Only in Bangalore

Would you see men, women and farm animals stand at a signal and wonder when the traffic in this city will improve.

They dont call me blunderqueen for nothing..

Me: Hey I was just watching this song on tv.. im in love with it but have no clue what movie its from. I have been googling with no luck
Friend : Hmm..which one
Me: This guy is following a girl in the rain and
Friend: ok stop kidding now
Me: huh?
Friend: Thats my song.. I sang that for the movie Renigunta.
Me: sure ok.. im gona continue to search
Friend : er.. i did sing that song
Me: (after a google enlightenment) oh..

So that was my faux pa for the day, what was yours. While I let you ponder on that, here is my latest favorite

In my head right now

The week has been rather weird and random, hence it would unfair if my post doesn't follow suit.

Five random thoughts in my head right now:

1)People are like kaleidoscopes. Your always bound to see new colours. You might think knowing a person for a year should give you a fair idea. Boy can you be wrong or what.But not all of it is bad!

2) Did a movie marathon, to make up for the abstinence. Ayirathil oruvan, avatar and NY I love you. I started off by disliking AO, but towards the end actually quite enjoyed it. Avatar was ok, probably because I was the last person on the planet to watch it. And finally NY I love you - reminded me why I want to go back there.

3)An island awaits with bated breath for election results. Though I am far away now, my thoughts are still with the twenty million hopeful hearts. Absence of war after all does not mean peace.

4)I abhor making decisions, especially when it feels like the world is breathing your neck and pushing you to do so. My heart truly bleeds for the proverbial cat on the fence. I know how that chap felt.

5) And finally, a sadly funny (if there is such a phrase) quote i saw on somebody's blog " Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love"- Charles M. Schulz

Better super late than never

I know I am slightly late with this post, but then somebody said its always better late than never. So keeping to tradition, here is what 2009 was to me

People: Made new friends, lost a couple of old ones to time and distance. Most importantly I learned that you can never know anyone too well.

Places: Though the travel gods amused themselves by messing up a few of my plans, I did good. Visited three beautiful countries and realized travel can teach you so much. Like Twain said " Travel is hazardous for narrow mindedness". Or something like that.

Beginnings and ends: I spent a good deal of time in hospitals and came to respect doctors and nurses a whole lot more. And also fear a few. The time spent here made me realize that titling your blog Carpe Diem didn't cut it. You really have to seize the moment or your going to really sorry. It was a much needed wake up call. As a result I shocked a lot of people including myself by giving up my job and deciding to experiment on my own.

28: I am for the first time in my life actually feeling my age. Still deciding if that is a good thing or not. I had my moments when life felt like the rubic cube. But of late I have come to realize that you dont have get over some heart breaks and losses. Learning to live with it is good enough.

So that was my rather mixed year. 2010 here I come!

Randomness

- What does one do to appease travel gods? My travel plans have gone berserk again!
- Finally finally managed to get season four of Ugly Betty. I actually felt like i was meeting an old friend. That cant be normal can it?
- Jumped on the twitter bandwagon after a friend convinced me we could save world together by tweeting. Paris Hilton and Paulo Coelho are my current favs. The former amuses me and the latter can be quite enlightening.
- My apparently tone deaf and somewhat psycho neighbour has been playing Vettaikaran on the loop. Where are the power cuts when you need them?

The boy who could braid

Waiting for my luggage at the Colombo airport, I happened to glance at the billboard for a brand of men's suits. The brand ambassador a stocky young men dressed entirely in black shot you a lopsided smile. Apparently he was the island's leading talk show host- claimed the ad. I wouldn't have given the picture a second glance, if the name at the bottom hadn't caught my eye. I did a double take to ensure I read the name right. " This couldn't possibly be D" was my first reaction. But when I looked at the picture closely I could see faint traces of a boy I once knew.

I met D years ago during one of my many summer trips to Colombo. My aunt was in charge of her school's participation in a dramatics contest. Managing a bunch of 15 year boys was not easy and I used to tag along to play helper. D stood out among the noisy and boisterous lot. Overweight and incredibly shy , he was an easy target for the class bullies. The fact that he had to walk around in a skirt for his role never helped his case. While the rest of the boys played cricket during the breaks, D always sat in a corner braiding. Yes braiding. He would braid pieces of thread, wigs from the costume cupboard and even tussles on the table cloth. They were the most beautiful braids I have seen till date.

When curiosity got the better of me I asked where he learned to braid so well. After what seemed like an eternity of silence. He told his story.D's dad was a doctor in the war struck north. When he was seven their town became an unwilling battlefield. With the army on side and terrorists on the other, the town was completely cut off from the rest of the island.D's dad a doctor used to walk around the town in the nights administering his patients. Unfortunately for him, he caught an infection and died.

With the battle still raging, his mother had to wait for things to calm down to give his father a proper burial. while they sat in the ghost house waiting, his mother started to braid and un-braid her hair in a monotonous trance. Little D who sat by her watching, followed suit on a tussled cloth. Deeply scarred by those events, his braiding habit grew to be his security blanket.

His response was not what I expected. I felt terribly guilty for having dug up his past. Those days being pre-facebook times, I lost touch with him over time.



Staring at that billboard at the airport, the image of D in mind was so different.
I could still picture him as the shy boy who glared at his classmate nemesis above his glasses rather than through and stuttered- " I'm going to be big some day and you are going to be sorry". And he kept his word.

Walking out of the airport that day, it gave me a happy high to know that the stars were shining down on my old fried.

Pirates Ahoy

I have been quite bemused with all media attention on Chetan Bhagats Twitter comments. He ticked off a journalist for making a sort of pro piracy comment and now he has the media jungle breathing down his back. My sympathies are with CB. It was his twitter page and honestly I think he had a point. But this post isn't about piracy of books.
It is about a rather unique form of piracy I came across.

Coming back from a weekend trip to Coorg, we stopped over at a Coffee day. Half way through our coffees we realized it wasn't a coffee day in the first place. Everything from the logo colors, waiter's outfits, deco to even the patterns on the biscuit tins had been copied from CCD. But apparently they had nothing to do with them.

I know imitation is the best form of flattery but this was piracy at its heights!


The fake Coffe Day Cafe


Fake logo