The Goblet of Fire

To celebrate the end of this strenuous week (when i felt someone had performed the Cruciatus curse on me..), i went to watch the new Harry Potter release.. The Goblet of Fire..

Obviously, i am an ardent Harry Potter fan and have read all the books and seen all the movies to date.. and i am thoroughly impressed with the plot.. can discuss at length about the story any time of the day...

let us discuss the movie from the perspective of the book.. firstly, considering that the book was more than 600 pages long, it was definitely going to be a challenge to accomodate all the details of the book... that would have atleast required two films of the same length!

so the changes from the story as written by JKR start from the first chapter itself.. there we see Crouch Jr. along with Peter Pettigrew and Lord Voldemort which was not the case in the book.. then the movie also saves on adding three more characters by completely ignoring the Dursleys.. it would have been real fun with Dudley eating one of those magical toffees by Fred and George...

There is further just a fleeting mention of the Quidditch world cup and not even a single goal is shown.. but i had expected it to be very brief anyways..

The movie starts to run at a rapid pace with the introduction of Cho Chang in the train to Hogwarts.. a very cute character... soon the other two magical schools are quickly introduced and the triwizard tournament is explained.. surprisingly Beauxbatons has only girl students which was not the case in the book... the introduction of the goblet of fire is also fast-paced as expected..

one of the flaws in the movie was that the shock at the moment when harry's name pops out of the goblet of fire was way too little.. that should have been a much stronger scene.. also while reading the book, i had imagined that sirius would be visible in the fire but that was hardly the case in the movie..

only the class of Mad-Eye Moody was shown and some parts of Snape's classes but otherwise, the movie only focussed on the three tasks and the Yule ball.. the playing of rock music at the Yule ball was really a pathetic idea..

the depiction of the first task was awesome.. however, the third task showed a lot of inconsistencies and many details such as the questions that harry answers were missing.. it seemed as if the director was in a hurry to finish the film..

However, Lord Voldemort's depiction was really good and the duel of harry and voldemort was interesting.. but the final scene of Rita Skeeter being caught by hermione should have been included..

in short, the movie was a good attempt to keep up with the story but it understandably failed to be completely consistent... the choice of characters seemed good (though i had imagined Viktor Krum to be a leaner guy when i read the book).. Hermione (Emma Watson) was gorgeous at the Yule Ball and she is getting really beautiful! The pic here is one of the best and most enchanting pic I have ever seen.. she is no less good-looking than a Veela! The smirk on her face in this pic makes her look all the more beautiful.. and I can only imagine how much more beautiful she would be in the next film...

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grynt) performed well.. the characters of Cho and Fleur also rated above average on the beauty-meter..

think that has been quite a good description of the film... need to get back to studies as there is still one more endsem to deal with..:-)

The Eden Gardens...

The Eden Gardens in Kolkata has witnessed so many matches that have decided the fate of Indian Cricket..

there was the dreadful and forgettable World Cup semi-finals in 1996... hardly any of the cricketing fans can forget that, can we? then the revival of Indian cricket in the second test against Australia led by Dravid, Laxman and Bhajji... that was in 2001.. we also faced a shameful home defeat to Pakistan in the Asian Test Championship at these very Eden Gardens...

The fans at Kolkata's Eden have the reputation for showing off their emotions in more expressible ways.. and hurling bottles at the ground when the home team is losing was always "normal" there.. the justification for the rowdy behavior of the crowd has been that they care a lot for the home team and so feel hurt when the team lets them down...

but yesterday's match was a surprise.. the local super-hero Sourav was not playing in the game and the pitch at the Edens was the greenest in years .. inspite of the fact that the home team was going with two spinners and if put to bat in first would be up with some serious trouble.. and what's more? the crowd was even cheering the losses of the home team.. at first thought, a neutral observer would think that this is a welcome change that the crowds at the Edens have started to behave in a more docile manner.. but after-thoughts suggest something very disturbing..

is this cheering the visitors thing a part of the "Get Sourav back" protests, that have been quite strong in Kolkata? has the Kolkata crowd grown so selfish that it places the interests of Ganguly over the interests of the Indian team? A team that we all cricketing fans so much love and care about? There was also some booing against Dravid and Chappell at the stadium.. and one wonders the possible consequences of this.. Although i feel that Ganguly deserves atleast to be considered for a place and was really sad that he was dropped, i think such hard decisions are necessary from the Team's point of view... and the crowd must realize that.. i think the Indian team is shaping out very well inspite of the pathetic loss today.. even when the Proteas had crossed the 100-mark with no loss, the commitment on the field was commendable.. we can just say that this was one of the bad days and move ahead......

The Eden Gardens at Kolkata is the home of Indian cricket and it is for the local crowd to live up to this image...

Back on Track...

After the tremors in the endsems this week, there was some respite yesterday and now it seems as if all the pain is over... although i have one major hurdle to cross on monday, it seems life is finally coming back on track and soon happy days are to come back... a cold and jittery season lies ahead and soon the placements wave will sweep over... but i am feeling a lot more confident and optimistic now that i have survived this week without much serious damage..

There are so many good things in life that there is no time to ponder over the unhappy events that we come across... soon will be off to a movie tonite and enjoy the nice cool breeze on my Victor..:-)

4 2 ka 1

these three numbers come together in a lethal combination to form a dreaded course number..

this is the course which we will be dealing with tomorrow in the endsems and i am sure to mess it up entirely... all the efforts that i put in today seem to be in vain and its already a lost battle.. darkness seems to abound all round....:(

and to make it still worse, i have really given a dismal performance in the midsems. so there is no hope for me. just praying to get through this one successfully..

the dil-lemma

and when i was just passing time trying to push my bike a few metres towards my destination, i came across a good funda.. i will call it the dil-lemma

It says:
" Whenever you are faced with a situation where u are not sure what to do and need to choose between different options or are not confident about the success of one of the alternatives available, just clear ur mind and listen to ur dil"....

and u know that it worked in my case:-)

a good person i met...

today was another new experience for me... i woke up early morning so that i could have a wonderful drive on my victor from home to insti...

it all started brilliantly.. a perfect day in winter... fundoo temperature.. and my dil was going hmmmmmmm.....

but then, just after i had entered aarey colony, my bike ran out of fuel.. what a pity! saara mazaa khatam ho gaya and i thought now i would have to push through to the next petrol pump almost 5 km away:(( so depressed i was....

but then i had an idea... i parked my bike and started signalling for help.. the first 5 minutes were pathetic and i was wondering how it must feel for a beggar being ignored by the passers-by.. but then one person took pity on me and lent me some fuel to reach the petrol pump.. and when i thanked him, guess what he said... koi baat nahi yaar, mere saath bhi ek baar aisa hua tha.. tum bhi kisi jarooratmand ko petrol de dena!!

so that was one hero in my life today... and now i am the one who am supposed to lend petrol! so in case u run out of fuel, just pray that i pass by!!!

The one where it all starts...

today is a day to remember.. of course my first blog!!

but also the day the CAT was out of the bag and 175000 people tried to bell it.. i was one amongst them.. lost in the crowd.. trying to keep pace with others.. and a futile race with time.. i felt like the helpless mouse in the inescapable grasp of the predator...

such ruthless competitions have only one good effect.. it brings out the philosopher in you:-)

i am thinking a lot these days and cant keep all my thoughts in my head.. its getting too much now.. so i will let them spill over...

and this seemed to be the best time to start off with my first blog.. i dont know how far this will go or how the journey will be.. but it has set off nonetheless...

the way to ithaca is sinewy and tiring.. only the few who have the will and strength will make it there..