Mumbai November 26, 2008

Talking to a friend who happened to be stuck in Mumbai during the terror attack. And he tells me "It happened in Coimbatore - you were in Chennai.....it happened in Colaba...you were in Dadar....pretty soon, the probability will kick in right?". Suddenly the Bosnias and Balis dont feel like the other end of the world.

The movie week

For a person who watches a couple of movies a month in theaters, I created a new record. Five movies in one week. Phew.

White

A Polish movie screened at alliance francais. Though I missed the first twenty minutes of the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those movies that you know you liked, but it is difficult to say why you liked. Unfortunately I missed the other two in the trilogy. Someday when I run a company, I will ensure my employees can go for as many movie screenings they want to.

Golmaal 2

Big mistake. The only reason I went for the movie was we were playing a prank on a friend. We managed to convince her we had tickets for the premier of Dostana and John Abraham was coming. Two little magic words and we had a bakra. The room mate however enjoyed the mindless slapstick comedy, which was far more entertaining than the movie.


Vaaranam Ayiram

Thanks to a friend, I managed a first day second show after ages. Surya was incredible. Though a good 30 minutes of the movie could have been chopped with no impact on the story line, I quite liked it. Simran was a surprise package. Apart from a bit of over the top sappiness and some very non tamil movie moments, there was something fresh and feel good about the movie. Oh did I mention surya “six pack” sivakumar was awesome?


Fashion

I went expecting a morbidly depressing movie but I was in for a surprise. Though the movie was not really a happily ever after fairy tale, it didn’t leave you depressed like Bhandakar’s previous flick. Priyanka Chopra who I never really liked did quite a good job. And I was surprised to see Chitrashi Rawat of Chak de do a cameo. It was an all girls outing and the movie had its far share of super sexy shoes to drool over. Perfect Sunday afternoon.

Quantum of Solace

I have inherited the Bond mania from my dad and was looking forward to the release of QOS. It took me a good three weeks of trying for tickets before I finally managed to watch it. I am still wondering why it got such bad reviews. Personally I felt the morbid deaths apart- the fight sequence on the ropes and the Tosca scenes were beautifully shot.

At the end of it...caramel popcorn at Sathyam rocks!

Autumn in New York

When I was ten i created this list of top ten places that I had to visit. The US never figured in it. But as luck has it, it will probably be my most visited country. My last trip to the country was a whirlwind tour of cities. Vegas and LA dazzled me, but the feeling didn't linger. So when I decided to extend a business trip and visit a friend in NYC, I went with no exceptions. They say you have the best experiences when you have the least expectations. So true. Five days in NY and I wonder why I never put that on my list.

Wandering around a city on your own is the best way to experience it. The museums, quaint coffee shops serving the best cheesecake and the sunny parks made me fall in love with the city. I spent the days walking around the city and the evenings with my friend. Having lived in NY for years, she knew of beautiful scenic spots and fantastic food joints that didn't figure on touristy books. Thanks to her I experienced Greek and Ethiopian food.

I had to do the usual tourist stuff - Empire state building, statue of liberty etc. The empire state building was bit of a disappointment.Surprisingly I loved the statue of liberty. I had no clue about the depth of history connected to it. Of all the statues in NYC, the one of the immigrants at Ferris Island was my favorite. There was something haunting and touching about the statue of immigrants looking into the future. The visit to the statue of liberty was also special as I met my best friend after ages there.

The icing on the cake of course was Broadway. Since it was the weekend, I could not get tickets for any of the new shows. So Mary Poppins it was. I was totally blown away with theater experience. When Mary Poppins swoops into the audience in the final act, I nearly jumped out of my seat in awe.

At the end of five days, I had bid adieu to the macadamia nut cheesecakes and Jamaican street vendors. I was sad but looking forward to filter coffee back home. Its definitely one of the cities I want to go back and visit. I love New York!

Weekend Notes

I was never one for traditions when I lived at home. But living on my own changed that.

My mom has traditions and superstitions for every occasion. From eating sugar first thing on your birthday to always ensuring daughters ate the wings of a chicken- she truly has a "must do" for every occasion. The second of November marks all souls day. As tradition my family visits the cemetery and place flowers and incense sticks at the graves of our ancestors. Since my parents always chose the unglamorous mid afternoon to visit, my sister and me tried our best to wiggle out of it. Always resulting in little success.

This year, I went along quite willing much to my mother's surprise. Despite the heat and the fact we have to visit a trillion graves I was quite moved by the visit. Moved might be the wrong word.But some emotions cant be put into words. Reading tombstones was like getting a tiny peek into the past. My mom of course had a story after every tomb we visited. "That was Aunt Rose's tomb. She designed her own tomb stone. It was the in thing to do those days." She mentioned matter of factly. I am not too sure of how many of these stories were my mom's imagination. But going back home I thought it was nice we still had such traditions. In this day and age when not many can remember who won the last Nobel, it felt good to remember our roots. It is quite scary that Im starting to see sense in my moms little traditions. I am not sure if I am growing up or growing old