When less(news) was more(news)

Was listening to the radio in my car, when the tidbit given by RJ chetan was  news to me. He said there was no news on a particular day and that day was April 18^th 1930.  According to him the news  went like this-

” Good evening, Today is Good Friday. There is no news”.  

On This day officially there was no news report , since nothing news worthy happened and only the piano was played the whole day.

Now, that was a contrast to today’s news where we are being fed with news on most news channels 24/7/365.

Well, is there something news worthy enough to be telecast all the time. It is the same news that is being recycled with  different byliners like flashnews; breaking news; stop press etc., Any time you switch on the channel, the byliners and headlines  are constant and the same old news is recycled through the day or with little variation.

And there is no parity in news between the channels. Each channel  trying to out do the other to sensationalize a tiny piece of news  or give extra mileage to a known celebrity.  As if to add salt to the injury, the news anchors of today shout on top of their voices while relating or reporting an event so much so that even their mikes would go unconscious.  I still can remember how a  celebrity newsanchor  shouted and called out to her colleague to find the latest news when the  Taj blasts of Mumbai   happened and there were explosions in the background.

 The news gets more  spicier, hotter and acidic if the newschannels are run by some political party , with one channel trying  to openly malign the other and blowing their own trumpets. Today’s news channel radiate so much of negativity and uncensored violence that sometimes even after the TV is switched off the visuals come back to haunt you.

I could’nt resist  myself from revisiting the past when news was  carried in a dignified way and read by beautiful and handsome readers who were role models for many and style icons in their own right. 

If you grew up in the 70's and 80's -  Do you all remember the immaculately dressed Rini Simon Khanna, the admirable Komal GB Singh, the bearded Sunit Tandon, the baritone voiced Tejeswar,  lovely  Mini,  soft toned Niti Ravindran,  suave  Bhaskar Bhattacharjee and many more of course the pioneer amongst them was Sasi Kumar.

The news during pre-satellite channel days  were not sensational , competitive or prejudiced and each reader presented the news with the right dose of smile, right intonation and elegance.

The  DD English news almost coincided with our dinner time. When dinner was being laid on the table, I, my  little sis and my cousin who stayed with us would  voice the names of who would read the news that day. Appa too would join in the fun. He would always root for Komal GB  Singh( she reminded my father of his mom),  Amma’s choice would be Rini, while we would call out for the others. It would be great fun till the favorite news reader appeared on the screen and then if it was the newsreader whom we had called,  we would sport a “I told you so” look.

And then along with the dinner, we also chewed, diced and discussed the news and most often at home, there would be a dual party one supporting the Rajiv Congress and the other supporting for VPSingh. Many a times this has ended in a verbal fight and cold wars at home with my cousin and my sis.  

Those days, when news time was less but had qualitynews and  even the most harshest of news was conveyed in a  soothing  and soft way. And  news then , was a reliable window for us to the world….no ..no a broad door.....

Today of course,  we are spoilt with so many  news channels  that I keep toggling  the channels not knowing which channel would provide me with that quality, reliable news.

An evening at a culture house

One summer weekend we were at Lamakaan a culture house which was the venue for Sutradhar’s refund- an Hinglish play.The  promo and gist of the play in 'the hindu 'was inviting.


The story originally from a Hungarian play by Fritz Karinthy  was adapted and directed by Narayan S for Vinay Varma’s  theatre group Sutradhar.


The story is about Aadarsh Vidyarthi who has been a failure in his job. He has been chucked out from whatever company  he has been employed at and so is short of money.  He gets frustrated and so blames the school education for his failure.  Encouraged by his friend he decides to get a refund of his fees from his school.  HE approaches his school principal MR. Khurana with a strange request of ‘Refund’ of his school fees  since he learnt nothing from his school.  The principal is zapped but seeing his adamant nature, calls his teaching staff to bail him out of the situation.  The teachers Mr. Pillai(Maths). Mrs Roy(history), Mr. Jha(physics) , an UPite teacher  called Ujda chaman all with their ethnic malayali, Bengali, Bihari and UPaccents  decide to reexamine him. If he fails in their examination, they decide to refund his fees, but amongst the staff they decide not to fail him even if he gets his answer wrong.


Aadarsh Vidyarthi  is reexamined by the school staff with their distinct dialects and this forms the base for the humour in the play. The staff decide to mark him right for every wrong answer and finally the climax is when the maths master decides to ask him two questions. One big and one small.


The small question is answered  and Mr. Pillai exclaims that Vidyarthi is right.  Just as we in the audience think that Mr. Pillai has goofed up and all the teachers throw a mixed angry askance glances at him. Mr. Pillai  tells Aadarsh to calclulate the refund amount.  Aadarsh Vidyarthi  calculates the amount mentally to the last decimal and claims the amount.


Then Mr. Pillai says that this is the big question that he had set for him and so the answer is right. So there is the bait.....Vidyarthi gets no refund.


The play was well enacted by sutradhar actors all of who are professionals like Medico legal advisor,  CA’s, MNC employees, engineers and retired colonels. Their passion for acting has brought them together where they have been practicing in the early hours despite their busy work schedules. The only hitch in the whole play was the volley of abuses thrown by the student in the name of humour at the teaching staff. Not in good taste.

 What forms the crux of the  humour satire  is  does education in school and college help you at your work place?


How many of you apply your school and college education at work? Not all are failures but still how many relate their work to their education.

An evening of thrill and excitement!!!

I am not a fan of cricket, but I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s DC vs MI live at Rajiv Gandhi stadium, Uppal. Hyderabad.

My husband’s company has booked a whole box (9 seats) for the IPL series at Uppal.This ticket is only for the employees and not for their family, so only he can watch the match. Not wanting to disappoint my sporty crazy children, my husband booked tickets for the family to catch the match.

We reached the place an hour before the scheduled 4.p.m and so positioned ourselves comfortably below the shade of the camera crew at West pavilion terrace.

The experience of watching a match live is different from watching on a TV. It was indeed nice to be among the sea of people who went on to cheer irrespective of whichever team hit a four or six. I was only worried about the crowd but it was totally organised till the end.

I had anticipated the craze for sachin but perhaps underestimated it. After a lot of vacillations between ‘Will he?” or Won’t he?. (owing to the ill health of his spiritual guru Sai Baba) . He appeared for the net practice at 3.p.m along with his team mates and God, you must have seen the euphoria of the jam packed stadium ( 38,000+ spectators). I have only read about the craze for him from newspapers , but every time he touched the ball, or bent down their was a high decibel ear-drum shattering roar, not to mention the chants of ‘Sachin, sachin’ through out. It was indeed sad that the world renowned spiritual guru’s death coincided with his birthday. ( sachin is a follower of puttabarthi sai baba)

Huge cut outs, banners claiming him as God and king and wishing him for his 38th birthday were all around the stadium and on the road leading to the stadium.

Banners ranging from :

‘ You never get older with age, you only get better with age, Happy birthday, Sachin’,

’ der was only banality and then god decided 38 years ago let der be cricket’.

‘ cricket has fans, but God has followers, sachin is god’ etc.

'If sachin permits, I would put my head at his feet'

Some fans had even painted their t-shirts with the single letter ‘Happy birthday sachin’, and all of them had to stick together so that they could be read. What caught my attention were these people more than the match. It was more interesting to see these fans vying with one another and screaming to catch the attention of players close to the fence. Interesting people, really!!


I’m sure if Sachin uses all these good will for noble causes, he would simply be followed.

It was definitely an experience to catch the thrill and excitement Of a match in the stadium than on TV, with a small grouse though. The security did not allow us to carry water bottles, mobiles and handbags of even ladies who claimed they had their baby's food but it was puzzling to see so many people have binoculars and knap-sacks on their backs. The boy sitting next to me told he carried his cell phone in his socks but how could a big binocular and knap sack go unnoticed.

So much for our security.

Nevertheless I caught the thrill and excitement of the live match and the Disc jockey who held the audience to the sway of the Mexican wave. It was a lovely sight to see the rise and fall of the spectators as the wave kept going to the instructions of the jockey. Unrehearsed synchronisation.

Whose side would you take?

We are going to have entertaining weekends this December. Cultural organizations of twin cities( Hyderabad and secunderabad) like SICA(south Indian Cultural association), Kalasagaram, Sharada cultural trust, Desika Sabha of twin cities, Sri chandrasekarandra music academy have organized music concerts, Dance, dramas , harikathas lined up for the lovers of music and fine arts.

It is difficult for us to attend the weekday schedules and so far we missed the concerts of T.M. Krishna, Nityashree, Ranjani- Gayathri sisters.

Last week end, we happened to watch the play of Kathadi Ramamurthy titled ‘ Neenga yaar pakkam’ (whose side are you?).

It is the story of a retired man ( sivaraman) and his wife lalitha. Their only son is settled in the USA. After retirement, The son wants his parents to join him in the USA and help him tide over the cooking problem while his wife is posted in another city for 6 months.

Sivaraman refuses to go to USA telling that one becomes a prisoner in an alien land and has to wait for their children’s approval to go out whereas he is free at his native Mylapore and can keep himself engaged and active and can visit temples, take strolls in the local parks with friends and do as he wishes.

After a series of arguments, Lalitha his wife decides to help her son and so travels to USA all alone with out her husband. While in US her son tells her not to talk to or smile at their neighbours since they would take offence. With no socializing /outing and her son also busy with work, Lalitha turns a mental wreck.

Doctors in the USA declare to her son and D-I-L that she cannot be cured.

So she returns to India with her son and DIL and the son accuses his father of being too strict, principled and selfish.

Meanwhile, Sivaraman calls up a friend and he comes home and narrates her the neighbourhood happenings and gossips. She hears the gossip of ‘edathathu alamelu’ telling the neighbourhood that Lalitha has fought with her DIL in America and has returned. This does the trick and immediately Lalitha springs up from her seat and jumps to defend.

Every body is surprised by the cure and her dil finds this unbelievable since the efficient American doctors found her uncurable. Sivaraman says Socialising and gossiping helped her maintain sanity and Here they had their own lives too lead and the short quality time they interacted each day kept them bonded, here too if they were thrown together all the time watching each others face, they would have ended up with frayed nerves. The visit to Niagara, Disney world and other US attractions pales in comparison to his & Lalitha’s social life In Mylapore.

Sivaraman says all retired people should stay in their own place and should not become a puppet in the hands of their NRI children, besides in old age it is the familiar people and surroundings that is reassuring. If children cared , they should find jobs in their home land and support their aged parents.

Lalitha says there is no harm in helping their NRI children and so one can travel abroad when they require their help.

Their son suresh says, children move out for greener pastures and parents have to support their children.

Another friend suggests that there is no harm in parental migration to US.

Now, Whose side would you take?. NEENGA YAAR PAKKAM?.

I side with Sivaraman.

A relevant to times play, not preachy ,not judgemental but let's the audience to ponder.

A voyage of discovery

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did’nt do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain.

Thus Quoted the invitation of my children’s school day function(primary section).

My children’s school day functions are theme based. Each year is different with themes like Panchatantra( based on Panchatantra stories) , Ithihas ke pannon se… ( emperors of India), Around the world in 80 minutes( self explanatory), Indradanush(rainbow), Raga sudha rasa (about emotions), Pancha bhootha( about the 5 elements) etc.,

This year the staff and students of class I to VII presented ‘A voyage of Discovery’ to highlight the pleasure and importance of travel.

Lot of research, creative work, hardwork, team spirit, co-ordination and practice translated on to the stage where children showcased their voyages to China, Hawaii , Mexico, West Indies etc.
See the invitation below showing the countries against the presenting classes.



Each country’s culture was showcased through the music, dance and a tableaux depicting the landmarks. The uniqueness,contributions and achievements were ably anchored by the respective class children in impeccable English and shuddh hindi. Now, shall we go ….

Off to see ‘ The great wall of China’
China’s culture was beautifully portrayed with a breezy fan dance (The kingdom of fans), a lantern dance,exhibition of martial art skills and with beautiful props of a fire spitting dragon, laughing Buddha, Giant Panda, China ware and the great wall of china and the now world famous china bazaar. Very breezy and bright.



Our next voyage was to….
Aloha….. HAWAII … Here we come!---- A wave like prop embellished with shiny blue sand in the fore ground and a blue duppatta in the back ground turned the stage into a virtual beach. In the back ground were the palm trees, canopy and a volcano . In between the boys and girls of Class II were having sun bath in their beach wear. The stage was sizzling like the tropics, Of course, there was the Hawaiian dance.

From Hawaii we flew to

Mexican fiesta…. Fun ‘n’ Frolic of Class 6 ( my son participated ) was again supported by beautiful props, a salsa dance, bull fighting, a mock beauty pageant and mock footballand other interesting facts on Mexico. The stage was totally on fire with a Mexican ball dance.

Our next port was
Sun ‘n’ Sand of West indies came alive on stage with beautiful beaches , swaying coconut laden palms and a lovely Caribbean song and dance followed by excellent mock cricket. After a long time , we saw Viv Richard and Clive Lloyd in action. We were cleanly bowled.

From there we landed at….
Spanish Rhapsody- Spain was ably recreated on stage by class 3. A Spanish dance, bull fight, salsa dance and again a few boys replayed the FIFA 2010 to ‘ Waka, Waka…’ and held aloft the FIFA world cup. Even as I was thinking that Mexico and spain had similar cultures, the mindreading compere of Class 3 said that the culture was similar since Spanish immigrants settled in Mexico and retained the Spanish culture. Waka waka mesmerized…

From the land of FIFA 2010 winners to..
The intriguing land of the Pharoahs- Fascinating Egyptian culture was weaved on stage with the magnificient pyramids, mummies, sphinx and the blue nile river flowed on stage while queen nephertiti and the beauty queen Cleopatra walked on stage as their rich history was enacted & anchored by class V through a skit. Every one was mummified….

From one ancient civilization to another……we flew to the land of rich culture…i.e..

Incredible India ---- Well, what shall I say about this country? My words would not do justice to the efforts of the children and staff of this excellent school. India’s show began with an invocation to Lord Ganesha complemented with the oldest dance form Bharatanatyam , a jugalbandi of carnatic and Hindustani music, A kathak performance with a huge prop of Taj mahal - The mood and lighting took us back to the time of Shahjehan and the crown of the show was the tableau depicting the culture of India Kerala’ boat race to the northern Himalayas, The Garba of Gujarat to the culture of the northeast were all flawlessly put to act by the children. The tranced audience stood up to give a standing ovation and as for me, I had goose bumps.

Truly, I N C R E D I B L E I N D I A.




It must have certainly been a proud moment for all parents who inspite of being a working evening took time off to be present at the show and had a comfortable armchair voyage .

A very enriching and memorable evening, Thank you Pallavians. I am sure the message of your show must have definitely reached the audience.

“Travel is more than seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard. ( again quoted from the invitation).

Radio times

I felt lonely after packing my children to school and my husband left to work. My MIL stays with us but frequently she goes to her native place . So to keep me away from loneliness, I usually switch on the TV ( though I don’t watch programs). The sound of TV in my living room keeps me company while I am working in the kitchen or cleaning my other rooms. Today, I tuned on to the radio channel on my TV set top box to listen to the songs on AIR, only to take a trip down into the world of nostalgia dipping into memories of my cherished childhood.

Hmmmm......the pleasure of listening to songs on the radio with the jingles and the flawless, rightly modulated announcements like ‘ Idhu Akashvani, Bengaluru Kendra… hega samaya*……pip…pip…pip … …

Yes, those times when radio occupied a place of pride in most homes and doubled as a time keeper and helped to adjust our wall clocks to the right time and also tripled as home to cockroaches.

We had a NELCO radio which was a rectangular modern (semi-conductor) version compared to the bulky vacuum tube radio my grandfather had. It occupied a prominent position in my house too.

The radio then played the role of an educator, informer and entertainer. Informative programmes like quiz, special programs on agriculture, business,career choice, health,cookery, dramas, commentaries on cricket, discussions, talk shows, counseling( Psychologist Aruna Broota’s voice was thereaupetic), periodical news bulletins and the various film based programs.

Bhoole bisre geet, Binaca geetmala,( Binaca reminds me of the small animal miniatures that used to come with the binaca toothpaste --- I had a decent collection of those miniature toys.) Manchahe geet, Jaimala ( fauji farmaish) , Aap ki farmaish, the various tamil songs on Radio Ceylon, tamil dramas on AIR tamil ( this broadcast had lot of disturbances), December kutcheri of the Madras music season, the Sunday after noon English songs on Air Bangalore and many more such lovely times. All these lovely moments were during the pre-TV times( early 80’s) and we used to sleep early by 8.30 p.m. During night times appa and amma used to tune to ‘ then kinnam’ on Radio Ceylon which aired tamil songs. The lilting melodies were a lullaby for us.

During my summer vacation at my grand parents place ( Madras), it served as our alarm time piece, we used to wake up to the jingle of gopal palpudi( a famous toothpowder).Here too I remember my chitti( mother’s sis) leaving for college only after the radio announced its time.

Since Madras summers are hot, usually it is a practice in most families to wake early at 5 a.m , have brunch by mid morning (around 10.30) and retire for noon day siesta. So was the practice at my grandparent’s place. When grand ma was asleep in her room, we ( youngest aunt and cousins) sneaked into the kitchen and made Kamarkut( a sweet candy made with jaggery syrup) without my patti’s knowledge . Our joy was in licking this thiruttu kamarcut (candy made slyly) and sitting in front of the big 1X2ft radio (the huge one made with valves those days). As the song was broadcast , our chitti would tell us what the next song would be based on the movie’s name and singer’s name announced and start bragging mockingly to indicate how well she knew. We cousins being very small and naïve thought that chitti was very intelligent and were in awe of her.

During my teenage years ,after the advent of TV, I still preferred to switch on to our NELCO set inspite of DD’s afternoon programme. I would be very irritated when the flow of programmes was interrupted during thunder or rain, as they played with the radio waves.

While sleeping during nights with the radio on my head board, I would listen to all the haunting melodies of Navrang, Aradhana, Janak janak payal baje which I hum even today. The un-hyped but rightly modulated soothing voice of the news readers, RJ’s and the suspense of knowing what the next song add to the pleasure of listening to vividh bharathi.

In Today’s world of Internet radio and satellite radio, we have a wide band of private FM station to tune to from the comfort of our car or on our mobile. They have good quality reception but where is the quality in content. The programmes covered are so similar (traffic updates, love guru tips, sometimes the same song is played simultaneously on different stations) that you can’t say one station from the other.

My heart yearns for the simple vividh bharati for its program content. So given a radio, TV, CD-player or I-pod today I still prefer a simple radio with good reception and Vividh bharathi.


. *hega samaya in kannada means ‘ the time now is’

Thrilling experience

GVK ONE --- An year old mall synonymous with storing leading brands of the world was where we got away last weekend. This mall is a haven for International brand conscious people. Shops like Giordano,Pepe,United colors of Benetton,Mango,Bossini, Maybelline, Reebok, Austin and reed,Aldo,crossword,planetsport,Inhabit,wildcraft,shoppers stop,Mebaz are some I remember. We actually headed out to check out the groceries at the world famous grocery store Ruci & Idoni opened in this mall a month back.

After parking our car at the multilevel car parking (it spirals down to 6 levels), we had a great entry into the swanky mall when sharun won one of the promotional offers of a car brand. He won their version of bowling alley and was gifted an INOX (theatre with 6 screens situated on the 3rd floor) movie ticket which he lovingly gifted his father for his birthday.

The highlight of the mall is the marine aquarium which is at the centre of the atrium. Large, colorful fishes in a sea-bed scape were merrily floating around keeping the shoppers especially the children coming in giddy with excitement. The mini golf course inside the mall is another attraction.

But what I enjoyed the most was the 4D experience at Fun zone. The 15 minute movie watched through 3D glasses provides some scary and funny moments. I have experienced this earlier at Thrillarium(bangalore) and virtual reality(Madras).This one was different with vibrating and synchronized seat movements and lot of special effects like face blast, mist, air spray etc.,On the screen, when the snake opens its wide mouth and advances closer to you through the 3D glass you feel the air spray from its mouth. When the glacier on screen was melting and raising the ocean level, you feel the water gushing out of the screen and extra chilly. Infact, sometimes through the SFX i felt as though it was a real bomb blast. It was a heady cocktail of emotions, though what we choose was a movie based on global warming called SOS. I shudder to think what a horror movie would have been like. Definitely the horror movies are a no-no for the weak at heart. A good experience. We Stepped out of the theatre hungry. Now an outing is incomplete without eating out.

Food wise, the mall offers the world famous Hardrock café, Subway , KFC and a polynation food court. It has small kiosks for American corn, Hot dog, Hershey's icecream, cookie man (if I remember correctly), chocolate hut etc.,

Drove back home stocking(groceries)and gearing for the week ahead...

Madras in Secunderabad

Yes, On Dec5th and 6th the whole of keyes high school ground( enclosed in a tent) seemed like mini Madras. All Tamil mama's and mami's and jean clad teens, tweens and tiny tots had gathered to watch The two hilarious tamil plays by the crazy creations troupe. It was my long time wish to see a tamil play.(seen in the still are Shreya, prithvi(sharun's friend)& sharun with Crazy mohan)

We watched the play 'meesai analum manaivi'on dec 5th.

Written by 'Crazy' Mohan, this play is a riotous comedy. directed by S.B.Kanthan (bro of mouli).

The hero Maadhu takes a resolution on Tamil New year's day(april 14) never to tell lies but he ends telling more lies. His justification of these lies is that it is in continuation of the lie told on April 13th( so it is not a new lie). Ramanujam, Madhu's 50- plus unmarried brother-in-law who falls in love at first sight with every second woman he comes across; Cheenu, Maadhu's colleague lands him in more trouble in the name of helping him; Mythili,his girl friend from Delhi madly in love with Maadhu, unaware of his marital status; and many characters like dead body gopalaswami, north indian girl Khushma Devi make the play hilarious. The whole ground was resounding with laughter.


On Dec 6th we saw 'Chocolate Krishna' a new play by the crazy creations. (though this was their 273rd stage show.) In this play Maadhu is a sales man in a chocolate company. He seeks the help of Lord Krishna(Crazy Mohan) to sell the chocolates and meet the targets set by the company. Here Maadhu is ably supported by his paati who's weakness is stealing, a flautist father who is yet to make a debut in a concert. Each dialogue was comical. The situation where Maadhu's boss gives TV interview deserves special mention. There was non-stop laughter from the young and the not so young. Two evenings well spent in the warmth of fellow tamilians. Shreya and Sharun thoroughly enjoyed the play. At home they have been enacting and mouthing dialogues. --The play hangover.

After seeing the play i was overawed by the hard work behind the play. Atleast in movies you have takes and retakes,editing etc.,. Here in the play, the players cannot afford to forget the dialogues, no retakes, everytime the set has to be erected in a new place, the arrangement of light settings and so many more things. Truly awesome teamwork.

Then, we shopped around the stalls for pickles and vattals specially brought from Madras. Hot Tasty south indian bajjis, vadais, jalebis and pongal, upma were served at the stalls outside.

We reached home in Secunderabad which was just 7kms from this mini Madras. My next wish is to see Savis's play 'Washingtonil Thirumanam'.


P.S : I like the sound of Madras to Chennai hence used the same name through out.