I'm back :D

Yes, I'm blogging after the longest time. NOT like I had nothing to write about. just plain plain lazy. Hmm so last I posted was around the swine flu break. Lots of things have changed!

I've at some points tried to observe 'patterns' in my life. I'd concluded that the happiest things are always the most unexpected ones, the ones which completely take you by surprise. Well, conclusion arrived at was true. :) Touchwood.

I've also firmly concluded that when things are going really, really bad, something really really good is also in store for one. I saw a bit of really really bad. Lol, had this horrendous submission which deserves a post by itself. If it werent for a bunch of stunning friends, would never have submitted. And it ultimately worked out :)

I've also travelled a LOT. As in, for me a LOT. Ok so in the break went to Ahmedabad and Udaipur. Really really nice. Then Bombay (home :)), then back to Bangalore. Then, went to Oxford, London, Cambridge. :) Really really nice. I remember when I came to know I would be going there, it seemed so surreal. I couldnt believe that I was actually going there. I've grown up reading books by English authors (way better than American authors in my opinion), and well it seemed like I already knew the place. All the names seemed so familiar! So I liked London. And Oxford. Cambridge was pretty but preferred Oxford. Simultaneously, missed India a LOT. I never thought I would be this kind of a person. Missing India so much. Nonetheless it's happened to me before, and happened when I went to England too. Missed 'my people'. Everyone seems a stranger abroad. I keep on thinking, so if I fall sick, fall on the road, will anyone here even care? Also it was bloody cold. I can't stand too much cold.

Currently I'm in a daze in re the way the trimester is going. I'm doing something which involves a LOT of work. I like it. Sometimes get motivated and work like mad. Sometimes find it boring or not inspiring enough. :( Plus I'm off almost everything else. Currently I'm sitting in the library and writing this, and it's Christmas. Past two years have gone home for Christmas. Not this year. Sigh. However have met two awesome people courtesy work. So it's all good. :)

Oh yes have completed two and a half years in college. Halfway down hence. Lovely feeling :) I look at my batch and think, wow so much has changed. People have changed. Different relationships, different priorities, different cliques (ok wait latter's remained almost constant for most people).

And I'm listening to new music! My shady new music is always there, yes. However courtesy someone have been getting exposed to awesome new kinds of music, lovely lovely :) And my Secret Santa from class gifted me Wolf Hall, which I've been lusting for for a long time. :)

Things I want right NOW? Watch Avatar, 3 Idiots, settle down to a nice book, watch more movies present on my laptop for the longest time, extermination of pimples (sigh, I NEVER get them usually), and other stuff. :)

Things I aspire for? Getting more work done, a better sleep cycle, more healthy living. Sigh.

Ok so this post has been more of an 'update' post. Generally, concluding observation is that life can be so unexpectedly awesome.

Endings

This feels like it's going to be a short post. Let's see.
Ok so yes this is going to be about endings. Umm there might be a few spoilers, with respect to some books / films / serials. And yes, I hope to make this a fun post! Let's see :)

So this post is about endings. Not about whether there are happy endings in life or not. It's a little more superficial :D It's about which guy ends up with which girl. No it's not about real life choices (:D), they'll work out eventually. They're about these characters in fiction, and why I always feel someone else should have got the guy / girl! Since I don't think all of you all would have read / watched all of it, so it maybe a little remote, but I'll try to make it more relate-able!

So for instance, I'll begin with this serial called Gossip Girl. It's wonderfully superficial and mindless and a lot of fun. If you think I'm too shallow to watch this, I don't care :P And please do watch it! Anyway, so there is this girl called Jenny. She's been quite irritating and semi-bitchy in some of the episodes, and gets on my nerves at times. Still I want her to end up with Nate (one of the central characters). He had a brief fling with her, but from whatever I've seen till now, he's now with this other chick called Vanessa. So Vanessa's really nice and not bitchy and is probably the right person for Nate. Nonetheless I still want Nate to be with J!

Then there's Dil To Pagal Hai. Why why why cannot Shahrukh end up with Karisma (even though Madhuri is oh-so-beautiful, but still!)? And in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai I can't bear to watch second half as I think Shahrukh was good with Rani only. This however can be attributed to my strange liking for Rani, who by the way, has disappeared. Why?

Then there is Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen. I do not get why Fanny goes for Edmund who only goes for her because his other love (Mary) is too immoral for him. She has the perfectly nice Henry who she does not marry because he was immoral! Apparently, Austen wrote this while she was in Bath, and was in this 'moral' (I don't know how to express this) phase and hence purposely did not let Fanny marry the erstwhile flirtatious Henry.

Then there is The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot. In this, in a really depressing ending (yes, I cried), Maggie dies in the end along with her brother Tom, in a flood (I think). I hate this ending. Earlier she had had a relationship with this person called Philip, who as far as I can remember, had a club foot. It's sweet. However later, her cousin's fiance, Stephen falls in love with her, and even though she tries to resist it, Maggie falls in love with him too. They eventually elope, with hopes of getting married in Scotland. However the guilt is too much, and eventually Maggie leaves him. He's all sad and terribly broken. She dies finally. Philip's sad. Stephen's sad. Strangely, I think he eventually marries the first cousin.

Yes I know this is wrong (falling in love with cousin's fiance). Still, I really wanted Maggie and Stephen to end up together. I don't know, I just did. And anyway, I don't know why Eliot had to end the novel the way she did. Fine, Maggie could have left Stephen... but she didn't have to die!

And then there is Harry Potter. I did NOT want Harry to end up with Ginny. It's like Rowling was too bored to think of someone else, and there Ginny was all along, and by them marrying Harry, Ron and hence Hermione would have become family too. I do NOT like. Time for big confession here. I secretly wanted Harry and Hermione to end up together. I sense disbelief here.. right? See I like Ron and Hermione together. However I would have loved to see Harry and Hermione together. So this is what I mean when I say that I always want the wrong couple to happen...! I don't know. Some of these instances maybe tried to be explained by the whole the girl always goes for the bad guy syndrome... but I honestly don't think Henry and Stephen are bad guys. While being a flirt might be considered as highly immoral in the time when Austen wrote the novel, Henry had reformed his ways. And with respect to Stephen, yes falling in love with one's fiancee's cousin is definitely not nice (a big no to infidelity, I say), he couldn't help it, he couldn't (so maybe I need to relook my thoughts on infidelity too?).

So that's that. I know there isn't much to this post. It's just about why I don't like the endings of quite a few of my favourite novels / serials / movies... and I do not know why?! Umm I could pshychoanalyse it and try to arrive at some explanation, but am avoiding introspection of any kind right now. I like being shallow. :)

Also, if you want to know if you're falling for the bad guy, please check out http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/7PR8hEL/Are-you-falling-for-a-bad-boy Yes, I'm terribly vela.

So do you fall in love with the bad guy *snicker* *grin*?!

Ok one more thing, I'm going to start this 'I like' thing now. I'll mention in every post one thing I like.

So right now, I like the new local trains in Mumbai (see above).

I really like them. And look forward to travelling in them whenever I can. I love the colours used - purple, orange and white. And the inside compartment, in spite of the crowd, still feels non-claustrophobic. And there finally is an announcement system inside the train, announcing which is the next station. Big help, especially considering that I often get so absorbed in reading / thinking / sleeping that I almost miss my station. Also, the announcement reflects in a way the cosmopolitan nature (which I admit is now in danger, sigh), as each time there are three announcements back to back, "पुडे स्टेशन, विखरोली", (it's actually not spelt like that in Marathi, and not even pronounced like that, but it's the closest i can get to in Hindi), "अगला स्टेशन, विखरोली", "Next station, Vikhroli". It gets irritating once in a while, but is sweet too.

Hmm this wasn't a short post. And was not fun too. Tad boring too. Sorry :( Had to be dispensed from system though!

Post Script - have just been informed by a seasoned traveller that the new trains are not so new! They were introduced an year ago. Sorry! To a first time traveller like me(have travelled before, but not on a regular basis like this time), they seem brand new though :)!

Yet Another Note on Slumdog Millionaire

I just heard that Slumdog Millionaire's (hereafter to be referred to as either 'Slumdog' or SM) got ten Oscar nominations, including three for Rahman, one of which he's been nominated along with Gulzar. Strange emotions actually engulfed me. I feel ecstatic for Rahman and Gulzar, really. Both are stupendous at their respective art. Not one to know much about lyrics (I have this thing, I know the song but never the lyrics), I do know a bit (a bit:)) more about melody and I personally think Rahman's made much better music in films like Dil Se, Roja, Yuva, Saathiya, Rang De Basanti, Guru... the list is endless. While 'Jai Ho' is nice, it just isn't the same as say 'Satrangi Re' or 'Fanaa' or well even a 'Mayya'. However since SM is a success, everything related to it is being noticed and so is Rahman's music. I'm glad nonetheless. Just read somewhere that Akon's asked him to do a song with him and even appear in his video :D While I hate his music (Mr. Lonely is top on that list), but never thought this day would come :D!
Anyway this post is more about the film itself. The film left me with this weird feeling. I've been in Bombay for almost 11 yrs now (2 of these have however been spent in B'lore now, and so will the next 3)... and I don't think Bombay's only about slums. I hence hated this aspect of the film. is a lot more to Bombay... and any news of the film's success made it sound to me like we were celebrating our own poverty. Surprisingly even Mr. Bachchan agrees! As usual, many have responded that he's just jealous of SM's success. He's obviously then said that he was 'misinterpreted' (on his blog, something which I plan to check out sometime). Some say it's the 'crab mentality' and how Indians can't wait to pull down an Indian who finally does well. Maybe it's true - I'd like to believe it's not.
Nonetheless a tiny bit of me kept on telling me about how Dharavi and slums like these do exist. As I've said this tons of times to my own friends, Bombay is a dirty city.. public sanitation is not one of its' plus points. I wondered if I was being overtly defensive? It is in so many ways such a typical reaction. It's similar to how I (and many of my friends) feel about law school - we criticise it endlessly amongst ourselves, but if any 'outsider' says anything even slightly negative, my claws are out! Besides, the film does have many other positive aspects - it's about hope and victory of, well, good over evil. The child actors are brilliant - I think they deserve more acclaim than anyone else in the cast. Dev Patel as the adult Jamaal is also good. Frieda Pinto, in my own opinion, is nothing great though :) The acting is decent, the music is good, there are many poignant scenes - overally, cinematically, the film is a treat. It is a total 'package' - drama, humour, dishoom-dishoom, romance, the Taj Mahal, communal riots and love transcending all religions, villainy and other barriers, the rags to riches story, the two brothers one all white (Jamaal), the other white to grey to black to grey to white finally (Salim); the poverty, the white tourists who are told what the 'real India' is... etc etc. Oh there's also a Bollywood dance sequence thrown in in the end, probably to satiate the tastes of Westerners wanting to see such a song and dance (I hated it). So it's full masala, something like Om Shanti Om (OSO) or Main Hoon Na (MHN) made by Farah Khan. It is in many ways very Bollywood-esque, yet that and not OSO is making the Oscar nomination list. Why?
Well for starters, admittedly SM is a decent to good film. It's moving and nice. Secondly, it is made by a Westerner, Danny Boyle of Trainspotting fame, of all people. So while some may only grudgingly admit that they 'okayed' OSO or MHN ('It's so corny ya, so Bollywood') SM's awesome. Maybe it's the white skin fascination or maybe I'm too much of a cynic (I still maintain that the film is pretty ok). Thirdly, the film does well abroad because 1. it's by Boyle, 2. it shows the 'real' India, shows the grime, the dust, the squalor - shows how a 'slumdog' overcomes all to succeed, 3. it's a decent film. My problem is with no. 2 (rather, 3.2). I might be wrong there... but I don't think so. And this is what irritates and saddens me. Boyle must be grinning away to glory right now - he's cashed in on our poverty and how. I agree that a large part of India is poor, I agree that we have zillions of slums...but it still saddens me that well our poverty is what is selling. Simultaneously I don't think this is a India centric problem. I'm sure other countries too are faced with this problem of cliched representations (simultaneously there is this thought jumping in my brain right now telling me that the essence of cliches is truth!). I haven't seen Amores Peres, but a friend has - she told me she loved it, but obviously Mexico (it's based there, right?) can't only be about that. I could also argue why an OSO can't win a Golden Globe if SM can - but admittedly, the idea sounds ludicruous. I could argue why Indian films which are more positive in their portayal of India can't win an Oscar - but save for RDB or Lagaan (and some other films), I can't think of brilliant Hindi cinema (I havent seen regional cinema, but have heard there are some gems there). Lastly, I could just say - why the hell should we care for an Oscar? Films are about entertainment, and if the audience is satisfied that is all - and maybe that indeed is enough. And finally, maybe I am being too much of a cynic - maybe SM is doing well because it is being perceived as being brilliant (I don't think the same personally... but well previous Oscar winners like Crash too have left me disappointed)... it is a nice film though... so maybe they do deserve all the accolades and acclaim.
However I can't help but sign off with two observations. One, I absolutely hate the scene where the adolescent Jamaal tells the American couple what the 'real' India is, and the couple respond by giving money and the line 'this is the real America'. So America is all benevolence and munificence and we are all corruption? Or maybe it's a spin on Americans and the American idea (is it?) that money is the solution to all problems (:D) (might be true, Boyle is not American, he's based in Britain!).
Two - Can anyone explain how Jamaal and Salim suddenly start speaking English when they land in Agra?! I know that commercially it would have been a bad idea for Boyle to make the film all Hindi, and I know we are supposed to suspend disbelief while watching films... but this was too incongruous to escape notice :D

Hmm, maybe, I should stop being such a cynic, and stop looking for conspiracy theories everywhere!