ever since the new job began it’s been all about mental well being of the students and catering to their needs and the kinds of scenarios encountered in the previous years and how to avoid/deal better with them this time around.
what the powers that be “forgot” to tell us that is, this time around we’d be facing a helluva lotta disgruntled staff as well. the new and massive campus is coming up in the boondocks of hyd’bad and things are yet to be finished. and the student are arriving by the 22 and i start with the classes+sessions from 23rd onwards.
oh yeah, this will be F-U-N!!
i can picture a session going something like this-
me-hello..blah blah…so, how are things? settled in?

oh yeah. FUN!!!

lord! such a paucity of words ails me of late. i think it’s coz too much of it is going into the brainstorming sessions for my students. anyhoo, onto the movie review.
TYPICAL yankee movie with some aging stars and mostly a line up of fresh but known faces.
it’s a new&improved poseidon but less because of any acting skills and definitely more because of technology being what it is these days.
this movie was interesting only because it was released in the IMAX format where people started to cringe when the waves hit and the boat turned turtle.
but it’s worth a looksee mainly for that. else it’s just one of those movies where we know that the pretty people will be saved in the end and faith in humanity and the fight to survive will triumph over nature even.

but best part of the movie-JOSH LUCAS. am in love! that man has drool-worthy blue eyes…

1.find a better way to wear the hair rather than just falling back on the clip.
2. plan a mother’s day gift /activity in time.
3.check out the new walden and see if the heretic is available.
4.find a way to let the nice and extremely officious guy at work  know that NO, he cant drop me everyday!!!
5.get tickets for the poseidon for friday.
6.make out list of things to demand/wheedle from the pater’s US trip.
7.clean out basement and tackle books before they topple over and bury me.
8.find out if billy zane is available!!!!

the kid won. there was no morose waiting at the curb, no harrassed mother and no bright yellow school bus.
so boys will indiscriminately pull curls…
make note- moderately wavy hair MUCH better that big bouncy curls :o)

India and US have signed an MoU regarding the chandrayaan. but it seems somewhat loaded in US’ favor. the Manmohan Singh govt had announced quite proudly that an indian astronaut would be trained at NASA and that indians’ advent into space would become more regular activity.
today’s headlines proclaim things somewhat differently. the decision that an indian astro would not be trained at NASA at the moment was confirmed by none less than the director of the org but we would still be taking up “instruments&objects” for NASA on chandrayaan’s journey to the moon.
apparently the union govt thinks that it’s better to compromise on smaller things and get our space station built asap and then sit down and talk turkey with big brother.
a clear case of haathi ke khaaney ke aur dikhaaney daanth being alag?

was watching the news this morning before coming to work. it seems that there just happens to be 245 acres of land lying around in hyd’bad, in prime areas no less, and they will be sold to IMPORTANT judges,IAS officers and journalists at a throwaway price.
the information minister of AP defended this decision of the State Govt by saying that this kind of thing has been happening all along and people are only making a fuss since the land prices have skyrocketed of late. apparently selling off a land worth 1 crore for a mere 20 lacs is the appreciationg the State Govt wants to show these people for services rendered all these years.
it is mighty nice to be a bigwig in hyd’bad right now.

saw a really endearing sight just before entering my office. a lil girl ( complete with a matching parasol and polka-dotted dress) was sitting on the curb lost in thought while her mother was trying to explain to her why she should go back to summer camp and those kids who pulled her springy,shirley temple curls dint mean anything bad by it. the kid mulled it over and told her mom, you come too. you keep saying that i got my hair from you. if they pull your hair then that means they do that all the girls, big or small, and if they dont then i get to stay home and watch cartoon network.
the mother gave me a LOOK and a wry smile and was in the act of bribing the kid with something while the bus came…will find out tomorrow who triumphed :o)

as i discovered much to my chagrin ( and joy) when a whole bunch of big, fat raindrops plummeted onto my head from the skies above.
it’s been a blessed relief from the heat i’ll say that much.

it’s kind of sad to realise it takes another’s grief to make you snap out of your own blue funk. here i was roaming around the house in my bhatakti aatma mode complete with a little thunder cloud which kept shooting lightning bolts and raining only on my head throughout. and then i get calls about people who are no more. and people reached out to ME for some kind of succor.funny huh?
nothing like another’s grief to make your own pall.

went through scores of movies it seemed to me before settling on a “thriller”. it’s called The Gift and i was surprised i hadnt heard of it earlier coz it’s not THAT old.
it’s about a small town in US, which is home to a woman ( Cate Blanchett) who can read cards and predict the future.
naturally, even small towns have their sleepy secrets and dark murky places where bodies ca be hidden.
it’s upto Ms.Psychic to save the day, redeem herself in the eyes of the non-believers and ensure that the truth is really out there!
all in all it’s a decent movie. albeit with the predictable “boo! gotcha” kind of scenes. 
at times i felt that the pace slackens slightly, but thankfully it never drags.

about the meal- AVOID the mughlai parathas at the roll call place just below CP. you might end up with pepto bismol in the IV afterwards.

pramod mahajan passed away.
some called it the end of an era. was it really? apart from being a stalwart in the advani camp, what exactly were his achievements towards the indian political arena?
i cant remember much except allegations of having profitted from the reliance deals ( back when dhirubhai was still alive) and how his face was splashed right along side MJ’s, when the concert took place in B’bay.
maybe he was dynamic, vis-a-vis the geriatric population of the BJP. but would he have been better in anyway than Rajnath Singh or been any glibber than Advani or NOT resorted to poetry at the drop of a hat like ABV?
maybe he wasnt a run of the mill politician but he was part of a system that’s quite flawed and he stuck his hand in the till often enough. after all, why should he be any different,right?
soon enough there’ll be another “young”, dynamic leader who’ll be taken as a protege by some old timer in the BJP, who’ll have the proper RSS pedigree and the whole kaboodle. mahajan will be an archive in the glossies and newspapers as a person who got cut down in the prime of his life. he’ll be part of an illustrious club comprising of the gandhi brothers and god knows whoever else has had the honor of dying as a “martyr”.

on a more serious note,i was very saddened to see the kind of anarchy that’s going on baroda. the city is very close to my heart and i’ve lived through the gujarat riots there a few years back. and just when we thought it was safe to come out and play and boogeyman returns. and his trusty henchman, by the name of narendra modi returns triumphantly.
i was thinking out loud how it’s possible for the citizens of gujarat ( hindus&muslims alike) to not have lynched him already?!!! the man is a egomaniacal windbag and is as secular as the Grand Wizard of the KKK!!!
this kind of well-orchestrated mindless destruction is a huge step back in the civilization of man.
very unfortunate people are getting desensitized to it.
what’s next i wonder?

this docu is supposed to be the next thing in the 9/11 genre. it supposedly leaves moore biting the dust.
need broadband for this though.

http://www.loosechange911.com/
http://video.google.com/