Perspectives and perceptions

I’ve been born and brought up in Bombay, and I’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays... but the funny thing is that I only remember the gala celebrations from the last few years of my school! When i was 5 – 6, it was so simple, we just brought a cake from the local bakery shop, bought some back presents for all the kids, ate some good home-made snacks along with some local potato wafers in thin paper plates, played musical chairs, and then went home in time for dinner! How different from the scene today! It’s not just the spending that has gone up, the influence of brands, and products, on our day-to-day lives and on our occasional spending has changed drastically too. Today, even if we think of buying a cake from a local bakery, that bakery invariably turns out to be a Monginis, a Croissants or Ribbons & Balloons, the potato wafers are either Lays, or Uncle Chips, or whichever the latest entrant in the market is, the back presents have assumed enormous proportions and somewhere somehow...

This whole mystical word, that forever teases you, surrounds you with warmth, and yet you yearn for the cold, just so that you feel, those arms hold you strong... In moments of joy, in times of agony, why does that one person, become your only solace, and why can't you ever forgive, that absence momentarily... Through the journey of many years, you feel, you touch, and you know, but still every time after some time, the first glance, the first touch, still makes you shiver... How is it that most people, have to prod you so many times, almost always manage to bug you some times, fail to evoke those emotions at times, but you always smile for him at all times... :)

Okay, so i was out on this awesome day + evening + night this sunday... and we had to catch a movie. Wanted to watch 'Date Night' but the timings just didn't work out, so there we were watching 'Bounty Hunter'... :) Jennifer Aniston in yet another movie proves that she's just not cut out for acting in movies, she was great in Friends, but has not been like that in anything else! Clearly, the director needs to be able to get her to act like the one in Friends did. I think what was missing was, her expressions, she's just too controlled, too straight-faced, and too just 'tight' in everything and you just can't feel for her. Gerard Butler is okay. Nothing great. He's not even half as good as he was in P.S. - I love you! The movie's nice. I mean it's not great. You wouldn't miss out on anything if you didn't see it, but it's not like you'll be terribly bored watching it either! There were some really funny moments, especia...

Well... This movie was one of the most forgettable movies I've seen in the recent past! To begin with, the movie starts off like 300, with a narration that's supposed to set the pace and the base to the entire story. But they forget to use things like voice modulation, and most importantly a script?! The narrator mumbles something about the creation of the earth by the Gods, and talks about their love for man... and you just don't get the drift. Then you see a woman who places a kid inside a basket (kind of like Moses) into the sea along with a woman in the same basket. A family adopts the kid and he's raised. Cut to 18-20 years hence, the kid's grown, the family of four are sailing, trying to catch fish for their livelihood. Suddenly you hear the talk of an uprising, and men fighting with the Gods! It's so far-fetched that you just never understand or believe what's happening. So lightning strikes, the family's boat sinks, and as expected, everyone exce...

It's been three years almost since I first sat on a Bullet... and I can still feel the thrill. It's funny how some associations just stick with you for your lifetime, my affair with the Enfield has been exactly that. I first sat on the Bullet Electra 350 cc, red colour... and I knew this was special. I had never felt like that on a bike before, and the moment I sat I was comfortable. That instinctual connection was fuelled by the connection I shared with the rider! :) And it was magical. To the point where, within a span of a few days, I could only by its sound (from far away) distinguish an Electra, from a Machismo, to a Thunderbird! And to think I had no idea about what bikes were! I only knew what they felt like! Years later, my fascination continued, I began to judge the rider by the bike he rides, and automatically one who owned / rode an Enfield rose in my expectation and in my eyes... To the point where given a choice I would most certainly place trust in an Enfield ride...

There are some movies where you should just choose to leave your head behind and see only the movie. This movie, Hum Tum aur Ghost, is somewhat similar. The plot is fairly simple, you have Arshad Warsi, playing Armaan, a fashion photographer who's a heavy drinker, assisted by a gorgeous Sandhya Mridul, playing Mini, in love with Dia Mirza, playing Ghehna, who's supposed to be the editor of Cosmopolitan (and is not seen under pressure, is not hyper fashion conscious, or busy at all!). That said, you have an entire entourage of "ghosts" who are following Armaan, because he has the "gift" to see, and hear them. Similar to the Sixth Sense, each of them have died having something unfinished and need help from him to complete that deed so that they can move on to heaven... It's interspersed with some comic dialogues, and some great acting esp. by Boman Irani, and Sandhya Mridul. Arshad Warsi fails to evoke the right sentiment of pity, warmth, and affection in ...

I just saw "Dead Poets Society" yesterday. And I fell in love with Ulysses - the poem written by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Reproducing the entire text here! :) Ulysses It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honor'd of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro...