Life in Oct 16 - Feb 4

If you go to the previous blog in this series, it says - a period of calmness.
Well it was calmness before the storm as the next period was a torrent of action.  One thing after another and it was all planned and executed to perfection.


Travel -
- Travel was the bulk of the activity. All started with the 16 day NZ trip . Documented here, here and here. 
- Immediately after NZ, after 10 days, we were off to run Kaveri Trail Marathon in Mysore.  It was a HM after a long time, took 3 hrs plus but feels good to have done it without injury. Report is documented here.
- All of the above was in Nov. For NY, it was an impromptu plan to attend Sunburn @ Pune. Amazing experience plus a road trip from BLR.
- For the anniversary weekend, Kanishka and I decided to visit Sunderbans + Kolkata together with Aman and Divya.  Kolkata was a foodie trip and Sunderbans is a hidden gem in India.  Report will be shared soon.

Events-
Life in city (when not traveling) was also full of activities. December is anyways a month of lots of interesting things.
- Ruhaniyat - This year edition had a group of 9 from our side. Here was the lineup -
Mongolian performance by Hosoo Khosbayar
Mukhtiyar Ali and group
Belgian performance by Louvat brothers.
Nandesh Umap and group from Maharashtra
Qawwali by Chisti brothers
All were good but nothing stood out like last year. But a great night with home-cooked rolls under open skies.

- Sunburn was anyways the highlight and as Kanishka says - 'once in a lifetime experience'

- Play - Ram lala ki Mata at Ranga Shankara. A play on role of Kaikeyi in Ramayana and why she did what she did. A self aware play which tries to rope in the current political topics into its narrative. But overall not very spectacular either.

- Concert : Local Train at Phoenix market city. There is only one Indian pop band which I started following closely in last year, it was Local Train and I got to know that they were coming to Bangalore. I instantly booked tickets. It was amazing performance. The best highlight was the crowd as these were the die-hard fans of this band. Each song before the artist could sing as sung by the crowd. It was a thrilling performance and it was so good to be in good company of today's youth.


While travel and concerts were happening at one end, Kanishka and I decided to leave our life of rental nomads and decided to buy a flat in Sobha Daffodils. But post the registration, the process of finding a good interior designer and ideas for interior made us go out every weekend from one group to another, and in the online world from one website to another. The process is still underway and we are hoping things to get done by April.


Movies -
First Man- 4/5 Again a process movie (no doubt it is by the same guy who wrote Spotlight - Josh singer), but very well executed. I think the major accomplishment of Damien Chazelle is that he makes Ryan Gosling watchable :) Soundtrack was amazing and it is now my ring tone too!

Watched a bunch of bad action movies - Close (2/5), The girl in Spider's web(2/5), and rom-com - Leap year (3/5), The Spy who dumped me (2/5) , The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (3/5)

Tumbad -
4.5/5
Watched on the way to Pune in road trip.  Very well done film. Probably the finest horror film from India.  Absolutely highly recommended.

Raazi -
3.5/5
Good story telling and good acting. Liked it a lot.


Mowgli - Legend of the Jungle
3/5
Adds a darkish tone to the entire Jungle book and comes out okay.

TV Series -
Finished Gilmore girls. Watched it till season 5 and skimmed through 6 or 7.  There are lot many things to like here but some things are just unwatchable.
Brooklyn Nine Nine. I am a fan boy. 5/5. Love all the aspects of the show.
Bodyguard - 3.5/5 Not as good as Line of Duty but still action and performance keeps it going.
Also finished season 1 of Mad men by forcing to watch and get it done. Not an easy series to watch.
Black Mirror - Watched 3 more episodes and each one is a good one. Will take some time to get back to it.


Books

- Finished Sacred Games. 3.5/5 The first half is amazing with good commentary on what happens at a police station and how cops work. The making of Ganesh Gaitonde is also amazing. But the ending though it ties together things is not as thrilling as it should be.
It was a mammoth book and took 2 months to finish.