Aadal paadal kaadhal enbathu/ Veettukku Veedu Vasappadi

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Dhool.com's SOTD #440 (needs realplayer)

Aadal paadal kaadal enbathu. I was playing a 15 0 chess game on FICS when the song came on. I was listening to Tamil.FM. I couldn't wait for the game to get over, cause I was afraid the song would elude me.
So right there, in the middle of the game, while my opponent was thinking, I opened this page and jotted it down.

Later, I looked up the song, and then I knew why it had resonated with me so well.

The movie came out in 1979, the same year that my dad got transferred to Madras. I had lived in Orissa for 4 years at that point. Madras was the city of my dreams, and in 1979, it was as if a floodgate had been opened. (I stayed in Chennai until I left for the US, 11 years later.)

Anyway, VVV was a movie that I saw with quite a few of my cousins. They'd all come to my house in Ashok Nagar, and then we walked to Vijaya and saw it and walked back in the night. (I must have seen dozens of movies with my cousins, but this one I remember vividly.)

Listen to the song. Pay attention to how S.Janaki starts off with that hum. Great song.

As it turned out, I won that chess game. Maybe I welcome these sorts of interruptions more often. Total concentration hasn't paid off yet.