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Cons:
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Donnie Darko

Was intrigued by watching "Donnie Darko" yesterday. At first I thought it would be a psycho-thriller movie but guess what, it actually turned out to be based on time travel. Interesting. Was thinking about the movie over an hour and then went off to watch "Heroes" at Oberoi Mall in the night for the last show at 10:45 pm. Donnie Darko caught me when the book and the happenings seemed to be related to each other. But couldn't grasp the exact meaning until I went through this Wikipedia article now on Donnie Darko. Looked up few other Time Travel movies too. Time Travel fascinates me :). "Deja Vu" is also another time travel movie worth watching. "Deja Vu" required Wikipedia help to understand other timelines. There are more than two timeline than what we actually see in the movie.

Wikipedia is a good reference for all the time travel movies. Some of them looks worth watching. Someday... someday.

Mission 368640

Beads of sweat flowed down from his temples to his cheek. The intense concentration has made his eyes an unblinking pair of sharp lasers that can cut through anything by a mere glance. His hands however belied what his face showed. They were rock steady.

286378 has trained himself rigorously for the past many years. He had practised day and night for this opportunity he was looking at face to face. I must not falter.. that was the singlemost thought that ran through his mind when he edged closer to the machine. His fingers twitched in anticipation. These two key combination will do the trick.. He spoke to no one in particular. Not even to himself. After all, when you are facing death and starvation, it doesn't matter whom you are talking to. He closed his fingers on the machine and readied himself for the impact. NOW.. even before his brain could utter that word and he could blink his eye.. he had pressed those keys. The machine swung into action... the electrons rushed to meet the circuits... the circuits fired up and did what it was supposed to do. Neither any sound was heard nor any spark of light flew. It was all over in a matter of mere microseconds.

The circuits saved 368640 bits of data to the harddisk.

"Mission Accomplished", he said to himself and rose from his seat. He needed to get out in the open air. "Nice time for the A/C to go bad", he swore at the A/C and went for lunch.

Hello

Watched "Hello" recently. I had read the book "One Night @ a Call Center" on which its based long back. Strange that when I think of the book, the first thing that comes to my mind is not the story but our old rented 1BHK at SG Palya, Bangalore where i read the book. Do random things get connected like this in our minds?

That book had depicted the call center life excellently which i had experienced first hand in my first job. The Graveyard Shifts, cranky and stupid customers, attractions, uncertain future and what not. My main grouch with the book was the introduction of God in the climax and fooling the customers with the MS word quirk in the end. Just how justified was increasing the call volume for a night by a hoax which can be found out easily and then they are guaranteed to lose their jobs? And all that for saving the very same jobs which they still leave in the end. Apart from these it was a story which made a good read with all the proper masalas in right place. I disagree with people who try to write off Chetan just because his work is not intellectual enough. He spins a nice story, his writings are easier to absorb and his characters speak normally as we do. These are good enough to make me read his books.

Coming to the movie Hello, I am actually hooked to the title track “Hello Hello.. hello hello hello..” tempted to put that as my ringtone :D. The movie starts with Salman arriving for a show, dancing his usual steps (a must for Salman) and ending up shirtless (another must) at the end of the show. Interestingly, Atul Agnihotri directs the movie, Salman plays himself, Katrina plays God (dess), Sohail Khan acts as Vroom and Arbaaz Khan comes in a cameo as Amrita Arora’s husband. Now only if Malaika Arora Khan also had played an item song it would have been a complete family movie. Gul Panag plays Priyankas character. Taking into account the kind of roles she chooses, it’s hardly surprising that this role was offered to her. Not many choose the kind of role she does. I am not a fan of her acting though. She feels plastic at times. Her eyes seem inert, only her lips emote and not any other facial muscles. Even while looking sad her eyes has this blank expression. But I like her attitude a lot. She’s into a lot many things other than the movies. Which Indian can claim to have driven an F1 car other than Narain? Gul can.

The movie keeps its pace and fortunately doesn’t drag. The song in between the love making scene was an unnecessary one. The climax was bit changed with the introduction of construction workers instead of the dupatta idea. And the virus hoax was introduced in a different way which again brings me to my earlier question. The movie could do with little more polish and minus the family drama. Watch it at your own risk.

Mumbai : First Impressions (contd..)

andu gund. Not only Tanu but the Mumbaikars generally categorizes all of South Indian languages as andu gund. Came to know this when looking for a PG, one old lady asked whether I speak any andu gund language.

hot weather. Being used to the cool weather of Bangalore, the heat here is unbearable. If it wasn't the A/C in office I would be sweating a river here. I sleep in only the tracks and keep the windows wide open at the 13th floor. I need to buy some 3/4th's soon enough. My roomie from Pune suffers the most. He turns off the A/C at night and even slows down the fan from 5 to 2 and sleeps under two blankets with his head covered up!. Poor guy.. must be realllllll hot back at his place.

Mumbai : First Impressions

Politeness. This is the first thing that struck me on arriving Mumbai. The politeness level of auto and taxi drivers here are several notches above that of Bangalore. The taxi drivers at Chennai / auto or cab drivers at Bangalore will beg for your luggage and wont go away till you catch their vehicle or another. Here in Mumbai one refusal and they went their own way. On seeing that I was waiting for my friend some of them even said "koi baat nahi... hum idhar hi hain.. jaane ka mann hua to bata dijiye". I am yet to try my luck in the local trains as they tend to be too crowdy and I haven't gathered enough courage to walk into that crowd. I have travelled in a local train few months ago but it was a holiday then and there were not much people as during a normal day. So, currently my means of transportation is the auto. Consider this, In Bangalore you will come across autos asking for 10 rs or 20 rs jaasti for the minimum distance on top of minimum rate of 14 rs. Most of the autos refuse to take you to your destination. Few will give you a mouthful if you refuse their "offer". Some will negotiate and give you a discount of 5 rs on their asking rate. You will have to wave to atleast 7 or 8 autos before one agrees to take you. Mumbai autos so far has been a bliss. Not only they have a minimum rate of 9 rs but also I have met with fewer refusals. No jaasti business. No bad road excuse. The maximum one auto has ever asked was 2 rs just because he didn't have any change.

Room for Rent. I have been hunting for a room to stay since the day I have landed and the rental rates are the ones which has given me the biggest jolt. Here its common to ask 5000 rs for a space of one cot! and its a Paying Guest accomodation. A Single room may cost anywhere from 10,000 rs to 16,000 rs. I am looking for a PG/Hostel now as I will be here for a maximum of 2 or 3 months. Trying my luck again today. Lets hope something works out.

Food. Maybe its the new taste and the new atmosphere but I like the food. Maybe this will wear off in few days but I have to admit that the local junk food is excellent. Try ragri ragra patties... yummy!