Ok. We have loads of stuff to get through, put down on paper, so to speak and preserve for posterity. So we'll stay as concise as possible through this post.

(a bloody welcome change from this blog's normal narrative style, no ? heh)

My tuppence worth on IB:

Wonderfully made movie, is IB. Highly recommended. One cant call it a,um, fun movie i guess. It is nice and rambly - BRILLIANT performances from every last member of the cast - Hans Landa takes the gold, of course, Shosana, Brad Pitt as Aldo ( overdid his accent, i thought though), the key members of the Inglorious basterds, Diane kruger, the gestapo colonel at the bar, the french dairy farmer from the first scene - all brilliant.

To be honest, the movie's whole plot is sort of weakish - hardly any substance or meat sticks in mind (like say, Munich, for example, if you get the point) - but scene by scene, Tarantino has crafted the movie around performances. The first scene ending with 'Au Revoir! Shosana!', the bar scene featuring the Diane Kruger randevous, a few scenes featuring the basterds - scene by scene like these listed above are near superlative.

MUST watch - if one hasnt seen it yet.

On to other things now:

Zeenat, under the influence of yet another stroke of hyperness has actually done the unthinkable.

She hired a cook - from yesterday. The cook is a typical Iyengar maami, calls Rasam 'Saathamudu' and calls me 'Ambi'. Shes comes in for about an hour and half in the morning and for about a couple more in the evening to cook 2 meals for the entire household (which is just me, MB, Zeenat and 2 maids).

We have been protesting, MB and I - i have been eating Thayir Saadam + Naarthangai oorgai for all the 2 days (despite being unwell) while MB has been sulking at the table complaining about salt, this and that.

Zeenat, as determined as she is, is taken it all in stride - she claims that she did this to 'free herself up' a little more, whatever that means! Shes been giving Similar trouble at work too.

Shes sort of going through some sort of mid-life crisis i guess. MB seems as clueless as i am though. That or he isnt telling. I am worried though.

Other stuff

I havent been well for the last 3-4 days. Went to plant only yesterday. Bunked out at home today, went to hospital got shots and about Rs.500 worth of Dolo 650 (paracetamol, which we already have BOXES of at home), Levofloxacin (What an FQ antibiotic will do for viral fever, i dont know) and what surely must be an irrational combination of 500mg paracetamol + 5 mg cetirizine + 5 mg phenylpropanolamine. That makes my daily intake of paracetamol = 650 x 3 + 500 x 2 = 2950 mg.

What am i, a horse ?

The Oppie bio:

As i mentioned before, i had earlier acquired a copy of this brilliant book. Its turning out to be one of the best bios ive done in quite a while now. Thoroughly researched, splendidly written. The amount of exposure oppenheimer had born to first general German-Jewish immigrants in New York, undergraduate from Standard, Postgraduate education from Cambridge (UK) then on to work with nearly every superlative physicist of the era by work in Germany, in Holland etc. work with people like Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Cavendish, Max Born, Pauli and LOADs more. He could speak nearly every major European language, heck, even sanskrit it looks like.

One also realizes how the 'Golden period' of america was built around people like Oppie, who had the skills and the exposure and the later the channels to focus their talents on -

I am still on it - more later maybe. But superb book, strongly recommended.

Enough for today, i guess.

P.s 1 – This is showing at the RDX screen in Satyam from 18 Dec. I am looking forward to it.

P.s.2 – I am going to Jordan on the 19th for a few days. As much as i resisted it – i haven't been able to put it off. Might as well have fun, no ? But really bad time to be going abroad and all because work here is not chugging along as nicely as one would have liked – and i am expected to tighten screws and get it going. I leave, everything goes phut for another week. WTF, lets c.