Home Alone this Week End

Well, I have been home alone for the past four days as my apartment mates are still celebrating Diwali at their respective hometowns. So please down be surprised if this post seems a wee bit depressing and lacks the usual humor and 'leg-pulling' of the people I know.

To begin with I have been doing a lot if reading. I have finally finished reading a book that I was anticipating for a long time as it was by my favorite author Robin Cook and is titled 'Foreign Body.' The book speaks about medical tourism. Wait a minute! before you get any ideas, it is not the tourism in which people travel to sexy locales. It is a medical thriller that is India-focused. It is the outsourcing of health care and specialized surgeries to developing countries like India due to the astronomic medical costs incurred in the developed countries, primarily the US. It is a pity that the poor and the uninsured cannot not afford this and travel to the developing countries to get treated and then starts a series of unexpected mysterious murders. If I have kindled anyone's interest and you know me, you can borrow it from me, I own a copy. Other than I read a couple of paperbacks that were not that great for a mention here.
I watched Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Fashion' this Friday, as it was the new release and we did not bother with Goalmaal returns. Fashion is good in certain bits and pieces. The characters were cliché, they are either overly good or super bad which is never the case in real life. Priyanka Chopra, shows that she can act too, after a series of tackie movies like Drona, Chamku ( even I will never act in a movie by this name!) Love Story 2050, she has finally gotten back to her senses. I really liked Samir Soni in the movie who could pull off the gay act with grace. Kangana Ranauat is at her lunatic best yet again. Can she ever act sane in any movie?? The soundtrack has a couple of good numbers I particularly liked the Mar jawaan track, it plays in the background during the fashion shows. The greatest drawback is the length, it goes on and on for three freaking hours. Seems like Bandarkar was obsessed with all the scenes he shot and did not permit the editor to cut much of the movie. All in all, it does not go any where near the Page 3 genre. You can watch it when you totally have nothing to do and it is definitely not a 'must watch.'

A Still from Fashion

I watched a movie called 'August Rush' at Aki's roomate' s recommendation. God bless her (both Aki and her roomie) for loading this movie on my laptop. The movie is about a music child prodigy. The kid (Freddie Highmore) who lives in a child care center, senses music in everything and has never had any formal training. He believes that he will find his parents if they only hear his music, because they are truly bonded by their music. The movie moves to the flashback where Keri Russell (who is a renowned and beautiful cellist) and Johnathan Mayer (a bass player in club, of Bend it like Beckham and MI3, God! he is so hot!! ) share the love of music and end up falling in love and bonding together in one night, but go their separate ways. Keri gets pregnant and decides to have the baby, but meets with an accident due to which her dad lies to her that she lost the kid. After 10 years she realizes that she still has a child and sets off in his pursuit. Meanwhile Johnathan realises that he cannot run away form Keri and decides to look for her all three take to music again. This movie is awesome due to the little kid who has disguised himself as 'August Rush' and keeps running from one childcare center to a beggar union where he is exploited by Robin Williams to the a renowned music school. Finally, how the three meet at the concert, where Keri and later her son performs, to finally become a family. Watch it for the little kid (Freddie Highmore) for your heart goes out to him and for the love of music. For all those who know me, I have this movie loaded on my laptop and will give it to you.
Finally, today I did loads of cleaning- the house and my clothes. I hate Hyderabad for this, maids are like desert roses here!! I also cooked a decent meal today, mom would be so proud of my culinary skills, if I may say so myself :-P

After I have written this post, I actually feel better, I just realized that my weekend didn't suck as much as I thought it did, just a while ago. But one thing is for sure, I cannot sit alone and ideate and retrospect for long.... In anticipation of the return of two of my house mates tomorrow morning, with long tales of their trips to tell, I am signing off :-)

What a DaY!!!

I was super excited bout the weekend. But, it is so true when people say 'it truly wasn't your day!' Today was one such day. I know the probable reason too, I got up by seeing Saru's face first thing in the morning (Sorry Saru but this seems to be the only reason ;-) I had promised to drive her to Citibank before 12 as it was a half day today. So she woke me up, make breakfast and we left by 10.30. Halfway through, my bike's fuel got exhausted when we were on top of the flyover ( I know if my dad ever reads this blog, he will confiscate my bike, he always gets mad at me for not fueling my bike well in advance. He says that you must fuel your bike as soon as the fuel indicator is in the red zone, but I always ride my bike only in the red zone) ok so getting back to the main topic, with great difficulty, I pulled the choke and reached the fuel station. Then came the series of traffic jams. It was so crazy! at 11 on a Saturday morning we encountered so many traffic jams. Then we reach the bank and then Saru madam tells me I wanted the address proof from the bank for my passport application. Madam didn' t even remember that she had not given her residential address for the Citibank account application coz we did not have a home at that time. She never bothered to tell me why she needed to go to the bank and I over estimated her sensibility and did not bother to ask her. Please remember to whack me whenever I over estimate Saru's sensibility ever again! So that trip was just a waste. Then came our discussion about our lunch eat out. In between all this, we bought tickets for the evening show of the movie Flashback of a Fool. Finally, exhausted, we lunch, reached home and crashed. We got up and left to watch the movie. The movie was the highlight of the day! As both of us like Daniel Craig we decided to watch this movie also there was no other movie to watch other than Hello and Karzz. Saru being more English than the Queen herself banked on this movie and I complied.Our first trigger that some thing was wrong should have been when we got top row tickets for a Saturday evening show at PVR. The movie started with an opening gross sex scene. I asked Saru if by any chance it was a porn movie!! but then we assured ourselves it was not. God! the movie just went from bad to worse. It was so super slow and boring. Even the flash back was shoddy! I could not take the torture after half an hour and started cracking my own jokes, Saru being Saru, laughed at my PJs too. BTW, she is the only person who honors my PJs and laughs dutifully towards them. I wonder if she actually understands them ;-P. Ok coming back, I even took a nap for half an hour, then came the best part of the movie, the interval! Me and Saru ran out of the movie for our lives, never to return again. I cannot imagine how that movie ever got suitable viewership rating of 15 yrs and above. Moral of the story, never venture to watch a movie without checking out the reviews and that too from a trusted/unadulterated reviewer.
We had throbbing headache and decided to treat ourselves to Pizza. When we reach Pizza Hut we aw a huge waiting line for tables. We got a table after a while and then our mood improved. We went to the ice cream shop which we used to frequent while we were at the guest house for nostalgia sake! We are back home and Saru has gone to wash 2 buckets of her clothes at 12.30 in the night! Before you wonder why we do not have a maid, that is another tragic story, we have had 6 maids in the past one year. Our maid attrition rate is greater than Infosys too. No maid sticks for more than a month. We have tried pampering them by giving them Elizabeth Arden perfumes and Real Fruit juices, to win their loyalty. But these people run away. Poor Saru will wash her clothes now and as always, it will mandatorily rain and her washed clothes will get drenched for another 2 days. So this was the end of a sad Saturday. In the hope of a better tomorrow, I am signing off :-)

PS: After reading this post Saru is so mad at me that she has put up her status message as 'I hate you idiot.. Tomorrow no french toast for breakfast.' when she is sitting 2 feet away from me. Poor me!! I don' t think my optimism for a better tomorrow is going to come true anytime in the near future :-(