Will it happen?

A discussion of illayaraja without bringing in Rahman in negative way and vice versa?

I watched oram poo....

Just now. And I have no clue why I missed it couple of years ago. I am trying to blame it on the fact that I live far away from India .. You all know how true or false that can be.

Fantabolous movie.  Makes those who dont normally laugh out when they are watching movie alone a.k.a me laugh. It was so awesome I want to type awesome 3 times. that much awesome only. Hilarious.

Arya, who positively is a dumbhead appears to be doing all the right movies. Even Sarvam had a different story line. Madras pattinam is on the list to watch just to catch a glimpse of Madras from those days. There was arindum ariyamalum, pattiyal.  I am tempted to just check out the rest of his movies. May be some one else is making the script choices because when the guy appears on TV there is nothing that indicates this script sense.

Climax could have been little bit longer so that we could have savored or on a higher tone to make it feel like climax. But may be this is a trend now and I have to get used to it.

For personal reasons, the scene where pooja hits out on the random porriki in front of the theater is my favorite scene. :) I so want to go back in time and do it but hey atleast there is a scene. 

Va(which apparently is the tamil numerical for quarter and so the name) - here i come.

** 

Continuing the trend to arrive at the scene late, even later than the police in the climax of the 80s movie, I watched dabangg trailers and found them hilarious.

***

Aishaa is just clueless atleast the first half which is weird because I like clueless. Not love, but it makes an interesting watch on TV. Aisha script even dialogue seem ok. Acting doesnt work to the extent the film demands(a chick-flick!) - just Sonam and Abhay. Rest of the cast does a good job. The direction should have been  lot  lot more crisp. I find it surprising to talk in such terms but since I have seen clueless couple of times, it is quite obvious. C'mon, if the movie cant even get the routine climax speech right which hollywood successfully pulls off in every single chick flick I dont have to say how bad the movie is.

And sonam? Again, you either have to be a great looking/ great actress, if we are lucky we get both but asking us to compromise on both is asking a bit too much for the audience(strangely, actors can be bad looking and bad in acting - way too many of those exist). Especially, in this film when every one else looks good, the girl shefali in particular it becomes a bit obvious.

I hate luv stories

First things first. Love doesnt always mean Karan Johars bubble gum archie romance. Some one needs to drill this down to Karan's head. Atleast all through this film that is when they say love it means Karan johar/ Yash chopra romance. Except for one scene just for one scene, Sonam kapoor hold Eric Segal's  Love story and I want to go screaming leave that book out of this.

But inspite of my KJ aversion, I still did like the first half. And there is absolutely no no need for a second half. literally nothing happens except for a trip to New Zealand.

There is a film within film spoofing of diff. scenes from their brand of movies.  Might have been a tribute, I took it as spoof and laughed out.

But the whole first half was good. So were the performances. I have watched Imran's previous film(why? for the same reason I watched this movie - it was available on netflix online streaming) which is why it is literally relief to watch him here. To know that 'Pretty' boy Imran with his porcelain skin and light eyes isnt a one film wonder, he can pull off atleast choc. boy roles and I will get to watch him more. Def. good news.

That sort of brings me to other most significant aspect of the movie. A movie where the Hero(definitely), second hero, an extra and some more people are much better looking than heroine. I wonder how often that happens.

Sonam kapoor, performs well - i mean the role didnt demand much but in a world of Katrina Kaif, Sonam might be oscar worthy. But you would have to fight anil kapoor creeping in through sonam's face. She looks quite ordinary in most scenes. I am not used to that in Indian cinema. Nor does she have a striking screen presence like Kajol(who i think is pretty) or Tabu. Basically, the only reason she is cast in a film would be she is Anil kapoor's daughter. Its all good though how often do we see women return from movies happy after some good eye candy and men come back disappointed. Almost never.

Overall, you are absolutely not missing anything by not watching but if you do have netflix, you can watch the first half.

My Thalai ezhuthu a.k.a handwriting

There was a lot of confusion(only for me) over the kind of school I went to  - An RSS/Jains run CBSE co-ed school which believed in substituting half of friday/saturday with Bhajans, greeting teachers with namastes, never implementing the 'English only' fine scheme but insisting only one subject homework every day instead of truckloads of hw. The school was in direct contrast with the kind of schools my friends and some cousins went to - Christain missionary run Matriculation schools.

Bharathi, my neighbour would spend hours cleaning up her math homework - literally cleaning up. She cant strike any answer, so half her time was spent on neatly erasing mistakes. She will make rough copy, fair copy. I cant till date write anything without striking and making a mess. Cousin D used to say she almost ironed the dog ears out of her notebooks. Dog ears ah?, with my face literally showing a blank. Their parents would  get together and crib with a twinge of pride about the copious amount of homework they were made to do. 

Looking back, this choice of school seems to be one of my better blessings. I am not referring to the obv. CBSE adv. which is huge ofcourse. But my point is more of the discipline and neatness. Every year I had the following episode repeated with different teachers - in sixth it was the social science teacher, seventh - the hindi and eigth -   tamil one.

Jayashree - I think was the social science teacher. She walked in after first mid-term. As the whole class waited with bated breadth for the papers, she asks, "Who is sachita?(my real name ofcourse which is no where remotely related to sachita). The heads turned to me. S, who was sitting next to me had already guessed it. I stood up. 

"Your handwriting", she shook her head, her face recalling the terror of correcting my paper. 

I nodded fully understanding the trauma that was my handwriting. "But you study well, you participate in class discussions". ( I have extreme trouble writing such sentences -  let me clarify I  never ever scored first rank in whole of my school life but for teachers if you are in top 5 that would do good which i was in that school - I couldnt even hold on to that when I moved to madras. The participating bit was true esp. in smaller city school). 

" Why is your handwriting this bad?". 

Now, how could I answer this question, I mean if I knew what the problem was, wouldnt I have fixed it? Anyway I just tried a shy smile at her.  Rest of students went on with how bad my writing can be. It was a source of amusement to the class.

Finally, the paper was handed to me with improve your handwriting note. The hindi teacher went one step ahead and imagined transforming my life. She consoled me saying even Gandhiji had bad handwriting and asked me to write one page every day.   We did that for one month, She was very happy with the results. The funda is, by middle school, I could write one page legibly even neatly. It is only when you ask me to write fast it goes from decent to bad to worse to horrible. 

When I say horrible, it is literally a line. In the race between time and effort to capture all the words from my head to the paper, my last sentence is mostly just a line. 

Tamil teacher badly wanted to know how I had ended the essay. I think it had a bit of story going in it or something and it was literally breaking her head. So she showed me the line thinking since I wrotedrew the line, I can decipher/ I would know. Neither was true. Obv. most of us cant even remember the memorized answers which evaporate the moment we finish the exams so recalling something impromptu like an essay was out of question. But the main point is, I cant decipher my own writing when I write that bad. 

As I stood cluelessly, she was shocked. I was sent off with a 'please improve your handwriting , in couple of years boards were approaching' ..... the whole routine.

So what I want to say is, for someone who was as clumsy and who had as bad a handwriting as mine a, less than strict school was such a blessing in disguise. I would have literally been killed in a school that insisted on those periphery aspects like neatness and other crap*. I wouldnt have the patience nor the acumen. My only skill till date it is analytical. If there wasnt scope to explore that I cant imagine what a horrid life it would have been. It would have crushed me as a child.

Oh, my handwriting ofcourse continues to be bad. When I note down addresses  fast sometimes I cant decipher, but hurray for computers and printers :)

'Peepli Live' Live

 "
.....
On the defensive, the NCP said ensuring distribution of food grain rotting in godowns to the poor was a collective responsibility at the central level. Pawar alone cannot be held responsible for it.
NCP’s general secretary Gurnath Kulkarni said, “Why should Pawar be equated with apex court’s verdict? It is the collective responsibility of the Centre and not of the agriculture minister alone.”

Pawar himself has argued that “surplus food production has led to shortage of godowns. Food grain was damaged in the rains in some states as they stored it in the open.”

The opposition parties have decided to up the ante over the issue. The BJP has decided to step up its campaign across states to expose ‘the rotten food grains scam’. BJP president Nitin Gadkari said, “Allowing food grain worth Rs58,000 crore to rot in godowns when several lakhs of people are reeling in hunger is a criminal.”

"

- Source:dnaindia

Congress wants Sharad pawar to fail who wants congress to fail which BJP also wants. But the food grains?

Some concentric circles in that maze called life

I would wait, not in dramatic tone, but just wait. Wait for the appearance of the handcrafted orange green plastic wire lunch bag. For that signaled  dad's return from office  and end of the my mom's tyranny session a.k.a home work session. Come to think of it, nobody in the household really cared for  this session. Dad's brothers wanted to know if Amma was coaching me for IAS. She ignored the jibes  and marched on in her quest to teach .... the spelling of woodcutter or at least p-i-n to the 4-5 year old me. 

Thatha's and Patti's dissent were also ignored but Dad she couldnt ignore. I would run off the moment I saw the bag. The bag is still in my memory when I cant recall Mom and Dad's face from then, that's how big a role the bag or the appearance of it played in my role.

Couple of years ago, the parents were visiting me for the first time. On a particular not so great day at home, I came back from office and opened the door. Dad was just walking around the home (10ft *10ft.. ofcourse)

heard the click, saw me and immediately his face lit up with a smile:)

We have come a circle, haven't we?

PS: On another note, it is horrible for parents visiting USA in particular bay area. If some one was visiting India, they can always catch an auto/ taxi/call taxi and not depend on anybody for local transport.  My dad doesn't drive, I don't want them to take the bus but even if that was the case the frequency is so low, the wait so long and routes not so well connected. Taxis are so expensive and not something you can catch on the road.You have to call half an hour atleast ahead with a minimum fare of 10$ to go to the next street.

So, Dad is pretty much stuck at home. Mom doesnt seem to care much - it is transfer from one kitchen to another.  Not that Dad is much of an outdoor person but just the freedom. He probably can go to the temple/ grocery store. He gets bored, he probably starts counting the number of days to go back to india the moment he boards the plane. 

This is common across the families which is why Desi parent's walk(my dad doesnt). They walk, walk as if they were doing it for marathon. Hopefully, some system will come with the number of desis in bay area.

Dialogue

Someone: "So how do you know Bill gates owns Leonardo da vinci's note books?"

Me: "Because for the past six years, i have been reading everything that is there on the internet so that if it crashes tomorrow I can act as the back up."