News Alert! Modern day witches!

I wasn't planning on writing today but here I am because I just heard a story. It was a horrible story and I had to share it. As you know, I've done plenty of posts about how women are treated badly and all the terrible things that happen all over the world. Just the other day, a friend sent me a news article about a new law ('No sex, no food') passed in Afghanistan. Quite disgusting. I'm grateful for the laws in our country that protect women. I'm not completely partial towards women (unlike what many believe). It's just that they do have a lot happening against them. I am partial towards justice though. Which brings me to today's story.

This happened to a friend of a friend but isn't an urban legend. Last evening, a young man was on his way to a wedding in Madras (say, Nelson Manikam road area). He was trying to find the way to the church so he stopped near the junction and asked a "well-groomed" girl standing there if he needed to turn left or right for the church. As soon as he stopped, the girl opened the door of his car and got in and demanded that he have sex with her. The guy freaked out and begged her to get out of his car and she told him to either pay him Rs.10,000 or have sex with her or she will claim he raped her and then she took of her top. He continued to plead with her and told her that he only had Rs.1000 and she then asked him to go to an ATM and give her all the money he has. She said that there is nothing he can do because the police would never believe him (which is true, and she could still claim rape if he chose to have sex with her instead of paying her). The boy continued to cry and beg her for about 45 minutes and finally she took the Rs.1000 and left.

I'm absolutely disgusted at this story. I'm furious that there is nothing the guy can do without the laws protecting women becoming compromised again. This sick girl is abusing the very laws that protect the innocent thereby making a mockery of all that women have been fighting for. I pray and hope for justice. I really hope this girl will get exposed for what she is and be locked up.

In the meantime, I'd just like to tell all the men to please not stop and ask directions from smart looking women without locking their car doors first. Auto-rickshaw drivers might be better at giving directions and they probably won't try and rape men. Unless they're gay. Hmm, now they too have laws protecting them (Which is good...They're human too!).

Okay, always keep your doors locked.

ps - I only titled the post 'witches' to get people to read. My definition of a witch is totally different. :p

News highlights

I think I missed out on the news of the decade whilst doing my once in a while updates. Michael Jackson died some weeks ago. I found out at about 3am local time because my sister phoned me crying. I'm like, "Can I please mourn in the morning, thank you very much". I woke up the next day and saw that all the news channels seemed to have only this one news item for the day (and then the week). But as they played clips from his life and career, you couldn't help but appreciate his talent and feel overwhelmed. I remember when "History" came out and MTV was MJTV (MTV actually played music in the past) for a whole month... I ended up recording most of it and probably recorded the "Thriller" video the most because that's my all time favourite Michael Jackson song and video. Anyway, then came all the expected controversies necessary to go along with any big celebrity's death... talk about murder, new updates on his children blah blah blah. People are stupid when it comes to lives of famous people. I ended up watching his entire memorial service for some reason. I think it was because of all the testimonies, more to God than MJ. I loved the "King of pop kneeling before the King of kings" line. Funny how the memorial was African-American dominated (I was wondering when Oprah would show up and probably wouldn't have been surprised if Obama made an appearance) and his kids were the only white people there (except for the token white people, Brooke Shields and John Mayer). Oh well, legends usually are legends because their lives are never very long. He's definitely the most well-known entertainer of our time. (And Madonna is a close second).

Speaking of icons of our era, am I the last one to hear the news about Archie? Apparently, after all these years of the famous love triangle, Archie Andrews will propose to Veronica Lodge!. I can't believe he chose her over Betty. In movies of this sort, it's usually the nice girl who adores the leading man who ends up getting him. I guess they didn't want to be typical anymore! I don't get it though... why must the Archie gang grow up and have endings after all this time? Comics are supposed to remain frozen in time and be one of the constants in our aging world. Why couldn't they just be given ipods and facebook pages instead? Anyway, the series with Archie's proposal to Veronica is out next month, I believe. I hope this doesn't mean they're ending Archie. Almost everyone I know grew up reading Archie... it would be sad news even if we had stopped reading those books and switched to naughtier, newer ones. That's the comic book news of the decade.

At this rate death will have done us part before we even got together!

I need to be married or dead by my birthday!

It’s catastrophic almost – this shortage of equivalent types of men. Someone needs to do something! I wondered if I ought to do a SWOT analysis of this situation. I couldn't come up with any S's or O's though.

Threats:
1. Men seem to be getting married younger and younger
2. OR men seem to be putting off marriage until their mums tell them to stop bumming around
3. Most of them find themselves a mate in school or college. Every couple you see walking down the road look like they're in middle school. I'm curious to know what they talk about other than how chweet Ron and Hermione's romance is.
4. Most of the mates they find are sweet little things that look like they'd break if they were left alone for two seconds or made to carry their own popcorn.


"Girls have an unfair advantage over men: if they can't get what they want by being smart, they can get it by being dumb". - Yul Brynner

“How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.” - Oscar Wilde

Weaknesses:
1. I'm quite content in life and therefore to shift from this state of inertia would take a real force of nature.
2. Nobody seems to fit the bill for that force of nature. Is it me or them? Must be me. But to change would take a bigger force of nature.
3. I cannot be a helpless fluttery kind of girl who says things like "cho chweet" no matter how much guys seem to prefer that.

I've put up this quote before but I thought it'd be appropriate:
"A good man doesn't just happen. They have to be created by us women. A guy is a lump, like a doughnut. So first you gotta get rid of all the stuff his mom did to him. And then you gotta get rid of all that macho crap they pick up from beer commercials. And then there's my personal favorite...the male ego". - Roseanne Barr

So what's my conclusion? Find Frankenstein's lab book. Or pray really hard for a miracle. Death or a wedding, whichever is easier.

PS - Oh, I just found this one:
"The older theory was, marry an older man because they're more mature. But the new theory is men don't mature. Marry a younger one". - Rita Rudner
That means I'm totally justified in the whole Prince William situation.

PPS - I'm not really in an emo/kill-me-now state of mind.

Someone sent me this video. It's so adorable. I couldn't stop smiling.

Nostalgic Tuesdays: The Spaghetti Incident

My mother likes to reminisce about old times. In fact, she and my sister entertain themselves with old stories. Mostly about me. One of their favourite ones is what we call "The Spaghetti Incident". I'm starting to think that everyone has their own Spaghetti incident. This was way back in 1996 when my family went to Disney World. It was a time when I was loving American food. It was lunch time and we went to this one restaurant and my eyes lit up at the picture of spaghetti and meatballs. I had to have it so I told my dad. He says "okay but you can share it with your sister because you may not be able to finish it".
So I say, "No! I want it all..."
"Then get a kids' portion"
"No! I want a regular size!"

So they buy me my own plate of Spaghetti. Cut to just before lunch - we'd passed the "Beetlejuice" bit. It said "Next show at 2pm" (or whatever). I tell my family that we HAVE to go for the "Beetlejuice" thing. Now cut back to lunch - we get our food and my plate of spaghetti is HUGE. Gulp. It's 13.45 now. I can't finish my food so I'm like I'm done, let's go to "Beetlejuice". My dad's like "No, you're not going anywhere until you finish that". My sister and my mom went to "Beetlejuice" while my dad waited for me to finish my food until I couldn't eat anymore or I'd die and then we managed to get it just when Beetlejuice was shaking his tush and my mom asked me what this nonsense was. They wouldn't understand anyway and I was dying from my spaghetti overdose, vowing to myself never to eat spaghetti and meatballs again. I didn't keep that vow. But I probably ordered smaller portions in the future. Or made sure we could take away or didn't have a show lined up after! It's really not that funny a story but for some reason my family keeps bringing it up and laughing their butts off.

It's been over 10 years, let it go already.

Inherited brain powers

I hope there's a special place in hell for the people who create computer viruses.

There are some crazy viruses floating around. I don't understand the psyche of those who sit around creating something that would destroy something valuable to someone they don't even know. In my family, we like talking about all the crazy people out there who make us seem sane.

My grandmother loves to talk. On a good day, she’ll ramble off stories about her childhood and life in some small town her father was transferred to where he’d be the local doctor. Life was good in those days, she said. Every Sunday was wash day when they’d be oiled up and scrubbed down. And the house will be full of home made goodies. It’s a rarity to find good home made stuff like munthrikothu, athirasam, kokkoos and stuff. It would be a shame if people stopped making them altogether. They’re painstaking but they are good and wholesome! (I'll try and put up pictures of some of these things)

My grandmother told me a interesting quip – we were discussing how old people need to do something to keep their minds active so that they don’t get bored, depressed or dull. She told me how the old women in town used to mix up bags of rice, lentils and other grains and then sit around the table, chatting and separating them. What a simple and yet effective puzzle when they didn’t have the means to get one of those complex things those people demonstrate at the malls, guaranteed to strengthen your brain power.

Speaking of brain power, she asked me why people speak really loudly on their cell phones in public. Then she came up with a really good explanation. I don't know where she gets them, but she always reads those weird news articles that make people paranoid about everything. She told me that she read somewhere that too much mobile phone usage affects the brain (and I mustn't use it so much), therefore, these people who talk constantly must have had their brain cells die and therefore they get worse when it comes to public etiquette. Is that why they call it a cell phone? Kill your brain cells. Talk more.

One of my grandma's memories is also one that I share because I used to visit them every summer while I was growing up. She recalled the days when we could hear the trains arriving at Chetpet station, the bugles at the police camp and, this was before my time, the mental patients in the mental hospital down the road. My grandmother can be morbid and doesn’t waste her time with political correctness either. That’s probably why it’s fun to hear her speak.

ps - Speaking of brain dead ideas, have you seen the new Idea mobile ads? "Walk while you talk"?? Are they insane? Do they really want the morons here to walk on the roads while talking on their mobiles? I think this must be another one of the population control methods. You know, killing off the idiots one by one using their own stupidity. We have loads of such population control methods here. Like why the roads are never fixed and potholes never covered or helmets and seat belts never enforced. Makes sense doesn't it?

More movie reviews: July 2009

Let me start with a short conversation from "Better off Ted".

Ted: With the public's trust at stake, we all gave depositions. Veronica had done it before and so knew just what to say... or how little to say.
Female Lawyer: Were you involved in the development of this product?
Veronica: Yes.
Female Lawyer: And how would you summarize the company's reaction when they found out that the women who used this product were savagely attacked by insects?
Veronica: Ouch.
Female Lawyer: Will you elaborate on that, please?
Veronica: No.
Female Lawyer: Can you describe your job?
Veronica: Yes.
Female Lawyer: How would you describe your job?
Veronica: Cleverly

There's a new show I love - "Drop Dead Diva". It's a cross between "Samantha Who?" and "Ugly Betty". It's kind of an overused theme but they've really made it well.

I've watched a whole bunch of movies of late.
The last one I watched was "The Hangover" which was really funny. I went expecting one of those usual dick flicks but it was totally unique.

"Harry Potter and the half-blood prince" - Draco Malfoy looks awesome. :) I couldn't remember the book much but it was fun to watch. The theatre went insane when Hermione came on screen. It was a little perverse.

"Ice Age 3" - Fits right in with the other 2. We watched it in 3-D and we were fortunate enough to sit next to people who kept exclaiming every time they saw a 3-D effect. They must have been like in their twenties and highly under the influence of something.

“Love and other disasters” - This was a very atypical romantic comedy which didn’t have the kind of ending I usually like. In fact, it was the kind of message that would under usual circumastances depress me. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The movie shattered my idea of love but still left me feeling good. That’s the funny thing about love – we all have illusions of grandeur about it and yet the reality of it is grander than all of those.

I did a few early morning shows hoping all the hecklers would be home with hangovers. My bad.
We watched “The Watchmen” which I actually liked even though it wasn’t your typical feel good superhero movie. It was downright depressing, deep and dark most of the time. But it was still extremely… inspiring. I really like guys in trench coats. Oh and the soundtrack and most scenes were really well done. Especially the funeral bit with “Sounds of Silence”. I love cemetaries. Yes, that is very dark…I’ve said it before. They’re so interesting. I wish we had mausoleums in our cemetaries here. They’re so eerily mysterious. I think I want a mausoleum. I’ll put that in my will. Many people seem to be dedicating lots of Will writing space to funeral plans. It’s like getting to plan a party one last time.

“Angels & Demons” – quite exciting to watch. I love love loved the scenes of Rome especially that bit when they span over the Castle of Angels. Wow. I can’t believe the kind of Architecture that people built back in the day. It beats any of today's structures.

“The Spirit” – didn’t have great reviews or anything but I loved the way the movie was made. Gabriel Macht is so handsome as The Spirit and the movie has funny/corny bits and overall, quite entertaining.

“Star Trek” - I absolutely loved it. I thought it did justice to the original series. The cast was awesome. If I ever start watching “Heroes” after this, I’m going to be rooting for Sylar. Strangely, Chris Pine actually looked like William Shatner when he played Captain Kirk. I ended up wondering if that meant that Chris Pine would end up looking like William Shatner looks now. Well, I guess then he can play Denny Crane when they do a remake of "Boston Legal".



"Terminator: Salvation" - I fell in love with that Marcus guy. "Take my heart", it seems. And I did not expect to see the Governor. Christian Bale's voice from "Batman" seems to have stuck.

"Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" - It was fabulous (yes, I cried when that thing happened but I knew he would be back. You know, my gospel link). It was a bit too long though; they could have shortened it by atleast 20 minutes if they'd left out all the mushiness. Or kept it as long and replaced it with more Transformers bits. I saw this one poster that had the caption "More alien robots, bigger explosions and much more Megan Fox". Was that the point of making a part two? They should have said starring Megan Fox, featuring the Transformers. The panther like robot was awesome. The girl-robot was a bit too Terminatorish though.

"17 again" - Zac Efron needs to be made into lifelike wax figurines and sold. Only to me. He is so adorable in this movie. The movie had good values, good humor and kept me interested. I didn't watch this one in the theatre even though I really wanted to see him on the giant screen. But the thought of sitting next to men who scream at male movie stars and women who'd probably scream for Zac Efron didn't appeal to me.

Okay, I'm sure I've watched more but since I haven't been updating of late, I can't remember. I'll write more when I do recall them.

Journeys of the moment

I called my parents the other day and my dad answers:
“Hello… pant pant…how’re you? Huff puff..”
“um, what are you guys doing?”
“We’re shooting lizards, there are so many running around here!”

It’s like phoning a game park.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I have no idea why I've gotten so lazy. Maybe blogging was just one of the many phases I've gone through in life. I can't stick with a hobby. It's sad. But I do want to write down some of my life stories so that when I'm old and can't remember anything, I could read (or have someone read out to me) about all the things I used to do and feel like I haven't wasted my life. So why does it sometimes feel like I am?

Here's an ironic quote:
"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain
And I suppose suicide isn't a waste of the person one is.

Anyway, I was on the train a couple of weeks ago and my aunt was traveling with me. We weren't in the same coach and she wanted to see if we could move around and get seats next to each other. I wasn't too keen on moving because the people next to me were soooo interesting. They weren't talking to me but they'd just met and they were exchanging stories. There were three elderly men and one of them was obviously really good at starting conversations and asking questions. When I got in, he'd just gotten one of them to talk and that old man was telling everyone how he was a freedom fighter and all the things that he did. The third old man was one of the most ordinary looking men I'd ever seen - he'd fit right in a parota making shop in Nagercoil. And then he started his story. About forty years ago, he was a young carpenter who'd just gotten into a good arts college and creating wood works. A Spanish couple loved his work and took him to Spain where he worked as a carpenter for all these years. He met and "got together" with a Spanish woman with whom he has two sons both of whom are well settled in life.
When he said this everyone in that compartment had to keep their eyes from popping out. I tried my best to look like I wasn't listening but I'd be a deadlife not to! So the conversation starter asked him, "so, you have a Spanish wife?" and the guy's like "oh no, who gets married in places like that? we just slept together". And everyone just laughed and was having a jolly good time. Then they got to the part where they asked if his family here have met his Spanish family and as he was getting to that bit, my aunt found me and told me that she's found us seats together elsewhere and she took me away from the soap opera! What luck! But even the little I heard resonated inside of me... about how the most ordinary of people can have extraordinary stories. And everyone has a story. I'm sure that the old man would have asked me mine if I'd stuck around but mine's nowhere near as full, rich or entertaining as the ones I'd heard.
I usually get on a train, open my book and put on my headphones. This was the first journey in a long long time that I hadn't.

Random rants for the day - June 12

This morning I rode in an auto rickshaw that had a sun roof of some sort. It was a transparent top and the guy had decorated it with some sort of curtain. It seemed kind of neat.. I'd like to travel in it while it's raining. But it might be weird if a crow pooped on it while we're parked under a tree.

Someone I know cracks their knuckles loudly and quite often. Everytime I hear the sound, I feel as queasy as if I were watching someones knuckles being yanked out. It's so gross. I can feel/hear each little bone and tendon being crushed and I don't understand how they can do it without hearing that! Won't a simple flexing work?

I got hooked on this song 'Duele el Amor' by Aleks Syntek and Ana Torroja. The tune seemed so familiar to me, as if I'd heard it as a child but I couldn't remember what rhyme or cartoon it was from. Don't you just hate going to bed with that feeling of hearing snippets and voices from the past taunting you that you know what it is but can't place it? Anyway, I woke up determined to find out what the song was. I remembered the voice and it sounded like the Chipmunks but not quite. What album of the Chipmunks did I have that had guest stars? It wasn't the Chippettes and then it hit me. The Smurfing day song! Did the Smurfs actually make an album? Wikipedia had the answer. I found my song on this site! My mind is still strong. yay.

I love the damage control shampoo from Head & Shoulders. You don't get it here and my bottle just ran out. It said 'Head & Shoulders Anti-Dandruff' shampoo on the pack. I found another kind in the supermarket, Head & Shoulders smooth or something like that, supposedly made in USA. It says 'Head & Shoulders Dandruff Shampoo'. Should I be worried? If Anti-dandruff shampoo removes dandruff, shouldn't dandruff shampoo... well, I tend to think about these things while shampooing.

When I was on my way home last night, my driver suddenly asks me if I could please step out of the vehicle and stand on the side of the road. Um, this was kind of a strange and new request so I'm like what? My car has gone for its free periodic checkup (That's where they tell you nothing's wrong with your car and give you a bill for Rs.2500 saying that labour is free but the car needed underside painting to prevent future rusting and an oil change) so I was using my grandpa's old, used-in-times-of-emergency car which usually is just parked in his garage. Anyway, my driver says "There's a lizard trying to get into the car so I'm going to drive off to one side and try and get rid of it". He didn't have to tell me twice. So I hopped off and waited for him to throw the stupid lizard out. When I got back in and we were on our way again, I asked if the lizard was successfully evacuated and he said "It seems to be. I think he got out". Seems? Thinks? I spent the rest of the journey imagining and therefore, feeling things crawling up my leg. Yuck. I ought to carry around a hungry cat.

Wine-taste the moment

It’s one of those days when you feel like you made a mistake at every crossroad of your life. Stupid crossroads.

I realize that I haevn’t written in ages. In a Funk? Down in the dumps? Muse on vacation? I don’t know. I was wondering why I was feeling like I was stuck in a place I didn’t want to be and started reminiscing and regretting all the path choices I’d made that got me here. Then I realized that one of the reasons I get annoyed and stuck in a rut could be because I’d forgotten what I’m passionate about. My blog used to be all about things I was passionate about. Both my loves and my hates. I couldn’t let myself down by letting my passions die out! I haven’t even checked out the crazy headlines on yahoo! in ages! I do remember one that made me laugh out loud – it was about Shah Rukh Khan applauding for another actor who’s supposed to be his rival. Oh gosh, stop the presses indeed!

We were at this family-friends gathering in one of the hill houses recently and it wasn't my usual comfort zone but the kids were playing cards so I sat down and played a few games and had fun. I was surprised that it was natural. So my aunt told me a story about how, several years ago, we were at a place like that and some of us wanted to drive back early because of some tv show (surprise surprise). On the way down, we had a flat tire and then we had to spend our time in the dark fixing it. She said that I was perfectly cool and un-irritated by the situation and she was saying how that's a good trait. Now, that surprised me because it sounded so out of character for me now. Then I wondered if maybe I was out of character now. I always thought that I used to be impatient, annoyed and angry as a teenager but maybe in reality I'm still all of those things in some way every now and then. I guess it's because when a passion I have for something dies out, I tend to forget it ever happened - tend to forget that it ever affected me and who I am. Once in a while, I'm brought face to face with things that remind me of recent past events that I'd locked away as soon as they were over (I have no trouble conjuring up the past. It's the recent past that I have trouble with). And everytime I'm made to recall a particular phase/happening, I wonder what else I might have forgotten and why. The reason things seem dull is because I'm probably not bothering/being involved too much in things happening all around me and I fool myself into thinking that nothing's happening! To be cliché about it and use phrases like "taste the moment" or "live for the moment", let me add my own. Maybe one ought to wine-taste the moment? Savour it while you can and get the full flavour - then you can either spit it out or enjoy it further. Because sometimes you get only a sip and then the bottle's gone.

The path of the river may not be as we would have liked, altered and thwarted by many a rock and tree. But it is as it should flow, helping all in its path to flourish.

Sketchbook link: Drinks like a fish and leaves

ps - I'm not an alcoholic.

You can always go Downtown (To Sparky's)

Many people have that special hangout place where they can sit around for hours and talk loudly without getting thrown out. Like Pop Tate’s diner or Central Perk. I have Sparky’s. It’s probably the place for most of the people I know and it's probably the only restaurant I have spent the most time.
We recently had a fun cousin reunion/gathering there. My cousin was apparently in need of a Sparky's fix (and that's saying a lot because she lives in Singapore!), and we needed the ambiance and the fact that it’s so familiar that we needn’t be conscious of our over excited conversations. It made me realize that every time a group of us wanted to do nothing somewhere, that was the place we went to. We’re lucky Thom likes having people there.

They had a huge buffet for Cinco de Mayo on the 5th of May. It was a lot of fun. We randomly booked a table, unsure of how many of us would finally make it. One of the advantages of such evenings is that you’ll always find people you know who’ll sit at your table and probably do rotas of various tables. I must say that my tamale experience wasn’t as hot as I expected. But the Mexican pizza was really good – I’m trying to get them to add it to the regular menu. And of course, I enjoyed the do-it-yourself wraps/fajitas/burritos. There are probably many other places that have continental/western food but I don’t think they serve sarcasm which once you get used to, is hard to do without.
Oh, while I’m publicizing Sparky’s, I must mention the Easter brunch that I went for on.. Easter. Yes, I’m terribly late! There was this Kahlua mousse that was by itself worth the whole brunch. I was eating with a couple of friends who kind of picked at their food so I felt kind of bad to pig out. So, I waited for them to leave and went to the back area of the restaurant and ate some of the stuff I liked with some of the Sparky’s people who were hanging out there. That’s one of the extremely cool things about it. People who like food are kept happy :)

Sketchbook link: How's your chimichanga?