jayantiblogshere

With the Oscars round the corner it was a weekend of movie binge. And I am not over yet.  Here is a round up based on what I have watched and from the recommendations from Pipinghotviews  Birdman :  My first experience with Black comedy.  It took me time to figure that out. For a detailed review of the movie visit  pipinghotviews   http://pipinghotviews.com/movie-items/birdman-or-the-unexpected-virtue-of-ignorance/?portfolioID=5272 The Imitation game :  If you thought Shah Rukh Khan did a great job in My name is Khan , check this one out.  Not a word on asperger’s syndrome, dyslexia or whatever that is. And yet  3 minutes into Benedict Cumberbatch’s stunning performance and you know exactly what it is ... Benedict Cumberbatch better win the Oscar for this one.  Even if you are not the types who sheds tears at the movies here is one performance that can choke our emotions .  It is a movie t...

The first rays of dawn shining regally on the river Neyyar. Shot using Panasonic DMC LZ8 Submitted for the Thursday photo challenge where the Theme this week is Shine. For some fabulous photographs on the theme shine visit  http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

A Simple story set in a small town in France or Belgium (or wherever else) in Europe. Solwal a company that manufacturers solar panels ( or whatever else) is facing stiff competition from cheaper ones from Asia.  They need to run a business and decide they do not need 17 but only 16 people to carry on the work. Sandra who is about to return from her sick leave is the one chosen to be laid off.  A vote on Friday influenced by the Foreman Jean-Marc has decided that the other 16 would choose between giving up their annual bonus or letting go of Sandra.  Juliette and Sandra have asked Dumont the Boss to conduct a secret ballot so that the workers can choose how they want to deal with the situation.  Sandra has the weekend that is two days and one night to convince her co-workers to give up their bonus, so she can keep her job which she now needs really badly. It is indeed a simple story from a...

Five years ago when I was house-hunting,  I had registered onto a leading online realty search site to look out for rental properties into this new city that I was looking to move into. That is how I happened to  get Shivappa’s number.  He is this overly-friendly Real  estate agent who (for a hefty brokerage ) got me this rented property. I have moved on since then and a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. B ut Shivappa’s number remains on my mobile phone contacts.  Or rather mine remains registered in his contacts.  He is one of those who must have come into money brokering rental deals for thousands of migrants like me  that flocked this city in the last few years.  I suspect he is the kinds who thoroughly reads all those self help books, on how to sell refrigerators to an Eskimo or peanuts to Osama-bin-laden. He, for sure takes his contacts seriously and has them mapped in the list of potentials.    His onl...

When life was simple, making a living was about farming or hunting the nature for your own needs and building from what was available, your own shelter. If you had surplus you bartered it in the local market for things you did not have and needed to have.  As social structures matured and life got slightly less simpler making a living  was not just about farming or hunting your own food, building from what was locally available, your own shelter.  Inevitably since you did not spend too much time worrying about predators and prey, you grew quite a few things in surplus and bartered them for few other things you did not have at all.  System of bartering had its own problems. If you had surplus of apples that grew in winter and needed to barter them for oranges in summer you had to keep accounts with the person who grew oranges in summer in exchange of the apples in winter.  It became even more complex if you had to keep ac...

RED  POPPIES at the lalbagh flower show - Jan 2015 - Bangalore - India Red flowers  at the Lalbagh flower show - Jan 2015 - Bangalore, India.   Red - Cockscomb ( Huge ones really) at the Lalbagh flower show - Jan 2015 - Bangalore - India RED is the theme for the Thursday photo challenge  this week.

HUGE  is the theme for Thursday challenge this week.  What better picture than the Tian-Tan Buddha to depict Huge.  Pictures shot on a Panasonic DMZ L28 on a hot and humid day in July 2014. For more inofrmation on the Tian Tan Buddha read on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha Submitted for the Photo Theme for Thursday http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

'Care to join me for a cup of Tea, j ust one last time', he asked working up his usual charm. 'I don’t think I should come, Listen I got to go', she muttered in her usual i-do-not- want-to-offend-but-I-am-so-sorry manner. OMG ... You need to be more assertive shouted out her instinctive self. 'Please ... one last time', he pleaded. That is how it had all begun. She now stared at the empty tea cup.  There really was nothing left. Neither of the Tea leaves nor of their relationship.         This post is in response to the    100 Words  on Saturday  prompt from Write Tribe .

FDFS  ( First Day First Show) I know I am recycling this post , some of the contents in this post  appeared some time ago. Consider this the revised edition. Because  today is  12/12 . For most Madrasis it is an auspicious day ... as auspicious as Deepavali or Pongal Actually more auspicious than Deeavali or Pongal. Click on the video to experience the festivities at the Albert theatre in Chennai. For a detailed account click here and  read on. They say it is not like what it used to be in the good old days . This is how it was in Madras of the good old days. Summer vacations were never complete without watching the latest Rajinikanth release in  Kapali  or  Kamadhenu  theatre.   Paatti   (Grandmother) would wait for us grandchildren to arrive  so that she could take us for the Rajanikanth movie that had just been released. In other times of the year ,  Paatti   wou...

UNUSUAL OCCUPATIONS – Seller of small things It is a Thursday morning.  Rush hour traffic and the bus stop is about 200 meters away on the main road shielded by the houses and apartments in the leafy residential neighbourhood.  The neighbourhood is buzzing with harried mothers leaving their little ones at the day care, the school buses picking up the older ones for school, the software programmers leaving for their day job to catch the  public transport for their commute, the girl at the till in the supermarket rushing to work, the construction workers working in the nearby construction site arriving on a tractor, the security guard at the mall getting back from work after the night shift. At this intersection of the tree lined  residential neighbourhood where the maddening traffic is still about 200 meters away on the main road  Selvam parks his cart on Thursday mornings . The wares displayed on his cart are a colourful  array of small things....