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In October 1987, eight of us planned a trip to Kodai via Munnar & Top Station. The operation was top secret – we didn’t tell our people we were biking to Kodai. We packed our stuff and met at BTH (My parents were told we were going to Kottayam to meet Chicku – REC 1988, more about him later).

BTH, waiting for the gang to assemble
I don’t remember who, but one of the bikers didn’t turn up. So it was seven guys & three bikes – one of us had to drop out, and nobody wanted to. So we decided to ride triples on Biju’s RD 350!

Beginning of the Ghat section
The Se7en – Biju, Top, Raman, Fanny, Ani and sitting, Rojo & I
(Fanny passed away last year, RIP)

Hairpin near Munnar, After the First Crash.
Check out the tear in Biju’s jeans
(The backpack on Rojo is Paramu’s, u will be hearing more about him soon)

Top Slip. My fav photo

Roads were bad, but no so bad…
Rain & Slush. After a few spills, nobody wants to ride…
I do not have any photographic record of the next few hours (If i had taken the camera out, i would have got hit)
On the forest roads between Top Station and Kodai, it was dark and raining, Raman & Ani crash, and one by one the head lights of all three bikes conk off.
We managed the last stretch on the nurungu vettam of 350’s turn indicator.

Outskirts of Kodai. The worst is behind us.
Warmth, Food, Kodai
It was a Gandhi Jayanti-Puja weekend, and Kodai was packed. We ended up spending the night in a bunglow’s annexe some 15 km away from Kodai, and all we could manage was one room, and one bed.
But we had a blast there, jamming late into the night till the guy from next room (a judge, we were told) made us shut up.

Trying to top Top! Mookkan & a friend of Biju’s from Palghat join the fun.

One the way back, a late lunch at Diana
We did 550 km in 36 hours, seven guys on three bikes. Vintage Sangham Stuff.
One year later, we did it again, 14 guys on seven bikes. But then, that’s another story…

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Image originally posted on www.lntvalves.com/blog on 30 May 2007

TV was here a few months ago and the DVD buying binge that he sparked off still continues.
Now, have to see what will run out first – shelf space, bank balance or my wife’s patience…
13, Going on 30 – 2001, A Space Odyssey – 40 Days & 40 Nights – 40 year – old Virgin – 8 Mile – Against the Ropes – Along Came a Spider – American Beauty – American Graffiti – Angela – Apocalypse Now – As it is in Heaven – Aviator – Babel – Battle Cry – Battleship Potemkin – Bicycle Thieves – Big Red One – Black Hawk Down – Blazing Saddles – Blood Diamond – Blow – up – Borat – Born on the Fourth of July – Braveheart – Break a Leg – Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Bridge Too Far – Bruce Almighty – Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid – Casablanca – Casualities of War – Catch Me if You Can – Chain Reaction – Charlie & the Choclate Factory – Charlotte Gray – Chevaliers Du Ciel – Chicago – Chinese Box – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Citizen Kane – City of Angels – Constant Gardener – Constantine – Courage under Fire – Coyote Ugly – Dangerous Liaisons – Dark Blue World – Das Boot – Day of the Jackal – Deer Hunter – De – Lovely – Departed – Devil’s Advocate – Dien Bien Phu – Down in the Valley – Dr. Zhivago – Draughtman’s Contract – Dumb & Dumber – Edison Force – Empire of the Sun – End of Wars – Enemy at the Gate – English Patient – Enigna – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Fargo – Few Good Men – Fierce Creatures – Flags of our Fathers – Forrest Gump – Four Weddings & a Funeral – French Kiss – Full Metal Jacket – Fun with Dick & Jane – Game – Gandhi – Gangs of New York – Girl, Interrupted – Gods Must be Crazy – Gods Must be Crazy 2 – Good Morning, Vietnam – Graduate – Great Escape – Hamburger Hill – Happy Feet – Hard Ball – Hart’s War – Heroes – History of the World – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Honey – Hot Shots – Hot Shots 2 – In the Heat of the Night – Inconvenient Truth – Intolerable Cruelty – Jarhead – JFK – Johnny Mnemonic – Kate & Leopold – Kiss the Girls – Last Drop – Last Tango in Paris – Last Temptation of Christ – Lawrence of Arabia – Left Behind – Liar, Liar – Looking for Humour in the Muslim World – Mackenna’s Gold – Man for All Seasons – March of the Penguins – Marine – Marksman – Mask – Match Point – Matrix – Matrix Reloaded – Matrix Revolutions – Me, Myself & Irene – Micheal Collins – Midway – Million Dollar Baby – My Best Friend’s Wedding – Mystic River – North Country – Ocean’s 11 – Ocean’s 12 – Oh Brother, Where Art Thou – Oliver – One Fine Day – One Last Dance – Out of Sight – Passion of Christ – Pather Panchali – Peacemaker – Pearl Harbour – Perfect Storm – Phantom of the Opera – Pianist – Platoon – Possession – Producers – Proof – Proof of Life – Proud – Raising Arizona – Ran – Ray – Reservoir Dogs – Romeo + Juliet – Rumour Has It – Saving Private Ryan – Schindler’s List – Seaside – Seven – Shakespeare in Love – Shawshank Redemption – Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow – Sleepless in Seattle – Sling Blade – Sound of Music – Star Wars – Stealth – Straight into Darkness – Summer of 42 – Sylvia – Syriana – Tears of the Sun – Terms of Endearment – Thin Red Line – Three Kings – Titanic – Top Gun – Tora, Tora, Tora – Truman Show – U 571 – Underclass Man – Unfinished Life – Walk the Line – We Were Soldiers – Wedding Crashers – Wedding Planner – What Lies Beneath – When Harry Met Sally – Widowmaker – Wild Geese – Windtalkers – Witches of Eastwick – You’ve Got Mail
By the away, the post title pays homage to my fav movie critic, Pauline Kael
Not to be confused with Pathrakkaran Sunny

A defining moment from mallu’s latest craze, Idea Star Singer, a talent hunt packged as a reality show, or is it the other way around?
And by the way, do you have any dope on Meera Nandakumar?

Now, the caption is very original, thank you.
It was 50 years ago today that John and Paul first met, thus setting off this big huge thing…
I first read Garp when I was 17. By then I had run through most of – chronologically – James Hadley Chase, Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace, Leon Uris, Wilbur Smith, must-reads like Godfather, Omen, Exorcist, Summer of ’42, Love Story, and sampled Harold Robbins, Robert Ludlum, Louis L’Amour…(I was blessed, I am blessed)
Garp was quite different from anything I had read till then – funny, sad, heartbreaking and uplifting. I so loved the characters that I remember slowing down as the book was nearing its end so that I could spend some more time in Garp’s world.
At the core of Garp is a horrible auto accident (I have always wanted to do a story on the recurring motifs in John Irving’s books – car crashes/accidents, Vienna, bears, kids, prostitutes, breasts, transvestites, deformities, writers, wrestlers, extra-marital affairs, death – oh, all the things that make life interesting).
Irving builds up the car crash scene so perfectly, positioning all players for maximum impact (ugh! no pun). I remember the rush when I first read the passage, when I – along with Garp – was rushing at full speed, up a slippery ramp, in the dark…
Cut to The World according to Garp, by John Irving
‘Garp hit the bottom of his driveway at about forty miles per hour he came of the downhill road in third gear and accelerated just as he exited; he glimpsed how the driveway was glazed with frozen slush, and worried momentarily that the Volvo might slip on the short uphill curve. He held the car in gear until he felt what grip he had of the road; it was good enough, and he popped the sharp stick shift into neutral – a second before he killed the engine and flicked out the headlights.
The car coasted up, into the black rain. It was like that moment when you feel an airplane lift off the runway; the children both cried out in excitement. Garp could feel the children at his elbow, crowding each other for the one favoured position in the gap between the bucket seats.
‘How can you see now?’ Duncan asked.
‘He doesn’t have to see,’ Walt said. There wad a high thrill in Walt’s voice, which suggested to Garp that Walt wished to reassure himself.
‘I know this by heart,’ Garp assured them.
‘It’s like being underwater!’ cried Duncan; he held his breath.
‘It’s like a dream!’ said Walt; he reached for his brother’s hand.’
Spoiler Warning!
Generally not required for Irving’s books; he gives away the end on page 1 itself.
At the top of the driveway, in a parked car, Garp’s wife is giving her student-boyfriend a farewell BJ. Garp’s car crashes into the, let us call it the BJ car, at full clip (Remember, night, raining, lights switched off). Garp survives, Walt dies, Garp’s wife survives, her boyfriend’s dick gets bitten off, Garp’s marriage survives.
So what if Garp didn’t make the TIME 100, it scores 100 outa 100 for the perfect set up.
For me this story is very special. And if I have shared this story with you, you are special…

Sajeev asked for a post on Nandanam.
And threated to use the RTI Act if i didn’t comply.
So, here goes…
Heppy?









