A new beginning

I have been very occupied in the past few days with some great movies and a difficult but close-to-the-heart book, plus I had to move recently. Moving's a bitch, I shall post about that ordeal later, I wonder how Anne doest it so often? Replies and posts have been very infrequent and I apologize for that.

I love my books and my movies greatly, and recently movies have overtaken pursuits in books. To make matters even better, Kaushik, my old school pal loves movies as much as me (awright, we can have that argument as to who likes movies more, later) and I decided to rope him in for a new blog. Also, we seem to have more or less the same taste movies. So without much fanfare I now present,

http://movieflavors.blogspot.com/

Through this we hope to introduce off-beat movies, indie movies, foreign films (Italian, Spanish, French, etc) and movies we greatly loved and want others to see and enjoy. Happy reading and happier viewing.

P.S: if you would like to be a part of the blog and contribute to it, please let me know.

The self made man

The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and besides, he brags, and this is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done.

Mark Twain

Personal observation - "How very true!" *sigh*

Tagged Again

I was thinking about writing something that happened to me at 4:30am on thursday morning, something which I thought was real funny, when I saw that Anne had tagged me on one the many meme's thats doing rounds. So here goes....

Seven Things I Can Do

1) Turn a book upside down and read at a freakish speed
2) Remember most of the actors and some directors of all the movies Ive seen so far in my life
3) Quote "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo
4) Multitask - for eg: cook, talk on the phone, wash dishes and listen to music
5) Watch NBA all day long
6) Read a book forever while im on the shit-pot
7) Listen

Seven Things I Plan to Do Before I Die

1) Learn to play atleast one musical instrument
2) Write an original screenplay for a movie
3) Bungeejump and skydiving
4) Dunk a basketball even if it means I have to use a trampoline
5) Start an orphanage
6) Start a company
7) Fall in love and get married

Seven Things I Can't Do

1) Keep my room clean (although rest of the house would be clean)
2) Shave properly
3) Remember where I left my last piece of gum
4) Forget my mothers cooking (been a year from home and still cant seem to grow out of it)
5) Be awake for the entire duration of any seminar
6) Remember the birthdays of all my friends
7) Time management

Seven Things That I Find Really Attractive About the Opposite Sex

1) Captivating eyes
2) Talk intelligently
3) Sense of humor
4) Independent
5) Resonable
6) Humility
7) Should be the physical embodiment of the Barbie Girl (awright gals, just kidding :P )

Seven Things I Say the Most

1) Fcuk
2) Holy shit
3) Goddamn
4) Wassup
5) Awesome
6) Awright
7) Hey

Seven Books I Love (in no particular order)

1) The Godfather by Mario Puzo
2) Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
3) Tintin by Herge
4) The Three Investigators by Robert Arthur
5) The Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist
6) The Blue Ring by A.J.Quinnell
7) Phdcomics.com (this doesnt primarily classify as a book but its now available in printed edition)

Tag??!! Hell no, sorry about that Anne. You can tag me all you want and I'd be glad to do them anytime. But the last time I tagged somebody, I was very close to having my ass fried on a barbecue grill, too close for my comfort :D This time around I may not be so fortunate :) So, I leave it to anybody whos interested to pick up the baton and pass it around.

*Of all the things, Q 2 A 7 seems the least likeliest to happen before I die. It appears one needs to be outrageously talented and capable of very many things to do that. :P*

US Open '05 and Sania Mirza

I finally made it to one of the Grand Slam tournaments. Like the quest for the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, my dad and me always wanted to go watch one of the Grand Slam tournaments to see Steffi Graf or Pete Sampras play. Notwithstanding that neither of them are playing and nor did I go with my dad, I still enjoyed every moment of my time this sunday at the US Open.

I even watched Sania play. For all the hype and the controversy surrounding her (yeah, the Indian media never spared anybody from any controversy) she has lots of promise as far as her game is concerned. Awright, before anybody starts asking me, I played a few many years of competitive tennis myself and that makes me qualified enough to make such statements :) Sania's got a pretty good forehand but I got the feeling that's all there is to her game and she tries to out-hit her opposite number. While this may be sufficient to take care of lesser players and a few top-ranked players in WTA tournaments, it will never be enough in Grand Slam tournaments, where top-ranked players raise their games and the level of competition is higher.

This was especially true in the match she lost to Sharapova. Sharapova is one of these new age women tennis players who hit the ball as if they want to get back at their ex-boyfriends. Not to mention Venus or Serena, who take up to hitting as they would do to an antique rug which was gathering dust in the attic since the time their forefathers came to the US on a ship from Africa. To top it all Sharapova was tucking into Sania's second serves like the way Sania would attack a bowl of Hyderbadi biriyani when she gets back to her home town. I guess with couple of years of experience on the circuit, with better knowledge of how to construct points and better second serves Sania might enter the top 20 and start making an impact in grand slam tournaments. Atleast her report card doesnt sound like her fellow Hyderbadi cricket star, who would say in a post-match press conference, something like we didnt bat well, we didnt bowl well or field well........duh, is there anything more to cricket. So thankfully, Sania has a great framework to work on and to top it all she seems to be enjoying every moment of the time she spends on the court.

As far as the Open tournament, it was great and it was everything I had expected it to be. Carnival atmosphere, great stadium, great crowd and great matches. Loved the great five-setter between Hewitt and Dent and enjoyed the fabulous hitting of the Williams sisters. Hold on did I mention the beautiful ladies who came on that day. I dont think I did. So heres to all the beautiful ladies who chose to grace the US Open that fateful day I also happened to be there. Thanks ladies.

So, thats one down and three more to go. Wimbledon, French and Australian Open still remaining to see :P