Oniomaniac Alert

Plan in leisure, repent in haste!

2009-11-19T19:35:00.003+05:30

The mall I was working in was one of the oldest in Dubai. (It’s even featured in a couple of Hindi movies back when Dubai was a cool place to be I guess) The customers were mostly Indian and I made atleast one friend a day. But now I’m in an office surrounded by people I don’t really have much in common with. But hopefully, once I understand what exactly it is that they wish me to do, things in general and this job in specific will become much more easier to live with.

What I love the most about my job is that I am truly amazed by my boss. He has impeccable product knowledge of books and book retailing as well as an amazing knack of handling people well. How can you not respect that?

Today I just got a batch of free books, ahh I feel like the dark clouds are lifting already! There I go, being in the here and now again, without a thought for the future. Aren’t reams and reams written telling people how to do that? And millions of people pay money to learn that as well. Well I'm really getting worried about how I'm never worried at all! I’d really like to see a book that says “Wake up you dolt, can’t you see your money and your life are passing you by while you sit around enjoying your immaturity!”

Even now that I’m earning here, all I can think of is how I finance a trip to Europe first. But maybe that’s why I took up this job; so I can finally travel the world and see the places I’ve dreamed of and even those that I’d never dreamed I’d see?

So I’ve spent my free time today calculating which city has the most cost-effective tickets from Dubai, Rome, Paris, London or Oslo. Paris it is! I can get return tickets for half my salary. Isn’t that awesome, I can probably spend the other half on food and hotels? Or will those be more expensive?

Any suggestions about where to go first? France or Italy or Greece or England or Spain or New York or Switzerland or Australia? God, so so so much to do and see. Can’t possibly do all of Europe together, that’ll be one helluva bank-breaking trip! So how should I break it up.? Write in with advice please.

And oh yes, please remember… this is money that I haven’t even earned yet! Joy oh joy!

Special mention to my dear dear Asha for whose wedding I will not be around in person. Truly sorry dear one but I wish you all the very best with everything. Big round of hugs all around!

All new or is it?

2009-11-13T04:46:00.005+05:30

Dubai is the ultimate commercial city. Everybody here talks about money... either about spending it, earning it or saving it. That's all anyone is interested in or wants to be. Nobody cares about your health or the crappy weather or the your crappy health because of the aforementioned crappy weather. All they care about is the size of your paycheck and how it compares to theirs, how much you can save in a month, how much you send back home (nearly everyone is an immigrant here) and other variations on the above themes.

I have answered these questions in the above forms and even in the extended bhangra and hip-hop versions so many times. And I thought Bombayiites were materialistic (do I havta take permission from Mr. Raj Thackeray to say the B-word too?)

Dubai is a cleaner, better-roaded, beggarless version of Bombay with hugely pompous-looking buildings. It's like the people here decided to do their version of 'mine's bigger than yours' with buildings. There must be some seriously under-equipped guys out here when you look at the way they're trying to overcompensate for their shortcomings (pun intended). And the funniest part is that most of these huge building still have some construction work going on that was interrupted by the recession and now have the additional baggage of a construction crane lofted atop their heads.

But its the sand which is the most interesting facet here. They've tried so hard to hide it... with loads of tubes running parallely to each other on the sidewalks (which have got to be the most unused sidewalks in the world!!!) These tubes irrigate the sand and half-hearted little clumps of grass and forcibly-flowering shrubs grow there. But there is a thin coating of sand over every part of the city and the visibility is so poor that you can't even see buildings that are just a road away. It's like a mist of nature reminding all us immigrants, "Remember you're in a desert, stay in your little A/C malls and cars and houses all day but I'll always be around you... waiting... till its my time..."

It's very hard for me to miss Bombay when the lit up roads and the ease of getting things of your doorstep and the Hindi-speaking cabbies exemplify Bombay for me everyday. I just think that my friends and family are just a holiday and will catch up with me soon...

Wonder what will it take for the realisation to hit me... more importantly, will I be left standing after the sudden impact?

Dark night, no knight in sight...

2008-11-27T00:46:00.003+05:30

Is this what it's all come down to? Till 6 hours ago I was reading all the reports of war in the online strategic war I was playing and now all around me people have TV sets on and they're all saying the same thing. It's almost like someone has started off a systematic attack against my own home.

Firing in 6 places, blasts in 4? God knows what's true and what isn't. I just know the images I saw of CST with blood everywhere, the shots I heard as Taj was being stormed in... Now I'm hearing rumours of a shooting in J W Marriott. People are dying all over the city just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But is there a right time or place at all in this dark night?

When will this madness end? Crazed people just firing at others who don't even know who they are, don't know what they stand for. What message are you sending across when the person dying for it doesn't know what it is?

Bombay is a city of people trying to work and living each day as it comes, but politicians keep making it an example and so do terrorists. We don't want to be examples anymore.... we just wanna live. Just let us die of old age.

A little push

2008-10-30T19:26:00.013+05:30

Sometimes all you need in life is a gentle little push from someone whom you know is not acting out of selfishness. Of course if it carries on for a while (in my case 5 mins or more) or it's my parents doing the talking... then it can be qualified as nagging. For others however, all you need is to hit rock-bottom... I think I am the latter. Read on see what I mean...

1. I've noticed how resistant I am to doing anything that requires will power. If you know me, you know what I'm talking about. I've never been able to go to any hobby classes, to the gym or even to a doc inspite of feeling really unwell all over. And inspite of parents, friends, AA, colleagues, and assorted people giving me gentle pushes, which were completely unselfish (how would me going to a doc benefit them?) I'm still unmoved!

2. My last relationship ended only after a completely traumatised me was faced with a threat to my nieces. That's when FINALLY there was some sanity in my life and a light was switched on at the end of that tunnel.

3. I'm heading back to my college days, and not in any good, acquiring knowledge kind of way. I'm beginning to be just as lazy and snobbish. I mostly never keep appointments if they're in the mornings; never take calls before 12; and don't let others fully finish sentences if i know what they're going to say. This inspite of knowing that my college years were my unhappiest years (I've rubbed off the memory of most of my school years... yes I was not a happy girl)

4. I saw Fashion the other day and could completely empathise with only 1 part of the entire movie. The part where Priyanka finally understands what a wreck she's become and goes crawling back to the one place where she will be enveloped into an oasis of calm... her parents. (Just for the record, it's not worth seeing the movie)

See what I mean? I'm definitely heading somewhere. But the point is, maybe I'm on my way up right now and the going down part is a long way off? Thankfully I will have my parents, my sister and (hopefully :) AA when the rock bottom stage finally hits me... That it will hit me, I am sure of. Though you people could try the gentle pushing thing a little harder maybe?

Here we go again

2008-09-11T20:27:00.007+05:30

I keep doing this, promising to be more frequent but then I didn't want to; primarily because all those promises were to myself. None of my friends would read this blog if I didn't force them to and if I'm writing to myself ; what's the point really? Idealists would say that the best audience is yourself, but I'm not one of those. I look for appreciation from outside and when I don't get it, it brings me down a bit.

The next problem was that I didn't know what to write about; I have lots of passions but not one single one that engulfs me. I love bollywood but I cannot write about it exclusively like she does; I love cooking and eating but I don't have half the passion about it that she does; I love fashion and styling but I'm nowhere compared to them.

This lack of writing material is especially obvious now; now that I have a great forum to bring forth my points of view...

In this one year; my whole world has literally been turned around. I have gotten a job in a newspaper that I've loved for as long as I could remember and I've been given the responsibility of an entire page where I write about society events; celebrities and assorted funnies. Do I love it? Abso-Fucking-Lutely as Mr Big in Sex and the City would say.

So in conclusion, I have a pretty good job, a pretty great guy, obedient parents and my health but being me means never being quite content. Right now my biggest gripe is not having friends; real true friends, people you can call at 4 in the morning because you can't fall asleep, people who'll be there for you if you ever just don't wanna go home till late one night; if you just have to watch a movie today.

No I'm not being selfish, I'd be there for them too. I'm the kind of person who'd go to the ends of the earth for a friend and I'm not trying to show off about this. I wish I really wasn't like this; I wish I was like all the assorted people I've met who think meeting up once a month for coffee is the ultimate friendly gesture.

And it's not like these awesome, mind-numbing friendships don't exist, they just don't happen to me. And I'm pretty convinced it's my fault, just wish I knew what to do...

A proverbial day in the life of...

2008-02-05T21:17:00.000+05:30

Yes, I am going to bore you with details... why? just because I can and well because 10 years down the line I want to remember what I used to do at this stage in my life.

Everyday I wake up at around 11 (yes, i love the luxury of that) and spend the time with myself, pottering about my house and room.

Nowadays, I am in the midst of messing up all my belongings with the firm faith that soon, an unforseen order will emerge from aforesaid chaos. That having been said, this clean-up is long overdue and is part of the very many resolutions made by me for this new year.

At around 1 I start getting ready for work, of course a lot of my time goes in just deciding what to wear. While i'll stand by my belief that I'm not a brand-conscious fashion plate, I (being as fat as i am) do love wearing things that I feel good in and for this I can spend most of my getting-ready time!

at 2 I'm out the door, making my way through congested Mumbai's over-crowded roads, trains and roads again (that's auto, train and cab) to my office.

At 3.30 I finally settle down to work, but my work actually begins at 6... In the meantime I can explore the beautiful blogland and marvel at the wonders all over the world!

I'm finally done at 10 and then, mentally exhausted, I trudge my weary way back home.

Sometimes, if i just can't sleep, i'm up till 4 just mindlessly watching TV. On an off-shoot, I often find mindless TV viewing relaxes me immensely whenever I'm too tired, too stressed out, too angry or upset. I wonder if that's healthy?!? Any views?

On most nights, however, I'm gently lulled to sleep with AA's voice in my ear.... and that's the best end to a day really... and here we go again!

My revamp plans

2008-02-04T17:50:00.000+05:30

As my resolution for the year, I am going to cover stuff about the city where I live and the city that I love more than myself! Mumbai, well, actually Bombay 'cos that's the name I'm accustomed to. Let's start off with a review of a restaurant I love going to...

Nando's at Inorbit Malad.

Let's get the negative stuff out of the way, it's set a little apart from the rest of the mall's food court but it's still pretty noisy; there's not a lot of variation in the menu; and veggies dont hav much choice. The desserts too are a no-go. You have the options of having a beer or wine with your meal but again, the choices are highly limited!

Now for the good part, the few choices they do have, they're very good at. They specialise in chicken and it has always been (and I've been there often) really well marinated.

Watch out for the rice as it may be on the dry side but as the service is good, you can point it out before you eat too much and get an exchange. The salads are good too and the few vegetarian options are a delight.

Of special mention are the wraps and burgers. Do not and I mean do not forget to order for the special Peri Peri (that's the spice they specialise in) lemonade - it's nothing special until you hit it with an extra dash for the special spice that's available on every table.

Everything here comes with the choice of either Extra Hot, Hot, Mild or Lemon and Herb spicing. I always opt for the extra hot sauce 'cos that's just me... but I have seen my sister and friends struggle with even the simple hot variant. So be extra careful when you order.

One of the best parts of this restaurant is that they even allow you to buy the sauces, which you can use as a marinade for chicken or vegetables back home!

Nando's Peri Peri restaurant
2nd Floor, Inorbit Mall, Malad
phone number - 28785252, 65733849

Just a line...

2008-02-01T21:20:00.000+05:30

Something I really liked because it's so true for me too.... thanks AA... for everything

Continual Happiness

2008-01-31T16:55:00.000+05:30

I've just discovered this group of women who have this communal blog called continual happiness.... and everyday they write about something that makes them happy, it could be something as simple as a sugared doughnut and as intense as meeting up with a mother whose been diagnosed with cancer.

This is where I discovered this quiz which is just so beautifully worded and asks some simple yet intense questions. Thank you so much Karen Beth for allowing me to put this on my blog

1. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I wanna travel all over the world but apart from the Romes and Paris' of the world, I really wanna see the Northern Lights or the Auroras.

2. When you were little, what did you want to do "when you grew up?" Are you doing it?

I wanted to be a writer... I'm working as an copy editor now and though Im still new at it, I think I can be good at this!

3. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Mint chocolate chip or swiss chocolate

4. What is your favorite color?
lavender and black

5. What do you love to do? What hobbies do you get caught up in?

I loooove to read so much, there have been days i have not eaten cos I was so busy reading, nowadays I get a lot of my fix reading blogs.

6. What is your favorite movie?

The Lake House and Taare Zameen Par

7. What do you think your life purpose is?
All I really want to do in life is to make a difference in somebody's life... so that people smile when they remember my name

8. What is the thing that brings you happiness on a DAILY basis?
My boyfriend, my family and my friends... It's funny how I realize that even though I try I never really tell my mom how much I appreciate being taken care of the way she takes care of me...

9. What is your favorite book?
Over here I'll put in two books that I consider above all others, while I love the others too, these two are just in a special place by themselves, Anne Frank's diary and July by Karen Roberts.

10. What is one thing you would like to try or do before you die?

What I really want to do and fantasise about doing is going to each of the 5 continents... Sigh...

Now please girls, A, E and J... copy paste this quiz on your blog and gimme the answers... im sure u can manage that? Try... really hard. And AA, please copy paste and put it in the comments page.. Id really love to see ur answers too.

Te Me Manque

2007-10-10T14:30:00.000+05:30

God, its been a long time now that I've written anything. Why? the same ol' reason... too much time spent on things that weren't too important. Of course, in the moment I must've thought they were the most imp things in the world but now I know better!

I'm working as hard as ever but I don't know where I'm going with my life. Have I made the right set of decisions and am I heading in the right decision... only time will tell. The kind of job changes I've made me endure haven't rung any bells in my head yet but it's still early days. There's so much to learn, so much to do, so many people to impress. I suddenly feel like a miscast, how I felt in high-school, all over again.

But that's something I learnt in Psychology all those years ago, if you surround yourself with people whom you want to be like... it will happen.

On an off note, the past year I've been loving, learning and spending a lot! but it's been one helluva ride and though I've lost out on being around friends all the time as I used to be... thankfully they're still making my life a better place.

So weigh in with how much you've missed me, what all you've done, what you think of my template and how much you love being alive!

p.s. the title of the post is French for I miss you... my french teacher had a very beautiful way of making us remember this phrase. If you notice the literal translation of this phrase to english would be You-I-Miss. so what she used to tell us that this is because I've missed you so much that I can't even think straight and you (te) come before anything else! nice eh? Don't think any of us forgot... Oh, and the chinese character underneath? It stands for love or so I hope...

I've amazed myself!!

2007-06-25T14:48:00.000+05:30

This friday... after coming back from a full day of work... i actually shopped for groceries and made pasta for myself!! For people accustomed to my laziness, this will come as a shock. And not only did i make a pasta .. with it I made a sauce very different from my usual pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce. I made it from spinach.. from scratch!!

How? Why? I don't really know... What I do know is that I have been reading a lot of food blogs especially one thats written by Joey and i love every bit of it... and I finally galvanized myself to do something about it...

Penne with Spinach and Capsicum (for one)

100 gms penne

20 spinach leaves

2 small capsicums

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

5 leaves of basil (tulsi)

olive oil, salt and pepper, chili powder to taste

Cook penne till al dente (this must be the first sentence of every pasta recipe no?)Make a coarse paste of the spinach and basil in a food processor. Take olive oil in a saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Saute till the onion turns pink and add the spinach paste. Add salt, pepper and chili powder to taste. Keep stirring till cooked (won't take too much time). Add the penne and toss. I add the capsicum at this point as I like the capsicum nice and crunchy. And ur done!!

Please let me know what u thot of my first food post... i really really wanna know!! This has been accepted by Ruth who writes Once upon a Feast for her Presto Pasta Nights!!! Yipppeeeeeeeee!! And it's gonna b part of this week's recipes!!

Birthday Weekend

2007-06-20T12:25:00.000+05:30

Hey there people!! long time no see eh? Yea i been busy... working... playing... getting conjunctivitis...and havin a lot of fun (not because of the 3rd point, but in general)

I really wanted to write this post to inform the general public and the people who read my blog about my birthday weekend. 2 days before my birthday is my sweetie's birthday and luckily for both of us, these dates fell over a weekend. We agonised a long time whether to go out somewhere this weekend and then ended up not going cos i wanted to spend some time with my family too.

His Birthday!!!
Friday i first had to rush to work cos an important meeting was s'posed to take place and it didnt!! I rushed from there and met AA at around 12 at Bandra. As he was still on his way when i reached there... I got him his favorite pastries from Biona along with 2 glasses of our favorite lemon iced tea.. yummm (or so i thot). Then we went to Bandstand where he cut the pastry while i sang for him. However, when we tried to drink the iced tea, there was some bug which liked the iced tea more than us... oh well.

We went to CCD, i drank cold choclate and he had the "lychee iced tea" the guy there was so dumb that he said the litchi iced tea wasnt available first... but when we showed him the menu entry written as Lychee Iced Tea, hes like.. oh sure!

Then we headed for a hair styling appointment at Nalini and Yasmin at waterfield road, Bandra. This was one of my gifts for anand cos Ive always wanted him to get a hair style and not just a cut at the local barber. He first refused saying that it was just gonna b a waste of time... but considering that we were in Bandra about 1 hr before the appointment.. he decided to try it out. And it was a successfull decision. His hair looks quite same as before but the cutting is so uniform and well done. I had a hair cut too... put in layers that apparently look really good. *blush blush*

After that... we headed on to infinity where we got tickets for JBJ in the red lounge. In the mean time, we went out for lunch at Little Italy, we had farmer's bread with vegetables soaked in vinegar and olive oil, followed with canneloni and pasta with garlic basil sauce with lots of veggies. This was accompanied with 2 glasses of Cabernet (red wine). The whole meal was so yummy and so so so filling.

Then we headed on to see the movie... we snuggled up on the amazing red couches (were hampered a bit by the immense arm-rests in the middle) but we enjoyed the movie!! Then he dropped me off till home and went back home himself... It was a beautiful day!

My Birthday!!!

My birthday started off on a very grey note cos Indra started his show in full earnest but still v ventured out and met at around 12.30.. He wore a Blazer for me!!!!!!!!! We roamed around in andheri for a while and then went for lunch to Tian - a japanese restaurant at Juhu.

We had sushi, i know wat ur thinkin but sushi doesnt mean raw fish... thats sashimi.. we had cooked prawns, chicken and veg sushi. There was an amazingly spicy and pungent mustard sauce with the sushi which is called the Wasabi ... it was just so amazing!! The sticky rice that goes with the sushi put us off a bit.. but atleast i can say that I've had sushi in a snooty way... HA HA! This was accompanied with grilled shrimp that was yummy and we drank traditional Japanese Rice Wine or Sake.

We then again headed to infinity where Anand told me he was going to the loo and then he gave me a call... tellin me to go to landmark (a bookstore at infinity), then he called me and told me to look in my bag where he had hid a token from Landmark's baggage counter. When i gave it to the security incharge, he gave me my gift, The last Mughal - a book i have been wanting to read for quite a while!! and there Anand was waiting outside the door for his thank u hug!!

Then we went to see Ocean's 13.. since it was my birthday... i got to see a movie where i got to do the drooling!

After this... we went to Kandivli for the ultimate highlight, Anand and I had dinner with my parents!!! Authentic Malwani Seafood at a restaurant called Malvan Havsar. It was really yummy food where everybody was really nice to each other and everybody had fun.. o it was the greatest birthday iv ever had!! God bless everyone :)

Weddings on my mind

2007-05-10T13:47:00.000+05:30

Not mine... well maybe mine too... but what kickstarted this thought was the marriage of my childhood friend. Someone who was my best friend ever since the fourth standard. Like all school friends, I was not in touch with her the way I should have been. Lots of excuses, not enough reasons. But over the last week or so I got to observe her as she handled life as an engaged woman and to-be wife and finally being the blushing bride.

Life seems to have asserted its quickness overnight. A girl who I saw in pigtails with a purple water bottle has made the decision of a lifetime and is ready to face the world as a woman. It makes me realize how immature I still am, how lightly I'm taking life and most importantly, how old I've become.

There are weddings going on everywhere nowadays, its the wedding season they say. But what really amazes me is how much parents look forward to their daughter's wedding and how that day must be so bittersweet because knowing our Indian society, giving away the daughter comes with so many hurtful thoughts. Never eating at the daughter's house, the daughter never having the same surname again... sometimes not even having the same name anymore.

I also read this other blog where a homosexual talks about how he knows he will never stand with the person he loves and get blessings from his parents. His cousins, uncles and aunts will never celebrate his marriage. He wil never experience those feelings.

On the other hand there is me... I just cannot understand whether having that kind of traditional wedding is really worth it or not. I have seen the turbulence at my sister's and cuz' weddings... iv also experienced (second hand) my office friend's traumatic 1st wedded day. But now i've seen my best friend's wedding where everybody was all smiles and full of love.

Then again I realize that I have the chance of celebrating my love for Anand in front of the whole world and I should just take it!! It's just gonna be a one-off thing anyway but i still refuse to invite all my extended family... it may be rude.. but its gonna be my way at least ;)

But on the other hand there is a small question I want answered... Where does marriage fit into the life nowadays? Does it come in if you're not satisfied with what you do? or is it something people turn to to combat their loneliness? Why is settling down equated with settling for something that is just not good enough? Why is it a bad thing to wait and see when love will come your way?

All I know is this, I was really lonely after my last relationship was destroyed and I had decided to be alone for a while. When I left myself in God's hands and told him I accepted his wishes for my life... he sent me Anand as his special miracle. May God bless everyone who is getting married with many decades of love, joy and miracles. Especially you Tmitu.

more photographs

2007-04-19T11:53:00.000+05:30

The mist coming in on Coaker's walk... it was so beautiful....

The tribal village seen from Coaker's walk in Kodaikanal...

The great food at Rice and Spice.... and a bad experience with gooey and icky passion fruit...

The misty lake in the evening at 6.20 (special edit by the photographer :)... guess wat... v were in a shikara seeing all this around us... envy me people!!! :)

This is the lake and Kodai city from the upper lake view point....

And this is the beautiful view of the hill range to the left of Kodai city (yes i had to check the right and left directions before i wrote it down :)

This foto was acquired from a photographer's camera and then transferred... it is the view of the four pillar rocks... Again... Beautiful!!!

And now it's time for an opinion poll for the few people who read this blog... which of these fotos is better?? a or b?

botanical garden in ooty...

2007-04-17T12:25:00.000+05:30

The botanical garden in ooty .....

kodai and ooty trip part 1

2007-04-16T16:55:00.000+05:30

First mumbai to coimbatore by air costs around 7000 for a couple (by air deccan which sucks sucks ... SUCKS!!!) jet is around 9000 (MUCH BETTER OPTION). Take the flight that leaves at 8 and reaches at 10.30, and take a car upto kodai. This will cost 2000 for an non-ac indica… with ac it will cost 2400. The other option is to go to madurai but u can only get there via Chennai so its 2 separate flights. Kodai is much closer to madurai though.

In kodai, we stayed at j.c.residency, , it is a bit cut off from the rest of the city but is a very nice and comfy place to live in. it has all the luxuries u mite look for. Kodai is a very small town and the best thing to do is to keep a couple of taxi wala guys fone number handy, I have some and will pass them on to u if ur defi going :)

The best place to eat there is “rice and spice” very near the hilltop towers, have the appams and iddiappams there every evening, the waiters are so sweet and enthu there!! They also hav non-veg stuff there but u can easily avoid that… also be careful u don’t eat any parathas or parottas there because those are not the real parathas but actually a bhaji made of rotis, vegetables and onions!!! The food at j.c.residency is also very good!!

Hire a taxi to take u siteseeing around kodai for a day and go especially to the green valley view point to do ur shopping for spices, oils and a special kind of bath scrub which is made of amazing herbs and smells so goooooooood that u will go crazy!!
Carry woollens with u no matter when u go!! a cuple of heavy woolens in summer and artic kind clothing in winter (im guessing)... i was freezing even with a sweater and a shawl!!!!!!! thank god for my mom who advised me to carry a couple of sweaters just in case.

The lake is a great and beautiful place to be.. they even have wannabe shikaras which even has fake flowers for the all out kitschy effect!!! One more place that has to be seen is the pine forest which is so so soooooooo beautiful!! Do not go to any of the cheapo chaadar badli hotels around there which even have horrible muddy water in the taps!!!!

Working hard!!

2007-01-19T13:39:00.000+05:30

Working on weekends....
late nights...
no time to meet friends...
no sleep...
and absolutely no time for me!!

this has been a hectic time for me ... as the above will show. but funnily enough i love it .. im doin things which challenge me and im learning new things everyday... hopefully my writing is improving as a result of this change..

I saw guru a cupla days back .. the problem with writing reviews is that ur pretty sure that everything that cudve been said ... has been said ... u know how that goes dont u?

but all in all . i liked it .. maybe im just prejudiced against the lead actors.. u know who they are.. abhishek (do i have a bread or dont i) bachchan and aishwarya (omigod i didnt giggle even once in this movie) rai. I really loved the direction and the way ratnam has used the supporting cast .. the climate, the lighting... everything has played their part well!!

one thing more i wud like to write about is the lunch i had with my best friend Eisha at Mainland China.. oo it was scrumptious.. v had steamed dumplings.. and tsing hoi chicken and amazing steamed vegetables and ended off with the rightly famous honey noodles ... click here for related photos

life is so good at throwing u curveballs na? just when u think everythin is settling down a bit around u .. somebody comes along and stirs up everything so badly.. just pray for the settling .. my friends ...

Shifting life

2006-11-27T13:06:00.000+05:30

Im putting up images of funny signs cos thats wat my new job is all about ... editing!! finding things wrong in what others have done... WOW!! dream job eh?? i think im gonna love it!!

I know Eisha, u hate the factoriness and the un-emailness here... but god help me ... theres no miss scatty and oh the difference to me!! (just wanted to give a link to one of my fav poems, no reference or context or hidden meanings here!!)

i had no computer for 3 days and no work till now but its early days yet... im pretty sure the work here will b brutal too but life seems so much easier here for the ppl who r workin here already.... and of course.... lets not forget the food!!

this place has got everything! from 1000 bucks a person type restaurants to amazing chaat stalls... cant wait to explore the place... especially since its so pleasant to go for walks around here!!
even the canteen here is so diff from our earlier one... great food at a great price.. of course the ppl over here think its so-so... but ask us deprived souls who used to see 2 slices of watermelon being sold for 15 bucks!!

and now i hav a question to ask.... and im not fishing for compliments here ... just think of starting off an off-shoot online where i wud just put up my fictional writing... wat do u think??

Please gimme your unbiased opinion.... bye for now!!

What's up?

2006-10-19T13:30:00.000+05:30

Hello people (that is if anyone reads this other than eisha and josy who i will force and of course Anand... the biggest reason im back here)

yes .. since no one has missed me .. lemme tell u that its been exactly 2 months and 5 days that i havent written anythin here ... its been a long and horrible time for me... my bosses discovered that i didnt hav any work an put me to work on a project that i dont think i will ever recover from!!

of course i cud given u long and winded examples of how horrible the project was and of all the ways it got more and more convulated each day .. but whats the fun in that?? no actually i think it cud b pretty funny.. so lemme tell u of instances where we have new content coming in for a project which is going to be delivered the next day.

we have to work wit software which plays around wit itself so much that everytime we publish it v dont know which page will pop up when the next button is pressed!!

but all's well at this moment and thats y im writing... i think writing about it will help me survive it... and maybe a couple of years down the line i cud even laugh about the fact that i managed in a project that was so well-managed (sarcasm here)

however.. this project has also brought to my attention the fact that my blog has been read by my boss... or so she mentioned in passing when i told her that im quittin!!

yes .. u did read right .. iv quit my job .. true freedom is mine at last .. or will be for about 2 days ... cos 2 days after i quit .. i havta join another company... how will it be .. i dunno.. just hope the whole frying pan and fire cliche doesnt come true...

im thinking that my time to be happy might just b back ... my personal rough patches are also getting smoothened down by Him and tho the scars remain .. hopefully it will make us stronger... so heres to the future in more ways than one.

2006-08-02T18:59:00.000+05:30

The Lion Sleep Tonight

something to make every one smile :)

notice how exasperated the doggy makes the hippo?

by the way .. no one better disagree .. I claim the title of singing hippo to be mine!!

Travel the world with me....

2006-07-26T16:30:00.000+05:30

There is so much to explore in this world ... so much to experience and so much to see... this my dream list .. lets start off on a geographic tone ... and start from the north!!

the Northern Lights - science says that when the high-energy charged particles given off by the sun collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow. These are the Auroras. But in Finnish they are called "revontulet", which means "fox fires" a name derived from an ancient fable of the arctic fox starting fires. They are so beautiful ...

Then we will talk of the Ngorongoro crater ... nice name huh? It's the eighth wonder of the world and is around 8,300 sq km big, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania has volcanoes, waterfalls and forests which are home to animals which are extinct elsewhere and to the Maasai tribe.

we'll come home to Mt. Everest then .. the tallest mountain in the world ... the high of being somewhere where ur looking down at everyone (literally) must be very exhilarating!! However not many ppl know that the the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench, is so deep that Everest would have more than 2 km of water over it.

The deep reminds me of the Russian Lake Baikal, which is the largest and deepest fresh-water lake in the world. It harbors more species of plants and animals and is fed by 336 rivers and streams.

And streams reminds me of the highest "streams" ever .. the Zambian Victoria Falls. It is the ultimate outdoor experience.. it has rafting, bungeeing, canoeing, and the bestest is the amazing wildlife safaris!!

From water to land ... the Ayer Rock or Uluru is considered the largest monolith in the world. Made of sandstone, Uluru is amazing at sunset, when its color appears to change from red to purple. About 70 million years ago it was an island in a large lake.

From a rocky place to the "crocky" place, The Everglades National Park in Florida. It is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles exist side by side. Today, however, the water is diverted for human needs like drinking water and irrigation. The park is under threat... so go see it before it disappears...

And now we wander to a place where the only water u'll see will be a mirage (a trick that your eyes play on you), The african Sahara desert. However, it wasn't always like that, once water was quite abundant in the Sahara. Fossils, bone harpoons, and shells have been found near remains of giraffe, elephant, buffalo, antelopes, rhinoceros, and fish.

from hardly any water to under-water ... The Great Barrier Reef.. this is the best way to experience it!! hopefully it'll stay that way by the time i get to see it ....

That brings us to the Amazon Rainforest, which is made up of rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. The Amazon river's daily freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City's freshwater needs for nine years.

and last comes Arizona's Grand Canyon which is a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado river. It must be so amazing to look at the gentle force of nature ... that somehow and someday, time will find a way...

2006-07-21T10:17:00.000+05:30

Jon Stewart's Post 911 Speech

One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a sign by his feet, that read: "I am blind, please help." A creative publicist was walking by the blind man and stopped to observe that the man only had a few coins in his hat. He put a few of his own coins in the hat, and without stopping to ask for permission, took the sign, turned it around, and wrote a new message. He then placed the sign by the feet of the blind man, and left. Later that afternoon the creative publicist returned by the blind man and noticed that his hat was almost completely full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was him who had changed his sign? He also wanted to know what the man wrote on it? The publicist replied: "I just changed your message so people could relate to it." He wished the man well, said goodbye, and went on his way.

The blind man didn't know it, but his new sign now read:

"TODAY IS SPRING AND I CANNOT SEE IT"

Why don't we have people seeing the horror for what it was and help us get through it rather than pat our spirits and move on wit their lives. Instead of supporting us, they block our blogs!! instead of giving the victims monetary support wr is wondering if the employees who died left before time... GOD bless us all... Everyone!!

blockin blogs???????

2006-07-18T12:31:00.000+05:30

today i felt like someone had cut off my oxygen line when i was 5000 ft below sea level ... treading water ... why u may ask...

that is because india's govt. has banned blogging sites like blogspot.com.. can u imagine???? this is supposed to be a democratic country!! they say it is to stop terrorists from interacting thro blogs ... but shudnt the "intelligence of this country"find out who r these specific blogs and who r the ppl accessing them rather than putting such a blanket ban on all things bloggy ...

ppl like me who just use the blog as a way of travelling the world or showing my friends whats happenin in my life shudnt b punished costhe intelligence thinks it cant handle blogs .... sowhat r they gonna do exactly .. read thru each and every blog in the world ????

yes granted that terrorism shud b fought at eachand every level.. butnot at thecost ofour freedom ...do u really want to alienate and anti-socializethe very law abiding citizens who make up ur city?? it is blog-happy ppl likeus who were killed on the 11th ....it is uswho rusing bloggingas a way to deal with the trauma and anguish we r going thro... plz let us survive the best way v know how ...give us today our daily blog...

Mumbai's spirit or Nowhere Left to Go?

2006-07-17T14:46:00.000+05:30

This world is crumbling around all of us ... and all we can do is hope that the next boulder doesnt crush us under it ...we hear all these horror stories ... the rains, the unruly overgrown and not-so-innocent childish crazies called the Sainiks and now the blasts.

We can only hope that soon the world is taken over by people who dont care about boundaries and what religion is practised ... maybe i hope that the world shud b taken over by women?? maybe we shud b given a chance to work on this world ... after all we believe in hope and not just the hope diamond. back to the main topic however, im really left with just one question ... isnt it obvios to anyone except me that all the politicians r defi involved??

killing everyday ppl doesnt really make a diff to the govt or havent the terrorists noticed ... they just shrug off the deaths .. announce money rewards (how much can that help?) and then go back to their normal routine of bribery and corruption. isnt that wat happened after the last blasts and the rains last year as well? and one thing all politicians just have to do is praise our spirit??

stop patronizing our spirit .. we just r left wit no choice!! u think any sane person wud want to board a train ever again? v dont wanna ... v havta!! we dont want to see our children or nieces grow up in a world where murderers, rapists and terrorists go scot-free!! what can v do? v pray ... that the bus or train we r getting in doesnt hav anything left behind .. that no one hijacks our plane or puts fire to our bus ... just for the fun of it ... the only thing protecting us is plain old luck...

iv been thinking how imp luck is ... if it hadnt been for the bus service we started ... me and eisha mite have been in the train that day. there are stories of luck everyday in the paper nowadays ... people who missed the unlucky trains cos they got late at work ... people who got off at an earlier stop than usual cos of some work they suddenly remembered ... the list goes on and on ...

All this reminds me of this story written by one of my favorite authors, Roald Dahl. He had been a pilot with the Royal Air Force in the U.K. and hes written about this one time he was flying a bomber plane .... try to imagine as u read this ...
I'm flying above all these little towns and villages... shud i turn left or right? whose life shud i change wit the next bomb? and whose shud i save?? no human shud b makin those choices ... isnt that for the life-giver to decide?

2006-07-17T11:25:00.000+05:30

Fall of Berlin Wall - 1989

This is a pre-cursor to my post about Berlin-- world's best city no.12.
This shows one of the big landmarks in world history, the breaking down of the world's worst man-made boundary.
A wall that cut through families and friends. A wall that made fun-filled lives incomplete and miserable. A wall that was raised by men who could not have been raised as humans.
Imagine being killed for wanting to be with ur family.

Ramble...Ramble...

2006-07-06T12:11:00.000+05:30

i think every blog iv ever visited has a post called general ramblings .... that just go on and on about nothing in general. however, my blog has till now been about my life, the people iv met, the places iv been to and the various experiences iv had. how much is it relevant to others, i dont really know. i write primarily for my friends and myself ... and cos i wanna get into the habit of writing for writing's sake.

there r ppl who say that writing is a very cathartic and therapeutic experience (content development is what we need catharsis from) i just need to write things down cos there is so much always going on in my head and i just need to get it out. now lets get down to business shall v?

i had so much fun on andoo's b'day and mine ... they're just 2 days apart so v tried a lot to give quality time to each other .. tho he did get disappointed cos on my b'day i wasnt around for very long .. but its very heart warming to see someone get upset cos u cant spend enuf time wit them... v saw hera pheri and hated it ... v went to thai lotus and loved it .. we sat and talked about everything and nothing and it was one of the best days of my life... im sooo thankful to hav a friend wit whom i can talk and talk and talk and not bore or get bored!! and the best part is that im gonna spend my life wit him!

on a more sombry note... i just lost my dog cos of old age ... and i was surprised at how many people hav gone thro this anguish and how many people understand when ur in the numbed-out stage ... to all the ppl who stood by me ... i will not thank u but trust me i will always pray for u and ur doggies (if u hav had any)

now gettin un-sombry... i tried out pandora, flickr, youtube and flickster.. all of them techie things which iv enjoyed exploring!!! its nice to customise ur blog so that there is something diff in it.. tho im still trying to get a bigger template ... (andoo help!!) but that cant b worked on much cos iv been given a lot of work suddenly so iv been outta circulation on the blogging front... iv been havin a really tough fortnight or so .. horrible deadlines ... i am told to do stuff that had to b delivered y'day!! reona sent me a postcard ... really cool na?? i hav the reply all ready and stuff but i havnt been able to mail her ... bad bad me!! o well ... i hope i remember when i can do something about it ... more rambles for later ... tata

Goa Part 2

2006-06-29T16:50:00.000+05:30

the second day we headed on to the chapel of francis xavier (where his body is) and saw the cathedral next to it too ... beautiful old churches .. wish someone wud restore them!! then we headed on to the next religious destinations namely the mangeshi and shantadurga temples (astonishing the number of temples in a place so dominantly catholic).

Then came the only so-called disappointment of the trip cos when we reached the state-owned spice gardens which were closed cos of the rains. but it was all ok cos v got more time to spend over our next seafood oriented meal!!

and then we headed to "ancestral goa" where they hav recreated old goa and the way they used to live in portuguese times.. thats all good but they hav put these amazing robotic women as guides who rattle off recorded gems like "in earlier times there were no newspapers so there used to be a khabri who wud go from village to village telling latest news" but to be fair, they had tried to recreate it as authentically as they cud!!

then v got on a sea cruise which was also s'posed to have folk dances but mostly there were horribly unfit people dancing vulgarly to latest himesh yuckiya songs... but we stayed on the lower deck where there was no one .. just us and the sea !! and we got our feet wet in the rain that was splashing in from the sides ... it was sooo amazing!!

then we headed to colva beach and watched 2 goa ppl fishing for fishies which had been caught in the sea current an brought into the shallow pools made along the beach.

we ended off our second day in goa by going shoppin for i love goa tees and found a beautiful flower market right in the middle of a dense marketplace!! and retired back amazed by all the discoveries of this day..

the last day was just caught up with getting ready to get to the airport on time and i got a huge reality check wit mrs.scatty's fone call!! but all's well ... i went to goa didnt i?????

and now i have a dream ... a dream to go back to beautiful, green, romantic, unapologetic and truly content Goa.

kool video

2006-06-29T15:34:00.000+05:30

Beach in Goa

its a beautiful video so i thot i shud share it ...

1st part of GOA

2006-06-29T15:16:00.000+05:30

Goa!! so many words that can be used to describe it .. but none of them will be as beautiful as goa really was. Iv never been there before, even tho i just live 12 road-hrs away. and it happened so so suddenly!!

it just happened that anand was gonna b in goa on a weekend ... and my family has been going through a specially hard time recently and i thot of askin my mom to come along with me for a vacation to goa and she agreed !!! so there i was vacationing wit my mom and boy friend.. wat an european thot na?

the trip there was terrible, we had sleeper seats on the bus which didnt allow us to even sit up ... and thats how we spent 16 looooooong hours. but then we reached goa finally and i caught a view of the sea... we reached hotel delmon where anand was and freshened up and went in search of a new hotel ...why? cos delmon was in the heart of the city and all we cud see was lots of cashew and wine shops ...

after a lot of searching and examining, we finally settled on hotel swimsea ... which had a beautiful view and was affordable too!! then came another round of searching ... this time for a place to eat... cos it was 3.30 and all goan restaurants close at 3 there!! so here we were in panjim - the seafood and malwan food capital and u know where we ate? Delhi Darbar!! we made sure this mistake was not repeated again however ... we feasted on amazing seafood every time after that!!

then we headed on to the following beaches: vagator - where we stood on the rocks and felt the waves on us !!

anjuna - where bargaining is an art

calangute - which is horribly crowded and completely beautiful... it also has a janpath-like shopping stretch there!! after this we went to a hanuman mandir and then headed home.

A fresh sea food dinner later... we ended our first day here...

It was my birthday !!!!

2006-06-19T12:50:00.000+05:30

i know u'll r probably thinkin ... thats a nice way of forcing ppl to wish u ... but what the heck .. its just gonna happen once a year ... so just bear wit me !! i love my birthdays and love celebrating it wit ppl i love and care about ... and very frankly speaking .. god has really blessed me wit so much this year ... beautiful friendships ... a stable and boring job which leaves me wit enuf time to blog and most importantly a wonderful and amazing relationship which is gonna last for all eternity :)

so in some ways i am loathe to part with this 23rd yr of my life but i know that the comin years will bring so so much more. there is so much left for me (and anand) to explore and discover ... maybe i shud provide a recap of this year .... on my last birthday i decided to leave crossword ... i was sick of all those number oriented people who had me hate my life cos i wanted those books to be treated with respect and love.

by july i had left and was giving interviews where i chanced upon niit who offered me this cushy non-working job :) -- well the deadlines r terrible sometimes but wit the friends (anusha, eisha, josie) iv found here id gladly fight a thousand wars !!

i also met friends like aparna, bhaskar and kim cos of going solo and i re-discovered matheran :) thanks for being such amazing friends ... and appi again im sorry for being the mental case i am and i truly sorry for hurting u !!

and then i was sent to delhi where i met anand ... all thanks to my outgoing nature and friendly disposition which made me introduce myself to him just cos id seen him in office a few times ... well actually it was more like being terrified of being alone and needing somebody who wud hear me if i needed to yell help ... hehehehe ... but i cud never hav imagined the way v wud b able to bond and chatter ...
i wish i cud thank u in the way i shud but let this also be said .. thanks for being there thro all the fun and hard times ... uv been an amazing friend and even better fiance!!
i discovered delhi which id always hated and i hav now so many beautiful memories of that place... of my bootcamp buddies and the places i visited and our hostel ... all of them wonderful in their own way!!

i hav explored so much of bombay .. theres still so much left !! iv found many wunnerful eating joints and shoppin places .. i discovered the beauties of nashik ... and one of the most important discoveries iv made is that my parents are fun people and id forgotten that because of the fog around my head that crossword had created .... and to all my friends who i gave up on cos of crossword .. i am truly sorry for being so very cut off!!

this year however has changed everything so much that i just wanna scream and say .... HEY WORLD !!! IM BACK AND IM IN LOVE AND THATS THE WAY IT'S GONNA STAY !!!

2006-06-08T10:20:00.000+05:30

Paathshaala

and now my fav song !!!! its the initial thrill of something new so plz humor me ppl ... andoo .. im so excited !!!

2006-06-08T10:18:00.000+05:30

love this scene so much !!!

hey people .. iv done it .. added something new ... im learning so much techie stuff and wonder of wonders it doesnt bore me at all ...

maybe thats only cos im only dealing wit the end product and not wit the detailing that is involved in the process ... o i dunno ... can someone plz explain y i hate formatting in ppts but i love adding custom animations and tweaking it ?

soo many questions and not enuf answers !!!

Shudder !!!

2006-06-07T16:32:00.000+05:30

hey people im just writing in while i take a break from my work .... just needed a sounding board i guess !! yesterday i experienced something that i cudnt believe was happenin to me!! it was the most vile, scary, horrifying and faith-shattering experience iv had in a loooooong time !!

There was a cockroach in my auto !!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ... if theres anything i hate more that britney spears, miss screechy and mrknowitall combined .. its insects and reptiles!!! and i hate cockroaches furthermore cos of their supposed indestructibility !!!!

and now im scarred for life .. i will never look at another auto with the trust i accorded them earlier !!!

so temme ... is this illogical or r those beastly visitors from hell a.k.a. cockroaches (anyone remember the villian in mib2) really worthy of shivering in skirt- horror !!??!!

o also .. i might have a new pen pal soon .. and so in honor of u reona ... the footie pics !! hope u enjoy them as much as i enjoy ur blog!!

Beware... New Orleans is no.13 !!

2006-06-05T13:36:00.000+05:30

First the scariest .... This city is mostly one to ten feet (0.3 to 3 m) below sea level. Only 45% of the city is above sea level!!! do u really wonder why katrina affected this place so bad. remind ppl of something??

The names of New ohleenz are "Crescent City" which refers to the course of the Mississippi River around the city; its called "The Big Easy" cos its easy finding work here; and "The City that Care Forgot" refers to the carefree nature of the residents. New Orleans has always been a major place for music with its intertwined European, Latin American, and African-American cultures.

Greater New Orleans has many major attractions, from the world-renowned Bourbon Street, St. Charles Avenue, and many stately 19th century mansions. The most imp however, is the French Quarter (known locally as "the Quarter"), which dates from the French eras. Over here, people walking down the street without a drink in their hands seem out of place. You never have to walk more than a few blocks to find a voodoo shop. Other notable tourist attractions in the quarter include Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral which is the oldest cathedral in the U.S., the French Market (including the Café du Monde, famous for café au lait and beignets), and Preservation Hall.

Many people have contributed to the uniqueness of N.O. : the French and Spanish, Cajuns, Creoles, and free people of color. But New Orleans has also been a hangout for pirates, slave traders, and rogues. So many gruesome murders, infamous suicides, executions have happened here. Therefore, little surprise that many of the buildings here are said to be haunted. Eisha… can’t wait to go there right?

Near the French Quarter is the old New Orleans Mint, which is now a museum. The Natchez is an authentic steamboat with a calliope which tours the Mississippi twice daily.
Art museums in the city include the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in City Park and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. New Orleans is also noted for its beautiful cemeteries. Because of the high water level here, the graves are placed in tombs above the ground making up the “cities of the dead”.

The city is also world-famous for its food. Specialties include beignets, square-shaped fried pastries that are sometimes called French doughnuts (served with coffee and chicory "au lait"); Po'boy and Italian Muffaletta sandwiches; Gulf oysters on the half-shell and other seafoods; etouffee, jambalaya, gumbo, and other Creole dishes; and the Monday evening favorite of red beans and rice. (Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, "red beans and ricely yours.")

the most yucky part is that they eat alligator there!!! check out the accompanying pic!!

am adding in the relevant pics alag se .... plz comment and also click on the ad wala link !!

new ohleenz .. contd

2006-06-05T13:29:00.000+05:30

cute looking pirates ...
cities of the dead ... where they hav tombs instead of graves ... with proper little rooms which are exquisitely decorated !!!
another file pic of bourbon pic .. wat file u ask ... my new orleans file on my comp of course !!
these are the very famos beignets ... read my posts to understand !!

pics of new orleans

2006-06-05T13:27:00.000+05:30

Plz excuse me folks .... am havin probs adding pics to my blogs ... the 1st is a pic of jambalaya (the cajun dish)
the pirates here are very famos.....
st.louis cathedral
bourbon street ...

here v go again ....

2006-05-29T11:24:00.000+05:30

iv had a very long and eventful life... even tho im just 23!! iv had stalkers, obsessive people, bad friends, badder friends and horrible friends.

the worst i think r the hackers.... some of my good and normal friends, especially those who've been around for a while like smita and asha for example.... have been witness to the many times my email has been hacked into or been deleted completely .. i used to have a web site in the good old days and even that wasn't spared ...

and now its happened all over again ... my orkut profile has been completely and totally removed .. without any rhyme or reason ... my bad karma has struck again ... me and the internet hav a 36 ka aakda i think :( .. hopefully, getting married to a techie might help ;)

overall ... iv been havin an uneventful life, iv held out a friendly hand to someone who i was in a cold war with.... my office has shifted to another place and i havent gotten much time to post here :( .... i cant wait for the 5th .. cos that spells freedom for me and anand ... hurrah ... june also brings along our birthdays .... MY BIRTHDAY IS ON THE 17TH !!! PLZ REMEMBER !!!

i saw a series of unfortunate events finally ... and finally i was disappointed ... and i cud say the same for fanaa as well ... cos id been waitin forever to see it and blah .. was i let down !!!! the only good part was the company i had ;)

someone has anonymously commented on my blog .. wish i knew who it was so i cud thank him :) ... god bless everyone who reads what iv written .. whether u like it or not .. does anybody know why im being so nice .. i'll tell u ... I DONT WANNA UPSET ANYONE NO MORE !!! duh !!

And now for a goodwill gesture -- My style (less fattening) Chocolate Soda

Get a tall glass.
Spoon 1 inch of Chocolate Syrup into the glass.
Add 1 inch of milk over the syrup.
Pour in soda making a nice foamy head to top of the glass. The foam will turn an egg-white color.
Stir vigorously with a long spoon to mix the chocolate and milk into the foam.
Enjoy the true experience by sipping it slowly with a long straw. Use the straw to stir in between sips.
MOST IMP !!! Allow yourself to make sipping noise with the straw as you clean up the foam around the edge of the glass.

My life in Popomundo

2006-05-16T09:58:00.000+05:30

There is this amazing site that iv mentioned before called Popomundo. It basically allows you to live the life of a popstar. u have to do the following while makin sure that ur characters mood and health dont go so down that they land in hospital...
get ur character a job,
make them form a group,
write them songs,
make them practise their songs,
arrange their concerts,
make them practise skills like singing and showmanship etc,
record albums,
make videos and god knows what not!!!

and along with all this u can get tattoos, spray graffiti, become a detective and read other people's dairies, become paparazzi, own companies, stores, clubs, run in elections, become a criminal, arrest a criminal, fall in love, make out and hav children out of wedlock.. get the man u think is the dad to get a paternity test, travel around the world for a world tour, and make a lot of friends !!!!

sounds kool na .. now lemme tell u why im talkin bout all this !!! cos i wrote this article as my popomundo-version -- Toya Mauldin and even tho they hav editors and all there ... IT GOT PUBLISHED !!! here it is people !!! i will explain all the parts u find confusing .. so just ask me what u need to know !!!

My life in Popomundo

Hey Popo people!! Though it's been a long time since I've been trying to make it in New York, I stay depressed!! What can I say... every small thing affects me!!

If my band mate doesn’t talk to me, or I have to read too long ... or someone else buys the book I have my eye on ... or even if I see the huge prices of the books I really really want (like the detective or graffiti ones) or I have a jam session or a show. Everything depresses me.

I know I know... I should go to higher quality places to jam and I should have better shows ... but I need money for all that... or I need to be VIP. Neither of which I can afford. Boohoo!! Don't worry… I am not going to beg … not this publicly anyway.

I improve on my skills every now and then. But I can’t do that for very long either because I just end up sobbing in a corner with the book in my hand. And that’s not very good for the book either. Some I can’t read anymore because the pages are all tear-stained.

When my band-mate joined, I was on a high for a while... but as a male rock star (no matter how bad) he gets all the girls ... why would he be interested in me now??? O what do I do??

I came to Los Angeles for a while and things have just gotten worse! I’m going back home now... I think I need my mommy! I’m sure that I’m going to make it somehow even though I might go up and down the ladder of success. But if u notice me walking down the road sometime ... atleast stop and smile... it might just save me from ending up in hospital!!!

Author: Toya Mauldin

Ciudad de México or Mexico City or No.14 !!

2006-05-11T17:23:00.000+05:30

During my research about this city, I found out some bittersweet things. No.1, Mexico city has more pollution, more traffic, more homelessness and much more crime and corruption than Mumbai. Is that a good or bad thing?

I guess Mexico City doesn’t have much of a choice about the pollution cos the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the city trap polluted air in the city. The scariest news I read was about the numerous kidnappings that happen, not only for ransom but also to be able to access the person’s ATM accounts. Victims are kept overnight in order to bypass daily withdrawal limits.
Apparently no one trusts the police force there either… but the people there instead of taking it silently like we do revolt. e.g. a crowd in burned two undercover officers alive, because they were apparently confused with child abductors!!

Did I do wrong by giving the gloomy stuff first … sorry... here goes the rosy stuff

Mexico was actually an original pre-Aztec city known as Tenochtitlan(pronounced teyo-ti-wa-kan) - built by the Toltecs (predecessors to the Aztecs) and is the site of several pyramids, including the world's third largest pyramid!! Then it was taken over by the Aztecs and then the Spanish. And then came the U.S. invasion which led to Texas being given to the states and also led to Mexicans wrapping themselves in the Mexican flag and jumping to their deaths to keep the Americans from taking them.

by the by ... the Aztecs used to sacrifice something like 20000 people per year to their god Huitzilopochtli (the hummingbird god????) nice pastime yea?

Famous landmarks in Mexico City include The Zócalo which once contained the pyramids and palaces of Moctezuma and was the exact center of the Aztec empire. Within walking distance are the ancient Aztec temple ruins Templo Mayor which was found while digging to place underground cables.

Bellini is a revolving restaurant which is on the 45th floor of the World Trade Center and offers great views. There is the beautiful Angel of Independence on the elegant avenue Paseo de la Reforma. There are many places here, where you will feel like you are in a different world.
The Chapultepec Park houses the Chapultepec Palace museum and other monuments and the national zoo. The Bellas Artes Palace, which is gradually been sinking into the ground below, is also situated here.

The colonias, like Condesa and Lomas de Chapultepec and the suburbs of San Angel and Coyoacan along with the Floating gardens of Xochimilco are all beautiful. The ancient floating gardens have been around for about 700 years and still operate, as they did in Aztec times. In addition there are several restored Haciendas that are now restaurants such as the San Angel Inn, and the Hacienda de los Morales, which have the best food in the world.

There are bullfights (which should be completely banned … poor bulls), charreadas or Mexican rodeos which people here watch for amusement. For my kinda amusement, namely, shopping there are the Mercados which are range in size from small, flea markets to outdoor ones to elaborate buildings with 200 or 300 stalls. Sometimes, shops are located in converted colonial mansions which sell curios and trinkets, custom jewelry, fine gold and pearls.

Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo (thats her in the foto)lived in the southern suburb of Coyoacán, where several of their homes, studios, and collections are open to the public.
DÃa de los Muertos is the festival of the dead in which family members bring marigolds, light candles and decorate the graves of loved ones. During this time, edible coffins and sugar skulls and bones, as well as papier-mâché skeletons are all available. YUMMMMM

I also found out that Mexico city is built on a lake and keeps sinking cos of it and every year .. more steps are added to the angel monument!!! And lastly … check this out!!!

Now... about the food!!!!

Tortillas are the staple food here and are commonly made of maize. Often served alongside a meal as like rotis, tortillas can also be rolled and baked for enchiladas, fried for tacos or grilled for quesadillas.

Frijoles or beans are most commonly boiled and then fried.

A Salsa is actually just a sauce, although it is most commonly associated with the red or green mix of tomatoes, onion, chili and coriander.

Tequila is most commonly served to tourists in the form of a margarita – mixed with lime juice in salt-rimmed glasses. It is actually derived from the maguey plant – a spiky bush often seen growing in fields.

Mezcal is a cruder form of Tequila traditionally served with a worm – the worm should be eaten when the drink is finished!

whats up with me...

2006-05-03T11:38:00.000+05:30

Lately everything is just a little abnormal ... u know what i mean .. just something which is a little off but not so different that u wud straight away remember it ?? have u ever had one of those ??

i remembered that i hadnt written in my blog anything about a play i saw.. well the play was nothing new .. it was the age old mid summer night's dream.. but it was treated very very differently .. mainly the fact that everyone was talking in a different language .. there were 7 different languages used in all!!

english, hindi, malayalam, tamil, sinhalese, urdu, bengali .. out of these i didnt know 3 .. but since i knew the story ... it was pretty nice !! there was a lot of athletics involved ... in fact for nearly 15 mins or so .. one of the lead characters (titania) was shown as sleeping .. and the whole time she was lying in a cloth shaped like a tear drop which was suspended from the ceiling. (see the red cloth hanging in the middle?)

but the only drawback i cud see was that it was unnecessarily physical ... everytime the characters went off-stage .. they came back with lesser clothes .. at one point one of the guys started takin off his belt !!! that was it .. i cudnt take it anymore and i said (pretty loudly, anybody who knows me knows how loud i am) u gotta b kidding me or some such .. hehehe

Then i had my little niece, Ananya celebrating her 3rd happy birthday!! there were all those lil kiddies running around the place with whistles in their mouth .. and i was liberally dusted with gold powder that we'd used to make up her name for the decorations !!

before that id gone in for a script reading session .. that was sooooo kool!! there was this director and writer readin out the bound script for an upcoming hindi movie "break ke baad" which is gonna hav a-list stars in it and everythin!! its basically a take on the t.v. news industry and how they r very capable of doin anything for advertisin revenue !!! cant wait for it to get released... best part .. they paid for the fare and gave us a nice little gift :)

then we'd gone for this really bad "designer clothes sale" of which the only good part was the parathas v had after v got out of that place.. amazing parathas ... diff diff fillings .. all totally yummy!!

of course ... i must tell ppl about the great time i had at a sleepover !! it was just 3 of us (friends from office) who had a glorious time !! i even got my nails painted.. sorry to eishu for whom everything went wrong that day and she cudnt join in ... thanks to anoooosha an josie for a grrrrrrrrrrrreat time tho !!

this weekend i saw 36 china town .. it was a pretty so-so movie .. i liked the presentation of the movie even tho in many ways it was pretty slip-shod .. the dancing was expressively bad .. they looked like amateur high school versions... the back up dancers were horrendous !!!!!!!!!! they directors must've held a contest for the ugliest and sexually ambiguest ppl who can dance or something cos all the guys .. well didnt look like guys at all !!

the acting was pretty ok .. dialogues were pretty funny ... except for some which were vulgar ... the worst part of the movie and an image that will haunt me forever tho .. would b the scene were u see paresh rawal's hairy, unfit body in tiny swimming trunks .. theres no other way to say it but mr.rawal .. ur a great actor .. but the world is not ready for ur body!!!! anyways .. i had a good time .. why u ask ... the movie had shahid kapur :) .. sorry andooo... just being honest ...

and the next day .. my andoo got me flowers cos i was havin a spectacularly bad day at home .. again .. thanks a lot !!! i also saw ice age 2 ... ya ya .. i had conjunctivitis ... but i only saw them aaram aaram se .. and after all i hav to spend some time with my hubby also na !!! ice age 2 is pretty funny ... especially the possums ... i loved the concept of the mammoth thinking it was a possum cos it was brought up by them :)

iv joined the gym as well ... im finally taking control of my fast-spiralling-out-of-control life !!! i did cardio on my first work out .. heres to a fitter, healthier me !!!!!!!!!

It's San Francisco, Baby !!! no.15 !!

2006-04-25T18:45:00.000+05:30

The Golden Gate Bridge!!! fotos do the talkin!! and u ppl better not expect any of those pics of the bridge that u can see just anywhere!!

Best place to go to check out the view is the Fisherman's Wharf where u can get horse drawn carriages and pedicabs to roam around in luxury.

Crissy Field which according to the area's site is "100 acres of wild, windswept shoreline are a favorite place for walkers, joggers, boardsailors, bicyclists, thousands of birds and the occasional seal". when can something like this happen for our very own borivli national park ?? it needs a web site too .. but more than anything else .. it -like any other indian institution- needs un-corrupt ppl working there!!

For great views u must check out the Coit Tower and Corona Heights. San Francisco has all kinds of museums from the Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, to the kid-friendly Cartoon Art Museum, to the fabulous San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where you'll find the work of Ansel Adams - the God of photography.

The other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, the town of Sausalito merits a visit for its waterfront views and the beautiful Giant Redwood trees one of which is 252 feet tall and one 14 feet wide. Most of these trees range in age of 800-1000 years old!
Oakland is on the other side of the Bay Bridge. Check out the First and Last Chance Saloon which has a ceilingful of nautical and pioneer tchotchkes, this landmark is specially important cos of the sloping floor which was caused by the earthquake of 1906.

You must visit Alcatraz Island which offers a close look at an infamous prison. you can actually check out the cells and stuff (thats where Al Capone was imprisoned!!) .. even the jails there have their own sites !!

Compared to the 5 ppl who read this (other than anand of course) im quite the wine connoisseur. And so i know that while everybody raves about Napa valley .. the real stuff is in Sonoma valley .. which has many vineyards and is less "touristy".

Then there is Haight Street where the whole concept of free love was preached and practised in the flower power 60s.. u can still find pot very easily here !! And then there is the most crookedest street in the world which twists and turns at every step .. here is the Lombard!!

There are many things which make SF better than many other cities (excepting Bombay of course) -- ex. Each year San Francisco celebrates St. Stupid's day.

A place that seems to combine shopping and eating (my 2 passions) is the Ferry Building which is a marketplace with several farmer's markets, great food shops, and eating places. u also get funny and really obscure knick knacks around fisherman's wharf ...

As far as the food is concerned .. everywhere i researched for this city i found some reference to the Dundeness Crabs ... so here they .. veggie friends plz dont get offended cos i get easily yummed by non-veg treats :) .. hey andoo ... dont it look yummmmmmm??

Hong Kong is here !!

2006-04-21T12:23:00.000+05:30

Hey babies, now we get to the city were shopping is the main entertainment and eating the only leisure ... HONG KONG .. now that place would really b a curse in disguise for me wudnt it ?? i wudnt know what to spend my money on .. cos spend it all i would !! it also has a light show every night at 8 .. WOOHOO ( i love light shows)

http://www.centralplaza.com.hk/Lightime.htm .. One of the unusual things i found out about this place is the clock that tells the time by its color scheme ... its situated on one of the tallest buildings in the Wanchai district .. the clock changes the sequence of colors every minute .. cool huh ? totally irrelevant for the visually impaired but then .. so is this blog ? the clock is in the back ground of the boat ... see carefully ...

now the places to be seen ... Victoria Peak is known as the city's number one tourist attraction, Victoria Peak provides the best views in the city. While the nighttime views are spectacular, the restaurants and entertainment attractions on the Peak will keep your attention for a longer time. Take the tram to the top.

The Star Ferry connects the two sides of Victoria Bay (Hong Kong Island on one side and Kowloon on the other on a peninsula of China). The Ferry is inexpensive and the gorgeous views are regarded by many as the best in the city.

The heart of Kowloon's shopping district is known as the Tsim Sha Tsui and its heart is Nathan Road, a street filled with neon, shops, motels, and restaurants.

Repulse Bay is a great place for a walk along a beautiful beach and to look in on the lifestyles of the rich and trendy. High quality shopping and expensive restaurants for those wit thick wallets i presume..

The Stanley Market, which is reputed to be the place to buy all your "authentic" Hong Kong Souvenirs, Stanley also has good beaches and a number of great restaurants.

Hong Kong has everything from European fashion to traditional Chinese wares. There are Malls right next to open-air markets. Every district here has small little stores that sell herbal medicines where all types of pills, plants, and dried animals are for sale. Shopping can even be done at nightime in the Temple Street Night Market.

This market actually opens in the late afternoon is a great place for people watching, bargaining and buying. What you buy will probably be fake but for many that takes a second seat to the bargaining and atmosphere of this famous night market.

Hong Kong is great for international cooking cos there are many Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian and Thai restaurants. It is the home of authentic Chinese food from all the regions of China, which may be sampled on a sampan in Causeway Bay, on a floating restaurant at Aberdeen, in a Kowloon restaurant, in a street market or at a deluxe hotel.

Chinese regional variations on food include ... Cantonese is based on parboiling, steaming and quick stir-frying to retain natural juices and flavors. Specialties include Dim Sum - usually steamed. Northern food is bread and noodles, deep-frying and spicy sauces. Specialties include Peking duck and hotpot dishes. Shanghainese food is diced or shredded, stewed in soya or fried in sesame oil with pots of peppers and garlic. Chiu Chow is served with rich sauces and Hakka food is generally simple in style with baked chicken in salt among the best dishes. Sichuan food is hot and spicy with plenty of chillies. (my fav!!!)

So Bachchalog ..

2006-04-10T12:39:00.000+05:30

Iv noticed that no one comments on my travel posts ... but its ok .. ill get u addicted soon ... atleast u cud comment on the images u meanos !!

o never mind ... tho i do think that my bosses hav read my blog ... cos suddenly im being given lots and lots of mind numbing and horrible work .. but im finally working a bit so YAY !! today i am free tho .. so im back to blogging!!!

the most advanced piece of work iv done has been copying embedded text from adobe photoshop images and pasting them one line by laborious and boring one line onto an excel sheet !!!

whoever understood the above method .. well .. all i can say is that u .. my friend .. are a geek (no offence anand) !!

but seriously, have u noticed how technically inept i am?? i dont think im cut out for a life of sitting in front of a computer and hearing ppl mumble stuff in strange accents and write them down for an audio transcript which has to be sent to translators so that previously made courses may b translated into many other languages (another challenging task laid out for me)

but where do i go from here ... i hav been thinking about this question for a long time now ... what hav i learnt here .. nothing .. and partly that is my fault cos i dont think im very open to learning what they wanna teach me ... stuff like powerpoint and excel and lectora and gazelle and god knows what not... am i really really capable of learning it .. i dunno but what i dont know is that i really dont feel like trying to understand !!

what do i do with my life ... age old question but right now im completely lost for answers.. i know that someday i wanna set up a book shop maybe .. but i also know that entails a lot of money being spent ... and i also know that any kind of business is a risk ... what if something goes wrong .. o well .. lots of ideas but nothing concrete ... and now i open this thot for discussion ... what do u think ... any ideas on what i shud or cud do ?? dont worry .. i really just wanna know ur opinion ...

getting back to un-serious matters .. lets talk about what matters .. FOOD.. tried out the Chocolate Avalanche at Mocha the other day ... OMIGOD ... please try it people ... just one person cannot finish even the junior version !!! and its so mind-bogglingly amazing !!! Its got chocolate cake pieces, chocolate chips, chocolate ice cream and chocolate gelato en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelato .. in one word .. UNMISSABLE !!!!
until hong kong .. ciao !!

Aye Aye Cap'n Anooosha

2006-04-05T12:47:00.000+05:30

As per the advice given by dear non- blogger Anoooooooosha (is that ok?) im writing in "regular" stuff while i research bout copenhagen !! just like ppl put in fillers in newspapers to use up space i guess !!

so wats been happening ?? o well.. lemme tell u bout me... many many years ago when i was in Kinder Garten ... my mis-guided and harassed teacher made me monitor of the class .. All the power went to my head !! I was a power freak !! there was this one girl who wasnt quivering in fear like the others were ... she kept talkin and talkin and finally i got so pissed off (of course i didnt know that word back then) but i went upto her and slapped her !! for those who've read my blog earlier may have seen this streak of violence in me later as well...

anyways.. to make a long story short ... we ended up becoming best friends for over 7 yrs or so ... and then v just lost touch cos i think her dad got transferred or something ... we used to be inseparable from the KG to around the 5th or 6th std and then suddenly it all just stopped !!

and now SURPRISE SURPRISE after nearly 12 long years ... she's come back all of a sudden .. she got my e-mail from this blog !!!!! VIVA BLOGGING !!!!

her name is Swagata ... and im so glad i know her again .. but i dunno what to start talkin about ... theres so much that we havta talk about that i dunno where to start ............

hey by the way .. if i havnt said it before .. i love, simply LOOOOOOOOOOOve the food at Mainland China ... amazing food .. to give a small example ... i ate sichuan (the real spelling of szechuan or watever) chicken today witout even knowing what it was.

bye for now people ... big hug for everyone who reads this .. im just too blissful right now :) .. by the way .. cud ppl plz click on the google link above my blog ... pretty prettier prettiest please !!!

No.17 Copenhagen ... or København??

2006-04-03T15:48:00.000+05:30

Ever heard of the ugly duckling, thumbelina or the little mermaid?? how r they connected to copenhagen? simple .. their writer lived there ... yep .. im talkin bout Hans Christian Anderson!!! Copenhagen is the capital of the Kingdom of Denmark and is known as the City of Beautiful Towers. In ancient times it was called Kømædenes Havn which was shortened to København, as it is now known.

The area of Slotsholmen, dates back to 1167 A.D.. Slotsholmen is the seat of the parliament, and is located on a small island within the city centre, separated by a moat-like canal.

The winter residence of the Danish Royal Family is Amalienborg where u can c The Royal Guard. After every two hours, the guards are relieved. There is a red coat in the guard house for bad weather. However, when the change of guard takes place, the officer in charge, looks behind the coat. This is done as earlier guards would sneak a girlfriend behind the coat.

Then comes the Gefion Fountain which is a wishing well. It depicts an legend telling how Zealand (on which Copenhagen is situated) came into existence. The goddess Gefion was given permission by the Swedish King Gylfe to plow an area in Sweden, and the land she managed to plow within one day and one night, she could use in any way. So, she turned her four sons into oxen to pull the plough. By the end, they got the earth needed to create Zealand. Where the earth was taken, the Zealand-shaped lake Vänern lies today.

The little mermaid is of course in tribute to Andersen. It tells the story of a mermaid who fell in love with a prince, and often came up to look for her love. The sculpture pictures her as she sits and looks out over the water.

Now, this needs to be said ... There is this place called Kirkegård which is a graveyard. Guess what? I found this description during my research "It is not uncommon for regular visitors to have a favorite grave, where they do their sunbathing." this was accompanied by a completely shocking pic as well ... how disgusting is that??? http://www.copenhagenpictures.dk/assistens-kirkegaard-soeren-kierkegaard.html

In 1885 Frederiksborg Castle was re-opened, as the national portrait gallery. There are paintings of members of the royal families, as well as great Danish personalities. There is also many objects of historic value and in the castle chapel is a gallery of coats of arms from 1610.

Shakespeare's "Hamlet" takes place in the castle of Kronborg. It has one of the most unpleasant prisons. It is wide up front, and narrows until it's basically not wide or tall enough for a man. Smaller bars were fitted as time went, shrinking the space available until the prisoner could do nothing but stand up at the back of the cell. The temperature in the cell is a steady 6-7 degrees centigrade. On the better side, inside the gates is the most extensive souvenir shop in Denmark. It is also famous for the legend of "Holger".

Tulips bloom in Tivoli by the thousands, and most of the trees have been in residence since the opening of the Tivoli Gardens. Also, it is a place of lights so Tivoli must be visited twice to see the flowers in the day, and in the night time the many lights and an aura that could be from a fairy tale.

And now about the food !! The true Danish food is the unique 'smørrebrød' or their open sandwiches !!! it can have any kinda toppings .. Eggs, Roast Duck, Pickled herring, Smoked Eel, Lobster, Cheese, Shrimps, Warm pan fried fish fillets, Cucumber salad, Red cabbage, Parsley, Mayonnaise, Raw egg yolk (ewwww), Chopped onions, Fried mushrooms, Radishes, Olives.

They apparently r very into seafood !! eh?? But one more thing they are very famous for are their pastries ... so very famous that the world over the pastries are called "danishes"!! what further reason do u need to PIG OUT !!!!! The further adventures will come back to Asia next time with Hong Kong... Again ppl ... plz click on the google link at the top of the blog !!

No.18 is Prague !

2006-03-21T10:37:00.000+05:30

hey babes and babas !! wassup folks ?? we've now come to the wonderful city of Prague .. and as i dont know it all that well either .. guess we'll discover it together !!

Prague is a great city to walk around in cos of all the cobblestones. The main sightseeing areas of Prague are separated by the Vltava River. On the left bank there is the Prague Castle area and the Lesser Town. The right bank is home to the Old Town, the Jewish Quarter, and the New Town. Spanning the Vltava River and connecting the Old Town and Lesser Town is the beautiful Charles Bridge.

The heart of Prague's historical center is the Old Town Square. There are many gothic spires like the spires of the Týn Church over the square and the Astronomical Clock with the famous hourly display of the 12 apostles on the Old Town Hall.The Old Town Hall tower is an amazing climb with a great view of the square and beyond. Walk around the square to check out beautiful sculptures and buildings all around and even some of the oldest synagogues in europe!!

It is said that egg yolks were mixed into the mortar to strengthen the construction of the Charles Bridge. (Maybe someone shud give that idea to the bmc.. well atleast for the flyovers .. most of the roads they build are dug up by the bmc themselves.) During the day the towers on both sides of the Charles bridge are accessible to ppl. The tower on the Old Town side, gives a wonderful view especially during sunsets and sunrises.

Baroque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque) statues are placed on either side of Charles Bridge. The most popular statue is of St.John of Nepomuk, a Czech martyr saint who was executed by being thrown into the Vltava from the bridge. Touching the statue is supposed to bring good luck and ensure your return to Prague.

Prague Castle is the largest castle area in the world. Its three courtyards and a number of magnificent buildings cover over 18 acres, most of which is amazingly beautiful...

The New Town was built 600 years ago, and today it has numerous businesses, hotels and banks, as well as department stores, boutiques, and a few malls. The New Town is also home to the Café Slavia, the National Theatre, the Dancing House, the Charles Square, the Jindřišská Tower, the State Opera and Wenceslas Square.

Czech food is not really for the die hard vegetarians ... but what i personally found most interesting is the sauerkraut, the fruit filled dumplings, and the apple strudel. It is apparently not even for the calorie conscious cos they love their butter (máslo) there !! (my kinda ppl)

and now .. on .. we go upwards the list .. next .. i shall meet u in Copenhagen !!

No.19 is Delhi (to ur surprise and mine!!)

2006-03-17T10:22:00.000+05:30

Guess what this is ... its a detail from the kutub minar !! yes .. one of the many architectural delights that our country has and is sadly and badly (un)looked after!!

Havin born and grown up in bombay, i think it is pretty natural for me to HATE, LOATHE and ABHOR delhi ... and to add the hardly needed fuel to the already roaring fire... iv also had to endure the completely medieval north indian mentality !!!

but lets get to the good stuff ... i was recently sent to delhi for a 3 week training period.. and much against my better judgement ... i went !! i knew absolutely no one there and i was terrified .. i had my ears full of advice about the thugs and conmen there .. about how it was VERYY unsafe there for women and that i shud just get in and stay in after 7 in the evening !!!

and so it was .. i understood the meaning of trepidation when i was waiting for the train with my parents at mumbai central station... and then i got in for my 1st solo train journey.. and then it was that i met my mr.right!!! its been 6 months to the day that i first met Anand .. and its been so great ... god bless u for everything !! AND HAPPY MONTHAVERSARY !!!!

so anyways.. i had the best train trip of my life .. cos both of us kept chattering till 1 in the mornin (typical geminis both of us) and the next morning .. we went our separate ways ... for a while atleast!!

we had our office guesthouse in one little kona(corner) of delhi .. but it was lovely ... and there started my sight seeing cos Anand joined me there soon!!!

1st i went to a place called Delhi Haat .. that place rocks ... there have monthly changing stalls there ... of all kinds of handicrafts from all around india ... and amazing food stalls from all the different states too !!! MMMM .. THOSE BEAUTIFUL MOMOS !!! and those beautifuller CHAPPALS !!!

then came the turn of india gate ... which i cudnt see up close ...but then i visited the Cottage Industries Emporium. There were really beautiful things there .. but it was very obviously catering for the NRIs.. cos i cudnt really afford anything much there!!!

then we headed towards the National museum and I LOVED IT !! beautiful stuff .. beautifully presented !!

janpath also has great shops .. but theyve been spoilt by the NRIs too .. now .. simple rupee paying customers are worse than dirt !!

we also visited Lal Bahadur shastri's house and couldn't find the "smarak" or watever its called :( ... then we went to sarojini nagar .. where i shopped some more!! that place has really beautiful stuff !!! that was one of the places where the bombings took place a couple of days before divali .. i sincerely wish that none of the shop keepers i encountered there were harmed in anyway !!

then we headed onto a bit more shopping at greater kailash and general hanging out at our no.1 spot ... PVR SAKET !! god i loved that place !! be it the movie hall where i saw the supremely BAD movie "chocolate" or the tikka place or bennigan's *blush blush* ...I may not have done a lot of sight seeing .. and ppl from delhi .. plz feel free to drop in names of places i shud visit next time i go there!!!

All in all ... i loved the food there .. from the gol gappas... to the tikkas .. to the momos.. and the YUMMMMMY CHAAT !! i also loved the shopping .. i have been converted into a chappal freak .... there was so much variety there even for huge-footed ppl like me !!

and MOSTEST OF ALL ... i fell in love with the people there .. no ... not the lechy yuckos who slow down their cars to look at u .. or the horny bozos who hav to look at every female even if theres an equally DUH girl draped on their arm.

i mean the wonderful people i met there .. my amazing training buddies ... the RAPCHICK ROCKETS !!!! all of whom have enriched my life in so many ways !! im listin them here in order of class seating .. lomesh, mridu, prakash, amit, anku and poonam ... special mention for eisha .. the soul sister i met in this game of chances called life ... special mention also for A.K. .. nice guy .. thanks again for the lift !!

and specialest mention for the fruit shop of my eye, not just the apple ... who i met because of my delhi trip .. thank u for exploring this city with me .. i think i love it more cos of u .. i know v'll have many more explorations together.. both of cities and of life !! 6 months and going strong .. with lots of lub .. to anand (these are pressed flowers .. wink wink!!!!)

btw .. if anyone missed me .. im really sorry .. finally got some work at work !!

Best cities in the world !! No.20 TOKYO

2006-03-07T10:33:00.000+05:30

Hello peeps !!! after yesterday's debacle ... lemme get back on track ... starting today im gonna focus on something really cool ... well... atleast for me!!!

Have you ever seen discovery channel's travel and living channel? It completely rocks except for when they show the bloody bikes and stuff ... but they usually show amazing things like places that uv never heard of .. things u never knew could be ... once they even had a spot which showcased the top 20 ice cream joints in the us .. granted i mite never go there ... but watching it in itself was a amazing treat !!!! http://www.travelandlivingindia.com

And once there was this show which chronicled the Top 20 Best Cities of the World (BCW)... and guess what ... even Delhi made an appearance at no.19 .. cool huh? (ya ya eisha .. stop preenin so much) maybe they hadnt heard of Bombay but never mind !!

Granted that I mite not even go to even half of these places .. but im gonna dream and u can join me for the ride .... gimme feedback and temme what to add or subtract !!

So today we start with No.20 ... Tokyo !!

It has temples ... the Asakusa-Kannon Temple has been in existence since the city's foundation. It is also one of the most popular temples in Tokyo. Next is the Meiji Shrine, built in 1920, is dedicated to Emperor Meiji, it is one of the most popular Shinto places to worship. (my moms installed an aversion for temples in me ... NEXT..)

Then comes the Imperial Palace which is a huge attraction, but it is only open to the public for two days a year. It has the The Imperial Palace East Garden and The Music Room as its attractions. (hmm .. restricted entry ... I like it !!!)

Next, the Ueno Park is the largest park in Tokyo and is home the The Tokyo National Museum, an Aquarium - one of the largest in Asia and the Zoo in Ueno Park is the oldest zoological garden in Japan and is connected by a monorail. ( i love chuk chuk gaadis)

Shinjuku is the nightspot area with jazz cellars, cafés and an underground mall and department stores. ( i promise i wont shop ... too much!!)

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a botanical garden and can be divided into two main sections, Japanese and European. The Japanese section has influences from China, while the European section is influenced by the landscaped English garden and French parks. Depending on when you go either cherry blossoms (April) or chrysanthemums (November) may be in bloom. (always wanted to see them cherry blossom thingies)

The most famous shopping district in Tokyo is Ginza. which also has the Kabukiza Theater where performances of Kabuki are held. (i wanna see make up wala plays !!)

With over 100 secondhand shops Kanda is one of the largest bookshop districts in the world. (will be my most favorite place i bet!!)

The most beautiful park is the Korakuen Park which includes a lake, the Kantokutei teahouse and a sports center.

And if culture is getting a bit too much for you ... head down to Disneyland with its standardized and copyrighted fairytale princesses !!!

p.s. plz gimme feedback on the images !!!

Warning - Depression Ahead

2006-03-06T10:28:00.000+05:30

Hey there people ... looong time no hear eh? well.. last week was a very very bad one for me ... in one fell swoop i hav lost on 2 counts ... my health and my family .. want more gory details? delve in !!

i have been diagnosed with spondilitis ... apparently my ribs r tryin to get on my nerves - and while that mite sound funny lemme add ITS NOT- i hav been walkin around with an arched back and even sneezing hurts!!!

and iv also had a horrific fight with my one and only sister because of the person shes chosen to spend her life with and since i dont do things exactly how he thinks they shud be done .. i am the devil itself. Therefore ... viva marriages and down with sisterhood !!

after u let go of someone u care about ... wat do u do ... these are the following options that i see..

1. wallow in self pity
2. think of all the hurtful things u cud do to get back
3. keep wallowing in the afore mentioned pity
4. cry
5. let go of the one person uv ever looked up to just because their worse halves think u dont amount to shit !!

o well ... lemme end on a positiver note ...

i saw crash .. and its won the oscar for best picture !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAAAAAAYYYYYYYY

I KNEW IT !!!
that movie rules !!! its really very well made !! and i definitely recommend it to everybody ... and lemme know ur feelings ... tho i must say .. if ur looking for a fun filled time .. then its not for u !!

When, Why, How

2006-03-01T11:08:00.000+05:30

When I was just a little girl, I was boring… terribly so!! I might as well admit it now, and it wasn't that I was a geek; I was average even on that count. So, I was the most boring specimen of girlhood ever. But I was good at talking and boy did I use that skill well!!
When I was in the second standard or so, my teacher caught me while I was chatting away. I was then told to stand with my back to the classroom next to the teacher’s desk … but what are such obstacles to the champion chatterer?
I kept turning around and chatting to the people around me and it was then that I noticed the horrible thing Mona, my “friend” was doing.
She was using my Pencil, even though she knew how important IT was to me. It was an imported pencil that came with a colorful eraser that actually erased really well; and everybody knows that combination is such a rarity.
And so, as soon as I got the chance of getting back to my seat, I – and I’m not proud of this- pounced on her and scratched her on her arms. She started bawling – obviously- and looking at her, I started bawling too!!
We were taken to the principal’s office where I was given a lovely dressing down. I still remember Sister Thelma’s face… she looked so disappointed. And when my mom came during lunch time, she rushed to that girl first and apologized so tearfully that Mona’s mom has been a great friend of my mom’s ever since!!
O well, all’s well that ends well I guess… I learnt quite a few lessons that day.
I learnt violence doesn’t pay and I learnt this pretty early in life.
I also learnt that not having a pencil is better than having a pencil and making my mom cry. Basically... nothing is more important than the feelings of those who care about you.And oh yes, I made a new best friend!!

My most Favoritest Book ever !!

2006-02-28T17:34:00.000+05:30

Once upon a time, long long ago.... i was in college, and at that time, i had this amazing english teacher named Mrs.Paranjpe. she was bloody brilliant in many ways, she carried herself brilliantly, she spoke like an english woman, and if it werent for her impeccable sarees, she wouldve looked like one too ... dont get me wrong .. i aint in awe of any gora wannabe ... but this lady ... now ... she had class!!!

to get to the point .. she made me write a book review once.. of which i am rather proud .. for 2 distinct reasons ...

1 - cos the book was the best piece of literature i hav ever read -- it was the first book that ever made me cry .. no actually i SOBBED... mostly cos i read the book when i was 13-14 odd and by that age .. the girl in the book - anne frank - was battling so many problems.

2- cos i wrote it damn well dammit !!!

and so it goes ...

Having inherited a love of books from my elder sister, I have had a lot of favorite books like Little women by Louisa May Alcott, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen etc. But, I was now very impressed by words like..

"An empty day, though clear and bright, Is just as dark as any night."- Anne M.Frank

This book is based upom Anne's diary; a Jewish girl who lived during the oppressive Nazi regime. She started keeping this diary - initially for herself- when she was gifted a diary for her thirteenth birthday. She wrote about her daily aches and pains, her trails and tribulations, about run-ins with her mother (Edith Frank) and about fall-outs with her sister (Margot Frank). She also wrote about her flirtations and her horde of admirers. In short, she wrote about the usual daily battles of a smart, level-headed teenager.

But, on Sunday the 5th of July 1942, everything changed. Anne's sister got a call-up notice from the Gestapo. They wish to send young Jews to camps were they could help the Nazi force thereby acceding to Nazi ideology. Otto Frank, Anne's father had been fearing this and he turned to their last resort, "The Secret annexe" or 263, Prisengracht which Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne Frank would call home along with another family, the Van Pels; and here it was that they waited..."All we can do here is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end. Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting and many are waiting for death."

Anne writes about her life in hiding, alienated from the outside world. All this must have upset the highly imaginative girl who basked in the attention of her many friends and 'beaus'. She was very lonely and so she turned to Kitty, this diary as her friend and confidante.She wrote on about her daily schedules, the in-fighting among the 2 families about child-rearing practices and the diminishing food supply. It seems as if writing was her form of therapy.

While life in the annexe went on we can sense her loneliness increasing with time. We can actually see her growing up as the book progresses...She needed someone to turn to and for this she chose Peter, the teenaged son of the Van Pels'.They talked about sex, their parents, their hopes and aspirations and what they would do after the war - though she had big dreams about getting a new cycle and publishing her own book initially, with time Anne just hopes for the war to end so that she can have a nice, long bubble-bath.

"I have the feeling that Peter and I share a secret." What was this secret .. I don't think anyone will ever know. But one can surmise that it might be the all-pervasive sense of loneliness and and helplessness that was a continous part of their lives. Thrown together as they were, a feeling of oneness was expected. They shared the same frustations and eventually, they went on to depend on each other completely with a feeling they called 'love'.

Aided by close helpers, they kept on living through scares like burglaries, curious labourers who pried too much, numerous terrifying sirens and air raids. Finally, all this ended after her last entry on the 1st of August 1944. On the 4th, a SS sergeant and atleast 4 Security Police arrested the people living in the annexe alongwith 2 of their helpers, Viktor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.

The prisoners were now going to live out their nightmares as they were separated and taken from camp to camp , from a prison in amsterdam to Westerbok, a Jewish transit camp and finally to Auschwitz. Anne and Margot Frank were killed in a typhus epidemic because of the unhygienic conditions at the camp of Bergen-Belsen in 1944, only a few days before Anne's 15th birthday.

Otto was the only survivor as he escaped while being transferred. He found this diary, and sensing that Anne wanted this diary to published; he passed this book down to us...

A Book?

A Wound ....

Regression Therapy!!!

2006-02-28T17:09:00.000+05:30

My blog's been read over 200 times !!!!!!!

iv joined the esteemed company of double centenarions like tendly and gavaskar and god knows how many more ... but bachcha log its alllllllll cos of u good ppl !! well ... mostly cos ur the ppl who've refreshed the page again an again so that the hit counter increased every time!!

today I read about past life regression, apparently it really helps in many ways ... u understand the karmic cycle which in turn helps u understand why ur going thro the probs that u r going thro now .. it can b any kinda problems .... emotional, physical, anything !!!

the book also says that at the time of death, the soul which is eternal ... chooses the next body to inhabit and mostly ppl who r close in one life are also close in another one ... for ex. a guy and his daughter in the present life were lovers in the past where he lost her due to a turn of events ... and in this life, the daughter has cancer and he comes for the therapy cos he cant handle the thot of losing her now ... bottomline.. cos of the therapy everything became fine ... the girl was ok.. the family was happy .. blah blah and more blah

now my questions are... doesnt the concept of using past lives to learn lessons bout ur present life go against the system of karma, what if these r lessons we were never meant to learn.... maybe in that guys case, losing his daughter was an endless cycle which had to happen in every life, now that shes not gonna die doesnt it affect the whole concept of what the future was supposed to be like?

i know that there is one school of thought which says that "destiny is what we make of it" but seriously can v change the future so easily .. by going in for the supposedly right kinda therapy at the supposedly right time??

i find this even more funny cos theres a part in the therapy where the guy is "progressed" into future lives, where he talks about long vehicles which move in the air and freeways that exist at sky level and pigs that fly (ok i made that last part up)... anyways in the progression, he talks about his future lives where hes again gonna lose his daughter who is now his son and hes the mother and then the doc says that since hes learned his karmic lesson in this life itself, he need not go thro the pain and loss again!!

now this is unexplainable on so many different levels that its almost funny !!

no1. firstly, i thot the souls decided which body to inhabit at the time of death ... bzzzzzzzzz... wrong, all the souls already know all the bodies they r ever gonna inhabit!!! very very hard to believe !!

no2. souls of family members and friends always travel in packs and they always find bodies in the same family??

no3. future lives can b changed very simply by learning ur lessons now.. but if u were not meant to learn ur lessons now .. how did u???

confusion .... confusion.... confusion .... can anyone help me ???

Matheran.... here I come !!!

2006-02-28T17:01:00.000+05:30

and so i go on ... when the decision to leave crossword was made i knew there was no turning back .. i was even havin problems with my health which somehow all seemed stress related .. argh never mind that

so i put up my bio online and more importantly ... i also put up my profile on goingsolo .. an online group which works on the backing of go 9.25 fm... they organise trips and parties that u can attend if u wanna meet new ppl and hang out an stuff ...

and thats where i heard bout a matheran trip they were plannin over a weekend ... at first i didnt think i cud make it cos i had an interview the same day .. but finally i ended up finishin it off just in time to b able to get my stuff and meet the group i was to travel with !! well .. it actually wasnt quite in time cos i made them wait over 3 hrs !! lol !!

but thats when i met them ... Aparna , Bhaskar and Kim, some of the the best accidental friends anybody cud ever hav made !! We all got along right from the start ... i felt specially blessed cos i went along for the trip with a lot of nervousness cos i didnt really know ppl there ... but everythin just went amazing... well... most of it atleast ... except for mr.jaju (the beast in this tale)

we reached matheran after a train journey till Neral of about 2 hrs and then v travelled further up to matheran by van ... our group consisted of appi, bhaskar, kim, jaju, medha and the great, wonderful MEEEEE

we threw our things together in our room at the mtdc resort and started walkin towards the market at around 5 or so ... it was a beautiful hike ... we walked and walked and walked.... it was beautiful. we were walkin along the toy-train tracks cos its stopped during the monsoons as it gets dangerous and slippy then and then this was the "july 26" monsoon!!

but we werent scared of rains then.. and we walked on and reached the market when it was already gettin dark we sat down and had garam garam vada pav and tea when it was slightly drizzling....... o it was bliss !!!

then we started our walk back and then the fun began !!! THE LIGHTS OF THE ENTIRE HILL STATION WENT OUT !! one of us went and got a torch and we started walkin back along the train track in the COMPLETE darkness !!

appi and kim were busy with horror stories ... mr jaju kept tryin to make us fall off the steep cliff we were walking along by givin us wrong directions and i ... poor me was getting mauled by miss medha's long long talons !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but finally we reached the resort and i ended up having the time of my life on that trip and i hav definitely made friends that will last forever !!

so bottomline ... do take a chance once in a while ... life just might surprise u wit the kinda surprises it has to offer ... 3rd part of B&B coming up morrow

ps sorry tmitu ... tryin my best to update it as an when i can ... thanks for the support tho .. love u lots ... ladies and gentlemen ... all rise for Smita ... best friend throughout the years ... has been tolerating me since the 4th std !!!!

Bold and the Beastly... part 1

2006-02-28T16:33:00.000+05:30

Anusha Darling in my comments has made the interesting point that ... u can always meet ur kinda ppl in and around mumbai ..
its true and i shud know .. i met the freakiest kinda ppl and also the nicest ... lemme tell u this story ... i used to work for Crossword, the book store .. and it basically killed every kind of social life i cud've had after college. why...?

simple answer ... i worked weekends ... yep .. saturday and sunday when "normal" ppl slept and yawned and took an hour just to stretch ... i had to arrange books, look after my stocking levels .. manage my manager and handle the goings and comings of 15 odd "bachchas" who worked wit me ..

not so say there werent any perks .. i got to read books all for free .. and it was a great life.i worked there for 2 years and in that time i was effectively cut off from the real world, cos when i had my chutti (thursdays) the rest of the world worked .. and as mentioned before ... i worked while they slept.

so no hanging out wit friends, no movies, no dinners, no lunches, no time for long fone calls either... and therefore, whence and thereby.. no close friends except those who worked wit me ... and consequently ... not much to talk bout in our free time except about work!!! argh !!! it was tragic!!!

the worst part was missin out on my niece's childhood ... cliched only cos its o, so true !!.. i never got to go to their open houses .. i never went to any of their school functions or sports days .. i even missed my youngest niece's first birthday!!

that was what made me decided i needed much more out of my life!! and then finally i left crossword and entered the wonderful, beautiful world of WEEKENDS OFF and offices that work from 9-5 !!!!

for a person who hardly ever got to see her parents cos she came home only when they were asleep ie.after 12 ... this was a whole new world ... i cud meet my nieces atleast once or twice a week, i cud visit their school functions once in a while .. i cud actually meet my friends whenever i wanted !!!

but now i saw an even bleaker picture in my future ... wanna know why ... read more in the next episode of The Bold and the Beastly !!!!

Mumbai meri jaan (cliched maybe but true!!)

2006-02-28T16:00:00.000+05:30

When i went to delhi a lot of the ppl i met there asked me wat was so great about mumbai that every mumbaiite was so very passionate bout it ?!?! most of the questionin happened cos of the following incident ...

one of the trainin sessions was just over and just possibly to make a mediocre session somewhat interestin - in her assumption only - this lady says "jai hind" and me like a true blue mumbaiker whose atleast heard a thousand shiv sena rallies ... i end up mouthing "jai maharastra" right after her.

like any other north indian ( i was the ONLY mumbaiite there) .. everyone around me was incensed that i dared to put state pride over nation pride.. but it aint like that see .. i love india .. i truly do .. but its just that mumbai is HOME.

i know its got traffic snarls and horrible roads .. but it also has long winding lanes where u can just keep walkin and walkin witout ppl starin at u and tryin to mentally undress u no matter how hideous u look!!!

mumbai has pollution and chokeups but it also has amazing ppl who go on helpin each other no matter what kinda swinger god throws at them ... floods, riots, bombs ?? name one city thats endured the same within a space of a decade and come through so brilliantly?!? -- ok ok so delhi has had thousands of rulers attack them and theyv had had riots to .. but y didnt i put in the "decade ka clause" in .. so everybody shut up !

mumbai does hav a lot of crime .. but it also has policemen who help u wit directions, who help u push ur car to the nearest gas station, this city has nurses who adopt babies that hav been thrown away by "mothers", it has ppl who drive around on winter nights and throw khadi shawls on sleeping pavement dwellers and go away witout being named.

granted it needs a lathi charge to control ppl during big bazar's sale here ... but it also has hill road at bandra where u can get exotic whathavus to wear at max to max 100 a pop and linking road where u can shod urself in whichever way u fancy... mumbai .. also has lokhandwala where the starlets shop for "sexy" stuff .. and normal ppl like us (well atleast appi, anu, eishu and me) .. well we just laugh !!! -- i promise appi .. by the time u finally come around to reading this .. we will have gone there!!

yes mumbai is over crowded but thats only cos of the politicians who refuse to let other areas of maharashtra develop .. see that happenin and then maybe mumbai will become the star it truly is ... or atleast make it a city-state like delhi .. mumbai deserves royal treatment!!

o and if the above arguments dont make u think mumbai is one of the best (if not the best) cities then i bring forth the best .. v hav the big b and the chota b and the 2 khans ... AND U CANT TOP THAT !! (even tho v do hav salman khan but u cant really blame someone who is mentally challenged)

moral of the story ... hate it or love it .. mumbai is an experience that has to be explored ... it has a bit of everything ... and im only realisin the true meanin of that today .. when i see it through the eyes of ppl whov come here for the first time ...thanks and bye for now !!

Delhi Rocks ... at times !!

2006-02-28T15:54:00.000+05:30

hey there ppl ... sorry i didnt write in anythin for a while.. i cant really say i was real busy .. well actually i cant say that at all !! cos i still hadnt nothing to do .. it was just that someone really imp is going out of town for a while and i just didnt feel very creatively inclined .. does that garner a sympathy vote? i wish !! lol

now for an explanation for the song ... im a member at this site called POPOMUNDO which is an online role-playing game where u can live the life of a virtual pop star and its amazing .. so anyways ... for that i wrote this song and frankly tho its very morbid, morose and depressing .. I LOVE IT !!

i know i know .. i aint expecting the same reaction from u .. but any reaction at all wud b velcome !! iv never written a song before so i dont really know bout meters, or tempos or whathavus .. just writin as i go along u know ...

lets make this blog a bit interactive ... tell me if im alone in this .. but im simply unable to brood !! u know the ability to go over a fight or argument over and over an over again ..i simply cant do it .. i hav a fite and get over it and laugh and joke and get on wit my life as well .. while i see ppl festerin over issues that r long gone and forgotten... well.. atleast forgotten by me !!

now i ask u this .. am i right or am i really superficial?

review for the day ...travel to a place uv never been before all alone .. (book a hotel in advance tho) .. my office sent me on this trip to delhi for training ..i was terrified cos of the foll -

1. never travelled alone before,
2. Never been to delhi before,
3. Didnt know anyone at all over there

But lemme also add this ... it was the best 3 weeks of my life !! iv made friendships that will last a lifetime and bought stuff which will last long too.. i really hope anyways.

I Wrote a Song !!!!

2006-02-28T15:49:00.000+05:30

Chorus - Why do i feel so lost?
everything is passing me by ..
i stand and watch the seasons change
and i just know .. i know the world is ending today

birds gettin killed cos we need space to live
and paradise has been paved over today..
love is but a word on a greeting card
and everyone is walking the same angry way..(chorus)

theres only pesticide and wars..
no more ozone and no more trees,
only beauty contestants care about world peace..
everywhere i look theres only death and disease.(chorus)

loneliness and AIDS r killing ppl everyday,
but nobody cares .. we just wave them by
no money for cures cos all the money is with too few..
people buyin bentleys while children die(chorus)

the land we walk on shakes with anger..
the faithful and the devouts pray ..
the water we drink drowns half the world..
isnt it obvious.. He's giving up on us today(chorus*2 FADE)

About meeeeeeeeeeee

2006-02-28T15:41:00.000+05:30

I HAVE 3 COMMENTS !!
one by a complete stranger who i did not co-erce into seeing this blog !!! i promise !!

sincere request to everyone who reads this cos iv forced u to .. plz plz plz add in a comment !!

and now .. lemme tell u bout me ...

im ipshita .. and i am 23 and i love my life .. i hav great parents who let me do wat i want ... most of the time anyways !!

i have a great sister whos an actual supermom and 2 wonderful and amazing nieces!! i also hav lotsa great friends who i never hav to prove myself to .. who like me just the way i am (tho they r tryin to make me lose weight which they say is good for me)

but for the most part as u can see .. i am blessed :) TOUCH WOOD !!

now review for the day ...Chronicles of Narnia both the movie and book !! it talks about the amazing adventures that 4 kids hav in a magical land .. its beautiful and for once not that bad on film !!

i was pretty much let down by the filmed harry potter series (especially the 1st and 2nd ones) .. but this one is worth it .. watch it in a theatre once ..

the other review is for the gold class seats in cinemax (andheri) .. try them out .. use this M.O. .. buy tickets for the silver class of a relatively not-so-hot movie and then go seat urself in the gold class seats (thats wat i did .. shhhh).. trust me .. it is truly an experience.. ur butt will thank u !!

and then u can come thank me .. plz remember to b the go-between .. i do not wish to hav butt-oriented convos !!

and in deference to wodehouse ..... ta for now chappies !!

Wanna know Why??

2006-02-28T15:32:00.000+05:30

"here i am" says i to the commentless blog !! but no matter .. i shall venture forth ... putting my creation out there .. for no one to read .. as yet ... maybe .. some day ......

lemme quantify the reasons why i've started blogging..

1. because i have nothing substantial to do wit my time.. actually scrap that .. I HAV NOTHIN TO DO .. tho if anyone from work is reading .. i hav some testin comin up .. i promise !!

2. because i have a lot to be thankful for, i hav a happy family life, i have great friends, and much more important .. i hav amazing possibilities for the future. like losing weight??

3. because i just had a very terrible break up wit my cell fone which inspired me to finally venture out to long-procastinated areas. *sob sob* don't ask .. too painful right now

4. because i wanna know what ppl think of my writing style so 10 yrs later when i win the booker.. i know whom to laugh at !!

5. because i wanna do something new everyday and i want to be able to relive it again and again ..

so the review of the day is ....*drum roll*even a 3 day weekend far away from ur city can help dust ur shoulders of the crap ur carrying .. and no .. the world will surprisingly not collapse and wonder of wonders ... life will go on !! try it !!

Heraclitus (i studied western philosophy once nanananana) once said that v cant step in the same river twice ....... in the same vein i solemnly proclaim that no kid is 1 yr old twice and if u miss ur kid's or ur nephew/niece's childhood for a job .. then u just aint with it man !!happiness is truly in a kid's smile .. and to believe this ... just make a kid smile once ... try it !!

and now .. i sign off ..

Disguised Unemployment

2006-02-28T14:49:00.000+05:30

Monday, January 30th, 2006
as i write this, i shud tell u that i am getting paid for it!!

wanna know how? cos my bosses havent given me any work to do *as usual* yea yea it sounds heaven sent to many ppl but it is actually pretty brain numbing.
i can feel my brain cells die .. one by one by one.

i hav finally succumbed to the pressure of being blog-friendly simply cos i hav abso nothing to do. im gonna use this space to give everyone who reads this.. actually the 1 or 2 who mite read it a chance to see the world from my very distorted viewpoint.. i will also try out various things and tell u what they r like so that u may decide for urself whether they r worth ur time or not ..

first up Wine tasting at Sula Vineyards (nasik) -- definitely a thumbs up .. give it a try.. especially if its complimentary like mine was !! HAH!! eat ur heart out !!

Rang De Basanti - duh !! watch!! over and out for now .. will definitely keep writin everyday .. pinky's swear!!

for the ppl who used to read my blog at rediff and are wondering why im shifting here ... its cos that bloody site keeps disappearin every once in a while !!!! REDIFF SUCKS !!