MNIB

My name is Basu, and I am not totally impressed.

I anticipated MNIK to be a for sure sob story. I, thus, very carefully folded a handkerchief and kept it inside my purse. Khan always makes me cry. Each movie of his evokes pathos in me every single time I watch it.But surprisingly it wasn't as much of a tearjerker as I expected it to be! Not that I didn't wet my eyes-of course I did! But then I am mawkishly sentimental while watching soppy tales. I cry at almost every movie! But, in this particular movie others didn't cry as much as was expected of them. It was an SRK movie for god's sake, it is imperative to cry!

Anyway, my friends didn't like it much. I did. I'm a die hard SRK fan. I'm a die hard romantic movies fan. I love the surname Khan. Obviously I liked it.

And about Khan, the surname I mean. It can be said that the movie is loosely Khan centered (both the actor and the title). It is shown that circumstances arise when people start getting discomforted by it . But why? I love it! There's so much weight in it. Those who have this last name must be thrilled (or so I expect) to carry such incredible history and lineage with them. Now, I understand that the antagonism for 'Khan', as shown in the movie, has to do with the religion (that bears the brunt of terrorism) and not with anything else. But that's a topic which I refrain from touching now, as it requires a lot of time, blogger space and the right frame of mind.

Movies affect me. More than I think, that is. Every time I watch I watch a new movie, I think about it, in terms of it. I stay wholly/partially immersed in it for at least a week. Maybe that is one of the plausible reasons why I'm so unrealistically filmy in my real life. I daydream a lot about how my life would be (mark the words-'would be', not 'should be') someday. I concoct tales. About how something extraordinary would happen to me, how it would be a bolt from the blue for me, how I would rise to the occasion(it's my movie so I get to be the protagonist, right?). And then I just love weaving these imaginary characters, who always play the roles I chalk out for them, always speak the lines I want them to speak, and always wear clothes that I mentally design for them. Freakish though it might seem, but I usually don't rest till I find the right dialogues, or right introductory plots, or right dressing for my imaginary characters. Even as I type this I'm smiling to myself thinking of how a medico friend of mine would react to all this. I suppose he'd vociferously begin to diagnose my 'condition'. I can actually hear him say-"You might be affected by muggawuggawugga (uff, these medical jargons! unpronounceable i tell you!) neurological disorder". And that would be follwed by citation of hazzaar abstruse theories (not to mention the explanation of each one) that support the claim. Oh, I'm a psycho alright. :)

The nation wide V-day hoopla is finally over. Thank god. No, I'm not being cynical. I deal with facts here. I talked to eight different people yesterday, and couldn't help noticing that they were not half as cheerful as they usually are (and mind you they're all exceptionally jovial people). Status messages of many people only resonated the not-so-high-spirits. It's strange, isn't it? How come a day dedicated to love and happiness ends up making so many feel miserable? If I speak for myself, I get a little put off by the predictable nature of the day. As Oscar Wilde had put it-'Uncertainty is the essence of romance'. Nothing about Valentine's day is entirely uncertain. But that doesn't mean, I don't wallow into the mushy atmosphere of the day :) I read each and every V-day special article in the papers, even the message columns! Most of these messages are silly to the core, and asinine are the nicknames that people resort to for avoiding recognition. To gulabjamun from laddoo, to bakbak from chupchap, to jaadu cute prince from chaku- it's idiocy in print ! However, in this sea of unknown people with fake names and internet-acquired rhyming couplets, there was actually a message that I liked. I don't know who it was for or from, but it was nice-Hmm..now what was it..like an autumn leaf I withered in your arms...oh I wish I could remember it. It wasn't a poetry, but was very beautiful and meaningful.

I should seriously stop posting stuff at nights. My head gets inundated with thoughts/incidents I want to include but I then get all drowsy after a while and decide to make all the left out things into another post someday. That almost never happens; a fresh new day, a million new thoughts!

idiot alright

Phew! what a day!
First I don't study anything for my vivas, then I get up late.I'm already running 20 mins late than the scheduled time and yet spend ten precious minutes in finding the damn dupatta (I hate this entire concept of wearing 'indian' formals for the vivas). I hurriedly reach my friend's place and because she has forgotten the helmet we make a detour to get it. And here comes the gaffe extraordinaire, after covering more than three-fourths of the distance I casually mention something about the file and remember- "Holy mother of Lord, I FORGOT THE CERTIFICATE!!" :o :o
My friend says it is too risky to go back now." You're the first roll number" :o But somehow I decide to go against my friend's pragmatic suggestion of first sitting for the vivas, explaining it to the prof and then getting it. So, I take an auto and ask the guy to rush like mad(which btw he doesn't :x), make a dozen phone calls to mum, ask her to rummage through my stuff, get home, grab the pesky piece of paper and rush back. Being a rash driver helps sometimes. Although I should be grateful to the all but one green signals I got in the way .It has been my observation that if you get a green signal in the first signal, the probability of getting more green signals increase. Although it is a function of a lot many parameters, so nothing can be statistically generalized. Maybe it was because I had just two turnings and maintained a near constant speed.
Anyway, I reached just in time. Literally, just in time.
I sort of like this ass-on-fire, dramatic life- BUT only in retrospect. :D

Watched 3 idiots yesterday, with my fellow 2 idiots :D.
Almost a week ago I fished a certain book out of my father's bookshelf-Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman! It's an unputdownable book, if you ask me. How strange I didn't even notice it all these years when it laid there accumulating dust all over it. And the combined effect of both the movie and the book is a little unnerving.

I often wonder, ponder about this. Sometimes in a shallow way and sometimes deeply.Deeply,while yeilding to the rote system, but usually in a shallow way. But then, when I watch or read something like this, the thoughts resurface and I get restless, reckless, frustrated but mostly lost..

What is all this? This was not suppose to turn out like this. College was not suppose to be like this. The head should feel fuller after almost four years of education, not emptier.I don't remember when was the last time I asked a question, or ruminated on a problem. I no longer ask myself (let alone the profs) what is the immediate use of having to learn something.I seldom wonder why I still remember the basics of gravity learnt in school almost eight years ago but am blank about ripple counter that I learnt two years ago. I've been cramming like mad for almost a month now for the uni exams. It's insane! My way of preparation has undergone drastic changes. I hate it. It's so hard to do something that you disapprove of, but the fact that nothing else can fit the bill in this system makes it worse.This feels like a total discharge process. I was not like this before. What the hell happened? :( Something is wrong, something is terribly wrong. I wish I knew how to fix it. Maybe I do know, but I just don't know that I know.

I wish I had someone like Feynman around who'd first amuse me by showing his 'discovery' that no matter how I position my french curve the lowest point would always be parallel to the x-axis, and then amuse me more by telling that's because the derivative of any function at it's minimum value is always zero-basic calculus which we apply in complex problems and yet are unable to identify in cases like this. Or perhaps an unconventional Rancho who'd apply the elementary knowledge of soft water being a conductor of electricity to do something..ermm..well..something reeeeally fun :P
The point is I have sort of stopped exercising my brain. I'm just studying, not learning. There's a lot to learn and a lot more to well..yeah..unlearn. Unlearing is very important. Useless stuff, destructive stuff should be done away with. Now that the problem has been clearly identified, I hope the solution is somewhere around. I hope all will be well.
There's something about this 'all is well' phrase. JKR ended the series with. 'All was well', refuting the rumors that the last word was 'scar'. I like this phrase. It's more comforting than it sounds, in a rather uncanny way. I had a first hand experience of this today.

PS: In my school days some idiot must've been so pissed of being called an idiot that he/she made it an acronym for I Do Ishq Only Tumse!
PPS: How idiotic! :D

mixed bag

This clearly was the longest gap between my any two posts. Back in business :) Well..no, not totally. I don't think I'd be blogging that often. I've lost the will to blog like before (how bad is that on lethargy scale?)
But, quite a few things happened in the past few days of which I'd like to have a record. Mainly because these things were neither memorable, nor exciting. In fact it would be safe to say that these were of no significance at all. I feel bad for such events, such memories. Events that were okayish. Memories that are not good, and not bad either. We tend to forget these. Like I'd always remember that amazing school picnic, or that feeling of riding a bicycle for the first time. And no matter how hard I try, I'd also never quite forget the nasty fight over a petty issue, I had with a friend. But there is a distinct possibilty that I'd forget the walk that I had today with a bunch of old pals. Very good memories. Check. Very bad memories. Also check. Normal workaday memories. Forgotten.
No problem. Diaries/blogs to the rescue (yes, diary is still and will always remain a first preference; there's a lot of clipping and a lot held back stuff in the blog-intentionally :))

Part One of the festival season over. Nine nights of Navaratri, five days/nights of Durga Puja and finally Vijayadashami. Maybe I'm expected to be in very high spirits. All ecstatic and jubilant, with fresh zeal and verve. I was all this and more, last year. This year..well..was not like last year. All my friends were in town a year before. No one came this time round :( I watched the ultra crazy garba videos of last year and became sadder. Durga Puja wasn't compensating either. This year has been a record. I didn't meet one single person I intended to meet. Not even one! Only the people from my parents' friend/aquaintance circle I see once every year and whom I greet with fake smiles. These people always ask me the same set of questions. I always give them the same set of answers. For some reason, they are ever so interested in the way I commute to and from college. ("Which bus did you say"?, "How much time does it take"? ). It's OK. I've got used to it. I also saw someone who somewhat jolted my memory. It has been so long since I thought of this person. There was a time when I used to do that extensively. The first glimpse was exhilarating but the next moment I remembered about his current status. A sinking feeling. Very bad feeling. I think my only crush till date who probably doesn't even know me!
And inspite of such rather dangerous possibilities which have the power to transform my sanguine disposition into a doleful one, I love going to the puja for just one simple reason- for her! The divine Maa, who is the most beautiful, most loving, most forgiving, most protective of all :) Besides, for me no music can be as evocative as the music of pujo. I love the sound of the dhak-that typical rhythmic percussion, the tinkle of the bells during shondhi pujo (evening aarati), the smell of the camphor, the dhunuchi naach(ritual dance worships). I feel protected. A feeling that no pain or sorrow in the world can touch me. It is a blissful feeling. A moment for which one is beyond happiness and/or miseries. Beyond the worldly pleasures and the sufferings. I don't quite know what kind of a feeling is that, but it spawns very strong emotions. It makes me feel really really powerful. Like there's nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry, nothing that cannot be done or achieved. And even after it is achieved, it would be no big a deal. I can keep standing there watching the idol for ages,I actually do till my mother drags me away ie :D

Dusshera at vikki is always fun. I've been watching it every year for years now. It has almost become a ritual, but a good one. A huuuge effigy of Ravan is made up, stuffed with the most sparkling (and consequently the most polluting) fire crackers. All complete with an act that the folks put up. Lord Rama, brother Lakshman and devotee Lord Hanuman along with the vaanar sena conquer the army of the nefarious ten-headed king of Lanka and eventually Ravan himself to save Mata Sita. For obvious reasons, no girl from the colony volunteers to play Sita :D Which is why some or the other poor fella is coaxed into draping a sari, fashion a false plait, and allow Lucky aunty to put tonnes of make up on his face! After the last fragment of Ravan is burnt to ashes, these 'actors' tend to dance a bit-victory dance. More often then not the Raavan sena and Sita also join their 'co-actors'. And one can always hear someone quipping or disapproving- "Sita ko to dekho, kaise pallu lehraa lehraake naach rahi hain Raavan ki sena ke saath" :P And every year Chinky says the same thing-" Iski(referring to the Vaanars of the Vaanar sena) punchh kitni cute hain" :P

Met the old vikki gang after a long time today. Especially Prachi didi. I don't remember when was the last time I saw her. Oh wait! wait! I do. It was almost two years ago when she dropped by to say hi and I showed her our teacher's day pics. I think she might've broken a rib while laughing her head off at poorna's pic in a sari. Oh! how we used to ridicule poorna banerjee. How extremely hilarious it used to be :D. Only Uttara was missing :( I remember how much fun it used to be in those days.

I watched 27 dresses this afternoon. Sweet. I hate to admit it but I love romantic movies. I have a love-hate relation with romantic movies. I love them because..well..because of emotional reasons :) But I also hate them as they are a constant reminder of the fact that my life is not like those movies, and I so want it to be one! I have neither appreciated, nor longed for regular romance. As in, being involved with rather 'obvious' people-classmates, colleagues, people from the same friend circle. It's a nastily common thing. It should be like movies! The backdrop stretched across a couple of cities. An absolute stranger.Cynical. Not the very best of beginnings. A dozen heated arguments, a million sarcastic comments. A vulnerable moment. Get to know the 'real them' part.Change of opinions. Friendly bonding. Circumstantial misunderstanding. Big fight. Parting of ways. Revelation. Realization at the better-late-than-never time. A panicky search. A crazy confession...and they walked away in the sunset hand in hand :) Ohh and yes-it also involves torrential rains, skating, airport and a public speech-albeit, not in that order. Yup- that's my movie. And even if it isn't at least spinning such tales can be my alternate career, if engineering goes for a toss :D I mean, people with far baseless storylines are raking in moolahs!
Yeah, I'm gonna keep this option open, just in case...

I wish I could go on and on. But my body is screaming in protest. Today was very tiring. And I have my darned college tomorrow :x

PS: I'm very happy for Anu :)
PPS: I'm seriously at my wits end as far as the post titles are concerned. Help! Help! SOS!

HBP :)

Just back from the first day-first show of 'Harry Potter and the half blood Prince'. And I'm streaming with opinions. Mixed opinions if I were to call it so.
First opinion is that I liked it- a lot. OK, maybe not a lot but I liked it. Mainly because this is the first Harry movie (I don't like calling it a 'Potter' movie or even 'Harry Potter' movie like most of the people; Simply Harry feels closer and warmer :) ) I've watched on the first day in the first show.
Many things are just as they should be. All details intact.

• In the beginning of the movie-the dementor attacks in muggle world, the chill, the gloom, the shattering of the bridge are all very subtly depicted.
• Slughorn's transformation into the fat sofa and back is shown well, so is the seeming ransacking of the house. Although, Slughorn should have been plumper and with a moustache! (What happened to the walrus moustache?)
• Fred and George's joke shop is more or less the same as I imagined while reading the book.
• The keeper tryouts, where Hermione confounds McLaggen has been correctly pictured but Cormac in the movie is much more handsome than what he's described in the book, and also much less self-important.
• Slughorn's first class where Harry wins felix felixes, much to the chagrin of everyone, especially Hermione is totally in agreement with the book and also one of the best scenes of the movie.
• Dumbledore's memory of his first meeting with Tom, though curtailed is quite digestable.
• Ron and Lavender's fooling around (read: snogging) is well..hilarious!(:P) And I was pleasantly suprised to see that they did include the scene where Hermione sets a group of twittering, pecking birds on Ron in a fit of rage (Oppugno!). Also, the part where he eats chocolates spilled with love potion that Romilda Vane had gifted Harry and gapes dreamily is ultra superb! Oh, Rupert Grint is such a fine actor!! He brings Ron's character to life. No other actor in the movie has ever been so convincing,except perhaps Hagrid and Malfoy.
• Malfoy! Man, the genuineness with which Tom Felton gets into the skin of the character! The scenes with the vanishing cabinet are probably the only scenes which are better potrayed in the movie. The experiments with the apple and the bird,which inspite of being concocted by the script-writers are good in attempting to explain how the cabinet works.
• The cave, the black lake, the chain that materializes from thin air, the boat, Dumbledore's breakdown,his snivels thereafter, the inferi, the fire- positively stick by the book.
• In fact I found the inferi much spookier in the movie than I'd imagined. Despite having read the book a dozen times I jumped back with shock the instant a dead hand caught Harry's wrist.
• Ron and Hermione's scenes lend some lighter moments. Ditto with Fred and George's fleeting appearances.

Having highlighted all those things that maintained a consistency in reference to the book and can most likely said to be an almost a replica of the same, I would now jot down the things due to which the movie is likely to draw a lot of flak-and rightly so! We never demanded to watch the nuances of every single occurring, did we? But expecting us to agree with whatever codswallop they show, much in the manner of house elves, is exactly the same as expecting Fred and George to stay indifferent to Percy when he is superciliously flaunting his Head Boy's badge!
So here are some discrepancies that I observed (and some of them were blatant enough to make any Harry fanatic, or even fan for that matter indignant).

• What the hell was that flirting with the muggle girl in the opening scene all about? Our Harry has never flirted with anyone in the book. He's one of those guys who can't flirt effortlessly, and that's the trait that makes him so much lovable. The scene was plain and simple-silly.
• The conversation between the muggle prime-minister and Fudge should have been shown.And if not that at least the Daily Prophet that was very much shown flashing the news of Harry being the chosen one should also have carried the news of Rufus Scrimgeour succeeding Fudge as the new Minister for Magic.
• Why was Kreacher's part ignored?
• Dumbledore after borrowing the magazine of knitting pattern from Slughorn at the latter's place didn't grab Harry by his arm and announced to leave as shown in the movie. He in fact went to another room in the pretext of reading it while leaving Slughorn in the sole company of Harry.
• Weasleys were very much expecting Harry for the summer. They only didn't expect him at the dead of the night,they thought he wouldn't turn up until morning.But since Molly Weasley was awaiting her husband she was wide awake anyway and it was she who received Harry, not Ginny. She made Harry some toasts and Onion soup, or did she? I think she did. And yet,the movie shows them to be astonished at the sight of him. Molly Weasley asks Ginny "Harry who?" :O That is so unlike her!
• And where was Fleur? She was supposed to be at the Burrow,right? So was Bill.
• In the Spinner's end, at Snape's place it wasn't Bellatrix who suggested an unbreakable vow between Snape and Narcissa. Snape himself suggested it.
• In the Diagon Alley when everybody was visiting the joke shop, Harry, Ron and Hermione sneaked outside in the invisibility cloak at the sight of Malfoy heading towards Knockturn Alley. They din't stroll in a carefree way without the cloak as they were shown. Also, Malfoy never went to Borgin and Burkes with his mother. On the contrary he went there quite clandestinely,without his mother's knowledge. And the trio definitely did not climb up some terrace to snoop. They used the extendable ears. And Hermione unwisely and unsuccessfully barged inside the shop once Malfoy left to enquire after what he'd ordered.
• The Hogwarts express is supposed to have compartments. The first 'Slug-club' get-together was held in Slughorn's compartment.
• Harry used his invisibility cloak,and not Peruvian instant darkness powder to get inside the compartment where Malfoy and his gang were sitting.
• OK, this one is a HUGE blunder. It was Tonks and not Luna who found Harry locked inside the Slytherin's compartment where Malfoy had petrified Harry, broken his nose and covered him in his own invisibility cloak. And spectrespecs can definitely NOT see through invisibility cloaks. How ridiculous! Also, Tonks and not Luna had fixed Harry's nose (episkey!)
• Dumbledore never mentioned Tom Riddle in the start of term speech. In fact there were very few who knew Voldemort's real name.
• Where were Crabbe and Goyle in the movie? They should've shown two scrawny girls holding scales in front of the Room of Requirements.
• Only two memories have been shown. Where were the other memories? Borgin's memory, Hokey-the house elf's momory, Morfin Gaunt's memory. The deductions about Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, something from Ravenclaw (which later in the seventh part turns out to be the diadem) were certainly missing.
• And the most censurable thing in the movie was-oh wait..I still can't believe it. Bellatrix Lestrange and her fellow death eaters burn down The Burrow!!! And Harry runs after her. Ginny follows him. They run through the woods and find themselves facing the death eaters. But very soon they're joined by the Weasleys, Lupin and Tonks as a result of which the death eaters flee. Which person? Which abysmally retard person would ever think of such a tampering? Words fail me. I'm appalled beyond measure :X :X :X
• Ginny never took Harry to the Room of Requirements to hide the Prince's book. And they definitely didn't kiss there. They kissed right after the Quidditch final which Gryffindor won, in which Harry was not allowed to play as a punishment for cursing Malfoy with Sectumsempra and had to do a detention with Snape instead. And that old ugly warlock's stone head on which Harry himself places that tiara should have definitely been shown. It was so vital to the plot of the DH.
• The potion in the basin at the cave was green in colour. But in the movie it was some murky colour. Now, It's not that I'm being finicky over trivial details. No, I'm not. Because it isn't a trivial detail. It was written that a faint greenish light emanated from the potion. Even the cover of HBP captures this quite visibly. Why would they overlook such a conspicuous detail?
• The death eaters were shown entering the castle through the vanishing cabinet, but the members of the Order were noticeably missing, let alone the battle between them.
• Harry was hidden inside the cloak in the tower, he was not concealed under some kind of structure. And Snape never saw him in the book, like he did in the movie.

A few of these may appear to be of no consequence at all. But had it happened in the book just as it happened in the movie, the story would've drifted along a very different path.
All the same, I was very excited to watch this one. And I wouldn't say that it didn't match up to my expectations because it so happens that my expectations of the movies based on books are always as low as Crabbe and Goyle's grades :D Overall, it was good. Totally! I think I might have one more go at the theatre :)
PS: I still wish I'd seen the paid preview yesterday. 16th of July 2005 was when Half Blood Prince got released. It would have been historic to watch it on 16th of July. But for some reason it didn't work out.
PPS: I enjoyed ambling down the road in a slight rain. This is the fourth time in this week when I did that. It is such a beautiful feeling. Chuck the umbrellas, get rid of those clumsy raincoats. Get drenched. Croon a rain song. For monsoon comes only once in a year, and doesn't stay for long. :)

bad,brat whatever.

nayan tarse...nayan tarse...taras na mile...nayan tarse!!
chinky had been pestering me for so long to listen to it,and now that i finally did an hour back,i am so totally captivated by it!! I was captivated by abhay deol in dev d too( who wasn't!). Such characters are fascinating in real life also. I mean..of course everybody wants to be with a decent, aadarsh guy for a lifetime.But, such bad boys are the ultimate fantasy males.They have a dark kind of sex appeal.They're all burly meat shops-ready to be bitten off :P.They are the pampered princes of their money spinner dads without whom the hit-and-run cases would have lost their persistence.They are oh-so-offensive..almost lacerating and rakish to the last drop of their blood with incorrigible habits.They have the most flamboyant lifestyles.Live lives on the fast lane with their posh sports cars, glitzy parties with plenty of booze,drugs and sex- like a raw pig in an ostentatious world.But still such rawness can do wild things to female hormones :p
Oh,only if I could put up with the concept of one night stands,I'd have loved to have a fling with one of them.But boring and banal as I am, with my pro-committment opinions ,I've never had and will never have a proclivity for doing it. Shame!

ps: The child in my is taking a choco-bar break,and a horny twenty year old has come to fill in her place for a while :D. But koi na,she'll be back soon :)