the mayan calendar

this newfound joy of taking the bike anywhere is totaly dampened by the rain. time is doubly wasted and the after floods left by the rain is invariably splashed by the cars that pass me.

i've got my voice back..but its hoarse.

was invited to concorde hotel for lunch yesterday....a dim sum lunch!! what more could i have wanted? great food and ambience. was at lunch with a chinese business man, the managing director of tokyo bank and their school mate, the dentist who is my cousin. the occasion was his birthday.

we spoke of the supposed tsunami on the 22nd of july, the end of the world in 2012 and fires and floods.

according to the tzolkin, the most fundamental and widely used mayan calendar, with almost no beginning and end..(completely circular), there are numerous things that could easily threaten the human species in the year 2012, such as a geomagnetic reversal, asteroid strike or something more personal like a flu pandemic, or a nuclear war.

have ancient civilisations left us enough coded warnings to show us signs of terrible things possibly occuring in the coming years? are they already beginning to happen? quite possibly there might be a major catastrophe. will our ignorance and beliefs stop the end of a 52 year cycle which was recognised by the mesoamericans? but the indigo people responsible for the next transition, the hype of the calamities, the possibility of evolution in the future and the strong energies of all that is described and claimed by forecasts and so on, are still yet to be seen and proven. are economists doing anything about it? will there be global chaos?

the end of something marks the beginning of something else right?

i recently came across a book, `how to survive 2012' by patrick geryl, one that details the upheavals in the sun's magnetic fields which will generate gigantic solar flares and affect the polarity of the entire earth. maybe it's worth a read.

i stil have to write my blog. watched yet another excellent movie yesterday, the perfume. a great deal of writing needs to be done.

ciao for now.

art

i remember a time when all i wanted was to paint. i cannot begin to explain the joys and freedom of expression one can pour into their painting, if you arent an artist in your own way, you will never comprehend this simple yet meaningful passion.

sanchita, my sister was always the artist of the family..she was literally born with that pencil in her hand and wherever we went, mum just had to give her a pencil and paper to keep her quiet. i was the copy artist...meaning i only copied her work, and as a result became somewhat of an artist too..albeit an inferior one.

however, my dream was to see her have her own exhibition by the time she was 40. she achieved that soon before her death. and her loveliest of art form was called `death' which exuded vibrant and positive energies.

she took 7 months to complete her work..delighting in working with acrylics.death was serenity, comfort and warmth. and in the exhibition, she couldnt get herself to sell it. it was finally given to a very close friend of hers.

ever since her death on 26th jan 2008 indian republic day, i have never talked of art or indulged in it because everything to do with art only reminded me of her.

however, in tagged, the website where men and women perpetually seek sexual mates, i met arnab..an interesting artist with an amazing talent, a talent which he needs to explore and expand provided he allows himself to do so. he is still searching and i hope he finds what rightly identifies him in his art form. there are very few men in this world who would want to have artistic and intellectual conversation with a woman...with arnab it has been so from the beginning and what greater stimulation can i expect from someone of the opposite sex who is as eager as i am to grasp whatever knowledge that is available in the world and beyond.

a message for arnab.

if acrylics is your comfort, try others....sometimes, we produce best with things we are most uncomfortable with, those that challenge us...it matters how we perceive things. right and wrong is a matter of perception..whatever the approach, it is okay as long as you are happy with your art.

going for angels and demons now....

tagged viewers

tagged viewers

jeez. this is my third attempt of writing the third entry. it better go through this time. the first time, it didn't take in my blog address and just disappeared suddenly, the second time, the compaq batt went dead.

maybe it was just not meant to be. surprisingly for both entries i wrote different things...would those things have offended anyone? maybe, do i care? i dont know. do i need to care?

some 300 viewers checked on my profile over the past two days, yet only one friend request, which is a good thing really!! great to know that my new written demand of wanting only intellectuals have completely sieved off those who are only interested in a quick physical entry. lol!!

for those who have read my journals. thank you. i guess it is surprising that people actually read my stuff. hehehe

was a little under the weather yesterday so did not indulge in my laptop and this morning when i got up, i could hear the struggle of my intermittent voice flow...goodness, i lost my voice! so, imagine how difficult it was to have tele-conversations and explain to the other side that i was really who i was...sigh!!

wanted to watch angels and demons today...some people have said that ron howard did justice to the book...lets see. let the crowd get thinner and the ticket price lower first. hehe. compensated instead, with another movie. l. a. confidential, will write about it in my blog.

my india travel journal is yet to be written....the list of things to do!!! hmm.

tagged again...sundays and books

habitually sundays are the busiest of the seven days. day of rest indeed!!

despite the inspites, chores and all, i never forget to read a page, well, atleast a page if my greed doesnt go further than that, of any book that i constantly tug along with me wherever i proceed to.

this nice and subtle happiness of reading, this joy not chilled by age, this somehow unpunished vice...would i call it that...hmm....well, this selfish, serene long intoxication that has made me a total surrender to it, of it.....how can i not give in to the greed and selfishness of wanting my time with an entertainment so very cheap and a pleasure so darn lasting?

in the 43 years of having lived this obligated life, the companionship of good books, great variety of music, excellent and thought provoking movies, and the natural and acquired love of wanderlust, how could i not have lived life to the fullest...

one hope though, wish there were more of my kind...sigh!!!

the first in tagged

my first

never really considered tagged as intellectual but then what the heck...who cares, the love of writing needs no confinement. whether someone knows it or not, understands it or not, its like art, if there is a soul out there beside mine who can relate, then i write for that soul.

the skies may disappear, the mayan calendar dec 21 2012 may end it all, the indigos may rise or like the inconvenient truth, after kolkata we all may be under water and my guess, perhaps evolve into mermaids and gillies...whatever. do i care? (do we still worry about savings and investments? hehehe)

well, i dont know..i guess i care about writing...;-)

they say whatever u do the first time...keep it short n sweet...let mine be so..adieu

changeling - clint eastwood

a 2008 film. as a director clint eastwood has been one of my favourites, and he has given us some of the finest films we have ever seen. changeling was a far cry from eastwood's best films, but i can tell you that it was an experience i wont easily forget.

a single mother, christine collins (angelina jolie) returns home one day from her switchboard supervising duty to find her young son, walter (gattlin griffith) missing. she reports it immediately and gets a very casual and condescending reaction from the police department. later we know that the worst is yet to come. after a few months, the police chief stages a reunion between christine and a boy who christine insists is not walter. her insistence becomes an irritation for the chief and as a result she is ridiculed and treated as a hysterical, traumatised woman who is declared a lunatic and a threat to herself and to others. she is locked away in a mental hospital.

the meandering events pointing to explore police corruption, the suppression of women, the emotional effectiveness of capital punishment and rights of civilians, along with the plight of children is a little confusing at first until the whole story emerges slowly but mundanely.

set in the year 1928, besides being taken to a an era way before us, it is also black and white in terms of character portrayals. a story about the unflagging determination of an ordinary woman and her quest to find her 9 year old son. but while the tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds is undeniably admirable, the way it plays out is not always compelling.

in the story christine seems to have just one ally, a radio preacher named gustav briegleb (john malkovich) who believes in her and helps her to expose the lapd's bullying.

the methodical storytelling leads to flat and even tedious stretches and parts of the story mirrored by jolie's deliberate performance are so calm that they seem almost monotonous.

i think with this film the actors were not able to stretch out in the zone between realism and melodrama to explore their characters' raw nerves, tender spots and psychic calluses like those who did in eastwood's previous films. even though it is supposedly based on a true story, it did not quite feel real.

the script is compelling, the direction confident, the production values professional, the actress classy, and the chilling and gruesome turns, with the belief in ultimate justice makes it an unforgettable film.

watch it as you simply must watch a clint eastwood film :-)

body of lies - ridley scott

body of lies. a 2008 production. an action drama cum thriller directed by ridley scott. i would not miss any movies which starred russel crowe and leonardo decaprio. so this was one of the first ones i watched from the whole lot.

based on david ignatius' novel, roger ferris (caprio) is a covert cia operative working in jordan who is tracking a high ranking terrorist called al saleem who, with his group is targeting and bombing civilians. ed hoffman (crowe) is ferris' boss who is communicating with him from langley. ferris uncovers information on al saleem and devises a plan with the help of jordanian intelligence hani salaam (mark strong) to infiltrate the terrorist network, both men are weary about trusting each other. ferris meanwhile meets aisha, an iranian actress (golshifteh farahani), a nurse who he falls in love with. hoffman betrays ferris by not telling him the entire truth, which compels ferris to act on his own, again with the help of salaam.

a technically well crafted spy thriller with pretty exciting and well staged action, intricately woven with a splash of love story in it. crowe puts on weight to be in this film, and gives and adequate performance in a seemingly undemanding role for an actor of his caliber.

however, maybe because it was based on the book, it creates an experience now too familiar. this film addresses the issue of terrorism (another post 9/11 film) with the cia meddling, with very ordinary spy thriller genre conventions.

even though it is not boring, as i personally think no movies should be, and on the contrary, is exciting as we are trying to figure out who is on whose side, i would say it is still, not unforgettable. there are certain movies that stay in your mind, no matter how many years pass by, frankly if i allow another week to pass, i wont even remember what this was about.

body of lies doesnt really strike a few nerves and the despairing urgency is not quite achieved in this film but overall, i found it pretty much engaging and entertaining. and i am sure anyone else would too...

appaloosa - ed harris

appaloosa. a 2008 film directed by ed harris. a movie that is 115 minutes long and extremely slow paced, with actors viggo mortenson, renee zellweger, jeremy irons and ed harris himself.

with a leading cast like that nothing should go wrong right?

right! nothing really did. except maybe it was a little too slow paced with a little less action. i think one would expect more action from a western film.

in new mexico territory, virgil cole (harris) and everett hitch (moretenson) are peripatetic and audacious lawmen, hired by desperate towns as marshall and deputy. the city of appaloosa is afraid of randall bragg (irons), a rancher with wealth and a gang of thugs who escape after every trouble they cause and therefore it is difficult to prove them guilty and get the law to hang them.

cole and hitch are hired and they contrive to arrest bragg and bring him to trial. while all this is going on, a widow, allison french (zellweger) arrives in town. pretty, refined, good natured, polite and smart, cole falls deeply in love and allison seems to return his love equally, however, there is more to allison than meets the eye.

excellent direction. great performances from harris and mortenson, in both the fast action and the slow romance. the fact that one cannot stand zellweger's character in this film makes her perfect and different from her other roles. i wouldnt say this film is over rated. it is a laidback western film with a little romance and quick dual gun fights, even if it just lasts a few minutes.

i am not too much a western film fan, but still, i wouldnt have missed this one. more than real action, i think this film was about character and trust, respect and honour, friendship and freedom.

great watch if you can digest the slow pace (which i can :-))

burn after reading - ethan and joel coen

burn after reading. a 2008 film by ethan and joel coen. with an all star cast that include george clooney, brad pitt, john malkovich, tilda swinton and frances mcdormand, a moviegoer would expect an award-winning plot and script. unlike their previous film in 2007, `no country for old men' which has been highly praised by critics and was recognised with four awards at the oscars, this one was not deemed even for a nomination.

i dont quite know how to rate this movie, not because it seemed like a total mess but because i cant quite understand what the coens wanted to achieve with the audience. i dont really subsribe to movies with happy endings, i am more into a dash of reality in films therefore by right i should have rated this as a star movie, but then, strangely it sort of falls short on being a movie one can relate to.

having said that, i still think the coens must have this crazy distinctive humour to have produced a silly, quirky yet dark comedy in the best traditions of cinematic farce with a couple of surprising moments of random violence thrown in for good measure.

osbourne cox (malkovich) and his wife, katie (swinton) live offbeat lives close to separation. he is supposedly sacked from his job for being an alcoholic while katie is having an affair with harry (clooney) who is about to file for a divorce. katie is advised by her lawyer to get a complete record of cox's financial situation so she copies the files from the computer onto a disk which gets accidentally left on the floor in the gymn where linda (mcdormand) and chad (pitt) discover it and think of a plan where they can make money from ox if they were to return the disk to him. phew...all that in one breath!!

ox has absolutely no idea what these two are talking about when they call him up for a meeting and the `ransom' money that they are demanding. ox, however meets up with them and when he refuses to pay them, they take the disk to the russians thinking perhaps some confidential cia information is in it as most of the information has names and financial details, along with unimportant memoirs that ox had recorded.

it is absurdly hilarious watching the cia agents struggling to figure out who is doing what to whom and how they deal with the trail of destructions idiotically left by a those people who are involved. one gets used to the idiocy and cranky humour, but is sometimes shocked with certain scenes which spell murder, even though it is by accident. for a while one wonders if a situation like that could occur in real life, but beyond that thought, one does not linger anymore.

despite the reviews, i wouldnt have missed it mainly because of the cast and directors. worth watching a coen brothers movie despite the inspites.

street kings by david ayer

street kings, a 2008 film by david ayer starring keanu reeves, forest whitaker, hugh laurie, chris evans

detective tom ludlow (keanu reeves) is an enforcer controlled by elite squad captain jack wander ( whitaker). ludlow is often dispatched as an assassin to take out criminals when wander thinks it should be done that way. great start to the movie, full of action, ludlow bursts into a house filled with korean gangsters and shoots everyone in sight until he reaches his intention of rescuing the kidnapped twins in a locked closet.

ludlow looks for the murderer of his former partner, terry crewes. it happens while ludlow follows him to a convenience store intending to beat him up, but two masked gunmen run in and shoot crewes first. even though ludlow was there at the crime scene, the cops treat it as a robbery completely ignoring what ludlow has to say, and of course, wander encourages it.

the plot and the end is predictable. we know who the bad guy is ten minutes into the movie, but ludlow himself is unaware and is confused and teams up with rookie detective chris evans to find out what really is going on and what he has been missing all this time.

great cast with credible supporting performances, i thought it was pretty good movie but then again, just another typical hollywood one, however, i enjoyed it. then again, you wouldnt miss anything at all if you dont watch it. :-)

righteous kill by jon avnet

a 2008 jon avnet film. robert de niro and al pacino, two veteran and favourite actors of mine.

when we are told of a movie with these two as armed and dangerous veteran nyc cops and with a script writer like russel gewirtz (inside man, one wonders what would ever go wrong with a film like that right?

turk (deniro) and rooster (pacino), partners on the nypd are involved in the investigation of a series of vigilante serial murders. the movie starts with the confession of deniro, explaining the murders commited of people who actually or possibly deserved them. the crime is linked with this murderer writing poems and leaving it at the crime scene for every planned killing he commits.

the intention is to mislead the audience from knowing or guessing who the real killer is. there is a scene where turk plants a gun to put away a vicioius child killer who was about to walk off scot-free. rooster brings this up with the two young detectives who are investigating this case together with them. and this and everything else points to turk being the violent killer. however, along the way, if you are used to watching typical hollywood nyc movies, you would guess the real killer.

the story cruises. and the thriller that is much talked about seems and feels somewhat forced. even though the twist at the end is pretty much exciting, one already expects that the murderer would be someone other than turk, and so who else can he be?

as a film lover, any film lover, hehehe, i enjoyed righteous kill and no, i dont think the two were wasted. i think avnet would have given deniro and pacino enough room to continue the way they would like it. it was good to know that they were the main features of the film.

a good movie with good actors, and a good twist. dont judge it like an expert, it would spoil ur perception, instead, enjoy the flow, no matter how much it drags, and how typical a hollywood film it is, still worth a watch.

the last legion by doug lefler

again, a big gap since i last gave time to my blog. left for india on the 19th of feb and returned on the 12th march, a whole 21 day trip of interesting challenges.

still in the midst of writing my journal. it might take some more time. hope to complete it before i leave for trichy again in july.

after my return on the 12th, managed to complete a few movies.

the last legion. a 2007 film by doug lefler. has colin firth, aishwarya rai, thomas sangster and ben kingsley amongst others.

the many versions of king arthur and excaliber has made every movie connected with it a fascinating watch for me. i know others will or might complain of how badly the movie started or it isn't the way its supposed to be or maybe the actors screwed it up but well, even though i sort of think like them, i still enjoyed it. hehehe. i think if one does not take it seriously, then it is good entertainment and it will keep you engaged.

was it a bad movie. i dont know. i cant say. it surrounds the fall of the roman empire with its last emperor, a 12 yr old sangster (romulus) who would rule for a day before losing it all to guy in a golden mask named vortgyn, who apparently is looking for that same sword which would belong to king arthur one day. for rome to rise to power again, sangster must find the sword that would give the rightful ruler power to attain rome again. aurelius (colin firth) and merlin (kinsley) aid romulus in that direction. mira (aishwarya) is an indian warrior who is sent with them as a guard.

there are some atrocious and unbelievable battle scenes that emerge with ridiculous time gaps of fighters having time to hug and exchange compassionate looks with each other.

like i said, if you dont take it seriously, you will pretty much enjoy it. however, this film does not really follow any true historical events and the overall acts seem pretty unreal and inactive. my conclusion is the same, for a lighthearted movie, its fun to watch.