Calvin and Susie

Your kind attention please.

Just a few posts back, I was talking about the book by Joanne Harris called Gentlemen and Players. Today, my friend gifted me that book as an advance birthday gift :-D So now you know what Ill be upto tonight! ;-)
Books are the best gift in my opinion. They dont wilt, stay forever, and sometimes its like sharing something that you liked with the other person :-)
Just in case if anyone is paying attention ( :-D ),

1. I would like to own a Longines watch like the one Kareena wears in some ad :-D
2. I would love to go on a world tour. I can also settle for an Europe trip, or an all India trip, or a Himalaya trek, or just some hill station or even St. Thomas Mount if you like.
   
3. I would love to have a home theatre system. Imagine - sparsely furnished room, a very comfortable plush diwan, snack of the moment ( I like and dislike snacks seasonally), and Lord of the Rings trilogy playing on the home theatre system.. Some other comparable fantasy will also be welcome. Or just full size Sharukh in DDLJ :-D
4. Lots and lots of books.
5. No worries just laughter and smiles all around.

6-1000on. Many more wishes but then Ill try fulfilling them myself :-D
1000on+1. Oh how can I miss World peace :-D

The motorcycle diaries

Watched a good movie called The motorcycle diaries. It is about the Cuban leader Che Guevara.
When he was studying for medicine, he took a break and went around Latin America on a motorcycle with his friend, Alberto Granado. They had lots of fun and adventure in this trip. In a way, this trip influenced him too. This movie is based on a diary he maintained during this trip.
Alberto Granado is still alive.

On watching this movie or The Constant Gardner, I felt that I am very lucky that I dont live in those places. I have every comfort I want yet I crib so much!! :-D Lesson learnt and hope I remember.

Chennai sangamam

A week long festival in Chennai called Chennai Sangamam starts from today. Apparently "over 400 cultural performances would be held in 60 schools, 20 colleges, public parks, malls, corporate offices and on streets without any entry fee"
This is a great idea as no entry fee ensures that every one will be able to enjoy the festivities. Some carnival spirit in Chennai in the next 6 days.
Well my only crib is that the participants have been practicing in our backyard and they continued their practice until 1.30 in the night yesterday with the loudspeakers ON. Beyond a point, music is more noise than pleasure. Awful. They could have stopped the din at a decent hour. 11 or 12 is what I would call decent.

Trackback on Kalash people

I had talked about the Kalash people in Pakistan, who are apparently the descendants of Alexander's army, many posts back. Shara, who hails from this valley, has posted a comment with a link to gorgeous pictures of his people and his place. Do check them out. (I was excited to get a feedback in this form :-D ) Thanks shara..

There are so many places in the world I'm dying to see.
The book Thief Lord is set in Venice, and the description made me want to visit that place. Thats one of the many drawbacks of nurturing hazaaron khwahishein.. Only a few of these are meant to be realised :-)

Potli mein hari bhari pariyon ke par

Well I was seriously working, and then I just glanced around, spotted Thief Lord lying nearby, felt I deserved a break, and then went on to finish reading the book in one continuous sitting. If only I worked with this fervour! The book is adorable.
Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke is the story of two brothers Prosper and Bo, who being recently orphaned, have run away from their aunt who wants to separate them. They arrive at Venice and join a bunch of kids who are likewise orphans and run-aways and live off by stealing. Actually their group leader Scipio steals and these kids just sell the stolen goods and live off the money. They are doing quite well and live a joyful contented life until a detective on the lookout for the two brothers gets to them. Its a lovely story with surprising twists. It must be very difficult to write books for kids as their attention span is much much shorter.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a cute romantic story set in the French revolution days. More Barbara Cartlandish.
Up next is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have heard a lot about this book. I hope its interesting.
Saw Joanne Harris' Five quarters of an orange in the library and yearned to read her latest books Gentleman Players and the Lollipop Shoes. Last time I checked, Gentleman Players costs some 600 bucks. No way.
Please suggest some book which is interesting without being depressing and very intellectual. Fantasy, Adventure, Humour, Romance, something.
Buonanotte (Good night in Italian) :-D

On Valentines!

I will wake up soon.. 5 minutes pl

Hi all :-)
I have been quite lethargic after the marathon sessions and had almost zero interest in almost everything. So much that my colleague says I have transformed into a guest physicist!! Ok well I stopped short of telling him that I have been that for the past 3 years or so. Outcome: I have a deadline for submitting a paper tomorrow and I have not yet started working on it. Im praying for miracles. He he thankfully I still believe in miracles.
I saw this nice movie called Tum Bin. psst psst Priyanshu's eyes were nicer. I generally fall for nice eyes and sweet smiles. Anyway the song of the moment is
Koi fariyaad tere dil mein dabi ho jaise
toone aankhon se koi baat kahi ho jaise

har mulaqaat pe mehsoos yahi hota hai
mujhse kuch teri nazar pooch rahi ho jaise

raah chalte huye ye gumaan hota hai
wo nazar chup ke mujhe dekh rahi ho jaise

Women gossip. Men gossip harder.
And I totally detest men who gossip maliciously (if you get what I mean). Had an encounter of this kind recently with a couple of them and ughh I find it hard to respect them now.

Saturday qualifies as a weekend. Yes thats not the accepted norm for a graduate student. But a weekend for me means the liberty to work as I wish and spend time as I wish. Many a times I have ended up taking a day off on Saturday and working on Sundays. So I really hate it when people assign tasks on weekends. Atleast courtesy demands that they let me know well in advance so that I reschedule my plans.

Indibloggies nominations are up. I was excited to find some blogs there that I track quite sincerely. I ended up adding some more to my stuffiread list too.

A lot of debate goes on about India shining and not shining. Another aspect of this debate is the youth of this country. We have achievers and then we have the roadside eve-teasing romeos cum college students. Arent those the ones who later end up being unemployed! Why cant they learn from their seniors' plights. Its a darned nuisance when they sing and create a ruckus in the buses. Its definitely not cool.

I think Ill work from tomorrow.
Have a good productive week ahead :-)

How rich?

In my thesis work, I talk about a rich phase diagram that we obtain. My friend today asked me how rich is the phase diagram really? :-D
I think its very very rich as I have spent 5 best years of my life studying it. I could have done so many things instead and reduced the count on the khwaahishein list. So its priceless isnt it! And what price! My confusions have increased manifold at the end of it. Two conflicting ideas in these couplets

Tadbeer ke dast-e-zareen se taqdeer numaayan hoti hai
Qudrat bhi madad farmaati hai jab koshish-e-insaan hoti hai
------
Haathon ki chand lakeeron ka
ye khel hai sab taqdeeron ka :-)

but I guess the order in which they should be remembered matters.

Yahooo Ill be done with my thesis talks tomorrow. One more month of toil and Ill be out.

Of late I have been getting negative feedback from my blabspot. I wish I could put a for-friends-alone firewall on this blog. Im sure there must be something.

Books in my kitty (lots actually :-D )

1. Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
2. Sherlock Holmes ( This edition has illustrations too, I have never read a Sherlock Holmes before so this is my introduction to the legend)
3. St Claire by Enid Blyton ( I still love them :-D )
4. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (Im told that this story is heartwrenchingly romantic. I have saved this for tomorrow night :-D )
5. Some book by Valerio Manfredi (Last Legion author- LL had a gripping narrative so hoping for something similar in this too)
   
6. A couple of M&Bs (nothing more refreshing!! One can switch off the brains and enjoy them. )

Snippets

• The whole of Chennai is teeming with mosquitoes. These dheet mossies are resistant to Allouts too. So a tough time with them.
  
• Big Brother made top news for a few days and died down. Much was said about Shilpa being a B-grade actress, Goody being the uneducated and her educational trip to India. Hope she doesnt end up hating India in the process. A bit of gandhigiri will do the job here I guess. But then wasnt too much importance given to a publicity stunt! Im sure an average Indian settled abroad faces much worser slurs. Thats why I believe India is for Indians. We are immigrants elsewhere. Lets start respecting our own people first. Respect from others will follow.
  
• My number is registered with KBC :-D Im waiting for the computerji to select my number and Sharukh here I come :-D My friends say even if I reach the hot seat, Ill be tongue tied there as Ill be busy drooling non-stop at him. Nazron mein bhar loon main thoda :-D
  
• I hope my prince charming better hurries up or he will really miss me :-(
  

Inkheart

While reading a book, have you ever wanted to enter that world of make-believe? Or have you ever felt an aura around you of the fantasy world created by the book ?
Something like this happens in the fantasy Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. In this book, characters from a book come alive in this world. It is a very interesting read if you love fantasies. I found it un-putdownable and was sad later that it got over. But to my delight, I discovered that this is part of a trilogy. Second part is called Inkspell and the last one is not yet released. Im waiting to read the 2nd one. My birthday is coming closer and if you know when it is, you know what to do ;-)

Cornelia Funke is a german writer and the books we read are translations of her work. The other book I read is called Dragon Rider. Very interesting again. Her Thief Lord is the best-seller Im told. Yet to read that.
Have a nice weekend :-)

Salaam-e-Ishq

Salaam-e-Ishq was screened in OAT as part of a fund-raiser and I absolutely loved it :-D Inspite of being abrupt in parts, this was a total timepass. Ill say that I wouldnt have enjoyed this movie elsewhere but OAT has the best ambience possible for almost any movie. The clear sky, bright stars, full moon, and an audience which was there to enjoy itself added up to make this movie memorable for me :-D

John and Vidya Balan really look cute together, their part was also very beautiful. John's proposal to Vidya in the movie was very beautiful according to me. He says "lets create a lifetime of memories" :-)

Govinda was awesome!! I never enjoyed his comedy roles before this movie. Salman-Priyanka and Anil-Juhi part dragged a bit. Im a fan of Akshaye since his Humraaz days. His comedy tracks rock.
This movie represented Hindi movies on a big scale :-D Like the scene where Govinda stops a wedding with the typical Ruko ye shaadi nahi ho sakti :-D or when the wedding resumes, another guy enters and says ruko ye.. They could laugh at their own film making style - at all that we love in the movies.
Movie was looong. A full three and a half hours! But I enjoyed every minute of it :-D
I must warn you that you shouldnt go by my review as among all my friends I was the only one who enjoyed it :-D Go prepared for entertainment and you ll get it.

Im waiting for the day when Ill really laugh without something nagging at the back of my mind. These days nothing I do is with full enjoyment. I forgot my troubles for 3.5 hours and had a blast. So yes I loved Salaam-e-Ishq :-)