Attendance

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This is horrible. Not only did I miss the first class today, I also got marked absent for a class I was present for and awake in. And if that wasn't enough, I had a shot at getting marked present except I spazzed out and blew it. I need sleep. I hope The Hangover is worth it. And I hope I don't fall asleep in the hall. Though I can't deny that it actually does sound appealing...

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Now playing: Bob Dylan - Man Of Constant Sorrow
via FoxyTunes

Emotional Attyachar

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Not one of the characters is new. Not one of them surprises you. And indeed, it's in this very familiarity that you hide, following the crumbling lives of the different characters. The reason these "people" are not strangers is because they are your friends and neighbors. Your boyfriend and room-mates. Your seniors and juniors. They may be roles you have never seen on screen, but they're all well known and familiar.

At some point you are Dev, with his determined path of fast and furious self-destruction. Dev with his wounded pride. Dev with the tears running down his face at his father's funeral while his mother wails as she hits him weakly and repeatedly.
I am Dev's wasted life.

You are Paro, who is Ophelia (from Hamlet) when Dev tells her that his family would never allow for the inclusion of a mere "manager's daughter" in the family. Paro as she goes to meet Dev even though she's married because she is still in love with him. Paro, who, unlike poor Ophelia, moves on.
I am Paro's second chance.

You are Chanda, watching your life fall to bits because of one stupid mistake. You are Chanda as her father shoots himself in the head after promising her that everything would be okay. You are Chanda as she finally chooses to become an 'escort', getting through college in the day.
I am Chanda's shattered innocence.

I read a review about the movie that claims that one of the reasons the movie is so great is because you aren't meant to identify with the characters. Dev is supposed to be the scum-bag that he is shown to be. But the thing is, I think this country(/world?) is divided into three bits. One of which believes such a life is only liveable on screen, another that believes it exists and a third that knows of a world just as fucked up as Dev's.

You can identify with Dev. With his lack of remorse as his dying father sends him a car (the ill-fated BMW). You can identify with Paro's 'practical' decision of marriage. You can identify with Chanda's decision to run away. You know that neon blue light so well, and you understand perfectly how the threads of guilt, blame, hurt and pride get tangled up, forming knots it takes you eternities to solve.

Yeah, this movie is familiar. This movie tells me the futures of the people I know today. It tells me about their pasts. And most importantly, it tells me so much about all our presents. Sooner or later, everything will go wrong. Sooner or later, our parents will find out about the smoking and drinking. They will find out about the abuse. Sooner or later, carries will be failed, attendance shortages will be obtained, medical certificates won't be scammed in time. Sooner or later, a year will be lost. Sooner or later, everything will fall apart. It'll be time to leave. And there will be no escape from our escapes. But until then, one's gotta do what one can to deal with all the emotional atyachar...

"Ankhon ka hai dhoka
Aisa tera pyar
Tera emotional atyachar..."

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IKYWWTI

I made the decision to attend class at 0830 this morning. Hence, I did not have any time to prepare myself for it. I got to class on time and luckily those two hours didn't seem more than twice as long. I was expecting it to be much worse. I guess the kakuro helped.

I'm now reading Catch-22. Been meaning to for a while. Maybe a week before project submissions isn't exactly the best time to start, but well... too late.

That reminds me. I haven't been to Pecos in so long. I think it's been over two weeks. We've all been so broke that we can just about manage enough money to go drink at Alibi. Well, after these projects are done with. I also have to see Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas sometime next week.

Talking about movies, the latest Fast and the Furious has the original cast. Brilliant. I can't wait! I'm sorry. I'm a sucker for speed. And the flashy cars. Not to mention Paul Walker isn't all that bad looking.

Anyhow, before any of that, I need to finish work. Sigh. Does anyone want to do a project for me?

The History Boy

I just saw 'The History Boys'. It's supposedly based on a play of the same name produced in 2005. The movie is about eight boys who are aiming to get into Oxford or Cambridge to study history. The boys are students of a grammar school which is preparing them for the entrance exams. The movie is set in 1983 and revolves around the eight students and their three completely contrasting teachers with the Headmaster and the secretary playing minor roles.

The movie was simply stunning in terms of direction. The scenes moved from one to another with a kind of fluidity that you just can't talk of until you've seen a movie like this. There isn't one moment when you think the camera stayed on a shot too long or the soundtrack faltered. The acting too is praiseworthy, especially considering that it was the original cast of the play that acted in the movie!

The headmaster, Felix, is the easily identifiable conformist. He wants regular, structured and relevant 'education' to be imparted in the school, that - in his own words - can be quantified. The guy who teaches General Studies is known as Hector, by students and teachers alike, and is a not-really-closet homosexual (You'll understand what that means if you see the movie). The regular History professor is Mrs Lintott, who scarily reminds me of our own history prof. back at college, especially at the time of the mock interviews. (I swear, if someone just showed you a 5 minute clip of that bit of ranting and asked you to compare...). Irwin is a young teacher hired by the headmaster to help Hector and Mrs. Lintott prepare the boys for the entrance exams.

That's all I'm going to say about the plot/characters. I think the awesomeness of this movie lies in the fact that it has so many layers. At no point in the movie do they ever explicitly talk about what you just know is really being talked about. However, I think this has something to do with the whole student-teacher relationship thing, because when the boys are talking amongst themselves, they do so with such shocking frankness, I can only fervently hope that it isn't like that in real life!

The boys themselves are endearing and you end up liking them all - even smart ass Dakin and small Posner! Their characters are carefully contrasting, yet they manage to complement each other. There's the guy with the attitude, the jock, the admirer, the sidekick and so on. They all have their own single axis that they revolve around and it's beautiful too watch. You know, there's a line in the movie where Mrs. Lintott tells Hector that students forget that teachers too are human beings... I find this line to be beautifully appropriate here because the teachers in this movie are the complicated, layered people, while the boys are relatively straightforward. Mind you, that's probably just because their lives are not what the movie focuses on, but still...

This movie is more than just about History and student teacher relationships. It's about friendship and growing up and just about life. It's about different characters and how you identify with almost all of them at some point or the other. But more than all of that, it's about the subjunctive and reconciliation between contradictions... and the fact that history is made just like that. By one thing following another...

A must see, and definitely worth more than a one time watch.



P.S.

Couldn't resist it. If some of our professors had to play those teachers, this is how I think the casting would have been done.

Mrs. Lintott - History prof, or at least how she could have been (or must have at some point).

Hector -A mix of Socio and Torts. Hah! I can actually imagine it!

Irwin - Well, we don't really have anyone like that, but I'd say the closest would be Consti... (However, Irwin is a lot more insecure... and a LOT less colder!)