Into the world of the primes

The primes… for the movie savvy ones, it refers to Optimus Prime (of Transformers fame) and his ancestors. For me right now, its nothing other than the original prime, the number one. Yeah it’s back to the world of integers and calculus for me. I can almost hear my head sighing and telling “yuck”. After 2001 it’s officially been 10 years since I studied math. Gosh its seems so long…and I’m really that old??!! Its time to tackle the GRE and time has come to dust up all the redundant math skills (if there were any).
Integers, prime numbers, fractions…its not sounding like Greek and Latin as of yet, but then again this is only the first page of the book and I’m already on the blog complaining about it! The GRE math question paper sure did seem like G& L. To put it mildly it scared the shit out of me. Every time I think of it, it gives me the tingles. Even the prospect of MD exam later doesn’t bother me so much. But after all its only 10th std math...guess it should be ok. Now that’s me consoling myself. I’m sure there’s more to come in this blog on the said topic.

The two year 'h'itch

This is just an inventory of what we ate...its silly, but Looking back and not remembering what we did this time last year, I think its better to put it down in print....  I'm already starting to forget; and its been hardly 24 hrs!! So y'day,We went to the Pizzeria. Had a steak which I think is gonna remain etched in my memory (and taste buds) for quite some time. It had a patty of minced lamb, mashed potatoes (heavenly) and some veggies. The most wonderful thing was the mushroom sauce accompanying it. The combination was deadly. Next we had a pizza with lot of veggie toppings...was good too but we were too full by that time. Contrary to our usual practice, this being a special day, we ordered dessert, a tiramisu. It was just wonderful and melted in the mouth. In the end, my tummy was just full to bursting point and i thought i may not be able to drive back. Great food...made a great memory of a  really warm and fulfilling dinner date. 

Urumi...a half baked tale

As the title makes it amply clear...this is about the movie Urumi...starring Prithviraj in what could be his truly first larger-than-life filmy endeavour. No, he doesn't resort to any super hero antics but there is hardly any frame without him ...sorry, of course I remember this one shot, it had just a horse's tail and the mud kicked up by its hooves in the frame!! :-)

Though the balcony was "houseful" by the time we entered the theatre, the reservations we made earlier saved the seats for us. Even before the film started daddy was speculating when it’s going to end...and half way through the movie, the rest of us actually found ourselves doing the same and twiddling our thumbs and peering at our watch dials in the dim light. Since three of us had watched “Pazhassiraja” (hence forth referred to as P) we felt it was unfortunate that this movie was made after it…because the one among us who dint watch the P movie felt urumi was a good take, where as the rest of us felt it was a poor imitation of the P movie A poor distant cousin…

First the plot. The basic failure of the film lies in the inability to work up a tightly knit, compelling storyline. The loopholes stare in your face like black holes. The cast seems to be an under utilization of very talented actors. May be the one who is used to his full potential is Prabhu deva. Even Prithviraj, I feel couldn’t live up to his potential because of the poor script. His character is not fully developed, having only emotions of anger, revenge, righteousness, romance etc. Genelia is a misfit in her role. A similar role in ‘P’ was immortalized by the talented Padmapriya. G comes nowhere near her performance. One sincerely feels the makers had used Vidya Balan in that role. She is wasted in a useless song sequence and a couple of dialogues. That brings me to the songs. They spring up at you like ‘jack-in-the-box’. Kind of startles you…in Malayalam you could say- ‘potti mulachu’. Except for one, all the songs feel like they were fitted in later for commercial purposes. I felt disappointed there was nothing in the movie to justify its title. The weapon urumi became another wasted character, like Tabu in the song sequence. It is a one of a kind weapon; deadly, difficult to master and unbeatable if you use it correctly. The intricacies of the weapon are completely unexplored, other than a couple of shots of the wriggling golden wraith.

The saving grace is the cinematography, every frame being a treat to watch. The art direction is also wonderful with all artifacts and accessories taking one back to the period.
Personally speaking I would have preferred to see more of Arya in the movie, and preferably in the role essayed by Prithvraj. Well that’s all just too much wishful thinking.
Actually at the end of the 3 hr session I was feeling like watching Pazhassiraja again!!

Grow your own turkey!!

Growing your own lunch...seems quite a good idea. Most people would take that to mean having your own kitchen garden and growing some greeny stuff . But what if it means growing your meat? Well...that's the idea chef Gordon Ramsay has about his family's christmas lunch. He was growing turkeys in his backyard, fattening them up and giving them space for 'exercises' in their coop...all for the lunch. He has made his family pitch in too....his li'l kids, aged somewhere below 8 yrs all are a big part of it. They get to pick the turkeys from the farm, name them after famous chefs (there is a Nigella and a Gary!!). They even squeal in pleasure when Papa says "This is Antony and we are going to roast him after 8 weeks" !!

I'm not sure that's quite a great idea...teaching your kids the idea that...well whatever it is...something like- its ok to be butchering. Well i may not be putting it across well. What I mean is, if I were to be in their place, and there was a turkey I was caring  for 8 weeks time, I dont think I'll be feeling comfortable seeing it browning on the grill. So may be if you are telling them its alright  to do that and you dont have to feel clammy about it,you're kind of making them insensitive....or un-feeling....or whatever is the word. The bottom line is I wont feel confortable growing such a luch with my kids.

Supposedly Gordon's take on this is...he wants his kids to know that their christmas lunch doesn't come from the supermarket. He wants to show them how it actually happens. I dont know...may be you could just  buy a turkey and kill it at home and show them that instead, instead of fattening it up and making lunch out of it. Well the line is a thin one...but I know which side I'm on.

Dinner time

This is what we had for dinner.... chick nuggets, salad and liquid.
Usually too many cooks spoil the broth. but in this case we shared the spoils! The chicken nuggets were cooked to perfection by R, with nice brown crusts and soft insides. Then there was the salad I drummed up with tomato, grilled paneer and sauteed, finely chopped capsicum (because i dont like big lumps of green), topped with grated cheese, drizzled with 2 tbsp of olive salt and finally seasoned with salt and pepper. Finally there was mango juice; courtesy tropicana. The end line is, we were jus' too lazy to cook up something... but 'twas light and comfy dinner in the end peppered with lots of blah-blah. Lights out.
PS: this is my heavily picasso'ed snap taken with a mobile...hence the quality

The Anna show - farce or force?

As this is being written NDTV brings the news that the govt has accepted Anna Hazaare's demands for the Lokpal bill. Just now i finished reading an article by Manu Joseph of Open magazine deeming it a comic revolution by an out dated man. It reportedly says anna manipulates his fasts, their ending time etc to the convenient of journalists.
He may be comical or a relic as the outhor suggests.But he is getting things done. He is making the govt sit up and take notice and come to the negotiating table. He may be the rallying point for the middle class aspiratons....but atleast he is left to carry the beacon. While there is still hope out there, lets not kill it. What you or me cannot do, may be a funny, outdated old man can accomplish.
I cannot resist but comment on the Meghana special biriyani we had the other day... aahh..yummy! Still can smell the yummy flavour of the boneless chicken on top and the aromatic masala of the rice. Looking forward to be back there as soon this quasi peritoneal irritation can be confined to the dust bin of memory.

The old timers

Yeah...we won, we won, we won!!! The cup is our's, we are the world champions after 28 long years of waiting. This team was superb, really deserved the cup. Congrats and hats off to Dhoni and his men in blue.

But then this post is not about them. I just finished watching the last 45 minutes of an old- old movie called "Falling in love". There's nothing remarkable in the story line; two married people falling in love with each other and the toll it takes on their families- is how to sum it up in a single sentence. What makes it remarkable is the acting by two highly remarkable people- a young, dashing Robert de Niro and a young, feisty looking Meryl Streep. I watched the whole thing just to see them act. It was a real treat... the subtleties they bring into ordinary roles... just like watching two real people in their situations. I would say they just took the story into a different plane with their performance. But for them I'd have flipped the channel in another 2 minutes. It was pure joy, to watch the two of them, so young and beautiful. so talented...just magnificent. So natural, so spontaneous.

Bleed Blue!!

That's one of the catchy slogans for the world cup I've come across. Dint know how catchy till my friend told "Blue bleed" and I immedietly corrected her! The cricket fever had reached such a feverish pitch that even a forgotten cricket buff like me sat up and caught up with the match on tv. In campus it was pretty much deserted after 2 with just a smattering of the fairer sex here and there. Ah...for once, no guys in sight. The streets were pretty much empty after 2.30. Well, TH and me put it to good use by resorting to our weekly shopping trip! At the end of the match there was the customary jubiliation outside with crackers bursting and some bikers whizzing past on the roads screaming and shrieking. It sure felt weird to hear someone cry out "Bharat mata ki jai". Tomorrow its sure gonna be a complete shut down for the finals. I'm hoping I get to type 'yippee... we won the ggupp'.    ;-)