The Monthly Recap

March bought with it -
1) Papa's Birthday
2) The adorable Sumo's Birthday
3) Darling Meen's first wedding Anniversary
4) The pretty Aditi's Wedding
5) Ana had a lovely, gorgeous little baby girl
6) Tough decisions for me and some revaluation of life's priorities
7) Tougher times for K with all my tantrums
8) My first ever ankle injury (hopefully the last too)
9) Good friends laid off at work
10) The SUN!! It’s officially spring! :)

And Yeah,its been 4 years since I started my stint at SAP Labs. So far, the most fun and coolest of companies I’ve ever known.

A mixed month , from the present-continuous point of view. But I guess when I look back 10 years from now , I’ll only remember Ana's joy at being a first time mommy, Papa’s delight at receiving our PAPER greeting cards (A desperate attempt at personalizing his birthday in our absence) and Aditi's excitement over her long awaited wedding.

Not bad.

Stupidity is..

..to cram your sweatshirt and jacket hurriedly into the gym bag-but forget to take out the car keys, run like a maniac some 50 meters towards your car trying to beat the cold , reach the car and realise the keys are 'somewhere' in the bag which also holds half your household furniture, blindly rummage through the bag in the dark parking lot while your ungloved fingers enjoy sensations from biting pain to numbness in the sub-zero temperature , decide between going back indoors to search or finish the search outside( we are half done anyways,arent we?), start running towards the gym and midway find the keys in the outermost pocket where you'd kept them for 'easy accessibility'.
:-/

The tale of an educated Fundamentalist.

Watching the likes of Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia , Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi conduct themselves with a certain amount of dignity and hold their own amid many of the old timers is always a treat to sore eyes.

Politics, in India is bound to hold a certain amount of grime - atleast for the next few decades. But seeing young ,educated politicians in the arena holds a 'promise of promise' that things might just be getting better - a wee bit better. Maybe they might not stoop so low as to ignite crowds into demolishing holy places of worship for those winning votes, May be they might not have to keep eating their words or passing the buck depending on post/pre-election scenario , May be they might know better and rather work at disaster management than getting their snaps clicked at ground zeros and continue blaming Pakistan - Just Maybe.

Just when you think the young blood will pave way for a non-disgusting political scenario in India , this has to come along :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/19/india-politics-gandhi-racism

Watch the video too if you can and see the intensity in this young man's speech and body language. Its just sad and plain disgusting :( and hopeless :( And he is just 29 :(

Did you really have to go all the way to LSB to learn to think and talk like this, young man? Modi wouldve been glad to take you under his wings years ago..Tch Tch what a waste of time.Advaniji, Pls to plan your retirement already, you have a heir apparent - Apparently!

A Black and White Weekend

2 weeks ago, K and I went on a skiing weekend trip to this small quaint town north-east of Seattle known for its Nordic and Alpine ski-slopes. I am not sure why , but this town claims to be a 'little German town' with every other store/hotel/resto bearing pseudo German names. But anyways, the town WAS Cute ..sometimes in the suffocating desperately-trying-to-be-cute manner too. ( like the good ol' Carrie pseudo-cutesy Bradshaw) What amazed me was the total lack of colour on our way to the town. I have seen a white washed scenery, white with lovely blobs of colour scenery , but never a totally surreal black and white scenery. Here are some snaps (I am using a substitute low quality canon these days, till the Sony is back with its broken display rectified. So pls dont laugh at the picture quality :))

And what does one do when she gets all tired and cold?



..grab a counter by the window overlooking the mountains and savour a refreshing cup of cappuccino :)



And I managed to take a couple of videos from the moving car - sometimes reaching up to the sun roof and holding the camera against the freezing cold wind. The quality is even more rotten with youtube :( Pls to ignore the birdie crap on the glass panes and the overall blurr :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwAjsqGiYj0

In other news..

I am now a escatic wannabe types!! Ever since I have enrolled into a white water Rafting and Kayaking instructor/guide course, I dream of being this brave tiny little instructore guiding rafts through sharp icy waters and ravines and falls-someday I will.

Apparently we are being trained in setting up and guiding rafts and kayaks,roping techniques, commands, navigation, flipping the upturned rafts and getting them back into position, saving fellow passengers if needed etc etc. But all I seem to do is dangle around the raft like a drunk frog-scrambling to get my ground (in water?!), leaping from point x to point y in the most dignified(NOT) manner, grunting away to glory while reaching out for ropes far beyond the reach of my tiny pudgy hands and setting a perfect example of 'what not to do'.

Forget saving others lives, I can't manage to save my own skin!While learning to flip the raft with ropes at perfect angles( I never knew trignometry could spoil such a fun sport), I ended up with the raft falling bang right on top of my head pushing me into the water while the life-vest simultaneously bobbed me upwards. O.U.C.H!! The raft was air blown and huge. I never knew something with just air in it could bring such an immense impact. I guess this is the closest Ive been to a bomb blast - bleddy my head almost burst with the intense pain and the impact.Our trainer told me this has never happened in the last 3 years since he started training- bahhhh!!

Inspite of training in the protected environment of a warm pool, I seem to invent new methods of making the safest of conditions potentially unsafe.When we start off the icy cold waters in a couple of weeks time, I am sure I will be setting 'misaals' of a different kind :P

Paddling away as an one time passenger on a raft is no doubt fun. But being a guide and taking up the responsibilty of the entire raft and the passengers is a different ball game altogether. Added to this the adrenalin flow of guiding a raft through a ravine or a fall-Ah! I just cannot wait for that day :)

Very soon, I want to able to do this...



and this..



(Pics courtesy-BEWET)

Of cats and dogs..

Yes,the hype has long since died down and this is a fossilized topic of discussion. But I am still trying to figure out what was it that got Slumdog Millionaire the most coveted filmi awards in the planet.

I quite liked the movie when I'd watched it in January, but did not see anything exceptional worth remembering (Excepting the little boy Jamal) .I saw it again today-tried to see it 'in new light'. SIGH!! I did like the movie -but why don't I get the content 'what an awesome movie' feeling? And I am seething with indignation (not that it matters to anyone who really loved the movie , but still )

Agreed my lovely country has its fair share of poverty - but the slums,the underworld and the call centres arent the ONLY aspects that define India. And I am quite worried about the message this movie gives out (apart from the hope,underdog blah) to the world.I have experienced subtle racist incidents ,have heard derogatory remarks about India ( based on what some ignorant foreigner has derived from some news article/movies and the likes) and it breaks my heart that a movie which shows ONLY the underbelly of India/mumbai will make it to most homes across the world.I burn with rage when the dentist 'knows' that a simple ultrasonic dental cleaning tool is not available in poor,under-developed dirty India. Or when I read some righteous , pompous idiot telling us to ensure ' children don't drink out of gutters, eat at trash heaps, and suffer unimanagable abuse' .

And you know what makes it even worse? The knowledge that not a single scene in the movie is over-done or untrue or tries to wrongly depict the grimy side to the most glamorous Indian city. It is heart wrenching that we have children abused and underfed( and I am terribly ashamed that I have not done anything to help change this), but that is not the whole story. We also have one of the strongest primary education system in Asia, high intellectual capital ,a fast growing economy and a middle class population with all comforts a human being desires.

I really wish a more balanced movie would have made it to the oscars. I might seem shallow, but it does make me cringe when I know that some arbit ignorant foreigner (not all) thinks an Indian in America is a beggar seeking refuge - because you see, we saw it in the movie- your country is SO poor and So dirty.SIGH!!

Why is it that this movie had to make it so high up there? Especially when the story line is not too exceptional, the cinematography is decent but not awe-inspiring,the music is good -but knowing Rehman, how gifted he is and this is definitely not his best work-So why oh why?!! Have I missed out something which the whole world has easily spotted? Or is the hyper-if-the-elitist-love-it-then-so-do-I kind of chain reaction?

Dev Patel was the perfect fit for the role of Jamal, Frieda Pinto easily overshadowed by other actors , Irfan Khan with his understated,impressive presence was such a pleasure and the Kids- ahhhh the kids! Especially Ayush and Ismail as the young Jamal and Salim were adorable. As was Tanay Chheda (he was excellent in Tare Zameen par- not a one time shot, he definitely has talent)

And am SO happy for Rehman -finally he gets his due recognition worldwide.Though 'Jai ho' pales in comparison to his other extraordinarily super songs in the last decade. I wish Loveleen Tandon was given her due recognition for her casting too. Aaaaargh, and it is bledddyyyy so irritating to see Anil kapoor doing the super chance pe dance and thrusting his face into every camera available, in the most irritating manner. Resul makes you feel good in the 'hardworking , humble chap getting due respect for his talent' way.

And isnt it funny? The way we claim ownership depending on convenience? So instead of jumping out of joy for our music directors,technicians and actors being recognized worldwide for their superb job in a British movie, we go overboard claiming the whole movie is ours! But whoever takes credit, this movie is going to bring Indian talent into the global arena and this is definitely a good sign.

...And when they do, will people please get their names right?