sliding doors

Circa 1998:

“Ram and Abu were flying kite in Kutch near the India-Pakistan border. Suddenly a gush of wind snapped the string and the kite fell on the other side of the fence”

This is how a story I had started to write when I was in 5th (maybe 6th) grade began. Unfortunately this is the only 2 sentences this story ever had.

Mind you, it was an period of my life when I had the misgivings of being very imaginative and creative and thought that I had a flair for writing stories and poems. I still have a diary full of my literary works at home. Infact, I was pretty good for a kid of that age (given that I have to confess that I have done grave injustice to the literary world by not letting that side of me to flourish ;)

So, just as I had finished writing this much, I noticed my brother peeping over my head. Before I could act, he snatched the piece of paper from me and started laughing incessantly.

"Amaam, India-Pakistan borderle alluva pattam paratha viduva! Onakku geography ethavathu theriyuma, manda" (Yeah, they let you fly kite in the border! Do you know anything about geography, u fool).

I have to accept that at that age, I didn’t know much about the topography of Ind-Pak border nor about the accessibility and hence I had to believe what my elder brother was saying.

I agree that at the time of drafting, the only basic idea I had was that the two kids try to get to the Pak side of the border to retrieve the kite and are spotted by the army and are thus trapped there. But having been ridiculed for the basic premise on which I was hoping to waive the story, I didn’t have much to proceed and hence I dropped that story there.

Circa 2004:

An Indian movie by the name Little Terrorist gets nominated for Oscars as the best short film. I was surprised to find that the premise of the movie bore an uncanny resemble to the above mentioned.

Well, I am not saying that my story would have developed exactly into this one. Nor I had any clue how to proceed with it. But just the fact that I could imagine a plot similar to an Oscar nominated film, at an age when I hardly knew how to ride a cycle, was quite self astonishing. At the same time I was pissed at my brother for nipping the confidence of a budding author (or maybe even a probable Oscar winner ;)

And the first thing I did was send my brother the synopses of the movie. And his response was "ethu pole oru kathai nee pandu ezuthallaya?" (didnt you write some story like this long time back?) which only aggravated my anquish.

To this day I haven’t forgiven him.

AVS

(Anyone is wondering if the title has any relevance to the plot, it is in reference to the namesake movie implying how India would have got an Oscar nomination had I completed that story then :P)

life

I struggled for freedom and she liberated me;
Only to let me struggle with my freedom.

AVS

story

Her 3 yr old was playing with his toys when the baloonwala came in through the gate. She went inside to get the purse and their life was never the same again.

AVS

hits and flops

The posts which have got maximum hits in my blog (courtesy to the sitemeter) are this, and this.

However, in the last one week, my last post has overtaken the collective hits my blog has ever received. Quite amusing that a deliberate malapropism in the title of my post has resulted in a record number of hits. Equally unfortunate that people from various corners of the world are searching for ‘slam'dog millionaire (and my attempted word play has completely missed the mark and flopped!)

AVS

slamdog millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire won 4 golden globe and is a mighty contender for the Oscars. More importantly, it brought to India the first ever globe.

The movie has achieved such high acclaim and recognition all over the world that I HAD to watch it. Let me play devil’s advocate here...I felt unsatisfied after the movie. Please note my use of term unsatisfied and not disappointed. Its not a bad movie by any means. It is a nicethe triumph of good against all odds kind of movie, but really is this movie that good to sweep all the awards at the second most prestigious awards in the world? I beg to differ.

It is a well made movie and is well scripted. The story as such is not a masterpiece but the clever screenplay does the charm. I feel that the script takes a bit of cinematic liberties as well as cinematic inconsistencies.....the people talking in English to each other?In Mumbai? That too brothers? Agreed it maybe to cater the western interests, but why then bother providing subtitles when they were kids? And by the way in which part of world is KBC telecast live?

Ok, I might be nitpicking here, it might be a fantasy or a feel good movie, but heck it’s not a realistic movie as the media is portraying it to be. To project it as the true depiction of rags-to-riches tale is absolute rubbish. I have not yet seen the other probable (milk, curious case of.., revolution road etc) contenders for the best movie, but if I go by the past track record at the awards, I am certain that we have come across ‘real’ realistic films . This could, at best, be described as a well made masala movie and so all the hoopla about this being a realistic movie or is a bit far stretched. All I can assume is the westerners were very pleased to see Mumbai as they want it to be seen- poverty struck nation with huge slums and beggars.

I don’t have complains about the acting department. The kid Jamal, Salim and Lathika are one of the best I have ever seen on screen. They were at absolute ease and were literally living in those roles. Same can be said about Dev Patel too. His nonchalance even as he kept winning millions was exactly the emotion I would expect of one who’s answers are based on own life tragedies.

I would call it a a well shot, well directed potboiler with all the ingredients to entertain the audience. It deserves to be a hit, but definitely not a milestone movie. It is one of those feel good movies. Infact it resembled a bollywood movie more (and that could be intentional) but again, thats not one expects from a academy award nominated/winner movie.

I know majority would disagree with my comment on this movie. Maybe the huge hype and rave reviews about the movie made me expect much more it failed to meet my own heightened expectation. I anticipated the movie to be path breaking, whereas it ended up being one in path less trodden.It was a movie I enjoyed as long as it lasted.

And by the way, ARR will win the award even if he’s pitted against all the music scores ever made in Hollywood.....see how much the music is integrated to the movie to know his genius!

AVS

revenge, served steamed

Puttu can be as well considered the official food of Kerala. Combined with kadala curry, it forms a made-for-each-other combo which is hard to resist and I can gorge on it for ever. Since the preparation of it requires a special utensil as such, I haven’t had the fortune of eating it ever since I set foot in US. I was spared of the sacrilege of forgetting about such a dish, thanks to P. Ever since he brought a puttu kutti from India after his vacation, he has been bragging about how tasty puttu he makes tastes. Not a single call to Cincinnati has been without him enthusiastically blabbering about the puttu he had.

Adding to my torment was the guilt that I let myself almost forget about one of my favorite dishes, which made my urge for retaliation sky rocket. It was sort of a vengeance for me to get a puttu maker for myself when I went to India last month. Infact, that’s one of the first things I wanted to get from home. And hence I possess now a stainless steel pot and a cylindrical attachment which would create a heavenly tasting food from mere rice powder. Last week I tried it for the first time and, I am not saying because I made it, it tasted awesome! Now that I have experienced the delight, I can completely understand why my friend brags about it. Its hard not to mention and I bet anyone who talks to me in the near future are sure to hear me brag about it.

AVS