HP7 1.0 Saga

HP7, the last part of the series..

Definitely everyone would wish for a blissful ending. Of course J.K Rowling did her best to meet our requirement spec. After the book reading and many rounds of Potter discussion, debate with friends, then comes the movie. Oh my god, we expect a lot now. It is really hard task to transform everything on the paper to the screen. May be this is why they have divided the movie into two parts. Definitely this is a good move. But for the moviegoers, they have to wait till next July to know what happens in the climax.

All about HP7 1.0:

Movie started with the Trio- Hermione, Harry and Ron. Hermione's "Obilivate" spell over her parents was a sentimental one. Harry was left alone by Dudleys at 4 Privet drive. They missed out showing Dudley thanking Harry, for saving him from the Dementors. Voldemort and death eaters intro scene was awful. Voldemort delivered a stunning green killing curse from Lucius's wand on the Muggle studies teacher. At the other end, the Order members, Ron, Hermione landed up at Harry's home. The plan of Mad-Eye-Moody in transporting Harry to the Burrows was a real ace. Polyjuice potion transforming Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, Mundungus into Harry and transporting them in different directions was a real master plan. I loved they way how Hagrid used his motorbike and dragon fire booster in escorting the real Harry. Few toll while bringing Harry to Burrow are listed: Hedwig and Moody were killed, George's ear was slashed off [George is definitely holy now ;) ]. Then the following day was Bill & Fleur's Wedding and Harry's Birthday. The trio were handed over the items mentioned in the Dumblebore's will by the Minister for Magic. But Gryffindor's sword was claimed to be missing. The wedding celebration was interrupted by Kingsley's message stating the fall of ministry to the hands of dark lord. There was chaos and somehow trio managed to flee to 12 Grimmauld Place after attacking the death eaters. At Black's place they found that the Horcrux locket was replaced by Regulus Arcturus Black (Sirius's brother) with the help of Kreacher. Harry ordered Kreacher to get the original locket. But Kreacher is helpless as the locket was with Dolares Umbridge. Oh.. again it is polyjuice potion hex. Trio transformed as the employees of Ministry for magic and made their way to fetch the locket. Hmm actually this was a funny part in the movie. At the end of this scene, I was able to smell something burning within Hermione due to possessiveness. However it was a hairbreadth escape from the ministry. Ron was jinxed by Yaxley and was cured by Hermione's love added medicine. Here I found the story to be bit humdrum as the trio where just moving from one place to another like tribes. In the meantime Ron was discouraged and left his friends. Miss you Ron :( :( Harry and Hermione trips to Godric's Hallow in search of Gryffindor's sword. There they were attacked by Nagini and they escape by Hermione's blasting charm. But Harry's wand is no more. During the night time Harry was attracted by a Doe shaped patronous charm. It helped him to find the Gryffindor's sword in the frozen lake. The locket started strangling Harry as he was about to reach the sword. Oh god, Dumblebore's deluminator brings Ron back in time. My bravo gets the sword and destroys the horcrux(with great love & trust). Ron you are soooo romantic now [I loved the "Twilight" scene, melted down]. Now the trio proceeds to Lovegood's home to know about the Deathly Hallow. The animated version of "The tale of the Three Brothers" was a great visual delight. But Xenophillius had no choice other than betraying the trio for the sake of his Luna. Trio managed to escape but not for a longer period. They were taken to the Malfoy Manor by the snatchers. Hermione was tortured by Bellatrix whereas other two were dropped in cellar where Luna, Griphooks and Ollivander were locked. No one would have expected(except book readers) Dobby here. The whole lot of witches, wizards and gobblin were rescued by the (Free elf) Dobby. But unfortunately messiah of the mission was knocked down by Bellatrix :( Poor soul Dobby. My salute of peace to you.

Rest of the saga next July....

P.S.

Had a great time with my brothers @ Sathyam. This is my first time First-day show. It was terrific. I was screaming out of delight along with my brother. HP craze and fever is fading out only after freaking out everything here :) :)

P.S.S.

Astonished to see the movie along with subtitles @ Sathayam.

A Trip to Tirupathi

I guess this is the right season to meet Venky. Do you know why?

* Less crowd as it is not a vacation time

* Easy to book a lodge

* Less rush in footpath pilgrim route

* Good Darshan without Jarugandi Jarugandi

* Easy to get Lodu @ Lodu counter ;)

* Hair shaving queue and waiting time is minimum

I was @ Tirupathi last week with my family. Let me freak out my experience about the trip. We started from here by 3 pm on Wednesday(3rd Nov). It was a 145 Km journey and took around 4 hours for us to reach Tiruchanoor. We drove on the NH-05 connecting Chennai and Tirupathi. The Road between Tiruthani -- Nagari was a real mess with loads of Humps and Bumps, may be due to the rain. We visited Alamelumanga temple at Tiruchanoor, which is situated at the foothills of Tirupathi. We had very easy Darshan and got sweet Pongal as prasadam. We also got Tiruchanoor ladus (This one is different from the one which we get from Tirumala). After that we checked into hotel Mayura, keil Tirupathi. Next day early morning by 5.30 am we started from the hotel to the footpath pilgrim starting point. After having a cup of tea we started walking up the hill. After 2 1/2 hours and 2000 steps, we reached the Galigopuram, where we got our free Divyadarshan tokens. Then we found a Idly shop nearby and had our breakfast [hmm.. not that much good Idly :( but Dosa was ok]. Then it took us another 2 1/2 hours to reach the last step(3550th step). On the way we were attracted by statues of 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu, and 12 aalvars (It was actually a pitstop for us to relax), stream of flowing water, small water falls, sapthagiri green valley's view point, deer park, different kind of snails, beetles, dragonflies.... I missed out one more thing in the list, ie. Leopard posters and not the real Leopard (Thank Venky, I din't see those). Then we enqueued into the Srivari free darshan queue. It took us about 2 hours to reach the Venky's sanathi as we were interrupted in between by a Swami Oorvoolam. But it is a real worth waiting time as we had a peaceful darshan without Jarugandi Jarugandi. I don't think there is much difference between Rs.300 special ticket and Rs.20 free darshan ticket. May be this is because of the thinner crowd. After darshan we were servered with pulisaadam as prasadam. Then we proceeded towards the ladu counter. I was amazed seeing the counter. Previously there was only one counter which was tailed by a veryyy long queue. Now they have set up many queues separately for Rs.20, Rs.50, Rs.300 tickets. This is really cool. Within 10 mins of wait time we were all issued the Tirumala ladus. Then we had a light lunch in a small hotel nearby and left down to the hotel. It was about 5.30 pm when we started from there and reached home by 10.00 pm.

If you plan to walk up the Tirumala hill here are few tips that may be useful:

* Carry a bottle of water and glucose or juice.

* Have few candies(instant energy booster) in your pocket.

* If possible carry few fruits like banana, orange, grapes, biscuits. If not you can get those on your way too. You can use them to feed the deers too ;)

* Have handkerchief or hand towel. 100% sweating is guaranteed.

* It will be good to have moov or iodex.

* Usually 80% footpath route has shades. But it is better to carry an umbrella or cap depending on the climatic condition.

* Few people say that we should walk on barefoot. But it is easier to walk with shoes.

* Now a new rule(Gandhian) is imposed on the pilgrim. It is regarding the clothes which we wear while meeting Venky. Men are supposed to be in shirt & pant or dothies and women in salwar or saree. They boycott foreign clothes.

* One more rule is that they levy fine if we are found littering the place. It is around Rs.100. I was surprised to see a tea seller(in cycle) having a large plastic bag in front of his cycle to put the used tea cups in them. This sort of commitment would definitely keep the place greener and cleaner forever :)

* Of course carry a camera if you would like to get snaps near the deer, falls, streams, view point.

* Don't carry flowers or garland. We were not allowed to carry flowers to Venky's sanathi. I don't know whether there is some other way to carry it for Venky :(

Few clicks

Pitstop

Galigopuram

Feeding biscuits to the deer

Small water falls

Anjaneya statue

Last 3550th step

Anju