clandestination

Say anything

2010-04-05T11:42:00.001-07:00

Have there been times in your life when someone was extremely rude to you and you were just too dumb-sruck to retaliate their rudeness? I've got plenty of such incidents in my own biograophy.

A few days back I went volunteering at a place in town. This is a huge non-profit and hence has a lot of volunteers working for them part-time. As it happened an elderly lady (app. 55 - 60 yrs) and I ended up doing some stuff together in the office. I tried to start a conversation with her. As the conversation progressed, I realized she was a unhappy kinda person. May be life was not exactly fair to her, but I felt it wasn't unfair to her either. Anyways, I told her why I normally volunteer and where my husband is employed(in an American-Indian IT services company) etc. After a few minutes she said that one of her friends was worried about losing her job because her work was being outsourced to, you guessed it right, India. And she said, "I hope it's not the company your spouse works for". For a few seconds I was stupefied! I was too shocked for her way of expressing dsilike for "Indian companies stealing their jobs": saying it in the face of a stranger from India who was happy to volunteer her time, for free, to an American non-profit. I didn't think it was fair of her to be so direct , especially with a person she met just an hour back. But I din't utter a word back to her. Later, I was so angry with myself for not coming up with a slapping rebuttal.

And then as time passed by she asked me strange questions about Indian culture: how she thought people in India force their kids for arranged marriages, how she thought we can't speak english and how people normally live with their parents. Here I took matters into my hand and explained the reality in India: how parents now-a-days trust their children to make their own decisions life partner or otherwise, how 80% Indians have their entire education from English medium schools, how we in India respect family and stick together till death.

It was also shocking to see her recalculating the money she "loaned" to her sons! You know your life is a reflection of your actions, if you are calculative in lending money to your kids they expect you to live in a nursing home later in life. I'm not saying that people here are all like this. I've mets of tons of people here who take care of their parents in a better way than I've ever seen in India.

Relationships work only when love and respect are requited. And that's why the Indian family system works in my opinion. At the end of the day I just felt sorry for the dear old ladie, for it's her attitude, and not her pay at job or not her retirement benefits, that needs to change in order for her to be happy and peaceful in life. And I'm glad I am in a position to make this discretion.

movie marathon

2010-04-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

So with the spirit of Academy awards last Feb, my hubby and I decided to embark on a marathon of watching academy award winning movies. Why this? First of all, for fun :).Second, I am curious to see the transformation of movies over the past few decaded. Third, I wanna understand the reasoning behind the academy of motion picture's picking a movie as the best-movie of the year? What makes a movie a best movie - is it story, is it the actors, is it the social message it carries, is it the relevance of the movie to its times?

So as I embark on this, I will duely report my reviews here. So keep watching people!

Romance for any season -Dirty dancing

2010-03-24T18:30:00.001-07:00

I watched Dirty Dancing today. For the second time (yeah yeah, just the second time...). And I loved it all over again. Just a few days back I put 'Before Sunrise' at the top of my most-romantic movies list. But now I think it's a tie between Dirty Dancing and Before Sunrise.
DD has all the key ingredients necessary to make a romantic movie: music, sensual dancing, beautiful protagonists and an almost fairy tale like story. May be it was DD that created a benchmark in the first place. Patrick Swayze (may he RIP) is an amazing dancer, he is a trained of course. And the chemistry he has with Jennifer Grey is simply so real!It's hard to believe that they were both actually "not-so-fond" of each other when filming DD. But I love the way this off-screen animosity transltes into on-screen passion.
DD is a typical rich girl meets a poor boy story. At least it looks like that on the top. But underneath it's more than that. It's a story of the experiencing the pains of growing up and facing the truth about the real world. Jennifer Grey suits the role. I can't imagine any other 80's actress but Grey in Baby's role.
As for the dance numbers, I love all of 'em; starting with what has been described 'one of the most goose-bumpy movie dance sequences ever' , the climactic dance to 'The time of my life', to the parody of 'Love is Strange'.
Although it's referred to as 'the most watched movie by women ever' and 'the Star Wars for women' I think DD is worth a watch of any guy too :)

Pic courtsey:Wikipedia.org

Hello world- reloaded

2010-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

I keep doing this...I hit the writer's-block once in a while and then say 'hello-world'...it's like putting an end to an ackward pause. Nevertheless, if any of you out there has been missing by blogs....there's good news for you. I'm gonna blog more frequently. Past one, sorry two months, have been busy busy busy. I moved across the country from the quaint beautiful side of MA to the dry but cheerfully warm west (AZ). New place, new apartment, new furniture blah blah blah - long story short I was busy. But am back now! So keep watching this space.

Worcester,je t'aime!

2010-01-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

I look out of the bedroom window and see the snow-covered swings and toy-cars in my neighbor's yard. I know the scene will change soon. Spring is just a couple of months away.
I know the quiet Bean Counter on college Highland St will soon be crowded. The students of the university will soon come back and flood it.

But I won't be here to see it all.
It's time for us to move. I embarked on this journey when I first moved from my home-town to my college-town. Then to Chennai and so on. After relishing the charm of New England for nearly 15 months it's time for us to make our next stop. These days every place I visit in town makes me think, "Will I cross paths with this place again?". I've a lot of memories here. After all it's the place where I started my own family life. The city library, the place I worked, the parking lot I learnt to drive, the beautiful homes on Salisbury St, the small home on Old Mill Rd with its uncountable Christmas decorations, the Saturday evenings spent in the Border's cafe', the restaurants on the Shrewsbury St, I'll miss them all. But the excitement of the new voyage is keeping my spirits up. Who knows what's in store?

P.S. For the first time ever I'm feeling nostalgic about something before being seperated from it :)

A song I love

2010-01-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

My 50th post and I like it's this :)

Avatar - my review

2009-12-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

So, the much awaited movie of the year was finally released last week and I hit the theatre to see it the opening weekend. My verdict - definitely worth the $(12.5+1.25) I spent on it.

Now that I'm in my late 20's I don't enjoy the thrills of sci-fi movies anymore. But 'Avatar' to me is beyond sci-fi. It's drama + sci-fi + one man's dream of creating the next step of cinema experience.
The story itself isn't new (remember 'Dances with Wolves'?).Cameron himself has accepted the similarities. But what makes Avatar unique is its ability to make believe its audience that there indeed seems to be a Pandora out there. And thanks to the stereoscopic film-making we almost feel we are on Pandora.
The creator has done a good job of casting not so famous stars in the movie (flashback Titanic). The performances nevertheless are laudable. You can't hlep but see the boy-next-door nature of the protagonist Jake Sully.
The film is rich. Am not talking about the vegetation on Pandora, am talking about the moments of drama, the CGIs, the almost real life forms of the alien tribe , and if you watch it in a IMAX the 'butt-kicker' experience - these are only few of the attributes of the movie. I think in a very long time has a movie truly attracted all age groups. My fav. sequence is the taming of the bird when Jake is under test.
For me the total 170 mins passed by like 60 mins. And for the first time I am really looking forward to going through the same movie experience all over again :)

Climate change - what are you doing?

2009-10-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today is 2009 blog action day and a little over 9000 bloggers from 150 countries are blogging about this year's topic of blogaction 'climate change'. As one of the 9000+ bloggers, I have my 2 cents to offer:

I would be surprised if any of you haven't experienced the climate changes in the past few years. Gone are the days when summers used to be summers and winters used to be winters. We,on the earth, now have rains in summer and totally shortened spring season and what not! Most people like me who are just laymen in scientific climatic knowledge feel the climatic change but don't really know what the reason behind it is or if they can do anything to reduce it. I think it's high time that the leaders of the world-nations do something to bring attention of the common man to adverse climatic changes. Else we'll wake up one day like the people in that movie 'Day after tomorrow'. Beware, unlike the movie there might just not be a happy ending!

But I'm optimistic with the way things are moving in the right direction. Blog action day is just one of these awareness generators. I hope that the efforts of fellow-bloggers can bring more attention to the matter and help the leaders meeting at the Copenhagen climate change conferene to take some serious steps.

A little LH nostalgia

2009-10-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

LH - My friends from college would immediately know what I mean.

A good friend of mine got married recently to her beloved,who also is from our college. I couldn't attend her wedding, although I really really wanted to.
When I browsed through the wedding pictures I saw all my friends from college days...all my co-inmates of LH and it just brought back all the sweet memories from my 4 years in NIT Warangal.
1 - How our gang always used to be the first gang to arrive in the mess - no matter how much we hated the food.
2 - How we shouted and scared each other during power failures
3 - How my room was the offical 'someone call' sight room
4 - The carzy dance in the midnight B'Day parties
5 - Silly walks around the Lawn
6 - Getting dressed up on festival days and making trips to 1000 pillar temple
7 - Shouting in the cinema halls of Warangal
8 - Going to Punnami at 8pm and running to catch the LH gates before they close
9 - Reserving bathrooms for roomates after we shower
10 - Chanting Rahul's name in the TV room (or may be Sachin's :))
....list goes on....
I'm just thankful to NITW for letting me have these amazing gorgeous talented and graceful women as my friends :D ...Love my hostel-mates

Spell-bound...

2009-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

..that's the one word to describe my state after I watched 'I'm not scared' tonight.
I feel that if you really want to know how you would like a movie, the best way to form an opinion is to watch the movie without any background or review in mind or without watching any trailers at all. And with the same approach I happened to watch 'I'm not scared'.

The story is both dramtic and thrilling. The theme and the ending of the movie are so touching that you would've to be cold-hearted not to be haunted by them. The story reminds me of the innocence of childhood and how the things happening around us can or cannot change the virtues we all are born with. The choices the little boy Michele makes in the story will amaze us for sure. I wonder if I was as brave a child as Michele seems to be in the movie.

The story is supposedly based on a real life event. I wonder how I had never heard of this movie before. But this sure is going to my list!

How much credit do you get for a credit card?

2009-07-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

I love hanging out at coffe shops, office canteens and now,sports bars....NO!!I'm not drinking yet my beloved friends and readers:). The thing about these places is that friends meet up and talk about a variety of stuff, right from who's their latest crush to what the new leader of the country should do.Last night at a hangout place, I couldn't but overhear the conversation of two adult men.No points for guessing their topic of discussion...what other can one discuss these days than money. One of the men was saying, "The only use the X Bank's debit card, after all I can't sepnd money that I don't really have"..Thanks my man!You are finally realising it.

The whole concept of credit was,I would say,marvelous and extremely smart and impacting...after all without credit one could never think of buying a home or a car or even for that matter go to college(this applies to colleges in the U.S...most of which are damn damn costly!). Hadn't there been no one to give us a mortgage or lend us money, we would just live life plainly...
While (!unemployed)
{
if (month-starts) get payckeck;

pay bills;

if (layoffs or over 60)
umemployed == true
}

In order to encourage credit-taking or borrowing, the US had come up with the concept of one's credit score, basically you borrow or take a loan from a bank or some other source and the time you take to pay it back and your promptness in paying it back, gives you a good creidt score out of 800 points.

But we being humans that err, took this whole credit cycle to such a phase where almost all the money that was was in the air floating as credit in circulation...I don't want to elaborate on how one thing led to another and we landed where we are today.I was shocked to know that the present day avergae credit of an adult in the US is $11,500 dollars and the average # of credit cards a student has it 5!!! While any form of credit could potentially go bad, the chances of credit abuse are more with a credit card than any kind of mortgage or bank loan etc.This is coz, once you have a card that could be swiped at places ranging from cffee shops to the Prada stores...we children of the God eat up all the candy we can afford with the allowance we were never actually handed out.

I'm glad the phenomenon of credit cards has not caught up in a country like India where the economy is stabilising finally.Forget the nationalised banks, no private bank would give a college student any credit card so easily, and it's good in one way. You teach the kids to spend resourcefully and judiciously. No wonder economies like India and Brazil are called more important than that of US (ref. on of the July TIME issues)the saviors of the current economy. As for the U S of A,I hope the current credit scare here stays the way it is , if not in a more paranoid state.

What should google do against the new bing ads?

2009-07-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

The latest from the Google-Microsoft wars are the Bing ads.Check out one here.

For over a decade now , google has been the place to go to when you had an unanswered question, atleast for most people like me :).It became a synonym for 'search'. People started saying , "did you google it" instead of "did you search for it". It is acontemporary case of a brand-name replacing the name of the product itself, like 'Xerox' replacing the word 'photocopying'.

Now microsoft , in its ongoing competition with google, has launched Bing!
I haven't use Bing much, but its latest TVC (TV commercial) promises to not overload search reults onto the consumer , unlike google which gives you all possible things related to your search and lets you decide which of them is appropriate. My first impression on seeing the ad was 'Good point!'. But unfortunatley Bing doesn't stand up to what it promises.It ends up giving me results similar to those on google search.

So what should Google do now, should it continue what it's been doing so far:not advertise its products on the TV or should it comeback with a retort?
In case Google decides to do the latter , what should be its positioning?

When the light came into our house!

2009-06-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

The title might seeming promising but this post is nothing philosophical in its content.If anything it's nostalgic. After spending a handful number of months in the Eastern part of the west(sorry I simply should say East coast of the USA :P), I have enjoyed every moment of my time here. I have to admit that I've even considered the thought of becoming an East-coaster , however self-contradicting I might sound to my good friends in saying that. With no complaints at all so far, I realised how much I missed things back home when we bought a white tubelight last night. All these days our home was lit with the so called soft-white light, which I hated. If you are from the urban populations of India and are relatively new to the US , you will definitely see what I'm talking about. I hate this soft-white light. It's everything but white. It has this yellow glow which is closer to the sepia mode of the camera. Finally last night we bought this white tubelight.And as soon as we lit it....wow I felt like I was in the living room of my home back in India :)

Silly as it may sound,it's these small things that bring back memories of good old days. The smell of the agarbathi, the aroma of Bru coffee, the samosa in Patel Groceries, an oil bath on Sunday.....the list goes on.

It's ironic how most people back home(of course I wasn't one of these 'most people' :P )hate the places they live in , stay dissatisfied and wish to escape from their surroundings.But take them away and put them in the best possible ambience and I bet ya ,they'll ask you when you are gonna send them back! That's us!

Gone baby gone - Review

2009-05-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Gone baby gone is not a new movie. It was released in 2007. Am surprised how I did not hear much about it. It was a matter of chance that I happened to see this movie, full of commendable performances, last night.

The film revolves around the kidnapping of a 3 yr old girl in the shady parts of Boston. It goes on touching issues of kidnapping, drug-dealing and abuse of children - all the ingredients of a social rather crime awareness movie. The story is something that can happen to anyone, yet is something you wish does not happen to anyone.

The protagonist (Casey Affleck) is a private detective living with his work-partner in our shady suburb. He is hired by the family of the missing kid to find her. Now one might ask why he and not the strong police is the protagonist in the movie. Well our guy happens to be brought up in the community and is just the right kind of person with contacts within the world down under, possible where our missing kid is. At times the viewer is definite to be thrilled with how a simple looking person like our man can go on and threaten all those biggies of the underworld. But it's carried in the movie in a convincing way.

Although I don't want to spoil your own experience if you ever watch the movie, am tempted to discuss about the ending. The climax puts you, the audience, in the midst of a question - is everything you think is right, really right? When you look back and see do you really think abiding by the rules of law was the right thing to do? What would you do if you had a chance to change a person's life by compromising on what you believe to be right?

Some of the scenes in the movie are haunting. They force you to come face to face with the horrible things we do to our children and family. At one point of the movie, the story makes you feel that you have reached the end , but suddenly it shifts by 180 degrees - a characteristic of a perfect mystery! The movie is like a page turner book, it makes you sit at the edge of your seat. Few references in the story reminded me of Mystic River. Only when I read the details of the movie on wiki did I realize why, after all they have a common author.

When the titles played on the screen I told myself, “Ben Affleck probably made this movie just to give his brother Casey a much needed big break after his small roles all these years”. But after 2 hours I could not stop admiring Ben for his directorial talent. The movie also has big names like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, who as usual deliver brilliantly however small a role one gives them. And Casey, well, I’m surprised we are not seeing much of him these days. He is definitely a gifted actor. I hope I get to see more of him.

What made last weekend good was...

2009-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

...that I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's.It's one of those feel good romantic comedies. I'm a huge fan of romantic comedies , especially the ones with more romance and lesser comedy :). Anyone would agree that movies like When Harry met Sally , You've got mail, French Kiss or Breakfast at T.'s are sure to make it one's 100 movies to watch anytime to cheer oneself up.

I couldn't have imagined anything better to do this windy weekend than getting cosy on the couch with Breakfast at T's playing.Although I had watched it already, I wanted to see it again.You see that's the thing with these romantic comedies, you can watch them again and again. I hardly remembered Moon river, but as soon as the titles starting coming up on the TV with Audrey Hepburn eating her croissant in front of Tiffany & Co. the tune came back to me. After all a tune doesn't win the Oscar without being qualified as memorable!

Audrey Hepburn amazes me. 8 years after Roman Holiday she still managed to look the same innocent looking 20-ish girl and portrayed her role so convincingly. You can't help but sympathise with the poor little Holly Golightly. She makes you fall in love with her inspite of the facts like she absolutely deserted her family back home and ran off for her own reasons, accompanies men for 50$ bills and turns her back on her true love Paul.

Apart from the deliberate fun made of Holly's Japanese neighbour upstairs, the portrayl of which even the Director Blake Edwards regretted later, the movie is a memorable one. For me it will always be a one of the best things to watch on a cold windy dull day :)

Image source - thecinemasource dot com

Funny ads

2009-04-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Most of us hate advertisements. We hate them even more when they come when you are at the edge of your seat.But there are some ads which most of us have loved...remember the Dairy Milk ads-especially the one with the young lady dancing in the cricket match.Lately I've started to like the funny ones.Here's a Heineken ad that says Women:Clothes :: Men:Heineken - Perfect advertising - in a simple and impressive way.

W.R.T post in Oct 2 - Do's and dont's of online match-making

2009-03-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Now that I've given the gyan on match-making websites in the previous post,let's get working!What to and what not to do when you are trying to find your soul-mate online.

Do's
-----
1 - When you create your profile,be honest,state the facts,don't hide any important things.
2 - Put your latest photos on the site, after all when you meet the person he is goinna see you as you currently are, not as you were in your 'younger' years :)
3 - Check your inbox regularly , I suggest daily. Remember, there might be someone somewhere, who might not be made for you,but is still waiting for your reply to his/her interest request.
4 - State your expectations clearly in the very beginning.This way you can avoid spending time with the wrong person and also the disappointments that might result.
5 - Take the process seriously.Don't just be fooling around.
6 - Add filters to your profile when you know what category of people you don't want to get interest requests from.
7 - Most of all , be patient. You are gonna get tons and tons of requests daily. Be sure to go throught them.And make it a point to reply.
8 - As soon as your wedding is fixed,delete your profile. You don't want some poor soul to still keep dreaming about you.Be kind to them :)

Dont's
-------
1 - Don't be rude. Express your lack of interest in a polite way. Put yourself in the other person's shoes and see what you might feel.
2 - Don't hurry through the process and end up talking to some fradulent person. We have all heard of the cases of internet matrimony gone bad.
3 - Don't be late to online rendezvous. No one likes to be stood-up.
4 - Don't be a jerk and send replies like,"You are too short for me","You are too dark for me" etc. If you are not attracted to the person simply say ,"Sorry our interests don't match".
5 - Don't be pushy.Wait for the other person to respond to your interest requests or to reciprocate to your liking.
6 - Don't hurry things.Never be one of those who think,"I'm taking a month's vacation and going to India.I'll meet a girl and get married right away". No sensible guy/gal appreciates that attitude.
7 - Don't reject a profile right away by seeing a picture. Aks for more pictures and then decide.
8 - Once you yourself are involved in the process, don't harry your parents. Take responsibility.

Hope these are useful!

W.R.T post in Oct 1 - Match making online

2009-03-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

A couple of you, my friends, have been eagerly waiting for these upcoming 3 posts from me...well atleast that's what you've told me :).Forgive me for keeping you waiting so long, but there is a reason from me writing them now.Am gonna let you figure out that reason ;)

Most of us,gals and guys,are of the opinion that online match-making is silly and stupid and hence are reluctant to try it.Trust me I was one of you!But only when you explore this option will you know, how realistic it is to go with them in today's world.

A good number of us keep complaining about the crunch of time we face everyday. And in the midst of this chaos around us, thinking about getting married and even trying to find the right person might sometimes seem like an impossible thing to seriously do. This is exactly where an online match-making site would be of use to.It gives you flexibility to check matches when you are free and when you feel like it. This flexibility is not the case with traditional match-makers.

None of us today want to get married to a person that we have not spoken or seen till the day of marriage,atleast none that I know of. Consider the good old arranged marriage groom search in a gal's family.

While (!Groom-found)
{
Family ++
if (son:Family == Good)
if (horoscope-match)
Grooom-Found = True
}

But with online match-making involved

While (!Groom-found)
{
Match ++
if (gal likes profile == true)
if (gal and guy mutually interested == true)
if (compatibility matches == true)
if (parents agree == true)
Groom-found = true
}

Although the last "parents agree" thing still qualifies it to be an arranged marriage, as you can see the factors driving the match are mostly those involving the gal and the guy. Hence the possibility that you will end up marrying someone you don't know or don't like is quite less.

All this said and done, which wesite to pick up. This should not be very difficult.It all depends on how open or how confined you want your search to be.
Amongst the tons and tons of match-making websites,go with the one that best suits your needs. If you want options only from your your caste,then go to websites like christianmatch.com, agarwal2agarwal.com etc that are driven by caste choices.If you want someone with a personality type that matches you go to a website that has options to drive matches based on peronslities ex.chemistry.com. If you want to search within the same tongue speaking folks there are sub-categories of bharatmatrimony.com - telugu/tamil/hindi etc etc matrimony.com. There are websites even for sigles within a city. But unless you choose a popular website, be careful to check the authenticity.

I fell in love all over again with.....

2009-02-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

…Boston. There is something beyond the tall buildings, the crowd, the sub-ways that caught my affection. The last time I visited Boston was around 2 years back. And I immediately fell for it. I can never forget the enthusiasm with which our group of friends explored the great M.I.T and Harvard campuses. I even visited the famous Boston tea party massacre sight. But this time I just roamed around a couple of streets around Park Station. The first thing anyone would notice is the student crowd of Boston. Every student I saw made me wonder if he/she was from M.I.T or Harvard or one of the numerous colleges of Boston. And then the narrow streets with old apartments on either side, the struggle to get a parking space, the cars parked in the lanes of the roads;all of them are contributors in their own. In fact I guess it’s a thing about any downtown, one just forgets who one is and gets lost in the crowd. Sometimes its this feeling of getting lost in the middle of an ocean of people is what makes you retrospect and realize what you are and who you wanna be.

So much for the Superbowl XLIII

2009-02-02T13:24:00.001-08:00

....was what I told myself at the 3rd quarter of the game yesterday;but it was only until the 4th quarter started. The excitement and the twists in the game that followed were nail-biting (and I'm not even exxageratin!!)

I was a Cardinal supporter from the beginning;with them being the first-timers at the superbowl. But at the end I should agree that the trophy went to those that were worthy;the Steelers with the second youngest QB (age 26) and the youngest coach(age 32) ever in the game history. Inspite of putting up a great comeback in the last 15 mins on the clock, the cardinals did some serious ddamage to themselves in Q2 and Q3. And all those personal fouls not required at all. But its easy for us to say that and difficult for them under that tremendous pressure.

All in all the Steelers made a place for themselves in history being the franchise to win the most number of Superbowls ever. Hats-off to them all.

Choices vs. Analysis

2009-01-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

Everyone taking the admission tests for any Graduate course or Masters course,particularly in a country other than India,is familiar with the Multiple choice based examination pattern. Back home in India many esteemed colleges still have a traditional testing approach of Q & As. As a person taking the test I always felt more comfortable with the Multiple choices, especially because it doesnot require me to write a 2 page explanation of a simple conclusion. In additon,college tests proved that if a person has got a good handwriting and a gift of managing all the time to use stencils and color pencils etc, he would always manage the same marks as I no matter the actual content of his essay!

Of course there is always an advantage of having the essay questions since they really prove the extent that the subject has gone into the mind of a student. Whereas working with the multiple choices can be a matter of good luck at times, which can be bettered with the use of intelligent guessing.

Everything seen and heard and gone through , the Computer Adaptive Tests are worth the praise. A seemingly simple set of questions can actually be so confusuing and misleading that people end up with blunders. An algorithm on which these CATs are based would be one intelligent piece of work.

An irony behind our struggle for freedom

2009-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I was watching 'Gandhi' yesterday and I couldn't help but see how ironic is it that the whole fight of non-violence we put up to get our freedom from Imperial rule was immediately followed by loss of freedom to the communal evils.

The whole world worships the Mahatma and what does his very own home do? As soon as we got our independence, in fact a few hours before we actually got it,the nation was being divided into 2 - based on the religion followed. No one from that time is now alive to tell us whether this was really a result of "hunger of power" of the great political dynasties or was it something hidden all the while under the British rule. Imagine the picture a fresh-born India would have given to the world by breaking into burning communal riots!

How can we teach our children that our great nation stands for Freedon of the poeple when we forced the same people to fight against one another, with their own brothers and sisters?

And seeing the crisis in the world,it really makes me ponder the irony of lack of peace in the lands of the Buddah and the Christ , the very saints of peace.

Vaaranam Aayiram - A review

2008-11-18T20:20:00.000-08:00

It was a much awaited movie and when I went to watch it, I was waiting for the movie to end! I wouldn't call this movie a boring one, at the same time I wouldn't call it captivating either. The least I expected out of it was some eye-candy called "Surya" and am happy at least I got that.

With Mr.Menon's superb 'Kakha Kakha' and mediocre 'Vetayadu..', I went to watch ‘Varanam..’ with an open mind. The film starts on a sad-serious note with a death and promises a powerful story and good performances. And from there what you have is the son of the deceased Surya, thinking back in the past and how his father played a major role in his life. Bringing back memories onto the screen in a narration is something we have all liked, for instance Cheran's Autograph. The idea itself not being a novel one, the difference could have been made by the style of narration. But the story is not linked smoothly. Sometimes you just feel that they wanted to tell this, that and all.

A little into the second half and the movie finally gets one interested, for once one gets to expect something out of it. And there are few touching moments (the death of the girlfriend followed by the addiction to drugs etc.). And Varanam, would have been a wonderful movie had these emotions been picturised in a stronger way and till the end. Instead the focus is lost and the end seems to be prolonged till that scene on the beach.

The one thing that is commendable without any doubt is Surya's acting. The way he camouflages into all the different roles, and different ages of the roles is simply mesmerizing. Simran does a decent job too. The songs can be skipped except for one or two.

Overall this is a movie that could have been an exceptional one, but alas it comes out just as ordinary as any one of them. It’s not worth the wait!

Back in action!

2008-10-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

Am back!!!After, what I would call a long break.Am back here to do one of the things I like the most, dabble in writing on my blog.

I have really missed writing down my experiences and feelings in the past few eventful months - because when thou shall go thru the holy matrimony thou shant get no time! Take it from me friend.

And now that I have got all the time I can ever get I want to write down my experiences about the whole marriage match-making process and of course the marriage process.As a part of this I would write 3 posts.

1 - Match making online
2 - Do's and dont's of match-making
3 - the big ta-da and how you prepare yourself for it

Keep watching the space!

Hats off to Matt !

2008-06-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Did you get that forwarded video long time back , with a guy offering 'free hugs'?
If you did and if you liked it , then you will defintely like Matt Harding's "Dancing" video .

The first thing about the video that captivated me was the carefree way with which Matt dances with various famous places all over the world in his background and the people around him who dance along with him in a funny childish way. Tthe idea of making such a video is simple so creative. The background music (I saw the 2008 version) of the video was mesmerizing and guess what, the lyrics were taken nowhere but from a poem "Stream of Life" by
our own Shri Rabindranath Tagore!!!

For some reason this video gave me goosebumps! Watch it to feel it for yourself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

P.S.Thanks to Kee for introducing me to this...Saw this one on her videos on orkut.
BTW Matt is no great media person or art directr or something. He was just another computer game creator of a geek who happened to realise better ways of living ! Love his attitude !

What a day!!!

2008-05-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

This blospot of mine is no journal.Nevertheless,sticking to the intention of what I wanted to write here(check my blog name and its expl.), I have to put on this page a couple of my experiences rather adventures of today.

It started as a normal day , I had my coffee got ready and for a change didnot have to run for the bus :). The morning was getting better with my friends complimenting me on my new hair cut :P. As the evening approached I was totally rejuvinated thinking about going to hometown. Half past seven I was shutting down the PC and thats when it started...I couldnot find my home key!!!

A very cautious person that I am, this was something that never happened.I panicked and friends at work tried to help me.After a hour long of phone calls and vigorous searching I finally gave up an decided to go stay at Kamala's place for the night. The sweet thing she is, she was glad to help! Then out of the blue a colleague suggested to go check with the admin guys. I did that and guess what some good samaritan had found my home key in the office bus and had given it to them....Can you even imagine the relief and happiness I was overwhelmed with. I swear, you could have seen a 1000 Watt glow in my face....Thanking the admin guy who broke open an almirah to take out my key from secure box I left office.

It was almost a perfect ending to the adventurous evening until I took an auto from VDP to KYM. Well, this psycho of an auto driver ate my head bargaining and when I stood away from him trying to find another auto he came back to me and said he would go for the price I quoted. I agreed and when I got in and sat he zoomed at the pace of a jet. He shot through the signal when it was glowing red much to the annoyance and irritation of the others. And guess what he tells me "pattu rupai paatha uyire poyidum"(if you see for ten rupees you might lose your life). OMG that scared me cold....was he really going to take revenge on me for that bargain or what...which by the way is totally justified....thats it I shouted as loud as I could and said "Stop pannanga". He stopped and I made no delay in getting out of what seemed to me like an auto to hell! Took another sane looking guy's auto and sped home....And now...am more than happy to sit here relaxing and writing about this unforgettable day....phew....

Cherio !!!!

Another one to my favourites list

2008-05-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Honestly this was one contemporary movie that made my eyes wet.I can't remember the last time it happened.I have been waiting to watch "Juno' since quite some time now - since I heard about it during the Oscar nomination season.I finally got my eyes on it today - and yeah its worth the wait!
It starts with Juno (Ellen Page) getting pregnant with her close friend Paulie(Cera). The problem is both of them are just 16 and neither feels ready to be a parent. And kudos to Juno who doesnot even try to blame it on Paulie a single time. She just acts in a mega-matured way and decides to just have "the thing"(as she addresses the unborn at times) and give it to the adoption parents - Mark and Vanessa. And unlike other dramatic cliche' movies neither of Juno's parents torment her...they are just surprised that she let it happened. As her dad says 'I thought you were the kind of gal who knows when to say when'.
As the movie proceeds there is no sign of any dramatic phenomenon at all...Everybody around just acts in a matured way. The movie goes a long way in showing how an accidental pregnency doesnot have to always mean ruined lives but can actually give happiness to someone (Mark and Vanessa) and how it helps Juno realise her true love for Paulie.You can feel a lump in your throat when you see a deserted Vanessa look at her baby with so much hope - for her divorce from Mark feels like nothing when she thinks about the happiness she could get from the baby - in her words "everybody is born to do something - and am born to be a mom".
The movie has a freshness to it. The sound track is slow-paced and suits the movie.A get away from fast paced speed racers and fighter iron men, I am positive that every matured adult would appreciate Juno!

This one is my fav. from the soundtrack:
You're a part time lover and a full time friend
The monkey on your back is the latest trendI don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you
I'll kiss you on the brain in the shadow of the trainI'll kiss you all starry eyed my body swingin' from side to sideI don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you
Here is the church and here is the steepleWe sure are cute for two ugly peopleI don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you
Pebbles forgive me, the trees forgiveSo why can't you forgive meI don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you
I will find my niche in your carWith my MP3, DVD, rumble pack guitarI don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you

Where is the smallscreen headed to?

2008-05-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

I happened to tune into Gemini tonight - 9:30 PM - prime time and guess who was on TV?A bunch of 20 something gals - some of them who normally play the heroine's friend/sis and few of them contestants of Miss South India '08( if you are wondering - yeah they have come up with Ms.South India pegeant too!!!).Nothing to be happy about it. They are all on the stage dancing like crazy and trying to seduceGod knows who all....Even they themsselves don't know I believe. In fact it looked like a clip from the video made in a dance bar!I was horrified...I did see the promo of this program but I didnot totally beleive that small screen could beat the large screen in terms of "item song material". And that too this program was airing at a time when people sit together and try to have a nice dinner along with their loved ones and kids. Whatever is happening to our cute little TV???First it was all kinds of D-I-L vs. S-I-L/M-I-L fights without an end and then there were cheap reality shows and now this! OMG what did we do to deserve this?!? Remember the days when families sat together to watch Kashish, Surabhi, Byomkesh bakshi or even Ruthuraagalu....I am pretty sure our next generations will never get a feel of how pleasing TV can be.

A fine place to dine - The Noodle House

2008-04-17T11:49:00.001-07:00

I was out in Velacheri in the afternoon and looked for some restaurant just to fill my screaming stomach. After the shopping in Naidu Hall I casually enquired the helpers there. To my surprise they had a restaurant in that very building! The Noodle House in the basement seemed to be quite a decent place to sit and eat a nice calm lunch.The ambience was very pleasant with most of the interiors in white except for tha dining chairs and tables. May be it being a Thursday there was not much of noise but even otherwise NH (Noodle house , not that NaiHaa :) ) promises a soothing feel with your meal. The menu seemed pretty impressive with a lot of choice both in Veg. and a non-veg. That was another thing that surprised me - an authentic Chinese Eatery with a good choice in veg. stuff. Overall the place looks classy, service is pleasing and food is worth the money you pay for it.

Guys in Velachery , do check it out some weekend or for better , on a weekday.

P.S. I dint want to highlight it in this post - but FYI the French Loaf just next to NH also seems like treat!

Dil Chahta hai

2008-04-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

Pun intended ! The one thing that my heart wants , mera dil joh chahtha hai, is to have the DCH title song playing loud and me driving a car on the beautiful Tidel Park road....I really hope I materialise this soon.

Why is it that even ordinary ppl in the west are so creative!!!

2008-03-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

The other day I was talking to this colleague of mine and he mentioned about a client he met during his stay in the US. Lets call our Texan as 'X'. X is supposedly a 40 year old guy who is involved in the business part of the company. His role and responsibilities would involve nothing with IT at all. But this guy was so interested in this whole IT thing that he learnt COBOL, C, VC++ etc all by himself and by learning I don't mean that he read some books and calls himself a techie. This guy is a now a technical architect and he doesnot even have any degree related to IT, unlike most of us engineers. And what more...he even created this tool to design UIs and guess what it is now a patented copyrighted one !!! And he supposedly paints and makes furniture for his home , all by himself....
Now to be honest I have hardly come across anyone like that at my workplace and I bet most of you might not have too. How would we after all! I think its in our bloodline to think that someone making a table out of wood or someone writing a poem or creating a different form of art is looked down in comparision to one passsing in the first class in his board exams. And what next, with all discouragement to your creativity you are working now in a atmosphere where spending 10+ hours at work is the order of the day. Not that I apprecite the dedication we Indian show to our work, after all that is what has put us on the whoel IT map of the world today! But at the end of the day , don't you feel that something is missing , something called an outlet for your humaity or creativity or anything different than the normal humane tasks.
Besides the westerners have this amazing wrk life balance that impressed me so much during my work tenure in the US. They come early , leave early , absolutely don't waste more than an hour a day at work. And of course you have all the time in the world to pursue your interests after your day at work is done. Imagine what all you would do when you are home by 5 PM. I do listen to people talking about how evereybody has only 24 hrs a day. But I woudl love to know the secret of how they fit in everything in it!

HSB

2008-03-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Hotel Saravana Bhavan - and you thought I was gonna write about some H. School of Business - Even if you did don't get disappointed, this is no less than a school of management in itself. My 3 and a half years in Chennai and I have never seen such professinalism and service like in HSB. It is something I like to flaunt to my non-Chennai friends.And the hygiene, comparable to those of international restaurants.Would you believe me if It old you that their operative kitchens are immaculate at any time of the day.Yes they are! At any given time a soiled plate is visible for no more than a couple of seconds. Every point in the HSBs have a person waiting on you attentively, a boy waiting to clear off the plates etc-Very recently I have noticed that HSB has started hiring women,they didnt't have women employees till a few weeks back....am not sure why the change - though I appreciate it :) The myth (or may be the actual truth)is that HSB management takes care of its employees i.e. waiters and their families to such a generous extent that it sponsers the education of their kids and has a lot of benefits like that. What impresses me and surprises me is that the taste of a particular item on the menu is same in any of the HSBs any where in the world on any day!!!I wonder how they achieve it.I really wanted to visit the HSB in NJ whenI visited Edison,NJ but couldn't.But am sure its the same. Whatever they do in HSB,they do it so well and have such impressive logistics that are worthy of a case study.If ever I wanted to submit a paper on logistics and hotel management , I know what I would write on.

How to make an American Quilt

2008-03-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

"There are no rules.You have to go by your instincts and you have to be brave" - These are the closing lines of a beautiful movie "How to make an American Quilt".And yeah how true they are!!
It is about a group of related women,by family,who are in the process of making a quilt for the youngest of them who is a 26 year old writer.They believe a quilt has to be made by the right combination of themes, Each of them has a story of her own which she knits into the quilt. One woman knits a combination of colurs in telling about how she coud hold on to a husband,who is an artist madly in love with her but can't help having other women in his life. One woman carries the story of a young slave girl falling for her master's son and how she lives her entire life just with his memory in the form of a child. Another women carries her own infidelity as a big burden on her and how it has resulted in her losing her true love in life. The young protagonist,played by Wynona Ryder,doesnot believe in a life long relationhsip and in turn ends up upsetting her soul mate. But the importance of one person, the right and deserving person, in every one's life as conveyed to her by the whole quilt making group makes her realise the mistake she has made.
The pre-finale' scene is beautiful!The storm blows up all of Ryder's new story about these women and she feels miserable seeing that her one and a half year of work is washed away by rain and when her grandmother asks her why can't she start it all over again,she looks at her mom who is getting remarried to her father and says,"I wish it was as easy as it is with other things".The grandmother tells the writer that its a pity she feels so unattached to things more important than her writings.
Overall I feel this movie is a good feel-ggod watch for all women and I doubt if there is a man who can get the same message that that a women can get by watching this. Is there one?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113347/

Shopping and all that fell good factor!

2008-02-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

I bought some furniture over the weekend , in fact most of you would say it is an essential piece of furniture for a home, and i felt great owning it! I read in this book called "Being Happy" that when one's mood is not very great, he/she can cheer oneself by some shopping because shopping (or any other indulgence that results in spending money on oneself and buying something good for oneself) makes you feel that you have given the treatment that you deserve. For ex. you buy a good new pair of costly shore or you treat yourself to a sumptuous costly meal in the new restaurant , it makes you feel good! And believe me its true!

I was one of those gals who hated the books and ads and movies that showed women/girls jumping with joy just by visiting the nearest mall , no matter how much sadness was surrounding them a couple of hours before. I was like,"these ppl always wanna show women as some kinda stupid spendthrifts wasting money buying stuff that they don't really need". Well I am partly correct even now since I feel its not just women but also who go through the same feeling....... I guess few of you men can throw some light here......

Am waiting to hear from you guys !

Environmental consciousness begins at home

2007-10-14T22:44:00.001-07:00

Roads with green trees on either sides, refreshing breeze blowing on to your face, serene drives to work in the mornings without smoke around you ,beautiful and immaculate sea shore, office canteens without traces of coffee cup marks , apartment complexes without plastic stuffed garbage bags lying around - are these all so difficult to have in our country ? Environmental pollution is not only about global warming, ozone depletion, but also is about our own surroundings. If each of us can think once about the ugliness and damages brought on to our environment by the smallest things we do and re-do , I am sure we would feel guilty enought to stop them. My office commuation service takes us through a big mountains (literally mountains!) of trash that have been dumped since a long long time and we guys just cant stop cursing the people doing it. I say , think about the problem you might be creating by spitting/attaending nature calls on a public footpath - its no better than the former. Environmental awareness is not worrying about oil spills or nuclear wastes , but also about our small day to day habits that add to the existing pollution.

Riding through the way

2007-09-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

On my way to work in the morning I noticed this kid, a boy aged 12-13 years, riding his bicycle.
On a normal scene I wouldn't have looked again, but this guy ! oh! he was riding confidently
in huge traffic on the Velachery road , that too so close to the yellow dividing line !
I was rally impressed with the way this kid
i) maneuvered his bicycle in the middle of the road
ii) followed traffic rules
iii) didn't get down from the bike and kept his balance all through the ride
Well ,I for one, would have stopped or would have rode along the far end of the road in
this case.
Anyways, that made me think - how should one raise one's kids - to turn them into fearless ones or fearful ones?

Listen to this amazing song

2007-06-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

This song is called "Hey there Delinah! The guy sounds so genuine , cos this is truly a song about a girl he loved it seems!"
http://www.alfy.com/cool_stuff/music_videos/watch_free_music_videos.aspx?videoID=893&name=HEY+THERE+DELILAH

Why blog at all?

2007-06-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

I started thinking what to say when a friend of mine asked me this question. Well why does someone blog at all? Is it to improve one's writing skills or is it like a journal?
I have come across different blogs(not many) in the past 1.5 years of my blogging....some were just to scribble one's thoughts(a little like my own)....some were definitely meant to send some message out there, some were for people who wanted a community of their own and some were just for the heck of it!
Coincidentally a couple of days later I saw an article in USA Today which speaks about 2 bloggers whose hobby of blogging turned into a business.Well as much as you guessed they were the "send out your information" kinda ones. In fact these guys are started earning so much from their blogs with people wanting to advertise there that they had to make their part-time hobby as a full-time profession (Check out http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2007-06-19-tech-bloggers_N.htm?csp=34).
And there are these few kinds where you get to hear lots of interesting things - well I infact came across a blog which I followed quite regularly sometime back , just because this guy had all these interesting things (of course not the headlines - I can go to the news for that) , from as small as a business mag. article to a new car, on his blog.
Well I guess I got my answer now - Whether it be for fun or for fake - people just wanna say what they feel like and if you are lucky others might buy your ideas and make you rich and ofcourse you get to socialize too.
So get going !
Happy day!

Agassi's speech !

2007-06-16T08:07:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob_eU-J99HU&mode=related&search=

Experience of its own kind !

2007-06-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

buzzing off from work too early (at least for Indian software industry standards!)...
driving 40 miles all the way to Boston.....Arriving at the venue a hour and a half earlier
than the take-off time, just to get a better glimpse....cries of madness watching him
run and jump...guess who I am talking about....The Tamil Superstar Rajanikanth....
It was my first ever experience watching a Rajani movie the first day on the first show!
And yeah it is definitely going to be a memorable one...not because I saw some great cinema, but because of the way I was amused by the captivity the idol had on the crowds....
Men jumping with joy at the sequences on the screen and girls whistling ... Well to me it was proved that when it comes to entertaining the crowd and catching the pulse, Rajani has his "Style"....
I am not going to talk about the move because I am going to leave it to you to enjoy that experience!

The beauty of misery

2007-05-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

I got to hear this song after a gap of nearly 4 years (am not sure if it is correct but it feels so)...My friend who drives us to the office in the morning started playing some Pak songs and this was one amongst them.....The song’s memory in my mind was so haunting that I couldn't help but searched for it on the net. It was when I saw the video that I recollected the times I first saw it. Khamaj by Fuzon is one of those typical songs which have a strong air of sadness associated with them but nevertheless you like it...Its strange how we always like to be happy, like to be surrounded by happy people but still go back to those that are heartbreakingly forlorn and fall in love with them. A friend of mine once said "Hey I like listening to that sad number in 7/G when I feel low". I thought "How the heck will a sad thing help you when you already are miserable". I don’t completely agree with her but these melancholic tunes are something that I go back to and listen just for the emotion and melody they have in them.

e-mail on paper - What difference would it make?

2007-04-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

While logging into gmail today I noticed the announcement of Gmail going onto paper to support those hard-core handwritten letter champions.See more about it on http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html.I really didnot understand the idea behing this.I respect Google for its ever creative internet services it provides to its mammoth sized,ever increasing user pool.But this particular product that they have come up with doesnot make sense to me.After all if I need a paper copy of my e-mail wouldn't I send one myself.The only advantage that I might have with Gmail Papar is that I get this copy free of cost(if I don't mind advertisements on my letter pad that is) , but then how much legal credibility can I claim to this....anyways I hope to get more points of view on this, provided you care to express it here in the comments.

I wish it was just a story

2007-03-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

More than a day has passed and I have not been able to completely come out of that haunted state I was yesterday. The reason - Water. This Oscar entree of 2007 is sure to leave every set of its audience spell bound - not just with the grief imbibed in the story but also with the magnificent performances of Seema Biswas and Sarala and as they say the best of performances are they that make you cry and laugh with them (the latter though happens less frequently compared to the former).
Based in India of late 1930's,with the national movement in full swing, the movie begins with portraying the innocence of child widow Chuiya who is too young to remember she was married and cannot understand what marriage and widowhood are all about.On teh other hand you have the beautiful Kalyani(Lisa Ray) who inspite of being forced(by her own Widow Ashram's big head!!!) to do the Forbidden is typically one of those characters who can inspite of beinga hand's distance away from happiness can still not touch it. You can't stop exclaiming "Please God anything but not that!" when Kalyani and Narayan (John Abraham) are crossing the river to Narayan's house. Alas! Couldn't it just have been someone else!!
Seems Biswa's role as the Didi of the Ashram is one who wants to be protective,but is helpless, strengthless but still has hope, in spite of having long passed her chances of reaching the destination(having a family of her own).But when she listens to Gandhiji and realizes that God is not whom she has been worshipping every morning but is the one she has been subduing all the time, she doesn't delay time in doing the best, not for herself, but for Chuiya who is too young to be destined to a fate like herself.
The scenes where Chuiya's childhood is thrashed in the bungalow across the river: Chuiya's humanity in fulfilling the last wish of Dadi(which after all was to eat a laddoo!!) a risk; Chuiya's repeated questioning about when her mother is going to come back to take her home are definite to leave your eyes wet.
As for me, I only hope there are not any more of these characters amongst us and as I said at the beginning I hope it is just a story!

Aren't we all selling ourselves?

2007-01-11T04:48:00.000-08:00

Its been nearly 5 months now that Ravi messages me daily around 1-3 in the night to say that he finally reached home from work(!!).And I guess it is quite common with most of the IT work bees.But I am sure this is not the case with those who work in other countries.If you take the same person and send him to the parent company,for instance in the US, he will be surprised to see people leave at 4:30 PM daily and he would surely get a minor shock on the first Friday when he sees everybody leaving as early as 2 pm !And I am sure soon he would himself be used to that work culture.Hence I see that the basic problem is with the attitude of the people along with whom you work...You see this is something pertaining to group psychology...You tend to behave the same way the group does.I would trace the root cause for the expectations of the Projects Managers,asking us to stay back, to our own induced working hour patterns.If you are clear from day one that you have to work not later than x PM daily and try adhering to the same, things would work much simpler and organised.We should come out of the state where the sincerity towards ones work is measured in terms of the # of hours spent by the person at work.I feel it is high time We ask ourselves if we are selling our personal lives to the salary that is paid to us every month!
Imagine a situation where everybody comes to work,leaves at a time to ensure that you have atleast 2/3rd of the day to yourselves!!!Don't you see so much scope for your personal improvement,better health and better relationships!DOn't you think we have missed a lot evening tea's with our loved ones on pleasant evenings,reading the morning newspaper in the morning,having good home made food not just on the weekends and oranising stuff on normal days instead of waiting for holidays??Of course there are people who manage all this on a normal working day extending for 12 hours!But alaS!Not everybody is excellent at this thing called time management!

Is it worth it?

2006-05-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Forgoing love for something else is what a girl might do but a guy would never is the only sensible point I found in the entire 3 odd hours of watching Fanaa.This much hyped about movie has nothing more to claim than gorgeous looking Kajol and a glimpse of dashing Aamir(at the intermission point) and a couple of good songs which eventually will fade away from your memory.
The surprising thing of all was that Kunal Kohli's direction has changed so much for the bad in the time spanning from the releaseof Hum Tum to that of Fanaa.The direction and the screenplay at times will make you feel that a novice has directed the movie.Take for instance the situation where injured Aamir in the post-intermission part lands up nowhere but at Kajol's Aangan.Isn't it such a cliche'?!
There is nothing to be happy about the movie but for the feel you might get when you realise that the movie has finally come to an end.
There are minor points about the movie which irriatte you at times ,for instance Kajol playing Antakshari and dancing with a stranger who has taken shade in her home,she falling in love with a person whom she has met a couple of days ago and last but not the least the cloying shaayari Aamir gives you all the time.A friend of mine watching the movie with me ended up feeling that we were watching an episode of Rangoli.
On the whole the movie leaves you with a feeling o fpaying teh expensive price of $10 to watch three good songs in the midst of 3 hours of harangue.And believe me as I have written this article not under the immediate influence of the movie but have waited a week to confirm my feelings about the same.

Musical bliss

2006-05-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Its surprising how music can make one feel an emotion.For example you hear this particular song , say "yunhi chala chal raahi" or "Dil chahta hai", you tend to feel that everything is so exciting and as if its all for you to go explore this exciting world with friends or a beloved or a dear person or all by yourself for that matter.and then when you hear a romantic song on a drive with your beloved beside you then won't you just feel like hugging him?Or in case he isn't there at that particular moment,won't you miss him badly?and consider a song like "aawarapan banjaarapan",wont't it make you feel lost?Its amazing that you get influenced by a particular song and a single song has the capability to change your mood.Also take a case when physical labour is involved,provide people involved with a good enthusing background music and observe how excitingly and seedily they work when compared to a normal scenario.

Keeping in view this vicarious feelings we get just by listening to the particular piece of music,just imagine how sensuous and sensitive a person who has created such valuable pieces would be!!!Hence the respect and devout fro the artiste' heart which it deserves.

As for me , I am writing this piece listening to "Saanwariya saanwariya", which refreshes me and has made me to write this post.Have been hearing this since saturday last , and isn't it reall my latest crush !!!

A reconsideration after introspection

2006-04-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Quite a long time,quite a long time since I posted anything on my blog.To be honest, my declaration on Orkut that I am a blogger is what reminded me of the same within me who has been dormant for a really long time.

I am contemplating if I have to be blamed for it or is my workload thats to be blamed.
Whatever the reason,the detatchement from movies I have forced on myself is the reason for not being able to put anything related to a latest movie or even an old one for that matter on my blog.So I just told myself,"Hey,is it that you wanna write or is it that you wanna write only about movies" and this introspection made me realised that the urge to write preceeds the urge to write about a movie in particular(this is logically right too).So here I am rephrasing the senetnce from my first blog ever,"I am going to use it as a podium for something I have always wanted to do...Make my comments and critical view on movies(which are my fav.s in the world I am cognizant about) ....."...let me now say " I am going to use it as a podium for something I have always wanted to do...Write and write and write cos I see it as the only mode to keep my persona awake and agile".

My musings at shoreview

2006-03-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Taking a break form my already monotonous stay at shoreivew,MN-55126 in USA and breaking the self-proclaimed trend of using this blogspot for film review excahnge alone,I am here to put my musings at Shoreview as there is no body else at this hour (4 13 PM in shoreview).

When I initially came to Chennai(if you are already wondering why on earth am I sarting off with Chennai when I said I was talking about Shoreview...its just to show that I have passed through a similar phase already), I was without friends or acquaintancees in the town.And oh boy!!It sure was a tough time.Bt thanks to a college friend of mine,Amareswari,life was normal again.But happiness was short lived then.She had to go to another place...so there i was again at the same juncture....not knowing what to do ,then it was new friends and room mates...but as they say things repeat themselves(not the good things though) and my friends had to go away from me.Life,in this context,is hard on us I should say.When u are geeting used to being independent and becoming strong all by yourself then it sends a sweet friend to you.Then you become so paired up and thinsg are all happy.You have fun.Go to movies.Shop at the malls.All together.Then one fine day it just takes away the person form you.
and you just can't do anything about it as you know it was bound to occur one day.The only fact being that you were not prepared for it at all.

But this time I am on teh other side of the table.While leaving Chennai and coming down to USA I was teh person who left friends behind and said adieu,though a temporary one,as I would of course go back.But,as they say,out of sight is out of mind.And now because of various modes of communicatin which still make it possible for people to be in touch no matter how far apart they are,we should probably say Out of call is out of mind...

Its April 22nd 2006 today and i finally thought I should publish this incomplete

Fahrenheit 9/11

2006-01-31T02:17:00.000-08:00

Its been quite some time between my first and the second works here.

As I was basking in the warmth of home during my Sankranthi break,I happened to see HBO on 16th Jan morning.And to my surprise Michael Moore's much talked Fahrenheit 9/11 was on air.Surprised I was as its too recent a release to be on TV on a non prime time monday morning.Like what is expected of a non TV guide follower i had already missed what I presume the first few minutes of the documentary.But owing to its theme of hot politics and thanks to my meager updations through news,I could follow the story.As a matter of fact any of us would easily catch up with it.This - comprehensibility - is the best part of recent movies/documentaries.

Coming to the point of view this 90 plus minute documentary presents,its a total deprecative of President George Bush.The level of personal opinions presented in the documentary go to an extent as to calling the PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES a fool(Ouch!!!).Too daring of the maker isn't it?

The maker has ensured a lot of credibility to the message he wants to proliferate by choosing people,who are not afraid of revealing their identity when they are commenting somebodyin the shoes of the President of teh US of A, amongst commoners as a medium.Such is the case when we see a man who talks abt the discussions they had abt Bush and Iraq in their gym.The not-so-democratic behaviour of USA comes out when this man is approached by the FBI to enquire about his remarks, thanks to the Patriot act.And the director has brought out very interesting and surprising facts - for ex. the Patriot Act was brought out overnight.Not even most of the senators have themselves read it fully.

After taking a look at the people's view in US,the shift is now to the war scene in Iraq.They have got their hands on these live shots of innocent people being attacked by US troops.And the troops,did u ever think of what goes thru them.U will see various prespectives , those of the soldiers humiliating war prisoners and of kids who feel bad abt fighting for a a cause they don't beleive in.And the paradox is the story of this particular woman who supports Bush and has sent her son to the war-zone and lost him in Iraq.What does she do now,of course she supports the governments decisions, though deep inside she feels that her son lost his life for a meaningless war which he himself believed was a fake all through.

The exploitation of poverty in America can be witnessed through the scences wherein the poor(not quite unnaturally the non-caucasians) kids(literally kids)are approached by fancily dresses US Lt.s and are lured into the army because nobosy else is ready to go to this war front.And here Micheal moore goes and asks a few senators if they are willing to send their kids to the war zone and without a hesitation they say NO(mind you, all these are real life scenes and not dramatised ones).

The songs chosen to be played in the background add to the effect and irony.This documentary for sure is going to make one think that all reasoning behind the US invasion of Iraq is inexcusable and absolutely selfish.

As for me the only feeling that remained after the documentary was that of moroseness owing to the painful scenes.The one where the Us troops(most of them very young) were to attack an Iraqi home on Christmas eve was too much to take.

Review - Spirit - Stallion of the Cimmaron

2005-12-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

Its was an ideal sunday feel good morning today.I sat down to watch TV witha cup of hot coffee(my kind of an idyllic morning).Saw that SPIRIT - The stallionof Cimmaron was airing on Star movies.Must have been quite some time since itstarted.I had already seen it and had liked it.So just continued with it today too.
Spirit is the story of a horse , about its seizure by humans and how it sees the good and bad of them and how it goes on to return to its home landand in the process frees a lot more like him.Its a movie which makes its point veryclear never deviating from the theme of how a desire for freedom makes one do anything asdaring as it can be.It speaks about the strength of will,which it goes on to show,is notjust a characetristic of humans but can also show itself in any form of life,a horse inthis case.The persistent fight of Spirit for his freedom starts with him being capturedby an army of soldiers.Its here that a proud officer tries to show his authority by challengingto tame Spirit who initially initimidated by the presence of so many armed humans loses morale,but at the precise moment when the officer speaks in a way as to humiliate the horse it just pullsup himself and accrues all its strength and courage to shove off the officer.This act of his givesenormous encouragement to the other horses around.Not stopping at this,Spirit breaks thefence and leads all other horses out of the stable to freedom.In this act of his helps himan Indian boy who himself was captured by the army.Just a few moments after his entry intothe free land Spirit stops to bid farewell to the Indian boy only to realise that he iscaptured by the boy.Alas!Happiness is so short lived.Its in the Indian village that Spirit meets his mare love who unlike him doesn't mind being owned by a human and much to his suprise is very much fond of her human master.All the time he spends here he still is determined notto allow the Indian master to ride him which means forgoing his freedom.And one day when finally he is given freedom he comes back only to save this Indian from being killed by the same old army officer.Its in this scesn that the mare gets shot and to add on to Sprit's grief he is again captured by the officer.This time Spirit is not able stand up to the other captured horses in thestable who identify their old hero.He simply goes on to obey the humans.But when he realise that they are headed to his homeland ,which he never wants them to reach,he comes into action again.Its here that he uses his strength and smartness to free the whole group of horses again and destroys the entire army camp.In his run when he is stuck in fire,the old Indian master comes to his rescue who always had been follwoing Spirit since he saved his life.In the process of escape,Spirit takes a gaint leap across cliff.This act of his goes to show that a hero never hesitates to risk his life when higher things like freedom are at stake.This persistence and attitude of his moves the officer who decides to let him go and bows his head down to Spirit.
The directors tell the story in a convincing way never letting us feel that the hero of the story is an animal.The narration by Matt Damon as Spirit himself never makes youwonder as to the possibility of a beast having the same emotions as human would.Adding to the good story and narration is the music score by Hans Zimmer,powered by Songs written and sung by BryanAdams.The sound track of this movie,like expected from any good OST, carries the emotion of thesituation and the protogonists and transfers it to you.One cannot just help feeling exhilirated whenSpirit at the end of the movie is running in the valleys with Bryan Admas' earnest voice in thebackground.As for the picturisation ,right from the features of the actors to the picturesque landscapes the aimation is amazing.Be it the fire sparks seen all around when Spirit is running in the forest fire or the snow flakes ,they all seem so natural.
With a beautiful,inspiring story told in the best way it can be, the movie captivatesteh viewers for some time even after watching it.And as for criticising the movie,I couldn't findany great defects , may be because of the absence of any human actors and the movie itself being a workof animation which makes everything happen in a movie and makes perfection possible.But thanks to the sensible direction nothing unrealistic happens in the movie leaving the viewer with the impression of having watched a true story.

Idle Brain is....

2005-11-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

...what initiated me into blogging.Here I am bugged up being on the so called "Bench" for the past few weeks and hello!I come across a blogger sight.This blogging, I thought, should be an interesting engagement to do.And here I am posting my first publication all by myself without even caring if anyone would bother to read it(I am sure though that you will, when I forward the link to you).

Never knew that putting my opinion with the status of a PUBLICATION(posting as we are adrressing it on this blog-site) was so simple.

And the process of creating an account , psss, first of all being aware of the fact that all my friends are going to visit this blog, I have to give it a decent (i.e. incomprehensible or puzzling or a brand new term even for the most intelluctual crowd) name.So why CLANDESTINATION?If you are of the opinion that CLANDESTINATION is supppossed to be a place where you can have clandestine rendezvous, then get a grip,because the only reason I chose this name is because I like the word CLANDESTINE.I find it ,what say...elegent and mystique.As for the purpose of CLANDESTINATION, I am going to use it as a podium for something I have always wanted to do...Make my comments and critical view on movies(which are my fav.s in the world I am cognizant about) be present on the internet and to improve on it so as to consider it a serious parttime profession sometime later in future.

So here I am getting started on it. Get...Set...Going!!!