Splurge

Money has been blown this weekend.

1. The Great Hedge of India: Been eyeing this one for a while, finally caved in when it cast its lascivious looks at me from the Crosswords bookshelf. The subject is bloody interesting, but the book isn't all that great a read. The author skips between first person 'detective' style narrative, and third person colonial Indian history, and somehow it doesn't all gel together (though John Keay had good things to say on the back cover).
   
2. Collected Poems, Vikram Seth
   
3. Jeans
   
4. Food and drink (Angeethi, Fusion, Eat Street)
   
5. Kalyug, Mandi (both by Shyam Benegal) Saath Saath, Umrao Jaan, The Desert Rats.

   Philip Lutgendorf, incidentally, writes some of the best reviews of Indian popular cinema. Upperstall is also quite a treasure trove.

   "The Desert Rats" is highly romanticized, and the writer/director have taken artistic freedom to a new level. Ostensibly about the siege of Tobruk, the movie is full of the most unacceptable distortions. The most annoying (so far - have only seen one of the 2 VCDs) is the elevation of Rommel to Generalsfeldmarschall (to make the Allies look that much better?) about a year too early (he wasn't promoted until the battle of Gazala, and the subsequent capture of Tobruk). And Rommel speaks English in this movie. Oh well...