A room-mate in engineering college disclosed path-breaking secrets of ‘how to make a small nightie’ complete with drawings in the air. Another wondered aloud ‘who controls the air’ after a feeble request to reduce the fan speed. In MBA we progressed and my room-mate woke up in the middle of the night to make me promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone. I promptly gave my word assuming some secret is coming up. Of course she went back to sleep and didn’t remember a thing the next morning.

My family is no less – my uncle played Carrom in his sleep, my studious cousins searched an unwitting relative to see if he had their books hidden on his person  and practised reciting 1 to 10 though they were well into High School. My niece doesn’t initiate conversations but answers in earnest if you were to ask her something. Like – “Did you complete the homework?”, “Not really, there is this small thing I have to do tomorrow morning”. Next day you ask her about the small thing, she wonders how you came to know about it. Sweet!

Last but not the least is my partner-in-crime, already famous for his ‘tishtushness’. Why, only last week he declared (10 minutes after he fell asleep) that if I want to know how much money is left after his EMI is paid, I was welcome to see his bank statement. I guess he woke up mid-way through his speech, so he goes…

“I know you think I am talking in my sleep”,
“ You are not?”
“You should have asked for my net-banking login and password”,
“Seriously?”,
“zzz…”
“Well, then!”

Selvaraghavan’s ‘Mayakkam Enna’ is the story of a wannabe photographer and his journey to become a recognized one. Its also his love story – a rather realistic one with all the flaws and absurdities seldom shown on screen. The point is that there is a story and better, a strong female protagonist played by Richa Gangopadhyay. In the first half she mostly looks grim and sounds stern (the director’s idea of a mature woman I suppose) but that itself is so uncommon that she has our interest there. Just when we wonder if she can emote at all, the story takes a turn and she transforms into the ‘Iron Lady’ as the male protagonist (played by Dhanush) describes her in the climax. Especially in one scene where her endurance is tested beyond limits and she fights to control her rage and sorrow, she more than makes up for all the stone-faced scenes in the rest of the movie. Good find! Looking forward to see her in ‘Osthe’ – the Dabangg remake releasing today.

Back to ‘Mayakkam enna’, Dhanush of course has done a good job as the hopeful, then devastated, then cruel, then guilty, then.. oh never mind, basically he can handle all the shades of his character. Then again he has been looking like this, acting like this for some time now; so there is no surprise. The other characters barely make a mark, perhaps intentionally so. My biggest disappointment is actually the camera and photography, especially since its at the heart of the story. I expected it to be breath-taking, but its not quite there. Richa’s character also may seem out of sync the moment she takes a disastrous marriage lying down, quite unlikely for someone who comes across as so pragmatic. There is no fun, and the movie takes its own time to stroll by. Yet, Mayakkam Enna is definitely worth watching and in big screen please!

Even some theme blogs have gone into a limbo but in my case at least, I have been able to write about books in the other blog more easily, than about myself or on random topics, which I usually do here.

Considering that, I am thinking of a couple of themes for this blog as well. Hopefully that will help me write and also drill some good sense into me in the process – (like the book blog drives me to read, perhaps…). I do already have a traveller section, an amateur artist one and a (barely there) supposedly responsible citizen one. I could easily add health watch, money management, alternate careers and a whole lot more which are important to me right now.

I just need to pick the one or two that renders itself to some writing about and is of interest to the occasional passer-by. And in case the universal writer’s block lifts and we all find stuff to tell each other, may be the usual will be there too. Hope this turns out to be a prelude to better and more frequent writing in this blog! And I won’t feel like I have lost my best friend…

However the real fear (at least for me) is that you have to live another day – if you are alive – you have to eat, feed, clothe, protect and therefore earn and therefore work and therefore NOT do as you mighty well please. In all probability you will live another 30 years and work till you are too worn out to do anything else. What a bummer man!

p.s. if you were looking for annoying self-help tips you may have to try later, perhaps!

Now when I take the local everyday I wonder what has become of them. That generation must now be in their 40s, and if I were to offer them a chance to be young again now – to go back to college now, I am pretty sure they will turn it down. Because now there is ipod and radio in mobile phones, and entertainment is pretty much a private experience… to each his / her own. The only folks to sing in the train are those who seek alms from passengers.

But thinking back, won’t they miss the times when school kids looked up to them in admiration and the girls pretended not to listen to them? May be they couldn’t have made it to Indian Idol auditions. But their singing was much beyond technique or being some kind of a musical genius. It was about making the journey enjoyable for themselves and their co-passengers, even if it was only for a short while. Since I am wishing those days would come back, knowing pretty well they won’t, I guess I can safely call them ‘good old days’. And feel somewhat old and sad. Sigh!

Though we have been married for nearly 3 years now, this wedding has made a real difference, to him and therefore to me. Guess it must have been weighing on him that his family was not a part of ‘our’ life, however much fun it was. Have not been in that position, so can’t really say. There seems to have been one part of him that held back all these days and is free now. Good for him.

Ironically it’s my turn to feel bound by many things that I happily believed to be free from. Say, in-laws; or the need to learn their language, customs, whatever. It doesn’t bother me so much because they are nice to me, I do like languages and I was once in a small-town set-up following a million customs myself. Besides this is probably a more practical way of living; in the long run it may help me become more responsible, capable of running a house, bringing up children and all that. But, but, somewhere in the last decade or so I became this nomad with no strong beliefs or attachments. I lived by one rule – mine – ‘I will do as I please’. I didn’t have to check with anyone on my eating, sleeping, dressing habits. Of course, then one complained about being lonely and uncared for. Little did I know I will miss THAT! Sigh! Grass -Other Side -Right? So…

There was this adorable kid at the wedding. Whenever an adult told him something, he would say, “ok-ok”. I tend to agree.

My grandfather walking through the house wrapped in his shawl, his handwriting which is the most beautiful I have ever seen, my mother sitting on the stone steps and watching me play swing, my cousins and neighbours in a game of hide-and-seek, my uncles and aunts indulging in friendly banter, the treasure trove of books, the proverbs and religious hymns we were made to memorize and write. All of them lost and long gone, or so I thought till I stepped into the house again.

I don’t know if I imagined it, but this time I could feel more than what I have usually experienced in that place. I was moved beyond words for some reason. May be mostly out of fear that it could be years before I visit again. May be by then this house will be gone too, taking with it all these memories. It may be the same land, but it won’t have the faded paintings and the very high ceiling and the rusty old fan that still runs there. It won’t have the corridors where children run around endlessly till they are ordered in for a meal or a nap. It won’t be the place mother showed us first and said ‘this is home’. Sigh!

I would take pictures of my selection and put them up, but they are all sitting with different tailors right now for putting tassels like in pic below:

(image courtesy: mahaskills.blogspot.com)

I can put up one though since it features in the shop’s ad. This is my most favourite of the lot. Something I bought for no occasion in particular. I love the not-so-common design and the time-tested red-brown-gold combination. LOVE.

(image courtesy: stillsindia.com)

Have described the others below; hope to wear them well and put up pictures once I do (which will be in March btw)

reception sari: in what we call onion pink colour, Banaras silk with large gold floral patterns all over. husband’s choice..
wedding day sari#1: white designer sari with gold border. mother-in-law’s choice..
wds#2: white with small orange flowers. cotton, simple, pretty..
wds#3: traditional silk in maroon, gold border with small stonework. all south indian women have one..
wds#4 & 5: silk again; mehendi green with maroon border and dark brown with golden border – i don’t remember more cos its with my in-laws to be given to me on the wedding day..
wds#6: Silk in pale pink with light violet border. I have plans to make one of the blouses fitted with puffed sleeves – the retro style. something like this. This sari is a good candidate for it.
wds#7: a shade of green and orange that is very difficult to describe; with a design that could be some kind of an optical illusion, one may feel dizzy after staring at it for a while. again not-so-common design for silk and also an alternate candidate for the puffed sleeve blouse..
16th day after wedding: this is another close to my heart. the color of liquid chocolate and temple designs in mustard and maroon, I would eat it if it were edible. light-weight in silk, oh so soft too!
And finally, just like that I bought a kerala saree obviously off-white and simple gold work + a cotton saree in black and gold that I couldn’t have not bought once it caught my eye in my last trip to cochin. (can’t blame me. My boss keeps sending me there on work :-P)

Phew! There ends the sari saga. For now at least ;-)

An aside: Cute + Strange = Quaint, no? Sounds like that to me.

That’s my life so far but oh! I had loads of other stuff to tell y’all about – funny, weird, all sorts… but you see my personal laptop was subject to slam-it-close-with-small-object-in-between, which is by far the worst I have done to a gadget but not as bad as my sis dropping her mobile in boiling milk. Then again lenovo is not as robust as nokia, so my sis continues to use her phone while I have to connect my laptop to an LCD TV if I want to see what the hell is on display. or pay half as much as the laptop’s price to repair it. Mighty inconvenient i say! so i have to steal moments like this at work for the poor blog.

Am back to reading now (though its getting tougher to snatch time in the train during days and hold off sleep at nights). Finished a book called ‘The Last Child’ and revived ‘The Kite-runner’. The latter I was warned is not a feel good book and all this while I didn’t quite have the confidence to risk my fragile sense of cheer. Anyhow, last few weeks have been stable and am hoping I will be able to get through the book this time. Also hoping this means some activity at a book and a window which is one of the initiatives am quite proud of even if it hasn’t come anywhere near its potential. I can probably write another year end post at least…

Talking of year ends, I thought December went in a mad hurry! did you? I personally LOVE December, and the anticipation of a new year – though logically speaking I know life doesn’t quite follow calendars when it comes to ups and downs. But it surely is meant for us to stop and reflect on the past, plan for the future, buy new diaries and all that … isn’t it? It paid off best in 2008 when I had one significant thing planned for every month – till May at least – and ticked ‘em off religiously. Oh, if you are anything like this I recommend the ‘organize n cheer’ (don’t you laugh!) series of diaries, planners you would get in most bookstores. If you aren’t you could still buy one as new year gift for me. No issues! :-)

I am beginning to feel a bit manic. So, YOU… go have a Merry Christmas!!! and in case I don’t write in the next one week, you should have a Very Happy New Year as well!!! :-)