For the love of God, God…

…we need some H2O here. Like really, it’s not even funny anymore. Ever since I have moved to Indore, I haven’t showered. I mean, we have that balti and mug and all, but flowing water with bubbles and pressure remains a distant dream. So does using conditioners. And bleep bleep, after bleep after bleep, has happened to my swimming pool plan. Due to acute shortage of Water, our club people, which FYI is supposed to be the nicest club of the city has closed all the showers but two in each Mens and Womens locker rooms and the two so called active showers have had some more than passive turnout with water pressure, so much so, that there is a queue to it. It’s not a fun scene there, I especially loathe the flabby auntyjis chit chatter of Bridge while they shrug their shoulders and flip their receding hair in black skirty swimsuits in the shower queues.Thanks, but no thanks. I utilize less clothes, I utilize less utensils and get frustrated all day thinking of how much water we used to have in New Bombay! Oh also, there is no warm water. You’re smart, you know why.

I don’t freakin give a shit anymore if its Taai, Taaya, Mamu, Chote Bhaiya, Chacha Sasur or whoever jagat bhaiya wants to run my city. But I want the damn water for my hair oil days.

Meri Ma

When I meet new people, which is a lot, I love meeting people. In my opinion they’re the only original non-spoilt-by-brands-and-advertisements and non-plagiarized source of ideas left in our Ctrl-C Ctrl-V world-o-rama.

Topic deviation, shit, ADD, now back. So when I meet new people, I was saying, I always ask about their families. Their parents, siblings, the way they’re bought up, home culture and the like. It interests me a lot. And I always end up feeling a little lost. On – what is –really- the right way to bring up children? The way my parents bought me up? Or the way everyone else is? I’m aware this is a massive generalization, but that is exactly what I intend.

My parents had very few rules, and the ones they did enforce had nothing to do with discipline. The one rule I’ve known and followed all my life, till today, is that we eat together. No matter what. You didn’t have to agree with anyone, if you don’t really accept the idea in your heart. Even if it’s the-dad or the-mom. You’re open to argue, at all levels, at all times. Every advice is well, just an advice. No one expects you to fully follow it. I was told “you shouldn’t be out so late”, as opposed to, “you cannot be out so late”. And I had the right to not follow it.

My mom always let me make my own mistakes. And they let me pay for it. I cant even fathom how hard that must have been. To know in your heart that your little daughter is being such a fool but not lose her by saying it to her face, and let her fall in front of your eyes, sit down-spirited, with a broken heart. And again, still not show a face of I-told-you-so. When I look back today, I know, there could not have been a better way.

No topic in my parents’ house is off limits. Really, I have spoken of condoms on my dinner table. And I can swear in my parents’ presence. Yes, in Hindi too. I must also add here, that if any of you think I’m from a super rich bollywood family, you got it all wrong. I come from a typical middle class family, my mom’s a housewife, she comes from a small town in Maharashtra and my Dad’s an engineer, and my little brother is well, annoying and goofy, to say the least. So what really stood them apart from all the others trying to be friends parents is that they as individuals were the most receptive to change. Changes around them , in ways of the world and in their children.

I had my first beer with my Dad, and the next 30 following it too, before I started going out with my friends. It’s not that they encouraged Alcohol. It’s just that they respected and treated us as adults, when we needed to be. Respected my choices. I think it was that freedom given to me, which makes me feel responsible as an adult till today.

This post is not about how lucky I am to save my money for alcohol and just drink from my home’s refrigerator, or how I can make dirty jokes on dinner table and my parents don’t even blink. It’s more about how I’m NOT two different people when I’m home and otherwise. It’s about how amazing I feel to be accepted just the way I am, just the way I’ve chosen to be and make of myself. There is an infinite amount of reassurance you get when you’re accepted lovingly by the people who know your shortcomings the most.

I plan to get married soon, and I want to have kids one day. I just hope that when my kids grow up they look back and feel the same about their parents as I do for my Mom and Dad.

_________________________________________________________________________________
ON A VERY-VERY DIFFERENT NOTE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m no hurry to have kids yet. Shaadi tak theek hain yaar, bachche jyaada ho jayegi mazaak mazaak main. Aur ye bhavna main khaasi tarah se vyakt bhi kar chuki hun. Ab haal hi ki baat le lijiye.

Meri Ma ne Naani ban ne ki mannat maangi hain, mujhe kal hi pata chala. Mera vichaar ye tha is par ki ‘Maa, Naani ban ne ke liye shaadi ki kya aavashyakta hain, who toh aap yun bhi ban sakti ho’ :P

Is par, ek atyant hi Punjabi tone main ‘badtameez’ kehke Maa ne phone kaat diya. Hehe.. Maze hi aa gaye.

Ab itna senti diya hain, toh nahi ruk paungi, sun hi lo.

“..Ye Zindagi Hain Mom Ki,
Tu Mom Pe Lutaaye Ja.. “

Aap sabhi ka din sukhad ho. Vote karna na bhuliyega.
Jai Raam Ji Ki.

Film Flair

About The Reader

It’s been more than three weeks since I saw The Reader, but there have been less movies or less books which have had any impact on me since then, as much as The Reader’s. Which are by the way a lot of movies and books gone by. These are a few things I absolutely loved in the film.

- I liked the details to which the characters were etched out in it. Especially, Hana’s.
- I also liked how Michael found it so difficult to be heroic and save her. It is difficult to be heroic, thankyou very much to acknowledge it.
- The discomfort of being around someone so ruthless was portrayed so beautifully in the end sequence when Michael sums up the courage to go meet Hana.
- The burn of loving that person who is capable of hurting you so much and abandon you, the vulnerability and naiveté of the first love.
- The sick guilt of revenge which almost kills you was magnificent in the court room trials’ scenes.
- The lady and the dog. I want to get my copy.

About Gulaal

I had been on a permanent speechlessness after I saw Gulaal. To begin with I was determined to love it anyway. My ears rang of the tunes. And Gulaal didn’t disappoint me even in one bit. It’s one of the most moving work in Indian Cinema in a long time. I think the last time that I was in such awe of a hindi movie was with Omkara. DevD was nice too, but in a very different way. Here are some things I liked about Gulaal.

- Just like The Reader, the film is successful in carving very strong characters, of Rananjay’s, of the brother-sister duo, Bhaati, of Dilip, Duki Bana.
- Piyush Mishra’s mid movie poetry, I mean really where have you been?

"Oh re Bismil kaash aate aaj tum Hindustaan
Dekhte ki mulk saara kya tashan, kya chill mein hai
Aaj ka launda yeh kehta hum to bismil thak gaye
Apni aazaadi to bhaiya laundiya ke til mein hai."

“Aaj ke jalso main bismil ek gunga ga r aha
Aur behro ka who rela naachta mehfil main hian
Haath ki khaadi banane ka zamana lad gaya
Aaj toh chaddi bhi silti ingliso ke mill main hian”

- The colour schemes in each and every frame.
- The scene when KayKay Menon’s wife enters the bathroom and Dilip’s just in trousers. I still don’t know why was this discomfort created, but it bore such a brunt of uneasiness, it comes to life in you when you watch it.
- “Hello There – Democracy Beer” ! “Hell Here – Democracy Beer”
- “Saraabor ho gayo sehar aur saraabor ho gayi dhara,
saraabor ho gayo re jattha insaano ka pada pada
sabhi jagat ye puche tha jab itna sab kuch ho riyo tho,
toh sehar hamaare kaahe bhai sa aankh moond ke so riyo tho
Sehar ye boliyo neend gajab ki aisi aai re,
jis raat gagan se khoon ki baarish aayi re”
- Beedo.. Duji Thaali Ka Lage Bada Masaaledaar
- Aarambh Hain Prachand
- “Is mulk main har shaqs ko jo kaam tha saunpa, us shaqs se us kaam ki maachis jala ke chod di”
- Jaise har ik baat main Democracy main lagne lag gayo ban
- The way Maahi Gill treats KayKay Menon.
- He asks for Liquor and says “ek Republic dena!”
- The fighter’s helmet instead of a regular one
- The followers, who follow the saner ones, get killed first, just how the emasculated ardh-naari is. From where I saw it was a bluntly honest satire of the wrath of politics on the common man.

I can probably go on listing these; the truth is I can’t have enough of it. Anurag Kashyap has done a commendable job with the script, the irony of freedom from the system, to make a similarly suffocating new system comes on screen with an amazing blow to you when Kiran stares in disbelief in the end shot. Great acting, great screenplay, moving music and stunning camera work.

Rest later; I have an exam in two days. (But I had to get this off my chest)
Yours truly, with much love, respect, concern and all such insincerities,
-Me

The Boy Who Made Me Think Otherwise

Needs an edit, check later.

Emotional Intelligence and rest of March Madness

It’s been mine and Vinod’s one of the major chat themes, how people’s intelligence is segregated, some have the academic acumen, some emotional, some social, and some are well, not so much into the intelligentsia regime. Which is ok. As for the rest, you’d meet people who’d be so good at their 9 to 5(s), and be a complete mess in personal lives. Even the simpler things. I think the first lot of the mind-numbing knowledge wrecked set is the least successful in taking common knowledge decisions. Why is that? Wisdom should help simplify, right? Something here is snapping. You might say, rights differ with a person. Some know better, I probably don’t understand the view. But see, common sense is not a relative term, is it? It’s like speed of light. All observers should measure the same Speed of Light no matter how fast they are moving. Everytime such things happen, it further strengthens my belief that the learning inside class stands without a purpose if you haven’t learnt enough from outside people and places. I’m yet to meet a person who’d prove me otherwise. The more involved you’re inside, the less evolved you’re outside.

About March, now. This was an interesting month. I got a free makeover with Femina. And starting yesterday have been getting calls from people I haven’t spoken to in ages, about how I look just the same. Yaar ab koi kitni baar kahe, ki woh dasvi kaksha se ek hi jaisa dikhta hain. But all in all, the Femina thing was fun. I made some good friends, got a free hot stone massage at a top-notch spa in Bombay, free hair and skin consultation, hair colour, manicure, pedicure, a funky haircut and did I mention Espirit clotheline? :P

The only hitch is, I had recently curled my hair and as a part of my makeover, they ironed it back to straight. Yeah, thanks. Toh officially, I’m back to looking how I looked since tenth. But anyway, get the April Issue and let me know how lame and fobby it tured out :)

I have decided to not take up a rigid interns in the Mumbai heat and instead go home and take up small writing projects. As a starter, I also bagged a small project with NDTV, some marketing content. Which I’m extremely happy with. I get to be home, eating home food, save my money, use the club swimming pool all summer, and my brother sponsors my beer on Saturdays. Life is getting back to rosy, chicas.

P.S. About the title, I reckon there is not much madness in my march mentioned (hehe, I don’t share my drunk stories here, but I love the phrase, super marketing funde hain bhaiyo)

Phokat Incoherent Brouhaha

There is a seductive shimmer on the horizon of happiness. It doesn’t let you rest. It’s tempting and worse off, always an option. When you’ve been hurt before, you want to just play the rims. Stay on the covers, smile from far and not involve. Not indulge. But that’s no way to happiness. Stuck in the sham, drudgery and broken dreams, we forget the little nuisance of an honest smile. A dreamy stare. A warm touch. A sign. And to yearn for it, is to almost reach it. That’s the way to be happy. Yearn. Dive. Sink. Surrender. (Goofy Smile- Humungous)

Few advises (for free)

1. Every person must live in student hostel once. Atleast long enough to realize that it’s probably a bad idea to not employ domestic help and act oversmart to claim that we do all our jhaadu and the like ourselves.

2. Some people are just plain lucky, and no matter how much you crib (or stare in disbelief) there’s nothing much you can do about it but sulk.

3. So much reluctance to not dress up is also a sort of vanity.

4. ‘Absolute’ does not exist. Absolute love, Absolute honesty, Absolute happiness, Absolutely stunning, eh. However, Absolut Vodka does :) And Thank God for that. Halle-fucking-lujah.

5. Food is one of the purest forms of pure lust. Pure, pure, sacred. I characterize every activity and phenomenon with food now. Say for example:
Wrapping in my comforter before sleeping: Becoming a Burrito
When the power cuts off: It makes me a Fried Chicken
When people throw attitude: Don’t go Foie gras on me!
To save on the sanity, I’ll leave my racist associations alone. Ask me in private, its good stuff ;)

The fun gossip from College, I didn’t share it here, so here’a cover on the wait-for-it – Cat Fight. We had a HR Services presentation; we presented Southwest Airlines HR Services. And some biaatchh couldn’t take the peace and took up a fight middle of the presentation, contesting our sources (and made us loose 5 marks in the end term presentation). Trouble. We’re a 6 girls group. Repeat – Girls. Six. Grouped. And mad. My dearie gawd, we screwed her happiness. Ofcourse, I had a guilt trip later for doing that. But for that little while that it lasted, it was fun. But on the whole, this was a satisfying week. A 52 page proposal for my world’s favourit-est company fetched me an ‘A’. And I’m max kicked. The company is IKEA if any of you are wondering. On other fronts, I still don’t have a summer Internship in order. But Jo’anna don’t lose no hope.

And No, I’m not yet over on my self confessed obsession to DevD. The damn thing is my wallpaper, and if you must know, I made a collage of my favourite shots from the film in between classes. I love it that much. Dhol Yaara Dhol makes you want to be in love. Butttt.. Delhi-6? What was the objective again? I mean, bhai koi original game laao. Sirf aaina dikhaane se kuch nahi hoga, humen bahut log dikha chuke hain. Hum metaphors aur simile waale sophisticates hain hi nahi dost. Hum nahi samajhte. Mujhe toh aakhir tak ummeed thi ek asli ke kaale bandar ki. Ki koi Makrand Deshpande lookalike maidaan main koodkar dilliwalon se confess karega, sansanikhej khabar banegi, thoda public drama banega, maze aayengi. Sab waste. Poori movie waste hain. 120 Rs bhi waste huye. Genda Phool hi ek layak cheez thi, iske liye itni jaddojahad jheli. Par, Gulaal in just around the corner. Ranaji was delightful, Rekha Bhardwaj’s voice is so captivating and so raw, it has a brittleness which is so original. I love love love her voice.

Also, I was twittering the other day, what the hell is this usage of word Bang? I thought it meant, yeah, that. What are all these new usages springing? Is it just used in Bombay? Someone said yesterday while giving me directions, ‘Bang opposite of ICICI’. Huh!? Oh, and ‘Bang on!’ Hmm, sure. Let me know, if this semantic harakiri is used any other way. I’m interested in all the umm.. banging.

Rest of the world is going by it’s speed. And I wouldn't change a thing. Get it? Get it? Si ;-)

See ya. And so long.

Who I am speaks so loud, people hardly hear what I'm saying.