Avatar....

A post to write down some thoughts after watching Avatar....

Enjoyed every bit of it. Probably because I'm a big fan of fantasy, animation and special effects anyway. So a movie with so much of all of these couldn't go wrong for me. Was like watching a new benchmark being set for movies with CG, like Matrix years ago.

The 3D experience was good, specially in the forest scenes and the 'ash-fall' scene.

Inspite of all the computer rendered characters in the movie, the only one who came across as 'fake' for me was the Colonel. Probably the scars, the 'I'm the meanest meanie there is' attitude was all a bit too cartoonish (specially so soon after Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds) .

The best thing about the movie for me was the landscape, flora and fauna on Pandora!! Beautiful!!

Avatar hasn't displaced Aliens as my favourite 'another planet' movie. Wouldn't mind watching it a couple more times, but not more than that, I think. Aliens though, I can watch everytime its aired :)

The movie reminded me quite a bit of an interesting computer game called 'Heart of Darkness' [have the feeling, there were floating mountains here as well] and an old animated movie called 'Ferngully - the last rainforest'. Specially of 'Ferngully, because the bare-bones story is quite similar, and the animation too to some extent(more 'inspired' than 'rip-off')

N mentioned the other day, that the Na'vi in avatar reminded her of the drawings of 'Shiva' from the Amar Chitra Katha stories we read as children - because of the blue skin, dreadlocks and attire. Since then, I can't help but think the same somehow.

Lastly, I wish I had a GIANT tv at home, for movies like this!!

Cosmic retribution strikes again :((

Last Saturday, while driving to Strasbourg....
S: Did you carry your mobile?, I left mine at home [Now, this is a very rare event with us, probably a first ever. S *always* has his phone with him, whereas my phone and I are usually not at the same place at the same time]
S: Your parents might call, we didn't call them yesterday
Me: Yes I did, though its not likely that my parents will call...

S: Why not?

Me: They usually call me on the landline or on your mobile, if I'm not online...

S: Why not on your mobile?

Me: Ummm...I don't think they know my new number...I ummm think I forgot to give it to them....

S :!!!???!!??!!!

Me (feeling very guilty): It wasn't intentional, I just didn't get around to it...you know how I am with phones [There was a time when I used to accidentally give dear friend R's number to people who asked for mine, simply because I knew that number better than mine]

S: You are lucky that your parents still love you!!!


Later that evening my phone starts emitting its 'low battery' sound. S and I are watching a movie, and the phone is my bag.

S: Sounds like your phone needs to be charged...

Me: (In no mood to get off the couch) Yes I will, after the movie...

I put the bag away that night, forgetting again to charge the phone. It was Monday morning when I finally got around to it. A thought briefly ran through my head that I hadn't heard the 'charge me' sounds all night or on Sunday for that matter. And then when I took it out of my bag, there was a large inexplicable crack on the screen!! I tried switching it on, only to find that it was dead for good :( The bag didn't have too much stuff in it, so I couldn't help thinking that this has to be punishment for Saturday's statements :( S was nice enough not to say 'Serves you right', atleast out loud. Sigh....hopefully I've learnt my lesson...

Winter Nostalgia........

It's a beautiful winter morning in Luxembourg, clear skies, orange-gold sunlight falling on the plants on my windowsill.... made me all nostalgic about winter days in Bangalore and the life left behind...dug up this old post that I had put up on N's (now dormant) blog many years ago....

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Winter days
Hey N, just accepted the invitation to join your blog...better late than never, like they say. So you'll find some of my posts scattered in between yours from now on...Guest writing on one's best friend's blog has its advantages-you get to post stuff on the net without maintaining a blog of your own :)-the friend will no longer crib that you don't visit her blog often enough (net nanny at work to blame ) So here's my first post ...
Winter days....
Bangalore is at its best in winter. Deep blue skies, the kind of blue you just don't see the rest of the year...with cotton-white clouds floating about. The red steeple of St.John's church framed against the sky. The breeze creating ripples on Ulsoor lake and the pale winter sun warming the early morning joggers. The abandoned granite buildings of the military barracks with their soot-blackened chimmneys. Even the trees here seem to wait for winter to shed their leaves and bloom. This is the scenic route to work every morning. The nights are amazing too. Clear clear skies, a chill in the air that makes you glad to see the warm yellow glow emanating from the windows of your home. The huge full moon rising over the little islands on Ulsoor lake, the lights from the Philips campus reflected over the still waters. The early morning prayer from the local mosque breaking the stillness of the night air...reminding you of stories from the Arabian Nights.Just the right kind of weather to laze around with a cup a coffee, a chocolate bar and a good book.
I just got back from a visit to Chennai. It's a really nice city - great roads, well planned, etc.But when it gives you a thrill just to see the signboards along the railroad change from Tamil to Kannada, you realize that Bengaluru with all its traffic and pollution and potholes is the best place on earth. Simply because its home.

2 States

Just read Chetan Bhagats '2 States'. It is a very funny, very entertaining, very easy to relate to and hard to put down book :) Being a Bangalorean, the digs at south Indians (geeky, ugly, unsophisticated, stiff, and many more...) didn't go down all that well with me, but then again the Punjabis in the book were portrayed as a bunch of ostentatious, greedy gluttons without too much in the brains department and CB claims that its only because he loves us all he takes such liberties :))

And in the meantime, Andhra Pradesh has been split into 2 states, with the creation of 'Telangana'. Like our country isn't divided along so many lines already :( Every time the government gives in to demands for a new state, the seeds for several more splits are sown :((. I met a friendly guy from one of India's not so friendly neighbouring countries in Dubai recently. He told me that he had heard rumours that a new country(!!!! yes country, not even state) was going to be created from a part of Kerala, and asked me if that was true!!

The timing was just a coincidence, but both the book and the news about the newly created 'Telangana' state underline the fact that we still see ourselves as so-and-so community first and Indians next :( And the whole world seems to be aware of this. Whatever happened to "United we stand, divided we fall" which we had to repeat aloud so many times in school??

The Storytellers

The gifted storytellers. We've all met them. These are the people who can bring tears to your eyes when they tell you about the little abandoned puppy that they met on the road. Who make an explanation of the rules of playing Golf sound interesting. Those whose jokes never fall flat. Those who have you laughing till your sides hurt when they narrate the funny incidents that happened at work. Who incite anger against strangers when they tell you 'their version of the story'. The people who paint pictures and spin magic with their words. Sometimes I wonder what is that makes them so. Is it something to do with the schools they went to as children?, or is the underlying passion behind the words that brings the story to life?, or is it something about their voices?, is it something learned - like the right moments to pause and the right intonations?, or is it simply an unconscious gift passed on from father to son or mother to daughter?

The (not so) Lost Symbol !!??

N gave me Dan Brown's latest offering, 'The Lost Symbol', as a gift a few weeks ago, and checked with me soon after to compare views. I was in chapter 3 then, and loving it. Should've suspected something when she said "okay, I don't want to give away anything, we'll catch up when you're done". The book has been been a nice enough bedtime read for the last couple of weeks, but when it was finally over, I was outraged by the con-job Dan Brown has pulled on his unsuspecting readers.

The book does start well, and there are some really gripping chapters. Especially the cat and mouse game in the dark lab. And the inevitable plot twist wasn't too bad (though you can figure it out before the reveal). But thats about it...

It is soon revealed that the lost 'symbol' is not a symbol at all, but a word, and then revealed it is not really a word but a book, which isn't lost either, but is in fact the most published book in the world! (So why is it called the 'lost symbol' again?) The 'revelation' at the end makes you go "OMG!!! I want my money back, you conman". If that was it, then why the secrecy, the multi-layered puzzles etc.?? It was really irritating to think back about the number of times the cheesy line 'tonight the pyramid and the capstone were far closer than they should be' was used if the secret wasn't a secret at all!!!

Wanted to write a review here about how Robert Langdon's IQ has dropped atleast 40 points since 'Da Vinci Code' (maybe because he is the process of morphing into Dan Brown), how all he does in the book is get himself into sticky situations from which someone else rescues him, barely solves a couple of puzzles by himself and keeps on saying "that's not possible...(shown that yes it is)...OMG I never thought that was possible". And most of the other characters and plot situations give you a 'deja-vu' feeling [isn't this villain a variation of another psycho, muscular, high IQ, cold-blooded killer in another one of DB's earlier books?, haven't pyramids with secrets been done to death already in the DVC? Didn't Angel's and Demon's also have a father-son relationship with a twist? and so on.......]

But then I was pretty sure that there would be plenty of other outraged readers who felt the same, so checked my favorite source for book reviews - Amazon. [Incidentally, Amazon was one of the leaders in the hype-creation in the virtual world before this book was released. I remember seeing the equivalent of a full page ad on their home page a while ago. Things went very quiet when the 1-3 star review count became double the 4-5 star ones] Reading the reviews turned to be more fun that reading the book :)) See: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Symbol-Dan-Brown/product-reviews/0385504225/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 for some entertaining thoughts from others who felt equally cheated by 'The Lost Symbol'

Music for the monsoon

For a few months during my engineering days, this track used to be my favourite 'just before it rains' music. It's an A cappella piece by Taufiq Qureshi and Shankar Mahadevan from 'Rhy-dhun'. It found its way home thru' the sibling, because a friend was using it to choreograph a dance performance.

Came across it once again when looking for music for a rainy day at home CD. For me, listening to it is like instant transportation back in time to my parent's living room, with the guava tree outside the window swaying in the wind and framed against dark clouds, and the smell of rain in the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4CnU95VT8

Kings and Queens

Played chess yesterday for the first time in many many years :) With S. Actually against S. Lost the first game in under 15 minutes :( Lost the second one too, but it took S nearly 3 hours this time around :) [To be fair, he did agree to a couple of "I want to take back that move" situations] At least my learning curve was pretty good :) And then my bruised ego informed S that I would beat him in 5 more games, wait and watch.
Sigh.
So here I am, googling chess strategies on a rainy Monday afternoon, when there are so many other things I could be doing (or not doing too :) But the net is turning up some interesting info. Like bringing one's queen into the attack right in the beginning might not be a good strategy against good opponents. My games were based on a queen+knights attack, while the bishops and rooks defend. In fact in the first game my rooks didn't budge from their original positions - the second-most powerful pieces on the board!. And I used to think they were the amongst the 'easy target' pieces. Time to do some rethinking, before the next battle :) But best of all, my (and S's) liking for a game that used be a rainy day favourite in childhood has been rekindled :)

Remember Shankarabaranam?

One thing led to another today, and I'm sitting here getting over an unexpected flood of tears now.
Ironically enough, it all started with me feeling super cheerful because it's Friday, the sun is shining bright and I had a good breakfast :). So I decided to do something creative and started ripping music off YouTube to put together a 'happy music' collection. This led to looking for good audio versions of my favourite classical-fusion tracks, which was when I noticed a link called 'Shankarabaram 2' in the corner. That triggered a childhood memory of the song being quite beautiful. And I chose to ignore the faint warning bells about a sad ending, and clicked. Then came the flood of tears :) Not because of the tragic end itself, but more because of the part where the little boy is singing to his teacher. Because the scene is so touching, and the lyrics so beautiful. I understand very little Telugu, but the sentiments in the song transcend the language barrier. Need to find a translation of the lyrics now...

The youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnbNK5662Q

And since I'm addicted to wikipedia-ing everything, this is the wiki link [this led to a few more tears, looks like today is 'mood swings' day]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankarabaranam

Breakfast Serials :)

Another case of my karma making a full circle :) I have to confess to being completely addicted these days to watching Bidaai and Balika Vadhu, currently the top two competitors for 'India's no. 1 TV Serial' slot. So addicted that my breakfast cereal will not go down unless I'm catching up on the latest episodes of the above on Youtube. And I catch myself thinking about the plot twists too during the day. This has to be karmic retribution for making a face and saying "you watch Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi!!??, OMG" to Sumanth years ago in BIT :)

Note to Self #1 - Start a blog

I'm always forgetting stuff. 'Stuff' ranges from childhood memories to the occasional brainwave :) [Okay, the once in a blue-moon brainwave ;)] So this blog is more a 'note to self' than anything else. A place to come back to and reminisce. A place to store all those thoughts that I don't want to lose. A place to 'find' things in, that I can smile about years from now. A memory box.