Running Out Of Gas!!

Ms. Helpful: Hi, this is Ms.Helpful and we are having a wonderful day at Great apartments!

Me: (I am sure it’s a wonderful day for you..not for me!!) Hi, we had a gas leak in our building couple of days back and our gas was shut down. Hasn’t it been restored yet because my stove is not working?

Ms.Helpful: (After a few seconds of hesitation) It should have been sir, let me check into it and I will call you back.

(Fifteen agonizing minutes later)

Ms.Helpful: Sir, we are very sorry but it seems the work may have remained incomplete and the maintenance staff will have to get back to complete it.

Me: Fine, can you get it done as quickly as possible?

Ms.Helpful: I am afraid due to the Memorial Day weekend, the maintenance crew will only be back on Tuesday.

Me: (doing quick math to realize that will be three days without gas) Thank you letting me know, you just made my day!!

Ms.Helpful: I am so sorry sir. Have a great day!

Me: (surprisingly calm in spite of fuming with anger) Thanks, you have a great day too!

Barring the obvious change in names and address, this was pretty much the transcript of the conversation that I had at the start of weekend with my apartment guys. Actually it has been greater than three days that I haven’t had home cooked food but it was only in the last three days that I have begun feeling the real need for it. The lack of work, boredom and wonderful weather provide a heady cocktail for the searing appetite. It wasn’t that I wasn’t having enough food but I was just not loading up to my desired level and having the desired quality of food. For now, all the things that I have are things that are microwaveable. So its instant lunches, frozen dinners, noodles etc. etc. I know it sounds strange but I cannot tell how much I am craving for food made by own hands!! These cravings and my attempts to distract my mind from them have made me realize many different things.

1. Omelettes can be made in microwaves and they surprisingly still taste delicious. I know they are round, pot bellied and look funny but combine that with some potato skins, potato chips, coconut cookie and a wonderful juice cocktail of banana, apple, coriander etc. (the etc. because it’s something that my friend makes and I do not manage to remember the rest!!), can actually make you last the whole day without being hungry!!

2. I still love to read novels!! Considering I haven’t read one for the last two years, my reading speed is surprisingly still pretty awesome. But I have lost the patience of finishing them up quickly. All this I realized after my attempts to read Dan Brown’s latest the “The Lost Symbol” which two years back I would have finished in a day but three days since starting, I am just halfway through. So far it has been a very interesting read!!

3. Sci-fi series still typecast ominous characters as bald, no-eyebrows.

So I started watching Fringe this weekend and the series held my attention. And then we had the episode with a freaky looking guy who always happened to be at places where freaky events occurred. The script seemed to imply he was an alien, but why did he look so much like one??!! Shouldn’t there be an element of surprise?!

4. When you lack good food for three days, your senses heighten! I am sure you have heard of people who lack auditory senses have great attention to visual details; vice versa blind people have amazing perception for sound. Lack of some really good food seemed to be doing the same for me. In three days, I had located pretty much the entire stock of spiders in my house (and squashed them all..sorry Spiderman!!). But you know things are not a coincidence, when you can actually hear a beetle walking on your phone when you are looking the other way!

But I don’t want any more heightened senses, any more realizations about reading speeds or finding new ways to cook food! All I want now is some good calorie-stuffed home cooked food and I want it now. I know I am sounding desperate but as the case is..I actually have been literally running out of gas!

Technorati Tags: Fringe,food,Dan Brown,The Lost Symbol,The Observer

No More Lost

This is it..the final moment..so very aptly titled “The End”. As I sat back misty eyed close to midnight witnessing the culmination of probably the greatest human saga ever on television, I could not help but feel the full power of the phenomenon titled LOST. The only episode that I ever watched the show live now ranks the best in its entire six seasons. Surprisingly, the finale also faced a huge amount of backlash from half of the fan base who are having a tough time comprehending the ending. Everyone knows of my obsession with Lost but I had never thought of blogging about it. But I am also tired of answering every person who misinterpreted the ending and and are now bashing the writers for it. Hate to say it but the show was never meant for people who were more for the mysteries and the thrill and not for the human aspect of it. The mysteries played a big part of it but the wonderful characters were what made the show so memorable. If you feel conned about the fact that you didn’t get the answers you wanted, I am pretty sure you were never going to be satisfied with the answers if they indeed had addressed them. In fact while I was finishing this post, I got a call from one of friends who finished watching the finale and was impacted on the same emotional level as I was, justifying my faith in the finale for people like us. If you have never watched the show and would like to, please stop here as there are a whole lot of spoilers ahead regarding the finale.

The first thing that I want to straighten out for everyone who is bashing the show because they misinterpreted the ending- the island was NOT a purgatory and no they didn’t die when the flight crashed!! The “flash-sideways” though indeed were and that’s what the whole ending implied. Now that we have that clear, the rest is for many people who understood that but still did not like the ending. I would not debate on that and will rather talk about why it worked so well for me. Personally for me the ending was as good as I could have ever thought of. It was emotional, pure, heartwarming and touched me the way I thought it should but never really expecting it to. And this is coming from someone who always believed in the science of the show and is remotely religious. But just like Jack, the writers turned me into a man of faith and the faith in the writers did pay off.

They left a whole lot of mysteries behind but in the end it was never about the mystery for me. I know a whole lot of people would disagree with me on this but explaining the mysteries would have been fine but not resolving the ending for the characters would have been heartbreaking. Jack, Hugo, Ben, Sayid, Sawyer, Sun and Jin and everyone else were such wonderful characters that we cared to the core for. They were what kept me hooked onto Lost and not the mysteries. I would have loved to find out what exactly was the smoke monster, what actually was the light, what was with the rules, Dharma Initiative, the polar bears, the Hurley bird, the shooting at the outrigger, Man In Black’s real name etc.etc. As you can see the list goes on and on regarding the unanswered stuff but surprisingly, it doesn’t matter to me that they didn’t explain that. And trust me, even if they had attempted to answer every mystery in the show then it would have been impossible for them to do that. And no matter how well they would have done that, fans would have definitely found plotholes by digging deep and deep. Similar to the MIB who kept looking for ways to leave the island, finding loopholes, using logic. On the other hand was Jacob, who had pure and simple faith, almost a blind one. But he cared for the island, cared for the fact that people who were alone could find a purpose there. The writers could chose only one way of answering all that and they went the Jacob's way of faith.

The fact that they even blinded to us MIB’s name was similar to keeping the mysteries of island unresolved because it was something that did not matter in the long run. When Jacob brought everyone to the island they were all alone, flawed people. But as they bid adieu, they were not alone. Every single of them were together for the final journey. They had found love, had their faith restored, gained redemption and were happy. Many of them were ready to let go while some like Ben, Eloise were still not, mainly because of the travesties they brought upon their loved ones due to their actions. What can be more satisfying than finding your favorite characters getting the happiest ending possible and in such a beautiful manner; whoever came up with idea of the flash sideways was a genius!!

When I look back at the wonderful journey that LOST was, it fills me with happiness for hanging on. The final moments of the finale would stay with me forever as it brought the whole story to a full circle using its main protagonist as the fulcrum. In the pilot, Jack opens his eyes, confused about where he is, gets up and runs out to find a world in chaos and without realizing it puts himself in the role of a leader. In the finale, Jack finally finds peace after he resolves the chaos, thrusts himself out of the leadership shoes and those very eyes close in peace as he embraces death perfectly aware where he is going to. Absolutely epic !

Hats off to the best TV show ever created and as all good things this had to come to an end too and am only glad that it’s over in such a satisfying manner.

I will be no more Lost :(

Technorati Tags: lost,the end,season 6 finale