In this brilliant one-and-a-half-hour show, BBC host Robert Winston examines common sleep problems. To help him, there are six volunteers and various sleep experts and health professionals.

Although the show is Britain-focused, the advice and tips apply to anyone anywhere who has sleep problems. BBC has a bunch of documentaries about sleep and dreaming, but this one is unique because it’s designed to be a practical guide. Very well done and very watchable right through.

Over the show, they put volunteers through several tests, determining what kind of sleepers they are and what levels their executive skills (concentration, attention, reaction time etc) are. Everyone also goes through sleep profiling – including us viewers. The volunteers get customized advice and try and act on it by making changes to their environment, routine or pattern of sleeping. And finally everyone goes through the tests again to compare. Everyone showed improvement except for one person who was disqualified because he changed his situation halfway through by quitting his night job.

Among the problems taken up were snoring loud enough to wake your family, neighbors and yourself up, not being able to get to sleep because the baby is crying all night, being completely zombied from tough night shifts, being under so much stress you can’t sleep etc. \

One volunteer had such a busy jam-packed room it was impossible to relax in it. Only she didn’t realize it and felt she must have all her worldly possessions around her within reach. There was, of course, a space constraint to begin with. So what was she to do? An expert visited her apartment and found it was more like a cell than a sanctuary. They helped her reorganize her room, leaving one side of it for storage and one for rest. And a lot of her things were put out of sight. Also, they had her change the colors of things like the bed linen, which was also very busy. The room was redesigned for rest. She loved it. Clean and spacious looking, ivory sheets, a soft light – she was finally able to sleep. Makes me want to get rid of all the bright orange stuff I have in my own bedroom!

If you can’t get hold of this show, visit the BBC’s site on sleep at http://bbc.co.uk/sleep and profile your sleep to figure out whether you’re a night or day person, whether your work interferes with your sleep etc. Also browse the guidelines and tips on the site.

“If only I could say, it’s over, you only die once…”.

The words of 14-year-old Rutka Laskier living in Bedzin, Poland as the Nazi noose became tighter and tighter around her family and the Jewish people.

If all were well with this world, this beautiful child should have been worrying her head about little more than whether it’s a good idea to let her school friend Yanek kiss her or not. Instead, she spent whatever time she could get chronicling the incomprehensible blood chilling events taking place around her. In a little notebook later hidden carefully under the double flooring of the staircase, Rutka wrote of life in the ghetto in Bedzin. Just three months of it. After that, Rutka and her family were deported to Auschwitz.

Rutka’s diary is reminiscent of Anne Frank’s, but unlike Anne, she had experiences that are far more horrific before she was finally sent to the concentration camp. In the ghetto, each day became a struggle for good and survival. She knew, without a doubt, that she would have to die. “I’m turning into an animal, waiting to die”, she wrote.

Her 60-page notebook was published relatively recently, in 2007. The story of the diary itself is remarkable. Rutka’s friend later went back to the house and retrieved it and kept it with her for 63 years, not showing it to anyone. The Center of Jewish Culture eventually heard of it and weas able to get a photocopy and have it published as the historical document Rutka had meant it to be.

The other remarkable fact is that Rutka was  “discovered” by her half sister, Zahava. The only person who survived from the Laskier family was Rutka’s father and he later remarried and had children. Zahava saw a photograph of Rutka and began to wonder who this was and how she looked so very much like her. Her father would not tell her much but finally admitted she was her half sister. Zahava went to Poland to try and retrace the little girl’s life and death. She later named her own daughter Ruth.

This story of Rutka Laskier and her diary was told in a BBC documentary called The Secret Diary of the Holocaust. The documentary is in parts on Youtube.

Watching one of these period dramas is the closest thing to curling up with a long juicy favorite book whose pages have gone that deliscious shade of creamy yellow.

I watched The Young Victoria leaning back on soft soft plump cushions and sipping peach iced tea. How luxurious is that! Being fond of this genre of movies, I unsurprisingly enjoyed every minute of it.

Emily Blunt is Queen Victoria, or rather Princess Victoria. A prettier one than the real McCoy, probably. If you thought princesses have a nice pampered life within the walls and of the palace, forget it. The young Victoria wasn’t allowed to walk alone, she couldn’t read fiction, and right into adulthood she wasn’t allowed to walk down the stairs unless someone held her hand and she certainly wans’t allowed to hang out having fun. In fact, you name it and she wasn’t allowed it. As she grew up, Victoria, who had never known her father, was surrounded by vultures waiting to see her on the throne and take complete control of her. Not the least of these vultures was her own mother and her mother’s lover, Lord John Conroy. No one was without motive, no one just let her be.

When George the IVth died, the princess Victoria became queen. She also met Prince Albert, and this film is large part about thrie romance, their battles with one another, and the intrigue that surrounded them always. Well, they eventually had nine children and ruled together for twenty years – Victoria for over sixty years, I think.

What a shocking horrible story! And so beautifully acted!

Dame Jud i Dench, with a voice and enunciation that few others in the world possess, is the narrator of this story. She reads to us from her diary as she writes it, telling us what she wants to from her point of view. Barbara (Judi Dench) chronicales in that diary her sick “friendship” with Sheba (Cate Blanchett).

The movie is based on Zoe Heller’s book, What Was She Thinking.

In a small school somewhere in England, the “arfully desheveled” Sheba arrives as the new art teacher. Sexy and classy, she gets everyone’s attention, including that of Barbara Covett. With her ice cold eyes and razor sharp brain, she subjects Sheba to a brutal scrutiny – only to end up falling in love with her.

Sheba, meanwhile, is very busy sexing up one of her 15-year-old students. How’s that for sordid. Very sweet girl and all that but oddly naive and weak-willed, Sheba soaks up all of Barbara’s friendship and help without realizing that she is the old cat’s next prey. Yes, Barbara was as much a friend to someone else earlier, but that’s another scandal.

Things get unbearably messy as Barbara discovers her thing with the boy amd after seething with rage cools down enough to figure out how to use the situation to get closer to Sheba. Closer and closer until she’s uncomfortably close. Sheba’s family and her way-older husband (Bill Nighy) and her mentally challenged son and bratty precosious teenage daugher, all get thrown into the mix. And the boy… yes, that’s another mess.Anyway, things absolutely explode.

Some say it gets hot and melodramatic in here. But hey, I’m an Indian. All I can say is that the performances by just about everyone, but specially Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, are superb.

What do you get when you throw into a Bollywood movie, a weak plot, a big bunch of Parsis and a total absence of songs? As it happens, you get absolute entertainment!

I hadn’t read about Little Zizou and not paid attention when they reviewed it on television, so I didn’t know what to expect. Was I glad that I just sort of went along! I was thoroughly tickled; and that’s more than I can say for most hindi movies. The film is about a little boy’s view of the people around him – all from the Parsi community. His mother died when he was born, his father is a pompous self-absorbed pig who ignores the existence of his sons, and his aunt and uncle are kind and warm but have their own troubles. And then there’s the little terror Liana, who can make his toes curl with her scowl. Stuff happens.

There are lots of familiar faces.

But none of that matters. There isn’t really a strong or unique story. What makes the movie delightful is its endearing Parsi-ness, the richness of each character, the dialogue, and the wonderful acting –if it was acting at all. It’s just one of those rare warm movies that puts a long lasting smile on your face.

Just a bunch of Parsis poking gentle fun at themselves.

What is the fuss about! For weeks all I’ve been hearing is Dev D, landmark movie hitting the silver screen and taking the world by storm. I’ve come late the party, but I’ve finally seen it and can safely say: this was a wasted two and a half hours. Phew!

This wasn’t just emotional attyachaar (torture) but audo-visual attryachaar. To sit tight and watch some complete loser get more and more pissed off with the world for no good reason was intolderable. A thoroughly dislikeable unpleasant arrogant character he was too. I can’t feel for him. I can’t feel for the silly women who chose to get mixed up with him. So what am I supposed to do throughout this film? Admire the sound mixing and camera work and casting and acting (which was pretty good)? Sorry, no can do. To top it all, there were 18 songlets to give you the impression that this story is going somewhere. Or just to keep you in your seats longer. I suspect it’s the latter.

You know how a dog shakes itself vigorously after a bath? That is exactly what I feel like doing after this movie. I want to shimmy hard enough to make sure every morsel of this experience drops off.

Continuing with my World War II watching, I picked up an old movie, Charlotte Gray, starring Kate Blanchett. The film’s got plenty of scathing criticism. BBC said Kate Blanchett sleepwalked through the film.  The NYT said it was plagued by language problems: everyone except the Germans sound English as can be, including in France and things do get a bit confusing. But I still managed to stay with and enjoy the movie. If you can call any Nazi regeime movies enjoyable!

Charlotte Gray went to a party and happened to fall in love with a handsome young pilot, Peter Gregory. Sadly, the next thing you know, his plance was shot down over France. Charlotte goes to look for him, joining the French Reisistance in a Nazi-infested France. To me, what was totally implausible was how she went about looking so very suspiscious and as BBC put it “close to tears” at all times and never got caught while everyone else around her did. She helped blow up a train looked after two Jewish kids when their parents were carted off to a concentration camp and generally got involved in various bungled up resistance activities. She certainly had her guardian angel looking out for her!

Kate Blanchett’s performance was wonderful, in my book. The confusion, distress, pain – all of it was spelt out wordnessly across her very expressive face. Despite all its imperfections, the movie held my attention through and through.

If it hadn’t been for embarassing similarities between Becky Bloomwood and me, I’d have stopped watching Confessions of a Shopaholic in five minutes flat. She’s a clueless journalist – I’m a clueless journalist. Well, media person. She shops beyond her means – I shop beyond my means. She has a green scarf – I have a green scarf. Same green, at that. We’re practically sisters!

Be that as it may, the film is a chcik-flick of the shrillest frilliest kind. If I were asked to describe it as a thing I’d say… pink fluffy hat. In fact, it reminds me a little of Legally Blonde except that blondie is more smart alecky and smart in a dumb way while our shopaholic is just plain dumb. But she knows how to look fairly distressed. And she’s pretty. Cute, as a matter of fact. But while I found Legally Blonde amusing enough, this film is tediously silly. Oh, it does have a message: don’t shop over the topo because love and friendship and so on is more important. Sad thing is, it’s being released smack in the middle of an economic depression when no one’s shopping.

I must have a strong component of whatever it is that makes human beings irresistibly drawn to horrific events. Or I must be plain sick in the head. Either way, I cannot resist World War II and Holocaust movies. My favorites, if you can call them that: The Pianist, Exodus, Escape from Sobibor, Anne Frank, Schindler’s List, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Great Escape… and more that I can’t remember offhand. Come to think of it, The Sound of Music is also from this era. That Beautiful Life movie doesn’t make it to this list. And nor does Valkyrie.

Tom Cruise, whom I’m a strict anti-fan of, makes a great Stauffenberg. The film is straightfoward and probably historically accurate. It also couldn’t have been easy because we know that none of the 42 or so attempts on Hilter’s life succeeded. More’s the pity. There’s enough intensity as a group of top German officials plan to kill Hitler using a bomb. What’s wrong with the movie, for me though, is that there isn’t enough suspense. It doesn’t have that quality that makes my mouth go dry and makes me hold my breath as I get transfixed to the screen to see what’s going to happen next. I think it needed to get us more closely involved with the people in the plot and make us care.

I have to face the fact that I enjoy some movies, even when they’re not very well made. And that goes for the melodramatic historical drama, The Other Boleyn Girl, directed by Justin Chadwick and released a whole year ago.

There’s a certain lightless quality about the whole film; a certain lack of finesse and subtlety, that makes the film a bit like “dry cabbage” as one reviewer put it. Everyone’s very good looking and acts well and I’ll bet Henry the VIIIth was never as yummy as Eric Bana and Natalie has a pretty neck. But something’s not quite there. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and was quite absorbed.

The other Boleyn Girl is Mary, Anne’s older sister. Although it was Anne who was supposed to seduce King Henry, on being encouraged by her father, he ended up apparently falling in love with Mary. There are apparently refrences to an affair in historical records. Otherwise, I’m not sure how close to true events this was. People have said that it’s grossly oversimplified. That, I can imagine.