Mirabelle and Ray

Nice one:

"Some nights alone he thinks of her.
And some nights alone she thinks of him.
Some nights these thoughts occur at the same moment.
And Mirabelle and Ray are connected without ever knowing it..."

I get such kind of thoughts all the time :-)

Movie Updates

Feels like it has been a while since I posted a movie update. Watched a number of movies in the last few weeks/months. Here is a summary:

• Slumdog Millionaire - Nice. Nothing extraordinary. Rahman won so many accolades for this film. To me this was very ordinary work by the maestro. But, what to say, he won it because "It was written"
• Luck By Chance - Not Bad. Expected more based on reviews. Didn't get boring even for a second. So I'd pass it by.
• Dev D - Pathetic. Not sure why people are raving about it.
• Oye Lucky, Luck Oye - Disaster. Could not figure out whats going on in the movie.
• Billu Barber - Agree with the box office collections. This one is a dud.
• 13B - This is a decent flick. Wasn't expecting much from it but it is not bad after all. Can watch it at home on a DVD at night when no one is around and see the results.
• Halo - This 1996 children's movie is a neat watch. Arbit and arty. Little girl Benaf (Shasha) was sweet.
• Raaz 2 - Ordinary. Don't even remember how it was. That speaks.
• The Other End of the Line - Bring on the mush. Aah! I loved it. The best of the entire lot of movies. Mush. Dark chocolate. Watch it when in that kind of a mood. Saran girl is impressive. If someone ever knows if it is her voice in the film (in the American accent) or if it is dubbed, please drop me a line. That would be very important for Saran.
  
• Outsourced - Funny in parts. Some of the scenes are downright hilarious. Though such scenes are few and far between. On the whole it is just about passable.
• The Laws of Attraction - More mush. Decent lovey dovey movie. Easily watchable.
• Dil Kabaddi - Exceed expectations. It is better than the title.
  

Come to think of it 11 movies in 2-3 months ain't that bad after all.

The great Indian election tamasha

What is going to be the story of general elections 2009?

They say that it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. The dilemma that faces Congress is that Sonia isn't fat enough. The fat ladies that are going to sing (and make the bad boys sway to their tunes) are from the so called "Third Front" - Behenji Mayawati, Jayalalitha et al.

NDA looks stale, sounding like a broken record and playing the Jai Shri Ram card ever so often. Whats even worse is that the party seems to be dilly-dallying on the true stand and come out with a set of issues it wants to contest the elections on.
Even before we get some preliminary inkling as to which way the "Janaadesh" may be going, BJP seems to be in damage control - Attacking the prime minister, attacking Sonia, backing Varun Gandhi but not backing his statements, Jaitley fighting Rajnath, blaming Congress for the IPL fiasco (Moving IPL to SA IMHO was a smart move - In special times when tackling terror is a global nightmare, Chidambaram had every right to be as cautious as he did)

The UPA is in utter disarray - It has almost vanished. Perhaps they lack a deal clincher like Pramod Mahajan or Arun Jaitley adept at tough bargaining, winning regional allies and ending up with a seat share agreement that makes all parties happy. Going by the current scheme of things, the Congress would consider itself lucky if it were to win more than 15 seats in UP + Bihar combined. With the cowbelt gone from under its belt, it would take a miracle for UPA to reach anywhere close to even 250 seats.

More threatening is the situation with the so called allies of NDA and UPA. Power hungry netas from NDA/UPA regional allies would be willing to make a quick buck and get ministerial berths by supporting a Third Front government lead by someone like Maya or Jaya or Sharad. Our comrades from left would be more than willing to lead a helping hand in order to prevent "anti national" forces of BJP or Congress from ruling the country and plunging it into any further darkness. Parties like Shiv Sena, MNS may very well be won over by Pawar playing the "Marathi Manoos" card. Of course defections could be manufactured within BJP and Congress as well. But in the current day scenario, the third front jokers are running ahead in the race.

What emerges out of this great Indian election tamasha may not be known well until a week after the counting ends on 16th May. And inspite of this post, I am a firm believer that there is nothing that can be predicted in Indian General Elections.

In an emotional electorate like India, an assasination or a terrorist strike or a single master stroke from one player may turn the tide for or against it. Its getting interesting. Just that I don't want to see a situation where Pawar is the PM and he is being fed grapes by Maya and Jaya. A nightmare that would be!

Cream Centre

Undoubtedly one of my favouritest restaurants in the whole wide world. The Chana Bhatura that you get here cannot be had anywhere else in the world.
Been there thrice last month. The same quality and the same taste. It keeps getting better. The menu becomes more and more tongue tickling. Aaaah .. the mere thought makes me crave.
Thanks Cream Centre!!
Superb Food. Highly highly highly recommended. Branches in Chowpatty (best one, if you ask me), Bandra, Chembur and Mulund.
And if you ever go there on my recommendation, pay me back appropriately! :-)

(Before some stupid soul does my 'dhulaai'. The person pictured above in blue is not me)

Experience of flying from Atlanta to Bombay on the day of the attacks

Sapna and I were embarking on a 6 week long vacation to India. All excited. Day before thanksgiving, sitting in Kansas City Airport about to board the flight to Atlanta in 10 mins. Suddenly the phone rings; it was Dad. He says that Bombay is on siege and that terrorists have taken the city hostage. It is chaos and that he is calling so that we are not surprised by what we see when we land in Bombay.

Strange. I said to myself. Hard to believe. Checked a few websites. But very little information coming in. However, one thing that was imminent was that something not-so-nice has happened and happened in a big way.

Somehow we spend the 2.5 hours trying to solve Sudoku. As soon as we get off the plane in Atlanta, all the LCD television screens (generously placed everywhere throughout the airport) were beaming live pictures of the scene in Bombay through CNN (inset CNN-IBN - The channel that I unfailingly watch each morning with my cup of tea).

We were quite unsure if our 18 hr flight from Atlanta to Bombay would take off in such circumstances. There was chaos and confusion and people were frantically on their cell phones trying to get a first hand report from families in Mumbai. ATS Chief Karkare and top cop Salaskar had already been slain by the time we got our eyes on the TV screens.

*Confession* The first (and perhaps the only) thing that struck me was "Gosh! I can't be missing the TV coverage of such an event. Such a loss. There was a sense of deprivation". Sapna couldn't fathom how such a thought could even be on my mind. But it is what it is.

Meanwhile, the airline (Delta) had already contacted the US State Dept, who had checked with their counterparts at the Foreign Ministry (GoI). We had been cleared to take off. However the American crew with us would have to fly back to the US on the same flight i.e. They fly 18hrs from Atlanta to Bombay serving the passengers; a new set of crew boards the aircraft which flies back after a 4 hr break in Bombay back to Atlanta; the crew of the first flight fly back rightaway. Sounds pretty tiring!

On a separate note, Delta scores a 3 out of 3 in my book. Awesome aircraft, awesome crew, awesome food, awesome masala tea, awesome personal entertainment system. In short, fly Delta. It is one of the best experiences. If possible, book your seats online in an exit row and you won't even realize that you've spent 18hrs on the plane. (You would be longing to get back into the aircraft for your next flight ........ That was an exaggeration!)

So all the passengers (not sure about the crew) were frisked like crazy by special task officers and some by sniffer dogs before we boarded the flight. All carry on baggage for each and every passenger went through tremendous screening using machines that I had never ever seen in my life. In short, they did everything to make sure that the right security measures had been taken at their end and that the passengers felt secure (At least, I did. Just that I was missing the coverage :( )

Upon landing in India, immigration was funny. The lady at immigration asks me where is your visa. (FYI - It had expired and I had an AP and a visa revalidation appointment at the US Consulate). I gave a terse reply to her question, "Madam, Indian Passport hai". Why on earth does immigration require people entering their own country to produce a visa of the country they are coming in from is beyond my understanding. Now that utterly confused her. Unsure as to why an Indian passport holder does not need to have a valid visa to enter India, he asked his counterpart sitting next to her. Thankfully he asked the lady to let us go since we had Indian passports. Welcome to India :-)

Side Note ... Bombay airport may have been recently listed on Forbes worst airport in the world list. But it has become quite slick. Clean restrooms, plenty of restaurants, lounges (e.g. IIFA lounge), duty free and so on. I wouldn't rate it as world class by any standard. But ya, definitely quite decent. No free Wi-Fi btw. Not too good. Strangely, not sure if it was even available for purchase.

So we got the baggage very quickly. At customs, one of the Pandus ask me what flight I have taken. I replied "Delta" and he goes "Kuchh hai kya duty ke liye?". I said no and simply headed out. The day when Bombay was on siege, anyone could have entered the city without any checks on the luggage via international airport.

Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra!

No wonder then that: "Bade shahron mein aise ek adh hadse hote rahte hain. Woh 5,000 logon ko marne aye the lekin humne kitna kum nuksan hone diya."