Here's an idea

Why dont we all grow weeds in our lawns ? I spend the entire Saturday removing weeds from one corner of my lawn! You start off with lot of energy trying to get them by their roots, and then as you get tired (due to the heat and what not) it starts to get into your head. The weeds are now winning the battle and they seem to hold on to the ground more tightly than ever. Now your mind starts playing tricks on you - you are imagining holding a blow torch and burning the last one down to the ground grining an evil laugh!

I admit the lawn looks better (at least the part which I worked on) after the fact. But all the while you cant help thinking - why not have a weed that looks pretty ? These things grow with minimal sunlight water or supervision. Lets face it - they dont face competition from weeds (duh!) and bugs dont seem interested in them. So, all you scientists working on seedless watermelons and freaky egg plants, here's your next assignment. Make weeds that look pretty. There's a huge demand for those!

Things I discovered during my road trip

1. I love the Twix ice-cream bar! It has just about everything I want from my icecream - chocolate, caramel and crunchy cookie pieces. Sad that it does not last as long. I will run on the treadmill as long as I have to, in order to enjoy my Twix ice cream bar without any guilt!
2. I love oranges. I sort of started this at home prior to the trip but there were stretches on that trip when I devoured 3-4 oranges at a go! God knows if all the Vitamin C is preventing me from getting a cold now, but I ended up eating healthy, while enjoying it.
3. Even though I deny it, I do enjoy visiting man-made structures like the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument. I was very reluctant to visit these crowdy places, but it was either the weather or the high spirits of the people that made me really have a good time. I would have loved it if someone sold bajjis off the streets :)
4. I got my road trip mojo back! I had a terrible cold while driving towards Virgina but recovered after a night's sleep. I did not mind the drive on my way back and in fact enjoyed it a bit. All charged up for my next long drive now!
5. Uma has become quite a hiker now. Not only did she push me to get on a hike on Saturday, she maintained a steady pace while climbing uphill - something I can never do. My strategy is to walk as fast as I can, while making frequent stops. Uma maintained a steady pace while making lot fewer stops. Got to admire the patience
6. I need to re-invent myself on the photography front. I thought I was creative with my shots, till I realized that I am repeating myself too often. So no more of those close up shots of wild flowers or long exposure shots of streams. Time to think differently.
7. I am getting tired of the songs on my ipod. I probably forwarded through a dozen songs before playing one. It could be because I have not updated my ipod in a while. I need to listen to different kinds of music.

Memorial Day 2009 road trip - the short version

Here is the fact sheet from our long road trip.

Started from Indy on Friday (the 22nd) at 5 pm. Had dinner at Taco Bell along the way (at 8:00 pm). Reached Roanoke (Virginia) at 2 am in the night battling a cold and drowsiness (had to pull over the last 45 mins and have Uma take over!).

Woke up on Saturday (the 23rd) at checkout time. Rushed out, and had breakfast at Waffle House. Drove to Shenandoah Park, along the Blue Ridge Parkway in 4 hours. Did a 3 hour 3.5 mile hike that took us to the Doyle falls. Drove to our hotel at Harrisonburg, VA after another 2 hr drive. Spotted a bear cub sprinting across the road about 20 feet from our car! Watched the Nuggets lose at the hotel. Had dinner at a Mexican restaurant close to our hotel.

Woke up on Sunday (the 24th) morning at 9 and drove back to Shenandoah. Did another 3 hr 3 mile hike, this time to a panorama point showing good views of the park. Started driving for DC at 2:30 and reached The White House, at 4:30. Walked around and saw the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Reached Aruna and Kanna's house at 7:45 and had dinner there. Drove back to Harrisonburg by 11 pm.

Woke up on Monday (the 25th) morning at 9 and had breakfast at a bagel place nearby. Loved the Berry bagel with Maple cheese spread! Started driving back at 10:30 and reached Columbus, Indiana at 7:30. Watched the Nuggets beat the Lakers at the comfort of home!

Rooting for your team

     Did you ever notice that you have always been rooting for "your team" all your life ? As a child, one of the first teams I liked was the Indian cricket team. You knew that Ravi Shastri, Srikanth and a bunch of other cricketers were real losers and were no match for the stars on some other teams. You knew you couldn't win with this team, yet you rooted for them. When I came to US, I picked a new team to cheer - the Denver Nuggets. When I started following the team, I knew deep down that there was no way we could win much with this team. Yet, night after night, my emotions ran high when the team lost matches, and I screamed myself hoarse cheering them to win! I rooted for every single player, however ridiculous they might have been. 

   Now, as years passed most of the original Denver team got traded to other teams, and now I found myself annoyed at how bad these players used to be. I could not believe that I used to like these players. I see myself going through a similar phase with the IPL, in cricket. I saw an article today in the newspaper saying that Andrew Symmonds (an Australian player) might be fit to play for Deccan Chargers  (the Hyderabad based team). I was a little relieved on seeing the news as I was hoping that my team makes it to the final four. I did not care, if they demolished Sehwag and Dhoni's teams along the way. I was prepared to even support Andrew Symmonds for this. Andrew Symmonds. Abey Maakki!! What's going on here ?? 

  Are my loyalties so shallow, that they can be compromised ? Do we associate ourselves with "teams" for no logical reason ? Makes me wonder about all my prejudices. 

Recently watched movies

In no particular order

Angels and Demons: Leave aside the fact that it was a book first, or that there is a controversy involved in the movie. You can watch this movie for the action involved. It will be interesting to see if any director considers making a third movie, without a novel as an inspiration.

Rating 3 on 5

Pachchai Kudire: Happened to chance upon this movie, while browsing. Uma got interested with the initial scenes. The heart of the story is about an uncouth menacing man who changes for the good eventually. What I liked about the movie was how they captured the crude ideas that this man has when he initially wants to turn "good". The idea of being good, is not easy to comprehend, and he eventually does more philanthropic deeds. Namitha acts surprisingly well.

Rating 2 on 5

Mamma Mia: Loved the songs as I have always. Got to hear a few more songs of ABBA that I hadn't before. When we were kids, we used to make up short stories, during which we inserted movie songs (out of context) to make it sound funny. Looks like someone took this idea a bit further and made this movie out of ABBA's songs. One thing that takes your breath away is Meryl Streep's energy. I was getting tired seeing her prancing around to all these vibrant songs!

Rating 2.5 on 5

X-Men origins : Wolverine The prequel to the X-men comics was atually better than I expected it to be. Watching this movie made me think that the first X-men movie was better. When I went back and watched it, I wasn't really sure any longer.

Rating 3.5 on 5

Multiplicity: What happens if a man clones himself multiple times ? The premise of the movie sounded interesting. I watched it on DVR. The movie was funny in parts but I guess I was expecting something else from the movie. It bothered me that each clone did not feel ownership, and let the "original" Val Kilmer boss them around. Kudos to the guy for showing enough variation across the characters!

Rating 3 on 5

Johnny Gaddar: I loved this movie. I dont watch Hindi movies on a regular basis, and for good reason. I hate to see yet another khan opening his arms wide open for a new heroine to run in to. This movie had a novel story line, a tight execution and a good choice of actors for most part (excepting the lead). At the risk of hyping the movie too much, I would recommend it heavily.

Rating 3.5 on 5

A Wednesday: A phone call received on a Wednesday morning sends the Mumbai police into a frenzy. The caller intends to blow up bombs placed at multiple locations unless the police are ready to negotiate. I did not like the idea of Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah in the lead roles. Anupam Kher is not cool and Naseeruddin Shah is way too cool for their roles. The supporting cast does well though. Again, I like the fact that it does not feature yet another khan gyrating to loud music!

Rating 3 on 5

In defence of Oldboy

There are two reasons why I am trying to come to its defence. One, I picked the movie (without knowing ANYTHING about it) to watch on Netflix and got heavily criticised by my wife and two, I liked the innovative story line.

This movie is definitely not on my list of best movies watched by any means and I dont intend to glorify or recommend it to even a third of my friends. The simple reason being that individual tastes vary, and I am pretty sure most of my friends might react in a way that my wife did. I am trying not to give away the story line, so you can continue to read without worries, if you have not seen the movie yet. In my mind, the director could have made a movie with a simpler story line, which would have had less taboo topics. In doing so, it is possible that the movie might have appealed to a much larger audience. Infact, I am pretty sure that some filmmaker in India is toying with the idea of making a movie on similar lines with a story line that gels well with "Indian sentiments". However, this particular director did not. He chose to stick with the story line, and chose to live with the comments. To his credit, he got a lot of positive attention which is good for him.

I am a strong advocate for creative stories. I like paying attention to the story line and viewing a movie as I would read a book. I like movies, and I consider myself pretty open minded when it comes to new ideas. Point being that this movie has a novel idea. I have heard that it has been compared to Memento and I think that it is pretty silly to do that. It stands alone and is as unique a movie as I have seen. The reason why it does not make it to my favorites is because I thought it could have been much better. It should have had better accompanying visuals and it should have had better team to dub it into English. Yes, pardon me for not understanding Korean and bring a prick about it, but the English version is the version I saw and understood. Production values are important for this reason.

Did you see and like this movie ? Let me know why!

Star Trek

Uma and I caught this movie on Saturday. I have never been a Star Trek fan, preferring Star Wars to it. The movie did enough to rake my interest in this franchise. I might not have appreciated the nuances of the movie (like the original Spock showing up). I admit I am not a Trekker, so my views might not mean much. However, I have the advantage of analyzing the movie as any other movie-goer. Warning: Spoilers ahead

] So pardon me when I say that the whole idea of forging a friendship between Spock and James T Kirk, at the behest of the older Spock seemed very contrived to me. It seemed like the director was running out of time to tell his story, realized that Spock and Kirk were heading in opposite directions, and brokered a peace between them!

Having gotten that out the system, you have to appreciate what a fine job the script writers have done. The characters of Spock and Kirk came out as instantly likeable. You root for these guys to become better friends and at the end of the movie, you realize they have a very good team, and are curious to see how they face their upcoming adventures. All in all a likeable movie. I would give it a 3 on 5.