On Monday, Chandru told me that he has an old friend, editor of a very famous magazine on cars, coming to visit him this week. Seems he is a wacky chap, someone really difficult to get along with ( those were his exact words!) Then on Tuesday, Chandru comes to me and says that his friend was asking him about whether he could buy old Gold Key, Dell and Charlton comics in Hyderabad.

Aha! Someone who collects comics, and vintage comics at that….I pointed out that the chances of getting such comics in Hyderabad are precisely the same as anywhere else in India – if you are lucky, and if you are a frequent visitor to all the second-hand bookshops, you would get some, by the by.

Yesterday, I met him. And was bowled over. Seems he has been collecting comics for a very long time, and has a lot of contacts and knows a lot of other Indian middle-aged men who think nothing of wading their way through piles of old newspapers just to get at old Indrajal comics, and whatever else other morons threw out as trash. or sold to their raddiwaala. Even someone from Australia, who sends him out-of-print editions of Phantom.

It was good talking to him. Extremely knowledgeable about the golden age of American comics ( the 40’s), the golden age of Indian comics ( or rather, comics reprinted in India, in the sixties), and as he confessed, completely detached from the contemporary scene. I told him my interests, and his encouragement was profuse. Even advised me to bump off some of my relatives who ( i had informed him) owned substantial collections of old Phantoms and Tarzans.

Definitely someone I hope to be in contact with, and an inspiration. My dreams for a United Comics Fans of India draws closer.

It’s been about a year and exactly 202 posts since I started LJ-ing.

*insert obvious comments like “Man, time sure flies”. *
*mention how nice it has been tubthumping on a public forum*
*say “thank you, people, for being friends.” *

I am listening to this lousy version of Kangalil Kaidhu Sei on raaga.com. It’s flanging rather badly. I can’t wait to buy the cd. I think this is the vintage ARR I ( and loads of people on the ARRfans) had been missing for ages. Brilliant tunes!!!! And Hariharan is back with Rahman, singing a song called Azhagiya Cinderella.

I heard some more, and oh, my God, I want the cd NOW. Waah!

Allow me to coin a new term – “emotional vampirism”. A two-man cult of spazzies who have developed a perfect way of fleecing the already-fleeced-and-done-for group of cretins referred to as “the Indian Moviegoer”and “the NRI diasporaTM” by different newsmagazines.

Ladies and gentlemen, Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan.

What’s more irritating – hearing the tune of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai on a cellphone ringtone or during the opening credits of Dharma Films International? Ok, we know your first movie was a Super Duper Hit, Mr Johar. You don’t have to remind me about it everytime I go to see one of your emotionally-enriched films, or even a film that’s based on one of your emotionally enriched scripts.

Yes, good. Show us shots of Ye Old Manhattane in the beginning, and show us Preity Zinta running down whatever-street-that-is. Oh, how smart, that’s not Preity Zinta. That’s not-so-Preity Zinta in a pair of glasses. I wonder how long is it going to be before Ye Hero takes off those glasses and makes a swan out of the ugly duckling.

Ooh! How cute. You have a handicapped kid and another snivelling cutie-pie daughter. ( I was kind of wondering where you would bring the kid in.) And you have Jaya Bhaduri as someone called Jenny whose American accent resembles that of an American who has been born and brought up in Mumbai, India. As does everyone else’s English accents in the movie, except for the Americans, who sound Irish and Australian, and sometimes self-taught Hindiwaadis.

I also notice that you must have liked Dil Chahta Hai and every other Saif Ali Khan movie that came out after that, right? No wonder you included Mr Born-To-Behave-Like-A-Moron in your script. No, I am not saying anything, really, I am just waiting for your partner-in-emotional-vampirism to come on the screen.

Oooh! Family trouble, eh? Everything a mess, eh? Sweetums wants an angel, does she? A friendly neighbour, then, Hallelujah. Not just any neighbour – an irritating, put-your-nose-in-wherever-it’s-not-required, do-gooder and feel-gooder supreme – in other words, Shah Rukh Khan.

And as expected, there is a shitstorm of whatever makes the world of Karan Johar go around on its perverted axis – people in and out of love, people in and out of inane song situations, loads of digs at varied stratae of our Hallowed NRI DiasporaTM.

Oh, it’s magnifique. Absolutely the kind of stuff I had braced myself for, and the more I looked at how Shah Rukh Khan, who had disguised himself as some guy named Aman Mathur ( Aman=peace, get it? Symbolism in Karan Johar films, the same way you have someone in some other film of his dancing near the Pyramids – the white sand is supposed to represent virginity and the Pyramids are a phallic symbol. Yessir, subtlety is Karan Johar’s middle name ), the more I thought of how pleasant it would be to clone him 88 times and collectively call him The Crazy 88, and then let The Bride loose on him and his emotional eyebrows. ( Fixation? What fixation? Shut up, I am talking about Kal Ho Na Ho )

Mega-Mega Spoiler Follows:- Shah Rukh Khan dies at the end. Act surprised. Thanks.

If I could, I would make him die at the beginning of the movie, when Preity Zinta drops a cup of coffee all over his head when he spills some on her, thus caving in his heart. Or make him die of convulsions when he rips off a Roy Orbison song. To make it pathetic, I would have him die with one of the cute kids on his shoulder, so that the kid is traumatised for life and vows never to join the Phillum industry and indulge in Roy-Orbison-ripping-off. Anything, boss, anything but the three hours of sap I had to go through.

If you think all this is very unwarranted and did not make any sense, remember, I am the one with the Traumatic Emotional Experience, and not you.

As expected, the fifteenth viewing of Kill Bill was exactly the same as the first – profound, moving, and giggle-inducing. madhavn was here, and we had a great time. Finished Halo on Saturday, started Jedi Knights:Jedi Academy yesterday. psasidhar gave me the Mask of Zorro OST, and with that as a background score, I finished the Johnston McCaulley novel Mark of Zorro. Started Chocolat by Joanne Harris, which, the blurb promises, is the best feel-good book ever written. Right up my alley.

Week’s been a mess. Days spent completing the admin-console stuff for SP4 and nights killing Covenant /Flood warriors in Halo. ( I am at the second-last level, called “Light fuse, then run”) Somehow I also managed to complete Andrew Vachss’s False Allegations in a night and a morning. I dunno why, but I don’t feel as fagged out as I should have been……

My sister’s wedding is on the 1st of February at Baroda.

Things to look forward to over the weekend:

1) madhavn. The Man’s here, and we were supposed to meet tonight – curses, another infernal Build checkin, and I will have to stay back for odin-knows-how-long. So tomorrow morning it is, and Kill Bill at Prasad’s is definitely on sometime during the day. Hyderabad LJ-ers, give me call sometime/leave a message on YM. Or you might just come to Prasad’s – I will be the guy that looks like Smeagol except with longer hair, the one salivating near the KB poster.

2) The last level of Halo. And then I start playing it in Legendary mode. Let’s see how long I can keep this up before…I dunno….I die of an aneurysm or something.

3) Finishing the Bone TPBs. Reading some more of Helen DeWitt’s brilliant The Last Samurai (which, before anyone asks, has nothing to do with the movie )

A brilliant anime reviews site, 2fargon.

My sister’s getting slightly terrified. She was about to get married in May next year – right after her graduation – to this nice Gujarati chap, and all was well with her world. Suddenly this pandit crawls out of the woodwork and tells Prashant’s (Prashant being the nice Gujarati chap in question, my future brother-in-law ) parents that their son must get married before March 2004 or be damned for eternity.

Hmm.

Did I say my sister’s slightly terrified? Actually she was pretty much hysterical the last time we talked on the phone, which was last night. She has her final exams coming up in March. She says her friends will call her “auntyji” before she passes out of her institute and that will traumatize her for life. I believe some of her hysterics also stemmed from the fact that I was cackling loudly into the phone, and she was trying to appeal to my brotherly sentiments by making comments like – “Yes yes, you are very happy, aren’t you? No sister around to interfere in whatever you do in your life.” – to which I would say “Oh YEAH bay-bee!” and giggle some more.

Hmm. But this is somewhat worrying. My kid sister, three years younger than myself, about to get married in two months. Seems like yesterday when she was saying things like – “Boyfriends??? Guys??YUCK!!!!” over dinner table conversations. How time flies, and all that jive.

I have arrived at that famous Library level in Halo, the one with the all-out alien-bug-stomping sequences. And I seem to be holding out quite well. It’s actually the kind of mindless shoot-em-kill-em-ooh-here-they-come-again-shoot-em-again-kill-em-again stuff I like. Good for sinuses.

Did I say sinuses?

Finished Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son: Book 1 of the Alvin Maker series. Very good storytelling. I can’t wait to read Speaker for the Dead – which is Book 2 of the Ender series, and which my roommate, Rishi, has oh-so-kindly bought, inspite of the fact that he didn’t like the original Ender’s Game story.

I got the Warriors of Heaven and Earth audio cd! Whoopee! The only thing is – these morons at Sony Classical put in a Hindi version of the Warriors in Peace song, by Sadhana Sargam. I so wanted to listen to the Chinese version by Jolin Tsai. *sigh*

Tip of the day: Any comic strip with the name Sh*thouse has got to be good.