Notes to Myself

I just learnt that my last name is a Swahili word that literally means “medicine”. I don’t quite know how to react to this.

Recently saw the movie again after its original release in 2004, and enjoyed it as much (if not more) as the first time. While watching it, I could not help but think that if Michael Mann were to make a Bollywood movie, this is how he would make it.

Kudos to the director – Shimit Amin – and the RGV “factory”. A fine addition to his Mumbai crime movies:

• Satya (the best of the lot)
• Company
• D
• Sarkar
• Shiva (yes, its not in Mumbai but is a crime movie)

As a kid, I was obsessed with the game of golf. There are those in this world who don’t consider Golf to be a sport or a game. To them I say – try hitting a few balls, on the range not even on a course. Try hitting a few balls, see how badly you’ll suck at it (unless you’re Tiger Woods of course) and then come back to me.

Anyways as I was saying, its an interesting game and I wanted badly to play it back in India. The disadvantage of being interested in such an elite and expensive sport is that one never gets to play it. In the US of A, they have done a much better job of making it more accessible for the unwashed masses. Its still not cheap, but for 5 bucks or so, one can drive down to the local golf course and hit a few balls on the driving range; which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the 5 years or so that I’ve been in this country.

Today, I finally got the chance to play a round of golf on a course. There’s no good reason to explain this delay (other than my inertia, I think). Me and my buddy trotted out to the Pruneridge Golf Club in Santa Clara for a par-31 9-hole round. Considering that this was my first live round and that I ended up +12 at the end, I guess I didn’t do too bad; even got a couple of pars on two par 3s.
Next steps? Buy a cheap set of clubs, hit the range, practice more regularly, improve my game. Simple enough.

The sport of cricket is a religion in the Indian subcontinent. While I’m not a rabid fan of the game, I try to keep abreast of the various series around the world. Its a little tough to do so while in the States, as the internet is the only way to actively follow the sport.

Anyways, yesterday was one of the most depressing days in the history of this fine game. Cricket has always traditionally a game of honor and sportsmanship – thus giving rise to the phrase “It’s not cricket“. Pakistan is currently touring England and in the final test match, they were poised for a face saving win. On the 4th day, the pakistani bowlers were penalized by the umpires for ball tampering, which is a pretty serious offence. Taking umbrage, the pakistani team refused to come out after lunch, the umpires followed suit later, and to cut a long story short, the match was forfeited and awarded to England.

Pakistan has always been suspected of ball tampering, although nobody knows how much substance lies behind these accusations. Whatever it might be, things came to a head today. The entire game is in a mess these days and the ICC has to clean it up immediately.

Watch this – you’ll be glad you spent these 8 minutes.

So I saw Little Miss Sunshine yesterday, which is this independent-ish movie that manages to be poignant, insightful and laugh-out-loud funny all at the same time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed it.

Incidentally, while browsing the reviews for the movie, I came across this piece of confidence on Google’s part – it now asks you to try your search on the competing search engines.

My ride is a ‘05 Scion TC. I’ve had it for about 1.5 years now, and that’s time enough for me to start thinking of spending some more money on it and put in a mod or two, viz.

• A new shift knob (OBX Autobahn Kraftwerks), bought for a deal on eBay
• A TWM performance short shifter, bought again from eBay; no deal this time though. The cool thing about this mod was that I installed it myself, courtesy this great HOWTO. The Internet is a good thing ™. Initially it was scary since I was going to be messing with the gear engagement and shift levers, but the detailed guide gave me confidence. I was a little handicapped by not having the right tools for each of the step. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. So after some improvization with whatever tools I had, a few scuff marks, a little spilt blood and lots of swearing, I have a short shifter

Why do this, you say? There’s no good logical reason other than “because”. After driving around a bit, I have to say it feels more like driving a sports coupe. The throws are quicker, more precise and the car feels more responsive in general. Browse the forums at ScionLife and ClubScionTC to see what other people have to say.

So if you drive a manual and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, get a short shifter!

A lesson in fine film-making. Go watch it for an action thriller that’s also a character study.

Vincent: 17 million people. This (L.A.) is got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other. I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he’s riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.

Marathi drama has a long and storied history, and I remember as a kid, watching a play was a regular thing (in sharp contrast to recent kids). Even today, there is a rich activity in this area. The net result being that I’ve always enjoyed theater. There is different charm and appeal to seeing raw, unedited histrionics and simple stories about regular people in everyday settings.

Recently, I had the chance to catch the Broadway play, Brooklyn Boy, at the local theatre. This is based on a book of the same name that tells a tale of the protagonist – a Jewish novelist suddenly thrust into a world of best-seller acclaim and Hollywood hustle. But revisiting the rowdy neighborhoods of his youth, he makes a deeply personal discovery: you can take the boy out of Brooklyn but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the boy.

The play resonated with me for several reasons:

• It deals with the father-son dynamic in a very touching, yet not sentimental way
• I’m from Mumbai and have felt for a long time that you can’t take it out of you
• Decent script, acting and humor
• The nice cozy atmosphere of the local theater
• The great deal on tickets ($16 for a Broadway show)

The company that organizes these – TheatreWorks – seems like a great (and cheap) way of watching theater and I’m thinking of going for more of their shows. If I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this play, I might become a member too.