My Top Nineteen Movies

The last really good movie I watched was, I believe, The Sheep Detectives, 2026. It is a very silly little story. But it had so much heart in it. 

They don’t make movies like this anymore, I said to myself. And myself immediately replied: Oh dear god Esther you did not just sound a thousand-year-old right there!

Myself is probably right. But so am I. Lately movies are big and gorgeous and lovely and funny and so many things. I am a movie buff. The magic is very much alive for me. But also a lot of that magic today is CGI, or political humour (which if you’re not so inclined, can be a little off-putting), or polished to perfection and while brilliant as an escape, not things I would watch again and again.

I even watch the 10-minutes Recap versions of many movies on YouTube these days.

All this being said, I thought to myself, as I sit in the little server room at Agape Computer Institute playing Magistrate for NEET Exam, I should list out my top favourite movies.

And so, in no particular order, here are my Top Nineteen:

1. Nacho Libre, 2006: Everything about Nacho Libre is brilliant. I should go visit that dry-ass place one day and take pictures, wearing cream slacks and light blue T-shirt, and speak English with a heavy Mexican accent. Meanwhile, I shall consider dry rusk the heights of romance. Forget your Roman Holidays.

2. The Princess Bride, 1987: Very little is boring about The Princess Bride. The whole movie is simply so stunning and the cast is just perfect. The quotes are witty and lovely beyond compare. I shall watch it with my niece one day. 

3. Mean Girls, 2004: I have played Mean Girls as white noise while I studied MBA. This is the movie that made me realise how amazing editors and sound engineers are. Unfortunately, ever since Faridabad and Mean Girls white noise, I have been much more critical of every other movie. It is that fetch.

4. The Help, 2011: The atmosphere of The Help is just perfection – goofy, painful, serene, scary, wild… every part of it is gorgeous. Their America and my Mizoram are so different, but this movie activates my Sociological brain with every re-watch and unfailingly makes me rethink my society. And of course, the pie.

5. Flipped, 2010: This movie makes me feel like I am in a Little Archies comic book brought to life. Nothing like Archies, of course. But just the whole vibe. I think this serene, whitewashed version is what MAGA people think their country and life used to be like. And if so, I can’t blame them for wanting to go back to it. The movie is shot so beautifully. It makes you want to be in it.

6. Howl's Moving Castle, 2004: Hayao Miyazaki movies are always a 101% beautiful. But there are very little scenes – in Miyazaki’s world and beyond – that can compare to the Breakfast Scene at the castle. You know that. Right?

7. Monalisa Smile, 2003: For someone who graduated from what is sometimes referred to as the Wellesley of the East, Monalisa Smile is a must-watch and amazingly captivating. Their struggles, their discussions, their lives… worlds apart from my own. Yet at some abstract ideal levels, their problems are still very much a modern woman’s problem. Even now. Poignant. But beautiful.

8. The Sound of Music, 1965: My teenage years were defined by this musical. I liked it so much. It is only as an adult the Nazi implications finally set in. But I liked so much of the movie that even though I never really understood it, I love the movie. And the songs.

9. Lilo & Stitch, 2002: This movie is silly. Everything about it is silly and goofy and funny. I learned the word Ohana from here. And many Elvis songs. I can and have rewatched this movie time and again. I still love it. I love the story, the characters, the art, the music… I love this movie.

10. Steel Magnolias, 1989: I think the first time I watched this movie was in High School during movie night. Probably. I am happy that the cuppa-cuppa-cuppa recipe is trending on Instagram following Dolly Parton’s death. Because it took me back to that movie. That was a solid movie. Amazing.

11. Now and Then, 1995: Brendan Frasier as a hot soldier, Knock Three Times on a bicycle trip, girls v. boys, the girly world of pink, first kisses, forever friendships, stuffing bras… nothing does coming-of-age like Now and Then. This is brilliant beyond brilliant. 

12. Forrest Gump, 1994: It’s just comforting. Like a box of chocolates, perhaps.

13. Shrek, 2001: If you want to know if a song is good, check if it is on a Shrek soundtrack. If it is, it is a good song. Very good check. And Shrek flipped off traditional fairy tales in ways no one had done before and has been forever emulated since. Such a good movie.

14. Stepford Wives, 2004: In some ways, Stepford Wives is the complete dismantling of something like Flipped. And it is done so wonderfully. It is set in a very definite white Utopian society but like all good post-modern writing, it makes you question everything about your own society. And they do it with gorgeous people in it who don’t have a single strand of hair out of place. Lovely. 

15. The Gods Must Be Crazy, 1980: If some movies you love because of how beautiful they are, you love The Gods Must Be Crazy for how utterly un-glamorous it is. I watched it as a kid. Then I rewatched it as a Sociology student. What is a Coke bottle to you? Everything about this movie is brilliant. Everything.

16. Spirited Away, 2001: Natsume Yujinchou is one of my favourite anime series. Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away could fit nicely into this structure. Chihiro’s journey navigating the spirit world and this one is so gorgeously portrayed. I have to point out here how similar our versions of spirits, the Japaneese youkai and Mizo huai life seem to be. Ultimate comfort movie.

17. Men In Black, 1997: No other Will Smith movie would ever be as good as Men In Black, not even with dead CGI dogs. MIB was just so good. I have watched and rewatched it so many times. And it is still lovely even after the Nth re-watch. Just wonderful sci-fi. Makes you look at the moon and the stars in the night sky and make you want to go home to them. If you know what I mean. 

18. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961: Big pearl necklace. Cigarette on a long stick. The perfect little black dress; in fact, the movie that introduced me to the concept of an LBD. Beehive hair. And Moonriver. 

19. The Pink Panther, 2006: Steve Martin is usually always watchable. But the chemistry he has with Jean Reno in this movie is unmatched. There is nothing I don’t like about The Pink Panther. It is that good.

My sister will swear by Titanic and I love that movie and my heart will go on for it yada yada but I'd choose any one of my list over it any day.

And I stopped at 19 which is an odd number and an odder number to choose for a list, but the exam was for 3 and a half hours and we ran out the clock. So Nineteen it is.

Hymnals

I was Chapel-in-charge as a 17 year old. This little bit of my history often comes as a surprise to some people who knew me only after I have attained my full-grown adult height that I am very bible-oriented and very spiritual. Not that I have changed overmuch (I mean I have but yk) but some people stereotype more than necessary. I am not very religious though and that has only fermented over time so I engage less and less with organized church as I get older. That is very true. But it is also true that my deep respect for the spiritual remains and in fact, has kept getting strengthened. Into what, is perhaps debatable.

When I was 17, though, through no fault of my own, I was expected to lead worship. So I learned guitar so I could lead song service. And also once in a while, I gave small sermons. I would sometimes make my own. Sometimes I would recall some other sermons I’d listened to, and regurgitate them. 

I did my duty even though I did not truly enjoy it. I do not think I am cut out to be a spiritual leader. I can see myself as a cult leader before a church leader. I feel I have the potential to devolve fast into that role as opposed to being an upstanding, mentally well-regulated, cool-headed non-sword-yielding church youth leader.

In any case, Chapel was every evening at 6 in our hostel. We attended it in our PJs. But on Sundays, we’d attend church service in an empty classroom at Ryan International School in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. I believe ours was a Methodist church. The pastor was our Dean’s husband. He lived in her quarters in our girls’ hostel. We could have had our entire church services inside the confines of our girls’ hostel. But no. Come blistering heat or freezing cold of Delhi’s temperamental climate, and the general poor AQI of the Capital, they’d ship us out in a big yellow bus in “church clothes”. I still think it was stupid.

Possibly more performative and ceremonial than real service. Who knows.

I had nothing to do with the Methodist church, but because I was Chapel-in-charge in the hostel where the pastor resided, I was also sometimes assigned some roles in his Sunday Service. One of them was always to pass the Hymnals out before service. These Hymnals were the low-quality blue plastic covers variety. I was never alone for these duties though. Some of the girls were always Christian and nice about Service Labour. So they’d help out. We’d take the hymnals out from somewhere (dear lord, I can’t even remember from where!) and place them on every chair set out for the service. Then, after Service, we’d simply collect them again. You only ever needed to bring a Bible with you to church, if you were so inclined.

Something similar operated in the Seventh-day Adventist church I attended for three years in Roorkee. Daily morning service, daily evening service, Friday evening vespers, Sabbath School and I think two other services the same day… oh dear god, the sheer volume of services! You know, come to think of it, after graduating from high school, I’ve never attended youth service again. That aside, even in SDA service, we didn’t need to own a hymnal. 

On Sabbath services and the more churchy services, we had the Hymnals. Someone would have passed them around before church. The deacons, maybe. I always liked the feel of the hardbound maroon leather (rexin?) cover with the staff notation and the words so neatly typed in no-nonsense font on buttery paper. I liked those Hymnals. On other regular services, Mrs. Susan Chand would use a projector to guide us through the songs, electronically screening the lyrics directly on the vast yellow wall on the side of the main stage area. No hymnal required.

I say all this because my Church has come up with a new Hymnal. A revision of the old whose new edition has included Additions, and a resultant change in numbering.

I will have to buy it. You can argue with me till you are blue in the face that I am not obligated to. But you and I both know I will. It’s like tithe or offering. I am not obligated to give but I will. Not doing so would earn me Censure, as we might call it in Sociology. Not to mention create an avoidable inconvenience from using an Edition that doesn’t match what everyone else is carrying. Judging from my monthly salary, I can afford it. But I hate waste and I hate that my perfectly good Hymnal will now essentially be redundant in a few months. It will collect dust in some corner of my house. I don’t think I’ve turned all the pages. I don’t think my church has sung all the songs in it. We do have our favourite numbers.

Far be it from me to criticize church, but I just think it is wasteful. And lowkey burdensome on people who make less money than I do. (Again, far be it from me to suggest to people how to spend their own money). I simply can’t help thinking how wonderful it would be if churches just bought a shit ton of these Hymnals every time a new edition comes out and handed them out in church like we used to do it in Delhi and Roorkee. And have the few zealously devoted members buy their own copies, no issues. But the hymnals! 

(Sigh)

Driving

Driving is not very hard. 

You check your rear- and side-view mirrors properly, check that your hand brake is released, then put the keys in ignition; or push Start in the newer models. On a manual stick drive, you then press the clutch down, ideally move your gear into 1st, then release the clutch as you press down on the accelerator and off you go. If you want to go faster, you use smaller gears, and vice versa. You turn the steering wheel on the direction you want to go. You press the clutch down if you push your brakes so you don’t kill the engine abruptly. If you go downhill, ideally you use larger gears because the brake is stronger; greater torque, yk. Reverse gear is your good friend.

Driving well is a skill. But driving in itself i.e. making a vehicle move is not hard at all. The machines were designed by smart brains which means they can be operated by stupid brains.

Driving when other people are also driving is where the story gets tricky. The steeper the slope, the sharper the bend, the smaller the road, the worse the condition of the road, the trickier it gets.

Mostly all we expect from other drivers is courtesy. When people drive the city limit, keep to their sides of the roads, respect the road dividers, let the more urgent vehicles pass them by slowing down and moving to the side and signalling them when it is safe to do so (it’s just Physics, people!), obey traffic laws and traffic policemen, allow safe passage for pedestrians at zebra crossings, and send out regular indicators and blinks to let other drivers know which direction you will be taking, driving is safe. 

Basic courtesy, guys. Just that alone can carry you so far. 

If you’re driving downhill, it is more convenient for you to pause a bit so someone meeting you uphill can access a greater portion of the road than you; that’s basic mechanics. If you’re about to meet someone driving opposite you, it’s safer to slow down a little so the gravity of it all don’t mess anyone on either side; again, it’s just physics. If you’re negotiating a tricky, small, or bendy road, it saves everyone so much more time if someone not flash their ego around and pause a bit to let others pass rather than a whole negotiation where your vehicles are a centimetre apart; what does that really prove, anyway? 

There are other things as well. When dusk settles, there’s no need to suddenly rush; you’ll get where you’re getting in good time. When you’re driving in the dark, especially on rainy nights, check that your blue light is not on because, gentle reader, that means your high-beam is on and the person opposite you cannot see anymore. If you drive a two-wheeler, just because you can twist the vehicle a bit does not mean it is “small” per se; with its handles, a two-wheeler is roughly 2/3rd the size of a car; stop thinking you can squeeze in tight places easily without causing other people difficulty. Believe me, you are causing problems for people!

It is also worth noting, as my sister always says, to never be so good at driving you become bEtTer tHAn tHe tRaFfiC ruLes. Obey the traffic rules. They are just a list of common sense, listed down coherently as a Rule for everyone’s safety, yours included.

Happy driving, folks.

NB: There's a policeman who makes reels on Aizawl traffic. Very nice. Also all his videos have bigots on the comment sections LMFAO

From Bible to M&B Names

Leah in the Bible was unloved by her husband. Clearly a woman with issues. She had a few sons. With each of the firstborns, she hoped to win over her husband. The first one she named Reuben – See, A Son, she implored Jacob. The second she named Simeon – He Who Hears, she said, hoping Jacob can understand that God is on her side. The third she named Levi – Attached, she said, begging Jacob to be joined to her. At the fourth she seems to have given up on Jacob. Instead she turned to God. She said “This time, I will praise the Lord” and she named this one Judah – Praise, in other words.

Interestingly, it is this fourth son, the one that sealed her finally giving up on trying to please a man (or read Man, here?) and her turning to God instead, that God chose to be physically incarnated into, the lineage that gave Israel its kings, you know, David, Jesus, yada yada.

I find this really interesting. With names, basically. The Bible is rife with it. Many times, the names also changed with the equivalence to baptism. New names – from Abram to Abraham, from Jacob to Israel, from Saul to Paul. There is seriously strong symbolism with names.

My grandmother who named me said the God who holds power over time will create such a time for her; my mother thought a fitting Bible namesake would be Esther. Which is how I came to be Esther.

My clan was a sorcerer-priest clan. It was said we descended from tigers; by the by, a tiger being our totem animal, if we come across a dead tiger, a Leihang is expected to cover its dead body with the Pawndum, as one would a human. Our totem plant is the winter gourd. It was said our tongues were dark, as in with magic, or healing, or something else. Which is how I carry the name Leihang. So that’s my name.

During SIR Hearing, I came across a very interesting name: Folina. I’d never come across this name in ever. So while we waited for the internet to cooperate, I asked her what part of the world that name was from. She said she didn't know. Already stupidly invested, I asked her who gave her the name. She said grandma. Committed, I pressed on: did she find it in a novel or film, by any chance? She giggled sheepishly and whispered, Ya it’s from M&B.

I read a lot of M&B growing up. My cousin loved romance stories and she had a lot of them lying around. In college, I bought a lot of second-hand books that Delhi streets made readily accessible – a whole fun book for 25 bucks, come on, I was not going to pass that up. Even there, I’d never come across a Folina. 

I was very fascinated with this grandmother who read M&B and loved one character or name so much she gave it to her granddaughter. I’d like to meet her. Because this is something I can relate to. This is what readers do. Sometimes, characters or names or themes just impress us so much we have to find an outlet for them. 

At times, that is names, as it turned out.