Winters and the Holidays

Hi. I'm back. A long time coming. The entire holidays passed by and I didn't post even once. Well, no excuses on my part. Had lots of stuff happening in the holidays. The DU Quizzing Season, of which I was a smaller part of compared to last year, and then there was the utter nonsensical farce which we as NSITians call "Winter Training".
Sure, we really didn't want to study anything, which we didn't, but we neither did we want to end up coming to college day after day in the afternoon for three hours daily, which we did. So a major portion of the holidays was spent to and fro from the college and home. A few days after we saw how the "Winter Training" was going to go, we put forward a plea to get it over with before Christmas to the teacher, who said she couldn't promise anything, but would come teach us something worthwhile. Well, she lived upto only half her promise. The Training was suspended by 24th December, but in turn we were supposed to carry out a "Hardware Project", and the concerned teacher never turned up. So much for making our trips to college "worth-while"!
Well, life wasn't that bad afterwards. A trip to Manila to meet my relatives ended up being a thoroughly enjoyable affair. Lots of good food, a wonderful place to go and just chill out. There was ample eye-candy to keep yours truly busy. ;-) The malls were wonderful, I enjoyed every moment of my trip there. Had plenty to read as well and plenty of movies to watch too!
A small synopsis of each follows:
Books:
1. The Other Side of Justice by Justice S.S. Sodhi - An autobiographical account of a High Court Judge, who after a tussle with the then Haryana CM Bhajan Lal led to his transfer from the Chandigarh High Court to the Allahabad High Court sometime in early 1994. What follows is a grim picture of the oldest high court of the country, which was extremely notorious at the point by unions, strikes and typical gunda-gardi expected in Uttar Pradesh at the time. A fascinating account, filled with anecdotes, the only sore point being the excessive repetition due to reproduction of original documents/petitions/judgements. A must read though.

2. Coffee with Groucho - A fictionalized interview of Groucho Marx, given by one of his more famous impersonators, based on his biography and using some of his typical humor, an entertaining read.

3. Short stories of Professor Shonku by Sayyajit Ray - They make for interesting reading, some very well written short stories that show Ray's talent for writing.

4. Mythology and the Individual - Joseph Campbell - A wonderful audiobook, highly recommended by yours truly. It makes for wonderful listening, with lots of anecdotes of various mythologies from all over the world. The most memorable quote on religion that put me at peace was,
"It doesn't matter whether mythology and religion are wrong or right, they work. And that's what counts."
Mythologies represent whatever is the need of the day, told in the form of a story that captures one's imagination and provides food for thought. Another memorable quote i recall,
"Fear and aspiration are the two emotions that can pull a human being to rise above the ordinary."
These quotes may not be verbatim, but in essence communicate the message. Another audiobook of Joseph Campbell I'd recommend is "History of the Gods".

5. Call of the Wild - Jack London - Another small audiobook. The story of Buck is gut wrenching and inspiring, sometimes individually and sometimes both at the same time. Was looking forward to it because it was one of the books that majorly influenced Chris McCandless to undergo his journey Into The Wild.

6. Also was checking out some Telugu short stories in Manila, but didn't read too much of them. Didn't get enough time.

7. Presently listening Animal Farm by George Orwell. Its a wonderful story, behind all the humor and somewhat bordering on being ridiculous, its very much a black comedy type story, where everything what is being said could and very possibly is happening in the world, where allegations and counter-allegations that range from the plausible to the downright ludicrous are are thrown everywhere in our daily lives.

8. Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - A highly inspiring book, reading it, especially towards the end, I could not help but feel sympathy for a man of his calibre, having accomplished a good deal in life, having to go so early. A good book, a must read for all.

Movies:
1. 12 Angry Men : The best movie of the holidays, especially how the story unfolds, i quite enjoyed it. 9.5/10

2. Ghajini : Fairly decent movie made annoying by its length and ridiculous by the tamil style violence. Could've done without all that crap. 6.5/10

3. Welcome to Sajjanpur: A humorous film, shot well, and is a unique satire on the village scene. Shreyas Talpade has done a good job. 7.5/10.

4. Slumdog Millionaire: A good movie, which could have been better. Maybe its just the allure of Hollywood in our minds and vice versa for the foreigners, whereby nearly all my friends swear by The Dark Knight as the Best Movie EVER, they don't even consider it worthy of more than one Golden Globe nomination. 7/10

5. Amu: A highly sensitive movie, which shook me a great deal. The entire portrayal of the characters, and how the story fits in towards the end made it a very good movie. Brinda Karat looks stunning in this movie, and she is presently my crush for the first quarter of the year! ;-) 9/10

6. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: A disappointing movie, Here i would go with Jai Arjun Singh on his review, (God in the machine: notes on Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Dec 13,2008) totally explains my view on this film. 6.5/10

Thats all for now. 4th Sem is not looking good, and because i'm not taking any action to change it, I will not be complaining about it. Life goes on nigga!
Adios!