This post is a week-old in making :), but that's an improvement, won't you say :P ? Well, as consultants are wont to do -- lemme outline the three kool things about this write - up :):

- What does mee think about The Dark Knight ?
- Can Imraan dance Saala ?
- The love affair between a beauty and a beaut beast (now, we are talking, ainn we ?)

Yesterday I went to watch the 1140 PM show of The Dark Knight, the second Nolan-Bale combine after it all began, and expected to be a blockbuster before even the idea germinated. And then, Ledger died. Have you been able to forget Ernis del Mar, his haunting eyes looking at the tucked-in shirt as The Brokeback Mountain closed out ? As has been said numerously, Ledger completely immersed himself into The Joker, and where did he look for inspiration -- Sid Vicious and The Clockwork Orange's Alex -- as he says numerously in the movies -- "I am an agent of Chaos, of anarchy". I hope he gets the first posthomous Oscar, its the least we can do after being privy to his wizardry on-screen. Now, pulling back my Ledger connundrums, The Dark Knight is well, put in one word, maybe the first really-adult comic movie, the first time a comic movie has not tried to pander to its perceived audience, dear old children. TDK is a real movie, something a la Sin City, but much-much more real, grounded and with real characters. You want the caped one to win, but you sit through his eccentricities, his failings and his vulnerability, enjoying him all the more for it, knowing one false step could be his last. Every actor has somehow managed to bring their top form to the table, even Morgan Freeman, who has now become the quintessential Om Puri -- this role doesn't demand anything of me, let me sleepwalk through it !!! In short, if you are above 14, and don't want to miss the bestest comic book movie ever made, buy a ticket now. It's simply too costly to give a miss -- apart from the usual Wow-stunts (which even for all their oft-repeated predictability still manage to elicit whistles and claps from a totally absorbed audience, gizmos etc. etc., this movie simply has too much character and edge-of-the-seat edginess to not be one of the best movies of this decade, if not, all time. In summary, the best thing about this Batman movie is that it isn't a Batman movie, the bat is just a backdrop really, with tipping realism. The Joker really used to be an outlandish clowny villain in the comic-books, but you have to really look at Ledger, the Joker, entering a room full of stylish, noir mafia bosses a la Godfather and Scarface - being ridiculed and then going to make believers out of them, and most importantly us, this is happening right here, right now.

Next comes, the peppy and sensationally-bubbly Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa...which I watched with Partha, and in two words, We were blown away. Very simple storyline, no hanky-panky, movie ends at the airport types, but Abbas Tyrewala plays like a virtuoso with the small moments, rigging them all with small joy-bombs, which go off at the touch of a hare, intoxicatingly delightful. Imraan seems like a good kid, but no more, unless and until he proves himself in a couple of gritty ones, really can't comment -- fingers crossed. But, if you thought life was getting too heavy -- doo remember -- Har raat ke baad sawera aata hai (incidentally, I just heard the English translation of this in The Dark Knight -- talk of cogging !!). And how could you not get crude about that ajeeb-sa name, Genalia !!! think about that missing "it" !!!

And finally, finally, the Blockbuster of today's post (we all make-do with our small moments of fame, donn we :)). So, here we go:

The start of the love affair

So, as it goes, my ossum Blackberry 7100v had become quiet old in its tooth, 8 months and counting -- so I set my heart upon getting a Blackberry Curve or the 83xx series. Son of a great money-pincher (or Value-for-money customer for glamour-sakes !), I suffer the same trauma time and again, and so happened with the BB Curve. Now, the Curve comes in 4 shapes:

- 8300 : Basic entry-level curve (can't believe there can be an "entry-level" curve as well :P)
- 8310 : Curve with GPS
- 8320 : Curve with wi-fi but no GPS, apparently, BB has different chips for both functionalities and hence, doesn't want to make it bulky by including both in one set !!!
- 8330 : CDMA curve

Now, in my mind, 8320 was out, because I find the GPRS internet enough, I did not feel that wi-fi would be that kool :).

8310 GPS was on my mind, but I was not sure how helpful it would be given India's "unmapped" situation and then came the money-pinching bite, 17,770 for 8310 vs. ~16k for 8300, so I was okay with having the 8300, as you know.

But, then a friend happened to be in the aircraft between me and another colleague of mine and he said, having GPS might actually be "kool" and as is the usual way of things, my other colleague also sided with him, and that made poor me think, this is a lonely world I tell you. So, I went to ebay.com -- found the red, curvaceous, bootilicious 8310 and the love affair started - who wouldn't love sucha beaut :) ? I found somebody returning from the US, had the 8310 shipped to her house, and it came to me on the same night as I watched Jaane Tu ... (more points to the movie :-)). And, I fell in love, simply. Btw, Am I the only one who thinks this is totally based on Ironman's red-and-gold suit, what with the replete heart-neon and all ?

The beauty bests the beast

I fixed up the 8310 with a lot of apps and a sexy IPhone theme, I know about the apparent tiff between BB and IPhone users, but what the heck, you gotta give credit, where it lies :). But, then the ultimate happened. 8310 arriveth, I downloaded Google maps. Now, Google maps gets your position in 2 ways -- via triangulation of cell towers (accuracy upto 1700 metres) or GPS (accuracy within 3 meters !!) and unfortunately, my device would not budge beyond 1700 meters. Ab toh you peepol know me, I have maxxx keeda of having everything I own in working order, use or no use, or else I disown it. So, in simple words I had to make the GPS work. And then, this happened ::

I figured out from going through maxx forums, posts etc. that as soon as you get unhooked off a US network, the provider usually does some harakiri with your binary GPS settings because all of them are aligned with a certain GPS vendor and since it is capitalism, you know how it is. And AT&T had done the same to my curve :(. So, I decided to download BB's own BB maps and see if it could force the GPS to switch back to its original setup.

And ... like all happy endings, it worked !!!, picturein nahin dekhte kya :) ? I downloaded BB maps, switched it on to "Scanning for satellites" and went to sleep -- woke up in the morning to my BB saying "You are here" and since my default theme was ON, I guess the set had restarted itself sometime in the night. I quickly went to GPS settings and in 2 mins flat, it locked onto my co-ordinates (btw they are 28.45 N and 77.08 E :-)). Then I went to Google maps and it was down to "3 meters" from "1700 meters" and if you are reading this even now, I am sure you know what that means - Voila !!!! And, the icing was the drive to work, with my chauffer driving, I could actually see the dot moving on the map all the way -- it was simply immense.

And in short, my GPS had become a rockstar !!!!

But, the best was yet to come -- I had to drive to Faridabad on Fri-Sat for the conference, and my driver and I were thoda-sa clueless about the place -- if you peepz have been here, you would know its almost a village shim-shimmying as another Gurgaon in the making (GIM vs. MIM :P ?) -- and then I switched on my GPS and google maps. I actually asked my driver before he even saw that a left turn is due and Will you miss it and he missed it !!! And, nowadays I am so afraid of actually seeing myself on the satellite view -- within 3 meters accuracy, obviously - am sure, somebody did remember Enemy of the State, din't we :) ?

I tell you, this is just turning out to be a legen--wait-for-it--dary love affair already :P.

Long post -- guess you read it, so thankz :) and Tata !

Take care,
Ranjan