Saturday, July 4, 2020

Life in Mar 30, 2020 to 4 July 2020

Woah, what has been this quarter! The world as we know has been altered. The economic impact will be told in time to come. The social impact is visible.

Lockdown notes - 
Washing utensils is not a difficult activity. It takes some time but it is quite relaxing. I did it while watching movies on my mobile.
Cooking is more difficult especially when it is to be done a daily basis. While the variations to experiment are too many, it is still a time consuming chore.
We can live in an apartment where the jhaadhu-pocha is done once a week. It is liveable.
Travel is always there in the back of my mind. I was not aware of how much it impacts my routine. Not being able to travel is a great setback.
Very difficult to focus on workouts in this period. Wearing masks is mandatory and workout with masks is very tedious.
You soon get into a phase where watching TV/Netflix is also not interesting.



Books
- Getting more by Stuart Diamond - Book review
- In the middle of The Rise and Fall of Third Reich by William Shirer
- Re-read The story of us by Ted Chiang.
- 1Q84

Movies/TV-shows
Re-watch list : Rewatched a whole bunch of movies
Gangs of Wasseypur 1&2, Newton, Masaan, Matrix 2 & 3, Three colors: Blue & white, Bananas,
Irrfan Khan collection - Life in a metro, Lunchbox, Maqbool

New movies -
White Ribbon - 4/5
How evil takes place in today's world. Well made.

Mammo - 3/5
Good acting but still little lacking in pace.

Fleabag - 4/5
Very bold. Stylish. Lovely writing. It is the new level of Seinfeld. Modern definition of love. Very very good.

Laakhon mein ek - 3.5/5
Yeah, its cliched but very well made. Cinematography is very well done. Very good attention to detail.

The portrait of a lady on fire - 4.5/5
Very very good movie. All women case made by woman director. Each frame is crafted to perfection.

Money Heist season 4 - 2.5/5
God, they are just milking it now. Gone is the crispness of the show.

Fargo - season 1 - 3 -
Season 1&2 - 4.5/5
Season 3 - 3.5/5
Loved the humor, the storytelling, slow burn, dialogues and above all the characters. So much body count and yet so fascinating.  Best series of the year so far.


Predestination - 3.5/5
Ethan Hawke is terrific. Sci-fi idea is something that is truly out there. Total circular loop it is.


El Camino A Breaking bad movie - 3.5/5
For fans of Breaking bad only. Deja vu feeling. Some elements are good, some ok.

Pataal Lok - 3.5/5
Great writing and cast. Ending is little stretched, does not add up. But addictive storytelling.

New board games - 
Blink - 2.5/5
Azul - 3.5/5 Great fun.
Jaipur - rediscovered.
Pandemic - 4/5 Loved it. The perfect game for the times that we are living in.

Other things to note - 
- Finished Amit Varma's course on The art of clear writing.  Very useful.

- Attended and partly organized Numo's wedding. Good fun but should have been shorter ideally. Hectic times.

- Did a Whatsapp based mystery game, thanks to Aman and Divya for inviting. Good fun.

- Put Pashmina on rent in these times.  phew!

- Started contributing to IFF, MC, Scroll and AltNews. Feeling good about it!

- Got slightly addicted to Catan online colonist.io but it is ok now.

- On a 9 day furlough break from office starting today. First thing to do was to write this blog :)




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