Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Nayi packet mein cheez purani...

You would exclaim the same too after you picked up a copy of the so called 'New improved Femina' magazine.

The Ads of course announce a different story about the mag.I must admit that the ads are something different, they portray 'Women with substance' to quote a cliche.

I have no complaints with the ads, they serve the purpose and make you spend for the magazine to find out whether it really is what its advertisements claim.One look at it and you know that its the same old recycled nonsense about how and why the only occupation for women should be to preen themselves and their cooking skills for men.

All right, they portray a lot of woman in the mag...now where is the substance you ask? Of course its the advertisement brochures which occupies almost 40% of the mag... so if you want glamour with advertisements or your simply bored with the rusty look of the purposeful free ads newspaper booklet pick up a femina mag...

They should consider putting a disclaimer on the mag stating that 'Conformity with the ads shoud not be expected and is not regretted'.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Ponniyin selvan -An experience

I've been meaning to write about this epic from ages. but never really put pen to paper...

The truth is any amount of reviews or words explaining this book would be wasted and it would not even begin to encompass the true beauty of this book.How do u explain an experience?(Ponniyin Selvan to me is an experience , not just another good book).There is always a possibility that my expression might dilute the reality or override your true experience with the book.

Ponniyin Selvan unlike other novels doesn't just string together events, rather it creates a melody of events which presents itself as a perfect background for the mating of the prose of the mind and the poetic characters.

Each character is well rounded and defined.This is a huge task,given the scad amount of characters in PS. Take for example the character of Poonkuzhali's father,Thyagar Vidangar,this character gets almost obscured amongst the main ones ,but Kalki has defined even Thyagar using his other character,Aniruddha Bhramayar.No word or sentence in the book can be termed repetitive .

It is a book which gently ebbs you onto a plane of imagination and from there weaves forth the Chozha country and its denizens for you.

More on PS yet to come... this is just the beginning.