Pan's labyrinth

Two supremely amazing movies in a day ! 

Pats herself on the back. The movie maniac in me suddenly feels alive and blessed.

(I am also thinking of converting this blog into a movie recommendations place!!)

They screened Pan's Labyrinth at school yesterday. I dragged my friends into it. And thank god I did :)

What a wonderful movie! I am drawn towards fantasy fiction, whether in writing or movies. From Potter which I prefer in written format, Lord of the rings, which I liked in graphic format as I could not finish the book, to Eragon series, which I am still reading. I am also a devotee of Sci-fi movies like Independence day, terminator, star wars, but that's not the point here. Some of these movies/books become memorable, unerasable. You derive something from them beyond their fictional value. Pan's Labyrinth is in that category.

Pan's Labyrinth is a beautiful portrayal of the futility of war. It is based sometime in the 1940's during Spanish civil war. It tells the innocent, charming and equally sad story of a 10 year old girl Ofelia (I love the name!!!). Ofelia reads a lot of books and quite like any 10 year old has a fantasy world woven in her mind. When she travels with her pregnant mother to her step father's (Captain Vidal) base camp, she wants to escape the brutal ways of Vidal. She finds a confidante in Mercedes (the servant and sister of a rebel). There Ofelia meets an insect whom she believes into a fairy and follows it to an old labyrinth. There a faun tells her that she is a princess from the underworld, who should return to her kingdom by proving that her essence is intact. He gives her 3 tasks. In order to accomplish those tasks, Ofelia must take care of her mother, unborn brother, face the wrath of her evil father and sustain the difficult times of the war. 

What happens is for you to find out.

It has a background score derived from a Spanish lullaby which gives the perfect undertone to the movie. Its shot in dense forests and greenery which is a welcome change to the eyes. Only turn off about the movie is, some scenes are so revolting that you have to close your eyes. Ok I did that, you might not need to do it. :)

Recommended if you like fantasies and highly recommended if you don't want to miss a Mexican gem!!

~nightflier

Once ...

It is the sweetest love story I have seen till now. It has beautiful music. Every song is a gem rendered perfection by simple lyrics and soothing piano chords and strings. Music does give meaning to a movie. And it's the heart, soul, mind, brain.. everything of this movie. It's songs are a must have in every song collector's kitty. 

Here s 'Falling slowly' for you guys. It is so nice that it makes one wish to fall in love :) :)

(Sadly I could not find other equally beautiful songs :()

 Glen Hansard - Falling Slowly

Highly recommended !!!

~nightflier :)

Cabbie tales

We have a monthly ritual of shopping for groceries. During which we shop like denizens from a famished region, set free in the realms of a super market.

It was on one such trip that we realized, we had shopped beyond our holding capacity. 

Sadly (in such situations) you can not go back to the cashier and tell him 'ermm, I forgot that I have just 2 hands and a body weighing barely 45 kgs, still bought truck loads of groceries greedily. Can you take some back ??' 

Have not tried that, but I am sure, he will be amused.

Anyways, we called for a cab. (There went the money from the saving scheme to buy the much needed helmet for biking!)

Now I have been in US cabs only thrice before. Once when I landed. This guy was a decent chap, only with a psychotic son in law (everyone thinks that way for the other man in his daughter's life, I guess!!). Second was to a wallmart trip. This guy's daughter was an alumnus of my school, so he treated us like his kids' friends and gave a special discount too! Third was when we had gotten late to catch a bus. I don't remember much except for the last minute rush.

So when this cab arrived, he parked it over the curb and shouted from inside, 'tussi cab call kariyasi??' (Did you call for a cab?) 

(Meanwhile, 'guess who' program started running inside my head. May be Punjabi or Sindhi uncle!! And our Indian looks rang a bell :))

Roomie: Yes. 

He came out and helped us put the godzilla sized bags inside. 

He: Kidhar ja riyasi ? (Where do you want to go?)

Roomie gave the full address. 

He: Ohh.. I thought you must be from xxx school. :)

We gave the politest nods with smiles and hopped inside.

Then he started chatting in punjabi hindi. He told to our surprise that our school cricket team was really good (Me and my roomie immediately made a telepathic pact to go there for cheerleading ;)). And he also told us that he was from Pakistan (! there goes the credibility of my 'guess who' program !). So moving ahead, it was not wee bit surprising, when he told us that Indian and Pakistani guys play in the same team here. Uncle proved to be really talkative and also advised us with few more cheap grocery stores nearby so that our money will not be wasted! (Little did he know we were typical specimen of the female type.)

And I wondered how the feeling of 'being out of comfort zone' changes animosity and hostility into camaraderie. Keep the same people in neighboring countries full of extremist religious leaders and political parties, and their hatred increases. Move the same people away from all this action and place them in a foreign land, with new ways of life, new difficulties, new problems and new solutions, and they become inseparable.

Considering that we all were taught about equality back in school. About different religions and brotherhood. About being good to each other in spite of who we are or from where we are. About respecting each other irrespective of our differences (come on, they do teach this in school). It just takes an unaccustomed or difficult situation for all these things to make sense.

So at a certain level, I am amused by human nature. On the other hand I respect the Global Citizen. :)

~nightflier :)

Idiosyncrasy

What do you think is a better reason to feel like a fool ?

The revelation that you can not read Chinese for the obvious fact of being born and brought up in its slightly neighboring country called India.

OR 

The other revelation that you wasted time.

First one sounds so much better. Plus I feel like its not my fault, to be brought up in a different country.

So another credit in my PhD program to blame things on others and in turn safeguard myself.

I had loaned 2 research papers from the library sharing facility. 

I waited 2 days for them to give me access to those papers. 

When I got a confirmation mail from them, I excitedly accessed the links.

And wow !! What I find out is, the papers are written in complete Chinese script. Agreed I knew that those papers were from a Chinese university, but I forgot the subtle possibility of them being in actual Chinese. I laughed so hard when I saw those papers. I almost thought of taking them to my professor, for better understanding !! 

Alright it was a joke. I am not going to do that!

So anyways I am kind of where I was, the beginning or nowhere may be.

To spice things up a little, our tuition fees have been increased. Like this is the only thing we wanted. This weirdo recession, I hate it. I don't even understand how and why things are like this, economically. But I still hate it. I think it's ok to blame some things which are out of your control, sometimes. Like the snow, the wind, the slow Internet speed, day light saving !! :)

It makes one feel lighter :)

~nightflier

Gift

Its a momentous occasion.

My gift to this space on the eve of 100th post is a new domain name. 

Alright, not completely new, but a modified name :P

Kindly do take note of this fact.

And yeah, a 100th post could have contained some more emotional bakwaas, rant or insightful thinking. But the whole act looks too boring and prudish. 

Though I "plan" to be spontaneous and passionate with writing. I also plan to gain some weight :|

Guess earlier plan is better. I will stick to it.

Till then,

Have fun!! And don't snore while sleeping :P

~nightflier

Gulaal

Anurag Kashyap has many ideas. The man is a bit crazy too. Remember what I said after watching the trailer of Dev D ?

Well, Gulaal is better. It does not loose its grip midway. Everyone in the movie is a pretender. A pretentious scum. It has loads of dirty politics. The fairer sex is equally involved in it. But you still watch it. It also reminds one of movies like Hazaaron khwahishein aisi and Kalyug. The influence of John Lennon and ancient Indian wisdom, may be. But it still is different. I am trying to figure out, exactly what, because the movie in its entirety is a bit weak. I still don't have an answer. (as soon as I find out I will update, I swear.)

The background score is loud and awesome. It makes the movie more powerful. Lyrics like 'bisleri ki bottle pi ke man ban gaye' are cult !! Yeah, like the emotional atyachaar thing. They have also used the famous line from the maha famous song from Pyaasa 'Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai'. DJ's are you listening??

Mahie Gill is too good. Her raw talent is rare.

Though the overall script is a bit weak and confused, Mr. Kashyap is a talented director. He leaves some clues, traces for the audience, thus not relying wholly on them. His frames are so strong and dark, they leave an impact on you. He likes the dark may be. Sometimes I cannot believe this same guy directed Return of Hanuman, which I had watched in a theatre. (Me and my roomie were too excited to watch an Indian animation movie then. It also had some fabulous songs!)

Anurag Kashyap has something in him. And I am ready to wait for it to evolve. Because I know it will be brilliant.

~nightflier

P.S. I know these thoughts are random. Time constraint !!

Recession time stories

So I was talking to this friend after a long time. Almost 4 months, the span in which she got married, changed her city, started a new life and a new job.

Now we both belong to that category of humans, who loved their first jobs (companies more than that). The same category of humans, who take offence if they hear anything bad, critical being said about their corporate Alma mater (ok, I take it more seriously!!).  Yeah, you can brand them as stupid school kids, who are very loyal to their believes. So much that we still follow the news feeds on our respective companies, she after changing her job and me after changing my priorities. 

Inside story, I know which bus routes have changed, from which parking lot the buses leave now, how the new employee center is not as good as the one at Mysore, how many H1-B visas have been issued in a particular unit, what the current hiring trend and rate is, and numerous shitty details. You can call me psychotic, if you wish :P

So we were discussing all these things when she started asking me about my career map. It's a cankerous topic. I go into cribbing mode almost instantly. And the other person is just short of banging his own head onto the wall (long distance calls help!).  And our discussion moved to the more obvious culprit 'recession'.

And we started talking about the phenomenon called 'corporate cost cutting'!!

1. Number of vending machines suddenly start disappearing. A month ago if your floor had 4 different types of coffee machines, now the whole floor sips the same old drab and cheapest coffee of the local vendor.

2. I have heard that some companies had stopped the use of paper towels as a means to cut costs.

3. Some bus routes are often changed or shortened or altogether closed.

4. Employees are encouraged to take meagerly paid sabbatical (!!!!$$$!!!!)

5. Well we all are aware, how performances (in time and out times) start getting monitored, once bad times strike.

6. Hiring rate slows down.

7. No more onsites. For indefinite period at least.

8. Salary hike looks like an illusion.

9. The bench/bay phenomenon increases beyond imagination. You are considered of the highest order if you still have fruitful work. By which I don't mean playing sudoku/solitaire or solving puzzles or reading blogs whole day.

10. All messengers suddenly get banned. How people still find out proxies is a different issue.

11. Dry spell hits the project parties and outings. These are the very in things in corporate world, which suddenly become "out" and waste of time and resources.

12. Insecurity creeps in the lives of many. Back up plans become a necessity.

And thus goes on the corporate saga. I am happy for all of them who have jobs and work. And for those who are having a tough time, hang in there people. Patience normally gets paid with the greatest of rewards. :)

~nightflier!

He's back !!

For long (2 years may be, since I became mail savvy) he was an essential part of my daily existence. Lately he was into hiding.

But I am glad to announce that he's back. Not on popular demand or anything, but on his own will. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the bugger is back to spam your mailboxes. Muhahahaha !!!!!

On a good girl note, I hope you find your treasure !!

Cheers to the cheer and crappiness,

~nightflier!

This is me...

I am flawed.

I have my weak moments, when I run away, I hide and I emerge back.

I get angry too. (and often sulk if it remains unexpressed or unhandled)

So in short I am the imperfect, ordinary human being. And if you still regard me as your friend, then kindly accept me as I am. With my flaws, my weaknesses and thus in my entirety.
Else, we will tell ourselves that we did not know and understand each other that well and hence were not 'true' friends (at least I will tell that to myself, you can choose a different way).

But kindly try to accept me for being myself. It will save a friendship and a good relationship. And it will be a great (full of drama and emotion, juicy and spicy) story to tell our grand kids !! :)

~nightflier!

GREEN day

Oh no, its not about the "band" !! Am I that obvious ?

For days, I had heard about the St. Patrick's day celebration, and when the chance came upon me, I had no plans. My roommate was equally excited, but St. Paddy's needs crowd and not company!!

Last minute plans (this also included 3 females getting ready in record 30 minutes, on a Sunday morning) were hatched and we (a crowd of four) headed to the South side of the city. It is supposedly the best and most famous parade of the city.

Never ever I have seen people involved in merrymaking, especially in the US. My notion of Americans is, that they are reserved kind of people. May be I am too presumptuous.

Anyways..

The train was full of boisterous crowds singing, dancing, drinking (beer, even though its not allowed :|) and having fun. There was a group at the entrance of our car, who made everyone going out and coming in dance. They were all dressed up in bright shades of green with funny hats, matching beaded necklaces, nail enamels, head bands, scarves, eye shadows, wrist bands, shamrock necklaces, and even green footwear. Oh well, we were also carrying teeny weeny bits of green with us.

As soon as we reached the parade venue, we were caught into the frenzy. I eagerly started looking for shops selling shamrock head bands. Luckily I found a lady selling those and bought myself nice springy shamrock green head band. I was also a part of the crowd now. So contagious was the merry feeling. 

The parade was about Irish culture, their traditions. It consisted of the most graphic and sonorous Irish bagpiper bands. If you think men cannot carry off skirts, think again! I think the way Irish men looked changed that for me, as they were looking more manly in those skirts. And the bagpipers, oooohhh.. The sounds are still ringing in my head (ears is it ? :|). There were other bands too, with drums and heavy beats. They somehow reminded me of a lazy Saturday morning and school grounds. We all have gone through those PT days.

There were groups of kids doing the famous Irish dance (I want to learn!!!!). There were leprechuan masked people, circus folks, Irish sheriffs. Irish traditional cops, on horses and ponies were also there. The best were the Irish wolfhounds. They looked so adorable and really tall. I could not touch or cuddle any, though :|

There were people distributing free beaded necklaces, candies (I got em all :D), balls. The ladies in front of us were really nice, who helped us get all this stuff. 

Our day ended on a dry note. Earlier it was decided that we would go to an Irish pub to see more merrymaking (yeah just to see). But hungry and growling stomachs came in our way. We dispersed without mentioning this.

But it was a nice change. Seeing green all over the place. The color of spring, may be :)

I was already missing holi. But the music, the color (though just one :)) made me feel good. I am going to add more green to my wardrobe now. And going to attend St. Paddy's day parades as long as I am in US (or countries where its celebrated). So what, even if I am not an Irish ?

~nightflier :)

Quarantined !!!

damn you DLS !!!

Last sunday when we went to church for mass, we were a bit late. The father gave a pretty nasty lecture on the sense of punctuality and not disturbing others in their prayers. Quite abashed, I decided to make it before time, this time i.e. today.

So last night before going to bed I made a schedule for a Sunday morning(yeah..the same day when a lot of you prefer to relax and stretch for an extra hour and two inside the sheets.) It went something like this.

1. Get up at 6.30 am and be on the table by 7.
2. Finish 2 hours of studies. Apply oil to thy hair. Yeah, we Indian girls, still do that. This weekly massage keeps the gray matter inside my head younger :P
3. 9.00 to 10.00 - finish breakfast, with an episode or two of any crappy series, videos or news and blogs.
4. Finally take a shower. Yeah the long, sunday special !! Before that don't forget to call up the church buddy, to make sure of the plan.

And there's the catch, crux and stupidity of today's extremely how-I-got-pissed-off story.

As I call up this friend and tell her I will be there at her apartment by 11. She tells me 'But, its already 11.05!!'

I am like, get moving you bugger. Rub your eyes. Its 10.05.

Then I get that wholehearted chuckle, 'Oh!! Day light saving started since last night. You must have missed it.'

I am like 'What crap !!!'

And then I google and get to know that, indeed DSL has started. It starts on the 2nd Sunday of March !!!
That explains the mismatch between my lappy and mobile watch.

Earlier this morning...
thinking that 3 manual watches in my room cannot be wrong, I had very cleverly changed the time settings of my lappy. And I had also laughed at it, thinking how stupid the machine was. Whereas a sensible person (read intelligent and not presumptuous) would have appreciated the fact, that it auto updates itself on every start up and network detection (thus a very clever machine). She would have also found out about why that had happened, rather than just plainly believing her cleverness :P

Anyways, things do fall into place for me, after a good 15 minutes.

But sadly I have missed the mass. (I cannot go late and that too with oil dripping off my hair!!!)

And you know what, it's all because of DSL. DSL sucks!!! Why do you need to move ahead and behind 'time' every 4-5 months. We Indians don't have it and we are still productive. We do have an IST (Indian standard time) for timing our schedules. And you know what it works for us in a randomly chaotic way. At least we don't feel the pain of facing a well planned and equally well implemented schedule getting totally ruined.

Instead of feeling like a total fool, I take pleasure in cursing others!! Yes, I am pissed off.

You can take 'me' out of India, but you cannot take the 'India' out of me :P

~nightflier :D

The reader

* This is the reason why I like movies and I believe in them.

* These are the kind of performances which touch you. Both from Ms. Winslet and Mr. Fiennes. You will know why Ms. Winslet is such a brilliant, intense, wonderful and talented actress of this era.

* This is a movie which should have won the Best Picture. I am not a great fan of who wins. But this one deserved it more.

* Don't miss the finer details of the scene when Hanna and Michael meet after 20 years. I cried like a baby in that one scene.

* The calm, haunted locales of Germany instill that after effect of an holocaust in you. My current job involves working on, translating and transcribing the interviews of holocaust survivors. Sometimes I get drifted into their reality and I know how disturbing it is.

* The life of Michael, whose torment is painful and whose love for Hanna is equally beautiful, is so humane. The strength and weakness of Hanna leave you bummed.

* The scene where Hanna teaches herself to read and write is so real. I myself have done that so many times while trying to learn German at my job. I do it as it keeps my mind off the content of the interviews. Self help !!

* Also watch The hours by Mr. Daldry. It had one explosive cast of Meryl Streep (Goddess), Julianne Moore (Talented) and Nicole Kidman (I don't really like her). Also he has a keenness for the female conscious, me thinks. 

As an after thought, I had no detailed knowledge about holocaust, the camps (called lager), the extermination of jews, before I started working. I believe it's a dastardly act any human being can do on his fellow being, to let him die or kill him or make him suffer, with knowledge and intention. The movie has been criticized for that. But I personally think that it was not glorified or presented artistically to subside the horrific effect of these events.

Anyways, watch the movie because it explores an unusual relationship. Because Kate Winslet is one hell of an actress. What do you have for breakfast girl ? We can give it to a bunch of other women and, of course men too, who call themselves actors. Compulsary !!

And you, Ralph Fiennes, how do your eyes convey so much pain and love at the same time ? What eye vitamins do you take ?

I think that's excellence. They are just possessed by it!

~nightflier :)

Baking needs

 Its been a while since I posted something. Grad school I tell you!! 

Plus writing to me is more like an impulsive, spontaneous act than a profound, drafted ritual. I have so many individual threads exciting my nerve cells, everyday, but by the time I get time to open blogger those threads either fizz out or I procrastinate. Lately with those legen... (wait for it !!) daryyyy memory issues, I have also started jotting down ideas whenever one pops out. Its just that I forget where I have taken notes :|

Anyways, these are trivial issues. I finally have something to share with everyone. 

Birthdays to me are special affairs. Specially if it's a close friends'. I like to give stuff personal touch, like make something hand crafted, write something, plan an outing/party and make it a memorable day (for me at least :D). So when a friends' birthday was around the corner we (me and my roomie) decided to bake him a cake. 

Lately, learning to make cakes and baking have been on top of my cooking basics class. So it was quite a risk I was involving the birthday boy's cake into. Nevertheless, we decided on a healthy and beautiful fruit cake. 

Baking is a precarious business. The batter needs to be mixed well for that fluffy texture, the oven needs to be turned off at the exact moment to avoid a burnt cake, the cake has to pass that knife test. But its fun. Since it was our first time, and we had smaller pans, we divided the batter into three parts to make it a 3 layer cake and elevate the effect! The baking time was 38 minutes, and every minute was a patience test for us. I opened the oven twice and my roomie thrice to make sure about the cake's well being. The individual cake came out really well. Fluffy and well cooked. We cleared the first hurdle.

Next was frosting and decoration. I announced to my roomie that she was to be the art director (considering my sloppyness), who would decide the shape of the fruits and how to cut them. The bottom layer was topped with a thick layer of frosting and pineapples around the circumference.

It looked something like this.

Then went another layer of cake with loads of frosting.

I don't have any picture of that.

Then came the top most layer, loaded with frosting, kiwi slices, pineapple and strawberries.

The overall effect was like this. It looked farm fresh :D

The finished version looked even better. But I don't have any more pictures :(

We also cooked some brownies as an added snack. Do bash me next time if I tell you that I don't have a sweet tooth! 

Some learnings I would like to share:

1. Always cut the brownies immediately after they are done. Later it just becomes a powdered mass :(

2. Use a free hand while applying frosting. Cakes are meant to be fattening and sweet. No point saving that bit.

3. After the birthday boy/girl's cake cutting ceremony has been done, take the mantle in your own hands. Specially if you have made the cake. Some random girl cut our cake and totally ruined it. We had placed the pineapples and kiwis so strategically for that perfect touch. But shyaaa...

Anyways, the birthday boy was super happy by our gesture. These small things don't really matter then :)

And btw we have already gotten our next assignment. Wondering how much I should charge for that personal touch. 

I think its priceless and hence do it for free :)

~nightflier