Some spring cleaning

There is scurried activity at home, as Mummy and Amu go about preparing to host a dinner for some friends later today.
I, however have not been part of any scurried activity. I have spent most of the morning lazing around reading the Sunday morning newspaper at leisure, lying down staring at the ceiling and watching highlights of a cricket match on TV (I have no idea why sports channels show highlights of such inconsequential matches - NZ scored 163 and SA chase it down for the loss of 6 wkts in 43 overs).

This time though, nobody asked me to do any chores and this induced some guilt which led me to the long pending task of cleaning up the book shelf.

The return on investment of time spent is this -
1) I get to show that I have done some work
2) I get to pick out books to give my friend, who is collecting books for kids at her school in Kashmir

As I was lining up books by authors and height order I came across some really old Archie, Flintstones, 'Diamond Comics' comic books, along with the usual fare of Gokulam, Chandamama, Thak Thak and Champak's.
Lovely to see these after so many years.

I also came across the wonderfully written 'Original Script' of our away day play "Chronicles of the Dark Knightie" :P which was a joy to see and read through, though I still know it by heart.

Despite having loads of books, I only came up with a handful of books that I thought I could give away. So there goes the false notion I had, that I was one of those for whom letting go was super easy. Siiiigh.

However, if you can get your hands on any books that you think will be a good read for school kids, then get in touch with me now!

Till then I am going back to my lazing about *grin*.

Loads of movies

Well, I have close to 19 movies that I remember having watched... here they are

Alex is a pediatrician, who is on holiday with his wife, out having a leisurely swim in the lake, when his wife is murdered and he is knocked out cold. Alex is the prime suspect but has his name cleared. 8 years later, he gets an email from his murdered wife and from there begins a taut thriller, as Alex tries to uncover the mystery of his wife's disappearance, chased by a group of assassins and the cops, but with help from a Mafia type friend who is indebted to Alex for saving his son's life, Alex goes about finding his wife.
Good movie, the plot is a little over the top, but good in the thrills and car chases department. Oh did I mention it was a French film? You shall need subtitles.



Super film. To me this was like watching a modern film-noir. A child is missing, and a detective couple are hired by the child's aunt to trace her back. A couple of cop's lend a hand, but the couple must solve the crime themselves.
Like in most suspense thrillers, nothing is what it seems to be and there are loads of unexpected twists till the last minute.
It 's got Ben Affleck's little brother Casey Affleck (whiny accent annoys for a bit, but othewise he does a great job) and Michelle Monoghan (who looks like Liv Tyler) in the lead, with Morgan Freeman playing top cop.
Wonderful watch. But be aware it may leave a you a tad bit depressed. (wow ,I got to use one of my favourite phrases: "a tad bit").



Iron Man 1 was fantastic, Robert Downey Jr. made the role and the suit his own and was brilliant.
Iron Man 2 is also nice, though not as nice as the first one, for a couple of reasons:

1. The villain is not menacing at all. In all the confusion of what they want to do with Whiplash, they forgot to develop his character.Also, Mickey Rourke does not seem to have gotten out of his Wrestler Character, so half the time he walks about looking forlorn. The only saving grace is the Monaco Grand PRix scene, which was fantastic!

2. Iron man is a DJ and dancing. Well to me that was super un-cool. I know they wanted to show his as a troubled alcoholic, but errr there are more subtle ways of showing this than making him a DJ in his own party.

Other than that, it was all good. We got to see Thor's hammer as well (ahem, that sounds weird)

Confessions of a dangerous mind

You will know Sam Rockwell from Iron Man 2 where he plays Tony Stark's not so glamorous business rival.
Here he plays Chuck Barris, a game show host and creator, who is also an assassin on the CIA's payroll. The story is based on the memoirs of Chuck Barris, who claimed to be a CIA hitman in real life, though whether it was a fantasy he played out or whether it was true is debatable.
Its a great watch, especially, with Julia Roberts, playing a fellow CIA assassin. Super movie.


Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), has his home broken into, his wife and child raped and murdered in front of his eyes by a psychotic thief and his aide. The aide gets death penalty, but the guy who commits the crime is let off after a few years in jail. Jaime Foxx plays the attorney who convinces Clyde that the best the law could do has been done.
But soon everyone associated with the case start dying horrible deaths. Clyde apparently works for a clandestine govt agency and now wants revenge. He tortures and kills the guy who murdered his family (which is gruesome but super awesome as well) and goes after everyone else associated with the case. Jaime Foxx must now try and save the innocent people who are being targeted by the erstwhile "Law abiding citizen".
The revenge bit is great, the manner in which he goes about killing is also good, but again the plot is a bit unbelievable.
Decentish watch.



Kevin Costner plays Lt. Cmdr. Tom Farrell and Gene Hackman plays the US Defence secretary, David Brice. Tom works for David Brice and both are in love with the same woman.
The lady in question is in love with the dashing commander whom she meets at a party, but is stuck being the mistress of the Defence Secretary. Brice does not know that the man who is wooing his mistress away from him is Tom Farell. In a fit of rage, he accidentally kills his mistress and tries to mislead everyone into a hunt for a mole in his department who he says was the mysterious boyfriend of the lady who was killed.

He hands the case to Tom Farell, who knows the truth (since he himself is the mysterious boyfriend) and must now get the Defence Secretary to pay for his crime.

Good thriller, with a super unexpected twist in the end.

Ryan Reynolds stars in this movie that deals with his character's daughter trying to identify how he met her mother and who her mother is. In a bedtime story he makes up the names of the 3 women he dated and was in love with, and lets the daughter guess who her mother is.
Average movie. No wow effect.


Horrible movie. Nagesh Kukunoor is an idiot.


I loved this movie! It pans out like a Hindi movie and is very well made and directed. Nit surprising for a Woody Allen movie.
The plot is pretty straigh-forward. The hero is a middle class, ex-professional tennis player who is ambitious but wants to earn it all on his own, without help from anyone. He takes up coaching and meets a rich young guy whom he soon befriends.
At a party at their country house he meets the guy's sister and who takes a liking to him, and they fall for each other. He also meets a beautiful lady(Scarlett Johansson) who he falls heads over heels in love with, but she turns out to be the rich dudes fiance.
Having married the rich girl and having landed a plush corporate job (thanks to his father-in-law), but still madly in love with Scarlett Johansson. Our hero is in a dilemma. And so it heads to an awesome last 30 minutes.

Watch it.

The rest are in a different post :D

A good weekend takes all of 5 days to come by

Thursday is the day I hate the most in a week, because I have already slogged out for 3 days and its still not Friday.
The weekends, to state the obvious, are a joy :) I haven't been out traveling a lot ,unlike the last few years when I was out every other weekend, but there is seemingly enough to do.

This weekend was super. Friday we discovered 'Couch' on M.G. Road. The match was a good watch (Brazil lost), but playing dumb charades in the crowded pub was even better :P

Saturday was time for getting our Karaoke set out to Apsara and Yogesh's place and belting out Hindi songs :D, followed by watching Germany thump Argentina, siiiigh. To round off the evening we watched 'The Others', one of the movies I rate quite high in the horror movie genre.

Sunday was supposed to be Tree Planting day, but just could not wake up to head out and plant saplings early. Nevertheless, Fava at UB city in the evening, The Oval bar at Mantri in the night and 'The A-team' with the boys to close out a good Sunday.

Okay! Till the next weekend then!

As I read this post I realise it would have been best if I had started with "Dear diary...". But well what the heck, a post is a post.