500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer - One of the best movies I have seem in recent times. Nothing larger than life in this movie and everything is so realistic that most of us would be able to relate to a "Summer" (Summer's the name of the girl in the movie) in our lives. The attention to detail which brings out the small things in life that make such a big difference really kept me very engaged. Small things such as Summer not holding his hand when he gives it out and then the expressions on their faces.... These are things that for sure each and every one of us would have experienced some time in our lives...... The small indicators we look for... the strong beliefs we have inside of us that the person we are is for sure the ONE!

The movie also plays frames from different times not being chronologically in order... Which reminds me of Mani Ratnam's Alaipayuthe (Tamil movie director) which also showed shots from different portions in time and then brought the story together. Even here, they show different days in the 500 days which actually turns out to be very humorous and also gets us very involved in the story line.

Watch 500 days of Summer and you will realize that there are so many more possibilities to life.... Don't lose hope on love... but remember that there are many FISH in the sea! And finally, one of the best lines in the movie..... "You were not wrong, You were just wrong about me"!

Motivation - The last stretch always seems too long!

When you don't even have time to think,

And time flies by in a blink,

Where do you look for the drive?

To keep ignited in you that fire.

Passion has always pushed me on and on,

But now I wonder whether I'm falling down.

I need a sign to keep me standing strong,

The last stretch always seems too long.

But, yes I do know that I have to finish this race... and then go on to finish all the other races... For of course, however, we try to hide from it, we are in this Rat Race called "Life"! I wonder when I'll be out of it... and look down at the race and smile!

A.R.Rahman - The Mozart of Chennai

A friend of mine sent me a link (http://www.couplesretreatsoundtrack.com/) to a new Hollywood film called Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn amongst others produced by Universal Pictures. To my surprise, the soundtrack is totally composed and produced by none other than our very own A.R.Rahman (http://www.arrahman.com/v2/). For those ignorant of the name, A.R.Rahman is most known around the globe for his Oscar award for Slumdog Millionaire - he's the one who composed "Jai Ho".

The movie even has a Tamil song that is awesome! Well, now if that's not taking Tamil and India to the world, what is? We truly have a global Indian now! I've just been listening to the music and the songs seem to have a Jamaican beat to it apart from the Indian tablas gracing a few of the tracks!

For those who have been following A.R.Rahman from "Roja" - his first entry into mainstream films, this is seen as an accomplishment of sorts. I was very young when Roja released. I think I was eight years old at that time and till date I still do believe that the soundtrack for that movie was almost his best! I still listen to the songs from that movie 16 years later! I have been following every single movie of his and have never been disappointed with the music! And now I can't wait to watch the movie, Couple's Retreat to see how the music blends with the movie. Now whether this movie is a hit or a flop, this heralds a new dimension to Hollywood -entry of Indian music into mainstream Hollywood films... I do wonder though, if there would be more dance sequences like in Indian films! Ha ha ha!!! That would be funny! To watch Hollywood stars break out into  colourful dance sequences!!

Way to go A.R.Rahman! We are truly proud of you!  Jai Ho!

One night at the Police Station

I had never been to a police station in the Philippines (Touch wood) and I thank god for keeping me clear of those lovely gentlemen whose responsibility is to guard and protect us. However, I landed up having to go there for no fault of mine. A colleague of mine from work called me frantically to help her out with an issue at about 4 in the morning. Her room-mate and friend was apparently in jail! Both of them are Austrians and haven't been in the country for more than 2 weeks. So she had no clue what to do and I couldn't decline to help a "damsel in distress"!

I diligently carry my PRESS ID (I work with Management Systems Asia - An Asian business magazine http://ms-asia.org/ and so of course that makes me part of the PRESS) not really knowing what I would do with it at a Police station. I go along with her to the station which took me almost an hour to find and see that this guy has been into a brawl with a few of the bouncers at Tabu. They brought him to the station and filed charges against the guy. When I asked the bouncers (security guards) to tell me what happened - The guy tells me that this Austrian guy was fooling around with the girls at the bar and when he was questioned he hit the bouncer. The security guy also showed me his jeans which were torn and said that it tore because he was kicked there!

When I asked my colleague more about the guy (let's call him Tony for now), she said that the story was highly unlikely because Tony was gay and moreover he was not a violent person and couldn't really harm a fly! Anyway, it didn't really make sense to me to try to fight it out.

I however did make it very clear to the cops and the bouncers that I was a member of the PRESS and they couldn't get away with trying to scare me with all of their big talk. I saw that this stand of mine did wonders to quicken things. I understood that the cops and these two bouncers were working together to try to extort as money as they could from us. I didn't want to have a long and fruitless argument with those guys and that too so early in the morning. I just wanted to finish the issue and get home to my cozy bed! We landed up paying about 2000 pesos to that guy to get his jeans replaced and also for his "medical check-up"!

A funny thing that happened to me during this whole incident was that the cop was being over friendly to me once he knew I was with the PRESS and he even asked me for my business card so that we could stay in touch! Most of the cops there at the station asked for my number and so did the security guards. So much for being a part of the media.

So that was my first experience of being to a police station here in Manila and as I thought of the experience much later, I do realize that apart from the numerous other things that I have learnt from AIM, I have learnt to fine tune my negotiation skills as I feel I did a pretty good job of sorting things out at the Police Station. Well, that was most of my "One night (Ok... Just a few hours) at the Police Station"

Diwali Party at AIM

Last evening was super awesome on many counts! We celebrated Diwali at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). There were a number of cultural shows - participation was from various parts of the world. And the best part of it was that we actually had a dance for a Tamil Song - "Appadi Podu". Am sure the videos of the event will soon start surfacing on youtube and I will link it to this post as soon as I do see one.

My friends at AIM actually managed to convince me to do a small 30 second Cameo in their dance program since I really am passionate about "Dapanguthu" - A south Indian form of folk dance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dappan_koothu) . Well, it was well worth it as it gave me the energy to go on for the rest of the night! It was a night of sorts as I actually tired myself out dancing, spoke to so many people, found myself at so many places..... I even visited the Police Station! More on the Police Station in my next post!

All of this just makes me wonder how life would be just a month away from now when I will be done with my MBA at AIM! Most of my friends would leave and go back to India while I'm gonna be staying back here. How different would life be? I wonder if it would become boring and make "Philippines" look not that attractive anymore? My circle of friends in the Philippines would go down by about 70% as most of the close friends I have right now are from school.

But I'm sure that would open me up to even bigger challenges and that would make me speak to more people around the country and forge new relationships and bonds with the people of this country. My quest to understand the Filipino culture would be accelerated by the change in my environment.