Food Zombie!

16Dec09

Have you ever read a review of a food show…?!! Well, these fancy ‘culinary’ shows have definitely become a genre in itself in the world of TV and travel today! I love these shows more than eating the stuff they talk about. (Not that these things are easily available around here!) There is surely something enticing about experiencing the making of these dishes that we get hooked on to the screen for whole 60 mins even when we deep down in our hearts know that we would never make any of that ourselves! (Heck….why watch it then???!!). Anyway that is how it is with ‘us’ mortals…can’t control our big fat desires!

Discovery- ‘Travel and Living’ is surely my fav when it comes down to culinary shows and notorious for some very queer ones indeed! How I fantasize stealing Kylie Kwong’s job on ‘Travel and Living’ and living a hot, sexy and a delicious life ;) . The colors…oh man, you wonder for a minute the very first time you watch these shows whether the veggies and all are for real or simply fake stuff….given how overly bright they look on our TV screens!

So today evening I was watching this utterly delightful show called ‘Ice cream Paradise’ on ‘Travel and Living’. Well it was truly a paradise for me for those 60 mins. Though I was having ‘matar Aloo’ for my dinner while watching the ‘Paradise’ …I was dreaming of Ice cream, Ice cream…and more Ice cream! (What exactly does one do to get a job on these shows??!!!). And ‘Travel and Living’ surely knows how to make it look more tantalizing for us poor audiences, sitting seven seas away…watching scoops and cones and scoops and bars of ice cream!

Travel and Living did keep up to its status of coming up with very queer facts on this show as well. So here we were in Pennsylvania etc. etc. places in America, famous for some brands of Ice cream running for decades and some over a century (Now that’s some serious family business going!!). Well this one chain of Ice cream parlor even had a cemetery for the old, ‘dead’ flavors, no-more in use kinds…now, can someone beat that! (Well, I like the idea….pretty novel…applause…applause!). Well…few others boasted of the fact that they have about 120 or something flavored Ice creams available at their place. Well Kudos to them all (how do they manage it? They aren’t a chain of Reliance or Microsoft….I wana know HOW????). But you got to watch the ‘cemetery section’ of this show, and how they keep up to the yearly tradition of holding a march, to celebrate the anniversary of each ‘dead’ flavor. If that isn’t enough well we also have a dedicated fan following for each of the dead ones, who makes sure that this segment of this infamous posh ice cream parlour does stay in business and limelight. ( Mom: Baby, what do you wana be when you grow older? Kid: Mommy, that yucky ice cream flavor, so that I can die soon and have a yearly march dedicated to me!!!).

We also have Sanjeev Kapoor, our Indian Kylie Kwong, though I haven’t seen many of his shows. But why not???…hmm..i’ll tell you why not. To start with, it comes on Zee TV, not cool enough a TV channel to watch, for me 20 something! (Please don’t hold a grudge against me, I’m being honest!). Secondly and lastly, the presentation isn’t as jazzy as ‘Travel and Living’ to make me feel tempted enough to keep coming back to it! Oh wait I got another reason…he talks about Indian curries, that any which way my mum can make it for me in her own simple non-complicated fashion…then why waste time watching a complicated version of it :p.

Anyway guys I recommend ‘Travel and living’ as a wholesome entertainment channel (to be honest it depends on how you define ‘entertainment’…its pretty relaxing to sit back with a plate of samosa or fruits and snuggle up in your sofa and watch these ‘out-of-my-reach’ kinda shows.) and you need to watch out for Anthony Bordain! (You’ll figure who I am talking about when you watch it!). Happy ‘Travel and Living’ watching guys!


I should start from reciting an incident- so this guy Gaurav whom I met a month back quite out of an accident, standing outside Rajiv Chowk metro and clicking photos, we stumbled (or well he did..!) upon each other. Cute guy…not met him again since then, though we are in touch thru phone texts and Facebook. So he basically was my school mate, but shifted to another one in 11th std.

Anyway so we guys usually chit chat about ‘lighter’ things in life but then yesterday I felt like sharing something with this guy outa the blue…no..not that I am pregnant and I need to desperately speak to someone but…this ‘thing’ on my mind was something different.

Till the age of 21 I wasn’t ever bothered with it. In fact I thought I was always ‘soughted’; about this one ‘thing’ in my life. (Well rest other things in my life; have been like most of us quite screwed). Yes so it was a shock…I though have sought of become used to this shock lately….given this happens to me a bit too often.

So I was on Facebook chatting with Gaurav and he popped the usual stuff ‘how are you? etc etc, you know the usual ‘conversation beginners’. I could have easily said ‘I am ok’ or ‘I’ll speak to you later….but no like a virgin marry I chose to be honest and cry my heart out to anyone I could get hold of that second. ( I call that panic attack…I never knew before this summer’s what a panic attack means or feels like but now I know this feeling pretty well…now it has become a norm for me and I am surely not very happy about this.)

Well, the moment I shared my ‘thing’, thing bothering me….he felt uneasy….I understood this ‘thing’ talk isn’t much relatable to him, and that I should look for someone else to talk to and next time not make a similar mistake, rather stick to ‘lighter’ kinda things with him.

I messaged another friend, a close one this time, I was texting him and crying at the same time, something I do when I am angry and helpless. He didn’t find my text ‘pls call me’ urgent enough 12 in the night to call back. So it all worsened further, I couldn’t have felt madder and suffocated with not many choices left around me. But that helped me understand my ‘thing’ in a better way. I realised I need to sought this out myself.

Well here it goes…I feel useless since I’ve stopped working in June. I feel I am stuck at a wrong place academically. Many people would laugh at me and some who know me better would try proving this wrong to me. Well I did the same to myself all these 2 years, tried faking it that I wanted to study and work this ‘thing’. Honestly I give no shit to it anymore. Once I probably wanted to do it…not anymore. All these years out of my stubborn rebellious spirit …I tried making myself believe I wanted to do something different ( falling in yet another kind of trap of peer pressure!) wanted to be different to display a certain image of mine in the family. But I think I took this image display thing little too seriously, I never understood what I wanted for myself professionally. I started out with bachelor’s in English…loved it in its first 2 years…but then again I couldn’t stop myself getting allured by another kind of work that I found more appealing than literature…in a different way though, not appealing like working in Cosmopolitan or something!

I kept telling myself social work ain’t for me, though I enjoyed it the most….I was good at almost everything in this sphere…I was the happiest when I was involved with people of my age…talking and acting superbly optimistically! Yes those are the days I look back to and do wana re-live!

But can I go back on my decision of having chosen the ‘thing’, now that it’s been six months into it. Wasn’t this what I always aspired for…(even likes and dislikes and aspirations are socially conditioned…how well I now understand my first film 3yrs down the line.) I thought all these four years (very proudly) that I am the ‘soughted’ one, not like others going through teenage crises of confusion about love and academics, I guess I overestimated everything.

So one day all this came crashing down….with I not been able to take this anymore and breaking down in the middle of the night…. And this break down wasn’t triggered by anything else but only it’s real root-cause. I may have figured this problem out for myself, but can I do anything about it concretely. Do I have the guts to face my dad and tell him the same? I am scared of being the black sheep of the family…gosh sometimes I wonder why can I not think straight like rest of my cousins (be it about men, academics or otherwise!).

I still remember how I refused to study journalism last year and chose a gap year instead. I always thought journalism is lame because my dad approved of it (of course admitting this for the very first time…out and aloud) and I like a free-spirited bird wanted to do something my dad didn’t approve of. (Well, is that why I get so attracted towards Muslim guys always??..[wicked smile ;) ]. There is so much of dad-politics in every daughter’s life …yet we don’t admit (realize) it!)

I know I haven’t reached a dead end yet, lots can be done about it. Well I guess I just need to find a way around it. How I wish the thing on my mind for once was love and not work…Woops…what’s with me these days… !!!


 My blog becomes alive again after two months!

So i went to see ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ ( last day, second last show at Shakuntalam)…braving all warnings ( with a skull and two bones…yes literally that!!). but sorry guys i might disappoint u but the ‘joky’ factor is quite high in DBH…and i even liked all the intentional PJ’s ‘maaroed’ by Rani and Shahid!

SHahid hasn’t looked more HOT in any of his previous films and Rani hasn’t looked more fat and ugly! I love and hate Yash Raj films …and that is how it will always be!( and you will get to know the reason soon!) Yash Raj films has become the epitome of  drama genre in Bollywood…and they do this exaggeration bit quite well! The ever famous Yash ‘twist’ n ‘turns’ are yet again to be seen in DBH…some are lame like Shahid’s mum suddenly appearing during the final match from nowhere at all…and other more sensible one’s like shahid getting a call from Anupam Kher (his dad) at the start of the film…from India and he deciding to stay back in India and coach a local cricket team. ( and i became nostalgic watching Wagah border too :( ]

It has comedy…it has romance…it has high drama quotient and finally India-Pakistan cricket match at it’s backdrop. I loved the last ball of the match- ‘India to win : 4 runs on 1 ball’ scene…the tension rising…and the final result ( yes, it was enough dramatic to make me go back to my earlier days as a kid , when i would sit in the drawing room with my bhai and dadu …cross-legged on the sofa …watching a cricket match …religiously hours at a stretch!!). And how can i forget the long sombre…so called ‘emotionally- moving’ ‘Pro-women’ dialogue ‘maaroed’ by Rani at the podium after her victory over pak in the match. ( you can call it ‘Maa- Take 2′…arre ‘Maa’…’Deewar wala dailogue’!!!) ( another Yash Raj Films Trait!!!)

And Lastly- The Hadippa song! lol…the lyrics..have been trying to memorize it for a while now…!!…but rest of the songs are quite a trash…they need no mention…absolutely insignficant!! Viewers might take an hour or two-to get used to the overly colorfull costumes and the sets…but well if it’s Punjab and Yash Raj films that’s how it’s going to be- re-inforciement of steretypes!!!!!! Anyway enough of Yash Raj bashing…It’s Rating time guys!!!!- it’s worth one time watch for sure.(ConDitiNs AppLy* ).

My Rating- * * 3/4

*Condition- If oNlY you are watching it at Shakuntalam Theatre, Delhi and that too not on Rs 75 but Rs 50/- ticket!! :p


Turf Wars

06Aug09

Don’t know how many times i have thought over this in these many years. Delhi, Bengal, Uttarakhand, Sunderbans it’s always the same story- and comes down to to one simple question in the end-who ‘will’ win it this time or who ’should’ win it tthis time?

Excerpt from ‘The Hungry Tide’  by Amitav Ghosh-

Kusum: “This island has to be saved for its trees, it has to be saved for its animals, it is a part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers, which is paid for by people from all around the world”. Everyday, sitting here, with hunger gnawing at our bellies, we would listen to these words, over and over again. Who are these people, i wondered, who love animals so much that they are willing to kill us for them? Do they know what is being done in their names? Where do they live, these people, do they have children, do they have mothers, fathers? As i thought of these things it seemed to me that this whole world has become a place of animals and our fault, our crime, was that we were just human beings, trying to live as human beings always have,  from the water and the soil. No human being could think this a crime unless they have forgotten that this is how humans have always lived- by fishing, by clearing land and by planting the soil…

I often wonder… the peice of land that my house, school, college, office is occupying was also once a greenland…why are our needs and a certain kind of lifestyly better justified than others?

Amitav Ghosh in an interview with UN Chronicle :

“In the Sundarbans, drinking water is a huge problem. There was a German biologist who went there and decided the reason why the tigers were killing human beings was because they didn’t have fresh water. At enormous cost, fresh water wells were dug for the tigers and water was plentiful, while human beings there had no fresh water. They were looking on these wells being dug for the tigers while they themselves and their children were dying because they didn’t have access to fresh water. We can’t elude the issue. If you care for the environment, does that mean you don’t care about the plight of human beings, especially impoverished people?”

To read the complete interview you can visit: http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue4/0405p48.html


love-aaj-kal

The movie started and for next thirty minutes I couldn’t figure whether what Deepika was doing (I mean acting) which was really bad and amateurish, was done purposely or not. I thought it has to have a bigger purpose behind ‘she’ performing this bad…may be that’s what story is like, demands her to be; for first few scenes!. Well, I eventually managed to figure that it’s Deepika who quite sucks at the acting part and not the story. Somehow, Saif seemed to have got inspired by her in some of the scenes and performed as bad as her. Believe me they both in first few scenes do look as if they are enacting some school scene…they both just tried way to hard to fit into their roles I guess.

I loved the ‘break up- party’ concept, though to me it’s quite unrealistic (!) but anyway. I also found all the songs extremely appealing, particularly, ‘chor bazaari’…Deepika’s purple kurti and red churidaar…she was awesomely styled, and all this was well timed to save the film from further embarrassment of any kind. Apart from this I loved  the scenes which were shot around various Delhi monuments and the ‘chemistry’ between Saif and Deepika worked quite well in the film.

I ofcourse hated Deepika’s acting but there was something more annoying than that as well…every thrity mintutes we would get to hear Saif saying this to deepika- “Har baar tu sahi baat keh deti hai…jaanu’!…yes that deserves to go in the ‘Most Trash Dialogue of the year category’! (Saif….you CANT be dramatic and overly filmy like Shahrukh Khan and carry it well…it’s just not you….don’t try make another attempt on that…plz!)

BUT, in spite of all the negative things I’ve said…it’s a ‘nice’ film. Worth one time watch and music surely rocks!. Just don’t go with high expectations and who knows you may actually quite like it!

My Rating- ***


new_york_20090701Well this piece of review has come; a little too late…but I was also ‘a little too late’ in watching this film. I think I was some where reluctant to watch it. I didn’t want to be bothered by unhappy films given my happy mood these days. Anyway I finally went for it 11 in the night because we didn’t have a choice to see something else at Saket that nite.

So this was one film which I saw from its very beginning, I mean even the adverts…I still remember the Hero-Honda advert, the long 10 min one, 50 yr celebrations- with Hrithik Roshan and all super duper cricket stars in it. I can only feel sorry for a brand like Hero-Honda which I think somehow stupidly has been cheated by some cheap ad agency which created that advert! (and what exactly is priyanka doing in it, wearing some ill fitted white top and trousers and jumping like a mad woman!) One has to watch it to understand this level of frustration! Well here goes the link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDjbprBwO4Y  … adore it, if you can! And if you do, then do leave a comment…so that I can appreciate your taste as well as your patience!

Coming back to the film I think somewhere I felt cheated in the beginning itself….it hardly had anything to do with romance and all the three guys being together and their strong friendship and what not I had imagined earlier! (all the blame goes to the main track…Junoon…which got me thinking all that!) May be next time I should read both the synopsis and the review of the films before going out watching one!

Yes I know it’s about post 9/11 etc. hmm…I think I didn’t like the film because I think the whole thing…the film…the story etc looks really amateurish to me, given the no. of films already been made on the same issue. But I would always want to give a pat on the back to these film makers who make a socially relevant film in the mainstream, Bollywood.

I didn’t like silly loop-holes in the film like Katrina suddenly confessing that she knew about john being a terrorist all this while. I didn’t like Irfaan khan’s subtle humor either. An FBI agent cracking a joke in a super serious scene can only happen in Newyork! (well if it was intended…which I think it was …to lighten the sombre mood of the scene or whatever…it still doesn’t make me like the film because this formulae didn’t work for me at all!) and to top it all it was nearly 3 hours long!

It may sound really kiddish but I actually loved the gyaan giving part by Irfaan khan in the last bit of the film. When he kept posing the ever-wonderful questions related to America, Asians, acceptance, non-acceptance, the new gen of America and all. (may be I should just stick to documentary watching…if that’s what I want or liked in the whole film!)

Anyway I think I would only suggest people to rent the film and watch it at home…not the multiplex watching types…any which way my suggestion isn’t of much use now!

My Rating- * * 3/4


devd

If I have to talk about Dev D I will also have to then mention GX and Kishangarh in Rajasthan, because that is where and with whom I saw the film. The movie ended and I was like “wow…what did just happen!” My eyes didn’t dilate either way but were fixed like a glue on the screen through out. I will probably never get it, how these filmmakers come up with amazing concepts, scripts and even better films!

Abhay Deol is what I want to focus this post on. I think I discovered his talent or at least his ability to judge good scripts in his first movie itself (‘Socha na Tha’ with Ayesha Takia). It was the film or Mr. Deol, I am not sure but I instantly liked him. I think it was also the story…which deviated from the usual non-sensible, monotony of boy and girl falling for each other. It broke away from these simple patterns of love and actually risked to dwell in the complexities of relationships. Well, my love has never been simply about I liking a guy and he liking me back. There’s always been lot more to it than that. That is what ‘Socha Na Tha’ was about.

So, I have finally discovered the key to my liking for Abhay Deol!. It’s about he choosing certain roles, characters which are not linear (As my grey head prof would say in the lectures of ‘pride and prejudice’ in the first year) but that are multi-dimensional. What I mean is that he cries, shows love but also apathy at times, can only punch ones and gets nicely wounded when beaten up by goons, drives Santro or esteem unlike our other more fashionable heroes, doesn’t over do (or act…??) in the kissing scenes, his lady love is also usually simple and her dressing sense is also uncluttered mostly, unlike many others. He doesn’t act with super confidence levels like that of SRK; there is some unsurety in his speech each time. And that’s what I like about him!

Going beyond Abhay Deol and crediting him solely for his success would not be fair. So, I think I should give some good share to the amazing music of his films as well. He has been as lucky as Mr Hashmi. At some level I don’t dislike Emran Hashmi but I would prefer listening to his songs on radio than watching it on TV. Abhay Deol has similarly been blessed with great music composers each time in his films. Dev D music was nothing less than mad!…[’tauba tera jalwa, tauba tera pyar….emotional atyachar…jao jao jao dilbar…you whore’ (???!!!!)]. And WTF was ‘super chor’ all about…I wish I could get one made for me! Anyway I have danced to ‘pardesi’ don’t know how many times. No other song can beat it surely…it’s like the ultimate one, especially the video!

Now I am just waiting for the new ones to come out and i would run to catch his films first day first show…something I’ve never done before but would love to make one such exception this time with his film!


arts-music-graphicSitting at home, suffering from cold, dying of an ear ache and listening to Bryan Adams tape is how today was for me. I finally sat to make my portfolio for the media college, getting arty and all, but it does give me a lot of satisfaction to see how this so called mni-project is turning into a very creative thing. (I love to call it pretty!)

So, I thought of pepping up my portfolio task with some old music. (People might just kill me for calling Bryan Adams old!) I got the evergreen ‘on a day like today’ tape out and after cleaning my recorder ‘inside out’ started the music. But, to my surprise it was… ‘All right’, not out of the world kind of experience, (which I was hoping…). I think it’s more got to do with the mood than the music. I would still say that I love it but just not the perfect day to listen to BA.

In fact I also ‘tried’ listening to Outlandish, but all I could think about was the word ‘peelo’ and kept trying to decipher whether the first line on ‘peelo’ is actually in Hindi or not, because the word ‘gutter’ is also there.

Anyway, coming back to BA, I would like to share that I was introduced to his music somewhere in 8thh class by my bhai. Every time he would come down to Delhi from college, he would bring along one more tape of BA. I think the one I got most addicted to, was ‘the best of me’ tape. And after listening to it (god knows how many times!)I hooked on to a wish of seeing him play live at a concert one day! (I would probably want to go for BA concert also because he is the only artist whose songs I know by heart!)

Back then in school, most of my friends respected my choice of music but the college scene was right opposite of it. There was this guy who loved to tease me and make me feel extremely guilty of the fact that I loved BA. He would call it ‘soft rock’ like so many other idiots. I don’t mind calling it whatever one pleases but then I started listening to other cool stuff, like you know, Floyd, Morrison and all. Not that I didn’t like them, I think they are great but they don’t make me as happy as BA does. It’s got to do with the mood of the song…and BA has that!( on most occasions… though with some exceptions for sure!) (On 2nd thoughts even Morrison rocks and I know how much I’ve loved his songs- ‘L.A Woman’, ‘light my fire’ etc.)

The very first English song that I ever heard in my life and learnt it by heart was (not sure how to spell it…) ‘kita din for kot ni jo, I’ve been waiting…long time ago, where did you come from…where did you go…kot ni jo’. I am not very confident whether anybody got it but that’s the first one for me. And from there on I got familiarized to MJ and them BA and then many more as I got cable and Delhi got its many privatized radio stations!

Radio of  then reminds me of, (I know many of you would have figured it already!) 102.6 FM…’Livewire’ and ‘Matchless’ for sure…but few others as well like ‘take off’ ‘time-out’ ‘just for you’ ‘heart of the matter’, the 1 o’ clock show in the night, lokesh (lovingly called loki by some of us ;) , and I heard he got married, went to middle east for some reason, came back and now we can hear him on 104 FM) Jobin then on that 5’ o clock show, PKJ, Vandy and of course Raman Bahnot. I’ve been thinking lately that I should write to these shows….may be next time I listen to them I should try catching the emails id’s. (After all it’s all most been over a decade since I have been listening to 102.6 fm!)

Well something none would know is that I grew up listening to the old 102.6 jingle (which without any disagreements is better than the lame new one…well it’s not exactly new but I guess we can call it ‘relatively’, though it doesn’t deserve that tag either!) since the age of 5 when I would be getting ready for pre-school (Green Fields School to be precise…well I would refuse to even get on the matador then, like any other kid and cry my heart out. My dad would then tempt me by offering Cadbury nutties; I think it was called something else then. It used to come in a round or square purple and red tin box, something I would get from every auntie and uncle on Diwali) and my father would be busy shaving with the radio on and everyday religiously listening to “7 o’ clock sargam”.

Well its different now with so many radio stations around (definitely for good!). I still try to catch ‘take off’ when ever I can but ‘matchless’ doesn’t interest me that much anymore. I think 102.6 definitely needs a revamp, again for the good and well if some one out there in 102.6 is actually listening, can we please not have ‘AIR FM Rainbow’ jingle at all! (Who suggested the name ‘Rainbow’ anyway???!!!).


delhi-queer-pride-09Last Sunday, Delhi witnessed the gay pride march, yet again. And a day before that I couldn’t stop flaunting my picture in the front page of HT, thanks to I being enough inspired to participate in last years Gay pride march unlike this time.

But I thought I had enough valid reasons to not to go this time….it was really hot that day but just few hours before the march started, Delhi witnessed its first monsoon showers!

But it was 4:45 already and I had made up mind…the march was about to start at 5 30PM. And to top it all I was broke to the shreds!

On second thoughts I should have gone. Talks on active citizenship has become an intrinsic part of my life in past three years but I fail to understand how I sometimes become too complacent and hook on to my own sweet cocoon.

Remembering all the above, I am glad to have woken up to my friends text today which sounded not just happy but very excited about the changing times in India today….it was the benchmark verdict on Article 377 and decriminalization of homosexuality. The text carried two smileys and an exclamation mark nearly after each word, not to forget J!

First thing I did was open NDTV and TOI on internet and frantically looked for re-assurance, hoping that it’s not just another misunderstanding of my friend. Well, I was happy to know that it wasn’t and that it was the talk of the town already! I planned to change my facebook status and in the next one hour saw numerous changes in FB profile like mine.

Some of the facebook status said-

“Gay Sex legalised in INDIA. Maulana Abdul Khaleeq Madrasi, pro-vice chancellor of Darul Uloom, India’s biggest Islamic seminary says ‘Scrapping such law is not justified. Islam does not allow such relationships. This is an attempt to impose Western culture on Indian society.’ Lets wait and watch how far this goes…” – followed by 17 comments within minutes!

 

“legally GAY!! hehe! Kudos to Delhi HC for scrapping 377! High time now!!!”

“yaaayyyy-ing at the demise of 377!!! *happy dance*”

Bi the way :)

And above all I was impressed to see my friend from Lahore supporting the cause happily by posting the link of TOI article on decriminalization of homosexuality in India.

Indeed these are changing and happy times!


Welcome Note

03Jul09

Having kept my wonderful thoughts to myself all these years, I thought of bringing them out of the closet (a word extensively used today in reference to homosexuals :) ) putting them not just on the ‘dashboard’ but laying it bare in front of everyone. I hope to create a life story of mine, trying to document memories, hopes and aspirations and sometimes adding other not so important things as well but which would definitely be relevant to me.

I don’t guarantee any pleasure or fulfillment of any expectation….lol…now I have just lost the track…so, here I finally present my utterly delightful blog (I don’t believe it, 2003 version of Microsoft word doesn’t have the word ‘blog’ in its dictionary!) : “Lost and Found”.