Chaat, movie and everything in between

Another weekend has come and gone. As we move closer and closer to the end of summer, I feel this urge to hang on to it more tightly, to fit in a lot more things to do, to be outdoors, to walk longer...cos these warm days will soon be gone.

* Watched 'Rock On'. If its one thing Farhan Akhtar excels at, it is superior dialogues coupled with contemporary storylines. As like Dil Chahta Hai, the characters in this movie are modern, contemporary, young and hep. FA can act reasonably well. This story, as have most reviews mentioned, has shades of DCH in it. If you're in your 20s or 30s, you will definitely relate to the emotions and sentiments. And thats probably why this movie is such a hit. Apart from of course, girls raving over FA's looks(I choose to not dwell on it, good looks are relative and debatable). It doesnt have to be about being in a rock band when you're in college, it could be any group activity that you have participated in while growing up- such interactions, such misunderstandings, such relationship angst is bound to happen. Friends part, a group breaks up- a band gets disbanded. You move on, grow up, life's focus changes, responsibilities grow. Before long, you realize there's a void in your life, that can only be filled by those very people...the ones you grew up with, the ones that were your co-passengers along a very important journey in a slice of life. Some get the opportunity to reunite and relive those memories, some part forever learning to live the lives they have made for themselves, while dipping into the vast reserve of memories for some sepia toned preserves of growing-up.

Watch Rock On, for a feel good trip into the land of nostalgia, if nothing else. I wont call it the greatest movie of the year, I wont say its out-of-the-world awesome, I wont say its the greatest of the greatest... all I'd say is watch it for some interesting characterizations, the start contrast of personalities and the depcitions which are real and mostly relatable.

* Had a chaat party this weekend. The menu included pani puri, sev puri, masala puri(a Bangalore speciality), bhel puri, pav bhaaji, mango lassi, rasmalai and curd rice for those finicky southie types. Pics, you ask? Well it went by so fast that the thought didnt even occur to me till after the fact. Take my word, it was good. Finger licking good! Just the type of spread Rads would've loved- I mentioned bhel and rasmalai right? Errrr...of course I did invite her. But she(not surprisingly) was oober booked. And then ended up copping out and eating dibba roti, she claims!

* Tried and tested Google chrome. Did you see the webcomic for Chrome? Hm, its got some memory issues that need to be taken care, its not fully there yet- me thinks. The one good thing I did notice was it fully blocked all of rediff's popups very effectively, without needing an external pop-up blocker that even Mozilla seems to need to overcome rediff's annoying pop-ups.

* I finished reading 'The other Boleyn girl' by Philippa Gregory. That's what my next post is gonna be about.

* Yesterday(Sept 15th) I hear is now officially called 'Black Monday'. World markets plunged, real estate market here in the US has been on a decline, food shortage crisis happened earlier this year, commodity prices have skyrocketed, gas prices neednt be mentioned- so whats that word that defines any period of time in world financial markets where there's sustained high rates of unemployment, interest rates, inflation and other such declines?