Annie,Yamdoot and Arundhati Roy..

the new job and money have come with a lot of options.I now have a 160gb WD hard disk and a fast internet connection. which means i can download movies at will.And copy many more from my friends' comp too. I came across this 110min gem last day.

A lot of people may not really know what im talking about. This post is on the campus film-

'In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones ' made by Arundhati Roy and her second husband Pradip Kishen. It ws aired on DoorDarshan in early 1989 i think.written by Roy, its supposed to be based on her life in Delhi school of planning and Architecture.This is the pic that you get if u do an image search in google.All because a very young Shah Rukh Khan plays a blink and miss role.

the story covers the life of fifth year students Anand grover (or Annie, played by Arjun raina) , Radha(Arundhati Roy),Arjun( the guy's name escapes me) and many other ppl around them.

Annie is victimised for having made fun of the HOD,Yamdoot(Roshan Seth).He is repeating his fifth year for the fourth time.

the goodness of this movie lies in its frankness and raw feel.we get to see a campus of the late 70's, running crazy on the hip culture.Almost all actors perform really well.Roshan Seth is amazing as the hard-nosed professor.

The highlight anyday will be radha, played by Arundhati Roy herself. I never knew she could look this cute and sensuous at the same time. This was perhaps her debut as a writer too.

I always had this thought that booker prize holders always write about the poverty in 3rd world countries.Reading some 10-20 pages of Naipaul proved it right to me. That is perhaps one reason i never took time to read her God of Small Things, though i have the copy with me.

After the movie, like a true Nitcian, i did a shameless google search on Annie and Arundhati Roy, which brought me to this masterpiece. I mean i had watched Bandit queen last year, thought its a good movie, though very gross. her review is quite out of the world. I wonder what the fate of the movie would have been, had she been famous while penning the critique.

Radha proves her intelligence and attitude all over again.

But at points i thought her character was a cut above the rest, which is bad because the film is supposed to be on Annie and his attempts at passing the final Jury.Nevertheless, this is one film that shouldnt be missed. will remind you of college, anyday,anytime.It has that appeal even after 20 years.

im gonna do two things, rite after this..

download DAM/AGE, also by Arundhati Roy

finish God of small things.

Dostana-all fun

One movie which made news right from the beginning. And thankfully, one movie which kept all promises it made. the trailers said a lot ws gonna come. and it has really come.

The premise being no different from a regular bollywood potboiler, the gay angle is what makes it interesting, right from the beginning.the two men being the show stealers, priyanka chopra has very less space(the clothes we not in abundance too). And rightly so. But i thought they were over doing it at times. Half sure that the knicker John wears in the opening scene(the one after the item song) is the same one bipasha wore in the lift scene(fantasy!!adolescent fantasy!!) in bachna Ae haseeno. man , sexy bodies!! both of them..

more than anything, Dostana should be appreciated for the comedy, thats both genuine and situational. glad that nobody wanted to mimic Welcome,Singh is King(or is it KKing?) or any other silly akshay kumar 'super'hits.I mean there are a lot of gags which make u laugh rather than 'cringe in embarassment', like Rajiv Masand says it.

The director has shown a lot of intelligence by covering up the poor acting skills of John abraham(Garam Masala!!! im trying to forget that i watched the movie) and giving those difficult scenes to abhishek bachan.He really comes out good in those submissive-gay scenes. cant imagine how John would have done those. We saw a glimpse of that in the party at priyanka copra's house, and surprisingly, it wasnt quite bad too. But abhishek really looked like an indian gay and John like a french designer gay.

Enough of gay talk!! What i really like about the movie is that neither of the guys(gays?) get the girl in the end. these three ppl continue to be friends, sipping beer on the beach, even after she finds a different man, in an almost bald Bobby Deol. now how many hindi movies have had that boldness to move away from the regular, safer climax? this is where dostana beats probably every other movie that has come out this year. This is one little gag that lasted for two hours. and will probably last for years to come.

meanwhile, just checkout this poster of the previous dostana.I remember watching the movie in my school days.

reflections on making it public

okay, finally, i decide to let ppl know abt this blog, after what, like some 2 yrs.
speaking (or rather writing) to yourself can be bloody boring at times.

btw, thanks to those very few friends who read it all, and got back at me.

thats it. not much to reflect. and i dont feel like a writer releasing his first book.

Chicken Soup for the NITcian's soul

The following is the child of my 4 years of hardwork(ahem..) at NITC. Do not underestimate, never ridicule.

disclaimer(s):

(a)NITCians are the only people who are entitled to question anything written below.

(b)Theres nothing in here about the girls of NITC.

(c)Theres a lot in here about the people i have been with all 4 years.

(d)Okay, its autobiographical in parts. Only in parts.

so here goes.

The few things that set NITCians apart.

(1)IITians are Gods.(nerds, though!!). And hell, we dont know what CET is, an entrance exam or an engineering college.

(2)We constantly assert that all girls we have fallen for will eventually fall for us, once we start our careers,make loads of money,drive a BMW, maybe.If that doesnt happen, we like to believe that the girl is stupid. If deep inside our minds we know that the girl is bloody logical, we just pray for a tight healthy liver.

(3)All of have been nerds at some point in our lives.Some still are. But we all like the

'cool dude cum macho man' image and make fun of greater nerds.We have always wanted to be the guys our mothers warned us about, but we are almost the guys our mothers wanted us to be, albeit drinking,smoking and flying.

(4)" lotto chicks in the frst year" - Pure wishful thinking.Happens as every new batch comes in.

(5)We almost eat,drink and sleep on the internet.And after we start working, a google search to find the nearest bus stop.( true)

(6)All NITians take two pegs every night. Okay, not all.But some drink more to keep the average.

(7)Its not music if its not Rock.Period.

(8)We always discuss matters like economic progress and the share market.That gives us some kind of orgy.

(9) Every Ragam is the best only till the next, Ragam has everything for everyone, and Ragam is second only to Saarang ( IITMadras). Dhwani sucks.

(10)We despise,mock and ridicule all mallu movies, regardless of its cast and make . And anything thats in English is godly.

(11)All NITCians in the history of mankind have been divided into 3:

a)independents

b)radicals

c)the politically ignorant.

No more comments.

(12)We actually respect doctors or medical students deep inside. On the outside, we give them looks of sympathy coated with sarcasm.

okay, 12 bulet points is huge for a 22 year old what, analyst?

okay.. this is it

I'm back. If at all anyone really cares. Its almost 3 months since my last post. I was really busy at my job and such boring things that come with it.Hope to be a bit more regular again.

This is probably my first post out of pure disgust and frustration. Since i keep the blog all for myself and people who know me really well, i dont really need to find something interesting to write on.

Now traditionally, a software professional's blog is supposed to be a very techie kind of one, or one full of the poorest of jokes. I'm not really a techie guy.(and i have the documents to support that.)I understand why the software-engineer kind of jokes are pathetic.They (infact we) lead a pretty boring life. Almost the coolest thing in 3 months for an IT guy is going for a theme function, where people dress in weird clothes. So unless we have something adventurous in life, we cant be very entertaining people.You can say we are pretty boring as people.

To me, the job gives a lotto money, discipline and thats it. Theres no fun. Configuring a server or understanding a database has never been my idea of an outing. Allow yourself to be stripped of evrything that adds to your ego, and there you are.A full fledged IT pro.

First, the dress code and the clean shaven look.

nicely ironed and tucked in formal shirts, formal pants and formal shoes. the shoes have to be the same colour as your belt. and your socks have to be the same colour of your trousers.

This is definitely the worst kind of discipline i have ever been subjected to. In the last 22 years, the only time i wore black formal shoes was in my 11th and 12th. So 2 years. thats it.

And now i have to shave twice a week. I have never shaved twice in the same week, my entire life.boy, i look gay when i have a clean shave. ( luckily, gays in hyderabad dont jus have a clean shave, they also exfoliate, moisturize and invariably wear pink). I feel morose wen i look at the mirror. I really look like those guys I would laugh at, any day.

Month old stubble, undone hair,shabby shirts and a stinking lungy was almost your trademark, back in college. You felt really macho, those days. You got high even without alchohol. You almost thought nothing in this world could end the fun. And you laughed at the people who said all fun ends at college. You said they were boring people to begin with. Who always cared about grades. You never thought you'll spend three months with nobody to joke around with.

The worst part is that you dont really know if this is bad. You cant choose between college and office, given an option.

College gave everything, except money.

Office gives the money.

You can walk around in Lee cooper shoes or grab a Subway footlong. Or watch Dark Knight in Imax, all alone. Or go to a perfumes shop and say ' Playboy musk.. the US one. oh yeah.. credit card?'

I dont think i'll be able to choose.

bangalore- frst outing

well, this is not exactly a travelogue. i found my very recent trip to bangalore very amazing.

I'm not a person who likes to travel in big groups. alone is heavenly, a good understanding friend in company is good, two understanding friends in company is okay, and three understanding friends usually dont have my company. now since it was Rony with whom i have had recent cherishable travelling expeditions, i decided to lift my lazy bum and give it a try. and it was his own idea that we squeeze the cash out of our high earning seniors- manu, who has almost lost his bachelorhood and whose younger bro is the 3rd rank holder in med entrance, deepth, who looks half his age and still works in Texas Instruments and Dj-who was a political kingpin at college.

now if i start giving u every detail like the bus i travelled in, the way the grl next seat batted her eyelids at the boy next seat, the brand of soft drink i bought, i'll end up writing a bloody boring travelogue. to sum up all, we reached bangalore after a journey which seemed like a pain in the ass to me and quite okay to rony.

They(my seniors i mean, with due respect, deference and reverence) lived somewhere close to forum mall which was coincidentally close to where SmR spent her vacation.

As it had just dawned when we climbed down from our bus with heavy luggage and very less cash, we had the chance to see the city with almost no traffic at all. the walk till home was pleasant. we then found that our seniors had really managed a grand welcome for us, with almost everyone sleeping and some snoring too. it was a crowd in there. 12 ppl in one single house, which was built and rented for four. however, the first thought which crossed our presumably shrewd brains(mine and rony's) was not scarcity of space." if one of them puts in some 300 bucks, that makes it 3600." which is like huge for both of us at the moment. we were quite excited by the thought that we were about to witness the grandest treats of our life.

after the initial planning, we decided to find refuge on their beds. meeting SmR still in mind.

like true NIT-ians, we slept till maybe 11.00 or 12.00. i then gt up, had a bath, and took off to forum mall, where after the initial exploring, i call up SmR. She shows up exactly 50 minutes later. i sigh as its one of those rare occasions when i wait for someone. im so used to reaching late that some people mistake me to be from a different time zone.

okay, now she shows up like a true diva.diva in the sense with a vanity bag and a complete cat walk. i agree to her proposal that we have something to drink from mcdonalds, which in turn marks my frst visit to the retail food chain,which is supposed to be a real big thing. what followed was quite unauspicious, we enjoying the drink standing, as there are no seats left. bad start, i say. not to the date(now this is a very dry unromantic date), but to my link with mcdonalds.

after that, we have a really long chat in the porch of forum mall. Smr suggests that we whisper to each other as the porch is full of mallus. its common knowledge that u cant walk in bangalore without rubbing shoulders with other mallus. then we decide to go on lunch. i am quite amazed by her knowledge of the city. i for one get lost most of the times in a new city.

we have a somewhat okay lunch,( sadly, green salad ws a new term for the hotel guys, dude, im an aspiring fitness freak!!) and discuss a whole range of topics like life after college, diet, attitude et al. then i leave her alone. or rather, she shows me the way and then we leave each other alone.

i figure that the next time i meet her may be some 5 years from now, wotever she says.

after that, i retire to our new home, take a nice shower, watch my seniors play football with kids and then live happily ever after for the rest of the night. at purple haze, that is.

okay thats all for the frst day,which as i said ws quite amazing. i dont know if it was the money which ma seniors shelled out, or the lunch with SmR, or purple haze, which im told is one of the poshest pubs in the city. but i really enjoyed the day.and the night too..

innathe chintavishayam..for the women..out and out

innathe chintaavishayam, which roughly translates to 'thought of the day',has been made with a lot of thought. the film is not for men. its not for flamboyant,fun loving grls either. its for women who remain glued to TV watching non sensical tear jerking mega serials. if you put the film into that genre, i must say its a winner. it never makes you laugh, or even cry either. the most important thing i noticed is, unlike satyan anthikkads previous films rasathantram and vinodayatra, there are very few irritating moments.

the plot is a tried and tested one. marital woes,extra marital affairs (without the sex part,though), children,sentiments et al. the director thought a 50+hero romancing the ravishing meera jasmine would be the icing on the cake. give us a break man!!
and to me, the sub plots seemed too far from reality. like the loving husband vijayaraghavan following his wife around, exhibiting shades of the classy act 'thalathil dineshan' at times. and mohan lal seems to change his life miraculously. so miraculously that we see a totally social and understanding and modern husband by the climax.

and i wonder if all that male chauvanism does exist. oh come on, we are not living in the eighties. a wife who can cook is fun. but a wife who can earn sounds more practical to me. watching that traditional muslim family plot unfold, i couldnt help thinking about SmR(im not a big fan of fake names, but i thought i shouldnt give her undue publicity. :) sorry SmR, if ever you come across this) whom i had long, latenight yet unromantic chats with till quite recently. i think we once had a very interesting argument on marital relationships and all. and she's pretty convinced that men are still very chauvanistic,egoistic,megalomaniacs(i agree on the megalomania part).

meera jasmine very badly needs a good personal wardrobe consultant. who the hell thought she'd be a sight in those tight fitting frocks and skirts. and not even a single scene in saree which makes her gorgeous. although she's still my fav heroine, i suggest work outs might just be necessary. you are getting too much fat on you baby!!! whats with that gents watch? if you think it gives you the air of an intellectual, get out on the road and take a look. these days evry seetha and geetha sports a gents watch. and for heavens sake,stop signing a satyan antikkaad movie just because hes directing it..

i think ur being typecast in those horrible bold-girl-with-a-bad-past roles.

one thing i really hate about the movie is its songs. i have half a mind to believe that one of them was personally choreographed by mohan lal after watching paandi heroes having a good time with meerajasmine.

one last word to the writer-director. i think its high time you get back to doing what you do best- directing an intelligent script. now for directing an intelligent script, its unavoidable that some one else writes it.
u have proved beyond doubt that ur a very bad writer.

so heres my verdict,if it matters at all: definitely far far better than rasathantram and vinodayatra. and a good one to take ur mom to. that is, if you just drop her at the cinema. watching the movie is way too much man!!!

mulla... why do they make such movies

i cant actually believe this is a movie i was desperate to watch. people expect a lot from laljose these days. justified, after two gems in classmates and arabikkatha. no doubt that he is the most talented fimmaker of our times. my only question is , why mulla? why the hell does he want to make a movie on a script that has absolutely nothing in it?

the plot goes something like this: mulla, played by dileep is a goonda, in a colony of goondas and sexworkers. lachy, played by a very unattractive meera nandan is a grl who tranforms his life, supposedly like no other. now how many times have we seen that in a movie before? a pity that laljose cudnt think of nething new. this should be his second worst movie, after of course, rasikan.

however, i wud like to say that the film has its own magical moments. the director asserts that he has got class. salim kumar is once again a laugh riot. also, there are two really good songs. apart from all that, there s absolutely nothing thats worth ur time and money. give it a watch if ever someone brings out a pirated cd. even then, skip the climax. its simply horrible.

a cool and uber-sexual alter ego.

recently i made a very thrilling discovery that im not one man, but two.

i have this stupid,idiotic nerd who breathes books and studies on one part of my brain.

and the other part is controlled by a lazy, flamboyant beauty conscious stud(now 'stud' could be a generous evaluation)

i was the nerd for 16 years.

took 2 years for the transition period.

rechristined myself as the couch potato.

coming to think of it, this trait switching could be the indirect result of a lotto movies. heroes who are lazy appeal a lot to me these days. saif ali khan in hum tum,for instance. in perfect agreement with sigmond freud, i blame it all on my subconscious mind.

sometimes i like to break free. that is wen i go to sleep.i wake up as either of the two. but 99 out of 100 times in the last 4 yers, it's been the couch potato waking up.

when its the nerd, thats wen i dont like it at all. i start studying for no reason. and become a lot more honest. Sv could have killed me the other day, when he chose me as the group partner(not that he or me had a lot of options to choose from). the decision was purely on similar frequency basis, he likes to copy and i like to copy too. but on the lab, some one somehow put me to sleep and alas!! there came the nerd. i wanted to do the lab on our own. it was late,really late when finally the couch potato rose. and the nerd wasted 3 hours of my life. and Sv's too. But he says he saved an hour by sleeping. oh well.. my 3 hrs and his 2 hrs.

thers a slightly different version to the whole incident. Sv has agreed to help me out. this is my blog,definitely my own blog,but the following few sentences, Sv has written purely out of love and sympathy.

" Aswin is placed in BankAm and knows shit about computers. if thers one thing he's really really afraid of, thats being fired.

all this nerd and couch potato thing is rubbish. he's jus trying to cover up the fact that he tried to do the lab on his own,which is pretty demeaning by his own standards."

a third person account comes really handy. saves ur face. thank you Sv.(as in "thank you shaktimaan")

comin bak ,

i hereby recognize the nerd as my real self

and

the couch potato as my alter ego.

very few have found my posts worthy of comments. if under any circumstances anyone chooses this one to, pls for heavens sake stay away. i have a pretty good idea abt the kind of words it can evoke from you.

boredom, u the mother of invention

guys i've invented a new hobby. halfwits, "i dont give a damn about a potential argument that u can only discover a hobby, not invent it." who remembers discoverers anyway? inventors are cool. and im a wannabe. not a wannabe inventor, but a wannabe cool.
back to my,err...... invention. traveling without a plan. halfwits,"i know ppl have traveled without a plan since the stone age, but u know im the frst to give it the status of a hobby".

so this is wot i do these days. apart from watching random movies,reading random blogs,attending random lectures and choosing random hours to get up.

lazy to say more on the hobby.wot more can it be? thers some amount of planning involved though. u plan the hour of the day to wake up.an unshaven face and a shoulder bag definitely adds to the aura.
ps: Traveling without a plan is an expensive hobby. needs a lotto cash. up for the taking if ur dad's an ATM.

College Kumaran

bad bad movie. not even worth a review. well,nothing more could be expected from the team of "Mr.Brahmachari".But this is even worse. Stupid and brainless script, unimaginative direction, and forgettable songs. And to add to it all, one of the most ridiculous punchlines ever-"i love you"
Mohan lal will want to forget this one.
to the producer-- giving vimala raman more screen time might sell. trim one stupid song or joke and add her in.
i am sad for the 30rs i spent.

cycle

I was clearly out of mind when i decided to give it a chance. Directed by Johny Antony whose earlier outings were CID Moosa,Inspector Garud,THuruppu Gulaan and Kochi Rajaavu, i expected nothing but a flurry of idiotic and nonsensical sequences. However,10 minutes into the movie,i was assured that i wouldnt lose my money.
The plot revolves around two friends Roy(Vineeth Sreenivasan) and Sanju(Vinoo Mohan) who are both from modest backgrounds. Put into situations which seem more realistic than extraordinary,the two protagonists struggle to stay on their lives, following the best alternative at every juncture. Anything more would be an offence to all people who wish to watch a refreshing thriller,full of hilarious moments.
Both the actors deliver well,and vineeth sreenivasan reminds you of his dad,in his early days. Much of the attention and all of the applause he recieves throughout the movie is because of this canny resemblance. Only if he could work on his dialogue delivery. Vinoo Mohan is the next friendly neibhourhood boy, take it from me.


Cycle belongs to that class of movies which have been inspired by 'Classmates'. Had the latter not happened, no one in their right mind would have put their money on 4 struggling actors and a director who irritated more than he evoked laughter. However,Cycle will eventually turn out to be the turning point in the career of Johny Antony. I am not suggesting that this is a perfect movie.But it is definitely a realistic one, and a good one at that too. Much of the praise should go to James Albert who makes a delightful comeback through his marvellously crafted script.Not a single scene goes into waste. At parts, it even has the class of 'Ramji Ravu Speaking'.This man is here to stay.

movie review

desperately searching for topics to keep my blog engaged,i quite stumbled upon the idea of reviewing mallu movies.
given that watching movies in the frst week of release is almost the only creative and planned activity i have done in 3 yrs,im bound to make some progress...

the fourth ragam

the fourth and final ragam of my life..if i dont lose any papers,ie...
sad to think its all going to be over in 3 months..
happy to feel its happening...
excited to give it one more go...

"Ragam, the love of my life"
(errr... sounding awkwardly romantic)




hurray!!! dat makes it two posts in a day

male-chauvanistic-misogynistic

since there is such alarming hue and cry over being single, time is ripe for the established singler in me(the art of wooing "the girl" still remains oblivious) to enlighten whichever cursed soul that reads my blog with the..ehm highs of being single:

a) the mobile runs on a rs.100 budget(of course with the usual "er ..im out of balance..can u lend me ur phone")

b) you get to stay unshaven till ur mom stops serving food.

c) peace of mind

d) more peace of mind..

cannot think of anything new for the moment.. wait till the list is populated... im not finished yet..

D.O.C (Dudes of Compsci)

this is our humble tribute to all legendary class bunkers, proxy kings assignment skippers and year-outs who once made life shit for themselves and for the department....
visit
Dudes.Of.Compsci

back to the blogosphere...

mixed feelings on being back after such a long time
a little bit of anxiety and a lot of embarrassment...

anxiety about the stuff written by other bloggers(i havnt read a single blog in about a year)
and the new version of the software...

and embarrassment on reading my previous posts.. the last one seeing daylight on 24 dec 2005.

this time though, im determined to continue..

should i try my hand at it ?

mood: determined to keep the blog going

december, time for celebrations...
time for me to make a decision

gettin really bored of formal parties n newyr wishes
if i had a girl friend, could've taken her out......

so that leaves me free with another allurin option
shud i also take drinks like my frnds at my place?
gud god, they do hav a gr8 time ........
thinkin of spentin new yr ther
but too lazy to make a travel

if i decide against boozin,
i kno how my newyr is gonna b like,

watchin midnight movies at home
and makin calls to my frnds...........

circuits and crap >>>>>>

Its just the beginning of our 4th sem, and we compsci dudes def hav a lot to be worried about.
for one thing, all our subject teachers, save one are professors or lecturers..
for people who dont kno, we hav another group of teachers who are inexperienced.....
people say we had a kind of feast last sem when we had just two lecturers
and four ad-hocs(the kind of just into teaching ppl)
so we could actually impress them without much trouble (i failed again) and score more marks

and even then what i did was a 5.95
Hmmm, now it looks like these professors are gonna flunk me
I asked one of my seniors (an 8 pointer) what to do
all he told me was to b attentive in the class, submit assignments in time, and work hard,
remember, WORK HARD......
this is all a piece of shit.... advice
man, heś advisin me,
(therś no question of salvaging my pride, being a five pointer among merits is no small job)
i dont even attend classes, leave alone being attentive.......

looks like iĺl hav to please all of them (the professors)...
therś actually no other go
and so , i took a resolution to submit lab records in time
we have some kind of lab called Digital Systems on tuesdays at 2.00
this is what happened today...

12.15 our class is over
12.20 i go hav food
12.45 i think about completing my record
1.00 still not decided what to do
1.10 i go to Roshans room
1.15 i start reading the latest sports star (record still in mind, though)
1.30 decided to start writing
1.30 went on rounds in the first floor, found everyone else busy writin
1.40 stunned to find SV writing,
thought strikes dat iĺl be the only one in the lab without a record
1.40 found deepak outside, with his completd record
1.45 finally started writing
1.50 @#$#%$%^ busy writing
1.55 oh shit!@! i'll not b able to burn pages in time
2.05 recieved deepaks sms asking for his record

----------------------- and i finally sent him his book, through bajji
the funniest part of it is what happened next.......
the entire batch is shown the door even without marking attendance
for lack of preparation......
now thats wht i call a lab!!!!
(hey hey for d first time in yrs, i was spared when my batch was flunked)
this entire circuit lab thing is crap......
cannot really forget my last lab session,
havin to deal with dead circuits and ever so boring breadboards is no fun
(i mean, spentin 3 hrs fiddlin with them-- Daniel does the work)

never liked electronics in my life
had an E-grade for S2 and now a rectified backpaper in S3
what more can u expect frm me?

dont kno when iĺl be freed of circuits..
actually dont kno if iĺl b freed at all.............................