Cricket

Lots of cricket is happening. With no work at office and India-South Africa and Ashes going on most of my day goes in watching these matches. Remaining day I keep myself busy with old cricket tournaments they keep showing on ten cricket. Tonight they were showing IPL T20 matches.

And I started wondering...what is the reason for bringing cheer leaders-pretty faces, hot bodies in cricket?

I mean...WHY??

Are they're here to pull the men. Men!?!

But when did men ever need to be forced to watch cricket? Not the ones in India atleast. So what purpose do they serve? Men will watch cricket anyday, pretty women or not. Don't tell me they're here to draw in the women. Please!
I'm a huge cricket fan but the minute I see these cheerleaders haw and hum in front of the camera, I feel like changing the channel.

Point is the game is getting too commercialized.

I hope they leave test match cricket untouched.

On a side note- I hope India wins this test. Chances are bright and Laxman’s the man. I wish he scores a century.

Pop corn

I bought a big tub of pop corn for keeping myself occupied in the movie Tron. What a tragedy it was! Worst movie ever!! Rs 350 spent for such a mind numbingly meaningless movie.

The only thing I enjoyed in the movie was popcorns. Once the popcorns were all over I tried eating the burnt corn kernels.

Popcorn kernel is small, hard, indigestible, and seemingly worthless- something you would hate. But put it in a pot and hold it over the fire, and it'll be transformed before your eyes.
 

Sometimes, life's pressures and problems can do the same for you.

I just love how the simple analogies can be used to convey something so well :-)

Need a reason

Heard the song cloud number nine.. after a very long time.

Why is it that sometimes we like something, which we would've otherwise hated, just because someone we like likes it!?!

Damn you my friend who's far away and loves the song, now I miss you :(

B'day girl

Two cutest things in this world:
- A baby's yawn
- A baby's sneeze


Happy b'day Baby Navya :)

Shahrukh Rocked on

I am home. My weekend won't get over until 6th of december. Yeyy yeyy
I saw Kal ho na ho and Rock on back to back, sipping hot chocolate in my comforter.


And I started thinking what if Karan Johar had made Rock On! It would've been a hilarious tragedy.

• For starters, Shahrukh will be in Farhan's place (but natural).
• There will be more focus on the ego clash between him and Arjun Rampal. A mutual love interest will be the focal point of the drama.
• Shahrukh will get the girl. Arjun Rampal will remain heartbroken and single and will take refuge in his music and alcohol.
• When he refuses to listen to Prachi Desai's idea of getting back together with the band, Shahrukh's Maa (Jaya Bachhan!?!) will be roped in to persuade him. That always works like a charm.
• Before they go on stage for the final concert, Maa will feed him Mandir ka prashad and say 'ja beta jaa, Bharat ka naam roshan karo' (don't ask). Okay, this isn't just a K-Jo special, applies to all old Hindi movies in general.
• The 'Tum ho to' song will be dedicated to (no points for guessing) Shahrukhs Maa. Who will promptly proceed to (again no points for guessing) bawl her eyes out.

Climax: At the concert on-stage the last song is on. Mid-way through it, Shahrukh has a coughing fit. There will be blood. From the nose possibly. (That imagery GROSSED me out. Naturally.) Yet, as Maa and wife and the rest of them watch on with their hearts in their mouths, he proceeds to finish the song. Clearly struggling though. Everyone is on their feet screaming his name (Rahul, ofcourse!) at the end of the show. He collapses, screaming, 'Maa...!'

*SILENCE* (heartbeat music)


Maa rushes to stage screaming, 'Betaa...!' Followed by slower wife (naturally). Hugs. Tears. Shahrukh wheezing and gasping. Grabs mike. Some more tears. Apologises to Rampal for the past and asks him to *gasp* marry Prachi Desai after his death. 'I love you all! The music *gasp! wheeze!* must go on. WE MUST....WE MUST ROCK ON!' Proceeds to die on stage. V.v.sad chorus version of 'Tum ho to...' plays in the background, fade out.

Titles read: And then Joe (Arjun Rampal) married Sakshi (Prachi Desai) and had a baby later and they named him Rahul (naturally!).

The End.

Home

Awesome chill in the air- one thing that you absolutely can't get in Bombay. With half the town already asleep at 9pm, not much traffic or noise around it's heavenly walking around.

I feel like one of those animals in hibernation.

Of course, the winter setting in and the weather is to die for. I woke up from a catnap, feeling very cold, but relishing every bit of the chill. I've missed this. So much.

Speed x time

I have been thinking about distance. Not in the Bollywood style- yeh doooooriyaaaan…. kind of way, but in a totally different light. Not the emotional distance. Physics vala distance. Speed x time. Distance.


The one that we measure in centimeters, metres, kilometers and light years. Being away from our loved ones may suck, but distance does have its merits in certain other situations.

Distance allows us to appreciate the beauty of sky full of stars in the night

Distance helps us plan great holidays

Distance makes meeting a happier event

Distance makes us realize what we miss

Distance helps us forget

Distance helps us figure ourselves out

Distance keeps us away from people who interfere in the process of us figuring ourselves out

Distance allows us to wear whatever we want, away from those who don't want us to wear what-we-want

Distance helps us enjoy the movie better in a theatre

Distance (of a few centimeters) makes a kiss scene sensual

Distance lets you enjoy the view of the beach from kayak

Distance keeps the transport and telecom industries alive

Distance allows us to drive fast without being screamed at (well, actually only when time is a constraint)

Distance from something takes you closer to something else

Distance tells you how far you'd go for certain people, and how far others will come for you

Distance can give rise to beautiful letters and emails smss or bbms

Distance decreases the probability of us bumping into people we have shift+deleted from our lives

Distance heals what time can't

Distance allows us to clearly see whom it should be maintained with

Pointedly avoiding the cliche ... makes the heart grow fonder coz I believe in the concept of out-of-sight-out-of-mind!

Order order!

Yesterday I was at Subway when two dudes walked-in, talking.

This guy tells the server- One football please.
Server - huh??
Guy- I am sorry. I want foot-long meat-ball. :))

It's not always waiters and waitresses who mess up our orders. Sometimes, we do it ourselves. The reason can be anything, but it makes the server go "huh?"

Overheard in my college canteen few years ago: Can I have chocolate-flavoured vanilla ice-cream?
Mirchi bhajji, teekha kam.
So what flavoured vanilla rolls do I get? Strawberry?

At Subway-
My friend used to make fun of chicken teriyaki all the times. This one time he slipped it out to the server.
Can I have a chicken terimaki? :))))
Server- huh??!!??!

I did this myself at McDonalds-
Chicken McGrill without the chicken, please! (I wanted to say without mayonnaise)
Server- huh??


At Subway-
Lady: I want 6 inches paneer tikka sandwich. No bread please.
Server- huh??
Lady- Sorry, no onions.

:))

Esses

Suddenly Goa happened- out of nowhere.

While talking to a friend, I told him that staying in Bombay is best because we can go to Goa anytime!

Goa's always good. There are so many beautiful memories associated with it.
Palolem was beautiful just like last time.
This Goa visit was a mix bag.

Sun, sand, sea, sound of waves, serenity-- s's make me happy.
It was short- well too short I think. I was in Goa for only 36 hours and it was the first time in Goa without Anish.

I realised I am allergic to sea water, wth :-/
I ate uncle chips at Palolem! 
I rode the bike- don't know what speed I touched but it was said that I am a fast learner :)
I did a wheelie too- not intentional ofcourse :D

I always wanted to do an early morning walk along the beach. It never happened for only one reason that we always slept late and got up late. This time we stayed on the beach and luckily I got up early, everyone else was fast asleep.

I stepped out and walked. There were hardly 5-10 people. I picked up sea shells. I played touch and run with this very adorable little firang baby girl but she fell down and started crying. She and I then started making sand castle (high hopes!) and ended up making a sand hut.

Dwarka was a good find. Wouldn't really want to stay there though but yes a couple of hours at really really quiet beach is not a bad idea afterall.

And then the train ride back home!

Back to life, back to city, back to work. Wake up :-/

Reformatted

My pen drive wasn't working properly and I knew I had to reformat it to use it again. I was trying to put that off for a long time- I guess I was hoping it'll fix itself somehow. So I reformatted it today. I was sad I lost all the data I had on it but it was only movies so it’s ok.

It got me thinking that we store incredibly large amounts of data in our memories. Family, friends, things, incidents. It's all in there, jammed together, in a big mess- my mess- and I know where what is. I do not delete it because it’s like deleting a part of my life, those experiences- admitting that they’re gone forever. Even the bad ones are never deleted. Because no matter how much I try to forget that it happened, it will have never-not-happened.

And then there are the tiny moments. Moments one can refer to as 'pen-drive memories'. I have a little pen-drive meant for storing only the most special of my memories.

These moments are really tiny, and they don't take up too much space. And to another person, they may not even appear significant. They are inaccessible to others, including the ones who are part of those moments. I can't copy them to any hard disk. I can’t show them to anyone. I can't share them on a network. I can't store them anywhere else. I can't back them up. I can't recover them if my pen-drive crashes. That’s the way it works.


And if I ever lose it- by choice or otherwise, I will have no regrets coz if I lose those moments, I was meant to lose them.

Item number

While running walking, I decided to notice the time I take to finish each round.

It took me 12 minutes to finish round one. I was listening to ajeeb dastaan hai ye...

It took me 6 minutes to finish round two. I was listening to munni badnaam hui...


:)

Point

I was outside my building and there were a few kids playing in the garden.

Right next to me was a girl of about 5 years and a boy of about 7 years maybe.

Someone stepped out of the lobby with a pet dog.

Girl (looks up and excitedly points at the puppy)- "Look, look! A puppy."

Boy (glares at the girl)- "Don't point. Its rude to point."

Hah!

Well said Bhai!

Bhai was over at my place last night.
I told him about this blog and he opened the link and sat down to read it.

This was the first post he read. He read the first four words aloud.

And pat came the comment. "Well said, didi!"

Khamoshi

I am a sucker for old hindi songs.
I find them meaningful and sometimes I connect to these old melodies more than anything/anyone else :D

Heard this song as soon as I came back from work and the feeling cannot be put down in words!


Sirf ehsaas hai yeh, rooh se mehsoos karo...
Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do, koi naam na do...

Beautiful!

High maintenance

Yesterday three of us were having lunch in office canteen- A, L and I.

Somehow we started discussing about shampoos and conditioners. And A asks- “Yaar conditioner vohi hota hai na jo shampoo ke pehle lagate hai?”

Before I could hold-my-head-in-disbelief and scream at him, L from the other side of the table adds- “Dude, aren’t they both same?!?”

Shoot me!!  

Thank goodness it wasn't cleanser, toner and moisturizer that we were talking about.  

Need a match

Sometime ago, I bought a pair of shoes from a roadside stall in Bandra. I really adored them, they were very cute but they didn't match with any of my clothes. Finally, I gave up and convinced myself I needed to buy a dress that matched those shoes.

I bought one.

I think it was pretty crazy to buy a dress that cost Rs. 5200 to match shoes that cost Rs.120.

Fast forward...tonight..

I was cleaning out my closet when I found this really cute and b-(ea)-chy shorts that I had bought from New York. I had completely forgotten about it. I tried it on- loved it. I want to wear it but it does not go with the *place*

Now I've got to buy a holiday that matches it :D

Maybe this or this

Choice

No matter how strong or independent we think we are, people we choose to include in our lives can make or break us.

Small talk

It's always a problem to find auto-rickshaw in my area. Sometimes I have to share a cab/auto and today I shared the auto with this girl who talked a lot. Let me call her talkative girl- TG.

After exchanging names and addresses I realized that we had a common friend from IIT...irrelevant piece of information!

So she asked me what I did and I asked her the same. Interestingly she was a writer/journalist.

Here's a small portion of conversation from 15 minute auto ride-

Me- So, what do you do?

TG- I am a freelance writer. I've had a few articles published in XYZ paper.

ME- Oh, that nice.

TG- I also write books for kindies.

ME- Interesting! In my mind, I was like :o What the hell is kindies. For all I knew kindies could’ve been a new genre! I didn’t ask.

After a few minutes...

TG- I love writing books for kindies. It’s so much fun.

I had to ask!

Me- I'm sorry, but what is kindies?

TG- Oh, it's a short form we use for kindergarten.

Me- Aaah.. (Voice in my head... Too bad you don't write books for undergraduates ;) Lol)

Blue and Pink

You know you’re one of the guys when they ask you to come along for a trek on a Saturday.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you agree and get up at 5 am on a Saturday and take a local train.

You know you’re one of the guys when they say all of us are going to the top.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to search for some thick bushes so that you can have some privacy while peeing.

You know you’re one of the guys when you do manage to reach the top.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you wake up the next morning with excruciating body ache, especially in your butt, thighs and calves.

You know you're one of the guys when you commit to going for a trek again whenever they plan, notwithstanding the body pain.

You know you're not one of the guys when you spend the whole of Sunday wondering whether your aching legs will allow you to wear your heels to work on Monday morning.

You know you’re one of the guys when you beat them at bowling.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you’re sad that your nail broke while bowling.

You know you’re one of the guys when you decide to go down the red slide in Essel World.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to hold your bag against yourself coz you were wearing a white t shirt which got wet.

You know you’re one of the guys when you do a ‘bottoms-up’ on a beer mug.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to run to the rest room after the ‘bottoms-up’ and they send a girl friend after you to check if you're ok.

You know you’re one of the guys when you scream ‘that was an offside, you jackass’ (at the referee in a football match).

You know you’re not one of the guys when you don’t like a player because he does not look cute.

You know you’re one of the guys when you decide to register for half marathon.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you have to look at a calendar to see if the date is good.

You know you’re one of the guys when you discuss Fight Club at 4 in the morning and argue that it’s one of the best Hollywood movies.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you end the conversation by saying ‘And Brad Pitt was so hot!’

You know you’re one of the guys when you can watch Die Hard again and again.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you secretly cry in Die Hard.

You know you’re one of the guys when you stare at you-know-what in this picture.

You know you’re not one of the guys when you think what if I had the same.

Best thing...

These days a friend of mine’s been asking me almost everyday- what’s the best thing that has happened to you today? And almost everytime my answer would be- I got an auto at the doorstep today or it didn’t rain while I was coming back from home.Those were actually the best things *sad sad*

So the best thing that happened to me today- Got to know GG season 4, episode 1 is coming on september 13!!

Something else to look forward to on a Monday :) Yeyy yeyy …

These parents

My dad sent me a joke in the morning. I replied LOL- out of habit and/or laziness.

He wrote back: Btw, what’s LOL? I explained.

I emailed mom her tickets in the evening. Since it was last minute booking, the tickets were expensive.

My mom replies- Omg!

English manners

English people are very well polished and their manners and etiquettes are well known. A few of those unusual manners I observed while I was in London....

Stand in a line- they stand in line EVERYWHERE. Even when you are in a store during sale and you are holding a t-shirt or trying on a pair of shoes, they won’t rush you, they’ll patiently wait for their turn. And I read somewhere- In England, a queue is one place where you can start a conversation with a stranger without being introduced.

Keep the door open- be it a tiny gate outside your building, lift door, bar door, shop door, restroom door- essentially any kind of door that is not automatic- when you open a door and before you leave it, you look back and in case you see anyone within hundred miles who might walk through that door, you hold it open, or keep a restraining palm on the door showing how much you want to keep the door open. It is polite. Everyone does it there and no matter how useless the whole practice might be, very soon you will find yourself doing the same.

Pehle aap- this happens in the tube when two people move towards the lone empty seat. Both will use their hands and expressions to say, “Ma’am/ Sir please go ahead and take the seat. Kind Regards XYZ”. This will go on for a few seconds until someone takes the seat. If it’s a man and a woman, the woman will ultimately take the seat, if they are people of the same gender, the older one will take the seat. Put this in contrast to the way we rush to take seats and giving it up is something we cannot even consider. In the defense of desis, the Brits here are not travelling in a thakela, jam packed bus with the outside temperature of fifty degrees C only and no AC in the bus! If that were the case, British politeness may have been different.

Love, darling, doll, sweetheart- the older lot will often refer to you as ‘love’. For example you are standing in the middle of a narrow aisle and trying to figure out which way do you have to turn or in a store where you are lost in the bakery section- suddenly you hear a soft, “excuse me, love”. You turn around wondering who the hell that is and come face to face with a white haired lady in a skirt and cardigans. You smile and give her way.

The greetings- the way someone here will greet you will be more affectionate than how your mommy will greet you when you go back home after one year. The receptionist at the office door will sound more excited about talking to you at eight in the morning than you will ever be to talk to the love of your life!

Thanks, sorry, excuse me, do you mind- for a day, if they were to put a pound in a jar everytime they said one of these words and gave those jars to me, I’ll fall short of space for my lvs, chanels, guccis and pradas. In the bus- driver will thank the passengers and passengers will thank driver. On the cash counter- customer will thank the cashier, cashier will thank customer. On a tube- anyone will thank anyone even if anyone steps aside by inches. Excuse me, I’m sorry comes together a lot of times. A slight touch when someone moves past you, miles before you pass each other in a narrow lane, or five minutes before anyone can have any physical contact in a tube they’ll tell you sorry or excuse me. Imagine one of those at dadar station!!

Sometimes it gets on your nerves but still it’s nice to see all the politeness.

Giving and receiving

I am becoming increasingly convinced that shopping for and giving a gift to someone special- special enough to stand out in a crowd, then seeing the happiness on the person's face, is way more precious and fulfilling than buying something for yourself or receiving gifts.

Self-centered as I may be, I think I'm still a *giving* person, more than a *receiving* person. It truly gives me great joy to know that I've given someone some joy :)

Just a thought

A person of many colors need not be a chameleon, always,...he/she could be a rainbow...

BBPPLG

This time when I went home I did some talking with my 9 year old cousin- Chunnu, who’s in third standard. I was talking to him about his school, his friends, his teachers and he was telling me all kinds of stories very enthusiastically. He told me how they play football in break time, how their class teacher keeps changing the seating arrangement and how they avoid sitting next to girls (!!! :-|), how they sing prayer before lunch, how they have to clean the school ground if their shoes are not polished, how they have to share their lunch boxes on fridays, and how he wants to sit next to this one boy in his class whose mom cooks wonderful maggi and lots more.

He asked if I could help him in his homework and I gladly agreed to do so. He took out his hindi notebook. Damn, it’s been ages since I wrote anything in hindi!! He had to finish two ‘paath’ (lessons). While he was finishing up his hindi homework I took his book, *saras bharti* and read a few chapters. He was amazed at how fast I could read. He declared that I wasn’t reading anything, according to him, I was only turning pages. He was paying more attention to when I was turning a page than his homework. Man, I remember how I used to feel the exact same way when I was his age... =))

After hindi he took out mathematics. His homework was 15 sums on dividing a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number. Very proudly he told me he could also do the division for 5-digit numbers and then asked me how many digit numbers I can divide :)

I was flipping through his notebook when I found a piece of paper on which there were some acronyms. He picked it up real fast and when I asked what that was, came an answer “didi yeh kuch nahi hai, mere friend ki hai.” He was visibly embarrassed. His mom started laughing and told me that they do this timepass in their free period.

I had to do something about it. I had to know what was there in that paper. So when he went to sleep, I took out the paper *evil evil* Shalu and I laughed really hard at that and I had to, just had to steal it from him. Ok don’t judge me on that, next day I told him that I am going to keep that paper. He hesitated initially but then said you can’t take it just like that. So we struck a deal. He thought about it for 5 minutes and sheepishly said “aapko do kaam karne padenge. (It was dinner time.) Dal ke saare tamaatar khane padenge. Mere liye uncle chips ka packet laana padega abhi.” Innocence :)

Here’s what it was on that paper, he’s going to go red one day when I’ll show him this-

DON- Danger of Nepal (by danger he meant dangar. Dangar means animal)

JBT- Jama baavli tared

MMH- Mental medical house

BDPKLG- Budha daaru peeke ludak gaya

NCC- National chappal chor

BBPPLG- Budha bagpiper peeke ludak gaya ;))

M- Mota

P- Patla

MH- Mota haathi

If only

Most couples make me uncomfortable and sick with their couply ways, especially when they act all coochie-coo romantic and what not in public. But there are some couples that just give you a very good feeling each time you see them together.

I think Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi are one such couple. I caught them on an episode of 'Koffee with Karan' on youtube. Whether it was him teasing her about all her activist stuff, or her teasing him about his bad memory with appointments, it was a pleasure to watch them interact. It's amazing how both of them are extremely serious and witty at the same time.

Javed really stole the show when Karan asked him to say a few lines for Shabana and he said:

Khush shakl bhi hai woh, yeh alag baat hai......

Magar hume zaheen log hamesha aziz the....

vaah vaah! vaah vaah!

He translated it, 'cause Shabana was lost :)) she's good looking, but that is beside the point. The fact is that I have always loved intelligent people.

Man, I was totally bowled over. Now this is the kind of couplet a girl would like to hear. Sigh!

If only Anish wasn't so urdu-challenged :)

To be or not to be

So I was reading this article tonight, in which the writer was talking about good-looking women being ogled at on the roads.

She said, "Do you know what is worse than being ogled at? Not being ogled at."

Funny and unfortunately true at times :)

Being Parents!

Recent conversations that have been taking place between my parents and me.

Me - "The computer crashed?? What did you do???”

Dad/Mom - “I didn’t do anything!!!! Apne aap ho gaya."

Me (on phone with Dad) - "Hello, technical support here. How can I help you today?"

Dad - "Computer is not working. Only a line flashes over and over."

Me - "Okay... describe to me exactly what you see on the screen."

"Now you move the mouse and bring the cursor here in the address field. Okay. Now click here. No. Try again. No. Again. Okay, now type the email id. Very good! Now click on send. See, its not difficul at all."

"No Shalu, don't help them! Let them try to open their inbox themselves."

Before my Mom and Dad headed out for their first international travel:

Me to Dad- "The atm in S'pore will give you S'pore dollars irrespective of what atm machine you go to"

Dad-"XYZ was saying there are SBI atms there, even they won't give Indian rupees?" :-|

Me to Mom- "Always stay with Dad, don't go anywhere without telling him. Anywhere you go, decide a place, you both will come back to, in case you lose each other."

"Wear comfortable shoes all the times. You’ll be doing a lot of walking."

"So did you like the hot air balloon ride?"

"Always have a valid ticket when you travel in bus or train."

"Donot throw any wrappers/waste anywhere except dustbins."

"Mom, always keep some money on you."

"What is my mobile number? Do you remember? You have to put +91 before my mobile number."

"Whenever you go out, carry a piece of paper with your hotel address, okay? Always!"

"If you get lost, ask a passer-by for directions, okay? People there are very helpful."

"Carry a bottle of water along. Don’t buy canned drinks. They are too sweet - bad for your health."

Me to Mom - "You should learn to be independent – learn to take the bus and train by yourself. Look at Aunty X. She saw all of S'pore by herself! Why can’t you do that?"

And finally the most important one, that we could not do without, and they can’t do without either.

“Don’t worry, I'm here.”

First your parents bring you up. And then it's time for you to bring them up.

They say- life runs a full circle. So true!

Freedom

When I get older, I will be stronger..They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag!

Is waving flag a symbol of freedom?

Not really. I don't think so.

It's freedom in confined space. Flag can flutter but it will always be tied to a post.

Our lives are just like waving flags. We're free but within certain boundaries which brings another question in my head- what is freedom?

So while searching (googling, okay!) I came across this which explains the meaning of the song Waving Flag.

One year

29th June2009, it was a important day for me- I started working.

One year later, I am thinking how my life has changed in this one year.

While international community broke away from financial crisis, I got a nice place for myself in Mumbai (ok, rented!). I got my first credit card. I lived in Manhattan for a month. I bought a Blackberry. I went to London and Scotland. I paid taxes. I started writing this blog. I got a LV and Jimmy Choos. I met many new people and left a few friends behind. I was engaged. Anish moved to Delhi which meant long distance relationship for the first time in seven years. AND my neighbor's 4 year old daughter called me Aunty :((

Dad got a little sentimental, he said there are three big days that come in every parent's lives- first, when their babies arrive, second when their kids leave home for first time. We encourage them knowing that its only a beginning, and then the day comes when the kids become independent and it dawns upon us that our little babies no longer need us.

Then he said- "meri life mein aisa din kab aayega, ab to poora saal ho gaya Sonia tujhe kaam karte, fir bhi mera hee khoon choosti hai!"

One word answer to this question my daddy-dearest- never.

You're not so lucky after all ;)