Mistakes i did in 2023

1. Didn’t take care for of self
   This whole year I kept telling myself that let me settle a bit and then I will look at myself. But it never happened, the settling thing. Eventually I forgot how to take care of myself? Everything got affected. My hair, my skin, my menstrual cycle. I became lazy. I started eating junk. I had chipped lips through out the year due to dehydration. I looked dull than ever. I never got time to comb my hair or even drink water. I would just make an excuse.
   Instead of doing something about it, I just felt pity for myself.
2. Was not grateful enough
   Not at all proud of this. I always kept on complaining to my husband how my life has changed and nothing is what I had wished for. Instead of being thankful that this was actually what I had dreamed of at some point of time I just kept on thinking of all the negative things. Instead, I should have been a little patient and waited for the right time.
3. Wrong goals
   I will tell you the goal. It was to learn next level of cooking. I can do basic cooking so I wanted to upgrade my skills. So I made a list of dishes I wanted to learn and decided to cook them throughout the year. The goal or the target only added on additional pressure on me. It is obvious that with a toddler around, if I dont have time to take care of myself, how am I going to find time for cooking dishes? I took out that pressure on my husband and my daughter affecting their day. I would be left even more exhausted at the end. And if the dish didn’t turn out as expected I was even more disheartened. It was a pointless goal.
4. Didn’t respect my husband and daughter
   This is worst of all. Yes, my husband did change when he went to college with the young boys but didn’t I myself had changed after I joined him in this new place? I argued with him more often and on the same things over and over again. Instead, i should have given him some time to experience the change and then explain to him patiently. It was not like he was running away from the responsibilities. He just didn’t understand my expectations.
   I forgot that my young daughter is observing my behavior. She began to copy me unknowingly. Instead of changing myself, I started scolding her. It felt like we both were growing apart. I forgot that she is just a baby and all she needs is my love. Actually, I felt very lonely and depressed and I didn’t know where to find the love and comfort I needed.
   It was right there, within myself, with my family. I just couldn’t see.
5. Moved away from roots
   If I think of the last year, it was really horrible for me as an individual. All the things that I have mentioned above are so true yet they sound so much not like me. This isn’t really what I want to be. I want to be a loveable and a caring wife and a mother. I dont want my child to have any childhood trauma. I dont want to disrespect my husband, for I know what we both really mean to each other. I dont want to be a junk eater. I dont want to be that dirty mess. But I turned into one.

We are already in the mid of March when I finish writing this post. But I decided to finish it anyway because I can see myself changing. I am able to find the triggers, I am able to see my mistakes. I am able to find the solutions and I an working on them everyday. It has been just few months and there is still long way. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And this year is going to be great. I am going to change. I am going to be me. I am going to make myself proud.

First Haldikumkum in the USA

The reason to write this post is only to check if writing still excites me.

I feel like I have become a whole different person in last one year. It wont be wrong to say that I have lost my (old) self. I am ok to change, but not ok to have changed to become a sad person. The only things that make me laugh these days are some random, cute things that my daughter does. And that also depends on how my day is going so far.

I avoided writing for so many reasons for so long. Only to one day realize that it is one of the things that fetched me some joy.

So let me tell you about this story of haldikumkum and a new friend i made.

My daughter and I, we were having a usual boring day in US winter. She wanted to go and play with girls in our neighborhood. But unfortunately they were going out for grocery shopping with their parents. They left in front of us and yet she kept on knocking their door after that. So my husband suggested that we will also go somewhere, like in some shop and get some toys. We call it stress shopping.

Things happen for a reason.

We went to a nearest shop with almost no agenda on our mind. There, in that shop, there was a couple who has same mother tongue as ours. And because our daughter was entertaining herself by wandering everywhere in the shop, we happened to hit a conversation. Turns out they live in the same community. The lady was hosting haldikumkum next day and she invited me and my daughter!

If i was in India, I would have not at all bothered about this function or small gathering. But here, we were super excited.

We went to there house next day and it felt so good. My new friend and her entire family is very welcoming. They also have a daughter who got along with our daughter. Ah! Got that feel of home! I also met other ladies and other kids. It was an evening spent well.

She had nicely decorated her house for the event. Especially the second photo has a frame she created for all the ladies. Her thought was that we tend to forget ourselves, lose confidence, get depressed. I could so resonate with it.

I entered this new year telling myself that this is gonna be my year. I am going to turn things around. Soon I realized it wasn’t that easy. Somethings have to be changed. What? I still need to figure it all. But you know what they say? What you seek is seeking you. And right now it is happiness, for me and my family.

My breastfeeding journey

Some people might think, why am I talking about my breast feeding journey? and not about my 9 months of pregnancy or about “the labor” part?

The reason being for me, breastfeeding turned out to be the out of syllabus question.

Well, it was not out of syllabus but I always thought that it is a very natural process and there is no preparation required for it. I was completely wrong.

To start with, my 9 months of pregnancy went really well. No issues. At every doctor’s visit, the doctor would ask me – “Any problem while passing urine or stools?” I would say “No”. And doctor would say – “Good”. I could feel the joy of Monica from F.R.I.E.N.D.S when she visits her ophthalmologist. My 9 months were that good. I only got varicose veins. But that was not any major issue.

What I dreaded the most was labor pain. But those 12-18 hours just came by and went before I could even think about it. There are so many emotions all together at that moment. And today, there is not a single trace of that pain. So ladies, believe me. Labor pain is nothing that you cannot bear.

The delivery was, as mentioned on my case paper, “uneventful”. Everything went as per the plan. My baby was healthy and strong. My husband and I were on the top of the world. I was totally high.

(It is really a beautiful thing, giving birth to a baby. But about that, in some another blog)

The out of syllabus question was here.

After some time of the delivery, the nurses brought my daughter to my chest and she sucked my nipple, just like that. And I thought that this is the answer to my question. Whenever the baby is hungry, she will cry, I will put her next to my breast and she will suck my milk. When she is full, she will leave.

But it didn’t happen that way. My baby didn’t cry that often. She would cry only when we would uncover her swaddle and that was only when she pooped. Rest all the time she would sleep. Every time the nurse would take her to change, she would come back saying “Your baby is hungry, feed her. She is crying.” But before I could feed her, even before she could latch to my breast, she would fall asleep. I would still try. But I used to feel that a new born baby might have a very little appetite.

The shock came on the day of the discharge. Our doctor said that the baby’s weight has reduced more than expected. If we want we can stay back and get some help from nurses on how to feed the baby? Hopefully the weight will increase tomorrow and we can go home.

At this point I got lot of suggestions like – this is very normal, all baby’s lose weight, they gain after going home when they get some nice massage, they will gain mostly after 2 months and so. One of the neighboring patient’s care taker also showed me pics of her son when he was born and after 2 months.

It was like a slap on our face. I just couldn’t accept that my baby has lost weight because I didn’t feed her properly. That extra night in the hospital was an eye opener. I started to visualize my baby like underprivileged and malnourished kids. My husband was equally clueless.

My mother would come to stay with me at night in the hospital and she was shocked as well. If my care for my baby, on a scale of 10, is 5 then my mother’s is 10. She couldn’t tolerate it.

The nurses and the assistant doctors were all very helpful. They would guide me all the time. Sometimes scold me and some times lovingly. They would guide me as how to hold the baby? how to help the baby latch? how to hold the breast so the baby can latch? how to wake up a sleeping baby?. My mother massaged my breast so that the flow of milk was proper. One nurse also suggested me that if I cannot feed then I can express my milk and then feed from a bottle. To be honest, I was relieved by the idea that at least my baby wont be hungry. But I kept it as the next option. I was also not sure about how to express the milk?

That night, my mother and I, we both gave our best. My mother would remind me of all the different instructions we had got, and I would try to feed the baby. We didn’t sleep that night.

Next day my baby’s weight increased by 80gms. It is a good number. And we were discharged.

But the problem was, my baby really slept a lot. She didn’t wake up every 2 hrs. We had to wake her up. She would cry but she would not latch to the breast. She would fall asleep the next moment. I had to keep her rocking till I thought that she must have had enough. It was very painful thing to do – to wake her up from sleep. But we did it anyway. We googled the ways to wake up a baby and one of them was to unwrap her.

The best advice I got was from my sister-in-law. She told me to visit our nearest pediatrician the next day itself, to inform him about the issue and to take his guidance. She told me another important point – you are the mother. You know the baby best.

My husband and I met the pediatrician next day and I feel so lucky to have met him. He answered all our queries patiently. He told us that newborns do tend to sleep, This is the only time when we will find someone sleep while having food. The trick, he told is, every 2 to 3 hours, baby will feel hungry and she will do some movements. That is the time we should cease. Get ready and try to wake the baby at that time. This made our journey a lot less hassled. Waking her up became a lot easy. There will be one long sleep in the day, when she would wake up later after 4 to 5 hours. Rest all times she would wake up after 2 hours. Doctor also gave us a rough estimation as to how much her weight should increase after 1 month, on our next visit.

Within a few days, she began to latch to the breast on her own. After a few more days she began to search for the breast with her eyes closed. Then she began to cry after 2 hours. Life was again getting back to normal!
She started to take her feeds properly. She gained weight as expected. I also learnt to hold her properly, understand her more. Having my mom by my side was the biggest positive. She understood my baby better than me. Eventually I too got the hang of it.

One more thing I learnt newly was when we deliver a baby, initial couple of days the milk supply is low. That milk is called colostrum and it is very much important for the baby. We should feed her the colostrum. It was only after my mother massaged me, the flow became normal. Also, more the baby sucks, more milk will be produced. It is based on demand and supply.

We should also keep the baby close to our body. It helps in improving breastfeeding process. It is called kangaroo care method.

I talked to one of my friends who had delivered a baby before me. And she had somewhat similar experience. She even had to contact a lactation consultant. Surprising thing is, when I used to see her pictures with her newborn, I never realized that she was going through so much in the early days.

It was she who told me that there are other mothers at her lactation consultant who all have faced some or the other issues while feeding the baby. The lactation consultant herself had faced some issue and so she decided to guide other mothers.

That made me realize that I too have some responsibility. I have to share my journey and knowledge to help other mothers. I want to point out that breastfeeding can be really painful journey. But if we take steps in the right direction, then it turn will turn into beautiful journey that we share with newborn baby.

So here comes my TLDR section. Here is what I have learnt so far –

1. If you are pregnant for the first time, try to learn about breast feeding already. Both mother and father should know.
2. The white sticky substance that comes from mother’s breast in the initial days is called colostrum and is very important for the baby.
3. Massage your breasts regularly during the pregnancy and after the pregnancy. It helps to avoid any lumps and also in regulating the flow of milk.
4. It will be hard for initial few weeks, but then it definitely gets better. Especially because we are enjoying the 9 months, everyone is taking care of us. And all of a sudden, we are sleep deprived, we have to change the diapers or nappies and clean the poop and everything. We also get stiches which are unbearable for sometimes.
5. Get help. Either from any lactation consultant or from pediatrician. But get help. Don’t assume things. Or don’t suffer in silence. Because along with us our new born is also going to suffer with no fault of his or hers.
6. If your baby cries, then first try to feed her. That should be the first instinct. If the baby is still crying then look for other things that maybe causing discomfort like temperature, clothes, bed, etc. Don’t think of irrational reasons like she is bored, etc.
7. If your baby also sleeps too much, then look for the signs every 2-3 hours. When the baby makes movement wake her up. Find out the ways to wake up baby in the right way.
8. All babies are different. We have to understand our baby and act accordingly.
9. We should not judge anyone if they choose not to breast feed or choose to breast feed longer. It is everyone’s journey.
10. We should also not judge the baby by his or her weight. We don’t know what problem the baby and mom and the whole family is going through. We should not judge the whole family.
11. Help only when they expect it. Offer advice only when asked for.

Four things to declutter right away to be a minimalist in India

The videos that we see on YouTube are so overwhelming. They are the extremes of Minimalism.

They are usually made by people who are independent, leaving alone or with their partner, They have spacious homes and beautiful surroundings. When we see them, we feel good but at the same time they don’t lead us anywhere.

Those Youtubers lead a very different life than we do.

We usually leave with our parents. We have a co-dependent life style. We are not always in the position to make our decisions all by ourselves. All of a sudden I cannot say ‘I want all the walls painted white’ for my video, I mean. Which is absolutely fine. Because that is not minimalism.

If we are making an unwanted expense just to show that we are a minimalist or to get the feel of a minimalist lifestyle, then it is still an expense. Minimalism is exactly opposite of it.

So here I have noted down 4 things that belong only to us, which we can minimalize right away. Perhaps, our parents might be wanting us to this already!

***

1. Unwanted clothes
   Irrespective of gender, we all have lots of clothes in our closet that we don’t use anymore or they don’t fit us or we just don’t like them. They are just occupying some place in our cupboard. We need to get rid of them right now.
   If they are old, worn out, throw them away and get new ones. There are also some that we might have bought under some pressure or out of lust but we never use them nor do we plan to. Best this is to donate them.
   Some clothes just don’t fit us anymore but are in good condition, we can surely donate them.
   If, there are clothes that I don’t like much but they do fit me, then I wear them occasionally so that I get the value for my money. Once they are worn out, I can throw them away.
   
2. Plastics bags
   We have such a bad habit of collecting plastic bags, thinking that we will need them someday. We just keep on collecting bags after bags, and we hardly use one or two of them. The rest all occupy corners of different cupboards or the space under the bed.
   First thing, there is always an alternative to the use of plastic.
   When we get them as well as on the occasions for which we are saving them for. Still if we want to collect them, we can keep a check on the quantity.
   Best way is to start using cloth bags. People think it is uncool to use cloth bags but it is super uncool to use plastic bags. We can use our creativity (or old clothes that we previously discarded) and make stylish cloth bags.
   
3. Unwanted gifts
   The most unwanted gift on the face of earth is a show piece.
   There was a trend at one point when Indians gifted each other show pieces to decorate their houses. People really liked to have a beautiful piece but over the time we have realized it just adds to the chaos and adds an extra item for the dust to rest.
   If you have such gifts, well, no museum will want them. Still you can spot some people around you, who, are not minimalist and have ample space. You can give those to them.
   Tell people what gift you want or ask them to give you money. You do the same thing when you want to gift something, ask them what they want or give them cash.
   The best gift you can give to some one is your presence.
   
4. Unwanted books
   One might be a reader, or not. We might still have some books from our college time or of some competitive exam that we took. Donate them to some needy junior or to a library. Resale them if you want.
   All the avid readers have at least 1 book which they bought months ago but haven’t read it yet. I think 1 month is an under statement here. I will suggest pick up those books next. Or if you don’t want, give it away.
   We might also have half filled notebooks or rough papers or yearly diaries which we don’t really use. Donate them to students who can use them as rough papers.

***

I feel that rather than those people we are in the need to implement minimalism.

We live in cities where we have space crunch. There is so much dust, dirt, garbage all around. If we don’t keep our houses neat and clean and empty there are going to be more and more diseases like corona in the future.

My Favorite Festival #NotSoGrownUpEssay

We Indians are blessed with number of festivals, through out the year. Each festival has its own significance, its own way of celebration. Thanks to the secular nature of our country, religion is not a barrier when it comes to celebration.

People love festivals for different reasons. Some are attached to its cause, some are attached to the God it celebrates, some like the way of celebration. While some like me, just enjoy the mood they bring along and we don’t bother about anything else.

I look at all the festivals as a reason for our family reunion. I love to spend time with my cousins. And I like that each festival brings us together. Now that we all are adults, we have our own schedules, we just meet for a day at some one’s la chez, spend some time together, have a meal together and go back to our respective homes. If some one is outside the town, then he or she is missed. In that sense all the festivals are same. Except one. The Ganesh Festival.

Ganesh festival is widely celebrated in different parts of India in the name of Lord Ganesh (the elephant God) During this festival, we bring home Idol of Ganesh, lord Ganesh is treated as our guest. He comes with a tiny mouse. Lot of Hindu Gods have different animals as their vehicle. It is a way to make people remember importance of different animals. Mouse is the vehicle of Ganesh. It signifies that no matter how small a size of a person is, they can carry important responsibilities on their shoulders.

The guest can stay in our house for 2 days, 5 days, 7 or 10 days. We prepare Ganesh’s favorite sweet Modak. It is a sweet made by giving proper shape to wheat or rice flour and stuffing it with sweet mixture of coconut. On the last day we immerse the idol into water. It means Ganesh is returning back to his world after filling our lives with happiness and hope.

The festival also has a mention in India’s history of Independence. Indian freedom fighter, Lokmanya Tilak, made this a public festival with the idea to bring people together and spread freedom awareness.

It is the only festival where we all cousins try to make sure that we meet one day before the actual festival. We do Ganpati decoration together, we play carom with a cult Bollywood movie in the background, we help each other with the chores, we have a sleep over. We chit-chat, we crack jokes, we make memories! Next morning, we go together to bring the idol of Ganesh, we say prayers and we even help in the kitchen. For following 5 days people are in and out as per their convenience. We try to meet again on the 5th day to say good bye to Ganpati bappa and to make some more memories.

This year it was different. Due to “the corona pandemic”. We definitely didn’t gather at one place. Most of us couldn’t come in person at all. Thanks to the boon side of the technology, we could at least have video calls and get an e-darshan or attend an e-aarti.

But it was different for me in other ways too. Every year it is our Hema aunty who takes the lead in Ganpati decoration. We follow her instructions, with lots of chit chat and gigling going around. This is happening for more than 2 decades now. But this year, for the first time, I made my own decoration with my own idea! Hema aunty also liked it. Moreover, I also did a lot of cooking than usual. I didn’t just help in the kitchen, I owned the kitchen! I feel so proud of myself. I didn’t realize that so many years, unknowingly, I was learning from my aunty and everyone else about decoration. I also didn’t realize when I learnt to make properly shaped modaks in middle of all the chatter.

They say, there is an opportunity in every adversity. This pandemic gave me an opportunity to be creative. It gave me an opportunity to be independent and learn to cook on my own.

It also gave me an opportunity to be grateful for my family, my cousins and all the memories we have made.

1 month of Yoga

Restoring my flexibility
I have a flexible body but it is important that I perfect the yoga poses and perform them effortlessly. Only then I can say that I have reached the maximum flexibility. That happens with practice. Similarly, if I stop practising yoga, I start losing that flexibility.
I can feel that after starting the practice, I do the poses with more confidence especially when I am in the flow.

Adds to my flexibility
Although most of my body is flexible, there are certain parts that need more stretching. So now, my teacher makes sure that I do certain poses regularly so I can achieve flexibility there. I can already see a little bit of improvement.

More self-aware
Meditation and Pranayam are two important pillars of yoga. Meditation is, what we all are aware of, focusing on our breath or one single point and trying to not let our mind wander.
Pranayam is a set of breathing exercises. Of course, we do focus on our breath. But we also try to improve the quality of our breath. We should try to inhale more and consequently exhale more. The less number of breathes we take in a minute, the longer life we live. It is too soon to say but I consciously try to stay focus or bring back my thoughts to present.
I know one month is too little to say that I feel more balanced and more focused. But the idea that yoga makes one self-aware makes me try to be more aware.

Waking up early
This is a byproduct of the Yoga session. I have always wanted to wake up early but I didn’t have any motivation. Now I have a very strong reason.

One month is too early to say anything. But I feel extremely motivated and I thoroughly enjoy the Yoga sessions. And I couldn’t hold myself from writing about it. I hope that I get better and I can perform perfect poses as we see on the internet 😛

PS : I will soon complete my 2nd month of Yoga. I was getting to take some photos of my poses. So here they are –

Gomukhasan – Cow face pose (front side)

Gomukhasan – Cow face pose (back side)

Cat Pose – Marjarasan

 

Cow pose – Bitilasan

 

Setu Bandhasan – Bridge pose

Chakrasan – Wheel pose

Dear rose plant

First of all, sorry for the rough patch we had, although for a very short time. I am sorry.

I was about to give up on you. I had decided not to take any care of you any more and live you with your destiny. I was so furious. Perhaps on my self. That I cannot take care of you. I cannot stand up for you.

But then, Amol reminded me that I need to do whatever is good for you. No matter what. It took some more days for my anger to recede. But I came back to you. And you accepted me with open arms.

You stayed just as I had left you. Your few green leaves were still green. Not a single one was dried. Your stems were as it is. I take it as a sign that you waited for me to come back. You had faith in our friendship. Thank you, for not giving up on me.

After that, I continued to take care of you. Just as I did before. Of course, because you let me to. I talked to you, I gave you some food and water. I didn’t expect much in return, just your good health.

And today, when I came back from a short vacay, I was so surprised to see so many new leaves on you! And you know the biggest surprise? That stem of yours, which I thought was dead from inside and I was going to cut it off. Thank God I didn’t. There are new stems and leaves on that old stem! Wow! You just made my day!!

I don’t know what worked here. Whatever it is, I will figure out soon. You just stay the way you are. Healthy and strong, spreading happiness in our lives ❤

How I nailed the humble upma! Mom’s lesson

Upma is mainly is very simple and easy dish that can be made quickly.

And that is where I underestimated it. I thought, how hard can it be to make upma? Just fry some onion and tomatoes in oil, add some water to it, bring it to a boil and then add sooji in proper ratio of water. No big deal. I can do it.

But my umpa never tasted as the ones I had eaten before that were made by others.

When I was in the Netherlands, it was OK. Just me and my husband had to eat it. But after coming back to India, I was ashamed that I cannot make this simple upma properly. I didn’t have confidence to serve it to anyone.

But then, that day came, when I was at my parents’ place and my mom was to prepare the upma! So I asked her if she will teach me to make it.

It is so stupid of me to not ask her this before. I had my whole life to learn it from her. She is the one who makes one of the best upmas I have ever tasted. I have heard people praising her umpa since my childhood.

I think it is a bit of laziness and a bit of ego that held me back.

Better late than never. Now I have learnt it. And after that I made it 3 times. And all the 3 times it turned out well. Not exactly like mom’s but a loooot better than what it used to be.

So now, I am not going to talk about the recipe but only the small things that make a huge difference in how the upma turns out.

Here are all the tips that I got from my mom!

1. Roast the sooji well. Half roasted sooji will not absorb water properly.
2. Add white udit daal in oil (tadka) and roast it till it is red. It adds different flavor to upma.
3. For 1 bowl of sooji, take 2 and a half bowl of water.
4. After you add sooji to the boiling water, stir it well using the back of the spatula to avoid forming lumps.
5. Keep on stirring till most of the water is absorbed
6. Sprinkle some more sooji so that the upma becomes dry instead of soggy. This sooji gets cooked by the steam itself.
7. Add a spoonful of ghee. It will take your upma to the next level.

That’s it. These are quite simple things which will raise the bar of your upma.

I am thankful that now, there is at least one dish that I prepare well.

Once the lock-down is over, you all are invited to enjoy my upma!! 🙂

So how do you prepare upma? And which is that dish that you have nailed and makes you feel proud? Let me know!

I did my husband’s haircut! #lockdown

I feel so proud of myself! Because the hair cut went really well.

I am thankful to my husband for giving the opportunity to do this!

Well… I tricked him to do it 😛

Few days ago, I was telling him that I want our own house so I can decorate it my way. Right now, we live in my in laws house. And he replied saying, I give you this (our)bedroom, you decorate it. At that time I just said “No, I don’t want a room, I want a house.” But later, when I was thinking, “How is he giving me something that is not his?”

Wait, I am getting to the point.

On the following Saturday, I told him about this thought and then I told him, he can give me one thing that belongs to him. 😀 “Give me your hair to cut!”

He didn’t hesitate much though. And I was ready with the trimmer.

My experience with hair cut was good. With the trimmer, things are very easy. We should just know what level you want to set. We can try with larger number(that will keep the hair long) and slowly move to smaller number as we need. We can use trimmer for side and back hair. But for front hair, we need scissors.

That is a tricky part.

It is when I began to use scissors, I realized how much efforts the traditional barbers put in a haircut. Suddenly I felt respect for the person who invented trimmers!

I had seen this post on FB –

It is not like I wanted to develop this skill of giving a hair cut, but I am glad I did it. Now I am more confident. Thanks to the lock down! My husband also said that he will allow me to cut his hair next time 🙂

Such a sweet heart!

Movie reviews – What if? Mad Max – Fury Road

This is part 2 of my previous post.

What if?

This movie was on my mind for about an year. I had seen its CD in a library. The CD cover had a picture of the lead pair – Daniel Radcliff and Zoe Kazan. Ooh! I like both of them, so I instantly became biased about the movie. Finally, while browsing through Prime movies list, I came across it and decided to go for it.

The movie is a ROMCOM. The leads meet each other when the boy is just about to recover from a broken relationship after about an year and the girl already has another boyfriend. They decide to stay friends and you know how things go from here. All ROMCOMs are the same. It is just the matter of how the show it. Well, this movie is very okayish. Too mediocre. But if you are also fan of the actors, you will be able to laugh on the jokes, feel the heat in the romance, etc. I will not suggest this movie to anyone.

It is my first Daniel Radcliff-non-Harry Potter movie. I was wondering how it is going to feel. Well, I could forget him as Harry Potter look and expression wise but his accent took me back to London. Also, he is an adult in this movie, unlike a teenager in HP. So his expressions are better and not limited to fear, anger and grief.

I have seen few other ROMCOMs of Zoe Kazan. She is so cute and adorable. She conveys the emotions of love, confusion, friendship so effortlessly. On the top of that, she always looks young and naive. She is the same in this movie. What can someone do if the writing is bad? Although here, I would recommend you to watch her other two movies – the big sick and the pretty one.

MAD MAX – FURY ROAD

This movie, I didn’t have on my mind. I was discussing with my husband if we should also take Disney Hotstar subscription and he was like, ‘at least first watch movies that are on Prime!’ SO, I went back to the movie list, and I just thought of giving it a try. I am not a huge fan of Tom Hardy. But I have seen him in other movies.

The movie is pumped with action. It is about the future when the very basic resources like water will be in scarcity, and people will have to fight for it. (we are already in that future, well, kind of) There are human slaves, women used as milk producers, men act as blood bag, and other such weird stuff. The fighters slaves find glory in sacrifice. So thats where we get glorious action sequence.

There is an old king, who has young wives who are treated like a slave. There is a traitor, Charliz Theron, who decides to help them to escape. So the fight begins. For some 20-40 minutes, there is no action from Tom Hardy. He is taken as a slave and turns out he universal (blood) donor, so they take him to the war. One fighters has a blood pipe connected to him directly so that there is continuous supply of the blood while Tom (MAX) is enchained in the front of the vehicle he is driving, exposed to all kinds of weapons.

The action is good. But again, the movie has very typical story line, unwanted people will die in the fight and the leads will make their way till the end by hook or by crook. Of course, they have planned a sequel. But the movie is entertaining.

Have you seen these movies? What is your take? Which other movies you will suggest me to watch? Let me know.