Movie Review: Avatar

Awesome! Unbelievable! Mind blowing! Spectacular!

I am not even going to wait for the end of this post to say all this, cause after seeing this masterpiece of visual effects last night, I can barely keep myself from jumping up-and-down my seat as I am typing this.

I am not a really big movie person, and usually prefer watching a movie at the most one time at home. And if the movie is special enough for me to play it again, I usually move straight to the interesting snippets. But I am ready to go back to the theater today and watch the movie all over again.

Plot:

Typical. Nothing earth-shattering here with the exception of the twist that human beings are not always the good guys. It has a sweet and light romance too; smart Na’vi girl who initially thinks she is stuck with a moron of a humanoid guy-in-a-Na’vi body, but you can guess what spending time with a moron does to the femme fatal in the movies



The earthlings are in some fancy space ship and around a planet named Pandora in 2154. Its commerce that drives them there. They seek to mine a very valuable rock-thing called unobtamium. Of course the natives, who are gentle nature-loving beings, will have nothing to do with it. Armed with just bows and poisonous arrows, can they beat the guns and awesome weaponry of the sky walkers (that’s us earthlings)?

Visual Effects:

This is where I would have given them a standing ovation all through the night and morning too (if I lasted that long). Spell binding is the word. At the end of the first half, I was already so excited by what I saw (though the story had not picked up too much pace till then) that I was already making plans to watch it again… in 3D of course (Did I mention, this was my very first 3D movie.. and what an amazing experience it turned out to be).

James Cameron.. you are amazing dude! The movies beauty comes not from the excessive ornateness on screen, or the visual lightning and sound effects, but simply because its truly out-of-this-world. The visuals will leave you gasping and fill in your senses inside out. They totally rocked mine. I can’t remember being so excited after seeing a movie for… well… I have no idea since when. The music scores are worth a hear too.

Technology:

The ideas of the future look utterly amazing. One really cool thing was this; imagine u are checking out something on your PC screen.. and you want to keep checking for updates or something while you are walking elsewhere. What do you do?? Wellll….. you use your finger tips to drag the image from the PC screen, and drop it on your hand-held tablet, and keep checking it out as you are walking about. How awesome is that!!!! And I loved it cause its so very possible.

The art of Extreme Sleeping

The art of extreme sleeping is not something that can develop overnight. Its hard. It takes months, no… possibly even years to perfect. The state of blissful unconsciousness is something that usually fills me with a sense of well being and content. If you follow the path of perfecting this art rigorously, you will have discovered one of the finest pleasures in life.

After all, what are dreams made of if not from sleep?




Give me a chair, and I will sleep soundly. I do not find a pillow necessary, but I would always appreciate one. That’s on my top 3 list of gifts I would like—pillows. (All my darling friends reading this, please note ).

I am happiest on the weekend snuggled in bed lost amidst my multitude of pillows. Edrea does NOT share her pillows. Given that I live away from home, my sleeping habits are not as actively discouraged when I go home , and of course in Pune I am the big boss.My friends know my priorities very clearly. Its sleep first, the rest comes after I open my eyes.

Being a firm believer in the power of afternoon siesta’s, I cannot help being disappointed that our current U.S.-driven culture has not stopped to think sufficiently and consider the wonders that a power nap can do. Each to his own after all. I prefer the wonders of an action packed 6-7 hours, rather than a rather than an in-between 8 hours any day.

Tips to sleep:

* Pretend that you have to wake up. It always works for me.
* Study something. Text books have always worked wonders.
* Watch a boring movie or sitcom. I have fallen asleep this way too.
* Eat a lot. Obvious.
* Look at the picture of the yawning baby at the start of this post.

These should work. If they don’t, I would think its because you have not stopped thinking. Remember what I said in the beginning “Its hard.”

Groan! Now I am feeling all wooozy. Gd’ nite … Gd’ morning … Gd’

To read -- Open by Andre Agassi

We usually write reviews for books that we have read. I haven’t read this one, but somehow I feel too excited by the undercurrents that surround it to ignore it. Open—By, Andre Agassi.



Andre Agassi is a man that I would love to meet. Not because of himself, but because he married my all-time favorite tennis star, Steffi Graf. I was in school those days and remember quite clearly the excitement I use to feel when I used to watch her matches on T.V. with my father. Those memories are part of my favorites. Why did I like her? Well... wasn’t she daddy’s girl, just as I was

Getting back to Agassi (that’s what he will be referred to from now). The wild child. Enfant Terrible. Quasi-cripple. And after reading an excerpt from his book, reproduced by NPR that I recommend you all read, I call him “human”. He gets as temperamental as all of us at times, may be more.

The news going around these days is about how he absolutely “hates” tennis. Can you take that from a former world number #1 tennis player? Love and Hate sure are strange bed fellows.

The book is his autobiography. I believe he spared no one. Not himself, not his game. And I definitely believe he loves them both. In his book though he has admitted to drug use that he had previously denied, I believe that his legacy will not be tarnished by it. His reputation has not only lasted through many years, but has also been put through the paces of his own personal trials and tribulations.
He had some rather interesting beliefs. One of them was that “image is everything”.

Now it has become know that his previously famous longish hair was actually a wig he wore to cover a bald spot. In fact, he even blames his loss in the 1990 French Open Final was because his mind was more on his wig than his match. He said something to the effect of “I prayed before the match … so that my wig would stay on!” He eventually went bald after his maturity started setting in.

His return to tennis in 1998 after most of his earlier contemporaries had retired, was based no longer based solely on his previously deadly combination of his skill and youth, but was now dependent on his new-found fitness that somehow compounded his skill. He was back with a bang.

I would not consider him as the poster boy for tennis. But I am definitely going to buy that book.

Movie Review: Julie and Julia

Well.. this is a habit I missed .. my blogging!! :)

Anyway getting back to the main topic under discussion–Julie and Julia.



Released a while back, it tells the story of two serventless lasses in their own separate times, and how the love of cooking unites them (in a way).

Julia Child is the wife of an American foreign service officer who has just come to Paree (Paris , but I just love saying it the way the French do ;) ) sometime after the 1st or 2nd world war. She is looking for ways to do something, as being a decorative ornament in her husbands life just does not suit her gregarious personality. After multiple try’s (and failures) she finally realizes, thanks to her adorably sweet husband that what she really likes to do is eat!! (Yeah right. And I thought I was one of the last eating lover around).

So she resolves to get a diploma from the advanced course of some culinary college, where with her never-say-die attitude and happy-go-lucky nature she wins over the master chef (you have to see it to believe it, cause when she started that course she didn’t know how to even chop an onion :P ). Then comes the major plot of how she writes her world-winning French cooking book (the book is real people)…

Getting to Julie now. She is our 21st century girl next door, who loves her cooking, and is stuck in a job that she can’t stand. She is drowning in the misery of being the least accomplished of all her friends who are busy chasing mullti-million dollar deals. Having a knack of leaving things unfinished, she is trying to turn things around with the help of her amazingly wonderful hubby (girls eat your eyes out with this guy), who with his wholesome charm and optimistic attitude, convinces Julie to finish Julia’s cookery book of some 500+ recipes in 365 days (that’s one year), and blog about her experiences.

She faces some questions all of us bloggers asked ourselves at one point of time like, does anyone eVeR read my blog :( ???!!! It makes her more real for me.

The challenges Julie faces as she embarks on this seemingly impossible journey is what makes this story endearing in its I’m-the-girl-nest-door-who-is-not-perfect plot. Oh yes… and how can I forget the amazing shots of the various yummy french food.

This movie reminds me of the amazing feeling of a warm baguette with butter (Oh yes.. did I mention, this movie supports what I have been saying all along… you can NEVER have enough of butter!! )….

Bon Appetite Mes Amies!!

Summary: Watch it!

Funny Advt

The Joke of the Day (look carefully)...

Home

I think that I have associated the word "home" with a pack of bricks and stones for a log time.

They say its the people that make your home. I agree.

There are also places that spark in you feelings of protection and content. That's the place with memories that you have with those special people. I would say even a coffee house can be marked as a part of your minds home, if that's where you feel most at peace.

Mostly I find that home is the peace that you find in yourself.
When our soul is quietened, and our fears are layed to rest. I would say I am home. I am one with the universe. And all is well with the world.

Esscence of change

We are the change we think we are. The power of the mind cannot be understated. Usually we accept only that change which we initiate. We are resistant to modifications in schedules that we have become accustomed to.
Is change bad or good?
I would say neither. Change is like a fact of life. Its there, whether you want it or not. Best accepted.
It would be best of we could channelize our energy and move in the direction of the current. And remember that we can change course along the way, for we are blest with a pair of eyes that allow us to see whats coming up ahead. Missed chances and opportunities are part and parcel of that great plan that we are not aware of. They are threads that should not have been picked anyway, else we will not get that glorious pattern of life that has a way of showing you that what is best for you, is truly better than your imagination can ever think of.
And there are always signs, hints, or whatever else you can call it.
These are markers that show us lifes lessons that are yet to come, or be learnt if we do not pick up the markers.
C'est la vie.

Lentan Sacrifice

Sunday Sermon

There is a story in the Old Testament (in the Bible) about the sacrifice that Abraham was supposed to make to make to God. It was the sacrifice of his only dear son. An important point to note is that Abraham and his wife did not have children for many years. He became a father only in his 90’s. In the intervening time, he was also prone to self doubt and loss of faith to the lord. His most precious offering thus, could not have been more painful for him.

Yet, there was Abraham that fateful day, with his son at the altar and a knife in another hand. We cannot begin to comprehend such a sight. It seems to speak of unfathomable crudeness. Yet, we cannot deny this. This is what is written. This is what God asked.

Just as Abraham is about to strike his son and complete the offering, Goa sends an angel to stop him. Then Abraham is of course, relieved and happy; for God has spared his only Son. But God only asked him to do that as a test of his faithfulness. We often say, we will follow God in whatever we do; we will do as he asks. But yet, when God asks us for the ultimate sacrifice, where do we stand? Do we truly believe that we would be able to leave behind the ties of this world and go forth and truly do as God asks us?

God did not let Abraham sacrifice his Son. But yet he sacrificed his own, so that our sins may be forgiven. So that we may have a shot at eternal life and salvation.

This lent, we need to understand, that there is nothing wrong with blindly trusting God. I am sure that was the only reason Abraham went on to the very end, with what God wanted him to do. It was not because he had such fear in the lord , or because he had so little love for his son. On the contrary, it was because of his great love and faith for God that he went on to do God’s will.

What did he lose by it?

Nothing.

On the contrary, God promised him that his further generations will number as many as the stars in the sky or as many as the grains on sand on the shore.

What do we stand to lose by trusting God so much?

Nothing. Instead, we stand to gain more than we even imagined.

We are half way in the season of lent. The 40 days before the death and resurrection of Christ (Easter). This is the time for us to undergo radical abandonment of our daily ties and sins. Its time to leave all that we have behind, and move out of our old hollow shell. Sometimes, what we may perceive as pain and suffering may truly be the only way that God can purge us of our sins and move us to that plane above the everyday joys and sorrows, where we truly become one with the universe, and with its creator.

It is after all only when we reach the depths of despair in our soul that we are able to touch that raw energy in our soul that enables us to become uncommon heroes.

Book Review: The Bridge of Madison County

The Bridge of Madison County

A novel

By , Robert James Waller

It begins with a rather strange dedication , “For the peregrines”

That’s a very ambiguous term when used as ‘descriptively ’ as it was used , it could mean a traveler from a far away land or even a variety of falcons.

Then the story begins…

“There are songs that come free from the blue eyed grass…”

A very beautiful start from one of the most amazing novels I have ever read.

And its not even the beginning of the story of the book , its more the start of the authors deep and profound journey through the lives of two simple and extremely cosmic individuals (the usage of the word cosmic will be understood only if you read the book , and you should by all means).

Being a bit of a romantic girl , the experience of emotions , not just through the story (which is simplicity itself) , but also through the profoundness that the author has written the book left me on a roller coaster of emotions.

There is a piercing sweetness , a haunting melody that will play in your ear ..

I do not like sad stories , but this one while technically classified as sad , will leave you with the taste of “autumn leaves” and multi colored sunsets..

This is a true story , between a man , a woman , and the fate that got them together and then separated them , but left them tied as “willing slaves in each others hearts”. It is passion and love of the most purest and universal form.

I do not know if I could do justice to this book , its just around 170 pages , that too in large (comparatively) font , but the punch it packs is that which very few books manage to capture.

If there is one book that you read throughout the year , I would strongly advise you to make it this one.

Sunday sermon

Would we love for nothing?

Would we love our partner not motivated by looks , charm , intelligence or money…

Our parents we may argue , what do we have loving them .. but that’s again about dependence being a reason , and perhaps subsequently we love them as a habit..

We have many religious books telling us to love without reason , season.. do what ever you have as a task un conditionally..

There should not be motive in our actions , for example we work for the sake of work , we love for the sake of love .. in doing so we become self – less , we become part of the cosmos ( as many spiritual books might put it .. also the speaking tree on many occasion aka. TOI ).

When a child is born , it is the cosmos .I had read that when the child feels when it moves , it is that the universe is moveing, when it cries , the universe cries .The child and universe are one single entity.Its not that the universe will cry along with it , for that accounts to 2 seperate and unique identities…It is separated from this universe as it grows and finds a identity in self.. this identity is but the EGO..

Ego can perhaps be equated to fear in many occasion ; fear of rejection , fear of failure ;fear in its most pure , raw , unadulterated form.

Great spiritual teachers like the Buddha often spoke about the ‘enlightenment’

What is it then ? Could it be described as losing ones ‘self’ into the ‘cosmos‘?

Imagine a dark empty void .. that’s what I imagine the cosmos as.. but then again … I can also imagine a cloud of white light in its most pure , raw , unadulterated form..

Is it for most part , the interpretation of ‘self’, either as part of the ‘darkness’ or the ‘light’ then ?.

The 'self ' again can be classfied as the conscious and the sub- conscious , are these two parts of us in sync?

Do we listen to the little voice in our head?.. we may give it many names from the conscience to the sixth sense , or perhaps we can even call it that part of the cosmos that we have not managed to adultrate with our worldly experiences….

Ah.. these musings…

Hi there!

A formal greeting has been one of the corner stones that has been characteristic of most of out modern civilizations. Whether its was for the weather , or the time of day .. or even of the state of one another’s health.

Is it the term of acknowledgment? Or is it a term used to show care or concern?

Either way there is more than the superficial meaning that we bestow upon those small but very crucial words.

Being caught up in our own world we often fail to acknowledge or recognize the wholesomeness that those good manners that our parents and grand parents tried to imbibe in us.The crucialness of those mannerisms is of course lost today , given that we live in a very floating society anyway. The rigid hierarchies and customs are more lost and out of place in our communities today.

The lives of our next door neighbors need not concern us, as ours need not concern them. Privacy has become the need of the hour.

But I often wonder , the more we pull away from peoples warm touch , does it merely point to a greater need to be part of something akin to those close knit communities that our societies all were based upon all those many years before?

And to think that it can all begin with a formal greeting.

Sometimes the wonders of the world are in the fact, that there may be such complex consequences as repercussions, to the simplest of actions.

Do we find ourselves lacking in grace today? Then perhaps its time to turn around and say hello to the person next to you…its time for some chat and some smiles.

Communication Rules

Wow.. check out the heading….

Did I mean "Communication Rules/Laws." , or was I talking about "Communication Rules/Rocks!"

Communication is an ever evolving and often underestimated medium.We have so many means of communicating these days, from our good old snail mails to video chats, these are all ways of supposedly bridging us closer together.

Yet in this torrent of information overload, I often fear for myself; that what I hear may not be the message that I am supposed to get, or even the message I am giving may not be the message that my receiver is getting.

I am hungry. In my mind I want nothing more than a plain burger, and I ask my friend for something filling and satisfying; he may be from china and may interpret it as a bowl full of soup followed by noodles and rice. The cultural gap.

I want better estimates for projects, more time for example, and I tell my manager. He thinks that I am annoyed with working more than 8 hours a day and can’t understand why that is a problem, cause that is how the job is done. All that time I am thinking, if I have more time to code and test, I will catch more bugs and this way, there will be lesser number of defects and our productivity can be directed else where. The we-live-on-different-planes gap.

I am talking to a friend on some mundane and everyday subject, but all I am thinking about is dinner. The you-are-so-not-reading-my-body-language gap.( Yup! I think about food a lot.. being the perennial gorger )

I am talking to the client about the recent fall in hit rates on their website, which might have to do with the obsolete version of XXX software that is running their web servers and the heavy java applications that don’t really help the speed. I am in other words, trying to give them the “hint” that they should consider a newer faster version of XXX. However the client is thinking “I don’t get this. Let me just shake my head and say Uhh-huh”. The Classic.

So what do we do?I mean, imagine this, there you are standing pretty and patiently explaining and talking to the receiver, who is so not getting it! So what’s the point about losing the point?

Well, for one, why do we communicate?Sometimes (or is it mostly) we talk about ourselves, we want to talk about our joys, sorrows, fears and all.

Other times it’s for others. To ask them, make them appreciate or understand something about us or about some other third item. Occasionally we even try to tell them about themselves.

Sometimes, we want them to hear what we say, agree with it and if needed, go ahead and do it.( Oh my! That’s quite a tall order ain’t it?)Other times it may be to offer empathy, joy or to share relief with the other person (people).The ones I like best are when we all share a laugh

So is the other receiver “getting” you?Well, there is only one trick I know on how to find out.Change the receiver state to active participator. Ask him/her questions. Make sure there are questions exchanged the other way round too. It just helps wake people up when I talk many times

Or of course, the other times, just speak to the point. Like, “I want a Burger… with loads of cheese”.

Do you have any great ideas on making the other person “get” what you are trying to “pass”?