Hmmm

I have always thought about this.


How difficult/easy it is to be truly, genuinely happy for someone ?


~nightflier

For moms who stitch :)

As roomies we often talk about our parents. And specially mothers and their quirks. This time me and roomie found out a real dear and common connection with our moms.


My mom loves to stitch. A lot.
And her Singer fashion maker (the one at home looks a bit different) sits on top of the gadget/machine lists she is too fond of. That might be the only one actually, if the grinder/mixer/food processor in the kitchen is not considered. Also the TV remote, control over which she would very generously never claim! I guess after me and bro not being there at home for almost 5-6 years now, has she gotten used to the notion of having the control over the remote control. Well I attribute it to her sweetness and slightly more intellectual, other pursuits like reading. And if we are talking about computers, after much poking from our end, she now writes me really sweet e-mails, and skypes with me once in a while.


Though I digressed, it was important to give an idea about her inclinations. And that is why I find it really amusing, when she gets sentimental about her sewing machine. It is like her 3rd child. Or may be the best friend ? Who has helped her produce cute bags, curtains, table cloths, pretty tops and what not. And now sadly I realize I don't have anything hand (or machine in this case)  stitched by her. I do have a scarf, but that too got torn cos of my mis-handling :-/


As for me, I know I will never be that creative on the stitching front, except for some life saving, really sloppy stitching tricks. But what I am sure is, my kids will talk about my internet presence when they grow up ;)


This one is for the moms who stitch :)


~nightflier

Spring in my step

The seasons and their connotations changed for me after coming to the US. What was summer, rains and winter became autumn, winter, spring and summer.


And I really like Spring. Not only for its jumpy name, but for the sheer positivity it brings. 
May be its the sunshine, may be the blossoms, may be the blooming trees or the fact that we celebrate colours (holi) during spring.
Or may be the transitions it brings in my life. This spring is bringing one such transition. Of relocation. 
They say not all those who wander are lost.


To one more of such innumerable wanderlust experiences!


~nightflier

Happy-ness

me : but things are so pointless in general...

friend : present is always hungry, frustu n sad 

           future is always unpredictable

           reduce pointlessness by making the past make u smile

And today (dont frame me for stating this) I somehow came across snaps of our rowing cox (our collective crush, I used to love his voice and the way he would secretly smile at our stupid mistakes) during COEP days. Lee, Ri and KT will be so jealous! At least I can hope so. Please, please, god please! To the countless B(oat)C(lub) visits to just get a glimpse of him, and later tease each other mercilessly for missing out on talking to him!

I have not smiled so much in a long time!

aah the past :)

Thank you friend!

~nightflier

P.S. The crush died when the dude got an AIR (all india rank and not the gas surrounding us! duh) 5 in GATE (graduate aptitude test in engineering). He transformed from being a mere mortal to god-level-ness!

Tit for Tat

We humans are strangely social. In being so we also remain private. We build homes. With strong foundations. And we guard them fiercely, like our own private, tiny little space in the expanse of the universe, ignoring the fact that other people are eyeing our little world.

That sadly makes us a lot vulnerable. There are some twisted minds who think, they can terrorise others, out of a sick interest of ruling mankind.

What else can be the reasoning behind Pune blasts ?

Pune has been my second home, a place I love cos I have really grown up there, and I hate the blame games that have started after all this carnage.

First the cowards attack our home and then instead of trying to protect it more or protect other possible targets, we are getting involved in a blame game, which normally has no outcome. Life's just going in circles. This is what the home ministry did after the Mumbai blasts. Agreed you cannot check each and every bag pack in the city. Agreed the city is a host to a lot of outsiders. Agreed it is one of the fastest growing cosmopolitan (the 2nd tier cities). And we still sit anticipating attacks ? Aren't people inside the country itself doing enough to divide it ? Or may be we are getting really good at it, throwing away our vulnerable, weak spots and letting others exploit it. What now ? Army raj ?

This is so hopeless. Terrorism is becoming an organized crime. Or as Pritish Nandy said in his tweet a growing business ? Come on, I am not naive enough to think that there are no insiders involved in this. To attack my house, you need to know its exact weak spots and for that only an insider can help you. How about tracking down these links first ? How about making sure that such dastardly acts or even attempts are met with grave consequences. This has become all the more important now, because of the growing aloofness about such incidents amongst aam junta. We are the largest democracy in the world and not some nation ruled by chimps. Whoever did all this, our intelligence, politicians and system failed us. Lets not forget that either.

We have a long role to play in the coming days. Lets not make our tolerance our Achilles heel. Lets make our shield stronger and give these losers a Tit for Tat.

~nightflier

My name is Khan

My name is khan (from the epiglottis!). 

It is touching, brave, endearing, naive, and simple. On the other hand it also has typical KJo outlandish style of doing things, lots of rona dhona and a bit slack storytelling after intermission.

But it still is a good movie, because,

1. KJo has grown up. I remember after 26/11 he had said in his blog that we need to make peace with ourselves first. The movie portrays the same line of thought. It essentially remains a love story, but with a deeper message. And mind you, it never preaches anything. Never. Its just a point of view at looking at the world. And it remains so. But it touches you along the way.

2. I like Sharukh Khan. No, that's actually an understatement. I loooooooove SRK. He is one actor about whom I am going to tell my kids lots of stories (as my dad still tells me about AB and Rajesh Khanna), though I havent seen a lot of his movies (Guddu, Ram Jane, the ones in which he has done a cameo). But this dude here is awesome! There is this guy who plays Sheldon Cooper in BBT. And if you have seen him you know what it means to be portraying a not-so-normal person. Go Rizwan Khan. Oops ShahRukh Khan :)

3. I know KJo is often criticized for living in larger than life fantasy land and portraying his characters to be some king and queens of lala land. This time one doesnt get the usual colors, hues and feel good things. Not in plenty at least. But we do get a lot of style. May be his production values are really strong and he wants his movies to look really good. I dont mind that. I actually like that. The characters wearing nice clothes and donning trendy hairstyles. After all they live in the bay area ;)

4. KJo's talent really gets portrayed in the scenes shot in Mumbai, where Rizwan has grown up. Zarina Wahab is amazing. You actually feel like this is how you also grew up. Well, everyone of us for that matter. This is where Rizu's mom tells him about the divide between people very simply and the way it gets engraved on his mind and the way he carries it forward.

5. I really dont wish to talk a lot. But guess I have already contradicted myself. Anywho, the movie loses its grip after intermission. Rizu pulls off a Forrest Gump. Not bad at all. Not many Indians (here I mean hindi movie lovers) are acquainted with Forrest. But it feels odd not in a preachy way but in an ick-ish way. It in turn also introduces you to typical Amru characters like funny hair Joel and Mama Jenny. And that phase has the most touching scene of the movie, where a bereaved Rizwan talks about Sam. So in the entire lets be good and spread goodwill spirit, I think I will ignore that.

All in all, one should watch MNIK because Karan Johar has finally grown up, it portrays Indian Cinema in a bigger way (we are more than fall in love and running around trees kind of people way ;)), SRK has given like this god level performance and finally because the movie has a heart. A very sensitive one. It can feel all the pain and hatred. And it wants to do something for peace. For inner peace.

My name is not Khan. And I am a fan :)

~nightflier

A string ...

The evening starts as lazy as it can be. You have just finished the routine back-from-office-how-was-your-day talk with your roomie. Well! And then a friend calls up. You manage to have her attention for like an hour. You talk about her life, your life, and issues. And then when you hang up, its already dinner time. But then you are also wisdom-toothing. That means you have the boring oatmeal or mashed banans/potatoes to go back to. Then you think about the days in hostel when you would treat yourself to idli sambhar everyday, in such situations. You think about apparition. And then you think maybe Google should get into these kind of technologies. You sigh. You have been watching a lot of superhero movies. Maybe you need to get real and watch/read some chick-lit. Why ? Cos that's what girls normally watch. And then you ask yourself when did I become so superhero-crazy. You decide you like all this good vs evil stuff. You decide there are good people and there are bad people. And since good was to be an antonym to bad, you decide there has to be a fight. And since you have idolized goodness so much, you make it win. So, that matter sorted. 

Your brain again gets back to food issues. You heat up the morning stuff. It isnt that great, but then you are skimming through this awesome blog that a friend forwarded and you forget about petty issues. By the time you realize you are hooked to it its already 9 PM. Then you remember that your professor sent you a mail regarding a research project. It also gradually dawns on you that this 3 credit course is your way to graduation. You curse yourself for being irresponsible. And then you make a time-table of sorts to take care of the padhai issues. You plan to get up real early in the morning. But then you realize the textbook you want, to get started is down in the storage. Bleh! You smartly decide to get it rolling the next day. You call up a friend and make plans for group studies. See, you are not being that irresponsible after all! You tend to feel good about yourself. You have just started gloating when the huge competition you have in April starts looming in front of you. You are truckloads of responsibility now. The words 'be responsible', 'responsibility' start sounding like a secret weapon to you. A weapon devised by the universe to make you grow up. And you start feeling all insignificant. You have no control. And then just as you are getting yourself drowned into the well of hopelessness, dear roomie reminds you of 'how you were supposed to do your laundry today'. Aah, then you start thinking about the clothes you want to wear for the Chinese New year celebration lunch thingie. You decide its time you got your laundry done! Better wear clean clothes and go out, than stay at home.

You trudge with the laundry bag towards the basement. And you think humans indeed are vain creatures. They can write an entire post about a seemingly stupid string of thoughts. Then you see that cute lil kid in the elevator. And you start thinking. again.....

~nightflier