Rants of a (not so) Single Guy !

Why my wife thinks i am cheating on her

2012-01-22T06:24:00.000-08:00

Since christmas last year the seeds of doubt have been sown in
In 4 years of marriage i have never woken up early morning on weekends and holidays
However in the last few weeks i have been waking up early and slipping away too

It all started in the wee hours of the morning on 26th december 2011 as i carefully slid away from her before sunrise.
She opened one eye and raised her eyebrow quizically asking the silent but angry 2 w question WHAT/WHERE

The distance between the eye and eyebrow was as usual indicative of her anger

I timidly told ... Sleep Sleep Sleep ... I will just be back
She peacefully went to sleep

Of course i was not back for another 6 hrs ...
This continued for few days and then stopped for a while only to resume every alternate week

Little did my wife know that my long term pre-marriage affair is keeping me away
How would i explain this to her ?
Will she accept this and more importantly will she forgive me

Ignoring all these uncomofortable thoughhts i continued my escapades
My wife also stopped askin me any questions
I was aloof and irritable during daytime ....
My nightouts made me sleepy during the day

however the passion for whom i was escaping also did not have the same fire as it used to have before ....
My meetings with my secret affair were shorter and did not have even glimpses of the past highs
We have been through tough times before also but somehow this time it is different

It seems like that this affair is about to end

However for old times sake i will still keep a date one last time

Little does my wife know that on 24th January i will be keeping my date with my 25 year old affair
I know that the relationship with my ex is over and i will be back to my wife in entirety

But still hope is there that there may be a final spark left in the Indian team ....
Go Team India !!!

Which novel are you ? Who cares ?

2009-05-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Having been on atleast 2 social networking sites (FB and orkut) for almost over 4 years i think this blog post is long overdue

I have been consistently for almost over the last 4 years have felt the urge to get online and log into orkut and facebook.
I today just took a step back and thought what do i do on these social networking sites

Its to check out on the profile updates, notifications, whats on your mind, open challenges, pokes, nudges, crushes, slaps, snaps, testimonials, comments on testimonials, albums, comments on albums, comments on comments .... What the fish :)

Enough is enough i dont care whether you jogged 10 km today morning or you are happy because TGIF.
Your day might have sucked but i dont wanna know about it.

Your girl friend might be humping your best friend .... i dont care

You might have googled for a very witty quote but please do not parade it on FB

What you think about IPL does not matter and whether Obama is anti india and pro Pak i do not want to read about it on your Facebook status

If you are back in India people will find your cell number if they wanna call you
If you had x number of pints of beer and after that you puked .... honestly i do not give a damn

Which movie are you or which dress are you, which flower you are how romantic you are or how many kamasutra positions you know is of least interest to me. (Last one mebbe i can get interested)

How well you know your friend quiz, how well you know britney spears, how well you know china, yemen, turkey, cuba, scuba diving, bob sledding, golfing, xboxing, play stationing i dont wanna know the results

Who slapped you at what speed dont change my day

Which airlines you are flying today , what you had for breakfast, what you did before breakfast .... nobody cares

What is your IQ, EQ, Love Q .... Frankly speaking i don't give a FQ

Now let me find out on facebook who am i ? and what is my purpose in life
Enough blogging .... time to get on to social networking !!

SRK mein Rab Dikhta hai .....

2008-12-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Once in a lifetime an actor comes who has the special gift of connecting with the audience
Such an actor does not need to do anything, he just needs to appear on screen and the audience thinks he is one of them. He cries the audience cries, he laughs the audience laughs, he woos his ladylove audience thinks of their own ladyloves. He steals someone else's girlfriend wife, audiences cheer for him
He trains a hockey team for girls, he lights a bulb in the village he drinks and dies to death, whatever he does audiences can’t help but get mesmerized.

Shahrukh is one such actor..... Intellectuals may hate him, Critics may call him an overactor ; coffee table movie enthusiasts may accuse him of being only a smart businessman and not experimental at all
But the truth is that SRK is special and even those who hate him can’t deny that they hate his typecast roles more than SRK the actor himself
If anyone had any doubts about his acting potential they should watch this movie Rab ne Bana Di Jodi
Rab ne Bana Di Jodi is an average entertainer in spite of a strong soulful story with a message from Aditya Chopra
However Shahrukh takes it to another level altogether
His portrayal of Surinder Sahani is peerless ..... It puts him into the rank of topmost actors (and I mean actors not stars India has / had). Earlier Anil Kapoor in Eshwar , Kamal Hassan in multiple attempts, Amol Palekar in Golmal, Raj Kapoor in Anari / Shri 420 have attempted to play a simple boring man but in all these attempts the focus usually shifted to how much humor / laughs can be derived from this derision of the simple man

However SRK’s portrayal has balanced this simplicity with subtle humor marvelously.

In addition to Surinder Sahani his own avtaar of Raj Kapoor is a brilliant take on the Rajs and Rahuls we have seen a million times. SRK now with both Om Shanti Om and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is trying to bury what made him a superstar. I don’t know whether it’s his conscious decision but the audiences are mostly agreeing with him.

The faster he is moving away from the age old Raj / Rahul and the meatier his roles are becoming (Swades,Chak De India) and now Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi; the better his connection with the audiences is becoming

This blog is not a review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, its not also a sudden awakening to SRKs talent and stardom. This is a long due humble acceptance of SRKs special talent and acting skills from an avid Indische movie fan

Me a hardcore Amitabh Bachchan fan ; and somebody who thinks that Naseeruddin Shah's peer is not born in India and will never be; has to humbly accept today that SRK is special in his own way

He has God's gift and probably people see God in him ...
And this is only appropriate as the famous lines from his latest movie say

Tujh mein Rab dikhta hai ... Yaara main kya karoon
Sajde Sir jhukta hai ...... Yaara main kya karoon

Bring on Ghajini let the throne owner be decided once and for all ;)

Back to the Movies ! Back to the 90s

2008-07-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

Anthony Quinn holds the distinction of winning an Academy award for the shortest screen time in a movie. His total screen time in the movie Lust for Life was 9 minutes. There have been few other close runners like Beatrice Straight winning it for Network (10 mins Screen time) , Jane Alexander nominated for All the President's man (12 mins) but surely not many who have captured the attention of critics and audiences alike in a brief span of time
These few have defined / redefined the word "cameo"

Now i have been blabbering about these cameos in hollywood just to put in perspective another aimless mail exchange i was having with a college friend of mine. He out of the blue just mailed me asking what is the single best cameo in the history of indian cinema

And i was prompt (i ususally deliberate when somebody asks my opinion) ; Sunny Deol in Damini i replied. And i was so convinced about this one that i did not want to hear any other name. He told me about Gabbar in Sholay and Pran in Zanzeer. He told me about Rajesh Khanna in Safar and Salman Khan in KKHH. He tried to force the issue with SRK in Army / Shakti or Sunny Deol himself in Border ( PS: i dont agree that was a cameo)

But to my movie flithy mind i could not think beyond the drunken lawyer Govind in Damini. The guy who had a punch which weighed 2.5 kg, a voice which weighed more and eyes which though drooping in liquor were red with anger

A lot of credit needs to go to Rajkumar Santoshi and his team for writing some of the most dramatic lines delivered. Dialogues like

1. Samjhao ise chaddha, aise khilone (knife) kisee bhee bazaar mein mil jaate hain par inhe khelne ke liye jo jigar chahiye woh kisee bazaar mein nahin milta

2. Judge order order karta rahega aur tu pit ta rahega

3. Chillao mat varna case yaheen rafa dafa kar doonga na tareeq na gawah ...

4. Tumne kabhi bacchon ke chidhiyaghar mein sher par patthar maarte dekha hai
Khule maidaan mein sher ka saamne karoge to apne mard hone ki galatfehami door ho jaayegi

However inspite of the great lines, the way the punjab de puttar da puttar essayed that role cannot be captured by these lines. The way he waved his hand to dismiss people, the way he used his voice to deliver the lines, they way he used his eyes more than his voice is something which is inimitable. Also how we managed to ensure that even with over the top dialogues, the acting seemed real ensured that he earned a national award for a role which was less than 30 minutes

I still remember that in some of the movie theaters in Delhi people used to stand outside the theatre to just hear the lines (it was not the multiplex era)

Tareeq par Tareeq Tareeq par Tareeq echoed through the theatre walls into the streets

All in all Sunny Deol a very limited actor in terms of talent and verstality just got the role of his lifetime and fitted it to a Tee.

Bollywood is known either for its star guest apperances or item numbers but here it was a cameo which Sunny Deol did in Damini for which he will be remembered for. Not to undermine Ghayal where he played the lead and again won a national award, Damini is and will remain Sunny's best performance

With Khans hogging all the limelight these days, a Roshan Akbar dancing with Jodha, a waiter giggling his way to box office success and some star kid boys showing their feminine butt .... we long for a Sunny Deol kind of performance because jab Sunny click karta hai to box office chalta nahin hit ho jaata hai

FYR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Br-qhNo0wo

Being (not so) Single

2008-05-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

Have you imagined how is it to sleep with flowers constantly piercing your bum ? And how thorns in the flowers just make that bum more sore than it already is.....
That is exactly what being not single (married) teaches you and i learnt it on the first day (rather night) when my singledom ceased to exist.

I would really like to meet the person whose bright idea it was that beds of newly wed couples should be adorned with flowers and not just flowers ... its lot of flowers like flowers in long strands hanging from the roof, then flowers on the bed, flowers on the floor as one walks into the room ....The guy who thought all this must have been one jackass .... thank good they did not put any flowers in the attached loo

Before you fully understand my cribbing about the flowers , you need to have a bit of an understanding about north indian weddings .... They are long (when i say long i mean it) affairs lasting for 3-4 days and it involves like a million rituals. Apart from the rituals which range from bathing you in oil to getting beaten by a wooden stick , from your damn slippers being stolen to yellow stuff tainting ur palms. And to top it all up when the groom and the bride are involved in these rituals there are a zillion people who keep dancing, drinking and making merry around you. Till date i haven't understood what they are so happy about. I am sure they are just happy that its not them who is suffering and they sure do make it a point to celebrate it wildly with dancing n drinking

Besides the situation of the groom is even worse. He can see like an army of beautiful single girls around during the days of wedding function. Its like suddenly out of no where every single girl is beautiful and every beautiful girl is single. To him even the daughter of the home maid, the lady cook, the female vegetable seller all look like britney spears. He is constantly trying to cling on to his singledom but there is no backing away now.

The wedding night is unforgettable .... There is camera guy who is constantly on the move. He ensures that the oddest of moments are surely captured on video and still both. Few examples like slippers coming off while boarding the horse, groom and bride in mid air when the varmala is happening, the couple dozing off when the pandit is reciting mantras, groom and bride stealthily trying to hog food..... In addition to this the camera guy takes on the responsibility of capturing the initimate moments, poses and expressions of the couple right there on the stage .... I sincerly propose that shiv sainiks or censor board should take care of these camera guys, they want obscenity right there on the stage.... If its left to the camera guy i am sure he would want the couple to have the first night celebrated on the stage itself and captured on video
Fortunately we dodged the camera guy to the best of our availability

Having faced all these rituals bravely it all ends up with "vidaai" early morning with drooping eyes and then also its not easy .... The brides folks make it a point that they wont let you leave happily .... Crying n wailing in its full glory starts..... I told my mom in law if you are so unhappy why don't you keep your daughter here , i will regularly come to meet her ..... she did not like the idea so the bride was forcefully thrust into the car and sent away with me

And then at home again tiresome rituals for a whole day ... i was expecting that now the first night would be there but SURPRISE .... someone told that Saturday is not an auspicious day and also flower shops are out of stock so we have to wait till Sunday

Sunday the first night came and so did the flood of flowers in my room .... I was too tired after 4 days of rituals, dancing , talking and more rituals ... And the last thing i wanted were flowers n thorns on my bum as i slept but i realized that night this is how being (not so) single is .....

More to come .....

Taare Zameen Par : Must Watch ....

2007-12-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

When the camera chases a drop of white paint falling 10 floors

When the 70mm screen is occupied by a red speck of paint in which the yellow color is trying to mix

When the opening credits are lift offs from a 8 year olds drawing book and clay modeled shapes

When the scriptwriter goes into intricate details to explain to you how 3X9 can be 3

And When the whole movie belongs to a kid you know that this one is a special movie from a special director

Yeah i am talking about Taare Zameen Par Aamir Khan's directorial debut. Without getting into the review mode i think i shud just mention the impact it created in the theatre. I watched this movie in a multiplex in Bangalore with a mix of youngsters, dating couples, married couples, kids, IT junta and middle aged folks. Each and everyone of them in the movie theater was spellbound as the movie rolled. There were moist eyes around and people rendered silent at the end of the movie. Some clapped, some gave standing ovation and some simply indulged in catcalls and whistles but the verdict was clear TZP is the best movie to hit the screen this year and is an amazing followup from Aamir to RDB. I will discount the Fannaa which i think even Aamir should bury somewhere

Rerun of Trailers on TV don't do any justice to the quality of songs in this movie. Prasoon Joshi is top notch with the lyrics and Shankar,Ehsaan,Loy's music is exceptional which you somehow realize only in the movie theatre

Go ahead do yourself a favor and watch Taare Zameen Par. Comparisions with BLACK are odious though both are different type of movies but i have to say for me TZP scores over BLACK.

Aamir khan has shown that the simple things in life can be told simply and there is no huge canvas needed to paint the colors of life

An Ode to Jerks

2007-09-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This blog entry is not meant to be read by females or by guys with feminine sensibilities. Please read at your own peril

This one is for all you jerks out there whom i have met and been with in school, college and professional life. This is my humble tribute to all you guys.......

The fundamental trait which i think defines any jerk is the ability to infuse pervertness in any simple situation in life.
Just the look on their face when they see a girl is a give away. They look at girls' legs as they are chicken legs to smother, they monitor the gait of any girl as they walk, oohs and aahs and whistles flow involunatarily from their lips, they elbow their friends and say "Dekh Maal jaa raha hai". With any girl in viewing vicinity they will scan them top to bottom, front to back and then in reverse back to front, bottom to top and then with a twisted lip give a smile as if they are the cool dude arnd and with their stare only they have won the girls' heart

And mind you they dont call them "girls", thats too simple, there is a huge vocab around it and the distinct diction with which the word is thrown at you conveys the hotness of the girl . For instance --> "Kyaaaaaaaa Maal thaaa be" or "Bomb Pataka Cheez hai" or "Item thee baap" or "Tabhayee thee bhai" and on and on. Also everything is a maal like gora maal, sanwla maal, chota maal, mota maal, bomb maal, dhamaal maal and so on

These jerks are always shrewd and smart. While travelling by train they will scan the reservation charts of how many females are travelling in their coupe and their age so they can plan their moves, in the boarding queue for airplanes they will jump people to see if there is any chance to be seated next to a single girl. The jerks are very helpful by nature also, they will ensure that if your school/college is over they will follow you till home to ensure your safety, if you wave to stop an auto they will stop their bike and ask you "Chodh de ghar " (Shall leave you home?) and they will be persistent till you insist on calling cops

Pastime of these jerks are also very constructive, In movies their core area is porn in literature penthouse is their favorite series, magazine playboy and debonair are really informative according to them.
Even when they watch TV they watch it for the girls. I dont know why all female contestants in those reality shows like indian idol loose with a billion jerks rooting for them, probably the jerks dont care to SMS. But yeah dont mess with a jerk when it comes to his knowledge about porn n stuff, he is "educated" period

However all said and done i have noticed one thing that their is a jerk in every single male that exists, so if you girls out there think that my father, my brother, my boy friend, my husband is not a jerk ..... take a step back fundamentally all of us guys are jerks on some level and that is what keeps us going ... and when these jerks find someone to tame them then only they change ....

So this one is for all you jerks out their waiting for someone to change you ...

Life in a Metro ... Worth a Watch

2007-05-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 2007 i have again resorted to movies as my best friends. I am watching 2 movies in theatres every weekend
I am downloading 10 movies a week and gobbling them up faster than i can download them. I am seeing Kubrick, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, Guy Ritchie, Roberto Benigni, Alejandro Gonzalez. You name it i got it

I have been foolish enough to see some Siddharth Ananads of the world as fillers .... I have throughly enjoyed Vinay Pathak in the indian adaptation of Dîner de cons, Le. I have managed to just about like Spiderman inspite of him crying, mind you if he shedded even a single more tear i would have joined the
bandwagon of people who are accusing Sam Raimi of robbing us of our friendly neighbourhood superhero .....

With this being my current mindset and multiple movie genres floating in my mind i walked into the theatre to see this new creation from Anurag Basu Life in
a metro .....

The movie starts on a sombre note with rain beating down and introducing us to the characters and you get the inkling in the first 15 minutes that this is an above average Hindi Movie .... where the guy doesnt smile and wave to his wife while doing sports car racing ....

Back to this movie metro, yeah I can not resist to start with the guy whom i am sure every single guy/girl who watches this movie will love. This is a 38 year old bachelor played by Irfan.

This is a guy who browses through shaadi.com to find prospective brides and when he goes to meet them for coffee he can't help but stare at their clevage. Only to his surprise later in the movie he finds out that one such girl (Konkona Sen) who rejects him for this stark pervertness of his, is the one who falls in love with him. Irfaan's

character is full of all hues and shades. His character also silently dreams that he will leave his smoking and drinking when there is a girl in his life.
His charcter has that lovable quality who though himself a loser in life wants to uplift his friend Konkona Sen to let out her anger agains the society.

Yeah next Konokona Sen, She plays Irfaan's love interest in the movie. She is just like Irfaan. She is a 30 year old single virgin. She is desperately looking for a guy. When she browses through magazines she stops on the pages which shows well built guys in their briefs... She is sex starved but at the same time she is looking for a life partner who is senstive, reads books, is funny and respects her as a woman. She starts dating a guy at work but ironically she finds out the guy she is dating at work is gay. She is back to singledom and she finds a friend in Irfan, the same guy who can't help but focus on buxoms. Chemistry between Irfan and Konkona is sparkling..... Its not like the chemistry you would expect from a SRK-Kajol or Saif-Rani flick. This is much more special .... and kudos to Anurag to create something like that on screen ....

Irfan and Konkona though do not form the core of the film. The core revolves around the story of a high profile executive played by Kay Kay and two of his staff members played by Kangana Ranaut and Sharman Joshi.
Kangana is a girl who has been deserted by her father and later in her life by her BF. She has found solace in Kay Kay her married boss. Kay Kay himself is trying to find youth and fun in this relationship as his marriage with Shilpa Shetty is on the ropes where they have stopped even sleeping with each other ...
Sharman the other ambitious guy at work likes Kangana but Sharman wants to move ahead in life fast. In order to please his bosses he is nice enough to give them his apartment for use where they can bring girls and have fun....
Only to his shock he realizes that his boss Kay Kay brings in Kangana to his flat

Their are other tracks too, Shilpa dissatisfied with her married life getting distracted by Mr Shiney Ahuja.Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali track which the director could have totally done away with maybe he wanted to pull in the elderly audiences or mebbe he just wanted to pay tribute to RGV for Nishabd....

Emotions and equations change quickly in this movie but the changes are subtle and deftly done crisp editing (at least before intermission)
Scenes where Sharman finds out that Kangana is sleeping with Kay Kay, Shilpa Shetty recieves the SMS from Kangana meant for Kay Kay,Shiney Ahuja and Shilpa almost "doing it".... have been done perfectly with no overdose of melodrama

Actors are the pillars of this movie. Irfan, Kay Kay, Shilpa, Konkona, Sharman all are in top form. Irfaan bursting into tears on his wedding eve telling what will he do if his future wife refuses him to see Konkona. Kay Kaya and Shilpa's altercations, Shiney's act while he is doing a Stage Play, Sharmans tragic smiles and carefully toned one liners are some of the many instances which will catch your attention as a viewer

Still the leader of the pack is Irfan, the movie surely belongs to him..... In a short but difficult role he has essayed almost all emotions despair, hope, fun, comedy, romance and tragedy with flawless ease. Of course he is not his usual intense self ... Intenseness in the movie is reserved for Kay Kay who has done an exceptional job himself but after watching this movie i just realized that Irfaan is the real star and Kay Kay though good is too uni-dimensional to be counted in Irfan's league .

Konkona Sen is exceptional......... Shilpa Shetty has portrayed the anguish of doormat-housewife perfectly. Sharman's one liners in the movie are awesome. He steals the show when he in a low voice mouths those dialogues. Underplaying at its very best. Kangana has looked slick and up market. She has played the office slut to perfection only to realize later that even sluts can have emotions ....

Shiney has been underused but he has done well in the scenes where he is..... Even Manoj Pahwa, Sharman neighnour, is adequate

All in all a movie which i would say is worth watching just for irfan, sharman and kay kay.....
Anurag has done a great job in the first half to keep you hooked onto all the characters. Second half is a little bit of undoing of the movie.
He has ended stories abruptly and things like old Dharmendra planning a bike escape for Nafisa look a little tasteless ...

But one thing is for sure that guys like Anurag Basu definitely need more recognition than Siddharth Anands, Shaad Alis or for that matter Karan Johars of the world ....

Movie could have definitely been better, it promised more than it delivered ....
However still go and watch this movie for Irfaan ....
When he unabashedly stares at Konkona's buxom and on being reprimanded by her tries to reason it out with her what is wrong in it you will have your money's worth .....

Lets fall in Love ....... Again ......

2007-04-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Just the other day one of my friends popped the question to another one of my friends over a mundane stale without taste cup of tea
By the way these two friends of mine are not each other's best friends .... but lets not digress from the topic, the question that was asked was that "Have u ever been in love?"
Before my other friend could answer the talkative devil in me woke up and i backfired a question to the questioner "Dude first define love?" and again before he could answer I only started telling my friend that there is nothing like love that exists its all about being practical
Other than parents' love for their kids everything else is just being practical
We love people because they make us feel better about ourselves
Man/Woman by nature is a selfish creature. We just care for ourselves and our well being. The concept of giving is fundamentally alien to us humans. They tend to give only to make themselves feel better or to end up in heaven for their good deeds or to win over someone's love/confidence and sadly at times to get people to sleep with them

When i talked like that i was surprised at my own words, a young guy like me who 4-5 years used to be too mushy that many of his guy friends teased him coz he loved movies like DDLJ. A guy who believed that love and even true love exists has somehow been so terribly drained of emotions that he is talking of all relationships as being only practical. He is so hardened that he has refuted the existence of the concept called love, he doesnt want to believe that there can be 2 people who have feelings for each other and he thinks that each relationship is just a deal between two people

This self realization of me looking at life as only practical and not emotional kinda hit me and i immediately decided to take a step back
Though its tough i still want to bring alive in me the guy of 4 years old who believed in love
who believed that if you are vulnerable and senstive enough you have the ability to love someone and be loved back
who believed that there are things beyond practicality in life
who believed that there is someone there for everyone and sometimes there are more than one for the lucky few :)

So this post is to all my friends guys/gals who have started believeing or are on the verge of starting believeing that love doesnt exist
Just take a step back think again and yeah lets try to fall in love even if it means starting all over again .....
If not anything just help Cupid find your soulmate ....

28th Winter of my bachelor life ...

2006-11-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

As I sit alone on the 9941th afternoon of my well preserved sacred and pure bachleorhood the same old question has popped up yet again Why everyone should get married? (at least once)
I think the commencing of the wedding season and people getting engaged/married left right and center has also worked as a trigger for this blog.
No less but 8 of my close male friends are getting married this winter. I was talking to one of them who is marrying his steady girl friend. He was cribbing to me that he is going to loose his freedom after marriage. I asked him then why are you getting married if it comes at the cost of freedom. He gave the obvious answer, "Reshu losing a little bit of freedom is also worth it and Reshu you will realize it only when you get married". Being the natural jerk i am, I just tried to get rational with him. I asked him that lets quantify the pros and cons of marriage. Microsoft Excel was pulled out and detailed analysis was done. With repeated iterations the finalized excel that came out is being published here. Not sure how interesting it is but its a fun read

Pros	Cons
1. U will never be alone	1. U will never be alone :(
2. U have one person whom you will love for the rest of your life	2. U have ONLY one person whom you will have to love for the rest of your life:((
3. All the money you earn will be put to some use	3. All the money you earn will be put to some (one else's) use :(
4. You can watch the DDLJs and KKHHs of the world hand in hand with your beloved	4. No more Martin Scorsese, Tarantino, Clint EastWood and tons of other R rated stuff you guys know what i mean ;)
5. You will never need to hit on anyone or flirt with anyone	5. The moment you even in your sub-sub conscious mind think of hitting on anyone you will be duly and truely hit with anything ranging from a pillow to the living room lamp
6. You will get to socialize a lot as a couple	6. Jes that socializing will no longer mean night out with friends with a jeep loaded with crates of beer and howling and catcalling any chicks that dare to come withing 500m of the jeep
7. You will have fone contacts like Beloved Home No, Beloved Office No,Beloved Home before Marriage No,Beloved Mobile No	7. You will no longer have fone contacts like Ina, Mina, Tina, Reena, Sheena,Hasina, Ka..na
8. You get to visit places where no man has gone before Manicure stations, Nailpolish sales,Bebe's showrooms and De'beers Diamonds	8. No more visits to Sony Showrooms, Apple Outlets and SEGA Gaming centers and yes no more visits to the DVD Store round the street corner

I asked my friend to wait till i can think of a 10th one but he was in no mood to listen anymore. He was already having second thoughts about his marriage. I hope he still goes with it Coz i still maintain that everyone should married (at least once). If not for anything then jes to know the difference

Why Hum Tum is Spl?

2006-07-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Scene 1: A cute guy with shabby hair is cracking jokes at the wedding of a beautiful girl and then the groom enters tall dark and handsome. As the ceremonies of the wedding progress slowly; the voices of the cute guy and beautiful girl fighting in the past echo in the background "Humaree Koi Story nahin hai bus The End hai The End". The guy manages a fake smile with the thought "What could have been?" written all over his face

Scene 2: Cute guy knocks the door of the beautiful girl late after midnight and asks her for food. Beautiful girl makes sandwiches for the cute guy. Cute guy starts blabbering something about arranged marriages. Beautiful girl is not intrested. Cute guy pesters her. They start talking about how each one of them would behave after their respecitve marriages. Conversation ensues and culminates into cute guy holding beautiful girl's face in his hands and both realizing that the conversation digressed into a lane where neither wanted it to go.

Scene 3: The same cute guy does not have any shabby hair now, he is a good friend of the beautiful girl (whose a widow now). The cute guy who is btw also more sensible now tries to fix a match between the beautfiul girl and another guy. The beautiful girl gets to know about it and somehow she gets pissed off( She actually loves the cute guy). Both of them fight. Cute guy departs and then sits in a corner wine shop crying a lot as he thinks "What he did wrong?"

All the above scenes and many more form a part of the ephemeral screenplay of the movie Hum Tum which spans the life of a couple over a period of a decade. The moments cling on to you and linger long after you have watched the movie. Everybody who has ever fallen in even "half-a-love" will find some part of the movie intresting

The movie's theme is simple that sometimes love doesn´t happen at first sight. Sometimes it grows over time between two people. There are few movies which have a soul, Hum Tum is one of them. Hum Tum (no matter how jaded you are) makes you feel like falling in love all over again. The film is not the usual guy meets gal story, The difference here is that there are no formulas, No love triangles, no winning over family members, no college masti; this film is a mature and more realistic look at love.

The film takes a look at 9 years of our two lead protagonists, Rhea (Rani Mukherji) and Karan (A peppy, loveable and confident Saif). They meet on their way to New York from Delhi, where playboy Karan tries to woo Rhea from the get go. Straight from the first meeting it´s obvious that these two would never be able to endure a realtionship together, but never say never. The couple parts after an eventful stop over in Amsterdam, and they continue to meet over the course of the next 9 years. Each meeting is completely different from the last. In New York Rhea catches Karan up to his old playboy ways, then in Delhi he´s organizing her wedding, and then to Paris where a chance encounter rekindles an old flame.

Their initial meetings are light hearted and fun, however once they meet in Paris (and there after) the interactions get a tad more serious as Karan tries to help Rhea through hard times. All the while you can see the characters growing and maturing with each meeting. The character developmet is subtle and gradual. The meetings are intertwined with animated sequences where Karan´s comic strip charatcers, Hum Tum, are fighting the greatest battle of all, the battle of the sexes. In essence it´s like having a narrarator, but this method is much more effective. . Dialouges ensure that the meetings stay entertaining, and give us insight into the characters. Jatin Lalit´s score is catchy and Lyrics are not Gulzaresque but which anyone can relate to.

Hum Tum is about Guys vs Gals. Hum Tum is about beautiful locales and beautiful songs. Hum Tum is about one liners and punch lines. Hum Tum is about having fun. Hum Tum is about the sweet feeling of falling in love and feeling of being loved and last but not the least Hum Tum is about friendship.

Its only sad that i saw this movie with one of my guy friends by the name of Sumit:), i believe it was sadder for him :)But believe me the movie has the ability to entertain you irrespective of who is sitting on the seat next to you. Do See it !! If you have seen already see it again.....

Of Pinjars, Kaliman, Rasool, Tans and LA

2006-06-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

To be honest i was not Quote Excited Excited Unquote about the LA trip right from the word go but i knew that it could be intresting based on the motley crowd we have managed to gather. And as you spend your precious time reading this blog you will agree with me that it was more than plain intresting. It was adventrous, it was fun and it was dangerous for some.....
There were characters from every nook and corner of india and each one had a part to play and oh boy did they play it well or not.So today on a lazy sunday I thought, before the memories of the trip fade it would only be appropriate that i capture it somewhere. And I am sorry i will have to use real names at places (can't help :()So here we go
The trip started on a high note with a guest star dropping us to the nearest train station as we were getting late. And then another guest star who would sadly be with us only from airport to airport :(. But yeah the departure of the guest stars was duly compensated by the arrival of 2 part time extras Pinjar and Rasool as soon as we descended in LA. They were ready, they were waiting and they were on the move as soon as we arrived. Pat our friend n driver was in no mood to rest after a 5 hr flight. He said give me a car and you guys will be in San Diego before the blink of an eye and believe me he kept his promise. Car was just streaming across at the speed of knots. We only wasted like 30 mins on the way to feed the people "Who eat a lot". By this time a new bond was forming between a damsel and the underdog superhero Kaliman (we will discuss this later)
So the people "ate a lot" and then the Pinjars and the Pats of the world drove us safely to our hotel in San Diego. Now let me tell you about this hotel, i dont know how Madam Yamz managed to book some of the best hotels at some of the cheapest prices but this hotel was cool just facing it was a bay or something with mini liners lined up and when we started in the morning there was a mandatory foto session (did i tell u there were like 4 ladies on the trip and each one will have like a trillion snaps each taken over the course of next 3 days)After the foto session we headed straight to this place called sea world to see fish n stuff. It was kinda boring i mean those nice fishes and lobsters are meant to be eaten and not for doing circus like antics in the water:)
Some rides, some sea creatures some fishes Lots of Snaps and 5 hours were gone. As we dragged our exhausted bodies out of sea world, the spirits were still soaring high, so ocean beach was the next destination and it was pictureseque. More snaps were taken. And here kaliman seized his first opportunity , a snap of his blooming love was captured (Get in touch with me for the snaps). This was not been taken lightly by a man called Rasool who though looks harmless was harbouring revenge in his heart. Evening was dedicated to San Diego downtown and Indian food there. Excellent food was hogged by all. People "who eat a lot" were happy again
Pats and Pinjars were on the move again. LA arrived before we cud realize. Madam Yamz planning with the hotel had a small jerk. The hotel guy ditched us, though temporarily but Madam Yamz made that poor guy pay for his mistake with a lavish breakfast in the morning where we wasted more than we tasted.This day was meant for watersports, for beaches and for the battle of love. JetSki was planned for at Marion Del Ray Bay in LA. After much ado the Jet Skis were out of the stands and into the water and Rasool was happy giving the sherrifs of the water a run for their money. All the efforts of the Tans to calm down Rasool were in vain. Rasool had venegance on his mind that day. He was gonna have his revenge from Kaliman. Pinjar silently watched as this Water War was unveiling itself. Let me just tell u the facts. A guy called Rash unloaded the damsel on to the coast and Rasool was quick to pounce on her. In a jiffy he was up up n away into the oceans. Kaliman though, enjoying his Jet Ski with another damsel Joey, was quick to spot Rasool from the corner of his eye. He was faster than light in reaching the coast and unloading Joey. Before Rasool could know, Kaliman was on the chase. Rasool was to be captured and destroyed at all costs. The damsel had to be rescued. Kaliman had the last say. It was the victory of good over evil. Sanctity of love was preserved. The Damsel was in a state of semi-shock for like 2 hrs after this
Evening that day was spent in searching for that elusive Hollywood sign and yeah we found it at 2:00 AM in the morning, our partners were slightly early like 10:00 PM in the night. Tired we reached the hotel and dropped like a log onto our beds
Day 3; Madam Yamz excused herself on this day and the lost Rasool with his buddy Pinjar decided to fade into oblivion. He realised he needed more powers to counter Kaliman's invinicibility. Kaliman though was silently enjoying his victory along with the damsel. This day was dedicated to DisneyLand. We started with the plan of covering one Theme Park. But Rash who is generally Rash in anything he does, quickly assessed the situation and decided that both Disney's theme parks were to be covered.
The time was less, rides too many but the mission had to be completed. So we were on the button right from the word go. Ride after ride was tried and tested.Tans managed to drag even Joey onto some of them. Some nice 4D shows were also covered as we hopped from park to park. Kaliman found time to click some beautiful snaps in the middle of all the rides.
The day was over before we realized. Forgot to mention that the Tans managed to scare some penguins into submission and take some snaps with them. Snaps had Tans all smiles and the poor Penguins all scared :(. Pat hit the road again. One Last shot and the trip will end. The final mundane tasks of returning the car and stuff were done. Tired but fullfilled we dragged our luggage to the airport. I could hear mumbling here and there that the trip was too short, if only it lasted a day more. This was indication to me that people had a lil bit of good time if not lots.But all this was just the calm before the storm, the climax was building up. Guest Star added to the excitement by arriving just 17 mins before boarding time.We were cruising through the security checks and then BOOOM a weapon was unearthed in the damsel's luggage. Sirens started wailing, cops started converging and the damsel was quarantined. Questions were pouring from everywhere. She thought fast, husbands were identified in a jiffy, excuses fabricated and finally the cops were convinced that the weapon was for bread n jam and not to slit someone's throat.
Everything was settled we boarded and took off with a thousand memories that will cling on for a while, till we make another trip like this one.Thanks to all those who starred in this one....

Smart Girls

2006-05-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This blog is triggered by my conversation with one of my male friends about girls being DUMB

I am pretty sure that all my male friends are gonna kill me for this one. All guys (whom i have known) believe that the term "Smart Girl" is an oxymoron. Even i believed that for long time that girls are dumb however slowly and steadily i have realized that they are smart infact smarter than guys.

1. Guys are extremely foolish to feed girls with regular ego boosters. Any average girl by the time she is 25 has seen all kinda guys swoon over her. This boosts her self belief so much that she is confident enough to face any guy. On the other hand i know many poor guys who struggle through their entire youth ogling at girls from a distance and then somehow muster courage to propose to mebbe one of them only to be promptly rejected. This PROPOSING is one game with only one LOSER and that is guys (Some guys do win i know, we are talking about %ages here)

2. Gender Equality: The most loosely used term. Girls are extremely smart to bend this one at will. They can go to Night Clubs at will but they need an escort back home. They have endless energy when it comes to window shopping but they get tired when it comes to walkover and submit the water bill. They have all the dexterity and technology awareness to handle beauty gadgets but ask them to put a nail on the wall and ..... u know

3. Guys are dumb enough to confuse "BEING USED" with "BEING NEEDED"
I think i don't need to elaborate on this one. How many times everyone of us have seen guys rushing to submit college forms of girls, getting study notes photocopied for them, coding for them. I sincerly wish there is some day when the roles reverse or atleast guys realize the difference between "BEING USED" with "BEING NEEDED"

4. Girls can act dumb -> After i discovered that girls are not dumb but they are as smart as it gets i noticed another thing that girls can act dumb at will. This is a quality i think they as a species have honed over the years. The act dumb n helpless based on convenience. This is one quality each guy should learn. Guys will always be too eager to show their smartness ending up getting fooled.

This article is dedicated to all the Smart Girls i have known so far. Hope they will appreciate it

Middle Class mentality... What is it?

2006-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

I think irrespective of which class we belong to we would have heard this term "Middle Class mentality" for sure. This post will just try to discuss what elements i think constitiutes middle class mentality. This is just my personal opinion and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Element 1:
"Academics shouldn't be sacrificed at the cost of anything."
I am not saying that focus on curricular and extra curricular activities is not there.
But nothing at the cost of academics. You may counter argue this saying that almost the entire Indian cricket team is from middle class, but i think you yourself will realise that for every Sachin Tendulkar who is Std XIth failed there are atleast 4 cricketers who are qualified engineers.
All other talents (if you have any) can only be pursued till the extent that they don't effect your studies. And i am forced to think like this now when i see people around me who can play the keyboard are typing on the keyboard ; people who can shatter windows with their sixes use windows to write code and the bottomline is they are not happy doing it either. Mebbe just mebbe if they followed their passions ......

Element 2:
There is a time for everything
We(middle class) have always been told that their is a time for everything. When we were in school we were told its time to study, when we got into college we were told its time to shape your career. After college time to find a good job. Once in job for 2-3 years( 1-2 years for girls) time to get married. I ask why is there a time for everything and why does that time apply to all individuals.
I wanted to get married at 18 :):) not now. I think one should be allowed to do whatever one wants to do whenever one wants to do atleast once after he/she becomes an adult.

Element 3:
Living life by comparision
My mom's brothers daughter is studying in Stanford, USA and my dad's sister's son is working in Microsoft and me i am just a humble software engineer in Infosys, Bangalore. I have heard this comparision endless number of times. Comparision with our relatives and friends make a part of our life at every stage whether we admit it or not.
I wish middle class will some day understand Better Life doesn't mean being better than others.

Element 4:
Marriage is sacred at all costs
Divorce is not a solution at all as far as the middle class is concerned. Even the most rational souls are not willing to accept the possiblity that two absolutely wonderful people individually, couldnt result in a wonderful couple. I mean why has there to be a stigma attached to a divorced person. Why should divorce mean that either one of the two ppl was at fault.
I mean why is not divorce considered an amicable solution to a problem.
I think couples spending their lives together not loving(in some cases hating) each other are no better off than ppl who get divorced.

There are more such elements but i am just too bored to write any. I think if you belong to middle class u will identify with all of these.
A good exercise here would be to blank your mind and read only the elements in bold and not my arguments. I will bet that you will at some level agree with the elements if not my arguments.

Vanity - Tough one to get rid of

2005-11-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

The dictionary defines vanity as below
Vanity: inflated pride in oneself
Obsession with one's appearance/personality

For the first time in my life i have been forced to enter the gymnasium. I have resisted it for 26 years but now this bulging belly of mine has forced the sluggish me also to go through the amazingly mundane ordeal of running on a tread mill.

Yesterday while running on it i was thinking if on Day 1 in the gymnasium, everyone is told that no matter what you do you are not going to look any better, only thing you gain is that you are going to be healthy. I bet 70% of the people will quit.
The only motivation is to look better

Its that obsession with having skateboard abs and bulging muscles that drives people to exercising.
And its not just exercise, I have seen people obsessed with appearance, clothes, accessories etc etc.
I mean I know that clothes add to your personality and they leave an impression on the other person.
But I mean why this obsession, there is more to each one of us than just the way we look or dress up.

How many of us try to spend time to make us a better person?
How many of us spend time in introspection and soul searching?
How many of us spend time to think what wrong we did or how we hurt other people so as not to repeat that?

But give us a chance to shop for clothes and we will spend an entire weekend doing that and we will take pride in the number of hours we spent in the gymnasium.

I have used words "we" and "us" through out the article just to ensure that the reader knows I am one of the brigade
I am vain but not in the ways mentioned above.
My vanity lies in different things like
a) Thinking that i am a wisecrack.
b) Thinking that i know about certain things more than others
c) Thinking that i can do certain things better than others

And each one of us in their own way have their vain points (made to rhyme deliberately with pain points).

At the end of the day I would like to be someone who is totally deprived of vanity. I would like to have pride in the fact that there is nothing I am proud about.

But then I think its vanity which drives us also.
It constantly urges us to be better than others.

The trick here is in striking the balance, constantly trying to be better in whichever way you want to be without feeling proud about it.

Enough of a lecture this one, hope that the next blog is a bit of fun:)

Things i was able to do in UK and not in US

2005-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Rest assured its going to be a boring one sided argumentative discussion from a highly opinionated blogger like me.

Let me not beat about the bush and get straight to the point.
1. Commuting
" I took the underground to the office today and met a couple of my colleagues there. We chatted about Prince Charles second wedding and wayne rooneys sensational performance in the premier league and that beckham guy he is getting too big for his shoes, he cheated on his girlfriend mate"

A common day to day conversation you can hear in the london underground tube. People just love the undergorund there and not just the underground but the buses and the trams. Even the cabs are fun. There is nothing like picking up a cab from the middle of the road. I mean its boring to call up a cab methodically on the fone as one has to do in the US.

Public Transportation in UK is extremely efficient and it gives you a chance to interact with people.

I think having cars for commuting in US is just an extension of the mentality here among people, which goes as my life, my apartment , my car. Its me. They just dont want to open up. They are scared of other people. They want to maintain a distance.

I mean you will tell me about the subway in NY and the bay area train connectivity but believe me its sparse and not well maintained. And the people who use it are who can't afford cars.
In UK I had seen people with a Ferrari sports car use the underground 3 days a week and mentioning to me that i do so to save the fuel. The actual reason he wants to catch up with his friends in the morning

2. Culture - When it comes to Gothic Architecture, Museusms , Castles the modern era meets the medieveal one UK is the place to be and london more so. The only culture that i have so far found in US is friday night lets go to a night club. I mean i may be slightly biased here. I have heard people say that Boston is good and there are places of historical interest in NY but too few

3. Tomato and Herb Pasta - I didnt get it in US:(:(. I had it almost everyday in London.

4. I dont get a free newspaper(i dont know whether u can call sleazy gossip as news) like the Metro here in the US read. Anything free i get to read is just full of advertisements

5. I don't get to see a truly mixed ethnicity here. I am sure i met and at some level got acquainted with people of the following nationalities during a period of 9 months
1. New Zealand
2. Australia
3. South Africa
4. England of course
5. Scotland
6. Pakistan
7. Indians in London
8. Bangladeshi
9. French
10. Italian

I have been roughly the same time in US now i dont know anyone else other than indians or a few Americans mebbe

Of Love stories and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge

2005-08-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Before i proclaim one of these movies to be the greatest romantic movie ever made in Hindi Cinema, let me mention the ones which were in contention but somehow do not have that universal appeal or repeat value to be the number one movie

1. Mughal- E - Azam - The romance in the movie was very subtle, the dialogues flawless, settings enormous, performances towering. The impact of the movie when you see it can not be explained in words, however the bottomline is that it was/is tough for the average indian middle class person to relate to that kind of romance. An indian girl can't imagine herself to be Anarkali and a guy himself to be Salim.

2. Ek Duje Ke liye - The love story with a different climax. The movie where lovers who couldn't unite in life find love in death. Excellent execution of a simple story and the chemistry between Kamal Hasan and Rati Agnihotri is for their for everyone to see. However the movie was an average budget movie with some pretty ordianry supporting cast and actors. The lead pair and the director did an excellent job but the movie was just not big enough to be counted as the best ever in hindi cinema

3. Maine Pyar Kiya - Sooraj Barjataya brand of film making to the core. That genre of film-making makes all of us feel nauseatic these days.(Remember Hum Saath Saath hain and Main prem ke diwani hoon). However Maine Pyar Kiya was different. The movie was launched post QSQT and had two new faces Salman Khan (seen in Biwi ho to Aise before that) and Bhagyashree. Those two generated unprecedented excitement in the youth at that time. I can still remember one of my friends in school who watched Main Pyar Kiya 25+ times just to keep ogling at Bhagayshree. Salman Khan posters adorned bedrooms of all young girls. Archies was out with " Friend" cap and schools the only line you could hear was "Dosti kee hai nibhani to padegi". The euphria was tremendous however when i see that movie now 15 years later the movie and situations look a lot cliche. It still is right up there amongst the top love stories ever made but not the number 1

And finally my vote for the all time greatest romantic movie goes to DDLJ. Sure, it's a romance, (what is new we have seen that). And we've seen enough candyfloss 'boy flips for bride-to-be after it's too late to cancel the wedding caterers' movies.
What made this movie different was for once, an ultra urbane couple, Raj and Simran both bought up in london decide to get married only if their parents allow them to. There was nothing like we will commit sucide if we dont get married or we will run away from our homes and blah blah blah too much melodrama.

Apart from this theme which forms the soul of the movie(as mentioned above) the first half of the movie covers some exteremely memorable fun filled encounters between the two main protagonists and this action is spread over some of the best locales in europe. This in someway appealed to every youngster and will continue to appeal to youngsters for some time. SRK has played the spoiled brat with utmost perfection, the twinkle in his eyes the filratatious attitude made many a guys his fan forget girls. He gives a fabulous performance, redefining the Lover for the 1990s with great panache. He's cool and flippant, but sincere enough to appeal to the junta. The performance itself is, like the best in the business, played well enough to come across as effortless, as non-acting. Sadly he has tended to overact ever since.

Simran was one girl every guy in every town/city of India wanted to marry. She was smart and ambitious. Her appeal was in her being conservative and yet sporting at the same time. And finally she was one girl who was willing to chase her dreams and most guys like girls who can dream because they themselves cant.

The film on the whole is made with great cleverness. All credit to Aditya Chopra It was a modern film with a different look, a feasible storyline, and lots of urbanity in terms of character and dialogue. However, it is crafted to be a blockbuster, and so there is a lot of pandering to the front stalls -- there's a gruff but essentially understandable Amrish Puri looming in the shadows, his hands veritable slapping weapons; there's the Welcome To Punjab song, Ghar Aaja Pardesi; there's the typically clichéd use of background score, rising to a raucous crescendo to coincide with heightening of emotion; and then there are the dragging bits of Ma-Beti dialogue, the only bits in the film that one is weary of after countless viewings.

The magic is in the balance. The film works because it treads the fine line between commercial and interesting cinema with an awful lot of flair. And it staunchly refuses to age. Multiple viewings bring out nuances in scenes, gestures, dialogue -- things we might have missed the first half-dozen times we watched DDLJ.
And then there are the little bits of detail that the director wisely didn't go into -- for one, I'm a firm subscriber to the idea that Raj snuck a peek at Simran's diary (probably the night she got drunk and he wrapped her in his white shirt), without which it would be quite unthinkable for him to mouth words like 'andekhe anjaane' (unseen stranger) to play at wooing her.
We all have our favourite moments from the film -- Raj's valiant AlPacino-AlPacino attempt at Europeanese; Anupam Kher's befuddled attempts at engineering marital bliss, unaware of the bride in question; Tujhe dekha to jaana sanam, when Lata Mangeshkar sang as gloriously as gold; an alarmed Raj stammering 'beer' instead of lassi to Amrish Puri; and there are women, I kid you not, who actually swoon each time Shah Rukh, driving a convertible during Ho gaya hai tujhko to pyaar sajna, runs a hand through his windswept hair.

The movie has broken the record of Sholay for maximum contiguous screenings in a theatre in Mumbai. 500 weeks and still going strong.

People like me can't just have enough of DDLJ and i am sure all of you who are taking the pain of reading this long boring article about some movie released 10 years back can't have enough of it either

Why another blog?

2005-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

The idea has been on my mind for long to just write something about all the movies i have seen. But somehow within 2 minutes of starting this blog i have realised that its an amazingly boring exercise and requires lots of patience to write about things, I mean its not like chatting with your friend over the phone, where you can get his/her immediate response, its like write something and then mail all your loyal friends that i have created this blog and it will be great if you guys can spare time to read my blog and what not.
I think its a bit too much of an effort for a lazy guy like me.

Still i will at least unwillingly try to write something; with the slightest hope that atleast the most ardent of my friends will read the opening post. And that belief is based on the flimsy assumption that no matter what anyone of us does from desigining chips to copying/pasting code we watch movies and we like them

Yeah so what was this blog about? Movies yeah. In the last 14 months and 18 days of my life(out of which i have been lucky enough to spend 29 days in India) i have realised that living alone and that too away from your motherland has its own challenges. And alone is the keyword here, of course there will be people around you some friendly and some not so friendly but more often than not, one finds oneself lonely. So what does one do of course turn to alcohol or drugs.

However being the miser i am i decided to choose the cheaper option of books and movies. Books again though last long and leave a lasting impression still have limited appeal to me and thats because, though i know a few good writers, who have written a few good books i am not too much of a literature guy.

Movies is different story altogether, I am product of the Cable era. When i was 14, i still remember 2 guys on a cranky bicycle came to my house with a roll of wire and changed my world forever. They were the cable guys!! and they bought movies to my life in a big way.

A small digression here I mean movies were always there Thursdays and Sundays on DD and some late night stuff too, you know guys:). And the 3 letter gadget VCR which bought some of the best movies of Mithun,Govinda and Anil Kapoor alongside the Kimi Katkars and the Mandakanis of the worlds right into our homes. And lastly the yearly event of visiting the movie theatre with the entire family. But it was cable who got movies round the clock for me. 3 channels each showing 3 movies a day. That was like a heaven for me, 9 movies in a day and the late-night ones to add to it:)

It all started then and has still not ended. I have moved over from amazingly varied genres to strikingly different styles of acting. I have seen Dharamendra shout "Kutte main tera khoon pee jaoonga" and i have seen Pacino use the F word as punctuation. I have seen Yashraj and Dharma Productions weave candyfloss romances and i have seen Tarantino scare the hell out of me. I have watched the Hum-Tums of the world and i have seen the grim and hope intertwined in Shawshank Redemption. My love for movies keep growing stronger and stronger. And i have found that like a very good friend they have never let me down. Even in these bad times with some messy-crappy movies there is always a MunnaBhai which can lift your spirits.

So Cheers to Movies and Cheers to everyone who love movies. This blog is dedicated to them only. I will be writing about movies which i have already seen, which i keep seeing again and which i am going to see in the future