a house on the river.

in the gulf news today, there was an article about an investor who while surfing online found this real estate website of dubai allowing him to make his purchase online and get a loan within minutes. apparently he rushed out, saw the building, rushed back home and bought two appartments. without even looking inside. wish, i could make such kind of go-with-the-gut-feeling on the spot decisions. anyway, for us its more like a think-think-think-keep-thinking-until-everything-is-gone. then we make the chalang. sadly, sometimes in an empty kuwa =) (well). the problem is everything is super expensive, and the property market in dxb is quite volatile. the laws arent too clear either. so naturally we are a little apprehensive.

at burjuman last week, we passed by the wild wadi real estate stall. which is quite an ambitious project. theres a prehistoric theme park, which will feature lifesize dinosaurs. i think thats very cool. but lot of pple think its just bunch of stuffed animals in a wide area. hmm. only time will tell, if this turns out successful. in the end, its risk is what it comes down to. if the risk pays off you strike gold, if it doesnt you fall down and try again.

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how bizarre, how bizarre

at the gym this song by OMC released in 1996 came on, on one of the televisions. This was one of my favourite songs growing up and i havent heard it in eons and when it came on i couldnt help but laughing even though some pple stared at me weirdly. i remember i used to sing this song and make my younger sister and our bai (the housemaid) sing the chorus/backup part. "everytime i look around" and the "how bizarre". and most of the time the bai was the most sportif of the two. she would happily and enthusiastically sing although she couldnt understand a word. hahaahh.

i love youtube for allowing someone to post it. enjoy!
P.S the guy at the back of the car makes me laugh. he just sits there and just nods his head throughout the song

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kabhi kabhi

according to nanima kei nukseis, one should eat an apple with its skin a day to cure anger. there are some who say count to 10. and then theres some who say drink a glass of chilled water. i wonder how many pple actually do these things when they are angry, or remember to do them. and i wonder if they actually work,if they do. the sad part is when one is angry one is just egged on by this piercing feeling in ones heart and one tends to say something which might hurt the other person as well. things said in the heat of the moment, which you may not mean. in moments of peace, that same piercing feeling turns into twinges of regret. its not hard to apologize when one is wrong or even when one is partially wrong. but its so much harder to apologize when one is completely right.

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ab ayega maza

Gabbar : teraa kya hoga kaaliyaa?
Kaliya: ssardar... maine aapkaa namak khaayaa hai sardaar..
Gabbar: ab.. goli kha
- Sholay

funny clips from the comedy show. spoofs of scene in sholay with gabbar singh and his chelas.












not to forget the original scene.

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apney mein hi koya rehta hoon

Aadhi Aadhi Puri Khwaishein
Tooti Phooti Sab Farmaaishein

Kisi Ki Duniya Chaahat Mein Barbaad Hai
Ya Rabba De De Koi Jaan Bhi Agar
Dilbar Pe Ho Na, Dilbar Pe Ho Na Koi Asar Ho
Ya Rabba De De Koi Jaan Bhi Agar
Dilbar Pe Ho Na, Dilbar Pe Ho Na Koi Asar

Half filled desires
and broken requests

Someones life is destroyed in love
Dear God even if one were to take their life
It would have no effect, no effect on ones beloved

- Ya Rabba (Salaam-e-Ishq) (Translation is not too good)

i cannot believe how much the above movie sucked. i didnt think kal ho na ho was a master piece but i thought there were some creative and funny moments in it, so i expected better considering the huge star cast. but it was bad bad and bad. first of all he shouldnt have had 6 couples, a three hour 40 minute movie is just too too much. of all the couples i liked govinda and shannon esra. but of course they had to go and make it super cheesy in the end. why would the gori like the hindi speaking cab driver. i mean sure you can like him but not like like him. you have to be able to communicate. wat happens in the end how does he fend for both of them. what does she do when they get married. ok, maybe im too practical. but watever its a lot of crap. but in general i thought they were endearing. john and vidya are good too. they didnt really have much to do, but at least they looked sincere. juhi chawla has the same birthday as me so obviously im biased. and ayesha takia has been one of my favorites since the movie socha na tha. which i liked. major disapointments were priyanka chopra and salman khan, with his super fake accent. will someone pls remind him he is from no angle an angreiz. plus their story was so stupid. and for some reason nikhil advani has an obsession with karan johar. coz apparently getting a johar film is the biggest thing that can happen to any actor. i only liked kuch kuch of his, the rest were simply ads for glycerine. only rhona dhona.

ok who else? sohail khan and isha. i have no words. lets leave it at that.

theres more. akshay khanna. i think hes a good actor but just went over the top in this movie. i blame the director.

anyway it wasnt fun watching this movie, not only coz the movie was bad. i didnt have any interesting notes to write either. the title song is good though. and before i watch any movie i have a certain picture of how the song is shot. and when i listen to a song i like, i daydream on how it would be. the actual picturization of the song was totally different. and not good different. in addition, the couple behind were so loud. the guy kept singing along. if you are going to do that, please wait for the dvd to come out and watch it at your own place. and if he sounded even a little like kailash kher, i would be OK with it. i can compromise. but no. HE thought he did. and then there was the guy with the navjot sidhu complex on the right. he kept laughing at every single stupid thing. and not like mild giggling but those real loud guffaws filled with snorts and all and then kept hitting his friend who was on his side during every scene. i mean that. every scene. either i have a terrible sense of humor or am thick and just dont get it. i didnt find the movie funny at all. if i was his friend i would have punched him. hell, i wasnt even his friend and wanted to punch him. and then those parents who bring their 2 month year olds to the theatre. seriously, as much as you would like them to get with the pop culture already. it can wait. then there are those who tell their whole dincharya(whole day's ongoings) to their friend (again poor friend). and i can understand if you are saying something about the movie and there has been times that people around make funny comments about the movie and it is funny and you laugh too. but how is what happened at the work place relevant. for that children, you have a coffee shop not a theatre.

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kahani ghar ghar ki

my parents professor and his wife (aka aunty) are visiting. they must be 80+. but are still one of the most active people i have ever met. mashallah. they've been in dubai for 3 days but have seen practically all of it. even more than i would have ever seen. they are great company too. they are well versed in obviously medicine, but not only that in politics, culture, religion, geography and even pop culture. it felt almost like im talking to a colleague. not a barei buzurg.

on a side note i was listening to the radio today and the presenter was talking about moving process and how much of a pain it is (i agree) . anyway they asked listeners to sms their moving story. and some guy smsed saying they moved everything in their house but their nani who was sitting in the wheel chair. they forgot about her and until they reached the new house they were like wheres nani. so sad. they did mention they felt guilty later on and treated the nani. but it is quite sad and scary that a day could happen where your existence doesnt count at all to your children. and whether you are there or not there it makes no difference. sorry, i know im sounding very baghban-y. cant help it. it was on tv yest afternoon and all these occurences.

so anyway back to my story. so conversation was not dry or dull not even for a moment. there are things i learnt just my observing them. theyve been married for 50 years or so. im guessing from their age and their childrens age. and has been practicing medicine that many years too. and have accumulated enough of wealth but are still so simple in their demeanour and so respectful of each other. and the husband (aka doctor) has no interest in buying anything for himself and aunty was like i have to buy for him. im not saying that the new age metrosexual male who spends on himself is doing anything wrong. just its a little sweet that someone can be selfless like that.

anyway, that was one thing the other is the comfort one shares and that other people can sense in a couple that has been so many years together. then theres the josh in the awaz that one can see when you talk about your profession, even after so many years. you arent jaded, or cynical about office politics, mean spirited people etc. the doctors clinic is situated in a quite old building in Dadar in mumbai and the building has been there for maybe 60 years or so and is in quite a bad condition. however, since they have rent control and a maintenance fee control . the maintenace comes up to 30 rs a month. which is practically peanuts. so the landlord has no incentive watsoever to maintain it. many a times even though u know the situation you are so prone to cribbing but theres no cribbing from the docs side. just an acceptance.

then there was the conversation about living and loving mumbai, despite the traffic, pollution and over population. when the mumbai floods hit the kind of spirit that mumbai showed was so different from when hurricane katrina happened in the US. lastly theres their tragic story of their son who went to do his postgraduation in journalism in the US and passed away at a young age. its so easy to become disheartened and i often do. but when you see people like this who make you realize that you should be grateful for everything you have and should appreciate life as it comes.

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happy republic day.

one of these years on this particular day im going to be in new delhi sitting and watching the parade in real time. that too in the bee sunglasses. this trend (bee glasses) has got my mom quite happy that her zamanei kei sunglasses are in again. and many years ago those same pairs that made me cringe now are like hmm these arent so bad. however no matter how much fashion changes, if ever the pahar jaisa hairstyle becomes in, i will not follow. anyway, 26 jan in dxb when we were kids wasnt whole lot of fun. we would go to this indian assoc event every year as my parents were members and children from other schools would have these dance performances in different languages, basically from all over different parts of india. and there would be gazillion dance performances. they ended up looking all the same to me. and i suppose as a kid you dont really appreciate these things its only when you get much older. me and my sister would spend most of the time playing rock paper scissors and sadly we missed out on being more culturally inclined.

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eet ka jawab eet

NDTV india has their own poll going on with the nithari case. An angry mob attacked the accused while the police was protecting them. So now the issue is not whether this child kidnapping/rape/illegal-organ-trade done by the accused was correct but whether the public taking the law into their hand is justified. wat rubbish. 77% think so. if it were your child, assault dur ki baat you would never leave them.

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salute the chef

feeling overtly adventurous today i decided to make seekh kabab for dinner. and that too from scratch. and by scratch i mean not calling daily restaurant and making one plate order. its pretty simple. and anyone interested in trying this at home. you may do so. of course at own risk. if it sucks blame the chef.

wash the minced meat(keema)
cut onions into small pieces, fry until crisp.
mix the onions with garlic, ginger, garam masala, salt, cut chilis, cheddar cheese, and malai with the minced meat.
crushed kajus (cashewnuts)
allow to marinate for an hour
put on hot skewers
and tada we're done.

we were supposed to put raw papaya paste(whatever thats supposed to mean) but decided not to. way too much risk. why would anyone put papaya in seek kabab. but what do i know. like mostly with our cooking, we tend to put 'jo maan chaha'. and whenever me and my roommate used to cook, we used to put everything and anything in the food. to the point where everything tasted exactly the same. to the point where chicken curry tastes like rajma. very sad.

moving tracks, KBC with SRK finally started. I think Bachan was so much better. SRK is so sarcastic at times and is not as gracious as the senior Bachan. Perhaps it comes with age. or perhaps hes nervous and ends up being a little over the top. oh wait, that is SRK's speciality. The second contestant on the show a doctor had such weird aspirations. with the 2 crores he wanted to make a movie with george clooney. err... i dont even think thats even 1% of clooney's fees. and secondly why would you say that to SRK, of all people. that is just stupid. at least theres one good thing about SRK he doesnt create unnecessary suspense and drama.

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guru. villager. visionary. winner.

naam kya tha tumhara
tha, nahin. hai. aur rahega. gurukant desai.

we went to watch mani ratnam's guru yesterday and it is excellent. it is probably one of the best hindi movies i have seen ever. and i have seen a loooot of hindi movies. abhishek bachan gives his best performance to date. when you watch the movie you arent really watching abhishek you are watching gurukant desai. a villager who makes it big because he wants to. there are two kinds of pple in this world: those who accept things the way they are, and those who make other pple accept the way you want them to be. one of the things i observed in this movie and successful people alike, its not really hardwork and intelligence which gets you there. it gets you a long way. but its not what makes you the leader or rather the visionary. its the charisma you hold that makes you or breaks you. if you have the charismatic nature to charm someone, anyone and everyone -that is what makes you. i tend to write notes down in my notepad when im watching a movie. recently ive started to do that. and it annoys friends and my family like anything. but it just reminds me why i like the movie so much. guru has a lot of awesome one liners. anyway ill paraphrase. in the speech at the end of his private hearing.

gurukant desai aap kuch kehna chayengei.
mein ek hi cheez kehna chahtoon hoon..namaste.

u cant help but smile at that. the scene where aishwarya rai and abhishekh hit each other playfully, that is one of the cutest and most natural scenes. i think most of their scenes together are quite good. aishwarya rai rocks in this movie. her role as the emotional support system of guru is quite commendable. and she delivers. apparently this movie is based on dhirubai ambani and his wife.

[at the train station, when abhishekh is leaving for bombay and aishwarya rai who first refuses to go with him is like dont go and wants to go with him]

ar: mat jao.
ab: kya?
ar: ek baar hi poocha tha anei kei liyei, dusri baar pooch nahin saktei
ab: mujhei laga tumhei ana nahin hai...samaan kahan hei tumharei paas.
ar: char saariyan khareed nahin saktei mere liyei
ab: [standing in the train now smiling]..[gets off stands on the platform]..chal.

this so beautiful captures a women's mentality. where you say something and mean something else. haha. and then when she gets pissed and says you can't buy 4 sarees for me. almost like its his fault that her luggage isnt there and it wasn't her that decided initially not to go. and then he goes ok come and thats really sweet. and throughout the movie she is there by his side. and when they go into flashback sitting on the jhula (swing). i always wonder why all gujuratis have a jhula in their house. neway, and he asks her how do i look to you now, not as a thief rite? and she goes no you weren't a thief and youll never will be. its just really emo and sweet. wat can i say, im a sucker for sappy movies.

i think mithunda in his gandhian avatar is great, as well and it just reminds me why he is still considered one of the greatest actors of the time. its a pity u dont get good movies to show your skill. almost like doing a stuck in the rut 9-5 job and never being allowed to grow. he has the best one liners in the movie and i cant remember. otherwise my gushing would go and on and on.

vidya balan and madhavan have small roles but they do it with utmost sincerity. madhavan apparently had to loose 10 kilos for this role. parts of it is really sad. the last scene where abhishek gets a stroke and has paralysis and his kids come to the hospital and are touching his cheek. its such a touching shot. and all of them, especially abhishekh, have done beautifully. his mannerisms, the glasses, the potbelly everything is to the T.

this movie reminds me so much of my dad, my dad came to dubai with one suitcase. dubai was all sand that time, before the oil boom. my parents took the risk and set up their clinic. not knowing whether they would do well or not and and mashallah now they are well known. but they took a big risk to leave the hospital and move into private practice. and were discouraged as well, that it is madness and how they would compete. but they worked very very hard. and i know that everything that me and my siblings have achieved today is only becoz of them. and like gurukant whose favorite saying was mujhei na samaj mein nahin ata, my dads favourite saying was the word impossible is not in my dictionary.

everyone should go watch this movie at least once.

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coz theres always a critic

so its been in the news and a lot of blogs ive been reading talk about the new muslim series : little mosque at the prairie. it got my curiosity and i ended up watching the first two episodes on youtube. some of the parts you can clearly identify with. in mecca muslims pray side by side, or behind each other, but in many of the mosques in US there is a partition, or different rooms. in dubai, its not the norm for women at least in my family to go to the mosque and pray unless you are outside or something. but its not like we have to pray with the jamaat.

neway, the show is strictly ok. but it does touch upon many issues of hypocrisy which is evident. i remember this mosque in philly, that me and my sister used to go to on the weekends. it was a two storey villa kinds. and the bottom was for the men and the top floor was for the female. if a lecturer came in to give a speech or something, and had powerpoint slides to show. we would be allowed to sit in the backroom on the bottom floor. where nothign would be visible. it just irritated me like anything. and it happened once that we were sitting on the first floor and we were told to come down and watch the presentation and we asked these bunch of ladies to come down as well. two of them refused and said "wahan aadmi hai"..err..okaaayy..and this is the same person we saw in the supermarket a week ago. and at the movies too. double standards really irritate me. then there are kids. and sure kids are kids. but theres always bunch of kids who run around the praying area. and parents should at least say something to them. but they dont. and sometimes the husband should volunteer to keep the kids with him during prayer time. its only fair. ure wife needs a break too, you know. but nahin, he would then become 'biwi ka ghulam', no?

and this is the best, after the speech/sermon you are allowed to ask the imam questions but the women have to write their questions down on paper, can't simply ask their questions in the mike. after which some kid will get it from the woman section. and then some dude will read it. and then the imam will read it out. wat crap. and at least the times i visited and sat in through the lectures, no woman ever asked anything. finally i eventually mustered up enough courage to ask. i remember one of my questions coz i never really got an appropriate answer. and coz everyone was staring at me. this was on the imams slides: that one should be scared of the day of judgment and scared of God's wrath which is why we should be good muslims. my question was pretty simple, why should we do all this coz we are scared shouldnt it be for the love of God, rather. while scribblign my question down, coz im only a closet rebel. I mean i could have gotten up and gone to the male section and taken the mike and read out my question. but im a chicken and its only pointless cribbing. and coz my sister kept going dont ask anythign blasphemous and dont do anything stupid coz I (as in me) will leave but she (as in my sister) still has to go back there. anyway, the imam liked my question but never really answered it. there were some other questions i asked, which i cant remember. mostly the guys asked "is hijab obligatory". although, it really it has nothing to do with them. and whether "smoking is haram". i dont know what the solution to this problem is and i honestly think the problem is too often with the culture. which is mistaken for religion.

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q.u.i.d.a.m

so we went to see cirque de soleil's quidam show. and it was awesome. the troupe was super flexible, something which only i can dream of! and i cant imagine how much effort, energy, risk they put in/take at every performance. hanging by a rope, by a curtain on someone's shoulders. they take so much risk. one false movement can put them out of functioning for some time or even sometimes permanently. in the midst of the acrobatic stunts, they had a clown come in and pick out pple from the audience. everytime the spotlight came towards us, me and my mom would lower our gaze or pretend to talk to each other. thank God we didnt get picked.


it reminded me so much of the time we went to the stand up comedy show of shazia mirza.who is supposedly the first muslim female comedian. NOT. it was really really really bad. and we wanted to leave immediately. and its not coz we dont have sense of humor. actually maybe it is. haha. no its not that just some of hte humor was just way out of bounds. parts of it is ok. but not something you can sit with your mom and watch. anyway although we wanted to leave within 10 mins of the show. and with my mom constantly going "pple know me here, what will they think!". we still stayed put. coz mirza would yell at anyone who stood up even if the person wanted to go to the bathroom! and like yesterday we refused to make eye contact. but since like fools we were sitting practically in the front, she picked on us for a minute. she was like to me something on the lines of your mom looks shocked. i think my mom was more irritated than shocked. and probably had a disgusted look on her face. and she was very mad at me since it was my suggestion to go and see standup comedy. and as usual yei mere saath hi hota hai. that my suggestion is always a bad suggestion. so next time im keeping my mouth shut. i just thought it would be different and considering the comedian is muslim and female. i really thought the comedy would be pg-13. i was so so wrong.

anyway when we were trying to escape from the place, which by the way was a club, which should have been a red flag in the beginning itself. but i was like it looks like a club maybe its just a setup. i can be so dumb sometimes. and when we went in and saw these bunch of hefty bouncers. i was like 'oh-oh this wasnt wat i imagined'. so while we were trying to escape, we saw some of my mom's earlier colleagues from the hospital. but thankfully they didnt see us.

ok anyhoo back to the cirque de soleil clown thing, they picked mostly westerners from the audience. and i can totally understand this. coz desis (i mean regular desis not bollywood stars) would never agree to come up on stage and do some acting. this includes lying on the ground and creating a fit, acting like you are in love with someone, scratching your butt, etc. its time to face the fact : we are spoilt sports.

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mera number kab ayega

Andy Warhol coined the phrase that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. I guess this is Shilpa Shetty's 15 minutes. at the gym, to my shock, this was all over the news network. it was the headlines in gulf news. front half. and then when we came home and we started watching NDTV and barkha dutta's "reality bites" came on. it was the topic of discussion. racism or reality tv? i think barkha dutta is awesome and i saw lakshya mainly coz it was loosely based on her. neway back to the story, there was one guy on the show who i really cant remember the name but ive seen him on tv before. lets just call him snobby judge. although i do think he was the most sensible one. apache indian was one of the judges too. anyway they hit home the point. that there is racism everywhere and it definetly is a serious matter. but what about the bigger areas for example racism in housing, in immigration matters, in airports, in professional life. basically in other areas of life, other than some "3rd rate actors 3rd rate tv show". to a certain degree i agree with some statements of the judge. but when he said i have never watched celebrity big brother nor will i ever. i was a bit disappointed. how can u pass judgement on what you havent seen. uve just heard things and have made ure judgement. i have seen the desi version of big boss and i think its boring and all the actors suck. i dont think its awesome tv. and honestly like another judge pointed out (name forgotten, again) reality tv is contrived. i think it is too. or maybe im cynical. i think the editing is done in order to make the contestants seem more cattier than normal. i think this whole racism thing was done in order to increase their televison ratings. which they did achieve. but i dont think they expected it to be blown this out of proportion.

wat bugged me a whole lot more was these random pple from bihar, burning effigies of the other contestants. doesnt racism occur in india? do they remove morchas against it whenever it happens. how about the fact that some pple still believe in the caste system. all religions do. its become a cultural thing. isnt that racism. fair and lovely is probably the fastest selling product in india. it promotes the fairer your skin the better you look. isnt that a form of racism.

racism as we all agree is wrong. and im not saying that what they called shetty was good. it was wrong. but talking about or scolding someone or shutting down the program is not going to change things. i dont know if there is any "cure" for this. you cant change the way people think. its not like by telling someone not to be racist they will not be. the only thing you can do is prevent the future from turning out the same.

anyway, there are no losers here not shilpa shetty, not channel 4, nor the big brother producers. she will make lots of money during and after the show and may even win. channel 4 and big boss got what they want. more ratings. whether they hate it or whether its curiosity pple are watching the show. and betting 10:1 no matter how much the snobby judge denies he will see at least one episode for curiosity sake.

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a zoo in my loo

a long time ago i had read this story about some woman finding a snake in the toilet of her bathroom. thankfully, no one was hurt. it was not venomous. just a very startled snake and a frightened woman. however, i still get chills when i think of it. this incident came to mind, when i heard that apparently some guy in the good ole neighbourhood of dubai, sharjah, had a pond and in that pond he had a 30 cm crocodile. the crocodile escaped and was found on some beach. the rumor spread that crocs come out of that beach and very soon that beach was left empty. finaly someone picked up the crocodile, the police got involved and it was traced back to this souq which was illegally selling exotic animals. and that too for a mere 300-400 AED (approximately 100-125 dollars). the crocs can be ordered by telephone and delivered at no cost. so much is the demand that they were out of stock of these reptiles. the sad part is the souq guy was heavily fined for selling these reptiles however we-get-it-if-we-pay-for-it, the crocodile was conveniently returned to the original owner. wat crap. i cant understand why they would return it back and most importantly why people would keep such animals as pets. now its 30 cm but later on it will grow and then how will one take care of it. and wat if it escapes and bites someone or something on the beach. its scary to think that many people now own wild animals like this, so much that it could be even your neighbour.

speaking of animals, on a more milder scale. we ended up buying 12 fish from the satwa animals and plants souq. satwa souq, some time ago, was severely criticized for keeping a gazillion animals (mostly birds and fish) in inhygienic condition, cramped spaces and keeping them on diets. i remember the last time i visited maybe some 5 odd years ago, there was this really pathetic looking dog, super scrawny who was whimpering the whole time i was there. sadly we arent allowed to keep dogs or i would have taken the poor fellow home. howver taking care of a dog or even a cat is quite difficult and time consuming and you should know what you are doing or it gets very messy. neway so since we arent very adventurous, we have fish. we really dont know anything about our fish. nor what their names and origins are. im not really fond of keeping fish. and this has nothign to do with finding nemo. ok maybe a little. in general im not a fan of captive animals. perhaps only parrots. we used to have this parrot which was as old as me. born around the same time as me. it passed away two years ago. it didnt talk or seeti maar (only in the afternoon when absolutely no one was around). and like all parrots are named we called it mitoo. mitoo wasnt particularly fond of us, only my auntie who fed him an apple a day. if any kids came over it would go crazy and hide under a chair and never come out until they were gone. im afraid that probably when we were kids, as in me and my sisters, we probably bullied it or something which is why its scarred for life. either that or the only other reason i cant think of its scared of midgets/short people. the other good thing about mitoo was if any unknown person came it would yell. sort of like a cheaper version of a security dog. anyway we never cut his wings.he could open his own cage with his beak and come out and sit on top of the cage. and although mitoo had a permanent scowl on his face he never ever tried to run away. so i figured he must like it here.

anyway back to the fish story. we bought 12 additional ones. we already had 10 or so in the aquarium. today morning 5 have miraculously disappeared. have they escaped nemo style most probably theyeve been eaten by the bigger fish. the problem is there is no trace of the remains so which fish has done the crime is it a. the yellow ones b. the fat ones c. the long ones d. the one who looks innoncent but arent or e. the ones who hide behind the oxygen area. some months ago we had got this jingha (prawn/lobster type thing) which would try to catch fish swimming at lower levels with his claws. for some reason this provided my family entertainment and the lobster was kept there to send more fish to their death. my sister put her foot down and we transferred the lobster thing to an isolated bowl. in the morning we got up and it had escaped. and we couldnt find it anywhere. finally we found it hiding under the bed some two rooms away. gasping for breath it died sadly when we returned it back to the water.

i guess they have a better life with us since we feed it well and have more space for it as compared to the pet shop. but it probably isnt as good as it would be if they were let back into their natural habitat.

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yeh duniya oot patanga

on chirongee lal's name change

rs: mein kehta hoon hritik aaj kal bahut chala hai, tu hritik raklei
sis: no, no vivek
mom: waiseii....yuvraj kaisa raheiga
rs: nahin nahin yei cricket walei naam safe nahin hotei ji ...kal ko woh run banana band kardeiga aur jhootiyan inko marengei

ak: cheri, toda concentrate kado bhai. tum ghar kei engineer ho tumhei construction kadani haicheri: papa mein computer engineer hoon, yei eet pathar mujhei nahin maloum.

- Khosla ka Ghosla

yehi halat hei meri ghar mein. any computer related issue, anything to do with accounts(and ive not taken more than one accounting course!) or anything to do with the markets/shares/mutual funds. everyone expects me to be an expert on all three. but sadly im neither. and most of the time i cant solve any of their issues. i dont know why the computer has become slow. coz im not a computer engineer, im not an accountant and neither am i a trader. most of the questions revolve around whether i know how to hack- which i dont. and logic si baat even if i knew do you really think i would tell you. =)

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another one bites the dust.





my sister called me from the states at 11 in the evening to tell me about ash-abhi engagement. live breaking news. living so close we are completely oblivious. and sadly, we never watch the news. however we are a totally filmy family. and even though we had pple over at home, everyone got worked up and switched the channel quickly to NDTV, we kept watching the reruns of their news. then everyone started giving their "expert" opinion on how/why/who etc. and that theres no smoke without fire. apparently there was a huge crowd gathered at the bachan residence "jalsa". im sure if we were in mumbai me and my cousins would have definetly gone to see kya hora hai. there was a huge crowd gathered outside her residence too. and sure everyone wants their peace and quiet but i think if so many pple show up just to wish you and have a glimpse of you. you should oblige them. even for a little while. anyway the hero of the day was some journalist who apparently senior bachan had smsed ( i highly doubt this, but whom am i to say) to confirm the news.

i remember last year, i was reading rediff.com and was chatting with my best friend that abhishekh was in nyc and since we are both filmy and fans of him. yes, even his hairband look we like. and i found this rediff article which was kind of secretive and it gave a brief description of where the actors of the movie kabhi alvida na kehna were staying but not totally. so i forwarded this to my friend and she figured it had to be this hotel. so she went and sat in the hotels coffee shop. i so wish i was in new york that time. and after an hour and half the stars did show up and she got to see abhi in close up. yay. although chicken that we are she didnt take any pictures or autograph. bas dur sei salaam. =)

anyway, id just like to say my congratulations to them and wish them a life full of patience, compassion and laughter.

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Paatshala

yahan par system ko badalna chaho, system khud tumhei badal dei ta hai
-Rang de basanti

i went to this bacha party some days ago. and i couldnt believe how bacha parties have changed over time. i think its probably keeping in with dubais trend of big. bigger. biggest. khair. they had a whole zoo come in and a camel for kids to ride. the grandma of the kid even asked me if i wanted to take a ride on the camel. errr...lol ok secretly i wanted to. neway, when we were kids our parties were mostly pass-the-parcel, musical chairs, and birthday bumps and then my apa would put on a magic show and would shock and awe us kids =). khair. i think nowadays theres lot of pressure on parents to have a great birthday party for their kids. i dont think this is a good thing. some of the kids were very spoilt. would throw their stuff around and even at people. and even hit you. im quite scared of such kids. and the whole thing is pple are like chalta hai bacha hai, but kya waqi mein chalta hai?

the other pet peeve is the "angreiz chaleigaye aur apko chor gaye" types. i cannot understand how pple can change their accents after staying three or four years in the states/UK etc. or sometimes even three or four weeks. i agree that theres a lot of exposure that u get which invariably does change you. its not like u can be the same person and that the new place and the friends/atmosphere/environment has no affect on you. i agree it does. but so much that one forgets who they are? and not only that recently ive noticed this trend how you have the affects of smoking and then secondary smoking there is the case of americanization and secondary americanization. if some relative close to you is in the west, you start adapting these weird accents. annoys me like anything. i was sitting with some of my moms friend's acquaintances (sp!) (bara connection) and conversation was filled with i-only-buy-things-from-burberry (sp!) (i guess now i know who i want as my secret santa) or my-daughter-is-now-settled-in-australia-u-know-how-it-is-no? (seriously i dont) acha beta how did u get your job. (umm..coz im smart and intelligent although i dont really look it. haha). however i dont blame the last statement the job scene in dubai is filled with who is your connection. or the conversations about the weather (its humid...we know. you know. we know you know. get over it) or about their nose job (achi khasi naak hai phir bhi and after the nose job it looks exactly the same) or the ure working in so n so they have good payscales na (obviously im going to say yes aunty they are awesome and i will be flying down in my corporate jet next year. maan kara toh apko bhi ghuma dhengei.) its quite sad u can be doing absolutely nothing in some reputed company and pple will think so highly of you as opposed to doing something relevant in a company not as well known. the most irritating thing is when pple say, u must take care of your mama. and i feel its ok if its someone i know and who knows my mom but if its just some random person who you dont know and you never met or its someone u know and who never bothers and who never calls my mom ever. it just irritates me. and i dont know why. but it just does. there was a whole set of absurd things which were said i cant really say coz u never know who might stumble of this blog so cant be as detailed. just dont get why pple cant be normal.

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sunny side up

hoo...raaastey bhool jata hoon mein
kyon bhalla
bewajaah gungunaata hoon mein
kyon bhalla

I forget the route.
dont know why.
I hum for no reason.
dont know why.

- Salaam-e-ishq (Tribute to Love)


so lately ive been on the quest of enrolling myself into guitar classes. they start next week. and frankly im a little scared to go to my first class. the classes arent exactly individual based and i might be paired with some bachei kacheis. i doubt they would be kachei. i keep getting these visuals of some 6 year old kid yelling at me that im slowing him down. or some miniature version of eric clapton going choo chaa at me. speaking to the lady who was like maybe you should join the evening classes. i may be paired with a 16 year old. great. hmm a knowitall 6 year old or a 16 year old head banging wannabee. can my choices get any more easier? =). lets just see how it goes. second quest is finding a gym that is reasonably priced and has a ladies only swimming pool. i cant believe this is almost not existent in dubai. perhaps this should be my new business plan. third quest: finding a temporary job. this is turning out to be harder than i thought. kya karoon. call center jobs are out. they take a month to train. cant do graphic designing. faculty positions require longer terms. have just one lead. but if i have to drive to jebel ali. my mom would rather hire me then. id like to be a wannabee writer for the khaleej times or gulf news. but my gk on politics is pretty low and so is my english grammar. so dont know how that work out. my sisters bosses are in town and i got this idea when i was talking to them. i could be a tourist guide. how hard can it be. there are only malls and like two musuems or something. and i could drive them all around. speaking of malls, mall of emirates reminds me of an extended version of bur juman. its becoming one of my favorites. not so much the skidxb. this skiing hangover they have is just cheesy and one feels like one is in a zoo and pple are watching u. or rather waiting for you to perform. even if i did know how to ski it would be the last thing id do. i also liked the prayer room in the mall of emirates. the contrast of the carpet and wooden flooring. the bright lights. its one of the prettiest prayers rooms ive seen. and one of the most peaceful places to pray in. ok i digressed. lets see what else. i could be a waiter at asha bhosle's restaurant. this way i can see how the food is being prepared and i can get tipped well. ek teer sei do nishaan. or i can work at the reception of some fancy hotel. and never pick up the phone. and refuse to do anything for anyone. seriously. the bigger the hotel, the more the nakhras. or i could be an attendant at a movie theatre and see all the movies first day last show. .. to be continued.

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Chiy gap ast?

aw: ma baap nei kaha tha, doctor banjao engineer banjao. magar hum tau journalist baneigei.

aw: taliban kei interview kei liyei, 300 dollars kuch zyada hi nahin.aur kya karnei walei hai.
sk: item number karengei paharon mein.
aw: that sounds reasonable.

aw: imran khan saab, naam toh zabardast hai. cricket toh kheltei hogei aap.
ik: hindustan mein, har kissi ka naam sachin hai woh balei baaz hota hai?

ik: suhel saab, namaaz nahi padogei. tumhei kya pata mazhab kei barei mei
sk: haan AK47 bajoo mein, aur apko hi pata hai mazhab kei barei mein

sk: you almost seem to enjoy these wars, dont you?
ah: me? well, after every trip to these hell holes, i promise myself never ever to return. But..
sk: but, you break your promise every time.
ah: u know why? ....to sell some more gore. some more inhuman stories to the world that chose to do nothing when this part of the world was burning. ...and u know why im doing it? im hoping publishers will line up for my book when i write about all this
sk: wat else do you think reporters can do.
ah :nothing, i guess. other than knowing in their hearts that whatever they do its not enough.

- All dialogues from Kabul Express -Kabir Khan

i saw kabul express last week at a whim. it was one of those moments where we have nothing to do and were like chalo movie dekh kar atei hai. i think its a good movie, the dialogues and some of the scenes are pretty funny in a sarcastic way and parts of it has a touching moralistic edge to it. and kabir khan the director, who apparently wrote this story based on his experiences in afghanistan narrates a somewhat gripping story. its a bit biased though and as much as id like to believe things are painted as black or white. they are not. and there is no good guy in politics. i know pple may not agree with me. and im not sure so much as to how politically sound or just this movie is. apparently the movie is banned in afghanistan for showing one of the ethnicities in afghanistan in a bad light. i dont disagree with this though. it might have happened. but then maybe, i think this way, coz im not part of that tribe. but if it were my clan that was being projected in a bad light, i probably would care and disagree. so is the issue simply that of being too sensitive? couple of scenes i remember is the donkey scene. the story here is that some tribe puts their donkey in the middle of the road and in case the donkey is runover by a vehicle they run out shouting it was their prized donkey etc. and then a huge sum of money is paid. this happens here in the emirates too. pple intentionally leave their camel to wander, especially during the nite and the poor camel does get run over. and then some fine has to be paid. this and the fight over kapil dev versus imran khan. which retired player is better. who cares really. women will never fight on such stupid stuff. then theres the merciless beating of the taliban and even the afghani driver. and the encouragement by the people to take more photographs and videos of the beating. it shows how media channels thrive on these kind of sensational type of news. and the more gory the visual the more the demand. then there are scenes in which women are shown as opressed in the taliban regime. i think this is true . but then even after the fall of the Taliban regime, it didnt seem like the women were as free as shown by the media. i might be wrong but at least thats what i observed in the movie. its going to take years to undo the damage and heal these scars. i still liked the movie despite its inconsistencies. and despite what my political views are i welcome the change in hindi movie cinema- the dry sense of humor and the abandomment of pointless naach gana.

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khichdi.

no, this is not a detailed recipe on how to cook khichdi. which btw is not an easy task. its just my post on my thoughts of the lastest happenings back home. first of all this is one of the worst times to be back home, the weather is great though, but the dsf woes have hit. thats the biggest conversation topic. where has one gone in the dsf. (dxb shopping festival) i dont know about everyone else, but at least for me i think its all a hoax coz pple invariably raise their prices a week earlier and the alleged slashed out prices are just a gimmick. and i have never won anything in those gazillion raffles. neither do i know anyone who has won anything. well neway the traffic is atrocious becoz of this and whenever my mom is in the back seat i screw up while driving or the car becomes rebellious and starts making weird noises or giving unncessarily jatkas. so now ive been forbidden to drive in the early morning, in the evening, in the nite and even in the afternoon on some days. which practically leaves me the slots of 10-11 am. and very rarely aaj kal subah hori hai wus time par.

but neway, other than that ive been hogging like mad i think ive tasted chocolate cakes at practically ever coffee shop in dubai. i dont know whtats up with pples infatuation of malls here. there is a new mall popping out on every corner and each and every mall has the same shops, the same clothes and the same sales. im yet to find the same shop same clothes and different prices. and create a trading arbitrage opportunity. yea like thats going to happen. ive conciously stopped giving my advice on financial markets and even though i should learn my lesson i dont and still open my big mouth. all the time. a year ago, i had advised my dentist to invest in this local mutual fund, coz honestly i really did think it would do well. but he did invest and didnt track it and now its value has gone down. i feel so bad. although its not really my fault. about one he lost money. but two meri daaton kha khair nahin now. jokes apart though it was his first time investment in shares and if your first investment goes bad it leaves a bad taste in the mouth and he will never take the risk again. some words of advice never be greedy: if it reaches your target of 10-20% always pull some profit out. its the law of nature what goes up really fast comes down faster.

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