Just speaking my mind!

Moved

2009-05-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

My blog has a new home now. Visit shilpadesh.wordpress.com is the new place you need to visit to get the latest thoughts. Also, please update your links to include my new url.

Move to wordpress?

2009-05-20T06:53:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking of moving to wordpress for a while now. It offers so much more ease of interaction(replying to comments etc) than blogspot does. But I feel like I am cheating, talking about the merits of wordpress and talking about ditching blogspot on this blog!

Hope for India

2009-05-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

I am happy today. Happy that divisive politics has been voted out and hope and intellect are in. I am looking forward to what kind of ministers will be included in the cabinet. I am excited that Rahul Gandhi is working his way up from the grassroots rather than land the top job. I am also happy that the likes of Modi might never see power at the National level. But more than anything else, what I am most happy about is that the Left has been left behind by us. No more arm twisting, bargaining, anti-development crap will be entertained. Manmohan Singh has been a good PM and now with this verdict, more power to him.
I think the BJP lost because it never talked about what it would do if voted to power. The only thing they talked about was what the UPA did wrong, using Modi to criticize Priyanka, projecting an 81 year old as the PM and Modi as the future of the BJP. That, I think was the biggest mistake. If they continue to project Modi, they will face a bigger loss next time.
I think the Left did so badly was because they never did anything good while they were a part of the last government. And they tried to stop the nuclear deal and caused to government to almost fail over the issue. I am sure the drama they caused, caused their downfall.
I am impressed by the way Rahul handles himself, although, sometimes he comes across as too rehearsed. I like the way he decided the INC will go it alone in UP in spite of pundits suggesting otherwise. It paid off. I like the way he praised Advani after the BJP's defeat in the 2009 elections. That shows class, and a good upbringing. I hope he, along with the other young guns, get positions of power in the NEW Manmohan Singh cabinet.
The only thing I do not like is that the PM, yet again, is not an elected representative of the people. Although the people who voted for the INC knew he was the PM candidate, he should have contested from somewhere(some strong INC constituency, is he was scared of a loss). We do not want this precedent of the leader of the largest democracy in the world being an appointee!

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me

2009-05-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

Inspired by OJ's take on You Bring Out the Mexican in Me. It is warm but cloudy today and I miss my city more than ever.

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.
The haus and the nakkos,
and the abbis and the hallus,
the aiseich and the kaikos in me.

Each of those times
when I see a lake and i
compare it with Tankbund,
and then rattle about when
the Buddha was submerged.
For the umpteenth time I say current for power.

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.
When panipuri reminds you of
endless trips to the chat bandi.
When shopping means a trip to Sultan Bazar,
a little stream of water is musi and
a wide open road is Raj Bhavan road.
When an overpass is a flyover.

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.
You have multiplexes umpteen but you are still
enamored by RTC crossroads.
The Koti, the Abids,
the Charminar and Falaknuma in me.

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.
When you have hot sticky days and
warm summer nights.
When camping reminds you of sleeping on the roof,
and running downstairs when it rains.

The Nizams, Golkonda, Gandipet,
the Qutub Shahi tombs and Paradise in me.
The Ramoji film city, Annapurna studios,
Chilkuru and Shilparamam in me.
You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.

You bring out the Hyderabadi in me.
When everything is done hallu hallu,
the language is hyderabadi(not hindi),
Barracks is Barkas and signal is singal.
When everything in the past is parsun.

When I look back to the days spent
in my beloved city, I sigh
because everything I do today
Brings out the Hyderabadi in me.

Being an older sister.

2009-05-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

I read IHM's post on what she does not like about being a mother. It hit a sweet spot and I was smiling while reading, so much so that I 'force-tagged' myself to do a 'what I don't like about being a daughter' tag! Now I want to twist the tag a little bit and write about 'Things I love/hate being the older sister!'

There are so many wonderful things about being an older sister, but growing up, there were also moments when I felt people did things that made me roll my eyes! Now I look back at those moments with a smile and would kill to go back to those fun days.

Things I love about being an older sister

You are considered the coolest person in the world by the younger one.
She always tries to emulate your mannerisms and copy the way you dress, walk, talk etc!
Your input on important issues(what to wear, who not to invite to the birthday party etc) is considered the most important.
You are the smartest and most beautiful person in the world for you sister(and vice versa)!
There are some secrets that only you are privy to(God Promise etc required though)
If there is an argument at home, no matter what the topic, the younger one always supports you.
You can do no wrong according to the younger one.
She is always telling you that you will be fine, whenever you feel down or depressed about something(still does)
You always had a giggle partner when you wanted to make fun of the weird people(friends, family) visiting.
You are allowed to share all the jewelery, watches and clothes now whenever you visit.
She 'Loves' all the gifts you get her!

Things I used to dislike(but now love) about being an older sister:

You are always called 'tai'(older sister) by everyone(parents, grandparents included).
You are expected to be the epitome of good behavior. If you misbehave, the younger one does too!
You are required to tag the younger one along to your friends' get togethers(those were the days when the younger ones were considered pests.......sigh....not anymore)
You are an infidel if you support the parents when they ask the younger one to not eat the bar of chocolate because she is coughing and sick.
You are always expected to be more mature and understanding.
You were asked for Disney wrist watches and Tweety mugs as gifts, but could never share them!

Thinking of all those fun years we spent makes me smile as well as cry at the same time. Why do we have to grow up and move so far away!

The many talents of the rich and the famous!

2009-05-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

Padma Lakshmi was(is) a model and has modeled for many top designers. She also appeared in a few movies that failed miserably at the box office. One would naturally have expected her to be active in the modeling and movie world. But she has myriad of talents. She has written a couple of cookbooks. One of them(from 1999) lists the Tamil version of curd and rice(thayir sadam) as 'Easy Exotic' food! Another of her cookbooks has pictures of her slurping the result of her cooking adventures! (Maami has blogged about this here). Most of her recipes are a twist on the traditional and the reviews are nothing great. She also co hosts a competitive cooking series Top Chef. She has just unveiled her jewellery collection too. Most of the jewellery designs are a modern take on the traditional and are nothing extraordinary. Model, actress, chef, designer, all rolled in one! Is she really multi-talented or is it a gift of her fame? A little bitchin' never hurt anyone!

Ego

2009-04-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

We don't take our egos with us when we die. We all know that. Why, then, some of us insist on maintaining the inflated ego and prefer being the arrogant loner in the family, when all the others are begging you to patch up? Why do people spoil the sanctity of the 13th day(after death) of their own mother by participating in a shouting match and yelling and bad mouthing their own sibling and sibling's family? This letter is to the one who caused a lot of pain to people I love a lot.

To the one whose ego is bigger than her brain,
Is your ego more important than the fact that your mother died and this day was the day we remember her? Are you happy now that we will associate this day with how cheaply you behaved rather than mourn the loss of ajji and pray she has found heaven?
When my sister, who must be a good 45 years younger to you, understands how one should behave in civilized society, why can't you? Your 65 years have not given you enough humility to even accept an apology, forget giving one, even when you are wrong. I am amazed at what you will be able to teach your grand kids about your parents, when you treated them like shit in their last days. What will you teach them about family? What example have you set for your 2 children(who are as useless as you are) who have learnt from you that ego is more important than relationships. Will they also treat you like crap the way you did with your old mother? Remember when she, with tears in her eyes, begged you to talk to her, and you turned your dumb-ass head away? Will your stupid daughter do that to you as well? Your younger brother also begged you to speak to your mother. But you have a heart of stone. He had tears in his eyes when you shouted and sullied the memories of your mother on her 13th day. I wish I was there to drag you and throw you out of there. I wish I was there so I could see and learn how not to behave.
I wish I could actually write all this to you. I wish somehow, someone we know reads this and lets you know of the contents. I wish I was there to tell you how disgusted I feel about you.

~Disgusted mourner

Oh, and by the way, wake up, it is 2009 not 1950. Do not torture your DIL for having 3 daughters.

Pretty always hurts!

2009-04-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have a pair of pretty red shoes. The only pair of red shoes that I own. They are a moderate heel(1.5 inches) and seem to fit me well. Until I start walking in them, that is! The first time I wore them they squished both my pinky toes to a pulp in an hour. Thankfully, I did not have to walk a lot that day, and I was fine. The second time, I wore them with socks, and even though my toes felt stuffed, there was no damage. Yesterday was the third time I wore them. Without socks. I had to walk in them for a couple of blocks to our destination. And what happened? The pinky toes of both my feet were pulverized and are now wrapped up in bandages.

Any footwear that I wear hurts me. I walk with a limp. I cannot even move my toes around as that hurts them. The last time I wore them, I swore I would never wear them ever again. And yet, here I am, nursing my hurt toes, and totally embarrassed and angry at myself for having been stupid enough to believe those pretty shoes. For having been stupid enough to go for style over substance. For having been stupid enough to not have learnt a lesson.
So much for pretty red shoes!

It is always her.

2009-04-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Major rant follows. These are my thoughts about an issue that really gets me all hyper and angry. Nita puts things in perspective objectively and coherently than I do here.

Is it OK to molest a girl just because she was passed out? Is a girl who parties and drinks with men inviting them to abuse her? If you do not go out and party, is it OK for you to blame the victim of a rape? Is it ever OK to rape a girl because you 'perceive' she has loose morals? We Indians seem to particularly enjoy attributing blame to a rape victim. This happens all the time.
Remember the Juhu new year incident where two girls were molested by a mob? What happened when the graphic images were shown on TV? Why were the girls 'roaming' around at that time? What were they wearing?
Remember the Mangalore pub incident? Again, the first reaction was what were the girls doing in a pub? Girls should not go to 'such places.'

There are psychologists and other 'experts' who are called on talk shows to talk about what the perpetrator feels and why such a crime takes place. What about what the victim feels? If you ask me, giving even a iota of thought to why the perpetrator committed the horror is wrong. There are no subtleties where rape is concerned. There cannot be any explaining away. If you are a person who tries to see reason in rape, you need to get your head checked. Maybe even stay away from women because then any woman talking to you would be a probable victim.

It seems like it is our national pastime to belittle women who are in difficult situations. It is always the girl who is inviting the perpetrator to abuse her.
Groped in a bus? Why were you wearing jeans?
Teased by the guys at the pan shop? Don't go there without male escort.
Look down when you are walking in a street or the gali ke kutte might think you want them to wink at you, make weird noises and touch you!

Election noises.

2009-04-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: An anonymous reader pointed out that Shashi Tharoor never officially represented India at the UN and he is right. I am changing the text here to reflect that.

Election day is almost here and from tomorrow the mad voices of the politicians will be silent until the next election comes along.

Keeping with the times, I present a list of some of the more interesting things happening this election season:

Mallika Sarabhai against Advani from Gandhinagar is an inspiring case. She was offered support by various political parties, but chose to remain independent. She is also raising a voice against CM Modi's government
Shatrughan 'Shotgun' SInha vs Shekhar Suman from Patna Sahib is a very interesting contest. When asked about this Shotgun shot his mouth saying 'He is a TV artiste whereas I am a prominent name in the film world. People will compare our standing'!
Parties using hi tech campaigning methods - SMS, Facebook groups, tweeting etc
Need a few laughs? take a look at this webpage of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi(I don't know if this is his official homepage!)
Govinda(Chi Chi) apologized to the people of his constituency, Mumbai North, for being inaccessible for the entire duration of his tenure. Apparently, he has done literally nothing for his people. This is the second known case of a big actor failing in politics and quitting. The Big B being the first.
Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram for the Congress certainly seems very interesting. Since he has been in politics for some time(he was the UN Under Secretary General for quite some time), contesting the seat seems like a logical next step.
After having been the so-called Nawab of Hyderabad and being accused of match fixing, politics seems like a logical next step also, for Azharuddin who is running from Moradabad(UP) for congress!(what is it with the congress and so many celebrities!)
The never ending comedy that was Lucknow is finally coming to an end. Nafisa ali is the Samajwadi candidate from lucknow after the failure of SP to field Sanju baba first and Manyata-the-biryani-kabab-wife next. I guess we all feel 'Luck'y because at least Nafisa seems like a decent human being!
SP manifesto's main agenda this time is to get rid of english as a medium of instruction and to thwart the advance of computers in the state. Really? IHM says this in her trademark conversational style!
Both Varun and Rahul, it turns out, were not exactly truthful about their alma mater. Varun is not a graduate of the LSE, and bhaiya Rahul lied about what course and when he finished from Trinity College, Cambridge. It is so appalling really. First, they get into big name colleges because of their clout and money. Then they are so dumb that they cannot finish. Then they lie about it! I was really looking forward to seeing what kind of leadership Rahul would bring to the Congress. Now I am sure he is no different from the dumb netas they already have!
Meanwhile, Mayawati continues to wield power like never before on her home turf. I am in awe of how she has the whole state machinery and the general populace wrapped around her little finger! Must learn some tricks from her!

Thoughts on a relaxed monday.

2009-04-06T08:58:00.001-07:00

So many things are going on that make be go 'what the hell', these days.

Bearded old perverted men beating a young girl for being seen with another man. All this, while her brother holds her down to be beaten!
Two people of the same family(Nehru), one talking in a deplorable way about muslims, the other only coming out of his high society, faux-Indian life and visiting villages come during election time. How I wish Varun and Rahul actually put some thought before they act. They are both young(Varun more so), educated(they seem to be from good educational institutions), from a well respected family. If only they put the petty politicking away and for once, used their head?
(But I guess expecting a politician to think is a little too much.)
Hamid Karzai passing a law legalizing rape in marriages(well it is not even defined as rape anymore!) How disgusting is that?
The US reprimanding countries that want to acquire nuclear and chemical weapons. History is witness that US is the only country in the world to have used nuclear as well as chemical weapons on other countries. And it is now concerned that these countries wanting to be nuclear powers as well would misuse them? How hypocritical is that? How does the US get away with all this?

My Favorite on TV

2009-04-03T06:02:00.001-07:00

The day I have been dreaming of has come finally! HBO has started screening the BBC series of No. 1 ladies Detective Agency . My love for the books has been well documented here and I was curious as to how the well-written characters would translate on screen and the result could not have been better! Do watch it if you are interested. It is well worth the one hour per week.

Tremendous relief and back to regular blogging

2009-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Today I gave a Microsoft certification exam and passed. All these weeks(even months) of working hard(and staying away from blogging) paid off finally. Now back to regular blogging.

A fitness blog

2009-04-01T10:51:00.001-07:00

I am part of a new fitness blog. Please do have a look at Fitness Fervor.

Followup post - Narendra Modi and India

2009-03-30T07:35:00.001-07:00

First, apologies for the delay in posting. I was reading about Modi all this while, and had a mini draft post ready almost a week back, but life has a habit of getting in the way! I have been busy with things going on at work, an exam to take etc.

This is the first followup post for my condensed post of last time.
"A lot of educated Indians like the idea of Modi being the PM in case the BJP wins in the general elections."

I have been reading up stuff on the internet, about Modi.
Read this article in The Atlantic that profiles him.
When asked about whether he thinks India should be a Hindu country(in some news conference in Oct 2007) rather than a secular country, he goes off onto a tangent about how Gandhiji envisioned India to be a 'Ram rajya' and that he himself dreams of India being 'Ram rajya'. He never defines what he thinks is 'Ram rajya' anywhere so that the listener is left to deduce the meaning. In one interview, he got angry and refused to go on(the interview with Karan Thapar, Devil's Advocate on CNN-IBN, Dec 2007) when asked if he is sorry for the post-Godhra riots.

The article says what I want to say much better than I can ever do. I would request every voter to read this and other similar articles that are on the web.
Modi also has a huge following among the rich Hindu business class. One said, “You have to separate Modi’s political ideology from his management ability. Because there is not a hint of corruption about him, Modi is effective because people believe his decisions are only results-oriented.” Why should I separate his political ideology from his management ability? If you had a candidate for CFO who was an excellent manager but believes that women do not deserve to be paid on par with men for doing the same job, would you still employ him? Why the double speak then? Why should I accept this man, who I know has an open dislike for any community but Hindus just because I cannot find anyone else better than him? Why can I not accept my politicians to be better.

The riots occurred in 2002 and he is being asked these questions only now! Why this delay? Why this sudden attention to Modi you ask?
While I agree that Indian journalists failed in asking the right questions at the right time, I also believe the people have a right to know and the journalists better ask now than never. Modi is now being projected as the next leader of the country by the BJP. You cannot ignore the fact that he has a huge following. Not just in Gujarat but elsewhere too. He is so popular it is not so out of line to think that he could be the PM some day...or be in an equally powerful position soon. And that scares me. It scares me because I think he is a religiously motivated bigot. Surely we can do better than make a Muslim-hater the PM of the largest democracy on earth. The journalists keep asking him if he is sorry and he keeps evading the question. Why is it so tough for Modi to apologize to the people of Gujarat(and India) even though he might think he did no wrong? He was in a position to act fast and stop the bloodshed but he did not. Does that tell us that he cares?

Which brings us to another problem with Indian politics. Where are the good politicians who want to serve the country more than serve themselves? Where are the men and women who believe in equal opportunities for everyone, and not just one religion? Why is there no one who does not play any vote bank politics? What choice does a voter who does not like any potential candidates in the fray? Does going the 49-0 way mean anything at all?

Food for thought

2009-03-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

We were talking about a few social, political issues and a lot of interesting points came to light. I am writing them as bullet points for now, but in the coming days I want to research each topic and expound upon it.

Politics:

-A lot of educated Indians like the idea of Modi being the PM in case the BJP wins in the general elections. Some arguments for Modi are:
# At least he has done something for the state
# Gujarat is one of the most well to do states in India in terms of revenue, infrastructure, standard of living etc
#Muslims should suck it up, Godhra was just one of the many inter-religious clashes that occurred
#a known devil is better than an unknown angel
#"who else is there?"

-There is a stark paucity of good politicians, leave alone young ones. people are still not very enthusiastic about voting.

-Voting for a person in the general election(like in the US, for example) seems like a better deal for the voters. You get what you see, and no buyers remorse.

-Deve Gowda was the worst leader ever. We were all still shocked as to how he could end up at 10 Janpath!

-In the passion and excitement of creating a new government and new laws, Nehru might have done more disservice than service to the nation. Socialism might sound good on paper, but is a bit too high an ideal to achieve, especially for a fledgling country. Too many ideals and too less practicality made us lose those precious few decades which could have been put to better use by a judicious mix of capitalism and communism/socialism. In fact, it seems like Nehru actually came out of nowhere to become the PM. He didn't participate in any well-known protests, never took a lathi, always seemed like Gandhiji's chamcha, was a pseudo-Indian with a foriegnish accent. To top it all, his progeny took Gandhiji's name and are milking the vote bank to this day!

Society:

-The need to have a male baby would vanish if there was no social incentive associated with having a male child(dowry). Remove dowry from the equation and no woman would want or forced to try for a male progeny. No female fetus would be killed. No female infant would be murdered. A resolution one big social ill would solve a few more ills of the society.

-Things have changed a lot in India for the local entrepreneur. the age old 'kirana' and general stores are fast vanishing in big cities(I observed that too during my recent visit)

-Living on credit has not deeply permeated in the Indian society as I had believed. Only the really young people working in call centers and single IT workers have been bit by the bug(I don't know how true this is, but it does make me feel better), also, monthly expenses increase dramatically if you eat out often vs if you eat out sparingly

Test

2009-03-06T07:26:00.001-08:00

I got a me a new toy!
Blogging from my own little iPhone 3g!

Break in blogging

2009-03-06T06:32:00.001-08:00

I am down sick with cold and a throat infection. The cold has blocked my ability to even think. Will post as soon as am able to put my thoughts into coherent sentences.

On a bitterly cold, white day...

2009-03-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

scenes from my window....

The roads are covered with snow, there is a bitter wind blowing that is blowing the snow off the roofs and into people's eyes. I am going to stay put in the warmth of my apartment. All I now need is a cup of hot chai and pakode!

Movie weekend

2009-03-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

We caught up with a few movies this weekend.
The first was Sex and the City. For long I have felt deprived because it seemed like I was the only woman in the US who hadn't watched SATC yet! So finally this weekend I hopped over to Blockbuster and brought home the coveted DVD. Since I am not a SATC series watcher, I had no idea what was in store. I had heard from friends and colleagues that it was one great girls' movie and I HAD to be a part of the girly fun. The fun ended 12 minutes into the movie. I started with 'These women are so shallow', 'There is no story', etc. Slowly I stated getting irritated with the frequent talk of shoes, sex and labels. I found the fashion too silly and impractical for my taste(think the Louis Vuitton bag that Carrie gifts Louise.) I found the girls(or women) too shallow to be in love and too jobless for my liking. The 145 minutes of the movie were the longest and most boring 145 minutes of my life. I could have very well put them to better use!

The second movie was 'Mumbai Meri Jaan'. Now this one was truly riveting. The way the stories of these various characters is woven together is praise-worthy. I was totally involved in the movie from beginning to the end and not one moment was I bored. That, I think, is a trademark of a well-made movie. Having lived in Mumbai for 3 years, I really identified with the characters' daily lives.

The third and last movie we watched was 'Vicky Christina Barcelona'. This is Woody Allen at his best, I think. We have seen most movies by Woody and enjoy each dialogue thoroughly. His characters are well etched and dialogues are well-written and his humor is very caustic and dry(my style!) Penelope Cruz takes the cake in VCB and deserved her Academy Award. And BOY does she look hot! I liked the last 2 minutes the best. In true Woody style, the events of a few seconds jolt the errant characters into doing the right thing. A lot of reviewers did not like the voice over by Woody, but to me, that was the best part of VCB.

AB and his baby

2009-02-25T10:10:00.001-08:00

For someone who has thrived on media and critics and box office, to slam all of them at the same time with this entry in his blog is baffling.

He says 'The sincerity of the work must come through. That is what pays eventually.' Why then, AB are you so worried about the views of a couple of critics? Did you say it was unfair when the same critics were falling over each other praising you, the junior and the bahu for your over-rated roles in Sarkar/Sarkar Raj?

It seems like Delhi 6 really got reviews that were on both ends of the spectrum. Case in point is rediff.com where one reviewer calls it 'Silly' and the other says it is a 'Good follow-up to Rang De Basanti'! Owing to such wide ranging reviews, BIG B asks: 'So how feasible is their report when their observations differ to such an extreme and large extent.' My thoughts on this? With all due respect Mr. B, reviewers are also 'people' and their reviews are in fact, their personal opinion. So when you say 'I can understand personal opinions that respondents make, but what baffles me are the reviews of critics.', that baffles me, because critics' reviews are their personal opinion and there is nothing wrong with that. Cold hard truth, we all pay to read their personal opinion!

'There is then the quotient of bias and deliberate intent, where personal equations come into play in complete disregard of the code of journalistic conduct.' Why does AB believe the whole world is out to get him and his family?
Why does he say 'If you have through no deliberation spoken to one electronic channel in some priority of time, you will most certainly be reduced to rubble by other rival ; merits be damned. Planted vox populai, or what is now commonly termed as ‘voxpox’ by the community, will be brought in front of visiting camera crew to spew venom and to deride creative effort.'? Why does anything anyone says about him or his family in purely 'career' terms always taken to be a personal affront?

And why does he go on and compare Slumdog and Delhi 6? I have not seen Delhi 6, but find it odd that he has to compare the reception of Delhi 6 to that of Slumdog. Why Slumdog? There are 1000 other Indian movies whose subject comes close to that of Delhi 6. Loosely, Swades comes to mind. Why is he so obsessed with Slumdog?
Why would AB crib, crib and crib so much about the extreme reviews his beta's movie is garnering? Why is he taking these things so personally? Methinks the beta should finally grow up and deal with his life himself rather than pa and ma holding his hands every time he needs to take a step into the big bad world.

Sonam's first movie got all negative and appalling reviews(not that the movie was any good), she was in the news for all the wrong reasons(break up with Ranbir, depression, drunken revelry), but did we hear a peep out of Anil Kapoor? Did we see him slam all the critics of her movie, the journalists and say that they are personally biased against him and his family? I did not!

PS: My intention in writing this was to just put my thoughts on paper(blog), not to demean AB! For a long time I have been meaning to write about the things AB writes on his blog about how the media treats him and his family. I always thought it comes with the territory. You reap the benefits of being a celebrity, bear the brickbats of being one!

Tomorrow night....

2009-02-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

Slumdog or not?

Of being PC

2009-02-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

If you are at a party, would you argue with a person who says something positive about an incident that you hold in absolute contempt? A few years ago I would have said yes. Now I don't. Not because I have grown wiser, but because I now believe you cannot hammer sense into a person in a setting that is meant for harmless social interaction. Parties are not for serious debates. I have seen that gossip and meaningless chatter goes well at a social do, than meaningful argument about current affairs, local, national or international. PC(political correctness) is the name of the game. Agree with everyone and say yes yes or keep your mouth shut. PC has ruined all intellectual debate that there could be among people. I remember in movies of the 70s where men and women would be gathered in circles, spirits in their glasses and in their hearts, debating away about some topic that they are all passionate about(don't remember which movies exactly.) That, in my opinion, is real social interaction, not the 'hello ji, how are you, sab theek?', 'did you hear about so and so's son?' or 'I love the jadau set you wore the other day'! What happened to the good old arguments between friends about the economy, politics and things like that? Have we become so scared of an argument that we embrace PC like never before?
I think PC also makes us boring. If you are the type who does not like gossip in any way, shape or form, all you have left to discuss is sports or the weather. (on a side note, imagine talking about weather in India. It is so warm today, it has been warm for a long time now, it will be warm tomorrow...etc.) If you are in the US and attending an American party and are in a group of non-Indians, you cannot even discuss sports if you have no idea of football or baseball or ice hockey.
The idea of PC is to not hurt the sensibilities of anyone around. Since there are different kinds of people at a gathering, better say things that are mundane than things that might raise an eyebrow. That I understand. But PC among friends and family? I have seen friends who will speak either about a third friend, a celebrity, sports or weather but not about politics or any other topic that might instigate a debate. Are we afraid of debates? Are we no more interested in conversations that make us think long after they are over? Have we become so robotic that we do not need an intellectual conversation that is food for thought?

Deep dark secrets tag!

2009-02-18T07:32:00.000-08:00

Although I have just finished a 25 things tag, this one, tagged by IHM is different in that I need to write 25 things about myself things you were better off not knowing :) I have borrowed a few from my old 25 things tag and most reveal the kind of person I am.

1. I cry whenever I see a character in a movie cry. No matter how silly the acting is, I cry.

2. I am a workout junkie. I like running, walking, the elliptical trainer, weights, abs exercises and everything else under the sun. BUT I hate working out outdoors. I need strict climate control to be able to sweat it out!

3. I am fairly tall for an Indian girl(5'8") and am also broad shouldered and wide. Most of my life I have been the tallest and the biggest girl around. My feet are huge too. While I was growing up, my mom had to buy clothes at least 1 size big so they fit my height and shoulders, consequently, all my clothes were loose elsewhere. I also find it difficult to find footwear that does not look like man-sandals.

4. I am a horrible singer but I love to sing. I have been warned not to sing in public.

5. I argue with anyone who I feel is undermining women, irrespective of the social setting or my relationship with them. As a result, I come across as a rude, arrogant woman to a lot of people who are not used to women arguing.

6. I love to dress up only when I want to. I hate to do it when I am 'needed' to. I might put flowers in my hair by myself but if you ask me to, I won't. Ditto with wearing traditional outfits, bindi etc.

7. If I feel like I am getting hurt, I do not speak out. I keep it bottled up and go and cry in the bathroom.

8. I feel most comfortable in sweatpants and a tee or a kurta and jeans.

9. I have a little sister and sometimes I treat her like she is my daughter , sometimes we are like friends and other times, she gives me advise on what to wear and what not to!

10. The husband has a better sense of fashion than yours truly. He also has infinite patience to wait outside the trial room for hours while I try out outfits. He also gives suggestions as to what looks good and what does not.

11. I love organizing. This does not, however, apply to the closet which is as shabby as it can get. Give me papers and files and folders and clips and such stationery and I am off!

12. I think I have an obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to walking on a tiled surface. I try not to step on the lines, always try to place my foot INSIDE the tile. Imagine my consternation when I find tiles that are too small for my foot!

13. I dislike Indians who break out into their mother tongue the moment they realize you know the language even when you are with other people who do not. I hate it when I feel left out of a conversation so I hate it when someone does it to others.

14. I have a bad habit of assuming things about people. Most often my instincts are correct but there are times when I have had to reassess a person after spending time with them. I am working on trying not to jump to conclusions about people.

15. I do not believe in assigned traditional roles for the sexes. Although I might do things that seem more female oriented than not, it is because I want to do them, not because i HAVE to do them.

16. I have begun to love the idea of having a baby. I get overwhelmed with emotion whenever I see a pregnant friend.

17. I am averse to socializing in big groups. I do not mind small, close group to socialize. I'd rather sit on the couch and read a book or watch the news or chat with the husband than go out and party!

18. I get embarassed and red faced when someone other than the husband praises me. I do not take very well to praise that is heaped publicly.

19. I hate being in the limelight. I cringe and my worst smile comes to the fore. Imagine my status on my wedding day then, where I was the center of all attention. I am seen smiling awkwardly, shying from the cameras in all pictures. I also have a terrible fear of the microphone.

20. I like the idea of me cooking up a great traditional meal but I lack the requisite skills.

21. I always feel like I am the most boring employee of my office. Also the most nerdy and geeky!

22. I have 2 left feet. I was enrolled in a Bharatanatyam class when I was 14. I learnt for 2 full years before the instructor ran away(yes he did). My family says he ran away because he could not bear to see the dance form being butchered by my clumsy moves!

23. I read more women-authored blogs than mens'. The husband says I am biased towards women. I hope it is not true.

24. I never forget people who have been nasty to me. I have a very sharp memory and I remember their deed for life.

25. There is a certain 'type' of women and men I absolutely hate. I shall refrain from saying what the exact type is, but if I talk to you or read your blog, it is not you!

Random thoughts...

2009-02-13T12:50:00.002-08:00

Rediff creeps
I have a bad habit. As I arrive at work 8:00am or so, I open my laptop, connect the power cord and the LAN cable and open my Firefox and type in 'rediff.com' on the browser and hit enter. Then I spend the next few minutes looking at the headlines, and sometimes, if a headline is sensational enough, go read the story. I also admit, sometimes, during the course of reading the story I glance at the comments. That is when I am magically transported back in time. Back to India, and traveling in that crowded bus, where one creep passes comments on how nice I look, while the other whistles and makes annoying noises and one more is desperately trying to get close. The comments are almost always creepy, weird, with sexual undertones. Even a fairly harmless story about a movie release gets these creeps out of the rocks under which they hide. Once out, they cannot keep themselves from commenting on practically every aspect of the article, the author and anything even remotely related to the article in question, in a morally decrepit manner. And whenever I read those, I have a seriously string urge to find these creeps and laugh on their face. Do look at the rediff comments when you have nothing better to do and need to pass your time!

Gaaliyan!
Ever notice how most mass 'gaalis' are related to women in one way or the other, Ma*&^, Behen%*&^%$ etc? Does it not bring back the age-old idea that a woman is the chief protector of family as well as personal dignity? A 'gali' given to a man is almost always tied to either his mother or his sister. He loses his dignity when the women in his life lose theirs.

A random tag

2009-02-13T12:50:00.001-08:00

I picked up this tag from Ritu who tagged all her readers.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I cry whenever I see a character in a movie cry. No matter how silly the acting is, I cry.

2. I love to workout and eat what I want, no wonder I haven't reached my goal weight yet!

3. I think I have an obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to walking on a tiled surface. I try not to step on the lines, always try to place my foot INSIDE the tile. Imagine my consternation when I find tiles that are too small for my foot!

4. I used to paint and draw well and was something of an artist during undergrad. I haven't painted/drawn in the last 6 years.

5. I hate waxing. I'd rather be a hairy gorilla than undergo the torture.

6. I love my fingers. To me, they appear long and thin and beautiful.

7. I used to hate being the tallest girl around when I was in school. Now I love it!

8. I love Sonu Nigam's voice.

9. I am a pathetic singer(I really mean pathetic) but love the idea of singing, so I subject my spouse to the torture every so often.

10. I am not traditional at all.

11. I love doing the Hindu crossword. Never managed to finish it, but it gives me a good challenge.

12. I like coffee more than tea but drink tea more every day.

13. I am hooked to reading Indian blogs.

14. I like to read movie gossip.

15. I hate it when people undermine women. I have taken up many a fight when I was in India. Sometimes, fighting to lose!

16. I like politics.

17. I can read anything. I can even read the fine print in a credit card statement if I do not find anything else to read.

18. I love masala movies. The more jhatkas, matkas, the merrier. The more slapstick, the better.

19. I am a BIG fan of Akshay Kumar, even now.

20. I absolutely hate Aishwarya Rai and her newly acquired 'family'. I think they are more tamasha than necessary.

21. I am a foodie.

22. I love to cook when I am in the mood. Mundane, everyday cooking makes me yawn!

23. I love to dress up sometimes, but am not a girly girl at all.

24. I don't think I can survive without the Internet or phone or both.

25. I love earrings - small studs, dangerously long danglers and everything in between. That reminds me, I need to organize my earring collection better!

I tag anyone who would want to get tagged!

And here is one tight slap for you...

2009-02-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

"Since they are women, stooping to the level of gifting undergarments will defame them only," he observed.

FYI, Mr. Head-of-the-hooligan-sena,

Since there are a lot of men who are also 'stooping to the level of gifting undergarment, may you have the sense to not just 'defame' the women.
Also, the very beginning of this statement, 'Since they are women..' does in fact HIGHLIGHT a BIG 'issue of Indian culture that I have raised' and makes your point of view very very clear. That if there was a woman and a man performing the same actions, in your book, the woman would be 'defamed' 'Since she is a woman'!

You know what? If you have a daughter, I PRAY to the same Lord Ram that you so cherish, that she sends you a pink, pink chaddi with cute hearts on it. Hell, even if you no daughter, I pray that your SON(s) also sends you some love!

That the whole point of the protest would be lost out on your non-existent brain was well known, now you have proved by uttering this rubbish that your brain(or whatever performs the function) does not do subtle. It only understands the third degree. So maybe the next 'protest' will be something you will understand very well!

With lots of love....

Domestic violence

2009-02-09T05:36:00.001-08:00

Continuing on the topic of Women in India, today I want to share my views on Domestic Violence.
I grew up in an atmosphere where no one beats anyone else, for any reason. But we had a maid who came everyday with bruises and black eye, and when I asked her what happened she would say her husband came home drunk and beat her. That is how I knew 'some' husbands beat their wives when drunk. I grew up with that notion. I only saw domestic violence on the TV and thought it only happens to the lower 'class' women who do not have the education or support from family to walk out on their husbands and come back up on their feet.

Then, a few years back, 2 incidents happened. To two of my very good friends. And the way their families 'handled' it has been a study in diametric opposites.

One of my friends is a younger daughter of a very well to do scientist in a prestigious establishment and she herself is an engineer. Her parents are like mine, and have always treated their daughters like friends. You could not find one moment in their upbringing where you could think they regret not having a son. She was free to do what she wanted and they only started 'looking' for a suitable boy to get her married only when she was finally ready and said yes. She got married to this guy who was working in the US and his family was back home in India. Post marriage she was at her in laws' place for a few months until she got her visa and left to join her husband in the states. While she was in India I chatted with her a few times and I remember she telling me her in laws were like friends and treated her very well. I was happy for her. Then one day, my dad called me and asked me to talk to her and find out 'what is going on'. He then told me that she was always crying when she talked to her parents during the weekly call home. Always wanting to come back home. Her parents thought it was because she was in an alien land for the first time, and was a housewife so missed her husband all day! Little did they know that he had her under a 'house arrest'. She was not allowed to go out, did not have a license to drive, her passport was locked up by him, she was given money only enough to do groceries, not allowed to call home when she wanted and did not have a computer while he was at work. He also taunted her and her parents because she could not cook very well (threw the plate on her face once). He did not beat her ever but this was enough to make her life a living hell. This was domestic violence she was facing. The last I heard, her parents talked to her husband and coaxed her to stay on and try to change him.

Another story is that of my dad's good friend's daughter, who is also my very good friend. She comes from a very simple middle class family, father, mother and younger brother, living in a small flat in Mumbai. She is also an engineer and worked for a few years before the marriage bug bit the parents. They found a suitable boy in the form of this son of rich gujju parents. He also was working in the US and came to India to meet her once. The next time he went was to get married. Cut to 2 years later, I get a call from my dad saying he is in Mumbai at his friends' place and they are trying to get a visa to the US URGENTLY. The reason? Their daughter was being beat up everyday by her husband, AND he was having a much too intimate a relationship with a female colleague of his. My friend was under 'house arrest', was on a dependent visa and had nowhere else to go. Her parents and brother swiftly managed to get their visas to the US and joined her soon. The first thing they did was to contact a south-asian women's domestic violence cell and got a restraining order against her husband. They then started proceedings for legal separation. Meanwhile, the women's cell also managed to get her a special work visa and a job. In a few weeks she was divorced and earning her own living. Her family went back after a couple of months. Now she lives independently and is much happier than she was when she was married. Her family visits her whenever they can.

Two similar stories, but the way they were handled was drastically different. Both victims of domestic violence. One still trying to make her husband see sense, the other, moved on in life. Both were independent women who were treated badly by men from 'decent' families. I don't know what is the 'right' thing to do in these cases but I strongly believe in one thing. A man who, regularly or intermittently beats his wife never changes his ways. A man who, regularly or intermittently, causes mental trauma to his wife never changes his ways. A man who does not respect his wife will never see any reason to change his ways. It works in movies, where a good Samaritan gives the bad guy a lecture about women and wife etc and the husband changes his ways and becomes good. It does not work like that in real life. Some women move on, others keep struggling all their lives. The cycle of violence, apologies, more violence, never ends. And do not think it happens only to women who are not educated or aware of their rights. It can happen to anyone.

Update:
I don't know what is the 'right' thing to do in these cases....
I was contradicting myself here. I KNOW what the right thing to do is. And that is to walk out.

Spot

2009-02-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Does this picture look weird to you?

This was taken at the Pink Panther premiere in London(Courtesy: High Heel Confidential.) The moment I saw this, I though...oh! It is freezing in London, Jaya, Abhishek and Big B are bundled up in the warmest of coats. Look at the Bachchan Bahu....

Being a woman.

2009-02-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

My parents have 2 daughters. I was 6 when my younger sister was born, and I remember people telling my mom, 'It's OK', etc. Growing up, no one at home made us feel that we were inferior to boys. I studied in a co-educational central government school where we were taught that girls and boys are the same really. Ten years of schooling were a breeze. Boys and girls played in the same playground, sat in the same class, and YES a girl and a boy(possibly of different religions) shared a desk in school. We did not care if someone was called Praveena or Parveen. We did not care about religion or caste or the colour of the skin. Nor were we taught by our teachers to care. In civics, we were taught the fundamental values on which India is based.
We memorized the preamble and parroted it out in class-

'WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.'

Contrary to what a lot of culture protectors feel, no girl converted to another religion, no one was snooped away to another country. Our parents did not bother that we were not playing just with 'Hindu girls', that we had boys in our group. No one told us that as girls we need to be careful about who we associate with, because if someone does not like us having male friends, we would get beaten.

After 10th grade I joined a state board junior college. I had to travel in the city bus and there I had my first taste of eve-teasing and worse. The first time a guy brushed past me in an empty bus, I thought it was a mistake. Maybe he didn't see me there. The second time it happened on an empty road and I shouted at the man. 'Dikhta nahin hain kya bey?' He smiled and kept walking. I was a shouter. I never kept silent in spite of the frequency of the incidents. One time a guy on a cycle slapped by back from behind. I ran and kicked his bicycle and he fell. Instead of feeling embarrassed, he called me names(bad ones in hindi) and cycled away. I got angrier. One time I shouted at a man in a bus and the lady sitting on the seat beside me asked me to ignore such people, and that by shouting, I look like the bad person. That was my first lesson at being an Indian girl.

After college there have been numerous instances of men misbehaving, touching, trying to touch, staring etc. And each time I have shouted or made myself heard. And each time there have been people around me who stared at me like I was the one who touched a man improperly. Those piercing eyes that seem to say 'why doesn't she keep silent like the others?'

I have been here in the US for the last 3 years now, and even now, when I visit home, I have at least a few such incidents. None of trips are complete without that shout to that man who tries to take advantage of the situation. And now, I can tell when they are about to do it. I can tell when they do it on purpose. And when you shout, they turn around and smile, like they have won something. Or they look irritated, like you disturbed their pleasure. When you wear a trouser, they look at you from top to bottom, sort of like optical scanning. They do it when you wear a salwar kameez with dupatta pinned to your shoulders, covering your chest, they do it when you wear a saree. They do it to a 15 year old, a 21 year old, heck even to a 60 year old. They really spare no one. I have lived in three Indian cities for a considerable time. Hyderabad, Mumbai and Trivandrum and experienced this everywhere(although to a lesser extent in Mumbai.) You go out and you cannot come back home without having been felt by a stranger. You cannot come back without having been scanned from top to toe, stared at because you wore something that makes you look good. You cannot come back without people making judgements about you because of the way you talk in public, or the way you dress. You cannot talk to men by looking straight into their eyes(they way you are supposed to talk, anyway) and not be termed an aggressive woman. You cannot wear skirts or a well-fitted top without being labeled as wearing 'nude clothes'. And NOW, you cannot go anywhere you please, anytime you want, without being afraid of being beaten, clothes being torn, by the moral police. And it is not so shocking that they are invoking the name of Lord Ram while doing this. The Lord they know made his wife walk into fire to prove that she was pure. To prove that she was not 'soiled' by Ravan, even though she was the victim! Such is their Lord, such are their values and such is their culture. It is NOT my culture to limit the social movement of women. They, in unison with the politicians, and NCW should probably re-write the preamble.

'WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN HINDU REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens EXCEPT WOMEN: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, as long as they are hindu men; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity to all hindu men; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual(hindu man) and the unity and integrity of the Nation.'

Ban women from public places.

2009-02-01T10:55:00.001-08:00

After seeing the way the Mangalore incident was handled by the Karnataka government, I thought nothing would shock me now. I was so wrong. Here are some words of wisdom by a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW). As expected there are some things IHM said that provoke thought.

Ms. Venkatesh is so right. Why should these women go to pubs, discos, malls and 'places like that'? Should the women not know that the place did not have a license to sell liquor? Why should they go to a place that does not have security? Did the women not know that wearing jeans and a tee is considered 'semi-nude'?

Whoever said the solution to such problems is to prosecute the molesters and bring them justice? No! So sir! The only solution to this is that women stop going to 'such places'. Ms. Venkatesh even mentions malls among the places women should not go to.
When the interviewer(Rajdeep Sardesai) asked her what if such a thing happens to someone in her family, you know what she said? 'My family women will not go to such a place!' Is that not a lesson we all women need to learn?

She met the culprits in jail and 'even counseled them', in her own words. So it is NOT the responsibility of the NCW to find the victims, counsel them, and make them feel more secure and safe, but to counsel the goons. She said "The culprits said they did not go with then intention of beating the women. They said they wanted to stop the live band and other activities that were spoiling the girls. They said the women were wearing skimpy clothes and dancing and that is the reason the incident took place. They are now repenting their actions."

Did the women not know that when some men ask them to get out of the pub they should immediately run out or risk being beaten and insulted by the men? These men have taken the 'theka' of all the women of this world, and when angered, would have to beat some sense into the women.

Finally, the lesson learnt from this incident is not that we need more laws against ill-treatment of women and making our public places safe, no! "The lesson to be learnt for women out of this incident is that we should try and safeguard ourselves," she concluded.
Ban women from public places to safeguard them.

Little joys

2009-02-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Isn't this the best moment in sports?

A winner consoling a loser. I cried when Roger said, 'God it’s killing me', I started to feel sad, and when he cried, I cried. I did. And did not stop until Rafa said sorry for having won! That made me smile and when I looked at the screen, this particular scene froze in my mind. A winner consoling a loser. Have you ever seen anything like this before? I have great respect for Roger's brilliance on court and Rafa's power play. But today I became a fan of these two for the emotions on court. For the largeness heart that Rafa demonstrated. It is hard to get up there and apologize for having won. Much less, when the guy you defeated cries. It would not even have struck another player(think Roddick), to go up there and say sorry and console the loser. Only a true sportsman, a true winner can do that, and Rafa really demonstrated that today. And Roger, really, showed he can be so emotionally vulnerable and show his weaker side to the world so easily. It takes a grown man a strong heart to cry in front of the world. To show that they are so emotionally overcome is not easy for men to do. And I respect Roger for that. Its hard to see a grown man cry and not cry with him.

Some myths about pubs busted.

2009-01-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

By now we all are well aware of the shameful Mangalore pub incident. Enough has been said about it from both sides. While well-known bloggers are writing against such horrific acts being committed, a few creepy rediff-readers are commenting (on rediff, where else) that these girls deserved it, they had it coming. That they had no business of being in a club and being obscene. That it is not our culture to go to a pub(like molesting and raping is 'our culture'). That 'things' always happen in a pub. Well, guys, you need to really open your eyes wide and step into a pub to know 'what goes on'.
The Urban dictionary defines a pub as 'Commonly used shorthand for "Public House". Pubs are non-membership bars serving all sorts of alcoholic beverages'.

A pub is NOT a place where promiscuous men and women go to get laid, it is merely a place where people go to sit, talk and have a few drinks with friends.
A person who drinks is not necessarily looking for sex with strangers. He/she might just be hanging out with friends after a hard day at work.
Drinking with a person of another religion does NOT mean I am going to convert.

AGAIN, a pub is NOT a place where promiscuous men and women with a loose character go to find each other, that place is called a BROTHEL. Leave the pubs in peace. Leave the women in peace.

If it is not my culture to go to a pub, it is also not my culture to harass women, beat them up, the least to molest them. Pubbing is NOT going to stop because of your cheap antics.

The so-called Ram Sena should be ashamed of itself. The day this incident happened was a sad and shameful day for Indian men. The day should be marked in calendars as the day of collective shame.
If a woman cannot go where she pleases, with whom she pleases, without the watchful eyes of a creepy man; if she cannot get a drink without being dragged by her hair; if she cannot go alone without curious hands groping her; if she cannot do what she pleases without someone judging her, we have no business being called a cultured, let alone a developed, society. I hang my head in shame.

Updated to add: A commenter, @lankr1ta reminded me that promiscuity never harmed anyone, and is a purely personal choice.
So here goes, Ram Sena molesters, even if the women were indeed promiscuous, its NONE of your damned business to go about beating any random woman you please.

O for...

2009-01-24T14:07:00.000-08:00

I picked up this tag from NRIMaami. Write about ten things that you are passionate about, starting with the letter 'O'. She also assigned me 'L', just in case 'O' became too tough. Well, I like a good challenge(lol), so here goes:

1. O for OM
It is auspicious, it is powerful, and it is divine!

2. O for Oxygen
Not the channel, but good old Oxygen, the element. The element that enables life on earth. What would we all do were there no oxygen?

3. O for Osmania University
My Alma mater. My undergraduate university. Where I found my life partner. How can I not be passionate about this place?

4. O for Organic
The first organic grocery we regularly used was milk. This was thanks to The Corporation, which shows how cows are treated in common milk farms, how they are given growth hormones so they are produce tens of gallons of milk everyday. It also showed that cows that stop giving milk are sent to slaughter houses. Organic milk comes from cows that are not given any growth hormones and are raised on organic, normal produce, unlike cows in normal farms that are fed meat. Slowly we started venturing into organic produce also. Unlike their non-organic counterparts, organic produce is smaller and tastier(at least we think so.)

5. O for Oprah
This might sound shallow, but I 'heart' Oprah. I admire her for what she has accomplished in her life, in spite a not so great family background. I love watching her show, not for all the mushy mushy stories, but for her trademark verve and enthusiasm.

6. O for orkut
Haha, a shallow passion again. I am hooked to it. Status updates, photo updates, testimonials, scraps, the whole shebang! My sister and I communicate via Orkut most times and both my parents are on it too.

7. O for Organizing
I love to think of myself as the Monica of Friends, only sometimes. When the Monica bug bites me, I am on an organizing spree. More than anything, I love organizing the folders on my laptop!

8. O for the Office
One of our friends lent us his copy of a taping of the BBC series, the Office. By then we were already watching the American version on NBC. We were a little unimpressed by the way NBC was handling it. Most episodes were repeats, even though they were very amusing. The BBC version was remarkably fast and we were hooked. We watched the whole series in a day and were also humming the song all day. The humor hits home hard and it has become one of my favorite humor series!

9. O for Oranges
Not the American ones(which are actually Mosambis), but the Indian ones(which are called Tangerines, here in the US.) I can have lots of them at one go(and I mean LOTS.) Whenever we got a box of these, we are on an eating spree. I like eating mine completely cleaned of the threads and the inner part of the peel that sticks to them.

10. Last but not the least, O for Obama.
This was my first election season in the US.
I had heard him speak a few times, during the very first of presidential debates on Fox and I barely saw him, because I was more interested in what Hillary Clinton had to say. The very first time I took notice of Obama was when he was addressing his supporters after he won the Iowa caucus. Since then, I have been hooked to his speeches and his progress in the Democratic race as well as the general election. I have had many arguments with people(that includes my husband) when they have questioned his intents, and made fun of the way everyone was idolizing him. I took it very personally when he was made fun of as a 'latte sipping, Birkenstock wearing elite', and was very worried when it was hinted that he did not love his country as much as some of his 'conservative' counterparts. But, all's well that ends well, and now we can all call him Mr. President!

Now, those of you wanting to participate in this very interesting tag, please leave me a comment and I shall assign you a letter. Alternately, if you have an interesting story of your passions to tell by way of a particular letter, do take it up!

Say no to...

2009-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

Sanjay Dutt and his two-bit wife have managed to create a never before seen furor in the blogosphere. I have been reading quite a few bloggers posting consistently about his atrocious comments about married women, respect etc and was wondering if I should post about this. Today I am moved to do so. A sort of compilation of most posts about the subject is here. Chandni has a series of posts of her own on the subject, IHM has a couple posts too, and today MM has a post up. Both the MM and Goofy Mumma have urged bloggers who feel strongly about this to post and make their voices heard. So here goes:

Say ABSOLUTELY NO to criminals in politics!

And I add, I refuse to take morality lessons from a suspected terrorist, drug addict, infidel and his moll. Get out of my face you two!

India Trip II - waiting your turn edition

2009-01-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

I got a taste of line jumping very early in my trip. The day after we landed, we were to take a flight from Mumbai to Delhi. I went over to the Cafe Coffee Day counter at Mumbai domestic terminal to grab something to eat. There was one guy who was at the counter, paying for stuff he'd bought, so I stood a few steps behind him, waiting for him to finish his transaction. Suddenly, a very good looking young woman rushed in front of me(she was well put together and spoke English with an 'accent'), and elbowed the guy out and started placing her order. I was appalled. Last I remembered, people were a little more sensible than that at places like airports. I politely let her know that I was waiting there before her, and she was shocked that someone would say that to her. Needless to say she did not budge, making me more mad. I had many such like jumping encounters but most were at temples where there are all sorts of people, and most do not have enough exposure to understand waiting in a line, but this CCD incident stood out to me because the woman in question seemed like she would know she had to wait her turn.
My next encounter with line jumping that appalled me was at a MORE store in Hyderabad. I picked up a shampoo and stood in line at the check out counter and there was this woman(she was as old as my mom) who this time, elbowed me and dropped her stuff on the scanner. The cashier did not seem even a little bit bothered, and went about his business, scanning her merchandise. This was the limit of my tolerance and I shouted at them both in words that would have shaken any normal human being to shame. Not this woman. She was cool and calm and she quietly collected her bags and left, leaving me standing there, looking like a fool. That made me think. Is it wrong for me to assume people should wait their turn, and not jump lines? Am I a fool to wait in a line? Let me know dear bloggers, especially those of you who live in India. Do you wait in lines or do you scramble to get the cashiers' attention, like we used to do in the old neighborhood general stores? I am at a loss.

Narendra Modi for PM?

2009-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

While I was in India I read this news. I was horrified. Here is a man who might have orchestrated the one of the most heinous rampages in India's history and these rich men are supporting him to be the Leader of India? What is wrong with these good men? Ambani says "Narendrabhai has done good for Gujarat and what will happen if he leads the nation"..really? What will happen if he leads the nation? I do not even want to imagine the kind of relligious intolerance he would create all over the country. I wish there was some way to let these rich men know how strongly against we, the people, are of this nonsense.

India trip I - The Airline Edition

2009-01-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a delay, here is my very first India trip post. I feel severely jet lagged, so the next post might see the light of day only tomorrow.
For readers who do not want to read this huge post, you can directly scroll down to the summary paragraph at the end, for the meat of the post.
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Our India trip started with a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C. to Dubai. The air hostesses(AH) and stewards were portly, old and rude. One of them said 'Welcome aboard' without a smile. No surprises there for me. Come meal time the AH informs us that there were no special meal requests for us(even though we requested vegetarian when we booked the tickets) and tells us there's no vegetarian main course left. All we get to eat is a salad and a rock hard piece of bread. I was mad. You spend thousands of dollars getting tickets and do not even get a decent meal. And the AHs are rude, as icing on the cake. Fortunately, the 13 hour ordeal to Dubai ended. The next flight was Emirates from Dubai to Mumbai. This one was pleasant. The AHs smiled when we were boarding. They served food with a smile(by this time I was almost dead with shock). The flight actually had steel cutlery as opposed to plastic ones. The food was decent. The only sad part was that this was a 3 hour flight. I would have loved a longer journey under these circumstances. The one thought in my mind was, here is something for the United crew to learn from the Emirates crew. True, United might not be able to afford expensive cutlery and good food like Emirates does, but a pleasant staff is not very difficult to acquire. It seems like United specifically trains its crew to be rude.

In addition to flying to and from India, this trip involved a lot of domestic traveling as well. And bulk of the travel was by air. Indian air travel has changed a lot from when I used to live there and travel a lot. Our first domestic flight was on Spice Jet from Mumbai to Delhi. Although it's a low-cost airline, its crew was remarkably polite and helpful and the whole experience was joyful for us. The journey back from Delhi to Mumbai was another experience with Indian airline customer service. Our originally scheduled flight was canceled due to fog(I have another post lined up on fog in Delhi) and we were given seats on the 9:30pm flight to Mumbai. 9:30pm approached and the flight was delayed by 2 hours. Finally we boarded the plane at 12:00am and it taxied and stayed on the runway for a better part of an hour, during which time we were fed and the crew tried to make us all comfortable. Finally at 1:20am, the crew announced that we were going back to the gate and will try flying again when the visibility improves. When we reached the terminal, the spice jet customer service desk was swarming with rude passengers shouting at them, like its their fault that the fog was so thick. Even then, the crew was very helpful and asked the passengers to remain calm. We were helped by a few people. One spice jet guy walked with us to the other terminal to help us find abother flight. When we said we wanted to cancel this ticket and get one on another airline departing earlier, he helped us do that too without much ado. One person from the airport customer service desk actually walked with us in the heavy fog, to find out which flights are at what time and suggested we stick to either kingfisher or Air India to ensure that the flight actually takes off. We then took a shuttle to departures in order to purchase either an Air India or kingfisher ticket. The AI counter had 2 men who did not respond when we asked if there were any AI flights out of Delhi soon. So we went over the the kingfisher counter and the lady there was as expected very helpful and polite and she got us 2 tickets to Mumbai. The 6:20 am flight eventually took off at 8:00am and we were finally in air, going away from dreadful Delhi. We were dead tired of walking from terminal to terminal and were by this time starving. The food was great and we had a good nap before the place touched down in Mumbai.
We had another pleasant encounter with Kingfisher crew on the Pune-Hyderabad flight, and by this time, we started taking the politeness of the crew for granted.
Our last encounter with airlines began on our way back from Mumbai to the US. The first flight we took was Emirates from Mum to Dubai. The AHs were nice as usual. The united flight from Dubai to Washington DC brought our 'polite airline crew' honeymoon to a screeching halt. The AH almost shouted at me when I tried to get up to go to the rest room. As expected, they were out of food by the time our turn came, we again ate some stale non-food and slept.

Summary:
All in all, I think the airline hospitality in India has improved by leaps and bounds from my working days. I used to frequently fly by Indian Airlines or Jet Airways and rude airline crew was a given. The only international flight I took those days was a Swiss air and its crew was nice and polite. Cut to now, 4 years later, I find that most International airlines crew are rude and uncaring. It seems like airline operators know that customers are going to fly even though they are treated badly. Most old people are treated badly. People with special needs are not cared for. Most Indians are treated badly as well. The only people who seem to get some smiles are the 'gori chamdis'. Even they are sometimes treated like us. There is no hope for the International airline industry customer. So far, the only airline crew that comes close to being polite is Emirates. All the domestic Indian operators are polite(I did not have a chance to travel by Air India but from what my dad tells me, even they have improved a lot from early flying days.) There is a lot that operators like United Airlines can learn from the Indian model. Most airlines employ fairly young staff who seem motivated about their jobs. The average age of the staff seemed to be late twenties to early thirties. They were all good looking(men as well as the women) and spoke good English. The airlines were clean and well maintained. Kingfisher takes the award, in my book, for the best airline experience of all time.

Back

2009-01-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

I am back from my India Trip. Sad and fat. But that's life, isn't it? I have lots of topics to blog about. Some happy, some annoying and some just experiences. India has changed a lot since I last went 2.5 years back. I have lots of things to say about those changes. This time we visited the Taj Mahal and I will blog about that too. (I will need a to-blog list so I won't miss a thing.)
I really missed blogging while away. There were days when I felt, damn I have to remember to blog about this. So this week will be a test of my memory. Will post in a few hours!

Off to India

2008-12-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

I am off to India today, for 3 weeks. While there, I shall try to post some of my thoughts/experiences but if I do not, I shall definitely do so on my return. Love you all dear readers! Happy Holidays! Stay safe!

Santa's present for me!

2008-12-24T05:02:00.001-08:00

So Santa does indeed exist, only, its not called Santa, its IHM! Thanks to my Santa, IHM for awarding me the 'Bloggers for World Peace' award.

I must say, the post she has awarded me for, was insipired by her and Ritu. I hand't read about the incident until I read Ritu's blog, and then I hopped over to IHM's, all the while fuming over the idiotic remarks! So, in a way, this award is really for IHM and Ritu!

Shopping for lil ones

2008-12-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

We are off to India next week, for 2 weeks. So this Sunday afternoon I spent at the mall, going from store to store, shopping for my hundreds of little nieces and nephews, ages ranging from new born to 19 years old! Considering that I have no idea whats out there for kids, I thought it would be easy. Since I didn't know their sizes, I could get some 'cool' toys for the little ones and 'something' a little grownup for the older ones. Would you imagine the state of shock I was in a few hours later, when I had flitted in and out of at least 10 different kinds of stores, armed with tons of knowledge of what different age children like/dislike and whats in and whats not?
When I was a kid, it was easy. I had a Lego set, a few dolls, a 'ghar ghar' set and tons of books. That's it. That was what I played with for a long long time. There were a girl in my neighborhood whose dad had been to the US a few times, and she had a doll House and she would invite us 'lesser children' over for a doll party and would graciously agree to let our dolls sleep over in her doll house. Boy did we feel jealous of our dolls? Well I had a flash of my simple growing up days when I was traversing the aisles of the Disney store in the mall. Confused about what to do, I asked for help. Did you know there are 'Toddlers', 'Pre-teens' and 'Teens' among children?
For toddlers(that's ages 1-3), Winnie the Pooh is really popular and they also like a soft toy thing. One look at the thing (it was an animeish soft toy) and I almost ran out of the store. It had angry eyes. I wouldn't think any human being, let alone a toddler, would like it. Winnie the Pooh I knew so I grabbed a few Poohs. Another toy that is in for little girls is a teeny tiny handbag with a tiny tiny soft-toy dog in it! Kind of like what the celebrities carry!
Preteen girls really like Hannah Montana and there was some other character I now forget. There were also a few toy sets that were called 'My favorite fashion designer' and 'Design a dress'. Really? You expect young girls to have a favorite fashion designer? I was so shocked looking at the kind of things in the market for little girls.
Preteen boys tend to like Lego blocks and Wall-E robots and indoor helicopter are really in. The toys for both boys and girls reinforces the stereotypes about sexes!
I then asked the person helping me, to suggest something for the teens on my list. All she had to suggest was iPods, video games and movies!
Sigh, I miss the simple life!

Egg on his face!

2008-12-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

I am sure all my readers might, by now, have read/seen how Bush ducked and missed being hit by an Iraqi reporters' shoes. Some thoughts.
While I appreciate what feelings might have prompted the reporter to do this, what made me gape at the television was how nimble and agile Bush is. Its almost like he knew what was coming his way, not once, but twice. And did you all see how Bush smiles and how Noori Al-Maliki has no idea whats going on and no idea how to respond except put his one lazy hand up in an atetmpt to help Bush? Why did it take the second shoe for the Secret Service to come from behind the curtains? Were they waiting for one of them to find their target? It seems like in this hullabaloo, the President's press secretary Dana Perino got hit by one of the microphones that fell when the shoe hit it.
All the news channels in the US were screaming how throwing a shoe is the ultimate insult in Iraq. Well? Is getting hit by a shoe not an insult anywhere in the world? For god's sake, you are getting hit by something people wear on their foot. You tread all kinds of bad/slushy/muddy places with the shoe and imagine having some of that stuff on your face! Why did they say its an insult in Iraq? I am sure no American I know would like to get hit by a shoe. But then, politicians and media might be a different breed.

The video screamed 'Joote maaro'!

Credit

2008-12-14T08:20:00.001-08:00

The American economy is credit based. Credit runs the daily lives of people. People go to a store and swipe the plastic to pay. Then, when the bill comes in at the end of the month, they pay only the minimum and keep the rest of the debt on the card. They take out home loans(or mortgages, as they are called) for hundreds of thousands of dollars(that most times they cannot afford) and then when they need money at a later time to pay for their kids' college etc, they take a loan against that home loan. The result? They owe their home loan, AND the loan on the loan. This results in them trying to pay off their loans all their life. The holiday season rolls in and they walk into the nearest bestbuy or circuit city and buy that huge plasma TV or LCD TV or worse, the home theater, and don't pay a dime at the store because the store is running a 'Buy with no down payment and no payments for a year' scheme. Does that mean they only have to pay back the TV cost later? NO! They have to pay the original cost of the TV AND the ultra high interest rate that goes with it. Result? They owe huge amounts, and continue to charge their credit cards with more 'Holiday Shopping'. Substitute the TV with that awesome, dream furniture and the story repeats. Retail therapy rules people's lives. And all retail therapy is paid for by good old plastic!
This worked very well in the 90s and the early 2000s. Starting last year, things began to change. People who could actually not afford huge home loans were anyway given loans with zero down payment etc. This resulted in the people not paying their monthly payments on time, or in some cases, not at all. The mortgage companies then foreclosed those homes and in a few years, had too many foreclosed homes to contend with, and not many people ready to buy, either because they realised, finally that they could not afford a house, or their credit for so bad that they could not get any good loans. Thus began the great real estate crash.
The same story held true for the credit market. People had too much debt on the credit cards, defaulted on the payments and their credit hurt as a result. They stopped buying as much as they used to, resulting in the retailers' suffering, the credit card companies losing their investment as a result of defaulters and one thing reinforced the other. Thus began the credit market collapse.
President Bush signed an economic stimulus package a few months back, and people got free money from the federal government so they could go and spend that money and infuse some life into the economy. Didn't work! Now we have all economists, politicians, policymakers shouting from their rooftops that people should get out there and SPEND money so the economy improves! So here we are. Go and spend so the economy improves. Then do not pay your debt in full, and rack up your debt, so the credit market suffers again, again go and spend so you can pull the economy out of the resulting slump...and the cycle continues. Has anyone thought about maybe moving away from such a credit-heavy economy?

Oh India!

2008-12-08T13:12:00.001-08:00

The year was 2004,and general election in India was just around the corner. The political parties were whipping up a frenzy with the constant drumming of slogans and campaigning speeches. The ruling BJP and its allies(NDA?) has its slogan "India Shining" and were the favorites to win. The congress(I) tried to forge alliances with BSP first then the SP and failed, but were buoyed by new leadership(Sonia Gandhi) and were very excited. Normally, elections would have been a very dreary affair for me, but this was a special year. This was a special year because there were a few new faces among the contestants. Not just new, but young. How young? In the early to late thirties. They were the 'new blood' that congress was promising. Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, Sachin Pilot from Dausa, Rajasthan, Milind Deora from South Mumbai, Navin Jindal from Kurukshetra.(I might be forgetting a few here). It was indeed an exciting time for me because I was closely following the election and was sure I would get to vote for the first time in my life and these young politicians, who were so refined and educated, made me proud. I could not vote because of not having the same residence address for more than a year, but I kept talking to people about elections and monitored the progress of these new pols. Slowly but surely the might of the youth grew and these young men ended up winning their Lok Sabha seats. Now, I thought, would begin a real transformation of India's politics. I was sure these guys will not sit on their butt in the last benches and while their time away, or mouth platitudes in the lok sabha. I knew these guys meant business. Imagine then how my heart would have broken when I saw that Deora was laughed at in the Lok Sabha! According to the TOI 'One of the youngest MPs in parliament, Milind Deora debuted on the second day of the current session with an appeal for reviving the prime minister's grant project set up by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for repair and reconstruction of old and dilapidated buildings in Mumbai.
But when Deora started making a speech when he was to ask a question, the opposition jeered at his "immaturity" and taunted the Congress about not training its youngsters properly. '
I was aghast. Why are they treating the future of the country like this? Will any of those four new comers ever have the guts to stand up and talk again? The last four years have given me the answer. No. They have not been heard too much. Part of it alteast can be attributed to the way Deora was treated. Part is because they fell into the comforting silence of Lok Sabha. I mean, who was I kidding by thinking that these youngsters were the beacon of light that would bring light to the musty, old world of Indian politics? It is easier to keep your mouth shut and earn your salary than make your presence felt and work hard and earn the SAME salary. Is it not?
Now we hear Rahul is being groomed to take over the party. But what has he done to deserve it? Has he shown that he can implement hard hitting regulation? Come up with ideas that improve the living conditions for poor Indians? Put his foriegn BA, MPhil degrees to any use? If he has, then he sure has a lot of humility and an excellent way to hide his accomplishments. He was appointed the General Secretary of the AICC. Was it because his mom is the President of his party? It certainly seems like that. When will the congress move away from this 'one family rules us' malaise and go out and find a TRUE leader? Agreed, the Gandhis/Nehrus did a lot for the party and this country but should we give them the fruits even though they do not deliver the goods any longer? I, as a citizen, have the right to demand from the leader of one of the largest political parties in India that she show us why her son is eligible to lead us and why the young capital was not utilized the last 4 years. Please Madam. Your turn to speak!

Update: I forgot Jyotiradiya Scindia from Guna, MP.

A note to soothe us

2008-12-01T08:45:00.000-08:00

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

Of lipsticks and pigs

2008-12-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

I read IHM's blog today and she had a link to this. I was livid. Then I also saw that Ritu had a post about this too. I had to write to vent my disgust at such a farcical statement.
Ritu asks if lipstick makes us less Indian, IHM is livid that all this guy could take away from the poignant protests was how the women were dressed.

Really Mr Naqvi(or Naqli(Nakli) if you will), you are more bothered about why these people are protesting in 'lipstick and powder' and 'suit and tie' and not wearing revered khadi like you do? Also, are you bothered that these people DO NOT take bribes or indulge in corruption like you do in your khadis? Scores of people died, many were injured, the city was attacked, the whole country is scared and enraged and it is only right that you are bothered that these crazy people are protesting against the politicians and asking questions.
How dare the minion common man ask questions about us Khaki-clad leaders of India? Who gave them the right to protest? Why does the media indulge these farces instead of following us like love-sick puppies?

Well, let me make one thing clear Naqvi sahab, we the people of India are sick with disgust at your statements and we also know that your party distancing itself from your comments is also a farce. We know your type. We know you all are shocked that the people are asking questions. Well, guess what, we will probably someday start giving you some answers too. Until that day, do pillage and plunder this country as much as you can, because once that day dawns, the likes of you would be wiped off into oblivion.

People of Rampur(from where he was elected twice), please take note of how much he respects us.

A sad day

2008-11-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Just read online that there were multiple grenade blasts and shootings in Mumbai at multiple locations.
You can get instant updates about the blasts at http://twitter.com/orangejammies.
I hope everyone and their near and dear are safe and sound.
A sad day.
I pray for the people of Mumbai.

The Desi-American lifestyle!

2008-11-25T07:02:00.001-08:00

A note of caution: This blogpost is not to make fun of any community in particular. I am only listing the steretypes. And this is purely for fun.

It has been almost 4 years since I arrived to the US and have been married for 2 of those 4 years. When I arrived, I was saw that there was a very typical Desi-American way of life. By that I mean:
1. Living the so-called American Dream - more credit than you can afford
2. Buying a house(a HUGE one at that, like most desis do) that you cannot afford
3. A desi car(Honda/Toyota)
4. Working your butt off during weekdays, and desi-family parties on weekends
5. Eating too much, leading to an unhealthy paunch. No activity, no exercise
6. Clothes, home smelling of sambar
7. sending kids to kumon/giddeon classes, kids do well in math
8. no vacations, save money to buy stuff(a huge tv, gold, house in India etc)
9. Only desi friends, invite each other home for lunch/dinner where you only talk about shares/sticks, status of green card, kids and work
10. Going to temples every weekend(or every other weekend)
11. Inlaws/parents visiting every other year. Take them to the usual places(Niagara falls, Statue of liberty).
I can go on and on!

When I saw that most desis fell into this group, I decided I shall try to do atleast some things differently. Let me now tally my status after 4 years:
1. We do not indulge in #1
2. No to #2 as well
3. Haha, here we stuck to the stereotype, a Toyota AND a Honda
4. huh......stereotypical here too
5. We try not to do this. We workout whenever we find the time, but the paunch has a mind of its own!
6. Our clothes smell of some weird combination of marathi and south indian food!
7. We fall behind in this department
8. We do take vacations whenever we can. It is very relaxing and necessary!
9. We have a few non-desi friends too! The Indian friends we invite never talk about GC processing, kids or stocks/money. We have conversations of varied topics, politics, India, books etc.
10. No on this!
11. Here is where we again stuck to stereotype. When my inlaws were here, we went to the usual places, in addition to Vegas, Grand Canyon etc!

I must have missed out on a lot more things desis do. Again, this was not to ridicule or anything, just for fun!

Holidays and weight

2008-11-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is upon us again. To me, it seems like the time between the last holiday season and the current one was spent trying to lose the pounds gained during the last season. When I was in grad-school, it was easier to stay away from sweet treats because everyone around you are very much health conscious and even if you did indulge, you could work it all off in one of the many awesome free gymnasiums in the university. Plus, one had all the time in the world to workout as much as one wanted to. Since I have started working, things have not been so perfect though. October(Halloween) marks the beginning of candy bowls, cakes and sweets being brought into work by kind(or not so kind) co-workers. Then there's a thanksgiving lunch at work, the leftover desserts of which linger around the office kitchen longer than necessary. Add to that there are sweets from the many bake-offs that people do at home for their kids. So whenever you venture into the kitchen to get some coffee/tea or even water, you are tempted to have some. If you resist the temptation by not going into the kitchen at all, you keep thinking about all those awesome treats awaiting you, and then off you go!
Working out is another story. You are at work from 8:00am to 5:00pm. Getting up early is an ordeal during winters. When the temperature outside is sub-zero and inside it is snuggly and warm, who would want to get out in that cold and warm up the cold bones by breaking a sweat? Even if you do manage to get up and go to the gym, which is a sorry excuse for one(its a free apartment gym, with 3 treadmills, one elliptical, one rower, a few bikes and weights), someone is already working out on the elliptical, so you hop on to the only treadmill that is not occupied and start running. Within a few minutes, you resolve to workout breaks as you start getting cramps in your abdomen and stop. Now all you do is wait for the elliptical-person to finish. For some reason, people working out on elliptical trainers really have no concern for the waiting populace. I once waited for a whole 45 minutes for one fine lady to finish her workout and she showed no signs of even slowing down. I even gave her a few rude 'looks' but she didnt budge. Had someone given me the looks, I would probably have cried and stepped off the machine! Anyway, coming back to working out, morning is hence ruled out. Going in the evening is not so simple either. Ofcourse there is the cold. Then you need to cook first. Even if you do manage to cook by 6:30pm, you have barely an hour to workout since ideally(sigh) you would want to eat early and go to bed early. An hour of workout, which inclues stretching, cardio and weights, never did anyone any good. I barely break a sweat in 30 minutes! Thus you take an hour out of your very busy schedule, and it barely helps. Instead of putting on 10 pounds, you might put on 5. And then working thsoe off takes forever. When you reach your old weight(pre holiday season weight), the next holiday season is almost there.
Thus run the holiday weight woes, you end up eating, but not working out, during the holidays. In an ideal world, holiday season would be in summer when you eat all those yummy treats and then go workout your a$$ off(its warm outside, remember, so you CAN get out) and burn everything off. Hell, in an ideal world, you eat what you want and it doesn't show! (why not? It's an ideal world after all!)

Dada

2008-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

I first noticed dada during his first ever test tour to England, where he hit a century on debut(I was in the tenth grade). I was impressed. So impressed that his cutout from The Hindu found a place in my cricket scrapbook(yes I had one). Since then I have been following the career trajectory and personal life of this charming man. His beginnings were humble but he was always style personified!
It was only later that I came to know that he had actually played for India in 1992 against the West Indies and was dropped because "he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned" (source: Wikipedia.) It was only after he played prolifically in two seasons of domestic cricket that he was picked for the National team. Then after the Sidhu tamasha in England about how he was treated, Sourav got a chance to play.
Slowly he blossomed into a fine batsman and a good motivator and my admiration for him only grew with time. In 1997 he started opening in ODIs with Sachin and they made a great opening pair. He became the captain in 2000 after the match fixing mess and ruled his way to a 2003 world cup final against Australia which we lost.
My admiration for him is for the way he motivated the team both as a team player as well as a campain. He brought home the idea that we have to play hard in order to win. He brought the fighting spirit to the Indian team. Even though he was not very athletic, he motivated everyone to field well, and his field placements were always effective. His fighter spirit slowly permeated to the rest of the team and we saw a side of the Indian team we never do, the fighting side. Instead of the drooping chests and sad demeanor, we saw them pumping fists in the air, doing dances, huddles and also taking their shirts off! Ofcourse dada was not at all noncontroversial. He was critisized for taking his shirt off after India won a nailbiter at Lords in 2002. They said he was disrespecting the gentleman's game(I remember thinking, gentleman;'s game my foot, there are players fixing matches, using swear words and racial slurs, what gentleman's game are you talking about?) He had his differences with Greg Chappel (I have mine with Greg too......he did not understand Indian cricket.) He was always thought of as an arrogant man, although there were players far worse than him in that department, who were never critisized(gori chamdi.) He was known to have Dalmia dancing to his fingertips too.
Irrespective of the controversies his captaincy brought, that was an era of cricket I really loved because the Indian team was finally getting away from its 'paper tiger' image and actually becoming a tiger on the ground and roar! That was an era of cricket when the Indian team actually huddled before a match and motivated itself. That was an era of cricket when we fought till the very end of even a losing match. Dada's contribution to cricket is not just ODI, Test runs, wickets or wins but the attitude of fighting for a game. The game is all the better for him.
We are going to miss you dada!

Proposition 8 - Breach of civil rights?

2008-11-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia:
Proposition 8 is a California State ballot proposition that would amend the state Constitution, to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, overturning a recent California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right. The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 was "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". On the day after the election, the results remained uncertified. With 100% of precincts reporting, the vote was 52.5% in favor of Proposition 8 and 47.5% against, with a difference of about 504,000 votes;[1] as many as 3 million absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted.

So there you have it. Majority of voters decided that a marriage should be a union between a man and a woman and a union between homosexuals can never be turned into marriage. Though I do not understand all the ins and outs of this proposition, I have some views on gay marriage and voting to ban gay marriage.
How come millions of heterosexual people get to decide what homosexual people can and cannot do with their life? I see this as a civil liberties issue. What I do with my life should never be dictated by the government. If you dont believe in gay marriage, fine, keep it to yourself. What gives you the right to decide? I liken this treatment of gays to the way African Americans were treated. They were disenfranshised, treated as less than human, not allowed to run for office, were segeregated. It might come across as a very radical comparison but in some ways it rings very true to me. Marriage is a fundamental right of people.
Why was a marriage defined as a union between a man and a woman? Was it because when the constitution was written there was little knowledge about homosexuality?
If the constitution did not define marriage as between people of the same sex also, I believe it is because the idea that someone could be gay did not exist. Since the constitution was written so long ago, should there not be a revision to accomodate modern ideas? If right to own guns, right to free speech etc can be added later, why not redefine marriage?

As an aside - When I was reading about this proposition and history of the gay movement in America I came across this news report on the fox news website. So you can stop being gay by praying? Really? According to Wikipedia:
The term is used to refer to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions primarily to" people of the same sex.
Being homosexual is like being female or male. Can you stop being female by praying enough? How many hours/days/years will it take for me to become a man?
Can we expect religious preachers and influential people to be socially responsible and not spew such nonsense?

Tears......of joy or sorrow!

2008-11-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Last night there were tears. Tears of joy when Obama(Sorry, President elect Obama) won! People were happy ofcourse, they were on cloud nine. But they were crying. Why do we cry tears of joy? When I saw them crying and heard the speech at midnight, I could not contain myself either. I was crying tears of joy!
I cried(almost) last night when McCain said "I dont know how else we could have run this campaign. This is my failure, this is not your failure". He seemed like a very vulnerable and weak person who was feeling bad about letting his supporters down.
There are other times I have cried during this campaign. When Hillary gave her concession speech, I cried out of empathy. I could feel her pain. I could feel that she saw her long cherished dream slipping away. And even though I was excited for Obama, I cried for Hillary. I almost always cry when I hear the National Anthem, Saare Jahan se Achcha, hell, even the american anthem, stars and stripes forever.
With all my crying experience, I can say one thing, crying out of joy makes me feel very exhilirated.
It would seem like all this crying for something I have no control over, and something that I have no stake in (I am not an American), or something as intangible as music make me a crazy person!
But I am not! I am not alone. I know countless women who get emotional and cry over things that are not personal at all. On the other hand, I barely know any men who do. Is crying a woman's thing? Why do men express their joys and sorrows so differently?

Change!

2008-11-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

My heart's beating fast, I am hyperventilating, I feel scared, almost sweating. No no I am not running away from an attacker or preparing for an exam. I am stressed out because its election night here in America and this is the day everyone has been waiting for! You might ask me, why bother with the elections of a country you are not a citizen of, in which you are merely living in? When you can't vote, why bother? Well, I bother. I do because I have always been a poilitically aware person. I like to think that I care about the political climate I inhabit! Or so I'd like to think.

Speaking of political climate, everyones on the verge of a nervous breakdown at work. Most of my coworkers voted this morning and some and leaving early to participate in Get Out The Vote rallies. They would go around their neighborhood, making sure everyone could get to vote. Some would also drive the elderly to polling places so they can vote. I see all this participation from normal people and am amazed. I have not seen this level of involvement in India during the elections. If there is one thing we can learn from the US, it's the involvement of people in society, in politics and in government which makes the lawmakers more responsible and accountable for their actions. Now, do not take me wrong. I love my country and I think there is no harm in adopting a few good practices from other places. It only enhances us. There is another thing I would desperately like to see changed. Tolerance towards diverse religions. This might be a perfect time to address tolerance in India. It seems like people's tolerance towards religions has only decreased in the last few years. A lot of well known bloggers have written about this topic and I am going to throw my 2 cents in soon!
Meanwhile, do let me know what effect this election mania is having on your life!

Sights and sounds from the Marine Corps Marathon

2008-10-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

The 10K is finally done! Here are some sights from the day.
This is the Marathon start like.

The 10k had 5000 participants. Heres how the 10K lineup looked like.

There were so many people also cheering from the sidelines. The Marines, in their sharp, crisp uniforms, were handing out powerade and water to the runners.

How did I do? The first mile was nice and breezy and I was running and all chatty with my neighbors. When we saw the first mile marker, we all joked about how well we were doing. I tried not to go too fast and tire myself out. According to my calculation, I was pacing myself at a steady 5 mile per hour pace, something I was used to during training. That meant I was covering each mile in 12 minutes. During mile 1-2 was completely warmed up and ready to go more! As mile marker 3 rolled around, I saw the better half waiting for me there, to click pictures. I was super thrilled and posed for some nice pictures (that meant I stopped for 30 secs or so) and was off on my way all excited. Mile 3-4 was the most painful yet. I started getting crampy and tired but as soon as I was slowing down, the good marines started cheering from the sidelines......"#2658 don't give up!"...this sent me rolling on my way. Once I saw the 4th mile marker, I knew I could run the rest of the 2 miles without crashing! Mile 4-5 provided some steep turns but the distance seemed really short. The home stretch on mile 5-6 was super easy and I was really fast and made up for my slow running in the first half. I was hoping for a 75 minute finish. The last 0.2 miles were really steep but there were teddy bears, and lots of sweet people sheering us on and I sprinted to the finish line in an hour and 13 minutes(73 minutes)! Not a remarkable time but it is my personal best so far.
Here is the medal that now proudly sits in my living room:

I must say it was an exhilirating experiece and I would like to do a few more 10Ks before I try a half marathon. The Marine Corps Marathon was especially a good idea because there were all sorts of people like me who were running, and that gave me enough encouragement to go the extra mile. No wonder it is called the People's marathon. I should say, seeing the crisp, sharp, handsome marines up close is a plus!!

Marathon update and lessons learnt!

2008-10-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is my last week before my 10K(6 miles) race on sunday and I feel excited and scared at the same time. Till today I have run the whole 10KM distance only once during my training. My usual distances are 4miles(a little less than 8KM) and I do that with little discomfort. Last weekend I attempted my first 10KM distance and struggled for the last 1 KM. I finished it huffing and puffing. I might run the whole distance twice this coming week and take rest the last 3 days before the run.
The Marine Corps Marathon is a very prestigeous event and the 10K portion of the marathon has been popular among people who want to run but cannot run the whole marathon(26.2 miles) or half marathon distance(13.1 miles). Often, a 10K is the starting point for a lot of beginning runners(5K is another place where you can begin). People line up along the spectator stands early before the race starts and cheer for runners all day. Its one thing running for yourself, its another to cheer some person who don't even know, to keep going! I will do a full post on my 10K marathon running expereinces and how the crowd was.

I am terribly slow. The other day there was this guy running on my neighboring treadmill in the gym and he seemed to be struggling with it. From the looks of it, it seemed to me that he was running a moderate pace. I was diong a 5mph pace and thought he must be doing something similar too. I glanced, stealthily(yeah, I know it is a bad habit!!), at his treadmill dashboard and almost fell off mine! He was running a 7.5 miles and hour pace and it didnt even seem like that! After that shock, now I stick to looking at my own dashboard instead. Even at that low speed, running feels very energizing in so many ways. One being the adrenalin that is pumped because of the workout. Another reason is that running makes me feel like I am overcoming my weaknesses. I am a slow runner and my reflexes are poor so I cannot play a game like Tennis or Squash with someone who can play well and that makes me feel a little inadequate but being able to run 40-45 minutes without feeling it makes me forget those inadequacies!
Is there any workout/activity that makes you feel energized?

Blog Action Day - Poverty

2008-10-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

This post comes after reading Nita's blog on this topic. According to her,
Blog Action Day 2008 (15th October 2008) - an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day.

So here are my two cents' worth on Poverty.

I have never been poor. I have never had friends who were poor. But I have seen poverty around me. In ways that might not impart the experiences of living poor. I have seen that the maid who worked in our house for 20 years was really poor and could not afford to send her kids to school. Her children worked with her and made whatever money they could. I have seen poverty in the umpteen slums around my posh apartment in Kandivali, Mumbai. I could see the slums and the goings on there from my 8th floor apartment window. Half clad children playing near the gutter, women fetching water from municipal taps, unsanitary conditions all around. It used to make me sad, and guilty, but I confess, I did not try to do anything about it. I guess most of us are like me. Its easy to close our eyes and imagine that poverty does not exist.

It's the Economy, Stupid!

2008-10-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

This was a phrase used by James Carville, who was advising Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign. Well, in 2008, "It's the Economy, Stupid"! And I want to say that to both the campaigns, although I want to give credit to Obama for consistently keeping the focus on the economy until this week. As soon as Sarah "Barracuda" talked about her "opponent palling around with terrorists", and the McCain campaign started slinging mud, he rolled up his sleeves and went into the mudpile with them. The day before, there was a documentary from Obama about McCain and his association with Keating in the 1980s. Then there was an ad by McCain(gosh his name is tough to write fast....m, c, c, a, i, n) that said Obama is dangerous and cannot be trusted blah blah blah! Its the Economy, STUPID! There, now its in bold and caps, will you, atleast now, talk about how you want to steer the economy when u are in office?
Will you stop talking about judgment, Israel, old associations for a minute and talk about the economy? People are losing jobs, their 401K's are losing value, their homes are losing value, there are 2 wars that are draining our resources and killing people and you are worried about who has worse friends and who asked for less earmarks?
I saw this in the VP debate too. Biden tried to talk about the economy a few times. Palin's repertiore of answers when confronted with a question was limited to "we are a bunch of mavericks", "hockey mom", "dont talk about the past" and a lot of other empty words like "like", "doggone it", "you betcha" and a few winks and creepy smiles. (Did you all hear, she says "nucular"? That reminds you of someone?). Lady, tell me what your "maverick" runningmate is going to do about the economy? He doesnt even understand his own healthcare plan. Is he taking those $5000? Can I more across statelines and avoid that tax? How? Does $5000 cover all medical expenses for a family of 4?
I think a part of the problem, my friends, is that no one is asking those questions. Yesterday's debate put me to sleep. Did the people in that room appear even remotely interested in what the two were saying? And all the media talked about was how one was hostile to the other and who won. Well, I say no one won! I say the people lost. Why? Because it is the economy, stupid!

My first blog award!

2008-10-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Newsflash!!!!I have been awarded by Asaaan!

A big thanks to her for this. This being my first award, I would like to thank myself for putting myself in the position of having to move so many times! I am sooo proud of myself.

My current favorite

2008-10-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I love reading. I love fiction. I love a good book. And if that book is humourous, written in a simple language, has a dash of reality, a little bit of philosophy and has a riveting plot, all the better. There are a few authors that come to mind, who have the uncanny ability to mix all the attributes above. A year ago, I would have said Somerset Maugham, Jerome K Jerome, Harper Lee(though her body of work is limited to one) make the cut. But now I am ready to add another author to this list. He is a modern fiction author who has written more than 25 books, spanning 4 story series and is internationally acclaimed for The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency series(source: wikipedia). The first time I heard of Alexander McCall Smith was when one of my friends was reading this book called The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency sometime in 2006. I was curious. The name sounded like it was a childrens' book. I like reading anything that comes by, but I would not be too excited about a kids' book. I asked her how she found it, and she said she loved it. Now this girl was by no measure a poor reader. We used to routinely exchange books and I knew that she had a good(very good) taste in books. So when she said she liked the book, I borrowed it from her and very gingerly started reading. Saying I was surprised would be an understatement. I was pleasantly shocked that this book surpassed my expectations and came out with flying colours! Since then I have read almost every book by McCall Smith in the market and eagerly look forward to his new ones!

Now let me get to the point and talk about what is so special about his writing that has me hooked.
There is a story. Each one of his books has a different story. All the characters are very well profiled and you get the feeling that he has spent quite some time thinking about them. None of the characters, however small, is left without a unique personality trait and all of them have a role in advancing the story to its end. No charater is just there to fill pages or to provide the shock value! The story itself is very simple. In most series, there is a central character(or characters) who either has another person's problem to solve(No1 Ladies' series), a personal problem(sunday philosophy club series) or a larger than life ego to satisfy(Von Igelfeld series). While going about doing this, the characters experience love, pain, apathy and a myriad of human emotions and their relationships with other charaters evolve(or degenerate in some cases). All this drives the story to its intended end, which can be the most unexpected or the most mundane.
More than the end, it's the journey that overwhelmes me. It is the way emotions are woven into each story that get me everytime I pick one of his books. It is the simple language that impresses me. It is the fact that he doesn't have to use cliches, (unnecessary) graphical language, (useless) side storylines that are meant to capture the readers' extreme reactions, to sell his books that makes me so happy to read him. All the incidents in his stories are drawn from real life, with a dash of humour. I would go so far as to say that he is one of the best modern fiction writers and certainly my current favorite. Do you have any favorite authors?

2008-09-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

You Are Not Prissy

You're the furthest thing from a princess - and you probably stay far away from any princess types you know.

You have an easygoing approach to living. It doesn't take a lot to make you happy.

And when life requires it, you're ready to get your hand a little dirty.

There's no problem you're too prissy to tackle!

How Prissy Are You?

Another moving story!

2008-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

So the move went really smoothly and we are settling in slowly.
I have always had mixed feelings about moving from one place to another. For the first 21 years of my life I stayed in the same city, same community, even the same house. I went to the same school and had the same set of friends for 15 of those 21 years. People got transfered and moved all the time, in the part of the city we lived in, but my dad always opted out of the transfers and liked to stay put. I always envied the new girs or boys who joined my class every now and then. They were the lucky ones whose dads got trasnfered adn they moved boriya bistar to a new city. These new students were like honey, attracting all of us oldies who were desperate for a few new friends. We shared our lunch with them, got them random gifts, even shared the much adored 'scent rubber'(eraser) with them. How I longed to be one of those new students is known only by me. But the irony of the situation was not lost out on me. While I whined and longed to move to a new city, these 'new students' hated moving and used to be really sad about going away to a new place. I used to think they dont know how lucky they are...the ignorant fools!
Well, anyways, the 10 years of schooling, 2 years of working my butt off preparing for entrance examinations and 4 years of funfilled undergrad saw me staying at home, at the same home all the time and I longed more to get out! Well, my prayers(uff) were finally answered and I set out to start my first job(this was in 2002) and moved to Trivandrum for a couple of months. Once there, I was as usual excited that finally I was out of home (but missing family ofcourse) and had lots of fun with new friends. Then I moved to Mumbai. I still loved moving. I lived with a few friends intially and realized we didn't quite get along, so I moved to a new apartment and new roomies within a few months. The new roomies were awesome and I was having fun, when I had to move again, this time to Amsterdam. Sadly I bid adieu to all my roomies for a few months, when I was back in the same apartment in Mumbai. Now again my fun with roomies, shopping, food, movies comtinued. After a while the some of my roomies started to move(sigh...by now I was disgusted with the word) and I was dreading my lonely existance. One fine day, I was told I was to move to Triva drum on a new project and I did, boriya bostar bandhkar. I really hated this move. I had accumulated a lot of stuff, friends and memories in Mumbai and didnt want to throw all that away and move to a new place. By now I had started getting a taste of what those 'new students' felt when they moved from one city to another(finally!!). After a few months in Trivandrum came the move of a lifetime, when I left the indian shores for the US to pursue my masters. Now my atleast-once-a-year-move pehnomenon began. I moved in temporarily with a Tiwanese girl for 6 months, then to a makeshift apartment for a few days, then to a new apartment for a year, then I got married! After the wedding, I came back to do an internship so we moved temporarily again to DC. We came back to the university after 3 months, and lived in an awesome house for a year. The lease on that house was up and we werent sure how many more months we would be at the university so we moved into the university apartments. Barely a few days after we moved, I was offered a job and we MOVED to DC. Spent a year in the new apartment and towards the end, S got a job and we had to move again to move closer to his workplace. Thus, owing to these extreme experiences I have had with moving(ativrishti/anavrishti), now I have mixed feelings about moving. I feel good because I am moving on the a better(hopefully) place, and have the chance to do up a place all over again! I feel terrible because I am moving from a place where I have built memories and led some happy and some sad times!
SO here we are now! Anyone counted the number of times I moved in the last 6 years?

Moving thoughts

2008-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Thoughts in my head these days
-How do I know how many books to put in a box so that it isnt too heavy for the movers to carry? If I can carry it is it fine?
-Will the pots and pans box hold up?
-I hope the power/cable/water/gas at the new apartment is ready
-will the cleaners do a good job of cleaning the old apartment?
-where did I put all my jewellery?
-will there be any bugs at the new apartment?
-will the roads/traffic be ok from new apartment to the office?
Huh...I can't wait to move!

Marathon plans, dealing with hypochondria and indian television

2008-09-15T11:39:00.001-07:00

I have signed myself up for the Marine Corps 10KM marathon and have been training for a couple of months now. Since I have never been a running person, it took me some time to actually get to a stage where I can now run a few miles and not drop dead! Starting from the stage where I could hardly run a few minutes to being able to run for 45 minutes, I have come a long way. The training is tough and there are days I wish I could just run the 6 miles without having to actually 'run' but as they say 'no pains no gains'! And pains there have been aplenty. i have this weird pain in my ankles some days, the legs hurt almost whenver I train, and yesterday while I was reading this article, I suddenly realized my feet were hurting too(yeah I do display mild hypochondria)! Consequently, I have spent most of my day at work today researching plantar fasciitis. I know I might NOT be afflicted with this disease, but the chronic worrier that I am, I have decided to stretch double time from today, try not to wear heels (i can hear my beautiful highheeled shoes crying for attention), and be on the lookout for any symptoms that might signal the onset of the condition! My obsession is atleast helping me make a few good changes in my lifestyle...hope they stick.
On a different note, I was talking to my sis today and we both were lamenting the degradation of indian television. Ekta's Kahani Hamare Mahabharat Ki, Dadagiri etc featured high on our bitchlist. We still remember lining up in front of the tv not so long ago(ok..about 6 years ago) to watch shows like Tu Tu Main Main, Khichdi, Shaktiman(yeah we are two crazy siblings who watched this show and also zipped around like shaktiman..haha) etc and not blinking an eyelid when watching them! Ofcourse I also remember the glory days of Nukkad, Hum Paanch, Yeh Jo hain zindagi and the like, that my sis missed coz she was too young to care. And look at what television has degraded itself to now? There was a controversy about this show Dadagiri(is that even a name?) where this hostess(ugh) slaps this contestant because he didnt win and he slaps her back and what do you know, the whole crew comes on stage and starts assaulting this contestant verbally and phsically. Most of the gaalis I heard blew me away. I swear I have never heard of some of the words before and some other really burnt my ears and I ran for cover! Apparently my sis was watching one of the episodes of Dadagiri with my ajji(grandmother) where a contestant is punished by dunking his head in a commode(yeah thats right) and my ajji ran away from the tv, into the puja room and stayed there till she forgot what she saw.....I bet my reaction would have been running away too(not to god though). Sigh....what happened to good old television?

Religion and stuff

2008-09-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

I was blog hopping as usual and saw this post on the Mad Momma's blog. While the post itself is not controversial(some people might disagree), the comments sure fired a storm. Some of her readers seem to have taken offense to this:

And then people want to know why the lower castes want to opt out of the system and convert to a casteless society - be it Buddhism or Christianity. I’ve never stopped thanking my forefathers for the choice they made.

When I originally read the post, I never realized this line could provoke people. It merely seemed like a statement of personal opinion...but boy! were there fireworks or what!
A lot of people took offense because they thought she was demeaning Hinduism and extolling the virtues of Christianity. A lot of commentators wrote how she was worng in saying that and some even talked about Christianity and conversion! While its the reader's prerogative to feel bad or angry at what they read, it definitely is stepping over the line to lecture someone about how their opninions are wrong. I would not do that even with my good friends because differences in opinion are what makes us so diverse. Can I not sit in my livingroom and say what I think about anything at all? Why do we have to be so intolerant of diverse opinion? As long as we are not imposing on others or not hurting others in any way, how is it bad to hold ones opinion dear to one's heart? I do not like it when people lecture me about my life. I have had this happen so many times:
Have a kid now, dont wait too much, you are getting old, buy a house now, you need to invest
you should have done this...done that....wth? Of all the things I get to hear, its the "dont wait anymore to have a kid" that pisses me off the most. I have had people(women), who I was talking to for the second time ever say that to me! And all the while, I have held my anger and frustration back and politely nodded. SO here is what I am confused about.
There are two issues here. One is that we live in a so-called free society where (ideally) there is tolerance for whatever religious, societal beliefs and opinions we hold. Like MM holds the opinion that she is glad she is of a particular religion, so do those commentors BUT they seemed to cross a line when they hopped over to HER blogspace and tried to bully her! This then brings me to the second issue I am concerned about, When people seem to step over the line, should you give them a piece of your mind, or be polite and ignore them?

Blogging

2008-09-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

Why does one blog? Why do I blog? Frankly, I do not know.
Some people blog for venting out their frustration, some to get noticed, some others to keep in touch with their creativity and some others just because its THE thing to do. Me? I blog for no reason(or a combination of the above). I have never given it any thought. Maybe blogging makes me feel like I am documenting my ideas so that I can read them sometime in the future and muse about what my life was like once. But there are diaries for that......so that cant be it! I blog because I want to blog. Maybe thats why I do not blog so frequently. Because I do not know why I want to blog, I am not passionate about it. Maybe I should sit down and think about what drives me to blog and then I would be more excited about blogging often! Until then......

Varalakshmi Vratam

2008-08-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

I performed the Varalakshmi Vratam puja today and here are some pictures.

You can learn more about Varalakshmi Vratam here.

I offered Semiya Payasam, Pulihora, Garelu(vada) and fruits as prasadam!

Nerdiness score!

2008-08-19T14:42:00.001-07:00

Oh Johnny!

2008-08-12T18:24:00.001-07:00

The last week saw John Edwards confess to an extramarital affair with Riele Hunter and apologize to his supporters about lying when he was a candidate for president. Post the confession, the MSM(Main Stream Media) went on a dizzy frenzy analyzing the affair, playing the blame game and just generally trash talking Edwards. Suddenly, everything John was knows for, the numerous cases he fought for the downtrodden, the issues he fought for, the things he represented, was erased and now he was reduced to this sex crazed narcissist who cheated on his ailing wife. Although moralilty and fidelity are important in a marriage and I would think lowly of any person (man or woman) who would not stick to these qualities, these are more personal issues which I would rather the husband and wife talk about and sort out(if they want to). I dont care if my leader is a womanizer to the extent that he/she is a 'good' leader and thinks about the greater good. I dont care for a leader who is on one hand, the epitome of fidelity and morality and on the other, goes about declaring unneccesary wars with countries by lying to the whole country and fabricating documental proofs. In my view Bush 43 was the worst president of all times in spite of probably being the best husband ever(huh) and Clinton was one of the best presidents in spite of being a little weak in the fidelity department! Still, here we are, letting a lying, scheming, war creating president scott free but impeached a president who might just be one of the best presidents in recent times. The irony of the times!

Cutting Obama's N$#@ off!

2008-07-10T14:08:00.001-07:00

I am sure there is no one left who has not heard/seen/read what the "reverend" Jesse Jackson had to say about Obama when he thought the microphone was off. Seeing that, three things came to my mind:

1. Jackson says sorry and says he said those things thinking the mic was off - what does that mean? That it is ok to say things as long as no one hears them? Also, is he apologizing because he means that he is sorry or because he got caught?(I think its the latter). Would be have talked about his had the conversation remained private?

2. This is the most important take away for me. So in this tape Jackson seems livid that Obama is lecturing black fathers about being absent from their kids' lives. Jackson thinks O is talking down to blacks! Ok he has the right to get angry.....but wait till you know that Jackson had a child out of wedlock a few decades ago and apologized to the black community and to his family about not being loyal to his wife...HA! So i think all this rant was a guilt trip for Jackson and that he was taking O's comments really personally. I wonder, is Jackson's illicit child well looked after? Did he have a good childhood? Was Jackson 'present' in his life?

3. This one is also important in the present context of a new generation of voters/leaders etc. Jackson represented the past of the black movement when blacks were looked down upon and needed someone to 'fight' for them. Times are changing and blacks have taken their fate in their own hands, but the Jackson types have remained with the same mindset and misused the issue to their advantage for decades. All this would change with Obama's rise and thus would make Jackson-types irrelevant. Could it be that Jackson's real anger and fear were about his own relevance?

Recipe time!

2008-04-26T17:45:00.001-07:00

Today I made Orzo stuffed bell pepper for dinner. (Orzo is a kind of pasta and looks like rice).
This is a really simple dish. Saute some onions and whatever veggies you like in a little oil. I used bell pepper, onion, peas, mint leaves and carrots. Once the veggies are a little done, add raw orzo and salt and pepper and saute for a few minutes. Then add one and a half cup of water per cup of orzo and let it all boil until the orzo is cooked throughly.
Meanwhile, cut the peppers in half, remove the head and the seeds and brush the halves with oil. Spoon the orzo mixture into the halves, top them with half cherry tomatoes and bake at 300C for about 45 minutes or until the peppers are a little soft. Alternately, you can also saute the halves in a little oil.
Once done, spoon a lemon on each half and enjoy!

We enjoyed ours with some Maaza!

The bell pepper dish turned out quite well and one half was quite filling. I have made a stuffed pepper recipe with potato filling before. I imagine one could also use some simple rice dish as a filling(tomato rice, pulao etc). Makes a complete meal!

2008-04-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews

The Stepford Wives

2008-04-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

I watched the 1975 version of this movie last evening and was taken aback by it! I expected it to be a saucy women's tale, a la Desperate Housewives but this was something.
The story runs thus:
A family of 4 moves to Stepford, CT from New York city, to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. The husband takes to the place right away, joining the weird men-only organization, and having a good time, whereas the wife starts to feel lonely and disconnected from the women of Stepford, who are the epitome of so-called femininity. They dress in white smock gowns, are always presentable what with makeup and all, and spend all their time baking, cooking, cleaning their houses and taking care of the children. The wife starts to talk to a few of them about forming a women's group that could meet and talk once in a while but finds few takers. She realizes there is something wrong, something amiss about the whole society, and starts to investigate. Meanwhile, the husband is busy attending the secret meetings of the creepy men's organization, and starts to call the men home whenever the wife isn't home. We are also shown that one of the men actually makes a lot of sketches of women, and yet another has a habit of recording women's voices for some 'research'. Cutting a long story short, finally, we learn that the men of the town have actually killed their 'real' wives, and replaced them with perfect robots that only look like the dead women. The robots now represent the perfect wives the men always wanted: beautiful, well dressed (rather matronly), submissive, calm, respectful (rather fawning), devoted to keeping the house sparkly and having a supreme love for all housework. The movie in a sense conveys the message that men want their wives to be like the Victorian woman - one who runs a respectable household, and secures the happiness, comfort and well-being of her family. The movie ends with showing the city-wife also being turned into a bot (called a Gynoid)!
For almost a day after I watched it, the feeling of disgust, anger and fear stayed with me. I kept asking my husband the same question - didn't the men need their better-halves to be cerebral? Didn't they want to have a meaningful conversation with their wives? Would you like a wife who keeps saying `yes' to whatever you say, rather than actually disagree sometimes, and talk about her point of view?
Maybe the depiction of the perfect woman was taken too far in the movie, but I can actually see some 'stepfordian' wives in real life. Possibly the best example of such a phenomenon would be the Bachchan 'bahu'! What a transformation the marriage has caused in the way she talks, dresses, and in general communicates with people! In fact, I feel like the Bachchan 'Khandaan' (huh) does that to its women. Strip them of all their individual talents and emotions, and make them `family bots' who keep saying they are proud to be running the household. Don't get me wrong, I am all for women not being stereotyped into feminists, non-feminists, family types etc, but I also am a BIG proponent of a woman continuing to have a passion for something in life, especially if she used to be one of the top actresses of her time (applies to both Aishwayra and Jaya). You CAN follow your passions AND run an effective household. And the men? The Bachchan men seem to be big chauvinists, killing every iota of creativity left in their women. Someone tell me what Jaya has been doing all this while? Did she really do all the housework in spite of having a bevy of servants at her beck and call? Why do they make women so submissive? How come Abhishek is imposed on us in spite of being a lousy looker, a mediocre actor, and an utterly lousy dancer, whereas we haven't ever heard Shweta speak?
I guess Stepford wives and the Bachchan household give us a clue as to what would happen when men rule the world! And that is why I would say: more power to women!

Barack Hussein Obama!

2008-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

In the first week of January 2008, back when the democratic presidential nomination had barely started, I had a discussion with my colleague at work with whom I car-pooled. She wanted to know if I had any favorites among the presidential candiates and parties. I told her as a matter of fact that I would love to see Barack Obama nominated, and then elected as the President. I instantly felt that she was uncomfortable with my answer. When I asked her what she thinks, she immediately quipped, 'Anyone but Obama'. When I asked her why, her answer was simple, that he was a muslim. This was my first 'political' conversation with someone in the US and here I was confronted with what to say. I just smiled. But I realized one thing at that moment. If this person, a colleague of mine with a graduate degree from a prestegeous American University, someone who has access to the internet and all the fact checking resources believes against all evidence that Obama is a muslim, what about thousands of Americans who have no access to information but radio talk shows that are inundated with narrow conservatism? While its a personal matter to like or dislike or select or reject a candidate, to wrongly assume something without even bothering to use the tools available at ones disposal is being absolutely lazy, in my opinion.
Well, as time passed I forgot about this issue and continued to be interested in the democratic party political process keenly. But somewhere at the back of my mind was the thought about the various rumors doing the rounds, like Obama is a muslim and the like and how the Obama campaign was vehemently denying he was one and then he going on talking about this Christian faith etc. The question I am bothered by is, So what if he is a Muslim? Doesn't the US constitution say that there has to be religious tolerance in the country? Didn't the founding fathers say that US is NOT a religion-based country? Have Americans become Islamophobes? What are all the Islamic Americans thinking now? Are they sad that being a 'muslim' is a slur these days? Being from India, I am used to the radical views of other religious groups against Islam but I could never understand how being a Muslim could cause someone to be looked down upon, or be less qualified for something. Is it because the people who brought the WTC down on 9-11 were muslims? Does that mean we should hate Christians because of the crusades they waged against the other religions? Does that mean we can hate each other just because we were hurt by someone who happened to be of the same religion?

Special Ugadi recipes!

2008-04-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

Its been such a long time since I last posted and my sis seems to have slipped into a comfortable hibernation, I thought I shall break this hiatus with a post on the new year. This Ugadi was good as we cooked a lot and ate a lot :D.

Maamidikaya Pulihora(my version)

2 cups rice(sona masuri)
1.5 cups grated raw mango(kairi)
1/2 cup peanuts
Popu/tadka ingredients(chana dal, oil, mustard seeds, jeera,curry leaves, slit green chilies)

Heat some oil and add all the popu ingredients. Toast for a minute.
Add the peanuts.
When the peanuts turn light brown, add the grated mango and heat for 1-2 minutes.

Cool the grated mango mixture and mix thoroughly with cooked rice.
Yummy pulihora is ready!

Pongal

1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup chana dal
1/2 to 3/4 cup jaggery
1 spoon ghee
1-2 cups milk
chopped toasted cashews
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut

Mix the rice and dal and cook in milk until rice is cooked and the dal tender.

Add the jaggery slowly until its thoroughly melted and mixed.

Add ghee to this mixture and stir until the mixture thickens.
Finally add the cashews and the coconut and mix and enjoy!

We worked hard to make a traditional meal and enjoyed the heavy lunch!

Politics is politics.....

2008-01-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

...irrespective of what country you are in. This profound realization dawned on me over the course of the last 2-3 weeks as I followed the initial stages of US Presidential election process.
You start to follow elections in India a few months before the general election when the parties and their leaders start spinning the same old spiel of what they would do for the poor and the downtrodden and what they would accomplish if they are elected. Not once do they talk about what they accomplished so far.....no way...that is never talked about! What follows during campaigning is shameless mudslinging on the opponent and trying to take him/her down by hook or by crook(almost always by crook). If that doesn't work and it seems like the opponent is still getting votes then starts the ugly process of tampering with the ballot or keeping people from voting. Thus all in all, Indian elections, almost always turn out to be a mockery of the democratic process of the largest democracy in the world.
I call myself a die hard fan of politics and I am put off entirely by what goes on there. Cut to the US and at the beginning of this year I was excited because presidential elections were just beginning and the candidates had started debating each other as to what they would bring to the US if elected President. I was hoping for a contest where each candidate stresses their contributions so far and their promises and showing how different they are from others. I expected it to be a civil and just process, after all this was in a country that is the leader of the polished western world. After all, I was in the country that prides itself on its democratic process(some call it a 2-party dictatorship but thats another post altogether)! But my hopes were to be quashed mercilessly when I started hearing one candidates surrogates whispering bad stuff about other candidates and vice versa. Then it blew from whispers to open mudslinging so much that now there seem to be tense relations between 2 candidates of the 'same' party over....race! C'mon, I thought at least the US had moved away from racial intolerance and were on the verge of probably electing their first black president and there were still whispers about race? Then I started doing some research(wiki-search) about US elections and found this kind of mudslinging isn't new at all! Called the 'politics of personal destruction', tactics of spreading bad stuff about an opponent's personal life so much that people would be scared or put off by him/her has been used very successfully by GWB(who else) in the past. I also now hear political analysts talking about this on TV saying this is bad but almost always works. SO are the people so foolish and narrow minded that they would not do any fact-checking of their own? After all isn't this the internet age when getting information is so easy?
They say it would go on and this kind of politics would never die...always getting results for the people who use them......there goes my romance with politics!

Himesh reshamiya sucks..!!

2008-01-14T05:41:00.000-08:00

Whenever i hear this person i feel like commiting suicide..but then i think y shud i commit??usse hee marte hai the game will be over :-) then we will not hear those oooo songs...yuckk..!! huh Himesh he is a bad singer and the worst actor i bet most of you will agree except his die hard fans.I dont understand how can anyone be his FAN like how cum one can call this doggie a singer..heee hee haa haa doggie best suits you himesh and on top of it the person who does'nt know how to sing he has gone for acting haha a big joke that too with an actress who is not even 20.

I saw him in saregama challenge programme he was one of the judges huh in that he was intolerable suddenly he used to shout i mean he use to bark without any reason.

Well i think first of all he should stop acting and then singing or else should sing normally as other singers do.
chalo now its time to end over to you shilpa..:-)

A taste of things to come.

2008-01-02T12:53:00.001-08:00

I am back from my looooong vacation and here is a taste of things to come on this blog soon!

Break.

2007-12-21T08:48:00.001-08:00

Neither I nor Shweta have updated this blog in a long time. I have been swamped with work and Shweta is busy planning for her future ;-)
Meanwhile, there are some updates. I am going on a vacation to Las Vegas, Death Valley and Grand Canyon for 10 days and would be back with lots of interesting stories and pictures.
~Ciao

Shweta!!!!!! You should really post something.

Letters to the editor.

2007-11-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a puzzle for you:
There is an article in an online news portal about OSO and Saanwariya releasing on the same day(diwali). The comments section of the article go like this:
Commenter 1: OSO seems like a masala movie, Saanwariya might be boring
Commenter 2: OSO will be a bigger hit, SRK rocks
Commenter 3: SRK is crap, he has always been doing the same roles in all his movies, he should retire
Commenter 4: Yes C3 I agree SRK is crap, in fact all Muslims are spoiling our country...they should be sent to pak
Commenter 5: All you bloody hindus don't realise that all industrialists and great people of India are muslims
Commenter 6: kaun hain yaar ye C5, isko pak bhej do and send Raja sen(a movie reviewer) back to kolkata..he is crap
and the thread continues with more pak/india and other people bashing, whereas the article was a harmless piece contemplating which bollywood movie will do better! Guess which news portal am I talking about?

Ok here's another sample:The article is about the India and US nuclear deal...all very serious business people. And what happens in the comments section? Yeah you guessed it - more pak bashing, this time along with US and taliban and how all countries except india are not 'doodh ke dhule'. And what else do I see here in comments? 'If you failed at 5th standard or uneducated, do not worry. Go to Andhra universities. You can get BE, MCA, MTech degrees for few thousand rupees and go to the USA to spoil their economy'. &%5E$*&%5E#@*&$^*& what does that have to do with the article, you say? Well I say the same thing!

So now from the samples provided above, tell me what portal am I talking about? Yeah you guessed it right fellows! Its our dear rediff.com! While I really admire the instant gratification provided by online news sites to people who want to convey their feelings about a particular issue, I am taken aback by the way this is misused by some people(and almost all rediff commenters). Its all nice that you don't have to wait for your letter to reach the editor, and then get published a month or more after the issue was raised but people! Is technology enabling us or just making us stoop to a level where we have to bash those who are not like us? Why do we have to succumb to the urge to verbally assault someone we don't even know? (why should you get that urge in the first place?). And don't even get me started on the irrelevant comments(the AP education type!).....As far as my memory goes, responding to an article is a literary activity and should create an atmosphere of debate and perspective...not meaningless chatter that is intended to spark raging tempers!

Note: The comments are a 'direct lift off ' from rediff.com.

Fultoo Dhamaal!

2007-11-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

This review might be a little too late but the movie is good enough to warrant a review, late or otherwise. So this weekend we got the Dhamaal DVD from an Indian store. I was expecting a half-baked attempt at comedy, with lots of sexual innuendos and double entendre, a la Masti style but was pleasantly surprised. Before I delve into the depths of brainless slapstick, a word of caution: Dhamaal is a remake of 'Its a mad mad mad world', with a few scenes lifted from 'Roadtrip'. And if you have not seen the above mentioned films, you are in for a great time.

Its a fantastic story of four good for nothing friends who, while attempting to save a dying criminal(a completely bald Prem Chopra ofcourse!) learn that dus carode have been buried in some park in Goa. Thus starts the mad fun-filled trip to Goa, complete with a pagal-khane wali bus full of mental cases, a hanging from the cliff rescue, a daku following Riteish(BTW i observed that its the nth time Ritesh Deshmukh has changed the spelling of his first name!) and the like. Most of the gags work superbly without trying too much(a tribute to the original movie i guess). The gag that takes the cake is when Arshad Warsi, when confronted by a pistol-toting Sanju baba, drops to the ground to show his fear and remorse, and starts collecting mud in an attempt to blind Sanjay Dutt (like Dharam paaji does to Gabbar in Sholay) and by the time Arshad has thrown all the mud in the air, Sanjay has already moved away and he says "sholay maine bhi dekhi hain"....hahaha. One thing is for sure. If you want to enjoy this mad movie, better leave your brains at home(or at work if you are watching at home) and grab that snack and cola and be ready to be entertained bollywood ishtyle! And hey! there are no women or songs to take your mind(didnt you stow it away?) away from the fun!

Happily ever after!

2007-10-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

Indian news media, over the last few days, has been agog over the developments in the Chiranjeevi household, what with his younger daughter eloping to get married to her young lover. I was amazed at the media circus being played out the the expense of these families in trouble. Here is my 2 cents about the issue.
Now, I am all for the young generation in India taking their own decisions in life but what surprised me was that she had taken this huge step all of 19 years old! Then I started thinking about why she would have done that. Indian parents would never let their kids date. A relationship is taboo. A young couple in love would have to wait to reveal their relationship to their parents until they are financially/emotionally independent. If by any stroke of bad luck the parents come to know of the 'affair'(I hate that word), then the couple can do one of three things. 1. Convince their parents that both parties are 'good families' and the 'boy' and 'girl' are truly committed to each other, whereby the parents would want them to get married asap, 2. If the parents aren't convinced, elope and get married. In this scenario they would face indignation and rejection from both sides and would have to depend on each other. They would really have to understand each other and care for each other for it to work, but if unfortunately the marriage fails, there would be I-told-you-sos going around, and the girl would be doomed forever,3. If the parents aren't convinced, break up, and marry whoever the parents 'choose' for you and live 'happily' ever after!
(Don't get me wrong, I am not against love marriages(heck why would I be?) or eloping(hee hee), what I don't like is how the couple in question decides to get married really young(19-20??) or 'give up' when the going gets tough. I feel they should wait till they are of an age where they understand what it takes to be married and be really sure that they are not just 'in love' but are in sync with one another. But then that's what I think, it could be all wrong for all you know. )
Now this logic could probably not work on the 'Chiranjeevi' situation because the following reasons make the dynamics complicated:
1. there is a rich girl, poor guy situation where the guy in question has a criminal record(which could be real or fabricated)
2. the girl's family is a very powerful one.
Parts of the media project the idea that the rich family trampled on the love and the young couple HAD to take this extreme step. Some others are of the opinion(thanks to his criminal record) that the guy in question is a fraud and is only taking advantage of the poor girl and her family. We would never know the truth, but as people with feelings, we should probably leave the families and the couple alone to sort their mess out. I only pray that everything is fine and that the couple would live happily ever after.

BHOOL BHULAIYAA VIDEO

2007-10-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZudRsoq5f0

Happy days...made me nostalgic...simply gr8..!!

2007-10-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

huh after so many days iam posting something ...well thxx to my sister :-) Anyway let me start HAPPY DAYS movie was toooo gud.Everything seemed so real bunking classes,ragging etc.

After decades saw a good movie which included student(btech) life now i can say that iam PROUD to be a btech student :-)... n credit goes to shekhar(director and producer) of the movie for making such a realistic movie otherwise got tired of the K movies which included the same old boring romantic types which included SHARUKH for EX--KANK which was a big shit.

Now coming back to happy days its all about college life,confusion,ragging,friendship,love,carrer,teachers,canteen and so on...
so mainly it includes STUDENT POWER.

finally all i can say is that this movie will remind u of ur HAPPY DAYS with ur frnds..a good mvie evryone must watch it..!!!

Leisure

2007-10-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

LEISURE

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

- William Henry Davies

So true is it not? The last time I stopped to look at a tree or a squirrel was when I was in the eleventh grade, the day I read this poem in my English book. I remember thinking how true this poem was, even as I decided I would allocate some time to nature walks and bird watching every week. And I remember sticking to that decision for exactly a week. Life caught up with me, as they say! Here I am today, again thinking of how I have stopped paying attention to nature around me. I see trees when I travel to the office, get a view of the river from some parts of the office, hear birds chirping while I am waiting for S to pick me up in the evening and see squirrels crossing the road all the time. But I never pay attention. All these scenes just flash through, with me zooming past them.
So here I go: I shall stop to admire nature every once in a while. And I shall stick to this decision this time.

Happy Gandhi Jayanthi!

2007-10-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

(This is not an essay on Gandhi)
This evening while channel-surfing we happened upon Richard Attenborough's Gandhi on AMC and started watching it. Aside from the fact that it is such a wonderful movie that encompasses all nuances of the Mahatma's personality, and India's freedom struggle right from Champaran to Jalianwala Bagh to the Quit India movement, we were impressed at how small funny moments crept into the movie. Snippets that make you chuckle and marvel at how Attenborough tried to make the movie more interesting. Here are a few for our dear readers:

1. Nehru and his 'anglicised' friends visit Gandhi after he comes back from the 'India trip', the men are outside feeding the goats (of course, on Gandhi's insistence), and talking about how tyrannical the British Government is. When Kasturba calls Gandhi inside for something, Gandhi runs in while telling the men "you see, even here there is no escape from tyranny".

2. At Champaran, where Gandhi is imprisoned and taken to a magistrate, the magistrate asks Gandhi to not leave his village ever and Gandhi says "this is my country and I can choose to go where i like". Not to be shaken by this, the magistrate then says "I grant you bail on a bond of 100 rupees", Gandhi very coolly replies "I refuse to pay the money", beat down, the magistrate says "I grant you bail for free"....priceless!

3. After Champaran, Gandhi is invited to Jinnah's house for a meeting with Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, Kripalani and Azad, and everyone agrees that the Indian struggle for freedom must move beyond passive resistance upon which Gandhi talks about peaceful resistance that will NOT be passive, will embarrass the British, and force them to listen to Indians. He then gets up, takes the tea tray from Jinnah's servant and starts to make tea for all, embarrassing them all in the process!

4. Gandhi is in prison and his good friend Charlie pays him a visit. Charlie says, "they are calling you bapu, doesn't it mean father?", Gandhi says, "yeah it is, we must be getting old".

5. Before one of his speeches at a gathering he is asked by the police about the subject of his speech and he says "the value of goat's milk in daily diet, but you can be sure I will talk about Indian independence too".

6. A People magazine photographer visits him to take a few of his pictures for the mag and to interview him. Gandhi says "with all the charismatic people in the world I cannot imagine what attraction I hold for your readers", the photographer says "you are the only man I know who makes his own clothes", Gandhi replies, "well that is not much of an accomplishment for me", referring to his meagre loin cloth!

I was really bowled over by the Mahatma's sense of humour and his courage.

On a related note: Today is Gandhi Jayanti in India and I'm sure atleast good old DD is showing Gandhi. While I realise this post does not do justice to the gem that the movie is, I hope it would at least entice my readers to watch the movie today, and enjoy!

Too old for 20-20? Huh!

2007-09-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

By now everyone who knows my dear sister knows that she has become a big fan of the new version of one day(?) cricket....the 20 overs a side game! I remember during the world cup in 1996, I and my friends were watching the final match between Srilanka and Australia and our tuition sir said 'kya ye one-day cricket...asli cricket tho test cricket hain' and I remember thinking granted that test cricket is real cricket watched by die-hard fans but one-day cricket is more interesting and quick and you dont have to watch men in whites run along slowly over the course of 5 days. Of course, the fact that one-day players had colourful uniforms was an added attraction. Surely test cricket was for the oldies!
Cut to today. Shweta, who normally doesn't care much about cricket suddenly tells me over chat that she's hooked to the new 20-20 world cup! Here I am, a big cricket fan myself not really feeling excited about 20-20. 'How is a game that finishes in 3 hours, cricket? Whats the point in both teams just breezing thourgh the overs, hitting hard with no technique at all(thats my view people...dont get all jumpy on me)? Is it that I didn't like 20-20 as much as my sis because I am getting old? Like my tuition sir? Is 20-20 next-generation cricket and I am far behind in the last?

Twenty 20 IND vs PAK...the match was too gud..!!!

2007-09-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

INDIA the world 20-20 champions..!!celebrating their victory against PAK.

Kerala nostalgia

2007-09-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

Whenever Shweta shows me her Kerala trip pictures I am instantly transported to my TCS-Initial Trianing Program(ITP) days of mid 2002. Thats when me and a 100 others were put up at this deluxe TCS executive hostel in Trivandrum for 3 months for our training. Fresh out of college and with dreams in our eyes, we instantly lapped up all the excitement and adventure offered by the place. Not a weekend went by when we didnt visit all the great places in Kerala. Starting with the 'usual' places like Kovalam and Varkala beaches to awesome treks like munnar and Thekkady to the 'romantic' backwaters of Alleppey, we saw them all and wondered at what nature had done to the place. After that experience I can safely say, and I'm sure Shweta will agree, that Kerala IS truly God's own country and I can go there bar bar bar bar..........Thanks Shwets for uploading those awesome pics.
Aside: Kerala also reminds me of those days of sleeping during the training because we were up talking all night about movies, politics, society and stuff and making fun of the trainer uncles and aunties...hahaha.....those were the days! End of aside.

water bed..too gud..!!!

2007-09-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Kerala pics

2007-09-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

My class photo..!!

Vivekananda rock memorial

in Kanyakumari.

Tea gardens at munnar.

Periyar lake.

again kanyakumari

mountain view

kovalam beach

At kanyakumari...a wonderful place!!!

UTSAV ROCKED!!!!!

2007-09-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hey just wanted to tell about our traditional day in the coll..named UTSAV.It was simply gr88..enjoyed a lot..gr88 food.Got bored with same old pakau routine. So today it was so good to see everyone in colorful sarees atleast for one day we got a chance to wear a saree.
ahhh finally the point is that today we had loadss of fun...:-) ....gonna miss college life.. :-(

The first post

2007-09-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, what is the very first post in a new blog called? The First Post ofcourse! Ok I know that was a poor joke.
So here it starts! The first ever Sisters' blog(I'm guessing there aren't any sister blogs out there in the blogosphere..atleast i'd like to claim so). I am the older one(and the old one) and the younger one is 6 years younger but we are not here to talk just about us. We are here to talk about life, school, work, movies and anything else that pops into our mind on any given day. It could be just a rant about something or something well thought about but post we will!
I shall let this post be what its meant to be, the very First Post!