Adjust Please

A phrase common to India and a part of Indian psyche is ‘Adjust’. No place to sit in a bus? No problem. We will share a seat and adjust.

Too many cars on the street? No problem, there will be space for one more. Mine. You better ADJUST!

Men want to pee on the roadside? Madam, adjust.

You get whistled or stared at? No problem. Change your route, travel with a male companion, travel in a car. Adjust.

The water heater broke down? Boil water on the gas until the electrician is called and he fixes the problem in.. like a decade. What do you do? Adjust.

You don’t get your broadband signal in your home. You can’t surf the internet properly. You call up the service provider. If you manage to get through, that is. Meanwhile, you just adjust.

This post is sounding like a rant, dear readers, kindly adjust.

26 Things, For the 26 years of my life

1. Current mood: Black
2. Current food craving(s): Warm gooey chocolate; Pasta with pesto, asparagus and pine nuts; Aloo chaat
3. I am searching for: a direction in my professional life
4. I wish I didn’t feel: so restless
5. An observation about me: My mother telling me yesterday that I am too much of a free spirit to do a job
6. Right now: I would rather be sitting in a coffee shop - reading or writing
7. A dream: To be a published author; Have a job which entails adventure, challenge, travelling and happiness
8. In my previous life: I am sure I was a boho living by the Mediterranean sea in an artists’ quarter
9. I can be happy: sitting under a tree on a summer day and observing butterflies chase each other
10. An oxymoronic thing I want: A slow and meaningful life in a fast paced city
11. I end up usually: contradicting myself
12. I am fascinated by: people – everyone is a mystery to be unraveled
13. A hidden ability: making cartoon sketches of myself and people around me
14. I want to learn: contemporary dance, tai chi and a foreign language
15. My favourite radio stations: Hit 95 FM (in India), Classic FM (in UK)
16. My favourite part of the day: Late night
17. My favourite colours: Purple, Shades of aquamarine, Black, Grey and Brown
18. A thing I could change about myself: My constant chronic-worrier-thinker syndrome
19. My favourite artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Banksy
20. My favourite poison(s): Red wine (Merlot), Morgan’s spiced with coke and a sliver of lime, G&T
21. I listen to: all kinds of music except metal, heavy metal and electronica
22. I read: everything except science fiction
23. I watch: almost everything except horror films
24. A gadget I want: A digital SLR camera
25. A gadget I want to replace: My big laptop with a smaller, lighter one
26. Current desire: To own a Hervé Léger bandage dress and a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps

Anyone wants to take up the tag? TD, Sindhu, Vrij, Pras... c'mon guys!

Shattered

When the pieces fall down

And break your heart

Tears well up

But refuse to trickle down

When you want to cry in anguish

Instead you smile

Your agitation hidden inside

A storm brewing up

You hope the path that has been laid down

Is the one which will bring you happiness

Kashmakash and my blog's birthday

For the first time in my life, I have been in a state of dilemma since the last couple of months. I used to be one of those people who knew what they wanted and worked towards getting it. And now I am one of those people who don't know what they want. This is totally killing me. Aaarghh!!!

Anyway, amidst all the kashmakash, my blog turned four in October. This year I haven't written many posts and haven't blog-hopped as much as I used to. I miss the old O3 gang. I have no idea where most of them are. I hope are all okay and sometimes think of the good old days :) I hope to be more regular, here at my blog and around in the blogosphere.

Till the next post, Adios!

General Update

I am back in India. The first few days were the worst when I missed everything about being in the UK (sounds so clichéd but it really is not). I had a fantastic year and now I only have memories and photographs and little souvenirs to remind me of that year.

Life seems in a state of transition. However going back to the grind of the work, a book deal in the works, a PhD offer from my University, everything seems so confusing and distressing. Anway, just to let you all know - I am alive and managing to survive moving continents (again!), uprooting myself, starting over again and if a couple of things work out then moving again sometime next year.

Till then adios!

P.S: I got an email from IndiBlogger informing me that my blog is ranked 48th out of 100. Thanks guys! I seriously thought no one really reads this blog.

Current Status

Changes and decisions

Taking chances

Praying that the gamble works

And things fall into place

---------------------------------

On another note, read this absolutely brilliantly written essay by Rana Dasgupta for Granta. It's a very interesting piece on Delhi.

Capital Gains

It all comes together on the roads.

Delhi is a segregated city; an impenetrable, wary city – a city with a fondness for barbed wire, armed guards and guest lists. Though its population now knocks up against 20 million, India’s capital remains curiously faithful to the spirit of the British administrative enclave with which it began: Delhiites admire social rank, name-dropping and exclusive clubs, and they snub strangers who turn up without a proper introduction.

Read more at : http://www.granta.com/Magazine/107/Capital-Gains

---------------------------------

Oh by the way - I am done with my Masters!!!!!!!!!!! I handed in my 15,000 word independent research. And it was a bit of an anti-climax because when you spend an year working on it (and the last two moths exculsively) you go and hand it in and that's it. You just go and give it. And they take it. Finito. Maybe, in my head, I was expecting cheers and people clapping and arti and tikka and fireworks and a medal. Damn! Nothing. Nada.Zilch. Zero. The only consolation was that I partied 14 hours straight. You read that right. One. Four. FOURTEEN. So exhausted and tired. And unfortunatley I have no time to breathe and move onto the next thing. Lovely blogger people - wish me luck because I am taking a chance with my career and throwing caution to the wind (the whole thing which comes with being young and able to chances and being single with no responsibilites and all that stuff).

So Excited

There was a documentary film I was a part of (acted in it) and it's been selected for a film festival and will be screened in New Delhi. Pity I will most likely miss it as I am in the UK. And don't know how much of me got edited on the chopping board but still I am so super excited!!!

My meals yesterday

consisted of:

Chocolate Donut

Chocolate Brownie

Gingerbread Man

Frech Fries

Chocolate Gateau

Samosas

Doritos with salsa dip and wasabi

Pepsi

I died and went to junk food heaven :D

On another note: My beloved laptop has crashed JUST before the dissertation is due and I died a bit and had a mini meltdown. And, with all this drama, I am moving houses in the middle of the week and moing counties early next month! Will update this blog if I survive all that.......

I am

in complete panic mode that the dissertation is not coming along like it should. I am SO super idiot for whiling away time.

P.S: Mumbai bloggers and others who can help check this out (via Annie Zaidi's blog)

Black Love

Wish I was in the deep dark place

And stayed there forever

Black roses entwined

In a garden where death grows

Because I am crashing like never before

Melted Wings

You gave me wings

And now you are taking them away

I am falling down

Waiting for a hand to catch me

Looking at the stars

Hoping for the moon

I feel the cold air on my face

As I see the earth

Ready to swallow me

As darkness readies

To envelope me

Being single

is not a crime.

Feeling gay and happy about 377

It's never too late. Finally the Delhi High Court has decided to decriminalize homosexuality. It's not a crime, not a disease, not unnatural. Way to go Delhi (and hopefully the rest of India)!

Official document here

International media response here and here

Twitter updates here

Sarkozy un'veils' his agenda

French President today told the French parliament that burka "undermines the dignity " of women depriving them of their identity. This statement is probably going to create furore as Muslim groups in France have reacted angrily. He may not have been politically correct in saying what he said and should expect a backlash from the Middle East.

For once I agree with Sarko because I do think that an identity of a woman is reduced to the tent she is wearing. However much it may be said that it is her choice, it's the social conditioning or pressure which allows these women to make a 'choice' if it is a choice. While critics argue that women wearing lesser clothing doesn't make them 'liberated', I think a woman needs to have a choice to wear or not wear whatever she wants without her action, intentions and thoughts questioned. And when we reach this utopian situation, then we can say we are free.

And after all that fuss...

I am not moving out! They renewed my contract for the next few months. But I am excited as one of my flatmates is staying back and a couple of friends are moving in. So I will be in happy land in the next few months :)

I didn't want to miss out on mid night walks contemplating whether the snail who lives near the bushes got home that night and whether the slug (fondly called sluggie) sat happily on the food menu pamphlet after we left.

And a friend set the fire alarm ringing when she decided to bake cookies and scones at 1 AM! Of course as a punishment, she fed me some fresh off the oven scones as we sat by the stairs, on a moonlit night and talked about life, about the cities we love and music and art.

The time when I knocked on a friend's window (he lives on the gound floor) at 3 AM and asked - Do you want to go for a walk? After recovering from the shock, he gallantly braved the rain to discuss the women in his life with me.

And the time when I raced a friend around a block or the time when we threw snowballs at random people and I confess, we wrote romatic love notes and left them in random letter boxes in our blocks.

Or the time we dressed up for halloween and giggled like school kids who were going for a fancy dress party. The times we made disasters in the kitchen to making pancakes and feeling like we were the best cooks in the entire world.

Or when we laughed and cried and hugged and smiled and discussed crushes and men. This is one girlfriend for life (and I can count the number of female friends I have on my right hand).

A few more months of late night chats over a cup of tea, stressing about our dissertations, laughing, loving, crying, doing grocery shopping, travelling, talking, wondering what life holds for is and then we will all be gone. In different directions. In different parts of the world. Here's to all the lovely men and women I have met this year.

All that fuss about a Table?

Everytime I sit at the study table in my tiny room here, I wonder about the people who stayed here before and what memories they have, sitting in this room.

I wonder about those who did not have a laptop. Did they just have a stack of books? What about the sloppy ones who had leftovers or a pile of clothes there? Maybe someone else was a neat freak. Did they study hard? Did they get drunk and pass out? 

What are they doing now? And do they remember the table (of all the things to remember about living in uni halls!)? My memories are of 'trying' to work on my essays there. And doing movie/TV shows marathons on my beloved laptop with my knees scrunched up between the table and the chair. 

The only reason why I have written this really random post is coz I am moving out of here in a couple weeks and going to live in another place with new flatmates and make new memories. Till then I'll hang on to the..err...table here.

Link of the day: India get it's first female Lok Sabha speaker

Forecast for the next few months

says:

Changes! Changes! Changes!

Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

Note to self: Hang in there

Note to others: Wish me luck

I shake the dusty cobwebs

and find no spiders scurrying about. Which is a good sign usually. 

What I really meant is I still find an odd comment on the blog even though it's virtually been a dead blog.

I was reading my old posts and thinking of the time when I was full of trepidiation before moving here. And I don't really know where the time has gone. I remember September and first day of classes and the last of classes has come now. There are group photos on facebook and I can't really get over the fact that it ended so soon. Yeah I still have exams and a 15,000 word independent research which I have to do over the summer.

I've had a great time this year, studying, meeting interesting people, working for a lifestyle magazine here, working with an independent film group and super excited that we are doing a film on graffitti art and I get to research on Banksy's work (my fav artist) apart from local artists here and working as an actor in a couple of student films, managing to stay almost at the top of the class and yes exploring the pubs apart from cooking. Phew!

Hence no time to blog :(

I'll be back soon, my lovely blog readers. Stay tuned people!

I am

tweeting now.

I am alive

but off blogging.

Will be back soon!

Belligerent China, Meek India

While China understands the importance of soft power and cultural integration, India doesn’t really care:

 

The great-grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi said Monday that he has launched a fundraising campaign to buy a rare collection of the Indian independence leader's personal items that are up for auction and bring them back to India.

 

China on the other hand, does this:

 

It has issued orders making it difficult for Christie's to do business in China after the auction house sold two Chinese cultural relics on Wednesday. 

And that, my dear friends, shows the difference in the attitude of the two neighbouring countries.

 

A page

A blank page

Like the canvas of a painter

Words it needs

Like a splash of colour

Where do I begin

I wonder

Still Enraged But Back With The Pink Chaddi Campaign

For those who think that women should not have equal rights as men, should be treated like cattle, if possible, someone had to tell them they got it wrong. They have got crusaders on the internet and in this age of information 'warfare' I proudly jump into the fray with support for the 'Pink Chaddi Campaign'.

I won't be able to send mine, being so far, I will definitely be a part of the 'Pub Bharo' action. And all the people who read my blog, most lurkers who never comment, or if you just landed here somehow, please become a part of the campaign.

What happened in Mangalore can happen in your city. For men - this could happen to your girl friends, wives, sisters. Let's show 'em that Ram Sena isn't the answer to 'eroding of culture', it is the cause of it. Because what culture teaches you to be disrecpectful to women?

Also check out

Blank Noise

Mad Momma's Blog

Bohemian Rhapsody

Broom

Silvara

Within/Without

Thirty Six and Counting

And which century do we live in?

What happened in Mangalore is not just despicible, it is shocking. Since when do we need a moral police to tell us what is right or wrong? Isn't India a democratic nation? What's the brohuaha about being the 'world's biggest democracy' if you can't let people, adults at that, decide whether they want to sit in a lounge bar and have a drink.

If you are so concerned about being moralistic, is this how you treat women? Are they meant to be beaten, pulled by their hair and called a whore? Since when did this become right?

And you might think, have a little hope that the moral brigade (who assume they have a right to molest and traumatize women - being a democratic country and all) might be brought to books for this dastard act. You are wrong. Democracy in India, it seems, doesn't work both ways. It only works for political elites. Pramod Muthalik, who by the way got arrested for 'inticing communal violence', a case pending from years ago, had this gem to add - "It's a small incident and we were only working against obscenity in public." Yeah right.

I rest my case.

All the little bits... II

January is almost coming to an end and for the first time I have loathed the month so much. It just doesn't seem to end, while I meander away time sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping while strains of western classical music fill up my room. And it's not just the sleeping - I sleep at 5 every morning, waking up sometime in the afternoon. Everyday. People tell me its the English-weather-post-holiday-season-depression. Whatever it is, I am so glad that classes start soon!

On to more cheerful things, here are some holiday season pics. We went to the German Christmas market in our city, complete with German beer, mulled wine, sausages, knick-knacks, curios and a proper fair.

      

A couple of days later I woke up as I heard my flatmate squeal, "Look out of the window" and heard another one jump and that's when I got out of my bed and was greeted with snow, which apparantly brought everything to a stand still in this part of England, except of course me who was busy clicking photos!

           

And it was end of December soon as my friends and I headed over to London to celebrate the New Year. The city, throbbing, illuminated with christmas lights and hoardes of tourists. We discovered a bar made completely of ice and by far, is the coolest (or coldest!) place I have visited in the city. We then went ice skating and then it was time for the fireworks by the Thames as 700,000 people gathered togther to usher in the New Year.

         

         

          

While one evenful year came to an end, another one began. And now I am wondering what to make of the 'The curious case of missing post'. Because as I hopped over to God's to claim my award, that post has disappeared!

All the little bits...

Warning: Long-ish post :D

Heylo dear blogger friends. Sorry for disappearing on you all. I am fine and alive! Here's wishing you a super duper Happy New Year :)

A lot has happened the last month - from laptop crashing, to it getting repired in a month and I becoming laptop-junkie-to-laptop-deadddict, to a second wave of this and crazy deadline in mid-december and then partying-like-there's no-tomorrow to coming back to a cold-grey-damp-gloomy-and-depressing winter and finding a deadline staring in my face middle of this month and me completing my first semester here. Phew!

Now that we are done with the headlines, the news in detail

As promised before, I am doing this blog post about a holiday I managed to squeeze in while I had assignments hanging down at me like a nooze. I went for a day trip to this beautiful, quaint town called York. As we walked out of the train station and walked towards the city, we saw the River Ouse.

We then went to York Minsiter which is supposed to be the largest catherdal in North of Europe. The Christmas midnight mass conducted here is broadcast on BBC radio throughout England!

Then we wandered around in The Shambles and other small, narrow lanes with cobbled footpaths where buskers at each corner would fill up the streets with music as tudor style buildings would loom upon us. And there was a road called 'Swinegate'!

The town is famous for its tea rooms and cafes.

What is a British town without pubs? We went to 'Kings Arms', a pub which floods when the water level of the river rises!

We went to Clifford's Tower which was our last pit stop for the day.

And with this our trip came to an end and we trooped back home.

Next blog post: Snow, Christmas and a New Year spent in London with a dozen of my uni
friends!