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I first read a hope from GreatBong well before the start of Twenty20 cricket:

If Dhoni can do a Tunbridge Wells, if Yuvraj steps into Mohinder Amarnath’s shoes, if Sreesanth can shake his ass like the generously endowed Roger Binny, if Rohit Sharma becomes a Yashpal Sharma, if Hayden leaves an outswinger that then swings in and takes off stump, if Gilchrist top-edges a pull to midwicket, if Pathan can regain his mo-jo and Sehwag can blast the ball past his beer gut then who knows—-those who have come to scoff may very well remain to pray.

Indian fans (the ones that actually care to follow the tournament) can take comfort in the fact that 24 years ago, another such inexperienced motley crew of bits-and-pieces no-hopers went to foreign shores sans any hype and expectations.

if GB wasn’t GB, he would have claimed to have known all things before hand due to his supreme powers and due to the placement of stars !

Not to forget, his post wasn’t just a wishful one , he had then went on to analyze what was missing and what was required very well.

He then followed it with another excellent post after India had reached certain stage:

And one of the reasons for these small miracles has been, no doubt, what I had referred to as the only positive for Dhoni’s men—-they had gone to South Africa unheralded, with no expectations and no accompanying hoopla. This was in sharp contrast to the team that went to West Indies earlier this year amidst the “Cup jeetke lao” and the “Blue Billion” corporate-fuelled hype and got hopelessly eliminated in the first round. While Dravid’s men played like zombies with the weight of expectations of the entire country weighing on their shoulders, looking increasingly forlorn, disconsolate and on the edge after each setback , the new Team India, no doubt because nothing was expected from them, has been free-spirited, uncluttered and fearless even when faced with enemy ships that have outsized and outgunned them.

in the glories of the last few days of cricket—-Yuvraj Singh with supreme arrogance flicking an express delivery from Lee for a 119 meter six, Rohit Sharma running out Kemp with an amazing diving throw, Kartik’s airborne catch to get rid of Smith, Stuart Broad’s red embarrassed “teenager with his first dirty magazine” expression as Yuvraj gets stuck into him, Sreesanth slapping the pitch with his hands like Hannibal Lecter in front of a fresh corpse as Hayden’s stumps lie in disarray and Dhoni’s simple nod of affirmation to Harbhajan after Bhajji rattles Symond’s Michael Clarke’s timber.

It has really been the most fun one can have with their clothes on.

And after the win again, he wrote an outstanding post:

Mr Dhoni we understand. It is not easy wicket keeping, strategizing, blasting deliveries to all corners of the park, praying that Joginder Sharma does not get hit for a six , hoping that Sreesanth does not slice a batsman with a pocket knife, while all the time carrying on your shoulders the weight of a million expectations.

See the smiling Pathan brothers there—-one of whom strangled your team’s progress in the middle overs and the other led a rousing charge on your opening bowler. Tell you what, they also belong to the “Muslims of the world” and yet are deliriously happy at your defeat . Why wouldn’t they be ? They caused it.

And whole of other things he has said over there ( Dear Flintoff, Dear Aussies, Dear Lankans,Kiwis and South Aftricans) is delightful to read !

**
Sidin’s open letter to Flintoff was another delight :

nce again proved without doubt that England should restrict itself to inventing games but not actually expect to win any of them. This is a small selection of such sports and games for your perusal:

- Football
- Cricket
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Badminton
- Anything that involves running (except running industry to ground), throwing (except throwing up outside pub) and jumping (except jumping on head of supporter of rival football team).

I know some Singhs who have two washing machines at home: one for washing clothes and the other for making Lassi.

Mr. Sidhu once had a minor tiff with another individual in a traffic-related situation. Now I am aware that Englishmen also get into traffic tiffs and then resolve it by hurling abuse at each other or a little pushing and shoving.

Mr. Sidhu, after due thought and introspection, killed the other man. Kaput. Khallas. Phineesh.

**
Gaurav feels bowlers will love Twenty20

Which is why, at the end of 2 weeks of cricket of quality and thrill levels not seen in the last 4 ODI world cups, it was the bowlers who made the difference. It was a bowler who got the man of the match in the final. It was a bowler (though the wrong bowler) who won the player of the series. Go through every match (except for, possibe the SA-WI run-fest) and it was bowling that tilted the scales.

**
Amit Varma thought it through :

Speaking of new stars, a big reason why this World Cup was so important for us was that it gave us a snapshot of the future. The decision by the Dravid-Tendulkar-Ganguly trio to withdraw from the tournament was a magnificent one for Indian cricket, as it gave us a chance to see what a young Indian team, without the baggage of the past, would look like. MS Dhoni’s team looked united, confident, devoid of politics and happy together.

That does not mean that we should discard the older players, for we need them in the season ahead, and should persist with them as long as they merit their place. But it does invalidate the argument that we should stick with our legends because the newcomers aren’t good enough. This tournament showed that we have eager, hungry young players waiting their turn, and any seniors who underperform should be shown the door—respectfully, but without regret.

***

Finally my few words about it. I saw some part of semis and nothing much of earlier matches (Sleep always dominated!). I followed the results keenly though.

I was stuck with work in office when all other cricket enthusiasts were glued to the TV for the finals. While coming by road, the road was empty and free flowing like no other day. Very frequently there were many groups in front of a showrooms which put the screen for the passing by crowd to watch There were loud cheers - for both dropping a catch and for taking a wicket - so it was very confusing for me as to which side the match was tilting. The cab driver got some updates on phone and by which I could guess it was a seesaw match. I came home just after it finished.

**
The fact is the trio-Dravid,Sachin,Ganguly- haven’t won the world cup for India despite having a strong team, despite being talented. The fact is the young team did it. But leave it at that. The conclusion based on these two facts can NOT be: the seniour players caused the team to loose or that their re-entry is not called for.

I am one of those few fellows, who despite had had disappointment over the way some players failed over and again, who would have been even more happier if the trio were part of the WorldCup winning team. I do not think their presence would have failed the team in any way. This Ponting talk of - it is unfortunate the winning team members should make way for seniours is CRAP. Now the failure would be tagged to the presence of seniours and the victory would be tagged to the world cup winning team’s “momentum”. Now I feel Rahul’s decision’s timing was very right, much before Dhoni’s team won the cup - if he had taken later/or if he had not resigned he would have had to face several other criticisms !

**
Despite the takl of “Chak De” movie reforming the game for the masses and media, after the Asia Cup win, not many covered it in bold. And this was to be highlighted and protested against at that very time. Now that saying “You are giving them and not giving us” sounds sad. Hope the media, govt and other companies (yesterday ToI carried an ad by Oil PSUs congratulating the heroes for winning the Asia Cup - is akin to giving a chocolate to a crying baby) will not repeat such bias in the future. I don’t accept that Asia Cup was smaller than cricket world cup - Asia Cup too had 11 playing teams and India did superlatively well - remaining unbeaten, defeated tough teams and setting few records.

**
Last few weeks Indian sports is doing better in almost all outings - billiards, chess,cricket, hockey, tennis. Here is a wishing and hope that the dream run continues.

Just wondering what would have happened if these things did not happen in our life time - iPhone, Harry Potter, Rajnikanth ? What would have people talked about so passionately ? What would have caught the fancy of people ? What would have got the cult following ?

More importantly, would people have led a mundane, mediocre lives or would people have found something among the available things as craze-worthy and cult-status worthy ?[1]

If it is the former, we have been very lucky. If it is the latter, more thoughts needed. Till then happy reading/watching or experiencing.

Be maniac, be happy [2]

[1] Lets leave out iPhone from this discussion. iPhone or actually iPod created a space for itself when there was none. Its not one among 100s like movies/books.

[2] I personally feel, everyone, everyone should have something to be maniac about.

I was thinking of asking this question. How do you visualize time ? Somebody did it, so let me just use that post

Vivek asks

When you think about time, do you visualize it?

For example, when you think about an appointment that you have to keep, does the image of a wrist-watch or a clock present itself to you? Is it a digital display? When you think about months and years, do you mentally flip pages of a wall calendar? Or is it more like the inbuilt calendar of whatever Operating System you happen to be using?

This issue came up recently in a conversation. My friend thinks of time in closed loops, and I think of time in a strictly linear fashion. In my imagination, months proceed like this:

J–F–M–A–M–J–J–A–S–O–N–D

The year ends and a fresh line begins under this one. Within a month too, the dates are arranged in a straight line for me (not in groups of seven). The same hold for hours in a day - I count them from 1 to 24.

Not that I find it impossible to think of time in a closed loop, but the linear imagery comes naturally to me.

I wonder if it means something.

Which camp are you in? And are there other ways in which people visualize time?

As for me, the Jan to Jun goes like in the calendar on the wall — not the calendar where each page has one month. I get the picture of 3 months on a row, till june it is clear. After that it is not strictly 3 months per row. From June it goes in one coloumn below June till December.

Also when I think of a month, I get to see some dates marked with some importance like June 1st beginning of school, April 10th results, my birthday in March, exams in March and other close relatives/friends’ bdays, October holidays, Christmas, Rain in June-July (instantly reminds me of umbrellas), summer from March. April to June are lit brightly in my mind’s calendar probably because it is summer. Similarly Jan-Feb is little dark probably due to cold. July, August, September, November are not present on my mind’s calendar, only if I look for it, it would be visible in their appropriate places.

The days in the months are, obviously, visualized to be like in the calendar I mentioned. 7 days a week. Again Sunday reminds me of shoe-polish, hair cuts. Only Sunday gets marked as holiday in my mind. Saturday is half-day with white uniform. Wednesday - colour dress

Talking of numbers, 1 to 5 is in one line (left to right), in parallel to it (above it) is 6 to 10. After which it goes till 30 one next to another. After 30, 50 is marked somewhere like the end of 5th line in a table. After that only important numbers like 80, 90, 100 come to picture. After 100 it is again very sparse and like in a table only important numbers at the end of the coloumn - 1000. Anywhere above 20 to 25 and 80-100 are thought of as marks obtained. (As you can see only school related things are imprinted strongly on the mind. Engineering marks like 35-50 don’t have a place )

As is noted in that post’s comments,

Random Access View
Linear Alphabetical View
Meteorological View
GOTO Statement View
Dormitory View

some interesting views are possible. Tell me, how do _you_ visualize time.

I have always enjoyed watching movies alone. Does not mean that I do not enjoy in groups, of course I enjoy in groups too. But when I say I went to watch it alone, people look at me as

• I am a big loser,
• I am a big anti-social guy
• I am a maniac/crazy about movies
• I have too much spare time on my hand.

I feel only one of the above is marginally true. I watch because I want to watch. Period.

Here is a post that thinks on the same lines as I do

Everytime I tell a friend that I watched a movie the previous day in one of the 21,000 malls beside my house in Gurgaon, the first question eventually is, “with whom?” If I manage to utter the unmentionable, that I watched it by myself, he looks at me like I watched the a rakhi sawant anchored “great indian laugher show” in loop six times.

I have always failed to understand our obsession with the society. The society must approve. The society must accompany. The society must not think you are crazy. I think this spirit has made us miss one of the greatest joys of the 21st century: watching a movie by yourself

He then analyses both the situations.

You want to watch a movie. You walk down to the nearest mall. You catch the movie. You appreciate it thoroughly, because the movie is now an experience between you and the movie-maker. You can connect with the soul of the movie, without popcorn or coke to ruin the experience. You finish in time for dinner. You get back home, eat and sleep peacefully. Its work the next day. 3 hours. Thats all it took.

You must try it sometime: A lot of fun

Many times, I feel so good when I read something that is so close to what I would have said otherwise. I will link to certain such items.

Last few days/months, I felt I am spending too much time online, and too much online-time is spent at Orkut, Chatting, Reader, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, Desipundit, Blogbharti, Indianpad, putvote - you got it. My reader itself not only has too many feeds, but also too many updates. I feel guilty to mark it as read without reading it and to catch up would take enormous time. There are also days where I literally get fed up of catching up. After hours of spending on the net (browsing, chatting, orkutting), the net gain is so less and I feel I haven’t done anything all that time !

As Prof Sadagopan said,

Reading is deep, involves the brain and leads to learning. Browse can often be very shallow with very little learning.

Anyways, coming back to the topic, I have almost stopped orkutting and chatting. I can not stop reader - but will clean up the feeds to include only feeds of friends and important news. I am liking this utility which will combine many feeds into one so that I can mark “mark all as read” in one shot

Coming back to where I started, I liked this post, for it conveys what I wanted to say a lot better. Excerpts:

My next activity would be to do away with Orkut as well. I’ve been on it for 4 years, but all of a sudden I feel so sucked into it. Making new friends aren’t really worth it and I just will have to show my attitude. A stinking one at it, like one of the readers whom I’ve never met, told me on chat sometime ago. It helps. People come and they GO too. They say good things. They throw crap. They are opinionated. I do all that too. But then it will have to just stop someday. …

It is just a phase. Will life be more exciting if I’m away from Internet? Away from all the Information overload.

Of course one difference is that I am still not fed up with “my own” blog or blogging. I would let this continue and I have always seen that blogging does not interrupt my life.
I have to continue, because it is my ranting ground.

Wasn’t life simpler when I was way back in college? When mobile phones were a luxury. When surfing the internet would cost a bomb. When your needs were less. When you had more time to read and watch good TV shows. When you had more quality time with family and friends. When your life was within a circle that you ran around it oblivious to all the filth outside the circle. When the words “best friends” really meant something. When you just have ten bucks in your pocket, yet go and eat with your friends, order for one chilli parotta and share it, order one pepsi and fight for it. When long drives meant, riding a two-wheeler against the wind and feeling so accomplished. When branded clothes were just for commercials, while you can wear anything off the street that makes you look like super star. When library meant book library and not DVD library. When piggy bank meant saving up for summer holidays. When temple visits meant something divine and not a formality. When street cricket and seven stones were religious rituals in the evening, while Playstations and Xboxes were for the westerners. When treats for friends meant tea shops and bakeries. When the rains were the best time to sit and chat outside the classrooms, getting drenched, and staying home complaining of sickness. When the nights were meant for dreamless deep sleeps. When early to wake up and early to sleep was order of the day. When I wrote stories in college notebooks and not on computer. When I painted using oil paint and not Photoshop.

Life was much better, then. With little in life. With more happiness.

Little meant more. Amen.

Finally I decided to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was another huge novel after Shantaram. I took nearly 2 months to finish reading. I was tempted to skip sentences/paragraphs many a time but resisted it. Every possible analysis about the book might have been said and written by now. A single novel to include different aspects - like philosophy, suspence, romance, emotion, fiction, politics - itself was pretty exciting.
I kept hearing “Who is John Galt ?” during my other activities too. I read speech on Money and John Galt’s speech few more times after I finished the novel.
This is John Galt Speaking :

Money:

If I had made notes while reading the book itself, there were many points I would have liked to make. There were dialogues and instances which I saw coming (like guy talking to Eddie was J) and others which I did not, which surprised me( Taggart’s speech on radio, her barging into John’s world, Rearden’s reaction after hearing radio speech, the suicide of james’ wife), which I liked(when Taggart is in trouble she tries to do one thing at once and next the other, to keep working and not having time to feel - I like this approach and I am following it these days) and which I disliked ( I did not like it when Taggart falls for Rearden and later when she falls for Galt again I was feeling strange!, felt bad for Eddie, Fris, Rearden ) . There were so many other points I would have liked to make a note and ramble about it. But actually, all that can ever be said/written must have been done already!
I may not face red-tapism but there is something that hits strongly, something that can be applied to my/our life.
My favorite chapters are The Sanction of the Victim,Atlantis,The John Galt Line
Would like to read other novels by the same author.

Ha..if the movie is made, Jolie would play Dagny!! I kept thinking of Kate Winslet while reading.

**
When I am reading a book, I do it passionately¹. I mean, there were times I went late to office only because I kept reading, I came early from office whenever possible, I used to sleep late and I keep talking about the book with whom ever I meet. The story absorbs me. Even to stop to post a blog seems waste of time and a delay causing element. Same with browsing, doing something else on computer, watching movies or watching TV. And when it ends I laze away time like anything. Havent picked up another book seriously so far. I oversleep, I browse a lot etc. This book travelled with me many times to and fro Blore-Chennai, it also travelled to Goa.

1. I think I do almost everything passionately - I dont know if the word is right. I chat with complete interest, I talk with complete interest, I listen with complete interest, I work with complete interest, I write mails with vigour, I plan with zeal, I perform many activities as if there is nothing else to do but for that. Few exceptions are perhaps talking on phone - while I am seeing something on computer,”eating”, reading for exams [back]

Metamorphosis is a story about a person who is overnight transformed into an huge insect. How he copes with that, how it affects his family members is the crux of the book. The story is a light read. The book I read had many other essays discussing the story and its inner meaning. It seems some feelings of the protagonist are close to real life of the author. The analysis section also pointed out the few fallacies and justifications, meanings to various sentences in the story. The essays occupied more space than the story itself in the book and thus I have possibly read every opinion possible and some of them resembled to what I had in mind.
Again I feel I should have made some notes during reading. One thing I liked in the real life of Kafka is that he was possessed by writing. He often felt “his life” itself was a distraction to his writing. He used to write almost whole of his night (its 3 am as I write this) and used to work in the day. Someday I would like to do something as possessively as that, if there was a reason for my birth, my existence, it should be for me to perform that. I dont know what it is and I do not know if that will happen, till then I will keep talking big things like this

Something I wrote some time ago to the yahoo group to which I used to write my rants and reviews before I learned/started about blogging. The pat I received there was the only reason to fuel my continuation of writing the rants!

Today I would like to share a little happiness with you all. Because in a way, remotely, this group has a connection with it. Read on to know more.

Back in the days, in my early days at Mumbai, not only my Hindi was as bad as it could be but my knowledge about movies was also zero. I had heard of Hum Aapke Hain Koun but did not know what HAHK meant. Nor did I know the cast of it. And it was already running for 2 years or more in Liberty talkies in Mumbai. As an additional note, I did not even know the spelling of Kajol (who later became my one-n-only craze - in movies) and did not know the cast of DDLJ - which too I watched after 1 year of release !!

In the college, as usual with my life - the first friend I get at a new place will become good friend and will remain one at least till I remain there, I got acquainted with a Mallu guy -Arun Ganesh- who was a movie freak. Sometime later I realized that he was very close to being a walking encyclopedia of movies. Being a Mallu if you expected him to know less Hindi, you are wrong there. He came from Ahmedabad and knew better Hindi than the mixed Hindi some people speak in Mumbai. To me, speaking Hindi was not difficult but did not want to utter foolish stuff, he was my guru for my Hindi. Being in the Bollywood capital Mumbai, it is too rare to see someone not talking about movies or music. I clearly remember asking him what was the meaing of “pahad” and when he asked for context I quoted the song from Raja Hindustani “aaye ho zindagi mein tum pahad banke”. :))

Slowly I too started to watching movies more frequently. Bunked classes and watched movie. Skipped eating out and watched movies. Watched movies for the sake of watching. Sometimes with a group from college, sometimes with another group, sometimes with some other, sometimes alone. Good, bad, hit, flop I saw it all.

In parallel we started discussing movies. We had our own tastes but most of the times we shared the same opinion. In fact, I started viewing movies critically after taking first cues from him. He used to point out the mistakes (like the missing power chord from an electric guitar or the “readers dont digest” kind of stuff ). We used to analyse many scenes, how better things could have been or why something did make sense. The forthcoming movies, music (Arun is a big Rehman fan), the past hits - our discussion covered it all. To top it we had a French tuition teacher who was a film freak. She religiously read Filmfare and followed all gossips in filmdom. We used to fight for the filmfare when we used to go there for the class and we even dedicated additional 15 min for reading filmfare (not compensating for 1 hr class for which we were paying her!). She somedays used to get irritated that we read it and discuss it in the beginning itself, so she used to hide it till the end of the class!

Talking of analysis, we almost at the same time, hit upon Khalid Mohammed who used to write for Times of India. His language, his sharp merciless remarks as well as his knowledge about movie making as well as references to various other movies impressed us no end. Monday morning talking most compulsorily started with our take on his reviews that used to appear on Sunday Times. Even though initially we worshipped him and made his every opinion ours (shamelessly), slowly we started noticing our difference of opinions from him. Be it what it is, I still regard him the one to look upto.

Then I moved to Bangalore and Arun to Sangamner for studies. Occasionally when we mailed each other, it was mostly about movies. The movie watching also reduced somewhat when we were in Engg. The communication too reduced/stopped, due to various other reasons. It was DCH, the cult classic of our age, that moved me so much that I wrote about it to him and few of our close buddies. Though it was not written as a review at all but just as a salute to the times we had spent and to Farhan Akthar, I received good (unexpected) encouraging words and thus begun my experimentation with writing reviews. DCH, still one of the closest movies to my heart, had each of us (we were 3, like in the movie, in gang other than girls) in ample amount. As a tribute, I visited Mumbai and watched the movie with the group

Impressed by that feedback, I started noting down my thoughts after most of the movies I watched. I used to share with that select group of friends (and with the group I mentioned). After joining job our communication improved (thanks to always-on office email) and we started exchanging mails regularly. This was the time this group was also most important part of my life. My so called reviews got very good feedback and appreciation that I can never forget in my life. And hence review writing became a must for me after every movie.

Now reviews too became a part of mails with Arun. Partly motivated/encouraged by my acts, he too started responding by reviews. There was even few times, we fought who would review the movie. Or skip reviewing a movie so that other can do. Sometimes we decided not to read each other’s reviews but wrote one each (Lakshya, Black were such). And during somewhat that time I feel now that I had peaked (bcoz these days I am not happy with my writing). But he kept on improving.

Those were days before blogging and blogging opened a new world for us. I created a blog and soon followed it up with our combined site on movie reviews.He was so glad. In fact I started the review blog only to make sure he gets some recognition and fame, and by which I knew he would keep doing it! As far as me, I was losing the grip and as well was getting not too affected by the feedback. The hits came coming and I left no opportunity to publicize our site. The hits came, the comments came and we were feeling good. He sent his black review to filmfare and it got published in readers review section.

Things did not remain all good all the time. The work started eating our time. Weeks used to go by and the reviews did not happen. In fact we did not get time to watch movies. Sometimes I used to get busy that time he used to fill up. And sometimes otherwise. But sometimes both of us got so busy and felt bad for our pet - our site. Yet we kept hung to it. We approached few friends to fill in during our absence. Some of them agreed and filled up (fill up even now) and we are glad to be a part of creative circle. And we knew that many times, we watched movies only to write reviews, we wrote reviews only to keep our site updated!!

While about reviews let me capture another funny event. There was a guy (lets say X) in Arun’s organisation who was observing the fame Arun was getting for writing reviews. So X too started sending his reviews to a girl (Y) whom he was trying to impress. Y was in Aruns list of pals receiving movie review updates and X was a TL to Y. Y sent X’s reviews to Arun asking us to have a look and publish it on our site. X’s reviews were very difficult to understand and we withheld before posting. It so happened that, Arun investigated on the reviews and found they were all from a rottentomatoes. X had intelligently(?) clubbed many reviews and hence there was no continuity nor any sense and it was all too tough to follow. A clear copy paste. Arun exposed this and sent out a mail to all his buddies including Y. Not to mention they broke up soon and everyone was staring at him funnily after that incident!!

If you ever have a pet, you understand my feeling towards my site. Its a cute thing to own and to show to the world. But the rare updates is always a problem.

Thankfully he has moved to a different organisation where supposedly the work load is less and has moved out of city. So like me, all he has to pass time, is to watch movies.

Then recently icing on the cake happened. Much anticipated fame arrived. It started with KANK. He had his ticket booked for first day. He had read up Taran Adarsh’s review. I also had planned for a second day show. I could not do much due to work load and jotted down few thoughts on KANK but Arun, declining to read my views before he jotted down his (like the earlier days!) detailed review. Incidentally rediff announced a contest asking for reviews from readers. Arun sent his entry (and asked me to do, but I let it go. I felt my review was incomplete and was also pressed for time. Also had no belief in my effort). Now KANK is every movie reviewer’s delight and many responses must have come. Nevertheless his review was one of the best 10 reviews and he got to be a part of rediff reviewers group. What an achievement ! I hadn’t been many times as happy as this recognition. I know its his review but I shall take some claim and happiness for that fame His achievement is mine and his fame is mine :))

His organisation had an all employee movie watching event and they saw KANK. (No this has nothing to do with his review…his review appeared on rediff much later). Then he sent his reviews and its being published on rediff to his colleagues. Not to mention appreciation and wishes followed. It took few days before he got back to normal self If plagiarism is flattery, he got that too - someone even plagiarized his review!

Being in rediff critic group, Arun got to review Don for rediff. And when it appeared on rediff main page, not to mention that Arun was on cloud nine for few days :))

It is an interesting parallel we have shared with Farhan Akthar - that first movie of Farhan Akthar (DCH) had started me on writing reviews and for the second we both competed to write and each one wrote one and for the third one Arun’s review got published in a leading online news site.

And thus ends my intention of sharing my happiness with you all. Without your encouragement and feedback I would not have attempted to write and without me he would not have continued to write. So in a sense, this happiness finds its root in you, in this group (and the blog readers/commenters ). Thank you friends.

All the above talked about reviews could be found at 70mm