Curtain Raiser

Ohh blogspot, I've missed you so.. I'm sorry for my temporary transgression.. Wordpress just looks pretty you know, I couldn't help myself.. It didn't mean anything I swear! You're my one and only! Your beautiful ease of navigation, your wonderful ability to let me see my followers.. I don't know what I was thinking when I got bewitched by Wordpress. I promise I'll never cheat on you, ever again.. 

Obviously, I'm referring to my new film blog on wordpress. For some reason (I can't even remember) I always wanted to own a blog on wordpress. When I got an assignment to start a group blog, I jumped at the opportunity of finally doing that. And oh God what a mess! It was like struggling to walk through the jungles of Congo. Never again! *shudder shudder*

Now that I'm back here, I just realized that I haven't blogged about so many blogable incidents. I wanted to talk about Sir Robert Swan's electrifying lecture about his walk to the North and South Poles that had me and a crowd of 1000+ students and faculty on their feet cheering wildly. I missed a chance to write about my awesome trip to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park accompanied by Sanctuary Asia's Director Dr. Anish Andheria. I'd like to think that I WILL get around to writing about both someday.

Today, though, I want to write about our college fest - Xuberance in Colours, organized by the Public Relations batch of XIC. A flashy stage with a cool poster in the background and a royal red carpet leading up to it, rows of white chairs neatly lined up, and beautiful pink and blue speckled cloth giving a shamiana type effect, the venue was set for a rocking party. It felt nice to see everybody dressed up for the occasion. Most importantly, it felt nice to get an occasion to dress up for! All my nice clothes are just gathering dust :(

Coming to the fun part of the evening, I performed a group dance with my classmates. While changing in and out of costumes, I missed other performances and that was my biggest regret. But then, nothing can compare with the joy of dancing, especially for such a huge crowd! We danced on a medley and since we didn't do a single dress rehearsal before this, it was a miracle that we all managed to .. let's just say, perform as planned :P I was grinning like an idiot throughout, coz it just felt so damn good.

I watched the other performances and cheered wildly when my favourite teacher won the award for Pied Piper (a teacher whose lecture you'll never miss). Then came the DJ with the most terrible selection of tracks ever and we all said to each other "Itne paise mein itnaich milenga". Food is always the best part of any event and we hogged on paneer, dal makhani, raita, rotis and kulfi! The party was supposed to continue at Big Daddy's, but I came home thanks to a documentary shoot the next day. Moreover, I wanted that part of the evening to be the most fun part. Swaying to Raghav's Leke pehla pehla pyaar and aloo chaat playing in my head, I merrily made my way home, feeling blissful about the wonderful evening! :D

To fleeting moments...

 She stood on the edge, the very edge of the earth. On the cliff of the highest mountain she could find, that overlooked the deepest valley in this world. She looked down on rows of pretty flowers, having names and fragrances unknown to her. A sudden feeling of elation began to creep over her, as she realized... She realized she was growing wings. Wings that would once and for all cut off the strings that held her down. Held her down to what, she did not care to remember. Closer and closer she moved to the tip, feeling more adventurous by the passing minute. Her heart leaped up and settled down, unable to recognize the purest form of ecstasy. 

On tiptoe she now stood, with a naughty smile on her face. She lifted one leg, standing like a ballerina on the smallest edge of the cliff. The anticipation heightened her euphoria. A fleeting moment in time, captured against a purple-orange twilight. The ballerina on one toe, the bird with her wings stretched out. And just like a bunjee jumper, like a daredevil, mischievous bunjee jumper, she stepped off, as if stepping off a curb..

Into the wide abyss that was the valley. And her heart soared, this time not pushing away the pure elation. Her wings spread out and caught a steady wind. She didn't want the wind though, to keep her up. She wanted to beat her wings, to beat them till she could justify the reason she was given them... So she went up, higher and higher, and flapped her wings to her hearts content. Up and above she flew, now free from unknown shackles... After what seemed like an era, she tired, and caught a slight breeze, enough to keep her up..

And she remembered her daredevilry, as she twirled on tip toe, at the edge of the highest mountain, painted against a twilight sky, forever captured in a fleeting moment...

It sucked me in!

After reading this spoof on Twilight, even before I knew what it was, I'd pretty much decided never to stoop to the level of reading such, well let's just say, no-brainer chick lit. Like I'd mentioned in this post, I'm not a big fan of the fantasy world, and I didn't want to be anywhere near an "ordinary girl with no defining characteristics, whom every girl could relate to". Of course, what good is reading about an all-too-perfect Adonis who doesn't even exist in real life? And like I said, vampires?? Urghhh

So it is with great shame that I admit that I did it. I read the damn book. Not only did I read it, I actually liked it. Not only did I like it, I ran over to my neighbour, whom I'd caught reading New Moon, and asked for a copy of it. Not only did I sigh in world-weary disappointment when she said she didn't have it, I jumped three floors high when she offered to give me the movies for all 3 books instead. The shame of it all!

I think the absence of a love life, and the absence of time to go hunting for a good book is responsible for all this. I picked up the book because I didn't have anything else to read. A random chapter told me that I was reading something akin to Mills and Boons. Now this is where the hormones kicked in. Yeah yeah I'm not a teenager anymore, but remember, absence of love life? 

Oh well, the heart likes what it likes. This isn't to say that I completely let down all my defenses and got carried away with 'The Book'. No siree, not a hardened journalist/critical appreciator like me. Throughout the book, I kept making objective observations like, "My god, she doesn't have a life!" or "My God, what a slut!" or "Whooooshhhh I wonder if he has 6 or 8 pack abs?" Err... never mind.

This is a strong example of why its always more fun to read the book than to watch the corresponding movie. The girls will agree with me on this anyway. To make a few comparisons between the book and the movie (I can't believe I'm doing this!), I'd say, Pattinson tried really hard and with a few good camera angles, they got his devilish smile in. Stewart was pathetic. She was nowhere close to the whiny, immature, self-deriding Bella in the book. I don't think she expressed anything except for screaming when that vampire guy broke her leg. 

The Cullens were pretty apt, but somehow I'm imagined them to be much taller than other people. The scene where Edward steps in to defend Bella against James could have been fiercer. I'd imagined them to be transformed almost into animals. I thought the baseball game was damn good in the movie. It was slick and fun. 

Of course they've totally messed around with the story, but that's ok. The only thing that was totally not right was the romance between Edward and Bella. A part of the blame should fall on Stewart because she didn't emote a damn thing. And of course the 2-hour length of the movie didn't give much time for their slow romance to blossom. 

I don't know if its just me, or did Bella's Dad look really young? I actually found him more adorable than Edward! Alright, I've embarassed myself enough now. I've written like a real Twilight fan, *shudder shudder*

I hope I get over the obsession soon. Excuse me now, as I satisfy my bloodlust for New Moon.

Image source: http://www.comingsoon.net/

The sublime confluence..

In a dreamy state of mind,
Her face peeped out the window,
A smile appeared on her lips,
A pretty picture she made,

The cool breeze blew her locks astray,
The sun warmed her countenance,
A shadow of a smile her only acknowledgement,
Of the beautiful contrast between the two,

A thought hopped past in the meadows of her mind,
Of the breeze on her face and the sun in her eyes,
Can anyone looking at me, she wondered,
See this beautiful surprise?

At this point it occurred,
A strange connection between the poet and his muse,
The thought became the girl,
The girl became the poem...

Image source: http://www.123rf.com/photo_4843196_photo-of-pretty-passenger-looking-out-of-train-window-with-wagon-near-by.html

What difference a good vocabulary can make

The original poem:

Oh glorious sleep

Why do you elude me so

At times I haven't deserved

You've engulfed me unreservedly

Now I lie with illnesses aplenty

Reaching out for your healing touch

I toss and turn and sigh and puff

Still you elude me, heart and soul

I tried all remedies,

I sung myself a lullaby,

Still you wont be bewitched

To give me some rest

Stop me from thinking

From bemoaning my sore throat

I have to greet the sun,

As it ushers in a new dawn,

Oh sleep, sweet sleep,

Do not elude me so

My tearful eyes plead to you,

Come to me, hold me in you

 With better vocab,

Oh glorious sleep, why you think me so derisive

When in need, I have found you so elusive

Yet when a reward is not seemly

You’ve engulfed me so unreservedly

Now when I am so rife with illness

Your healing touch is next to godliness

With gasps and sighs, I spend the night

You can take away my pain and my blight

I’ve tried all remedies for this malady

Even tried singing myself a lullaby

Yet you just don’t make an appearance

To remain sane, I call thee with deference

Remove this thought and all this dote

This bemoaning won’t cure my sore throat

The sun will usher in a new day within the hour

I have to start afresh and can’t afford to cower

You’re everyone’s desire yet so delusive

Even at this late hour you aren’t suffusive

I beg for you to take me away

To a land where dreams hold sway

So dear reader, which one's better?
I've written the first one. Since I couldn't get it to rhyme, I asked my friend Chinmay to help me out. He's written the second one. The difference makes me want to pick up a dictionary and absorb it like that robot kid from Small Wonder.


p.s. the image shows how I look when I'm sleeping.. Instead of the duck, it's a dog :D

Image courtesy: http://funnyanimalpictures.net/img-sleeping-cat-1146.htm

Dealing with boredom...

I used to think it's a curse to be bored. I used to chide myself and yell at myself mentally saying, how can you be bored, when there are so many interesting things to learn? Then I'd open some newspaper website and start concentrating on the day's events. For the past two days though, I've been bored beyond belief and beyond relief. No matter how much I tried to coax myself to study, I just couldn't do it. 

I decided to throw caution to the winds, and do whatever I felt like. I started watching Russell Peters shows on youtube. That guy is hilarious! After watching about 10 video clips, I thought that I was sufficiently entertained. It dawned on me much later that, in the process of entertaining myself, I'd come across quite a lot of new information. While watching his videos, one link led to another and I ended up watching his interview with Riz Khan. It's in two parts and you can see it here and here.

I came to know a lot of things about him and about stand-up comedians in general. Moreover, when he said that religion is something he never jokes about or messes with, I had an "Oh yeah" moment. Till that point, I'd never noticed that when he makes fun of peculiarities of cultures and accents, he never makes any references to a religious peculiarity. It made me think, is he scared? The reason he gave is, religion is a personal thing, and he is nobody to tell which religious habits are peculiar and which aren't.

When we watch stand-up comedians perform, we rarely realize the kind of efforts that go into making up the act. They've to always be prepared to get booed down. Or worse, they've to be prepared for no laughter at all. They're under constant pressure to come up with good jokes. And of course, each comedian is only as good as their last performance. Therefore, I was quite amazed to know that Russell has been at this for more than twenty years now, and is still going strong.

I also felt proud when I saw the vast crowds that came to watch him do his act. That struck me as very unusual. Russell is an Indian of Canadian origin. He has never been to India while growing up. In fact, he came to India for the first time to perform when he gained fame. Therefore, it is quite possible that India or Indians had very little to do with his success. Why do we feel pride for Indians based out of India? Ours has been this sort of rags to riches story, where post Independence we were a poor and developing country, with a very low self-confidence. As Indians started becoming visible in the global spotlight, our self-esteem grew, both individually and as a nation. This practice of collective victory for individual achievement is still continuing, as we take every Indian's success as a measure of every Indian's capability to become successful. Every Indian's victory is a personal victory. If he can, then I can too, irrespective of where he has come from.

So I'm happy that I got bored. It made me realize that everything you do, whether its for work or entertainment, has the potential to change your perspective and teach you something new.

I think I should really get back to work now, or else as Russell Peters says, Soma buddy gonna get hurt real baaad! Lol :D

Image source: http://www.indianlifeandstyle.com/ILS-May-June05/fast%20lane.htm

Happy Diwali!

Here's wishing all my readers a very happy diwali. Of all the festivals, this is one festival that I'm always looking forward to. And, of all festivals, this is the only one which I have no idea how to celebrate. I think this is one festival that is fun before it starts. I've always had great fun shopping for a new salwar kameez, persuading my Mom to buy all possible colours for Rangoli and picking out firecrackers with my brother. Isn't it funny, that I keep wondering when I will wear my new salwar kameez, what I will do with all the Rangoli since my drawing is terrible and firecrackers have become an elusive joy thanks to environmental concerns? 

This diwali, I just about managed to do one out of those three, which was buying a new salwar kameez. Firecrackers have been ditched long ago, and Mom bought all the stuff for Rangoli much before I came to Pune for my Diwali vacations. Another thing that I missed out on was buying an Akashkandil. Dude, this is the big one. Although we don't buy one every year, I would have loved to pick one out this year. I remember the great tussle I had with my Mom when we bought the last one. It was a beautiful blue globe that we both finally agreed upon. This year, Mom has picked up a pretty one made of cane.

My Mom used to tell stories about how as children, she and her sisters would wake up at 4:00 am and take baths while members of the household would burst firecrackers outside. I somehow don't see the point of this exercise, especially since I'm on vacation. Wake up at 4:00, take a bath and then do what? Go back to sleep? I must admit though, it is fun roaming around in Pune during Diwali. All the shops are lit up by strings of lights. The Akashkandil stalls are a sight to behold and I get tempted at every diya stall to spend from my fast-diminishing account. 

Apart from hogging on faraal and meeting relatives, I don't really know how to celebrate Diwali.. Anybody willing to help me?