Good Ole Boys Like 'Them'

...It all goes by so fast
There it goes, up in the sky
There it goes, beyond the clouds
For no reason why
I can't cry hard enough


John Conlee's singing 'As Long As I'm Rockin' With You...' on my iTunes radio, and it's 10:31 in the morning - usually my most productive hour of the day. I've had two cups of coffee already, enough to spur me on till lunch. But it's cold outside and it feels like Christmas and I miss home so much it hurts my ribs (Ouch!).
hmm now it's Dan Seals singing 'You Bring Out The Wild Side Of Me.' The person who sings this song best next to Dan himself is my brother.
The nicest thing in the whole world is to be a kid during Christmas. Even just being a kid with a truckload of homework during monsoon was better than being a sinning adult during the best season of the year.
Dolly Parton's 'Smoky Mountain Memories' pretty much sums up what I'm feeling right now -

..It's a stuggle keepin' sight of who you are
Ya know I've been thinkin' a whole lot lately
About what's been and what awaits me
It takes all I've got to give what life demands
You go insane if you give in to it
Life's a mill and I've been through it
I'm just thankful I'm creative with my hands

Oh and these northern nights are dreary
And my southern heart is weary
I wonder how the old folks are back home
But I'll keep leanin' on my Jesus
I know He'll love and guide and lead us
Appalachian memories keep me strong

I'll keep lookin' to the Father
Keep our heads above the water
Appalachian memories keep me strong...

Country music is the only music I truly enjoy listening to right now. And I'm in no mood to hear those comments about country music and artists..
No matter what you think or what people say, I'm just going to keep on loving this music....
...and all the artists who've meant so much to me over the years..
...and who've touched me with their songs.
I guess it takes a country bumpkin like to me to really appreciate country music.
So what does it matter where I work or what I wear or where I go?
It's all a world of pretense, inside I'm a country bumpkin and I'm happy being it!
I'd probably be happy living in a farm with cows and chicken and growing my own vegetables. Especially with horses and a cowboy husband around :-)
I love country music! I love all the emotions it stirs up in me.

Like Virgo's unc says, there's not a song with 'Mississippi' in its lyrics that's not beautiful! :-)

Well there’s just a little bit of magic
In the country music we’re singin’

So let’s begin
We’re bringin’ you back down home where the folks are happy
Sittin’ pickin’ and a-grinnin’
Casually, you and me
We’ll pick up the pieces

Somebody yelled out at me
Country music and company kind of makes it
On a sunday afternoon
Picnic lunches of yesterday
Should still have a place in your heart today
Think it over
’cause we’ll all be goin’ home so soon

Pickin' Up the pieces - Poco

Going to Outer Space?

'..So at a hundred and fifty (Centigrade) below, I bet that if you touched an axe, not even with your tongue but just with your finger, you'd never see that finger again, if, of course, you happened to come across such a thing as an axe in outer space.'

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

[Just in case anyone's going to outer space, and just in case you happen to come across an axe while there :-)]

Sunday evening, bored out of my wits, also feeling funny and pukey. Decided to check my space on MySpace, hoping for some messages from one of the hot guys on there. Unread messages and comments! Yipee! And the first comment I saw read:
'Shall I shag you now or shall I shag you later?'
And first message opened read:
'wasssuppp?? would you like to be my secret naughty girl?'
Photo comment:
'Can I kiss your cleavage?'
Disillusioned by MySpace, I wandered off to Orkut. Now I have this picture of me 'picking my nose' on my profile, and somehow people just seem to love it. I get new people adding me all the time after this picture went up. Just shows how we all love picking our noses :-)
Messages and scraps from Orkut usually come with lots of 'Heyyyyyyyyys,' 'Hhiiiiiiiiiis,' and 'Haiiis.' It pisses the hell out of me. I would NEVER consider being friends with someone who uses any of the above salutations. Period.
I'm not at all active on either MySpace or Orkut. My friends list on both are pretty impressive though, cos' I almost always accept anyone who adds me because I just feel bad about clicking on the 'reject' button. I thought I was being nice but being nice has its downsides.
Especially on Orkut - people who just would not stop scrapping you with stupid poems, asking why you never reply, wanting to know your Yahoo messenger ID and what time you'd be able to 'meet them for a secret rendezvous' online. I would've thought it obvious that if someone don't send a reply, then someone obviously isn't interested. It's stupid badgering someone who isn't interested for a response, there are many things that can be read from silence. Annoying Orkut-ers should learn how to.
Whether it's a picture of me picking my nose or me displaying my fake tattoo, let it also be known that I look much worse in real life than my pictures - if by any chance you should think I look like a 'hot-secret-naughty-girl' type. So stop scrapping me! Especially with those corny lines like 'baby doll how can you forget me...You know I was the first person falling in love with you..'
And then there are your real friends who are your real friends but are undeniably also your real stupid friends. I hate it when someone talks about something personal on a public scrap book. Of course I'm gonna delete your stupid scrap as soon as I see it but how many people might've seen it before I do? Yes, I'm talking about you, you dumbhead from Bangalore. You should be arrested and jailed until you're considered Orkut-safe.
There was this guy who mailed me and said 'Jerusha, please call me, *his number* - important.' Well, I thought he was that friend of my friend who I've been doing some work-related stuff with. So I immediately called him, and I found out the guy was some guy from one of my Orkut communities. I was pissed, tried not to show, said I was kind of busy and tried to hang up, guy said 'please call again..,' didn't say anything but hung up anyway. Immediately wrote a very polite message in response to his email 'Sorry but not looking to make friends or meet new people. Am on Orkut soley to stay in touch with my old friends..blah blah'
Response? 'I understand but what's the harm we can try nah?'
No, we can NOT try.
God, it's so bloody dull around here I want to barf! I wish I had lots of cheap china so I can pass some time smashing them against the wall.
And oh yeah, if anyone's going to outer space, mind letting me tag along? I terribly need the diversion.

---

The Dignified Cow's Turned 1!!

Yay! Happy birthday to Dignified cow. Exactly a year since she came into existence.
I think and I can't for the life of me grasp how 12 months could've gone by so fast without me knowing where those 12 months have gone. What exactly have I been doing for the past 365 days??
Man, I really need to stop my headless chicken impersonations. Gets too dizzy after awhile.
Anyway, it's kind of funny how things change. November last year, all I wanted was to be back in Delhi. I never thought I was the blogging type, but I was so bored I had to find something to do and voila, I gave birth to this little cow. My whole life revolved around the computer, internet down meant me losing my senses and praying all night for the day to come so I can get my next fix.
Now I hardly touch the computer when I'm at home. Now I have the choice of moving back to Delhi. But in the light of certain new developments, I've decided not to.
Seems a little crazy, but all my life I've always been trying to listen to my head and make all the right and practical and logical choices. Now for once I want to do something solely for sentimental reasons. I guess being a sentimental old fool for once won't kill me.
Got free tix for the Harlem Globetrotters match last week...grabbed my cam and rushed there. Had a good time.

Now I'm trying to find my Euphoria concert pictures but seems they've been gobbled up by the ugly green monster that resides somewhere in the deep recesses of my computer. Anyway, not important. It sucked.

I feel bogged down with work. I'm really starting to miss Goa. There are times when I'm seriously considering quitting everything and run off somewhere, do odd jobs here and there and just live - one day at a time. Might be fun. That picture was long overdue. When we were kids, I remember every person who went to Goa would come back with a picture just like this. Standing on the beach, with the ocean behind you. It's almost like a rule. You GOT to take a picture on the beach with the waves behind you! So there, that's me fulfilling my duty as an Indian citizen stuck on a beach. :-)

Old father winter is here and with this nip in the air, I smell Christmas everywhere I turn. There's only one thing I dream of doing this Christmas - no parties, no loud music but just to be at home with my mother, hot cups of tea and coffee in our hands, just talking and spending some time together. This is where I want to be for Christmas - my home in the hills!


...Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
If I could only see
That familiar sunrise
Through sleepy eyes
How happy I'd be...

Just cos it's so cute....

He kinds of look like my dad...When he was a baby himself, I'm guessing my father must've looked a lot like this.

Answering Biteii's Prayer

Unreal, okay, okay, here's the pic you kept begging me for. Enjoy! :)
Now leave me in peace. Stop calling me up 10 times a day crying for one crummy picture!
Now you can save it on your computer, do whatever you want with it - screensaver? or wallpaper your desktop with it? get it printed on your bed sheet so you can take him to bed with you every night maybe? LOL! He's all yours!

Not a family-safe picture. But not really porn either so I guess that makes it okay to post it up here.

No Kidding!

Blonde Teen: So I'm taking that religion class.
Brunette Teen: Oh yeah? The one where you read the Bible right?
Blonde teen: Yeah that one. And get this, we are about to start reading the Book of Proverbs.
Brunette Teen: Oh My God! I didn't know the Bible had a grammar section.
Blonde Teen: Me neither!!
Brunette Teen: Oh man, I bet it totally tells you how to speak like God... Except properly, you know?
Blonde Teen: [Gasp] I bet it totally does.
Brunette Teen: Ugh! I wish I had taken that class.
OverheardinNewYork.com

Yeah no kidding! Real people talking real crap. Next time I see a 'Dear the Third Worlds...' I'm gonna think of these 'First-Worlders' and thank God I'm not one of them - I'm gonna live and die a proud Third-Worlder :D

Where Are They Now??

Do you suddenly remember names and 'insignificant' people in the middle of the night? Sometimes I remember names but can't remember the owner, sometimes I remember a face but can't find a name to connect it to. Usually happens when I can't sleep and I lie awake in my bed thinking of different things - family members, work, God, money, men, sex, or sometimes I'd just think about the breakfast I had that day, or the short conversation I had with a girl whose name I don't remember in the ladies room that day and suddenly, a name from nowhere would pop up in my head. I usually spend the next hour trying to figure out the face to whom the name belongs.
So I had one of those moments some nights back. I was lying there, thinking of nothing in particular when out of the blue, out popped the name 'Sarabjit Didi' in my head. She was someone I used to know quite well, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember where I knew her from, or where in India it was that I shared breathing space with her, or what she looked like. Maharashtrian? Was it in Pune? Ahmednagar maybe..? Nah..Punjabi. So Chandigarh? Delhi? I'm almost sure she was someone I knew in Chandigarh. Did we share a PG? If anyone knows Sarabjit didi, lemme know. And tell her Jerusha says hi!

Another name, or rather, nick name that came to me out of the blue was 'Uai-rit-a' which literally means 'heavy-leaner' in English. No problem figuring out who Uai-rita was. He's a guy whose real name I don't even remember. The minute I remembered him, I remembered high school and the dance practices where I learned to dance my Mizo traditional dances. Cheraw was good, Sarlamkai was fun, Chai scared me and my friends because of the likely chance that one of us might get partnered with Uai-rita. If that happened, he'd lean on you, it seemed, with all his weight (and he was a very well-built, muscled guy, and by no means light!) so that by the time the dance was over, you'd be totally pooped, which never happened when you're lucky enough to get a normal partner, which means, any of the other guys but not him. And even during the dance, dancing with his heavy arms slung around my shoulders, he dancing with ease because he's dancing on air, literally...supported by my frail self, I'd be panting and wheezing and praying I don't suddenly pass out on the floor and disrupt the whole dance class and be the butt of all my friends jokes for years. Wow! Something totally fantastic happened, as I was sitting here and typing those very lines about how I used to pant and wheeze, Uai-rita's real name suddenly came to me! Saia! His real name was Saia! That's a pretty common Mizo name but if anyone knows Saia who likes to torture his dance partners by leaning on them with all his torturous weight, well, tell him that I remember him. It's highly unlikely that he remembers me but that's not important. I never was a bad dance partner.

Another name that used to mean a lot to me but which I haven't thought of in years - Sangzuala. I was reading stuffs on misual where there was some discussion going on about a news reporter - Sangzuala Tlau. Everytime I read his name, I felt kind of weird...well, that's not the right way to put it but I felt something funny everytime I saw his name. And then I remembered! The Sangzuala of my girlhood dreams. St. Paul's High School and my never-ending crush on my classmate with the same name. Well, not exactly never-ending but it did seem like a lo-o-o-ng time that everytime I saw him, my knees would turn to jelly and butterflies would flap crazily inside my stomach. Fun days! I was so shy and so awkward around him I wonder now - could he tell? I always thought no one knew, I didn't tell anyone for a whole year but on the start of my 9th standard year, when I thought I was over him because I hadn't seen him during the long Christmas vacation and so hadn't thought of him so much but then realised that I was not on the first day of school when he walked into the classroom and my stomach started doing flip flops again. I swore a friend to secrecy and told her. Thought no one else knew for months. But then one day in school, we were eating lunch when he suddenly walked in and I, responding in my usual 'manner,' immediately dropped my spoon. And one girl laughing said to me 'So he walks in and everything goes hayware eh?' I was livid. The friend I trusted had told somebody else my biggest secret. A secret I'd lived with for a year. I refused to speak to her for quite some time :-) It all seems so silly now. I wonder what he's doing now. The last I heard, he was in medical school. So in all likelihood, my old crush is a doctor now! Cool isn't it? The last time I saw him was several years back. I was in college and I'd gone home for my summer vacation. I was out shopping with a friend, we were going home and were riding on a very crowded bus. It was really packed but as is the norm back home, us being ladies, were offered a seat. I sat down and suddenly saw the hand of the guy standing next to me, holding on to the seat in front of me. Nice hands, and his tattoo! Would you believe even after all those years my heart skipped a beat just seeing that hand with that tattoo! I traced the hand back to its owner and there he was, handsome as ever. I immediately pointed out the hand and its owner to my friend and we resolved to follow them - both hand and owner to wherever they went. Just to get extra glimpses. It was too crowded inside the bus and we couldn't see as well as we wanted to. But there was a lot of shuffling and moving so we couldn't follow him as we were not sure which stop exactly he got off. Hmmmm..wonder if he's married now.
Such a silly thing, feeling all that much for someone and the most important thing was to NEVER let that person know. I was ugly and awkward and gawky...maybe still am but now at least I have the confidence to TRY and do something when I like a guy.
If anyone knows Sangzuala of Mission Veng, tell him Jerusha used to have a major, colossal crush on him, and that she still have that old fountain pen of his that he swapped with hers :-)

Wear Sunscreen, Rami!

Okay, let's try chasing these nasty Monday blues away by dispensing some second-hand advice. Don't scoff because it's second0-hand. It's easy to listen to, and there seems to be some truth in some of it. There's one lady in particular who I want to make sure reads this. Virgo, cross yourself and start reading! Okay, I'll make it easy and copy paste it, or maybe delete bits and pieces, I think it's going to be too much advice. Anyway, here it is, ladies and gentlemen - Baz Luhrman's 'Sunscreen'!

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh never mind...you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...You're not as fat as you imagine. (I love this part :-)!)

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday. (Shouldn't be too hard to do if you can stay drunk all the time. One never worry when one's drunk)

Do one thing everyday that scares you. (In a way, yes! There are certain aspects of my work that still scares me but still have to do everyday. But I don't think that's the idea here, I think he means scary like ask-that-hot-guy-out-for-a-cup-of-coffee, swim-with-sharks, surf-a-10-foot-wave kind of scary scary..)

Sing (Gladly, every chance I get to be alone)

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours. (Ummmm...)

Floss (YES!)

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind...the race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself. (Not possible!)

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. (I remember compliments, almost as well as I remember insults..)

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. (Love old love letters, don't much like bank account statements. So a hearty YES to both!)

Stretch (All the time. Every cabinet is lofty for vertically challenged girls like me. Reaching for the smallest thing requires a lot of stretching!)

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't. (HAHA I so absolutely love this piece of advice. I have NO idea what I want to do with my life. And all these smugs 40 years olds, acting like they've done all the right things. Or is it because I know only dull 40 year olds?

Get plenty of calcium (B-O-R-I-N-G advice!)

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone. (I love my kness, I pamper them :P)

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary...whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either - your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. (I love congratulating myself. And I also get some kind of sick pleasure out of berating myself :()

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own. (I try)

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
(All the time. Love dancing as much as I love singing. And the nice thing about dancing's that I can be the only one dancing in a room full of people and I'm okay with that. I'll never sing in front of an audience of more than 2 people.)

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them. (80% of the time - Yes)

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. (I know. Let's burn all beauty mags!)

Get to know your parents, you'll never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. (I think I know my mom pretty well, I don't 'know' my dad at all. Still, I guess 1 out of 2 ain't bad.)
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few, you should hold on.(Or try to be the friend your friends would want to hold on to..)

Travel. (Even if second class's all I can afford..)

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. (Don't have a trust fund, don't have a wealthy spouse. So that makes it kind of easy. When that's the only choice you have, you just have to do it whether you like it or not. And you'll end up liking it if you're lucky even if it means hard work. I got lucky :-))

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time it's 40, it will look 85. (TRULY scary piece of advice! You can come find me when I turn 40 and see if it's true or not.)

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

Oww, my eyes are burning! This post came at a very high price so you better take it seriously...or else....

...or I'll tell your mom where the underwear you wore at the Mizo Kut the other night ended up! :D

The bakery and all the bakers on Halloween

I still got some Goa pictures here that I want to share with y'all. I know you're all probably sick of those. I don't want to make you barf but I'm still going to subject you poor people to more Goa pictures, but here's a breather...pictures of my office and all its happy people celebrating Halloween.






My previous employer's really got something to learn from my current employer. Lesson #1 would be on how chillin' out once in a while sure don't hurt, that jeans and T-shirts are NOT evil! But mostly, I think they need to know that it's important to keep your employees happy, not just plain exploit them.
(...and to think Unreal and my own dear sister are still working there :D!)
Keep us happy and we'll happily offer ourselves up to be exploited out of our own free will :D

Chicken Soup for the Soul - My Version!

Goan sunsets - Sitting there on the beach, watching the sun go down, casting its dying lights on the water, the soft breeze on my face....I felt as close to heaven as it's possible for a sinning human being to feel close to heaven.
Pictures are untouched, no photoshop, no picasa, nothing. Uploaded straight from the camera as they are. Pretty aren't they?

Enter The Dragon!

I'm back - with a not-very-flattering-tan and a new tattoo. Check out my new tan and my new tattoo.
So what do you think? The tattoo was supposed to be a dragon. It, however, came out looking like a very fierce seahorse!
Goa is beautiful! It's lovely, the people are marvelous.
Things are CHEAP!
I'm already planning my next Goa trip.
There are plenty of hot men so if you plan on going you better go alone or with other girl friends. Do NOT bring a male friend with you. All those hot guys with their hot bodies....and all they'll do is smile at you and wave when your friend is not looking :( That was all I got - furtive, flirtatious smiles and nothing else. Bummer!
But despite the unwanted tan and insufficient male activity, the trip was still worth it. Girls, wanna join me on my next trip?

Cosmos, Goa & Ophelia

Diwali! I looove this time of the year!!! I'm going away for the next 6 days. I'm going to Goa. Imagine that...6 days of not being woken up by the alarm, six days of sun and sea and sand, 6 days of no work. I'm going to have fun. We plan to rent bicycles and pedal everywhere so hopefully, we'll get a lot of exercise as well.
I remember Diwalis in Delhi and right now, I'm thanking my stars that I won't be in Delhi this Diwali.

Lemme present my picture of the day - Somewhere in the deep recesses of KBR Park again. Reminded me of Shakespeare's Ophelia. I can just see her there in the water. All we need are flowers to complete the picture and of course, Ophelia. We'd have a pretty nice picture, like so -
Well, my flower fascination continues...I was talking with Sloppy S the other day, and well yes...about flowers. We both agreed our favorite flower of all is the 'hnahsin,' and how we haven't seen those in years because they only grow wild (I think). Anyway, feeling a little nostalgic, I decided to pull up images of hnahsins, opened Google images and sat there dumb - I'd forgotten what they're called in English! And I knew for sure 'hnahsin' wasn't going to work. I wracked my brain but couldn't come up with anything. All I remembered was that they've got this Universe/Space-sounding name :)
I asked Sloppy if she knew...
'Ummm..carnations?'
Duh!:p
I think that's the only flower name she knows.
Anyway, I decided to blindly grope through Google in the hope that I might come across the right flower and the right name.
'Universe+flowers' I typed. Nothing.
'Space+flowers' Again nothing.
'Stellar flowers'
'Astral flowers'
'Star flowers'
I even tried 'Quasi-stellar flowers.' :D
All zilch. I couldn't rest for two days because this little flower bugged me so much. I don't remember all the fancy search terms I came up with but nothing, no query gave me the result I wanted. It was so frustrating I wanted to tear my hair out of my head.
Then finally, second day late afternoon, I found it!
I had moved on to broader terms - wildflowers! I should've started with that.
Thanks to the internet and this site, the name I'd been so diligently trying to find I know now is Cosmos! Hallelujah! So these are cosmos, if you don't know what they look like - Beautiful, aren't they? If I were God, I'd replace every cultured rose on this earth with cosmos. I'd do away with cultured flowers altogether and fill this planet with wildflowers. I remember this hill we used to go to when we were kids. It was high up above the town - always green and always breezy, one rickety windmill and that's all, rolling green hills and the sun and the breeze and us..and cosmos..thousands of them! I think heaven would be a little like that. Everytime I think of heaven, that's how I picture it. I can't think of golden streets and golden robes. I see green mountains and hills and wildflowers and fruit trees. And T-shirts and jeans.

Therapy For The Soul

I'm trying to think peaceful thoughts...
More pictures from my jaunts across my most favorite place in all of Hyderabad. I'm not a flower person, but one can always try and learn to be something that's good to be :D. I'm going to try and be more feminine and lady-like and gentle and flower-loving and all that!

Anyone know what these flowers are called? In Mizo, we used to call them 'Isua Hlinglukhum' (Jesus' crown of thorns) or something like that. In any case, I think that was something that some wise-ass friend just made up and convinced the rest of us that that's what it's really called!
I like this purple flower, looks a lot like the flower of passion fruit. I LOVE passion fruits!

This little 'lake' is so well hidden I'll bet there are people who walk in the park everyday but don't even know it's there. I have to crawl around under mean thickets and break some rules and climb across an iron barbed-wire fence. So I always have to make sure no one's around when I take a trip this way. You'll end up with dead leaves and twigs in your hair and torn jeans and dirty shoes but it's so beautiful and peaceful out there it's always worth it.
Kind of funny, these flowers remind me of Dilwale Dunhaniya Le Jayenge.
I don't know the difference between violet and purple. Is this flower violet or purple??? :) It looks pretty, violet, purple or whatever.
Now this is pink. Not a big fan of the color.
Mary says this flower looks like an animal! Of all the things for a flower to resemble!

I've been a real pain in the ass, I've become so 'anti-social.'
I lose my temper for all the wrong reasons - taking the lift to the 9th floor every morning and for all the people who keep coming in and getting off in between..as if I own the elevator :D
Restaurants, the family with newly born twins bawling their hearts out (I always wonder why some people drag their fragile infants out to all these polluted, public places. Look at how much these poor babies howl in disgust, I think mothers with young children just should not eat out, and those babies cries gets to you like no other thing does, and if it goes on for a long time, it grinds on you like a painless root canal surgery, not necessarily good - lack of physical pain, yeah but everything else is there, including the mental torment!), the noisy teenagers on the next table, the lewd, moustached, pot-bellied men...not very good for the blood pressure, especially for someone like me who eats out as much as I do.
So I spend a lot of time at the park walking. Taking pictures. And I always feel great except when people I don't want to spend time with insists on tagging along.
So anyway, I have a hard time telling people no so I try to remain calm. I'm thinking flowers and butterflies, white fluffy clouds, colorful butterflies. Maybe I should just enjoy my anger. Wouldn't hurt to raise my blood pressure, come to think of it. Doctor told me couple of weeks back that my BP's 'alarmingly low.' Fancy that! A girl can't even diet in peace anymore.

Gah! I've Been Poisoned!!

Sitting here fuming. I went to get something to drink and there were a couple of guys and a girl sitting there discussing Orkut. Not the community but the founder guy. And no, I wasn't prying. It was mainly the girl who was doing the talking and she was LOUD. As I walked past and opened the fridge, I heard the girl exclaim to one of the guys - 'How could you not know what he looks like? He's this chinky-looking guy...', a little louder than I thought was necessary.
I flamed up.
'Bitch!' I thought (I wanted to say it, but it's the bakery after all):-)
'It's because I'm here she said that.'
'It's clear from that extra pitch she put in her voice.'
'..like she wanted to make sure I heard it.'
'Orkut chinky-looking???'
Well, I don't know how right I was to have thought that but right or wrong, I think I got a little paranoid in there. I've been reading too much of Kima's blog and his posts about racism, interracial relationships and what not. But I strongly suggest everyone click on that little hyperlink there and read his latest post and get their minds poisoned. Self-induced paranoia! Aah..bliss! It's good to loath sometimes, as long as it's for a good and noble cause!:D
But right now, I'm just sick of these village-type people who've suddenly been exposed to the world and they go crazy and they wear fake Nikes and Adidas and Dolce & Gabbana replica sunglasses they bought for Rs 80 and cheap, ugly underwear and ridiculously overwashed jeans.(Don't get me wrong. By village-type people I don't really mean people from villages. We have a word for it in Mizo. Thring. But I can't think of any English translation that would suffice)
Gimme half-naked Village People singing YMCA anyday. Big difference there. Just love how powerful one word can be. You say 'Village People,' I think 'Good.' Now add 'type' there and say 'village-type people,' I'm not going to think anything good about it.
They try too hard to be cool and hip and happening and a part of the in-crowd they don't even remember where they live or who they are.

They will inevitably start off by getting their eyebrows pierced. And proceed to pierce every part of their anatomy that is piercable.

If you hear 'Chinky' or any other form of racial slur, it's very likely that it came from a specimen belonging to this particular family of losers. They seem to think insults and all other forms of rude words are cool.
They also like to pepper their sentences with the F*** word for no reason at all. They thrive on that word. It's oxygen to them. It completes the image.

They will invariably claim to be die-hard fans of Nirvana, Dream Theatre, Deep Purple etc (these are the better ones.. you also find the Bryan Adams, Venga Boys and Hotel California groupie) and buy all their CDs and learn every song by heart and get a tattoo saying Kurt Cobain or something like that even though it was only a few months ago that they learned that these musicians even exist(ed).
Inside, the blood in their veins throbs in adoration for that Himesh guy and Baba Sehgal and Sukhbir. Nothing wrong with that. But go right out and say you like Baba Sehgal. Pretense is sickening. Be yourself! :D

They think being rude to waiters/waitresses/rickshaw-wallahs and salesmen is cool so they do it. It's also a way for them to try to exert their 'superiority' over the rest of us common folks. They insult. They annoy.
They think being lazy is cool so they won't lift a finger and their place ends up looking and smelling like a giant garbage dump because they can't afford to hire a maid, in spite of all the high-living and looking-down-their-noses on anyone who they deem is inferior to them.
They go to a rock concert with their 'cool' friends and a band plays Rammstein's Du Hast and they start doing Mithun Chakraborty-style disco moves to it. The slightly evolved species do a Britney Spears style pop-py dance.

They are all potheads.

And promiscuous.

The female version loves make-up. Caked in every form of makeup that has ever been invented under the sun. Will reek of cheap perfume. Legs need a shave. Rough facial hair. Dirty underwear again.
She is village-type.
I'm going to make sure all my friends hate her! :D

hehe..Okay, I know I'm raving. Guess I'm still a little mad. Which is stupid. Who gives a rats ass what that girl said?
And Orkut doesn't even look 'chinky' - unfortunately for him :D!

Se(e)n Riya?

Anyone know who that girl in the Limca commercial is??
In the ad she wears a short white dress, white strappy shoes and is dancing on a table (..I think) and drinking Limca and there's water everywhere and it's all wet and she's wet and the table's wet and she's got one foot on the wet table (...or maybe both, don't remember) and sultrily sipping on her Limca through all the wetness.
Mary says she's Riya Sen, I say she's someone else. So who's right?

---

Soulmates' Offsite

Soul-ers' Offsite at the Celebrity Club yesterday. However, spotted not a single celebrity.Was tired. Was supposed to leave office at 4. Left at 6 because of extra work. Akshay's. Not mine. Drive was too long. Too much traffic. Lost all my enthusiasm on the way to the club. Akshay tried cheering Tina and me up by taking a picture of us getting windblown and dirty and gritty and messy...
Found this guy giving me a thumbs down on my back! Gggrrr.. as if day wasn't bad enough! (had to highlight the picture in order to protect the guy's identity!) But I did have fun..All in all, it was okay. Had some fun. Ate till I couldn't move..
Anyway, meet my team-And these are the few of us soon-to-be Ex-Soulmates-Delhiites cutting our Miss-You cake :-) Sweet isn't it? The sentiment and the gesture, not the cake! And I'm not even moving until next year. Kind of funny, cutting the cake and everything and all those goodbye speeches and then having to see each other again everyday for the next few months.The cake!No one's ever given me a miss-you cake before..

My Favorite Pics of the Week

I've chosen two of my own this time. I like these pictures cos' they are happy pictures. Life finally has regained some semblance to normalcy. The Thing which had been dragging my spirits down and shackled me down for the past 7 weeks has finally been lifted from me. Yay! I'm a free woman once again!

Politikically Excuzed!

I have absolutely no interest in politics or people who dabble in it. But the news abounds with interesting things. Even the normally 'I-care-a-damn-ers' are yapping about it, including me.
President Chavez is the new hero around here. Everyone's raving about his 'Sulfur-ous' speech at the United Nations yesterday. Everyone wants to read Noam Chomsky's book.
"'This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the devil,'" Chavez said. 'It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.' www.smh.com hehe. Did anyone check for cloven hoof marks on the carpet?
"Many diplomats in the vaulted chamber laughed and clapped." - Hah! So it's not only us poor third-world citizens who're tickled by the President's speech.
"I accuse the American Government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse." - When will the finger-pointing ever end? Who's got WMD, who's harboring terrorists, who's got an illicit, sexual relationship with bodyguard, chauffeur, intern, whoever. Who blames them? I'd like to have a hot, movie-star-hero-type bodyguard and then have a secret, sinful relationship with him myself :D
"The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said: 'We're not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.'" Kind of funny, that coming from the same people who told President Musharraf "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age." That all sounds equally comical to me. Talk about diplomacy! (Of course, President Musharraf could've been lying about Armitage. If he was, what a lie to be brewed up by a president of a country! And if he was telling the truth, what a thing to say for the Assistant Secretary of State of the greatest nation in the world!)

I turned down this movie-dinner invitation last Sunday because when I saw the 'guest list,' I saw that majority of them were 'big' people - executive types, managers, directors et al. And I told my friend I want to avoid these kind of get-togethers as much as I can because it's too stressful continously trying to say the right things, trying to be clever and witty, trying to mask the uninterested, kind of dumb girl inside, and wracking your brains trying to come up with the right answers and the right words to use. And I end up being miserable by the end of it all.
Now I'm starting to wonder why I let these things bother me...if heads of states and presidents can talk this way, it should be excusable for an obscure, common, unknown citizen like me to spout nonsense 24-7. I can go wherever, with whoever, say whatever. And not worry about my limited vocabulary. My lack of manners. My often-tasteless choice of word or language. And rejoice in my anonymity. And revel in my stupidity.

Gigolo anyone?

Been getting a lot of messages from this one guy on MySpace. I just thought maybe I'd help him out with the advertising part since he sounds like he's really desperate for clients and I'm in advertising already anyway :D.
It's kind of funny how they do these things, what did gigolos do before MySpace and other online communities? Porn's never been legal in India so they couldn't have advertised themselves so blatantly on the yellow pages could they? Just wonderin'. Copy pasted here is the guy's "resume" -

my name is ----- i m a gigolo in delhi
if u r intrested in me send me a message
I am a high class mature male massuer with hygiene and good atheletic body with strong hands..offering special quality body massage to mature ladies in delhi other state also. You will be delighted with my massage, feel relaxed and rejuvenated. I offer various types of body massage taking care of your special needs and satisfy you very deep inside with my gentle strokes. You get whatever you want with no restrictions at all.i do licking a lot and watever u can think of rest leave all ur fantacies 2 me
I provide services at your place - home or hotel. Your spouse or partner can be present if required.
I have a small number of ladies who use my services regularly and are fully satisfied. Due to confidentiality I cannot give any references but I can make a trial offer that you cannot refuse. For the first trial, I will let you decide the payment and accept what ever you decide to pay (nothing if you so decide). I know I will satisfy you. I have learnt it through practice.
Try me and you will be delighted.
Best wishes,
waitin for ur reply
thanks

The guy writes horribly, lousy spelling, no proper punctuation, nothing. That's so not sexy.
However, he seems terribly eager to please. And he sounds pretty confident. I'll say that much for him.
So, anyone interested?

Soldier's Last Letter

Time for another song. My current most-listened song is in Italian. However, it won't do much good sharing it since no one I know understands Italian, well..almost no one. The singer pisses Akshay off, he's says he's sick of his loud Soprano voice. I think he's great though, he's cute plus he's got such a marvelous voice he moves my insides!:D
I was listening to this song by Ernest Tubb this morning, I've always found it very touching. And it's very conveniently in English so I thought I'd share.


Soldier's Last Letter

When the postman delivered a letter
It filled her dear heart full of joy
But she didn't know till she read the inside
It was the last one from her darling boy.

'Dear Mom,' was the way that it started
'I miss you so much,' it went on
'Mom, I didn't know that I loved you so
But I'll prove it when this war is won.

I'm writing this down in a trench, Mom
Don't scold if it isn't so neat
You know as you did, when I was a kid
And I'd come home with mud on my feet.

The captain just gave us our orders
And Mom, we will carry them through
I'll finish this letter the first chance I get
But now I'll just say I love you.'

Then the mother's old hands began to tremble
And she fought against tears in her eyes
But they came unashamed for there was no name
And she knew that her darling had died.

That night as she knelt by her bedside
She prayed 'Lord above, hear my plea!
And protect all the sons that are fighting tonight
And dear God keep America free'


Recorded by Ernest Tubb
Written by Sgt. Henry Stewart and Ernest Tubb

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Messy Moon

My Mess
Woke up the other day with an unusual feeling of clarity, the first thing that stuck me was this awful, terrible mess on my table. I'm usually tidy. But these past few weeks have been so hectic I haven't even really noticed this monstrous mess silently piling up inside my own room!
Kind of heart-warming when you look at it in a glass-is-half-full way. It's like this big melting pot where everything comes together, every article has a place and is welcome. Books, purses, earrings, pens, water bottles, coke cans, packets of cigarette, lotions and creams and oils, matchboxes, combs, deos, sunscreen - all coming together as one big family! :-)

La Luna de Hyderabad Took this picture on my way to somewhere some nights back. The moon was so brilliant even the brash city light couldn't outshine it like it usually does.

Ga-ga over Bana

MMMMmmmmmm... MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm....MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!
What can I say? The guy's just too hot!
***DROOOOOLLLllllll***

Inky Pinky Ponkey

It’s a skippidity-do-da-day!

Shine on me sunshine!
Walk with me world!
I'm the happiest girl in the whole of Hindustan!

Reasons - a promotion and a raise :-)

That's me and Sush, Soul Team dinner at Serengeti a couple of nights back. I was feeling so low then people kept asking me what was wrong, you look 'totally spaced out' they said. Hmmm...I think I looked pretty normal but I felt like a real party-pooper. I was angry because in spite of some serious dieting I'd been actually putting on weight! Anyway..I give a damn now. The funny thing is my clothes are actually getting too big for me which must mean I am losing weight but I just look fatter everyday! Gross!
But a promo and a raise certainly makes you love yourself better despite not being as thin as you'd like to be :-)