My Kismet was bad, that I had to see this movie. It was as though, I saw the movie twice. Seconds before a scene would play out, I will think about it.

Two scenes, where even I could think up of better direction/ dialogue/ screenplay, goes to show, how much off the mark the director was from making even a half decent attempt at making a watchable movie.

One was, an totally contrived scene, where the wrong guy is going to marry the heroine. A old hag and a old thatha try to engage the wrong guy in a conversation which goes like how are you going to keep the girl happy. The wrong guy gives the cliched answer. The girl says that is not enough. The wrong guy says, what more can I do. I have no answer. The hero says, I have an answer.

And what is his answer- A stupid song, which just paraphrased what the wrong guy said.

And what could have been much better- An a-la Sharukh Khan's Kal Ho Na Ho monologue. I never thought, I will come close to praising SRK, but I have to.

The second was when the Kismet Konnector, aka the fortune teller, who in all the previous scenes, asks for $10 as consulation fees, lets the hero go without paying because he is going after true love. How stupid!

How much more funnier it would have been, if she after making him realize about his true love and put all the funda, asked for her fees. Sigh!

Anyways, dont watch the movie, and if it is releasing at a cinema near you, stay away from the cinema.

The good part of the day, though, was I got a few books that I have been wanting to buy. I got Salman Rushdie's latest book - 'The Enchantress of Florence' last week. And, I got an autographed copy of the book, and listend to the man himself, read a few pages from the book. It has been an engrossing read so far. Given that Chicago trip stands canceled, I can finish it this weekend (and maybe review it).

Ever since I read the Midnight's Children, I have been wanting to read more Rushdie. So, I grabbed -'The Moor's Last Sigh' today.

Ever since I read Two Lives, I have been wanting to read more Vikram Seth. So, I grabbed -'A Suitable Boy' today. Phew, it is thick.

I have always loved 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. I owned a copy once, but lost it. The first time I read it, it was borrowed by B from her library and she lent it to me. The second and third time, I read it, it was my own copy. Then, I gave it to a friend to read, and he never read it, nor did he ever return it to me. Now, I have my copy, Again.

But, it is such a book, I am always looking for friends even remotely interested in reading to lend it to.

I also got an Arab stories book, translated to English. Only because I liked the title and the first paragraph of the book.

Already sitting on my shelf is short stories by Agatha Christie and Asimov. And, there is one -'The selfish gene' on the way from the library.

It will need a big effort for me to finish these, as lately, I have been devoting much less time to reading too. It is mostly weekends. The laptop and streaming and chatting, and general reading on blogs and wiki and news sites and random clicking is eating most of my evenings away.

I also started watching 'Cheers'. Absolutely loved the first six episodes of Season-1. I know, I am into watching it for the long haul. All 11 seasons (although Wiki says that the 11th season DVD is still not out). It will take some time for me to get there though. I have Fraiser going parallel with this too.
~Kaushik

Ashwin was wearing his favourite Singapore T-shirt. Kavitha was mixing colours with water. She had just seen 'spray painting' on the T.V., and had stolen the her tooth-brush to play with colours.

Thinking, it will be fun, she sprays red on her brother's favourite Singapore T-shirt.

Kavitha found it funny.
Ashwin did not.

'You-donkey', he said, and pulled her hair.
'You-monkey', she said, and sprayed a little more red on his shirt.
'Fool'
'Mad'
'Your wife fool- your kids fool'
'Same to you'
'Iditot'-'You-Idiot'-'Fatty'-'Patlu'...

The war of words morphed into a fight. Ashwin was stronger than her, but she bites. Shrieking in pain, he said, what should never have been said
'Amma is not your Amma'.

Kavitha stood still. The weight of the words, slowly pulled her down. A trickle of tear, a river of tear-drops, as she sobbed and cried herself into the arms of her amma, who was not her amma.

Truth is better than the lie. She thought, as she told her kids the truth, a few days ago. Kavitha was not her child. Ashwin was. He was 11. She was 9. They did not understand the details. A few innocent questions, and all was like before. They were the best of friends, and she sighed in relief, for within a couple of days, they behaved as though, the conversation did not happen.

A week later, now, she wondered if the lie was better. She hugged her. Slapped him. Everyone was crying now.

Kavitha spent the next few hours, playing with her teddy underneath the bed, her tent. Ashwin, took to his favourite corner with his Tin-Tin. She stared into her laptop, but her eyes were lost in a whirlpool of memories and thoughts.

Later, Ashwin, comes to her, and asks for 5 rupees. He wants to buy Kavita a chocolate. He says, he is sorry. Kavita, surprised, on being offered a chocolate by her brother, promptly offers half to him, and asks him to help her with the spray paint. They paint till late in the night, and fall asleep in each-others arms.

She looks happily at the children, sleeping arm on arm, leg on leg. How quickly they forgive eachother. How quickly they forget.

The next day, he comes to pick up the kids for his weekend with them. As they run into the car, she tells him, 'You know, I can forgive, but I cannot forget'.

Kavitha, was his daughter, her husbands daughter.

----
As a kid, forgive was always accompanied by forget. The sorry, and all is well handshake, was really meant. No matter, how big the fight. You forgave and forgot. I wonder, where we lose this ability as we become adults. We forgive but we pretend to forget.

Sometimes a memory just jumps at me from nowhere, and lingers on. And, it makes you think, why is it that, such a trivial thing, is so special that you filed away the memory.

It was back in the summer vacations in 1994 or 95. We had just moved into Vishal Apartments, and gelled in with the gang of kids there. Thatha, had just gifted us (me and my sister), the coolest set of board games. We had Scotland Yard, Life and Battleship to spend our days with. Mama, had given us the amazing concentrates for the grape juice and the mango juice and the orange juice. Amma, had made them, and got a bunch of other small things to eat.

The mood was all set, for afternoons after afternoons of board games. Of, fighting to decide who gets to be the Mr X. in Scotland Yard. Of chalking out strategies to outwit the thief (many of which included following the thiefs eye-board movement). Of gasping and smiling when someone got married in the game of Life. Of sharing school stories. Of making fun of the maths tutor, who came with 15 pens. Of making fun of the dance teacher, who thought he was a she. Of discussing the morning Cricket matches. Of making teams for the evening kho-kho.

It was a magical summer.

So, this one afternoon, we were playing Scotland Yard, and sipping the wine-colored juice, thinking we were rich people, betting with millions of rupees and sipping whiskey as they see the game unfold. Amma (and Appa), has this incredeble ability, to gel in with the kids, so much so, in a few minutes, you don't even think that there is an adult around. As, we were playing, Amma, as a matter of conversation, asks all the kids, 'What does your father do'. And, everyone starts answering, Business, Doctor, Doctor, Banker etc etc.

As the question, travelled round the circle, it stopped at another brother and sister pair of M & J. Of everyone in the group, only me, Vidya and amma did not know. Suddenly, everyone became quiet. M looked upto J, and slowly whisphered that their Father is no-more. That he passed away, when she was quite small. Amma, quickly changed questions. And, in a few minutes, we were back to concentrating deeply on the game.

Till then, death, to us was just a phenomena in the movies, and a orphan ( M& J havetheir mother, a truly faboulous lady) was Oliver Twist. At that moment, it became reality.

At that moment, I (and am sure, Vidya too) realized that, some people are really not as lucky as us.

Appa would have been surprised by the extra attention, we showered on him in the evening.

-------
A couple of days ago, I learnt that M is pregnant. I am sure, she will be a great mom.
For me though, it is just as shocking, as to learn that my 5 of my friends will be married by the end of the year.
---------
As I was standing in the bus stand in the evening today, there was a squall. It was getting dark and ominous, as I stood waiting for the bus. As the bus approached my stop, it got the red signal just before my stop, and the squall stuck. The sky emptied everything it had, like it just overturned a bucket full of water, and the bus was standing, a few feet away from me. And, I got totally drenched. And, I loved it.

Just finished watching 'What Happens in Vegas'. It is a formulaic movie. Take a guy, a girl, apply formula, put happy ending, release it. But, well made. Just like Jaane tu. Any movie that makes me feel good, is a good movie.

I have a bad one. I get angry really quickly. Although, over the years, I have developed a habit of keeping the anger in with me, and letting it out only on family members and close friends ( I should not torture them either....but they understand).

But, today, in the morning, in a few moments of action without thought, my anger, took a drastic decision, which is in no way going to help the already fragile relation-ship that I have with a lab-mate.

Our lab has an antediluvian back-up system. We have to insert tapes into it everyday, and these tapes are numbered. The software that does the backup, does not overwrite a tape nor does it allow us to skip numbers. Being the long weekend, I was lax in changing the tapes. And our system-administrator, quite correctly pointed it out.

This over enthusiastic lab-mate of mine, also pointed it out. I should not blame him for doing so, but still, I feel he had no reason to do it. And, this was the second time, that he decided to remind me, after the system-administrator, had posted on the group, asking us to take care of the back-ups. Again, it is not wrong that he decide to remind me again. But, somehow, the words that he used to do so, suggesting lack of seriousness and responsibility in me (something that even the system administrator did not seem to mention) blew me off.

I don't have the best of relationships with the person. But it is not hate among us to. It is a cordial Hi-hello-and discussing research kind of a relationship. Things have not become much better than that, in the 6-7 months that we have been working together. Today, it took a step back. I wrote a sarcastic reply back to his reminder to the reminder email, and he got angry, and there were a few angry emails exchanged. Now, the status-quo would have changed to a different position. Will know that, once he returns from his summer internship.

Work wise, it is the same as yesterday. Wrote the boring bit of code. The optimization is taking even longer than I thought it would take. Although, the frustration for me today was that, I did nothing but watch the screen, as the computer was crunching numbers. I will have some results tomorrow, but effectively, I have wasted a good 5-6 hours of time when I could have worked, as tie simulation was running.

No cooking today. Went to an Indian restaurant that masquerades as an Afgani one. Spent a lot of time on you-tube watching arbit videos and songs. I cannot seem to get the song Pappu can't dance from Jaane Tu out of my mind. Listened to it hajaar times since yesterday.

Adios then,
Kaushik