ThoughtfulChaos

Unexpected holiday
I love holidays. I love holidays in the middle of the week even more. I actually did not know that office was closed on the 7th (Wednesday) due to Ganesh Chaturthi. It was a pleasant surprise, akin to unexpectedly finding a 50 rupee note in your pockets. Mini SMSed me on Monday (or was it Tuesday?) and we decided to meet up and catch some movie at Inox or E-Square. I called up Suchitra and fortunately she too didn't have anything planned for Wednesday so she also joined us. Its been a long time since we had met. I think last I met Suchitra was more than an year ago and even Mini I met only many months back.

After a lot of poring over newspapers and calls among ourselves to reach a consensus we decided to see Mangal Pandey: the Rising at E-Square.

I woke up quite late on Wednesday morning (I had gone to sleep a bit late the previous night). I got ready and went to E-Square by bus. The bus service in Pune is simply terrible when compared to the bus services in cities like Mumbai or Bangalore. The connectivity is quite poor, buses are terrible, drivers are lost in their own worlds and most conductors are rude. Add to that the state of roads in Pune and the final result is a very unpleasant ride. Anyways...

Mini and Suchitra
Mini and Suchitra had already reached E-Square by the time I arrived. It was great seeing them after such a long time. They were my classmates at DA-IICT and we used to spend a lot of time together. Each of them has been with me in more than 1 project and we share a bond that only friends who have undergone intense grueling times together (that by the way is a succinct description of our projects) have. Suchitra was also my co-TA (TA=Teaching Assistant) when we were TAs in the 1st semester.

E-Square
On the whole I liked E-Square. IMHO it is better than Inox, the only other multiplex in Pune I have been to. The tickets are cheaper, food more reasonably priced, many stalls and more screens. All in all a good place to hangout with your friends if you have a few hours to spare. It is a bit more crowded but in a pleasant way.

We had lunch at E-Square itself (I don't remember the name of the restaurant). We talked and talked and talked. We blabbed about old times and new. We remembered the good old days and cribbed about lot of things.

Mangal Pandey: The Disappointing
Mangal Pandey... hmmmm... what do I say about it? I had a lot of expectations. I had decided that I would ignore the historical accuracy of the storyline (which has raised a lot of controversy) and simply try to enjoy it as a Hindi movie. In spite of that I was quite disappointed. All the hype about the movie was exactly that: hype. The story is patchy, most of the actors insipid, the cinematography so so and songs also not too good. Aamir Khan's acting is good but the script simply doesn't do him justice. Even a lesser actor could have played the part without a problem. I especially liked his moustache and his hair style ;-) The heroines (Heera played by Rani Mukherjee and Jwala played by Amisha Patel) look good but that is their only contribution to the movie. All in all quite disappointing. You can read Rediff's review if you want a more thorough review. Btw the movie has its own blog which as far as I know is the first blog by an Indian celebrity.

F.C. Road and paratha dinner at Chaitanya
After the movie we had coffee and then went for a stroll on the famed F.C. Road. Again we talked and talked and talked. We had dinner at Chaitanya Restaurant. Chaitanya serves the best parathas I have ever eaten. The place has a college-canteen feel to it and is almost always crowded with students. But we were lucky... yesterday there was only a normal crowd...

After dinner Suchitra caught a rick and went home. Mini and I went to the Deccan bus stop. It took a long time for our bus to come and we meanwhile chatted chatted and chatted. The bus finally came and we boarded it. But it was the wrong bus (for me)... I got down as soon as I realized this. I was too tired to again attempt to catch a bus and I took a rick home.

I was very tired by the time I came home. I read Ignited Minds for a while to unwind and then fell asleep.

Yipee!
It was a fun day in all. Maybe the next thing we should try is to get all the DA-IICTians together. There are around 10-15 of us in this city, most of us since 1 year or more but we hardly meet...