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A Tangled Yarn of Thoughts Being Unravelled…

Recent Posts

  • Kiddy Movie Reco: Turbo

    We LOVE animated movies in this household. Especially about all sorts of creatures you normally wouldn’t encounter in your day to day life or even if you did, you wouldn’t give them a second thought. Turbo falls into the second category.

    The story of a garden snail who dreams of the Indy 500 and his eventful journey till the day the black and white checkered flag waves him off the starting line, is a story which the kids will enjoy thoroughly. Even if they don’t cotton onto the central theme of dream big and keep dreaming till you get it right; it’s a movie that’ll end up being looped a few times.

    With a voice cast of Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti and Samuel L. Jackson amongst others, this movie isn’t something that moves at a snail’s place but one that zips all the way to the finish line!

    Another thumbs up from team Dreamworks!

  • Making Digital Media Your Friend

    I started my kid out on digital media way too early in life. And I still regret it. But I absolutely CANNOT deny how wonder it has been for me as a mother and how helpful it is when I need more information, especially for my kid.

    Today barring the frivolous stuff that he watches ( Spongebob and its ilk) he watches programs which fall firmly in the category of edutainment.

    He started out with animated programs like Octonauts, Little Einsteins and is currently hooked on a program which I find very original and instructive without being too goody-goody- Wild Kratts.

    The good thing about animation is it keeps things interesting for kids while not making it too stark. Like wild animals being trapped, poached or even tortured. And yet the message behind it is undiluted- respect all forms of life. Even a little worm does some good and even a gigantic whale is vulnerable.

    My son has learnt about pangolins, aardvarks, giant squids and speaks of them so enthusiastically that I’m tempted to sit down with him and binge watch the entire series. He also hums tunes from Tchaikovsky, Handel and Grieg without knowing much about the composers but still being moved by their music.

    I doubt I’d have been able to broaden his horizons like this on my own. Books help but young kids tend to a mix of learning styles until they end up favoring one style over the other.

    Two thumbs up from my side. YouTube, Disney Junior and others stop the television from being the idiotic box in this day and age. So rather than fight the tube, we get the stuff on the tube we want the kids to watch. Easy Peasy!

    Now excuse me while I go catch up on the Big Bang Theory reruns!

     

  • Weekending The Right Way

    A lot of us just imitate potatoes (or any other veggies if you’re cutting down on starch) on the weekends. And any doctor worth their salt erm degrees will tell you that some moments of inertia are needed. Whether you use that to contemplate, zone out or catnap; it’s all good. But too much of inertia can make it difficult to get back in the game as well.

    Here’s what my family and I do…and take it from me…we are BIG procrastinators and potato-imitators but our weekends are usually quite enjoyable.

    Everyone gets space to waste time for a bit. A bit can extend to an hour or two but that’s it. Lounging on a sofa  for hours on end better mean that you’ve ended the World Food Shortage or found a cure for a terminal illness while being cut off from the world around you.

    Encouraging proper naps. Especially after a nice heavy lunch, something we Indians practically have a patent on. Naps together are recommended as well. Unless one of you is a light sleeper or fidgety in which case…find a couch to crash on bucko!

    Time on your own but together. All that means is each one can be involved in a different activity (provided not terribly discordant) and still share the same space. Weekends aren’t about living in each others’ pockets.

    Doing chores together makes it less tedious and occasionally (make it rarely) helps certain fussbudget members of the family realize that damn! we do go through a lot of clothes and NO! they don’t wash and fold themselves or maybe I should empty my pockets while putting the pants in the wash or unfolding my sleeves for a change!

    My family also recommends doing something that one of us chooses for the whole family. That often ends up being swimming (my kid), watching cricket (my husband), or going for a drive with She- Wolf blaring on the speakers. Wait…scratch the last one. Only I get to do that.

    Main thing is that the weekends don’t have to be about bonding as a rule. Each one can keep spinning in their orbits provided they all cross each other’s path occasionally instead of going further and further away.

    Earlier I used to get a bit frustrated and pass it onto my family because I felt the utilization of time wasn’t happening adequately enough. But now, each one does their own thing and still gravitates towards one another because in nuclear families that’s *bound* to happen.

    Try it out. I am…blogging while my kid watches Little Einsteins and the husband watches the U.S Open.This morning my kid had an art class while my husband finished some office stuff and I got some trip photos organized. All things that we each wanted to do individually but didn’t have much value to the other family members. After t.v. time gets over it’s board games and a trip to the Chocolate Room for gooey, sticky brownies for me and my kid while the husband plays tennis.

    And who knows what the night will bring…anything’s possible!

    Happy Weekend!

  • A Peek At My Photoblog#2

    Deer don’t necessarily fascinate me…seen too many of them over the years but the opportunity to photograph them at leisure hasn’t always cropped up either.

    This is how close I got to them this time. And while it isn’t as close as I’d wanted it to be, it’ll do for now.

  • A Peek At My Photoblog#1

    We took a weekend trip to Tadoba, Maharashtra to see tigers in the wild. That did *not* happen. Spiders however featured largely on the menu..

    Take a peek here.

  • What I Learnt From My Kid’s School

    What I Learnt From My Kid’s School

    Courtesy Facebook’s memories I get to know about how and what I was thinking not only on a time a specific time in the past but also how I was feeling. And when I wrote this post I was a bit more of an anxious mother, fretting about my kid’s school, academic “career” as it were and basically uncomfortable about not knowing what lay ahead. Fast Forward two years I’m still sipping at the font of wisdom that is Life and learning loads while my kid goes to school. Here’s how it is…

    • A child will learn at their own pace no matter what!
    • A teacher who loves kids (genuinely) will probably be able to teach more through affection and warmth rather than another more knowledgeable individual who is distant or doesn’t form relationships with the kids.
    • Digital media, chalkboard, flashcards are all props…native intellect needs to be stirred and awake for learning to occur.
    • Making things interesting is all fine and good but it helps that the biological age increases and life experiences help kids understand why they need to learn.
    • Getting a good night’s sleep and cutting off from anything academic goes a long way in learning taking place.
    • Physical activity- silly and unstructured or properly regimented aids in learning as well.
    • Learning can come from various sources provided it’s pitched at the right time and the right way.
    • Parents need the teachers’ presence more than the kids…just to be assured that all’s going as it should.
    • Taking a small step back from policing the child (even with all the best intents in the world) is a fantastic thing to do while they’re below the tweens.
    • Reflecting on what were turn-offs and stumbling blocks while we were students helps empathize and give the child space to assimilate their learning material.
    • Accepting that there’s a Bell Curve and your child will grow into a more permanent place in it, helps be good parents as well.
    • Trusting the people you entrust your kid’s physical, emotional and overall well-being to and yet realizing our role is constant in the whole scope of things.
    • Acknowledging that improvements- slight, steady or sporadic; are still a step in the right direction give you a good night’s sleep.

    Long story short? The AC bus and the pool helps because trappings are important. But a teacher who makes sure your kid has a balanced meal daily and who can come back and share positive and negative feedback with indemnity goes a long, long way in knowing how to be supportive while your child learns about life. Be it from a tablet, a workbook or just from a walk in the park. Because a big part of being a parent is taking a backseat while your kid gets the controls of life just right. You have to deal with not always being able to call ‘shotgun’.

    Here endeth the lesson.

  • Movie Review: Rustom

    Movie Review: Rustom

    It’s good to watch movies. Good or bad. Gives one an idea about the kind of things film makers are thinking about and if they do have the pulse of their audience. With Rustom they succeeded in breaking out of the run-of-the-mill Bollywood masala grist and yet failed to craft a taut film that makes the movie goer sigh/nod in appreciation.

    Based quite obviously on the Nanavati case that rocked the India of the 50s, the movie has a very staged look and feel with the characters not quite coming across as convincing in the roles they are essaying.

    Akshay Kumar looks good in uniform. For a man his age he is in fine form physically but is rather wooden. He doesn’t come across as a Parsi at all and wears his uniform throughout the movie without it ever getting creased or dirty even while he’s incarcerated. Full marks to the jail dhobi!

    Illeana D’Cruz looks pretty as a picture. Wears simple and elegant sarees and is quite effective as an ornamental prop. She neither carries the weight or punch that the role requires.

    Esha Gupta smoulders like a femme fatale would and is by turns slutty and pull of pouty attitude. If attitude was the only requirement that the role had then she aced it and how! Barring that, she too has very little meat in her role and comes across as a spoiled rich socialite and not much else.

    Arjan Bajwa is quite well cast. You can feel the smarminess come off him in waves and I can see him getting typecast as a Lothario in future projects.

    People like Sachin Khedekar are rather miscast and arereduced to being ranting buffoons who really don’t belong in a biopic; even a loose one.

    Anang Desai, Kanwaljeet Singh and Usha Nadkarni in their supporting roles add the necessary flavor and yet, despite it all, the movie leaves you wanting.

    It doesn’t end in a manner which satisfies but neither does it disappoint in toto.

    A bit of a limbo of a film and yet it’s good to see Khiladi Kumar embrace more roles of this ilk. He’s moved way past his Churake Dil Mera days...

  • Under Siege- Always A Good Idea

    Under Siege- Always A Good Idea

    Most movie reviews start with a title that lets you know that there’s a review coming your way. Mine hasn’t done that. Tough.

    Steven Seagal may be bloated and a Putin-loving, firearms-promoting Buddhist but many, many, many years ago he was slightly attractive (to Moi) and was kicking ass in his own minimalistic way. I say minimalistic because there seemed to be an economy of movement rather than the rabid monkey style that Jackie Chan’s movies seem to employ.

    The reason a good action movie is usually a good idea is because they’re not overly long, they keep up a good solid pace and use tongue-in-cheek or even hit-in-you-in-the-face kinda humor while piling up the body count.

    Under Siege is as typical as American action movies get where the foreign powers aren’t trying to invade their shores. With Gary Busey’s mean portrayal of Commander Krill and Tommy Lee Jones‘ near convincing of an off-the-walls  Strannix, this movie is a must-watch for its bad guys alone. But then Seagal saunters in with his slow, unhurried drawl about automatic and semi-automatic and you want to see how far Casey Ryback goes from chopping carrots to dispatching the bad guys all in the same non-hyper monkey style.

    In short? Grab some popcorn and switch on Seagal and sail away on the USS Missouri!

     

  • To Lynch Or Not To Lynch

    Let me start by saying that I’ve usually felt that Salman Khan is akin to a horse’s ass. He isn’t that good an actor and the only thing I can say in his favor is that at his age, keeping up with that kind of body and dancing like a lunatic takes stamina. So yay…kudos for him.

    My lack of gaga factor over him is due to the frivolous roles he’s usually done and the fact that he can’t keep clothes on his body and needs to strip down to his bare torso or an undershirt whether the role calls for it or not. I haven’t seen too many of his movies because they bore me. I consider him a ham and a bad one. But that’s enough about me and what I think. The rest of his audience viz most of the paanwalas and autowalas out there, think he’s aces and so be it!

    This is what’s happening with this “paragon” of Bollywood who happens to run an NGO, donate to charity and generally does his bit for philanthropy when not allegedly running homeless pavement dwellers over, shooting endangered wild life and also making highly inappropriate comments. After a rather hectic (so he said) shooting schedule for his upcoming film (which he gets to legitimately have a reason to be bare-chested), he likened himself to a woman raped due to his weariness and inability to walk.

    Ok. Let’s drop a bomb on him for saying that. If only stupidity could be punished thus then GW and quite of few of our own home-grown politicos would have disintegrated by now.

    Was it unwarranted? Yes. Should he have known better? Yes. Has he goofed up in the past and seemed content to be branded as an enfant terrible? Umm…yeah! But is that the only thing at play here?

    I personally feel the media usually conveniently plates up someone to be carved up by a host of others and sits back to watch the mayhem. Couldn’t the media persons have said, “that was an inappropriate comment to make”? on the spot and seen what kind of turn things took? Yes they could have. But clearly they didn’t. At all. They seem to prefer to see this 50-year old, whose brains are probably addled from all the blows (fake or otherwise) he seems to have taken while shooting for Sultan, be made a spectacle of again rather than move onto something more meaningful or relevant like him retracting things a split second later. When that brouhaha gets done with they’ll move onto his bachelor status (again) or his bracelet (gimme a break!)

    This isn’t merely about a right or wrong. This almost seems like the media telling tales and tattling on SK all over again just to sell some papers or get hits on their website.

    And what about the main in question, Mr.Foot-In-The-Mouth himself? Well, his father’s issued an apology and he seems to have been apologetic as well so that ends there. Whether Twitter lets up on him or the  rest of the country does is anyone’s guess. His movie will get released and he’ll make money and go back to doing what he does best…be shirtless. And in time, people will move onto something else to be outraged and gasp about..oh wait! they are already moving onto another topic of vital importance.

    Read about something else people. Leave the celebs to their own lives. People say stupid things all the time. For once give the poor rich man a pass and read about something of substance! Because this time instead of Being Human, he was just Being Inappropriate.

  • A Little Latin Goes A Long Way

    I came across this phrase today and it seemed to encapsulate how the world seems to me of late-HOMO SUM HUMANI A ME NIHIL ALIENUM PUTO. What it means is ” I am a human being, so nothing human is strange to me”. Over time it has come to be used as a motto advocating respect for people and cultures that appear different from your own. Quite the antithesis of the prevailing times, one might say.

    Things have been shitty on a global scale for a long time. There are actually shitty things happening. They are in turn giving rise to fear of the said shitty things happening whether it’s a well-founded fear or pure paranoia. And in trying to take preventive action or being ready before the big one strikes, people are screwing up on a truly epic scale.

    Call it intolerance. Call it a phobia. Call it ignorance. Call it what you will but labeling it something specific won’t make it any more real than how it already is.

    Kindergartners gunned down. People of a particular sexual orientation. People of specific races, genders- everything and everyone is under fire. And while people speaking up against it may lead to a certain amount of ignorance getting dispelled, but for the most part, people stick to their beliefs come what may. And woe betide you if you try to shake it out of them.

    So when tomorrow’s newspaper will inevitably bring news of something unjustifiable cruel, morally and ethically reprehensible; I will not gasp, cringe or shudder. Because I am a human being and nothing human is strange to me. Even inhumanity.