Tag: outdoors

Dor: Nagesh Kukunoor perfects the art of story-telling

Dor opens with Gul Panag playing Zeenat, a character defined by a strong sense of honesty, determination, and self-will. The focus is on Zeenat’s serene profile. If your looking for any sign of make-up – you won’t find it. Meera, the other protagonist is played by Ayesha Takia.

Dor is a story of the two women, Zeenat and Meera. Their lives are inextricably linked by a certain sequence of events. At no point are the events incredulous or unbelievable. Also, the events themselves will not dominate your thoughts, rather it is the lives of the two women after these events that will leave a strong mark in your mind. At the risk of oversimplification, you will experience what the majority of women are up against thanks to Indian society and traditions. You will learn that there is at least one solution.

The talented Shreyas Talpade plays the role of Behroopiya. His entrance into the movie is almost an assurance that Zeenat and Meera will find a way to untangle the events. Shreyas’ brand of comic relief is not annoying or repetitive.

Last night, I watched the movie in a packed Multiplex-screen in Pune. Surprised? Even more so when you will learn the show was a late-late show (11pm). The movie had just one dance number (and that too, the number is set with Kajra Re from Bunty aur Bubli). Dor is shot only with the beautiful Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan’s arid backdrop. I am so sure that India (urban and maybe even rural) will accept different cinema.

I admire Nagesh’s work. He has perfected the art of presenting a story to bind the movie-goer. The most memorable scenes have shades of surprise, uncertainty, despair, and hope all painted into brilliant depictions that are alive. I highly recommend Dor if you enjoy watching a rich story unravel. In Nagesh’s own words “The story wrote itself”.

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Summer of 2005

Click on the image to bring up the full-size version.

When did the Northwest go from the ordinary to the spectacular? With the onset of good weather, the sun and clear blue skies, my immediate environment has taken on new meaning, incredible. The picture above was taken from Tolmie peak lookout. In the backdrop is Mt. Rainier, an active, snow-capped volcano. In the foreground is Lake Eunice. The expanse of wilderness is a part of Mt. Rainier National Park.

A crucial element to any successful hike are your allies. They meticulously researched, planned, and executed every hike. I was glad to help out, to observe and to learn. For a while, the rest of the world was forgotten, my room at 19321 lay empty for the weekend with no regrets. Definitely, having made new friends and cemented old acquaintances the Northwest is a lot closer to home now than any other place.

Every hike has been a difficult one. As a reward, I have been treated to a glimpse of heaven and I am in awe. Lest I forget, I must put it down in writing. My words, although far from the experience itself, will hopefully keep me going through the wet, gloomy days ahead.

Lake Twenty-Two – 7th August
Tolmie peak – 13th August
Mt. Cougar – 20th August
Lake Dorothy – 21st August
Glacier National Park, Montana – 3rd, 4th and 5th September
Tiger Mt. Chirico trail – 10th September
Snow Lake – 11th September

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Thanksgiving weekend
What a week this has been. I can no longer count the number of times the word ‘Wow’ has escaped my mouth. On a usual Wednesday evening, before Thanksgiving, I found myself wishing I had planned out the weekend. I had nothing to do and 4 days to kill. Well, I did want to go out and buy myself a whole bunch of things on ‘Black Friday’, but the idea wasn’t very enticing.

Sarjana, my friend, IM’s me and invites me to road trip. “It’s still iffy” she said since a few of her friends had not confirmed yet. But that state of affairs did not last too long. Before long, I cancelled all my plans and I had signed up for a road trip that would begin at 6am Thursday and end 6pm on Sunday.

The objective was Mount Rushmore, 1400 miles away along I-90 and to me this was a fantastic opportunity to hone my absolutely Rotten driver skills 🙂 away from my home state of Washington where people know me. And yet, in Sarjana’s word, while Mt. Rushmore may have been a destination, the objective was really the journey. Sort of puts life into perspective doesn’t it.

Day one: An Outback could be overkill
Sarjana managed to convince, or should I say con :), Rudra and Swati-she into coming along. I had met Rudi once before. We drove down to the airport to add Swati and my name as drivers of a flashy new Subaru Outback 🙂 rented. Boy, was the car a wise choice or what. Rudi turned on his charm and managed to get a deal on the car to sweeten the trip. It was either that or the fact that the rental company rep. was just too sleepy to want to negotiate with us.

Before long we were on our way, rattling down I-90 in what was a determined assault on our destination. On the first day itself, the rain was pouring down. As we continue East towards the Washington – Idaho border, the Sun mad a brief appearance to encourage us ahead.

A quick decision to visit the Gorge required us to take a detour after Columbia river. Unfortunately, the Gorge, a natural amphiteatre, was closed to visitors, I cannot be sure why.

I got my first taste of driving through lookout pass before we reached Montana. It was a treacherous pass and the rain pelted the car mercilessly. I had the wheels and I proceeded to terrify everyone else by passing at least 2 14-wheelers along tricky curves and steep grades.

The group got a different first impression of me though :). On approaching a gas station, Swati-she who happend to be at the wheel asked which side the gas tank opened up. I confidently piped in that all Japanese cars had them on the left. Well my Honda does, and so does everyone else in the car (they all own Honda’s). Everyone bought it :)! However, it turned out that the Subaru fills from the right hand side haha and everyone had a good laugh.

Day Two: Can I wake up at 5am
Sure I can 🙂 and I found out first-hand that it can be tough. Rudi was the first one to wake up, and we were on the road once again. We still had the time and therefore the luxury of breakfast. We duly stopped at a restaurant in Sheridan, Wyoming!! Setting out on the road, we had just a few hours more of driving ahead of us.

First stop on crossing into South Dakora were the jewel caves. I’ll be the Park Ranger there was surprised to see the four of us walk into the office enthusiastically without any foreknowledge of what the timings were. Next stop was the Crazy horse monument dedicated to all native american tribes. I had mixed feelings watching a mountain being carved out for the purpose of people. What if the work stopped halfway, the unfinished sculpture would only not only disturb the erstwhile pristine and beautiful black hills, but it would also be a very funny sight.

Mount Rushmore was more of the same, it did offer a vignette into 4 significant people who shaped the idea and the character of Democracy in the USA. The sculptures were etched into the face of the tall cliff and stared out into space. Surely, these men’s deeds earned them such greatness.

Subtly Ironic

Performance Bicycles at Overlake have given me an Upgrade instead. I took the defective Head-Lamp to thier shop, they gave me a $10 upgrade to a Cat-Eye head and tail lamp for free.

I chose not buy the same Head/Tail Lamp from GI-Joes since it used a combination of LR-03 (AAA) & LR-06 (AA) Batteries. I wanted something that used just AA.