Suki, an old pal from the bygone Trivium-2k1 days, is in town. He’s in IIM-Indore now, and has come over for a summer-training here at Hyderabad. We met up yesterday, and straightaway went off for the evening show of The Two Towers. So, psasidhar, the score’s now 3-3.

Anyways, I found out to my chagrin that Suki was much much more well-versed in the nitpicking details of Middle Earth. In fact, yesterday’s viewing was a nice revelation – I haven’t been in touch with Tolkien for quite sometime – remember reading The Hobbit and The Trilogy once upon a time in the Third year, and that was it. Even after seeing the movie twice, I wasn’t “moved” enough to go and revisit Tolkien’s world. Maybe that’s because I have too much to read right now, and it somehow seemed too much of a bother to go back and do some serious research before seeing the movie….guess I am just lazy.

But with Suki yesterday, the experience took on a whole new meaning. The guy was close to explaining Elvish terms to me – It was startling to realise that I had to really think to figure out who the Nazgul were (“Ring-wraiths” is the term I generally use) ; or who Isildur was, or Elendil, or that Saruman uses the Palantir (those glowing stones) to communicate with Sauron. Hmmm.

So a new resolution for now. To try and get a little more involved with the world of Tolkien’s characters. After all, it’s the book and the story that matters, and not the film, which, as Jackson himself said, is just an interpretation, his interpretation. Will read the trilogy again, and maybe go into the prehistory a bit. Haven’t read The Silmarillion yet, so will do that too.

I decided to start with the basics and read the Faq. Went to a couple of interesting sites that had stuff on the movie – sadly, though, the official site is a mess. Too much hype and too less information. There’s a pretty nifty “module” which shows how the war scenes were contrived and executed. The fan-sites were better, though a little outdated. And at the end of it all, I discovered some interesting facts:

* Christopher Lee was a major fan-favourite for the role of Saruman AND Gandalf. Peter Jackson denied pretty early that Lee was being used in any of the roles. Another fan-favourite for the role of Gandalf was Sean Connery.

* Jonathan Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli, provided the voice of Treebeard, the Ent.

* This one’s interesting. The “hero” Chain mail armour was manufactured in India. And this is what Jackson says about this – There is a company there (in India) that can make square-section mail very quickly and cheaply (Amnesty International have assured us they are not using child labour). ” Goes on to show how much regard people have for Indian labour laws.

* There was a software called MASSIVE that has been developed over 2000-01 expressly to achieve huge battle scenes for THE LORD OF THE RINGS. In Jackson’s words, “MASSIVE allows us to have 200,000 CG extras that we don’t animate, but they use a complex form of Artificial Intelligence to fight each other. You basically press a button, sit back and watch these huge battles unfold before your eyes. It’s amazing and a little frightening as it ushers in a new era in CG effects.” COOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!

* The original idea pitched was for two movies. Jackson prepared a 36-minute documentary as a “pitch” for the movie – why it should be made, and why he should be the guy to make it. Jackson: “Cool stuff included on the tape: An Uruk-Hai in full armour and prosthetics, and Orc make-up test, models of Helm’s Deep and Rivendell, marquettes of Elven armour and weapons, Gollum marquettes, a Cave Troll and a Balrog concept. CG tests included a CG Troll and a couple of huge Helm’s Deep battle shots using MASSIVE. Bob Shaye watched the tape in total silence and then declared that he wanted to make 3 movies. Bob deserves the credit for making a trilogy … it was his idea.”

Finding out behind-the-scenes stuff like this gives me a real high. That was kind of thing I used to do once upon a time, but that charm seems to be wearing off nowadays. Careful, beatzo!

OK, this sounds real bad, but I have never seen a movie on DVD in my life. Have seen DivX rips galore, half of them with sound/action out-of-sync and equally bad as the neighbourhood pirated vcds.

That’s because I don’t have a DVD player, OR a DVD drive for my computer. And try as I might, I can’t prioritise my needs to accomodate a souped-up system at this point of time. The chain of flow is kind of this way –
I buy a DVD drive for my computer. Then to enjoy the DVD experience to the fullest, I would need a better set of speakers. Preferably a 5.1 speaker set. Preferably Creative Cambridge Soundworks. Better speakers won’t necessarily sound better on my primitive soundcard, so I need to upgrade that too….the Processor and Motherboard comes next…and so on and on and on.

Ok, I get a new computer. A souped-up mindblowin monsta of a computer at that.That takes care of my Music/Movie/Gaming needs, right? WRONG!!! What about THE FREAKING KEYBOARD???? My Yamaha’s still busted. The moron at the repair centre kept it for three months and now he says that two transistors have blown and he can’t get them in Hyderabad. So I can listen to music, but I can’t MAKE any music. (The thought counts! ) Not one without the other. Both or none. See how greedy I am?

(I don’t understand how all my materialistic yearnings at this point of time boil down to just a Computer and a High-range keyboard. Just wait till I somehow manage to get both, my needs are going to increase. Increase dramatically at that. )

Hmm, so no seeing DVDs at this point of time. But wait, that shouldn’t stop me from collecting DVDs right? Ta-DA! That’s what I seem to be doing – my first DVD – free at that – came with the Audio cd of Chicago that I just bought. Contains three videos from the movie, a Behind-the-scenes section, and some of the demoes from the original Musical. The cd cover says so, and I guess I would have to take that. No way I can confirm it, for now.

Methinks this is an Omen. Please God, give me strength to control that overwhelming desire to go to Chenoy Trade Centre and ….

No. No. NO.

(Yes. Yes. Yesssssss. )

Hmmm. Was I thinking of Gollum or Singing in The Rain just now?

People generally don’t believe me when I say I love travelling by bus. The reason? My personal space, unchallenged by anyone else. No noise, no annoying beggars picking at my clothes. No unneccesary stops. No jolting awake every half-an-hour or so to check if the luggage is still in place. No smell from the loo infiltrating your consciousness. Just the soft drone of the bus, and maybe a B-Grade movie for 3 hours. But that’s ok, I can take that. Give me a bus journey anyday over one by train.

Almost missed the bus to Bangalore on Friday. I was standing at a place which was a corner away from the place the bus was supposed to be. Luckily enough, a kind samaritan ran to me and asked if I was waiting for the bus to Bangalore, and if I was, it was there, not here, and oh, yes, could he have a tenner for some chaai-paani. Kind samaritan, my foot!

The guy sitting next to me must have wondered what exactly I was doing reading all those printouts. Yeah, am not ashamed to say it, but I mugged the ppts inside out, that was (at that time) the only way I could boost my confidence. Stopped for dinner at some godforsaken dhaba somewhere, and discovered that my cellphone still worked when my father called me up. My poor parents never really have got used to my going off to assorted places without the slightest bit of pre-warning – right from the RECW random-cul-fest days. :-)

Met The Cimmerian. Hasn’t changed a bit.

Discovered the perils of travelling in an autorickshaw in Bangalore. I knew my office was paying for everything, but couldn’t help wincing as the meter ticked towards 99. This is so funny! I don’t hesitate spending so much when I am buying books, but paying an auto anything above 50 bucks – eeeeeeeyikes!

Man, Whitefield is a long way from MG Road.

The ITPL complex where IIIT-B is located is awesome. The one thing that really struck me was the serenity of the place, no pollution, no loud cars, even the music in the buildings was soft ( and lousy!) The complex has three large, beautifully designed and imposing-looking buildings called “Discoverer”, “Innovator” and “Creator” . Funny names, but suits the mood. Too many companies, so the security was really something!!!! I mean, this is the first time I saw 3-4 guards patrolling along the same corridor. Seems the security has tightened post-Iraq.

The lecture: was ok. Won’t boast too much, won’t undermine myself too much, but ok, I didn’t falter, I didn’t stammer, and I didn’t have too many butterflies in my tummy inspite of learning that the other person taking the same course (the .Net part ) was someone named Yeshwant Kanetkar. Have to admit that the IIIT people are more class-room-friendly than us RECians. I mean, most of us used to doze off once the class crossed the 45-minute mark., and sometimes even before that. But these guys not only stay wide-awake for three hours, they are also astute enought to ask the right questions, interpersed with some oddball ones, but that’s ok, I guess. !

The other highpoints:

madhavn, I love you. You know that already, right?

Planet M. The one music shop that manages to make me ashamed of being subjected to the Music World onslaught in Hyderabad THREE outlets, and no decent music! :-(( Kaadhalar Dinam, Jodi, Mudhalvan, Ratchagan – the latest ARR additions. I had the cassettes, then the mp3s, and now I own the cds. Hoo ah!!

My sis. Finally got around to meeting her.

Found some beautiful stuff at Blossom Book House. (Uddu, I love you for showing me that place). An autobiography of Lillian Gish, A biography of Kishore Kumar, Stephen King’s ‘Everything’s Eventual” and “The Green Mile”. And (drumroll) “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” by Michael Chabon. It won the Pulitzer in 2001, and totally contradicts my no-prize-winning-critically-acclaimed-books rule. Umm, fact is, this one has a special storyline. (Eh heh heh heh)

And no, I didn’t gather no moss.

is here!

I leave at 8:30.

An hour ago, I just found out that that the three lectures involved three 96-slide presentations. Heh heh heh, so I can safely bore the poor guys to death now. The best thing in lecturing is the ability to keep talking inspite of the vacuous stare you get from all and sundry. You have to talk, and they have to listen. Bow wow wow.

Also two lab sessions. Hmmm, this is getting interesting, isn’t it?

All I need is some Frooti to put those pesky butterflies to sleep. And my Discman. And the Bombay Dreams cd. And a hug.

See y’all in Bangalore!!!!!

Right-o.
Holiday yesterday, so inevitably, went off to see Chicago for the third time with psasi, and enjoyed it as thoroughly as I had the previous two times.

The Psychelone was there, and true to form, he quoted something that seemed to make sense, and also put paid to any arguments I might have had to the contrary.

“If we can eat three meals in a day, what’s the problem in seeing two good movies a day?”

Off we went then, me and The Psychelone, to The Two Towers again. Sadly though, I drifted off to sleep sometime after Gollum and Frodo and Sam reached the Black Gate. Woke up just as the final attack on Helm’s Deep was about to begin. Sheeeeeee!!!!! Am ashamed of myself!

I just discovered that IIIT videotapes all lectures on-campus and stores them for posterity. Fresh bout of lightheadedness….it’s one thing making an ass of myself in a class, and another thing to have it archived!!! I think I will ask for the master-copy of the tape from the faculty.

The ticket to Bangalore hasn’t come yet!

It’s been ages since I started “The Great Indian Middle Class”, and I haven’t been able to find the time to complete the darned thing. Read something called “The Midnight Penthouse”, a collection of writings, essays, interviews from Penthouse magazine (yeah, that Penthouse magazine). Really good stuff by Henry Miller, Germaine Greer, Asimov, Norman Mailer, to name a few contributors. None of that, except for the saucy writing sometimes.