In Transit

It took me 34 hours to get home- from Geneva to Bangalore. 22 of these were in Doha- at a most pleasant hotel not far from the airport. Exhausted from two weeks of exams and two days, post exams, of drunken revelry I decided to stay in the hotel room for most of the day.

Enid- which I saw just before leaving for my Bangalore bound flight was very good. It made me detest Enid Blyton, and want to punish her for being evil to her children. But me enjoyment of the Faraway Tree tales, and the rest is quite secure- as the books have magically remained perfect in my head despite their author's apparent evilness.

On the flight from Geneva to Doha I watched three movies. Usually I like to eat and fall asleep but as I was stuck between two very twitchy men sleeping was impossible.

Weddings and Other Disasters was alright. Nothing special, but I don't watcha lot of Italian film- specially not recent stuff.

Heartbreakers- with Vanessa Paradis was very entertaining. It was a bit of a French lesson, which was good, and the dance bit was fun. I would recommend this one.

I also saw all but the end of Step Up 3- which I would not recommend to anyone. It was a foolish movie. And even though I love So You Think You Can Dance, there was no getting beyond how ghastly this movie was.

On Christmas morning I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Why does Brad Pitt make these slow and tragic movies- where everything seems to be on an epic scale- but is just - ... movies like a River Runs Through it; or the other where he plays the guy who steals is brother's wife- the woman who makes with all the men in the family. That particular kind of Brad Pitt movie I am getting very tired of. Maybe he's just so beautiful that they don't know what to do with him, except stick him in these frames with the endless sea, or grass, or mountains. (Is it showing that I don't like him much? I don't.)

And then theres all the stuff I watched this week- while at home- which I shall do a separate post about.

Happy New Year everyone

updates of a general nature

fresh from a trip to turkey (so beautiful- but iffy about some of the food- why were so many things served cold?) and dubai (iffy about the place but oh- the food!).

and what have i been reading?

Moonraker's Bride by Madeleine Brent (Peter O'Donnell)
Was sure that i had read this before- but forgotten the story. All very predictable and very fun.

Master's Of Illusion: The World Banka and the Poverty of Nations by Catherine Caufield.
I haven't finished this yet, but I will, once my mother returns it. I allow myself to read no more than 50 pages a day because any more will cause an attack of some sort. caused by total horror.

poocha prashanam: the cat question

One rather large, dappled cat has appropriated my bed.

Its a tiny room, and since September is still unreasonably warm we leave the windows open at night. There is a cooler- but it makes such a racket, and needs constant (ok maybe not so constant, but we are lazy) refilling.

Every morning I wake up to find a large and heavy furball at my feet. When I get up it does too, hisses at me and exits through the window. Never through the balcony door, which is also, always open. Why?

Now this cat is a rather wild one, given to hissing and hunting pigeons- which it does with great skill. There are feathers on the landing by mid-morning. It spends much of its time stalking about the corridors after dark, and yowling at the clothes that are hung out to dry. It can't be too clean as I have seen it foraging in the most questionable of areas. It doesn't look ticky. But how can I tell for sure? It arrives after I fall asleep and leaves when I get up. I must stop calling it 'It'. Maybe Orlando- as I have no way of telling whether he is a he or she is a she. Maybe Kiran- also nice and non commital. Maybe Princess Leia- it has delusions of grandeur. Maybe Jabba- as the Hutt is the unwieldy, slobbering, lecherous monster that this sleek, chic hunting machine is not.

What must I do? Should I let it be and thereby leave the window open for all sorts of mysterious cat-borne infections (my imagination runs riot)? Should I cart it, or rather metro and auto it to a vet in Khan Market? I can barely greet it in the day time, having to get it into a basket and be calm would be quite a task. And then the scene at the metro station:
-madam bag check karaiye
-bhaiyya iske andar billi hai. nahin khol sakti