(First) Voyage to India

It's been a whirlwind tour of two states (Bihar and Madyhar Pradesh) in India and Delhi in between. There is so much, which the road movie I've stitched together does not get across:  The street noise (lot's of honking, like in Cairo really), how people move, the dare-devil driving in traffic, traffic, traffic and of course, the food, most of which I thoroughly enjoyed (the yoghurty stuff reminded me of Turkey-Iran, it's a vegetarian haven, the spiciness seems unique ...). I joined CIMMYT management in a tour of two of three research stations, which will become part of the Borlaug Institute of South Asia, a joint venture with the Government of India. India is the world's second largest producer of wheat. I do hope you enjoy the travelogue video (I apologize about the low resolution, but could not upload a higher quality version).

Best movie this year?

"Io sono l'amore", "I am love": This evening, I saw the movie, with Tilda Swinton among others, for the 2nd time. A breakthrough, I find. A very grand household in Milano is run, pristinely. Wealth written all over it. A grandfather announces who shall succeed him in running the company. Almost aristocratic, the atmosphere, but the firm only exists since the last World War (II) and is not a 'grand' as that, nor, by extension, the family that runs it - the Recchi. That's just by-the-by, because with all the servants serving excellent food and wine and preparing and cleaning up and ironing and compensating for the affection, which any family should exchange among itself, at a minimum - there's Emma, once Kitiya, who had been picked up by the grandfather's son in Russia, like a prized Morandi painting, of which several are on view in this movie.

Emma and her three children: A schemer, a romantic and a semi-rebellious lesbian. One wins, in his view of things, the other will be disappointed and dies; the daughter finds her way, it seems, but does not leave behind her what she 'should', or might. Instead, their mother does, for love - of a cook. Leaving Tancredi (the husband) behind, to find her freedom. Which, most visually, she certainly did not have before - nor knew to crave?

The stylishness works - because it does not dominate. The soundtrack works for me too, brilliantly, but for a few exceptions: John Adams, the composer, did not know what hit him (he wrote the music before the movie was made). There's an exquisite love-making scene. And there's the three-women-in-the-restaurant scene - at the core of the story, which places mothers, grandmothers and wives "where they belong" - but for Emma, in the end. In the restaurant, it is the grandfather's wife, who signifies: 'Were are the women, who have married into the Recchi. Let's keep this ship afloat.' But Emma eats, with the most ravishing of pleasures, the meal served by the cook - tasting freedom. The third (young) woman, destined to marry one of the Recchi sons, plays by the book. She understands the role she is supposed to assume, once married - but that won't happen, for other reasons.

A suberb movie! Go see it!