Warrior of the Light

If u like Paulo Coelho's books, you might like reading this too.

Books and papers

I read Pygmalion by GB Shaw a couple of days back. The movie My Fair Lady is an exact adaptation of this book except for the songs. But the songs have only enhanced the movie's charm. As I read the book, I could recall the movie very clearly. GP and AH have enacted their roles perfectly :-). The book in itself is very interesting though I'm a bit hesitant in trying out GB Shaw's other works as I generally stay away from heavy reading. So, I don't know what they are like. Long time back, I had similar plans to try out Don Quixote. I haven't done that yet. The book size scares me. I finished books like LOTR, Gone with the Wind, Far pavilions, etc in a couple of days but those books could hold my attention. But Im afraid to try the serious ones.

Currently, I'm reading Jim Corbett's Jungle Lore. I didn't realise that I had already crossed the 5th chapter. Finally, I had to put down the book as it was pretty late at night and tigers generally play the lead in my nightmares :-D. Jim Corbett has led such an adventurous life ! Our day-to-day life is so dull in comparison :-D.

Kumaun or rather the pahari stories hold some charm. Its an equal delight to read Ruskin Bond. Their love for the mountains shows in their stories.

Why can't the journal papers be this interesting !! :-( I have to go through a couple of them now :-((

114!!!

I again paid a library fine of 114/ :-( Ill never learn. Booohooooooooooooooooo

Lakshya

Saw Lakshya yesterday. A very good movie. Made an impression :-)
Have a nice weekend :-)

My ramblings

A really long time since I blogged and so many events in this period!! So I guess the jumble which I call my thoughts have accumulated and hence m afraid this will be a long post :-D

This month particularly has been a tough one for so many thousands..
Starting with the October 8 earthquake :-(
Even in normal times, its a tough life for people living in such terrains. Its frightening to imagine the hardships they must be facing now. And not to say the villages which have been wiped out without a trace. I wonder if they were on the map even before the earthquake. Tragedies of that scale can't be put in a few bland words so I'll refrain here. Whether those people lived in "the paradise" here or not, I hope they get to live in paradise after this.

Many of my friends had remarked that this time Diwali and Eid will be celebrated almost at the same time and hence there was a joint festive atmosphere everywhere. But then, the inhuman dummies had to interfere and spoil it for everyone. Yes- the Delhi Bomb blasts. I call them dummies cos calling them beasts insults the beasts. They have been brainwashed so thoroughly that taking lives doesn't affect their conscience. And these people talk about Jihad!! The earliest stories in Qur'an condemn such killings. Was it Prophet Adam's son who killed his brother and was condemned forever? How can they even celebrate their festival after making it a black day for so many hundreds! I have heard so many conjectures about these bomb blasts from people. One, after their force being weakened by the earthquake, the militants wanted to make their presence known. Two, this was such an effective way to bring about a communal divide and thankfully it didn't succeed like the Godhra set-up. Three, this is a good way of bringing about a breach in the apparently improving Indo-Pak relations. Four, this was in protest to the Red Fort sentence. I think if these people are captured, they deserve worser punishments than death. Well, hundreds of brains and hundreds of conjectures.
I think the Imams who were very active few days back issuing fatwas on Imrana and Sania's skirts should come out in huge numbers and issue fatwas on such criminals who spoil the name of Islam for their mercenary aims.
Personally, I have spent a part of my childhood in Delhi and I have fond memories of shopping in Sarojini Nagar and Chandni Chowk (well not-so-fond-memories in CC cos of the sleazy men who seem to exist everywhere). I love that city and I was shocked to see that being targeted.

Then we had floods in Chennai!! Thats a news cos it hardly ever rains here and it truly poured when it rained here. yeah I wasn't caught in it but I was surprised to see the pictures in the newspapers. One could hardly believe it. As is usual, only the poor bear the brunt of nature's furies :-(

Then the train accident in AP! Each story these days on the newschannels has been a bad news.

There has been a debate going on down south here about what should be the decorum followed by the youth these days and such hilarious arguments have been put forth! A "lady" mind u a "lady" says that girls should pin up the duppattas in the right places cos indecent clothes make even the decent men think indecently :-)) What about the hundreds like us who wear the most modest clothes and still get teased in the buses!! Putting forth such ridiculous arguments only gives them license to do what they want. Im sure they will tease a girl even if she is covered from head to toe in purdah. I think such morals should be taught to them right when they are in their cradles. And these ladies play a vital role there. Like my friend says, what makes the men think that they have the freedom to expose their hairy legs in bermudas but can't stand the same in girls :-D

Anyways sleepless me rambling on endlessly. Will stop here. Belated Happy Diwali, Eid mubarak and Have a nice weekend :-)

Garfield

Garfield has such strong fundaes on food and sleeping that Im planning to learn something from him :-D check this out .
There was once a comics strip where G says " you don't take naps. the naps take you" so true!! :-D Thats a cat with an attitude!

I completed 1 year of blogging this September. Why do I blog ? - for the same reason people write diaries. But why do people write diaries? Its just a catalogue of thoughts, impressions, etc etc.. Lets see how long I continue blogging. :-)

Iran, the mess and the good old days

I was disappointed by India's decision to vote against Iran. I used to say that Im pretty anti-US and won't ever live there. I used to be proud that India was not a puppet to US and was quite independent. But if India actually starts following their diktats, where does one run to now! I hope India rectifies this blunder. I dont even see the need to collaborate on the civil nuclear energy front. I thought we were quite self-reliant in that sector !
badde log baddi baddi baatein.. apne palle nahin padhti ye sab :-(
Whats unbelievable is that nations still haven't learnt any lessons from the Iraq fiasco ! Maybe every nation is busy safeguarding their own interests. But come on! what can a country which can't cope with a natural disaster in its own homeland do to others. Oh maybe it will use its WMD on the "errants"!!

All said and done I hope we get back to the NAM policies of which we were an integral part. Infact even as a kid, I was proud of India being a part of NAM.

Very hungry now. Hope there is something good in the mess. Rather than the food in our "Mega Mess", what sucks more is the attitude of the servers. They seem to think we peck on food which can get very irritating when we return back after a day of hard work. So every mealtime, we have to ask for more. Reminds me of Oliver Twist asking for more. One would think they were giving us food in charity. He he that place is unexpectedly turning out to be a good training ground for us to fight for our "rights". Whats pathetic is that its supposed to be the last place for such a thing to happen.

I suddenly recalled the old classic song "ye zindagi usi ki hai" from the vintage movie "Anarkali". Was listening to that now. Beena Roy was oh-so-gorgeous and I actually don't remember the male actor in the movie. Was it Pradeep Kumar? He he my grandpa looked like PK in his younger days :-D These were the movies which we lapped up so eagerly in our childhood days. I don't recall my childhood days much, for which my friends usually make fun of me :-D. But I do remember these movies, and the days I spent in my hometown in those days very clearly. I think I was more self-centered even as a child, in the sense that I had my own private world and was always busy in that :-) So I dont recall anything that happened to others :-D After all, we pisceans are famous for being dreamy :-D

Movies and themes

I saw Salaam Namaste a couple of days back. A friend said its not my type of movie and that set me thinking whether we should really look for ideologies or themes in movies.
According to me SN was a very confused kind of movie. It was a fun movie in the beginning but very loud in the 2nd half and reminded me of Chalte Chalte (watching it was a painful experience) . Lousy ending too. What did they want to show? 1st half says live-in's can be a paradise. True. We can chuck the guy whenever we wish unlike marriage where one has to suffer with the wrong person for the whole life for the same reason that live-ins are taboo here - divorce is as much frowned upon in the conservative societies as live-ins. 2nd half of the movie says "but marriage is the best bet".
Kuch kuch hota hai says love grows out of friendship. Dil to pagal hai says friendship need not mean love. Paheli was a big-time googlee. I'm still confused about what it wanted to show.
I think the best option is not to search for morals in the movie. Its just a story which is supposed to keep you entertained for 3 hours.
The situations shown in the movies are/need not be a part of every person's life. Everyone lives a different life and there can be as many circumstances as there are people. So, I feel society should also let the person live as they wish. True that we get only one life to live and we live that life according to how society wants us to live like. But then whats the whole point of this cycle of birth, survival and death? If drifting is what we are supposed to do, then why create this cycle at all. Surely, there must have been some greater purpose behind all this!
I also saw Madagascar last night. ( Last few days, watching movies has been the only productive thing I have been doing :-D ) The movie was hilarious and I want to watch it again. This was screened in the hostel under the open sky and was a late night affair. Looking forward to many more such get-togethers. :-)

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Saw a cute movie called Socha Na tha A low key movie and very endearing :-)

..

I repeat

Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ki har khwahish pe dam nekle
Bahut nikle mere armaan magar phir bhi kam nikle

:-(

Nothing ever happens here !!

My crib these days has been that nothing ever happens here! Like somebody has said
Subah hoti hai shaam hoti hai
Zindagi yun hi tamaam hoti hai

Life becomes monotonous after a point. My activities in the past few days have been restricted to shuttling between my room and lab. So I have been doing little somethings to please myself like solving crosswords, listening to music whenever i can (liked a bhupinder collection. will get it soon) , watching an occasional movie, treating myself to chocolates occasionally and the latest is by putting in jhankar beats in my day to day life :-D
So I have become a major crossword buff. I still can't solve it completely without the previous day's paper but I'm improving :-D
I saw My Fair lady (again) and To Kill a Mocking Bird this week. MFL is awesome and can be seen n number of times. Audrey Hepburn is very adorable in the movie. And Rex Harrison as Prof. Higgins is hilarious. No wonder these movies are called classics. I intend to read GB Shaw's Pygmalion now :-)
TKaMB had Gregory Peck and two very cute kids. Its a very faithful adaptation of a book by the same name. The movie leaves behind an impression on the viewer.
We had seen Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn a couple of years back in an American Film Festival screening in Chennai. As usual, this trip was not preplanned and was more memorable for the same reason. We don't go out on such outings anymore :-( Anyways, AH was a princess in the movie who escapes her boring life. She happens to meet GP who is a reporter. He gives her shelter with the intention of getting a scoop on her story. They eventually fall in love but then the princess decides not to shirk her responsibilty and gets back to her royal duties.
AH was so convincing as a princess in this movie and she was equally exceptional as a flower girl in MFL. GP was very handsome in both RH and TKaMB. I guess God has stopped making such handsomes anymore :-D I noticed that Dev Anand's mannerisms resemble GP's a lot :-D
Yesterday's movie here was Catwoman. It was unintentionally hilarious. I saw only the 1st half. Couldn't sit beyond that. I think Halle Berry has more attitude than what was shown here. Anyways I wasted an hour there.

I read this US congressman's comments on our Foreign minister and was so shocked and amused. Our Indian ministers show more taste than that. They might prefer to call their Indian colleagues colourful names but they are most respectful towards the foreigners :-D ( I don't know if its age old habit but I have noticed this among the students here too. They might be carelessly rude towards the other fellow students but they are oh-so-polite and sweet to the foreigners :-D Its fun to watch them.)
The whole world has been mocking/berating/despising/condemning US for "liberating and democratising" Iraq and Afghanistan. And they are back on track with the same policies for Iran and Syria. And they think that anybody who does not agree with their policy is dense!!!!! How dense can that be !
I read an article which said that as far as americans are concerned, the other nations don't exist. Well it seems now that as far as Ams are concerned, parts of their own nation don't exist as was shown in the New Orleans tragedy. Mails have been circulating these days comparing NO and Mumbai floods and how efficient it was here.
We Indians might be loud and expressive but that helps in every way. We stick together and help each other out in calamities. Within a year we have had Tsunami, Gujarat floods, Mumbai floods etc but we are back on track :-D and we provided relief materials to US!! What defines a developed nation ??
Sania Mirza gets a loud support everywhere she plays as we Indians are everywhere !!! :-D Ok we have had out share of riots but they are more politically motivated rather than being the pulse of the nation.
As much I see around me, I think right now, India is the best place for Indians to stay :-D

Magic in the air..

I have been hopping in and out of the magical world the past few days. I wish real life also had a bit of magic in it..

I read two really good books belonging to two completely different genre -
Harry Potter- Half Blood Prince

Well for those who haven't read it yet I advise them to check this website out as the rest of my monologue on this book might be a spoiler for them.
I liked this part better than the previous book The Order of Phoenix. I think OoP was a bit monotonous and a bit dull. HBP has more variety and spice in it. Ok I admit all that stuff between Ron and Hermione was a bit boring but new insights into Voldemorts life were interesting. All the while I felt Voldemort is the HBP and it turned out to be Snape!! And I think Dumbledore's death after a seemingly wasted expedition seemed out of place. I'm sure that chain has a more vital role to play and Dumbledore's role doesn't end here.
An interesting analysis on Dumbledore's death has been given here. Going through the website, I realised how passionate some Harry Potter fans could be. :-)

Second book I read was Joanne Harris' Blackberry wine.

I found it exceptionally good. I even think she is the best author I have ever read in my life. I have indeed read the classics and the superhits in literature but l I think I like her best. I have mentioned her books here earlier - Chocolat, Five Quarters of an Orange, Holy Fools. I still have to read the rest. Some time in my life, I intend collecting all her books.
Like her other books, food is always a background theme. Here, a wine bottle tells the story of a writer Jay who is facing a big writer's block after his first novel. He rediscovers some old wine bottles in his cellar and that takes him back to the past. On an impulse, he buys a flat in a remote village untouched by the damages of the modern life. And then between flashbacks to his past, the story moves on in the new village ( -called Lansquenet. Chocolat is also based on the people in the same village). The story is garnished with magic or what seems to be magic like in the book Chocolat. :-) An enchanting experience :-D
A new book of hers is releasing this year. Will look forward to reading that and the others which I have not yet read.
Check out the Joanne Harris website.

Paulo Coelho's new book called Zahir is also releasing this year. I read the first chapter of the book from his website and I get the feeling that this book will also be an experience in itself. I did not like his Eleven minutes much. It had a good theme but I don't think I understood it :-D plus the girl faces so much in her life that I could not digest it. But I think this book will be different mainly so because the main character in the book travels a lot :-D and he learns things in his travels. I thought it might be on the lines of Alchemist. Wouldn't it be fun to travel like that without the confines that we live within in our day-to-day life !! I have been fascinated by so many characters in literature who live like that ! In fact, I liked Strider of Lord of the Rings more than King Aragorn :-D

We followed the Landing of Discovery on Tuesday very keenly :-D The minute to minute update had an Armageddon feeling to it :-D My childhood dream had been to become an Aeronautical engineer. So that day was also laced with I-wish feelings. Anyways hope I have great days ahead as a good Physicist :-D
Have a nice weekend :-)

Weekend movies

This weekend, I saw Bees Saal Baad and Junglee on TV. Well a portion of Junglee.

I was seeing BSB for the first time and had seen Junglee on DD when I was a kid. Waheeda Rehman was gorgeous in BSB. I think after Madhu Bala, waheeda takes the beauty queen crown. But I somehow couldn't stand her acting in the movie. There was so much coquettishness on the screen!! And the story also progressed really slow. But my sis was determined to see how they end the movie. So I too sat through the whole thing. "Kahin Deep jale Kahin dil" is a very beautiful song. It has a haunting feeling attached to it. Kudos to Lata for singing the way its sung. But then, she is always Lata the great :-D

Next in the queue was Junglee. Saira Banu was beautiful. Just couldn't stop myself from gushing about her hair. It must have taken so much of maintenance!! But I couldn't sit through that either. I used to love watching these movies in my childhood. Maybe I have grown out of them.

And there was football wutbaal hai rabba. That movie sounds good only in English. So finally I spent the better part of my weekend curled up on the bed with a book and dozing off to the fairyland :-)
Now thats what I call a weekend well spent :-D

Baghdad Burning

I came across this really good work courtesy Rediff. This is a blog by a resident Baghdad citizen who eloquently gives an account of the situation in Baghdad. It is called Baghdad Burning . Do go through it. This very clearly reminds me of Pre-Independence India I read about in books and seen in movies and documentaries.
I always used to wonder about surah lahab in Qur'an. I now wish it applies to the criminals in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Do check it out: Baghdad Burning

Imrana case

Recently the Imrana case was making news in the papers and followng her lead many other similar cases came to light. I feel this is a shame to the muslim society. The shariah courts when issued the fatwa on Imrana to get a separation from her husband should also have stoned the father in law to death. Why should Indian Penal Code be applied to the beast alone? (Muslim personal law is another issue but im not knowledgeable enough about it to talk on that). Whether the couple gets a separation or not is their decision. I think they should be left alone. And at the same time, FIL should be sentenced to death. I believe rape does deserve a death sentence as in case of a murder the victim at least dies and thats the end of it. But the rape victim lives with the trauma all her life. A murder can be a spur of the moment thing but a rape is a deliberate act.
When I discussed this case with somebody I was shocked to hear him say that this issue should have been resolved internally and this shouldn't have been brought out in the open! A crime like that should be unreported!! To save the pride of the community !! The community is very hollow if it really hides its skeletons this way.

Inspite of all the preaching I hear from people, I believe that the muslim clergy is taking the society 1500yrs backwards. It has a great potential. It can mobilise masses. The prayer congregations can be used for the betterment of the society. Instead, the bayaans I hear second hand from my father tell me otherwise. So if the clergy wishes the best for the society, they can start by preaching the empowerment of women. Women in prophets time had a better (or rather the best ) status than what they have now.

In the same breath, I say that women are being oppressed not only in my religion but in others too and others need not use this for finger pointing. Like a teacher tells us so often- clean your own 1 square area ( without dirtying the neighbours sq. area :-D) and its ensured that we will have a cleaner place to live in.

Sorry for the serious tone of this post. I'll get back to my movie reviews next post onwards :-D

morning ragas

This weekend Mr. Jala Dosham and Ms. Bukhara came to visit me. They refused to leave me alone for a single moment. Mom prepared a ginger concoction which drove them away finally.

Apart from that, I went out for shopping with my family. It was nice fun. Its a long time since I have done that. Then I saw the movie 'morning ragas' on TV. It was ok kind but the most impressive parts were the songs. I like hearing a few carnatic compositions. Im not an expert in any of the classical music streams. I just listen to them for pleasure. And I like one composition called 'mahaganapathim'. The sceneries in the movie were too good. And the colours were brought out really well courtesy Rajiv Menon's photography. His movie in tamil called Kandukondein Kandukondein is also a pleasure to look at.

At the same timeslot, the old hindi movie called Khoobsurat was going on in another channel. I have seen it n number of times but still enjoy it everytime. It has good comedy, funny punch lines. And Rekha's family in the movie speak in rhymes. That was fun :-D We were in a dilemma as to what to watch and finally decided to give this a ditch.

Black again in OAT

Black was screened today in OAT. Its an awesome movie but I was not too keen on seeing it again. I can not take such heavy stuff and I believed that such masterpieces should be seen only once. But I went anyways to see the movie cos my friends insisted. Now our OAT (Open Air Theatre) has a different ambience to it. It is constructed in the amphitheatre style and is surrounded by trees. So on a clear night with the stars shining bright, I have enjoyed movies like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Devdas, Veer Zaara, all the LOTR series, HP series and so many more. A k3g is also fun here cos the students reactions make up for the gham part and we end up enjoying every scene.

When DTS system was installed in OAT, a special screening of the colour Mughal-e-Azam was shown. That was an experience in itself and it took me almost a week to get the Mughal grandeur and Madhubala's beauty out of my mind.

So Black today in OAT was different from watching Black in the theatre. The audience applaused at rani's achievements, laughed with her, whistled at amitabh's genious, and were pin-drop silent in the serious scenes. Like my friend said, no movie is a serious movie in OAT. And to top it all, it started raining halfway through the movie :-D. But we continued watching the movie inspite of it :-D. As a result, I can forecast that Im on my way to catching cold pretty soon. So I better go do something about it.
Have a nice weekend :-D

Paheli

I saw paheli yesterday and was disappointed with it.

Plus points: Gorgeous costumes, colourful sets and hence a beautiful movie to look at; beautiful Rani, usual SRK and good acting by the whole cast; Chamatkaars by the ghost so an enjoyable movie for the kids ( including me :-D ).

Minus points: I actually hated the ghost SRK. He got all he wanted. I had thought that the living SRK must be a heartless creature. But he happened to be very human in the movie. He obeys his father, misses his wife, writes them letters which never reach them, and is made to look like a petty creature in the end. He is left to die in the desert :-(

Yeah ok I know its a woman oriented movie but somehow this movie failed to convince me. I feel there is something lacking somewhere.

I want to know the actual folk lore too. Is this a truthful adaptation of the original folk lore?

Overall, I liked parineeta far better than Paheli.
OK now I feel I have had enough of movies. So no more movies in the theatre for some time. Ill content myself with the OAT movies.

Good day :-)

Parineeta

I saw Parineeta today :-D Its awesome :-D.

There was so much colour on the screen and mind you it never looked garish. Everything on screen was beautiful. I read in rediff reviews that Vidya Balan can sleepwalk through the movie without a single dialogue cos she has speaking eyes. I believe that now. The lady is very beautiful and has given a superb performance.

I hated Saif so much in the parts where he is jealous and so rude to Lolita. Credits go to Saif's acting :-) Being a hopeless romantic, I was overjoyed at the ending. :-D I'll remember this movie. I actually dont mind watching it again on the big screen :-D

Next in the queue is Paheli and now me waiting for the double mazaa cos of two Sharukhs :-D I already support the ghost SRK and dislike the living SRK. May the ghost win lacchi :-D I wonder how they end the movie. Does lacchi die and join the ghost Sharukh like its always done in hindi movies? :-D Or does the ghost become a living person aka City of Angels? I would prefer the 2nd choice. Are there any handsome, charming, well-mannered, sharukh-lookalike ghosts floating around me ? :-D :-D

Ok I have done enough of gushing about the movie and now Ill get back and enjoy the rest of the day:-)
Good night :-)

Sivamani

I was listening to the songs of Swades today for the nth time and noticed another thing. One of the percussionists is Sivamani. I have seen sivamani perform live in the insti culturals.

Once he was invited along with Louis Banks and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya and it was to be a fusion concert. Everything about that show was too good for words. A solo by Pt. HC was followed by the jugalbandi between these three. Sivamani's percussions made their own place in the concert inspite of Pt. HC's genius. He was a complete showman in the sense that it was a pleasure to watch him too. He would throw his sticks in the air, the sticks would perform their own acrobatics and still would manage to land on the drums to create music :-D That was my first insti culturals and it was quite an experience.This was in 2K1.

The next year Shankar Mahadevan was invited for light music show. Anybody who has attended the last few culturals would agree unanimously that this one was the best. Other artists have to compete really hard to outdo that performance. The show was charged with untappable energy - be it SM on stage, or the students on their feet in the gallery dancing to the vibrant tunes. And there was a surprise for us too. Sivamani was in town, he had heard that SM is performing here and so he just dropped in to join the show !! SM + Sivamani was a deadly combination.

In the following years, we have heard artists like shaan ( he had bad throat that day, and still obliged to our encores! a sweety :-) ), udit narayan ( this was the worst, with him singing all the tere naam numbers!! and a very annoying compere ), KK ( again a good show ) in the light music section. But none came close to that show :-D

The things I like about this place include the culturals, the campus, and...........
well let me think about them and get back to you :-).