Hello again!! Guys, I know almost all of you might have seen or gone through a break-up (I'm sorry for those in the second category) but I must say some break-ups are rather interesting, of course if you're neither of the involved party; or for guys if the girl is cute. Well, your humble friend, here, got lucky and what I witnessed, or must I say eye-witnessed was the world's most dramatic, ear-drum rupturing, glass-shattering, go-fuck-yourself-you-lying-asshole break-up. Phew..!! I guess that's enough to give you guys a hint of where I'm getting at.
So here's the story.
Chapter 1: The Couple
First things first, how I got to know the couple. The couple used to come to same gym as I, and we used to meet everyday. Not that I was a friend of either of them, and the only conversation we used to have was the occasional nod or a passing smile that made my day, of course I'm talking about the girl in question. Now, this guy, I don't remember his name, well to be honest I never even cared to know what it might be. And the girl. Ahem! Well she's cute, quite so. A few extra pounds, very delicate, probably extremely pampered by both this guy and perhaps her parents too. (Sorry, couldn't help judging, it just shows on her face.) Pallavi....that's her name, yeah. Okay! Pallavi is a typical south Delhi-bred-DPS(VK)-spoiled-OMG-its-so-hot-here kinda girl. Though I'd seen the guy in the gym before too, but he'd been coming with Palavi since the past three weeks or so. The guy, though well endowed with frightening biceps, was totally, in word, Pallavi's bitch. He used to follow her tail, wait till the tread-mill next to hers was vacated, get her water bottle, even wipe her face with a towel. The guy, man I still can't remember his name, was like a Duracell operated rabbit, who was instructed perhaps only to act at Pallavi's accord. The couple never seemed to shy away from their PDA and were hottest topic of the gym grape-wine. From trainers to the people working out in the gym, the couple was greeted with a friendly smile followed by a mocking smirk. The guy used to even drop her off to her place, which was merely two blocks away from the gym, and how I know that, well I'll get to that later.
Chapter 2: The Big Bang
Now what started the fight between the couple isn't very clear to me, but I'm sure it was enough to end this sugar-coated, gold-plated relationship. Now when I reached the open area of the gym, used generally for weights, floor exercises and a twisting exercise with a bamboo staff held at the back of your neck (apparently that's my instructor's personal favourite), the 'discussion' was already on. Pallavi was doing the same exercise as I just described and the guy was sitting on a bench with lots of dumb-bells around him. (Pun intended) Now as always, I was finding it difficult do any of the instructed exercises and I was merely waiting for my hour to end, when suddenly the Lord of Excitement showed His grace and I heard the golden words, "Can you shut up for like 10 minutes Abhay! I'm seriously not interested....." Yes! That's his name. Abhay. I sometimes amaze myself at how attentive I am when girls speak. Anyway, back to the story. Pallavi's voice brought me back to life from the semi-limbo state that I was in. Gushes of energy ran towards my limbs and for the first time after having been a regular at the gym for about a month, sweat broke on my forehead. Energized, as I was now, I got a whole new reason to stick around. I too picked up a bamboo stick and started doing the same weird exercise as Pallavi, wondering if even I would get a chance to fling the stick into someone's head someday. My ears, though, were magnetically fixed on the conversation going on merely five feet to my right. Abhay, donning the most innocent face that he could have made, was trying, in vain, to explain why he'd said that he was unwell and he couldn't go to the movies with her, when someone (Sorry, I'm bad at remembering names) spotted him at a very posh mall with a beer in his hand, sitting with Sakshi. Well I know Sakshi because she used to come to the same gym too. But that was 'before' Pallavi joined, mind you. Abhay's explanation, not that it mattered (to me and also perhaps to Pallavi looking at how angry she was), was that he was 'really' not well, but he had to go out because Sakshi was leaving for Sates the same night, for an year. I wonder why she wasn't busy packing then! Pallavi, who is exceptionally fair usually, was now looking pink, matching the colour of her shoes and contrasting her dark purple socks. Pallavi's answer made me fear a confrontation with a woman more than ever because her answer was actually a question that why, if he was ill, did he have to come to the gym then. Wasn't lunch and drinks with Sakshi enough to exert him more than required for someone 'under the weather?'
Abhay, as always, followed Pallavi's cue and turned a slightly darker shade of pink, though the reason was probably similar to mine and add to that the obligation of having to give an answer. Word's failed him and what I thought was sweat on his cheeks suddenly looked like saline from a different source. All he could manage was a mumble, too low for me to hear, but enough for me to know that it was a stupid answer as Pallavi reply was, "I feel like hitting you with this stick itself." Unlike Abhay, she was loud, loud enough ring a few bells in my ears and make me realise that I was doing nothing more than holding the stick and staring at them rather than trying to conceal my interest in my exercise. Just then an Uncle walked into our area and asked Abhay if he was using the dumbbells. He could have answered the question had Pallavi not stormed out of the gym and Abhay, now as you must have guessed, followed her, leaving his towel behind. Looking at the situation, I thought a towel was probably the one thing Abhay needed the most that day, other than probably some colour for his face, which had turned pale by now. And thus, was I deprived of more action.
Chapter 3: The Dark Knight
That's not the end, definitely no. Not without the 'other guy' making an entry into the story. So I was rejoined by them in the abs section, where Pallavi was actually working out while all Abhay was doing standing and staring.... then one frosty-nose look from Pallavi brought Abhay back to life, and he landed up on a ab-training machine. Maybe he thought increasing the weights might impress or atleast soften Pallavi a little, but I'm sure she couldn't have been more ignorant. And then, as the two were about to leave the ab-section, Abhay, God only knows why, decided to pick up Pallavi's phone. With the glint of an arrow and the speed of an eagle, Pallavi, in one swift movement grabbed the phone and the blood from his face, giving it again the pale palor that it was getting used to by now. Another exchange of whispers and stern looks couldn't be heard by me as I prepared to leave the gym. Surprisingly enough, the story was far from over, and I was destined to get luckier, as while I was waiting for someone to pick me up, when Pallavi showed up from behind asked me for a lift. She had apparently seen me around and knew that her place would be on the way back. I was happily awed, and fate spoke for me just as my dad's car, (chauffeur driven, yeay for that day), pulled up. Chivalrous as I am, I opened the door for her, more to flaunt to an awestruck Abhay watching from a little distance, than as a courtesy. Finally, for the first time in my life, I was the other guy!! That really made my day, and the 3 minute distance to her place wasn't enough for much talking, but Abhay and Pallavi have not been gymming together since. That my friends was probably the end of it. I think I've said enough already, don't think of me as a sadist laughing at other people's misery, but boredom can make the most unusual of things interesting.
Adios!
Yours Truly.
Sunday 26 June 2011
Wednesday 15 June 2011
You Are What I Want You To Be
I wasn’t with you when you were born. I wasn’t responsible for your childhood. I met you as you started enjoying the world around you. You are, what I want you to be. I command you, now, and you are bound to obey. I am with you when you need me. But I’m also there when you wish I wasn't. I am right to you even when I might be wrong to the world. I make your choices. I moderate your words. I give you a reason. And I make sure you believe in them.
I am the wall that keeps your emotions from deciding your actions. I am a friend of your instincts. I alone can stop you from acting even after you’ve made up your mind. I alone can make you steal when you could have just borrowed. I steer you, to where I want to go. I am your Master. I pull the strings of your life. I am your Ego.
Remember the time when that pretty girl asked you for a pen? It was I who forced you to be rude. If you feel any remorse now, I will make it fade away. I think faster than the wind. I am as swift as the tempest. I am the wall you didn't want to have. I am the tide that doesn't wait for the right time. Yes, I'm impatient. And so are you. Thus, are you.
They say I'm your defense, planning, control, tolerance, your judgment. But I only play with them. I'm not the one to blamed for any of them. I am your Rage. And I come to life on the slightest provocation. I am the savior, and so am I the destroyer. I am what I am. And I made you what you are. You can live without me. Life might be a lot simpler. But you can never leave me; because its my choice, and you don't have the right to decide. I don't give that to you.
I am you. And you are what I want you to be!
I am the wall that keeps your emotions from deciding your actions. I am a friend of your instincts. I alone can stop you from acting even after you’ve made up your mind. I alone can make you steal when you could have just borrowed. I steer you, to where I want to go. I am your Master. I pull the strings of your life. I am your Ego.
Remember the time when that pretty girl asked you for a pen? It was I who forced you to be rude. If you feel any remorse now, I will make it fade away. I think faster than the wind. I am as swift as the tempest. I am the wall you didn't want to have. I am the tide that doesn't wait for the right time. Yes, I'm impatient. And so are you. Thus, are you.
They say I'm your defense, planning, control, tolerance, your judgment. But I only play with them. I'm not the one to blamed for any of them. I am your Rage. And I come to life on the slightest provocation. I am the savior, and so am I the destroyer. I am what I am. And I made you what you are. You can live without me. Life might be a lot simpler. But you can never leave me; because its my choice, and you don't have the right to decide. I don't give that to you.
I am you. And you are what I want you to be!
Tuesday 7 June 2011
Inception Through My Eyes
They say, in India, when you start something new, always start with the name of God. God isn't exactly an entity I believe in much. I pray sometimes, but to no effect. And He, if He exists that is, is as ignorant towards me. So who is it, whose merit deserves a mention in my first blog post. Baba Ramdev? Well tried Babaji, but I guess the newspapers have written enough about you, your current affairs and your tryst with black money. Then who? Nadal? So what if he won again. Nothing new in that. And as an Indian Citizen I know writing about cricket does not matter because every reader is a fan, a historian, a commentator, a coach- an Indian in short. So lets move to my favourite topic then - FILMS.
Now here I guess I have too many options. Hollywood or Bollywood (Oops! Sorry Mr. Bachchan, Hindi Film Industry I should say). Actor or director. Wait! Yes! Director... Let me see... James Camaron? What's he done in the recent past? Avatar! Yes, but I haven't watched it yet. What do I write! Anurag Kashyap? Or rather I should wait for Shaitaan's reviews first. Ridley Scott? Yes I did watch Body of Lies a few days ago. Or how about Nolan? Yeah. He is the one. Its almost an year since I watched Inception. Though a review at this point in time seems absurd. But none-the-less, someone said, 'Better late than Never.' Okay. Let me call it a tribute then to Inception. Here is Inception, through my eyes.
Christopher Nolan this time comes forth with a visual extravaganza that is set to scintillate every nerve of your body and that leaves you demanding for more. Nolan rightly delivers what is expected of a director of his stature after the success of his previous films Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Memento (I'm purposely not mentioning Following, Insomnia or The Prestige due to they not being considered commercial films by many) . This time Nolan comes up with a film about Dreams (no not the big city dreams of a small city girl Yash Raj pot-boiler). Nor about people living their dreams but about people living in their dreams. Dreams as he calls it are ‘the most resilient parasite’ and Inception sucks the blood out of your face as it completely bowls you over in the first 5 minutes itself. As the movie begins with a dream within a dream, Inception demands the viewers’ attention right from the first minute of the film to its 149th running minute. Shot in 6 different countries with a rumoured mega budget of over $200 million, Inception is worth every penny that one spends at the box office.
Inception is a sci-fi psychological-heist thriller which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who can get into any person’s dreams and thus can steal any kind of personal or secret information from the man’s sub-conscience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, Dom’s associate who is perfect in his job. The film begins with Saito (played by Ken Watanabe) taking an audition of Dom and Arthur and their crew. But it turns out that they fail as Dom’s dead wife Mal (played by Marrion Cottilard) keeps mysteriously appearing in his sub-conscience. Arthur and Dom leave Saito before he actually comes out of his dream. They are about to escape when Saito again meets them and offers them a job of not stealing someone’s ideas but to plant one. While Arthur insists that such a thing is not possible Dom agrees to the job in return of getting his hand cleared of all criminal charges that he faces in the US and which is why he cannot return to see his young kids.
Saito needs Dom to plant the idea in Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy)’s head to breaking up his father’s business empire so that Saito can take over the entire energy business of the world. Now Dom needs a crew of an architect to design the world of their dreams, a thief who can frisk stuff as easily as he can take up some one’s identity and a chemist who can keep the shared dreamers sufficiently sedated till their job is done. Dom finds an architect in Adriane (Ellen Page) who is recommended by Dom’s father (played by Michael Caine), a forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and the chemist Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao). Now Dom and his crew along with Saito manage to get Fischer into slumber and pass into a triple levelled dream to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s empire. En route to their final destination they end up straightening the strained relationship between Fischer and his father and also bringing to light the motives of his Godfather and his father’s friend Peter Browning (Tom Berenger). Dom and his crew end up in a four levelled dream totally unplanned and thus Adriane also helps him solve the mystery of his dead wife’s presence in his sub-conscience. Dom and his crew are successful in their endeavour and Dom returns a free man; but Nolan leaves the story open ended, not showing whether the world that Dom returns to finally is the real world or that of a dream.
Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show all the way with an awe inspiring performance. Joseph Gordan-Levitt in the role of Arthur is brilliant and Cillian Murphy leaves a good impression. Nolan succeeds in deceiving the audience in a maze of dreams within dreams and hardly does one realise the need to munch pop corn or even flutter an eye lid. The only thing that seems odd is that all characters in the movie seem to be too easy about the concept of shared dreaming and understand the twisting chain of events with hardly any effort. The VFx used in the film are first rate especially the scene in which one half of the city of Paris closes like a lid on the other half. Joseph Gordon’s zero gravity sequence does raise an appreciating murmur amongst the crowd and after a long time we get to watch a film with pin drop silence in the crowd and claps after the end of the show. Not sure as to how many awards does Inception bag but it surely has won the hearts of millions across the globe and is set to do well in India too. With a strong script, impeccable execution and flawless cinematography, Inception is by far the most entertaining film of this year till now.
My rating 4/5 and a word of recommendation to watch the movie.
So here I am at the end of my first blog post. For those who read the whole of it, either I salute your patience, or your love for Inception. For those who slept half way, well I guess I was successful in atleast achieving that. And for those who got bored just after the introduction and skipped to this paragraph straight away, it tells me how much you love me and it was very sweet of you just to open a link I shared. So I'll be back soon since I have nothing to do here at my training site. And I can't watch a movie in office as I forgot my headphones again at home.
Adios!
Yours Truly!
Now here I guess I have too many options. Hollywood or Bollywood (Oops! Sorry Mr. Bachchan, Hindi Film Industry I should say). Actor or director. Wait! Yes! Director... Let me see... James Camaron? What's he done in the recent past? Avatar! Yes, but I haven't watched it yet. What do I write! Anurag Kashyap? Or rather I should wait for Shaitaan's reviews first. Ridley Scott? Yes I did watch Body of Lies a few days ago. Or how about Nolan? Yeah. He is the one. Its almost an year since I watched Inception. Though a review at this point in time seems absurd. But none-the-less, someone said, 'Better late than Never.' Okay. Let me call it a tribute then to Inception. Here is Inception, through my eyes.
Christopher Nolan this time comes forth with a visual extravaganza that is set to scintillate every nerve of your body and that leaves you demanding for more. Nolan rightly delivers what is expected of a director of his stature after the success of his previous films Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Memento (I'm purposely not mentioning Following, Insomnia or The Prestige due to they not being considered commercial films by many) . This time Nolan comes up with a film about Dreams (no not the big city dreams of a small city girl Yash Raj pot-boiler). Nor about people living their dreams but about people living in their dreams. Dreams as he calls it are ‘the most resilient parasite’ and Inception sucks the blood out of your face as it completely bowls you over in the first 5 minutes itself. As the movie begins with a dream within a dream, Inception demands the viewers’ attention right from the first minute of the film to its 149th running minute. Shot in 6 different countries with a rumoured mega budget of over $200 million, Inception is worth every penny that one spends at the box office.
Inception is a sci-fi psychological-heist thriller which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who can get into any person’s dreams and thus can steal any kind of personal or secret information from the man’s sub-conscience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, Dom’s associate who is perfect in his job. The film begins with Saito (played by Ken Watanabe) taking an audition of Dom and Arthur and their crew. But it turns out that they fail as Dom’s dead wife Mal (played by Marrion Cottilard) keeps mysteriously appearing in his sub-conscience. Arthur and Dom leave Saito before he actually comes out of his dream. They are about to escape when Saito again meets them and offers them a job of not stealing someone’s ideas but to plant one. While Arthur insists that such a thing is not possible Dom agrees to the job in return of getting his hand cleared of all criminal charges that he faces in the US and which is why he cannot return to see his young kids.
Saito needs Dom to plant the idea in Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy)’s head to breaking up his father’s business empire so that Saito can take over the entire energy business of the world. Now Dom needs a crew of an architect to design the world of their dreams, a thief who can frisk stuff as easily as he can take up some one’s identity and a chemist who can keep the shared dreamers sufficiently sedated till their job is done. Dom finds an architect in Adriane (Ellen Page) who is recommended by Dom’s father (played by Michael Caine), a forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and the chemist Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao). Now Dom and his crew along with Saito manage to get Fischer into slumber and pass into a triple levelled dream to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s empire. En route to their final destination they end up straightening the strained relationship between Fischer and his father and also bringing to light the motives of his Godfather and his father’s friend Peter Browning (Tom Berenger). Dom and his crew end up in a four levelled dream totally unplanned and thus Adriane also helps him solve the mystery of his dead wife’s presence in his sub-conscience. Dom and his crew are successful in their endeavour and Dom returns a free man; but Nolan leaves the story open ended, not showing whether the world that Dom returns to finally is the real world or that of a dream.
Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show all the way with an awe inspiring performance. Joseph Gordan-Levitt in the role of Arthur is brilliant and Cillian Murphy leaves a good impression. Nolan succeeds in deceiving the audience in a maze of dreams within dreams and hardly does one realise the need to munch pop corn or even flutter an eye lid. The only thing that seems odd is that all characters in the movie seem to be too easy about the concept of shared dreaming and understand the twisting chain of events with hardly any effort. The VFx used in the film are first rate especially the scene in which one half of the city of Paris closes like a lid on the other half. Joseph Gordon’s zero gravity sequence does raise an appreciating murmur amongst the crowd and after a long time we get to watch a film with pin drop silence in the crowd and claps after the end of the show. Not sure as to how many awards does Inception bag but it surely has won the hearts of millions across the globe and is set to do well in India too. With a strong script, impeccable execution and flawless cinematography, Inception is by far the most entertaining film of this year till now.
My rating 4/5 and a word of recommendation to watch the movie.
So here I am at the end of my first blog post. For those who read the whole of it, either I salute your patience, or your love for Inception. For those who slept half way, well I guess I was successful in atleast achieving that. And for those who got bored just after the introduction and skipped to this paragraph straight away, it tells me how much you love me and it was very sweet of you just to open a link I shared. So I'll be back soon since I have nothing to do here at my training site. And I can't watch a movie in office as I forgot my headphones again at home.
Adios!
Yours Truly!
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