life and its offerings

* What's with Indian television ? Initially it was alright. But n years after that initial moment we are still churning out soap after soap which capitalize on female characters being victims of some evil skewed plot of the in-laws. Ekta started it, everyone else followed and we still oblige. Such a waste. Woman/man kind all over the world, I urge you to abandon them. Otherwise I will judge you. Dhamki nahi hai sachchi!

* What's with asking others' kids really personal questions like, 'beta haven't you searched someone for yourself? settle down like our *munnu* soon'

First polite reaction - smile and umm hmm

Second polite reaction - YAWN

Third polite reaction - rant on blog whose existence is non existent for you.

:-|

* I am getting renewed lessons in harry potter. Having made brother start the series, and making him quiz me about random stuff most of which I don't remember now, is proving to be fun. Oh and he is hooked. As I write this he is reading the last few pages of the first book. Oddly I feel very proud! :-)

* I miss snow. The pristine white-ness all around. The random flight of the snow flakes as they make way to the ground. A long chilling walk in the cold. Winter here is over. The temperatures are already rising. After that short spell of winter, no use of all those comforters/sweaters/jackets, no desire to drink hot coffee/chocolate (bournvita) or even tea. Weather gods' mood swings are also having short shelf life these days. Sigh.


* I just watched Hachiko. I feel so full of love and emotions right now! Hachi!!! You made my rather dull Sunday. I wish to make a dog a part of my life soon.

* I am going through a I can't relate with you anymore phase. Happened quite a few times. I also ranted to Ketaki about it. And I can't seem to get it out of my head. Sometimes I have this compulsive need to be the perfect friend or at least try to be. Well, I have a crazy scheme, I will ask all my friends to start writing blogs. Not to put out personal stuff on public forums (the way they see blogging. ugh.) but to give options to express themselves, make effort to get out of the routine and write stuff down to reflect. We all have stuff over which we obsess, why not put it online where your friends can read it objectively, give opinions if needed and make the sharing easy and thus ease the pressure on the friendship ? 

I just re-read the above paragraph and I feel so shallow suddenly. I already have my rant/express myself/give opinions space. That does not mean I should expect others to do the same and act all less burdened in face to face meetings. 

Sheesh. When I put things into perspective, growing up does not look fun anymore. :-(

Time to take out the magic wand. May be.

~nightflier

P.S. The post title was a subtle way to put it this way - most of this post was a rant.

the entrepreneurial bug

This post is about some remarkable people/professions I have come across in the past few days.


I met the first 2 on field trips with another best friend for her March wedding. I could not help but think more about them and the professions they have chosen. And hence the post follows.


Small beauty parlors, specially the one's run by females for females are a specialty of India. Pardon me, but the US offered mostly unisex salons and hence that pretty much forms the world for me. May be other countries also have such salons, but I haven't visited, hence don't know and hence can't comment. Got the drift ? ;-) (convenient generalization) The point is these ladies amaze me. Because I personally think beauty treatment is a precarious business, with a varied and equally challenging customer set each of them wanting to look/feel the best when they get out of that parlor. So the whole business kind of runs on customer satisfaction, no ? Well, if you have a really good knack of what you are doing i.e. gentle ways to cut hair or do eyebrows even waxing/facial/bleaching for that matter, all this should not be difficult right ? But for that one needs practice, experience, good customer feedback to thrive. So we are running in a circle it seems. Plus the market is not very lucrative, most of the middle class (a major proportion of the client base) in India does not want to spend lots at such places. So the prices have to be very competitive so as not to lose a segment of customer just because you wanted to compete with bigger more professional names. 
But these days there are institutions which offer certified courses which add to the credibility in this really high risk business. Think about it, a hair cut gone wrong and not only do you lose a customer, but also a referral chain thereby. It sustains on word of mouth marketing. So I really really commend these ladies who day after day not only get things done properly in such a personal space (I remember if my hair cut used to go even slightly haywire I would refuse to get out of the house for at least 7 days :P) for every individual and make people feel better about themselves by changing a few aspects of their personality every once in a while.
[From personal experience more than once a hair cut or a visit to the parlor has pepped me up]


Another set of ladies who really amazed me during these field trips were the Bridal Mehendi (henna) putting ones. The set I met were Devrani-Jethani from a Marwari family. They use the really basic skills that they have without any training (apart from practice) to start a small business sitting right out of their home. The Jethani indulges in the bridal henna whereas the Devrani does the other hands, as we have it in normal Indian weddings during the Mehendi ceremony. And for your reference they provide the satisfied ex-customer's catalog in the form of pictures taken on their cell phones. Very tech savvy. I instantly like them. To be self employed in such a diverse Indian culture, using some of your basic skills to fit in and maintaining the customer relationships through sheer warm conversations, is really appreciable no ?


The last remarkable lady I came across is the house maid who comes at brother's place. She is from a well to do family, owns her own place, has her children studying in colleges. The only reason she works - I don't want to sit at home. Pretty difficult to digest considering all the above facts. But her logic is whatever 4000-5000 Rs. (I am still not used to the new rupee symbol) she earns, add to her two daughters' wedding fund, so that she will be able to give them more gold (a symbol of prosperity and good investment in times of need in most Indian homes) than intended. I like her industriousness. She is in a very strange way passionate about her work and respects it. 


I have seen people not being happy with what they do or crib about a lack of respect for the work. I think all the above mentioned ladies are a very good example. 
Of being the ideal employee of one self.


~nightflier

as time goes by

I adore casablanca. The movie, the place. I love Rick, Ilsa, captain Renault, Carl, Sascha.

I think I like things in the black and white. No wonder I romanticize this song so much.

Don't forget to watch the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vThuwa5RZU

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you."
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date.
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate.
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.

It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

~nightflier

Why did Harry choose the horcruxes ?

I have often wondered what if Harry had decided to give up on the search for horcruxes and instead had engaged in the quest for the hallows.


Did he do it because he was supposed to do it out of some responsibility ?
Did he do it because that was the right thing to do ?
Did he really have a choice ?


~nightflier


P.S. In my head all those questions have an affirmative answer. I guess 100 points to gryffindor then :D

Misery does not like 'other' fun company

Misery is a miser. 
Have you wondered if you poke fun at your own discomfort, it sounds all very fun and taking things in jolly stride. But if someone else does it, it sounds all un-compassionate and exasperating no ?
Imagine you working your brains off on a tough math problem and then coming out with rather silly jokes in a feat of jest. But if a teacher comes and asks you something or shares a joke about you-not-able-to-solve-it it feels all very awkward. 


I guess because in a situation compassion always needs (or is expected more like) to be the attribute of the one not suffering/miserable. 


Oh, all the deep thinking as I foolishly indulged in a friend's misery and invited unwanted/unexpected glares. But sometimes its seriously not possible to avoid all those wise cracks that come with a situation. Foot almost in the mouth (a sagittarian after all), right ?


~nightflier

of caricatures

I watched two extremely appealing movies this week. No one killed Jessica (NOKJ) and An Education. My take on the same.


While watching NOKJ (despite it being a good movie) I could not help but think about the whole deliberation scripts put into some roles/acts. Be it a cuss word spouting hot shot journalist or a all flaws overlooking, typical mother of a spoilt brat. In such situations I can't make up mind whether its the actor who should have tried better to make it real or the screenplay. And that is why NOKJ as a platform for Rani to change her mold or come up with something radical (as she claimed in her interviews) failed for me. It was a very well versed story for all of us, so movie wise there weren't any surprises. Plus the director Raj Kumar Gupta's earlier mindblowing debut film Aamir was proof enough that this would be a refined product technically and otherwise.
But then Rani Mukerji proclaimed that how she was a bit**. Meh.


Jenny of an Education on the other hand was such a starry eyed character with its nuances right in place that one could easily relate with her. Carey Mulligan is a wonderfully self aware actress. She is delicately pretty and expressive. So when she falls in love with an older man and is ready to throw away all her future, all her Latin essays, her teacher's advice, her Oxford dreams just because she wants to lead a fun life and not a drab and dull life like her parents and teachers do, you want to go on her journey and experience for yourself, how it must feel like. I am not sure then, if one should applaud the script or the actor here. An education is a wonderful movie. As they say, the act of discovery is not about finding new places but seeing with new eyes.
So is Jenny's journey. 


So such is life. I like real, I can relate with characters. And I love Rani Mukerji too. So it is a huge disappointment when I have to see her movie after 2 years and get nothing but a caricature out of the movie. But then as they say movie watching is about optimism. 
Better luck next time to me!


~nightflier

naya saal naye updates

# So, I could not *achieve* that target I set myself 5 days before the year ended. It seems the part of my brain which does math was in hibernation. It is quite humanly impossible to achieve such a target when one has to travel with family for 2 days out of those 5. Note to self - Get some reality checks before setting targets. Will save the disgrace [drama] of not achieving them, no ?
P.S. I managed to finish only one book out of that list - my consolation!


# I have found my twitter-self. Yes. Again. I was feeling a huge disconnect from it for a long time. But I have found that chord. I am off newspapers [which I tried reading/making a habit] once again. It did not work thankfully! So twitter is back as my sole information gaining and sharing channel.

# I realized last year [cannot tell the exact moment, as when an epiphany comes I consciously ignore it] that I have a conscious habit of being too hard on myself. From childhood we are taught that being frivolous doesn't pay, which is a good teaching I think. But sometimes one does need to relax and be reasonable. I am consciously going to try that with myself. That does not mean I am going to be frivolous [raises eyebrows]. It just means I will run the race at my pace.


# I am not being biased here, but desi channels have *nothing* worthwhile to watch! I started watching that Madhuri Dixit show, but a friend pointed out how the camera angles were being edited to hide all the performance flaws. And I was like whaaaa!!!! So there! Now I have *nothing* to watch/follow and be cool.
Life is surely sad. [long pause] Sigh...
I am back to watching sports, discovery, travel and living, and movies occasionally.
Also Master Chef Australia was a really good show which got over last week. I am more than inspired to cook and plate it up!


~nightflier

the bucket list

This is not a timed list as in I don't expect to mark a check against all of these by the end of the year. I just wish to work towards them. The joy of preparation and anticipation is more than achievement, I say :)


* Read a lot of marathi books. At least more than 2010, which was zilch.
* Start yoga/badminton. I swam a little in the sea in Goa and felt really good. But swimming still makes me apprehensive about the skin issues. Let's hope I can risk it a little this year, just to stay fitter.
* Write more. Meaningful stuff to be precise :D
* Learn to appreciate genuine praise garnered over me more graciously. Sometimes a simple thank you can suffice, no ? Without any explanations!
* Cook more. Try new stuff more often.
* Not lose touch with a lot of wonderful people I have distanced from (physically, owing to the big move from amreeka to India)
* Be less self judgmental and lesser so about friends. And be more compassionate in general.
* Consciously avoid annoying, not genuine people. Also keep safe distance from bitchy people. Also not give a shit about people who expect a lot. I am no mind reader, so if you cannot share/discuss your problems with me, I am going to believe everything is all right. If you choose to keep a grudge, your choice!


And lastly,
* Trust more. Believe more. Share more. Laugh more. Live life.


~nightflier