More to 'tying the knot' than you think!

They say...marriages are made in heaven. True. But lets just rephrase that a little to read,not marriages, just the 'couples' are ,made in heaven. Now i can suddenly visualise our dear God sitting and making 'poruthams' between a girl and a guy, something that josiars do again, just incase ;-). Now that we're settled on just 'couples' are made in heaven, shall we discuss where marriages are made? Marriages...are made in huge, noisy, decorated,over-crowded kalyana mandapams, or marriage halls should we say, where one can easily get lost, or easily get caught in the claws of some good ol' maami who wants to know your age for some devious reason! And point to be noted - the maami will always hold your wrist! Maybe because she knows you're waiting to run away in the first OPPORTUNE MOMENT (now do you know where i got that from!) hmmm, wicked! Oh just ignore me! I have attended 2 marriages, 2 days in a row! One was a family friend's, and i knew i had to go, but the second...believe it or not, was my grand-dad's sister's son's wife's elder sister's daughter's marriage! I am definitely not kidding you! Let me be truthful, i go there for the food! And imagine my plight when both kalyanams had the SAME Goddam menu! SAME STUFF! How unfortunate? I was starting to hope i had paati's rasam sadam for dinner! Only the dessert was different, and well, dessert is never my area, so *sad*! There are some things that i just HAVE to point out about these weddings... aah, am loving this! A typical tamil, brahmin marriage (reception) will have the following features, without fail :

1.A loooong queue waiting to congratulate the bride and groom. SO long that you would prefer the queue at sathyam cinemas because there, atleast you get to watch a movie after the queue! Here, you'll go and say congratulations, and neither the bride nor the groom will recognise you, but they'll be all super sweet and say thanks so much for making it, and then we, the extremely glad people, will have a teeth show for the flashes!Point to be noted - the mamas and maamis standing infront of you in the queue will invariably HUG their gifts like someone's waiting to grab it and present it as their gift! And i always feel like saying "Maami, pattu podavai kasangida pordhu, paathu!"(your silk saree is going to get ruffled up!)

2.Music. Or thats what its called most of the time. It generally means having this famous, or not-so-famous carnatic vocalist singing her/his throat off, when she/he is nothing but IGNORED. All you have is a few thathas or mamas sitting in the first row and pretending to listen, but promptly clapping after every song gets over. WHY do they have to put themselves through this? OR you have something called a LIGHT music 'orchestra' that makes such heavy music that the vibration seems to penetrate right to your stomach and make you feel like you could do with a puke! Their base gets inside you! Its just too loud for the hall...oh damn. It doesn't matter if you are sitting 100 miles from the speaker, it just reverberates! And it feels like you're walking into a one way street called deafness!

3.FOOD. THE issue! People like my thatha always aim for the 1st 'pandhi' and wont leave without drinking 2 payasams! And he's very proud of it :D But well, the trend seems to be changing. Receptions no longer have "yellai sapadu" (on banana leaves) , with the traditional rice with one karandi of ghee, and the payasam and vadai. Thats just for lunch! Receptions have what they call BUFFET (read:painful system where you don't know whether to concentrate on putting the food into your mouth without embarassing yourself, or holding the plate without pouring its contents onto the pattu saree of the aunty almost sticking to you in the crowd!"!) With north indian cuisine, chaat, bandha dessert. Yesterday for instance, the dessert was grand. There was ras malai, srikhand, carrot halwa, and vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce optional! What the hell is one expected to eat! I settled for the first and the last :D And you'll definitely have the famous line - "Shaaptela mama?"!caution - if there's ever a paneer sabzi on the menu, please be satisfied with eating the gravy, because the paneer cubes, tempting though they may look, are either never cooked, or too hard to bite and so unfair on my braced teeth! Am i a foodie or what! sapaduraami!

I could go on forever...with the pattu podavais and jewellery and the 'Oh nee avarodu ponna, ivaroda pethiyaa's and the 'divya vaa idhu? ipdi valandhutaale!"s and meeting up with some distant people you've never heard of, and mind you, it will never ever be some smart looking chap that you can have a time pass conversation with! The latest trends in weddings - youngsters who are forced to attend - Laugh at the cellphone, message till their fingers fall out, seem BUSY! Maybe i shouldn't be talking about that? I was doing exactly that! No other choice you see! and trend 2 is with the brides... don't know what happened to doing some cool hairstyles...Its just hair let lose, falling down. And its almost always artificially straightened. Come on brides! Do something different ;-) And... my paati's sly questions when one is getting dressed for the ocassion are not to be missed...what fuss she makes on jewellery! The more the fuss, the more i feel like not wearing the stuff...lol. Her line - "oru kalyanathuku pona, naalu per varuva ma, idhalaam potukanom!" My line -"Paati, yenaka kalyanam?" She - "Solardhu kelu ma!" So much for being a girl!!

Now this doesn't mean that when you invite me for your wedding, i will whine like this before coming. NO. Attending weddings of people you know personally is a very nice experience...it makes me happy. It makes me so happy, i can never explain. When one of my relatives got married, i almost cried when the thaali was being tied...its such a moment u know...:) and suddenly, i understood why mothers and fathers cry after that moment. Its such a bittersweet moment. Its lovely.

So i'd like to end by saying, am looking forward to having a good time at your wedding ;-)and i'll definitely do a post on it! :D

PS: for those of you who had a prob with the tamil lines, pl ask! Just din have the patience to translate, am sorry... :) (i think thats only for nik!)

Yours "why don't one of you just get married?"ly
Signing off...

WEird as WEird can get...(updated)

UPDATE oct 23rd, 2006 - Happy Birthday dear bloggg!!!! :D Or is it happy anniversary? ;-) Whichever it is, its been one year since i started putting down episodes from my mind, opinions on various issues, crazy rants, various feelings etc into this blog...and its been a wonderful experience. A big thankyou goes out to all those people who read this blog, and leave their comments, and make me feel like continuing this activity...make it worthwhile. Thankyou so much, love you all and God bless!! I hope you have as much fun reading my posts, as i have writing them. Looking forward to continuing this for a very very long time :D

I have been tagged by shruti to write 6 weird things about myself. Considering i am such a crazy person, this should not have been so difficult for me...but only when I started thinking did i realise how difficult it is! So...here's what i think is weird about myself.

1. I talk to inanimate objects :D And my football tops the list! I can think of so many coversations i have had with my football after kicking it left and right! Once i even said "Am sorry i impart so much pain unto you...but i love you so much!" I know i must be out of my wits to be publicizing this...but hell! I remember that convo very well! Other things i talk to regularly include one of my soft toys, stars, well, i better not go further into this! For the love of my own image!

2. Since we're on the topic... I fabricate conversations out of thin air! Between myself, and anyone! And those conversations can get pretty long, and interesting too! :) And trust me, they're carried out with so much emotion and action... its a monoact! yes,I am crazy!

3.I know i'm a girl...;-) ok, sad way to start. But yes, when i change my earrings, its quite an 'issue' in class! "Divya, yenna visesham? Earrings change pannite?" yes, i don't ever bother...with earrings, or any other accessories! I change my earrings maybe twice a year, not more! And i've been told by so many people that i should style my hair or do something worthwhile with it... but...No, it remains. Unleveled, straight with curly ends. Don't know if it'll ever happen! Guess am not too much of a girl eh? ;-)

4.When i fall in love with a song, i go to the extent of literally 'mugging up' the lyrics from wherever, and listening to the song non stop! No other song for days...and sing the song also non stop! I know i've mentioned this before...yes, my bench mate in class definitely has a tough time!

5.I like taking photographs of shadows. Some of you have seen them ;-) I find it immensely interesting...sort of like the blackness of a shadow has some character that a normal picture doesn't have. And thats why, however late i am for college early in the morning, i just don't realise it when i am looking at my own shadow on the wall, cast by the rising sun...its a black and yellow combination that just drives me towards the camera...and just makes my morning!

6. Aah...the last! Hmmm... I don't need alcohol to get drunk! I keep saying i can get high on air! My mom used to think that something happens to me after 11.30pm...she'll tell my cousin or my bro "paithiyam pudichurthu da!" (she's gone mad) and i do the craziest things when am in that 'phase'...chuck pillows at my mom, just keep laughing for everything, opening my bro's eyes with my index finger and thumb when he's just drifting into slumber land and probably even get slapped for that!, keep talking continuosly and not allowing my cousin to sleep...and the likes :)

So there goes...weirdo divya for you!

And... The noise here is tearing my ear drums! But, its the festive season, its the biggest festival of the year...its smiles, and happiness,and ghee sweets, and new clothes, and drowsy head-baths at 5 in the morning (or slightly later, considering me!)...HAPPY DIWALI!!

Comments secn - Tell me what you think is weird abt me, please!

Yours "does anyone get crazier?"ly
Signing off....

Perspective

I tried playing football in the moonlight. Only to realise the moon's more visible to kick, than the football :) ok, bad one...ofcourse, considering i'm quite human, my eyes required some assistance to see this round white mass that was rolling around the place, playing hide and seek with my feet...or is it catch and catch? ok, whichever. And so, the legs that are mine carried the rest of me, unwillingly, to the switchboard, where my fingers pressed some white switches, and my football ground got its flood lights:D My feet were plugged into sneakers, without socks :) yuck? Thats the truth.

The football's time had come. It was going to get punished for running away and hiding in the dark. It dreaded this moment, and was crouching under the grey,cement bench, hugging the
dirtiest corner that had an empty packet of diwali fire crackers. It was not to be. The sneakered-feet (yay anu!) stealthily got closer and closer to it...and slowly rolled it into the limelight! ;-) It was gently moved forward and placed at THE spot. Aww, why did it have to be the same spot? The football knew what was coming next, but as always, wondered how long it'd be before the wall would come crashing into its small round structure.ONE...TWO...THREE...and baaaasssshhhh!!!! *sigh* And so the football said, 'no matter, i'll allow the wall to bash me, but i'll go back like the boomerang and strike those barbaric feet, suddenly sneakered!'

Her time had come. The lights were switched on, and playing the game gave her some sort of
solace she couldn't derive from other things, other people. Her focus was on the ball, and only the ball, her mind veiled from everything else the world wanted to show her, from anyone who tried a chance to haunt her thoughts. She gazed at the few stars, and waited for the hint of a breeze, but when none came, she started to search...for her article of solace. It had rolled over to the small gap under the cement bench, which had become the ultimate dumping ground for any box, fire cracker or food, that the neighbour next door had done a great deal of contribution to. She allowed her feet to roll out the dirty, white football and lead it to her shooting point. This was the moment she loved, gathering all her energy and concentrating it on her right foot. She took the shot, with the passion of a footballer, and waited for the ball to promptly come back with as much force as it could muster.

The football was in rage.The shot landed on it harder than last time! It struck the white wall with so much force that it went slightly off target. It missed the feet, got the head. It was ok, it would strike the enemy and teach her a lesson! But to its shock, the enemy reacted so quickly, it hardly had time to chose the spot...and this time, it went flying onto the glass pieces at the end of the ground. OUCH! The next time the feet touched its cover, there was a difference...and Lo! it realised, old times are back!

She thought it was coming right back to her forehead. Perfect for a header...and she was moving, her eyes moving from up to down, tracing the trajectory of the ball. But something pricked her foot and she turned her head...and the ball hit the left side of her head and flew off in the wrong direction! It was her shoe...decided to give her a bite. She thought of how she put them on a while back without socks, and contemplated the possibilities of a bite, but didn't bother. She unlaced them, got them off her feet and tossed them away. It was all back to normal...playing barefoot! She thought of her mom warning her about her feet getting hard and black, and the need to apply some KRACK cream soon ;-) But now, football was the thing...no fun if the feet didn't get black...she found this unsurpassable bliss in washing the blackness away with cold water, laughing at her pink, puffed up face after playing, tasting salty footballer sweat trickling down from the forehead, and allowing the breeze to chill her sweaty body...she looked around and found the ball over the glass piece corner that she avoided...she carefully rolled it out and continued the game she would play for a long time to come...never alone, in the football's company.

Synopsis - I played football yetserday night with my shoes on(first time). I didn't wear socks. My shoe bit me. I tossed the shoes away and got back to playing barefoot. My mom keeps tellign me not to do that if I don't want my soles to become victims of KRACK cream. Like always, i continued playing. I came home and washed my BLACK soles, laughed at my face,
became clean. Had a great time. :D :D So, nothing much huh? Indha chinna matter ku poi ivalov periya post thevaiya? ;-)

Yours "Some perspective in life"ly,
Signing off...

Universal language indeed...

UPDATE 8.10.06 - Happy birthday, Reks!!!!!!!!!! Hope u liked the gift :) we had alot of fun making it... and we all felt like keeping it for ourselves! Have a great day! And a wonderful year to come... well, considering u sit next to me in class, u'll definitely have a wonderful year to come! ;-)

Sometimes we rediscover songs. I read somwhere that the mark of a good book is that it changes evertime you read it. I believe in that line. Not only for books, but some movies too. Maybe it applies to songs too? You suddenly realise the beauty of a word or a note or the way a certain part has been sung or the instruments...something. And when that happens to me, rekha, who sits next to me in class, has to put up with me singing the song all day long, atleast for 3 days. Sorry reks! But recently, i have started to rediscover the voice of someone whose been around for long...i've heard him so many times, but something changed somwhere, and some of his songs became an addiction a while back. Srinivas. Blessed with a voice that has moved me to tears. His songs that i happened to 'rediscover'include

• Chotta Chotta nanaiyidu Tajmahal (movie Tajmahal, A.R.Rahman) - if you havent heard it, pl do. And if u've always thought the song sucked because of the 2 people in the video, then you are mistaken for sure! Its lovely...
• Kayil midhakum kanava nee (movie ratchagan, A.R.Rahman) - Again, doesn't have a great video, but the song suits the context beautifully. I kept singing this song in college so
  much that my deskmate really really felt like slapping me.:) i finally stopped!
• Anbe sugama (Movie paarthale paravasam, A.R.Rahman) - Unlike the other 2, i like this
  one's video. The lyrics..."Vazhkai oru vattam pol, mudindha idathil thudangaatha..."

Its funny how none of those movies did too well...but its Rahman we're talking about here! Genius. Seriously....and the lyrics rock...but the voice is srinivas's...its the 'feel' he imparts...God bless. He's "nila kaigirathu" on tv moved me to tears...cha.

And i have recently taken to getting mesmerised by the magic in Naresh Iyer's voice! Bloody
hell...these singers! I used to tell sandhya that i want to marry palash sen's voice (he's the lead singer of the band euphoria)...now, there's one more to the list. I want to marry Naresh iyer's voice! God bless him too!*sigh*. His 'munbe vaa' from the recent flick "sillunu oru kadhal"(which btw was so bad, i can't find any reason surya n jo agreed to do that movie except that it'd give them a reason to be with each other!) and all his rang de basanti songs...Tu bin bataye, robaroo...awesome voice. And...there are times when i get into this spree of listening to dabankoothu type songs...with fast beats...and the new song that goes into that list, is 'kummi adi' from sillunu oru kadhal,in naresh iyer's voice! Very jumpy number... :D Not exactly dabankoothu, but jumpy!

Well...just a small list of songs that make me feel the same thing whenever i listen to
them, no matter what the mood is...

• Always makes me happy - Vizhiganil ariginil vaanam (azhagiya theeye),Drops of jupiter(train)
• Always calms me down - Vellai pookal (Kannathil muthamitaal)
• Makes me smile - Le chale (My brother nikhil),Nenjodu Kalainthidu (Kadhal Kondein)
• Makes me feel floaty - aqueous transmission (Incubus), I'm ready (bryan adams)
• Makes me marvel at the feeling people call 'love' - Tu bin bataye (RDB), Ab na ja(euphoria)
• Makes me nostalgic - Yaaron (KK), My sacrifice (creed)]
• Gives me hope - Bridge over troubled waters (Simon and Garfunkel)
• Makes me feel all dark - November rain (Guns and roses)
• Makes me want to fall in love ;-) - I'll always be right there (Bryan adams)
• Makes me one with nature - Nila Kaigirathu (indra)
• Makes me jumpy - I'll be there for you (Rembrandts), Dus bahane (Dus), maahive(faakhir)
• Makes me cry - Thenpandi cheemayile (Nayagan)and any other song that suits my state of mind!

Ofcourse i can never do justice to the songs i love... they cannot be all mentioned. But this post goes out to all those singers, who make it possible for us to love what we hear, and make music such an important part in our daily lives...SPB, Hariharan, Srinivas, chitra...actually, the list is endless, no use trying a mention. :)

"The most beautiful things in life cannot be said. Thats why you have music"

Yours "Music can do things to you. Things that no one can!"ly
Signing off...

Navarathri, and the things it stands for

Every evening is as colourful as that rainbow that hardly appears these days...sparkling with jewellery, mild or gaudy, light or heavy...bright with the shades wrapped around each one, kancheepurams, pink and blue, with and without zari... loud with comments coming out of each one's mouth, remarks on one's way of dressing, or just next door gossip...lively, with the dolls and the lights, and i daresay...the songs :D Navratri in chennai - You see it all, hear it all, and experience the chennai-ness!

Its not like i have a problem with any of the factors mentioned above, i just marvel at them, and amuse myself. As per tradition, atleast one new bommai (doll) should be bought every year for kolu... If you've lived in chennai, you must know the Mylapore tank...of kabhaleeshwar kovil fame,And something more... a place where you can't walk without getting pushed around by maamis during this time of the year. And even if you do manage to walk without getting pushed, there are always the sacred cows which will conviniently walk right infront of you, such that you see nothing but the tail, and traces of whatever's come out from below even if you wish to see something else, or there'll be the cars and the auto-rikshwas that try to make way for themselves in that already crowded street when they could have conviniently zoomed off on the main road. Sigh...Kolu bommai shopping can be tedious indeed. You get to learn how to bargain from maamis who'll ridiculously by a 400 rs doll for 50rs,leaving the shop keeper stunned as to how he allowed such a sale...and its also a good training session on weight lifting! The dolls dont get heavier,i hope!

And then you come back home, and have a big argument with your mother or grandmother, or anyone else who wants to argue with you, about where which doll should be placed, on which step, at which position, and next to which other doll! And when all that is set, you try fixing the flashing lights, which refuse to work because your grandfather bought them 4 years back and refused to use them! So u manage with some other lights, and everything is set. Then your mother starts calling up each maami/aunty and saying "yenga Aathle kolu vechurkom, vandrungo. Ponnaiyum kutindu vaango maami...aam naanum varen, divya um varuvaa'...Did she have to say that last line? There, stuck!

Aah, then the rounds...It starts with the teeth show and the exchange of greetings. And you're taken inside the house to where the kolu stands, all colourful and beautiful. There's not a single kolu that has failed to impress me...and some are so cool, so huge, and have such nice themes. Yeah, so once you reach 'the spot' you're asked to sit. And mind you, you wont be alone...there'll already be some maamis who reached earlier than you, whose eyes will notoriously follow each movement of yours, pentrating stares! And then the doomed moment arrives... 'yaraadu paatu padungole...'(somoene, sing!) aaah, now's the time i usually start coughing, and sounding like i have the worst cold that's ever hit me...blow my nose, make it sound like a trumpet, try making it look like my throat is so sore that i'm not even able to talk...sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it just doesn't! Everybody's pretty convinced that one should sing just for one's satisfaction of having sang infront of someone's kolu, and impart the same satisfaction unto the host, who will also rejoice on her kolu being honoured! So the cold, really doesn't matter after all! And just as i give up...and say, ok i'll sing, they place a plate of yummy vadais infront of me...which i can savour only if i sing. I'm a great lover of food...so, i allow them the honour of listening to my voice, so that next time, they wont dare to ask me to sing the lord's praises! But there's something worse that happens... when you start singing, some maami or the other definitely knows the song, and hums along, or in the worst case, sings along! And this is a very stressful moment for it makes one forget the lines in the song...and one has to take extra effort to block out any other voice but one's own (which i assure you, is very very difficult!)...huffffff, when its finally over, everyone takes great pleasure in passing comments on how one has to practice more often, or how beautiful the lyrics are, how one's grand daughter also learns music and sings that particular song so very well, or in very
very rare cases, how well one sang! *sigh*

But its fun. Navratri rocks...the festive mood lifts your spirits, you get to meet alot of people, some who you meet only year after year during navaratri! Even though i might have sounded like i just whined, or made fun of things that go on around here, i enjoy this period, and will definitely miss it if i leave this place...Namma chennai ma!!!!!

So i continue...singing my 'Koovi azhaithaal kural kodupan's and 'Kurai ondrum illai's and 'yena thavam seidhanai's in the hope that these words will be heard and taken heed of!

2 thumbs up to navratri!

Yours "Do come home for Kolu if u're not too busy"ly
Signing off....

An Appeal...

Dear God, please tell them that professing power unto people who automatically fall below them is so useless, it can be done by anyone...
Tell them they should strive for better rather than take great interest in things that dont matter one bit...
Show them the difference between imposing discipline and being barbaric...
Make them realise that they can earn respect, and respect will never come when it is forced.
Teach them how to treat humans as humans...
Tell them that if something goes wrong somewhere, it is definitely not their fault, and they
are not expected to solve it painstakingly, because you are there for that...
Show them what is right and wrong according to the world...and i plead, teach them how to
discriminate between the two.
Tell them that nothing's a big deal till you make it one, and a problem will be one only
when you think of it as one...
Tell them where riches lie...
Show them the beauty in simplicity...its something i don't think they've ever known.
Make them understand that people are not happy with being supressed in the name of something else...and definitely don't appreciate being called things they're not, or taking the blame for things they didn't do,ever.
Lastly God...tell me whether there are limits to endurance, teach me how to hold my words
back, Tell me if words can be read through the eyes, because they're just not being heard
when they come out of the mouth, or they're just heard all wrong, Help me identify the people
i can trust,Tell me why i should gamble my future for the comfort of saying what i thought was right...Tell me why i should gamble my future for mistakes i did not commit, Tell me why i feel insulted, exploited and wasted when i shouldn't be feeling it, Tell me if what i do is right, i do it because someone is earning a living somewhere for me to live today and tomorrow and forever.AND TELL ME WHY.TELL ME WHY THIS IS HAPPENING AND HOW IT GOT
THIS FAR...We leave it to you now. You're our only hope... only hope.

PS: do continue the comments on the prev post. I just found it necessary to post this...

Yours " limits to endurance" ly
Signing off....

Blabberations - 2

Something i did not know- Orlando Bloom has technophobia. He cant keep track of new technology! He does not own a computer, has no email id, and has never visited his space! But he's getting a computer soon...

I love rain. But i hate getting drenched. I hate the 'serru' (slushy mud...whatever!) on the roads after the rains. I hate walking through pools of water (esp in college...we get delayed for lunch!). I hate it when my helmet, hanging from my bike has a mini 'koovam' with mosquitoes flying over it. The only thing i like about rain is watching it and smelling the soil, and feeling the droplets falling on my fingers and maybe the sound. Does that mean i hate rain more than i love it?

Lifts/elevators are wierd. I live on the 3rd floor...sometimes it feels like its taking me ages to reach up there, but sometimes the lift stops even before i realise where i am. Why? Maybe it takes ages when i'm hungry, and takes hardly a second when i'm not thinking about reaching home...lol.

Is 30 seconds a long time? I thought not...but i realised how long 30 seconds could be when we were doing an experiment in the lab where we had to note down the readings from a spectrophotometer every 30 seconds. Phew! Sure is a long wait...Dont know how many times i
said "Innum 30 seconds mudiyalaya?"

Have you ever tried saying your name aloud when you are alone? Am telling you, it can be one of the craziest things that one can do! I've done it...and found it so wierd to pronounce my name the way it is, and found it wierd that i respond to such a pronounciation! i remember saying
'div-ya, divya, di-v-yaaa' lol! Same thing happens when you look at your face in the mirror for a while longer than required...you wonder, oh my God is this my nose? Are these my eyes? Is this how i look! How come i've looked the same from the day i was born! Does anyone get crazier?

I find this mad pleasure in spreading a blanket over someone who is asleep! My mother, my cousins, my brother! And also in removing my mom's glasses resting on her nose, and the the book from her hand when she falls asleep reading...

Sometimes, there's this thing about you that you are aware of, but refuse to accept. But
everything has a place and time...and when acceptance comes, when you have grown enough to
acknowledge that 'thing' about yourself, its painful. It kills you from the inside. Its like a punishment. But once you've come to terms with yourself, its a great feeling. Its like...the completeness that arises out of paying repentance for a misdoing. Its the feeling of completeness that dawns upon you when you know you've got what you deserved, be it bad or good. Hell, it takes so long to know oneself completely, and accept oneself for what one is...just makes me wonder how those 2 things are done to others! It can only happen when a person is placed on a higher regard than oneself...dont you think? Or maybe most of the time, we end up accepting, irrespective of whether we know or not. After all, ignorance is bliss ain't it?

UPDATE - dear readers! pl do me a favour...In one of my posts, i'd talked abt a singer... check this ...Check the 2nd last comment, and please tell me if one of u left that comment! Or if the singer himself visited my blog...aaaaaah am going mad!!!! Just came across it now...after MONTHS! damn...

Yours "blab mouth strikes again" ly
Signing off...

Yours Superstitiously...

I know this is not the first time my hands itch to type about this topic of immense interest to me, simply because it never fails to make me laugh :) Beliefs, supersitions, and how staunchly they are followed by my grandmother's generation, and are a source of amusement, eentertainment to the generation i belong to.The last time (in thumb-letter-trap) i talked about just one...this time, we'll have more. And funnier ones i dare say! I remember laughing from the deep end of my heart when i was discussing these beliefs with one of my friends...and i promised myself such things don't go unacknowldged!

Apart from the ones that we are all pretty much familiar with, for instance, when you sneeze/hiccough/choke - someone's thinking of you (this one, is a source of great entertainment at dinner at home...or atleast once was, when we were 4 cousins around the table.One just had to choke, and the others would roll their eyes and go 'yaar ninaikaraalo...hmm' - i wonder who's thinking of her/him - in the most mocking fashion...and i would invariably smile and say 'appa' ;-) and that, would be followed by a series of protests and 'seri porum, yengulku theriyum!'s!! sigh...good times!) there are others that have recently caught my attention!

Apparently, one is not supposed to enjoy the priviledge of sitting at a table long after eating without washing one's hands, because the drier your hands with food particles on them, the later you'll get married! :D My take on that - I'd rather wash them because its painful to scratch out dried out sambar and paruppu from your hands!

Similar to the first one - One's plate is not to be left to dry after one has finished eating because...its bad for the mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law to be! My take on that - Aah, we actually have a secret way of affecting them? *wicked*!

Cutting nails...not allowed on tuesdays and fridays, not allowed after sunset. And when cut, must be disposed of very carefully in the bin outside the gate of your home :D lol... i even remember this story my servant maid told me about how someone's nail fell inside the hut and grew so big like an elephant's tusk, and now, that place where the nail transformed has become a shrine that people visit! Any comments?

Sitting on a pillow is very comfortable...and i mean the actual pillows we put our heads on and sleep...But, but, one should avoid doing so if one does not want to part with one's money!! If you sit on a pillow, you lose your money! In my thatha's words... "Aishwaryam poidum" literally meaning, your wealth will go! LOL... i still vividly remember my brother saying "Get off the pillow...Aishwarya Poiduva!" My take on that - Ready to experiment! ;-)This sitting on pillow business apparently leads to something else too...Sit on a pillow, and you fight with a family member!! My take on that - Now i know why i fought with my brother on that bright sunday morning as the rays filtered through the curtains...blah! Aah, you can always blame a fight on a pillow :)

Have you ever eaten something directly from the stove when its cooking? I mean...from the vessel on the stove obviously...a million times! Sometimes it evens seems tastier then than ever! But...do that, and the heavens will cry, tears of joy for you on the day of your wedding! It'll rain...lol! My take - Am already getting prepared to arrange boats for whoever wants to get to the place where i'll be married...the city's going to be flooded!!

There are other sweet ones that i have no heart to ridicule...like when a kid smiles when he/she is asleep, it means God's showing him/her a lotus... :) and when there's suddenly a moment of unexpected silence, it means an angel is passing through...:) hmm, so all those uneasy silences with a 100 million people were because some angel came in between and cut out transmission? ;-) lol...but, its a sweet one.

Now to my favourites...

I heard this one from a friend, and i laughed so hard...if you hold an umbrella over your head where there's already a roof, you get an old husband!! Isn't that so ridiculous? Lol...first, who'd ever do that? And my take - If that be the case, am sure am getting one 'young enough'!

And this one... i love this one because i'm quite convinced its affected me directly! If one is hit with a broom, or if one happens to be 'crossed over' by someone just once at a time, and not twice...one doesn't grow tall :( :( !!! I remember so many instances where people purposely crossed over me and walked passed without getting back the same way just because i kept screaming its going to make me short! And ofcourse i remember having a broom fight with my bro...*sigh*! :D

Thats it!!! Feeling...superstitious? ;-) Feel free to add on to the list!

I'd like to add...Am a fan of Surya's :)...and i like Jyothika too....and they got married yesterday...And they looked so cute togther, God bless them!

Yours "superstitiously"
Signing offf...

Li'l angel...

Have you ever seen an angel? Or atleast, felt like u have...? Well... i have. But this one, didn't have wings...this one, wasnt dressed in white...But angel she was, so pure and sweet...imparting a feeling of a happiness so complete, so ethereal. And there i was... drowned in the echo of her voice...in the way she pronounced those two words and smiled at me to respond...smiling, showing the few teeth that she had... the words... "divya chitti"!!
The words still ring in my ears...:D Such a divine feeling...

My niece. Srinidhi. The thing about kids is that they're not only full of life, but also make you feel full of life when you are with them! Every minute of it...She's given me a reason to believe i had one of my best evenings...pampering, playing, dancing with her... forgetting anything else that may have been running through the front or back of my mind. And taking up enough space in the same mind, for days after she said tata and left this country. She made me laugh...and marvel at the intelligence such a small thing like her can have! So smart!You know, we always have a deep regard for people who make us forget what we're going through by making us laugh...atleast i do.:D

Kids...*sigh*

Yours "God bless her"ly,

Signing off...

PS: I hate my college and very sincerely wish those people rot in hell someday... they will.
Don't ask me what they did, you wouldn't believe it. :( ;( Chi...

"Veiled", Unveiled...

This is a special post, because it contains a special piece :) i wrote something on paper after a very long time... And i just thought i'd put it up as my blog is anyway suffering from lack of proper posts...

Before that... My cousins, who were in town for the past 2 months are leaving in a few hours... getting back to their routines...getting pulled back by duty. Its been such a lovely phase in my life...so much... i don't know... just felt so complete! Not a single idle moment...nothing really worrying... just something new to do everyday, and so much fun...so much colour... so much laughing and horsing around and doing alot of nothings but being so glad about it! Its this wierd 'sisterly' feeling! That i haven't really experienced before...i know it sounds so cheesy.. but hell, what are blogs for! So... Sanjana, and sandhya... Farewell! And just to suit the mood thats been floating at home for the past week cuz of the Kabhi alvida na kehna songs.... ALVIDA! Love you guys...And waiting for next year july! :D

This post... maybe just a series of questions to some of you, may mean more to others... may be loads of 'can you?'s to a few, and 'will you?'s to others...read it the way you want it.

I don't believe in the existence or non-existence of ability,
But in the willingness to do, or not to do something.
--an admirable killer line from... a friend.

VEILED

Can you take a moment, complete with ethereal happiness, and make it a lifetime's solace?
Can you accustom yourself to echoes and shadows, and places overflowing with emptiness and accept them for company, comfort?
Can you dwell in pretences, and trust in illusions, and be satisfied with lies that make you laugh?
Can you let the ship of life by stirred by the gales of time, and move effortlessly in that direction?
Can you live through a plethora of failures, and live to face the next improbability of success, still to name it 'experience'?
Can you grace undying punishment in your heart to fulfil sweet vengeance?
Can you stare at atrocity in the eye, and walk past unmoved, for the love of your own soul?
Can you smile through helplessness, and stand like a fortress, when the world within you crumbles?
Can you preach to others, what you don't believe in, just to see a hint of a smile?
Can you fill the unforgiving minute with a lifetime's worth memory, and hold it in your fist till the end of this odyssey?
Can you relinquish your pride in the face of simplicity, and lose it forever, in tender benevolence?
Can you kill the expectation in you, and distance it from your blessed being, so that you hardly ever experience insatiability, disappointment, pain...?
Can you mutter a world of hope in a silent prayer, and patiently await fate's judgement, the call of God?
Can you bear to see your dream shattered...but pick up its pieces and build a bigger one with resigned involvment?
Can you refuse to accept the death of a bond, and live on in belief of its revival one fine day?
Can you give, unconditionally...with no returns, no regrets, no complaints...only overwhelming joy, only eternal love?
Will you allow the breeze to carry your burden away...
Will you smile at the rainbow after the storm...
Will you appreciate blue skies when in pain...
Will you find melody where there is no music
Music where there's no harmony,
Harmonywhere there's no rhythm,
Rhythm where there's no symphony,
Symphony where there's no ode,
Ode where there's no joy,
Joy where there's no hope,
Hope where there's no pain,
Pain where there's no reason,
Reason where there's no heart,
Heart where there's no... Life?


Yours "unveiling some questions that have veiled answers"ly
Signing off...

Philo mood

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart,

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

--- e e Cummings

I just like those lines...actually, i like the way they're written, or the way they sound when they're spoken. Very different. Unique maybe. But very simple, and very understandable unlike many other pieces...I First heard them in the movie "In her shoes".... Its actually a poem... and what you just read above is not the whole poem... its just the part i like :D Well... i guess i just wanted to put it up... loved esp the line that says - " which grows higher than the soul can hope, or the mind can hide"... Nice comparisons. The mind is like this bottomless pit where you can hide anything and everything...even if one knows where to look for something, they wont find it there, till the holder of the key opens it for them...and reveals... And the soul hopes as much as it can...hopes for hope. Hopes even when there's no hope. Hopes against hope.

Well... i guess you just get philosophical me on this post :D Kind of a contrast from my crazy jack sparrow post... yikes, CAPTAIN jack sparrow i mean!

Yours "philo div can be boring, but its just a part of her"ly
Signing off...

CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow, Savvy? ;-)

Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead man's chest.What on earth were the reviews complaining about? This movie, is one hell of a roller coaster ride, and i loved every bit of it, and screamed at the end...screamed because of the element of suspense, and that craving to watch the next movie that very moment and have every vein in my body overflow with the drunken pirate-ness! What a sequel, what a perfect bridge, what action, what special effects, what humour... what a flick! One of those made solely for the purpose of entertainment :)

Maybe i liked the movie because i was determined to like it from the very beginning... but really, i cant agree with any review that called it sub-standard. A woman on tv said it was a 2.5 hour promo to the 3rd movie, and that it was a drag with no proper story and didn't have enough of Johnny depp (My take on that, is that you just cant ever have enough of depp!). The guy who was on the show with her gave her one straight look and said "did you really understand the movie? cuz i loved it!" Yaay! I go with the guy! I dont think i need to talk abt the perfomances...they were just wow... and the music as usual! But i think some scenes have been shot beautifully in this movie! Better than the first one... Well, if you're looking for a movie that'll make you scream, whistle, jump in your seat and laugh like hell, this is definitely the one! 3 cheers to Gore Verbinski! Mr.director.... and obv to Mr.Depp!!! ;-)

I hate it when movies end with such climaxes that do nothing but pave way to the next movie, and make the audience wait forever! Argh.... but we will obv wait! And the wait shall definitely be worth it! So as Sudhish Kamath said in "The Hindu" - Gore,Bring Jack back, soon! We want Pirates of the Caribbean - At world's end! And SOON!

Johnny is such a good actor...damn! I've never ever been crazy abt an actor... he's the only one! Bless him! Depp, we're waiting for shantaram too :D

UPDATE 7/8/06 - Happy birthday Nikhil!!!! Mr.Leo... Hope u have a great day! And hope u give us one of those treats again ;-) Pizza hut, is never to be forgotten man! Maybe we should tell all your classmates who got just orange juice for a treat what a gracious host you played, once upon a time ;-) LOL! Have a blast!

Yours "Dont miss this for anything, i love Depp"ly
Signing offfff.....

"Now" is the word...

What happens when your home is like a venue for a fun party everyday, and you're having one hell of a time? Well, you dont have time to update. :D But, thats not a bad thing. Because such times don't occur too often in one's life! Well, to give everyone a clearer picture.... A whole lot of relatives have come down to stay at our humble abode from different parts of the world, and its one big carnival! There's something to do everyday, something different. And....it keeps you totally occupied! Which i believe is a very very good thing....:D But when you think of the unfortunate fact that such moments are shortlived, and that in a few days, the walls of the house will echo with their voices, and the floors will depict shadows without the people who are the source...and they'll stand infront of you in each part of the house, saying something they've already said, or doing something that made you laugh like you're mad....and that feels disheartening. And i don't want myself in a disheartened state when the fun's still on, so i refuse to think of it! Which brings me back to one line that i read a few years back, and have loved ever since.... "cross the bridge when you get to it".

So, i dedicate this post to everyone at home right now.... Amma, thatha, paati, chitti, chitappa, Karthik, Mama, aunty, sanjana and sandhya...and visu who'll be here shortly! Thanks for making the past month so coulourful! Looking forward to the remaning few days...
And to Kar, whoz leaving for the U.S on friday, Good luck in ALL your future 'experiments' ;-) You're definitely going to be missed.

Well... this post is turning out to be something i rather didn't expect... But thats not anything new! Now to some lighter things.... am going to watch pirates on saturday!!!!!!!! YAAAAY!!!!!!!! cant wait.... :D :D And there's this other line i remembered recently... it sort of came to me at a particular situation, and i was quite amused at myself...
"If fate doesn't make you laugh, you just don't get the joke!" --Shantaram

One last thing.... Happy Birthday to Padmaja!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D (2nd aug)

Yours "Make the best of the moment"ly
Signing off......

My Black Friday...

It made me feel so bad when blogging was banned in this country.... made me feel like i'd lost some integral part of me. But well, it all came back... and somehow, i still didn't feel like updating. Partly because the previous post is so close to my heart...and partly because our blogging network is suffering from a lack of activity. Where is everyone! Anyway... am so glad i still have this blog!

There's nothing much thats been happening... nothing worth a mention. So i'll get down to writing about friday, 21st of july, when i thought the whole wide world was conspiring against my happiness... and for 3 good reasons. First, my blog, ad any other blog just refused to open! And then i found out abt the whole ban... and hell, i was upset... I whined and complained...and that passed. And then sukanya told me that Cannavaro (italy football captain who slept holding the world cup the night they won it!) was bought by the money pit called Real madrid! The club i loathe... because i believe they just keep buying the world's best looking players, who do play well, but go there to lose form...i was so upset! Ocourse we all knew abt the match fixing problem in juventus... but did he have to get bought into REAL MADRID? ok fine... yeah then that came and went. And then, the biggest hit for the day! Chennai city has this annoying history of releasing movies later than any other city in the country... simply because of i dont know what! And this time, this got onto my nerves like hell... i for one, have been waiting for 'pirates of the caribbean - dead man's chest' from the minute i finished seeing the first one! And inspite of having that friday off, i couldnt watch the movie simply because they didn't release it! Arrggghhh...

Anyway.... as of now, i say - Captain Jack sparrow, Where are you! Show yourself!!!!! Am waiting... we're waiting... chennai's waiting for your swaggering drunken walk, and your slurred speech, and 'kohl'ed eyes...and your slender lady-like fingers that u got a stunt for, your whacky expressions and that roller coaster ride type action! and lastly, but never ever the least - those high high high cheek bones that define you - Johnny depp - Pirate of all pirates!! Keep signing those autographs (polls show that he signs the most no.of autograohs in hollywood!), i hope to get one someday!

Well... i'll get back with a solid post later...

Yours " waiting for jack sparrow"ly
Signing off....

The taste, smell, touch, vision, feeling.....of victory!

Do i need to describe the feeling? The euphoria? The tears.... My italy!!!!!!!!! woo hooo!! They got out of that jinx... that 'we never win a match that goes to the penalty shoot-outs' jinx. But everything else, sticks to history. The power of history sort of dawned upon me last night... 1982 repeated. And i sat and cried in jubiliation...i jumped...i screamed.... Italy reach the finals once in 12 years, and they win alternately. Thats history. Italy lost out on penalty shoot outs, but definitely not in this one! Thats history broken! Its hats off to Cannavaro (the best defender i know), and Pirlo (who has such style in midfield), and Gattuso (mr.agrressive), And Del piero(here's class), And toni (record striker, and one hell of a smile, but didn do too well), and Camoranesi(rough!!), and Grosso(the man who scored that winning goal), and Matterazzi(the man who made dear Zidane let his team down,and the one who scored that first goal), and De Rossi(one more penalty), and the wall - Buffon!(world's most expensive goalie...in Nil's words, he counts money with those hands...he better save the goals! And he did... a great job!) And lastly, but not the least, coach Lippi. His startegy clicked... wow. And to the others... totti, iaqinta, perotta, zamborotta, and whoever's name that must have just slipped.... :D

The extent to which people around you believe in your team sometimes makes so much of a difference. And the people who made me believe italy were going to lift that cup... Nilesh (with all his flashnews and his own startegies to how italy are goin to play!), Sathya (who actually told me that i might have been azzurri by birth for one of my comments! That made me smile like hell), Nitya (who kept saying, just wait and see, they're going to win. Relax...), Sandhya (who made me call her and scream each time italy scored!), my dad (who sent sms' from kenya to say 'fantastic goal divs' like i'm the one who trained the team!)and sathya uncle (who again, sent sms' from kenya sayin go italy! and reminded me that kenya's always italy crazy)....Its been great watching the world cup with each of you guys! Thanks a million for making this fever work.... and thanks to Nik, tsb and anu who always kept the comments section of the blogs alive with football fever!! And ofcourse, Sukanya, for being as excited as me, and sincerely discussing each and every match we watched over the phone, during half time and after full time! You've been great company suk! :D

Its over.... and how much i've loved this past month, i cannot tell. Football's been in me since kenya... where it is like what cricket is to india. I grew up playing football, dirtying my white uniform with red sand, and watching it too... coming to chennai sort of stole that away from me... but i love espn for telecasting the worldcup this year... thats maybe the best thing thats ever going to happen to me this year! The month of june, and the first 9 days of july... magic. Football magic, azzurri magic. I'm going to miss it so terribly.... And its been so easy making conversation with anyone under the sun this one month! All one had to do was say 'hey did u watch yesterday's match....' blah, and the rest would follow! No more of that :( well... we all have to move on i guess! Heaven knows where i'll be and what i'll be doing when this happens again... but i'll watch it. South Africa calling!

The Azzurris worked their magic.... and i still remain charmed :D

Yours "ITALY WON THE FIFA WORLDCUP 2006 and it feels euphoric"ly
Signing off...

Frozen

UPDATE 6/7/06 - Happy birthday Caulagi!!!!! Have a great day man, and enjoy that tour! You're such a lucky bum... have a wonderful year to come! Good luck.


My college reopened today. After a whole month of vacation. And very strangely, i didn't blog about the 'holiday' feeling. Nonetheless, it felt so lousy to go back to college... but hell, not like i had a choice. But i guess it all got back normal today. We cracked up so royally in the lab and laughed so much, that i almost felt like i'd missed the feeling :) Feels like the past month just breezed past...with my parents here (which again, i did not mention). It was one of those rare times when we were all vetti...and at the same time...so we made something worthwhile come out of the vettiness... and yesterday was a perfect example.

We were 8 of us, 3 so called 'children' and 5 proper 'adults' adanjufied (dumped/squeezed) in one room...the entertainment box switched on, with super loud volume. 8 pairs of eyes screwed up in concentration...and 3 noses sniffing and running, attributed to the recent attack of cold and cough...3 pairs of hands holding tissue paper, thanks to the 'running' noses! We were watching a tamil film. Something i call a classic, for there hasn't been another of its kind till date...so entertaining and funny. The kind of 'funny' that can be understood by anyone, no matter the age (infants obviously not included ;-)). The movie - Michael madana kamarajan! What a movie... we all rolled with laughter in all the 'kaameshwaran' scenes...lol. One of kamal hasaan's best entertainers. He plays a rich businessman, a palghat cook, a criminal and a fire saver... and how fate brings them all together is such a hilarious tale. One that can be watched over and over again, and can be laughed over, even when you know the dialogues word to word (which most of us did!). It was some moment...one of those i'd like to 'freeze'. We were 3 generations in that room... my grandparents, my parents and aunt, my cousins and i. Frozen moments.

Well... i guess thats it. Somehow, i don't want to write about the turn the worldcup's taken. Just that its made me...(well, yes, i love using the word) euphoric. Just got to wait and see...God be with them.

Yours "Only berlin stands between them and the fated cup"ly
Signing off....

Dwell among the clouds

When you have too many things to post about, the post either becomes a blabberation, or becomes too long. I don't know which of the 2 this one is going to become, but i suggest you prepare yourself to face the consequences, whatever the genre ;-) Now... to Ooty, and Kerala.

When your eyes are being subjected to a feast, it feels like your mind is lost in a dream. A mid-day reverie that you don't want to snap out of. And i found that happening to me way too often in the land of mist and rain... of flowers and peaks...of never-ending greenery. Where you live among th clouds...and walk among them, and yet you cant see yourself within them, and thus find it difficult to believe so... but end up feeling it somewhere in your heart, that it becomes true, and makes you believe. Pine forests to arrest your attention, and make your eyes prisoner....In my opinion, not a single pair of eyes would mind an exile there. You just cant stop looking...The rows of softwood...like symmetry came naturally to them!The trees beckon you to them, but the slippery soils warn you of some unexpected fate you might meet if you succumb to the temptations of the pines whose trunks seem like a stairway to heaven... for the sole reason that their highest branches and tips are lost in the mist, and blend with the sky...giving you the feeling that if you manage to climb up and have a little peek, you'll be in a world far away from ours. So here finally, is the place where the land and the sky meet in total peaceful white-ness... unlike the sea and the sky that meet in rich blue, the colour of the world. Its like living in a dream.

And then there are the winds...whose main aim it would seem, is to push you off the nearest cliff, as quickly and forcefully as possible. The wind and the drops of rain get into a conspiracy to slap your cheeks, and every exposed part of your skin so hard that its like anasthesia...makes you numb with cold. And then the chill becomes painful...Like a thousand needles are piercing your skin from nowhere...and you feel white. You feel like if you try to open your mouth, your jaw might just break away from the rest of the skeletal structure and take a nice holiday... :D But, its a great feeling(only if it happens once in a while). Struggling against that wind very simply draws a similarity to life itself... And when you reach your destination against the wind, and the view from the top is breath taking, nothing else matters. And life too, follows a similar pattern...

And the tale that Ooty has to tell moves on... from deep valleys, that seem as bottomless as an abyss, to tea gardens, to flowers of paradise, to lakes and to home-made chocolate (that i regret not tasting!). But we move on... to kerala. You get so drunken with the greenery that you start seeing everything as green...ok, that maybe an exaggeration, but the place is really green...I don't really know about the cities, but the road to kerala was wow. My mother bought something called 'pazham pori' at some tea shop on the way, which was, i think, banana fried in bajji style! It was sweet...and had 'welcome to kerala' written all over it! And then there was guruvayur...with all the lamps and the elephants...the place humbles you so much. Was beautiful. Temples.... :) Nik, you live in a beautiful state.

Thanks to the trip, i had my first tryst with a fireplace ;-) was super cool... i just kept staring at the flame and lugging more wood... And looking at the reflection of the fire in someone's eyes gives you such an eerie feeling! My aunt's eyes literally looked like they were on fire... lol. And we also had this 5.5hour train journey climbing up to ooty... it was the cheapest travel we made i guess. 11 bucks a ticket for such a long journey in a cute little chuc chuc train that kept stopping and whistling and crying its chucchucs...and that is an antique piece that runs on coal! Some experience... :)

The trip cost my dad money...but cost me... some football matches that i very badly wanted to see... but well, now that am back, i can have it all :)

Yours 'Italy into the quarters' ly
Signing off....

When Jose makes your day...

Adidas just made my day... or rather, my brother just did, indirectly. I was supposed to buy something with the money he'd given me for my birthday...still remember his great piece of advice "Don't save it, please spend it, all of it!" And i did just that... spent it on something i've been considering ownership of for quite sometime :D A good pair of sneakers...SHOES! Branded. I don't know why i happened to pick adidas, but i do know now that it was the right decision! I
think it started because there's an 'upto 50% off' sale...and there's such football ambience in that place!!

I stepped in to find David Beckham staring right into my face! Woo hoo! A HUGE poster...2 actually. And rows of football jerseys and shoes and so much more... and the last shelf had... football studs! I stared at them for so long am sure the guy helping us around would have thought i was charmed or hypnotised or something! Well... it wasn't too tough to pick the shoes. Love them :D And my mom picked some t-shirt for my bro and me( and as usual, i ended up pickin my t from the men's section! Never like the ladies secn...i dont think things like this ever change!)... normal stuff. But the big surprise came later...

We were billing...and they had this stand filled with post cards... again, the 'big names' in football... Ballack, Beckham, Kaka, Raul, Riquelme...for free. GRABBED some! LOL! And the guy smiled and walked away... i was stuck in this 'slightly embarassed' state but hell, the quotient of excitement and joy exceeded that of embarassment by a huge margin! And just as we were about to leave... the guy came back, with a poster!!! A poster Goddamit! Of Jose's team! Anyone who's seen the latest 'impossible is nothing' adidas ad on tv with thefootballers would know jose's team... 36 footballers + Jose in the poster! I almost screamed! It felt GREAT! And he smiled again... and with my 'Oh damn am goin to scream' expression, i said 'thanks so much'! And once we got into the car, i DID scream!!!! Loudly... much to the annoyance of my dad who does not
approve of posters because they apparently contribute to peeling of paint from walls :D.... But hell!! We were just leaving... and i spotted the same poster that was in my bag, but a blown up version, as a hoarding outside the adidas showroom. *broad smile*

Thats it i guess... still feels great!

sandhya - You've already made me brand ambassador for odomos, mangoes and helmets.... hope you won't deny me te honour of being brand ambassador for adidas, or better, football itself!!!:D :D

Nil - put up the poster for u... :D its not too clear... but i really couldn do more at 2.00am...do see the full size! :D hope u get one too!

NOTE : I have come to realise that no matter where you go eat in chennai, the best place for south indian dosai, vadai, idli, pongal etc... is Saravanabhavan! No matter how crowded, noisy, dirty...You go there to eat, and you eat among a thousand mamaas and maamis and their kids, and spend the least time you'd spend at a restaurant, and come out happy and full...the taste of sambar still lingering on some part of your tongue :D No wonder my thatha refuses to eat out
anywhere else!

NOTICE : This blog will lack the writer's participation for the next 5 days, as she will be out of town. But please do leave your valuable comments :D Will get back to you on the 27th! Will definitely miss my blog, and your comments ;-) But i'll hopefully come back with a story! And some nice pics i'm hoping...actually, i think am goin to miss the matches more than this!! Damn...nil, u better keep me updated man! Messages free within tamilnadu :)

Yours "I so hope I was Jose"ly
Signing off...

Thumb - Letter - Trap !

The kind of ridiculous beliefs that people have can sometimes get onto your nerves, but there are times, when they can be extremely amusing. Especially if they're being discussed in a group. They're the kind that could bug you to your bones when mentioned by someone like your grandmother, but can make you laugh no end when mentioned by a peer. One such thing is what i'd very truthfully like to call -'The thumb-letter-trap'. There is a higher probablity that girls have heard about this, and have done a thorough check up of their friends' thumbs! For those guys who still dwell in the vacuoles of darkness, here's what it is.

Apparently nature has a way of letting girls know something about their future spouses ( i was thinking its spouse and spice, like mouse n mice or something!). Something that neither a crystal ball, nor the 'jakkamma jaathagam' paati who tries to cunningly get you to show her your palm in marina/besi beach... with this huge pottu on her forehead and something that looks like a chapatti rolling pin in her hand nor the josiar (astrologer) staying in some dumpy old room in a painfully far away corner of the city can tell you! That being... the letter the 'man''s name starts with! Can you beat that. Ridiculous though it may sound, it can be an essentially entertaining time pass to a group of girls who are quite bored, and are crazy enough to make each other drunken with the craziness.

The task of hunting down THE letter between the intricate lines on my left thumb was taken up by 2 friends...Quite a search it turned out to be! From previous experience, it has been discovered that the letter 'H' notoriously appears on every girl's thumb, and thus, the letter H was very conviniently ignored.(H guys, i feel sorry for u!) Any letter beside H would be THE one! After a few minutes of examination, they both came to the conclusion that the letter to which my fate was tied was 'Y'! Sad, but true! Any guys with a name starting from Y? That was the next thing to think about... difficult! After a series of words like Yamma, Yappa, Yes, Yorker, Yorkshire, Yellow, Yogibear,Yuck, Young, Yesterday, Yttrium and other very amusing words, we settled for real names...
The proper names

• YASSAR ARAFAT! (well, am not realy interested in politicians, so OUT!)
• Yuvraj ( he'll be married by the time i decide on marriage, thus, OUT.plus, am not too fond of punjabis)
• Yash (Well, that went back to yash raichand of karan johar's K3G - too old for me ;-))
• Yunis (aah pakistani bowler... am sure he's already married. Am not for breakin happy marriages!)
• Yadav (He happened to be my friend's watchman... well, NO!)
• Yogesh (Name sounds terrible, OUT!)
• Yogendran/Yoganadan (Sounds like a saamiyaar....AAAAAAH)
• Yoshimo (or some kinda crap like that which was a japanese name...Snails not my type of cuisine - reject!)
• Yeman ( i don think am for marryin lord of death n all ;-)!)

Well i guess thats it... but i think they missed one name that just struck me now - YOKOZUNA!(of wrestling fame) Lol...and i am DEFINITELY not ok with him...
Which brings us to the conclusion that there are probablities that am not ever goin to get married ;-) Unless you guys could suggest more Y names ;-)!! Pl do!

NOTE - This has been tested on married women.I personally did it... and well, its turned out right!!!!! So, BEWARE!

UPDATE18/6/06 - Dearest appa... and all the other dads in the world - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! You're the best!

Yours 'why am i stuck with y'ly

Signing off...

Bend it Like.....

Second time lucky. I can't believe myself. There was this time i chucked David Beckham out of 'favourites' list because he left Man U... he left it for money. He resigned as 'darling' of the club and become 'just another player' at Real (which i have never considered a team. Just a bottomless money pit with a collection of freshly bought good lookin players, who go there to lose form!)...and, he had to change his jersey number from 7, because Raul, the darling of Real, was 7. Then he went out of form for a while... some scandals in his personal life...just lost any interest in him. But today... after watching 2 england matches (in which england as a team didn't play too well)... i can't not like him anymore. I think he has class.... Such accurate crosses! Strikes right on target...and ofcourse, he still looks good :D He's still the King of free kicks and side kicks, the architect of goals, and a brilliant mid-fielder. And if he has proper coordination from his fellow team mates, the strikers in particular, england can do much much better. Its hats off to david beckham, and it feels great to be crazy about with him again! :D Yaaaaaayyyyy!!!!
Dear captain, may you lead england to some good victories, and get back to Man U!
(well this does not mean england's my team for the worldcup...I'm stuck to the azzurris this time! Italy...Yaay! but I think England, a team with such good looking players, should go some decent distance towards the cup!!! ;-))

And... the guy has his wife's name tattoed on the under side of his left arm, in HINDI! beat that! Ain't that so cute? awww....here's proof.

and the commentator today had this super cute commment before he took the free kick...he said "come on david, bend it like Beckham!" Lol...

NOTE : No offence to Johnny Depp...Johnny, You'll always be on the list ;-) Just that its Beckham season now! You'll rule from july 7th! Pirate of pirates... :D

I LOVE FOOTBALL. Next to food ofcourse... :D

UPDATE 16/6/06 - Its so cool that i get to do this on this post... it being a football post, a Beckham post. This is for my Bro....Who i've watched every world cup with, screamed and jumped...cheered for italy... and the photo you see at the beginning of the post, is me in his beckham jersey... So, dear Bro - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! Ofcourse i am not in a position to give you money for your gift like you did ;-) or rather, not yet! But... you'll get something i can afford!!! Have a great day... :D 3 cheers to football!!!

Yours "In love with Beck all over again"ly
Signing offfffff.............