Sunday, November 29, 2009
test
Friday, November 27, 2009
Limits of patience
I am a very patient human being when it comes to watching Tamil cinema. I can watch, and watch again, stupid movies without batting an eyelid. I would grit my teeth when I see clichés or when the hero advises the heroine on how to dress and how women cannot become angry or some crap like that. Yet I would watch the movie with an assumed patience. (disc: This is certainly not to say that are tamil movies are crap as I have watched many really good movies and may God increase the tribes of the makers of such movies).
So far, I have jumped out of the theatre half way (or even before) through a movie only in 3 instances. The first was kannukul nilavu, the second was Aegan and the third movie that joined this special list of mine recently is Modhi Vilayadu. All I can say about these flicks is ‘Yappa….Mudiladaaa Saami’!
Mindless consumerism
Is killing our people. Why do people need every possible gizmo and gadget and that too at the cheapest possible price? This Black Friday and the mad rush associated with it drives me nuts. Couple of years back I witnessed many people (esp. desis) camping(!) all night in front of Best Buy to buy a laptop at a deal price and I felt disgusted.
Well, I guess I must be an archaic woman !
Monday, November 23, 2009
Saddened …
My day today started with an email that informed me that one of my most respected seniors from school days has quit her job to become a full time home maker. One of the most brilliant girls that I have ever come across, she had always been an inspiration to me. Knowing her, I am sure that it was her own choice to leave her job. But excuse me, mere homemaking is not for such great minds, but for us lesser mortals (who, by the way, happily pack bags and leave to work leaving behind our unclean homes and understanding husbands).
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I want to quote from the book / movie Shawshank Redemption - “Some birds are not meant to be caged”. Well, certainly not this one!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
To my readers (if any)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Bliss
This is what I felt in my heart when I heard this song of Annamacharya sung by Priya sisters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_q4-_yJv5M
P.S. : Can someone who knows Telugu help me understand what ‘hari pundari kaaksha’ means? My telugu knowledge is so good that I have even translated such literary masterpieces as ‘Johnny Johnny Yes Papa’ into telugu (‘Swami Swami, Emi naana? :)). Still such simple poems like annamacharya kritis are always tricky for me :)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Nostalgia
Accidentally hit upon singer Chinmayi’s blog (http://chinmayisripada.blogspot.com). To the extent I have read this blog, Chinmayi comes across a no-nonsense,opinionated person (I have not watched any of her shows though). One of her posts on how her grandmother used to feed her made me slightly nostalgic.
Though I have not been blessed with a nice and warm extended family (well, don’t get me started on this topic!) or a huge number of friends, my core family bondages are very strong, touchwood. I have been extremely lucky to share the same warmth with my in-laws as well. Though everyone in my family (i.e Mom, sis,BIL) is very close with me, I want to specifically mention about my sister who has been a guardian angel for me through all my life. I recently read an article about a 10-year kid helping her mom in the kitchen which seemed like a big deal to the magazine that covered this feature. I recollect my sister watching me over and making dosas for me when she was merely in class 4, when my mom was away at work. My sister is still strict with me as she has been right from childhood days. But never, not once, has she failed to support me when I needed.
My most vivid childhood memory is a picture of her feeding me, making little balls of rice and smearing some beans or okra curry on that and handing over the rice balls to me. She would wait patiently till I finish lunch and only after that would she have hers. All these right from school days. Even now after so many years, she feeds me like that (we call it ‘Sadham kaila podarathu’) whenever we are home for lunch. This is one scene in my mind that makes me nostalgic and teary-eyed. To her, I am always her little sister no matter how old I am. To me, she is my alter-ego.
In my family (and more generally, in tamil culture), people are shy about eulogizing their own kinsmen and never even hug each other. I think we as a culture should learn to be more vociferous about our love and affection.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Louvre - The wedding at Cana
Look at this massive painting by Veronese (which we struggled to capture even with a good SLR camera). Besides its huge size (262*390 inc :thanks wiki), rich colors and exorbitant number of characters, some things will strike you if you pay close attention:
-- No one is talking to anyone (well, dont know why this is so, but having experienced this myself in a few weddings, I can empathize with the folks in the painting :) )
-- It's hard to spot the bride and the groom as Jesus and his team (the Virgin, his disciples) are seated in the center of the table and garner all the attention (why does it remind me of my friend's wedding which was attended by the then Education Minister of Tamilnadu, who along with his partymen hogged all the limelight?)
--The louvre website tells me that the person seated with a viola in his hand in the painting, is actually Veronese himself (He must have been the precursor to the likes of K.S. Ravikumar). For that matter, even Da Vinci used to be one of the characters in some of his paintings.
Jokes apart, some other interesting things about this painting are the vertical axis portrayals of an animal being butchered (on the top), Jesus directly looking at you (in fact Jesus is the only person out of the whole bunch of characters looking straight into you), and the orchestra playing music. When I think of it bottoms-up, it means Jesus, who was a playful child yesterday and a holy man who displayed his actual self today will be the lamb of sacrifice tomorrow.
Well- magnificent, ain't it?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Learning from a celebrity
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Stop searching and thou shall find!
Sometimes you will get something only if you remove the last trace of wish for it from your mind! Hmm!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Jane Eyre
Off to my next book on ...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
break!!
The Goal
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A perfect round number
So I am naturally glad that finally I will turn 30 when the clock strikes midnight. 30 is a very good age because of several reasons. People have no choice but to start taking you seriously when you are 30. You dont have to go through the pangs of being a fresher or searching for the Mr. Right most probably! And, whats more, You dont have to wake up to skin breakouts or cry about not having the latest smart phone!
You have better things to feel envious about your neighbor, such as her diamonds and her Louis Vuitton bag !
So, Goodbye to acne creams and welcome to age defying lotions!!
Here's to 30, the new 10(he, he!!)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Miss goody two pointed shoes!
Gonna check at Macy's tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The beautiful villages of Swiss, the cowbells, the rapid breaths after hikes, the profuse, the suntan caused by the snow capped peaks, the wallet-burning restaurant checks - I started missing Swiss as soon as I left Interlaken to Geneva. Geneva was more French than Swiss. After a boring trip (the only boring train journey of the many train journeys we had) from Geneva to Paris, I realized that this is a different Paris than the one I had always fantasized about.
But eventually, I started liking Paris and gorged on sugar-laced donuts and coffee (yum!). Tirelessly we walked, almost 12 hours everyday, across the city and went to all the famous and beautiful churches - Notra dame, St. Chappel, Sacre Couer and several other..Icing on the cake was that we were able to instantly recognize Sacre Couer as the location in which the french movie Amelie was shot (remember the scene where Nino is led by blue arrows to the binoculars!). Louvre justified all the fatigue of the trip and was spectacular, to say the least!
A side note: How come songs of all Vijay movies are shot in Mt.Titlis or Jungfraujoch? Why does the song picturized on Surya and Jyothika go on like "New York Nagaram urangum neram" when the song was actually shot in Lucerne?
Will post some pics later. Now come the top 3 lessons from the trip:
1. Never mix business and pleasure: I ended up working late nights on my take home exam for MBA and that too in Swiss. What a loggerhead!
2. If you have the real conviction, the more challenge it is to do something, the more certain it is that you will do it. I managed to continue to be a strict lacto veggie in Swiss and France despite challenges
3. Thou always wear sunscreen: Need I say more!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Guilt
He smiles at me everyday when I pass by. But call it fear, self-obsession or the resultant lack of time, I cannot return the smile to an innocent soul. Lost in my own world, just like he is, I go past him as usual into my crazy world.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Dreading to say goodbye
A character full of charm, assumed intelligence and pompousness, she brings smile to my lips when she unsuccessfully tries to play cupid. I might identify myself with Marianne Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility (he, he), but I am so in love with Emma (and of course Mr. Knightley). Indeed!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Dunce
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
What so stumbled me was that there exists another melody, in hindi though, the theme of which is very similar to 'Aval appadi'. This other song is from 'Papa Kahte hain' that starts with 'Ghar se nikalte hi'..I particularly recollect the lines
"Naa apsara hai, naa woh pari hai", which means "She is not a divine beauty, nor an Angel she is.."
What else can you ask for - this song is based on the raaga Kalyaan (the hindustani equivalent of kalyani) too!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Following examples ...
As an occasional(!) drinker, my husband believes that beer brings relief after a hard day's work.
After reading about this episode ( http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1625291.html), now he suddenly wants to patch up with all his long-forgotten enemies-right-from-childhood-days over beer. Should I be happy about his newfound friendliness?!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Crosswords and Carnatic Music
I have worked (am still working) my way through this enchanting world of carnatic music with help of raagas of known songs. For example, once I know that "Malare Mounama" is a darbari kaanada number, as soon as I identify the similarity between "Malare Mounama" and "Ponnenben siru poovenben", I can expand my territory a little bit. This is followed by finding more similar numbers such as "nee kaatru naan maram", "oorellam un paatu dhaan","kalyaana thennila" etc - one clue leading to another, just like a crossword puzzle.
I must note that websites like tfmpage.com and Karnatik.com are of great help in this regard.
A musical journey for the uninitiated !
Except for the fact that in recent weeks half the airtime is being occupied by movie footages, this program is nearly flawless. You can also check it out in youtube.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
God is not dead; who else gave me GreenCard :)
One thing is for sure - USCIS, like God, works in mysterious ways! Nobody can understand why you did or did not get your papers through!
