Thillai

Proud Indian. Cricket addict. Cinema lover. Bibliophile. Long distance runner.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Hey @ShaunakSA, just got done with the conclusion of Let Bhutto eat grass. A big thank you for keeping the spy fiction as real as possible and kudos to the humongous research undertaken for the 4 books. Waiting for your next one
-sincere fan

[Sumanth Raman @sumanthraman]

@Rama_Krishnan Why only TV channels sir? Why not @the_hindu too,which for the last 5 years was effectively an English Murasoli..

[Alagappan Vijayakumar @IndianMourinho]

The whole argument collapses the moment you look at what actually happened. You are the reason your alliance partners won only 2-3. With TVK, they would not only have contested more seats, they would also have won more, and comfortably. They were invited to join too.

DMK keeps making its own case worse. It already looks like a minimum of 10 years. If they keep talking and acting the way they have over the last week and a half, it could be even longer. Read the room, learn, or risk becoming another ADMK.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Inumada ithu namathu pogala. With the new cabinet expansion DMK's mirage of social justice is buried. Unless Vijay royally messes up or we have an extreme black swan event, next 10 years is sealed for TVK!

[Kumar @Thesun01thesun]

DMK knew very well what was cooking before the election. Don’t underestimate them , in the game of Chess, sometimes you need to sacrifice to gain big. If Congress thinks it’s playing its cards well, please wait and watch. Again, I want to reiterate: @mkstalin is much more dangerous than Kalaignar @kalaignar89.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Tonight is going to decide the next decade. TVK completely rattles the Dravidams. Whatever little respect I had for Thiruma is gone irrespective of what he chooses now. Once anyone other than Vijay takes oath as CM, TVK will rule for more than a decade!

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Exactly this. Vijay has come this far which I strongly believe is beyond even his wildest imaginations. Now all he has to do is sit back and watch the downfall of dravidam circus, if the alliance happens. Interesting days ahead that is going to shape a decade

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

@COREprate Talks definitely happened and almost got finalized too. Sane people like Kanimozhi didn't agree and dmk backed. CPM Gen Sec just confirmed it to India Today that dmk asked them to support aiadmk.
Both kazhagams would have been buried had this happened

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Exactly this. Vijay has come this far which I strongly believe is beyond even his wildest imaginations. Now all he has to do is sit back and watch the downfall of dravidam circus, if the alliance happens. Interesting days ahead that is going to shape a decade

[Rajiv Krishna @rajivkrishn86]

If DMK and ADMK ever decide to join hands to form a government in Tamil Nadu, the smartest thing TVK could do is probably… sit back, relax, and let them. 🙂

Because the moment the two biggest “rivals” start looking like political roommates, TVK’s entire “we are the alternative” pitch practically markets itself for free. Sometimes the best campaign strategy is simply letting your opponents explain your relevance better than you ever could.

Big day for TN. Lets see who blinks first.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

What a stupid take

[Sumanth Raman @sumanthraman]

Looks like DMK may have asked the Communists and VCK to support TVK for now. Vijay's Govt may be at the mercy of the DMK. Interesting.....

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Should have stated atleast from now journalists shouldn't be mouthpieces of any party. The likes of you, N Ram, Nakheeran Gopal and whole lot of others were joyously riding the dmk ecosystem. There was no difference btwn you lot and Delhi media

[Dhanya Rajendran @dhanyarajendran]

I hope after this election, all TN parties will stop giving bribes!

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Going to be an unprecedented debut even if half of this is true. Have a ton of reservations for these numbers. Waiting for May 4th

[Rajdeep Sardesai @sardesairajdeep]

BIGGEST EXIT POLL result
So far : @AxisMyIndia predicting TVK to get 98-120 in TN,
Closely followed by DMK alliance at 92-110 and then AIADMK way behind at 22-32
If numbers right, this is a BLOCKBUSTER debut ! @IndiaToday

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Defining knock!! So happy for him. Well done @IamSanjuSamson

Waiting for @ashwinravi99 to do justice to this knock in his analysis

[BCCI @BCCI]

Cometh the hour, cometh Sanju Samson! 🫡

9⃣7⃣*(50) - A knock for the ages to take #TeamIndia into the semi-finals 👏

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/ur4pr8Bi3K

#T20WorldCup | #MenInBlue | #INDvWI | @IamSanjuSamson

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

This is how journalism needs to be done. Continue the good work @omjasvinMD

[Omjasvin M D @omjasvinMD]

#Breaking TOI IMPACT - CRRT increases daily entry slots in Tholkappia Poonga from 500 slots per day to 3000. To take effect from Feb 1, announces TN govt.

[Suraj Kumar Talreja @suritalreja]

I agree with @chiragbarjatya thoughts.

I got married at 30. Our initial plan was to wait for 2–3 years before having a baby. But my wife was clear - she wanted to experience motherhood early.

Before our first anniversary, we became parents.

And honestly, that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us. No success, no money, no milestone comes close to the feeling of holding your child for the first time.

You can only feel it once you become a parent - words can’t explain it.

Also, believe it or not - having a child gets much harder as you move into your late 30s or 40s.
Not just emotionally, but physically too.

Your energy, stamina, and patience aren’t the same. And nature designed our bodies to handle parenthood better in our earlier years.

This is my personal opinion.

I’m not here to convince anyone - just sharing what life taught me early on:

Sometimes, the “perfect timing” is now. ❤️

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

@SriniMaama16 @SriniMaama16 Watch this discussion if you haven't already. Just too good. Virumandi and HeyRam too after this. https://t.co/z7e1GfPuft

[Sairam Krishnan @_sairamkrishnan]

This is most probably bait, but I will bite.

Chennai is a romantic's dream. The early mornings by the sea, the coffee in hotels your grandfathers ate at, all those celluloid fantasies that were literally the songs your father sang for your mother, the sultry, sexy afternoons, and the evenings that seem a respite from life itself. Add an Illayaraja tune to any picture of Chennai, and it becomes a frame filled with yearning.

Hate all you want, India's first modern city, and still probably the most liveable metro we have, is its own thing. More than a place, more than a business centre. For Tamils - whatever kind, Indian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian - it is our centre of gravity, a kind of home.

So leave it alone if you don't get it. We belong to it, and it definitely belongs to us.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

@PasupathyMasi Sir thanks for doing this role. Am still feeling the impact hours after I left the theatre. Will be really disappointed if you don't get recognition for this.
#BisonKaalamadan

[Pasupathy Masilamani @PasupathyMasi]

Thankyou @mari_selvaraj for your trust in me throughout this project It's been an incredible journey to bring this story to life together.Proud to be part of this team #Bison @beemji @ApplauseSocial @NeelamStudios_ #DhruvVikram @anupamahere @rajisha_vijayan @Tisaditi

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

@mari_selvaraj keep making these movies no matter the oppression suppression trolls some ignorant people make. Loved the craft and Pasupathy's character arc.
Ameer's dialogues post the scene with Anupama and Lal's with Dhruv is most needed in that milieu.
#BisonKaalamadan

[Sudhir Srinivasan @sudhirsrinivasn]

Many thoughts on Bison Kaalamaadan:

A favourite moment for me in Bison is when Kittan seems to be regaining faith in the world. He’s been absorbed by someone from the supposed enemy faction, and for a while, there’s hope as he's playing kabaddi with them. But then, as always, something happens, and if he had any illusion that he’d ever be seen as an equal among them, it shatters instantly. All eyes are on him... eyes not just from today, but from generations before him. Eyes that have always stared at him from childhood. He’s asked to leave... and so, he's heartbroken... and he runs and runs. What else is he supposed to do?

Bison Kaalamaadan is not a sports film. If it were, the running would be training. But these shots of Kittan running aren’t about form or athleticism (though Dhruv is magnificent). They’re about psychological distress. They’re about flight, not fitness. It’s why when he learns he hasn’t been selected, he almost breaks down and says, “Sir, let me go for a run. I’ll feel better.” In a better world, Kittan would run only for sport... not from birth.

It feels almost wrong to admire the beauty of such shots... the top angles, the silhouettes... but they are gorgeous in Bison. And purposeful too. They capture Kittan’s isolation. One particular shot: Kittan doing push-ups in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water. The healing power of nature. You wonder how horrible his life might be if it weren't for sport as a distraction, as purpose.

Here, the sport, kabaddi, is one of breathless urgency. Time is always against you, the smallest missteps prove to be really costly. That dynamic mirrors Kittan’s life. Every time he gives in to instinct, he is punished brutally. It’s the same physical instinct that makes him brilliant at kabaddi, incidentally. But here, in his world, it brings horror. His father (Pasupathy, in superb form) pleads with him never to fight, not even against injustice. But how does one separate instinct in the field from instinct in life?

The film moves with the same breathlessness as its protagonist: murders in the opening stretch, national trials, a goat incident that escalates shockingly. At every turn, danger... Mari’s frames are full of details even during the chaos... the reaction of dogs, stray objects like aruvamanai... While we learn about young Kittan’s affection for Rani, we’re parallelly told the tragic love story of his sister. While Kittan’s head crashes onto the road, we see his father bathing, remembering his own kabaddi days. The film has all these layers... of history, of memory.

It would be lazy and unjust to dismiss such films as ‘oppression cinema’. Mari’s world isn’t binary. It’s complex and kind... in fact, too complex for Kittan to process. He keeps saying, “Enakku puriyala… thalaila bomb vecha madhri irukku.” The film gives us an upper-caste leader (Lal) who looks beyond caste when it comes to sport... and a man from Kittan’s own community who disowns him. The oppressor-oppressed boundaries are crisscrossing here.

There’s a moment when someone asks Kittan to relax, and he says, “But I don’t know how.” That is the tragedy of his existence. When he’s finally selected from the trials, his reaction isn’t joy... Watch his face. It's disbelief. His body language says, “Can I afford to believe this?” Dhruv is extraordinary in such portions; so is Pasupathy, as he's pleading with policemen, with his own son to let go of the game... as he's trying to figure out what being a good dad means.

Tarantino once said certain artists are touched by cinema. Mari Selvaraj is one such. He conjures visceral emotion from the simplest ideas. There’s a sequence where Kittan, broken, dances in open land at night. Nivas’ music and the filmmaking turns pain into performance. And Mari keeps making beautiful choices: when Kittan is picked for nationals, he doesn’t look for his lover first; he embraces his sister. Such heartfelt, unusual choices.

For me, the film went far and beyond sports tropes. Its stakes are deeper. That's why that national win between familiar international rivals didn't really move me much. For me, the real victory wasn't of the points tally. As the film itself acknowledges, it's that Kittan is playing. Kittan playing kabaddi, Mari Selvaraj making cinema. It tells you anyone can do anything... and isn't that the hope all sports films aim to sow?

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

I will never understand the fetish of staying in rented houses. I really hope young people don't listen to this nonsense being peddled by CAs and Finfluencers about not owning a home.

[CA Paaras Gangwal @ThetaVegaCap]

Middle Class Trap:-

A 27 year old got a job of 1.5L per month

He bought a home worth 80L with 20 years of EMI

Welcome to corporate slavery

#EMI #Investing #FinancialPlanning

[Professor @Masterji_UPWale]

I was trained to fight Wars.
She was never trained for the kind of battles, she fought every day.

When I left for NDA, I was 18.
A BOY full of pride,
Carrying a steel trunk and dreams.
When I got Commissioned,
I was 22 : A MAN in uniform.

But the day I Married her,
I realised the true meaning of courage...
Not in Bullets, but in Patience.

The first time I got posted to the border,
She didn’t cry.
She just smiled and said,

“Bas phone karte rehna.”

And when the phone didn’t connect for days,
She still smiled when her parents asked, “Kaisa hai beta?”

She’s been smiling through uncertainty ever since.

She celebrates #Diwali by herself.

Lights diyas in every corner of our small SF quarter...
Says it makes her feel I’m home.

One year, the electricity went out.
She told me later how she sat in darkness, lighting candles one by one, whispering to my Mom :
“He must be lighting diyas on the border too.”

That night, I was under a tarpaulin tent, eating cold poori and pickle from a dented mess tin.

#Karwachauths come and go.

She dresses up, puts on sindoor, opens the video call, and smiles through a weak network..

“Main dekh liya, tum khana khao.”

The call drops before I can even reply.

She handles everything.
From paying bills online to fixing the water motor.
When the car broke down,
she learned to push-start it.
When I couldn’t come home for medical emergencies,
she sat in the hospital alone,
praying to every god she knew.

Through it all, she never complains.
Not once.

She once had a promising career
a steady job, her own desk, colleagues, and a sense of independence she had built with quiet pride.

But when I got my first peace posting,
She made a choice most won’t understand.
She left it all behind..
Not because she had to,
but because she wanted to be with us.
She said, “What’s the point of building a career if it keeps us apart?”
Since then, every posting, every move, every new city has been her project ..
Rebuilding a home from scratch, Without complaint,
Without applause.

She keeps my medals polished but tells me softly..
“Don’t bring more medals,
if they cost us more years Apart.”

I’ve realised that the bravest salute isn’t given on the parade ground..
it’s given silently...
..by a woman waving from a railway platform.

They don’t wear stars on their shoulders,
but they carry the weight of our absence,
With grace.

So if you ever meet a soldier,
Salute twice ..
once for him,
and once for his Wife
that keeps him strong.

Because I may have fought for the Nation,
but she fought for my life.
And she won every single time.

❤️ To every military wife,
YOU are the unseen medal
We proudly wear. 🫡

#KarwaChauth2025 ❤️ #Love

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

My car broke down today, so I booked an auto home. It was a brand-new electric one. The driver, Vivek Singh, looked to be in his forties: quiet, focused, the kind of man who keeps to himself.

At a busy red light, a delivery boy pulled up beside us and, eyeing the auto, asked, “Ek charge mein kitna chal jaata hai?”

Vivek started replying in excitement, as if he’d been waiting for that question. “Company 210 bolti hai, lekin 190 hai. Ek charge me poora din nikal jaata hai, chalate jao, chalate jao. 20–25 ride ho jaati hain, charge khatam hi nahi hota.” The delivery boy asked about earnings. He shrugged: “Din ka 3–3.5 hazaar ho jaata hai. Koi ghate ka sauda nahi.”

Signal green. We moved ahead. But the delivery boy was still interested. He started driving next to us and asked, “Kitne me pada?” Vivek said, “Interest mila kar 6 lakh. 13–13 hazar ki 44 kisht hai. 70–80 mahina mai kama leta hu, usme se kisht aaram se nikal jaati hai. Kyu kisi ke yaha 15–20 ki naukri karna?”

The delivery boy laughed and rode off, but now I was curious. I asked, 20–25 ride matlab poora din hi bahar rehte honge. “Subah 8 nikalta hu, raat 10-11 wapas,” he said.

I said, fir aapki life kya rahi. He replied, “Agar kul ko gareebi se bahar nikalna hai to kisi ek peedhi ko apna sukh chhod kar ji-jan se mehnat karni padegi. Ek baar ghar ban jaaye, bachhe kuch ban jaayein, fir jiyenge apni zindagi.” He said that with the same excitement, without any complaint, no gareebi, majboori ka rona.

He dropped me at my stop. I watched him merge into traffic, a quiet man doing what’s expected from a man: providing. While mothers get due love, care, affection, and respect for what they sacrifice for the family, and rightly so, fathers’ sacrifice is generally downplayed as basic duty.

I hope his children grow up to make all this worth it for him. That, at least, is the bare minimum he deserves.

[Thillai @thillainathan02]

Last of his kind. I don't see anyone in the horizon who can do his role in world cricket right now. Go well Puji @cheteshwar1
Bangalore 2017, 2010 series against Aus, 2014 SL and ofcourse the GOAT'ed Aus tours of 2018, 21! Proud to have followed your journey! 💙
#cricketlegacy

[Cheteshwar Pujara @cheteshwar1]

Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field - it’s impossible to put into words what it truly meant. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket.

Thank you for all the love and support! 🙏🇮🇳