I love you, Leo!

'What's eating Gilbert Grape?' has always been one of my favourite movies - mainly coz I have a huge huge crush on Johnny Depp [Crush is putting it mildly - let's just say if Mr. JD was in my vicinity, I am not responsible for my actions] but Gilbert's younger brother was also cute in the movie. Imagine my surprise, when a few years later, it turned out the brother was not autistic, could paint and spit far distances and would eventually drown to save his lady love - Jack Dawson in 'Titanic'. It seemed that with the Oscars, Leonardo Dicaprio had arrived. To me, it seemed like he was another one of the good looking actors like the 80's brat pack, who would act in a wide variety of movies doing essentially versions of the same role and continue being a super star. It still takes me by surprise that he has managed to override his good looks and do supremely interesting films time after time. The first time, he burst onto my consciousness post Titanic, was in 'Romeo+Juliet', which though I loved the movie, just enforced my belief that he was going to be a heart throb. Then 'Catch me if you can' happened and I was like ok then...After I saw 'The Aviator' I knew I was wrong. The man is fabulous - it's really not fair, how can you be so good looking and have the courage of your convictions to act in all these great films as well? and date these greek goddess type women as well....Gaah!Of all the Leo films I have watched,the most recent being 'Body of Lies', I have to say 'Blood Diamond' is my hands down favourite - his character in the movie and the last scene where he realises he can never leave Africa is so poignant...of course, the massive pink diamond helped as well.

I realise there is a reason people say to wait a while or not judge a book by the cover...If I can write off Leonardo Dicaprio, can you imagine the potential of the people I might have dismissed through the years??

Thank You for....

....my wonderful parents think I'm the best thing that happened to them
....my aunts and godmother who do not stop the process of actually giving birth to prevent them from mothering me
....for the wonderful boyfriend who is so tolerant and so loving, I'm amazed!
....best friends who I have had forever and still talk to me even though I drive them crazy
....a comfortable job where I get paid every month
....the short ride to work everyday which adds about an hour to my life
....all necessary working parts of a body barring strange skin
....no life scarring experiences that could shut me down for life
....the cutest niece in the universe
....the mother who made me want to travel
....the father who let me go even to places that they disapproved of
....the parents who showed me the joy of reading
....american TV!!
....all the yummy smelling products that my entire salary goes on!
....The Internet and on the world wide web - facebook, instant messenger, games
....a time when I straddle both the old and the new making me feel like anything is possible
....the friends in whose company many wonderful hours were spent doing nothing
....the various academic institutions I attended who contributed to making me who I am
....for friends who never let you forget where you come from

I just wanted to be publicly grateful for all that is right in my life - this list does not even cover half of it but it's a start!

Jaago Re!

I have been dilly dallying for 9 years now on registering myself as a voter - I have the intention and motivation of course but never the action! so when I saw the Tata tea commercial on TV, it really struck a chord and I was like I can do that - so I registered myself today online which is a form that most net users fill out like once a week in any case and they sent me a filled out registered voter's form - the only thing I need to do is go drop it off at the Bandra office - which is hopefully something I will do during the next week - at least one step is done! I have always had a reason for not registering - I went away to school for a while, I always miss the deadlines but I look around and now I sincerely believe apathy is ruining the country. If I don't vote, in a couple of years, I will need to move!!

In India, The list of things that are wrong seem to be growing at a rapid pace and the list of things that are right seem to be diminishing even faster -I wonder how much more does it have to fall before it can rise again? There are so many questions like does my vote make that much of a difference? Should I be doing something more instead of just cribbing? I always think that I should not talk about the state of the country because really I'm doing nothing to help it! Let's hope at least voting in the election will assuage my conscience and make a difference.

''In India, democracy is like cricket - it's a spectator sport" - I will try to participate more!

U know it's time to move on when even fear ceases to motivate you!!

Math lesson of the day!

Possibilities of Travel:

• Hong Kong over the Dussehra weekend with the boy on his way back from Bali
• Vienna with the boy again - with the option of stopover in Zurich/Amsterdam/Paris
• Goa in October with MT friends
• Goa over the Diwali weekend with S and company
• Also option of traveling with parents

Probabilities of going: 0
No money, No Travel - I'm starting a relief fund for me - please feel free to contribute anytime.

Single and not ready to mingle.....

is how I spent all my teenage years and most of my 20's as well. Apart from a small non relationship last year [which seemed mega at the time], the boy is the first boyfriend I have ever had. I think this is the reason I don't have so much drama or angst in my life - I'm not actively looking for the relationship to come and bite me in the ass. I know people who constantly express surprise at the contentment they feel in the current relationship but that's because they are used to wanting to escape the confines of the ties or readying themselves for the next bout of battle. Don't get me wrong - I thought I was ready to mingle and in fact looked to mingle and would be extremely upset at times at the not mingling but I was not ready for another person to come and disrupt my life. I was extremely happy with the freedom singledom gave me - I holidayed many places with no encumbrances and no guilt - I went out with many different groups and also with lots of boys. In fact, I've had some experiences which should count as very romantic, letters with poetry written for me, walks on a moonlit beach, calls at 2 am, calls every day but will talk about that later. I always had a singular male friend who was my protector or designated dropper at any given time but nobody to whom I had to report. I may have missed out on Valentine's day and New Year's was also a bummer since these are specific romantic occasions but on the whole, I had a really fun time.

Which is why, I suppose, it still shocks me that I can't just make plans when I feel like with who I feel like because I am now responsible in way to another human being whose life is intrinsically linked with mine but who also has a life of his own.

Till Death do us part....

....the death referred to in the vows in today's case is the death of the relationship! All around me, I seem to viewing broken marriages - I believe I've blogged before about how the workplace has an unusually high number of divorced people but since then I've heard of a lot of marriages break up and I suppose it really hit home when a friend of mine announced semi seriously that she was thinking of leaving her husband. It just reinforces my belief that waiting to get married is not necessarily a bad thing - it makes you really sure of who you are as a person so you don't suddenly discover yourself a couple of years down the line and realise you are no longer fitting in to the half you have chosen. Essentially, in my mind that's it!! You choose to be one half of a whole - all decisions, all thoughts need to be shared and it makes it much easier if you come with your own views. I think in this case though, I'm definitely an idealist - my family's great marriages have obviously given me a rose coloured view of what really exists. My mother's great problem is that people don't give it a shot - they opt out for what she thinks are minor difficulties. I disagree in that I don't think affairs or physical abuse are the only reasons to opt out of a marriage - if a mistake has been made, a mistake has been made - and I don't see why you should spend the rest of your life tied to a person you have nothing in common with. I've also realised that it takes some adjusting to live with a person and if you don't learn how to deal with the smaller problems or if you ignore them thinking why fight over such a small issue, when the big one comes along, it blind sides you and you are left floundering coz you don't have the training to tackle it! There are so many reasons that people can't work out relationships and I know it sounds like I'm passing judgement on getting married early but it's not that - I think my problem is with getting married too soon - I agree if you started dating someone at 16, at 24 you need to take the relationship to the next level - you can't meander in the same state forever!! Not that I think that all divorces are necessarily acrimonious - it's just that I've never met anyone who thinks divorce helped them be a better person!
I suppose all this is coming from the fact that I am somewhat under pressure to get married by next year end and this is not a comfortable timeline for my already married once better half and I think it's not worth the effort to try to anticipate a tentatively agreed date when all around me I can see the not so succesful results of unions!