Life - or something like it

Thankfully these incidents have become practically nil in my case but better half still has his moments in the spotlight It all started with my birthday gift last year. At that time we were living in the Lancaster university family flats. I somehow never understood the reason as to why the front door to the flat had a automatic door closer. It meant that even if you want to just step out to get the vacuum cleaner which you have stacked on the staircase landing just outside your door you needed to carry your keys since there was a fear of you getting locked out if you did not manage to hold the door with one hand and drag the machine with the other. So coming back to the incident, since my birthday was just a few days away better half (A) wanted to wrap the gift he had hidden in a box kept next to the vacuum cleaner.'A' got this brilliant idea (where all the brilliant ideas take birth) while doing his morning ablutions. Since I was away at work he thought it was perfect opportun

I came upon the movie 'Gran Torino' by chance and decided to watch it just because it was directed by Clint Eastwood aka 'Dirty Harry'. I had recently watched 'Changeling' another movie directed by him and had been really impressed with it. The movie starts of with Grumpy old Clint ( Walt Kowalski) at his wife's funeral. It seems he is angry with the world. I was a bit reluctant to go on but with the want of nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon I decided to continue. The film starts at a very slow pace and people who lack patience will start fidgeting to see a codgy old man slurring racially tinged epithets and in general angry with the himself and the world. First 30 mins and I was hooked. My better half who can master the art of 'snoring away to glory' in superb movies like 'Lord of the Rings was glued to the screen as well. The film is set in Detroit and 'Walt' a retired automotive worker lives in a immigrant dominated neighbourh

I have recently been reading quite a bit about 'holocaust' - which refers to the extermination of Jews by Nazis during the 2nd World War. It started with the book 'Schindlers List' on which the famous movie was based. Then I read a book called 'I escaped from Auschwitz' written by Rudolf Vrba who escaped from Auschwitz with his friend Alfred Wetzler and informed allies about the Mass Murder taking place in the concentration camp. The 32 page detailed information which which they dicatated to horrified Jewish Officials in Slovakia came to be known as the Vrba-Wetzler Report. Yesterday I saw the movie 'Defiance' based on a true story starring Daniel Craig. It is about four Jewish brothers who escaped from their Nazi Occupied Village in West Belarus in Poland and joined the soviet partisans to fight the Nazis. The brothers rescue around 1200 Jews from the ghettos in Poland. The movie shows the courage and determination of people who want to live and die lik

I am sure your curiosity must be piqued by title of this post.Since my husband has finished his MBA course, we vacated the campus flat and moved in to a rental apartment in the town.It a nice comfortable apartment which is completely furnished. It has real comfy,"sink into me type" couches and the works . We moved into the flat by 5th sept and since then there has been a steady stream of people coming over for dinners. It's the time to say goodbyes and making promises to keep in touch. Three days back we had a curious mix of people who resided with us for a short duration till the time they could move to more permanent accomodation.We had a Brazilian , a taiwanese and an Indian, who are my husbands classmates stay at our place. Our 2nd bedroom(its actually quite small) has no place to walk,its filled with luggage,bags ,pots and pans and what nots.I think its permanently going to be turned into a store room. This curious mix of friends brought a lot of fun and laughter a

Could the title be any more Cheesier....??? Watching this movie was a deliberate plan of ours(Naira - a friend in Lancaster and me) to experience the Horror of a bad Bollywood Movie.I had endured the torture years back when I had watched it for the first time. The setting of the movie is in "sunder Nagar" supposedly a small town somewhere in India. The small town not only has bungee jumping facilities but has snow clad mountains the size of ALPS and Coral Reef at the same time....isn't nature wonderful...I mean WOW is the word that comes to my mind. The place needs to be checked definitely for property prices... I know I know... Suraj Barjatya tried to make the scenery at least pleasant for the viewers... The torture..oops, the movie begins with Sweet albeit a saucy Kareena-Sanjana who is a girl of today's generation...who wants to live life as per her own terms.Her mother however wants her to get married to a rich bloke (Abhishek) named Prem. However in his place com

This movie is an epitome of what a Blockbuster Hindi movie should be. Much has been written and said about this movie so how could I not write something about it. I have seen "Sholay" countless number of times and know all the dialogues by-heart. My romance with this movie started very early in life. My father had a audio cassette of this movie with all the dialogues and songs. Even though I had never seen the movie it was fun just listening to the dialogues which were and are still so powerful even after more than 30 years after it was made. I dont remember when I saw "Sholay" for the first time. I recently saw the movie again. The beginning of the movie is so much akin to a western movie.The bandits on horse back trying to rob a 'maal gaadi'(goods train) has been shot really well. The film was a commercial diaster when it was first released in 1975. It was a Lavish film for its time and took 2.5 years to film it. Critics were harsh in their judgement. Onl

I travel by bus everyday to work.It gives me an opportunity to observe people without being too obvious. The latest fad in fashion is the "low waist jeans". I always think whether its more of a fashion disaster. Everybody is wearing it from fat to skinny..tall to short... The low waist jeans has shown me some unsightly views and unchartered territories. Not to sound too retro and conservative,was it not enough that showing the cleavage was considered fine that we are now happily showing our other cleavage as well. Just yesterday I saw a young mother with her 2 friends get in the bus. She was not skinny but quite well endowed and wearing a LWJ (Low waist jeans ) plus no belt to hold it up. It was quite an ordeal for everybody to see her sitting down . Its fine if fashion models wear it cause they make it look good .Also people who can carry it without showing their backside to the entire world. On an average I get to see at least 5-10 butt cracks everyday and I think my cup

After looking at the promos of the movie I was eagerly waiting for it to get released so I can see the pirated version on the internet (Well fellas dont go all "how can u do it ?" I am desperate...and there are no Hindi cinemas nearby to go to ) The star cast looked impressive and songs were also promising. Added to that was I love Saif ali so it was a chance worth taking.The print was quite ok. The movie started and the entrance of saif was so typical of Hindi movies as if dumb viewers like us, cant guess it anymore... The movie revolves around 6 main characters saif , bipasha , akshaye khanna , katrina kaif , anil kapoor and sameera reddy... This is not a review so I wont divulge into the storyline.. The first thought after watching the movie was... What was the director thinking...? The movie has so many twists and turns , it becomes difficult to follow the storyline. I feel Saif was totally wasted in the movie .Bipasha just looked hot and sexy (as usual) ,Akshaye Khanna

This is one of the most delighful Romantic comedies I have ever seen....I fell in love with both the characters "Kathleen Kelley" played by Meg Ryan and "Joe Fox" played by Tom Hanks. The movie revolves around these two characters, who communicate well via email and fall in love without knowing each others real identity.In actual life they are Business rivals and Joe Fox puts Kathleen out of Business. "Shopgirl" and "NY152" are the Avatars under which they are emailing each other. The theme is so simple yet so sweet.The dialogues which are in the form of emails are Fabulous and so interesting. " The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee b