In America

 Christmas this year was all set to go on a super lazy tempo. I would have been happy just to sleep through both the christmas eve and christmas day, but Divya had different plans.   On Christmas eve, Divya did some santa toy shopping in the guise of grocery shopping while I stayed home with the kids. After that, we all went out in the nearby neighborhood to see the christmas lighting. Thereafter, we went to multiple grocery shops, hoping to buy a christmas cake, but could not buy one. As soon as we reached home, Divya baked a quick cake at home. Christmas day morning, Kittu got his car track gift from Santa, who had come in through the chimney he had discovered the previous evening. Niya was immediately suspicious of an inside job and noted that the gift messages were in Divya's handwriting. I was happy to note that she had fallen out of  "Santa magic". Kittu was offended by Niya's observation and said "poda kalla.. chimneyokke undu.."      ...

Exploratorium is the biggest children's museum that we have seen so far in the US.  Exporatorium is in the Fodor's choice list. It has expensive tickets at 30 $ per adult and 20 $ per child, which is hundred bucks for the family.     The number of sights to see is quite overwhelming. You need a full day to see and experience every single exhibit. We had only allotted four hours from a little after one to five pm. The museum is well suited for school going kids. Most exhibits are patterned as as amusement to spark the interest and an explanation to serve the insight.     I guess how a parent feels would depend on how much the parent has maintained his scientific temper. It was good to be able to relate some of the exhibits to the knowledge one had, and at the same time it was a bit intimidating when some basics fell short.     We also attended a 45 minute presentation on colors and their mixing. Very good content with very clear demonstrations th...

Set against the backdrop of live theatre and it's dwindling, Vijay Sethupathi sets the ball rolling for the unfolding of an artsy slow-paced movie. With ample opportunity for showcasing theatrical performances, multiple different actors present mind blowing evenly interspersed performances, elevating the movie like a slowly rising tsunami. Vijay Sethupathi has given a brilliant performance and established his character's aura to last the movie. Multi-layered treatment of the movie transcends layers across the stage drama, the movie and the audience easily and masterfully.  With masterful presentation and some amazing natural acting, the movie puts forward a bold postulate pretty convincingly. Slowly shot long scenes communicate the drudgery of movie making pretty well. However, somewhere down the line, the concept was pushed a bit too far and the movie lost me.  There were scenes that rolled by, disengaged. However, there were sheer strokes of brilliance in the beginning ...