The Right Fit

During my school days, I have often wondered the rationale behind inviting local police chief as guest of honour (aka chief guest) to our school's sports day festival. One cannot imagine a more uninspiring persona to grace the occasion. These police chiefs (IG, DIG or DSP etc etc) are not the ones you see in police-officer centered movies. They are not anything close to Alex Pandian or Walter Vetrivel personality. Not even IPS cadre. Most of them will have a long and forlorn face with a huge belly. Not any athlete myself I would feel sorry for my friends/classmates getting medals from these average joes. May be my school management had some vested interest inviting these folks. They are just not the right fit for the occasion let alone inspiring young minds. In sharp contrast to that, I should recall one Mr. Avvai Natarajan having graced our school for a couple of occasions. A scholar of top calibre and a good orator I have seen him captivating young minds - be it his chief guest address or handing over the prizes with a smile and a few pleasantries.

Fast Forwarding to the present - one decent program that airs in SUN TV is "Asatha Povathu Yaauru". People doing stand up comedy or mimicry or enactment of skit etc. Lot of talented participants and good humor too. The program invites some popular personality - tinsel world mostly - as their special guest. They just sit there and provide inputs/suggestions on the performance of those participating. What I found out was some so-called popular cinema personalities, though decent in their on-screen acts, outright lack the quality to be the guest of such functions and pass some decent remarks/comments. Here is some of the best and worst in the episodes I watched -

Worst - Many new heroes (who claim high flung titles and super-star-dom even before their first film hits the screen), T. Rajendar (for the usual self-boasting comments and nothing noteworthy to the participant).

Best - Bhagyaraj (as immensely talented he is, told lot of good tips/info in general to the participants).

My favorite of all - Bharathi Bhaskar - yes, the pattimandram speaker. She was this no non-sense chief guest, relating the participant's performance to related events and telling suggestions on what they can work on to improve their content/style. Put her traditional pattimandram rival Raja on the host desk, it was a feast to watch them conversing on the performance - much like their pattimandram duels. Thats what I mean by "the right fit".

Still:

As I mentioned in my earlier post, today's pic was shot with my new Panasonic LZ8 P&S. The colors came out vividly and so was the sharpness. The ambiance was bit cloudy not sure if it helped the pic. The lining of the masks in the pic, each of different design, gels with today's post and title as well.