Monday, May 28, 2007

ask a stupid question...

at chinatown yest afternoon.

lady*quietly to mom*: for you, i give this watch for 30.
mom: 30, kuch zyada nahin hai. H, cho inkei kam kar (isnt it a lot for 30, tell her to do less)
me *since im the bargaining queen*: how about 15?
lady *staring at me like ive turned into a rabbit*: 15, i charge just to look only.


and get a stupid(er) answer....

few moments later:

me: ok how about 16? come on give it, we want to "buy" it (as opposed to pple who just pay the money and take the watch)
lady*considering i think*: NO.
me and mom *pretending to walk away*
lady: Ok 25
me looking back and now really really walking away: 18?
lady: Ok 20 last.
me: Ok done.
mom *looking at the watch again*: its not that nice.i dont like it.
me and lady: WTH.

Read more...

Sunday, May 27, 2007

"Decide that you want it more, than you are afraid of it." - Bill Cosby

So the guest speaker at the graduation cermony was the above. I have to say it was far far more inspiring than the Dean's lecture or Michael Dell's lecture when I was graduating from undergrad. Dell's lecture was more like:
hey-i-dropped-out-of-school-developed-this-idea-in-my-dorm-made-millions-while-u-did-midterms-and-now-we-are-developing-so-n-so-blah-blah-blah-buy-dell-kids. and -watever-stay-in-school-and-get-a-education. dont do what i did.

yea rite. neway I still think Michael Dell is a nice guy. based on his speech. (i dont knwo much about him) i think not only was he smart. he took the risk and got lucky.

Anyway Cosby was really funny and the Deans from all the colleges were super intimidated by him. I think it takes a lot of guts and a whole lot more to give a speech but all the more if you are meaning to be entertaining and funny. The poor undergrad speaker was booed by quite a few of the arts students.

neway the whole gist of his speech was "embrace nerdhood". haha. kidding.

the whole gist was if you fail, you try and you try harder. and you be yourself and if you are a nerd, be happy coz thats what you are. and the best part of his speech it wasnt cliched the typical story where you fail once and then go out and do your best. there are times where you keep doing bad and totally lose your self esteem. he even made a joke of this, saying if this werea movie he would have done his best. but "sadly" life isnt a movie. there are no retakes and no should've/could have/would have/ just.. have has and will . he got a standing ovation at the end and a honorary doctoral degree.


anyway hardly anyone showed up for the graduation. i cant believe pple would miss their own graduation. and that too for reasons that are kinda dumb. "im tired", "who is going to travel 2 hours in an air conditioned plane". you thats who. maybe its just me. maybe its a stupid thing. perhaps there is no need to define redefine each and every important thing in your life. but most of my family made it to my graduation. and sure at that moment nothings going rite. its too hot. its too cold. theres no decent place to eat. everyone is cranky sleepy and tired. you have to wake up early. and as Cosby says you cant really please everyone. but despite all that, when you look back over this time, you only remember the good things. and you miss that time that you spent together. theres nothing like family.

neway moving on. on the lines of subtle jokes, cheeni kum is an excellent movie. at first, i was a bit hesitant to watch it. but the promos looked quite funny. and it really is. its one of those sarcastic, bitter sweet kind of movies. without the whole emotional melodrama. i really liked it. the dialogues are the best. very rarely do you have witty hindi movies. its got the typical love story but in a not so typical way with a strange pair. but its believable. the problems are believable. the parental hungama that is common nowadays is there too. all in all a must see.

to be contd..

Read more...

Sunday, May 13, 2007

kitni der tak.. aaj shaam tak.. ya phir saweir tak

as i start my first day tommorow im so nervous, i cant sleep and i know i will be yawning from 10:00 am itself. i just hope im not bored. in retrospect id rather be bored than answering difficult questions. and despite being reassured by D and J that we will go for coffee at 3. I still am nervous. This happens everytime, I cant sleep and look like crap in the morning. ive tried watching larry king, southpark, reading a boring book, trying to do mental math, reading through my stack of problems to solve. still i cant sleep. i hope i have great coworkers who get my jokes, or at least if they dont get my jokes they still laugh at them. i hope i make some friends at work too. and i hope i get a great boss who is super nice and more so when it comes to dishing out bonuses. but mostly i hope i do something good at work maybe not tommorow itself but i do something that has value and makes me feel good that im working hard. ok will shutup now have to wake up at 5:30 and walk to work. inshallah for beautiful morning and day tommorow.

Read more...


dilli walei barei sayanei.


so we ended up watching many hindi movies this week, i wanted to watch life in a metro too but no one was that enthu to see it. the movies in question firstly : kya love story hai. after watching the movie you really do say that, but you want to add the word bakwas after the kya. =). neway i thought ayesha takia did a good job, but she has put on tons of weight that im so sure she was hiding her paunch in every scene. it sucks to be fat if you are an actor. neway, besides that i have absolutely no words for the new hero and tushar kappoor. yes, they were THAT bad.

then theres delhi heights, which could have been a great movie. but sadly wasnt. and i really cant stand jimmy shergills hair color. guys shouldnt dye their hair. any color. anyway, it has great great songs, despite the weirdness of rabbi shergill making ghost like appearances in some songs. i really didnt get that, i mean was he supposed to be a ghost or an angel or liek some fictitious character that just sings the background.

anyway the movie turns out like when you put every single great ingredient in a dish and you end up with something that sucks. or like when you put every single thing and you forget the salt.

speaking of which, not enough frying of onions leads to terrible food. and ive been really lucky that i had my sister to remedy the damage.

neway the week though taxing at times was really constructive and in retrospect fun and eventful and I have seen quite a few palces in new york in a short while. from statue of liberty which is quite awe inspiring to chinatown where we went all crazy at the mention of "2 for 10 bucks." or everything for "2/1 bucks"

the sad thing is that the market has been made so cheap that its embarassing to even bargain. or rather its taking the fun out of baragaining. many of the salesmen would make a face at us when we would bargain and if they succumbed it would be really grudgingly and they would try to get us out of the store as quick as possible.and some wont even budge a dollar. but desis that we are, we are so chikna-gara. and like russel peters says (paraphrased) "desis and chinese just cant to business with each other". well, the way i see it bargaining is fun for both pple involved, its fun for you coz you think youve got a great deal, and its fun for the salesperson coz they think you think theyve given you a great deal but they actually havent.

alrite, fine. i dont make much sense.

moving on. then there was jackson heights, predominantly desi area, which is so rundown its unbelievable. they can really do the places up nicely but they dont want to. im so positive that the food there is great but its very unclean that you would have to choose between a bad stomach or good food. and food is really cheap, even groceries and where else can you get a 24 hour halal meat store. but the sadness is its so unhygenic. forget food, the clothes are outdated and are super overpriced probably thrice as much as you would get in india and even dubai. i really wonder how these retail shops do business.

on the other end of the spectrum theres 5th ave , we went into tiffanys (supposedly the most expensive diamond store), there were more lookers than buyers obviously. but everyone was so unimpressed, and it was a stated fact that we have no kadar (respect) of our shiny great sparkling 24 karat jewelery shops in dubai. sad.

i still want a tiffany ring, though. LOL. no, not really.

theres always something inspriting about trump tower. theres really nothing to see there apart from having a coffee at starbucks or having dinner at the trump bar or something like that. its nice that he leaves it open to the public. and im not really a fan of donald trump or anything but its just nice to see someone who has seen the high life then lost quite a bit and then made it again.


to be continued..

Read more...

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

in dinon keh raha dil mera, tuuuuuu khwab saja

ok so now im getting used to categorizing the events of the day. the bad, the good and the blah. since ive decided to be more optimistic im restricting this to the good and the blah only. this again is subjective.

the good:

i deserve three pats on the back today. one for each furniture i assembled. that too by myself. solo mission. you get so lazy back home coz everything comes assembled,(instructions. wat instructions??) or for a small small price you can get it assembled. i tried to get someone to assemble it for me here but it was coming up to twice what my furniture cost! so desi that i am, i decided this is not rocket science, i can do this. and i did. yayyy


so wat else? getting a free ride on the bus. thanks to my 32-tooth smile. =)

the blah:

i promised myself i would get to know everyone on my floor, coz its always good to know your neighbours (i.e i can always leave my potted plant, and future goldfish with them when im away). this of course isnt a great thing always, coz sadly the walls here are very thin if someone sneezes in the next room you can hear it. so if you are having a yelling match with your sibling or whoever. your neighbours know its you coz they know how you sound like. if they dont know you, well then they can keep guessing if it was you or not.

so ive gotten to know two, theres E who when talking to me never really looks at me and i dont think shes really listening to what im saying. their shoes are always outside their apt and they are of various sizes but ive never seen anyone else apart from her living there. hmmmm, mystery.

then theres L who reminds me of this comic character called Luanne. i dont know why, she just does. i think shes irish coz she seems to have a lot of irish-y things outside her apartment, either that or shes really into St. patricks day. and for some reason she keeps calling me Wendy! in no way do i look like a wendy and my name does not even sound remotely close to that!

laundermats in nyc. bahhhhhhhhhh. so i was tricked into thinking that i have a laundry room in my building. never trust anyone, unless you see it with your own eyes. so now i have to go acroos the street to do dmy laundry. my friends think im being a big baby (read loser) and that i should just give it to the chinese laundermat downstairs to do it. hell, even the chinese laundry woman thinks im a procrastinator. i, personally think she should be a marketing specialist. these were her exact words. "time is money, we save you time and money. u want to save both rite? ".i just feel weird letting someone else do it. or rather a stranger do it. i guess time will tell whether i shall succumb to convenience (read : laziness).

Read more...

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

yei baatein purani hai jo mujhko sunahni hai..

last week i attended a local koran reading group. the crowd consisting of mostly expat ladies who moved to the US. basically we read the koran and listen to the translation and then have a discussion on something that we dont understand. sometimes when youa re listening to these translations, there are parts which make you feel scared and guilty. scared more on the parts of hell. thats always been a controversial topic. im more of the believer that the Hell is your conscious that will torment you not so much the physical burning fire Hell. but then thats just my opinion and perhaps the making myself feel better thing.

the other controversial topics was when someone started talking about polygamous situations in Islam. The Koran discourages this to the extent where they say its not possible to treat everyone equally and provide for everyone the same. Then some lady in the group was like but men are men and if its in the shariat we accept it and hope God makes our heart big enough to allow our husbands to take another wife. at that statement my eyes popped out, i would never allow it! the times were then different pple were fighting wars it wasnt an organized society like now. you cant equate the times. and plus there were reasons for the Prophet to do so. it wasnt coz men are men!! neways at least these discussions bring about so many pples views together and we at least agree to disagree.

update: my sister told me about todays class and this is how it went.
same lady who made the above mad statement was like we should not think of materialistic things and look beyond that and then goes as far as to say everyone think when you go back home and look at your most precious thing. she answers the question herself and goes its our own kids (way off tangent but i guess family comes under "things") which are the most dear and most precious to us. and everyone is nodding in agreement

then looking at my sister she goes those who dont have kids, its probably your jewelery and clothes. my sister goes err NO its my husband! theres a huge silence in the room and everyone is looking embarassed and then the lady goes "err yea that too". LOL. that too.

Read more...

  © Blogger templates Psi by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP