Monday, May 30, 2005

Star wars

I am watching star wars movies in the order they were released. It is interesting to watch them again, armed with the knowledge of the prequels. Obviously Lucas hadnt yet thought all the stories through, which makes it interesting to watch from trivia perspective. For example, the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader in episode IV can be said to be too timid..., you wonder why Luke was given the last name Skywalker considering what happened... etc.Ofcourse all this little things can be explained away...

I realized watching episode IV again what a brilliant stroke Han Solo's character was. The right amount of skepticism, heroism, humour, arrogance.. apparently my most favourite line was ad-libbed by Ford. Princess Leia declares her love to the about to be frozen Han and he responds with a stark simplicity - 'I know'. There is a mixture of agony, love, helplessness.. in the 'I know'. Its good they let him ad-lib.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Sujatha

Sujatha seems to have caused ripples with his poignant, frank, casual essay on aging, retiring neurons, death and faith among other things. That he had managed humour in it and that it affected different folks in different levels is ofcourse very commonplace for Sujatha. Most of his brilliant works are similar.

But look at the essay next week. He brings in Vasanth with a joke or two completely in contrast to last week and is especially impressive in his ability to not fall into a trap of monotony. He can look at his own essay, change the tone and manage to be young at heart despite his claim of old-age.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Sunnyvale

Visited the SFO Bay area for a short while. My friend had come to pick me up and as we got out of the maze and smoothly merged into the freeway, I watched the cars gliding silkily on the asphalt, the relatively clean air whipped my face and I exclaimed involuntarily - 'God, I miss this place'. My friend quirked an eyebrow - 'so there is still hope to persuade you to come back!'. I replied - 'People cursed to see both sides of things can be persuaded to do anything'. After a pause I grinned, 'Or not'.

Did my pilgrimage to the library - my favorite guy had still not finished his burger or the book. Now we have to pay money for renting out the DVDs. Could it have to do with the shortage of government funding. It didn't bode well. I remember marveling at a homeless man, with his scanty possession, watching a video in one of the many booths with free players, on a cold afternoon in San Jose library. That was one brief moment when I understood why some thought USA was heaven. I know the irony of the sentence.