Smelliness

Now we had this furore over some local TV channel calling asians (or was it just indians?) smelly just last year and the whole asian comunity (or was it just those who had nothing better to do with their lives?) rose up against the "racist" americans and there were fliers and signature campaigns and demonstrations flying all over the place....it had gotten quite ugly and eventually the editor of the channel had to apologise in public and i think we got an email from the chancellor about how "shocked and appalled" she was and all that bull

OK..now i have never really bought into all this "racism" funda....well maybe thats cuz ive never really encountered it...but mostly, its becuz if someone is being racist, it shows his indifference to "other cultures" and i actually pity such people...and try my best to "educate" them that there is a world beyond america and that besides white, there's yellow and brown and black and pink and all the other kinds of colors out there...so the point is that i never really bought into this whole smelly asians thing..

but in the last 2 weeks, ive had the fortune (or was it misfortune?) to really test this stand of mine...and it wasnt pleasant...maybe its the change in weather or some extra pollen in the air or just my hormones...but the kind of stink that i have had to bear is unimaginable....every second person who has come close (within societal limits) has stunk...stunk bad!...it gets worse when u give people a ride in your car...with the doors locked and the windows up, there's nowhere you can go if someone decides to "emit gasses"...it fills up the entire car and its not something u wanna inhale right after finishing 10 hours of a work day....and then what follows is equally hilarious...after committing the crime, they try to get rid of all "fingerprints" by pretending as if nothing happened, slightly lowering the window (in the hope that it gets rid of the stuff quickly), looking out and whistling...but people...ITS TOO LATE BY THEN...all i can do then is to play with the fan direction switches and try to create a circulation which takes most of the stuff away from me...in order to not embarrass them, i also cant confront them or make faces or ask them to stop what they are doing....but I HAVE A NOSE PEOPLE!

now im not saying that its only indians who smell....the point of this blog is just to say that PEOPLE SMELL....and thats something ive had to learn the hard way..not to take anything away from those who invest in deos and soaps and bathroom time...but its that one lazyass in a hundred that spoils it for the rest of us.....

The Namesake

Finally reached the theater fighting against all odds...starting with an annoying friend who's always late for everything..then getting a bad review about the movie and deciding to watch something else...reaching 5 mins late (anyone who knows me even reasonably well knows how much i HATE being late for movies)...then dropping the plan for the movie cuz the rest of the options were crap...and so on...but then after some yelling and name calling and tense silences, decided to stick with the plan and watch "The Namesake" by Mira Nair...starring Irrfan and Tabu and Kalpen Modi (better known as Kal Penn)...

Well...the two things that struck me the moment we entered the hall were
1) there was a fairly decent crowd in the hall unlike what i had expected
2) the crown was 100% American!
Gladdened my heart to see Americans watching a movie made by an indian about indians...guess mira nair is a big name after all...

Ok..first...the review - One of the best movies i have ever seen...driven by powerhouse performances by the lead cast..i wont deny tht it felt weird watching the characters speak in bengali for a bit of the first part of the movie and having to read the subtitles..but got used to it soon...the film is very subtle and is handled with a lot of sensitivity...it has some great moments, mostly involving Irfan Khan...the film begins with tabu coming to the US after getting married to Irfan..and the first day, for breakfast, she takes some rice krispies in a bowl, and instead of adding milk, she adds red chilly powder and some peanuts to it....just like we have farsan back home...i saw some surprised faces in the audience and i had to really fight the urge to explain to them what just happened....

the film moves lightning fast, unlike what most people have said and a lot happens in that span of just over 2 hours...i did not quite get the logic of the part when the father explains to his son the reason behind his kinda funny name....but all in all the movie moves you in many different ways..and to sum it up you will HAVE to do 2 things when the movie ends:
1) wipe your tears
2) call your father

Make sure you don't miss this one..