My new website demo

Hi

As some of you may already know, I am trying to put up a virtual home. You can visit the demo and comment here.

Website: http://www.sridharj.com
Photo Gallery: http://sridharj.free-web-hosting.biz

The free web part will change when I have buy the web space. Currently, I am evaluating Bluehost and Dreamhost, although Bluehost is on top now.

Christmas in Karlsruhe

Depressed, angry and lonely.

Those 3 words summarize how I feel right now. Depressed that I am not travelling to India tomorrow as planned, angry about the stupid service provider who is the main reason for this delay and lonely as there is no one to even talk to here.

Its cold and forbidding to step outside the house. So, you can imagine how i feel cooped up in addition to the adjectives mentioned!!!

What really bugs me is that these so called international companies do not have a simple helpline or even a reliable phone support. All my emails through their web-based contact form are lost in their inboxes. Worldbridge must be the worst service provider and I am not sure how they were selected. They charge a whopping $14 to provide information over the phone!!!

Anyway, some pics for those of you who are still interested in them.

Experiments in Digital Photography

In a burst of Sunday enthusiasm, I opened Photoshop CS2 and did some post-processing on some photos I had taken earlier. Nature (landscape, wildlife, birds etc), indoor and macro photography - I have tried all of them.

Tell me what you feel about these photos. Honesty please.

Overdue Blog posts

I have been quite amiss in posting here for sometime now. Part of which (psst, the only reason, actually) has been sheer laziness. In fact, I have not posted anything on my recent trip to Switzerland (I had planned on writing a travel log), nor my trudges into the woods near my place in Germany.

Photos, though, have been posted in my Flickr account (see my flickr-badge in this blog). Hopefully, I will come out of the limbo and write something, although the fingers on one hand would still be too much a number to count the regular readers of this blog.

Ravi and Sid, on the other hand, seem to have some creative juices flowing, although I wouldn't wonder about that in Sid's case - He is supposedly the "Creative Shocker" and from what I read in his blog, could become a good screenwriter for Bollywood/Tollywood films (for his great people characterization skills, lol).

What I like about these guys (and many others, which I unfortunately seem to lack) is their ability to create a blog post on everyday occurrences. Must have been Income Tax guys in previous lives - getting something out of nothing...

See ya

Steinhuder Meer - A Trip report

Yet another Saturday dawned and with it, an extreme reluctance to stay at home. I had done some research the previous day on Steinhuder Meer, one of tha largest lakes in Germany. It is close to Hannover and would provide multiple photo opportunities for me.

So, with a friend and his family in tow, I went to Hannover, where the tourist information center gave us pretty clear directions on reaching the place.

We boarded a train to Wunstorf, which was exactly 12 minutes away. From the bus station, a bus deposited us 30 minutes later in front of the park.

Much to my disappointment, the man at the information centre cheerfully told us two things. We cannot cover the entire lake, since we were on foot (Bicycle or car would be preferable) and the boating facilities would be open from the next day only.

We, however, did not let these smallthings weigh us down. So off went on foot. while I did not get to see much variety of flora and fauna, I had a pleasant evening. However, there remains a sore spot in the trip, since it is definitely a romantic place and I really missed wifey dear.

Do you detect this feeling in the couple of photos posted here? I leave it to you.

Khosla ka Ghosla - A movie review

As promised in my previous post, a review of a more cheerful movie. But again, don't look here for the plot :)

My first impression of the movie - funny, yet subtly showing us how limited choices we have in our dealings with the big bad world outside. Some facility for "tit-for-tat" looks the most promising wa to get back at more powerful people.

Boman Irani - As I said previously, he is one of the best actors around, probably will rank as one of the greatest. In this movie, he is the perfect "landshark", the typical specimen of the class. Looks cheerful, but there is always an undercurrent of menace, seething below the surface. Just put a pebble in his way and you bear the full brunt of his anger.

Again, he is also a fanatic "devotee", seeking to bribe even God, through his piety! Enjoys all things money can buy, but believes that land is the one thing that will never lose value. How true in these days!

Anupam Kher - Actor par excellence, he is a perfect match for Boman. You can immediately substitute your father in this role - has worked hard throughout his life to build his own house, has many dreams about it and waiting for them to come true.

If you are as normal hearted as most young people, you cannot hold back the faint glint of tears at Anupam Kher's "father" - he wants his children to do well, but still is protective when they don't "shine". He wants to be as a friend to his children. He wants his children to stay with him, but is ready to let them go if it makes them big in life. Behind every tough-looking father, there stands a tender-hearted man, who is afraid that being gentle always makes his children go wrong. Tremendous.

Parvin Dabas - Typical IT guy, wants to be big in life - going to America. But like all of us, has too strong ties to hearth and home. Torn between ambition to be something and his family and lover who need him, he has our sympathies.

Tara Sharma - "Girl next door" suits her. Not a drop-dead bombshell like other heroines fit only for running around trees when the hero wants, she comes across as a normal, good-looking girl, who is modern, but still shy enough to wait for the guy she loves to make the first move.

Navin Nischol - he has been around too long for me to talk anything. A veteran, he carries off his role with ease. As a run-down actor who has seen glorious days, you can understand how he feels when he has to act like a rich guy. To be on equal terms with the paranoid Boman is not a laughing matter and Navin plays the role of a frightened, yet determined man to perfection.

The crew - cinematographer, editor, screenplay, dialogues - complement wonderfully the director (Dibakar Banerjee). It really takes guts to produce such a movie - no big stars - just a story that takes place hundreds of times every day across India, an excellent cast and crew and some really wonderful story telling ability from the director.

Although they are two completely different movies, the two movies I have reviewed so far - Being Cyrus and KKG - are two offbeat movies that somehow have my complete admiration. Acting, Direction, Story are completely different from run-off-the mill Bollywood movies - but more importantly starting to make journeys inwards into the minds of people.

We now have producers and directors and yes, more importantly actors, with courage. that I applaud.

Finally, I have to place on record my admiration to the "Man of the movies" - Boman Irani. Hats off.

Being Cyrus - A Movie Review

I am stuck in Germany where the only English TV channel available is BBC News where the code for the news ticker is written below:

for(i=2;i>1;i++)
{
Displaynews();
Waitfor10minutes();
}

Before you start looking for the comment field (you humans are hasty, as Treebeard would say), let me tell you what this has to do with a movie review. Everything, indeed. The only source of any entertainment is the Internet. But you can only browse so many sites till it becomes boring. then what? Movies. Aha.

With some trusty software, I now can download and watch some of the movies that I missed while I was in India. "Being Cyrus" was one of them.

My first impression is "what a classy, dark" movie. Although the plot seems to have been lifted from Hollywood [May the story writer forgive me if I insulted his intellience, but history...], the film surpassed my expections in every sense.

I knew Saif Ali Khan was a good actor, especially after Dil Chahta Hai and Hum Tum, but this film is a landmark in his career or a turning point in his career or "anyone of the most inappropriate cliches" as he would say in the movie.

His entire mind is opened to us, the grim reality staring us near the climax, where all your opinions about everyone in the movie turns. There are no "completely pure" heroes and heroines around, no song and dance routines, no dishum-dishum - just a terrifying look inside a dark mind. A mind that nevertheless seeks to understand its role in the world.

Boman Irani, as has become a habit with him, is outstanding. As Farookh Setna, he epitomises the thousands of men, with big ambitions but no talent, who think being loud and violent is an achievement!

Naseeruddin Shah, is slightly disappointing, although it is his role that is to blame. As a great artist who is lost in art and in his earlier glorious days, he is the only truly innocent character. Dimple Kapadia, as Katy or Katie (how does it matter!), is simply too good. Although she keeps complaining about Shah being dirty, it is she who is always scrtaching her itches, in more ways than one :). Her ambition to be someone (she only dreams of being great), and how that ambition is exploited is the plot.

If you thought I was going to tell you the plot as it is a movie review, let me tell you that I have re-defined the term. I promise though that this film will make you queasy, uneasy and thinky (ok, I made up that one!).

Not for the faint-hearted, this movie, especially for those who think the world is either white or black. There are many shades of grey in between and the various characters fall in those shades. Just everyone's selfish attempts to inject happiness into their otherwise miserable lives, but no one knowing the right path.

One thing I can say - Indian Cinema has genuinely matured. If anyone talks of Bollywood as revolving around Shahrukh Khan or Masala or whatever, watch this movie first.

Now, time to go to bed or rather as Mr. Setna or Cyrus would say, "Whatever be the result, the king and the pawn go back into the same box." Whatever I write and you read, we have to go to sleep at the end of the day. Ciao!

Psst: There is another review about a more cheerful movie coming up. So Cheer up!