The Green Mile

Very recently, I saw this movie "The Green Mile"(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/) featuring Tom Hanks in the lead role. This movie got me very emotionally disturbed. I cried buckets all through the movie and it is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I don't remember the last time I cried profusely for  a movie barring a few Kamal Hasan movies. This movie has got a very strong message, and lays emphasis on the belief that "Miracles do happen". The character of John Coffey will remain etched in my memory till I die or even after my death, such was his influence. 

Now I don't know where to begin. Everything in the movie, almost everything made me cry. Right from the tiny mouse to the gigantic 7 foot tall, innocent John Coffey(played by Michael Clarke Duncan) . There were many tear-jerking scenes in the movie. The mouse-stamping scene, the expressions of Delacroix post-stamping, the electrocution of Delacroix, the pre-electrocution scenes of John Coffey, the last meal ordering scene of John Coffey and I can go on and on and on. It is a 3 hour long movie and not once did I check my watch during the course of the movie. For those of you who think movies are for time-pass and have no values whatsoever, I strongly recommend this movie. 

I still wonder how this movie missed out on all awards that went to a movie called "American Beauty" of which I have no idea. Quoting Tom Hanks:

"We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the green mile is so long"

 

What the f***

I got up at 10 o clock today and was wondering how to effectively indulge in time wasting for the rest of the day as almost all my friends' holidays got over. I had no place to go and just when I was thinking I'd go mad, the idea of watching a movie flashed. There is this movie called "The Departed" which has been in my system for quite a long time. I decided to watch it only because my friend told me the movie had almost a similar story-line to that of Kurudhi Punal. 

Just minutes into the movie, the profanity begins. The F word is uttered  every 30 seconds. F this, F that, you're a F-ing this, why the F, what the F and what not. Some one please give Martin Scorsese an award for the maximum usage of F word in a movie, he is so desperate. Maybe he wanted the movie to look kewl with all these profanities. Imdb says- 237 F words and it's derivatives. Now, that's some record. That apart, the movie was a good movie and I liked it a lot. 

I have had an over dosage of F word today and I f-ing seriously hope I dont f-ing blabber the F word in my dream for my mum to wake up and f-ing ask me what the f I was blabbering. Now do the F count in this post. 

Wierd Superstitions

I have these wierd superstitious practices before I watch a Manchester United game. 

1. I make sure that I take bath before the match begins (Taking bath on weekends is a sin, I consider it as a waste of precious time).But for Man United's sake, I do it.

2. I make sure that I don't wear anything RED(How ironical, cos the two times I wore read, my team got beaten apart)

3. Now comes the "spacial arrangement of the immovable objects" part. I place the deflated football of mine(the one in my profile pic) in one corner of the hall and it stays there for the next 90 minutes. I make sure the bathroom doors are closed, the mats outside are in place and are never disturbed during the course of the game (How silly can I get!) 

4. I take my seat on the sofa, place the 2 remotes by my side(one for the TV and one for the Set Top Box). I set the TV volume to either 24 or 28 (I like multiples of 4, especially these 2 numbers)

5. Here comes the most irritating part. The MOBILE. My inbox gets flooded with approximately 500 messages per hour. Ok, I think I'm exaggerating. Make that 100 per hour. Still not that good a number, or is it?!! I clear my inbox before the game begins and I delete the messages that I get during the game, without even reading them most of the time. (Ofcousre my eyes will be glued to the televison, can't take them off even for a second) . It's a good thumb exercise though, constantly pressing the delete option. Mind proposes, thumb disposes. That'w how it is. 

Here are my some other wierd practises

.Whenever I set an alarm in my mobile, I set it 4 times ( Ah, the magic of the number 4, the best number ever in the history of numbers)

.I don't move an inch, whenever Sachin is batting, not even for a loo-break. I'm not alone, I'm pretty sure there are many people who have this wierd superstition. 

That is all I can remember as of now. I have to take bath now, not because Man United are playing, it's because I'm smelling so good right now. Ciao!!! 

Rain guaranteed

Chennai will surely see heavy rains from december 11th. Why Dec 11th? Yes, you guessed it right. Chennai is hosting a cricket match. Thankyou BCCI. 

Near Death experiences

You may wonder what this topic is about. Just read on.

Nov 15th, 2008

It was one hectic day in many ways. Firstly, I had my first  exam on that day. Power System Analysis. Now I am throwing an open challenge. If anyone could sit through the class for 3 full hours, I will give them 500 bucks from my own pocket(don't have that much at the moment because of economic crisis, but I'm confident that no one would sit through). So, sitting through those classes were considered as "death experiences" by many, and I am no different. Coming to the exam part, the paper was ok, not too tough, not too easy. We were done with the exam and whole of EEE(3rd years) assembled outside the hall and we all decided, it's time to release the stress and what better way of doing it than watching a movie. It was decided that we were going to see the newly released "Vaaranam Aayiram". I am a big fan of Gautham Vasudev Menon and was eager to watch the movie. If not for the exam, I'd have seen it FDFS itself. 

Around 50 of us assembled in the World's best theater "Ganapathiram" at the LB Road. We were shocked to see the theater crowded and plenty of girl fans in the theater, which made us wonder "Wow!!! Is this Ganapathiram??(sivaji Rajni stlye)" ! To add to the comedy, plenty of family audiences who had done "Advance booking" (advance booking in Ganapathiram? Ulagam enga da pordhu?!) . We couldn't get the tickets in the counter, or let me put it this way, we were such lazy bums that we decided to watch it in black. 80 Rs/ticket and we were done buying 60 of them. 80*60=4800, as you'd all know. Now comes the main part. We were asked to enter via the side entrance and the entrance is just 2.5 to 3 feet wide, 6 feet high. There were no seat numbers and so people were all ready to crush their way through first. I was caught in the middle of the crowd. There wasn't an inch to move. The more and more the theater officials delayed our entry, the more the crowd got excited, half of them being CEGians. We started shouting "Deii,, ulla udra ulla udra(no double meaning intended)" . I was almost crushed to death and it was the first time I experienced such chaos in a cinema theater. I couldn't get out of that crowd. There were heavyweights crushing me from all directions. Somehow, I found my way out of the crowd, was a great relief. Uyir thappi vandhen. Another near death experience. Thank goodness there was no stampede. Naan appdiye shock aaitaen.

We stormed into the theater and the movie started. There were comments thrown every 2 minutes. Most of them were mocks. I was watching silently, while most of them were restless. People started shouting "mokka mokka mokka" just 30 minutes into the movie. One of them reached the saturation point and shouted "Which is better? Sakkarakatti or Vaaranam Aayiram??"!! One shouted "Appanaaya ivan? Uruptamaadrithaan"!! There were all sorts of comments. People got so fed up and started chanting inside the theater "we want song, we want song, we want song" (Lollu sabha Bakery stile). As soon as the first half got over, huge applause in the theater, now hold on, they were for the wrong reasons though, people ran out of the theater. 

Second half was no better either. More comments, more sighs. People were wondering when the movie would get over. Just 5 minutes before the end, I saw people literally running out of the theater. I could make out from people's faces that most of them didn't like the movie. One of my classmates admitted "Machaan, intha padam 3 PSA periodukku samam da". That pretty much sums it up. A near death experience for most of them. But I liked the movie although it was very slow and a bit mokkaish in many places. I went home satisfied. Went to Prakash's place and watched Man United thumping Stoke City 5-0 and the day was complete. A day to remember. 

Unfulfilled dream

Right from my childhood, i have always wanted to become a dancer. It was in the mid 90s that I felt this sudden urge to become a dancer. Who is the reason for this urge? It is Mr.Prabhudeva. A crazy fan of the "Chikku-bukku raile" song I am. Then came Kaadhalan, and I go mad whenever I listen to the "Petarap" song. It took me a day to memorize the song, and the song has some kick-ass lyrics, the lyricist is none other the director Shankar himself. Ofcourse, special thanks to AR Rahman, the music director. But the urge to dance was not severe at that time. Very recently, Vijay TV started a program, as you all know, "Ungalil yaar aduththa Prabhudeva". I wish I could dance atleast half as good as those contestants. I wish, I wish...

Now, coming to reality, I can't even dance for peanuts. I mean, in a dance competiton finals between Sam Anderson and me, Andy would get "minus 76 out off 10", where as I would get "-126 out off 10" . No offense to Sam Anderson fans, please don't burn my house for this. One fine afternoon when I was watching this programme, I suddenly started to dance like mad and my mum was staring at me, absolutely shocked. When I finished, i raised my collar and asked her "eppdi en dance?" , she replied "Sahikkala". That was a slap in my face. Believe me, My dance was not that bad. Poraamai, enge naa periya dancer aaiduvenonu, that's all. 

All you folks out there, one fine day, you will be seeing me on tv, as a contestant in "Ungalil yaar adutha prabhudeva-part 29". No prizes for guessing who the winner would be. Until then, see you. 

The happiest days of my life

As a mark of respect for the sport I love the most, I begin by sharing my experiences with the wonderful game of football. 

May 2008 was a crazy month in many ways. Right from the moment, the final whistle was blown at Old Trafford, in the semi finals of the champions league, the anxiety started to creep up. The stage was set for an all-English final. Manchester United versus Chelsea. The sad part was, I had to wait for 20 odd days to watch the final. But the saddest part was, I had to endure the torture of writing the semester exams. No prizes for guessing where my thoughts lay. Somehow, with great difficulty, I was done with my semester exams on May 13th. My parents left for Delhi on 15th, the trip that I sacrificed to watch my favorite club play my favorite game for 90 minutes, if not more. People called me crazy, well I didn't give a hoot. The tension was building up by the passage of each day. 

Finally, the day arrived. May 21, 2008. I went to my neighbour's(Prakash) place, who is also a die-hard ManUnited fanatic, to watch the game in LCD screen. We muted the television during the pre-match TenSports crap(the analysis show that is). The match began.Luzhniki stadium was full. The game was going on well, with United dominating possession. The moment came when Scholes and Brown played a 1-2 and Brown crossed the ball into the box, Ronaldo jumped, and headed the ball into the back of the net, 1-0 to United. We jumped in Joy, screaming on the top of our voices(it was midnight), banging all the furniture around us, acting like mad-men. In the next few minutes, we should have easily been 2 or 3 nil up, if not for the brilliant saves by the Chelsea Goali Cech. Any Chelsea goal is incomplete without their trademark deflections by the deflection specialist 'Fat' Frank Lampard. The ball was deflected off some 23 odd players, and fell in front of Lampard, who put it in the back of the net, 1-1. Thanks to the untimely slip by our goalie Van Der Sar. The half time whislte blew.

The second half started. Chelsea dominated the game in the second half which was very unlike Chelsea. It was goalless in the 2nd half. Extra time also ended goalless. Here, I thank the first hero for United  DIDIER DROGBA, who got himself sent off for being Drogbaish. No wonder. So, it was down to penalities. We both were bloody nervous. No one would want to lose the match in penalities. The shoot-out was about to begin and DAMN, POWER CUT. We both shouted "Oh f**k!!! " in Unison. I texted my friends, to update me on the shoot-outs. After  5 mins, I got a message from a scouser friend of mine which read "hahahaha....Ronaldo misses the penalty...hahahahhaa". 

We were shocked. Ronaldo of all people missing the penalty. Meanwhile the power was back. Chelsea skipper John Terry stepped up to take the kick that would have won them their first Champions league title. I couldn't watch it anymore.I closed my eyes.  I saw flashes of John Terry lifting the cup and running around the ground. I felt like crying. This was the cup that we fans desperately wanted to win. John Terry stepped up and when he was about to kick it, he slipped, and the ball hit the bar and went wide. Here, I thank the second hero for United JOHN TERRY. The hopes were restored again. It went to sudden death. The Punk "Anderson" stepped up and bang, into the net. Next, the Chelsea player(forgot the name) put the ball in the net to even things up. Stepped up Ryan Giggs, put it in the back of the net, as cool as a cucumber. Stepped up Nicolas Anelka.  Banged it straight into the goal keeper's hands and the stadium errupted.Here, I thank the third hero for United NICOLAS ANELKA.  Punched my fists in air. Manchester United, became the champions of Europe once again . Ronaldo was one relieved man. A fitting tribute to the Busby babes who had lost their lives in the Munich Tragedy exactly 50 years ago. Lest we forget. Thanks for cheering us on from the heavens. 

When the trophy was lifted, tears rolled out of my eyes. It was one great feeling. Never felt so happy in my life. It was a dream come true for me, as a fan. Will be in love with this club for ever. 

And the Reds go marching on on on...