Strands of Thoughts...

Eat Pray Love--The Movie

2011-04-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well the movie... is a very good adaptation of the book with great surprises by Javier Bardem and James Franco. Frankly I didnt expect James to play the part of David and Javier (I guess he is totally looks like Jeffrey Dean Morgan.... remember him from P.S: I love You... as Hilary Swank's husband's friend in Ireland...I got confused :-P) Anyways... So actually the great thing about the movie is it captures the striking quotes of the book, whatever the readers usually remember after reading the book.
The film first opens when she first visits medicine man in Bali with the quote in the book about what her psychologist friend Deborah says about human being and relationships. When I first read this in the book , I was discussing the same to my mum.It goes like... When Deborah was asked to counsel the Cambodian refugees who face
d genocides, lost families children, seen immense suffering, she got totally unnerved by the
daunting task as to how can she relate to them. But when she met them all they came to her was about relationship problems like "there was this guy, we got involved but he left ... now he is marrying but I still in love... etc etc"... Deborah told Liz that a human being can endure any damn problem... except a failure in a relationship. It causes much heart-burn than any damn problem in the world... That's how we are... Then I wondered is it actually true?? I mean a man suffer poverty, losing child, physically,mentally challenged children being born except a wrong partner??

The movie then takes you to your current husband and how she wants to quit... I really didnt like the way she did it and even in the book you feel like hating her... a loving partner who only wants you to have baby...thats it nothing else.... I read once in TOI about what makes the marriage rocking...It's like having the same idea about a marriage as your partner's idea. It's always important to be on the same page and Liz was not... she didnt want to have a family... she didnt want to be a mom and Steven wanted all of this... I really pitied her first husband...:)
I guess I can never understand this concept in Indian scenario... I mean there must be couples really who believe in DINKs (Double Income no Kids) and they are pretty happy about the decision..they might not be ok about adoption but they are simply not interested in having kids inspite of having healthy , working biological apparatus which can produce kids... I mean look at the flip side.. you have a baby and you are not one of the kinds who can take care of one... but Liz was not that kind... she simply didnt get into the concept of parenthood at all... but Steven did... that was all...that ended their marriage...
And there comes the cutie James Franco playing David... aaw!! he is so cute ... yogi... It just didnt work for her... she moved on ... she wanted to be with herself, she wanted to know what she wanted.. I can totally relate with her...I wish I have the liberty to be as free as her and just go on a search for searching oneself... My brother says... you can still do it without travelling.. just by peeping into yourself... man ! he is succesful in that... it just that it had given her totally to get a hold of herself... I have been trying to do that for the past 2 yrs... and I havent even came any closer.. :(

Italy...so cute with Sophie and that instructor of hers is actually in love with Sophie which is unlike in the book... Lucas Sphagetti and his mom.. his family... I just love Italy... and the description of Maples and the email which she writes David about breaking up describing about the Augustum Collosseum in Rome as to how inspite of pulling down it stands erect with the little imperfections... I wish I can exactly put what it said but this was a true gist of what she felt when she broke up with him.. very sad... Julia rocks.. and so does James... so thinny, cutie guy he was I loved him!

India... Mumbai contrasts... kids shittin on the road... the garbage... the village...and Richard from Texas... http://www.richardfromtexas.com/ (by the way he died last year :(... nahiinnnn I heard he appeared twice in Oprah) Richard Jenkins... rocked truly .. but somehow I couldnt get the last scene with him as to what happened to his life and the scene on the terrace where she is given a letter to just flush out everything and go ahead fresh with love in Bali... but Richard Jenkins totally rocks guards Liz and he pulls the best out of her when she starts in Bali...

Bali is cool.. with the 9th generation medicine man, Wayan and the sexy Javier Bardem... Here Felippe's son comes to Bali to encourage his dad's new venture with Liz... the break-up scene was fierce where Liz refuses to succumb to a new relationship and how the Brazilian takes control of things... Liz suddenly realises...everything was destined to happen and understands the importance of Felippe and they stay happily ever after...

By the way the quote about the lottery and ticket seriously inspired me thoroughly... Iam still wondering what buying a ticket means to me... Is it anything which sets me free and gives that perspective of life where I can be confident enough to take control of things... Here Liz gets those 3 tickets... will I get one??

Eat Pray Love

2010-10-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

It was just a week after my disastrous attempt of GMAT that I visited landmark to get 4 books on each genre: ‘Coming Soon. The End’ by Omkar Sane, ‘Eat Pray Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, first book of the Twilight series and a book by Amitav Ghosh. The preparation which not only invaded my obvious weekends and free time but even my senses which allowed prolonged brooding over critical reasoning, reading comprehension and sentence correction. The reasoning as critical as reasoning out what is happening in my life and a comprehension trying to read what was going on in my heart, mind and in the time. A correction which I made after every thought sentence that ran in my mind. Anyways I still want to take another try and try to comprehend as to what cant I crack it and I will definitely crack the test someday in the honor of a BITSian.

It was in INSI I had seen the note about this book in good-reads site but I somehow did not dare to buy it because it had something I wanted to do with myself to search for everything, search for what I had lost, search for answers to my unending questions and search for a plan or priorities as to how would I proceed as I was clueless (still am). Also I already had Paulo Coelho’s ‘Winner stand alone’ book to be completed and couldn’t do so as it was the story of a husband to win back his wife from the Cannes. Again same story with tragedy ending in giving up everything to find back lost love. Not that I don’t believe in the elusive word ‘Love’ but I was not ready to delve more in the topic and beget the same thing in reading books like that, while I was reading them for some value add to ward off my woes and to get hold of myself.

Okay, coming back to this blog, I am going to kind of give a review of this book, written by Elizabeth Gilbert, and actually quote some impressive sentences and situations which according to me made this book a best seller and author a gazillionaire.

May be I would split this blog into two parts and give a review of the movie too when I watch it because already the number of comments I get for my blogs are nothing and most of them will be in Google Buzz or facebook walls or comments on the notes.

As the book suggests this is the woman’s search for everything and she searches it in three Is – Italy,India and Indonesia- in the sensing searching for I in ‘I’taly,’I’ndia and ‘I’ndonesia.

Firstly, in Italy she actually gives a glimpse of her past, not entirely the reasons for her divorce, but how entirely her expectations she wants from her relationship are entirely different from her husband’s. She doesn’t want to have a child at the age of 31, an idea or thought entirely different from an Indian scenario. I thought things went so bad with her marriage that she doesn’t want to get it more complicated by having a family. Imagine the same scenario in Indian context and there would come reactions from parents friends.. how can you think not to get pregnant? You are already 31, think about the time you would take to settle when your child grows up you will be in your late forties in her teenage.. how would you handle the adolescent woes in such a stressful age etc etc…She says ‘if you want to STOP knowing someone, divorce him’ against the common notion ‘if you want to really know someone, divorce him’. There are many things in the book which are quite boring and few very interesting. I guess the things which are boring to me will be like the things which I would write about myself which are not fictional and which might not evoke interest to others. Italian food is the most symbolic things about pleasure gaining by the test buds and she indeed marvelously writes about her tryst with the passion of learning Italian, food and people. Specially about Naples and Venice. Emotional eating is the only way to come out of a trauma and she delightfully chooses Italy for that. I always thought Liz must be a Gemini because she is so real and spontaneous like me and you would really not get bored of her style of writing and she captures a rapt attention with her string of her words just like the school of thoughts running in her mind.

Her guru in real life, Gurumayi Chidvilsananda’s ashram in Mumbai is the place she describes about meditation and praying in second section of India. One most impressive thing about this book and the basis of her success is the thought and idea every divorced woman would have .i.e is to spend time with oneself and get over the sleeping pills, depression loneliness and sedatives in the process of getting over it. Her divorce she rates as 7.5 intensity in the scale of 10. Whatever the intensity, every woman thinks to spend time in solitude otherwise it might take years to get over the emotional loss. And it is that search, a holistic travel which is the secret of the success of the book. Even I thought I should travel around and do such things. First I visited Mayapur Dham the birth place of the incarnation of Krishna and my tryst with Dinaz and GMAT… heehehee… So India offered that peace and that stability in her which she dedicated by scrubbing the temple floors, being a ‘Key Hostess’, studying the GuruGita verses, every experience of hers adding to her calmness. An absolutely spiritual and celibate life and experiences which even every Indian needs to experience once.

It’s a saying that best to get over someone is to get under someone and that’s what Liz does in Indonesia unknowingly and by mere chance and luck. She learns meditation by a medicine man in Ubud, Bali and her friendship with a healer Wayan brings her close to her future husband Felipe- who has done vasectomy and obviously cannot produce kids anymore and who is 17 yrs senior to her. I seriously didn’t understand her luck here…fine she didn’t want kids with Michael Cooper (real ex husband) and finally she ends up loving and marrying 52+ guy who cannot have kids anymore (already once married with 2 adult kids). I was wondering if he can reverse the nerve and the ‘family planning’ operation if they want to have kids.. but lo they didn’t want to get married let alone having kids. I remembered two persons reading this section about Indonesia, one my best friend Shanky whose ideas about marriage and relationships changed and for once I started believing his ideas and definition and I totally agree so much that when I wanted to look for relationship I would want someone with the same ideas otherwise I feel doomed about the emotional risk of carrying such relationships and Liz does the same. This notion or idea is inertly common in every single Divorced person and Liz brings it out so beautifully but I also know away from the reality and practicality one would also think about trusting the marriage institution, heart of the heart. Second person was Dhawan uncle who is the husband of Kulkarni aunty (friend of my dad’s) who is so graceful, bubbly and enthusiastic just like Felipe. Dhawan and Kulkarni aunty remarried after both of them have undergone bitter divorces in the past and how much they are in love in each other even if they know that they cannot have kids anymore. Sometimes I feel it’s best to be childless than to have unhappy marriages and spoiling children’s minds by divorced parents. I do not want to give more details about Indonesian section but it’s quite pleasurable to see how Liz finds love by reading the book.

Awaiting to watch the movie and review it…..

Autowallahs.....

2010-03-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

I was with Rama, Rama's husband and Anitha at the Raheja mindspace Cafe Coffee Day chatting with them, sipping coffee to glory. I know that I need to run back to home from Hi-Tech city as I need to catch up with a cousin who is in India for a vacation and will be visiting me just for an hour or so. As I was going back, I almost cursed the traffic sense of pedastrians especially autowallahs. Why dont I buy an auto instead of a 2 or 4 wheeler why cant I think about a 3 wheeler as option?? When will I get free from the bondage from the whims and fancies of these uncivilised mobile people on this planet who govern the rules of traffic, commuters right from labourers, students, upper middleclass junta who would not like to venture on attempting to drive on roads like me.

Anyways, as I reached home, was glad to meet my cousin and her hubby .Karthik had actually drove my uncle's i10. Can you imagine? He actually took the car from his finicky father-in-law to roam on Indian roads. The reason I can call my uncle finicky because I almost got lashed up and scolded for not informing him that it's quite sunny outside and depriving him of the chance of keeping his Hero Honda bike from the premises to cellar of his flat. I was around 8 years old, and who the hell would notice the vehicles around anyways. :P

Slowly the discussion took regarding the model we need to buy and when Karthik was suggesting about i10 and how wagonR also can be a choice. Deepthi was suggesting auto model of i10 (she actually meant auto geared).

Karthik: Sowmya auto is the best... you will not at all have a problem on the roads. Even your mom will not have a problem. It's the most convinient option.

Me: Yea you are right... you think so too (quite excited) even I was thinking about buying auto... infact me and mom too were of the same idea.

Karthik: You guys can sit in the front comfortably and then zooom.....
Me: Two people in the front? we own the vehicle, we will sit behind...not like the sadakchaap sitting in the front...

Deepthi: You think we are sadak chaap to buy it... It's the luxury segment one dear..
Me: Oh we have luxury segment even in autos? What would people around tell you... that you have bought an auto.. of course we will have a driver paying us...but still... of course it will solve all my woes and I can travel bindaas...

Karthik: You are thinking of buying an auto? Did you mean autorickshaw...
Me (Dazed...rolling my eyes) : Of course I meant auto...er! autorickshaw...

Both of them burst into laughs and then they explained me about autogear system of i10. But jokes apart... why arent these guys so powerful in almost taking that crucial time of your commuting and driving nuts. If it takes just 50 rupees by the meter, they want 60 bucks. Bangaloreans have spoilt the auto valas by paying them those extra and made them numb to the dire, genuine needs of commuters.

I even get erratic requests and SOBs... "Madam agar traffic ho tho 70 varna 50... madam please baithiye..." and he almost stalks me inspite of refusing him. I urge all of you not to entertain such drivers and report to the nearby traffic police.
"Madam aap se kuch paisa nahi lenge... sirf junction tak chod denge..vahan se aapko auto mil jayega..main tho usi taraf jaa raha hoon." ... AAh !! another great reformer in the form of the tri-tyred auto fellows. Muft mein tho aaj kal koi kuch nahi karte. So totally ignore such idiots straight.
"Hello Madam (this time in english)... I can drop you till Apollo Hospital...You need not give money" jee tho chahta hain ki tumhe chappal se maar doo... I know there are educated un-employed auto drivers, but such generosity is a strict no no..All we hyderabadis need is auto with un-tampered meters who can drop passengers safely with abiding traffic rules.
Last but no the least... "Capacity 4 only (including the driver)" and these bastards almost make it 6... and why?? Just because they charge less.. 2 rs lesser than the RTC bus.And when you try to board them without the BS sharing, 30 rupees... I was like why the hell?? charging the other invisibly-outside-hanging-devils's charges too....And the worst part is they frisk the traffic police, and the traffic police loots them too and does nothing in return. Why cant educated passengers refuse to board these autos? Why would the men agree to keep their vertical halves of their body outside and then want to travel? Why cannot the traffic rules be stringent enough to atleast make these autos to just accomodate THREE and not more than that..??? I know APSRTC is having their own problems and of course they are trying their best to increase the buses post the Telangana agitation's property loss.... But we as a civilian can't do anything to imbibe some sense to these yellow-coloured mobile public road rulers and who do not have any sense other than asking extra money, tampering meters and overloading vehicles with people??

Feb 7th and 3 Idiots...

2010-02-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

Yeah I had heard about the movie and its controversies regarding the credits to Five Point Someone of Chetan Bhagat. Feb 7th not that I remembered what happened an year back...but after I was inspired by the movie I was amazed at the timing of the impact it had on me.
Five Point Someone, way back I had read in 2004, it was about 3 friends who had cgpa of 5.**** and maintained throughout and how much they couldnt understand the system of IIT Delhi. The backgrounds of the characters is same but the whole crux of the movie is completely different. I pretty much didnt like the book when I had read when I was 20 because I expected something realistic, but it turned out to be a fiction amidst the realities. It is kind of a book which you can read it once and throw in the shelf kinds.
3 idiots comes with the basic idea, know yourself, know what you want to do in life, know where your heart lies, just dont go with the rules of the society that what would mom and dad wants out of you.
This is pretty much the sentence where JK Rowling in my previous post tells in the Harvard commencement function that 'There is an expiry date for blaming your parents for steering you in wrong direction'.... Even I dont hesitate to fall in that category, but I have taken an year long to absorb into my senses. My mom was and will be responsible for what Iam today, she was the one who had given me the sky to spread my wings and fly.
Having done engineering in the country's best engineering colleges, I was always proud of being there and do my bit, friends whom I had passed out with are the ones I can count on forever whenever any mountain falls on me...as Aamir says they have made me 'KAABIL' for any situation...also which JKR says..."They had even allowed me to give their names to the death-eaters..." damn I love JKR and Harry Potter. Well that's a different story that I had lost the whole Harry Potter set in Bangalore.... I can still build all the book collection someday....
(I had stopped quantifying material things I had lost in the past 2 years...because I have lost my precious moments, which can never come back to me and which would take me a whole lifetime to earn them and store them in my eyes :D)...
Another striking message I had taken home is enjoy every moment like a river, not caring what's gonna happen next...what's gonna happen to the invested moment... just live for that day....Best was Javed Jaffri's role....just telling us, study for enjoying, gaining knowledge, not for the degree... man! Javed is so funny..love him...
Ranchod das Shyamaldas chanchad...and Phunsukh Wangdu.... kya names..do they exist?? And was that place Ladakh in the closing scene...I doubt whether water can be so blue....
What was that passionate thing in me which just swoons and make me glued...Initially I used to thing about Event management because I had thought I had coordinated Praxis 2004 of B2 Assoc and it feels so nice to see that WhoDunIt still is an event where my assoc still hosts at every APOGEE...Let us see....
Coming to the movie, when I was witnessing the plot, I was excited, I loved the opening of the movie with Madhavan...
By the Madhavan had come a long way from Sea Hawks, and there was his first doordarshan serial (DD1) where he was so thin and then slowly he shared screen space with Mansi Joshi in Saaya. Sharman Joshi is by the way Manasi's brother and Rohit Roy's saala, is an excellent comedian. .. aha what a connection!!...

One flaw in the movie, I had thought was, when the professor sees that the papers are mixed up, he can surely take their papers out by knowing their roll numbers, they are so famous in the college....This I fail to get it and mind you, professors are quite strict about timings....And they dont show us they going home for vacations etc... ??

And if Rancho would have informed Lobo about what he was doing with his helicopter, he could have saved his life :-( I havent seen suicides in BITS, but yeah a tleast one student in a given year used to die because of some illness, epilepsy, cardiac arrest and what not. And our then director, Venkateswaran, have performed various hawans for the well-being of students, anyways...now the campus faces some other problems with the students post BITSAT.

Iam elated with the movie, did not really find the juvenile comedy vulgar at all compared to the most ridiculous, idiotic and stupid so called comedies in Tollywood (by the way my dad didnt like it though...) Just felt how I wish I get back those 9311 days,2144,4107 days back... "Give me some sunshine, Give me some rain, Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again""Saari umr hum dar dar ke jee liye,ek pal bhi ab humein jeene do jeene do...."

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

2010-02-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

She describes how she chose literature against her parents' wishes of asking her to chose a vocational course because of their extreme poverty....

Sri Mayapur Dham

2009-12-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

I needed a vacation, infact my mom and dad needed a break or a diversion. I didnt care where it was.But my brother wanted to plan it all by himself.All I knew was it is somewhere in West Bengal and something related to ISKCON (International society for Krishna Consciousness) which he is a part of from the college campus.

Sri Mayapur Dham is 140Km from Kolkata and it is the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Prabhu part of the 'Bhakti Movement' in the North which I had ready in my Social Studies in my 9th class.

The morning was as pleasant as it can be.After I stepped out, I realised that calmness around me in the surroundings, all I can hear and chant was Hare Krsna maha mantra. I have heard the significance of it from my brother,but I internalised the soothing effect it had on the mind. As soon as I entered the temple, a puff and a wind of blankness just hovered around.I dont think so any person having that sensitivity will deny what everlasting impression that temple environment would have had on him/her.
There were all foreigners,student groups swaying in devotion. One thing I need to mention here is, that surrender-to-God thing in dance can never be had in everyone. Have you watched 'Khwaja-Mere-Khwaja' song of AR in Jodha Akbar? What's the most striking thing in that? In telugu it's called 'Aaarthi', that eternal sense of devotion which fills in the dance. And from no-where I have heard George Harrisson's 'Govindam Adi purusham'. I just felt that honey just entered my ears deep down to the heart. And then what the curtains opened to reveal the God.... what a memory... I just have no words to describe, just felt like staring Him into his eyes standing there in that crowd and just sway. If you stand in the first row and look into the God's eyes, it feels like he is just pulling you into himself. He has that magic around which would make you feel and just stand there and look into Him, that's it.
Look at the Gopikas who just glance at God with mischievous and envious stare at the Radha Rani.If standing in front of idol brings so much peace, how about following the mantra everyday. Not that Iam one of those regular chanters but I somehow sub-consciously became fan of the place. There is something magical about it.
Srila Prabhupad ji founder of ISKCON started it in 1920s, where he had published numerous books on Bhagvad Gita in India. He renounced from worldly life and entered United States in the 1960s, as people in India refused to give that time from their material life to chat the Hare Krsna mantra. When he returned to India and got the foreigners along with them he said these are my dancing 'white elephants' as white elephants are rare. Now there are around 500 temples all over the world owing to his dedication, we are able to taste the sweetness of Krsna Consciousness. This is the Samadhi Mandir of Prabhupada ji which is around 100 feet tall. However tall we built his, it is always going to be lower in heights compared to what He had given us.

Panchatatva- the five devotees of Advaita,Nityananda,Chaitanya Prabhu, Srivasa and Gadadhara are the followers of Chaitanya Prabhu, the incarnation of Krsna are devoted most in Mayapur Dham. This is the painting on the ceiling of the dome of the samadhi Mandir. Mayapur Dham is an island in the river of Hooghly tributary of Ganges and one of the islands of Navdeep dham in Northern West Bengal. The whole village has temples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and birth places. Chaitanya Prabhu also known as Gauranga as his body is in the colour of molten Gold.
The food out there are, rice,chapathi,aalu sabjee,papad just served hot for everyone all from the fresh farms in the village.
All along the village doing nagar kirtan, I just felt that there is nothing beyond devotion, chanting. Are we staying in a fake world all the time? The sense of devotion is the realisation of eternity as my mother says. All these constant thriving for money, fame, promotions, recommendations in peers stand baseless and unnecessary? Does yearning for love from spouse, parents and friends is just a drop of what we should be doing from God? If we love God and love him as much as we do with our loved ones, we get more love from them? I just realised that watering Krsna with love and devotion is nothing but watering the trees from roots rather than just watering the branches and leaves.
Prabhupada ji says that he who becomes a perfect devotees can become perfect employee, perfect spouse and perfect in everything he/she does and they are said to be my disciples / followers.
Somewhere down at the end of day one I had felt may be just one day was enough to see the place and the God, but I realised that not even a single day is enough to just stand infront of God and glance him through his eyes.
Having a bath in the Ganges was so soothing, I had thought that it was my life-time experience to go in a boat in a river so serene and calm.

Time and Mind...

2009-09-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder whether it is people who are bad or is it bad time that hovers good people...
I never believed in destiny nor did I in fate...I still believe life is all about choices we make... and that is nothing but destiny....
There is nothing called a good decision,tough decision or bad decision... it is just that time is tough enough to rule over mind to force us into a decision-making....
Decision-making is the ultimate power a time can give, its fraction to us to conquer over its uncertainity....
And mind does the calculation part to choose between two....again it's all about choices and it is the path where it is leading us... thus our 'destiny'....

A new beginning....

2009-08-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

What do you do when sometimes the reality of life just comes and stands in front of you....You do not know whether to embrace it or escape from it..

What do you do when the evil side of world or your worst nightmare just haunts you every second.... You just bury yourself in a blanket and refuse to come out of it....

What do you do when you really want to break yourself out of the shackles of it, but cant really do it....because you really need that overwhelming energy to just pull yourself from it..

What do you do when someone you really counted betrayed but your heart still is not ready to believe it happened to you but always urges you to keep up to it, argue with heart that it is not true....

What do you do when you just come to a stage that you got defeated by time and you stand infront of it and say ... " I can't..I really can't"... and you just realise it keeps standing on top of your head and give a giggle for what has been happening....

What do you do when you take months together to come to terms of the worst nightmare of the past...wake up in the middle of the night,go out and stare in the balcony to curse the solar system, rotations of earth for it's routine 'day' and 'night' transformations....because you hate to sleep and you hate the black blanket on earth and you hate 'night'....

What do you do when everyone around you, in neighbourhood, friends list and that special friend comes and greets and asks "How are you doing?"... deep inside you just want to flush out everything to them but end up giving a smile(y) and say "Iam fine....".....

Atlast I found the answers to all the questions....

Just stop evaluating, started to come to terms with life, take things in and plunge into my wonderful future....

Take it as an opportunity to turn into a new leaf, it's gotta be a new life with a new perspective.... :D