Before Santosh left for the big Apple, we had the joy of seeing Rock On togather. Its a movie that may be as much of a cult movie as "Dil Chahta hai" . It may not be much coincidence that the lead actor and producer was the director of the earlier one. It is one movie that prods you to think (especially if you are around 30) of the life that has gone by and what a shift it was.
A nice movie which in a way reminded me (and maybe a few others) of the absolute mechanical life that we are leading in the process of our professional rat race. I left the hall trying to recollect what exactly my hobbies were, leave alone realising when i had last acted on them.
Overall a good movie with reasonably good songs ( i did not appreciate those dished out to be termed as Rock though), top class acting and above all, it had a reasonable and meaningful role for everybody in the movie, including the female lead (for a change).
Thanks Santosh for this wonderful movie and the really sumptous lunch before that
Monday, September 8, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Formula 1
F1
I really do not remember the year but my first experience of formula 1 has been a poster of the great Ayrton Senna standing beside his machine and captioned " I race with God". It must be the late 80's or the early 90’s and I did not know what F1 was. However the caption did inspire me .
My brother was a keen watcher of F1 on television and somehow I got hooked to it by the late 90's. Mika and Coulthard were my favourites till Kimi joined. Like all McLaren fans of that time, I did dislike Michael Schumacher. While I did admit to my admiring his talent, I did not somehow approve of his overt, aggressive tactics.
I shifted my allegiance reluctantly along with Kimi and more so because of a rookie called Lewis Hamilton. I admire the talent and the controlled aggression of Kimi and more so his inability to accept defeat. His last race in the 2007 season is testimony to this. Having made this statement, Michael Schumacher's race to the championship after missing a good 2 - 3 months due to injury a few seasons ago is equally inspiring.
This season, my support is for Kimi and I hope he wins this season of highly competitive racing.
One irritant that bothers me is the naming of a race team after my country. None of the teams , as far as I know, have done this. The publicity hungry owner can hog as much limelight as he can but it cannot be by naming a lower tier team after my country. I would be happier if he spends as much as the Ferrari or McLaren on R&D, Drivers and others. Going by its performance, I would be happy if the team is instead renamed Force Kingfisher or better still Force Mallya.
I really do not remember the year but my first experience of formula 1 has been a poster of the great Ayrton Senna standing beside his machine and captioned " I race with God". It must be the late 80's or the early 90’s and I did not know what F1 was. However the caption did inspire me .
My brother was a keen watcher of F1 on television and somehow I got hooked to it by the late 90's. Mika and Coulthard were my favourites till Kimi joined. Like all McLaren fans of that time, I did dislike Michael Schumacher. While I did admit to my admiring his talent, I did not somehow approve of his overt, aggressive tactics.
I shifted my allegiance reluctantly along with Kimi and more so because of a rookie called Lewis Hamilton. I admire the talent and the controlled aggression of Kimi and more so his inability to accept defeat. His last race in the 2007 season is testimony to this. Having made this statement, Michael Schumacher's race to the championship after missing a good 2 - 3 months due to injury a few seasons ago is equally inspiring.
This season, my support is for Kimi and I hope he wins this season of highly competitive racing.
One irritant that bothers me is the naming of a race team after my country. None of the teams , as far as I know, have done this. The publicity hungry owner can hog as much limelight as he can but it cannot be by naming a lower tier team after my country. I would be happier if he spends as much as the Ferrari or McLaren on R&D, Drivers and others. Going by its performance, I would be happy if the team is instead renamed Force Kingfisher or better still Force Mallya.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Weekend Movies
One activity had been my weekend ritual during my bachelor days post B School - watching the latest release along with my roomies , Hitesh and Santosh. So long as one of those esteemed and exalted reviewers from times had not dumped them, we spent a considerable part of (our then) salaries on our weekend movies.
Initially I was not part of their weekend movie plans as our place was in one (then) god forsaken corner of Chembur and they were 2 people on a bike. Things changed when we shifted to Andheri. Andheri had new multiplexes in Fun Cinemas and Fame Adlabs and was just a few mins by rick. Within a few months I morphed from watching 3 - 4 movies in a year to 2 - 3 movies on a good weekend. My parents and my siblings back home noticed this change in me and may have attributed this to some of the side effects of living in the tinsel town of mumbai.
While Hitesh had a complex assessment system (which I still do not understand), Santosh was almost always influenced by the reviews in mid-day (which he religiously bought every evening) for the movies to watch. - was always indifferent and followed them both unless I had a cricket match or the movie had one of those 'stars' I did not quite appreciate (all about this in a separate blog). Long before the release of a film I could feel Santosh's perception of the film based on the stray comments he made during dinner (he always had some strong perceptions based on the trailers or reviews in his evening newspaper).
We did see some big hits on day 1 as also some boring ones in the first week (they never lasted more than that in the multiplexes). I remember expressing my not so silent boredom of the film by bubbling an almost empty cola bottle in a sparsely filled theatre.
Special mention for those caramel popcorns and the samosas we gulped along with gallons of aerated drinks during those enjoyable and not so enjoyable movies.
Wahtever said, I enjoyed this to good effect till I shifted job to be an investment banker. Weekends then meant some breathing space and catching up with a siesta. Gradually, I was left out of some of what earlier was my weekend ritual.
Last Saturday, Santosh and Hitesh have called and asked if I would join them for a movie with family. I was hesitant assuming that my son may not last a whole movie without me having to take him out mid way. He not only was quiet but seemed to enjoy the film. I guess it is back to old ways for me. This time however, will be joined by my little family. Hitesh and Santosh do count me in next time on.
Initially I was not part of their weekend movie plans as our place was in one (then) god forsaken corner of Chembur and they were 2 people on a bike. Things changed when we shifted to Andheri. Andheri had new multiplexes in Fun Cinemas and Fame Adlabs and was just a few mins by rick. Within a few months I morphed from watching 3 - 4 movies in a year to 2 - 3 movies on a good weekend. My parents and my siblings back home noticed this change in me and may have attributed this to some of the side effects of living in the tinsel town of mumbai.
While Hitesh had a complex assessment system (which I still do not understand), Santosh was almost always influenced by the reviews in mid-day (which he religiously bought every evening) for the movies to watch. - was always indifferent and followed them both unless I had a cricket match or the movie had one of those 'stars' I did not quite appreciate (all about this in a separate blog). Long before the release of a film I could feel Santosh's perception of the film based on the stray comments he made during dinner (he always had some strong perceptions based on the trailers or reviews in his evening newspaper).
We did see some big hits on day 1 as also some boring ones in the first week (they never lasted more than that in the multiplexes). I remember expressing my not so silent boredom of the film by bubbling an almost empty cola bottle in a sparsely filled theatre.
Special mention for those caramel popcorns and the samosas we gulped along with gallons of aerated drinks during those enjoyable and not so enjoyable movies.
Wahtever said, I enjoyed this to good effect till I shifted job to be an investment banker. Weekends then meant some breathing space and catching up with a siesta. Gradually, I was left out of some of what earlier was my weekend ritual.
Last Saturday, Santosh and Hitesh have called and asked if I would join them for a movie with family. I was hesitant assuming that my son may not last a whole movie without me having to take him out mid way. He not only was quiet but seemed to enjoy the film. I guess it is back to old ways for me. This time however, will be joined by my little family. Hitesh and Santosh do count me in next time on.
Friday, May 9, 2008
My first Blog
I have always felt nice reading the blog my friend Santosh Asbe writes. Though i have known him for about 8 years now (as close as being his roomie for about 4 years) , i could never unravel the depth of his feelings until he started his blog. Whoever felt that there can be nothing better than personal interaction.
I have now taken the plunge and would post my feeling and views on things around me and things integral to me.
I have now taken the plunge and would post my feeling and views on things around me and things integral to me.
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