Author: queenbee (Page 1 of 8)

Chhaava

February 16, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

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!)

The Respectful Hindu!

February 4, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

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

January 31, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

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..!

January 30, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

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

January 27, 2025 / queenbee / 1 Comment

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

January 25, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

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!

September 22, 2024 / queenbee / 1 Comment

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:

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!
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!
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.)
KBee is into puzzles like the origami puzzle game. I do help him once in a while.
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.
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!

Oh My Friend Ganesha!

September 13, 2024 / queenbee / 1 Comment

I don’t know if it is because my favourite deity is Ganesha or because I have ancestral roots in the temple town of Ainavalli in Andhra Pradesh or because of the large scale festivities in Hyderabad, but Ganesh Chathurthi had always been my favourite festival. My favouritism doesn’t end there. I eat, sleep, pray Ganesh and I also named my first born Ganesh. So that sums up everything, I rest my case!

Even during my childhood days, I had a pink and white Ganesha statue in POP (Plaster Of Paris) as my toy, more like companion! My pink Ganesha had a place on my bed, beside my pillow. It was a sad day, when I lost grip on the Ganesha , one fine summer morning and broke It, into 2 symmetrical halves, separated at His navel!

My mom let me have It on my bed for two years, but then, some elders warned her not to have a broken Ganesha at home and that was the end of our companionship! My cute little pink Ganesha was left under the hibiscus tree, which coincidentally had light pink blooms (same colour as my Ganesha), year round, to let the rains wash Him away!

That was how the story had ended.

My kiddos have no such bond with the Ganesha and it becomes apparent during this season, or so I thought.

A day before the Ganesh Chathurthi, Mr.Bee, I and both GBee and KBee got into the car and excitedly drove towards the Erragadda market. It is 5km away from our house.

Just like last year, it was drizzling and hawkers and shoppers both braved the drizzle to continue their shopping. The kiddos loved the Ganeshas, agreed on the One I showed them. (For now, I am the BOSS and they know it!) With the Handsome Hunk in my lap, we returned home!

While we got everything ready for the Ganesh puja, I was in my happy space, humming O My Friend Ganesha, Thu Rehna Saath Hamesha…! I was happy because I got home a Ganesha who had vibrant dhoti in my favourite colour, with a cute design. The dhoti clinched the purchase for me!

On His temporary resting place…

In Telugu states, as far as I know, people generally perform puja to only a Ganesh idol made of clay. It is the most auspicious choice. Second comes the idol made of plaster of paris. Even if anyone, (like us) is swayed by the beauty of POP Ganesha, we still buy a clay idol too. So we have two idols, for every Ganesh Chathurthi.

While we were busy preparing Ganesha’s puja mandapam, GBee began to chat with both the Ganeshas on the table, as if he was inviting some guests home!

GBee chatting up with old friends.

I was happy that GBee was talking to Ganesha like I used to during my childhood. But what surprised me the most is that he thought, the POP Ganesha and the clay Ganesha were cousins! LOL. (I mentally noted it, needs to go into my blog, I thought). There is another such incident during Varalakshmi Puja and it is a post for another day.

Anyway, we prepared the mandapam, set everything ready for the next day’s puja and slept off the exhaustion!

On the day of the Ganesh Chathurthi (i.e the next morning), I gave the kiddos a good oil massage and oil bath. (Both cried their eyes out! LOL. I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t because watching the kids cry is exhausting!) I remembered how I would also cry when my mom made me take an oil bath and massaged me, during my childhood. I am on the right track, I thought and moved on…

The puja itself lasted for half an hour. The preparations, the decorations, the prasadam and cleaning up the puja area take most time, than the actual puja. That is an universal truth!

Like is the case, after the puja, I went ahead to the kiddos, to put some Akshinthalu on their tiny heads, for blessing them with positivity and to avoid neelapanindalu (which can be loosely translated as ‘rumours affecting one’s reputation’.) While GBee was ok with it, KBee reacted in a way which surprised me.

KBee lying down on his stomach and watching TV and QB in a messy Mom-Bun hairstyle!

Since KBee saw us putting lots of akshinthalu on the deities during the puja, he thought they were only meant for Gods and not for mere mortals and reminded me that he is infact just a baby and NOT a Jeji (or GOD)! LOL. What fun!

KBee later warned me not to invite my friends to our house. He said that I always invite friends home during puja and make them chant Telugu Stotras! (He was infact talking about my MIL’s friends who visit our home regularly to perform parayanam.) He assumed new ladies in the house meant, friends of mom!

With that, we ended our conversation and got busy eating the jilledu kayalu, undrallu and the other specials for the day. We also visited my parents house, ate the specials my mom made and ended the day with a stomach full of yummy stuff.

Thank you Ganesha, for a memorable day.

P.S:

For those who are new to our Hindu culture, akshinthalu is the grains of rice mixed with either turmeric or vermilion, which are showered on our heads by elders, to convey blessings. Other words and meanings for you: mandapam = place where the Deity is kept during the puja ; stotra = verses ; parayanam = chanting verses together; dhoti = cloth tied up like a pant.
None of my friends visit my house, because everyone has either one or two kids to look after and this is not the correct age for socializing. We are too busy for that. Who will make the kids study or do their homework if we go about socializing each evening???
I always prefer tying my hair in a messy bun. I sometimes wonder how I have changed from the girl who once hated to have even a single strand of hair out of place to being a woman who enjoys messy bun! Times change, WE change, only change is constant!
I would love to have atleast one cartoon in each of my posts, but they take a minimum of 1 hour to draw and edit!

Till the next post, cheerio!

Rabbit or is it Ribbit?

August 24, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

My kids, sit day after day, watching Peppa Pig with utmost interest and anticipation! They love, cherish, admire and imitate Peppa Pig. Sometimes, they role-play together, with GBee playing the role of Peppa Pig and KBee imitating his favourite character George Pig!

KBee is so into Peppa Pig, that he owns a George Pig plushie and even chants the ‘dinosaur’ dialogue of George, day in and day out!

KBee learned to talk after watching Peppa. Before that, he was not into talking, but would only communicate by pointing at things!

Anyway, an average day in our house looks something like this…

Watching Peppa Pig on T.V.

GBee mostly sits on the sofa, with his full attention on the T.V screen, while KBee prefers sitting on the floor with his legs bent at knees one in each direction, forming an ‘M’ with his legs!

The kiddos managed to learn English and speak in a British accent too, thanks to Peppa Pig. KBee is one step ahead of GBee and also snorts like Peppa Pig does, from time to time! Lol!

Both of them incorporate the dialogues they see in Peppa Pig in our daily lives. Earlier, I would wonder where they learnt certain stuff. But now, I can tell blindly, where they learnt what!

One fine day, when GBee had gone to school and KBee and I were alone in the bedroom, me folding my laundry and KBee playing with his toys…

Suddenly, KBee began saying ‘rabbit’ repeatedly! After I heard him say ‘rabbit’ again a couple of times in the next 15 minutes, I decided to check what it was about.

I saw KBee holding a tiny green frog squish toy and thanks to his knowledge from Peppa Pig and another BBC special, Duggee, he began to say ‘rabbit’ in the place of ‘ribbit’, the sound made by frogs.

Rabbit or is it Ribbit?

I laughed a little after understanding what KBee meant and corrected him.

When GBee was a three year old baby, he would learn everything from me. But KBee only prefers to learn what his anna GBee teaches him. He royally ignores me!

Next in his list of teachers after his precious anna is, Peppa Pig. Then come his other shows on T.V., followed by daddy and lastly, me, his mom. He ranks me last on his personal favourites list! I don’t mind though. He takes after me in almost everything!

P.S:

I have always been partial towards my dad and looked up to him. Its no wonder KBee does the same.
GBee used to watch Pocoyo, Duggee during his kindergarten years. KBee watches Peppa Pig and Duggee but hates Pocoyo.
Both learnt their English accent from British cartoon shows!
The first cartoon shows GBee and KBee both looking directly at us, the readers and not at the T.V. watching Peppa Pig. I always ask my kids to look at the camera when I take pics of them daily, anytime of the day, begging them to look at the camera. So this particular cartoon is a homage to my own self, for always asking the kids to look at the camera!
My diaries are filled up with loads of cartoons. Due to some incidents in my personal life, my blog is being grossly neglected. Hmph! Let’s see how this goes…

Till the next post, cheerio friends and readers….

Kalki 2898 AD

June 29, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Fresh from watching the latest pan – India movie on the horizon, Kalki 2898 A.D. here are my thoughts. (It is a review, actually!)

Kalki 2898 AD

Directed by : Nag Ashwin

Released on : 27 June 2024

Starring : Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Hasan, Shobana and many more!

The movie starts with the final glimpses of the battle of Mahabharata. Aswathama, the only son of Acharya Drona, who was born with a diamond on his forehead, is cursed by Lord Krishna to lead a long life of immortality, to pay for his crime, of shooting a Brahmastra, onto the belly of a heavily pregnant Uttara, (wife of Veera Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna)

Lord Krishna removes his omnipotent diamond on the forehead and he has to live on, in exile, waiting for the last and final avatar of Krishna, Kalki to take birth. (I have little to no claim on the rumour, but it is said that Aswathama is still alive somewhere in the Himalayas, along with many sages and Rishis, Hanuman and the God of future, Kalki Bhagwan) As everyone knows it, Aswathama is played by thespian Amitabh Bachchan (probably his best role yet, after Piku!)

After more than 6000 years since Mahabharata, in a depleted and dry holy city of Varanasi, the story progresses. It is a general knowledge in Hindu culture, that once the Dharma is overtaken by Adharma, Kalki Bhagwan will take birth and lead the humanity. So, in 2898 A.D, the people are selfish, lazy, money minded and can kill each other for petty reasons. There is little to no good in the world.

There is a divide among the people, the ones who get to stay at the complex and the others who live outside it. The complex is under the rule of Supreme (Kamal Hasan). I loveeeeed the look of Kamal Hasan. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me, he did! Even with his limited screen time in the first part, we can sense that he is a really powerful villain. I am happy for him. Getting a juicy role is any actors dream come true and watching great actors is an audience’s dream! Although, his faithful servant is the villain in this movie, played by Saswata Chatterjee.

Apparently, a pilot (Dulqeer Salman), who fostered Bhairava (Prabhas) as a child and taught him everything, like a teacher, sells him off for a better life at the complex. Interestingly, Bhairava, manages to one – up him and beat him at his own game, by handing pilot away to bounty hunters, for some units, which is their currency. (That is how the director wishes to show us that it is indeed the time for Kalki to appear, adharma is on the rise!)

The complex mainly works to get fertile women and girls, to use them for their experiments in collecting fetal serum! I liked how a scientist, who knows about the misdeeds of Supreme, tried to kill him off, to save the test subjects. (A little Dharma still exists in the world.)

Deepika Padukone, as Amma / Sumathi, one of the test subjects, is 5 month pregnant, apparently, with Kalki Bhagwan. She is not a fierce warrior or a great fighter. She can hardly kill someone. She is patient and loving, may be that is the reason, she was chosen by the God Himself, to be His mother. (I was expecting her to be like Lara Croft, but that wouldn’t have made sense.) She is meant to give life, not take from anyone, as per the words of Aswathama!

Once the fetus is 5 month old, Aswathama starts sensing It. The fight sequence between the 8 foot tall, over 6000 year old Aswathama and the lazy 6 foot bounty hunter Bhairava, is to be watched on the screen to enjoy. It was fun. I loved to see a very angry Amitabh, protecting Amma from a goofy Prabhas.

The first half was a bit of a drag at some places. There were cameos by Ram Gopal Varma, Rajamouli, Avasarala Srinivas, Brahmanandam, Disha Patani which were totally unnecessary, but were fun to watch. (It was like a guessing game, who will appear next kind.)

The second half is about how Amma is taken into a secret location , Shambala among the mountains, apparently, it was the location where the battle of Kurukshetra had been fought, during Mahabharata.

Once again there is a fight sequence of Aswathama and Bhairava and it is later revealed that Bhairava is indeed the reincarnation of Karna, the eldest son of Kunti, with Vijay Deverakonda as Arjuna.

Finally, Sumathi is captured by Bhairava, who is on the run and Aswathama is helpless(He is surprised that Karna had reincarnated).

The movie ends with Supreme, who decides to pursue Sumathi, himself, to abort Kalki Bhagwan, before He is born. Let’s see how the sequel holds up. Fingers crossed for a Kamal and Amitabh fight sequence!

P.S:

I loved how the director portrayed the diverse cast. You can find foreigners, people from all corners of India, everyone, gathered on both sides, the good and the evil. It shows, in the future, the geographical differences mean nothing, on the face of destruction. It may also imply that, every other place had been destroyed on the earth, except the holiest of the holy place, Kasi. So the surviving man-kind had gathered at Kasi. (That is my interpretation)
The director has played to his strengths. If you look closely at all his films, he has a strong sense of selecting star cast for his roles. He doesn’t slip in that area. If it is Amitabh as Aswathama or Deepika as Sumitra or Kamal Hasan as Supreme or Prabhas as Bhairava / Karna, he aces it. (He proved it through Mahanati, by selecting lesser known Keerthy Suresh for Savithri and Dulqeer Salman as Gemini Ganesan.) All the actors have done justice to their roles, which is most important for the success of a movie. Half the battle is won if the star cast is perfect.
I was sure that no one can show Lord Krishna on-screen, better than the one done in Karthikeya 2. But, the director Nag Ashwin showed us Lord Krishna not in the human form, but as a dark aura in the shape of a human. (It would have been better if the aura had been Blue or Purple, indicating the Neela Megha Syama.) Like they say, humans can not see the God with their eyes, they can only perceive His aura.
Lord Krishna and the white horse in the background is the precursor for the Kalki Bhagwan
I enjoyed the fight sequences between Aswathama and Bhairava a lot. (I was once told that, Aswathama was indeed a cyborg, since Indians were technically advanced in those days. The diamond on the forehead is apparently which brings power to Aswathama.) This little detail had been used, unsurprisingly by Marvel in creating their own super hero, VISION! Apparently, there is a temple for Aswathama in Kerala, to be exact, the famous Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple. If you happen to go to Kerala, do visit it and see for yourself.
It is interesting to see people from all industries work for this movie and they dubbed for their own roles. This is a subtle hint to show people from different locations have migrated to Kasi and its surroundings and have all begun to talk the same language, albeit with their own accents!
In the movie of Avatar by James Cameroon, the Na’avi people were indeed designed after the Indian mythological creatures of Vanara or monkey people! May be we should just ask James Cameroon about it, to confirm this particular rumour.
The movie looks like it is heavily inspired by Star Wars franchise. The personnel of Supreme look similar to the army of Darth Vader!
There is the introduction scene of Aswathama in a Shiva temple. I thought it was the clever idea of the CGI team to have only the temple gopuram visible and the temple buried deep under sand, because there is a ban on Gods in 2898 AD! But turns out, it is true and not fiction. The said temple indeed exists as Perumallapadu Temple in Nellore which was buried by the flood waters of River Penna, approximately 80 years ago and came to light, in the recent years, during the period of Corona!
Encouraging tourism, the Kalki 2898 AD way (Featuring real life historic sites in the movie!)
The only drawback that was apparent is the CGI of a young Amitabh Bachchan as Aswathama. It could have been better.

As I mentioned earlier, all the opinions in the post are my own and are as per my perception. The images have been freely copied from the internet and I take no credit for the same.

Till the next post, cheerio, dearies!

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