On diverse subjects

The last one week has been boring. Incredibly boring. I hadn't thought that my life could get any duller, but it has. My research, though still being carried out with extreme devotion and great intensity, has gotten a bit monotonous, and a friend of mine, who I was talking to yesterday, pointed out that it wasn't even completely accurate and error-free. My existence has been reduced to a series of mundane activities. I sleep. I eat. I read. I listen to music. Worst of all, I think.

And thinking, at least in my case, usually leads to disastrous consequences. Take, as an example, the last post I posted on this blog. It was entirely a result of my excessive thinking. I won't go into the other, much more disastrous consequences right now, for they project me in an extremely unfavourable light, and make me feel very stupid. I shall say however, that I have received a rather serious threat from my parents. They have threatened to throw me out of the house if I do any more thinking.

Besides that, work has started for Rendezvous 2005. Some of you might be knowing that Rendezvous 2005 is being organized by Jwalamukhi Hostel, which is also, as most of you would be knowing, my hostel. The preliminary preparations for Rendezvous 2005 started about a week back. I had been given a lot of work that was to be finished by sometime yesterday. I shall have to start working on that ASAP, for if I delay it too much, I shall not be looked upon favourably. More so because of the fact that there was a meeting to discuss how the work was coming along last night, which I forgot all about.

I visited Anything Mac, the authorized Apple reseller that is situated somewhere midway between Yusuf Sarai and Green Park a couple of days back. I came back highly impressed. Before I launch into a detailed account of my experiences there, allow me to give you a brief history of what led me to being there in the first place.

About a week back, when I had gone to Reliance Web World to meet some of my friends (I would like to add here, that I had gone only to meet my friends, and did not spend a single paisa on gaming, keeping in mind the promise I had made to myself of not spending a single paisa at Reliance Web World on gaming.), I had been unfortunate enough to break my iPod case. I was comfortably seated on an armchair, but as I was getting up, the case got caught against the arm of the armchair, and detached itself from the belt-clip that was originally attached to it, but was now not. The case, as a result, was reduced to a state of uselessness, for I could not use it to attach the iPod to my belt, and I do not like carrying the iPod around in my pocket. I asked people who were a lot more experienced than I was at such stuff, and finally came to know that if there was any hope that my iPod case could be repaired, it was at Anything Mac.

It was under these circumstances that I walked into Anything Mac. It didn't look a very big establishment from the outside, and once inside, it continued to not look a very big establishment. But the moment I was inside, I was completely convinced that it was, indeed, the best place I could have brought my case. "Here," I said to myself, "is a place where my case shall be in good hands."

The scene inside was appropriate for a store associated with Apple. There were iMacs, and iBooks, and PowerMacs, and PowerBooks, and iPods, and assorted accessories lying around in delightful disarray. The walls were plastered with Apple posters, all of them colourful and informative and brilliantly catchy and humourous at the same time. People were working here and there on brightly coloured workstations. And the moment I walked in, I got everybody's undivided attention. They asked me my problem. They understood exactly what was wrong. Then, one of them took the case from me, and, cradling it delicately in his arms, made his way somewhere towards the inside of the shop. A couple more people followed him inside, all the while heatedly discussing what would be the best course of action that one could follow to repair my case. People ushered me to seats, and asked me to sit down. Other people offered me water. Still other people came to me at periodic intervals of time and gave me updates on the latest condition of my case and how it was being taken care of. About 5-7 minutes later, the man who had taken my case inside with him reemerged. He handed me the case, and I could see he had done a good job on it. My case was, although not as quite as good as new, once again capable of carrying out the work it had been designed to do. And the best part is, I did not have to spend any money. They did all the repair-work for free. Before I left, they even apologized for the case breaking, and implored me to come back if I ever, in the future, felt something was wrong with my iPod or my iPod case. Never before have I seen such attitude from people running shops in India. I came back with tears in my eyes, ear-phones in my ears, my iPod nestled cozily in its case, and the case firmly attached to my belt through its belt-clip. It was an almost spiritual experience.

On an unrelated note, I have had the fortune of watching some very good movies in the past few days. I shall now briefly review one of them.

I watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of The Sith four days back. I absolutely loved it. Although I had not seen a couple of movies from the original trilogy, and did not remember much from the Star Wars movies I had seen, I had a rough idea of the plot, thanks mainly to Mr. Rohan Trivedi. He was kind enough to give me the gist of the entire original trilogy, and I was, I believe, more or less successful in understanding what was happening during Episode III: Revenge of The Sith. The movie is brilliantly made, and Anakin's gradual transformation from a Jedi Knight to the much known and much feared Darth Vader is very well documented. The action scenes are, as expected, breathtakingly wonderful, and the story moves along at an easy and comfortable pace. A few scenes here and there, especially the ones concerning Anakin and his wife, the Amidala female (she's a looker), do tend to drag a bit, but fortunately, there are not too many of them. Most of the performances are convincing. Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), and Ian McDirmaid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine) have played their respective parts very well. The duration of the movie is perfect, and the special effects are, without question, the best that I have seen as yet.

Overall, it is, most undoubtedly, a mast-watch.