Of Cyclones and More- Mission Impossible

I was in Great Lakes Institute at Chennai for a conference. Against impossible odds, when Cyclone Thane (a Burmese name) threatened, we still managed a round of Golf at the Gymkhana early morning before it struck. Mission Impossible? Tom Cruise would be proud. Great Lakes justified its name, and looked like all the Lakes had converged on it. Conference went on quite well in spite of that.

One of the bonuses of a conference is you get to meet academic friends and others too. Both missions were fulfilled. Some interesting papers on advertising effectiveness came from presenters. Also squeezed in some movies, including Mission Impossible 4- The Ghost Protocol. Interesting concept, though not new. Tom Cruise is aging, but still watchable. But a better film was a video watch called Hotel Rwanda, about a brave manager at this hotel who saves many guests through his innovative thinking, during one of the usual civil wars/coups that are the bane of many African nations. Moving, with a very good acting quotient. Also had a glimpse of Woody Allen's 2011 film, Midnight in Paris, which has the hero, a budding author (played by Owen Wilson) doing time travel to a Paris of another era and meeting great authors and artists- Hemingway, Picasso, Scott Fitzgerald, Salvadore Dali, and in the process, discovering himself. Fantastic idea!