My first Christmas Celebration at Amritapuri with AMMA

In spite of studying at Amritapuri for four years, I never once got a chance to attend the Christmas celebrations as it was always in the midst of holidays when I was either at home enjoying a comfortable stay or attending New Year celebrations else where. So, I made up my mind to make sure I attend this time and I definitely was not let down as the program was a lot of fun.

After evening Bhajans, everyone gathered in the main hall waiting for Amma so that the Christmas program could commence. I, along with my friends managed to catch a seat close to Amma's chair. While we were waiting for Amma to arrive, a lot of Amma's videos were played showing her abundant compassion to every living being be it us humans, dogs or birds. We witnessed a video of our professor being playfully pounded on the back by Amma when he was receiving darshan along with his wife while back in the U.S, and hence we understood why he always does the same to us when we do something wrong :-).

After Amma arrived, a musical detailing the lives of the 3 women named Mary - Mother Mary, Mary of Magdala and Mary of Bethany and their relationship with Jesus Christ, kicked off in full flow. It was full of energy, and I was soon rocking to the tune of the first song. The play was immaculately planned with amazing of props and costumes dressed in every possible colour.

During one particular act, I was taken aback when a bunch of ropes from the catwalk of the stage suddenly dangled down from the ceiling. At first, I thought it was a snake. To my surprise, a bunch of guys dressed up as ninjas slither down the rope from a height of about 100 feet and start rocking up and down the rope!!! It was part of the play where robbers lie in wait for a lonely traveler to loot him of his possessions. I absolutely loved the background music that followed.

In the next part of the play, a bunch of kids in cute costumes filed on stage, dressed like pink butterflies, trees, peacocks and elephants. It was a cute sight to watch the kid who was the pink butterfly refused to go off stage when she was supposed to, rocking to the rhythm of the background music. At the end of the play, as the elephant came near Amma rocking its head to and fro, Amma took a banana and slipped it into the slit where its mouth was supposed to be :-)

After the play, Amma blessed the cake that was to be served to everyone as prasadam, and gave her Christmas message. This was followed by a couple of bhajans, and a joyous chorus of "MATA RANI KI JAI!!!" exuding so much energy that everyone was resonating to the vibrations generated! As Amma left, we received the cake, and I must say it was delicious, so much so that I had about 10 pieces of them! To look at it positively, I was doing seva to ensure that no cake is wasted :P I left the Ashram at 2 AM tired, but fresh with memories of my first Christmas at Amritapuri, something i am not bound to forget in a long long time!

Dirty Harry - A Movie Review

My first tryst with Clint Eastwood films was 'The Good, bad, and the Ugly'. I immediately fell in love with the film and Eastwood's cool demeanour. Hence, I set out to find another movie of his, and decided to watch Dirty Harry on recommendation from fellow fan, Unni.

A brief review
Though the film carries itself as an action thriller, it gives a pretty appeasing appetizer, a mediocre main-course and a sumptuous dessert. The movie centers itself around Clint Eastwood, the life of the movie. He plays an inspector(Harry) on the police force who is on the lookout for a serial killer. The movie starts off with a slow pace, gaining pace through out. The movie in a sense is quite thought provoking. It gives a moral stand on justice, how it should be handled, but how it is not. Though Harry(Eastwood) is shown in a negative light throughout the movie, one can see that his rough-cut hard exterior belies a justice-driven interior. Overall, the movie is worth a watch if you are a Clint Eastwood fan or a fan of thrillers.  Contemporary to its time, I would have given it a 7.5/10 rating, but today I will give it just a 7/10. Dont forget to catch the "Do you feel lucky" scene.

The Plot (has spoilers)

Do you feel lucky?

The story revolves around a serial killer (Andy Robinson) who enjoys sniping arbitrary people for the fun of it. He soon starts creating havoc around town. Thats when Inspector Harry Callahan(eastwood) enters the investigation. Callahan, the consummate detective he is, was also infamous for his ruthlessness when it came to justice. His trysts around town, taking up any job under his nose earned him the nickname 'Dirty Harry'. The killer who called himself 'Scorpio' threatened the town to continue the onslaught unless he receives a huge settlement of cash. Keeping up the city police's stand of not dealing with criminals Harry and his new partner explore a plan of surveying rooftops, because of the well known trait of a criminal to return to the scene of the crime. Luck favours them and the killer shows up, ensuing in a battle of gunfire, but the suspect manages to make his escape. Scorpio, the inveterate killer he is, is unruffled by the encounter, and embarks upon his new conquest - the kidnapping of the mayor's daughter. The mayor worried for his daughter, pulls some strings and solicits enough cash for the ransom. The task of delivering the money is assigned to Harry, who is specifically instructed not to play games with Scorpio. But Harry obtains a wireless transmitter and hooks it on to his jacket innards, so that his partner can follow his every move. Scorpio leads Harry on a wild goose chase to make sure he is not being tailed, and eventually leads him to the drop off point, where he announces that he murdered the girl and beats the life out of the inspector. His partner alerted by the transmitter makes an appearance in the nick of time to save Harry's life. In the confusion, Harry manages to dig a knife into Scorpio's legs, leaving him with a serious injury, while he himself passes out. Later, when a patient is treated for a serious leg injury at a medical center, the police are alerted and Harry manages to track the killer down, and arrest him. This is where the director brings about a twist in the tale. Even though Scorpio has been arrested, no legal action can be taken against him, as the purposed "evidence" was inadmissable in a court of law, due to various frivolous reasons. This meant Scorpio was allowed to walk free on the streets again. This time around Scorpio had a trick up his sleeve. Getting bashed up on purpose, he frames Harry into a harassment case and cunningly prevents further pursuit from Harry.  Not stopping there, he hijacks a bus-load of school children, and yet again demands ransom and a flight out of the city. When offered the chance yet again to deliver the ransom, Harry refuses stressing he is no delivery boy. In a heroic attempt Harry places himself strategically on a bridge, and hurls himself on top of the bus as it passes below him. The crazed killer in a frantic pursuit to ward him off, steers the bus off path and makes a run for it. In the ensuing pursuit, the desperate killer secures a kid as a hostage in a final hope of escape. Harry proves his names worth by taking a lucky shot at him and grazes him in the shoulder. The climax ends with an amazing scenario. The killer has a gun next to him. If he reaches for it he will get shot, but he is not sure if Harry has any ammo left in the gun. Harry, chides him on purpose, which forces Scorpio to take up the gun, and he is shot square in the chest. In the end, disgusted by the state of the police force, who let a criminal free and put so many lives at stake, and knowing his actions would anyway be reprimanded, he throws away his police star into the river and walks away from the scene.
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Look out for more movie reviews \m/

Football Fever

As with millions of football fans around the world, I have caught on to the football fever. This fever is no ordinary one, its contagious. While Europeans and South Americans have reason to rejoice and celebrate over their countries participating in the World Cup finals, I have always wondered where Indian's came into the fray considering the fact that football is one of the less popular sports in the country. India, who qualified only once for the Football world cup back in 1950 was eventually disqualified because they preferred to play barefoot rather than shoes because of lack of monetary support.

I have not been following football for two years now, and hence my first task was to catch up. And what better place to do so than YouTube. One which caught my eye, was the story of Christiano Ronaldo, of how he grew up from a small boy on a remote island in Portugal, made his way up the ranks through various football clubs to end up in the budding star he is today. Though i never liked the bloke, this video actually made me appreciate the troubles he had to take to reach this far, and how he has evolved over time. My hatred for him(especially his dives) has now turned into respect. I loved the official FIFA theme song by K'Naan as it had a nice African touch about it with the Huuu's and the Haaa's.

The second thing on the agenda, was to create my superstar team using the ESPN football fantasy game. This is my usual avocation during the World cup and Euro tournaments.

The final task was to tune into ESPN and wait till the clock ticked away to the opening ceremony. Frankly, i was a little disappointed with it, it lacked the energy we usually see in such events. This world cup has competition at its peak, as there is a very minor difference in standards between teams, and it all boils down to who has the edge over the other during the match. I am looking forward to good action from this times WC and hope not to be disappointed. FIFA WC, here i come!!!

My new personal blog

I have decided to make this my official personal blog, leaving the technical stuff to my wordpress blog( http://varrunr.wordpress.com). The reason probably is because blogger seems more quaint and customizable, and I would rather not mix my personal posts with my technical ones which is like mixing oil and water. The next thing to do is to probably come up with a really cool template for this blog. I have taken a long hiatus from writing, due to my commitments this semester :- finishing my undergraduate thesis, finish the extra credit course(Cryptography) i enrolled for, and also Google Summer of code. Now that i am done with college, and i have a more free reign over my activities, I intend to make regular writing one of my priorities. I have come to realize that living in a hostel for 4 years, without reading many books, contrary to the time in school when i would read about 7 novels a week and not get sleep unless I was to read a novel, has severely affected my vocabulary and creativity. Since i would be giving my GRE in August, I intend to replenish the same.