This, that, bile, guts and wet, wet water

Suffering from an unusual (for me) ailment of having the stomach rebel against all input last week meant a keen desire to curl up and wanting to never hear the word "food" or any variants, sub or super, thereof. The mind's ability to conjure up emotive associations and cause corresponding somatic reactions in a jiffy is quite impressive. But books, movies and the World Cup diverted it some what, and I got through, didn't I? *** A massive pile up of mail and blog items was inevitable. I usually like to answer my email as soon as I can, so it was a little jarring to have a week of pending responses. An absent-minded click on the top of the Bloglines tree proved to be an inadvertent balm to the second problem. In one instant, I had all the unread posts vanish. What a weight off the shoulders! Recognising the signs, I have signed off some of the high volume and continue to ignore loooong post-happy blogs for now. If this is turns out to be a loooong post, you know what to do. *** Those die-hard SRK fans who despaired of their star's performances in the likes of Swades, and to an extent in Paheli, need not worry. The man is back if the trailers of KANK are any indication. Only he could exaggerate a limp such that members of the Porcine Association are again complaining of intrusion into the ham production business. *** And we have Krrish which just about manages to have a syllable more than that strangulated Ssshhh. Judging by reviews, it seems to be more of a sequel to Kaho Naa Pyar Hai than Koi Mil Gaya with its Hrendition of the all-singing/dancing/romancing/skiing/fighting "hero" being augmented with the all-flying/leaping "super". *** The music of KANK is strictly ok on overall impact. Predictably, it is almost isomorphic to the songs of Kal Ho Na Ho. *** After a lull, the monsoon (I hope no one gets here looking for Sushma Reddy - the horror!) has revived. It belted out some of its best hits in the last couple of days with such gusto that the lyrics of "giilaa giilaa paani" don't seem too incongruous right now. *** "Teri diwaanii" from the album Kailasa is featured in a very impressive video, with the image of the dancing femme in silhouette framed against silent fireworks being very striking. The other videos for songs in the album, on the other hand, are amateurish to the point of being hilarious. Still, it seems an "honest" effort (whatever that euphemistically implies). *** When someone is accused of being "shallow", what does that mean? The shallowness quotient has been a mystery to me. The conundrum was revived when a character in a book I'm reading currently ("Past Mortem" by Ben Elton, who's famous for being a co-writer of "Blackadder" and "Mr. Bean") was described as such. *** This is the season when everyone reminisces about their first football world cup. Mine was 1990, the Italian one. Wimbledon (which I had started to follow the year before) was also on. Just like that year, this year will also see a June Sunday with a Wimbledon men's final as well as a World cup finale. That year, my favouritism for Boris Becker translated into an affection for Germany (apart from England who lost to the Germans in the semis). Becker lost an epic 5-set final against Edberg that year, but the Germans held on on the other grass field. Unsurprisingly, Graf won again that year, so there was 2 out of 3 for the Deutschlanders. The prizes are likely to be more spread out between the nations this year.