A Readoholic / Foodoholic / Movie-oholic’s Utopia

Everyone must have a different Utopia. And if I had a place in mine, it would be all filled with food and books and food and books, an occasionally a movie or two.

When I was in my final year of Engineering in Guwahati, I “nurtured” the habit of going out to eat every day and for a movie, every alternate week. When I landed on Mumbai, to my utter delight I found that only a kilometer away stood the building of my dreams – the Movie Hall. No wonder, Saturday and Sunday evenings were spent watching the latest show in the Movie Complex.

Eventually, some of my friends and I decided to go for a movie on every Friday evening, after office hours. Bookmyshow came into picture and hours were spent deciding on the perfect time to leave office and on reaching the place before the trailers are shown. As we realized we are spending a lot of money on our movie-affair we relied on discounts and coupons – early bird discounts at the hall and Rs. 50-100 off on CupoNation.

Now that ten months have elapsed being on Mumbai, I realized that watching every other movie might not be a good idea. Movies like Shaadi ke Side Effects, Bewakoofiyan, Annabelle were nothing but disappointments. I pledged not to go for a movie without knowing the plot/watching the trailer/knowing anything about the actors/director. Movies like Queen, Interstellar, Daawat-e-Ishq, How to Train Your Dragon 2 were good decisions made.

Of late, the frequency of my visits to the Movie Complex has lessened. I have opted out from going along with my friends for Telugu (a language I do not understand) movies unlike before. This may partly be because I have bought a dangerous number of books recently yet to be read by me.

When I came to Mumbai I brought only a magazine with me. Now I have more than 30 books kept neatly on the table near my bed, around 70 magazines and 6-8 diaries. I had bought only three books in the month of January, but eventually I learned about the Book Deals available on the Internet (of course, CupoNation and other such sites that rescue mere IT engineers like me) and saved an awful amount of money and bought an awful number of books. Have I read them? The Signature of All Things is read 1/5^th, Kahlil Gibran 1/20^th, Bhagavad Gita 1/10^th, The Winning Way 2/3^rd, Her Story ½, etc.

I’ll read them eventually, I know. And there are just so many more books to read and life is just so short. Phew.

My recent obsession is food. I have always been obsessed with food but in August-October’2014 I had actually stopped eating a lot/outside/junk. I have again developed the usual cravings. Every weekend is a feast. Every alternate day in office is spent ordering food online. The delivery guys can recognize me. The address of my flat and office is no more a place unknown them. And now that I sit and write this post on a lazy Saturday morning, I also open the site for all kinds of food/restaurant deals on my browser, order an awful lot of food which will, no doubt, be more than sufficient for me and my roommates, and eat them all up and go for a sleep dreaming about the Utopia I live in.

"Are You a Lesbian?"

“Are you a lesbian?” A friend of mine once asked me mockingly when we were discussing about my aversion from some (“some” not “all”) kind of men. “No. But does it matter?” I asked her scornfully. No, I wasn’t bothered that I was asked a question about my sexuality. But what I didn’t understand was that is being a lesbian a matter to be jeered about? What if I was one? Wouldn’t I be hurt and embarrassed that my sexuality was just mocked at? Why are the words “gay” or “lesbian” used as slangs? Another incident, that took place a couple of years back, was when I was teasing two girl friends of mine, accusing them of having an affair. I considered it as normal as teasing a guy and a girl. One of them found it so disrespectful that she, instead of simply denying the fact, chided that she isn’t of such “third class” standard. I later discussed the small argument that we had, with her, trying to make my point that being a lesbian or a transgender doesn’t define anyone’s cla...

Exploring the City of Lakes - Udaipur

I like solitude, to be left alone for a date with my thoughts. It’s beautiful the way you do not feel lonely even though you know not a single person in the place you are in, in the city you are in. Although I have travelled alone before, gone to places all by myself, I’d never be entirely alone- I’d meet friends in the city or along the journey. This time I decided to make my comfort zone a little wider, to add one more escapade to it- a solo trip of four days and three nights to Udaipur, a must-visit city for tourists in the state of Rajasthan, India. Beginning with the transportation from Gurgaon/Delhi to Udaipur- I luckily got flight tickets cheaper than that of train. I booked the tickets only a week before my departure date; train fare was somewhere around 1700 INR while airfare was around 1500 INR. (However, the return tickets cost me a fortune so I still suggest taking a bus or a train for those who have the time and patience/) I expected Day #1 to be an uneventfu...

Ek Tha Tiger : Review

A huge fan I am of the actor Salman Khan, but as asked by my friends for an unbiased review (i.e. assuming it was just another actor and not THE Salman Khan) here it goes: 5 stars is what I would give it just after recalling Salman's face once, but "committing" to my promise as stated above, I am giving it somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars. Now, I know that many critics have given it 3 stars but ignoring every other review or the star's charisma I give it a 4 that goes solely to the movie. One star I have deducted because the dialogues at the very first scene did not live up-to my expectations. Nor was Salman looking his very best (I felt like he was having a cold or the likes of that). The action scenes were not over shown or dramatic like that of Bodyguard’s (albeit it came as a nice surprise to me). But the unexpected twists and turns after the interval of the movie are what made the movie one of a kind. You would expect something to happen while the oppo...

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