musings.....

About a week ago, one of my friends called, and we were talking about plans for the Friday evening. He, being a"he", is the kinda guy who vehementely vetoes watching "Dirty Dancing" and turns the votes towards, some action flick, only to settle for "In-Laws" instead. So anyway, I was telling him how I was planning to watch "Love Actually" , fully expecting some wisecrack about how it was a total mushy - gooey thing to watch. To my surprise, not only had he seen it too many number of times, but he actually totally loves it !! Oh yeah , for all their macho-dacho bravado, men do secretly love "Father of the Bride" and a friend of mine actually weeps everytime he sees it, thinking of his daughters!!!

Admit it, you have spent some Friday nights huddled up watching a chick flick - be it in the theaters,your TV or computer. And whether you are a guy or a girl, you probably have been suckers for these kinda movies - atleast one. I for one , would much rather watch "I do, they Don't" rather than recite scenes from "Matrix". So here goes, the Top 10 chick flicks I've seen so far.(Or the ones I remember atleast, anyway!!)

1. "When Harry met Sally..."

Yeah ! Like it could BE anything else! I still remember this day when a few of us, projected it on the walls of a this place, fondly called "Nizamuddin". Pulling out all sofas and making comfortable beds, three of us watched the movie , in complete silence.... Well, anyway, its a cute movie, a typical "feel good" at the end of a long hard day.

2. "Casablanca "

A black-and-white movie, catching my fancy? I don't think that has happened before. It is a war-torn world, with refugees seeking asylum.Rick is your typical taciturn,cynical hero, apparently excited by nothing. And as usual he has a past, that is revealed when he meets his old flame, but they don't exactly live happily ever after. Plus it has that charm of a small African town , with its crowded marketplace and peddlers. Very nice movie.

3. "Jerry Maguire"

Now before all you guys flinch, yes , it is a chick flick,under the guise of a lot of sports crap. Yup, you have a sporting manager, but that doesnt make it a guy flick. It is still lots of weeping, and kissing , and bonding with the son type stuff. And what was that line again? "You complete me" :)) And that cute little bespectacled kid, tugging at Tom Cruise's legs - that sealed it!! (Yes, I am a sucker for cute kids!I am the kind who oggles at kids at the Mall, and goes "Oh shoooo cuteeee" ).

4. "Hitch"

That dance sequence where he teaches the fat guy to dance - I really think I must have laughed so hard, that people all around me in the theater thought I was crazy. Oh, and the way he hits on Eva Mendes at the bar - NICE!! Not to mention, THAT was when Eva sky rocketed her way into my "Top 10 women I would have flipped for, if I were a guy" list. Plus, it really has some good insights on how to woo a girl.This is the types I would like to own a DVD of.(Tip: Would make a good bday gift for me ;))


5. "Wedding Crashers"

Hilarious. And grown-up fun.(I vaguely remember sitting through this one wondering why Owen Wilson is considered one of the sexiest men alive!)Reminded me of how we used to crash farewells, and assoc dinners at BITS. Its your typical bollywood type masala mix, but a real funny one at that - Guy crashes parties,and makes out all the time, then meets this woman, falls in love, meets her family , gets busted, and then they makeup, and life is hunky-dory all again. (Yeah right !!) But hey ! Thats what chick-flicks are all about !!


6. "You've got Mail"

Well, I was in high school, and had a net friend, who I had a crush on, and then there was this movie. Enough said.

7. "An Officer and a Gentleman"

Richard Gere in a pristine white navy suit (reminded of Ross in friends??)sweeping his lady love off her feet, in the last scene. And a lot of Navy related stuff, like training, courage, strength , endurance and all that. And of course, he is the good guy who wants to honor commitment to this girl and all those related things. Good one.

8. "Erin Brockovich"

Well, technically, this might not be your run-on-the-mill chick flick, although it starrs Julia Roberts, the queen of the genre. But yes, it is about a single mom, strong and courageous , facing difficulties and then has a man who understands her, and takes care of her kids. I remember seeing the real Erin Brokovich on Oprah's and I must say, Julia has done a real good job of it.

9."Elizabethtown"

Okay, so its a lot of Kentucky, and I saw the movie in Kentucky, in a place 2.5 hours from Elizabethtown, too. Its has a sort of a cute midwestern town charm. And how she pronounces "Louisville". And uncles, and aunts, Chuck's wedding and Susan Sarandon's swing dancing. And of course, Orlando Bloom!!

10."Fools Rush In"

Matthew Perry!!
And an unplanned pregnancy, and a marriage. A lot of mexican dancing, and food and family parties. Brothers and dads who watch out for their girl. And of course those dialogues that make a chick flick what it is ... " You don't understand the concept of a family! To you it's something you put up with on national holidays! Love is a gift, Alex... not an obligation..."

There are these moments in life, when all around you is strife, but strangely, almost like divine preordinance, you find that oasis - music that just talks to you. Today, as I sit in front of my 12 inch partner, playing raaga Desh, it transports you to a place where there is no conscious thought - just notes strewn together in seemingly careless fashion , that somehow marvelously arrange themselves to make sense - and beauty.

There is something really beautiful about knowing a language like Thamizh ( YES,that is not Tamil!!) apart from being able to cuss virtually anyone from a co-passenger to your advisor and make it seem like you were actually complimenting their shirt. You can appreciate the fervor of the song, which is only matched by a bold raaga like Desh, to fully convey the tone of the lyrics.

I have tried my best to reproduce the song lyrics(complete with repetitions) in the best Thamizh(and unicode) I can, based on a real raw version that I found on the net. I am a sort of a purist in terms of music, in that I really dont believe in the fancy "sh" instead of "s". A song in Thamizh is meant to be pronounced right, not sankritzed like "shevagan sheer kelatha shevi yenna sheviye". So here is a de-sanskritized version of the song :

Good things about the Chicken-pox :

1. The first couple of days,you think you are in hell.Then you get a hang of it.

2. You can't sleep on your sides or back initially.And there is not much you can eat too.So you are actually on a crash diet and sleep deprived,so you are on the perfect weight loss plan!!!

3. Amazing care from friends and family... its like R & R !!!

4. You get to watch about 16 M*A*S*H episodes a day, with a few Gilmore girls,and F.R.I.E.N.D.S thrown in for variety.

5. You get to sleep a lot after the initial phase, and so you are sequestered in a world of good food,good sleep,lots of TV,lots of books,measured Internet, minimal phone calls.Life , lets face it , is good !!!

Oh, and thanks folks, for all the good wishes and help.Bye-bye chickenpox.I sure won't miss ya!!

Over and Out ,

Sang

Sometime in May 2005, an innocuous email sitting in my inbox announced someone's marriage. It wasn't just someone. It was someone in "the gang". My thoughts wafted to this bunch, a dozen or so of us, closely knit by circumstances or fate,cuddled up securely in a cute little hamlet in Rajasthan,facing our fears, discovering our strengths, living life together,and growing up.These are little snippets, from our conversations over all these years.

"Hey guys, cmon man, we havent really had a lot of fun lately.. It has been two whole days, thats like 48 hours since we all met up, lets go to c'not"

"People, lets play Val-friend"

"Oh-ho-ho guess who wore a bright yellow shirt today and made a fool of himself"

"Hey!! you zuked a test man, you are officially av-1 now, treat treat treat !!!"

"Guys, I am really running out on dosh here, could you just stop washing your hands in coke, just because I am treating !!!"

"Wo-ho-ho.. Check that outsti babe .. she is so totally hawt!!"

" Guys, the most funny thing happened... You know this guy I have a crush on right? and how he always wears the same T shirt, oh I am gonna protest by wearing the same damn color for one whole week till the whole class notices!!!"

"Hey people, this is S and K reporting from IPC. The time , as you all can see ,is 8 30, that means we walked out of a three hour exam in thirty minutes,and K has broken her personal best of 50 mins by a whopping 20 minute margin.Way to go man!! We are proud of you!!!"


"People,another company gave us the finger"

"Oh yes! I made that Job"

" Did I tell you I missed my 10, for the first time?"

" Yes, I have started smoking"

"Oh Cmon, stop it guys, I like this girl. Yes, did you hear that ?"

"Thalai decided to give me 5 recos, did you hear that!!!"

"Yes, that is my breath, I got sloshed yesterday"

" Fine, so now there is someone more important to you than the gang"

" Hope you make a job at PS II"

"Guys, thats admit number 5, no sign of Aid yet "

"Hang in there, you will get over her"

"Its a family emergency, screw the Elliots plan"

" We are there for you, always"



" I am getting married in two months. Hope you can guys can make it to the wedding "

"So this is my India trip itinerary...."

" I have to get my appraisal done .."

"So thats it, this is a commitment for life, I am in for a Phd"

" My PM screwed me ...."

" I am taking Salsa classes... and dating a hot Mexican chick..."

" Remember that salary hike I was talking about ? I got it !"

" Yes, thats what I was telling you when I was chatting with you yesterday, or was it today? I wouldn't know , coz I have been stuck in this lab for eternity"

" My funding chances....."

" Another telecon, I am ripping these bastards apart...."

" An appreciation mail....."

" My In-laws are visiting....."

"He graduates first, and then I graduate, and we both pay back our loans, then go back to India, tell parents about us, and get married by 2010 "

" Another Valdee , and I am still single guys... that joke you guys played on me when we played Val-friend in college? Not funny anymore....."


I hope to revisit and add more to this post as years go by....

Top 8 ways to weather a dry spell , you know, blogging-wise :

8. A long silence. And then a paragraph about how busy you have been lately, asking the readers to hold on.

7. Photoblog : This way you don't have to fill the space with words, you see. Plus, didn't someone say a picture is worth a thousand words?

6. Take one of your half-written drafts, rehash it, add a paragraph about when, where and why it was written and post it.

5. "There is this interesting forward that you guys should read" - always works. And then two months later, the original writer chances on it while googling for his own story, visits your blog, and posts a comment, asking you to remove the post. You, go back and "duely acknowledge" him,link up the URL, and let it stay on your blog anyway.

4. Post a collection of links , which you think are "insightful", "funny" or otherwise "thought provoking" and ask the readers to "please take a moment to read this".

3. Write a paragraph about latest happenings accross the world, but give up in the middle, due to ,well, you know,writer's block, and do a readers poll on this "hot issue".

2. Play with the blog template, tinker it a bit, and post about it.Don't forget the punchline "Readers comments welcome".

1. And the Top thing to do : Meta-blogging. That is, Blog about blogging.How you started it, how each on is different in his/her own way, how you can never be funny, how you can totally identify with xyz's blog even though you are total strangers... well, you get the drift !

In exactly one week from now, at precisely the same time, I would probably be cruising over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 55k feet. I am really not one of those people who suffer from flight sickness, or any other kind of sickness related to travel, but then I don't fancy these long flights, and even longer layovers.Here is one of my unfinished posts , written on one particularly boring layover at the Chicago O'Hare a few months ago.

It was a cold,damp morning. I was dozing on UA 5855,oblivious to the surroundings. A group of boisterious teenagers - not exactly my idea of unobtrusive co-passengers.

"We have an international connection to make" they said to the helpful flight attendant. "All connections may have been delayed due to bad weather too, so you might be able to make it on time". She came back with terminal numbers for all our connecting flights.

"Yours would be c4" she said, with a practised smile that she must have flashed to over a thousand strangers now. "Oh, wait a minute, I think we are landing at c4 too. Where are you going?" She asked. "Calagary" they replied. "You might be continuing on this flight Sir." There was a joyous glee on their faces. "What luck !" they thought.

She came back in sometime, only to tell them that this flight would not continue to Calagary, and so the terminal information was wrong afterall.They looked forlorn. The flight descended.The PA system crackled to life "As a courtesy to other co-passengers who have tight connections, we request you to stand by , and let them pass first".

When you are at the rear end of the flight, that doesn't help much either. They picked their belongings hurriedly,throwing the whole overhead compartment into disarray. One of them glanced through the window. "Oh look, that one over there, just might be our Calagary flight. We may have watched our flight depart before our own eyes!!" they cranked their necks to see a jumbo international Boeing getting ready for a long haul.

They waited, and waited. "Hey we should check if all these people standing before us have connecting flights.." The long haired nerdy teen looked at an old man, "Hey, you dont look like you have a connecting flight!!" they joked, sarascm peeking out from one tiny corner."We are nice people, we swear" they said ,as the semi-amused flight attendant watched.It was almost like a sine-wave graph - mixed feelings of hope and resignation as these starry eyed teenagers waited.

Did they miss the flight at the end? Would it have made a difference if they were at seat 1 instead of seat 16? Did they still make it to their place on time? I wondered.There is not much one can do about flights,and journeys.You miss some, you let some go in front of your eyes. YOu board some,just on time.

And then you travel.And travel. And travel.

This thanksgiving, I am thankful to :

• The power of God, who helped the most important person in my life recover.
• The power of the will, in each one of us. Tommorow never dies.Really, it never does.
• Good health, and FAMILY.Touchwood.
• Friends. Some things just get better and better :)

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Looking forward to many more cooking disasters,and cleaning hungamas,irrational hogging sprees ,shopping binges, sisterhood nite-outs and more with you !!!

It did arrive today. The idea of free in-network calling appealed to me, and I was looking forward to it.After a midterm break, I unwrapped it, and checked out the polyphonic ringtones and other features. In a few hours, the number porting would work, and I would have the same number, lots of more free minutes, plus free calling to the people I most often call. This was my idea of the perfect cell phone plan.

But then, it did not work. I could either have the number, or the plan. Not both. I was perplexed. Which brought home another truth. I , as a person, tend to resist change. The idea of giving out new numbers to all my friends and contacts, did not appeal to me. I had a thousand different thoughts running all over my mind. The idea of switching over to a non-local number wasn't too inviting. I tried to think of ways to avert it. Plus, this number had a nostalgic feeling to it... all those calls, all those interviews....

Stop it. I told myself. Change is inevitable. You accept it and move on. Or lose out. Embrace change and get on with it. Welcome to my life, America's largest cellular network !!

Call it a side effect of growing up. Call it a side effect of excessive compulsive bloghopping disorder.Call it what you will, I just had to get this off my chest. There comes a point in your life , where you dig deep. And place yourself in the judgement stand, and judge yourself. Sometimes too lenient, sometimes too harsh.Sometimes, sentencing yourself to lifelong imprisonment, sometimes, understanding, and giving yourself that gentle pat. Sometimes you blame yourself completely, sometimes, you wallow in self-pity, thinking"Why me?".

You look back, at all that mistakes you made in the past, all people you hurt , and think, maybe you deserve all this shit and more. You are thankful to people, who have been there, who understand - even those irrational emotional binges that you get into. In all these years, these are the people who have been there, cheering me on, believing in me, pleading me to love myself a little more, asking me to wait for better times.These are people who think I deserve much more. These are people who think I am really special. I have needed these people in more ways I can imagine.

And I have failed repeatedly, to acknowledge their existence, much less celebrate it. I have hurt some, I have failed some,I have been indifferent to others. I have been a bitch, not to celebrate these people. And now, all I am left with is a deep distaste for who I am, and what I have become.I may never have some of these people back again in my life, and I know I ve deserved it completely. People learn from mistakes, they say. Maybe I have become a better person, after all the hurt I have caused these people. Does it matter anymore? I dont know.

You people know who you are. And if it helps in any, any way - I am sorry.

Is it a phase in every bloggers life? A phase when you are caught? It is like someone gagged your mouth shut, and you are too tired to complain.Like this "Water water, everywhere, but not any drop to drink" syndrome. Like you want to babble along pointlessly, but realise you cannot.Either there is a lot to say, or there is nothing.Like at crossroads, you can either stop,pretend this blog never existed, and go on. Or you can choose to stay, and do something about it.

I dont know what happens next, but I sure as a hell wish I write, write and write.

Stay with me on this, there will be better times. Hopefully.

There is something uniquely liberating about posting in the middle of a class.Especially with midterms around the corner. The same way as walking out in the middle of the class is. Or loudly biting your way into a crunchy wrap oblivious to Markovian queues is.

It just brings home the sharp contrast between the way the whole teacher-student equation works in India vs USA. I guess it has more to do with the whole mythology and the Guru-shishya equation. I am not sure I can entirely shake off its effects, but I sure love not having to stand up and fold my arms each time I have a question in class.(Which is not very often believe me!!)

Here is to my roomie's tag : My 55 words .....


Tension mounted by the day. It was thankless and frustrating, and just when he was about to give up and go home - "With all its sham, drudgery ,lies ,deception and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world"- The thoughtful forward popping up from his screen,just made his day.It does get better someday.