The Choices We Have

I was watching a Hindi movie the other day “Chasme Badhur”, I think set in the 70’s. Life was so simple, not too much money, opulence or choices. That’s when I realized, the root of most of our problems these days—choices, we have too many choices. It wasn’t this way 2 decades ago, even when we were kids, I mean u had fewer choices, for example, when u had to buy a cycle, there were maybe 2 at the most 3 brands out there. But now, it's just numerous, as in the case of motorcycles, cars, refrigerators, u name it.

Maybe we ought to go back to dictatorships, where the way they had it was (this friend from an ex-communist country once told me), one day cycles would come into the market and you heard announcements, so people who wanted cycles ran out and got them. Similarly for some other luxury items in those days, for example, cheese (yes, can u believe it), she used to tell me when she was a kid, maybe in the early 70’s there was just one variety of cheese, butter and all that.

It's one of those days, where everything upsets you. The irritating person next to you on the bus, your inlaws (actually mine are rarely this way), the inability to find something u need in the stores, so on and so forth. I was supposed to pick up a costume for Mani's fancy dress competition the day after tmrw, and this other mother (we travel together from school) kept badgering me as to y i wudn't rent a costume from the place she suggested (which is also from where half the other mothers are renting costumes). Plssssssssssss is there contractual agreement, "it is illegal to rent/buy costumes/accessories/etc from any place, other than the one suggested by Mrs. ...." I thought this was a democracy. Anyway,, I was running late for picking up the costume and then i get a call from home, the pest control guys r there and I am required immediately. some days, I tell you. I rein in the initial volley of abuses bursting to come out of my mouth and inform in laws that I am on my way and will b home ASAP. The oppressive heat plus me tugging along 2 oversized bags (mine gym and Mani's school) , a screaming a kicking Mani , walk into a stuffy shop (under construction with cement and debris flying around).

I come home with the elephant costume (Mani wudnt settle for anythin else), and got the pest control done. The costume I realized after coming home, was so worn out and dirty, Mani wud require a tetanus shot before even getting into it. Anyway, several attempts to scrub the dirt off the once-white-and-now-mud-colored tusks, were in vain. My spirits sank even lower.
I realised my mood swings must be thanx to PMS.

I ran over a zillion options (all very cumbersome) on how to whiten the tusks in my mind, when i chanced upon my neighbour, who very casually mentioned that I should use white shoe polish over it, and even better, she would lend it 2 me.

the whitewashed tusks looked gr8. and i also applied a deep maroon nail polish i bought today and everything looked fabulous. to top it all i dug out a CD with episodes of Sex and the City that i had never seen.

sometimes in this world, there is poetic justice.!!!!

On Your Mark, Getset, Go!

I was watching the news today and saw the momentous launch of Chandrayaan -1, India’s maiden PSLV to the moon. The papers were full of it — detailed illustrated stages of the PSLV launch, interviews with anyone is remotely connected (even retired persons) to ISRO, chronological list of all of India’s satellite launches up to date and the usual hullabaloo. The only dampeners in the whole process was Raj Thackeray’s untimely arrest, which of course took first page top spread coverage and India’s (again historic since it is very very verrrrrrrrry rare) win over Australia in the test series – we are after all Indians, and politics and cricket will any day precede any kind of scientific progress- be it even a cure for AIDS.

Back to what I was saying, watching the morning news, I was feeding my son (it's usually cartoons, but guess my son is growing up as well). The channel had a live coverage of all the scientists involved in the launch wearing coats labeled PSLV, and looking very austerely at laptops, there must have been at least 20-30 in a row and all of them the same. The scene was straight out of a Hollywood Harrison Ford political thriller, where he is the President or ex-military personnel, single-handedly fighting some sinister terrorist plot to destroy the world (its always the world and never just the US, but we always end up getting an American to save our lives- wonder Y) and all dignitaries sitting around laptops in the White House, strategizing to get him out alive. I am digressing again, anyway, most of these Indian scientists had no clue what they were supposed to be doing, I guess all these guys just have to monitor the readings, since they possibly can’t be doing anything crucial at that stage of the launch (which brings me back to the point, all Americans are so full of themselves, they act so self important at such times), Indians are not such good actors, they can’t really make-believe to be doing something important when they actually are not.

One guy, even had a paper open out in front of the laptop and was reading it ;) Finally after successfully launching it into its orbit, the scientists were all blank — unfortunately one of the live cameras were focusing on them. This senior officer suddenly reacts, like he got a shot in the arm or remembered this very same scene from a CNN telecast or something, and started clapping his hands. All the others followed suit, but not before blankly staring at him for a minute at first and looking around vaguely at one another. This guy then goes one step ahead and shakes everyone’s hand and hugs others around him (this is so not Indian style, especially not expected from someone of his caliber) I am not saying it's bad, it's just not our style, and it all looked so contrived.

Finally they were all exulting and hugging each other (again very Hollywood style), but this one senior person, who was also sitting in front of a laptop, just got up from his seat and removed the stuffy PSLV labeled coat, put it on the chair and walked off. It was hilarious, like the end of a drama, his face almost said “the charade is over, can we please go home now.” That was the only really Indian thing about the whole affair – it reaffirmed my whole faith in our countrymen —Mera Bharat Mahaan!!!

Rocking On!!!

It’s been a while since I saw a movie completely without getting bored even once. Add to this some very catchy (although with nonsensical lyrics) music. Rock On takes off from where Dil Chahtaa Hai left, the next cool buddy movie. As all reviews mentioned, the camaraderie among the 4 leads – Farhaan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab Kholi – is very believable. Watching their banter, conversation and fights reminds me of what Anurag Kashyap said in a session he had taken for us at my office – to catch the actual nuances of a natural conversation, he used to place a tape recorder in the midst of a conversation he and his friends would be having. He would go through it later and build his own scenario for a movie, to make it more realistic. Well, the conversations are exactly that - realistic.

The real find among all this, like all have been saying, is Sahana Goswami, finally an actress who can act, and well. Sahana, of course, may not be your regular glamour girl, but fits the role to a T. Arjun Rampal was the next best fit, his brooding, understated, restrainted presentation of Joe, is a perfect foil for Sahana’s character. This role is tailor made for Arjun, he has finally arrived. And man is he a dishy rockstar.

Very few people who direct can actually act, and Farhaan is an exception to that rule. Purab said in one of his interviews that Farhaan would just come on to the sets and become Aditya Shroff, not acting, just becoming. This is evident in the movie. Prachi Desai also does justice to character, laying to rest any doubts on her acting ability while transitioning from TV to silver screen.

Purab and Luke Kenny are also appropriately cast. The one thing that I couldn’t identify with is farhaan’s characters getting all morose about not fulfilling his dream. Come on, this is India, we all dream about being successful, have a gr8 house, car and all that money can buy. That is exactly what aditya shroff ends up with and he is still dejected!!! Too much Hollywood hangeover with the follow your dream.

Otherwise movie is a good time pass, not cult status but good fun.

Jaane Thu... I don't want to know!!!

After reading the numerous rave reviews about Jaane Thu Ya Jane Naah (the new Imran Khan movie) and friends at gym telling me about it (more ill effects of gyming- u make weird friends) we finally decided to go for it on Fridaynite, with bag, baggage, Mani and all. The paper said it was a 10:30 pm show, but the movie started at 11 pm while both of us could hardly keep our eyes open. I should have taken that as the first hint and just left. No, but the masala vada pav, the ice creams and various goodies at the theater tempted me to stay on.

To begin with, I wish Amir Khan had hired the marketing team to do the direction/screenplay as well, they would hav had a better opening at least. With the promos being so attractive, the movie began in a very regular way. I has the same old Dil chahta Hai style of movie narration, all in flashback. Unfortunately, Jaane thu, cannot hold a candle to DCH, I mean DCH was a masterpiece in itself, and Jaane thu falls flat on its face attempting to be another coming of age movie.

For starters, which two best friends keep hugging and kissing and holding hands with each other, through out college. I have best friends, both boys and girls, and I nkow of many others who also have best friends from the opposite sex, no physical demonstrations with such tenacity. All the friends hamming their way, with contrived, trying-to-appear-cool conversations intersperced with lots of supposidly college slang, the only saving grace being Jignesh, who did a gujju accent very well.

Imran Khan for one, needs to learn to keep a straight face. He keeps making these face, u wud think he had a tick or something, of course he is cute, but he knows that and thats the problem. Ginelia is a real find, and bollywood shouldnt lose her again to the south. Here is one girl totally comfortable in her skin (of course it helps to have a figure like that) and one of the few heroines who can carry of a perm/curl hairstyle throughout the movie. She is refreshingly different, very young (although I suspect she is not as young as her character, she has been round for donkey's years), perfect except for the foreign twang in her accent, not sure if its natural or put on. She also at times has this lazy manner of dialogue delivery, which just adds to the beauty.

The songs r nothing great to take home, except mayb "Pappu can't dance" and that too only hummable. I think Rahman is losing his touch.

And the climax sequence just goes to prove we r indians after all. I mean movies like this make u cherish movies like DCH all the more. Gimme Farhaan Akhtar any time, which reminds me, Rock On is one movie u guys shudn't miss. Now that has a bunch of REALLY COOL DUDES.

The Harmful Effects of Gyming

Did I mention I hit the gym after dropping Mani off at school? Well, I do. Its been 3 weeks now, and I eat to make up for all the calorie loss - how else can I stay in shape, the shape that all my friends remember me by!!! Anyway, I meet people (I would have said 'interesting' if they were) at the gym as well, mostly doctors. Goes to show the only health conscious persons are the ones who know the body better.

There is this over-friendly anesthetist in particular. I remember the first day I was on the treadmill, she was on the one next to it, and she started her introduced herself with the usual "u look very familiar" type of lines. And then having kids in the same school became a common ground for extended conversation, other topics included weight loss (both of us being extremely overwt). We exchanged numbers and the usual. This went of for 2 weeks before the reason for this friendliness came out. She wanted to take me along for a seminar on skin care. she being a doctor, also in a family of doctors, I found nothing unusual about it.

She also invited herself home, after my umpteen attempts at dissuading her failed. I kept my fingers crossed, praying that she wouldn't turn out to be one of that maniacs that appears normal, invites herself home, and then kills everyone and escapes with the loot - not that anyone every tries one of these worst unplanned robberies anymore, or that there was no great "loot" at home to entice them. She called me up again after gym and reconfirmed the time, 4:00 pm, "and I will get my dentist friend along" - Great an accomplice. I called up Ajit and told him about it, and he seemed hardly perturbed. "I bet she wants to sell you some product." Sheesh!!! and then it dawned upon me, I was blinded by all these stupid negative possibilities, that I actually forgot to even consider the one most likely possibility - she wanted to dump some extremely expensive cosmetics on me. And worst of all, while I had spent all my energy preparing myself for the worst, I dint think of a good enough excuse to put her off.

Finally, he came alone, at 4:15 and apologized for being late and then proceeded to gimme a demo of her products. while all along, my knight in shining armour - mani- was being extremely ungracious, in that, he was throwing things around, asking her to leave (thankfully in Malayalam) and dropping water all over the place. For once, I didn’t try to control him, and was relieved for having an ill mannered child; he drove such unwanted elements off.


Her demo dint make much of a difference, the only way I wud have such ostentatiously priced products on my face. Although she kept saying that I was glowing and looked like I had a facial. She had wanted to wait for her friend for a little longer, my son, however, was too much for her to handle. I promised to tell my friends about it and feeling bad, ordered a lipstick and nail polish, the only affordable items and for which she dint have samples.

After she left, I gave Mani a hug kiss and treated him to ice cream.

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

I think I spoke too soon, in my last entry when I said Mani had coped with school. Apparently, he hasn't. Mumbai has been facing an onslaught of torrential rains for the past few days, nights cold, days wet and damp, just want to curl up in bed and snooze. So who can blame the kids.

So Monday morning, I had to literally drag Mani off bed, dad gave him a bath and dressed him up. But poor me gets saddled with the tough part, actually dropping him off to school. As we arrive at his classroom, I presume he will get off me (like he used to) take his bag and bottle and walk into class with a sullen face. But no, he howls and screams for milk in front of the classroom. I turn away from the door, red-faced to see another mom, in a similar delimma, it's mean, but I sighed with relief - atleast Mani was not the only kid throwing tantrums.

An hour and half later, a happy (touchwood) beaming Mani, comes bounding, bag, bottle and all, into my arms. And he already seemed like an acheiver.

Of course, today (Tuesday) was only relatively better, with him whinning all along the stairs and very very relunctantly taking the bag and bottle while entering class.

Guess, this is the way its going to be, come rain, winter, colds and all those troublesome worries. Do we have a choice?