Monday, January 23, 2012

Life in Nov 27 - Jan 10

I am writing this Life in series ending on Jan 10 even though today is Jan 22. This is indeed unusual but i think this is an admission of late blogging. But Jan 10 was the date i returned back to US from India trip, so it gives a natural end date  and i think combining too much info is not good for a post.

I went to India on Dec3rd, the idea was to work from bangalore for the first two weeks and take next three weeks off as vacation. India trip as always is very exciting and an eventful experience in its own way. The trip coincided with my dad's surgery and it all went well. The last 7 blog posts, cover a few of the big highlights of the trip. Here are the ones that were not covered -

I had a 20 hr stop over at HongKong while coming back. I went back again on to Big Buddha and decided to visit Kahloon island this time. I had mis-timed my sleep so i was tired and sleepy for the entire day, not to mention alone,  so i couldn't enjoy as much as before. But i got to see Chungking Mansions, went for a walk inside and it was a great experience. The articles of Chungking Mansions are so true and this small world is indeed a place to see.  Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions

While i was at home in Dakra, i read many books. Some of them have been documented before on this blog. In addition to them, i reread Lord of the Rings and saw the unedited version of the Peter Jackson movie. I dont think that i have written a review of this book before. Rereading the book for a second time (and that too after watching the movie umpteen times), it was still fun. Tolkien's mastery of dialogue construction and story play is indeed quite amazing. The missing chapters from movie such as The house of healing, and Tom Bombardillo were a delight to read. The uncut movie version has few more scenes which was a delight to watch.

Most of my trips were done on flight but i did take train from Ranchi to Delhi. Here is a perspective shot from train -




On my first night at bangalore, i was hungry at 2 am. I went to Leela and had aloo paratha for 300Rs. It was a good one but 300 rs is quite too much.

Devi Arts foundation. Went to an exhibition that combined choreography and delhi life together at Devi arts foundation. Went with Aarti and thanks to the place suggestion by Parul. I was glad to see that the place like Devi Arts foundation exists, i may not have understood all the short movies but a few of them were definitely catchy. And art definitely requires more time to be understood.  Overall a good experience except for the fact that my wallet was stolen at the metro station.

The coming back flight movies were -
(a) The Debt - I liked it.  I think i am becoming a fan of Jessica Chastain. Helen Mirren is good as usual and the direction is taught. Good story!
(b) Life in a day - Liked it! A unique creative experimental documentary. People were asked to upload their life on the day of 24 July 2010 and their clips were combined to make a documentary on life on Earth. A good idea and worth watching.
(c) Thor - I started watching this movie to go to sleep and it worked but after i woke up, i had to finish it. Bad movie.

Went bowling with office gang at blore. Got five consecutive straight hits and still came second. I think that was sheer luck.

Met Rana, Aditi and stayed at their place at Blore. Great place and they certainly know how to maintain it.  Thanks for their hospitality.

Met Nandini, Nikhil, Rajesh, Parul and later Gurshi on this trip.

Donated blood for the first time. Woohoo!



Often episodes in my life look like future scenes of a Khosla Ka Ghosla movie when i am in India :). It is so true. On that note, i end my this episode of Life in series.

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