Gulliver's Travels and Alice in Wonderland in one historic TV show. Khali in Bigg Boss. I have never been more excited about TV :P People who have known me long enough know that a lot of things I say should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Also, http://www.vijayalakshmisilks.com/howtowear.htm . Womankind, you have a lot to thank my saree crusading friend for! This Diwali, I will not need any help wrapping 6 yards of handloom around myself.
Shubho Bijoya!
On the road again, always.
Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Saturday, October 16, 2010
A definite nip in the air
... And am I happy! Woke up to shivers, and I know this is about all the winter I will get this year. But something is better than nothing. Bring on the adrak ki chai!
... And happy puja to whoever is reading this. I was never really big on Dussehra, in fact I had to be dragged to go pandal hopping back home in Patna. And then college happened, and with that came the freedom to celebrate only festivals that I enjoy. While I am fervently waiting for Diwali and all the food that I have taken upon myself to make, dusting the suitcases of all the sarees I never wear, planning Diwali cleaning and Dhanteras shopping, and generally feeling like Grihalakshmi (:P), this year I am also surprisingly nostalgic about Dussehra pandals. I guess this happens with age - you start romanticizing about a lot of things and choose to forget how they bored the living daylights out of you when you had the opportunity to make the most out of them.Having said that, getting to the crowded pandals still seems like too much trouble. One day I will go back to one of those, maybe with my kids in tow. (I changed my mind.) Until then, Bengali Dashami buffet lunches it will be for me. Iliiish, here I come!
... And I HATE SALMAN KHAN. I still haven't seen Dabbang, and I can't bring myself to do it. But I can't escape his stare-in-your-face stupidity on Bigg Boss. Now you know I love Bigg Boss, so you can't blame me for pretending to hate Salman Khan because of the whole class-mass factor. The man is unbelievably dense. His jokes make no sense. I don't know why he is still on TV or movies. I don't care about his big biceps and his apparently big heart. I can't stand him! It is becoming increasingly difficult to watch Shahrukh too these days. (Something is terribly wrong with me!) But nothing, not even Shakti Kapoor, comes close to as nauseating as I find Salman Khan. I think I will just skip the Friday shows on Bigg Boss.
... While we are on Bigg Boss, I am getting a little worried about the image of Biharis in the world. The thing is, we are a loud, crazy bunch. Shit proud of ourselves. Whether or not we have anything to pride ourselves upon. Take me for example :P But a certain Manoj Tiwari, whose bhojpuri Chhatth bhajans used to be a regular feature during the most awesomest Bihari festival long ago in my history, is worrying me sick. I mean we Biharis might get hurt when someone nominates us. But we don't take it sitting in a corner feeling sorry for ourselves. We make others feel sorry for themselves. Or we just take it in our stride and say things like "Kisko rehna hai yahaan. Hum baahar jaayenge toh hamaare fan log humko dekh ke pagla jaayenge. Yahaan baith ke hum apna samay kaahe barbaad karein? Hum superstar hain". And more often than not, we mean it. But Manoj Tiwari is just becoming increasingly pathetic on the show. I loved Ravi Kishen and his classic lines that the entire country was chanting with him. Or even Kamaal Khan, who strictly by virtue of acting in Bhojpuri cinema, was as Bihari as me :P But Tiwari ji, get your act together. Jai Bihar!
... And now I am off to think about all the things I am going to do with my Kiney this weekend - just this morning I remembered that was the word for Activas back in college. The only difference now is that the days of borrowing Kineys for some bhelpuri outing are long gone. I own a Kiney now! Yayy to that! As you can see, my initial high is still not over.
... And happy puja to whoever is reading this. I was never really big on Dussehra, in fact I had to be dragged to go pandal hopping back home in Patna. And then college happened, and with that came the freedom to celebrate only festivals that I enjoy. While I am fervently waiting for Diwali and all the food that I have taken upon myself to make, dusting the suitcases of all the sarees I never wear, planning Diwali cleaning and Dhanteras shopping, and generally feeling like Grihalakshmi (:P), this year I am also surprisingly nostalgic about Dussehra pandals. I guess this happens with age - you start romanticizing about a lot of things and choose to forget how they bored the living daylights out of you when you had the opportunity to make the most out of them.
... And I HATE SALMAN KHAN. I still haven't seen Dabbang, and I can't bring myself to do it. But I can't escape his stare-in-your-face stupidity on Bigg Boss. Now you know I love Bigg Boss, so you can't blame me for pretending to hate Salman Khan because of the whole class-mass factor. The man is unbelievably dense. His jokes make no sense. I don't know why he is still on TV or movies. I don't care about his big biceps and his apparently big heart. I can't stand him! It is becoming increasingly difficult to watch Shahrukh too these days. (Something is terribly wrong with me!) But nothing, not even Shakti Kapoor, comes close to as nauseating as I find Salman Khan. I think I will just skip the Friday shows on Bigg Boss.
... While we are on Bigg Boss, I am getting a little worried about the image of Biharis in the world. The thing is, we are a loud, crazy bunch. Shit proud of ourselves. Whether or not we have anything to pride ourselves upon. Take me for example :P But a certain Manoj Tiwari, whose bhojpuri Chhatth bhajans used to be a regular feature during the most awesomest Bihari festival long ago in my history, is worrying me sick. I mean we Biharis might get hurt when someone nominates us. But we don't take it sitting in a corner feeling sorry for ourselves. We make others feel sorry for themselves. Or we just take it in our stride and say things like "Kisko rehna hai yahaan. Hum baahar jaayenge toh hamaare fan log humko dekh ke pagla jaayenge. Yahaan baith ke hum apna samay kaahe barbaad karein? Hum superstar hain". And more often than not, we mean it. But Manoj Tiwari is just becoming increasingly pathetic on the show. I loved Ravi Kishen and his classic lines that the entire country was chanting with him. Or even Kamaal Khan, who strictly by virtue of acting in Bhojpuri cinema, was as Bihari as me :P But Tiwari ji, get your act together. Jai Bihar!
... And now I am off to think about all the things I am going to do with my Kiney this weekend - just this morning I remembered that was the word for Activas back in college. The only difference now is that the days of borrowing Kineys for some bhelpuri outing are long gone. I own a Kiney now! Yayy to that! As you can see, my initial high is still not over.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friends, 24, Frasier, and now...
I never got where I thought I wanted to go, but I always got a great story.
It will be legend-wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is dairy!
Our forefathers died for the pursuit of happiness! Not the "sit-around-and-wait" of happiness!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have finally discovered How I Met Your Mother. And I have finally discovered Barney. A few years too late, but I have!
P.S. That first line about a great story - that has been the story of my life for as long as I can remember. Hooked? You bet I am!
It will be legend-wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is dairy!
Our forefathers died for the pursuit of happiness! Not the "sit-around-and-wait" of happiness!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have finally discovered How I Met Your Mother. And I have finally discovered Barney. A few years too late, but I have!
P.S. That first line about a great story - that has been the story of my life for as long as I can remember. Hooked? You bet I am!
Friday, September 3, 2010
What I have done this week
1. Work. Oh work. Learn, apply, and a couple of times, unlearn and reapply. And an almost oversight. A blunt one at that. It has been crazy. Demands Fragile egos. And my obsessive need to finish everything in 8 hours, not more. I cannot begin to explain how exhausting it has been. And boy am I happy! Like I said, I am weird that way. I am also glad that word documents have taken over a lot of my excel files. I did miss the excel madness after a while, and then EOM happened. And then there was no running away from numbers. Just when words threaten to bore you, numbers come along. And words reappear before you start getting nightmares full of jumbled numbers. Perfect balance I say! Finally, finally I think this is what I was looking for. Finally.
2. Dealing with insecurity.
3. Cooking and cleaning. I always thought I did not believe in inertia. Don't ask me to explain that. But I saw an example this week. After a crazy day, I still went around getting laundry done. And how! And making full meals everyday. Folding clothes, even. It was like I was on fire and refused to stop!
4. Watching Frasier.The adorable pompousness of the Crane brothers has completely replaced the madness of Friends. I think it has something to do with age. For the last 11 years, Friends has been the background music of my life - padhai, party, cleaning, doing nothing were all always accompanied by the American canned laughter. Oh wait. It is not the canned laughter that has disappeared. Only the faces on the screen have changed.
5. Waiting. For the man who has been working late everyday. That explains a lot of the inertia and crankiness this week.
6. Watching Arnab Goswami. Every night. As usual, I am not sure why. From 12 to 1 at night, I have seen boring old men and loud old women scream their lungs out. I have seen my Biharis get kidnapped, and it only felt like the times gone by. I saw Pakistanis foolishly screaming foul. Again. This time about cricket, not terrorism. I will have to say this - with Pakistan, it is now a little difficult to see the difference. I saw Siddhu scream at rotting grains. And Nitish Kumar helpless and hapless just when the world was beginning to think that Bihar was a changed place. At least I was. And I felt sorry for myself and all those people mentioned above. And for the way me and mine entertain ourselves after days full of madness.
6. Dealing with red tape. And overcoming it. A bank locker is like a trophy these days. Banks will quote an obscene figure like Rs 3,00,000 deposit for a tiny locker. Know your rights, ladies and gentlemen, banks cannot put a condition like this to give you a locker. The RBI website clearly mentions this. So you need to know the numbers. And you need to know the branch manager's senior. Nepotism, you say? I say "loha/heera hi lohe/heere ko kaat ta hai".
6. Learning a lot about car windshields. Because ours got devastated. Bangalore rains and Bangalore greenery at their best. A big, strong branch fell on the car while R was in it. He is fine, and I don't like Bangalore again. You will know why, if you do not already.
7. Having street brawls. I have spineless creeps for neighbours. Bloody Bangalorean spineless creeps. I have never seen a bunch of creatures that claim to be alpha males in everyday existence duck, while a woman, an outsider, deals with an auto driver pointing his fist at her. Because she first refused to pay extra and did not have change. For one, I have not seen such rowdy auto drivers. And I have not seen cowards that hit or threaten to hit women, and cowards who hide behind the nearest tree in my oh so green neighbourhood when it comes to dealing with something man-to-man. I say man-to-man because apparently they take a lot of pride in their ability to do it, these bloody spineless Bangaloreans. I was angry with the neighbours for being. With the building watchman for going for an evening stroll. With R for being at work. But most of all, I am angry with myself. I have reported rigged meters, but today, when there was an issue much worse, my brain froze and refused to react constructively. So yes, I hate bloody spineless Bangaloreans. I cannot help it. I have met the worst of the lot I guess - my one time project manager, the auto and cab drivers, 3 other burly bastards who would have been better off being auto drivers, and a bunch of relatives that have made Bangalore their home for generations. All of them bloody spineless creeps. Non Bangaloreans, do not rattle on about how bad your city is. Because I want to wallow in my misery in this post, that is why I am writing it. And Bangaloreans, don't try defending. Apologize, if you just have to say something to this. Except you Chinkurli, I have to tell you that you are the only one that makes me think I have probably only been unlucky until now. So I will listen to whatever you have to say :-) (I cannot wait for my Activa. I know already that I am going to love it like one loves their protector.)
I have been operating like this on very few hours of sleep. Judge me all you want, but 6 hours is just not enough for me. I am fine, in case you are wondering. I have had a rough week, yes. But I did buy a lovely jute bag and 2 books - Shashi Tharoor and PG Wodehouse. And it is finally Friday. And there is chilled beer and rajma and Daily Bread cakes to keep me going. And the aftertaste of a session of stupid accusations that at one point threatened to turn into a full blown fight (which is always good, btw). I need this weekend.
Image courtesy: www.edupics.com
Friday, July 9, 2010
Being A
Imagine A. She watches an episode of Indian Idol on a 17'' monitor on youtube, and not even on full screen on it mind you, and sobs like there is no tomorrow. And no, this was not when Her Bihari got voted out. This was when Rakesh Maini's parents came on stage. And A doesn't even like Rakesh Maini.
Do you think A has lost it beyond hope?
Say yes. Just say yes. Why do you think she is telling the world about it here? Because 'losing it' is probably all she has. Quite an irony, that. No?
Do you think A has lost it beyond hope?
Say yes. Just say yes. Why do you think she is telling the world about it here? Because 'losing it' is probably all she has. Quite an irony, that. No?
Monday, June 28, 2010
I love sleaze
Yes, I do. There were two articles in the newspaper yesterday about how the standard of TV has gone down etc. (I say etc because I have really had enough of this cribbing and complaining about TV.) Apparently everything is either regressive or sleazy. And that Animal Planet apparently is the only good thing on TV. Right? I say wrong!
Why do I watch TV? Because there is not much else in the world that can entertain me with not more effort than clicking a button, literally. I watch TV for entertainment. NGC depresses me. On top of it, shows like India irritate the living daylights out of me - they concentrate on the high rise buildings and megastructures (sic!) of the rest of the world and the slums of India. Bloody firangs. I don't mind Fox History and Travel and Living, but I would still stick with shoe string budget travel shows on NDTV because that is closer to my reality. But for a while let's forget these shows because I don't know anybody who doesn't like them, or at least claims to.
Let's talk about "sleazy" reality shows - Vinita Nangia recently asked for Broadcast Ministry's attention to shows like Spiltsvilla and Bigg Boss. Please! We don't need any more censorship. My question is, who is forcing her to watch them? At her age, she should may be stick with... I don't know... Not watching MTV? Splitsvilla provides me with bitchy entertainment and a lot of laughs. Intentionally and unintentionally. Bigg Boss too. And then there are always commercials and ticker. I watch TV for all that and more. Getting educated/ smarter/ spiritual/ intellectual is not on the list! There is enough all day that we do to "add value". Why does even mindless weeknight entertainment have to follow suit?
People seem to have a problem with American sitcoms too. Let's face it. Connect as we may with these shows, they don't speak of the culture we belong to - so don't criticize them just because jokes with sexual undertones are not your "taste"! Some of us like them, you know? Some of us live to watch those shows and hear those jokes. We get our weeknight kicks from these shows you know. Call us losers, or lacking in any intellectual capability, we don't like our favourite shows being trashed over and over again! Don't even get me started on the success stories of these sitcoms. Name ONE show on whatever "intellectually driven" channels you watch that ran for 10 years without losing its viewership. People make what sells. Thank God for small mercies.
And then Indian Idol. I have a major problem with kids' talent shows, but this post is not about the TV shows I have a problem with. Why does everyone worth their graduate degree (especially in something high and mighty) trash Indian Idol? I love Indian Idol. I vote for their contestants. Honestly I haven't been able to follow it as religiously this year as I have in the past. But Indian Idol for me is good hour long entertainment. There is music. There is nonsense. There are these two jokers on stage - Abhijeet and Hussain (personally I prefer Mini Mathur over Abhijeet - everyone can't do everything you know). And there is our home grown rockstar Sunidhi Chauhan and Annu Mallik's really weird shayari. I miss Javed Akhtar, Farah Khan, and Sonu Nigam. But the new ones are strictly OK too, as long as it is entertainment you are following Indian Indol for.
I have heard people question regressive TV shows ever so often. I used to, too. Until recently a tennis champ I know happily got married into a family that at least in Facebook pictures looks exactly like Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. Jazzy, decked up, waiting every evening for their men to turn up. And spend the rest of the day cooking and Facebooking. (Do you realise how once it was music that broke all barriers, now it is Facebook.) It may be a case of chicken and eggs. But the similarity is striking. So maybe, just maybe regressive shows like those have a target audience too - those on the edge and those already on the other side of the world that we live in.
Why do I watch TV? Because there is not much else in the world that can entertain me with not more effort than clicking a button, literally. I watch TV for entertainment. NGC depresses me. On top of it, shows like India irritate the living daylights out of me - they concentrate on the high rise buildings and megastructures (sic!) of the rest of the world and the slums of India. Bloody firangs. I don't mind Fox History and Travel and Living, but I would still stick with shoe string budget travel shows on NDTV because that is closer to my reality. But for a while let's forget these shows because I don't know anybody who doesn't like them, or at least claims to.
Let's talk about "sleazy" reality shows - Vinita Nangia recently asked for Broadcast Ministry's attention to shows like Spiltsvilla and Bigg Boss. Please! We don't need any more censorship. My question is, who is forcing her to watch them? At her age, she should may be stick with... I don't know... Not watching MTV? Splitsvilla provides me with bitchy entertainment and a lot of laughs. Intentionally and unintentionally. Bigg Boss too. And then there are always commercials and ticker. I watch TV for all that and more. Getting educated/ smarter/ spiritual/ intellectual is not on the list! There is enough all day that we do to "add value". Why does even mindless weeknight entertainment have to follow suit?
People seem to have a problem with American sitcoms too. Let's face it. Connect as we may with these shows, they don't speak of the culture we belong to - so don't criticize them just because jokes with sexual undertones are not your "taste"! Some of us like them, you know? Some of us live to watch those shows and hear those jokes. We get our weeknight kicks from these shows you know. Call us losers, or lacking in any intellectual capability, we don't like our favourite shows being trashed over and over again! Don't even get me started on the success stories of these sitcoms. Name ONE show on whatever "intellectually driven" channels you watch that ran for 10 years without losing its viewership. People make what sells. Thank God for small mercies.
And then Indian Idol. I have a major problem with kids' talent shows, but this post is not about the TV shows I have a problem with. Why does everyone worth their graduate degree (especially in something high and mighty) trash Indian Idol? I love Indian Idol. I vote for their contestants. Honestly I haven't been able to follow it as religiously this year as I have in the past. But Indian Idol for me is good hour long entertainment. There is music. There is nonsense. There are these two jokers on stage - Abhijeet and Hussain (personally I prefer Mini Mathur over Abhijeet - everyone can't do everything you know). And there is our home grown rockstar Sunidhi Chauhan and Annu Mallik's really weird shayari. I miss Javed Akhtar, Farah Khan, and Sonu Nigam. But the new ones are strictly OK too, as long as it is entertainment you are following Indian Indol for.
I have heard people question regressive TV shows ever so often. I used to, too. Until recently a tennis champ I know happily got married into a family that at least in Facebook pictures looks exactly like Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. Jazzy, decked up, waiting every evening for their men to turn up. And spend the rest of the day cooking and Facebooking. (Do you realise how once it was music that broke all barriers, now it is Facebook.) It may be a case of chicken and eggs. But the similarity is striking. So maybe, just maybe regressive shows like those have a target audience too - those on the edge and those already on the other side of the world that we live in.
I love TV. With all its sleaze and nonsense. I love almost all of its sub standard shows. And if I don't like them, I don't go on and on about hating them. I know it will not make me sound smarter than I am. And I know how annoying it can be when everyone starts cribbing about TV together and it becomes difficult to differentiate between the "wannabe intellectuals" with the real ones.
I don't take my entertainment seriously.
I just realized. If I showed half as much tolerance and "compassion" even, towards flesh and blood human beings as I do towards TV shows, a big chunk of my "problems" (real and imagined) would have disappeared without notice. So much for freedom of expression :P
Unapologetically yours.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Auntie Chronicles/ The Goddess of Small Things
Because I couldn't decide which one of the two headings was more accurate.
(If you are still pretending to be the kind of wife that doesn't need to be responsible for anything around the house (like I had been until a couple of months ago), just close this tab!)
(In almost 7 years of REGULAR blogging, I have finally managed to churn out my most boring, mundane, I-had-cornflakes-for-breakfast-it-is-a-sunny-day post EVER.)
Of late the quality of my posts has gone down the dumps? Why? I haven't had much to say. And things that I want to say are either already said on someone else's blog or I don't have the time (I have surprised myself at how often I have said this recently. Am I complaining? Hardly!) or the patience to write. Life has been awesomely and brilliantly busy of late, what with loads of interesting work, stuff around the house to be taken care of, so much of it carried over to weekends, and all the shopping and planning to do this month - an anniversary and a birthday (not mine!) and Fathers Day (call me cheesy, I celebrate everything) and a long overdue visit from my sis - I simply love June! R has been very busy at work, and I am finally beginning to understand what people mean when they say that handling both home and work isn't easy. However it is definitely not rocket science. I think we are managing quite well. So far so good!
One of the most awesome things in the world is to reach office in the morning and realise you are the first person to walk in. The first cup of office coffee in such amazing, and such unlikely silence is definitely the best way to kick start to the day. Highly recommended! There was a time when reaching office that early was a regular thing. Primarily to escape the rush hour crowd in the local train. But it's easy to do that when you have a bowl of steaming hot oats (yuck!) and a cup of chai waiting for you on the dining table when you decide to bless the world with your freshly bathed, awesome smelling self :P But now mornings are a rush - with R deciding to take on the world by cleaning every corner of the house early in the morning, and the overcome-with-guilt me try to match up by pretending to be very busy making chai. LOL! A word of gyaan - refusing to boot the laptop in the morning helps! No Facebook. No blogs. No gmail. Not that early in the morning for sure! Sigh! When did I grow up? :-)
I have a saviour for my morning rush - the new maid. Parbati. This girl from Nepal. I feel bad for her - she has just moved to Bangalore from her village in Nepal. She can't read time, speaks broken Hindi, and looks like the quintessential kanchi. I wonder just how lost she must feel in the big bad world. Tells me though that her husband helps her in the kitchen. Men have evolved. Such a pleasant far cry from Ma quietly listening to her domestic helps' woes of a drunkard, violent husband every other morning, quietly because those women didn't seem like they particularly wanted to change anything. That said, if Sholay was made in our day and age, I would have told my kids "beta so jao, subah subah fir Parbati didi aa jaayengi". Seriously! No matter how much I plead with her, be stern with her, she will always, without fail, come before I can even think of getting out of bed. And once she is in, the busy body starts turning the kitchen upside down, and I am not sure what I was thinking when I decided to live in a house with an open kitchen. While this is blessing in disguise on weekdays, it can be such a pain in the wrong place on a weekend when all you want to do is sleep in late. And she can't cut vegetables for peanuts. And I must tell you than bhindi torn from the centre doesn't taste half as good as one that is cut well. She is worse than me! I still like her. I must be crazy!
Has everyone watched Rajneeti? Prakash Jha, my dad, and R are all from the same school. So my otherwise hardly-movie-watching dad (That's new though, he has spent many afternoons doing back to back in Regal and Metro) saw the movie on the Friday that it released. And I, of the FDFS fame, the only one in my extended khandaan that still believes in the wonders of FDFS, hasn't seen the movie yet! Surprisingly, I am not depressed about it. Where is the time? But this Saturday I will have to. I really can't lose my identity in this mad rush of life (big words, no?), so what if my identity is primarily defined by the number of Bollywood masala movies I have seen on the first weekend. There is Rajneeti and Toy Story, and I am waiting for IHLS. And I missed Well Done Abba and its DVD is almost never available on seventymm and Big Flix. So I have a whole lot of back log to catch up on.
I finally managed to finish 3 seasons of Frasier, and I am glad I did. Even Niles is coming around now, I quite like him. Never thought I would, when I saw him in the first season. Which reminds me. Has any one of you watched Heroes? I started, and I couldn't survive the first couple of episodes. Am I missing something? What's the the fuss about?
I read something in the newspaper today, and I am raving mad. Most of the times it doesn't take much for people to drive me there, but this one I think is not one of those small things I over react at. I read Jeffrey Archer's interview in Bangalore Times this morning. And unless it is proved that this is case of yellow journalism, I am not going to read his books again. And no, this is not an excuse for not reading his books because I don't understand them. I don't remember if I do, because the last time I read Jeffrey Archer was in class 10. I think someone forced it upon me, I have never been so fond of suspense thrillers (that's what he writes about, right? See how much I know about him?). Except maybe Daphne Du Maurrier. Not sure if I will manage to survive her now too. See Mr Archer? You don't like India (I guess you are secretly afraid we will drive you back to your high and mighty phoren country, the Englishman that you are.), I don't like you. Case closed. Give me an Indian writing in English. Or Enid Blyton. Any day.
Which reminds me. I managed to finish all my Malory Towers. All the books I had that is. One of these days I will go book shopping again. Any recommendations? I already told you my preference, so. It was fun to revisit Darrel Rivers and group again. I never knew that the second series of Malory Towers was released last year - with Darrel's sister Felicity taking the lead. As is the case with all sequels, it is not as good as the first series. But the characters are nearly the same as Darrel's batch. The names are new though. So it helps. I liked it. There's nothing to not like.
Have you been watching the soccer WC? I prefer Indian Idol! But I gave in to the pressure after my FB homepage was full of self confessed "soccer freaks" (that only remember they like the game during WC - I think they watch it for the WAGs. I know all the abbreviations, see?). Then of course are the genuine ones. Some of my friends. They bunked/ reconsidered taking university exams because they had matches to watch all night. I say this passion for soccer in Indians comes from the lack of pressure to win. Cricket has been disappointing recently. Anyway coming back to succumbing to the pressure of watching soccer. I tried last night. But slept off. In a match between Italy and Paraguay, even I know who will win. Not Paraguay by a long shot, right? Let me go check. Ah! It was a draw. What do I know about soccer?
Am I the only one who has extremely annoying relatives on Facebook? The ones who dispense random gyaan that sounds like the back cover of the cardboard bound registers we used to scribble math sums on in school? Quotes on leadership and other such trivial matters in status updates. It gets annoying, doesn't it?
While we are on relatives (and friends), I have a new pet peeve. Why can't a married woman be low without being asked if she had had a fight with her husband? And why can't she fall sick without people asking her or secretly wondering if she is "carrying". Don't get me wrong, my fights with R make me miserable. But it helps that our fights don't last longer than a couple of hours. And no, we don't pretend to be the samajhdaar couple that doesn't sleep without resolving the fight. When we fight, we fight. And we are secure enough to know that neither of us will run off in the night if we don't resolve the fight before sleeping off at night. That said, if I am upset for a couple of days at a stretch, slim chance it is because of a fight. And if I am unwell for over 3 days, please be aware that I am absolutely non-immune to running noses and violent coughs. And much as I want to have kids, I am not "carrying". Yet.
Why can't we enjoy monsoons and pakodas and chai and all the bliss that comes with it without running the risk of catching a cold/ coughing for an entire week/ getting stuck in traffic for hours/ auto drivers demanding the moon to take you home (YOUR home, you dirty people!). Not that I have to deal with auto drivers too often now. Just saying. So the other day I was galivanting in the scorching heat, when the weather suddenly took a turn, and it rained. And the next day I was coughing and sniffing and considering going on sick leave. I didn't. But I remembered another era. When a bunch of us would take internal exams, then sit at a friend's house till 2:30 am, and then ride all the way to Mahabaleshwar on bikes that didn't have gears (to start with), and back, all in a matter of 15 hours. During the crazy Maharashtra monsoons. 15 hours of being drenched on the road. On bikes. I can only imagine how the wheel of the world would stop turning if I did that now. 2 hours, may be. 3 is good too. Not getting drenched and going on abnormally long drives in the pretty red ride we have - that would be something!We are getting old. OK R would not like it if I said this about him on a public forum - he is still my young and dashing Ranchi ka Rajkumar ;) I am getting old. Am I complaining, still? Not in the least :-)
Speaking of weather, I have been unbelievably lazy the last few days. I have been going through the motions of getting up, getting dressed, getting to work, cooking, and all that. But at the back of my mind I can only think of sleeping. Sleeping like there is no tomorrow. Sleeping at the risk of missing the little pleasures of watching the little maid of Nepal/ Mr Frasier Crane/ life in action. And I am not the only one. At the entrance of my office building, I see 3 dogs every single day. They don't move. I am not kidding you. You can do a hop, skip, jump, and they will just about open their eyes, look at you sleepily, and go right back to sleep. Ok now I am talking non sense.
Speaking of office buildings, is it just me that finds these sprawling tech parks a tad bit obscene, to say the least? I mean I am all for a comfortable office to work in. But the amount of land that is wasted on making these sprawling campuses in a country where wealth is not justly (that's a word, I just checked) distributed at all, for people to code comfortably, or make pretty PPTs, or whatever. It's all good. But whatever happened to that thing called practicality? Usability? Usefulness? I don't even particularly like the sprawling building societies, but I don't think I will be able to help living in one of them. I can avoid working in suburban tech parks. So far I have managed quite well. I like to be in the middle of all the action. Know what I mean? It is more about perspective I guess. The same contrasts make sure I am always in awe of Bombay. I respect Bombay for the same contrasts that I dislike Bangalore for. Do I have to think fairly all the time? Or at all? Do I even need to start explaining that I am right? Of course I am!
Coming back to my love for Bangalore (I mean it. This city is by far the best I have lived in. Even Bombay had its faults. I live in a house/ city where I can get pin drop silence when I want to, just when I want to. That says more about Bangalore vs Bombay than anything ever will), the weather is magical. My sister is coming here in a little over 2 weeks. And I have a birthday to celebrate and plan for in exactly 1 week+1 day.
Life's good? Couldn't be better!
:-)
P.S. - Did you actually read this load of crap? You must really love me!
(If you are still pretending to be the kind of wife that doesn't need to be responsible for anything around the house (like I had been until a couple of months ago), just close this tab!)
(In almost 7 years of REGULAR blogging, I have finally managed to churn out my most boring, mundane, I-had-cornflakes-for-breakfast-it-is-a-sunny-day post EVER.)
Of late the quality of my posts has gone down the dumps? Why? I haven't had much to say. And things that I want to say are either already said on someone else's blog or I don't have the time (I have surprised myself at how often I have said this recently. Am I complaining? Hardly!) or the patience to write. Life has been awesomely and brilliantly busy of late, what with loads of interesting work, stuff around the house to be taken care of, so much of it carried over to weekends, and all the shopping and planning to do this month - an anniversary and a birthday (not mine!) and Fathers Day (call me cheesy, I celebrate everything) and a long overdue visit from my sis - I simply love June! R has been very busy at work, and I am finally beginning to understand what people mean when they say that handling both home and work isn't easy. However it is definitely not rocket science. I think we are managing quite well. So far so good!
One of the most awesome things in the world is to reach office in the morning and realise you are the first person to walk in. The first cup of office coffee in such amazing, and such unlikely silence is definitely the best way to kick start to the day. Highly recommended! There was a time when reaching office that early was a regular thing. Primarily to escape the rush hour crowd in the local train. But it's easy to do that when you have a bowl of steaming hot oats (yuck!) and a cup of chai waiting for you on the dining table when you decide to bless the world with your freshly bathed, awesome smelling self :P But now mornings are a rush - with R deciding to take on the world by cleaning every corner of the house early in the morning, and the overcome-with-guilt me try to match up by pretending to be very busy making chai. LOL! A word of gyaan - refusing to boot the laptop in the morning helps! No Facebook. No blogs. No gmail. Not that early in the morning for sure! Sigh! When did I grow up? :-)
I have a saviour for my morning rush - the new maid. Parbati. This girl from Nepal. I feel bad for her - she has just moved to Bangalore from her village in Nepal. She can't read time, speaks broken Hindi, and looks like the quintessential kanchi. I wonder just how lost she must feel in the big bad world. Tells me though that her husband helps her in the kitchen. Men have evolved. Such a pleasant far cry from Ma quietly listening to her domestic helps' woes of a drunkard, violent husband every other morning, quietly because those women didn't seem like they particularly wanted to change anything. That said, if Sholay was made in our day and age, I would have told my kids "beta so jao, subah subah fir Parbati didi aa jaayengi". Seriously! No matter how much I plead with her, be stern with her, she will always, without fail, come before I can even think of getting out of bed. And once she is in, the busy body starts turning the kitchen upside down, and I am not sure what I was thinking when I decided to live in a house with an open kitchen. While this is blessing in disguise on weekdays, it can be such a pain in the wrong place on a weekend when all you want to do is sleep in late. And she can't cut vegetables for peanuts. And I must tell you than bhindi torn from the centre doesn't taste half as good as one that is cut well. She is worse than me! I still like her. I must be crazy!
Has everyone watched Rajneeti? Prakash Jha, my dad, and R are all from the same school. So my otherwise hardly-movie-watching dad (That's new though, he has spent many afternoons doing back to back in Regal and Metro) saw the movie on the Friday that it released. And I, of the FDFS fame, the only one in my extended khandaan that still believes in the wonders of FDFS, hasn't seen the movie yet! Surprisingly, I am not depressed about it. Where is the time? But this Saturday I will have to. I really can't lose my identity in this mad rush of life (big words, no?), so what if my identity is primarily defined by the number of Bollywood masala movies I have seen on the first weekend. There is Rajneeti and Toy Story, and I am waiting for IHLS. And I missed Well Done Abba and its DVD is almost never available on seventymm and Big Flix. So I have a whole lot of back log to catch up on.
I finally managed to finish 3 seasons of Frasier, and I am glad I did. Even Niles is coming around now, I quite like him. Never thought I would, when I saw him in the first season. Which reminds me. Has any one of you watched Heroes? I started, and I couldn't survive the first couple of episodes. Am I missing something? What's the the fuss about?
I read something in the newspaper today, and I am raving mad. Most of the times it doesn't take much for people to drive me there, but this one I think is not one of those small things I over react at. I read Jeffrey Archer's interview in Bangalore Times this morning. And unless it is proved that this is case of yellow journalism, I am not going to read his books again. And no, this is not an excuse for not reading his books because I don't understand them. I don't remember if I do, because the last time I read Jeffrey Archer was in class 10. I think someone forced it upon me, I have never been so fond of suspense thrillers (that's what he writes about, right? See how much I know about him?). Except maybe Daphne Du Maurrier. Not sure if I will manage to survive her now too. See Mr Archer? You don't like India (I guess you are secretly afraid we will drive you back to your high and mighty phoren country, the Englishman that you are.), I don't like you. Case closed. Give me an Indian writing in English. Or Enid Blyton. Any day.
Which reminds me. I managed to finish all my Malory Towers. All the books I had that is. One of these days I will go book shopping again. Any recommendations? I already told you my preference, so. It was fun to revisit Darrel Rivers and group again. I never knew that the second series of Malory Towers was released last year - with Darrel's sister Felicity taking the lead. As is the case with all sequels, it is not as good as the first series. But the characters are nearly the same as Darrel's batch. The names are new though. So it helps. I liked it. There's nothing to not like.
Have you been watching the soccer WC? I prefer Indian Idol! But I gave in to the pressure after my FB homepage was full of self confessed "soccer freaks" (that only remember they like the game during WC - I think they watch it for the WAGs. I know all the abbreviations, see?). Then of course are the genuine ones. Some of my friends. They bunked/ reconsidered taking university exams because they had matches to watch all night. I say this passion for soccer in Indians comes from the lack of pressure to win. Cricket has been disappointing recently. Anyway coming back to succumbing to the pressure of watching soccer. I tried last night. But slept off. In a match between Italy and Paraguay, even I know who will win. Not Paraguay by a long shot, right? Let me go check. Ah! It was a draw. What do I know about soccer?
Am I the only one who has extremely annoying relatives on Facebook? The ones who dispense random gyaan that sounds like the back cover of the cardboard bound registers we used to scribble math sums on in school? Quotes on leadership and other such trivial matters in status updates. It gets annoying, doesn't it?
While we are on relatives (and friends), I have a new pet peeve. Why can't a married woman be low without being asked if she had had a fight with her husband? And why can't she fall sick without people asking her or secretly wondering if she is "carrying". Don't get me wrong, my fights with R make me miserable. But it helps that our fights don't last longer than a couple of hours. And no, we don't pretend to be the samajhdaar couple that doesn't sleep without resolving the fight. When we fight, we fight. And we are secure enough to know that neither of us will run off in the night if we don't resolve the fight before sleeping off at night. That said, if I am upset for a couple of days at a stretch, slim chance it is because of a fight. And if I am unwell for over 3 days, please be aware that I am absolutely non-immune to running noses and violent coughs. And much as I want to have kids, I am not "carrying". Yet.
Why can't we enjoy monsoons and pakodas and chai and all the bliss that comes with it without running the risk of catching a cold/ coughing for an entire week/ getting stuck in traffic for hours/ auto drivers demanding the moon to take you home (YOUR home, you dirty people!). Not that I have to deal with auto drivers too often now. Just saying. So the other day I was galivanting in the scorching heat, when the weather suddenly took a turn, and it rained. And the next day I was coughing and sniffing and considering going on sick leave. I didn't. But I remembered another era. When a bunch of us would take internal exams, then sit at a friend's house till 2:30 am, and then ride all the way to Mahabaleshwar on bikes that didn't have gears (to start with), and back, all in a matter of 15 hours. During the crazy Maharashtra monsoons. 15 hours of being drenched on the road. On bikes. I can only imagine how the wheel of the world would stop turning if I did that now. 2 hours, may be. 3 is good too. Not getting drenched and going on abnormally long drives in the pretty red ride we have - that would be something!
Speaking of weather, I have been unbelievably lazy the last few days. I have been going through the motions of getting up, getting dressed, getting to work, cooking, and all that. But at the back of my mind I can only think of sleeping. Sleeping like there is no tomorrow. Sleeping at the risk of missing the little pleasures of watching the little maid of Nepal/ Mr Frasier Crane/ life in action. And I am not the only one. At the entrance of my office building, I see 3 dogs every single day. They don't move. I am not kidding you. You can do a hop, skip, jump, and they will just about open their eyes, look at you sleepily, and go right back to sleep. Ok now I am talking non sense.
Speaking of office buildings, is it just me that finds these sprawling tech parks a tad bit obscene, to say the least? I mean I am all for a comfortable office to work in. But the amount of land that is wasted on making these sprawling campuses in a country where wealth is not justly (that's a word, I just checked) distributed at all, for people to code comfortably, or make pretty PPTs, or whatever. It's all good. But whatever happened to that thing called practicality? Usability? Usefulness? I don't even particularly like the sprawling building societies, but I don't think I will be able to help living in one of them. I can avoid working in suburban tech parks. So far I have managed quite well. I like to be in the middle of all the action. Know what I mean? It is more about perspective I guess. The same contrasts make sure I am always in awe of Bombay. I respect Bombay for the same contrasts that I dislike Bangalore for. Do I have to think fairly all the time? Or at all? Do I even need to start explaining that I am right? Of course I am!
Coming back to my love for Bangalore (I mean it. This city is by far the best I have lived in. Even Bombay had its faults. I live in a house/ city where I can get pin drop silence when I want to, just when I want to. That says more about Bangalore vs Bombay than anything ever will), the weather is magical. My sister is coming here in a little over 2 weeks. And I have a birthday to celebrate and plan for in exactly 1 week+1 day.
Life's good? Couldn't be better!
:-)
P.S. - Did you actually read this load of crap? You must really love me!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The "sleaze" called IPL
While the whole world is concentrating on Lalit Modi and worse still, Shashi Tharoor, Bipasha Basu goes and does a Rakhi Sawant.. In the stadium, no less. Talk about sleaze! What were the organisers and the lady in question thinking? They make me want to see Rakhi Sawant in Big Boss all over again, she doesn't pretend to be an intellectual thinking Bong actress off stage at least (which of course brings me to another question about Bongs as a community, but I'll refrain from asking).
What a put off! Rangarang karyakram at its worst.. Why are people taking this carnival to new lows everyday? Absolutely uncalled for at a sporting event!
P.S. - I am not even done with Bipasha yet, and the muscle flexing Shahid is on now. Why can't he stick with movies? Money really does talk. Too loud sometimes.
Edited to add: Why are the dancers behind Shahid so out of sync!? Why are the singers so out of tune? Why's nothing right about this concert of sorts?
What a put off! Rangarang karyakram at its worst.. Why are people taking this carnival to new lows everyday? Absolutely uncalled for at a sporting event!
P.S. - I am not even done with Bipasha yet, and the muscle flexing Shahid is on now. Why can't he stick with movies? Money really does talk. Too loud sometimes.
Edited to add: Why are the dancers behind Shahid so out of sync!? Why are the singers so out of tune? Why's nothing right about this concert of sorts?
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