Tis wonderful!!!
- Location:workstation @ home
- Mood:
weird - Music:Bande-Indian Ocean
What's the difference between this call and the usual marathons I run over the mobile almost daily? Well this was a call where data had to be captured and I was cradling the receiver of my phone in the crook of my neck.
Ergo neck's sore and I have a slightly tilted view of the world...not that I have a view of any skyscrapers from where I sit. I can see the boss's curly mop of hair and some people I would rather not see at all..but all tilted :(
Ouch.
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
sleepy - Music:colleagues chirping into their blackberrys
But that's me getting ahead of myself. Let's see the good and bad of the flick, shall we?
RGV always goes heavy on the music and here too there's no respite. Right from Bhoot, Vaastu Shaastra et al, the jarring notes of the OST don't really act as any value add to the movie. If anything else you're left wishing for a remote to constantly turn the noise down!
Cast- A.B Sr- good. slightly in the backdrop (as was intended) in the 1st half of the movie but quite resolute and impactful in the last half. The scenes at his son's deathbed (the final moment) and the last words with the son's photograph were done very tastefully. It wasn't a tearjerker but it was very matter of fact. Quite a task to play it just right and not overdo it entirely!
A.B Jr- Boss, you can be brooding, you can smoulder at people but you have to have PRESENCE! and this is extremely evident in the sequel that Abhishek isn't able to tap into this quality at will. He was not entirely lackluster but he seemed flat and his character did not reflect much depth.
Supriya Pathak- A prop a la Ma Corleone. She too is extremely underutilized in the sequel. The look of resignation on her character's face seemed to be more reflective of an actual resignation to not playing meaty roles in this stage of her life.
Tanisha- The question is simply...WHY? She is Apollonia to the hilt! Chirpy, bubbly and expendable. Tanisha has a captivating face and looks like she'd rather have roles which have her showing off her dentition. As the sidelined but loved wife and bahu of warlords, she is hopelessly miscast. She enunciates each word and seems to treat Hindi as a second language. She hardly has enough screen time for people to even gasp at her demise.
Aishwarya- Good Lord Why? Ms. Longines and Nakshatra is at her best when she is silent and when crying in the movie. She is not a lady who emotes well at all. It's either underdone or overcooked. As a corporate woman she seems to lack the "go-for-the-jugular" air and as a woman in love she fails to let her eyes do the talking.
One thinks of Chitrangada Singh might've been cast better in the role enacted by Ash.
Victor Banerji has been typecast into the stereotypical NRI rich guy one too many times. His dismissive laughs rings false and he too lacks the verve of a cuthroat businessman. One wonders where the man from Ghare-Baire went over the years :(
Dilip Prabhavalkar was the surprise element in the entire movie. But for a man of his vast array of talent, RGV was able to extract precious little.
It's definitely not the best work that the cast has done or his capable of...but all in all, it's worth a watch and is sadly an accurate representative of the devaluation of human values and life in the grind of Indian politics.
Fingers crossed that a Sarkar Raj(ini) isn't made with Ms.Rai-Bachchan at the helm of things. Even RGV isn't that ambitious...god forbid!
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
chipper - Music:buzzing of colleagues
Quite frequently Red will look at me with deep disgust and I'll realize that I've been jumping from topic to topic like a schizo who's off the meds. I start up conversations which we had 2-3 days ago and this poor man has no idea of the context or even rationale behind doing so!
What he does like in this entire My-Disoriented-Wife syndrome is how I am in the morning. I wander around in a quasi-awake state, have my hair piled on top of my head or in a Samara-like fashion (usually the latter)bump into things, curse at the milk for boiling over and literally go around in circles till Red catches hold of me and points me in the right direction.
It's quite fun retrospectively of course. We (read he) laughs at my confusion and I make pouty faces and threaten to have to make his own dinner w.i.e. That usually stops the mirth!
This morning however, I was still dazed in the car and ended up showing my ID card to another associate instead of the security guard at the entrace of my office building. To say that the man was surprised would be an understatement. His face had a perfect "WTF" expression on it!
But this is by far the tamest thing I've done during my dazed days. The most peculiar one was where I'd blown a kiss at the security guard and nodded at my mom instead of the other way around. The security guard's hands remained folded in a namaste-posture for quite some time, and after Ma had the hysterics for an entire day.
I don't think that man ever came back to work for us after that.
Moral of the story- Screw biochemical imbalances caused by PMS and the curse thereafter!! Drink copious amounts of coffee and stay sane :D
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
confused - Music:some jerkoid on the speakerfone listening to HDFC banking menu
3 most memorable songs-
1) Come Undone- Duran Duran
2) Run-Snow Patrol
3) Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd
Reasons...ranging from the nostalgic to the bizarre!
- Location:workstation @ home
- Music:comfortably numb
This gentleman was insistent that he tell me in great vistaar (detail) about the bill which had been dispatched. When I objected saying that I did not need any explanation and I was able to decipher a bill for myself he got this sad voice and started saying, "yeh hamara kaam hai. aap humein ek baar samjhaney dijiye". [this is our work, please let me explain it to you just once]
Now I appreciate perseverance but this is ridiculous!! And more over, had he been talking to Red it'd have been more fun because a) Red doesn't usually converse in Hindi. b) This man being a lisper it was slightly more difficult to understand him. c) Assertion bordering on aggression in Hindi would have gone over Red's head and he'd have just hung up and looked at me with a bewildered look!!
But Reliance's customer care needs major tweaking. Their communication skills are quite pathetic and considering that they are looking to make a niche for themselves in IT and other related offerings, their techical support sux big time!!
But as long as I can log onto Facebook and throw sheep at people and rant away on LJ using their internet connection, they'll do ok for me. Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi (not really worth the translation).
- Location:work
- Mood:working
kept to my usual sunday night routine of Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds and NCIS.
Red was very compliant in having grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner (he just wanted a salad along as well).
I polished off most of a bottle of Two Oceans (nice, mild white South African-wine; 2006) while thinking of work; why the rains hadn't rained and brooding a little about my security blanket going bye bye (a close friend moving away) et al.
Watched Rajasthan Royals kick butt (Red was cheering Chennai Super Kings) and then went off to slumber land till manic Monday snuck up on me yet again...
But kind of like these quasi-lethargic Sundays with bursts of non-inertia factored in...
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
grumpy
( part1-the calls )
( part2-the banks )
( part4-Red )
( part5-the end )
- Location:home workstation
- Mood: cheerful
- Music:agar tum na hote-title track
Sad but true.
I got up this morning and started babbling about inter-caste marriages and parents who turn their faces away from their kids and how the pregnancy bug has bitten 1/2 the female population I know. I also remember making threats (which no one heard) that if my child is not cute then it'll be put up for adoption or the baby's father can take care of her/him alone!
I went to bed at my usual 2 hours post-midnight time and had the songs of Silsila looped in my head and consequently my dreams as well. Very weird thing to have in your noggin, the baritone of AB saying over and over and over again, " main aur meri tanhaayi aksar yeh baatein kiya kartein hain.."
Woke up feeling lost and hung over although the last time alcohol had passed these lips was when I'd tipped over the wine bottle to finish the last dregs while cooking Red "regular food".
Brushed, drank coffee while showering and struggled with bras and tops till I found one that fit and didn't make me look like a misshapen sack of potatoes. Now my 9:30 am had entirely forgotten that I was his 9:30 and when I called him to find out why he wasn't around he said, "SHIT!!!" Which pretty much has set the tone for the rest of this day considering that am mentally in a galaxy far, far away but physically am sitting in a place from where there is no escape till 10 pm tonight.
I'd say it bites!! right about now.
- Mood: moody
Being all sniffly, sneezy and generally having ye old bullfrog in throat did a girl no good. For not only do people come back to you with helpful hints galore...your parents call you up every 15 minutes, extract all the minute details of the past 15 minutes and then advise you not to strain your throat. Oh yes...they also ask you not to fight with your saint of a husband (you being the spawn of hell, naturally!).
But the heat effects people like no other weather. I've never, ever seen people grumpy in the rain, or gripping because of the cold...they find ways to get around it... but the heat brings out the inner imps, hobgoblins and whatnots.
One tiff Red and I have DAILY is about the AC. My contention is when you have an airconditioner, let'er rip and make the room into an igloo. Red's argument is that just because it can function at 16 degrees doesnt mean it has to. This man's concept of moderation in everything will lead me to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West...or was it the one from the East? Anyhoo, Red sometimes drives me to distraction and very soon it'll be murder as well.
He uses the comforter which is ideal in winters just because the AC is on!! And the moment I'm out of the room, I can hear the beeps of the remote, regulating the temperature to a temperate 21 degrees :(
Even today as I sat down to work on the comp, he tiptoed into the room, shut the door there they were! the damn BEEPS!
Maybe it is all my blubber which keeps me warm but if icicles aint forming in the room, methinks the AC's gotta go!
I was all nostalgic with a friend sometime back and was reminiscing about how we gals used to drape wet towels in the 47-48 degree weather and sleep at night. Those days turkish towels were a premium, a must-have! and clothes were a strict no-no! Hmm, did I just help perpetuate a myth about all the "stuff" that goes on in womens' hostels?!
But despite all my threatening to go sleep out in the livingroom if the AC isn't turned down to icier temps, the lord and master does have his way also manages to use me as his bolster pillow...yes in this heat :( I gotta get the marriage manual out again...there has to be a clause against this.
Am either the warmer--upper in winters (again courtesy my blubber) or am the homeostatis-provider in summers in case the AC misbehaves and dares to climb down to 20 degrees centigrade!
One of these days I'll run away to the Himalayas, eat momos and go OM in the spare time. The mere thought of a frostbite is tempting these days!
- Location:home workstation
- Mood:
hot - Music:fan blades whirring
Ever notice how certain days are tailor-made for feeling blue or wallowing? You feel as if being misunderstood is the order of the day?
How you blindly grope for some semblance of clarity in the rounded corners of your brain but come up with cobwebs at best and a lot of stuff swept under the carpet at worst?
And when you think about it clearly enough (with assistance from your dear friend Mr.Caffeine), you realize that things are really not bad at all but you are viewing it as a 7-car pileup only because your noggin refuses to throw up doable solutions!
And you look around for someone to kiss all the booboos away and make it all better and find that they're either sweating it out at the passport office, stuck in a traffic jam, supervising meals, firefighting or usually dealing with enough and more booboos of their own :(
Then...you buckle down (attempt to at least), bitch your heart out in private blogs, write half-way coherent public blogs and embrace Mr.Caffeine to your bosom and drag your sad butt back to work! And believe it or not...it usually works!
And if it doesnt? Then you force people to pay you compliments so they can "brighten" your day and give you a reason to not go back to bed and hibernate till better times prevail.
Am very studiously working on the latter option and I see 2 potential victims approaching...must go and get my quota of "aww! what a nice outfit!" kick started.
TA!
- Location:temporary workstation
- Mood: uncomfortable
- Music:the buzzing of the recruiters
- It's got unbearably hot in Hyderabad.
- I've fought with Red over the most mundane but significant things in a marriage...why does the wet towel end up on the bed, why he cringes every time I cook yada yada yada.
- Tried to reason with a girl who was leaving the organization because she didn't like the food in the city (!!!)
- Had weirdass dreams about anyone and everyone!
- Saw Lilo&Stitch and had a VERY strong feeling that my yet-to-be conceived daughter would be quite along the same lines. Of Lilo and not Stitch btw.
- Started watching Simpsons the Movie and got sidetracked by lunch and the maid but know it to be a ribtickler!
- I did well enough in my annual reviews to know that am at the right place and pretty much on the right track.
- Got into snits with the bank people and now feel that ICICI actually are the most people-friendly bank in the county.
- Realized that while I can exist on 3 hours of sleep in a night...the night needs to be perpetual and not lead into morning later.
More updates later...a yawn's overtaking moi!
- Location:diwan
- Mood: sleepy
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
Do you spit on the bathroom floor while bathing instead of the sink?
For those who spotted this poll earlier, apologies for the weird way it got phrased.
2 (22.2%)
In my defence the comp conked on me and became pms and acted on its own.
But this is a question Red and I have been wondering about so I wanted to extend it to a larger audience.
Danke!
- Location:diwan
- Mood: hot
- Music:criminal minds playing in the background
Anyhoo, the said fecal matter (FC) ran up a sizeable bill on Red's credit card and rocket scientist that he is...also paid his mobile bill. The men in khaki were their usual helpful best and while I ranted and raved and sobbed, Red remained stoic and agreed to learn from this mistake viz our carelessness and complacency in leaving moolah unguarded.
Red agreed. Me did not. Me plotted. Me heaped curses on head of imagined piece of turd (POT) and hoped peptic ulcers and piles would spring up overnight. Red stayed calm and had me spend my money for my birthday gifts, although on his behalf.
Now me has a bunch of dolls whom I love! One of these beloved dolls has another doll she loves. This doll was able to track down the miserable heap of dung (MHOD) through the mobile bill paid. And then it all began...the slime from the commonest variety of garden slug (SFTCVOGS) was tracked down, frog marched to a room and questioned and he confessed.
When I saw him, I recognized him and wanted to deflate his fat cheeks! He fed me a whole lot of bull and wanted to establish his sparkling reputation as a one-time filcher-but-other-wise-all-around-saint!
Needless to say that attempt sunk in utter doom.
We recovered the money and got his saggy, fat behind kicked out of the org on integrity issues.
I also made him apologize to Red and then stuck my tongue out at him and blew him a loud raspberry while he was leaving.
One must cope in whatever manner possible to restore one's equilibrium. Mine happens through raspberries.
AMEN!
- Location:round table
- Mood: bitchy
- Music:carpenters hammering
Got into work to find an email sent across by an associate who wanted to nominate himself for training programs we roll out.
Not only was it sent it Bookman 14 size font with all the "i"s in small letters, it wasn't punctuated at all.
This gentleman wanted to see his career germinate and ergo wanted to attend some behavioral training. Okies...fine and dandy!
Now this guy works with in a process which requires him to attend to customer calls. And this is how he attends his personal call-
Me- Hello ****
Ass (ociate)- Huh!! WHAT?!!
Me- Umm..Is this ***? Am **** calling from ***.
Ass- WHAT? AM ON A CALL!!
Me- Please let me know a good time to call back. This is regarding your mail about training nominations.
Ass- Yeah Yeah...Ok Yeah...Later. Yeah!! 2..no..5..no..Later. Yeah!!
Me- I'll call back. sotto voce- chaman bahaar!!
Good Lord! The first thing I'll teach this imp is how to attend phone calls...yeah yeah my left buttcheek!!
- Location:workstation
- Mood: bitchy
After the initial kutti-kamini-mar ja-saali!! we took up where we'd left off, one year back.
Moti (as I've called her practically since the day we met in college) is one of the sunniest, most-grounded and loveable people I know. Apart from the fact that she keeps me sane and doubles as the voice of my conscience, she is a validation of the fact that not all Bongs are deadheads!!
My life has been nomadic to say the least. And I've always wanted to put down roots someplace. And while I don't honestly know if my roots have been planted deep enough in the biriyani city or not...I've found a rock steady place with her.
Over the weekend we caught up, cooked together, got crazy together and drove our husbands up the wall. Well, we only drove them up the wall for the 1st few minutes. After a point of time, Red ordered a pay-per-view channel on tv and started to watch cricket along with her hubby. Then spoke to us only if they got hungry or needed some tlc...again temporarily.
There's a lot to be said about an individual who knows you in and out. Yells at you for your own good, gets drunk with you, keeps your secrets (plus blabs all of her own to you) and means more than you could ever hope to express.
And while you're nicely wallowing in your "Hai-Meri-Moti-Chali-Gayi" mode, she sends you this sms which reflects the same scenario on her side as well...and you text back about misery loving company and she calls you a kutti and the whole shebang starts out again!!
Ah!! the restorative power of Hindi gaalis...recommend it to one and all!
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
indescribable
- Location:workstation
- Mood: sleepy
- Music:buzzing of the finance team
A friend of mine has been talking about superheroes for a while now. And with HBO airing Superman, I got interested in finding out about the flipside of being a Super.
Check out this link...lotsa funnies crop up.
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
pensive
When Jab We Met was released in the theaters, I didn't go to see it thinking it was going to be a repeat of the same old "magic".
Red recently picked up the dvd and was quite insistent we watch it. And so we did ( it was Red's weekend all the way).
And I LIKED it! It was refreshing. Shahid with his boyish looks acted like a man and Kareena's bubbly yakkety avatar was laughter provoking rather than annoying. Earlier SK's entire repertoire consisted of limited looks and flashing dimples or flexing biceps. KK too, was fresh and entirely contented with the rose-colored glasses she chooses to wear throughout the film.
Imtiaz Ali has been able to extract very different facets of ability to emote without having them don drastically different roles from their usual roles in Bollywood movies till date.
The typical Punju families with their OYE-factor is brought out entirely without mentioning butterchicken and bhangra in every 3rd line.
The music overall wasn't great but Mauja hi Mauja and Yeh Ishq Hai are going to be around as foot tappers for a while to come!
It was a good,clean movie. Not that Red doesn't enjoy the heaving bosoms and thunder thighs flashing all around but this movie was simple and no great mental shakes. Girl and guy meet and usually something interesting or the other ensues. And here a lot of nice ground gets built for good ol' fashioned love, as it so happens.
I totally loved the scene where Kareena disses out the ex-bf who jilted her. The dumbfounded looks that Tarun Arora (Anshuman) had on his face had to be real but nonetheless it did the trick. Both the Kapoors actually pulled off some semblance of an on-screen chemistry with their last movie (a safe guesstimate) and it was quite fun to watch.
After the movie ended , I looped Mauja i Mauja and danced around like a loon. All in all, a good watch.
1.5 thumbs up!
- Location:livingroom
- Mood:
content - Music:JAG playing in the background
Just because American Gangster was shortlisted in the Oscars I went to watch the movie expecting a lot more than the movie delivered.
Denzel Washington was very fluid in all his emoting and was pretty much going through the motions of a dramatic role. Whereas Crowe was primarily the man to watch.
I think what really tampered with my enjoyment was that the film had been shoddily edited before showing it to the Indian audiences. There were choppy scenes and jumps from one part of the story to another. A biopic does have to do justice to the characters nonetheless the pace has to be kept in mind.
But since it starred 2 extremely competent actors, a lot of the "did-not-likes" got shelved.
Worth one watch but be warned it develops at it's own pace....
- Location:livingroom
- Mood:
amused - Music:what a feelin- Flashdance
My org provides transport to and fro (work-home, home-work) and we have the new chaps fill up the forms for availing transport. At the end of my interaction with them, a demure lady walks upto me and asks me where the office cab will pick her up. So me retorts saying that it will pick her up at the address provided by her.
On hearing this the lady looks troubled and says that she's given her mother's residential address but she actually lives with her husband. On seeing my less-than-cordial look she says that she felt it apt to give her permanent address ergo...I then broke my silence and asked her how far she lives from her mom's house. 25 kms! Pat came the reply.
She was still staring at me with a lost look on her face when I walked out of the room shaking my head about loonies in the system.
WHY? Honestly, why is common sense the most uncommon commodity around?
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
groggy - Music:breathykutti dawking on da fone
There're so many things out there that are so weirdly named...I love it!!!
No doubt this one caught my eye.
- Location:workstation
- Mood:
curious
I've read the story of the Zodiac killer before and I was quite curious to see how they would bring it to the screen.
Not entirely a documentary fashion but absorbing still.
Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr all bring to life the obsession that California had with the faceless man who seemed to be one step ahead of the police, the journalists...everyone.
If nothing else, the Zodiac killer definitely played head games with the powers that be of the state of California for a long time.
Watch it for Downey Jr's quirky portrayal of an old journo hand and Gyllenhaal's self-effacing cartoonist who puts his entire life at risk just to be able to make some sense of another man's madness.
- Location:livingroom
- Mood:
calm
And yes it does. A picture of happy childhood of Hannibal's unfolds without too much sugary mush. And the same way, the devastation of his world happens without too much gore and explicitness. I guess it helps that Harris himself wrote the screenplay for the movie version of his book.
Gaspard Ulliel, who plays the young Lecter is not always able to convey the quiet menace that Hannibal comes to be synonymous with.
I guess my main objection was the nice, pat way that Harris reduced Hannibal to psychological case and nothing more. It was a lot better when the audience did not know that Hannibal is a victim of tragic and traumatic circumstances himself, methinks.
But it's alright for a Saturday/Sunday afternoon watch.
But nothing beats the Silence of the Lambs!
- Location:livingroom
- Mood: groggy
ITHAAS GAVAAH HAI- Akbar was *not* a pretty boy. So Mr.Roshan of the quivering lips and lust-inducing torso is pretty much miscast.
Jodha Bai was a strong minded Rajput princess. She may or may not have flounced, but she certainly did not go the way of cleavage-shows the way Ms.Rai-Bachchan has...shunning all lachchha-lehangas galore!
But that apart, the movie was not horrendous. The sets were niceish. They went the whole hog with the daanth-muh tod dialogue prevalent in those days and war sequences have come a long way since Saat Hindustani. But this movie lacked something.
Rai&Roshan do have this chemistry thing going on right from Dhoom-2 but it doesn't translate into the likeliness of a king and his queen for this movie at all!
Hrithik glides into rooms as if he'll break out into his lachkila steps and Rai is bedecked with her kundans and whatnots.
I found it to be a so-so effort and kind of surprising that Gowariker would take up this topic and choose a woman who basically cannot emote.
I remember watching the video of a song I really like. It was from a movie with Rai and Vivek Oberoi. And our lady's wriggling throughout the song was indicative more of a snake having crawled up her leg than love having lent her wings. In JA also, in all the sword-fighting sequences she flounces as if she's wielding the dandiya with a sprained wrist.
The movie is not a complete write-off. There are engrossing scenes and Ila Arun in her in her Manthara-like avatar does pretty well. But all the other players hardly emerge from the backdrop and it remains upto Rai&Roshan to carry the movie through. Therein lies the trouble.
Had Jodha Bai been protrayed with the aan-baan-shaan of the Rajputs, it would have been different. All she does to show her Rajastani connections is wear her rakhdi and bows low and namastes.
There are unintentional funny parts to this movie as well. A traitor whom Akbar has thrown off a parapet hasn't died the first time around and the emperor has him brought back up and thrown down again. Talk about petulance and self-indulge!!
The best part while watching this film? The cute lil boy sitting behind me who suddenly started to yell out "aloo", "aloo", "aloo" for no reason at all!
Verdict -watch it once for the grandiose outfits, humongous pearls and jhing-jhank kundan and other jewellery. Yawn through it a few times. And then forget it. It's that simple.
- Location:bed
- Mood: sleepy
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fortunatecave- a monsoon-maddened jabberwockini
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