What A Movie 'Shawshank Redemption' Is!

Its very rare that I watch any movie its entire length. I usually start by skipping the first titles, names and the movie name itself, and I usually 'Alt+Forward' through the intro of the movie, because mostly they are all the same. They usually start with "Mumbai Shehar" or "Delhi Shehar".. with an aerial view of the city and then they close into a small home to introduce the hero or villain. Its almost similar in all the cases.

English movies are a bit different; so I skip only those long conversations. For English movies I do a first pass by randomly seeking various parts of movie till the end; and then once I have got a picture of the timeline of the movie, I begin from the first and start skipping minor conversation and to land directly to 'action'; and if in case the movie is a thriller and I end up not understanding it; I can always come back to see that 'key' scene where the thrill of the movie is revealed.

My friends advised me to watch 'Shawshank Redemption' and they asked me to do so without 'fast forwarding'. And if I did do a forward, there would be no use of watching the movie ( for other movies they only used to say 'no fun' and I was quite okay with that'. So I sat through this 2 hour 15 minutes movie to its entirety and I must say till the last half an hour; I wasn't much surprised. But the last half hour really blew my mind off! I then understood that the entire 1 and a half hour of movie was a simple preparation for the climax. I am in complete agreement with the rating it gets in IMDB. I simply fell in love with that character!. If someone could accompany me; then I would definitely watch this movie; again :D

I Read 'Being Happy' And Its Amazing!

I never read books! Ever :D.. except the VTU books which I somehow by-hearted. In the final year of my college, my friends suggested me to go read this book "Being Happy" by Andrew Matthews; and I questioned their suggestion as to how would someone "Be Happy" by reading a book? I admit that it took a lot of efforts from their side to photocopy the book as the book's availability is quite scarce and I was in no way paying 500 bucks for that book. I started reading the book only because the front cover looked nice.

I guess this happens to be the only book till date other than VTU books that I happen to have finished :D and It is mind blowing! There are these little things in our life that we tend to ignore which are of prime importance and we say our life sucks. While I read this book, it was as if someone held mirror against me; after every chapter I could say "Damn! I was thinking it in a wrong way". Its not that book teaches you something magical; or something you would have never thought about or anything innovative; it simply points to the right direction; and right set of thoughts. The thought process, the mindset discussed in this book is already present in you; but you haven't cared enough or neither have you given it right importance.

Andrew makes sure that everything he says is presented in a very comical and 'happy' way; and never gets monotonous or boring. The cartoons and pictures everywhere does a very good job to keep you flipping through the pages. Although this is quite an old book; it seems it is still a bestseller. Don't go by the childish cover of the book; as it really has some serious stuff inside and will leave your head spinning once you are finished reading. I myself have seen some very serious behavioral changes in my friends who finished reading this book. Now guys, its your turn if you saw any change in me after this :D

A Breath of Purity!

Sinus problem has been my companion every since my birth. Not a single day has passed by without having to sneeze and dry my wet hanky (yeww). Its been a few months that I have come to peace with this thing. After having been to doctors who keep repeating that this cannot be cured, and medicines will only temporarily quench the problem, but in long term will effect the immunity, seems like the same has settled quite well inside my subconscious mind, and it seems like the body picks up the same tone and many a times the problem exaggerates.

My worst days are when I forget to wrap my face with a cloth when I drive to work, or say if there was a bad weather day (of which lately there are frequent days in Bangalore), or if there is any renovation going on in HomeTown (which is quite frequent). The irritation, a dumbed down head because of synarest, crocin, and other such tablets is a very frequent pre good night sleep condition. You wouldn't believe if I said I sneeze almost around 30-50 times continuously on a mildly bad day.

Wondering why I shouldn't be trying Ayurveda? No luck with that too; even Ramdev baba's treatment doesn't seem to have any effect.

Why am I telling all this? the reason is simple. A month back, for an entire week, I never sneezed once, never had a headache, never had to pop a pill! Howzzat? I had been to Himalayas.

On 18th morning, we left to Delhi, and that very night we left to Kalka by train. We reached Kalka by 9 in the morning, and we took a car to Shimla. The temperature was sub 10 degree and definitely freezing for a Bangalorean. But what shocked me for an entire day was the fact that I never sneezed once. As far as I knew, temperature was the key factor in increasing my allergy; but I was thoroughly surprised by the fact that it did not happen.

Then I knew the fact!, Its pollution, pollen and dust of Bangalore which did all the magic! of which there was none in this hilly areas. We continued our journey to Banikhet, where our basecamp for the trek was located, and from there on the second day we trekked to Kalatop which was the place at highest altitude, and with the temperature cracking -2.5 in the night; and to my surprise no allergy and sneeze. I'm still dumbfound by the fact that I never caught cold, neither sneezed, nor did I get any fever. So heavenly was the trip!. After a week we returned to Bangalore.

On our way back in flight, I sneezed, and my friends said "We're in Bangalore" :D