i'm back!

i' back from a week's worth o' vacation...last week found me drenched in the sea-bathed air of Puri...admittedly it's not one of my favourite places...because i spend most of my time readig whenever I visit----which is not what one does on an exciting vacation...at least, not until bed-time. but i had a seriously great time this year. this could be partly attributed to the scorching, sweltering and uncomfortably un-numbing weather of cal....the sandy beach was an alluring golden, grainy yet smooth, warm and welcoming, yielding beneath my feet. the snow-capped waves breaking upon the shore, as they have been for time immemorial, as they will be through the many hours to come. i was overwhelmed by the thought of the sea being so old, and yet so new, as though it kept re-inventing itself through its constant motion. so vast, yet usually so much in command of itself.
hmmmm.......
i watched this particular movie a few days ago...i was told that it was one of it's kind...i was exceedingly diappointed...not only did I find the movie incredibly pretentious while seeming to not be so, i found it lacked the depth which it aspired towards. it tried to achieve the subtle intensity of a classiclike Roman Holiday, but failed where it tried the most. the characterisation was superficial, the "best original screenplay" unimpressive, without a trace of originality...and i also found it rather sexist. the failure to understand another's culture was portrayed in as appaling a way as celluloidly possible.

my menagerie

this has been my week of weeks...admittedly, adopting animals on my blog gives me less than a vicarious thrill, but thrills all the same! i've had so much going on in my life, but i wonder how much of it i can post...and all of a sudden, there's a whole host of books i wish to read, at once!
catching up with old friends is always interesting...and re-discovering friendships even more so!

adopt your own virtual pet!

random snippets of my desultory days.

the other day i was having pizza with Isheeta., who named it a post-colonial pizza. some alliteration, hunh?
have been accompanying my mum to the bazaar...and the weather, well, let's just say it hasn't been gorgeous.
been reading many books...i think i should get back to revising my italian.
i want to visit mexico. we have great people to stay with. but the airfares are too steep.
everything has become ridiculously expensive, owing to the much talked about phenomenon of inflation---i've been rather appalled, to say the least.
i have a busy weekend ahead.
i haven't written a poem in days.
i think last semester's academic work has really had quite a profound influence over moi...lines by emily dickinson, mary coleridge and even aime cesaire keep drifitn about in my mind! no one's complaining though.
i shall resume swimming in a day or two.
i want to read the murder of roger ackroyd. oh, and i FINALLY read the murder on the orient express, and i've figured out why it is such a big deal.
what else? lots more, actually, but am feeling really indolent.

innocuous questions, with no real answers.

what is beauty? can we ever break free of its pre-defined, restricting defintions?
can beauty and brains be reconciled?...believe or not, most people think they are mutually exclusive. this is a tried and tested qs.

is there really only ONE person who is meant to be your soul-mate? what if you don't find him/her in time, which, according to thomas hardy, happens more often than not.
why are there so many break-ups, i ask, aware of sounding naive.

if every thing is dependent on money, why can't MINTS work over-time, along with the people who slog it out in the rat -race.

i have lots more to write, but am running short of time, so more later.

i'm going through a strongly feminist phase. or am i? maybe i'm just refusing to take for granted those very things which a patriarchal society has so effortlessly ingrained within it. i have also begun to feel very strongly for the post-colonial cause. lol . ;-P

the past month...chronicles of the april that was...

i shall begin with an honest declaration! owing to my myriad exams, i have had very little time to spare for blogging. i had to crouch over sheafs of sheets and reams of notes all of last month, trying to figure out a semester's worth of work. i've finally been released from the fetters of examinations, and am freeeeee to ponder! i'm upset! i was meant to visit a very favourite uncle of mine this year. in new jersey. but i've been careless, and not having booked tickets on time, to my horror, airline prices have sky -rocketed over the last three months, leaving me unable to visit this year. wail. oh well. but i'm still hoping for some sort of get-away, i'm feeling rather stultified in this city...and the hideous weather is doing nothing to help. but one consolation is that....it is that time of the year, when my dear ol' school pals are down on vacation....and i spend lotsa time with 'em///not every one's here this time round, though...some of them have just begun to get jobs...wow...big shots and all...lol....but i'm having fun with those of us who are here....we watched il postino today...great, great film...though it was prix's second viewing, and she got bored towards the end....and accused me of being the same...while i was engrossed...and ysrday we wnt to that dreaded place again...F----M, but we didn't geta place to sit....nothing unusual...
besides which life has been rather complicated ...as i'm beginning to realise that human beings are averse to the idea of leading simple, happy lives and love complications. erm.
ad then there's been swimming.
i bought a philip pullman - authored book yesterday.

and reading aurora leigh.
at one gathering.............


an uncle: "jadavpur-e meyera cigarette khaye...chhee, chhee, ki baaje"
ami: "chhelera khaye, shetao toh jaachhe tayi baapar"

did i mention being teased out o' my wits?

what have i been busy doing?

writing short stories and pondering for hours for suitable titles
helping out with the organic utsav
attending family re-unions
eating lunch at seminars
reading, reading, reading(the latest being "many stones"...am currently reading "odd women."
meeting new people
finding new friends
using the metro on my own
talking to old friends
acquiring loadsa new words...{the newest being "lyadh"---a favourite among one and all as of now
discussing films
thinking about I.R.
thinking about my term paper
playing with kids

i wish life was less complicated. human beings are very complex. trying to clear something just muddles it up all the more. oh gosh! am exhausted. busy week, and restless sunday. hmm.

dog-talk

i can't see my dog anywhere on the campus of late. the one with the pink nose who used to shake off his slumber whenever i was anywhere near, honest!
i was so shaken to see this other black and white dog, a regular on our side of the campus, suffering from a horrible skin infection of sorts...i am afraid i don't know too much about the veterinary sciences, but something ought to be done. yesterday it was trying to lie down on its side, but flies kept buzzing around the site of infection and the poor thing was almost out of its mind in agony!
i remember when i was 7 years old i had a best friend in my neighbour's dog, sherpa...i loved how he used to almost eagerly await our evening saunters on the mayfair road terrace, how he used to jump all over me and how intelligent he was. incidentally, he was a spitz.

long time no post

i'm back to being an unproductive blogger. but i really haven't CHOSEN to be lazy of late. i've just been crazy busy...with tests, course work, thinking about not thniking about term papers, and of course the organic utsav. i'm so glad i've begun to involve myself with all sorts of social and environmental work. i'd always , always wanted to but had never quite figured out where and with who to begin. lately some seniors of my departent have been really wonderful and welcoming and so now i'm wrapped up pretty much most of the time. and then of course there are my italian classes. we were asked to finish 22 exercises over the week and just as i wrote out the last answer of the last exercise, with a smile of smug satisfaction on my face, i was told by a friend that we had to do 25 and not 22. sigh. i haven't yet gotten around to finishing them yet. yesterday i watched chak de india again! kabir khan is one terribly interesting and abominably attractive character. this is the first, first movie i actually loved srk in. he wasn't srk playing kabir, he was really kabir khan, incidently played by srk. why am i rambling such rubbish?
the other day i wormed out of attending a lecture in the A.V. room and have been feeling rather ashamed ever since. consience, conscience, conscience. when i grow up a leeetle bit more i'll keep a pup.

Movie Reviews. Or an attempt at them. in fact, nothing of the sort.

Shakespeare in Love----most people have been refusing to believe that i watched the movie for the first time ever this february. i am so taken with it. i think my many courses on the elizabethan stage and theatre really helped me creep into the skin of the film. and whenever i read will's plays now, the image of jo fiennes has to keep floating arond in my mind. the screenplay was so brilliant! one of my favourite plays by the bard is romeo and juliet, i can actually {seriously} rattle it off by heart! heheheh, boy, that sounds modest. gwenyth paltrow was seriously good as viola. the entire construction of this imagined love story was fabulous. sigh. who cares about historical accuracy? the same applies to jodhaa akbar. why are people pulling it apart because it isn't 100 per cent historically accurate. the art of the story teller lies in his own re-creation of certain historical moments.

the grass is so green now. as green as the fat little catterpillar I pain-stakingly lured on to a leaf in school when i was 6. this was in 18 Lee Road. sigh. and what of the time we buried a butterfly which had died owing to its wing being caught on a shard of glass
/ it was so soft, fragile. so delicate. that was over 14 years ago. it has probably been rolled over and over in earth's many diurnal courses since. like worsworth's lucy, only i didn't know of lucy, or wordsworth then. the following day a band of us marched over to the burial spot and dug the place up to see if the butterfly had gone to heaven. we had no doubt that it would. but then i suddenly saw its white-streaked wings greet my unbelieving eyes. that was my first ever encounter with disillusionment.

i was such a shy, shy girl in my first years of school. gosh. i'd be homesick all the time, longing for my mum's soft hands to cling on to. once i started weeping so much, my teachers got annoyed enoygh to call home. and then there was my nose fascination. i was sooo very obsessed with noses. it's still there, i suppose. the first thing i notice in a person is the nose. distinct noses really attract moi.

this is such a weird post. so desultory and aimless. kothay theke kothay chole jachhe. the surprising thing is i'm not embarassed by the embarrasing moments of my childhood. i quite miss them. those were the days. lol.

i feel so funny today. my mind is in quite a turbulent state. things are not hunky dory. old "friendships" are crumbling...i'm awakening to the horrid realisation that most of these relationships were not real at all. i never conform to peer pressure, i have always enjoyed being myself, being lost in my thoughts and ideals, but i suddenly feel alienated. i have so many people i love around me. i am getting to know so many more people. but certain things are bothering me. i hope i can face up to them. hmmm. initially i placed academics at the centre of my universe. now i find myself incessantly pondering over things i never assigned much importance to. oh well.

lil' tubs

adopt your own virtual pet!

j.a.---jodhaa akbar!
s---sawaariya

the evening is quivering with potential..this line gets stuck in my head whenever i'm confined indoors on particularly pink evenings with violet skies and perfumed breezes. when the songs of the cuckoo are rivalled by the croaks of crows. hmm. not that i can't go out for a bit. but i'm enamoured by a certain someone. a certain brilliant actor. i don't knoow what others thought, but i LURVED j.a. it was a haunting film. i think every emotion was played out so very well...finely tuned acting...it was more than "acting"...it transcended the confines of the word...just like the Sufi musicians. a.r.b. was brilliant too. i actually found her terrific in h.d.d.c.s. most people i notice are averse to the opulent grandeur of sb's films, but i am quite fascinated by them. whereas most people didn't have too many good things too say about 's,' i found it magical. poetic, yet sordid, real yet fabricated, a perfect allegory on the film world itself, where one has to fight it out, not depend on one's predeccors and carry one's own recommendation and no one else's. even if the already established actor sweeps the girl away in the end, the struggling actor keeps boxing his way into the realm of cinema. one of my favourite scenes of h.d.d.c.s. was when s.k.'s character kept refusing the food a.r. was offering him by pushing the spoon away and the way in which she kept raising the spoon with unflickering patience. now how did i get from J.A. to S.B.'s films? hmmm.