So,

• I saw RNBDJ. And, here is the surprise, I did not hate it. As in, I think I even liked it in some bits (Quit judging me already, will ya?). Point is; I know the basic story doesn’t make much sense. Ok. Fine, it doesn’t make sense at all (yes, I am referring to the girl-cannot-recognize-husband-because-he-shaved-his-moustache-off-and-wore-weird-clothes bit).But there were some nice parts you know, and SRK can act. Especially as the Suri guy. Remember I said that is a big thing? Well, it was. And I am not even an SRK fan. That’s good enough right!
• On another note, I am very very upset with Rehman. Really. Here’s the thing. I have forever gone by the ‘If it’s Rehman, it’s good’ principle. Yeah, that is a principle, I made it. And then, he goes and does this. I mean really! Don’t believe me? Then go listen to this. And when you reach the antarah, try thinking what the chorus sounded like. You won’t be able to, I bet. And Gulzaar Saab. Isn’t he the poetic kinds? What in the world was he thinking when he wrote this song then? Rustam Chustam? Huh? I have a strong suspicion that this infact is a collaborated effort on the duo’s part, to sabotage Subhash Ghai. And actually, I am hoping it’s just that.
• I read Adiga’s book, that Booker prize winning book. I was so worried when I picked it up, because the last time I tried a Booker winning book, it was The God of Small Things, and I did not last beyond 10 pages, and if I remember right, it took me a while to recover from it. So, I was apprehensive, but this one is good, really good. Written well enough to keep you absorbed till then end, and has a social angle to it too. Two things I never thought could end up together. Recommended, give it a try.
• I am now reading The Zoya Factor. And I find it very funny, which is a very good thing. As in, there are these silly one liners which make me crack up all the time. The Dude is so happy. Because he feels that all the books I pick have to be related to oppression, and tragedy, and sadness, and the fight of women against the cruel world types. And when he is able to hear me laugh out loud (I mean really loud, he can hear me over the noise of AOE on the speakers), he thinks it’s good for me in a way.
• Oh, AOE reminds me, the house is so technically advanced now. See, the problem was, my laptop became the house computer once I moved in with The Dude. So it has a variety of soft-wares, music, videos, games etc on it, and it was kind of dying of the overload. Oh come on, it is a poor little 2006 model (which I don’t see in the shops anymore by the way, hmph!) with a 512 MB RAM and an 80 GB Hard disk (and a list of other specifications which I am sure are outdated). So we bought a new House Computer, and this one is fully loaded! And has a 22 inch monitor! Yay! For The Dude actually, because it’s being used for games only so far. But Yay! for me, because the Laptop’s free! Oh, and we wi-fied the home, so, I can be all cool and sit and browse from my balcony! Which by the way I tried but there were too many mosquitoes, so I had to leave, but atleast I have an option!
• And lastly, I actually cooked something other than the regular dal, chawal, sambar, rasam, curry yesterday. Ok, it wasn’t big, but I happened to try and make Egg Curry. Which was good, because it was a change, and it looked just right, and smelt just right, but I wish I could say that about the taste. As in, it was ok, but I, considering my regular smart self, I added 4 times (please to notice, FOUR times) the required amount of garlic ginger paste. Result; in place of egg curry, we now have what we could call – Garlic-Ginger curry, with egg pieces. My creation nevertheless.

Chat on Sametime with the Pure-veg-ex-roomie

PVER - You know that song? Ooncha Lamba kad? From Welcome?

Me - Yes, what about it?

PVER - Well, I find it very funny

Me - Funny? I kinda like it, very typical punjabi song

PVER - No, no, I mean the lyrics

Me - What's funny in the lyrics?

PVER - He calls Katrina manly

Me - Huh? No he doesn't!

PVER - Yes yes, he does, he says ooncha lamba kad, blah blah, and the he calls her mardani - manly

Me (after recapitulating the first few lines in my head)- Aiyyyo, mad you are, he says marda nai, main avai tere utte marda nai, which means, I haven't flipped for you for no reason.

PVER - Podi, he doesn't say 'nai' and all, it is 'ni', mardaaaaaani.

Me - No ya, the sentence wont make sense in Punjabi, if it was Mardani

PVER - No no, that doesn't matter, you listen properly, and it makes full sense,  what is ooncha lamba kad? tall nuh? See, so he says that and then says mardani, which means tall manly girl, I am telling you, listen to it again, I am right.

Me - *Surrender*

Yoo-hoo! New look for the blog! Ok fine, sad excuse for a new look. But not my fault. I spent quite some looking for the right theme for it, and I found out that for using 90% of the available themes, I need to upgrade the blog to a paid or plus account. The plus account being, you allow advertisements to be posted all over your page. Now that I believe is extremely ironical. In order to make your page pretty by choosing one out of the hajaar awesome options, you need to allow ugly advertisements all over it. Tut-tut. Very sad really. Yet another indication that I might as well move to wordpress. Anyways, all we did was flipped over from one free theme to another, actually the same one, and of course changing the color, and the clothes that DJ girl on the top right hand corner is wearing. Smart eh? 

By the way, anyone see the new Sony Ericson music phones, the shake-it-to-change-the-song-one? And did anyone else feel that it actually makes no sense it all? For one, how is shaking the instrument easier than clicking the button. Not to mention the enormous risks of dropping the phone every time you shake it. And what if you are travelling in a vehicle on Indian roads? Doesn’t that mean every time you go over a pothole, or the driver happens to be a Schumacher fan and brakes suddenly every time he realizes that the rest of the world isn’t, your song changes. Wow. Awesome feature this. Wonder what they will come up with next.

Last weekend had us visiting a Dog show in the city. And I fell in love with the canines all over again. And I am glad that my preferences are still the same as they were 3 years ago. I desperately want a pug. The ones I saw at the show were all so adorable, with their flat noses and sad eyes. And they are not too furry or big, so maintaining them shouldn’t be an issue really. The Dude was inclined towards the Rottweiler, more because sources claimed that 8 out of 10 of these snap at you for no reason. And by some weird analogy he claims snappy & unpredictable = alert and so he likes the dog, which looks menacing in general, very wolf-like. Anyhow, the practical issues of who would take care of it during the day crop up, and I am left with no choice but to give up. No Rottweiler and no pug. I am destined to stay pet-less. Hmmph.

And ya, last weekend also had us visit some kind of a get-together for Honda’s recent customers at their showroom. We went expecting some free gifts and gyan and a party, and it turned out to be a family event of sorts. So we had children running around, and painting competitions and lotsa gyan on car maintenance. Halfway through they announced that the men would continue with the gyan, while the women should go play tambola. So very sexist I think, as if women don’t need to know how to maintain the tires better. So I didn’t go, even though I still can’t drive, and The Dude was all fine, till he realized that the shiny gifts in the corner were only for the winners of the competitions. He was all miffed that I didn’t try my luck at the game; little does he know that I never win at all these luck games. I still remember at K, when we had tambola, and a last person standing round wherein the person who is the last to get any number on his card called out wins. I was among the last 2 of the 240 people playing, and still managed to lose. Because I do not win at all this.Period.

And we also wrote a CD for Honda City, called the Honda CD, The Dude’s idea, very smart I think. This has a mix of all our favorite Angrezi and Desi music, and of course all of our songs. So that’s all we listen to these days and it’s nice to be able to hum to the same tracks.

I notice that I have given up writing about a particular topic these days, it’s all so random. And nice in a way, don’t have to think at all while typing. So I will stay this way. Though I still wish I could make the page look nicer, and post pictures on it. I would post the pug’s pictures. Trust me, awesomely cute it was. Anyhow, that’s enough for now. Ciao.

So,  I am here to write about our song. Yes, we too have a song, and like I-Love-Lucy said, we too are that kind of people. 

The Dude and I unfortunately do not have the same taste in music. He is very firang when it comes to this, and I have come to know that it is not just for the purpose of looking smart, he actually does know a lot. Oh come on! How does one explain humming along every damn track that plays on VHI! I on the other hand, am very much desi. Lots of Bollywood, Indi-Pop for me and angrezi music knowledge is extremely limited, mainly to recommended tracks which I might get pretty much addicted to. But ask me to identify a song by a band, whose other song I love, zilch. I would never be able to do it. And, I don’t understand Pink Floyd. There, you get the idea now.

So, it was a pretty difficult concept to have a song, especially because we might be rarely listening to and enjoying the same music. Anyways, the Dude thought it was a good idea to educate me a bit more about how nice English music could be and over one of our very many chats on the office messenger, sent me the lyrics of the song Yellow by Cold Play saying it was one of the most beautiful songs. And my instant reaction was ‘Ok, now those are weird lyrics! The guy is just calling everything yellow!' And the dude was equally disappointed because he thought it was an extremely romantic number (more so because it was a prospective song from him to me kinds). All he replied however was a ‘L ’ and asked me to listen to it, I might like it after all. 

I never downloaded it for a long time, and believed firmly that I would never ever grow fond of a song which called the stars, and everything yellow. Finally the Dude was back, and we resumed our long drives, and he had long ago given up on asking me to try and listen to the song. Some random cd was playing in the car, and it happened to have yellow on it. When we reached the song, for some reason (has to be the weather or something) I mentioned how beautiful the song was. Surprisingly, and very conveniently I missed the word yellow and heard the rest of the song, for the first time, and loved it. Though that was a very ‘I told you so’ moment for the dude, it was humbly accepted.

Anyways, every time it played, good things seemed to happen. When the Dude again left for another of his trips abroad, and I was as usual cribby, somehow the song would appear on VH1 (which would be playing only because I was surfing channels) and things would be fine. And magically this would play on most cds randomly chosen for long drives (ok, honestly I think this is because the song is on most of the mixed Cds). The song also made a special appearance on our wedding card. And was the first on the cd to be played during the reception (but which didn’t because we didn’t have an input jack to connect to a laptop or an mp3 player, so we had Himesh Reshamiya as our wedding theme, and now we are deviating). So the song has by now firmly lodged itself in the Music ∩ us space.

I came along , I wrote a song for you, oh what a thing to do
And it was called Yellow..

Yep, that be our song J  

Ok, so now I feel like listing out all the songs which for some reason always remind me of some situations from the past. Funnily, most of these songs are such that I hardly ever even listen to them anymore, but whenever I do, it is big time nostalgia!

 So here goes-

 Song: Aisi Deewangi - Deewana
Reminds of: Home, and watching chitrahaar with the whole family on a Wednesday night.

 Song: Saathiya Tune kya kiya - Love
Reminds of: Home again, lazy afternoons, back from school, listening to a borrowed cassette over and over again.

 Song: Gaate the pehle akele – Khamosh
Reminds of: The unfortunate 1997 moped accident, leading to the stitches on the knee. The song playing all the while in the head.

 Song: Aate Jaate – Maine Pyar Kiya
Reminds of: 10^th Boards. Trying the ‘study with music’ concept for the first time and combining Geometry theorems with Bollywood.

 Song: Chaiyyan Chaiyyan
Reminds of: Rainy afternoon, tea, pakodas, and a newly acquired cassette playing in the back ground.

 Song: Chiqiquita – Abba
Reminds of: CAT preparation in Hyderabad, and doing mock tests with the ABBA Gold Cassette on repeat.

 Song: Touch and Go
Reminds of: K parties! Especially the first one.

 Song: Allah ke bande hasde – Kailash Kher
Reminds of: Sunny afternoon. Walking down B Top’s corridor to call DC for lunch, after having bunked all the morning classes, the song being played from one of the rooms on the floor.

 Song: Kahaan ho tum – Shankar Mahadevan
Reminds of: K again, and getting ready at leisure (a rarity) for an evening class with the song in the background.

 Song: Lagi Lagi - Aksar
Reminds of: The penthouse. And a spring cleaning session of the room, ofcourse with songs from Aksar playing on the Boom box.

 Song: Aap ki kashish (aashiq banaya aapane)
Reminds of: The first attempt at gymming, the hour long workout with Himesh Reshammiya every day. Well, for 20 days.

 Song: Nuvvena (Anand – Gult movie)
Reminds of: Chatting with The Dude late in the night, while he was in London suddenly having developed a liking for a sing which I didn’t understand anyways.

 Song: Don’t be shy – Rogue
Reminds of: Bottles and Chimneys, and the dancing sessions on Saturday nights with The Dude

 There are a few more general songs which I associate with moods, like Yellow is romantic, and Lemon tree is happy, and Waqt ne Kiya is plain depressing, but that will need another post dedicated it to it I am sure. So till then, Ciao!

Everybody has a perception or a definition of what being cool is all about. Or what kind of talk makes one sound intellectual. What kind of taste in music, food and books, makes one sound so very in, and happening. But at the same time, it isn’t necessary that you match your own definition, or opinion. In fact, in my case, I more often than not, am a complete mismatch to what my perception of ‘being in’ is all about.

The songs from Parineeta are actually exceptionally good. Obviously, one tends to love Piyu Bole instantly. But the other songs deserve a special mention too. Especially, since each of them have perfect music and lyrics, which make them masterpieces in their own sense. I especially like Soona man ka aangan, and Sonu Nigam as always, does full justice to the emotion the song tends to express (Unlike Mr. Udit Narayan, who I feel, has a perennial smile while he records any song, and that kinda reflects in the end product). But then I might be exaggerating, and can go up to the extent of saying that the only male playback singer ever; who can be said to be better than Sonu Nigam is Kishore Kumar. Strictly a personal opinion though!

It’s a pretty comfortable day at work today. And since keeping MP3s on systems are considered integrity violation now, there is less music to be heard. But then, luckily caught hold of an mp3 player, and am listening to Parineeta now, and hence the realization about how awesome its songs are J

Weekend’s here again, proving that time really does fly. On 16^th, I complete an year at work. And that’s huge! No wonder the 2 years at K passed in a flash L. Underwent another bout of nostalgia today, as I ended up browsing through the earlier posts on ggollerkeri’s blog, after posting his Birthday wishes. If only I would get a chance, I would rewind time by 3 whole years, and relive every moment again. The alumni meet in Hyderabad is scheduled to happen in a week’s time, and I don’t know if I would be going. Its just not the same until a decent number from our batch turns up. And Hyderabad doesn’t really have many people from the 2005 batch.

Am done rambling, and the music’c shifted from Parineeta to Pukaar, and yeah, the songs of Pukaar (especially Sunta hai mera khuda) are pretty decent too. Till then, Ciao.

Ok, If I were to find words which would aptly describe my present mood , they would be ranging from irritated, angry, upset, to sick and frustrated. But since I have decided not to let everybody and anybody bother me anymore especially about things which I can do nothing about, I am just going to let it go, and think about things much more interesting.

Firstly, lemme get on to some of the latest Hindi music, which has caught my attention, either cause its so awesome or cause it cannot be called music in the first place. Of the recent releases 'Piya Bole' from 'Parineeta' is definitely awesome. Sonu Nigam, as usual rocks, and the music is so very soothing. Then theres 'Woh Lamhe' from 'Zeher' . Its by a new group who call themselves 'Jal'. The song also has this really catchy Remix version, which is equally good, if not better. Coming to the fast numbers, 'Tauba Tauba' from 'Kaal' is pretty decent, but dint like 'Kaal Dhamaal' much. Also, Kunal Ganjawaala's 'Channa ve' is really really cool.

Coming to the bad stuff :(.... where do I start. Ok, theres this  super frustrating song in 'zeher' which goes like 'Agar tum mil jaao', and everytime I hear it, I go into a deep depression, its so PATHETIC. I just hope I dont hear it today, given the mood I am already in, I will never ever recover. Then there aresuper patheitc songs from super pathetic movies like 'jaane hoga kya' and 'kya kool hain hum', and I better stop this here, as I am already deeper in the dumps now!

I have become a complete TV addict now. If not Tv, its movies on the comp. Its horrible, how I keep watching reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, and the same music videos over and over again. Well that decides that one of the very first purchases I am going to make, once I start working is  television. Another fun thing I have been doing is re-reading my Enid Blyton and Archies comics collection:D, something that never bores me.

Am busy with the last days of shopping and packing, before I leave for Gurgaon on the 15th. Just for a week though. After which its back to 'Good ol' Hyd'. It is Good ol Hyd now, guess I have finally made peace with the entire situation, and have decide to enjoy myself there, should't be that bad , huh??

Thats it for now I guess, and seriously, am feeling so much better( and less irritated, frustrated , blah blah blah...), than when I came. Till then, Ciao...