My views

The Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 11 has culminated with a lot of memories. A lot of close and thrilling encounters. As an icing on the cake, my home team Chennai Super Kings(CSK)  clinched   the IPL title for the third time . As I do a recap, I would like to pen down my best five moments in this season. Moment #5: Unaccustomed tactics by the team captains This season has seen a change in the way Captains lead their team. Unlike the previous editions, new tactics executed effectively by the Captains have turned into game changers. For instance, in the Qualifier II game between Sunrisers Hyderabad(SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR), Kane Williamson, the captain for SRH kept a forward short leg in order to get KKR batsman Andre Russell back to the pavilion. This move by Williamson instilled a seed of doubt into Russell's mind as he tried to run down the ball from the "mystery spinner"Rashid Khan through the slip cordon, only to watch it go straight to Shikhar Dh

In this post, I will be blogging on my experience of layering and toasting a delectable and appetizing corn mayonnaise sandwich . I will be sharing the recipe and the directions for preparing it as well. I commenced my sandwich - making journey with picking two slices of bread. Humming old Hindi songs, I buttered the slices and layered the mayonnaise over the slices. Soaking in the aroma of the mayonnaise, I felt light-hearted and jocund. This was soon overruled by my vexed grumbling of picking corn from the corn cob. This did not deter me as my mind was fixed on the end product. At last, I could take a bite out of my handiwork. WOW !!😋😉. This was my expression when the first piece of the sandwich went down my throat. A superb amalgamation of the creamy mayonnaise and the lip smacking taste of corn made this my all time favorite sandwich. The crispiness of the bread as well as the tantalizing melted cheese has added to the palatable taste. My recipe is as follows :

In this post, I will be blogging on my favourite sport, "Basketball". I like the game of basketball for the simple reason of being a fast moving sport and as a team excel in the stipulated short time. This has always kept me  enthralled  and on the edge of my seat. Inspired by watching NBA games, I started playing Basketball. Since last year, I play as the " Power Forward" for my school basketball team by name " HLC Explorers". Under the tutelage of our school coach, Ganesh sir, it is being an exciting journey with loads of learning. Over the last two years, we have won 5 inter - school tournaments in Chennai. Every game gave me lot of takeaways both from the physical and mental aspects. In a different post, I will  write on my continuous learning through this great game of Basketball. Basketball is a limited-contact sport played on a rectangular court, with 2 teams, each having 5 members. The main objective of the game is to shoot the basketball th

Few years ago,  I watched  Rajesh Khanna  for t he first time  in the evergreen song,  "Mere Sapno ki rani" in the movie Aradhana.  The song has a superb composition with the all time greats,Music Director S.D Burman  and Lyricist Anand Bakshi . While I was nonplussed by the song, I was attracted by the antics of Rajesh Khanna, waving his arms and singing the song, atop an open jeep in a mesmerizing hilly terrain. This led me to become a fan of Rajesh Khanna. From what started as a single song, I moved on to listening to his jukeboxes innumerable times.  I watched two of his movies (Aradhana, (1969) and Kati Patang, (1970)) several times. Being a  movie and song critic,  I learnt that the songs composed for the character plays a very important role in the actor's career. E ven if the actor does not justify the song with his acting,  we like him because of the feel the songs give us. On the contrary, Rajesh Khanna's superb acting coincided with t

Today, I will be blogging on one of my favourite movies which I had watched again in this summer vacation. It is the 2008 national award (Best film on family welfare) winning film,  Taare Zameen Par . Directed by the actor-director-producer Aamir khan, the main story arc concerns the struggles of Ishaan  ( Darsheel Safary), an 8 year old dyslexic child, to cope with his classes at a boarding school. Although, he is poor in academics, he excels in art. Ishaan's new art teacher (Aamir Khan), find out that he is dyslexic and helps him overcome his disability. The reason why I am head over heels in love with this movie is how Aamir has portrayed the scenes so well in a chronological order and has made it look very natural. The setting is jaw dropping with the boarding school on a hill. Amole Gupte, the scriptwriter for the film, has written the film in such a way that we see the film through the highly imaginative Ishaan's eyes. This helped me understand his hardships and pai

In this post, I will be writing on one of my role models, "The little master"  Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .  Often referred to as the " God of Cricket ", Sachin has captured the hearts of millions all over the world, with his cricketing stroke plays, on and off the field gestures. Sachin holds the records for the most number of hundreds in Test Cricket - 51, and  in ODI cricket - 49. Not only has he accomplished the unbelievable number of   100 International centuries , he was part of the Indian squad, which won the world cup in 2011 as well.  His career spanned 24 years. At the age of 16, he made his test debut for  India against Pakistan in Karachi on November 15, 1989 and he played his final match against the West Indies in Mumbai on November 16, 2013. In 2012, I watched Sachin playing live in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on television. It was in the fag end of  his career. I saw this little genius getting out for low scores in many matches. At that ti

In this post, I will be blogging on my experience of cooking Vegetable Biriyani .  I will be  sharing the recipe as well. This was the first occasion that I had made biriyani. I was elated and excited. I was jocular as I started cooking and as I was sprinkling the spices, I was hooked by the mesmerizing smell. Soon my joy was taken over by painful groans of my sore arm due to the constant stirring. This kept me wondering about our mothers, who do work like this everyday. Determined, I dogged on with a  persevering mindset of not giving up. At last, I peeked into the dish. I was flabbergasted . The golden brown colour of the Biriyani rice, the aroma of the spices and the correct amount of vegetables, made it tantalizing and alluring. As I started eating the biriyani, I found it very appetizing due to the perfect mixture of the ingredients and the perfectly cooked rice. The recipe is given below : Onion sliced - 4 medium sized onions Onion sliced ( for oil fry

In this post, I will be blogging on my visit to the famous and powerful  Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple . The Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple , also  referred to as the Bhuloka Vaikunta (Vishnu's abode on Earth), is dedicated to God, Guruvayurappan. Guruvayurappan is Vishnu, worshiped in his form Krishna. T he idol is in a standing posture and is four - armed, carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and a lotus with a holy basil garland. The idol represents the majestic form of Vishnu as revealed to Krishna's parents, Vasudeva and Devaki. The idol is made of Black Bismuth.   W e advanced to the temple through the east gate. Dozens of shops were lined across, selling various items centered on Guruvayurappan.  I believe that the Guruvayur Devaswom Board should plan for a better crowd management. Devotees are moved to the sanctum in batches, which is taking lot of time. Once a batch has proceeded towards the sanctum, the officials

In this post, I will be writing on the places I had visited in the town of Guruvayur. To start with, I went to Anakotta (Punnathurkotta) followed by the Mammiyur Mahadeva Temple . Anakotta in Malayalam, translates to "elephant fort" is situated 2 kilometre away from the  famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple. In a ten acre plot of coconut groves along with small temple, a dilapidated Punnathurkotta palace, few buildings, it is the abode for 60 to 85 elephants.  The Anakotta premises and the animals are owned and managed by the Guruvayur Devaswom Board.  There is also a small disused temple in the Anakotta. I felt the Anakotta was the perfect place for a elephant to live. It is more like a miniature forest, environment friendly to animals and the elephants have lot to eat and drink. The mahouts know and understand each elephant and are very caring. When we reached there, the elephants were either eating royally, towering over everybody else or were bending low letti

This blog is the first in a trilogy about my trip to Guruvayur, a temple town in the Thrissur district of Kerala.I along with my parents, embarked on my exhilarating journey by reaching the majestic 142 year old  Chennai Central Railway Station(MAS) .We had reached the station early,in fear of getting stuck in the rush hour evening traffic. Being a Friday, t he station was overflowing with people, either bustling around to catch their trains or having a sip of aromatic coffee.  My observation about the Chennai Central is that it is not clean and the railway tracks smelled of urine and excreta. There are trash bins kept at places, but not effectively used by the travelers. I would want the management to put down strict rules so that people don't litter at this important landmark of Chennai. In addition, there are no private food joints as it used to be in the past. This is creating additional difficulty for the travelers. A bit of renovation of the entire building has  been

Today, I will be blogging on the ninth highest grossing(US$ 1.34 billion) film of all time, Black Panther adopted from the comic books published by   Marvel comics   (please click Black Panther for more details). Directed by Ryan Coogler, this movie is set in an imaginary country in Africa named Wakanda. The main story arc is about a young man named T'challa, who returns to Wakanda after his father's death to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy reappears, T'challa's mettle as the king and as "Black Panther"(a person who has superhumanly powers), gets tested in a series of global consequences. The movie is a superb watch with good stunts and is a visual treat to the eyes. Chadwick Boseman, who plays T'challa, has done well with good dialogue delivery and speaks in an African accent for the movie which was nice to hear. Along with my friends in school, we used to talk to each other in this accent for sometime as it had an infl

In my previous posts, I had written about two of my favourite books series:   " Harry Potter " and " Percy Jackson ". In this post, I want to give my perspective on the narrative style of the authors of the respective books:  J.K Rowling  and  Rick Riordan .(Click on their names for more details).  Similarities: Rowling and Riordan bring in lot of humour in their story telling. They maintain a seamless flow through plots, incidents. The core emotions expressed are friendship and  loyalty. They have a lot of interesting characters that make the plot enthralling. They use powerful adjectives like fantabulous, sublime etc., which gives an enriching visual image to the mind. Differences:        Rowling has narrated Harry Potter from a  third person perspective, while Riordan has written Percy Jackson in first person. Most of Rowling's characters appear in all her books, whereas few of Riordan's characters appear in the entire book seri

Today, I will be blogging on one of the most popular book series worldwide, "Harry Potter" by J.K Rowling. The genre of this book series is fantasy fiction. The story is set in Great Britain. The story chronicles the life of a young wizard, Harry Potter , and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The main story arc concerns Harry's struggles against a very powerful wizard named Voldemort , who intends to become immortal and overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry Of Magic. The series has seven books : Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  Each of these novels portray an encounter with Voldemort (Except Prisoner Of Azkaban)in which Harry always wins with the help of Ron and Hermione