An absolutely gorgeous song from the “Plain White Ts” – “Hey there Delilah”. Am so thankful that geniuses abound; take a listen :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbJtYqBYCV8]
And a totally bindaas desi number from the film “Cash”. Haven’t seen the film, but this song is pretty well done. And desi bindaas is hard, especially on film :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7yL1pw81rI]
You think about all that technology floating around and then you see this : “Cheap GPS” by xkcd.com
Inside my handbag I see a pen or two. There is even a snack-bar (when did I put that in there ?). There are various bits of paper floating around in there, some small, some big. Then there is a wad of tissues, my wallet, my phone and a little note-pad, a small comb, and 2 pairs of sun-glasses (quite pointless really – I can’t possibly wear them both at once). At such moments I wish I could just squat down wherever I am, dump the contents of the bag out, there, down on the ground, find what I’m looking, pick it up, and just walk away.
At one point in my life, I carried quite a large bag. It looked like a nice, curvy, leather sack. And it was (became) heavy. Since it was such a large, voluminous bag – it seemed to have oodles of space; things fairly leapt inside of their own accord. Need hairbrush ? In the bag it goes. List of groceries ? Should be in there somewhere. Paperback novel I was supposed to return to the library last week ? Yup, in there. Several expired checkbooks ? Half-eaten bag of popcorn ? That blobby toy the kids love ? Bag of jelly beans ? Store receipts from the past year, of things I might possibly return ? If you couldn’t find it anywhere else, it was quite possibly in my handbag. That thing was a store-all.
Then I graduated to a really small bag, a mini-bag really. Life got simpler. All it held (could hold) were the essentials – keys, wallet, phone. And little pieces of paper, yeah ? How much space do they take ? Every time I fill up the car, I ask for a receipt. But where to put all these receipts ? I dream of the day when for a pack-rat like me, cars will be equipped with built in scanners that will scan your receipts in a second, leaving you free to trash them (or we could have built-in shredders).
A friend once told me that she discarded useless receipts immediately, like tore them into a trash bag right outside the store. Me, a pack-rat – I can’t do that, because what if, what if, what if I need it later ? I’m pretty sure I have shopping receipts from 2004 – I just don’t know where I’ve “safely” placed them. And you know Murphy’s golden rule – the moment you discard something as unusable, you need it right after.
For all the talk we have on conserving our resources and reducing the use of paper, it’s almost like once you open the front door, paper (mostly junk) comes flying in. We’ve long since stopped getting the printed newspaper – we just read online now. But the mail brings advertisements and junk mail. The kids bring home tons of paperwork from school. And we seem to be throwing away more and more paper. Some of it ends up in my purse.
Despite my misadventures with space, I’ve stuck to a small handbag; it’s not like tiny, tiny, it’s still average sized. It holds all the essentials, and some “extra” stuff that I’ll put in once in a while. However it’s not a carryall, so when the zipper refuses to close, it’s a pretty clear sign that I need to de-clutter. So I’ll open the bag and throw away the “extras” (mostly junk which should have been discarded two weeks back).
Now if only de-cluttering my life and my home was that easy !
Crossposted at desicritics.
Or as it could be called “The descent and rise of Prabhjot” . In Vote-Out #5 , she went out. And in the most recent episode she came back in, after challenging and winning over Anmol – good for her !
In the episode where she got voted out, amazingly all of the remaining roadies voted her out ! Amnol and Shambhavi reigned supreme, and the rest of the sheep just followed them, nodding their heads. Sonel, Prabhjot’s “friend” voted her out too, in an attempt to not antagonize the powers that be, but then spoilt it all by crying her eyes out in remorse. Well , good for her then – at least she felt bad doing the wrong thing. The rest of the Roadies – not so much.
So then, Prabhjot went home. But in the most recent episode, Ranvijay and Raghu brought the Voted-Out Roadies back to challenge the others. The challengers were allowed to pick whom they challenged and ofcourse, Prabhjot went for Anmol. Anmol, who’s Shambhavi’s biggest supporter and often rides on her coat-tails, has very little fighting spirit. She does little, and talks quite a bit (often maliciously). Shambhavi might be Pure Poison but atleast she has some spirit. When challenged by Prabhjot, Anmol was instantly defeatist.
In the task the two rivals were made to stand on narrow wooden platforms supported on the two ends, and supplied with axes. They had to hack at each other’s platforms to get the other person to fall down. Anmol made it up to the wooden platform, but got tired very quickly and gave up. Meanwhile Prabhjot had hacked through half of Anmol’s platform. So Prabhjot replaced Anmol, and Anmol went home.
In the other Challenge, Vikrant challenged Nihal and lost. Nihal who’s been getting it from all the others for shooting his mouth off, and performing poorly in the tasks, finally did something worthwhile. Vikrant who was full of fight hadn’t even hacked through half of the platform before Nihal cut though Vikrant’s platform and caused him to fall.
Two more challenges remain : Snehashish vs. Ashutosh (I expect Ashutosh to win) and Ankita vs. Shambhavi (I expect Ankita to win). As compared to previous Seasons of the Roadies, this group has seemed the most pathetic; they haven’t done a single task well, failing some so abominably that in Immunity tasks, no-one has gotten Immunity. However in the most recent episode, contestants are actually being chosen for their performance and not their strategies, bringing some Roadie-worthy spirit to the game. I guess Raghu had enough of the political mind games !
There have been 4 vote-outs so far, with 5 people being voted out (2 in the first vote-out) : Simran & Varun, Vikrant, Snehashish and Ankita. So the intial 13 roadies (Ankita, Simran, Sonel, Shambhavi, Anmol, Prabhjot, Snehashish, Ashutosh, Varun, Vibhor, Vikrant, Ayaz, Nihal) have been reduced to 8 : Ayaz, Prabhjot, Sonel, Ashutosh, Vibhor, Shambhavi, Anmol, and Nihal .
After Ankita’s surprise vote-out yesterday, Prabhjot is pretty much all on her own. Sonel is there, yes, but not sure if she can be counted on – her mind works in unknown ways . As the show progresses once can actually see Sonel coming into her own, going from a disinterested participant (she actually brought a book to read to one of the tasks – and got royally dissed by the others) to a thoroughly engaged Roadie. In yesterday’s immunity task, I was actually pretty surprised to see that she managed to swing back on the trapeze after falling off once – good for her !
I had actually hoped that Ankita would have progressed on since she seemed fairly well-grounded, and was an OK performer. But the saner ones get voted out the fastest I guess. Not so in Master Plotter Snehashish’s case though. He strategized this way and that, and I’m not sure if this was the way it was edited but the one hour Roadies installment on television seemed to highlight his opportunistic tendencies; the kind of friend you wish you didn’t have.
Then there are the two other Delhi girls – Shambhavi and Anmol, who seem to band together under duress. You know what they say about birds of a feather . . . During yesterday’s show when Shambhavi was saved from elimination, they were passing around flying kisses, so glad were they of each other’s company. They both are petite and nice looking (and actually all the girls on the show are, even Prabhjot, whom Shambahavi dissed bigtime yesterday as “not hot enough to flirt with”). Talk about hitting below the belt. Both, Anmol and Shambavi, harbor delusions about being “hot” and “upper-class” – note Anmol’s frequent outpourings about Prabhjot being so “lower-class”, and “cheap”.
Sonel is easily the most striking looking of the lot, although when she opens her mouth, there it goes. Shambhavi, although pretty, is about 4 feet tall, literally and figuratively. Quite an opportunist (it’s a bad, bad world out there ), she has the reputation of cosying up to and latching onto the man of the moment, so to speak. Unfortunately, whoever she latches onto, is voted out. Anmol seems to be more of a follower than a leader; she follows Shambhavi. And although it looks there actually might be a “nice” girl in there, under Shambhavi’s (corrupting ?) influence, the “nice” girl cowers and out comes the snideness and the illusions of being oh-so-la-di-dah.
Still, it is something to be remarked at, at how men melt when faced with seemingly “fragile” girls. Anmol cries and Ashutosh refuses to vote her out, because apparently he can’t see her weeping. Pretty much everyone can see through Shambhavi, but all she has to do is to act hurt, and the boys are at her beck and call, feeding her because she’s injured (one seriously felt bad for Ayaz then). At the auditions, I remember both Nikhil and Raghu being floored by Shambhavi “cuteness” and worried about her survival on the show, because she was so “fragile”, LOL !
For now it really looks like our lad from Saharanpur might win.
A totally nutcase-y email landed in my Inbox the other day. This is what it said :
This is an awareness drive to awake people to boycott movie ‘Jodhaa Akbar’.The movie Jodhaa Akbar is a vile, vicious, and covert attempt by a mischievous producer/director from Bollywood (Mumbai) to make quick bucks by denigrating and vilifying the Hindu (Rajput) people. Sonia’s (Antonia Maino) Congress government promtly banned ‘Da Vinci Code’ movie after Christians’ protest, but this Secular (?) government is so insensitive about Hindus protest about ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ !
Visit – http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/3815.html to –
Know true story of Cruel Akbar and Jodhaabai
Know the people behind this conspiracy (The movie crew)
View glimpses of protests
Send this mail to your friends for creating awareness and protecting self-respect.
Shameful Hindus who throng to watch Jodhaa-Akbar, a film which glorifies Hindu hater Cruel Akbar, are worthy of getting killed by Terrorists!
Now, this comes to me via an accquaintance (shudder !) at a desi community organisation I’m involved in. Since I barely know this person, I’m assuming this is a blanket email being circulated to Hindus. Now, I do have an opinion on this matter, but assuming that I didn’t, this email wouldn’t sway me anyway. Why ? Just going by the tone of the email, it appears to be written by someone who’s :
1. Bigoted
2. Fundie
3. Violent
4. Intolerant
5. Incapable of rational thought
I would also associate the above properties with a goon. However, that may not be true, since it’s not open season for goons (yet) in Amrika-land. Would I believe anything such a person said ? I think not.
And what exactly does this mean :
Sonia’s (Antonia Maino) Congress government promtly banned ‘Da Vinci Code’ movie after Christians’ protest, but this Secular (?) government is so insensitive about Hindus protest about ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ !
What is this ? The Grand Imbecility Marathon ? A bunch of imbeciles protest against The Da Vinci code – why are we not imbeciles too ? Don’t despair – I hearby grant you the Imbecility Knighthood. From now onwards, people sending out/forwarding emails like these can prefix their names with “Honorable Imbecile”.
I’ve been hearing of the protests against this film, but seriously, are people nuts ? This is a FILM, and however tongue-in-cheek I might be in my review, I’m not actually watching Bollywood for authentic history lessons! Nor I imagine are the masses. This is a love-story, tweaked to appeal cinematically. This is not the truth. There are factual errors as well as deliberate ommissions int it. And, no I don’t want Gowariker’s head/apology for those.
Although the above asinine email comes via the HJS, I believe the Karni Sena also wants blood. They claim they are outraged by the “insult” to Hindus. Hmm, if you’re the type of Hindu where anyone, anywhere can say stuff that will insult your religion, then your religion is weak indeed. If your belief in your religion is so gossamer thin that one film-maker can cause it to weaken, then you may not be the staunch Hindu you believe yourself to be.
Yes, we musn’t forget the past, but history in a large part is mere concoction and hear say. Mine against yours. To interpret it as you wish is your privilege. However to interpret it as you wish , and protest violently is illegal. Unlawful. However since this is India we speak of, the laws are not enforced and the goondas do what they want.
And practically speaking, aren’t there more relevant issues for Hindus the world over to be worried about, rather than get outraged at OMG, what we think the Mughals did to us, more than a hundred years ago ? Since the HJS and Karni Sena can’t think of any, let me provide you with a list :
The above list might seem simplistic, and I’m not saying that child marriage or child labor doesn’t happen in non-Hindus, or that non-Hindu men do not commit crimes. However it annoys me greatly to see a bunch of lunatics crawl out of the woodwork to be “outraged” at some totally inconsequential matter. And to use Hinduism as a crutch to strut their own bigoted agendas. This is not Hinduism.
Also I emphasize Hindu ills, not to denigrate Hinduism but to prove a point. And that point is that these so-called Hindus raise their voices at perceived insults, but do very little to actually better their communities, or to fight known social ills. How much could the Karni Sena do if it really wanted to stop child marriage in Rajasthan ? I’m assuming quite a bit. Does it ?
I am a Hindu too. But my Hinduism is not insulted by someone expressing an opinion, even if it is contrary to mine. If you wish to be an Idiot, please, feel free. Be an idiot within the confines of your own home. But to declare your idiocy to the world and hide it under the guise of Hinduism is another matter indeed.
MTv Roadies 5.0 has 5 girls left : Shambavi, Anmol, Ankita, Sonel and Prabhjot. Ankita (Simran) has been voted. However, before she got voted out, in one of the earlier episodes, there was a scene where Shambavi, Simran and Anmol are plotting to vote out Sonam, because as Shambavi puts it, she’s too fat – she’s got fat oozing from her clothes and she wants her show to be a “good” show.
MTV Roadies 4.0 had Sonam, et.al. who were set to vote Bani out, because she didn’t meet their standards of a “good girl”. Bani as you might recall was a “free spirit”, and sort of did as she liked. I did not however see her do “impure” stuff; in fact she seemed like the sane one out of the lot. Sonam on the other hand seemed vicious, and quick to judge. So her boyfriend could stray (remember her audition?) and that was OK – she was actually crying on the audition because Raghu and Co. insulted him, but Bani ahould be voted out because she was “cheap”.
This season, you have the moral brigade against “fat-ness”, judging Sonel. Where, oh where does this judgmental attitude towards women come from ? Oooh, wild guesses : claustrophobic society, home, Mom, Dad, the socialization of women to pander to the male gaze. Woman not “good” enough ? Girl too fat ? A cheap girl ? I’m going to apply my limited pop psychology skills here, and come up with, er . . . nothing (I’m no Raghu).
Are these women insane to judge each other so ? Or is this the face of the new desi youth (oh despair !) ? Quite fascinating to see this generation’s young women grow up with ideas on “looking good”, fatness, purity and lopsided morality, but little common-sense. From here to feminism seems a far leap indeed.
From guardian.co.uk :
Heart
by Margaret Atwood
Some people sell their blood. You sell your heart.
It was either that or the soul.
The hard part is getting the damn thing out.
A kind of twisting motion, like shucking an oyster,
your spine a wrist,
and then, hup! it’s in your mouth.
You turn yourself partially inside out
like a sea anemone coughing a pebble.
There’s a broken plop, the racket
of fish guts into a pail,
and there it is, a huge glistening deep-red clot
of the still-alive past, whole on the plate.
It gets passed around. It’s slippery. It gets dropped,
but also tasted. Too coarse, says one. Too salty.
Too sour, says another, making a face.
Each one is an instant gourmet,
and you stand listening to all this
in the corner, like a newly hired waiter,
your diffident, skilful hand on the wound hidden
deep in your shirt and chest,
shyly, heartless.
· From Margaret Atwood’s The Door, published by Virago
With all the hoopla around Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to bring a coherent thought to the head. The hype around chocolates would make you believe they are a woman’s best friend . They aren’t. But since many around me haven’t a clue, here’s what NOT to get your valentine :
#1 Teddy bears or plush/stuffed/soft toys of any variety : You don’t know it, but teddy bears are the biggest space hoggers. They don’t squish into little nooks and crannies, and they don’t deflate to make space (No, I don’t want those either). Plus they are extremely unwieldy, and can’t be sorted or put away neatly. And please, teddy bears and home décor (like what’s with the hundreds of teddy bears on beds, shelves and mantelpieces ?) ? Get the thought out of your head ! What do you do with a Teddy Bear anyway ? You can’t wear it, you can’t eat it, and you can’t smell it. Seriously useless.
#2 Chocolates/Caramelized popcorn/Candy of any kind : No chocolates please – I have loads of them from past Halloweens, choking up shelf-space. And so does every other female on this planet. And whoever thought of caramelized popcorn had only one thought in mind – torture. Are there not better things to eat ? I mean, if it has to come down to matters of the stomach.
#3 Flowers : The old, clichéd fall-back. I don’t actually dislike flowers. However they need tending to. I don’t need things to tend to. Au contraire, I need to be tended to ! There are instructions to be followed, plant food to be fed, and they need to be clipped with garden shears before they can be immersed in water. I mean really, what garden shears ? What garden ? Plus you have to have a vase handy (who does ?) and you have to change the water every three days. Yeah, you heard that right – every three days. I fill up my desk-water-bottle every three days, you think I’m watering the roses too ?
Get creative. I know people quail at the mere mention of “creativity”. But, hey it’s only one day. And while we are on that topic, why only one day to express “THE LOVE” ? Don’t you love her/him the rest of the 364 days ?
The current controversy – that of the Maharashtrian, brings to mind the question of belonging. I have no “accent” so to speak, no Haryanvi influence, no UP-ite drawl, no Punjabi ruggedness, no American accent. I am often asked where I am from , now in the US, and many, many times in India. I often want to ask people what they mean when they ask that. Actually I do ask for clarifications from peers – Do you mean where my parents are from ? Or do you mean me ? They’ll clarify.
However try asking the Unclejis/Auntijis this sort of stuff, and I get these weird looks like they’re thinking I’m an odd girl (Not very docile, is she now ?). Do they think that I have remained rooted to the birthplace of my ancestors ? Is that what they mean – where were your grand-parents from ? Surely not, since they are talking to me ? Surely they care about me – the person standing in front of them, more than my great-great-grandfather’s home-town ? Are they asking me what my native tongue is ? Where I went for my summer holidays ? Mussoorie ??? Are they asking me where my father’s elder brother lives ? Or my Mom’s ? Or where I live now ?
In the US, sometimes this question is understandable – I ask it, and I couldn’t care about the language you spoke at home, as long as we can communicate somehow. You try to get a feel for the person you just met – where did you go to school ? Non-vegetarian ? You try to form links and connections – do you know so-and-so etc. But I’ve noticed that there are also other reasons people ask this – you can see their minds work. Reasons such as the reason to classify me as a Northie, or a Southie, to find out my caste and my Gotra, to find out if I am one of them.
To those people I give the whole schpiel :
“My father is from so-and-so, and my grand-father was from so-and-so village. My mother’s side is from this city, but that was because my grand-father moved … And then of-course we never actually lived in my “home-town(s)”, so I don’t if I actually belong there. And then we moved again . . . to the US. Let me tell you where all I’ve lived here . . “
At this point, people’s eyes are glazing over. If I notice, I stop. But, sometimes, I don’t.
The question of “belonging” has always gotten me – what really is the correct answer ? Do you belong to the land of your ancestors ? You may or may not have been brought up there, so how do you profess links ? Do you belong to your Dad’s “place” or your Mom’s ? Or both ? What if they are really far apart ? I have lived all over India, and least of all in the states to which my parents/grand-parents profess attachment. If I live anywhere for more than 5 years, can I say I belong there ? When I learn a language which is not my mother-tongue, can I say I belong ? If I move to another country, and consider it home, do I belong ?
Who decides if I belong ? Just like who decides if I’m a patriot, a Hindu, or fit to live and speak my mind ? Who, really ?
Cross-posted at Desicritics
