Running Report for 2021

I got in my miles this year in Minnesota & Georgia this year. 

There are 14 miles in Jan-21 but it doesn't show up in the Garmin report. Garmin doesn't show mileage by calendar year. These 443 miles are less than 2020 mileage but in line with my past many years.

State park walks in Utah during Spring Break don't count as running; but it is part of my fitness report.

My only Minnesota race was the Plymouth 5K 2021. This one was very fun. My kid & few neighbor friends & few kids signed up. It was fun competing with each other and bets on winnng & losing among ourselves.

And my only Georgia race was in Oct - Alpharetta Women's Half Marathon 2021. Also my first one outside Minnesota.

My first time running in Georgia started in August-September. 

August is when we moved from MN to GA and for run mileage, there is a dip. Mileage picked up in Sep & Oct. The weather was definitely not cooler, humidity was noticeable. And it rained every few days, cooling the whole place down. The only thing to get used to was the steep inclines & declines. 

And then in Nov, when I stepped out one morning dressed up as usual, and got a shock of my life. Its was freaking cold. Shock is because I was lulled into warmth and imagined it never goes below 60 in GA ! High expectations yes. But it did and I took a few weeks to get used to it - mainly questioning my decision to move. Mileage picked up decently for holiday months. 

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !

2021 Round of Movies

 Sometime in 2020 and a lot this year, I have kept saying, "Hindi, English mein kuch nahi rakh-kha. " There were a whole slew to see in other languages.

Also this year, regional folks have come up with their own OTT like language channels came up few decades back. Katte for Kannada, Tulu, Konkani. OYO for Gujrati, Telugu ones, numerous for Bengali.

That is unaffordable for people like me who have interests across many a languages.

I can imagine its tough to keep them under one roof. Each language movies have slightly typical styles. Context switching between languages takes some getting used to. Malaylam movies package multiple, independent sub-plots with no links to each other or to the main story. Bengali has multiple incidents; all tying up; but still multiple. Kannada has the rowdy element in the most family movie of any level. But it has co-existed on Doordarshan, Netflix & Amazon Prime so far. So please let it continue.

KANNADA

Ikkat - good work; by new generation of makers & actors. Really good one. Captured a storyline through the first lockdown in India.

Ratnan Prapancha - New movie straight to OTT. Good watch. Good Kannada dialoges & drama, road trip & twists. Nothing dark.

Katha Sangama - Kannada anthology. Good one from RB Shetty.

MARATHI

Cycle - I can't think of a sweeter movie I have seen in recent times. Set in 50s maybe. Story set in a village. Evokes emotions reminiscent of Malgudi days.

MALAYALAM

Minnal Murali - First class. Mallu Super-hero movie. It had the familiarity of Kerala setting & people, along with Hollywood elements of super-hero origin movie. Background movie for every sequence was ah heart-beating one. Like all Kerala movie, filled with 100s of characters and each one more  interesting than the other. 

#Home - Such an endearing & engrossing movie. How social media has infiltrated simple life, the drama it creates and how to use it like a strength tool. Proper filmy ending for satisfaction.

Nizhal - Thriller. Comedy moments strike right. Twists go well. And everything tied well for ending.

Drishyam 2 - Only for the D1 viewers. Just to peak at what happened next. They presented it in thriller fashion. But there is only so much that happens next.

Aanum Pennum (Prime) - Set of 3 movies. Great locations. Lovely dynamics between the characters. 

BENGALI

Switzerland - Thank you for loading it on Prime after few years. Now wish they would do it for Durgeshgorer Guptodhan.

TAMIL

Nava Rasa - Tamil anthology. Loved it. All made with top production quality. All interesting & captivating . Huge variety. Moving through the standard Indian theatre range of emotions. Each in differnet moods. My fav is Roudhram (Raudra - Anger) & Inmai (Bhayaanaka - Fear).

TELUGU

Oh Baby - Remake of Korean. Works well to see different people and situations beyond the expected stereotype in every movie. Samantha & Lakshmi are great along with other actors.

HINDI

Mimi - Good movie & perfect acting by the cast. Kept us involved with comedy through the serious actions in the first 3/4 movie and the emotions in the last 1/4 movie gave me a huge headache which only a good emotional movie can give.

Sooryanvanshi -  Finally a fun theatre worthy film. Good watch. Different dialogues, newer Mumbai & people. Songs were good. Logic for everything was explained. Yet some were still let go from old habits. Why they couldn't grab the terrorist in front of everyone in hotel lobby instead of courteously waiting for him to reach the final stage ? Few more were like just an excuse to do shanpatti action. But action was lajawab. Akshay K was superb and appearance of Ranveer & Ajay D really added thrill. I loved seeing those Helicopters scene.

Meenakshi Sundareswar -  Perfect bridge of South India in Hindi movie. 
And all the Instagram thrashing for the SI depictions can be countered perfectly if they had actually seen the movie.

Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar - Very good thriller. In classic Dibakar Banerjee style.

Sherni -  Movie has lovely jungle views. After being exposed to the working of ad world, corporate worlds, it’s nice to see the details of forest department. It’s like Jurassic Park, just a real non-cgi version. Vidya’s role in the predictable movie tradition of naïve who will be punished like Newton. There is no other purpose than as a lesson for audiences for what not to do. But except frustration no other is shown for her. 

Radhe - The masala movie did obviously stand out as weird when it released in May 2021; given that there is an occean of other options around; each in every other style & merit. But it a proprer masala with lot of good part.

Unpaused - Anthology film on Prime. Great collection of stories. Anthologies had started to give me dread after the Netflix collections of new Hindi ones. This series - nothing like Netflix ones. This was interesting without the twisty endings or anything. 

Ankahi Kahaniya - compared to other Netflix Hindi anthologies, this one was again is high on decency scale. Varied short stories with no twisty or closed ending.

ENGLISH

No Time to Die - Bond movie so naturally in theatres. Neatly wrapped endings for all.

Eternals - only other movie in theatres this year. Unique way of super-heroes Marvel movie. 

Best of the Enemies - Very engrossing movie on race discussion set in 1971. 2 very powerful lead characters and engrossing course of events. Most impressive & non-mundane was where it leads to. Adding an aspect of financial class to race and where that changes the dynamics in current times.

Monument Men - Good one worth seeing. Ensemble movie, set in post-WW2 Europe and a great one to see some some classic art pieces & some stories tied to them.

My Yearly Movies List here.

Web Series of 2021

If anything, the Web Series have become a truly alternate version of entertainment in today's world. 

There are so many OTT and so many shows its so tough to pick anyone or all. And all episodes drop at one go. Binge-watching is so unhealthy - for time, our brains, our sleep.

Sad part of OTT is that it is no longer an age of communal viewing - not the theatre kind. But of same show being watched by all, at their home, at the same time of release. And then talk about it. The craze of a good show, episodes & their actors. Now even good shows get buried under the deluge of new shows because there are so many different OTT (like TV channels) and people can subscribe to only so many. So the viewership is split. This particular post has been written only for how impressive Special Ops 1.5 Himmat Story was. And Family Man of course. I guess same might have happened when private channels popped up and split DD viewership. Things settled after a few years and viewership craze still continues even if split.

Special Ops 1.5 Himmat Story - Great follow-up or rather prequel to the Special Ops series. At 4 episodes, this is one impressive Spy series. Great acting, narration & story sequence. Some of the action sequences in the last 2 episode had a bit of disbelief; but overall it's such a good series, everything is forgiven.

Cubicle (TVF 2019) - Such a nostalgia trip, to the first few years of new job after Engg college.

Mukesh Jasoos - Cute one, filled with naïve characters & interesting situations. It has also given us a slogan for our household - "Poha Khaoge ?".

Family Man S2 - As good as the hype & accolades have been. Every episode was interesting; no drag. 

Never Have I Ever S2 - So thrilled when it came out. Much awaited. I had seen S1 with my kids & we had decided to see the next one together. After watching the S2 trailer, I decided to stay away. And keep my kids away. And then I heard that my kids saw it with their neighborhood friends gang, in someones basement. Duh. What could I do ? Then I saw the whole S2. Glad coz it was GOOD. And a lot of my friends saw. And there were spirited discussion in every house-party between the Mom's & kids - different perspectives.

Best takeaway is the song - . Heat Waves performed by Glass Animals.

S-q-u-i-d Game - Argh. Yes it was as good as the craze has been. I watched in the dark solitude of my car on my device, while waiting. It was worth watching. Also because my kids saw it without me.

Rest of the Read Books of 2021

My book list from first-half of the year is here. In the 2nd half of the year 2021, this is what I read.

We moved from MN to Georgia in middle of Summer. And I switched to the local library here. The new Library and their online system is same as in MN. That was great, so we could pick up from where we left off. 

God bless American library system. They are a blessing for nomads like me; who can't own & store books of their own. This huge treasure house gives us freedom to read books from far & wide. Heck, it gives us freedom to try & reject books too; without the regrets that come from ownership.

Other motivation for books is the device-usage-reduction & social-media-deaddiction. Self-control, discipline etc are no use. Millions of dollars & people are working on overcoming our self-discipline every single day. The onslaught is real. So the only solution for me is - cold turkey. Which can happen by replacing it with some other activity/addiction. 

Library Books are a decent replacements to phone. Especially when you don't have to worry about buying, storing, dusting, staring, moving & wondering what to do next with it. With libraries, all you need is to hear about a book or author or topic and then get sucked in by Recommendations. Like online shopping, online library system lets you put a Hold on any book & pickup when ready. Extensions are never-ending (quite literally in 2020 & FH-21).

So there, more peans to the beauty of American Libraries.

My count is almost 12 books this year. Makes me laugh about the #40in2020 & #20in2020 challenges I was tempted in the beginning. Ha ! Who got time for that ? Or emotion control for that - jumping in & out of book universe is lot tougher than TV shows.

Gold Finch by Donna Tratt

Since November 2020, I was wading through Gold Finch book by Donna Tratt. I am surprised I couldn't find any picture of it in my phone, given how long I held on to it.

It's a huge 771 page tome and I managed to finish it in June . It's wordy, but not heavy. It's heavy on the pain of the lead character. Main reason I am reading it, is to unravel the conspiracy theory that entered by mind, while watching the movie. I want to decode if it's true & if alluded to, even if subtle in the book.

The book is nearly only about grief. It's explained in many words and turns over the reoccurrence of that grief in different phases of life over & over & over. About grief without manipulating tears. Page 476 has lots of profound thoughts squeezed into it. A variant summary of my revelation - every thing we do here is to pass our time on the blue rock as it's quite a wait.

Book moved through so many worlds - museum, cold New York, hot Las Vegas, furniture antiques, underworld and Europe. It had more satisfying ending than that shown in the movie.

Gold Diggers (2021) by Sanjena Santhian

My review of this book was turning lengthy. So I published it in separate post here. 

Tintin - In The Land Of The Soviets

1st Book in Tintin series and I read it for the first time. Was a usual fun plot & situation-wise and smart-alec dialogues. But not sophisticated or refined like other books. 

Many plots points were used in later books, in elaborate & refined manner. I love this about the creative process. When an author reuses his plot points in future books. When music director reuses tunes form his bank. When a old movie or song is remade or recreated in a new decade or century. 

Tintin in America

Yet another Tintin I read for the first time. And I think I don't own it in my collection. And this kind of edition, medium sized, single story one, had other additions. First few pages with single page drawing of a character, with description & background on next page. For all characters. After the story ended, last many pages filled with real-life parallel events & people info; with more of Herge drawing.

Those Delicious Letters (2020) - by Sandeepa Datta Mukherjee 

(Bong Mom's Cookbook blogger)

 

Very fun read. The main story showcases life events & daily schedules of middle-class suburban NRI family. Something not shown in the Bollywood movies or pubbing partying showcases. And the plot involves events & suspense. Food ties it all. Recipe for each chapter as a bonus.

Grunt - by Mary Roach

Mary Roach is my favorite writer for past few years. Her humor is the wicked funny one. She is wicked clever describing people and coming back at someone's idiosyncrasies. Her non-fiction science books are more fun to read than any of the other author fiction created in the past many decades.

Chapter on sweat was epic. In page 189, I was hunting for the Like button, for Kini's comment on sweating. Doris Miller footnote took me on a wiki rabbit-hole. Wow.

Chapter on Diarrhea made me stop my fav songs playing on phone. I didn't want to mix the two images together. 

Every chapter has a cliff-hanger ending, with an element peek at the next chapter. It also ends with demanding respect for the people she made sporty-fun of, through the chapter & justifying the need for the research she made nudge-wink fun of.

Most traumatizing chapter was the submarine/underwater one.

Mr Monk ... books 

Mr Monk is Open for Business

Mr Monk Helps Himself

Mr Monk gets Even

 

Read 3 of the books. These are great when the TV show episodes are not enough to fill. At first I felt like it was a drag; when compared to a TV show obviously, because they describe everything about the scene. Soon I gave in to speed reading, by ignoring dragging details of location or people descriptions. Focused more on the dialog said by each character. That solved it. 

Mr Monk novels are set after the show ended. All the show characters are there & talk exactly like in the show. Few new characters as well. There are 3-4 mysteries in each book & they get reslved around the same time in the last quarter of the book. There are some typos & some mis-naming; but overall interesting books.

Suduku

In other news, I finished 2 Suduku books - the regular Dollar-store variety; each with 76 Sudukos. Just another step towards device-deaddiction.

Older Reading lists: Entire Book list | 2021 (2) | 2021(1) | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |