Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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!

Monday, March 1, 2010

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!

Monday, January 25, 2010

"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."

- Jacques Delille (1738 - 1813) French poet.

There are many versions of the title quote... my mother received this on a deflt dish " Chance made us sisters, Hearts made us friends". Recently, I've been reading a lot of posts on friendships and also on the different kinds e.g. The bride talks of her circle of friends and also whether friends/friendship should affect life decisions.
She also noted to me that I undertook change (moving cities to study and then to work) and never let the friends left behind influence me. Also both changes but espescially the move to study landed with a fabulous lot of people making the 2 years a joy - the lack of education may be lamented by the parents but the experience was excellent! Today at work, an office colleague pointed out my social nature which begs this point - one of the reasons, change becomes easy for me is I'm adaptable. This is different in nature from malleable - If I don't want to do it, you can't make me but I'm willing to adapt to what you want. I make an effort to integrate and generally this works.
I recently went for the alumni meet of above attended university, for the first time sans my gaggle of girls and enjoyed myself with the old friends. I must note I no longer regularly meet the gang mostly due to the fact of the Fancy and marginally also because they all live in different suburbs. Here I must include this quote: "It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."- Ralph Waldo Emerson. When you are practically living with people for 2 years, there is nothing that is hidden, there is nothing that is sacred, there is no line. However years on, I wonder about this line - can I put it in place now? I no longer live with you which implies a lack of daily contact - this lack of contact spanning to weeks and months - at what point do I say, we are no longer who we were, we have moved on...maybe without intending to but the fact is, it happened.
"Have no friends not equal to yourself."- Confucious (551 - 497 BC) Chinese philosopher .
What is wrong about the title quote though is that even in friends, sometimes it is not a choice - it is making the best out of what is there. School friends tend to the most numerous and least discerning - she sat next to you in class: Friends for life. This I find especially true, later in life, there is a tremendous amount of residual affection for these group of people. Having a base of so much in common, it becomes easy to reconnect and thus take the friendship to a higher level.
With my MBA institute friends, I honestly cannot say that there was a common thread- everyone came from very diverse backgrounds, from large cities to small towns to different cultures - progressive, regressive (this is my opinion of course) but these made for the best experiences - I cannot say it transalates into life long friendship with everybody tho.
This post had been lying in draft for months and I've decided to publish today coz yesterday, I got a completely different point of view from someone who I would now consider a friend[alternatively to use Sheldon's lingo from The Big Bang Theory-treasured acquaintance]. He puts a sell by date on friendships of 5 years. According to him, no friendship last beyond that due to various factors - girls/boys, distance, change of interests. I don't think it's true - while I agree you need to tryharder at these friendships [a fact I have always pointed out to people - good relationships don't build themselves, any kind!], it's not always work and mostly, it's worth it. I don't have the kind of time I did when I was in college or school to spend with a person and establish common ground. Most of the time, I meet new people while standing in a bar [ not conducive to deep conversations, I might tell you!], which will never give you the type of history you have with someone who has known you for more years than you care to remember!
Both my BFF's are not from school but the 11th std, but that itself makes it 13 yrs that I've known them - I have friends from before that and I have friends from just now as well. Some friendships have dropped off along the way - one because I discovered a lack of interest and one because of a lack of spine but this is not the rule!
If you go into a friendship thinking it has a sell off date, How will you ever be able to establish the kind of relationship that humans need to survive?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Heartbreak warfare

Lightning strikes inside, my chest to keep me up at night
Dream of ways, to make you understand my pain
Clouds of sulfur in the air, bombs are falling everywhere
It's heartbreak warfare
Once you want it to begin, no one really ever wins
In heartbreak warfare
If you want more love, why don't you say so?
If you want more love, why don't you say so?
Drop his name, push it in and twist the knife again
Watch my face as I pretend to feel no pain (1)
Clouds of sulfur in the air bombs are falling everywhere
It's heartbreak warfare
Once you want it to begin, no one really ever wins
In Heartbreak warfare.
If you want more love, why don't you say so? (2)
If you want more love, why don't you say so? Just say so...
How come the only way to know how high you get me
is to see how far I fall? (3)
God only knows how much I'd love you if you let me
But I can't break through at all.
It's heartbreak...
I don't care if we don't sleep at all tonight, let's just fix this whole thing now
I swear to God we're gonna get it right, If you lay your weapon down (4)
Red wine and ambien, you’re talking shit again,
It’s heartbreak warfare
Good to know it's all a game, Disappointment has a name,
It’s heartbreak warfare.

Apparently, John Mayer wrote this song during his relationship with Jennifer Aniston.
Which brings to mind couple of thoughts:

Jennifer Aniston related:

- Jennifer Aniston is not over Brad Pitt
- Brad Pitt really did a number on her

Generally on relationships*:
Taking (1): to constantly bring up an ex’s name cannot be good for you, forget a relationship. It implies a static state with no growth or no movement. It’s not just pushing and twisting the knife in another person, its reminding you about the wound – it will never heal if you rip off the plaster ever so often!
Taking (2): Very few people come out and say what they want in relationships, they seem to think that true loves includes mind reading. “No I don’t know what you’re feeling – my background, personality, experiences lead me to derive different inferences/conclusions from a situation and I need to be explained your point of view”
Taking (3): I think this line summarizes abusive relationships, not necessarily physical abuse. The only way some people can measure love is to see how much pain they can inflict on another. The tolerance level to them is an indication of the quality/quantity of love. I think in this case also, a previous betrayal leaves a person so broken and unable to trust that they cannot take the affection at face value – they need to destroy it to believe it existed.
Taking (4): there is so much baggage from previous relationships that even if you think you’re over it, people are using their previous experiences as weapons. It’s like I’d rather strike first than have the pain inflicted on me again!

I’ve never been a huge John Mayer fan – that’s the Fancy’s department! He’s always raving about the lyrics e.g. Daughters but this song really makes me think!

* Having only had the one (successful) relationship, this is my opinion looking at other peoples and reading about famous ones in magazines!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Things I have NOT done....

  • Blogged (self evident)
  • Read (except thrashy magazines in the parlour)
  • Watched a movie
  • Holidayed
  • Excercised
  • Dieted
  • Bought Christmas Gifts
  • Organised New Year's Eve celebrations
  • Eaten at Soul Fry in ages
  • Find the Lamy pen I lost
  • Called my aunt in Gujurat
  • Decided my wedding party
basically, I followed people on Twitter and spent money like crazy!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Music pit-stop!

So...I might have mentioned earlier but I now get MTV Europe...and Trace (not that I really know what channel that is!) but it enables me to listen to tons of Angrezi music whenever I turn on the TV and not wait for the music programming like on VH1 [which by the way sucks after they stopped all the beatiful life programs!]. So recently, I have caught the top 10 Urban hits of Europe which has some real doozies - classic example Madonna 'Celebration' - I don't know where the music and video are synced or not - one cannot tell in this new style! However,an excellent track - Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys 'Empire State of Mind' has been playing in my head on loop and so has this...'Fight for this love' by Cheryl Cole. The David Guetta/Akon track 'Sexy Bitch' has been doing the rounds as well as Jason Derulo 'Whatcha Say'. I also discovered someone called LaRoux (I'm not your toy, Bullet proof) who reminds me of the pop/synth queens of the 80's including the androgynous styling.
I've realised that even though I like Bollywood music (hence the working in it), I really love Trace more!

This post was lying in draft - decided to publish!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Recap

As usual, this post is about things I've done in the last few weeks, some of which are edifying, some of which make me feel as foolish as a 22 yr old but on the whole, I've been a super busy baby - and dressing up a whole lot - it's the year of the 'looks' this year compared to last year of the 'books'.

Fri 23rd October - Shiro's to celebrate birthday of friend with 1 yr old baby - she wanted to party, I ended up drinking - the night ended with me jumping into a cab despite being followed by the car I came in(feeling like a foolish 22 yr old) and the juggler losing his blackberry in the process!
Sat 24th October - Struggled out of bed at 4 pm in the same clothes I had worn to go out in the previous + full face of make up on. Note to oneself: Elizabeth Arden ceramide lash mascara very good - no streaking inspite of sleeping! also went to book venue for wedding where was informed was too early to do so. So much for catching worms!
Sunday 25th October - Visited the juggler's house; coffee with one of the girls; followed by visit to birthday girl house.
Monday 26th October - Dinner at Ming Yang to bring in Ear Damage founder birthday
Tuesday 27th October - Show support at Hard Rock Cafe Pinktober event
Wednesday 28th October - Wedding and Reception of school friend
Thursday 29th October - Asleep at 9 pm!
Friday 30th October - Drink at Toto's
Saturday 31st October - Firangi paani with symbi angels
Sunday 1st Nov - Brunch at friend's house
Monday 2nd Nov - Social drink at Aunt's house(edifying responsible adult behaviour) followed by yummy dinner at Yellow Tree Cafe
Tuesday 3rd Nov - Dinner with the girlies!

Aah! I feel so popular! Aaah! I'm exhausted!