Saturday, December 27, 2008

Time Travel - Back to Childhood

After 17 years of parting from them, I am on a pursuit of my school mates. All 5th graders when we parted.

With the passing of time, much has been forgotten. The name of my primary school is changed now to something new I don't know. Names have been forgotten. Faces have changed, and at the faint chance of stumbling across their passport-size photos, I'd have to rely on my fading memory to identify them. No social networking site has this facility of '5th grade batch of 1991'. Not all would have the same or similar technology at their disposal as I have. Not all would post their contact details in public domain. Conventional networking sites haven’t been of any help!

Few names that I do remember are the names that are quite common ones, and there are thousands that come up in google. Phew!

I’m sure they are out there. Something eventful has been happening in each every one of their lives through all these years. Every one of them, after leaving the school would have devoted at-least one second of their lives looking back at our school…

Mind racing... They must have done their 10th and 12th standards somewhere at the same time as I did... Some would have done their graduation...

I wonder how many of them would have tried to reach me, or are still trying to find me and others.

With a bag-load of old stories of 5th grade, few hazy faces, and even few names, I’ve set out to find them. Let’s see how many I manage to trace. What’s going to keep me on this pursuit is the very thought of seeing the expressions on their faces when we finally meet!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Ghajini (Hindi) - Movie Review

After having seen both ‘Memento’, and Ghajini (Tamil) in the past, I’m just out of the Cinema after seeing Ghajini (Hindi).

Short review: A must-see movie. I strongly recommend you to see the movie. Only ‘minus’ about the movie are its songs.

For more, continue reading…

About direction:
When the story is strong, director is clear-headed, and actors are honest, the result is a masterpiece. Ghajini is an example for such an effort. There has been much hype around this movie for quite some time. Such hypes in the past have contributed to historical failures. But this time, it is not so! The movie has turned out to be worth all hype. The storyline is quite different from that of Memento, with some overlaps of course. I leave it to you to see it for yourself. But I think that this change in story is much needed to present to the Desi audience at large.

About Aamir:
Aamir Khan, as usual, has done a phenomenal job. The eight-packers, and deltoids actually are not another cheap marketing stunt, rather, it is needed by the character he plays in this movie in order to make the fights look believable. (There are a few places where you get a tinge of Tamil-movies’ fights! But this is where Direcotor’s/Aamir’s level-headedness comes in to keep it in check).

About the story:
‘Sanjay Ramasamy’ played by Surya in Tamil version is played by Aamir as ‘Sanjay Singhania’, the chief of a major company, who flies in and out of the country in his private jet, and whose assistants jot down addresses on MacBooks. That rich! Even after Sanjay manages to win Kalpana’s (Asin) heart as a common man, Kalpana never comes to know Sanjay’s truth as the story takes a tragic turn, rendering Aamir with Anterograde amnesia. Rest of Sanjay’s journey-of-revenge, is the story of this movie.

About Asin:
During the first half of the movie, the theatre was full of laughter – courtesy Asin. It is to be noted that this is her debut in Bollywood, as was the case with the Tamil version in Kollywood.
(Tidbit: This Malabar girl is blessed with 6 languages in real life – Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, French and English.)

The character she portrays is that of girl making a living out of a small-time job in Mumbai. While she’s brave and full-of-life, she’s also kind, unsophisticated, humorous, and almost child-like in nature. Exactly the kind, for whom, any man would lay his life for her protection. Somewhere during the first half, you fall out flat for her refreshing character. And when she comes in the way of mortal harm, it turns the saint-like Aamir into a killing machine, equipped with just 15 minutes of memory.

About music/general stuff:
Aamir has very few dialogues, and does most with his acting, which is a delight to watch. His dialogues could probably be fitted in one side of an A4 size sheet, while Asin’s can fill up an 80 pager – 80 pages of pure fun! But while Aamir is basking in the fame, Asin has been set aside in general media at large. She's no eye-candy in this movie, but a very real character, and a very admirable performer. You cannot escape noticing her, and will have nothing but sheer appreciation for her performance.

The background scores are neat, and the visuals pleasing. However, I felt that the movie would have done just as well without the songs, which is a major disappointment (maybe, my expectations are held high after the Tamil version, whose songs had made to the top of charts for a very long time). There are other known faces from Tamil version as well, like Riyaz Khan (the police officer) and Pradeep Singh Rawat (the villain, as Lakshman in Tamil and Ghajini in Hindi).

An excellent movie, which can deserve no less than a solid 4.5 stars. Now go, watch it if you still haven’t. :)

Happy holidays!!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Light'ER' side of life

Once, at the peak of my frustration after a particularly long and depressing spell of debugging, I realized that the ones doing the coding were the ones, who put the bugs in the codes in the first place, and considering my state of mind, I named them – Buggers.
It’s interesting to see how nouns from existing English dictionary could be twisted to define a non-existent/uninteresting noun or a verb into something funny and definitive. Below is a list I created with this in mind.

One who debugs computer codes – Debugger
One who puts bugs in computer codes – Bugger!
One who’s wet due to mist – Mister
One with an upset gut – Gutter.
One who throws a loaf of bread – Loafer?
One who chops meat – Meter.
One who does a butch haircut – Butcher??
One who’s a sum of all screw ups – Summer.
The one who punts a football – Punter.
One who operates on ‘cells’ – Cellar?
One with baby’s butt – butter.
A good cop – halocopter??
To correct a squint eye, use – eye liner.
Ones who makes men – Manners (manners maketh man? They must be a busy lot!)
One who makes the others corny – Corner!
One who always pays in cents – Center!!
An expert in drawing – Drawer.
A singer with pronunciation issues – Finger.
One who makes mats – Matter
One washed away by flowing water – Flower.
One who loves eating hams – Hammer.
One fireman who lights flames – Litter.
A seaman stuck up the ship’s mast – Master
One addicted to drugs/pills – Pillar
One bitten many times – Bitter
One who drowned in a pond – Ponder.
A “Sentence”; with “many” ‘punctuations’ – Puncture.
One who thinks he’s a wizard – Wander

Exercise for you: The one who_______ is -
‘Water’, ‘Powder’, ‘shoulder’, ‘Winter’, ‘dinner’, ‘clever’, ‘eager’, ’Father’, And paper?

Also the ones worth pondering upon:
Cancer, Danger, Dagger, Fever, Tiger…

Sunday, December 07, 2008

A Home Away From Home

I was expecting two of my friends to reach my place soon after I reached my home after work. Their car's tyre had gone flat, but they would be back anytime now... So I kept waiting, and drifted into sleep. When I woke up, it was about 9:00 p.m, and the phone was ringing. My colleague with his wife and kiddo invited me over to see what they had shopped a few days back. "I'm expecting my friends to arrive anytime" I told them. But they insisted.

So I went downstairs to meet them. I rang the doorbell, and my colleague's wife opened the door with the usual 'happy evening' (or morning, as the case usually is). I also wished, and stepped in.

Yikes!! Out of nowhere, jumped the crowd of four in front of me. My two friends screamed out to shock the heavens out of me, while my colleague and his kid and wife joined the commotion - "Happy birthday" they wished me in unison, followed by unstopping clamor of giggles and laughter.

Still recovering from sleep, I found myself speechless...

There it was, on the table - The Cake!

How beeaauuttiful! :)

The candles - There were small sparkles as they burnt. I spent 5 full minutes to blow them off, as they would light again and again as if someone had magically modified it to keep burning for ever. What a lovely way to convey their wishes!

After cake-cutting, cake-feeding and cake-fight, we had a grand dinner, starting from junk food, juice, main course, ending in desserts. Phew! What an experience it was, for the commotion never stopped at the dinner table. The surprises were not over yet. While having dinner, there came the big box of gift!

Man! I was entirely flabbergasted! When did they plan all this??

At the end of it all, when we got up to leave, I was so overwhelmed at their love, I was finding hard to swallow my emotions. I merely managed to say a broken 'thank... you...', and, left with others...

The after-taste of the events still lingers around fresh in my mind; and on my taste buds. This, for sure is a home away from home!