8 out of 10

As i had mentioned in one of my blog that I had ventured into a mission of watching each of 10 movies nominated for this years Acadmey awards.

The weekend was well spent finishing 3 more movies namely An education, A serious man and Up. Here is my take on them….

An education (Nice movie and plot indeed worth the oscar nomination)

A serious man (Too serious for my taste … the end was over the head)

Up (Seriously good …. better than Up in the air)..

This leaves me with just 2 movie Precious and the Hurt locker and then my Road to Oscars would reach a dead end…

Love – Part I

It was pouring. The darkness around was now and then breached by the lightining and the thunder was deafening. He was
standing under the tree. Looking up he saw the over powering tree with its over reaching and sturdy branches, which prevented him from getting drenched. But that was no relief. He still had 50kms to travel to reach his daughter who has had another of her “asthama attacks”. Her asthama had grown worse and the doctors had called in specailist from the neighbouring city to handle the complications in her case and time was of the essence.

He being a doting father had to meet his daughter so what he worked in a different city. He hurried on from his office and took the first bus to reach his native city. But the riots in the city caused by some fringe elements to “sanitize” the city of the “scums” of neighboring states had caused the bus operators to leave the passengers on the outskirts and now he is left stranded on this dark, raining night on a road , where no one dares to drive unless he is oblivious to the fact that many criminal casualties have happened on this road.

Overwhelmed by the emotions and a prophetic heart,he could sense the tears blurring his vision. He realized the desperation of his situation. He was choked. The thought of his daugher gasping for breath and panting, clutching to the hospital bed instead of her father’s hand tore his heart out.The pain was unbearable and he started crying inconsolably, he fell down on his knees and buried his head between his legs. The anguish, pain and the feeling of being incapable of reaching to his daughter was unbearable and he lost total control of his body and rolled down from the incline where the tree standed onto the middle of the road.

Rain was getting heavier and he lay there unshielded as each drop of rain struck his face with a biting ferocity. “This is it,let it end here with a vehicle that could just mow me down and bring an end to this pathetic existence”.

The parallel beam of the headlights of the approaching car illuminated the path ahead of him. He didn’t move an inch, when the car screeched and stopped just inches before him,but he stayed there and closed his eyes.The guilt ridden driver of the car instantly came out the car and bent over to ascertain any living signs on the  corpse.

No sooner did the driver came close to the body, a clean shot on his face followed by another on his nose and a kick on his
“unmentionables” left the driver dizzy and unconscious. Having overpowered the driver,Alex dragged the driver’s body to the
side . A little morality was still left, after all a man’s blood on his head was the last thing he wanted over his head. He was a religious man and feared God. Also he cannot go to the prison and leave his daughter beloved daughter “orphaned”. The death of his wife has had deteriorating effect on his daughter’s health. By stroke of luck there was no one who witnessed this rash judgement of Alex and he
decided to seek the almighty’s forgiveness on his next visit to the church. He started the car and just let it loose.

He was relieved. It was a matter of time that he will reach his daughter and comfort her. The immorality of his actions
were too less a price to pay to be near his daughter. His daughter needed him than anything else in the world.

“Dad, where are you?” she asked.
“I am here.” Alex answered and he clasped and gripped her hand firmly. “Everything would be okay” and he looked imploringly
at the nurse to echo his sentiments. He needed assurance himself.
“When is the doctor coming why is it taking him so long ?” Alex whispered to the nurse.

“No idea. He should have been here by now. Even I am worried . She needs to be examined right away. Only the medicine that the doctor is bringing can alleviate her pain”. “Her condition is worsening every minute. We need to act fast and now else it could be too la … “

“Ahhh Papa , take care, I will tell mummy that you say hi and you still love her ….. bye” and that was it. The grasp of her hand that went strong went loose. Her dreamy eyes were still open. The nurses centred in , but Alex knew it was over. The last string of life of his morbid existence had been taken away. His hopes of living for his daughter were crushed . The tears accompanied with a loud moan and groan was all that he could do to accept the death of his daughter. He ran out of the room.

As he exited the room, a stretcher attended by around 10 people came in. A doctor with a bruised face, a broken nose was being
rushed into surgery. But he handed over someone a poly bag from his coat with clear instructions “Rush this to the girl
suffering from asthma, she needs it immediately . Its a matter of life and death”.

Locked In ….

“Mobile,purse, keys” as I muttered these words, which is kind of a reminder list of posessing all the things that I need to go to office apart from my brain(which I generally never go to office with) I began to advance towards the place where I keep the house keys. But there were no keys. A glance at the door and I realised “holy crap” . My flat mate has locked the door from outside and has gone away with his set of keys. And then it flashed that my set of keys are in my Car.
How is that for a puzzle ? A guy is locked in his house and the key to his house is locked in his car. How does he get out?

The obvious thing was to ask my flat mate to come and rescue me, but he was already in the office and would not be very
keen on coming to get me out of this predicament. So I called my team mate to come to my house and then find the keys in my
car and get me out of my house.

Though these were the optimal solutions one would have arrived at. The best solution could have been to call my Manager and
let him know of the situation and take a day off and enjoy the long weekend. But stage fear has always been a good friend of mine. Like this other day all I was supposed to say was “You are photogenic” and I blurred out some random sh#$.

PS: Another oscar nominated movie finished…

An education (Slowwwwwwwww and why does a rude awakening is required to attain a goal. And how come everytime the goal is
attained, its beyond my limited faculties to comprehend).

Nothings happening …

“Oh thank god , you are home” . The expressions said it all. The relief was written all over the face. The smirk that was trying to hide the fear.

“Never have I waited for you to come home”, he said.
“Why what happened ?” I asked.
“Nothing . its just that I was watching Paranormal activity and am shitting stones… “

So here is the deal. I am gonna close the room now . I am alone in the room and its dark .

Bring it on “Paranormal Activity”.……

PS:  I managed to somehow embarrass myself yet again…… Oops I did it again …..

Phir se ek baar – Avataar….

Love is back in the air. This time its an innocuous,innocent and platonic love – Colleague love. So out of sheer love and
not been able to find someone who would accede to his request “Vini” booked tickets of the movie Avataar for “Touch virgin”
and me. Though I had already seen the movie (my first 3-D experience) this time it was in PVR Gold class. I won’t deny but there was a bit of anticipation and excitement associated with the “Gold experience”.

The recliners provided were so comfortable that “touch virgin” went to sleep. The disappointment was the expectation to be
served “freebies” to eat. But there were no such provisions for the tickets bought. Overall the movie experience was great, even though I knew the storyline it was fun to experience the “3-D effects”. The plot was awesome, enrapturing and thought provoking. For the first time in a movie which featured the aliens and the humans, a viewer would have had no predicament to root for the aliens. Now how racist or misanthropic is that.

Out of the 10 oscar nominess for the best motion picture, I have watched 5 and here is what I think of them.

Avataar (Winner)
Inglorious bastards (The dark horse)
Distrcit 9 (Naaaah)
The blind side (Sandra bullock could get an award)
Up in the air  (Are you freaking kiddin me ?)

Love was supposed to be in the air

“So no one told you that life is going to suck this way.

It has been you day,your week,your year or even this decade.

No one is going to be there for you…..”

Well that’s my adaptation of the Friend’s theme song. With the advent of February there was stifled voice that said “All would be well”. Comet h Feb, you will find love, harmony,peace , but some spiteful, revengeful and vindictive personalities including myself  have spoiled it for me.

So please people don’t spoil it any further. Let the love blossom, let peace transpire and let tranquility prevail.

Horrorscope

I regularly read newspaper. As soon as I get the newspaper I take the “Bangalore Times” look at Page 3 to start my day with a look at beautiful faces, followed by sudoku and other puzzles and cartoon strips. This is followed by a perfunctorily glance at the section
“Todays Fortune”.

Now many enlightened souls would question the basis and genesis of this section, but almost 4 years of working in statistical risk modeling tells me that the only a part of the model could be explained by the R-square of the model, the unexplained part is error,noise that cannot be explained (he he I liked throwing the technical s#$@). In layman’s term there are only certain things that can be decided with efforts and knowledge. But there is always an element of luck , chance ,alignment of stars ,something supernatural above human interpretation and cognizance that does play an important role. So much for my defence.

It so happened that for the past few weeks especially on Sundays to my horror this horroscope has been spot on. Whatever it says is either already happening or has already happened (so much for future prediction). I would like to delve deep into the details, but it might be too obvious for ppl. From things related to finanicaial , health and even my non existent love life this horrorscope was on the money. Seems like someone near to me whom I confide in is the writer of this section.

Various ppl have come out with various explanations for this phenomenon like these horoscopes are always general and ambiguous:  covering a gamut of personalities or things that ppl would generally encounter on a weekly basis and speaking in such a manner that it seems customized and personalized . Others have pointed at the frame of mind when generally one reads,understands and interprets circumstances according to ones own convenience. But I don’t believe in these reasoning s. Retrospectively everything can be justified and reasoned out.Why has this human race turned so sceptical that even a little magic or coincidence cannot be digested without questioning. Well that is what happens when objectivity supersedes subjectivity.

But  I would rather continue “Holding on hope” through my horroscopes

PS: For more intrusive personalities my sunsign is Virgo.

January over….

Well the first month of the year is already over and it seems just like yesterday that the year began. So how was the month for me.

Well the first of every month starts for me with a sms from my bank saying that a certain “X” amount has been debited from my account to pay my car loan and so thats how it started this january and add to that my 30th (not 31st dec) hangover and pecadillos. So it started with a hole in my pocket and a heavy load of guilt.

As I got into the grooves of things, the pieces of the puzzles started falling in places and so it was a smooth ride till my US manager came to India on a short visit. I was initially a bit skeptical about his visit, but the rendezvous was more than a pleasant experience. The three nights (mon, tues and wednesday) when the team spent at his hotel boozing, playing “3 patti” and importantly “male bonding” were memorable. Though the financial pinch was felt at losing thousand bucks, but a more important lesson was learnt that my luck sucks…(lost a game even when I had 3 kings…wtf)… This was followed by a enjoyable trip to coorg. The trip had drama, emotions, comedy ,but no romance .

The month also illuminated me with wisdom that some things are meant to be broken like

• Heart of a lover
• Promises to you girl friend of shunning bad habits like smoking, drinking etc..
• And new year resolutions…..

For the rest of the month, the memory is vague and there is nothing that stands out.So all in all an enjoyable month with plenty of anticipation for the coming one…

Lets do it one more time…..

Well I don’t know what is the point to write a blog in connundrums and esoteric language. Instances and experiences half revealed by the writer and partly understood by the reader. What is the point of a writing which is not able to evoke responses or empathy from the reader ? What purpose does it serve ? What’s the point I am trying to make?

The only thing I can say its take a load off my chest. It has the purgatory power of alleviating and am lovin it…

Second Chance….

When life presents itself with a second chance, its always not necessarily a good thing. People would definitely protest and call me a “sceptic” but they cannot be more wrong. As i would experience this soon and would soon be a living testimony to it.

“What you see is not what you get,

What you crave is what you dont have,

what you get is all thats left,

Respect what you get,

Coz someone who didn’t get even that is upset”