Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating - Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind

10 minutes into ‘Inception’ , the first wisp of violence and I was ready to puke my guts out.
I mean what is it with movie-makers today, are they afraid to invest into something that does not pop out a gun every 10 seconds or do they think that a guy missing his long dead wife and 2 kids can masquarade as some existential angst???
Really, I fail to understand and I think it is not even worth trying to.

Which brings a flash of another flick of the same genre, sci-fi, if I may?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind sounds like a tongue twister title, but it does provide an interesting tale of a new invention - erasing memories of someone you want to forget.

Clementine and Joel have a sense of déjà vu when they first meet, because this really is not their first meeting. We get a peek into their relationship as we traverse through Joel’s memories. Joel tries to take vengeance on Clementine after realizing that she had memories of him erased, but while in the process of erasing his memories of her, he changes his mind.
We meander through memories filled with wonderful conversation, wise cracks and interesting anecdotes. Of course, I am way more partial to it because of the special mention of Anna Akmatova, whose poetry, am a big fan of.

CLEMENTINE : Have you ever read any Anna Akhmatova?
JOEL ; I love her.
CLEMENTINE : Really? Me, too! I don't meet people who even know who she is and I work in a book store. (Really!!! )

You wouldn’t recognize Jim Carrey, as the extreme introvert, Joel who is drastically opposite of, i-wear-my-heart-on-my-sleeve, Clementine, played by Kate Winslet.

Among other things, this is a story about how two people diametrically opposite try to disillusion themselves about a relationship going awry. Even the peripheral characters add so much soul into the bigger picture, that you come away feeling a little fascinated and at the same time very vulnerable as if someone has stirred the old soft core inside you that you have forgotten.

What I like about youth is its spontaneity,its gay conversation - From Bonjour Tristesse

Nearly ten years after World War 2, France was smitten by a young new writer, Francoise Sagan, whose first book 'Bonjour Tristesse' created quite some ripples in the literary circles.

When the story unfolds, a seventeen year old girl, Cecile, is holidaying with her father and his girlfriend Elsa. The book comes alive with fresh wisps of breeze from the French Riviera that you can almost smell the beach, but interspersed with the colorful life of the father-daughter duo is the mental turmoil of young Cecile. Cecile’s father, Raymond has fun with Elsa while Cecile herself is busy with Cyril, when Anne enters this tranquil scene. Cecile despises the fact that Anne takes control of their smooth sailing carefree boat. Anne wants Cecile to concentrate on her studies, but little does she realize that she has awakened the dormant manipulator in Cecile.

At some point in Sagan's 'Bonjour Tristesse', you pause and wonder if there is a parallel between ‘Holden Caulfield' and Cecile. But youth is the only common theme running through these books. While Holden comes across as dark and depressed, Cecile is colorful and feisty. Unlike Holden, she is uncomfortable introspecting herself and is clear on her plan of action.

Don’t you love books that makes you want to hate the protagonist, Humbert anyone? I had no such qualms. I knew whom I liked in my head; it is Cecile all the way. Freedom is the one thing that is totally shackle-free and I would hate to see it stifled.

I think that many readers would disagree or denounce this book as a paragon of vice, but I beg to differ. Should youth be given a free hand to do what they want or be subjected to benchmarks of achievements? Should the choice of what you want to do with your life be yours or those of your well-wishers?

And why does pleasure always has to be remorseful?

Yeah, I am a little late- Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Notorious'

Watching a motion picture the second time is not an exciting venture for me. I would rather spend my time on viewing something I haven’t seen before. But tonight was an exception.
I couldn’t resist the temptation of Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. They set new standards of on-screen chemistry in Hitchcock’s 1946 film, ‘Notorious’.
It has been a couple of years since I watched this movie and although I was familiar with the ending, it still did not fail to glue me to the edge of my seat.

Volumes have been written about Hitchcock being a misogynist, but I think he is misunderstood. His women were strong and ahead of their time.
Like the character Alicia, excellently portrayed by Ingrid Bergman. I think the movie belonged to her. Never before and after has a Hitchcock movie been carried by a female protagonist as this one. As an American agent infiltrating into a German camp, we are drawn towards her. While on one hand she plays the part of a promiscuous woman on the other hand her love for the undercover FBI agent, Devlin (Cary Grant) is so palpable that we feel for her vulnerability.
The entire setting draws us into the kind of suspense least expected out of a espionage story – mind play. There is absolutely no violence of any sort, unless the violence of words counts!

Sample this:

Alicia: This is a very strange love affair.
Devlin: Why?
Alicia: Maybe the fact that you don't love me.

Alicia: What does the speedometer say?
Devlin: 65.
Alicia: I want to make it 80 and wipe that grin off your face.

Devlin: [bitterly, to Alicia] Dry your eyes, baby; it's out of character.

I wouldn’t do justice if I do not mention Claude Rains, a great actor who doesn’t need dialogue to act. His portrayal of a mama’s boy is not surprising given that this is a common thread in most Hitchcock movies.
The scene, where Alicia realizes that she has been caught and Rains and his mother
look at her implying that she has no escape from their clutches, is priceless.



If all this doesn’t attract you, maybe the notorious kissing scene of nearly 4 minutes between Grant and Bergman would do the trick.

(500) Days of Summer

In this age of information overload of face book, twitter, cell phones et al, the beauty of this movie lies in the fact that it has a retro feel to it. Los Angles minus Beverly Hills, old buildings, simple dresses, peppy pop numbers and beautiful cinematography is what (500) days of Summer presents you.

Summer, the surreal love of Tom’s life does not want to be anyone’s girlfriend. She wants a tag-free relationship, which, according to her, is only friendship. But to put it in perspective, let me borrow the words of Tom, ‘one doesn’t have shower-sex with their friends!’

A kaleidoscope of memories of Tom’s 500 days of his life with Summer. So we shift from day 353 to Day 11 and back to maybe Day 282. But when did chronological order make sense with nostalgic moments?

Tom believes in love and that she is THE ONE, but Summer just lives the moment. Tom is a greeting card writer, a profession many of us would envy but his heart lies in architecture.
Tom
‘I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that last forever, like a greeting card.’

Tom’s quirky friends and precocious little sister are guffaw-inducing and if that is not all, there is Tom’s love for architecture and his talent for sketching. No Auto-Cad there for you but good old pencil sketches of buildings and greeting cards.

There is one specific scene heavily inspired by Annie Hall - the split screen between Expectation and Reality which reminds me of something similar to where Woody Allen shows what he says and what he means in a horizontal split screen.

But 500 days does have a distinct flavor of its own – whether it is the music of The Smiths or arguments about Ringo Starr or having fun shopping at Ikea, watching ‘The Graduate’, this movie reminds us that in this era of action packed flicks, there is still beauty left in a simple love story.

Agreed it is not a classic like ‘Before Sunrise/Sunset’ or Annie Hall but it certainly has its fine moments with its wit and leaves an after-taste of the bitter sweet memories of a relationship gone awry.

An always within never from 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog’

At some point while reading ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’, you stop and wonder if this book is about external appearances or philosophy or the mediocrity of the bourgeois?
I think it really is contemplation on life – that ephemeral beauty is eternal.

“Beauty, a dazzling apparition that we can only contemplate through the singular, but that opens a tiny window onto eternity and the timelessness of the sublime form.”

The protagonist is fifty-four year old Renee, who during the day dons the mask of a dull and mundane concierge of a high-end apartment complex.
But secretly, she is an autodidact.
Lover of Japanese culture, admirer of still art form by the likes of Pieter Claesz, master of the works of philosophers like Descartes and Kant and a devotee of Tolstoy, Renee tries to hide behind a façade of an inconspicuous poor woman.

In her words….
“At nine in the evening, I put a cassette into the video player, a film by Ozu, The Munekata Sisters.Why? Because Ozu is a genius who can rescue me from biological destiny.

Here is the key to the film.

True novelty is that which does not grow old, despite the passage of time.
The camellia against the moss of the temple, the violet hues of the Kyoto mountains, a blue porcelain cup- this sudden flowering of pure beauty at the heart of ephemeral passion: is this not something we all aspire to? And something that, in our Western civilization, we do not know how to attain?
The contemplation of eternity within the very movement of life “


The second important character is 12 and a half year old, Paloma. If she were to live in the United States, she would be attending the school of the gifted and talented!

Like Renee , Paloma too hides her above-average intelligence and really makes an effort to appear stupider than she actually is. She loves to read Haiku and manga while noting profound thoughts in her journal.

“Profound Thought No:7
To build,
You Live
You Die
These are consequences.”

The truth about Renee is recognized by a new resident of the apartments, Mousier Ozo, during an innocent conversation about the previous residents.

“You know ,all happy families are alike,” I mutter. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” he says, giving me an odd look.

All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way is the first line in Anna Karenina and like any self-respecting concierge, I am not supposed to have read it”

It is endearing to see Renee, Paloma and Mousier Ozo become friends and lead us to a denouement which, though surprising, leaves us with a peaceful feeling similar to what Renee felt while watching the Munekata Sisters.

How can I miss you, when you won't go away?

The moon over Saigon. A car battery sits on the make shift podium, A Street of sizzling snails, a boy fire-eater, screamingly fresh sea food, buttered snails in tamarind sauce.
That is Anthony Bourdain – sporting a blue jeans and a white shirt, he rides a scooter in Vietnam as easily as crossing a street in NewYork.
Travel to exotic places would never be the same again!
These days I revel in the virtual tours along with Tony.

(Photo Courtesy: Travel guides from the Travel Channel)

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.

Is life worth going through the pain of a relationship which affects us so deeply that it changes our life forever or is it best left forgotten as time goes by?

If the latter is true, we wouldn’t have the story of ‘The Reader’. A young boy, Michael, has a brief affair with an older woman, Hannah. This takes places in the Germany of the ‘50s. Besides the obvious sexual emancipation of Michael, Hannah takes immense pleasure in Michael reading aloud to her during these trysts.

Hannah makes no pretense of the fact that they could never have a future and one fine day, Michael finds her gone. Decades later, as a law student Michael comes across a case where Hannah is accused of being the prison guard of a Nazi camp and not allowing the prisoners to escape when there is a fire. Hannah is the same old stoic woman, who knows no other world other than her duty as a prison guard and is so ashamed of her secret of being illiterate that she accepts prosecution to admitting it.
Michael, who has been deeply affected by his relationship with her, watches the proceeds of case agitated and is guilty of not helping.
The last part of the story deals with Hannah spending her old age in prison listening to audio books sent by Michael and learning how to read and write.

And if you are thinking Kate Winslet of Titanic fame, you must watch this movie to see her acting prowess and of course her every curve!

My mind is flooded with numerous questions even as I was absorbing this poignant tale – are we ashamed to admit our misdemeanors even if it means losing sleep? Are people affected by their insecurities so much that they would rather prefer prosecution? Can we redeem ourselves of the crimes we commit under the pretext of our duties?

Hiatus, Hibernation or Sabbatical ????

When you have been away for so long that you forget what it feels like to bring words from your brain to the keypad, it must be called a sabbatical, I bet.

Okay people, I am going to disappoint you completely and not write too much today.
Did you get a chance to watch ‘The Dark Knight’? and did you just come out of the theatre with a hangover of the Joker? Well, that is Heath Ledger for you. Yes, the very guy who played the soft romantic in the ‘Brokeback Mountain’!
Here is a link which has the most beautiful memories shared by his close friends –
Heath Ledger, Enjoy.

a story with a capital ‘S’

The Story behind the interesting site What is Stephen Harper Reading? is

Life, it seems, favours moments of stillness to appear on the edges of our perception and whisper to us, “Here I am. What do you think?” Then we become busy and the stillness vanishes, yet we hardly notice because we fall so easily for the delusion of busyness, whereby what keeps us busy must be important, and the busier we are with it, the more important it must be. And so we work, work, work, rush, rush, rush. On occasion we say to ourselves, panting, “Gosh, life is racing by.” But that’s not it at all, it’s the contrary: life is still. It is we who are racing by.

Yann Martel wonders as to what makes the Prime Minister of Canada tick? when he refused the funds for the Canada Council for the Arts, so he decides

'For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.'

A wonderful compilation of books recommended by Martel along with his letter to Stephen Harper which slowly prods the subject, albeit in a gentle manner.

One of them is this poem from the Short and Sweet: 101 very short poems, edited by Simon Armitage:

Fleas

Adam
'ad 'em

and he says

'Busy? Tired? Feeling nothing? You’re missing on the depth of life that you know is out there.... '

Do read and if you have similar books you would like to recommend to Dr. Manmohan Singh do let me know.

A pick among great sagas

As I pause at the 330th page of Book1 of Ashok Banker’s adaptation of The Ramayana, I am amazed to find that a single day of Rama’s life is vividly brought to life in 330 pages of this 550-paged tome. Banker’s story-telling is full of colorful imagery, mental picture of different sounds and presenting the seers and kings without making them appear as caricatures.

This old mythological tale is packaged to suit the literary tastes of the current generation of fantasy-fiction lovers without dwelling on it’s religious elements.
Banker banks on the strength of this epic saga leading us along the main arteries of the story without getting lost in the by-lanes of the minor tales this epic abounds in.


He presents an ensemble of philosophy, action, rivalry and jealousy interweaving it with petty quarrels and mundane conversations.
But I thought the language could have been better than what appears to be school-bookish.
Can’t help but pick nits, what was ‘Harishchandra Avenue’, PFs, the Dark Lord??? Wasn’t it supposed to be set in the 4th century BC !!

Inspite of this, I do not deny that this is an interesting read, wonder if it can be sustained to complete the entire series of the 7 books.
I suddenly morph into a 5 year old sitting on my mother’s lap and listening to this amazing story of good vs evil.

Sojourns in Southeast asia

It is almost a month since I’m back from **what-my-friends-call** a South East Asian trip and I haven’t blogged about it (what a shame especially when one of the reasons to travel is to blog (read brag) about it) And so what if the entire neighborhood and their pets have already been there and done, did I mention that I’m not someone to be so easily discouraged.
A friend of mine in Singapore has been inviting me home for the last couple of years, without having a clue of the danger she is beckoning and so I decided to surprise her (perhaps, she got a shock!)
Well actually I could go ahead and dedicate the entire post to my friend’s posh 7th floor sea-facing apartment and her cutesy set of fraternal twins but I refrain lest it becomes a Sooraj Barjatiya film.

Singapore was an even bigger surprise than Minehaha falls. If you have a sudden urge for chewing gum, feeding birds or throwing papers at random then avoid landing in the Changi airport(which by the way has free internet, there I told you there are incentives) and banish any thoughts of basking in the glory of the sky-scrappers and the lush-green streets of Singapore.
I hadn't planned to do any sight-seeing in Singapore so that I could catch up with my friend , unfortunately the gossip session had to wait until the kids grow up.
So I headed where the tourists in Singapore head to - downtown,Esplanade, Sentosa and Night Safari.

Below are some of my favorite picks out of the album of this trip.

(Painting seen on an elevator)

(Fullerton hotel in Singapore)

Don’t miss the Chinatown where you have salesmen declaring that they eat live lizards (and not as a joke, mind you).(I tried to capture it on camera)

Thailand – the messiah for all those men-in-50s-seeking-a-companion (you know what I mean) must have been guilty about the women tourists which explains why it is a shopper’s paradise.Don't forget to take your shades lest you are hit with the garnish colors , that is Thailand.

Photos below are testimony to the above statement:

(entrance of grand palace)


(golden figurine, bonsai adorns Grand Palace)

(huge poster of Harry potter in Thai in the metro station)

For a country where Buddha is found at every street corner, the Thai cuisine has only non-vegetarian fare but one could still find at some corner(if you are a relentless searcher like me) a veggie version of Pad Thai.

(one of those Bhuddha temples)

Ok, I’m not complaining about India being dirty or it being the only country where men urinate in public, neither am I complaining about broken-door-ambassador taxis unlike the Toyota Corollas which come at the cost of an auto, I’m also not complaining about not getting sexy lingerie at throw-away prices, Neither is it about not having the sky-train or the metro, but yes, why can’t we get alcohol at the prices that are in Thailand? Aren't vacations all about drinking binges?

(You can find more colorful photographs here)

Krishi darshan or kekta kapoor?

Recently I removed the dust jacket off my TeeVee , to watch the third season of Indian Idol (yes, we idle indians watch Indian Idol) .
Guilty of not cheering for a fellow Hyderabadi in Season2 (blame entirely on my Belgium trip) ,I ensure that I try to remember to watch it this time(alas! I forget to most of the days) .
The highlight of the episode I’d watched last Friday was unfortunately not from Indian Idol but from where I’d sauntered off during the break - ‘Koffee with Karan with Kekta Kapoor’ (all the Ks only added to more disgust than the usual) I’d watched just 2 mins of the show and it was even more intolerable than all her 'Saas-Bahu' sagas put together – and so here is the highlight WTF comment by her ‘I make serials for the middleclass housewives and not for the upper strata of society which needs something more creative!’ ; I mean, she might as well say ‘I’m not creative enough!’ and all that ‘I’m going to marry you Ekta’ by Karan J made me run to the washroom (to puke of course!) .

Suddenly I see the room around me revolving and I’m transported to the -good old didi (our pet name for doordarshan) of the ‘80s and my mom rationing my television time where I could watch only 1 hour of ‘Fauji’ and 1 hour of ‘The world this week’(time not enough to drool over ‘I say chaps’ guy and Pranoy Roy).
Perhaps television in ‘80s came with a disclaimer -‘Viewing is injurious to children’s health’ but recently must have been modified to ‘Viewing is injurious to health’ .

So what went wrong? From 1 channel to 101 channels and everything churns out the same junk as if they wouldn’t want to miss the prize for the world’s trashiest sit-coms.
I am not asking for ‘Friends’ or ‘Seinfeld’ , atleast give us something like good old DD– ‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ , ‘ Nukkad’ , ‘Ados Pados’, ‘Mungherilal ke sapney’, ‘Mr.Yogi’ , ‘Karamchand’ , ‘Chunauti’, ‘Subah’ , ‘ Choti Badi Baaten’ , ‘Rajini’, ‘Vikram aur Bettal, Babaji ka Baiscope,’Ek Do teen char’, Indradhanush , ‘Neev’, ‘Circus’ , ‘ Udaan’
(Diversion1: I am avoiding Hum Log, Buniyaad, Khandhaan for the obvious reasons that I never watched them but I know for sure they were way ahead of the K-serials)

If the lack of creativity concerns you, why not adapt books into serials – ‘Kachi Dhoop’ was based on ‘Little Women’, ‘Trishna’ was ‘Pride an’d Prejudice’ and ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ which was based on a fictional Bengali detective and of course the famous R.K.Narayan’s ‘Malgudi Days’ (diversion2: recently I heard someone using the famous Malgudi days title track as a cell phone ringtone and I wished if the current channels revived the serial as well).

And does anyone remember this immensely cute animation called ‘Ek anek’?
For those who do, take a look at this and re-live your childhood memories…

Are you spineless???

David McKie at the Guardian Books muses about his ‘uncontrollable urge to seize the nearest magnifying glass and try to decipher the titles’ from the spines of books in a photograph.

Do you have this intense urge to reach for the nearest sharp instrument and use it to scratch your body parts, which in other words can be termed an itch – now imagine that we bibliophiles have a similar feeling when seeing books anywhere ;only with double the intensity.
I have known people to wade through the ocean of people in Mumbai local trains only to find out the title of the book being read by the last person seated at the last window seat near the exit.
Also if the DVD you had borrowed from your local DVD store suddenly starts imitating a mouse – with squeaks ; I am sure that there would be at least one guilty person who seeing a book featured in the movie would have hit the FF and RW buttons a few hundred times.(remember ‘Crime and Punishment’ in ‘Matchpoint’?)
Old houses with books, libraries, bookshelves in any building form other parts of this serpentine queue of obsession.

But this saga of the spine-obsessed continues to haunt those who are not.
As is evident from one of the comments ‘How about just reading 'em and shutting up about it?’ to which comes the apt reply ‘Down in the antipodes, we have something called the "tall poppy syndrome". Means that anyone who takes a risk and tries to be interesting gets shot down. Guess it happens in the northern hemisphere too. WHY shut up about it? What's wrong with conversation?’

As for me I keep looking at any books hovering in the background until the person in front feels that I am more interested in inanimate objects rather than the conversation ,wish I could say, ‘Yeah, please take the hint!’ .

(Update: Much thanks to Lotus Reads for this site.Very interesting)

This and That - Killing Batteries and DNA pendant?

As a rule I do not link to any good write-ups, but who says I live by rules!!!

Aren’t we all on the look-out for that one piece of writing which would beat the shit out of our mundane existence (ok, sorry did I say ‘we’ all, please read it as ‘I’) and that is how I stumbled across ‘Killing Batteries’ – I know, a zany name for a travelogue, I mean it does not seem to have anything to do with travel; or does it?

Currently in Tuscany for Lonely Planet’s Italy 8 and Tuscany and Umbria 5, Leif Pettersen is one helluva laughter riot - read this to know on how he landed on this job –

“How did this unlikely, professional madness come about? The gentleman who usually writes about Tuscany, nay owns it, fell ill. LP needed to fill that slot like yesterday. As I understand it, they went into their extensive Author Psychological Profiling Database (APPD) and ran a search with the following keywords: ‘Italy’ + ‘available now’ + ‘workaholic’ + ‘willing to do a four month assignment in two and a half while juggling several iron-clad magazine assignments’ + ‘weak willed’ + ‘nutter’
The rest is very recent history.”

Also his comprehensive, research-free list of hostel etiquette to live is a Must-Read for people with plans of visiting Europe in the near future.

(Update: One must read this post on what he calls good for nothing kids who later became saints and in response to my comment as to how i wish i had the courage to write on similar lines about the hindu Gods, this is what he had to say
"Zinging Hindu gods might be a bad idea. Did you see how fast they turned on Richard Gere after he kissed whatshername on the cheek? In less than 24 hours he was charged with like three felonies and burned in effigy! I ain’t an idiot. I know what lines not to cross…" :D)


(Trivia (which you can ignore): He worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which calls for another trip to Minneapolis in search of his twin)

Now what has the DNA pendant got to do with this you ask? Thatz another story, err…another interesting blog. I was pleasantly surprised that one can actually do something with one’s own DNA – check this. Apparently one can preserve DNA(yes, the double-helix that you last read about in high school) in a life-jewel pendant or a portrait – imagine wearing a pendant made of your DNA –it would take Narcissism to new heights or perhaps it would be the ideal gift for your unsuspecting partner. :D

So what would you like to do with your DNA? (Weird question, I know)

Where is the credibility of freedom?

What was it that Rousseau said ? ‘Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains’ and looks like this adage is true to this day.

- Chandra Mohan, a student of the Fine Arts college, Baroda was arrested for (hold your breath) paintings which apparently hurt the (non-existent!) sentiments of some VHP and BJP activists. The paintings were not for public display but were exhibited for assessment for a MA in Fine arts.

“Chandramohan is being charged under sections 153A, 114, and 295 of the Penal Code for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc, commiting acts prejudicial to the harmony of the public.
He was denied bail and transferred to Central Jail. Emboldened by this, BJP is demanding that all faculty and students in the department be suspended or expelled. The University has also suspended Dean Shivji Panikker who publicly backed Chandramohan.”
(Courtesy: The Statesman)

Meanwhile All-India protests are underway against the assault on the student and callous attitude of the university authorities.

Date and time for all: 14th May, 2007, 6p.m.
Venues:
New Delhi - Rabindra Bhavan
Mumbai - Jehangir Gallery
Vishakapatnam - Faculty of Fine Arts, Andhra University
Cochin - Kashi Art Café
Hyderabad - Fine Arts, S N School, University of Hyderabad
Bangalore - M G Road, opposite Gandhi statue
Santiniketan - Kala Bhavan
Guwahati - Press Club

Those attending are requested to wear black and/or white.

Peter Griffin has more details on this.

Two cities and a river

Minneapolis did not extended a warm welcome to me –instead it was a cold one at minus 7 degrees even in April (statistics revealed that it was the first in 82 years that temperatures dipped in April)
Having heard about the Minnehaha Falls and the famous The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow my reaction was akin to someone who was handed a diet Pepsi when expecting a dirty martini.
If you are wondering why, see my picture below:

The sculpture garden had interesting works of art in metal and I walked all the way across the Irene Hixson Whitney Bridge just to read John Ashbery’s poem inscribed on it. And this photo below is my personal favorite considering the amateur status of my photography skills.

Think Mississippi river and you can’t help but remember Mark Twain which is infact a Mississippi River term "Mark number two” which means the second mark on the line that measured depth signified two fathoms, or twelve feet—safe depth for the steamboat.

The twin cities of St.Paul and Minneapolis are similar to Hyderabad and Secunderabad and that is definitely nothing to do with trafficJ. It is in the way that there is no exact line of demarcation between the cities and both seemed to merge into one another.
The St.Paul Cathedral close to the St.Paul downtown is a sight to behold and could easily compete with any of the famous cathedrals of Europe.
We had to cross the street to capture it’s glory on camera.

It was an all outdoor sights trip; other visits include Coon Rapid Falls, Mississippi Dam and of course how can a trip to the City of ten thousand lakes be complete without a lake? So took a long walk on the banks of Lake Calhoun stopping to admire kids making sand castles and men trying to hold on to their colorful sail boats.

A Collage of other photos of my trip is below and if anyone thinks of using it for things other than their desktop wallpaper you know whom to ask….

I thought Cinema Paradiso is the saviour of the good-movies-starved people of Hyderabad until I discovered that there isn’t a single DVD of any of those Oscar nominations and is this not reason enough that they should stop robbing people in the blazing daylights of Hyderabad?

But I’m glad I caught some of those my-kinda movies on the KLM flight –
and I know you must be saying ‘come to the point ,lady’ so I proceed with my note on Notes on a Scandal.

Someone (don’t ask me who!) rightly said ‘I enjoy Solitude most of the time but I need someone to tell them that I enjoy it’ .
There is a subtle difference between solitude and loneliness and high school teacher Barbara only knows it too well.

Unlike Miss.Violet (of 36 Chowringhee Lane), Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is not a kind troglodyte, she is a malicious woman who resorts to blackmail just to get some company in her shriveled and lonely life.

Barbara’s diary informs us of the new teacher Sheba (Cate Blanchett) who enters into the school of unruly 15 year olds and captures Barbara’s attention.
Barbara becomes watchful of her and capitalizes on the opportunity when Sheba has an affair with one of her young students, justifying the tagline of ‘One Woman's Mistake Is Another's Opportunity...’
Barbara is willing not to disrupt Sheba’s burgeoning family life - a teen daughter, an older husband and a son with Down’s syndrome, on the condition of undying friendship from Sheba. But Sheba is unable to give the kind of attention that Barbara forcefully tries to extract and that is when the scandal is out of the bag. I wouldn’t want to delve more details but rest assured that it isn’t about the affair between the school teacher and the 15 year old student but about how Barbara totally manipulates Sheba for some ulterior motives of her own.

The oscar-nomination-worthy performance by Dame Dench is one which would leave you with the dark bitter taste for the woman who is Barbara and Cate Blanchett is not far behind in matching the senior with her own acting prowess.

I know most people might want to give this movie a miss but I would recommend it for it’s taut script without actually making it an edge-of-the-seat thriller and of course it totally showcases the actor who is Judi Dench.

(btw, I had always wanted to blog from an airport and here I’m doing exactly that from my favorite Schiphol airport)

Flying through Schiphol Airport

Flying to US from India is no doubt a painful affair, but the entertainment provided by Mumbai airport officials, lack of bawling kids and the ladies loo in Schiphol Airport made it quite entertaining for me.

Arriving at the Mumbai airport, I was relieved to see that Jet Airways had a tie up with KLM and my luggage was checked-in through from Hyderabad to Minneapolis. I heaved a sigh of relief –no struggle to haul my luggage off the belt, instead I had to deal with one of those aforementioned airport officials who went through the routine ‘Do you have any liquids or gels in your bags?’ and when I answered in the negative I noticed that he was busy looking elsewhere pointing to someone named Kim Sharma –now, I wonder why do men who don’t want to watch her on screen are interested at gawking at her at airports while on duty ?

The flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam wasn’t very good – it was boring – there were no bawling babies or fights for the restroom, only horrendous service and of course no guy reading 'Death in Venice’ or any such in the entire flight! **sigh*** And guys complain about not sitting next to any interesting girl - it is an unfair world I tell you!

As I was cursing my luck after landing in Schiphol airport, I suddenly heard a voice from within (in the strictest grandmotherly voice it could muster) ‘Count your blessings’ and count I did, the number of women from different countries who formed a serpentine queue in the airport ladies restroom and the time taken for the makeup application of each of them. An Ethiopian mother of two who was flying to Florence was braiding the kid’s hair, a French business woman was just in her second coat of mascara and a Canadian housewife was busy brushing her teeth – it could have easily been a United Colors of Benetton advertisement. What is it about restrooms in the West which have only a portion of the door –Is it to observe the latest trends in women’s shoes? Or is it a means of forest conservation? Whatever it is, it makes one so uncomfortable after having the comfort of an entire room for oneself in India.

And then there was this McDonalds waiter who talks Tamil to anyone remotely resembling an Indian and a very handsome dutch airport official who was interested in knowing who Pamuk was – pointing to the book I was reading.

So that being the case I can say that the last leg of my journey from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was what I would call mildly interesting - co-passengers who talked incessantly in an alien tongue , and a Swedish father and son who were struggling to find out what ‘US citizen’ meant and I try to help them using sign language.
Of course the most interesting of them all was getting to watch ‘Half Nelson’ and ‘Notes on a Scandal’ on the flight (the DVDs of which haven’t yet arrived at my local Cinema Paradiso)
So now you get an idea of what my next post is going to be about…

Are we clinically detached?

There is a moment in this video of a student, who supposedly saved many lives by barricading the door at the Virginia Tech University , when questioned whether he is a hero, does not answer but bends his head down as tears well up in his eyes and I suddenly found tears in my eyes too – all these young people with dreams in their eyes squashed like mosquitoes in a jiffy just by some lunatic and obviously left me to deal with questions swarming my mind about life and death.

Meanwhile Chris Floyd , says that ‘Tragedy in America is Normality in Iraq’ – but aren’t these mutually exclusive events? Sorry, but I do not seem to share the sentiments of this gentleman.

The Virgina Tech incident does not belittle any other tragedies occurring around the globe.
For someone watching the news I think whether it is people getting killed in Iraq or Virginia, it produces the same reaction – anger at people who are responsible for it and sympathy for the victims – unless people have become so clinically detached that another mass tragedy is just an addition to their coffee-break discussions at office.

What do you think?

The terrible Twos

I feel like a lousy husband who, on the verge of forgetting his wife's birthday,
rushes to the nearest Archies store to buy that last minute gift for 500 bucks with promises of diamond rings the next year.
So here’s wishing a Happy Birthday to my blog for turning two and yes baby, those diamonds which I promised have to wait .

And my blog is like a middle-aged housewife who desperately wants to participate in beauty pageants and resolves to exercise regularly, alas! it always goes the Wild(e) way (Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.)

So she goes back to her siesta and dreams about those titles she would have won, which you would be surprised to read ; surprised because they are all self-declared!

Bestest Mushy Post: (Memories associated with Songs)
Sing me a memory

Creative Best: (A Roadmap of my culinary skills)
I cook the same way I dress - to Kill.

Zaniest: (Obsession with Calories)
I have never met a Calorie that I did not like.

Best of the Worst Tags : (a 55 word horror story)
The short-cut of a long story.

Maximum-Comments post : (Ghent-oh no, not an insect but a town in Belgium)
Quaint Lille Town

Best Birthday Gift: (first birthday post talks about my sojourns in Italy)
The Day I fell in love with David

Best Guess: (Can you guess the blog from the title?)
Death of heroes,pilots and fountains

I think the middle-aged woman is feeling happy and dreamy and perhaps she would after all participate in the Mrs.World event coming soon. Any suggestions for preparation?