The rivers roar in Pune

Mutha and Mula the twin rivers of Pune are raging. The two dams which stop these rivers normal flow has been filled to the brim by this years late, yet torrential, monsoon. The last time the sluice gates had to be opened the water level in the rivers were still less than they are now. The only time the water levels were more than this it was in the 70's and it was an all-out flood due to collapsing of a section of the Khadakwasla dam. So anyways, as I was saying the waters they are a raging.

This time around the Corporation has done a good job of warning the slum dwellers who were staying on the banks of the rivers; so there hasn't been any tragedy. In fact it has become the spectacle of the decade, with people thronging all the bridges to watch their gutters turn back into mighty rivers. I had a glimpse and it was frightening. The river looked ugly and beautiful at the same time. The only reason I could reflect of the beauty in the powers of the water is because I had my feet firmly rooted on terra firma, the river a mere side show in my everyday life.

What it would be to be in the centre of that turbulence? How one must feel when this giant just rolls over your land, your home, your loved ones? Chilled to the bone I was at such thoughts. Scared to death to even visualise myself in those waters! Gives one a clear perspective!!! Nature always manages to do that!

Now the rains will abate in a matter of weeks, the dams will close their gates and the river will become a gutter again. I will miss the river. I have laughed at its sorry state from the day I landed in Pune 6 years ago but today it humbled me. It explained to me that its sorry state was the sacrifice that was made by it for the betterment of the children of the land. Today it showed me what it had sacrificed. I will miss the river. It taught me a lot in while merely passing by. Nature does that!!!

Quality ... never assured!!!

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Another Hallmark event coming up

Yup, one more chance for the card companies to rack in major moolah -- Happy Friendship Day. Since I will not be playing to their whims, and since I feel it is criminal to bog down servers with inconsequential "Happy Friendship Day" emails I will use this blog to wish all of you who need to be reminded that I think of you. So here goes,

... H A P P Y .... F R I E N D S H I P .... D A Y ...

Whew! Now that I have got that off my chest lets get back to what is actually going through my mind. Friendship, the concept, the relationship, the fragile thread that can be become the cord that helps you climb, or a rope with an anvil on the other side helping you fall...Friendship. Been thinking a lot about it lately...not very coherent thoughts as you can see but thoughts nonetheless. There is a quote which tries to explain why friendship is so dear to most people. It goes something like this, "Relatives have been decided by God, Thank God we get to decide our friends". I used to use this quote a lot through the years, but only now have I realised the lie that it was, at least for me, at least consciously. I met one of my best friends this week and felt very empty after the time we spent together. As I was thinking back on our friendship I realised that It was not like we were best friends from the day we met. Granted, this whole idea of a best friend is quite confusing, but we were close in a very on and off manner till we got to the same class and remained together for the next five years. And I did not choose to be his friend in any of the years I knew him (of course i did not resist it either). It just happened; just like that! Poof!!! This has been the way with a lot of close friends I have they were strangers one moment and friends the next, the process was instant in some cases and gradual in another, but the point is that I never really had a choice to decide that someone was my friend or not; they just were. And That Worries Me.

That worries me deeply. It worries me because there is no specific inter-dependencies or give-take relationship between my friends and myself. It worries me because I have based my whole life around the fact that I have a family of friends with me. In other words my existence, to romanticize the notion, depends on idea of friendship being the highly pure notion touted by everyone. And it has been...and if you know my friends you will know that it will always be. They will always be there. That is a trust that will never be broken. But I still worry. I worry whether I will be there for them...whether I have ever been there...in a real sense that is!!!

And what does being there mean? Should I e-mail all my friends? Should I call them every now and then? Should I have to keep reminding them and through them myself that I am their friend? Should I? Should I? Should I? You see me problem...I am not getting anywhere here, just a rodent in a wheel.

Anyway it ain't like it is some tragic comic stuff which is happening to me here. Just a normal healthy quarter-life crisis [smile] The last two years have been great in that I have managed to meet a lot of my friends again, though sadly only for fleeting moments. In a very roundabout manner, these meetings and discussions have been instrumental in pushing me away from the limbo I was in (and towards the confusion I am in right now [smile]).{Many Thanks to my friends for the push in my thought processes} And here I am again ending up thinking more deeply about friendship itself [hmmm...] Funny how it always comes back to that.

So here I am entering 1st of August with friends on the top of my mind. Don't expect any emotional emails or poems or tears from me(though you can depend on my laughter or my sarcasm any time of the year[deep rumbling laughter]). And do not wait for my call...I will call you when I need you [ha ha ha...that was fun]. But believe this; you all will be in my thoughts, today and everyday. Most of you may never know what you mean to me, but I am who am I am due to all of you. And for that I again Thank You. Best of Luck for everything you are involved in and GOD(/GAIA/SCIENCE/SPIRIT/THE HIGHER ONE/NEO/etc...) bless!!!

The One Name They All Fear !!!

No! I am not alluding to myself, nor am I going to speak about Sauron or Darth Vader. No I speak of Van Helsing!!!

As is obvious this is one of the movies I watched during my break. It was tagged as a horror-flick so I decided to go alone as Megz hates horror stuff. To be frank I am not a big fan of the gooey slimy horror stuff myself and hence was pleased that the the tag was wrong. The IMDB site tags it more correctly as Action/Adventure/Horror/Fantasy/Thriller...and much more.

By now you must be feeling that this is some third rate B-grade bhelpuri of a movie. Well, you are partially right. To be perfectly honest the easiest way out for me here would be to slam the movie. I personally think that almost everyone I know will hate the movie. Yet I must confess; I absolutely loved the movie. Furthermore I was glad I watched it in the cinema hall and not on TV. Why you ask? Read on?(of course with the usual disclaimers)

The movie is NOT a horror flick; lets get that straight. What it does have are all the luminaries from the best horror literature around. And what is does with them is entertain, please note: Entertain not Terrify(though the characters are terrifying in themselves).

So here we have a movie starring Edward Hyde, Werewolves, Dr. Frankenstein?s Monster, Vampires and the father of them all; Count Dracula himself. Furthermore I read that Van Helsing too figures in Stoker?s book but I am not so sure.

They have pushed artistic liberty to its limits with they way they have played with these characters but the results are fun. We end up with a James Bond for the horror world, if you will, and the result is not all too bad. The acting department is not much to speak of, but then again it is an action flick, and hence acting was not something I expected. The fun part was the way they wove the creatures together, giving them a character that you would expect if you have read the respective pieces of literature. So you end up with totally animalistic werewolves to a monster that you care for to the granddaddy of cunning and guile, the Count himself. The story telling is fast, furious, fantastic and wonderfully unbelievable.

However all this would not have been enough. What really carries the movie are the sound and the cinematography. Beautiful is the only word I can us. The set design and attention to detail is also superlative. I did not completely agree with Hyde?s character as I felt it was more ?The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? rather than the original ?Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde? but the depiction was enjoyable. The other characters were very true to my picture of them. So were the locations and this was the best part of the movie. So we had a gloomy terrifying castle in Transylvania while we had the old urban locales of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background(only half completed) Additionally there was always a touch of humour to proceedings as every horror and thriller cliché was lampooned, without losing the plot or slipping into a mere spoof.

All in all a wonderful experience of cinema! I enjoyed it immensely. Will you?