Explosions in London

A series of explosions have rocked the London Underground. Atleast 2 reported dead and over 90 injured. Read what reuters and cnn have to say..

They aren't sure what has caused the blasts, but there are rumors of terrorist involvement.

What is happening people? And this a day after London has been awarded the opportunity to host the '12 Olympics, and the much debated G8 meet is happening at Scotland.

Is it the end of an epic? - review of Revenge of the Sith

Caveat: This is an extremely biased review from a star-wars fan. To elucidate my point- i even liked parts of episode 1 and 2. So there, you have been warned

Imagine that you are solving jigsaw puzzle and are a couple of pieces away from completion. You know the whole picture already or at the very least have some definite ideas about it. Sure you'll go ahead and complete the puzzle, but if the initial excitement levels can be sustained, then we have something phenomenal.

Imagine a movie in which the what-happened-before is known( Anakin Skywalker is a jedi knight who is supposed to bring balance to the Force switches to the Dark Side) , the what-happens-next is known (Luke and Leia will eventually battle the Empire (and Darth vader who is the "post Anakin" Skywalker) and restore justice among other things. Only one question remains- Why did Anakin cross over to the Dark Side? If the answer to this one question keeps an audience glued to the screen for over 2 hours (nearly 3 hours if you include the extra long break that Satyam took!), i would consider it no mean achievement.

ROTS, straddles the prequel world of movie making as well as the classical star wars world with reasonable ease (contemplated for 2 mins about using consumate here and then decided against it.. is that an attempt at being impartial or what?), be it in terms of the story line as well as in finer aspects like set design, costumes, dialogues etc where elements of the episodes 4,5 and 6 mix a little more happily with those from episodes 1 and 2.
-I like the fact that there are a few more 1 liners in this movie than in the previous 2. Obi-wan in particular.
- I liked the fact that some of the sets had clear references to the original series
- Vader looks immensely Vaderish (like Duh!, what i mean is that its good to see him on screen again, and i don't think he looks any less majestic this time than he did in the original)
-Liked the idea of giving Obi-wan the cool chameleon to ride on. (Don't ask why!)

Liked the idea that the circle is now complete!
May the foce be with you.

Random thought on reading

Am in the middle of a book that I wouldn't call outstanding for any specific reason. Its The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. (Osty, you are solely to blame for this.. )

I chose this book over several others that looked interesting enough for me to want to read - (but as with all shortlist- there can be only one winner!!) Among the ones I missed out were this one by Heinlein and this one by Murakami. Not sure if these two would would have been better reads than Smith's book, but am now filled with a sense of dissatisfaction.

Please bear with me while I try to explain my angst here!

It is not the "unremarkableness" of the book that upsets... Its got its good points... and you might even enjoy it if you liked the RK Narayan'ish style of writing with quaint characters having even quainter thoughts and a general sense of ambient happy optimism. (i'm really really not being sarcastic here.. I do enjoy Narayan on occasion)

It is that the choosing of one book necessarily means that you are committing a certain amount of time, effort and consciousness (is intellect a better word?) to this one rather than to another, and when the book does not live up to your expectations, you believe that your efforts at pleasure maximization (yup, we're still talking about reading here!) are thwarted.

One way out of this is to read book reviews before making up your mind, but potential issues lurk there too.
1. How do you know that the reviewer's books would be in synch with your own?
2. What happens to books that don't get reviewed at all?

Angst at a deeper level: When did my thinking get this warped??!!

Yikes!!

Filtered Light  

Again

Tried to re-invent myself
Again
For the seventh time
In two weeks

It ceased to be a habit
around two years ago
Only a meaningless ritual
Now

But everytime i do it
Something changes
Within me and
without

I do it so often
These days
I don't know what i'm looking for
Anymore

If it should come back to me
Someday
I couldn't be sure if it's what i want
Or what i was

A prisoner of the past

(Two poems with the same title)

The walls of memory
And a voluntary prison
The stay is pleasant
The stagnation, comforting

Do I
Rebuild these crumbling walls
And seal them with imaginary pasts?

Or
Open the door
And walk free?
________________________

The handcuffs are rusted
Not tears or sweat
Just the bitterness
In the Air

The skin is tender
On the inner wrist
The handcuffs chaff
Numbing the pulse

The pain has dulled
With the months and years
Not the memory
Of it’s newness

Do past pains always blind present promises?

How could i?

For all the people i held special in the past... and then forgot
................................................................

I can't believe I let this happen,
Shrunk memories of you
To visiting card sized details
And threw it in some disused corner
Of my mind.

I can't believe I did that.
To make space perhaps,
For all the meaningless trivia
That absorbs the better part
Of my life

A blank stare,
And forgetfulness
Crimes worse than murder
A Past destroyed
And a present meaningless

I have uncoiled the memories again
And aired them out in the sun
But can I
Relive the memories I killed?
Remember not to forget- again?