Just finished watching Madrasapattinam - a love story set in British times. The movie is about a British lady who loves a “Madrasi” - a native. She is forced to leave him and go back to London due to opposition from her family and India getting independence at the same time - which forms a nicely interwoven backdrop. The lady then returns after 60 years to search for the native hero.
The filming style is like Rang De Basanti, which employs frequent flashbacks to move the story forward. One thing that I would have definitely liked is for more of period Madras/Chennai to be shown. Overall, I liked the movie though I thought it was a bit lengthy.
Pros
- Good detail in shots of old Madras (which is why I set out to watch the movie in the first place)
- Fast paced
Cons
- Slightly lengthy
- Less of period Madras shown
I visited the Ampa Skywalk mall this evening with family and heeding warnings of the poor parking facilities by Sushil and my father, I decided to take an Auto Rickshaw to reach the place.
The mall’s interiors are on par with most major malls in the country. It is spacious and the shops seem well spaced. The escalators are functional but I did not find any elevators. I found the food court large enough and there were about 20 options for food, which is good when compared to other malls in Chennai.
There is also a play area with video games and rides for small kids but it did not seem to be fully developed - lot of stuff was stashed around the corners. Both the food court and the kids play area mandate getting prepaid cards at the counters for use. While I understand the need for it at the play area - swipe and play games/rides, I do not quite accept it for the food. Not every dish is priced evenly and it is a hassle to get the card charged every time since the food is not cheap. In my opinion, the requirement for card use at food outlets should be done away with. I did not visit the theaters in the topmost floor as I am not a movie buff. I might visit them though if some interesting movie shows up.
Overall, my experience at the mall was good and I’d definitely visit again. With Landmark setting up shop soon and, KFC and McDonalds as options for food, not to mention the theaters playing movies, it would be hard to give this mall a miss.
I have recently taken a new role at work and have been worrying about not doing well on the job. In the past too, I have had different kinds of worrying and negative thoughts about various things. At that time, my father had given me Norman Vincent Peale’s book “The Power of Positive Thinking” to read. This book helped me a lot. So, this time too, in true Norman Vincent Peale style, I decided to confront the worrying thought and asked myself the question - What would happen I did not do well? These are the answers that came up.
The list of choices that emerged made things clear. Out of the five possible outcomes, only one outcome was to do with me being totally replaced, a 20% chance. All these negative thoughts for a one in a five chance? I decided to stop worrying and get on with the work!
The graph above shows how I live my life and compares it with how others do. Clicking on the image will take you to the Flickr page for a larger version of the image. Ionz will build this graph based on your answers to their 9 questions. Around 45,000 people seem to have used this.
2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat is a love story inspired by his own. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes of my Life and found it engrossing. Cricket and politics along with a bit of romance had me interested in the first book I read of Chetan Bhagat. After this book, I decided to read 2 States: The Story of My Marriage as it was generating a bit of a hype in the media. The hero in this love story is a Punjabi and the heroine is a Tamilian. They are IIM graduates and want to get married with their parents’ consent. How they get their parents to consent to their wedding forms the rest of the story. The story is engrossing in the middle but starts to wear down on the reader as it progresses. This is noticeable as Chetan tries to cut it short towards the end. The language is easy and has a generous mix of Desi words, which in this case includes Tamil ones as well. As is the case with Chetan’s books, the language includes swear words (including the F word) in English, Hindi and Tamil.
One gets the feeling that the author is a bit biased towards Punjabis and shows his racist tendencies towards Tamilians, often making the Punjabi characters comment on the Tamilians’ skin color. Also, from his interactions/perceptions, the author portrays Tamilians as cold-hearted people; things that I found unpalatable.
The book is strictly one to pass time and not a great literary piece of work. The story is nothing novel and can be summarized as a rehash of the movies Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
I watch TV when there is Cricket on it or while having my dinner. During dinner, if folks at home watch any serial or program, I refrain from changing the channel. As a result, I get an opportunity to watch serials in bits and pieces. And I have been able to understand the story even if I’ve watched the serial for only a few minutes after missing several episodes, such is the story. I’ve noticed some strange (and interesting) things in TV serials that I wanted to share:
Thanks to Ekta Kapoor, most of the negative roles in serials are portrayed by middle-aged women with heavy makeup and jewelry. The heroines are usually dumb until some major incident happens to the hero and they realize how they had been snoring with their eyes open.
A young, innocent housewife suddenly gets a double who is wicked and wants to knock off people who stand in her way. And I thought serials were supposed to be closer to life. With this kind of a story, this serial has just landed itself into no man’s land. It is neither realistic nor make-believe.
A comedy serial which started well about common, everyday incidents in an average neighborhood seems to have run out of ideas and now thrives only on festivals ranging from Republic Day to Diwali. Even Valentine’s day is not spared. All the cast does is sings (lip syncs) and dances to movie tunes and one guy at the end gives a lecture on how people should enjoy the occasion. This lecture lasts about 10-15 minutes in a serial with a running time of 30 minutes!
A serial on an autistic girl started well with a cute child artiste but lost its charm as soon as the child was replaced with an older one. And more recently, the older child was replaced with a woman who continued to behave like a child wearing stupid clothes and talking trash. Even if this were closer to reality, I am not sure how many people would want to see a grown woman act like a foolish child everyday.
So, is this trash the only thing on TV?
Thankfully no. There seems to be a fairly decent Whodunit serial that is definitely more watchable. Not surprisingly, its ratings have been up too. There have been a few music competitions that bring forth new talent along with high quality musicians and then there are the sports events, movies and songs to watch. So, keep yourselves occupied with these and be careful not to venture into the family serials zone!
PS: All points are in reference to Hindi TV serials as those are the ones popular at home. The title could also have been why I love watching and bashing TV serials :)
Missed Call to the uninitiated is a concept where a caller calls the receiver on his mobile phone but disconnects the call before the receiver answers it, resulting in a “Missed Call”. The details of the caller are displayed on the receiver’s phone. Why would one do that? There are several reasons. Though the primary reason for the missed call is to save on calling costs, there are various other reasons too:
- On arrival at a place: For instance, “I will give you a missed call when I reach there”. This one is a good time-saver.
- Signalling: I saw this when a friend was communicating with his “friend”. Two quick missed calls mean X, three means Y etc. Or a missed call around 8 AM means that you are leaving to the office, around 7 PM means you are back home etc. This worked well for my friend since he was giving missed calls across the globe and saving on ISD costs through his Morse Code like signalling. Other variants in signalling include letting the other party know when a task is complete/reached a state by giving a missed call. All signalling is agreed upon before hand.
- Safety: This is similar to the first one, where one gives a missed call to the other party to notify that he/she has reached a place safely. Unlike the first one, this one may not require any follow up on the receiver.
These are some of the common uses of the missed calls that I’ve come across. And I’ve noticed that the missed call usage is more in India than in other countries making me think that this concept might have originated here. Have you come across any other use for a missed call? Is it prevalent in other countries? Please do share in the comments.
