Tu Man Shudhi….

There are some good songs in the air these days, not sure when i will get to watch these movies but yes, the soundtracks are for sure giving me a good time….

Sanwaar loon from Looterey is on eof them. I loved it instantly, melodious music backed by a very good voice. It reminded me of some good old melody…Hopefully the movie would also be equally good.

Another one which caught my ears is this song from Fukrey. The movie appears to be fun filled; with dialogues like “agar han to kanni de diyo” i am sure its going to make a fun watch. the guy looks quite promising in this video.

AR Rehman is back with Ranjhana. The movie appears to be quite promising.. Only doubtful character here is Sonam Kapoor..:P Tu Man Shudhi..Tu Man Shudhi…

I am not sure of Go Goa Gone has released, but i loved this song from the movie…:)

baby K is here!

Ha!!…this blog has been the most neglected place in the past one year…reason being, yours truly was expecting and somehow the inclination to read and write vanished during the last one year!!…sad but true!

The good news however is that we were blessed with a baby girl, who would be called K henceforth on this blog, came into our lives on March 20th this year…:)

Mommy is struggling to keep up with demands of her bundle of joy, and the feeling of being a mother is yet to sink in.  Right now she is sleeping neatly tucked away in her white blanket (which is mommy’s soft cotton dupatta) covered by a mosquito net in baby pink…dreaming away to glory…:)

Will post more about her and my changed life in days to come….till then..cheers…:)

A better home this year…

I have not made any resolutions this year. I do make them every year, but like many others break them within 2 weeks into Jan. Generally these resolutions are around habits which my mind knows are good and should be imbibed, but the lazy me finds too difficult to follow after few days.

For past few months i have been operating out of home. I always knew that my home management skills were dismal; but these past few months have been an eye opener in the true sense. I have 2 maids- a cook and a cleaner. Generally my only involvement with them used be instructing the cook on what to make, and very rarely supervising the cleaner on comparatively relaxed weekends. This can mainly be attributed to lack of time since my job does not allow much space to even try attaining any kind of balance between home and office, coupled with the fact that I have never been the most alert and careful among the female species.  Anyway, since now I am always at home when these two people come to perform the daily tasks, I got a chance to notice that when left unsupervised, they actually perform to 50% of their defined JD! I will not describe the kind of wastage my cook unleashes while cooking and the way the cleaning lady manages to clean and morph the entire house and vessels in straight 40 minutes (for which she is paid a fairly decent amount as compared to market rate); but the past few days have been a major eye opener for me. After noticing their lightening fast gestures while working, i decided to  spend some time in the kitchen when they are around, which obviously was not liked by any of them.  I started tokoing them on small things which I had made very clear to them when they had joined, but were not being followed at all. After days of doing rounds of the kitchen and guiding the cleaning female through the remote corners of the house, I have finally managed to install some sense of fear in them. Fear, because, even after close to one month now, if i am busy in my office work on any day, they are back to their original ways and the only thing i hear from them is…”Bhahiji..mein jaa rahi”..by the time i come out of the room…they are well past the main gate and can be seen running towards their next destination, lest bhabhiji catches them and asks about staircase not morphed, or milk not boiled!!

Anyway, I am still happy with the way thing are turning out, this is much better than how it had been originally. And this is my new year resolution, to have a more well organized and managed home, where things are in my control. There is something very strange about maintaining a household- if you do not pay attention, everything looks ok, and the moment you start going into details, suddenly there is a need to do a complete overhaul of everything!!

A well managed house gives a sense of relief and satisfaction, and the best part I have realized is that it involves hardly .5% of the effort needed in my daily office work!! yes it does require discipline and adherence to few ground rules, but once set, they can be managed relatively easily. In this pursuit of a better managed home, I have also started my tiny investments (:)) in Tupperware. Till now, my only indulgence was to have tiffin boxes and a rare piece here and there if needed, of the category. Reason being, i never had the band  width or the inclination to go into the nitty gritties of how a more organized refrigerator can add to comfort/ organization in storage. However, these days, I am on a constant lookout for replacing my existing containers with the T ware. And it feels good.

Hope to maintain these efforts throughout the year till it becomes  habit for better!!

cheers…

Scared and depressed!

I am very disturbed since yesterday, since this news of gang rape of a 23 year old girl started doing rounds of various news channels and internet. Its horrible, its heinous, its inhuman….its just not fair! it should happen to no human being. I am sad for the victim and scared to core for myself and my family. It just could have been anyone of us…my sister travels through the length and breadth of this city 5 days a week. I myself have boarded these chartered buses/ many other forms of public transport innumerable time….the very thought that it could very well have been anyone from the friends circle/ family scares me to death. I cannot even think what the girl’s family must be going through. No one deserves this plight…its just not done!

9 30 pm in a populated area like Munirka, is absolutely ok time to be out. I have crossed that Mahipalpur flyover hundreds of time in private taxis after 10 pm also. Its not too late even by Delhi standards. Roads are full of traffic. the girl was doing an absolutely normal thing, travelling with a guy, not even alone. Does this mean that we are not safe anywhere?? Because, when i am inside my house at 1 pm in the night in another metro city of India, i get killed by the security guard of the building – yes, i am talking about Pallavi Purkayastha, who was killed in an attempt to rape in Aug this year in Mumbai.

What am i suppose to do? Today as i type this, honestly i am even scared for my unborn children. My life would be hell if i have a girl, in this scenario, the parents can never never breathe in peace..no matter where their daughter is!

Someone had commented very well on this incident- the end of world in 2012 was any day better that seeing all this.

The concern here is that this is not the first time such incident has happened. We all get furious for a couple of days, block roads, light some candles, decorate our Facebook page with revolting status messages, and get busy with our lives till next such incident occurs. Not that its our fault, as very rightly said in one of my favorite movies  A Wednesday- my responsibility as a citizen is to be vigilant and responsible in my actions, as an ordinary citizen of India I do not have the bandwidth and neither am I suppose to ensure that this society remains safe for a common man. I have far too many things to worry about. The problem is there is no fear of law. When i read about the Pallavi Purkayastha rape and murder case, where the culprit was a guard of her building, i wondered, what was the guard thinking- that he he will never get caught. He will just walk away after raping a female for whom it would not be difficult to identify him! Basically, the law and order situation is such that people are not scared of the outcome. After having assaulted and traumatized a human being like what happened in Delhi, lifetime imprisonment/ fine etc are no punishment. Such people should be hanged to death. They have no right to live after screwing someone else’s life forever. Our system needs to sit and think….beyond a certain point we cannot be more careful. If I am not safe inside my house, in the national capital at 8 pm in the evening- the point is I am not safe anywhere in this country.

Honestly speaking, after such incidents, i have started considering my survival- pure luck. As i type this sitting in my living room, I look around and think about the innumerable times, i have had to take late evening metro, or a bus, or venture out alone or interact with a stranger. Any incident could have been fatal- after all its people like me who are getting raped and killed inside their houses, at busy hours in a moving bus!

I sincerely wish, that at least this time the government wakes up and takes some strict action against the guilty. Flyovers and infrastructure is all good…but only when accompanied by a safe society….not when it becomes a dumping ground for assaulted females.

Shopoholic Series- Book Review

I got the reference from one of the blogs, after which i randomly ordered two books from the shopoholic series by Sophie Kinsella. This is a five book series written by financial journalist turned author- about yes, you guessed right- a shopoholic female. The books are nor sequel to each other and can be read independently, however reading them in a sequence is definitely more fun..:)

The story is about Rebecca Bloomwood – Becky who works in a financial firm- writing articles on managing personal money. However, this is only her job. Her heart actually lies in all things glossy, new, straight of the shop, mainly anything which involves shopping as an activity! The five book series take us through her roller coaster ride of her hopping from one financial situation to another- how her credit cards are totally out of control, how she manages to have two marriage preparations one each in London and NY going on simultaneously without each party knowing of the other, her overdrafts in her just three days stay in NY when she goes all over the place buying anything and everything her cards can afford! Written in a hilarious manner, the best part I liked about the series is that at more than one places I could very easily identify with Becky; especially in the first book- Confessions of a Shopoholic, where her constant struggle to try to fit in the all so high profile (and drab and boring) world of matters of financial importance is depicted. Becky is fun, indecisive and impulsive, lands herself and many others into trouble more often than not, but in a very filmy way, always finds an escape also! A highly recommended read if you are looking for a break after a heavy book. Also, avoid reading all books in one go. I did that, but realized that the marginal utility kept declining with every book..:)

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Rating: 3/5

We went to Simla in the beginning of this month, and a post on that is already lying in my drafts. However, there are some more pressing issues at this end preventing me to complete and post it.

I feel that continuing with the Blog Marathon would not be a great idea now..:) Its been more than 20 days that i put the last post. However, the efforts to keep posting regularly would always be on.

And i am not reading Saraswati Park any more (as the display pic on the right says). I found it boring, and have picked up other books for the time being. Next would be a review of The City of Djinns by William Dalrymple.

cheers

Power (less) Cocktail (Post 15)

Bhai saab light ne le li hai!!

We do not have power since morning today. Joke banane vaalon ne joke bhi bhejne shuru kar diye hain:

१ औरत ने डॉक्टर को फ़ोन किया: “डॉक्टर साहब मेरे पति को इलेक्ट्रिक shock लग गया है”

डॉक्टर साहब बोले: “अरे आप पहले वाहे गुरु का शुक्र मनाइए की आपके यहाँ लाइट आ रही है”

I was suppose to blog everyday this month. But as is obvious from the fact that this is the 15th post of this month, i have clearly failed in my goal. However, bright side is that this 15 is much better than one post in 3 months!

This blogathon would continue till i reach 30, sorry 31 posts. Hopefully by Aug end i should have met my target.

I finally managed to watch Cocktail this Sunday, on DVD though. I could only see the first half of the movie properly, as the second half was in a very bad print and i guess the movie was cut also at many places. I found the first half ok. Just that the makers have not paid attention to maintain any logic in the events- Meera’s husband has refused to accept her, however instead of raising an alarm and sorting things out by connecting with her family, she is shown to be busy looking for a job, which she finds also very easily and singing Daaru etc with her flatmates. What happened to all the VISA rules etc???  Further, i somehow did not find Saif’s and her falling in love part very convincing. It happens too fast, even before the characters have been adequately developed in the movie.

However, both the girls look absolutely stunning and Deepika manages to pull through the first half very well. I think its one of her better performances. However, Saif seriously need to stop trying being the DCHic cool dude. It suited him very well then and even till Love Aaj Kal; however now age has started catching up and not only does he look like the elder brother to the girls, his dialogues and role have also been written in a very shabby manner.

While I could not watch the 2nd half completely, but from the few scenes i saw- In the second half, when Meera returns to her husband leaving Saif and Deepika together, the husband suddenly has a heart change and from a jackass he turns into this loving, caring normal guy!! How?? and Why???? This was definitely not needed. Its is highly unconvincing!!

The highest point of the  movie come in the songs. The songs are very good. I loved the “Tumhi ho Bandhu..” track the most. Its a beautiful song sung in an even beautiful manner by “Ik Taara” fame Kavita Seth. The album also has Arif Lohar’s “Jugni” – but with a mellowed down music and changed lyrics.

Overall, the film could have been written better keeping the subject intact, another of the many disappointing films in this series.

Light aa gayi!! (Post 14)

Such a non productive day!!

I have not been able to do anything since morning. Total blanked out kind of feeling. There is work, but no concentration and no focus!!

The northern grid had some major chaos, and we did not have electricity since yesterday night 2:30 (source: husband) till today afternoon, now i hear that most of it has been restored. When i got up in the morning, i found husband on a cleaning spree, on inquiring it turned out that no electricity since past so many hours and hence he had a broken and bad sleep, hence he was roaming around like a zombie and cleaning stuff! Yours truly however, never gets affected by such minor challenges when it comes to sleep, so i had a good night’s sleep..:)

This year the electricity situation has been so bad in Gurgaon, that quite often I was reminded of good old childhood days in my native in UP. Electricity was a commodity of much shortage there, and those days invertors were the only support system during such catastrophes (as i type invertor, i realize that it is not even a word in English!). Anyway, so gensets could be afforded only by a lucky few, and most of use to rely on invertor services in such times. But given the long and frequent power cuts in UP, these machines provided solace only for like 10% of time. rest of the time primarily was spent in either of these ways:

If there are no unit tests/ class tests (which were the only study related demons that we had to face during summers), then the moment power went off, all of us kids use to rush towards the terrace. The nearby areas were quickly analysed and if they were also in dark, was an indication that this power cut is a short one, as the electricity guys, we always felt were kinder to “peeche vaali colony”, hence the power should be back anytime soon.

However, if it was only our area that had been the victim, a collective sigh was let off, as an acknowledgement of the fact that the power trouble was here to stay and the next few hours would now be spent on the terrace only. A folding cot was dragged out from the dingy room on the terrace and activities which followed after that can actually define and very well describe our stage in life at that time:

As small kids in 4th- 5th standard, we use to gather around in a group and discuss our grand plans for the upcoming fair in the town, which was a huge event for us for quite some time. Every day when power went off, we use to make plans on what all we are going to buy this year and which all rides we are going to try! The fair had the same things and rides to offer every year, but the excitement was such that it had to be discussed everyday for at least an hour before we finally went there in September.

Then there were times when bitching was the only agenda. Just gather and bitch about the one not present there. I never knew at that point in time that life ahead would give me ample opportunities to feel or talk negative, else i would have used that time in better activities like planning for the fair…:)

Then there was a phase where Antakshari was the talk of the town. We use to gather on the terrace and start with “samay bitaane ke liye…” the signature antakshari commencement song, and sing the same songs game after game. Actually i can write a separate post on which are the alphabets which come most often in an antakshari and songs with that alphabet became the most sought after songs!! This antakshari was sometimes carried forward to the next day as well when the competition became too intense.  The total  number of times I must have played antakshari in my entire life till now, i guess 80% of that has been played on terrace at home during power cuts!!

Then came the time of discussing crushes!! and no better place than terrace to discuss this. Infact, sometimes when a matter of utmost importance was being discussed, and power came back before our expected time, it use to be a big disappointment. The crush age was being very closely followed by increasing burden of studies also. So slowly these mad rushes to terrace as the power went off started getting replaced by shifting to one single room with books in hand and studying till the invertor was alive. After that, a round formation around the petromax (even this is not a word in English it seems), where books were stared into and insects (light vaale) killed/ shooed away simultaneously, till either the petromax died or power came back.

And not to miss the DDLJ phase. This was the time, when almost all our gatherings were centered around discussing this classic. For i guess six months or so we had nothing else to discuss but the scenes, songs, SRK, Kajol, her hairstyle, her dresses….practically everything from the movie. Infact these discussions were not limited to terrace, we were found talking about the movie starting from morning assembly to free periods, to study breaks- everywhere!!

These terrace gathering died down completely by the time i reached 11th standard, padhai ka bojh kaafi badh gaya tha aur jeevan mein kuch kar dikhane ka pressure bhi. That was also the end of stay in my native. After that for 4 years these gatherings shifted to hostel terrace since power cuts were a prominent feature there also, the topics of discusison there were different though..:). However, post that terrace gatherings completely vanished from my life. Now, the power cut times are spent concentrating on the laptop screen and after that trying hard to sleep no matter what, bhai agle din office bhi jaana hota hai!!