DD nostalgia

I was playing a random playlist of Lata songs on youtube, and realized our brains hold such a huge database of songs (Hindi for me). I could identify the song as soon as the tune started playing. And whats more! I have seen most of those movies as well, either actively or passively when DoorDarshan used to screen these movies.
The actresses in those days had classic features which were highlighted further in B/W. And one could see that acting those days was indeed hard work. An elegantly tied beautiful saree, but the blouses would usually sport dark patches of sweat.
Ek tablefan to dene ka tha na!

I pity the current generation. They can't begin to understand our fondness for those days of limited programs on DD, when they are fed this unremarkable drivel on today's zillion TV channels. 

A question

I heard an argument once about the reproductive system. We know the sperm has a formidable artillery to penetrate an egg.  The argument goes that when the male and female bodies are two distinct identities, how could the artillery in the sperm evolve, and hence it must be intelligent design.

But what if somewhere in the evolutionary cycle, the earlier organisms were bisexual or hermaphrodites. I have forgotten most of my biology, so maybe I should look up literature to see the sequence in the evolutionary history.

As so often happens when it comes to evolution, one gets stuck in the debate between religion and evolution. And many people have asked me this- how can you be a scientist and still believe in religion. Let me just believe there is a god, and leave the rest to science. It is a grey area, but one that I can ignore and carry on with my day to day life ;-)

School kids in parliament!

It is shameful to see the blatant chamchagiri at the top level of politics. When Sonia entered the field, Congress underwent a revival, and her role in it was commendable. But the kind of sycophancy that we see today is embarassing. More so, when the sycophancy is inherited by Rahul baba. I haven't seen him utter one sensible sentence over the last couple of years. Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia emerge as much better thinkers and orators. At least they can phrase their thoughts brilliantly, and their thoughts sound mature. At one time, when their fathers were alive, Congress had a much better appeal but when they all died (weirdly enough) in plane crashes, Sonia seemed the only savior of the party. I see only decline in Congress if things continue this way.

Then there is TMC. First Trivedi is removed for going against Didi. This whole episode looked shady to me. I think Mamta-di was aware of everything and wanted to score political mileage by sacrificing Trivedi. Then she installed her chamcha, who as soon as he takes office, wanted his office to be rearranged like how Mamta-di had it earlier. Is the railway minister's office to be enshrined in her name. For that matter, how long will that ministry stay with Mamta-di or even Congress. 

mann bole mann bole, mann se jeena..

Tum logon ki, iss duniya mein
Har kadam pe, insaan ghalat
Main sahi samajh ke jo bhi karoon
Tum kehte ho ghalat !
Main ghalat hoon toh phir kaun sahi (phir kaun sahi)
Marzi se jeene ki bhi main
Kya tum sabko arzi doon
Matlab ki tum sab ka mujh pe
Mujh se bhi zyada haq hai


I am plain crazy about the songs in this movie (Rockstar). It is rebellious and angry or rather angst-ridden.  I read somewhere that females have generally disliked this movie, and men have appreciated this movie. I lovvved it. Maybe I have a guy's soul in the wrong getup?! :-D But listen to other songs in this movie, the music is great and lyrics high calibre -especially hawa hawa , nadaan parindey, phir se udhh chala. Rahman stands out miles ahead in the current breed of music directors. 


I started reading Rushdie's Satanic verses. I love his writing, his language is versatile, vocabulary rich and his imagination wild. On a side note, my vocab is going downhill, I 'love' almost everything instead of using the apt word for the occasion. About the book, I am also curious about what started the controversy. In my personal opinion, there shouldn't be this much hulla bulla if anybody says something about the 'sacred'. Freedom of thoughts, freedom of speech and all that. I think prophet or any of the scriptures have enough stature to stand their ground against anything on their own. Ill also add that if a society has no qualms about comments against one community but resents against their own, it doesn't speak volumes about their openness either. Anybody should be free to say what they think, and everybody should have the tolerance to hear it and make their own judgement. Collective behavior these days has greater tendency of being harmful than constructive. 


Anyway, coming back to Rushdie and Rahman, imagine how it must feel to excel in some arena and to be miles ahead of their peers. Maybe they don't give it much thought. But I am guessing it must be way better than being mediocre. Personally, I have been on the mediocre scale. I have this urge today to get out of this rut. I hope this urge sustains for sometime and not fizzle out in seconds like it does usually ;)
 Away I go to create history. Adios amigos :)

Returning to blogspace :)

Two years is a long time, yet it passes unnoticed. Didn't we welcome 2011 just a few days back, and lo it is ending now. After debating many times if I should return to this space, and if I have anything new to write and whether what I write will interest anybody, I decided to return. Not because the criteria was met,  but because sometimes I used to write for myself. In those PhD days, this space was a break in the monotony of research.

In a nutshell, I am no longer in India though I miss it every bit, married (finally found a tall dark handsome educated liberated guy - stroke of luck, destiny, or simple record-keeping? ), and still keeping my career alive though with less enthusiasm and more distractions. How is life in pardes? Sometimes lonely, sometimes liberating and many times hassle-free. Here, face-to-face interactions are limited to a few people, countable on fingers. Work keeps you busy most of the waking hours. Like somebody wise said, you will end up alone here unless you make an effort to make friends. That however takes considerable energy, and one doesn't click with just about anybody.
Otherwise, life is lived online - something I have been trying to avoid with less success. I am consciously making an effort to not open the laptop after work hours, investing time instead in attempting new dishes in the kitchen, decorating the nest, reading a book, or just calling up a friend. I am as interested as ever in music and movies and books. So lets open up discussions on these once again. I welcome the few readers I have to give me suggestions on books, movies, food, music and just about anything.

Latest book read: Girl with the dragon tattoo, a thriller by Stieg Larrson. It was a gripping page-turner, I finished the 600 page book in two days. Otherwise I have been reading more Terry Pratchetts. I am still not fed up of this series, and someone told me I am yet to read the best of his books, so will be onto it in future days. I have developed a liking for Salman Rushdie's works. Recently, I found a box-full of books at home, and many of his books in it. Thankfully, my husband occasionally reads the interesting books as well. So I am looking forward to exploring the library at home. Notable movies in recent past: Children of heaven, Rockstar, Chillar party.

In music, I am trying unventured territories. I used to like instrumental hindustani and stay away from vocal. But I'm exploring those too these days. Love pakistani folk music- that country has many things going wrong for it, hope music doesn't fade away with it. Have you tried the pakistani coke studio? It is a brilliant fusion of modern music and folk music. India has an imitation where singers re-sing the Bollywood songs in a different way. That in short sums up why we don't hear alternative music in India much. Bollywood occupies all ear-space.  Any recommendations in other genres?

Me-brain on a stick! :-D

A new find- Alexander McCall Smith

Few months back, I was tagged by Sanjana, who had asked me to list five of my favorite book quotes. I have been thinking and thinking and nothing comes to mind, except Gone with the wind's "I'll think about it tomorrow" :-D
I guess what I retain are the stories and the sketches, and I forget dialogues.
There is another in Harry Potter series, where Dumbledore says
"Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
In fact, I think I would pick most of my quotes from the Harry Potter and Bartimaeus series. Sorry for breaking the continuity Sanju :-)

I have been reading this book called "The No.1 ladies' detective agency" by Alexander McCall Smith. And this book has a lot of quotable quotes. Mainly, it is a good story told in a simple style. Do check out. It classifies as a good read in my opinion.

Pot pourri

Hey there! My last post sounded as if I wouldnt materialise here before 2009 rang in, but then here I am. What to do! In a space of 3 hours, I had so much blog material in my grey matter, that I had to reappear here.
You know I should carry a recorder around or there should be a thought recorder (which after censoring ofcourse ;-)) records what I am thinking currently. Its easier to catalogue my blog matreial that way. I'll list my thoughts so it's more a pot-pourri than a coherent post.

1. The other day I heard somebody put an accent but what took the cake was when he looked at adai and called it paruppu dosai in american accent. This started off a discussion at lunch table on accents and I got a different perspective that anybody who has to teach in a US university has to get that accent to get the point across and over a period, this becomes their natural accent. Ofcourse there is a different class of people who fake their accent just for effects. This also reminds me of Arthur Clarke's comment in Space Odyssey (m so addicted), which says "we americans insist on speaking in english in mixed circles, we just are either chauvinistic or just lazy" That can be said for many of us Indians too ;-)

2. In my opinion, a foodie has to learn cooking. I learnt for the same reasons. When mom's loving touch is not within reach, I should be able to cook food to some degree of her magic. And occasional cooking is indeed therapeutic, believe me. You are creating something, and when your stomach appreciates that, bliss and pride cant be further away. So here's a recipe for rabdi, the instant coffee way.
Ingredients- Milk, cornflower powder , milk powder and sugar.
Boil milk, and add cornflower to it. After this is cooked, remove it from the flame, and add the milk powder and sugar and mix well. Voila!
On TV, I had seen somebody just cook milk till its thick and then add sugar to it. But then we lack the time and patience to do that. Hence the additives ;-) Yummmm

3. I forgot the rest. See a thought recorder is very much needed.

Last post, I sounded dismal and had the year-end blues. But today I am chirpy,chirpy and singing lolly lolly friday morning.
I guess it just has to do with the fact that I woke up early morning today! Yes thats an achievement for me considering the fact that my alarm rings everyday at that hour, I just dont hear it :-D Really, waking up early is good!!

Hasta la Vista! :-)