Revelations??

I went to the theatre today after a really long time (have taken to renting all the movies i want to watch ), the only decent multiplex in madras.Apart from seeing half the girls from my college there, which i should have expected on a sunday afternoon , i was pleasantly surprised to find that madras contains good looking men. Even if only a small fraction of the general junta.

Now this may shock you. And i mean no offense to all the guys here who think highly of their physical attributes.But i have always carried the impression that madras was seriously deficient of really good looking chaps.Now this is'nt just my warped idea. I have found many girls i know and several i don't know except as acquaintances , feel the much same. Ofcourse , we don't mean that there are none at all but when u compare with a city like b'lore which seems to be flooded with the "hero" types, that's how it appears.

Now , that's really not a big deal. I sort of just accepted it as one of nature's anomalies. We can't expect uniform distribution of good looks. Or intelligence or anything. Things in real life are never ideal. Besides , i consoled myself with believing that atleast guys in madras make up by seriously contributing to the brains department.(my city's pride..lol)

The only people of any interest to me , are the intelligent and the good looking . Oh does'nt that make me sound chauvinistic, infact sound like a guy!!!(lol...;-) ) But i have good reason and i don't mean to say that i don't value people who are neither...that is not what i mean at all. It's just that when all one intends is to know someone as a casual acquaintance , or as someone else's boyfriend and all u're expected to do is to meet up with them every now and then and sit around a small table or on a couch and sip coffee. It really does make the process more enjoyable if they fall into one of the above two categories. I really don't care if he's "really really nice" except ofcourse in a superficial way to be glad that my friend(s) (and I) know a "nice" guy...rare as they are!!

So if he's intelligent , we'd atleast have some sort of a conversation.And if he's just good looking then atleast the meaningless chitter chatter is easily attended to , and the awkward silences are pleasant 'cos atleast u can just gaze at the guy in an expectant sort of manner as if waiting for him to drop some pearls of wisdom your way while subtly appreciating god's handiwork that is his gorgeous self. Usually , however, by then someone at the table has said something .lol...and the awkwardness of silence gets broken...and one has to go back to the pretence of being interested in a mundane conversation.
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Anyway , getting back to madras and it's guy population. I sort of figured that my theory could'nt possibly be right. Despite my above statement about nature's anomalies!! Come on...it makes sense mathematically that more or less there have to be approximately the same fraction of hot fellas..ie the same ratio as in any other place. So how is it that when i am in commercial street or brigade road in b'lore , i seem to come across so many guys who could land modeling contracts (i mentioned this to a couple of guys i know...and they said the same thing about the girls in b'lore...lol.. ) It can't be that b'lore filled with beautiful people and we are'nt. So I seriously started examining this , 'cos it was just not statistically probable.

Here's what i came up with: Until pretty recently , there was'nt any one place that the youth of madras converged upon. In the sense that there is no commercial street or brigade's here!( please , if u're gonna suggest pondy bazaar..i beg that u refrain...it bears no similarity) So , the haunts are usually elliots beach , spencer's (offlate...but that has a mixed crowd...) and a couple of other coffee pubs distributed about the city...ofcourse this is night life apart..That's one place where goodlooking people seem to sprout out of nowhere from. Where are all of these people during the day... Since i did'nt see 'em , I made the erroneous assumption of doubting their existence.

Today , however , I stand corrected. Satyam (the multiplex) , apart from the usual crowd of losers that just hang around endlessly , seemed to be buzzing with madras's youth. And it afforded me such relief . I don't mind being wrong when the consequences are pleasant.

Lol...well ,much good that discovery does for me anyhow. Wow..and i began intending to write about "Ocean's Twelve" which is the movie i went to see this afternoon. Well apart from hooting everytime george clooney came on...and the rather nice screen play..the movie is disappointing... It is so predictably unpredictable. The plot was highly ridiculous and much too laboured upon . Instead of coming through as complex , it ended up seeming all tangled up.Steven soderbergh would do well to remember that sequels usually suck!!!! (atleast they are definitely disappointing as compared to the first one...especially when there are too many stars and this one definitely falls into that category) .But it was definitely not a waste of time.Even though the plot was dumb , the dialogue was great and hilarious. Had me totally cracked up. Catherine Zeta-Jones can't act for nuts!!! Although she did look gorgeous, which is all the guys really care about i suppose. lol.. Well in any case, It was a fun movie , and that's all one must expect i suppose...Entertainment!!

Silver Bells, Silver Bells , Why Is'nt It Christmas Time In My City???

Aaah.... it's christmas time and i don't yet have that familiar buzz of excitement , that high that i normally reach by about 10th december.. i'm hoping another two days' will do the trick 'cos so far...nothing , zilch , zero , nada!

Christmas has always been really really special to me...it's nothing religious at all ,i guess it's just one of those few times in the year when only good things seem to happen , or atleast we all try so hard to keep it that way! We always celebrated christmas at my cousin's place in b'lore...somehow that city seems to have so much more of the christmas spirit that madras does...although i do love madras dearly! Maybe it's 'cos the shops there go all out at christmas time .Commercial Street is abuzz , decorated to the hilt , busy and beautiful . I suppose that in itself lends to a general feeling of celebration.

I suspect however that the most important thing is, the fact that my dad's entire family pretty much comes down to b'lore every christmas and all of us get together , like 30 of us...(i have a huge family) over 24th and 25th , each person promising themselves that they would'nt squabble with anyone until atleast it's 26th and christmas is over!!
So , i'm used to being surrounded by aunts , uncles , cousins , neices and nephews and doing the same old thing every year.

A ritual that was so comforting by it's unchanging nature. Ofcourse , this year all that has changed , my only sibling , an 18-yr old brat of a brother has gone off to college and does'nt get off for christmas so we are'nt going to b'lore at all...

Damn it all! No spending ages and ages shopping for decorations on commercial street last minute , No fooling around trying to decorate our rather over-grown christmas tree with atleast 10 other people ranging from 8-28 yrs in age , No arguing over who gets to put up the star , No pushing , shoving , breaking glass bulbs that belong on the tree not in bits on the floor , NO SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES with my cousins!!!!

I feel exceedingly nostalgic , I can picture all the fun I had taking ages to get dressed to go to church on christmas-eve at night...the one night i shed my don't-care attitude for a please-let-me-look-respectable one.. Buying presents for my cousins and everyone..Going to church on 24th night...seeing everyone so wonderfully dressed. All the boys I knew , seem to have grown up, in their suits they look absolutely handsome !

Oh god...i'm actually managing to sound wistful...well i'm sure gonna miss all of it..I always knew it would happen eventually but now it kills me that i'm no longer gonna be part of that tradition!

Well, since i've rambled a lot about my christmas i might as well complete the picture... Carols...there would be not much of a christmas without them... Jim Reeves and his baritone that's what really makes me feel it's christmas. My cousins and assorted relations singing in all manner of voices , most out of key , glasses of wine and whisky in hand , late 24th night , after church , seated in a room far too small to hold the 30 or so of us... ofcourse we usually start with carols and by the end of the session end up singing konkani love songs...lol.. the second part of which ,though , my contribution is pretty minimal...except as an enthusiastic spectator.

Wine...although i don't have much...flows...lol.. pretty much the entire time and we have a party 25th night...Christmas day lunch is the product of much planning and atleast two days of preparation. Plum Cake and Christmas Pudding ! Not gonna even try and describe the awesome rum-filled taste of that... although i don't drink much i'm sure that just the amount of rum i consume by eating my aunt's cake should be enough to get me high..(meaning that there is a lot of rum..not just that i eat lots of cake..lol)

Oh well I think I had better stop lest i sound like a sentimental sop....but the memories are so fond ...that it's hard.. hopefully christmas in madras won't be quite as disappointing as i envision. Infact i'm sort of picturing the worst , so hopfully it'll turn out slightly better...

Well , Merry Christmas Everyone...(slightly early , i realise..but not by all that much..)

A Light-Hearted Question And Someone Else's Blog Got Me Started On This...

One question that most of us get asked at some point in time or the other is , what kind of person we would want to be with. Strictly speaking, that's an unfair question because it's extremely changeable. In the sense , that as we grow older our idea of what is important to us changes , or perhaps as some of my more cynical acquaintances would have me say , we just get a little desperate and are more willing to compromise on all those numerous things that we once held absolutely rigid like fetishes about height or any sort of physical appearance and even character traits.

So, ofcourse if one chooses to answer such a question at all , we must only talk about our present state of mind and not how things might be in the future.. like for example i remember a couple of years back thinking that i would never drink , or have sex before i got married... now i find myself, definitely having drank on more than a couple of occasions (although i really did'nt enjoy it at all...i'm told it's an acquired taste) and about the second part..i surprise myself by seriously considering it. (although , despite my extremely open minded views about it...i still don't believe it's such a hot thing for me!).

Anyway , so i was asked this very recently .I think one way of passing time in college when we are quite jobless is to ask each other ridiculous and pointless questions. Me, i ask these questions also because i'm very curious about what people think about everything. Anyway, so considering i've been asked this many times by several different people , i have well rehearsed answer, just waiting for an audience to be remotely interested.

So , all the physical attributes apart, (i'm sure most of us have a pretty good idea about the kind of people we are attracted to) , i was sort of wondering what kind of person i'd like to be around... and i came up with the following...

1) He has to be really intelligent.... call me an intellectual snob but i love ideas ...and i would go mad if when i was talking about something that really fascinated me...all i got in return was a blank sort of look.. ofcourse that's not to say that everything that fascinates me should fascinate him...but he should be atleast capable of having a sensible and logical argument with me...

2) He has to funny...not necessarily in a smart ass kind of way...but a good sense of humour even if slightly quirky is so absolutely required...it would kill me..if he went "huh???" at something that cracked me up...

3) Slightly eccentric would be fun...but not in an obsessive sort of way...that would make him a pain to be around..lol.. but people who are different have always fascinated me...

well , all of the above are absolutely important ...apart from the blah blah of him being a nice guy..which is such a deceptive word really...'cos it's expected to encompass a range of character traits that some times are a bit too unrealistic to expect all in one person...

When i say nice..i mean...not too much of a perv , not too much of an asshole and not a drunk...most other things are "put-up-able"

There! i'm often told that i'm asking for too much...but really i'm not...atleast well i'd would'nt like to think so...

lol....i guess i could add a whole lot more details...but then i might as well forget about it remaining realistic to any degree...

Oh...and swapnil..i seriously considered putting my response for what i said when i was asked what would be my contribution to the relationship...if i found the perfect guy....but then i realised it might end up making me sound far more scandalous than i am capable of being...lol.. so sorry if u expected to see that here...

The Travails Of A Door To Door Propaganda Person

This last week has been so weird.I have lots of things to write about but i'll just stick to one..for although i know i could make each of it the subject of a post .i know there are some among my few readers that have small attention spans and for them i endeavour to indulge in an exercise of which i am unused to and dislike as well, Brevity!

I spent a good part of every morning , around 2 hours going door-to-door , interrupting every one in the middle of their busy morning (i'm sure) to tell them to segregate garbage into bio degradable and non-biodegradable...because our high court has passed a law on that and our college volunteered the services of the third years (like we have nothing better to do) to go and enlighten people..pah! talk about an exercise in futility!!! Most people , understandably , were'nt too happy to greet us but hey civility is a virtue too! One thing is for sure, far from being rude i'm gonna make sure i'm really polite to people who go door-to-door for anything.

One incident is particularly registered in my memory , of a cantankerous old man yelling at me , and a couple of my friends about how he was a model citizen and we should'nt tell him anything , that he was an environmental activist and that how could we be so careless as to come to his house and tell him anything to do with anything , a couple of well chosen remarks followed, about how college was wasting our time and that we would be better off studying... when all we did was ring the bell and say..sir, i hope u have heard about the new rule that says that u must separate u're garbage! Piece of crap...i hope he rots in hell...well, not really but anyway... i bore the brunt of the yelling simply 'cos i was standing in front... ah well..after 5 minutes of listening to his crap , i gave up trying to explain and pacify him..and i told him that i was sorry i could'nt stay and listen to him the entire morning but i had to go to lots more houses and waste their time...then the couple of my friends burst out laughing and we trapezed off into the sunshine...

Ofcourse , in all fairness there were many people we met that were extremely nice , and very courteous . I guess they could see that we were trying to make the best of a situation that we did'nt particularly relish.

oh! god... i think i'm incapable of it , brevity i mean , especially in the context of narration. well, it was an experience from which i learnt a lot. so i guess all's well that end's well.