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Amazing movies that I watched recently

The last couple of weekends, were thankfully long enough for me to go on a mini movie vacation and the heat outside wasn't welcoming at all. So, I sat in front my laptop and tried to watch as many movies I could. Here are the list of wonderful movies that I watched:

Kaloori

A very beautiful movie indeed. When I started watching the movie, I couldn't believe that Tamanna was a part of this movie, because she had a de-glamorized role and she did it amazingly well. This is a movie about a bunch of college friends in a small village in Tamil Nadu. They let Tamanna, who is a newcomer to be a part of the group. The movie revolves around the group and blends in to a good story but the ending, I feel was uncalled for. Nevertheless, I have started to like Tamannaa more, after this movie. I really hope she gets another chance to do a similar character rather than the same old item number drills.

Brave

A very cute animation movie about a daughter and mom. Set in the medivial england, it has a fairy tale feel. Definitely worth watching.

Oranges

A nice comedy set between two families where the father in the first family falls for the daughter in the second family. Confusing? Yes it is. And here you go: it is narrated by the daughter of the father who falls in love. How things change between the two families amidst this affair is what the story is about.

Pitch Perfect

This is about a girl, who dreams of becoming a DJ, and joins her college's group to perform at the Nationals. A warm and entertaining chick flick, it follows the craze developed by shows like American Idol.

Snow white and the Huntsman

After I started to watch this movie, I kept wondering if I made the right decision. Kristen Stewart was as expressionless as I expected her to be. Charlize Theron did her best, but I am not sure why she did such a meaningless role of a typical Saas, you would find in Hindi serial. Hatred without a reason or logic. So you can compare this movie with serials like Saath Nibhana Saathiya, Diya aur Baati Hum, and Sasural Simar ka and many more.

Vicky Donor

Another great movie with an amazing concept, Ayushmann is an amazing actor. The jokes in the movie are hilarious. I loved the modern grandma and even Vicky's mom was very different compared to the moms you get to see in Hindi movies.

Waiting eagerly for another long weekend!!!

Adopted Baby

Well this was long back, we had a pigeon couple in one of our bedroom windows. Every day they would come and hang out there and do their lovey-dovey stuff. The girl would sit on one of the flower pots, which had almost become pigeon pots  by now because it grew pigeons! She would act as if she has laid eggs, but when she flew, it was evident that she hadn't so far. Surprisingly, her boyfriend was very positive that she will lay eggs one day.

I used to watch them and ponder on the fact that these people have very little stress in life. There were pigeons nests at almost all the windows of our two-bedroom apartment. So many that we had kept a tea party where all the kids from different windows met each other. Initially, my mom was worried that we have to put back the kids in the right nests. But that wasn't a problem all were in different shapes and sizes and easily recognizable. By this time I knew, how a baby looks when its 2 days old, 5 days old and so on :)

So coming back to our lady pigeon, whom we used to call Kalli, because she was so cute. I guess that's the reason her BF hung around her for so long. Then there was another couple in our living room-window, where the female was so afraid that she would fly away the instant she heard some noise in the hall. She had lain two eggs. We were not happy with her dedication to her eggs. The other moms would not move from their place even when we would sneak on them or even try to frighten them. I had become so attached to my pigeon cuties that I would talk with them on a daily basis. Of course, they did not talk back to me. But from their eyes and body moments, it was understood that they wanted me to buzz off.

Then one day, in our hall window, no one had returned to the eggs for a long time. That is when I had this innovative idea of lending one of the egg to Kalli. So I removed one egg and put it in Kalli's pot, when she was away. I waited to see her reaction when she saw the egg. She came around 20 minutes later and sat at her pot as usual.The moment she sat, she was startled to find something smooth and round under her. She jumped for an instant to look at the egg, and sat back on it as if nothing had happened. The next day when her BF came, we wanted to see his reaction too. In pigeons, it is difficult to read emotions, unless you are an expert. The BF sat on the egg without too many questions to Kalli. And over the new few days, I saw two dedicated parents blessed with a pigeon chick. They adored the chick without any doubt, after all pigeons they are!

The second egg in the living room window had also hatched by this time, but was left unattended most of the time. Suddenly, the mom in in hall window stopped coming and the dad sat by himself in the daytime for a couple of days. This time I had thought of adding the  baby to Kalli, but had some reservations about it because  pigeons are not friendly with other hatched babies! This is disheartening but is the truth. I kept the twin baby in Kalli's nest and as I guessed, she kept away from it. Same for her BF. So I kept it back to its old nest to discover that the dad also stopped frequenting there. So for the next few days I researched and tried feeding it myself, but by that time it had become very weak and stopped eating and died in a couple of days. That left my crying for some days. But adopted baby did well and flew away in a couple of weeks leaving Kalli and BF on their own. But they were proud parents by now.

Done Done London - So Over Done

Before I start venting out my frustration on this Done Done movie,  I must say that I am really relieved about Yash Chopra's heavenly abode. I also pray that SRK stops acting in romantic movies.... Let me get to the great story line and wonder how this movie got 3.5 by Times of India and 4 by Filmfare.

Firstly, story is OK till the time and again plot of "rich gal falling in love with waiter". But I can't understand the following stuff:
1. Rich girl having an affair with waiter behind her fiance's back and no one getting a hint of this.
2. Rich girl forgiving her mother for abandoning her and her "loving and caring" dad just because she understood that her mom fell in love. The logic is unsettling.
3.Also I did not know this deal of lending 500 pounds to a Lahori roommate and in return he builds a 5 star restaurant from it AND also keeps your share safe until you return to London. Looks like a really good deal to me!
4. And of course the Retrograde Amnesia. I did not care to google this but I am appalled by the creativity of Bolly writers in making up diseases. They have come a long way from Cancer!
5. And the baap of all, when SRK is asked his age, in the movie, he tells 28!!!!! MFing 28!!!! Have some decency man! You are nearing 48!!
6. And the lets not forget the great Lahori friend abandoning his own bungalow so that SRK can romance Katrina in it. I mean who gets such friends!!
6. And the UK police allowing SRK to diffuse a bomb, without even telling out his name or showing his ID. Again very surprising...
7. And Anushka sacrificing SRK for Katrina. So unwomanly now yaar! Really no cat-fight???

 I thought I should have watched Twilight-Breaking Dawn instead. But again that is also very much Bollywood, where a mother lets her old lover romance her 3 year old daughter. Yuck... I wonder if such plots are inspired by blue films.

After watching all this unbelievable stuff in one movie, I thought I can give some suitable titles to this movie:
Of course there is 1. Done Done London- So Poorly Done
2. 500 pounds se 5 star hotel tak
3. Ek side Meera aur doosre me Akira
4. The man who cannot die  will not age
5. 10 saal baad mujhe aayi Meera yaad
6. Kab tak hai Rukna?
7. Line cross karnewali Meera
8. Lahori ka Jaadu
9. Meera ki kurbani aur Akira ki jawani
10. Samar hua Amar

.... and many many more....
I am done with third grade romantic movies.

Single in Saudi - Book Review

Before I start the review, I want to take this space to talk about my new love! Yes, there is an app called Kindle, where you can buy books and read them in your cell phone. The collection is awesome and many of the books are also free too!!!

So I am this kind of person who believes that books are treasure and they need to be treasured! Hence, there is a big shelf back in Coimbatore where all my books are lying around. Whenever, I notice a book exhibition, a shop where the guy is selling damaged books at a cheaper rate, book carts, my mom/husband sighs that they have to spend at least half hour with me there, until I decide which book I wanna buy.

I wanted to read Single in Saudi since the time I read a free chapter in Scribd. I tried to search it in Landmark and Crossword but couldn’t get it. So when I started purchasing books in Kindle, I knew what I wanted to buy. And the good thing is that I have shared my account with my hubby, so he also can download the books available in my account. And we also found out that one can’t buy books in iPhone through Kindle. They have to log in to Amazon.com to buy books. Phew what a waste of time. Lucky to be with Android here!!! :D And ya iBooks is a stupid app with only the page-turning graphic as a face-saver :P

Finally, let me get on with the review. Single in Saudi is about the adventures and misadventures of an American nurse who comes to Saudi Arabia in the late 70s to make some quick buck. I like the way she narrated her stories and the humor sprinkled in. In fact, while reading the book, I almost regretted for not considering a medical career. But I immediately bounced back, when I read about the blood and muck that nurses have to see every day. But the truth is that nurses are in high demand all over the world. My husband decreed it as a cheap sleaze and that there was too much of mindless sex sprinkled in. Guys! They still prefer watching porn over reading porn…J

Anyways, the author Jane Smith justified that she was told to put some sleaze in it so that it will sell more. And on my part, it worked because I bought it!!!

So the reasons to read Single in Saudi:

·         Get an idea of the Middle East society in the 70s (BTW it is still the same today…)

·         Get a glimpse of a nurse’s life (a naughty nurse though)

·         Get to know on how much money the Saudis had to throw around from the 70s itself (I mean, Americans, who shudder at the thought of living in Mexico, coming to work in Saudi will give an idea of how rich the Saudi is)

 

Indian managers and caste system

This analogy came to my mind three weeks ago when our manager from US came to visit us. We were having a knowledge sharing session with our manager, when suddenly he was posed with this question, "We see that Indian managers are more of 'people managers' whereas managers in US manage a team and still contribute to the team output and are also experts in their field. Any particular reason for this difference?" Hmm ... our US guy gave a politically correct answer that he was supposed to give :)

The fact that Indian managers are pretty much slackers can't be denied. But why are they like the way they are? Not all are slackers, well if you are really lucky, then you may work under an manager who epitomizes the "guru" that our Upanishads talk about. But our culture is influenced by the mirage that "Life without hard work is what one should aim for". Is it an artifact of our age caste system is the real question?

If we try to understand the caste system in the modern organization then, the CEO and the top management would be Kshatriyas,  the HRs and the so called middle managers would be Brahmins, the Marketing/sales team would be Vaishyas and the oppressed operations team which is the only productive unit of the organization would be the Shudras. The Shudras have dreams about changing their caste, but in the long run very few of them are successful in doing that.

Nowadays there are MBA shops that promise to change one's caste to a better one so many people try that too. So in the end, everyone wants to be a HR Professional, a middle manager or even better, a CEO.

Well let us look at the western culture. According to Max Weber, the success of capitalism or English imperialism is related to a highly specific series of ethical norms grounded in the Calvinistic traditions of honesty, hard work, and integrity. I am not agreeing to this but if we look at what they did in India was just taking advantage of the greed and laziness of Indian rulers.

Hence, managers in the west are programmed to work even after they achieved what they set out for, whereas Indian managers are programmed to escape work even after reaching the highest form of achievement that they set out for.

Go Kiss the World - Review

As an avid reader I am sometimes scared that I might get stuck to a particular genre, so recently I picked up this book, guessing that the author might have shared some business cases or just his professional experience. As I reached the second page I realized that this is an autobiography. And after the first few pages, I just couldnt wait to finish this amazing book. Its so great that I am picking the right books recently, because I am such a moody reader. Sometimes I am in a political novel mood, sometimes just world war 2  reading mood and sometimes just a chick lit mood!

Before picking this book, I didn't know that Subrato Bagchi is the founder of Mindtree. As I begun reading, I couldnt help but appreaciate his fluid narrative and the fact that he had such an open mind about things. And interestingly one of his wisdom nugget was "Open your mind before you open your mouth". The last book I read, which was as amazing as this was "India Unbound" by Gurucharan Das. The best part about both these authors is how they recount their stories modestly and Bagchi took another step of even sharing learnings out of his experiences.

I have read many philosophical books by western authors, who go back to recite their favorite verses from Bible. Finally, I got an Indian author who recited a couple of verses from Upanishads! I am not really a religious person as such, but felt proud about this!

Finally my favorite lines from the book "Most people covet good jobs, great postings, higher salaries than their friends and a rather elusive elixir called job satisfaction. Conceding that all these are legitimate desires for every professional, I would, however, trade all of that for the opportunity to work for a great boss"

Hunger Games - Review

Its been a while since I read the first book "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. My only dilemma was to watch the movie too and then write the review or critique the movie seperately. Between that time, I was so curious as to what would happen in the second book "Catching Fire". So I just completed the second part today and I must say that though there are some moments where the author let me down on her page turner trilogy, but on the whole, these are a set of amazing novels. I am yet to catch hold of the third one.

To begin with, this maybe the third or fouth young adult novel that I read but this definitely falls under the chick lit section that I am so fond of!!! :) . Well let me get on with the plot now. So the novel is set at a time, after the natural disasters, where only a part of North America is inhabitated (How obvious...). There are only thirteen districts remaining, where life is difficult for all except the one called "Capitol", which colonizes the rest of the districts. Every year Capitol conducts hunger games where participants from each districts are pitted against each other and the last man standing wins. The story is narrated by the protagonist -Katniss Everdeen. So its obvious that she participates in the games and wins it. How? is what the novel is about.
One of the things that amazes me is "How does a seventeen year old girl hunt and kill rabbits, squirrels, eat raw eggs?" To survive yes ... but still its hard to imagine. The lane where I live is an unfortunate one, having halal shops at both the ends. So I can hear an occasional cry of a hen, when I am eating pani puri and on the other side when I am buying fruits... And my heart does go out for their pain, each time. Ya, well I have a weak heart, but  if I am put in the same condition where I need to hunt to survive, can I do it?

The author has characterized Katniss brilliantly, and far far better than what you see in those stupid teen vampire crap (Yes I am talking about Twilight. Thank God I did not read it because I saw the movie first :P.) And again she left the end of the first novel hanging with a climax, which makes you get hold of the second book immediately. But I must say that the second book is very slow in the beginning, and takes some time till Katniss get back to the arena. Yup she participtes again. This is where I think the author could have done better . Catching fire too ends without an ending where the author tries to tempt you towards the third book immediately. But I guess I will take a break here. Enough of eating oysters from their shells and roasting rodents for supper. I will watch the Hunger Games movie now and maybe even wait for "Catching Fire" to release in 2013.

Theories around our Independence

Disclaimer: This post was written after celebrating a gloomy Independence day and living through an year full of scams and a not so great economy

 Ok let me start about clearing the first myth that we got our Independence because of that man called Gandhi. Seriously I have lost respect for him. We have seen live anti-corruption movements recently going phut because our Government ignored the fast taken by Anna Hazare and jailed Baba Ramdev. When our own Government does not give a tuppence about our country men, why would a Brit care less about someone like Gandhi fasting for independence.

So given the fact that those Independence movements were a sham, I have always been intrigued about how was our country doing under the British. So I would ask about this to my grandparents and even all the grand parents around. The answer that I would get is most of them admired the British way of governance. And the infrastructure built by the Brits helped our country a lot. Ok next I would ask, if they took part in any of the movements that I read in our History books. They would say that these movements were clustered in different parts of the country and never a countrywide movement. So Aam aadmi was still busy making a livelihood. Ok great!!

So let us look at the different theories on why exactly did we get Independence??

1. World War 2. We know that UK was completely devastated during the bombings carried out by Hitler's army. After the world war 2, roughly 30000 British soldiers were killed. They needed more manpower for rebuilding the nation, hence many Brits were called back from India and gradually an Indian Independence was planned. So, instead of Gandhi, we need to thank Hitler for our "so called independence"... Right!

2. Labour Party gets elected in UK: After the war, the Labour Party was elected in UK and they carried out sweeping welfare reforms in UK. It also aimed at improving UK's public relations worldwide out of which granting the "so called independence to India" was also one of the events....

3. India's economy at its worst: India's economy was doing so bad that, Britain had to rethink its investment in India. Hence they thought that this was the best time to pull out. On the lighter side, we had become so sad and poor and pessimistic and grumpy and complacent and frustrated that the Brits were scared if we were rubbing off all these on them. Wait a minute, these adjectives apply to us even today! gr8....

Well, so why do we think that our forefathers fought for our Independence???
1. The Brits, well the gentlemen they are, did not want to abruptly pull out of India and hence got together with the congressmen and staged an independence granting drama that was enacted so well and publicised worldwide.

2. On the Indian side, Congress/Gandhi was so eager to take the credit that it worked out so well. And all our history books were written by some Congress chamchas in NCERT like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib.

One another fact that intrigued me till now, is how so many Indians and Pakistanis got into UK so easily post-Independence. Here is the answer... Damn, if one of my grandpas had taken this opportunity....... Well wishful thinking :)))

Oh dear God please let me witness one.....

I have been really happy for the past few days. Major reasons are first, that my husband has finally started to notice my cooking skills albeit with a lot of (irritating) constructive feedback. But that's OK, because that is what you get, when your husband knows to cook..... better than you. tsk tsk But here's the advantage: one fine day, you can tell hubby that you are in no mood to cook and let him make a yummy Dal and rice!

Well the other good thing is that my new boss is a guy!!! Now don't get me wrong, he is sitting miles away somewhere in Iowa, but it still makes me happy! My husband explains that I haven't been promoted, its just that my boss has changed. My enthusiasm caught my colleague's eye and he finally asked me, "OK you say that having a male boss is so better than having a female one. Then will you be a good manager when you become one?"

Ummmm little tongue-tied there..... But I shoot back instantly and say that I won't be all that jealous and insecure and pushy and ultimately b**chy...He just gave a smirk, which made me think more on this.

I have worked under more than three women, and lets just say that they were not the best people to work with... So whats the problem here, I think. Are there no good "female' managers or I haven't met them yet?

OK let me think again on this: overall, there are mostly bad managers out there. But there are a few good managers. There are few good male managers that I have heard about and some I even worked with! There are few good women managers out there and I really believe this from the bottom of my heart! I have read about them, but I haven't witnessed any yet!