blast from the past!

another weekend and another movie watching session...
the place that i watched a movie last weekend was drastically different from the place that frequent.
well, the story goes like this:
last weekend i wanted to take a break from the multiplex: the escalators, the squeaky clean floors, the smiling sales people in the stalls and the english speaking ticket vendors et al
[dint want to leave the air-conditioned surroundings of the multiplex though but i dint really have a choice]
hence, me and vicky landed up at a cinema hall in abids which supposedly went through a face-lift a couple of years ago to watch "the angrez" a 'hyderabad blues' kinda movie meant only for the hyderabadis...
the first shock: ticket in top most row: Rs.35/-
we simply dint believe the price he quoted and kept asking the ticket vendor for a costlier ticket and higher up in the rows but when he insisted that it was the costliest one and in the top row; after some more arguing then we resign, take the tickets and walk into the bulding.
enter the cinema hall and our seats were in the 3rd row from the top.
but the walk from the ticket counter to the cinema hall was, simply put, a trip down the memory lane.
the pain stained walls, where the request of "donot spit on the walls" was painted pan-red and pan stained too. the picturesque part was the sparkling clean spitoon! couldn't stop laughing when we saw that...!
and then the cinema hall, creaky chairs where the back-rest refused to rest and i had change the seat to avoid getting a back-ache at the end of 2 hrs.
the movie was really funny with all its hyderabadisms and corny jokes which aptly showcased the typical hyderabadi's life.
come interval and the big board of "no eatables allowed inside" was ignored and a whole rush of vendors clinking the soft-drinks bottles and screaming the name of every brand of chips stormed inside the hall and invaded the ramps. but one point to be noted here is that, they might scream out the name of every possible brand in potato chips, but not necessarily have it for sale. they will only have un-branded fryums and roasted peanuts.
he he...talk about ethics in salesmanship!!
oh! and it doesn't end there; there was live dance session too! courtesy: some really happy audience who couldnt stick to their seats when a song on hyderabad started playing, there was the typical hooting when the actors made a cheesy comment, the papers throwing in the air when the audience is happy with a scene was all there to make it a memorable movie watching session.
now do you find such involved audience in a lah-di-dah multiplex?? naaaahh!

come 8:30 pm and there ended our evening at the old-world cinema hall. we were very content with the value that we got for the money that we spent.
the old-world charm of watching a movie in a seedy cinema hall is one thing and the luxury of multiplex movie watching is a completely different thing.
the verdict: multiplexes any day for me!
prasads/PVR...here i come!

a weapon of mass destruction called the movie 'gangster'
in a desperate attempt to watch a movie in the multiplex; i went and watched the movie 'gangster'...it was horrendous! shiney ahuja was a treat to the eyes but the movie per se was yeccchhh!
after about 30 mins into the movie; my sis stopped looking at the screen and started giving me dirty looks with murder in her eyes! i dint know there was emraan hashmi in the movie!!! everytime he came on the screen i felt like kicking myself...the only saving grace[doesnt save the movie though] of the movie was shiney ahuja as a gangster with a conscience.
some unsolicited advice: DONOT watch the movie. unless you are offered a lot of money to do so.

steal my sunshine...

summer! im sure a lot of other people like me donot find summer as a welcome change from my dear old friend winter.
looking back on how the meaning of summer has changed over the years...

5years and below: summer dint mean a thing, basically because i dint really notice the big difference between summer and the other seasons.
or maybe i plain forgot.

5th year to 10th year: summer meant a long period of not having to go to school which meant no waking up early in the morning and not being forced to go to the torture zone called school.
summer instead meant going to madras; my granparents' place.
I used to face an acute language problem in the first week of getting there but by the end of the first week, I would have successfully trained all the kids on the block to speak in telugu[and the really stubborn ones would have atleast learnt to understand telugu if not speak the language]
it also meant getting a really bad tan and a really bad case of mouth-ulcers as a result of eating way too many mangoes.

10th year to 15th year: the time when summer looks all hunky dory till it actually starts...
used to love the run up to the start of summer, didn't even mind writing the friggin final exams too only because there was light at the end of the tunnel: summer hols!
but the light slowly used to turn into very very bright sunshine.
it was during this time that my interest span in about everything came down to the bare minimum. I used to carry loads of nancy drews with me for company but surprisingly the desperation to read nancy drew, hardy boys wasnt even half as much as it used to be during exams.
this trend continues till date, only that the nancy drews and hardy boys have been replaced by tom clancy and the ilk...

15th year to 20th year: it was during this time that i developed a definite aversion for summer and all that it brings with it with an exception of mangoes ofcourse. well, summer meant either landing up in chennai which was like a reflex action when summer came. or my cousins from everywhere would land up at my place. well, it used to be fun for the first few days and then the ritual visiting of tourist places and entertaining lil brats used not exactly fit into my definition of fun. and not to forget the sun burn...an inevitable part of summer!

20th year onwards: hmm...in that past few years summer has only meant work...and more work. summer brings with it internship which means no trips to chennai or no ritual trips to the tourist spots with visiting relatives. it also means no lazy afternoon siestas and a finito to endless hours of watching television and a definite end to reading umpteen number of books and magazines which used to have an uncanny ability to gobble up all my daytime hours...

hmm...wonder why i used to crib so much then; when summer only meant guaranteed, un-interrupted laziness.
well, a classic case of grass being greener on the other side...
or to be more appropriate: mangoes being yummier in the other basket...

Horn OK Please

I suffer from it, im sure you suffer from it too, infact almost every person i know suffers from it...and i bet thats the case with most of the people living in overcrowded cities.
Driving blues...!!!this is worse than a nagging head ache. atleast a headache quitely sits inside your head but this is right there, in your face! and the bad news is: its incurable...!!!
read on...
some of the things which make me feel like carrying a club with me when I set out driving:
People speaking on their cell phones when driving in the fast lane!
This dude who is driving his car suddenly gets a call on his cell phone and despite being in the middle of dense traffic which is driving at an average of 40-50kmph just suddenly slows down and speaks on his cell phone at leisure being oblivious to all the honking and the angry glares he was getting from the rest of the people on the road.
The only thing I was desperately wishing I had a genie who would have magically given me a club to teach that freak some lessons in driving. But then sadly; I realized that we are not still living in the stone age where all issues could be solved with the use of a club.
Another situation which made me wish I had a club with me; people playing blaring music in their cars and being absolutely oblivious to the traffic and incessant honking around them. I can understand that some people have a compulsive disorder to listen to blaring music when driving on vehicle choked roads; but the least they could do is not drive everyone else on the crazy because of their antics.
And who can forget to mention about the bus driver with an over-inflated ego and a sheer disregard to traffic rules. I wish I could explain to the bus driver that wherever he stops doesn’t become the bus’ stopping point; and that places like the middle of the road are definitely not places where he can stop the bus for people to alight!
He is not only causing grave danger for the people who are alighting; he is also creating an extremely annoying traffic jam.
But what crosses all levels of being annoying is when people cross the road by being absolutely oblivious to which vehicle is speeding towards them. The attitude that they have is: “he is the one driving the vehicle, so he better be careful when he is doing so”
Who will tell these ignorant souls that the road is meant for the vehicles hence the pedestrians should be much more careful when they are crossing busy roads.
Now I don’t contend the fact that the drivers also should take maximum care but then how much can a driver be careful too?


All this ranting is the result of sheer exasperation...a result of driving on over-crowded roads, with the most unruly drivers who have anything but commonsense in the tiny lil thing between their ears called brain
[i know how the prev sentence sounds but that was kinda unintended]
I recently was cursed enough to be a part of a situation where the age old pedestrian-driver power struggle was out in full force.
Me driving at 50kmph on a 60kmph limit road and just after I overtook the vehicle that was just before me; out of nowhere I see a pedestrian crossing the road and who to my utter horror was completely oblivious to the vehicle speeding towards him.
I had to bring my vehicle to a screeching halt at about 2 or 3 mtrs away from the pedestrian. And what made me want to bring my club out was the fact that, the mad cap pedestrian didn't even realize the grave danger he was putting himself in and worse my ass would have been on the line if anything would have happened to the car. I felt like my heart was beating in my throat after the incident but that bloody butthead was completely unaffected and worse, he found the whole incident amusing!!! Was wishing it was stone age…using the club would have been mandatory in such a similar situation rather than being a crime.
These are troubled times, law makers do not realize the frustration that they are causing to the general public by making the use of things like clubs, stones etc in order to speak your mind as unlawful.
hmmph!! may god save the world...!