home sweet home

The stupid train was so late. I just got home - at 1AM. But I'M HOME!

Thankfully, my apartment has not caught fire. It has not been broken in to. It is as cosy and dirty as I left it :)

The train ride was interesting, and weird. I was watching RH's films on my laptop. Solaris, the old one. It's supposed to be a great film or something - but mostly I was thinking, WTF! Its a very original idea, but sci-fi is definitely not for me. The sets, the music, the props - everything was too sci-fi for me. I kept thinking about Borat. Usually I would give up and not see the whole thing, but this time I did - with just a short nap in between. What kept me going was also this woman sitting next to me who was more interested in the film than her own paperwork. The film was subtitled so she could understand what was going on.

It was so strange how I landed up in that seat next to this woman. There were so many empty seats, but I kept going ahead, hoping to find a window seat, and then finally gave up when I saw this nice woman. By the end of the film, I had overheard enough of her phone conversations to know that her profession was related to films, and that the papers in her hands were actually scripts! I assumed that she is an actor, and in my head I was thinking of films I could cast her for, stories and characters that she would be appropriate for, and all that. Obviously we had not spoken to each other this whole time. Yes, I'm crazy.

So I move on to the next film, figuring out in my head about how to talk to her. I see Welcome to the Dollhouse, and then decide that it's time to start talking. Her station was one hour before mine, and so even if I screwed up now, I thought I will not have to be embarrassed for too long. It turns out that she is a film and TV producer, and has a fancy job with the Grammy's! So we chatted for quite sometime - I told her about my interests and plans, she told me about her work and how she came to do the work that she does. It was fun. At one point, I actually asked her if she would be interested in producing my thesis film! Lol! The film that I know nothing about - the film that I might not even make in this country. But she seemed to be bloody good at her job, so I thought what the hell. She finally gave me her business card, the moment that I had been waiting for since I realized she has something to do with film. She gave me good advice, and promised to read my script whenever I happen to write it. So, moral of the story is that god is great, and the NYC is the coolest place for independent filmmakers.

After she left, a chirpy Chinese girl came to sit with me. I played Borat, finally. The Chinese girl started watching, and laughing, so I offered her one ear phone. She gladly took it. We didn't know each other's names, but we were enjoying this film. I got a kick out of this - but was afraid that she might get offended by some thing in the film. I quickly scanned through the story in my head, and couldn't really think of anything that was potentially offensive for a Chinese person. Then it happened - Borat has photographs of him with his happy son who happens to be naked. As soon as she understood what was on screen, she turned her head. I thought she was laughing and would look back at the screen. But she didn't. She just kept looking the other way until the scene changed. Then on I skipped all nude portions, but only when they would come on the screen for a few seconds (I don't know the film by heart, even though it was my fourth screening), and so Chirpy Chinese chick would look away every time. It was good fun to see such conservatism.

After the film got over, we started talking. She was shocked to know that my major is film. It was real shock. I've seen surprise mostly, sometimes curiosity, but SHOCK - that was my first time. Her major was biomedicine or something. I was desperately trying to evade her vague questions about what the hell do I mean by studying film - so we went on to talk about her research subject, which is new ways of treating heart diseases. I learnt some new things. We exchanged email addresses, and then it was finally time for me to leave.

I'm home now, so let me enjoy my lovely dirty home for a few hours, before I get up and prepare myself for a meeting with Evil E - yes, on a Saturday afternoon. She's really evil. Evil E. She called me when I was on the train to remind me about the meeting. Evil Evil E. Bye now.