Om Namah Shivaya

Om Namah Shivaya

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Showing posts with label Chennai Colors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chennai Colors. Show all posts

Sep 13, 2016

Chennai Colors: N Lingusamy - Haiku Writer, Director and Producer of Tamil Movies

(Chennai Colors is a section of my blog in which I share the colors and hues of creativity from the thought leaders of the city who make our Chennai, a beautiful place to live in.)
 
Digital Art by Lingusamy

Pebbles reflect
The cutting edge power
Of the stream

 - A Haiku by Lingusamy

When the famous Tamil Movies director, producer and scriptwriter N Lingusamy called me to meet, I was sure that it would be a short curtsy visit to discuss our mutual passion of writing Haiku. But as the day went by, I realised that its going to take some time. He has a disarming charm that makes the words flow and time moved on swiftly. Our interaction went on like his words above, which some times floods the banks with its powerful surge and some times shape large boulders into beautiful sculptures. In the end, it proved out to be a wonderful sharing of thoughts with one of the creative personalities of Chennai. 


Few days earlier, I had received Director Lingusamy's call. He had heard about my own passion for Haiku from our mutual friend Ashwin of Odyssey Book Store. He wanted to have some views on his Tamil Haiku, which was translated into English by one of his friends. After the call, he sent me some of his Haiku and as I liked most of them, I was looking forward to meet him.

As we sat down to share our mutual experience on writing Haiku and discuss the beauty of world’s shortest poetry form, I could feel Director Lingusamy’s enthusiasm and focus on all things creative. He had also  called some of his colleagues and a little later his fellow Director, scriptwriter and poet - Brindha Saarthy also joined in, which made it more like a poetry session.

But before I go further, here is a little information about this very creative Chennai personality - N Lingusamy. Personally, I believe he has added a spark to the Chennai city with his smart, action oriented, story based movies which has captured the imagination of movie goers across the state.

A Brief Note about Director N Lingusamy
Narain Linguswamy made his directorial debut with the Mammootty starrer family-drama Aanandham in 2001 and followed it up with films Run (2002), Sandakozhi (2005), Paiyaa (2010) and Vettai (2012). He and his brother N. Subash Chandrabose have also produced films through his production company, Thirupathi Brothers.

Lingusamy hails from a village Lakshmipuram in Tamil Nadu. He joined as an assistant director to director A. Venkatesh for his Tamil film Mahaprabhu and followed in his next film Selva. He had also assisted Vikraman in Vaanathaippola, a family drama on brothers.

Although Lingusamy has worked in Tamil only, his films have been dubbed or been remade in other languages too. Dubbed Telugu versions of Run, Sandakozhi and Paiyaa, titled Run, Pandem Kodi and Awara, respectively, were released in Andhra Pradesh and also became commercially successful.[33][34] Aanandham was remade in 2005 as Sankranti by Muppalaneni Shiva in Telugu, while Jeeva remade Run in Hindi under the same title in 2004. His Paiyaa was remade in Bengali in 2012 as Jaaneman, while in 2013, a Telugu remake of his Vettai titled Tadakha was released.
- From Wikipedia
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As the morning progressed, I noticed the subdued beauty of the living room. Dir Lingusamy usually has his creative sessions with his team and informal discussion with his friends in this room, where many of his digital paintings added to the color. The little butterflies on the French window, opening out to the little ‘Buddha’ kind of garden gave a feeling of serenity. As an interior design professional I liked the place. I could also feel the inherent energy of the room, which I am sure added to his creative out put.

Director Lingusamy started writing his poetry from college days and without realizing that he is writing world’s most popular form of poetry -Haiku, he stuck to the style. His first Haiku, which is reproduced below, was published in a famous Tamil Magazine as well.
 
Digital Art by Lingusamy

To the Man
Ironing the cloth
Wrinkles in his belly

This Haiku was inspired by watching an old person, who was ironing shirt in the by lanes, around his college. He still remembers the day clearly, as he was spending some free time with his college friends. The image stuck in his thoughts as he realised that the old man was in the process of removing wrinkles from the clothes of others, while incapable of removing creases of poverty and deprivation from his own life.
 
An English translation of Lingusamy's Haiku is going to be published
shortly by one of the new and upcoming publisher from North Indian
"Story Mirror"
Writing Haiku is meditation for me and that’s what comes across from Lingusamy thoughts as well. During our discussion, as we shared our Haiku and creativity in general, it was quite clear that in those inspired moments of creativity, he needs to be alone. With the seed of a thought growing into a sapling of creativity, he shuts himself away from the entire hustle bustle around. He likes to be alone to focus on capturing those  images of life within his words.
 
Some of the Tamil Haiku - Translated into English

Over the years, Lingusamy has written 100s of verses and shared with me a beautiful Haiku, which was an outcome of a particular moment while he was constructing his house.

He told me that as soon as he entered the half constructed house, few of the sparrows who had made it their home, flew off in a flutter of activity…
 
Digital Art by Lingusamy
Still unfinished
Building my home
Sparrows already moved in

As the day moved on, we had a beautiful connection through our own mutual passion. Brenda Sarathy also shared some of his poems as well as explained in detail what he thought of Director Lingusamy's Tamil Haiku. After a while, I realised that Lingusamy was like a friend, with whom one can go on talking and sharing thoughts to understand our own expressions in deeper way. He was like a friend, who instinctively understands and appreciate the subtleties and depths of one's creative outpouring. Looking forward to many more such sessions of creative discussions and sharing of thoughts.



As I prepared to move on, he presented his special Edition of Haiku, to remember the lovely day spent with him. I look forward to the English Edition of his verses - Linku II.

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Some of the personalities featured in Chennai Colors section of the blog...
Dr. Anita Ratnam
Dr. Chithra Madhavan
Anitha Guha
Renie Ravin

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Shashi 
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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IndiBlogger's Renie Ravin                        


Sep 5, 2016

37th Edition of Shadow Dancing With Mind

My heart is in exploring our Indian Spirituality and during my lectures on the same, I keep referring to it for the young generation to go back to, so happy to share my thoughts on ‘The Big Bang Theory” and its counter part “Pranava Naad - Om” as well as my journey to inner peace with “Ten Tips on Haiku”. 

It also gives me a great pleasure as I share my book’s launch in Odyssey and then talking about something very close to my literary needs - Annual Hindu Lit Festival at Chennai, - The post which was taken up as archive’s ‘go to’ page by Hindu Lit Festival 2017.

Hope you will enjoy this edition of Shadow Dancing. Have a look…

As one of my favorite Czech Author, Milan Kundera once said that every act of creativity, writing or novel should have a purpose. I had decided to write my story in year 1987, when I first visited Rishikesh, finished writing all three parts of "The Monk Key" in 2010 Nov. But still had no reason to get it published other than my ego, I.e. to get to be known as an author, which was actually not on my priority list. But last year, one day I asked my son, have you read Bhagwat Gita and he said, no - what’s the point of reading it. This gave me a purpose, i.e. to make our Vedic / Upanishadic / Poranic scriptures come out of obscure depths of dogmatic beliefs and rituals and become main stream and interesting for young generation. This book "Songs of the Mist" and "The Monk Key" series is my one small step towards that goal.

I have been regularly writing about Hindu Lit for Life Festival since its inception and immensely enjoy three days of festivity along with thousands of Art and Literature lovers of Chennai. So I was thrilled when our book club  “Sans Serif” proposed to invite Ms. Nirmala Lakshman - founder of Hindu Literary Festival for a discussion on Hindu Lit Fest. Clearly it was an opportunity to get ‘behind the scene’ of this amazing event that has me wondering about how the multiple celebrity authors, prominent literary figures and iconic artist get together to enthrall the wonderful audience of Chennai. ..

As after many months, I get on again to write about amazing personalities of Chennai that make up the vibrant colors of the city. Today I am introducing a man, whose mantra is ‘We blog, therefore We are’ - a tagline that still greets you whenever you reach one of the most popular and powerful community of Indian Bloggers - IndiBlogger.

A four lecture series by famous Heritage vigilante - Vijay Kumar, organised by Apparao Galleries
Over the years of my association with Apparao Galleries, specially with Chennai’s leading cultural activist, Sharan Apparao, I have learned a lot about South Indian heritage and culture. The lecture series on the Sculptures of South India was one such opportunity, in which Mr. Vijay Kumar - based out of Singapore, took us on an exquisite historical journey among beautiful stone and bronze sculptures.

I have had recently shared my “Ten Tips on Writing Haiku” in Story Mirror Creativity Workshop which was organized in association with Story Mirror, Apparao Galleries and Aspiring Authors Group along with the famous Author, Timeri N Murari, who shared his insights on Writing for Plays. As many of aspiring authors and writers present in the workshop asked me to share my thoughts and tips on Haiku, I am writing this one post so that it is convenient for all to read and share.

THE CREATION OF UNIVERSE: TWO STORIES
In the first one, Roman Catholic priest and physicist- Georges Lemaître was following the recession of Nebulae in the night sky. After long and lengthy vigil over time, he came up with the idea that the recession was due to the expansion of the universe. That particular moment and the place where the fabric of time and space came into existence, he believed to be the beginning of our Universe, as we know it now.
Now here is the second story. Over many generations, our sages pondered over the questions and revealed their thoughts about it all, in their teachings, in their compositions of Sanskrit Shlokas which were handed down the generation by verbal memory - by way of shurtis etc. These were later collated in the form of numerous ancient manuscripts of Vedic culture.

When the Ashvin Ji, owner of the famous bookstore in Chennai - Odyssey called up to inform that they are planning to launch my book, I was pleasantly surprised and happy. It felt like I am making some progress towards my goal of getting the word out that there is more to our ancient culture and heritage.

One of the purpose of my "Songs of the Mist" is to share the story of one young man's journey to 'find the divinity within'. Another purpose of writing this book has been to reach out to the young generation who, in my opinion are alienated from the deep source of our culture, heritage and thoughts - our ancient scriptures. When asked, if they have read our Vedas, Purana's and Upanishad's etc., they typically reply "What is the point of reading them" due the certain biases rooted in modernity. Here is the journey of its travels across India…

An Evening of Art, Music and Writing
Leela Palace Hotel and Perspectives along with Apparao Gallery created an evening of “Art, Music and Writing”, on 14th May, 2016. In the program, I was invited to give my readers an interactive experience to my book "Songs of the Mist" - a reading of the Book, accompanied by the music of Swetha Sriram (Vocal), Vittal Rangan (Violin) and Thanjavur Praveen (Mridangam).

Hope you have enjoyed this edition, look forward to your comments. Please do share...

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Shashi 
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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36th Edition                                                                           38th Edition

Jul 31, 2016

Chennai Colors: Renie Ravin - The man behind IndiBlogger - India's topmost vibrant community of Bloggers

As after many months, I get on again to write about amazing personalities of Chennai that make up the vibrant colors of the city. Today I am introducing a man, whose mantra is ‘We blog, therefore We are’ - a tagline that still greets you whenever you reach one of the most popular and powerful community of Indian Bloggers - IndiBlogger.


Renie Ravin is the most popular change agent in the Indian blogging sphere and founder of IndiBlogger - A powerful platform that created history of sorts, when they invited the world class social media marketers, Authors and Rock star in their World class blogging meet "Blog Now, Live Forever" - BNLF. It is not every day that you get to see the reclusive Bruce Dickinson - Lead Singer of Iron Maiden, who still carries Ancient run down Nokia phone, held together by cello tape. 




Bruce Dickinson - The Rockstar at IndiBlogger Meet #BNLF


I met Renie for the first time in 2010 amongst a social media discussion group and few minutes into the conversation with him, I was convinced to start my own public blog (till that time, I was doing only personal blogging, known to only few of my close friends) and join his blogging community - IndiBlogger. From embracing his mantra of “We blog, therefore we are” to his major tour de-force “Blog Now, Live Forever”, I have been through it all. Honed my blogging skills with the peers and mentors at IndiBlogger, attended all of the Chennai meets to even going all over India to attend few more in far flung cities like Delhi, Mumbai.


I grew with the community. And IndiBlogger gave me the perfect gift - the ultimate honor in the form of award - the number 1 spiritual blogger of India, judged by 20 prominent personalities of India. The beauty of IndiBlogger is that it ensures that you are in a different world of your own, always learning, growing and being the individual that you are, where ever, whenever you interact with and within the community or join in their events or interact with other members offline. This has come from the amazing team of IndiBlogger and ‘the down to earth’ persons like Renie Raven.  Probably that is the color of Chennai too… down to earth.
The IndiBlogger Team
Few weeks ago, I caught up with Renie at one of the finest restaurants of Chennai - Zara, which is also one of the places, where IndiBlogger meet once in a while. Over the years, we have had interacted on various fronts, even created Indi Blogger for Social Action (IBSA) meets where Renie and his team joined to provide their support, but this meeting was to get to know Renie, up close and personal, so read on.

A wonderful lunch at Zara - Chennai with the man behind IndiBlogger

The story behind success of IndiBlogger is quite simple: Four friends, working in various cities, got together to provide a platform for like minded people and as the cliché goes, rest is history. They rocked the Indian blogging world through their sheer passion, dedication and love for blogging. Free timeline to work (you get to work from home at IndiBlogger), create what you are passionate about and say what you would like to, as long as you don’t break the trust of Individual bloggers. Indiblogger is so focussed towards the individual bloggers that when I decided to host an event in Chennai 'Indiblogger for Social Action' the whole Indiblogger gang was there including Renie Ravin.

Renie running the show at the blogging event I hosted in Chennai

Renie probably had the idea from the very beginning what he is going to do in future, as he created Madras Christian College (MCC) unofficial website in 2000, which has got the whole college, staff and alumnae logging on for various information. As a web architect, Renie did work in various companies, before joining his childhood friend from Nagercoil - the flamboyant face of Indi Blogger, one of the best Masters of ceremony, I have ever seen - Anoop, who roped in Karthik shortly afterwards. Anwin and Navin worked along with the IndiBlogger team as part timer. While Vineet caught up a bus from Hyderabad, landed in Pune and joined IndiBlogger over a bottle of scotch… 



Anoop - The flamboyant face of IndiBlogger

Blogging is a lonely activity, you think about something that you would like to share with the world, you write and edit, write again and at the click of a button its out there in the world and then you go back to whatever you were doing earlier. 



Attending Christoph's workshop on social media at BNLF - Mumbai

Renie created a platform for all those thinkers, writers and loners to meet online and incredible offline meets, which is now the most awaited event for almost all the bloggers of India across the country - An IndiBlogger Meet. The first company to commercialize blogger meets. Blogger meets were happening by small groups who met at coffee shops and malls. IndiBlogger roped in brands to fund events. If you do a Google search for “Blogger meets 2008”, The only branded blogger meets you would find is from IndiBlogger, and then over the years dozens of them which rocked the blogging community. Then the Mumbai BNLF meet happened which was the game changer of blogging community, created a platform for the bloggers to interact with world leaders of Social Media, the world’s best bloggers, India’s top woman Author and the most elusive rock star.



For Indian Bloggers, IndiBlogger has been amazing journey from ‘We blog, therefore We are’ to ‘Blog Now, Live Forever’. BNLF was two days of fun, learning and interacting with top influencer, which was totally funded by IndiBlogger. 





Why did they do it for free? Well as Renie says, “We wanted to take the Indian blogging to the next level across the world.” and I must say the IndiBlogger succeeded in doing exactly that with BNLF. 600 Plus bloggers in one place, full of enthusiasm and interest to know what they can do next. Renowned Social Media expert, Christoph Trappe's great half day workshop on social media put quite a few bloggers on the right path, including me. 


With Christoph Trappe - great mentor and a good friend

And the amazing speakers like Purba Ray, Preeti Shenoy, Jeff Bullas, Christoph Trappe and many more provided interesting stories and experiences to the event. Click on their name's to read about them and their thoughts in curtain raiser, before the event.

With India's Top Women Author Preeti Shenoy at BNLF 

Pumped up with Jeff Bullas and Indiblogger gang at BNLF Meeting
Renie has amazing plans for Indian Blogging community. He says that he is going to do BNLF series across India and the world. He also promised to do some event in Chennai soon. There are lot of things are happening at IndiBlogger, a new website is in the pipeline, the global outreach program and as he says, “Connecting with right people” with the IndiBlogger platform. 

He is also planning to start an amazing opportunity for the business reporting and Public Relationship exercise IndiOne.


Renie at one of the IndBlogging events at Hyatt Chennai


At the end of our fruitful lunch, he left me with a powerful thought for everyone, “The blogging is within you, unleash it” and of course, as they say, “no animals will be harmed by that action…”


Hope I have given you a brief glimpse about Renie Ravin, one of the earthly colors of Chennai - the one who is changing the path of social media, one blog at a time.


__
Shashi 
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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