Children of God

“Children of God” was born from the personal experiences of its founder Juliana Jeya Priya who has been witness to the challenges and needs of the physically challenged, in their day-to-day lives, as she saw the difficulties faced by her own mother who is deaf. She was joined in her efforts by her friends - a group of young people from different backgrounds.

Children of God – A Recognized Charitable Trust
The germ of the idea to form an organization to lend our helping hands to help the disadvantaged and needy was born in the year 2007. This thought took shape and resulted in the formation of Children of God (COG) as a charitable trust based in Chennai. It has since been established under the Indian Trust with the registration number 3809/2008 dated 3rd November 2008.

The founding members of Children of God (COG) have been associated with organizations which are helping the mentally challenged, aged destitute and orphan children, assisting them with their time and effort for various programs and also extending monetary assistance through their personal means.

Children of God’s First Step
Having established ourselves as a trust to organize our efforts better, we are developing our own home for destitute and orphan children. We have already identified a location and are raising funds to put in place the necessary infrastructure to house them.

Just Reach Out – A Musical Fund Raiser
We are organising a musical evening of carols performed by the leading choirs of Chennai, in order to raise funds for our project – a home for orphan children. The choirs who are lending their heavenly voices towards this noble cause are, CSI Wesley Choir, Egmore; Lutheran Men’s’ Voice; The Revival Singers (Santhome Cathedral Basilica); Elvis Hurley and the Good Tidings Choir. The evening will also feature choreography by Lokesh – guest performance. The fund raising event is on Saturday, 13th December 2008 from 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm at St. Ebbas Girls Higher Secondary School, Mylapore.

Our Plea To You
This mammoth task cannot be achieved without the assistance of generous and willing hearts like yours. We request you to adopt our cause as your own and contribute with a generous heart towards this noble cause.

How Can You Contribute?
You can make out your Cheques / Demand Drafts in the name of “Children of God”. Our address is # 2052, Vasantham Colony, Anna Nagar West, Chennai 600 040.

Warm Regards,
Julie. L
For Children of God

Below is the poster for Just Reach Out - A musical fund raiser on 13th December.

(V)ote for (V) - Lokam

Guess what, I have been nominated under two categories for the Avant Garde Bloggie Awards; for my Jodha Akbar Movie Review and for The Most Responsive Blogger. I am honored and I consider this a privilege. I know how tough it is to make your posts come into the final list since I was a part of the nomination scrutinizing team for A.G.B.A. along with Reema, Smita and Perx.

There are six posts in the Best Movie Review category and there are twelve contestants in the Most Responsive Blogger category. It is upto you to decide the most deserving candidate. Neither do I require a vote based on friendship nor am I requesting my readers to vote for me. Instead, I'd appreciate if you would cast your vote only after considering the efforts of my blogmates too. Let the best blogger win.

Please find the links below :

Movie Review -- http://avantgardebloggies.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/best-movie-review/

Most Responsive Blogger -- http://avantgardebloggies.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/most-responsive-blogger/

I hereby wish all my fellow bloggers, the very best.

Why am I like this? Its because of them!!! --Part 3

I spoke to her yesterday; for the first time. She went ga-ga over the phone. They say it is difficult to understand a girl. It is, especially when she is hardly 8 months old !!!

She is Dhwani (meaning sound), my niece, and the latest entrant in our Lokam. This is probably her first public appearance (apart from her locked photos in my bros and s-i-l’s respective orkut album).

PS : the first uploaded song in V-lokam was dedicated to her on the day she was born.


Part 1 and Part 2 could be found in the About Me section (theres an 'About me' tab just below the header)

and oooooh yeah !, this series would continue ........

Song : O Paalanhaare; Movie : Lagaan (2001) - Hindi

This is one of my earlier attempts at recording and my actual intention was only to test the different editing options in the software that I had been using. Played around with a couple of songs and this one came out really well after editing, especially the final ooooo's in the song. Though my contribution to this song is very limited, (my voice comes only at 3.10), it was a pleasure working with Lataji and it was my dream come true when I got an opportunity to sing along with her. LOL




To listen in a better way:

• Please wait till the entire song streams.
• Try using a headset/earphone for the overall sound clarity.
  
  

S.i.B - 7

Again, a couple of old releases! The next part would have Welcome to Sajjanpur( Hindi), Vaaranam Aayiram (Tamil), Dostana (Hindi) and the yet-to-be-released movies :D

Hello - Hindi :
Yaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnn . Rating : 1 / 5 (1 for Sharman)

Roadside Romeo - Hindi
A novel attempt for the Indian audience from the house of Yash Raj and Walt Disney. Though the storyline is typical Bollywood-ish with hero, heroine, villain, sidekicks, a love triangle, item number, etc, the animations are cool. Some of the jokes are crude while some of them totally forced. Among the animated characters, Charlie anna, voice over by the ever-dependable Javed Jaffrey, was the best. Kareenas character had very less to do and could’ve easily been dubbed by any normal female dubbing artiste. Saifs dubbing lacked expression and sounded as if he had lost interest in dubbing mid way. However, the animated bloopers at the end were very creative which saved up for the lost humor in the movie. Avoidable. Rating : 2.5 / 5

Kurukshetra - Malayalam
Manipulated Indian Army emotions, fat military officers, terrible dialogues, poor background score and too many characters spoil Major Ravis intention of bringing the Kargil war on celluloid. Please avoid. Rating : 2 / 5 (2 for the cinematography)

Heroes - Hindi
Surprisingly good. Barring, the first few scenes of Vatsal / Sohail and the climax which was a big let down, this patriotic movie is different in its approach and was watchable. Vatsal looked perfect for the role while Sohail too old. Salman looked different but was at his usual; Preity was a treat to watch and so was Mithunda. The rest, Bobby, Sunny and Dino were unimpressive. Director Sameer is getting better with each movie; though he could have paid a lot more attention on the music department and also on the length of the movie. Rating : 2.5 / 5

Aegan (The one and only) - Tamil
Ace choreographer, Raju Sundaram, gets into the shoes of a director for the first time by remaking the SRK starrer ‘Main Hoon Na’. The first half provides a couple of gags and can be sat through, but the second half is unbearable. Rajus choreography in the movie is commendable but his direction is amateurish. If not for Ajiths screen presence, this movie would’ve seen the dust already. Avoidable. Rating : 2.5 / 5

Fashion - Hindi

A typical Madhur Bhandarkar cliché driven movie. Except for the length of the movie and a couple of inconsequential gay characters, the movie was not all that bad. Infact, the only saving grace of the movie was the performance from the lead cast and the music. The fashion industry gets portrayed in a very bad light as if there aren’t any positive outcomes out of modeling. The movie is definitely watchable but not for those who expect entertainment going by its name. And yeah ! one needs to be patient enough to sit through the final 25 mins. Rating :3 / 5

Quirky me !!!

It has been quite a while since Apar tagged me to list down 6 of my quirks. To be honest I love doing tags, which I guess, in blogosphere, should be considered. The first tag that I had attempted was also related to my quirks, check it out here.

This is the best I could come up with and I hope these are quirky enough. I am sure that even my family and the closest of friends would not have noticed some of these odd traits in me.

1) The light quirk
I feel very upset and depressed if the lights in the rooms are not switched on after 6pm. Not to be mistaken with Achluophobia, it’s a feel of loneliness and I imagine that the last person left on this planet is me.

2) The sweet quirk
I DO NOT LIKE sharing chocolates, sweets and ice creams (especially) with anyone. I am ok with sharing food (again not from the same plate), but I give a disgusted look to the person once they intrude into my space with those mentioned. I also follow a unique way of finishing my ice creams, something which should actually be watched to understand and I guess the only person who had noticed that is my sis, Ramya.

3) The fruit quirk
I really don’t know if this is a quirk, but according to some of my friends, it is. I love fruits and I could survive for days only on them. But there is one particular fruit which I don’t like at all, a fruit that is considered to be the king of fruits - Mango ! I have come across people who love mangoes more than their spouses. But I just cant stand the way it tastes.

4) The weekday quirk
I always wished if there wasn’t a Tuesday among all the other weekdays. Tuesdays have always turned out to be horrible and unlucky for me and on such days, I wouldn’t dare take a decision or venture into anything on purpose. I have been helpless a couple of times, but even then, I must have tried my best to avoid it. Also ask me for a favor on a Tuesday, and you would hear NO from me !

5) The photo quirk
90 % of my snaps would have my trademark Donald Duck smile. But things change the moment I wear a sunglass. I would insist someone to take a side profile snap of mine and for some reason, I would not smile. These are only a few of them :

Another quirk of mine is that I take a lot of my own snaps and relate them to famous quotes, which I call ‘Quotos’; check out my orkut album to understand what I mean. Some say I am obsessed with myself and my brother, after looking at those, even claimed that I have N.P.D. (Narcissist Personality Disorder) !!!

6) The tablet quirk
How does a person have his tablets normally? Swallow them along with water ???

Well, I prefer chewing them. Yup, I literally chew the prescribed tablets and only after that I drink water to cleanse my mouth.

Apart from these, there were a couple of other temporary quirks too. For example, years back, I used to stop speaking to friends of mine who drink or smoke and during my MBA lectures, I visit the loo everyday at 10.20 am; majority of the class would have a check at their watches when I get up at 10.18 to seek permission ! Quriky me, I say !!!

I now tag Verbivorehere, Archana, Sangeetha, Whacky, Su and Rakesh. All the best guys !!!

S.i.B - 6

The S.i.B series, this time, is split into two; too many movies here spoil the fun of writing (and even reading) one such series. The next series would have Hello, Roadside Romeo, Heroes, Aegan, Fashion and whatever I watch this weekend. Yeah ! Yeah ! I know, most of these would be available on original DVDs by now. Hmm..what to do, I was partially blind for a while and wasn’t allowed to watch movies. Restricting movies is something next to corporal punishment for me. Some of the latest releases were watched on pirated DVDs and I hereby express my sincere apologies to those producers and distributors, but at the same time, the movies that some of you come up with, doesn’t deserve to be even watched.

Here is the first set; the movies listed are based on the release dates :

Thirakadha (Screenplay) - Malayalam
After a couple of commercial debacles, director Ranjith has come up with a path breaking movie. Infact, the movie is a good relief for the Malayalam film industry which is going through rough patches. One wishes if only the director stuck to these kinds of movies rather than churning out all those frequent mindless masala flicks. The screenplay is based on the real life romance of Kamal Haasan and Sri Vidhya during the 80’s. Priyamani has done a good job, but looks artificial in some of the emotional scenes while Anup Menon clearly steals the show delivering an excellent performance. Prithviraj takes the movie forward with his narration and has nothing much to do. Recommended. Rating : 3.5 / 5

Kadhalil Vizhunden (Fell in love) - Tamil
Hero loves heroine, proposes her and both fall in love. They elope to live happily but get chased till the end. So whats new, huh? The suspense quotient along with the racy treatment of the screenplay post interval forms the only highlight in Kadhalil Vizhunden, as the first half moves sluggishly. The songs’ including the famous ‘Nakka Mukka’ number appear out of nowhere and at the same time do not take the movie forward in any way. The transformation of Nakul from a plumpy careless teenager from his Boys days to the slim and suave action hero is noteworthy. Nakul is someone to watch out for. Avoidable . Rating : 2.5 / 5

Sakkarakatti (Sugar cube !) - Tamil
Please, cant even review this !! Rating : 0 / 5 (Cant even rate for ARRs songs, they were raped by the way it was picturised)

Raman Thediya Seethai (The Seetha whom Ram searched) - Tamil
It’s the Cheran charm that made this otherwise soap opera watchable. Pasupathi and Nitin Satya has very little to do, but excels in their respective roles. Out of the five heroines, Ramya Nambeesan stands out with her brilliant performance. With an offbeat subject on love, faith, self-confidence, will power and sacrifices, this movie could have been a lot better if it was trimmed. Rating : 2.5 / 5

Drona - Hindi
A slow motion (like how its put in the movie) lethargic superhero, wears the weirdest of costumes (even a dupatta!) and matches his fists against a joker (the villain!) to save umm..err…now what was that? Cant even remember for what it was all about. Torture. Rating : 0.5 / 5 (0.5 for the interval)

Kidnap – Hindi
The funniest movie I have watched in ages !!! The only person perfect for the role was Sanjay Dutt. Imran Khan doesn’t know how to emote and that’s proved once again after his debut. He needs to work on his dialogue delivery too. Minishaa and Vidya, the ladies should have swapped their roles. I cant believe that I actually sat through this !!! Rating 0.5 / 5 ( 0.5 for the final scene picturised on Imran and Minishaa)

Current Favs : Oct 2 - Nov 1

1 Man Mohini from Yuvvraaj (Hindi)
2 Nenjukkul Peididum from Vaaranam Aayiram (Tamil)
3 Kuch Kam from Dostana (Hindi)
4 Kanaa Kaangiren from Aanandha Thaandavam (Tamil)
5 Aavaram Poo from Poo (Tamil)
6 Mar Jawaan from Fashion (Hindi)
7 Tum Ho from Rock On (Hindi)
8 Oh Priya from Twenty 20 (Malayalam)
9 Natta Nada from A Aa E Ee (Tamil)
10 Wheres the Party from Silambattam (Tamil)