Sunday, February 17, 2008
Coupable....French for 'guilty'..... Finally got to see something at Berlinale.....yesterday was the last day..It's the second year in a row for me at Berlinale that something similar happens...I plan for a bunch of movies.....Never get tickets for any of them....then just take whatever I get on the last day ( some people call me lazy)....Last year, me and a couple of friends saw a Korean movie based off a webomic ( now try decode that)....Dasepo Naughty Girls....no it's not a porn movie....I did not know how to react to it( I have that problem with movies screened at film festivals).....it was funny, crazy and sometimes just downright dumb....kinda ok I guess...
But this year it was a bit different...Coupable was a watchable movie....It started off with some weird stuff about 'People completing each other', ' love makes you complete' and stuff. Duh, Jerry Maguire, not again!!! And the voice over was similar to some Indian romantic tear jerkers...Man, was I in for a repeat....Especially we turned up right before the show and it was a free for all without seat numbers....Well you know my luck, I show up (right) on time, first row seats were all we had..rats....
Then we had a murder and the movie was quite cool after that point...( I dont mean in a macabre sense...the events that unfold, etc were interesting...go read the review or watch the movie).......there's a couple of suspects, a lawyer, his wife and a cop. Now who among them is 'Guilty' ( not necessarily of the murder) is what the movie is all about ( got you there, dint I)... Kinda neat....I realized that I can still decipher a bit of French when spoken slowly......cool...One part I did not understand was that lot of reviews( on the Internet) list it as a comedy...aside from evoking a few giggles from people once in a while ( 6 times, I counted) it wasn't too.... guess I'm just spoilt from too much uncouth slapstick comedy....
Came back with a feeling of success...yeah Berlinale ...one more...like a trophy....and a headache...all that first seat viewing.....phew. My rental agency in Duisburg had sent my apartment contract...Slightly expensive, may be I paid much more than I should have...or just looked for a cheaper place....I may have shacked up with a friend for a few days to search for another place......do I wanna disturb him.....I still havent seen the apartment in person......It doesnt have a washing machine too....darn....But hold on... it's in a nice green locality , 3 minutes from the Hauptbahnhof (and thereon to Düsseldorf, Köln and the rest of the world)and its just a few months...I guess it's better....scratty, quick...hold on to that nut....
Thursday, February 14, 2008
One of my biggest concerns on my move from Berlin to NRW has been on the subject of food. Well, I'm one of those guys who you can call a foodie at worst and a culinary expert at best. One of my biggest fears moving to Berlin used to be the apparent lack of good Mexican food here.
All that time spent in Phoenix has convinced me that Mexican cuisine is the world's best. Now coming from an Indian that's a mighty complement. Chino Bandidas, El Bravo and Carolinas, I miss you guys. I especially miss that quick quesadilla, beans, rice lunch at Chinos. I miss that long drive on the I 17 to get to downtown and dig into Carolinas fare. Mr. and Mrs. Jack , thank you for introducing me to the place. Infact I still have a menu from the takeaway somewhere ( Yeah...I have been trying to get over it). There was a Carolinas Nord opening somewhere close to work, wasnt it? All you lucky b*****ds at Deer Valley!! Grrr....
I became such a sucker for Mexican food that even the insipid chimichangas tossed on my plate at Spigas in Bangalore were good for me. Infact Berlin's not been half as bad this last year. I just realized I have to toss away the 'good' in 'good Mexican fare'. I discovered Rosa's Cucina Mexico on Chaussee Strasse ( just keep walking along it till you reach a Total gas station and the restaurant's just across the road) and life's been kinda normal since then. In fact I think I have checked out most places in Berlin which sound out as serving Mexican fare. Food's been shitty at the worst, mediocre at the best. But then, when you go North of AZ and you have to pick your Mexican restaurants ( no...I dont mean Taco Bell here) carefully even in the US, I guess I can take that for Berlin ( I told you I was a sucker for Mexican food).
Now Duisburg, Dusseldorf and the whole NRW region (where I'm gonna move) is so far gastronomically removed from Mexican food, I guess I have to just grin and bear. Google threw up a couple of joints in Duisburg alone(sorry no links), one in the 'picturesque Innenhaven' ( relatively speaking).Lemme see, after all, it's been a descent for some time now on the Mexican culinary scale - Phoenix>Bangalore>Berlin and now Duisburg.
But then I cook a bit too and nothing's easier than a nice cheesy Quesadilla. With most ingredients that can be ordered off the Internet ( thanks again to duisburgbunny), I suppose I can just cook 'em. Considering that I already am the master of the Pollo Diablo, I guess it's just a short trip to burritos, chimichangas, quesadillas and the more real fare. And when they mess up, I guess I can just coat 'em with more vegetables, guacamole and cream, like restaurants here do. Life aint bad. Now hold on to that nut, scrat.
Did I tell you I have a job, a good one at that, er, I think! I still havent joined the place you see. Completing formalities ( believe me there's a tonne here in Deutschland, but I guess it makes me a better man, sigh, how we fool ourselves!). A coupla days ago, after a dinner at a friend's place, I stayed up most of the night, so that I can get to the Foreign Office early enough in the morning to get my temp visa till I get my work permit.
After a couple of months of just lazing around, I finally get to the act of moving from Berlin to Duisburg ( where my job is). Any German friend I have spoken to wrinkles his/her nose about the move. Well ( here) one doesn't move to Duisburg because "due to the awesome beauty and rich culture" of the place, to quote duisburgbunny. I'm going there because I have a job I like and I( keep telling myself that I) still am a stickler for people and not places.
Still Berlin's a place you cannot not miss. Especially there's Berlinale happening these days and there are around three cinemas within walking distance of my place. Not that I have seen any movie yet. I have had my fair share of standing in queues though. Even yesterday I was at Internationale for Happy-Go-Lucky queuing up without any luck. I did my good deed for the day when I helped an American lady behind me get tickets to movies she wanted to check out and directed her to Cubix at Alexanderplatz. Need I say that she got all the movies she wanted. Proud moment of the day was when she said 'you seem to know German'. I guess she misunderstood my groans and grunts at having missed the tickets!
Well ensuring that things I propose get implemented was what I wanted ( man, that is so tough after an MBA, all I was fit for was an advisory role) and I guess like N keeps saying, I got the best one. So, scrat, stop moping and hold on to that nut!
Back again to the blogging world. After a couple of lazy tries, will I be more disciplined the third time around? (You can find me from my earlier avatar at Caffeine. The other one is just gone...poof.. into thin air). Always been lazy, yessir, I have. No lame excuses, the MBA wasn't so hectic that I couldnt sneak in a couple of words here and there. In fact it was fun. I dont remember having had so much free time ( after engineering that is) in my life as in 2007 ( yeah, it's been a pathetic life). What started as an answer to my mid-life crisis at 26( 'gee...you got to be kidding' you may think), but it is true, we Indians live an accelerated life. None of that laid back stuff you see on BBC or CNN ( Man you gotta believe what I hear from my European classmates, some of them think we eat chillies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, watch Bollywood movies,drink milk and chill out, in that order. I did agree, but not all the time, people) .
When everyone around you is changing jobs like crazy, marrying and gettin divorced, you feel suddenly funny even if you are 26. Throw in a job which whacks the hell outta you. Now you suddenly realize that you actually like the job ( or rather the masochism of working all the time). That is when you are scared shit, for the first time. After miserable attempts at learning French, trying to pick up girls ( totally unconnected) and just forcing myself to like TV, I found the MBA. Wow, finally a purpose. After a couple of years of juggling between finances, promises at work ( I told ya, scary) and my laziness, I got into a school in Europe.
Fast forward a year later, here I am, promising myself, yet again, that this is THE blog!. Hold on to that nut, scrat.
