April 9, 2009

Some Things You Always Notice

Sometimes things just happen, It might be out of coincidence, maybe a mere probability of an event happening or even could be out of pure luck too.These event could be day to day happening, or memorable incidents in life or anything for that matter of fact. Some of these are

In a traffic jam the next lane always keeps moving faster than the one you are in.

In a public washroom the person ahead of you always takes more time to wash his hands than you think

The photograph in documents like passport, licence etc. are always your worst ones.

The longer the memory the details get more exaggerated and more unrealistic.

School life/ college life gets more dearer farer from the last year of college.

You always score well in your first game of bowling/snooker.

You always for sure get late to that important meeting which turns out good in the end.

The person whom you least expect to help turns out to be the saviour in the end.

The obscure politician in the middle of a demeaning character attack always turns out to be the winner in the end

The dumb stupid underdog of today mostly end up as the winner of tomorrow

Opinion polls never get it right and still they make so much fuss all over the next year.

The movie with the most hyped trailers and launch pads mostly end up as disasters on screen.

North Korea and Laloo always gets away with all the crap they say, however controversial they are.

You always get up early on weekend's when you are really looking forward to sleep.

The killer deal you got at the discount store is always more expensive than your best friends option.

When the hype sets in and the success becomes evident even the most ardent critic becomes an admirer.

When you want advice people will flood you with options and no body takes your opinion seriously in the best of the times.

In a blog the least interesting post according to the author always become peopular among the readers.

In blogging when you ask for comments nobody obliges and when you want their silence they become the loudest.

When you feel you have lost weight some looser always laughs at you and when you have put on weight the same guy thinks you have lost it.


There are more to these unusual things, i hope i have done Justice to some of them at least, if you feel anything is to be included, please add on.

adios

April 3, 2009

The Whimpering Women

The relative who died was just an acquaintance and the visit was just customary. The bereavement and crying siblings had an emotionally distressing effect on me. Why are people born if they have to die some day ? I guess there are larger Truth n the mysteries of life unknown to mankind.

As usual like every time I come from a dead relatives or friends house, I kept wondering how it would be when my time came, who will be there crying for me, will my sons who are abroad able to make it to my burial in time? Why should I have such depressing thoughts when my health is fine. Even the blood test I took today morning had a satisfactory result. The doctor was kind enough to compliment me on my health and how it was better than many of my peers who were on the other side of fifty.

It was already midnight when the news of death came and I was sure I wont be back home for another two or three hours. On the way back I decided to walk from the main road through the paddy field, it was a good decision to take the torch. He would have dropped me to my home if I insisted, but it was already too late and I had already given him enough trouble.
Th junction looked empty and no one would guess how this was a bustling centre a few hours back. The only street light on the road side was flickering and created a eery feeling to the centre.

The car sped away and the red back light vanished around the corner. All of a sudden I felt lonely, not scared, what should I be scared of. I knew the town like the back of my hands, I had spend a good deal of my adult life in these streets and wandering through these now closed shops. I crossed the road and entered the gully that lead to the paddy field. How could everyone sleep so silently, except fro the wind gushing through the trees and leaves everything else was so quiet.


The torch was new, a gift from my youngest son who went abroad recently. The light was strong enough not like the old red torch which was only good for its antiquity. The path that lead down to the paddy field was slippery , I had to be really careful to avoid a fall.

The paddy field looked really beautiful in the half moon lit sky. The rectangular paddy field were surrounded by tall and narrow earth embankments for stopping water seepage and acted as borders of property. As long as I remember these pathways were as narrow and full of weeds, it would have been like this from the very day they were formed.

Our ancient palatial home was a good 15 minutes walk from the main road and it took longer in the night because of the uncertainties involved. Five minutes down the path near the ancient temple and the banyan tree along it, I passed with little faster steps.
It’s just psychological I thought, how can people come up with such spooky stories based on places like these. I tried my best not to recollect the stories said about these places and kept walking. At first it sounded like the wind passing through a crack of wood, then it got louder and clearer.

Yes it was the sound of a weeping women, it was coming from right behind me. It felt like someone was standing at my arms length and weeping into my ears, getting louder by the second. It is true in these instances intuition and inhibitions overcome logic. The adrenaline started pumping and a odd feeling strated building up in my stomach, can it be true, is my mind making me feel this, who can be weeping at this time of the night in the deserted field.
The time was running short, I had to decide something, if I turn back and see something scary that will be my end, I will die of shock.

If I don’t turn I can stay away from what was waiting for me behind. I gathered myself and started running the weeping sound followed me and it was followed by an eery silence. The kind of silence that follows a loud bang or an uncertain noise. The weeping sound turned into whimpers followed b y timely sobs.I kept running for my life , the torch fell from my hand in the panic and all that was left was me, the moonlight and the creepy sound. I don’t know how long the sound followed me, but luckily I made it home through the darkness and horror.

I must have fainted and when I woke up everyone looked worried, the anxiety and fear was evident in their eyes. I couldn't’t gather the words, the mumbling and jabbering made little sense to people around me.In occasional bouts of consciousness I knew that I was bed ridden for a good whole week. The gossip mongers had the time of their life describing the incident in the minutest of details. One thing I didn’t do after that incident was to walk alone through the fields after midnight.

AN ATTEMPT ON FICTION, PLEASE COMMENT

April 2, 2009

A Movie That Was Never Made


Yes i have been hit by the movie bug and unfortunately i have decided to write yet another post on movies. To be precise movies that were never made on real life stories. It was by accident that i came across the movie called " The man who knew infinity" based on Ramanujan's life. A man who lived for only 32 years and rewrote laws of mathematics in such a short span of time.

This kept me wondering, have the movie industry prodigies covered everything that could have been ever made. Its true we are able to see a lot of new genre fiction and quality work over the years, Something that really amazed me was the picturisation of "Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Fortunately i have some really good movie buff friends who ensure that quality movies are made available as and when it releases.

Over the last few months, thanks to the increasing spare time available, i have been able to watch some really good movies from international legends like "Citizen Kane" to all time classics like Life is Beautiful, 12 Angry men, Cinema Paridaso and more. Some of you might find these movies to be an achievements of an amateur movie buff, but iam really taking an effort to increase my knowledge in this arena.

No this post is not to brag about my fetish for long forgotten Black and white movies, its about some real life incidents or stories that were never made into movies. There might be several reasons to this, lack of commercial viability, lack of importance or it could even be that the movies were made and i never came across them. If the last one is the case please forgive my ignorance and consider it as yet another blabbering of a wannabe blogger.

The first case which i believe should have been given immortal life through the reels of a movie is a true story adaptation of an ordinary citizen of Hiroshima/Nagasaki's perspective and experience of the only ever nuclear bombing done. Now that evil axis is no more relevant and Japanese people are concentrating more on Technology and development this story is something that should be told.

If Pearl Harbour based on the American oppression could have made such a good plot, undoubtedly Hiroshima can have a lot to tell. It is not the first time a foreign perspective movie was made with foreign actors and made it big in Hollywood, look at the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima". The movie could portray the suffering, trauma and horror of a nuclear attack. It could act as a precedent to any Lunatic tyrant to stop firing the next nuclear arsenal.

I know it will have to show the mighty super power in a negative angle, but history has proven again and again that decision taken by a powerful leader with the interest of the greater common good has not always been just. Lets not get into a proverbial debate on good and evil. What we are looking here is the possibility of bringing justice to all the infinite suffering experienced by ordinary citizen's in Hiroshima. If any of you remember the brief description of the effect of nuclear bombing in our history text books, you could recall the words used there. The eyes melting into the sockets, the skin becoming one with the flesh and the endless brutality and deformations left behind.

For a commercial viability lets bring in a love story and a chance meeting on the D day and the unfortunate survival of a lover (yes inspired by titanic). I do not mean any disrespect to any of the survivors or to the kith and kin of the perished ones. Let this movie be a beacon of hope for the future and stop more injustice from happening. I know the story is too big and practically non feasible to be made into a 2 hour commercial potboiler. The happening's of the day are too cruel and unjust to be encapsulated into a documentary either. But let there be some effort to revive the nuclear holocaust.
P.S please comment on the possibilty of such a movie and other stories that could have made it to the reel. This post is by no means a trifbute to my political inclinations, this is a post on inhuman history and the injustice that followed.
tc

April 1, 2009

Humor in South Indian Movies

I was looking forward to April 1st to write something related to the day or an article to fool the readers. But unfortunately i have not been able to come up with any practical joke so far. So as an act of support to the day iam posting a link i cam across the web, check it out very interesting http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

I have opted to write something very close to my heart, humor in south Indian Movies. I have noticed one thing about differences in south India movies and the magnanimous Bollywood. Humour is a very important part and forms a major content for Kollywood, Mollywood, Tollywood and any other industry that could end with more wood. Many of the more popular stars are really good in humor even if some of them couldn't even make it to the studio compound with their looks.

It is a common practise among the level headed youth in the south to go on and on about some scene in a particular movie. Even the mention of some comedians can bring hysterical responses in many of us. We can go on and on about a seemingly irrelevant scene in an obscure movie just for the sake of the humor. There are people who worship Jagdish, Pappu, Vadivelu, Gounder mani and Vivek for their humor (if you don't know the names, they are comedians in south Indian Movies).

The relevance of humor can be amplified by noticing the number of comedy shows playing 2 minute clips of comedy in different movies. Of late Mollywood has been blessed with its on channel on Humor with continuous telecast of clips and scenes. It has become a routine for an average south Indian to spend an hour or two in the evening on comedy shows to unwind and distress. The impact is really good that it has brought tranquility and peace into so many households. These are some of the few shows families can watch together and relate with each other as well.

The comedy in Tamil is very socially relevant and questions lot of malpractices and superstitions in the society. The pun is so direct and embarrassing that it brings out reforms and changes peoples attitude. Movies are doing more than any other media for social reform and societal development. Even if movies are promoting, crime, smoking and unnecessary luxuries its getting it right with humor for a change.

The quality of humor in the Malayalam movies have been deteriorating over the years and humor is mainly sex oriented or snobbish in nature. But the golden era of 80's and 90's were too good to forget, even the new generation can relate to the humor in those movies. But there are exceptions here too, some people are taking utmost effort to revive the genre. I wont be surprised if one or two generation ahead of mine can relate and laugh at the humor in old movies.

Do you think humor was better a decade ago or now ?

Adios, happy April fools day