This weekend, my non-work activities happened to focus on two of the BRICS countries. Which gives me, of course, a little incentive for the structuring of next weekend :)

If we're spared, that is -- and the likelihood of that eventuality increasingly seems called into question by world events at the moment...

Anyway, back to B and I.

On Saturday, we went to see this year's Divali movie: Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

I loved it. Every now and then, Bollywood is EXACTLY what you need. And this movie, that day, was perfect. Totally unrealistic. An absolute piece of escapism. And so very, very beautiful. Every shot a work of art.

We had lunch at Hyderabad. There could be no faulting their chicken biriyani, vegetable curry, or garlic naan.

And Hyderabad is not far from my favourite haunted house. Anyone fancy a do-up?



On Sunday, after work, we went to see Xingu, a Brazilian movie screened as part of the Latin American Film Festival.

It's a bitter-sweet tale. A trio of brothers sets out in the 1940s on the government-sponsored frontier trail, and meets not only adventure but real live indigenous people. There is no way that the development train can be halted, but the brothers try their best to at least ameliorate the situation by successfully pressing for the establishment of the Xingu park as a guaranteed space for indigenous people and their threatened lifestyle.

But even the essentially good intentions of the brothers carry a thick gloss of paternalism. The white man is the illness but also the cure. The white man is the only one able to save what is left over from other white men's depredations. The power all runs one way. There are no choices. Indigenous people have to be "rescued" -- at gunpoint if necessary.

On a minor note, the screening offered our first opportunity to visit the rather lovely Malaysia Tourist Information Centre (MaTIC) building: