#msnarainishot

Okay, it all started like this. Narain was on twitter and apparently some gay guy found him irresistibly hot and tweeted out the below…

So some gay guy was troubling narain on twitter spamming him much.

This lead to that and finally we all decided that narain was just too hot for all gay guys in chennai and so was the hashtag #msnarainishot born. From this a few specks of gem were spewed out from various juntha in twitter. Here are some of them masterpieces…

Ratzz

@msnarain nvr needs a woolen clothing. #msnarainishot

@msnarain nvr gets to enjoy ‘cool’ drinks, coz #msnarainishot

Guys and Girls will be hunting for the lotion so that they can be safe while they are with @msnarain #msnarainishot

why dint @msnarain‘s folks buy a microwave? coz #msnarainishot

why did voltas ac sales go up suddenly?? Coz #msnarainishot

why cant we ever have winter olympics in chennai, Coz #msnarainishot

why did rajinikanth say Okay Buddy Cool in sivaji? coz #msnarainishot

Ratzzz switched off the fan to conserve energy then turned it on as #msnarainishot

Surajram Kumaravel

Okay. My server has crashed. Evidently cause #msnarainishot

Radio Mirchi is trying to rope in @msnarain as their brand ambassador. #msnarainishot

Dilip

chatti is called pot, maattikina ur caught. pullikky peru dot, olagathukke theriyum #msnarainishot

the cia has agents out in the field to kill @msnarain & arrest global warming. why? cuz #msnarainishot

theriyalenna kekkanum what? vayasu pasanga sight adipaanga lot, spam panna use pannu bot, global warming is proof #msnarainishot

war is always fought, lessons are always taught. fishes are always caught, everybody says #msnarainishot

era theva yeni, thannikku hindi’la paani. gudurai is called pony, #msnarainishot moodikinu po nee!

election vandha podanum vote’u, ragam therinja padanum paatu. address solla theriyanum route’u, ellarum sollunga #msnarainishot ‘u.

paduthu thoonga thevai cot, figure’a thallinu poga find a spot. meendhu pona biryani will rot, i dont care what u say #msnarainishot

The Last Bite

Cousins are one of the best things that have ever happened to me in life. Not having much of personal friends during childhood cousins were everything to me. When time passed and we all graduated out of college, thanks to Caste Based Reservations, the highly intellectual gold medal scoring, school topper ranking cousins of mine never managed to find college admissions in India on merit. Thanks to this deep shit system, simply because we were born into a caste that is deemed forward by the government, discrimination was our fate despite the hard work. So one by one all of them stepped out of India and got admitted in universities with almost 100% scholarships just as they deserved, in the USA.

While this was good for them, I felt quite messed up in a way, only I can explain. I hardly passed math exams and the ones I topped were science, computers and English. Rest all was below average scores, not that im ashamed of it but this meant there is no way I could go abroad to study graduation school, so I stayed put, away from cousins whom were now not with me.

It was at this time I finally finished college, started working and brought a digital camera. Primary purpose -> take pictures of events back home to email it to cousins in the USA. This kind of knit the broken gap and made me and my NRI half bloods in the USA happy. Not for long though, since a known traitor in the family stole that camera on a family occasion. As i always do, I decided to prove this bugger wrong. I googled for specs blindly and brought 2.5 times as expensive a camera as I had before to let him know that nothing would stop me, not a petty thief. Now that I had a bazooka in hand while I merely needed a pen knife, I started experimenting, when I met this gentleman on flickr by accident. He taught me several things and the story started.

While I was on an office day out I had these pretty girls who were a part of the Event Management group pose for me fun. Suddenly, this bubbly character comes from nowhere and I don’t even remember how it all started but hey, we were shooting now. What happened afterward’s is something this set will clearly explain in detail while taking you through a crash course in the history of Shan & Dilip’s photography adventures.

It all seems like yesterday when this little kitten meowed at your feet and you picked it up but then time flies so fast, like all good things this must come to an end too. As she leaves for Dubai to move up and live with her hubby I think this will be another system restore point to the window of my life, only thing is this restore point is merely a marker and not a functionality (apologies to Apple fanboy’s). I feel sad, I will be losing a wonderful friend. I feel depressed that the best model I could ever shoot in life is not gonna be around no more. I mean it when I say it, give me all the babes of Hollywood and Bollywood and all the money for it. I may like it all but I doubt if it would bring the same fun and frolic it brings driving down to ECR with Shan, holding on to dear life while she whizzes through like Schumacher and thank the heavens for seat belts and brakes (if she had ever used them) and start shooting in the middle of the road at random places.

Through all of that in the worst & best of times, birthdays, layoffs, celebrations, random useless time pass, a wedding I guess there is much more for me here to celebrate than feel selfishly sad about. Like I always say, thank you is not for friends. So I will say "love ya loads" and yes, now there is a calendar to keep a count on when this kitty takes a vacation and comes visiting India. Meow!

To babe or not to babe?!

A very interesting conversation came up today on twitter. I came across this person a few days or perhaps a week back and her blog and her work. Today morning there was a tweet from her about her work being reviewed on a website. Eagerly i went on to read the review and i found the following line in the review, well actually that was the title of the review.

“two chio Asian babes and their travels around the world”

I liked the review but then i was disappointed with the way it was named. After an exchange with another friend of mine and thinking over it, im in a situation i often am in. Confused!

The point is this. The usage of the word “babes”. I think its not a necessary word to use. We are talking about a persons travel, the work he/she does and his/her contribution to society/art etc.,

Why in the world would i want to even know what gender he/she is? Its about the WORK and not about the physical attributes of the PERSON that you want to talk about. Yes, the person doing the work is equally important but then you aren’t reviewing the person. You are reviewing the work? aren’t you?

While in real life the women who did the travel and shot the videos may be hot chicks or as refereed to babes, its okay for a friend or a relative to refer to them both as babes for fun. Its probably okay for the men to talk behind her back when she walks around the mall or on the roads that she is a babe but for a media outlet to portray the babe in someone when reviewing their work does not sound normal to me.

I understand that babe can also be intended as a compliment and in fact in this case it might be too, i could never tell. What im not understanding is how long will we paint the woman = babe colors in our society? I find it rather a bit too stereo-typing all young attractive women. What if the woman did not create the work of art that was reviewed to be called a babe, what if she did it to be recognized as a photographer or a freelancing journalist? Is babe the word to use?

I recollect Richard Dawkins talking about feminists raising our awareness about us using male specific or male appeasing terminologies in daily life like “mankind” and “man made” when “human kind” or “human made” is perfectly acceptable and gender neutral a term.

In my personal opinion, i found the work very simplistic, to the point and very personally intimate without commercial journalism wrapped around it. I liked it.

So my question still is babe? Was babe a qualifier or babe an element of jazz that adds sparkle to the work? it don’t great but if it did, why?

I would probably never know.

Viruthu Kudthukeeraango mamey!

Ithnaala inna sollikkaradhu’nna nammalaanda vandhu, nee periya pishthu, nee sama bejaru, onnanda morchigina nee kazhatiduva ethiriyoda nijaru… nee vaangara DVD ellam vikkara edam burma bajaaru appadinnu koovi nammalaanda sokkaliya oru award’u kudthukkeraango.

Award kudtha sokkali inthamma thaan. ivango sama thool takkar madam’u. ivangalaanda friendshipp’a irundhiyaana ella thalivar padathukkum ticket ushaar panni tharauvaango, avvalo periya pulli ivango.

okay, matter’kku varuvom. What we do with this awardu? We are told we write something’u about ourselves.

Phaemilie:

We consider one and all to be family. But the jantha i share the house with is naina, aththa and my thambi who is my thuru pudicha irumbukkambi We keep family out of all our blog posts because we always write dangerous shit on blog which gets us lots of death threats on calls and emails. Now we don’t want the jantha at home to freak out, do we? So lets leave it at that.

Friends:

Where do i start with? I have a huge circle, i cant start counting and stop. However, there are a few precious ones. There is this post about my best friend. Then there is this one, who is the famous dilip model on flickr.

Me:

I decided to write an auto biography, so if you want to to know everything that ever happened in my life then you should start with here, here and here, that would be a great start.

My Love:

Hmm, boy likes girl. Girl shows signs, boy thinks he may get lucky. Girl marries a rich NRI that has sottai. End of story, i think this has happened so many times i even stopped keeping a count. That’s pretty much it. Itha ezhuthi vera tholaikkanuma?

Likes:

Science has always fascinated me, always. Gadget freak, i blow pretty much all of my paycheck on stuff that can do cool stuff. Photography is a great turn on for the past few years, i pretty much carry the SLR bodies and lenses everywhere. I can talk, non-stop. No exaggerations on this one.

As for posts, i think i personally like these posts of mine better.

The Excuse
Immanuel is a Pundai
#5, Sankara Madam St – Chapter#1(Memoirs of Desikachari Thaaththa and Kanakavalli Paatty)

Nominations:

Whom do i nominate? My job is easier done than said. Here is the list…

Aravind Kumar a.k.a The Psuedonym – Blogger, photographer and a wonderful friend.
Srivatsan – Blogger, photographer and excellent water company. Raj Palace vaazhga!
Coconut Chutney – Awesome read, fantastic blog.
Rage & Placidity – Wonderful blog by my friend prahalaathan.

A day in Daksha’s Life

Daksha is my best’est friend. Let me introduce you to a wonderful day, a typical hour to minute affair in her wonderful life…

NOTE: Please view all links found here to get the complete picture.

0630: Daksha wakes up and finds fly on the Sevuru of her bedroom. She takes a pic of it. Fly does not fly away and Daksha yells "yay" in excitement. Unfortunately she has not brushed (in 4 days) and fly falls dead on the floor instantaneously. Neighboring fly was admitted as trauma case and is still fighting for its life in ICU.

0730: Daksha goes to shower but finds it too cumbersome so douzes off some more spinz deo on herself and says "there is always tomorrow and there is always hope for those who believe".

0830: Daksha is driving on the road and paper flowers and firangipani are on the road. She takes a pic of paper flowers and uploads it to flickr and names it "Chintha Poovu" and the Frangipani upload as "Bentha Poovu" in her mind.

1030: Daksha pings people on google chat "ooi, enna pannara" (which is usually the unfortunate me) and regardless of the reply you give her response is "im bored!!!". Any further conversation will result in a response "Hmmm.." from her. (hmm.. idhukkaaga naanga enna cabre dance’a ada mudiyum ivanga office’kku vandhu). She finally uploads a pic called "bored" and kills her boredom, phew.. thappichchomda sami.

1230: "ooi enna pannare" continues one more time again and i say "im goin out for lunch" and she again responds "im bored"… to which i standardly respond "wanna join me for lunch?" to which she sighs, "sir will not allow…"

0230: Daksha pings me on gmail chat again and ironically asks "are you jobless? you are always on chat all the time?" to which i respond "i work from home"… daksha does not agree… she wins… im certified jobless.. sattire is an aspect of life, i understand that much.. and so can you never win arguing with women, which is also a universal truth

0330: Daksha teaches her flickr audience some arithmetic. She uploads this

0530: Daksha leaves for home, she stops by the road again to take pics of flowers but she runs over the flower she took a pic of in the morning with her car and kills it. She takes a pic of the dead flower, uploads to flickr and calls it "sithu boolnu" and sudhamshu is happy he can get that tulu part of it finally!

0630: SMS from daksha "u wrote that stupid blog about me you idiot! next time i see you i will slap you!!!"

0635: Dilip turns off comp and cell phone and hides under the sheets and prays for dear life, yeah right!

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The Chronicles of Nara…

Due to excessive pressure and request from Daksha, im posting the image and the story behind these. See this comment here for some background on this. Infact narain endorses these words himself.

????? ????? ??????? ?????????? ???????, bleady dawg

Vishwa likes peacock feather’s much, narain says. This is a posed one thats made to looks like its not been posed at all. Natural things are vishwa’s fav.

Thinking of Vishwa, eternal love is special a feeling…. those moments… that voice, those memories….

This is how vishwa hugs you, (kaathal sadu gudu song playing in the background). and your heart goes like mid 80′s ilayaraja movie music background… “than thana than thana than thana than thana than thana hey!”

If you wanna get the feel of how this would feel, then watch the video below…

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Daks and Sharanya make my day

Last night, 9 PM – 6 AM today morning i keep working and now wake up at 2 in the afternoon and im so tired and pissed off to do anything but i have so much to do.

Then i logon to flickr and i see these two images from Sharanya and Daksha. This just makes my day.

Thanks Guys. A little bit of happiness is not something i can say no to.

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Wedding Photography by Sharanya Rao

My long time flickr friend Sharanya Rao has some interesting work on her portfolio.

This Wedding set of her’s has some exceptional work on it. Go have a look, its worth blowing 30 minutes, admiring these images.

I’ve listed a few of the images i loved the most but you’ve got to see every one of these images to find out for yourself. 

Sharanya also has a Blog where she has some exceptional work listed. Check it out.

There is some incredible amount of hard work that has gone into these images and it shows. It’s like one of those times you look at some of the pictures and feel the need to have been at that place, in the sense that you feel its so lovely and you have missed it.

Oh well, Shan’s wedding is right around the corner and im camping in her house a week before the wedding to get everything. Yay!

Bookmark:

A handbook of exceptional quick lies

Yes, exclusively for the Indian family as well. Are you anything post 13 and below 30? Are you Single? Are you the one who happens to have girl friends? Are you the one that happens to be from a conservative tambram, catholic or muslim family? Do you find it painful to find explanations everytime you step out of the house?

Well if you have been answering yes to atleast 2 of the above questions then you are in deep shit?

Does it take impossible amounts of convincing to get your girl friend out of the house and in the last minute she banks out and excuse’s herself "parents won’t allow me to go out in weekends" sort of unbelievable shit!

Well wonder no more. The answers to your prayers are right here. I shall soon come up with a paperback book called "A handbook of exceptional quick lies". 20000 right lies you can fling right out of your pocket and not only get out of your house post 7 PM. Not only that, this WILL get your girl friends out too! Yes, its true and its time tested and it hardly fails.

For example, you plan a night show movie with a gang of friends at work. Living in chennai or any city for that matter you know how hard it is to get evening show or matinee tickets. Now your gal friends wont come out of the home because anything post 7 PM is taboo.

Well here is the deal. Call your girl friends Landline number. As always her dad, the bloody villain will pick up the phone. Now quickly tell her dad "Hello uncle, how are you? I’m fine. I could not reach sheetals mobile so called the land line. Can you take a message?"

At this point of time the curious bastard will be more than happy to know what the hell you are going to tell his beautiful daughter. Now comes your nuke…

"Please ask sheetal to get the Black Mamba Project report for the meeting with Vice president we have tonight at 9 AM PST"

Now her dad is like "What meeting? She never told me?"

"Oh yes uncle, we have a performance review meeting and our team has won the award for the best performance for this quarter. We may probably get a pay hike if we impress the VP in the meeting with our presentation and sheetal has done all the ground work."

Two things. Daughter will probably get a pay hike, daughter may get an award. This sucker will do anything to get his daughter to go to office.

Infact you can also use this opportunity to go pick up your girl friend from her house since it will be late in the night.

Imagine this, 8 pm pick-up from home. Dinner + movie at 10.45 pm and then go clubbing at 3 AM after the movie and back home by 6 am next morning.

The only small downside is you need to wear formal clothes when you start out of the house. That’s okay. We are all used to carrying different set of clothes and changing in the restroom. Women are experts at this and you can take advise from your girl friend.

This is just ONE EXAMPLE, one of the more inefficient ways to get the girl friend out and you out of the house. Imagine how the super efficient ones that are available only when you buy the book, would sound like. Buy my book and you have 19,999 more of this wonderful treasure of knowledge.

So hang tight and watch this space. Arriving in a blog near you….

As for NRI folks, dont worry. Amazon deals are underway to sell atleast 87 million copies in the USA and Europe alone.

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Raji

Oh well, it seems like some sort of friendship week this week since im posting all portraits of close friends. So here is another master blaster. Raji is Sharada’s sister. Ever since Sharada has been to the UK and i have no accomplice for the usual criminal activities i indulge in, to share the guilt, Raji has saved me every other time from falling into the evil hands of goodness and becoming one of those useless, good for nothing nice guys.

Official companion for pointlessly roaming around the city on my bike, official liquor advisor whom i credit with for my heavenly vodka fanaticism, official victim whom i snatch all that calvin and hobbes books from without a zilch of guilt or shame, official complaint cell whom i call amidst her board meeting and crib the hell out when i have a bad day at work or get into unimaginable stuff that cannot be mentioned on flickr since i need to protect my intellectual criminal ideas, etc.,

This image was shot on the day before her wedding engagement when we were having a henna ceremony at home. The look on her face is the brink of the thin red line called patience. She has never kept the henna for anything more than 20 minutes in her life, today she had to keep it for close to four hours.