I saw a film today, oh boy….

After a year without seeing a movie in India, Rae and I saw two movies this week. On Thursday, one of the teams from the campus went to see a movie. It was their reward for completing a very long, very complex project. I asked them what kind of reward they would like to have and seeing a movie was the unanimous answer. I was willing to send them all off to see a movie but they insisted that I go with them. I thought, “Fine, if I am going to see a Hindi movie, then Rae should go with us.” So I paid for her ticket and off we went.

As mentioned, above it was a Hindi movie, the English translation of which is One Villain. Bollywood movies are best known for singing and dancing – lots of light fun. However, they also make thrillers, as well as every other genre including westerns. This one was a thriller with a fairly complex story structure, jumping back and forth in time. Trying to understand everything that was going on, with the dialog in Hindi and no subtitles, was a challenge. Fortunately, based on sample of three movies I’ve seen, they always seem to have intermissions. During the intermission, I cranked up the Google machine and read the plot summary. All of a sudden the pieces came together and I enjoyed the second half of the movie much more.  Oh, I guess I should say just because it was a thriller doesn’t mean there was no singing and dancing. However, it was set in a night club and didn’t involve the movie principals, except as observers. It was also quite dark by typical Bollywood standards.

Movie two was in English, Transformers 4, and I actually think I understood the Hindi movie more fully. OK, the plot was dead simple but the way the movie was cut, the similarity of the good and bad transformers, and the overall grey tone of the cinematography made it difficult for this old man to understand the details of all the computer generated graphic action scenes. Since that was, oh, 90% of the movie, you can see my problem. I am not sure watching it in 3D really helped me with understanding the computer generated graphics either, for that matter. But it was cool watching stuff fall.

So on balance, “Yes” to Ek Villain and “No” to Transformers 4.

Now a couple of things about the process. First of all, and most importantly, they have popcorn. Since I am married to a woman who is genetically unable to watch a movie without simultaneously eating popcorn that was a very good thing. Second, the popcorn wasn’t too bad. Finally, a very cool thing is all the seats in the theaters are reserved. You can get them at the box office but you can also do it online. There is an app called Book My Show, which covers most theaters in Delhi. So you go on to the app, pick the movie, pick the theater, pick the time and pick you seats. Easy, peasy.  Since we’ve been here a year many things may have changed – is a similar app available in the US now?

Here’s Rae.

My part of the blog is going to be some highlights of my week.  These are random and kind of all over the place so bear with me. 

I know we have mentioned in the past that it is not uncommon to see men standing at the side of the road urinating.  Earlier in the week Phil was telling me that India is one of the top countries for public elimination, so not just whizzing.  Tuesday as I was out and about I witnessed my 1^st, I’ll call him “squatter”.  As the car turned the corner and moved behind him I was probably 6 feet away.  The image of his bare backside will be etched in my mind for heaven knows how long.  Later in the week I noticed another guy but luckily he was behind a small mound of dirt.  Unlike some of my next experiences, this experience comes without pictures.  Phew!

This is mango season and fresh mangos are at the top of my list of favorite fruits.  There are several varieties of mangos depending on the area they come from.  Lychees are also fresh right now.  While I have eaten and loved lychees I’ve never seen them fresh.  If I did I didn’t know what they were and I wouldn’t have thought they looked particularly yummy.  So, I thought some of you might be interested to see what fresh lychees, and one variety of mango, look like.

Friday afternoon Phil and I went to the National Museum.  The museum was interesting and we didn’t see all there was to see so we will be going back again.  The thing about the museum was that it, like almost everywhere we’ve visited, is poorly maintained and things are not clean.  I know that dealing with the black soot that covers everything is a challenge, but cleanliness just doesn’t seem to be a priority.  Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cows are not uncommon, but I’ve usually seen them wandering around, laying off to the side of the road or laying on a center median, rarely in the middle of the road. Friday on the way to the museum there was a cow laying in the middle of the road.  The car that you see the side of is our car which was about 6 inches from him with motorcycles on two other sides of him.  He wasn’t bothered at all by the fact that traffic was moving so closely around him.  Just lying there in the shade in the middle of the road, why not?

One last thing I’d like to share.  Last week in church a young man spoke and was talking about women in his life and how they had helped teach him different things.  One woman he said had really helped him learn the importance of honesty, and then shared the following experience.  He (Shibu) is a college student and attending a local university.  He was sitting for an exam with 29 other students.  There was a supervisor who was overseeing the exam.  As Shibu was working on his exam he noticed a lot of the students were using books or papers to get their answers, not being honest.  After a bit, the supervisor took their books and papers away from them but, after that, he asked the class how many of them would like to be able to take the test using their books.  29 students raised their hands, all but Shibu.  The supervisor then told them if they would each pay him 300 rupees (about $5) then he would let them use their books and papers.  Everyone, except Shibu, paid him the money and he stepped outside into the hall to watch for his supervisor so that he wouldn’t get caught letting the students cheat.  WHAT? Unbelievable, except from other things we’ve heard, maybe not so unbelievable.  Yet another story of bribes being paid.  [Phil here – the preferred term is "administrative fees"].

Namaste.