darna zaroori hai..

so here's what happend to me on the subway yesterday. these two desi guys (typical software engineers guys.. i can bet my whole years salary that they were!) got on the subway yesterday and quickly sat down next to the 2 free spots next to me. after they sat down they realized, i was desi. the guy sitting next to me got super scared for some reason and was chipkofying to the other guy, almost like he was going to sit on his lap. and with every movement of mine, he would get really nervous. it only helped when i took out my ipod to change the song.

his thought process "shit desi girl....oooooh nice ipoddd..is it 4gb or 8gb..does it have video?".

i got off at the next station and a cardiac arrest was prevented.

just to be mean, i could've taken out my camera just before getting off, and should've taken a picture and said "hey guys, say cheez". im sure they would have fainted. hahah. jk. sadly, i only think in my head.

Gabbar singh: Yahan sey pachaas pachaas kos duur jab bacha rota hai to maa bolti hai soo ja betey soo jaa, warna desi larki aa jayegi".

hahahha. im lame, i know. but they were lamer, seriously.

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phir bhi dil hai hindustani...

so i found this clipping on youtube of Indian Idol 3. I didnt even see the first and second Indian Idols, so it really was very random. The clipping is of Meiyang Chang, a third generation chinese, who is now indian. His audition was on "Gunji See hai" from Kyun Ho Gaya Na. After the clipping, I was shocked. Not, coz I dont know that there are people of chinese origin living in India. I do know that. But, I was shocked by the way he sang it. and how fluent he was in hindi. (far far more fluent than me). not to mention that he has a great voice. and i really like the way Javed Akhtar ( a judge on the show) describes Chang's voice, its the voice of "a good person".

i think so too.

I started thinking about this time where I was interning, there was a guy who could only speak his native tongue fluently and only broken english despite having lived in the States for 10 years and having gone to an Ivy League school. At that time, I was shocked too. Coz, I couldnt understand how that would be possible. how can you not speak english after living here for 10 years and having gone to school here. But as someone explained, if one sticks to their own community and never ventures out of their "comfort zone", the zone that one grew up with- that one is habituated too. it then becomes possible to live in your own world.

im not passing judgement on them, coz I feel that I have done it too/do it too. After having lived in the Gulf so many years, I feel almost ashamed when someone asks me " so do you know how to speak arabic?" and the most I can answer is only words and I can string a few sentences together. and sometimes to defend myself i will add that i know how to read and write. sometimes I have to explain how everyone speaks english there and how you dont really need to know arabic and how there is a huge expat community there..blah blah blah.

but it really is a shame, that i dont know. i blame it on my high school and there clear separation of arabs and nonarabs. they really should make arabic a mandatory language to learn in school in the Gulf. its just part of being assimilated, in the true sense.

im also tempted to say when in rome, do like the romans. but honestly i dont feel that. i think we all are different, and its stupid to be all homogenous in every single thing. coz friendship transcends all that. however, key to friendship is having an understanding of each other. and when you can speak the language, you are now able to make yourself be understood.

back to the topic at hand, heres a dekko of meiyang chang's rendering (who is super cute as well) . hes also a dentist . (my dentist so does not look like this)

(courtesy youtubers)

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you're beautiful... its true.

Hanging out. Down the street.
The same old thing, we did last week!
Not a thing to do, but talk to you!
We're all alright..We're all alright!

- That 70's song

they say relationships are difficult. i, sometimes agree and sometimes i really dont. i often think that we get many a signs and we actualy have all the "clues" and we have all the pieces we need to make the puzzle and therefore see the clearer picture.

but often we dont see it coz we dont want to.

a friend of mine recently was very mistreated by someone she used to "see", and as much as i sympathize with her , i couldnt understand why after being rebuffed so many times in a very cold way she still went through round after round of humiliation. and even after i gave her the sympathy talk, the no nonsense talk, the angry talk she did the same thing over again and faced more humiliation again. the more it happened, the more her confidence level went down. and seriously if someone doesnt treat you nicely, they really are not worth even thinking about.

i guess there is only so much you can say or do for someone, after that its upto them. and perhaps its the bitter truth but some pple prefer to realize it the hard way.

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abhi abhi merai dil mein..yei khyaal aya hai..

so im really not fond of networking and am quite famous/notorious for not having attended many a events in college/work. i guess small talk really annoys me. and there is only so many times you can ask pple the same repetitive things feigning enthusiasm. weather-check. where do you live-check, which group are you in - check. so to avoid the boredom, i just skip the whole event altogether.

but this week, i did the "be a good friend" thing and accompanied a friend of mine to a far east asian event, so that she can meet more far east asian pple and possibly meet someone. [it can happen]. so other than role of a friend i became in addition the overbearing mom.

sadly it wasnt a great event, pple were quite pretentious. and now im quite convinced its not a desi thing the whole putting up an accent and pretending your ancestors were related to Columbus. its an all world phenomena. and to top it off, i was one of the three only non far east asian person . so hardly anyone spoke to me, which was not a bad thing. (antisocial, i know). the only pple we met were more interested in getting our contacts so that they can land the greatest jobs at our firms. the grass is always greener on the other side. but what they dont realize is im a tiny fish in the vast vast ocean. im not even those fish who look tiny but bully the other fish in the tank kinds. in fact, i m not even a fish im like the tiniest pebble in the sand. i have little to nothing say in who gets recruited.

anyway, i wish sometimes i could say exactly wat is in my head. sadly, i know i cant, so i blog. anyway back to the story, there was however two guys who showed interest in my friend, and coz i know my friend i knew the first one wasnt really her "type" (everyone has a type whoever says they dont is just plain lying),
so neway i became the pushy mom and tried to cut the conversation. (coz im such a villain). the second one was a doctor but i got really weird-shady-vibes from him. and there is just no reason why. u just do sometimes. and it wasnt just me who thought it, so did she.

i wonder why some pple give off the weird vibe, i wonder if i, myself give off that vibe to others too. i probably do.

so neway the doctor did call my friend. he cant be angling for a job in her firm for sure. so he is probably interested and considering theres nothing to lose, u never know. so being the over protective "mom" that i am gave the following advice,meet in a public place and dont ever leave your table even to go to the bathroom. the other plan b is for a bunch of us to shadow their table to make sure the doctor is normal. hopefully the phrase never judge a book by its cover holds true.

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coz there's an incidence in a coincidence.

yesterday was a great day. for one we actualy got out of training on the weekend. i pity the other groups, that havent been able to do. there is sometimes power in small numbers. neway that was enough to lift my spirits. but what made it nicer was meeting a friend that i hadnt met since high school. it was so surreal. i mean of all the places to meet them i met them in times square.(and ive been cribbing about the fact that i cant walk there anymore) and while we were having the "omigod is it really you" moment her sisters were taping the whole thing. made me a little self concious but it was really nice and later on when i met up other friends for dinner, my excitement hadnt worn off.

it really is a small world.

yesterdays highlights included finally eating at a french restaurant. im a bit disappointed that the menu wasnt in french. how unauthentic at that. but the fact that it had weird enough items on the menu, liver mousse, gapazalo (sp!). it was enough to redeem itself. im not so much an experimenter on these things, but my friend who had it really liked the "weird" dishes.

the movie of the week now, chucky and larry. seriously pathetic movie. its not funny. the humor is really crude. and i cant understand how girls would fall for adam sandler who is supposed to be a "ladies man". in other news, the theatre we went to watch is in time square and it had black out. there was no one to guide us out, i mean sure there are exit signs, but it could have caused a major stampede. and then later on many of us were exiting via the escalators rather than the stairs. coz we didnt want to be alone in the dark if the light in the stairway went out. i was really scared that anymoment now someone is going to fall from behind and its going to cause a stampede. im shocked that such a popular place is leeking of safety hazards.

dont watch this movie. only rent it if you love the sitcom guy.

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coz theres a b in business and blogging.

ok so ive decided to start a new blog on the markets, the world economies basically anything i read. This is in no way a recommendation for any asset class(stock picking etc etc). this is really my opinion and sort of like a consolodiation of the information i read so that i understand what im reading and can relate. from time to time i will think outloud and possibly track some stocks and that doesnt mean im endorsing them or am giving recommendation or that i know of any company/bank that is endorsing it. it is solely my opinion. and its more wrong often than right. and im still learning. that being said, i welcome others opinions and advices.

http://laeconomie.blogspot.com

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coz ive got one hand in my pocket..and the other one's giving out peace signs.


so the movie of the week is "pardner" or "partner". however you want to spell it. it has to be one of the dumbest movies ive seen all year. and though im not really in a position to be passing judgement,[ but then again im not really forcing millions to watch me]. neway, i have to say salman khan is looking pudgy as hell. either he is overtly happy (katrina kaif) or overtly depressed (aishwarya rai's wedding). either way its bad for him.

govinda is i guess govinda and though he is really trying hard, i dont think its working. the last part i actually fell asleep. ok so hte movie review from what i remember, its a really bad copy of hitch. salman khan is supposedly the all knowing of what women want and is grooming govinda so that he gets katrina. is it just me or is this a match made in bad movies.

i dont want to even get started on lara duttas role. or the lack there of it. rajpal yadav as the "chota don" is funny in parts. katrina kaif is really pretty but doesnt have much to say.

in other news, mini golf is not recognized as much as it should be. it has to be one of the most fun outdoorsy events that i have ever tried. i guess im much more appreciative now of mini golf after having been part of a team that was building one from scratch. isnt that normal though, we value things only when we've actually struggled for it.

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are we teamwork-challenged?

the last three days feel as i have been on apprentice. we were fifteen teams and were involved in building infrastructure for children's camp.

its always interesting to see how pple are in stressful times. there are some who are unhelpful from the word go. but then there are some who become a bit selfish when the deadline approaches. each his own, i guess. and then there are some, who do well during crunch time. they make a decision and make the best of it. and the end product is well worth it.

so that basically sums up the ice breaker tiring knees scratched feet blistered humid but overall fun teamwork event. the sad part though is children have grown up so much and have been exposed to greater and nicer things and its hard to impress them. its almost like asking someone to settle for snickers bar when they can have a godiva chocolate. (i actually prefer the former..haha) ok perhaps not hte greatest analogy. but there were times where we severely criticized for our work by the children of the camp, even though we had put our heart in it and were so convinced that they would love it. and then there were times where some kids appreciated it and couldnt wait to use all the new projects and were eager to do so.

i guess life is about keeping the majority happy.

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"btw you, whose cell phone is ringing. you're fired." - CEO of my Bank during a presentation when his phone, which was with the secretary, was ringing.

so we had another round of orientation (for the umpteenth time), where we are supposed to meet fellow colleagues from diff depts and different countries. get to know them, learn what they do, enrich ourselves and all that jazz.

this seems all very nice and dandy in paper, but sadly it is far far from it. coz you tend to stick to your own crowd and i think there is nothing more intimidating then going into a roomful of penguins (black coats, white shirts) and not know anyone. ive renamed bankers as penguins, please forgive me sisters (the original penguins)(i.e nuns (my jokes only make sense to me) and if you got this joke, congratulations you are now part of the small percentile that gets my lame sense of humor).

yea, so like i was saying its quite intimidating to go into a roomful of budding bankers and find them clustered in their groups of twos and threes and fours..etc.

one of the first lessons i learnt at business school is to attack the simpler problem. i.e approach the twos rather than the group of sevens, eights etc.


so like an avid student of principle, i do just that.

and this is the conversation that follows (please bear in mind, this is just my shallow opinion, and this steorotype is in no way or form the biblical truth.)

random wannabee desi dude (rwdd) and random abcd dude (rad) talking. i go upto them.
so i can introduce myself.

me: hello, hi my name is H.
rwdd: hi im X
rad: hi im rad.

and then they go back to their conversation, completely ignoring me.

WTF.


ok lets try again...

me : Hi, Im H.
random guy : Hi, Im random guy
me: Ok, so umm..random guy you work out of the London office huh
random guy: yea, you?
me: New york..umm so you work in Y group (group that makes more money than any other group) yea?
random guy: yea, you?
me: Z group (group that doesnt make as much).
random guy: *losing interest now eyes wandering*



WTDF (D is for double)


and the only thing going through my brain, *i can crush you with my thumb* (quote from friends)

one of my biggest problem is usually with other desis. i find desis as a species very competitive and in general dont really have that solidarity type thing that you would see with say the japanese or the chinese. where they actually seek each other out and behave like their long lost relatives. whereas desis, especially girls will eye you so differently. if you have a desi in your team, he probably will try to talk to everyone else but you. i dont understand that. and it really annoys me. cant you just be normal. and why why why do you have a british accent when you have not even touched british soil and have just been recruited to work there recently. please explain this phenomena. i once met a desi who lived in Mumbai all her life, who actually called britain their motherland. okayyy.

moving on.

i shouldnt say that all of them do it, but at least most of the ones ive met at these networking events pretend so much. and as much as i like to stereotype, i hate being stereotyped myself. the bank got a consultant to teach us how to network. other than the inane activities of asking your neighbours dumb questions about them, it also permeated the fact that society and people always have this need to pigeon hole you.

either you are an extrovert or introvert, either democratic or republican, either leader or follower, either black or white, either bully or nerd. i dont get this.

there are sometimes where you might want to lead, other times youd like to follow the herd. some days you dont want to talk to anyone and some days you dont shutup. i dont understand this need to categorize pple. but this isnt a perfect world and the imperfect world needs to categorize for it all to make sense. not to you. but to make sense to others.

neway tomm i have this teamwork event, it almos tmakes me feel like im on the apprentice or something, without the boardroom and donald trump. wish me luck. hope i dont get fired.

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coz my inner geek hearts dilbert, and coz there is philosophy in comics.


"i have this theory that everyone has their quota of happiness. Once it runs out, you die" - Scott Adams, Dilbert Comics.

I think Im sort of agreeing with Scott Adams, although Im not too sure if hes being sarcastic or he really means it. not being too morbid, but it sort of makes sense. if u can in fact control your emotions you will lead a more stable life.. i know it sounds weird, coz everyone says you should see the bright side and try and be happy most of the time..but longevity of life is more about how often you are in your natural state.

in emergency situations, its usually the calm who take the lead, who have the ability to think quickly and make the right decision. on the trading floor, its those who can control the feeling of overconfidence and greed or the floaty happy feeling or those who can control the anger, the depression of losing money/self esteem. its those who are the ones who last longer.

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movie of the week: my best friend's wedding. (i know little late. but it was on tbs)

and i think my favorite part of the movie is when actually (there are two) when julia roberts confesses that shes done bad and shes the worst there is.

Julianne Potter: I'm pond scum. Well, lower actually. I'm like the fungus that feeds on pond scum.
Michael O'Neill: Lower. The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum....On the other hand, thank you for loving me that much, that way. It's pretty flattering.
Julianne Potter: Except it makes me fungus

LOL. Touching.

Then there was the last scene where the newly weds are leaving and he leaves without saying good bye to Julia Roberts(Julianne), and shes a little sad that she cant say goodbye. and then just like that he returns and hugs her and says bye..

awwww...

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waqt hi shayad khuda hai..

havent blogged for a while mainly coz Im walking to work and have plenty of time to think about things happening around that i just dont feel the need to pen them down. anyway we went to watch knocked up and althought i had a lot of reservations about watching it, since im not really a fan of american crude humor. most of the jokes i dont get. but iwas so wrong, the movie yes is a bit crude but is still quite entertaining and a lot of the situations in the movie are true.

anyway the basic storyline two opposites meet. the girl ends up having a baby which she wants to keep and then the two opposites though totally different from each other are now forced to take a go at actually building a relationship for the sake of the baby.

later on when we were dissecting the movie, i started thinking is there too much emphasis on finding "the perfect" things in another. i.e the same compatibility, the same level of humor, the same culture, the same language, the same or higher level of education, the same religion, same family enviornment and in some cases the same "tribe" even. i.e we are looking for our own carbon copies in another.
is it stupid to do this coz ultimately it doesnt really matter. if you are a nice person it will work out, no matter how different as chalk and cheese you are. ( i never get this chalk-cheese analogy, but since its become a takya kalam i will use it)

as another friend goes through another breakup. and that too for no apparent reason. no fights, no nothing. just simply a decision not to be together. i then wonder how much the above reasoning holds. of course theres always the aftereffects where he later thinks whether the decision was correct and mulls over it and is depressed over the decision he himself made.

human relationships are quite complicated. and there is always never a clear and cut answer. its like trying to answer a long answer question in 3 lines.

i recently decided that i would do everything i always want to do in my year or so here in new york. coz never know where life takes you. so i decided to volunteer at the cancer hospital in my neighbourhood. which ive always wanted to do. its not as glamourized as they show in ER or Grey's anatomy. in fact, far from it.

hospitals always give me a mixed feeling. since in some ways ive grown up around hospitals and a visit to the hospital when i was growing up meant my sister would get me food from the hospital cafeteria (which i really found delicious). yes, im so weird. and then there are some really sad memories at the hospital too. i know i cant base everything on one visit, but mostly the pple visiting looked tired and depressed. and it makes me think like many a times do we only realize a person's worth only after they are gone or when we are beginning to lose them.

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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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