staying.cool

an interesting perspective of our solar system.. a to-scale representation of the gigantic place we float around in.

and an interesting application. to manage windows that won’t go away. very sleek.

can’t think of anything else to say.

originally written on the 22nd, posting today for various reasons.

i sit in a plane this saturday morning, and i think back to a saturday afternoon nearly two years ago; when i tentatively poked my head out of a similar aircraft. i look out the window, across the two seats separating me from them… and see an airport that looks the same.

it seems like yesterday.

as cliched as it may sound, it was a rare bright sunny day when i landed in aberdeen all those months ago; and i remember coming out of an airport wondering what i would find. i remember being struck by the classic scottish scenery, and looking at the winding roads as i rode to a hostel that i had been told about by a guy i was yet to meet. and today, here i am, having explored nearly everything there is to see in this place.
today i don’t know when i will come back. but come back i will. someday.

so many things have happened to me here over the last two years. and all those memories come back now. the life my friends and i led as independent students. struggling together those initial weeks. none of us knowing much, but not wanting to appear clueless. finding out exactly how clueless. looking for part-time jobs. celebrating when we got them. me, actually finding out how every minute in an hour can be valuable enough to earn the five pounds.

starting this space as recreation, and finding the outlet that i may have been looking for. finding people who can relate to it all. finding how weird daylight timings can really be so funny. or so depressing. celebrating that first diwali. marvelling at our first white christmas. a chaotic new year. realising why poets go into raptures over spring. summer, and the real aberdeen finally coming into view. road-tripping for the first time, and discovering one of the most beautiful countries in the world at our doorstep. finally attending rahman’s live concert.
and suddenly my course was over. we were all, technically, “done”.

heading back home for the first time in year since i came to the UK. realising just how much i missed it all. graduation. discovering london. experiencing the coldest winter in 50 years in scotland. and the hottest summer. both seasons the longest possible. road-tripping again, this time trying to see everything. applying for a US visa, to go the next step.
and i’ve finally got it. i’ve spent 2 long weeks winding up. and i’m going home. before i go away again.

all these months later, i think of the things we did. we worried. we looked. we applied. we lived it up. we lived it down. we wondered what would happen to all of us next. we watched movies. celebrating everything under the sun. discussed why that porn star did “it” that way. as well as about the principles of economics. and theology. relating all three topics. i remember going from hopeful and focussed to frustrated and cynical… and finding i was never alone.

we were like a family. we said it jestingly, but thats what we were. there for each other. all the fucking time. and once you’ve seen a guy in his underpants, there’s not much left to hide. and i know we guys will probably always be there together, all the fucking time. docboy, with his gentle smile and that nod of understanding. probably completely corrupted the poor chap’s vocab. richybaba and his practical attitude.. love it or hate it: you have to accept it. i’ve never wanted to throttle someone more. and get away with it. dhiru showing his drive, and mostly irrefutable logic. and one person who cusses even worse than me. i learnt :). toro, or “william”, getting things done, cooking up a storm. one of the guys you’ll be lucky to meet, luckier to be friends with. all of them. i could just go on about the times spent together; the parties, the craziness, the joy, the frustration… life.

and yet there were so many more. ashwin, a gentle giant of a man. bijay and the widest smile i’ve ever seen. lakshmi, her cherubic face. rajiv, a fellow movie addict. mithun, a dude who just hits it off with everyone. the list continues. subrato, a crazy depth of so much.. and crazier about so much more. kunal, ashay, neha, bharat, rajesh(s), harsh… and others - all of us coming together in our little highland city of aberdeen.

i know i’m going to miss it all. a lot. its become like another hometown. the beauty of granite. westburn park; one of those places you never get enough of. the beach: two degress colder than the coldest water you can expect. union street, the VSA charity bookshop (the cheapest books ever !), ASDA, Morrisons, the sprawling campus of my uni, my homes at urquhart road and seaforth road, our “own” merc showroom… and so much much more. its finally sinking in now. its finally over.

its finally goodbye aberdeen.
i’m going to miss you.

yep, that was the subject of the mail they sent me.

i’m not sure if i should say yes. sounds a little off to me. to think its an ad for wedding items sale.

along with a link to a ‘i hate weddings’ group in the footer.

do they just never look at the stuff they generate before sending it out ?

for all the insufferable romantics, and the trivia/techie interested.. those were some unseen pages from google.

i’ll just settle for the hat-tip to dilbert.

[culled here]

sometimes, thats all there is to it.

i applaud rakesh roshan. he knows exactly how to make a movie that has it all. every emotion and possible storyline under the sun. from comedy, tragedy, melodrama, villainy to reunion, flashbacks and tech-babble. and have fun while doing it. loads of fun.
i went to ‘krrish’ expecting to be completly frustrated, a la fanaa. but i wasn’t. i had fun. i mocked everything possible… but i had fun.

[note 1: to kunal kohli - those italicized words point to what the average moviegoer is expecting from a movie. not crap, fun]

which is not to say its perfect. far from it. unneccessary melodrama, songs that make you want to tear your ears out and stupid, stupid dialogue. regardless of how sincere those actors on screen are, you can’t refrain when they’re trying their best to mouth dialogue like

[girl]: mere maa ko kya bataoge ?
[guy]: ki mein tumse pyaar karta hoon…
[girl]: aur ?
[guy]: ki mein aasmaan ke taare ko pakadke laaonga..
[girl]: aur ?
[guy]: ki tumhe sapne dekhna hai, aur mein unhe saphal karooga…

and every cliched “romantic” dialogue in hindi cinema since kingdom come.
plus of course ‘pehna do, na ?’; and ‘tum mujhe chhod kar nahi jaa sakte !’ and blah and blah and blah..

i’ve seen a million articles since/before the release about the ‘indian superhero’. true, to a point. and not so, too. its still, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your taste) a hindi film movie. you have the silly comedy, the gorgeous locales, the absurd situations and so on… but there’s an underlying note in the film that kinda holds it together. usually, this is passed off as ‘the film has heart’.
there is no doubt about that.

mr. roshan spends his own time catering to the cliches everywhere. which gets a tad irritating at times. but hell. its a hindi movie. people apparently like that kinda stuff.

‘krrish’ is not about the realism, or fantasy. its in an in-between world, where you’re a kid. and you believe that when superman exists, he really exists. you don’t care about trivia about his planet, or how exactly he came to know about it all… you just know ‘superman good. superman beat up bad guys. superman fly. superman have superpower !‘ and then try to take off into the hall of your house. and thats how ‘krrish’ is meant to be seen. not comparing it to the mythology of superheroes who’ve had 70 years to develop a complete biography, and possible logic about it all.

the obvious plot-holes exist unfortunately, but more fun is figuring where each action sequence is “inspired from”(’hey, spiderman !’ ‘hey batman !’ ‘hey m:i 2′ ! ‘hey matrix 3 !’ etc).. there are actually some similarities to ‘anniyan’ in the ‘krrish’ style; especially in the look. a major ‘deja vu’. at some points, roshan doesn’t know where to stop with the scene. but why krrish has to have his signature move like he’s riding a gigantic cycle is still beyond me.

the CGI is definitely a new level of work for hindi cinema, and more importantly, hindi cinema budgets. some wirework is simply crazy and a lot of it obviously inspired, but nevertheless the scenes are slick, taut, and look good.

naseer and rekha simply re-affirm status as greats. to convincingly be a super-villain not aping ‘mogambo’: naseer kicks ass. manages to look uber-cool james bond type villain too. and rekha actually shares more chemistry with hritik than his lady-love priyanka - who incidentally plays second-lead competently enough. and looks amazingly hot.
and hritik… well, he works. body, moves, action, expressions… he makes it all seem believable. and makes it fun. and of course, he is the superhero of dancing. jaws. wide. open. plus, without trying to sound gay, he has to be like man-candy.. looking like that.

watch krrish in action like you were a kid. enjoy it - silly jokes n all. have the time of your life ridiculing the silly situations and melodrama. get floored by the action. and you’re leaving the theatre with a smile on your face.

its about having fun.
just don’t try riding the gigantic cycle. you’ll just look stupid.