Functions, Idli Manchurians and a great writer…

We know. We know. We have been quite irregular for past few months. We are currently on vacation in India. We traveled to US two years ago and this is our first trip back to India since. We were obviously pretty excited to come home. After a long flight, we finally reached Bangalore via Paris. Our lady had already traveled to India sometime back to be with her mother. We thought many changes would have happened here in two years. We were right. Except Bangalore traffic that is. Still, home sweet home. Two years away would mean catching up about what has happened in two years and delightful homemade food as well. As you would agree, It’s a wonderful time.

The reason we came to India was that our brother, of whom we had written sometime back, finally jumped into the well. Yes. He got married. How can we miss it? The function and all the poojas that came with it went fine. There was the Naandi at tenth and marriage on 14^th. It was fun. Its always fun to see another guy jump to the same well. Since we were family, we had the front row seat as well. We took three weeks of to be here. Now that marriage is over and the newlyweds have traveled to Kashmir for their first trip together, we are spending some quality time with family. Our home town has not changed much in past two years. It’s pretty much the same buildings and same environment.

Since we had quite a bit of free time we went around the little city and watched lot of TV as well. The stupid TV shows have become even more stupid. And lot of reality shows to add. One delight we want to mention is Chintu TV. It shows various animated shows dubbed in Kannada. Sure we can laugh at the voice overs and the accents they use. But we strongly feel that it is a great development to entertain the kids in regional language. We hope it stays and grows and rivals the best in business.

Also, on TV we saw a live interview of SL Bhyrappa. We have been endorsing him for quite some time. We feel he is greatest writer in India currently and one of the greatest ever in India. Sure there are some people criticizing him due to their limited thought process. Some people who have not achieved much in literary world as they actually think they have, tend to make a hoopla to get some publicity. Add some famous names to support these voices, and you see why SLB has been missing on Jnanapeetha till now. He has been the best selling author for decades and yet, he keeps missing it. If URA, Karnad and Kambara can get it,  why not SLB? We hope it changes soon. Saraswati Samman is a good start.

We will end this on a lighter note. We, with our lady, had gone out for dinner with the newlyweds. We knew Indians are good at adapting. But we saw what we can call a new level of adaptation. We all know Gobi Manchurian is a very popular food item. We also know Idli is considered world’s best breakfast item by South Indians. What if you want to eat Manchurian but don’t want to miss the goodness of Idli. Fear not. Hotel Hariprasad in Puttur has an anwer. Idli Manchurian. We had our mind blown when we read it. What ingenious mind came up with this? To top it, next item was Chinese bhel. Talk about Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai. We also want to mention the items were not as bad as we thought it would be. We were left to wonder what will be the next big thing. Dimsum vada pavs? Pooris with Kung Pao veggies? Masala Dosa with duck sauce? We eagerly await…

It’s all about love in the family...

We have news for you.  No. Not about Aishwarya Rai telling Abhishek “Main tumhari Bacchan ki maa bannewaali hoon”^[1]. Although there have been pretty curious reactions to the news. We have seen more people congratulate BigB on being a Grandpa than Abhishek on delivering his first successful solo hit ^[2]. Also, Kiran Rao supposedly asked Aamir, “Kab tak Perfectionist bante rahoge?” ^[3]. OK we are not going to say anything more as we do not bother about Ash. We personally feel she is more plastic than the Barbie she tried to endorse. 

It’s also not about Arindam Choudhary trying to sue the search engine Google for being a.. search engine. He said that it is promoting slander by showing bad stuff written about him. So if websites do not like him, so he will sue the company which.. just searches for the information? What kind of dick does such a thing? Arindam that’s who. Google searches for the popular pages. People like reading about him. How is it Google's fault? We are not sure why he did not sue internet itself or people in general. By trying to be a smart ass, he just became fodder for little more news. And he is promoting his anti-slander compaign via youtube which is by, you guessed it, Google.

OK topic. What is the greatest gift that can be given to a man? We all know it’s a tape of Scarlett. But if you ignore that and say love of a lady, we will grin and agree. No. Correct it. We will agree but after laughing at you. No, one more correction. We will agree after sometime because we will be busy rolling on the floor laughing and calling you a wuss. But yes. We will agree. Because our lady would be damn pissed with us otherwise. KJO, you know that misspelt coffee show man person with a lie-o-meter, once said it's all about loving your family. We just modified it a bit. Another quote we want to use is by Dr Seuss, that weird love one which you might have heard about. It’s just that we got the news that our elder brother is in same situation as we were few years ago. You know. Love and stuff. We are a victim of love marriage you see. Our lady doesn't like it when we say stuff like that. Now our brother has fallen into the net as well. By making fun of love, we start the blog with the mental preparation to sleep on the sofa for a week.

We at the risk of sounding sentimental, will admit that we are very happy for our brother. He has been having some tough time personally and professionally. We are glad he has found happiness. But any sensible, not just married, man would say, marriage is not the solution for tough times. It may be beginning for some. But definitely not the end (Warning one). Actually, we wanted to give a sarcastic lecture starting with “love anthe love. It’s aal stupidity my baay. Thatsall means thatsall”^[4]. But we would have a very unhappy lady to calm down and calming down an unhappy lady is a very difficult task, as any married man knows (Warning two). When our brother told us that he and our future Bhabhiji have agreed to leap the leap, we were excited. Not because a love is being consummated to marriage. As they say, all marriages are made in heaven like thunder and lightning (Warning three).

We were one off love marriages in the family. Now it seems like we have set a precedent. When we propositioned our marriage situation to our family, everyone had lot of fun discussing about it. We did not have all the Telugu film drama, which we regret. We were sad that we cannot make speeches about undying love and eternal flame in our heart etc. Instead everyone agreed without fuss and we and our lady ended up being butt of many jokes as we were the youngest in the family and were not really considered what you can call responsible. Everyone thought we may not be able to handle the responsibilities we felt (Responsibilities. Warning Four). And now that there is another couple being readied to be institutionalized (marriage is an institution, right?), people look at us as mature experienced couple. It’s very interesting how tables turn. Now we are going to attend the marriage with big smile with our heart and mind going BMwuhahaha. Unless you are in our position you will never truly understand the joy of sadism.

We wanted to tell few things to our Bhabhiji. So, if you are not our Bhabhiji, skip this and move to next paragraph. We and our brother have never been the similar ones except for our interest in current affairs and GK. We have been fighting almost always. We still have the memory of him chasing us with a wicket when we had some argument in cricket. No, no need to worry. We also want to assure that he has sobered down (We still have our fingers crossed). He may chow down on his colleagues but he is not the one who can yell at you. At least, for now. Also, He means good. We may fight a lot, but first time we were away, he had to seek medical attention. No not the wrong kind. He had fever etc because he missed us. (It always made us happy to know that we controlled his health. Sadly as we grew up the grip vanished). The point to be noted is not that he gets angry easily. It’s that even though he acts all angry, he still will care for you a lot. We do not want to repeat the sobered down bit. Anyway, what we actually wanted to tell was, we are happy that he found you and you found him. You make a good pair. We have one more thing to tell. Sorry, we are making this paragraph long but we had decided to dedicate only one paragraph. That was not the thing. This is. We also heard from our lady that you were silent in front of parents. We hope you are not the silent type of person. When we make fun of Aishwarya (Yes. We sneaked into your Facebook profile.), we want a proper response. Else it won’t be fun. If you notice, there are some references in the beginning of the blog.

Non-Bhabhi readers, let me guess. You read the previous paragraph even after we told you not to read right? Bleddy… As a punishment, we are going to bore you now. We want to write some philosophical things. As per some lady from some website, there are four kinds of love needed to make a marriage work. You need unconditional love, human love, tenderly love and physical love. When all four types of love operate in a marriage, the marriage is complete. We did find it on the net. We can't make such things up if if we wanted to. Although we felt it was too boring to read through all that we understand the gist. It’s just that you should love each other. Also we feel that whatever institution they say marriage is, can be successful only if the people constituting the institution work on it. (Word play. We are becoming smart). Also, let us tell you another thing. This is again our train of thought on why we prefer love marriages. We do not think people can fall in love after marriage. Yes. Occasionally we do hear stuff like that. But normally, it’s just mere adjustment to the other person which can be misunderstood as love. 

Edward Carpenter says that behind every marriage stands the life-long environment of the two sexes; an environment so different from each other that man and woman must remain strangers. Separated by an insurmountable wall of superstition, custom, and habit, marriage has not the potentiality of developing knowledge of, and respect for, each other, without which every union is doomed to failure. We did not the heck of it. But we decided to copy paste it nonetheless just to show that we search for some serious stuff too on the net. Also we read somewhere that a girl who loves makes a man from a selfish idiot. But if she leaves he will become even bigger selfish bastard. That brings another question to our mind. Do all love marriages happen because of luck? Sometimes it is destiny too, right? Some love cases end well. Others result in marriage. 

We are in a practical age. A new age. But still the time when Romeo and Juliet risked the wrath of their elders for love has not disappeared. If young people allow themselves the luxury of romance they are taken in care by the elders and advised till they become sensible. It’s not very often that parents happily agree for a love marriage. At least in many parts if India. We and our lady are very much aware of the fact that we are one such couple who got very lucky to have sensible parents who agreed without worrying about anything else. We are glad trend has remained same and they have happily agreed for or brother too. Good luck for them and God bless. 

But what made us even more happy was the fact that Rahul Dravid scored a gritty classy century and deserved the MoM award. When most others failed and could not grasp the pitch, Dravid stood for more than six hours to build an innings worth its weight in gold. That was a mature innings played by one of the greatest batsmen of all time. This innings reminded us of his second innings heroics five years ago one the same pitch. Which had reminded us of his first innings heroics in the same test. Words cannot describe.. OK you know what, sometime we totally get why our family considers us second best.

P.S : Personally we still think Scarlett’s tape is a better gift. But we are expected to support being in love, we will not discuss the matter further. For now.

Note to God: Thanks for the blessings, big guy. You are not always an a**hole. Now, coming from us, that would be a compliment for you. Cheers! 

[1],[2], [3] – Citation needed. But we don’t have it.

[4] – There is a sher for this. Babbar sher actually

Jaldbaazi mein shaadi karega toh zindagi bigaad lega

Soch samajh ke shaadi karega toh bhi kya ukhaad lega.

DK Bose has made us nostalgic...

As we sit and listen to the songs from the man-boy’s new movie, we are amazed on how much the world has changed since our childhood. We dreamt of being someone wonderful. We wanted to play cricket for India, we wanted to be like superman. We wanted to be like Vyomkesh Bakshi . Heck, we were so fascinated by a Lorry driver or a bus conductor who had this cool whistle. So many characters were thought of. But not even in our wildest dreams had we thought that our life would be nothing but sitting in front of a computer. When we listened to songs we remembered another song picturized on man-boy’s uncle. It was “Papa Kehte Hai Bada Naam Karega” then. We hated that hero. Now it’s “Daddy Mujhse Bola Tu Galti Hai Meri”. We hate this hero also. So may be the world has not changed much in some ways.It also weird how even an unrelated hip song can make you nostalgic.

Life was so simple those days. We used to go to school very early so that we can play cricket before the school opened. Play till our teachers come and open the doors. We did not go to a rich school. The students used to most of the work.  No peons or aayahs you see. The school pupil leader would be the most powerful person. He and his friends would control all locking/unlocking rooms, getting drinking water for the entire school, ringing school bells. We were the SPL. We know how good that responsibility feels. Only glitch was we had to supply water to teacher’s toilets also. Of course students did not have a toilet. Literally the world was our urinal.

The teachers used to come around 9. The keys would be given to the SPL. He would open all doors.  Then at 10 the whole school would stand up and sing the state anthem in chorus. We were never a good singer but in chorus nobody noticed how bad we were. Now when we recall it, we feel fascinated. No not by our singing. But the way the school worked then. Classes one to four had only one teacher. And she used change the subject depending on the hour bell. And when one of the teachers is on leave, there was no concept of substitute. The SPL or some studious person would go and look after the kids for that day. We loved that situation. No class to sit through and bossing around the smaller kids.

Classes five to seven were a bit different. That’s when you get promoted from pencils and slates to pens. And Fifth standard is where two new subjects are introduced. English and Hindi. We studied in Kannada medium school. All one teacher per subject stuff began there.  Anyway, the morning classes were till 1PM. Then lunch time. The elder kids helped the rest of the kids cross roads if they are going home. Or distributed water to wash hands if they have got lunch boxes. We went home had lunch ran back to school to play some more. Classes started at 2 and went on till 4:20. Then it was PT till 5. It was called PT but we could do pretty much whatever we wanted.  After that entire school assembled on the ground and national anthem was sung. Then elder students helped little ones cross the road again, SPL and friends locked the doors and secured everything and the day was over.

Our school was on a small hill. It was near a bungalow which was later converted to an Christian orphanage. All orphans from there used to study in our school as well. It was the bungalow where Rev Kittel wrote the famous Kannada Dictionary. Our school was called “Gudde Shaale” or “Bangle Shaale”. It was not a school as such. It was a huge hall. Each class separated by wooden screens. When it got too hot inside, teachers used to take the class outside. We had classes in the ground or somewhere on the hill. Imagine studying amidst trees. We liked it then because we could see vehicles on the road or just for the fact that we were outside during class hours. Students had to carry the portable blackboard. It was definitely a poor man’s school. But the teachers were wonderful and there was no bias.  

As we said earlier, our school did not have servants. Students used to do the work. The teacher would sound a bell calling the SPL or whoever is available in the last bench of the class next to the head teacher’s room. He would go and obey her commands. It would mean that you can skip the class till that task is done. Bell after each hour, sending messages to each class, calling some student or teacher from the class, going to the nearest hotel and getting tea/snacks, going to post office and getting some work done. We have been there.  We are not complaining mind you. We loved every moment of it. We also refuse to consider it as child labour. The school was like that and nobody could help it. This is just wonderful nostalgia washing over us.

Of course doing these tasks had its own perks. You would be teacher’s pet. Also, when they send you to a hotel to get something, obviously you would get some commission. For a twelve year old, that was awesome. And our house was very near to school. So if they sent us to post office for some work, we used to go home have something and then go back to school. But we were a good student then even though a little naughty. So we got lot of attention from teachers and they usually forgave us for whatever we did. Plus we used to go to all these quizzes and stuff. Our teacher had given us an apple when we came second in the very first quiz we participated. We treasure that moment as one of the best trophies. We respect them and like them more than any of our college and high school teachers.

Its been more than a decade since we last entered that school. Once we go back, we will surely go and so how much changes have happened. It feels strange that the way things were when we were a little one seem so different and archaic now. We see TV and we struggle to find some sense in what kids watch. May be what they watch makes them more mature earlier than needed. Is it necessary to show them so much violence or push them to harsh world of reality shows?  We had good shows which taught us the moral (well.. yes. ) values.  Can we compare the charm of the robot Vicky to Hannah Montana? No. Can we compare the fun we had when we watched “Crystal Maze” to the game shows now a days? Never. Forget about that. Can anything ever be compared to Mile Sur Mera Tumhara? You know the answer.

We wanted to talk mainly about the movies and TV shows but spoke about the school instead. We had such amazing TV shows and DD was a treasure back then. DD started with Hum Log and followed it up with Ramayana and Mahabharatha, the greatest of all tele serials we have seen. Believe us. We are a huge fan of the idiot box. We have seen plenty. But none as effective as Mahabharatha. Surabhi was another one we loved. And the aforementioned Vyomkesh Bakshi. There was another crime fighting series which we liked. It was called Tehkikaat. It was much before CID came and it was much better as well. And how can anyone ever forget Circus. Look at the wide range of shows we had in DD. Those were the good days.

Then there were all the dubbed Hindi versions of classic series’. The Lawson Family in “Small Wonder” or “Silver Spoons” or “I dream of Genie” and numerous others. There were wonderful cartoons as well. Disney hour was something we used to wait for. “Duck Tales”, “Tailspin”, “Aladin”, “Darkwing Duck”, “Rescue Rangers”. You name it. We have seen it and loved it. We still sit and watch whatever possible on Youtube. We would advise that to whatever that is on TV these days. OK. We need to end this abruptly. We feel we have dragged this post too long. We will stop praising the old serials. If you are from our generation, you know what we are talking about. If you are from the younger generation, you do not know what you are missing. We will end it with a statement that may make us sound older than what we are. But that’s fine. Ah. Those were the days.

Outnumbered... And outfriended.....

Do you know who Ramona Marquez is? We will tell you. She is this marvelous actress from a BBC series Outnumbered. And she was six when she started acting. Yes. That’s right. Six. How old were u when you did something significant? Even helping an old lady crossing a street was a lie. Wasn’t it? We are well past quarter century and we cannot boast of anything significant in our life apart from travelling alone to Charlotte or hitting three sixes in one of our cricket matches. That’s how our life is. Ok let us tell about Outnumbered. This is about a couple outnumbered by three kids, played by Ramona Marquez, Daniel Roche and a very contradictory name, Tyger Drew-Honey. Tyger is so manly and Drew and Honey are well.. not so much.

Have you ever watched a sitcom or a series being played on BBC? The British jokes and innuendos are more straight forward and rude than anywhere else as far as we know. We have always been a fan of BBC comedy. Top Gear, Mock The Week, Coupling, now Outnumbered. We also prefer BBC documentaries than NatGeo or Discovery. There is something wonderful about BBC. They know how to get things done. And they do not hesitate to talk about controversial topics. They obviously can apologize later, but we get the point. The major thing is BBC has always made kept the promise. When they say documentaries, you know you will learn a lot and when they say comedy, you will laugh. A lot. If you understand the jokes that is.

OK, enough of BBC pimping. Outnumbered is basically about how kids look at the world and how the parents struggle to cope up. Hugh Dennis, the wonderful funnyman that he is, is great with his witty and sarcastic statements. Claire Skinner, as the mother, is equally good. You will feel that Tyger does not have enough to do in the series. But hormonal troubles of a teenager are hardly entertaining (Cue to Disney : Stop your shows. Overacting teens. Not funny.) But the credit of making sure you watch this series goes to the two little ones. Daniel as Ben and Ramona as Karen. Karen with her inquisitive nature and typical bossy child behaviour is a treat to watch. Ben, who looks like he has symptoms of ADHD, is outrageous and impresses you with his same outrageousness.

The three seasons have only just 19 episodes in total. Plus four special episodes. Each series has only six or seven episodes dealing with trivial issues dealt by most households. Like bullying or killing a mouse or even playing around the house. When you look at the world from a child’s eyes, everything looks strange. We assume that you know YouTube. Search outnumbered. You will know what we are talk about. The only thing which saddens us is most child stars will move into obscurity when they grow up. Most child stars that get the publicity and fame at such young age never get used to it and ruin themselves. Tell us how many child stars have made it big? We are not saying there aren’t any. There are some who have made it big. There are most follow the path of self-destruction and very few come back from that path. We are very impressed by Ramona Marquez. We like her a lot. We really hope she becomes a great actress.

We also want to talk about another BBC show. It’s called Mock The Week. It’s a chat show kind of program where six guests will join the host to “discuss” about current events. Basically everyone is made fun of. It’s hosted by Dara O’Briain. We told you about Hugh Dennes in Outnumbered right? That chap is a permanent guest in this show. It is one of the most hilarious shows we have seen. We like it a lot. Frankie Boyle did offend quite a few people when he was there but he was a charm to watch. The show has become a bit “clean” now but somehow it’s not the same. You know that feeling? You prepare something your mom prepares and it’s good but it’s not the same as mom made? Yes. That kind. We are not telling Frankie is the mother of comedy. No.We just feel it would have been better if he were still there. Anyway, do watch the snippets in Youtube. You will like it.

After TV, let’s come to more entertaining part. The real life. Long back we had told you that Charlotte has two malls? Well we were wrong. It has 3. One is very posh it seems. So we have not been there. Anyways, we went to this other mall to buy gifts with our roommate (for one more day) for a colleague of ours. We are not sure why we did it as we were not invited to a birthday party nor cake cutting (which really is pissing us off). To help us recuperate, we gifted ourselves a watch (which is awesome looking) and this book by Stephen Colbert. It’s called “I Am America (And So Can you!)”. There’s some dollars we will never get back. We never speak ill of books. So we will leave it at money wasted.

What pissed us off was, the book was a waste plus our colleague treats us bad. Well, OK.. It was the colleague thing more than the book. We were thick as thieves. Now suddenly we are nobody. We don’t get it. What kind of person leaves one friend because they got another more useful friend? Why do all the drama about being good/best friends and then stab in the back? Also, why do people avoid telling other people that they would like to avoid them? Anatole Broyard said, "When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance." What does it mean? He/she was high he/she said this? No. Be Serious. We want to know why people who call themselves friends lie. We really want to talk some philosophical bullshit about friends and stuff but really we don’t see any point. It’s going to be as good as listing out your favourite Sanjay Kapoor movies. Nobody cares about it. Besides we are scared that too much thinking will cause us brain heamour  haemarr damage.

3 movies and a moving.

We moved into a new apartment. We had to take day off from work to shift. It was one of the most hectic days in our life. We never knew our house had so much stuff.  We had to shift because we were staying with a friend of ours and since our lady is coming we cannot stay with him anymore. It had been a wonderful year or so. Ever since we realized that we are coming here, we never thought of having anyone else as roommate. It was discussed and planned. But it had to end some point. Now since he is getting married and our lady is coming here. We sadly have to, wait... Are we making it sound like ending a relationship? We did not have that intention.

Moving stuff from one house to another is very tiring business boss. We never thought it will be so tiring and hectic. We had stopped cooking and for the first time in Amrika we had outside food continuously for a week. We usually prefer homemade (read Self made) food.  And our roommate has got a TV which alone is like Ramesh Powar is girth and weight. Plus regular things to move and it took us more than three hours. We had to clean the previous house as well before leaving as they can fine us in case they don’t find it as neat as they had given it. So one week of irregular cleaning and one day of bloody moving and we have decided we will not be going to Gym for a month. We did have help from another friend of ours who recently moved to Charlotte. Apart from helping shift, he also bought a PlayStation3. Now that’s more than regular help you have to admit.

By the way, this is long weekend and since our friends are in production support daytime oncall business, we had decided we will be spending it at home. We thought we will watch three movies three nights. All three were sequels. All were supposed to be fun. Two of them had mixed reviews. So we decided to skip one. Ever since the movie business spawned, movie fanatics have been asking one question. No. Not what has happened to Ram Gopal Varma. Nor How can south Indian heroes get such pretty heroines. Its about is it worth it to make sequels to successful movies? Some agree some don’t. We are in the middle. To add another story line is very difficult work indeed. You need to give surprises. Make sure audience doesn’t get bored and leave. In that way both the movies succeed. Here is our review of two movies.

The last movie we saw was Hangover 2. We liked the first part and thought it was pretty innovative story telling. This is where doubts about sequels come. It’s a wonderful premise and very difficult to repeat. And we were right with the doubts. The second part tries hard and fails to emulate the effect. Its funny at parts. We agree. But overall the movie is just flat. Its more vulgar and crass than the first part. We never could understand the point of full frontal nudity in movies. We firmly believe it is just for getting more male audience. When someone says it’s absolutely necessary for the movie, understand that they are lying. (But hey we are not against it… We do enjoy it occasionally). In this movie there are generous display of male genitals. We have no idea why and we do not know who thought it would be funny. It was not. It was just plain vulgar and obscene. Overall, we would not advise to watch this movie. You have not missed anything if you don’t watch it. Ignore the hype. Its crass and not good. 

The second movie we saw, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The fourth installment built solely to let us know how important Johnny Depp is to the POTC franchise. It has a predictable story and weak action sequences. Its about Jack Sparrow’s journey to get the fountain of youth and his entanglement with his former flame Angelica.. How he faces threat from Spanish and a fellow pirate, Blackbeard. There is another thread of second love story. Between mermaid and missionary doesn’t hold firm either. The movie is visually good. But that’s pretty much it if you are not a fan of Johnny Depp. But we are. We are a huge fan and we do not know how he has not won an Oscar yet. He carries this entire movie. There are only two good things about this movie. One is Johnny Depp and other is no Orlando Bloom/Keira Knightly. Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane are wonderful actors and they have done justice to their roles. Although you do feel that Rush has overdone it a little. Penelope Cruz as Blackbeard’s daughter Angelica is an eye candy and nothing much else.

Now comes the best one and sadly this was the first one we saw and weekend steadily went worse in terms of movies. Kung Fu Panda two. Ever since we saw the first one, we had added it to our favourite animation movie lists. That’s one movie we strongly recommend. We recommend this one too. Adding a new plot to KFP doesn’t seem an easy task. This story is about how Po defeats the evil peacock, Lord Shen who is out to end Kung Fu. As usual we will not reveal the story details. But we will tell you that the movie was full of fun. Most scenes were as expected. But the dialogues were not. It’s the dialogues which keep you entertained throughout. But we will not take anything away from the story and animation. The movie is a delight to watch. The animation is better and story is good too. But having said that, we admit that it was not the best animated movie we saw. (That would still be “Up”). But this is a good way to spend 90 minutes. We also recommend 2D. We do not like 3D and we are not a fan of that technology. The only complaint we had about the movie was Master Shifu gets very less screen time.

We definitely recommend POTC and KFP. Agreed that they are not the best movies. But definitely worth the money. You can forget about everything else and have a good time watching them.  You can skip  Hangover two. It is not for the family nor it is good fun. Unless you are that kind of guy who thinks the show of genitals in a comedy movie is funny.  Well, in that case, we are sorry. We do not like you.

We fall in love.. Every day.. With the same girl

Before we start writing, we want to clarify one thing. As we have already mentioned, this calling ourselves we/us is going to cause some confusion. Today’s topic can be very confusing if you think we are generalizing. We are not… We will not be generalizing. Because we are talking about love story. Our (see… this is what we are talking about.) love story. When we say we/us/our etc., it means only us, the writer of the blog and occasionally us and the girl. Today is the lady’s birthday and we love her so very much. We definitely do not want her to be cross with us. Here.. we will put a pic of us with her…. OK No. We actually thought we will put one of those animals in love (those “cute” ones…) kind of pictures and say something sickeningly sweet but we do not want to overdo it.

From a long time, all these so called relationship Gurus and other mere mortals had pondered whether men and women could be “just friends”. Then suddenly one person made a movie called "When Harry Met Sally" and people came to conclusion that it may not be possible. Then some other guy made “Hum Tum” and people realized it’s just remake of “When harry Met Sally”. We are moving out of syllabus already, aren’t we? Friendship can become love, but love never ever can become friendship. Love is like earthquake, a strange feeling that arrives without warning. But friendship is like Sharad Pawar’s bank balance. Increases steadily day after day no matter what. See. We can churn out some philosophical BS too. OK. Back to topic. She was our best friend first and then we decided that we will spend our life with her. Now live in was not an option. So we had to go to the next viable one. The big M. Wait. We will tell what happened.

Well.. It had to happen.. Happened, that’s all... It’s like a movie story. All those crappy college musicals you have seen. The hero and the heroine meet in college, friendship blossoms; they become best friends, and then fall in love. Only better, because it has us in it. We are the hero of this story. It our story and we are telling it. We fell for her eyes, the first time we saw her. We were classmates, exchanged smiles, and started talking. It was in the 5th semester of Engineering that the class decided to have a trip to Madikeri and Irpu falls. We had a pretty good time and spoke a lot to her. We gradually became good friends. Started spending more time with each other.. Shared our happiness, sad moments, secrets, fears. Spoke about everything under the sun. We stayed with each other every moment. Gradually became best friends..

We both got jobs in Campus interviews. Then our company told us that we have to go to Coimbatore for training. Shittiest two months we have spent. We don’t have anything against the place. The food was awesome. But the training and the whole environment was not good. But that was when we decided that we cannot live without her. We had stumbled across another metaphorical Bodhi Tree. Bells started ringing and we started to feel that somebody with an accordion was standing behind us. Then we crashed back to earth when the actual music began and we realized it’s a typical Tamil Tappanguchi song. Bloody TR. Anyways, we had envisioned our future. In typical Ambani pose, we sat and decided. Best friend, yes. Now we wanted her to be our life partner too. We told her in no uncertain terms that we are committed to her, she lambasted us. But even though she was our best buddy, she had not realized that we are an adamant douchebag. We stuck to our decision.

When the company told us that after training we will be working in Bangalore, we were ecstatic. For right reasons. But we had work as well. We had shifts during alternate weekends, because we agreed for the assignment without bothering to realize the repercussions. Yes. Like how Sehwag bats. But turns out our luck was good. We ended up making good friends and a good team as well. If we were not in office for the weekend, we were in Mysore. Three weeks after we started working, came October 24. We had had a fight previous day regarding future. We had told her again that we love her and she was not happy with it. We met her before going home for Diwali, We started arguing. She was angry with us that we were not being a friend and ruining the friendship etc. Turns out all that was just to play with us. Because in the heat of the moment, we popped the question. She said "Dunno', then "may be", and finally "YES' and… started crying.

Our parents guessed that something was going on as we would meet whenever possible. We spoke to our parents about it the next year. Initially they were skeptical about it but soon gave in. We did know that if mothers agreed, fathers do not have much of a say. All the formalities took almost a year, and finally they said fine, let’s all celebrate the Boy’s enslaving ceremony. We were ecstatic. And nervous. So nervous that Mohd Rafi’s epic Kannada song was running through our head. Yes. We said Rafi and we said Kannada. We won’t tell which one. Google it if you want. OK be serious, it’s our marriage we are talking about. We don’t want her to be angry at us. We even sat in front of the fire for days while being slowly tandoori’ed. OK that’s all we details we will give about marriage. We are not giving details about the honeymoon and stuff.

We never thought that we will be in for love marriage. Until we went to friggin’ Coimbatore. She is everything we can ask for. As they say, our friend, philosopher, guide... She has been there for us whenever we needed someone. Now she has given us a promise that she will stay with us in good times or bad. Why do we love her? Why do we like her so much? Why do we trust her so much? Why is she our best friend? We never could answer these questions properly. Since as specified it is a question we are asking ourselves, please do not opine. She is the best thing that life has given to us. Tom Hanks, in Forrest Gump, said "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get." True... Four years ago, we were strangers.. Now she is our love, our sweetheart. Our wife (We swear to God. If you snigger, we are onto you. )

Forgiving is overrated...

When I was young and did not have enough gray cells to think about all this, I believed in God very much. I'm a Brahmin. My folks are supposed to be his biggest believers. We do pooja and stuff. So we are supposed to beieve in whatever BJP tells us (Ashish Shakya's statement modified a bit). There have been some blacksheep as well. But every group has their own Shakti Kapoors doing aauuuu at the society. Anyways, It was decided that what we had done centuries ago had to be stopped finally. He sent Arjun Singh. We are getting paid back, in terms of you know.. reservations..... Anyhow I started thinking about all this when my mom fell ill (full filmi I know). She recovered. But my faith did not.

As I said, I am a brahmin. I am supposed to chant mantras and shlokas. Let me be honest. Almost all my clan can recite huge books by heart. I on the other hand know one mantra. or two. Three at max. I do not feel guilty. I will not make an effort to learn either. I know what I am. My parents did not try to force things on me and I am happy about it. I am not sure if something else will happen which will make me believe in him again. My wife will be happy if that happens. Three days of marriage was the biggest challenge I have had. Sittng there in front of the fire and not really believing in what was being done. It was a moral dilemma. But I sat through. Because it meant that I will get what I want.

Now, I'm not an atheist. Im not religious either. I do believe that there is some supernatural entity which is looking over us. And when they come in their huge spaceships, we shall kneel and be their slaves. OK coming back.. What has been happening around me has made me unsure. Don't give me hope faith etc. I don't believe in them either. If you say he is kind, why are people dying miserable deaths? Is he such a petty person to think about a person's past to ruin their present and future ? Isn't he the one who is responsible for one's creation? Wouldn't that make him responsible for the evil things being done by man (and women as well) ?

God is watching.. The most common statement used by the believers to scare the wrongdoers and ones who doubt him. Really? Is he watching? If he is watching "us", what about all the people who are struggling to make ends meet? Who is going to take care of them? Apparently, they would hv committed some sins in their previous life or some shit like that. Come on people. Its God. The G-Man (Sorry Arnab. Its the only time I'm gonna use it for anyone else. Promise). The entity who is supposed to make sure everything is alright. The epitome of kindness and all.

Today in twitter, I read couple of updates which made me ponder. One was a statement saying forgiving is overrated and the other about God being judgemental. If God is really a God, shouldn't he have "godlike" reasoning? Why should he be judgemental? Does he really hate homosexuals and sinners? Does he really order to kill people who do believe in other gods? What is all the brouhaha about? Isn't he supposed to be forgiving? Everywhere, in all holy books, you read about God is forgiving, kind, loving etc. Fine. but then why does he talk about killing people who sin or do not believe in him? Suddeny what happened to forgiving?

Many people cringe when I discuss these things. I do not want to brand it as lack of open mindedness. Poeple do not want to come out of their shell of belief and I do not blame them. No. I am not a liberated soul trying to open others' eyes. The problem I have faced is, Whenever the topic comes and I say I do not beieve in festivities, I get a stare. Believe me, I have come across many such people who treated me as if I have done somethign wrong. They believe in God and so should I? How is it a criticism to discuss his weakness? Don't tell me he doesn't have any. After all man created God as much as God created man.

We have extremists in all religions who try to prove that their God is the best and strongest. It is like the Dhara ad which used to air when I was young. "My daddy strongest". Its a pity. You have loads of people trying to kill everyone else because they dont believe that other religions shoudl exist. You have another person trying to burn the holy book of another religion. The holy shrines are being attacked, the people are being killed. So many people are being killed in the name of God. Even a cricket match between two countries is treated as fight between right and wrong. Where the hell is he? Shoudln't he be come down here, slap them and telling them to shut the %^&* up? Is he just a puppet in his followers' hands?　
Nietzsche has pretty much summed up for me. " God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
P.S : AN Murthy Rao has, IMO, written the best book about God. In his book called Devaru, he discusses the tendency of a human being to depend on supernatural. This is a must read.
Also, this was not written to hurt anyone. I just write what comes across my mind. I am also a mean person who is not open to criticism about my beliefs.

The one? meh.

How difficult is finding a car? An automatic (i don't know how to drive a manual), low mileage, low cost car. How tough can it be? The answer is very tough. I cannot for the life of me find a good car. Now i am not asking for a fancy Merc or BMW for less price. No. I need a Honda or a Toyota or a Nissan or a Mitsubishi. Turns out the market is down. The dealer i went to few days ago almost cried about it. May be he was just trying to rip the foreigners. Who knows.

Seriously, if finding a car is so difficult, how difficult is finding a spouse? Love marriage or arranged, finding your life partner is increasingly becoming difficult.So they say. Or may be its just in the Havyaka community. I do not know what the girls are looking for in a guy. Special software Mojo perhaps. My mother is worried about finding a girl for my brother. He is currently working for the great NRN. He is studying for IAS as well. So plenty of whatever the Havyaka chicks are looking for. I did not want all this hassle. I finished college and as soon as I got into my job, I asked my best friend to marry me. Problem solved. Now, it is not a normal thing to get married when you have a eligible elder brother. But he was not interested in it and I couldn't wait. Its been two years and we are married and happy. I am married and she is happy. (Old joke I know.. but manchi joku kaadhanDi?)

Many people asked me how did you realize that she was the one? Ok not exactly the truth. Only one person has asked that till now. (that’s my wife.. ). Anyway for girls its pretty straight forward. As Ashish Shakya puts it, Indian girls look for just three things in guys. Fair, god fearing and not Rahul Mahajan.  Couldn't agree more about the third one. I'm not sure about first two though. What do girls look for? Money and looks? I am not sure. I heard that Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City (**cough**horse woman**cough**) gives advice on such stuff. She is, as the hiphop lingo puts it, batshit insane. Just something to remember before you search for advice and read and say “Holy &*$%”.

For guys, although there's a lot to love about being single, (You save money on Valentine's Day gifts, you get to meet new and interesting people) it all about how pretty the girl is to you. If she can cook well, that’s just an added perk. Whoever said the best way to man's heart is through his stomach was wrong (A man who looks like a teletubby can get good chicks only in south Indian movies ) Also, if you already did not know it, way to a woman’s heart is not through her stomach. It may not bode well. This was as government likes to put it ‘janhith me jaari”.

If you ask any married person on advising about getting married, you would get the best advise possible. Don’t.  It puzzles me when feminists say whatever a man can do, woman can do better.. In fact, the guy would be doing all chores. You know feminist people, it would be better if she would just do the work. It’s ok if she doesn’t do it ‘better’. I may have played with the ladies pride like Tyson did with Holyfield’s ear. But hey.. it was just for fun. I am going to take Ashish Shakya’s help again. “Take it with a pinch of salt. If you have lemon and tequila with it, it’s even better.”

P.S:  There was no purpose in writing this. Its random and crazy. Just like my life right now.

ಏಕಾ೦ತ ಮತ್ತು ಒ೦ಟಿತನದ ನಡುವೆ...

ಮನಸ್ಸಿನೊಳಗಿನ ಮೌನವೇ..
ಏಕಾ೦ತ, ಒ೦ಟಿತನ.. ಯಾವ್ದೋ ಒ೦ದು. ಏನು ಅ೦ತ ಹೇಳಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗ್ತಿಲ್ಲಾ ಕಣೆ.. ಹೇಳ್ಕೊಳ್ಳೋಕೆ ಗೆಳೆಯರು ಅ೦ತ ಇದಾರೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ.. ಬಟ್ ಯಾರು ಇಲ್ಲ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಅನ್ಸತ್ತೆ.. Horrible feeling...

ಗೆಳತಿ ನೀನಿರುವಾಗ
ಜಗವೇ ಹೂವಿನ ಬೀಡು..

ನಿನ್ನಿ೦ದ ದೂರ.. ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಮೈಲಿ.. ಮದುವೆ ಆದ್ಮೇಲೆ ದೂರ ಇರೊದು ಕಷ್ಟ ಕಣೆ ಚಿನ್ನು. ನಿನ್ನ ಜೊತೆ ಮು೦ಜಾನೆ, ಗೊಧೂಳಿ, ರಾತ್ರಿ.. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಇಷ್ಟು ದೂರ ಬ೦ದು ತಪ್ಪು ಮಾಡಿದ್ನೇನೋ ಅನ್ಸತ್ತೆ ಕೆಲವು ಸಲ. ದುಡ್ಡು ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ತು೦ಬಾ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಸರಿ. ಆದರೆ ಇಷ್ಟಪಟ್ಟು, ಪ್ರೀತ್ಸಿ ಮದ್ವೆ ಆಗಿರೊ ಹುಡ್ಗೀನ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಬ೦ದಿದ್ದು ಸರೀನಾ ಅನ್ಸತ್ತೆ. ಇಬ್ರಿಗೂ work tension, frustration.. ಇಬ್ರು ದೂರ ಇರೋ ಬೇಜಾರು.. ಮಾತಿಗಿ೦ತ ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಜಗಳ.. ಇದೆಲ್ಲಾ ಬೇಕಾ..

ನಾನು ನೀನೆ ಇರುವಾಗ.. ದೂರವಾಗಿದೆ ಪರಿಸರ
ಸುಮ್ಮನೆ ನಾವು ಆಲಿಸುವ.. ಮನದ ಮೂಲೆಯಾ ಇ೦ಚರ..

ಈ ಹಾಡು ಕೇಳ್ದಾಗ, ನಿನ್ನ ನೆನಪು ಉಕ್ಕಿ ಬ೦ತು.. ನಾವಿಬ್ಬರು ಜೊತೆಗಿದ್ದಾಗ ಎಷ್ಟು ಹಿತವಾಗಿತ್ತು ಏಕಾ೦ತ. ನಮ್ಮ ಲೋಕ, ಸರಸ, ವಿರಸ, ಸಲ್ಲಾಪ.. ಈಗ.. ನೀನಲ್ಲಿ.. ನಾನಿಲ್ಲಿ.. ಲೈಫು ಇಷ್ಟೇನೆ..ಇಲ್ಲಿ ದುಃಖ ಹ೦ಚ್ಕೋಳೋದಿಕ್ಕೆ ಯಾರು ಇಲ್ಲಾ ನ೦ಗೆ.. ಇರೊ ಒಬ್ಬ ಗೆಳೆಯ೦ಗೆ ಅವ೦ದೇ ನೂರಾರು ಚಿ೦ತೆ.. ಆದರೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ಗೆಳೆಯ ಜೀವದ ಒಲವಿನ ಜಾಗ ತು೦ಬ್ಸಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗುತ್ಯೇ? ಇಲ್ಲ.. Don't answer.. ನ೦ಗೆ ನೀನೆ ಬೇಕು..

ಕಾದು ಕಾದು ಕಲೆತಾಗ.. ತ೦ಟೆ ಮಾಡಿದೆ ತನುಮನ
ಬೇಗನೆ ಕಾಡಿ ಬೇಡುತಿದೆ.. ನಿನ್ನ ತೋಳಿನ ಬ೦ಧನ

ಮುದ್ದಿನ ಮಡದಿನ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಜೀವನ ದುಸ್ತರ ಆಗೋಗಿದೆ.. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಯಾವತ್ತೂ ನಿನ್ನಿ೦ದ ದೂರ ಇರಲ್ಲ... ನ೦ಗೊತ್ತು.. ಈ ಮೊದ್ಲು ಎರಡು ತಿ೦ಗಳು ದೂರ ಆದಾಗ್ಲು ನಾನು ಇದೇ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೆ.. ಬಟ್ ಈ ಸಲ ಗಾಡ್ ಪ್ರಾಮಿಸ್.. ಎಲ್ಲರ ಜೀವನಕ್ಕೆ ಒ೦ದು ಧ್ಯೇಯ ಇರತ್ತೆ.. ನನ್ನ ಜೀವನದ ಧ್ಯೇಯ ನೀನು.. ಸಮಾಜ ಹಾಳಾಗಿ ಹೋಗ್ಲಿ. Long distance relationship ಆಗಲ್ಲ ಅ೦ತ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು.. ನಾನೇ ಕೇಳ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಎರಡು ದಿನಕ್ಕೊಮ್ಮೆ ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ರೆ ಸಾಕಾಗಲ್ಲ.... ಇನ್ನು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸಮಯ ಕಣೇ... ನೀನು ಇಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಬ೦ದುಬಿಡು...

ನನ್ನಾಣೆ ಕೇಳೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಾಣವೇ.. ನ೦ಗೆ ಬೇರೆ ಯಾರಿಲ್ಲವೇ..
ನಿನ್ನಾಣೆ ಕೇಳೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಾಣವೇ.. ಬೇರೆ ಯಾರು ಬೇಕಿಲ್ಲವೇ..

ನಾವು ಭೇಟಿ ಆದಾಗ, ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೊತ್ತು ಮಾತು ಬೇಡ ಕಣೇ.. ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳು ಮಾತಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಲಿ.. ಬೆರಳುಗಳು ಮಾತಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಲಿ.. ಒ೦ದು ಅಪ್ಪುಗೆ.. ಬಿಗಿಯಾಗಿ, ಹಿತವಾಗಿ.. ಇಡೀ ಜಗತ್ತೇ ಸ್ಥ೦ಭಿಸಿ ಹೋಗಿದೆ, ನಾನು ನೀನು ಇಬ್ರೇ ಇರೋದು ಅನ್ನೋವ೦ತಾ ಒ೦ದು ಅಪ್ಪುಗೆ.. ನ೦ಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಬೆಸ್ಟ್ ಫ್ರೆ೦ಡ್ ಬೇಕು.. ನನ್ನ ಚಿನ್ನು ಬೇಕು.. ಮಾತು ಬೇಕು.. ಮಾತಿನ ನಡುವಿನ ಮೃದುವಾದ ಹಿತಕರ ಮೌನ ಬೇಕು.. ನೀನು ಖುಷಿಯಿ೦ದ ಅಳ್ತೀಯಾ.. ನಾನು ನಿನ್ನ ಕೂದಲಲಿ ಕೈಯಾಡಿಸ್ತಾ ಹಣೆಗೆ, ತು೦ಬುಗೆನ್ನೆಗೆ ಮುತ್ತಿಡ್ಬೇಕು.. ಲೈಫು ಅಷ್ಟೇನೆ...

Breakfast... The desire...

I’m stuck here in the pizza burger eating country. There are a few Indian restaurants here but none are as delightful as the good old Darshinis in Bangalore. Every morning I wake up saddened by teh fact that I do not get to eat a proper south Indian breakfast. See, I do not have the time to cook and frozen food just doesn’t feel right... That’s when I miss the darshinis and upahars. Ghar ka khana is not an option here and bahar ka khana is not available.. The tacky title reminiscent of Bhatt family is because its catchy...

Breakfast is very important. It as important as an implant to an actress. Doesn’t feel complete without it. I for one miss it a lot. Breakfast that is. Without it I feel like Sreesanth bowling to Hayden who just hit the previous ball to boundary. Frustrated and ready to snap.

Life was so simple when you are at home. You would wake up, thank the big guy, if you are the conservative type and go brush. You would have tea ready. Sip tea, fight for newspaper with your sibling, then go for bath, thindi (or as Mysore/bangalore people say Tifan) ready. Food which is as yummy as Scarlett Johansson in bubble bath (Dosa, uppittu, chitranna, kottige, pundi, in some special occassions shyavige.. yumm. and with that you will hv chutney, sambar, jenu, rasayana.. slurp slurp..) My dad is a better cook than my mom. (Men are always better at cooking and my sweetheart would agree) and my dad was the cook at home. So dad ka haath ka khaana was awesome. Eat go to school/college.. No tension.. no problem.. For someone who always had lion's share in every food item at home, nothing could hv been better.

Moved to Mysore for engineering.. Suddenly realized how important a good breakfast is. Sure Nagaraja Bhatru, Shankara and Mukunda (that was one crazy dude..) prepared good breakfast (Sure MH guys won’t exactly agree. but when you leave MH, you realize the value) but it was nothing like home.. MH life is full of memories (good bad great weird etc.). Should probably write about it sometime. Byak to the ishtory.. Even though it was served at inhumane 6:30 in the morning, it saved us lot of money.. If you wake up late escaping from Warden ( the call "ಆಮಾಯ೦ತು ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಚಾರಿಣಃ... ಒಳ್ಳೆ ವಿಧ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು.. ಏಳ್ರಪ್ಪಾ.. ಏಳೋ ಶಮ೦ತಾ..", Shammi was my roommate for all four years in hostel and deemed the warden as his enemy, still rings in my ear..), you had the wonderful Harsha bar(th). 1 Re Idly, 1:50 coffee/vada, 5 Rs variety rice (that’s the term my Bangalore office canteen uses),with what can only be described as supremely awesome mosarubajji.. Take a bow Harsha bar(th). I'm 27 now and never in my life have I had better food for less money. Hygiene? They have not heard of the word and probably think it is some phirangi disease.. That was the greatest place on earth for us. Well, along with GTR. GTR was little over the budget and had heard of hygiene. One Masale n coffee, your day is set.

Then had to leave and spend two months in Coimbatore. Apart from getting scolded by the traffic police for not knowing Tamil (ille saar konjam konjam teriyum.. ) and talking about Arsenal due to a fanatic roomie, the most memorable thing was the food. Tamil Nadu is the best place for Idly vada. Trust me on that. Although they dint teach us Tamil as a foreign language, we learnt tidbits and were successful in ordering different stuff (You don't understand. Tomato Rice is a KANNADA word for the waiter in Bangalore/Mysore. Not for TN one. You need to say Thakkali saadam.). Romba nice no?

Once I came to Bangalore, LCenter canteen was the only option. The food was as good as my cooking. Ghar ka khana you say? Meh.Cooking ran in family blood. It somehow ran away from mine. When I got married, I thought hard times are over.. Still LCenter canteen was my saviour. My wife isn’t a morning person. So avalakki bhath was the only edible thing..

And when i came to Amrika, here there was no option and I realized how important Indian breakfast is.. Eating bleddy corn flakes is the best option here. I’d rather eat pieces of cardboard rather. When you put milk, I do not think you can differentiate. Since waking up and waking up my roommate are the biggest tasks in the mornings, I sencerely hope someone gets a H1 visa or a green card and starts a blooming hotels. Or a dosa camp. Sadly my visa type will not allow me... O Darshini.. Where art thou…

trust and see what happens...

Why woud someone who trusts you a lot put you in a spot? You get to know that they are unhappy and you make your best attempt to get in touch with them and they simply ignore you. Is it because they want to know that they are not happy, but do not wish to discuss with you? For someone who wants you to know they are depressed, shouldn't they be making an effort to talk as well?

You are in middle of something, and you get to know that the person is depressed. You are concerned and you try to contact him/her. You mail/call/skype/gtalk or whatever you can. But there is no response. How do you feel? Scared that he/she has done something to self? How many people felt that way? or how many have done that to you? I figured out that it happens to me more often than not. Is it just me? or people love to play with me? I do not know.

Normally, I'm not an emotional person and im not that sentimentally attached to people around me. But there are some who have proved special and I care about them. And the sad part is they dont bother about it. Whenever I talk/meet, they paint the sad picture. But will not respond when I want to be there for them. They are busy shopping or going out with other friends.

Walter Anderson had said "We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy". I feel trust is the most important part of an relationship. Be it love or friendship. That is the best thing you can get. Not mutual admiration, not love, not the time spent together. Its the knowledge that you have the other person come what may and you will be there for him/her. There are people who misuse this. I'm not denying the fact. But if the person really is worth it, you will stand by him/her. Let me use another quote here. This by Ralph Waldo Emerson -"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it's the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friend."

Marriage they say is not a word but a sentence. Life long sentence. Love is blind and marriage is an institution. Its been two years since I entered the institution for clinically blind. We have maintained a long distance relationship pretty well, with our fair share of fights. She drives me up the wall sometimes with her attitude and mood swings. But i know how good she is and how much she loves me. Even with all her shoutings and yellings, I know that at the end of the day she will be there for me always.

If you cannot trust a friend, then are not allowing that friend to be the friend that you need them to be. I'm not sure if that made sense. OK, Why do I end up writing philosophical bullshit on my blog? I have no idea. Tried to stop but somehow I just cant help it.

Needed.. Peace..

Melancholy.. Someone asked me how is life treating me. Did not get the verb form of melancholy. So just said fine. Life as we know it is nothing like we know it. I realized it recently while planning my life. It always waits for us to take a decision and then decides to take the alternate route.

Staying away from loved ones, working your ass off, staying up till late, not getting enough sleep, still you do not wanna leave although you tell everyone that you have had enough.. Well.. If you are experiencing all these, it means you are at onshore. Or made a shitty career choice.. or both..

Why is it that some people have all the happiness? Im scared that blog is becoming too philosophical. Enough of this...

I read about verdict on Aruna Shanbuag. The poor lady has suffered enough. Cant they end her pain? The man who did this to her was released after 14 years. Even sadder part is he was charged only for assault and robbery, not the sexual offence. Why did they let him go? they should have hanged him, By his balls. Some government, some laws...

Random depressing rambling..

Its raining in Charlotte. Is it beautiful? not exactly. Is it cold outside? Kind of. Why am I writing this? I don’t know.. May be because I’m shit bored. there is nothing to do.

What am I doing here? What do I do? Sit in front of the laptop and work during the weekdays and sit in front of laptop watching movies/teleserials during the weekends. Monotonous? You bet..

Charlotte, The queen city.. Named after a German princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg. And Mecklenburg is the county name. You think Americans don’t prefer Europeans? Check all the city names and places. Anyways, there is nothing much to see.. They say that the aero museum is nice, need to check the place. The one mall we like going to closes at 7 on Sundays and 9 on other days. That’s how active this city is.

This place is calm. So calm that it’s kind of eerie. You think I’m exaggerating? Try going for a walk anytime of the day. You will hardly see people out, even during summer time. Wal-Mart and the malls, that’s where you can see some people active.. And its not a very safe city either. Burglars and robbers are pretty active during winter. I have heard from my friends about how they were held at knife-point for their money. Well, as they say in Kannada, Ellaru maDuvudu hoTTegaagi.

It has been more than a year since I arrived here. The first impression was not great. The roads with potholes, not much of a traffic, cold and windy outside. The city has not made any efforts to change my impression though. I like snow but it snows twice or thrice only here. cold winters and very hot summers..

All my good friends were here when I arrived. People change when they go onsite they said.. Did not believe them. Well. now I have only one good friend, my roommate. He has been the company when everyone else moved away. thats life.

well.. There was no point in writing this blog. Dont bother to opine.