Monday, February 25, 2013

Emotional haircuts

Hello friends! Had a lazy weekend. Attended a Tyagaraja festival on Sat. morning. It was a rainy and cold day on Sat. morning.  The drive was long and tiring through the foggy weather. Watched the movie Kaipoche that night. Went for the last show. Believe it or not the theater was full! My friend and I had to sit in the front rows. All the 3 newcomers were really good. Tailor made for their part. Good movie. Parts of the movie reminded me of Lagaan and that is because this movie also had cricket as the backdrop. The movie was shot in Ahmedabad and had a certain flavor to it that was so real! Loved the picturization. The rawness of the characters worked very well in the movie. Apparently Chetan Bhagat, the author of the book "The three mistakes of my life" on which the movie was based, said that the movie was far better than his book. Now that is a welcome compliment, coming from the otherwise arrogant Mr. Bhagat! I spent , Sunday, for the most part, doing house chores, while listening to some old Hindi songs. I came across this melodious song from the movie Bahu Begum. Enjoy! Your drive will definitely be more enjoyable.

________________________________________________________________________
Today, I went to get my hair layered. I came home and the good Hindu that I am, had a shampoo bath immediately. I was expecting something very spectacular, when I dried it. I thought I will look so different. Nothing like that happened. I looked the same old me, only with layered hair and $50.00 poorer. Really?  I had told some my friends that I was going to get a haircut today. I am now wondering what their reaction is going to be. Just to console myself and expecting that Shekar will say something nice, I showed the new hairstyle to him, and his reaction was, you look the same! That did it for me. I got so emotional, I started crying. It took me for ever to recover. What was so disturbing is that, this was not the first time that this had happened to me. I go through this every single time, I decide to have a haircut. I buy every single product that the hair dresser recommends, hoping that I will have gorgeous, frizz free, shiny hair, only to find out that my hair is so dry after every wash. I have come to the conclusion that, one has to be born with gorgeous hair. Lucky are those few people. The rest of them who sport silky hair in magazines and movies must be wearing wigs. I am still unhappy, but I will go to bed thinking that, the hair is growing to grow back slowly, very slowly in my case. I googled a cartoon for you. Shub Ratri.


 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Aakhir kab tak?

Namaskar friends. Today is such a gloomy day. My prayers to the families impacted by the twin blasts in Hyderabad. A sincere suggestion to the handlers of those terrorists is that you can achieve nothing through violence and by killing innocent people. Same happenings, same stories on news channels, same bhaga daudi, same statements from authorities nothing has changed. Everyone is busy in projecting self, no lessons from past, no new strategy. When is this madness going to stop? Lets keep a minute of silence for those innocent people. It was hard to see the gruesome images in the newspapers.
____________________________________________________________________
Today, I am just going to post pictures of some beautiful flowers from my Mom's garden. Don't feel like writing anything else. Nature is so beautiful! I don't know the names of all the flowers. She has so many varieties. An excellent way of keeping oneself busy and happy is gardening. A great hobby to have. My parents spend a lot of time in their garden. My Mom says she even speaks to the plants and she feels they understand. Therapeutic to say the least!
 Hibiscus
 Jasmine
 Mogra





 Habbalige
 Pistia


 Mangana Bala (Monkey's Tail)

ShankaPushpa (Konch flower)
There are many more. I will post it some other day. It was not Rose season. Otherwise, my Mom has a gorgeous rose garden too! Shub ratri folks! Let peace prevail!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Kole Basava

Hi friends, Let me start with the Song of the day. I haven't watched filmfare awards yet. Did the movie Burfi deserve an award? In my opinion "No"! It was a dark story, narrated at a boring snail pace, with some over acting by Ranbir and PC. Nevertheless, I like the song below, from the movie. It's the liveliest part of the movie.

And the over rated Vidya Balan did not deserve to win for Kahaani. If walking with a fake stomach, wandering in the streets of Kolkata, looking for a dead husband is called acting, then I have my own doubts regarding the caliber of the deciding committee members. If anybody deserved an award, it was our very own Sallu Bhai. He was entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. Total paisa vasool! I did it again folks! When I was driving to work this morning, I overshot my destination and had to take a U turn to get back. There is so much road construction going on locally, it's hard to understand where the road starts and where it ends. I am not complaining, I am just saying this because, this is the third time it has happened to me in the past 2 weeks. Otherwise, had a fantastic weekend! We met with some friends on Sat. to celebrate a belated V-day. Had a good chat. On Sunday, we had a ladies night out. We went to watch this movie called Special 26. We picked this movie for the lack of anything better. So, I ahd no expectations. But it turned out to be a fantabulous movie. Superlative acting by Anupam Kher, Manoj Vajpai and in a  small role, my fav., Jimmy Shergil. I feel Jimmy is an under rated actor. I liked him as Zaheer in Munna Bhai MBBS too. A very good actor. We then had some yummy desi khana and came back home, with so many great ideas for more ladies night outs. It's always nice to be around like minded people.
_________________________________________________________________
In India, people have novel ways of begging for money. Nothing wrong with that. I am thankful, that I was born in a middle calss family. By virtue of my birth, I am what I am today. I must have done something good in my past life. Anyway, the unlucky ones have to look for differents ways to make ends meet. On my visit to my parents house, a man came with his well adorned bull with his multi-coloured embellishments, in front of my Dad's house and started palying a wind instrument.
They are nomads who go from house to house blessing people in exchange for clothes or food.
The master demonstrates a trick. He asks questions to the kole basava and it nods it head to answer yes or no. Kole Basava has also become a synonym for a person who nods his head for everything in acceptance. hehe. See below for pictures. 




The jewlery  is striking isn't it? And look at the colors, so vibrant! Unfortunately, I could not video tape the event. For thsoe who are interested, just type "Kole Basava" on You Tube and you can watch some videos there. Shub Ratri folks!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

HVD!

Whats up blog friends? Most of you must have thought HVD is the name of some kind of disease, like HIV. I wrote this on Facebook today and got people confused. All it means is Happy Valentine's day. Got you! Hope you all had an exciting Valentines day. I had a good day. Shekar surprised me with a pair of much needed running shoes. Don't we all love surprises? I was shocked to read about the blade runner. I am not a 100% convinced that he had a motive to kill. Must have been an accident. Let's wait and see. I will think twice before I go on a cruise again. Another sad story of the people on board of that ship that got burnt.

Joke of the day: "John who? I don't know that person" - Bipasha Basu. LOL!
___________________________________________________________________________
My perfect gift for V. day would have been a whole body massage. I was at the gorgeous Amsterdam airport sometime back and had a 4 hour! lay over. Beleive it or not the 4 hours flew by. This airport is a small world by itself. There is so much to do here. Apart from normal airport things like Restaurants, chocolates, bookstore etc., they had a theater, meditation room, Internet lounge (this was not free), Library,  and even a massage area. The seats in the Lounge were uniquely designed. Every seat had an inbuilt T.V. and the theater seats were like mini beds. I have never seen an open massage place with a full body pressure massage under water and get this! there was a fish tank in which you place  your feet and the fish eat the dead skin form your feet and give you, a pedicure. As grose as this sounds, its beneficial for both the fish and us. See pics. below.

 
 
 Branded purses and clothes. Whats new you say?
 Tulip Restaurant. So far so good. Right?
 Uniquely designed chair complete with a TV and head set. The TV is where the boy's head is resting.
 Contemporary sofa again with TV and headsets
 More unique sofas
 Comfy theater chair that is more like a mini bed. That's me resting during my 4 hour lay over.
 Theater
 Meditation room
 Surprise! Tulip shaped lamp in the Tulip house selling Tulips
 More Tulips. I love these flowers. Reminds me of my fav. movie Silsila.
 THE body massage machine
 I would be afraid to go inside that machine. But there was a brave man in there.
 The fish pedicure (btw, not my feet)
The bread shop that gets you all confused. So many varieties.
 

Same goes for the cheese shop. Say cheese!

Sanil made a funny remark today. He said" Mom, I don't want to go to bed. When I asked him why, he said because if I go to bed, then I have to wake up, and when I wake up, I have to go to school. LOL! I had to agree with him. I feel the same way sometimes. But I also know that we all need 8 hours of sleep. So sent him to bed and now, I am going too! So enjoy this romantic Song of the day from the movie Jurm. Shub Ratri.

 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Creativity has no limits

Hello, my dear cyber friends. In case you were wondering where I was, I was suffering form a very bad headache. I could not tax my mind anymore than necessary, so stayed away from this space. I just recovered, enough to write a small paragraph. And to add to that these damn strong perfumes! I was in the elevator with this lady, who I could smell from the parking lot! I should have known not to get into the elevator with her. I love perfumes, but they have to be subtle. I am yet to find one that I absolutely love. Clinque happy comes close to being the perfect one for me. Yep, saw the boring Grammy awards. I guess enough has been said and written about J.Lo's leg (thigh) and Katy Perry's boobs. Hey, at least they made Grammy 2013 memorable.
Joke of the day: John Abraham's statement that he is a one man woman. Did he mean one woman at a time? he he or is he getting ready for his new movie release: I, Me aur Mein? He went on to say that he would marry a simple woman as simplicity is the beauty of any relation. Hmmmm.
Folks, I came across this Punjabi girl from Canada, who uploads vblogs on YouTube. She is so funny. Calls herself superwoman. She is so energetic and lively. Check her out here and here . Creativity has no limits. My friend Anu and I also have come up with yet another video. Find ht evideo on YouTube under the title, Modern Day Bapama.

Here we are dressed like old grandmas who are modern and enjoy life to the fullest. If you liked it, please leave a comment. Feedback of any sort is always welcome. Helps us decide if we should continue our work.
Alright folks, today's Song of the day is from the movie Barsaat. OMG! Raj Kapoor and Nargis had awesome chemistry! People used to say that I looked like Nargis during my younger days. I wish! Fine rendition by Lata didi. Enjoy! Till next time, Shub ratri.

 

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Thoughts

Vanakkam friends! Since Monday, my right eye has been twitching. In India, this is considered bad luck. I know, I should believe in all these blind faiths. But I can't help it. So, I have not been myself this week. Nothing bad has happened so far. I really hope it stays that way. I bring some good news folks. I have lost a pound in weight. I wish there was a shot or something that would remove the fat from arms. I am just not able to change the shape of my arms, however much I try. One of the many advantages of taking a dance class is, you get to listen to new energetic songs. Today, in my Zumba class, I heard 2 such songs. One is "Limbo" by Daddy Y Yankee and the other is "Girl is on fire" by Alicia Keys. Check it out here and here.  Today, for some reason I was humming this song Saagar Kinare dil ye pukaare. Oh boy! Dimple Kapadia is any man's dream!  Her lustrous hair, her hazel eyes, her perfect figure in that blue dress, katilana looks. So, no points for guessing my Song of the day is ....

Why don't they makes movies and music like this anymore. Oh, I miss my youth. So, bollywood these days is celebrating all the award shows. Somehow I have not kept abreast of this news this year. Watch out for Google tomorrow folks. On Friday, Google is celebrating late ghazal king Jagjit Singh's 72nd birthday with a doodle on its India homepage. Cannot wait to see what it looks like. ________________________________________________________________________
Folks, our mind has so many thoughts per day. All through the day and till we go to bed our mind is so active. It jumps from one topic to the other. Sometimes even when we sleep our subconscious is working overtime and we get dreams. It is believed by many that an average person gets 70,000 thoughts per day. Wow!
I often see pople at work, or at the mall or someplace that are so lost in thoughts, that they just look through you, even if you are right in front of them. There are days when my mind won't stop thinking. It's on those days that I cannot fall asleep and I keep looking at the time only to find that just 5 minutes have passed since I last checked the time. Sigh! Those are some bad nights. Thoughts are countless, innumerable. Thoughts change so fast. Hence, we have limited control over our thoughts. But we can decide which thoughts to entertain. Psychiatrists often say think of happy thoughts. This will make us stay positive. I know it is easier said than done. We can try at least. All right friends. Good night and happy thoughts!
 

Monday, February 04, 2013

The art of making Kajal

Hello friends! Learnt a new word today "fatwa". Kashmir lost its only all-girls rock band as its three teenage members decided to call it quits, a day after the Grand Mufti issued a fatwa terming singing as un-Islamic and asked them to abandon it. Ok. We are in the 21st century now. How is India going to progress at this rate? It was nice of Salman Khan and Rekha to show support to Kamal Hassan by having a special screening of the the movie Vishwaroop. It was for a good cause and the film fraternity stood by each other. I like it. I love the gorgeous Beyonce. Don't you? Electrifying performance by her last night. Enjoyed. Nice game. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens.
Tip of the day:  I had made masala dosa over the weekend. I used some white potatoes for the baji. The baji turned out all mushy. After testing almost all varieties of potatoes available here in the US, I found out that red potatoes are the best for cooking.
_____________________________________________________________

I am so used to applying Kohl (Kajal) to my eyes to the extent that I cannot leave home without it. It has become an essential necessity of my life. It brightens my otherwise dull eyes. So, when I visited my parents, I asked my Mom to make kajal the traditional way. My dear Mom obliged. It's a recipe passed on to various generations. Please see below pics for step by step directions on how to make Kajal.

 Take water in a bronze thali (Note: The thali has to be made of bronze or iron for cooling effects)
 Keep a ghee diya (lamp) ready
 Make a makeshift  chula (stove) with 3 coconut shells
 Now burn the lamp and place it in the middle of the 3 coconut shells

 Place the water filled thali on the 3 shells
 Let the lamp create some kari (ash) under the thali
 Now overturn the Thali
 Scrape and collect all the ash using a sharp knife
Mix a few drops of asli (real) ghee to the ash (now the kajal is ready)
 
Fill a dabba (box) with the kajal.
With time the kajal gets better in texture and quality. When I say time, it can be several years. Home made kajal is safe for the eyes and has cooling effects. This kajal can also be used on hair as a temporary dye. Home made Kajal also acts as a moisturizer to the hair. Hope all of you benefited by this. My Mom would be happy to know if you tried it. Let me know.
 It's Kishoreda today folks. Song of the day is from the movie College girl. Wah! beautifully penned. Just try to get in zone of the hero when he sings these lines. Must be in so much in love. Intense! Love it. A mood setter. Enjoy! Shub Ratri.