Review-1 (Mangal Pandey)

i watched mangal pandey over the weekend.. nice movie i thought.

what i didn't like:
i heard a lot of people say "not too good" and i can see where they are coming from in that:
It is not spectacular.. and possibly doesn't live up to its hype..
AND it has very very bad editing in that the songs just come out of nowhere - most arbit,
and some of the scenes are too abrupt.
Also hate Amisha Patel in the movie. (Ganju please don't read the next line..)
She makes you wish that she actually had gotten burnt in that Sati scene because she is so desperately "damsel in distress" the whole bloody time - It killed me.

what i liked:
But it is still a very neat movie partly because of the theme.
I love that a movie has been made on Mangal Pandey-
the first ever freedom fighter, the first ever martyr, the pioneer to a struggle that lasted 90 years before we finally got our independance. I find that very inspiring.
And I think Aamir Khan is fantastic in the movie - intense & angry & perfect.

i have to admit, i possibly belong to a segment (i suspect this is a very large segment) that sometimes confuses picking up arms with courage & laying them down as cowardice.

Actually, now that i have said it - i am not so sure about it..
I think i am far more reasonable -
i am not so much for picking up arms and fighting as i am for fighting for a cause. But everybody is actually fighting for a cause & which are the good ones worth fighting for - who is to say.
For instance, i am not sure what makes a religious war wrong in my head and what makes a freedom struggle great.
Again, of wars for freedom fought - which ones are okay?
is the kashmiri fighting for his independance the same as an indian fighting for his.
Or is it just a function of what actually does happen in the end - so the fight for an independant India is great, because we actually did get our independance.
And some American kid is going to think many years later that America did this great thing by going to war with Iraq because his history book will say so.

Oh! the pressure of being reasonable!!

I want

Where is my cabin? I have worked for 4 years now, different places (but still)
& i still don't have a cabin..

I want a cabin...
and my own phone (which nobody else uses) ..
and a cooool laptop with net access and no fire-walled sites - not because i want to access porn at work, but because at work - EVERY interesting site in the world has been fire-walled..its inaccessible, anyway.. don't know how they did it.

I also want my manager's salary & cute boy who will join team (this will mean boy who is single, not attached, does not talk too much, listens to good music, speaks well etc.. specifying because whoever is listening to wishes and granting them is getting it all wrong) and fall MADLY in love with me and i will be in love with him.
I also think after this the cute boy should quit to find another job because don't want to work with boyfriend...

hmmm.. thinking this will be most edited post - i see myself adding to list above very often!

Movies & such other...

I watched "Maine Pyaar Kyun kiya" over the weekend.
its rubbish, of course.. quite funny.. but nonsense..
Am glad i paid only 50 bucks for that ticket..anything more & i would have wept..
I think other than "Dus" i have watched every single movie that has come to town in the past few months..
Its not even like i went only to movies i really wanted to go for.. i just went for everything.
.. am starting to lose credibility with friends when i say a movie is nice..
because they are thinking "what does she know - she watches everything".

also spent some Rs.400/- odd last night because i went to watch "Fantastic 4"..
How 400 - because 130 on the ticket, 100 on dinner & 200 because i had to pay double - meter to the rickshawalla - whose meter was rigged.. - Complete Insanity!
AND it was a spectacularly bad movie..
AND I don't even have that much money..

which bring me to other important point i wanted to make- which is that i now happen to know some people with loads of money (this is quite new for me) & i don't know why they pretend like its the biggest burden in the world..

"People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it...
I don’t' mind their having a lot of money, and I don't care how they employ it,
But I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it. "
---- Ogden Nash

What can i do, someone already said it & said it better that i could ever hope to..

What i didn't say..

Shut up!
You talk, you don't.. ever!!
I think you are over-rated!
What do you know?
NOT FUNNY!
You stole my idea!
I really don't care!
You may think you are so different from everybody else - but you are not. In fact you are exactly like me. Live with that!

And many more such..
No - no angst this time.
Just stuff i think in my head sometimes.. about 4 secs before i tune out to whatever it is you were saying.

Thought for the day..

This is from one of my all time favourite movies - Good Will Hunting..
& possibly one of my all time favourite dialogues..
this one is Robbin Williams to Matt Damon. its pretty long - am just going to paste a bit of it..

"So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that.

If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy.
You're a tough kid.

And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap; watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.

I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell? And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer...."

this is for when you are tempted to give the "i know about this" speech when someone is sharing something very personal.. because you don't know it till you've been there.. even if you have been there.. you don't know it..
hmmm....clearly, more angst!

Nice??!!??

Hi.. been a while since i wrote..
but was feeling quite angsty today..
so i had to get this off my chest..

see, yesterday someone very close to me.. said that she thought i was very nice..
which is great of course.. so i smiled sweetly.. and said "Hmmm.." or something like that.

I am not complaining about being called 'nice'. I would definitely rather be 'nice' than 'not nice'.
It's just that this is not the first time i am hearing 'nice' as a description for me and it just strikes me as being .. inadequate.

I would understand If someone who didn't know me said - "Oh, she is nice"
But when people i know very well, who know me very well, people who probably love me a lot have to describe me .. and all they can say is "Nice", it really bothers me.
Because - what is 'nice'? Its a word you can possibly use for almost everybody.
It pretends to be an adjective but it really says nothing about the person & it makes me feel very .. dead & very without personality.
I am not kidding myself here. I don't think i have THAT MUCH personality but i must have some.

People don't describe you very often. You don't get to hear good things about yourself that often. So when someone finally says something about you they really should try to make it good (Key Learning etc!).

What o'clock

When you say "3 o'clock-that's 'xyz' standing there" -
I want you to know that i DON'T understand what you mean.
Please explain..

First of all - Whose 3 o'clock are we talking about? Yours or mine?
Secondly - Where am i standing on this strange clock? Am i at the center, at the 6 or at the 12?
And Finally - Why are you talking to me like this? Why?Why? Why?

Who are you and where have you buried my friend?

Scary thought...

Every single time i have had a discussion, academic even on eve-teasing, sexual abuse - there are always experiences shared. And this is what is interesting every single time, every single woman shares some "experience" or the other.
I think that is truly scary. Because i have had quite a few discussions like this and i have ALWAYS encountered a 100% strike rate / abuse rate among women.

And i have to ask -
If every single woman has been abused in some way or the other ..
Has every single man abused?

I think this and then i hate the thought so much because i have a father and a brother who i am completely crazy about, who i believe are incapable of doing things like this and i have friends i believe would not abuse.
But its so scary that we all grew up in different places, lived with different families, traveled in different buses - how could we possibly all have similar experiences.
There must be a lot of dirty men out there!

My First...

I think i am doing this because i am inspired.. Inspire to do what exactly, i am not sure.. but inspired i am..
Must have been something i read or watched.
I find myself quite incapable of inspiring myself - Its usually something someone else says or writes or does - that makes me feel like, "Oh i should write about that".
Then of course when i actually sit down to write, i find i have nothing to write beyond that line.

So my first blog (my first piece of writing on the net) will be a lift-off from other people's smart thoughts / lines.
Isn't it ironic, don't you think (Alanis Morisette :) )

Most of these lines i am guessing may not actually do anything for you, but they did something for me even if it was just for a bit.
I am thinking it might have been just a little contextual and something to do with where i was in my life, then.

So here is to some lines i found inspirational / funny / lines that made me feel like "That is so true!"/ possible titles for my book (when i write it)
I also promise to give credit to worthy person from whom i have lifted the line (i will give credit here, in my blog, but don't expect credit when you read my book - in my book, its just going to be "MY" line" ..

1. "Second Wind" - This one is possible title for my book.
2. "It really kills you when you feel alone, because everything in the universe is geared to make sure you don't feel alone - TV, Media, friends, parties, music ..everything & it is so frustrating & depressing to still feel alone!" - cousin Nisha
3. "Men love women who DO stuff to them in bed but thats just because they are so lazy they would just love for a woman to do all the hardwork in bed & possibly even have their orgasm for them" - Nisha again
4. "Its like faking an orgasm when you are masturbating" - This one is mine.
I cannot for the life of me remember what the context was. ANYWAY..
5. "When death has once entered in to a house, it alomost invariably returns immediately, as if it knew the way" - Guy De Maupassant - This one is from a short story called 'The Mad Woman'. Just thought this was so true .. about death, grief.. everything!
6. "Alone is fine, single is okay and it is not a stop between other journeys.." - Matto - when she wrote the sweetest sweetest letter to me
7. "You work with the compass, let others work with the clock" - Some forward
8. "Om Logaye Namaha" - Don't even ask! But panks, poorni & me wrote that.
9. "Because life has more imagination than you and i do" - I made it! i think..
10. Symmetry is only 50% creativity - KK
11. The stars do not look like the Planetarium; the Planetarium loks like the stars - Me
12. Definitely in the gloaming/ Happy Valentoon's Day - Kayyy.. - Ganju
13. "I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving but this,
in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close." - Pablo Neruda

& Many many many more..
Now that i have said my Thank You's - think its time to write...
I really do hope i can though - am soo lazy. Its quite possible this one is my first.. & last!