2nd Anniversary!

This past weekend (April 11) was this blog's second anniversary! I thought it was a good thing it was falling alongside the Abhay-fest- very appropriate. Every film festival has little asides, and this can be one of those :)

I've always liked watching movies- but not necessarily Bollywood. And it amazes me how far I've come, introducing myself to the pleasure of Indian movies, so far away from home.

And it is really a relatively recent occurrence.

I grew up watching Jackie Chan, British movies and Hollywood, interspersed with whatever Bollywood offering my mom chose to throw into the video player on a lazy Saturday. This was routine through high school, and I would barely watch 4 movies a month, if that, with 1 of 4 being Bollywood.

Then came moving to Delhi and between work and school and the boyfriend and partying, I had barely time to do laundry, forget visiting the theatre. Since I was living alone and on my own earnings (which were almost nil), couldn't watch movies online (who could afford getting a Internet connection?! me??? hah!) either.

I had the brainwave of taking a sabbatical of 6 months between graduation and work, during which time I flew back to Delhi, lazed, read, travelled and watched zillions of movies.

And I'm really not sure what happened then- the crazier the movie, the better it felt, which made the 60s and 70s my favorite Bollywood period. And they all came rushing back- Shashi, Joy, Feroz, KN Singh, Dev- along with the ladies- Praveen, Dipti, Rekha, Sri- how could I have stayed away from them this long? Why had I not missed them in the interim? I jumped headlong into watching more and more of them, and never looked back.

Much as I loved watching Bollywood, I also had a need to analyse what I was watching- blame it on too many years of analyzing agreements. Plus my only point of reference at the time were the screamingly awful Times of India reviews, which I abhor to this day. Hence the blog.

Two years on, this blog is a blessing that seems to keep on giving. It has meant knowing the amazing people whose blogs I love to read (they're on the blogroll! and those that aren't there are on my favorites!) and who are really fabulous individuals. It has meant watchalongs full of intelligent, witty companionship. It has meant a slight improvement in my communication style, which has always tended towards being blah-wordy.

So here's to another great year, featuring tons of reading and writing!