The Telugu Cinema Industry - “Muthyala Muggu”

Most of my exposure to Telugu films was thanks to the India’s national TV channel DoorDarshan. When I was a kid there was only the local TV station which was in Hyderabad and used to broadcast only a few hours everyday. 

While the programming was mostly terrible, the good part used to be the movies they showed. There used to be a Hindi film and a Telugu film shown during the weekends, and they were mostly from the B&W era, and very rarely a few recent films.

From Dusk till Dawn- the movie

I recently completed viewing The hateful eight by Quentin Tarantino (recommended viewing, will surprise you).  And it reminded me to complete this post about 'From Dusk till Dawn' (FDTD) which is one of the most ‘wild’est movies I had seen, which was written and directed by Tarantino’s friend, and featured Tarantino as one of the lead roles.

National Geographic Magazines

My relationship with NatGeo is a little kinda ironic. On the rare occasion when there was a great deal on their subscription I took the plunge and subscribed to it for 2 years, and didn't read a single copy of the magazines.  But when I stopped and would get my hands on any issue of the magazine, it would be unputdownable, usually in flights, and I could read it cover to cover.

And that was the irony.

Shree Thaker Bhojanalaya - my tribute

Lets get the difficult things about Shree Thaker Bhojanalay out of the way first.

I visited it only twice in my life, and will admit that its difficult to find even the second time.  In Old Mumbai in an area near Bhuleshwar (called because you’ll forget where you are - its a maze of confusing criss-crossing, non-linear lanes). So, I will explain how I go about locating it shortly.

Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Murakami’s book The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (WUBC) was more of an experience rather than a book, and a surreal experience at that

I was introduced to Haruki Murakami only a couple of years back and didn't know of him or any of his work earlier.  I tried to read as many books and his stories as I could, and enjoyed most of them.  I of course couldn't afford quite a few books of his and saved them for later…