She's a LADY!!!!

This post is written with an intention of paying homage to the writers of the movie 'My Fair Lady' which is a classic and has been adapted into musicals and movies in other languages. Honestly, I do not know if the musical is the original composition making the movie a piece of adapted work...but either way the magic of this movie is unique and it is a thorough entertainer. 'My Fair Lady' spells eloquence in bold letters as the main lead 'Prof. Higgins' boasts of his ability to educate and train a 'flower girl' (A lady selling flowers at the local market; an uncouth person with little or no finesse) to pass off as a duchess at some kind of ball involving the Queen of Transylvania!

Prof. Higgins is an established linguist who can rightly guess the persons' hometown and his places of residence, based solely on his manner of speech that consists principally of his choice of words and phonetics. He comes across as an extremely confidant, arrogant, tyrant who walks over everyone regardless of their mental abilities and social standing. As aptly put by the writer, he treats even a duchess as a flower girl. Higgins has too much disdain for Eliza (the flower girl) that prevents him from perceiving her as a real person. His blatant condescension towards Eliza is so consistent throughout the movie that the unsuspecting viewer is kept guessing until the very end!

This feature presentation, records the period of 6 months, over which the Prof. works on Eliza's speech and phonetics. Ironically, the movie starts off with the Prof. proudly declaring his bachelor status with no intention of ever letting 'a woman in his life'; right after he insolently bribes 'Eliza' to live with him upon accepting the challenge of grooming her!

I enjoyed this journey down memory lane.. (I have watched this movie countless times as a child)! This Higgins character has stirred the literary bone in me which has ensnared a sense of wanting to be soo much more articulate.. his kind of eloquence is almost cheeky such that you unwillingly, even grudging start admiring him.....that usually starts with a hint of a chuckle, that blooms into impulsive laughter and ends by one being charmed by his wit and raspy dialogues!
After all, only once in a while, does one learn to admire the unpretentious, pompous braggart who reeks with too much complacency!

Best things in Life

Are always FREE!!!

Example: Love (most times...!), hope, dreams!

In a world full of things advertising the fact that there are no free lunches... thought we all could do with a reminder of this!

Cheers!

Oops!

I read a lot... and am a self proclaimed voracious reader! But I do not have the patience to learn new words... that is to pull a dictionary from the shelf and find its true meaning! Most times I can figure out the meaning in context and that stays in my brain as the true meaning. Sometimes, this assumed meanings arent the right ones and I end up making blunders.... or may be small time errors that makes me look real stupid! For example: Catch-22:
My assumption from context: A situation caused by problem enveloped in another problem with no solution to an apparently convoluted issue.
Real thing: A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions.

Ok this one was close enough!But the entire concept of abandoning the dictionary is sure to cause me problems. Did so too during my GRE prep! had a tough time mugging the words...infact thats when I realized what I had been doing... so ever since I have started this blog, I google phrases/words that I am unsure of!! But inspite of it, I do slip... you guys might have noticed...
I used the word 'homely' wrong... took me a whole day to realize... thankfully did so before someone pointed it out to me and added those damn brackets to maintain the rhyming scheme! Phew! That was close!

M M M M M M

On Monday, Mumbai witnessed a Mass Marriage ceremony of 30 Muslim couples from all over Maharashtra! How is that for a tongue twister??

This kind of ceremony puts things into perspective. On one hand you have this communal ceremony shared by many while in stark contrast you have the super extravagant ceremonies with obscene displays of wealth.

On the wedding day, the bride and groom profess their love before the world and take an oath to stand by each other till death does them apart! This is true for couples who are brought together by cupid and by some marriage broker alike, because it symbolizes the beginning of a new life for them. These celebrations are often marked with grandeur and splendor to a degree that can be afforded by the families involved. Often this celebration is a measure of their status and naturally people tend to overdo it.

The way I see it, a wedding is a one-day party for which people spend a decade of their savings that is captured in wedding photographs and videos to be seen for not more than couple times and that too only by the bride and groom and the people closet to them!

Growing up in Mumbai, I never once questioned this practice and subconsciously accepted the norm. However, over the years I have developed a sense of disbelief about the amount of money squandered for a single occasion. For those of us who aren't born with silver spoons, I find this entire concept ostentatious and completely unnecessary! Then again its only a question of priorities! I would take the same money and invest it or go on a luxury tour and make some fabulous new memories that would also yield far better pictures and videos!

PS: I have already geared up for the contrary comments bound to be targeted at this post! So bring it on!!

Saturday Night Scares!

It was Deepankar’s birthday yesterday and we intended to do something special and so the 4 of us ended up at Rice village for a quick stroll and dinner! For those of you who know D and didn’t wish him.... please do... he is one of the nicest people I have met and is one of those rare loyal friends.

After dinner, we decided to sit by the pool side until one of us had gathered enough spirit to run to the grocery store and buy some ice-cream to substitute the birthday cake! We were just about to leave when a white male approached us. He was lanky, about 5.8 feet tall, wore a red jersey and a baseball hat that partially hid his face. He walked up to us from the other side of the low fence and whispered something. At first I thought he was the manager and was asking us to keep it down or leave. But there was something weird about the way he kept looking over his shoulder while muttering the unknown. He looked undecided and under the influence (drugs/alcohol). Something about him did not seem right.... but neither did he seem to be dangerous instead looked rather lost. He mumbled something incoherently; his eyes scanning everything around him. He looked scared and his fear infected me. I peered at his face automatically trying to read his lips....but he was speaking rapidly and in very low tones. He muttered “I live here in # 101”. He turned his head and continued to look behind him which blocked the next few words. He finished scanning behind him and turned his head around chattering nonstop“ need -----, don’t think you can help me. My wife---” These words seemed to trigger something in my mind. I watched him closer trying to understand if he was hurt or just lost. But then he turned again and I lost the thread of the conversation. He continued mumbling with increasing unease... now something in my head didn’t like all this.

Without meaning to, I looked down and my gaze landed on his hand. I saw a silver triangle that glinted under the lamp. It took me a second to realize that it was a blade that he was shielding under his palm and forearm. (The exact same way Bond hides the butter knife in Casino Royale!)The blade was long and he was clutching it hard as he continued to mumble and scan our surroundings. At the sight of the blade, my brain reacted fast... without even realizing I turned and took 2 steps away from him. Then I turned to face him again and whispered to my friends in hindi to step away from him as he had something in his hand. I did not want to spook him by using the word ‘knife’. I don’t think the other 3 even understood me instantly... however they responded to the urgency in my voice and to the fact that I was moving away from that guy. Thankfully they followed my pursuit and we brisk walked to the apartment eying him all the time. I didn’t dare run... I was sure that the guy could out run me if tried to.

This was the first time I experienced the true meaning of the word’ fear’! However short lived it was. All this happened in less than 30 seconds but all the time I had a strange intuition... that hinted at something not dangerous... just something weird. My instincts have seldom let me down and hence I have learnt to trust them. So this time, when they told me that something about that man was weird but not dangerous, I subconsciously tried to help... tried to understand what he was mumbling. I assumed he was strung out and was looking for his apartment.... but something about his posture, his state of mind bothered me. Looking back I realize now, that he was too alert for someone I thought to be drunk and this put me on my guard! I didn’t like the fact that he was literally faking the confusion....and my eyes searched for some physical evidence to back my nagging instincts.

The minute I spotted that knife, my feet acted of their own accord... I did not consciously turn away and step back or just tried to flee. My conscious acts were what followed later...turning around and asking the other 3 to move away. I do not know if that momentary impulse of fleeing is what they call survival instinct... but I sure did feel adrenaline coursing through my veins. As good citizens (well secondary ones) we dialed 911 and reported it. Turns out he was an outsider who was either too high on his medication or had skipped them. There was a guard on duty who informed us about the man being determed ‘harmless’ by the cops who had responded to our call. This guard that I speak of (well write about and am sure will speak about to a lot of you who are reading this and will call/email) was an old man who seemed to be unarmed. When we questioned him if he felt okay patrolling the property at late nights without a weapon... he launched into a rather disturbing dialogue about how a simple fountain pen can be a weapon if one had ‘the will’ to use it! He continued detailing how he planned to defend himself with an innocuous fountain pen. Frankly this made the aged man seem scarier than that man with the blade. The old guard did not seem to be intimidated or bothered about harming strangers and that was unnerving! But on second thoughts... if that oldie was like a normal old guy he wouldn’t have been able to patrol the area effectively! So after that incredibly eventful evening.... we called it a night!

Lesson Learnt: No more late night hang outs at the pool! DAMN!

W is for....Wierd you say... I say Wishful

My mother has a clear, neat handwriting. It's small, not exactly artistic but its in print and appears as though an outcome of typewriting more than handwriting. Anyway... I was inspired to write like that.. neat so that my work too looked beautiful.. ofcourse having a rather large artistic bone in me... I wanted mine to look prettier! Anyhooo.... I starting working on my handwriting... to perfect it.. I wrote ABC...LM..XYZ everyday.. over and over again, until the letter looked the way I wanted them too.. I was satisfied finally.
Then came a time when I wanted to learn cursive writing... I could only write in print before. So I went to the bookstore and got a children's book that taught them to write ABC... in cursive.. I practiced again and again.. until I had flawless cursive writing too! This was more artistic.. but I still prefer print!
And now... for some weird reason... I have decided that I want to learn to write with my left hand as well.. I love the way left handed ppl write.. they look so suave! Do not ask me why... but I just want to learn to... so have started practicing.. after only 5mins of using my left hand.. I am experiencing cramps... my arm is throbbing! Phew.. guess the right side of mt brain is either asleep or lazy! Either way...I am not giving up...(in the spirit of previous post) just going to take it slow...! :)

"Don't Quit"

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;
often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup;
and he learned too late when the night came down,
how close he was to the golden crown.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

anon

This was my fav. poem! It was a on a poster on my cupboard! I know it by-heart!