Random Thoughts on a Saturday evening

With the exam season(yeah season because it felt like one!!) coming to an end, things are looking up once again, the sweltering summer notwithstanding. Well for starters, looking forward to some hard-earned sleep[wink]. The next thirty days, I am practically going to be living out of a suitcase.

First its down south with a bunch of friends. Going to be nice visiting places like Ooty, Kodaikanal again after so many years. The very idea brings a deluge of memories flooding back, memories of yore- did my first standard at this place called Wellington , some sixty kms from Ooty. With the Nilgris as its backdrop ,its a quaint town, sparsely populated, at least it was then. Its a military inhabitation basically. Dad was in Staff college there. As I was saying I did my first standard there, the school was DSSC. What I remember more vividly among other things was rolling down the slope along the largish grassy hillock we had in school and getting all dizzy . It was quite a muse back then during the lunch breaks . Used to ruin my school sweater ;) Also fondly recall the long drives that Dad took us on, in our off- white Fiat. Those were good days. There were many other things which I cant remember now. All this may sound a little quixotic, and it probably is, but then that's me ;)

Again I appear to have gone offtrack, well after the southern odyssey its back to Hyderabad. And then after a fortnight its time to set off for home, my grandparents' place in Bihar, Deoghar. Its been almost a year and a half since I last visited and it will great to be with my grandparents. It will be mango season there shortly and I cant wait to get there.

Seems like an interesting month ahead. Will update once I am back. A couple of things that I would like to discuss here.

This morning, while looking up the Times paper, apart from the shocking bomb carnage, I was trying to read the sports page and thought I will bring this up. Its becoming increasingly difficult to read that page, what with the kind of pictures being splashed around in the pages adjacent :) . I understand that there was some ruckus created, and the issue got dragged in the court with the Times or TOI as they like to call themselves, getting the verdict in their favour some months back. I am not aware of what exactly transpired in the courts, but seem to remember reading that it was 'a victory for freedom of expression' as quoted by the paper. I would hastily add that I am all for freedom of expression, and what happened in Baroda with the art student is the height of bigotry. Sometimes you wonder where are those values of tolerance, of magnanimity that Akshay Kumar proudly professes to the Britishers in Namastey London. Thankfully,there was some support for the student against the perverse behaviour, with demonstrations among the art students all over the country . Lets also give credit to the dean who also stood up for his student . Coming back to the Times paper.Personally, I have no issues with the pictures. However, there is a right place for everything, and somehow, those sleazy pictures don't belong in sports. Not for me anyway. It would be prudent to utilize some other space for them, and just let the sports section be what it is meant to be- sports. This is just an opinion, would like to know what you feel about the whole thing.

Also would like to talk about the movie Tara Rum Pum . Saw it with a couple of friends. You would have probably have heard about the movie, or already seen it like me. Now I am not here to make up your mind for you, that's down to you. I will just tell you what I think. I found the first half slow, the songs were too long for one, and the movie unravelled along expected lines. There were moments where I had to stifle a yawn, partly because the movie was my idea[wink] and partly because its good manners not to yawn, and me being the perfect gentleman that I am, I didn't ;). The second half was a tad better. However having said that the director could have brought more out of Rani Mukherjee. Apart from the odd scene, she was always traipsing behind Saif Ali Khan. Saif in all fairness didnt do a bad job, but don't think he has the ability to carry a film single handed on his shoulders, like Sharukh Khan did in Swades.All in all it was a fairy tale like movie, which was probably targeting young families. I ll say I found it alright, worth a watch once.

Will be away , so wont be blogging for a while.
Cheers!!