SKYFALL

There is a lot of debate on internet about Skyfall being the best bond movie ever made. I have seen most or may be all of the earlier Bond movies. Skyfall is in a different league. It stands true to its theme... "Resurrection". Ofcourse you see glimpses of Aston Martin, the eject-passenger-seat button, the classic John Barry 007 theme and the beautiful ladies. But really the movie belongs to the tough-bond, Daniel Craig, who plays it so good that he makes you forget the old-style-bond.

The movie starts with "hold your breath" action sequence in Istanbul, where bond is in pursuit of a just-stolen hard disk ( this has names of all NATO agents embedded in terrorist organizations across the world). Motor bikes on roof tops, crushing beetles ( volkswagen), wrecking train and then a gun-shot to bond. Bond dropping of from a bridge into the river, is a perfect pause, before you are sucked into the world of an Artist. Absolutely stunning visuals and Adele's killer voice make your multiplex ticket worthy of it.

What follows is the resurrection of bond. Witty one-liners ( especially the sequence where the psychologist wants Bond to say the first word that comes to his mind after him, Psychologist starts with word "Day" and so-not-interested Bond answers "Wasted"), introduction to young Q. We are also introduced to our new villain, Silva, played by Javier Bardem. The computer hacker villain, doesn't scare you, but fills you with uneasiness about his next move. Bardem's evilness matches Craig's toughness.

Although the climax is little long and implausible, it is shot so beautifully that you may want to forget logic for a while and enjoy the outlands of scotland.  Gadgets are un-interesting, probably the only thing that might disappoint a cult Bond fan.

Go watch the movie, its not a movie to be seen on your 40 inch TV. 

Money Money

So what does more money bring you? More happiness? more comfort? more love? more pleasure? I don't know the answer, but sure I want to earn more money, and when I earn more money, I want to earn some more. But from my last visit to Nashik I am asking that question to myself more often than I did before. I saw two families in that city, both distant family members, living within stones throw distance from each other, but completely contrasting life styles. Family 1: 4 members of a family living in a cramped 1 bedroom house. Oh I forgot to mention they had a new entry into their family so that makes the family size to 5. Grandfather, Grandmother both looked so busy entertaining the new entrant, its like they had a new lease of life. The parents of the new born were happy too. Albeit more in love than before. They welcomed us, and insisted that our chauffeur sit for lunch amongst us. Not very common for a orthodox brahmin family, but I guess India is changing. There was never a moment when there was silence in that house. As Maya Sarabhai would say, typical Over-the-top-emotions-middle-class-family. Family2: All together 3 members in family, daughter studying in US, husband a very busy business man seen seldomly at home, wife at home, ofcourse she had 3 dogs, 2 cats and 4 maid servants for company ( and yes the omnipresent mobile phone) living in a bunglow that had its own landscaped garden and enough space to park their 4 big size imported brand cars. Naahhhhhhhh....forget it.. time to make more money.

Mary Kom - the INSPIRATION

She just kept pounding punches, 29 year old, mother of two. She didn't care that she could get hurt, or even die. She didn't care that her opponent had a strong guard, she kept punching. She also didn't care that she is inspiring every individual that is watching her match. She did what she is best at, pounding punches. Mind you, she also took lot of punches on her body. I don't know how old her kids are, but I think they would not like to watch her in ring. But she stood strong, got up every time she went down, and came back with same energy. Could this be the turning point? Could she be the athlete that inspires us 1.2 billion strong population to get at least more medals than Michael Phelps? or even inspire us to punch through our trivial day to day problems. My Message to Mary.... "Punch Mary...Punch"

Mineral King -- a hidden secluded Gem

If you plan to visit Mineral King, do not take your camera, because every minute you spend adjusting and taking a picture, you will be seeing that minute less of the beauty of nature. If you think this is an exaggeration of expression, I will wait for you to visit Mineral King and say " you know what dude! you were right". One more piece of information, I took my camera and it has a 4GB memory card, and my memory was full in first hour of my visit. Mineral King is a valley in the Sequoia National Park. Its closed for all of the winter ( from Nov 1st to June). The drive to Mineral king is torturous, the mineral king road is a single lane road with countless hairpin bends. Since I was enjoying the beauty of Mineral king road, it took 2 hrs for me to drive the 25 miles. The dense trees on the road make you feel you've been transported to some tropical location. I took numerous stops to enjoy small water streams, big sequoia trees, some chirping of birds and occasional deer spotting. A midst all this drive and hiking at the valley, I hardly saw 15 people, in total, believe me on that. Even the Park Ranger station had no people there. On the hike infact, I was alone. In the middle of the valley, which has a sign board " Active Bear Area", I was alone, a little apprehensive, but what the heck, I cared less, because I was enjoying the beauty of the valley so much. On the beauty of the valley: I was trying to search for some phrases that can describe the valley, "Rendezvous with Nature", "Forget-Yash-chopra-song-location" etc etc. but truly speaking, all these will not make any sense till you visit the valley. The only regret you can ever have, after visiting Mineral King, is of not having spent enough time there.

High-handed

Today is one of those days, when I use words or do things that are so uncharacteristic of me. Result, I had moments of remorse. But when I ponder over a bit, I realize, being proud, or rather being pompous, is one of those last bad things I want to do in my life. Let me put it this way, if I had a list of things, I DID NOT want to do in life, starting with least bad and ending with most bad. Taking drugs would come before being pompous in that list.

So why does this happen? its that one compulsive moment. Just that one compulsive moment, when you are dis-honest to yourself. Sometimes this is driven by situation, a situation that decides its compulsion. But sometimes its not so much situation driven, it just happens, like Sachin Tendulkar will walk for "most" of the times when he has nicked a ball, but there have been those compulsive moments when he has not walked. All of us might have had these compulsive moments, in a gamut of forms, from getting angry to being coward, from wanting to lie to ogling, from being dis-respectful to elders to questioning the existence of God.

But yes, this compulsive moment is what differentiates, the great from the ordinary, and the ordinary from bad. Its very important to develop a "Character" that does not create this compulsive moment. I have promised myself to work towards this "Character" that doesn't have compulsive moments of being pompous, because frankly, one cannot be pompous on achievements that are based on sacrifices made by others. I pray to God, to give me enough strength and resources to develop this character free of being pompous.

If there is anything I want to be pompous about, it would be sharing love with my loved ones.

Feeling Special!

I can't remember when I had this kind of feeling... probably never.... its different. On cloud 9, no, that sounds unreal. This is real, difficult to believe but its real. Its better than a feeling of winning a hard fought prize in a tough competition. This feeling is not comparable to accomplishment, satisfaction or victory. Its just making me smile, all day, at everyone, sometimes even scaring because I wouldn't remember if I crossed an intersection despite the red signal. Its making me forgive people, if I had anything against them. I am not even bothered with what is going to happen with the most-important-critical-crucial India Pakistan semi final.

Princess and the Vagabond ... contd.....

The princess speaks...

You are right, I had my self beguiled
I should've known, me ain't a destiny's child
but turn of events is ever so worse
never realized, my prosperity is my curse

I will not stop myself, I will cry
moist,my eyes may seem, soon they will run dry
no words to describe my hearts excruciating pain
nothing can ever hurt me so much, that is what I gain

you looked into my eyes, when you held open that lions jaw
your smile allayed my worry and I was just in complete awe
Uncouth you may be to people,I just saw you as man with valor
When you smiled at me and you did my life a favor

Few seconds of eye contact, that seemed to last a lifetime
right there and then, I lived my life, everything so perfect and sublime
You smiled and laughed with other women, I acted impervious
in truth, I thought of beating them to pulp, I was so jealous

Life stops for none, and it will not for me
crumbled, my dream lies, of together we
Happy, I know, I will never be in life again
But I Promise, I will pretend like having no pain.