🍿 Homebound (2025) – ★★★★☆

Homebound poster

A poignant movie about two halves – of caste and privilege which had similarities with Dhadak 2 – and other half of how the govt failed to come in need of the very people that needed it most during the pandemic. The final act is very moving.

The fact that trump kids were there is all I need to know about the ultra shitty Indian billionaire wedding happening in India right now. Apparently the family however stays here in USA. And of course these people have no real friends so they get Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities as fillers coz normal people don’t hang around with shitty ass nazis.

Cool cool – if the Perth test match between England and Australia gets over in two days surely pitch had nothing to do with it and it’s only the brilliant quality of two white teams amirite? Imagine the pushback and criticisms India would get on a spin pitch that ends a 5 day game in 2 days. Anti brown hypocrisy is alive and well. FWIW, I don’t care if it’s a spin or swing pitch but if a test match is over in 2 days then it should be criticized equally.

🍿 One Battle After Another (2025) – ★★★★☆

One Battle After Another poster

I had some Amazon credits to kill so we rented this movie. Terrific pacing for a nearly 3 hour movie and entertaining but it’s mostly hollow shit. There is no way I would have spent 60+ $ to see this movie in a theater. Even at 10 bucks rental was fairly high. This is a great made for TV movie – I can totally see why it bombed.

If Ukraine agrees to the peace agreement it honestly is such a terrible look on Europe. They really cannot do jack shit even with a significantly degraded Russia without American support. Hopefully is a wake up call to them to take charge of their own destinies – as Jaishankar said it best few years ago – Europe needs to get outside of mindset that Europe’s problems are world problems to solve for. Anyway, looks increasingly now Ukraine will have to make a difficult choice.

A house came up for sale in our community with the exact floor plan that we have. We thought being end of November, dampening economy and federal impact, the house was priced higher than it should have been. Well, we were wrong. The house listed on Friday and under contract on Sunday evening. We are in some unhinged economic times.

Had a phone screen today and it was an old desi. I admit I had to remind myself to keep ageist biases away because my first impression was hmm you look older than what this position demands for. Then he blew it out of the park completely. It’s rare that I have come across a candidate that I felt just based on a phone screen needs to be hired at a higher level then he is interviewing for. While I am glad he’s definitely going to come to do a full loop with team I have already flagged recruiting and told him that not looping him for a higher level would be a travesty and honestly we’d be amiss if we didn’t hire him at a higher level.

I think there is an age after which no matter what another country gives you, you will always be comfortable in your own and can’t wait to go back. I see this especially with desis. There is some cut off point in age at which point older folks just find way more comfort and homeliness back home. My in-laws have been wanting to go back for 2 weeks now; I hear this all the time from friends too about their own parents who can’t wait to go back to India after few weeks. Heck some of my friends parents have just outright told them they won’t be visiting anymore and the only visitations will have to be my friends going to India instead. It’s not like they live with their kids there either – most parents we know live alone, including my in-laws, but they’d much prefer that over living with their kids here. I don’t think it’s the country that’s the draw, as much as community, familiarity and comfort they feel there vs feeling like an outsider here (which to be honest, even as citizens we still feel!). We’d apply for green cards for either of our parents, but they’d never move here-not even the lure of spending time with their grandkid will work. Heck my dad even gave up his green card this year to go back to tourist visa, even though he’d be a prime candidate to move here considering all his besties are here more than India.

Our in-laws leave today and my kid is kind of relieved. She loves them, but also she’s grown up in an isolationist nuclear family mode (much like pretty much all desi kids here), and after a while she simply wants to go back her nuclear family. Unlike us, who grew up much more in a joint family setting so we are the opposite that we feel sad about them leaving. No one’s right or wrong – just how upbringing affects your thoughts growing up. (Before you go nuclear, I have desi friends who grew up in India in nuclear families who are exactly like my kid, so this is not a country issue).

Apple Watch sleep metrics are usually a good early sign of illness. I woke up today not feeling great and all my “vitals” are above normal. Told A and soon after my report pings me she is sick and not coming in. I had an hour long 1:1 with her in a small office yesterday so yeah FML.