One day, Two movies

'Love aaj kal' in the morning. First day, first show after so long that I do not even remember when was the last time. The show was at 9AM (yes AM), and I was not sure if I will make it (nobody else was either (about me) but I learned that only later). So it was a bit of a surprise for me to be the second guy (from our group) at CPK. The show was housefull, mostly college junta. Felt nice to see these young people having the time of their lives. Two trailers were shown in the beginning (Wanted and Alladin) and both hinted that the Bollywood SFX industry is about to enter its golden age. Made a mental note to keep an eye over both. As for the movie, if you enjoy Bollywood style lovestories, you'll like this one. Some jokes are good, and the parts which depict older times (British era) have been carefully crafted. Songs are OK, but let me also tell you that some of my friends just love them. Overall an enjoyable watch, especially if you go in a large group.

Moving ahead, I asked the question a while ago. It took me a while to stumble upon the answer: me. Watched it in the evening. Before I say anything about the movie, let me tell me about a conversation I had with a friend..

Me: Are watchmen ajun purna nahi pahili.. aaj complete karnar ahe..
Friend: Watchmen? Nepali movie ahe ka?
Me: Ho, sagalya characters cha nav bahadur asata...

OK, no offense. I appologise if I've hurt someone, but this thing really did happen. I had heard that the movie did not do that well, so I had my expectations in check. Maybe that was the good part, because whatever there was, I just loved it.. The characters don't fail to remind you the ones from the book. The special effects are fundoo, I liked the title track too. It's a bit longish (OK, a lot by hollywood standards, at 2:52 hrs), maybe this was the reason it did not do too well. But it's a very good movie and I think you'll enjoy it even if you haven't read the book. Do not miss!

Enjoy!!

I am feeling lucky.

Sometimes good things just happen to you. Now, they keep happening all the time, to be sure, and sometimes we are too busy to appreciate them, but sometimes it's different (ok, that's a lot of sometimes ;-). In these times, they just keep happening, one after another, seemingly to no end. A normal day becomes almost extraordinary. Awesome time with friends, suddenly finding that book you were looking for so long, a dumb movie propelled to extraordinary level of entertainment and laughter, thanks to witty comments from all over, and then something unimaginable happening. So much so that, I would have laughed at the possibility had someone pointed it out before. But it did happen. So to those of you (you know who you are) who read blogs (and my blog at that), Thanks for reminding me how lucky I really am.

Just an update..

We are writing Poems.
Yes, you got that right. Poems.
Be scared. Be very very scared.

P.S. Vogons have serious competition now.

Unplanned Fun

Friday evening: Rains, tea, gupshup. Somebody says movie. Rest consider. Rabbitt pulls out his ever useful N95 with the ever useful GPRS. No useful results. Junta bashes the poor fella. Then a call to DialM, some results, but not the times we want. Shows at 9PM or so are rejected on the ground that they are late. Then is chosen a show at 10:45. We really, really want to watch a movie!

The chosen one (movie) is 'Transformers 2'. One thing, you need not have watched the first one to watch this. The reason is simple, the story is a big big patchwork. Some jokes are good, others are directly imported from B-grade bollywood flicks. There are also some, sorry to say this, almost pathetic attempts to appeal to such noble feelings as patriotism, companionship and love, which more or less completely fail to have any effect whatsoever. But, but, my friend, do not give up. There is one thing that makes this movie a must watch and that on a big screen. You know what. The special effects. Awesome is an understatement! Especially the scenes towards the end in Egypt. Do not miss!

I reach home at about 2AM. I have only one plan for the weekend, sleep, sleep and then sleep some more. A call wakes me up. The clock says 10AM. I pick it up and for the next 2 minutes not a word spoken enters my brain. Nor do I understand who it is. Thankfully the voice persists. After the 2 minute boot, the voice says something about Sinhgad. The number says C, the voice is unknown and talk of Sinhgad all convince me that I am in a dream. I am about to doze off when the voice identifies itself, it's V and there really is a Sinhgad plan in progress. The voice asks me to inform MD. I dutifully call, and MD's sleepy voice again convinces me that I am spending my Saturday lazying around in my room. I laugh my evil laugh on the poor souls who get up early on saturdays and plan things. But only some time later I am infotrmed that the plan has been finalized.

We start at around 12 in MD's car. First destination is the chai-tapari near office that was only recently discovered (Thanks to C). The journey was fun filled, and the roads were filled too. Our first stop (second, if you count the first tea-stop) was a beautiful valley on our way up. We spotted a distant peak, and could not resist climbing. Take a look

Now climbing might be an overstatement, but we reached the top. The view from there was just breathtaking. Many snaps were clicked. See some towards the end. We continued our journey. Being weekend, the parking space was overflowing and administration is totally lacklustre. We continued our journey on foot from that point on. The scenery is uniformaly awesome, so I'll mark the milestones based on what we had. First a malai kulfi. A few steps and it was kharawlelya shenga. Some more steps and a fundoo lunch of pithala bhakar, taak and bhaji. After the lunch, we started our journey back. Worth mentioning is the chai at a tapari on our way down. Reached Pune by 7, where the journey ended with a malai kulfi. An apt, sweet end!

A few snaps: All were clicked on mobile cameras.

(Zindagi. Ulta Latko :p)

Totally unplanned and totally fundoo weekend..

The opening lines..

There is no mystery to happiness. Unhappy men are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn - or worse, indifference - cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man does not look back. He doesn't look ahead. He lives in the present.

But there's the rub. The present can never deliver one thing: meaning. The ways of happiness and meaning are not the same. To find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only live for the moment. But if he wants meaning - the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life - a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them.

[The opening lines of Jed Rubenfeld's The interpretation of murder]

Ye kya ho raha hai

Why am I not writing anything? It's not that there's nothing to write about. I think I have gotten myself in a very low energy state. Time to go hit myself with a photon.

I am back.

From my Journey to the center of the Earth. And that with no less agreeable a companion than Mr. Jules Verne. This was my second journey with the esteemed fellow. Earlier we went Around the world in Eighty days (you can read some of my reflections here). That was a great journey, but this was an adventure of a singular kind. The most powerful impression it made upon me was the image of standing in the interior of the earth, below the mighty expanses of the ocean. Captures imagination like nothing else. There were some not-so-remarkable moments too, like Harry's hallucinations, but the rest more than made up for it. And the most important reward of such an adventure is the reawakening of the sense of wonder that you know is there, but which the dross of daily life seems to overpower.

But now that I have gone around the Earth and explored the insides of the Earth, I have started feeling a little monotonous. The human mind is like that. I feel ready for my next adventure. I think I will go seafaring this time!!