My bit on Avatar:

To come straight to the point, I loved it. Yes, the graphic, visual effects and imagination was great but that’s not the real reason why I liked it. There are 2 reasons. I am sucker for these human-like alien stories (I cried copious tears at Steven Spielberg’s ET even as an adult and loved the TV serial Roswell). I tend to get really carried away into these extraordinarily imaginative worlds and Avatar’s world was far more vivid than the others.

Second and The primary reason (which surprisingly, not many have talked about) is the way they have portrayed Nature and it’s connect with the people there. How true when S Weaver says that everything’s inter-connected in nature and that there’s an exchange of energy that happens between nature and the people there. It’s not just some figment of somebody’s imagination about Pandora and bio-chemical reactions, but true of Earth as well. It’s just that we have stopped believing in it or even recognizing it. I loved the way they showed how the Na’vi people loved and respected nature. If the theatre was empty, I would have bawled openly and loudly when they showed Earthlings blowing up the big tree….I was so engrossed in their story and their pain.

I was planning to give the movie a miss (recession still)….but now am glad I got a chance to see it (thank god for good friends!).

The long road to December:

December is a month when even nature seems to be in a holiday mood. With the sun baking the earth and then the monsoon melodrama, winter is like a balm to the tired soul. I and my friends drove down to the Konkan coast along roads lined with happy shiny trees. The grass had turned yellow but it wasn’t dry yet, the sun was golden and light on the skin and the sky, a bright blue. And then came the azure sea against the white sand. We forgot our past and future. This was it. Joy!

December seems to envelop everybody in a strange happiness. In Delhi it is the excitement of the impending cold. In Bombay, the air turns nippy and the sky shines. Then there are the festivities – of the year coming to an end. And always always a strong hope for the best ever days in the coming year.

In Jan the euphoria slowly fades and a seriousness comes back into everybody’s life. I love December. I love the cold winter month. Wish it could stay longer. It’s going to be another long wait.