Overall, 2008 was a year of contradictions! miserable failure in some sphere’s of life…. sparkling successes in others..

started off magically, even in the midst of the bhutto incident. Above all, it started with smiles, with gestures and with promises… the very first second that the clock struck 12, i was so sure i was on the right track.

then came the convocation… and it started derailing…you know that feeling where you put in everything you’ve got and in the end lose by a just a hair’s breath? well… i got that finally. while for others it was a brilliant accomplishment, for me, it was no more than a miserable failure.. it was a fathers dream broken.

who would’ve guessed that it would lead to even more broken dreams.

i admit it now, took me 10 long months to come to terms with it, that i didn’t take the convocation day well. it showed. my relationships soured, my outlook on life dropped and above all, my self-worth, atleast the perception of it, crashed and burned.

in april, things turned fell further down the drain. the only piece of rope i had to drag myself out of the whirlpool, got strung around my neck. what i later realized as a series of misguided actions culminated into the seperation of bonds i didn’t think could have been severed. taught in chemistry by a certain bearded professor back in school, i didn’t remember that every bond has it’s limits and given enough force, all bonds seperate.

what’s worse was that they severed so cleanly… it was surgical precision almost… quick, sharp and clean… done to maybe separate the patient and the disease… only the patient didn’t really survive.

the remaining months just kind of flew by. yes, i breathed… i consumed and i excreted. and that kind of defined my existence. everything else was questionable. how do you proceed when the very foundation beneath you crumbles.

for the first time in my life, i became afraid.. seriously afraid.. of what might lie ahead. trying to condemn myself of a reality far worse than i could even imagine, thinking that maybe it was destined to be that way. afterall, looking back, it wasn’t just one.. it was a string of rejections… day after day, week after week, month after month… all i could do was question… analyze… piece together… till it all became hazy and i started all over again.

it was a different story on the home front though, even on the work front. that’s where successes lay. i grew new bonds with the parents… even after having dissapointed them on two fronts simultaneously, they stood steadfastly as supports… i was happy just being with them, because i was safe. they still accepted me, and even though i know parents stand by their children, i never imagined i would be lucky enough to get it. truly blessed i am by Gods mercy. bonds with extended family were renewed, a quick trip of the cousins and long mountain trails and visits to churches, gurdwara’s and temples made for an exciting july.

on the work front, my new assignment began in march. a new office, a new city, a new job description and above all, a new challenge. it was fun, testing unknown waters… never having actually been in a management position, i was thrust here by my boss who asked me to establish and run our islamabad office. the business side of things really sang through to me and after a long time, going to work became fun again. with business trips all through the year, i got in quite a bit of travelling, even had the completed the milestone of having breakfast, lunch and dinner of the same day in three different cities (khi, isb n lhr respectively) as well as getting challaned in these three within a week for traffic violations! fun!!!

with the prayers of my mother, one of the two most amazing people on this planet (the other being my father) and a team of two really great people at work, we pushed through barriers and boundaries, creating both a name for ourselves, and a place here in our own right. we’ve still a long way to go, but i know it will only get better. inshallah!

so 2008 was a year of contradictions… with all the crisis’s looming up ahead in the financial, real estate and security fronts.. 2009 promises to be a year of challenges.

one thing i will say though.. there are always some people who make live worth living again.. strangers at first they slowly grow on you till you realize… how the hell did i think life was gonna be that depressing! thanks jee… even though i haven’t told you in person… i owe you more than you would ever know.

Now that was a trip down memory lane. One of my favourite TV show back when i was a kid has just been redone with really good animation. The plot itself, while not that interesting, doesn’t really bother with the real meat of the story, the reunion of the brothers, following leonardo’s departure from the group on leadership training. Or was it supposed to be the other way round?

Nicely done, good graphics, and with michealangelo making his usual funny quips, a really good experience overall. Funnily, there was no mention of pizza in the movie though.

Link: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Immortal

Nothing great to write about here. The typical feel good chic flick. Set on the islands of Hawaii, Drew Barrymore plays a local island girl who, after a bad accident, looses her ability to preserve short term memory and forgets every day as soon as she goes to sleep. Her dad, brother and other island locals help her stay happy by replaying the same day again and again. Adam Sandler, who likes to show female tourists a good time, see’s her and falls in love with her. The catch? Every day he has to make her fall in love with him all over again. However, its really interesting to see all the ways that he tries.

Link: 50 First Dates

Based on the awards given post-humously to people who find the most creative way to die, the darwin awards is an interesting mix of comedy, love and good old fashioned time pass. The plot is based on an ex profiler for the SFPD, Micheal Burrows, who got kicked off the force for letting a serial killer escape. During his day job, micheal was interested in following the darwin awards, and once off the force, he decides to profile cases of possible darwin awards for an insurance company potentially saving them millions in liability. As part of his deal with the company, he has to partner with a claims investigator, and travel around the country. His travels take him to many interesting cases where he puts his profiling abilities to use to investigate how the crime had originally occurred.

Oh and micheal has a rare disorder. He faints at the sight of blood! Which is why he got kicked off the force in the first place, he punched the serial killer, blood came out of his nose and micheal fainted, while the killer ran off.

And there’s a university student (played by fezz from that 70s show) making a documentary on his life!

Link: The Darwin Awards

This movie, i was forced into buying by a friend who just couldnt stop praising it. This coming from a guy who has a 300+ movie collection! And boy was i glad i did. Again, this movie is not for the faint hearted! Blood and gore runs amok! Till the very end it keeps you on edge, like you’re sitting on a roller coaster. The plot has so many twists and turns.

The story revolves around the FBI trying to bring down a mob boss. This particular mob boss, however, has a mole inside the FBI who tips him off and therefore he doesn’t get caught. So the FBI places its own mole inside the mob boss’s organization. The problem starts when both the FBI and the mob boss discover that they have moles and try to flush them out.

Leonardo di caprio, again gives a full thumbs up performance, pulling off the role without a hitch.

Link: The Departed

The good thing about this movie is the cinematography. They have managed to capture the war torn nature of Sierra Leone perfectly. (This coming from someone who has not seen a war torn area apart from on TV). Leonardo Di Caprio is simply amazing, and has come a long way from his titanic days. He can deliver a stunning, heart capturing performance without making it seem as if he’s trying. The family drama, which plays out during the movie is heart wrenching! The scenes are enough to make you want to jump up and do something to help them.

The only down point i think here is the length of the movie, which clocks well over 2 hours. At the end, you pretty much start hating diamonds and remember to ask where they come from the next time you go diamond shopping. That point definitely hit home here.

Link:Blood Diamond

300

Absolutely one of the best movies i’ve seen in a very long time! The plot revolves around 300 soldiers from sparta defending their homeland against the persian invaders. This movie is by no means for the faint hearted, with lots of blood and gore and severred body parts. One of the best lines from the movie was the king saying “theres no reason we cant be civil” while his soldiers were killing off the remaining surviving persian warriers by stabbing them in the heart.

The movie is very aesthetically done, some may say even artistically, but the only thing it does is to highten the effect of each scene. And once the fighting scenes begin, you cant even sit straight in your seat! they’re that addicting! Definitely a must watch!

Link: 300

update: i mistakenly named this movie, “last stand of 300″which i later discovered is a TV series based around the same event. thankyou clearout for clearing this up