I received my prize from the Deccan Herald yesterday, which was an interesting experience. The cheque will help, even after the tax deductions, but some sort of certificate for memory's sake would have been nice. Er, or did they give us one and I forgot it?

It was a little strange to be talking to strangers about something that used to exist only inside my head. But also a bit pleasing, like finally getting a chance to natter on and on about your dreams to other people, which is quite fitting because this story began as a dream.

I met the man who illustrated the story,Yatish, who works for the DH, and told him how much I liked what he'd done. He said the illustration was hand-drawn, then coloured in photoshop, and he'd send me the soft copy.

The Memoirs Of A Geisha: Picked up on epic spending binge at my local piratical depot, back when I was of the salaried class and flush with funds. It was okay; very visually lush in a manner that I felt rather insulated and softened its sordid subject matter I(a child is sold into what is essentially a high-class brother; several years later a group of men twice her age bid for the chance to, um, let their eeel be the first to visit her cave, and so on). It's odd the lengths to which Hollywood will go to romanticize prostitution and rape and borderline pedophilia. A rather standard melodrama all in all.

The Fox And The Child: I expected either a saccharine kidflick or something that would manipulatively tug at my heartstrings. Instead, what we have here is a beautifully made and remarkably realistic look at a friendship between a human and an animal and its larger context, but yes, a good movie for the kiddies too.

Monsters, Inc.: A bit late to the game in this case, but I mostly liked it even if they had to shoot for the obvious heart warming twist and sweet ending. I was very impressed with the initial premise of monsters having to scare kids because monster town's power supplies are derived from the energy released by screaming children. Someone else could have made a much more creepy story based on that concept; in the meantime here's another animated films that I'm able to enjoy without too much stomach churning, which is cool because I like animated films but had really started hating them for a while in the 90s.

The Strange Case Of Benjamin Button: Well, once again Hollywood's taken the name and basic premise of a story - a rather nicely tragicomic and farcical short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, btw, and stripped away everything else, to replace it with a love story. A love story with an annoying framing narrative with completely pointless topical references and high-handed symbolic touches. Still, the idea is a compelling one, and even Hollywood's patented 'profound tale of love against all odds' techniques (think Titanic) cannot take away all its power. Also Brad Pitt can almost act when given what almost amounts to an actual role.

Aranya's Last Voyage.