Saying goodbyes...

Past day and a half I've been more than cranky, highly sarcastic and in short having a major uncontrolled mood swing. No reason why. Atleast none I can point fingers at.
One big contributor to my self induced misery is me cleaning out my wardrobe to make way for the huge bunch I've gotten home from the hostel. No there isn't space in my cupboard to keep em all. Yes I've worn every single one of them atleast once. 

That's the thing. The atleast once bit. There are so many clothes in my cupboard I haven't worn more than once yet I couldn't throw. I'll slim down to fit in properly. There'll be an occassion to wear it again soon. It's winter fabric in a summer style. Just few of my reasons to never let go. These were the first to go today. I swooped'em clean. I still looked longingly as if I'd miraculously find a slimming potion and a social life to match. Bah!

The toughest were the ones I've worn so much they've worn thin! The pain in letting my favourite purple shirt go coz it now has little nail holes in it and my parents wouldn't let me wear it outside of this house. Not even in the hostel. The heartache of letting the favourite summer dress go because I was being cruel to me. I'm highly masochistic and I keep doing this to myself ever so often. The most worn pair of ill-fitting shorts because well, they're ill fitting! And so many more clothes I love. Loved.

So how did I do it? There's a pattern I recognised. These loved pieces of clothing hadn't been worn in the past two years I wasn't home. I'd gotten used to a new set of clothes that made my wardrobe in XL. So I could give these away with less pain. The thing is I'd be able to give away my XL clothes far more easily but that's coz I don't love any of them at all! Something about being a child and an adut.

It's not surprising I use this same philosophy everytime I have to say goodbye. I guess most people do. The longer you're out of sight, the easier you are to get out of mind. That's how I live. I never say goodbye. If you're meant to remain in my life, I'll meet you, call you, email you whatever. If you aren't, you wouldn't even remember me.

Agneepath: A review

Theme: Gore, Violence, Revenge

Treatment: Take a two cups of LOTR, mix in some Rambo as per taste, add three spoons of Harry Potter and sprinkle with KJo glamour.

Ok so clearly the movie didn't inspire me to sing praises. At a running time of almost 3hours, the songs are a painful addition that could've and should've been done away with.

The movie otherwise was well made, had superb cinematography and some brilliant performances!

The best was definitely Rishi Kapoor. One of his most evil roles but the emotions displayed is just marvellous. He is a doting father, a ruthless flesh trader, a shrewd drug lord and an undying old man. He speaks volumes through his kajrari eyes. Hay!

Sanjay Dutt was well menacing. And he was supposed to be. All through the movie I was only distracted by his striking similarity to Gollum!

The ladies were unnecessary. Priyanka Chopra should be adopted by Colgate. All she did in the entire movie was dance, be hyper, try and show off her cleavage and grin like an idiot. Katrina Kaif was even worse! What the hell was she thinking?! No wait, I'm sure she wasn't thinking. I was disgusted when Sheela ki Jawani hit the market and since then nothing seems to appear sleazy to me anymore. Looks like the censor board is sleeping.

Hrithik Roshan was well, ahem. LOL. The threatre I went to in Jamshedpur had men whistling and clapping at random scenes. When Hrithik took his shirt off, my girl friends and I clapped! My paisa-wasool moment. LOL. On a serious note, he's done well. His angry expressions haven't changed much from the days of "Kaho naa Pyar hai" and his dialogues were so soft it was as if he was mumbling. But otherwise,as a beef cake and an actor he was pretty impressive.

Now the classic moment of the movie: During the song "chikni chameli" Katrina Kaif lights a bidi. This scene, occuring thrice in the song, carries an english subtitle saying "Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health". The very next shot has Sanjay Dutt smoking up from a chillum. That's not to mention the amount of cocaine being snuffed in the entire movie. Hats off to the Censor Board of India.

My Lifelong Love....

I hereby declare my lifelong love for SHOES!

Heels, flats, pumps, peep-toes, wedges, ballets, sneakers, loafers, basketball shoes, sandals, slippers, stilettos, platforms, gladiators and Mary-Janes. I've had them all and currently have many of them. I just adore each one them and will adore the one I am yet to buy.

To put thing into perspective for me I'll borrow Mahi's statement. Just for reference Mahi was a character in a sitcom on TV. She once explained and I quote, " I love my shoes because of irrespective of how fat I become, my shoes will always fit me like a dream.". And to think all this while I thought I was the only one who thought like this!

Many people have asked me how many pair of shoes I own and each time I wonder if I really have that many. It never felt like too many to me, ever. I just clicked my 5most worn pairs at XL for perspective and there are exactly 5more sitting in the shoes rack waiting for their occasion. And these are only the ones I brought with me to the hostel. Ones at home would add some 5-6more at most. There i have some 15pairs of shoes. That's not much, is it? It barely covers enough for every type of occasion.

Looking back I think my love for collecting shoes began with having such a unique shoe size. I wear a size 42. That's big even by international standards, forget Indian. So understandably I have always had a trouble buying shoes that fit me, in designs that I like and prices I can afford. Till date everytime I go shopping I keep an eye out for a good deal in a sturdy or pretty(as my frame of mind maybe) pair of shoes. And considering my size and all, it isn't every trip that I find something I want or need.


But I still look out for them and I always have a few on my wishlist!

2011, A memoir

Another year is coming to a close. Today on Google I came across this video on the year that was and is for another 16days.



Thinking about what it did to me, I can safely say it was a year of experiences and it made a whole new dimension of me.

I finally found my feet in the b-school and made peace with my new life, interned at one of the most iconic brands of the world-Coca Cola, met a nice bunch of people there and was reassured that this was indeed what I wish to do in my life for real, traveled business class and then by unreserved in the same day to just meet my family for a day, discovered pleasure, got my first lipstick, my first Roberto Cavalli shades, adopted pets and then lost them to nature, experienced real fear while waiting outside an operation theatre and realised what it is to be strong for another.

This year has been like none other for me. Simply amazing.

My favourite moments:

Mumbai Trip, June 2011; @bandra bandstand

My 23rd, Feb 16; @jsr

My 23rd, Feb 16; @jsr

My 23rd, Feb 16; @jsr

@chandil dam

feb; @bhopal

ladies; feb; @bhopal

Layla and Raphael...my angel fish. RIP

Akshita, twisha, I, shweta, shriya; day of batch photo

Areshdeep, I, aditya, twisha

Teej@XL

scary me @maxi junior's treat; august 11

OOH advertising for MAXI Mindscapes:dimensions of sports marketing

Return to Dasam falls, diwali day, 26 oct 11

mela@jsr, oct 16, 2011

bike trip to ghatshila

Tinkerbell&I

Glutton Discovery

For a random errand, SN and I went to the market pretty late today. I had a class till 5:30 so it wasn't until 6:15 that we finally left for Sakchi. Give or take 30-40minutes that we took to find the required shop and buy the things needed, we were leaving the market from the exit closer to Tata Steel when a strong smell caught our attention. Now we being foodies immediately recognised this aroma as that of fresh roasted chicken and after nothing in sight, we gave up on what promised to be a delectable suprise.

But suprise it turned out to be! Right behind the auto stand was a thela surrounded by people and no prizes for guessing where the aroma was coming from. Couldn't stop ourselves from exploring and we actually found a decent crowd, well behaved and the shop owner treated us like premium princesses(which effectively we probably were). I still don't know if it was cheap or expensive, but sounded attractive to me and his turnover speed suggested that the food was definitely fresh and add to that, the barbeque was right there for all to see!

He picked out fresh pieces of marinated breast pieces in front of us and started to slowly let it char on the smoldering charcoals. Definitely not just another roasted chicken.

Being a Delhi dame, roasted chicken is same as tandoori chicken to me. Not anymore. This was real barbequed chicken and because of certain unavoidable circumstances, it was consumed almost 4hours after purchase and I must say this...it was still soft, juicy and delectible!

I'm so going to recommend it to anyone who had no qualms of admitting that street food can indeed be delicious and hygienic(as much as possible)!

Finally Jamshedpur is playing its magic on me!

ps: check location of this post for exact place!

Oh India!

I for one fell in love when I was very young. Given the environment at home with a very religious nani, an unquestioning devotee as mommy, a rational believer as a father and encyclopedias as companions, I fell in love with the whole world of powerful characters that some dismiss as mythology and some revere as religion. My love was fed from all quarters and all regions of the world. My mother gave me stories of my land, my books gave me stories of Greece and Rome and my dad gave me the platform to rationalise, debate and admire. Till date I love to hear new perspectives on the same characters, new insights on what possibly drove them and discovering subtle implications of all this in our lives. More so in the life of a modern open source believer-a practicing Hindu.

The Navaratras have just gone by. Durga Puja pandals are still being dismantled across the city here in Jamshedpur. Festivities have only just begun, as Diwali is less than 20days away. I couldn't go witness the grandeur of a pandal this year and I shall regret that. But to compensate it all, I went to the next best thing-a Ravan Dahan Mahotsav.

Ironic how the most pious days of any religion come in the historical period of blood shed and death. It may be the 'evil' blood being spilled, but it is blood nonetheless. Muslims have the Ramadan, Hindus have the Navaratras! Both had their God/Goddess fight evil and conquer it. Both have their holy days. But I'm digressing.

Coming back to what I was hoping to write on was that the Ravan dahan mahotsav got me thinking. It was only my second time at the event and the last time I went there it was with my parents and I was hardly 8 or 9 years old. This time I was with my classmates and the whole environment though festive did not seep in. But it was fun and it was a much needed outing. And it got me intersted in what my father had told me about the whole Ravan burning exercise. As it happens, in some part of the country, there are tribes who do not believe in celebrating this victory of good over evil and do not burn Ravan's effigies. Why? Well, because Mandodri belonged to their tribe! Interesting implications to life, no?

Today a newspaper on the newstand outside the mess caught my eye simoly because it spoke of something similar. There happens to be a tribe in the Chota Nagpur plateau region that does not believe in festivities of the Navratras but instead treats it as a period of mourning! They consider themselves decendants of Mahishasur who was the chief demon to be slayed by Devi in this nine day period and they think the mythology is unfairly skewed against them. Here's the news item: http://business-standard.com/india/news/the-demons-brood/451796/

Bollywood connection

It's was another boring day here on campus when a friend's status message popped up on Gtalk with a youtube link and a time. Scrolling down to that exact second I saw something that made me laugh and, in a weird way, proud.
What was it, you ask? The screen shot below is what got me rolling in mirth. You see, the books on the screen are our course specific readings, bound together and given to us each term by the profs. Everyone who's been at xlri at some point, has I'm sure seen these handouts. And when they make it to a random shot in a more random Akshay Kumar movie, it just goes to show there's an Xler somewhere behind that camera. And that makes me happy :)
Oh and another funny coincidence-Prof Sharad Sarin is teaching me this term! So you see, I have a super famous prof :D

XLRI course handouts feature in a bollywood movie!