Spent last night watching Q.G. Murugan..one of the best sattires ever..With cool oneliners and unbelievably simple plot..it sure has its moments..Go watch it I say!!
And if you are a member at your local gym, don't miss the steam bath for anything in the world..Awesome :-)

Half Book Prince

Just watched this movie, (made out of a book), "The Kite Runner". Can't help grumbling what a shoddy work the movie is, not even an inch close to one of the most emotional stories I have read so far. There is this particular wedding scene, which is one of my favourite in the book, where in, the main character Aamir, is getting betrothed to Suraiya and, according to Afghan tradition, they look at each other's image in a mirror. Suraiya asks her husband, 'what do you see?', to which Aamir replies, 'The rest of my life'. In the movie, this scene was so tasteless.I wish someone, one day, will bring this beautiful sequence alive on the screen. May be, Divyanshu can give it a try. Ditto with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. They made it a half book prince. Dumbeldore's death is so easy in the movie. But as it is everytime, I loved Emma Watson..

MJ .. where are you?

I and my maid share a peculiar relationship. I don't understand what she says, and she does'nt understand what I say, and yet, we are amicable, dependent. 

One day I asked her, where she came from, and somehow she understood the question. 

Bangladesh, she said. Her daughters live here and they got her to Mumbai, so that she could work as domestic help and earn money to save her ailing husband, who, along with their son, is still in Bangladesh. "Woh dono ricsaw chalata hai"."Aurat log ko wahan kaam nahi karne dete". "Isliye hum yahan ayee". I was already thanking God for all the freedom I enjoy.

Yesterday, she bunked. Today morning, she came, looked dizzy, did some work and requested my room mate to allow her to go. Her husband died yesterday. "Main kal aaon, aapko dikkat tho nahi?". None of us replied.

Throughout the day , I was thinking of her. Tomorrow, I will open the door for her, with a different attitude.

Went to dapoli beach for 2 days and just came back with a wonderful fresh feeling, and a golden brown tan, some good memories and a lingering thought of bunking office on monday.

Thanks to Sharada, Narsimha, Dayanand and company.

Beach was awesome, dolphins, sunset, box cricket and all, along with a funny dumb charades game.I will never forget the scene where Saji asked all girls to leave when Narasimha gave him the film "Itte-faq" to act upon. And then Sharada tried so hard, translated it into coin + dent, hinting at coincindence, Labesh came up with a brilliant "condom".

What was he thinking, a film by that title? And the walk in the middle of night,only by moonlight, when Deven showed his bhoot avatar!  All the Kishore Kumar and Rafi songs we screamed during on our way back...

All you guys rock, absolutely!

In the middle of all this, I listened to a beautiful Bryan Adams unplugged - in concert song.This song has always been my fav, but the violin in the concert version, takes me to a different level.

Listen to this song.."18 till I die..", my prayer!!

The original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl7E2MXSXlY&feature=channel_page

Unplugged:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/5485907/43af52ed/sharing.html

what a saturday !! perfect..12/24 spent sleeping..glorious..i got up at 5 in the evening..with an SMS on my cell phone asking me to go on a search mission. The task was to find the ever elusive, alluring, "Pachchatar lakh ki dakaiti" by "Surendra Pathak". For the lesser armed junta out there, this is a hindi novel by a hindi writer, apparently a major hit in the more hindi speaking parts of India. I was jolted out of sleep when saw the title. I blinked, and blinked,  and then laughed for a full five minutes imagining myself asking the shop keeper to give me "Pachchatar lakh ki dakaiti".

But reality is harsh. I went out from Crosswords to Odesseys to small book shops, but alas, I could'nt find it. One of the guys had an english translation of the same, "Sixty Lakhs Robbery", with a very graphical front cover of a saree clad women, a heavily moustached man and some blood. Picture this.. the original hindi book costs Rs 60 and the english translation costs Rs 120. Double the price, half the fun, quipped my friend.

I was troubled by the disinterest shown by book sellers towards hindi books. When I asked for Hindi section, I was either shown a tattered pile of old books or was directed to some adhyatmic stuff or shown the door. When did Sheldon, Grisham,  replace premchand, chauhan, 'dinkar' ? And I slept all through! The fact remains that I coudn't find the book.

Was listening to Sajjad Lone on NDTV speaking on why he is contesting Indian elections and clarifying(trying to clarify), how it is not a change in ideology but a change in strategy. Hurriyat ideology has always been boycotting Indian elections, boycotting Indian army, so much so that the name Hurriyat to me is synonomous with boycott. A seperate Kashmir, independent of India and Pak, is core to their agenda, although, if you  scratch the surface, a soft corner for Pak would reveal.

Sajjad told us on TV that boycott was not working, violence was not working, and so he decided to represent the people of Kashmir in the Parliament of India. I admire his courage, this guy has put his life at door. I hope the Indian Parliament does justice to his courage.

What I cannot understand is that he claims there is no change in their idea of having a separate Kashmir. Contest "Indian" elections to claim a separate Kashmir from "India"? Does that mean his party will contest elections in Pak too, and voice the same idea? 

What I can understand, is that whether Sajjad admits or not, with Pak becoming a sort of a banana republic, this is the best he could have done. Good luck to you Sajjad!