In America

I have no idea why the bee flew over and stung me on my left hand, as I was walking right in the middle of the route. It is not like I got too close to the bushes, or disturbed it's hums. Still hurts, bee! The next thing to hit us as we continued on the trek was how deserted the trail was. Not a soul in sight or sound. It was as if Abil and myself were the only ones left in the  species.  The uneasiness built on for at least the first thirty minutes. A little later, a couple jogged down past us, breaking the spell.  Soon, fog settled in, with a gentle earthy smell that reminded me of the smell of rice water that comes from nicely maintained tourist steam trains. It is interesting how toning down the sights with fog made them more beautiful.  We had walked up for a bit and were now at the lower edge of the clouds. Sun had also joined us, making for some more spectacle, and out came the phone cameras, something that rarely happens as we try to complete the long walk up...

Nimisha did much more of a performance than Fahad. She has quite a few variations to perform, and has rendered each of those portions really well.  Vinay Fort shared screen space easily with Fahad, and proved his acting mettle. Hope this will be a turning point for his acting career.  Fahad did not have as much of a performance challenge in this movie. There were scenes that Fahad performed well, but there were also scenes where he was not convincing.  Sushin Shyam's music and background score blended in well at some points, while at other points were a bit too loud, and unsubdued. Liked the eighties style song.  Execution had touches of brilliance. The starting 12 minute shot was definitely impressive. Some plot points were good, but the script had quite a few fundamental flaws. Once the script failed me at a couple of points, I started feeling consistent low points through out the script.   When the movie ended, I was not as thrilled to have watched it, b...

 As a singer, you are a blender who needs to blend in the emotion of the song, the music of the song and the rhythm of the song.  "Bhava raaga thala sangamam - Bharatham" While that is a one liner for a famous music based malayalam movie, I think that sentence succinctly captures what a singer should strive for.  You can get all the emotion right, but if the tune is incorrect, the song would feel incomplete.  Same for other combinations as well. Sometimes, you hear technically awesome performances with great rhythm sense and musical notes but lacking in emotion. 

 You don't set some of the notes right not because you can't make those notes but because you don't know the notes well enough.  A song is not just a page of lyrics,  not just three paragraphs in a page, not just four lines in a paragraph, not just five words in a line, not just four letter sounds in a word, it is also the notes within these letter sounds.  You don't know a song till you know these notes.  And if you have not paid attention of all the notes within a sound, when you sing you don't know   how to render that sound, and your lack of clarity manifests as misplaced notes, voice shakes, voice aberrations.  Again, it is not that the note was beyond your reach. It is that you did not have enough clarity on what notes were involved in that sound.

  Airbnb at Redlands   Targeting a four PM check-in, with a six hour twenty minutes estimate, we started from Fremont around 9:45 a.m., while the rest of the group with Geo,Sudheer,Mahesh,Amal and Anil started after lunch time around 2 p.m. I had done a non-stop drive except for a gas stop when the tank emptied.  We had skipped lunch to save time. Since it looked like we might reach much earlier than the group, we decided to have lunch and took a pretty long detour to an in-and-out and then to give up on it as the car queue was real long.  When we arrived, Geo,Jismin and children, and Anil,Anu and children were waiting outside the house while our owners were cleaning the house. Anil had arrived first and had informed the group of the owners being there. So Mahesh,Amal and Sudheer families who were coming together used the time to do shopping, and also to prevent any questions from the owner about the head count. It is Corona time, and it felt like the first getaway i...

 Your work can take you from excitement to boredom to frustration. Your personal life can take you from joy to love to <insert> to <insert> to gratitude. Chances are,  the journeys are familiar.  Where you are today, you had been a few weeks back. If it is a bad day today, you know it is going to be a good day soon, because you know the terrain of your life.  Yesterday, I was lost in teenage nostalgia, today I took a journey through an old father's heart as he ventures on a long journey to fulfill his dying son's intent. A few days back, the blood stench of mexican dog fights, the ominous aura of a hitman guerrilla.  Cinema takes you into places, into hearts, into minds, into relationships, into worlds, into inner worlds, into outer worlds, into the space, into the oceans, into the past, into the future, into the possibilities, into helplessness. Cinema is definitely much much more magical than magic!

 I am fine with not having the latest gadgets, not having the latest cars, not having the best furniture at home, not catching up with the Joneses with anything. I am fine with not owning a house for my family to live in, not being able to think about thinking about it.  I had realized that drinking water is not a given when I had relocated to Chennai as you need to buy water there to drink. So, if you have not coordinated your consumption and replenishment right, you can run out of drinking water.  I had learned that you cannot take any one else for granted. You cannot even take yourself for granted. That was fine too.  Corona had shut me in. Gone are the days when you could shop as you please, watch movies as you please, visit places as you please. That was fine too as the corona lull is actually a pretty welcome change. All I had wanted was to sit under the apple tree, enjoy the breeze, and watch the humming birds as they drink nectar from the red beautiful hibisc...