After Earth (2013) English:

After Earth (2013) English - Disastrous, Terrible, Horrendous, Distasteful, %$^&^&$#$%**(% (some of the expletives that I use which for obvious reasons are not being transliterated here) kind of a catastrophical [to ones health] kind of a movie that leaves one senseless, dumb, "what crime have I committed" kind of a feeling that I am having to go through this numbing torture...Will Smith, Night Shyamalan's combo, I thought will deliver something watchable but this was far from it. The movie (which is an insult to the word movie) stars 2 characters, the father and the son, who try extremely hard to act that looks so put on that you would feel that the gross creature (URSA) or the monkey in the movie was better at it. Don't even go near this one even if offered a free DVD or better you could probably gift one to your choicest of enemies on his/her birthday to extract some sadistic revenge. Glad that I saved a few bucks by not going to the theaters tempted by the Cast of Will Smith. He must have had some compelling reason to pick this up. My rating 0.5/5. Why you might ask that I have been liberal on the rating...Well some of the visuals were stunning...

Experiencing the Slo-mo

It was a rather rare opportunity that presented itself in the form of me riding my Son’s bicycle all the way from the shop to home….a distance of 4 kms.  Initial, thought of Oh..how will this 26 inch thing fit into my car…oh Do I now have to hire a tempo..oh now where do I find a tempo… what should I do.  My thoughts raced whilst my super excited son was jumping, dreaming of himself on the two wheels joining his friends racing them to the line..I was perplexed, confused, amazed that I had many a choice of how to get the bicycle home but amused at the innate inability to make a decision.  And lo out of the blue, it struck; the Sherlock in me kind of reverberated…”Elementary my dear…” Why don’t you just ride it home!!!!  Happy with myself and with a pat on my back, I echoed my thoughts to my Spouse and said as a matter of factly” yeah..I will ride it home…”
“Are you sure? Have you gone bonkers?  Can you do it? But what about traffic? Can we not....” was the next few lines of conversation that followed.  I reasoned with her the best I could, and set to rest her worries.  The battle won, I handed over the car keys to her and I got on to the bicycle. Reminding myself that I should be on the extreme left of the road as against the tendency of being on the right, as was ensconced in my mind post the years of driving a car. 
And I started pedaling, the first few meters a bit wobbly, but soon settled well into the rhythm. Boy, was I not excited…reminded of my younger years.  I was very watchful wading through the pedestrian traffic, mindful that I should stick to the left, mindful that I could “triinnggg  trinngg…” my way forward.  I pedaled and pedaled furiously at that, wanting to see how fast I could go while the traffic around whizzed past on my right.. My legs were working at quite a brisk pace…I looked to my left and then to my right…and then it struck me….as if I were watching a movie in slow motion…the hero and the heroine taking ages and ages to run to each other arms in very slow steps ..the slow motion effect.. The dream that I often get (in slow motionJ), when I am running on the railway platform to catch the train that has already started moving… the mind egging to run faster…to traverse the elusive distance to the last compartment of the train, but the deadened iron laden feet would not budge, with the face drenched in beads of sweat, the distance between me and the last compartment ever so widening…
On the bicycle, suddenly that evening, everything appeared to have slowed down…my destination appeared to be quite far off, even whilst I was huffing and panting…working up the speed.  A realization of having all the time in the world dawned.  I realized and thought, oh how beautiful it was was to experience the slow-ness, how beautiful it was to  grab the moment where it felt that time was in my control…Thoughts went back to my childhood when  my cousin and I would cycle down a few kilometers across the paddy fields of Kovvur on our Grandads bicycle by the banks of River Godavari, finally reaching the train tracks, sit down for whatever time that we could care, watch the Howrah Mail and the Coromandel Express fly by…breathing the fresh air, enjoying the greens and riding back slow through empty roads save the occasional tricycle that came our way or a rare Ambassador that went past…
How I wish I could have all that time in the world and experience the Slomo again and  again and again…..

Prasanna Meher Nori

7th July 2013

Life comes at you Fast

Experience the improbable was something that presented itself on this particular day.  A unique first once in a life time event came my way rather fortuitously when I was given the honor of being a Chief Guest and of course the key note speaker where I was to address a large group of 200 odd  “Achievers” from my company at an upscale hotel.  Got up early that day, dusted my blazer that was comfortably ensconced since long.   Read and re-read so as to learn by rote a canned speech provided by the organizers for the occasion.  Rehearsed and conjured up images of how I would deliver so as not to make myself a fool in front of the cream the company holds.

Come evening, and when I was just about to start for the venue, the skies opened up.  A good omen, I believed.   The venue was a close 7 kms away and I had made a measured judgment of 20 mins to traverse the distance.  The clouds were looking ominous and I felt…oh like any other rainy day…I should be well in time.  What started as a drizzle soon turned into a downpour.  What appeared initially as Cats and Dogs soon turned out into Elephants and Rhinos and several Giraffes to add too.  Roads soon turned into puddles and then into pools and soon into streams.  Vehicles got stuck behind each other and resigned to the Will of Nature a few engines died down.  It was a decision to make whether to wade through the streams that were now at a threatening 1 foot height or to stay put and bide my time.  On a parallel note, Ironically, I was right behind a Tanker carrying water to quench thirst for a few perhaps a colony away.  20 mins soon turned into 30 mins and then to 60 mins.  My mind was furiously at work apprehensions galore, if this was not going to be my day.  I was already an hour late for the function.  With a strong resolve and few mumbled prayers, I took a diversion trusted the Suzuki I was in and stepped on the pedals vrooming my way through the streams following a few other motorists in a narrow lane.  It was like “Chal Meri Dhanno aaaj….blah blah and blu…”Prayers answered, I finally reached the venue a good 90 mins late and to my amazement, the organizers kept the function on hold.  Ofcourse, there were several others amongst the 200 who also got stuck in a similar predicament and were trickling in into the venue well behind schedule.  Whew, I thought, after all stars seemed to be favorably aligned and my moment of truth was going to unfold soon.

The function started off with a good note and the MC started off  on a rather “Ahem”….good note singing some good praises in my honor introducing me.  And then the dreadful moment had come…Life comes fast at one.  To my utter shock and horror the MC started off narrating my canned speech word by word, sentence by sentence in gay abandon obviously oblivious to the fact that that was something that I had to narrate.  I turned ashen for a while, upset and wondering, why is this happening to me.  First the deluge and then this happenstance.  No this was not happening…no this was not happening…Thinking on what to do next…what to blabber (yes…after what had just presented itself, it would be a blabber..I surmised) when my turn came.  And amidst the chaos that was going on in my mind…I faintly heard my name being called out…as if I was in the middle of a bad dream and someone calling me out distantly.  Snapped out of my thoughts, when I came to,  I realized that the mike was being ushered under my nose amidst a reasonable applause.  I wondered if the applause was for the MC who had just finished his, rather, my bit or was it in anticipation of what I was going to come up with.  Summoning courage, with several deep breaths, I got up with laden feet, drained due to my thoughts.  And I suddenly remembered a bit of an episode from “Suits” and a bit of what our companies Chairwoman had mentioned a few days ago and a bit of this and a bit of that and a bit of what I actually wanted to say in the absence of a canned speech.  A potpourri of a well orchestrated menu came to the fore.  Confidence buoyed by the response from the audience further rekindled my self belief.   I realized that it was all coming together as beads stuck on a string into a well amalgamated cohesion.  I ended my monologue 15 minutes later into what I felt was a thunderous applause.

Fortune favors the prepared mind someone said…and here was a day when everything that could go against this did.  I guess my stars were aligned favorably that I was able to emerge out of this un-enviable bizarre situational day unscathed……