The Animal Farm

This particular post is during the time I was heavily pregnant with my first born, GBee. So, it was in 2017.

It all started with me returning to Hyderabad.  Living in an apartment in India is not new to me, but finding myself in the company of many animals is!

One fine Sunday afternoon, when our home was filled with guests of all ages, we were immersed in talking about various topics, when all hell broke loose! I heard cries which scared the hell out of me. The cries came from our veradah. Inspite of my present state, I rushed to see what the matter was.

There, standing near the utility area were two monkeys, eating the snacks mom had given our house-help. The monkeys scared off our 60 year old house help like a couple of predators and began munching her hot bajjis. (Mom had prepared bajji for all our guests and gave some to our house help.) Our house help was so scared, she cried in blood curdling scream, ran towards our watchman and that was the scene before our eyes. Both the monkeys were munching away the snacks, like there was no tomorrow!

It is all together another story of how the monkeys were shoo-ed away.

And then, there is the cat!

The stubborn little creature can’t be scared and shoo-ed off easily. Even when we shout or shoo it away, the cat doesn’t bat an eye! It looks on with little respect at our “cat shooing away skills”!

The first time I saw the little monster was when I left the door to the verandah open and the cat found it too tempting not to barge in. I had to hurl a slipper near the cat (taking pains not to hit it. Yes, PETA,I am not cruel to animals, but I don’t like being taken for granted either!) The stupid one, didn’t budge! It took three of us to force it away.

One or two such incidents left me with bad taste for cats! (I had a cat as a pet for one day in my childhood! Did I happen to tell you that story? If not, will do that in the future)

What do you do if the said cat empties the dust bin, yes, every single day!

And I once caught the same cat staring at the coconut tree, what a weirdo! ( on second thought, there is a belief that cats can scare away ghosts, so this stray kitty was probably scaring off a coconut tree ghost! Lol)

                                                                 Cat staring the coconut tree!

I also took a picture of a tiny little mud structure made by mud wasps, which now reminds me of the cartoon GBee and KBee watch regularly,  Ben and Holly, where Ben is an elf and Holly is a winged fairy. (There is a belief in our state that if  wasps built a mud structure in your house, it implies good things are on their way to you, in my case, birth of my GBee)

Mud structure made by hardworking wasps

That was when I decided that living in the heart of the city, one can still feel like they are living in a modern ranch with lots of animals for company and there it is, my own Animal Farm!

P.S:

  1. You can hardly control a child these days, let alone shooing away animals, who are less intelligent than a child.
  2. The concept of cats scaring off ghosts was also seen in the movie The Mummy, if anyone cares to recall it!
  3. On totally unrelated note, I love two songs from two sitcoms, “smelly cat” from F.R.I.E.N.D.S and “soft kitty, warm kitty” from  The Big Bang Theory.
  4. With industrialization, more and more monkeys come into cities and are creating nuisance on a regular basis. I recently saw a video of monkeys taking a respite in the over head tank of a house. They were having an unorganised pool party! I deleted the video by mistake and it’s not AI generated one, it’s an original.
  5. I always imagined there were fairies in our garden etc and Ben And Holly has similar concept of humans interaction with elves and fairies.

Disclaimer: Come on, Mr.George Orwell (Desi born British novelist), I am just using your highly popular book title, but that’s it. My post is not plagiarized in anyway. Thanks for letting me use the title! 😛

The Unseen Bridegroom!

As I was busy surfing for new books to add to my e-library, I came across The Unseen Bridegroom, an ancient novel by Canadian writer,  May Agnes Fleming, I decided to give it a try. The title was interesting and intriguing at first glance.

Let’s just dive into the review.

Novel : The Unseen Bridegroom

Author: May Agnes Fleming

Published in: 1912!

Read on: March 1st 2025!

 

As I mentioned earlier, the title was interesting enough for me to download it, but it had an alternative title too, Wedded for a Week! If I had seen this other title of the same novel, I would’ve guessed it to be a story about some hot headed couple, marrying and divorcing in a jiffy and would have skipped reading it!

Anyway, the story starts with a millionaire heir, Carl Walraven, returning home to his widowed mother, after 20 long years! He ran away from home at the age of 19 years. I sympathise with the mother, who had to stay strong all along. While Carl Walraven is busy flirting with Blanche Oleander, to get himself a wife, there enters Miriam Dane, a gypsy looking servant lady wearing worn out rags. She threatens to expose Carl Walraven and his deeds, if he doesn’t adopt Mollie Dane, daughter of Mary Dane.

So, off he goes and brings home the 16 year old, golden blonde haired beauty, a stage actress, Mollie Dane. Everyone suspects that she’s Carl Walraven’s illegitimate child and still love her dearly. Carl then marries Blanche inspite of opposition from both his mom and Mollie Dane. (Turns out they were correct about Blanche, women’s intuition indeed!)

As a debutante in the high society,  Mollie captures the hearts of most eligible bachelors around her. Mollie is a loving and down-to-earth person,  but her only folly is, her flirty nature. She has Hugh Ingelow, Dr.Oleander and Sardonyx competing each other for her affection. She rejects all the three of them brutally, infront of a septuagenarian Baronet, Sir Roger Trajenna, whom she agrees to marry! She is in love with his title, money, social standing and old age too!

On the day of her wedding, she is kidnapped and held captive by a male in black mask, who agrees to free her, if she gets married to him! Within two days of captivity, she agrees to marry him. She is married off by a reverend (who was also forcefully kidnapped) and sent home within a week.

Once home, Mollie decides to find out who her husband is. She is ready to forgive her kidnapper, if he turns out to be Hugh Ingelow! (She comes to the realisation that she is in love with him during her captivity), but if the kidnapper were Dr. Oleander, she plans to kill him off, with Strychnine no less, since she hates and loathes him.

I am not going into details, but Mollie is kidnapped a second time, trying to find her masked husband and held captive again, the kidnapper being Dr.Oleander.  She is finally rescued by Hugh Ingelow.

The truth about birth of Mollie Dane is also revealed here, which is a little unexpected.

All is well that ends well and Mollie ends up marrying Hugh Ingelow.

What I liked:

1. The easy language and editing.  I didn’t have to skip any boring paragraphs or pages!

2. It tells us about the people in the olden days, their thinking and life before any major technical advances in America.

3. The 17 year old protagonist,  Mollie gets a redemption arc. She changes from flirty minx to a matured adult by the end. ( To make her change, the author put her through suffering!)

What I didn’t like:

1. The female lead is kidnapped twice, as if it’s normal! Was the period around 1912 not safe for women in America?

2. Mollie is forced to marry, which is regressive.

3. The description of the lead pair or the other supporting characters is not particularly good. I only know Mollie had golden blonde hair which was curly and that she is beautiful and that the male lead is handsome! With such description it is difficult to picture them while reading the novel.

When I read the Harry Potter series, I could imagine what everyone looked like and felt I was in their world, which is saying something about the author, because there were hundreds of characters in all the books combined!

P.S:

1. Just because I have listed some cons in this novel doesn’t mean it is a bad one. It only shows the evolution of English literature.

Jane Austen books are so big, with flowery language, that it gets boring to read and needs full concentration. But, her books are popular even now because of their ability to explain the people of that era in minute detail! ( Her observations are accurate and clever) Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.

2. I have few more books of May Agnes Fleming and I can give better insight about her writing style, only after reading the other works.

3. Do you know about Stockholm Syndrome? It is the psychological state of mind, where the victim of crime such as kidnapping or abuse etc begins to sympathise with their kidnapper or abuser! It really does happen! In this novel, Mollie almost forgives the kidnapper, hoping it was Hugh Ingelow!

I have started watching a Chinese limited series and let’s see how this goes.

Till the next post, bubye.

The Good Boy!

Thanks to his brother being a second grader and the BBC kids shows, even before KBee can write alphabets, he has learnt the multiplication tables upto 10. He recites them, even during bath, like a bathroom singer!

He is proud of himself and he likes to test me on a daily basis. He asks me questions and when I answer them, he compliments me, the routine I had  with him daily to get him to talk. Now that he is talking and learnt tables, he is teaching the teacher that taught him, at the age of ‘almost 4’!

My most important pass time of the day is doing laundry and folding them. If I am not blogging or watching K drama, I must be busy, make a guess, doing laundry! (My KBee enjoys making mess and playing with colours, poor me!)

Anyway, he keeps testing my multiplication skills….

Even a tea break is quiz time for me….

During one such quiz session, GBee had overheard the compliment I got for answering a question….’Good Boy,Mommy’. Now you can see how my KBee is even mimicking the affirmations he gets from me! Lol.

GBee took it upon himself to enlighten his younger brother, about what and how to give positive affirmations!

Gita Upadesam, by GBee to KBee.

Although Lord Krishna taught important life lessons to Arjuna during the Mahabharata war, He had an attentive disciple Arjuna. In our case, KBee was like, I know mom is a girl, tell me something new!

So, at the drop of a hat, KBee manages to throw in a few ‘Good Boy mommy’ throughout the day and I don’t correct him at all.

Who doesn’t like being called a GOOD BOY!

P.S:

1. I had many posts planned, but KBee has begun his schooling and that is like inviting the viruses and other stuff to come home freely. Both the kids were ill and as usual my blogging had to suffer on the back burner.

2. My new favourite track is Apache Apache by Bruno Mars and Rose.

3. On a different note, I want to visit most temples of India and immerse myself in the colourful architecture.  The insta reels are making me say this. They are the best. Let us see…

Till the next post….bubyeee.

Chhaava

We just returned home from the second show of Chhaava and I should say it is not really a Valentine’s day material!

Anyway…

During Christmas 2024, we had visited Maharastra and that was when I decided to start researching a little about Chhatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj. I also found out a little about Chhatrapathi Sambhaji Maharaj. I didn’t know then about the movie, but I found out that a city has been re-named after Chhatrapathi Sambhaji Maharaj and found it fascinating.

The trailer caught my attention in it’s tight grasp and I asked Mr.Bee to take me to this movie, even though I knew the ending of the story, thanks to my online research! (Yup, this movie was our Valentine’s day movie date!)

Continue reading

The Respectful Hindu!

Although the post title seems political, I couldn’t come up with anything better suited for this post!

Anyway,  like a true Blue Desi parent, I was teaching KBee about how we, as Hindus, are into praying Nature. Plants, some  animals, books, planets and stars are all part of the vast group revered by the Hindus.

This is how my training went….!

Day 1: The idol worshipping…..

 

 

Another day, during a visit to the temple: Worshipping the Cow, which is helpful to humans and giver of boons, the Kamadhenu.

And then one day when I was busy talking on the cell with Mr.Bee about some random stuff, I witnessed a funny and memorable incident! (I was at my parents’ place with both the kiddos)

KBee’s heart is in the right place. Animals are revered by us, but I hadn’t specified which all! Technically,  he isn’t wrong!

Interestingly,  he made me think. If at all any Hindu deity wanted an animal companion, who would choose a dinosaur? Hmm, probably a Goddess as dynamic and as powerful as Durga!

What do you say?

P.S:

1. Lord Ganesh had a Mouse, Lord Karthikeya used a peacock as a mode of transport. Lord Vishnu had Garuda(the king of birds), Goddess Durga was partial to the Indian National Animal, a Tiger!

2. GBee and KBee are fanatics of 🦕 dinosaurs.  KBee can watch the same video of Blippi and his dinosaur adventure, N number of times, every single day. No wonder he gave his salutations to the T- Rex. The Triceratops toy that KBee has is his absolute favourite toy.

3. Recently Mr.Bee showed the kiddos the Jurassic World movie. Interestingly,  both of them felt that the Earth,  does not need any such dangerous dinosaurs after all..!

4. Happy Ratha Saptami to all my readers. I am attaching a Rangoli I made for the occasion.

Cheerio, till the next post…bubye.

 

 

Jawan – A Review

Let me start the review by saying that this is the first ever movie I have watched of SRK in a theater! I am not his fan but I did love his Om Shanti Om and Main Hoon Na, in that order. Incidentally both were directed by Farah Khan.

You can hardly blame me. Inspite of only watching movies after a good word of mouth talk, I did end up watching an ek number ka faltu movie like Love Story 2050! (I even heard fellow audience saying out loud, ‘kya bakwas hai‘ in between the dialogues of the hero too!) If you ever have time to kill, try watching Love Story 2050 and you will know how bad some movies can be. It is forever stuck in my personal list of worst movies ever! I pity the hero, Harman Baweja. It was his debut movie and it buried his movie career alive!

Anyway, let us get back to Jawan.

Movie: Jawan

Director: Atlee

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan,  Deepika Padukone, Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanathara,  Priya Mani, Sanya Malhotra

Released On: September 2023

Watched on: First day, evening show.

Movie starts with a bloody Shah Rukh, (whom we don’t see fully, because he is bandaged fully, like The Mummy), on the verge of death.  Thankfully he has enough loyalty in his blood to wake him up from his coma, to help his saviours. The next scene is the powerful hero elevation sequence. I love the scene, when Shah Rukh’s shadow overlaps the tribal God’s statue, the hero has arrived!

The hero elevation sequences are a rare feat in Bollywood, whereas, almost every South Indian movie has high voltage scenes, where heroism is celebrated and the hero is introduced, but only some attract us and this one is one of those. (Mr.Bee was busy howling at the top of his lungs, happy for the hero and his heroism.)

Twenty years pass by, we find a taklu Shah Rukh take over the system, by turning into a Robinhood for the farmers. He is also set on cleaning the Government as a whole. (South movies are always so hopeful, that someday, things are going to change. Sadly, it takes time, not just 5 hours, like they show in the movie.) Wait! Did I say South movie? Ya, this one looks and feels like a South Indian movie, except for the dialogues and the hero, that is!

Later we get to know that the taklu Shah Rukh infact has a head full of dyed hair and is also a Jailer! (I recently watched the Rajni starrer Jailer too. So what is this new fixation about Jailers? Beats me!) His gang of 6 girls are also from his jail. By the way, the music by Anirudh Ravichander for Jawan, also reminded me of Rajnikanth’s Jailer, once again!

We also meet Nayanathara, playing an IPS Narmada Rai, who is a single mother of a cutie pie, ends up marrying none other than the masked Jailer cum Robinhood Shah Rukh! *claps*

First half ends with a bang! (I loved the twist. It is very logical, but I was so immersed in the movie till then, I forgot the major clue!) I am not giving away much details because I want you to enjoy the turn of events in the movie.

Second half has a cameo appearance by Deepika Padukone, who has a small but effective role, tugging at our heart strings, with a mother sentiment. (Mother sentiment works like no other, even Hollywood is following suit, with ‘The Wild Robot’.) Deepika gets a meaty role and steals the spotlight, away from Nayanatara, who gets a one dimensional role.

Vijay Sethupathi needs no introduction and he packs a powerful punch with his character. I loved Shah Rukh in the role of Vikram Rathore, it was a treat! Both Vijay Sethupathi and Shah Rukh have much to solve among themselves, settling the scores, that is.

Heroism is real, Vikram Rathore proves it for us (most noise made by the audience during the movie was in his scenes). He also shows us what muscle memory is! Paisa Vasool kind of movie. Even the kids enjoyed it till the very end.

P.S:

1. I had written this post long ago and it had been gathering dust in the draft folder. So I decided to post it, better late than never.

2. As you must have guessed, I will come back in a couple of days with the review of ‘The Wild Robot’.

Bubyee friends, time to draw the cartoons for the next post. Cheerio!

The Mommy Blues..!

While I have gone through this and keep going through this on a regular basis, I am sure, most moms keep second guessing their own importance at home, mostly among their kids! We keep wondering if we are too strict or too lenient or too harsh or too soft or pampering the kids silly or if we are being a dictator.  We also wonder, sometimes,  that when we are strict, if the kids resent and hate us!

Yup, story of every mommy’s life.(Mostly of stay-at-home moms)The day progresses with more thoughts….

Weighing the pros and cons..

Finally accepting the choice which has been made and practising positive affirmations..

All the while lots and lots of thoughts bombard you, questioning you, depressing you, reminding you and finally you try to pull yourself up and you happen to hear a tiny bit of conversation……between your kids!

Acknowledgement and praise..

That is when you realise….

Perspective

You think you are a heroine and more, pump yourself up with immense confidence and one little compliment the kids shower on their dad deflates you! (He is mostly away, working)

That my dear friends is Mommy Blues and it comes in all sizes!

P.S:

1. I once caught GBee imparting gyaan to KBee about their hardworking dad! So I have cooked up this post for the blog, with a little masala. (Any thing can be an inspiration for a post.)This is also a shout out to Mr.Bee who works hard for us. We are proud of you Mr.Bee, although I envy you a little!! ( kids admiring you and all..)

2. This is my first post on my Samsung Tab and am happy about it. Watch out for more posts. I found one of my old diary with my cartoons and guess where they are going to show up?

P.P.S:

Behind the scenes….

Scene 5:

Scene 5: After the eavesdropping!

Scene 6:

QB attitude: Something happened, let me blog about it!

Till the next post,  adios!

Sookshmadarshini

My movie antenna generally perks up with attention if and when I hear a positive “word of mouth” talk about any movie.  They are mostly accurate and on point.  I had Sookshmadarshini in my Disney HotStar watch list for more than a month. I was on a week long vacation to Maharashtra and was busy afterwards. Now that I watched it,  read the review ASAP.

Movie : Sookshmadarshini

Starring : Nazariya Nadeem, Basil Joseph and others.

Directed by : M. C. Jithin

Released on: 22nd November 2024

Watched on: HotStar, 16th January 2025

Review:

What can I say? I love crime thrillers the Malayalam film industry keeps churning every year.  I grew up watching such movies starring Mallu super stars like Suresh Gopi and Mammootty. Incidentally, there is no such Star in this movie except for fairly well known actors like Nazariya Nadeem and Basil Joseph.  ( I admire Basil Joseph’s effortless acting.)

Anyway,  Sookshmadarshini (which means a microscope) starts at a small peaceful town in Kerala,  where the neighbourhood ladies gossip through their WhatsApp group!

Priyadarshini a.k.a Priya (Nazariya Nadeem) is a mother and a homemaker,  looking for a job and attending interviews. She is as curious as a cat. As they say curiosity killed the cat, she gets too close to the killer but luckily nothing happens to her.

The various characters are introduced and once Manuel (Biju Joseph) enters the town with his widowed mother as a neighbour to Priya,  the story gets interesting,  to Priya and to us too, the audience. Manuel runs a popular and lucrative bakery, called Grace Bakers which is in the name of his mother, Grace.

The slow pace of the movie lays a foundation to show us the true nature of the characters.  Like how Priya, pulls out her tiny nose ring out the kitchen sink drain with a simple jugaad. It shows she never leaves things mid way. Then there is Manuel,  who finds a monitor lizard, (udumu in Telugu) kills it off. Suddenly that evening he hosts a barbecue party for his new neighbours with ‘beef’, even cooks it himself,  but refuses to eat it! It is one such rare scene in a movie which makes us ikky 🤢.

I also loved how the director uses the stained glass window to portray the Sookshmadarshini!

Grace, is a silent and troubled looking septuagenarian(probably). She hardly interacts with anyone and never leaves the house. We also see Manuel making meticulous plans like befriending a neighbour, who is a single mother and we know he is upto no good!

During a party at Priya’s place where the whole neighbourhood has gathered, there is a fire in Manuel ‘s house and Grace is missing. Luckily they find her after a couple of hours at the railway station. It is later announced that Grace is an Alzheimer’s patient.

The second disappearance of Grace happens again but Priya is sure she has seen Grace through the window. Priya is also convinced that Grace is not a patient of Alzheimer’s. Later, she is caught by Manuel, trespassing his premises.

Then there are other supporting characters which help Priya in their own way. There is also Diana, Manuel’s elder sister staying in New Zealand who flies to Kerala after her mother’s second disappearance.  Priya befriends Diana and that is how she is able to solve the  case.

The rest of the movie needs to be watched for the anticipation it builds.  We know clearly a crime has been committed,  we also know who the culprit is, but still, the movie manages to take us by surprise. It is one of those movies, where the premises is intelligent and if the execution  of the movie had failed,  it would have fallen flat on its face, but it doesn’t!

Kudos to the director and his writer for this one. The movie manages to  bring a certain dread and thrill without being violent or gory in the least, like how we see blood which has seeped into a wall and making it bloody and damp! (I even had a dream about the same, as I wrote half the post yesterday before retiring for the night!)

If you are into crime thrillers and mysteries,  do yourself a favour and watch the movie and remember to thank me later for suggesting it! 😜

P.S :

1. The movie,  the location,  the murder somehow reminded me of the Netflix crime documentary I had watched more than a year ago, Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case. That is one of the few documentaries which can’t be forgotten easily.  (The other unforgettable documentary is the Oscar winning The Elephant Whisperers.)

2. Basil Joseph is quite an actor, with his unassuming stature and all. The other movies I have watched him in were, Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey and  Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil, also starring Prithviraj Sukumaran. While the former gives him better scope for acting, the latter is a timepass movie!

3. I am beginning to watch more and more Malayalam movies for the interesting scripts they come up with.

Till the next post, bubyeee readers!

P.P.S:

I have come across a recent murder in Meerpet, Hyderabad, where the killer, the husband killed his wife brutally and it reminds me of Sookshmadarshini! It is sad that people are getting inspired from movies when it comes to the bad stuff, but ignore the good stuff. May the soul of the victim rest inpeace. I had goosebumps reading about it.

The Namesake

As my loyal readers know of our brief life in the US of A, Mr.Bee would go to his office at 11 a.m. and I would pack my canvas tote with my black vertical striped apron and my wallet, booking an Uber to go to the Monroe Road studio of Clayworks, where the potter’s wheel was all I could see, as far as my passion was concerned.

Some days, when I felt low, even the pots and cups I made would turn out bad and I would leave the studio early (artists would understand!) On such afternoons, I would make a snack for myself and sit in the Ashley’s chocolate brown couch in our living room, with a parrot green woollen throw blanket and watch movies.

By chance, I had come across The Namesake,  by Mira Nair, starring Irrfan Khan and the talented Tabu and decided it was worth a watch. It was a revelation. I liked Irrfan Khan too (It was the first time I watched his movie). It was a memorable movie, but this post is about The Namesake, the Pulitzer prize winning novel.

This is the first time I watched a movie first and read the novel on which the movie is based on, later. I have been to the recent book exhibition,  the yearly ritual of my maternal family.  I got myself a copy of The Namesake and interestingly, the lone thing I remember is Irrfan Khan and Tabu, in the awkward photo from the movie. It’s been more than 9 years since I watched the movie and it tells a great deal about the actors’ and their performances. (I couldn’t find the photo online). No wonder the lead pair is known for their talent.

The Gangulis

The Names

It is about a Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima, in an arranged marriage,  whose life as immigrants is at once relatable. It starts with the marriage of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli and progresses at steady pace to the births of their children Gogol and Sonia. The focus shifts to Gogol and that’s where the novel gets it’s name.

Gogol goes from a phase where his name is just a nickname to, where he loves to be called Gogol , to a phase where he hates it so much , he changes it to Nikhil, gets to know the real reason behind his name and finally regretting the change of his name.

Gogol doesn’t like that all his parents’ friends are desi families. He doesn’t like Indian food and the time it takes to cook. He struggles, as they say, ABCD – American Born Confused/Conflicted  Desi. He sees the contrast between his parents and the lives of his American girlfriend and her parents. Gogol hates being told what to do by his parents,(most Asian parents do that) but ironically, ends up always submitting to his girlfriends and his wife. He performs fairly well in studies but since he takes decisions based on his rebellion against his parents,  he falls flat. Like choosing a college to stay away from his family and not because it is better! He gives up studying at MIT, it is exasperating!

Ashoke Ganguli, in his own way had adjusted to the life in America. Interestingly, Ashoke ‘s friends had predicted accurately, that Sonia is a true American,  right after she was born. But Ashima never feels at home, neither in Calcutta where she lived before marriage nor America,  where she stayed for more than three decades. Neither here nor there.

The Ganguli family dynamics changes with the sudden death of Ashoke. Sonia, the daughter who had stayed away for studies reaches out to her mother during her mourning and shows us subtle glimpses of her character.  (She hardly get 2 pages worth of space in the whole book)

After two failed relationships and 1 death in the family, Gogol a.k.a Nikhil meets Moushimee Majumder. Both have emotional baggage of their own and that leads to a disaster in waiting,  which is their marriage.  I didn’t like her at all. Nor did I like Gogol. He was a good man but he had his weaknesses and drawbacks.

The book ends with the hint of Sonia’s upcoming marriage to Ben,  Ashima’s plan of moving back to India and well, Gogol, still coming to terms about the journey of life!

Overall,  the Namesake is a slow paced story and at the end I did feel sad for Gogol and Ashima (both the troubled souls). It is worth a read, if you are not an avid reader, I suggest you to watch the movie for first class acting,

P.S:

1. Coming to the author Jhumpa Lahiri, her writing is easy to read and understand but at places it gets overly descriptive and lengthy. I found myself skipping paragraphs! I need to read more of her works to comment better.

2. Although we know little about Sonia, I liked her!

3. I went on to watch Irrfan Khan in Piku, Talwar , Jurassic World and Life Of Pi.

4.  I will be back with a Sookshmadarshini review soon. Ciao!

Of Gaming and Counting Numbers!

Before I jump directly into the topic at hand, I would love to give some flashbacks, put down a solid foundation and build a beautiful structure of a post, like a true blue Civil Engineer I have been.

If I need to tell about my experience as a serial gamer, I should probably start with KONG and the PRINCE, the most unforgettable games I have ever played when I was still a primary school student.

I remember all those beautiful days of my childhood, when I would return home from my school, freshen up, eat some snacks or plain old curd rice and get into playing my favourite game of KONG. Thinking back, my inclination of drawing cartoons as stick figures probably stems from my fascination of the KONG!

The game had an average stick figure, the hero, who had to save a stick figured heroine, who was ‘beauty’napped by the villain, a bulky stick figure. I am not sure, but they must have been stick figured gorillas, because of the posture of both the hero and the villain, which appeared to be bow legged and also based on the name of the game!

It looks something like this. I tried to replicate as much as I can remember.

The hero is at the bottom of the building, moving slowly (since he is bow legged!) and escaping automatic bombs in blue colour, which keep coming from the top left corner, while Kong, the villain keeps moving on the top floor, (jumping bow legged) trying to scare the poor hero.

Initial stage of the game – Kong

Once the hero seems to be making a progress, the villain begins to throw bombs or stones in weird shapes and they manage to break the stairs and pathways, all the while, the hero still needs to escape the steady flow of bombs, coming automatically out of a small structure.

Breaking the stairs and wrecking the way!

I was in 3rd standard when I first played this game. At last, when the hero wins, the girl is in his arms and he carries her at the end. I only played till I won once and then moved on to the newer game of PRINCE.

While KONG was a black and white game (I made the cartoon in colour because, I love colours!), PRINCE was a game in colour. It had a guy, whose style of dressing was like Disney’s Alladin, he ran faster than the stick figure hero in KONG, found magic potions in unlikely places, went through secret passages and sometimes got killed under sharp shutters and thorny walls! Although it was an interesting game, I stopped playing Prince after 5th or 6th level because, the booby traps  got bloody as the game progressed! (I was only in 4rth standard during this game. It was too much)

After that, years have passed and I have played many a games, from Pin Ball machine, Minesweeper, Soltaire to Disney’s Alladin in computer, to Tetris in hand held video game player, to snake game and block game in Nokia 1100,  to Ice Age game where I raised many extinct animals and their families, to Paradise Bay, where I had to make an island livable! I even played many food games, where I make food and feed the customers on time, solved many a sudokus, to finding and making words. The other memorable game is Seeker’s Note: Hidden Objects, which I played for the span of more than 5 years, installing and uninstalling (because of severe neck pain of being a serial gamer!), but thankfully, my progress had been saved by Facebook! (Wait , I remember participating in online snooker matches too, LOL! What fun!)

Some of my gaming madness had rubbed off to GBee, who is also a serial gamer. He enjoys playing different kinds of games, his all time favourite being Angry Birds.

GBee is usually allowed to play on the cell phone only on every Friday, for 1 hour.  On one such friday evening, GBee managed to win a game, I am not sure which one.

The serial gamer wins!

Just as GBee began to shout that he won the game, the baby who was newly learning the numbers thought his anna was asking him to recite numbers and shouted two! I generally initiate KBee to recite numbers by saying ,’one’ he says ‘two’, I say ‘three’ and we alternate the numbers and play. It was funny to see him do the same with GBee thinking he was asking to recite numbers.

Although it was nice to see GBee play games in cell phone and win them, I still think his fun pales in comparison to mine. It is the fun of playing games by graduating from hand-held video game players to computers, to laptops to cell phones to iPads and finally moving to XBoxes and PS4s and then coming back again to cell phones!

What fun!

P.S:

  1. I remember playing a game of a monkey eating bananas as it jumped from one tree to other and even Dave, which was my favourite in our school computer lab!
  2. My dad having an office of his own in the early 1995 has been very helpful in making me a serial gamer. He never stopped me from playing on the computer. Now that I think about it, I had no time limit for playing on the computer. I would play till I was bored! I hope GBee doesn’t find out that I never had time restrictions for playing games, he may curse me!
  3. Whenever GBee is not allowed screen time, he takes that opportunity to draw the Angry Birds levels he has completed, something like this. (That inspired me to draw the KONG game and post it here. Thanks GBee for the inspiration.)
  4. KBee is into puzzles like the origami puzzle game. I do help him once in a while.
  5. I don’t think I have ever seen Mr.Bee play anything except Candy Crush or Snooker! He prefers PS4 to cell phones as gaming platforms.
  6. Taking this post as an opportunity, I would love to thank all the creators of various games I had ever played in my life, till now. Thank you for making them! Cheerio!

P.P.S:

My mom is a gamer too!

« Older posts

© 2025

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑