Spokesperson

Like I have said before, by conscious choice, I have never commuted a great distance to work. Thus I really don't need to come up with many ways to entertain myself during the drive. Usually I listen to one of the many radio stations blasting pop music.

A couple of months ago, I re-discovered the National Public Radio (NPR) and decided to give listening to it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how many diverse topics they talk about and how entertaining as well as educating the discussions usually were. Now, I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of listening to NPR while driving to and from work.

This morning the talk was about the Tea Party. I have heard about the Tea Party (as in present-day usage) only a couple of times, that too in passing. Wiki tells me that the Tea Party movement

"is a United States grass-roots protest movement that emerged in 2009 and is opposed to the federal government's stimulus package, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."

Anyhoo, the topic under discussion was the Tea Party convention currently being held in Nashville, Tennessee. The program host gave an informed overview of the movement, what it stood for and its ideals. Then the host started to interview one of the convention attendees, let's call her Lady, about the movement.

The first question was what she thought the movement stood for [note, I am paraphrasing the dialogs, my memory is not good enough to remember exact wording]. Lady said something along the lines of "It is against a big overseeing government" or some such. Then she bristled, "People are against the Universal Health Care bill because it is unconstitutional. It is against the law. THe government is trying to pass an unconstitutional bill."

Now, though I keep reading about the healthcare bill that Obama is promoting, I have not quite gotten my head wrapped around what its specifics are. But I was quite sure that I had not yet heard of it being an unconstitutional move. Sure enough, the radio host asked, "So in what way do you think the bill is unconstitutional?"

There was a flabbergasted silence from Lady. Evidently, whoever had filled her with passionate protest had forgotten to tell her exactly why she was filled with passionate protest! Lady finally rallied around with, "I am not sure about the exact part of the constitution it violates but if you look around in the constitution, you will find that it has a section stating it is invalid". WTH!?!

I rolled my eyes and am sure the radio host did too for he promptly switched over to another question to a different person.

My question is, when you are holding a convention, how difficult is it for you to find someone who is well-informed to talk to the media? After all, this person is supposed to be a representative of the attendees. If this is the best you can come up with, what impression does it give about the rest of the attendees?

Now I know why most organizations use only trained spokespersons to talk to the press and media!

p.s. I still don't know enough about the Tea Party to have an opinion about it one way or the other.

Titbits

Yesterday was my second fitness class after a longish break of about two months. I have said it before and I say it again - it is highly unfair as to how it takes several months to reach a certain level of fitness and how only a few weeks break undoes all the good work. Unfair, unfair, unfair!

Anyways, considering that these days I am looking more and more like a well-iced snow-woman, not to mention puffing like a steam-engine at the slightest exertion, I am nevertheless dragging myself to class and putting myself through the grueling workout.

So, last evening, I followed the teacher as closely as I could. Still, at the end of class I felt a bit bad that for a couple of exercises, for a short while, I had not been able to keep up. I finished putting away my stuff and was about to leave when another fitness-class participant called me and asked "How long have you been doing this?". And then continued, "I have been watching you as I could not see the instructor from where I was. O boy, you did all those tough exercises without a break - that is so awesome! I wanted to know how long it takes to get there."

I was so delighted to hear this - I am not as unfit as I had imagined then! This is exactly the boost that I need to keep me going. So maybe next week I will not whine quite so much as usual before class. Amen to that.

***
I don't think I could say it better than this post. Still, I really have to put this down somewhere:

The new mile sur mera tumhara video simply sucks. [Part 1, Part 2]

And not just because I am viewing the original version through rose-tinted glasses (though I admit, I get all nostalgic whenever I hear that tune). According to the new version, present-day India apparently is defined by her actors and actresses. All of whom "emote" the song so well that I felt like someone was drilling my teeth as I watched them.

Sigh - some things are better left alone, no?

p.s.1 What's with Big B speaking out words in the song? I thought everyone was already tired of hearing Big B's baritone voice in almost every movie out of Bollywood. I sincerely hope he gets an incurable case of laryngitis if that is the only way to save us from the misery of hearing him booming everywhere.

p.s.2 Amar Singh did not make an appearance in the video as an extension of the Bachchan ensemble - thank God for small mercies!

p.s.3 I even hated Vikram and Surya in the video. Ya :-(.

Small town memories

Yesterday S and me were watching this movie "Something Something Unakkum Enakkum". One of the songs in that movie has a scene in which the hero and heroine watch with awe, a goat give birth to a little goat-kid. I exclaimed to S, "Oh you know, I once watched a cow give birth to a calf".

Then I thought about where exactly I had seen this. Oh ya, it was a long time back, in my grandmother's village. Then it struck me, there are certain things which one can easily see/do only in a small town or rural place and which are not easily accessible to city dwellers. How many of these things have you done?

- Bought a "cooling glass" with gaudy pink/green/orange frames from the trinket peddler.

- Smelt the fresh butter as the butter seller weighed it on his scale and slid it into the vessel your aunt has brought to the door. And surreptitiously dipped your finger into that vessel and licked the butter when you thought no one was watching.

- Bought som-papdi in paper cones from the street vendor's cart outside your door and savored the sweet taste as each fluffy bit melted in your mouth.

- Looked at plenty of black beads strewn on the ground and remarked innocently that you would like to gather them into a chain only to be told that the black beads were actually goat poop. Yuck.

- Cajoled your parents into buying a "whistle" from the potti kadai* outside the temple with promises you so will not use it till you were away from human hearing. And then driving everyone crazy with the constant whistle-blowing on the ride back home. Till someone grabbed the whistle and flung it out of the window.

- Swung from the branches of the mango tree on a makeshift swing made of jute rope with a gunny sack for a seat.

- Named the cows in your grandma's cowshed and fed them hay every morning.

- Made yourself sick by eating too much raw mango with salt and chilli powder.

- Had a bath sitting in a big brass drum filled with warm water and sang as you pretended that you are a movie heroine having a bath in a bath-tub.

- Eaten half dried vadam from the terrace and acted innocent when grandma wondered how her vadam quantity had gotten cut in half.

- Walked to the river and played in the shallow knee deep water.

- Pinned freshly woven jasmine flowers onto your hair and sometimes even begged for the bright orange kanakambaram flowers because it matched your dress better wondering why none of the adults seemed to prefer it.

- Lain on the verandah on a clear night, staring at the sky and admiring in wonder, the billion stars sparkling in it.

- Had a long swim/soak in the the water from the pumpset used to irrigate the fields.

- Drank coconut juice and then scooped out the tender coconut flesh with a spoon fashioned from the shell - all from coconuts just cut from the tree.

- Ditto for nongu (sorry I don't know the English name. The fruit comes from palm trees).

- Had everyone in the street greet you when they saw you because, you were so-and-so's granddaughter, right?

I guess I can write a lot more but okay, enough memories for one day. In case you didn't guess, I have done all of the above in my childhood days when I visited my grandparents :-) (because it is *my* list :-D).

*potti kadai - a small shop typically housed in a tin-shack.

Hawaii ho!

When we came back from India, the last thing S and me had in mind was budging out of the house for the next few weeks unless absolutely necessary. Both of us were looking forward to the Christmas vacation just so that we could sleep, sleep and then sleep some more.

But then, a week-end came in between, before Christmas. Both of us totally chilled out and slept to our heart's content. That Sunday night, I announced - "Let's go somewhere during Christmas." S enthusiastically agreed as well.

And lo! Within the next 24 hours, the tickets and the hotel were booked. Yaay - we were going to Oahu, Hawaii! One of my childhood dream vacation destinations!

This was the first time in as long as I can remember that I have gone on such an unplanned vacation. Anyone who knows me can tell you that my vacations usually involve plenty of research about the destination and a wish-list of places I want to see along with the tentative dates on which to visit them*. Plus I carry along a horde of printouts having maps, restaurant directions and what not.

This time round, there just wasn't any time to plan. So, S and I simply packed our bags and drove to SFO to catch our flight. And boy, did we have an adventure.

We wound up doing a ton of things - a submarine ride, shopping in the International Market Place, going to the North Shore, visiting Pearl Harbor, going to Waikiki beach, hiking up the Diamond Head crater, going on a sunset cruise... I only wish we had more than 4 days to spend there!






Turns out that even unplanned vacations are super-duper fun!

Just to make this post a wee bit useful, if you are heading to Oahu any time, do drink coffee at the Island Vintage Coffee cafe located in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping center in Waikiki. I kid you not - they ground coffee from the beans to make my yummylicious cup of Lava Mocha. BTW, they served the best coffee I have ever tasted. Aloha!

* note, all this happens only if another a fellow-vacationer has not entirely taken up the planning mantle.

2010 is here ...

Wishing you a wonderful year ahead filled with all possible joy, happiness and prosperity!

*clink*

Pic courtesy here.

Another vacation, another wedding and am back

Did I say that the vacation to India for my wedding was my busiest holiday ever? Now I realize that I said that because I had not yet taken a vacation to attend my sister's wedding!

Sis got married on Dec 11th to Deepak (congrats again :-)). S and me landed up in des during thanksgiving weekend (just in time for the engagement) and are back after a hectic whirlwind two-and-a-half week vacation. Wedding was ton of fun and we had a blast at all the the pre and post wedding events. Only, I re-realized that Indian weddings involve an insane of amount of getting up eaaaaaaarly. So much so both S and me actually slept quite a bit on the plane back to the US (that is definitely a record for cannot-sleep-in-a-seated-position me). Now I need a vacation for my vacation.

Being in India made me realize all over again just how wonderful it is to be around close family and how much fun it is to participate in family activities. I also figured that after living all these years in the US, India is still the only place which feels like home to me. Super good thing, if you ask me!

I am going to be spending the next few weeks dreaming of des. And also spend the next few weekends and long weekends sleeping.

Unnai pol oruvan - the review.

Since my movie reviews usually only dis movies, I thought I should write about a movie I liked for a change. Even seeing two Tamil movies in the recent past and getting mega bulbs in the bargain could not stop S and me from heading out to watch the latest Kamal Haasan movie, Unnai Pol Oruvan. Both of us are Kamal fans after all!

I learnt that this movie was a remake of A Wednesday! which was released sometime last year. This was a further plus for Unnai Pol Oruvan since I had heard many positive reviews for A Wednesday!

We reached the theatre and bought tickets. S rushed ahead to get good seats. Right. The theatre had an audience of two viz. S and yours truly. Mercifully some more people showed up as movie starting time approached thus dispelling our fears that the entire show would be canceled thanks to lack of an audience!

The movie started on time. From the beginning, a fast pace was set for the movie with every scene bringing anticipation of what next. No unnecessary scenes or songs. The movie's locations fluctuated between a total of less than half a dozen places but still managed to hold attention.

After intermission, the pace picked up further till the climax. I liked it, especially the speech at the end. I am specifically holding back details - I really think you ought to watch it yourself!

When the ending credits rolled, it was only slightly past the 2-hour mark. What a crisp and neatly made movie! Each frame of the movie contributed in someway towards moving it forward. The acting overall was quite good (though Kamal's accented English jarred a bit at times).

Thoughts provoked by the movie's ending speech were under discussion between S and me all the way back home. Its been quite a while since a Tamil movie did that.

Final verdict: go watch.

Benefits of blogging - updated again

Did you know there is a country by the name of Saint Kitts And Nevis? I did not but now I do and what's more, my blog had a visitor from there today!

Ever since one of my posts got linked here (before you jump to conclusions, a long while back Blogger had a link where we could submit posts from our blog which narrated some experience we had with blogger or something like that - I told you it was long ago, right? Anyways, I had no idea on what basis they picked posts but mine got picked somehow), I have been receiving one-post-stand visitors from all over the world.

So, now here is yet another benefit of blogging: you get to brush up your Geography :-).

Kandaswamy - the Review

Sridhar (henceforth known as S in this blog) and I decided to see the tamil movie Kandaswamy today. Since we had already seen one Tamil movie based on a positive recommendation (false, as it turned out to be) and gotten a mega-watt bulb, I was kind of wary about going to see this movie in the theatre especially since S said that the movie had gotten not so great reviews. But S wanted to be a true-blue Tam and see the movie in the theatre anyways.

We went for the 3.30pm, late noon show. As events later showed, that was probably the best decision with regards to the movie we made today. The movie started. After a series of events in the movie, a police officer steals money from a poor woman and is resting in his room at night. All of a sudden, this character wearing billowy black colored harem pants, a black full-hand shirt with big metallic buttons, gigantic bat-like wings with colorful markings, reddish-orange feathers on head and a red eye-mask (no, am not making any of this up - I don't have such a fertile imagination) descends from the roof and starts clucking like a hen while bobbing his head up and down to look like one too.

At this point, I assumed that this was the new-age punishment for wrong-doers - make them die of laughter. Instead the police officer on screen actually gets intimidated and scared. To be fair to the director, the red-masked character does deliver a few bodily punches between clucking. Still I could not wrap my head around the "hen laying an egg" act performed by the red-masked character. Who, by the way, was the hero - Vikram.

By now, my poor self was sadly drooping at the thought of sitting through the entire movie. Which was when I suddenly perked up. I excitedly turned to S and said "Hey, I got my idea for a blog post - this movie's review". With this happy thought in mind, I resumed watching the movie in a slightly happier frame of mind.

So, where was I? Ah yes, the hen act. Anyways, apparently the latest fad in the Superman, Batman, Spiderman series is Henman. Seriously, I wonder what Vikram was smoking when he agreed to appear on the big screen in that role.

Then the heroine, Shriya, appears. She studies in this college which looks like a harem-themed casino in Vegas. Correspondingly she participates in a college-dance show which looks like a Victoria's Secret model lingerie parade. I know masala movies require suspension of belief but this one required us to not only suspend belief but also expel it.

Anyways, the story is something along the lines of Henman robbing the rich and giving to the poor. In between, Henman performs this series of matrix stunts while bobbing his head up and down. What about Shriya you ask.

Well, when normal people need entertainment they watch a movie, go for a play or some such. When Henman needs entertainment, he goes to visit Shriya whereupon they immediately break into song and dance (I kid you not, every time they met, there was a song and nothing else).

The movie was proceeding along these lines when I realized that it had run for quite a while and there was still no sign of an interval. I anxiously asked S why the interval had not arrived yet. He consolingly said that since this was the US, there was no interval. I doubtfully nodded my head - Indian movies did have an interval even in the US.

Then around the 2 hour mark, the interval sign popped up. WTH!?! To revive our flagging spirits, we bought popcorn (easily the best part of the entire experience) and returned to the theatre. From that point, the movie dragged on and on. Obviously the director (who is also the screenplay, story and dialog writer) was so much in love with his masterpiece that he couldn't bear to conclude it.

By this time, S and I were having our own far more interesting parallel commentary for the movie. We could no longer follow what was going on in the movie and frankly, we couldn't care less. Finally, at long last, the end flashed. At 7.15pm. For a movie which began at 3.30pm. We were out of the theatre like a shot (only the fact that wehad paid $15 a head made us stay for that long). As we passed the crowd waiting to see the 7.30pm show, we giggled conspiratorially. The poor sods!

On the plus side, the look and feel of the movie was top notch. On the minus side, um, everything else.

Verdict: Recommend this movie to people you don't like. You yourself stay away from it like the plague. Even renting out the DVD is a bit much.

p.s.1. Just to clarify, Vikram's character's name in this movie is Kandaswamy, not Henman.

p.s.2. Good thing we went for the noon show. Like S said, we would have been far more irritated had we lost sleep due to going for a later show.

p.s.3. Vikram, dude, you are established enough to pick the movies you want to act in. Just thought I should remind you.

p.s.4. This movie is hitting Bollywood soon as 'Bhagwaan Kand'.

Anybody there?

Hola folks! After a long-ish break, perhaps the longest one on this blog thus far, I am back. And this time round I have a water-tight excuse as to why I could not blog: I was too busy. Okay, okay, stop rolling eyes! I was too busy because I was in India. That's better, no? But wait, it gets even better. While I was there *drum rolls*... I got married :-D!

Yup, Sridhar and I got hitched on the 24th of June, 2009 in Chennai. The weeks preceding and succeeding it were a huge blur of activity - I don't think I have ever been more busy in my life. But I we had a great time.

This is the first week that I am back in normal operation since our return (though, sadly enough, my work-brain has been forced to be on full alert for quite a while now).

Now, if all this isn't a good enough excuse, I would like to know what is :-D! But fear not gentle readers, I will certainly be more regular from now on.