Will take Brad Pitt on a bike over a Kalashnikov yielding Taliban any day

I started the day by deciding that I was going to write a very dramatic piece about how we Indians were completely oblivious to the growing threat of the Taliban. I was going to send out a wake up call that this army of religious zealots was marching its way across our neighbours’ house and getting ready to arrive at our door-step. The issue had been irking me for a while but the attack on the Sri Lankan team really culminated things. Really all of this reminds me of the 1972 attack by the Nazis on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The same hate resonates through this, only thankfully the massacre wasn’t as heinous.

But then by the time the evening came, I had other things which I felt I should write about and muse about. Something that was perhaps more positive and hopeful and fun. Just came back from watching “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Yes, yes I admit I went to see it because like a lot of people I have my list of Oscar movies that I have to check off- but have to say this one was worth it.

The underlying proposition of a human being making a reverse journey in life is actually quite out there and even silly- can you imagine someone shrinking back to the size of a month old baby? What happens to the bones and the flesh you ask? But that is not what stays with you. The overwhelmingly beautiful love story makes you forget all that and go into a “willing suspension of disbelief”. Cate Blancheet and Bradd Pitt convince you that they are no less in love than Romeo and Juliet. The on screen chemistry is priceless. Also the movie may have won the Oscars for costumes and art design but to me the true visual treat was our boy Brad Pitt. I am a married woman who loves her husband, but boy he is just DELISCIOUS. Tanned and rugged and just so full of boyish charm.

Another surprise is the music. It is curiously middle- eastern. Lots of strings and Arabian Nights style sounds. So see it for the script, see if for the love story, see it for the amazing canvass across eighty years of world history- but ladies, above all see it for Brad Pitt and guys- you should see it for the lovely blue eyes and the red hair of Cate Blanchett.

So while my day began with the disappointment and anger for those who spread violence, I choose to end it with the pleasant thoughts of the other side of humanity- love, music, art and a will to live. Let those who want to end it all try as much as they want. I am convinced in the end man’s need to smile and live will prevail.