Roti, kapda aur makaan

It’s been a long time since I blogged! That I think is the starting sentence of every blog I’ve been releasing/ planning to release. It is two years since I started blogging and it still feels like yesterday! I haven’t been blogging as much as I’ve been wanting to. I now hope to revive my blog.

The past few weeks have been weird…I landed in a different country… and…

…the transition from being the pampered little one in the house who doesn’t care about anything other than the TV and PC at home (:P) to someone who I am now hasn’t been easy. From cooking my own food, finding a place to stay, overcoming homesickness and taking care of myself, and yes, talking more than before, I’ve come a long way in just one month.

I’m saving the heavier stuff for another blog post…this blog post is mainly about my major goof-ups regarding ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makaan’ in the past few weeks…

Roti

1: How ‘Spicy Veg Roll’ changed my life

We started off in the morning and went to Chatsworth house…the house would open at 10:00 am or so…and I wanted to have my breakfast. I went into a store at the entrance of the Chatsworth house. I looked at the display of food items and saw a label ‘Spicy veg roll’ and ordered that. The display was actually empty - all the items were in the oven. The guy at the counter went to the oven, took out a roll, packed it and gave it to me. I came out and started nibbling on it, but it was too hot. I nibbled at about 1/4^th and it was time to go in to the House, and no edibles allowed inside.

After exploring the place, we came out, I took out my ‘Spicy Veg Roll’ and started nibbling on it again and I realized that the taste was very funny. I showed to the others and asked if it was veg…they too couldn’t tell and I finished it anyways.

Never did I think that the moment I ordered ‘Spicy Veg Roll’ would change my life so much…my colleagues-friends later started to say that it was chicken that I ate, and to this moment I’m not sure if it is really chicken or if they are just pulling my leg…and so began my tryst with non-veg and I cautioned myself to be careful about what I eat outside.

2: Bread, bread and bread

Bread 1: The second day I was in Sheffield (a Sunday), I bought bread as a proper English breakfast should have bread. I decided to make bread toast that afternoon!!! I popped the bread slices in the toaster and switched it on. The toast popped out, but it wasn’t toasted at all. Hmm…probably the settings are wrong…so I changed the settings on the toaster from ‘1’ to ‘6’ (the highest) and popped the same bread slices in again. I switched on the TV and was completely engrossed in it when the fire alarm went off…and it was from my apartment!!! I then realized that the toast was burnt and the burning ‘smell’ set off the fire alarm. Isn’t ‘smoke’ supposed to set off the fire alarm??? There was no smoke!!! Only the smell of something burnt…and the damn fire alarm wasn’t stopping….Images of people running out of the building, the fire engine arriving in a few minutes, and they fining me and warning me flashed in my mind and I ran out of the apartment, into the corridor, hey! what was I supposed to do in the corridor?, so I ran back in and looked at the fire alarm, it wasn’t stopping!...so I ran back in to the corridor…no one was there…(hadn’t anyone heard it?) and I ran back in…and was shivering and panicking…and the fire alarm stopped. Apparently my colleague-friend had also done the same thing, and the fire alarm goes off only in the apartment first :D

Bread 2: After successfully toasting the bread, I sat down to eat the bread and then realized something…what the hell do I eat with the bread? I bought bread…that’s it… and I was like *^%@&^@#$@#$%^ on myself, I did not buy any butter or jam or any such stuff!!!

Bread 3:  I bought jam the next day…and proudly brought it home. Then I applied the jam on a slice of bread and heartily ate it. Then I chanced upon the word ‘Chicken’ on the bottle of jam and nearly jumped out of my skin!!!

After coming out of the shock, I read the label properly and it said ‘Redcurrent jam…tastes good with chicken’. I heaved a sigh of relief after reading the ingredients.

I now have mainly Chocos for breakfast…

3: Cheese burger….

The next trip I looked forward to after Chatsworth was York!!!

This time I had a full-fledged breakfast before starting off to York. I had some cheese sandwich for lunch…it had lots of cheese and lots of some leaves.

After a tiring day at York, I wanted to pick up something to eat at the railway station.  I should’ve taken French fries - something I understood. But no! I did not…coz they were ‘oily’ and I wanted to lose weight (from half of my life!) So I took ‘cheeseburger’, imagining it to be a bun with cheese strips/ melted cheese between them…and I bought it and was about to eat it when I saw a ‘pattice’ inside it…hey that is not what I imagined! So I ask the guy at the counter if that is vegetarian and he says ‘No, sorry’, and I later found out what I almost ate :(

Now that two major non-vegetarian food groups have been covered, I’m just wondering what I’ll accidentally eat/ be about to eat in my next trip….Fish in Scotland???!!! :-O

Thanks to these goof-ups, the next time I say I’m a vegetarian, I’m sure to hear a snigger or two…  For me vegetarianism is a choice, not an obligation. Even if I would’ve been born in a family that survives only on non-vegetarian food, I’m sure I would’ve shifted to vegetarianism.

I’d better be extra careful about what I eat from now on…not talking about dieting here…

Kapda:

Week 1 in Sheffield almost over and I wanted to wash clothes. I had a look at the controls on the washing machine and they were nothing like the washing machine at home (I looked at the controls on the washing machine at home once or twice…never really bothered about washing clothes at home you know ;) )

There was a round knob with all sorts of temperatures written around it. And there were words like ‘Prewash’, ‘Wash’, ‘Rinse’. Hmm, I knew basic washing-machine terminology, first is prewash, then wash and then comes rinsing…awesome…I’m a genius…so first…I have to do a Prewash, then let’s see what to do…so I turn the knob to ‘Prewash 30 degrees’, dump MOST of my clothes and select ‘Start’. I switched on the TV and got engrossed in it yet again and after some time came to have a look at the washing machine. To my utter shock…I realized that ‘Prewash 30 degrees’ had ‘90 degrees’ next to it. It then struck me that the washing machine does prewash, wash and rinse, all without my stupid intervention and that I was now washing clothes at 90 degrees, the prewash being 30 degrees. By then…it was too late and the color from my clothes ran and voila, I got multicolored clothes!!! Thank god most of my shirts are dark colored and hence did not change color…else… (gulp!)

Makaan:

The thing that had been haunting me before I even left Hyderabad. 

From day 1, I called up numerous agents, googled like crazy and pinged almost all from hyd/pune who are in Sheffield. That I was looking for an accommodation was definitely one of the topics that was mentioned when two people from Hyd/ Pune met!

And people began to greet me with ‘Did you find an accommodation?’ Sigh!

Everyone I contacted had one of these answers ‘No, sorry’ or ‘We do have one from November/ December blah blah’, what about October then???

When I once went exploring around the city, I thought ‘Such a big city, so many buildings…isn’t even one accommodation available?’ (Sob!) And then I would see To Let boards for offices and would feel jealous of offices! :D

And then, when I had given up all hope, an agent called me up and said a flat was available, I went to see the place and was horrified!

It was a house, right on the main road, with a couple of ‘flats’ on the ground floor. The ‘flat’ was two rooms -  a kitchen and a bedroom with extremely basic furniture. The place was very old and no security and I could hear continuous honking of cars from the bedroom. And the rent was outrageous for such a place! (I did see places rented by others.) I almost went into depression seeing myself living in that place! And it was nowhere near office!

Next day: I came back home from work and saw an email from a neighbor’s (who is in Hyd) friend (who is in Sheffield) with two contact numbers, I immediately called them up and both seemed God-sent. They asked when I would like to see the place(s). Though it was already evening by then, I so badly wanted to see those two places, I told them that I would be there right away and set off in a bus to see the first place.

Place #1: Three students staying in a house; room for one more. That they were from Hyd, and they were very friendly was a plus point. But one look at the accommodation and I felt sure I would fall sick if I stayed there for a week.  Quite dingy and dirty and the room was too tiny…but still I did not want to leave that option…it was good enough.

Though a bit disappointed, I called up Place #2 and said I would come right away (it was 8:00 then), but the girl comes back from work at 9:00, so I thought I would start off anyways and was determined to see the place.

I boarded the bus and saw the place I wanted to go to, but no stop there, so the bus takes a few twists and turns and stops and I got off. Then I traced back the route of the bus to the place I wanted go to…or so I thought…but I ended up in a place that was completely new!

After wandering for sometime looking for some landmark I knew, I realized that I was completely clueless about where I was…added to this was that it was 9:00pm then and there was not a single soul in sight! I’m surprised that I did not panic, but when I narrated this later, others panicked :(

Then I saw someone coming in my direction and tried to approach him to ask for directions for a landmark, I seriously dunno what scared him, but as I was approaching him, he looked at me and started walking really fast in the opposite direction and literally ran away! (Did I look like a mugger? BTW I wasn’t wearing my stupid sweater and stupid cap then, else I would’ve been sure of it :P) Then I saw a couple and asked them for directions and they clearly told me the route…and at last I reached the landmark,  where the person of Place #2 was waiting for me.

Place #2: A 2-bed apartment to share with a girl from Delhi. Saw the place, it was awesome, quite near to the office, awesome building and view from the apartment, and the girl was nice too.

I came out of the apartment and wanted to see the route from that building to the office (it was 10pm then) and then I started walking towards the office building, I walked and I walked and I walked, until I was lost again! :D

It took me a good half hour and multiple calls to my colleague-friend to get to a place I knew :D

Hoping not to fill up another blog post with more goof-ups….

[Update on Makaan: The occupants of Place #1 wanted me to take a decision by the next day, and then their tones started becoming ruder when I asked for one more day’s time! (I was very much warned about such attitudes by the neighbor’s friend.) The next day, the girl of Place #2 called up to tell that she talked to the flat owner later and she was told that the flat was taken by someone else. Apparently she had posted the ad on Orkut long long back.

And then, at last, I found a place to my liking, it does have its disadvantages, but it has more good than bad and right now, life is going on…]

  

Book Review: The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Yet another book chosen because I’ve heard the title scores of times – and yet again did not find the book to be very impressive.

Set in Afghanistan, the story is about a young boy Amir and his, well, servant’s son, Hassan, who is about the same age as Amir.

Amir is a rich, confused lad, who constantly craves for his father’s attention. He finds solace in Hassan’s friendship and their tiny adventures, but sadly he can never accept Hassan as his friend and always considers him as just his servant’s son.

But our dear hare-lipped Hassan is extremely loyal and would, well, ‘eat dirt’ for his beloved Amir! How sad! Already feeling bad for Hassan? Well, there’s a lot more coming up…an endless list of the things Hassan does for his self-centered ‘friend’ Amir! But what does Amir do? ….well, he hurts Hassan more!

…And then the story ends with how, after many many years, Amir finds closure for all the things he has done to Hassan (though very guess-able).

The plot is ok, believable most of the time. But I felt the irony was just too much in some parts of the story, and it got onto my nerves when the Taliban guy turns out to be ….!

The narration is in the first person, as told by Amir; the style is ok - I thought it was a bit amateurish and in some instances, the descriptions were too detailed and totally unnecessary (reminded me so much of Enid Blyton! Remember  the detailed descriptions of, for example, what food was there in the picnic basket?)

What I liked in the book is the depiction of Afghanistan, its people and culture – I found it very intriguing. I felt that the portrayal of the relationship between Amir and his father was well written.

Overall, it is quite a good story about friendship and loyalty.

Hmm, who is the Kite Runner? Well, it's none other than Hassan, but I thought ‘The Sling Shooter’ would’ve been more apt   :D

Nirvana!!!

Our college’s annual fest is ‘Nirvana’ and is the most looked forward to event every year. The week of Nirvana simply meant lots of fun, chitter-chatter and classes were like…what are they? Neva heard dat word!

The highlights of Nirvana are usually its dance competitions which attract THE best talent, the ‘Juke Box’, the concert and of course the CAMPAIGNING.

The campaigning is one part which I simply adore, but sadly never got a chance to participate in. This is the part where all the student organizers go from college to college and campaign for the event, ‘in style’ – a hoard of cars (not less than 20) filled with screaming students go around and around the college and finally set off to other colleges; everyone on the way is sure to know what’s going on with the bunch of cars zooming past!

The juke box is where on the third and final day of Nirvana, after the results of all the competitions are announced and prizes distributed, hit numbers are played in the ground (which is all set for the concert) - if time permits. And of course, the concert, an awesome experience with friends!

Hmm, well...memories aside…I was lucky enough to participate in Nirvana this year too! And that too when KK came for the concert!!! Thanks to my friends who were determined enough and of course, our juniors! We had planned it as a, well, re-re-re-…union too! (We met quite a number of times after college). And it was nice meeting the lecturers after a long time :)

Frankly, till a few years back, I wasn’t a concert enthusiast and lectured everyone that sitting in front of the television and watching the same show gives a better view and is more comfortable (and definitely cheap!). But that changed when I attended a concert and loved it, and then Bryan Adams came to India and performed and I couldn’t go, then came Enrique Iglesis and same story - it was then that I realized the pain of not attending a concert :P

Coming back to the present – well, April 9th (the third day of Nirvana), I had an awesome awesome time! Listening to KK (LIVE!) was one thing and being back to college with friends was another (10-15 of us managed to make it).

We had a wonderful time, we all danced till our legs ached (well my dancing consists of jumping up and down and swaying to the music at the most :D, but hey that isn’t easy either if you do it for 4 hours continuously!) and till we got…indigestion (atleast two of us did! :P)

That’s a memory I’ll cherish for a long time to come and I hope we can participate in Nirvana next year too! (Though I seriously doubt it)

I had postponed writing this blog post with the hope that I would get good pics of KK (PROOF!) from my friends/ juniors, but then that didn’t happen so here is my blog post with crappy blurred pics of KK shot with my crappy cell.

See the white blob there? Well, that's KK! Really!

<< Looks more like KK now

The stamp for the concert on my hand! I was proud of it and didn't wash my hand for 3 days, yet it faded :(  >>

Healed the wound

I didn’t like myself releasing the previous blog post…but what do I do? I had to get it out of my system - even though, given the way I’ve written it, not many understood what the hell I was sulking about and quite a few misunderstood it! (I did NOT have a tiff with a friend :P; even if I did, I would've forgotten about it in 2mins). I now promise myself – no more pathetic blog posts unless absolutely necessary. (The previous blog post was in a way necessary…considering the seriousness of the issue (or rather nuisance?))

Hmm…well…I’m baaack!!!

Like in The Matrix trilogy, to ‘balance’ the equation, there are people in my life who supported and continue to support me through thick and thin. It would be absolutely unfair on my part to sulk about the hurtful people in my life and not mention the others.

Thanks to my friends and well wishers, I’ve bounced back…and really quick! Be it lending a ear or providing encouragement or just supporting silently; these people have completely boosted me up.

But the incident made me realize that it’s high time I become really thick-skinned for some situations (I’m already quite thick-skinned…but…not enough…) - it’s the only way I can come out successfully and totally unscathed.

One thing is for sure - no one, no matter how much they try…can unbalance my equation.

Hurt

Some incidents that hurt us might change our lives forever...even more so if we have been hurt by someone close to us…

The emotional fools that we are, we continue to bear the pain caused by our close ones; even though we’re been hurt time and again by them and seldom learn our lessons quickly enough – just because we ‘love’ them and are ‘attached’ to them.

How wonderfully painless the world would be if not for these two seemingly pleasant emotions!

It is these emotions which bind us and sometimes even suffocate us; yet we cannot break away and we continue to endure all the pain, for God knows what.

It hurts even more to know that the other person doesn’t care a damn for you or your feelings or your opinions and continues to hurt. Hurt on hurt; pain on pain; this will go on…till we break away…but can we?

If the pain was a choice, we can blame ourselves to an extent. But sometimes it is imposed on us…and we have no other choice but to face it.

I’ve learnt my lesson at last today…through a real eye opener. It has only increased my determination and has hardened me further. I believe I am what I am today due to all that I’ve been through and I’m thankful to life for teaching many important lessons early on...

As quoted by a friend in Orkut (Just when I needed it):
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending”

Book review - Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics

I’m bundling up two reviews in a single post
Reason #1: I read the books successively without a gap
Reason #2: One of these books doesn’t deserve a separate post
Reason #3: I’m also a teensy-weensy bit lazy (this had the most insignificant impact on the decision, really :D)

Freakonomics is the result of an economist asking questions (and answering them) that typical economists never ask. For example: ‘What do Sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common?’ (DO NOT try to guess!) Steven Levitt answers such questions by digging into huge amounts of data, analyzing them from a never-seen-before perspective and with Stephen Dubner, presents it on a platter through this book – all we have to do is digest it…if we are ready to digest and believe the facts.

Despite the name, Freakonomics is neither freaky (maybe it is in the mind of a typical economist) nor ‘technically economics’; atleast not the way we know economics to be. The book was fun to read and the authors added a good dosage of humor (Don’t expect to go LOL-ing for every page though, it isn’t a joke book right? Besides what are presented here are solid facts)

I felt that no other book can explain human psychology and nature so perfectly…

Economics or for that matter anything boils down to one simple statement – People respond to incentives…is there any other sentence that explains human nature so correctly?

The book gives a clear explanation of many weird yet commonplace things with lots of data to back it, that you can’t help but believe. While reading the book, at the end of some revelations, I was unable to believe I believed what was stated! (I'm even now in a state of unable to believe that I believe – some intensive googling needed to make it settle in my head)

Hmm…hence I had a good incentive to read Superfreakonomics, immediately after.

To tell the truth, Superfreakonomics is nothing like its title, it should’ve probably been named 'Subfreakonomics' – for that’s what the book is. The book doesn’t live up to its expectations as the sequel of Freakonomics; the book reveals too little a number of facts and goes on and on and on about them till you feel, ‘Enough! What’s the next startling fact?’ Maybe the authors should’ve done more research and garnered enough number of facts before going for the second book.

The only topic I liked in Superfreakonomics is its eye-opener on Global warming – I just read this today, so I still didn’t digest it (The next stage would be unable to believe…blah blah)

So are these books recommended?

Freakonomics – yep!
Superfreakonomics – not really

In case you’re thinking that these books are too technical/ complex…

…I found these books to be much much less (actually nowhere near) complicated than The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari...I still have to come out of that trauma, only time can heal certain wounds! :(

Save Our Tigers?

The words ‘Save Our Tigers…only 1411 left’ stare out at you, accompanied by a picture of a cute little tiger that makes you go ‘Awww….sooo cute!’. In how many places have we seen these hoardings? – Countless probably.

I’ve received many emails too, asking me to ‘pledge my support’. All I had to do was register and voila – I was supporting tigers! A number of ‘celebrities’ (quotes coz I hate that word, many people don’t deserve to be in that category) ‘pledged’ their support. A crop of websites popped up too, to campaign for the issue.

But, will this all help?

I happened to visit the 'Save Our Tigers' website and was aghast at what I saw in the ‘Be Informed’ link. The last update was on August 21, 2009 (!) and the link to the file read ‘66 tigers dead in 8 months’. Well, that is how informed we are on the issue!

It has been almost 9 months since the campaign started…hasn’t there been ANY change in the number of tigers since then? No births or deaths??? Even the brand new banners or websites carry the same message ‘Save our tigers…only 1411 left’ specific to the units place, is it even accurate data?

Hundreds of people have ‘pledged their support’, so what? Is it of any use? What are the activities taken up to ensure that the tiger population thrives? What has been done to save our tigers in the past 8 months???

And the most important question I would like to ask…did everyone suddenly realize the dwindling tiger population only now? I don’t think the number of tigers plummeted from tens of thousands to ‘1411’ in a few days! As far as I know I think the dwindling tiger population has been a problem from not less than 10 years. What were all these people doing all these days? What are they doing now???

I think it’s high time to stop the hype and take action; just ‘pledging support’ won’t help in any way.

Corrupt officials who partake in poaching should be removed…but I know that this idea is too far-fetched (the whole topic of corruption is like a huge dirt pit, too deep and wide to fathom and there’s no end to it).

Maybe from now on each ‘celebrity’ and each organization should adopt a tiger since its birth, sponsor it and be responsible for it and its safety completely - Just like how villages are adopted for development. But who wants responsibility? Everyone wants to just ‘pledge their support’ (I’m beginning to hate this phrase) throw in some money (God knows if this really reaches the right place) and announce to the world that they’ve, well, ‘pledged….’

Let’s just hope that these pledges translate to actions somehow and do save these magnificent creatures from disappearing from our country….and planet.

Book Review: A Suitable Boy

Can’t say how much my life changed due to ‘A Suitable Boy’ – In terms of the time spent on it or mustering up the determination to complete the novel

It all started when I went to Crossword a year ago just to check out its sale. I chanced upon this book and bought just coz it was quite cheap for such a big book and the author was well known :P

It was after getting the book home that I realized that what I had in my hands was one of the longest novels (1349 pages) ever written in English Literature!...and I patted myself on the back for that :D

Of course, I didn’t expect myself to read it right away…the pile of books I had to read for my impending project work/ exam had already turned into a mini mountain.

So…finally after all exams, when I knew I had all the time in the world (I did not know till when though) I started reading THE BOOK. After reading about 400 pages, I decided to give a gap for a few days, coz the book’s not a thriller and I wasn’t dying to know what happens next. This gap of a few days soon turned into a gap of a few months…

…until I began reading it again in December 2009.

Through immense determination and giving credit to the book – through the interest that slowly crept on me as I turned the pages, I finally completed reading the novel last Sunday (28th March) !!! (Hurray!)

Btw, while reading this book, I also simultaneously read ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’, ‘One Night at the Call Center’, ‘You Belong To Me’, ‘Blink’ and ‘Freakonomics’ (halfway through).

The pace of the narration is smooth, slow and the book requires patience to read. You can’t just expect something miraculous or incredible or thrilling to happen in a couple of hundred pages. Once you get started, the interest builds-up, but slowly.

The story basically revolves around four families – The Mehras, the Kapoors, the Chatterjis and the Khans. The main story is about how Mrs. Mehra looks for ‘A Suitable Boy’ for her daughter Lata.

There are quite a large number of main protagonists in this story (there are four family trees in the first couple of pages of the book for easy reference) and an even larger number of other ‘side’ characters. Given this, you will never once get confused who is who, related to whom and how…

As I kept reading the novel, I felt the characters come alive, so real, so natural, so very like each one of us…it later becomes quite hard to imagine that those people do not exist, that they are just figments of a person’s imagination.

To tell the truth, somewhere towards the end of the book, I expected something dramatic or a sudden turn of events to take place in one scenario and something totally unexpected happened in another scenario… it’s quite a dumb way of putting it, but it’s hard to tell the story without telling it!!!

In this story, there are no heroes, no marvels, just ordinary people, living ordinary lives, which turn extraordinary under certain circumstances and the lives become temporarily turbulent, but then just as any storm should settle, so do these lives; and then life goes on.

At the end it left me with this feeling…

...that I traveled all alone to an entirely different place and was introduced to these characters such that I knew all of them, but they did not know who I am, I could see them, but they couldn’t see me; something like a spirit…

…and that I watched all what was going on in their lives for a brief period of time, smiled when they were happy and felt their pain, before the author beckoned the spirit and told that it was time to leave.

At last…broke the jinx!

This year will always be special…for it is the year the greatest jinx of my life has been broken.

This blog post is mainly to thank (though most of them wouldn’t accept it and would throttle me if I say ‘thanks’ :D) all those who’ve unintentionally and most unwittingly broken the jinx.

Although I’ve celebrated all my birthdays with great fervor and each of them has its special moments, the birthdays (ya, plural :P) I’ve celebrated this year will remain the most special.

Thanks to my birthday falling on a weekday during the vacations most of the time (a deadly combination when you are accessible to neither your friends nor family), or having commitments like exams/ souvenirs (:D) or things going wrong or whatever other reasons, it’s been 10 long years since I’ve celebrated my birthday, ON MY BIRTHDAY. Not only that, due to the same reason and various other reasons, it’s been the same duration of time since I’ve cut a birthday cake! (Birthday cakes are usually not cut other than on the birthday, except in IT companies :P, which was good for me btw :D as you will see...).

In the beginning I tried to prevent the jinx as much as possible, but soon realized that it was as inevitable as, well, my jinx, and gave up. Till last year whenever anyone asked me about what I would do on my birthday, I would say ‘I will sit at home and watch TV’ and enjoy the weird expressions on their faces.

This year – no vacation but my b’day falls on a weekend! And when there's a bandh!  :(
And I dared not plan anything other than shutting up and sitting at home!

And then my wonderful friends and cousins surprised me that day and broke the jinx!

So, why the late thanks?

I had another wonderful surprise today when my team members most unexpectedly arranged another birthday bash (combined with the b’days of 3 others, but anyways broke the jinx again) today!!!

So I thank

My friends for surprising me (u really got me that day!) and coming all the way in spite of the bandh (thanks also to those who wanted to come but couldn't becoz of the bandh) and breaking the jinx…

My cousins for enduring the long distance travel and making the surprising arrangements for my birthday regardless of the bandh and breaking the jinx…

My colleagues for surprising me today and breaking the jinx…

You know how some small gestures go a long way and unwittingly change a person’s perspective of something? ....

Tindly Dum Fry

No, this is not a recipe and hence is in the right blog...

Everytime I don't take my lunch box to college...er...office and have to eat at the cafetaria, one infamous (in my mind) dish pops up in the menu - 'Tindly Dum Fry'.

I used to have an aversion towards the name of the dish and never ever cared to find out what 'tindly' is for many months and I used to skip taking the buffet whenever that dish was served. Finally, 3 weeks back, I dared to try out the dish and found out that 'tindly' is Ivy Gourd or 'Dondakaya'. I managed to taste it, but hated the way it was made by the cafeteria.

As sadness and grief makes poets out of men (as in mankind), the agony 'Tindly Dum Fry' was subjecting me to, caused a poem to flow out of me within minutes of eating the horrendous dish.

Here it is:

Why why why
Why Tindly Dum Fry

Everytime I ate
That was what they made

Tindly tindly who art thou?
Did I ever hurt you somehow?


ROFL!!!


Why did I release this blog now if I ate the dish and made up the poem three weeks back? After three whole weeks of eating from my lunch box, I decide to give it a break and plan to eat at the cafeteria today, and guess what I see in the menu...

Telugu Movie Gyan…Unleashed!!!

I switched on the TV today afternoon, wondering if any good movies were being telecast and I chanced upon a Telugu movie in a channel. I started watching it and could not believe my eyes at the inane stuff they were showing. I had a feeling that almost all scenes in the movie were picked off from other movies. I could’ve just stopped watching, but, somewhere deep down I had some hope that the movie would turn out to be better; as I continued to watch, this hope kept diminishing.

And then, my ordeal was cut short by a power-cut. Hence, no movie review (I don’t think I would’ve taken the pains to write a review for that crap anyways)…

…but it left me seething at what most Telugu movies dole out year after year.

So, here’s a compilation of Telugu movie ‘gyan’:

Caution: Reader discretion is advised

The ‘hero’ -

• The hero is always the most crude person; he almost never has a proper education, even if he does, is in 90% of the movies, unemployed

• He always has a friend who is the biggest bakra anyone has ever seen or a bunch of good-for-nothing friends

• Either he has a family - father, mother and mostly a little sister, rarely an elder sister and never a brother, or he is an orphan!!!

• The hero’s family is shown mostly during the intro, then once for introducing the heroine to them and then they are completely forgotten about till the wedding (of the hero and heroine in case you were wondering)

• The hero’s parents always pester him about his job/ education etc., but they never bother about whom he’s gonna bring home as his wife! They always oppose our hero for every tiny thing whether it matters or not but they never oppose his choosing the heroine!

• The hero’s sister mainly exists so that the heroine can be her friend and hence get introduced to the hero or for convenient communication between the hero and heroine in tough times

The ‘heroine’ -

• Our heroine, who is the most beautiful and the most dumb creature on the planet, always enters the movie in the first 15 minutes. The ‘entry’ of the heroine is usually when it rains, or atleast when the wind is blowing like mad, and then there’s the focusing of our heroine from bottom to top or her behind (oh bother!)

• No matter how ugly and/ or old our hero is, the ‘heroine’ is always a sweet young thing, the younger the better (even teens will do)

• The heroine was introduced as a sweet young thing right? After the intro somehow, she turns into a mean, arrogant thing to make things difficult for our ‘hero’

• The heroine is always to be engaged/ engaged (thank God never married :P) to another guy (who is NOT THE ‘hero’). No matter how decent, sweet, handsome, educated this ‘other’ guy is, poor thing, he can never be THE hero and can never exceed him!

       In most of the movies, I did not understand why the heroine chooses the hero over that guy! After all, he’s much better than the hero in many ways and the heroine’s parents like him too! :D

• The other guy whether good or bad or much much better than the hero, always has to give up the heroine, either reluctantly (after some ‘dishum dishum’) or by sacrifice (after a long horrendous speech by this sacrificing bakra on what ‘Love’ is and how parents should always agree to such crap

• The heroine’s dad is always big and bad and always wears white starched cotton shirts and mostly a dhoti and has a big curved moustache. He is 90% of the time a gangster (the highest in the ranks), or a factionist or just plain bad for no reason (our hero has to have challenges to live upto his title right?)

• The heroine’s dad (the villain, if the guy the heroine is engaged to is good) always has a huge convoy of white cars (before it was the Ambassador, now it’s the Tavera) and a huge gang of ‘rowdies’ who wear huge white starched cotton shirts which remain spotless even after all the ‘dishum dishum’ and slaughtering and bloodshed (wonder what detergent they use!)

• The most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in any movie: The convoy of dazzling white cars enters the scene and the heroine’s dad’s goons poke their hands and heads out of the cars’ windows and swing the swords and guns round and round in the air!

• If the heroine’s dad is not big and bad, but a little big and a little bad, then she will have an elder brother, who is also a little big and a little bad, but is pesky and hates the hero to the core and does anything to keep the hero’s eyes off his little sis

• The heroine is always a damsel in distress (even though she has a rich dad, good education, is extremely beautiful, is engaged to the most suitable boy her dad can get, has a huge bunch of friends (who are initially shown in the movie, but then they are totally forgotten about) etc. I just can’t understand what the heroine’s problem is…

The fights…

• When the villain/ villains/ ‘rowdies’ hit the hero, there is seldom any noise and hardly any impact on our hero. When the hero, who is weak and thin and most of the times old too, hits the rowdies it makes a ‘dishum dishum’ sound (nowadays just a ‘dash dush dish’ kinda sound) and one knock is enough to blow their brains out or send them flying through the air and land them on some wooden or concrete object…which then breaks

• Sometimes the hero is first hit black and blue by the villains and blacks out, but then he miraculously wakes up and beats the villains to pulp, thanks to a cry of despair by the heroine

• The heroine is ALWAYS present when the hero fights with the villains

• Even if the hero is fatally stabbed, he will continue to fight the goons, but if a goon is even scratched, he will fall to the floor with a thud and never get up

• The most important thing – the goons attack the hero ONE AT A TIME, even if they come in hordes. Sometimes, to break the monotony they attack in 2’s and 3’s and place themselves so strategically that the hero can beat ‘em all up in one go. They might also (though rarely) stand in a circle around our hero and wait for their turn patiently to get beat up!

The songs…

I better stop now…this post has been my longest so far. I surprised myself by writing so much; it’s high time I stopped watching senseless Telugu movies!

Note: Not all Telugu movies are that bad and senseless - sadly, MOST of them are, and then there are some which make you want to tear your hair out. I somehow find the older movies to be more sensible than the newer ones…I’m saving this for another post though.

Book Review: Blink

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

I thought of reading this book when my friend, Ramana, recommended it in a comment for one of my previous posts. When my friend Ash said she had the book, I jumped and pestered her endlessly to get me the book before my 'mini vacation' began.

The book basically deals with thinking in a 'blink', how the unconscious mind rapidly processes information deep in our minds and comes to conclusions in a fraction of a second. Then it goes on to explain the positive and negative consequences of such thinking and how we can control this thought process to a certain extent.

A person interested in psychology would most definitely find this book to be very appealing; those not interested in such things better steer clear of the book. The author needs to be appreciated for the style of writing - enlightening the reader through numerous examples and the flow of the explanation keep him/ her glued to the book (and not doze off).

I found the book and the facts stated in it pretty interesting and ended up Googling most of them. This book is similar to 'The Emerging Mind' by Vilaynur Ramachandran. Both books are about psychology and can appeal to the casual reader, but while 'The Emerging Mind' discusses a myriad of issues and is closer to a text book, 'Blink' focuses on the one topic and elaborates it keeping the psychology-illiterate reader in mind.

Also, do not expect any life-changing gyan - this book is just not for that.