Fall Colours

at Grandfathers Mountain ..

Love thursday..

brings on my love of flowers...I love flowers and to take pictures...
heres some of them..

Free people read freely..

'Maurice' by E M Forester is my pick for the 'Banned book Week' ..
Check here

Which is yours ??

Dor...Kacchhi dor

First thing in the morning , as usual , I woke up.. checked my mails and then got on to rediff .. checking the news back home .. and since its Friday also expecting some good movie reviews.. and la and behold...find a new movie by Nagesh Kukonoor...one of the film makers I truly appreciate.. he puts so much efforts in his movies.. and his characterizations...I really admire it...take 'Teen Deewarein' , 'Iqbal' ..all great movies according to me..

and this new one...'Dor' ..the story looks good to me...and the review is all praises...I am overjoyed...thinking where and how soon can I watch this...I pass on the good review to a good friend...who happens to be a mallu... and no harm intended but whenever I talk about a good movie with a mallu (my husband for instance) , it seems that its already been a mallu movie !!

But Im not ready to believe this of a NK movie... so I accuse her and then have to eat my words... here it is .. the mallu version and the hindi version here .. how could NK do this .. Im very disappointed...

Onashamsagal...

Forgiveness

I Grant Forgiveness to all Living Beings,
I Solicit Forgiveness from all Living Beings,
I am Friends with all Living Beings,
I do not have any Animosity towards any Living Beings.

MICCHHAMI DUKKADDAM !

Love thursday..

Sibling love...expressed by a thread...Raksha bandhan

Contribution to Love Thursday

Crime victim # 42972397

It so happened one day...it was a sunday...and as is customary..we wanted a fun day..
and we went for breakfast...and had donuts..to make a good start to the fun day..
(I cant rhyme forever...wish I could though .. )

neways...so we had a nice breakfast...and then again as is customary went for grocery shopping..back we came...and it still was too early...since hubby dear is wake-up-at-ass-crack-of-dawn whether its a sunday or a monday...our days always start early..

yeah...so there was still time for us to go check some cars (which is what weve been doing for past 2 weekends...and I thought I had gained lot of car-knowledge ... but...aaahhh...its slipping away.......) so we thought we'll go home and browse around a bit and gain more knowledge about the cars..

So we reached home...and immediately the hubby remembers the newspaper lying in the
car which he needs *NOW* ...and I went back to the car...and see one guy fiddling with its locks....!! Almost ....but not really....

I grabbed the paper..and had a feeling that I should take the bag along..which I had left in the car..but we are going back again ! and its our parking deck ! its USA ! its safe !
and I left it there..

and what do you see when we went back to the car ..my bag was missing...the car
was broken into..my bag was missing !!!

and this is the way I became a crime victim ......and my bubble burst !

Good Night & Good Luck

Integrity...freedom of speech..human decency..and where the world would be..if there were no one to defend it ..

If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices. If none of us ever read a book that was "dangerous", had a friend who was "different", or joined an organization that advocated "change", we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants

Gotta admire Ed Murrow .. and George Clooney for making an intelligent movie..

Childhood memories...

aaah.....the 80's..
those free summer vacations...
hanging around in the trees...
inventing games...
reading non-stop..
movies non-stop....on the rented VCRs...
- Shammi starrers
- Amar Akbar Anthony
- Arth, Ardh-satya, Mirch-masala ..
doordarshan...
Ek Do Teen Chaaaaar.........
Ramayan...Mahabharat...
blissful ignorance of the surroundings.....
growing up...
'Kashish'
'Banegi Apni baat' ...
studies..

Wonderful memories !
I just keep wondering if todays children will look back so fondly on their childhood ... everyone should be able to ...

Memorial day weekend

Battleship Carolina ...
Carolina Beach...
Wilmington.. North Carolina

Thailand day five ..

Chiang Mai...small nice uncluttered place..with innumerable wats...left and right..and left..and right..tired !

Thailand day four ..

Damneon Saduak Floating market, quaint little market ..not sure though if it was worth the 2+ hours drive..
also .. Wat arun and Wat Trimit....

Thailand day three..

Beautiful ruinous Ayuthaya..
and a very european-landscaped Bang-Pa In Palace..
good day !

Thailand day two..

drive back to Bangkok...check into Holiday Inn hotel..which is an ok-only hotel ..though the location is good..
quick refresh and on to sightseeing...Grand Palace .. Temple of Emerald Buddha..Wat Pho..
great massage at the 'School of massage ' at Wat Pho ..

Thailand day one..

Visa on arrival is easy but possibly lengthy process..

Took a car...a map ...and drove down to Pattaya....
Hotel (Royal Orchid) - surprisingly nice...
the beach - disappointing..
Noong Nooch - overpriced cliched consumerised place..
Ali Baba restaurent - dont really know what they are doing..
Hubby - likes the concept of an indian thali :)

In the evening , checked out the Tiffany Show...quite elaborate...worth watching once atleast...

Hindi movies..or

names of the novels Ive read recently... such long names :

>> Chronicles of a death foretold , by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Im not so impressed..
>> Song of the Cuckoo Bird , by Amulya Malladi
Good one time read..read in one go..and it 'is' a big book..but nothing too great..
>> We need to talk about Kevin , by Lionel Shriver
Amazing !! What a way of expressing..and the end is such a shocker...and since its all in past..I thought I knew all..and just enjoying the literary fest..but..its simply a beautiful read !
>> An Artist of the Floating World , by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nice again !
>> The Inner Courtyard , by Indian Women
Okay read...

Read, every day, something no one else is reading

Read, every day, something no one else is reading
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

- Christopher Morley
an author of delightful books, books about love of books...its fun to read !
check out some online books at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ , search for 'The Haunted Bookshop' , 'Parnassus on Wheels'

Short Note

saw preview of 'Rang De Basanti' ..I was very curious by the promos but was getting no sense of what it might be about...
the preview looks like it might be about students...dreams..alien land..struggle..determination... looking forward to it !

also read 'The blue bedspread' by Raj Kamal Jha.. good prose...style...also the refernces to all the blue, being my favorite colour and all that..though a bit overdone as it goes..
and also disoriented at the end of it ...confused... will need to re-read...

15 Park Avenue

is a beautiful movie...as expected I would say..

Waheeda Rahman...Shabana..Konkana..Rahul Bose..Shefali Chaya...how could it not be .....
at one point in movie I remembered Rani in 'Black' and it seemed so contrived...
in 15 Park Avenue , everyone seems so apt..so natural..Konkana is amazing...
except for Kanwaljeet...he should stick to his soaps..

and the end..how do you take the end..is it all Shabana's imagination .. ? that would be so M Night Shyamalam ...
maybe its a test for the audience psychosis...
I was all ok..life goes on ..nothing cut and dried..
my SIL wanted konkana to die..and solve all the problems..
my mom when narrated wanted her to be cured..

and its not that its all very sad and gloomy and introspective..there are quite a few moments that make you laugh involuntarily..with tears in eyes..

I guess its...as Joydeep says 'It would be very funny, if it werent so sad ' ! ...

Shahnaz

a novel, by Hiro Boga..
An unexpectedly poignant read..
aka Profoundly moving .. Piercing; incisive...Astute and pertinent ..so on and so forth..
(http://www.bartleby.com/61/99/P0399900.html)

Happy New Year 2006 !!

So many blogs are giving 'year in past' for the books theyve read, I am tempted too...albeit very short one..
The right side of the blog gives me a count of 42 since May.. and Im sure I mustve read atleast 10 till then though I do not remember ..so yes...a book a week..I like that :)

Completed 2 more before the year end :

Never Let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro .. my darling hubby sent it all the way across oceans.. I still dont know how I feel about the book.. dreadful... mind-numbing desperation .. cant define !

Book Seller in Kabul - My library owner is hard put to provide books which I read , he says I read books which his other audience doesnt.. so whenever he find some crazy book no one else touches...he hands it to me.. does that makes me crazy !

Began new year with :

A pale view of hills - Kazuo Ishiguro again.. In the end I strongly felt that the narrator and Sachiko are the same.. but I havnt found anything backing that on the google..Im left wondering..

Crash - saw this movie , really impressive portrayal about racism , stereotyping , humanity...nice.. ! I remember one dialog where a South African guy asks his friend (dawg actually) if he knows why the buses have such big windows over there.. its to humiliate the people who have to use the public transport...they can be seen by everyone.. who wouldve thunk that !

New Year trivia :
Remember the 'sorrry' by the bimbo in Salaam Namaste.. its copied from a hollywood movie 'Noises Off' .. when will this stop !

Next on reading list :
> We need to talk about Kevin , Lionel Shriver
> Lolita , Nabokov