This and That aka Daily Musings

We went to watch the latest offering of the indefatigable Ayushman Khurana – "Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan". Khurana's choice of movies shows that he is very confident of his craft and is able to choose good content. He lives in an era where film makers are ready to experiment with themes and unusual casting. Such kind of movie would have been unthinkable in the past. This gay story is handled in a very mature way. We are shown Khurana's Kartik and newcomer Jitendra's Aman to be a same sex pair right at the beginning. There are no pretenses, no excuses, no back stories. The director, who is also the script writer, has shown remarkable restraint in refraining from going down the lurid way. There are no offensive scenes or below the belt jokes. What one gets is a pure, unadulterated, middle class north Indian show. All the characters are very believable and relatable. Their surprise bordering on disgust, when they realise the sexual preferences, is captured in a

I wrote this post on our Tuesday-Friday stretching group in response to a request made by Nihal and other friends enquiring about any special preparations done for the Ultra. In our exercise group only Vasant has participated in a 12 hour run. Nitin has the distinction of completing the half iron man. A new trend of looking beyond the 42 k marathon would now begin I think. I have profusely thanked all my friends in this post. A special thanks to Vidula for allowing me to run. She was skeptical at first but finally relented. She woke up early in the morning to ensure that I woke up. Gayatri too woke up at 4.30 am to say good bye to me. Here goes….. There was no special preparation as such. But I did realise that we underestimate the benefits of rest. I rested the week leading up to the marathon. Had I continued putting in mileage, maybe the result could have been different, considering my nagging knee injury. The rest worked well for my knee. We all prepare physic

https://youtu.be/1kx-gSK2C2Q This is a very intelligent summary of the Korean Oscar winning movie Parasite. Some aspects of the story become a lot clearer after watching this video. Class distinction is not a product of modernity. Sadly this battle of haves and have nots is very old. One just fails to realise how deep rooted some of our biases are. Also we are totally ignorant about what we don't know. This total lack of understanding further deepens this class divide. Speaking about Mumbai and our suburb in particular, we always marvel about the disparity between Mahim-Matunga and Dharavi - the biggest slum in India. How does one explain this? Though our suburb may not be really affluent, it is full of promise and good facilities. We only get to see squalor and despair in Dharavi. Also, available opportunities are lopsided heavily in favour of the elite. It is one thing to say that to succeed in life hard work is the key. But what is success? Is it just climbing

I read about Dopamine Fasting – the latest fad to hit silicon valley. Experts still are doubtful of this new trend as dopamine, a neurotransmitter – a chemical messenger to lay people like us – is vital for the well being of our gray matter. So why should one try to suppress the production of this very vital chemical? It is said that we are constantly bombarded with external stimuli and our brain as a result always remains on 'alert' mode which can potentially lead to a lot of anxiety. Dopa mine is s ent around the brain conveying signals related to functions such as motor control, memory, arousal and reward processing. To give an example, our dopamine levels get elevated when we get a 'like' ping on our phones, or are in situations which make us happy. We all crave happiness and one experiences it through good food, a good joke, heady sex, sports, social media etc.. in short our chemical secretions depend on what happens outside of us. This is something to ponder on

For now I have decided against renewing our Tata Sky subscription. We as a family came to the realisation that we abhor watching news, get bored watching movies on television and have absolutely no appetite for the extensive variety of soaps which dominate programming these days. VSO seems content watching youtube videos. I find solace in watching downloaded movies and English shows while our daughter prefers K-Pop, a few Korean dramas and other stuff. We got hooked on to Netflix and Amazon Prime which supplies us with endless (?) entertainment. Now saturation has set in as we cannot decide which movie to watch or which show to follow. I now find myself going back to my old loves. House MD was one classic show I devoured a few years ago, all 8 seasons of it! I am now revisiting this classic on Prime watching random episodes at a time. It would be inconceivable to have such a show in India. The script, direction, sets, actors, all are top class. Hugh Laurie is exemplary as the limpin

It would be interesting to know how many choices we make in a living day. Many of our actions seem guided by routine but one would find several small choices being made at the subconscious level. Do I wake up now? Or should I put the alarm on snooze? What should I have for breakfast? Which clothes should I wear today? If one is a female, the next choice to address would be the color of your accessories. Choices and decision making can be broadly classified at two levels: personal and societal. Personal choices are the easiest to make as you are answerable only to yourself. You may feel bad about a particular choice or decision on contemplation but the aftermath affects only you. Societal choices are a bit more difficult to make and handle. There is always this lingering worry of whether your choice would backfire or prove to be plain wrong at a later date. Many a times, we do not trust our instincts and give too much credence to what others may think and feel. This procrastination l