movie.

This movie is Mani Ratnam giving his fans a re-arrangement of his troupes, to people who felt he strayed away from his strengths as a story teller. [Asides: The movies didn't have to be rated U/A. "Pollachi Mahalingam", "Kalingarayar", the "TN-66 J" registered Audi and the name itself makes up a lot of references to Kovai aka Coimbatore. For some of us there is no other place like Cbe].

The end of the original “Delhi Diary”

This blogger feared the worst when Vinod Mehta didn’t post another column after the 8th of Dec 2014 on Outlook, the legendary “Delhi Diary”. On the same page dated 23rd Feb it was Krishna Prasad, Outlook’s Editor-in-Chief, who wrote and it was a sign of what to expect. Vinod Mehta wasn’t going to be around anymore.

Yesterday he passed away leaving behind his wife and their pet canine companion the humorously named “Editor”, who for years was written about on the column. The obits since then in various media outlets have all unanimously praised Vinod Mehta. Even the PM had put out a condolence message on Twitter, despite the Editor not being one of those cheerleaders of the current establishment, nor the previous.

Vinod Mehta was one of those rare editors who didn’t start their careers as beat-reporters in journalism. Right from his first job he’s been an editor all the way from Debonair to Outlook. Until Outlook he was known for being inventive but not for being commercially successful.

I first found an issue of Outlook in 1995 in my friend’s house. His bank manager Dad, a voracious reader, was a subscriber of the magazine. I instantly took liking to it’s style and anti-establishment stance. Over the years that has evolved into being a fan of the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, who also wrote regularly the column titled “Delhi Diary” and many a times those 800 words about a pressing subject of that time.

Outlook was also where I discovered Arundhati Roy and Ramachandra Guha. The former always got all the space her beautiful prose in the long form needed. From the latter’s articles I also spilled over to reading his books, except the one’s on cricket. Vinod Mehta wrote all his articles on paper, he took to a computer only in 2013.

Vinod Mehta was a rare journalist who never failed to talk about the rot in his profession. NDTV never invited him after Outlook published the transcript of the Radia tapes in 2010 which was critical of Barkha Dutt’s role in the political quagmire during the formation of UPA2. A big corporate house stopped giving out advertisements and I suspect that was a reason Vinod Mehta was shunted upwards and named “Editorial Director”. He was also an avid advocate of self-regulation in journalism, this hasn’t yet taken off in our country.

Vinod Mehta was also know for his liberal views and was stridently secular. He was friends with all which a lot of his readers in the last 5 years failed to appreciate some even calling him an apologetic of the Gandhi family. He was also someone who could take jokes and brickbats about himself. A cursory reading of the “letters to the editor” column would show you how much he enjoyed publishing the criticism of his readers.

Vinod Mehta was able to run Outlook independently because he also was able to make it commercially viable and profitable for his owners. When he wrote about his long lost abandoned daughter from a relationship as a student in England, one could feel that yearning of a father. May the old fellow, who liked his drink, his stray dog and many such strays, find peace where ever he is today.