Faridoon Shahryar's Blog


Sunday, July 24, 2016

San Francisco Diary Day 2:Golden frienship, family away from home, Rajini mania courtesy Kabaali

San Francisco Diary Day 2: Golden friendship, A family away from home, the Rajini mania courtesy Kabali
By Faridoon Shahryar

Acclimatising to a new time zone and the demands of jet lag are made easy if you find good people and loads of laughter to go with it. The day started with a long phone discussion with my childhood friend Mohd Tariq Yaqub who stays very close to my hotel in #Fremont #California. While talking I walked around the hotel and we talked in detail about the misuse and misrepresentation of religion. Tariq is highly well read and quotes serious authors and more importantly he has culled out analogies based on his own understanding of the burning issues of terrorism.

Tariq took me to the #Facebook headquarters. It is a stylishly built colorful building. The way Taj Mahal is a tourist attraction, the #Like sign outside the Facebook office is a tourist attraction in #SanFrancisco. We had lunch at the Indo-Pak #Shalimar restaurant and feasted on scrumptious Nahari, Chicken Seekh Kabab, Tandoori roti and Tandoori chicken. Once again we had long discussions on varied topics. Tariq is one of the biggest examples of how a man can brilliantly change his destiny by sheer self belief and phenomenal hard work. It was great catching up.

In the evening Prabha Koka ji and his extremely well mannered smart son Satwik took me to for a night show of #Rajinikanth starrer #Kabali. Their hospitality and warmth is extremely touching. It seems Prabha ji, her husband Vaino and Sarwik are an extended family to me here in San Francisco. Kabali is a well made entertainer inspired by #Godfather. Rajinikanth is brilliant in the title role. It was fascinating to see him do what he did. But the emphasis on 'Tamilians' more than 'Indians' wasn't something that didn't go unnoticed. #RadhikaApte is brilliant. She exudes her magical brilliance consistently.

It was a day wonderfully spent. Looking forward to tomorrow when we start the day with an interview with #WorldFilmFestival Festival director Lida Mohaghegh. I think it will be a perfect way to start the proceedings. So see you tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

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