Sneak Peak

Sneak peak she says.

Yesterday, I was atop Bhongir Fort (for the dozenth time probably) and I got a feeling that it was someone's birthday. Couldn't remember though.

Today, logged onto twitter after days and saw Dooce's sneak peak image. http://twitpic.com/7f49x

It's her baby.

I've been following her blog for years, and the knowledge that her baby is finally born made my heart skip a little beat.

And it skips again now, thinking of how the internet has given me/us such a way. To sneak peak. At someone else's life, someone I'll never meet. A complete stranger. But not really.

And I crown you..... Princess Zora

Geez, I wanted to have more than 200 posts this year too. And its almost the end of May and our count is a pathetic 50. Sheesh. SHEESH.

Anyway, whats really inspiring this possible spate of blogposts is something I remembered in the middle of the day, a memory of a deeply imprinted and very beloved movie (actually movies) that we used to watch in the summer vacations many, many years ago.

The one single TV channel we had, at that time, had something called Disney Hour, at noon everyday, and for ages, as far as I remember, they screened the loveliest children's shows and movies - I clearly remember He-Man, Lauren and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, something I remember as 'telegames', and then series of movies - The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Beauty and the beast, and oh boy, some of these movies have been stuck somewhere in my head, and my mind in a vague way, all these years.

Mommy had recorded a couple of VHS cassettes and so, a few of these series were immortalized in our heads - watching them hundreds of times.

Today, I found - The Frog Prince. The whole goddamned movie is on YouTube! in 10 parts. Of course, I couldn't stop watching, and couldn't help the little hiccoughs of bliss and tears escape my throat at the appropriate parts. The songs! I sing them unconsciously sometimes! The characters and the dialogues and the tone and actions and dramatic gestures, all down to the way the Prince holds up the arm of Princess Zora when he walks her in, finally. The way she plays with her lucky golden ball, and well, oh boy, I could go on forever.

Yes, silly pieces from my childhood maybe, but excuse me now, while I call my sister and exclaim to her about what I found.

Er, how does this blogging business work?

Boy, its been a while. Can't remember the last time I had such a long break from ze blog. And I'm not sure what I'm about to say on zis post - but a few things have been taking my time and attention.

Working on the weekend - sort of turned the life a bit haywire, but in a nice way mostly - working on Saturday and Sunday is chill and lazy and slack, and then I get to take Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, which is a treat.

Moving apartments soon - moving in with some lovely friends, closer to office and far away from the noise and chaos of center Hyderabad.

Had a mini vacation last week. Gorgeous fun. Wonderful time. Trains and buses and jeeps and doggies and insects, and forests, and rivers and cameras and butterflies.

And well, something that's been on my mind for a while, and I've just not known how to say it - Anandha Ala - the wave of bliss has begun in Hyderabad. Inner Engineering programs across the city, back to back. I have a couple of links that I will share soon.

And that sums up this very tasteless blog update. Guess I need to have these fingers moving again. More often.

Global WARNING

Our gift to mother nature - global warming.

I've seen it all

Amazing amazing track. From a movie called Dancer in the Dark.

Bjork acts in the movie, and this song features Thom Yorke (from Radiohead.)

Couchsurfing! Day 1

Thanks to PS for his enthusiastic ranting about couchsurfing, I signed up a week ago and pretty much at once received my first request to host  - a Portuguese woman traveling in India for 2 months, and visiting Hyderabad, requested to be hosted for 2 nights.

With my flatmates away in Goa for the week, and the house to myself, how could I say no?

Filipa arrived Tuesday morning, and after a couple of hours of resting and talking and freshening up, I set her up and ready for a day of sight seeing. Armed with my trusty map of Hyderabad, a list of places to visit in the vicinity of the Charminar area, and vague but hopefully helpful instructions to survive in the city, I saw her board a local train heading to Nampally from Begumpet railway station and went back home to cater to my aching stomach and awaited the arrival of a friend visiting from Bombay. The Shammi himself.

I had some errands to run, and when I came back home, both my guests were home, sitting at the table, talking and chilling. I barged into the conversation - Filipa's day, some talk about yoga, and many, many travel stories.

Something that amused us a lot was Filipa's experience with the local folk. They would usually stop her and directly ask - where are you from?

When she said - Portugal, they'd just scratch their heads, and walk away, not knowing how to take the questioning further.

Some, however, would go on to ask 

- Are you married? 

- No.

- How old are you? 

and then exclaim that she should hurry and get married.

She experimented once - saying 

- Yes, I'm married. 

- Do you have children?

- No.

- Then why did you get married anyway?

No words.

While talkingnit started lightening and a fabulous thunderstorm began. The electricity went off. We sat on my 5th storey balcony, with the nice view, and looked over the sky, exclaiming and excited with the fierce cracks lighting up the sky and thundering down at us.

This went on for a bit, and then Filipa softly said that this was by far the most thunder and lightening she had ever seen in her life. 

It stopped in a couple of hours, and then we went out to dinner to my favourite take-my-guests-to restaurant - Angeethi. Filipa tried the risky jaljeera, and I picked us some great veg food. Shammi was trying to explain to Filipa who Amitabh Bachchan was, and translated the names of the many movie posters on the walls.

Roti, Kapda aur Makaan - food, clothing and shelter

Sharabi - Drunkard

Khoon Paseena - blood and sweat

and my favourite

Kaala Paththar - Black Stone.

Very filling dinner, and then Filipa exclaimed that the mouth freshener that most indian restaurants provide with the bill, saunf, is terrible. I added yes, it does taste like soap, and popped some in my mouth, while Filipa maintained the expression of how-can-you-eat-that-thing on her face. 

Then home and called it a night, with an agreement to laze in late the next morning, and the plan of action being limited to visiting the Hussain Sagar.

Peace

"When you do not know how to keep your body peaceful, when you do not know how to keep your mind peaceful, when you do not know how to keep your energies peaceful, world peace is just a joke."

_ Sadhguru

He conveys so easily something that is so strong, and will knock you on the head and make you wonder. 

Intimately Detached

holding hands

touching fingertips

tousling hair

letting be.

something intimate 

and special

natural

and free.

talking

telling

letting be.

rubbing noses

tickling toes

blowing kisses

saying bye

see you soon.

Half a dozen reasons

to celebrate:

1. My first ever couchsurfing guest is here. From Portugal. With a big yellow bag. 

2. It rained last night, the sky is pink and clean and fresh.. and it's a bit cool - I'm holding my breath and hoping it lasts.

3. I have two days off - today and tomorrow - I had worked the weekend, and my weekend is today.

4. I have a friend visiting from Bombay.

5. My big fat package from Lush is expected to arrive in 48 hours.

6. I have an earworm that I'm loving - Billy Joel's Piano Man, and I sing it very loudly. (which may or may not mean I sing it well.)

7. My flatmates are out of town, so we have the house to ourselves. 

Bonus reason to celebrate: My orange hair is looking fabulous now, I think. 

Definition: (wikipedia)

Earworm - is a term for a portion of a song or other musical material that repeats compulsively within one's mind, known colloquially as "music being stuck in one's head."

Yipes, they also say: Medications that are used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety can alleviate the symptoms of earworms.

Son can you play me a memory.. I'm not really sure how it goes...

but its sad and its sweet, and I knew it complete,

when I wore a young man's clothes...

Preview. Do View.

 

10

I'm not sure that I'm really going to finish doing this... I'm sleepy. We was tagged by the Shuunya man.

Have to do something like this.

1 is the number of DSLRs I have lost. Yes. 

2 is the number of times I've coloured my hair red. (= orange sometime later.)

3 is the number of coconut waters I would like to consume in a day. 

4 is the number of times I have been to the Isha Yoga Center.

5 is the number of apartments I've shifted to in Hyderabad.

6 is the number of blogs I write to. (write on, write for?)

7 is the number of songs I can play on the guitar.

8 is the number of children my baby sister said she wanted to have (when she was 6 years old).

9 is the number of  tattoos I would not want to have.

10 is the number of puppies my doggie had had. (Dobermen puppies. Beauties.)

Not tagging anyone, am horrid with them myself.

PS: I wanted to title this post Dix. Which means ten in french. However...

Pranav Shah

Meet Pranav Shah. The guy with the funny hair, as he is also known. Or used to be known. Sadly, the lovely tresses have been shed, and a funky short crop of curls now rest on his head.

The hair is legendary. (Legend says that one fellow on a cycle was so taken aback by the sight of Pranav on the street once, that he crashed into a tree and fell down.) (Pranav recollects laughing his heart out on that occasion.) (Pranav is funny, he will make you laugh.)

Anyway. I dunno why I'm writing this post actually. My new favourite hobby is making portrait photos (if I told you the details of what kind of portraits, you wont believe me and think its April fool's joke, so I'll leave it at that.) Does seem like I want to make written portraits too...

Pranav is co-founder of India Daily Photo with me (I still like to take 100% credit, but I'm feeling generous on Fool's day.)

Pranav was in the same college as me. And we became friends when he came to me with a detailed plan and suggested that we make a business of pirated DVDs. (Which we didn't, eventually, just for the record.)

Pranav is one person who I would imagine is capable of doing things that most people would find either impossible or ludicrous, or pointless, and he'd do it with style.

Pranav's enthusiasm and appetite for knowing things is extremely contagious. 

Ok, I'll end this essay here. Hi PS. 

(Photo courtesy a Googler from the bike ride to Sri Sailem. Yash?)

Happy Fool's Day!

I always fall in double in love with Google on April 1st. 

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/chrome/cadie/

Lush Lust

I've narrated this story before here, but I'm not tired of it yet. So...

I had spent three times more than I should have, shopping in SF when I was there in November 2008, and was telling myself, loudly, that that was enough. As I was saying this to myself, I passed this store that ... was just so beautiful. The lights... there was some fragrance in the air... candles... and something fabulously colourful and inviting on display. My feet navigated themselves into the store.

LUSH.

My romance with Lush products is still thriving. Some of the stuff I bought is still around and oh, so well worth all that money.

As we speak, a big fat package is being delivered to a friend who's going to bring it to India for me. Gifts from my cousin brother. Who I very unabashedly passed on my wishlist to. So, yes, I'm lusting for lush.

Just as a demo - I'm going to post examples of what I think is fabulous copywriting. Really after reading, I would buy the stuff just for how they describe it. Full marks for brilliance.

Too Drunk to . . .
is not its full name. Its inspiration was a song by the Dead Kennedys, but specifically the version by Nouvelle Vague played and sung in a groovy 60s giggly style by the cool French group with an extraordinary collection of percussion instruments. Anyway, back to the Emotibomb. This is for the day after you got too drunk It has essential oils of peppermint, marigold, fennel and reviving sweet orange to refresh you, wake you up gently, soothe a sore head and slowly bring you back to life. Just stick one in the shower, turn on the water and stand there - or sit if you can`t manage the vertical - getting drenched until it all feels a bit better. Of course, you don`t have to have a hangover to use one. (At Lush Times Towers, we don`t bother with hangovers. Too busy.) Shower with one of these when you`re already feeling okay and wow! It really gets you grooving.

American Cream
Double Strength Conditioning Cocktail American Cream was inspired by a vision of 1950s US milk bar, bright red-leather-and-chrome, neon-lit cafés where teenagers went to meet each other and drink frothy, fruity, thick, creamy milkshakes. Our fruity, creamy conditioner is what the girls would have used to make their hair soft and strokeable before going out on a date, all dressed up in their bobby socks and circular skirts. The scent of honey, vanilla, strawberries and oranges is so sexy and sweet that dates can’t stay away. If your hair gets a bit messed up, American Cream makes it easy to brush through and smooth out again.

Honey I washed The Kids The irresistible toffee and honey one. Once you've sniffed it, you've got to have it. On paper it's difficult to portray the full effect of this honeycomb toffee scented soap. Suffice to say that people who fully intended to walk past a Lush shop find themselves unable to resist its tempting, mouth-watering fragrance. They inhale and say 'Mmmmmm' then they exhale and say 'Ahhhhh' then they pick up a big chunk and join the queue for the till.

So yes, I was hanging around on the Lushindia website, and a little bit of fine print made my eyes pop out. Also opening at shortly at INORBIT Hyderabad. Isn't that the best news you've heard all day? Now excuse me, while I go away to jump up and down in excitement.

Harry Potter Friend - Story 1

I was sitting in a classroom. 'Bhatia's Classes.' This was before my 12th standard exams, I was amidst a group of people who were all aiming to top the university, go to the best colleges, score full marks, etc. They mostly didn't notice me. And I didn't fit right in with the chatter during breaks, and I used to look at the vast class around me and feel like an alien. Hopeless.

Until one day, I noticed that the alien next to me was casting similar hopeless glances to the other aliens. And I slowly looked at her, and felt a tug of hope in my heart.

Maybe just maybe....

I don't remember exactly what I said but I remember it to be like this:

- Do you read books?

- A bit surprised. Yes, I do!

- Have you read Harry Potter?

- Oh yes, I love them.

Her name is Pooja Shah. My first Potter buddy. From that day on, class was fun, and I didn't feel alien again. 

Silly I guess. 17 year old. Harry Potter criteria to make friends? Well, the friendships have stuck. Almost 6 years since.