My Musings

After 3 months of relentless scorching heat,  Bangalore is back to its envied weather condition.  The past week has been absolute bliss - min you only weather wise! Yesterday night it poured dinos and rhinos. It was such a lovely feeling going to bed listening to the heavy rain. It was so chilly that i brought our thick blankies out. Though right at this moment I am facing the aftermath of that bliss  - you guessed right - terrible roads and choking traffic. Last Sunday we went cycling,  after a break of almost 4 weeks.  The weather just awesome,  I could have cycled forever only if the roads are just as nice and there say not killing smoke from all vehicles around. It is lovely to be sitting in an auto,  going to work,  with gentle breeze all over me - so what if every 500m I am assailed by the stench of the ever increasing rotting garbage on bangalore roads!!!

Yesterday I attended my first ever live concert of a bollywood singer - Arijit Singh - and this was with live symphony. It was one of the most awesome experiences I have had. I guess Live Symphony means they make their own music. None of the songs they played / he sang were on the same pace or exact tune  of the original song. Even slow songs were played at a faster tempo.  The days leading to the concert I was skeptical if it is worth the money we were spending. Each ticket say 2250/-. And that too we were just the silver class - that means from where we sat arijit was barely visible.  On top of that when we realised that we needed to be around an hour early to collect tickets,  I saw quite miffed. But despite the 2 hour or so wait to get seated ( we got the best seats of our class) and around 20 minutes or so of listening 👂 to the chattoo radio jockeys,  once the prodigy singer took stage it was worth every paisa of the money 💵 spent.  Man the energy...

Of late, all posts are about songs right? I just guess it is a phase in life, when something becomes the shining spot in your life. I remember the Mr. telling me how some songs hold a sort of significance in one period of life. When we were in college and were apart for 5 years before we got married, the Mr. found Ghazals very very appealing - the soul wrenching feeling of poignance in them - made him miss me a lot and stay in that feeling of love for a long time. I don't remember hearing ghazals for the past 5 years at the least - guess he doesn't want that feeling anymore - not with me yelling every three seconds for something he has not done (ha ha !) I very distinctly remember the cassette that I had recorded for him - with some of my most favourite romantic songs - there was the son "Tu Jahan Jahan chalega" (Mera saaya) - and the Mr. would not hear it for it would bring tears to his eyes. Can't say it would do that now ! (Wink!) (Blogs should have emotico...

I am hooked on to this song since morning -  Yaari . Just cant stop the replay on this.  Love the way they have strummed the guitar so casually. Amitabh Bachchan rocks! His voice should be captured in something like an inhaler that you can open any minute and drop the music into your ears. Farhaan's 'rough textured' croon as the note hits high is amazing!!  Reminds me of my college days a lot - especially Inter days and the four years of B.Tech.  The trips to vizag beach on Scooty with my four dear friends; getting wet in the beach, laughing and caring two hoots about the world, those pizza treats, those meets in R's house and terrace and the dates to watch movies.  Life at hostel. How slowly we changed from caterpillars to beautiful butterflies over the years, freeing ourselves of inhibitions and drenching completely into pure, unadultered friendship. Those midnight birthday parties, midnight dances in the quadrangle on friendshipday nights, sitting on ...

In Sun TV, they used to (not sure if they still have) have this segment where they took a theme and showed movies on the theme every noon for a week, and would call it Vaaram ; eg. Comedy vaaram; Nagesh Vaaram. Similarly this week is like "Radio One Vaaram" for me.  Radio One is a channel that plays on 94.3 MHZ FM in Bangalore. Every morning and evening when I drive to and back from work, I listen to radio - not only this but two other channels - flipping as when I find something interesting. When I drive back, it is usually the contest time in Radio one and Red Fm channels. So, I tried to call the number or sms or whatsapp the number they give and have never been lucky.  Last Thursday, I dialed the number for Radio One (as always) and was shocked when I got the line on the third attempt! I had to find the jumbled title of the movie the radio jockey had given the words for. It was easy peasy. The call was recorded at their end and played a while later. I w...

There are some small trivial things that are associated with your everyday life, which consciously or sub-consciously attribute to your day being good or bad. It could just be anything small or mundane too.  One such example is this. In my office, there keep a box of biscuits - usually two varieties and one box of some snack. Every morning when I go to fill my bottle with water, I glance at these two boxes. And on a day that I see one or more of my favorites sitting inside it, it just brings a smile on my face and I feel that the day is going to go well. I might be so busy that I might not end up taking any of those, but still it gives a good feeling! So, today is Triple Dhamaka - both the biscuits - Marie and the Parle Hide-n-Seek, and the snack (ribbon pakoda with til seeds in it) are one of my favorites!! Ya! for today. 

I am sucker for romantic songs - especially once that have a good beat at the background - Mumbe Va, Vaseegara, Ondra Renda, Paartha Mudhal naale .... The latest to be added to this list is : Sun Saathiya from yet-to-released ABCD - 2. I have been having this on repeat mode on youtube. To sideline a bit, if you want to play a youtube video on repeat - replace the "youtube" in the URL with "listenonrepeat". Coming back to the song, I just love the soft sensuous voice of the female singer intercepted beautifully with the gravel voice of Divya Kumar. I think what adds to the beauty of the song is the visual of the song picturization that is stuck in my head. It is not one of those typical love songs that is pictured with the heroine and hero dancing around trees and spectacular locations - it is the background song for a dance practice. And What a dance! I never knew Shradha was so flexible! Love the steps and the grace of the heroine. Just today it struck me - ...

The first thing I like about the movie was the red dot on all of the i's. The second thing was the background sitar. It was haunting and very refreshing. In moments which were solemn, the sitar's sound was very soothing and not sad (as it is usually used for). Piku - is a breath of fresh air admist the cacophony , that is today's cinema. Shod of anything remotely glamorous and at the same time lacking the morose climate that an art film usually brings with it, it tickles your ribs and makes your heart flutter in those small quiet moments and makes you reflect on just how much it relates to your own life. My friend A said - it is not like your typical movie which starts with "Once upon a time..." and ends with "The end ..". It is like a small piece of daily happenings from somebody's life. And that is so true. There are many parts of the movie that you can so totally relate to. The story revolves around the constipation problem of the prot...

... My Mil cried when she saw this movie and thanked me for sharing this movie with her, for it was one of the best she saw and felt close to her heart, as she felt that it reflected herself a lot.  Whatever her reasons may have been, the more I listen to the songs of this movie or reflect upon various scenes in the movie, I feel every married woman, who plays the role of a homemaker will see her in some or the other part of the movie. This song has been playing on my head for sometime now. I dont know how I missed it while listening to the album in the first place.  Amit Trivedi and Swanand Kirke must share a bond that goes deep to their souls I feel, for having produced such a beautiful, from the depths of your heart, song. Every tiny beat, every tiny dip in the voice, every work just seems to have been made for each other. HATS off to the duo.  A very simple song that talks of the untold love for the husband and fear of being forgotten by her husband and famil...

Often this happens. There is one song that gets stuck in the "replay" mode on whatever I am listening music on. This time it is this song - "Innum Konjam Neram" from Maryan. Oooh! this song is giving me goosebumps. It is so romantic oooooh!  Vijay Prakash and Sweta Mohan have given such a beautiful voice over - soft, endearing, alluring and oh! so romantic! Listening to this song and watching the visual, I even found the normally revolting Dhanush slightly looking good. That is the power of the composer and the singers. It is almost as if they both have really felt the mood and sung in their own lives!  "Innum Konajm Neram" .... plays on and on .. till I get bored - or change it just for the heck.  Whatever may it be, this one definitely gets added to my all time favourites.

The end of the year always brings cheer and joy and of course less work at office. We utilized this to the maximum by watching 2 movies on week days and that too an evening show! PK and The Hobbit - Battle of 5 armies. The latter was , as is any hobbit or LOTR movie, mind blowing - though I preferred Part 2 of The Hobbit to Part 3. Part 3 seemed unnecessarily dragged - more like made just to make the trilogy. And the whole movie is quite gore - nothing but war and death - which generally does not sit well with me. Now the former - is the best treat for eyes and ears that could have happened in 2014. PK - I saw this movie twice within the span of 8 days and i must say, I did not get bored for a single second the second time too! A delightful comedy which has you in tears of joy all through the first half and makes you ponder on the blind faiths that we hold in the second half.  Seeing the movie just makes you wish that Raju Hirani would make movies more often...

7 Years later amma and me went to see a movie in the theatre together - Lingaa. And what a treat it was ! Could we leave behind the biggest Rajni fan in our house - of course not! While appa kindly obliged to baby-sit the girls instead of getting a headache watching the 3 hour debacle , the trio of amma-me-and the Mr. went and enjoyed the movie.  There are zillions of reviews about the movie. This is not one, but is only my views on the movie. I totally agree with what most of the reviews have unanimously agreed on - the movie is out and an out Rajni show and my what a SHOW!. He has single handedly handled the movie absolutely with ease. If you thought , he looked young in Sivaji - think again - in Linga not a single screen which shows that he is 65!!! He looks easily a man in 30s only! Credit not only goes to the make-up artist but the star himself, who has acted with full vigour of a middle aged man. While Ambitabh's age shows up with grace in every movie he acts and he l...

It has been an emotionally taxing couple of years. So many deaths in the family - very close relatives. It almost feels as if one part of my life has just gone away. All those times spent with them are just left as memories recorded in my brain. The heart feels heavy when it realizes that they were just taken away too soon - way too soon. May God rest their soul in peace and may they shower their wisdom upon me in their own way and guide me through life with their experience. 

About 4 months ago, DH got me my cycle - or should I call it Bike to be more posh :). He got bitten by the cycling bug in Feb and in April convinced me to sink some green bucks and buy one for myself too. I still remember the evening we got the cycle - a Scott Sportster Hybrid bike. I rode the cycle back from the shop - a 7km ride at about 7:30pm evening in the evening. I had mixed feelings - I was feeling quite exhilarated riding a bicycle again after nearly 14 years and at the same time apprehensive on having sunk so much money into something which I may never use. I was also so conscious of all the riding gear i was wearing (which was just a helmet and some gloves of course). The one thing that has stayed the same way ever since that day I rode the bike to today is the "pain in the butt" - LITERALLY!!! Today 7 kms seems a jujubee !! Thanks to the persistence of DH, I have been riding almost every weekend (one day) without fail and sometimes - very rarely during we...

.... the heart is full of joy and music and all thanks to little ones who filled my ears and soul with music for an hour and half .. I am so glad I took the decision to make it to the last show of this season despite "no-no"s from the DH and amma - the traffic will be so heavy, it is a saturday evening !! ; ah! when concerts were a stone's throw away from home, you never attended, why this sudden interest -- blah blah blah .. The show was divine!!!  I forgot the number of times my eyes were filled with tears of joy and the number of times I felt goosebumps all over. My feet would just not stop beating to the rhythm and the smile on my face would just not fade. Ah! those blessed divine little souls - what magic in their voice, what innocence in their eyes and smiles, what resilience in their bodies!!!  Well, I guess the fact that i opened this blog and wrote a post itself probably shows the extent to which i was moved. I was and am lost, in a world that is just and onl...

.... to be able to emulate this song and imbibe it into every pore of my body ... I am at a very very low level of self-confidence at this point in time !

I lifted the 'cover' from atop the 'dairy' and volumes of dust and grit poured out ..... Sigh! Underneath lay 'My life' - 'My Space' - the place where I shared my thoughts, my opinions, shared my moments ... Sigh! It got lost ... admist the burdens of 'motherhood', 'wifehood' ... 'daughterhood' ... 'lifehood' ... It pains at times to be unable to find that one iota of space that is just me and not shared with anybody else ... maybe it is time i stopped waiting for the time for that space to open up and tear my way through the shroud of moments and find it .. even if it is a millisecond !!! ... that satisfying land that is just mine! And in ode to that and in the hope that I will continue to find that micron of time ... here goes my re-opening post!

... The other day D and her husband stopped by home to give us some Mysore bondas that she had made. They were taking one batch to R's place and said - We will take Maya there with us, if she will come. We said okay go ahead and see. This little lady cool-ly waved bye to me and the Mr. and off they went. The Mr. remarked "Parthuko rendu nimishathile amma amma koopitindu varuva" (In 2 mintues she will call "Amma amma" and come back). We peeped through the blinds on the french window to see them retreat and still no sign of crying from her. After a while we even dared to step onto the balcony and she turned back and kept waving to us. And that's it - she was gone .. 5 mins later I started to squirm - Maybe I should just go to R's house and check on how she is doing? Do You think I should call D to find out how she is? Do you think she is crying or asking for us? The Mr. seized the window of opportunity to experiment on a grasshopper that he chanced to see ...

Amma on the phone ..." ... she said she got 3/4 kg Lady-Finger free for purchasing 1000/- worth of clothing ... @ Pothy's ....". The Mr. and I had to ask her to repeat it again! Is there no limit to the things that they offer in free to lure people to come shopping?? Well, the Mr. says, given the rate at which vegetables and daal is being sold, I am sure people would not complain. After all who cares for "free" towels, bedsheets or even gold coins anymore???

... 9 years ago, one Thursday afternoon in the month of March, I bunked class for the first time in my life - to go to see a movie with - um, how do I put it - "the would-be Mr. in my life" (not very good, but chalta hain description) . And what movie would that be? "The Runaway Bride" (ROFL!). Couple of his friends we met at the theatre commented - " not the best choice for a movie with her". ... and Yesterday the Mr. & I did the same - "bunked" work (let me put that politically correct - took half day off) and went to see Mr. Potter as he battled the "half-blood Prince". Oooh! The very thought of the similar situation made me feel so "youthful" and all "girlish giggly" hee hee. There we were holding hands like teenagers and running towards the People Mover station (running - only because we were late for the movie) and my mind could rewind all the way back to that incident 9 years ago! Ah! to feel young again...