Well last weekend was fun. After a long time I was back in namma bengalooru. The metro work is still going on(tat's better than it not going on mind you) and first things first: Smrithi is the only good company I have in Chennai at the moment. Apart from family members tat is. (Someone might actually be following this!)
Saturday was good as I had heavenly food to start the day off with, and it was a very proud day for me as I got my mom a saree and my dad a shirt and a dhothi with my salary for their anniversary :) In due course, I discovered one of bengalooru's secrets. Tucked away in a quiet corner on M.G.Road is Hotel Ajanta! Homely and down to earth, this paradise amidst the Metro construction is like an oasis. Lush vegetation surrounds the hotel and the weather too was brilliant. Cool and breezy. Just the weather to have Mangalore Bajji and Masala Dosa which I did. Heavenly sambar served with tenginkai chutney in massive bowls pamper just about anybody. The catch, well there is none that I know of. There was practically no-one when we(arpi and I) visited the place and the prices reminded me of Mysore!
Well after that we were off to Hard Rock Cafe. Vasu's Delhi registered car gave total haath right in front of the cafe and one fair June evening, all us macho dudes tried pushing it and jumpstarting it, but to no avail! Turns out they make bad batteries in Dilli, we got that replaced and had fun there.
I eagerly look forward to the coming weekend when Shri Theob is planning a trip to wonder-la! Don want to go there now as I've not been working out and I've lost my six-packs :P
6.16.2010
6.02.2010
tata CBE, hello MAS, i miss SBC.
Namaskara, Namaskaram, I have no clue as to how many people still remember that I blog but I have now become a part of the IT industry and hence shall blog very often. By IT industry I mean the worst, I have started cracking CS Gedde jokes! After quitting HSBC and joining apna Tata family, I have realized a lot. I love Karnataka, Bangalore and Mysore and that I am truly at home in these wonderful cities. Coimbatore where the training was held was fun with me trying to teach anuj tamil and kriti learning to ask for poriyal and kootu. It was hot but nothing prepared me for Chennai. The city has 3 distinct seasons: hot,hotter and hottest. I conveniently landed here during then hottest! The people here in general are rude and guess the heat makes them a lil crazy too! Coimbatore was a place where I relished the company I had and the food. Here I have neither.(I do eat, but I don enjoy it too much :p) The first month was spent trying to get into the project with my client trying to confirm the fact that I was not involved in stealing chappatis as a side-business and therefore I technically started work last friday(wasted 20 days). The office is closer to Mahabalipuram than Chennai and for recreational facilities has 3 carrom boards and a few chess boards for round about 10,000 ppl! Jai Jai. So all I do now is get up, go to work and come back. 1 thing I do enjoy here is the movie rates, 120 INR max on any day. Will not support piracy till I get out of TN! Tat's pretty much it, will continue soon!
12.29.2009
IS ALL WELL?
Thought i'd write a review of 3 idiots(yes i am still on a movie spree!), but kritya did the honours. The following post is a review written by her and for all you lazy buggers who wouldn't want to log into facebook to read it, please do so here! All hail kritya!
This is my first ever movie review to be published and not just verbally.
I chose "3 Idiots" since it is easier to butcher than to garnish. Wow, I just came up with that!
*spoiler alert*
"3 Idiots is highly idiotic...except for a few genuinely LOL moments, a bromance that falls short of just adequate." - Shruti Sardeshpande
I couldn't agree more.
Isn't it ironic when the lead characters of the movie, despite PMSing vehemently and crying as and when they breathe, act like their virtues of sensibility and sensitivity have gone for a toss in the next scene? Well, I couldn't help but notice this phenomenon when they turned paralysis and the inability to afford vegetables into a joke. Actually, I can deal with that. You know? Humour; dark, medium, decaf, whatever. But it did not end there now, did it? Rancho and Farhan had to come out of Raju's house laughing hysterically and furthermore make fun of Raju's misery. I understand friendship, alright. I also understand that each friendship has its own foundation and boundary. But, hell I only understand friendship between humans with emotions and the ability to respond to stimuli...Appropriately!
That was just one of the innumerable things that pissed me off in the movie. I went to watch it with my brains at home in order to have fun et al. But I still think that when you pay to watch it on the big screen, you would expect some method in the madness (FYI, I'm all for Priyadarsan's confusion mania or Akshay Kumar's just plain crazy dialogues kinda movies if you thought I wasn't) and most importantly respect, now wouldn't you? All the SMS and email junk jokes that we received back in the 15th Century were being played out in front of me. That too in the typical Rajkumar Hirani-vidhu Vinod Chopra way. Which by the way, is nothing less than very atrocious. I have always believed that this duo has some really brilliant ideas (Munna Bhai and its sequel). But, they truly, honestly, suck at executing them. They don't have the balls to make it smarter as they fear that that won't pull as much crowd. Try it guys. Try Not bringing in extra ridiculous characters who can't spell a-c-t-i-n-g and pay to "act" in your movies. Try not stalling a witty scene by turning the camera towards a character just so he can make a stupid face and deliver a redundant dialogue. It can still be funny to the crowd you Want to target!
I laughed out loud at many places. I found the power nap thing to be cleverly used as well. I loved Madhavan's extremely natural giggles. I liked the very different and refreshing take on the book too. I cannot, even if I try to, criticize the director's vision of the movie that he wished to make on reading 5 Point Someone. Like I said before, his ideas are always neat. But I couldn't handle the drenched inverter. I couldn't understand the pachydermatous approach towards severe medical conditions and poverty. I got irritated by Aamir Khan trying to prove that he is a good cry-er on screen. (Do you remember that he cried when Raju says that he wants to clear the final exam with honesty?) And of course, I couldn't stand something that was defined in a hilarious way initially but then ruined later by many, many nonsensical references, the magnanimous overkill called "aal iz well".
This is my first ever movie review to be published and not just verbally.
I chose "3 Idiots" since it is easier to butcher than to garnish. Wow, I just came up with that!
*spoiler alert*
"3 Idiots is highly idiotic...except for a few genuinely LOL moments, a bromance that falls short of just adequate." - Shruti Sardeshpande
I couldn't agree more.
Isn't it ironic when the lead characters of the movie, despite PMSing vehemently and crying as and when they breathe, act like their virtues of sensibility and sensitivity have gone for a toss in the next scene? Well, I couldn't help but notice this phenomenon when they turned paralysis and the inability to afford vegetables into a joke. Actually, I can deal with that. You know? Humour; dark, medium, decaf, whatever. But it did not end there now, did it? Rancho and Farhan had to come out of Raju's house laughing hysterically and furthermore make fun of Raju's misery. I understand friendship, alright. I also understand that each friendship has its own foundation and boundary. But, hell I only understand friendship between humans with emotions and the ability to respond to stimuli...Appropriately!
That was just one of the innumerable things that pissed me off in the movie. I went to watch it with my brains at home in order to have fun et al. But I still think that when you pay to watch it on the big screen, you would expect some method in the madness (FYI, I'm all for Priyadarsan's confusion mania or Akshay Kumar's just plain crazy dialogues kinda movies if you thought I wasn't) and most importantly respect, now wouldn't you? All the SMS and email junk jokes that we received back in the 15th Century were being played out in front of me. That too in the typical Rajkumar Hirani-vidhu Vinod Chopra way. Which by the way, is nothing less than very atrocious. I have always believed that this duo has some really brilliant ideas (Munna Bhai and its sequel). But, they truly, honestly, suck at executing them. They don't have the balls to make it smarter as they fear that that won't pull as much crowd. Try it guys. Try Not bringing in extra ridiculous characters who can't spell a-c-t-i-n-g and pay to "act" in your movies. Try not stalling a witty scene by turning the camera towards a character just so he can make a stupid face and deliver a redundant dialogue. It can still be funny to the crowd you Want to target!
I laughed out loud at many places. I found the power nap thing to be cleverly used as well. I loved Madhavan's extremely natural giggles. I liked the very different and refreshing take on the book too. I cannot, even if I try to, criticize the director's vision of the movie that he wished to make on reading 5 Point Someone. Like I said before, his ideas are always neat. But I couldn't handle the drenched inverter. I couldn't understand the pachydermatous approach towards severe medical conditions and poverty. I got irritated by Aamir Khan trying to prove that he is a good cry-er on screen. (Do you remember that he cried when Raju says that he wants to clear the final exam with honesty?) And of course, I couldn't stand something that was defined in a hilarious way initially but then ruined later by many, many nonsensical references, the magnanimous overkill called "aal iz well".
12.28.2009
Off Late
The annual cake show hosted by Nilgiris this year, greatly hyped by me was sorely disappointing! When I first saw the hoarding advertising the show, I was quite excited. The cake show turned out to be one big hall with a massive Taj Mahal (very nicely done) and a destroyer. On the sidelines were 10 nicely designed cakes! But the main drawback to this was the exhibition which was twice the size of the cake show itself. Loads and loads and loads of sales guys selling unwanted stuff at bloated prices which pissed me off! Sad to see the cake show in this state!
I’ve been on a movie spree of sorts! Watched Avatar in 3D which certainly turned out to be a very different and brilliant experience. James Cameron’s Jake Sully and the mildly erotic Na’avi female create magic on screen and entertain a person thoroughly! At a time when Global Warming is gaining importance, the reverence with which the aliens treat their world is refreshing and gives one hope that one day we might realize how important ours is! I remember a dialogue by Agent Smith in The Matrix which denounces humans and the way we suffocate life around us. Pandora’s landscape is truly mesmerizing!
The second experience was not all that great. I went and watched Vettaikaran, a Tamil movie which starred Vijay and Anushka Shetty. A child born out of wedlock between a brain dead Godzilla and a Cocaine addicted Marlin Manson could not have enjoyed this movie! It involved the hero flying and smashing people at varying angles in a world with lesser gravitational pull than the Earth. Newton would have shot the director, rushed him to a hospital, saved him and then shoot him again after watching this movie. The heroine is bloody hot and there is hardly any comedy. The songs are the usual thump thump thump numbers with the side artists dressed in the worst of attires. All I was left with after the movie was a mild headache and a strong sense of satisfaction when I used the loo after the movie!
P.S: it also involves the hero riding a horse once or twice as a cowboy! Brrrrr
I’ve been on a movie spree of sorts! Watched Avatar in 3D which certainly turned out to be a very different and brilliant experience. James Cameron’s Jake Sully and the mildly erotic Na’avi female create magic on screen and entertain a person thoroughly! At a time when Global Warming is gaining importance, the reverence with which the aliens treat their world is refreshing and gives one hope that one day we might realize how important ours is! I remember a dialogue by Agent Smith in The Matrix which denounces humans and the way we suffocate life around us. Pandora’s landscape is truly mesmerizing!
The second experience was not all that great. I went and watched Vettaikaran, a Tamil movie which starred Vijay and Anushka Shetty. A child born out of wedlock between a brain dead Godzilla and a Cocaine addicted Marlin Manson could not have enjoyed this movie! It involved the hero flying and smashing people at varying angles in a world with lesser gravitational pull than the Earth. Newton would have shot the director, rushed him to a hospital, saved him and then shoot him again after watching this movie. The heroine is bloody hot and there is hardly any comedy. The songs are the usual thump thump thump numbers with the side artists dressed in the worst of attires. All I was left with after the movie was a mild headache and a strong sense of satisfaction when I used the loo after the movie!
P.S: it also involves the hero riding a horse once or twice as a cowboy! Brrrrr
11.06.2009
Food review - by me? - very surprising!
Well a couple of days back, arpi and I went shopping. rather she did the shopping and I was the faithful auto guy:) Hit brand factory on hosur road first and it rained heavily as we shopped. As you all know, I do have this tendency to enjoy my breeze a lil more than normal humans, this prompted me to go out of the mall through the security beepers (which went off) without paying for the clothes. I was quick to run inside and not repeat the mistake.
We then went to the cafe and ordered a mushroom pav bhaji and a Delhi Chaat which frankly was Dahi chaat! Then the rains stopped and we rode to M.G.Road in very pleasant weather and not so pleasant traffic!
Reached Barton Center and took the lift to the 13th floor, we chose the roof top restaurant and had to wait as the remaining vestiges of the0 shower were being removed. The view was breathtaking and the up there, the wind pretty much chilled us to our bones.
We thought of starting off with a soup but unfortunately, veggies don't have much choice here. We had the only veg soup which was a tomato shorba! The starter was excellent, a paneer dish which was frankly excellent! The best part about the dinner was the fact that the management gave complimentary shawls, which someone didn want first and then later asked for one and tremendously enjoyed it. The main course was a penne pasta which I liked as it was not bland. I do not dislike continental cuisine, i dislike bland anything. This was filled with herbs and tomato suace:)
We finished our dinner and disappointed all the auto guys waiting to rip us off and headed home. On the way, we were stopped by the ever ready to make a quick buck police guys and on talking in Kannada gained quick passage from their clutches.
After dropping her off at her place, I went home emotionally and stomachily satisfied:)
Food: Very Good
Ambience : good
Service: Excellent
Wallet Factor : 1200 for a meal for 2!
P.S. Do not go by my pallet because like Mass Recruiters, I am a mass eater. I do not discriminate when it comes to food :p
P.P.S: I hold patent rights on 'stomachily' if it ever becomes famous!
We then went to the cafe and ordered a mushroom pav bhaji and a Delhi Chaat which frankly was Dahi chaat! Then the rains stopped and we rode to M.G.Road in very pleasant weather and not so pleasant traffic!
Reached Barton Center and took the lift to the 13th floor, we chose the roof top restaurant and had to wait as the remaining vestiges of the0 shower were being removed. The view was breathtaking and the up there, the wind pretty much chilled us to our bones.
We thought of starting off with a soup but unfortunately, veggies don't have much choice here. We had the only veg soup which was a tomato shorba! The starter was excellent, a paneer dish which was frankly excellent! The best part about the dinner was the fact that the management gave complimentary shawls, which someone didn want first and then later asked for one and tremendously enjoyed it. The main course was a penne pasta which I liked as it was not bland. I do not dislike continental cuisine, i dislike bland anything. This was filled with herbs and tomato suace:)
We finished our dinner and disappointed all the auto guys waiting to rip us off and headed home. On the way, we were stopped by the ever ready to make a quick buck police guys and on talking in Kannada gained quick passage from their clutches.
After dropping her off at her place, I went home emotionally and stomachily satisfied:)
Food: Very Good
Ambience : good
Service: Excellent
Wallet Factor : 1200 for a meal for 2!
P.S. Do not go by my pallet because like Mass Recruiters, I am a mass eater. I do not discriminate when it comes to food :p
P.P.S: I hold patent rights on 'stomachily' if it ever becomes famous!
10.30.2009
Human Nature
It so happens that many of us tend to start something with good intentions, start it, do it but power corrupts. From Isildur in LOTR to Robert Mugabe, from Napoleon in Animal Farm to Stalin. Why are we so susceptible to power?
Is there some insuppressible tendency for us as Humans to covet more and more of it?
Communism is a feeling that I personally admire. Not the communism of the USSR which had Brezhnev or Andropov but the communism which makes sure victims of unwanted exploitation get their due. All this reminds me of a single movie - 'Anbe Sivam' by Kamal Hassan. I think it has one of the best story lines in which he perpetrates the vision that love is God! He is a staunch communist but feels that men who do good are equal to God. I completely agree with him on this. God put us here on Earth to live and not hate. We do not need to visit temples or mosques to prove that we are religious. A line of sacred ash on one's forehead or a cross hanging on one's neck is not a passport to heaven! Helping the needy around you, be it a hungry dog or a person short of ten rupees for a train ticket is what life is all about.
I just read the 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell and I think it is one of the best books ever written. It shows how a good intention is corrupted by power and how in the end, you and your next door neighbour suffer! The sad thing about us is the fact that many of us have recognized and realized how wrongly we lead our lives and yet continue to do so. It is high time to change is what I feel and change always begins within a single person.
Is there some insuppressible tendency for us as Humans to covet more and more of it?
Communism is a feeling that I personally admire. Not the communism of the USSR which had Brezhnev or Andropov but the communism which makes sure victims of unwanted exploitation get their due. All this reminds me of a single movie - 'Anbe Sivam' by Kamal Hassan. I think it has one of the best story lines in which he perpetrates the vision that love is God! He is a staunch communist but feels that men who do good are equal to God. I completely agree with him on this. God put us here on Earth to live and not hate. We do not need to visit temples or mosques to prove that we are religious. A line of sacred ash on one's forehead or a cross hanging on one's neck is not a passport to heaven! Helping the needy around you, be it a hungry dog or a person short of ten rupees for a train ticket is what life is all about.
I just read the 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell and I think it is one of the best books ever written. It shows how a good intention is corrupted by power and how in the end, you and your next door neighbour suffer! The sad thing about us is the fact that many of us have recognized and realized how wrongly we lead our lives and yet continue to do so. It is high time to change is what I feel and change always begins within a single person.
4.04.2009
Innocence Lost
I remember the very first time he held me in his arms. Those strong powerful arms, the ones that would always protect me. He radiated joy and every person in his vicinity felt it. Of course, I was too young to understand all this but my mother always told this story well at bedtime. My first piggy back ride, my first Barbie-doll, my first trip to the beach, my Daddy was always with me. I would wait for him to come back from his office to hug me and tell me how much he loved me. Once I figured out the usage of a telephone, the first number I memorised was his! Chocolates, pretty frocks, anything I ever desired for were at my feet before I could ask for them twice. I loved my Daddy. As I grew older, I noticed that mama and daddy fought a lot, they threw things at each other and the house was always filled with mama’s cries and daddy’s yells. Daddy started coming home late from office, sometimes never at all! Mama grew quieter day by day. Daddy started smelling weird when he came back home from office, he couldn’t walk straight and his speech sounded very different.
One night, daddy came home when I was in my room. I held my Barbie tightly and wished for him and mama to stop fighting. He then came into my room and I never felt happier in my life. My Daddy has come again to read me my favourite bed-time story as before. He sat next to me on my bed, I could smell that weird smell again, but I didn’t care, my Daddy was with me! He stroked my hair and slowly moved closer, I was a little shocked but Daddy’s hugs always cheered me. This time the hug graduated to something else, the pain! I tried screaming out aloud but he stifled my cries, the same strong arms that fought for me once were now holding me down. Waves of pain lashed across my body and when he finally left me, I was too scared to move. Why Why Why?? Why did MY Daddy do this to me?
Daddy visited my room often after that, I did not understand why he hurt me so, maybe I was a bad girl at school and my teacher complained, maybe mama told him that I stole chocolates from the fridge when no one was looking… I will never know. Daddy coming home now made my body shiver, he hit me more than once while punishing me if I did something wrong, my body trembled with fear in his presence. Months became years till I finally figured out how that man had been punishing me!
Fear turned to anger and anger turned to fear again, what if he hurts mama and me? Mama already looks so sad and dejected, if he stops punishing me, maybe he’ll start hurting her more. No, I have to be strong; I have to do the right thing. Monsters like him belong behind bars and deserve the harshest of sentences. For having violated the holiest of relationships with his evil desires, he deserves no mercy.
I have finally told mama and she is shocked! To my amazement, I see a mama that I haven’t seen in a long time. Mama grows stronger as I tell her how daddy’s been punishing me all these years. The anger in her eyes scares me but also fill me with a strong sense of protection. This strength that I have derived from her is now helping me confront him. Mama will never be quiet ever again and he will get what he deserves.
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