Randomness inc

For the last couple of weeks, I've had a fly-on-the-wall feeling, observant to a lot of things happening, all ingredients of what we call day-to-day life. All fairly commonplace, but important - and interesting. I've been feeling like writing about it, got down to writing, but felt an inexplicable loss of words.

How do you write something riveting about something as mundane as a liftman trying to catch a few winks of sleep while working the midnight shift or the look of overworked frustration in the eyes of the Barista guy whose coworkers got the axe after the takeover? Or how do you write about what the friendly eunuch at the traffic signal near my house murmurs everytime she's turned away rudely from a car window? You dont. Especially if you're not a writer. Because there are others that do it so well, so much better that you ever could.

I gave up writing reviews after I found myself agreeing with Vij that most of these film/book review-bloggers are people who dont know jacksquat about film-making or even catching the nuances that a filmmaker painstakingly put into her/his film and anyway take themselves (and their reviews - most of which are anyway a banal narration of the movie story...sigh, how stupid can that be?) too seriously for their own good. There is, however, one film critic that I read religiously - just because he's so damn good at it and because he knows what he's talking about. Thanks to his reviews, I think I've started noticing the sublime in the movies and that has made movie-watching a much happier experience.

There are SO many times I wish I had my camera with me. There are also many times where I wish I had the guts to pull out my camera and shoot. I still find myself thinking four times before shooting people on the street without asking for permission - guess I'll have to get over that or else just build up a photographic memory.

Last week was full of travel. 3 relaxing days in Ahmedabad and 2 exciting days in Chennai took up most of it. This was probably the first time I liked Chennai as a place.

This was also probably the first time in three years that I worked with someone my age and it was totally good fun. I suddenly missed being a part of a young team - but having worked with near-fossils for the last three years means that I've also been like a spnge squeezed dry and then dropped in a bucket of water. Lots of stuff learnt without having to watch your back all the time.

And this excites me all the more because I know I'm going to be in the company of many young and really brtilliant people for the next few years. I'm entering intellectual and professional utopia in a few months from now - watch this space.

I am quite amused at how my maidservant just hates throwing away any deodorant can/perfume bottle that I've run through. She diligently takes them out of the garbage bag and squirrels them away in some corner of the house. At first I thought she wanted to take them, but no, it seems she's waiting for me to put them back on their rightful shelves, damn! I'm planning a covert midnight operation to take out these cans and bottles myself.

Among other stupidly random things, I wanted to write about the difference in the national flags shown on the screen at Inox and Regal during the national anthem bit before the movie (I'm still a little amazed that in Bombay they play the national anthem before every movie - why sepcifically movies? Its beyond me but I'm not complaining). Inox has a lovely video of a real flag fluttering in the wind while Regal had a scratched out video of a cheesy cartoon-flag fluttering with digital gusto. Regal has now revamped its flag and has a brand new cartoon flag without the scratches and also remixed the anthem, making it slightly peppier.

BTW, the sound system at New Empire sucks - so dont watch a movie there unless it has gone away from every other place within easy reach.

This weekend saw me catching 4 movies - Provoked (left over from last week - good because Aishwarya didnt get to talk a lot), Perfect Stranger (strictly average with too many holes in the story. Halle Berry looked a LOT like Mallika Sherawat in the movie, btw), Shooter (I quite liked it - but then I enjoy movies of that kind and I've liked Mark Wahlberg since his early days including Fear and hehe....Boogie Nights, immortalized for 'posterity' by Heather Graham) and Bandidas (Link alert - French. ok-ish...one of my trekking friends looks so uncannily similar to Penelope Cruz, its not funny).

These below are a few pictures that I managed to shoot of people without asking - in a village near Mirzapur...yeah I'm working on it:-D

I'm almost finishing 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. Boy, what a book. I got a little bored in the first few pages but once I focused on what was written, I was totally blown away. This has to be the first time that I've actually written down passages from the book and post-it'ed the book all over.

ps: I'm thrilled with the compound eyes