Painful List of (Mild) Pretension

I sometimes put to unsuspecting friends at random house parties, the question of the most impactful book/movie/life experience they've been through. Making a list longer than of 2 elements is a painful task. So, I don't really mean to thank the 3 individuals who tagged me on facebook to make a list of 10 most impactful books, 10 impactful most music, and 20 of most impacting hindi movies but it got me thinking for a good period to come up with a half-arsed list. So, guess that's a good thing and I should be thankful. I thought I'll put it up as a facebook note or something. Realisation struck:
i) Too much random attention whoring
ii) I should revive my blog!

So, here it goes then: 

Books 

Books that I read voluntarily (which rules out all the acad books) and left a lasting impact or shaped me in some way, ordered by when I read them (first).

1. Super Commando Dhruv & Tintin: Among the first comics I read and loved. I wouldn't blame it on them, though, that I didn't particularly read a lot more comics after that.
2. Illustrated tales from Shakespeare - Charles and Mary Lamb: I could never really take the Shakespearean language. And, I am thankful I read at least the next best. 
3. The World's Religions - Hudson Smith: Introduced me to the concept of Zen - something that has, I'd like to believe, either shaped my philosophy of life in general or at least my take on the 'preferred path to life' - not that it means I lead it :-). Also, helped me understand the nuances of Hinduism as a religion/philosophy a lot more.
4. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - Robert M. Prisig: This made a deep impact on the 19 year old me. I always thought I'll return to this for sure. Haven't. Not sure how well this has aged. 
5. Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder: A breezy summary of the various philosophies set in a fictional world. Gave me enough to fill cocktail party discussions on philosophy :D.
6. Freakonmics - Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt: If you've been a victim of my random hypothesis and theories about world, part of the blame goes to this book. This shaped the analytical view of looking at the world and also stoked my interest in microeconomics, or at least what I thought of it back then, about a decade ago.
7. 1984 - George Orwell: Dystopian. Cynical outlook to the world. Anti-authority. General suspicion of 'big' groups (government, national/private/international organisations). Now I am not sure if my anti-authoritarian view was always present or shaped by this. I suspect it was always present but shaped well because of this.
8. Rationality and Freedom - Amartya Sen: I'd think I was always into the concept of rationality. This book helped shape it at a more formal level. And, introduced me to concepts as Social Choice Theory which is generally good fun in intellectual masturbatory exercises.
9. How the Mind Works - Steven Pinker: The step after becoming a cynic and grappling with rationality - understand the working of the brain. A solid book that gives great insights into the workings of the brain. Makes you think a lot more about how you process and perceive things.
10. Into The Wild: A bit of a cheat. I read the book a few years after the movie. Thought the book was below par. But the movie, I saw at a stage when ideologically, I was at a similar standpoint as the protagonist (except, I thought I'll do that at a later stage in my life). The book/movie put to words my thoughts better. It just became easier to explain to people. Except, that 'sometime in the future' has still not come. And, I don't know if it will. So much for disillusionment :-).

Books I mean to complete that might replace some here:-

India after Gandhi - Ramachandra Guha

Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

India unbound- Gurcharan Das

Illicit Happiness of Others - Manu Joseph

Music

Here goes a list of songs that most impacted me at some point or the other:

1. Four Seasons - Vivaldi: Especially Winter. And the first movement! First heard in Oldboy. I think this was instrumental in getting me interested in western classical (or actually western classical violin).
2. Toccata and Fugue - J. S. Bach: Love Vanessa Mae's version of this.
3. Conversations - L Subramaniam: Never really thought a modern day violinist, let alone an Indian violinist would score something as jaw-droppingly amazing violin piece as this. Listen to the bit from 3:17 to 3:58. 'Orgasmic' is the word!
4. He's a Pirate/Smooth Criminal - David Garrett: At some point, I'd sorta burnt out on violin pieces and had moved onto other music. And, then I heard David Garrett's cover of Smooth Criminal.
5. Everytime I die - Children of Bodom: Aah, those teenage years of coolness when you seek various forms of expression of rebellion . Hearing it after ages now and boy, it is still good!
6. Working Class Hero - John Lennon: 'Brick in the Wall' for the employed.
7. Blowin' in The Wind - Bob Dylan: Inspired me enough in my wannabe-coolness that I put it in my resignation mail (or actually the farewell mail to half my organisation).
8. Pukarata Chalaa Hoon Main - Rafi/O. P. Nayyar/Majrooh Sultanpuri: I discovered what the metaphor 'velvety voice' actually meant.
9. Emosanal Attyachaar (Rock Version) - Bony Chakraborthy/Amit Trivedi/Amitabh Bhattacharya: "You bitch!" Enough Said.
10. Mera Kuch Saaman - Asha Bhonsle/R D Burman/Gulzar: I started appreciating lyrics more. And, I started appreciating Gulzar sa'ab more.

Honorary mentions: Cham Cham (from Striker), Mann Chandre Nu (A. R. Rahman), Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime (Beck), Sweet Dreams (Marilyn Manson).

Movies

And, here goes a list of hindi movies that most impacted me at some point or the other, in order of their approximate release date:

1. Teesri Manzil: Vijay Anand. Shammi Kapoor. RDB. Vijay Anand was a master in building the suspense. See next.
2. Jewel Thief: I know a lot of people consider Guide to be Vijay Anand's best. Jewel Thief and Teesri Manzil are much closer to my heart though. Mainly because I found them hugely more entertaining and without wanting to skip forward (much) on any of the repeat viewing instances. His technical prowess in shot-taking (song from Teesri Manzil; description in video explains my point) only made it for richer viewing as I started understanding movies more.
3. Golmaal/Chupke Chupke: Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Enough Said.
4. Koshish: Gulzar-Sanjeev Kumar. The years 1971-72 saw Gulzar writing and directing Mere Apne, Koshish, Parichay, and Achanak. A prolific period of directing well-written and sensitively handled movies. I'd probably still hold-up any movie dealing with handicap against this.
5. Trishul/Don/Sharaabi: Okay, let me cheat a bit by sneaking in a trilogy (and there are two other trilogies to follow in this list. <Side note: I've cheated twice above. One with 'Into the Wild'. The other with David Garrett's song. You never cheat twice. Either you'll do it once or repeat it enough, you never stop at two>). Don is probably my single favourite Amitabh Bachchan movie.  Sharaabi, for it's tukbaazi dialogues (by Kader Khan?) should be there for it's class. Imagine the tukbaazi of Gunda. Elevate that to the class of Kader Khan and Bachchan and you move from the 'so bad it's bloody good' to the regular 'so bloody good' genre. And, the confrontation scenes between Sanjeev Kumar and Bachchan in Trishul!
6. Sadma: Yes, if you think of it objectively, the last scene is a bit over-the-top. But, boy it still can get you teary eyed.
7. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron: Satirical black humour has seldom been this good in hindi movies.
8. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa: The lovable loser. Before Shah Rukh Khan became THE SRK.
9. Ek Doctor Ki Maut: My first viewing of Pankaj Kapur (apart from Zabaan Sambhal Ke). Have been a fan ever since.
10. Rajiv Rai trilogy (Tridev, Vishwatama, Mohra): Rajiv Rai & Viju Shah, oh the combo! And, this was proper entertaining masala. 
11. Rajkumar Santoshi trilogy (Damini, Ghayal, Ghatak): Essentially the same thing as Rajiv Rai trilogy. Santoshi's peak. Sunny Deol's peak. I like double-peaks in the same space. Make of that whatever you'd want to.
12. Satya: Recently, I got a new print of Satya and I was checking the quality for a few minutes (had some report to submit the next day, I think). 2 hours later, I realise I am still reeled into it.
13. Kaante: Yeah, yeah. But it's here because it introduced me to a wider set of movies. I discovered Tarantino because of this. And, because this coincided with the time I started renting out movies on my own, it was in someways tied with discovering world movies that I saw with sub-titles. Besides, this was pretty good fun too.
14. Hey Ram: Kamal Haasan going fairly indulgent and how! Haven't seen more impactful riot scenes than ones here.
15. Abhay: A bit of a guilty pleasure. I had pretty high hopes of the movie. Despite the atrociousness of it (in places), the trippiness of it and the Abhay character make it still worth a watch.
16. Maqbool (& Omkara?): Omkara probably has more repeat viewing. But, it doesn't come close to the scene-chewing that Abbaji does in Maqbool. "Gilori khaya karo Gulfam. Zubaan kaabu mei rehti hai" Scene.
17. Deshdrohi: I'd seen Gunda. But, this truly made me appreciate 'so bad that it's bloody brilliant' theme so much more.
18. No Smoking: "Nobody tells me what to do. Nobody tells me what to do." Pimping an old review of mine of this. 
19. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!: Middle class hypocrisy has been seldom portrayed better. This review of the movie by Raja Sen, is among my favourite reviews for how well it breaks down the movie's many amazing comments and observations.
20. Gangs of Wasseypur: I am, evidently, a fan of directorial indulgence, am I not? . The first 30 minutes of GoW1 - the way Kashyap goes about setting the scope of the movie, is just epic!

The lists above - be it movies, books or music, aren't of my favourite or of ones I most frequently re-watch/re-read/listen. It's simply a list of what has had a (relatively) lasting impact on me at some point or the other.