Blog entry #18
Rangeelo Maaro Dholna | Ramana Sir | Rajinikanth | Richmond Road
Rangeelo Maaro Dholna (Mumbai)
Apart from being a popular Antakshari song, starting from 'R', I like this song because it takes me back to my childhood days, where my cousin Vijita (Viju) would dance to this song. She is proficient in Bollywood dance, and her movements were very graceful. I found this YouTube video recently, and all the steps Viju taught me came back to me just like that. She also taught me basic Mudras she learnt in school - I can still recall pataka, tripataka, ardha-pataka, mayura, ardha chandra, arala, mushti, sikhara, kataka-mukha, chandra kala, mirgasisha, simhamukha, alapadma, and bramhara. Dancing, learning from her, playing A LOT of Name-Place-Animal-Thing (see Vyoworld’s post on Q), sometimes Thing replaced with Movie - all these made every weekend of mine memorable and enjoyable!
Ramana Sir
Ramana Sonti Sir was a guest faculty at BITS Hyderabad. He hailed from ISB (I found a rare video of him singing an old Mohd. Rafi song in class; one of my fav songs too). Enrolling for a minor in finance was one the best decisions I ever took - I learnt a wide variety of subjects, helpful for me even today. Ramana Sir taught us SAPM - Security Analysis and Portfolio Management. We were introduced to the following concepts in that subject:
1. Risk and return
2. Fundamental analysis
3. Efficient market hypothesis
4. Markowitz Portfolio Selection Model
5. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
6. Single index model - Sharpe Ratio
7. Arbitrage Pricing Theory
8. Time value of money (and YTM: yield to maturity)
To delve deep into these topics, Investopedia is a great site to start with. It explains the basics in a crisp manner, while also including relevant equations and diagrams. One day in class, I don’t remember what graph it was, but when Sir explained that it approached infinity, he remarked: "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities". While most of the class gave befuddled looks, I chuckled to myself because I was familiar with that reference. Then, Sir mentioned his daughter had read The Fault in our Stars, and he happened to catch this phrase from there! Finance is such an essential subject for everyone to master. Why don't they start teaching it from school itself?
Rajinikanth
Born as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, he is not just a superstar or a sensation here in Chennai, but rather a "God". People literally "worship" him here. This video shows fans doing "Paal abhishekam", a sacred ritual involving bathing a deity with milk, which symbolises cleansing and purifying one’s own mind. The latter part is clearly not the case here! I might get chided, or beaten, if hardcore fans get to know this, but I have never seen any Rajinikanth movie in the theatre - like ever. Movies for me have to mean something, I prefer realistic plots and acts. But watching movies here in Chennai is not as entertaining as observing those in the theatre - not just Rajinikanth, but for anyone, be it Ajith, Schwarzenegger, or even a Bollywood hero; folks watching the movie will whistle, clap and hoot during a fight scene or a romantic one. If you’re simply visiting Chennai, do try going to the movie theatre once, especially Imax - you’ll enjoy the movie and the environment, I hope!
Richmond Road
Similar to going to Commercial street for shopping for my wedding gown, (see my post on C) we went to Vijayalakshmi silks located on Richmond Road in Bangalore, for my wedding saris shopping. We found a beautiful collection here, and we were impressed, but at the same, not too happy, about the fact that the shopkeeper tending to us was a polyglot. We tried to converse in 4 different languages, switching quickly so that he wouldn’t understand what we were saying, but those efforts were in vain.
Mom: "Idhi nacchinda?" (Did you like this?)
Shopkeeper: Nacchaledante idhi chudandi Madam (If you didn’t like that, then look at this [sari] Madam)
Aunt: Yeh kaisa laga? (How did you like this?)
Me: Colour thoda dull hai (The colour is a bit dull)
Shopkeeper: Yeh colour dull laga toh woh bright green vala dikhau? (If you found this colour dull, shall I then show you that bright green one?)
Similarly we couldn’t get away trying to converse in English, or even Tamil.
But in the end, we came out of the store with big bags and a big smile on our faces, so that’s what matters!
Image courtesy: Google ©
No comments:
Post a Comment