A Personal Revelation and Some Thoughts

It's 2 AM on a Saturday morning, and I just finished reading the 4th book in the Harry Potter series. When I started reading, it was about 11:30 PM, and I didn't quite think that I'd be finishing the book tonight. However, the last 150 or so pages were so enchanting, that I had to read through. I feel really bad for Cedric Digorry, the captain for Hufflepuff house's quidditch team, who had to die in the hands of Lord Voldemort, briefly after winning the tri-wizard tournament with Harry.

Anyways, a few days ago, I told a friend that I always try to follow a theory in life. These are like personal revelations; I handle, and think about these things with utmost caution. It did happened a couple of times, when I confessed that I have a liking for a particular thing, or I possess a particular skill, only to see my likings changing their paths or the skills fading away. So I am not very sure how long I will be staying with this particular theory. But until it lasts, I think it is a good thing.

It comes in these versions:

1. Never attack a wounded person
2. Never attack a wound
3. Never aggravate the pain of a wounded person by attacking the same wound

As an example; I wouldn't like to talk about my pay raise, bonus, present salary etc. with my friends whom are working twice harder than me, but are not getting as much as I do. And to be honest, things like these are always happening. Not everyone is as lucky as I am, nor does everyone have a BBA degree, and above all, everyone is not in the telecommunications industry of Bangladesh.

Similarly, I wouldn't want to talk about love with someone who has recently suffered a terrible breakup or a heartbreaking incident.

I won't tell a friend that I've seen 3 movies today, when I know that his DVD Rom drive stopped working last week.

I don't know whether this strategy of mine helps anyone or not, but I just find it too cruel to do these things. To some, hurting an already hurt person might sound funny, or least, a cool thing to do. It's pretty easy, you know? When you're really vulnerable and stuff. In these cases, one is prone to let their guards down, and it is very easy to hurt or upset someone in a quite civilized manner. Of course, calling names and physical violence would always work as "up setters", but using the "hurting the wound" theory would be easier.

But I don't even want to do that with people whom I don't really like. There aren't many, though. I just can't hold a negative feeling against someone for too long; a weakness, perhaps. I swore to myself at different occasions, that I won't speak to that particular person, or I wouldn't concern myself to any of his or her actions. But these didn't last long. I forgot, and apparently, I forgave, too.

I saw two movies today. Original Sin and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I wanted to see both these movies for a long time, and I am glad that a quiet weekend made it possible for me to watch them. I would remember both movies for a long, long time, and for different reasons.

Original Sin is a movie filled with lies, sex, crime and deception, featuring two renowned actors and actresses, Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie. I actually saw brief 5 minutes of the movie on cable TV last year, but I didn't know the name of the movie. Later on, I got to know the name of the movie by mere chance. I was searching for the plot of the second part of Mask of Zorro (The Legend of Zorro) in www.imdb.com. I bumped across Antonio Banderas's filmography, and saw the name Original Sin in it. I don't know what prompted me to do so, but I accessed the link, and after seeing a few images, I knew this was the movie I've sneak peeked last year.

Last month, I bought a DVD of this movie, only to find out that it doesn't run on any of the 2 DVD Roms I have instant access to. I was too lazy to return to DVD (as I bought it from Boshundhora), and I kind of put the plan of watching the movie in a sleeping state. But a dear friend rescued me by gifting the DVD to me, a week ago.

I first saw the words "Original" and "Sin" placed side by side in 2001. Now that I'm seeing the Amazon.com info on the movie, I can see that the movie was released that year. Back then, retrieving the name from a net friend's msn nick, I thought it was the name of some song. In fact, Elton John does have a song with the same title, which I downloaded via Kazaa/Audiogalaxy (don't recall exactly which one), but it has nothing to do with the movie. It is mysterious, that time solves many apparently unsolved and not bothered upon mysteries of life. What an irony, now there's no msn contact. The contact has been blocked & deleted for good, but the memories still remain vivid as ever.

I liked the movie for the story. The other things that I have mentioned were really good, and nicely shown, but the story was a unique and intriguing one, which should get credit.

Charlie and the chocolate factory is a remake of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which used to be a very favorite movie of mine when I was a child. I loved the movie so much that my dad got it recorded in a VHS tape. I used to see it every now and then, using our the then state of the art National G15 VCR. I am afraid at least one or two of my readers would pause and ponder their minds to remember what a VCR is. Ahhh, how fast things get obsolete!

I loved the remake. I didn't really know about the remake, but since I found out that some of the older movies could be found as DVDs, I had this insatiable craving for this movie. The remaked version has quenched that hunger to a great extent, I must say. I discovered it by luck, while browsing through a huge pile of DVDs in Easter Plaza. I must be damn lucky.

So it's 2:30 now, and I believe I should take some rest, so that I don't ruin the morning through sleeping late. If I can get up early in the morning, I might as well watch a few other movies and get going with the remaining Harry Potter book.

Life is beautiful as long as it lasts.

A Happy New Year and Harry Potter and Shakira!

Severus Snape will help Harry in defeating and or killing Voldemort, at the very last moment. Voldemort and Snape will have Harry cornered, and then Voldemort will ask Snape to do something to Harry, which he will disobey, and instead inflict some kind of spell or curse upon Voldemort. Voldemort will weaken, and Harry, Ron and Hermione together will finish him off. This way Severus Snape would prove that he was actually on the good side, and killing Dumbledore was only an action for faking his obedience towards Voldemort, so that he can help Harry in finishing him off.

I finished reading the 6^th book in the famous Harry Potter series, namely “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”. When I started reading the book, I really didn’t expect much from it. I actually bought the original copy of this book for my sister, thinking that it’d be a nice present for her. Well, she liked it, but she never got the chance of reading it as her HSC examinations are knocking at the door. Instead, I started reading it, without taking in to notice frowns and disapproving statements from a few friends. Some frowns were generated due to the fact that I haven’t read another HP book and others were generated cause “Ei boyoshe HP!” As in, I’m too old for books like these. I myself was quite skeptical about the whole Harry Potter culture. This was particularly due to the fact that I really didn't like the first Harry Potter movie much, and I haven't see another movie since that one.

However, I am glad that I stuck to my own decision. This book is great, and it’s more than a fairy tale. It's a very enjoying book, and I finished it real fast.

I tried to predict the outcome of the last Harry Potter book in the first paragraph. The book is scheduled for publication sometime in 2006. Apparently, the author J.K.Rowling hasn’t started writing yet. It’ll definitely be tough for her to finish the series. Why does she need to finish it off anyway? Can’t HP be a character like Masud Rana, who is evergreen, and who always seems to find his espionage edge, no matter what’s going on in the world?

Anyways, a very Happy New Year to all of you whom are reading—may all your dreams and wishes come true this year!

I got a lot of SMSs this year, and I sent a lot, too. It’s nice to have friends and people who care to send a New Year’s greeting.

I am thinking about creating a New Years Resolution list. It’s like a list of things that I’d like to do this year. Hmm….let me see:

1. I’ll learn swimming
2. I’ll go visit Rangamati
3. I’ll propose someone (?!?!)
4. I’ll drink Cognac (!)
5. I’ll start my MBA
6. I’ll try going abroad
7. I’ll try to be nicer to my friends
8. I’ll be a better child for my parents
9. I’ll become a millionaire (this I believe, will not be possible at all)
10. I’ll buy a car (if I try doing this, number 9 will not happen)
11. I’ll get out of my game addiction
12. I’ll be more honest and truthful
13. I’ll write 2/3 more stories
14. I’ll read all the books from Harry Potter series
15. I’ll try to have a 3.8+ CGPA in my MBA
16. I'll lose some weight and I'll do regular exercise
17. No more procrastination!

Haha, that’s quite a mouthful of a resolution’s list. And it's my first resolution list ever.

The New Year started in a bitter sweet manner. Just a day before the 31^st, I had a very unpleasant conversation with a best friend of mine (well, yeah, she’s a best friend, as I have at least 4-5 people whom I can call best friends—ignoring the grammatical law of superlatives on the process), and she just hung up. I haven’t really tried to mend the situation yet, and I have no clue whatsoever. I’m so bad in communication….at least in a personal level. People often take the wrong meaning of my words, especially the ones with whom I am close, i.e. my parents, sister, cousins, good friends, etc.

On the 31^st, I went away to stay in a friend’s home. This was the first time in my 25 year brief life that I stayed out on a new year’s night. Well, was the joy of freedom too high? Did I do anything wild? Not really. It was mostly an uneventful guy;s night out thingy. We stayed in Ashique’s home, which is very near the Khilgaon Flyover. My mom baked a chocolate cake for us, and there were other food items like kebab naan and chanachur.

We came out and walked around the flyover at around 2 AM, and walked ahead in search of a tea stall. We found one, had tea (some of us excluding myself also treated themselves to freshly fried eggs) and came back. We watched a movie for a while, and then everyone decided that we should get some rest, and by 5 AM, all of us were sound asleep. I woke up at 9:30 AM, and managed to reach office by 11:45 AM.

The first day of the year was somewhat uneventful, but the ending was good. I got a laptop from office. It’s been a while since I was promised a laptop, and the long awaited day finally arrived. I’ve been working with the HP Compaq nx6120 throughout the day today, finding some “migration” difficulties, as this is the first time in my life I’m being a full time laptop user. But it’s fun, and I am quickly getting used to it. However, the absence of a numpad will be really, really hard to accept.

I really don’t feel like writing about my recent trips, although I had a lot of fun during the trips. Now back to the resolutions list....I wrote it in one stretch, with actually doing the thought process along with the writing, earlier today. So I wouldn't claim that it was a very well thought out list. I did plan about writing this a day before, while I was returning home via rickshaw, probably from Ashique's home. But only the proposing related resolution came to my mind.

The end of the year was marked by my rejuvenated interest in reading, and liking for Shakira! Yeah, I've grown myself a silly crush(!) and obsession about the sexy pop-diva. I knew I was obsessed when I stared at a picture published on India times for about 4-5 minutes on a Jet Airlines airplane, going to Calcutta from Delhi.

The thing that brought in the crush is her live video of the song "La Tortura" at the Live 8 concert. She's such a great dancer!

1
Swimming is something which I really, really need to learn. Whenever I go outside of Dhaka, I try to at least take bath in some river, at least for once. Every time I go inside water, a feeling of insecurity straddles me, and I feel the need for learning to swim. This knowledge is long due, and it's high time I acquire it.

2
Visiting Rangamati is just another thing that I've been planning to do for quite some time. Me, with my friends, visited Coxsbazar, St. Martins, Tangail, Netrokona, but haven't visited Sylhet and Rangamati yet. Maybe we'll visit there very soon.

3
This one's weird! Why do I have to propose someone this year? Well, it's like if I really, really like someone, I shouldn't be beating around the bush, right? :p

By the way, I am not saying that I have someone out there for proposing...this is just a hypothetical situation (a).

Maybe I'll touch the other resolutions later, or perhaps it's best that they remain self-explanatory

This entry takes my blog in to a new era..it has always been free of smileys, till today.

Will write more later.