2010: The year that was in my life!!

Its that time of the year when you need to get a new diary, feel guilty about last year's resolutions that you didn't keep up, when  you have to reflect upon what you have done for the past 365.25 days (2010 is not a leap year nerdy idiots) - The good, The bad, The highs, The Lows and The Everything that happened last year.

I saw lot of my friends sum up their experiences of past one year in a single facebook status messages, but can't blame them though. This is the age of twitter where you are supposed to convey everything within 144 characters. But being the Aako i am i could not restrict myself with a solitary status message in facebook instead i reentered the blog world after many months.

So what happened to Aako Shiva in 2010?

Like everyone else i also had a roller coaster ride, there were some highs, some lows, some enjoyments, some disappointments, some happy moments and some not so happy moments.

Naa. Muthukumar's Kavithai :: காதலித்துக் கெட்டுப்போ:

I read this Kavithai in Ananda Vikadan way back in 2002. Had to share with a friend now and since most of the social networking sites have word limit for the updates i am posting it here.

This one inspired me to write some kirukkal kavithaigal on my own... so this kavithai is always close to my heart :P

Rediscovering RajaRajeshwaram - The Great Temple of Thanjavur!!

Rediscovering RajaRajeshwaram:

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For someone who fought with his grandmother and vowed never to set foot in temples again for all the stupid superstitious rituals associated with it, I have come really a long way. I don't know exactly when the fascination for Thanjai Periya Kovil started for me. I think it was after i finished reading “Ponniyin Selvan” novel. Ponniyin Selvan changed me completely.... it made me to explore the Tanjore temple and trasnformed me as someone who has interests in historical temples, sculptures,architecture and their heritage.

Thoughts about making the documentary film: 
 

I have been planning to make a documentary film on thanjavur periya kovil for a long. time I wanted to make the film so as to bring out the architectural finesse of the 1000 year old temple in a video so that it reaches a wider audience. The idea is to make the viewers aware of all the unique features of the various structures, scriptures and statues of the tanjore temple and make them appreciate the rich Tamil history of the Cholan era. 2010 is the 1000th year since the temple was constructed. So I discussed with my friends who are part of 3ifactory design studio – Sreejith and Vishwaant and they readily agreed to make the documentary film. I have seen few documentaries which includes Thanjai Periya kovil like the one from BBC - Michael Wood's "The Story of India" - Part4 (Ages of Gold) (video link) and NGC's "The Lost temples of South East Asia" (video link).Though they were visually spectacular there were lot of errors with respect to the history of the temple and they didn't cover the Periya kovil in its entirety.

RajaRajeshwaram – the movie: 
 

Shivz Photography: First photograph that got Published!!

          The Hindu Nxg had a photo contest called "Framed" and had invited photographs about Chennai as part of their Chennai Day celebrations. I sent some pics that i had taken and one of my photograph got published. This is the first time that one of my photograph got published in a newspaper and i would like to share this with all of you. Thanks a lot for all your support and i hope i can entertain you with my photographs!!

Original Picture:

The link to Hindu Nxg - http://www.go-nxg.com/?p=8458

The link to Hindu Site - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article579157.ece

Aako Travel :: Trip to Topslip (Pollachi), Valparai and Athirappally falls!!

        The idea of traveling is to explore new places and to learn new things along the way, and we all learnt a lot of things during our trip to Topslip and Valparai. I would like to share the experience with you so that you can go better prepared. Planning for this trip started few months back… First we booked train tickets to and from Coimbatore junction. Then we checked out Valparai tourist sites and booked tempo traveler for the entire trip and a cottage to stay in Valparai.

 

Day 0 (15th July 2010) :: Central Station:

 

         After lots of confusion and last minute drop outs 14 of us were supposed to board the Nilagiri Express in central station exactly @ 21:00. The train started exactly @ 21:05 and only 12 of us boarded the train. Our friend Prabhu was near the train’s engine and Super Hero Satish was near the parking lot. After lots of frantic calls we found out that Prabhu got into the “Ladies Compartment” and Satish into the “AC Coach”. After few hours they joined us when the train stopped in Arakkonam junction.

Day 1 (16th July 2010) :: Pollachi, Parambikulam and Topslip:

       Time - 05:00 AM. A cool breeze announced that we had arrived in Coimbatore junction. Had breakfast in Coimbatore and proceeded towards Pollachi. We stopped at a place called Ambaram-palayamPollachi to get permission letters to stay in top slip. The office of the Forest department opened only at 10 and we got permission to enter Top slip and also got a dormitory where 16 people can stay for Rs.1300. Only forest guest houses are available in top slip so contact “Department of Forestry in Pollachi (Wildlife Warden Office, 178 Meenkarai Road, Pollachi, Ph: 04259-225356)” for accommodation. Tree Top houses, Dormitories and other cottages are available at affordable rates...

Shivz Photography: Shooting smooth and silky Waterfalls!!

    Recently i uploaded a picture of Monkey Waterfalls (Valparai) and i received lot of queries as to whether i photo shopped it since it was looking very unrealistic. So here is the camera technique used to capture waterfalls like this...

Shutter Speed:

     

    You need to have a compact camera or a DSLR or a point shoot which would allow you to adjust shutter speed of the camera. If you shoot with a faster shutter speed (eg: 1/600) you might get a picture something like this where you can freeze all the water splashes and drops:

பூமியில் வானவில் - 9 (காதல் என்னும் கல்லறை!!)

பூமியில் வானவில் - Complete Collection (click on "Read more" for a slide show)

பூமியில் வானவில் - 8 (காதலித்தேன் கடவுளானேன்!! )

பூமியில் வானவில் - Complete Collection (click on "Read more" for a slide show)

Quotes that Aako Likes!!

            I have been a big fan of quotes. You can convey something which might take an entire book within 2 or 3 sentences. That is the beauty of the language and the beauty of quotes.... For long i have been posting some quotes in my FB account and Twitter, but they seem to disappear amidst the vast pile of other useless information. So i have decided to compile everything into a single blog post so that i can revisit anytime i want. 

Here is the list of Quotes that Aako likes:

• “Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” - Mark Twain

Aako Travel: Gangai Konda Cholapuram, Pichavaram and Chidambaram

Travel Date: April 24th 2010 (Saturday):

          Started  at around 10 AM from my native village (near Papanasam) towards Chidambaram. On our way to Pichavaram Lake saw a sign board about "Gangai Konda Cholapuram". I never knew where Gangai Konda Cholapuram was and i have always wanted to visit that place. Rajendra Chola had built a temple there which looks like a miniature version of the Thanjavur Periya Kovil. So i immediately asked the driver to turn towards GKC.  I had somehow imagined it to be somewhere near Ariyalur and i was also planning to visit someday... so it was a sweet surprise for me...

Gangai Konda Cholapuram:

It was amusing to see a temple which looks similar to the thanjavur temple (though small in size).  I had taken my DSLR (Nikon D3000) along with me so i was happy to take pictures around the temple...
Here is a slide show of pictures from GKC temple:

Pichavaram Lake:

       After that proceeded to Pichavaram lake. It has a thick mangrove forest. "Kallai Mattum Kandaal" song from Kamal Hassan's Dasavatharam was shot here. You can either take a motor boat (Costly but better to see all the places) or a pedal boat. Motor boat will cost around Rs.2000 for 2 hours and pedal boat would cst Rs.1000 for 4 hours.

Chidambaram: 

Finally went to Chidambaram and worshipped Natarajar. Everyone had advised me to see the chidambara ragasiyam. I tried my best but i was not able to see anything because of the crowd. Later my friend Rajesh told me what exactly was chidambara ragasiyam...  That is..................................... i can't say.......... its CHIDAMBARA RAGASIYAM.... Go to Chidambaram and see it for yourself!! :D :P

Aako Cinema!!

      

       Once upon a time in Chennai, Aako thought of watching all the top 250 films of IMDB since he was a BIG film buff. So far he has watched about 68 films out of the 250. He also has a tracker to track the films that he has finished watching:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkcgS950kTqNdHY2d1l0ZmdfanY2aldYZzJZT1FRQ0E&hl=en

Apart from watching Aako also decided to give short, brief review about each film so that the other film lovers can benefit. 

Starting with the first film

1) The Shawshank Redemption (1994):

IMDB Rank:  #1

Aako Review: Hope. To sum up the movie in one word - Hope. Whenever you feel down or in need of Hope watch this movie. An amazing movie which you can watch million times.

Aako's Fave Quote: Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

2) The Godfather (1972):

IMDB Rank:  #2

Aako Review:A great classic. Actor vikram once told that he wished to have acted as the god father (al pacino) so i had always wanted to watch this. The film was shocking for me. It was surprisingly flawless. The ending portions of the film where numerous killings were made was one of the best. Must watch for "God Father" fans.

Aako's Fave Quote: "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." - Don Vito Corleone

3ifactory's first photoride to St.Thomas Mount

First things first… 

What is a Photoride??

You would have obviously heard of photo walks…

A Photo walk is an event in which group of photographers meet at a particular place and take photos while walking around that place… pictures of a particular road, street….goes on like that. A photo-walk can be classified under street photography…

Why Photoride? Why not a Photo walk?
We would surely have photo-walks in the near future… but my opinion is photo-walks are only for cities. You can't have a photo-walk in mountains, hills, beaches etc

We love to travel in our bikes and would love to go on long trips and love photography… combine everything and you get a “PHOTORIDE”!!! :P

Photoride’s exact definition is taking photographs while riding, but we have used the term in a different way defining something different… kindly excuse us….


3ifactory’s first photoride:

         Ever since we started 3ifactory way back in November 2007 we wanted to organize photo-walks, but back then we had just our mobile phones to shoot so we didn’t make them as big events… it would just be the three of us - Vishwaant,Zreej and me.

Date:Jan 10th 2010
Purpose: Our first official photoride
Place: St.Thomas Mount,Chennai
People:
1)   Sreejith
2)   Shiva Vishwanathan
3)   Rajesh
4)   Vishwaant
5)   Hari
6)   Kaushik and
7)   Aako Shiva

I don’t want to give a boring lecture about what we did or what we learnt.
I would just give a overview about what happened in bits and pieces.

How to get there:

From Kathipara bridge take the route which leads to porur… once you cross the bridge there will be a blue colored sign board saying that it’s the way to St.Thomas Mount… Take a left there. There are two options to go to the top:
1)   You can walk through the steps (takes about 15-20 mins)
2)   Ride to the top (little bit lengthy route)

We chose to ride since it’s a photoride :P (mokka) you need to drive through the defense quarters and there will be a play ground and a small blue sign board saying that it’s the way to the Shrine… take a right there and drive for 15 mins and you will be reach the top!!

What we did and what we learnt:

Took some long exposure shots, bokeh shots, light painting shots, candid shots, some portraits and photos of the shrine as such….

Vishwaant who always act as if he is a pro was giving out valuable tips (WTF!!) about photography… :P manasula periya photographer nu nenappu aana oru photo kuda urupadiya edukka theriyathu..Canon 500d vachu epo paarthalum scene poda vendiyathu!!

Sreejith who is a real ace in photography was the one who gave really useful tips and tricks involved with photography… thanks dude… its great to have you around.

Shiva V and Rajesh being newbies were exploring their new cameras by taking different shots and occasionally getting help from others.. thanks a lotguys… for joining the trip. Hope you guys join us for many more such trips.

Kaushik the budding photographer was giving out nice ideas to take photos with different angles with wonderful subjects… and yeah though he had just a sony ericsson... he was putting it to work by taking lots of shots.

Hari the Nari came late…but brought his awesome Nikon D90 and Sreej was busy exploring hari’ cam.

Yours truly was all over st.thomas mount taking photos almost of everything there :D

Overall it was an awesome trip and we had tremendous fun… learning and taking photographs is one thing… but having fun while doing all this is totally different…
did we have fun? Hell Yeah!! lotsa fun!!

Thanks to the amazing group who were always teasing each other (teasing vishwaant and hari in particular) :P helping out each other… totally awesome… totally totally awesome :D


Mokkai:

Any Trip starts with a T and ends with Tea.. We all reached the ground around 7:30 pm, had tea and escaped….

P.S: Will update u babout the next photoride  soon… having few places in my mind… pachamalai, tada, mudhaliyar kuppam and karikaatu kuppam.

Lets see!!

Travel Bugs!!

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

       Last weekend had an interesting discussion with my friends... We were just back from a one day trip to Yelagiri and we were discussing how awesome the trip was and gradually the discussion went on to whether we will be going on such trips, once we get married :P
One wise man (Thats me :D) suggested that we go to all the interesting places before marriage and have the most amazing, fun filled tours along with friends instead of nagging wives (Comedy panna koodathu.. ipave sollitaen) :P

We are all around 24+ now and we might have only around 2 or 3 years before we all get married and after that we will not be having that much time to hang out with friends...

So we all decided that in the next two to three years we must go to all the important places in india...

Ashwin compiled a list too and here is the complete list of the places that we plan to cover... one place in a month... by that calculation we would have covered about 24 - 36 places before we get married... he he :D

Pretty good right?

Before i go on to that list, let me list down the places we have already seen (just for the record :P)

Places Visited already:

1) Mahabalipuram

2) Kovalam (entire ecr comes under this)

3) Yelagiri

4) Bangalore

5) Kerala (Munnar, Allepey, Cochin)

6) Hyderabad

7) Tirupathi (:P)

8) Kumbakonam, Trichy and Thanjavur

9) Pondicherry

10) Pulicat Lake

Places to visit in the next two years:

1. Goa
2. Vaalpaarai
3. Ooty
4. Pulicat Lake
5. Kaanchipuram
6. Madurai
7. Coimbatore
   
8. Topslip
9. Yercaud
10. Wayanaud
11. Coorg
12. Jog Falls
13. Tada Falls
14. Rameshwaram
15. Kanyakumari
16. Chidambaram -&- Pichavaram lake
    
17. Siruvani
18. Hogenakkal
19. Kodaikanal
20. Mudumalai
21. Lakshwadeep
22. Mysore
23. Mumbai
24. Pune - Lonavla
25. Ajantha Ellora
26. Mangalore
27. Rajasthan
28. Shimla, Kulu Manali
29. Darjeeling
30. Delhi, Agra, Mathura, Vaishnodevi, Haridwar
31. Leh, Ladakh, Srinagar.
32. Mt.Everest :P (the ultimate comedy in the list)
33. Gingee Fort
34. Andaman & nicobar
35. Wildlife sanctuaries in india
36. Vaishno Devi (Jammu)
37. Kedarnath
38. Badrinath & Gangotri 
39. Thiruvannamalai & Parvatha malai
    

If you know any other interesting place... do let us know it will be really helpful for us...

Cheers!!

 “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

P.S: Edit on 5th Jan, 2009: Adding new places with inputs from my friends Hari, Cowmaa and Reso --> Thanks a lot guys, for suggesting new and exciting places :)