Monday, November 06, 2006

Rants and raves

Disclaimer: I have not become a misanthrope (yet :-P) - I still love my fellow humans :-D.
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* How many of you find cars sporting white headlights instead of yellow headlights painful at night? While I totally appreciate floodlights as a tool for illuminating games played at night, night-time concerts and the like, I totally object to it being fitted to the front of cars. When such cars follow me, all I can see is a blinding flash in my car's rearview and sideview mirrors. When they are on cars in the opposite direction, I can barely see the road in front of me. I would like to strangle the idiot who first came up with the idea.

* How do you politely tell people you have known for little more than a month "Thank you very much for choosing me as your confidante but I am really not interested in your personal life?" Some people are genuinely interested when being told such stories or can at least gracefully handle such situations. I fall into neither category and I am scared that someday I might go from painfully smiling and nodding to actually shouting "Shut up, shut up, shut UP" a la Chandler in Friends (see this clip to refresh your memory) :-(. I need to have some level of comfort and familiarity with a person before listening to (or telling) personal stories and feel very uncomfortable otherwise *sigh*!

Er..actually, I just have two rants for now - not that much of a misanthrope, huh!?! Cool :-D!

On a totally unrelated note, I recently rediscovered the joys of the famous Dil Se (or Uyire) song all over again. The beats, obviously, are great! However, I have never closely followed the lyrics before and recently did so. They are beautiful (btw, the Hindi lyrics are way better than the Tamil ones) .


Hehehe - and thus I created the opportunity to try out embedding a youtube clip on my blog :-D!

And in case you did not know about it, this song was used as a background for the opening credits in the movie Inside Man. Go ARR :-D
!

13 comments:

Jeseem said...

when driving in india, ur car shld hav 4-5 lights, that u can use to blind any stupid driver, who doesn't know to use low beam.
the youtube clips r good. and the movie was a nice one too.

Inder said...

gulzar opted for the classic blend of hindi and urdu. 'chayya chayya' is indeed wonderfully penned. vairamuthu went for an ethnic flavour of tamil. i think gulzar scores a few points over vairamuthu in 'chayya chayya'. and i think it is the other way around in 'satrangi re'. they both have given great lyrics for the movie.

i was surprised to hear 'chayya chayya' in 'inside man'. inside man too is a brilliant movie. they have used a remixed version of 'chayya chayya', which is groovier, during the credits towards the end of the movie. it was pleasant experience to see names like rahman, gulzar, sukhwinder singh and sapna awasti in the credits of 'inside man' :)

Anonymous said...

I agree with jeseem. Try driving in des, with everyone using high beam blinding you. Well, when you are busy trying to keep your eyes on the road and still not get your vision impaired, you'll see that pedestrians are either taking their evening stroll, or else two wheelers performing cartwheels, and the other vehicles are honking to make their presence felt. Its nothing short of a circus here. So woman, stop complaining about the tiny bit of extra light you see from the vehicles in the US.

Prabhu said...

1. the first few times a car followed me with white lights, i thought they were high-beaming me (high-beam in interstate is equiv to honking right?)

2. thats a tricky situation! gracefully handle girl!!

3. chaiya chaiya - i like to agree with the other commenter, satrangi re, lyrics was awesome in tamil...just way too good..

and ya welcome back after the hiatus...

Anonymous said...

My car is fitted with white lights and I love them...

You can make ur rear view mirror to be non reflecting.. it is not that bad than.

The Kid said...

many old hindi music excerpts could be heard when the credits roll for the "Vendetta".

Shilpa said...

Hey I din't know that chaiya chaiya was used for inside man...hmm...want to watch the movie now :)

Abt the lights...yes its annoying...but what annoys me more are not the lights...but when a huge monsterous truck is driving in front of me and completely blocks my view :(
this happens so often here....'cos everything is bigger in texas' !

Archana Bahuguna said...

Hey, I hate those blaring glaring lights equally. But dont be mad on the guy who invented them :-). He probably wanted people to use it only when visibility was poor!

And about "Chhayya Chhayya"
1)I always loved that song
2)I watched the movie "Inside Man" and when the song started playing in the background, I cant tell you how restless and excited I was. :-D I kept looking at Inder with bright eyes and a wide grin every 4-5 seconds :-).

Anonymous said...

you still love humans :-p i know the 2nd variety. maybe you look like a charming listener? long break, huh? you alrite!

Anita said...

I once saw a car which had fluroscent violet coloured lights as headlights. Even worse they kind of flashed on and off. Was a surreal experience like I was walking next to a spaceship or something. However, I would have gladly pointed out to the guy that cars coming in the opposite direction would have difficult, if only he would have stopped to listen.

Archana said...

Jeseem - LOL :-D! Really, is it that bad? I have never driven in India (and of course, as passenger, never bothered to notice). Hmm, have heard that a lot about Inside Man - but not seen it yet!

Inder - That's true chaiyya, chaiyya scores big in Hindi. I have not yet paid close attention to lyrics of all the songs - fairly familiar with sandhosha kaneerey and poongatrile lyrics now and liked them both. Will listen to the Tam version of satrangi re and see how it is! I know - its so cool when you see credits like that :-D!

Anon - Heheheh - looks like you have had quite a few marvellous experiences. Yeah, thanks for warning me - mez never complaining to you abt ath related to driving here :-P!

Prabhu - #1 ah, my exact sentiment!!#2 Ada paavi, tips kudupeynnu paatha, romba daaralama handle gracefully-nnu sollura :-(? The question is: how? #3 One more reco - will definitely listen to those lyrics now :-). And thank you :-)!

Thanu - Ah, you are one of them then :-P! Hmm, that still wouldn't solve problem of blinding glare when vehicle comes in opposite direction na?

The kid - Oh, I did not know about that! Will try to hunt for those clips or get hold of that movie!

Shilpa - apparently yes :-)! Paavum you poor people in Texas la - first thing there is nothing much to see on the roads there and then whatever little can be seen is blocked out by trucks! Oh, how about headlights of tail-gating trucks - they shine right into your car then and gives an otherworldly feeling!

Archana - Oh, those cars usually don't have an alternate option na? Just white lights or nothing! I think you are referring to the double headlights on some SUVs and the like. LOL :-) - I can so totally empathize with you. I remember, when we went to watch the movie Signs, (about eight of us I think), when the word "Bangalore" flashed on the screen, all of us excitedly chorused "Ooooo Bangalore!" - we got plenty of weird stares - :-D!!

Spark - adhula enna doubt :-)! Nah, unless charming listener can be defined as someone who looks like they have a stomach ache and always offers one-liner comments only. So you's been in the charming listener position too then :-D? Mez doing fine - just that last week was a teensy bit hectic - thanks for asking :-)!

Sindu - hehehehe :-D! That spaceship comparison is too funny! *Sigh* if only more people would stop to listen for driving and other suggestions!!

Anonymous said...

if u consider those to make u a antihuman drop it...there r better ppl for that..anyway 4 the lights to sit in the passsenger seat itself is a curse.let anole the driver...i luv the hindi version(maybe because i dont understand hindi that much)..

Archana said...

iamvisheshur - LOL :-D - I will! Hmm, I guess so! Oh it is even nicer if you can follow the lyrics :-))!