Sunday, April 11, 2010

Persistence hunting : How our ancestors used to earn their 'Burgers'



...the 8 hr chase has come to an end...the hunter pays tribute to his quarry's courage and strength ; with ceremonial gestures that ensures that it's spirit returns to the desert sands which it came from..

... while it was alive he lived and breathed with it and felt its every movement in his own body...and at the movement of it's death he shared it's pains...

...He gives thanks to the life he has taken so that he may sustain the life of his family waiting for him...


Having seen Avatar in all its 3D glory in the theater some time back, I was seeing it yesterday on DVD by chance. The story as such is like a 70s Hindi movie but then its the whole colurful 3D package that the audience loved...Anyway while seeing the movie, specifically in the scene where the hero completes a successful hunt and thanks the animal for sharing its energy, a faint memory of seeing something similar in National Geography cropped up in my mind...some good old web search (yes it was google) brought me to what I was looking for...Persistence hunting.

To someone who had ordered Jake's special Cheese Burger for lunch, the video was a reality check and reminded how we take the daily food for granted...Philosophy about earning ones own food is good but not the topic I had in mind ...

Persistence hunting is a hunting style where the hunter chases down his prey till the end...its practiced by only one tribe in the whole world even now and the video is worth a watch...its a good one...of course as an icing, you have Sir David Attenborough narrating the scene for you...



Friday, April 9, 2010

Chennai Memories & favourite part of Polladavan Movie

After being away from Chennai for around a month, for the first time I thought for some time about my Chennai friends today...Actually I was seeing one of my most favorite portions of the Polladavan movie (guilty of the habit of watching specific scenes of movies repeatedly when bored ).

The scene has great comedy, superb background music, showcases the tensions of nonreciprocating love and comradeship (Disclaimer : YMMW).




Now i have watched this portion of the movie many many times...but today it brought back the memories of Chennai weekends...dont ask me why...maybe its because of hearing Tamil, or maybe becuase it was seeing friends spending time together...

We used to have a gang of 10/12 guys who used to meet on Fridays and Saturdays and do nothing except hang around and talk about anything and everything under the sun and after mid night, we would go to Gopal Chettans Tea Shop and have sizzling omelet and hot Tea..The talks would resume once we are back and continued many a time till the wee hours of the morning...




Times have changed and some of us have moved to other places but i am sure that every once in a while we all think about those weekends spend on top of terrace or on the wall overlooking the vast ground, laughing and pulling each other legs while waiting for the Kerala Barbaque 'in Velachery Style' getting ready...Well that's another post in itself...but later...not now... for tonight my dear friends, is dedicated to going through the photographs of those weekends...

There's a saying that revenge is dish that tastes best when its cold ... I think such a person just has to try the dish of nostalgia and i am sure he will be hooked for life