Saturday, September 15, 2012

Creeps after dark

Delhi is rife with creepy people crawling the city after dark, from passing lewd comments to doing condemnable acts, they are everywhere.As a girl in Delhi, walking alone at night can be a horrendous task, here is a list of creepy crawlers you might encounter and you should beware of.

1. Zara zara touch me: This category covers people who have a propensity to touch women for no rhyme or reason. So as you walk on a road minding your business or stand in a bus, a cold hand will suddenly brush against you or maybe when you are at a shop and paying the shopkeeper, he might think your hand is also a part of the payment.

2.Horn OK please: Many a bikers fall under this category, especially when its starts to get dark and you cannot see the shameless "man" on the bike, he would honk at you or play a lewd song just as he passes by you. The more creepy ones might want to follow you your circle around you for sometime.

3.The singer: The singer is the one you really want to slap hard. He will stand in a desolate location or maybe hide somewhere and start singing lewd songs when you are nearby. Once again, the creepier ones might just follow you and sing even more. You can hear songs from "choli ke peeche kya hain" to "Why this kolaveri Di?" all with double meanings and lewd connotations.

4.The Smartass: The smartass thinks he is very smart and clever with words. He is the one who will pass comments on your dress or your walk and team it up with some special sound effects that sound like he is in an orgasm of sorts.

5.One Direction: The braver ones of the creepy lot might try to strike conversation with you by asking you for directions and then, seeing that you were stupid enough in the first place to stand at night and talk to a stranger, offer you a lift or ask for your company to some place.

There are many more disgusting people on the road at night and as a lone girl on the road, it is always better to have some company or be home before dark. Ideally they should be publicly flogged, these creeps who have brains only in their pants, but as a smart woman it is always advisable to keep a pepper spray with you or better still, avoid situations where you might end up all alone in a dark road.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Pineapple and chocolate mousse Duet

This is a sweet dish made up of tangy pineapple and dark chocolate.

The ingredients are:

Del Monte Pineapple slices: 2
Del Monte Peaches halves: 4
Dark Cooking Chocolate: 9 tbsps
Coffee: 1 tbsp
Butter: 2 tbsps
Whipped heavy cream: 2 cups
Eggs: 7
Castor Sugar: 4 tbsps (or according to taste)

Pineapple mousse:

1.Take the pineapple slices and add a bit of sugar on it and keep on a low flame till it turns into a sort of gooey curd. Strain the curd and refrigerate for as long as you want. It lasts for a day or two.
2. Separate four egg white and whip them into stiff peaks with a tbsp of sugar and refrigerate.
3.Whip a cup of cream to soft peaks and refrigerate.
4. Take out the pineapple curd, strain it and add the remaining egg yolks to it.Mix well.
5. To the mixture, fold, a third of the whipped cream.
6. Now fold a half of the egg whites to the mixture and fold the remaining whipped cream.
7. Refrigerate the mixture.

The chocolate mousse has to be a bit bitter to counter the sweetness of the pineapple.

Chocolate mousse:

1. Whip a cup of cream to soft peaks and refrigerate.
2. Take the chocolate, butter and coffee and melt over boiling water till the mixture is smooth.
3. Separate the 3 eggs and whip the egg whites with a tbsp of sugar till soft peaks.
4. Once the chocolate mixture is cool yet warm to touch, add the 3 egg yolks to it.
5. Fold in a third of whipped cream and then half the egg whites and then the remaining whipped cream.
6. Refrigerate the mousse.

Serving:

Layer the pineapple mousse and chocolate mousse over each other and then top it off with peaches or whipped cream.

(PS: Check out http://www.facebook.com/worldfoody for the food adventurer!)


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Awaiting Barfi! or not.

Barfi! starring Ranbir Kapoor is set for release on September 14.It is a story of a deaf and mute man and looking at the trailers, the acting seems commendable as the Kapoor stalwart does what every newcomer does to show that he can act, take on a role of an "abnormal" man.
But a personal take on this, I don't really think I am too comfortable watching films with such a subject matter.Somehow the Hindi film industry fails to hit the target like some other films like Rainman manage to do with a sensitive issue. I cannot pick point but there is a certain anomaly in our films with mentally challenged people. Be it My name is Khan or Black, the tone of the film, the settings and the music all adds a depressing "Oh you poor thing" feel to the movie that just diverts away from the whole story. In trying to show that the abnormal is normal, these films make the abnormal more abnormal and makes then stand apart.
So as SRK stood on a busy highway with a board reading, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist" or Amitabh Bachhan pirouetted around Viday Balan in Paa, you don't fall in love with the character but just feel sorry for them, a feeling the filmmaker were not trying to achieve (I hope).
Maybe the technicalities of the film are a bit botched or the someone is hitting the wrong spot. Another thing that I have noticed is the extensive use of depressing colours in the films. So if there is a blue setting, the film will have a sad bluish tinge or an orangish yellow casting an air of gloom all around. The music always seems like a funeral march and I don't understand if filmmakers can give over the top senseless sets to films like Cocktail and get amazingly Bollywood type music to that film, why can't the same be done in such films? Why do we have songs which are not even catchy but really umm for a lack of a better word, abnormal?

Friday, July 6, 2012

Science and Spirituality: Who can dissect the soul?


 “This discussion will start World War 3.” My best friend said as we sat discussing the concept of souls. She is a spiritual person and believes in the whole idea of souls and reincarnation while I, being a believer in science don’t really accept the ideas.
Many Masters Many Lives by Brian Weiss, a psychologist takes the concept of past life and deals with it scientifically, almost. It is not proven whether the doctor was right or was he just fibbing. He is a past life regression therapist now and talks about our “spirits” for the want of a better term travelling from one plane to another. In all there are seven planes but we, as humans have still been travelling in just two, the spiritual and the physical. He says he has seen proof of the human subconscious shifting between these, of people being born again and again in this physical world of them remembering their lives and of groups of spirits being born together again and again.
Spirituality has always believed in the human soul, of an unknown entity that guides us, that is the mind in our brain, that is the human in our lifeless machine and that believes in miracles and makes them happen. To a spiritual person, reincarnation is not a bleak possibility, but the truth of life, Hinduism, Buddhism and even Christianity talks of re-births and unfinished businesses.
Psychologist, Carl Jung talks of the human subconscious as something so powerful that holds the entire history of the human race in it and that hasn’t been tapped into yet. This does make sense, our brain is a powerful organ and we have hardly understood its function. We know of the chemical and neurobiological processes and yet we fail to explain how things work more importantly, how the human brain works. It is not a set of equations that can be broken down and studied or some hypothesis that can be easily developed with time.
Conspiracy theories are abound about past life regression that say it is all a fib, maybe that is possible but sometimes, there are things which we cannot explain, we have no answer to them. A man on his deathbed, a clinically dead man walks again, a person seems so familiar to you that you think there is a connection, things of which you dreamt one night suddenly seem to happen to you and you cannot understand it. Why do Psychics still flourish in this world of cold calculations? Why do we still get our horoscopes checked and believe in miracles when everything fails? And why is it that despite everything we are taught to have a strong will power and determination when there is no scientific proof that what we think affects the actual physical working of our brain.
Or does it?
Our thoughts so powerful, that they can alter the physical and chemical composition of everything that is happening in our body? How do we explain this process? What exactly is happening inside our body that makes it undergo such changes?
Dan Brown wrote in Angels and Demons that science is too young to explain everything and for the things we don’t understand, we should just keep faith.
Human beings are machines where each part functions in coordination with the other, a well oiled well meshed machine that is so complicated that even now we don’t know what is it that makes us “us”. Maybe the answer lies in our brain. We don’t understand it and hence concoct many reasons and theories to explain the inexplicable. It is a mass of unexplored territory, for the scientist and the spiritualist. It needs answers and in the absence of which it looks for alternative theories and accepts them because believing in something beyond our control, a power greater than us keeps us humble and helps evades so many questions. A time will surely come when we will have all the answers, about our soul, past life and many such questions that have created a heated debate in the world. Maybe Science will unravel it or maybe something else would, it is our brain that needs to be answered and it is our brain that will give the answer. It is only a matter of time.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Throwing away old clothes


Emptying your wardrobe after years of piling up clothes and assorted fabrics is always a difficult task. All sort of memories seem to claw at you as you throw open one old cloth after another. The jeans you wore during your graduation, your prom dress, your favourite T-shirt when you were a teen, everything just gnaws at you and opens up a stream of memories.
It has always been difficult for lazy me to sort my wardrobe, arrange anything in order and for years it has become a home to homeless junk. So, one can find my old extra large purple T shirt from the days when everything I wore resembled a tent to my skirts and shorts when I had toned thighs. Old caps from the days when I used to dress up like a guy to clothes I had bought to not clash with my faux red hair. Dresses that are out of fashion but still amazing, traditional clothes from my various cousins’ weddings and weird clothes that make me go what the hell was I thinking!?
Taking each item and sorting through it, rejecting it and making the decision to finally throw something away is so tough. I have been avoiding this for years, carting the contents of my wardrobe from Delhi to Pune to Mumbai to Delhi and adding on to the mess. Sometimes it comes in use when you want to go all out and wear old clothes and mix them with something else, a la hippie look. And sometimes it becomes a battle in futility trying to fit in everything in the cupboard. Mostly it is a bone of contention with my family which complains that I have the biggest wardrobe with the littlest space. I cannot throw away my clothes. It’s a disease.
Some clothes have history, like my Harry Potter coloured ones, the red and yellows, the colour of Gryffindor, my wizard robe look-alike clothes, some are my artsy hippie clothes for the days when I feel like a vagabond artist and some are my inspiration to lose weight, the sexy itsy bitsy ones in which I have to fit in.
Maybe you are not meant to throw away old clothes, maybe you just need to keep them safe in your cupboard as memory aids and maybe you can convince your family that you do need a another larger wardrobe after all.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Things Harry Potter has taught me.

People often talk about the Harry Potter fandom and don't understand why we love the series as much as we do. Here is a list of things HP has taught us and siriusly this is more than just some random kids novel.!

1. Love makes the world go round: As Dumbledore said each time, you can love and yes you can. The books taught us how love between friends, between siblings and kids of your friends, professors, neighbours, people who just know your name, house elves, half giants and dragons mean so much more than all the wealth you can accumulate in life and all the power you can get.And this makes you the strongest person you can ever be.The power to love.


2.The gray in between: Sirius said that the world is not divided into death eaters and good people.We all exist in between.Snape showed that a Slytherin can be brave and can love.And no one is pure evil or pure good. We are all humans after all.


3.No one is beneath us: What would the world be without those creature we cite beneath us? The house elves, the goblins(though they are mean), dragons, giants, pixies, unicorns, thestrals and centaurs all play such an important role. A lesson in life, no one is beneath us and they are all very very important.

4.No good comes of forced love: Merope bewitched Tom to marry her and yet he could never love her. Never force the love of a person, no good ever comes out of it.


5.Loyalty above all: People are so important to us that staying loyal to the ones we love makes us stringer than we are. And as the death eaters bundled together, we had everyone beckoned at the call of the DA.And the ones who were the most loyal, Luna, Ginny and Neville. The ones who never left and were always there to fall back on.

6.The bad are good too: A repeat of the gray area point but sometimes even the ones who wish us bad do us good for their own weird reasons.And Narscissa saved Harry...


7.And even if its all in the head why can't it be real? Why cant we dream and believe in what we want to? Whats in our head might as well be real. Dreams are very powerful.

Friday, March 9, 2012

A change in Life


Destiny, they say plays an important part in a person’s life. Firm believers harp on about its magic and the ones who don’t believe in it talk about being practical and real.
But sometimes we are confronted with such situations in our life where we have lost all control over the proceedings of the case. We cannot control what another person thinks or how the dynamics of a particular group and setting affect us and it is at that time we bow to the unknown.
For many, the unknown is God and for others it is fate or destiny, personally, I believe in a balance of things, karma or the yin yang two concepts that govern many things in my life. The Sanskrit Vedas talk about karma, like how many things we do, good or bad get an equal due, whether in this life or in the other. Obviously, I don’t believe in the next life concept, but the idea of getting just deserts is enticing. The yin yang is an oriental concept, martial artists use it, religious monks use it and philosophers talk about it. A circle with an equal balance of black and white with opposite colored circle on it, symbolizing the balance of things in life, man-woman, black-white, good-evil it is all there.
It can sound philosophical but science too has this concept. Science is what I believe in, what makes perfect sense and bears stark resemblance to life. You have the electrons and the protons, opposing charges in an atom, there is the north pole and the south pole of the magnet and the earth, acid and a base in chemistry, infra-red and ultra violet radiations for everything there is an opposite balancing force. Physicists are talking about the anti matter, the opposite of matter basically it is all about a balance in life, for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
But does this apply to human behavior? Does destiny or balance in things play out there as well? The human mind is an electrical process, thoughts and actions are all about converting chemical energy to electrical, mechanical to chemical, reactions and sparks flying everywhere in the human body and how they interact with other reactions sprouting through people and what it all creates, its chemistry, physics or something inexplicable.
When I talk about something that should change, I think about this balance. I am still not sure if it plays out in real life. If every deed you do goes out. Something bad you did meet an end and something good you did get a reward. Sometimes it plays out so well, when you see things getting their due, karma they call it, balance it is. But then again, sometimes it plays out so unfavorably. There are people who have been dealt with a cruel blow in their life, have nothing in life, are sad and helpless and are suddenly crushed to death under a rich man’s car who pays a hefty sum and is out. How does that play out? What do we make of things then?
Or on a larger scale, Idi Amin, the notorious dictator who supposedly drank his enemy’s blood in their skull killed millions and then spent the rest of his life in a political asylum in Middle East amidst riches. Is there really a balance here? Closer home, on a personal front, there is a person who doesn’t like you, they will say something that suddenly affects everything round you and one small miscalculation on your part or ignorance and you have the most important thing snatched away from you. Is it fair? We ask ourselves again and again.
Books have been written on it and sermons been delivered on a maniacal basis almost. People talk about getting out of the self pity mode or they say that what happened to you is all your doing but we need to be realistic as well and this is something I would like to change. If maybe we can control the electrical or chemical or some sort of dynamics of human behavior or human interaction, the wheel of life, it has to be the balance of things.
Optimists will talk about justice, it can be delayed but will always be there but this faith is wavering and it should not, the evil doers should be scared of it and the good-doers proud of it. The third law of motion talks about equal and opposite reaction and that is what I want in this world. A balance of things just so you know how things are working out and how you are doing and a balance of things to not let someone feel out of sorts not let someone feel like they have the bad end of everything and to encourage people to strive harder, work even harder to get what they want and if there is balance, if there is destiny, fate or god, they will get it.
Make the world a happier place.
Join this group to be a part of the change, to discuss and to know what others want: www.facebook.com/sftimetochange 

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Journey, not destination: From train to plane to boats and cars

Being an army kid, travelling is a part and parcel of my life and during these times I have often come across people who really make me question the country I live in! Sometimes I really really ask myself why they even exist and sometimes I develop a wishful thinking of wanting to know someone even more. Love them or you hate them, whether you are a social butterfly or a reclusive caterpillar, you must have encountered these travelling travellers.My recount of some of the most memorable ones as I journeyed through India.

1. The Overfriendly Traveller: I was sitting in New Delhi airport, all set for my flight to Siligudi where I would meet my dad who was posted in Kalimpong. I lived with my grandparents at that time and they have this weird sense of timing, so instead of reaching the airport, a respectable two hours before boarding, i was plonked at the steps of the airport four hours before time. needless, to say, I was one really angry lady and in order to make it very clear, I wore the hood of my sweatshirt, adopted a gangsta persona and went and sat at the bench. All was good in my angry gangsta world when this female interrupted me, she asked if I was going to Bangalore, I said now and leaned back in. Then, much to my annoyance, she started talking about herself, she was going to Bangalore(duh!) and was I studying in some college?(yes), she too! Which college, how was it?Where am I going, she could have gone on.So I took my cellphone out, dialled my dad';s number for he was the reason I had to subject myself to the brutality of the over friendly traveller and as I shot at him on the phone, i got up, took my suitcase and decided to spend the rest of the waiting time in a stall in the ladies room.Much more peaceful.

2.The family: This is one highly annoying brand of travellers you will even encounter and as my luck with traveling goes, I have met a quite a few. A general family has to have one annoying baby who can never be quiet, few ruffians of teens who have to jump and scream, some oldies and parents, those annoying people who have to be extremely loud. As I flew to Gangtok once, I met such a family, they had around 5 seats on the plane, ha no freaking idea where to sit or where their tickets were and had smartly decided to sit according to the names on the tickets. Unfortunately for us, we were prodded and pushed and jostled as they adjusted themselves. Then in the four hour flight, they had to eat a lot, I mean why cant they not eat and sit in peace, then they decided to play some loud talking game and be a general nuisance to everyone around. Now some people join such families in commenting how cute their kids are so the over proud parents decide to display how talents their baby is. And the poor baby is subjected to rounds of dances and songs as onlookers admired the decidedly white and pink blob of flesh. Families in trains get more annoying as you have to spend days with them and the best antidote is a pair of extremely string earphone.

3.The life experience: These kind of people you meet on different modes of travel. They wont be found on regular ones, more likely frequenting the unconventional modes. Like this one person I met on a speedboat in Goa who loved to talk about his prowess as a boatsman ad another on a boat in Alibag who pretended he was some amazing sea man as he regaled sea stories. It was informative and interesting for the first few hours after which it got a bit repetitive. But seriously, one can still talk to such people and not feel like slapping them. If only, try para jumping or bungee jumping or any kind of exotic sport and you will find extremely slaps-worthy characters. next time, I plan to get some pics.

4. The Photographers: We have encountered them all, haven't we? They have expensive cameras and love to click everything and anything. One such shutterbug happy traveller stood on the steps to Elephanta Caves in Mumbai, he stopped at everyplace and clicked everything, fair enough except there were his wife and mother screaming at him to hurry up and not waste time, he seemed immune to them. After all, if you love something, you have to pursue it, despite what everyone else thinks. So does that mean i can be a bikini model? Hell yes!

5.The family photographs: If I can eradicate one species, these would be it. They are the annoying twerps who carry their family photographs every-freaking-where! and if you don't pay attention, they will go on to pester you till you have to be polite and look at what they have been pointing at your face for the last half an hour. In a cab once, I met this man who wanted to show photos of his office and daughter and the swan and the pole in front of the office and the puddle near the office and the sink of the bathroom. I pressed my earphone tightly when this man simply removed them and entertained me for the remained for the journey with pictures in his mobile. Oh the joy!

And the travel bug has bitten: Check this out and pray for amazing travel partners(my wish, a hot Italian guy ;) )
http://www.expedia.co.in/

Friday, February 17, 2012

Small fat girl trekking



Growing up on a near continuous feed of books and literary characters, nature walks are nothing more than an occasional disruption in my perfect life tucked away in a corner of my house, reading a book. While reading, I fantasies about sitting in front of a fire, apple in hand and lost in the world of Darcys and courtesies. This would have been my ideal life if it wasn’t for my army man of a father, who it seemed, had taken upon himself to get my butt off the couch! And the days of grueling physical labor began.
Dads was posted in Pune at the College of Military Engineering and curse all army people, they decided to hold frequent treks in the nearby hills. Rain and sun be gone, all the damn army men thought it would be an ideal recreation and the whole of CME joined in, much to my utter disappointment. Routes were fixed, buses were arranged, tents set up and a large picnic area pulled in and then there was the trek. How much I dreaded it.
The first time, dad woke me up at an ungodly hour at 5 in the morning to gear up for the trek that started at 6.All I remember from that time is me, grumbling as I pushed myself into my sweatpants and equipped myself with munchies and water for what was going to be a long and hard day. It was the monsoon season and rains were merciless, but to the military men, it seemed all the more welcoming as we were pushed out of the bus on to the starting line of some hill, don’t ask me the name, I don’t really care to remember. Some orderlies were making Maggie at the foot of the hill and I wanted to eat but no, my dad wanted to torture me more and off we started walking. Dad is tall and I am short and stout, so I had to take two steps for his one, huffing and panting and it was only the beginning. The terrain got wet and muddy, more leaves and wilderness started sprouting around us as my new  hiking shoes became brown(yes, I had to get new ones because you don’t need shoes while reading!!!).We came to a paddy field and after much discussion with the farmer; we were allowed to trample across a small path in the icky muddy field. Mostly, I had my head down, counting my breath and watching out for the those dreaded creatures of monsoon, those icky slimy reptiles and insects, I didn’t want to encounter any and till date I don’t remember if I saw any, most probably I blocked the revolting things out. The green was too green and the rains lashed harder, my hair, my skin, my clothes were ruined and as I spotted the tents in the distance, I could only yelp for joy if I had the energy. After what seemed like hours and after my father pushed me a lot, we reached the tents and I would have reveled in joy at the task I had undertaken if it weren’t for my disgusting friends, those tall mean boys who had reached before me and were happily eating a chicken and mocking me. I mean, seriously, can’t a short fat girl sit and read in peace?
The next trek, I was prepared. It wasn’t raining; my dad was in full gear once again, I was fatter than before and smarter as well. So, after about twenty minutes if walking around some other god forsaken hill around Pune, I started complaining of headache and nausea. Now thing with fathers is that when they have a daughter, they really get paranoid if something happens when the mother is not around and that came to my rescue as Dad rushed me through the shortcut to the tents (I always knew there were shortcuts, army people are smart.) and this time, it was me, sitting in the tents, eating a chicken as I mocked my friends.
So much for my nature treks and for all it beauty and green-ness, I would still sit in front of a fire and read.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Heathcliff: What went wrong with him?


Heathcliff features in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and throughout the literature history has been famous for being a passionate lover, a man hell bent on revenge, despicable yet pitiable. His story is no less stirring, born to an n unknown, he was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw and brought to live in the house, treated like a son for years only to be brought down to the level of a servant once Earnshaw died. He fell in love with Catherine, his adoptive sister and together two of them spent many years in lover’s bliss, ignorant of the circumstances and situations of the household until Cathy was unwittingly married off to the rich Edgar Linton and Heathcliff felt the last straw of justice disappear.
Life had not been fair to Heathcliff and now theories abound on why he acted the way he did. Through the discourses of the servants and later descriptions in the book, it has been supposed that Heathcliff was an illegitimate son of Mr. Earnshaw and guilt in the father prompts him to be exceedingly kind to his lost son, so much so that his legal heir, Hindley feels neglected. This is the seed of the first hurt in Heathcliff’s life. He hated tremendously hated by Hindley who doesn’t lose an opportunity to belittle the dark gypsy boy. Things take a turn for the worse when Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley takes charge only to banish Heathcliff into the life of a servant. This creates ground for the second hurt.
Heathcliff had not been born into riches but as a impressionable young boy had Mr. Earnshaw provide for him, he was loved and lived luxuriously till he was turned a mere servant. This might have affected his already weak psyche and he suffered from humiliation over his lost identity. To make matters worse, people started being overtly kind to him, the cook, the maid and the housekeeper. And it has been made obvious that Heathcliff does not take kindness as mere kindness but more as a sign of pity and he resented that. His origins are shrouded in doubt but whatever life he had, that of a gypsy boy, it had been tough that it matured the little boy and he came to trust no one.Mr. Earnshaw was a father figure and slowly he took a liking for Cathy, the boisterous younger daughter of Earnshaw.
Cathy had a wild streak about her and being with Heathcliff ignited that further, the two would indulge in games and wild chases across the moor and when Mr. Earnshaw died, this companionship was taken away from Heathcliff when Cathy was forced to change into a lady. Not accustomed to change, Heathcliff didn’t take it too well and instead grew distant and colder. Cathy loved him fiercely and the only way she could devise to relieve him of his life or servitude was by marrying her rich suitor, Edgar and propelling Heathcliff with her money. Obviously, Heathcliff rejected this and it turned into the greatest hurt of his life, spurned by the only girl he had ever loved, the only surviving person who he cared for. Heathcliff ran away with revenge in his heart, blaming everyone else for his tragedy.
He was already mistrustful of people and with the situation in hand never looked at solutions to problems and instead chose to dwell in his past, inkling for revenge and formulating a plan for that. He did have his revenge, he destroyed Hindley, who he blamed for his misery and destroyed Cathy emotionally who was still in love with him and in doing this, he destroyed himself all over again. He never wanted to better his own situation and instead focused on breaking the bonds that held him to sanity, his closest relations, he destroyed them all.
It is easy to dismiss Heathcliff as a negative person, hell bent on revenge but to dig deeper into his mind, we come across the hurts he had been through and how they shaped him. He was already held to sanity by fine chains in infancy when he had no proper life(this is all guesswork but pretty obvious from the book) and he trusted Mr. Earnshaw only to lose him and loved Cathy only to have her leave him. It broke the man and he chose to recline into the safety of his mind and past. He chose to ignore everyone else who loved him or could save him and lived in the hell he created for himself, turning bitter day by day.
He has been portrayed as mad-mad but he was far from mad, he lived in a fantasy he created for himself where he and Cathy were together again. He knew very well he could not have his father back and the only practical choice was Cathy and he clung to her, not accepting that she might be gone forever. She, on her part never let him go as well and they created a parasitic relationship with each other that destroyed their families. When he came out of his fantasy to see the reality, it enraged him and he went on to destroy the thing that had destroyed his fantasy. Revenge does feel like the right thing to do if you feel you have been wronged and in case of Heathcliff, he blamed everyone else for his miseries.
In the end, he craved loved so much that he was willing to be with the corpse of Cathy only to feel her loving embrace once again, he cried out for the ghost of Cathy to haunt him only to have someone tell him they loved him and he died in agony over Cathy only to have her save him.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Toilet Manners: The perils of using a Public Toilet


I tackle this subject only because it annoys me the most, people have absolutely no toilet manners when it comes to using public toilets Yes, those yellowing abodes of mice and stick that can be the scene of many unhygienic nightmares. Some of the most annoying habits of people and one thing that I really wish for is, that they change it, please do because for a person with a weak bladder(read me), it becomes an extremely disgusting experience trying to do gymnastics while peeing all because someone forgot to wipe the piss of the seat!
1. Leave the toilet seat Dry: The yuckiest and the most common thing people do. I mean, how can you Not aim well especially if you are a girl and have your butts planted on the toilet seat. What exactly are you doing that makes that icky yellow liquid spill all over the seat? And then where do your manners go when you see a mug with water and a toilet paper, you can very well wipe it, it’s your piss.
2. Toilet paper is free: That’s what the multitude thinks really. You see it for free, you use it, oh hell, take the whole lot, no one will say anything. And you are left in toilet purgatory after such a person leaves the toilet.
3. To flush or not to flush:  Seems like people don’t have any flushes in their homes or don’t know how to use them or just plain don’t want to touch the public toilet flush. So we are left to deal with leftovers of their bowels that stink up the toilet and make you want to bash that person up, like really hard.
4. The whole floor is my toilet: This theory is followed by many still who refuse to use the industrious toilet seat and go and pee on the floor. I mean why? If that’s what we were supposed to do, they would just have holes on the floor and save on a lot of money and labour. And as a result, you are left in a yellow pool of their disgusting-ness.
5. The washbasins are meant to be dirtied: They comb their hair, leave used paper towels, cotton buds and remnants of makeup all over the washbasin simply because who the hell bothers about clearing it all up and throwing in the dustbin kept just few feet away? We don’t and neither should you.
6. If it is not stuck, it is to be broken or stolen: And they live by this rule, steal the soap, the soap handle, the paper towels, the small artificial flower or decoration and even the dustbin lid. Why leave even that? Get some screwdrivers and finish the job.
Basically people have lost their toilet manners and if for the safety of you butts and noses, it is better that you control your bladder and go to your home.
Have fun!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Guys are like Girls!! Even worse.

I have been prompted by many to write on this and finally I do. Not that I like writing about relationships and stuff because frankly, I am no expert seeing how my long distance relationship with Tom is not getting anywhere.Tom Cruise.He is married.To a girl, hotter than me.:|
My mom noticed a guy in a park, he was happily blabbering on the phone going on like some oestrogen filled woman, "I want talk to him because he said that or please darling I didn't mean it that way but the tone was like this blah blah blah." And I came to a conclusion, the new age guy is turning into a girl!
Its not just the way he talks but his behaviour, the thought process and everything else. Mostly, girls around me get confused by the way they act when it comes to courtship(I like this term and I will use it!).
Old age courtships were grand, you are introduced in a formal setting and the man then makes a grand gesture of sorts.He might ask you for a dance or a walk in the park and calls for frequent visits, taking you to operas and the theatre.Once everyone knows his intentions, he will pop the question, ask you to marry him and the waiting period can last from 6 months to 2 years but you are his, he will write you letters, sing songs, send gifts and make it very clear that you are his.
Cut back to today, you have guys who show interest in you, take you out maybe or text you, sms you, skype with you and whatever with you(There are so many freaking ways to communicate!) and then starts thinking! This is the catch here, the guy is not supposed to think, well he is but not like a girl!It gets frustrating. He will think and analyse every move you make, if you text him, he will think twice before texting you and this thing I discovered few months back, the whole point system. The one who texts first loses points or if you have a better reply you gain more, the more troubled the other one sounds and so on.It is one annoying game.
Then there are other games, the whole touch me or not touch me game, he will hold your hand and wait for you to make a move, he will come closer only to make you want more.The waiting game, he will call you up frequently for days and then disappear, this a classic he is pulling to gauge your interest.He will flirt with you and test your reaction, are you the type of girl he wants? if you appear confident, are you too confident?If you are homely, are you too homely?And at the end of this, all you want to do is slap the guy.
And then they blame us for thinking. We don't even think that much.All we want is, you are interested, freaking show that interest and stop testing or doing what you guys do.If you are interested, be there, don't leave weird comments and hanging remarks because frankly if the girl is not head over heels or extremely stupid, she might just get annoyed and leave you to your means.Keep it simple, keep it short and leave the thinking and games to girls!
It's just easier to talk, right? You want her to text more often, say it, you want to meet her, ask her.Simple.


Saturday, January 28, 2012

Committed: A sequel to Eat Pray Love

Elizabeth Gilbert has to marry Felipe now.Not because they are madly in love, which is true but because the US department of Homeland security wants them to!
Liz is back with her cynicism, her theories and deep insights into the history of marriage, a matrimonial potpourri of some of the most hilarious wedding customs, a discussion on feminism and the final see saw of Gilbert's thoughts as she pursues marriage a second time.
There is one personal reason why I love Gilbert, she writes what I think and its freaking awesome! It feels creepy too, reading your thoughts like that but hell, I am a writer and I have found someone who I can identify with, finally! And this comes after years of trying to find someone when people ask the question who is your idol? I know Liz would be embarrassed and she really is not my idol in the conventional sense, more like my long lost soul sister.Damn! We have similar thoughts about so many issues that its surreal.
When it comes to marriage, she takes up the many issues that have bothered her, talked about matrimony in a very sensible manner, dissected everything from the role of the woman, the foundation of love and her first failed marriage.And like always, I could relate to it, not that I am contemplating matrimony in any sense right now, I am just twenty one! But on the whole, as she talks about her mother and the feminist movement in the 1970's, the Greek and the Hebrew style of thinking, the wifeless marriage, the ceremonial wedding situation and finally Felipe, who becomes  more real.
Gilbert talks about infatuation, how when we are young we get caught in it the soul sucking, breath taking avalanche of deep emotion, it lasts for few months and you are back on steady ground, if you are not, God give you strength. Sometime infatuation changes to marriage and sometimes it leads to disaster, either way, it is one force to reckon with and something to think about.
And then she talks about the bonds of matrimony themselves, how love binds them all, and what love really is, it is debatable, but I like the Felipe and Liz brand of love, the quiet simple rhythm they have, how they diffuse arguments and live in harmony, how they seem to make a routine out of each other and yet the passion never dies, it just melts the romantic in me.
And one just cannot help but cry in relief when he finally meets her at JGK airport after months of immigration knick knacks and maddening paper work.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Ink Drips and spills too: Harry Potter and Tattoos

A week since I got my first tattoo and since writing is what i do the best, I had to absolutely had to write about it.You will understand, right?
I had been contemplating getting inked for a long long time, not because I had something great to ink myself with or anything meaningful, just because it looks good, period. 
Hunting for a design has been really a cumbersome process, from a stylish ankle tattoo to a sexy one on the back, I have looked through all the possibilities. There is a show I watch, LA ink and it features interesting tattoos, with stories and why people get those and i started thinking. About stuff that has made an impact on me, something I really love and something I would want forever, now I had to avoid the faux pas of Angelina Jolie(With the Billi Bob Thornton tatoo) and Deepika Padukone(with the RK tattoo). I couldn't get a Tom Cruise tattoo because who are we kidding, he wont leave Katie Holmes, not at least right now. I don't want a butterfly or stars or a heart(yuck! Gross) and I hate to admit it but I am not a deep person who has some great inspirational stuff I would want plastered(or rather inked) on my body forever. I am a pretty shallow person who would like a good looking tattoo that looks good(duh!) with everything.
And I thought and thought and thought when I realised that the one thing I really really love and dont mind having with me forever is Harry Potter(yes, I didnt grow up!). To be philosophical, you have such books that become a part of your life, I mean the Lord of the Rings generation would know that.Hobbits and all.So we are the Harry Potter generation, I have grown up with the scrawny specy guy, laughed with Gred and Forge, brewed the polyjuice potion and laughed with Peeves. This is my alternative universe and I still escape to it when I am down or just plain happy and i am twenty one and I don't mind admitting that. There are millions like me, I know that and Harry Potter is just life, nothing will replace that and I had my tattoo.

"Magic is Might"











And and and I got this fb like button recently, so please use that! Its just under the title!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

My Tryst with Classical Music: Chapter One

I have a friend who loves to listen to classical music and by classical music, I don't mean the modified version with  contemporary music and rap, but the real deal with just the music in it, sarod, sitar, veena etc.Thanks to her, at least now I can differentiate between them!
This Thursday, there was a concert by Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan at St. Stephens and she asked me go with her and I decided to give it a try.
Only because the other day i was listening to some songs she had given me and one by Amaan Ali Khan stood out, Rhythm of love it was called and it set such a beautiful backdrop to my writing that I liked it.
And so I went to the concert and there they stood, Amaan And Ayaan Ali Khan, young, good looking Sarod players(one is married and the other in engaged, that counts against them) and they started playing. It went all over my head, i wont lie but for the first thirty minutes or so, it was good. The next hour passed with me climbing the steep curve towards migraine, only to prove that I really am tone deaf.
We got top interact with the two and they really are such humble and friendly soles and did I mention, they look good?
Ayaan is the younger one, with a twinkle in his eyes, a dimple and a spark that showed how talented he was, he played without any concern. Amaan is the elder one with intelligent eyes and as he played, he managed the team as well, his brother and the tabla Players.
As for me, I continuously try to broaden my limited music horizon and so now, I can tick of Sarod from my list. And now I know what it looks like as well!!
My other classical music efforts include Claude Debussy who is really good but sounds a bit amateur, Beethoven, who sounds sad sometimes and sometimes so grand that I wish i was born in the time such music was played and random Operas for I haven't really been able to identify the singers and the styles yet, though I would love some suggestions.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Battle with the bulge: My Sonam Kapoor Story

I have decided to be honest and by being honest I get to confront my biggest malady, the War with the Weight, fighting the flab etc.
To people who know me, it is not a big secret, I mean seriously, how can it be a big secret when one is so big?And with this I have constantly battled fears in my head, confronted diets,catapulted in and out of weight limits and obsessed over inches. The war is far from over, but in its course I am glad I have done away with the worst.
It's a story like everyone else's, eat a lot and play a lot less then eat some more and sleep a little and then eat some more. I wont go into the cholesterol high details but the gist was I ate and ate and ate. From chocolates to butter chicken, from condensed milk cans to cakes, I gobbled it all up. And except for this, I really didn't do anything else, I used to go out and play as well(as a kid) but then again, I was a reader and I loved to read and I preferred doing that. But it all capsized on me as I topped the scale by crossing 100 kg(I am guessing here because at that point, I had stopped checking my weight.).I lost all visible bones that I had, grew larger than my mother, my granny and the neighborhood fat aunty and expanded horizontally.I somehow fit JK Rowling's description of Dudley Durseey,"Wider than he was tall".
Obviously, I had to begin somewhere, I started controlling my diet, exercised, went to a gym, danced, did aerobics and everything else that there was. My vice is that I don't have patience and no trainer can really work around that(trust me, I tried!) and so I became my own trainer, changing and improvising as and when I lost the will. But the trouble with being your own trainer is that your weight loss rate becomes really slow, I don't mind that because I am sure the fat is off permanently. And it is fun, devicing routines and creating diets(I do talk to experienced people!).
I am still far from my ideal weight(i read it should be below 50 kg) and I still have lose skin and un-toned body parts, but at least I fit in medium sized clothes!!
Why I mention Sonam Kapoor is that off late I have had issues with my body, the usual, cellulite and sagging stuff and it irks me(I even considered going for surgery if the toning exercises don't work).Then I read about her weight loss and I am not disparaging other wight loss stories but she, being a celebrity and coming out about it(because, trust me, it is a sensitive issue) made me respect her even more. And she talks about the cellulite she still has to confront, despite being a size 2! How she overcomes that, what she does to keep off the fat and the best thing of all, this tall, svelte lady talks about not having a perfect body. Like how during the shoot of Aisha, in a particular scene with swim wear, she had to wear jeans over her swimsuit for the other girls were perfectly toned.
I look at her and I know that even in the celeb world where they airbrush your cellulite and give you abs, all is not well. And then I look at myself in the mirror, I may be far from perfect, but i am somewhere and i can see a goal and I work on that.
And the best thing about weight loss? I discovered hitherto unknown stuff about myself that used to lie beneath all that flab, the dent on my arm, the chin dimple, the shape of my jaw and my real size.

And my latest exercise routine? Zumba and toning and sculpting with weights.(It is fun!)