General

Major time re-working with photoshop and lightroom. Comes close to how beautiful that sunset was. Nonetheless, i had to bump up colors in the whites. Also had to increase sharpening big time as the original image was not that sharp either. Took me a while to get this photo to where I wanted it to be, but I think with this its nearly there. I am really loving learining photshop; its such a powerful image editing tool!

Of late we’ve been watching a lot of International/foreign language movies. Here are some of them which we feel are must watch. All of them are available on Netflix streaming (that is our major source of online streaming, with PS3 being next).

The Motorcycle Diaries: A brilliantly done film about Che Guevara’s epic road trip in southern america; the acting is fantastic and the movie beautifully showcases the formative years of Che. If you don’t know Che, then google him 😉 . Certainly very interesting character. We are now planning on watching Steven Sodenberg’s two part movies on Che’s journey after the road trip to his eventual fall in Bolivia. Should be very interesting!

Song of Sparrows: This Iranian movie showed a lot of promise in the beginning about a man’s quest to provide for his family but it quickly disintegrated into an average ho-hum pointless fare. Cinematography was a let down considering that pretty much any and every Iranian movie captures the landscapes of Iran without much trouble.

District B13: 2 words for this movie: Total Timepass! I believe this french movie was later remade by hollywood as District 13. Screw the remake, watch this nonstop fun of District B13. There seriously was hardly a moment of respite in this adrenaline pumping movie. Total paisa wasool type movie. The action was cool!

Tell No One: Another French suspense that was very well done; A guy’s wife is murdered and he is the prime suspect but nothing comes of it. Years later, new bodies are discovered at the place his wife disappeared and the case is re-opened with all fingers pointing to him. This was a good well done mystery movie, though a bit slow (as French movies tend to be!). Recommended!

Amreeka: A bittersweet tale of a Palestinian woman and her kid who are trying to make America their own. The dialogues are often witty and there’s a sense of belonging in the movie that is hard to resist. Not to mention the lead actress’s acting is simply adorable – what would we not give to know someone so charming like her! Highly recommended.

Sin Nombre: Its a shame that due to Oscar’s new rules, this Mexican movie was not eligible to enter the best foreign film of 2009 category, which if it did, would stand a high chance of winning. This is a brilliantly told story about hope and survival and things people do to get to a better life; mixing up immigrants and gang-wars is a weird combo, but it works and how here. The background score of this movie is incredibly haunting. Very highly recommended!

Tale of Two Sisters: This Korean horror movie is less of a horror movie and more of a mind bend. The movie combines a deep psychological drama with horror and comes out tops; this one demands repeat viewings. And yeah does have some jump out of your seats moments.

The Vanishing: This Dutch movie began on an interesting premise about a guy searching for his girlfriend three years after she goes missing. But the movie simply gets more and more bizarre; one could say its a well made psychological drama about the victim and the killer, but something about the move was disturbing, particularly the ending. The ending was without respite or solution but pretty disturbing. See it if you are into that kind of movies!

That’s about all the foreign movies we’ve seen so far, this year only.

We hope Netflix keeps adding more and more foreign movies that we can keep checking out. Its become our favorite weekend activity for sure these days!

Just testing out the integration of flickr and wordpress.

Interestingness of the past decade in my life:

2000:: The millennium batch of graduates; had an amazing new years eve with friends; studied for GRE, finished up under-graduate. Was so tough giving up on college life. Most amazing time spent!

2001: Came to United States much against my wishes, incidentally the same year that max number of desi students joined my university; Sept 11 happened, and Bushishms came into existence.

2002: A good year at college with lots of fun, masti and parties. Mum & Dad visited US and we went on a long east coast trip.

2003: Got my first job which began as internship and converted to full time; Was 2nd guy to be placed in my batch with a grand GPA of 3.4, less than 85% of students in my batch. Yeah, I do feel like an idiot. Graduated from masters.

2004: Moved into a “posh” DC locality, out of the ghetto that I stayed in finally. Bought my first car, the dependable Civic. Still runs smoothly! Friends became closer.

2005: The year of friends, parties, masti and more. Changed my apt but in same building. The golden phase of life in DC begins.

2006: Decided to lose weight and went on a big health drive; went to losing about 60 pounds before injuring my knees badly. Was at optimum weight by October and could swim 100 laps nonstop. And then the injury ruined it all. Had the best new years party ever!

2007: Brother visited me; still recovering from injury. Economy beginning to look sadder. Company got bought over by a big company hence had to move to west coast by year end. Met my girl, and got engaged 😉

2008: The golden DC phase ends, moved out to west coast. Got married, had an amazing honeymoon; found it very difficult to adjust to west coast; made multiple trips to meet friends. Economy in doldrums.

2009: The year of horrid economy; did an amazing Greece trip; put on all the weight that I had previously lost. Got a jolt to my health; discovered I was much weaker than I believed I would be! Lost my granny; Glad that this horrid year is finally over.

Here’s hoping the next decade turns out better!

Today evening, as I was going through email archives, for lack of anything else to do, I came across interesting phases of my life. I was primarily looking at my gmail sent folder, and that dates back to June of 2004. Going through the sent mail from that year till now was an interesting ride. I am sure if I had something better to do than sifting through my archives, I would have ;). But since I didn’t have anything to do, this exercise drew upon me interesting titbits about myself through the years.

~ I was REALLY happy to have a gmail account. A good chunk of my first emails sent out were to simply brag about me having a gmail account. Nothing else.

~ My initial communication used to be some friends who did their masters with me and moved out to other cities, and who were as interested in reading as me. We would exchange emails on a daily, almost on a hourly basis; We would forward every interesting book review, or have political discussion on the state of the union, or joke about the low depths that Times of India had reached, or simply exchange jokes. It is indeed funny that over the first few months, I sent more mails to these friends than anybody else in my life. Literally pages and pages of my archives have a only those names as sent-to. As I look now five years later, its been months if not years I’ve exchange any email with these people. Have we gone that out of touch?

~ I used to be a part of a yahoo group that was vociferous in its opinion on all things in general. We used to fight, crib, throw tantrums and act like silly 15 year olds. We discussed strategies on who might be spying on the group and who not, and lots of bizzarre ideas were exchanged. Some were absolutely hilarious in their posts, some absolutely serious. I got to meet a couple of people from that yahoo group eventually with whom I shared a great rapport with. And then over the years, everybody has moved on. The yahoo group still exists; somebody mails in once a year to ask about others, a few reply and then thats the end of it. Nobody knows who’s doing what anymore; nobody even cares for that matter. Online relationships are so fragile in nature. People have simply disappeared….

~ What began as a small group in DC has eventually moved on to become a huge group today; back then we were all single, ready to mingle, and our emails were normally about well, you know what. Contrast to today when the same people talk about their kids happily, and we also are so excited about their kids, its such an interesting variance. I am glad for these friends, as these relationships which began slowly have surely become stronger and stronger.

~ A lot of our emails few years ago were dedicated only to discussing (a) weekend plans, which even after much planning and plotting, we would still end up at the same place, every weekend, religiously. (b) tennis plans, which for a few brief months was on everyone’s mind or (c) movies, especially desi movies, for which there were some who would crib and complain and then eventually join us; and eventually the movie would turn out to be a dud and we would get all the shoutings for the same!

~ A lot of people who were transient in our lives; scores of mails exchanged with people who were with us for a short period of time, but left the city. When they left, they left the communication too. There are some people whom we used hang out pretty much all weekends, and now I have no clue where they are.

~ Distances don’t mean much if you are keenly interested in being in touch; that much I can vouch for. Its been almost 18 months since we moved from DC, but I and my friends communicate as if we are still there (which we are, mentally). Yes, we miss them and they miss us, but we are not out of touch. My mails from last year are still mainly to those guys in DC. Yes, the ferocity of mail has diminished, but not the feel. We still visit DC religiously every couple of months to maintain our sanity and be with the ones we miss most; some may think of it an excess in spending money, and that too to go from coast to coast for just a weekend, but I dont find it either. I find it a way to spend time with people I love being with, and feeling happy about it. These times will not come again in my life, so might as well make the most of it when I can 😉

~ Strangely enough the only constant in my archives has been the mails I have exchanged with my family members, which compared to rest happen to be minimal!

~ Friends from my engineering days who used to keep me updated about their life almost every other month back then in 2004 have now moved on to keeping me updated once a year. Its the same with me too. Its sad 🙁

~ Over those sent emails over the past few years I’ve realized that as I grow older, the more I want to hang on to yesterday.

I love traveling and going to places; Though this year we’ve been slow on our travel (save for our big budget Greece trip), we still want to do a lot more places and visit them. Even if there is no impending travel, researching and collecting information about places is some kind of a hobby I’ve developed. I keep adding place to my to-go list. Presented here is the list of places I want to see in next 10 years.

The Americas

I want to do the great national park drive (a drive coined by me :P) in the United States. Basically I’d like to start at Yellowstone National Park. Then drive down to Bryce Canyon, following to Zion national park and Arches National Park, and then heading down to Grand Canyon national park. From there on, I want to head to Lower & Upper Antelope Canyon in Arizona, followed by The Waves in Arizona. I’d like to then drive to Monument Valley and then end the trip through Death Valley National Park. I want to do this the classic roadie style. Minimal luggage, a month long holiday and nothing but nature and us.

I’d like to visit Alaska at some point. And if I am headed there, might as well cover Vancouver and Rocky Mountain ranges in Canada as well. I’d like to visit Arcadia national park in Maine in fall before the snowfall starts. I think it would be splendid! If not there, perhaps head down south to the islands of Turks and Cacois and enjoy some sun and the beach.

Mexico is high on my list, swine flu or otherwise. A visit to Cozumel is a must on my cards. Baja California for pure snorkeling. And of course the Copper Canyon, grand canyon’s mexican cousin.

I’d like to travel southwards towards the jungles of Costa rica and see the wonderful volcanoes as well. Then probably jump to Belize for some really nice waters. A visit to Big Blue is high on my list!

Crossing the continent, who doesnt want to visit the Amazon? I’d be a waste if I didnt visit Rio and El Salvador in Brasil. But I’d really love to visit Peru way more the Brazil. A visit to the spiritual Machu Pichu is a must for me!! I dream of that place often. I want to do the 4 day hike down there. Relaxing in Bolivian villages is something I look forward too, especially visiting the salt desert out there.

And if you don’t experience the magic of Galapagos Islands then I’ll have missed seeing the darwin evolution. Unmissable! Going even more southwards, Pantagonia would be very high on my list; ah those glaciers and ice. Heck, if I am there, might as well do Antartica as well for the kicks of it!!

Europe

I’d like to finish up Greece by visiting Corfu, Rhodes and Crete islands. Might as well jump into Turkey and spend time there in Istanbul or by rhodes. Perhaps do even Egypt by the side. I’d love to do Italy and spend time visiting florence, venice, rome, the 12 temples, and naples. Then I’d cross over to french Riviera into Nice, spend time in French villages, and top it with a visit to romantic Paris. Or party in Madrid probably.

Austria is very high on my list of places; those mountains beckon me. So do those tropical jungle and volcanoes in Portugal! Prague defines romanticism to me so its a must do!

But if there is one place I wanna go right now, its the fjords in Norway, to the land of the midnight sun. Imagine watching the sun very near to north pole. I think it would be really exciting!

Asia

I’d cut loose myself in India. Incredible India. It is. I could spend a lifetime in India if I had to travel. From the northern Kashmir to Leh/Ladkah, to Spiti Lahaul Valley, to Darjeeling, Nainital to Sikkim greenery, to the vast expanse of Arunachal Pradesh’s mountains. Or a trip to Mansarovar, or even Siachen Glacier for that matter. Spend time discovering myself in Shillong.

Or I could get all colored up in Rajasthan, or forests in Gir, or explore the Konkan belt well into beautiful rugged Karnataka. Keep traveling southwards to the backwaters of Kerala, or Ooty in Tamilnadu, or its temples. Perhaps go back to east towards Konark, and come back to Central India. India will itself take a life time. Sigh.

Going through Cambodia is a dream of mine; visit the biggest temple down there; or monastries and temples in Bhutan. Travel all the way to Malaysia. Do the borneo adventure, and explore sabah and sawak parks. Or go to Tioman Island and be one with nature.

If and ever Iran and Afghanistan become safer places to go, I’d like to visit their mountainous landscapes.

Somehow China doesnt excite me. Would love to visit the parks in Japan, but probably wouldn’t stand the cities.

I’d like to retire in Tibet; I could go crazy in Tibet just by being there. Perhaps I’d find myself after all these years there.

Australia

I’d love to be in the great barrier reef and spend time there. Cities don’t excite me much from the country; the gold coast is a definite on my list as well.

That’s it. Did I say I want to do this in 10 years? Sorry I meant in the next 50 years. And if I had to do it all, I’d need pot loads of money and be a millionaire. Come to think of it, If I had pot loads of money and was a millionaire, I’d do it in 5 years. Sigh.

For now, I’ll keep dreaming.

P.S: this post is not complete yet !!! MIssed out whole of Africa and parts of Southern America where in there are some magnificent waterfalls. Will update this post then…