A beautiful story I read recently. Two tears escaped my eyes without my knowledge.

Monica married Hitesh this day. At the end of the wedding party,
Monica's mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook.
With Rs.1000 deposit amount.
 
Mother: 'Monica, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your marriage
life. When there's something happy and memorable happened in your new
life, put some money in.
 Write down what it's about next to the line.
 The more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in. I've done the
first one for you today.
Do the others with Hitesh.When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you've had.'
Monica shared this with Hitesh when getting home. They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be
made.
This was what they did after certain time:
- 7 Feb: Rs.100, first birthday celebration for Hitesh after marriage
- 1 Mar: Rs.300, salary raise for Monica
- 20 Mar: Rs.200, vacation trip to Bali
- 15 Apr: Rs.2000, Monica got pregnant
- 1 Jun: Rs.1000, Hitesh got promoted
..... and so on...

However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial
things.
They didn't talk much. They regretted that they had married the
most nasty people in the world.... no more love...Kind of typical
nowadays, huh?
One day Monica talked to her Mother:
'Mom, we can't stand it anymore. We agree to divorce. I can't imagine how
I decided to marry this guy!!!'
Mother: 'Sure, girl, that's no big deal. Just do whatever you want if you
really can't stand it.
 But before that, do one thing first. Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day?
Take out all money and spend it first.
You shouldn't keep any record of such a poor marriage.'
Monica thought it was true. So she went to the bank, waiting at the queue
and planning to cancel the account.
While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record. She looked, and looked, and looked. Then the memory of all the previous joy and
happiness just came up her mind. Her eyes were then filled with tears. She left and went home.
When she was home, she handed the passbook to Hitesh, asked him to spend
the money before getting divorce.

The next day, Hitesh gave the passbook back to Monica. She found a new
deposit of Rs.5000. And a line next to the record: 'This is the day I
notice how much I've loved you thru out all these years. How much happiness
you've brought me.'
 
They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.
Do you know how much money they had saved when they retired? I did not
ask.I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone thru
all the good years in their life.
"When you fall, in any way,
Don't see the place where you fell, Instead see the place from where you
slipped.
Life is about correcting mistakes."

What if the respect you commanded gets lost? What if you are taken for granted? So many questions still unanswered!!!! Alas!

Last night was a nightmare…

Sleep had been eluding me since past couple of days. Somehow these days, my roomie surrenders herself pretty early, to be precise, before midnight. So I am left all alone, to mull over, to pine and to give out muffled cries.

Last night, same sequence of things occured. Sometime around the wee hours that's 4:40 am, I had that sudden feeling of loneliness overpowering me. Had no one to talk to. Came out of my hole that people call hostel room, and started walking in the corridors of II floor. A very strange thing started happening to me. All the rooms were closed, but somehow they were appearing to be the tombstones, long tombstones with door handles. I looked around, the hostel appeared to be a graveyard. Scary!!

I lost my breathe, I started walking briskly. I started hearing some strange voices calling me names, blaming me. And then the same voice that had been making me miss my heart beat resounded. Full of reprimands and curses! I tightly shut my eyes. The voice didn't stop shouting. I ran towards my room, and closed the door with a bang!

Panting and struggling for a breath, I lied down on the bed. Just wanted to say something, perhaps a cursory hi or hello! Picked up phone to call, but then dropped it, realizing that it will be unanswered.

I think I slept around 8, to be woken wit a start around 8:30. Another day started dragging itself over me.

I walk alone!
I walk alone!
When I desperately needed the hand
To find myself scorned
The harsh truth
To descend upon
To find myself shunned
By all
I walk alone!
I walk alone!
The one who meant everything
The centre of my
li'l universe
It wrenches heart
To see him indifferent
When I need him the most
I walk alone!
I walk alone!
Ruthless beasts all around
Ready to rip me apart
He will witness my fall
Standing away from distance
I walk alone!
I walk alone!

If you belong to the fan club enjoying the mythological and historical movies with lots of sword fights, war-cries and rolling heads separated from bodies, then 300 is right up to your alley. One of the good epic types movies! It's a visual feast. The Spartans look ravishing. The pile of dead bodies, the red blood splattering over the screen like crimson-confetti really makes one squirm!

Leonidas, the astute and strong king, sacrifices his and the life of 299 other best of the warriors of Sparta to assert their dignity, their freedom, their sovereignty in The Battle of Thermopylae, against the invading Persians. The warriors are, of course, larger than life, they always are. 300 men killing thousands. Still I would say performances are awesome. Leonidas looks Wow!! (I really want to say HOT) This Spartan Vs Persians tale is an act of defiance in the face of their impending doom before they were swamped by a dark tide of evil.

I expected a lot of dialogue-heavy skullduggery. Thankfully there wasn't any. All the words were required, the apt ones.. no filler types. The action sequences were breathtaking and made me cringe more than once. Just a chink in the armour: overuse of slow motion!

The sheer courage, the willingness to die rather than surrendering was awe-inspiring! Leonidas forsees death of all 300s and commands his small troop, "eat a good breakfast as tonight we dine in hell". People willing to die for their country!!! In contradistinction we have a situation in our country. The flickering patriotism is kindled for a brief moment either when we see Chak de India or when India wins T-20.. or to be apt, when India defeats Pakistan and Australia!  Ohhhhh, coming back to movies!!

Sometime back, to be precise last month, I watched Gladiator.. Ok ok.. please don't  look with those raised eyebrows and the hopeless expression suggesting that I should be hanged for the crime I committed, for not watching the film earlier. But truly Gladiator left me speechless. It was a perfect painting on canvas delineating savagery and love together. From there I took to like the historical, war-genre movies! I don't know why Troy didn't trigger me!

In the hind-sight I just wonder how gory is the civilization of human beings… full of greed, barbarity and iniquity. Be it the avarice for women, or lust for kingdoms/power or the Crusades, we have never flinched to make the land blood-soaked and have made the axiom, 'Freedom comes at the cost of blood'!

Well coming back to movies again, now I want to watch Ben Hur and El Cid!! Not able to lay my hands on these..but will soon find them!