August Rush - a must-watch for music lovers!

Back to talk about another movie... lol! Some movies strike a chord in us, and I just have to write about them... anyways, it is better than some of my other melancholic writings on this blog... lol!

August Rush is an awesome movie with great music... the music combines the older styles with the modern styles and comes out to be totally soulful... The "Moondance" track was absolutely breathtaking... and the picturisation was amazing too... Sitting on the top of a building, meeting a nice guy and having him sing a song for you... with this haunting music in the background... is that not simply "out-of-the-world" kind of romantic? The other track "Something inside" and "This time" were captivating too. Apart from the music, I was totally enthralled by the voice and the accent with which they are rendered... totally delightful! "Raise It Up" was a really soulful rendition... The duelling of guitars by the father-son duo was so very innovative (maybe it is not... I have not followed the history of how a guitar is played.... whatever the case, this was beautiful) And the final rhapsody... I have no words to describe it... genuinely mesmerising!

The music aside.... the storyline of the movie, performances, conversations... undeniably terrific! Be it the defiance in the eyes of Freddie when he confronts the bullies at the boy's home that he believes he would meet his parents... the total sense of loss and helplessness in Keri's eyes when she finds that her son is alive and she has no idea where he is... the carefree, adorable, gripping character of Jonathan... or the villainous, repulsive character of Robbie... each and every single actor has given his best! Serendipity and sentimentality are two pillars on which the movie stands... and both hold it up well... I was totally bowled over by the movie...

As they say in the movie, music is ubiquitous, everywhere... you just have to listen! We should try to listen to the sounds, rather than just hear to them... and we should just try to follow our heart, never lose hope... a great movie with a good message, with music that leaves us spellbound... what more can we want from a movie... Absolutely loved it!

Enchanted... the real world meets the fairy-tale world!

"Enchanted" is a breath of fresh air. The movie is cheesy, with lots of music. If you are one of those people who hate cheesy movies, it is definitely not for you! I personally loved the movie. It is not real... totally fake! But well, who cares... it was fun!


Amy Adams as Giselle has done justice to her role... she is pretty and innocent, and her transformation from a fairy tale imaginary being to the real world person is well portrayed. Patrick Dempsey as Robert Philip, a father whose wife has run away, who has lost his belief in fairy tales, is credible and handsome... well, the Grey's Anatomy star just gets better with age, huh? ;)


James Marsden has nothing much to do in the movie other than being cute, cheesy and funny... he manages to deliver that with perfection! This photo just proves it... ;)

The other actors are great too... Idina Menzel as Nancy, the girl whom Patrick wants to marry till he finds Amy; Susan Sarandon as the evil queen; Timothy Spall as Nathaniel, the only character with shades of gray... all the actors and the movie as a whole is lovable!

The movie had a great song which I found totally adorable... "That's How You Know..." is totally overboard, but delightful nevertheless! I was almost ready to start singing and dancing with Giselle! lol... totally out of character for me, but well... I've started appreciating art more these days! I really want to attend a live musical or a concert one of these days ;)

Anyways, the movie also had some food for thought... would you be Giselle, who prefers coming to the real world to a fairy-tale existence... or would you choose to be Nancy, who prefers going to the fairy-tale world to the real one? Maybe, it is true that grass is always greener on the other side? ;) But, I guess it does not matter much as long as you are with the person you love and he loves you too... cheesy? of course! hehe... practically speaking though, I would say we need to have at least some bit of a fairy-tale in our monotonous life... it adds on a touch of magic, change, optimism? And it just makes it better! :)

Priorities and options

Sometimes, work has a soporific effect on me... today, it was rather because of the fatigue in my body... my usual shot of caffeine did not help much either! So, to keep myself awake, I started messaging a few of my friends on Orkut... a simple form of amusement I guess... :P Anyways, I came across a statement in one of my friend's profiles... really interesting declaration... here it goes:

"Never make someone a priority if they consider you an option"

It got me thinking... My mind started going into an overdrive (probably trying to keep itself awake, I guess... lol), weighing the pros and cons of the remark.

Is it really right that we should not make someone a priority if we are just an option for that person? Oh... by the way, if this is true, how applicable is this theory with respect to other issues in life? For instance, consider this situation of employment that might arise. Given a choice between an offer from a company who really wants you, and another from one who have you just as an option; the latter having a slight advantage over the former, what should you choose? Should you prioritize the latter offer even though you are just one among many options for them? Or should you choose the former where you are considered a priority? Of course, there are a lot of other factors that go into making such a decision...

I guess I digressed from the topic, an annoying habit of mine I haven't been able to get rid of... as much as I have tried :P... anyhow, coming back to the topic of human interaction, I think we should really be careful how we interpret this statement. When it comes to the normal course of interaction with people, such as social networking, friendships and the like, if we really start weighing the priorities placed by others in the interaction or relationship, we might eventually end up with nothing at all... It is the aggregate of all experiences in our life that make us who we are right now... the painful experiences as well as the pleasant encounters...

But we should really know where to draw the line, so to speak! If we feel that we are just giving too much of ourselves for something, that is just a whim or a fancy for the other person involved... Well, it is time to think... Are we really just an option? Do we really want to make them a priority? I guess, at such a juncture, it would do our own self esteem a world of good, as well as the others who care about us, if we realise the truth of the situation and move on... When this happens with casual acquaintances or even some friends, it gets quite challenging to face it... but it gets far too worse when it happens with closer friends or when love is involved! The most important thing to realise is that any interaction or a relationship is a two-way street... as you sow, so you reap... ;)

I personally feel that we should try to keep ourselves as satisfied and upbeat as possible... not always feasible, but well... when we reach a certain saturation point, we do come to the stage where being mournful doesn't help and it just seems too pathetic... lol! And we should then try to be happy with ourselves.. try to make others happy... try to help people who really need it... this always surely helps! And finally, trying to get back to the topic of discussion (before I go off along another tangent... lol), I feel we should always have this remark about priorities and options in the back of our mind, but we should look at life with a more positive outlook (the eternal optimist in me trying to peek out here I guess...).

Anaamika...

I was talking to one of my close friends a few days back... we were discussing about the twists and turns in life... in general... how easy it is to talk to someone who cares and understands! How difficult it gets sometimes... how strong we grow with time... it was a very interesting conversation!

And here is a song I have been listening repeatedly for the past few days... lol... I know the lyrics by heart now...

Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si, Palkon Pe Reh Gayee
Jaise Mere Sapne Bikhar Ke
Jale Man Tera Bhi, Kisi Ke Milan Ko
Anaamika, Tu Bhi Tarse
Meri Bheegi ...

Tujhe Bin Jaane, Bin Pehchaane
Maine Hriday Se Lagaya
Par Mere Pyar Ke Badle Men Tuune
Mujhko Ye Din Dikhalaya
Jaise Biraha Ki Ritu Maine Kati
Tadapake Aanhen Bhar Bhar Ke
Jale Man Tera ...

Aag Se Nata, Nari Se Rishta
Kahe Man Samajh Na Paya
Mujhe Kya Hua Tha, Ik Bevafa Se
Haay Mujhe Kyon Pyar Aaya
Teri Bewafai Pe, Hanse Jag Sara
Gali Gali Guzare Jidhar Se
Jale Man Tera ...

And a rough summary of the song in English...

Like the shattered dreams that were left on my wet eyelashes...
May your mind also burn, Anaamika, may you thirst for the companionship of someone.

I brought you close to my heart without knowing you, without recognizing you...
But in return of my love you showed me these days.
Like I suffered the period of separation, tormented, sighing, may your mind also burn.

Why did my mind not understand that a relationship with a woman is like a bond with fire?
What had happened to me? Why did I fall in love with an unfaithful...
The world will laugh at your infidelity in every lane that you go by.

Interesting song... it is a deeply stirring emotional play of words... What an exquisite name for someone you love... Anaamika... "nameless"... the named "nameless" person you love... I was wondering if you would wish that the person you love would burn in agony just like you... maybe you could wish that they thirst for your companionship, but I do not know how you could wish that they agonise for you... maybe it is true that "any" relationship is like a bond with fire... cannot avoid them, have to get burnt and live with it... huh? Maybe... maybe not... Nevertheless, a really well-rendered, soulful, beautiful song!

Time flies by... waits for none!

Time... the most fundamental quantity... cannot be accelerated, nor can be decelerated by anyone. Whatever happens, time plows ahead! The same rate, the same measured steps... One of my crazy imaginations again... here it comes... Can anyone stop time? How wonderful it would be to bottle away some time for oneself! The good memories to be re-lived again and again... Discard the bad ones... but would we be the same people we are, if we had not gone through all the experiences? Maybe, maybe not... nevertheless, that does not mean we have to experience the bad things...

Yesterday I was watching a movie, as usual... when the daughter asks her mother if there was one thing that she could change in her life, one thing that she could go back and do it in another way, what would that be... and the mother answers..."Nothing"... hmmm... and the explanation she gives is that she is happy now and without doing the things the way she had done, she would not be at this moment right now... Interesting justification... how many of us would be able to say this about our lives? Personally, given a choice, I can surely come up with at least a couple of things that I would redo in a different way in my life. I think a lot of us mere mortals, would have a plethora of things that we would want to change in our past...

Does that mean we are not happy with our present life? I do not think so... things are fine.... going on okay... maybe not the best that they can be... they could really be better! But they could be worse too... some decisions we make have an everlasting consequence on the rest of our lives, on the people around us... we can just hope that they are the best under the given circumstances...

I also came across this series called "The Last Lecture"... if there was one lecture that you can give before you die, what would it be? Really fascinating concept... and I watched an episode where a professor from CMU talked... it was a really inspiring lecture... Other than the fact that I realised that we have to live out life to the fullest, looking at his zest for life, one other element that struck a chord in me was when he mentioned that "If you do not like a person, it is just because you have not spent enough time with them; just give a person some time and you will eventually like them". I think that this is totally true. There is at least one quality on every person that will make them affable to us. A truly enlightening lecture.

Lol... this blog again looks as disorganised as always... trying to bring in some sort of organisation, some sort of flow, some sort of surity into the blog, just as we keep trying to do with our lives, I end this one now... :)

Life... is it not weird?

I saw this quote a couple of days back : "Just when we think we have found all the answers (okay, not all, but most of them) to life... life changes the question." I thought about the statement and realized the enormity of truth it conveys. Life is so filled with twists and turns that we are never allowed to settle down. Just when we feel we are done with some issues, new issues arise, new things come up. Maybe this is life's way of counteracting monotonicity.

Just when you do not know some facts, life opens up a plethora of options which you never knew existed! And just when you are trying to try out some new stuff, you realize that some things are just ingrained too deep in you to get away from! And just when you have accepted some things are just the way they are, life shoots more arrows at you (some in a good way, some not too pleasant :P). When you think you are following a straight road, without any split ends, you find yourself at a fork, wondering what to do. And sometimes the decision depends on other people! And if we are used to being in control, this situation makes us feel like we are in a free-fall... no gravity, just falling in vacuum... into an abyss of darkness? or into a well of pervasive bliss? It would be easier if we are in control... however, that is not the case always... some things do depend on others!

Is it not weird that we do not like monotonic, humdrum affairs of life, but we still would like to have a break from the wild jaunt life takes us on? I do not know if it is fine to generalize this feeling though :P. Personally, I feel that way for sure. Sometimes I prefer the straight roads in Texas to the curved, fun-filled ones in California (or at least I think I should)... sometimes I just think it might be better to remain unaware of some stuff, and accept things as they are. One of my friends says I think too much and I should not... lol... I guess I should try to follow his advice! But as we all know, the human mind is like an unbridled horse... it runs freely without inhibitions, without control... imagination is unbounded... emotions are illogical...

Lol... now that I re-read this blog, it seems all too weird, too bizarre, too disconnected? haha... I am too simple a person to think of all this stuff... Is it something I am feeling or is it something I just write? Nevertheless, it gives another perspective to be able to read what you have written... more food for thought? Or is the mind too replete for more food?

The Notebook - a timeless love story!

Do you believe in eternal love? I do not know if I do, but I want to... it is really nice to have a notion in your heart that such a thing exists, though your head might say the exact opposite. I saw the movie "The Notebook" for the second time, and every time I watch the movie, it touches me the same way, more deeply though. And I almost cry by the end of the movie each time!

The love that Noah and Allie have for each other is really well portrayed in the movie. You can feel yourself becoming part of the characters, identifying yourself with them, crying with them, laughing with them, loving with them... you lose yourself in the movie. Not only is the love between the protagonists displayed well in the movie, but also the subtle feelings of love and relationship between Noah and Martha, Allie and Matt are really shown brilliantly. The relationship between Noah and his father, Noah and his best friend Fin, Allie and her mother are so close to reality, you can feel that you are one with the characters. The fact that the love between Noah and Allie grows with time, and that they do live happily ever after (it depends on how we see it - I, being an eternal optimist, see it this way ;) ) is one of the wonderful things about the movie. When Noah says that science can only explain up to a certain extent, then comes God, it really touches a chord in you. The letters that Noah writes to Allie are so awesome that a person would totally fall in love with Noah just for the sake of the letters, if not for anything else! You do not feel that it is a movie, but you become a part of the entire experience.

The concept of eternal love is so romantic, I do not know whether I have to say it is delusional, or should I say it is mythical? Nevertheless, I believe in it, or I think it exists. Maybe not every person can find it, but it does exist. As I read somewhere, every person is half a piece of a full picture. Some are lucky to find the the other half, some are not. You can get to love a person, but it might not be possible to be really "in love" with the person. That person may not be your other half, but anyways, a good companion for this life. There is a subtle difference between "loving" and being "in love". What about me? I do not know... maybe in this life, maybe in another, I do hope to find the "other half"... Well, what can I say... I am a hopeless romantic... delusional maybe, but an eternal romantic for sure... :)

Reality and Perception

My mind is a jumble of thoughts now. Maybe totally disorganised, but well I'll try to write them out in as much an organised way as possible. I was just thinking about the way people tend to perceive what they see and observe. And how much reality is different from perception.

Reality, as defined in wikipedia (one of the few knowledge bases I trust ;) ), refers to the state of things as they actually exist. Perception is defined to be the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting and organizing sensory information. Generally, we acquire the facts from the reality, interpret them according to our beliefs, select whatever is in conjunction with our thoughts and organise that as the reality. In this process, the actual reality may be interpreted in a completely wrong way.

People tend to love their perception of things than the actual reality. It is the natural tendency of the human mind, I guess, to imagine that things exist as it intends them to be. Anything out of the ordinary, and the mind tends to question that, and if not able to explain that or to accept that, the mind just tends to ignore the event. Weird, but true. People generally tend to ignore or deny some facts, since they do not want to believe that there is a problem, or they have just accepted that there is no solution to the problem. Well, as they say, ignorance is bliss ;) and with knowledge comes responsibility. It is much easier to live in ignorance than with knowledge of the actual reality and a wrong perception.

I am not a student of psychology, but I am very interested in some nuances of the subject. Some people may argue that psychology is not even a science, a pseudo-science maybe! But well, I certainly believe that psychology is a science, something that needs to be understood in depth. Human mind is one of the most complex concepts in this universe and trying to understand why one behaves in a particular way under a particular circumstance is one of the toughest things to do. This needs in-depth understanding and studying of the behavior of people. This may include psycho-analysis, physiology of the human body and many such related areas. Hence I have a strong belief that psychology is one of the most important and complex aspects of modern science. But even to this day, people are not ready to accept psychology as something important, an indispensable part of the every-day life... I do not know how long it is going to take for people to actual sit up, accept reality (not their perception... lol) and move on in life! Not in this lifetime, I guess... :)

Lol.. I tried to organise the thoughts as much as I could... though I cannot see much of a flow in this blog... well, as I said the human mind is complex... it thinks of all weird things in a weird sort of way! ;)

No blogging for looong - time for another one!!!

Life's been changing... I just remembered these verses of a poem I had read when I was a kid:

"Baduku jataka bandi, vidhi adara sahebha
kudure nee, avanu peldanthe payanigaru,
maduvego, masanako hogenda,
kadegodu, padakusiye nelavihudu mankutimma…"

A great poet in Kannada wrote these verses... and here is the translation: "Life is akin to a horse cart whose driver is none other than destiny; man is the horse who will go wherever he is directed to go unquestioningly." When I was in my eighth grade, I had to learn the poem by heart and write essays about it! I was too young and naive to understand the depths of the poem. And how true it is in our lives...

I have been having this vague feeling that I am totally out of control of my life, it is being played out for me and I am just being led on to wherever it is taking me. I am no longer sure of stuff in life. I used to be this ever-confident, ever-optimistic guy... not that I am not all of that now... but I have taken a step back and looking at life from another person's eyes, maybe... or maybe I am just living in phases, where I am changing constantly from one phase to the next...

Sometimes I feel life is all interesting and cheery, sometimes I feel it is so boring and sad! Sometimes I miss home and friends a lot, sometimes I do not even feel like calling up home or talking to anyone... Sometimes I wish I was a kid going to school without any worries, sometimes I wish I just have to go off somewhere all alone and stay there forever! haha... too weird thoughts for me...

I read the last couple of my blogs and I felt that I have been writing some really weird things... I don't know why... :) Anyways, it's a way of getting things out of the system or thinking out loud, maybe! Anyways, it feels good to write; I had the sudden urge to write now, sudden inspiration if I may so (though I don't think people write such s**t from inspiration... hahahaha)! And so, here pops up a blog!

Deep musings...

Yesterday, I was talking to my mom on the phone, as I do everyday... :P Usually, the way our conversation goes is: what I did for the day, which is pretty much the same almost every other day; if I talked to my brother or any of my uncles; what they did; what they had for breakfast (lol ... what else do you expect if you speak everyday! And unlike in the US, breakfast is an important part of the day back home); and if any new things happened - relatives, friends and stuff. Well, she made a comment about me not speaking much, that I'm not being all happy and interested, like I used to be when I was back in school! Hehe... what can I say, maybe it is true, maybe it is not! I guess I was tired out after I went back home from work and gym (lol... I started gymming again a week back! It's damn tiring till I get used to it again... )

Have I changed? Yes, I am sure I have... As someone said, "CHANGE is the only CONSTANT thing in life." Is it for the good? I don't know... it depends on the perspective. Do I think a lot? I guess I do, maybe I should not... most of my time is spent either on the phone, or on the computer... maybe some time with my roomie watching movies! Other than that, the few other people I meet are at work; I do not know why but I am not too close to most people at work... maybe it is because I have not tried to, or maybe they have not tried to... not that I am a difficult person to talk to... on the contrary, most of my friends would testify otherwise! I do meet some people when I am at the malls and stuff... well they are the random people, who have their own lives, just a "hello, how are you doing" sort of stuff... but interesting conversations sometimes!

I wonder if I would have become the way I am, if I was back home the whole time... no way! Or if I was still in school... again the answer is pretty obvious... no way! Am I happy with the way life is leading me? I guess I'm okay with it... not all gay and joyous... but not sad and melancholic either! In fact, sometimes I think that life is just dragging me along and I'm in this huge wave that's just leading me and I'm okay with wherever it is taking me! I just have this vague feeling of elation and dysphoria at the same time...

On a happy note, as always, being the eternal optimist that I am (or I think I am... lol), "whatever happens is for the best!", though I maybe just "okay" with things... :)

Random thoughts.....

Just some random ramblings... when I was sitting at the mall sipping on my chocolate milk shake, looking at people walking around... I started wondering... having random thoughts... :)

I wonder... how it would be to have life stop... I mean everything coming to a standstill! People just frozen in what they were doing... people sitting in front of their computers chatting away, or working on something.... with their eyes wide open and frozen as a statue... or people talking on their cell phones with their expressions and mouths open and fixed... kids just frozen when they are playing... people with frozen expressions stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing... birds flying in the skies just frozen as in a landscape picture...

And in the middle of all that I just exist... hehe! Nothing to worry, nothing to do... nothing I have to complete or act in a particular way... no expectations to live up to... no one to ask what I am doing! Just exist in space... doing nothing, on my own... I could be whoever I want to be... do whatever I want to do! no one to question me, no one to look at me with approving/disapproving eyes! Just pure existence... all I have to do is exist...

haha.... not that I want to do something that someone would disapprove... but still just a thought! well, just that I wonder how it will feel to have that happen... maybe in some other life... some other time, anything is possible! I supposedly love my life as it is... or I think I really enjoy it... maybe I do... or I think I have to think that way or whatever... hehe... But for now, back to the life I am living now... :)

A new year....

It's been a fortnight since I last blogged... Sumeet came down here 2 San Diego... We had great fun! I turned 24... hehehe... I don't feel much different though! Thanks 2 Sumeet, it was a good birthday... These are one of the times I miss Dallas and home too... :) Anyway, new year's wasn't that great... I mean I didn't go out and party or anything... I do not know many people in this place... Maybe I've got to start to get to know people... Lets' see...

Today, I got a mail from one of my good friends... a long mail, about how the year 2006 was for her and what she hopes of 2007. It got me thinking... how it went for me...



I'm deep in thoughts there! ;) haha.. Enough of contemplation now! The ocean was cool, though! ;)

2006 was good for me too... moved to this new place... miss my friends there... but started a new life here! Its good - has its own bag of advantages and disadvantages... haha... That's what life is all about nah... anyway! :) San Diego is a really great place... people are cool too... 've never been on my own before... here, I am... Even when I was a student, I had friends around me all the time... Here sometimes I am alone... but kinda nice I guess... only sometimes it may get a bit lonely... but always have the phone for such times! I just go out to the malls, sit there and watch people sometimes... hehehe! Nice to be able to just do that - nothing else 2 do, clear your mind and just watch! hehehe... And I've seen all sorts of people here... And it seems so cool and different! :)

And I'm sticking to my motto this year too... "Whatever happens, happens for the best!!!" :) really cool one there... I believe in that and that's how I go on in life... without that I could not be what I am I guess...

I guess I've grown as a person mentally... matured is a better word I guess.. I still remember my first "love"... or what I though was "love"... hehehe! I did have a few crushes before that.. but this was real "love" I thought! Now I look back at myself and have a laugh! hahaha... Seriously now I think of it... I'd never forgiven the person... or I thought it was her loss! Think about being "full of oneself"... hehe... though it might have been true ;) But now I really don't think it was anybody's fault... haha... it was never meant to be! Good for all of us... and move ahead in life! :) Maybe next time I get an opportunity, I won't shy away from meeting her... I care a f*** now... hahaha and who knows what'll happen tomorrow! It's always good 2 say at least a hi/hello nah... :)

Regarding my resolutions, I was thinking of starting to go to the gym... but haven't made it a resolution! hehehe... kinda not sure of that! I need a workout buddy to keep me motivated... can't find one! :(
What else... maybe I'll try new stuff... hehe... but'll make sure it doesn't affect me in a huge way! 'm happy the way I am now! :) And I think I've started this... and hope 2 continue... expect less from others... hehehe... then it doesn't hurt! :) And try not 2 hurt anyone intentionally! That's it I guess... :)