Katheyondha Helidhe....

The new breed of directors/actors in Kannada movie industry are truly making a mark. Be it Lucia, RangiTaranga, U-Turn or for that matter, a college story like Kirik Party. The freshness and innovation that these guys brought to the table, is what makes them stand apart. There have been other good movies - GBSM, a few arty movies, but since I have not watched them, I am not talking about them.

 I read a review of Kirik Party by Rangan (link) and what he says is true! This movie indeed was a musical! Be it the slow waltz (while the fight happens), or breaking into a song when the guys are suspended. Brilliant take. I did like the background score of Ulidavaru Kandante too, but this movie takes the cake! (hey, I am turning into a rhyming expert!)

The tunes are so infectious (The trumpet in Kaagadada Doniyalli or the chorus in Belageddu, Katheyondha, for eg). Nice work by the music director - Anjaneesh Loknath.
I esp. loved the hat-tip to Ravichandran and Hamsaleka in "Hey, who are you" song! Took me back to the time of Prema-Loka, Ranadheera. :)
The lyrics of the songs are also lovely. The use of some of the bhaava geetes ( Toogu Mancha and Neecha Nalige(?)) is refreshing.
The singers have done a great job, some established and some new names, a good mix altogether.

 Wrt the movie, the last part was a tad long and the plot seemed lost. A tighter second half would have made it even more enjoyable!

Check out the album in Saavn, or better still, watch the movie in the theatre (It has English Subtitles!) and then listen to the songs. They grow on you that way.

The fallen gate

Dusk was setting in. The gate of a nearby park had fallen and everyone had to enter the park trampling on the fallen gate. A guy, an elderly couple and I were the only people walking in the park. 

I noticed that 4 workers had started to fix the gate. They lifted it up, tried to hold it steady and were figuring out how to put it in place. 

After a few more rounds, I wanted to go home. I stopped near the workers, asked them (in Kannada, translated here): "Will this take more time?" No response. The workers refused to acknowledge my presence.

The elderly couple, who were right behind me, stopped, and the lady asked the workers "Can we go from here?" Again, a stoic silence. A pause, and then the elderly man, calls out authoritatively - "Aye! Can we go from here?" Pat came the reply ' No Sir!'.  

I continued walking and exited the park out of the other gate. 

Stuff kids think and say!

On one lazy weekend, Sid and I were reading in the balcony and I happened to see a Kite (mostly) and showed the same to Sid. He asked me which bird that was, and I said "Mostly Kite, don't know for sure". He, excitedly, quips: "Mamma, do you have any bird-scanner like QR-scanner? (I had introduced it to him, because of some kiddy game app) You know, we could point the phone camera to the bird, and the app can scan the bird and tell us what bird it is."

I was dumbstruck! What a brilliant idea. There might be something similar wrt image-search, but live scanning and searching sounds interesting!

Waiting to see such an app now! Remember, you heard it first here!!

In Dino..

After a terrible 2016, a new year has started. There might be many things that will go wrong and many that might just be perfect, but its another chance to change for the good! As usual, there are some goals and resolutions, but who knows how much can be accomplished. Give it your best though, will ya?

Some thoughts and happenings, that individually were too small for a post and too long for a tweet, had been housed in the back of my mind for some time, and now, I have listed it out here, as a collective, so that it doesn't slip away from the already cluttered, confused mind.

• Had high hopes on Prof.Bharadwaj's tryst with the present, but was throughly disappointed. I am speaking, of course, of 'Immortal' by Krishna Udayashankar. After the brilliant, excellent, amazing (and other such superlative adjectives) 'The Aryavarta Chronicles', I expected too much perhaps. It ends up like 'Indiana Jones', which in the Professor's word, was actually not supposed to be! I was reminded of 'The Emperor's Riddles', which I did not like either. Although, both gave a lot of materials, history, mythology, places to learn about, so can't complain much!?

• One more book that I read and was not impressed by was ' One Indian Girl' by Chethan Bhagat. There are some parts, that do portray a lady's plight, but there is nothing new that the book offers, and looks to be mostly a script ready to get some or the other Bollywood studio's nod!

• I did catch up on short stories though. Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Ah! What plots and twists. What words, what sentence formations. Brilliant!  Loved them to bits! I did try to read some aloud for Sid though, and he refused to listen. He is happy reading the books he likes. 

• Speaking of Sid, well, he has progressed to reading on his own now, and the bedtime and weekend afternoon readings has become a breeze! I have, sneakily, made a deal that I will read 1 story and he gets to pick and read whatever he wants. Those are the most peaceful minutes of the day! :-D Moreover, I get to read in that gap as well! 

• I did not watch as many movies as I wanted to in 2016! I flare up when I see the nominations, that have started for the Annual award ceremonies. Not because of the choices, but I must have watched probably only a couple of them, that's all! Oh, the horror!! I don't think I can get myself to watch any of the award ceremonies this year! 

• 2016 has also been a year of great highs and lows. I, who has claimed, never to have caught a fever, as far as I remember, finally caught one! The family too kept falling sick. Hope we fare better this year.

• Arijit Singh sounds constipated now-a-days - 'Channa mere ya' and a couple of more recent ones!  'Ae dil hain mushkil' title track sounds fine though. Compare some of the recent ones to a 'Phir le aaya Dil' or a 'Laal ishq' and you can notice the difference. Or is it deliberate, to sound sad, perhaps? 

• Speaking of Phir le aaya dil, it still sounds magical! I am not sure if I loved the song instantly (kiddo wanted the Barfi songs on loop) or loved it after I saw the video. I sometimes think it is, indeed, the latter. The silent emotions that are expressed in the eyes of the leads are just so beautiful! Well-directed and emoted!  

          Check it out here:

Reassurance

"I want my mummy, I miss my mummy!"

That wasn't Sid. That was me! On a cold rainy night, just while sleeping, I declared that. Suddenly!

You know what my 4 and a half year old did at that point??
He called my mom. On an imaginary phone. "Hello Ajji..Ajji.. Ya come soon ok. Bye". Next minute he was consoling me "Mamma, she will come ok. Don't worry." Then he gave me the tightest hug ever, smiled a dazzling smile and went back to sleep!
Speechless and so so PROUD!

Life in words and pictures

Sid, who was playing with toy cars (He has developed a sudden interest in them!), dashed two of them. Since no one was watching, he excitedly said 'Mamma, see the cars dashed, shall I show you a replay?'
'Replay thorsla?' has become a favorite now. Even if he skids on a mat, he wants to show a replay.

He is also drawing away to glory too, from multi-color dog like unicorns to aliens to abstracts! Here he is, drawing on the street, in the recently held 'Open Street' in HSR Layout.

This one's him trying to be 'Mister Maker', with his own set, complete with props, colors and books!!

No two meanings about it!

We use so many words in different contexts to produce totally different meanings, that it is quite a shock when someone (read the kiddo) understands it at face value. Gives a good perspective on things and sometimes, it is funny too. Have noted down some recent conversations, that I remember, below. Damn, I should note them down immediately, else will lose them in the sands of time! ;-)

Sid negotiating something with me.
Me: Nice try!!
Sid: No Mama, bad try.

Me to Josh: You get the point don't you?
Sid (interrupting): I get more points, not you!

Niceness of it all!

Usually when I am making tea or chopping/cooking something, Sid insists he 'helps', so I make him sit on the counter top and give him important tasks. Like passing me the tea powder box or sugar box (of course, 1 spoon has to go into his tummy!) and he gives them to me and has that look of completing an important assignment! Its fun, and oh, he gets to see how to cook too!

So sometime this week, I was trying to create my own breakfast cereal mix, and Sid insisted on seeing it. I added some cranberries to store-bought wheat flakes, and he wanted it, of course. Then I started cutting walnuts, chopping almonds and he wanted them all. I gave him a few pieces and continued the chopping.
Out of the blue, he says, 'Mamma, you are a nice girl'. :-)
And for that he got a big bear hug!!

The age old conflict!

Saturday was Sid's Sports Day. He was in some 2 races and 1 dance. Overall, it was a very nice event, although it started an hr late! We enjoyed looking at the kids in colorful costumes, running around, dancing, shouting, crying and generally behaving like, well, kids!

But one thing that I observed and which I was vocally against was the sexist nature of some of the events and people!

There was a running race, in which 2 kids had to hold hands and run together. Partner race, it was called. Sid and 1 other guy were partners. They won, by a good margin, but the MC (a lady, mostly one of the teachers, and that scares me!) says this was expected, they are boys or something similar.
I was annoyed! In one other race, the girl who came second was equally good, but no one mentioned how close the race was.

One more incident was a race for girls alone, which was called 'going to the market'! There you go! And to top it, the aforementioned MC, states that, 'girls, now you can help your mommies shop for groceries'!

I was affected by these statements, and I did talk about how this was wrong with Josh and the other parents around. The other parents did not seem to care much though.
I wanted to walk to her and tell her that she just cannot talk like this, typecasting boys, girls, attributing certain characters to each of them. They are growing kids, easily influenced. What will they end up teaching the kids!? I didn't tell her this, but did voice my disappointment to Josh.
Hopefully, the entire school isn't like that, if so, then I have issues with letting my kid continue in such an environment.

Maybe it was harmless and I am over-reacting, but it just didn't feel right. I know my son will be exposed to all kinds of philosophies, all kinds of people, and I cannot control it, but will definitely try to make him and my sphere of influence understand that there shouldn't be any chores, any activity which should be attributed to the sex of the person. Yes, I agree there are differences between a boy and a girl, but we should concentrate on the true potential and passion of the kid, rather than stick to stereotypes, like a boy should train to play cricket or run, a girl should learn to cook! Sometimes, and quite often, it does happen that a boy is not interested in running and a girl in not interested in cooking!
For god's (or whatever it is you believe in) sake, let them be!


A side note:
  I am reading an excellent book, the last of the trilogy - The Aryavarta Chronicles, which deserves a post of its own, but there is an exchange between Uttara and Abhimanyu in that, which talked about the so called equality between men and women.
 Abhimanyu tells Uttara, that seeing her, he thinks that women are no less than men (complimenting her), but Uttara tells him that the very fact that he is thinking about her being equal negates the statement. Truly equal means not even thinking about it! (I am summarizing it and not using the exact words)

Education and learning

Finally its time for Sid to start going to school. Formal education starteth!
As Josh put it 'Time for education to come in the way of his learning!'

He is going to learn, discover, play, fall, laugh, cry, make new friends, fight with them, be embarrassed (mostly by his parents, as all kids are at some point in their schooling!), take things seriously, not take things seriously, look up to people, be disappointed, be confused, make mistakes, regret them and then do it all over again. I only hope he has lots of fun going through this phase of his life and most importantly be happy for the most part of it!