The 'grinding' lady

My childhood days revolved around a plethora of gentle souls popping in and out of our home everyday. Their regular visits were interrupted only during the most intense cyclone, that would promptly render all roads virtually impassable.

We never really needed to look at a clock to check out the time. The paalkari's (milk lady) early morning cry meant that only 30 more minutes of blessed sleep remained before we had to face another grueling day at school. At 9:00 am, it was Sakunthala's turn, feeding my mom with the day's gossip along with menu ideas when supplying the day's veggies. The 'poo' kari (flower lady) would show up just as the evening lamps were being lit, with a face as cheerful as the blooms in her basket. My mom would passionately swear that she was robbing us by gradually reducing the number of jasmine flowers per foot of twine, and the pookari would defend her trade like her family's honor depended on it and magnanimously give us a 'free' 2 inches of threaded jasmine.

The lady who fascinated me the most was our 'araikara mami' ('the aunty who grinds' being a literal and rather weird translation). Impossibly tall and skinny, she would show up every week. After patiently making small talk with my paati, she would sprinkle a few drops of water on our old fashioned grinding stone. Then, she would magically transform soaked rice and dhal into fluffy dosa and idli batter. I would sit next to her, utterly fascinated. Somehow, I could never comprehend how, in the abscence of sharp blades, just a dull stone appliance could work so effectively. I would often playfully drag my fingers along the batter's surface, and mami would never say a word; smilingly, she would simply maneouver the grinding stone away from my fingers.

I took her presence for granted. Now looking back, I can only remember the haunting sadness in her eyes, even as she quietly smiled at me. Was she unwell? What financial troubles prompted a lady like her to take up such physically intense work for a livelihood? In this day of instant dosa and idli batter, what does she now do for a living? Or, has God been kind to her...maybe her son now earns a good paycheck and takes care of her?

After I moved to the USA (its now exactly eight years since), I miss all of them immensely - the milk lady, the watchman, the flower lady, and the grinding lady. I really do. They have always been there for us - even spending many hours with my ailing grandmother, giving her the company that she yearned for. I am now too far away to return their affection - I can only thank them with all my heart.

Movie Review - The Dark Knight

Rare is the movie that lives up to its pre-release hype. Rarer still is the movie which blows away all expectations, exceeding even the highest hopes held by its franchise's loyalists. The Dark Knight belongs to the latter category. Calling it a movie, especially a super hero movie does it great injustice. It is a cinematic event. A benchmark that all future movie makers can only aspire to attain.

The Dark Knight's central theme is not really too different from other super hero movies. The secretive protagonist cannot reveal his true identity; his biggest fear is the fact that his loved ones are exposed to great danger. He struggles with a love/hate relationship with the public. Ultimately, he is forced into a massive showdown by the villain, and defends his city putting himself at great peril. Sure, this story reads a bit like Spiderman 3. Heck, even the rather pathetic Hancock had similar story elements. However, the storyline forms only a tiny portion of what The Dark Knight has to offer. The movie's zing comes from the unrelentingly dark screenplay.

The comicky feel of super hero movies can often be attributed to caricatured villains (remember Spidey's wussy dialogue "oh green goblin, what have you done....") These traditional villains have something logical (at least to their twisted minds) to fight for. And that is where The Dark Knight makes a radical shift from its genre. Batman's nemesis is the Joker. And the Joker wreaks havoc for one simple reason - because he can. As the movie progresses, the Joker's antics become increasingly terrifying - even Gotham's conventional villains (the mobsters) cannot survive. The Joker does not really want to destroy Batman - he needs Batman's good to contrast with his evil.

Much has been said and written by Heath Ledger's performance. He deserves every accolade and then some more. With his greasy hair, chilling voice, mirthless laughter, macabre makeup and scars across his cheeks (a tiny hint into the horrors he suffered as a child), Heath takes method acting to heights never before scaled by any other actor on this planet. I would love to watch this movie again, just to experience Heath's spine chilling performance.

While The Dark Knight belongs to Heath all the way, it would be a shame to ignore the supporting cast - Christian Bale as Batman, and Aaron Eckhart as the city's district attorney shine. Maggie Gyllenhal replaces Katie Holmes. I found her performance a tad disappointing - there was at least some chemistry between Katie and Christian. She also did bring some urgency and earnestness to her character.

The musical score by Hans Zimmer is simply brilliant. Also notable is the gritty action - there is very little use of CGI. Every stunt has been painstakingly executed. Even the heart stopping 18 wheeler chase was shot using actual vehicles, right in the narrow streets of Chicago. And speaking of Chicago, the director makes splendid use of the grand old city, transforming it into Gotham just by using strategic art direction and muted camera work.

Watch The Dark Knight. It is brilliant. Thank you Heath. We sure will miss you.

Some awesome television after a long time

Like a true blue desi, I get a little excited whenever there is any mention of India, or Indians in regular American TV programs. So, imagine my surprise when I started watching Heroes.

I never had a chance to catch this much acclaimed hit television series when it first started airing in NBC. Recently, K and I discovered the incredible watch-instantly feature of Netflix. All we needed was an HDMI cable to connect the computer to our HDTV and voila, the entire first and second seasons of Heroes was at our finger tips.

One of the lead characters in Heroes is Dr.Mohinder Suresh, played by Indian-American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy. In the series, he is shown teaching at "Chennai University", and later travels to the USA to pursue answers to the mysterious research performed by his murdered Dad. The scope of Heroes is sweeping and global- there are characters from Mexico, Ireland, Japan etc. I was pleasantly surprised by Mohinder's character, and more so by Senthil's performance -he comes across as intelligent and rather cute.

However, the set design is a let down. Sure, I did not expect NBC's cast and crew to fly to Madras and shoot in the thannithorai market, but, there is very little authenticity - you see sari clad women - albeit with sarees tied in the gujarathi style; Ok maybe they were trying to recreate Sowcarpet, but there are two towering temple gopurams (almost side by side) in the background. Huh??? And then, there is a sequence set in Kanyakumari. Looks like it was shot in a beach in California, which is ok given budget constraints. The Valluvar statue is shown in one shot, but, the next shot shows a Varnasi style temple structure right there in the seashore!

Well, I guess I am needlessly nitpicking. I am totally enjoying the idea of a mainstream Indian character not being reduced to a caricature. The series is genuinely good - it is entertaining, suspenseful, and sentimental (without being cheesy). The third season premiers in September. I cannot wait!