A year later

Yesssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 28, 2007 was the auspicious day when i finally christined the blogosphere wid ma presence by hitting the PUBLISH button for this post. And like they say there has been no looking back... i wrote and i cribbed n screamed n i vented it all out and what not. So my logging is now a year old and what have i learned in this one year:

NOTHING!!!!! :P

if any of you were thinking that der'll be some changes in my writting and i'll start wid some more socially responsible posts den darlin u r sooo very mistaken....its gonna be the way it is till the time its gonna be.

So a very very very HAPPY BDAY to me :)

Meeting the Past

Packin your stuff brings you face 2 face with your past memories. Things you were looking for all over but cudnt find...to things you kept too carefully to remember again. The past weekend was nostalgia full on for me. I found hidden in my almira, things I have been carrying with me since ages…some toh I dint even know exist.

My music diary. This is a good 11 yrs old…back when I was learning classical music…it’s tattered to no end with yellowed pages. But it symbolizes the most beautiful times of my school life…when I was just myself.

My Ghungroo. No I wasn’t into classical dancing but I have a string of 20-25 ghungroos. It’s a single string, not a pair. I like their sweet tingling sound. Plan to hang them in my room as a substitute to wind chimes.

Remember the amazing viral marketing spin by Ruffle Lays? I and my brother had a huuuuuuuge collection of these taazos. Infact, we had created an album for this.

McDonalds used to be my brother’s fav hound for nothing else but those toys that we used to get from there.

I found an unposted letter written to my friend 5 years back. I was always into writing and used to write her long letters full of nothing else but crap and gossip. Dunno why I did not post this one.

My remedy to overcome bad moods and anger, just spill it all out on a piece of paper and read it after 3-4 days. You tend to laugh at it that time and then you can burn it off. Guess I never got back to some of them after 3-4 days…some of those venting out creations were 7 years old! And ya…I did laugh at them.

A calendar of year 2000 that I got from Jaipur, mainly coz I liked the paintings on each page...I even recreated some of them.

A travel kit gifted to me by my brother on Rakshabandhan. It had a mirror, comb, tooth brush, tooth paste, soap and a mini towel. Never really got round to use it.

My Barbie doll and her clothes and kitchen set.

Fake currency notes that were quiet in vogue some 10 years back.

A glow toy that I had with me…it used to be my bed-partner along with my dolls and teddy bears. It somehow gave me a sense of security.

A book on Russian folk stories (funny I had read Russian when I was young and here I am struggling with Fyodor Dostoevsky)

My passpost size photographs when I was in class 10. I could actually see the transformation since these 8 years!

Other then these, ofcourse there was also some windfall gains as:
A pillow cover that mom had been lookin for since looooong time

A stationary kit. My brother once asked me if I have it with me since he cudn’t really find it anywhere else and I obviously said No.

A notebook with some important notes. I knew I have it with me but just cudnt find it when I needed it.

A SPOON!! Don’t ask me how did dat land in my almira.

4-5 towels

Uncountable number of handkerchiefs all distributed in my handbags and jeans pockets n all. Unfortunately no windfall gains in terms of money :(

My almira was nothing less then a pandora’s box I guess. But it was fun going through all those times again. Some things I have to leave behind but then…memories are not dependant on material objects right.

Mom, Me and my wardrobe

I am back to my nostalgic trips (for the recent readers of my blog, my earlier nostalgic stint lead to these posts.)
One of the biggest challenges in shifting your home comes in form of packing up of all your belongings. Add to it when you have to pack each and every thing all by yourself coz your mom doesn’t trust the packers & movers ppl (They’ll just stuff in everything without wrapping it properly. What if something breaks off? And how will I know which carton has what?...and so on) Infact, my next few posts might be based on this moving on only.
Dats when u realize just how much clutter you had actually accumulated. I dint even realize I had sooooo many clothes (though my mom never failed to make me aware of this)!! There are few which I have ahem..well..sorta..outgrown and there are some which could have been worn but wrnt coz I simply dint remember that I have them! And now when its clearing up time, I am in a dilemma….should I throw them away or keep them with me? And for the outgrown ones, throwing away would mean that I’m accepting that I’ll never get back to them. So my mom is these days constantly on the lookout for a chance to raid on my wardrobe while im trying to hide my treasure from her.
This is what a typical evening in my house goes like these days when she is going through my collection of clothes.
As it happens generally, she opens the closet and few jeans come tumbling down on her. *sigh* talk of a bad start.
Mom: See…this is what I don’t like. You don’t even take care of your clothes. Then after some time you say that they have lost their look and you want more.

Me: I do!!! Arrey that toh I was getting late for office so I just stuffed them in. I was about to put them in properly abhi.

Mom: Ya right. I have been hearing this since last how many years now? Neway rehne do.

And we start going through each of them one by one.

Mom: This!! Throw this away...when was the last time you wore it huh?

Me: I will now pucca se. (*i guess saying that it got kinda lost in the heap of clothes wouldn't have really helped so i decided to keep mum)

Mom: And u better give away all these trousers...they dont fit you anymore and you obviously arnt gonna do anything about it.

(*my mom surely knows how to prick me. As was expected, dis statement got me all fired up)

Me: Kya matlab? ofcourse im gonna do something about it. I am not throwing it away...no way!

We carried on calmly for some time till she got to a salwar suit. This is always been a raw nerve with my mom. While she adores salwar suits, i aint really fond of them and she hates it when they just keep on hanging in my closet.

Mom: Look at this one...so pretty! and you literally fought with me to get this one stiched but now you just dont wear it.

Me: Mom its kinda glittery..i cant wear it to office n all.

Mom: Its not!! bus tumhe hi aisa lagta hai...why you have to wear such dull clothes.

Me: Arrey! just coz i dont wear THIS particular suit, all my clothes are dull!?!? Kya logic hai ismein?

Mom: Tumhe na toh apne kapdo ka khayal rakhna hai, na hi inhe phekna hai. Bus keep on stuffing them in. This is a pathetic T-shirt!! Its even faded. what are you gonna do with this?

Me: Ummm ya its kinda faded but i like it n i do wear it.

Mom: Ye bekaar hai.

And with that statement, she finally put one T-shirt in discarded clothes section. And before i could even realise, few more were added to it. :(

Mom: All these skirts...why dont you wear them anymore?

Me: Mom these are those huuuge skirts that were in some 5 years back! i cant wear them NOW! They look weird!!

Mom: Then why did you buy this one the other day?

Me: This is a wrap around skirt. They look good.

Mom: Tumhara toh kuch samajh mein hi nahi aata ki kab kaya achcha hai kya nahi hai. Do it yourself. I am loosing my patience.

Me (with a big smile): Okie! :)

Its not that she is indeed done with it. She'll be back i knw and the same thing will happen. Few of my collection will be martyred for a larger cause :P

Moving on

“Wake up! We have reached. Arrey utho bhi.”
My mom’s consistent poking finally managed to wake me up from my slumber… How do I manage to sleep so deeply curled up in the car is a mystery to her as well as me.
I was still pissed with the last argument and was obviously not in a very amiable mood. Who would be if u r made to leave your friends and school and shift to a completely different one?
I looked up to the group of white tall buildings one of which was to house my new home.
“They all look the same! I’ll never find my house.”
“Ever heard of something called house number? We had it earlier as well. And there too all houses looked same.”
“Yaaa but…its soo tall! And there is no elevator as well”
“Its only 4 floors and our house is on 2nd floor”
This last counter argument was delivered with a don’t-be-so-difficult look to me. I knew there was nothing I could say, not at the moment at least. I quietly followed my dad down the lanes to the block that was to be my new home.
“It’s so small!! And what if I fall from the stairs?”
“If you look where you are walking, you won’t fall.”
The problems that I could find with this place were innumerable!
“I wont drink dis packed milk. It’s synthetic! I read it in paper”
“I cant sleep at night. I can actually hear someone walking in the house above ours! Its disturbing”
“I don’t like the kids out here…they don’t play football!”
And the list went on…Now that I think of it, it was a natural defensive reaction from a 11 year old who refused to be taken out of her cocoon.
In the last one decade that I have lived here, this place has grown from a quiet, relatively greener part of the city to a busy, upcoming segment with malls, metro and new housing societies.
Im comfortable here…my friend’s place is walking distance from my home and my office is 5 km.
And then:
“We are shifting. Packup!”
“Whaaat! But why are we going there of all the places? It’s not even come up properly yet! And my office will be soo faar! And it’s not safe at all….”
*embaressed smile*
History repeated itself.
11 years later and my reaction is still the same. Guess im still defensive about my comfort zone and don’t want to let go of it.
Is it only me or is everyone else like that?

Crap on Idiot Box

Well well well so now on this day when almost everyone is fooling or atleast trying to fool someone, I decided to do something kinda different on my blog. So for a change, I will NOT talk about myself out here…no need to laugh so hard now ok…though kinda unusual, its definetly not unprecedented. I have earlier shed some light on a few bigger causes as well like here and partly here as well.

For a change last week I was watching TV and that too I choose to watch news channels…there was just one fella hogging the limelight. Some WWE guy called Khali…oops! It’s the Great Khali. News channels have gone completely ga-ga over this giant of a man. Some are even claiming him as a Superhero! Khali’s exclusive interview, exclusive footage of his gym where he trains (Aarrgghhhh!), what he eats, what he thinks, how he has terrorized the entire WWE fraternity n all that jazz.
Duuuude, is wrestling really that big in India? Or are they creating a hype coz Khali is the 1st export from india in this arena? Whats the big idea of making mountains outta molehills?

Another example being the Tanushree Dutta and nana patekar thing that was in news…1st thing that had me dumbstuck was…Who the hell is Tanushree Dutta?? After googling and boggling my mind, I remembered her as some beauty pageant winner...This lady had some issues with Nana Patekar and was thrown out of the movie and her car was smashed and all that jazz...now this is the only time i guess that this lady is in news post her paegent win along with a almost done with star for a movie which definetly isnt a very awaited one. If this isnt a publicity stunt then i dont know what is...

These days news channels serve more of a channa zor garam rather than a balanced diet. Agreed with some who claim that this is very much news..true. But from the look of it, it seems this is the ONLY news! Isnt there anything more interesting thats happening? Cmon man we live in a world with more than hundred countries...im sure something is happening all the time somewhere...y not report that?
Some say that this kinda news is shown coz there are poeple who watch it...so these news channels are doing nothing but simply catering to the market needs...but rnt they creating that market as well? If they can make people curious about this Khali and who is dating whom and who killed whom and who even slapped whom then why cant they create awareness about some good and worth it issues!
They dont think its worth it? Or they simply dont care about it? Afterall, if showing Govinda slapping some XYZ increase TRPs then why bother!?!?!