The Week So Far....

Its been quite a hectic week so far, with a new fund offer(World Gold Fund) closing tomorrow. The high point of course would be the rains yesterday I think. The topic of conversation for most people I met today was "Where were you stuck?". They made it sound like it was the great deluge or something. As for me I was below a scaffold near Bangalore Central, being subject to conversations like, why a certain pair of trousers had to be returned without being altered as the bill for the aforementioned trousers were not in order. This from an employee of Central most probably part of the Merchandise Altering Dept. to a colleague from a different Dept. who gave him an exasperated look as if, "Oh I know, the nerve they had to ask you?!". Inane might just be my middle name.

Monday was a good day though. Had attended a kutchery at Odakkathur Mutt near Ulsoor lake. T M Krishna had a delightful voice which deftly wove through various ragas. Though I am not a specialist on the subject of Carnatic music(i cannot identify ragas or anything, except for Hamsadhwani),I enjoy carnatic music, especially the thaniavartanam (percussive duel should loosely describe the word). A rather sad thing I noticed was that quite a number of the elder people find the best time to break for a leak or anything else is during the thaniavartanam. Rather discouraging for the artistes I feel. Anyway a good, rather divine two hours were spent in the Mutt.

Tuesday was the day of the rains. And it was quite heavy to say the least. Three hours stranded near Central and not an acquaintance in sight. Heavy on the legs, not to mention the boredom. The torrents in the silver and gold lights falling on the hoardings did break the monotony though.

Just saw Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo. Truly a treat. A wonderful work of absurdity. Its about a girl who lives a sad real life during the great Depression and longs for the reel life. And out of the blue, the star from the movie she is seeing in a theatre, walks out of the screen abandoning his reel life for the real life. Among the various adventures that they share including the girl's(Mia Farrow, she does a brilliant job as the small town girl forever in awe of starry Hollywood) trip into tinsel town on the black and white screen, dark comedy blends with absurdity seamlessly weaving a magical world, leaving you very warm at the end of it all.

One Year Older.....

Yesterday I turned one year older. Messages and calls flowed in, the whole day from all over. Much thanks to all my well wishers. Though it wasnt anything special, the day as such. The usual happened work, chai in the morning, informing my clients that we would be launching a gold fund soon, some gossip on the latest movies, meeting friends for lunch and dinner.

Thought I would treat myself to couple of new books at Premier, but forgot to carry my coupons care of the KQA. That was a disappointment.

Everyone at office was quite gung ho that I had turned a year older. The joke around office is that I turned 32, a reference to my balding pate and other characteristics of what is generally seen in what they term affectionately an "Uncle". Jokes apart I have turned a decade younger than the aforementioned number. As Mr A, a colleague of mine puts it, age, is after all a number.
A first of its kind was witnessed by yours truly yesterday. I cut my first birthday cake! Surprisingly I cant remember having cut a cake during the whole process of having existed so far in my life. Thanks again to everyone in office for that distinction. Apart from having cut the cake, it was me who also the chose the cake, another dubious distinction in professional quarters. The day also left me richer with a Pepe short shirt, slightly in line with shirts worn by Jaswant Singh, the ones with flaps on the shoulder blades. Though his shirts donot have any juvenile slogans and designs!
Birthdays are also a time to reflect on the past and what can be witnessed in the future. So heres to a great year ahead. Cheers.

P.S.- Saw Pirates the Third today. Quite Bollywood in nature with a "Dus Saal Ke Baad" end after the credits. The high point for me would be Keith "Dark Prince" Richards appearing as Sparrow's father, pickin' at the guitar(Spanish?) with the usual aplomb of a sinister wizard. And of course Jack, himself and his dainty moves around the screen.

P.P.S- This made my day. At the back of an auto, "Aunty Joot, Uncle Tus"

Kozhikode Welcomes You.

In Kozhikode right now, had to attend a marriage of a cousin. Came by Rajahamse, the semi deluxe KSRTC bus. Like always I managed to pick a seat which was located in between two windows with neither opening out near me leading to my sweat cells (what ever they are) working over time. Finally having managed to wedge a part of the glass open things started to seem better, but for some guy behind me who was probably returning from a trip round the Sahara, who wanted the window to be shut. Ignoring his frantic nudges at my hand didnot work my way and he finally prevailed, closing the window completely. Sleep was not the first thing on my mind at that moment, considering that I was being stifled to death. Anyway the blood did cool down later, aided by some ice cold mango crush.
I managed to finish a couple of chapters of that infamous book by Dr. Gonzo before nodding off. The first pitstop for loosening bladders and revitalising the senses was some place just before Mandya, a dirty dingy establishment filled with Malayalis on the way to Talassery, Kannur and my destination(also present spot where I am writing now from). Most men after hurrying down their food were heading to the lone cigarette shop, probably their last smoke for some time(eons apparently for them).
I quickly settled back in my seat and let the movement of the bus rock me back to sleep.

Kozhikode appeared faster than it seemed it would. It was also hotter than expected. The pores just let their sluice gates open, they knew they had no control over it. Five minutes in the sun and it was like I had just stepped out of a shower. It was torrid to say the least.
The morning was occupied with a pre marriage ceremony. The rites having the least of anything to do with me, took ages to finish. What saved the day was the food. The food was just wondrous. Rice covered in thick sambar, with a variety of dishes decorating the periphery of the aforementioned rice. The smell of coconut grated and cooked to perfection in ghee, banana chips, rasa kalan, and other condiments. The rest, is a gastronomic journey to truly understand the "naadan sadhya". To top it was the most heavenly payasam I had ever tasted, in recent times.

Post lunch the rites continued, but I had enough of that. Headed for a movie, its essential to watch a Malayalam movie when in Kerala. Saw Vinodayatra, starring Dileep, Meera Jasmine, Mukesh and a bunch of veteran comedians who would basically push the movie through till the interval with various antics and wordplay, essentially clearing the platform for the lead actor and actress to romance around till the end, peppered with various struggles through their lives, some contemporary issues like lawless demonstrators fighting the police and finally like it has always been atleast in most movies ALL OF THEM LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Well that wasnt an exact review of the movie. But it is quite watchable, the second half tends to border the situation where you are about to let out a sigh of relief and get up from the seat under the impression that the movie is over, but NO its not, this happened quite a number of times. But what really piqued my interest was the number of ads for gold and tiles before the movie started. And all of them sounded and looked the same with the same voice overs, hardly bringing out any message or individuality for the brand.

Anyway the marriage was today. Again the notable activities of the day were related to the stuffing of yours truly, breakfast and lunch.
Right now at a house of a relative's relative. Thats another thing to astounds me, how everyone has some kind of a connection with each other.
Waiting for the bus back home, at 21:00 Hrs. Another long back breaking journey ahead of me. Atleast tomorrow is Sunday... Can rest the whole day and then its back to work. That reminds me I need to buy some halwa and chips, quite a number of people are eagerly waiting to swoop down on that oily jelly like sweet which I hate. The chips will not last long though....i can eat most things which are fried.

Yeracud and after.....

Drove down to Yercaud last Saturday. The same day as the Maiden show. What a shame. The trip was worth it though. Was dead beat after work for the past couple of months. So it was a good break from the drudgery of work. More on the trip later....Too lazy to type the whole story right now.

Went for a movie screening of Brazil by Terry Gilliam today. I arrived some fifteen minutes late I think, should have made that about three hours! Quite a mind numbing experience, with dystopian rants and according to me never ending final scenes.(It looked like the end but was not, at least five times I thought "Ah finally." but no it just didn't stop there.) Apart from some nice sets and some mildly peppered humour the only thread running was the Brazil song which reminds me of the aerobics classes which happen diagonally opposite to my house. They would play this song at semi full blast at five in the morning when the rest of the neighbourhood were snoring blissfully. The classes continue, frequented by shapeless "seismic" in nature beauties and the songs they cover these days are more of the "nach" variety currently the flavour in Bollywood.
As for Brazil Sai quite summed it up with, "Its 1984 Monty Python style."