Around the world and a few taxi rides - 1

This trip was special as we were traveling to set Sibi up for his UG admission in Provo, Utah. It just happened that I have to go to the East coast as well and so I booked individual tickets around which ended up with me rounding the Earth once.

I've done this rounding multiple times and in today's world, they are nothing special. Everyone does it. To me, the purpose of the trip and the all around sub-par flight experience made sure that I write about it. I have to vent my frustration at two of the leading airlines somewhere.

So, here goes.

The first leg of the trip was to Salt Lake City and we chose to fly Cathay Pacific to the West coast. This is a route I've not done in a long time as my business trips become more common to the East coast and the days of our living the West were long past. So it was a little excitement to book this one.

I booked the tickets at least 3 months before our August 26 date and then started watching the #AntiELAB protests unfold in Hong Kong sometime in June. The everyday protest against the repressive bills introduced by the mainland government was by far the longest running and powerful demonstration of the people of Hong Kong people's will against the China regime. I started following Zeynep to get updates on a regular basis and was fascinated by the amazing resilience of the protesters and some of the iconic imaging from the protests. I have no idea how this will end and how to define 'end' here but what I know is that it is inspiring to see the people on the streets fighting against the power.

 Eugène Delacroix's painting from French Revolution?

Around the end of July, the protests have moved into Hong Kong International Airport. There were sit-ins, cancellations of flights and all, so now the protests are becoming something of a personal matter. Though I'd a month to travel, I was starting to think whether I should be making alternate arrangements. Though I felt a little selfish, I also felt that may be re-booking through Singapore or elsewhere is a way to show my support, in a small way. As the protests escalated and the protesters were pushed out of the terminals, it felt a little anti-climatic. I would've loved to be landing in the middle of the protests.

So, though Cathay flights were cancelled from Chennai for a day of so in August, they kept flying and so decided to go on with the same booking.

MAA - HKG (CX 632)

I sleep through most of my flights. That's one way to avoid the fear of flying. Eat, sleep or watch a movie is always my plan to get through these long, boring flights. And I did exactly the same thing as soon as I boarded the plane. 

However, I woke up when the ride got very choppy and I saw that there were some souls sleeping through it and some who got up because of the sudden shaking of the plane. I looked up the map and were over the Andaman Sea - where the weather is always choppy and there were lightnings outside the window.

The service was average and there were no announcements on the weather outside and though I asked for coffee twice, there was no response. I finally went to the galley and get the coffee. The weather cleared as we moved inland and I went back to sleep - but it was short and got up as we were over the South China sea. The only entertainment at this point was to watch this Air Asia plane fly along with us for sometime and we landed in HKIA.

HKG - LAX (CX 884)

Expecting a protest ridden airport, we were surprised to see a squeaky clean airport with no sign of any protests. We had a short connection. So just waited in the gate for our plane to arrive.

CX 884

CX 884 has some interesting history. So, it was with an expectation that I was looking forward to it. And 77W is another interesting plane. However, this one though looking beautiful from outside, had a horrible seat configuration with Cathay trying to pack as many people as possible like so much as sardines in a can.

What makes that worse is the service - which was pretty much non-existent. The guy next to me was a vegetarian and he was given consistently a non-vegetarian meal every time. He kept complaining and it was astonishing that they never corrected it. In fact, they gave a vegetarian pasta as a replacement meal along with a beef salad. The guy was aghast and returned the meal and just had an apple.

I slept the entire way and got up around the time we were in California air space. We got out fast and cleared the immigration quick and went to the American terminal for our connection to Salt Lake City.

LAX - SLC (AA 3024)

The wait in the American terminal was horrendous with us trying to get away fast so that we can get a good sleep and the wait for the plane was unbelievably long.

The regional flight was a small one with a lot of students in it - most of them going for the same reason as us- and we ended up in different seats.

The lady next to me was coming from North Carolina to visit her sister and spend the winter in Salt Lake City. She just recovered from surgery and so it was more of a rest for her. She kept asking so many questions and the 1.5 hour over the beautiful mountains of the west and the arid landscape with huge canyons and rivers. That it was a evening flight with a beautiful sun set in progress was an added incentive.

As we land in Salt Lake City, it was dark and we were so tired that we wanted to get to the hotel. I am usually chatty with the Lyft drivers. However, after an initial hello, I slept through the one hour ride to the hotel.

We check-in and enter the room to find that we've missed Sibi's laptop bag - with a new Dell 2-in-1 - in the car.

Sibi starts college - 2

There is an extensive support system available in the country for those who chose to pursue studies abroad. We extensively did a lot of research ourselves but also validated and took advise from a group of these institutions which helped in making decisions at various stages.

One of the very first thing we did was to attend the events organized by IDP in various places in the city. They are good because they give a chance to meet with the university representatives (not necessarily the ones we chose to apply - but still it gives a general idea of what to expect). IDP is also one of the institutes authorized to conduct IELTS in India (the other being the British council) and so they help out on the preparations for IELTS as well as in understanding the admission requirements etc of the universities.

The other entity we relied on was USIEF. They organize fairs and have tons of material to understand the application and admission process. They have a center in the US embassy in Chennai and they engage heavily through social media as well.

Once we finalized the universities, started following the university social media handles as well - this is needed as a lot of reminders on the dates and other important updates are posted consistently. All the universities that we were checking on had a very active social media presence. Some, like Memorial University in Canada, send their admission officers independently to India and unless you follow them in Twitter, you may never get to know of this.

Overall, I found the entire application process to be very stressful. Even with all the preparations, the requirements for each university was different - some wanted the transcripts notorized, some to upload, some to send a copy by mail, some to get it evaluated with a third party educational consultant (which costs a bomb!) - all these within the 12 unis we chose to apply. Teacher recommendation letters had similar combinations as well. Added to this, sending the original 10th mark sheets (later, 11th and 12th as well) by mail to IERF for evaluation and and getting it back by mail without losing it, adds to shatter whatever fragile peace of mind that is left.

I should thank the entire teaching staff of AMM School and the principal Mrs. Mahalakshmi - for their continuous support during the entire process to provide the recommendation letters on paper or typing that in the system for some applications and all in between. Their patience to take in every request and process them within the short time frame every time is not something that every school administration does.

And BYU had an additional requirement to have an interview done with the LDS Church officials followed by a phone interview with the Bishop in Salt Lake city as well. The entire leadership team at the LDS church in Chennai - especially the president, Prince Jayakaran,  were very helpful in completing the recommendations (after much challenges in the system) and also in the days afterward in terms of connecting us with the other students in the university. The whole process would've fallen to pieces without their timely assistance.

All this was approximately from October - December 15, 2018 when most of the application deadlines were. While we tried to keep Sibi's involvement minimal, it was not possible as he has to write the essays, following on recommendation letters at school and be generally involved.

However, it was a relief to have submitted the application for all the universities that we wanted to apply. BYU had one extension to December 18 for submission and we submitted on December 18 evening (thanks to some last minute push by J).

After that, it is time to wait for the results and at times, additional requests for information on submitted documents. These requests came in from almost all the universities for us and we kept responding to be on time.

If the application process for stressful, waiting for the decisions to come in was super stressful. Iowa State was the first one to send the acceptance (they have a mandate to accept everyone, so its not a great secret!).

Then came the acceptance from Memorial University - our first choice in Canada. That kept the backup plan on a strong place and so we were pretty certain that some more are going to come through. By January, we had acceptance from Iowa State, Memorial, Calgary, Saskatchewan, BYU - Idaho and an admittance to the PSA program in TAMU. TAMU was a disappointment as we were expecting a direct admittance and not through PSA.

SUNY applications were rejected as they were not 'complete' with supporting documentation - we never really found out what was missing as the common application system hands over the control to the universities at some point and they just update the status and getting a clear understanding of what went wrong was not possible (for us at least!).

Finally the acceptance letter from BYU came through on Feb 16, 2019. At that point, we know that the process is complete for us. 

Sibi starts college - 1

Sibi is starting college this week. In USA. At Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

None of the sentences are as difficult to type in as the above ones. It means Sibi is going to start his life and is going to own up a large chunk of his life from this point onwards. It will be something we will have to deal with in the coming months - getting used to his absence at home. And that is going to be very difficult.

But I started writing this not to mope but to explain the super-exciting, roller-coaster ride of the lifetime we've had till he had his acceptance letters coming in starting Feb 2019.

It has always been our intention to send him back to US for his college. No special reasons except that the college environment is more conducive for someone of Sibi's temperament and that I wanted him to avoid the stale university environment in India.

That leaves out Sibi's wishes as to where he wants to study. So we've always kept that option open - in case, he decided to be in India for his studies, we didn't want to stop him from that as well. So he did his 3 year FIITJEE and hated it - so he dropped out of it by the time he finished his 10th. Anyway, he didn't want to focus on IITs or NITs.

He went on a trip to UK in 2017 - during his 10th holidays - all alone and loved it. He spent a month with my brother but managed to roam around solo to so many places, he became comfortable with the whole environment.

That and the fact that we've always asked him to focus on going to US for his studies mean that by the time he started his 11th, we started the process of getting him to US for his under graduate degree.

We targeted Dec 2017 as the time for his first attempt for SAT and decided that he will take it by self-study and nothing more. I got his these wonderful preparation books from The College Panda by Nielson Phu and I actually spent sometime studying those and I can say (Sibi agrees!) that they are much better than any of the other books out there.

By this time, Sibi has decided to do Mathematics and while we asked him to consider some other options as well, he declined and so we now started looking for colleges all around the world. We started with the first excel sheet of all the colleges/universities which are of interest. We also included details like entry criteria, tuition and other expenses and importantly, how the college fares in the various rankings published.

By this time, SAT was completed with an above average score. We had no idea what the score means and we wanted to decide on some universities and then decide whether there needs to be a re-write. The focus shifted to IELTS (which is a requirement for the Canadian universities) and targeted to complete that by May 2018.

After a few iterations of the college list over a few months, we ended up deciding to focus on US and Canada. And decided to focus on the universities in places I am familiar with so that I will have a way to evaluate during my trips to US. So, that ended up with the states of NY, CA and a few in the Midwest.

One of the universities I know of was the BYU - due to my trips to Lehi, UT and I started looking into the aspects of the university as well. The other universities which we wanted to focus were the SUNY, Albany and Buffalo, Iowa, TAMU, Memorial University and UNB in Canada. We added a few more later as well based on recommendations.

Selecting a group of colleges to apply to can be traumatizing. There is always a better college you chose to bypass and there is always someone who points that out. But after agonizing over a few times, you make your peace with that. For Sibi, thankfully, he was focused on Memorial and BYU - Provo and the rest were all back up options. However, we felt it important to chose the universities early so that there is a better chance of getting acceptance.

Sibi was in 12th standard by this time and we didn't want to disturb him very much. Meanwhile, I have to learn about FAFSA and a whole lot of details about Foreign Tax returns and Federal conversion rates and had a lot of misgivings about what I understood versus what was expected.

The applications for the Fall semester open approximately one year before for most universities and most close within a 8-10 weeks time frame. And that is not a lot of time if one is applying for multiple universities as the application demands of each university varies. The transcripts from Ninth standard to Eleventh standard, multiple recommendation letters, a whole lot of essays, the extra curricular activity lists and details with even dates , the scholarship application that need to be submitted simultaneously and the essays for that - the list is endless.

We did end up submitting about 10 applications for 12 universities (SUNY and Texas had a common application system for multiple universities). Sibi wrote about 10+ essays on various topics and write-ups on activities and other related questions. He wrote an equal number of essays for the scholarship applications in multiple universities. That puts an added strain to kids in the middle of the 12th standard.

Theppakulam

Theppakulam  (தெப்பக்குளம்) - literally meaning ‘raft in the pond’ - is kind of a misnomer for the place. For I know that the place gets water only for a few days in February for the Theppam festival- in which the goddess Meenakshi floats in a raft along with her consort.

I grew up in an area called Pankajam colony just off the Theppakulam and so the place holds a lot of memories for me. Of course, though the second largest city in Tamil Nadu (debatable as I think both Trichy and Coimbatore are larger), by the standards of metro cities, you can literally live anywhere in the city and feel close to any landmarks.

Madurai still has a rural heart which I believe is something that cannot be taken away. I still remember farmers in bullock carts coming to sell paddy everyday in the middle of the city during school days - little has changed since then. The entire manufacturing and services revolution which transformed Coimbatore and Trichy , bypassed Madurai entirely. That’s for another day.

Theppakulam

It’s been a long time since I’ve walked around the place and so thought why not write about the place and reminisce a little?

Theppakulam was dug in the 17th century by the Nayak rulers and when we grew up, suppose to be point where Madurai proper ended. The last stop of the ubiquitous no.4 town bus service for so long , we use to look at that lonely easterly road towards Viraganur with dread.

It is in these lonely roads around here I learnt to ride a bicycle. Being the lazy guy I was (and still is), my mom used to wake me up around 5-6am and force me to do 2-3 rounds cycling around here. Measuring about a kilometre in length each side, the rides used to be so tiring and boring of course.

So she forced my cousins to take me with them for their weekend cricket matches in Theppakulam and they used to be bewildered by my skills in ball handling that there use to be heated arguments around whose team I should be in. However it is in one of those matches in this barren pond that I took a catch at point which still remains my peak athletic achievement.

That Madurai has changed now. While the Meenakshi temple has become such a touristy place that I think the locals pretty much stopped going to the temple except on festival days, Theppakulam still remains a local haunt but the quietness of the place is now replaced with a buzzing entertainment sense with road side shops and hundreds of people hanging around and inside the tank.

Muktheeswarar Temple

I took a walk around the tank just like the old days. The air was cool and the place was lively and so starts with the very quiet Muktheeswarar temple in the west side of the tank. This used to be a quiet temple and thankfully remains so even now.

The boats

Found a few boats which used to ply the pond in the school nearby. In my entire life, I have seen boats in the pond only once and so not sure what they were doing here.

The road into the city

As one walks towards the northern side of the tank, the road that goes towards the city diverges. For some reason unknown to me, a lot of marriage halls are around in this area and so the place looks lively with music and girls decked up during the marriage season.

Noticed a factory outlet shop of VS Chellam - this is a local soap brand which sells detergents and others manufactured in Madurai. I remember their hand-made soap factory we visited as part of a school tour and the smell of soap that was hanging in the air all around.

The Paper Roast at Sabarees

Had a paper roast at Sabaree's which is also here - a vegetarian restaurant which serves some yummy stuff. And if you are lucky, you can see some young nuns from the Nirmala convent nearby and on school days, watching the nuns and the girls from the school used to be a favorite pastime for us - we lived in a street just opposite to the convent and so most of my school mates use to hang around our gates till the school empties everyday.

Thiagarajar College

Moving towards the Theppakulam Mariyamman temple, you can see the college which produced so many Dravidian stalwarts - old and prestigious, the Thiagarajar college has so much of history buried in its grounds.

Mariamman Temple

Next off is the Mariamman temple. Madurai is a city where there is a festival at one of its temples on any given day. So I watched as a long line of girls - young and old - carrying mulaipaari , the traditional germination and sprouting of seeds done during the Tamil month of Aadi - singing some songs and a few older men directing them to the temple.

Mulaipari

Kamaraj Hall and the road to the second bridge

Moving towards the eastern side of the tank, the corner has the Kamaraj hall and the second bridge across Vaigai connecting this part to the Anna Nagar area on the 'other' bank of Vaigai. Madurai people always think of the 'other' bank of Madurai as some external entity and considered only 'this' bank which has the Meenakshi temple as Madurai proper and the 'other' bank used to be some outside entity.

Maruthu brothers

The eastern side of the tank has the large statue of the Maruthu brothers - now floodlighted and prominent with the road to Viraganoor going beyond it. The Theppakulam police station lies a little further.

The Eastern side of the tank has the 'notorious' Model school - where most of my periappas and chittappas (uncles) learnt to fail exams and in the process were part of some of the legendary stories in the family. - with the most famous one being, one periappa and a few chittappas (including cousins), having managed to write the 10th standard exam in the same year, goes to the school to check the results. Having waited all morning for the kids to return from school, my grandma and grandpa goes into panic thinking they should've run away or worse, after seeing the results and initiate a frantic search across neighbors and friends houses. All the kids return by evening. All of them failed the exams and decided to go watch 'Iruvar Ullam' in Chintamani theater to tide over the grief and ended up on the wrong side of the broom that day at home.

Fireworks across the sky

Having completed the round, there was nothing for me but to sit on a side of the tank and watch the fireworks happening in one of the marriage halls and feeling a sense of lightness not experienced anywhere in the world.

There is absolutely no place like Madurai..

Stepping out of the car..

One of the things I've been enjoying as the kids grow up is to discuss issues with them. It is a lot of fun to make them think through to figure out what is right and what is wrong and decide on which side of the political spectrum they want to be in.

It was gentrification of cities we talked about last week. We were driving through the city and were talking about the cost of rent versus the property prices in the city. The discussion started as we drove along the rubble of the encroached houses and shops around the MRTS station in Velachery. Most of the people who rented/built the structures were lower wage earners and I was explaining how the fish stalls there were initially moved from Vijaya nagar and are again being now moved out of Velachery itself.

I started explaining how the high rent and property prices in the area are being kept at their level to slowly push the lesser fortunate to move outside the city and how it impacts their livelihood by increasing transportation costs. Initially they were skeptical as to how to avoid such scenarios. I explained a little of the rent-control laws in NYC and other cities which help keep all strata society to be able to afford housing in the city. And how having no such protection here is favoring the greediness of the people and leaving the lower wagers and the poor to be excluded. We argued and the common misconceptions of equating cleanliness with hiding the poor was cited and we talked about how hiding the poor is not a solution but rather  generating more wealth across the society is a possible solution.

The discussion ended as we reached home. I am sure they will form their own opinions and arguments etc on the issues and the most important thing for me is to make sure that they realize that these are issues that affect people around them and if not empathetic, it is important at least to be sympathetic to that.

While Vanathy reads a lot of fiction, Sibi reads the newspaper everyday - not just the sports section but every page of it. And I think that has helped him to form his opinions on everything - I don't necessarily discuss everything with him, but when we come across some issue, he always expresses what he thinks and why. I get that the opinions that I had when I was 17 were drastically different from what I've today and so it is interesting to see the way his thought process evolves.

Vanathy needs a constant reminder to read 'up' on books and not get bogged down by the YA alone. So I keep recommending her books to read - sometimes she does and mostly she just parks it for 'future' reading. One book which she found interesting and I thought added a lot of value is this one.

Not necessarily a political book but is a powerful reminder for her on what can be achieved if you focus on what you want to do and a lot of examples of that.

Me and Vanathy were watching the 'Family Reunion' in Netflix yesterday and it was the episode where the police officers hold the black kids as suspicious 'men' and I was telling her how the racial equations are skewed in US and it is not always the rose-tinted world that she imagines it to be. When the pictures of kids shot by the officers started rolling off, I asked her to look up on Malcolm X and read a bit about the civil rights movement. Talked a little about the challenges of being black or brown in US and some of the racial tensions that still exist.

And the most important thing that I am still teaching them is to be able to look at issues for what they are rather than with a prejudiced view of an ignoramus. The whatsapp story clubs and the faux nationalistic ideologies have skewed the views so much that the comprehension of issues or a discussion on that has become virtually impossible with people equating whatabouttery as discussion. I want them to understand that and identify when that happens.

To me, it is important that they start learning about some of these real issues in the real world and be able to form an opinion and do their part. I grew up in a poor household and so was naturally inclined to try to understand the inequalities around me - helping me to form my political opinions. It is not the same for them. Seeing the world through a car window makes one insulated from the reality outside and only results in seeing the lesser fortunate as expendable without having any understanding of the issues.

If my kids somehow manage to step out of that car and be able to sympathize with causes and people, I may be able to call myself a good parent.

Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This completes the reading of all three of Ron Chernow's political biographies and I will surely miss his writing style - more of interesting narrative story-telling than the dry stating of facts. That said, reading this one took me three months - more because of the tardiness I developed towards reading than anything - I am still plodding through another biography of Pitt the Younger.

I came across Alexander Hamilton from reading Gore Vidal's 'Burr' about 13-14 years back. I've read about him a bit at a time and more as a side actor in the lives of Washington, Adams and Jefferson. So, I have to admit that I started this book with a lot of misgivings.

But I was glad that I took it up. I have read about Hamilton's setting up of the Bank of America and the financial institutions that built up the country, but not in this details. The story of a West Indian orphan making it into the bank notes of America is not just a remarkable story to read, it is inspiring as well.

Chernow goes into a lot of details about the early life of Hamilton in the slavery-ridden islands of the Caribbean and establishes a lot of context for the actions of Hamilton in the later parts of his public life. That also gives some context to some of his actions which seem inexplicable and sometimes, utterly self-destructing.

Hamilton comes out as a flawed genius - made his mark as the guy who created the Federal government as we know it today and then had to recede from politics with the rise of Jefferson and his party in the later days. His achievements in ensuring the finances of his country and in creating the institutions that sustain it are testimonial to his genius but the fact that politics never gave him another opportunity to influence the country's finances or anything is also sad.

He is also flawed because of the numerous mis-steps he make in his political career and which ultimately puts him outside the power corridor with the passing of George Washington. A lot of it can be attributed to his early days and the difficult path he has to take to reach the pinnacle of success. But that only is part of the story and a lot more can be said about the fatal flaws in the man's character itself which Chernow explores and at times, glosses over.

A biographer's job is difficult and he has to ensure that he is true to his subject. Chernow ,at times, gets enamored by his subject and starts passing judgement on his political opponents as if they were his own. Especially the rivalry between Hamilton and Jefferson need to be looked at in the context of the days and think both had the right intentions but developed different ways to attain it. Calling Jefferson's politics as Mobocracy only discredits the author and disservices the subject he has taken to defend.

The politics of the day - with Adams Vs Hamilton or Jefferson Vs Hamilton - was played dirty even by any other standards. Libelous writings were the norms of the day and the caricatures and the character assassinations through surrogate writers were shocking to modern sensibilities used to the fake news forwards in Whatsapp.

The Maria Reynolds affair is one at hand. Hamilton's affair with this lady is bad enough but the way it was hushed up - through black mails and gentlemen's honor etc only makes it worse. When there were anonymous writing (instigated by Jefferson, apparently) starts appearing in press, Hamilton responds by writing a salacious pamphlet of tens of pages accepting the same and putting every detail in paper. I couldn't comprehend the reason why he did it and apparently Chernow tries to find reasons which are too complex anyway.

"I heal all wounds but those which love hath made."- Hamilton

Eliza Hamilton and her relationship with Alexander comes out as more complex. He keeps putting her through impossible situations - like the Maria Reynolds affair or the later political turmoils in New York - and we do not have many documents or letters expressing how she felt about those and but going by her fierce loyalty to Hamilton's memory after his death, think she forgave him in most instances or her love was such that she was able see past his faults.

Finally, the Burr episode - which ends with the killing of Hamilton - is although understandable, is inexplicable. The whole episode escalates too fast and it is incredible that there is no one who try to deescalate the same thing and Hamilton, father of 8 children, is killed in the ensuing duel for some trifling reason - an apology would've been suffice. The gentlemen's code of honor and conduct of those days in at times irritatingly idiotic (although I say it with the full benefit of hindsight).

Over all, it is a very long book and I enjoyed it as most of the characters and the events of the period were of immense interest to me.

Spider-man: Far from home - Not a Review

While watching the movie - 'Spider-man: Far from home' - over the weekend, I was thinking of the way the entire 'Avengers' series has changed the childhood of my kids. I mean, we were all excited the moment the movie opened with the tribute to the dead Avengers (excited as in like J whistling like no tomorrow, the moment Robert Downey Jr. is shown!).

We remember childhood with specific instances of special moments and I was wondering how these moments are being shaped by these movies. I remember vividly the visits to the only comics shop in Sivakasi - along with my grandfather - and buy in bulk.

Whereas Sibi and Vanathy will remember the times we watched these movies in the first weekends and the endless discussions on the origins and thereafters of the characters ,the infinite pop-culture references and Easter eggs in these movies. And how the movies differ from the books and all. These movies have become part of the childhood of so many kids around, including mine.

In fact, we were watching 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' over the weekend and both Sibi and I were surprised to see the (fictional) Ezekiel 25:17 quote from 'The Pulp Fiction' in Nick Fury's grave scene.

Of course, MJ Kisses an upside down Spidey!!

Be that as it may be, Spider Man remains a favorite comic character from the days of the book buying from Sivakasi. The books tick everything needed for a wholesome comic character - an unknown super power, a closed one's death, an unrequited love - Spider man goes through all of that by that he finishes high school. And the love angle with MJ is the kind of romance I get reeled in. So even before setting the foot in the theater, I was determined to 'not hate' it.

The challenge is that the first part 'Spider Man -Homecoming' never felt like a complete movie - it felt more like a continuation of the Avengers. Whereas 'Far from Home' feels like a walk away from the Avengers path and more of how Spidey explores the world by himself.

The entire Avengers series - starting with 'Iron Man' about 10 years ago - is all about exploring our fantasies at some level and also about the mindless excitement of watching some of our (read, my) childhood heroes come alive on big screens. The added incentive is that almost all of these movies are well-made and have the right people for the characters albeit the contrived stories may seem a little predictable. However, if you are ever interested in reading comics, you would've figured that anyway.

I still read a lot of comics - both in English and Tamil - not just the ones that become movies but a lot of those never get made into any other visual medium. So, watching the MCU movies makes me wonder about some of these fantastic heroes - Tex Willer or Night Eagle or Modesty Blaise - and the Phantom (who had a badly made movie!) and whether there will ever be movies around them.