Surabhi august 2010

My article on Mothers Blossoms news letter

Surabhi august 2010

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A strong beginning to a grand finale

We all have to agree, the Harry Potter series is not just any movie series. It can easily be called a phenomenon and like all good things it must come to an end .

The series has grown and matured over the years. With this movie as we slowly gear up to bid farewell to cinema's most successful and imaginative franchises, I found that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows turned out to be a strong buildup for what is going to be a triumphant bitter-sweet finale for everyone.

The direction of David Yates was absolutely magnificent. He did a fantastic job providing an air of darkness and letting the audience see a small frickle of light in the hopelessness. Needless to say, with actors like Bill Nighy (who played the minister of Magic), Alan Rickman (Proff Snape), Helena Bohem Carter (Bellatrix) etc who graced the movie with their veteran acting skills and the trio of Radcliff (Harry Potter), Watson (Hermione) and Grint (Weasely) look all grown up and have matured as actors. A special mention for Emma Watson who looks absolutely gorgeous.

The special effects of the movie do not need any mention as it has always been top notch. Though I would like to draw attention to one sequence about the origin of the deathly hallows which was absolutely jaw dropping.

All things apart, I would strongly recommend it for everyone but only after you have watched the other 6 movies first.

Beautiful movie ... absolutely well done !!

Nothing Escapes Him !!

Rob Downey Jr is back .... and how !!

I knew I had to get my hands on those movie tickets as soon as soon as I first caught glimpse of the trailer. Being a huge fan of Doyle's work, I'm a big fan of Holmes. I own a lot of those BBC movies of Sherlock Holmes' different cases. Since I watched the making of the movie special on TV, I knew that this is not about any of Holmes' exploits penned by Doyle, rather this one is written by Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson.

This movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as the world's greatest detective himself and Jude Law as the surgeon, war veteran and above all Holme's faithful companion Dr. John Watson. Rachael McAdams is Irene Adler and Mark Strong , Lord Blackwood.Directed by Guy Ritchie, this movie dares to explore parts of Holmes' individuality where the earlier movies and serials failed to venture. Voracious Holmes readers would know from the books that inspite of having the best deduction abilities anyone could ever have, he was a total mess.He would often need someone to shake him back in touch with the world or else, him and his legendary pipe, would have a field day, deep in his thoughts out of which he may not emerge back too soon. Besides that, readers would also know that Holmes was a great boxer, superb at martial arts ( read Jiu Jitsu , which he used to throw Proff. Moriearty off the waterfall in the return of Sherlock Holmes story ), had a thing for Irene Adler (A Scandal in Bohemia) and lived at 221B Baker Street, London.

This movie shows Holmes boxing, kicking butt, living in a mess and often requiring constant wake up calls from the good doctor. The Victorian London has been depicted impeccably with the dark envrionment, pebbled roads, the sound of hoofs a horse carriage would make, the rains, the pudddles and the unfinished bridges.Now those of us, who grew up watching those BBC specials of Sherlock Holmes (without much reading the unabridged stories), would have a hard time relating this movie to what BBC had fed us in the form of Sherlcok Holmes movies for years because they had neither the resources nor the conviction to portray that side of Holmes which made him more of a human.

They would rather just stick to showing how extraordinarily well he was about almost everything.Wel I do admit, the characters in the movie were not too much like what Sir Doyle etched in his books. Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes was not the tall, thin pointy nosed excuse for an individual. Nor was Dr Watson, the bumbling fool which Nigel Bruce popularised in the 1930-40s films. Jude Law's Watson was fast, fierce, knowledgable (no match for Holmes however) and quite the fighter which one would need to be if one were to get caught in the situations that following Holmes would lead you in.So I believe, that most franchises were changing their look to suit today's audience, this movie , very cleverly utilised the unchartard territory of Holmes' character and used a different story altogether to prevent fans from knowing the end and in process bring in more people. Now this is a movie both of masses and the classes.I seriously recommend this movie to about everyone.

Istqb Sample Question Paper 3

ISTQB Question Paper

Istqb Sample Question Paper 3

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Bullock's Masterpiece

What is courage ? Is it an adrelin rush when you feel something you might want around you is at a fatal risk ? Has it got something to do with being at peace with one does ? Or is it synonimous with working for honour ?

The Blind side is a movie about Michael Oher (played by Quinton Aaron), a homeless and traumatized African American boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman ( Leigh Anne Tuohy played by Sandra Bullock) and her family.

The movie deals with the big problems this 6 and a half foot boy faces in his life. He faces everything from racial discrimination to being taunted for his big size, from the fact that his shyness was misunderstood to the fact that his really low grades made teachers feel he was just another duffer. He barely had means to feed himself. His best option for spending his winter night was to sneak into the gymn at night because it was warm and life looked pretty much hopeless for him, till the Tuohy family took him in, clothed him, fed him, fought his deltas and taught him how to use his disadvantages to his advantage,

Not after Speed, had a movie from Bullock so intruiged me. Only, speed was a thriller and The Blind Side is a heart warming true story of how, if handled properly, even the kids with the worst problems (or so one might say) could be turned into champions.

Though I thought everyone in the movie did a fantastic job, I would like to specially mention Jae Head who played S.J. Tuohy, Leigh Anne's youngest son. He was the youngest and also the funniest in the movie. His part in the movie was absolutely indespensible.

Intellect verses Prejudice

When a woman refuses to sit next to him on a bus , Braithwaite gets saddened and angered by her prejudice. He had hoped for a more enlightened attitude now that he was in London specially now that the war was over.

When he starts teaching in an unruly East End School the reaction from there was no different. Very slowly but not without much difficulty some barriers are broken down. He does everything from subjecting his students to shame to wrestling with them ... enlightening them and at the end falling in love with them. After finishing college he enlisted as a Royal air force pilot in England. As he states in ’To Sir With Love’ he was ready to die for his country in the times of war.However being demobilised at the end of the war, he is denied an appointment at interviews after interviews because of his colour.Realisation of this fact strikes him a hard blow. As he says himself :’’ I had just been brought face to face with something i had either forgotten or completely ignored for more than six exciting years - My Black Skin ’’ After almost eighteen months of desparation and unemployment , he decides to try his hands on teaching for that was a field which really needed men of intellect.He is posted to one of the worst schools of East End of London. To his dismay he finds out that ’his charges were an unruly disruptive group of fifteen year olds who stand cockily on the threshold of adulthood’ .

He had somewhat a haughty attitude towards his pupils and it was made pretty clear right in the begining of this autobiography where he mentions ’how superior he was , both intellectually and physically , to the disappointing English’.’’ They reminded me somehow of peasants in a book by Steinbeck : they were of the city but they dressed like peasants, they looked like peasants and they talked like peasants.’’

Braithwaite displays a great aptitude as a teacher , but there were lessons he himself had to learn as well ... like those in humility and patience. This is illustrated when the mother of one of the boys , the only mixed race boy in the class , dies. The pupils make it clear that although they are prepared to raise a collection for a wreath but no one was ready to deliver it because knocking at the boy’s door might be seen as ’’fraternising with the coloured’’. After learning of this angle he comments ...’’ It was like a disease , and these children whom i loved without caring about their skins or their backgrounds, they were tainted with the hateful virus which attatcked their vision distorting everything that was not white or English.’’

To Sir With Love is a true story of a dedicated teacherwho turns hate into love, teenage rebeliousness into self respect, contempt into consideration for others - The story of a man’s integrity winning through against all the odds.