Celebrating Xmas

"Merry Christmas" to all. This is the time when the whole world is holidaying, not being much of an exception from the whole world I am also enjoying the season. I celebrated Christmas with a day long movie roll, halting only while answering natural needs of input and output. My friend Jaga' was preparing a list from IMBD for this extravaganza and the extra space was sorted out for the respective downloads. After quitting our quilts not very early in the morning, performing the needs and working out on the incoming and outgoing SMS and a couple of "birthday wishes we started off the session. The first thing, seal the windows(not working on ventilators, the room doesn't have any) not allowing any form of light inside the living room cum Theater hall.

The first one was, "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind"... about stumbling, loving and a sci-fi touch.All mixed together to create a twisted-romantic script that very well delivered by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Its about a relationship between Joel(Jim) and Clementine(Kate) which turned sour and they separated. But Miss goes a step ahead and erases all her memories with Jim. Unknown Jim met her the other day and was surprised at her irrational behavior, goes to the root and discovers that she had erased him off her mind. Jim being a emotionally withdrawn man thinks to do the same, erase her out of his head. Much of the movie is around the memory erasing process where he tries to hide her memories from being erased. Meanwhile another parallel story comes up resulting to which our couple end up listening their own recordings why they wanted to erase each others memories. I have spelled a lot, but I am sure you can still go ahead and watch this movie and end up loving it.


Part two, after a hefty lunch we feel sleepy and on list was "The Maltese Falcon" a 1941 vintage. Should this be bit slow and we would be dead asleep. Better not try it, the third on list was "The Machinist" it got the green light and we started. A psycho thriller.The lead role is played by Christian Bale, who is an insomniac, being chased by Deja-vu. Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) as an industrial machinist has not slept for almost a year, owing to which he drastically loosed weight. He virtually lived in a dreamy world and behaved abnormally. At the factory his mates became skeptical about him, after some incident he was fired. He was actually haunted by an incident that took place a year ago, that has kept him from sleeping since. But now his fears of sleep has entered his day life, things became bizarrely awkward. The entire movie is about trying to fight with ones feeling of fear and guilt. So the insomniac who was trying to sleep, kept us from sleeping and watch this good movie.


Session three would be the last one for the day, had a quick dinner settled all scores and picked "Schindler's List", a Steven Spielberg's signature movie. Had won 7 Oscars in its casket. A political melodrama staged during the Nazi period. Oscar Schindler played by Liam Neeson, is an ambitious unsuccessful businessman who wanted to make business out of the war. For which he disguised himself into becoming a Nazi himself and influencing the Germans with his smart wit and strong words. Thus making huge profits, the credit of which to a large extend goes to his Jewish accountant. But Schindler ultimately saved the lives of more than 1,000 Jews by giving them jobs in his factory,in a way saving their lives from the gas chambers. Schindler lost his wealth, but earned salvation for himself. Out-n-out its an outstanding movie, my own personal favorite lines from this movie is, "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire" .........Merry Christmas

various voices vibrating in vain

Coming round the corner when the TV was streaming the aftermath of the Mumbai terror plot and the political "halla-gulla", there were more and more calling for the Jesus Meetings around the world. And our folks are like the next generation Socrates, sweating and toiling over hours of discussions. None had been idle except for the stove and rest of the assortments in the kitchen. The TV, the Laptop, even our new member too was being tossed around(a football), above all the voices echoing in the room.

What was the hard talk about?-- "Recession assessment of global economy and consequent consequences."

That was a very heavy thread that we were handling all by ourselves. Blame all but one, our bad luck! As per our expert findings "Bad luck" is the first greatest natural calamity that can happen to anyone. However the outer circle of the bad luck slowly drifted to a smaller radius with newer circles of talk. The big question was who all are the ultimate sufferer of this mayhem?-- Industries, Banks or us. Beggers!, someone said. "I have seen them working harder on their gestures, shaking more and making more difficult faces, it seems; forget the rich even the auto drivers too becoming stringent about donations." Laughs all, then suddenly into silence. Man! we should not laugh we are in a far better situation, we do not have the rights to laugh at them. The IIM grads, they have been deprived from Investment banking jobs. Yes, but still they will have better options too. Not entirely wrong, infact these elites are still no where near the red line."What is this? Guys try to think out of the can, the common man, common man."(trifling Tom), "Beggars again or minority messiah Obama?"(humorous Harry) He had a point, it is difficult to determine the common man into categories of classes and sub classes. Actually both the points were eventual, yet we were in a dilemma of drawing lines to join them. Resulting into more smoke and ash and frowns and decibel rise. No leaf left unturn, talked from soup to nuts. But (determined)Dick serves the dessert.

"Girl friends!!!" he yelled, still trying hard to spin the football like a globe (feeling of being God).

We are not sure of why or how it came to his mind, but there is a point too. LoL!........ have they fallen from Temptations to Lacto King's and from Coffee Cafes to Iddli Stations and from weekend parties to watching TV at home. What happens to the phone, has it become a miss call device. Dude! what a close to such a difficult chapter. Or may be everything is right in place as it has to be, struggle and strife is always a part of life. Wish you "good luck, happy living"!

sometimes it happens

This is not exactly a tell-a-tale, though there are a lot of scattered entities that if I try to combine into a single thread, we should have a story( not an epic).
Pertaining to change there are times when renascence is supposed to happen, history has seen it all the time. The Industrial revolution, redrew the Artistic manifolds into Scientific terms, the great Wars redrew world maps, and what we are going through today they term it ???(they do not have any term). Whatever let us not give much head to all these as the discussion. As it will continue as new turns keep coming, and it will not restrict you to bear with me, instead it will become a torture for you. Have you finished smoking that thing, now help me cross this road, I am blind as you have already known...

Not everyday will I have the honor to meet this man, it was only once. Had some accident in which he lost his vision. But his mind is indeed enlightened with. That day was entirely a new experience in itself. It started with same old BMTC bus, same long walk from Agara Lake, same old faces at office but a new assignment. A new project has come up and my Director wants me to be a part of it. Good! Then things became unfolding only after evening. I left office at around 7:30, with most of my colleagues already gone. There was no bus, so started walking towards Agara stop. I was not feeling very good, a trifling tummy. So was reluctant to walk, I stared making gestures for a lift to every vehicle passing by, except the Auto's(had only fifteen bucks at hand). "What is it boy why did you raised you hand?" I said,"Lift Sir, till Agara if you are going towards that way." Now what we normally expect is a "Yes, sure" or a "No, I am sorry." He did not say anything started his bike and went his way, I started walking again that was the only one to stop.

In Agara, got to do what everyone there was doing and that I always do, "stare". You need to get a glimpse of the bus number before it halts and then fight your way into it. From a bus that had just halted (not mera wala number), this young fellow walked up to me and handed over a day-pass, "Would you like to have it, my bus journey ends here". I said,"Thank you!" and took out my purse. Its alright, you need not pay me and he moved away. Ah! I have a pass now (8 rupees saved), but where is the bus. So happily waiting, but there is no 242A. Even the Cabs and Mini buses were pooling in to get some extra bucks apart from their office service, but not to Koramangala. Damn! I was getting late, when a Maruti Zen, just stopped by my side and the driver stared at me I thought he must me looking for some address. Instead he asked if there was any one going towards Richmond road, I said No, I only need to go to Forum Mall. OH! its on the same road, hop in fast, he said. Back of my head, I felt something something could be wrong though he seems to be well dressed and has a Intel logo sticker on the windshield. Meanwhile I was already sitting in the car and we were moving fast towards Forum Mall via Madiwala where he dropped a lady who was his colleague. Though we did not talk much just an introduction, I came to know that he always pools in someone on his way back home. He dropped me at Forum and I wished him a Thank You and a Goodnight.A ten minutes walk and I would reach my room, so started with quick steps.Half-way comes the mobile tea stall that is always standing on the same spot, felt the urge for a smoke. I searched my pocket, it had a five rupee coin and the day-pass that I can use no more. It was there where I met Mr. Pasha, the enlightened blind man. He was already there talking with the vendor when I joined to listen their conversation.

The White Tiger

Reading something that is not very long and tediously written(tediously not tidy) that makes you think with a kind of fun behind, is what I consider "good"(again not best, I repeat). Similar was my experience with Mr Aravind Adiga's first novel "The White Tiger"( of Man Booker fame). Its a self-described narration to the Chinese Prime Minister, a glimpse beneath the surface of an Indian Entrepreneur, Balram Halwai alias Ashok Sarmah.

The book is about how from dirt of rural India which our author address as Darkness, "Munna" our hero becomes a successful business man, a "white tiger." In his journey from rags to riches, Munna takes a number of different profession, a school boy, the hotel boy, a driver cum household worker, even a murderer, entrepreneur and a white tiger.

He grew up in a small village near Gaya in Bihar, born to a poor rickshaw-puller, and named only "Munna," until his teacher named him "Balram" and gave him a birth date so that he could vote for the landlord.Then he becomes a tea table boy at the village tea stall, then a driver in Dhanbad and entered the light of Delhi via a job as driver to Mr Ashok, the son of a rich landlord. Here he chronically describes the Indian common man as to caged chicken at slaughter house and called it "the Rooster Coop."Being the honored servant and family waala, who never opposes his master and gharwaale's, naive enough to go to jail for Shahib. Our hero too did the same but his sarcastically cynical mind overcomes and prevents him from being a part of the Rooster Coop. Tired of a life of servitude, he takes a violent action goes ahead to murder his employer Mr Ashok, for the red bag of future, an also his name. The book is spiced up with miss-adventures of climbing the village old fort and dipping beak into blond haired and of course his granny Kusum bragging him all along the way for money. Above all its a good read, a good movie material; unpretentiously showcased, revolution and insurrection; outcome of a sardonic mind,an artistic representation evoking pity and compassion. The Chinese Prime minister would definitely like it and be more skeptical of coming to visit Agida's India.

Coagulation of useless ideas into sensible formulation.

Out for a casual walk in the evening once coming out the weird office that I work in, where not even the Saturdays are spared. This is not the kind of walk that you might have seen that an old man with his old wife does, going round and round in one of the so called gardens of Bangalore in the evenings and in the mornings. Its more of the kind of ambulation that stirs the eyes of none, one that the masses do every day on their way back home after the days work. So on this casual walk since there was nothing else to do except for walking and the ears tuned to the local FM station, across the road I saw these four to five students gathered around the Chat House(road side Indian fast food joint), well these are places where we perform the open house discussions and formulate public opinion of all kinds and never really come to a single point of understanding commonly called "Adda" . Unlike old folks, Adda's are more popular among the young college people who are better equipped with facts and figures; comes up with faster resolutions. Only a year ago I too was an active member of such a college student group(aapni Adda), though we did not really have a name for the group or a specialization on something, but we did have different departments occupied by the specialized individuals. There was there the Planman(does all the preliminary level planing), the Cyclopedia(provides the first glimpse of fact and figures), the Spearhead(a protagonist running against the motion), the Intellect( shows most creative picture from behind), the Questionnaire(filled with doubts, can turn the point), the Audience(the Dumb listeners but good reflex action) and of course the Alternative(can take any position on any account of absence, otherwise does nothing just like I am doing now).

The triggering of any new chapter is usually thrown from the Audience, after which the Cyclopedia would gather his info and put on the table of the house. The Intellect will then quickly go through the facts and brings about a inconclusive conclusion to which the Spearhead always! always disagree and forwards his own tale with spiced up events. The Planman will now try to device a plan out of all these, however the flow of the Adda is always in hands of the Questionnaire, who can pop up with a very relevantly stupid query anytime and turn the tables to his end, hence bringing the discussion on to entirely a new page. Meanwhile The Audience will respond with their familiar... Oops! and WoWs! and sometimes very silent and sometimes about to burst out. There are also various environmental factors that affect or effects a successful Indian Adda. The place where the first blood was drawn, whether its a hostel room/veranda/rooftop, football/cricket field while waiting for ones turn, classroom with or without the professor, a restaurant/chat house with or without tables and tools or plates, in the bus/auto/tractor whatever. And also the time when the fire started is never absolute, I would mark a commonly bizarre combination of time where one just woke up from sleep with a tooth brush to start his day and the other was about to go to sleep after having passed the whole night at the study table could start off an Adda and then leave while the others would carry it to the next level. However its worth mentioning that these Adda's may not lead to decisive ends but the participants and the spirit of participation is definitely what its all worthy of.

An incredible journey moving at the speed of sound

I have recently re-discovered that time is a big asset that I do not have access to, however having the priced ability of stealing moments from the unusually busy weekend(that heap of dirty clothes and the Cricket matches and unscheduled terrorist attacks and of course keeping track of the crumbling economy) for a movie. There is no particular category from where I pick my flicks, its more of random kind "August Rush"... not really subjected to genre analysis, yet could be placed in the pool of Musical movies, its entirely different from the enthralling entertainment as School of Rock or Almost Famous.

Director Kirsten Sheridan, seemed to be more into the divine power of music. The story is about how an orphaned musical prodigy (kinda reincarnation of Mozart) uses his gift to find his separated parents and bring them together to make one happy family.

Though the movie was not entirely of the boring kind yet the angelic imagination does dampen the audience(here I am the audience). Child artist Freddie Highmore(of Finding Neverland fame), inherits his musical thread from his parents played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell.Layla's(Keri Russell) protective father falsely informs his daughter that her output of one night love did not survive birth and delivers the boy to the State, where the influence of all sounds great and small fill the boy with musical ambition and intuition.Now how he makes way from the orphanage into hands of Robie Williams (supposed to be taken from story of Rock Star Bono)and his band of homeless street singers. Then from the street to glories of the church and the University is the movie all about. Of course like all other musicals it has very touching notes, smooth sound. Finally the verdict is that you can give it a try, it was nominated for Oscar too. An absolutely delightful and warm film to watch in early winter days.

Happiness is for real only when shared!(Movie Review)

In my search for freedom, I come across a hundred face everyday; some grouped, some as couples and many as alone as me
trying to understand the same feeling which we all call "freedom."......... In this yatra' we are born again-n-again, play our childhood, become adult, have a family and then one day catch the last train. On a similar pursuit was Christopher McCandless.

Framed into a movie are the adventures of this man and named as "Into the Wild" by Director Sean Penn with his beautiful cinematography and the awesome background scores. A good movie that I watched and lived on my birthday yesterday. Jena Malone ... Carine McCandless is the narrator and sister of Christopher. Chris' who topped his graduation gave away his life savings to charity and wanted to go north in Alaskan wilderness. He did not exactly ran away from his parents and the society as a whole but wanted to get lost, renamed himself as Alexander Supertramp. To his new name and identity gives a new birth, hitchhiking and rafting down Colorado river into Mexico, then back into States and up into Alaska. Meeting people from all works, the couple who were struggling with their relation, the farmers of many moods, the old man from the army and of course his small time love with the 16 year old gypsy singer. But as Lord Bryon said,"I love not man the less, but Nature more..." his want to be in Alaska was more than anything.

For around two years he was away from home, reached Alaska in the late winter and in the wilderness there discovered this abandoned bus which he named "The Magic Bus" and made it his abode. Living in the wilderness- hunting and fishing, eating Alaskan squirrels and his mis- adventure of moose hunting, meanwhile remembering all his way into this freedom land. He lived there until one day mistakenly ate some poisonous weed to end his tale of adventure with the Alaskan summer shining on his weirdly pale face through the window of his magical bus. Suddenly on his death bed he realized happiness is for real only when shared and wanted to go home, but the small stream which he had paddled last winter has now turned into a wild river impossible to cross, his want for freedom in nature had engulfed him into her arms. "Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past...but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things." Alexander Supertramp's last words were to his parents and probably to the entire society, "What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?".

Ghastly affairs!(Useless philosophy)

Most of us have fears of one thing or the other, literally named as "phobia's" fear of- cats, dogs, height, and what not, but there is one certain fear that is universal and and every one has, the fear of ghost, supernatural beings. Apart from being afraid of, this is always has been the hottest topic to talk about. Be it in the grandmothers tales or an awful experience of a friend, an encounter with the unknown. Whatever be it; it does generate a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. No, no I am not at all going to narrate a certain one out of so many experiences that I have! but there is one particular incident when I was alone at home during my late night study just before the Board exams. It was on of the chilling December months, when my family leaving me at home went to attend a marriage ceremony of one of the cousin. It was like "Home Alone" thing; no school(Study Leave), no one to scold and TV all day long, Music system full volume, cook your own food awesome!!. So that night I had a horrible burnt dinner, I do not exactly remember as to what experiment had been done but I do remember it was Social Studies what I was reading, "Powers of the President of India" when I heard this strange howling. As if someone was crying just under my window. The voice was very low initially then it suddenly increased, I was dumb struck. Slowly tried to look around the room, unfortunately had this habit of using table lamp so the rest of the room was quite dark. I checked and rechecked if anything seemed moving anywhere, NO! nothing but the howling continues. "Intuition" you can say it was when I turned the table lamp to focus the light on the window curtain and come down from the chair, crawling towards the window slowly. Suddenly with a big yell stood up at the window, still nothing happened, tried to look through the window there was absolutely nothing, opened the window and discovered the howling along with my ghost. It was coming from Among uncle's place..."a group of carol singers with their dissonant screaming of Christmas Carol."

I never told about this incident to anybody thinking they may make a joke out out me, however I now feel laughing at myself. If you have the experience of staying in a hostel be it at school or in college then you will definitely have had the experience of plain-chit thing calling of souls and all. We tried all that in our hostel, too inspired by the inhabitants of the senior girls hostel that was near to ours. Nothing happened in our case, as the silence kept breaking now and then by a cough or a small giggle, or the fingers on the coin from the right hands kept replacing by those from the left hand. Actually how can some soul come to a place already full of live ghosts. Even the "knock the bottle off", from the edge of the northwestern corner wall on the roof on a rainy moonless night when there was no power. This past midnight prank was well organized by guys sitting in the dark corner just next to the bottle, along with the ones sitting on top of the water tank, all wet in rain only to surprise the challenger, which did work later on. Or getting beaten up while trying to surprise anyone in the dark corridor wrapped in the blanket were all very ghastly without any ghost at all. However there was one singular incident that took place during one of the similar very long late night Adda's, we were in the first year of college. Sitting in this room were around eight of us, some were playing cards and the rest were like audience for the card game and active participants for the discussion that was goin on, I do not remember how it started at the first place. Suddenly the point of discussion changed into stories of experiences with the unknown, one after the other came in stories of their own encounters and also of their neighbors or anything that would make the story interesting, and the card game too was changin its term now into famous Indian "Teen patti" our own counterpart for British Three-card Brag. When the stories became boring, someone said we can make a luck check using cards, the Teen Patti way. So the game had this new fire into it......who among us would be the richest?, who would have the most beautiful wife?....... so it went on from good to bad then to evil........ who among us will die first? Every one rejected it, we are not going to do this. Ok! I am sure there is ghost here in this room. Ha! ha! ha!...in came the replies. Let us check then. Alright, spread the cards. Those who say its there raise your hand, no one did except Ani' he is the one who started this check line. So everyone picked their set of cards. The peeping started and came in the 'Ooofs! Ooofs!; 5-3-2 multiple, A-4-7, no one had good cards only Ani' had hit the Trio A-A-A....... no one moved or talked. There we were at 3:15 am at night in room number 8.

"The first casualty of war is innocence"(Movie Review)

Suddenly with the ongoing mayhem of terror attacks and the resulting atrocity, should have drawn eyes too near to the forehead causing the uneven frown of all times. The movie that I saw last night gave a bigger picture of the ground realities that may not be seen in the picture that we usually draw every day. Written and Directed by Oliver Stone's "Platoon" is a 1986 contemporary classic, that bagged 4 Oscars along with which goes an impressive list of actors. That includes Charlie Sheen(of Hot Shots and Scary Movie fame ), Keith David, Johnny Depp and many more.....

The plot is drawn on the darkest spot on American war history, Vietnam war. The story is about how a young American, school drop out volunteered and joined the forces just like his father and grandfather had done in history, Pvt. Chris Taylor(Charlie Sheen)who also serves as the film's narrator. From the very day he landed on Vietnamese land he starts realizing the fact that life in forces not freedom and unparallel power. And how he along with the other freshman raw recruit or 'new meat' faces the blunt of Vietnamese ambush while serving near the Cambodian border. The cinematography is quite well taken, giving you the real feel of dense rain forest the worst battle ground. The Platoon driven by their terrible life in the jungle and seeing the dead and mutilated bodies of fellow soldiers becomes insane, which they vent on the weak and innocent villagers. This particular scene where a one legged Vietnami lad is beaten to death in front of his old mother, was horrific. The relative consequence of which lead to a split in the platoon, essentially between two Sergeants (Willem Dafoe and Berringer). Finally the plot turns into more about escaping from there than the need to win over the enemies. Treachery, dishonor and the loss of faith took more casualties than bullets in the movie.

only the other day on my way to office(Short Story)

only the other day on my way to office I met this extraordinary security personnel(Fresher), Pavan Kumar from Hajipur in Bihar. Now and obviously how he became a victim of our city is what goes below.

Already 8:30 by my watch and it takes more than 45 minutes to my office from my apartment. I just put these ear phones and tuned my mobile to the FM waves, the song from Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd just started "sajana de wari wari..." only added to my unevenly fast ambulation.

Let me also tell you, Bangalore is real busy in morning hours. However this fellow who was reluctantly walking ahead of me seemed to be singing the same song in slow motion, I was not at all looking at him apart from the fact that I just saw a bus that I was suppose to catch, is missed now. The traffic signal has to be crossed to get to the bus stand on the other side. I was in hurry so I went cross as fast as I can seeing the traffic lights go RED. He came slowly behind me to the place where I was standing for the bus now, "ye G4S ka office kahan hai...", removed the plug ins and "I am sorry!". He asked me again, I told him to ask the autowala, he must be knowing it better. He went and talked with the auto driver and came back to me. "Ye BDA complex yahan se kittna dur hai?" Cross the road, walk to the next signal and take a right then go straight(in Hindi).Pawan said, "Thank you" in English this time. I smiled back and he went ahead to cross the road that was empty due to the red light at the last signal.

He was hardly mid way when this pair of "power puffed" girls on their speedy scooty collided with our Pawan, erstwhile son of the Wind God. Fortunately nothing much happened, he didn't even fall nor did the Aapsaras(that is what he called them). But Mr. Son of Wind God was immediately attacked by rallies of verbal abuses, nothing of which he hardly understood. "Sorry, sorry", was his only defense against the Raging Babes. There was already a small gathering, me being part of this excitement too. As most of the our kinda class of bangaloreans do, "Dats Ok, Dats Ok..." and the engine started once again to look for its next victim, leaving Pawan with a small tear on his supposed to be new trouser. Helped him cross the road back to the place where we were standing and I asked if he would like to take a bus to BDA Complex, as I would take bus that goes past BDA too. We got up the next bus, did not have seats, quite packed at these hours. when the bus was about to reach BDA Complex I informed him that he needs to get off at the next stop. Pawan asked for my phone number, OK given. Then one more, "Thank you". Too good, taken!; now just before leaving he said, "Engreji to humne bhi school me sikhi hai, magar ye Aapsaraye kya bol rahi thi humko kuchu samaz me nahi aaya." garnished with a very hilarious looking face.

ep·i·logue

I find it very difficult and uneasy to start writing on anything for the first time, as the idea at this point is very raw and enthusiasm is more; so the probability of making a mistake is quarterly high.

The bundle of lies in my mind is more than just "lies", as the plan goes I am suppose to put all those uneven happenings that comes to my mind, the philosophies that evolve out of the unending late night Adda's, and reviews of books that I read so infrequently and the movies that I see so frequently(which would be very very unprofessional and maybe utterly boring at
times). Most importantly the "etc" should be something that I have not decided upon till now, but you will have to take it for a surprise arrow on your butts or the head to be precise.

There is no specific genre as far as to what would be when and where, considering the random way of life that I lead, you should find a reflection of the same in my words, that normally is full of spelling mistakes and grammatically terrible to read. However quite a few people think I am interestingly the owner of some kind of "intersetting" place.