we are like this only

Flying was once upon a time a status symbol, only to be indulged in by the rich and privileged, while the rest of us drones contented ourselves with creeping along, hugging Mother earth like worms...until the Air Ministry or whoever it is went mad. Now you have a flight a minute to any destination in India...if you can find a spare runway or ATC, that is. Flying has become an absolute form of purgatory in India today. If we just got all the criminals consigned to Tihar to do a coast-to-coast round trip of India by air, I'm pretty sure most of them would reform on the spot. I've had an excruciating three weeks of constant travel and I'm surprised to note that I lived to tell the tale. Aged by a few years in those few days, but still alive. Last week, I reached the airport an hour and fifteen minutes before the flight was due to leave, but had just about managed to complete checking in by the time they announced boarding for the flight. Also, the airlines really like to watch...

Quite a mixed bag, this, but that's all of what we got to watch during our holiday in Goa after the kids fell asleep. From Here To Eternity has been widely written about for the kissing scene on the beach between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. It started off quite interestingly - a movie about an assortment of characters - Prewitt, an army recruit who refuses to box any more because he blinded one of his opponents in a match, the leader of the platoon who's a womanizer and insistent on making the reluctant recruit box as he hopes to get a promotion on the strength of that, and the leader's second-in-command Burt Lancaster, the guy who actually runs the unit, a nice guy in love with the commander's wife. And Frank Sinatra, a fun guy who looks out for the new recruit. All of them in Hawaii just before Pearl Harbour. A highly atmospheric film and an interesting character study, it examines the various differences and conflicts that exist within characters themselves. Bur...