I'll say, this is *really* stretching it...talk about socio-conditioning and the works.
a baby doll that comes with 'real tears' and nappies and also some infant bodily functions.
not-so-subtly preparing the little girls for the future at age 3+?!!
Or maybe, funnily enough, making up their minds for them already, this stuff really isnt all play and cuteness...but hey, pretending to be an astronaut seems like more easy fun and it might well be the line to toe. :-D
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
the war within
this one has decided to be nothing for a while. to just flow with the waves, to just stubbornly be. to not to prove anything.
the other, super-nag, who wants to push and drive and create and become, has been muzzled. for now.
the sand is running out, slowly but surely...but both are right.
I, bemused and amused, observe the tug.
the other, super-nag, who wants to push and drive and create and become, has been muzzled. for now.
the sand is running out, slowly but surely...but both are right.
I, bemused and amused, observe the tug.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Yaay! so, the grey cells arent really ready to be sent out to graze...the book is 'Savages' by Shirley Conran...! am so happy I finally got it. :-D
___
umm...really bummed...
can't remember the name of the book...google isnt much help either.
have read it twice, ages back...loved it...about this bunch of corporate other halves who accompany, well, their other halves (duh?!!) to a retreat for a conference or some such...these women, well-coiffed and airbrushed, can't open a jar for fear of chipping a nail etc, then go on a trip to one of the remoter islands....the plane crashes (or was it a boat?) and they are all stranded there....
they have to shed all their urban sophisticated feminine frills n ribbons and get down and dirty to survive. stripped of all the civilized layers, to the only instinct that makes all living creatures tick. survival.
really neat work...and in a funny sort of way, a precursor to the big reality fix nowadays on telly here, I'm a Celebrity GMOOH!...
I remember thinking while reading the book, how it wd make a really cool movie...all the right masala in it.
pity I can't remember the author's name or the book's.
___
umm...really bummed...
can't remember the name of the book...google isnt much help either.
have read it twice, ages back...loved it...about this bunch of corporate other halves who accompany, well, their other halves (duh?!!) to a retreat for a conference or some such...these women, well-coiffed and airbrushed, can't open a jar for fear of chipping a nail etc, then go on a trip to one of the remoter islands....the plane crashes (or was it a boat?) and they are all stranded there....
they have to shed all their urban sophisticated feminine frills n ribbons and get down and dirty to survive. stripped of all the civilized layers, to the only instinct that makes all living creatures tick. survival.
really neat work...and in a funny sort of way, a precursor to the big reality fix nowadays on telly here, I'm a Celebrity GMOOH!...
I remember thinking while reading the book, how it wd make a really cool movie...all the right masala in it.
pity I can't remember the author's name or the book's.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
so yesterday it was just me, lots of popcorn and Bond. a well-deserved solo treat. :-)
was watching a movie all by myself on the big screen after 3-4 years and it felt good if a bit strange. a sense of freedom from the usual.
was it as good as the old ones? different I'd say...grittier, a bit soppier with the love angle which is eventually doomed and never to return, and definitely more menacing with the new guy. The birth of 007.
I am not going to gush ad nauseam abt the lead actor. He is smouldering...and pretty convincing with the stunts and violence. Looks vulnerable in the right moments. And I stand by my last post. :-)
The sort of ingredients, acute charm + suaveness + comic timing+formulaic bits etc, that the Brosnan flicks had in dollops, are done away with.
Leaner and meaner. and hotter.
was watching a movie all by myself on the big screen after 3-4 years and it felt good if a bit strange. a sense of freedom from the usual.
was it as good as the old ones? different I'd say...grittier, a bit soppier with the love angle which is eventually doomed and never to return, and definitely more menacing with the new guy. The birth of 007.
I am not going to gush ad nauseam abt the lead actor. He is smouldering...and pretty convincing with the stunts and violence. Looks vulnerable in the right moments. And I stand by my last post. :-)
The sort of ingredients, acute charm + suaveness + comic timing+formulaic bits etc, that the Brosnan flicks had in dollops, are done away with.
Leaner and meaner. and hotter.
Friday, November 17, 2006
this thought just popped in my bean last night as I watched one of the zillion 'Making of CR' specials and refused to go away, so here I am blogging it...
I can't see myself ever working on a mundane hows the weather, whens the meeting, 9 to 6 basis with someone who looks exactly like daniel craig.
:-)
never ever.
ever never.
I can't see myself ever working on a mundane hows the weather, whens the meeting, 9 to 6 basis with someone who looks exactly like daniel craig.
:-)
never ever.
ever never.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
In hindsight, this post seems to be a simple case of adult myopia on my part.
A 2 year old anywhere has every right to make what might be a loaded statement in the warped world of adolescents and older creatures...she really might not like anything too brown (which the doll was, in a rather paint-job way - the school's way of sensitizing children to people of all color, maybe), like I might not like green in clothes.
What you hear is what you want to hear or something along those lines...
It can only be the curse of the politically correct syndrome that visits adults which made me wish aloud that it wouldnt carry on to her adult life...after all she did seem to like me, though I admit I am a couple of shades lighter than the doll in question. There I go again...pathetic! This is a rare case of me quibbling with non-issues. Well, theres always a first time for everything as they say...
***
shes an absolute doll...blonde to the point of white, lovely blue eyes behind the fringe, the works...sassy and sweet...made a card with her colored paper and sparkle sprinkle stuff...said it was for me...all of two and a half and a whiz with jigsaws, her kind.
lisped the other day,'I dont like that doll'....before I could ask why...'shes too brown'.
seriously hope she outgrows that particular feeling on her way to adulthood!
:-D
A 2 year old anywhere has every right to make what might be a loaded statement in the warped world of adolescents and older creatures...she really might not like anything too brown (which the doll was, in a rather paint-job way - the school's way of sensitizing children to people of all color, maybe), like I might not like green in clothes.
What you hear is what you want to hear or something along those lines...
It can only be the curse of the politically correct syndrome that visits adults which made me wish aloud that it wouldnt carry on to her adult life...after all she did seem to like me, though I admit I am a couple of shades lighter than the doll in question. There I go again...pathetic! This is a rare case of me quibbling with non-issues. Well, theres always a first time for everything as they say...
***
shes an absolute doll...blonde to the point of white, lovely blue eyes behind the fringe, the works...sassy and sweet...made a card with her colored paper and sparkle sprinkle stuff...said it was for me...all of two and a half and a whiz with jigsaws, her kind.
lisped the other day,'I dont like that doll'....before I could ask why...'shes too brown'.
seriously hope she outgrows that particular feeling on her way to adulthood!
:-D
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
saw this somewhere...
“I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.”
well, atleast some of it does... :-)
___
the parfum is down to the last dregs now...will be on the hunt for the next. this one was some french thing, lovely!
...but, of all the stuff I've ever used, Chanel No.5 rules. Seriously worth the hype and Marilyn's testimonial! :-)
“I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.”
well, atleast some of it does... :-)
___
the parfum is down to the last dregs now...will be on the hunt for the next. this one was some french thing, lovely!
...but, of all the stuff I've ever used, Chanel No.5 rules. Seriously worth the hype and Marilyn's testimonial! :-)
Monday, November 13, 2006
quirks
saw a lady with her groceries going home, her left hand on her cheek, the body a bit bent in the process...have seen her before, same hand on same cheek as today...
we made eye contact and she smiled I think, couldnt see her face, eclipsed by the hand on one cheek. I wonder why its there.
A physiological condition or a nervous tic?
Reminded me of the man I saw years ago in a bus in denver, whispering to someone on the side through a hand cupped to his mouth...telling secrets...to someone the others can't see...a friend, maybe.
we made eye contact and she smiled I think, couldnt see her face, eclipsed by the hand on one cheek. I wonder why its there.
A physiological condition or a nervous tic?
Reminded me of the man I saw years ago in a bus in denver, whispering to someone on the side through a hand cupped to his mouth...telling secrets...to someone the others can't see...a friend, maybe.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2006/11/12/stories/2006111200090300.htm
even as a rather diluted, rank illiterate, never-been-chauvinistic NRM, I agree :-)
even as a rather diluted, rank illiterate, never-been-chauvinistic NRM, I agree :-)
ma spiel
Created life.
Am really tempted to add that to my resumé. I do realize any prospective employer might look at it in disdain and remark, 'so did my mother', or 'so did I'...and so did the lions in Africa or the penguins in the Arctic... any sceptics who read this might add, and added to the planet's woes by increasing the load a bit more.....but the point remains...that when I look at it from even during a really clinical OBE, it seems bloody marvellous!
Personally for moi, to think that the being inside who used to do cartwheels exactly when I was in the middle of a rather solemn and vacuous meeting or who stuck her feet out in a 'Present, Ma'am' way, when I patted around the premises, my constant companion on the dreary and long cab ride back home in the sweltering heat and non-stop FM, to our first face-to-face in the OT...that tiny red squawling thing that looked like a shrivelled squirrel to this little person of 2 years of the incredible curly mop, the killer smile, who throws tantrums, dances to film songs and tries to spell everything she sees in her own language, the most beautiful thing in this world...to think, she will have a life of her own in another couple of years, friends, crushes, learn new things, deploy strategies to combat ozone depletion, the works...it is bloody marvellous!!!
Well, it does help, that today's one of the good days when she has cooperated with the meals and the naps...hence, the gush...
on a bad day, I would be advising the uninitiated not to commit harakiri and not to *ever ever* harbour any maternal or paternal thoughts...you will be sleep-deprived for atleast the first 3 years, not remember what it is to have a conversation with an adult if you decide to work from home or not work at all, have a house that resembles a war zone at any time of the day, have odd bits of goo on your t-shirt, crayons in your hair...and I am not even touching on the tantrums here.
for the uninitiated again, its a bit like owning a character or a bunch of them in the Sims, only a zillion times more exhilarating, educating and nerve-wracking...
still, bloody marvellous!
an itch...
just must get this simian off my back...like an itch that must be scratched till it bleeds...
acting is fake, actors are fake, they are pretending to be someone else in a story.
hence the story is more important becos you know it is XYZ playing that role. it cd be nicole trying a new nose in 'the hours', de niro playing a disturbed guy in 'cape fear' or amitabh pretending to be an asthmatic on-the-verge-of-retiring honest cop (in khakee... one of his best ever!)
...its still just them, memorizing lines, learning their cues, knowing the spot to stand in, putting the paint on, the wigs....all that doing homework, getting into the skin, living the role...
how has it become such a godawful hyped up thing today...!!! all the sundry awards and accolades, the big O being especially hallowed and sucked up to...the crazy fans, the websites, the tabloid frenzy, the papparazzi, the red carpet...just for pretending to be someone else or for being something good yourself?
or are we finally just devoid of any real sensibility or any real reason to celebrate and adulate...?!
SO, the big deal is really just about that element, known to lit students world over as 'willing suspension of disbelief' (coleridge, i remember)...I know its braindead, its just a story, edgy or mushy as the choice of flick might be, but it lets me forget my humdrum life for 1 and a half or 3 hours...
yes, it is an art form....yes it is entertainment, that lowest common denominator for humankind at large..
but does it or rather do the players have to be taken SO seriously! you just need to look at our own film industry where even mediocrity is adulated over...the good ones are not surprisingly then treated as absolute gods and all kinds of titles are bestowed on them....and somewhere inside despite their apparent humility, they do buy into all this...they do think they are IT. and for what?
pretending to be someone else, faking all emotions known to humankind and taking a paycheck which would embarass a top-notch scientist or a solitary soldier perched in Siachen?
I know, tomorrow I might sing a different tune...but the fact remains...the monkey will remain perched on my back, somewhere.
acting is fake, actors are fake, they are pretending to be someone else in a story.
hence the story is more important becos you know it is XYZ playing that role. it cd be nicole trying a new nose in 'the hours', de niro playing a disturbed guy in 'cape fear' or amitabh pretending to be an asthmatic on-the-verge-of-retiring honest cop (in khakee... one of his best ever!)
...its still just them, memorizing lines, learning their cues, knowing the spot to stand in, putting the paint on, the wigs....all that doing homework, getting into the skin, living the role...
how has it become such a godawful hyped up thing today...!!! all the sundry awards and accolades, the big O being especially hallowed and sucked up to...the crazy fans, the websites, the tabloid frenzy, the papparazzi, the red carpet...just for pretending to be someone else or for being something good yourself?
or are we finally just devoid of any real sensibility or any real reason to celebrate and adulate...?!
SO, the big deal is really just about that element, known to lit students world over as 'willing suspension of disbelief' (coleridge, i remember)...I know its braindead, its just a story, edgy or mushy as the choice of flick might be, but it lets me forget my humdrum life for 1 and a half or 3 hours...
yes, it is an art form....yes it is entertainment, that lowest common denominator for humankind at large..
but does it or rather do the players have to be taken SO seriously! you just need to look at our own film industry where even mediocrity is adulated over...the good ones are not surprisingly then treated as absolute gods and all kinds of titles are bestowed on them....and somewhere inside despite their apparent humility, they do buy into all this...they do think they are IT. and for what?
pretending to be someone else, faking all emotions known to humankind and taking a paycheck which would embarass a top-notch scientist or a solitary soldier perched in Siachen?
I know, tomorrow I might sing a different tune...but the fact remains...the monkey will remain perched on my back, somewhere.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
true...and thank God for this new wave!
btw, Omkara was the only recent Indian movie in these neck of the woods, that got a review from the Sunday Times (majorly, for the Bard connection of course) and got 3 stars! (tho they couldn't stomach all the songs and melodrama, predictably)...which is pretty generous, considering most of the lot gets 2 or even just one...!
btw, Omkara was the only recent Indian movie in these neck of the woods, that got a review from the Sunday Times (majorly, for the Bard connection of course) and got 3 stars! (tho they couldn't stomach all the songs and melodrama, predictably)...which is pretty generous, considering most of the lot gets 2 or even just one...!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
emma thompson...an amazing actress...one of the people that make cinema the big deal it is....loved loved loved her in Wit....her movie, through and through...and what a movie! touching and funny and so solitary...
her latest should be good....
her latest should be good....
He's back! and so hot!!!
brosnan was a fave too with his suave slinky ways and the perfect comic timing...this bloke seems more of a cold, dark killer-machine who means business...but still has his ways with the ladies...yum!
brosnan was a fave too with his suave slinky ways and the perfect comic timing...this bloke seems more of a cold, dark killer-machine who means business...but still has his ways with the ladies...yum!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
gyaanlet
was telling a friend abt how its best not to have too many expectations in life...the lesser, the happier you are...and this was not just sounds-cool-BS...it has worked with me.
am kind of an extremist in a very lazy, one-eyebrow-raised way, whatever that means...
I either have very high expectations from people or none...(to digress or not, really, I either have dress to the nines phases or go without any jewellery at all, even earrings, in rags phases...
and I find, as I've travelled through much of my lifespan, I have shed almost all my expectations from anyone...was it due to any social disappointments way back in my gawky adolescence, I dont know and dont care really...now, if I get a prompt-enough reply (thats a whole other post about how uncool it is to be ready with the response anywhere), a thanks, a smile without any reason from a person from the other end of any spectrum, a kind gesture, or even an honest-to-goodness arbit how are you mail from an acquaintance/friend, I feel good...
is this a kind of reverse snobbery in terms of high standards?...maybe. Funnily enough, I have high stds for myself in any and all equations...so, maybe I am a rank full-of-myself person or just a sad loser. whatever...
anyhow, the lighter the baggage, the happier the journey. and no forking out dough for the extra kilos...
am kind of an extremist in a very lazy, one-eyebrow-raised way, whatever that means...
I either have very high expectations from people or none...(to digress or not, really, I either have dress to the nines phases or go without any jewellery at all, even earrings, in rags phases...
and I find, as I've travelled through much of my lifespan, I have shed almost all my expectations from anyone...was it due to any social disappointments way back in my gawky adolescence, I dont know and dont care really...now, if I get a prompt-enough reply (thats a whole other post about how uncool it is to be ready with the response anywhere), a thanks, a smile without any reason from a person from the other end of any spectrum, a kind gesture, or even an honest-to-goodness arbit how are you mail from an acquaintance/friend, I feel good...
is this a kind of reverse snobbery in terms of high standards?...maybe. Funnily enough, I have high stds for myself in any and all equations...so, maybe I am a rank full-of-myself person or just a sad loser. whatever...
anyhow, the lighter the baggage, the happier the journey. and no forking out dough for the extra kilos...
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
this place cracks me up...almost always :-))
...wonder how much of it is honest-to-goodness-real! but hysterical, nonetheless.
...wonder how much of it is honest-to-goodness-real! but hysterical, nonetheless.
All about GuluWalk...
every night, the kids in Uganda walk for their lives...to escape the horrors of war and childhood denied.
Got to know about it just today. A noble cause. It should reach desh too.
every night, the kids in Uganda walk for their lives...to escape the horrors of war and childhood denied.
Got to know about it just today. A noble cause. It should reach desh too.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
a no-brainer. cheney and the other amigo rumsfeld really raise my hackles...stupid dangerous arrogance dribbling over from every pore.
and in a lighter vein... :-)
___
it helps just venting it all out to a stranger, like the lady found...dont know each other from Eve and the floodgates just opened up, in rather ordinary happy circumstances...and God knows, her family is suffering...a monstrously heavy burden...a 3 year old with cancer, with all the muckiness of chemo...the rarest of its kind in the UK...hope the little boy makes it...I do believe in miracles...will hope and pray for them.
It can't be that unfair, but it is. :-(
and in a lighter vein... :-)
___
it helps just venting it all out to a stranger, like the lady found...dont know each other from Eve and the floodgates just opened up, in rather ordinary happy circumstances...and God knows, her family is suffering...a monstrously heavy burden...a 3 year old with cancer, with all the muckiness of chemo...the rarest of its kind in the UK...hope the little boy makes it...I do believe in miracles...will hope and pray for them.
It can't be that unfair, but it is. :-(
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
me, the hypo
and while I check my mail, this unpleasant truth still lurks out there...I lead my life happily embalmed in a cocoon of urban comforts, chores, responsibilities and my random searches for personal happiness....
scouting out a good playgroup for my munchkin, that swish bag to be bought, that haircut that is yet to be, that much-dreamed about visit to masai mara etc...and yes, satiate the do-gooder in me with a spot of online volunteering...but who am I kidding?
I reek of a mild hypocrisy as I blog about this here ugly fact...
820m waiting to be fed a decent meal. hits me right in the solar plexus region. and I promise to do something about in my own way before its time to make my exit. And...
Publish Post.
scouting out a good playgroup for my munchkin, that swish bag to be bought, that haircut that is yet to be, that much-dreamed about visit to masai mara etc...and yes, satiate the do-gooder in me with a spot of online volunteering...but who am I kidding?
I reek of a mild hypocrisy as I blog about this here ugly fact...
820m waiting to be fed a decent meal. hits me right in the solar plexus region. and I promise to do something about in my own way before its time to make my exit. And...
Publish Post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
