New Life!

I just shifted to a new place yesterday. It's a two bedroom apartment, and I'll be having one room, and another guy living in the other. It's an exciting feeling to be moving in a new apartment, all by myself, and living independently. But there's a slight bit of anxiety which, I guess, is natural.

Did a lot of shopping in the last 3 days. Bought a few new-home-starter-kits, such as cooking set, dinner set, grocery storage set, bed, pillow, room heater, grocery, instant food, vegetables, electric cooker, etc. Cleaned the room thoroughly, and setup everything in the room, as well as in the kitchen, yesterday.

It's good fun living alone, but I'm lucky to have quite a lot of friends staying very close by, so I can go and visit them anytime. My cousin's place is just two blocks away, so I guess even that is an advantage.

Hardly got time to get acquainted to the new surroundings, as I had to get up early and come to college for a full-day of editing! And I think the schedule would remain the same for the next three days. I'm just hoping I'll get some time for cooking my own food, otherwise I'll have to survive on instant food!

Missing India a lot, but enjoying a different life here!

No Speed Limit

220kmph...without a helmet...wind storming on my face and body...face skin being pulled back by the wind...one of the most OUTSTANDING experiences of my life till now. Although I always wanted to do this, never had I thought that it would be so soon. But what an experience...no adjectives would do justice to the feeling that I had.

220 kmph...10 seconds...20...30...still going at the same speed...40 seconds....whooop...a complete and sudden halt...and then I was floating...eagles were flying below me...there were three of them. i started spinning...and then stopped again...and after about 4min of floating, landed safely on green grass. This was my first experience of skydiving. Jumping out of a plane from a height of 14000ft. I was the one sitting next to the door, and was the first one to jump out of the plane. In a way, it was good, as I did not have the time to think, or let fear creep into my mind. The door opened, and I jumped...and it's best not to describe the experiences that followed, in words. It was a swooning experience.

And when the parachute opened, I felt like I was pulled back into the open sky, whereas the fact was that I had suddenly STOPPED, mid-air. I could see my cameraman zooming down...he had not opened his parachute yet. My instructor then asked me whether I would like to do a few mid-air spins in the parachute, and I agreed. So I pulled the right-side cable of the parachute, and did a few spins. I saw 3 eagles flying below me...what a fantastic sight! And then I took my parachute down full speed, and applied the brakes just before landing, for a soft land on the grass. I was ecstatic!

Cooking

Experienced 'cooking by own food' for the first time. There were numerous occasions before when I had prepared food, but they were mostly restricted to an egg omlette, or some instant food, or snacks like bhel. I had never cooked food for myself, or for anyone else, except for at the most 2-3 occasions, when I had prepared pav bhaji or potato sagoo at home, but again, my mom was there to help. When I was in Mumbai, staying on my own, I used to have food at my office, and at nights, I used to have something outside.

But now in Sydney, for the first time, I prepared potato subjee and fried rice...all on my own. And needless to say, I enjoyed it! Cooking is fun when you're experimenting, but is boring when it gets routine. I had never cooked potato subjee and fried rice before, and had no idea about the recipe. But I just put some ingredients that I thought would make it tasty, and presto! I had a full meal in front of me prepared all by myself!

It's really fun when you're living alone and get to do / have to do (depends on the way you look at it) everything by yourself. There's responsibility, sure, but only towards yourself and your body. And that's the greatest! There are times when laziness takes over and you REALLY don't feel like doing anything yourself, and you just go and grab a burger (like it had been happening with me till now, since the time I landed!). And there are times when you're in the mood and you feel you could do anything in the world!

But yesterday, after eating a burger and feeling not-so-very-good in my tummy, I had resolved that I will not be lazy, and start eating home food. Today was the first day...so congrats to me for keeping the resolution! Hope it continues further than this...

(un)Official review - Rang De Basanti

A nice concept, gone awry. It could have been treated much more effectively and with much greater subtlety. The youngsters acting in the documentary was only a part of the movie, and it could easily be inferred that the youngsters were acting out history in the present situation, and there was no need to show flashes from the documentary.

To show Bhagat Singh, and Chandrashekhar Azad, and Sukhdeo again was not required at all! What was the director thinking? Was he planning to make this movie for kids? Well, even kids could've understood without this display. And the dialogs were, to put it bluntly, poorly written. Nowhere could I relate to the movie in any way, and it seemed as if the group was 'acting', as opposed to movies like Dil Chahta Hai, where the conversations seemed more 'real'.

Very nice songs, and decent cinematography. Also, good acting by the actors, especially in the later parts of the movie. But could've been a much better movie.

Note: The same review is also available at http://imdb.com/title/tt0405508/usercomments-77

Love/Infatuation

A very nice quote I read on 'Love', and in my opinion, it really works that way!

Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.

~ Marguerite De Valois