Let Me Watch That Movie Again!

Raghavan, my uncle who lives in Sydney, Australia, has what I would call a strange pastime: watching Tamil and Hindi movies from the past! And these are not movies that were recent blockbuster hits, but movies in black and white that have just one hilarious scene, or a song that he particularly likes.

On Sunday afternoons after lunch, he will go through his library of over 200+ movies and pull out the one that catches his fancy and watch it, all by himself! He does not fast forward to the part that he likes, nor does he rewind a favorite scene to watch it again, but will let the movie run its course as though he were seeing it for the first time.

In this fast-paced world where we are used to flashing images and are bombarded with a smorgasbord of senseless things, there must be some pleasure in slowing it down to go back in time and enjoy things at our own pace.

I have a Netflix membership and love to watch movies at home, but seldom do I entertain the idea of picking out something from the "watch it again" category, which has a list of my five-star movies. If I were to indulge in such an exercise, these are perhaps the top five movies that I will pick out for a "retro movie festival" at home:

1. The English Patient
2. Monsoon Wedding (Hindi)
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai
4. Il Postino (Italian)
5. Pulp Fiction

Now do you think you will like a retro movie week at home? If so, which movies would it be?

A View From the Front Porch

There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than sitting on the front porch, sipping a cup of coffee, watching the greenery, listening to birds chirping and hearing the soft sound of rainwater flowing through the downspout. It soothes the soul like nothing else. It is also a great way to start the day.

I fell into the habit in my early childhood when we lived in Ashok Nagar, Chennai. We had a very small house in the P&T quarters -- less than a thousand sq.ft. -- and the garden in the backyard was larger in area than the living space inside the house. We had a functional garden with just a few flowers but lots of vegetables and banana trees. Dad liked to sit on the EZ chair outside and read the Hindu while I sat on the steps to the garden and lazily gazed at the plants and the trees. I just loved the feeling. Life in those days was slow and unhurried, where nobody pushed me to keep moving or get things done. Leisure was an integral part of life. (Imagine that!)

Ideally, I would like to start my day like this every day, but the long commute to work (more than 50 mins.) and the harsh winter in Michigan does not lend itself very well to this indulgence. I have to make the most of this pleasure during the weekends on summer months. Hopefully, when I retire I would live in a house where I will be able to enjoy this all year around. Now, wouldn't that be nice?