Hemanth Karkare November 29, 2008

It was a hero’s funeral. The 16 year old son of Mr Karkare lighting the pyre, watching his beloved father go up in flames. This young man, when the dust settles, will come to terms that he wont have his father to watch him become a man, feel proud of his achievements, to congratulate him on his graduation and watch him fall in love and get married and so much more. The life of this officer has been taken away so violently and his family  left to deal with the loss for the rest of their lives.

He is not the only loss in this terror attack in Mumbai. There are 135(according to the news channels) other such deaths.

It fills me with anger, frustration and helplessness, that the family of these people lost a precious part of their life for a nation which is not going to remember it in a few days when elections will come under the category of breaking news.

The elections are coming up, we have a right to vote to choose who rules us. But what is one supposed to do when one is presented with such sorry choice for rulers. I do not want the Congress or the BJP or any one of the existing opportunists and money mongers. What does it take to wipe the slate clean and start fresh? Do any of you feel this helplessness and yearn for a system that demands educated, righteous, patriotic men to become politicians and resent being ruled by the kind of worms that have done so over years? 

Mumbai Liberated!! The headlines scream now. Is it really? Is India really? Will it ever be?

Red Tape August 20, 2008

The life we lead in India is an illusion. We don’t face reality, until we face red tape of government bureaucracy here. I had the misfortune recently for something as simple as shopping for something from an international website.

I hear and read everyday that investors are pouring into this country and new ventures of every sort are happening. But I wonder, how does anything get done here. There is something in the eyes of the man that holds the power to decide whether to allow you to have what is rightfully yours. The disgust I felt when I saw those greedy eyes lasted for days.

This country is only for those that speak with money? Is that why the middle-class is busy exporting them-self out of this country??

The Moment Of Truth August 20, 2008

   Have you ever stuffed your underwear while you were an underwear model??!!

I happened to watch the newest game show on reality TV, “The moment of Truth” yesterday. What an ingenious show!! It has money and scandal as its theme. People strapped to a lie detector answer to unbelievably personal questions in front of millions of people. Some truths they may not even acknowledge to them-self, but they bare it all in front of the camera and money and loads of self-righteous people as audience both live and otherwise. One can spend an hour judging the person on the chair.

Wonder, why the Indian television didn’t make an Indian version of this show already. After all game shows like “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” were adopted for the Indian scene in no time. Well, we Indians are more self- righteous than anyone else in the world. We don’t have sex here to make babies. We are holier than thou. The Moment of Truth will be an interesting experiment on the Indians I think. What say?

Haircuts and marriages July 16, 2008

I read somewhere that it does not matter whom you think you are marrying, the person who wakes up next to you the next morning will be a stranger.

The same goes for a haircut. No matter how beautiful the haircut looks in the salon, when you wake up the next morning it wont be what you ordered for!!

I got one today after a lot of nail biting. Waiting for the “next morning”!!

Human Maggots July 12, 2008

Maggots are flies actually, in their larval worm-like stage that feed on decaying organisms. What do maggots have in common in human, you ask? Here’s what they have in common..

People crave bad news, tell them the stories of misfortunes that happened in your life and they are listening enraptured, expressing words of consolation at regular intervals. They feed on your misery and feel important and think they are doing you a great service by listening to the story, all the while their mind thinking “Of course she deserved to have that happen to her.” .

And these are so called friends I am talking about. Tell them that you are happy, and they are no more interested in you. And send them pictures of your latest vacation to tell them what a great time you had and how happy and relaxed you are and they respond unenthusiastically with “Yeah, the pictures look good”. The same people who empathized on your grief would now empathize with your joy you think? Wrong, the minute you are over your misfortunes, you are not interesting to them anymore.

Now, don’t you think they have something in common with maggots?

Relationships and their ends… June 30, 2008

Dorris Lessing in her award winning novel “The Golden Notebook” wrote about the end of a relationship in the life of the protagonist Anna.I am unable to get it out of mind. The gist of it I share with you here, my unknown readers…Anna, is in a relationship with Micheal for many years. He is a married man. He likes having an offhand relationship with Anna, with no intentions of making it permanent. He comes to her often. Anna has many misgivings about this relationship. Micheal is not quite everything she looks for in a man. But for some reason she still accepts him as hers and gives her everything to this relationship. After many years of such a relationship, a day comes when he decides that he doesn’t want anything more to do with Anna. The passion is spent for him. Anna is heart broken. She looses the sense of security she had that came with having a man in her life. She walks home one evening from the tube station and realises that a strange man is  following her, which has been quite a common fare in London with her many times. But that day, after the relationship with Micheal is no more, this seemingly common incident strikes such a fear in her heart, she panics. She looses all her courage and trust in her ability to survive on her own in this world.

Some relationships do end and leave one feeling this way. Even though it was not the best of relationships, the emptiness and helplessness that follow are worse than the relationship itself.The truth in the authors words left me gasping for breath. Its a wonderful novel, it untangles many a web spun by the mind in the most interesting way.

The books stays with you long after you have exhausted the pages.Many insights follow, at seemingly unguarded moments, in the days after you have finished reading this book.

 Must read, if you haven’t already done so.

 

Mentally cooking June 18, 2008

I realised this about myself – I can cook only when I am happy!! I don’t say I don’t eat when I am down but the act of cooking is a creative process and the juices just don’t flow when I am feeling low.

Sarkar Raj June 9, 2008

I watched Sarkar Raj this weekend. The story that was being told was not bad; it was interesting. But the way the movie was made jarred my senses. The loud back-ground score was teriible. The Govinda Theme, sounded very so horrible on the loud dolby speakers, I sincerely wished I had a kilo of cotton in my handbag that I could stuff into my ears to keep this atrocious noise out.I even considered ripping the handbag’s lining to take the foam padding to plug my ears.

Then there were these wierd angles the camera man shot from, made me wonder if the movie was shot with a handheld camcorder. In the mob scenes the cameraman literally ran with the crowd the camera bobbing up and down giving me an acute ache in the eye. This movie will top the list of 1000 most visually uappealing movies. There is a scene in the hospital, where Big B walks in to see his hospitalised son, the camera focuses at big B’s feet walking in, his feet showing among the hospital couch’s legs(I sincerely doubt the cameraman’s sanity).

The performance of Amitabh Bachchan was indeed very good. Abhishek also carried his role well, although I will never understand why he was standing up instead of falling to the ground as soon as he realised that he is the target of a snipper(may be he didn’t have the time to watch English movies and figure out that that is the expected behaviour). But I feel he needs to change his tailor. All his expensive looking suits were badly cut. Aishwarya made her usual appearences in the movie. No one expects any acting from her by now. Shayaji Shinde licking his fingers and gobbling his food really conjures up disgust.

I won’t say anything about the editing, afterall the editor can only edit what come to his table. He cannot make miracles happen.

A good story that was carelessly made. Good taste and subtlety are not the words one can use to describe this movie. It could be the director’s contempt for his audiences after the bad reception of his recent movies and people did make unkind jokes about his Aag and all. Well, watch it if you must but don’t forget cotton ear plugs.

Cheers!!

A Cocktail With Beer June 2, 2008

I cannot absolutely stand the smell of beer and hence never took to it. This weekend saw a cocktail that made a decent drink out of Beer. 

For all those who like to experiment here’s how you make it…

In a mug filled with 3/4 th beer, top up with ginger ale.

There you go..it smells absolutely delightful.Enjoy ur drink. Cheers.

Bad Hair Year :( May 29, 2008

I believe that there is a bug that lives inside the head of every woman that wakes up at random and suggets that the host’s life cannot move further until she gets a haircut immediately.

I woke up one morning after this little insect in my head had brainwashed me even as I slept.What is a helpless woman supposed to do? Even though I had the most perfect hairstyle I have ever had, I was convinced that I need a change and a radically different look. My stagnant life it said,would move forward only after I get this absolutely necessary haircut.

And hence, after much thought about where to cut my hair and with the survey result of my friends experiences I settled on this well known salon near Forum and headed to it one beautiful Saturday evening. There I was sitting on the chair waiting for the professional to work his magic. Now, there are only 2 chairs which make me palpitate and give me an anxeity attack, one at the salon and the other the dentists chair and all for good reasons too( you dont know what I have gone through..you have no right to judge me!!!!).Well, there I was anxious, palm sweating, my heart beating in my ears.  I told him that I wanted short hair and voila!! after almost an hour I end up with an absolute birds nest on my head.The mess is too short with a lot of layers and it looked like a badly fitted wig on my head. Did I mention I have really thick hair  that would put Sathya Sai Baba hair style(if you can call it that) to shame if only mine was that curly. But thankfully it is just mildly wavy. But now with this hair-cut,  no length left to fix the mistake I have been suffering for the past year waiting for it to grow a few inches, so I can get a antidote for this disease. Have you seen the movies of yesteryears where the leads wear obvious wigs that sit on the head but refuse to co-operate at the back of the neck and just stick out badly..well thats how I look now. I have been gaped at, laughed at, sniggered at  in this past year.I took it all bravely , never shed a tear, bidding my time (bible did say something about some sweet fruit at the end of the bitter tunnel).And finally I have almost 2 inches more now. But still needs an inch or 2 before I can go in for the corrective surgery!!

And here I was patiently waiting for nature to take its course and the bug in my head woke up this morning goading me to check out the images on the internet if something can be done now..this instant.I hope I survive this weekend resisting temptation!!Well people, do send in ur suggestions(just in case!!i am not saying I will go this weekend) if you know a good salon in bangalore(I am definitely not going back to my previous one..and I have requested the lord to castrate the man who did this to me, ofcourse using his divine powers..I would’nt want God to handle such tasks using his hands… )