Wassaaap!.......

Do u remember the time wen this holler of urban greeting was made (in)famous by the Budweiser ad? Well not many would remember the ad as much as the greeting in itself...the genNxt way of simply saying 'Hello, How are you?'....That is one tangential way of starting a blog entry...the main emphasis was on the part that I am writing an entry and on that account--Wassap!! Although I havent been as prolific as my other fellow blog writers, I am still happy to see that the blog isnt half as bad. On another tangential note, the ads these days are just about anything...I had been to the movies recently and the ads that they showed before the movie and during intervals were just too lame to bear....There is this one ad of some learning institute where a couple are driving through the mountains and the guy gives the girl a diamond ring..she is so excited that she hugs the guy (who apparently is driving the car with no focus at all) and the car swerves off the road in the mountains and fall into the sea below..well, thats one helluva hug! Anyway the car is in the water and interestingly is filled with water in like 3 secs (even with all the windows rolled up) and the chick gets one brilliant spark in her otherwise dark head that she can cut the car windows with the diamonds with the super cliched line 'Only diamonds cut glass' to her dumb blonde fiance...and they cut the glass and swim to safety...there should be a disclaimer that the learning institute wont take in retards though and certainly not anyone with no concentration while driving..
Weird ads....weirder in a boring movie too....especially those stupid toothpaste and tooth powder ads that claim to have been cleaning the teeth worldwide...anyways...this was one entry to check out if my blog account still works or not (n it does! yay!)....so will b bk with more updates later...till then adios..

Reel Genius

I'm back (yes...this line has been officially rendered cliched on my blog with all the disappearing acts that I routinely put on). What have I been up to you ask? Well, as a close friend rightly pointed out...I have been busy watching a lot of movies and working strenuously on my assignments. The key word here is movies and that is the reason for this blog. while I do agree I have turned into an avid movie buff (at the risk of that being an understatement), I always manage to watch them with the standing excuse that it is all in the name of some creative stimulation. So this entry is to some of the movies that I have loved the most over the years purely on the visual brilliance and creative psych that the film is made with. I should probably start with the rightful choice of being one of the best movies of all times. This movie has been on the 1st position of the IMDB top 100 movies of all times for as long as I can remember. Its The Shawshank Redemption. This is one movie that always amazes me no matter how many times I see it. It is pure brilliance the way it is directed and the movie flows (n hey...its not just me....a billion other people agree with me..) this movie perhaps shows how someone used the system to beat the system... a cult favorite and the top of my list as well. Another movie that I can watch countless times is Transformers. The first in the series that keep enthralling audiences the  world over, this movie is perhaps what Michael Bay will be best remembered for. Steven Spielberg had said that Michael Bay was born to make this movie...and if he says so then who am I to refuse? :) 
Next in line is a couple of graphic novel adaptations. The first being Sin City. Its produced and directed by Frank Miller on his very own graphic novel by the same name. I think every one will agree when I say the cinematography is slick and breathtaking. All I could wonder was how did he manage to make a film that looks like the graphic novel had come to life. Another in the series is Frank Miller's 300. Dialogue, action and pure raw power is what this film delivers (add to that fact the use of extensive mind blowing CG.....and a lot of good looking macho men with six packs and weapons for all you ladies out there..). Another visual treat is an adaptation of the graphic novel V for Vendetta. Although the film lacks visual action that the previous two films delivered, what takes the cake is the beautiful dialogue delivery and the theatrics at its very best (trust me the dialogues itself will get u floored).
Final Fantasy series are a couple of animations that have taken my breath away. Its the first time I saw animations come anywhere close to real life rendering (all this way back in 2001 and of course the super cool Advent Children that was released in 2005)
Visual treats will be incomplete if I do not give credits to what is one of the most technologically advanced movies of our times....no I'm not talking about Rajnikant in Robot...... but this is the pure genius of a man who had a vision that went over a decade in making....James Cameron's Avatar...Characterization, story and a whole movie in 'mind-blasting' 3D... this movie is the dope of everything awesome.
 I am sure there are many more which i can count in this creative genius category but shall refrain owing to the lack of print space (sic) and the fact that half the people who have read till this point have either dozed off or are yawning their way there.. But before i end this entry a movie that is a personal recommendation for must watch is a movie called Buried..no special effects, no action....what is brilliant about this movie is that the director has managed to engage us with just one character in a 6X4 coffin buried in the ground...that is pretty much the plot...the location and the cast of this movie yet you shall be glued to this movie till the very end....pure brilliance i say!
That was my low down on the ingenious movies that I find appealing to my eyes and the grey matter to an extent...watch this space for more banter on such topics....till then watch some more movies...you never know what might inspire you...

Flavour of the Season..

Christmas and New Year's just passed by and that marked and end to my hibernation from blogging (not that i would start updating entries daily :P ). An expression on meeting friends and acquaintances after a long time in recent years is the remarkable 'What's up?' or 'Wassap' or the even more abbreviated variation 'Sup?'...I consider this greeting as one of the most rhetorical thought provoking question of sorts (right after 'What is Life?' and 'What is enlightenment?' and quite above most other questions as the quintessential 'Do I look fat?). It is often subject to many inane retorts as 'erm...nothing much' to the very clichéd and much annoying 'the sky is up'...however the point of the matter is that quite a few things have been 'up' recently....a lot of scams have surfaced since my last blog entry (none of which made me any money)...New Year and Christmas were quite sober for most of the city..and that brings us to the topic of the blog- the Flavour of the Season--- no it wasnt rum soaked cakes....not even walnut cakes....not even marshmallows or eggnog...it was surprisingly (and this is a tear jerking moment) - Onions!! Never has this vegetable been the celebrated talk of the town...and this time the entire nation as well...the one thing that consistently going 'up' were the onion prices. Among other things, the north is still snow covered and people still shivering there...as for news about me...well...my blog is news enough for now...more later....watch this space..

Underdogs no more..

The FIFA World cup is coming to a close tonight. Its been one hell of a month with 32 countries fighting for glory. India is not really the football fanatic country (with cricket being the poison for sports enthusiasts....i think that has something to do with the Brits ruling us for 150 years...). But then we have states within India who have a passion for football. Kerala and Kolkata (Calcutta if you're not looking for political correctness), are examples of such states. Both are communist states with a lotta strikes happening either way. Added to that, the fact that football is revered and Pele & Maradona are gods here, It's a no brainer to conclude that its a virtual holiday season in these parts. Mumbai views the World Cup phenomenon as a social meet, with friends hanging out at pubs for drinks and cheering the teams they have very little idea about. Well, thats a generic view though we do have people following the sport with equal passion. The favorites for this year's cup were Brazil, Argentina & Germany for most fans and Portugal, France and Italy for the lesser few. This World cup has history in the making as none of the major teams came close (with Germany coming close to it by clinching the third place title) Now we have Spain and Netherlands fighting it out for the ultimate glory. Both were the underdogs throughout the competition, with Spain never reaching the finals and Netherlands having a chance to win the title after over 30 years. It is pretty cool knowing that eitherway its pure entertainment and fun since there wont be much heartbreak over which favorite team would win (with all the favorites out of the tournament anyway). I know I will be happy with either win because I will be cheering now for game and not the players (would be awesome if the Dutch takes the cup though :P ) Will write more after witnessing history being written. It has begun....

Surprise!!

Surprise!!...That's something people love to hear.....well most of the times...unless you're surprised by the fact that you have become bankrupt or something...in which case, it totally sucks!! Well I just celebrated my birthday recently and that is the word that, well, took me by surprise. The day started off pretty well and the plan was to have a quiet time with one of my closest friends. To say the least, that was the plan in just my head. Unknown to me, she had something else planned......obviously!! So we are there with a plate of nachos and a drink and all of a sudden I'm blindfolded by some hand and realizing later on that I'm surrounded by my gang of close friends yelling (yeah you got it) SURPRISE!!. Needless to say, I was stunned. I probably understood, at that very moment, what it feels like to be frozen in time...(Like the sloth in Ice Age). What followed after that was some more moments of me frozen in different poses and good food and a lot to drink. Needless to say, the birthday went very well.
What surprised me truly was the love and affection that i saw within the gang that day. The warmth that could be felt being within that group...those moments of laughter and fun. This is where I belonged, that group of friends not just mere friends.....they are family now. I know for a fact that there is a much stronger bond that ties us together than just that of friendship. It is perhaps the best gift that anyone can have. A gift for a lifetime....I am blessed...To the ones who make life worth it...love you all...

Resilient Soul...

This blog is about something that is close to my heart as a human being. Its about a student of architecture from Mumbai who has been a victim of the recent attack on a passenger train in West Bengal. The groups that attacked may have their justifications for it but then it is not good enough as many innocent people were victims of the tragedy. They may have emphasized some point they wanted to prove through this deed of theirs but then again at what cost. Back to the student in question, she is a talented person and excels in her studies. From what I hear, her work is impressive and among the best in the class. So how did she qualify to be traumatized by this act of violence?....she shouldnt have been.... To get a grip of the tragedy, this is what she is left with-- an amputated right arm, broken hips and surgeries involving her limbs. Perhaps I feel much for her because she is a student of the college I belong to...but then again she deserves a fighting chance. hence the purpose of this blog....its a call to everyone out there, anyone who can contribute to the treatment of this girl, feel free to leave a comment to this blog with your contact details, we will get in touch with you. Monetary help will be much appreciated (current estimates for her treatment with the prosthetic arm stand roughly at Rs. 1 crore). If not, then any help in kind (treatment, counselling, physiotherapy or even the donation of a prosthetic arm) will be much appreciated. This is for someone who would rise against the odds... this one is for Shreya Sen... to her resilience..I havent seen her or met her for that matter but I hope this blog helps her in some way, no matter how insignificant..(for my part, an amount from the projects that I do will be forwarded to her treatment). Its time for us to rise up and do the right thing.
Do visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/SHREYA-SEN-SUPPORT-GROUP/131548410190475 for more info and contacts.

YLGMH

My best friend introduced me to this website called 'Gives Me Hope' yesterday. The website is a compilation of small incidents that have changed people's life all around. Its divided into sections for 'amazing friends', 'inspiring feats', 'random acts of kindness', etc. As a concept i find this a very nice website. Its not as sissy as people might think it to be. The beauty of the concept is the fact that its all about thanking someone publicly (publicly respecting a person who changed your perception of life) and to inspire people around the globe (people like me). The concept of it was so hard hitting that it actually made me go ahead n write a blog entry about it. A couple of entries are as follows: -

"I was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

I told my husband I would understand if he wanted to leave, he didn't sign up for a mentally ill wife, and I have made his life hell for the past three years. 

He just smiled and said, "In sickness and in health covers crazy, too." 

His love GMH."

"Recently, I found out I have a serious problem with my blood.

I was talking to my best friend about how scared I was. I started crying and said, "What if my body starts shutting down? What if I have to be in a wheelchair?" 

"Well," he said, "I'll be the one pushing." GMH."

The part i loved most in this website was that every entry on the website ended with the 3 letters GMH (Gives Me Hope). As I said, it's about inspiring people.....about giving them hope....about appreciating the people in our lives. As I live through every difficulty in life this is the one thing that I wanna say out loud....to my family and to my best friends....your love gives me hope.....YLGMH...

P.S. Do drop by the website http://www.givesmehope.com/ and be inspired...