Benga"lured"!

A sunny Bangalore afternoon.A typical traffic crunch at the signal."Rush Hour",quips my aunt.Why do they call it Rush hour,when nothing's moving??I could have said that,but I know that it's not one of my authentic one-liners,so i choose to underplay my smartness,and all i can manage is a very matter-of-factly "Yep".

My aunt drafted out our plan for the day.Lunch,movie,shopping,club,coffee,music show,dinner and bang!i jolt my way back to my primitive hometown by the 9.30 p.m train.Perfecto!Our first stop:Garuda Mall,one of bangalore's biggest malls,i'm told.We have a quick grub at the sprawling food court -chole battura,dhokla,pulao-and sign off with an out-of-the-world strawberry milkshake(I'm really obsessed with listing out the dishes i had-cant help it,I'm a hard-core foodie!).

Next up is the movie.I am so thrilled to discover that my aunt loves the movies just as much as i do..and whats more!We even have similar tastes.There's an incredible sense of bonding which springs up between two people who nurture the same views and tastes-that feeling breezed through me at the moment.Both of us unanimously decide to settle for ''Juno" at the INOX.We grab a jumbo caramel popcorn pack and rush in through the sleek complex.I've always ranked Inox as the second best movie place in chennai,the first being Satyam cinemas,with its innovative state-of-the-art movie watching experience coupled with a first class refreshment counter and not to mention,the sparkling clean chic restrooms!

I really have to devote atleast one paragraph,if not an entire post,to "Juno".What a movie!Truly deserving of the Original Screenplay Award it bagged at the Oscars.We've had movies on teenage or premarital pregnancy in indian cinemas,but its not a complete entertainer,unless the heroine is insulted,a hue and cry is raised by her immediate family over her pregnancy,and an old ailing sarathkumar calls for a panchayat and ostracises his son,also played by sarathkumarand after killing his dad's enemies and a thousand other people who have nothing to do whatsoever with the pregnancy and the ostracisation,all ends well,in a revolutionary digital imagery gimmick where the 2 sarathkumars are found holding each other in an embrace!Or a movie like "kya kehna",which again was so full of societal cliches.

That's where Juno scores way ahead of the rest.The movie has originality stamped all over it.Ellen Page brims with energy as the independent 16 year old,who deals with pregnancy after consensual sex with her best friend.What makes the movie extremely enjoyable is its snappyoneliners,ready wit,and the refreshing humour.The scene where she breaks the news of her pregnancy to her dad and stepmom deserves special mention,because their reactions are unpredictably natural and intelligent.Juno does'nt treat her pregnancy as a joke,but she manages to find humour in her situation..For example,one of my favourite lines in the movie:

Vanessa Loring: Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
Juno MacGuff: Nah... I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?

The soundtrack is cool.The opening track is so cute,and right from the time you see "FoxSearchlight" on screen,you are in for a mega-sweep of originality and humour.

It seemed like a prelude to a perfect evening:)We drove to Richmond Road to my aunt's library-I was thrilled to bits!I was not prepared for a literary encounter of this intensity-Spread before me was a hall where roughly 30,000 books were stacked up in alphabetical order.Any god damn book in the world from every single edition of mills and boons to salman rushdie to jhumpa lahiri-You name it,you have it right in front of you.Enchanted,I picked up a few books and after coffee,we headed to the club where an Indian Idol like music competition was on,full swing.Grande Finale of the Rotaract Idol!Clones of kishore kumar,vasundara das,geetadutt and lataji weaved magic with their musical wands,and i could not take my eyes off a particular sportzy john abraham look alike in the crowd-It was a treat in more ways than one!!

My tryst with bangalore ends there.As i watch through the hazed windows in my train,andsee the city speed by,i realise how much at home i felt in the city .I had come with just onebag and i was leaving with 5,courtesy my wild shopping spree!But whats another 20pounds when i'm carrying home tonnes of memories and happy moments?:)