This and that

Every night as I prepare to retire for the day, I wonder at how quickly the day has ebbed away. The 3 weeks of vacation would soon be just another bunch of memories to be reminisced in subsequent Skype calls.

I look back at the day and try to recollect each moment. Amidst the euphoria of the time well spent, a slow melancholy seeps in. Alas! The time is gone by. The day is gone, the moment is far away in time. It is all so quick, I wonder if I appreciated the moment well enough. 

I wonder since when did our homes become our vacation destinations? Why do I have to pull my heart away and leave this place I call home? The answer is proven and time tested by generations before me - to grow out of the cocoon and grow colourful wings, to explore.

I compose myself with these thoughts and lull myself another peaceful sleep in my nest.

Time travel

It is strange, yet so predictable, how simple things can transport you back in time, to familiar emotions and sweet memories. We call it nostalgia and it happens to almost everyone. 

The most cliched nostalgia, perhaps, everyone has is about the rain. I am no exception and this is not the first time either that I am getting nostalgic about the rains or blogging about it. the only difference- another place, another time. For the past few days,I have been desperately trying get back to blogging. Hundreds of topics and words have crossed my mind in this time and I would have read a few blogs of fellow bloggers, as well, for inspiration. But, it took the slight summer drizzle outside to actually wake me up from my deep slumber. And I happily recall that, it was rain again that inspired me to start blogging years back and that was what I first blogged about. But back then it was the heavy monsoon extravaganza!

So coming back to the point about being predictable that I mentioned above, I say nostalgia is 'predictable' because much has been talked about it, much has been blogged about it. So when I say I am nostalgic about rains it is almost predictable about the train of thoughts that would follow - the sweet fresh smell of soil, the rhythmic thudding of the rain drops, the school re-openeing - new classses, old friends,new year to look upto-, the hot tea and snacks, the bike rides in the rain and on and on I could go.

I know they are cliched, I know they are cheesy. But, they are the truth! And I shamelessly declare that I am nostalgic today, about the rains.

It is a happy feeling to be nostalgic and  to revel in the beautiful experiences you have had. Afterall, it is experiences and memories which make up and shape life. They pronounce load and clear how beautiful the journey so far had been and assure how beautiful the journey ahead could be.

The Movie Buff speaks -1

My comments on few of the movies I have watched recently:

Dangerous Ishq

There was much hype about this movie as the "Karisma Kapoor come back movie". As she said in an interview this might be the first time that she has done such a role, but ofcourse there is nothing new in the theme. I never expected much from a Mukesh Butt movie anyways, so I am not dissappointed! Karisma looks great, but that is the only thing I liked in the movie. The story revolves around past lives and past life regression as they call it. I didnt like the way the actor gets hallucinations of her past life. That was lacking a flow. Karisma's character helps in an investigation in the present life by taking clues from the past life.But, I don't understand what she is doing in every frame accompanying the police! 

In short, the movie is an utter waste of time, don't even think about it! Ms Kapoor should have chosen a better movie to come back.

Ishaqzaade 

I truly loved this one. Though there is nothing amazingly new in the plot, (Hindu boy Muslim girl love story in the backdrop of  politics in Alwar, spiced up by a little double cross and vengeance and love ) there is freshness in the movie. May be because of Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor. Both have done a nice job, but surely, Parineeti's work overshadows everything else. The strength and the roughness her character portrays really stands out. I liked the music too. A different genre of love story from the YRF arsenal, but this one is really worth all the praise. I liked the fast pace the movie has. All the violence and shor-sharaba induced a  feeling of listening to hard rock!

This is not a must watch movie , like the ones below, but this will not disappoint you.

Kahaani

This is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in recent times. Simply loved the plot and the manner of story telling. Vidya's performance is truly applaudable, but I would give more credits to its writer, Advaita Kala.The climax really bowled me over. It has that slight taste of a Hollywood recipe, but that's forgivable! :)

Yes, it reminded me of Jason Bourne, though the kahaani of Kahaani is totally different.

Ofcourse, this movie is worth a watch. 

22Female Kottayam

These days the malayalam film industry has been doing a lot of experimentation. The film makers are developing a lot of youth targeted movies. In a time when most of the super-star movies fail to impress the audience, movies like 22FK and Traffic with a simple starcast holds the audience spell bound. It is the newness of the themes and the unconventional story telling that I liked in both these movies.

Once again, the plot of 22FK is something that cannot be guessed before hand. The climax is one of the best. On watching the climax, I was like, Yes! that is what had to be done! :)

Once again it reminded me of Sydney sheldon novels, nevertheless, I enjoyed it because I didn't expect this adaptation in a malayalam movie. 

This movie is definitely worth a watch.

iFears

Recently I lost my smartphone. My greatest concern was that my gmail was signed in, in that phone. There was no way of removing that device from my google account. I could, nevertheless, change my password and protect my mail from then on. But, for the first time, the incident incited in me a new kind of fear. For the first time I felt creepy about my online security.

For the first time, it opened my eyes as to how much vulnerable I am, and all of us are, to our online data security. I was just reminded how much depended I am on these networks and devices. What if one day, my laptop crashes and I lose all the valuable data that I stored in it. What if one day google deletes my account? I could ofcourse, back up the data. But how much data will I back up and how many levels of backups would I do. How much hardware would I need?  Now, don't tell me about using the Cloud. It somehow makes me feel exposed. Yeah, I know a great deal about cloud computing, its protocols, types etc and yeah, I even know all my accounts like gmail and FB are on cloud. But, still when I had the option to backup or not to backup my ipad on the icloud, I chose the latter.  

Sometime back, I painstakingly scanned and made digital records of all the old and treasured photographs at home. Those photographs were getting spoilt or already were. I remember my emotions that day I completed scanning all of them. "Now I am gonna fix you guys up in photoshop and then nothing can touch you!!!".  

The first thing I did after coming out of the hangover of losing my phone was to copy all the contents on my laptop including those photos to my external drive. I am still not calmed, but for the moment have my fingers crossed. 

We just take it for granted that nothing will go wrong for us. We know about all the unfortunate things that can happen. But they don't happen to us, do they? And when they eventually does, we go hulla-bulla.

I had read about email accounts getting hacked and being deleted by the service providers themselves and all. But until recently they were all alien concepts. Until the day may dad's got blocked. We tried our best to retrieve it but in vain. I doubt if it is some corporate strategy to be paid for the retrieval.(Sort of ransom? you pay us this much and we release your valuable info!! But what the hell!! my dad could go without it.) But thank God, from that day, I dont have any critical info saved in my mail either. 

Like that non-trustworthy boyfriend, keep your distance from these online accounts. they could ditch you any moment. But yeah! you need them until they do! :-p

I remember sharing a link on my FB wall sometime back - "Google is watching you!". It described the analytics google uses to track user search options etc. I had an uneasy feeling after watching that video. The feeling just worsened now. It's my privacy that is being encroached. These days. you tube makes recommendations to me as to what I should be watching. Now, come on ya, just because I liked a movie some day, doesn't mean I would always prefer that genre. 

Somewhere, within all the comforts that technology provides, our lives are being affected. Of course we have to move with the tide and it is the technology wave that we are riding. In the last few years technology has indeed created a revolution and I am definitely enjoying every bit of it. I am thankful that today I have google to find solution to any of my problems and that I have skype which has helped me travel in time. (I am talking about the time differences when I talk with my brother in Canada, my sister in India. This brings me to a philosophical thought as to what is time? :) may be in the next post!!), ofcourse at the cost of my privacy. 

I am a great connoisseur of technology. To be honest, I am totally awed by the analytics these sites use and the concept of cloud and all. But like everything else, technology also need to be used with caution. Because there could be some evil doer out there trying to take advantage of that teeny-weeny hole in the fabric of these technology. 

And also be ready to bare yourself out there, because in that digital space you are completely exposed!

Sometimes it's all there! Scattered, tattered and mixed up. An imbroglio of disoriented memories!

Incognito, they still exist, somewhere deep , beyond comprehension. Like the ever elusive shadow, they rest at the anvil of the consciousness. Just a grasp away, but never within reach.

Memories, they never let go. But sometimes, they elude, never coming out in the open.

I often get this feeling, not exactly dejavu, but something similar. The event certainly has occurred, but i cannot recall the entire episode. Lapse of memory? May be so. But then that uneasy feeling remains, teasing me, challenging me to get the clearer picture.

Somewhere within the depths of my memory, this story I had read (or known), was making its rounds. I don't know since when. But as I read it here, just now!!, I get the feeling I had been chasing this flake of memory, for some time. It was somewhere deeply embedded in my sub consciousness. The short story I had learnt in some high school class!

As it should happen, it is this article which led me to this post. Otherwise at this moment I should have been doing something else, something better or worse.

Spirit

DON 2 - Booom!!!

SRK and Farhan Akhthar have gravely disappointed an ardent fan, of both Mr. Khan and Don!!!

The much awaited sequel to the block buster DON let me down terribly. Neither the story line nor the songs are worth the wait. Don could have done much better than basking in the glory of the old tracks and the old punchline! I was expecting much heavier dialogues and breath catching suspense!! 

The makers have completely forgotten the lineage of the movie.

SRK s looks are pathetic and his attempts to deliver the punch in the dialogues are quiet evident. I thought the makers of the movie were trying to give the Indian answer to Hollywood!!! And what do I get to watch, a  few sequences from MI2? 

Dejavu... 

SRK appeared to be falling back on his romantic track!! Don and romantic, I would'nt want that, that's not the genre of the movie, yaar!!! 

Dilwale Don Officer Dulhaniya Le jayenge. 

And what does the Don do when he is not prison-breaking or fighting thugs,  give that smirking smile!!!! 

The entire movie is laced with the smile. I would have loved to see SRK smile like that wickedly had the plot been equally impressive. 

Seriously, the movie could have done much better than promoting SRK's brands. The director of course tried Hollywood style film making except that he forgot James Bond movies only give a glimpse of the Omega watches. Here, every time someone checks the time(and they did that quite frequently), Tag heur came up. And was there no other car available, that too in Germany!!!! Hyundai???? Definitely business!!!!

Look at the way Don has fallen!!! He has no good dushman either!! All he is doing is fighting local goons and the police!! When I saw the first shot of the European drug cartel meetings, my expectations were sky rocketing. Later when Don made his entry in the uncivilized looks, I kept consoling myself,hoping for a better tomorrow!!! Only the hope remained!!! 

The only thing good about the movie was it's beautiful locations and picturisations, otherwise there is nothing new. Ofcourse the Don k dushaman punchline and the Don track were good. So was the last sequence where Don sets of the explosion with his watch!! But there is nothing new in them!! I have already seen them. 

Hope SRK gives at least half the attention to his career as he gives to his business!!!! 

Having said all this,  my favorite shot in the movie is the last one where Don rides his bike over the bridge!!!