Life in Feb 5 - Apr 18 2019

A period of uncertainty, change and then followed by a chilled out period. Feb 10 was my last day at Treebo and what followed was a rigorous period of job hunt - which meant lots of studies and interviews. Too many interviews were scheduled leading up to interview fatigue. Once I decided my next job, I had asked for a 5 weeks break. This post in the middle of that break. My joining date is Apr 29 and I have 10 more days of chill out. 

Travel - 

As evident from the previous installment, I had travelled more than a fair share. Hence, this time, I was not so inclined. However, given the time period, I had time and that meant going to an Himalayan trek. Detailed travel is disclosed here - http://arvindbatra.blogspot.com/2019/04/sandakphu-phalut-trek-2019.html

I had also signed up for a Vipaasana discourse in Sikkim but was wait-listed which did not convert. Hence, that plan was cancelled at the last moment.

Home decor

Kanishka and I have purchased an apartment Sobha Daffodils. The home interior work is going on and here, I just wanted to document the various vendors involved in this process - 

1. Main designer - Design cafe. They are doing living room, entire kitchen, crockery unit and one wardrobe.
2. Home Town - for MBR wardrobe
3. Ubyld - for foyer shoe rack, utility area units, bathroom vanity units with mirrors.
4. Furnishing forum, Jayanagar for Wallpaper
5. Pandian - a local guy for all civil work. 
6. PC Sampath - Kitchen tiles
7. Kajaria - floor tiles
8. Jitendra - a local guy for all plumbing needs
9. Harish - a local guy for house painting
10. Chickpet visit - for all basic lights
11. WhiteTeak.in, worldartcommunity, pepperfry - for chandelier, and other specialty lighting. 
12. Amazon.in - for all bathroom fixtures
13. Bommanahalli - for kitchen sink.
14. Graava - for Quartz.
15. Manjunath - a local guy for all electrical needs.
16. Kitchen Chimney - Most likely kaff.
17. Swing - vendor unknown.
18. Curatins, rods etc - Most likely thoppia but not decided yet. 

This has been a process starting from December. Behind every line item above, there were atleast 2-3 other vendors which were considered before we finalized. Which means over 50+ vendor meetings, going to them, or calling them etc.  Design cafe had a full process which included 5-6 F2F meetings in their office, one of them went for 6 hours.  The amount of time commitment required and the level of specialization in this industry is mind boggling. This vertical is a prime example of consumerism behavior.

Books - 

Earth Sea Trilogy by Ursulla Le Guin. Loved it. Loved it very very much. I will write a detailed review once I finish the second trilogy as well. 

Movies - 

Serious/good ones - 

Hateful Eight - 4/5

Waited a long time for me to watch this serious Tarantino film. Worth it. His style elements are there but with more story/dialog time. 

Blackkansman - 4/5

Denzel Washington's son is also a very good actor. And Adam Driver is incredibly versatile. Spike lee Delivers again.

You were never really here - 3.5/5

Very stylized but minimalistic film. Leaves a lot of things for the audience to figure out. Mature movie making. 

In the fade - 3/5

Fatih Akin could have made it better. Music was used very little. But acting was pretty good. 

Blue Valentine - 4/5

Very very serious film about relationships. Liked the script, the acting and delivery.

Roma - 4/5

Good human drama with terrific cinematography. Attention to details is very high.

At BIFFES - 

Cold War - 4/5 . Country : Poland

Crazy love drama film with lots of folk music with a backdrop fascist politics. Brilliantly made.

At War - 4.5/5. Country : France

I loved this film, even though it was panned by critics. It almost looked like watching a documentary.  

Foxtrot - 4/5  Country: Israel

Very quirky film about a difficult topic. Covers many things in reference. Liked the use of music, cinematography. Highly original.  

One Day  4/5 Country: Hungary

A moving account of a mother through a day as she struggles to bring up her kids in a broken marriage with tough economical conditions.

All four movies at BIFFES were very heavy. We (Kanishka, Aarti, Anshika didi (for one film) and I ) were all drained by the end of the day. But a terrific day for movies.

Bad/masala films - 

Bumblebee (3/5),  Shazam (3/5), Highwaymen (2.5/5) , How to train your dragon 3 (2/5), 

TV Series - 

Wild Wild Country (5/5) 

My favorite. My precious. Loved it from start to end. Always like watching this genre. Will recommend it very high

The Good place 4.5/5. Season 1

Marrying philosophy with sit-coms. From the makers of Brooklyn Nine Nine. So many good things. Plus with the ending of season 1, wow! Did not see it coming. Season 2 was also very creative.