Monday, August 30, 2010

Some concentric circles in that maze called life

I would wait, not in dramatic tone, but just wait. Wait for the appearance of the handcrafted orange green plastic wire lunch bag. For that signaled  dad's return from office  and end of the my mom's tyranny session a.k.a home work session. Come to think of it, nobody in the household really cared for  this session. Dad's brothers wanted to know if Amma was coaching me for IAS. She ignored the jibes  and marched on in her quest to teach .... the spelling of woodcutter or at least p-i-n to the 4-5 year old me. 

Thatha's and Patti's dissent were also ignored but Dad she couldnt ignore. I would run off the moment I saw the bag. The bag is still in my memory when I cant recall Mom and Dad's face from then, that's how big a role the bag or the appearance of it played in my role.

Couple of years ago, the parents were visiting me for the first time. On a particular not so great day at home, I came back from office and opened the door. Dad was just walking around the home (10ft *10ft.. ofcourse)
heard the click, saw me and immediately his face lit up with a smile:)

We have come a circle, haven't we?

PS: On another note, it is horrible for parents visiting USA in particular bay area. If some one was visiting India, they can always catch an auto/ taxi/call taxi and not depend on anybody for local transport.  My dad doesn't drive, I don't want them to take the bus but even if that was the case the frequency is so low, the wait so long and routes not so well connected. Taxis are so expensive and not something you can catch on the road.You have to call half an hour atleast ahead with a minimum fare of 10$ to go to the next street.

So, Dad is pretty much stuck at home. Mom doesnt seem to care much - it is transfer from one kitchen to another.  Not that Dad is much of an outdoor person but just the freedom. He probably can go to the temple/ grocery store. He gets bored, he probably starts counting the number of days to go back to india the moment he boards the plane. 

This is common across the families which is why Desi parent's walk(my dad doesnt). They walk, walk as if they were doing it for marathon. Hopefully, some system will come with the number of desis in bay area.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Dialogue

Someone: "So how do you know Bill gates owns Leonardo da vinci's note books?"

Me: "Because for the past six years, i have been reading everything that is there on the internet so that if it crashes tomorrow I can act as the back up."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Is Tehelka a pro-congress news site? can some one tell me?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Peepli Live

All that laughter(non-stop) didn't leave me feeling much for the farmer for a good hour. But the ending was hard hitting enough. Even otherwise, the movie was very informative - We all know about corruption and inept governance but this movie throws a bit of how.

The media part of action isn't going to shock any one. Unless they have been living under the rock for decade and half if from India and a lot longer if they are in US, we all would know how stupid media is.

A really neat one. Has a complete artsy feel.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Love marriage

"We had a love marriage, I had long ago decided no arranged marriage for me. I saw S at the Mall, it was love at first sight for me. I know she was the one. I told my friend straight away that she is going to be my wife. She was so beautiful. Three months later, we got married with parent's consent. I don't know how people have arranged marriage."

- Someone.

Update: First, The above words have been spoken at different times by different people and this was just an amalgmation of those words - I tried to mimic the language too(obv. #Fail there).

And what I meant was, how different is this sort of 'Love' Marriage from a traditional arranged marriage where the boy and girl see for few minutes and decide. Infact, Arranged marriages these days have become arranged blind dates where Man and woman get to know each other for a period of a month/two over several meetings in my social sphere. 

I always try to control my laughter at this irony.

I wasnt riled up by the comments against "arranged marriage" like most of you were. Not sure why.  Not definitely because I feel less of arranged marriage myself,  to me Marriage is a marriage as long as it works the paths dont matter.  But that wasnt my peeve at all. And what is with the term 'love' marriage - isnt these days a marriage by itself means love.

In general I have never been a fan of this 'love at first sight', the only way it translates in my head is a 'Mega crush' which is probably why I found this sort of statement ironic. Looks like I am the only one to feel this way.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Give him atleast a Padma Bhushan

Most of you would have already seen this(from the same source too:)) but why hasnt this guy been awarded Padma Bhushan yet? Seriously, does he make you laugh any less than your favorite comedian, it  is unintentional but... - I had tears in my eyes:) 

Watch esp. from 4.52 - 6.15.

To understand his greatness further(in case you have missed this - if that is true seriously which world were you in?)

Give him the Bharat Ratna, I say.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Top Tamil movie dialogues

There are so many list of world famous dialogues listing out the  top 10 hollywood dialogues, but  I have never come across something similar for our tamil movies... If you know of one let me know. For now, here are the few I thought of..

1." ஓடினால் ஓடினால் வாழ்கையின் எல்லைக்கே   ஓடினால் .."
" Odinaal Oodinaal Vazhakayin ellaikey odinaal"  - Parasakthi
2."என்  குல  பெண்களுக்கு  மஞ்சள்  அரைத்து   தந்தாயா   ..  எதற்கு  கட்ட  வேண்டும்  கப்பம் "
" En kula pengalaku manjaal araithu thanthaya..  Ethurku katta vendum kappam"
Kattabomman 
3. "பாடு சாந்தா  பாடு .. உன்  பாட்டை கேக்க  ஓடோடி  வந்தேன் "
"Padu Santha Padu.. Un pattai keka ododi vanthen"
Konjum Salangai
4. "நீ  நல்லவனா   கெட்டவனா?"
"Nee Nalavana Ketavan?"
- There are way too many epic dailogues from this movie but this one is it, right?
5. " ஆத்தா  ஆடு  வளர்த்த, கோழி வளர்த்த ... ஆனா  நாய் மட்டும்  வளக்கவே    இல்ல " Aatha Aadu valartha, Kozhi valartha... ana Nai matum vazhakave ella"
Padinaru vayathinile
6. " நாட்டமை  தீர்ப்ப மாத்தி சொல்லு "
"Nattamai thirpa mathi sollu"
Nattamai, ofcourse
7. " இது ஏப்டி இருக்கு"
Ethu epdi erku" - Thalaivar's dialogues would easily cross 20 so just listing out one iconic one.

How about you guys add yours as well?

Ps: I just killed Tamizh and will never try to do this again!!!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I dont like titles

There in between the bunch of lines on a page in between big bunch of pages of a big book stood a line.

A line talking about a Marathi guy standing in a Mumbai train getting into a conflict with a Gujarathi Guy with the underlying problem being their regionlaity. A line put in passing in a chapter dedicated to  describing a gangster's life(from the book - Maximum city).

Reading that single line suddenly put things into prospective. I was so busy being annoyed by the antics of Shiv sena, Bal Thackeray and Udhay Thackeray and their xenophobia that I forgot to think there might be a genuine root cause. That Marathis could have been mistreated, denied opportunities at the hands of Wealthier Gujaratis/Parsis, on a land that belonged to their state. It isn't right to do that  to any one in any state.  To use a different language in their own state when that wasn't the case 20 years ago clearly even to me indicates a killing of a language.

Cut to a year back, I was reading an interview of Srilankan Military chief and he suddenly says, "Srilanka belongs to Sinhalese". Again I hate LTTE for all the wreck they created, all the children they employed as soldiers and loads of  stuff, that I sometimes forget that  beyond the LTTEs there was a genuine cause - real injustice. Tamil residents some of whom would have  been living from 10th century  in SriLanka were denied voting rights. Even when Voting rights  exist on paper there are innumerable ways in which minorites suffer discrimination. Denying voting rights makes that discrimination so official that it is hard to imagine the plight  of tamilians. Even the recent Tamil immigrant s to the Island have a 200 year history. A generation born and brought up in a land will consider it as mother land(something the American immigrants wont find hand to understand) that 200 years  is more than enough to be given voting rights.

It is easy to say the Politicians/ Terrorists have hijacked the issues but I think we should remember that beyond the antics lies a genuine problem. That definitely need to be addressed.

Infact when I think about it, I dont see any other path apart from these antics/ Terrorist activity*. Like waging a peace march/ fasting would change the minds of these racists, who are we kidding? But why should innocent people lose lives for your causes? Why should children of your own ethnicity lose their childhood when their futures are already bleak due to the prevailing racism/inequality?  These Paths absolutely dont seem to be right except I dont know any other either.


* I am not clubbing them, Terrorism kills, Shiv Sena's antics mostly just annoys/ causes material losses.

Monday, August 9, 2010

It makes some sense if I just didnt know parts of the answer and I sought help but this seemed a bit much to blankly xerox another person's paper. Besides, I had already found an error in the other person's paper, does anybody know the answer at all in this class?  I am bored.

Through the glass enclosure I could see Sl ( the one whose name begins with S and who sits left of me on the same bench, so the name) in deep conversation with Math lecturer, having already handed the paper. At least now I wont be the first to give the paper, so I opened the glass door. 

The model exams were being held in the circuits lab that semester. An even semester was already a short one and our re-exams from the last semester had shortened it even more, but all that didnt really matter. This was just before the study holidays and I hadnt even bought the syllabus book yet. I had allotted the first two days of study holidays just to match the notes that Sh had delivered(she ran some sort of business, collecting notes from the front benches, xeroxing it and delivering it to all of us) with the syllabus book.

But now it was all too early for us to know anything about anything subject related, actually any day before the exam day was a bit too early.

Back to the circuits lab,  Thadal.. an explosion of sorts was going on,  what seemed like a casual conversation behind the glass door was actually a latcharchana on Sl. Unaware of this, I smile and pass the paper. "Pass aiduvangla", she asks.
I nod, as if these things were in my hands. 

A moment later, SR walks in. And then she started. 

dont think I havent been watching you guys. Class la padam edutha gavanikirathula.... (you never listen in the class)

What? when did she notice us?, how come we didnt notice her?

Etho vilayadrathu?(playing all the time)

Did she see us playing hangman but that has a history i have played it with SR from 5th std. its a legacy thing

You would get good marks now but eventually there is someone up there watching, you will all graduate... and then?

huh, now I remember, I have seen her - she stands sometimes in the class and talks non-stop for 45minutes, she handles math? what was she talking non-stop. Now, this was a puzzle that took one more semester to solve,  apparently after finishing an unit and  she stood there revising verbally, verbally.. math!

Dont think it is just me, all the teachers are watching, you guys all get together @4.00 in front of canteen and make fun of lecturers..
 This was too much, to think 18 year old girls congregated to discuss anything apart from boys and anything related to studies. I blurted out, no ma'am, we dont.

May be not then.. but all the lecturers are upset with you girls.. just because you study well... what happened to respecting teachers.
.
..
..
I zoned out after that
...
I cant control my laughter.
...
....
....
Oh god, SR and SL are going to cry. Esp. SR.
Why are girls like these.
I cant control my laughter, think of bad things.. 
...
....
.....
You can go now, but if you dont get more than 20(/100!!!! ), you have to bring in your parents.
need to maintain decorum, plus SR and SL are going to cry, oh so boring.

We walk out trying to maintain some sort of grim faces. Just as we enter the classroom, we all burst into laughter for a good 5 minutes.
SR asks, to the canteen then?
yep to the canteen, we have more than 2 hrs to kill anyway.
Would they have cutlets now?
I feel like fried rice.

Few months later,
Results are out, I see M and Applied Mech. lecturer walking. I tried to avoid eye contact. AM screams from the other side, you are first in class for AM, R*. I smile at her, thanking god for small mercies.M turns her face.

Couple of days later, M stops by our desk, she asks our marks, it is in 90s, 80s and late 70s. She smirks and moves on, never to return to our bench ever again.

*** No, I wasnt the topper or anything. But there was always one subject, er semester  I  scored extremely well and there was another where I scored bare in 50s/60s - none of it had anything to how I studied or what I wrote.