Sabrina - Movie Review

Ah what a delightful movie. Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart. Crackling dialogue. Lovely scenes. Great acting. Superb directing.

Sabrina (Hepburn), daughter of the chaffeur of an immensely rich family, loves the playboy son of the rich man. The other son (Bogart) is a serious businessman who is only interested in growing his business - to the extent of marrying his brother to a rich man's daughter with interests that will be beneficial to the business.

Sabrina is sent to Paris to do a course in cooking and returns completely changed. So much that people don't recognise her. The flirtatious second son falls in love with her and wants to marry her. In an effort to get his brother out of this new dalliance of his, and protect the business engagement, the older brother tries to distract Sabrina but in the process falls in love with her. A lovely, tight resolution.

Just the movie for the weekend. Leaves you light and happy.

Adultery - Paulo Coelho

There are books where every word makes sense. Even if we miss one word, we miss a huge part of the story. And then, there are books where you can sweep through the page in a second, register a word or two, move on, and you still haven't missed a thing. Like those movies where you can go out for a long break, come back and you haven't missed anything - mainly because nothing is happening. 'Adultery' falls in the second category. Nothing in you makes you want to read this book at all - it's just so loosely written. And it's so sad to see Paulo Coelho write something like this. 'Adultery' catches your eye with the title and the author's name (and you get an inkling of how its going to turn out too because of the cheap seduction) and then its downhill all the way.

A rich, married woman who has everything anyone can dream of - great marriage, career, money, children, nanny - is bored with her life. She has nothing to look forward to. So she starts a most awkward affair with a politician with whom she went to school. His wife suspects, her husband does not. The affair progresses most painfully, literally and figuratively, and you wonder why Paulo Coelho put himself through this (and us). The affair itself is so out of character, so uninvolved, that we care nothing for the flat, self possessed characters. In the end she realises that love is the answer to it all and forgives herself, the politician, his wife and gladly goes back with greater love to her boring husband. Hopefully, with an eye out for a more satsfying affair later and more lessons in love.

This story does not even deserve this much effort. Bad writing. Bad sex. Bad everything. Avoid the book - even if the title draws you in. You're better off catching some sleep.

Chicken Soup for the Soul - Jack Canfield and Victor Hansen

I picked up the first edition of the Chicken Soup for the Soul, a book that certainly influenced my outlook on life, for the second time. It joins a select list of books I bought twice - Tom Brown's Schooldays, Tom Sawyer, Kahlil Gibran's Prophet, The Mindset among others. The book was nice and warm like chicken soup for the soul and made me feel nice.

My original copy that I had bought more than a decade ago had gone to tatters I remember. I also remember sharing that tattered version with my dear friend Anu Raghavan who, true to her careful nature, read and liked the book, but more importantly brought that tattered tome back every single page intact. How much we reveal of ourselves through our actions!

So I read the book again, after a decade or more, to see if there was a different take for me from the stories. The ones that affected me then still had the same effect.

• The story of John Goddard and his list of 127 goals that he wrote as a 14 year old and achieved about 100 of them or so - tough ones. 
• The story of the man who threw one starfish back into the sea at a time - thus making  a difference to 'that one'. 
• The boy who agreed to donate his blood to his sister - even under the scary and wrong impression he had that they would drain all of his blood from him. 
• Bopsy, the kid with a terminal illness and the firemen who paid one of their kind one last visit. 
• The kid who almost committed suicide but did not because a good thought came back - the ribbon he gave a person who made a difference went around to his own father who the boy thought did not love him. 
• Another kid who cleaned up his locker with the idea of suicide but who meets a classmate who offers to carry his load, takes him home, has fun and saves his life. 
• The crippled boy who buys a crippled dog because he thinks the dog will need someone who understands it.
• The lovely story of all the animals who are made to take all subjects thereby compromising their true nature and strength and making them do mediocre work with no self esteem. 
• The story of the man who does not cheat at the turnstile with his two sons ages simply because 'they would have known he was lying even if the chap at the turnstile did not. 
• The boy who grows into a confident young lad saying 'I like myself when I am with you' (how many people can say that when we are with them). 
• Students who burn their list of 'I Can't's'. 
• Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife who saved up for the time when her husband would write his bestseller and allows him to write just that. 
• The story of the Armenian father who digs with his bare hands for his son in the flattened rubble of a building that was once his school simply because he had promised his son that he would always be there for him - and how he finds him and 14 others in the rubble after 38 hours of digging with his bare hands and all that te son says is - "I told them you would come for me dad because you promised you will always be there for me". 
• The Zen story of the two monks and the woman - and how the older one tells the younger one that he had left the woman at the shore while the other was still carrying her.

I loved all the stories. This time round I was impressed with the idea of how many people achieved things just because they thought big, stayed focus, asked for help and kept pushing at it until they got it. Asking knocks down the ego, yields inordinate returns.

Nice. Warm. Thanks Jack Canfield and Victor Hansen. And all the others who shared their stories.

The Serious Man - Movie Review

It's a movie about Jews. A Physics Professor (I forgot his name) who is on the verge of getting his tenure is also on the verge of seeing his life fall apart, bit by bit. A Korean student of his who failed a test, tried to bribe him to pass and then threatens to sue him. His neighbour seems to be encroaching on his property. His half crazy brother is creating problems at home. His medical tests seem okay save the X ray reports that are awaited. A sexy neighbour catches his eye and she introduces him to marijuana. His teen aged daughter is always going out and stealing money from his purse. His son is doing weed and ordering expensive stuff. And his wife wants a divorce because she is in love with the insufferable Sy Ableman.

To get some respite from all this he tries to see the rabbi - the junior one and then the senior one and then the senior most. He finds little help. Life goes from bad to worse. he is asked to move from home into a hotel. his brother gets picked up in a bad place for solicitation and sodomy. Police. Lawyer bills. Divorce. And then, Sy Ableman dies. After his death, Sy is called a serious man at his funeral.

A call from the doctor in the end sounds ominous. A tornado is heading towards the school.I have no words really. Maybe the Jews can laugh about it. Why did the Coen brothers do this?

Humour in Cricket - Capt. Manohar Sharma

Captain Manohar Sharma was the only Team Manager that I remember who brought a human side, a rare professionalism and serious value addition to the team. He is a dignified man, someone you respect automatically. Handsome, nattily dressed, always with an easy smile Sharma saab was the perfect balance of someone who was approachable and authoritative. He was the Team Manager for an Under 25 match against Tamil Nadu in Madras. I was one of the four or five players who was waiting on the sidelines to play Ranji Trophy and any good performance here would do us well.

The day before the match we were taking flat, outfield catches. Some of us dropped a few catches which was not unusual and we proceeded regardless. Sharma saab walked into the ground and asked us to repeat another round of those catches. We dropped a few again. That's when he told us that in some grounds it happens - the sea, the breeze whatever. We took a few more catches - this time with some more care now that the issue had been pointed out. I thought that was pretty sharp. We normally look for that sort of inputs.

On day one of the game I had a bleak day. Actually not so bleak considering it was a batting track and a couple of catches were dropped off my bowling but I put too much pressure on myself (I have a penchant for doing that). Going wicketless was one thing but a misfield for four and my misery was complete. How could I, a Ranji Trophy aspirant, make such errors. I was despondent. As we walked off the perceptive Sharma saab did something I have not seen any administrator at HCA ever do - he called me aside and spoke to me as a mentor would. He asked me what was bothering me, told me that it's ok and not to worry. That was very comforting and I returned a much happier man.

When I went to give Captain Sharma the book written by V. Ramnarayan, we chatted for a while. He was kind enough to present me with a copy of his book 'Humour in Cricket'. The first thing that hit me was the amount of cricket and sports he played with such distinction and all that he achieved in his life. He played for Madhya Pradesh, Services, Hyderabad and played along some of the greatest names in Indian cricket - all of whom recalled him fondly. Most of all I was impressed with his closeness to his mentor C.K. Nayudu and I am hoping to look in on Sharma saab ad get some dope on his olden days, his reminiscences of C.K. Nayudu etc.

The Indore stories of the cricketers competing to eat, CK Nayudu vaulting over the high jump at 61 years, the contrasting advice he received from the aggressive CK and others on whether the hit the ball or defend were all interesting. When I visit Indore which I plan to sometime this year, I hope to visit some of those places. The prank played by M.A.K. Pataudi on the shikar where his men dressed as dacoits and threatened to kill the cricketers is folklore. Another unforgettable incident is the one where Pataudi placed a dead crocodile in Sharma ji's bed on a world tour. Absolutely unbelievable.

I am glad I read the book and now know Sharma ji more. He had achieved much in his life as an officer in the armed services, in SBI, as a cricketer and continues to actively contribute to society through the veterans cricket forum (thanks to him and the veterans forum I got a HCA sweater and cap which I cherish even now). He is very active in Uma Nagar Residents Association and is always looking for ways to improve lives that little bit more. The world could do with more people like Sharma ji.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Waiting - Movie Review

A hospital in Cochin. Lovely backwaters. An old man who cannot accept that his comatose wife of eight years will not get better and insists she stay on artificial support. A young, newly married urban woman who has to cope with her husband's accident that leaves him in a coma.

How the two completely disparate people with two different lives and outlooks (and ages) become friends and in the process learn to accept their situation is how the story unfolds. It's funny. It's got more expletives than needed. But it's not boring. Fine performances by Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki. Waiting - is what they do. There is a bit of anger at how hospitals fleece patients and then there is a bit of doctors telling patients where they get off. Stuff we've all said or heard before but now it's been captured forever. It's rather sad when they put this stuff in movies and you feel foolish next time you want to vent because you are reminded of how stupid it looked on the screen.

Worth a watch.

Sunday Cricket Lessons - Leave on a High

It's been a few months since my last outing as a batsman at the nets. Despite the ball and bowlers getting more and more blurred by the day, I decided to have a bat at the nets last Sunday. The medium pacers were not much of a problem, but the leg spinner was testing me. He could turn the ball sharply which meant that if I did not get to the pitch of the ball, it would take the edge, or I'd miss it.'s

I was hitting the ball well and generally dominated the bowlers once I got in. I hit the leg spinner well when he erred in length. Then after 20 minutes or so the physical aspect took over and I got tired. Mistakes crept in and I was getting out more often. I played on gamely trying to be more aware, trying to increase my levels of concentration. At the back of my mind I knew I could go on for another 5 minutes if I wanted despite the sweat dripping off.

I pulled my concentration back to handle the medium pacers but the leg spinner challenged me because the margin for error with his bowling was very little. I got out once, twice and then made up my mind to be more careful the next round. But once again my drive got an edge.

Suddenly I took off my gloves and walked off.

As I walked off I realised that I did that because I was disappointed and did not want to get out more times. I had a good net overall. But there was another 5 minutes left easily for me and the bowlers.

Clearly I did not want to fail more times against this bowler.

It struck me while taking my pads off that I could have taken the next 5 minutes. I coud have taken time to settle down and decided to counter his next five or six balls well. So I could end on a real high. A high of having ended on top. Instead I ended on a note when the last ball got me out.

Point to note - always end well, on a high note.