Sesame onion bread and garlic lamb, Darda Seafood.
Be Indian, buy Indian.
This republic day I would like to tell the you one secret about me. When I was in school I was in the band. Not the rock band, not a pop band but the school brass band. Yup, I’m a proud member, REPRESENT!
I played the easiest of all instruments – the cymbal. My job was to clash the cymbal together every now and then. The only reason my friends and I joined the band was for the perks : free snacks at any function and the cute uniform that consisted of a white skirt and shirt, red waistcoat and a red beret. We also wore white stockings and white gloves. Yes, we were very fancy. So I would dress up all fancy just to go clash the cymbals and then gorge on the free snacks the school provided which was always small samosa and frooti pack yum!
The school band used to play at all important functions. We would practise for days which was very convenient because I got to bunk a lot of classes with a valid reason “Band practise, ‘Mam” was all I had to say. We would always feel very special on republic and independence days. We would play the national anthem and the chief guest would hoist the flag. I couldn’t help but feel a tiny smidgen of pride looking at the flag. This iota of pride was of course hidden the rest of the year. But on that day everyone was happy and proud. Plus we got free chocolate.
Happy republic day, y’all! Go eat chocolate.
Moke = Movie + Coke
I saw Vishwaroopam today. It was only okay. My all time favourite Kamal movie will always be Michael Madan Kamarajan. There was no big story line in the movie. Kamal Haasan looks very obviously old. So his make up artist has done a decent job of hiding the wrinkles and filling the circles under his eyes. Kamal plays a Muslim Indian Army soldier. There, I gave away the story. The lady who plays his wife ties at first place with Annoying Asin from Dasavatharam. Andrea Jeremiah had approximately three one line dialogues. She just followed Kamal wherever he went. Rahul Bose took acting classes from The Godfather.
Also, what is with American theaters not having an ‘intermission’? My bladder is accustomed to being relieved after the first hour of watching the movie. I found it hard initially but then I found a solution : DO NOT DRINK A BIG TANK OF COKE. It helps with my sugar high too.
Thank you.
There are times when I forget to be thankful. I go long periods without realizing the small mercies in life that I should be thankful for. I just continue to live my life, happy in my own bubble when it suddenly hits me that I haven’t thanked Him for anything. I wake up every morning assuming this how it is going to be every day. I don’t realize that I may not wake up one day. I have food and water at my disposal. I don’t think twice about turning on the heat when I feel cold. I take it all for granted when suddenly it hits me – all this could be taken away from me at any second. I see homeless people outside my house wrapped up in what little clothes they can find, braving the cold and my heart is humbled and my eyes fill with tears. I silently whisper a prayer to Him to protect the people who don’t have much. I thank Him for giving me everything I need and more. For giving me a warm and comfortable house, for family that loves me no matter what, for a husband who is kind and for my life as a whole. I’m thankful to be alive today, that I can go out and feel the wind. I’m thankful to Him for keeping me safe and happy. I hope to become a better person, to be more thankful, to be more faithful to Him for He has made my life a wonderful one. Thank you, for every single blessing.
Cheater.
I know I missed a day in between but let’s move on and act like it never happened, okay? Okay. So for today’s post I’m going to cheat a bit and quote my favorite writer Edith Wharton :
“In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”
– Edith Wharton
That one sentence just sums up our life and everything we hope to do.
PLL
So the next show I’m extremely addicted to is Pretty Little Liars. Okay, I’m 23 and should have a life by now but no, I need to watch a TV show about high school kids. PLL is about four girls who get an anonymous text messages from Anonymous person who goes by the name A. At first they think it’s their fifth missing friend a.k.a the high school meanie who went missing a few years back. But a few episodes (seasons?) in they find mean girl’s body so she’s officially dead. The series has a lot of unsavory characters : blind girl enemy who gets her sight back but still plays blind, suspicions cop boy who gets killed, sister’s creepy fiance who gets killed, dead girl’s brother who comes back looking totally ripped, friend who goes to mental asylum, hot English teacher who dates one of the PLLs (creepy with a capital C) and.. you get the drift.
The girls always find themselves in weird situations : locked in a basement, car breaks down in the middle of the woods, girls investigate broken down house in the middle of nowhere and person with black hoodie follows the girls around and ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE UP TO BECAUSE A IS EVERYWHERE. The show has multiple loop holes but I couldn’t care less, I love it. Lots of eerie nights and a shady town with shady people make the show what it is. As for the fashion, the girls wear the most atrocious clothes to school at times. But they each have their own style like the Spice Girls. One of them is an athlete so she is Sporty Spice, there’s a Posh Spice who was an ex-shoplifter, Prim n Propah Spice who always comes first and a Boho Chic Spice. I love this show more than I would like to admit.
Watch it for eye candy and high school drama mixed with a little mystery.
Revenge is best served on tv!
Thanks to the joblessness that is American television I’ve been watching way too many shows for my own good. Revenge is one such show. And omg abc.com is so cool I can just stream the episode I missed. Yes, there are advertisements every fifteen minutes or so but it saves me a lot of trouble from downloading episodes over piratebay. So revenge is full of convoluted plots and lots and lots of.. Revenge! Staying true to the shows name here. Emily is the protagonist. Her daddy was framed to be a terrorist so she goes around killing all the people involved. She was trained by Japanese monk/ninja type person so she has kick ass reflexes. She wears pretty pastel dresses and her blonde curls are always perfectly coiffed. Her arch nemesis is a woman called Victoria, rich and affluent, she was one of the main people involved in her daddy’s death. Victoria has a standard uniform of Herve Leger bandage dresses that she wears morning to night. It doesn’t matter if its a business meeting, no, Victoria is there in her cleavage enhancing cocktail dress to ruin the day. She is the Cruella Deville of the creme de la creme. Her son with his boyish good looks has the hots for Emily. Emily befriends him to get to the mother ship so she can ruin her. There are a zillion plots and sub plots. Emily, by some force of nature (and with the help of a young millionaire boy), manages to take down all the people involved in her daddy’s death.
Some of the plots are insane and have a lot of loop holes. It isn’t fabulous enough like Gossip Girl to blatantly ignore loop holes. But I do love this show! I don’t particularly are for either characters but I find myself drawn to the show. It has its share of gorgeous houses, pastel clothes and cute boys. That’s enough to keep me hooked.
So fab.
What is with this country turning my already below par skin into a flaky, itchy mess? No amount of moisturizer and Chanel powder can cover it up. My face is shedding it’s skin at such a rapid speed and I am not a pretty sight at all.
After a debate of frozen burritos to Domino’s pizza for lunch (Domino’s won) we went to Stanford University. How beautiful is that campus! And huge! We only managed to see the Main Quad area. There were many statues around the area so I had to have an impromptu photo shoot. We then walked down downtown Palo Alto, had coffee at Starbucks and got back home in time to watch the last half of Jab Tak Hain Jaan. I loved SRK with all my heart a few years back but the man really needs to cut down on acting young, no doubt he does look smokin’ in his army getup. Anushka Sharma really needs to eat a burger. Or two. I want to take her to my favorite Indian restaurant and buy her a whole tandoori chicken. The poor girl deserves that much. Katrina Kaif has her pretty mouth and bouncy hair so she is set.
WANT : Kat’s luscious Burberry trench coats. So fab! Yes, I say fab now.
Blegh.
Some mornings I wake up feeling bright and happy. By the time night comes I’m floating in self pity. This is something that was most familiar to me. I tried so hard to come out of it. But it felt like quick sand and I felt myself being sucked in again. And again. Is there no end to this madness? Is there no end to this darkness that eats away my soul? What is going to make me feel better? A tub of ice cream or a time machine? The distant future doesn’t seem so distant anymore. It always feels like opportunities are flying past me. Stop and think. Stop and grab.
Or maybe it’s just PMS.
Phoenix
As humans we are so judgmental. Whether we accept it or not, we are judgmental some way or the other. We shouldn’t assume something about a person without knowing their story. It took me a while to realize that every one has a story. Every one has fought demons, sailed through oceans, conquered their fears and have arrived at this point, this place in life. And we take the liberty to judge them based on the little knowledge that we have. This knowledge has made you who you are. We don’t think think that not every one needs to have the same life lesson. We are all broken, trying to fix the pieces of our lives. We are trying to save what little is left. We are trying to gather the ruins and form a decent version of ourselves. Everyone is struggling. Everyone is fighting demons on the inside. Everyone wants to be the Phoenix. We all want to rise from the ashes, for in that strength lies our lives and everything that we live for.
This is more a letter to myself. I need to keep reminding myself of this often.
Maybe In Madras 