Peggy's Cove: Atlantic Ocean in all its splendor!

Now, doesn't that look out of the world? I bet it does not because I have seen the picture, but because I have been to the place and seen it first hand! I never knew that Atlantic Canada would have such lovely tourist spots. During my last trip to Halifax, I had heard a lot about the Peggy's Cove but the weather did not allow us to visit the place.

This time around it was bright and sunny and thus, on last Sunday, I set out for a visit to the cove accompanied by a few friends from office. Now, this one is a small fishing village on the outskirts of Halifax. It has a light house on the rocky sea side which is spread out over an area of approximately 3 square kilometres. The rocks of differing sizes and shapes are supposed to have been carried by glaciers and deposited at the shore when these glaciers melted out into the ocean!

The light house is not very massive either- it is a small one but looks attractive and at first glance, you feel it is standing straight out on the ocean! What makes the place special is the sight of sea waves splashing against the mighty rocks! It feels great watching the sea which is quiet not even for a single moment with the sea gulls floating and flying across. If you are lucky enough, you might even catch a glimpse of a whale swimming around in the ocean (I was unlucky though!). It has always been a great pleasure watching the sea. The sea may be turbulent inside but the kind of tranquility that it offers is unparalleled! At the cove, I felt I could sit all by myself watching the sea in action and with the cool sea breeze, I would not have hesitated to even sleep on the rocks though it was a warm and sunny afternoon! For lovers of adventure, roaming around the 3 odd kilometre long rock line would be a great idea, jumping from one rock to another and making sure you got the step right!

I did manage quite a few snaps of the magnificent Peggy's Cove but none of them can match the magic of watching it first hand! Quite a getaway, I would say. If you want to know more about the cove, please click here. Next time any of you get a chance to visit Atlantic Canada, please remember that Niagra falls are not the only attraction!

Flight to Canada!

After my last trip to Canada, I had to write only about the difficulties that I faced along with the team that traveled with me in the flights as well as the airports. It has been more than 8 months since then and am back in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada again for official reasons. It is the same place, same country, same set of people, but different weather (thankfully!). But what made a BIG difference to me during this trip was the flights I took to reach Canada!

Ever since Jet Airways started flying international, I have been wanting to have an experience of their flights in the international circuit considering the fact that Jet Airways is my favorite domestic carrier in India (with Kingfisher coming in very close!). I had been nurturing this secret desire for sometime and unexpectedly it did come true and so on, 10 August at 2 in the morning, there I was sitting inside a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Brussels. The fact that my transit was in Belgium did excite me but that was short lived since I did not have much lay over in Brussels. I had to take another flight from Brussels to Toronto and the carrier was the very same Jet Airways!

I was literally excited about the whole journey and I should say everything I expected out of an airline like Jet came true during my flight. The in flight ambience was fab, the food was superb, the cabin crew looked extremely attractive and provided excellent service, the washrooms were neat and the sources of entertainment were one too many. The Business Class and First Class travelers should not have been happy leaving the flight for such was the comfort of their seats! Excellent, hot and fresh Indian food added to the appeal. And, boy- o- boy, the number and variety of movies to choose from- Hollywood, Bollywood and Regional - coupled with music and recordings of selected episodes of popular TV shows made the flight a lot more easy! I could catch up with Aaja Nachle and Bheja Fry on my flight to Canada- 2 movies that I have always wanted to watch!

What adds further to my excitement is that I am flying out of Canada on the 29th and am taking Jet Airways from Toronto all the way till Kochi :-). I have already planned what movies to watch during the flight and all I can say write now is that I am looking forward to the flight :-)

So, all you guys out there- Next time you get a chance to travel to Europe or North America, make sure you opt for apna own Jet Airways- you will never ever regret your decision!!!

Brain Game

Enough has been written about how Sagar Bellary has copied the French movie- Le Diner de cons (whatever that means!) frame by frame to come up with this one, but aren't Priyadarshan, Mahesh Bhatt or Sanjay F Gupta doing the same thing? And when you are being provided with wholesome entertainment by a bunch of actors who know exactly what they are doing, why should you be complaining?

So you completely agree with Ranjeet (Rajat Kapoor, as brilliant as ever) when he tells his singer- wife Sheetal (Saarika, getting better with time) that the idea behind dining every Friday with a fool is to get some good entertainment towards the weekend, you understand the weird hobbies that high networth individuals with a lot of disposable income would have and feel completely fine with it. It is only when the fool in question makes an entry that you understand things are not going to be easy for Ranjeet. For Bharat Bhushan is no ordinary soul- he wants to get into everything and solve every issue in Ranjeet's life. He leaves no stone unturned to tell the world how good a singer he is. He carries his silly scrapbook in a suitcase that has a number lock as if it is the next big thing after the Kohinoor diamond and he makes life hell for Ranjeet during the brief encounter that they have.

Bheja Fry is not as much about story, as it is about characters and incidents and it helps to have actors like Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shoerey and Rajat Kapoor on board- they literally bring the house down with their antics though the scenes that play out before you are extremely serious! The dialogues are brief, crisp and to the point and the acting is of avant garde quality. Watch out for the faces that Ranvir Shorey makes or the helplessness that Rajat Kapoor portrays. Things get hilarious when Bharat mistakes Ranjeet's wife for his girlfriend and vice- versa. Even Milind Soman puts up a credible performance, unarguably the best in his more than a decade long career.

Bheja Fry has been made on a shoe string budget- all the characters wear the same clothes throughout the movie and the entire movie plays out in the same ambience- Ranjeet's drawing room and the best thing is that you dont mind at all. When you have a tight script, fantastic actors and some great dialogues, nothing else really matters- and this is what Sagar Bellary proves unquestionably! At a running time of a little more than 90 minutes, Bheja Fry is short and sweet and leaves the audience asking for more- that for me is what a successful venture is all about!!!

Dirty Dancing!

When you hear Guruji (Darshan Jariwala, awful!) tell Dia (Madhuri Dixit)- "Jo dil se aata hai, woh kala hoti hai, jo dil mein chhupa hota hai, woh kaala hota hai", you feel like whistling for the brilliance of Jaideep Sahni! The unfortunate thing is that there are only two or three of such scenes/ dialogues, the rest of the movie whizzes past you without impacting you at all!

When you have Mr. Money bags, Aditya Chopra for a producer and an ensemble cast comprising of Madhuri Dixit, Akshaye Khanna, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shoerey, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sushmita Mukherjee, Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta with a crew of excellent technicians (Salim- Sulaiman, Vaibhavi Merchant, Manish Malhotra, Mohanan), you expect celebrated cinematographer turned director, Anil Mehta to come up with something unique. Unique the storyline is- of an NRI single mother trying to save a dilapidated theatre from being demolished in the name of commercialization. Where the director fails is in evoking the empathy of the viewer. The attitude of the audience remains the same as that of the villagers of Shamli towards Dia- they think she is beautiful, they enjoy her brilliant dance but when she starts giving a bhashan, they are disinterested!

Unfortunately for the film, a foreign- educated young, dynamic and non- corrupt MP is projected as a villain and throughout the movie, you keep wondering what is it that he is doing wrong! The film also fails to answer that pertinent question- what will happen of the theatre when Dia goes back to the US? There is not enough evidence for the audience to believe that some one would take charge of the theatre and organize plays and ballads with a certain regularity in future. That remains the single biggest drawback of the movie- something so big that it takes away the charm and sincerity of the performances- Konkona and Kunal are in love with each other, but you are not bothered: Vinay Pathak is indifferent to his wife Sushmita Mukherjee and you dont care; Irrfan completely ignores his wife Divya Dutta and you feel you have better things to do than worry about her: Ranvir Shoerey is trying to come to terms with the fact that Dia will never be his and you end up thinking how big a fool he is!

Music and choreography are simply not upto the mark, especially when you are talking about the much publicized come back of the biggest dancing star in Bollywood of all times! You really miss Saroj Khan during the Laila- Majnu ballet in the climax. It is high time Jugal Hansraj stopped acting, he should find out an alternate profession soon! And couldn't Yash Raj find a more mature husband for Madhuri, the American guy looks young enough to be Ms. Nene's son.

In spite of all odds, there is one thing that works strongly in favor of Aaja Nachle- and that, you guessed it right, is the undeniable talent, unquestionable screen presence and the unearthly charm of the undisputed actor that Madhuri Dixit- Nene is- she looks rocking at 40 and smiles and dances her way straight into your heart! The best part is that there has been no effort made to hide her age and you are surprised that you dont really mind it! That for me is an actress- perhaps one of those few Indian actresses who will never pass her prime! Go and grab the DVD of this one guys- Mads is reason good enough to spend 3 odd hours on the movie!

Book Review: The Three Mistakes of My Life

It is quite ironical that someone would name his third book as "The Three Mistakes of My Life" but when the writer in question is Chetan Bhagat, well, you can expect anything as far as names and langugage are concerned! Alright, this one is also extremely Chetanesque as far as characterization is concerned. You have the typical shy, introverted hero and the extremely bold and unconventional heroine. This one is also about friendship. This one has its share of a struggling single parent. This one also has its own little bit of fantasy! Yet, what makes the book enjoyable is the natural, easy on the mind narrative style that has come to be so much recognized as Chetan's which even makes a book- hater devour his book eagerly.

It is also interesting as to how Chetan makes each of his books so very personal. If it was his own experiences at the IIT in Five Point Someone, it was his rendezvous with a pretty, young girl on an overnight train that starts One Night at the Call Centre. This time around, it is an e mail from a guy in Ahmedabad that starts it all! The three lead characters are so very well thought out- all of them have their own unique thinking pattern which often differs drastically from that of the others, yet all of them are so together, and you really second Vidya when she tells Govind that the friends have known each other from the time they were sperms! It is kinda good to note that in Chetan's stories, it is always the girl who makes sexual advances- looks like it is his way of shedding the demure, conventional image of the "bharatiya naari" and boy, it does work so well!

Govind, Omi and Ish have their own respective passions- business, religion and cricket- and those are the three things that the book is based upon. It is clever on Chetan's part to base it in a city like Ahmedabad which has its own background and ends up being a character in the book. It is interesting to note how each character grows and matures as the story progresses and how an extremist like Omi gives up his life to save the muslim boy! Chetan's maturity as a writer comes straight across starting from his theme selection to the manner in which he takes the narrative forward and this one moves at supersonic speed with subtle humuor and identifiable and real situations thrown in for good measure. I personally did not find the Australian chapter attractive though!

The bestest selling English author in the history of Indian literature is here to stay and let us hope that he keeps entertaining us with more such creations! He might not be philosophical like Vikram Seth, nor can he ever be as sensitive as R K Narayan, but Chetan is definitely the representative of the Indian Gen next! He is the Karan Johar of Indian literature- you can either love him or hate him but there is no way you can ignore him!

If you want a lazy afternoon of yours to zoom past you in supersonic speed, grab a copy of this one! You would not regret your decision, you can take my word for that!

Back in Action

After all that I planned, my visit to the city of Nawabs (Hyderabad) remained short and not so sweet. To start with it was the 26- odd hour train journey. I did take an air- conditioned coach in the train but the crowd was way too much. I did catch up with Chetan Bhagat’s latest (more on that later) but I still would not say that the train journey was something I would cherish for the rest of my life.

Hyderabad was as dry, dusty and crowded as ever with vehicles plying all over the road throwing caution to the winds and not bothering much about the traffic rules. I felt good remaining indoors though I generally am a totally external person. I had a good time meeting up with Uncle and cousins and also spent time at my cousin’s newly constructed house! The purpose of the visit was to admit my sister in the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL). The college is within the Osmania University campus and has very recently been affiliated to the UGC as a University. Being a Central university, everything comes with a low price tag and hence, everything is taken for granted. While the talent of the teaching staff is unquestionable, what puzzled me throughout my day at the University was how “hopefully” was a distinctive part of their vocabulary. The answer to any query would begin with “hopefully” and end with it making it very clear how commitment- phobic and uncertain people at the University are. If you want to know the bureaucratic attitude of the country that is India this is one place that you should surely visit. That apart, it was a great campus and had a whole lot of inspiring teachers and students around. I wished desperately to go back to my student days and even thought for a few minutes whether I could give it all up and enroll myself for a course at the Univeristy! Thanks to my sister, this is one experience which I will cherish for a long period to come. The journey back home was nothing much to write home about either. The coach was not as crowded and also I could catch up with a very touching story that made me go emotional! (Keep reading to get more of that!). But by the time I landed in Kochi, I was down with a bad, bad cold that kinda lived with me for more than a week! The fact that I realized when I landed in Kochi was that I spent 52 hours in the train to be in Hyderabad for less than 48 hours. Grrrr… All I can say when I look back is that the trip to Hyderabad was short, not-so-sweet and uneventful!!