19!

No,it's not a movie in the league of 7 or 8 or 21 or 2012!It's what I happen to turn this very day,3rd of January.It was a special birthday celebrated in a train for the first time for I was traveling back to IITM. I didn't miss bumps at all for it was one helluva bumpy train journey [:P]. I had my dear friends by my side,Nitya and Shreya waiting for the clock to tick 12 though I missed my family very much.And thanks to all the friends who made it a point to wish me at that time of night. Last year, at the same time,I had all my batch mates in hostel coming to wish me. It is more or all less made up for with all those calls and SMSs! [:)]

And by the way, my new year resolution:Blog more!!

A Quick Autopsy!

It’s a wee bit strange to find myself in a fix wherein words don’t flow as easily as they used to for a blog post. Not that my life over the past one semester had been any less juicy or eventful. It’s just that I was trapped in what I would like to call a ‘blog freeze’. Every time I started a new post on a few occasions, I wasn’t just inspired enough to finish it. Funny as it may sound given the fact that I had swell of my time this particular semester marked with a lot of firsts in my IIT life, new friendships, old bonds –a few battered and a lot more strengthened, new adventures, new discoveries-both about myself and non-self, bittersweet memories, new revelations all making for a remarkable third semester in the life of a sophomore.

The biggest of them all being my first GPA 9 :D ( I seriously can’t help sounding eager/nerdy here for I waited too long for it and now, too excited to shut up about it :P )followed by my first ever Shaastra coordship made all the more special by the fact that a lot of fight went into it. The event under discussion here is ChemicalX. We did manage to rise to the occasion when participation went beyond bounds and people just didn’t stop coming well after we ran short of question papers. All’s well that ends well is what is popularly said! Ours was a pretty small team comprising 2 coordinators and a volunteer and it was a great experience to have been able to shape the event as we wished to with very little pressures from anybody outside our cosy small team. The fact that ChemicalX was just into its second edition very oddly grouped under ‘Unwind’ to much of my perplexity must have added to our much-cherished freedom. We managed to put a good show after all! [Looking forward to your comments on it, Varun! ;)]

Meeting film actor Boman Irani as a part of being an Extramural Lecture Series Coordinator is the next big event this semester. We got to interact with this charming, versatile and totally down-to-earth artist at very close quarters. Fighting mosquitoes at the BEGH chatting away to glory with one of the most sensible and sought–after actors of new school of Bollywood thinking has certainly been a helluva experience for me! And editing the department magazine has been an experience of its own sort. How strong the readership is still what I’m trying to figure out though! [:P]

As the 3rd semester drew to an end, came a chance to be a part of the placement team as a representative. It was again a paradigm-shifting sort of stint which did make my winter vacation a little more occupied than it otherwise would have been. It was fun work alongside presenting me with a chance to observe the placement scene from close. I also tried doing something by which I mean learning, more about Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) but I think there’s still a long, long, long way to go in this regard [:P] Now that it’s all over, I’m back to doing what I’m best at! Laying back with a book in hand, watching T.V like a maniac complete with quarrels over remote with my very sweet [:-/] sister and hogging on home food like there’s no tomorrow missing the friends and IIT once in a while.

HP6-A Compulsive Lacklustre

This is the most inactive phase of my vacation,I daresay,what with my Mom's superstitious streak preventing me from going out as freely as I used to,due to the unexpected death of a family member although a 'door-ka-rishtedar' (With all due respects,may the soul rest in peace!!) dampening my vivacious plans of shopping for the semester ahead which I carefully planned for this part of the vacation...Sick of arguing with her,I started finding my solace in books and movies besides working "occasionally" for my Shaastra event...The progress I made on "Books and movies" front has been particularly very promising by any of the characteristic Sush-standards...I managed to finish reading both 'Deception Point' and 'Twilight' in a li'l about 2 days besides inflicting terrible neurotic trouble on myself watching the sloppy and nonsensical 'Kambhaqt Ishq' and a distorted yet entertaining HP6...HP&HBP has been a nice outing at Prasad's with my insti friend,Shreya...This tempts me to briefly review this movie...

Opened to mixed responses, HP6, I felt didn't quite justify the book although the screenplay of adaptation was brave enough for a book which talks about a whole lot of things...Harry's (mis)adventures with the Half Blood prince, evolution of Tom Riddle from a 'different' child 'who could make things happen to people who are mean to him' to ominous (for want of better adjective) Lord Voldermort, Horcruxes,Harry's budding relationship with Ginny, his friends' adolescent blues etc...All that was managed to be constricted in a duration of about 150 mins is a li'l something of everything...Yet,sadly falls short of pleasing a loyal Potter fan...Its not devoid of the magic moments though..Who doesn't love the tongue-in-cheeky Harry riding high on luck with Felix Felicis to extract that one vital memory from Prof.Slughorn!! Truly charming performance by Daniel.That hostile and rare defensive look on Hermoine's face when she's outsmarted by Harry in Potions class,Cupid-struck Ron,flamboyant Dumbledore who wonders openly if Harry is seeing Hermoine,Weasley twins' new shop in the Diagon Alley and a fitting climax on the island are all the stealing moments of the flick...Jim Broadbent is well cast as Horace Slughorn,the new Potions master...Tom Felton surprises you with his mature performance as Draco on Dark Lord's mission...The major glitches which disappointed me are-the under-dramatized death of Dumbledore which didn't have quite the same effect of Sirius's demise in HP5, certain major characters like Snape and Hermoine had not much to do,Harry-Ginny relationship not well portrayed,the various premises of the story are not very tactfully dealt with leaving the audience with a loosely assembled puzzle set...The bottomline is,the film fails to be qualified as perfect,not exactly because of any cast or crew misfits,as a matter of fact some characters leave a nice impact on you long after leaving your seat,but out of compulsion to serve a lot on a limited platter...I definitely don't regret my 150 min outing in a pleasant company watching it on one of the biggest screens of India...

And I'm riding high as my mom's unofficial curfew is gonna be lifted tomorrow back home..

Hooked to books n blah!!

I'm into the tail-end of my vacation.Left with no more than 15 days and I find myself desperately looking forward to going back to insti...I am getting to hear some really interesting things going to happen this semester,most importantly I'm intrigued by Sharav getting 80+ new freshies(Awesome!!!) not counting the MAs..just B.Tech girls..Its sort of never heard of..Isn't it? Our batch having a strength of 60 did manage to raise quite a good number of cynical eyebrows in the insti..I'm eager to see insti junta responding to our freshie batch (:P)...And those nightmarish stories about 3 of them having to share a double room and 4,a triple!!! Though I'm not surprised with the 3/4 formula I can't imagine how the poor girls are gonna manage 2/3...God bless them!!!

And yeah,coming to personal front,these days I find myself buried deep into 2 books I started of late (eating ,crashing,googling and g-talking in whatever spare time I manage to find) Dan Brown's Deception Point and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight...Unputtdownable books truly...More about them after I finish...

New York

A Bollywood attempt to interpret the global scenario post 9/11 in USA...Yet it is not all that Bollywood in spirit...It can be called offbeat yet interesting and entertaining-the genres that rarely sync well and strike a chord in India...Its a poignant tale of three friends-two Americans of Indian descent,Sameer and Maya later joined by Omar from New Delhi in the New York State University...Omar gets to see a whole new Occidental world marked by boundless freedom and sophistication starkly contrasting his traditional Delhite upbringing...Uber-cool dude Sam and a dream-like Maya help him become one among them.When its time to leave the university,Maya realises that Sameer is her man leaving Omar heart-broken which compels the latter to leave New York...Seven years later,Omar wakes up to FBI raids in his house on the suspician that hes acting as an aide to his terrorist-turned friend Sameer and now,to avoid an almost death-like detention,he is asked to help FBI as its undercover agent...When he learns that Maya and Sam are now married happily with a son,he decides that he will take up the offer and prove to FBI that Sameer ain't any terrorist...The consequences of Omar's decision form the rest of the story...

The backdrop of this movie is a series of detentions FBI carried out on Muslims even at the slightest suspician post the twin tower destruction by Islamic fundamentalist organisations... The amount of horror and humiliation these detainees are subjected to is poignantly conveyed...The debates at various places between the FBI officer Roshan and Omar put forth some interesting justifications for such operations...Most imporatantly,the film doesn't take any stands...It obediently presents the motivations of duty-ridden FBI and passion-ridden 'so-called' Jehadis...

Actors,very well-cast, are the biggest assets of this movie and leave an indelible impact on the audience...John(Sameer) as the university 'star' who later undergoes terrible trauma as a terrorist suspect shows amazing variation pre and post 9/11 and steals the show...Katrina(Maya),as a vulnerable wife silently aware of her husband's terrifying motives and a Human Rights activist produces a rare act given the history of her earlier films...Then Irrfan Khan(Roshan) as the South-Asian FBI officer gives a taste of some casual yet effective acting...Last but not the least, Neil(Omar)-my perosnal favourite-as a loyal friend,distressed lover and a Muslim in dilemma,dishes out quality stuff...I mean it when I say there is not a single frame that doesn't contribute to taking the story forward...Its a very genuine,strong ,brave and sincere film coming from the director,Kabir Khan who is said to have been a victim of this discrimination, he so effectively captures in the movie...Hail Kabir!!!

The month that was........

I had my own apprehensions as to how I'll be able to wade through the vettiness during this summer vacation which seemed painfully and perennially long for a person as restless as I am....I stepped into 'not-so-in-my-league' kind of activities like yoga too to get over it...But after a while,I must say I found myself deeply engaged and embroiled in the twin potboilers which will never fail to charm us,Indians-elections and IPL....

Elections in India see common man and super women rise to power like never before.It is the time when Ammas and Didis of Indian polity come into fore and dictate terms reducing scores of men to grapple at their feet for mercy....This particular general election caught my fancy specially for its debate on aging politicians and emergence of certain new fronts at national level...The argumentative Indian has once again vested power to rule him for the next 5 yrs in a party that is less complicated in principles and policies... I was quite surprised at myself observing stuff closely and bugging my father to understand what I observe this time rather than being laid-back....Well...Is this the sign of my coming off age???Maybe... I wish the Gandhis and the new cabinet all the luck in running the largest democracy of the world...

Then came IPL-entertainment ka asli baap-and managed to live true to the expectations of cricket buffs worldwide and its master strategist,Lalit Modi inspite of sudden venue change...Mr.Modi is a happy man for the second time and is letting his imagination run high with plans for 2 IPLs a year!!!Though my hugely and strongly opinionated uncle calls it shameful adulteration of cricket,I found myself,a not so great cricket maniac,hooked firmly to the T.V set inspite of irritatingly dumb-looking Mandira Bedi and outrageously hilarious Gaurav Kapoor trying to act as cricket experts...As always,T20 proved to be synonymous with oscillating prospects of each and every team involved with the game which made it all the more intriguing and unpredictable to give it an enigmatic charm...The Zoozoos appearing in the intercepting commercials weren't any less entertaining than the main show itself...When I first came to know that they were no creations of animation but live people under specially made perspex masks shot using high speed cameras to make them appear as they do,I was left in complete awe...Well..As an old adage goes, All's well that ends well...But we Indians can never get enough of this game,can we? The ICC T20 world cup is eagrly anticipated now and ready to keep jobless junta like me a little less jobless and distract not-so-jobless people too...

The next imporatant event that keeps me occupied these days is the French Open which all of the sudden became very optimistic for unconditional Federer fans like me...I find myself praying with crossed fingers as the D-day looms closer...Good luck Feddy!!!