museman

This day, every year, Museman observes his birthday. Well, that is bluntly stating that today is my birthday.  

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Many people that I know have a compulsive disorder of knowing about the important things that happened on their birth date. Dhirubai Ambani was born, congress party was founded, the first flight of Wilber brothers, the first public screening of a moving picture. These are the important events of December 28. Although, I will have to admit that I can

God is back from downtown, a little drenched, the effect of cyclonic storms. Ramu is all awake. Sitting and contemplating. God accosts the subject again.

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So son, gave it a thought?

Yes God. Drenched?

Yes. Heavy rains I would say.

Tell me God, you are the one who made the rain come down, then why didn

              I have always wanted to review movies. Just for my own satisfaction. That I used to watch at least two movies per week until recently was a corroboratory reason. In fact, when Bluff Master got released in the city, I thought of watching it first day first show, to churn out a review myself and compare it with Fullhyd's review. That didn't happen though.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

There are two things which make it impossibility for me to write reviews.  One-fourth of the times, I go to the movie half-an-hour after the titles have rolled. The other three-fourths of the time, I get out of the movie theatre a jolly one hour (or so I assume) before the movie ends. Off late, I have realized that one must listen to one's heart. The moment I realize that the movie is nonsensical and boring (which is usually the case)I get up and leave the hall. Under such circumstances, the maximum that I can possibly give is half a review. Unless you have masochistic liking for sitting through a torture-a.k.a-movie, you must not venture out to become a reviewer.

            There are far more serious issues that you have to grapple with. What are you supposed to give in a review? The general public's opinion or your own? If you give your view, how could it possibly be a measure of the audiences pulse? What if you proclaim that a movie is a super flop on the Friday afternoon and it goes on to become a super hit? Would it be ok if you write in your review for Veer-Zaara that you were so very bored by the trailers of Veer-Zaara, that you didn't have the guts to see it and as such can't review it? Will the editor still persist with you if you do such a thing? What if you wanted to say that 'Ek Ajnabee' is a laugh riot purely because of its insanity? Is it necessary to say that Amitabh was a great actor, even when the whole movie is a complete crap? These I presume are some of the occupational hazards of being a movie reviewer. Me wondering if movie reviewers also get 'Vicks action' allowance along with their pay-pack.

I have always had a soft corner for reviewers. From time immemorial I have been reading reviews. Sunday reviews of Indian Express were the most trusted verdicts for me. I used to read Deepa Gehlot's review just for fun. I don

I love tender coconuts. Especially the ones which have tender meat inside them.  And so we were standing (me and another friend) at the busy junction, drinking tender coconuts. You get so very tangled in everyday businesses that in spite of a strong urge to drink a coconut daily, we stop by the seller only once in a while.  And every time I stop, I make it a point to drink as many as my small stomach can take in. Alternating between malaiwala nariyal and paaniwala nariyal.

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            Even as we were relishing the coconut, a woman and a small girl came and stood beside us. The lady had a bowl in her hand. It's a common sight through out the breadth and height of < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />India. Beggars we call them.  The bowl was empty.  The small girl was bare foot and looked haggard.  They said something in Oriya. I had no clue what they said. I looked at them puzzled. The small girl was looking at the tender coconuts, with parched lips, scaled hands and unkempt hair. The lady motioned the bowl signaling that she was asking for alms.

            It

God has become fashionable.  I mean, I don't mean to say that god has started wearing jeans and chinos on an alternate day basis.  The last thing that you could blame me for is for blasphemy.

I am a god-fearing man. Just that the notion of god has become chic these days. Any thing ethnic or culture-rooted is considered to be in. So many books have come up which feature god as one of the characters. Somehow, all these novels try and humanize god.  We will also stick to it. What follows would be a conversation between Ramu and God. Now, who is Ramu is a question that I wouldn