Where is home?

After being rooted in one city for over twenty years, I finally spent a 7-week stretch away from Bombay in October and November. This weekend I managed to go back. Two days in Bombay were lovely. I met my family and many of my friends. Meeting Vrisha was of course the highlight. I can't believe I am missing her growing up. I hope that when she is older, she likes reading. Otherwise I would not be really adept at getting her any gifts!

I went to Juhu after almost three months. Sitting on the beach, exchanging stories about WIMWI, TCS, Syntel and others, recalling how different our lives were less than six months ago, it felt good to be with old friends again. Software engineering is really difficult work - I would take a nightout at WIMWI any day.


Still haven't been south of Dadar since coming to WIMWI. My only window to South Bombay has been the exceptionally detailed view in Google Earth. I miss staring at the juxtaposed buildings of the Rajabai Tower and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

I even managed to cast my vote in the Lok Sabha by-election. Did not know much about any candidate. Voted for the Congress, despite being increasingly frustrated by poor performances of the Union and state governments led by it.

In spite of all the fun I had, I wasn't at all unhappy at being back in Dorm 18, Room 13 today morning. Perhaps it is because of the relatively light academic workload in the second term, but life is quite nice here. My home is still Bombay, but 1813 is not too far of the mark.

I have recently taken to watching movies on the computer. Saw Deewar for the first time last week, with the king of Big B fans - Moti. Really nice movie - almost Shakespearian in its hero's tragedy.

Also saw two Japanese films - "Spirited Away" and "Tonari No Totoro". Both are animated movies. Both are also essentially comedies with happy endings. I liked them both, especially Totoro. There is something quite distinctive about these movies - but every culture has its ways, I guess. Will see more Japanese "anime", as they seem to be called.

And of course, I saw "The Goblet of Fire" - in Bombay with my sister. It's very well-made with superb special effects and a focussed storyline. The "romantic" scenes were rather fun to watch. I liked Prisoner more though, probably as it was more imaginatively made. Goblet is no mean feat though. I think it was the most difficult movie to make of the six books released so far. The plot of that book was quite unwieldy and many interesting pieces had to be left out. Phoenix and Prince are more focussed on Harry's inner turmoil and cinema should be an excellent medium to depict that.