I've alwayz depended on the kindness of Strangers

Been wanting to write ‘bout a couple of movies I’ve watched over last few weekends and the moment has finally arrived –(in the order that they have been viewed)  

• Rear Window


• The Apartment


• A Clockwork Orange and


• A Streetcar Named Desire

Rear Window is a very different Hitchcock movie – there is no denouement whatsoever but the dialogues were quite entertaining esp. those of Lisa and Jeff… like this one :
        Jeff: When am I going to see you again?
        Lisa: [angry] Not for a long time...
              [softening]
        Lisa: at least not until tomorrow night.

The Apartment was a witty movie and quite entertaining but I somehow did not like the happy ending of the movie – my morbid self would have enjoyed it better had it been sad.

And what do I say ‘bout the Clockwork Orange – scandalous stuff but definitely food for thought. Here I must mention that I did not feel even an ounce of remorse for Alex –I thought he deserved every bit of the punishment meted out to him.

Aha! So I come to the best at the last –A Streetcar Named Desire – having read the play long back I was so eager to watch this movie and I loved every bit of it.
It has found a special niche in my list of favorite movies (not to forget mentioning the special place in my heart reserved for Marlon Brando). Vivien Leigh looked every bit of Blanche Dubois (I believe she had that paranoia even in her real life).
And what amazing dialogues, boy! Each of them ought to be soldered onto your head:

Stanley Kowalski: (refusing to acknowledge Blance’s beauty) I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and there's some of them that give themselves credit for more than they've got.

Blanche DuBois: I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.

Blanche DuBois: Straight? What's 'straight'? A line can be straight, or a street. But the heart of a human being?

Stanley Kowalski: You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky, that's all... To hold a front position in this rat race, you've got to believe you are lucky

And the most touching one of them all

Blanche DuBois: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers…..

The Greatest Side Effect of Boredom

So I finally found the Mantra to the blogger's block, which seems to hit me
every once in a while, I haven’t patented it yet so all u fellow bloggers feel free to plagiarize it (but let us not get into the discussion of whether it is worth plagiarizing)  
but please don't blame me if you don’t get comments enough

  Mantra #1 - tried and tested n never ever failed - any movie/movies u have watched  -irrespective of whether it is Bolly/Holly wood never leaves u disappointed - sometimes even the comments u had made at the movie over the popcorn should do the trick

  Mantra #2 - rant at random about your recent book read but I must warn you that many people might find that condescending, don't worry I have a solution for that too - just spice it up with as many likeable quotes from the books

  Mantra #3 - there must be at least one song hovering in your head of which u remember only one or two lines -writing 'bout it would help u find out which numbah it is in no time...

  Mantra #4 - any glimpse of the lille love u had experienced - now people might hate watching those mushy-mushy ones in the films but watch the effect when it is about your own romance...If u don’t have one, invent one (but make sure u don’t reveal that bit)

  Mantra #5 - - they say “Mallika Sherawat (read Sex) or Shahruk” sells n it does even on the big blog world!!!!

So now no more excuses of the blogger’s block any more…
  

My flirtations with Haiku

Haiku - the first time I heard the term I thought it was some sort of an exotic East Asian Dish but was soon enlightened that it was a form of Japanese Poetry.

So my feeble attempts at haiku has borne fruit finally

her arms were around him
as he carried her
-to the hospital bed

They dont make machines like that anymore ...

Every era has believed that the previous one was better.
Grandmothers thought that their grandchildren were ultra-modern and when the grandchildren became parents themselves they faced the generation gap once again...

Well you must be wondering what is the point of this rant ?
while I muse on that point, I would take the liberty meanwhile and make a punching bag out of this post.
No one likes dirty laundry lying about in the house -not when you are used to using a washing machine from when they started flooding the Indian market(due credit to Mommy and her fetish for gadgets of all sorts-useful or not)

So finally as I zero down on the point in question - the washing machine(n not the punching bag,silly).
Couple of weeks back my Whirlpool Fully Automatic XYZ aged 2 years and a few months conked off right in the middle of a full wash load of a week old jeans and bed spreads.
As a rule I'm quite tolerant to insults but not when made by a so-called 'smart' appliance.They seem to take their 'smartness' to their heads(or their engines,watever).
Now I could expect a huge phone bill end of this month -where is the connection?
Obviously the phone calls made to the service center would put any newly-engaged-to-be-married guy to shame.

Here is an example of a typical call I religiously place almost every alternate day

Me : hello, the last time I called you, you told me that you had placed an order for the door
XYZ :(from the whirlpool service centre) which door ma'am
Me : (to self:oh! the refrigerator door u duffer) of course the door of the washing machine
XYZ : but tell me what is the problem
Me : (to self: for the zillionth time I need to recount the problem) the washing machine door's lock is no longer functional....blah...blah..

One of these days I must remember to borrow that voice-recorder of my journalist friend and play it over to them (saves me some energy atleast)

Apparently the advertisements for employing the people in service centers these days cry out loud 'Only ppl with no brains need apply' and poor me not aware of this widely occuring phenomenon expects some miracle to occur and my washing machine restored to itz normal,self-respecting self.But they say it is too much to ask....

And to think that a semi-automatic machine costing just 6000 bucks in the 90s(our first at home) lasted a decade and more all I can say is
'They dont make them like that anymore'

Will my machine be restored? Will I need to shell out 'nother 21K n buy a new one? all these questions nag me while I look stupidly at the telephone since it is time to make the next call .....

The shortcut of a long story

I know I'm not at all good at stuff like those listomania tags but this 55 word thingummy got me interested, I mean this might be the beginning of my venture into fiction, albeit a forceful one. Much thanks to Sagnik for honoring (read tagging) me n so I proceed (trumpets blowing in the background)

The Return of the Count
She was totally engulfed in his love,
Dreaming about that first kiss
Counting minutes to meet him
Waiting for him to arrive
And finally it happened
She moaned as his lips brushed her neck
And …Sudden silence
He looked back with gleaming teeth
Blood smeared on his lips
Her limp body at his feet...

In other news I got a mild shock when I finally discovered what my neighbors A and B, who are famous for being addicted to books, read! These pretty-settled-in-life-40-something women dig Mills and Boon, not that I have anything against those type of books but the thought that they assumed I also belonged to that league pained me no end.

As customary lemme pass this tag of 55 worded short story to Vigs , first rain , Anumita, RT and fatally flawed ,njoy maadi

A Tag for the blogger's block

I think Tags have been specially designed for people (ok, all I meant was me)
who, even after long hours of staring at the screen, at the next cubicle or the artificial plant near the window, cannot put a word to the keyboard.

I know it would be boring to read the below list of 5 things 'bout me but in case you still insist u can read further at your own risk and if you complain I can only say 'I told you so'


5 years ago:
Reading the Autobiography of Agatha Christie made me realize that what we remember over a period of time are not dates or years but memories, incidents and strangely the sights and smells.
so picking one incident out of the random stack (of memories)

A : Have you watched Sarforosh?
Me: (snobbish look) ah you know I don’t care too much
for a commercial flick
A : since we dun have any plans, let us tune in to it
4 hours of Sarforosh in between commercial breaks and
lesson learnt - 'Never judge before you know'

1 year ago:
Introduce all those fresh-out-of-college-girls at office to the pub scene at Hyd'bad,
never imagined I would play 'mother goose' this soon in life ***sniff**sniff**

5 songs I know all the words to:
all words??? "Surely you must be joking,Mr..."
but I do recollect a few words of so many songs, like this one
na jaane kyun hota hai yeh zindagi ke saath
nak yeh man kiski jaane ke baad ,
kare uski yaad choti choti si baat

5 Snacks I enjoy:
I think I've mentioned it way too often (that even I'm bored to type it)
'I have never met a Calorie I did not like'

5 Things I'd do w/ $100 million dollars:
Take the first flight to Las Vegas (n the money would take care of itself)

5 places I would run away to:
frankly I'm only thinking of one place now - home after getting done with this list and if I include the pubs on the way they would be the remaining 4

5 things I would never wear:
Anything false
- wig (unless I go for chemotherapy)

- plastic jewellery (the popular Nadia-type)

- animal prints (looks outrageous esp. in India)

- tattoos (unless I have to do a baby-doll-like dance)

and of course
- a smile ('am not counting those smiles reserved specially for nosy neighbors)

5 favorite tv shows:
I could make this short and sweet by saying the serials of Ms.K Kapoor (which is way beyond 5 btw)
but unfortunately I haven’t watched many of them (if you don't include the passive watching courtesy Mummy)
I don’t watch much of telly but 'Friends' and 'Ally McBeal' figure in this list

5 greatest joys:
now if only I could count my joys so easily and manage to stick to the figure 5,

the wind in my hair, fresh flowers, colorful hues of paints,
summer showers, smell of rain drenched earth, remarkable reading,
chocolates n ice creams, shop till I drop, playing with kids, sunny skies,
magnificent mangoes,cool winters, fall colors, lazy weekends, Sunday noons,
friends n foes, graceful dancing, jhatpat cooking, soulful lyrics,
old hindi songs, desi khanna, luscious lavender, winding roads, soft snowfall, rustic accessories, fabulous clothes, dangerous living...

5 favorite toys:
Since this question is included here knowing well that most of the target audience are at least 16 and above I guess they were referring to a different sort (now here is an opportunity to get wild with your imagination) but lemme not scandalize innocent folks so
I’d stick to the usual gurrrlie stuff like teddies and more teddies

now I come to the best part which is reserved to the last,
pass it on to unsuspecting victims like vicky, tigress , truth fairy , zombiee and fish hater ***exit with a evil grin***

Ships that pass in the night

the ambience was set....I sat huddled up on the carpet with those fabIndia cushions for comfort n leaned against the sofa, a cuppa ginger tea in one hand and the remote in another, I pressed 'Play'.

only then I realized that Charlotte also sits huddled up except that she is in a luxurious suite of the Hyaat n I'm at home.(question to self :Is sitting huddled up a sign of loneliness???)
for the next hour and a half I was totally Lost in 'Lost In Translation' - awesome! is the apt word for this movie but all u happy-n-in-love ppl might find it an absolute drab piece of work because it is set at the same pace as any Shabana Azmi/Smita Patil movies of the 80s.

Loneliness is something so difficult to capture on screen and I think Sophia Coopola has done a wonderful job of it.
While I laughed (I think a lille more than necessary) at the jokes of Bob Harris (esp, the ones in the bar), I really sympathized with Charlotte's confusion as to where her life is leading to.

jus when the screen came alive with those 2-3 second scenes of the Strip Club, in walks my maid! the timing wouldn’t have been better -that she had to enter in the only scene of the otherwise clean movie shows how right Murphy is (Bless his Laws) and I have to put up with her looks of 'I know what type of movies u watch' throughout the week.

back to the movie - I think I actually liked the way they maintain their friendship without spoiling it with unnecessary romance - two ppl who relate to each other because of their desolation in an alien land,
like (in the words of H.W.Longfellow )
"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence."

My personal favorite is the one where they meet for lunch (after Bob's night with the singer) and Charlotte says 'perhaps because u can relate to her better' and
Bob says 'Doesn’t anyone ever give u the attention u want? '
(and immediately I say mentally 'but not from the one we seek’)
Of course the last shots were brilliant, Murray really wins hands down by conveying his desperation, to bid goodbye to her, thro’ his eyes which follows Charlott who takes the elevator in a nonchalant way without another glance.
another of those lines which I luved
Charlotte: Let's never come here again because it will never be as much fun.

all in all i wud give this movie a 5/5 because of the brilliant acting and direction.
But one thing which has left me wondering is ,in the last scene
“what does Bob whisper into Charlotte's ears which makes her smile ?” Any guesses?

Ain’t a Housewife a Domestic Goddess???

              
            If you thought that building a temple for Khushboo in some remote village of TamilNadu is heights of frenzying fans –think again! PPl the world over are tuning in to Desperate Housewives just because the First Lady of the US of A mentioned it. (quote “I am married to the President of the United States and here is our typical evening. Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I am watching Desperate Housewives. With Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentleman, I am a desperate housewife. I mean if those women on that show think they're desperate, they ought to be with George.” unquote)
But the sad and true fact remains that Yours truly is guilty of the same but I would rather blame it on the boredom of a Friday night.
           I have a repu of not being very sociable with my neighbours – well can’t blame them since I have only 24 hrs to juggle between my work, home and cooking so the spare time is spent in front of my laptop, books and on the phone (not necessarily in that order) but the aunties are as saccharine sweet as any sugarcane field. They ask me if I want help with the servant, driver etc etc so that they could happily approach me for borrowing that odd cup of sugar or some green chillies.
         Watching DH made me wonder if there are hidden elements of Susan or Lynette in any of them but they all seem very docile to me –the types who devote their time in kitty parties and their children. Since I have the honor of being the only working woman in my apartment complex (if I don’t count Asha who has a home-office) they suggested holding a kitty on a Saturday so that I cud join them; now a kitty is as strange to me as a blue movie; which is - I keep hearing ‘bout it a lot but never ever been to one and also try to avoid it like dengue fever.
           A housewife is an alien concept to me – no, I mean my Mom is one but I personally can’t relate to that concept. It is not about the money, it is also not about the Status –it is about having a life, individuality and identity. To learn to appreciate the aesthetics of life beyond the four walls but then ultimately itz each to their own.
            And these days there r also occurrences of house-husbands (also mentioned in Prey) – who have proved that they could manage the household chores as well as any woman…    
            Coming to the serial, which has rocked US these days, DH is a product you would get if u cross any of Ms.Kekta Kapoor’s serials with CID.
The characters seem so melodramatic and immature- rather made-up and larger than life.
The petty jealousies over-exaggerated and the women really desperate; so  
if itz Friday night and you don’t have any agenda then …Please do not tune in to Desperate Housewives. It is much better to watch the re-runs of Friends any day!

One Way Ticket

the bags are packed, good-byes told n all-the-bests mouthed.
the return to my home sweet home begins ,back to
-the kitchen where I rule- the actual Princess Chimera's realm
-the potted plants on my balcony ledge bearing a forlorn look in my absence
-the teddies in my bedroom badly in need of a hug
-the tiny money-plant craving to be watered by me
-the 5am Yoga classes to shed the excess calories gained
-the ladies-nites on Wednesdays at TDS

this last time itz a one way ticket for me from B'lore to Hyd,
yes I wud definetly return to this place for a visit but things wud never b the same.....

when did u last have a romance?

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance
-Oscar Wilde

I never met a Calorie I did not like

If you guys thought that women endure only childbirth then you are mistaken, when we are not worrying about what to cook for dinner we are worried about the project deadlines but that single worry, which is constant and persistent across women of all ages, is the Calories! Of course I’m not counting our obsession with the shade of nail polish or the make of our sandals.
I know it is touchy topic to speak about, what with the Atkins and South Beach diets doing its rounds in all the circles possible but I proceed with my ordeal nevertheless.

Wonder why do ice creams and chocolates taste the way they do which leaves us guilty after succumbing to their charms once in a while. And believe me all your plans of burning those calories the next day never work, not esp. after you get up at 8 in the morning and rush to work at 9.

But thanks to Moms who are ever ready to humour their daughters.
Every weekend my Mom finds me losing weight, I bet if she’d see me everyday she would say the same. She welcomes me with a 'You have grown sooooooo thin', 'you are not eating properly' -note that leaves me smug and happy. Though there is no correlation between general health and weight (in fact obesity has more disadvantages) the world in general and mothers in particular think that thin is synonymous to being unhealthy (only wish the guys also thought that!)

To make matters worse we have ppl who make it a point to comment on the amount of weight you have put-on. Now I think there should be a law against them – crucify whoever comments on a woman’s weight – no make that crucify them nude!
And leading the pack (to be crucified) would be the salesmen/women in shops,

Just the other day I realized that the waiting time to fit into my old jeans is over and went shopping for a new pair, I was rushing into a trial room trying to avoid one of those ever-ready-to-help guys, when I hear a voice behind me:

ERTH guy: Ma’am, what size are you looking for?
it is bad enough feeling lousy about ur waist size, gets worse when you have to declare it in public!
Me: mumble 28…..
ERTH guy: (appraising me) No Ma’am I’m sure they wouldn’t fit, 30 should be ok
Me: err…perhaps... ( why can’t the earth swallow me now) anywayz I’ll try both
5 minutes later, I emerge out of the trial room and quickly rush to the Payment Counter and come home happy with my purchase. Now don’t ask me who was right!

So the next time think twice before you tell a girl “I think you have put on weight”, unless you want to make an enemy for life.

Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom

It was 1 in the night and I had just finished my conference call, though sleep was beckoning me, I got in the mood of poetry and not wanting to lose that moment, I started writing. Of late, I find myself drawn towards Anna Akhmatova’s poems, which seem to convey a whole lot of meaning in a few words. Now, brevity has never been my forte but try I would ……

She lies intoxicated in those arms
Knows not what the world beholds

She seeks him in those eyes
Trying to break from the trance

She breathes in soft sighs
Mouths his name in sweet delight

She wonders about his restraint
Realizing her folly ,’Oh! It wasn’t him at all’

You live several lives while reading a book

Even before I set foot into the shop, I fell in love with it jus 'coz
it is named "Blossoms" which reminds me of the color n fragrance of flowers and since I’m as much fond of books as I am of flowers ,this place was added to my list of must-visit places in Bangalore.

My auto came to a rickety stop at the entrance of Church Street, the auto guy apologetically telling me “maadam yeh to one-way hai” and so I begin my search for this much-sought-after-shop. After many mumblings of directions by nondescript strangers on the road, I entered this shop- my pupils dilated and I was filled with this immense sense of feeling which ,for the lack of a better word, I would state as happiness and I sought to regain my lost senses on seeing so many books under a single roof(ok make that two considering the floor above which stocks non-fiction and strictly not my domain)

I picked up as many hard bound copies as I could lay my hands on till the shop assistant couldn’t take it anymore - I could imagine her irritation at the sight of a greedy bibliophile like me who kept piling up books into hands as if it were some sort of a shelf!
So many old titles and hardbound editions of Jane Austen, of Daphne Du Maurier, of ThornBirds...

I was in some sort of trance when the sound of my ubiquitous cell phone brought me back to the humble land - my friends were waiting for me to join them for a movie.
The timing couldn’t have bin worse, since I cud carry only a few of the books I had to remove most of them from my list.

Which comes to my second visit, this time I wasn’t alone, S had also come along n I was glad that she’d also picked many books, including a few for her kid nephews n nieces.
What is interesting about these dog-eared, yellowed pages of the books is that each one seems to tell a tale of their own apart from what they hold.
Esp. the ones that have been given as gifts -I pity all those people who, for whatever reasons, let go of these precious books.
But then someone else’s loss is my gain!
So thanx to the visits to this quaint lille shop in Church Street, my collection of books has increased considerably.

I have to mention the absolute treasures I picked up
Walden and Other Works by Henry David Thoreau
Notes from the Underground by Dotsvesky and
a beautiful hardbound copy of the Works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Due credit is given to this woman in the shop who was waxing eloquent to her partner ‘bout the first two books and I lost no opportunity in picking them up.
The book by Poe was a wonderful find by self.(a big pat on my back)

Now I think itz high time I plan my next visit ...

Fish outta water?

I was sitting, sipping a cuppa garam chai in my cafeteria,when I heard something, which I faintly recogonized as giggles, from the nearby table.
N whom do I see? A Krishna with gopikas -yes a single guy surrounded by 6-7 girls and I couldn’t help but hear their topic of discussion, they were really loud. (So I can’t be accused of eavesdropping)

Can you guess what their topic was? I bet Not in your wildest dreams 'coz they were discussing piercing (yes you heard me right) - nose and ear piercing (to be precise)
-how (gun shot, jeweler..) ,when(when I was 6 ,last month…) and what is the best place in town.
Now had this crowd been entirely a girl gang I would’ve passed it off as jus 'another' of those discussions but seeing a lone guy in their midst piqued my curiosity so I slowly watched the guy (of course out of the corner of my eye) -he seemed thoroughly embarrassed, was squirming in his seat and making all kinds of facial expressions but since he was given a royal ignore, finally he chose the safest option out, started making calls on his cellphone!
Boy! My heart just went out to him –
which reminds me of other such similar situations :

cute girl trying to impress mr.John Abraham look-alike with her dancing abilities and the footwear snaps

girlfriend A's usual mail to her boyfriend B bitching 'bout the boss and she accidentally sends it to the boss himself (actually heard this happen to my friend)

Y saying not so pleasant things about a person Z blissfully unaware of Z's presence behind.

dial a number by mistake you din't mean to –now you can’t say "well I wasn’t meaning to talk to you"

N this one featured in the Hyderabad times takes the cake -
women sporting backless top and the bet is on "what if the clasp comes off!"

***Shudder***hope we dont ever land up in such embarassing spots.

Pah-hey-lee

(Disclaimer - for all those who thought Paheli was a chick-flick or worse it's just 'nother of those stupid fantasy movies -puleeeze get back to your work/studies/college/browsing or to whatever u were doing before.)

I'm not a major TeeVee buff but the minute I hear the sound of an Amol Palekar movie then I stop whatever I'm doing (some of the aforementioned things) and stay glued to the idiot box. I mean i dont mind watching a re-run of GolMaal, Gharonda, Choti Si Baat or Baaton Baaton Mein instead of some stupid movie called "Kuch Kuch something something.."

Who else but Amol Palekar could make me courageous enough to endure SRK's histrionics and also appreciate Rani's non-existent beauty! BUT No Regrets ...

The story for a change is - ghost meets girl, ghost falls in love, ghost gets the girl and they live happily ever after!
Laachi (Rani Mukerjee) is the newly wed bride of Kishan(SRK #1).
She is just like any woman -with a million (nope, make it a zillion) dreams in her eyes when she enters her marital world. Alas! All Kishan seems to be interested is Money and sets off to some faraway land for 5 looooooong years.
Enter the frendly ghost (SRK #2, yes Casper does have a competitor) who takes the form of Kishan and enjoys marital bliss with Laachi, until the real one (confused??i mean SRK #1) returns n claims that he is the real Kishan.

Well the point here is not the story (ok, at least not for me) but a woman's eternal search for her perfect man.
Also I like the way the audience is manipulated -they actually starts believing that the ghost is the ideal partner for Laachi.
Imagine instead of a ghost had Laachi had an affair with another man, just because her husband does not live upto her expectations, then the moral police would have brought up their cudgels; but camouflage it with a hubby-look-alike and we have people enjoying the romantic antics of the ghost and wishing fervently that the ghost gets the woman in the end.

Kudos to Mr.Palekar for bringing the beauty of Rajasthan to celluloid -
Colorful Rajasthani dresses, ethnic folk music, amazing choreography and lovely colors of the desert it is indeed a visual treat for the eye.
I only wished that he could have done away with horrors like Sunil Shetty (he seems to grow uglier with each movie-wonder whatz the secret!)

Seems the good ghosts have entered Bollywood finally or shall I say the ideal/romantic guy is nothing but an illusion and is well represented by a ghost.

i cook the same way i dress ....to kill....

There I was- all of a full twenty and an addition of 1 whole year and still had no clue of cooking.My grandma would exclaim (as most grandmas do) "at your age I was the mother of 2 kids" and to this date I could never figure out the connection! I mean I don’t see why cooking should be a pre-requisite for reproduction.

They say necessity is the mother of invention and in my case it decided to prove itself right- a new job in an alien land and my body refused to be insulted any further after multiple attempts to keep it alive and kicking by treating it to all sorts of assorted junk that the Hyd'bad restaurants could offer (and in 1997 there were a sad handful).

So I decided to put on an apron and join the bandwagon of all those people (rolling my eyes in admiration) who can recognize the various names by which those small, round grains popularly called dal go by.The rats used for my experiments were my unsuspecting roommates; the torture endured by them would put any Tihar jail prisoner to shame.

I started dutifully by buying books of Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor but alas! they never taught you the basic dal, roti and chawal, which resulted in huge telephone bills (since teaching to cook by Mummy on telephone wouldn’t last less than an hour) and maintaining a big notebook (which I proudly exhibit to this day).

The samples of my experiments could be bottled and pickled as exemplary examples of what not to do while learning to cook: these were the 5 popular dishes I could conjure in a jiffy.

** Idlis looking like mini dosas
** Dosas looking like mega idlis
** Chapatis competing with Papads
** Kheer, which could give a complex to ‘Camilin’ Glue
** Tamarind water with floating veggies, which could pass on as Sambar

Repeated experiments always produce good results they say and they weren’t wrong, these days if u see someone sporting a bright apron and hosting the office parties at home -then its none other than yours truly.(Needless to say 'am a proud owner of a kitchen designed by self -yup the one in the pic)
At last I learnt to use a knife for purposes other than self-defense.:)

the broken Wings of a Butterfly

no happiness holds me high
like that of the eternal light
none other do I seek as I fly
when there's hinderance in the flight

do i near the light emerging
i can feel the smell of fire
seductive appear'd the flame flickering
as i flew into the unsuspecting ire

unawares was i caught
as i smelt the burning wings
my life has gone wrought
as i let go of it without any strings

(song am thinking of ....
Baadalon Se Kaat Kaatke,
Kaagazon Pe Naam Jodna
Yeh Mujhe Kya Ho Gaya?)

the mind of an unmarried woman

Finally I gave up resisting the urge of writing ‘bout Parineeta.
A gud lesson I learnt is never to watch a movie after reading like a zillion revus on it, but cant help it, usually I’m one of those who just manages to take a peek before the movie leaves the theatres. Going by those standards, it is still ok.

Itz an okey dokey, once watchable type of movie but what I missed most was the total lack of romance in it (please don’t mention the scenes of passionate love making)
Wat I mean is watever happened to woh nazare churanaa, sharmana , nakhre karna, musukurana type of romance? Devdas scores high on those points.

Sanjay Dutt n Dia Mirza were big turn offs of the movie. Sanjay Dutt looked old enough to be Vidya Balan’s father.
Hope VidyaB is not a one movie wonder n we get to see more of her.
Also this flick got me thinking ‘bout overhauling my wardrobe –include more of salwaar suits esp. those with low-cut backs hanging on for their dear life onto some kinda “dooris”(strings).

These lines of Galib from this movie refuse to leave the bylanes of my memory

hum saans lethe hai to charcha ho jaata hai
woh katal bhi karte hai to kabhar nahi hoti

when did the weekend (i meant the weekend end?)

so i had this nice,long 3 day weekend(when the rest of the world is having only a 2 day weekend) an additional day as a special treat to self for visiting Hyd'bad after a loooooong time.

besides a whole lot of things which cant b blogged 'bout,I caught up with
* Aruna (on all things not covered on our long mails)
* chatting on y msgr (if u want to know how much u r missed come online after a long haitus)
* making geometrically correct shaped dosas (hoping they do not come out as big idlis)
* movie Kaal (drooling over someone named John A)
* rounds of Smirnoff (exit exotic cocktail with no hints of alcohol and switch back to gud ole vodka)
* long drives on necklace road (dun forget to bring in additional calories on ur way back)
* fights with Mom (all time favorite time pass)
* TDS (for the uninitiated my fav hangout -Ten Downing Street)
* pamper self by visiting the parlour (both the beauty n the ice cream variety come under this category)

cut to the present,
back to B'lore ,trying to get over n out with the Hyd'bad Blues

A compliment is like a Kiss thro' the veil

dwelling on the matter of Kisses, i recollect these verses on it :


Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.