Movieeees

Manorama 6 feet under
What-e-beauty of a movie, simply loved it! A wonderful effort at making an Indian Film Noir movie, excellent!
Most people I spoke to did not seem to like it, but oh well, Sometimes the majority only means... :P

Alexander
Puke! Colin Farrell stumbled through the movie looking like he suffered from an irritable bowel syndrome.

No Country for old men
Watch it for Javier Barden, never before have I seen a more disturbing villain in any form of cinema. Excellent performance!
Also, the Cohen brothers have their own style of directing. The most unexpected things happen at the least expected times. This is one thriller you do not want to miss.

Monty Python- Life of Brian
Is this the same group that conceived the brilliant "Fish Called Wanda" ? surprising, the much acclaimed Monty Python falls flat.
Only one scene evoked laughter, the one where Caesar stumbles through his pronunciation evoking uncontrolled snigger from his centurions.
and only one scene made me go wooow
The scene where the entire group is crucified and Eric Idle (one of the members being crucified), begins singing "Look at the bright side of life" as the credits start rolling.

Else I do not understand what the big deal (Biggus Dealus? :P ) is about Monty Python.

Good Fellas
Decent gangster movie, but tends to get boring. IMDB rates it as #15 of all time great movies. I disagree. The Untouchables is easily a better movie in the Genre. Watch it for Joe Pesci's portrayal of a mobster.

Wonderland
A biopic about the Wonderland Murders, bad movie!

Pink Panther
Steve Martin's Inspector Closeau tries hard, and fails to live up to Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau

Judging a book by its fly-leaf

Today I took out a book (Calvin and Hobbes), that someone happened to gift me (reasons unknown). To my horror and disgust I realised that there exist people who gift books for the sake of gifting them, I would understand a gift given as a formality, but to gift a book and not bother to jot down a couple of words on the fly-leaf is outrageous !
Why would this person (whom I hold [held?] in high regard) do such a thing?
I wonder. For once this lifetime, I just don't feel like reading the book :)

Thanks, but no thanks!

On the brighter side of things, I did get another book (Dilbert, this time) that has a fly-leaf covered with the funniest of comments, making the gift immediately a personalised one !
also got the most beautiful set of PG Wodehouse!

Thank ye for your thoughtfulness

Hampi

Easily the best place I have been to in recent times, Hampi in its golden age was a rich and bustling city by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, the capital of the prosperous Vijayanagar Empire.

What makes Hampi special today is the fact that, it transports you back to the age of its glory instantly.

All the streets are 'intact', all the temples are 'intact' (of course the Deccan Sultans destroyed the idols and lots of the architecture), its as if only the people have moved on, leaving behind the empty shell of a once thriving city.

Hampi is poetry in stone, a must visit place.
Also visit a restaurant called the 'Mango Tree'.

Take a look at the pictures and learn of things you can do in Hampi:


Hire a two wheeler - the best way to visit most places spread across a 10 sq km area


Enjoy the lovely architecture


Stroll through the well maintained gardens of the Palace


Trek up hillocks


Take a coracle ride on the river Tungabhadra


Take a nap!


Lie down on the rocks surrounded by beautiful structures, waiting for ...


a beautiful sunset!


Have a blast!

Open Sesame

I wish it were just those two magical words that would open the doors, but its a bigger number of magical words one needs to remember today.

Here is a list of places I need to remember (complex) passwords for! The list is too long for my liking

My laptop
My Desktop - home
Lotus Notes -my office email client
Yahoo Mail/Yahoo Messenger - My personal Mailbox
Google - Blog, Youtube, Gmail, Gtalk
My Desktop on the client site
IMDB
My Bank
My ATM pin
Stickcricket.com
Facebook
Deviantart.com - my favorite site for stock photos
My RSA pin to remote access office network
and ofcourse
The passwords for the Application that we are currently building

Whew! Ali Baba had it easy!

Taare Zameen Pe

I liked the movie! but ironic how, Aamir Khan's character has this dialogue that (rightly!) admonishes the parents for trying to make children part of a rat race to nowhere and how senseless competition can break a child.

And then, the kid after the movie on being nominated in the best child artiste category, proclaims that he deserved the nomination for Best Hero or something along those lines since he was the crux of the movie!

Sadness.

Well having said that, the movie was very well made and the only thing that kept going through my mind as I watched it was, relief for having parents that never asked me to or forced me to study! :D

They always let me do my own thing, trusting me that I knew best!

I do know of people who have frittered away their childhood in the mechanised rat race that is Bombay, studying to achieve those 90's and 100's, today as I see them, I wonder what they have attained that is so different from me, all I see is childhoods lost in back to back tuitions and the like.