Septimus Heap and Remember me

I have been thinking for the last 5 mins.. what should i write about... so thought why not talk about writing itself..

In fact today was advising a friend of mine to start blogging .... to start a blog on writing / on books!!! He told me that i should motivate him to blog!!! I hope you are getting inspired!!!! lol

Actually, for quite sometime i have been meaning to write about the books i have read... i do it for movies but have never tackled a book really... i guess because its easier to talk about a movie than a book!

I read 2 books in quick succession.. one a series actually and another a standalone :

Magyk,Flyte,Physik & Queste -

these are the name of the fantasy book series i picked up and read recently. The key character is a boy wizard called septimus heap and no its not even remotely like Harry Potter!! The books are nice .. if you like reading fantasy and if you could just stop comparing it with Harry Potter. But the problem is once you have read Harry Potter, you cannot un-read it! So the comparison will never go away.. and all in all you will end up finding these books on the duller side!! They are not that bad.. in fact the author has been brave enough to put in her own set of incantations though i do not really remember them!!! The book is about this boy wizard Septimus Heap who did not know this till the end of the first book. The other characters include Jenna, a little princess (who also did not know she was the princess), Marcia the xtraordinary wizard, Beetle a friend of the wizard, many ghosts etc.. basically there is an evil villain in every book who is trying to capture the princess to take control of the place.... though i wouldnt be doing it justice if i say the book is only about saving the princess. Its an ok book.. it doesnt involve you in the plot.. at least not in the way that you would be turning pages, burning the midnight oil to know what is going to happen.

Or maybe, just maybe i am not the target audience.. the book might be meant for kids and hence more simple :) The book covers are quite enticing (in case you want to know why did i pick these books up).

The second one i just finished reading is Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella.

A cute chick flick kind of a book.. it is a romantic story.. but usually in her books (i have read 2-3 books by this author), the focus is more on friends / self etc!!! The book is quite well written.. and will definitely put a twinkle in your eye... or a dimple in your cheek!!! :)

A funny book ... about a girl who meets with an accident.. but when she wakes up she doesnt remember 3 yrs of her life.. and is astounded when she comes to know what all had happened in the world during all this while.. like brad pitt splitting up with jennifer aniston etc!!!! When she wakes up she finds that she is actually successful, has a good looking millionaire husband who can even ride a speedboat :) .. but things are not what they seem.. obviously!!! But i truly did enjoy this book!!! The writing style is extremely refreshing!! A light comic book! Definitely to be read if you are stressed out!!!

Now i am picking up a Mary Higgins Clark.. never ever read it.. colleagues swear by it and one of them kindly lent it to me!!! I know i had said that i will write about writing... but you never know what comes out when you sit down and write.. Anyway i will leave it for the friend to write about in his blog !!! Never mind!!! :)

So until then... until i put in my next post on a book i mean!!! :)

I remember.. the good .. the bad.. the ugly (Hindi movies)

I just posted a comment as a reply to Scarlett's comment on the Ghajini post!!! And immediately even while writing it thought, i must write about it!!! I basically reproduced a dialogue from an old Hindi movie called Karma... here it goes again...

"Dr Dang ko aaj pehli baar kisi ne thappad maara hai.. is thappad ki gunj suni tumne.. is thappad ki gunj ki gunj tumhe sunayi degi.. sunayi degi na.."

I have seen this movie a zillion times.... and somehow this dialogue got stuck in my head, dont know why... my husband was absolutely flabbergasted when i said this dialogue!!!! lol

And i tend to remember all the other weird stuff too... like there is this hindi song which goes like... "sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, tu mujhko milti hai on a holiday"..... I mean who remembers such crappy songs!!! Answer is I do... BTW i actually like the Karma dialogue .. that was not crappy..

Another song from an Anil Kapoor Madhuri Dixit movie... "Tere sang yeh mulakaate .. mujhe aaachheee (they are sneezing here) lagti hain.. " .. whoever ever conceptualised this song!!!! And to top it all i remember it too!!!

Another one.. "dil ki ghadi, arre ghadi ghadi na jaane kare kyon tik tik tik.. ek second main ek tik.." i forget the rest.. thank god for that actually!!! And one more... "Tu mera tota, main teri maina... "

Another dialogue that i remember from a Rekha-Farooque Sheikh movie.. was this last scene of the movie wherein Rekha reveals her true self that she is not a paanwali.. and she suddenly starts talking in english.. i am oxford educated something something...or something like that!!!

Of course, Amitabh Bachchan dialogues one remembers without much effort... "hum jahan khade hote hain line wahi se shuru hoti hai".. and the sholay dialogues... gabbar, basanti.. all of them immortalised

And the villainish dialogues meant to instill fear in the audiences mind are usually quite silly... like bad man!!! I mean however different ways Gulshan Grover tries to say Bad man.. it still sounds extremely idiotic!!!

Dialogues from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron are quite memorable.. thoda khao thoda pheko... or when Nasserudding Shah is leaving Demello's house with the editor when he says.. CIA.. which Demello thinks to be CIA... and Shah says hume bahar tak chod aaiye.. he meant see aaiye... lol!!! Or the Mahabharat / Ramayan dialogue of Pankaj Kapoor.. Bhrashtachari, Durachari, Bramachari.. bol sorry!!! Such a brilliant movie!!!

I am smiling as i write this.. i repeat these dialogues everytime i watch it.. and keep laughing!!!

Yes Sir... Hindi movies are good fun.. whether they are good or bad!

How do you react in such situations

I have been in some weird situations -

How do you react when you bump into an acquaintance somewhere... .. that person is an acquaintance.. not a friend.. didnt speak too much to that person during the time we studied together... our wavelength never matched you could say... we moved around different circles... so while we staying in the same campus we hardly talked...

This conversation went something like this :

Oh hi... what a surprise!! Fancy meeting you here
So how are you?
Where are you? Which company?
Where do you stay?
What is XYZ person doing?
And what about this person?
And what about the other person?
And the other.... well, fancy meeting you here... did you hear about this person.. And so on and so forth.. before leaving i did take her number though i was hesitant to make the first move.. well, the call is never ever going to happen.. but i was like.. i should at least be courteous... I guess!!! I usually dont know how to handle such situations... as the warmth is an old friend is missing.. and it is not that you are meeting someone new!!! Its quite strange..

And what if you meet someone at the parlour... thank god when i met the person, it was the other person getting things done and not me.. it was awkward even then!!!

The weirdest of it happened at the gym a few days back... i was wearing a sari for the traditional day at work.. was at the locker room... now there is a suana attached the locker room.. and out walks this woman from teh suana.. wearing a towel.. which almost about to come off.. i turned my back to her to give her some privacy... everything was fine till she initiated conversation with me... your sari is very pretty.. is it the kerala sari... and all throughout i was mumbling.. looking down.. i didnt know where to look!!!!!

Another is walking into a discussion.. and suddenly all conversation stops.. should you leave or sit.. or apologise for the intrusion.. even if you do apologise.. everyone usually hastens to assure you that you didnt intrude.. and if anything, that just makes you even more sure of your intrusion!!!!

Of course, i have always have had foot in the mouth disease... started as early as school.. once i remember being in a group of students (who i didnt know very well really)... and we were talking about names... for one of the names i wasnt satisfied talking about about how much i didnt like the name.... i had to tell them precisely why.. and i ended up saying it sounds like a cabaret dancers name (at that time hindi movies always had vamps with such names)... and a girl came forward and told me.. hey, thats my mom's name.. and she started crying...and i was left mumbling.. you know i didnt really mean that!!!

I find these situations extremely awkward and embarrasing.. either i laugh raucously to show i am unaffected.. or i look around pretending i didnt hear the question!!!!! Hummmphhh... maybe i need to attend a finishing school :)

Why cant people format their documents

Its extremely annoying.. extremely extremely extremely annoying!!!!And so unprofessional. For some reason.. you always and i really mean always, end up doing this donkey work.. your document may look neat and clean.. the documents that need to be merged into yours .. never!!! And of course the responsibility will lie on you to send off the final thing to the client!!!

Why cant people see what they have written.... different fonts (in their own section, even on the same slide sometimes) random colours, spelling mistakes.. all this irrespective of taking the trouble of sending a template, pre empting this issue !!!!!!

As you can see, this what i spent a good part of my day doing!!! Missed gym too :(

Now going to sleep in the hope that tom will be a better day!!!

Its a Blockbuster for sure : Ghajini

I loved it. Its a fantabulous movie!!!! 3 hrs + and you dont even realise it!!

Its an Aamir Khan movie... an out and out Aamir Khan movie.. and boy is he good!!! This movie shows precisely why Aamir Khan is Aamir Khan and SRK SRK!!!!

An extremely violent movie.. but you never flinch.. because you are right there with the protaganist... by his side... feeling his confusions.. his frustrations.. wanting to tell him.. thats who you came to kill, remember...

Aamir Khan is an absolute dynamite in the role of Sanjay Singhania! He is extremely convincing in this role.. in fact the romantic side or the earlier version of the businessman Sanjay Singhania is shown much later into the movie.. even when they show him to be this nice reserved person.. a total ladies man.. you dont feel surprised.. you dont even pause to think of how this transformation from a sensitive sweet character to this killing machine is possible.... perhaps because the killer Sanjay Singhania has character to his personality.. a sensitiveness... you kind of get attached to this at times violent, at times blustering bumbling person!!

Aamir Khan as a romantic.. va va voom... he is so not over the top!!! He is completely normal.. behaves like any one of us normal people in love!!! He is brilliant... subtle and brilliant.

I loved this movie. Yes it is violent.. yes you can hear the bones crunching, the earth moving etc etc.. but all through these scenes, you still are with Aamir Khan in his travails as Sanjay Singhania and dont lose sight of the story.

Asin was quite nice ... in fact one of my colleagues at work (who also is a mallu) said that she is quite impressed that Asin is a mallu actress!!! lol!! She plays a sweet character.. a lovable character.. i like the part wherein she keeps talking about how she meets Sanjay Singhania!! But some bits are over the top.. helping blind man cross the street .. helping some kids etc etc.. yeah it was required for the build up to the scene of her getting killed.. but still!!

The scene in which she dies... is shot amazingly well... there are no histrionics.. she just comes out and asks her fiancee to leave.. there is no screaming and no shouting... she actually looks terrified... she was damn good in that scene... and she is not decked up.. like they tend to show their heroines in any other movie... all decked up even when sleeping!!!! That scene will stay with you.... i thought it was quite beautifully shot.. i think i already said that.. but never mind...

Jiah Khan was not that great.. she was ok.. her accent shows.. and looks very ill placed in the movie. Was her character even required... yeah maybe for the last scene to save Aamir khan that one blow..

The songs are of course good... has to be with A R Rehman! You cant have it any other way. Lattoo was slightly misplaced.. was not really required.. it didnt really contribute to the movie!!

But everything said and done.... It is Aamir Khan's movie. And he is the only person you focus on throughout the movie irrespective of which aspect of his personality he essays... the sensitive guy, the businessman, the shy guy .. the guy who declares his love in a bus in a pretty matter of fact way... the violent guy with splecks of spit coming out.. snorting in rage... the frustrated guy who doesnt know where he is everytime... the organised guy who organises his insane life/ memory .. well in a very organised manner... the lost soul.. the anguished soul.. all of these facets of the personality are brought to life by the one and only Aamir Khan.

You are with him throughout the movie... and thats what you will remember too post the movie! Everyone else... nice but Aamir.. rockstar!!!!

Tea at my house is over

I am very very particular about my tea. I am a true tea drinker.. to the extent i have coffee in office... because i do not like the vending machine tea!! I like my tea the way i make it.. that has its disadvantages too.. like i cant/ dont like having tea made by anyone except my mom and a few other people (can count them on my hand)... usually its too milky, too sweet, boiled too much etc etc.. and the thing about tea is that the flavour remains in your mouth!!! So if the tea is not good, you are going to be reminded of it the entire day!!!!

And over the course of time, i have realised that the best thing to do is to have coffee when you go out... if not sure about the quality of tea!!! People dont usually go too wrong with coffee..

But this realisation came with many experiences of course... once i got locked out of my house and my cell battery too was down.. and i had to meet my parents somewhere.. the venue not fixed till then.. i was supposed to call and check.. in fact i came back home from office to give them a surprise.. boy did i get a surprise!! So off i went to our neighbours place.. a nice punju family.. while i charged my cell, they made me a cup of tea.. in the true punju way.. milky with cream!!! And i dont like my tea like that.. i prefer it to be not milky.. and cream (ughhhh).. i dont know how i had that cup of tea.... usually once i decide i cant have it, i just am not able to!!!

Usually i leave the tea cup lying around somewhere and if the host asks me.. then i say oh i forgot.. never mind!!! Another thing i have done is hide the tea .. and when the host is not looking, run into the kitchen and throw it down the sink!!!! I REALLY CANNOT HAVE BAD TEA!!! I JUST CANNOT!!!

So with steep learning curve.. nowadays i ask for coffee whenever i go out!! Still at times I do take a risk and ask for tea!!! Pays off sometimes!!

My morning tea - my favourite cup of the day!! Which i obviously make myself.. once my husband made me tea.. post which i decided i will make it everyday!

The temperature has to be just right.. the flavour has to be just right.. boiled to just the right level, not more , not less..perfect! The entire tea experience i find very awesome.. i sip tea and i feel all my troubles being shooed away... find myself at peace.. to lift your spirits!!!! Nothing like a hot cup of tea!!!!

So anyway, the thing is tea at my place is over... i had bought this new tea from Coonoor but i am slightly wary of using it.. its one full dabba.. and am worried my morning tea will not be the same again!!! Will it .. wont it... sordid it is!!!!

An itty bitty post

An itty bitty post to ensure i keep writing the entire year....

Wonder what this year is gonna be like.. for my part, i have tried to ensure its all good.. by doing the things i like today... there is a concept thats been floating around for ages.. that whatever you do the first day of the year is what you you would be doing the entire year...

So i woke up late... had a brilliant brunch at West end ... go there one day.. its a beautiful beautiful place!!! Came back home.. couldnt resist sleeping .. afternoon naps are the best!!! Read, watched a movie on TV.. tried to book tickets for the weekend show...spent a lot of time with my husband.. !!!

What more do you want this year!!! Actually its quite a meaningful concept come to think of it.. you can choose to interpret it in another way - its like.. the way you choose to spend your first day of the year.. you can choose to spend every day of the year doing what you like.. making the right choices.. being happy.

So heres to happiness in 2009!!! :)