The holiday season is upon us and everybody is off partying or holidaying. I should have been backpacking across Darwin, instead, the first Monday after Christmas and I’m back at work. Just spent eight hours in an almost empty office with an incredibly sore throat and a wisdom tooth that has been acting up again. Guess the weekend is catching up with me.
I really really need a break…

Slumdog Millionaire

Just caught the latest flick that’s been making waves on the movie circuit. Watching Slumdog Millionaire has been the high point of my otherwise dreary Christmas break. Based on the book Q&A by Vikas Swarup and directed by Danny Boyle, the movie follows Jamal Malik, a boy from the slums of Mumbai who makes it big on the Indian version of Who Wants to be Millionaire.
His dream run on the show is cut short when suspicions are raised on how a slum dog with no education could know all the correct answers. After being picked up and tortured by the law enforcement, Jamal’s explanation on how he knew the answers takes the viewer through the story of his life on the streets. After being orphaned in an anti Muslim attack on the slums, Jamal, his brother Salim and another orphan girl Latika are living off the trash heaps when they are discovered by Maman, a gangster who uses children to beg. Their escape from Maman, separation from Latika and the brothers’ life on the streets, form bits and pieces of how Jamal knew all the answers on the show. The police inspector calls his story ‘bizarrely plausible’ and allows Jamal to return to the show to answer the final question. The movie ends on a high note with a Bollywood touch and a true Bollywood style song and dance sequence.
The movie takes honest and poignant look into the lives of Mumbai’s slum dwellers. Profound scenes from Jamal’s life manage to simultaneously strike a chord with the viewer and also brings a smile to your lips at times. More than anything else, what works is the casting and the performances. The child actors excel in their roles, Dev Patel as Jamal is subtle and still gives an intense performance, Anil Kapoor as the cynical host of the show is brilliant. One however wishes there could have been a bit more of Irrfaan Khan who still manages to give a power packed performance in his short role as the police inspector. All in all Slumdog Millionaire is definitely a must watch.

Out on a limb

After eight months of badgering almost everyone I know, I finally got my wish…I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Didn’t want to do it alone (…just in case I freaked out and needed someone to hold my hand) so I kept coaxing my friends one after the other to give it a shot. All I got were bewildered looks that said “Are you nuts!!!”. In fact, I grovelled to such an extent that one of my traumatised work mates offered to come along to the bottom of the bridge and wait there while I climbed it.

Anyway, couple of weeks back, I eventually got my chance to scale up this historic feat of engineering. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel arch bridge across the Sydney Harbour. Opened in 1932, this supposed to be the world’s widest long-span bridge.

Coming back to my climb, what was more inundating was the process of gearing up. Metal Detectors, climb suits, radio headsets, safety belts, simulated climbing…whew… must say, I almost bolted out the exit by the end of it. The climb itself was pretty enjoyable, except for certain points where you get a top view of the bridge pillars …coz that’s when hits home how high you really are. Once you go through the narrow walkways and reach the arch, the climb is actually quite comfortable. The arch rises gracefully, giving you an awesome view of the harbour all along. It was fine day to climb, not too sunny with the wind whistling softly in your ears. The summit is about 134 metres above the harbour level; strange how small the ships look from up here. What makes a good climb even better is to have a good guide...Dave…not just knowledgeable about the history of the harbour but also a great sport when it comes to taking photographs of the climbers. Too bad you have to pay to get the photographs. Although it’s probably a good thing that climbers are not allowed to get their own cameras…coz then you get lost in clicking the views and end up missing out on the experience

All said and done, I still think the bridge climb is a tad overrated and definitely overpriced. Certainly not an adrenalin pumping experience but a captivating one nonetheless.

The tryst with Chopsticks continues…

Despite the debacle with yum cha, my tete a tete with chopsticks continues. A lazy Saturday afternoon in a Japanese eatery with a bunch of friends…seemed like an ideal time rekindle my pathetic attempts to master this piece of oriental cutlery. Egged on by my chopstick swivelling mate, I decided to risk another shot at it.

A brief elucidation if I may

Step1: Separate the two sticks.
Simple enough, but I’d probably break it with my clumsy fingers. Not wanting to jinx anything, I got someone to do it for me.

Step 2: Scrape the sticks against each other to get rid of any fibre or dirt.
I did this quite well …so well that I think I almost chafed them to the point of breakage.

Step 3: Hold the chopsticks firmly between your fingers and thumb.
Now with all due credit to my companion who probably lost her mind trying to teach me this, it’s a miracle that the food didn’t go stone cold by the time I got the sticks into place.

With the initial ritual done to perfection…well almost… we move on to Step 4…pick up the food and eat it. Yeah sure…if only it were that simple. I cautiously proceeded towards a piece of spring onion (or was it lotus stem...). To everyone’s astonishment and my alarm, I actually managed to pick it up and pop it in. I managed to do a reasonable job with the veggies, but the teppenyaki chicken seemed to be goading me. There it sat smugly in the sauce, mocking my wobbling fingers. Try what I may, it kept slipping out of reach. I finally ended up stabbing it with the chopstick. Turns out that stabbing your food with a chopstick is bad table etiquette.

Anyway, the whole chopstick fiasco lasted no longer that seven minutes, coz my fingers ended up with a bad cramp. Western cutlery to the rescue once again. All in all not bad for a second attempt. Maybe I should try a Korean restaurant next.

Just managed to spent an entire morning watching Russell Peters on YouTube. Sure his jokes may be racist and offensive, but the guy is freakin hilarious .

Check out this video from youtube

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=24Ryj1ywoqw

If I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You

- Rich Mullins

Happy Lappy Time

After months of contemplation, I have finally gone ahead with a long overdue acquisition…an essential appendage created by the eccentricities of the modern day lifestyle…my very own laptop. There it sits on my table with in all its gleaming glory, beckoning me. Strange how my fingers seem to reach out for it in spite of having spent the past eight hours drumming away on a keyboard. Hopefully some good will come out of this, at the very least I hope to start blogging more