Raavanan

Not exactly a movie review!!
I was really excited to watch this movie ..mani ratnam-rahman combo and to top it, vikram! After hearing the initial reviews, i was midly disappointed so i went to watch it with least expectations and i am glad for that. There is nothing great about the plot-agreed..but just the way the whole movie is picturized is so beautiful, that all you can do is gape at the screen(full marks to santhosh sivan for that). The first half was slow with scenes which i felt a little repetitive but again the cinematography will keep you from straying away.Vikram just carried the film on his shoulders. I cant imagine anybody else doing his part. The way he has portrayed various shades in his character is mind-blowing(watch out for the scene when he sets off a series of bombs with prithiviraj staring at him in the background..just brilliant). If your definition of a hero is - good looks, well built, awesome acting and amazing screen presence, then vikram is your guy in this movie. Prithiviraj shines in his good-bad role too..tried to make most of it, i would say! Well, Aishwarya just about makes her presence felt on the screen. But definitely i would rate her much better here than her past movies.
I can totally understand why this movie has not been well-received by the hindi audience because they cannot relate to the entire concept\plot(the tribe, the way they live etc.). This concept has been taken up earlier in tamil cinema so its not really out of place here.
I haven't written about the story here for its up to you to go and enjoy it(not that its a great murder mystery or something)!
Rahman's music is marvellous! he never lets you down no matter what. The background score too matched the movie's pace.
Overall, i wouldnt mark this movie as a fantastic, mind-blowing movie but its definitely worth a watch. Not the usual mani ratnam ones which you can watch umpteen number of times.

The Kite Runner

one of the best books i have ever read...brilliantly written. i can say the only book for which i cried! i dont even feel like writing a review for it. I strongly recommend that you guys read it!

Scintillating Switzerland

Finally...a place which i have only dreamt about, a place which i have seen only in romcom movies, a place which i couldn't go to 3 years back because i needed a separate visa. I am really glad i made this trip happen. we started planning 2-3 weeks before i even came to Germany. Only thing i did after coming here, was to go and book my train tickets. I was traveling long distance for the first time in Germany but the public transport system is so damn good here that you hardly have anything to complain about. Within 5 hrs, i was in Berne and from there, we took our train to Interlaken and switched to the mountain train. The route from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch is the most scenic ever i have seen! Alps, as expected, was covered with snow knee deep. People thought i was mad when i told them i am going to see Alps during peak winter :-). Surprisingly, it was bright and sunny giving a clear visibility.

It took us close to 3 hrs to reach Jungfraujoch considering the slope and with multiple changes in between. Jungfraujoch is famously called as the top of Europe (the highest point reachable by man in Europe).






After a few hours and a zillion snaps , we headed back and went to the glacier cave which had ice sculptures. It was very tricky to walk in this place. I had a nice fall here(luckily no injuries :-)).we then took the train to head back to Grindelwald where there was a world snow festival. Many countries had displayed snow sculptures out of which i thought Russia was the best(posted below) .


After a nice walk around this place, we spent the night at Interlaken. I guess a lot of indians frequent switz very often as i was surprised to see peene ka pani written in hindi in the hotel room! The next morning, we had planned to go for boating in one of the lakes surrounding Interlaken but unfortunately it was closed due to end of season. Well then, we decided to try our luck at a different route in the Alps. We went to lauterbrunnen valley and from there took a cable car to Murren. Murren is a more beautiful place with lesser crowds than its more famous counterpart Jungfraujoch. The view of the valley is just gorgeous from here.



With snow on the roofs,smoke coming out of the chimney, cute little windows, tiny dolls in their balconies and beautiful arches in the pathway,the wooden houses look beautiful against the gorgeous backdrop of the Alps..very dream-like. After a heavy meal, we decided to walk down the valley. The path was filled with snow and was along the train line and at some points, was covered with a lot of snow. It was great fun. The walk was definitely one of the best things in the trip. It took us around 1 hr to reach Winteregg from where we had to take cable car back.


We got some amazing views from the cable car as we went downhill(you have to see them for yourself to believe it!). Some pictures below.



After this, we reached Interlaken and then boarded the train back to Berne from where i had to get back to Germany. Well, end of it all, i was still amazed at the beauty of swiss and definitely was lucky to have amazing weather just for the weekend. It is a skier's paradise, photographer's delight. Its almost like the mountains give beautiful poses wearing different dresses according to the seasons and you get so confused which angle and dress would suit her the best. Now i know why it is still the most preferred destination around the world. Totally worth every single penny i spent!

Tips: If you are a sucker for winter sports(skiing, snowboarding, ice skating etc.), this place is highly recommended . The only drawback was the boating in Interlaken was closed and it was due to open in April. Make sure you do a prior hotel reservation as it can get very crowded leaving you with only options of the higher end hotels. We stayed at the Best western in Interlaken and it was very comfortable and convenient to walk around the town.

Things you must take(for winter) - thick woollen clothing, snow boots/shoes with a good grip, gloves(a must!), a small backpack to ensure you travel light and a loaded camera of course!

For more details on the tickets, visit http://www.raileurope.com/activities/jungfraujoch/index.html. You dont really require prior train booking and the mountain trains are pretty frequent(i think it was every half an hour).

PS:You are free to re-share/use these images for personal use but do drop in a mail to me or comment on this post. Thanks a bunch!

An evening to remember..

I love fridays...nothing like an enjoyable Friday to start the weekend.So when we decided to visit titanic museum in the local town(http://www.titanicausstellung.de/ ), i was curious and excited at the same time. It took us around 1 and 1/2 hours to complete the entire museum and the guided tour was pretty good, i must say.
They had around 150 artifacts to display- some of which belonged to the people who traveled in it and some from the ship itself. They had larger than life pictures to portray the magnitude of the ship and the disaster which occurred to it... The largest model of the ship ever built, largest model of the sunk titanic, a recreation of one of its propeller, the inside story of the life boats and stories of some of the people who perished and also who survived..the best part of all these was an iceberg of sorts which must have been around 8 ft wide and 4 ft tall..to give people a real experience of how cold it would been in the Atlantic, we were asked to touch the berg for about 2 minutes :-)
All along, i could only imagine Di caprio and Kate winslet...talk about the impact of the movie! I was only slightly disappointed when there was not much information on Captain Smith..apart from this was supposedly his last voyage after which he was to retire. At the end of it, i wished i was part of the ship just to experience the whole thing..and also not :-)
Well..that was that. after the museum, we rushed to see ballet in a closeby theater. It was already full and we just managed to get a place to stand. All along i thought it was the real performance and it actually turned out to be a rehearsal rather they were still learning/choreographing! I was little surprised to know that even a rehearsal attracted so much attention...soon, i knew the reason.
It started with the choreographer giving a small introduction to the theme which was a fairytale of sorts where the guy and girl, in love, are put into prison and somehow they manage to escape and get together...the girl, who was the prima ballerina, is one of the most beautiful girls i have ever seen i think. She was italian with very sharp features- olive green eyes, neat hair and a damn flexible body. she could touch her head with her feet! Her partner was American -slim and well built. Together they made a very beautiful couple. They danced,swayed and swirled so beautifully that i don't think i can capture it in words. Standing there, i was quite speechless at their performance and also their grasping power. Their master just told them once what they were supposed to do..he dint even dance and show...and there...a few minutes later, the couple danced exactly the way the master wanted..with beautiful expressions and elegance beyond par. The audience was enthralled for an hour and a half. The rehearsal ended with a standing ovation which lasted for about 5 minutes. Going back, i was happy and content with the way the evening ended. A perfect start for the adventurous weekend ahead!

Bliss

i saw snow 'fall' for the first time today..its beautiful like cotton balls falling from sky! watching it through a glass window pane sipping hot chocolate..bliss! wish i could stop this moment for a while and enjoy it to its fullest!

Conversations..

Yesterday i was talking to this ukrainian woman running a net center here.. her husband who is from afghanisthan, her child currently in UK. Very interesting woman, i must say! she was conversing with me in half-deustch, half-hindi. She works from 8-10 in the morning as a teacher teaching ukrainian(i think she meant roussi or russian) and from 10AM to 10 PM, she runs the internet/call center.I mentioned to her that 3 yrs ago, i met another man who was running the same shop and she told me he was her 'mard' (her husband). it took me a lot of effort to control my laughter then! She apparently came to 'Noi delhi' for her honeymoon and she covered afghanisthan, pakisthan, kashmir and delhi in 20 days! For her, kashmir was part of afghanisthan(well i dint want to protest then). 'We cant go back to afghanisthan now..jung is there. All because of pakisthan..causing problems to afghan, to indisch..what not!',she said. Frankly, i am not a political person so i try to stray away from it as much as possible. During our conversation, i happened to mention that i am a vegetarian for which she asked why. why dont i eat non-veg food? well, nobody has questioned me like that. i told her i am not used to. 'for what reason', she asked. 'Is it because your religion doesn't allow you to?', she said in her broken hindi. 'Hmm..not quite. I just dont prefer it .', i said a bit meekly..my heart was beating now a little fast.i tried to divert her attention away from all these politics and religion by asking her about her food and shopping experience in India(definitely a safer bet). To which she replied, 'indisch khana bahut morchi..churi acchi,punjabi achhi, zaree bahut acchi'. The rest of the conversation was much smoother. She also offered to show me a bollywood movie 'Dulhan' on her computer which i politely refused. Just as i was about to leave, she said 'Dont go to that indian restaurant there..that guy is pakisthani'...I nodded to her and smiled. Of course, i dint tell her that i had been there the previous day. (the below post talks about my experience there)

Welcome back!

its nice to travel alone sometimes..observe different kind of people, their culture, manners..very interesting.
I usually dont prefer eating out alone. Out of sheer boredom and loneliness, i decided to treat myself to a nice hot indian dinner. Its difficult when you dont have anyone to talk to. so i decided to read during dinner as well. the indian restaurant was pretty and cozy..among the higher end hotels in wiesbaden i must say. the last time i went there, we were given some free 'papad' since we were indians. We also struck a very nice conversation with the indian man at the counter. well, this time i was treated with 'Hi' , 'please sit down' in deustch. Slightly disappointed, i sat on a table, fished out my book from my bag and began reading. To my right were two local women engaged in a very deep conversation about other girlfriends and relations. guess women conversations are the same all over the world :-). In front of me, sat an old couple enjoying champagne..probably their wedding anniversary! I got an occasional nod and 'hi', 'Guten appitite' from these people and also other local people in the restaurant. Sipping on a hot cup of tea with 'The Kite Runner' in my hand, i was at peace. i felt welcome again. Not lonely anymore. At that moment, i was sure to enjoy the rest of my trip. The only sad part was not being welcomed (is there a word like that?) by a fellow indian.