thendral vanthu theendum pothu

I have heard this song infinite times. But still, the mesmerizing rendition by Raja sir and Janaki makes me speechless everytime. It brings goose bumps on me whenever I listen with headphones. One of the few magicals of Raja sir that I doubt he himself might not be able to repeat this composition. I vaguely remember that the film "Avatharam" (which features this song) released during my high school days. Perhaps in 7th or 8th standard. Though I have seen this song several times on TV, I could not conceive the complete feel of the song that time. I just used to change the channels. I heard it in heard phones for the first time when I got my own computer and a headset in my undergrad days. I just closed my eyes and could not take my attention anywhere in that 5 minutes. The captivating music and magnetic voice of Raja sir and Janaki just swept me along. I did not have words to express my feel after listening to this song. Raja Raja than !!!

Winter Break

Wooh!! Its been 162 days since I landed in US and it just passed like 16 days. Somehow I managed to score decent marks in my first sem. Hope I will continue that. After a hectic period of 4 months of studies, the much expected winter break started. Like everyone, I had come across such long breaks during school and undergrad days. But this break gave me altogether a different experience than all the previous breaks. Last semester officially ended on Dec 17th and I was all set to leave to Orlando, Florida on Dec 19th. I was very much excited about this trip not because of the rides and shows at Disney or Universal Studios but for the golden time with my friends. It was actually a five day trip and I missed the first two days due to my RA work. Nevertheless, those three days were full of fun with lot of manga and mokkais. The trip kicked off at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios. The extra 30 bucks we paid for the express tickets helped us to by pass the lengthy line for some of the shows. The pamplet showed the Hulk ride is the most extreme of the rides available there. But to our surprise, it was not even 1/3rd of what we experienced at Cedar Point, Ohio. That was truly thrlling. We spent the second half of the day at the other park. Of all the rides and shows, we enjoyed Shrek 4D, Spiderman, Simpson ride and Twister the most. The day finally ended at Woodlands Hotel. Had nice Sambar vadai, poori, dosa, idli etc.. It reminded me days when we used to go from Bangalore to Hosur just to have dinner. Almost every other dish that we order would be tried by everyone. Those times were priceless. This was followed by a nice late night maanga and thanni session at the hotel. As usual, we started a bit late to Disney Land. Except few, most of the shows at Disney were exclusively designed for kids and hence it was not exciting as Universal Studios. Space Mountain was quite a different roller-coaster experience where the entire ride happens in the dark. We missed the much hyped parade at Magic Kingdom but managed to watch the show at Cindrella Castle, followed by fireworks. We left Disney at 11PM and everyone was damn tired. We planned to go to NASA the next day but everyone was somewhat bored of repeated 3D and 4D shows in the past two days. Hence we tried some of the untouched beaches near Orlando. The weather was so bad that we could not even take out our jackets on the sea shores. At night, we again went to Woodlands but got a nice bulb as it was closed. :(

I came back home on Tuesday afternoon and all of my roommates had gone out of town on Wednesday itself. I spent the next 5 days alone at home before leaving to my sister's house at New Jersey on next Tuesday. I set my speakers in the hall and the new couch was perfect to enjoy watching movies. I had never before seen 4 movies a day. I watched a total of 14 movies in 4 days. But on Monday, I heard the shocking news about the sudden demise of my paternal grandfather. He was the taproot of our family and one of the human I admire the most. It disturbed me a lot and thanks to Raja's Thiruvasagam which was the only companion to me for the next 36 hours till I reached my sister's house at NJ. After five months, had home made food. My sister's a year old kid got along with me instantly and I had good time playing with him. On Friday, I went to Liberty Island and my friend Nithya joined me at the Newport. The weather was so bad that my fingers started paining though I was wearing gloves. Somehow we managed and it almost took a complete day. We then had a nice dinner (supposedly snacks) at Saravana Bhavan, NY before departing. On Saturday, me and my uncle tried ice skating nearby our house. It was not as easy as I expected. We were ashamed on seeing small children skating so easily and we didn't even take our hands from the rails. :)

On Monday, my trips in this winter break came to a end. I was back to square one from the next day. Every day went with few hours at lab and probably one or two movies and few NBA games. Till today, I have seen nearly 30 movies in the past 25 days, which is quite a high number for me. With just three days to go before Spring sem starts, this break passed sooner than I expected. Hope this semester goes better than or as good as last semester. Wish everyone a very happy new year!