Honour

My latest addiction is Grey's Anatomy. Nothing exceptional about it. Star World just airs it at a convenient time and like everyother drama series, it is addictive.

Last night's episode had something a character, Mama Burke, said. It goes like this:

Do you know when to walk away? Do you know when not to take less than you deserve, if you do, then you’re an honorable man
 

It stayed with me enought to blog about it. I don't think I qualify as honourable really most of the times according to this definition. But I also think it needs more to be added to what constitutes honourable.

So I asked a friend. He thinks you qualify as honorable if you stand tall to what you have decided or promised to achieve/do. And you achieve without compromising yourself or your values. At night wen you sleep without any guilt of having not put effort ..you're an honourable man. You sacrifice when needed and grab when desired ..honourable.

Touching really. But big holes for me to fall into. To me honour is simpler yet strikingly similar. Believe in something, stand for that, dodge the bullets, get shot, bleed a little, know something's protected, look in the mirror and be able to look yourself in your eyes.

But I like what the GA's character said about knowing what you deserve. About knowing your self-worth and knowing when to walk away. It's the hardest, this decision to live alone, to break away. But is it our upbringing that keeps us from not wanting isolation or living alone or is it something else?

Ironies that face you

Ironies often stand in front of you, facing you, taunting you. I am facing one right now. I love marketing. I love to do it. But a current marketing phenomenon is irking me to no end. Here are samples of why.

 

 

Karwa Chauth. A day that was special because mom dressed in her wedding finery and I got to play with her silks. A day that was like any other except we'd go moon hunting for ma. A day we'd get puris and kheer. Then came Karan Johar.

I hadn't seen half the fanfare shown in Bollywood happening anywhere around me. And to come to think of it, Karwa Chauth is a festival native to my homeland! It's an out and out north Indian festival holding religious significance in UP, Bihar and the ilk. Punjabis just did the pooja in a community like every other festival. Bollywood then made it a party.

Last few years I have seen this day being transformed into an Indian contribution to the gifting industry. I'd always read about what happened to Mother's Day from its humble beginnings, Valentine's Day from its clandestine marriages and creation of days left, right and centre. To see it happening to this somehow, somewhere touched an irritated nerve in me. I am supposed to marvel and learn how to create such amazing platforms for brands. I am supposed to understand consumer behaviour and how to best exploit it. But when I am a consumer, I find it intrusive, exploitive and damn right irritating. And this is irony.

The beginning and end of an age

This past Sunday had a couple of important firsts for me. My first Sunday in Mumbai as a member of the workforce. The Sunday when my mother discovered my first grey hair.
Marks a landmark of sorts for me

Living Alone

Each time I thought about it or anyone asked me about it, I was so confident I'd take to it like a fish to water. As of this moment, I am not so sure.

I left home on June 12, 2012, today is Aug 15. I live alone in a serviced apartment and I work 6days a week. The 6days I go to office, I want a day off. The day I stay back, I wish there was work I could finish. Everything I do, I want to call someone and tell them. I have never wanted to do that before. I have never wished I was not alone.

To me living alone was the ultimate sign of making it in life as a single working woman. I wanted that scene of a coffee cup, a sofa and rain pelting a french window to happen for me too. Now when it rains in Pune and I sit on the window sill to watch it clean the greenery, I wish I'd asked for something else. Asked for what though, I do not know.

I always thought since my parents had pulled it off, I would obviously adapt. I craved for it. I told myself everytime...this is what I want. As of this moment, I am not so confident.

I am now waiting for the learning curve to flatten. I am waiting for the feeling to become me. So that next time it rains and I have a hot cup of tea in my hands, I can smile and say..this is indeed life, my way.

London Paris NewYork: A Review

Theme: Romance

Treatment: Fresh, for Bollywood

Verdict: Like

Admittedly the movie in question isn't one of the latest releases of this week or even this month but I finally came around to watching the movie at leisure and with a lot of excitement. The movie in question had appealed as a cute-meet romance with a cute lead pair and hummable music.

The music gets my thumbs up. Ali Zafar did a good job with all his songs, except one insane punjabi dance track in a London pub. This movie is the first in a long long time where I did not want to forward the songs while watching the movie in a format that allows me to.

Coming to the movie, the format is greatly inspired by the two lovely movies called 'Before Sunrise' and 'Before Sunset'. I'm not even sure inspired is a word for it...it is exactly the same! You see no one else except our lead pair throughout the movie(one guest appearance not withstanding) and they talk, make faces, sing, dance, take you around pretty cities and make love.

So where does it falter exactly? I'd say it suffers from major cliches, though underplayed. The biggest drawback is that it isn't a mainstream Bollywood flick but wanted to be one. Suffering from a bad positioning and a wannabe attitude, took this film down.

Watch it not as a usual Bollywood, not as the serious art types but a sweet romance that is cliched yet true.

Make some more movies like this Anu Menon!

Breaking conventions

I was happily stumbling away this afternoon when I came across this post on the uber feminine Disney princesses which had transformed the childhood darlings into these goth punks. It made me wonder if breaking convention was a possibility at all.

The original author of that post claims to be a fierce feminist and proclaims that our perception of beauty and all related paraphernalia was distorted by convention and hence she decided to redo the Disney handiwork to create individualistic princesses. Oh really? How come they all have unnecessary piercings and similar tattoos then? One convention into another.

Isn't it true then that everything, or at least almost everything is a convention? The sophisticated socialite will always have a perfect manicure and a forced delicate demeanour. The corporate swash buckler will always have a fancy phone/car/gadget and a wardrobe full of monotones. The geeky teenager will always have big glasses and know everything about some obscure topic. God! They may be stereotypes, but look inside, look outside, somewhere some part of us, is always so typical!

Breaking away then it seems is a hard job. One risks being an outcast besides being ridiculed. No wonder they say humans are social beings. We lay too much importance on society and what it might think of us.

But one has to agree that breaking away from convention gives a sense of delight and freedom that nothing else can replace. To have not read Harry Potter just because people were breathing, sleeping and eating it. To not obey illogical diktats and do as one pleases. Just a few little rebellions that many of us have done.

Health food attempt 1: Bran cookies

Purpose: To make myself "healthy" snacking options

Proposed item: Bran cookies

Ingredients: 3tablespoons of bran
                 2-3 tablespoons of yoghurt
                 1egg
                 1teaspoon baking powder
                 1teaspoon sugar

Process: Preheat oven to 180degrees
             Mix everything together
             Pour into mould
             Bake for 15mins at 180degrees
             Flip cookies and rebake for 15mins

Recipe source: http://mydukandiet.com/recipes/oat-bran-cookies.html

Adaptations: Used wheat bran instead of oat bran as in the recipe. This is because I had wheat bran at home. Plus used curd instead of yogurt.

Observation: The batter was too little in quantity and actually made just four 3inch cookies

Verdict: The cookies didnt come out as I had hoped. Even after the flipping and browning bit, it was way too soft inside to appeal as a cookie. Might make a better cupcake/muffin. Also needed more sugar.

Way forward: Will try another recipe with all the wheat bran I have at home. This recipe didn't come out as the picture suggested and also the taste was too powdery for me. This was my first time with anything made out of wheat bran and obviously I'm not used to the taste. Maybe that and the lack of enough sweetner explains why I didn't like my creation one bit. Never happened to me before.

Funnily wheat bran is my current muse because we got a box free with the box of oats we bought for dad's breakfast. Since bran is not something an Indian would ever eat out of free will and common sense, our little box had been lying sealed. Our food has enough fibre in it to not need additional additives, especially the farm waste, as my grandma referred to bran as.

Technically it is the same thing as the fodder fed to cattle isn't it? Hmm. Food for thought. And cattle. LOL!

Stumble finds

Stumble-upon.com is seriously amazing for the kind of things it throws at me just to keep me from dying out of boredom. My latest find is worth a share here. The real link is http://img3i.www.spoki.lv/upload/articles/37/379524/images/Gifs-4.gif

The knotty knot

What is it with people around you that think life gets suddenly, overnight complete the day you marry? What's the big deal about marriage anyway? These days, sometimes in their entirety, I contemplate what is marriage all about. Why should I do this whole ritual and what will change for me? I admit I absolutely adore weddings! I mean who doesn't? But seriously, why marriage?

I am no closer to an answer. I have asked around; those who are married, bless their marriage, and those wishing they were married, but I am still not convinced on their logic. And to further derail my inclination towards it, I have a whole bunch of people asking me about it. It's not an age related landmark like puberty! But, sigh, they believe it is. And none is the wiser about why marriage.

There are certain givens about marriages. It draws on a curtain on human promiscuity and ensures children know their parentage for sure. It provides a degree of companionship, understanding and emotional support, though I seem to see the complete opposite in most marriages. It gives another person legal and medical rights to take decisions for you. The last one I read in some relationship column in Mint. So that's it. Hmm.

One thing became clear to me tonight about marriage, arranged marriage at least. It draws on a society's desire to protect itself and isolate and promote its culture. Any civilization that has evolved enough to have overcome the basics of food, shelter and clothing and has amassed wealth starts moving towards the whole arranged marriage concept. They do not want to "dilute the bloodlines". They want to "keep to their kind". In short, they're paranoid of losing their cultural identity into someone else's and giving away their wealth to the not-so-wealthy. That's why the business class will marry their children early and within their society. That is why the royal blue blood retains the genes that are killing them now! It's cultural paranoia!

It's clearly visible why an average, considered uncultured, American would always support a love match vis a vis an old moneyed European who a family lineage as long as the Mississippi! This is why a traditional Indian family would squirm at the thought of a cross cultural match as compared to the more disconnected "modern" American spin offs in the cities!

But at the end of the day, it is paranoia. If not then tell me why.

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.