The Truant Tales

Fever 101

That's not a radio channel. A fever has been keeping me from updating the blog. It started off with a temperature, cold and aching bones. I started feeling slow and lethargic, so it didn't have much effect on my daily activities. Lying around the house the entire day didn't alert anyone of my fever, but a loss of appetite shocked everyone.

I used this time of utter uselessness to write two letter to two leading newspapers - 'Times Of India' and 'Deccan Herald' about politicians and how their policies are retarding the growth of the nation. The letter were printed, but both newspapers had edited the letters, to make it from severe ranting to mild irritation towards politicians. SELLOUTS !!!!

Hitslink

Every since hitslink started providing web analytics to opera blogs, the statistics provided have been very interesting. A lot of hits to the blog are from people whose google searches have gone horribly wrong. From 'desperate pee' (?!?!?!?!?!) to 'I love SpongeBob' (?????!!!!!) and even one 'Darsheel Safary is an alien' (WTF!!!!!). The analytics are funnier than the blog.

'Teeri Maa Ki ..... '

The India Vs Australia Test cricket series ended 1-2 with Oz being victorious (Though a fair result should have been a 1-1 draw.). But, what took the spotlight was the Harbhajan Singh's appeal to the ban handed out to him. Eventually his appeal won, and he got a 50% match fee fine instead of the original 3 match ban. Apparently, Symonds misconstrued Singh's Hindi abuse of 'Maa Ki' as 'Monkey', which Symonds considers racist (why?).

While I don't give a damn about this needless controversy, as I feel cricket should take centre stage and what happened on the field should have stayed on the field, the controversy does highlight a disturbing trend. The BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India) totally arm twisted the ICC (Internationa Cricket Council) to revoke the ban. This means that in the future no Indian player can ever be banned because of the immensely power wielding BCCI. And on a rare occasion, I agree with the Australian media.

To understand the financial wealth of BCCI, consider this:
BCCI is the richest sporting body in the world and provides nearly 70% of the ICC's revenue. Its recent venture IPL (Indian Premier League, like EPL only with cricket instead of football) has already yielded a profit a 1.5 Billion dollars, 4 months before its launch!!!. The TV licence was sold for a billion dollars and the teams went for nearly a 100 million dollars each. Cricket in India is huge, more like a religion, and BCCI is making the most of it.

Nijagal, Savandurga, Ramaswamy betta and Hogenakkal

I didn't waste the holidays after all. Did quite a lot of one day treks around Bangalore [Photos]. I'll give a detailed report later, with the Ramaswamy Betta trek having a very interesting story.

Also had gone to Hogenakkal Falls [Photos] Beautifully place, but excessively commercialized. A report will arrive later.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm an emotionally complex man.

HOLIDAYS...HOLIDAYS...HOLIDAYS...WOOHOO....Happiness at last. One and a half weeks of torturous exams are over and now I have a WHOLE month of holidays to look forward to. The moment the last exam got over, ecstasy (the good kind) filled the students. To celebrate, we ran (literally) to the nearest theatre and saw 'Taare Zameen Par'. Now I know why everyone calls it the Hindi movie of the year.

TZP is a great movie. Not a classic by cinema standards, but compared to the mindless mass produced crap in Bollywood, TZP is superb. It's a charming little movie (reminds me very much of 'little miss sunshine'), with no glamour or any sort of 'commercializing' of the movie. Its simple, with a great story and a brilliant brilliant lead. Darsheel Safary's animated expressions are hilarious and the films first half rests only on his shoulders. In fact the only big name in the movie - Aamir Khan (the director too) comes only in last 1 hour of the movie.



The story is simple and is brought alive by all the actors. Ishant is dyslexic and everyone around him has trouble understanding his condition. From the pushy father to the overachieving brother to the frustrated teachers, all are acted beautifully. The boy is then sent to a boarding school in a hope of getting him 'disciplined'. It is in the boarding school that he meet Ram Prasad Nikumb who helps him out. The climax is really touching, and beautifully handled by the director.

It follows the same formula of other 'inspirational teacher movies' like "To sir with love", but what sets it apart is the direction and the lead. Can't stop praising the kid.

In short, the movie was soooo good, that I forgot about the horrendous last week or so. NO, I'm not talking about my exams, I'm talking about the India-Australia Test Series. India has lost the first two test matches. We could've atleast drawn the second test, but dubious and shitty (for the lack of a better word) umpiring decisions that set India back. Aww, I'm depressed again.

Ok, So in keeping with the theme of this post, Here's this weeks lists (Friday night list on a Sunday);

5 Movies that ALMOST made me weep

Firstly, I DON'T cry. Very few movies actually touch me ( I was the only one who was laughing when Jack died in Titanic). But some do get me thinking and sympathise with the lead. So here's a list of movies that almost almost made me weep;

5) Phenomenon : Such a campy movie. Its stereotype and tries to tug your heartstring all the time. But, John Travolta is great. A very thin story line, but my god Travolta is great. Everyone hated the movie except me. He also touched me in Mad City (which would've made the list, if not for the fact that its a crap movie). One more time, Travolta is great.

4) Taare Zameen Par : Its fresh in my mind. The only Bollywood movie in the list.

5) Schindler's list : So very realistic. Spielberg's masterpiece is also his best. Saving Private Ryan was great, but not "Schindler's list" great.

2) My left foot : Wow!!! Daniel Day Lewis (Yes, the same guy who in the horrible 'Gangs of New York') is perfect as Christy Brown, a Cerebral Palsy patient. A Must see.

1) Life is beautiful : Wow, Wow....After seeing the movie mom looked at me and said "Is that tears?", I replied "No, that's dew accumulating near my eye". I obviously saw the English dubbed version, but it didn't dim Roberto Benigni's brilliant acting.

Narrowly missing the cut : Forrest Gump, Legend of Bhagat Singh, Monster, The mighty, The Iron Giant, philadelphia (Damn that Tom Hanks), Vaastav.

5 Movies that made me cry

I usually do a lot of research before seeing a movie in the theatre, but once in a while I listen to my friends (or family) and be a little more spontaneous. Big mistakes have been made.

5) Transformers : All the Little kids in the theatre were so excited that they kept screaming "Optimus Prime", "Megatron". I couldn't believe that I was the smartest person in the theatre. Horrible Horrible movie, that made me cry. Also tied with Tansformers is another Michael Bay movie, Bad boys 2. The first half was OK, but then it quickly disintegrated into utter farce, not even fit for Bollywood. Can't believe I blew up another 100 bucks on a Michael Bay movie.

4) Ghostrider : So tacky, so corny, so baaad. I liked Nic Cage in Matchstick men, Moonstruck and snake eye, but this is his low point. If I had set fire to the 100 bucks, I would've had more fun.

3) Aap Ki Khatir : I never see Hindi movies in the theatre. But a family friend wanted to treat us before he left Bangalore, and unfortunately, this was the only movie playing in the theatre. It had himesh Reshamiyya's music, the 'acting' talents of Akshaye Khanna, Priyanka Chopra, Dino Morea, Amisha Patel, Sunil Shetty and Anupam Kher, (i.e all the B-grade Bollywood actors) all adding to the pain. Its a 'remake' of a really bad Hollywood movie 'The Wedding Date' .

2) Spy Kids 3-D : We were in the multiplex and all movies were sold out except two; 50 first dates and Spy Kids 3-D. Thinking that 50 was a campy love story, we saw SK3-D. What a waste. The 3-D effects were annoying and can't believe that the Oscar winner (for screenplay of Rocky) Sly Stallone was there in this crap. This movie makes 'Rambo III', 'Cobra' and 'demolition Man' look like masterpieces.

1) Battlefield Earth : I didn't see this in the theatre, but I bought the DVD, so it qualifies. Very bad special effects, and a horrible performance by Travolta. John Travolta is horrible. One more time, Travolta is horrible. But atleast the CD makes a great Frisbee.

Narrowly missing the cut : Pirates 3, Matrix Revolutions (I didn't understand a thing), 102 Dalmatians, War of the worlds.