Thenkachi Ko Swaminathan passes away

Yestderday, radio presenter Thenkatchi Ko Swaminathan passed away due to a massive heart attack. He was 71. He was a wonderful radio presenter and I have very vivid memories of listening to his program every morning. His programme, Indru Oru Thagaval (Info for the day) was a phenomenal hit and I looked forward to that every morning eagerly. The program ran for just 5 minutes (!!) daily at 7.25 AM in the Tirunelveli Radio station, just after the daily news bulletin. Those days I guess people listened to Radio more than the TV. The concept of the programme was very simple. Everyday Mr Swaminathan comes up with a story and at the end of the story he finishes it with a moral.

It got people glued on to the Radio cutting across social status. I read today that this program on All India Radio ran successfully for 14 straight years without any break. That goes on to show the success of the program. After he retired from All India Radio he started presenting the same message through Sun TV under the title "Indha Naal Iniya Naal". I have not seen many episodes of this on the TV though. His other programme "Pannai Illam" (Farm House) was also a big hit among the farmers and he explained the latest agricultural techniques in a very practical and simple manner.

His way of story telling, his colloquial speech, subtle humour and a strong message to ponder at the end had a great impact. It is unfortunate that he is no more and I pray for his soul to rest in peace.

Stanford in trouble

Robert Allen Stanford, famous for his lifestyle and cricket sponsorship is in deep trouble with the US authorities following his firm's involvement in some financial irregularities. I know Stanford as a flamboyant guy with a penchant for good life, similar to our own Vijay Mallaya. He sponsored few months back a T20 match between West Indies and England circket team where the winning team players would get USD1 million each. That was too much of money for 3 hours of cricket. During the build up for that match, he threw a party for all the players from both sides where wine and women flowed freely. He was involved in a controversy when he had England's wicket keeper, Matt Prior's pregnant wife on his lap and got it photographed during the party.

For living a good(!!??) life like this, you require lot of money and it came through his financial services business. The point I am wondering is, is it possible for somebody to lead a life like this without some help from illgotten wealth and forgery. May not be possible. When I look at the lives of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, they dont live a life of excesses but live like normal human beings, in spite of their huge wealth. As the wealth grows, he need to become even more responsible. Particularly so, when you are dealing with other people's money.

Jagjit Singh's controversial comments on A R Rehman

Yesterday I was reading The Week magazine and I read a quote from Jagjit Singh which simply read as " A R Rehman knows nothing about Ghazals. Music Directors like him only knows to copy tunes from western music and use".

I dont know on what context it was used by Jagjit Singh but I feel it is a very poor comment from a legend on another legend. I dont know much about Jagjit Singh but I know about A R Rehman.

I can say all the films for which Rahman has scored music, the songs have been a big hit. This is for more than 100 films I am talking about. I dont know if there is any other music director in India or elsewhere in the world who has this matching record. I have enjoyed all the songs created by AR Rahman and I am totally impressed with the perfection in each and every song. He has won various awards ranging from Filmfare Awards to India's Best Music Director award. He has also contributed his might towards national integration by coming out with couple of albums of patriotic songs which were a rage. He is a people's music director and he understands the pulse of the ordinary man. People like Jagjit Singh shouldn't fall prey to mischevious news channels and refrain from making comments which are totally deragatory.

His recent Golden Globe award is real big achievement for Indian entertainment industry. I await the Oscar awards eagerly and I hope goes on to win the Oscars as well.

Radio Jockey and TV Presenter Gobinath

One of the FM Radio programmes which has caught my attention off-late is "Vanakkam Chennai" hosted by Gobinath in Radio City, 91.10. It comes every weekday between 7.00 AM to 11.00 AM. I think I have started listening more regularly because of Gobinath, the RJ for the programme. I like the way how the programme is presented by Gobinath. He talks in a very colloquial manner but at the same time with lot of sense compared to many other RJ's. He imitates Comedian Vadivelu's dialogue delivery many a times but I think that makes it easy for him to drive home the point effectively.

Gobinath is a well-known TV host as well. He conducts the "Neeya Naana" programme in Vijay TV on Sunday nights between 9.00 PM to 10.00 PM. Neeya Naana, is a programme where people take sides to discuss on a particular topic. The topics chosen so far are very broad ranging from "Do we express our love and affection properly"" to the last weeks program on "Whether Sportspersons in India have been treated properly" and also what actually stops Indian sportsperson from achieving the pinnacle. To add more spice to the programme, he brings well-known personalities relevant to the topic of discussion. Last week it was V Bhaskaran, the Captain of the Indian Hockey team which won the Olympic gold in 1980 at Moscow and an IAS officer, Christudas Gandhi, who is currently responsible for sports development in Tamilnadu.

Gobinath facilitates interesting debates on the pros and cons of various topics and seems to be well prepared for the same. He is not judgemental. He looks like a very matured person for his age and takes things in the right perspective. I like his presentation and I am regular viewer of Neeya Naana as well as a regular listener of his radio talk show Vanakkam Chennai. One good thing I have noticed is that he encourages people to speak in Tamil more often. But at times he himself talks in English or uses English words, which he could avoid.

He should expand his portfolio to include political discussions, interviews with politicians, leading sportspersons. Overall, he is an interesting RJ and talkshow host in Tamil.

Blue Champions - Chelsea Fan blog!!!

I know many of my friends follow English football and the English Premier League (EPL) very closely. There are die-hard club fans who swear their loyalty to the club than anything else. One of the most successful clubs in recent times is Chelsea. They were the English Premier League Champions in 2004 and 2005. Currently there was a bit of confusion in the club about the sacking of their coach Jose Mourinho. I was searching the net to find some interesting stuff on this and landed up at a blog site called http://www.bluechampions.com/.

This blog is started by a fan of Chelsea club and it has a wide following. As per the last count, the site meter shows the number of visitors as 108,928!!! Quite a high number, I guess.


This blog gives variety of information on Chelsea team. It provides you with glimpses of the goals from the matches, the league fixtures, the owner of the blog writes about football, allows others to post comments and moderates them. I think it has a wide range of Chelsea/Football fans regularly visiting it ranging from Australia to Ghana and the US. It has a well laid out design, clear instructions in the form of FAQ, conducts surveys, provides you with fixtures of English Football. Overall, it is a very well maintained site with active updates.


Why I am writing suddenly about this blog? There is a reason to it. This blog is run by my colleague, Blue Champion. (He wants to be known as such and remain anonymous on the internet. I respect his decision. So no names!!) He is a great fan and admirer of this club and follows English football more closely than many Englishmen would do. He has a keen interest for the game and writes interestingly about the matches. He is receiving many invitations to write for other blogs, participate in chat shows and discuss about football in English pubs. But it is unfortunate that he cant do these things since he is based out of Chennai, India. He has let go many an opportunity like this. But atleast he is able to contribute to other websites and blogs. He also get regular requests to trans-literate his blog into Chinese and other languages. Interesting blog and a must visit site for football fans...

What really excites me is his energy levels and his ability to maintain it on a daily basis. Blue Champion does all this after putting 10-12 hours at work on a daily basis. He spends 3 hours after going home in the night reading the latest news on world football, writing stories for the blog, moderating the comments. A truly demanding job. All for what? Just his passion towards the game. Blue Champion desires to become a Sports Writer someday, which I think he would become soon!!

All the best, Blue Champion!!! Way to go!!!!