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Total control by David Baldacci

Book review

Fiction thriller genre

Rating 4.5/5 for the first half and start 3/5 for the middle and 2/5 for the end and climax!

No major spoilers!

I have decided to give David a chance after Absolute power which was a page turner with a sloppy ending!

Total control also heads that way according to me! The beginning was an edge of the seat thriller with one twist to another! Then the deaths followed like the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan!

Then you have the supposed lead escaping his fate ( not a spoiler!); And finally you have a flight full of passengers with bad luck!

Then you have a lawyer who has a small kid and family in the middle of a tornado of events beyond her control and understanding!
But it is surreal how she transforms from a suspecting insecure housewife to a gun trottling fugitive on the run!

Then you have over 100 pages of stretching a rubber band of a story to its very irritating climax! Literally much ado about nothing!

You have a very dedicated FBI agent who takes his emotions very seriously! The whole premise of this agent, just like the story starts very well but falters towards the end!
His deduction skills are amazing but they fail when it’s necessary! Dude, dance with the chance or that ship will sail!

Then you have a ruthless killer and an equally ruthless employer of the killer! And an even more ruthless ending! Letting you know anything more is spoiler!

Then you have some information on how federal reserve system works and how it affects the economy of US and World!

If you do not have tech then you do not have a novel for the next gen! So the premise is an upcoming tech company with a huge potential is up for grabs and two big companies are bidding for it! Then skeletons come tumbling out of everyone’s closets and the race begins to get that elusive disc with an even more elusive password!

So many pieces of puzzles finally join together for a single picture in the end is both remarkable and unreal! Take your pick!

Seems interesting but like I mentioned before, starts with a bang and ends in a whimper! Dude! If I want a dose of real real reality in the climax why would I read fiction!?

Definitely not total control but read it for the thrill but just lower your expectations!

What I do not understand is the rush to go inside the plane!
Folks, your seat is booked! You don’t have to rush to get them like a passenger train!
And if you are in the Aisle seat then it is better to go late or else you will be doing sit ups at least two times!

Later on though I understood why the hurry to go inside especially if you have lots of cabin bags since the over head cabin bays are limited and that’s where you need to reserve your place so to speak!

I have understood that if you want to take cabin baggage then make sure it is small enough to be placed below the seat in front! And it has compartments for easy access! It makes sense to place them down since they are accessible and you don’t have to fight for the space and when the flight stops you can just grab your bag and go!

Finally when you arrive at the seat you may see some old bloke sitting royally in your window seat and he or she may ask if you mind! If I am alone then I really don’t care but with kids I select the seat for a reason and if you are so particular about a certain seat then book them yourself in advance! Most seats especially the window seats are paid now and that’s not something you would want to let go!

In any case if you are old then Aisle seats are the best for you so that you do not have to squeeze in! You may have to get up occasionally to give way but that’s good for the feet and leg circulation!

After the Wrestling match of luggage bin and seat we try to settle in when suddenly everyone realises that their phones are going to be switched off! It’s as if their heart beat is going to stop! You then have a frantic attempt by everyone to call or use their phones just to say good bye more to the phone than to the person at the other end!

All the announcement of phones to be switched off is ignored and many would not even bother to straighten the seats and tray tables! The poor airhostess or cabin crew would try to be calm and smiling internally cursing the passengers for being such nuisance! It is this acting which can make many join the film world and do wonders!

Suddenly one guy will ask for a glass of water or a blanket and it will be followed by a stampede of requests for the same! Even if you have a bottle full of water in your bag! Or even if you are feeling hot! If it’s free then we will ask that’s the motto!

After all this the poor Air hostess or the cabin crew will go on to important announcement!
Only two kinds of people will listen to them with rapt attention! One group are the first timers or first time flyers! or you like to stare at them and make them as uncomfortable as possible! Many may check out how they look and what make up or accesories they are wearing without any concern of the words coming out of their mouth!

Many airlines have done away with humans and have video screen announcement for this which is much better!

The era of free food is over so if you want to eat then you need to pay! In most cases it’s better to pre book which saves money and you will be treated well! If you take tea bags with you then you can ask just for hot water and you make your own tea! Of course most dishes are instant made and may not taste that great! Unless of course you are in an international flight but then that’s the blog for another day!

Best things to order are the hot beverages or the dry fruits since those are good and price worthy!

Then comes the seat sharing! If you are with your family then there is usually no problem provided you have selected the seats before! Otherwise decide on the half! Either the first half of the arm rest or the second! Unless of course you get the business class and get ample arm space!

Then again if you are traveling business class then from waiting in the lounge to priority boarding to priority seating, I guess you are reading the wrong blog!

When we travel as a family then also we get calls from the airline about the upgrades offer! But then when it has to be multiplied by four or six then it’s not worth it!

Some will still go on calling the pretty airhostess or the smart cabin crew guy with silly requests or questions and those hapless folks just have to bear it as a part of their job!

Finally the captain will announce that they will land soon and wish everyone! While we will be thinking, all that is fine! Just land the plane properly! We will know when we land!

The whole scene of taking off is repeated and the poor Air hostess go for inspection to see if the trays are closed and seat is straight!
All when they had just collected the garage with an almost sincere smile!

Most of the times everyone become very serious when there is turbulence or while landing! That’s when you can feel the silence!

But once the flight is landed, it’s like someone placed a goal! The whole fight erupts with the starting of the phone in spite of the repeated announcement to keep seat belts on and remay seated!
There is an apparent first prize if you alight from the fight first! At least that’s how people behave! It later becomes a free for all as everyone rushes to the door as if the flight is going to crash after landing!

If you are lucky then you get an aerobridge but if you are not then the whole getting on the bus is repeated! This time though people prefer to stand since there are in a rush to get out!

In all the confusion you may not remember the conveyer belt number! But then if you follow the crowd or see the board you will mostly get it!
Unless of course like most people you need to use the rest room and you can be sure that it will be more crowded than the fruit market on a Sunday! The trick is to either use the rest room further away and not the one close to the gate or use it after you get your luggage from the belt!

Luggage itself is a big exercise though! Getting a trolley with good wheels and brake and getting space to lift your luggage! Here it helps if your luggage stands out because of its colour, make or markings!

Finally you take the prohibitively expensive taxi to your destination or come out and take the much better and cheaper local taxi!

Finding your taxi or your driver is another adventure though!
At long last when you safely are in your taxi you reminisce about your flight!
You reach home and crash on the bed
and decide that, for all the flight and comfort, there is actually no better place than home!

That feeling stays till your next domestic flight of course! Then the nightmare begins again!

Absolute power

Book review

Fiction thriler genre

Spoilers- none since everyone knows the killer in the first chapter! The book is about the chase rather than the big reveal!

Rating 5/5 for the beginning and the first half and 3/5 for the second half

This was David Baldacci’s first major novel and also made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman so you can imagine how it would have been!

It starts very well; you have a thief who carefully plans and enters into a high tech house of a billionaire to enter a secret safe which is a one way mirror with a view to the bed room!

Then the billionaire’s wife comes with her lover who is the most powerful man in the US! Things don’t go down so well in the affair so to speak and the wife is killed!

The whole scene is witnessed by the robber from the safe!

Now who would believe a two timing thief! Then it becomes a cat and mouse game between the most powerful man in the US vs first the thief then the thief’s lawyer!

After many many dead bodies and clean ups the rare but honest and relentless cop finally gets the point!

Throw in some bad and cruel secret service agents and an ambitious security chief and a very rich friend and you got an engaging first half!

Finally throw in a good and Moral lawyer (if there is such a thing!), who had everything going right for him but he was not happy! That’s when you realise that it’s fiction!
Even the ending is too movie like in my opinion!

All in all a good read and hopefully a series for me to continue!

If only the second half was as engaging! Read it to know what happens!

When I started writing this, it was to be a small paragraph but it turned out to be a big one and now I have decided to split it!It all starts when you have a big family with kids who cannot be managed for more than 4-5 hours and the only way is to reach your destination as soon as possible is to take the flight!Remember that if you need to go somewhere and the driving time is less than 6 hours then it is better to drive rather than take the flight since effectively the time will be the same!How you may ask? Well, you need to start for the airport three hours early so that you reach two hours before departure time (Even departure time is misleading since you must always see and follow the time of boarding!). Then you need to wait for the security and waste time in the boarding gate and again flight time which may not be more but then since almost all the airports are far away from city you can add the travel time in the high priced cab! So if you add all of these then the time may even be more!Of course if you want to go to a far away place then flight is the best option and since the tickets are fairly priced, it is also very cost effective! Now do not get me wrong! Flight travel has many advantages of which the time to reach destination is the chief one but then it also has its own share of problems!So we get up very early for a morning flight and if you are an OWL like me then in all likelihood I would have not slept at all! Then you have the cab which after many mishaps we have decided to not book through the app which may be cheap but very unpredictable! We instead always go for the car rental service to be on the safer side, it may be costly but they do not cancel and there is no surge pricing!Now Weekend Vs Weekdays travel! If you travel in the Weekend then the city traffic will be high but in all probability the airport will be crowded while in weekdays the city traffic will be choked and airport is usually not crowded! Then again there are exceptions when you get crowd everywhere! Of course you have got the jackpot if you do not get any crowd anywhere! (Do not get happy just yet! It may be that you are in Kerala and there is a strike and flood and your flight is cancelled!).Finally you pile up your luggage and arrive at the airport when after getting all your bags in one trolley (Including the kid bags which they had promised to take care themselves but then if they are sleeping because of a early flight then you have no choice!). This is when there is a clamour to get the Identity cards of everyone and if you are showing the passport then the security guy will tell you to open the photo page of everyone! Your spouse is holding one sleeping kid while you are holding the trolley which suddenly has a mind of its own! When you had started, it moved with so much effort and now suddenly it has a motorised wheel! The security personnel has seen this so much than he does not have the time or the patience or the necessity to offer you any assistance!Somehow you produce the correct page when he will ask you to place them in the order of names in the ticket! When you were clever before and placed them in that order, he will then tell you to place them in the order of the person entering!Then you stuff everything in your already full pockets (got kids so it is already stuffed with tissues, Vicks and maybe a cough syrup!) and enter the ocean that is the airport with no one telling you anything! So you need to print out your boarding pass (yeah I can do web check in but there is some problem in the details so I have been instructed by the very friendly computer to go to the counter!).In the counter again the Identity cards are given and luggage placed and I am given a look since I did not do web check in! I explain to her that I did the check in and selected the seats also but through the third party app and it did not get registered!Then she will tell you about the extra leg room seats which I would politely decline since I will have to buy four of them!Then after collecting the boarding pass which is now just a piece of paper and not the stiff card which we used to get before we proceed to the most frightening and messy part of the trip; the security check up!Here the family splits and we join the biggest line ever! This is when airport looks like the bus station and we wait for our turn! Many tensed passengers will then ask to come in the front since their flight departure is nearing! We would mostly oblige but the security person does not have to! He will take his own sweet time and the hapless passenger has no choice but to wait and grab the luggage and run!After so many experience, I have learnt to remove shoes, belts and even my steel ornaments so that I will not be told to go back! Then we need to wrestle the tray to keep the electronic items and remove the mobile and tablets out of the bag! It is a marvel that we remember that electronics are allowed in carry on and not check in baggage while food stuffs and gels and other stuffs like cutlery or knife in the check in bags! We must also keep the mobiles in the bag and not through the gate! Many will at this time put even the boarding pass in the bag and clamour for that!Even my 5 year old son is not spared and he is told to stretch his arm and stand straight! He would mechanically do that in half sleep! The things we do just because some nut decided to smuggle or get a bomb inside the flight! But then we bear it since security is important!Then we rush to get the trays back fervently hoping that it did not go into the inspection lane! Of course lady luck also sleeps this early in the morning! The security guy has found my son’s toy gun and he will not allow that inside! He gives me the option of going back and placing it in the checked in baggage and I just tell him to keep it and give it to his own kid whilst consoling my crying son at the same time!After getting dressed again and hoping that we have got everything we normally get some time to kill which is actually the code for money kill! The tasty idli which we get outside for ten bucks sell here for hundreds and you have to stand in another queue for that!Then the kids will eat your head for some prohibitively expensive gift or chocolate!After all that you rush to the toilet and boarding gate again hoping that they will not change in the last moment! Since Bangalore is a silent airport, you will only get a message so you glue in to the notice board like checking your name after the entrance examination!After the gate change you find that the boarding has already started! The polite lady is telling only the first rows to stand in the line but then we love queuing up always! And that too not in a straight line! Then again the identity cards and boarding pass are mined from the Bermuda triangle which is my pocket!Only to see my wife who had taken our daughter to the restroom is nowhere to be seen! She came at the last moment exclaiming much to my chagrin about the crowd in the loo! I also had the same experience! Somehow everyone wants to visit the airport toilet as if it is a tourist spot! Of course it is much better to use the toilet in the ground rather than the cramped hole which is the plane toilet!Finally we get into the bus to get into the airbus! (That was too hard to resist!) thinking our travel is almost done! But of course this is only the interval! There is a lot of movie left!Why the Rambo like image you ask!?
Well domestic traveling with kids is no less than going on a war!!

The Guardians by John GrishamBook reviewRating 4/5Spoilers NoneGenre Fiction but based on true storyMust give credit to John G for churning out novels at regular intervals like a factory! Especially since I have been stuck with one for the past three years!After the last Novel called the Reckoning, I had given up on JG but here he returns with a bang! All the sleuth stuff, digging for clues, dissection of expert witness, the lawyer inner codes and court room drama! No one can play it more real than JG!In the events of a recent encounter which deeply disturbed me, this novel is a guide on how law can go so wrong!It’s mind boggling how many innocents are stuck in jail because of the system and because of some crooks in uniform who use their power and position to frame anyone!It also does not help that most who are innocent are poor and can never afford a posh lawyer who can defend them!The novel is about a lawyer who quit practice being a public prosecutor and went into depression to turn to religion and find his calling in getting innocent people out of jail!They have a team which of course has like minded people who don’t work for money but only for that satisfaction they get when the fruits of their labour is realised and another innocent person is released!Many of them have been sentenced to death and of course to add drama they are having the last meal when they get the stay!So you have the regular and uniform police system in every part of the world so how can Florida be left out!
So you have crooked cops under the payroll of drug mafias who for some of the greens can plant evidence, then splatter animal blood over it!, Get false witnesses, make snitches snitch for them!, Make up eyewitness by bribe or scare!, And finally get some self proclaimed expert to make some mumbo jumbo to fool the bored Jury!
This is deja vu for many! Imagine if this is what happened to the recent encounter and it was actually someone else who had did the crime! Makes me shudder everytime!Even your biggest enemy must never get caught in the web of cops and court!So the chief story is of a black convicted by almost white jury for the murder of a white Lawyer! No evidence was of course required at the time since the bias would immediately pronounce him guilty! And the poor guy spent more than 20 years in jail for a crime committed by someone else!Many of JG novels end up in gloom and not so happy ending! But this one does not disappoint you is all I can tell without spoiling!In the middle of the novel when they free another innocent guy, you will definitely get moved even if your heart is made of stone!Since the novel is based on true people and story, it does get real and really sentimental!
Grab it with both hands and next time you see an arrest or encounter just fervently hope like me that he or she is the actual guilty party and not just an innocent victim!For them the only hope is the guardian!

This was close to ten years ago when I was in Chennai and going to the famous bus station in a local bus! ( Yes, bus! Now I don’t remember the last time I went in a bus!).

So I was already weary of the duty and since the journey takes around one hour I thought I can catch forty winks! Those were the days when during residency we used to get free time between duty and studies of around four to five hours and we were always sleep deprived!

Most of us will be walking around like zombies in the morning and reading like them in the night!

The minute we get any free time which could not be utilised for duty or study, we would sleep!
Of course normally sleep would come so easily and we were so proficient that we can sleep anywhere! Or in any position!

But just when I was looking forward to a quick nap, I got the misfortune of sitting next to a young (er!) guy who was yapping with his friend on the phone so loudly without a care of the world!

During those days I had enough drama in my life that I don’t have any need to eavesdrop into his conversation (still do but that’s an entirely different matter for a different Blog!); But the guy was speaking so loud that even the dude in the next seat could hear him loud and clear!

Imagine that this guy, let’s say X was enquiring the name of his friend’s girlfriend through the phone and that too so loudly!
He was telling him that he will keep it a secret!
For five minutes he cajoled and literally begged him to reveal the name!
When he finally did get the name, the whole bus heaved a sigh of relief!
If was Kavita if you must know!

He again persisted on details once the name was out!
How they met and how they meet!

It was then Lost my cool and I gently asked him to keep his talk low!

That’s when the scene changed!
Half of the bus was upset that the drama came to a stop! (Many had reached their stop but am sure that they continued!)
X angrily started abusing me in chaste Tamil and since I was just polishing my Palakkad Tamil, it was a lost cause from the word go!

I politely told him, “You just now promised your friend in the phone that you will keep the girl’s name secret and now even I know her name is Kavita!”

He was surprised and shocked at this revelation! He then accused me of deliberately trying to listen to his secrets!

Just when this argument was happening, an old guy from the back seat came and asked him, “Is your friend’s name Velu!?”

X replied in affirmative!

“My daughter is Kavita and Velu is our neighbour’s son! I thought he was a decent boy!” He said in chaste Tamil and almost catching X’s collar!

It was like karmic intervention for me! Of course I don’t know whether they were the same Velu and Kavita or what happened afterwards since our actual stop had arrived! But this whole experience did get my point across of mobile etiquette and how!

Just today waiting in a line at the super market (not everything can be ordered online always!); There was another such incident!
This time it was a girl, let’s call her U and she had one hand on the crate and another stabilizing the phone into which she was loudly conversing about how her work place was! The cashier automatically reduced her speed and gave her full attention to the drama!

I had of course learnt my lesson years back and just ignored everything including what she told about her neighbour, her mother in law and what not!

Just got my things, paid and left without an aa!

You do get wise when you get old (or married as the case may be!)

Mobile Phone is a luxury! Not a necessity! What can be said in five minutes can be stretched to hours! But what can be said in hours can still be said in minutes!
I have many times preferred the text to speech since it’s clear and concise and doesn’t disturb!

Many times I would ask even my friends to text me since I would be with my patients or even kids or family! Unless of course it’s urgent then I am sure that the person would call again rather than text!

Talking in public places is a responsibility! Why to broadcast your personal soap opera to the world!
But then that’s just my humble opinion! For everyone who doesn’t agree, broadcast away!

After a binge watch of all the spy series in Netflix and Amazon prime like the Bard of blood and Family man and Jack Ryan when I was trying to fill the gap caused by GOT completion, I chanced upon a popular series called the Walking Dead!

It was a juicy serial about a Sheriff who wakes up from a coma to be a part of a big zombie apocalypse!
America is obsessed with dystopia and zombie apocalypse!
Movies like World war z or Zombieland or the very famous Resident Evil series are a testimony to this fact!

In fact walking dead is a comic series and there have been numerous games inspired or based on this theme!
You have even modification and spin offs and what not!
There was an episode in Simpsons about this too in their Halloween special!

So coming to Walking Dead, this is an ongoing series and one of the few which keeps viewers engrossed to the last minute!

Just like GOT, it is essential that you do not get attached to any character! He or she may either die or turn into a zombie!

So while the series first starts with an intent to fight with the zombie, it later on progresses to Rick finding his family, then keeping his family, then it goes to getting a place then keeping the place then getting another place then losing the place then another place then keeping the place and so on!

While the first two seasons were mainly concentrated on the walkers much to our delight! The subsequent seasons were on the survivors who turn out to be bigger threat than the walkers!
Intermittently though walkers get into action and it’s a squeamish delight! But mostly they have been relegated to the back ground!
Lately the seasons have been focused on new type of threat called the whisperers!
This was like the critically acclaimed movie Bird Box which was also dystopian sans the walkers!
Be what may, it’s an entertaining series if you are into terror and horror! Or if you are simply bored cause that works too!!

So the quick guide to surviving zombie apocalypse are these!
– when in doubt run! So make sure you run and at least run faster than the next person or run towards a fat guy and out run him!!
– If it’s dark and you cannot see then wait for light or day! You know it’s not gonna end well!
– Never get relaxed or never put your guard down!
– don’t get bitten by walkers ever!
– aim at the head! Don’t waste time anywhere else!
– be a survivalist or at least make a friend who is one!
– learn how to farm and scout for things like food and medicine!
– remember that you cannot eat money so that’s never important!
– be prepared to eat anything but that of course does not mean that you start practicing that now!!
– learn how to use a bow or a spear or the most effective; a sword, especially a long one!
– try to gel with the crowd by not taking bath and covering yourself in filth so that you smell like them and even they will leave you alone!
– never trust anyone!
– if a group of zombies are attacking you then put that phone down and run!
Finally and most important! Be away from America! Since apparently most of the zombies end up there only!!

Check out the series though! It’s zombified fun!!

There’s this awesome and trendingdocumentary on Netflix called the game changers which is about sports men and women who have turned to plant based diet and have found amazing results!While initially I was a vegetarian due to the family environment, later on having being closely associated with animals and their welfare and having a genuine love and concern for animals dictated my life choices.It would be pertinent to say that having remained a vegetarian and teetotaler in a hostel in Kerala of all the places is in itself a big thing!Having braved all kinds of hurls and abuses and ridicule, I am glad that this documentary got released now!
The documentary shatters so many myths and misconceptions which we had about plant and animal based diet!Being a medico the first argument was usually technical in the lines of how animal protein was better and plant based diet was less in protein! The documentary shatters that myth in saying that animals are only middle men or brokers in that transaction!Then you have the myth how plant based diet doesn’t give you energy or endurance! Shattered again!Then about how it can work on Normal people but not on atheletes! That’s when the documentary gets into the food habits of many sports people like cyclist, wrestlers, weight lifting hulk Patrick! And a whole team of NFL players!
By careful analysis it gets into the scientific data and interpretation and creates a bang!It also debunks the myth that caveman were predominantly meat based!It starts with a trainer who gets into vegan diet for recovery from his injury and how!Then they show how even the most brutal fighters of the time, the Gladiators were vegetarians!Then of course you have the benefits of the plant based diet on a group of fire fighters who get their cholesterol, BP and stress get reduced in a week of plant based diet!Add to it you have a cook who can make them taste like any meat you like!Finally you have the Mr Universe! Arnold Schwarzenegger tell you the benefits of plant based diet! Digest that!For many still not convinced you have a urologist who demonstrates an experiment on how plant based diet is better for your sexual potency!Many other myths have been debunked, how soy phytoestrogens actually block the absorption of estrogens and how animal diet increases the estrogens and reduces the testosterone! So next time you feel manly after eating meat just know that it’s only a pseudo feeling!!😁😁Finally about vitamin B12 levels where it’s been proved that even animals are just middle men only! Take supplements even if you eat them! Since that’s deficient in both diet because of chemicals.I know you will ask about your canine teeth then! Fear not! That also has been dealt with!Then you have effect of meat and production of meat in the environment which is near catastrophic!Maybe this may not convince you to change but do watch it to see how meat industry is like the tobacco industry which gives you the myth of the meat and the man! Don’t fall for it!Finally please remember that this is not a sermon on vegan or vegetarianism! This is just so that next time no one will ask me why am I a vegetarian!? Just make sure you ask yourself, why aren’t you one!?Don’t miss the game changers which is shaking up the world! Maybe it will shake up yours too!Why the gorrilla sketch you ask! Well, one of the scenes they show how the strongest animals are herbivores like the elephant, rhino and the mighty Gorrilla!Also I am sure when you talk of men then this is the animal you must emulate right!?😀😀

The year was 1991 and we were glued to our TV sets since the once in a year grammy awards were being shown!Those were the days when award shows were like the guide for people like us to decide which movie to watch and which song to listen!Still remember how we used to watch the Filmfare awards and rush the next day to the video parlor to get the tape of the movie which got the maximum awards or the best movie award!Still remember how I bought the movie Khoon Bhari Maang after we saw the amount of nominations it got!Somehow though songs were accessible immediately and there were many movies which used to run only because the songs were super hit!The era of audio cassettes ensured that Hindi and Indian language movie songs were purchased without the wait of the awards since at that time there was no great award for music or any musical show as such!There were times when the songs were so good but the movie turned out to be such a let down! Ashiqui is one movie which comes to mind on this!English songs though were tough since they were expensive stuff and we had to rely on these awards to make a choice!
We used to see grammy and get the best of grammy collection to get the maximum benefit from the award show!!The movie was Robin hood and the song was “Everything I do, I do it for you!”
That was when we knew that Bryan Adams had arrived! This thin not so great looking guy with not so melodious voice had instantly become the heartthrob of millions of Boys and especially girls!Every other show will have this dedication from a love struck Romeo!Add the fact that he did not have any muscles made many boys relate to him more and more importantly have some hope! 😀His next door boy look and intense and deep voice with moving lyrics made him an instant pin up for boys and girls alike! Guys wanted to be like him and girls just wanted to listen to him!Although Bryan was already popular with his Summer of 69 song, it was this number which made him and the movie popular!Bryan still continued to rule when we moved on to college by that cheeky album called, “18 till I Die!”.
Apart from the title song, the song called “I wanna be!” Also stood out!Who can forget songs like cloud number nine or heaven!
His coarse voice still has the strength to make millions drool!
This was of course before another Canadian singer Justin Bieber came and repeated what Bryan did!That line makes me realise how old I have become!Anyways, birthday wishes to the one and only Bryan!
Like you I also say 18 till I Di(y)e 😜😀😀

The weekends of DD!

Those were the days when the options were none and you would just take what’s given!
Oh to be able to go back to no choices!

Just last week we had all the channels and the firestick and subscription to most of the online streaming apps and we ended up watching Malgudi Days just for old times sake!

Still remember how Mahabharata and Ramayana would bring the whole country to a standstill and the whole family would be glued to the small screen mostly black and white TV just to get a glance of Rama and Ravana! If you had a colour TV then you were the most sort after!
How those two arrows used to come towards each other simultaneously emitting light or fire and getting the other one!
It was simply magic!
And now if we see that, our kids will ridicule us to no end!
Mahabharat by Chopra is still watchable even now though!

The icing on the cake would of course be the weekend movie!
Being spoilt for choice means that you have never understood the joy of waiting the whole week to see a movie! And now we can’t even see the full ad in you tube and hit the skip ad button till it works!

Those days though a good movie would be rarity and most movies will the the ones which would not have made much money!
In those times movies were great when something special happens or its a special day! Still remember the Gandhi which was a constant during most National holidays!

Those days the best movies were the ones which had Amitabh Bachchan in it! It was a forgone conclusion that if a movie has Amitabh Bachchan then that movie will automatically be good and entertaining!
Only exception (for the little me and not the wise present me!) Was a movie starring Amitabh Bachchan called the Saudagar! This is not the new Saudagar which had the ILU song! In this movie, Amitabh was a lowly and selfish jaggery seller! It was a drag during that time though now I would appreciate it more!

Apart from this exception, most of his movies were a crowd puller to the weekend TV!

Another time when you get good movie was when an actor or a star associated with a famous movie died!
If that was a big star then rest assured you will get a good movie of the star in the weekend! It was tragic and cool at the same time!

We still remember when Amjad Khan died and everyone were excited that DD will show Sholay! That was his best film and that’s the way it normally is!

Of course they did not put Sholay and gave us Amjad Khan with Jeetendra in tight pants! A movie called Hatim Tai! Of course since it was a special effects movie, it was not a complete washout!

It was no Sholay though! We always had a discussion about who has to pass away for Sholay to come to TV!

Even after the emergence of cable TV, Sholay still did not make its way to the idiot box soon! Surprisingly we have many latest movies nowadays which come to us within months!

So the appearance of Sholay was a grand event! I think it was in the year 1995 even finally it was shown!
The movie was so long that even rental videos had two copies!
And add to the advertisements of those days it was not like watching ads between movies but watching movie between the ads!
We were upset also that there was a power cut in the middle. We were fervently hoping that the electricity board may make an exception to the load shedding for one day since you don’t get Sholay transmitted everyday! But I guess most in the electricity board did not watch Hindi movies!

The consolation was that most got to watch the beginning funny part and the tragic end!
So movies may come and go but for a KV kid of the 80-90s, Sholay would remain that movie which was the King! And of course Amitabh Bachchan will be our first super star!

Wanna select!? Head or head!?😁😁
Now lemme see what series to download so that I can binge watch it without ad on my tab!