A week of Movie madness

I'd attended the Asian Film Festival for the first time last year. Its the first and only real film fest I've attended so far, so I was super excited about attending this year as well. The movies shown last year were not exactly good (I'm sure there are better films being made in Asia), but the whole experience was fun - running between two theaters (2 venues), laughing at the really dumb films, being taken aback by some unexpectedly good ones(rare, this) and so on. This year was no different, if anything, the quality of the selected films deteriorated further, with some gems here and there. Here's an account of the Day 1 :

The fest opened at Plaza with Aha!(Dir:Enamul Karim Nirjhar), a Bangladeshi film that went on and on for what seemed to be over 3 hours.

Plot (What, Where?!): A man is preparing to sell his ancestral home. Enter his physically abused daughter and grandson (both having rhyming names- Ruba and Buba?!) from the States, Ruba's subsequent friendship with her neighbour - 'kissi kissi' Kislu (no comments) - a friendship which started out with her staring out of her window at the underpants he put out to dry, his 'all (and very bright) colours of the rainbow' underpants, and I mean rainbow quite literally - one colour for each day of the week. Throw in a very irritating, cricket obsessed servant with flies perpetually buzzing around him, and who, btw, is also an ex-convict; some highly uninteresting relatives and a party for the grandson's circumcision, and voila! - you have a not so very encouraging start to the festival. Aha! is also Bangladesh's official entry to the Oscars (There's hysterical laughter in my head) and that does not bode well for that nation's Oscar hopes this year or the next 10 - that is how long the jury will be mad at them for having the gall to send in this one

The next one was Ma (Dir:Manju Borah), from Assam, a musical, with the leads bursting into song every other minute - the Assamese apparently have songs for all occasions: love and other similar emotions; sowing, harvesting, rains, summer, fishing, motherhood, walking ... you get the hint. The film also vaguely flitted over the border dispute between Nagaland and Assam. Most others found this one bad as well, but my friends and I found this one quite bearable, after the traumatic experience of Aha!

After such a wonderful start to the festival, we decided that we didn't have the courage for anymore movies that day and ran away to college as fast as we could!

Success, Success, Success

It really bugs me when people make faces or speak in weird tones when i tell them I'm majoring in history. "History? Why history?" WHY THE BLOODY HELL NOT????
Next question is "What do you plan to do after majoring in history?" Well, don't you know? I'll be dressing up and parading around as Queen Victoria at Prince of Wales museum, bestowing Knighthood upon people like you!!
I often want to tell these people to get off my back. They irritate and anger me endlessly. And that's because I can imagine exactly what they are thinking - What will she do with a history major/ I thought she was intelligent/She has potential to do better than this. Their definition of success involves a degree in medicine, engineering, finance, business, literature etc (in that order) and then a house, car, office, money - lots of it.

Well, guess what? My definition of success does NOT include a huge house, a car that i most probably won't even be able to drive, sitting in a swanky office having many disinterested people working under me blah blah. NO SIR.

If you are happy doing what you are doing, believe me, you are successful. Getting up each morning looking forward to your day means you have made it - you are doing something you like- something you most probably are good at; and that itself is usually the formula for success.
By the way, the formula for success also includes an indomitable will, determination to succeed, a very optimistic outlook and so on, and these you can gather only if you want to succeed in a particular thing... confused? EG: If i had majored in economics (I was unfortunately good at it, I also happen to hate it) I'd have had to look for a related job and then work to be successful doing something i didn't even like in the first place!

OK, enough with success, I've used the word a million times already..this post is just a hug to all those people out there who are majoring in HISTORY, philosophy (poor dogs), geography, Latin, Greek, library science, Zulu ideology etc - Hang in there guys!

'In vacant or in pensive mood'

There is something very therapeutic about hot chocolate at midnight…the bitter sweet taste never fails to comfort me, but very often, makes me pensive…

I sit and wonder what will happen tomorrow, where will I be? Will I be somebody? Will I be happy being that somebody? Will I fall into a routine that most people we see around us fall into? Get up, food, travel, work. Travel back. Will my whims, which arise with amazing regularity (and thus contradict the word, but whatever) - to be alone, to just laze around reading, surfing, watching TV, go book shopping, to just be quiet…take a backseat?
Not that life isn’t very time table-ish right now. Wake up at a god forsaken hour, bathe, dress- all the time moving sluggishly, run behind the bus which forever eludes me (Melodramatic? Try paying 20 bucks each day to get to the station) Travel (VT seems closer than Matunga, don’t ask) attend lectures which, thankfully, are enjoyable.
But college life is not meant to be lived through by rote - and again, thankfully, I don‘t. The structure remains the same, the insides change everyday - you know? I may have extra work to do, some meeting to attend, friends to tease and ‘hang out’ with, gossip and argue with. Discuss everything under and beyond the sun with them. Go for a movie, go to VT- yay!- get lost there, wander around in Asiatic. Drink hundreds of cups of coffee, eat out. Complain about canteen food and crib about the rain or the heat. Forget an umbrella behind, drop the cell phone at least once. Swear, sing off-key, laugh. Announce, in a fit of guilt and motivation, the commencement of studying from “this day onwards” and sheepishly smile the next day, when that obviously didn’t happen. Say goodbye- 7 times- then finally leave for home. Some days, rush to class, hit the kit a few thousand times and argue good naturedly with Mona on the way back. Read into the night, till the sun peeks out and wonders why I am up earlier than the birds. Go back to college.
The point of this post? I have absolutely NO idea! :)

I’m done being pensive now. ’night, folks.

Things to do before I die

Travel alone - To Italy - Rome, Florence, Amalfi Coast; Guernsey, Machu Picchu - Peru, Iran, Japan, Angkor Wat - Cambodia, France(countryside) {Paris Done!}, Wales {Done}, Turkey, Pakistan, Moscow, Cuba, Central Asia. Leh-laddakh, North-East India.

In fact, to visit every nook and corner of my country

To stand alone at the Stonehenge.

{Done!}

To explore the ruins of Takshila and Nalanda

To plant a banyan and a mango tree. Climb a tree.

Bungee Jump (Not at crowded place. Preferably some nice, high, isolated spot :D )

Send Dad on his dream trip to Finland, get mom her dream home in Ooty. Send them both on a cruise

Study Abroad

{Done!}

Get a tattoo

Read all the books I wanted to, meant to, have to, have bought to

Tango! Twist! Jive! Salsa!!!

Dance in a disco without being self conscious

Open a bookstore (small one -Serendipity- wooden floors, glass door with a bell that rings when it opens, latticed windows)

Get a dog. Name him Jack.

Learn to swim properly (and not just "I can save myself, if I have to")

In spite of 2 sessions(almost 30 classes) of driving, don't know how to start a car. Once that's done for me, I can drive (Big Deal). So - Learn how to start a car, drive, park...the whole nine yards

Learn how to ride a motorcycle. Then buy a Harley, go to Laddakh and vroooooooom-------!!!

Ride a horse in a wild open field in the middle of nowhere

Learn a foreign language

Learn how to play the Cello

Finish learning Bharatnatyam

Make a difference in at least one child's life

To earn enough for all of the above!

Get a job i can't wait to get to every morning

Play football in the rain

Scream myself hoarse cheering for India while watching a live India vs Pakistan match

Watch a live game of Federer vs Nadal (Which Federer wins), talk to Federer, get his autograph then die and go to heaven

Cricket woes

When I got a call from the VPM (Student's association of sorts, I'll explain later) saying they wanted me to come over to discuss the box cricket tournament they were hosting on Sunday, I had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be regarding media coverage for the event (I handle Media publicity for VPM)
I'll be blunt - they want all the VPM volunteers and teams to play cricket on Sunday. Reason : They want the event to be all inclusive
My conclusion after reading between the lines : Since they have only one registration for the event....
Now, I'm all for the thing. Only problem is, I've never liked the game. Haven't even followed the over-hyped IPL, preferring to watch the French Open at the time. Of the few cricket matches I have seen, all involved India and Pakistan, and I watched them anticipating drama, rather than due to any love for the game.
Since I have played cricket only NEVER, I was going in to have fun. But that was until I saw several teams actually practising. So.
Now I have to borrow a bat from some friend, learn to bowl from dad AND learn to catch properly. Not that I'm a very girly girl, but please!!!!
match on Sunday. One thing is for sure : I refuse to get eliminated in the first round. Yeah!!!

Doggie Delights

After Bengali class on Sunday, Mom and I were making our way towards the gate when i spotted this honest-to-god cute black cocker spaniel, who was furiously wagging his short tail, and staring quite intently at something on the ground. I tried tugging mom towards Doggy, but mom was not in the mood to play. So i made my way over to Doggy, and realised that he was staring at a lemon, his nose almost touching it. I ruffled his head, but he wouldn't look up at me. I looked askance at the watchman, who said, "Kick it." I blinked. "The dog? no way!" "No, the lemon. Look.." and he proceeded to demonstrate, kicking the lemon to the other end of the parking lot. And, to my surprise, Doggy pelted after it, caught it, made his way back to us and dropped it at the man's feet. "Oh, he wants his exercise", mom smiled. She made her way to the sandwich wallah, and sensing my longing to play with Doggy, let me stay, till her sandwich was done. For 15 mins, i played with the tyke, whose name was Taurus. Taurus, apparently, has rules while playing; No.1 being : No touching his lemon. Since I wasn't overly anxious to touch the slobber covered lime, that worked out fine. Taurus, who was extremely clean btw (his coat was silky soft) is very good at playing Fetch. He even retrieved the lime from under a car and would alternately drop the lime at my feet, and then the watchman's. A fair dog. Never thought I'd see that one ;) I had to walk away after some time, but my first time playing with a dog had turned out great!

Aaaarrrghhh!!!!

Hey, so teachers really expect you to know stuff by the time you reach the third year. Hell, they expect you to remember stuff you learnt last 2 years (please!?!)
So the history department has exactly 2 teachers: The HoD (MM) is very cute and really good, and the other one (LR)too is great but also,er.., for the lack of a better term, high on life.. She's beams at us bleary eyed mortals, while bouncing into the classroom at 7.25 in the morning. Beams. Most of us are usually in various stages of desperation for coffee at the time. She usually proceeds to remind us to hand in our assignments by the end of the month, (4 at the last count) and goes on to say "I won't give marks if you don't do your research!" - we've been asked to read almost all the History books in the library. Oh, we also have 2 projects of 20 marks each, which are kind of important if you want to be anywhere in the vicinity of a first class when you get your TY results.
So, we obviously don't have enough to do, what with 4 assignments and 2 projects and infinite research work, so now we have an extra project thrown in to add to the fun! Oh joy.

Choices?

When i took up Arts after my SSC, I wanted to major in psychology and then go on to attempt the UPSC exams to be an IPS officer. By the time i reached degree college, I abandoned the idea of psychology in favour of political science, with which i was absolutely in love with. Second year, and the UPSC plans go out of the window; i wasn't interested anymore, and anyway, i suspect my initial enthusiasm was a result of too many cop movies and TV series. But a new dilemma by the time i approached the third year : i had begun to really like history.....
My parents, who were kind of mad at me for dropping the UPSC plan and not having any clear(just read any) idea about what i wanted to do after graduation, were not very pleased. After a lot of thinking and asking for advice (useless ones, as it turned out) I finally decided to go for history. And reader, I have not regretted my choice since. I still like politics, btw.

Beginnings

Well, I am most probably the last person to start a blog - not because i can't write or because i ain't computer savvy, but because of the simple fact that i am lazy and wouldn't bother to do something like this unless i have to. but my writing skills are getting rusty anyway, and if i have to write, might as well make others read my nonsensical musings ;)