This time.. I'm truly back! :D

Hello everyone...

It's been over TWO whole years since I last blogged. Now I’m not gonna use fancy words like “writer’s block” since I am but an amateur blogger whose blog is visited by people who have either been bribed, pestered, tortured or simply pushed here with a gun to their heads :P

I was just generally busy living my simple, boring aam aadmi life… As you can guess, just like in everybody's life, many things changed/happened in my life too in these past 2 years... Let's see.... 

1.     For starters, I got married (yayyy!!) to the love of my life... my pillar of support... my best friend... finally... after many years of courting and loving and oor suthing and planning and postponing and at last, giving in to social, familial & peer pressure :D 

2.     Visited two beautiful islands (one on a spinster trip & the other on honeymoon) and learnt that somehow people living in islands are not as stressed or grumpy or generally frustrated with life as we urban folk are! I'm guessing it could be coz they live in a holiday destination and hence they're always in a festive mood... Oh, and I tried para-sailing too… And it was an awesome experience… All those amazing things you hear people say about para-sailing? All true… every bit! J  

3.     Lost three very very dear ones :( [four, if you count the unborn one] and haven't gotten through a single day without thinking about atleast one, if not all of them :'(  

4.     Made so many new friends... some of them who have absolutely vanished out of my life as fast as they came... some others who simply refuse to walk out… and the awesome few who will be cherished for all eternity J

5.     Started watching two new series (GoT & Sherlock addict here) and obsessed over the show so much that darling husband decided that the only way to score extra brownie points was to celebrate our first month anniversary by gifting me all five books the series is based on :P

6.     Watched a whole lot of movies, though not nearly as much as I wanted to. Can’t begin to explain how great or terrible the movies were… I’d need a whole new blog for that!

7.     Went trekking for the very first time and came back with so many exciting and a few scary memories too.

8.     Went to my very first concert and sang & danced around like it was nobody’s business! (picture a less cute version of Oh from the movie Home, “my hands are in the air like I just do not care” :P)

9.     Joined a new job and worked at all hours of the day like a possessed woman for about 8 months straight and then took a week long leave to detox and relax, only to join back in the same team and continue trying to survive the same hectic work schedule J (Though I gotta admit.. it has gotten a li’l less hectic and exciting lately.. hence the blog post you see :D)

10. Lastly, I have gained like 20 pounds since I last posted here. I’m not gonna lie; I didn’t just expand overnight.. it was all fat slowly accumulated due to a sedentary lifestyle combined with some serious stress eating issues over a span of more than two years. Although considering how lazy I am, losing this extra weight is definitely gonna take more than just a couple of years!

Anyway, that’s all the stuff I have to update about my life… Please tell me what all happened in your lives in the time that I was gone… Meanwhile I’m going to start publishing new posts faster than you can blink! ;)

From now on, your inboxes are gonna get bombarded with updates about my new post everyday, if you've made the blunder of subscribing to my blog :P

That’s all for now, folks! Good day to y’all!

SE (formerly SS)

It could be your love story!

Ok, first off I gotta say when I saw the trailer for NEP, I was expecting a VTV-Part 2 (as if VTV-1 was not miserable enough!) and I still went to the movie because I wanted to experience this pleasure of whining about Gautam Menon's lack of ideas and repetitive way of storytelling. But I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised :)
Not only was the story good enough, but the characters were so consistently portrayed that one could relate with them easily. And I am not just talking about the lead roles.. even the character of Santhanam and that of Jeeva's or Samantha's parents and siblings are people we see in our everyday lives.. people who live next door! Needless to say the romance sequences were truly magical, thanks to Gautam's aka Love guru's romantic expertise!! :D If you have ever experienced love in your life, you would definitely be able to relate to atleast one scene in this movie!
The transition of Varun and Nithya from school to college and later, has been portrayed so beautifully. Gautam has to be appreciated for the way he makes us relive those moments in school and college.. when you talk to a guy/girl you have a crush on.. the silly jokes you could find funny only when you are in school.. the stupid relationship advice you would get from your friends, the so-called relationship experts! :P
All the actors had done justice to their roles.. I have always admired Jeeva's acting skills and he was great as always and in some scenes he manages to look irresistibly handsome and cute too. He and Samantha have a good chemistry on screen and are convincing as Varun and Nithya, a volatile couple so madly in love. Santhanam has been portrayed a little differently in this movie.. as in.. he's not doing the usual insulting-random-people (hint: his hilarious stint in Boss engira Baskaran) kinda comedy as he did in many of his movies...  In this movie, he's a little laid back yet level headed friend of Jeeva's, and has a lovestory of his own! And those VTV-spoof scenes with Jenny(I don't know her real name) and Santhanam were hilarious! Although Santhanam has a charm of his own, that Jenny girl really steals the show with her adorable expressions and attitude. She has gotten herself a new fan now! :)
Oh yeah, before I forget, Samantha has done a great job too.. She looks as pretty as ever and extra classy, considering its a Gautam Menon movie ;) She has done some good acting in all the romantic scenes and a few dramatic scenes too, albeit a little overdone in some places. Overall her performance was applaudable and I love her even more now for the simple fact that she speaks Perfect Tamil like a proper Chennai ponnu :D (Thanks to all the directors who go to the North to find some random bimbos who can't say a word in Tamil and can't dub or even lipsync for S**T!)
Having said all that, I have to say there were 2 major negative points in the movie.. One, it is a tad too slow for the i-have-no-time-for-anything urban audience.. And two.. the music... Don't get me wrong now. I love IR's music and have been visiting Youtube atleast ten times a day listening to most of the songs in this movie..  Saaindhu saaindhu and Mudhal murai would haunt you for weeks!! But there are just too many songs in the movie.. Like almost one every ten mins.. But hey, it was marketed as "an Ilayaraja musical".. so you were warned! :P And the BGM in most places is a little too jarring for my sensitive ears! The music was more dominant than the dialogues in many parts of the movie.. and I found that a bit annoying!
Other than these two factors, I found everything else about the movie was rather above average. I went into the theater with a frown and fury.. I came out smiling from ear to ear and hanging my head in shame! The tagline of this movie is sooo true.. This really could be one of our love stories! So pleeeeeaaaase go watch this movie in a theater, with an open mind and your gf/bf, when you are in absolutely no rush to get somewhere! You would love it like I did! :)
Lastly, Gautam Vasudev Menon, you are back in business! I bow down to your amazing storytelling methods! Keep up the awesomeness \m/

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello world! It is that time of the year again.. when i am supremely jobless and killing time is my priority number one!! So here i am... after a looooooooonnngggg hiatus.. all excited to start blogging again :D I know that the only people who follow my blog are the ones who love me too much to stop this ridiculous thing I call writing... or have been subjected to various physical and mental tortures & threats by yours truly! :P But it doesn't matter how you landed here... I love you just for reading this aimless post of mine! :D

So what all happened in the time that I disappeared from here... Lets see... Apart from the many earthquakes and tsunamis suggesting that the Mayans might in fact be right... :O and the many riots and protests in every possible location from Libya to Congo to Greece... and almost simultaneously Iraq war coming to an end giving everyone some kinda hope at last... and someone almost finding a perfectly workable cure to cancer... and Sunita Williams heading to space yet again... well, I ate, slept and continued existing like everyone else on this planet! :) But with a small difference... during this time I somehow transformed myself into this irrecoverably lazy couch potato who hogs as much as one can, but doesn't try to shed a pound! :(

Which is why, I have decided that from this day forward, I am going to work out as much as I can... by that I mean atleast 5 days in a week! :-| and bring my body back to its awesome sexy shape! ;)

That's all from my end for now... Will keep you guys posted about my cardio training experience as and when it happens :P Although I know that when it comes to working out, I have little dedication and even lesser patience, this time I AM going to try and walk and jog and skip and sprint and run and what not!! :D

I'll be back here again soon... off to the gym now! B-)

NUMB!!!

Lately all i have been feeling is pain, pain and more pain... I am going through the worst phase of my life!
I'm surrounded by problems... some of them with no solution at all! And no matter how positive, hopeful or happy i try to remain, different kinds of misery seem to crawl their way into my head from all directions at the same instant!!
The only good thing about this agonizing phase is that i've learned some important lessons in life...

Everybody will hurt you at one point or the other... and the closer they're to you, more painful it is to take... and no matter how much you love them or how much they love you, the pain is just NOT worth it!

In the past few days i have been lashed by many unkind words from the few people whom i have thought of as the most important ones in my life! So the TWO important lessons i learned from this is...

Don't get too affectionate or attached to anyone... be it your family, friends or spouse... they'll all let you down someday and you'll realize all you ever had for yourself was YOU!!

and....

NEVER ever think anybody else is more important than yourself!! NOBODY deserves that kinda attention or love!!

I know this might sound like bullshit right now... but believe me! when you actually go through what i've been through in the past few days, you'll agree with me all the way! I'm actually surprised with my ability to stay sane and not become cynical or skeptical about abstract emotions like love, kindness, etc... i still believe they exist! But i guess i'm just not fortunate enough to have these abstract emotions available unconditionally in my life! :-/

I can't believe that i've been so badly hurt that i'm actually looking forward to coming to work at this seriously boring and depressing workplace that i have detested all through my time here!! Bcoz... this is the one place where i get to forget about all other problems surrounding me since i already have countless issues waiting to be solved right here at my desk! :|

Anyway i hope this pain will end soon... or atleast i wish i become numb real soon!! For all you happy and cheerful people, sorry about this post.. I just had to vent out my emotions somewhere! And where better than my own blog page? :)

I hope i have not depressed any of you with this miserable post of mine! I promise i'll try to come up with something joyful, merry, positive and worth reading in my next post.. please forgive my need to whine just this once! :)

Somebody give me a kick ;)

As soon as I revealed my plan of watching the movie Inception to my friends, each one gave me a different opinion.. some said it's like the movie Matrix, very difficult to understand.. some said it's a damn good movie never to be missed... while some others said it's utter rubbish simply bcoz they didnt get it! :P

Anyway i went to watch the movie with an open mind... and OMG i loved it!! i enjoyed every bit of the movie!! Every shot of the movie shimmers with intelligence and teases your mind.. The sheer courage of the director for making a movie with such a complex plot should be appreciated. The different levels of dreams may sound very complicated when you hear someone describe it to you.. but believe me! once you watch the movie, you'll know that it just cannot be portrayed any clearer than this... Kudos to Christopher Nolan!! :)

I'm still amazed by the plot of the movie... I mean.. even i have wondered many times what my dreams mean... and why do i get such dreams... scary or nonsensical... never got an answer! But to think a man could explore the dream world so much to actually come up with an intricate plot like this... ha!! Take a bow!! :)
And there are so many sequences in the movie that makes us relate to the story..

For example, the scene where Leo explains to Ariadne the way the dreams work... he says that you can never trace your way back to the beginning of a dream... dreams always start in the middle of something or somewhere... THAT is soooo true..  And then the scene where Leo is chased by some men and he's running away so fast... suddenly he gets stuck in between two walls... how many times have we had such dreams where we so badly wanna run but we just cant!? or.. we'll be trapped or held down by someone and no matter how hard we kick, our feet just wouldn't move?! Well, i've had millions of such dreams :D

Moving on... the performance of all the actors n actresses are very neat.. as in, everybody has done their respective parts perfectly well! But i especially found Mal's performance to be really convincing... i mean.. at one point of the movie, i really hated that woman with all my heart!! :P
Although i found that Di Caprio's character in this movie is strikingly similar to the one in Shutter Island (which is another amazing movie btw), and the end was also kinda similar leaving us wondering which was real and which was not... i have to say i enjoyed both the movies equally!

Adding more beauty to the brilliant story was the musical score... it was awesome to say the least! 
Anyway the bottom line is... watch this movie ASAP!! You would relish the experience forever!! :)

Must Watch!!

Okie.. If i write about all the movies i watched in the past 5 months or so, in ONE post, it would be way too long!! Not that this one's gonna be short post or anything.. still...

So i have decided to break it down according to the rating i gave to these movies.. B-)
Ahem.. lets start with the ones that are just way too good to be missed!! Now, not all of them are new movies.. there are a few old ones too.. Nevertheless really good ones! :D

American History X

This one is a little old, yet a classic. The story is about a guy who joins a neo-Nazi group and eventually ruins his life, realizes it was a blunder and then tries to prevent his little brother from following his footsteps. Edward Norton is as usual a genius! The BGM is damn good.. this movie will keep you hooked for 2 hours.. and the ending will simply blow you away!! :)

A Bug's Life

Now, this one is a little old too, i know. But its been on my list for too long and i finally found time to sit and watch it! And i LOVED it!! :D The story is somewhat similar to the movie Antz.. then again, since both the movies came out around the same time, i think its just a coincidence that they have a similar storyline..
Although the main characters are just "bugs", you'll still be able to relate to their feelings and emotions, thanks to the subtle sense of humour in the dialogues. I regret not seeing this movie much earlier! I'd give it an A+..

Shrek forever

Alright! I'm sure everybody knows about this one.. the final chapter of the Shrek movie series.. Portrays exactly how a man's mind works once he gets hitched ;) But in the end, he realizes what is steady and of utmost importance in his life.. Love! Awwww, right? Yeah.. absolutely! A perfectly cute happy ending to the Shrek series!

Prince of Persia

When i went to watch this movie, i have to admit i was a li'l prejudiced.. thinking it would be very similar to Clash of the Titans since i had just seen that movie the previous week! But i'm glad to say i was proved wrong.. so wrong! It was not only different from CoT.. it was much better!! The stunts were out of this world! And i wasn't even watching it in 3-D!! The BGM was so apt in every scene.. and it was just a mind blowing experience altogether!

Kick Ass

This is a story of yet another loser turned hero.. but the difference is he gets his ass kicked in the process and still remains a hero to our eyes! :D This is one of those movies that come unannounced and stun you for the next 2 hours! All the characters have been established well, but it is the Hit Girl (Chloe Mortez) who will leave a lasting impression on you.. Her pretty face and her extraordinary stunts will keep you amazed throughout the movie!!

Robin hood

This movie can be described in a single word.. Classy! The dialogues will keep ringing in your ears hours after the movie.. Though i'm not an ardent fan of Russell Crowe, i still couldn't refrain myself from going wow :O in so many scenes.. hehehe.. bcoz there's a touch of Ridley Scott in almost every scene.. And the BGM is remarkably good from the beginning till the end!

How to Train Your Dragon

This is one of the most brilliant animated movies ever!! It has such a lovely story, impressive characters, gorgeous animation and a fantastic narration! Hiccup is so funny with his sarcastic remarks about almost everything and everyone.. and Toothless is just so adorable!! :* Initially he looks scary and wild.. but gradually we fall for his cute and endearing expressions... This movie will definitely leave a smile on your face! :)

The Karate Kid

One of the best movies of Jackie Chan.. This one proves that even though you're not a hulk of a man, you can still fight anyone if you can control your mind! Needless to say, the stunts are really too good.. Jaden Smith is a pleasure to watch.. looks strikingly similar to his dad in every way! The eyes, the smile, the attitude, the tone of speech and above all, the charm! :)

Toy Story 3

There couldn't be a better ending to the Toy Story series! It has everything that its prequels had and it was released in 3-D as an added attraction! :) All characters are as funny and lovable as they always were.. especially Buzz Light Year!! He'll make you fall in love with him! :D A perfect touching end to the wonderful series!

The A-Team

This one is a great movie to watch when all you wanna do is sit in a place and yet have a blast! Its got all the elements of a good action movie.. impossible missions, explosions, betrayal, little love, good looking men without shirts, hehe.. well, not exactly in that order.. but its got them all! But it is not an out & out serious movie.. thats what makes it so much fun to watch! :)

Inception

I initially added this movie to this post bcoz i thought it was a must watch.. but i realised i've got A LOT to say about this one.. so i thought it best to dedicate a separate post for this movie.. which will be posted very soon :D

Hope you all have fun watching all these movies like i did.. And i'm sorry about the length of this post.. well, you were warned! ;)

Been nowhere.. Done a LOT!! :P

Ha! It feels so gud to be here after so many weeks.. i think its been close to 4 months since i logged into this page! Now, i wouldn't say that i've been too busy at work all these days to come online, but i've been busy doing a lot of other things.. like watching movies, reading books, going shopping and watching more movies :P

So it goes without saying that i have a LOT to say now.. especially about all those movies and books!!

Without further ado, lemme start typing everything i want to, before my mind erases all traces of these thoughts!!

P.S: My next few posts are gonna be pouring in one behind the other... beware!! :)