Idle musings

REVIEW OF LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI     Recently, my wife and I saw the movie "Lage Raho Munnabhai" (see http://msnspecials.in/munnabhai/index.asp for details). Both of us enjoyed the movie, though my wife found the whistles and cheers of the largely collegiate crowd rather disconcerting ! The young crowd cheered loudly when the movie began and it only increased when Munnabhai and Circuit made their first appearance on screen. As the movie progressed, the noise level in the theatre reduced, but when Abhishek made his appearance as the groom of a Manglik girl, the noise level again increased !     The college crowd lapped up the movie. My wife and I also completely enjoyed it. We laughed at the antics of Circuit and Munna and empathized with them as they tried to apply Gandhian principles in today's world and age.     The story of LRM is simple : Munna wants to impress an RJ called Jahnavi and pretends to be a professor teaching Gandhism at college. As usual, Circuit his frien

    MYSORE AND KABINI     Exactly last week, my wife Suma and I took Monday off so that there were at least 4 continuous holidays. We spent two of those days in Mysore and Kabini and this blog is my description of those days.     DAY 1, SUNDAY, 13-AUG-06, MYSORE     We drove down to Mysore, leaving Bangalore after breakfast at 8:15 a.m. It was the first time that I went in my car for a drive longer than 100 km. Since I didn't want the hassle of concentrating on the road and driving and also since we also planned to visit my aunt in Mysore, Ravi, a driver we know well, was our chauffeur for the trip.     Ravi has a high opinion of my car, a black Opel Corsa. The car easily touched 100 kmph and he said that there was hardly any noise from either the engine or the suspension. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive for three reasons : the primary one was the feel of the wind rushing over my fingers when I held my palm up outside the window even as the car moved at high speeds ! The weather wa

THE UTTARANCHAL TRIP ================     My parents, my wife Suma and I visited Uttaranchal hill stations and New Delhi from 9-May-06 to 17-May-06. My impressions about our tour are written below in a day-by-day account. DAY 1, Tuesday, 09-May-06, New Delhi --------------------------------     On the previous day, I attended a training at work and came back home directly. For once, I did something right :-) The amount of packing that needed to be done was significant. As a wise guy remarked "If it were not for the last moment, nothing would ever get done" :-)) The toothbrushes, the shaving kit, the combs, etc. were packed in the early morning of Tuesday, 9-May. The Sahara flight was at 7:30 a.m. and we planned to leave home at 6:00 a.m. This meant that all of us were up by 5:00 a.m., no mean feat for me !!     By 6:00 we were more or less ready. Since the clock was ticking away, Suma suggested that I could tie my shoes in the cab that we had ordered to go to the airport. We

MY COMMENTS ON "THE LORD OF THE RINGS" TRILOGY     One of my earlier blogs is on "The Fellowship of the Ring". If you click on the hyperlink http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/2004/01/a-beautiful-book-fellowship-of-ring.html you will find my comments on it. I said there that I could not wait to read the remaining parts. I was mistaken : I have waited long to read the remaining two parts ! However, today, I fully agree with the Urdu poet who said that the fruit of waiting is sweet ("Intezaar ka phal meetha hota hai" !).     My wife presented me "The Two Towers" for our wedding anniversary. Our workplace was closed from Christmas to New Year. This gave me ample time to finish "The Two Towers", the second part of the trilogy. Having read it and having time during the week, I went and bought "The Return of the King" as well ! I have just finished reading that book today as well and having come to its end, I feel as if a spell ha