New News!

News Channels in India never fail to amuse me these days. Ever since they turned 24X7 they have become more creative and make sure they provide the curious viewer enough gossip, trivia and entertainment and did we want news??? When bored of monotonous K soaps,I turn to news channels to catch up on Bollywood, Bihar or to take a crash course on dramatizing any calamity. Did I say I planned on making Karan Johar type movies some day??

When I tuned in today a woman who had incidentally just landed from the Amsterdam plane, was possibly cursing her luck for being intercepted by a journalist who asked questions almost like a psychoanalysis round:

Journalist: So when the plane turned back did any of the passengers have any clue what was happening
Lady (totally excited) : No No, we were all asked to look in the front ( now does that mean anything?)
Journalist: So what exactly happened on the plane
Lady (Recollecting): There were bunch of people, they had a lot of cell phones which they exchanged across the journey.
Journalist (Running out of questions): So did any of the passengers have any clue what was happening??
Lady: No we were just all very quiet. ( wow different question different answer)
And the saga went on and this question almost popped up as a filler.
Journalist: Blah blah
Lady: I wanna leave and get home for Christs sakes! I was already delayed by a day!

Irked by the plane saga,I changed channels and found the TV displaying a video preview of the scene at the Indian Parliament. Portion of this video (what seemed almost like a snippet from a possibly porn movie) was pixilated. It turned out that some dude called Sadhu Yadav was kicking Prabhunath Singh and another MP jumped over the table to actually separate these two morons clad in a Dhoti looking like they were fighting in a "mushtandon ka akhaada" News reporters then were shown interviewing Mr Laloo was his expert opinion on the issue cos probably he is the most well behaved of the lot we have. They reach out to kids asking them if what happened was ethical..Poor kids posed with a choice between political entertainment and a politically right answer looked torn answering the same.

Anyways I am sure if I cared long enough I would have figured why SRK loves hugging Priety or If Ayesha Takia really got a return gift for tying a Rakhi to Nagesh Kukunoor. In the world where breaking news at 8.00 p.m can have a kid in a village in Bihar being pleaded by reporters to get out from under a khaatiya (which could be lifted mind you). All this to cover a tyrant mother story !! Where news can have titles like "Thand Main Thiturti Uma Bharti" who narrates the story of a plane headed to Delhi which midway changes it course to land in Pakistan. Then compares it to the way BJP functions, subtly at that..( man she should have a show of her own),I am sure the viewer shall be entertained and more emotions shall be cast, more disasters dramatized, trivialised by over exposure. Whoever said NEWS meant information and highlights of earth shattering events...After my 10 mins of viewership, I AM a more informed and aware individual ..so why complain!

The Kite-Runner

Have been reading over the years..decided to just also put in afterthoughts of reading a book on this space...My weekend read was:

"The Kite Runner" - Khaled Hosseini

Just finished this book which was rather touching and well written ..left a marked impression on my day..
Set across two continents - the story is about two brothers, two friends , of love, betrayal and depicts in the words of the author - Afganistan across 3 decades. The book sort of redefined courage yet again and made me question integrity. How often do we as humans have the courage to face the truth, stand up for our beliefs and fight for fairness in the framework of our morals. Often it is easy to be honest and do things which are outside of our moral framework...and somehow feel good about the fact that atleast one was honest. Anyways on one end one has liberation and on the other end a restraining urge steered by what we call morals , beliefs and faith.

The book had a very touching storyline and was nicely narrated. The relationship between Amir and Hassan was beautifully described ..However what probably diluted the effect was the ending which stretched a little and ended up being rather "filmy". A good read,for it made my Sunday pass rather pensively - keeping in line with my blog identity:)

Some more recommendations are:

• Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
  
• Maximum City - Suketu Mehta
• Ladies Coupe - Anita Nair

The home coming!

Having survived several trips far east, I decided its time I actually sit down and take stock of my life..Take stock of where I am and how do I define it..In all this travel I have lost the sense of "home", "belonging" and its strange when every place suddenly seems like home or not home! I wonder if it is the food , or the place or the people that one usually relates to?

Each trip has sorta brought about bigger realizations of how most boundaries cultures are so human made and time based. You start to do something and in some time it becomes habit and in much larger time with more people joining the clan it becomes culture! I had never fathomed enjoying or relishing Chinese food and craving for Chinese dessert! I don't know if this is what people call being converted, but today I wouldn't mind indulging in the above. Its amazing to see how not so far away from home land there is a place which seems like this factory churning out almost everything that is a commodity far west..Intricate hands hired for their innate abilities of finery...soldering packaging and turning circuit boards to fine mouth pieces! Or be it in buildings stocked with yarns and yarns of thread..they are all there providing employment to many and artifacts for use to the rest of the world. I have lived in places far out from humanity and in settlements so full of life and people..Going past such variation in rapid speed can cause some amount of dis orientation and one can actually feel mis placed. But then suddenly when the last and final boarding call is announced and the plane takes off....it feels like the journey is taking me back..Back home? I dont know! Back to my balance amdist the chaos!

Anyways now I am back and seems like I would be for a while...before I go trotting, changing and lost in quest of home again!

8 things

Seems like the whole tagging thing never gives up. At least it pulls me out of my complacent little zone in the virtual world and gets me to visit my blog space. So after my friend "primalsoup" tagged me, here are the rules of the game.

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. You have to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game and leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.


Perfect lover?? Sounds like an oxymoron to begin with. But hey no one said the person has to be realistic and possible. So my perfect lover a MALE should be

1. Cool about my obsession with SRK and many such men!
2. Let me watch my K soaps for an hour a day and should be ok abt my fone conversations with all my girlfriends. Like any other woman, I also need that gossip to survive a long hard day.
3. Should have hopefully been in a relationship before to be able to understand the intricacies and complications that come along. And hence would hopefully not be sentimental and touchy about the regular up's and downs of a relationship. I really cannot handle all those sensitivities easily:)
4. Should be ready to get wet in the rain, just leave and go to Africa if bored, or enjoy the small joys of eating chaat in a crowded street.
5. Should love music, plays, books ( in that order).
6. Should have a patient ear to be able to sustain my endless chatter
7. Should have a mind/life of his own and also let me have mine.We should not be this superly "our" and "we" sorta couple.
8. Should not be super obsessive and also let me have my moments of attraction with other men:-d (did some one every say humans were monogamous?;-)

Now I supopse life is about tagging the next few people. So i tag
Rt
Smiloo
Somu
Div's
Divya
Greesh
Avi

Man i give up..dunno too many people in this space!:)