More notes on a cloudy day

Crossword, the bookstore, opened yet another store in Pune, this time in Aundh. Had been to check the place out. It's pretty small compared to the other major outlets, but seemed quite serviceable. I found the layout pretty decent, one long aisle really, compared to the JM Road one which always seems a little cluttered. Or was it just the lack of a sizeable crowd? When I entered, there were hardly any, but I as left, there were quite a lot of people inside. I guess inevitably, it will seem a little dense soon.

Crossword is a good place to check out current tastes in books, movies and music because it doesn't have the reputation of being the store where you can find even a non-bestseller book which you are looking for. Atleast not in my experience. For people from other cities, I must make it clear that Crosswords unfortunately is our only "big" store - there are many other single location stores that are decent, but suffer from being a little inaccessible compared to Crosswords. Add to that the fact that these do not seem to have the financial clout to arrange frequent "discount" sales and other promotionals. Harish raved about Landmark in Bangalore, so hopefully someday we'll see some competition from Odyssey and Landmark here - more choice.

All this talk always is reminiscent of You've Got Mail! - we even have a couple of children's bookshops in the same locality. Some of the employees and some of the service at Crossword can be compared to the Fox Bookstore too. Not sure though that a Joe Fox and a Kathleen Kelly are lurking anywhere near Parihar Chowk.

I was quite tempted to pick up a biography of Rahul Dravid but didn't as I wonder if it's a premature concept - I seem to prefer bios after the career is complete. I'm sure that RD will pen an autobiography some day, so maybe I'll wait for that. There were quite a few other temptations and sadly I yielded to none. Noted for future use, the prices of the complete Tintin set (7 volumes of 3 each), CDs of Casablanca, Limited Manuski, and a copy of Mrutyunjay (Tho' I'm still not sure I have the capacity to read a full length Marathi book).

******** The other thing about Aundh these days that the ambience in that central section (I live on the outskirts of Aundh, away from the hub) keeps reminding you how yuppified it has become. There is no escaping the smells of the next door Pizza Hut inside the bookstore, or the "upmarket" sartorial veneer of the young moms and their kids, or the VFM-seeking bearing of the men. Security guards spend most of their duty time seeking parking spaces, while plastic bags are loaded with celery and broccoli. I always feel out of place - perhaps cultural genes prevent me from merging into this new world, or maybe I am what I kept thinking I wasn't - uptight and conservative. The arrogance (or merely an assertive self-confidence) of it all is strange. Leading a cocooned life, I've never come into any contact with any significant form of class struggle, but seeing that if I, considering myself to be a middle rung middle-class (bourgeoisie?), can feel some sort of a disconnect with the upper rung middle-class, how must it be to the "lower" class? ******** Enough of such sociological musings. Was watching "Finals Day" of Twenty/20 cricket from Edgbaston. I'm not a member of the Dinesh Mongia fan club, but I wonder if there is a strong case for his selection? He seems to be in reasonably decent form with the bat, bowled exceedingly well and most importantly will already be well acclimatised. (If the Indians do badly in Europe, we're going to hear a lot of that A-word). The Board thinks he is a good fielder (re: selection decision for the WC). OTOH, Rohan Gavaskar scored a ton yesterday, but I don't think he will start a match first-choice.

Am still to be convinced about the need for Twenty/20 cricket elsewhere in the world, but in England it makes some sense. It is entertaining most of the times, with the need for some whacky batting and sharp fielding which is helping get some of the English crowds back in. In India, well, I'm still not sure why we don't have a round the year day/night national ODI competition. I don't think Twenty/20 is the answer here. One more note to ESPN/Star - despite the need to spice up things, Sky TV don't seem to have added unnecessary elements in the broadcast.

******** Finally watched Lakshya last week. It was short of one song - either the theatre guys snipped it out (unlikely) or the makers pruned the film to try and improve its chances at the BO. Quite an inspiring tale, and am really happy that my gut feeling about Farhan Akhtar came out right. I'm impressed with this guy - I guess he has the choice of going the way of the Johars, the Chopras and the Barjatyas but he hasn't. I don't think he ever will. Perhaps papa Akhtar deserves some praise here. Oh, BTW, one of the simple reasons why Lakshya is a good portrayal of the army men because heck, it's one of the films in which the hero actually has to cut his hair short! That itself should have told you. More seriously, dunno if the similarities with Vijeta were coincidences, especially the father's "when we came to India from Lahore with nothing" dialogues. Yes, the "Karan Shergill" must have been intentional (as spotted on this blog some time ago). ******** I think the members of the "blogger slice population profile" (i.e. most of my friends) will have been pleased with this year in Hindi cinema - Maqbool, Yuva, Lakshya, Ek Hasina Thi, Ab Tak Chappan and Raghu Romeo (if I may) may not have done much at the counters, but they have been a pleasure to watch. ******** Sholay will have a theatrical release this Friday here (is this a nationwide exercise?) and provides a lip smacking opportunity to catch the all time great in a hall, something I've never done before. Much better that watching an ad-peppered version on Zee Cinema (which is airing the flick on Aug 15). Only one more wish Mr Sippy: if you'd only release a cut with the original ending, either on DVD or in theatres, then we can all go to our graves without any regrets. Kiimat jo aap chaahe.n.