And the Oscar went to...

For a movie buff, I have come to realise, I am quite behind in my in my reading list (err...watch list). So here's one of the simplest benchmarks of cinema...the Oscars... and there's so much left to see...and so much more to see again :)

2009 - “The Hurt Locker” -  loved it

2008 - “Slumdog Millionaire” - eh

2007 - “No Country for Old Men” - has been on my watch list for too long now...

2006 - “The Departed” -  fantastic

2005 - “Crash” - seen, nice...

2004 - “Million Dollar Baby” - he he...inside joke...haven't seen it coz of it....but have to watch

2003 - “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” - ofcourse i've seen it

2002 - “Chicago” - in bits and pieces

2001 - “A Beautiful Mind” - long back..

2000 - “Gladiator” -- surprise surprise...i've not seen this.

1999 - “American Beauty” - seen it. only ok.

1998 - “Shakespeare in Love” - seen

1997 - “Titanic” - loved it then, dunno about now.. The 3d version is coming so will watch it again.

1996 - “The English Patient” - havent seen it yet

1995 - “Braveheart” - seen it... Love it.... Love Mel Gibson (why did he have to go and make a fool of himself?!?! Humph!!!!)

1994 - “Forrest Gump” - lovvvvvvvvvvvve it... I think another movie of this year needs a mention - shawshank redemption - amongst the best movies ever made

1993 - “Schindler’s List” - one of my all time fav movies. Reading the book now.

1992 - “Unforgiven” - which one is this again?

1991 - “The Silence of the Lambs” - oooh...not going to watch this one

1990 - “Dances with Wolves” - havent seen it

1989 - “Driving Miss Daisy” - saw it lonnnng time back...dont remember much... So its on the re-watch list

1988 - “Rain Man”

1987 - “The Last Emperor”

1986 - “Platoon”

1985 - “Out of Africa”

1984 - “Amadeus”

1983 - “Terms of Endearment” - i think i saw it on tv once lonng long ago...

1982 - “Gandhi” - Yes, i think once every year on 2nd oct for 20 years... And I think it's the first movie I saw (ever)

1981 - “Chariots of Fire”

1980 - “Ordinary People”

1979 - “Kramer vs. Kramer” - yup...long back... And have seen the horrid Indian version as well

1978 - “The Deer Hunter”

1977 - “Annie Hall” -

1976 - “Rocky” - Of course... am a die hard Rocky fan

1975 - “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” - no...but have to

1974 - “The Godfather Part II” -

1973 - “The Sting” - nope, but have to

1972 - “The Godfather” Saw the movie. Read the book. The book it better.

1971 - “The French Connection”

1970 - “Patton” -

1969 - “Midnight Cowboy”

1968 - “Oliver!”

1967 - “In the Heat of the Night”

1966 - “A Man for All Seasons”

1965 - “The Sound of Music”- Lots and lots of times, and i can watch it as many times again

1964 - “My Fair Lady”- Saw it last November. nice

1963 - “Tom Jones” -

1962 - “Lawrence of Arabia” -

1961 - “West Side Story” -

1960 - “The Apartment” - have seen the indian version ;) have to see this also

1959 - “Ben-Hur”

1958 - “Gigi”

1957 - “The Bridge on the River Kwai”

1956 - “Around the World in 80 Days”-

1955 - “Marty”

1954 - “On the Waterfront”

1953 - “From Here to Eternity”

1952 - “The Greatest Show on Earth”

1951 - “An American in Paris”

1950 - “All about Eve”

1949 - “All the Kings Men”

1948 - “Hamlet”

1947 - “Gentleman's Agreement”

1946 - “The Best Years of Our Lives”

1945 - “The Lost Weekend”

1944 - “Going My Way”

1943 - “Casablanca”- Here's looking at you kid

1942 - “Mrs. Miniver”

1941 - “How Green Was My Valley”

1940 - “Rebecca”

1939 - “Gone with the Wind”-yup... Reading the book as well

1938 - “You Can't Take It with You” \

1937 - “The Life of Emile Zola”-

1936 - “The Great Ziegfeld”

1935 - “Mutiny on the Bounty”

1934 - “It Happened One Night” - yup ... Lovely. the indian version isn't half bad either

1932/1933 - “Cavalcade”

1931/1932 - “Grand Hotel”

1930/1931 - “Cimarron”

1929/1930 - “All Quiet on the Western Front”

1928/1929 - “The Broadway Melody”

1927/1928 - “Wings”

That's a lot of un-seen movies! I guess I need to take a month off and change this to a respectable ratio... And now that we have gone through the Oscar list, the next post will carry the AFI top 100 - I hope that's a better number (fingers crossed).

The unremembered spanned an eon,

life drowned while faces blurred,

I was a God & I was alone,

I was mine the day I died

Music played,

words were a haze

the rhythm stayed

when I drowned the water moved with me

Did I cry?

Did I laugh?

Did I shout how I loved you?

Or did I let you down too?

Time sank with my heartbeat

the chill burnt through my veins

peace was so close

and then I was washed ashore

You've been tagged

Much before the networking sites took the world by storm and the digicams captured every moment ugly or beautiful, and we had our lives uploaded for the world to see... we tagged memories...in our treasure chests for only us to see, to cherish & to relive.

A slice of apple pie is a secluded beach, a movie on hbo a pre-dawn walk on dewy grass, a song from a movie is a full bollywood number during rol-call...it could be anything... a plate of double-anda bhurji shared... a song request obliged at the wicked hour... a table tennis match till 4 am...

if you are up here... i hope you know you are special. If not... I hope I can one day say to you - you've been tagged!

I want to write

I quit my job a few months back. The pointlessness of it all had become unbearable. After a long time - actually for the first time in my life I have nothing to do, nowhere to get to, no timelines, no deadlines…nothing. I like nothing.

Today I have spent most of my day sleeping … have seen 2 movies and then I wanted to write… you know one of those days when you have to HAVE TO write and are stumped coz there’s nothing to say – but as I have already said that I like nothing I am going to write away. Lets hope it makes sense!

I was wondering how I got here (in a good way)... you know stuff you think about when you have nothing else to think about... abt destiny... whether life chooses a path or the destination. How the little choices we make make who we are... how when a butterfly flaps its wings somewhere and theres a storm someplace else(or a tornado...u know what i mean)...jab saabu ko gussa aata hai kahin jwalamukhi phatta hai (no...thats different).

I was born with a particular amount of, for the lack of a better word, intelligence – I am brighter than your average chap on the road – so I was meant to be first in class… I quite liked it too and it was rarely difficult. So after my X boards it was an obvious choice that I would take science… with Math & Bio… primarily coz I wanted to have the option of being a Doctor or an Engineer open for another 2 years (I am neither now).

While I waited for my engineering results (I did get into RECs… though not IIT – wonder what that would have been like) I enrolled in Miranda House… Economics (Economics sounded nice…had heard much about the subject) …quite liked Micro-eco… so gave up the engineering thing and stayed on in Delhi. Some one asked me what I wanted to be and I said “a Banker” (huh! Why? Cant remember!)

So a few years on I was a banker… having done an MBA… earning more than a few lakhs… living on my own in the maximum city… and then I quit.

It wasn’t what I wanted, wasn’t the life I wanted to lead, wasn’t anything at all. The most amusing was how people looked at me as if I was crazy for quitting without having another job in hand… to top it all I told them it’s because I was bored. It was fun messing with them but that lost its charm way too quickly – people & their reactions are predictable... very very predicatble.

I am back now… to the city of djinns (Delhi…for the ones who don’t read Dalrymple).

Kaun jaaye Zauq par Dilli ki galiyan chod kar J

He just wanted us to know his name

When I switched on the tv a few days back, the news channels were teeming with the footage of Varun Gandhi's Pilibhit speech. A number of things came to my mind when I saw that:

1. Ok... this is Varun GANDHI. 

2. What a wannabe speech and how much time had he spent learning it so there's no mistake. 

3. How happy he must feel with all the adulation (at that moment) that had so far been reserved for his cousins.

I don't think he meant what he said. For a number of reasons... the most important being his half-sikh descent. I do think he was stupid enough to be used as a pawn... now he is the poster-boy of hate... a mini-Modi. A silly preppie who went to a village and got carried away by the applause and the cheering which he had earlier only seen on TV when Rahul and Priyanka addressed rallies. He just wanted to be as famous as Didi and Bhaiyya.