Update on Myanmar crisis

There has been severe condemnation re Myanmar and wot is happening out there. A Japanese fotugrapher was shot dead point blank. The streets have been empty but the monks are not giving up....

Read an article about the military junta's most powerful figure, Than Shwe. You can read more here

Myanmar in pictures

Follow up on Myanmar crisis

I still can't fathom why I am suddenly interested in Myanmar and wot's happening out there. Its happening across the world..(shrug of shoulders)

People have been really kind to me and have sent me a couple of articles more on Myanmar. Good analysis of the situation there but impractical solutions. I was talking abt this to someone - I don't see Dubya invading Myanmar to help out the people there inspite of the fact that the junta ruling Burma r among the worst in the world.

How will these people face their God?

U can read here n more here on Myanmar.

Myanmar, protests and their meaning in our lives

Myanmar - Burma of old- is witnessing something that sounds v exciting to me. I don't think it is exciting for the people there but they must be feeling hope. Hope for the 1st time that they might become free of the military junta that has been ruling them since a very long time. I don't know why I have been trying to track the Myanmar story but it feels like a country is coming to life again and experiencing hope and those faint stirrings of freedom.

It started with the rise of fuel prices and has in my eyes turned into something else. You should read more here

Crikait and religion

I saw the match like any other self-respecting cricket Indian crikait fan did! At the end of the match the Pakistani captain comes along and apologises to the Muslims of the world!! I was like whoaa..kyaa bakwaas kar raha hai! That is such a stupeed thing to say considering the fact that Irfan Pathan, a Muslim bowler n batsman delivered for the Indians which eventually got him the Man of the Match award! Terribly dumb in my opinion to mix religion and sports. Not that that hasn't happened before. Falklands War - Argentina and England is a prime eg of this.

Re Shoaib Malik's 'loverly' comment, you can read more here

My weekend

My weekend started on Friday, seems to be the trend these days. :) Went to Kandivali (jesus christ wot a trek that was!) Anyways workwise we had a stall at Thakur College so went there and did stall duty. Studied some GRE and since it took forever, finished like a chapter in Math. So not bad! Anyways, did thing there and then K came along in the latter half of the day. He fought thru an army of 17 yr olds to get me kapi and I thought tht was v svit of him :) Anyways, finished up and then we were deciding wot to do..ie. Spikey, moi n K. Decided to catch a flick and eat some khana. So dinner actually was had at 7.00 pm and you can read more abt dinner here.K told us some exciting stories abt his Dad n him which resulted in us laffing like idiots standing at the ground floor of Raghuleela so much so that I caught a couple of women staring at us open-mouthed :O

Spikey n me saw Manorama Six Feet Under – a more peculiar title I haven't heard in a while. Fab movie. Excellent acting and to top it all it was in Hindi! Abhay Deol gave a stellar performance as SV, the failed writer. But the direction n cinematography took the cake. Kyaa shots the usme – bhai wah kehne ke sivai aur kuch bol hi naheen sakte. Its a must watch and worth the 140 bucks we paid @ Fame. We changed seats after that to the 160 ones and Spikey had existential issues with this! :D

Watched the match Sat nite and omg wot an awesome match eet was! I would go as far as to say that after a long time we r playng like this and consistently at tht! Sreesanth rocked ass- he is a bit crazee in the head as my sistah said. Wot with all the hitting the pitch and yelling abuse at the batsmen! Yuvi of course was superlative. Something I kept sayg the whole nite thru is why the heck do we need those 3 buddhaos if as a team we r dng so well! There will of course be detractors to this but my point of view holds!

Sunday didn't dawn brite n early- hallelujah! :D Did brekkie and cheeled out. Wiped the gas (DD thing done for the week). Raat ko went to see Bourne Ultimatum at Imax with Spikey and K. I am touched they made the effort to come all the way from Kandivali :) Loved it. Action filled and total paisa vasool. Matt Damon rocks ass like seriously! Return to dinner @ Chembur was existential convo abt cinema's charm n rating cinema to the pt of ruining it! I think the taxi driver was screaming in his head – yeh mein kahan aa gaya hoon! Dinner, dropped them till Bandra and came home to see a magnificent movie called Aashiq Banaya Aapne.

Bejesus and other gods shd rescue me. My tolerance for trash is unbelievable. I mean bad bad bad bad...HR singing (mein mar kyon naheeen gayee!!) My sistah reckons scenes were cut. I am like who the heck wld cut wot from this movie. She said kissing scene. Aha went my head – it was on Sony or something. Tanushree Dutta is terrible – and I don't think that has changed since then. Emraan Hashmi keeps aping different ppl all the time. Sonu Sood has a deep voice n nothing else!

Anyways slept and dreamt abt flying buffaloes. Don't ask me why but just did :) I love crazee dreams. Imagination runs so high then its unbelievable. Another week has started ......

Randomness

Cityscapes drenched in green. Horizon tinged with white n grey. Aeroplane zooms over my head. Waiting for a bus. Journeys begun. Love lost. Hurt felt. Friendships staying strong thru the yrs. Parties, drunkenness, sex, no drugs. Tobacco, wine – white not red. Food – Italian, Indian, Marwari. Not liking Kerala type khana. The joy of cooking. Coffee n sex- both good fr system. Withdrawal systems experienced when both unavailable. Work – boring, interesting, maddening, awful. Family going round n round in circles meant never to be started. Want, ambition, desire. Europe, the States, Australia, NZ -destinations. Immigration never belonging and knowing roots lie elsewhere. Indianness how quaint!

Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, movies, music. Shit good n bad all kinds experienced. Walking down the streets of Amsterdam after a tattoo and knowing that life has changed because one has a tattoo. The feeling never goes away. For months afterward staring at my lower back and still be gobsmacked! Ganapati, classic rock – times have changed. Grandparents loved n lost. 26 yrs of life gone.

Blue pink black red green. Colours. Read a wonderful line today. It came from a Tibetan poet. 'In your alley of maddening multitudes, I will be one more speck of colour.' Found a wondrous site - http://www.graphicpoetry.net/archive.html and it touched me. Loved a particular line from there – I used to live in colour. Until u came into my world. Now I see only black n white and all the shades of grey in between. Colours – I have been seeing butterflies of different colours fluttering abt – green, black, red! Bootiful sight – I even saw a yellow bird today. Item wld have identified it immediately. Someone I knw for yrs is apparently a very good tree spotter. Wot kind of spotter am I? Photographs Think composition and think wot a nice photograph...

Cricket, football. St James Park – being someone else at times. Not being true to yurself. Giving implicit power to someone to hurt u.Remembering that good times do exist. Trying for tht new boy and tryg to set up friends who both make impolite noises @ u. Melancholy. Books. Smell of paper, smell of xerox, Bumbai's distinctive ammoniac smell. Being South Indian, being cosmpolitan. Being yourself at the cost of family. Being selfish. Being patriotic. Reminds me of tht intense discussion @ CCD.

CCD, Barista, Starbucks, Reliance – corporate giants without conscience. Charity purposeless.Big B donates 51 lakhs to Tirupati. God doesn't need it dude! People do. God being benevolent. Nature's fury 26/7. Man's fury. 9/11. Clash of the civilizations. Clash of cultures. Ancient Indian Culture. I studied that for the best 3 yrs of my life. College, youth, lifetime ago.

Memories – wot we do with them. Wot we remember wot we forget. New memories waiting to be made depending on life choices. Living life by the choices we make. Having existential crises. Giving up the crises n because we r at heart selfish & getting drunk. Waiting for that phone call. Singing music out loud. Singing together with yur mom thru a bathroom door when u've just had a fite.

Meaningless random thoughts. A Word doc to be filled up with words. Spat out here. Waiting for oblivion.

It is not cynicism to find a special beauty in what hasn't yet come to pass.

BMW's n food

Me n Spikey went last to check out the BMW exhibition. Andy Warhol n Roy Lichtenstein have painted a couple of BMW's and they r on display at Jahangir till the 16th. So I decided tht I would go yest and knew if tht if I didn't go then I would never go. So went, and it was theek. Nothing spectacular but theek. Think the lighting was all wrong for that place and the full fundooness of the cars could not be appreciated. Some of the dinkys were way better with one having this on the dinky. She of course was in black n white on tht dinky.


Anyways, we wandered arnd another gallery where we stared at random things n left there soon. Dragged Spikey to Gateway to which he hasn't been to since as a child. He loved it of course! Since I love expounding on town, I did :) The Taj looked ethereal in the nitelite. Phir hum gaye food safari par. That u can to b reading here

Nice day eet was :D

Homage to my green shoes

I loveeee eeeet!! :D

9/11

6 years on, I don't think we have learnt any lessons!

Body Shop founder passes away

I am a big Body Shop fan. Their beauty products cruelty- free which basically means no animals r used. I b tres triste abt this. Anita Roddick was a wonderful person who propagated what Body Shop stood for. I remember reading an article once abt her - she went underground as a homeless person to see wot kind of life it was - they did a docu abt tht - it takes great guts to do something like tht. U can read more here

Scary times in Mumbai

I took permission from a friend before I posted this. To me, Mumbai has always been an extremely safe city. I have never felt threatened, scared of the fact that I am walking the street at 1.00 am in the morng or travelling a rick at random time alone in the nite. Then said friend sent me this. Please read - u can write it off as an one-off or be careful or wotver u choose to do. But it makes me angry tht my city has fallen prey to the Dilli syndrome. (No offence to Dilliwalas)

Said friend was alone with a gurl (who was driving) in car and got chased not by the cops but by random goons. Lucky escape did happen but if things had gone wrong, for sure, the friend would have not written this out here

The account reads like a film story and also because the places mentioned are familiar haunts. Read n don't fall hostage to the fear.

Foood Safari has begun

I have also started blogging @ Food Safari. Food Safari was started as a project a long time back and I sincerely hope it takes off :) I think its a stupendous idea to cover as many places as possible between a diverse range of ppl. As eet ees hardly any good reviews of places exist except for Sigfood

GO SEE :D

My weekend

Started Fri nite with S n T. Went out fr a couple of drinks and literally for me it was like tht. Got done with tht and next morning after much existential angst, managed to catch a 10.30 show of Ratatouille. Was fabbbbulooous. Loved the theme behind it and yenjoyed myself v v much like tht. For a 10.30 show the theatre had abt 20 seats left. Very nice graphics and very nice storyline too- perspective etal....

Did shoppin with Dee aftr tht- we bought the same pair of shoes- loverly green n beige they r! So kicked abt them!! Of course me and she bought similar tees as well :D Its v weird coz I was on this green trip yest and she told me (so weird tht I didn't knw this) tht she has this weird fixation fr olive green much like my blue fixation when I go shopping. I have known her for 10 yrs and didn't knw this abt her!

Anyways, we maxed Max out (as Mahmah said) then went fr lunch to Nandos. Purportedly African cuisine- bleh. For a one time experience it is ok but am not gng back there again for sure. It was like gng to TGIF the first time (in town) and getting chappatis instead of tortillas. So the ingredients r right but the style of cooking is still Indian. Tht sucks especially when u r paying good money for your food. Anyways, peri peri cuisine made Indian style is horrible.

Left and did more shopping. Dee bought a hat and we have come to the profound conclusion tht she is a hat person (checks out hats everywhere she goes)! So done with shopping homeward bound at 6 pm. Very nice eet was. Home at nite (wowwweee n on a Sat nite!) and then next morning dawned brite n early in my house.

Ordered pizza (Valentino's Delite) from Garcia's. V nice eet was- loved the sundried tomatoes bit -yumyum.. Dad made pulao and of course tried with with tomato pachidi (v nice eet was too). Slept 15 mins after luncheon and then went onto I-Rock happening at the Andheri grounds. It sucked- nothing more to say :( I wish I had seen I-Rock in its heydays when it was unsponsored and meant unadulterated rock instead of the corporate shebang it has become. I understand why FW sold out to some extent but feel its just crappy rt now.

Anyways, crowd was all under 21 and tht of course made us feel like dinosaurs. Everyone smoked and smoked up as well. There were a few mohawks around. Everyone gushed at PDV. They have celeb status amongst the crowd – their kind of music personally doesn't appeal to me but wotver. Chiks and guys all over these guys – 'excuse me, one pic pls'. The guys smiled politely and did duty. :) T took a fotu of the bassist's tattoos without realising who eet was :)

The Dinosaurs of Rock disappointed. FW – decent. Gary Lawyer was good. The chik Shazneen was terrible. She tried v v v v v hard but didn't make grade. The highlite for me – Zephretta live by Dem Clones. Was soo happpppppppppppy abt tht. A actually called up so he cd listen to them sing the song. Reminded me of the time Chris called me frm Holland to get me to listen to my fave Welsh band – Stereophonics. And of course how I missed tht call to my everlasting regret!

Ate tht bhurjee Haris keeps talking abt n pav bhaji at this roadside place near Amar Juice Centre, Irla. I loveeed it and tht Egg Tawa Pulao was to die for esp the aftertaste which we kept talking abt. My stomach didn't unfortunately agree and tis the end of my never begun love affair with tht place :(

Ek pyaali

Ek pyaali chai ki
Kaafi naheen hoti
Do pee lete hain

Ek pyaali zindagi ki
Kaafi naheen hoti
Do pee lete hain

Par yeh shayad zyaada ho jata
Is liye aaadhi aadhi jee lete hain

-- Moi with last line credits to Baghdadi

Hyderabad

Back from my weekend at Hyderabad. Insane city eet ees :) Malls abound, greenery, Hindi speaking Gulti junta and of course Asia's largest Reebok store! Yes, I kid u not...I saw this- 3 fucking floors of Reebok in Hyd and a couple of brands I haven't seen even in Mumbai - some fancy ass name like Lladro n another tht escapes the mind rt now! Fucking, there is even a Wedding Mall (which I didn't tell my Mom abt - surprise surprise) and a Sari Mall too!! Wot the heck is the world coming to!

Traffic tht could rival Bumbai's soon is there too. Construction - not too mindlesss but don't knw how long the city is gng to last if it keeps at it like that. Loved the rickshaws there- yellow in colour but so bootifully painted at the back nice it was. Hopefully my fotus will come out so junta can c wot I am talking abt. Slite mishap with camera where roll has rolled back :( so am praying to gods tht I don't lose fotus...

Had a nice 3 days there..drank so much on 1st day (by my standards) and was out by 3 am. P, C, S finished up at 6 am I was informed the next day. :D I feeel so oldddddddddddd! :( Anyways, next day wanted to go see places but P was hesitant given the blasts had occured a week back. So we grabbed a rick and he was nice fellow - we made him our tourist rickshaw. :D He took us to Charminar n then to Hussain Sagar (totallly loved tht place and remembered Murty's Hussain Sagar story of course) The Buddha there looked like he was dng a Heil Hitler (no offence to Buddhists n other secular junta out there)

So every time I saw something I made rick man stop..P didn't even bother and took fotu frm inside rick. Rick man must have been like insane Mumbai types hai..Spending time with P was amazing..she is one of my closest friends frm college- a yr younger but batty as hell and Maths major and Acturial Sciences and all tht jazz and looking at her of course no one is ever gng to think tht. Wondrous it was to spend quality time with her. Love u P :)

That done, went back home and then met Item and R in evening. R is one of those ppl I wish I had met earlier in my life. She is gng away to study and well u knw how eet ees..U meet someone and u think wtf man..why didn't u knw this person earlier coz yur life wd have been richer for sure fr knowing tht person but am glad I met her! V funny she is and v sarcastic too (Everyone knws how 'unsarcastic' I am!)

Seeing Item was loads of phun. She is phundoo and v v funny (unintentionally of course) Next time, we do the vishesh tipni thing tht u desperately wanted to do :P Oh yes U can find Item here btw and also here. She is all over the place isn't she?? :P

Anyways, luncheon over and S departed leaving us chiks to go to Shilpagram. Much like Dilli Haat eet ees. Bought pretty green sari fr Momma and a ganapati statue tht spoke to me :) Flites got delayed so entry back wasn't as smooth as going away was. Got back pooped and was an effort to get up next morning. But tis done and now I am dreaming abt Goa where Cutlet will cook fr me and daru awaits :)