Nature is equanimous and bountiful. Nature is thoughtful and organised.

Did God stand outside earth and shower it with diamonds that scattered themselves in different points of the globe as snow-capped mountains and peaks.

That is exactly how I felt during my visit to Colorado last week.

The snow-peaked Rocky mountains had me spell bound. Trees all around were bidding farewell to autumn and readying themselves to welcome winter. However, they seemed undecided about withering away. The soft wind blew their dry old leaves away reminding them gently that it was time to let go. The trees silently heeded the voice of the wind. The trees were showered fresh by rains in the evening as though to cool them and prepare them for the snow that was to fall later. I left Colorado before it started snowing.

Colors. Remember an ad that said - 'Imagine the world without colors'. Yep, not even black or white.

Fascination for colors start with identifying colors at early childhood, graduates to water coloring and crayons during school days, transforms to an interest in fashion and clothes during the teens, continues as wonder for nature's exquisiteness in adulthood and at some point we start appreciating colors without associating them with anything. We finally acknowledge their presence and beauty.

As a little girl, while growing up, I loved to visit the silk saree shop with my mother and grandmother to gape at the glorious colors. I still love to wander around in a silk store and drink in the array of the colors, the texture of the smooth silks and the smell of fresh just-out-of-the-loom yarn; a complete treat for the senses.

The RMKV sarees are awesome to look at in the pictures. I wish I were in Chennai looking at those beautiful works of art. The innovations seem to keep coming endlessly. Theme silks - graceful minakari saree, kolam sarees, 50,000 color silk saree, saree in every possible color known to man, exquisite pavadai depicting the story of Snow White or Cindrella in the zari – what else are these but masterpieces in the loom industry.

Sarees and pavadais definitely make being a woman worthwhile. There is no good-looking color and not-so-good-looking color. Every color looks so splendid in its purest form.

Pictures from Rmkv. Thanks.

This poem is my first attempt at free verse. I don't really understand the sounds of it myself and I think my phrases get pretty cliche in free verse. The line-breaks are pretty instinctive, so no big research there either. Well, whatever it is, I think I am at present more comfortable writing poems with meter, rhyme and rhythm than in free verse. My mind is trained to read, write, think and dream per a rhythm/beat/meter.

I would love to know all your comments on my first poem in free verse. Yup, if you say 'STOP', I am all set !

Flying Water

Tinted clumsy crystal clods soared up
Then battered downwards
To mingle with clear transparent effervescence
Lamps shone brightness of assorted colors
The prismatic globules obediently shone them back
Like precious stones thrown up to the skies
They glistened their moments of glory in space.
Fiery crimson
A vivid blue
Showy orange, then
A greenish hue
Passively donning dazzling shades.
Caressing summits and deeper grounds
Yet leaving behind no trace.
Seated on a wooden bench, I watched
The luminous water sparkle upward
And plummet down.
Kaleidoscopic, I thought.

A masterpiece from the master moviemaker. Dhalapathi. Amazingly perfect casting. Awesome screenplay. Adequate dialogues. Cohesive sequences. Creatively picturized songs. Sensitive portrayal of subtle emotions. Music that binds the act together without creases. The perfect movie.

I watched a rerun of this movie on KTV yesterday and could not help but 're-admire' this poetry by Manirathnam. The scene where the sound of the goods train turns Srividya and Rajinikanth's heads towards the sound, overlooked by Jaishankar - everything about the scene was so poetic - the temple setting, the way the camera switched focus between the actors, the expression on their faces, the background music interleaved with the sound of the train - naturally poetic. I dont know if it was just me or if Manirathnam meant it to be that way - but at the end of the movie, when all the avenging is over and Arvindswamy and Shobana leave for Madras, the train's whistle sounded like the conch sounded at end of day during a war. And the song where Rajinikanth follows Srividya after he learns that she is his mother - the single jasmine flower that falls from her locked hair, that he picks up. Wow, how did Manirathnam think all that up ?

The character of Surya (Rajinikanth) is based on the mythological character 'Karna' from the Mahabharatha. Uncannily, Surya's step-brother is named Arjun (Arvindswamy) in the movie. Surya is portrayed as one who serves selflessly and who values friendship over everything else - exactly how Karna placed Duryodhana over everyone else. Even after Karna learnt that Kunti was his mother, bound by gratitude and friendship, he refuses to leave Duryodhana.

I wonder how Manirathnam feels when he sits back and watches one of his masterpieces after a few years. Does he find it perfect ? Or would he want to improvise on some scenes ? Or would he be inspired with something for his next venture ? I wish I could ask him all this :-).

I was reading about the 'sblogsplosion' that hit blogosphere last weekend. Weblog jargon is reaching an all time high. It started with blog as short for weblog, and through blogging, blogosphere and blogger, it has now reached sblog, sblogger, sblogging and sblogsplosion. And hey, dont forget the 'blogomania' that I coined for myself.

Blog vocabulary is turning out to be as intriguing as Rowling's terminology in Harry Potter - the OWLs, NEWTs, Herbology, Divination, Transfiguration, boggart, muggle, quidditch, quaffle, sneakoscope, floo powder, floo network, apparation, occlumency, legilimency, omnioculars - the list is endless. And the whole glossary of magic spells - Lumos, Expecto Patronum, Levicorpus, Stupefy, Expelliarmus, Impedimenta, Silencio, Avada Kedavra - it goes on. Harry Potter was amazingly well-researched. Or should I say well-imagined ?

It is fascinating how the mind easily switches modes and accepts a whole different environment and the associated terminology. Thinking about it makes it so Riddikulus! And when you want to remove all this from your mind and turn it over to something else, just go Deletrius!

I complete two years of blogging today.

I started blogging because I had time to kill and thoughts to fill. Initially, I was obsessed with it – it was like a baby that I had to attend to always. Subsequently, I realized that I had to ‘un-obsess’ myself from the addictive passion that blogging was turning out to be. Gradually, I managed to strike a balance between obsessive blogging and penning my significant thoughts and poetries.

Yes, I saved this space from turning into a dumpster.

I am not a regular at blogging, with really long breaks at times. I will not bore you with weary statistics on my blogging frequency, the number of posts so far or the topics that I’ve largely blogged on. My posts have never overflowed with comments, nor has my blog mail ever reached an impressive high (the spam mail did!), nor has the ‘hits’ counter skyrocketed out of range.

But hey, I made awesome blogmates – amazing few people - who to me, are unseen, unknown, yet connect so well in blogosphere. Thanks. You guys are great. And yes, I have been having a great time all along posting stuff for family and friends to read. And most of all, I think it gives a kind of satisfaction to have held on to something consistently for two years - something which I thought would be a passing enthusiasm.

Wow, it has really lasted two years :-)