Religion and a pilgrimage

For a guy born and brought up in a typical agraharam, being religious is supposed to be a default setting. And the default setting remained that way for 17 golden years and then college happened and a period of self discovery :- 4 years of freedom. And with freedom came the natural side effects - indiscipline and irreverence. Not that i hated it, but still..
Out of college and 2 years into the job, things hadn't changed much. I was hating the job and was at a crossroads with the prepping for the CAT. It was the auspicious Mandalam and as the D-Day got nearer, my belief in myself was begining to wax and wane. And a day before the exam, got out of home looking to lay the waxing and waning to rest and ended up, maybe inevitably, at a temple. It was the proverbial lightning striking twice that day. In the half an hour that i sat in the Ayyappa temple, my thoughts were going haywire. Only to be reigned in by the thoughts of my first visit to sabarimala. All of 12, my grandparents taking me in tow. All that i remember being the sight of the golden deity electrifying my half asleep brain and body. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since that day. But the experience has remained. There had been 3 later visits, all in a lot more comfort, but none matched the intensity of the first. And so, at that very moment decided to make one more trip to see the lord, on the day of the Makaravilakku. 41 days of clean living and austerities.
It was a challenge for me and a chance too, to piece myself togethor again and feel what discipline feels like. And it did feel nice, the first few days i mean and then the craving kicked in. A lil more while in the bed, a coffee before the bath, a bed rather than a mat on the floor....But i outdid myself and found myself at the end of the 40th day on a bus, part of a conducted trip to the mala. Attired in black, the mala around my neck and the transformation i felt was evident. A sense of standing on the verge of something big. And we were off..
Six hours in the bus went of quickly. But a loose window ensured that i remained sleepless in the chill. And to keep me company, all that i had was "Saraswathi Shabatham" running on the telly. (That is an entirely new story which can form a later blog maybe.). Enroute, we passed the Thiruvabharanam being carried on foot and that signalled that we were nearing Pampa, in pretty good time. Only for all such hopes to be dashed by the Kerala police. We were asked to alight a good 35 kilometres from Pampa (Base camp for the uninitiated) and then start walking.
There we were, a bunch of over 50 people, in pitch black, shivering in the winter, smack in the middle of a reserve forest, and only the full moon to guide us. Someone in the group had the foresight to pack a torch and he led the way. With the group being made of a lot of age groups, we soon scattered. Me somewhere in the middle, with no light immediately, not even knowing the person walking next to me, retorting with the odd "Ayyappa" to the "swamiye" from somewhere up front.
A good hour would have passed, maybe more and the sound of a bus behind us cheered the group that had by now fallen silent. That was a scene that i welcomed with a special enthusiasm, as the jagged tar road had by then begun taking its toll on my foot. It was a bus alright, and in its headlight I saw a sight that sent a slight lump down my throat. The entire road was full of devotees on foot, the numbers belied by the silence of it all. and the Bus went on its way, without as much as slowing down even. And the walk continued. and from the milestones and the occasional police outposts, the distance that i had covered surprised even me. A good 12 kilometres. But then the lord didnt want anything more from me. Atleast not at that moment i thought, as i managed to get onto a bus that strangely was not crowded and stopped right before our motley group of around 10. And sitting on the steps, I managed to catch a few good winks before we reached Pampa. It was hardly 5 and the cold was biting down to the bone. And that was a moment when i had a moment of introspection, rather cursing myself for having decided to do the pilgrimage on that particular day. Moments that were littered thru the course of the 3 days....

Babel VS Crash

Just saw BABEL today...first impression is a gud movie...second thoughts...yes....definitely not worth a rewatch..Hollywood has this tendency, if a movie makes it big at the oscars, they will shamelessly "be inspired" from the movie and make thousands in the genre. Not unlike the numerous "woods" that we have in India. The inevitable comparisons with Crash kept popping up through out the length of the movie.
Both movies deal with the concept of intertwined lives in a global village. What Crash tries to depict within LA, Babel tries and takes it global. Set in a dry and harsh yet beautiful Morroco for the most part, the landscape sets the tone for the movie...sombre unlike crash which is a pot pourri of emotions.
True, there are scenes of excellence, scenes that will move you. The actors fit their roles to a T. especially one Mr.Brad Pitt. Ladies who go to his movies to ogle might well be advised to stay away. As a forlorn, middle aged American tourist, Brad lends dignity to the role. The unknown morrocan lady, who dopes his wife to relieve her of her pain... the 2 arab boys standing atop a mountain trying to take off against the wind...piece de excellence
But then as there are scenes like those above, so are there ones that will create a sense of deja vu with crash. As it is a movie worth a watch, i am not revealing the story line here as has been done in previous reviews.
To sum it up, you can definitely go and give it a shot, a lot of good things going for the movie, technically. Also an American movie that does not show Muslims in bad light again a first.
As for me i made the mistake of reading a review that set the expectations way tooo high. I went there looking for a movie "that in its profoundess communicates the innate randomness of life and so on and so forth ad nauseum". If you are gonna watch it after reading this review, something tells me u will like it

Tom yum goong!!!

Was down and out one of these days....no particular reason...one of those days when u feel totally depressed ..ust like that...and my DVD collection came to the rescue...a 3 cd collection -
"Aung bak"...."Tom yum Goong" and one more thai movie...but that is not the point...
"Tom yum Goong"...wow was totally blown away..now that is what u call a movie....It starts of with a lovely intro about a man and his elephant...his kid and another baby elephant...The baddies kidnap the elephants...look at the originality in the script and all this is over in 15 mins...
from then on for the next 1 hr and 30 mins...the guy sets out to rescue the elephants...spell binding martial arts...thai style...called "Muai Thai"...and the beauty of it is you dont realise that the movie does not have a story until 3 days after the adrenaline rush drains away
and this movie kindo puts in perspective y tarantino went ahead and made "Kill Bill"...
but at the end of the 2 hrs i was fresh ...with adrenaline pumping in my head .....was ready to go out and pick a fight with the first person that i met...was such a nice feeling...
I am thinking of patenting this therapy ...looking for a name and other supporting facts :-)
do lemme know if any of u had similar experiences