A fishy business

Loved watching ‘A fish called Wanda’ yet again. In the backdrop of a bank robbery of diamonds worth millions, this movie is a fantastic and funny tale of unabashed greed. Jamie Lee Curtis rules as Wanda who uses her abundant charm simultaneously on goofiest of an american con-man (Kevin Cline), a stiff-neck bank-robbery gang leader, a stammering gang member (Michael Pallin) and a pompous british barrister (John Cleese). Wanda remains very focused and determined to have the diamonds all to herself and has absolutely no qualms double-crossing her accomplices. Her plans go along well until the barrister finds her weakness for spoken Russian. John Cleese is adorable, his little trot while unclothing in anticipation is hilarious. And so is Kevin Cline when he pretends to be a CIA agent. An immensely enjoyable movie, gives a toss to propriety and correctness and makes you laugh out loud.

In quotes

The power of a quotation I feel comes less from the concise intelligent message that it conveys as much as it does from the authority of the author. Imagine your reaction when you read “ it’s a miracle that curiosity survives education”. “ Really? And I always thought education makes you think” would be a normal thought to cross your mind. Then your eyes find Albert Einstein signed beneath. Can you still disagree with him and that too about education? The bloke who knew so much must be knowing when he said that. You are left with no choice but to agree with the gentleman, wondering how mankind lost the opportunity of getting to know so many more theories just by educating this one man. A complete colossal loss.

The weight of the name does matter, I say so because I remember a particularly non-technical introductory class I took in which after a few planned gimmicks to make the subject and the teacher appear cool everyone introduced themselves, essentially a fun class doing nothing. The next day, since I have the habit of writing a recap of the previous class , I wrote “There is never enough time to do all the nothings you want” . Not even a buzz. I went on to write “Bill Watterson” under those words and that was plain magic. The Calvin in everyone was let loose and the whole class beat the life out of the wooden desks in appreciation.

The other day trying to make a point with a group of colleagues about a grave injustice that was being done, I was stumped when someone responded with two dohas by Kabir. Before I could deal with the fact that Kabir was on the other side, the perpetrator of what I perceived as grave injustice quoted Gandhi. I gasped for breath, my memory failed me, I just couldn’t think of a quotation that could take on Mahatma. Someone in my support pointed out to me “don’t argue with fools, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with the experience”. Another friend said “even the devil can quote the scriptures for his own purpose”. But with no big names and only two ‘anonymous’ on our side we stood absolutely no chance. My argument and I were completely lost in quotations.

How mean can I be?

The answer to that is as much as you want. When people without provocation go out of their way to come in my way, I am forced to find the 'mean me'. The one that squints her eyes, clenches her teeth, pulls her breath and lands an uppercut with a force belying her diminutive figure. The one that loves to see knees wobble and people fall down. Each time my hope is that I won't need 'mean me' or her ruthlessness anymore but people are people. Last week very reluctantly I had to engage her services yet again. The 'mean me' looked mighty pleased with the e-punch that she delivered. Seems to have bought peace for sometime.

The Domesticated Decade

This is in reference to the last ten years of my life
Yes a time indeed that long
It is the time since I became a wife
When a dear mallu married this bong

Most satisfying journey it has been
And I cherish the companionship
Ups and downs we have faced as a team
Nothing seemed a hardship

Ahem……
Being a time for celebrations
I am focusing on whatever is wonderfully right
Will save the significant omissions
For next time we have a full blown fight.

Give it a Miss

In the women’s competition at Wimbledon this year, apart from the umpteenth contest between the spirited and cheeky William sisters for the crown at a grand slam event, the other most notable happening was that Wimbledon has done away with the tradition of calling the women players by their title Ms or Mrs. Is calling someone by their title that offending? If not then why the fuss?

At this point I like to remember the story of ‘Her name and She’ which goes somewhat like this: when born she was called ‘so and so’ and then somewhere along the line she assumed the status of Miss Someone. The title quite an advertisement of her single status that one couldn’t miss in combination with the glow of youth, it was hardly surprising that few chance and awkward meetings with Mister Someoneelse took place. They decided to give it a chance and first names were exchanged and permitted, then few movies and dinner dates later nicknames took over. Things then got so mushy that even new silly nicknames were coined for each other. Sadly but inevitably some stability in the relationship was reached when they started calling each other names. Depending on which part of the world they lived in either they broke up or they got married and lived together ‘happily’ ever after as Mr. and Mrs. Someoneelse.

I don’t really see much of a problem with the initial titles being in place, it seems just like one of the many names different people call a person by, the problem is that for women there is this additional information about their marital status included which doesn’t seem too appropriate in this day and age. In professional circumstances it is downright insensitive to provide personal information of anyone, be it man or woman, which has no bearing on the person’s professional abilities. For women tennis players at least Wimbledon has finally decided to show a little more sensitivity even if it meant going against the British ethos of sticking by tradition. In one of the press conferences apparently Venus Williams when asked a leading question like which trophy she prizes most, put tradition in its place by saying that she has too many trophies and they serve well as make up brush holder. The eyes rolled all around and one could hear a stiff upper lip moving that little bit to utter “ how American”!

June 2009