26/11 revisited

26.11.08. Around 9 pm. Me. Lolling around my house. Thinking whether to order a pizza or eat the oily veggies the maid has cooked. Frantic call from SA. Gang war has broken out in town (South Mumbai). Me.Thinking. Whatever..SA gets easily excited..must be in Nagpada or Dongri or some such ghetto populated with the Mumbai Mafioso. Still wondering what to eat. Call from parents. Switch on the TV. Lound bangs, people running, blood, police, hysteria. Alarm bells ringing dangerously loud in my head. The scenes on the television become a blur. SA and I huddle together and the realization of the enormity of the situation dawned on me…one of the most audacious terrorist acts ever witnessed in the history of the world was unfolding in front of our tear filled eyes. CST, Leopold (apna leos!!!), Taj, Trident, Cama Hospital, Nariman House all being plundered and bloodied by 10 armed Laskar-e-Taiba men who in an hours time took the term “terrorism” to a different level all together. For the next 70 hours the whole of Mumbai (and I am presuming the rest of India) sat glued to their television screens watching the longest LIVE battle being fought between our forces and those brainwashed-twisted-in the-heads-motherfuckers! (Don’t expect an apology for the colorful language.)

The aftermath was oodles and oodles of angst, television debates (remember the one in which the Simi Garewal proved her “bimbette” status on national television when she commented on the “Pakistani” flags, which "She" could see in a slum from a suburban restaurant.” I rolled my eyes so hard at that one that my eyeballs totally disappeared into my head! ), talk about peace marches, frustration, renewed sense of patriotism, renewed hatred for everything “Pakistani” and so forth and so on.

I remember going for the peace march after a week of the attacks. I had to leave early from my office. My boss, who knew the reason why I wanted to leave early, and totally sympathized with my unchanelled angst, told me that if anyone in office asks, I should say that I am going to meet a doctor! I wanted to kill every such insensitive “anyone” in the office who did not think that joining a peace march to show solidarity towards the cause of avenging the hideous terrorist attacks, was reason enough to leave office by 6 pm!! And most of the people who I asked to join me for the march, came up with “Oh I would love to, BUT…”, “That’s great! You MUST go, I would come too, BUT…”. I just COULD NOT understand the reasons of the BUTS. Was this not the time to leave everything, and I mean everything, aside and join the common cause. I kept my fear of traveling on the local train (“No local train no matter what” has been my mantra since the July 2007 attacks) aside that day (don’t smirk, I know it was not a huge sacrifice, but you have no idea how shaken up I was after the local train blast…but thats for another post another time) and boarded the fast local from Bandra to Church Gate. I was to meet a friend at Churchgate. When I got at Churchgate, I was overwhelmed with the mass hysteria at the station, there were thousands and thousands of people, already sloganeering, placards held high, marching ahead with such firmness in step and determination on the face, that my eyes welled up with tears (again!). I didn’t know the way from the station to Gateway of India, but there was no reason to worry. The entire mass of human bodies that night was moving in perfect sync in the same direction. Somehow I united with my friend and her friend along the march. Till date, it is not possible for me to explain the feeling that washed over me that night. Being part of such raw energy, shaking hands with the unassuming NSG commandos on the way and thanking them for being there for us, lighting a candle in front of Taj, my eyes are filling up again while I type this. I felt my stomach knot up, all our eyes shone the brightest of bright, everyone smiled at everyone else and I thought…this is it! This is when my country will stop being ho-hum and will have a new generation of competent, vociferous, righteous, young blooded leaders who will lead my nation right to the top of the world, away from terrorism, poverty, and all other vices that are sucking off the blood like leeches from my country.

But that was a year ago. Within a month all the angst and rage mellowed down and then disappeared. We were swiftly caught again in the whirlwind of jobs, parties, movies, friends and things which REALLY matter. Now on the 1st year anniversary of that event, the tamasha is on full-swing for the day. The politicians sending out their condolences to the bereaved, promising a new tomorrow, asserting that Pakistan will certainly taken to task. In May this year, the bastard’s (Qasab) trial began. My blood boils just thinking of how much of my tax money is being used up to provide “justice” to that low life piece of scum! What is with the farce of this trial, when there is overwhelming evidence and the fact is proven beyond doubt. That guy should have headed for the capital within a month of his capture.

Yesterday we were at dinner with some foreign counsels. And to fill up a lull in the conversation, I mentioned how today will be the first anniversary of those attacks. While my Indian colleagues all agitated and incensed at the reminder, started cursing the terrorists, the government etc. etc. this Brit guy suddenly asked “Does anyone wants dessert?”. I was incredulous but could do nothing but smile politely at him. The guy had the cheek to say further “I just wanted to change the topic”. In my head I went “WHHHAAAATTTT!!! UP YOURS!!” Outwardly, again I smiled sympathetically at him as if I perfectly understood how traumatic it must be for him to be a part of this ghastly “conversation”!! argghhhhhh…

Anyways…I am not sure what I started writing and where have I ended but I am having these mood swings since today morning and tears have sprung up in my eyes for no reason at all and I am feeling unnecessarily overwhelmed, so I thought the best would be to get it out here.

Thanks for reading through and as one of the RJ’s on FM said in the morning “Loosing my Religion” is a pre-requisite to bring peace in this bloodied world. Hail to REM and may peace be!

Season's Greetings

Wishing everyone a very prosperous AND a very belated happy deepawali. I had gone to my parents’ for diwali and what fun it was! All my siblings (well almost all except my sister and brother-in-law) would gather around at midnight and play cards till wee hours of the night in between chai, bhel poori, paan and cashew nuts. It was a blast. Also, I saw Blue and no, I won’t provide my point of view here since I assume that the infamy of that movie has now reached far and wide by now. I mean, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! And Sanjay Dutt should just absolutely retire.
Anyway, the reason of the lapse in updating this blog is that when I wrote the last time, the power of my laptop went out just before I was to click “Submit”. That really put me off and it took a lot of perseverance from my side to put aside the traumatic incident and start typing again. I know, I know…these are the highlights of my life!
Also back home, something very funny happened. There is this family astrologer who had come over to my cousins’ on bhai dooj. Now he had been sitting there for hours, yapping away to glory for the benefit of anyone who would care to listen. Everyone (by turn) had to go and entertain him so he would not feel neglected. When it was my parents’ turn, inevitably my mother popped THE question – “When will this one get married?” pointing an accusing finger towards me. The panditji (finally happy that someone was desperately eager to reap the benefits of his knowledge) asked my parents my date of birth. My father told him the date and month, but when it came to the year he stuttered “19…? Umm 198…umm?” and then blankly looked at my mother, who equally blankly returned his stare. Finally, when I could not stand the humiliation of my parents’ forgetting my year of birth, I let the panditji know my year of birth. The next question he asked put my parents’ in an even worse situation – “time of birth”. Father – “ummm…errr..6am..no no 10 pm no no umm errr”. Mother –“Arre, wait it was umm..errr… 3 am no no 7 pm…Oh! It was 6 pm!”. Me (when I could not handle it anymore) -“NOOOOOO it was 11.45 pm”. Mother & Father (in unison) –“Ofcourse ofcourse. That’s what we were about to say!”. My sister’s ominous voice, from the time when we were kids and she used to bully me, started ringing in my ears – “You are adopted”, “We picked you up from the gutter”. I quickly put the thoughts aside and started listening to the panditji who was telling my mother that by July 2010 I would be married. He even bet a Kosa kurta and dhoti with my mother when his prophecy would come true. Post that my mother was seen with a spring in her step throughout the day. What do I say…humph..!!

Sex and the City

Went for a vacation to Bangkok and Pattaya. This vacation has been in the offing for around 3 months. And yes, the important fact to keep in mind is that this was an all-girls' vacation, the fellow vacationers being GS, SM and another ex-colleague of ours. I know what you are thinking and I have already heard all that before from everyone who was informed of the vacation: "All girls!", "There is nothing for girls to do in Thailand!", "Really?Okkkkayy!", etc. etc. At that time I thought that people are just jealous that I am going on an all girls' vacation to Thailand...I mean how cool am I!!

So the day we reached Bangkok, we boarded a bus and headed straight to Pattaya from the airport. All sleepy headed and bleary eyed, my first impression on entering Pattaya was - "This is Goa! Only cleaner and with wider roads". On reaching our resort (which was this quaint, tree-filled place which we absolutely fell in love with) we were met with our guide , Jim something. He told us what all we could do in Pattaya etc. etc. And then in very hushed tones he asked us if we were interested in a "live show". We were all like "uh?" "huh?" and then asked him what exactly was presented "live" in this "live show". So dear Jim after blushing adequately and looking appropriately uncomfortable told us that it was a live "sex" show! All four of us went "haw", "he bhagwan", "nahi nahi". But then curiosity got the better of us and we asked him what really happened in the show and then Jim, in his limited English vocabulary, explained to us how, in the show, a man did things with his manside (??). Fascinated as were, we decided against it and headed to our rooms where we slept for a couple of hours and headed out to the Gem's Gallery which, were told, is the biggest jewellery store in Asia. After ambling through the showroom without buying anything (obviously!) we decided that we were hungry and landed at the Walking Street which is the hub of all that is Pattaya. After doing a li'l shopping we turned into this lane in the Walking Street which had all red-bulb lit bars on either side. There were all sorts of women lolling outside these bars wearing clother ranging from almost there to almost nothing. and making lascivious gestures at all the pot-bellied firang old hags that were roaming the streets. I felt that the women out there were sneering at me, looking at me and probably thinking "what a fool, romaing around here all wide eyed with an idiotic smile pasted on the face! get out of here and go sight seeing!". I was totally smitten by the atmosphere, it was a different world all together, something which I was brought up to judge and look down upon at. But standing there looking at those women I realised that these ones were brought up with the idea that putting yourself up for sale was one of the many professions that people take up and it was perfectly alright to do so. And in the night not only those side lanes, but the entire city comes to life, with these women/transvestites (its difficult to differentiate) thronging the beach, the road, the shops. The only couples that you can see there are those comprising of a fat old firang and a petite young chinky.

Then suddenly we started seeing them- hairy, lecherous and brown skinned- The Indian Uncles! They were everywhere, ogling you, undressing you with their eyes (not in a romantic way!) . The place was swarming with the bloody fuckers! The next day when we went undersea walking a group of around 50 Indian Uncles (of the variety explained above) had the whole beach under seige. The way they were eyeballing women- us, chinkies, firangs, and the way they were behaving, we were ashamed to be associated with them through the unavoidable link of nationality.

On our way back to Bangkok from Pattaya we had a very funny experience. In our car, there were two drunk as crazy Indian Uncles (the worst variety imaginable) who started misbehaving. GS and SM yelled the daylights out of them, stopped the van and got those two dogs removed. All the way to Bangkok we kept sharing stories of how each girl has to have ugly experiences and how even in a foreign country we were in danger from our very own fellow country MEN! However when we reached our hotel in Bangkok, guess who we see checking in there- the two dogs! We were shocked and a little scared. Then we went to an Indian place for dinner and guess who walks in there- the two dogs! We almost choked on our food. The two dogs kept staring at us and GS and SM again gave them the yelling of their lives, after which the two dogs backed off. But that was some experience.

In Bangkok the only thing that we did was shop- MBK, Platinum Plaza, Sua Lumn night bazaaar and all that. Honestly the "shopping in Bangkok" is totally overhyped. The clothes are just about ok and could be picked off the Hill Road, export import shops as well.

We also ended up watch ing the "live show" afterall, in Bangkok, which was utterly disgusting and sooper boring and after having paid 600 baht per head, we walked out in 15 minutes flat! All in all, honestly there is nothing for women to do in Thailand and the place I assume would be sex haven for men!

The best parts of the trip however were, travelling in the tuk tuk, getting a thai foot massage, lapping in the Bangkok hotel's terrace swimming pool, having bread and butter from 7-eleven in the hotel for dinner (so we could save money to shop more), almost missing our flight back home (beacsue we we were busy shopping at the duty free and the numerous girlie chats we had throughout the trip.

That place was definitely some experience, even though not all good, but definitely memorable!

Ciao.

My Rashi is "Simha"!!

Really! Ok .. hang me if you will, but thou shalt not stoppeth me from ranting about yet another movie that I saw tonight. Yeah, you guessed it right - "Whats your Rashi". I am totally overdosed on Ms. Chopra right now. I can't stand the sight, voice or even a thought of her anymore. She was like all over the movie (I guess that WAS the point of the movie). And the songs! There are probably more songs in the movie than Chopra's and Baweja's total lines put together. In Mumbai theaters, where I had never before witnessed any form of express/ animate reaction of the crowds during a movie (read whistling, booing, clapping, getting up from the seat to do an impromptu jig...you get the drift, right?), this movie was the first time that one could hear the whole theater (including oneself) let out a collective groan everytime PC/HB would break into a song. Whatever said and done though, Priyanka Chopra is a brilliant actress and even Harman Baweja is quite good. And if you could (if only you possibly could) find it in your heart to forgive the director for inflicting the torture of the umpteen songs on you and then forget about them too, you may actually end up liking the movie.

Anyhoo, what I am puzzled otherwise about is why do they spell my rashi as SIMHA instead of SINH, when obviously it is pronounced as the latter. What is it with people avoiding the use of the obvious (phonetically matching at that!) spelling of Indian words when spelt in English. Another case in point - spelling of "ALIBAUG", when it is pronounced as "ALIBAG". I just cant figure that one out.

Carrying on from the movie, lets see if I actually match the characteristics of a Leo. The standard traits of a Leo (female) are thus as follows , as per Ms. Goodman:

1. Social leader of her group (ahem and then double ahem!)
2. Vivacious, clever, gracious, beautiful, and sexy (the number of "ahems" that I want to graciously cough off my beautiful throat have the potential to fill the next ten entries, so I would leave them out)
3. Short tempered (now THAT is true)
4. Loves exquisite gifts (well who doesn't?)
5. Loves flattery (well well well!)
6. Arrogant and vain (I would like to believe I am neither of these)
7. Spendthrift (C'mon..you cant blame a girl for being a girl and liking her shoes, bags, clothes, earrings, perfumes, lip glosses, watches, bling etc. etc.)

And if you guys have not read Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, grab a second hand copy from that magazine stall in front of Shopper's Stop in Bandra and get going. Its the best way to spend some quality time on yourself. Call it self indulgence if you want, but its great fun.

Adios.

random musings

Thanks to Eid, I am enjoying a long, leisurely weekend. There is that zing in the air which festivals bring about. Today's Eid and Navratri has also begun. Back in my hometown, Navratri was the best thing that could have happened to us. ''Abhivyakti" the garba-dandiya programme was what kept us bursting with enthusiasm. None of us actually gave too much thought what was the significance of Navratri and all we cared about was how to get free passes for abhivyakti, what dresses to wear for the 3/4 nights on which we were to go play dandiya, who all were coming, how to evade our parent's (who came along to keep an eye on us) for a couple of minutes to have a hasty tete-a-tete with our objects of teenage affections.

I still wouldn't have known the reasons for the celebrations but for SA who religiously fasts for both the navratris and 4 months back when she was fasting (during the first set of navratris) I decided to google (I know, shame on me!) why was navratri celebrated. And now that I know, I can disdainfully look down upon everyone who doesn't..hah.

Anyhoo, saw Dil Bole Hadippa. After "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi", we were (again!!) expected to take a reluctant leap of faith to believe that shahid kapoor (anushka sharma) could not figure out that it was the same person that rani mukherjee (shahrukh khan) was playing in her two different avatars. But what I really could not get over is Sherlyn Chopra. That woman is looks so unclean! ughh..we wanted to take her to Turkey, put her in a Hamam and leave her there till every morsel of that pancacky make up and gross sun block is removed from her being. The only redeeming factor in the movie was rani in her chotta sardar attire. She was spunky and hilarious and kept us in splits.

Also saw "Ugly Truth". It was ok-ok. Both Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are great actors but a little ugly.

And just so that you know I am in love with Reshammiya's "Man ka Radio" from the movie Radio.

Today is the last day of the long weekend (sigh!) so now I should take your leave and go back to my sulking.

We had joy We had fun We had seasons in the sun..

The title to this post is inspired by a friend's gtalk status and the song ofcourse. I also happen to be chatting with the same friend while typing this. She mentions a school friend who recently got married and didn't invite anyone of us for the same. For some reason this news terribly pissed me off. Please don't mistake me for a compulsive obsessive freak who tracks the ongoings in the lives of school mates and feels left out if not involved in any of the relevant celebrations, it just so happens that this particular school mate was at one point of time a very close friend of mine.You see, we had this group of seven friends in school and we all were REALLY thick and went by a particular name (which I am not at liberty to disclose lest I be stoned to death by the other ex-group members) so lets just call it SS. We were constantly together and had a whale of a time. Unfortunately for the non-SS members and fortunately for us (obviously!) most of us SS members were prefects of our school as well and we went around terrorising all non-SS members (especially the ones who had dared to cross swords with any of us). We watched our first "adult"(if you put "eyes wide shut" in that category) flick together, we had our first crushes together, first nightouts together and everything that's a first when you are 16-17. Each of us was in-on the rest six's best kept secrets. And what days were those!

Then we passed out from school and everyone went their owns ways. But somehow or the other atleast 3 of us have managed to keep in touch with each other. The rest have just simply disappered. Honestly, I did try to keep in touch, even if only initially, with my disappearing friends, but they never responded with the same enthusiasm and then I too got busy with my heady college life and the school friends were very conveniently replaced with college friends.

To think of it now, its just amazing how little involved or rather how completely disconnected you become from a person's life over a period of time even though you had intimately shared a portion of your life with that person. When GN (the friend that I was chatting to) told me that this particular friend got married, my first reaction was "Oh..well..whatever". Imagine. Imagine!! So close we were at some point of time...and so much we had shared and all of that is now poof in the air..because...I really don't know the "because" as every reason that I can come up with sounds extremely trite to my ownself.

I guess the seasons we had shared in the sun, as West Life rightly put it, like the wine and the song, have all gone.

Ah...so many pedestrians, so little time...

Yesterday, I came out i.e., I am no longer a closet-blogger. It was an impulsive decision, more so because it was just too hard to keep this blog a secret from my closest friends and I was getting severe stomach aches (which diasappeared miraculously once I told everyone that I write this blog!!). I could hardly contain myself after I published the blog's url on my facebook account status and I immediately called up all my close friends and forced them into reading the blog. Then I kept checking my comments section every 5 minutes hoping, rather expecting a stupendous overwhelming response to my very upbeat, cool and sensational blog. But alas! it was not to be. Hardly anyone commented (my narcissist head hung in shame), though I am sure everyone (everyone that I forced to read) read the blog and called me to say nice things to me. So all-in-all, I am feeling happy type things and am thankful to everyone who read this space belonging to an over enthusiastic greenhorn.

Enough of my first-day-in-school-kinda description above. Lets move on to other things that occupied me today (other than obssesively checking the comment section of the blog...ok ok I will stop now..promise).

Went to the office without the charger for my laptop. Now this laptop is a very precious one, because if I was to sell it now, it won't fetch me a "second-hand item" price like any other used laptop, but rather an "antique item" booty. So you get the drift...and our office is full of this particular kind of laptop variety. I din't think too much of forgetting the charger though, as I decided to share GR's charger with me. But God had his own designs..the moment I would take the charger out to return to GR, my laptop would go on stand-by. I searched and I searched in vain...everyone who attempted to share their chargers with me had their computers showing them "Preparing to standby" messages the moment the charger was removed from their laptops. Finally CC suggested that I go back home and get the charger and even offered us his car (I suspect that the generosity was a bait to get me off his back, since every 5 minutes I would go upto his desk and wail about the incompetency/unavailability of chargers). So GR and I, braving the merciless afternoon sun went out to the parking lot to get CC's car. To our utter dismay there already was one car in front and one at the back of CC's car (please note I am just about learning to drive in Mumbai) and there was noway I could I have wriggled the car out of that space. We called the parking-guy, who very ingeniously took out a metal scale/ruler, very deftly inserted it near the window glass of the car in front of me (all the while GR and I went - tch tch tch) and voila! the car's gate opened- and wait this is not over- the parking-guy and his accomplices manually lifetd the car and turned it, so that we could get our car by. Finally we got out of the parking lot with the car and drove to my place and realised that I was not carrying the house keys. We drove back avoiding/cursing all the pedestrians who seemed to wait for me to appear and then would dive directly in front of the car. Everytime this happened my heart would also jump to my mouth! GR kept soothing me with words like "koi nahi" (when I would put the 1st gear from 2nd in full speed thinking it was the 3rd gear) and "perfect" (when I managed to take a u-turn on like-a-1-km wide road). But I have realised one thing- When I am driving I hate pedestrians and when I am walking I hate the drivers.

When we reached back, I remembered the fate of the car which was parked in front of us which had to undergo such unnecessary manhandling, just because the owner refused to leave the keys with the parking-guy. I shuddered,left the keys (more than willingly) with the parking-guy and ran with the precious charger to my laptop and connected it. Few would be able to imagine the relief that swept over me when I saw that little light on my laptop indicating that the charger was duly connected and would keep my laptop well fed during the next howsoevermany hours! The joy that trivial things bring you sometimes is incomprehensible

I bet you have fallen asleep before you read this line.

Ciao.

i can't think straight..

So, I saw the movie yesterday. I vaguely remembered reading a review of the movie some time back which described it as a "romantic comedy involving a gay couple" potrayed by Lisa Ray and some chick called Sheetal Seth. Now I hadn't pre planned on watching the movie, but it so happened that CC and I reached PVR phoenix with the intention of watching Ugly Truth (the "intention" was solely mine, CC was just taciltly reluctant company). Nyhoo there were no immediate shows for Ugly Truth so CC became very excitable bout the propect of watching District 9. I tried (dint have to try a lot though!) n convinced CC to watch I Cant Think Straight (who wants to watch an alien/ETs type documentary which flashes "Humans not allowed" or something like that!!-Not me for sure). The movie, I thought, was a very contrived effort by the director (Shamim Sarif) with a very predictable storyline. The chemistry between the two protagonists was non-existent. Their love making scenes made me cringe and did nothing for the storyline. They were amateurish and were nowhere near the believable gay chemistry one could watch without squriming in their seats between Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Mitchell (Gia) or even Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci (Monster). Atleast I thought so. And what was Dalip Tahil doing in the movie anyway? All in all, you may watch this movie if the next best option that you have for a Sunday evening is to watch a re-repeat of Filmfare Awards/Star Awards/IIFA Awards etc.etc.
Other than that....well today is the b'day of two very close friends of mine...but unfortunately they are both out of town!! And please do get "Ride It" by Jay Sean...I am all for Brit (Indi- if I may say so) Pop!
Until then...

I do....maybe I don't

So a couple of my colleagues (read 25 somethings...males) are getting married sometime this year. This gave two of my cosest friends in office (GR and SM, both married) the opportunity (again!!) to pounce on me with their "so whats ur plan?" "its time already" "what on earth are you waiting for??". Ok ok, so lets be fair to my friends.. I will be 26 next month, I am in a serious relationship for the past 2 years.., I am not looking out for any other options. So what is it that is stopping me from taking the final ('final' sounds rather scary..like a point of no return) plunge ('plunge' is no better!!). Well I began my attempt to explain my point of view (point of view being - I am happy as is, I do not see any fayda of getting married, I am not THAT old etc. etc) to SM and GR, and I strated hyperventilating..an all too familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach, which is how I react when people start discussing marriage with me.
Dont get me wrong, I am not opposed to the institution of marriage..come to think of it I am rather indifferent to it... but that does not really mean that I wish to be one of those rebellious sorts who do not feel the need to get married. I am sure one day I will feel the ned to get married, but I am afraid that day will be somewhere in my late 30s and since I know the feeling of 'need' will arise so late in life and that I cannot really wait to feel the 'need' I will have to tie the knot way earlier than that and that too for no good reason. And imagine the kind of responsibilities that will accompany that step.. I will have to make sure that my house is spick and span, the food cooked at my place is delicious, I may need to install a landline, I will have to have a proper pujaghar , I will no more be able to entertain people by organising a byob with plastic cups and plates. The list is endless. But I guess you lose some you gain some (I am still wondering though...what is it that one gains by marriage??)!!
cheerios!!

Of Hangovers, Rains and the Underworld

Last weekend I saw Hangover and I am totally hungover on it!! brilliant movie..will keep you in splits from beginning to the end. And Alan, as the the to-be-groom's brother in law, is hilarious with his "one man wolf pack" speech and mindblowing poker-face dialogue delivery
It was such a pleasant change after watching duds after duds that were being released in the past couple of months. In fact Hangover is the only really good movie that I have seen after Dev D.
I loved the soundtrack of the movie too, especially Danzig's "Thirteen" which is played around the beginning of the movie and Flo Rida's version of "Right Around" that is played at the end, so much so that I ensured that I have the OST of the movie amongst the many thousand songs on my palylist.
I went to watch the movie on Saturday and boy was it raining on Saturday!!! It seemed like a huge hole came open in the sky and water kept tumling out of it. I must have been in the out for a split second (making a dash from the taxi door to the pavement) and I got completely drenched and CC who was accompanying me to the movie was so soaked that we had to immediately shop for a new replacement wardrobe for him (right from footwear to shirt and shorts)!! But it was good fun.
We also bought Tombraider Underworld and that game is sooooooooooo tough, that I am still stuck in first level and exhausted with the constant exploration not resulting in anything. These days though I go through the walkthroughs available on the internet before getting on with the game, else I would keep getting lost and stuck. I would not think of it as "cheating" as I am simply taking assistance from someone (many many thankyous to the thoughtful walkthrough providers) who is more capable/better equipped of handling the demons/secrets of the Underworld than I (poor me...I am just your average girl-next-door) am.
right?? right!!

I've got a case of weekdays...

I hate my job at times, and such times, unfortunately connote "most times". I have pondered enough on my true professional calling. Everytime I discuss my listlessness towards my current job with my friends they ask me to introspect, to understand what sort of profession will keep me happy and sated. I think and I think and i realise (every bloody time!!!) that I dont have any particular set of skills, I get bored soooper easily and I cannot stick to nothing for more than two days, without cribbing about it. To top it all, I am the laziest species of homo sapiens that ever walked this planet earth. So it is not possible for me to actively seek any change of profession or even a change of job. I keep my fingers crossed and hope that God in all his kindness will drop the perfect job in my lap someday. I believe that..I do.
Until Then

Goa Chronicles..

Well it so happened that I ended up going to Goa for the long weekend. Now Goa is quite hot 'n humid in these times of the year, but this time we were like those super enthusiastic holidayers who don't give a rat's ass about the weather.
We also visited places other than the standard Baga-Calangute area, which was quite a lot of fun. So on day one we went to Anjuna (I personally think that Anjuna is the best beach in Goa - pristine and picturesque), which was a far call from the excessively commercialized Baga-Calangute. So their were no pot-bellied, hairy, uncles in their VIP chaddis, splashing around in the water, no aunties with their salwars rolled up to their knees, running after chunnu and munnu who are having a great dip in their nylon slacks. Anjuna was very sparsely populated, it was way cleaner and very pretty. Plus there was this beach shack "Curlies", which was really great. So we just spent hours their drinking nd eating and in the night we hit Tito's (it was a Thursday and there were like 4 people inside) and then we went to Mambo's (which was great music and good fun).
We had quite a few escapades as well. First our car got stuck in the mud when we had parked for Mambo's, and after much cursing, irritation etc. etc., the car was rescued, by this reed thin guy, who also took 100 bucks for the same. Then when we were cruising around late in the night, the cops caught us (not for being drunk and driving, not for driving without license, but for- renting a car! which apparently is illegal!!) and we had to pay another 500 bucks to the cops.
The second day we drove out to Arambol, which was quite ok and in the night we hit Mambo's again!
By the third day I was wondering if I should go for a detoxification course, 'cos I could literally feel alcohol replacing blood in my veins. Anyhoo my great holiday was marred by the bloody theives working in Indigo airlines! I had put both my phones in the my bag and locked it and checked it in. When I reached home and I opened my bag, I see that my bag was strategically torn (from a blade , I think), and my mobiles were missing. I was shocked and bloddy furious. I have written a very strong hate mail to Indigo, but I am expecting nothing out of it.
However, please be warned from this experience of mine and think twice about putting valuables in your check-in baggage.

Until then....

Of Weekends..

30th has finally been declared as an off (elections!!). Yay!! now we have a straight off from 30 to 3 May. But sadly all my plans to hit Goa o'er the coming weekend have gone for a toss. I had planned the trip in the beginning of April and the airfare was very cheap at that time, however I was told that I may have to work o'er that weekend since some wretched deal documents will be getting executed that weekend, so I did not book any ticks. Now that deal has gone kaput, but the airfare has shot up like crazy and I just can't afford it. The train ticks are not available, and I simply cannot do a road trip (both my last trips in April beginning and in January, were road trips with almost 30 hrs per trip on the road). So now I have to settle for something less appealing like Madh Island.
Oh, and my friend SA has just recently (like day before yesterday) started dating this guy, JM. So SA and JM had invited me over to JM's place in for dinner. SA had made sexy pasta in pesto sauce! I went expecting little but JM turned out to be this really sweet and laid-back chappie. I quite liked him and I am so happy for SA. We had a great time..yapping away to glory, recounting school days for JM's benefit and sipping on (lovely!) chenin blanc. Plus this guys's house was on the 20th floor and just absolutely enjoyed the wind, the music, the converstion, the food, the wine. And oh, I almost forgot, this really hilarious thing happened. The bottle of wine that I bought as a gift for JM, it refused to open with the wine opener , so JM started stabbing the cork with a knife, and finally the cork plopped inside the bottle. When we poured out the wine, all sorts of bits and pieces of the cork were coming into the glass, so we decided to strain the wine. And we strained it right into a kadhai and we were helping ourselves using a huge ladle! It was too funny and we couldn't stop laughing. Well, I know it does not sound so funny when I write it down, but well it was!!
Until then...

Last night I dreamt I went to Mandereley again….

Last night I finally watched the movie “Rebecca”. I have been in love with the novel by Daphne du Maurier from the time I first read it in my 1st year of college. The way Rebecca’s shadow is present throughout the novel, without her being actually present in person is beautifully captured. You are dying to know, soon after the beginning of the book, more and more about Rebecca.

The movie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was released in 1940. Though I have not really been able to develop a taste for the old black and whites (no matter how hard I try!! ), I make an exception for this movie. Joan Fontaine is incredible as the meek and submissive Mrs. De Winter who is superbly intimidated by the evil Mrs. Danvers.

Oh, I just loved the idea of the eerie mansion still dominated by the presence of a mysteriously beautiful dead woman. However, as is the case almost all the time, the novel is far superior to the movie.

Another book that I was a spooked a little by was Wuthering Hieghts by Emily Bronte. I absolutely hated Heathcliff’s character and I cannot imagine how can people fall in love with each other in a manner that is all encompassing, self destructing and passionate beyond reason.

Anyhoo, I am proposing to watch Revolutionary Road tonight and lets hope I really like it, because I am looking forward to watch a movie that I REALLY like.

Until then….

Tomorrow I'll be hanging with my head over a bucket..

Went to the gym after 3 months yesterday...my arms are so sore that I could not even push the soap dispenser. To top it all my gym instructor declared (after some very “loud” mental calculation) that I am 2 kgs overweight! I was crushed given that I always thought that my purpose for hitting the gym is not to lose any extra fat (you see- I always believed that I do not have any extra fat to lose) but to get some exercise to build up my stamina. And further still the gym instructor made some signs with his thumb up and fingers curled (indicating that I am piling on all these kgs as a result of excessive drinking). I wanted to strangle him, though all I could manage then was an embarrassed giggle.

What is it with everyone! The other day one of my school friends who I have not met since last August, saw some of my pictures on facebook and called me to let me know that I should cut back on my excessive drinking since all that is directly showing on my face which, according to her (I thought I was looking extremely pretty in those pics..!), was looking bloated.
I mean I just HATE it when people just assume that I am some sot and all I do all day long is drink. And I do not even like drinking…don’t get me wrong, I do have fun while drinking, its just that I don’t like the taste of alcohol.
Let me explain my drinking habits. I love getting drunk when I partying. I enjoy a couple of glasses of white wine when I am out for a nice Italian dinner like to mia cucina or da vinci. I don’t mind a glass of red wine when I am watching a nice flick on a Friday night. But all of the above does not add up to mean that I go to bars or wine shops twice a day to get a daily doze of alcohol! No it just does not mean that.

Ok, I think I have ranted enough. I should get busy now as my colleagues on the left and right side are furtively peeping into my lap-top to figure out what is keeping me so occupied that I have not my mouth in the last 15 mins.

Until then….

Dawn of the Greenhorn

I am starting this thing up for no specific reason...just may be to give it a try. I like that a lot..you know - "giving a try". I know that is really the lamest of reasons for starting this blog..but then thats that.

Until then..