In the mood for love

I saw the movie “In the mood for love” by Hong Kong based director, Wong Kar Wai some days ago. It left quite an impression on me. I have seen a couple of movies by the director. I like the way he uses music in his films. I also like the way he plays with colour and the way he builds the characters in his movies. I think I like “In the mood for love” the best among his work. This movie has received a lot of international acclaim and awards. What I specifically liked in the movie was the way he showed the 2 protagonists. The background score. The lovely heroine in her very beautiful and stunning cheogsams (1970 style dresses). I am not a big fan of skinny, thin women, but Maggie is so beautiful and ethereal. Her long swan like neck and the silhouette she makes has to be seen to be believed. I hope the You tube link works. If not then, do go and watch some clips of the movie in You tube.I know, many of you might find that the pace of the movie too slow. But all in all, I loved the mood the director has created.
I was wondering if I should put a disclaimer saying that the title of this post is about the movie and not about the way I am feeling J. That brings me to the question, what mood am I in? I have gone through myriad different moods over the past few weeks. It has taken me a long time to finally get myself to write something. Renu dear, I am definitely not going the Frozy way. Frozen sun is apparently neck deep in work and hardly has the time to breathe. I have had some intermittent bouts of “busy- ness”, but nothing alarming. There were some unexpected heavy showers in Mumbai today. Maybe that is what got me in the mood to write this post. The weather had become unbearably hot and sunny and I was bracing myself for the ‘October heat’. That is when it started pouring. I loved the way the rain looked from the glass window at office. Nice! Very nice!
October has been a good month, so far. Lots and lots of public holidays. Last week we had 2 day’s holiday and tomorrow, we are getting a holiday for Dussehra. I wish you all a Happy Dussehra. The thing is that I was looking for a nice short vacation this time of the year. I was thinking of a 5 day vacation. I did try and make plans, but sadly nothing panned out. I so wanted to get away from Mumbai at least for a couple of days. I could have gone to some place touristy, but I didn’t for want of company. Isn’t it ironic? When I was still in good terms with my husband, I used to say that I will go vacation on my own, in jest. And now, when I really can go and have a vacation on my own, without having to bother about calendars matching etc etc, I wish that I had company.
Maybe it is the way we humans are wired. We look before and after and pine for what is not. It was not so bad being in Mumbai. I did go for a concert by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. It was a good experience. It was great to listen to them perform their hits from over 10 years in Bollywood. It’s a pity that there were no good movies to watch in theatres. “Drona” and “Kidnap” both didn’t live up to expectations. I gave them both a miss. I have been watching some movies at home, instead. Maybe I ought to find new options for entertaining myself. More concerts maybe. Plays, theatre, community service.
And about getting in the mood for love, I still think I am very jaded and cynical. So, no love for me anywhere, anytime soon.

The 3 words a woman really wants a man to tell her..

You lost weight

Delhi Bomb Blast Victims Live Photos

"Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can,"
This was the statement given by a group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen".A small bunch of anti social group challenging the world largest democracy ? What Does the Government of India Doing ? I think one should crap this democracy and go for the power in Single Hand. Five bomb blasts rocked the national capital in quick succession on Saturday evening killing at least 18 people and leaving over 100 injured. Most of those injured have been admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital. Some of the injured have been admitted to Sucheta Kripalani Hospital.


Photos of Delhi After Blast

The damaged bikes and bicycles at the blast site at Gaffar Market of Karol Bagh.

Police and onlookers at the blast site near the Gopaldas Building at Connaught Place in New Delhi on Saturday. Five serial blasts rocked the national capital on Saturday evening, killing 18 persons.



The blast site at M-Block of Greater Kailash I.

Is this really a FATE !!!

Last evening as I entered home, I saw my mother in deep conversation with our part time cook. She was withdrawing her 11 year old daughter, Ruby, from school. My mom was trying her best to talk her out of it.

At the root of all her problems is her husband who is unemployed, and has no intention of earning a living. He takes away most of her earnings too (after having sold away all her jewellery). He is addicted to liquor and gambling. Any attempt not to give him money or stop him in any other manner results in her getting beaten up badly. As if this wasn’t enough, she often had to pay the local “thana” when he got arrested.

To earn more, she will be taking up jobs in the mornings as well (until now she works only in the evening) and her daughter will have to stay back to take charge of the house and younger siblings. So, school is out for the little girl (just because an irresponsible drunkard happens to be her father).

Unable to hold myself back, I asked her why she doesn’t just kick him out of her house and her life. Her answer stunned me… she said living with two daughters (she has 4 children in all) in a basti is very unsafe. As long as there is a man in the house, others will not try to mess up with them. It’s this “majboori” that makes her put up with everything...its her "fate" and she has accepted it.I had no answers or solutions to offer.

It also made me realize how lucky I was. All the things in my life which spelt “security” came from my parents. I never ever thought, in all my life, that I would be denied any opportunity to move ahead in the direction I chose. Yes, there have been many times when we disagreed and whatever may have transpired amongst us, they always stood by me (of course there were limits set, which I do not stretch, or need to). They were always a buffer between us siblings and the world at large. Isn’t it strange the things that form the strongest anchor of our lives are the very ones we take for granted?

I do not know much about karma to say that my actions in my previous birth contributed to all that I have today. But, I do know that there is God above who has crafted my destiny in a manner that has saved me from much pain. I just want to say “THANK YOU GOD”

Ganapati Bappa Moriya...

Mumbai 3rd September, 2008. What does the term Ganapathi signify? 'Ga' means Buddhi (Intellect). 'Na' mean Vijnana (Wisdom ). 'Ganapthi' means one who is the Lord of the intellect and wisdom. He is also the Lord of all Ganas (spiritual entities). Ganas also symbolise the senses. Ganapathi is thus the Lord of the senses.

So Today Ganapthi has entered in your house to bring joy in your life and peace in this world.

The Sea guardian Life Guard wish one and all "Happy Ganesh Festival".

Ganpati Bappa Moraya

This is the chant i grew up hearing every year when the elephant god was brought to our homes with much fanfare and celebration. Ganesh Chaturthi is a very big festival like all the others :) and celebrated in a big way in Mumbai.

There are huge pandals with varied themes and decorations ranging from mythology to current events and huge Ganesha idols preside over all of these. Throngs of devotees wait for hours in long queues to catch a glimpse of their favorite god, participate in the aarati and partake prasadam.

For me and my dear, this is an important festival as Ganesha is our favorite God. So, like every year we celebrated the festival this year also. The highlight was i prepared the entire Neivedya without any help :-). Here's what I made.
Clockwise starting with salt, poori, potato-peas sabzi, tomato chatni, hesarbele kosambri, papad, steamed modak, fried modak, basundi, and rice-dal. All the dishes turned out well and we had a good lunch :).

Many things have changed, some for the better. We no longer immerse the idols in wells, lakes etc, but in a bucket in our house. My little one was thoroughly excited, fascinated, and amused with all these customs. He loved every minute of it and refused to budge from his position in front of the idol. We finally managed to convince him that bappa had to go back to his house and he agreed :-).

Hum Hindustani

A very amusing incident happened in our office today. There is an avuncular gentleman in our office, Mr. Nair (I am using his name with his permission). An agony uncle of our office who is forever telling people to calm down, slow down, relax etc appeared very perturbed and obviously upset. The reason…..a client had called him a Madrasi!!! (He is heading a marketing group). He was & always is furious when Indians get their country’s geography, history or in this case, demography wrong. Being an extremely well read & widely travelled person he has no time for what he calls “nincompoops”. He stressed out to all of us (the client had left by then) that he is a Malayalee from Kerala. And also went on to explain the basic differences between the four different Deccan states.
Soon, the topic turned to other states as well & the movies & serials were blamed for creating prototypes & thus hindering understanding about the real culture of the states.
By then another person (not naming him as he does not have Mr. Nair’s sporting spirit) said something to me about punjus(his language , not mine----I choose to leave out the rest of his statement). When I told him that my family is originally from Haryana….he looked perplexed & said “ aren’t haryanvis Punjabis” when I said no, “ah!,then Jat” that too was wrong as I am a Rajput….
But, Mr. Nair took over from there & gave him a good piece of lecture on Indian states & cultural diversity. When we were leaving for the day, Mr. Nair had called the other guy & was offering him a lift back home!!!
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Dear readers please do not interpret it as parochialism or any such thing. This is an incident that has happened…what is impressive was Mr. Nair; a South Indian was explaining the geographical & cultural identities of the North Indian states.
It’s a victory for national integration!!

View Point

A year ago during a family vacation abroad I received a frantic SMS from a friend telling me to buy a higher end brand of cologne and aftershave combo pack which she wanted to gift to her boyfriend. In a rather long SMS, she told not to worry about the price tag as he was “priceless”. She sent this SMS at least thrice during my holidays; I got what she wanted…its cost--- 85 euros (for the smaller pack). I was hesitant but thought what the heck; she’s going to pay for it…

Two weeks later, we were back in India. When I met up with her, can you guess what she told me… she had broken up with him!!! The very sight of the cologne-aftershave pack only hurt her more &so she wouldn’t like to take it, IF I didn’t mind. (I wonder what she would have done if I said I did?)I was almost on the verge of telling her that, “keep it for your next guy”. While with a pathetic ex-pression she set out to explain how “priceless” became “useless”, my mind was chanting quietly inside “85euros, 85euros...” (Now for those of you who think I was being mean ...well I work hard for what I earn…and 85 euros could have been better spent, if only they had broken up 3 weeks earlier).

As for the reasons why she dumped him ….they seemed incomprehensible to me - all these things are a part and parcel of our daily lives. I have 2 brothers – elder is 2 years older than me and younger is almost 8 years younger - and they behave exactly the same way (as her guy did ), i.e., they don’t understand the difference between brown and pink lipsticks, they’ll say, “oh looking great” without even looking at you, they enjoy their food more if they eat faster( sometimes before I finish my second mouthful, they have finished their whole plate), their sentences are liberally laced with slang, its like punctuation marks for them (only exception- whenever mom is around ),they whistle all the time, in fact bhaiyya can whistle any tune he wants to & to top it all my dad too joins in ( I don’t think anyone of them is a “cheapo”) and oh yes…to the outside world they may be like the active volcanoes(both my brothers do not take any nonsense lying down), but at home they too are mamma’s boys(they may just kill me for telling this!)

I don’t know what ex-pression I wore on my face, but my friend seemed to overflow with sympathy for me (or my lack of knowledge) whereas I was thinking which planet did she land from? …and also, thank god I never invited her to my home…

That day, on returning home, I jokingly I told my brothers “tum log to kuware marne wale ho”.

Language Barrier with so funny incidents

Hi friends, I just had to post this, its so funny….happened about 30mins back, just as we were leaving office…a very senior officer in our company comes from a non-Hindi speaking background. Moreover he spent all his life abroad, so exposure to Hindi was limited, if at all.
A bearer of our office had accidentally left a dusting cloth in his cabin (on the top shelf) & he was furious. He came out and in his deep baritone voice, right in the middle of the office called the bearer and said, “andar jaake kapda utaro”.
The bearer’s reaction ? “ I know English, sir” in a very injured tone.