Lunch time debate..

A heated debate on "Slumdog Millionaire" during lunch time with colleagues ! A movie debate after a long time, but digressed somewhere in the midst with too many emotional biases that people seem to have.

Let me start by saying I completely loved the movie and the fact that Vikas Swaroop's 'Q & A' was chosen to be made into the movie by Danny Boyle. I was watching the movie with sheer amazement that a non Indian could have made a movie that had such an Indian heart!
It is probably easy to capture people and places but to get the Indian emotions and sensibility right is by far the toughest nut to crack. And Boyle manages to do just that !

There are scenes and aspects of the movie which are gruesome and even unpalatable, times where i almost closed my eyes just to fade out certain scenes. I guess like the modern, urban India, we would rather live in denial, in the comforts of our middle class existence. Mumbai is powerful, mumbai is all accepting, mumbai is friendly and lovely. But there is an ugly side to it. It has one of the largest slum settlement in the world. The underworld and its influence is spread far and wide. And it has been in the past, been the hotbed for all communal and political atrocities!
That said, the movie is not just about that, it is a love story at the core. And it is a beautiful logic defying love story to be told. The performances are top notch and the actors fit the role to the T (except for a teensy rant that I have about the protagonist being too urban to play Jamal, he has a brit twang :P)

2 major grouses my colleagues seem to have is that a) It is just not done to keep showcasing the poor India b) Why should a non Indian make a movie about the grimy details of our cities/county.

I guess I kinda agree with the first point coz whenever you see any shows in Discovery or Travel & Living, its a very poor representation of our country. Too many beggars and too many cows ! I mean, there are other aspects to this lovely country of ours and I am still wondering why any travel or discovery show would not show that ! Call it the Indian image or whatever, but it is only limited to the Poor India in slums and streets or the Travelers India which is either full of palaces and spas but with an ample splatter of beggars as well :)
I guess the normal/ urban India is not interesting enough for the Discovery/ Travel channels :)

The second opinion is totally a skewed one and believe me I debated with that guy for like half an hour trying to understand his misplaced patriotism ! I mean why would take any movie so personally? And isn't it a big deal in itself that an Indian novel by an Indian author set in India was chosen by Fox searchlight to be made into a movie. That itself I would think is rocking! And its a bloody good adaptation of the book.

Do watch the movie, even if you are a little faint hearted coz it is a feel good movie at the end of the day. A triumph of spirits and love an all that blah blah :)

ps: Also, read 'Six Suspects' by Vikas Swaroop if you can manage to get it. Very simply written but amazing characters in that as well.

pps: Happy New Year !!!

Pliss to rewind...

New yr recap

1. The year was full of nonsensical movies! (an unbelievably dry year for Hollywood and an almost unbearable spat of moronic bollywood movies)
2. Akshay Kumar kinda rocked it!
3. Moving to your new house is exhilarating :)
4. Moving to a new company after spending your till date professional life in one single company can be really daunting... but then again, if you can deal with morons in one place, you can deal with them anywhere :))
5. T'was a year of quite a lot of new traditions (which i hope to keep up in the coming years!) - festivals at home, Friday binges at work, Saturday evenings at a dear friends place, annual vacations with friends, monsoon in goa, marathon TV series and some more :)
6. One brilliant year with respect to commute to work. It totally rocks to have a driver and my skin has never felt better !
7. An year of realizing what a boon it is to have mum nearby (or even staying with you for a while).
8. Ha, it was also an year of welcoming new arrivals to my friends' lives (two weddings and two babies :) )
9. I totally suck at organizing surprise parties !!
10. Political tensions in Bangkok 2 hours after I land, and the tension winds up a day after I am evacuated from there !

Thanks god for some Tv

Star world has never before had a weeknight schedule that I felt was worthwhile. But now all of a sudden and for the first time ever they have 30 Rock and Scrubs back to back all weekdays !
I mean, how awesome is that ! :)

Thank god for some decent tv at the end of sh**ty days like these !

We tend to forget.

As time goes by, things get jaded, excitements fade away, fun gives way to more mundane things. But the worst part is that we tend to forget.

I like airports, I know that sounds funny. No one usually likes airports. But I do like unfamiliar international airports (or even domestic ones in US for that matter).

They have a special place in my heart as I have traveled quite a bit on work and have learnt to survive all kinds of unfamiliar airports. But airports also are special because they have seen quite a bit of me when we were recently married but seeing each other once in a few weeks or even once in a couple of months.
They have seen me irritated on the account of a delayed flight or on the account of being out of breath and last person to check in.

But my favorite airports moments are the ones where I have been dazed and confused with new surroundings and then I see that familiar face. Or times in new cities when I walk out of the aiport searching and then I hear someone saying “Hey sweetheart” from the back. J. A face that always tells me that everything will be all right. I love those moments coz those are the fleeting minutes of sheer happiness. It is difficult to describe it.

Today in a totally unfamiliar airport in Hong Kong (on the way back from Bangkok), I had a similar feeling of being a little lost. Havent had that in a while. I found myself looking for something, that familiar face. That is when the feeling hit me. A quick rewind of airport meetings, a mental recap if you will. And I realized how I had forgotten about it. Just the thought of moments long ago brought me a lot of comfort. I wonder how I had forgotten about these things..

I find us very busy in our lives, just about managing to scrape time off and have some fun. But its not the same. I think we both know it. But I think as long as we don’t forget… As long as we can still remember the good feeling and the warm glow of happy moments gone by, we can still have them..

Ok

I have finally decided that I am quite useless when it comes to thinking of things to write! It used to be effortless before, but dunno either i have absolutely nothing going on in my life or I have a major writing block!
So, in an effort to keep the blog alive, here is what I am planning to do...I will blog at least once a week with just updates ! :)
So, update for um.. the last 6 months I guess - I got a cool sectional couch !!! Andd... (drumm roll)... its RED !!!!

But. its just too heavenly.. need to post pics :))

~toodles

Should u keep em

Trivial relationships..Ones that were meaningful at some point but with time- lose their essence, people grow apart, and even a small conversation becomes laborious. You want to talk, its not like you dont want to. But you want to talk because.. You think you should...it used to be easy..you want to for the sake of old times..you may want to re invent old times..heck, you may just want to know more about the person and the goin ons in their ives...whatever the reason i guess we all do that..hold on to things and people...off late i feel the pinch of it.. And its not because of what i do but in terms of why i do it...
why is it annoying for me when i chose to hang on to trivial relationships and then feel the sheer futility of it. Isnt it better to just acknowledge that and move on and just change the definitions to acquaintances or casual friendships. I think it is....

blip

Are my thoughts getting fewer and fewer or is my brain getting smaller an smaller ??

ps: rhetorical question, do not attempt to answer !

Ha !