Mid-Terms *sigh*

This is an unfortunate post to let my imaginary following know that I shall be away from the blogosphere for the next few weeks on a mini-break. I have my very first university mid-term exams starting from next week. Whoever said that uni was about debauched, decadent alcohol ridden parties was so very wrong. I haven't partied properly since high school ended now. It's not that I actually enjoy partying, but it's the lack of opportunity that I find frustrating.

But on the other hand, I have some good news too. TPF is going to be back home for the weekend. It's the first time I'm going to see her in a month. Okay, I know she's not been away for that long, but you know how we both are. Although, she couldn't have chosen a worse time to come to visit. Something tells me that I'm not going to get any studying done this weekend.

I cant wait for my exams to get over because once those are done, I'm going to be in England in the second week of Novmber. I'll just be there for 3 days though. I'm visiting TPF for a long weekend of fun, fun and more fun. WHEE! Okay, I'll stop. I'm just excited.

Right, back to studies now :)

Diwali!

Happy Diwali everyone!

Diwali is the most depressing day of the year in Italy. Also, if having a depressing Diwali in a European country wasn't enough, it had to rain all day and be dark and cloudy. However, it could be worse, right? I mean, at least this year Diwali has fallen on a weekend, and so we have some semblance of a holiday. For the last three years, I've been going to school and pretending that it's just another day.

*sigh*

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain

After much deliberation I have finally decided to write my first review. I’m always cautious about reviewing because I’m a very biased reviewer, as in I only like reviewing the things I like. Also, I don’t like reviewing the things I don’t like because someone has worked very hard to make a film or write a book and I feel guilty making flippant remarks about someone else’s hard work (unless it’s Dan Brown, of course. I mean, his name is DAN, why would people even consider reading something written by a man whose parents weren’t imaginative enough to give him a name that is no longer than three letters?)

But as usual I digress, the subject of this review is going to be the movie Amélie or Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, as it is called in French. Don’t worry, there are not going to be any spoilers in this post, just some silly gushing that might give some of you an insight into female sentimentality. The movie is made in such a way that you either dislike it because you think that it is plot-less and well, a waste of time or you love it. I, unlike my unsentimental father, fall into this latter category.

I’m not sure what is it about this movie that makes it so different from all the other movies that I’ve ever seen; maybe it is the way in which the movie is filmed, maybe it is the soundtrack of the movie or maybe it is Amélie herself that I can identify with because she reminds me so much of myself. The first thing I wanted to do when I finished watching the movie the first time was re-start and watch it all over again

I’m not very sure how one could possibly label Amélie into a particular genre. I’m not sure whether it would be appropriate to call it a comedy. It doesn’t make you laugh out loud, just subtly smile and maybe even have a good cry. This tale of an innocent, lonely, naïve girl living in Paris charms everyone’s hearts. At the end of the movie, you can’t help but fall completely in love with this delightful character.

The movie has a brilliant cast. Audrey Tautou as Amélie is wonderful and I cant think of any other actress who could have played a convincing Amélie. The only danger for roles like these is that it might make an actor typecast for a certain set of roles. Also, just after seeing Amélie, I also watched Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) which is also directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet and stars Audrey Tautou in a very Amélie-like character. Even though that movie was great, I was kind of let down because of Tautou’s stereotypical character. Of course, I then watched The Da Vinci Code, which TPF has written about in a fabulous review that describes all my sentiments for that movie. Mathieu Kassovitz, on the other hand, is absolutely adorable. I am completely in love with him. I remember squealing and gripping TPF’s hand hard in the cinema hall when I realized that he was in Munich.

The movie has a wonderful soundtrack by Yann Tiersen. I’ve never loved the whole soundtrack of a particular movie before. But every track in Amélie is heart warming and it is impossible for a person to be indifferent the music in this movie because music plays such a pivotal role in this film. You just have to feel something when you listen to it, and I’m not saying this because I’m an angsting alternative-music listening teenager, but because I really do mean it.

Another strange thing is that though I’ve seen Amélie several times now, I’ve always seen it in Italian. Since Italian is not my first language, I don’t focus much on a movie when I’m watching it in Italian, but end up just keep trying to figure out the plot. It is rather rare for me to actually feel any emotion to what is happening on screen because I’m so caught up in the plot. Also, since it was a French movie translated into Italian rather than an English movie translated into Italian, it was much harder for me to understand it, at least the first time I watched it. I wonder how the English translation is. I am rather curious. I shall watch it in English eventually if I manage to find someone who owns the DVD in English.

Having said all this I have to admit that this is not a movie for plot oriented people, but for people who like focusing on the cinematography and the actual filming of movies. It is also meant for sentimental teenage girls who are looking for the smallest possible excuse to shed copious tears.

As a side note, I have a humongous Amélie poster in my room bought by TPF from Istanbul.

Another one of these meme thingies

TPF tagged me for a meme ages ago. I love memes because this means that I don't need to think of something relatively intelligent to blog about. This does not necessarily mean that most of my posts are intelligent, but still I don't need to worry about finding a topic to blog about.

This meme is part of her 'meme experiment'. I have to post the 10 most played songs on my itunes counter. This means that, however weird my results maybe, I have to do this meme because I don't want to get on TPF's bad side. Actually, the results of this meme are going to be completely incorrect because even though I've had itunes for about two years now, I recently changed computers from Quincy to Julia, all my old play counts were deleted and I basically restarted the whole list. Therefore, right now, the most played music on my counter happens to be my recently added music.

1. Dhadak Dhadak from the movie, Bunty aur Babli. I went through a whole period a few months ago that I was obsessively addicted to this song and used to listen to it more than once a day. Right now, that phase of mine has passed and I no longer listen to it with the same frequency that I used to. But, it's a great song and rather catchy.

2. Tainted Love, by Soft Cell. I heard this song for the first time when I was in the Supermarket with TPF (don't ask me what were we doing together in a supermarket, it's a long story). Marilyn Manson has re-sung this song and it's electric guitar version is quite popular. But I downloaded the original version of the song by Soft Cell just a few weeks ago. It's a great song and I listen to it at least once a day on my way to and fro from uni.

3. Sexy Back, by Justin Timberlake. Oh Justin, Marry me! *sigh* Sorry, that was the teenage fangirl in me talking. I wasn't a very big Justin Timberlake fan for a long time. (Please feel free make fun of TPF, a few years ago she went to a Justin Timberlake concert). But this song is the epitome of good pop. It's so catchy and had a great video with Justin looking overly sexy. Britney must now feel like an idiot for leaving him to marry that sleeze bag of hers You show her who's the cooler one, Justin!

4. Supermassive Black Hole, by Muse. It's from their latest album. I'm not much of a Muse fan, but I love this song. It's great, but I'm not a big fan of it's video. It's creepy because it has the band playing in masks, and I've been terrified of masks ever since I was a child. It's just one of those little things that I really don't like.

5. Every You and Every Me, by Placebo. TPF called me mainstream when I told her that this was my favourite Placebo song. Well, I cant help it if I'm mainstream. I mean, it's mainstream because it's their best song, isn't it? Things are always mainstream for a reason. So there, that is my excuse for liking the most popular Placebo song.

6. Bohemian Like You, by The Dandy Warhols. Well, this is the only Dandy Warhols song that I know apart from, 'We Used to Be Friends', which is also the Veronica Mars soundtrack. As a side note, how great is Veronica Mars? I am mildly obsessive about it. Anyways, both these songs are great. But the only reason this appears so high on my playlist is because I recently downloaded it, which means that I listen to it more frequently because it is on my Recently Played playlist.

7. When You Were Young, by The Killers. Okay, I like The Killers. Anyone has any problems with that, huh? Do you, huh? No, tell me, do you? Because I don't care! Hmph! I like this song. It's from their new album. I even like their old songs. The Killers are a great band and I am not looking for anyone to tell me that they're not. I almost bought myself a band tshirt a few years ago. The only reason I decided not to buy it was because the infamous Vintage Girl had the same tshit and it would have been silly for me to own the same thing.

8. Main Hoon Don from Don. It's from the new movie Don starring Shahrukh Khan. It's the remake of the old Don movie by Farhan Akhtar. I can't wait to watch it. It's going to be great. I also have another song, Yeh Mera Dil, which I listen to much more often than this track, but I managed to get Yeh Mera Dil just a few days ago. Anyways, call me mainstream again, but I love Shahrukh, even though he's the crappiest Bollywood actor in the film industry. But god, he's Shahrukh Khan, how is one supposed to dislike him?

9. Tell Me Baby, by Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's from their new album, Stadium Arcadium. It's a great album, even though I've heard just two songs from it. I loved Dani California. It kept playing everywhere when TPF and I were in Bombay a few months ago and Tell Me Baby is just as good. I'm not a hardcore Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, but they are a good band.

10. The Blues are Still Blue, by Belle and Sebastian. I discovered this band via TPF who went to a concert of theirs a few months ago in Milan with her brother. Anyways, both TPF and I have become big Belle and Sebastian fans after that. It's not a very popular mainstream band, but I love it. All their songs are great. This also happens to be my only alternative entery in this top then list. (I am pretending to ignore the fact that Radiohead missed this list by like 2 places or something) You know, I just pretend not to like alternative music. When it comes down to it, I'm as big an alternative music fan as anybody else.

And one more since I am so fond of prime numbers:

11. Cakkidi, by Kenan Dogulu. Ah, my first and only Turkish entery in this list. This is such a great song and I even have the video, which is as great as the song itself. Turkish pop is the best kind of pop in the whole world. Once Tarkan figures out his sexuality, I'll be his slave for life regardless of what he decides.

Technically, since I am known to be the meme killer and everything, I'm not actually supposed to tag people. But I shall have to make an exception in this case since this is TPF's meme experiment, and I cant kill it at the second person. Therefore, I tag Nitin, Szerelem and Eris.

Libraries

The best things about libraries has always been the way they smell. I don'’t think there is anything in the world that smells better than read, dusty, old books.

Libraries have always intimidated me ever since childhood. I think this is mainly due to the fact that my old school library was an old chapel converted into a library. Therefore it always seemed a little daunting to me, until I eventually got used to it. It was a humongous, dark room with little sunlight, stain glass windows and no electric lights (at least during the day). If you entered the library in the afternoon, you would get temporarily blinded because it used to be so dark inside.

It was a beautiful room with stone floors that kept the temperature inside cool even in hot and humid Bombay summers. The room was equipped with a large circular table, which always fondly reminded me of King Arthur's round table and had a large circle of locked cupboards around its edges. Sometimes when I entered the library I liked imagining that time had suspended around me and I had entered another dimension. It was the only place in school where I could be alone and all by myself (because none of my friends cared much about libraries or books) and it comforted me. I used to sit for hours there and go through books until the dreaded bell told me that it was time to come back into reality and return to class.

Most of the other people in school ever read anything apart from old Enid Blyton books from the library that I had already grown beyond when I started borrowing books from there. So after much begging on my part, and deliberation my teacher's part, she gave me (and Eris, of course) a free reign to go through all the locked cupboards that were full of books no one had ever bothered to look at for decades and I'm sure no one after me will probably bother with them for a few more decades. I discovered some of my favourite books hidden among those shelves. I would not have read the whole Narnia series if Eris had not discovered it by mistake while looking for Trixie Belden books in those shelves.

My high school library, on the other hand, was much more modern and full of well known books. It didn't have any rare or hidden or dusty books as a matter of fact. It also had an electronic check out system (with the kind of machines you have in supermarkets) and a whole load of computers that we were supposed to use for research purposes. Most people actually used these computers for playing flash games because the library computers were not supervised unlike the school computers by our computer teacher. Most of the times the library was used either as a 'hang out'’ place by people on rainy days or as a last minute 'homework copying' place. I had a young, sweet, library teacher who was also my English teacher for my first two years in high school. I always knew that something was missing from that library, until I realized that it was the dark, ominous atmosphere and written check out library cards that I missed. Until that moment I had never realized how much I loved my archaic, middle school library that I grew up in.

Right now all I have an access to is a humongous University library where I have to look up all the books I want via an online catalogue. No more going through library shelves or reading book jackets. Sometimes, just sometimes I detest technology.

PS: On a completely unrelated note, today is also Pan's birthday. She feels too old to be true!

University Reds

First of all I must apologise for my recent disappearance from the blogosphere. University began a few weeks ago, and therefore I have been pretty busy lately. Also TPF is leaving for Uni on Wednesday and I have been spending every bit of my spare time with her later.

What can I say about Uni? It's different, very different from high school. Everything seems so completely and frighteningly big here. When I say different I don't mean bad different though. But I miss my friends and Dave. TPF darling, it's not the same without you! *sniff* I can't make silly jokes anymore or make obscure references and have someone actually understanding them. On a lighter note, I emailed Dave a few days ago and he replied today *fangirlish squeal*. It made my day. I don't sound like an almost 19 year old University student, do I?

For those who are actually interested, I am getting my degree in a course called, International Economics and Management. I'm sure it sounds more impressive than it actually is. It is not as cool as it sounds (well, this is assuming you think it sounds cool) It just involves a lot of Maths, Economics and Law, at least for now that is. I've been meeting loads of new people, practicing my Italian (which sucks, by the way) and pretending to actually care about my studies. I can't believe I actually have three hour lectures. My longest lesson in school used to last for 70 minutes. Yes, I am whinging here, so please bear with me.

Social life seems to be on a weird high (kind of). I just got invited today to go to Germany this weekend for three days for the October Beer Fest (which is a beer festival, as you must have already deciphered from it's name). The festival involves going to Germany on Friday, drinking beer all of Saturday, getting hung over all of Sunday and coming back to Uni on Monday. If people have already started tutting and mentally chiding Pan off, I am not actually planning to attend this thing. I am a responsible young, adult who would not even dream of going to weird alcohol festivals.

I've been meeting a whole lot of new people lately and I'm terrible with their names. I don't remember the names of half the people I've had conversations with. Therefore, I've been a very horrible person and come up with mental nicknames for people. These include AcneBoy, FizzHead, HotBoy, CuteRear, NerdyGirl, FashionVictiom etc. I have also started catagorising people by their nationality, which admittedly is not a very nice thing to do. But I'm always going to be known as IndianGirl to people, so it is not technically horrible of me to call people NorwegianBoy or HungarianGirl, right?

Anyways, after more than a week of attending Uni I have come to the conclusion that the world is full of a hell of a lot of weird people and I happen to be one of them.

If she thinks can she tell me to prove it...

I've been tagged by TPF for a silly picture. TPF has asked me to prove her wrong by actually attempting to do this meme, so here is it. TPF is generally hardly ever wrong and so whenever I do get this great opportunity, I love doing it. Therefore, I have finally found a picture of myself which can embarrass me for life if uploaded on the internet and here I am doing it myself.

What can be sillier than a humiliating naked picture of yourself bathing in a bright, orange bucket? My mother put me in a bucket for god's sake when I was a child and then people wonder why I have issues about my childhood? Although I love my partially serious expression for the pictue. Ah, I was always the intellectual thinker even when I was a baby bathing in a bucket.

I think the legs behind the bucket belong to my mother, but I'm not very sure why exactly is she wearing a dress/gown that makes her look like a badly dressed hospital nurse. The thing in my hand is a chewing thingie that babies use when they are teething. Mine was blue and elephant shaped and I loved it from the bottom of my heart. *sniff*


Hmm, tags?

I refuse to tag people because I am officially the meme killer :) But if anyone does want to do it, they can feel free.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

I have finally managed to find the time to post some of the Bombay photographs that I had promised. It took to me ages to upload everything here, so please appreciate my hard work and effort. These pictures were taken solely by TPF and me, therefore no one else gets any credit, apart from our wonderful cameras, of course. I'm putting the pictures under sub-headings because everyone knows how anal I am about organisation.

These pictures are dedicated to Nikki, since I promised I would get something back for her.


The funny pictures that people with a sense of humour might enjoy:

I'm not sure if the above sign is readable. It was taken in a bus. The sign in English says, 'spitting and smoking prohibited'. I like the idea of random people trying to spit at each other in public transport.

I love how they are so honest about the warning above, and I'm sure the threat works. I mean, who would want to even risk parking there in order to see whether their tyres actually get deflated? Alright, maybe I would, if I had a car of course, but still, it is rather funny.

This sign was hilarious, I love the last line that says 'Fancy Item Available Here'. While I was talking this picture, there were a lot of guys around the shopkeeper of this store and I hear one of them telling this shopkeeper, "She's going to publish this picture in a big foreign newspaper and you're going to be famous." So yes, I now have the reponsibily to make someone famous.

Oh come on, we are not perverts, just hormone infested teenagers who tend to notice these kind of signs, point at them in the middle of a crowded street, giggle like lunatics and attract even more attention by taking pictures of the sign.

I think it would have been a bit more easier for this 'Order' to make a sign about the things one could actually do in the park, rather than the things that one couldn't do in there.

See, what I like so much about this pharmacy was their directness towards their customers. The customers don't even have to bother asking for bags and then have the shopkeepers rudely refusing. Instead, they just have a polite sign out up everywhere in the shop.

What more could a man want in life than a hairdresser who is also an expert on ingrown nails and corns. Ah bliss! How does one become an expert in ingrown toe nails? Is there some sort of university degree one can do?

This was funny. How can they randomly prohibit people from procrastination is beyond me :)

The not-so-funny pictures that amused only TPF and Pan because let us face it, they're idiots:

It says 'Fire Box'. I'm not sure why that's even minutely funny. It just is! 'Fire Box', ha! Alright, I'll just stop!

'Tourism Police'. That is almost as funny as 'Fire Box'. Oh come on, we were just being silly, don't look at me so strangely please.

There is nothing wrong with the one above, apart from the whole 'belt' bit I think. It must be funny if they check your clothes, shoes and not to mention, belt before you actually go in there.

In India, we have taxis and we have rickshaws (known as 'ricks' for short). I love rickshaws, they are three wheeler vehicles with open sides, flimsy canvas roof and a seat that can just barely manage to squeeze three people at the back. Although, I have sat in one with five people (alright, this was when I was about thirteen or fourteen so we were small people) . All the fare meters in rickshaws in Bombay have 'Don't Touch Me' written on them. As a child, I've spent many happy house pondering on how the fare meter could paint signs on itself when it didn't have hands. What can I say, my mother, as usual ruined all my fantasies.

This sign is printed at the back of some seats in public transport buses in Bombay reserving the seats for women. It's not very funny to anyone apart from TPF, Harry and me because it reminds us of an embarrassing incident which involved my friends actually making people (men) get up from those seats so that we could sit down in a rather crowded bus. I've never felt so privileged to be a woman in my entire life.

The Garbage Bins (because they are Pan's specialty and she can't not post them however silly they maybe):

The Touristy Images (which for some suspicious reason happen to be very few):

Most of the touristy pictures are taken by TPF because she is a great photographer. I, on the other hand, am rather bad and end up messing everything up, so I must thank her for letting me use her pictures.

We had such a lovely trip, and I must thank Eris and my other friends (who probably don't read this blog) that made it even more fun for us. Eris darling, you know how much I love you and your fuzzy hair, right?