falling like wickets at a bad cricket match...

i meant to write a nice long post about current events and the news and life n stuff.. (specially since taht anonymous commentor wrote that one was expected from me) i swear i did.. but things are just so weird right now that i need to be all self absorbed and let this nonsense out instead.. I'm FREAKING out!!!
there is this sudden SPATE of weddings around me and seeing every single wicket fall my parents' muttering about my own impending doom are growing louder by the day... Owl's engagement was on friday night, and today my mama called with teh news that HIS son Vin too has declared his intention to marry his longtime girlfriend.. and seeing all and sundry relatives preparing has given my parents a panic attack, both about the 'age' bit (i'm only ^$$%#^&%%# 23 DAMNIT!!) and the fact that weddings these days are very very very expensive.. and whenever i laugh off their worries with a 'dont worry i'll elope and marry so u dont neeed to think about expenses", it does nothing but scare them even more coz hey.. they don't trust my choice.. not counting the fact that since i'm not seeing anyone, there isn't a possibility of me coming up with a 'suitable boy' anytime soon... and they're getting all jittery about the fact that i will be 24 when my law course finally finishes and have expressly forbidden them from mentioning the 'M' word with any seriousness to me till i turn 25.. and today dad came up with this.. "weddings are getting so expensive.. did u see what owl's parents and in-laws did for the engagement alone?"
deflated all my happiness and excitement about my bhai -ki -sagai i tell u... i'd been so happy before they sprung this conversation on me..

back back back back back

so i went for a competition to kerala with rave n Sj.. and just got back this morning.. or last night.. whatever.. have tonnes and tonnes to write about.. frm my trip to the so called egyptian revolution and more.. but shall do so tomorrow i guess..
in other news.. i might begoing to watch Bryan Adams perform in Delhi tonight.. IF teh police lets teh concert happen!!!!!
though parents aren't happy that i'm making plans to go gallivanting off into teh night again right after coming back..but really.. BRYAN ADAMS!!

my daddy strongest!

it makes for quite an interesting conversation when two people deliberately take sides that are opposite to their actual views.. poor dad has had to play devil's advocate coz i needed help in forming arguments for a moot court competition.. i'm seriously in awe of the man right now.. there was a point in the last few days when i felt like an absolute child again.. just listening to dad talking and thinking that papa knows absolutely everything in the world..
hopefully when i grow older and have kids of my own.. they will have such moments too.. :)

watering eyes....

so i wrote a post two years ago when my cousin sister was to get married.. about the kind of clothes available in the markets these days.. today i return with the same rant.. its has gotten WORSE! my big brother is getting engaged in two weeks and my eyes are watering after two hours spent searching in vain for a sari to be given to bhabi as gift..
they've added GLITTER to the stones and even to the cloth! they showed us some concoction called the 'gajji silk' that is silk blended with some random shiny shit..  ruined the look of the cloth.. and NET.. can there please be a sari that does not have a ghastly net border? i want pure chiffon for heaven's sake..!

i might go blind with all that glitter.. WHO buys that shit anyway???????

to friendship

i have been rather lucky as far as making friends is concerned so far.. i have managed to find people who see me as i am and accept me completely, warts and all.. i can be annoying, rude, hyper, condescending, egotistical and just plain crazy... but they stick by me, seeing something good in me throughout..
i'm in awe of you all.. of your loyalty and your patience..
thank you for continuing to be there through my crazy phases..

i hope i can do something worthy of the undying faith you have shown in me..

this is to ati, tinni, ansh, sap, N, rave and sj.. you guys have borne the brunt of my madness and yet never ever given up on me, never gotten angry or grown distant..  god alone knows how you put up with me..
Thank you..i love you very very much..

i just watched Dhobi Ghat. and i'm still recovering from the sheer beauty of it..

There’s an incredibly familiar feel to the movie. This sense of being lost in time, in the middle of a room full to overflowing with people you know and people who know you.. and in the midst of that bustle there’s a sudden hush in your ears and you feel like you’re living someone else’s life, in someone else’s body, and you’re really all alone.. and then someone bumps into you and makes you feel real again...

Thats what i saw in the movie..

Its like a painting, the artist’s hand paints what his mind sees, your eyes see something different... i don’t know if that poignancy and that sense of belonging to nothing and everything was what they were trying to portray but that is what i saw.. the dialogues were amazing.. the opening sequence...  the handheld videocamera captures the hidden girl’s voice and shows us the rain as she sees it.. the movement of the windshield wipers, the drops sliding down the windowpane.. its like the rain and the city itself IS a character in the movie, the cars on the road are a part of the story, not just props in the background.. the camera itself is not a mere tool, its the narrator, of yasmin’s story, capturing every nuance of expression... her makeup, her clothing, her entire demeanour changes subtly through the narrative, just like munna and arun change.. the only unchanged character is shai.. who is the one trying to unravel the story around her.. capturing places and people she would never meet in her own life, who welcomes everyone into  her life with open arms.. she’s as comfortable inviting the dhobi in to talk to her as she is in a fashionable art event with the rich and famous.. her mannerism doesn’t change with anyone, she’s equally loving, naive, accepting and careless with everyone.. she is the one anomalous character in the entire movie full of real people.. but she is real in her very quirkiness.. she’s the NRI who doesn’t care about social classes and is equally happy eating pao bhaji in a fly-infested restaurant as she is at a posh nightclub..

The most incredible was the ending.. which is really not an ‘ending’ at all.. its a stage where people grow up, change, let go of things they held inside and take a step forward.. munna lets go of the crazy love he has, as does shai, arun finds his muse in the memoirs of a dead yasmin..

The pictures and the paintings involved in the movie are equally beautiful.. the series shai is shown to have done on the people.. portraits of everyday life so mundane taht you never see  the beauty of the scene.. the crowd, the market, the wrinkles on the face of the rickshaw puller.. the yards and yards of clothes hung out to dry... ist a deeply visual film.. its everyday life seen with a hidden camera.. showing things that you would never otherwise notice.. the neighbour aunty packing food for her husband and kids, the surf on the sea.. the tired smile on the face of a dejected young wife, the shy bravado on the face of the boy-man taking time out from a crushing life to dream ..

Its the everyday things that one never notices that create the whole picture... its people who touch your life in places that don’t even register unless you look closely and find how their life meshes with yours... a conversation on the phone while cooking a meal, a downpour that you run through, a walk on a road that you take every day and never notice the road or the people who surround you.. its life...

Its a must watch movie..

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On a completely unrelated note.. I got Amir khan’s autograph!!!!!!! YAY!