If you divorce and remarry you can't take communion. But if you molest children you can celebrate mass.

aslo linked: The Great Catholic Cover-Up [Both discovered through @soniafaleiro on twitter.]

The title really strikes a chord with me since as some of you know I am running around trying to get a dispensation from the Pope to get married in Church. It amazes me where the church turns a blind eye to child molestation but instead puts in place laws and tenets regarding marriage and divorce! Would you not think that ruining a child's innocence is a far greater crime than making a mistake as an adult?

 

Multitalent amazes me!

I've been reading 'The Big Blind' by Louise Wener - the author note says she used to be the lead singer of Brit pop band 'Sleeper' with 3 Top 10 albums and 8 Top 40 singles! I find this kind of talent across spheres fascinating - It truly commands respect!

Other people with Multitalent:

• Leonardo Da Vinci - Artist, Architecht, Inventor/Scientist,Writer, General Genius
• Shari Shattuck - Actress, Author
• Boman Irani - Photographer,Actor
• Anuj Saxena - Actor, Businessman

I find Maria Shriver also a fount of talent - Journalist, Author (not such a jump I know) but it takes skill to be a member of the Kennedy family and married to Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Actor/Musician has a lot of people in the category - practically everyone seems to do that cross over. Ronn Moss, Keanu Reeves, Jared Leto, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Leighton Meester, Taylor Momsen....

I have not included peopel who have multi talents in their spheres to much - I'm always impressed by songwriter/singers or singer/composers but I think AR Rahman deserves a special mention because he is a veritable powerhouse of Talent in the field of music!

Happy Video of the day...year...lifetime!

So One has been been getting on the bus to depressedville quite often this month, not really making it there...
however this also helps to make me giggle and remember my life is not so bad....I could have been an adolescent/twenty something in the 80's and then my life would really be a disaster!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsbw7SSWt8

Red Carpet thoughts!

• 
  
  Sandra Bullock's lipstick scares me!
• 
  
  Charlize Theron thought we would not be able to find her boobs so she wore directions
• 
  
  J.Lo wore an icecream!
• 
  
  What is it with dead birds at the end of minidresses - Demi Moore, Vera Farmiga, Elizabeth Banks(who is she?),
• 
  
  Zoe Saldanha looks like an alien that should be on Na'avi is on the end of her dress instead!
• 
  
  Love Love Love Rachel McAdam's dress!
• 
  
  Miley Cyrus bottom half is so pretty - so sad she forgot to wear the top of it!
• 
  
  Yum Yum Yum!Taylor Lautner - I'm a cougar!
• 
  
  Cameron Diaz looked gorgeous - can I have that dress for my wedding?
• 
  
  SJP's dress needs an explanation - mathematical, astrophysics, anything?
• 
  
  Sigourney Weaver wore a bow???? did she think she had to bring a gift?
• 
  
  From twitter, for the first time, Best Director may be prettier than Best Actress (will credit when find the tweet again!)
• 
  
  ummm.... James Cameron left Katherine Bigelow for that?
• 
  
  Helen Mirren has to be the most graceful person I have ever seen
• 
  
  Anna Kendrick's dress was also really pretty - 2nd wedding?

Other random opinions from Twitter:@blaftness: Invade nation. Bomb to hell for 7 yrs. Kill lakhs. Make complex sensitive movie about the experience. Celebrate with moving awards show.

It's complicated!

used to be a Facebook option for a relationship status but I think everyone can choose this - whether you are married, engaged, dating or even single! 

Watching the movie of the same name, it makes you wonder what makes relationships work. In the case of Jane and Jake Adler, it had past it's sell by date - having screwed it up once, they were simply in different places and stages in their lives to make it work again - this in spite of being very well matched!

I have had timing issues with someone who most people would think would be be a perfect match but having missed the boat on several occasions, that ship has now sailed!I know of others who have found their perfect match but found it too early that they cannot hold onto it while growing as a person. Friends have moved continents for love only to have the relationship end. Married friends have issues with change - as a person, as a unit - basically, Relationships are complicated!

The film also focuses on how the children are affected - even adult on the verge of marriage themselves children find it hard to keep adjusting to changes in the relationship of their parents! I find this is true in the case of friends also, most couples tend to have his and her sets for the first couple of years - after finding your legs in a relationship, you eventually settle into a comon set though I have friends who usurped their partner's friends as their own after the split. A relationship no matter how much we can say is between 2 people, it impacts more lives than that - family,friends - it's all a part of the relationship - coz they also help define the individual in the same!

When I see my parents, my family or just generally look around me at successful happy couples, I wonder how? what is the secret that they possess? is it a family recipe, is it just luck, is it a facade? I'm not sure what exactly the answer is - is it just one or a mixture of many? People can say what they want but one thing for sure - it's not simple!

In My Good Books

So I've had a bit of a reading renaissance - I have successfully finished

• Georgette Heyer - Friday's Child - she is self explantory, one of my favourite authors
• Lalita Tademy - Cane River: Highly recommend this book...it's about slaves in Southern States of American from the late 1700's or so till it ends in 1936 - fictionalized account of the author's family - it really resonates!
• Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson series: I finished 2.5 books in one night - that should tell you how addictive the story is - the style of writing is ok but the story is fabulous - It basically takes Greek mythology, tells you it exists today and whoopie! you're off!
• P.G Wodehouse - Laughing Gas: Not his best  Novel-not-in-a-series but still a good read, predictable but good!
• Lynee Truss - Tennyson's Gift: Not fantastic but at least I can now name one work by Tennyson. Interesting to see how the author links up famous authors and artists from that time - Lewis Carroll, Tennyson, artist G.F Watts - It also introduced me to the art of Phrenology - one learns new things everyday!
• Kathy Reichs - Devil Bones: The main character in this series is Dr.Temperance Brennan - yes! That's right of the famous TV serial 'Bones' (I love that show and not just because David Boreanaz(a.k.a Angel from Buffy the VampireSlayer') is in it). I found it a little too technical for my liking but also learnt something new from the book about different religions like Voodoo and Santeria - always nice to know Roman Catholicism is not the answer to everything!
• Kathryn Fox - Skin and Bones: The best way to get hooked onto reading again is to read a crime novel -the gruesome and grisly ensure that you finish what you start so the habit begins! This was a onetime read but if I see a book by the author at an airport, would definitely pick up the copy!
• Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers: This was actually recommended to me by my cousin and though it's a fun read, I would not say it pointed out something that I had never heard of before - community is important, family support, etc etc
• Matthew Reilly - Seven Ancient Wonders: The book would be a one time read but for the amazing descriptions of the wonders espescially the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the fortress - These are fictional but still fabulous!. There are pictorial representations of the wonders as well which I thoroughly enjoyed.

What I also need to mention are the books that I have not finished in the course of the year:

• Joanne Harris - Rune Marks: the book seems interesting enough but cannot hold my attention to actually finish it
• Kim Edwards - The Memory Keeper's Daughter: Again, stuck at the quarter way point
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - That Thing Around Your Neck: Luckily, these are short stories so I completed 4 but still have 5-6 to make my way through - Gaaah!
• Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy: I started this book thrice over teh course of 2 yrs - one time even making it to a 100 pages but cannot cannot bring myself to do it! by the time, I sort out the characters, I'm like Gimme an MB!

I'm feeling like a Jew in Germany

in 1939 - the writing is on the wall and I'm white washing over it! I'm Indian, I'm Roman Catholic and I'm fed up! Nothing seems to work anymore - if its not enough that outside forces/terrorists attack us, we seem to attack ourselves - Whether its the religion card or the community card, it all seems to work - the average person on the street seems to be waiting to be told who his next victim is! By thinking that we are a young democracy, am I turning a blind eye to a deep rooted  problem in the system? Do I need to wait till there is complete anarchy or we turn into a dictatorship to make the hard decision to leave? It's not something I ever thought I would do - being the daughter of a IAF fighter pilot automatically instills in you a sense of pride and yes ownership  - but as an owner, do I need to sink with the ship? 

One of the reasons I always looked askance on moving abroad is that it is not where you come from - you are always a second class citizen - things are not the same as in India where you fit in seamlessly. But lately, I have been feeling like a second class citizen here as well - I mean I look the same but in spite of  having a decent job, my money goes nowhere. Ok the rich are rich in any country, but at least middle class gives you aspiration to a better life. It seems to me now better to be a rung lower in another country since that country's ladder is higher than ours! 

My biggest fear now is that we can turn into Afghanistan - I'm not sure exactly what Afghanistan is like but in my mind, it was run over by religious terrorists and I would like to know what the previous decade was like before the final power take over?

What I need is a country where I feel safe from persecution of any kind, where hard work has reward and society is progressive - I know I know It's called Utopia!

Feb+March 2010

I had the gall to ask the charade why she was posting in bullet points while blogging about her vacation only to realise that when I eventually sit myself down to write, I end up doing a recap post in bullet points or a to-do list in the same! I cannot seem to bring myself to end the cycle - the way I look at it, if I cannot use the blog to express my feelings/thoughts (about personal issues), it serves me well as a snapshot of my life at the time. When I read previous entries, It recaptures for me the person who I was at the time and if I cannot write that, let it at least remind me of things that I accomplished and also the things I let slide!

Some of the big things in this year have happened - Friend's wedding in Goa  (ref pic above) and the BIG event at the end of the year is my own! 

However in between are little bits of joy as well - in 2 weeks time, I will doing a road trip with my parents and the FANCY! I know I know, HUGE risk but the way I look at it, they are stuck with each other, the same way I'm stuck with them, they may as well learn now how to get along in confined spaces! so essentially, A and I are taking the train to Jodhpur - my parents are going there for a course reunion (Airforce/Maruth for those interested). From there, we will drive to Jaisalmer (my last posting as an AF brat), Mt.Abu, (never been) Baroda (to see the fam), Daman(also never been). Now, I love road trips - having been twice from Bombay to Ooty and also year before last to Bijapur! I find travelling through the countryside exhilerating and edifying.....cannot say the same of the Fancy who has never been on one and cannot seem to fathom why one should be on one! since he claims I'm the only one he can holiday with - the other person being tied down with wife and baby, he has grudgingly agreed to try it out this once! I'm crossing my fingers for it to work out - the more new things he learns to like, the easier travelling will get once we are married!

I've realised people are not kidding when they say the more things you have in common, the better it is! I love being my own person but when you have to come from opposite directions, the middle is that much further away!