Me thinks....

Dakshina Chitra

2012-01-30T18:41:00.000+05:30

If you have not been to this place, you better go and soon. Its about 45 minutes from Chennai on the ECR.
Very nominal entry fee and a great place to spend a day or so.
As the name suggests Dakshina Chitra is an embodiment of all kinds of art from the south of India (There are separate sections for the 4 south indian states).

From Architecture to Weaving to Pottery to block and pot painting to Mehendi, every kind of art and crafts is represented. They even teach pottery, weaving, block painting, pot painting and a lot of other interesting stuff. You can get your hand read (Palmistry) or stain it with Mehendi (I am still sulking coz Mom's mehendi has stained so much darker than mine and she has not done a darned thing, while I have been rubbing my palms with coconut oil :-( ). There are special shows such as puppet shows, folk dances (based on the season and the artists available, I guess. We were able to see a special kind of folk dance from Karnataka called the Yojna Dance)
Cute hand made violins, bows and arrows, marble statues, jewelry, silk paintings, wood carvings, tapestries are all available for sale too.
Here is a very very small sample of the places to see in DC

Tamil Nadu

Ornate entrance to the Chettiyar house

The Thinnai and mutham as seen from the entrance of the same Chettiyar house

The Mehendi Lady convinced me to get it done at the first house we visited instead of the last one, as we originally planned

Ladies playing Pallanguzhi.

Inside the Cloth Weaver's house

An actual weaving machine from Sundari Silks ( the weavers had gone for lunch). They are weaving a silk sari, the Pallu alone takes about 15-20 days and the whole sari takes 1.5 months to weave.

Kerala:

The outside view of a Kerala Syrian Christian house

An example of traditional kerala cloth mural

A traditional wall mural

Karnataka:

A Lambani mannequin and a tapestry woven by them

A Lambani residence (They are building traditional houses from Chikmagallur and a couple of more places)

Andhra Pradesh:

The Famous Cheriyal dolls in the prayer room of an Andhra weaver's house

Finished products after the weaving, Andhra Style (not that I would know the difference). We were able to see the actual weaving for this one.

The things my life revolves around....

2012-01-27T22:07:00.001+05:30

My extended family and I had some great plans for tomorrow.

It was something that was planned for a whole week by me and I had convinced every one to make their calendars free so that we could enjoy the day out.
You need to be around my family to know what a difficult proposition that is.

So anyways all was set and we got our things ready and what not, when the phone rang!
Apparently this very important gentleman was planning to come to our locality tomorrow and if we were available tomorrow he would come home, else he could not promise any other dates in the near future.

Since the gentleman's schedule was rather packed, we have been strictly told to reschedule our plans for another convenient date. I realized then, the things that my life accommodates and revolves around :-P

The gentleman is coming from http://kuppathotti.com/ to buy our trash, and apparently we have over 3 months worth of old newspapers and milk covers collected at home.

I am hurt - 2

2012-01-27T12:35:00.000+05:30

I was not sure if I wanted to put up this post and the one before this, coz while I like to grumble and rant, I generally do not pen feelings close to my heart.

I read recently an interview with Sonam Kapoor about her tough weight loss regimen before she was cast for her first movie and how even her father used to tease her with nick names.

Having been a plump person most of my life, I know what she went through. Some how fat people are expected to take nick names and sly words easily and not get hurt.

When my friend's boy friend used some nick name for me and she told me about it, I was hurt and asked her if she did not defend me and she flippantly replied that every one else teases you and calls you by names, so why should my boy friend not do so.

I am sure if my friend knew how much I hurt by her repeated callousness, she would be shocked. Why? because she thought she was being funny.

But she was not alone. How many cutting comments from colleagues and friends too? They never realized that their wittiness was causing a person to lose her/his self confidence and was making them self conscious. (Some times I think humans are the cruelest creatures on earth)

I recently met a lady who was on the fat side and she was making many jokes about herself during our conversation. I could empathize with what she was doing. She was joking about her plumpness before someone else commented on it, this way she could be kinder to herself.

I would have been happy enough being plump, as long as I was healthy. Personally I did not have any issues with my body. But the peer pressure was soooo huge to slim down, that I think most of my teenage years were spent obsessing over one diet after another.

Funnily enough, once I stopped obsessing I started losing weight.

But the good thing that came out of it (I would like to think that I would be this way even if had had a svelte figure :-) ) is that I hate jokes on physical attributes of any person.

I am hurt

2012-01-27T12:32:00.000+05:30

It must be great to be born/nurtured to have such a firm belief in one's superiority and rightness. Or in the case of women to have a firm belief in, if not one's inferiority, at least the superiority of their partners.

Being a woman and falling in the former bracket, I end up wincing, getting irritated, hurt and/or downright angry a lot of times. When I ask questions they are not able to answer, I get the answer that I don't understand or that I am just getting emotional (grrrr!)

I have recently had a few conversations and heard/read some news which have been like a thorn under my skin. I am sure there are a few people out there who read my blog and I would love to get your opinion

1. Do you think that women are less logical than men (I am still angry and very hurt about this one, as I am not sure this was told to me in jest)
2. Do you think that a woman has to agree to marry the first guy who says "yes"? (This was told to me by a very close, young, married female relative and left me reeling. After all the astrologer has said its a good match and a girl actually thinking she needs a choice? Atrocious! She was so angry with me)
3. Do you agree with the Andhra DGP Reddy ? Are women's dresses the reason for their getting raped?
4. Do you think being a woman means she has to love cooking and cleaning and wiping her husband's a$$
5. Do you believe women should know their place and act/dress accordingly because men have (uncontrollable) urges and they will act on it unless women take care and don't entice them?
6. Are you a neanderthal who instead of feeling pride at their achievement, actually feels that women will bring down the Indian army?
7. Are you really amused when you read about the troubles faced by women across the world?

How many times have I seen an indulgent smile and been told to not take "it" so seriously coz "boys will be boys"? How many times have I been subtly advised to wear a stole with my jeans or to wear a higher neck or to pin my dupatta, by well meaning relatives?

I am hurt and ever so angry!

The Aunties

2012-01-23T17:51:00.000+05:30

I've read many posts and articles about the power of the Aunties. You know the Know-it-all busybodies.
But one should not be fooled by the name. This group has both men and women in it. The male aunties, sneaky creatures that they are, act in the background in lighting a fire under the female aunties.

I had forgotten how annoying they are.They have an expert opinion on everything from the music we listen, to our work, to how we lead our lives. grrr!
By some great power of the universe I do not have many aunties in my close relations and friends.

But met one couple today. The female aunty had a host of know-it-all questions, but thankfully I didn't have to answer since she already had the answers to all her questions and all I had to smile and bear.
The male aunty had a host of equally inquisitive and extremely private questions but he wanted my answers and kept staring at me until I started feeling just like I was under a microscope.My bland stare was not very effective.

Then the nosy parkers started asking questions about my family. There is a line that I definitely do not allow any one to cross.
Well! I am proud to say I was rather impressive in my imitation of the aunties in asking about their family skeletons, in turn.

Hehehe! They could not get away from me fast enough.

Would it not be great to be in a place where everyone minds their own business?

Hola!

2012-01-10T13:15:00.005+05:30

Happy New Year, Pongal, Makara Sankranthi and all that folks.

Had actually planned to retire this blog in 2011, but could not. After all, what would I do without you people to rant and grumble to?

Is it possible to die of boredom? Coz I have all the symptoms of ennui, an absolutely classic and fatal case of boredom. Boring movies, boring books, boring work.

But boredom aside, I was just seeing this article on 10 places across the world that will be gone in the near future and at least 4 of my dream places are in it :-(

1. Egypt - The Valley of Kings
2. Greece - Olympia
3. Jordan - Dead sea
4. Italy - Venice

With the world at an end in 2012, I better get going and faaast

The other places of interest expected to disappear include

5. Maldives (I wouldn't mind visiting these islands)
6. The great barrier reef in Australia
7. Our own Taj Mahal (Not only visited it, but also had my pocket picked. Very memorable place for me and for all the wrong reasons :-) )
8. The Amazonian forest in Brazil
9. The Poles
10. Waterlands in US

So what do you all want to do, in this last year of your lives?

Rant Alert

2011-12-23T10:42:00.000+05:30

Had a workshop at work and this is what a head honcho told me about awards and recognition program availability.
"We have been awarding deserving employees for over a year, but there is no reason for anyone other than higher management and the actual employees to know about it. After all, if everyone heard about these awards they will feel bad for not getting it themselves "

:-O

Now! there is a new definition for recognition. Ain't he a kind soul to be so worried of his people? Hmph!

Suddenly things make sense

2011-12-21T11:48:00.000+05:30

This was one really good piece that I wanted to share with you all. A post about a reformed sexual harrasser.
Suddenly the reactions of some of the men in my life seem to make a lot of sense.

If I don't get to meet you again before the new year, Happy Holidays to all of you :-)

On books and comics

2011-12-14T16:14:00.001+05:30

I am reading The Immortals of Meluha, the first of the Shiva Trilogy. Bought the book ages ago, but there were other books ahead of it waiting to be read and I had lent it to my cousin, so could start it only couple of days back.
I expected to be bored or at least mildly annoyed with it, despite the good reviews. But I was pleasantly surprised and Its turned out to be a pretty interesting read.
Its the indus valley civilization with a quirky and futuristic bent. I can't wait to finish this one and start the second book, but I am not able to read it with my usual speed.. Know why?

Because I have hit on a mother lode of Indrajal comics. :-D Remember them? They are the ones who brought Lee Falk's and Alex Raymond's imagination to India in technicolor.
Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordan, Rip Kirby, Bahadur, Kerry Drake and so on and so forth.

Ooooh! its my childhood revisited all over again. Despite the many years of separation from them, I find myself still totally enthralled by their adventures.
Phantom, the Ghost who walks, the commander of the Jungle Patrol, the man who cannot die and over all gentleman, is still my ultimate hero.

Mandrake the magician, with his house Xanadu, Side kick, jungle prince and mightiest man on earth - Lothar , their girl friends and his Chef Hojo, who is also the secret chief of Inter Intel, have provided many many happy hours of companionship to the younger me.

Not to mention the Handsome golden haired Flash Gordan and the Sauve Rip Kirby (I must say, I liked his butler Desmond better)

Anyways, there you go. This is the reason I have been losing many hours of my beauty sleep and have not been able to finish reading the Shiva Trilogy and the other books patiently waiting in my shelves.

2011-12-11T22:15:00.001+05:30

I NEVER thought I would say this.. But Vijay did a better job in Pokkiri than Salman in Wanted.
Ayesha Takia!... The less said the better
sigh! :-(

Eclipse of the moon

2011-12-10T20:57:00.001+05:30

There are times when I wish my eyes were camera that can capture some of the beauty it sees and share it with you all. Today is one such day.
I am lying on the terrace, with cool breeze blowing, listening to Mukesh croon about love and looking at the moon.
I have been sitting here for the last hour or so. Saw the whole eclipse.. while the full eclipse was on, the moon they said would be in red colour. But it was more golden black than red from where I see.

But the full effect of the eclipse can be felt only now, when it is waning.
The blinding white sides peeping out of a golden black moon, like a naughty child peeping from behind its mother... that is the picture that I wanted to capture with my eyes and put up here.

You must have seen pictures of the moon rising between two palm trees? That is the view you get from my terrace. The moon rises from between the two coconut palms we have on the east.
The clouds and the twinkling stars add another layer to the over all beauty.

Ohh! the stars.. they look like chunks of diamonds that are just waiting to reached up and plucked.

Sigh! does life get any better?

PS: Wow! The eclipse is waning so fast
PPS: I can't, for the life of me, recognize any star, much less a constellation. They all look the same to me. My sis is pointing out them all and I am nodding my head very knowledgeably... hehe

Fatal 2011

2011-12-05T12:29:00.003+05:30

While I was saddened to hear the death of Shammi Kapoor, I was not so for Dev Anand. Not because I don't like him or anything, but because I have always thought of the man as omnipotent and it has not yet sunk in that he is actually no more.

Both of them had the never say die attitude and an abundance of charm to go with it.

Does it strike any of you that the last quarter of 2011 has been fatal to Indian artists?

Dev Anand (Actor)

Shammi Kapoor (Actor)

Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi player)

Har Gobind Khorana (Biochemist Nobel Laureate.. not an artist but still popular)

Bhupen Hazarika (Singer)

Jagjit Singh (Ghazal Singer)

I've named only a few people I am familiar with. But you can find a much more detailed list here

Good Ones

2011-11-30T12:47:00.000+05:30

Read couple of good articles/posts today and wanted to share it with y'all

My friends would say that I am a bold person and well read on most matters too. But at my old work place, when I was being harassed, I didn't even realize it. I was just losing my confidence and getting more and more depressed.
It was a slow process and as this writer very correctly calls it - Gaslighting. It happens to women across the world.

A male friend and I were discussing the marriage norms and our ideas on it. He said he was looking for a girl who would live at home and serve his parents and understand that his mom knows best. Needless to say it didn't sit well with me. I told him that this was the kind of mentality that brings about DIL-MIL fights in marriages. Well! here is a man's take on why there is friction between women and their MIL

Pretty Red shoes!

2011-11-30T11:35:00.000+05:30

*** Feminine post alert ***

My friend PSR sent me this shoes blogger link and my eyes lit upon this beautiful article.
And here I was thinking I am the only one coveting red shoes and it turns out the whole wide world is right there with me.
Needless to say I had to rush to Metro to check if they had any red shoes. And boy! did they?! It was this seriously cute peep toe with about 2.5 inches heels. I had unfortunately taken my mom along and she put her foot down and refused to let me buy such big heels. Sigh!
So anyways I got another pair of rather cute red sandals with 1 inch heels.

Two days ago I met PSR and she was flying high, coz she had got a pair of red shoes too. A little while ago my friend from UK calls me to tell me rather sheepishly that she could not resist this pair of red shoes she had seen. (Way to go gals! :-) )

Today I wore my new sandals to work.. feeling rather good about myself (until I got into the share auto, but that's another story for another time) and what do I see?
So many pretty feet wearing .. what else.. but pretty red footwear.
Its a good feeling to be a part of such a large sisterhood! :-)

PS: Took some fotos of my new shoes thro my mobile, but unable to transfer it to my comp.

Is it worth it?

2011-11-30T11:10:00.001+05:30

Some days (like today) I wonder if it is really worth getting up in the morning to just come to work in this traffic. Its hot and crowded and I feel like a dish rag all twisted and used up and scrunched and its only 10.30 AM.

Then I think of my bank account and

Sigh! well here I am. :-(

Gurukanth Desai

2011-11-29T00:26:00.002+05:30

How many times would I have seen this movie? 10 times 15 times. I still like to see it again.
Of all the movies of Abhishek Bachchan I think Guru was his best show.
Have always had a soft corner for AB Jr. Poor guy, always under his dad and wife's shadow.
But this is one movie where he has shown the world what he is made of.
Love his laugh in the movie, that shoulder shaking, teeth baring, belly rolling laugh .

But credit where credit is due, I have always maintained that Mani Rathnam could make a statue act. So not surprising that Aish not only did some acting but such subtle understated acting at that.
(Even though the Time magazine called her an actress-model and not a model actress.. Good play of words huh?!)

How many of you remember Roshan seth? He was Nehru in the Gandhi movie and the anchor of the old Doordarshan Sunday night program Bharat Ek Khoj. It used to be telecast when I was very young and didn't really understand much, but I still remember being awed by chacha Nehru's language in it.
When I hear/see Roshan Seth today, I still think of him as Nehru, and a very handsome one at that.
It made me smile to see him as the head of panel of Judge hearing Guru's case. A very good actor indeed!

One of my favourite movies and a satisfying experience.

2011-11-25T17:02:00.000+05:30

I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head*

Thank you rain for spoiling all my mega plans for the first day off I get in over a month!

Phewwww

2011-11-22T21:24:00.000+05:30

I have always thought relief was a sentiment and never knew you could feel it physically.
Remember the Audit I was talking about.. the one I had been living, breathing, eating for the last 3 weeks?
Well! Had the audit today and boy!!! we kicked its butt, BIG Time.

All through the day we were hearing all these horror stories and suggestions, how to talk and how not to talk blah blah. By the time the audit time rolled in I had lost all objectivity and was just numb.

Though we had to do some sleight of hand, we impressed the auditor big time.

When I came out of the conference room, I could actually physically feel this huge weight that was sitting right on my chest disappear. I could suddenly breathe.
Wowza! wat a feeling :-D

Now if I could convince my boss to gimme coupla days off to unwind my joy would be complete.
Neways Yayy!!!

Helloo

2011-11-19T02:27:00.001+05:30

Just dropped by to say a quick hello and let y'all know that I am alive if not well.
Got two audits coming up next week and been working like mule over weekends and early mornings (Yes! me actually getting up and working) and weekdays too :-P
Just to make life a little bit more easy a colleague went home to enjoy wedded bliss dumping all his work on me.
But the most painful of all. Ended up cancelling a movie-dinner date grrrr!

But the silver lining is that I got an award and whooping big cash prize at work.
Talked to PSR after a long time and she never fails to put my spirits high.
Talked to head honcho.. who I thought was a crashing bore and nag, but turned out to be surprisingly sweet.
and whowudathunk that I would become such a addict to bollywood gossip. I hardly see any movies.. but nowadays get my quota of the gossip served right on time though :-D

My weirdo magnet works just fine. that's neither good nor bad.. just entertaining. but thats for another day.

So ciao all until I have time to come out for a breather.. hopefully by next weekend

Can we have enough friends?

2011-10-31T00:43:00.000+05:30

Four of my old friends, whom I had thought I had lost touch with, contacted me.
Have been feeling very very happy :-).
One of them was actually my school friend, dunno how she got my number but darned glad she did.

With another friend, we had had a small tiff and had not spoken in quite a few months.
Life being what it is, we slowly lost touch. While I was not actively thinking of him, only when I spoke to him today and felt a lightness, did I realize that I had had this slight weight weighing down my heart. Now of course its all forgotten and its back to normal again.

Can a person really have enough friends? I don't think so.
They are after all one of the most important facets for an interesting life.

Sigh! Its been a good week :-)

The Lizard prediction

2011-10-31T00:28:00.000+05:30

Was sitting and chatting with my dad in the veranda. Apparently sitting right under the tube-light is a perfect target for lizards to fall on you.
Needless to say one darned slimy creepy lizard jumped on my right ear to slither down my neck.. by which time I had brought the house down and pushed it off.
Well! after I finished hopping and shuddering, I went running to scrub my ears n neck while my cuz went running to fetch the almanac.

Do you know that there are predictions given in the almanac on what happens if a lizard falls on you.
Its falling on each part of ur body apparently has a distinct effect. (Oh! and I am to have a long life and good health)

Not only that, it contains a table which predicts what will happen when a lizard chirps, facing each directions on each day of the week (also based on how many chirps).

Cute, Huh?!

Parichay

2011-10-30T00:12:00.001+05:30

A simple story sweetly told. Beautiful songs. Talented cast and a fulfilling experience.
While today's movies have their own space and time, the actual acting seems to have taken a back seat to all the technological thingamagiks, six and eight packs and bikinis.

This movie is said to have been influenced by the Sound of Music. Taken in 1972 by Gulzar, having a cast of Jeetendra, Jaya Bhaduri (as she was then), Sanjeev kumar, Pran and Asrani.

In the whole movie. the love between Jeetendra and Jaya is never expressed explicitly. Only by the subtle expressions in their faces. And some of the reasons why I like Sanjeev Kumar, Pran and Asrani can be seen in this movie.

The sympathy on Sanjeev Kumar's face when Jaya sees his bloody kerchief. Pran's expression when his grandchildren wish him for the first time and Asrani's tears when he sees Pran laugh. Its a definite feel good movie (except if you see it in Sahara One channel.. in which case they will make u want to tear your head bald putting on soooo many advertisements)

Let's not forget the music by R D Burman. After all Lata got a National award for her Beeti na Beetayi

or Kishore's Musafir hoon yaaron

I have a stalker

2011-10-12T12:53:00.004+05:30

I mean it! I actually have a phone stalker and its frightening.
Apparently this creep who works for my bank suddenly got obsessed with my name becoz he had a girl friend by the same name or some such.
He has access to all my information, including my personal, work , account and contact details.
He used to call me pretty regularly couple of years back until I threatened with going to the police. Then he stopped.

I got a SMS from someone yesterday night wishing me a happy birthday and when I asked who he was, he said he was not my friend. Annoyed I told him to stop messaging me, thinking it was some prankster.
He replied back asking if I still worked in my XYZ company and when I ignored that, another asking me not to contact him. WTF!

Today I get a call from him saying his name is Venkatesh from my bank (which is the same creep from couple of years back) and he knows where I work and that he used to talk to me couple of years back. He wanted to know if I still lived in Chennai and if I was married etc ... and apparently he had completed MBA and wants me to get him a job in my company. While I did ask him to take a flying @#$@.
Its still frightening that some schmuck has access to so much of my personal and financial info.
Am I over reacting? Maybe! Anyways wondering what I must do next?

My friends tease me calling me a weirdo magnet.. but this is ridiculous!

RIP Jagjit Singh!

2011-10-10T14:04:00.000+05:30

:-(. Just now saw the news and feeling like I lost a personal friend. :-(

It's frightening

2011-10-09T00:46:00.000+05:30

Well Well! waddya know I seem to have written something similar last week or so and it never got published.. So here goes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wondering what I am talking about? Growing older!!!
Darned thing is fraught with responsibilities, responsibilities and more responsibilities.
I just had a talk with Dad on investments, medical insurance and general old age etc
Where ever did I get the idea that I would earn and then spend and maybe put away some of it in a FD or something and that was that.

I have this hollow feeling in my stomach.
So many things to think about. The pros, cons, the long term impact. *Shudder*
How do I make my parents comfortable and completely cared for in their older age.
Not that they need it from me, but that is still my duty and I have not really thought much about it.

It also has me thinking about my old age. What about my medical insurance at that time?
Where would I be? What will I be doing?
And Oh my god! Pension schemes. Aren't I way to young to think about that? Apparently not. It seems one is supposed to think of pension when they start into a job so they will have a nice windfall to enjoy post retirement.

Gah! There goes my plans for retiring in another 10 years.

Enough already! I am just going to shut down my mind and try some meditation. OOOOHHHHMMMMM!

Ruminating

2011-10-09T00:42:00.001+05:30

Do you re-read books?
I think its almost as pleasurable as reading a new one.
Especially if its a favorite book, its like visiting an old friend.
Some one you are very comfortable with and know all the nuances.
Sometimes even better than an old friend :-)

Sigh! I am in a weird mood. Melancholy! Need to take some rather important decisions and don't want to regret anything later. In fact I am wondering if I should regret some decisions already taken. But a more useless emotion has never been invented than regrets and I try to in it indulge as little as possible.
What has the books to do with my mood? Nothing at all. Just ruminating on life. hmm!

On the flip side. I have got my brand new shiny red laptop. The keyboard is different in this and its driving me batty. But enjoying playing with it. And even better got my Kindle. I was secretly wondering if I would get any use out of it.. Dumb! yeah, but I am enjoying it too.

Hope y'all are having a good weekend. Ciao

Gasp

2011-09-26T14:32:00.002+05:30

I've been good. No, seriously! I have been tempted to write about this topic many a times but resisted.

But *Phew* enough is enough. Can these people not wear some kinda deo or perfume to work?

If not for themselves, for pity's sake, for the sake of the poor souls who need to sit next to them the whole day and work.

Forgetting your deo/ perfume now and then I can understand, but coming to work without it, EVER, especially after travelling in the hot chennai weather... *GAK*

I am on the verge of getting the cold and my nose and throat are extremely sensitive to any kinds of odour and its driving me and my sinuses nuts.

Bearing up for one hour everyday was difficult enough..but now its all day everyday

grr!! Do y'all think I should get a room freshener and spray them? Would that give them a hint?

God's own pyrotechnics

2011-09-18T01:25:00.003+05:30

When God decides to have some fun, She sure shows us mere mortals what pyrotechnics is all about.
Its raining here. Boy! is it raining! and that too along with all the accompaniments in their complete splendor.

Lightning tearing the skies open and wow! during the last thunder I could actually feel the ground under my feet vibrate.
You can almost smell and feel the sky getting reading to unleash the next bout.
It gives me the goosebumps witnessing all this fury. Its also very very exhilarating. :-)
Makes one realize how really small and insignificant one is in the grand scheme of things.

Its all about control

2011-09-16T01:32:00.000+05:30

Now before I start I just have to let the world know I BOUGHT A KINDLE at last...Yayyyyy.. consider me dancing around. The only fly in the ointment being I will not get it for another 15 days.. but that's ok.. ooooh! I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Oh! Anyways do you dare to lose control (of your emotions and yourself) in front of your friends or anyone for that matter? I've never really thought much about it until now.
As usual my thoughts were jack rabbiting around and I ended up thinking of this incident.

My 2 very good friends and I, decided to meet up one night and get drunk. And by that I mean tap-hackled, top-heavy, shot-in-the-neck, staggering drunk, just to see what we would do when we get to that stage.Now, we were rather close and very comfortable with each other and knew one other very well and all that. So we were sure we wouldn't mind if we made a fool of ourselves when it was just the three of us.

Well two of us being footloose and fancy free and 1 being a respectable married matron, we congregated at the married matron's house (which is a real dream house BTW). Her husband, being this real cool guy, helped us in procuring the drinks. It was night and we set it all up and sat looking at the bottle. And looking at it and looking at it. Not one of us wanted to drink, at least not the way we had planned to.

We just could not bring ourselves to lose control to that extent. After all that planning we felt rather sheepish about it but we just could not do it. Its kind of hardwired into some of us, I think.
I say that because some people are OK with drinking to excess and making a fool of themselves given the slightest opportunity.

I remember a man very high in my company hierarchy, once drinking and dancing (let's just say there is dancing and there is dancing) at a party. I could not look the guy in the eyes the next day, but he was cool about it.

Are you OK with it?

More and more...

2011-09-16T01:05:00.001+05:30

More and more rambles that's what. I keep having all these disjointed thoughts all the time and I tell myself I should write about it here... but never get around to it. So thought instead of rambling in my mind I shall put the whole jumble of thoughts here to pick and choose to write... or not write later.

# Sometimes I fear I am becoming asocial but thankfully you cannot straighten a dog's tail :-). I think I have just come to appreciate solitude more *phew* had me worried

# Can a person feel sad and happy at the same time. I mean throat chocking sadness and real happiness? Coz that's what I am feeling right at this moment and it feels very strange.

# We always hear so much about how good it is to give, the art of giving blah blah. But you know I have recently (ok, not so recently) realized there is an art to taking them too. I love giving gifts but sometimes people get so awkward when they get gifts that they end up embarrassing the giver or insulting them. Totally unintentional but there you are. The problem is that it takes the joy out of the process.
A case in point is my bro, he looks so embarrassed and miserable whenever I gift him with anything, that he looks almost constipated :-P
My dad started out that way too, but I like to think I personally cured him off his giftophobia :-)
Now me! gimme a gift , any gift, anytime.. I am always happy to get them .. hehehe

# Today a colleague told me that he realized I must read a lot when he heard me speak English. Mostly when people tell me I have a decent handle on English, I don't really take it to heart, because I am generally busy being envious about someone else's knowledge and language. But not sure why, today I felt maybe my friend(s) are right, maybe my language is decent (hmm! No I am not fishing, oh! you know me, I never fish, I straight away ask for your compliments :-D )

# I've been reading about the huge furore created over this Madrasi gal who has written an open letter to the delhi boy basically insulting delhites and punjabis etc and there have been a lot of reflex responses to it. All of us have our own misconceptions and I really think they need to get a life.
Anyways I want to clear coupla basic point in all of this. Madrasis do not wear mundu, they wear Vaeshti. While anything in excess is not good, please leave our hair oil bottles out of your altercations. We love them. They are the one thing keeping our brains from leaking out of ears in the peak summers and the reason why most south Indian women have such lovely tresses.
(Yep, I know what you are thinking, I need to get a life too.. )

My Diary

2011-09-12T18:59:00.000+05:30

On a lighter note
In those long ago times, I used to maintain diaries. I started coz it was the "in" thing to do. But somehow ended up writing kinda regularly.(somewhat better than my bloging anyways)
Being a person who hates clutter, I had nicely hidden the diaries in my cousin's shelves, from which she threw it all out yesterday :-(
Anyways ended up reading up the entries in there. It was quite an entertaining time.
All those teenage angst and dramatics pouring out spiced with sarcastic comments and gossips about all and sundry.

Here are some of interesting ones

# There was one entry about a classmate fainting coz she was not in the top five ranks (The gal was doing her Masters.. sigh!)

# My friend's handsome brother had told her that I looked cute, which she promptly relayed to me. There was some floating in the ninth cloud with regards to that

# My BFFs and I meeting Sir Richard Hadlee and his team at the Pizza Corner right around the street.

# Choking back my tears, when I landed in Hong Kong for the first time (first time out of the country) and realizing not only was I thousands of miles away from my people but also that the toilets do not have health
faucets .. The latter being more traumatic than the former

# My BFF's fiance asking me about the fall of World trade center on the evening of 9/11 and my telling him that I did not follow the shares market.

# BFF and I "eyeing" this good looking guy in a wedding, not realizing he was the groom :-D

# Coming out of the US airport (after immigration and all that), the first time and then going back to ask the security there, where I would get my I9. (Every one had told me all these horror stories about I9 and its
importance, no one had told me the immigration slip was the I9). If I remember right, the man took my passport, looked into it and gave me a weird look and said "I don't understand". I realized I was saying something wrong , so apologized and came back :-D

Hmm! those were times...

Enough about 9/11

2011-09-12T15:08:00.002+05:30

I can understand why USA will celebrate 9/11 with all those fireworks and hungama. But why the heck is India celebrating it right along with them? Weirdos!

Yesterday, I read an interview of an American embassy spokesperson (can't find the link now) and he says he is very happy with mature way India is dealing with their terrorists, even giving them a choice of mercy petition.
Yes! unlike the US which not only almost completely annihilated Afghanistan (Afghanistan used to be one of the most beautiful countries, known for its gorgeous gardens, now it contains cemeteries and bomb craters) but also killed Osama after stealthily entering into Pakistan.

How is it that Sadam Hussain can be publicly hung, Osama shot dead but Nalini, Murugan, Afsal Guru, Ajmal Kasab etc are deserving of mercy? They should not be hung because of the mental torture they faced being in the death row?
Puhleaseee! Were these terrorists thinking of the mental torture of the victims and their families while they were massacring?

Do Human rights commission exist only to fight for the rights of terrorists and murderers?
If Kasab, who is living the life of leisure in our prisons, is let out from gaol because of his youth, with a "go forth and sin no more" pat on his back, is he going to be all repentant and give up a life of sin to become a
sanyasi? or will he laugh at India's naivete before coming back to kill some more?

And coming back to my original question, OK, USA had one terrorist attack in the last god knows how many years and its a big issue for them.
Indians face a 1/1..13/7...7/9 .. 26/11... 31/12. Why the heck are they so enthusiastic about a 9/11 attack that happened 10 years ago.
Do y'all even remember that on 9/11 10 years ago Pak terrorists attacked Kashmir again and many jawans lost their lives?

USA learned something from the 1 attack. Paranoia. But at least they learnt something.
Indian government is still unaware of the attacks happening here.Yesterday a senior congress spokeswoman,in NDTV, brushed off the public sentiment saying that they are just hysterical and over emotional and that the government is still thinking about what to do.

Well Duh uh! Of course we are hysterical. A month goes by without any terrorist act in India is a month for celebration. Indians have forgotten what it feels like to live without a Damocles sword hanging over their heads. The government meanwhile is busy scratching their collective a$$es plotting vendetta against Team Anna.

2 men on our most wanted list, who intelligence were searching out across the globe using the help of Interpol, were living right under our noses in India. Sigh!

My cousin was saying the other day and it sounded quite right to me too.
Why bother arresting these people and then giving them a nice life in the gaols and letting them go a few years later, wasting crores of our tax money.Instead let's not arrest them in the first place. Let any one who wishes to bomb, do so with impunity and get on with their lives. Humph! we can at least save the money spent on the investigation and incarceration.

Anna Hazare's Triumph.. India's Triumph

2011-08-28T11:59:00.003+05:30

Anna Hazare broke his 12 days fast on the 13th day (today) at around 10.30 AM or so after the UPA govt kind of agreed to his draft of the Lok Pal bill with conditions attached (see how many constraints I've to put in a simple sentence when I talk of our government taking any steps)

Anyways Anna's triumph is not that he got the government's consensus but the sheer amount of unstinting support he got from across the country, nay across the whole world . We are talking about millions and millions of Indians.
Chennai, which is generally not known for coming out in masses to support many things, but we had people fasting right along with Anna right down my road, in a park.

This kind of mass approval was last seen probably before 1947 when we thronged out to fight for our independence against the British. While that was mostly an non-violent crowd too, there were still some leaders who were not against violence to gain the freedom.

But now for 12 whole days the entire country came to fight for their freedom from the UPA .. er.. from corruption in absolute peace. Not even when Anna was arrested was their any unrest.
Some news channels were saying that there were a great deal of rowdy elements in the the Ram Lila grounds and violence was just waiting to erupt at any minute. But we never saw any evidence of it.
What a sight it was! I could not be more proud to be an Indian. :-)

Even better and better is that for the detractors, (sorry to say, some of whom are my own friends) who were saying nothing will happen and India will never improve and all that Bull Sh*t, this is a pie in the face. I am small enough to feel quite gleeful about it hehehe.

Ratnakaradhautapadam Himalyakirtitinim
Brahmarajarsiratnamdhyam vande Bharatamataram

Meaning :

I pay my obeisance to mother Bharat, whose feet are being a washed by the ocean, who wears the mighty Himalaya as her crown, and who is exuberantly adorned with the gems of traditions set by Brahmarishis and Rajarishis.
.

Not another call!

2011-08-27T16:54:00.006+05:30

Was at an important meeting at work and the whole one hour I was getting call after call from this number and I kept cutting it. Must have been about 7-8 missed calls. Finally the meeting was over and I get the next call from the same number. Worried now, I hurriedly cut my conversation I was having with my boss to attend it.

The caller: Hello! Is this Sanjana?
Me: Yes! yes! What happened?
The caller: Ma'am I am calling from CitiBank. Would you like our credit card?
Me: X-( grrrrr!

My first weird fone call of this morning is actually a set of calls

1st call: Ma'am I am calling from citi Bank. Would you like our credit card?
Me (Politely): No, Thanks I am not interested

Half hour later
2nd call: Ma'am I am calling from citi Bank. Would you like our credit card?
Me (Not so politely): I already said I am not interested. Could you please have my number removed from your database

Hardly 15 minutes later
3rd caller: Ma'am I am calling from citi Bank. Would you like our credit card?
Me (totally annoyed): Would you guys stop annoying me calling every 10 minutes. I am not interested in your credit card, after this morning I will never be interested in your bank. Either remove my number from your database or let me know who I should contact to get it permanently removed.
3rd Caller: Yes Ma'am. I am sorry for the convenience ..(I am getting a little appeased here).. But Ma'am may I know why you would not be interested in our credit card, we have so many features. Can I take a little of your time to explain them.
Me: (Giving up just cut the call)

An hour or so later I get another call. I am thinking if I should not attend the call, but curiosity got the better of me and I did.

Me: Hello
The caller: Is this Sanjana from ABC school
Me: What?
The Caller: Is this Sanjana who studied in ABC school
Me: Who is this?
The caller: First tell me if you are Sanjana
Me: Hello, this is ridiculous, you call me, you wont even tell me who you are and you expect me to answer you?
The caller: I am SR's mother, you both studied in the same school remember?
(Was totally puzzled. I have not had any contact with SR, who was actually my college mate, in over 8 years and I had seen her mother probably twice all those years ago)
Me: Uh!.. oh! yes Aunty, Hello, How are you?
The caller: I am fine ma, How are you? I didn't call you for any specific reason
Me: Oh! ( As you can see, I get very loquacious when I am clueless)
The caller: I was cleaning my house and found SR's old phone book and found your number. So I thought I will call and see if you still have the same number
Me: Oh?
(Then started a third degree interrogation of my life the last few years, most of which I frantically tried to dodge and a little of boasting about SR's accomplishments which I probably answered smartly with an "Oh!")
After 15 minutes, she told me again that she didnt have any specific reason to call me and hung up.
I am still a little dizzy.
Can people really be this jobless?

Maybe I should change my mobile number. The problem with retaining a number for almost a decade is that too many people have it.

Bedardi Raja

2011-08-27T16:17:00.002+05:30

Hey, How many of you saw the movie Delhi Belly? You must have seen and heard this song, then. But check out this video of Bedardi Raja with Sona Mohapatra in it singing (I think they call it the Grind Mix). The lady looks so cool in her sari and guitar and a very nice voice too.
The first time I heard the song I was not all that impressed. But when I saw this video.. I Like!

And Life otherwise...

2011-08-23T16:26:00.001+05:30

*Phew* Now that's out. How are you all? whats news?

I have had a very eventful (and expensive) few days

# For one I've got a brand new Laptop. I am over the trees about it. Great config and even better price. The only fly in my ointment is that the laptop is sitting in Singapore now and will reach me only by next month :-(

# Been buying books like they are going out of fashion from Flipkart. Like books were not enough they are selling all kindsa electronics too. I almost bought a camera just because of the great deal, but thankfully stopped before going over board.

# Hazel says that her new Kindle was the best buy she has had in some time. Now I am tempted. Especially for a person like me... sigh! do I or do I not

# Bought coupla great saris.. cant wait to try them on.

# Looking forward to my trip to Guruvayoor, maybe I will find time to go to the Athirapalli falls. Saw fotos of the falls... they sure beat the Niagara during its peak season.

hmm! old age or amnesia.. not sure, but I seem to have forgotten half the things I wanted to share.. More when I remember :-)

Principles - BAH!

2011-08-23T15:22:00.002+05:30

This is a total Rant

Rant 1
Yesterday I had a call from my head honcho saying I had not completed something. Since I was outside of work and this new head honcho had put the fear of god in all of us, I totally freaked.

So I called a reportee and asked him if could verify if I had completed it, he promptly refused saying it was against company norms and all that blah.. well! while it irritated me and got me into trouble, I could respect him for standing on his principles.
Today I ask him to charge an hour extra since we will be attending a meeting at the end of the week and he again refuses because he would be coming in late. OK, Good!
I tell him to come an hour early and then charge correctly and he is now ok with charging extra without working those hours. hmph!!! I ask you, what happened to Mr. I-am-goody-goody?

Rant 2
This is another self processed rules ramanujam. (only I might have to turn into anniyan to eradicate them :-P)
He always acts like he has never veered from the straight and narrow.
To boot he gave me lip when I asked him to do something just so.
Already being in a sweet mood, I started cross checking his records and what do I find?
Mister rules ramanujam is not walking in the quite so straight and narrow path after all.
And so when I started questioning him on it, he did a disappearing act on me.

Hypocrites! Every one of them! Bah Humbug! (There! I sound just like scrooge)

Lucky me!

2011-08-12T00:11:00.000+05:30

Sometimes I think I am lucky to have been born in this particular time, especially when I get to hear songs like the ones below, by artists like Chitra, Sudha Ragunathan, MS and KJY.
When they say music has no boundaries or language they (whoever they were) knew what they were talking about.
But its not just the music or the singing but the composition and its simple but beautiful meaning.

For example in the first song below, Enna Thavam Seithanai, by Papanasam Sivan in Kaapi raga.

The first charanam (stanza) goes
bhramanum indranum manadil porAmai koLLa
uralil kaTTi vAi pottik-kenjavaittAi kannanai (enna thavam..)

Which translates to something like
"Even as Lord Brahma and Indra look on with jealousy in their hearts
you have got the Lord Krishna tied, gagged and begging [...for his mischief] (oh mother! what penance you must have done)"

Enna Thavam Seithanei Yashoda (What penance you must have done, Yashoda)

Kanda naal muthalai kathal peruguthadi (Since the day I saw [Lord Muruga] my love has been increasing)

Asainthu aadum mayil (When I see a dancing peacock, it seems to be telling me that our Krishna has come)

Kurai Ondrum Illai (I don't have any problems) Sigh! MS! Need I say more

Harivarasanam By KJY (And finishing it off with Mangalam)

Sunday Evenings!!!

2011-08-07T18:23:00.000+05:30

Is there anything more torturous than a slow Sunday evening with nothing on the telly and no new books and only work to look forward too?
I think I hate Sunday evenings more than even Monday mornings.

And there seems to be a telly conspiracy that only the boring-est programs and movies must be telecast on Sunday evenings.

Weather conspiring against us with drizzles

My family and I are going slowly crazy and if we survive, catch you next week.

Oh! and a Very Happy Friendship day!!!

Random Movie Thoughts!

2011-08-02T11:53:00.000+05:30

=> Never claimed to be a fashion Diva, but I do know what's aesthetically pleasing. I don't know who died and made Sonam Kapoor the fashion expert of Bollywood. The woman's dressing is frightening and weird. The oily skin, dark eye make up, goofy hair.. *shudder*. If I wanted to frighten any kid with "poochandi" I will probably show her photo.

=> Have you noticed that the trend nowadays is that as soon as an actor/actress debuts they are touted as the next best thing to sliced bread and they get all these awards and what not.
A case in point is Sonakshi Sinha. She acted in all of 1 movie. And she must have had about 10 lines of dialogue and probably 2-3 songs in that movie. But her acting was praised to high heavens and according to wikipedia she got a dozen awards for her role in it and was nominated for whatever was left over. Puhlease! are not people supposed to prove their mettle before they get these awards?
Dharmendra, who is called the he-man of Hindi cinemas, got hardly any awards in all his years in the industry. Are these people claiming that these here-now-and-gone-in-a -second actors are better than him? hmph!

=> Saw Deivathirumagal and only then realized it was remake of Main Aisa hi hoon. I kind of liked the hindi version to the tamil one. But Vikram has done a good job, can probably watch once.

=> I am awed at my high tolerance for pain. Saw Singham..fully. When the movie came in Tamil, I had blogged saying that it was an insult to Suriya and Prakash Raj's acting ability. But the Hindi version is an insult... period.

Mr.Mummy

2011-07-11T00:42:00.001+05:30

I've always had this fascination for Ancient Egypt in general and their mummies in particular.
Found this superb video of Egyptologist Robert Brier's Mummy project.
After over 2000 years Briers actually mummified a human cadaver the egyptian way.
While this might not be of interest to many people, I was totally astounded and wanted to keep it here for posterity.

And for those interested YouTube has a lovely collection of BBC and National Geographic documentaries on this subject.

Fone etiquette

2011-07-06T12:25:00.000+05:30

Just one point I wanted to mention

People should NOT speak with their wives/ Girl friends /Husbands / Boy friends over the phone, while sitting at their work station, if they

a) have a loud voice
b) are going to fight or make love

While it might not bother them, it has some entertainment value to the rest of us.. but is basically disgusting and irritating.
They are, after all, washing their dirty linen in public

Today we (as in the whole floor) were unfortunate enough to hear the fight between this guy and his wife. while he does make love and fight to his wife only after coming to work everyday. It was somehow louder today and I was seriously tempted to stuff his mobile ... ahh hmmm! well you get the idea

Oh! this point actually holds true if they are going to koochikoo your kid too.
Please believe me, its totally disgusting to overhear your workstation neighbour on the phone, describing her kid's cutest poop to someone.
Poop? Cute? Gahhhh! Kill me now!

.

Ooty over the weekend

2011-06-15T22:02:00.005+05:30

Cursing my uncle and cousin for making me book tickets to, of all the places Ooty and then cancelling, I left for Ooty on Thursday evening and enjoyed myself ever so much. Here are some photos of my trip

Roses at the Government Rose Garden. Missed the Rose show by a week or so, but it was still beautiful. The weather was misty and cool and roses everywhere.. .sigh!

Remember Anbe Vaa movie? MGR and Saroja Devi? The final song in that movie was taken in this place. Its a small hill, totally green and at its top, its soooo windy, it will turn a person around. But lovely enough to make the heart sigh. BTW the white thingy in the foto is not a sheep but a horse :-)

That's me at the Botanical garden. Its beautiful, especially coz of the weather. But seen it too many times and hence boring

The Pykara Lake and Boathouse :- During the rainy season the water level rises to the trees

When the water level rises in the Lake above, the Dam is opened and the Pykara water falls gushes.

But because of the low water level, we were able to go right to the falls and dip our toes in the oh so pleasant waters.

Ooty as seen from the suicide point at the tallest spot of Nilgiris: Doddabetta

The heritage Nilgiris mountain railway, otherwise known as the Toy train, has been touting people from Metupalayam to Ooty for over a century and is still going strong. Not very comfortable but worth going atleast once. It requires a lot of patience though, as it travels at roughly 10 KMPH.

And as a grand finale, the Madame Tussaud's of Ooty, Veerappan's wax replica in the Wax world.

Doing nothing

2011-06-03T23:51:00.000+05:30

What a bliss!
When you are kids, nothing is more of a punishment than doing nothing, and the older you get that little bit of doing absolutely nothing becomes a thing so precious, that words fail. But finding the time to do it gets more and more difficult

Its the time for me to recharge my batteries. The time all for myself when I do or not do only the things that I want.

After 3 weeks of non-stop high tension work. This is my "do-nothing" weekend.

Of course its taken me all of today to wind down from the adrenaline rush of the last few weeks and actually get into the groove.
So what I am going to do all the weekend is lounge in my room , see movies, read books, stare out the window,dream dreams, build castles in the air, maybe have pig out on pizzas and most importantly catch up of my sleep.

Woooo!!! the sheer thought of my great weekend plans gives me the goose bumps.

See ya'll on Monday. Totally recharged and raring.... not to go :-D

My Sketches

2011-05-29T22:02:00.002+05:30

Know what I did this weekend? I mean other gorging on Pizza and Ugh!!! working.
I was scanning some of the sketches I had done. So obviously I just had to put a few of them here.

Pizza pizza pizza!

2011-05-29T15:27:00.002+05:30

Dad and I had a pizza orgy just now.. mmmm! I am still reeling from an over dose.

I dont even like Dominos pizza... But if you are cheese lover then you just have to try their double burst pizza.

And the best part is that there are 3 more slices sitting in front of me tempting me

पेट बर गया पर दिल नहीं sigh!!!!!

Later added:- *Groan* I am probably going to burst and die! but what a way to go!

My shoes, your shoes.

2011-05-16T22:38:00.000+05:30

I had a meeting this evening. I was tensed, frustrated.
This was a meeting initiated by my onsite counterpart to discuss some issues and my boss and reportee were both invited. I knew the man was going to point fingers at me.I just knew it! Darn him!

"The mistake was not mine! Why must I always take the blame? Why is not everyone doing their work properly? Oh God! what is the man going to say? How about I give the meeting a miss? How come my reportee, the culprit is so cool and confident? he is so lazy!" ... My mind was bursting with excuses, reasons, questions and resentments.

I was nervous and resentful that the others did not seem to have any nerves.

Then the meeting started and went the way meetings go and at its end my onsite counterpart heaved a big sigh! and said, "I was so nervous about this meeting, I wanted another colleague to attend it with me.. you know as a kind of moral support. But its OK, we will be able to complete our work in time".

Well! well! waddya know? :-).

Sometimes we forget that others are normal humans too and are probably facing the same fears and frustrations that we are. They may not come out and say/show it or post it in their blogs and bore their friends to tears. Does not mean they are infinitely confident or knowledgeable.

A friend once told me, that each of us have our own phobias which we hide well. But then we look at each other enviously thinking." Look she/he is without any issues, while I am so phobic."
Little do we realize that they are probably looking right back at us and thinking just about the same thing.
.

..and on other things

2011-05-16T16:59:00.001+05:30

=& While I am sure the whole state is rejoicing the election results. I mean talk of a clean sweep. What had me grinning was the pure glee on the faces of newscasters in the Jaya channels.
Not joy but glee, like kids have when their prank goes through successfully.
The grand old man obviously didn't so much as peep outside his residence. But we are used to that, aren't we? But his gall never fails to amaze me. He was shocked and disappointed by the TN people I hear, for not choosing him. Especially after all the good he had done for them. But, good guy that he is, he understands this as a chance given by his people for him to recuperate and come back (COME BACK???!!! God save us all)

=& To top it, my mom calls me frantically from work to say RajniKanth has passed away. Since my place of work is near where he is admitted she was worried about how I would get back home.
I am no fan of his, but I was surprised at the depth of sadness I felt on hearing this news... Which turned out, happily, to be only a rumor.

=& Yesterday in Vijay TV, they were telecasting the wedding of Junior NTR. The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton would not be able to hold a candle to this one. Wow! the whole wedding took place in a huge set created just for this occasion and I mean Huge! The bride's wedding sari cost Rs. 3.75 lakhs or there about.

=& I have discovered this share auto for my morning transportation to work with a DVD player in it. You know the one with a little screen? And the driver is one of the most mannerly guys I have known. He actually thanks his passengers when we get off and best of all, he puts on any songs I ask for. I am thinking of asking if he will let me borrow his DVD collection with me. :-)

Bank Customer Help

2011-05-16T16:24:00.000+05:30

I want a word with the person who named these people who attend the phones at the bank as customer "help" desk personnel. This is the conversation I had with a lady who called me on behalf of my bank to verify if my contact details were correct.

She: Hello, Mr. Sanjana ?
Me: No, But this is Ms. Sanjana
She: *Pauses for a minute* Yes, Mr. Sanjana, I am so and so from your bank and I am calling to verify if you contact details are correct
Me: Sighhhh! OK
She: Are u getting our mails and letters on time in the right address, Sir
Me: (Totally insulted by now) You have been talking to me for the few minutes now, Do I sound like Sir?
She: *Pauses again* Sorry Ma'am. Are getting our mails
Me: Yes. So tell me since you have my details in front of you, is my gender showing as Male in my profile?
She: No Ma'am
Me: So why do I get all mails from you guys addressed to me as Mister and why did you call me mister?
She: Sorry Ma'am please come to the nearest branch with your Foto ID proof to change your name to Ms
Me: What do u mean come to your branch? Can't you do it? and with ID proof? Can't your personnel look at a person and decide if they are a mister or Ms... especially considering their profile in the bank shows their correct gender already? and I don't want to change my name.. Just my salutation.
She: I totally understand ma'am. Sorry for the inconvenience. I am unable to edit any information in the system. You will have to go to your nearest branch.
Me: *Grumble* OK
She: And ma'am be sure to take an photo ID proof that has all personal information including your gender. *Hangs up*
Me: :-O
.

I DON'T LIKE COOKING!!!!!!!

2011-05-11T15:30:00.002+05:30

Yes! I don't like cooking! There I have said it out loud.
And eagerly waiting for lightning to strike me dead!

Why the astonished faces, worse the ashamed face? God knows I am not ashamed of it.
No! It does not mean I cannot cook just that I do not like it.
And even if I did not know to cook, what do you care?
Please be assured, it is not akin to serial killing.
While this may amaze and astonish ..NO! my sex is not determined by my cooking skills.

An acquaintance, whose name I did not even bother to know, met me at the pantry and us being womenfolks had to ask me the ubiquitous question.

She: Do you cook?
Me: yes but I don't like to.
*Close up* Her Shocked face. Then a sudden clearing and ...
She: Oh! you mean you haven't learnt cooking.
Me: No, I can cook, just don't like to
She: See! you will get interest if you want to cook some dish to perfection so every one can enjoy it. *comes near me to whisper her secret* My mom does not cook a few dishes well (Guess I was supposed to Gasp with wonder here) So I learnt to cook those dishes really well.
Me: *With a get a life face*:- As long as I don't starve, I could not care less if something is cooked to perfection or not.

I could have been a pariah after that, the lady could not get away from me fast enough. What was funny was there were 3 men sitting behind us and am guessing overhearing our conversation.
When I got up to leave.. I found all 3 staring at me with the most weird look on their face.

And what do you know .. my friend just pings me to grumble about something similar
Turns out her colleague who sits in the next cubicle was totally disgusted with her for getting recipes from the internet. Wanted to know what kind of cook would check the internet for recipes and was all sympathies for her family.

I remember a colleague at my old office asking me most flabbergastingly "But you are a girl, how can you not like cooking?"

I honestly think i would be forgiven for murder, if only I could like cooking... Gahhh!!!!!
People, PLEASE get a LIFE!!!!!

One fine night

2011-04-18T23:09:00.001+05:30

=> 11 PM,
=> A big chocolate slab,
=> Popcorn in hand,
=> A bottle of coke,
=> George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer romancing on TV.

Sigh! George Clooney!
What more could a gal want?

My thoughts this week!

2011-04-15T15:27:00.000+05:30

=> Had gone with my friend to this Tanjore painting gallery and shop in mylapore. Was great. They had some awesome stuff. Which is saying something, coz I dont particularly care for Tanjore paintings. I have always thought they were too bright and garish. My friend though was going crazy with all the choices.

Even I was tempted to buy a piece or two. (Despite the prices being a little too steep)

But I didnt. I have great respect for people who decorate their houses with these paintings and what not, but if I buy them, they will be carefully wrapped and stored in my loft.
Dust catchers! That is my first thought. How would I clean those things regularly if I put them up. Worse! how will I live with them if they are dusty.
So decided to save myself the money and the pain and just admire them in the shop and come back and feeling quite righteous about it too ..hehe

=> Ponds Dreamflower .. that pink talcum powder box ... They have changed the box and they have changed the perfume of the powder.. Aaargh! Have the Ponds people not heard about not trying to repair a working machine. The perfume of the old talcum was sooo good, the new one is too strong and just no good.. hmph! Idiots

=> Its my considered opinion that John Keats would have written an Ode to a cuckoo and not a nightingale, if he had had the opportunity to listen to one. I have been rather curious about what the big deal is. Everywhere the nightingale is praised, from poetry to fairy tales to titles (Nightingale of India - Sarojini Naidu). And the poor cuckoo has only been degraded (atleast in the English language). I mean have you heard of anyone being titled the Cuckoo of India?

Well! here is how a nightingale sings ... Now don't you think a cuckoo sounds better? (Unless it sings right outside your bedroom window every morning at 3, of course).
And so I thought since its the IN thing to fight for someone, everyone and anyone's rights, I would fight for the rights of the Cuckoo bird :-). Interested in Joining?
.

My Laughter, my joy

2011-04-02T00:21:00.001+05:30

I found this post all deep and hidden in my drafts. I seem to have written this about an year or so back. Not sure why I did not publish it then. So I decided to dust it out and put it up here.
---------------------------------
I was always known for my smiles. I remember this gal I used to meet in the bus once telling me that I was always smiling and that was what she first noticed about me.

So when I did I lose my laughter and smile? It was a very slow process and very subtle. It happened over the two years at my last work place. I had not realized it was gone. All I knew was that life was no fun anymore. I was fun no more. While it might sound very dramatic, it felt like I was in this deep dark smothering place.

But now I have been out for some time and today when I laughed with my friends about something, I startled myself. I was suddenly filled with this great whooping big joy inside, I had been out of my fetters for quite some time and had just not known it.

I had got my laughter back. Something that I had not realized losing but had missed desperately.
-----------------------------------
Today, when I smile and laugh at home, at work , with friends or just at life. I know I will never take it for granted again.
Even the sorrow and rant of today is a sweet memory or amusing entertainment of tomorrow.
.

CSA Awareness Month - April

2011-04-01T23:18:00.002+05:30

Like the little squirrel who helped Ram build the bridge to Lanka, I think its only right that I put in my little bit towards this very worthy program that http://csaawarenessmonth.wordpress.com has taken up.

The 2009 movie Achchamundu Achchamundu (There is fear, there is fear) deals with pedophiles. It forcefully brought out the issue into the lime light (at least for me). I was shocked to learn that every 7 minutes a child gets abused in India.

I know of women so abused at their tender ages whose whole lives have been ruined while the men responsible went their merry way and have never been punished. Felt anger at fate and just plain miserable at my helplessness.

My beautician once told me about this case another client of hers, a police woman, handled. This girl was found abused and dead, the morning of her third birthday. After intensive investigation the culprit was found to be the child's own uncle. He later confessed apparently saying that he was just not able to control himself, but was very sorry now.

But what was absolutely mind blowing to me was the reactions from the parents and family,

One family, though angry with the perpetrator, was unwilling to do anything about it, as it would cause social stigma. The another woman was happily married off to the abuser, despite his family knowing all about it while the abused girl is still too traumatized to even come near any male.

Another family actually screamed at the child for talking nonsense and told her that it was all her imagination and that she should respect her elders, while she looked on helpless, with nowhere to turn, as the abuse continued for years.

It was a close relative or friend in both the cases. Some one familiar with the whole family and trusted.

I've seen and read enough about the physical and psychological trauma, to want to do everything in my means to never see it again in a child or adult. Especially when I think of the innocent, joyful and trusting eyes of my nephew and nieces and all my friends' children.*shudder*

I do not really have many ideas on how to be more aware and safe except some common sensical ones such as keep an eye on your child always, be sure to let the child know he/she can come to you for ANY issues and that you would believe them, teach them the Good Touch/ Bad Touch and be very wary of strangers around your children.

Its a great initiative and if even one more parent became more aware after having read this post, I am satisfied.

CYA

2011-03-23T17:13:00.000+05:30

Most of my industry, and I am sure all others too, have a few things in common.
One of the major commonality is CYA or Cover Your Ass.

Its funny, that even when I am talking for my team's good, my team members do not want to risk their collective asses and agree with me.

As PSR rightly pointed to me, a big part of that is indifference. I come, I work , I don't care a fig what happens outside that. If there is an issue, I will crib and grumble to my lead or manager, who ever is sympathetic. If they are not sympathetic, I will grumble to my team members and then work around it.

But ask them for a feedback or agree with you when you talk to the higher management about their trouble. You might as well be talking to the wall for all the response you get.

If by some one else's efforts their issues get resolved, they are happy. But if it is not, its still OK, as long as they are not asked to involve themselves anywhere in the process.

Can't even really get pissed with them, coz they dont want to involve in any good stuff either.

Their own worlds, their own work.
Sigh! I don't even understand this kind of attitude... :-(

Life's little pleasures

2011-03-17T15:17:00.000+05:30

Ever wanted to walk around on a Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnik? Or wanted to drip with diamonds?

I have wanted to. Well! We are talking about hundreds of thousands of moolah. God knows most of us dont have that kind of money to throw on these things.

Which is why women, in all their wisdom, invented "The Window Shopping" *Clap Clap*

Had time before my train and decided to spend it in the UB City mall in Bangalore. The only affordable thing there would be the eats on the 4th floor, but it makes a great place to hang out. Saw a Jimmy Choo's show room there (first time I have seen one in India)
One of those skinny heeled, barely there pair of shoes cost over 89,000 Rs. Consider me provincial, but if I bought something like that I would probably keep it my locker, the way I do my jewelry.
So what I did was try it on, tottered around the shop and came back with the satisfaction of having worn Jimmy Choo and not spending anything on it :-)

There was this other time when I went to GRT Jewelers to give my sis some company. Was waiting in the diamond section, when I saw this gorgeous Diamond necklace set. Costing just over 7 Lakhs. Tried it on, oohed and aahed over it and then regretfully returned it back to the man waiting on us, with the promise of returning in the near future with my Dad :-D

It is a very precise art though, these window shopping sprees are very sneaky and you might end up spending more money than you planned.
But I am sure most you gals (and guys too, though you might not wanna come out and say so :-)) out there will agree with me that this is one of life's little pleasures

2011-03-16T11:37:00.000+05:30

Tired .. Just tired of the whole fleeting world.

It doesnt make sense to wake up everyday, just to go to work. Would rather sleep some more and see movies or read books or just do nothing.

What does it matter what you do, there is no recognition for your work and you are just taken for granted.

Not able to kick up any enthusiasm for the work. Its all a drag anyways.

So get out! you say? Would love to, but stuck in a nice rut. And the thing about these ruts are that they are safe, comfortable and give you a feeling of security, even if false.

Anyway whats out there? More of the same?

So alternately living in a nice state of fugue and in Calvin's favourite state.. Denial.
.

My Loves

2011-03-14T12:54:00.000+05:30

I fall in love every week, sometimes the love lasts for as much as a month, but eventually I get bored and move on.

But its all cyclic. I come back to my old love eventually.

For eg. Last week I was all melty for Bhupinder singh. Was downloading his songs like crazy.
The way he croons and caresses the words of the ghazals he sings,sigh!... Like each word is the most important word at that point and there is no hurry to go to the next word. mmmm!!! and what a deep voice. I am a sucker for deep voices. (I dont like Jagjit singh and Suresh Wadekar though I love ghazals)

This week its Rafi saab. I listened to his Woh jab yaad aaye and kuch kuch yaad aane laga.

Sometime back it was Mukesh Saab. God! the man can cry like no one's business. Was singing "Waqt karta jo Wafa" repeatedly and driving myself wild.

Talat Aziz, used to have a crush on his voice and him, until I saw him act in some serials. But I decided to forgive him for his voice :-)

I am off Kishore for sometime. ODed on him. Lata and Asha are all time loves

Why I hate Flipkart!

2011-03-14T11:30:00.000+05:30

Honestly! Flipkart has made my bookshelves so much healthier and my wallet that much less.
It is so easy to buy a book with just a click and they give such great discounts and darn them! they deliver it at home for free and I don't have to move out of my seat.

I've become a compulsive buyer, and I feel almost ashamed (Almost being the operative word)
:-) .

Believe it or not I have almost 40 books that I have yet to read, stuck in my bookshelves.
The number never seems to come down, since I keep stocking up on newer books before I can make any headway on the older ones.

My librarian is not happy with me, I have not been borrowing much from him nowadays.

Sigh! I just came to office and ordered myself the new Jeffrey Archer book at 40% discount :-).

Oh Yeah! you can see why I hate Flipkart.. Can't you?

The Indian Speciality

2011-03-08T17:30:00.001+05:30

My friend RJ asked me what I would like from Canada and I asked him what was the Canadian speciality. He could not think of anything that was special to that country. So I asked a few other friends here who have visited the country. They too thought hard and could not think of anything.

That had me thinking about how many many things we Indians take for granted. When Canadians had come down to India, they did not even have to ask what was the speciality here. There were so many exotic things for them. Sweets, Taj Mahal momentos, Jewellery, Shawls, dresses, you name it we have it.

Forget about India at large, Each state here has its own speciality. Hyderabadi pearls and bangles, Kashimiri shawls, Kerala chips, Kanjeevaram Sarees, Jodhpuri slippers, Calcutta sweets, especially Ras Gulla.. yum!!! just to name a few.

I've written about how other countries, especially the US market their tourism so well, despite having nothing much worth talking about. Where as here with so much to show off we are busy scratching "He loves She" and drawing hearts on the monuments.

Have you seen the Incredible India ads? They are incredible and not just coz Aamir is in it :-)

Hyderabadi trip

2011-03-08T17:02:00.002+05:30

*Phew* Now that I have got the rant out of my system. I can tell you about the very eventful trip I went on, over the weekend.
A piece of sincere advice from a sun burnt, heat boiled person. Do NOT go to Hyderabad in March or later.

The forward trip, had us travelling with a lady going to see her school kid in Hyderabad and 2 men. We started discussing about places of interest in Chennai and moved on to Temples here and from there one of the men caught on and he was cribbing about how its not right for Hinduism to have more than one God when God is only one. Fun was had by all arguing about it.

They were allowing people to climb up the Charminar. Its very charming from up there, but you would probably be aching every where from the steep climb to enjoy it too much. The place is a shopppers paradise. Birla Mandir must have been nice too, but I was busy jumping around on the hot stones, trying to get on and off the temple.

Everyone must go to the Ramoji Film City atleast once. Its expensive, so might I suggest you go as soon as possible, before they increase the entry fee again. Despite the terrible heat (The hyderabadi citizens tell me its not really hot, just warm... *gak*) we still had fun, the shows, sets, bus tours are a must see.

Finally rounded off with Salar jung Museum, I enjoyed the European Paintings and Marble and Bronze statues section. The other stuff was OK. The musical clock which brings in scores of people was a disappointment to me. Well! Its good, but not sure if its worth the publicity it gets.

Oh! How could I forget the Lumbini Park and the trip down the Hussain Sagar Lake in the evening. I would love to hang out there with friends. Its softly lighted, nice cool breeze coming off the lake and a variety of restuarants with seats looking over the lake. Sigh!

Hmmm! Reading back what I have written, it looks like I have said mostly negative things, but not so. It was a really enjoyable trip. Will add fotos later.

Women's #$%#$% day

2011-03-08T16:42:00.001+05:30

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Every year I hate the concept of Women's day more and more.
Its hypocritical, commercialised and down right stupid.
I do not see any one using this opportunity to celebrate any woman's growth anywhwere. Most people do not even have a clue why we have a Women's day. Hell!! I am not too sure myself

Every darned year I get to hear juvenile comments such as "You are so lucky to be a woman, we do not have a men's year". Please take it. Make March 8th as men's day and welcome.

What pissed me off even more this year was that the over enthu's in my team organised a WD celebration. We were all made to pay 100 bucks towards it. Anyone who does not pay will obviously be looked down upon.

So Thanks to peer pressure, pay I did. Now! I know 100 bucks is not such a big deal, but its the principle of the thing. (I would have preferred to sit at my desk and do my work rather than play)

We were all given gifts at the end of the games. Worth less stuff, I got a fevi quick stick, for God's sake!!!
I hate peer pressure almost as much as I hate the WD. We were all forced to pay for christmas celebrations too. I have no problems with christians or christmas but I am neither and dont want to be. But NOOOO, I had to play along.
The same kind of enthusiasm was not showed during pongal or Diwali.

Just leave me alone.....

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Why Hinduism is so much fun

2011-02-26T01:19:00.001+05:30

Hinduism is one of the most fun religions to be in, basically because it is not a religion at all but a way of life. It shows us the pros and cons of any path we might choose and lets us do the choosing. This is also one of the reasons why one cannot convert into Hinduism.

It teaches, by example, that even if you are God himself, your sins will be punished. (Lord Krishna was shot down by a hunter in hiding, as He had done many sins from behind the Pandavas, to make them win the Kurukshetra war. Lord Rama drowned for his treatment of Sita)

How many religions do we know, that lets their believers question its tenets? Hinduism does. It allows its believers to look at its principles from all angles and perspectives and question it until a person is totally satisfied and comfortable with what it says. This is one of the reason why it can accommodate all walks of life so comfortably.

Its epics and mythological stories! Wow! I have read some 5-6 different versions and perceptions of the Mahabaratha and every one of them sound totally logical and all of it will lead to the conclusion of good triumphing over good. None of the heroes are totally white or villains totally black. They are both shades of grey and its the degree of greyness that makes them good or bad.

Talking of questioning even our Gods. There is this story my grand ma once told me. There was this great saint (whose name, I forget :-( ) who was doing Kathakalakshebam (Praising the Lord by telling stories as songs) of Ramayana in a Krishna temple. As he was telling the great deeds done by Rama, the listening deity inside the garba graha (Inner Sanctum) piped out saying "It is my deeds you are singing about". When the saint started singing of Rama's unfair treatment of Sita in asking her to jump into fire , he turned to the deity and asked how could you do that to the innocent Matha Sita. After a brief pause a voice sounded from inside " That was not me, it was all Rama's doing". :-)

Is it not the ideal world where even the highest authority is answerable to the lowest order of beings.
.

In Memoriam

2011-02-25T15:54:00.002+05:30

Can you think of your childhood without the tinkle and amarchitra katha stories?
I remember my mother buying me the tinkle at the beginning of every month for years. And everytime we used to go out of station, she used to get the amarchitra katha books to read in the train. I have not thrown out one of the books so collected.

In fact I just spent over 3k on ACK series books.

The Mahabaratha 3 volume series containing the 52 books that were originally published by IBH and later by ACK is a beauty worth mentioning and owning.

I still read and enjoy those comics. My neices are crazy about them.

How many of us would have even known about the great Indian heroes or our culture and mythology if not for Uncle Pai? Hardly any one at all.

You leave a grateful and very entertained indian youth behind and will be remembered for a long time.

RIP Uncle Pai!
.

On News and more...

2011-02-24T11:44:00.000+05:30

God Knows why I have started reading news again. I pride myself on not reading or seeing news as it invariably makes me depressed. And I really do not need anything more to do that, Thank you very much.
But then the news also hardly varies, whether I see it today, last month or next month. The faces might change, the amount might change but it is still murder, rape, scandal and mayhem everywhere.
I am sure there are good things happening out there somewhere. But they are just not newsworthy. Who wants to see/read about altruism, awards (unless it is the filmy awards or the Padma awards .. lets not even start talking about them ) or discoveries and inventions? Hmm! unless it is Rahul Gandhi, then if he even sneezes it is for the good of the country, for he epitomizes the good Samaritan and is absolutely news worthy.

It sickens me that even the media is bought and paid for by the powerful and politically inclined.

I was trying to read Arundati roy's interview with Amitava Kumar, could not complete it as I started drowning in the ocean of her hubris. God! What a condescending, all-knowing so and so. She gets one Booker price and suddenly she is the queen of the world and the all-wise Oracle rolled into one. She is clearly blabbering in the hope of keeping herself in the limelight and unfortunately she is given all the opportunities to do so. She says in her interview that the sedition charges against her was not brought about by our government but by some right-wing crazies. I could say something about the Government, but I do not use that kind of language.

On other news, a Chinese man played games in his computer for over 3 days without any food or sleep and slipped into coma and died. Sigh!!!!

The Aarushi murder case.. the less said the better. The poor girl's murder is being gleefully made into a three ring media circus, while the police have already destroyed most of the evidence that could possibly point to the guilty. And to add insult to injury, they are making a movie out of it. Can people be more callous?
As Mark Twain said : “When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”

The Romantic Hero

2011-02-21T11:26:00.002+05:30

Today, the shareauto I travelled in had a DVD player attached to it and the good man was putting on some great songs.
Chand Sifarish from Fanaa and Rab de bana di Jodi songs.

I have always maintained that Aamir is the ultimate romantic hero of Bollywood.

I would definitely not mind a boy friend/ husband (hmm! one who would not divorce me ofcourse. I have lost my respect for him since his divorce.. hmph!) like him.
I get the shivers when I see him in those songs. From QSQT to Ghajini (though in Ghajini he was more in love with his six.. sorry 8 pack than Asin) the man is groovy...sigh!

Speaking of Ghajini, have you seen the song Guzaarish? They repetitively show only three things in it, Aamir's 8-pack, Aamir long shot, showing his 8-pack and face, oh! and some shots of Asin... hehehe

Shah rukh on the other hand,does the obsessive psycho, rather well. But the romance..hmm, he does nothing to me when he tries his hand in it.

I know N and P are probably up in arms for my saying so.. But sorry gals, there it is. :-)
.

7 Khoon Maaf

2011-02-21T10:38:00.003+05:30

I wanted to write about this movie, last friday when I had the misfortune to see it in its first day of release.But somehow never got around to it

Saw it in Escape Cinemas in the Express Avenue mall. The theater is awesome but the popcorn and other foodies are less than mediocre (though you would not know it by the amount they charge for them). One regular popcorn and coke cost more than the ticket.

7 Khoon Maaf is touted as a black comedy where Susanna kills her 6 husbands and the sathva khoon tho audience ki hothi hai and the joke is on us :-(

I didnt realise the father in the very end was Ruskin bond, having never seen him before.
But I was sorry that he has given his approval to the way the movie has been taken, by actually acting in it.

By the third khoon, the whole thing starts getting tedious and every one is wondering why she does not just divorce them. (Though a kind of explanation is given that she is stopping these guys from spoiling any more lives or some such)

The two reasons we sat through the whole movie, when a lovely mall full of shops were beckoning us was.
1) We wanted to know who were her other husbands
2) The cost of the tickets and food.

The best thing about our foray into 7 khoon maaf was that we had a good time at the mall.

If you really want to see this movie, wait a couple of months and you can see it for free in the Colors channel.
.

tick tock

2011-02-17T15:51:00.000+05:30

My god! time moves soooo s l o w l y when you are not having fun.
I have literally been counting seconds until end of day .

And I have another 11700 seconds to go.
I am so bored that I actually drew that pathetic looking clock using MS Paint.. hehehe

Shareauto Tales

2011-02-17T12:10:00.000+05:30

PSR has been telling me for sometime that I must write about my shareauto tales. The traffic gives me the heebie jeebies and hence I do not drive. That means public transport. Since taking a bus at the peak hour is not even worth mentioning and regular autos are way too expensive for daily travel, that leaves shareautos.

It gives me a chance to see the human race at its weirdest.

Before I tell you anything more, you really need to understand the concept of shareauto. Its a large auto or small van, where the people (mostly the IT ppl) are stuffed like salmon in a tin can. The drivers try to take in as many people as (in)humanly possible. Sometimes as many as 13-14 people travel in one auto. Idea is to make maximum money out of each trip.

=> To prove me wrong, just yesterday I noticed a poster in this romantic owned shareauto. It said "Valentines Day special - Couples can travel for free today". Sweet huh?! :-)

=>The other day. much to the irritation of the rest of us travellers, a drunk got in and promptly sat on a gal's lap. She squealed and moved away and got out ASAP. So now he was sitting between a lady and another guy. When the lady moved a bit forward to the window (probably coz of the smell next to her), the drunk fell on her. (I got kicked by him in the process and I was happy enough to crush his feet with my heels and aargh! the heels of my favourite pair of slippers broke and the man didn't even flinch. Though he removed his feet, I might as well have been a fly). Anyways after getting pushed off and threatened by the lady to take him to the police station, the man sat contentedly feeling himself up. So there we all were staring at him in disbelief. I can tell you there was a concerted rush to get out of the auto when it came to a stop.

=> Two young things, a gal and a guy were sitting in the back seat of the shareauto. We generally try to not let a 4th person sit, when 3 could sit more comfortably. But these YT all twined up together kept asking people to sit next to them. I was staring at them puzzled until i realised that it gave them a good reason to be pasted to each other. They were so entwined that the guy had to put his arm all around the girl, just to scratch his other arm.
Well! He has his arm around her shoulder and the rest as they is History. I should probably have averted my eyes .. Yeah right!!!! I sure had the satisfaction of seeing a rom-com movie until they got down one stop before me.

=> The softest hand that ever touched me was that of a 1.5 or so YO child. A lady got in with her school going kid and this child. Just a look at the kid and you could see he was a special child. He was attracted to my bright kurti sleeves and my handbag handle that kept moving with the autos movement.His hands were only as big as a newly born baby and so soft and tender. I let him play to his heart's content. But it hurt to think of the future in store for him and his family.

=> oh! The other day I got into this shareauto and I should have known better. Generally the seat next to the driver is occupied by men and there was a girl sitting there.It sent my antenna quivering but I was too sick to notice. As expected, it turned out to be the driver's girl friend and the auto kept getting stopped now and then, so they both could feed each other pop corn or coo at each other. By the time my stop came I was ready to break my laptop on both their heads.. sigh!!!

More to come...in meanwhile, feel free to add any experiences you might have had travelling.
.

:-(

2011-02-17T11:26:00.000+05:30

It must have happened to you all too.

When you were saying one thing but in your minds you were hoping for something else to happen.
Despite knowing that the chance of what your are hoping is very very less, when it does not happen you are surprised and sad.

My boss is moving on to greener pastures and being qualified, experienced, certified and what ever else you can think of, I was hoping to fill his shoes, or atleast some kind of improvement in my role.

But I knew ofcourse that the chances of that happening were less, after all the man does not even like me. Except when he wants some work done, of course.

Anyways someone else has been chosen and when I asked why I was not chosen, I was given the usual run around. I am mad and sad.

And basically enjoying wallowing in self-pity. sigh!
.

What a weekend

2011-02-14T11:49:00.000+05:30

I have so many thoughts jumbled up in my head, that I wish i could pull them out like silver threads, the way Dumbledore does.

Spent most of the weekend seeing movies from early 90s.

It started with Kshana kshanam, my friend PSR was raving about it and I had this urge to see it. So thanks to youtube, I started on it.

Anyways so I decided I would see some more Sridevi movies, Nagin, chalbaaz, nigahen, gurudev (Rishi Kapoor should NEVER act as a policeman. He looks quite grubby and unkempt, despite trying to be otherwise)

I also saw Ram Lakhan (Jackie is sooo handsome) and Khalnayak.

Not sure if my tastes have matured/changed or whatever, but these are movies I would have (and I have) heartily enjoyed a few years back but I was finding faults with the storyline/ dialogues and what not (I am thinking I will blame PSR for this too ..hehehe )

I saw some comments comparing Sridevi with Madhuri, but I felt it was more like comparing apples and oranges. Sridevi is a class comediene (except for that irritating giggle), great actress and sensuous effortlessly despite having her dress on.

Madhuri is a great actress too, but cannot carry comedy well and sometimes I find her vulgar when she is trying to be sensuous. Especially in those early 90s movies.

Moving away on a tangent, after college, played hookey last week to go see Yudham Sei. It was a movie worth seeing once definitely. But the second half they tried to dramatize and it fell through. Also the poor CB CID has never heard of the latest technologies and police processes like BOLO, APB. But what the heck, I enjoyed myself. :-)
Anyways I have had a surfeit of movies for now and feeling slightly nauseous even thinking of seeing any

.

What is marriage?

2011-02-03T13:28:00.000+05:30

I have always thought marriage meant a partner to share my life with. Some one to love, fight. and generally belong.

But I am wondering if I am being very naive, even down right stupid.

Are these the same things men look for in their wives? I am not so sure.
The kind of expectations I have heard from the guys I met, makes me feel mad and sad.

One guy was shocked that I even had a say on choosing my life partner. He wanted me to fall at his and his parents feet and kept giving me hints all the time to do so.
He even told me stories about how very well educated and working women served their hardly educated and non-working husbands with great cheerfulness and live happily ever after.

Another wanted to me to quit my job, he was earning enough for both of us and I should learn to run a house within my husband's means.

Another's parents said that their son had no training in the kitchen what so ever, but could I cook for 10 people if they suddenly dropped by.The guy was sitting next to them nodding his head. These people were also shocked that I might actually want to talk to their son alone.

I really didn't know such archiac people still lived on earth. Are the guys looking for a submissive,cost free slave/servant/cook or a wife to share their life with?

What shocks me even more was that some of my relatives, women, just a few years older than me, do not see anything wrong with this kind of expectations. They think I am being too picky for not having said yes.

While this kinda talk sometimes makes me question my own judgement. I have a set of great parents and friends who are solidly behind me. Thank the good Lord!
.

Bye Bye G'ma

2011-02-03T11:47:00.001+05:30

Happy New Year!
Hey! so what if it is a month too late, there is still 11 more left to enjoy.

Its been a rather eventful month. I generally love January.
It has a lot of holidays :-) and somehow its like even the nature is shaking off its doldrums and starting afresh.

But thats not the reason its been an eventful month. I lost my 95 YO gma. It was a crazy 13 days after her demise. So many relatives and friends. House was full all the time and loads of work to do. And it was not like we were not expecting the event for some time now. She had been so very sick and sometimes we even prayed that God would help her out of the suffering, even if it meant losing her permenantly.

She was hardly 5' and almost skin and bones at the end and totally immobile for the last few months. Her eye sight was almost gone but not her ears or her memory.

How the hell does a person of such a small almost insignificant stature create such a big vaccum in so many peoples lives?

The house seems empty, and we still cannot bring ourselves to give away her things. We all feel a little lost, as though the very roots that held us all together has suddenly gone.

Married at 14 to a much older man, as was the norm at the time. She ruled her house and husband with an iron hand.

Like Kunti, my grand ma ruled over her children and her siblings and was the center of their lives. and What a fighter she was! She was the type who could squeeze water out of stone, in times of need.

At 85 she decided to make her first love known to the world and compiled her favourite recipes into 4 cookbooks in two languages.

But my most favourite memory of her, other than our common love for mythology, was the stories she used to tell us during the evenings of our summer vacation, while she used to feed us mixed rice in the balcony.

As my dad said the other day,Its the end of an era, but what a legacy she has left behind!!!

We miss you g'ma, but you have fun with all our relatives up there! Bye!
.

Hypocrisy thy name is politics

2010-10-16T00:38:00.000+05:30

Especially if it is the current TN govt. This govt. is staunchly atheist. Which means they are totally anti-hinduism and according to their beliefs would love to totally eradicate that religion (just like small pox or cholera).OK, the central government is this kind of atheist too, but that's a story for another time.

The government went so far as to dictate when hindus should celebrate what festival and decided that the Tamil New year's day (which for centuries have been celebrated on the 14th April) will be celebrated on 14th January going forward. The CM claimed to know all about the religion, just, I am guessing, as he knows all about Ramayana too. (During an Interview with NDTV he claimed to have read Tulsidas Ramayana and it said that Sita and Ram were siblings *Gah*)

They did not just stop with proclaiming a new date for New year. When people still continued to celebrate it on the 14th April, the priests in the temples were forced not to give any special poojas. The devotees were beaten up. All in all a great fun time for them.

Now the TV channels affiliated to the government have taken to calling this weekend programs as Vidumurai sirapu nigazhchi (Special programs for the Holidays). Is it because they do not believe in mentioning any Hindu festival name??? What happens when Diwali is in the offing I wonder.

But of course being a pure Hindu hating atheist, the government has spent 420 crores on renovating a temple. After so much hatred from them, this sudden change in mind, especially just an year before election, seems very suspect.

On the flip side, whatever their motive, we at least get another good place of worship

PS: Going off on a tangent, it has become fashionable nowadays to put down hinduism and especially brahminism, ironically its mostly done by brahmins themselves, who have no clue what so ever about their culture but want to sound cool. (Personally I think they end up sounding stupid and ignorant, but hey! that's just me)

Langauge Snob

2010-09-23T11:09:00.000+05:30

I am a language snob. More particularly an English language snob. While I dont claim to be any kind of master in the language, It drives me wild to see people use phrases and slangs without bothering to understand their meaning.

A case in point is this incident, which a friend related to me.

My friend was chatting with his colleague, who was deputed to the US, about staying late at work. In a bid to prove his mighty language skills and grasp of the slangs, the colleague concluded - "If I ever go home late, my wife would screw me".
My friend, after a stunned moment, was laughing too hard to continue with the conversation.

It is, therefore, only right that I sympathize with this author

65 years and going strong.

2010-09-22T11:59:00.001+05:30

How many of you out there have long term friends, what is now a days called as BFF or Best friends forever (Personally I think this BFF thingy sounds something out of a teenage vocabulary, but thats beside the point). How many of you think this friendship would last the ravages of time and life and actually last your lifetime?

My 75 year old aunt was literally running around quite excited, last sunday. Her face was all aglow. Why? Her school friend was coming to visit. The three of them had been friends and maintained contact all through their lives. They had been aunties to each others children and were woven into the fabric of each other's families .

This friend of my aunt actually stays in another part of the country and is not very financially strong now. She does not have a phone at home and so despite regular letters to each other,she saves/keeps a little money aside so she could call her two friends atleast a few times a year.

I was so pleased to see her husband being equally supportive of their friendship and more than happy to bring her over to see my aunt, despite his age and health.

It was such a dear thing to witness but it also made me a little envious. While I have some great friends now, at 75 would I still have such friends? Would I want to visit them then and will they be coming down to see me? I definitely hope so. :-)

The Earth's concerns

2010-09-22T10:56:00.002+05:30

It does my little heart good to be validated by a Nobel Laureate. Of course the author of this piece has written it much differently and put in a lot more effort than I have but we are getting to the same point.

The only harm that humans can do is to humans and other living creatures. But the Earth is a Survivor. (Unless of course it is possible to explode half the planet using one of those N-bombs, in which case, it will spiral out of its orbit and merge into the Sun).

When I wrote my old article, a friend commented that its not fair to think of saving the planet for a million years. Human time scale is only for a 1000 years or so. So if we can save the earth and its creatures for that time, some good might come out of it.

Being a great believer in the human will power, I know we are not going to save it for the next 10 years much less a 1000. Therefore is it not good to know that what ever harm we do today, atleast good ol' Earth is still gonna be there when we come back as a newer and hopefully better batch of creatures a million years later (Oh yes! I believe in reincarnation when it suits me :-D )

Below is an excerpt from the article By George Will. Be sure to check out the little video on the second page of the article.

"The cover of The American Scholar quarterly carries an impertinent assertion: “The Earth Doesn’t Care if You Drive a Hybrid.” The essay inside is titled “What the Earth Knows.” What it knows, according to Robert B. Laughlin, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, is this: What humans do to, and ostensibly for, the earth does not matter in the long run, and the long run is what matters to the earth. We must, Laughlin says, think about the earth’s past in terms of geologic time.
...
...
Damaging this old earth is, Laughlin says, “easier to imagine than it is to accomplish.” There have been mass volcanic explosions, meteor impacts, “and all manner of other abuses greater than anything people could inflict, and it’s still here. It’s a survivor.” [...]"

In memory of the Queen

2010-09-17T12:07:00.003+05:30

I was not planning write anything this month. It has not been all that good a time for me. And to be honest, I could not find the time to write either.
But it truly seemed blasphemous if I did not write about the queen. Especially as yesterday was her birthday.

I consider myself honored to have lived in the same time as the musical lady trinities. And even more honored to have enjoyed a few live concerts, if not in person, at least through TV, when they were still with us.

M S Subbulakshmi (Popularly know as MS) was born on 16 September 1916 into a musical family, and went on to capture hearts world over with her mellifluous voice. She was the first Indian to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said about her "Who am I , a mere Prime Minister before a Queen, a Queen of Music ". Her true Bakthi to her music showed through every line she sang and in the glow on her face as she did.

When MS was in US as a guest at someone’s house, she was coerced into singing. There was construction going on outside the house and when requested that they tone down the noise as MS was beginning to sing, the construction workers started making more noise. Ignoring them MS started singing, and slowly all the noise outside the house stopped and when she finished singing, the construction workers trooped in to apologise and tell her that though they did not understand what she was singing, it was great and would she sing some more.

There was that magic quality in her voice which had the power to pull at the listeners’ heart strings. Her voice was the true definition of Alchemy, it could turn base metal into gold.

My personal favorite of MS is her rendition of “Kurai ondrum illai”. A day that begins without hearing her sing the Venkateswara Suprabatham is no day at all. Some of my other favorite works include the Vishnu Sahasaranamam, Maithreem Bajatha and Bhaja Govindam

Almost six years after her death MS still lives on in most south Indian houses talking to God directly through her music.

PS: Edited to add link to "Kurai Ondrum Illai"

Octopus Hands… Keep Away

2010-08-24T11:56:00.002+05:30

Note: Any Gentlemen who have not indulged in the below activities are obviously exempt.

Men, I do not understand and hence would like you to explain what pleasure you could possibly glean from pawing, poking, nudging and otherwise pushing yourself on unsuspecting, strange, definitely uninterested girls and women you meet on the roads, theaters, malls and most importantly public transport.

Surely you must know we hate it and you? Just as I surely know you couldn’t care less.
I thought it only right to let you know, if you are under any misapprehension, we DO NOT enjoy what you are doing.

When I was walking down the road and three of your ilk, walked right into me and I could not move away as they were blocking my path, I did not find it funny or enjoy it. I did not understand what made them give hi-fis and laugh hysterically. I was just disgusted.

When I was travelling in a share-auto and another of your ilk sitting right next to me, folded his arms I did not suspect him of any wrong doing. Until he used his folded hands to paw and poke at me.

How is it that gravity works against you when there is a gal sitting next to you? When the Share auto turned and everyone was tilting to one side, how is it that you tilt in the opposite side, where there was a girl sitting? Surely you could see the girl was trying her best to get out of your range? Surely you could see she was irritated and disgusted with you, atleast when she told you to move away in that freezing tone?
When the girl got out of the auto, just to get away from you, did you not understand it was not a bid to make you follow her? Did you really require another person to literally pound the idea into you?

If you cannot explain, then at least keep away. We just want to move around in peace and not wish you had been born in Middle east where your hands and other parts of anatomy would be severed for what you are doing
.

To Die For

2010-08-24T11:31:00.000+05:30

Have you ever thought about how and when you would like to die? After all it is the ultimate goal of every living being. Something we are all inevitably pushed towards. I have been hearing about a lot of deaths and seeing a lot of sick people and this has been a topic that has been running around in my head for sometime now.

As a drunk Prakash Raj pontificating about the goodness of vellai poondu (white garlic) in the movie Mozhi, says (about his grandfather and I paraphrase) Kulichitu vandharu, thunda otharinaru, oru thumal potaru, poitaru ( Came out of his bath, flicked his towel, sneezed once and died)

No Pain, a simple death, preferably while asleep. That is what I would like. And according to our religion only the most lucky/pious get this kind of death.

Do you know there is a sloka (that I am yet to learn) on saying which one’s death will be very peaceful and painless. My g’pa was said to have said it everyday. And do you know what? He did die in his sleep. Needless to say, my people obviously believe that sloka works well.

Is it not equally important to know when one dies?
Personally, I don’t want to live a long life, just a healthy one. I think one of the most miserable way of living is, when one is unable to take care of their basic needs and is dependent on others for it. It’s a misery for oneself and for the person taking care of one. The day I become too sick or debilitated to be able to take care of myself ever, is the day I would like to die. Age no bar.

.

The Slave's Dream - H W Longfellow

2010-08-20T23:12:00.000+05:30

I was able to dig out the other poem I was talking in my last post after all. I read this poem in someone's school book and since then its beauty has stuck to my mind and refused to let go.

Beside the ungathered rice he lay,

His sickle in his hand;

His breast was bare, his matted hair

Was buried in the sand.

Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,

He saw his Native Land.

Wide through the landscape of his dreams

The lordly Niger flowed;

Beneath the palm-trees on the plain

Once more a king he strode;

And heard the tinkling caravans

Descend the mountain-road.

He saw once more his dark-eyed queen

Among her children stand;

They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,

They held him by the hand!--

A tear burst from the sleeper's lids

And fell into the sand.

And then at furious speed he rode

Along the Niger's bank;

His bridle-reins were golden chains,

And, with a martial clank,

At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel

Smiting his stallion's flank.

Before him, like a blood-red flag,

The bright flamingoes flew;

From morn till night he followed their flight,

O'er plains where the tamarind grew,

Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts,

And the ocean rose to view.

At night he heard the lion roar,

And the hyena scream,

And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds

Beside some hidden stream;

And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,

Through the triumph of his dream.

The forests, with their myriad tongues,

Shouted of liberty;

And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,

With a voice so wild and free,

That he started in his sleep and smiled

At their tempestuous glee.

He did not feel the driver's whip,

Nor the burning heat of day;

For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,

And his lifeless body lay

A worn-out fetter, that the soul

Had broken and thrown away!

My heart leaps up

2010-08-20T23:00:00.003+05:30

MY heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began,

So is it now I am a man,

So be it when I shall grow old

Or let me die!

The child is father of the man:

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety

- William Wordsworth

The beauty of poems according to me is that, while the poet might have meant anything while writing it, but its the meaning that the reader puts to it, that is most apt to it. Like a painting it can talk to different people differently. In fact, I have read atleast two different perceptions of the above immortal lines by William Wordsworth. One says that the child represents Jesus, who was considered the father of Man and the other says it means what we are when young gives shape and, in a sense, gives birth to what we are when grown.

I once read a beautiful poem about the dream of an african slave. Unfortunately though, while the essence stayed with me, I forget the lines or even the poet. I shall post it if I can get my hands on it again.

Meanwhile I shall leave you with the below poem by David Diop. I love the last stanza for its simple dignity and pride

Africa my Africa

Africa

Africa my Africa

Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs

Africa of whom my grandmother sings

On the banks of the distant river

I have never known you

But your blood flows in my veins

Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields

The blood of your sweat

The sweat of your work

The work of your slavery

The slavery of your children.

Africa, tell me Africa

Is this your back that is unbent

This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation

This back trembling with red scars

And saying no to the whip under the midday sun.

But a grave voice answers me

Impetuous child that tree, young and strong

That tree over there

Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers

That is your Africa springing up anew

Springing up patiently, obstinately

Whose fruit bit by bit acquires

The bitter taste of liberty.
.

Solitude

2010-08-20T00:58:00.001+05:30

A state of mind than a physical situation, that is either dreadful or Joyful

There was a time when I had to spend a weekend alone in my apartment. I was new to the place and having never been alone before, was frightened and bored out of my wits. I did not step out of my studio for almost 24 hours and became so claustrophobic I was climbing walls. The loneliness was killing me.

A few months later, my two room mates went out for a weekend and I had the whole apartment to myself. What bliss!!!! I had movies to see, books to read, friends to chat, dreams to dream, fantasies to weave and always places to go, if I wanted to. But I was home alone and loved every minute of it.

The two situations were essentially the same, but what different reactions.

A school friend once told me that she used to talk to her bedroom walls when she was feeling lonely. She was an only child to yuppy parents.

Have you ever felt the bite of loneliness? A feeling you are alone ... even in a crowd, even amongst friends, parents or relatives. Not being sure that if you share with your best friend will they empathize or say some callous statement and brush you off. Not being sure if you want to even share with anyone at all. Wondering if someone would understand what you are feeling . Would screaming help? Feel like you are in a bubble and see no way of breaking out? Feel like everyone is passing you by but no one is able to see you?

On the flip side, Have you felt the beauty of solitude? A time just for you. Someplace/time no one else can impinge on. Where you can fill your lungs with fresh air along with the beauty of life. Listening to music, thinking deep thoughts , reminiscing happy memories , reading, writing or just plain lounging.

I just love the clear night sky, when I have the lights all switched off and just have to tilt my head to see, out of the window, the moon waiting to wish me good night.

मै और मेरी तन्हाई अक्सर ये बातें करते ... मै और मेरी तन्हाई

Problem with NO

2010-08-18T14:22:00.001+05:30

My problem with no is that I have a problem saying no. I am like the Chinese language, which I am told does not have any word equivalent for NO.

I get this really guilty feeling if I am even thinking of saying no. It causes me no end of trouble with friends and relatives, but think of what I get into when it comes to work.

However busy I am, I cannot say no when someone comes to me for help. I might qualify it by saying I shall do it later, but I almost always end up doing quite a bit of their work.
And I do get surprised and yes!.. shocked, even insulted when I am told no.

When I asked a colleague to help out another, he said NO, and I was shocked and insulted. The colleague snapped at me saying that he had a right to say no. Logically I know that to be true, but in his place, I might have said sorry, I am busy or Sorry, I don’t know or most probably helped the person out. Even in the few cases I say no, I always qualify it with a reason or an alternative, but I can never just say NO

Sigh! I must gird myself to say the dreaded word and not feel anything but relief

2010-08-13T11:19:00.002+05:30

It was Friday and I was planning all the goodies for the evening and weekend, when I get a message asking me to check my mail. I have a meeting until 7.30 in the evening and I have also been given some .. ok, loads of extra work. There went my good mood. Cursing and grumbling under my breath I get ready for work and come out of home and BAM. I literally walk out into this wall of Heat. High humidity and higher temperature. *Phew*

Miserable all around I sit in the share auto squeezed next to other equally miserable folks heading to their offices when I see this woman sitting on the platform. She has a baby, of perhaps a few months, lying on a rag next to her and she is gesticulating to someone.

Curious I peak out of the window and I see a little girl and a little boy with tin cans in their arms begging. The woman was directing the kids. The little girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old was clearly frightened to get down from the safety of the platform and get down amidst the huge vehicles waiting for the signal to fall. But at the screams from the woman, I could see her literally gritting her teeth in determination and getting down to walk in between the vehicles.

My auto-wallah meanwhile had started to scream at the woman, and he was being ignored by her and her kids as so much back ground noise.

A movement by my side caught my attention and I turned. It was the woman's 4th kid. A toddler , who had not yet mastered walking. She was trying hard to maintain her balance but was imitating her brother and sister perfectly. The child had not even learnt to walk yet but she had learnt to beg and to whine in that pathetic way of beggars.

I have never claimed to be a bleeding heart nor am I a very socio-aware person and I have surely seen kids beg before, so why did these children affect me so profoundly. I am not sure.

But I still had this weird cauldron of emotions bubbling inside me. Helplessness for not being able to do anything, gratitude, for but for a chance of birth, it could have been me on the other side seeing in, Anger and a lot more.

It’s really a frightening world out there. :-(

.

On Movies, Books and Blahs

2010-08-09T11:13:00.005+05:30

Alright! Its 10.30 AM and I am at office, wondering what next. I have been in here for all of 10 minutes and already bored. Its especially painful, since I am generally loaded to my gills and this sudden let down is making me crazy. I have books and movies and so many interesting things beckoning at home, but I had to come to office, which is ever so sad.

This weekend was pretty eventful, guess that explains the extreme case of blues and blahs I am having now.

I got my hands on a copy of the “Palace of Illusions” AT LAST. I have been searching for that book for sometime now and found a copy in my library on Saturday. I kept seeing similarities between Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood and this book. Maybe just coz both showed off the women as having some substance rather than these vague somewhat insubstantial figures or maybe its all in the perspective. But I loved the way Devakaruni has written the book and have decided to get one of my own.

Saw 3 Idiots again and liked it better this time. Why did I not like it the first time I saw it on theatre? I don’t really remember. I think it had something to do with Airbrushing Aamir to look half his age and the All Iz well mantra. (God!!! Did u hear, Vijay is going to act in the role of Aamir in the Tamil Version of this movie. Gah!!!).
Saw “I hate luv story” and I can totally understand why Imran hates them if love stories are made the way this one was. :-(

How could I forget to mention Madaraspatinam. Wow!!! Arya rocked and he has built a great bod for the movie and it was a pleasure to watch . Oh! And the movie was great too. Hehehe. Pretty clean stuff with a cute heroine doing a good job, especially considering that it’s her first movie. The gang sitting behind us who were re-enacting their college days added to the fun (some!). Despite my friends’ feelings that the story had lots of dangling thread, I enjoyed the movie. (I don’t really give any importance to stuff like that as long as I like the movie). It started slow, and the first song was ghastly, but the movie was definitely worth a watch.For those who are yet to watch it, its Titanic and Lagaan meet at Chennai Central

I saw Thillalangadi too.. A complete waste of one hour!
Oh! And trailers of Enthiran. Everytime I see Rajini, I am totally awed by the power of cosmetics and plastic surgery. Talk about Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.

I have “The Myth” with me. In Chinese. Without subtitles. Its very difficult to see a Chinese movie in Chinese, trust me!!!

Hmm! It sure looks like I have been seeing a lot of movies Huh?! You ain’t seen nothin yet buddy!

Random thoughts!

2010-08-04T11:35:00.004+05:30

=> I was planning to write only about Amar Prem but got too many things in mind. Borrowed the DVD from a buddy and was watching it en famille and silently tearing up. My mom staring at me now n then like I had grown a second head. What music!!! Sigh! you just don’t get music like that any more. Wow!!! and SD Burman's voice. Love it!! Its such a feel good movie.. Pushpaaaa! I haaate tears. (And PSR, I am still in shock about your views on this classic!!!)

=> Well then, I come to office to find that my work has already been completed by a great guy at onsite, leaving me free. Woweee!!! Until I see another mail asking the whole lot of us to stay back for a meeting with the client's head honcho LATE in the EVENING!!! NOT FAIR!!! I am borrreeedddddd, stuck at office, with nothing to do. *SULK*

=> What an absolutely lovely weekend I had, I was able to get 60-70 movies from my friend, some of which I had been dying to watch. Needless to say I have not been getting any sleep. :-(

=> Oh! And I can vouch that the Tanishq has a great variety of ear studs and drops. :-D

=> Was reading yet another blog about the gender stereotyping and became all introspective. I sometimes feel I have moved from moderately tomboyish to downright feminine. Used to love climbing tress. Catching squirrels with brothers was so much more fun than playing with dolls. I used to hate shopping, but now love it. Love dressing up, but think nail paint is too high maintenance, as I don’t like chipped enamel and am too lazy to remove it properly everytime. Still hate cooking. Love to clean, but can live with mess (for a little while at least).

=> I need a vacation. Preferably for about 1 month. In which I get to sleep, Read books, see movies, lounge in bed and just do nothing more strenuous than a walk to/on the beach. Oh! And some DBC now and then and Pasta. Some chocolate fudge. Sighhhh!!!!

The Charge of the Light Brigade

2010-08-04T11:33:00.001+05:30

Have you seen the movie The Blind side? Since I saw the movie, it has made me, all the more, appreciate this poem

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854
Written 1854

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Murals in Singara Chennai

2010-07-30T11:55:00.000+05:30

Have you yet seen the walls of RajBhavan? They are all getting painted with Murals depicting Tamil culture and places of interest in TamilNadu.Its beautiful. There is just this one oldish guy mixing paints every morning, I cross by that area.
Every morning and evening I look with great eagerness for the progress he has made. The guy is truly talented. Some of his paintings have this 3D effect, that you feel like you can walk into it.
The best part is ofcourse that no one would be sticking posters or painting graffiti over something that beautiful and It helps that they are a pure visual pleasure.

I understand our government got the idea from Bangalore. And it has been implemented all over Chennai.

Speaking of graffiti, there is a whole slew of walls on the Five furlong road, that connects from vellachery bypass to guindy, that contains paintings of a politician. While that painter is no doubt talented too, there is a particular painting of this politician with his mouth open and right beside a painting of a snarling leopard. While I am sure we are supposed to understand that the idiot is like a snarling leopard or whatever, the painting never fails to crack me up.

I wish the Raj Bhavan guy would finish here soon and paint up that wall next.

PS: Hmm!!! I really need to take some photos of those murals.

Insults

2010-07-22T11:50:00.001+05:30

These insults are from an era before the English language boiled down to
4-letter words. Got it as a forward. Couldn't resist putting it up here:-)

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:
She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.”
He said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
===
A Member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the
gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”
“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or
your mistress.”
===
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” -
Winston Churchill
===
“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure.” Clarence Darrow
===
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
dictionary.” - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).
===
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading
it.” - Moses Hadas
===
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved
of it.” - Mark Twain
===
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” - Oscar
Wilde
===
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend … if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second … if there is
one.” - Winston Churchill, in response.
===
“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” -
Stephen Bishop
===
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” - John Bright
===
“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”
- Irvin S. Cobb
===
“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” -
Samuel Johnson
===
“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” - Paul Keating
===
“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” -
Charles, Count Talleyrand
===
Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”
- Mark Twain
===
“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” - Mae West
===
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” -
Oscar Wilde
===
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts … for support rather
than illumination.” - Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912)
===
“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” - Billy Wilder
===
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” - Groucho
Marx
===

Weird news

2010-07-22T11:36:00.003+05:30

We humans are such weird creatures

=> This guy's pet tarantula (why would any sane man want to have a pet giant spider is beyond me) threw some hair like mist at his face in a natural defense mechanism and he now has eye problems. The doctors have suggested that all people with pet tarantulas use protective eye gear when they are near it.

=> This person was adviced that his pet python????????????? was getting ready to have him for dinner.

=> This dog was choking and they found human fingers in his throat.

=> This one is really weird. This guy buys a cactus for hundreds of dollars and then pays a few more hundred at the customs, and when he finally gets it home, it starts shivering. There were .. *music* 100s of tarantulas or some such spiders growing inside the cactii getting ready to burst out and kill..

=> This lady sold 2 ghosts and made a mint. She had caught the ghosts of an old man and young girl and stuffed them in two vials. A company actually bought it and are now wondering what to do with it.. hmm!!!! talk about bottled spirits.

=> Beware of cute litle dogs that follow you, when u go to any sea shore during your vacation. This is most probably a huge rat, that you mistook for a dog.

.

Mahabharath meets God Father

2010-07-01T11:22:00.002+05:30

I know! I know! I have always maintained never to write about movies or books, coz lets face it I really suck at it.

But I could not resist.
In the last couple of days I saw Rajneeti and Singam (or should I say asingam *smirk*)

Yep. Rajneeti was the Mahabharath meets God Father. I have not liked Ranbir kapoor in any of his romantic avatars so far. He just rubs me wrong. (Am I going to be shot for this blasphemy?)

Anyways as an arrogant, know-it-all, strong, silent, manipulative user he comes across so naturally in this movie. I really liked him.
And once the movie was done, I rushed to get my copy of the God father to read it again. It was such a nostalgic pull to read about Michael Corleone
Katrina's character was kinda vague and slightly spineless. I loved Nana patekar though. So calm and collected and always smiling, whether he is encouraging one nephew to kill another or throwing his sister's baby into the river.

Despite my predisposition to find it boring, Rajneeti was a surprisingly interesting movie.

On the other hand, Singam!!!! what a movie!!!
When I fast forwarded the songs, the fight sequences and the so-called comedy (its sad to see how pathetic Vivek has become), the actual movie lasted about 20 minutes.

Small town police man comes to Chennai to clean the dirty polluted city and kill the bad man, played quite predictably by Prakash Raj.

Now and then I had to stare at Surya just to make sure I was not seeing Vijay.

You could literally see Surya and Prakash Raj yawn through the whole movie. It was such an insult to their talent. Wonder why they agreed to it. Hmm! maybe it as an easy means of making money and not have to work too hard histrionically.

But can we blame them? I have not seen any movies under the Sun Pictures and their cousins’ banners that are worth writing home about. The heroines change and the hero remains or the hero changes and the heroines are constant. But whatever changes or remains, the story line (for the lack of a better word) is always the same. Sigh!!!

.

Aaaargh!!!

2010-06-29T10:42:00.002+05:30

I am soooo angry I could chew someone off.

I get up in the morning and see that the trees near the gate have been chopped ruthlessly to half their size.I am a proud tree hugger.

Turns out the school next door did not get enough light coz of the trees, so they sent a man early in the morning to chop them off. No permission, no information, nothing. My dad had seen the deed and hadn't seen fit to stop the atrocity.

I cannot even go scream at the school officials coz my dad had seen it and had not stopped the murderer from maiming my trees, giving an implicit permission.

AAAAArrrgh! I am in a cold war with father, but doesn't seem to have an effect.
I have to rant somewhere before I burst with frustration. *waahhhh*
.

Monday Blues

2010-06-21T10:22:00.002+05:30

Sigh! I cannot believe it is monday already. I have so much more to do over the weekend. Get more sleep, read more books, see some movies. Its Monday morning and I have just come to office and already yearning for Friday evening and feeling blue ... :-) Sigh!!!!!

Walking with Doordarshan

2010-06-16T00:06:00.002+05:30

Join me on a nostalgic walk down the memory lane with DD

1. Mile sur mera

2. Desh Raag

3. Old DD unity

4.Ek anek ektha

5. Jungle book title song

6. Cadbury ad 1

7. Cadbury ad 2

8. Hamara Bajaj

9. Jalebee

Phir mile sur mera tumhara

2010-06-15T23:59:00.002+05:30

It was colourful, peppy and quite entertaining. It had almost all the bollywood and other "wood" stars, and a few artists too. Just so you dont blame them, at the veryyyyyy end some sports persons and military folks were shown. Right when the song was gasping to its end.

I quite liked the idea of having the children of the maestros who sang/played in the original, sing/play with them now.

I absolutely adored Salman's sign language with the kids. Awesome!!!

But I just wish it was not some supposed wacky version of "Mile sur". It looked like a movie promo with all the other artistes and sports personnel left hanging by their nails at the very end. But then this is something A R Rahman is quite famous for: Taking something that is or almost is a classic and changing it until you wince everytime you hear it.

I remember running to TV, as a kid,every time they used to put the original "Mile sur mere" on TV. Every Time!!!!

The original has not been telecast in ages and I understand it has been 22 years since it was created....Today my mom, my cousins and I were able to sing the whole song. Every line and every language.

Its extremely doubtful if the new version would have a miniscule percentage of the impact that the original one had.

An absolute let down!!!!

Teacher, I am NOT!

2010-06-11T12:13:00.001+05:30

I am not a teacher. NOT NOT NOT!!! I never signed in or aspired to be one ... EVER. Despite my aunt's feelings that it is the most gentle and feminine occupation, I have never liked it.

So why, when I am already loaded down with work, am I being forced to teach a gal fresh out of college the ins and outs of the work. Especially when I cannot ditch ..er delegate her to someone else.

If she had had some experience she can fill in the blanks between what I am saying, but she is so new that I have to literally draw lines between point A and B and then take her hand and walk her down the two points.

I am told to empathise and remember that I was a fresher once too. I dont remember how I felt then, but i do know I was not stowed upon some overworked lead and made to learn.
To boot, the gal gives me the most wounded puppy looks when I snap at her for not doing something I ask her to do.

No, it does not evoke any sympathy in me. Call me hard hearted but I just dont have the time.
God! the gal can nod her head. Ask her anything and she nods. Do u understand *nod*, do u Not understand *nod* , Are u ever going to ask any questions if you have any doubts *nod*, are you trying to drive me crazy *nod*...

I understand that she is new to the system. But please god! not me! not now!

Back to School :-(

2010-06-11T12:11:00.000+05:30

When I was in school and lugging around the huge bags, wearing the drab school uniform and same old shoes, taking tests after tests, I used to look with great envy at my Mom and sisters. One was working and the others in college. They could wear beautiful colour dresses, jewels and shoes and most importantly a small fashionable bag was all they took with them.

What plans I had for when I was all grown up and going to work! sighhh!!!!!

After more than half a decade of working .. I seem to have returned to my school days.
I am given a laptop, that I have to lug around whereever I go. (which also brings me at the perpertual beck and call of the powers that be) AND I have mandatory tests that I have to take (with pass percentage of 85, which I am failing brilliantly of course).

Now I look at the school kids and envy them so... They have summer holidays of more than a month. Friends to play or hang out with after school. The seemingly inexhaustible energy bursting from them.

vicious cycle!!! When did I get so old?

The palace of illusions

2010-05-28T18:12:00.004+05:30

This book by Chitra Lekha Divakaruni Banerjee had been creating quite the hullobullo in the blogging world a few months back.

Since I have been in the alternate world as far as books are concerned, this caught my attention only now and I have been wanting to get my hands on a copy of the book. I already have 4 or 5 different Mahabaratha versions, including the 3 volumes comics by Amar Chitra Katha.
Its one of the most fascinating story(ies) ever produced. It has something for everyone and shows a new facet during every read.

Its even more powerful than Ramayan because of the lack of clarity on right and wrong, on good and evil. The story basically revels in gray.

But my all time favourite character in Mahabharatha is Karna.

In all the different versions of the book that I have read, none of the authors were able to put him in a box and label him. For an evil guy who had joined hands with the kauravas, he advices them to face the pandavas in a battle rather than win through cunning. For a guy who is said to be a very wicked person, his name is the cornerstone for charity.

When Krishna and Kunti, both though knowing the truth about his birth, come to see him only before the beginning of the war, to tempt him to the side of Pandavas, his loyalty shines through.

Be it C.Rajagopalachari's classic or Amar chitra katha's comics Karna begins his unlucky life as an obscure character who then gains importance through his friendship with Duryodhana. But from that point he is deemed evil and all his actions are seen with jaundiced eye. There are quite a few mentions about the Evil Karna peppered through the book.

But after Karna gives away his armour and earrings in charity and refuses to join the Pandavas, despite the temptations from Krishna and emotional blackmail from Kunti, he is suddenly the epitome of charity and goodness, though somewhat misled by unwanted loyalty.He then becomes the noble Karna. (well Duh uh)

Bheeshma who insults him at every turn and at every opportunity, suddenly becomes all sacchrine sweet at his death bed.

Karna is a man who is hounded by ill-luck until his very death, and even that through cunning and not on a face to face battle.

I have always been curious about the relationship between Karna and Draupadi and I hear this book deals with that part in detail.
So more after I get my hands on the book.

Eye Candy

2010-05-28T14:45:00.001+05:30

My friends and i have been discussing this for sometime now.
The absolute dearth of eye candy in office. Its so depressing

Its not like we are asking for someone with loads of intelligence and adonis good looks and who is loving and caring with whom we can spend all our lives. (I mean we are talking reality here not someone's fantasy)

Just some eye candy we can spend time sighing upon whenever we see.

Is that so much to ask for?

Someone to pass time on. Just one.

There used to be such an adonis at school. He was a senior, a whole year elder to us. He was also rumoured to have had fought a girl's family for her love and been hurt too.
So not only was he good looking but was also a star crossed lover and a tragic hero. Needless to say my BFF and I spent a whole year having loads of fun discreetly ogling and sighing over him.

The next year he completed school and left, breaking our hearts for almost a week.

So here we are back.. dreaming of an eye candy .. someone to take our minds off our work load now and then.

Wat say gals?