So. I am back after a long break. Break from work, break from active browsing and as those of you who follow this blog like hawks know, break from writing here. What did I do all these weeks outside of ushering in the new year in a not-so-spectacular fashion, thanks to the new kid (check the right pane to know who he is) on the blog? Most of those who patronise this website already know it all - still, what follows will mostly act as notes-to-self which I can look back as time goes by; which is largely the reason why I maintain this website at all.
Since I was unemployed/between jobs for around a month, I first piled on kind friends to provide me food, shelter and gifts, baby-sitting their kids in return; I am an expensive baby-sitter, don't you know?
I celebrated Diwiali and joblessness by gifting myself a spectacular 32-inch Samsung LCD TV, which has made TV watching my current fixation - eating into my reading and movie-watching time. It is disturbing to see myself sitting in front of the TV pressing the remote control and going back to the same stale breaking news in the news channels. My deteriorated writing skills are a testimony for this fact, I reckon. On the other hand, I am glad that I discovered Seinfeld in the process. In the past, I had ignored repeated recommendations from friends but as the saying goes, better 'Seinfeld' than 'Friends'.
It's actually not that bad. I actually did manage to watch around 45 to 50 movies since November - again on my outstanding 32-inch Samsung LCD TV - and that is one of the most memorable things I did for myself during the last two-and-a-half months. I shall let you now into a little secret of mine. Circa 2006, I looked up the imdb list of top 250 movies and took stock of the movies I had watched in the list. It was quite disheartening to see the count stand at around 40 movies. What started as a mild interest to beef up the number turned into an obsession and there were times when I used to spend a weekend watching around 7 to 10 movies on the trot - the side effect of which got me a friend in the video store clerk round the corner. Another list that I closely watch is the great movies as recommended by Roger Ebert and in the process, a good number of movies in that list started falling on the wayside too. I guess I have kept my readers' curiosity on where I presently stand piqued for too long and it is only fair to reveal the number right away. When I took stock yesterday, I see that I have watched 201 of the imdb's list of the top 250 movies. I am, as you can clearly see, quite proud of myself at this achievement and it has been a great education in movies for me. I have now my own list of observations, favorite movies, movie connections, unforgettable movie moments and scenes - all nicely written down with great fondness. Since I have considerably satiated my appitite for movies, I hope to actively get back to my reading ways this year.
I stand at the beginning of this paragraph with a blank mind. So involved was I in composing the above paragraph that at the end of it I suddenly feel empty. Oh, yes!! I also watched this genuinely great Hindi film called 'Chak De India'. A friend of mine who doesn't really care about old movies says that I wound not care for a movie unless it is atleast 20 years old to gloat about it. The truth is that I am a reasonable man and we Pathikis give credit where credit is due. I found 'Chak De India' to be a cliche-defying triumph in commercial Indian cinema and I hope to someday write my observations on the movie.
I recently joined a new company - I mean, the company is old, I am new to it - and the work involves... err... when has this website ever been about my work, by the way.
so long and thanks for sticking around.
