Of Likes and Dislikes .. and then some.

Hmm, got a forwarded sorta questionare, that for once, has been interesting to read,
hasnt made me averse to fill up and set me off on a trip down memory lane.

Here goes ..

The last movie I borrowed (rather last few movies) :

1) 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag - This is gold, Joe Pesci and David Spade rock.. Laughs all the way !
2) A Fish Called Wanda - Jamie Lee Curtis dons many hats as she is 'fishy' as can be :) Wanda! 3) Bourne Identity- Matt Damon, all brawn and a brain in disarray.. Still, good to watch..
4) Mary Poppins - Got it for Dad, never got myself to watch it !
5) Munna Bhai M. B. B. S - Sanju Baba flexes muscles and runs the show !

The last film I watched in Theater :
Hitch : I Need you Maan !

Which five (maybe fictional) characters in B/Kollywood have you had a crush on?
1.Salma Hayek in Fools Rush In – Ok Movie, but there's something about her!
2.Charlize Theron - Devil's Advocate, The Astronauts Wife, etc...
3.Helen Hunt– As Good As It Gets, What Women Want!
4.Sushmitha Sen – Sexy, Sultry, Sizzler!
5.Heather Locklear - Spin City... Chic !!


Five Hollywood films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
1. Jackal – Classy, an ATG in my opinion..
2. A Few Good Men – Jack Nicholson is superb..the theme too, food for thought..
3. Pulp Fiction – Sam Jackson,John Travolta all the way..!! Can watch re-runs..
4. Mask – Jim Carrey has to be in a fav'ites list.. and Mask was like nothing before !!
5. Indiana Jones Series…Part I and III...

A charming proffie getting Hitler's autograph on the book that leads to the Holy Grail:)
6. The Usual Suspects - Kaiser Soze.Kevin Spacey is cool only.. Verbal Kint !
- How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?
7 .Forrest Gump - Life is like a box of chocolates..you never know what you're gonna get.

Five Bollywood films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
1. Parinda – Sooper Ulti.. Madhuri's ethereal countenance, Nana Patekar's maniacal moods..
2. Sholay– Perfect 10 score plate held up by all members of the Jury !
3. Hungama – Laugh Riot!! Paresh Rawal simply dazzles .. the entire cast, on second thoughts.
4. Andaz Apna Apna – Too funny as Salman and Aamir pair up like Dumb N Dumber .. :))
5. DDLJ - SRK/ Kajol... enough said !
6. Sarfarosh - Holds sway all the way through.
7. Dil Chahata Hai - Lovely foray into a hithertho unexplored area in Indian moviedom..

Five Hollywood/Bollywood types that I can't stop slurping over:
1. Sharon Stone – Sexy, Savvy, suave..
2. Madhuri Dixit–
"Madhuri Dixit Milli Raste Mey, Usne Kaha Mere Ghar Aaja,Mey boldiya Na Baba Na :)
3. Sushmitha Sen – As detailed above.
4. Dimple Kapadia - Sagar Jaise Aankowaali..? Bobby Bhool Ja ?
5. Jennifer Anniston - Friends, in the early seasons..

Dudes I think have no right to be this cool / hunky:
Keanu Reeves, John Travolta, Jack Nicholson, Amitabh Bachan, George Clooney,Sean Connery, Tim Robbins, Joe Pesci, Rahul Dravid, Roger Federer, Saif Ali Khan, Al Pacino, Robin Williams..

H/B/Kollywood people I'm supposed to be impressed by, but am not:

1. Halley Berry
2. Brad Pitt
3. Julia Roberts
4. Robert De Niro
5. Dustin Hoffman
6. Dharmendra
7. Dr Rajkumar.( Ok, I asked for it, hit me Dr Raj Abhimanigala Sangha)
8. Raj Kapoor - For some reason, he aint getting my vote..

Just Another Day in Paradise

This posting might end up like the work of a scribe who has to turn in his daily column, be it about the demise of a sewer rat or something as sensational as finding more rivers on Mars, so that he earns his daily bread and pleases the lady as well at home. Yet, I have the privilege of doing neither :) And I'm so bored on a Saturday Night !!

Weather :

Bangalore was awesome, splendid and nothing short of a balmy day. Sooper Ulti!

Event :

Got pulled along by Viji to Infosys, where he was invited as chief guest to preside over the prize distribution to the two finalists of the Corporate cricket tournament. He still enjoys great patronage as was seen from the people who walked up to him and exchanged pleasantries, took pictures and his speech was honest, yet succinct , extoling the spirit with which the corporate teams took part in the tournament, money not being the main reason, but mostly to have good fun..No beating around the bush, no digressing off into a ramble.. Neat stuff Viji, I hope you dance again, like you used to a very short time back, down the track, destroying the spinners at will, taking on the speedsters with aplomb.. and aah, those cover drives which even Harsha Bhogle once commented that it was a sight worth watching in Indian cricket. Cmon bro, Cmon !!!

Lunch :

Woodys at J P Nagar and tucked into Jeera Rice, Channa Batura, Curd Rice and BBBath with gusto.. Not to mention the 'just cant keep away from it ' Strawberry Milk Shake which is so much a compulsory buy everytime we go there! Whoa Woodys, but none the richer for the stuffing we undertook.. Lighter Wallets, heavier stomachs :)

Rendezvous at City Institute :

Swim Time.. Students Raghu, Sanji and Lakshman practise the strokes earnestly and diligently.. Sanji's made good progess, Raghu's getting better.. Laxman though needs a lot of proper training and unlearning the wrong stuff.. Sanji's all ga ga over his newly learnt underwater glide, the efficacy that a pair of fins bring about to his strokes and the now intrepid dives he undertakes in deeper waters and surfaces with lil trouble and swims to the other end ... Atta boy, way to go... June end, you should be all set !! The ocean beckons ;)Raghu's more accustomed to diving, surfaces well, even gets stones from the deep end floor, still is stiff around the arms/legs for the front crawl.. You'll get there.. Keep at it...

SLV Satiation :

Post swim universal rule is to stuff oneself and replenish the carbo loss and the muscle atrophy :) SLV Chamarajpet just about answers to the plea-bargain of the stomach and the varied cuisine goes a long way in pleasing the most refined palates of 5 famished swimmers, the crisp vada promptly being ordered a second time around ... Shavige Baath, Idli ,Khara/Kesari baath.. All down'ed. Aaha, what joy !! Imagine what/how much we can eat after a Triathlon :)

Lil Dhaatri :

Sanji's daughter is just 1.5 years, yet she has become a lil brat to handle.. Impish, always with a ready smile (She smiles in sleep, smiles when she wakes up,smiles at anything !!),fiercely competitive and protective of her dad whenever someone tries to take him away from her, she dawdles the hours away, babbling quite a lot of mumbo jumbo and interspering them with some coherent words and vigorous nodding of the head in any direction that pleases her. Never shy to give a flying kiss, a boxing fist ( her dad taught her that) and an " I NEED ATTENTION" scream, she's the lil bundle of the joy in the family and there's never a dull moment with her around.. You'll be getting a cousin soon, so behave!! But she gels great with mua and we mutually laugh at each others antics :))

Movie Time :

Ride out with Sanji, rent DVDs, return home. DDLJ is playing on Sony Max. And it still is nice to watch in many parts, the first of its kind in an era that spawned of a lot of NRI typecast films and overseas love stories.And as a bloodied SRK stands at the door of one of the bogies of the departing train that would take him back to some airport enroute to London, his eyes refuse to accept defeat.. or so it appears. Enough to make even a stoic and stubborn Ambrish Puri release his iron grip on Kajol's wrist and she runs away to grab the outstretched hand of her beau. JIT too.. The Great Indian Railway has done it again.. Its an ATG, its a classic.. Small wonder then, 500 weeks and still running...Many are the vignettes that make this film such.. Whats the line about Bade Bade Desh Mey aise Chotte Chotte baath .. ..

Its been just another day in Paradise and Sunday and Tini's awaits !

Triumph at Tini's

The last weekend cricket session at Tini's was one to savour. Life was infused into the proceedings with the return of key players like Vijay Bharadwaj, Shashi a.k.a Shahid Afridi, the mercurial L Ganesh and last but not the least, the ATG 'Counter' Uday. What can anyone say about him ! I have been reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown from the past few days, where religion is faced off against science, the Big Bang Theory is proposed and its stated that God created everything in symmetry/opposites.. Hell and heaven, light and dark and the most rudimentary thing - matter and its opposite, anti-matter. Somewhere along, I am convinced,that on a quirky note, as his wont, god also created 'Counter' Uday. Just like that. A third juggernaut that has no deterrent.

Uday C Madhyastha, as his name goes, is the anti-symmetry and opposite to everything he comes across in his life. Much like an Universal Opposite. Tell him anything and he has an opposing,counter -point of view, even if they are well established laws of math and science and have been accepted by even the most sceptical. Suffice to say he simply drives everyone nuts ! Why, the other day at SLV, he was eating Kharabath and when our chairman MRS asked him Yelli, ond spoon haaku, he took an empty spoon and threw it,clang, into MRS ' plate :)) ..Chairman's face became so red and he could have easily killed Udi ! Realms can be written about Udi like his Chris Tavare batting at Tini's ( where out of 6 overs available, he blocks 4.3 overs and then decides to slog) or choosing to bowl on a dead track in a league match where the rules stipulated that was an innings match with no limit on the overs. Result ??The Oppn batted for 84.3 overs, sweated Udi's team out and let them bat the last 5 overs :))

Anyways, the play almost never took off, the leg side area being rendered slushy by the rains and thanks to the Lions Rotary people who have broken down a portion of the wall running along the conservancy so that vehicles can come in and park.. The result is a sorry state of affairs as car, bikes, autos ride in and leave deep gashes in the ground when they go through the slush.We need to salvage Tini's again, but how ?? Solle, are you listening ?? swalpa nin hava kalsu maga..

Thrust into the relucant role of El Capitano ( a role with which I have enjoyed unqualified success though, always getting series wins), we found ourselves chasing 26 in the first match.The role of skipper seems to have placed additional responsibility on my, at times, otherwise ridiculously wild batting ( well Shashi maama bettered that ) and I found some terra firma with a few shots and placements. Its always difficult with Size Sundar pounding away , unleashing thunderbolts and baying for blood. It boiled down to 6 of the last over, to be bowled by katte.

Its a golden rule, never bowl to Muki on his legs and at full length. Vonde Shot hodyodu avnu :))But dear katte did just that. A flick was whiplashed for 2 with such elan and power and it even beat the slush on its way to the fence ! 4 remaining.. Katte thundered in, again straight and just short of good length, but there was enough width in the delivery to swing my arms and instinctively drive it straight and uppish.. The yellow cherry crashed into the hoarding,take 4 mates !! Game over, we are one up !! Sabash captain.. !!

Size Sundar can't stomach defeat easily and must win at all costs to keep the series alive. We were batting first and he let loose a string of cannon balls that just thudded into the keeper's hands in next to zero seconds. The moment of the innings though was Gunda's counter attack.Sent to open the innings, he picked upon Sundar and hit some astonishing strokes, one so hard and fast, that it beat a bewildered Raghu on the mid off boundary line, whose reflexes havent been the greatest anyway. Fast N Furious being met with equal pomp, waah ! To rub salt into the wounds, another thunderbolt frm Sundru was crashed to the cover fence by me, and the genial giant he can be, Sundar came up and shook hands for the shot ! We set a target of 26 and the match was all over in the 4th over, when on a master ploy, I bought back Gunda and he bowled a peach of a delivery to have VRB caught behind...Sooper! Series wrapped up 2 -0.

Hmm, and what can one say about the madcap Shashi Afridi ?? Sent to open the innings in all the matches and told to play for singles in no uncertain terms, he wallops the first ball he faced in both the innings into the school with no rhyme or reason.. Booming shots.. Then has the gall to come up and say "Mukku, if it had gone for 4, I would have hit 2 more man " !!

Sigh, how do you catch and pin a cloud in the sky :)

Now we know how Inzamam feels when he talks to Afridi and gives him instructions on how to bat and he does everything but that !