Its 5.10 am this morning and the Mission Impossible ringtone on my cell phone goes full blast. I have one of those "Earthquake Happenned" type awakenings, as I jump out of bed. I find the cell phone quickly and it says "Unknown" on the caller id. Ramya who is still trying to come to terms with my explosive jump tells me it must be from India.
Groggily, I say "Hello!".
Guess who's calling? Its my dad!!
He's like "What are you doing still sleeping? It is India v/s Pakistan cricket match finals. Aren't you watching it?"
I say "Nope dad ... no live relay anywhere!"
He says, sorta sad for me, "Oh! Sorry I woke you up"
I say "Its ok dad ... Thanks for calling anyways"
I tried sleeping, but couldn't! I was super curious about the match now. I tried refreshing the score once or twice on my cell phone, while still sleeping. The match was just too exciting for me to sleep.
I jumped out of bed and started following the game excitedly on cricinfo. Man ... what an exciting match! India's total was pathetically low. For a game like this, something close to 200 or even 200+ would have been very safe. I felt Yuvraj and Dhoni let the team down badly by their batting. Bowling and fielding was amazing as usual, except for pathetic bowling by Sreesanth and Harbhajan. But, Sreesanth made up for his follies by taking crucial catches.
An early morning work related phone conference meeting made following the game all the more tense. Man! that's what great games are made of. I wish I could WATCH it live.
Thanks Dad for making my morning a great one! :-)
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Remembering Ganesh Festival in India
An old writeup of mine ... posting it to coincide with this year's festival
On the previous evening of Ganesh Festival of 2001, my brother-in-law told me "hey karthik, let's go to Albertson's for some groceries". I just joined him
and his dad. We drove to the place. I asked him then, "hey, how come we are shopping at Albertson's, that too with such a huge list?". His dad told, "tomorrow is Ganesh Festival". BUZZ!! Suddenly i was lost for a few minutes in the many Ganesh Festivals back home. This, is just a weak effort looking back at those wonderful days.
Hindu festivals, irrespective of the religious aspect, have always been something we looked for. Firstly, it meant a vacation day. But, beyond that was something much more special. It was the actual day. It was so very resplendent with all the beautiful colors of the new clothes people wore and the fresh flowers and fruits on sale everywhere, coupled with the hectic activity. It used to look like the colors of holi bursting everywhere. The doors in the house were decorated with mango leaves which had a strangely attractive aroma about themselves, telling you that this was a very special day.
Perhaps, the most colorful aspect was about the flowers. Truckloads of them were spread out on the pavements like a flower show, with all their wonderful colors. The interesting part was, these surprisingly fresh flowers had a very high price tag stuck to them. two days before or after the festival, you would probably get the same flowers for a fifth or maybe even a tenth of its price on the festival day. But on that day, the vendors ruled!! They'd say "75 bucks saar, take it or leave it!!" Wow! that may sound rude, but hey! they have a truckload to sell and there are people to buy those flowers. I remember negotiating for 5 or 10 bucks off this price and have a smile for myself at the nice deal I got myself. Today, i realize that i might have stolen that money from a poor man who was also planning on celebrating the festival. Anyways, I do remember though that there used to be a few nice vendors, who would voluntarily cut down the price and sell it with a nice smile, provided you bought one or two more not-so-costly items from them that you had originally planned not to buy. Among all this business, for the person with an eye for beauty, there were lots'a beautiful young ladies dressed in beautiful colors looking around for flowers like you and something more. This was like an added bonus. I caught myself today asking a friend of mine, who just came back from india, about how his flower shopping went for the festival!!!
Perhaps the most important part of the Ganesh Festival was, buying the Ganesh idol. The city used to be full of Ganesh idols of various sizes, colors and shapes. Off late Lord Ganesh has gone quite hep, playing cricket, using a computer et.al. The activity around these stalls never ceased. I always wanted to buy a huge Ganesh, don't know why though. Probably it looked good. But my mom was scared that, if during the process of transit to the house, the idol would suffer some fracture it would not be a good omen!! Transporting the idol used to be thus, always kind of a scary process. At the doorstep of the house, my mom used to then perform arathi to the idol and then we used to place the idol at the place for pooja.
Coming to the actual festival celebration. Man!! it was something really memorable. The day started with the ceremonial oil application to the body, followed by a nice soapnut headbath. There was no 'casette priest' like the present day but my father performed the pooja. it was really elaborate. my mom, used to spend most of the previous day of the festival preparing lots'a goodies most importanly the 'kadubu', which is said to be Ganesha's favorite. Of course, we were not allowed to go anywhere close to the kitchen because the food was to be first offered to God. Well, the wait would be worth it 'coz they were really tasty. The pooja used to be a real long one, my dad used to do the pooja going according to the book. What do i do? Well all those colorful flowers lying around the large quantity of turmeric and vermilion looked real attractive. I used to make a neat decoration of the flowers around the idol and later sprinkle turmeric and vermilion on it, to give it a neat look. My mom says that, when i was very real young, i was as interested but with lot more enthusiasm, which meant i ended up throwing the flowers et.al. all around the place!!! After the pooja it used to be that wonderful lunch with lots'a varieties of nice food. this obviously led to the nice holiday afternoon nap. In the evening, we used to don our new clothes which looked very colorful. We'd love to do this and be extra cheerful. We used to visit our relatives and friends to exchange good wishes for the festival. In total it used to be a very eventful day.
The next important thing used to be the immersion of the idol. Though we used to just settle for an immersion of the idol in our backyard tank, there were people who used to take the idols to nearby lakes for immersion. Man!! for nearly the next one month following the festival there used to be lots of idols being immersed with shouts of "ganapathi bappa moreya...." et.al. the festival also brought a lot of enthusiasm in the youth associations of the year, to organize major celebrations of the festival. What this usually meant was loud music well into early morning and lots'a other disturbances. We felt the ill-effects, especially during exams. of course there used to be some nice cultural programmes like dramas, concerts et.al. Sometimes high profile ministers
used to visit these places. That sounds cool, especially when you try to imagine if the governor of California would visit San Jose Ganesh Mitramandali. Lot more memories pass by, some of them much more close to heart, when all of a sudden i hear, "Sir, the raisins are in the aisle next to the frozen food section". What??? I then realize, neither is this the crowded Malleswaram market nor am I in Bangalore celebrating the festival, but in a place thousands of miles away from home. Needless to say, this year's festival was quite low key with a small pooja and a quite dinner. no new clothes, no friends or relatives house visits, no loud speaker playing one of those famous Ganesh songs.
As am typing these words, a new song starts on the CD am listening to and kishore kumar sings "koi lauta de mere beete hue din...."
P.S.: The Ganesh festival of 2007 was unlike the sadness evoked in the last few lines. This was my first one after marriage. So that was a whole another experience with Ramya cooking yummy stuff and being around the Pooja. Also, met up with lots of family and friends, some of them newly married too ... so it had its own touch of uniqueness. :-)
On the previous evening of Ganesh Festival of 2001, my brother-in-law told me "hey karthik, let's go to Albertson's for some groceries". I just joined him
and his dad. We drove to the place. I asked him then, "hey, how come we are shopping at Albertson's, that too with such a huge list?". His dad told, "tomorrow is Ganesh Festival". BUZZ!! Suddenly i was lost for a few minutes in the many Ganesh Festivals back home. This, is just a weak effort looking back at those wonderful days.
Hindu festivals, irrespective of the religious aspect, have always been something we looked for. Firstly, it meant a vacation day. But, beyond that was something much more special. It was the actual day. It was so very resplendent with all the beautiful colors of the new clothes people wore and the fresh flowers and fruits on sale everywhere, coupled with the hectic activity. It used to look like the colors of holi bursting everywhere. The doors in the house were decorated with mango leaves which had a strangely attractive aroma about themselves, telling you that this was a very special day.
Perhaps, the most colorful aspect was about the flowers. Truckloads of them were spread out on the pavements like a flower show, with all their wonderful colors. The interesting part was, these surprisingly fresh flowers had a very high price tag stuck to them. two days before or after the festival, you would probably get the same flowers for a fifth or maybe even a tenth of its price on the festival day. But on that day, the vendors ruled!! They'd say "75 bucks saar, take it or leave it!!" Wow! that may sound rude, but hey! they have a truckload to sell and there are people to buy those flowers. I remember negotiating for 5 or 10 bucks off this price and have a smile for myself at the nice deal I got myself. Today, i realize that i might have stolen that money from a poor man who was also planning on celebrating the festival. Anyways, I do remember though that there used to be a few nice vendors, who would voluntarily cut down the price and sell it with a nice smile, provided you bought one or two more not-so-costly items from them that you had originally planned not to buy. Among all this business, for the person with an eye for beauty, there were lots'a beautiful young ladies dressed in beautiful colors looking around for flowers like you and something more. This was like an added bonus. I caught myself today asking a friend of mine, who just came back from india, about how his flower shopping went for the festival!!!
Perhaps the most important part of the Ganesh Festival was, buying the Ganesh idol. The city used to be full of Ganesh idols of various sizes, colors and shapes. Off late Lord Ganesh has gone quite hep, playing cricket, using a computer et.al. The activity around these stalls never ceased. I always wanted to buy a huge Ganesh, don't know why though. Probably it looked good. But my mom was scared that, if during the process of transit to the house, the idol would suffer some fracture it would not be a good omen!! Transporting the idol used to be thus, always kind of a scary process. At the doorstep of the house, my mom used to then perform arathi to the idol and then we used to place the idol at the place for pooja.
Coming to the actual festival celebration. Man!! it was something really memorable. The day started with the ceremonial oil application to the body, followed by a nice soapnut headbath. There was no 'casette priest' like the present day but my father performed the pooja. it was really elaborate. my mom, used to spend most of the previous day of the festival preparing lots'a goodies most importanly the 'kadubu', which is said to be Ganesha's favorite. Of course, we were not allowed to go anywhere close to the kitchen because the food was to be first offered to God. Well, the wait would be worth it 'coz they were really tasty. The pooja used to be a real long one, my dad used to do the pooja going according to the book. What do i do? Well all those colorful flowers lying around the large quantity of turmeric and vermilion looked real attractive. I used to make a neat decoration of the flowers around the idol and later sprinkle turmeric and vermilion on it, to give it a neat look. My mom says that, when i was very real young, i was as interested but with lot more enthusiasm, which meant i ended up throwing the flowers et.al. all around the place!!! After the pooja it used to be that wonderful lunch with lots'a varieties of nice food. this obviously led to the nice holiday afternoon nap. In the evening, we used to don our new clothes which looked very colorful. We'd love to do this and be extra cheerful. We used to visit our relatives and friends to exchange good wishes for the festival. In total it used to be a very eventful day.
The next important thing used to be the immersion of the idol. Though we used to just settle for an immersion of the idol in our backyard tank, there were people who used to take the idols to nearby lakes for immersion. Man!! for nearly the next one month following the festival there used to be lots of idols being immersed with shouts of "ganapathi bappa moreya...." et.al. the festival also brought a lot of enthusiasm in the youth associations of the year, to organize major celebrations of the festival. What this usually meant was loud music well into early morning and lots'a other disturbances. We felt the ill-effects, especially during exams. of course there used to be some nice cultural programmes like dramas, concerts et.al. Sometimes high profile ministers
used to visit these places. That sounds cool, especially when you try to imagine if the governor of California would visit San Jose Ganesh Mitramandali. Lot more memories pass by, some of them much more close to heart, when all of a sudden i hear, "Sir, the raisins are in the aisle next to the frozen food section". What??? I then realize, neither is this the crowded Malleswaram market nor am I in Bangalore celebrating the festival, but in a place thousands of miles away from home. Needless to say, this year's festival was quite low key with a small pooja and a quite dinner. no new clothes, no friends or relatives house visits, no loud speaker playing one of those famous Ganesh songs.
As am typing these words, a new song starts on the CD am listening to and kishore kumar sings "koi lauta de mere beete hue din...."
P.S.: The Ganesh festival of 2007 was unlike the sadness evoked in the last few lines. This was my first one after marriage. So that was a whole another experience with Ramya cooking yummy stuff and being around the Pooja. Also, met up with lots of family and friends, some of them newly married too ... so it had its own touch of uniqueness. :-)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Hot Culinary spots in Bangalore
The author of this article has made a fairly decent effort at listing favorite jaunts for eating out in Bangalore. This is also about 2 years old, so may not be entirely accurate.
Read through the comments at the end of the page for some more recommendations.
What are your favorite eating outlets in Bangalore? Do share :-)
Read the article here
Read through the comments at the end of the page for some more recommendations.
What are your favorite eating outlets in Bangalore? Do share :-)
Read the article here
Monday, August 6, 2007
Canada Trip report
One of the trips we had planned for this year was the trip to Vancouver. This was planned around the stamping of my visa at the consulate over there. Also, visiting Vancouver gave us the opportunity to look around the very beautiful area, including Victoria.
The trip took enormous planning which was very well managed by Ramya. First step was getting the Canadian visitor visa. This took about a week and was mostly straightforward. Next, we got the appointment for the US consulate. Once the appointment date was fixed, we could go ahead with the trip reservations.
We planned to fly into Seattle on April 27th. Spend most of April 28th, a Saturday with friends and family, I have couple of cousins who live there. Then on April 28th night, we planned to arrive at Vancouver by road. On 29th, we planned to spend the day in Victoria. On 30th, I had my appointment and we planned to spend the rest of the day around Vancouver. On May 1st, we would spend some more time in Vancouver, before driving back to Seattle for our evening flight. My sister and brother-in-law had already visited the area and hence provided some very useful tips for our trip.
Ramya spent a lot of time planning the trip intricately well. This went a long way in making the trip an effective one. She visited multiple websites for activity guides. Then prepared a detailed plan of what needs to be done on each day, including directions and estimated costs. Pretty cool, huh?!
Day 0: Flight to Seattle
On Friday night, April 27th we left from San Francisco airport by the 9.30 pm flight. We reached Seattle by 11 PM. We picked up our rental car, a brand new Toyota Camry and drove to my friend KB's house. We got there by midnight. At that time, he was very much excited to see us and we spent a good hour talking. After a quick call home, we called it a day around 1.30 am.
Day 1: A Seattle Day
We were up by around 9.30 am after a lazy resistance to waking up ;-) KB woke up soon. Ramya and I took the time to get ready and spent sometime watching the recent Telugu hit "Bommarillu". It was a very nice watch with good laughs and a nice family plot. Siddharth and Genelia are adorable in the movie. I've been a fan of the soundtrack for a while now. At around 12 pm we headed off to meet my cousin Ravi who works in the Belmont area as well. We had planned to meet my other cousins Jayant and Praveen too. But they were busy that day.
Ravi and his wife Nirmala live close to KB's house. We drove over there and soon headed off to lunch at a nice Indo-Chinese restaurant called InChin. The food was very tasty with a generous helping of spicyness and tangy twists. After lunch, we went to a nearby lake called Lake Samamish which is very beautiful and peaceful.
After spending a few minutes there, chatting away, we drove to the Microsoft campus and looked around Ravi's office. We soon bade goodbye to Ravi and Nirmala, at around 3.30 pm and drove back to KB's house.
KB was eagerly waiting for us. The 3 of us headed off to the elegant downtown area. We had a nice time chatting away along the drive about all sundry items. We parked near the Seattle space needle tower.
We took a elevator to get to the top. It was not a very cold day, though the wind was blowing strong. We took a lot of pictures from the vista points. Inside the view point visitor area we got some coffee and some very tasty pastry which KB politely refused, lest it have an impact on his waistline ;-) We shopped a bit in the visitor center and then drove off towards KB's home.
Once we got to KB's home, KB busied himself in the kitchen!! Wah ... that's something amazing for an Indian man :-) He made Chapathis from scratch and had also prepared some very delicious palak paneer to go with it. Also, to top off the celebratory feeling, there was some delicious Shavige Payasa. He's one terrific host, I should say. Ramya was quite happy about it and gave me suggestive glances about how I should also improve my cooking skills ;-) I convinced her that us climbing Mount Everest and sleeping next to lions in Serengeti national park is a lot safer than me trying cooking!
We started off after dinner, at around 9.30 pm, to Vancouver. We were going to be driving on I-5 which, after the US-Canada border, would become CA-99. The drive was a good one, with a conference call with Vinay (driving from Delaware to Cali), Vibes and Nagi in SJ. After that, we called Ramya's home and spoke to them for a while. The Canadian immigration was a breeze and we reached our hotel in Downtown Vancouver by midnight. When we got there, the place was one festive area with 100's of people dancing and howling with pitchers of beer in hand. It was a saturday night, the most active night. Our hotel was in the Granville area, which is right in the heart of downtown and one of the most happening areas of town. We soon called it a day since we were far too tired and we had an early day the following morning.
Day 2: Following the elegant trail of Victoria
We woke up at 7 am, since we had to be at the ferry terminal soon, to catch the 9 am ferry to Victoria. The ferry terminal was a good 45 minute drive way. We reached the ferry terminal by 8.20 am and had sufficient time to catch breakfast. There was, not surprisingly, a very good food court. We had delicious crepes for breakfast and eagerly awaited the departure of ferry. The ferry departed promptly at 9 am. It was a great day and we spent a significant part of the journey hanging out at the deck, taking pictures and enjoying the nice view.
The ferry docked at Victoria by 10.45 am. Our car, which was on the ship, got off soon and we drove off to Butchart Gardens which was a 30 minute drive. The drive was good, along lush green meadows. Butchart gardens itself turned out to be a treat from the word go. It was not too busy. The parking lot is decorated with flags of countries around the world, including India :)
The garden has a suggested sequence of visiting the smaller sub sections. We decided to do something smart. We decided to go in the direction opposite to the one suggested, because the entrance was crowded. It helped us because, we could get through the garden faster than the other way. We entered on the Italian garden which was full of flowers around ponds and fountains. The colors were various shades of blue, red, purple, yellow and what not. Just too cool. A gentleman was very happy to take our pictures against different backgrounds, which he suggested!
From the Italian garden, we went to the Japanese garden which was developed in Japanese style by Mrs. Butchart with the help of gardeners brought from Japan! The Japanese garden style with the wooden pipes, seen in the climax of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and small waterfalls and ponds was very beautiful to look at. The peony and white cherry blossom like flowers were good to see. Even the entrance to the Japanese garden was the traditional Torii.
From the Japanese garden we stopped at the Sturgeon fountain which is in the shape of 3 fish jumping and a fountain bursting out. A few tourists were happy to take our pictures. Here, in the absence of a tripod, I managed to balance my camera on a thin looking pole and took a timed shot of both of us. The camera was placed very precariously and could have easily fallen off!
Our next stop was the rose garden which, unfortunately, was totally empty because it was not rose season at that time of the year. However, the view of the entire garden was spectacular, including the residence of the Butcharts. From there, we walked to the totem pole area and took a few pics. From the totem pole area, we walked to view a beautiful synchronized fountain which looked beautiful with flowers in the foreground.
We then walked through the main garden area. It was already nearing 1 pm and I was getting tired. How much flowers can one see? ;-) But this didn't have an impact on Ramya who was happily clicking away. The main area was just beautiful with lot more different types of flowers all placed delicately well in areas such as ponds, small hillocks et.al.
We were out of the garden at around 1 pm. We stopped by the cafe to get an ice cream and a cool soda. We shopped a bit at the gift store and then drove off for dinner in the Victoria downtown. The Victoria downtown is very beautiful with old buildings and a marina. There is the natural history musuem, the parliament building and the empress hotel.
We had a sumptuous meal at the Grand Pacific hotel. After lunch, we strolled around the marina and the nearby totem pole garden. The totems were very cool and we had a lot of fun making faces to match the faces of the totems ;-)
Then we shopped a bit in the Natural history museum, after looking around some more totems which had rich stories to tell about the history of the Indian tradition. We wanted to take a quick look around the musuem but it was far too expensive to get in and we didn't have enough time to justify the cost of the entrance tickets.
We decided to do some more shopping in the area and on our way to the shopping area, we stumbled upon the Miniature World musuem which we had planned to see later. But it turned out that it was going to close at 5 pm and it was already 4.45 pm! We thought it would be open till 8 pm (which was going to be the timings from the following week). We were disappointed at not being able to see the musuem. We shopped around a bit and then decided to head to the empress hotel for some high tea, which was also on our plan. On the way to the empress hotel, we sat in front of the hotel and enjoyed the nice view of the marina and chatted up for a while. We went to the empress hotel by 5.30 pm, only to discover that high tea service had stopped at 5 pm!! *aargh* That was two disappointments in one evening.
We spent the rest of the time looking around the area and stopped by a Tibetan-Nepali restaurant called the mint where we got some delicious food to go. The momos were mouth watering and got emptied in seconds, while we were waiting for our ferry! Our ferry departed from Victoria at 8 pm and we reached Vancouver by 9.30 pm. We ate the delicious mix of Tibetan, Nepali and Thai food and called it a night after calling home to update everyone. I had a super early start the following morning.
Day 3: Exploring the beautiful Vancouver
On this morning, I had my consulate appointment at 8 am. In trembling anticipation of the moment, I had set 10 alarms from 4 am to 5.45 am, lest I shouldn't wake up!! I was up and ready by 6.30 am. Ramya drove me to the consulate by 7 am. We had a cup of coffee at the Starbucks and then she left. I had a reasonably simple Visa appointment and was out by 9.30 am. Since Ramya had told me that she'll come only at 10 am, I had to find a phone booth to ask her to come sooner. This gave me the perfect opportunity to walk around the beautiful downtown area.
Ramya soon joined me for breakfast at a nice restaurant where he had the standard egg and bread breakfast. After breakfast, we returned to our room, where I changed and left all my documents. We had a long fun day ahead. Our first stop was going to be the beautiful Stanley park area. We got there by 11 am. Stanley park is a huge park next to water/marina area.
The area can be either driven around or walked around or one can cycle around the park. We got a park map and started driving around the park. One interesting stop was at a Totem pole park where we spent quite a bit of time learning about totempoles. The natives worshipped nature and all her forms via Totem poles. Aquatic creatures, reptiles, wild animals et.al. were represented in these statues and worshipped for their power.
From Stanley park, we drove to Capillano suspension bridge at around 12.30pm. There is a nice park in the area and we spent time exploring the park and took pictures. Then we walked on the bridge itself. It was wobbling a lot. Ramya had a hard time walking and not feeling dizzy.
She was quite concerned about the stability of the bridge. We soon got over our jitters when halfway through somebody requested us to take their pictures. By the time they took our pictures and we took their pictures, we had gotten used to the wobbly nature of the bridge. The other side of the bridge was a thick patch of green trees. We spent time walking around and taking pictures, including some funny ones ;-)
Our next stop was Grouse mountain. We drove there by 2.30 pm, only to be disappointed by the very expensive tram ride. We did not take the tram ride, instead took a couple of pictures in the area and left after having coffee. We headed back to our hotel room to rest for some time. We slept from 4 pm till about 6 pm. On our return to the room, Ramya spent some time researching about local hotels offering high tea. To our delight, we found that there were a couple of places locally!
At 6 pm, we decided to explore the "historic" Gaslight area. The area gets its name because of an old steam operated clock which was quite interesting to see.
Unfortunately, that was about the only interesting thing we saw in the area. We walked around the deserted downtown area, which was deserted because it was a Monday! We took some pictures along the historic buildings of the area. We made a right turn in our walk, which unwittingly put us into a very shady street of the area which was full of homeless people. Though everyone was keeping to themselves, it was still quite a scary walk for us and we wanted to get our of there ASAP. We then ended up a riverside restaurant and had a quick snack. Some of the guests at the restaurant, suggested livelier places to checkout.
We headed then in the direction of the consulate and it was more alive with lots of people and major nightlife. But, I guess the day had been long and tiring so we got pizza next door to our hotel and called it a night. We settled in our hotel room watching a rehashed version of all the classic fairy tales called "Happily never after" which was decent fun. Watching the movie made us hungry again. So, we headed to the downstairs bar called "Wings" to get some Thai food. After dinner, we completed the movie and slept off.
Day 4: Wandering the last few alleys of Vancouver
We woke up at around 8.30 am and checked out of our room. We planned to pick up our visa by 3.30 pm and drive to Seattle, to catch the 7 pm flight to San Jose. From our hotel, we drove to Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Classical Chinese garden. The place was a real treat for its elegant design following ancient chinese architeture, that inspires one to get involved in spirituality, philosophy and other such intellectual perspectives. We stayed there till about 12 pm and shopped at the visitor center where Ramya bought some gifts for my sister and her cousin.
We then headed to a new age Chinese restaurant called the "Wild Rice" where the decor and the presentation of food was very elegant and distinct from what we usually have. The food was very tasty and spicy. A sumptuous meal, i may say. It was almost 2 pm when we left the place.
We then wanted to go the high tea place but parking was turning to be a problem with street closures, one way streets and all the busy traffic. It turned out that we were likely to get delayed by High Tea. Ramya let go of this dream of hers ... I have an open promise to take her to the best High Tea place there is :-)
We picked up our visa by 3.30 pm. We also realized then that we'll likely miss our flight. So, Ramya printed the boarding passes at a nearby computer center, so that we get a seat on the next flight. We started the drive back at around 3.45 pm. By 4.30 pm, we were at the border, where I had to stop because I had a new stamp. It took a good 45 minutes for the whole port of entry procedure. But the officer at the post did a thorough job of the entry including giving me a printed I-94 card for a princely sum of $6!!
We continued our drive on and reached Seattle only by 7 pm, by when our flight had left!! We nevertheless, got a seat on the next flight to San Jose which was scheduled to leave at 8.45 pm. This worked out better because our other flight was scheduled to arrive at SFO. We had to check in all our bags, including our carry on bag because it had some items left in it, which were not allowable under travel restrictions. So, Ramya and I had the opportunity of living a fulfilled dream of travelling with no bags to carry around ;-)
We spent time till 8.45 pm chatting up and grabbing something to eat. We arrived at 10 pm in San Jose to be picked up by my BIL. We headed straight to their place for dinner and then called it a night.
Thank you for reading this report :-) I hope you enjoyed it.
The trip took enormous planning which was very well managed by Ramya. First step was getting the Canadian visitor visa. This took about a week and was mostly straightforward. Next, we got the appointment for the US consulate. Once the appointment date was fixed, we could go ahead with the trip reservations.
We planned to fly into Seattle on April 27th. Spend most of April 28th, a Saturday with friends and family, I have couple of cousins who live there. Then on April 28th night, we planned to arrive at Vancouver by road. On 29th, we planned to spend the day in Victoria. On 30th, I had my appointment and we planned to spend the rest of the day around Vancouver. On May 1st, we would spend some more time in Vancouver, before driving back to Seattle for our evening flight. My sister and brother-in-law had already visited the area and hence provided some very useful tips for our trip.
Ramya spent a lot of time planning the trip intricately well. This went a long way in making the trip an effective one. She visited multiple websites for activity guides. Then prepared a detailed plan of what needs to be done on each day, including directions and estimated costs. Pretty cool, huh?!
Day 0: Flight to Seattle
On Friday night, April 27th we left from San Francisco airport by the 9.30 pm flight. We reached Seattle by 11 PM. We picked up our rental car, a brand new Toyota Camry and drove to my friend KB's house. We got there by midnight. At that time, he was very much excited to see us and we spent a good hour talking. After a quick call home, we called it a day around 1.30 am.
Day 1: A Seattle Day
We were up by around 9.30 am after a lazy resistance to waking up ;-) KB woke up soon. Ramya and I took the time to get ready and spent sometime watching the recent Telugu hit "Bommarillu". It was a very nice watch with good laughs and a nice family plot. Siddharth and Genelia are adorable in the movie. I've been a fan of the soundtrack for a while now. At around 12 pm we headed off to meet my cousin Ravi who works in the Belmont area as well. We had planned to meet my other cousins Jayant and Praveen too. But they were busy that day.
Ravi and his wife Nirmala live close to KB's house. We drove over there and soon headed off to lunch at a nice Indo-Chinese restaurant called InChin. The food was very tasty with a generous helping of spicyness and tangy twists. After lunch, we went to a nearby lake called Lake Samamish which is very beautiful and peaceful.
After spending a few minutes there, chatting away, we drove to the Microsoft campus and looked around Ravi's office. We soon bade goodbye to Ravi and Nirmala, at around 3.30 pm and drove back to KB's house.
KB was eagerly waiting for us. The 3 of us headed off to the elegant downtown area. We had a nice time chatting away along the drive about all sundry items. We parked near the Seattle space needle tower.
We took a elevator to get to the top. It was not a very cold day, though the wind was blowing strong. We took a lot of pictures from the vista points. Inside the view point visitor area we got some coffee and some very tasty pastry which KB politely refused, lest it have an impact on his waistline ;-) We shopped a bit in the visitor center and then drove off towards KB's home.
Once we got to KB's home, KB busied himself in the kitchen!! Wah ... that's something amazing for an Indian man :-) He made Chapathis from scratch and had also prepared some very delicious palak paneer to go with it. Also, to top off the celebratory feeling, there was some delicious Shavige Payasa. He's one terrific host, I should say. Ramya was quite happy about it and gave me suggestive glances about how I should also improve my cooking skills ;-) I convinced her that us climbing Mount Everest and sleeping next to lions in Serengeti national park is a lot safer than me trying cooking!
We started off after dinner, at around 9.30 pm, to Vancouver. We were going to be driving on I-5 which, after the US-Canada border, would become CA-99. The drive was a good one, with a conference call with Vinay (driving from Delaware to Cali), Vibes and Nagi in SJ. After that, we called Ramya's home and spoke to them for a while. The Canadian immigration was a breeze and we reached our hotel in Downtown Vancouver by midnight. When we got there, the place was one festive area with 100's of people dancing and howling with pitchers of beer in hand. It was a saturday night, the most active night. Our hotel was in the Granville area, which is right in the heart of downtown and one of the most happening areas of town. We soon called it a day since we were far too tired and we had an early day the following morning.
Day 2: Following the elegant trail of Victoria
We woke up at 7 am, since we had to be at the ferry terminal soon, to catch the 9 am ferry to Victoria. The ferry terminal was a good 45 minute drive way. We reached the ferry terminal by 8.20 am and had sufficient time to catch breakfast. There was, not surprisingly, a very good food court. We had delicious crepes for breakfast and eagerly awaited the departure of ferry. The ferry departed promptly at 9 am. It was a great day and we spent a significant part of the journey hanging out at the deck, taking pictures and enjoying the nice view.
The ferry docked at Victoria by 10.45 am. Our car, which was on the ship, got off soon and we drove off to Butchart Gardens which was a 30 minute drive. The drive was good, along lush green meadows. Butchart gardens itself turned out to be a treat from the word go. It was not too busy. The parking lot is decorated with flags of countries around the world, including India :)
The garden has a suggested sequence of visiting the smaller sub sections. We decided to do something smart. We decided to go in the direction opposite to the one suggested, because the entrance was crowded. It helped us because, we could get through the garden faster than the other way. We entered on the Italian garden which was full of flowers around ponds and fountains. The colors were various shades of blue, red, purple, yellow and what not. Just too cool. A gentleman was very happy to take our pictures against different backgrounds, which he suggested!
From the Italian garden, we went to the Japanese garden which was developed in Japanese style by Mrs. Butchart with the help of gardeners brought from Japan! The Japanese garden style with the wooden pipes, seen in the climax of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and small waterfalls and ponds was very beautiful to look at. The peony and white cherry blossom like flowers were good to see. Even the entrance to the Japanese garden was the traditional Torii.
From the Japanese garden we stopped at the Sturgeon fountain which is in the shape of 3 fish jumping and a fountain bursting out. A few tourists were happy to take our pictures. Here, in the absence of a tripod, I managed to balance my camera on a thin looking pole and took a timed shot of both of us. The camera was placed very precariously and could have easily fallen off!
Our next stop was the rose garden which, unfortunately, was totally empty because it was not rose season at that time of the year. However, the view of the entire garden was spectacular, including the residence of the Butcharts. From there, we walked to the totem pole area and took a few pics. From the totem pole area, we walked to view a beautiful synchronized fountain which looked beautiful with flowers in the foreground.
We then walked through the main garden area. It was already nearing 1 pm and I was getting tired. How much flowers can one see? ;-) But this didn't have an impact on Ramya who was happily clicking away. The main area was just beautiful with lot more different types of flowers all placed delicately well in areas such as ponds, small hillocks et.al.
We were out of the garden at around 1 pm. We stopped by the cafe to get an ice cream and a cool soda. We shopped a bit at the gift store and then drove off for dinner in the Victoria downtown. The Victoria downtown is very beautiful with old buildings and a marina. There is the natural history musuem, the parliament building and the empress hotel.
We had a sumptuous meal at the Grand Pacific hotel. After lunch, we strolled around the marina and the nearby totem pole garden. The totems were very cool and we had a lot of fun making faces to match the faces of the totems ;-)
Then we shopped a bit in the Natural history museum, after looking around some more totems which had rich stories to tell about the history of the Indian tradition. We wanted to take a quick look around the musuem but it was far too expensive to get in and we didn't have enough time to justify the cost of the entrance tickets.
We decided to do some more shopping in the area and on our way to the shopping area, we stumbled upon the Miniature World musuem which we had planned to see later. But it turned out that it was going to close at 5 pm and it was already 4.45 pm! We thought it would be open till 8 pm (which was going to be the timings from the following week). We were disappointed at not being able to see the musuem. We shopped around a bit and then decided to head to the empress hotel for some high tea, which was also on our plan. On the way to the empress hotel, we sat in front of the hotel and enjoyed the nice view of the marina and chatted up for a while. We went to the empress hotel by 5.30 pm, only to discover that high tea service had stopped at 5 pm!! *aargh* That was two disappointments in one evening.
We spent the rest of the time looking around the area and stopped by a Tibetan-Nepali restaurant called the mint where we got some delicious food to go. The momos were mouth watering and got emptied in seconds, while we were waiting for our ferry! Our ferry departed from Victoria at 8 pm and we reached Vancouver by 9.30 pm. We ate the delicious mix of Tibetan, Nepali and Thai food and called it a night after calling home to update everyone. I had a super early start the following morning.
Day 3: Exploring the beautiful Vancouver
On this morning, I had my consulate appointment at 8 am. In trembling anticipation of the moment, I had set 10 alarms from 4 am to 5.45 am, lest I shouldn't wake up!! I was up and ready by 6.30 am. Ramya drove me to the consulate by 7 am. We had a cup of coffee at the Starbucks and then she left. I had a reasonably simple Visa appointment and was out by 9.30 am. Since Ramya had told me that she'll come only at 10 am, I had to find a phone booth to ask her to come sooner. This gave me the perfect opportunity to walk around the beautiful downtown area.
Ramya soon joined me for breakfast at a nice restaurant where he had the standard egg and bread breakfast. After breakfast, we returned to our room, where I changed and left all my documents. We had a long fun day ahead. Our first stop was going to be the beautiful Stanley park area. We got there by 11 am. Stanley park is a huge park next to water/marina area.
The area can be either driven around or walked around or one can cycle around the park. We got a park map and started driving around the park. One interesting stop was at a Totem pole park where we spent quite a bit of time learning about totempoles. The natives worshipped nature and all her forms via Totem poles. Aquatic creatures, reptiles, wild animals et.al. were represented in these statues and worshipped for their power.
From Stanley park, we drove to Capillano suspension bridge at around 12.30pm. There is a nice park in the area and we spent time exploring the park and took pictures. Then we walked on the bridge itself. It was wobbling a lot. Ramya had a hard time walking and not feeling dizzy.
She was quite concerned about the stability of the bridge. We soon got over our jitters when halfway through somebody requested us to take their pictures. By the time they took our pictures and we took their pictures, we had gotten used to the wobbly nature of the bridge. The other side of the bridge was a thick patch of green trees. We spent time walking around and taking pictures, including some funny ones ;-)Our next stop was Grouse mountain. We drove there by 2.30 pm, only to be disappointed by the very expensive tram ride. We did not take the tram ride, instead took a couple of pictures in the area and left after having coffee. We headed back to our hotel room to rest for some time. We slept from 4 pm till about 6 pm. On our return to the room, Ramya spent some time researching about local hotels offering high tea. To our delight, we found that there were a couple of places locally!
At 6 pm, we decided to explore the "historic" Gaslight area. The area gets its name because of an old steam operated clock which was quite interesting to see.
Unfortunately, that was about the only interesting thing we saw in the area. We walked around the deserted downtown area, which was deserted because it was a Monday! We took some pictures along the historic buildings of the area. We made a right turn in our walk, which unwittingly put us into a very shady street of the area which was full of homeless people. Though everyone was keeping to themselves, it was still quite a scary walk for us and we wanted to get our of there ASAP. We then ended up a riverside restaurant and had a quick snack. Some of the guests at the restaurant, suggested livelier places to checkout.We headed then in the direction of the consulate and it was more alive with lots of people and major nightlife. But, I guess the day had been long and tiring so we got pizza next door to our hotel and called it a night. We settled in our hotel room watching a rehashed version of all the classic fairy tales called "Happily never after" which was decent fun. Watching the movie made us hungry again. So, we headed to the downstairs bar called "Wings" to get some Thai food. After dinner, we completed the movie and slept off.
Day 4: Wandering the last few alleys of Vancouver
We woke up at around 8.30 am and checked out of our room. We planned to pick up our visa by 3.30 pm and drive to Seattle, to catch the 7 pm flight to San Jose. From our hotel, we drove to Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Classical Chinese garden. The place was a real treat for its elegant design following ancient chinese architeture, that inspires one to get involved in spirituality, philosophy and other such intellectual perspectives. We stayed there till about 12 pm and shopped at the visitor center where Ramya bought some gifts for my sister and her cousin.
We then headed to a new age Chinese restaurant called the "Wild Rice" where the decor and the presentation of food was very elegant and distinct from what we usually have. The food was very tasty and spicy. A sumptuous meal, i may say. It was almost 2 pm when we left the place.
We then wanted to go the high tea place but parking was turning to be a problem with street closures, one way streets and all the busy traffic. It turned out that we were likely to get delayed by High Tea. Ramya let go of this dream of hers ... I have an open promise to take her to the best High Tea place there is :-)
We picked up our visa by 3.30 pm. We also realized then that we'll likely miss our flight. So, Ramya printed the boarding passes at a nearby computer center, so that we get a seat on the next flight. We started the drive back at around 3.45 pm. By 4.30 pm, we were at the border, where I had to stop because I had a new stamp. It took a good 45 minutes for the whole port of entry procedure. But the officer at the post did a thorough job of the entry including giving me a printed I-94 card for a princely sum of $6!!
We continued our drive on and reached Seattle only by 7 pm, by when our flight had left!! We nevertheless, got a seat on the next flight to San Jose which was scheduled to leave at 8.45 pm. This worked out better because our other flight was scheduled to arrive at SFO. We had to check in all our bags, including our carry on bag because it had some items left in it, which were not allowable under travel restrictions. So, Ramya and I had the opportunity of living a fulfilled dream of travelling with no bags to carry around ;-)
We spent time till 8.45 pm chatting up and grabbing something to eat. We arrived at 10 pm in San Jose to be picked up by my BIL. We headed straight to their place for dinner and then called it a night.
Thank you for reading this report :-) I hope you enjoyed it.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
The first lunch
The first lunch ... a wonderful one
There was something different outright in the lunch Ramya cooked this afternoon (10/25/2006). It was 'good' food. Nevertheless, it dawned on me, shortly, that this was unlike any lunch I had. My food is almost always about how salty and spicy it is. This was not about that. This was about the completeness of everything that's part of the lunch. I had to, but, notice how well the Pudina and the beans were a major part of the Pulao. How tender the rice was. These are details I always miss. How can I satisfactorily appreciate this, in words?
Somewhere along the way, the best part of the lunch revealed itself. It was the spice itself, which proved elusive at the beginning. The spice was so delicately present all over that, it baffled me how I missed it in the first place!
If the food was so well made, how good must the person who cooked it be? Underneath the excitement of cooking that "first lunch", there was a subtle calmness which showed as the graceful way the vegetables were cut or the way everything came together. How, there was no trace that something was ever being prepared, to be cooked. The place was exactly the way it started out as. Really confirms for me that, the food we eat is a reflection of the person who made it. Now I know was 'different', was the experience of eating food prepared with love and care.
There was something different outright in the lunch Ramya cooked this afternoon (10/25/2006). It was 'good' food. Nevertheless, it dawned on me, shortly, that this was unlike any lunch I had. My food is almost always about how salty and spicy it is. This was not about that. This was about the completeness of everything that's part of the lunch. I had to, but, notice how well the Pudina and the beans were a major part of the Pulao. How tender the rice was. These are details I always miss. How can I satisfactorily appreciate this, in words?
Somewhere along the way, the best part of the lunch revealed itself. It was the spice itself, which proved elusive at the beginning. The spice was so delicately present all over that, it baffled me how I missed it in the first place!
If the food was so well made, how good must the person who cooked it be? Underneath the excitement of cooking that "first lunch", there was a subtle calmness which showed as the graceful way the vegetables were cut or the way everything came together. How, there was no trace that something was ever being prepared, to be cooked. The place was exactly the way it started out as. Really confirms for me that, the food we eat is a reflection of the person who made it. Now I know was 'different', was the experience of eating food prepared with love and care.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
My favorite actors and why they are my favorites
An old writeup ... resurfaces ...
My interest in watching movies has kinda skyrocketed recently. In record time, we completed watching all
those "Annowru" movies from India. Also, thanks to netflix I've been watching some awesome "foreign"
movies recently. So, I was just takin' a walk thinkin' about all these movies and somehow the thought
process shifted to my favorite actors. A list (fairly long one?) popped up almost immediately ... here
they go ... for lack of a better order, sorted by alphabetical last name.
Amitabh Bachchan
Johnny Depp
Robert Di Nero
Clint Eastwood
Toshiro Mifune (A recent discovery thanks to Japanese
movies)
Al Pacino
Dr. Rajkumar
Of course, the question that next popped was why were these my favorite actors among the 100's of movies
I watched of various actors? Simply because these are actors who bring a humanity to these roles. All of them are more often than not underdogs who've been cheated out of something they really love. However, they never really take that lying down. They revolt against that system that deceived them and seek revenge with anger that is colored in various hues of either anger itself or kindness or forgiveness. In the end, almost always everything ends well. Even if they do get killed at the end of the movie, their death would bring with it a better future for all concerned. But, the one interesting thing I discovered that I love the most
in all these characters is their love for humanity, which (probably except for Dr. Rajkumar) gets expressed in a very subtle way, especially with Clint Eastwood being the most subtle. They also tend to be super possessive about the people they love. One last thing is their amazing comic presence, sometimes it is super dry and black and sometimes it just makes you jump up and down and roll in your seat laughing.
I wouldn't want to leave this article high and dry without mentioning my favorite movies of each of these actors. Lets start in the reverse order of the above.
Dr. Rajkumar
Loved his roles in Haalu Jenu, Kaamana Billu, Bhagyadha Lakshmi Baaramma, Guri and Kasturi Nivasa.
All, just for his pure, unabashed expression of love for humanity -- which, of course some critics may
call overly emotional. Of course, he's also a very romantic guy ... the smile and the swing of his eyes
would make any of his heroines swoon. Also, he's got this sense of humor in these movies, which can just
make you laugh like crazy if you don't think too much about it.
Al Pacino
Ah! the firebrand. The favorites are Scent of a woman, Godfather II and Scarface. The guy's terminally pissed off and he still never loses that presence in the midst of being pissed off. Who can ever forget the scene where he shoots his newly married sister in Scarface or slaps his wife in Godfather II. However, his comic timing was perfect in Scent of a woman, though as usual laced with language that would make a sailor's face turn red.
Toshiro Mifune
A brand new favorite from Japanese movies. Probably unknown outside of the Japanese world. He's a
master of expressing anger as itself. Someone who just doesn't hide that he's been hurt, as he does in
Seven Samurai or Hidden Fortress. But at the same time, he shows that unabashed affection for his people
and doesn't back off from helping them in their moment of need, as seen in "The Red Beard".
Clint Eastwood
The quietest of 'em all, never seen him raise his voice in a movie and so incredibly cold all the time. Be it the early Fistful dollars or Few Dollars more or the more recent In the line of fire or Bridges of Madison County. If there's anyone hurt in a movie, its this guy -- super hurt. But, he never talks about it. All he wants is revenge, cold and clinical. Even a romantic movie like the Bridges of Madison County, leaves you with the coldness of this guy at the end of it. But, for all this that he brings to his movies, he also brings that subtlest love for humanity, where the innocent person gets to be saved. Justice is delivered.
Robert Di Nero
Again one of those cold, smiling, pissed off guys and very unforgiving. Once he knows something's
right, you can't pull him away from heading that way. Be it the revolutionary cabbie in Taxi Driver or
the possessive unloved boxer in Raging Bull or the cold don in Godfather II or the hired hand in Ronin
-- he's there to chill! But, if you see the human being underneath the chilling guy, he's really endearing. The love for the people he's looking out for is thrown at the audience, as a product of the crazy action that he just took. He doesn't talk about the love, he puts the love into action.
Johnny Depp
The queerest guy of the group - none of his movies resemble the previous one he made. In one he's
funny while in the other he's serious. In one he's a wonderful friend while in the other he's a psycho. But undiscovered in every movie is a skill he never showed earlier -- the comic timing of Pirates of Carribean or the chilling seriousness of Ninth Gate or the love for people in Finding Neverland/ Edward Scissorhands/ What's eating Gilbert Grape. The qualities I mentioned as common to all actors, may not be present together in one movie, but Johnny Depp as the actor brings together all these qualities and that is something so special about him.
Amitabh Bachchan
Though it was not my intention to place his review last, I guess he's the one actor I've had the longest phase of admiration in my life - more than 15 years in the making! Gosh! he's such a multi-faceted guy. On the top, he's pissed off -- eternally pissed off -- started out as angry young man, is now the angry old man, the anger only amplified by that deep baritone voice. But every so often, the anger gives way to love for people or "roll on the floor" comedy or tears that are so genuine that they'll trigger the same in your eyes. Of course for all the stuff I love about him, I hate it when he dances or is in a super emotional romantic scene with his heroine, the guy just freezes. But, then again, he later makes up for it in the movie. Favorites include the comedy of Namak Halaal/Yaarana/Satte Pe Satta, the super serious Zanjeer/Deewar/Black/Muqqadar ka Sikander/Agneepath or the have it all Hum/Shahenshah/Sharaabi.
I guess eventhough I've seen so few movies of these actors, I guess their roles are so powerful that they tell the stories of their life - a trait so rare in the rest of 'em.
My interest in watching movies has kinda skyrocketed recently. In record time, we completed watching all
those "Annowru" movies from India. Also, thanks to netflix I've been watching some awesome "foreign"
movies recently. So, I was just takin' a walk thinkin' about all these movies and somehow the thought
process shifted to my favorite actors. A list (fairly long one?) popped up almost immediately ... here
they go ... for lack of a better order, sorted by alphabetical last name.
Amitabh Bachchan
Johnny Depp
Robert Di Nero
Clint Eastwood
Toshiro Mifune (A recent discovery thanks to Japanese
movies)
Al Pacino
Dr. Rajkumar
Of course, the question that next popped was why were these my favorite actors among the 100's of movies
I watched of various actors? Simply because these are actors who bring a humanity to these roles. All of them are more often than not underdogs who've been cheated out of something they really love. However, they never really take that lying down. They revolt against that system that deceived them and seek revenge with anger that is colored in various hues of either anger itself or kindness or forgiveness. In the end, almost always everything ends well. Even if they do get killed at the end of the movie, their death would bring with it a better future for all concerned. But, the one interesting thing I discovered that I love the most
in all these characters is their love for humanity, which (probably except for Dr. Rajkumar) gets expressed in a very subtle way, especially with Clint Eastwood being the most subtle. They also tend to be super possessive about the people they love. One last thing is their amazing comic presence, sometimes it is super dry and black and sometimes it just makes you jump up and down and roll in your seat laughing.
I wouldn't want to leave this article high and dry without mentioning my favorite movies of each of these actors. Lets start in the reverse order of the above.
Dr. Rajkumar
Loved his roles in Haalu Jenu, Kaamana Billu, Bhagyadha Lakshmi Baaramma, Guri and Kasturi Nivasa.
All, just for his pure, unabashed expression of love for humanity -- which, of course some critics may
call overly emotional. Of course, he's also a very romantic guy ... the smile and the swing of his eyes
would make any of his heroines swoon. Also, he's got this sense of humor in these movies, which can just
make you laugh like crazy if you don't think too much about it.
Al Pacino
Ah! the firebrand. The favorites are Scent of a woman, Godfather II and Scarface. The guy's terminally pissed off and he still never loses that presence in the midst of being pissed off. Who can ever forget the scene where he shoots his newly married sister in Scarface or slaps his wife in Godfather II. However, his comic timing was perfect in Scent of a woman, though as usual laced with language that would make a sailor's face turn red.
Toshiro Mifune
A brand new favorite from Japanese movies. Probably unknown outside of the Japanese world. He's a
master of expressing anger as itself. Someone who just doesn't hide that he's been hurt, as he does in
Seven Samurai or Hidden Fortress. But at the same time, he shows that unabashed affection for his people
and doesn't back off from helping them in their moment of need, as seen in "The Red Beard".
Clint Eastwood
The quietest of 'em all, never seen him raise his voice in a movie and so incredibly cold all the time. Be it the early Fistful dollars or Few Dollars more or the more recent In the line of fire or Bridges of Madison County. If there's anyone hurt in a movie, its this guy -- super hurt. But, he never talks about it. All he wants is revenge, cold and clinical. Even a romantic movie like the Bridges of Madison County, leaves you with the coldness of this guy at the end of it. But, for all this that he brings to his movies, he also brings that subtlest love for humanity, where the innocent person gets to be saved. Justice is delivered.
Robert Di Nero
Again one of those cold, smiling, pissed off guys and very unforgiving. Once he knows something's
right, you can't pull him away from heading that way. Be it the revolutionary cabbie in Taxi Driver or
the possessive unloved boxer in Raging Bull or the cold don in Godfather II or the hired hand in Ronin
-- he's there to chill! But, if you see the human being underneath the chilling guy, he's really endearing. The love for the people he's looking out for is thrown at the audience, as a product of the crazy action that he just took. He doesn't talk about the love, he puts the love into action.
Johnny Depp
The queerest guy of the group - none of his movies resemble the previous one he made. In one he's
funny while in the other he's serious. In one he's a wonderful friend while in the other he's a psycho. But undiscovered in every movie is a skill he never showed earlier -- the comic timing of Pirates of Carribean or the chilling seriousness of Ninth Gate or the love for people in Finding Neverland/ Edward Scissorhands/ What's eating Gilbert Grape. The qualities I mentioned as common to all actors, may not be present together in one movie, but Johnny Depp as the actor brings together all these qualities and that is something so special about him.
Amitabh Bachchan
Though it was not my intention to place his review last, I guess he's the one actor I've had the longest phase of admiration in my life - more than 15 years in the making! Gosh! he's such a multi-faceted guy. On the top, he's pissed off -- eternally pissed off -- started out as angry young man, is now the angry old man, the anger only amplified by that deep baritone voice. But every so often, the anger gives way to love for people or "roll on the floor" comedy or tears that are so genuine that they'll trigger the same in your eyes. Of course for all the stuff I love about him, I hate it when he dances or is in a super emotional romantic scene with his heroine, the guy just freezes. But, then again, he later makes up for it in the movie. Favorites include the comedy of Namak Halaal/Yaarana/Satte Pe Satta, the super serious Zanjeer/Deewar/Black/Muqqadar ka Sikander/Agneepath or the have it all Hum/Shahenshah/Sharaabi.
I guess eventhough I've seen so few movies of these actors, I guess their roles are so powerful that they tell the stories of their life - a trait so rare in the rest of 'em.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
"A lot like love" -- a review
Ramya had added this movie a while ago and finally the movie got its turn in the queue.
The premise of the movie is about two 20-somethings Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily (Amanda Peet) who keep running into each other over the years, everytime having a good deal of fun but never really getting around to express their feelings for one another. They go through their phases of life of breaking out of adoloscence, struggling in relationships, building a career ... basically living life. But, everytime they meet each other, the movie turns into a riot where each one keeps getting back at the other with something funny to say or do that has you in peals of laughter. Of course, predictably enough, they come together at the end of the movie :-)
The movie has delightful performances by Kutcher and Peet with both putting in a natural effort and excelling in the same. The movie is never a pain on the viewer's patience and has lots of laugh-a-lot moments :-) Kal-penn has a short but energy filled role. Rest of the cast has done a fine job.
The locations of the movie, which are mostly urban have been picked tastefully. What's especially awesome is the house where Emily lives. The beautiful courtyard makes the house look so elegant.
The movie is overall fast paced, though I felt that the last 10 minutes could have used better editing.
Nevertheless, I'd rate the movie as an excellent watch.
The premise of the movie is about two 20-somethings Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily (Amanda Peet) who keep running into each other over the years, everytime having a good deal of fun but never really getting around to express their feelings for one another. They go through their phases of life of breaking out of adoloscence, struggling in relationships, building a career ... basically living life. But, everytime they meet each other, the movie turns into a riot where each one keeps getting back at the other with something funny to say or do that has you in peals of laughter. Of course, predictably enough, they come together at the end of the movie :-)
The movie has delightful performances by Kutcher and Peet with both putting in a natural effort and excelling in the same. The movie is never a pain on the viewer's patience and has lots of laugh-a-lot moments :-) Kal-penn has a short but energy filled role. Rest of the cast has done a fine job.
The locations of the movie, which are mostly urban have been picked tastefully. What's especially awesome is the house where Emily lives. The beautiful courtyard makes the house look so elegant.
The movie is overall fast paced, though I felt that the last 10 minutes could have used better editing.
Nevertheless, I'd rate the movie as an excellent watch.
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