If you are a best friend reading this then u know it and might want to move on to reading something better, if you are a well-wisher then you will be worried but not surprised and if you are my Mr future husband then brace yourself to live with it! Yes, because I have, by this beautiful age of 24 evolved into something that could be easily labeled as a couch potato. No, I’m not your stereotypical 24/7glum looking and chips chewing couch potato. I’m smart and sometimes-could-look-sexy couch potato hooked to the TV in my own a-mah-zing style. It’s all about enjoying and celebrating the characters and yes digging deep on to Google to know them better.
It all began well-over a decade ago when my latchkey child days (Google if you don’t know the meaning) coincided with the boom of cable-networks in the country. I used to be a bollywood fan, with an occasional film once a month, on the VCR at home or the local single-screen theatre, but my romance with television was just a natural progression and not a premeditated attempt. It was like a girl and a boy stuck under a roof on a rainy night. It began with the Zee Tv sitcoms like Hum Paanch and Star Plus thrillers like Star Best sellers or even the serious ones like Shanti and Banegi apni Baat. This went on until of-course kitchen politics and the mangalsutra battles took precedence and all the good things were put-off air.
They say “one mustn’t turn to another man’s arms while you are still forgetting the other”, but that’s clearly not the case when you are in love with the TV. This is precisely the time Hollywood came calling in my life. No such luck as our very own over-rated Frieda Pinto, here, but just as an audience. Life took an interesting turn here and this is how Richard Gere, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Jude Law, Brad Pitt and numerous other Hollywood hunks entered my celluloid life. Time evolves and so did the English TV network airing in India. More channels meant more series, interesting storylines and characters. This was the welcome for Friends, Desparate Housewives, Scrubs, Sex and the City and much much more… the journey so far has been more satisfying then anything else in my life.
Though a couch potato is taken and looked-upon in a negative sense, it would be a little too harsh to look at it that way. I love television, but am not 100% gullible to it, only partially and I know how to draw the line between reel and real—not justifying just resting my case.
That’s all the confessions for now…trust friends are not reading this and well wishers must have got bored half-way through, Mr future husband… are you there? Or have you taken a flight?
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Workaholic syndrome, Paris debuts and Happy endings….
Last I was seen here was on April 19! Oh Gosh! It’s been a while, well more than a while since I did anything in this space. Was nursing too many things, oh no not a broken heart, thankfully it was not even one of them. It was more of a writer’s block or should I say a blogger’s block coupled with “I have too many things to do syndrome” which kept me on my toes and away from this space. No I wasn’t pulling-off a Hank Moody from Californication either; I mean I really love that guy not only for his looks, but also for the character itself. No way do I support his clandestine sex-life, but it feels good to see him fall in and out of shit all the time, after all TV is all about catharsis, isn’t it? All right enough about my comeback and Hank Moody obsession, and let me get straight to the point.
Life threw many surprises at me in the last four months since I have blogged. The first two months since April I was in head-deep work, swarming through stories, snippets and all you have got to do at a media workplace. I wasn’t really thinking, but just working like a paper shredder. Now that I look back it actually gave me the confidence of being a multi-tasker who knows to juggle many things at one given time. Basically, I suffered from a workaholic syndrome, where meal time doubled as telecon time.
I have always believed in the idiom “Life happens when you are busy making other plans”. So while I was busy working and hobnobbing deadlines, I was blessed with a mini-sojourn of Europe!! One couldn’t ask for anything more than a visit to Paris and Switzerland, it was like they say, “Happiness comes in small packages”. I mean yes the whole world goes to Paris and some of them even live there, but not everybody goes to Paris for the French Open and get an autograph and click a photo with the World Tennis Sensation Rafael Nadal!!
Speaking of Happy endings, a few more friends and cousins headed on their path to Holy matrimony. I for one have always been fascinated about how two people can actually come to the decision of being together for the rest of their life! I’m not against the idea or the virtue of monogamy, but am wondering how we humans put everything at risk and settle with each other. This again would be a debate for another day on another blog piece…hoping to be writing some sense in this space on a regular basis.
Until then…adios!!!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
C Hulaballoo, rising Ds and magic of Womens’ Ts
Five days of national drama followed by debates, interviews and all the usual “Media hungama” we united as a country against the 'Cancer of Corruption'. This time around it wasn’t just the social workers and feisty citizens, but kids, oldies and all those who have been scarred by corruption. Thanks to my job, I got to visit the second important ground zero (among the many that sprung up to show solidarity) in the country after Jantar Mantar in Delhi—Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
From kids, to retired people, men and women from all classes, boys with goatee and girls in shorts united on the maidan to fight corruption. I interviewed a few people there and most of them had passion spewing out of every word they said and wanted an end to India’s new chronic problem—Corruption. All said and done the fast was called off the very next day and the weekend was spent in celebration. I wonder though if the Lokpal Bill will see the light of day or have we fought a lost battle like every other in this country? Somewhat we Indians come is many layers and have an attention span of a toad, we can’t focus, we tend to digress easily. Which is what happened even here and Anna Hazare was accused of the most miniscule of his ‘offences’ by a few let’s say wandering minds, who wanted to take it up as an opportunity to prevaricate from the topic.
Well, while the C is being taken care of, we have a major rise of the D (DIVORCE) in this country and I don’t need to prove it with any research report. While it’s habitual for the celebs to plunge in to a divorce as quick as they plunge in to marriage, the recent news of Shewta Keswani divorcing her husband ALexx O’Neal was a major shocker.
I have spoken to Alexx for a story last year and he seemed to be very much in love with his wife. Wonder what happened there? Closer to us commoners, two girls (long lost schoolmates) reunited in the train after a long time. I happened to eavesdrop on their “catching-up” chatter and it went something like this….
Miss A: Hey u know about Suchi??
Miss B: No, last thing I knew about her was she is married
Miss A: yeah, well she is divorced now, after two years
Miss B: You remember Archana?
Miss A: Yes.
Miss B: Well she had a nasty divorce. Her five-year-old kid was asked by the court whom does he want to stay with? He chose Archana Thank God!!
While last year it was marriages galore this year it’s suddenly the ugly D has shown up from nowhere. Not that it wasn’t existent before no I’m not naïve, but worried? yes that I am. Maybe divorce his on rise because it’s not only the men, but also the woman who have life now. No, I’m not talking about pantsuit careers, we are way beyond that, but women have a life—they have friends of their own and not just the husband’s friends’ wives. They go to party as young girls and would prefer to do so even after marriage, now that’s something married Indian women “don’t do”. In simple words I believe Indian Marriages are falling prey not to “space” problems but cultural discrepancy.
Coming to the last part of the title Womens’ T’s well don’t worry here T stands for Thoughts. Sleepovers can be exciting, but they are also thought provoking and give you epiphanies. The recent one I had gave me an epiphany which is that—all women think alike when they are in love—it’s uncanny how they build the same world revolving around Marine Drive (for Mumbai women only), concerned calls, text messages and all that jazz. And when we do this we are mostly on the wrong page, which is important in the initial stages of life as lessons are learnt for future purposes.
So the C, the D and the T are pretty much here to stay, though I hope we get rid of the C and D sooner, but then again that’s just utopia I’m stressing on. As for the Ts, I hope they flourish; women are better when they are connected as a group rather than left out to be on their own—don’t mean to be sexist just a realist.
From kids, to retired people, men and women from all classes, boys with goatee and girls in shorts united on the maidan to fight corruption. I interviewed a few people there and most of them had passion spewing out of every word they said and wanted an end to India’s new chronic problem—Corruption. All said and done the fast was called off the very next day and the weekend was spent in celebration. I wonder though if the Lokpal Bill will see the light of day or have we fought a lost battle like every other in this country? Somewhat we Indians come is many layers and have an attention span of a toad, we can’t focus, we tend to digress easily. Which is what happened even here and Anna Hazare was accused of the most miniscule of his ‘offences’ by a few let’s say wandering minds, who wanted to take it up as an opportunity to prevaricate from the topic.
Well, while the C is being taken care of, we have a major rise of the D (DIVORCE) in this country and I don’t need to prove it with any research report. While it’s habitual for the celebs to plunge in to a divorce as quick as they plunge in to marriage, the recent news of Shewta Keswani divorcing her husband ALexx O’Neal was a major shocker.
I have spoken to Alexx for a story last year and he seemed to be very much in love with his wife. Wonder what happened there? Closer to us commoners, two girls (long lost schoolmates) reunited in the train after a long time. I happened to eavesdrop on their “catching-up” chatter and it went something like this….
Miss A: Hey u know about Suchi??
Miss B: No, last thing I knew about her was she is married
Miss A: yeah, well she is divorced now, after two years
Miss B: You remember Archana?
Miss A: Yes.
Miss B: Well she had a nasty divorce. Her five-year-old kid was asked by the court whom does he want to stay with? He chose Archana Thank God!!
While last year it was marriages galore this year it’s suddenly the ugly D has shown up from nowhere. Not that it wasn’t existent before no I’m not naïve, but worried? yes that I am. Maybe divorce his on rise because it’s not only the men, but also the woman who have life now. No, I’m not talking about pantsuit careers, we are way beyond that, but women have a life—they have friends of their own and not just the husband’s friends’ wives. They go to party as young girls and would prefer to do so even after marriage, now that’s something married Indian women “don’t do”. In simple words I believe Indian Marriages are falling prey not to “space” problems but cultural discrepancy.
Coming to the last part of the title Womens’ T’s well don’t worry here T stands for Thoughts. Sleepovers can be exciting, but they are also thought provoking and give you epiphanies. The recent one I had gave me an epiphany which is that—all women think alike when they are in love—it’s uncanny how they build the same world revolving around Marine Drive (for Mumbai women only), concerned calls, text messages and all that jazz. And when we do this we are mostly on the wrong page, which is important in the initial stages of life as lessons are learnt for future purposes.
So the C, the D and the T are pretty much here to stay, though I hope we get rid of the C and D sooner, but then again that’s just utopia I’m stressing on. As for the Ts, I hope they flourish; women are better when they are connected as a group rather than left out to be on their own—don’t mean to be sexist just a realist.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Almost Famous…
I have a confession to make. No I’m not gonna say all those things that might rush through your mind following the utterance of that phrase. This is a bit different and to my knowledge could be unique because girls generally don’t like being where I’m right now-in the matrimony market. I’m 24 now and it all, like in most Indian families, started just after my 23rd birthday.
Since then, the news has spread like wild fire and I have landed up having three matchmakers in three different corners of the city and my birth charts matched with 15 boys living in different corners of the country. And I haven’t met any of them because well cosmically I’m not compatible with any of them. This proves my innocent single hood of 24 years
It’s not just the matchmakers who are doing their job, but homegrown aunties are also doing their bit for me. The band of aunties would include my immediate aunties and their comrades (also woman) and the network just spreads farther than the skyline I believe. All this nexus building, passing on my photos and birth chart almost like passing the parcel makes me feel like I’m almost famous.
Maybe not Bob Dylan style famous, but in my own little secured world suddenly me and my “Mr Right” are on everybody’s mind. So is this what it means when the whole universe (which means the people in it) conspires to get you what you want?
Maybe who knows, I would like to look at it that way.
Till then Happy Matrimony Hunt
Since then, the news has spread like wild fire and I have landed up having three matchmakers in three different corners of the city and my birth charts matched with 15 boys living in different corners of the country. And I haven’t met any of them because well cosmically I’m not compatible with any of them. This proves my innocent single hood of 24 years
It’s not just the matchmakers who are doing their job, but homegrown aunties are also doing their bit for me. The band of aunties would include my immediate aunties and their comrades (also woman) and the network just spreads farther than the skyline I believe. All this nexus building, passing on my photos and birth chart almost like passing the parcel makes me feel like I’m almost famous.
Maybe not Bob Dylan style famous, but in my own little secured world suddenly me and my “Mr Right” are on everybody’s mind. So is this what it means when the whole universe (which means the people in it) conspires to get you what you want?
Maybe who knows, I would like to look at it that way.
Till then Happy Matrimony Hunt
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
As deadly as it gets…would this be the end of it all?
March has started on a deadly note, first we had a body of a woman found in the suitcase at Juhu beach. In Mumbai a mother of two first threw them off the building terrace and then committing suicide herself. During the same time there was the horrendous Tsunami and earthquake in the tiny little island country of Japan, the number of deaths there are beyond anybody’s imagination.
Back in Delhi a girl named Radhika Tanwar was killed in broad daylight by her stalker of “three years”. Just yesterday a 24-year-old Indian girl student in Australia was brutally murdered and her body was found in a suitcase. In Mumbai an 11 year-old girl committed suicide, when her mother found out about her affair with a classmate.
All of the above incidences spell out just one reality, “Humans are getting worse by the minute”. The capacity to take life as it comes and face it bravely is diminishing and I fear one day it will disappear to the horror of everyone. I know it’s not brave to just sit here and key-in the words and reflect and wonder on these events.
But I don’t want to reflect, because I’m not mentally and professionally in a position to sit and speculate of what goes on in a person’s mind when they carry out such acts. In fact when I read the story of the mother and her kids I felt nervous and started to worry about the Indian housewife who might just not be safe in her “own home”. About the murders it just gets weird with every story, a decade ago we had the spine-chilling news of a husband killing his wife by frying her into the tandoor. Since that day I started believing that human beings are not the most civilized but rather the most cannibalized species on this planet, move over the carnivores.
However, stress levels have always been there, money crunch was always lingering and humans where always these problems existed before and it’s only that with higher-levels of vulnerability that humans are taking to suicide or murder as logical solutions to their problems and hence it’s now that this reality is staring starkly in our face. I just dread to open newspapers forget reading them anymore.
As for the calamity in Japan well it’s natures forces acting against us and while some say this too shall pass, a few others are pondering over the end of the world theory according to the Mayan calendar; which says that the world will end in December 2012…..not that the world is a great place to live and not that we are getting any better. But like Billy Joel said, “We didn’t start the fire… it was always burning since the world’s been turning…
Well I don’t know, but I do care.
Back in Delhi a girl named Radhika Tanwar was killed in broad daylight by her stalker of “three years”. Just yesterday a 24-year-old Indian girl student in Australia was brutally murdered and her body was found in a suitcase. In Mumbai an 11 year-old girl committed suicide, when her mother found out about her affair with a classmate.
All of the above incidences spell out just one reality, “Humans are getting worse by the minute”. The capacity to take life as it comes and face it bravely is diminishing and I fear one day it will disappear to the horror of everyone. I know it’s not brave to just sit here and key-in the words and reflect and wonder on these events.
But I don’t want to reflect, because I’m not mentally and professionally in a position to sit and speculate of what goes on in a person’s mind when they carry out such acts. In fact when I read the story of the mother and her kids I felt nervous and started to worry about the Indian housewife who might just not be safe in her “own home”. About the murders it just gets weird with every story, a decade ago we had the spine-chilling news of a husband killing his wife by frying her into the tandoor. Since that day I started believing that human beings are not the most civilized but rather the most cannibalized species on this planet, move over the carnivores.
However, stress levels have always been there, money crunch was always lingering and humans where always these problems existed before and it’s only that with higher-levels of vulnerability that humans are taking to suicide or murder as logical solutions to their problems and hence it’s now that this reality is staring starkly in our face. I just dread to open newspapers forget reading them anymore.
As for the calamity in Japan well it’s natures forces acting against us and while some say this too shall pass, a few others are pondering over the end of the world theory according to the Mayan calendar; which says that the world will end in December 2012…..not that the world is a great place to live and not that we are getting any better. But like Billy Joel said, “We didn’t start the fire… it was always burning since the world’s been turning…
Well I don’t know, but I do care.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
It’s no more Miss Broods-a-lot
Here’s good news for my friends and well-wishers-I’m bidding goodbye to brooding!!! I don’t want to sound saintly I’m not and neither do I follow one, but I suddenly have incorporated the basic life principle of ‘being happy in whatever I have’. This isn’t a resolution either it’s a decision.
This decision is dedicated to people who are never happy in their life. There is nothing unique about them; they are just like us except for the fact that they sulk a lot. They are so unhappy that happiness is now afraid of showing up in their life. They speak the language of fights and arguments with everything that moves on the face of the earth.
Recently, I have been bumping into a lot of these unhappy souls who fail to see the brighter side of life and enjoy the moments that god has blessed us with. If the internet in office doesn’t work they also fail to function, some project that they are working on faces obstacles that need brainpower to be solved; they will instead work-up their will power, if the boss is bad then the whole world becomes a bad place to live.
Meeting these people was like holding up a mirror in front of me and staring at the stark reality of how I would look if I moped about everything under the sun. I sulked a lot about…bad bosses, failed attractions, waist size, nose size, bad hair day, personal and professional deadlines and everything you have. But no more…It’s time to think positive!!! Bad things happen for a good reason and living a bad moment helps us live those precious good moments to its fullest.
And like a wise, charming, good-looking man rightly mouthed, “Life is not about the amount of breaths you take…it’s the moments that take your breath away”.
This decision is dedicated to people who are never happy in their life. There is nothing unique about them; they are just like us except for the fact that they sulk a lot. They are so unhappy that happiness is now afraid of showing up in their life. They speak the language of fights and arguments with everything that moves on the face of the earth.
Recently, I have been bumping into a lot of these unhappy souls who fail to see the brighter side of life and enjoy the moments that god has blessed us with. If the internet in office doesn’t work they also fail to function, some project that they are working on faces obstacles that need brainpower to be solved; they will instead work-up their will power, if the boss is bad then the whole world becomes a bad place to live.
Meeting these people was like holding up a mirror in front of me and staring at the stark reality of how I would look if I moped about everything under the sun. I sulked a lot about…bad bosses, failed attractions, waist size, nose size, bad hair day, personal and professional deadlines and everything you have. But no more…It’s time to think positive!!! Bad things happen for a good reason and living a bad moment helps us live those precious good moments to its fullest.
And like a wise, charming, good-looking man rightly mouthed, “Life is not about the amount of breaths you take…it’s the moments that take your breath away”.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
By the Sea…at Marine Drive
As I walk past the constant sea
with the wind blowing through my hair
Thoughts of the day’s events race through my mind.
I pass by happy joggers, young buddies, romancing lovers
Everyone seems to be in their personal bliss
living a life of eternal peace.
Strangers all but their smiles make me smile
their cheers make me happy.
The queen’s necklace flashes its golden self
across the sea it stands out amidst the constant glee.
How I love this point of my life, full of energy, happiness
and surprise…A walk on Marine Drive.
with the wind blowing through my hair
Thoughts of the day’s events race through my mind.
I pass by happy joggers, young buddies, romancing lovers
Everyone seems to be in their personal bliss
living a life of eternal peace.
Strangers all but their smiles make me smile
their cheers make me happy.
The queen’s necklace flashes its golden self
across the sea it stands out amidst the constant glee.
How I love this point of my life, full of energy, happiness
and surprise…A walk on Marine Drive.
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