People can be wierd

Before you tell me that weird is not spelt that way (and I hope you noticed that!), I'd like you to know that giving the post a title with a spelling mistake was a hard decision.

See, the thing is, I try not to be too particular about spellings, specially online. I tend to make a few random 'typos' here and there as well, mostly because I hardly look at the keyboard when I type. So, that can be excused. Plus, I can't expect everybody to know all their spellings and not make mistakes. And yet, it is so hard for me to not correct them when they do!

Like this guy I was talking to kept saying 'wierd' all the time, and every time he wrote it I had to stop myself from telling him he was wrong, out of courtesy. Till finally I gave up, and so as not to totally offend him, I said, "Yah, true, that is weird." I thought he'd get the message. But, no! There it was in the next line: 'wierd'. Ugh! And we were on Facebook chat, so if not me, at least that irritating red underline should have had some effect on him!!

Then there was that time in class, two girls sitting near me were talking and comparing some notes. English lecture, it was. One of them asked the other what the difference between 'advice' and 'advise' was. She coolly and confidently replied that 'advice' is correct, 'advise' is just the American spelling. Really, where do people learn such stuff!? Or do they come up with it on their own! I guess if I want to stay the non-rude person that I am, I'll never really know. Obviously, the other girl totally bought the explanation.

And lastly there's that girl who writes 'Chao', but I really hope she's just joking (or Spanish, but that I know she's not!).

(This post is for my sister who is capable of literally killing people for writing 'wierd')

Dhobi Ghat - Mumbai Diaries

I don't watch many movies; I mean, I do, but not in the theaters! The last Bollywood movie I saw at the theaters was 3 Idiots and I was totally shocked today when I realized that was in 2009!! So today, after a long time I went and saw Dhobi Ghat - Mumbai Diaries.

The funny thing is I went without a clue about the movie. I hadn't even heard of it till my friend asked me if I wanted to go, a week ago. We're not exactly die-hard Bollywood fans anymore, my family, I mean. But if someone had warned me about the artsy-ness of the movie, I wouldn't have paid to watch it! But I'm glad I did. It was not the typical Bollywood movie, which was great! Of course, it wasn't exactly 'brilliant', but it wasn't all that bad, either!

I am not a big fan of movies with no particular plot as such, and I can't appreciate a movie just because the filming and effects are good; but the characters of this movie somehow made it interesting! There was sort of a mysterious air to the movie, never letting the audience know more than was absolutely necessary. There was just the right amount of drama - the right amount of romance - the right amount of humour and the right amount of boring! I have to admit though, those video tapes got a tad bit irritating after a while. For me, it was the little things that made the movie special. My personal highlights were the painting(duh! it was awesome), Munna's cat(aw) and every time he got really shy I just had to laugh!

The characters were good and the actors as well. Not only did Prateik totally steal the show, but I also thought Aamir did a great job of letting Prateik steal the show! It could have easily been a movie revolving around the superstar, like most Bollywood movies are.

I'm not going to claim I "understood" all of the messages that the movie offered, but it sure kept me involved the whole time(inspite of my friend periodically commenting that she was bored, and not to mention, the crazy comments!!). That's more than I can say about most Hindi movies. Like, I just read that apparently the old lady that just stares blankly at people, silently watching, is a symbol for Mumbai! Thinking back, that kind of makes sense! Gave us a whole load of laughs, though, that woman!!

Identity Crisis?

My Zodiac sign used to be Virgo till suddenly, one day, it is decided that I should be a Leo. And then, to add to my intense fury, Wikipedia says that the existence of the 13th Sign has been argued over since at least the 1970s! So we all read the wrong zodiac predictions all our lives because some astrologers thought they were right, only to realize so late that they were not?!! What a disaster! I'm freaking out like 20 other friends of mine who updated their Facebook statuses to show their immense indignation at this very important turn of events.

How am I supposed to get up one day and start acting like a Leo when I am such a Virgo at heart? Even though (technically) I have been acting like a Leo all along, and not a Virgo, since that is what I have always been! Does this confuse you as much as it is confusing me?

And now my mom smirks at me and tells me that according to the Indian Zodiac, which I am actually supposed to be 'following', I'm a Vrishchika, which is Scorpio!

What a big identity crisis, isn't it?

A Supposedly Fun Thing

I recently read the book "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". It is written by David Foster Wallace. The only other book of essays I've read was by Bertrand Russel and I read it five years ago. So, you can see, I'm not too keen on reading essays. But this was something else. One of the best books I've read!

The essay that I loved the most, was the title essay that was published in Harper's Magazine in 1996, which is otherwise titled as "Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise". The author is on a ship named the Nadir and is extremely bored of the "Absolutely nothing" that he is doing there, that he is supposed to enjoy! It's a long essay, but it's remarkably funny. I was hooked from the start till the end!

Every thing about the word 'luxury' makes me cringe - which is one reason why this was the perfect book for me. Another is that I'm not fascinated much by the ocean; I love nature, but there is only a finite number of minutes for which I can look at endless blue water and not get bored. And I'm not into fish! I've never been on a cruise, and I really don't think I ever want to be; specially not now after reading this book!

I read about the essay somewhere, before I got my hands on the book(or my mouse...or cursor?) and there was this quote: my single biggest peeve about the Nadir: they don't even have Mr. Pibb; they foist Dr. Pepper on you with a maddeningly unapologetic shrug when any fool knows that Dr. Pepper is no substitute for Mr. Pibb, and it's an absolute god-damned travesty, or, at best, extremely dissatisfying indeed. The total randomness of this is what made me want to read the essay! And I wasn't dissatisfied at all!

For me on a list of five Supposedly Fun Things that I'll Never Do, on the fifth position will be 'going to a fancy restaurant, where you have to eat teenie portions with knives and forks'; and the remaining four positions on the list can be filled by one thing: shopping! What about you?!

"A doodle. I do doodle. You, too. You do doodle, too."

I love to doodle. Every second of every minute of every day!

I love painting as well. But I guess it's just too much effort for someone like me, specially when I could get just as much satisfaction from a pen and a piece of paper! And I can also avoid a scolding from my mom for accidentally painting the floor(oops!)

I've heard that doodling is one of the best ways to get your creativity flowing. I couldn't agree more. Doodling helps me relax. I've gotten over the worst of "writers' blocks" by doodling! One of my teachers had told me that doodling is like a warm up exercise before you draw anything. He always made us draw random patterns before moving on to the actual drawing; whenever we did that, our strokes ended up looking more gentle and natural!

Doodling has also kept me from falling asleep in lectures - all my school and college books are filled with doodles along the margins and on the last few pages! In fact, according to psychologist Jackie Andrade, doodling stops you from daydreaming, without affecting your performance on the main task. But that should be your last resort to improve concentration, mind you!

The best thing about it is there is no such thing as a "bad" doodle. Or a "wrong" one either. You don't have to be artsy do be able to doodle! No one is going to tell you that the lines aren't straight or the perspective isn't right. To each his own.

As I'd mentioned before, in this post, I would love to be a professional doodler. Yep, that's an actual occupation (Google this guy; Jon Burgerman). To doodle and get paid for it; who wouldn't love that!?

(The title is a dialogue by Alyson Hannigan's character in Buffy; a shy girl who rambles on nonsensical stuff when she's caught unawares; kind of like me!!)

Dying.

He felt himself slipping away; falling down into the depths of her consciousness. Fading away, like a flickering flame on a cold windy night.

He tried to hold on… to that fabric of her soul that had tied them together.

But the shadows stole away the light as he dropped into the endless. And he lay there forgotten, less than a memory; ripped, broken, at the bottom of her mind. He was buried alive in her thoughts.

_________________________________________________________

This is my first time writing the take-your-own-interpretation kind of thing. I got the idea while I was reading a friend’s blog, and there was a comment on it – “Hope this blog isn’t dying” or something like that! You don’t have to think of “him” as a blog; it can be well,...anything you want! That is the point right? Plus I’d heard of the 55-66-77 fiction, so I chose the easiest and went with a 77 word limit!

So, now that I know that I can write such mushy, makes-no-real-sense but is supposedly meaningful stuff to a certain level, I guess I’m officially qualified to say that I absolutely loathe it. :D

What is happening to the world!!

The other day I was talking to a girl in my class, and she told me she is a total bookworm. She told me she would read anything and everything except "philosophical stuff"(I decided to give her a chance, and ignored that part!). I had a "muffled a scream and threw up in my mouth" kind of reaction when she said her favourite author was Chetan Bhagat. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating; I probably only winced.

What the hell is happening to the world? Are writers like Chetan Bhagat, Karan Bajaj, Advaita Kala really people's favourites? Is all sorts of good literature clubbed under "philosophical stuff"?! It's not like I have a problem with all Indian writers though, just the ones that write that genre of 'time-pass' books everyone seems to love these days. And just so you know, people don't love such books because they are good; it's because people are too lazy/dumb to read/understand the "philosophical stuff"!

She proceeded to tell me that "Books that are written in simple language are better, because then you can focus on the message." Annoyed at what she thought was an excellent explanation; I asked her if she believed 'Johnny Gone Down' has more meaning than say, 'The White Tiger'? That kept her flustered for a while. Wearing good clothes doesn't make an ugly person beautiful; a nice message doesn't make bad language good. Writers need to be able to write well. Period.

I've taught my brain, by now, to ignore SMSese any time I see it and not take the effort to explain to people that typing "mah" instead of "my" does the opposite of saving time. I also cringe less now when someone says things like "How you did that?" or "I had went there." It's worse that people actually believe it is okay to suck at grammar. Now, all I want is for the dumb, 'grammar and language are not important'-people to stay away from the literary world. Is that too much to ask?

Incidentally, have you seen the movie Idiocracy? It's hilarious!

(By the way, I got featured as a 'Notable Newbie' at blogadda.com - I guess that will make me keep blogging more regularly! Yay!)