Funny thing called “Love”

X loves Y (or thinks that it is love). Y used to love Z, who dumped Y.  Y is still to get over Z, but goes around with X, just for the heck of it. Never confirming , never denying the status of their ‘relationship’. Meanwhile X also starts to “like” A, and keeps “A” as ‘back-up” option, in case things with Y misfire.  X’s parents are also looking for an arranged match for X. X is fine with this, as long as X gets a ‘better option’ than “Y”.

X’s sibling  C is also of a marriageable age. C looks at X for help, since it would be mostly an arranged marriage.  X doesn’t volunteer to do anything for the sibling, despite being the older one, saying ‘I have my own problems to sort” .

Y uses X for all material and non-material needs. X thrives on the fact that Y needs and uses X. Oh, the feeling of being wanted!

Y refuses X’s proposal for marriage

Y is planning to marry “B”. 

X still refuses to accept that Y has rejected X. X lives in a delusion, and comes up with imbecilic reasons to justify why Y is wrong. 

X continues to pursue Y, terming X’s efforts as “trying”.

This is not the plot of any khichdi love story of teeny boppers being attempted into a film by a first time director. This is the messy tale of ‘love” in today’s time.  I know of 3 people in similar situation as described above. All well educated rational young people in their late twenties.

Love has become a commodity, to be traded for a “better option” at any point in time. Being in a relationship is a ‘need” . Flaunting a good-looking BF/GF is a necessity.

What happened to good old values like committment, care, true concern, accepting and loving a person as he/she is?

Love aaj kal,  is not like the love of yore. Alas

This has me excited:launch of portable e-book readers

http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/07092504/Amazoncom-debuts-internationa.html

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/barnes-nobles-kindle-killing-dual-screen-nook-e-reader-leaked/

I’m no techie, but my instinct tells me this is going to be the next big thing in tech gadgets.  Imagine the posibilities with a portable e-book reader.

Luddites always held that reading an e-book was no match to the experience of reading a physical paper-bound book. With a portable e-book reader, one can curl up in bed, with one’s favourite snacks and  read up, just like in the good old days.

Thank you, my love…. “blush”

This day, that year, the gods conspired, and 2 souls were entwined to one another
With hope in our eyes, and the promise of eternal love, we vowed to be by each other
Together in sorrow and joy, sailing through troughs and peaks, sharing both laughter and pain
Revelling in ecstasy, bringing light in moments of despair, standing as one, in loss and gain
 
It seems I’m living a beautiful dream; don’t know how time has flown since that magical day, 
Many lazy Sundays, breakfasts at noon, some happy holidays, amidst the chaotic world, yet away,
Bearing countless awful movies, evenings full of arguments and patch-ups, fights and play
Afternoons spent lying in each other’s arms, whispering sweet nothings, just being with you meant everything would be okay.
 
These years sprinkled with some sulks, few tears and a lot of crazed happy laughter,
Days spent in joyful indulgence, mingled with a wee bit worry of what would follow after,
Chocolates, gifts, flowers, poems conveying our love, multiplied with concern and care
A lot of wit, endless discussions on our hopes, dreams and anxieties laid threadbare
 
Thank you my love for all of these and much more,
Your love as magnificent as the multi-hued horizon, above the golden shore
Your gentleness and kindness, unwavering trust, unflinching support , and a touch so soft
Keeping the child and woman in me, swinging simultaneously in joy aloft.

What’s in a name? A lot, if you ask me!

During my routine scan of the newspaper this morning, i came across a pamphlet, advertising a nursery and playgroup for children.  It was named “Little Machos Playgroup”

Which parent would want their ward to get into a playgroup proclaiming to turn their kids into the worst kind of male streotype? But I have to admit the name caught my attention. So I glanced through what they had to offer.  Apart from the regular things a playgroup usually offers, they had come up with this – ” A special session on how to earn good marks in exams”,  “healing and counselling”, and the biggest highlight -”AC classrooms”.

I shudder to think if some over optimistic parents did decide to send their child to this place, what kind of brat would they have on hand?  This seems like a mass “macho” producing unit.  Even if I give the promoters the benefit of doubt, and think that they came up with the name just because it was catchy, and not really meaning  to mass produce male stereotypes, i cannot fathom the bit on ‘healing and counselling” two year old toddlers.

Though I dont have any kids of my own, I’m sure I wouldn’t be the type who would bother if my kid was getting “high” marks in class, as long as he/she was learning what he/she ought to learn and enjoying the process.

But you never know, maybe someday I will take the bait and fall into the trap of ‘high marks” , just to keep up with some random competition.

Side effects of being a “Mungeri Lal”

I have a confession to make. I’m a certified Mungeri Lal. For those in the dark about this world famous character, let me shed some light. In the good old days of DD, there used to be a series starring Raghubir Yadav by the name of ‘Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne’. The lead character, Mungeri, was a chronic day-dreamer who weaved amazing fantasies in his dreamland. His real life was too boring, for him to bother about. If you’ve read “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, you would know what Mungeri was all about.

Coming back to me, well just like Mungeri, I also am a perpetual day-dreamer. It’s a sort of an escape mechanism I have developed to avoid the mundane rigours of the real world. In the midst of a chaotic and life-threatening train journey, you will find me smiling (like an idiot) on some wonderful happy thoughts, which will never occur in real life. Only the rudest of shoves by a fat aunty in the train compartment will jolt me back to reality. In the midst of a meeting, I may be away in a faraway land. You get the drift, don’t you?

But all these years, I lived in denial. I refused to accept that I’m a day-dreamer. Today is the day when I have decided to come out and confess. I have finally certified, my own self, as being a Mungeri. How exactly did this happen? Read on, if interested in my tale (very real life, I promise)

This morning I took my regular AC bus to work. When I got a place to sit, midway through the journey, I kept my hand-bag behind the seat. there was some nice music playing- “Aaj Phir Jeene ki tammana hai, to be precise. And I just drifted away to my secret castle in my dreamland. I was thinking randomly of snow, Himachal Pradesh, my colleague who’s confused about his love-life, and hedge funds.and started weaving a story around it. I will spare you the details of this saga.

As you may have gained by now, I left my bag behind in the bus, when I got off. Realised it after I reached office. And the bus chase that followed after that, was just out of an Akshay Kumar action sequence. With some help of my office cubicle neighbour, a mad chase after the bus on a road full of traffic, a few calls to the bus depot, many pleas to the bus conductor in Marathi (I got his mobile number, from the depot. Can you beat that?) , I was able to track the lost bag. Thank god for his many mercies.

However this incident has made me accept what I am, a mad day-dreamer. Guilty as charged.

My impressions on Aravind Adiga’s “The White Tiger”

The book begins with the protagonist Balram Halwai, writing a series of letters to the Chinese Premier, who is on a visit to India. Through the letters Balram narrates the story of his life, from his humble beginnings in the “Darkness” of India to that of a successful entrepreneur, and an ‘on the run’ criminal.

His story highlights the poverty in the hinterlands and the systemic subjugation of lower caste by the higher caste feudal lords. His birth is so insignificant that his parents forget to give him a proper name. He is given his adult world name later, by his school teacher. His parents are dead by the time he 10, robbing him of an education. He is forced to work in tea-stalls and other odd jobs. But as spotted by an inspector of schools, he has a spark that sets him apart from the other teeming millions, a white tiger amidst the other tigers. He wants to break out of his dire life and do something better. He learns to drive and that sets him off on a rapid journey that leads to his metamorphosis from a village simpleton to a sly worldly-wise criminal.

Balram mentions that his education is ‘half-baked’ which means that he knows how to read and write literally, but doesn’t understand what he is reading. His true education comes from his various ‘on the job’ experiences. As a tea-stall boy, he eavesdrops on conversations and learns the ways of the world. As a driver to his former feudal lord, he learns about politics, the infidelity in human relationships, the bottomless pit of corruption, the divide between the rich and poor and the hypocrisy of the rich. He serves his master to the best extent possible and thinks that he is a demi-god, in this world of devils. But that proves as a fallacy. The very master, who treats him well otherwise, doesn’t flinch when passing off his wife’s crime onto him, since he is a servant.

That is the turning point where Balram transforms from a naïve trusting and do-it-all Jeeves, into someone who wants to be on the other side of the fence. He decides to become his own master. He achieves this by committing a serious crime and starts living the life of a fugitive. He finally becomes an entrepreneur in new age India or the “Light”, as the author puts it.

Thumbs up for :

• The well etched characters. Be it  Balram, the central character, his father, his brother, his scheming grand-mother Kusum, each member of the feudal family, his master-the foreign educated mild mannered Ashok, the other drivers who stay in the same building – each character has been created with care and great life-likeness.
• The differentiation between the life of the haves and that of the have-nots has been depicted well. While Balram’s family is living in penury, brought about by innumerable additions in the family, marriages of female members and disease, the feudal lords live a life of debauchery and corruption. Balram remembers and dreads the marriage of a female relative-because it brings the burden of dowry which his family can ill afford. Whereas a male member’s marriage brings on reversal of fortunes.
• The caste divide has been highlighted in the book, Balram is born into a family of ‘halwais” or sweetmeat makers. By the mere fact that he is born a ‘halwai” it is assumed that his fate will be sealed as a ‘halwai”. The caste system is so deep-rooted, that even if one wants to break away, the community and society would not allow you to.

• The racy-thriller like narrative

Thumbs down for:

• I failed to understand why Balram would narrate his life-story to a complete stranger from China? What benefit would this serve to Balram?
• The conversations between Ashok, his wife and Ashok’s brother tend to become repetitive after a point.

All said and done, I would definitely recommend this book to fellow readers, Read it for the racy style of writing, interesting everyday characters, and a peek into the lives of both the rich and the poor, and the scheming ways of both to survive life

Another day…same quandary

My Alma Mater-Holy Cross Convent High School, Thane

Words fail to express what i feel for my dear school. The innumerable gifts showered upon my persona by my school just overwhelms me.

I can only say, like in our school anthem ”Long Live our dear Holy Cross School, May its glory ever live”!

Here’s the link to the Wikipedia page on my school

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Cross_High_School_Thane

Inspired Moments

Now we all know that many Bollywood flicks are rountinely made on the basis of many international DVD’s. The Indie flicks are a remixed version of many ‘inspired’ moments from various foreign movies.

As a hopeless romantic, one of my favourite all time movies is Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ). Okay I know, all the non-romantics are busy smirking reading this, not that i care! DDLJ for me was a cult movie, a movie in which everything was perfect, original, beautiful….you get the drift, don’t you?

There are memorable scenes in the movie which had all die-hard romantics in raptures. Imagine my shock and disbelief when I learnt that not everything in this perfect movie was orginal. I was watching the movie ‘In the line of fire’, starring Clint Eastwood recently. When watching a particular scene, i had a sense of deja vu. The famous ‘palat’ scene in DDLJ is a direct lift from this scene in the Clint Eastwood movie

And i thought Aditya chopra was being original!  Maybe most of the other scenes in the movie are also frame to frame copies of other moview which i haven’t seen yet.

Hep Heena’s happening recipes

 

“Tumhare haaton mein jaadu hain”. I dedicate this oft repeated line used in Hindi movies, to my colleague and friend Heena. She cooks the yummiest food, and her office dabba is highly sought after during lunch hour.

Heena’s recipes have come to my rescue whenever I wanted to cook simple, but tasty meals.

Listing down details few of my favourite easy to make recipes, borrowed from Heena

Recipe 1-Chole Bhature

For the chole

1. Soak chole overnight. Cook in the pressure cooker for 6-7 whistles. Strain the water and separate chole (do no discard the water)
2. Pour oil In a deep bottomed vessel (a little more than normal). Once it is piping hot add the boiled chole, salt, red chilli powder, chopped green chillies, bhuna jeera powder and chana masala. Let it cook well. Add the chole stock kept aside earlier, if you want some gravy.
3. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and onions

For the bhature

1. Take some maida (cornflour. Add curd, oil and very little salt. Roll into a dough and leave it to settle overnight or upto 4-5 hours, covered with a slightly damp cloth. I added a little baking soda to dough to make it fluffy- this is not a part of Heena’s standard recipe.
2. Roll into little balls and make puris. Fry in piping hot oil. 

 

Recipe-2-Mushroom sabzi

Clean mushrooms thoroughly and blanch it. Pour a little ghee in a pan, add chopped onions, chopped ginger, tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, a little chana masala (key ingredient) and a little water. Cook till the mushrooms are done. Add salt to taste.

 

Recipe 3-Eggs fried rice

Pour oil in a pain, add chopped onion, chopped garlic, chopped green chillies. Break and add 3 eggs in to the pan. Cook the scrambled eggs well. Add a little soy sauce and vinegar (optional). Add salt to taste. Add cooked rice into this mixture. Mix well. Egg fried rice is ready to serve!