Monday, December 8, 2008

TOW We Resume 'Normal' Transmission

Last one was the 150th post. Decided that the usual racist crap - you know where I rant against surds, chinks, nepalis, maddus, muslims, hindus, etc. - would not be in good taste in the current conditions in India, when everyone is getting touchier than usual about such things. And I do see the irony in looking for taste in a deliberately tasteless post. So, I decided to write on the thing I could identify as the next most outrageously idiotic. But, I was hoping to get some more comments. Just one person chose to comment, and that too anonymously. Damn you!!

Work and other higher pursuits have kept me from writing about a lot of stuff I would like to.

These stuffs include:

1) The fact that I am missing Delhi now after reading this.*

2) A value-for-money, slightly unhygienic, hole-in-the-wall joint called Zaks that I discovered recently, which serves Arabic food. I had khaboos, or khubus as they spell it, and grilled chicken after such a long time!

3) I had a Takashi Miike retrospective at my home recently. Saw Ichii the Killer, Visitor Q and Crows: Zero almost back to back. Several more are in the pipeline. I can't even begin to describe how much I enjoyed watching these movies. So, I won't.

4) Am almost through with a book by Syd Field. He would be a really great author to read if he didn't keep dropping names and enlisting all his achievements. His other books might be better. This one's supposed to be autobiographical and he is really painful. But his theories on screenplay are quite interesting, if not always as revolutionary as he makes them out to be.

5) My Tanzania trip got cancelled. Now, I am never going to talk about my trips till they actually materialise. Though I am not particularly unhappy about the Tanzania thing. We were going to do around 3500 km BY ROAD in about a week, and were covering pretty much the whole of the country except Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Meru, Serengeti and other touristy areas. Plus meeting a whole lot of boring government officials.

6) Have finally given in to the temptation of buying original DVDs, which have all the additional features intact, unlike the pirated ones. Have bought Taare Zameen Par, Rock On!, The Bourne Trilogy, Om Shanti Om and a couple of others in recent times. I also found this gem of a DVD brought out by FTII, which has the first films of around 20 FTII grads, including Jaya Bachchan, Smita Patil, Sriram Raghavan and some others.

7) Have taken up reading soft copies of grahic novels again. Mainly because sourcing all of them in Bangalore is difficult. Not, as you thought, because I realized buying each one of them was getting too expensive. Nope.

8) Found a DVD print of Burn After Reading, which is quite good. But Coens have the habit of coming up with an under-whelming experience once in a while to balance their general greatness. So, NCFOM had to be followed by something like this.

* Disclaimer (issued after the anonymous commenter struck again): I did not do everything that the blogger talks about. No, I didn't buy cotton kurtis at Dilli Haat (did have momos and fruit beer though). No, I didn't swear and curse in a bus after being groped. And no, that does not mean that I was groped and enjoyed it instead. As far as I can remember, I certainly never had to worry about my long-wrinkled-cotton-Janpath-skirt getting tangled across my legs and feet (I generally preferred wearing mini-skirts).


And I didn't go to school in Delhi for him. I didn't go to school in Delhi at all.

But I did bitch about women in LSR.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did u have to come all the way to LSR to bitch about women?

Captain Subtext said...

Uff...why do you have to be anonymous to ask that!

thelostcause said...

'disclaimer of the year', anyone?
:) (couldn't help it, sowwy)

Anonymous said...

(One eyebrow raised...)
Bitching about women?!

Anonymous said...

I'm missing Delhi now, too. :(

Though I don't quite see how any of that would have made sense to a non-DU non-female.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that disclaimer is awesome :D
And I am glad I am making people miss Delhi. If I miss it and am being miserable, no one must be spared ;)
Well, I am hoping you did eat chaat from the chap on Shajahan Road. It's not something one would want to miss while being in Delhi :)

Captain Subtext said...

[thelostcause] I'm glad I could meet your exacting standards in writing!

[realistic me] Yep, I didn't know it was such a rare phenomenon! Who are you, btw?

[jade] Comeon, now DU-wallahs and women can't claim sole rights on Nirula's HCF or watching a movie at Chanakya!

[geetika] Damn, I am not even sure where Shahjahan Road is! Would street food in the lanes around Chandni Chowk be any compensation for the missed experience?

Anonymous said...

Oh no Captain, it is here that you start doing the unimaginable - comparing apples and oranges.
While Chandni Chowk is made of what I like to call fairy dust and magick, Shahjahan Road is more like the real thing, down at our level; both are desirable and significant in their own ways :)
It's this road going towards South Delhi from Janpath. There's a big old UPSE building, and this guy used to sit outside. They were going to move him away when that whole ban street-food from Delhi happened (how ridiculous is/was that thing?!) but he's so popular, and the sarkari babus like him so much, that he was given a more permanent sort of a spot there to sell his stuff from or something.
Next time. There's always a next time :)

Captain Subtext said...

Hey, I have actually had it!! I just didn't know it was called Shahjahan Road. I think it was on the bus no. 620 route, or somewhere close to it. I can't forget the UPSC building (I thought for some time whether I should be taking the exam :P)

Anonymous said...

How does that even matter?? Just came across your blog....

Btw, been to Lodhi road? Amazing parathas.

Captain Subtext said...

I'd value your valuable comments even more if I knew who you were...I have been to Lodhi Road, but found no parathas

Anonymous said...

Twenty something and I 'study' (if, I may say that) some weird stuff that people come up with to make the lesser mortals feel good about themselves. Rememeber? ;)
What else??

Let us know when you are coming to Delhi next time. Could probably help you out with the parathas. :D

Captain Subtext said...

Yep, I tend to remember my idiotic statements better.

But I'd need some way to inform you when I visit Delhi next time. Which should not be too far away. And who is 'us'?

Anonymous said...

Oh! Thats great. And, by 'us' I meant everyone who follows your blog. :D

I wonder, what other way (other than your own blog)can there be of informing?

Captain Subtext said...

Umm...I suppose you've heard of this incredible scientific invention called e-mail.

And you could always provide a link to your blog, if you have one. Having a name like 'Realistic me' that's filled with such pathos and feeling, if you don't have a blog it'd be quite a shame.

Anonymous said...

*Cough* I do have one but its a private blog.

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