Change of plans

Oops... I'm changing my reading list. Just today my boss gave me 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Euginides. It has won the Pulitzer prize. It is gonna replace 'Interpreter of Maladies' because that book has won the same prize.

Anyways, if I do finish all the books I plan to read, I can always add that back to the list. But for now, Middlesex it is !

I must start today, but before hat I must also finish 'Between the Assassinations' which I'm almost done with.

So here I go... reading reading.. my first love !!

New year, new experiences !

I am so totally loving this year ! Its brought great new stuff for me to experience.

I joined my art class (the first of many more to come), I have almost succeeded in getting rid of the habit of chewing on my fingernails, I am getting up earlier than usual (on most days atleast) and I am trying new things !!

I finally made it to Sinhagad last weekend. After living in Pune for slightly above 9 years, I was ashamed to have not explored the city and its outskirts. So I was proud to tick off Sinhagad from my list. We were supposed to get up at 5am and leave, but finally managed to do so only at 740. 5am on a winter morning... not realistic ! It was still really cold outside. I felt as if I was not wearing any jeans ! My legs were frozen stiff and thanks to S's un-serviced bike, my ass hurt like hell. The roads I must say are pathetic. Actually there are no roads, just potholes n more ! I fell in love with the Khadakwasala lake. It is simple gorgeous. The pictures dint come out well coz of the fog. You can't really see much. but it was lovely. When we were getting back, the sun was up so you could actually see better. The water was blue and the lake so serene. And S told me that the water level was really low, imagine when its upto full capacity in the rains !!! I have to go again!

Sinhagad itself was great. The climb, the view from the top.. NICE ! It reminded me a lot of my school (except the river was missing). A nice cool breeze with a mild sun shining on your back... lovely. We took some super pictures up there, just by fidling with the camera settings ! We ate some crazy kanda-bhajjis (onion pakodas) with the ultimate chuttney (made of only onion, red chilli powder and oil). You can't even imagine how spicy and rocking it was. On our way back, we tried something different - Pithla-bhakri. Bhakri is a roti made out of bajra and jowar. Its really tasty and typically Maharashtrian. Pithla is a Maharashtrian preparation made of besan etc. Its supposed to be nice and spicy but since this wasn't, I added a lot of the above chuttney to it and loved the result. Later, I realized that my tummy wasnt to happy and I had to down few bowls of curd to cool it. The experience was wonderful. I am gonna plan many more such day trips with S. We had a blast !

Another new thing last weekend was the Sawai Gandharv. It is a 4 day musical event which takes place every year in Pune. I was able to attend the 3rd day and witnessed some brilliant performances by a sarod player and 2 vocalists. The experience was so humbling and totally worth it. Talent was at its best and all I could do was gape, in awe of such great people. It was brilliant and at Rs. 100, worth every penny. We also had some lovely food there. Fluffy idlis and spicy chutney and chanajor ! I'm beginning to see how most of my trips somehow always focus on FOOD ! S keeps telling me to officially change my surname to his, as Bengalis are the true foodies and I have totally become one !

So, here's to fun times in 2010. May there be many many many more to come !

Here are the pics !!

A fine letter indeed !

I found this poem through a tweet and I do remember reading this years back. It reminds me a little of one of my fav. poems "IF" by Rudyard Kipling. It's really well written and totally worth following.

Lincoln’s Letter to his Son’s Teacher

He will have to learn, I know,
that all men are not just,
all men are not true.
But teach him also that
for every scoundrel there is a hero;
that for every selfish Politician,
there is a dedicated leader…
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,

Steer him away from envy,
if you can,
teach him the secret of
quiet laughter.

Let him learn early that
the bullies are the easiest to lick…
Teach him, if you can,
the wonder of books…
But also give him quiet time
to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,
bees in the sun,
and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him
it is far honourable to fail
than to cheat…
Teach him to have faith
in his own ideas,
even if everyone tells him
they are wrong…
Teach him to be gentle
with gentle people,
and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son
the strength not to follow the crowd
when everyone is getting on the band wagon…
Teach him to listen to all men…
but teach him also to filter
all he hears on a screen of truth,
and take only the good
that comes through.

Teach him if you can,
how to laugh when he is sad…
Teach him there is no shame in tears,
Teach him to scoff at cynics
and to beware of too much sweetness…
Teach him to sell his brawn
and brain to the highest bidders
but never to put a price-tag
on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears
to a howling mob
and to stand and fight
if he thinks he’s right.
Treat him gently,
but do not cuddle him,
because only the test
of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage
to be impatient…
let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always
to have sublime faith in himself,
because then he will have
sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order,
but see what you can do…
He is such a fine little fellow,
my son!

~ Abraham Lincoln

A brilliant day

S gave me a wonderful surprise today, and also taught me a good lesson. Well, I did not admit it to him tho (the lesson part)... no, no that wud go totally against the domination plan :)

We were to meet at M.G road yesterday after work. I reached there and gave him a call but instead he told me to come to FC road. Now people who live in Pune would know the distance between the two places and considering peak-hour traffic, I was quite naturally ticked off. But I went anyways. It happens when you dont get to meet someone on a daily basis. The heart just takes over.

So I was driving along, the traffic wasn't so bad. Nice music on the stereo, thanks to S (He gifted it to me). It suddenly dawned upon me that FC road had become a one way and so had JM road. I thought for a while on what route to take and completely messed it up. I had to take a few U-turns and stuff and I was slowly losing it. So, I picked up the phone to call S and find out where he was. HE named some god-forsaken place and asked me to come there saying it was worth it even after I argued for a while. I thought OK, maybe he's upto something. Still, I was angry, so I yelled at him for this absurd plan, that I dint need directions, I would find me own way.... blah blah blah (I can go on and on when fighting).

I then somehow drove through the lanes and parked rite in front of the FC gate. I called S again and yelled for him to come to pick me from there as I was not moving. Poor guy, he came in a few mins and I started arguing with him coz he was telling me a way I could have come, and I was totally defending the fact that it was a one-way and impossible for me to come. He then took me and showed me that it wasn't a one-way. I dint know what to say. I had to eat all my words and just gave him sheepish looks when he asked me if I was convinced. I realized that he was right, I was wrong. It was one of those rare times I dint have anything to say. So my lesson was - Don't think you know all things. Let people help you. I would have saved so much time and energy only if I had let him guide me. But instead I had argued that I have lived here, I know all the ways. I don need your help. Foolish me.

Ok, now coming to the good part. So after all the dust had settled, he took me to this building and then proceeded to tell me that I had been called to see an "art exhibition." Boy was I thrilled. The theme was 'The rickshaw pullers of Calcutta' and it was called 'The city of joy.' The artist, Dilip Chowdhury, has used just red, white and shades of black (including grey). It was a lovely exhibition and I was left quite inspired. I think I'm surely gonna get back to painting this month itself. S has asked me for a gift, that being a huge canvas painting and I'm still trying to come up with some nice idea/theme. Wow, It really was a lovely surprise and I was very grateful later. That was followed by many more.. ahem !

So, I'm gonna be a painter soon. Sorry, correction.. an ARTIST !!!

Here is one of the paintings I found on a website:

(Most of the painting were based on a similar theme as the one above.)

Guess who...

I bumped into last year ??!!!!

Yes... that's Reitesh Deshmukh & Genelia D'souza. We were dining in Goa Portuguese, Mumbai and the table across the room was getting quite noisy, so when we looked to see whats happening... there we saw them. Reitesh looked quite nice and Genelia is really pretty in person. This was my first celebrity sighting after a real long time.


P.S. They refused to be in the same frame together !! He he he ! Gharwale kya kahenge !

"Thought for the year"

I found this somewhere. I think it's really something to believe in the new year. It elaborates the principle of "Forgive & Forget". That's exactly what I'm gonna do from just now.

Here kitty kitty

I had gone for my class today... oh btw did I mention that I joined this warli painting class right near my house. Today was my second day and guess what the teacher tells me. She says," You are such a fast learner, I din't know that you'll learn everything in 2 days. Now I don't know what more to teach you." LOVELY !!! Rs. 500 gone down the drain. No, no.. no a more serious note, it is fun. The designs are easy but it is difficult to make such small figures in paint. pen and pencil is easy, but paint, I learnt today is quite tough.I also told her to teach me on cloth so lets see.

So ya, I got over with the class today and was climbing down the stairs (btw another revelation, I have decided to take the stairs at all times, a weight-loss mini plan) and I could hear some animal crying. I thought maybe outside the building, but as I went down it became louder. And then, I see this cutest lil kitty babykins crying outside a door. She was purring so loud I could hear it even 2 feet away. Awwww... I sat down to pet it but it dint come close at first. Then slowly it somehow concluded that I won't harm it and then it allowed me to touch and pet. Kooochiiee poochiieee kooookooo... I sat there for almost 10 mins clicking pics and pampering miss mama cat (she was carrying I guess..huge tummy). I had a lovely time. It has been like ages since I petted a dog or cat or any animal for that matter. And she was so neat and clean, white and golden in color. Just awesome. Then it was time to leave so I got up to go and what do I see.. madam has decide to follow me all the way down to the ground floor (from the 4th).

Then she stayed with me for a while before finding something else that caught her fancy ! Ohhhhh it was simply lovely yaaar ! I so need a pet. Maybe I'll just sneak one and then dad can't say anything. Lets see. But today was a lovely day coz of miss cattykins !!!

Here are the pics (taken from the phone, so not great quality !)

August Rush

Dunno how this movie starts, coz I started seeing it when 30 minutes were already done. It seemed like a good watch and I remembered seeing the ads in the papers when it had released, sometime near valentine's day I guess !

The story is about a boy who is trying to loook for his parents, who had given him up for foster care. He is a musical genius and people on the street try to use him to make money. Someone spots his talent and he gets into Julliard. Simultaneously, the lives of the parents are shown, who have lost contact with each other, but now the father is trying to look for the mother, and the mother is looking for her son. They all meet one night at a concert and like the kid always said " The music will connect us."

The kid is really cute and has acted well. I remember him from another movie but cant quite place him. The father is the guy from "Bend it like Beckham." I so totally adore him and his accent ! Yummy ! The mother is alright. Robin Williams has a part in the movie, but not much.

Its a nice movie to catch if coming on the telly.

A year full of reading

I have taken up the "Book Awards Challenge 2010." I have to read 10 award winning books from 10 different awards from January 1 through November 1, 2010. I think it's gonna be damn good fun ! And this way I can get back into the habit of reading regularly.

These are the books I have decided to read:
1) Pulitzer prize - 2002 - Middlesex - Jeffery Euginides
2) Booker prize - 1997 - The God of Small Things - by Arundhati Roy
3) Arthur C. Clarke award - 1997 - The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
4) Commonwealth Writers' prize - 1992 - Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
5) Kiriyama prize - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - Three Cups of Tea (nonfiction) OR Suketu Mehta - Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (nonfiction)
6) National Book Critics' Circle award - 1988 - Bharati Mukherjee - The Middleman and Other Stories
7) PEN/Hemingway award - 2001 – Akhil Sharma - An Obedient Father
8) Agatha award - 2004 - Letter From Home by Carolyn Hart
9) Costa/Whitbread - 2007 - Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost
10) Giller prize - 1998 - Alice Munro — The Love of a Good Woman

Wow... I thought it would be easy at first, but just choosing the books was a task. And now looking at the list... wow ! I just hope I'm able to finish reading all of these books. I know most of them are by Indian authors, but I just happen to like them best. Anyways, here's to a great year ahead, full of new learning and experiences !

I already love 2010 !


P.S. Oops... I'm changing my reading list. Just today my boss gave me 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Euginides. It has won the Pulitzer prize. It is gonna replace 'Interpreter of Maladies' because that book has won the same prize.

Anyways, if I do finish all the books I plan to read, I can always add that back to the list. But for now, Middlesex it is !

I must start today, but before hat I must also finish 'Between the Assassinations' which I'm almost done with.

So here I go... reading reading.. my first love !!

The Blind Side

NICE !!

The movie is about a rich catholic woman, who takes this big, black homeless teen into her home and cares for him and helps him in more ways than one and who in turn changes her life.
The way the story unfolds is quite lovely. Sandra Bullock has acted real well, and I have developed quite a fondness for the southern accent ! It sounds real sweet. The guy playing "Big Mike" has done a good job too and so has the little kid playing Sandra's son. Its a nice movie, something you can sit back and enjoy on a quiet evening !

Oh, the best part, the movie is based on a true story. The events actually happened. there actually was a guy, who went on to become a football star. It's quite sad to see the way the poor guy was treated before the lady took him in. One of the most touching parts of the movie is when she gives him his own room and he says, " I've never had one before." and she says, " What, a room to yourself?" and then he replies," No, a bed." Can't begin to imagine what his life would have been like moving from one foster home to another. Imagine the number of children like him !
The movie really makes you think about family, what you can do to make a difference in the life of another being etc. It is certainly a good watch.