Where is Argentina anyways?

There is a recent ad on 7 Up where an avid football follower gets really worked up when his friend passes some comments about Argentina losing the match and the protagonist questions the guy's passion and affiliation for the country when he doesn't even know where it is located on the world map, leave alone having visited it even once. To think of it, its quite interesting to see the passion that we all have for things that don't really affect us in our real life. 

Our affinity towards cricket, football teams; actors, clubs, i mean to think of it what difference (and i am committing a big sacrilege by saying this) does it make to me if India wins the World Cup or not,nothing changes in my life. But no i was glued to the television set watching each and every match of India, getting angry for all runs not scored and wickets gone, cheering on all 6s and 4s and wickets taken as if my whole life depended on India winning the World Cup. (Well to let out a secret, another reason i wanted India to win was just to avoid seeing my husband sulk in depression for at-least 10 days had India lost the match). The loyalty by the way is not constant, the moment you divide the same Indian cricket team into KKR, DD, Mumbai Indians, in an IPL match, i cheer the same Malinga for taking wickets when i wished Dhoni to hit him for a six during the world cup match.

Not only cricket, the way we frantically send smses just to make sure that our favorite contestants win xyz dance, singing or farting competition is really strange because the bottom line is "Its not going to make any difference to my life". There is a quote by Oscar Wilde stating" “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation" which is true for most of us, but as another person rightly says “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead.”  And it is in all these things Cricket, Football, Country, Region, Gali, Nukkad that we search for our passion because without it our life will be hollow.

P.S: There is a KKR match tomorrow, just keeping my fingers crossed for them to win it!!

Movies in College

We spend so much time in reviewing and analyzing movies. However, more often than not, our view is also based on our movie watching experience. And unlike the old days, now we have different ways in which we can watch movies - at home on TV, Laptops, or at a Multiplex. 

Before the computer era, we used to watch all the movies in either television or theaters. When I had just joined engineering (that was a decade back in 2001), we didn't have computers in each room or campus wide LAN. Every friday, we had a movie screening inside the campus, and all the first years used to go on friday evening show. It was great fun - a batch of 600-700 students watching movies in a 'private' hall. We watched some of the classics in the first year of our college - Dil Chahta Hai, Lagaan, Gadar, etc. We didn't realize it then how much fun it was - by the time we reached second year, we had LAN in our rooms, and no one bothered to go to the hall. 

This is one of the things one miss about being in college - you always had plenty of friends around. Even when I stayed back for my summer project after first year, I had a decent group of friends staying back with me. We had so much fun - there was a set routine for everyday, from breakfast to dinner. And even though the summers are killing in those parts of country, we had an awesome time. To some extent, I'm happy our college was not in a developed town/city - it enabled us to enjoy whatever facilities we had inside the campus, and we all grew up to be fond of them. 

Around the World in 80 days!

Around the World in 80 days is a classic novel by Jules Verne and according to Wikipedia it was first published in 1873. The reason i read this novel 120 years after it was published (discounting the time when i couldn't have read it...either because i wasn't born or was incapable of reading) was because i had seen the movie adaptation of the novel around 15 years back.

I still vividly remember Pierce Brosnan travelling in a train in India and bravely saving a woman from the customs of Sati, widely practiced in India during that time. It was a part of this childhood memory that made me read this book, the first amongst all the classic novels that "we" have recently ordered.

The novel based in 1872 is a story of an English gentleman Mr. Phileas Fogg and his newly employed servant/valet Passepartout and their journey around the world. Mr. Phileas Fogg in a bid to win a bet against his friends takes up this humongous task of proving that it is possible to circumnavigate the world in 80 days. The novel in essence is a story of his journey in these 80 days. It is a very interesting read especially since it is based in those times when sea was the only mode of long distance travel in a "shorter" period of time. Imagine taking 22 days going from Japan to San Fransisco in a sea voyage, when nowadays we fret over a minutes delay in flights. Well as they say the world and so has man's patience become shorter over the period of time. Without sounding like a critic, the story has excellent characterization, narration and a perfectly subtle comic timing to it as well. At times it may still fail to connect you with the turmoil and the anxiety that a man might feel when he has almost his entire fortune at stake proving a point. This may be because i had already seen the movie or because the character of Mr. Phileas Fogg is defined as such.

I neways had a good time reading the novel and will be soon watching the movie again.

The book that i have is a combination of 2 novels by the author the other being "20,000 leagues under the sea". I am not sure if i will read this one in the same zest as i had read the other novel. Especially since i am not a sea person,i don't like novels based on sea journeys, one of the main reasons i couldn't complete the book "Life of a PI" as well. I have parked this book for some days and am now going to start with "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", the complete collection. Lets see how that one turns out to be for me.

Holiday Ending

Like all trips, my India Trip is coming to an end. I'm currently at the Mumbai airport, and would be catching my flight back to Hong Kong in a couple of hours. Its been a nice an relaxing few weeks, and I just stayed at home for the most parts.

We went to watch the IPL match between Pune and Delhi at DY Patil on the last weekend, and it was fun. We missed out watching Mumbai's match though. Saw a few movies as well - Game and Rio in the movie hall. I miss movie halls in Mumbai veru much, as back in HK we don't have quality multiplexes showing Hindi movies. Plus, the crowd as well as food courts are missing as well.

Back in Hong Kong, life would get slightly better and I shall be joining my new job in a week. Also, I have to start preparing for my CFA Level 3 examinations. They are now quite close, and I haven't yet started preparing for them. I had prepared nicely for Level 1, but since then, its been a last few days dash always (both for Level 2 as well as the FRM exams).

I'm really happy to be joining a new company pretty soon, as I didn't have a great experience in earlier job. Professionally, it wasn't the best of decisions for me when I had moved there. However, it gave me ample time to try a few things, and move ahead in my personal life. Now, married and wife moving to HK soon, its the perfect time to start a new job.

2011: First Quarter

We are almost at the end of first quarter of 2011, and this hasn't been the best of starts to a year to say the least. However, I don't believe in being sad about things which are out of my control, and instead prefer to focus on the future. 

I have another month of vacation left before I join my job. I will be spending most of the time in Mumbai, and a week at my home. Also, I want to plan for a short trip to one of the nice destinations - Kerela/Shimla/Rajasthan/Leh. However, not sure about the weather and suitability of these locations at this time. Will need to check on the tour guides - Rajasthan doesn't seem to be a wise choice in April, and so does Goa. 

My flight got postponed last week, and now I will be flying tomorrow. I haven't still started packing, and am sure will forget a thing or two. This may be the first time I haven't bought a lot of stuff before a trip back home, and am sure all my siblings would be greatly disappointed. However, I can't think of anything to buy now. On my earlier trips, I used to buy lots of t-shirts as well as electronics from here. But now I have run out of things to buy - and if only they had introduced iPad2 in HK by now. 

India play Pakistan today in the World Cup semifinal, and to say it very mildly, this is the biggest match in this season. Media has gone complete nuts about it over the past few days, and all the advertisers would be laughing all their way back to the bank. Finally, their investments would be reaping fruit (in terms of TRP ratings), and am sure the number of people watching would be close to an all-time high (given the increase in population, and penetration of television). Not to mention the importance of the match as well. If we win the toss, and post anything over 260, we will have more than half the match won.