Dark knight rises and falls.....

****SPOILER ALERT****

To me, the movie was neither as bad as the Spiderman, nor as good as the avengers (which is worth watching just for Robert Downey Junior's witty repartee). While I enjoyed all the elements that one enjoys in a Batman movie - the cool gadgets, Alfred the butler, the mass destruction (some of which is caused by batman himself) - the predictability of the script and the unnecessary length of the movie made me stifle yawns quite often.

Anyone who has read enough Sidney sheldon books and seen enough 007 movies would have predicted that Rachel is not as goody goody as she seems. I mean, why else would anyone refer to a child, as ''child'' always without once using a pronoun like ''he'' or ''she'' (sheldon fans/readers would have immediately spotted the similarity to ''Angel'' from Windmills of the Gods) ?! And why in the world, would we have another leading lady (Anne Hathway) who acts like Robin Hood - if Anne is going to be Batman's girl, then the other girl is obviously going to change sides especially after Bruce mentions 17 times that he trusts her !

When is the movie industry going to give up showing the hero's comeback with push-ups as the music reaches a crescendo ? He could have been shot, beaten to a pulp, dropped from a building and all he needs are a few push-ups to get back into the game, eh ? Yeah, yeah, we get it, you want to make the most of his fitness but get creative people !

Some reviewer said ''Hans Zimmermann could have just come to the theatre and beat us on the head with drums''...there is no better way to say it, the music was so unbelievably bad ! We already have a villain who speaks like the darth-vader and add drums to it, you might as well even stop attempting to make sense of what he is saying. Maybe its time for Hollywood to replace Hans with ARR !

All in all, if you have nothing better to do, you might as well grab a few snacks (you will definitely need them) and go watch the Dark Knight.

PS: Did you know that the prison was modeled after the wells in Rajasthan ?

My ideal lunch

Call it an idiosyncrasy or a weird habit but my ideal lunch is having something warm to eat (and no, cold sandwich is not lunch even if my fellow Dutch strongly disagree) and something spicy to read (don’t get the wrong idea….). I always like to read something that makes me think…there is something indescribably satisfying about thinking and letting one’s imagination wander when I slowly chew and enjoy the food. It could be the usual privacy violation article about Google or a John Grisham book that I am probably reading for the umpteenth time.

I don’t have anything against a working lunch but its wraught with complications

- How is it a lunch ‘’break’’ when you continue to discuss the same topics with the same people ?

- At the cafeteria, even if I choose just soup, salad and juice and a colleague comments light heartedly ’’oh..thats a full tray’’, all my ‘’am-I-too-fat’’ sensors light up like a Christmas tree and where-o-where would I find the energy to still keep smiling and think of something to say so as to not offend him (naturally it’s a ‘’him’’) ! To add to it, why does someone who is thin and fit sit just across from me and enjoy the same dessert that I willed myself to ignore ?

- When you eat a spoonful of salad (that requires inordinate chewing), why do people always choose the exact same moment to ask you a question ? The more the person waits for an answer, the more I feel like a cow chewing its cud !! Not to mention the endless worry about bits of salad stuck between the teeth !

Given that there is hardly any time for breakfast (and I eat it while commuting to work) and dinner is preceded and succeeded by household chores, lunch is probably the only meal during weekdays that is slow paced and gives one time. I have to applaud the French here – when I was in Paris for work, lunch was atleast an hour, mostly accompanied by wine and even if its the office cafeteria, the menu was long and the food was delicious. And to top it all, no one spoke about anything but cheese and wine…..that definitely goes on the list as a pro, if I ever consider moving to France.

Losing faith in people

...is very uncharacteristic of me. I get upset with them, fight with or yell at them but I never lose faith in people I know and if they are strangers, I just grumble about them but I eventually get over it.

I recently got a gift certificate for a massage and when I reached the parlour, I was surprised that it was actually a house in a quiet residential area away from the main road and not a commercial establishment. Before I went in for my appointment, I called Ashok, gave him the address of the place and told him that if I didn’t call him back in an hour, he should call back and check with me. I went in and met an extremely friendly and professional masseuse. When I saw her I felt guilty because I hadn’t trusted her enough to not have a back-up plan. Maybe this is good practice, but to me the distrust I had about an innocent stranger made me think (and what better place to do it than a massage table!)….

I don't know if this is a part of growing up and finally facing reality but lately a lot of people are letting me down. I am inclined to blame the news (Syrian Genocide, Iran Nuclear plans, Greek debt situation and the list goes on) and the biography of Steve Jobs (there are things about him in the book that I need'nt have known) but I know its more personal than that.

I always believed in the adage that good things happen to good people. It does not mean that life is always a bed of roses but it only means that every problem that occurs paves the way for something better and in the end, everything ends well. But in the situations I have been seeing, try as hard as I might, I cannot see a silver lining. I only see people bullying those who cannot stand up for themselves or for their loved ones, I only see the good hearted ones getting hurt and being helpless. I would love to be nosy, step in and fight their battles or rather give the bullies a piece of my mind but that would only make things worse.

This is a good part to insert a disclaimer - There is nothing wrong with my life or me, nobody died but I am seeing so many problems happening to people around me that I am afraid that I am letting go of my optimism and my inherent faith in the goodness of people, albeit slowly !

One simple way would be to tune myself out for a while and not get involved in others' problems but when is running away the answer to anything ? If I cannot do what I do best i.e. talk to them, when people are in trouble, then the guilt of not being there when they need me would be overwhelming.

Oh...well...this too shall pass....until then I have to bear with myself, replace books with comics, news with funny sitcoms and look harder for ways to still cling on to the optimism and faith I have left !

Pongal Kad(a)i

After coming to Europe, I never really celebrated desi occasions like Pongal or Karthigai with the appropriate gusto because many times there was no one to share the joy (and food). Since Ashok and I started living together, I have been celebrating everything and cooking everything like crazy to make up for lost time.

Since this is our first pongal after we started living together, I had already made up my mind to celebrate it the proper way. Ashok is usually not very enthu in celebrating such occasions but he does enjoy the food. So when I asked him about the menu, he played along and said lots of ghee, cashews, whole peppercorns (for the ven pongal) and shallot (china vengayam) sambhar to go with it.

The first order of business was to find my pressure cooker which is small, almost dying, with its safety valve long gone. I had to use the cooker twice to boil the rice and dal for the Ven pongal and chakkarai pongal separately since the former is cooked with water and salt, while the latter is cooked with milk. I was worried that it was going to die any minute, but it was surprisingly robust (which is a tribute to Premier) and I even managed to shout ‘’pongalo pongal’’ (not being able to allow pongal to boil over on an induction stove is a major buzz kill…ivalum iva modern appliancesum…cha…cha..thollai thangala)

As much as I love shallot sambar, I hate to peel them - handla shallots =>eyes fulla tearu and infinite patience. Then I realized that I need the paavamana cooker again for boiling dal for the sambhar. So for the third time, the cooker cooked successfully.

After a hearty meal, when Ashok was dozing off, I called Amma and proudly narrated my accomplishments for the day. She listened and finally said – ‘’ellam seri, ana nalaiku dhane pongal’’ !!! After few seconds of shock, I remonstrated ‘’inniku 14th, eppodhum 14th dhane pongal’’…apparently the tamizh calendar decided to give me a mega bulb !$#@!%#$% by pushing pongal to 15th this year.

Mental note to self: Google for thamizh panchangam and add it to favorites

Favorite response to my comedy story (from a friend): Pongala mundiri (kottai) potiya ?!

Why kolaveri about kolaveri ?

If you don't know what I am talking about when I say ''Kolaveri'', then you have been off the grid ! Everyone involved in the song have been interviewed to death and they all say the same thing - we don't know why its so popular.

Yes, its a simple catchy tune, lyrics are easy to identify with and the tanglish makes you grin. But there so many songs with catchy tunes, simple lyrics and some other fun factor that never made news in BBC and Hindu ! They were not recommended by Big B is his blog, they did not bring twitter wishes from celebrities everywhere, they were not played over and over in MTV and they certainly did not have more than 17 million hits in youtube (as of today).

So what is so special about this one ? Noone can explain it.

Weirdly some people who first liked it do not anymore because they are sick and tired of the hype around it. They believe its ordinary and does not deserve this extraordinary attention its getting.

What about Jennifer Lopez's ''On the floor'' which was nothing but a fancy remix ? What about Britney spears' ''Baby one more time'' ? Granted that both these women are professional singers and put a lot more effort into their songs than Dhanush but my point is that there are so many songs that don't deserve the hype they get, so why pick on this one ? Did Javed Akhtar have anything to say about ''tai tai phiss'' or ''dhinka chikka'' ?

This is the age of text messages in place of calligraphed handwritten letters and 10 min youtube videos instead of hours of theatre. Anything simple and unexpected catches your attention and can hold it for a few minutes if it touches you emotionally and that's all there is to it.

Ponder on this if you will, I'm off....pa pa pa puan, pa pa pa puan, pa pa pa puan papa puan.....

Nocturnal Visitors and other stuff

Ashok was away on business for a couple of days and I was alone in the apartment for the first time. I’ve lived alone before but never in a large apt. So when I went to bed, I walked around checking if the doors were locked. In spite of that, I couldn’t sleep as usual (read, like a log) and kept hearing every single sound. I finally drifted off to sleep at an unknown time and then I woke up completely startled, someone was banging the front door !! It took a moment to keep my wits about me but I finally came out of the bedroom and walked to the corridor. Through the window I saw a tall guy, all dressed in black (yeah, even in the worst of time, women notice clothes) staring at the door, while another one seemed to be pounding on it.

My heart was racing as I walked closer to the door and I thought to myself ‘’what sort of a burglar pounds on the front door in the middle of the night in an apt in the city centre?”. With that confidence, my heart rate came back to normal and I started hearing a very drunken voice of a woman shouting something in Dutch. Then I knew....and I was smoke-from-ears-annoyed !!

I opened the door hoping for their own sake that they saw the smoke and walked away. And I was facing a girl with the most confused expression and a guy whose mouth was open in shock. Even as I saw their looks turn to apologetic, I still couldn’t help being irritated and I asked them why they were arousing the whole neighbourhood at 3am, knowing the answer full well. Apparently they were trying to surprise their friend (translation: they were drunk and needed a place to crash) and their dear friend is none other than my landlord, who very conveniently had forgotten to inform these noble people of his change of address ! First a cop, then drunken friends showing up in the middle of the night....hmmm....maybe we should consider moving again....

but there is a catch in it....

We moved to Eindhoven. Eindhoven becomes the smartest region in the world. Obviously there is a logical relationship here ;) :D, so we cannot move without considering the repercussions !

So what else is happening in Brainport Eindhoven ? There is an additional glow this week.

This is because of a week-long event during which there are light installations and animations in 20 different locations in the city. The city itself is used as a background and the buildings, canals, even plain walls all turn into amazing platforms for these illusions and illuminations. One of my favorites is the city hall - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTTDingHfjA

Eindhoven was heavily bombed during the war and is now just a place with skyscrapers. The city knows this and keeps constantly trying to do something fun and interesting to keep the locals and visitors engaged and me like it !

As a Dutchess...

...what I like about the 7feet-is-not-uncommon-height Dutch is that they are usually friendly, most of them are bi- or even trilingual (everyone speaks German and English besides Dutch) and they are flexible with the rules (which is a wow factor for someone used to Germany!)

…what I love are tulips, windmills, old Dutch houses, wooden shoes, canals, infrastructure for biking and their great effort to recover land from the sea and their success in keeping it !

…what I miss are mountains. The extent of high slope in the Netherlands that I have seen so far is a road with a 5 deg slope (which ironically is always called the Bergstraat or mountain street)

…what confuses me is their take on sex and drugs – if it’s out there in the open, then the temptation is far less than if its hidden and prohibited. Surprisingly this works, there are coffeeshops (not for coffee but for licensed sale of drugs – mind you, only soft drugs) even close to my place and not once have I seen any junkies or misdemeanors of any kind. People are even allowed to grow their own drugs and can have up to 5 plants in the house ! But what they forget is that this logic applies only to residents and not to tourists who when given this ‘’newly-found’’ freedom go crazy and cause all the trouble. Not to mention having to put up with the jokes from the rest of the world about ‘’everyone being in a drug haze’ in Amsterdam !

While I was watching a movie that I thought was pretty much in the sex-and-the-city-genre, I was surprised to find a bunch of girls who looked no older than 13 or 14 seated in the row behind me. Then I learnt that the movie was rated 12 yrs and above !! In spite of that, every time there was an adults-only joke, I couldn’t laugh and couldn’t help but hope that they didn’t understand it.

…what I find mysterious is that Netherlands is never in the news….and I have been checking both CNN and BBC diligently ever since I moved here and not one word of news about the country…I know its small but how can there be no news given that its one of the stable economies in EU ??!

…what I was not prepared for was the population density (the average is actually much higher than the average density in India!!). After having lived in western Germany for more than 8 years, where an overcrowded train is an once-in-a-bluemoon (read, worldcup football season) occurrence, its hard to get used to the always-crowded and not to mention, lower-quality Dutch trains.

We live right smack in the city centre and going for a walk without someone crossing your path is impossible on any day of the week between 8am and 6pm. People are always shopping, even on weekdays ! Now I know why the shops close at 6pm – to let the residents have some peace and quiet in the evenings !

Cycling during peak hours can actually kill you if you are not used to dodging-the-indian-traffic-antics. People on bikes usually fly and it’s almost like driving alongside a Porsche on the autobahn, which you know will overtake you on the wrong side.

…what amazes me and sometimes totally freaks me out is the average fitness level. Pregnant women are so strong that most of them give birth at home with just their partner’s help (they have a home pregnancy kit..seriously!) and they are up and about the next day ! Rowing, biking, marathon teams are everywhere and this is saying something given that the Dutch weather is worse than the English weather !

…what scares me are the stairs in most Dutch houses (or correctly known as death traps) – they are curved and spiral, narrow and dark – all the elements that actually make sure you trip or in the least, drop something you are carrying! It was one of my criteria when we started house hunting – no Dutch stairs. There is no way I am going to destroy the last few grey cells I have just because the living room and bedrooms are on different floors.

…what I am struggling with is speaking Dutch. Knowing German and English, I can read and understand Dutch to a large extent but listening and speaking is a totally different ball game.

… what I find funny:

Bicycle parking areas - We live in a building with 12 apartments with a max. of 24 people and there at least 50 bikes ! The picture below shows the parking area at the station. If you don’t remember where you parked yours…hmm…well…walk !

At least once a week, some shady looking guy tries to sell me an obviously-stolen bike !

The Dutch drink milk during lunch..every day ! Not kids, all of them !

They will die without Hagelslag (a form of chocolate chips that they put on bread) and biking.

They say Blah-di-blah instead of (what-I-thought-was-conventional) blah-blah-blah; every time I hear it, I have to suppress a grin because to me it sounds like Koundamani saying ‘’bloody’’ in a thick accent.

And finally, what I am looking forward to is to be able to embrace Netherlands quickly as my ‘’second home’’ and explore/enjoy the best and deal with the worst of it.