Pottermania

I realised I was a very insignificant creature in this big bad world of ours. If only you could spare and overlook my non vegetarian eating habits you would have realised that I am one of those guys who are contended staying deep down at the bottom of the food chain. So the thought that somebody would have dedicated a book to me came as a rather rude shock. But when the realisation set in I was ecstatic, enthralled and subjected to a whole lot of states of mind which presently I dont remember. The significant event in my life was that J K Rowling had finally decided to dedicate the last book of the Harry Potter series to all her readers who have followed Harry Potter religiously through the last few years in the battle against the dark lord Voldemort. Well it was an honour that I rightfully deserved when you consider that I was one of those 11 million guys who contributed to the record breaking sales on the very first day of the release of the book. But here are some other top reasons why the dedication of the book to readers like me made perfectly logical sense.

• Deathly French hallows: I had prebooked the final copy of Harry Potter at the Virgin megastore near my office. Now considering the fact that the French love their book smeared with French (i.e. they always have a fascination for reading the translated version of English bestsellers) it was quite a difficult task to make the French speaking book store attendants understand the entire concept of pre booking the Harry Potter book. Considering the fact that they already had a big Harry Potter release countdown POP display it was a very horrendous experience.
• Misorder of the phoneix: Prebooking of the Harry Potter book proved to be quite a misordering when you consider the fact that the book was as freely available as wine bottles in almost all the bookstores of Paris. Well finally I realised that prebooking is only necessary when you are sitting in some remote corner of Timbaktu (wherever that place is).
• Goblet of Disaster-Barry Trotter: Incidentally apart from the 6 and half books of Harry Potter that I have had the auspicious opportunity to gobble down, I also have discredited myself by reading two books of the Barry Trotter series. It is a spoof showing the pornograhic side of Barry Trotter who has a strong resemblance with Harry Potter and whose life is a total disaster. I survived two Barry Trotters and according to some it was quite a credit that should be applauded.
• Fool Blood cousins: My cousins have always been great fans of the Potter movies. I mean till the time somebody is a fan, it is ok with me but being a fanatic is quite something different. So when the kids channel POGO had this glorious idea of airing Harry Potter flicks 24*7, my cousin had tortured me by making me see the same old movies of Harry Potter over and over again and again. Think of any worser way to spend a weekend in Bangalore!! Had felt myself to be a fool blood bloody fool after that, subjecting myself to such torture.
• Philosopher's groans: For more than half a decade now I have had the glorious opportunity of listening to Potter philosophy from humans in various forms shapes and sizes. The most outstanding among them was Darshan a pal from college days who had this immensly irritating habit of relating everything with the life and time of Potter. So the discussions included such hilarious complaints like "our college building does not look like Hogwarts","Wish I could do magic and sneak the question paper before the exam", "Will Voldemort die in the end?" I dont know whether he has finally got his answer with the seventh book because last heard he was honeymooning in God's own country Kerela blissful with his own marriage. Maybe Potter is passe infront as compared to a newly wed wife.
• Chamber of Secrets: The little secret is that Bloomsbury would be very disappointed to hear that I bought the pirated version of the book till the 5th edition. That was the only option available to an unemployed guy like me who wanted to know the outcome of the good versus evil story. I hope hearing this bit of information, Bloomsbury does not classify me as a death eater. The other little secret is that Bloomsbury would be very proud to know that the pdf version of the 6th book was available in a matter of hours from the release of the book on the file server of IMT. So the 6th version was also gobbled down by me in a pirated form.
• Prisoner's of Pottermania: Love him or hate him but you cant ignore him. I guess the Potter craze is something which is very much a reality and yes a lot of people like me have been prisoners of pottermania since a very long time. And finally the end is here and the series would be remembered as one of the best written series of all times that has appealed to children and youth and also elders (like my mother).

So it does make proper sense for Rowling to dedicate the book to me and the likes of me. This tribute to Harry Potter was all the more inspired by the fact that I saw at least 5 people balancing the huge book in their hands and trying to read it while waking to their offices. I have never tried that kind of insane stuff myself. But I guess everything related to Potter is as unexpected as the books are and one last thought does haunt me like crazy. Doesnt Voldemort tire of losing the duels over and over again. I mean he looks more like our very own Mahishashur who loses the battle against Ma Durga every year and again comes back the next year to lose again. This rare fact inspired a cartoon series which showed that Mahisashur was utterlly frustrated with the every year losing business and tried to outsource this little piece of non value adding work of dying every year to somebody else. I guess Voldemort also requires to think of such options to make the real Harry Potter more in sync with the Barry Trotter that I have come to love. Goodbye Potter, we would surely miss you.

Google your way to serendipitous Etretat

It was much like any usual day at office with the irritable Kakkar complaining that I do not work and only he does and Anirban trying to convince me that I might be sent back to Bangalore when he came to know that I wanted to download Calvin & Hobbes pdf out of the net and enjoy it in office hours. So there I was sans work because everything seemed to be working perfectly in the huge labyrinth of systems set up in the place I work. A very rare feat indeed and it gave me a chance to explore the full potentials of the unique lifesaver at times created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page called Google. Now most lazy bums at office would not care to find out the lesser known tourist attractions in Europe and would settle for the much obvious choices. But in a backpacker's heavan like Europe, this kind of an attrocity is a crime. And as I had already been convicted by the irritable Kakkar of shying away from work I headed to google and tried to find out a place on the coast of the English Channel with which I had fallen in love while crossing on a ferry from Calais to Dover, one fine trip that is best kept a secret.

A lot of googling on the site of the french tourism department and google photos with a frequent trip to the thalys website for finding out train links to places on the coast finally brought out Fecamp and Etretat as the natural choices. It was supposed to be beautiful, an awesome place on the coast with the cliffs of white rock rising from the waters of the Channel. Just a three paragraph writeup on the place on the Lonely Planet book for touring France did give me doubts about the place. A few French words thrown into the google translator and navigating through a completely french site got me the bus links to the station from far off Etretat. Google has its own potentials provided you know what to search rightly. So off we were on a Saturday early morning to Fecamp and Etretat. The explorers included me, Anirban and the workaholic Kakkar. The inclusion of Kakkar was the glorious idea of Mr. Anirban as he wanted to gel with his soon to be hommie. By the way did I spell that correctly? The Corail Intercity trains were quite a treat to be travelling on. The pleasant Bonjour from the ticket inspector made me compare her with the grumpy faced TTE on Indian trains. Indian TTEs never seem to smile, as if the code of conduct of TTEs as specified by the Indian Railways does not allow them to smile or wish somebody good day or a thank you. The Corail dropped us at Breaute Bruzeville and from there a small train got us to Fecamp. The coast of Fecamp was a pebble beach with cliffs lining both the edges of the beach. The conditions overcast and the weather windy, thanks to the English Channel had made it chilly and enjoyable all the more. There were people on the beach engrossed in their activity of fishing for nothing because for the half an hour I was nearby, one had not even managed to catch one fish from the channel. There was a lighthouse in the distance jutting out into the sea and high up above the cliffs were windmills whirling about at huge speeds (grand vitesse--could not resist showing off my French knowledge :-D ). After a meal of delightful kababs and posing with a lot of rusting anchors on the road, we set off to visit the Benedictine factory of Fecamp. Acutally more of a palace in nature, it houses the only place in the world where the alcoholic drink Benedictine is made at. The history of Benedictine dates back to the time when a Venetian monk Dom Bernardo created an elixir with 27 plants and spices. The commercial production was started in 1863 by Alexander Le Grande in Fecamp. The exhibition of the palace was magnificient with the tour taking us to the production area with its huge barrels for fermentation of the drink and it finally ended with us getting to savour a taste of Benedictine.

We left Fecamp in a bus headed towards the town of Etretat through lush fields gazing at huge cows having football sized udders on the route. The trip that lasts for 16 kilometers takes about half an hour on the Keolis bus. Etretat welcomes you with its very old structured appearance. There are hotels that have stood for ages and look rustic en route to the coast. On coast the beach still seems rocky but one is welcomed by the pleasant sight of the cliffs jutting out into the sea and look like white elephants with their trunks out in the sea. The weather in France changes much in the same way as Zaheera Sheikh's statements in the famous court case. At one instance it is as cloudy as if it would rain and within half an hour the weather would have changed drastically, with the sun blazing down on you. And much faster than the change of weather, the clothes on the coast change for most French guys. So with the conditions overcast and wind fast, there was no one on the beach who could be seen wearing swimsuits. A moment later with the sun out and blazing literally every one on the beach was wearing nothing else apart from swimsuits. No doubt it was a royal treat to the eyes, but we three looked kind of the most overdressed persons on the beach with our jeans and T-shirts. The trek to the top of the cliff was awesome. The whole town could be seen in the distance, and there was a golf course on the other side of the cliff, lush green in appearance and ever appealing for an 18 hole match. Considering my knowledge of the lovely game, even Tiger Woods would have felt ashamed to see me in any golf course around the world. The scene from the top of the cliff was quite awesome with the English Channel infront of us with its deep blue appearance. The stupid asses that I went with were too tired to trek up the other cliffs and hence we settled for the huge caves on the bottom of the cliffs. Incidentally these caves get completely submerged in a high tide situation. Cursing the worn out sole of my shoe and slipping along the algae mass on the way, we finally made it to the weired looking caves. The trip finally ended with a siesta on the rocky beach. While coming back to the station, the bus had a total of 3 souls for the journey of 20 kms, incidentally we were the only 3 on board. Ever criticising and cribbing Kakkar also was contended with the trip which is a big acheivement in itself. Its easy to please a Paris Hilton than a Dinesh Kakkar as I have realised in the last few months.

The pics are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ainindra/FecampAndEtretat

Illimtie movies....Illimite snores.....

As compared to the fourth movie in the Harry Potter sequence, the fifth one was a major disappointment and all expectations came crashing through the roof with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix not being able to keep up to the standards of the other Potter movies. With a lacklustre screenplay and a horrible script and roles, the movie seems to be moving around in circles leaving the audience confused and dazed and made people like me doze off for a few minutes, which according to my moive watching mate was quite a depressing performance considering that in a movie called Hoax, I had fallen asleep when the commercials were being aired and woke up when the credits were being shown. It was accomapnied by a few snores of the utmost decible level according to him, though like every god fearing, soul searching human who snores, I vehemently denied that I had snored. The venue of such a fantastic snoring resort is the UGC Cine centre near my office which has 16 halls which incidentally shows the latest Hollywood movies. At 18 euros per month for an unlimited number of times UGC cine centre of La Defense has become like a second home for me and Anirban. There have been days when we have fitted in 3 movies back to back. The movie mania bug has bitten us so much that the security at the entrance of the multiplex seldom check our bags which they follow very religiously for the other viewers. Considering that we were spending so much of time in the movie hall, we became the prime victims of a office humor. The joke was that we two can save a lot of money, if we just buy a tent and set it up inside the UGC and stay there, considering that we spent half our free time in the multiplex. If you want a gross scale discount and watch movies without even shelling out a single cent from your pocket, you just have to catch hold of some unsuspecting souls, some fresh souls who would have arrived from India for the project and make him a patron of the 18 euro offer. You just have to introduce one new person to the concept of the 18 euros per month offer and you would get one month free of any liability and watch unlimited movies for free. Just that the competition to get new members into the foray of the 18 euros per mois offer. Going by this I am really tempted to make the much required comparison with wathcing a movie at Bangalore. The last city that I stayed made me shell out the maximum of amounts for accomodation, fooding, auto fare, kaam wali bai and finally going out for a movie. At Rs. 220 for a new movie at inox and Rs. 180 at PVR, Bangalore was a real killer. 18 euros per month for an unlimited set of movies is really cheap when compared to even Banglaore standards where tickets were a rarity on weekends and you had to push and shove and try by standing in lines, check online or the ticketing machine at the movie halls and pray that some seats were empty so that you had an option to buy the tickets. As compared to the PVRs and INOXs,at UGC there have been times where I have realised that there were 7 people watching a show of a movie. Though the only real sad part of it is that there are no Bollywood movies to cherish and enjoy. Going by the last set of jokes in the column of office humor people around have speculated that for me and Anirban, they would soon start showing Hindi movies. So lets see how far these predictions of the lesser mortals become correct coz I did once manage to see a poster of Govinda and Karishma Kapoor trying to say something in French to me. Incidentally with my knowledge of French being restricted to Sortie, Merci and Bonjour I understood nothing of it. So good or bad, humor or horror, cute or ugly we watch it all, as long as it is 18 euors per mois. And the latest office humor doing the rounds is that Anirban Mookherjee's smiling battisi dikhau photo will soon replace Marie Duval in the card below and he would soon be turned into the brand ambassador of UGC illimite. I guess I will watch more movies this weekend, to catch up with Mr. Mookherjee.