all i wanna do..

so the iphone released today. and im normally not into new techno gadgets and i could care less how my phoen looks like as long as i can make phone calls and play tetris on it. lol. but i really adore the iphone, its so user friendly and trendy and completely flawless. (ok i dont even own one but just based on the hype. this is subject to change in few months). neway, during my lunch break i wanted to trek down to the apple store on 5th ave, apparently pple were camping out there since last nite. wat madness. and i wanted to see this madness, but sadly didnt get my long lunch break. but i hear there were lots of pple camping for the phone, and then there were teh college kids who were going to buy it and sell it at a premium.

and finally decided to buy the shakespear in the park tickets. yes buy. i almost feel guilty abt buying it, coz its actually free but will have to wait in line really early on a saturday morning and waste the whole day in the park. too too painful. the person selling the ticktes is a senior citizen who will do just that. this makes me twice as guilty. and the complication is that i dont even know how the person looks like and will be picking hte tickets in front of the romeo and juliet statue. i emailed him back asking how will i find you, you know just in case they remove the statue. in true no nonsense elderly email tone he wrote back, theyve been there for 100 years, i doubt theyll move them tomm. HAHAHAHA. i can be such a dork sometimes. well neway hopefully the guilt will be erased by a good show.

have a good weekend!

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jhoom barabar jhoom barabar


ok we went to see the above. second day third show, coz we are super enthusiastic (read me only me i am). needless to say i was there a good half an hour before the show coz i thought it was going to be super crowded.

i was so so so wrong. pple in new york have better things to do on a rainy day that too. haha.

ok so the movie review, im not going to give the whole story away. just the gist. pretty simple abhishek and preity are opposites and like every hindi movie rule no 1 opposites attract. and thats pretty much the whole story. the sidekicks lara dutta and bobby deol have quite a bit of scope and are great in some parts but really sad in some. and i dont know why bobby deol has coloured his hair like this, it really doesnt suit him. and whoever designed the clothes in the movies has horrendous style and needs to be sacked. otherwise its a fair depiction of southall in london, at least i think so. and brings out the punjabi culture of it. the movie plays on the stereotypes and it doesnt take itself seriously and if you also dont, then i guess you might enjoy the movie.

amitabh bachan in his Pirate of the carribean look with a protuding paunch makes me feel a bit nervous for him. Im a bachan fan and I think hes a great actor, but hes looking super tired and I really dont see the point of him doing such kind of appearances. He keeps popping up after every 10 scenes or so and singing jhoom barabar jhoom. and then scarily laughs in the end. weirdo alert.

the same song repeats throughout the whole movie. and shaad ali who directed bunty aur babli seriously has a delhi fixation with the tombs and the taj mahals. not that im complaining coz im always supportive of historical places but just to put them in coz you are fixated with it is just dumb. anyway, there are some great moments in the movie which make you crack up but not coz they are witty but coz they are cheesily funny.

i guess the fun part too was the crowd sitting at the back who were passing comments . everyone simultaneously cringing at the sidey scenes. and coz the hall is quite small everyone can hear. and its good to know pple laugh at the same things. not to forget my friend who noticed the 50 year old gori, sitting behind us, who kept clapping in sync with the jhoom barabar jhoom music. HAHAHAAH. its a have to be there moment. anyway, go watch this movie on a rainy day.

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teri ungli vali ghee...(this is so not the right translation..the bent finger covered with oil. lol.)

somehow i think everything is so interlinked, here i got locked out of my apt and in bombay our house got broken into. its always been so safe and in so many years we've never had any problems. the most suprising thing was the "thief" never stole anything, apparently some bags were opened but nothing was taken from it. Thanks to God. Cupboards were still firm shut. and everything was in its place.

Even then, Im really shocked someone could have done this, considering its a gated community with 24 hours watchman service. Anyway all fingers point to the new watchman, a 20 year old bacha so to say, recruited last week. it may be his doing, who knows, coz the metal grill was drilled through to get in and I really cant understand how he couldnt have heard it!

There's also been a lot of talk on the kind of thieves (we found two candles) they were. Theres speculation that they might have been "kachei khiladi" (amateurs). But i dont htink so coz if you were one, you would take anyting you get your hands on, and sell it on the flea market for watever you get. rubbish sells. in big cities. no kidding. seriously, it does.

On the other hand, if you are professionals you would be able to get into all the cupboards and drawers without much difficulty. so what were they and what did they want. so strange, what was the motive?

Anyway, we launched a FIR (a report at the police station) and the inspector came to "inspect" the house and matteroffactly was if nothing has gone then we cant really consider your report.

WAT THE HELL.

how about the fact that someone obviously broke in? someone who wasnt supposed to. trespassing is a crime last i checked, you dont have to actually steal something to be in the wrong! anyway my uncle was like he most definitely is angling for money. all the signs pointed to it. The cop didnt want to even question the watchman. With loads of persuasion, we got him to give a half hearted lecture to the management of the area. i cant understand this behavior. this is YOUR job, do it with pride, do it with some dignity.

and maybe ive been watching too much detective movies or watever, but I would think someone would want to take the candles that were lying around for fingerprinting. but this was so unheard of in the police dept. Total wste of time. corruption is at its peak in mumbai. and you cant combat corruption with more corruption. paying the cop some money is not going to solve this epidemic. i guess it all comes down to poverty. but then again in a lifetime full of opportunities and full of temptations where does the wants for things stop.

this brings me to my real question, is it easier to be ethical if you are in a comfortable position in your life. is it easier to consider yourself morally superior if you are financially ok? would you be the same person if you couldnt make ends meet. or is it all dependant on you and your own conscience.

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pride and prejudice...


there is a certain tranquility with being in the office alone. and where you can actually think outloud and curse when something isnt going rite. or that piece of damning code is just not doing what its supposed to and instead of backtracking you become the amateur cook and keep adding things hoping it will fall into place.

it never does.

well anyway, in the list of firsts this was the first nite i stayed late at work. only to discover that what i was working on was a total waste of time. sad, i know. and somehow word got around that the new hire is putting in late hours and my boss said after 9 i should take car service home. thats really nice! but i prefer the walk home since its my time for myself. apparently we've been advised not to abuse this service too, similar to staying late every nite and ordering dinner on the company account. ive never ever done that and i dont htink i will either unless its a whole team who stays late and is ordering in. theres a fine line between ethical and pure greed.

ok maybe thats too harsh of words. but my story with locksmiths in the city is just that. multiply everything by four times when you live here in the city. it is that expensive. but these guys take full advantage of the fact that not only you are in the city but that you are in a despearate situation, as my neighbour said pple will do anyting to get into their appartments. ok backtrack. i closed my door without realizing my keys were still inside. and initially they advertise on the phone a small fee + labour. and since you wouldnt really think the fee is greater than the labour charge, i agreed. i was so wrong. its highly inflated. its more costly than going to a doctor's. learnt a really costly lesson and will be so much more careful now.

theres a certain bias with pple who are scared of dogs here. i was told off by some guy walking his dog, when i moved away. "its only a dog not a dinosaur". No way. "i wear glasses, doesnt mean im blind". ok i didnt say that, but i wanted to.

im sorry, im scared. i just am. call it a genetically mutated dog fearing gene or cultural bias, but i am. and when a really grumpy looking dog shits on the road. i cringe. i consider that a freedom of my expression. im allowed to be grossed out. i would do the same if it were human, ant or even plant. anyone elses stuff apart from your own grosses the other. but pple will be like why you being mean about my dog. touchy. jeez.

well neway some highlights of work, the close proximity to barnes and nobles. my lunch breaks, when i take it that is, is spent reading. my mood dictates what i read its always interesting to see what others are reading. the students mostly magazines and mostly sitting near the areas where they particularly say not to read magazines. hehe. older pple usually travel books or poetry books. and theres always one person in the historical romances. quite a few pple in the management/finance section. this is always a good thing. i would imagine if you are a writer, which there are quite a few of, the saddest thing would be if no one ever reads what you wrote. but such is life and one tends to read the ones which are most advertised. ive been reading this book called "liar's poker", which i shall review once im done. i read this really interesting book on converted muslims (mostly women) and how their parents come to terms with it. i wonder if majority of converted muslims are women? or any religion for that matter, are most converts women? then i read this book which was general knowledge when you are in the loo. and despite having read most of it i can only remember that mosquitoes tend to bite children more than adults. hmm, no wonder. i shouldve known.

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coz we belong on different planets!


so on a whim we decided to go for a broadway play. the play in question being 'I love you, you're perfect but you have to change'. It showcased the whole western dating ritual and the progression from singlehood to coupledom and how irritating some couples can be with their lovey doveyness or how smug coupledom can make you or how sometimes you really have no compatibility with someone but everyone else is making decisions for you. and how you will do something for someone and then remind them a gazillion times that you are doing it for them, thereby negating the one thing cthat you did. LOL. then theres parenthood and the taking for granted factor and how the 'us' gets lost in the 'they'/'them' (kids). then theres spoofs on how counseling ads for couples are all bogus. and then regular fare like commitment issues, girls shopping gene, girls obssesed with her weight gene, boys lieing-on-the-couch-watching-tv-no-muscle-moving-all-day gene. or how the same things that yo used to like about the person irritate u. familiarity breeds contempt.

all in all quite stereotypical but quite entertaining. the only thing was im not sure why they are short of cash since the tickets are quite pricey and at least half the theatre was full, but the sets were bland and they had few props, not to mention four actors and 2 musicians. total low budget play.

one of the interesting scenes in the play was when the couple is now old and after 30 years of marriage, the guy is thinking that why hes not with someone else and why he married the person and why he didnt cheat on her etc...and i never understood that.. is he thinking that he didnt coz he truly loves the person or is he apsosing (regretting) that he should have.

sometimes i think pple are caught up in this whole bookish sense of love, that they wouldnt understand a good thing or even a bad thing. and if everything is smooth sailing, someone has to cause the tide to rise. for no reason. just for the sake of it. thats just human nature i believe.

and heres one of my fave scenes from a cult movie summing up my rambling above. majorly paraphrased

preity: wat rubbish, main sameer sei kabhi nahin sawal poochti hoon na jawab mangti hoon ( wat rubbish, i dont ask sameer any questions, nor do i ask for an answer)
akash: magar woh poochta hai. main nahin kehta that ghalti hamesha larki ki hoti hai.
(but he asks. i dont say that its always the girls fault, it could be the guys too)

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are u indefinetly indefinite?

so the movie of the week, which i actually trekked down to get from jackson heights (major desi hub). actually its not that far and i didnt trek, (figurative speech) i just took the train. so neway first ill explain the jackson height experience. kabab king probably has the greatest desi food in new york region but they really should have some kind of warning label on the food : something on the lines of after effects include bad bowel movements and acidity. but neway despite the "what-do-u-want-we-dont-have-all-day" server guys, it was pretty ok. other than that its a run down version of linking road in Mumbai or Karama in Dubai. everything apart from food is bad quality. they also have a huge desi store which is aptly named patel brothers and is run by sardars. hahaah. who typically are like bouncers in front of a supermarket making sure you arent stealing something or giving u weird looks coz you arent buying anything.

and if anyone has seen ta ra rum pum, im trying to remember if they actually shot that in jackson heights. they may have. which reminds me that the movie kept referring to "jab sapna tut ta hai new york mein, tab ek cab driver banta hai". when a dream breaks in new york, a cab driver is born. perhaps this will have reverse effects given the news that someone sold their taxi cab medallion for 600,000 USD.
shocking, rite? there is power in numbers.

so now to the movie bheja fry. its one of the starts of as what the hell is going on and then goes on to be whats the point. its still watchable though, and far better than the kya love story hais of the day.

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meri raahein alvida...

so ive blogged about advertisements before, but american ads never fail to suprise me. in dubai and even in ads in india, you cant really point to the competitor's product and say that its bad. a more generic ad comes to mind, some detergent is compared with the competitors. The competitor's detergentlabel is usually blacked out, so as not to offend or to take panga with the other company.

i dont agree with the competitive form of advertising, but i do think it can make the consumer think about alternatives. im guessing in 10 years, its going to be so simple, you will probably go into a store and the price tag will not only tell you what the item costs, but what the stores down the road are charging for it.

moving track, i absolutely adore my boss. i truly think i lucked out. and this isnt a coz you have to like your boss thing its true. everyone in the group has only good things to say about him, everyone wants to ask him questions and everyone takes his opinion and even when pple are behaving like know-it-alls, he is calm and confident. Thank God for great bosses.

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kehtai hai na jo hota hai, achei kei liyei hota hai.....(they say rite, that whatever happens happens for the best)

ive always wondered if this were true. are the pple who say this eternal optimists or are they just more experienced in life and really do know what they are talking about. or is it just like how forest gump says its a box of assorted chocolates and you just never know what is going to happen next. so wheres the question of best and worst? =)

onto lesser falsifi things (philosophical). i absolutely love traveling in trains. after traveling for a month, i cant seem to get over the fact how different each of us are. and despite traveling the same route everyday, i rarely ever see the same person again. and what strikes me as well is that in a city filled with so many pple theres hardly anyone who is wearing the same clothes or even a combination that is somewhat similar. each of us have a different soch. but many of us have similar goals. we are all so alike but yet so so so different.

onto another debatable question. i wonder what pple think of having registries at ones wedding. on one hand i think this is your wedding and its you making the choice to have that wedding. and its great you want your close ones at your wedding, but asking someone to shell out so and so much for your day is a bit much. again, it depends on your relationship to the person getting married. and perhaps its ok to ask what you really like from your friends. on the other hand, isnt it better to just tell pple what you would like rather than having someone give you something you dont like or having them rack their brains on what to give you.

now for more tangential topics. i read this article somewhere about these IIT coaching classes. A topper in the IIT entrance exam was offered money by a certain coaching class if they could use his name in their ad. The price was upped to 15 lakhs and the boys father said they would have even gone upto 25 lakhs. The boy refused and said no. and didnt want to give credit where credit is not deserving.

When I told my mom this story, she said its sad and is indeed a form of corruption and it was good on the boy to refuse it,but answering my typical-what-would-you-do-if-it-were-u-question, she said if it were her she would have taken the money. i think i may have done it too. If you are hardworking you are going to do well even if you go to a shitty coaching class. I think shes right in a way, its a bonus if you are smart but hardwork takes you a long way. with that comes success and many a opportunities to do good things for others. each his own. there are no right and wrong answers.

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