Deepak to the Rescue :)

I saved a puppy from coming under a truck today. Yaay!! M so happy and proud of myself :)
I am scared of stray dogs and I have memories of being chased by them when I was a kid.
But the moment I did this I had a hundred different thoughts running through my head.
- That puppy was quite dirty. Where am I going to wash my hands?
- What if another truck passes by that road?
- How can people make a huge issue about hit and run cases if humans are involved and be callous in the case of animals!!
- How are we ever going to stop so many strays from roaming the streets and dying in accidents?

These are just some of them. I had a whole hour before I reached office and my adrenalin stopped pumping. Maybe I will find out the answer to some of the thoughts I had in the future.
After all that I realised what I did and I am absolutely over the top happy with myself for doing it :)

Chef or Dish?

As Indians we are prone to hero-worship in everything we do.
Its the same for all the 3 things that people in this country are passionate about. Cricket, Films and Politics.
I might be able to write a trilogy on these someday (three is such a nice round figure). I wanted to write about films for now.

Every film needs starpower to pull in crowds. Distributors will not touch films which cannot guarantee full houses for the first 2 weeks.
Hence we need some power hungry, controversy brewing, narccistic beast in the movie for sure.
There is a huge marketing budget about half the cost of making the movie itself. A couple of weeks before the release the "stars" appear in various talk shows and reality shows trying to prove to people that they are as ordinary as any of the common junta. Theres also some mud slingning at rivals. Nowadays, even the mudslinging has turned to cast members of the same team (We all know the ashutosh-priyanka spat).
All this ensures that people read, hear, see news about this movie all over he place. And lo behold the cinema halls are choked with fans and the money is recovered, and some mindless crap is sold as success.

I believe the real heroes of good cinema are the directors. They are the visionaries who can actually be the difference between a classic and tasteless cinema. I used to watch movies for the actors who appear in them. But now the directors name is the most important one for me on a movie poster. Sure some of them fall for the trap and sell themselves to commercial cinema as the demand for weekend hits is way more than the demand for mind-stirring cinemas. I loved Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades. Its probably one of the 2 movies in which I can stand watching SRK. But even he comes up with duds like What's your Rashee. I loved Black Friday and Dev-D. But I thought that No Smoking was a very self indulgent film that did not take into account the needs of the viewer. But I would still look forward to the next movie from these directors because I know there is honesty in their work. They are dedicated to cinema and not to the masses. Balachander and Mani Ratnam are two other powerful names in Tamil cinema.

One actor stands out for me though. Abhay Deol has got the most wonderful talent of picking up the right movies. I believe he must be amazing at reading scripts and visualising what the director plans to paint. I loved Manorama, Dev-D, Socha na tha and I need to watch the rest of his movies soon. I would go and watch his movie without even reading any reviews. I cant wait enough to lay my eyes on Road Movie. The fact that it is said to be inspired by Cinema Paradiso only makes it more intriguing. He reminds me of the Kamal Hassan of years ago. When he made socially relevant films and you would know that you will not be disappointed by him. He has fallen to the Hype around his personality and is currently making cinema to generate buzz around his name. Still I would like to see what his 2 unfinished works (Marudhanayagam and Marmayogi) look like.

If you appreciate good cinema, try giving more credit to the Directors than the stars. Appreciate the chef not the dish :)

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dev.D.jpg

Russian Tryst

It's been ages since I posted. Not too surprising for the lazy procrastinating part of my personality :)
Anyways.. that part had kinda taken over my life for a coupla weeks now. Here i am in a new country of which i havent even heard stories from other IT junta.
The problem being I dont know the language here and ppl dont understand what i am trying to say even in India. So I preferred sittin on my bum all weekends watching reruns of reruns of Scrubs (Dont even ask me how many times i have seen them). Also enduring hours of taunts from my friends back in India for being this way (I am quite thickskinned when it comes to insults).
Finally when the chance came this weekend when i was offered an extra seat on a trip to a Beach with some friends, I grabbed it with both hands. And I definitely would have regretted not going. It was an experience i might not get again in my life. Details and pictures of the experience in my next post (Don't hold your breath... I have told u guys how I am in the post).
Anyways moral of the story.
When in Russia do as the Russians and take risks.. In the end you will not regret them :)

The pic attached is picked up from flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/29647938@N04/)
These are of the same beach.. will get mine later today.. adios :)

When all else fails!!

A report in "The Week" March 1st, 2009 Issue:

The tiger mosquitoes succeeded where the Greyhounds failed. Maoists in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh may have tackled the anti-Naxal squads, but seem helpless against the mosquitoes that spread chikungunya. Maoist leader K. Illaiah, aka Sambasivudu, who recently surrendered, reportedly said some of his comrades and he laid down arms, as they were down with chikungunya. "I have no energy left to fight. So, I have decided to give up the struggle," he said.

So finally mosquitoes prove they are useful after all!! 

Is this a hint of how to tackle the terrorism menace? Gawd knows.. I still hate em.. :P

Just another trip round the sun

Just another trip round the sun. Isn’t that what a new year means? That we as humans have managed to get along for another 365 days without annihilating ourselves. Why is such a ruckus created about it? As is the trend to make lists around this time, I'll make one of my own :)

· It’s the time to look at the best you have made of the little chances that life sent your way.

· It’s the time to check the number of times you have fallen on your journey and more importantly how many times you managed to shake off the dust and carry on.

· It’s the time to look at all the little things that made you smile. The ones that made the single beam of sunshine peek out on a gloomy day.

· It’s the time to list the things that made you hop, skip and jump with joy when nobody was looking.

It’s the time to list all the things that you believed would be done by the end of this year, but now you have to give them a shot this year.

There’s my list. I know it gives nothing away :)

But this is my eternal year end list. So cya list same time next year :)

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Now playing: Delhi6Masakali

The Butterfly Effect

Image courtesy: http://www.photoshoptalent.com/photoshop-picture/482465c83dfdb/butterfly-effect.html

On my way back from office I always take the shuttle that takes me to the station. The shuttle takes about 10 mins to reach my destination. I don’t know why, but for some reason the little siesta that I take on that 10 min ride is one of the most satisfying ones. I fall asleep when the bus starts and wake up exactly when I reach the station. All was well and I used to look forward to my trip back home for more than one reason now :)

Yesterday however turned out to be different. Have you people heard about the butterfly effect? Well, I think some butterfly might have fluttered its tiny wings yesterday :)

Yesterday I boarded the usual bus and got a seat around the center of the bus. I played some music on my cell and was already starting to feel the effects of the impending nap. The bus started and it was just another normal day. However, I had absolutely no idea that things won’t be the same again.

For some unknown reason there was a police check on the road that we always take. This made my 10 minute journey into a 15 minute journey. Not bad you would think.

When I opened my eyes on reaching the destination it seemed like any normal day… except one thing.

The girl in the front row stood up and was asking the girl sitting in front of me “What was that all about?” The girl in front of me without an iota of subtlety pointed towards me and signed that I was “knocked out cold” and the girls started giggling. That’s when I realized what had happened.

You see the 5 minute delay turned my siesta into a full blown slumber. I am the kind of person who can fall asleep in 2 minutes flat. And I recently found out that I snore in my sleep.

Aaarggghh… I dunno how loud I was but, it certainly was loud enough for the front of the bus to hear it. I just smiled at the still giggling girls and was on my way. Wait a minute. Shouldn’t I be embarrassed? Shouldn’t I be thinking about what will happen if these girls spread this news around (which I am sure they will)? But I am not. Why?

Because I believe I am blessed to be able to sleep this way. I am one of the lucky ones who do not have to work too hard to have a good sleep. You can buy lots of expensive clothes, gadgets, etc. But, you really cannot buy sleep.

So I really don’t mind what happens next. I am just eager to find out :)

What if?

What if all the bad things that ever happened to you were a figment of your imagination?

What if the things that hurt you and stuff you wish you never did never actually happened?

What if you could go back in time and take the chances life offered you without being afraid of how its going to end.

Would it make life any different?

Just some thought to realize that I have to be happy about the way my life is going and not dwell on the past "What ifs".

As Jonathan Michael "J.D." Dorian said:

I've been thinking a lot lately about taking chances, and how it's really just about overcoming your fears. Because the truth is, every time you take a big risk in your life, no matter how it ends up, you're always glad you took it.

Dammit!!! Dammit!!! Dammit!!

Gawd I hate Monsieur Murphy. Why is he always right!!!
So things got screwed up BADLY. Everything went exactly the way it was not supposed to.

Plan B coming up for next weekend. This time the plan will be foolproof (despite my presence).

Off to Kerala.. Hopefully..

Booked tickets to attend one of my best friends wedding in Calicut and its still on the waiting list and the journey is supposed to start in another 8 hours.
God if there ever was a time for miracles, u wudnt get a better chance than this... for now :D
Hope the TC can be patofied easily tomm. Or i better start designing my tombstone :(
Please pray that I get the tickets.

Auf wiedersehen :)