Stealing movie scenes - Notting Hill

Anna Scott, a beautiful and highly succesful actress, is sitting at the dinner table in the middle of a bunch of loosers who, by now, are very comfortable being loosers and have no qualms about admitting it instead are secretly happy that none among the lot is successful. Now the competition is to win the brownie by convincing other loosers that oneself is the biggest looser of the lot. Perhaps, a sort of console to defeated soul. So, the competition starts and every one starts giving it their shot.

But when they thought the competition is over, the actress interferes, “Wait, what about me?” That’s right. Who would expect a highly successful and popular actress to fight for a “Worst Loser’s Trophy”? Max rightly expresses his surprise by saying “Sorry, you think *you* deserve the brownie?” But Anna insists on giving it a shot.

There she goes with her saddest of lines. “I've been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I've been hungry for a decade. I've had a series of not nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it's entertainment. And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this”, she continues, “And, one day not long from now, my looks will go, they will discover I can't act and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while”. There is a long pause as Anna finishes her bid for brownie. Loosers almost thought they lost it, before Max breaks the silence, “Nah, nice try gorgeous, but you don’t fool anynoe”. William says, taking brownie in his plate, “Pathetic effort to hog the brownie”.

However, by then we, the audience, along with the characters on the show, know that there’s a looser in everyone of us, who has failed in some way in our pursuit of success.


Movie: Notting Hill

Objects in the mirro... Hmm, never mind!

Unknowingly my wrist was twisting the accelerator and thereby opening up the throttle, pushing more fuel into that monstrous 200cc engine which in split of a second was converting that vapor into thin air, farting it out and pushing me along with my motorcycle to higher speeds on the beautiful and empty, perhaps empty that’s why beautiful, highway between Mumbai and Ahmedabad which looked like a path made by snake with its zig zag curves, while the speedometer on my bike was incrementing the reading by digit by digit 90 to 100 and then to 110 it went on 127, 128, 129 and reached 130, top speed claimed by the makers of my motorcycle, but my bike seemed not to give heed to those statistical claims and went on to reach 132 kph, a feat I would cherish for proving the makers wrong about their own prodigal baby, but then anybody can be wrong, just like the moron who switched the left indicator on and took a right turn, making to ponder for a moment that I didn’t know who was ahead of me and whom I left behind but then it didn't seem to matter, because the ones ahead were fast turning from obstacles into objects in my rear view mirror while the ones in the mirror were all just mere objects whose size was getting reduced smaller and smaller by every passing second making me feel for once that “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” written at the bottom of the rear view mirror might not necessarily be true, at least when I am riding my motorcycle on a highway singing, "When I am riding, what's ahead doesn't matter, What I've left behind matters even less".

An unwelcome change!!... Why?!!!

It is sometimes funny but annoying most of the times to see how news on television has changed in recent years. People may blame it on Fox channel for writing foreword to this debacle, but I am really not interested in finding the guilty.

When I was kid, my uncle used to insist that I listen to news every day. I never found it entertaining but he kept on pestering me with questions on current affairs and consequently, I had to read news papers, watch and listen news on television and radio. What started as an activity carried out completely due to external perssure slowly started to become addictive and enjoyable. I started to enjoy reading and listening to news and knowing current affairs.

I remember eagerly waiting for news on Doordarshan. My whole family used to sit together and watch news thrice a day. At 7 pm in Kannada, at 8 pm in Hindi and at 8:30 pm in English. All on the one and the only Doordarshan.

During those days, news reading meant reading a written document in a dignified manner. This perception of news changed for me when we got connection from cable operator and hence, got access to BBC, CNN etc. Initially, when I heard about 24 hour news channels, I was kind of amused and sarcastic about it. I wondered, how can you keep listening to the same stuff for the whole day, which for me was just 15-30 min material. Why would a TV channel do such a thing? Moreover, who on earth would like to watch the same news repeatedly for the whole day? I got all my answers when I finally got to watch BBC on my TV. I accepted the change in the way news was delivered to our homes. I embraced it with at most love and appreciation.

Now, let’s come to the present day. This morning I woke up and started browsing through the channels. There are uncountable numbers of news channels on the air. One news channel was busy forecasting daily horoscopes of different sun signs. News presenters in some other channel were scratching their head over the goodies date 09/09/09 at 09:09:09 is going to bring to this world while another channel was completely going paranoid if the world is going to come to an end, for the same reason. Thankfully, we have passed that hour and the world is as steady as ever. I pray for peace of mind for that news channel folks. While some news channels still stuck to, now what can comfortably called traditional, morning news, few channels were busy analysing last episode of a TV reality show.

I am sure we’re laughing and teasing news channel for bringing up stuff like that. I am no different. But what made me wonder is the question, “Have I been fair when I criticize these news channels?”

I explained in the beginning how my perception of news got changed when I started watching BBC, CNN etc. Now, why is it not possible for me to accept the change that is happening now? Am I among one of those who think everything that comes from West is holy and the home-grown is simply pathetic and hopeless? I am not sure.

Another thing that worries me is the question, “Have I become too old fashioned to accept change?” In this fast paced times where 30years means retirement age, today's trend becomes dated for tomorrow, I can’t rule out this possibility. However, I prefer to say a firm “No” to this question because I feel the need for change in many aspects of our society as a whole and more improtant than that I am in no mood to make fun of myself.

Or maybe there is a completely new line of argument altogether for this discussion. News channels have changed. These channels are no more, and perhaps shouldn’t, deliver the kind of no non-sense news of earlier Doordarshan. News channels of recent days are a sort of complete packages. I might be not interested in horoscopes and stuff but someone else might be. Date 09/09/09 might not mean anything other than interesting figures to me but someone living next door might want to know a little more about divine interventions or devil’s play on this interesting date. Someone who is following a reality show might have missed the last episode and want to know quick summary of it.

These channels, don’t know for good or bad, have assumed a greater role than just information delivery channels. They’re catering to the needs of variety of audience. We can’t blame them for that. News channels didn’t start for us. They started with variety of audiences at the back of their mind. We just have to find out what we want to watch. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to keep watching what we call complete non-sense and crib about it.

However, I still strongly feel that news channels bringing news like “Aliens are stealing our cows in Bihar” doesn’t deserve any excuse whatsoever.