Brother’s Day OUT!

My Operatic Brother....

Only a while back did I write that… “My brother doesn’t need to be written in a Good Light for anyone to know how much I am in awe, in love and in adoration of him!” Well that’s what I thought, but my brother seems to have a different idea altogether, he says to me, “Why didn’t you write about me coming to with you to Work? I am sure it will be more interesting to read about than to read about some Stupid Fantasies of yours!!”

Hahah… That’s my brother unpretentious, straightforward and so full of himself! He is such an adorable thing; it’s unbelievable at times… Being the Third and the youngest child in the house, he has taken it upon himself and self proclaimed that he is the pampered and most important person in the family! Deny it all you want he says, you know it true! It absolutely is! :D

The little smarty always makes it a point to accompany me to work one day of his break, be it summer break or midterm break. He loves coming with me to work, not because he gets to spend time with me, which I hope is at least a fraction of his reasoning. Its more so that he can boss over me, see what he is missing from my life. He loves to be a part of each and every happening of Our lives. Be it the shoe we choose to wear, or the color of my skirt or whom I am talking to on the phone! He should, MUST know it ALL!

The other day when My younger sister got back from the parlor with her freshly blow dried hair, and manicured nails, my brother says, "You didn’t get the ends of your hair curled? Why are your hand nails done with white tip and toe nails in red! they dont match you know?" :O I almost had an attack listening to him! Hehehe… and the best part He thinks we should take him seriously and abide by what he says!

While watching the DFL IPL Finale, and I was swooning watching Virat Kohli batting, and exclaimed, "He is so HOT and He has such an amazing tattoo!" and then I caught my brother giving me this know it all look, shook his head, tsk tsked me and said.. "Nah will make you look WILD!" ROFL! My barely thirteen year old brother has taken it upon himself to become my moral and ethical guide!

Our periodic field trips to My office or to drop my sister or the sorts is an absolute pleasant experiance for me... To hear him talk about cars with soo much passion, give me driving tips, parking techniques is a tremendously gratifying experience! To think not very long back I used to carry him around the place and sing him to sleep and now he his old enough to shout at me for chiding him for either eating too much or playing ball in the house!

Driving with my brother, singing with him to Cello Green and Justin Beiber (Dont ask!), sharing secrets with him, watching his face contort into a set of vibrant expressions in Priceless! Having lunch with him, watching him eat with so much taste, satisfaction and concentration all this and more makes me what to go back to my preteen and also makes me wish that I was at an age closer to my brother so that we could do more things together! Sitting with him always creating the below image in my head, makes me wish I was his age... I wish we could be doing this Kits... :) :) *Need to Brush up my Sketching skills!

SIGH, My brother... <3 <3 <3 *Touch Wood!*

Theen Fantastic Galtiyan!

Though in my yesterday's entry I had mentioned that I buy a Book every month, lately it has been getting increasingly difficult to do so thanks to Mum being frantic about not having enough SPACE to keep them! In fact she even suggested, “Why don’t you give some of your books away so that we can get some space to get new Books?” GASP! That is THE most shocking thing ever! Give away you mean, Part with these priced Books of Mine… No Never… then how in the world will I make my Grand library and cherish all of it at the ripe old age of 65!

Convincing my Mum, is not EASY but being her daughter I have a few tricks up my sleeve and using these very techniques and also giving her the opportunity to pick this Month’s Book, she agreed! :D And she picked the The 3 Mistakes of my Life by Chetan Bhagat.

                                              

YES!! He is the same guy who had been in the News for his tiff with the Makers of 3 Idiots… More importantly he is the one who has written “5 point someone” and “One night @ the call centre”. He is also one fellow Tweeter whom I follow very ardently considering he almost always manages to crack me up and also writes extraordinarily!

His “5 point someone” was a Massive rage and so was the adaptation of his Book, which connected glamorously well with the youth of the nation. Every young Indian saw a glimpse of themselves in the characters of Hari, Ryan and Alok. Even after years of its publication, the book is being taken of the shelves like steaming cupcakes! That been said I need to buy that Book, and add to my collection Now.. Uhmm... I am NOT particularly a Fan on Indian writers, maybe because some of them get me to attached to it or maybe because some of them, I am not quite able to digest most of the happenings in it… At least when the book has been penned down by a non Indian writer and I come across something difficult to digest I can always get away with the excuse of having cultural differences and not think about it that much. But where do I hide when the writer in an INDIAN, with modern sensibilities and with a strong exposure to the non Indian sensibilities?

His second book “One night @ the call centre” was a jab at night life at call centres. Again young people and especially call centre “junta” related to it pretty easily as the book provided a peek into their work life! I for one didn’t connect with the book, but I got to get an inside look at their lives and fell in love with his casual, cool and sarcasm laced writing style! The Hindi film adaptation of the same was a Much poorer and Horrid version to say the least!

It was expected that after 2 bestselling books that a lot was expected from The 3 Mistakes of my Life. So how did this book fare on those expectations? So what is this Book’s specialty? Does Chetan manage to engage his readers once again? Is anyone special targeted this time around?

What strikes one first about Chetan Bhagat’s novels is the fact that this author writes about Indians and for Indians. His characters are YOUNG, Overtly ambitious and passionate and have the same Moral, Social, Ethical and Religious dilemmas as many young Indians today….

The setting is the city of Ahmedabad that though being urban is yet not as metropolitan as many of its metro counterparts. It retains its small town flavour in colonies, traditional Indian households, closed set Mentality and small vegetarian eateries.

The book is apparently based on real life events. It begins in a dramatic enough fashion with Bhagat receiving an e-mail from the Main protagonist of the book who had taken some serious steps to end his sufferings and his life along with it as well… An obviously shaken Bhagat, takes the first flight down to track down the boy and no more. The book is loosely based on the three mistakes Govind, the Main protagonist, made in his life.

The Book has Govind, with his passion and acumen for accounts and business, it has Ishan for whom cricket is the element around which his life revolves and it has Omi, a priest’s son and loyal friend who is ready for anything that his friends are game for.

What follows is a mix of cricket, religion, business, love and friendship. A thrilling, energetic, passionate, surprising and Masala filled, spicy Hot seller! Yes, a fantastic read!

When I first started reading it, I wasn’t to too happy. The reason being I am so used to seeing foreign locales in movies, reading about them in my books, and in my dreams that when I was pulled down to Ahmedabad and its gullis, I was a bit aghast, but Bhagat didn’t have to wait for long to get my FULL and UNDIVIDED attention! :D

With his Books, Bhagat has received his biggest compliment ever! In fact it is the biggest compliment any author can receive… It’s not when New York Times or the Times of India describes him as the biggest selling English language author in India or when he crosses the coveted two million book sales’ figure, or when his Books get made into Movies… but when someone chooses to remember him in his last few minutes, that makes a writer go beyond the ordinary. Yes Extraordinary! After all, isn’t the purpose of ALL writing to touch someone’s heart? :D :D

“The 3 mistakes of my life” is written simply and has the quality that makes one want to read the book cover to cover in one sitting!! It’s a Blockbuster, with every bit of everything to make it an absolute DELIGHT!

Knowledge is Power!

Yes that was The Indian High School, Dubai, My School's Motto. I used to sing it daily, as a part of my School song... with great passion and vigor, as my life depended on it and throughout the day just to irritate Mum. :P All day, while doing my Math sums, while walking, while in the kitchen, always... that and the UAE National anthem!! YES, I was/ am twisted... :P I like to genuinely have FUN and irritate people around me at the same time! I guess I get it from My Appa, he too prances around the house singing the most preposterous songs completely in tune albeit. And as it turns out, so does my Brother… He practically shrieks and screams!! Lol… Will get into that on another blog entry… *My Operatic Sibling!!* :P

The Motto has stayed with me, ever since. I take it very seriously; in fact I have a very staunch policy of learning, increasing knowledge, getting to know more and more about any given topic. The Joy of learning is far more when you learn it all by yourself! Yes, I have learnt a lot many things myself… AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, Singing (LOL... I know ryte!), writing, art of applying makeup, photography, and lots more.. I am a self proclaimed, self taught learning addict! It’s not very difficult, in fact nothing in this world is THAT difficult, other than of course *Getting me Married*! But then again that isn’t in MY hands or anyone else’s right? :D

Coming back… One of the simplest fancies of mine is to buying a Book every month, without fail! Every month, after having withdrawn my Salary, My first and foremost task to get a Book, what better way to USE the money, than to increase knowledge and as an ode to Goddess Saraswati! I owe a lot to her… A great deal actually! If it weren’t for her, I would be a lot less interesting! Yes, Absolutely DULL!

Recently, a long lost recently found, good friend of mine, Vikki boi, happen to read my blog (after I forced it upon him actually! lol) and he complimented me saying “Neelu you have excellent command over the English language and that it’s been long since I have come across a lot many of the terms and expressions that you used!” Well, I deeply cherish that Compliment, and I also told him so, what I didn’t tell him was that I don’t know any other Language this WELL! I know a shame! In fact a sham!

English is the only language, I know to fluently; READ - *Extremely fluently* - write, read and converse in… Not Malayalam - my mother tongue (Speak Only), not Hindi (Speak Well, Read and write WEAK!) and not Tamil (Speak poor, Read NO and Write :O)… I actually love this language, Tamil, Oh wait is it because all the Hot Southie Actors are Tamilians? That is Vikram and Surya respectively? Drool… Lol! Yes I think so too!!

She, Goddess Saraswati, Touch wood, has never failed me… She has in fact been the Constant divine factor in my life. Ermmm, she did leave me for a bit in Grade 11th, rather she got hidden behind another turbulent and strong deity, but then again she found her way back to me almost immediately and embraced me so lightly, that I forgot how angry I was with her for having left me! :D

Last Thursday, while meeting three of my crazy, adorable ex classmates, I realized, Saraswati Devi was my best friend, throughout my five formative and fundamental years, my Bachelors and Masters.

Back then she helped me focus only on competing with my previous record and getting better than ME! So much so that I almost didn’t realize being ridiculed because of me being 5’7’’ (easily the tallest gal in class considering most of us were Asians) and yet sitting in the First seat in the middle row of the class, right in front of the teacher, under her nose! Listening to no one else but the professor in front of me and my own head. I didn’t realize, I was ridiculed because of I was a *MALLU* Nerd, or because I was Mrs. Prassana (My HOD)’s pet! All I cared was about getting that 4 GPA, back to back every semester, and every year! As that was my GOAL… and also because, as Dearest Appa says or rather sings, “Kuch toh log kahein gay, logon ka kaam hai kehna…”

This realization and awareness couldn’t have come at a better time. In fact I am amazed at the impeccable timing of it, as I am facing the exact same scenario once again!

Yes, Once again, The Gods and Goddesses have decided to test ME! To see, how determined I am to get where I want to and How much I can withstand… I CAN get through this Once again!

After all, I have my Best friends, Saraswati Devi and I own Singing prowess right? Hahaha… This is when I have to starting singing *Knowledge is Power* in a Shruthi less, out of pitch low registered deep voice and make myself comfortable and Fight myself through this! Or may be I can replace the song with something a tab fresher and less clichéd! :D

Because, If shit has to happen, we just got to let it happen PROPERLY!!

Peeping TOM

Call ME excessively paranoid or whatever you may please, but when I get worried, Its usually for the right reasons and mostly thanks to the people around me!

I for one, have a Facebook fetish! No, I am not those, *Look at me, am at McDonalds in my Pink dress*, *See My NEW Red sandals* sort of Photo maniac, but yes I do post pictures, status updates, my attempts at Photography and my blog updates etc! I love Facebook as it helped me connect with many of my old classmates, family, friends and other wonderful people. I got to met meet very talented people with common passions like Photography, cooking, music and dance!

It helps unite networks of work, school, college and areas and encourages people to hook up and act together with other community.

Its podium which is both fun and helps rapid learning and sharing ideas. Facebook provides us the chance to choose what WE desire to share, and what WE don’t need to impart, and what you desire to pass on with chosen acquaintances. CHOSEN ACQUAINTANCES! That is the KEY word! I decide, who I add, whom I talk to, whom I want to share my stuff with! It’s absolutely preposterous for someone to right click, save MY picture and send it across to someone else because He/She has a THING for ME! I am not annoyed, I am a bit appalled!

I think that it’s crazy. Psycho, actually. While I understand the desire to peruse buckets of information to help One make a more informed decision about somebody they are interested in, the fact is, Facebook isn't how you do it, darling! You only really get to know somebody by TALKING to her and being around her.

Facebook is only going to give you a prorated version of the person of your affections. Unless you see a

a Gal with Blood red hair and yellow nails and smoking pot or a Guy standing around with AK-47s rocking a headband in loose pajamas and a stupid mustache cum goatee, how much are you really going to ascertain about him or her? Especially whether or not he/she's a GOOD person?

Similarly, just because you see someone hugging a puppy, dancing in their pictures, looking coy and saving some tigers, or posing with a guitar, it doesn't mean that SHE/ HE is the ONE! Hell, Ppl put up these pics because it makes them look good!!!

I know our human nature inclines us to do as much info-seeking as possible, particularly in a place as vast and (potentially) informative as the Internet. I for ONE, Google myself on a regular basis!! But stalking is a Different LEVEL!

So stalk away, for all I care! Just realize that if you go looking for drama, you will find it, One way for the Other! So why not give human interaction a try. Anything less is uncivilized, uncouth and unacceptable!

Before I end, Once again I would like to give this message….

Dear Facebook Friends,

There is a Reason why I am NOT Friends with the whole world and Why I have the privacy settings that I have! Please THINK before you decide to SAVE a picture of Mine or Any1 else's for that matter, and send it to a Third UNKNOWN party, Whatever Maybe the Reason! The person maybe IN LOVE, or DEMENTED or Plain Jerk or just curious… I don’t care! Actually,why blame the person asking for the Picture, I blame MY friend for breaking MY TRUST!! Anyone can ask for anything, but it is UP to US to take a stand!! Also, Please REFRAIN from giving out personal details to the prior mentioned UNKNOWN people... Because if you do, it pretty Much Qualifies as STALKING and that’s Not What Friends DO!

Sincerely requesting each everyone of you! And also Remember What goes around COMES around!

Love :)

LEMON Tree!

I have been off blogging for a while now... I feel extremely guilty looking at my blog link on my FB page and my mobile browser and every time someone says “You haven’t been writing have you?” Nooo.... I haven’t been writing, I want to, but I haven’t been able to... I can blame it on a number of reasons, but lately I have grown to love blaming myself, so I shall blame myself! I am at Fault! After all, since you can’t change the world, its better I change the way I look at it, right?


This Morning, While chatting with a Good friend of Mine, Prabhu, I realized how further much I have ignored my blog!(Agreed three weeks isn’t a long time, But considering I used to write daily, it is a Pretty elongated dry spell) It also made me realize that at least some people genuinely take interest in what I write... They aren’t bothered whether I write about them, or whether I write, they read and then I can read or check out their stuff... No, These people just like reading what I write, and I am genuinely touched by this! Frankly I used to write mostly to de -stress myself, think straight and iron my thoughts... But receiving positive feedback for the same is great no? :)


Reflecting on Life, My favorite topic at the moment, Life, as I see it, is one of those races wherein you have to RUN with a LEMON on a spoon caught between your teeth in your mouth. You drop the lemon; there is no point in completing the damn Race! Does the same hold true with life, eh? Family, Health, relationships and emotions being the Lemon.


The question is who are the Lemon’s in your life?


My lemons, I think, I am beginning to imagine are wrong... or at least they aren’t right for me... actually let me put it this way; I am not right for all of them! I am constantly striving to achieve that harmony in my life. A delicate balance of this and that, that and this! Reason being achieving all the success that one can imagine is obviously wasted if not taken with that zest, that spark and that vigor for LIFE itself! This harmony of mine is almost always upset by the lemons in my Life!


Unfortunately, I take life a tad too seriously. In nurturing that *spark* for life and being *alive* I try and fill my life to the brim with as many things as possible, I mean, we have just ONE LIFE, how, I repeat, *How can we content with doing just the NORMAL stuff*? That right there is my issue! Whenever I try to do things, things that I am capable of doing perfectly well, I am pulled down! I pulled down time and again by innumerable forces or should I say innumerable Lemons!

Life is to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here... We are like placed here for a purpose... So, what is my purpose? Ok, I know I am really deviating now and am making absolutely no SENSE! Going back to LIFE, if we are lucky, we may last another 40 - 50 years. So don’t we really need to get charged up?


So I have decided to clear MY life... demarcate the Good Lemons, from the bad lemons and restructure myself... The program has been initiated and I can already smell the Success of my restructured, realigned, and repositioned lemon tree...

This song below is One of My favorite songs, Its completely the Opposite of who or what I am, but I absolutely love and adore the sentiments shared by Fools Garden... People, who know me, know I can Never ever sit without doing something! Anything... and that exactly is why I love this song! :) I am sure you guys will love it too! :)

Basically, I just need to SERIOUSLY stop being SERIOUS and SINCERELY stop being SINCERE! I am sure this will go a LONG Way in helping me deal with LIFE! No? :)