From Calcutta to Kolkata

I was born in a city that was called Calcutta. When I left the city more than a decade ago it had a strange old world charm about it and I thought that there can never be another city like it.

12 years later when I returned to the city of my birth I realized that the city had changed. It had gone back to its native name - Kolkata. The occasion was the sacred thread ceremony of my cousin.

A trip on the Coromandal Express with my parents and my uncle, aunt and their son. The trip was delightful as the other passengers in our compartment included two kids aged three years old. It was fascinating to look at them play, fight, eat, sing and dance. It was truly a memorable journey.

We reached Kolkata at around 12:30 in the afternoon. A Bolero was hired after much haggling over fares and we reached our hotel-Komala Vilas. A quick bath to wash away the grime and sweat of the long journey and we visited the restaurant to have a sumptuous lunch.

Later in the evening I went around the city and was fascinated by the changes that had taken place. Huge malls have come up in places that were vast plots and closed factories. The traffic has increased with bikes, cars and pedestrians jostling for space. The popular tram service has been relegated to a bare minimum because of road-work. The locals say that the trams will be fully operational soon.

I visited Esplanade, New Market and College Road revisiting my memories of a childhood when Sundays meant going shopping on Mirza Ghalib Street for second-hand books, sampling "jhaal muri" and "puchka" ended by a glass of fresh orange juice.
I travelled by the underground train service-the Metro. The system is efficient and well maintained. The service is well used and the trains are crowded. The girls look beautiful and one can see a fashion parade with the bevy of beauties outdoing one another with their elegance, grace and make-up.

Also managed to visit the Kalighat temple and seek the blessings of the all powerful Mother Goddess. The temple was thankfully not crowded and we had a good "darshan." I also visited the South City Mall on Prince Anwar Shah Street and was amazed by the design of the building and the facilities and range of products/shops in the mall. Spencers' and Citi Centre can learn a lot from this mall in Kolkata.

The ceremony went well and I returned to Chennai with a multitude of memories and thoughts about the city. One more update could be a possible bride for yours truly from Kolkata. Nothing is being finalized and I don't know any details but if the horoscopes match well it will be Mr & Mrs. Iyer.

So folks wish me luck!

13 B/Yaavarum Nalam Movie Review

Movie-13 B/Yaavarum Nalam.
Starring-Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Sachin Khedekar and others.
Music-Shankar, Eeshan and Loy.
Direction-Vikram Kumar.
Genre-Horror/Thriller.

In Bollywood horror is a genre that is terribly stereotyped. You have haunted mansions, tantriks, spirits, and young girls possessed by ghouls. All this ends in a showdown between the hero and the evil spirits. Ram Gopal Verma showed a bit of change with Bhoot.

Madhavan's latest movie 13 B titled as Yaavarum Nalam in Tamil is a new intelligent movie that treads between a thriller and a horror flick. Two brothers with their wives and mother and two kids move into a new apartment on the thirteenth floor. Strange happenings like the milk getting spoilt, the inability to affix nails on the wall begin to happen. Madhavan is troubled because the lift never works when he is all alone and wants to use it.

Then we have a TV serial that is broadcast at 1 PM and only visible on the TV in Madhavan's flat. Slowly Madhavan realizes that the serial and his life is interlinked. Neetu Chandra as Madhavan's wife looks like a million bucks and has done a good job. Sachin Khedekar plays a doctor/psychiatrist and has a plum role.

What is the mystery? Why is Madhavan alone able to interpret the story from the serial. Why does a dog of Madhavan's neighbour a blind man-refuse to enter Madhavan's house? The tension builds slowly and the climax answers all the questions. This is one of those films whose second half is much better than the first. Interesting cameos by Sampath Kumar and the characters who appear in the TV serial.

Director Vikram Kumar uses the TV as a medium for the spirits to interact with the protagonist. What is the mystery behind Apartment 13 B and is Madhavan able to save his family and himself from the starnge forces in his house. Great music by Shankar, Eeshan and Loy and nice cinematography by PC Sreeram.

Watch the movie to find the answers.

The Week in Review

Well so many things happened in the past 1 week. I embarked on a quick trip to Nagpur to participate in the house-warming ceremony of my sister's new flat. The trip was really fascinating and it will be a separate long and juicy post. Met some really beautiful people:) on the trip! Then again those friends are just people who are forgoten who just provide conversations on the train to battle a boring journey.

India won the one-day series in New Zealand a record after 40 odd years. Sehwag broke the psyche of the New Zealand attack with his heroics but India lost the last one-dayer. Elsewhere West Indies won a test-series against England 1-0.

Political equations keep changing with Patnaik in Orissa flummoxing everybody. The third-front being launched by Deve Gowda and Co.

The IPL seems to be doomed and it still does not have a schedule approved by the state governments.

Work seems to be going on. One more colleague quit. Best of luck to you:)

Horoscopes are flying through couriers to all parts of the country and responses are being awaited. Saw a lot of movies on Saturday and Sunday-Dev D, Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu, Delhi 6, Colours (Malayalam and absolute rot). Detailed reviews will appear soon. VKK was really touching but the director seems to be from the Bala school of film-making and spoiled the end by killing the hero.

Under Maintenance

There are about 200 to 250 men working in our office. At any given time an attendance of 200 men is confirmed. Now there is the mens' restroom. It has 4 urinals and three toilets/latrines[Pardon my language but if there is a beter word-do let me know].

It is almost a month since one of the latrines has been locked and an "Under Maintenace" sign has been stuck on the door. Now this is really disturbing. To assume that among 200 men no more than 2 men would want to use the latrine/toilet at the same time is insane.

God knows when the third latrine is going to become operational!

Till then it is a matter of luck and timing!!!!!

In the Name of My Father-2

Years of alcohol abuse and he continues to drink on the sly even after the doctors have warned him. A broken family, an unhappy childhood, a mother who was forever sad but nevertheless continued to toil and stayed with her brother practically doing every task in the house so that her children would not suffer. I continue to wonder at my mother's inner strength.

My father never managed to stick to one job for more than two years. The sole exception being his 18 years of service in the Indian Navy. If not for my two uncles I would have been on the road-begging to survive.

I feel like slapping my father and holding him by the scruff of his neck and ask him-"Why did you do this to us you bloody....! What mistake did my mother do to bear this tortured life? What was my crime to have suffered such a psychologically painful childhood?"

He shamelessly continues to pretend to be a great devotee of a plethora of Gods and yet drinks, utters lies, and torments us psychologically. People often ridicule me for being cynical and negative in many of my actions. I guess my father has a big role in the negative traits of my character. One good thing that his actions have done is my absolute hatred for alcohol! I am 27 and yet to have a beer!

Oh Lord! Give me patience, one of these days I am really going to end up slapping my father! His latest fad is to pretend that he is suffering from a big heart ailment and he needs to have a big surgery done. I have taken him to two different cardiologists and all they say is that he has to stop drinking and nothing else is wrong with him. He is staying with my sister and he is feeling the heat there as he is afraid of my brother-in-law who is a strict disciplinarian.

He cannot go out to drink and he feels his freedom is stifled. The only solution that I see now is to get him admitted to an alcohol deaddiction centre. But I am sure once he gets out of there he will start drinking again.

How am I ever going to find a solution and with this messy state of affairs, how am I going to find the courage to move ahead and start looking for a life-partner!


Life is too complicated!
Death is an option for the weak!
Is there a state in between?

Taxi Driver

So after years of hearing praises about Taxidriver. I finally got to see it.

Martin Scorcese’s classic that catapulted Robert de Niro to fame. A movie that is relevant even today. Travis Bickle[De Niro] is a taxi driver. He drives the taxi in the streets of New York. He is a lonely man who suffers from insomnia. He drives the cab all through the night but he can’t sleep. He visits 24 hour porn theatres but he still can’t sleep. He is disgusted with the city and its people.

He is attracted to Betsy who works in the campaign office of a Presidential candidate-Senator Pallantine. He asks her out on a date. He takes her to a movie-confoundedly to a porn movie. I still don’t get it. Why would a man on his first date take the girl to a porn movie? Is Bickle naive/sex-maniac/crazy? As the movie progresses we realize his frustrations coupled by his service in Vietnam. The movie moves aimlessly till we get to see Iris a twelve-year old prostitute[Jodie Foster].

Travis becomes emotionally attached to the girl and all his suppressed anger erupts when he finds out how Sport uses the naive girl Iris as a prostitute by making her a cocaine-addict. Travis buys a lot of guns and a knife and decides to become the vigilante-one man army and decides to clean New York of its filth and scum.

He shaves his head[mohawk style] and decides to start by assassinating the Presidential candidate. His uneasiness is spotted by the Secret Service agents-and Travis flees the scene. The climax is bloody and violent as Travis goes on a shooting/killing spree and shoots Sport and other runners of the prostitution racket. He is also injured in the shooting spree.

The next scene shows the wall of Bickle’s room full of newspaper clippings proclaiming him to be the hero. We also listen to the contents of a letter from Iris’s father to Bickle. He thanks Bickle for his heroism.

The movie ends with Bickle dropping Betsy home and refusing to accept the fare. The movie is an intense study of the psyche of the American male. Times of war and unstable economic conditions, drug-use the tough seventies, black-white conflict, prostitution-many facets of American life that have been touched upon in the movie. We sympathise with Bickle and secretly wish that he finds true love in Betsy. But in our minds we know that Bickle is a drifter and he can never find calm and inner peace or true love.

Robert de Niro and Jodie Foster shine in this movie. The back ground music is haunting and cinematography simple and effective.

Iconic lines-”You talking to me….” “Flush it out.”[To clean New York]

A powerful movie that leaves a bitter taste in our mouths and a long-lasting impression on our minds.

The biggest upset was when Rocky won the Oscar for best movie in 1977.

Cross-posted at www.mramani.wordpress.com