Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Beautiful day!!!

Got up smiling... was sure it was going to be a beautiful day. Didn;t realise how prophetic I could be, especially as my office starts in the middle of the day.

Stepped out of home in to the cool weather. Walked to the bus stop, and the bus was late... of course.
Did I forget to mention that the weather in chennai is hovering at a low 110 with a humidity factor, thanks to a depression in the Bay of Bengal, of infinity. And the weather guys dare forecast rain.

By the time bus lumbered down to where we were standing I was ready to bite the driver's head off... but contented myself with a glare and sat down... *OOOWWWW* the seats were #$%$% hot. The open window was blowing in a gentle breeze... I swear I could feel the gentleness when my skin was being peeled layer by layer.

Just in case we did not realise that it was summer... There was a huge machine spewing out HOT air to welcome us right at the entrance to the office.

Came in ready to tear someone's head off... hmph! everyone here is sitting with a scowl and the same idea in their minds... In the name of cost cutting... the office had reduced the AC...
Aaargh!!!

PS: Anyone enjoying cool weather, snow etc... Pls don't tell me about it or I shall not be held responsible for my actions .. boohoo

Friday, April 25, 2008

Languages, Accents and Places

A colleague of mine and I were discussing about accents and how the places affect it. I was cribbing that I was not able to get an american accent during my tenure there and he was cribbing that even the americans at his place were now speaking in Indian Accent :-)

Which of course started me on this journey...

In my last company, the helpdesk recorded message was changed to a man's voice that gave us the different options in a Spanish accent. What an accent!!! I used to dial in sometimes, just to hear it. Music!! Of course I would probably have suffered if I had not already known what the different options were, for it was very difficult to understand him. Nevertheless...Music!


Antonio Benderas for example, I like the Italian accented English too but not French ... Kevin Kline in French Kiss, Hugh Grant and Rupert Everett's clipped British accent (hmm though I think I like the actors better than their accents :-p) ... I will ofcourse hold back further comments on the very great hope that I might actually visit these places and research... all in the name of furthering my knowledge, you understand!

I love to hear urdu mixed hindi too.. the kind you can hear in movies like Jodhaa Akbar and other old Muslim related ones. The way they caress some words and clip others, sounds so ... posh?!
The first time I went to Cochin. I was staring at everyone wondering if they were really talking or singing... but now with time and exposure I seem to have lost the music in that language... :-(

Speaking as a perfect novice who does not understand a word of the language, the first time I heard Konkani was at a function. This old gentleman was "scolding" my friend for a long time and I was wondering how she could smile at him all through it. It was later I was told that he was actually blessing her in Konkani :-)

Oye theenk oye weel finis ze post heere ;-)

Power of Mom

God Knows I have faced many situations in life and not been nervous but I have no armour against the "Power of Mom".

I don't remember my mom ever scolding me, even when I used to get caught after doing some mischief, nevertheless her glance and the thought I might have disappointed her was enough to make me squirm. (not that it stopped me, when it was time for the next mischief)

Its funny how even now, as soon as my mom calls me by my full name and says she wants to talk to me, I start quailing.

I rapidly go through the last few days trying to find any mistake I may have done, what could mom have found ???? and start getting nervous :-p

Ofcourse most times she just wants to talk to me about something innocuous.
Guess this is one piece of my childhood that is never going to vanish.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Asianet's Idea star singer 2007 - :-(

A really big but expected disappointment for all the viewers of Asianet channel's Idea star singer reality show when the results for its mega finals was announced.

I have always wondered why a marked partiality was shown to the one mediocre singer who won the show when many really great singers were pushed out during the eliminations under one guise or another.
I am still not sure what could have initiated the three masters in the music industry to consistently give high marks to a most undeserving candidate, despite people's disgust. Because sure as hell, it was not his singing capabilities.

There was even a furor sometime back in Kerala about this one guy being consistently shown up by the judges and rumours going around that the judges have already decided that he would be winning the 40 Lakhs worth of flats, which was the prize for the first place . The three permanent judges, naturally, vehemently denied any such claims.

This was a person who should not even have come as far as the semi finals and now he seems to have won the show... all due to extreme partiality from the judges. While the best singer came up at the 4 position, the third and second position were taken up by extremely good singers... its just the first place that grates on my, and every viewer I know's, nerves. After patiently having followed it for one whole year.. I really dont think we and ofcourse the contestants, deserve to see this end.

The one good news I hear is that while most of the talented singers have been booked by music directors, no one seems to have booked this guy to sing in their movies. Sounds catty , sure, but it is good to be vindicated.

The 2008 star singer starts from April 28. Here's hoping this one is not going to be as much of a disappointment as 2007. :-(
PS: Its almost 1 AM and I am still so pissed that I cant sleep... grrrrr

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

मैं शायर तो नहीं...

अर्ज़ किया है ...
आपकी मुस्कुराहट ने हमे बेहोश कर दिया
आपकी मुस्कुराहट ने हमे बेहोश कर दिया
हम होश में आने ही वाले थे
की अपने फ़िर से मुस्कुरा दिया
====
कोई पत्थर से न मारो मेरे दीवाने को
बंदूक और बम का ज़माना है
उड़ा दो साले को :-)
====
वक्त गुज़रता रहा, पर साँसे थमी सी थी
मुस्कुरा रहे थे हम, पर आंखों में नमी सी थी
साथ हमारे ये जहाँ था सारा, पर न जाने क्यों
तुम्हारी कमी सी थी
====
तुम्हारी इस अदा का क्या जवाब दूँ ,
अपने दोस्त को क्या उपहार दूँ ,
कोई अच्छा सा फूल होता तो,
माली से ले आते
जो ख़ुद गुलाब हो उसको क्या गुलाब दे !
====
तुम बनके दोस्त एसे आए ज़िंदगी में
के हम ये ज़माना भूल गए
तुम्हे याद न आए हमारी कभी, और हम!
हम तो तुम्हे भूलना ही भूल गए

====
ज़िंदगी में हमेशा नए लोग आएंगे
कहीं पे ज़्यादा तो कहीं पे कम मिलेंगे
एतबार ज़रा सोच के करना
मुमकिन नहीं हर जगह तुम्हे
हम मिलेंगे :-)

Monday, April 14, 2008

My Ramblings

=> Just when you think you know everything, someone comes along to hit you upside your head and show stuff that you didn't know. Quite a humbling experience :-p
=> Read Aamir Khan's blogs, it was a bit too much like reading his diary, but he writes well and sounds pretty down to earth. (http://www.aamirkhan.com/) I know it should be none of my business, but he sure lost his shine after his divorce :-( )

=> Am waiting for the Hindi version of Ghajini... Aamir promises a different end to it. I found the tamil ending quite stoopid.

=> Dontcha just hate it when miracles are expected of you and they dont teach u any magic. *Phew* Talk about pressure.

=> A long lost friend from school popped up in messenger. Here I was feeling whinny about all the pressures in my life and there she was cheerful about her life, which consisted of having to stop studies to marry and move to a strange, war stricken country and raise two kids, while trying to convince a husband to atleast let her get a part time job. Sure put things in the right perspective for me.

=> History lesson or a 4 hour bore, I still loved Jodhaa Akbar *phew got to see it atlast. Maybe because of Birbal stories but Akbar has been one of my favourite characters from History. But Hrithik gave a whole new face to him. My favourite scene was where he tells Jodhaa that he never learnt to read. Dunno why but it touched me... and sent me on a flurry to find if it was true... (No, I still don't know)

Magic Fairy Tales

Every one of us have grown up hearing and loving the tales about Magic and Fairies. If not the ones about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, then the tales from Panchatantra or about dragons and Knights of Romanian Legends. As a child my aunt used to tell me the story of the three little pigs and about "Huffing and puffing and blowing the house down". I remember getting frightened for the pigs everytime the wolf huffed and puffed, even when I knew the end of the story. Later when I discovered the world of words, I got an old fairy tales book, which would send me dreaming about kicking the dragon's butt and swimming with Ariel. The tales from Panchatantra from my granny was a source of great entertainment too.

I still Love the Fairy tales but now they always make me just that little bit sad.
Do you know that the Grimms Fairy Tales and the Panchatantra and the 1001 Stories of Scherezade and all the children's stories of yore are stories for adults and mostly have sad endings. :-(

Little Mermaid was my most favourite story from childhood, when Ariel and her Prince live happily ever after, it used to give me great satisfaction. But the original version of the Grimm's Fairy Tales ends with the Prince falling in love with another princess, and Ariel commiting suicide.

In the Three little Pigs, the first two pigs are killed by the big bad wolf, before it is killed by the clever third pig.
While I rue my lost innocence in having read the original versions and knowing the sad endings too, it makes me happy to see that the pessimistic views of the original authors have changed to make the stories so much more joyful for the children of today.

PS: Was seeing Shrek yesterday, all the three parts. Wow! its so cool...I loved every minute of it.,despite seeing it god knows how many times... :-)

Friday, April 04, 2008

MuRdErEr!!!!

I hear the language screaming "Murderer!!!" whenever I hear some of the new tamil songs.
Was travelling in the Cab to office today when there was this song in Radio. Gosh! I was cringing with every line the guy was singing. He was mispronouncing at least couple of words in every line...Consistently. He was tamil guy at that. I am not sure if this massacre was because he could not pronounce it right or he thought he was being stylish. The end result was extremely hard on my ears.

Asha Bhonsle or Sukhwinder Singh have the license to mispronounce the words and it can be considered funny. But its a sad state fate affairs when a person can't speak their own mother tongue right.
This is not a curse that only Tamil bears... It seems to have contaminated most of the other ones too.

On the positive note it made me realize how good an "Unmassacred" songs sounds... sigh!!!