My Story

I am a Keralite by birth. A Madras-ite and a Banglorean by upbringing. A Bombay-ite after marriage and by virtue of working there. And I date myself by calling these places by the names they were originally known by.  I am now an American by virtue of my passport. Lekin phir bhi dil hai hindustani. You cannot take India out of me. My roots are too well-entrenched in its ethos.

I stumbled into writing. It is both my profession and my hobby. It is also an obsession. Unlike many people who can keep their writing diplomatic and suffer from chronic foot-in-the-mouth disease, I have a reverse sickness - the pen-in-the-hand one. Give me a pen and paper, or a computer keyboard, and I end up pouring my heart out. On the other hand, I am quite circumspect when I talk. (Truly.)

I love films. Black & White, Colour, arthouse, independent, commercial, masala, Indian, European, Asian, Middle- Eastern, Hollywood (though it does have to be early Hollywood) - label it what you want. If it 'speaks' to me, I like it. I love the music, though being a wordsmith, it is the lyrics that call to me. I love the sets, the scenery, the background, the camera angles. 

All I ask of a film is that it entertain me, or give me pause to think - or preferably both. But entertainment will do. My tolerance for 'masala' films is quite high. I will buy plot-holes, lack of logic, hero-in-dire-poverty-but-singing-in-Switzerland-wearing-designer-wear, brothers separated at birth - I am willing to stretch my imagination as much as you want, just so long as it entertains me.

I do not like sci-fi movies unless they have dollops of songs, and drama and yes, masala in them. I cannot sit through an all-out 'action' film either.

I love Amitabh Bachchan. No qualifications. No defenses. So much I will cry when he dies in a movie. I will watch Deewar for the nth time and still cry when he is shot dead. Heck, I cry if he cries on screen.

I also love Shammi Kapoor. Again, no reasons, no excuses. 

I love music - old hindi film songs, old Malayalam and Tamil and Bengali film songs, some of the newer film songs, classical Carnatic, some classical Hindustani, classical Western (with the exception of Wagner), Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Billy Joel, John Denver's 'Annie's Song' and 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', the sound track from My Fair Lady, and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?... and much more... that I like at different times for different reasons. 

And I love to read. A lot. Anything from Asterix to fiction to non-fiction - it does not matter as long as the subject catches my interest, and the author can hold it. My 'anytime-reads' are PG Wodehouse, Georgette Heyer, and Agatha Christie. And yes, Asterix and Phantom comics.

In this blog, I couple my love for writing with my love for movies, music and books. As I said on my home page, come in, sit down, converse. Have a cup of virtual chai. Leave a comment, start a discussion, tell me about the movies you like, feel free to disagree with anything or everything I write. But please be polite while doing so.