The Machinist

The Machinist
Saw this movie last night at 2.30am …oh that won’t b last night…that will be today morning lol … no its 12.28 am now…so it was last night only… lol
The movie was released in Jan 2004 and I saw it pretty late, after 4 yrs.

Anyways the movie is really good, it’s a psychological thriller.
Directed by Brad Anderson and lead actor is Chistian Bale.

The movie is about a guy named “Trevor Reznik” who has chronic insomnia. This along with the guilt inside him makes him suffer from hallucination.

The movie is really fun to watch, it’s the movie with different pieces of jigsaw puzzle with the last piece coming in the end.

There is nothing much to write about the movie…Everything becomes clear in last 5 minutes when Trevor discovers what actually is going around him. The story is quite simple but what matters is how it has been put up and beautifully directed by the director and performed by the actor.

For a guy like me, the movie has been refreshing. :-)

The most appreciable part of the movie was the weight loss by Christian Bale for the role.
He lost around 28 kg for the role. He looks like a skeleton in some scenes. I would suggest you to take a look at the pics of the actor in the movie, it is simply amazing.
To have a look at the pics Please click here

Earlier I thought that it is the special effect but then since the built remains the same skinny in the entire movie I checked out Wikipedia and came to know about the facts.

I would rate it as 3.5 on the scale of 5.

To read more about the movie Please click here

7/11 Mumbai Blasts -- I was in one of the trains

I joined the company on 25th may 2006 and after about month training we came to Mumbai on 26th June 2006.

They were my early days in Mumbai.
For my first project I used to travel everyday to lower parel in local train.
The first day I got in local I was quite excited cuz I had always heard about it but never experienced the crowd, the rush, the sweat and the joy :-)

It was 11th of July 2006 Tuesday; I went to office in local, as a part of my daily office routine.
I made a friend named Kush in the project. He was senior to me but we used to smoke together in breaks and then you must know, 2 smokers become friends too early :-)

It was around 5.30 pm when Kush asked me if I wanted to leave with him. I agreed. Pre monsoon had begun in Mumbai so everybody preferred to leave early.

If I would have been alone…my routine was to walk to lower parel station...alone...with a sutta in hand and then catch a borivali local.
But today I was with Kush and he insisted me to walk till elphinstone road.
His daily routine was to have a glass of juice there and then get a train to borivali.
I accompanied him.
We reached station by 6 I guess and then we got in the local.
As usual we never got the seat and we were so used to stand in local.

Few stations passed by dadar, matunga, mahim, bandra and then khar road.

We both were just chatting about something and then it happened.
There was a blast, a big one; it was like a sutli bomb (noisiest Diwali firecracker in India) just exploded near our ears.
The train stopped. Within seconds we heard people shouting screaming, hell lot of panic.
We 1st thought that some transformer must have exploded but then there was smoke too.
Everybody started shouting Bomb!! Bomb!!
People started jumping from the train and ran away from the compartments.
We too jumped from the train and then had a look at the train from outside…it blew my mind as good as the train bogie was blown up by the fuckin Bomb.

The 1st class men bogie just ahead of ours 1st class men bogie was blown up…was torn apart like a cardboard toy train bogie…it was hard to believe that the train is made up of iron…or may be I never knew the power of a bomb.
(For blasted bogie pics, click the link for pictures at the end of the blog.)

It was such a panicking situation…people started running for safety and many others even stayed calm and ran to help the people in the blown up bogie.

I was standing with Kush and looked at the fucked up bogie and that was my 1st and last look towards it…

there was blood…there were bodies…and there were iron pieces both equally blown up…I could not believe what I was looking at…people were shouting…people from nearby apartments were throwing water…may be medicines…and I guess few bed sheets too…to help the people helping others…Some were helping the wounded victims to get a seat on track and cover their wounds…I saw a man with the blood covered shirt…some nice guy was helping him…
(For pics, click the link for pictures at the end of the blog.)

People have always cherished the helpfulness of the people of Mumbai and that day I saw it with my own eyes.

I walked along with Kush to the western express highway and there we could see how the city has been affected.
It was a heavy traffic jam; people were getting into all possible transportation available to reach their homes.

Just after the blast the entire mobile connectivity went down in the entire city…there was either heavy congestion…or as some one even said…the service providers do it purposefully so that there should not be any rumors…
To our luck we both were able to call our beloved ones and inform them that we are safe…

After we reached highway, to our luck after sometime we got the lift till kandivali.
Two elder guys in a car gave us the lift, probably they noticed out company id cards (exposing them was Kush’s idea).

From kandivali we both got in a bus and reached borivali…we then separated and rode to our respective homes…I took the rick till my place.

I don’t exactly remember when, but later I came to know that there have been in all 7 blasts in the 7 different local trains in the city…all were from Churchgate to Borivali or Virar…in the most peak hours…trains are highly crowded…and that’s what the motherfuckers’ aimed for…a big toll…and they got it…209 lives ended in the attacks and almost 700 got injured.

The blast in our train was the first of the seven blasts.

The 7 blasts took place in exact 11 minutes from 18.24 pm to 18.35 pm.
The date was 7/11 too.

When the train came to Elphinstone road station, I almost ran to get into the 1st class bogie which was ahead in the train…then Kush just held my hand and stopped me saying I don’t need to run as one more 1st class bogie will halt at the place where we were standing…there are the poles marked with colored strips as the mark…which I was not aware of…and then we got in the bogie which arrived infront of us…just few minutes later…the 1st class bogie infront of us was blown up…I would have been in it…if Kush wouldn’t have stopped me…

Later that night…I got a message from Kush “the distance between our life and death was between Elphinstone road and lower parel”.
He was true…if I would have got into train from lower parel…I would have got in the 1st class bogie ahead in the train…probably it would have been the last day of my life…or probably I would have been handicapped and life would have been worse than death…I am thankful to Kush :-)

In a few days the city returned to normal…as they as…Mumbai never halts!

The very next day I left for my hometown Nagpur and then I had to tell my story to all my friends as everybody was so curious to hear it :-)

Yesterday, exact 2 years passed by after the incident.

Life hasn’t changed much…same crowd in locals…same sweat…same rush…same joy.

*** This blog is a tribute to the victims of the attacks and is dedicated to all my well wishers and especially to Kush.

To know more in details about the attacks Please click here

The pictures related to the blasts are quite disturbing,
To see the pictures Please click here

10 t-shirts, 5 shirts and 1 trouser

Hehe…isn’t that a weird title for the post…
Some of you may think that’s what I shopped for this weekend…
But that’s not true.
U know what it is?

It’s the count…count of clothes I washed today…lol
Ya I myself wash my clothes (my roommates too)
We had a dhobi (washerman) but we were not satisfied by his work and why we haven’t bought washing machine, I don’t kno :-)

Now everyone wash their clothes according to their comfort and feasibility.
The best way to wash clothes is to wash them asap after they get dirty with sweat or dust or something else…but wash them asap so they don’t pile up on ur ass…

But as usual I am used to let things pile up.
At Eleventh hour….u know…sometimes I feel my life started at 11th hour…hehe

Anyways…so the thing is…this is not the 1st time I have washed so many clothes at a time…but that doesn’t mean…I do it easily…

Man I woke up at 12 (its normal on weekends…I felt I woke up pretty early…lol)
I was thinking of washing clothes from few weekends but couldn’t manage…
Finally I decided that today is the big day…
I started sorting out the clothes which need the wash…and it was no surprise that almost all needed it…hehe…

Specially my t-shirts….man…I can’t tell u how dirty they got…
Rainy season is going on in mumbai…already the normal moisture content of air is so much and this causes the clothes to absorb this moisture and then the sweat mixes with it and then it forms those white marks on clothes…I guess this is cuz of the salts present in our sweat…in rainy season some more reaction happens which make these marks worse…worse like feeling YUCK when u take a look at your black t-shirts after quite a lot days…
This is my own understanding of how the marks are formed…and I m pretty sure that it's correct :-)

Anyways I took a look at my black t-shirts after a long time…I felt yuck…and then I couldn’t ignore it anymore…I had to wash them…
8 black t-shirts
2 non black t-shirts
5 formal shirts
1 formal trouser

16 fuckin clothes man…I washed them at one go…
I went inside bathroom at 5.30 pm or something and came out at about 7.30.
I took almost 90 minutes to finish the job…and then I bathed and then a relaxing sutta (sutta is a hindi slang for “cigarette”)

Right now I am alone at home.
Roommates have gone for movie…I denied cuz I knew I won’t make it and I dint want them to get late cuz of me.

Watched TV for sometime…Venus Williams beat Serena Williams in Wimbledon final… :-)
Came online for time pass but no1’s there…anyways planning to see a movie…on my laptop…time to log off…bye n tkcr.

What A Day !!

This is a blog on 29th June 2008.
Sunday.

I was in pune.
Went to meet Rumi.
I reached pune on Saturday, the day was usual.
Sunday began normally.

Rumi, me, Akshay and Veenu, we met.

1stly we went to telephone shoppee to buy the mobile for Rumi.
She wanted to buy a nice and costly cell.
We bought HTC P4350 for her. Its an awesome phone.
The piece is same like mine but it has a keyboard below it.
It comes sliding out and then you have to operate the phone horizontally.
It is too cool.
I was too excited, I guess more than Rumi :-)

Then from there we decided to go to meet Wasim, as he was operated for some minor operation of extra growing bone of his nose. Veenu was driving the santro in which we all were there.
And then at a turn, while she was taking left, there was a esteem going straight on the perpendicular road and before that car should pass Veenu took the turn and there was slight touch of the 2 vehicles.
The front bumper of santro hit the back bumper of the esteem.
Speaking the truth, our vehicle was more damaged than the front car. But the fact was that it was our mistake ;-) hehe...not completely though.

At 1st the 2 vehicles stopped.
But then the ladies from the esteem got out and started arguing.
I didn’t expect that the matter will be stretched for the time it actually got.

There was big argument between the two parties.
The worst part was that in the front car, only driver was male and all others were females.
And that’s the worst that can happen, according to me.

The females in the car started speaking so nonsense that I get irritated even now if I think of every fuckin senseless argument they were giving.
We were at the accident spot for more than half an hour.
I tried to convince the driver that these things happen...
There was just a scratch on there back bumper and it got a small dent too but I still believe it was earlier there; probably it got more bent cuz of our hit.
I tried to convince driver to take some few hundreds from us and settle the matter but that idiot was pressurized by the women and hence we all went to the near by garage to know how much actually the damage was.
We drove to the garage near by and there again we wasted another half an hour just arguing.
I was so frustrated arguing with those 3 females …I just can’t express it in words here.
The perfect hindi words or say phrases for it are “Dimaag ka dahi hona”…or “matthapacchi”.

At last when I was still giving fight to the senseless arguments of those females in front of the garage mechanics, Askhay came in between and gave the driver 1000 bucks and that was the end of the fight.

I still feel that I would have fought and settled the matter in hundreds but that’s fine.
Sometimes it’s better to just get the rid of such matters rather than staying and arguing and waste your time.

There are many things and dialogues from the incident (accident) which were too funny proving how dumb the females are, but mentioning it in words won’t create that effect.

One good thing from our side was that none of the 2 gals in car got out for the argument. :-)

Anyways after that we went to meet Wasim in hospital and then at night it was a big match…Euro Cup 2008 final between Germany and Spain.

I don’t wanna remember all of it as I feel that Germany really didn’t perform up to expectations and hence lost the match :-(

So in all the day was all about mixed feelings, excitement and happiness of buying a nice phone, adventure and frustration of an accident and then sadness of Germany losing the match.

What a Day !!

Holland vs Russia (Euro Cup 2008 3rd QF)

Few minutes back Russia got into the Semifinals of the Euro Cup 2008.
The match was really an exciting one.
Though not as exciting as last nite's match :-)

Netherlands has been the highest goal scorer in Euro Cup 2008 till today.
They have scored 9 goals in just 3 matches and won all of them.

But today in quarter final knock out match against Russia they didn’t do that well I guess.

1st half went without goals.
In second half Russia scored the 1st goal in 56’.
I watched match from 75’ (was out for some personal reason...came home at 1.30 am :-) )
When it was almost the end of the match, just before 4 minutes, Netherlands managed to equal up the match. A goal was scored at 86’.
All depressed Holland fans as if were celebrating their independence.
They were so damn disappointed and depressed just a minute ago and then suddenly this goal brought them to life.

The match equaled with 1 – 1 score and then began the extra time.
In 1st half of the extra time no goals.
Then in 2nd half at 112’ Russia did it.
What a goal it was…a shoot from near the corner just ahead of goal and then a winning touch by another to get the ball inside.
As if this was not enough just within 4 minutes Russia hit another goal at 116’.
This too was a fantastic goal.

Netherlands couldn’t do anything after that.
They knew their destiny.
The game was over.

Russia had knocked them out.

Russia defeated Netherlands by 3 – 1.
The only match Netherlands lost made them leave the cup.

Tomorrow is the last QF match between Spain and Italy…its gonna be a great fun too.
Let’s see what happens.

Gudnite …time to sleep…zzz

Croatia VS Turkey (Euro Cup 2008 2nd QF)

Its 3 am 21st June 2008.
One of the most dramatic football matches just ended.
Euro Cup 2008 2nd Quarter Final Match between Croatia and Turkey.

A total play of almost 125 mins.
The match ended as 0 – 0 in 90 mins.
Then began the extra time for 30 mins.
No goal in 1st half of extra time.
No goal till 118’.
And then in 119’ Croatia hit the goal. A pass from near the corner and then header to score the goal.
All Croatian fans were as happy as they should be.
And all Turkey fans were equally depressed.
Isn’t it fantastic to score the goal in the second last minute of the match and that too in the extra time?
Man what a match changing point it was.
Croatian players along with their coach were as if celebrating the Euro Cup Final Win.

And then it happened…Armageddon for them…Sky fell on them…Dreams Shattered…

In fuckin 120+2 min of match, last min of match, just within a min after Croatia scored goal…in extra time of extra time, Turkey scored a goal. A free kick for Turkey which came in D and them Semih hit it straight in the goal like a bullet.

It was so dramatic. Match equaled just in time…and literally just in time.

The complete scene reversed.
Turkey fans cheering up. Croatian fans tensed.

It was time for Penalties.
Croatia hit the 1st…SAVED by Turkey’s 35 yrs old goalkeeper.
Turkey hit the 1st…GOAL.

Croatia hit the 2nd…GOAL
Turkey hit the 2nd…GOAL

Croatia hit the 3rd…AGAIN SAVED
Turkey hit the 3rd…GOAL

Croatian player came for the 4th hit…If he doesn’t hit this as GOAL…Croatia is OUT.
Turkey goalkeeper…if he saves this one…Turkey is IN.

And then they WON…TURKEY…
The goal was saved.

Tears rolled over Croatian fans’ and players’ faces.
And all Turkey fans and players were enjoying.

Croatia didn’t lose a single game in Euro Cup 2008 before this.
But the only one it lost…dragged it out of the game.

A great match, it was.
Turkey defeated Croatia by 3 – 1 in Penalties.

Time to sleep…3.40 am

Memento

Some Memories Are Best Forgotten.

Memento...
Saw this movie last Sunday 15th June at 2 am :-)
Was getting bored and then came to know that the upcoming Aamir’s movie "Ghajni" is a remake of this one.
So decided to see it as it was in my collection.

Memento is directed by Christopher Nolan, I had seen one more movie by him "The Prestige" and it's also a cool movie.

Memento actually means a thing kept as reminder, that death is inevitable.

A real cool movie.
It’s a psychological thriller film...as described in wiki.
The movie is about a guy who suffers from anterograde amnesia...in which you cannot build up more memories...after the point of incident (accident).
This is the condition which Guy Pearce(Leonard) keeps on telling everyone he meets.

Leonard chases a guy named "John G" and since he can’t rmbr anything about the people he meets he keeps on taking their snaps and writing notes on them.
To make sure he doesn’t forget the details and clues he also has imp clues tattooed on his body allover. The one most imp, alws making him rmbr his aim is on his chest written in mirror image "John G raped and murdered my wife".

The movie has just 3 main characters – Leonard, Teddy and Natalie.

The movie is beautifully directed.
The movie has 2 sequences running in black & white and color.
The b&w sequence is the forward chronology and the color one is the reverse chronology.
It’s really fun to watch the movie...as u will keep on scratching your head in order to fix the jigsaw pieces shown on screen...but it is not until last sequence shown that you will completely get the final order and positions of the pieces.

The 1st scene of the movie is the last scene of the story and the last scene of the movie is the middle scene of the story but revealing the truth. Sounds confusing huh…but that’s what it is.

It’s a low budget movie and shot in just 25 days.

This was the 1st Guy Pearce's movie I saw and I liked the actor.
The only person known for me in the movie was Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss – Trinity in Matrix).
It’s a recommended movie.
I give it at 3.5 stars out of 5. :-)