The Valentine's Surprise !

Am not the "Valentine" kind of person. But I do admit living up to the "expectation of the day" for many years !

Feb 14, 2009 was different. There were no expectations and I had no regrets.

Little did I know that my dear friends would thrill me at the dawn of Feb 17 with a surprise gift :) It was the same watch that I laid my eyes on a week back, when I was out window shopping. The very wrist watch which I classified as "classy" yet "too expensive"!!! My consolation for not purchasing it was, "I have an expensive taste".

Well, this time around I got to taste my dream.... and believe me, it was Yummy ! Truly yummy !!!

Have you ever wondered....

You wake up feeling low on energy, low on spirits.... generally feeling low about life ! But all of this happens without a reason !!! No matter how much you ponder over, the reason remains a mystery.

That is exactly how I felt when I woke up today and started to get to work. I did not enjoy my drive to work nor the nice music from my favorite CD. Was irritated with the security guard at work who wanted to do his job of checking the car's boot and my backpack for "stealth weapons". Reaching my desk, I got online and my friend pinged to say 'Hi' and wanted to know how I was doing. I guess my replies did not portray my usual self and she promptly asked me if everything was OK. I told her that I was down and out and did not know why.

It is then I realized that even subtle responses over an instant message can convey my mood like an X-ray. I decided to change my frame of mind and try not to find reasons for my unhappiness. Instead, I chose to hunt for reasons that would make me happy at work. I have a long day at work staring in front of me, and did not want to walk around exposing my "unknown unhappiness". My team is very quick in scanning my every action :-)

Am almost thru with my day and things dint seem so bad afterall. But somewhere in the corner of my mind the thought still lingers..... "But why?"

Slumdog Millionaire @ The Oscars !

A lot of bouquets & brickbats around "Slumdog". I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I read 'Q&A' by Vikas Swarup around 2 years back and enjoyed reading the book. It definitely had a bollywood touch to it and I recommended the book to friends as a fun read.

Booked tickets for the nite show of Slumdog on Feb 1, 2009 @ Lido Fame Cinemas. I was hoping to watch a decent replication of 'Q&A' but was disappointed from the very beginning. The movie did not have anything to keep my attention on the screen. My mind kept wandering and comparing the few stories that were adapted from the book. It made me wonder how this movie made it to the Oscars.

Talking about ARR's music, I think he has composed some classy tunes in zillion other movies and his music for 'Slumdog' can be easily forgotten. Being a die-hard fan of ARR, it makes me sad to see him getting nominated for such mediocre work.

In my mind, the comments made about showcasing Mumbai badly are totally baseless. I think we must accept reality I see no wrong in what was shown of Mumbai. However, I would agree with most critics and especially ace director Priyadarshan who has lashed Slumdog as a mediocre, trashy version of erstwhile bollywood movies.

I feel no sense of pride in 'Slumdog' making it to the Oscars. Well, thats my personal opinion and if you are reading this, its well within your rights to disagree ;)

Here is a small list of my favorite movies that could have represented India for the 'most prestigious award'
- Thanmatra (Malayalam, featuring Mohanlal)
- Anbe Sivam (Tamil, featuring Kamal Hassan)
- Taare Zameen Par (Hindi, featuring Aamir Khan)
- Shwass (Marathi, did get nominated but did not win)