Getting my foot In-dore

This post is an honest and exact representation of a dialog I had with my aunt.
Aunt: Shirley Auntie called today. She asked about you.
Me: Really? That's nice of her.
Aunt: She asks of you often.
(Silence for a while)
I think it's nothing. I've known Shirley auntie since I was a little kid.
Aunt: Shirley Auntie told you not to run after any girls. Her elder sister has a daughter who's studying nursing in Indore. She says that the girl is quite pretty.
Me: gasp. What?
Auntie: You heard me. Shirley Auntie's asked for your email address

Who is this girl? She could be a yahoo-using non-entity for all I care. But who cares about my opinion?
Hmph. But there's something so very convenient about arranged marriages. And if it doesn't work out... you could always blame your parents.

Baz Luhrmann's- You're Free (to wear sunscreen)

I lurrve this song. Totally.

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Movie criticisms w/o plots

There are certain movies that just push the boundaries of your definitions. Before Friday if someone had asked me whether I have a "best movie I hate"? I'd have just given the person my best frosty-nosed look. On Friday, I watched "Requiem for a Dream". I watched the movie alone, at around 2 am with ear phones. And it scared the shit out of me. Seriously. I had to call a friend (inspite it being 4:30 in the morning) after watching the movie to calm my nerves. It wasn't essentially horror ( I actually find "horror" flicks cheesy) but it was scary nonetheless. It was fantastically done, with fine acting and an excellent plot/storyline. The movie was quite normal in most ways... the usual sex, the usual violence.
I just had to examine why this movie elicited such a response and found that this movie lacked hope. Most Hollywood movies, even tragedies, give some sort of hope in the end - at least to somehow convey that nothing worse will happen. But not this one. It was just one downspiral.

On Sunday, a couple of friends and I went to watch Don. Trust Bollywood to keep you entertained, I mean really entertained. It is actually a remake of an old movie. As far as remakes go, I'm not too keen on them. But since the former one was done by the inimitable Amitabh Bachchan, and the new one by Shahrukh Khan, I mean the Shahrukh Khan (lovingly called SRK), I had to watch the movie.
The movie wasn't an exact phot0copy though, it really was refreshingly different. I loved it for its own merits. SRK is old though. His face all plastered up. But his energy is just breathtaking.

I went with a couple of friends of my cousin. There was a lady in front of him, and he couldn't really see the screen properly. So we acted like pricks, made loud noises, rang each other on the cell phones till she got up and left. Pack mentatility. But it was so snappy to act like a teenager. I'd so hate teenagers when I grow up, oh wait, haven't I?

I re-meme-ber

Yes, yes I know. Dear Pan tagged me for a meme. The problem is that I don't use iTunes (I don't normally jump onto the Brandwagon you see) or any other software that actually counts the number of times I play a song. Sad, I know.
So I just needed to take a week or two to check for myself the songs that I really repeat and play, and what I could glean from my now defunct last.fm account and from my Creative Zen.
Furthermore, I feel I must say something about my music history. Back home when I lived with my parents, I didn't have an internet connection to talk of. And neither did I have decent music. My mother, you see, thought that English music was from the spawn of the devil and didn't allow any in the house. I found a way to keep in touch with the world through a couple of good hearted friends who were nice enough to lend me their CDs. Now CDs were contraband in our school and that was the only place we could actually meet and exchange stuff. But we did them anyway. We hid CDs on top of AC's and behind Display Board Charts, somehow got it home. At home they would always be kept within the text book covers. Ha, we were devious little devils as you can imagine.
So now on with the meme.

10. Sting-Stolen car
For some reason, I just love this song. Catchy.
9. Rabbi Shergill- Bulla Ki Jaana, Jugni and other random songs.
He's a Punjabi singer. Okay I don't know Punjabi, and no that doesn't make me any less Indian. His lyrics are Sufi (the translations are readily available online anyway) and his style is like Bruce Springsteen's. Could you really ask for more?
8. A.R Rahman- Random songs including (especially) Tamil ones.
Now, I don't quite know Tamil either, but it's the music that totally gets you. Music director/singer/ lyricist par excellence...
7. Alain Souchon- C'est déjà ça
French. Need I say more?
6. Andrea Bocelli- The entire Amore album especially, Pero te Extrano, Mi Manchi and Somos Novios. Again I don't know Italian. Whatever.
5. Burt Bacharach- Depending on my romantic situation either "What the world needs now is love" or "I will never fall in love again"
4. Neil Young- Heart of Gold
Classic.
3. The Shirelles- Will you still love me tomorrow?
"Tonight you're mine, completely...
but will you love me tomorrow"
Everytime I listen to this song I hope it will be yes... but I get the feeling that it won't be.
2. Beatles- Many many songs.
1.75 Sigur Rós- Ágætis Byrjun
Out of this world.
1.5 Amr Diab- Habibe and Tamally ma'ak
Arabic Pop. Lovely
1.25 Yanni- All. Especially Marching Season
1. Pehla Nasha: Catchy bollywood romantic number...

Pehla nasha, pehla khumaar
(First intoxication, first spirit)
Naya pyaar hai, naya intezaar
(This is a new love, a new longing)
Kar loon main kya apna haal
(What should I do with my state)
Ae dil-e-beqaraar
(Oh restless heart)
Mere dil-e-beqaraar, tu hi bata
(My restless heart, show me)

see?

Now that I have somehow finished the list, I can think of gazillions other songs I seem to listen to all the time. Sigh. Some other time, some other meme perhaps.

Edit: I just noticed the stark absence of any songs from my "mother-tongue".

Those garage bands actually have a point

Ever since Google bought the old garage where it made its humble beginning, I have been thinking about garages.
American garages are strange places. The first time I came here I was so surprised to find that people actually parked their cars out in the open, and kept all their junk in the garage. Pah, Americans, I would sigh. Yet, garages seem to be the breeding ground for all things ingenious. Bill Gates built his empire from one. And I can certainly think of many bands that began in teenagers' garages. And now Google.
So let us all stop school and shack up in our garages. Finish that novel that's been tinkering around in our head for a while, perfect the programme that could change the world, improve those guitar riffs, anything. Anything that would eventually make billions. I can think of a couple of things to do with billions, can't you?

It's testy-terone baby.

I watched "The Departed" today. No, don't close the window, no spoilers I promise.
As I was leaving the theatre, I heard this woman explaining to her friend on the phone- "It had a lot of violence, it was like the Godfather" I think that is apt enough. I've always loved the idea of twin foils: one reason I lurved "Tale of Two Cities". It was very interesting to watch the psychological aspect of not having an identity of one's own and living in a delusional world that could be very hostile to their very existence.
Bah. Whom am I kidding? We watch movies to see blood... lots of it spilling and splattering and splashing all over the screen- randomly. And for the sex, with "Comfortably numb" playing in the background... how can I not like this movie?
Matt Damon is utterly cute as the bad guy. But he's easily surpassed by Jack Nicholson. I don't think he's played the villian since Batman. Nicholson is just sexay.
I can't understand why "nice guys" complain that the girls are always attracted to the "off-color guys". Well of course they are, what do you expect? Who wants a weepy stable guy? Gimme an unpredictable, capricious "bad boy" any day. Only creeps and nerds would be attracted to despicably-hair-styled Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code; Albino Paul Bettany on the other hand... slurp. I could give you thousands of examples... but I will restrain myself.

I'm a fan of Scorsese's works. Entertaining as well as arty. His final frame is worth dying for.

I don't like sugary things anyway.

UNICEF Meeting Two:
I assume my place next to the Sugar Lady I met last week. Duh.
She's obviously okay with it too. At this time I was re-reading "The Great Indian Bores".
"You're always reading. What is this one about?" she asks
"Um, this is written by this Indian editor par excellence. It is about the political situation in India and all. Yep, it's Indian."
"Is it written in Indian?"
"Huh? there is no language called Indian..." then a long lecture about the variety of languages in India.
Then we move out.
I question about her internet habits.
She has never heard of Wikipedia. No, there was no mistake in the previous sentence. She-has-never-heard-of-the-Wiki-pedia. And when I actually tell her about it, she says that it is so random and chaotic, how can it give trustworthy information?
She didn't know the meaning of 'blog'. And she has no email apart from the one furnished to her by the Uni.
Eeps.
Is it because light travels faster than sound that some people look attractive until they speak?