One of the few things which has genuinely miffed me, is how and why women place so much emphasis on and fall for a guy with good English-speaking ability.
Mere good communication skills is never enough.
I don't believe in being wordy; so all I have to say regarding this is:
English mattum terinja poduma? Vishayam teriyanum 'la?*
*It is not enough to just be good at English. One should know the matter also.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
I was tagged on facebook a couple of months back before this leg fiasco by S who said to me: "A, will you do this 25 thing?"
I honestly didnt have time then as I was busy with work and had a social life.
But now I am unable to participate in both above mentioned activities and so will take up this tag.
I have seen many ppl do this tag on their blog and thought this was a good idea and so i will also do it on my blog (since I currently have one).
25 is a huge number and i am not known for sustaining my interest in anything for too long, but I will finish this.
1. I am not fond of chocolate. If all the women in the world were divided into those who love and hate chocolate, I would probably be all alone on one side with the rest of the women on the other.
2. While we're on this topic, I might as well 'fess up that I ABSOLUTELY HATE coffee and am not that into ice-cream either.
3. My favorite colors are blue, black and red.
4. I don’t like wearing jeans. For some weird reason, it hurts my skin.
5. My favorite fruit/flavor is mango. The only ice-cream I will touch is Mango ice-cream.
6. I have at least 5 pairs of black pants and at one point had 4 black winter coats. I used to try to wear these at any given time. Because of this, I was given the name 'Grim.'
7. The previous naming ceremony was also held because I can be pretty cold and un-emotional sometimes. However, I am pretty good at masking this when I want to.
8. I love pecan pie and cheesecake. There was a point of time where the highlights of my life used to be used to be BK Veggie burger and Mango cheesecake.
9. I love tea. (no brownie points for guessing that one). I can also make quite good tea, my sole claim to fame in the culinary dept.
10. I am a sci-fi fan. Star trek and Star Wars being my favorite.
11. Coming from a musically inclined (and of course tam-brahm) family, I was put into Carnatic vocal (presumably because I was a girl) and instrumental classes from a young age. I am a pretty good singer, if I do say so myself. I also believe I know my music pretty well. So if I tell you its ragam Durbari Kaanada, it probably is.
12. I used to be good at Shot-put and Javelin. The only sport that I still enjoy playing now and follow regularly is Tennis.
13. I believe in live and let live (usually). You really have to be one mentally sick specimen to want to annoy me. However, if annoyed and pushed, I can get nasty.
14. I am very absent-minded. A number of times I have opened the fridge and forgotten what I wanted or walked into rooms and couldn’t remember what I came there for.
15. I love Lego. I used to build spaceships as a kid with my Lego blocks and this used to be my favorite pastime apart from reading.
16. Most people, when they meet me in person, seem astonished that I am interested in science, philosophy, and sci-fi. Probably they were expecting thick glasses. I’m usually the one who has the last laugh in these meetings.
17. I forget things quickly. I have scrapes on my body that I usually can’t remember how I got. This sometimes worries my mother. (love you amma).
18. I am not that good a cook. I suspect due to poor short-term memory. But if someone else is there along with me in the kitchen, I can manage quite well.
19. I love philosophy. I can have discussions about Vedanta anywhere, anytime.
20. There are only 3 languages I can read, write AND speak/understand: English, Hindi and Sanskrit.
21. My favorite part of Chennai is Mylapore.
22. I like martial arts.
23. I have a varied music taste. I enjoy listening to almost everything from Carnatic to Jazz to Japanese/Chinese classical. My favorite music band of all time is Alan Parsons Project.
24. I love reading. My favorite books include Amar Chitra Katha, Asterix, Tintin, Calvin and Hobbes, Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, The Upanishads, The Mahabharatha and Ramayana, and R.K Narayan and Ruskin Bond's works. My favorite book of all time is R.K. Narayan's Swami and Friends.
25. I love listening to the Tambura.
I honestly didnt have time then as I was busy with work and had a social life.
But now I am unable to participate in both above mentioned activities and so will take up this tag.
I have seen many ppl do this tag on their blog and thought this was a good idea and so i will also do it on my blog (since I currently have one).
25 is a huge number and i am not known for sustaining my interest in anything for too long, but I will finish this.
1. I am not fond of chocolate. If all the women in the world were divided into those who love and hate chocolate, I would probably be all alone on one side with the rest of the women on the other.
2. While we're on this topic, I might as well 'fess up that I ABSOLUTELY HATE coffee and am not that into ice-cream either.
3. My favorite colors are blue, black and red.
4. I don’t like wearing jeans. For some weird reason, it hurts my skin.
5. My favorite fruit/flavor is mango. The only ice-cream I will touch is Mango ice-cream.
6. I have at least 5 pairs of black pants and at one point had 4 black winter coats. I used to try to wear these at any given time. Because of this, I was given the name 'Grim.'
7. The previous naming ceremony was also held because I can be pretty cold and un-emotional sometimes. However, I am pretty good at masking this when I want to.
8. I love pecan pie and cheesecake. There was a point of time where the highlights of my life used to be used to be BK Veggie burger and Mango cheesecake.
9. I love tea. (no brownie points for guessing that one). I can also make quite good tea, my sole claim to fame in the culinary dept.
10. I am a sci-fi fan. Star trek and Star Wars being my favorite.
11. Coming from a musically inclined (and of course tam-brahm) family, I was put into Carnatic vocal (presumably because I was a girl) and instrumental classes from a young age. I am a pretty good singer, if I do say so myself. I also believe I know my music pretty well. So if I tell you its ragam Durbari Kaanada, it probably is.
12. I used to be good at Shot-put and Javelin. The only sport that I still enjoy playing now and follow regularly is Tennis.
13. I believe in live and let live (usually). You really have to be one mentally sick specimen to want to annoy me. However, if annoyed and pushed, I can get nasty.
14. I am very absent-minded. A number of times I have opened the fridge and forgotten what I wanted or walked into rooms and couldn’t remember what I came there for.
15. I love Lego. I used to build spaceships as a kid with my Lego blocks and this used to be my favorite pastime apart from reading.
16. Most people, when they meet me in person, seem astonished that I am interested in science, philosophy, and sci-fi. Probably they were expecting thick glasses. I’m usually the one who has the last laugh in these meetings.
17. I forget things quickly. I have scrapes on my body that I usually can’t remember how I got. This sometimes worries my mother. (love you amma).
18. I am not that good a cook. I suspect due to poor short-term memory. But if someone else is there along with me in the kitchen, I can manage quite well.
19. I love philosophy. I can have discussions about Vedanta anywhere, anytime.
20. There are only 3 languages I can read, write AND speak/understand: English, Hindi and Sanskrit.
21. My favorite part of Chennai is Mylapore.
22. I like martial arts.
23. I have a varied music taste. I enjoy listening to almost everything from Carnatic to Jazz to Japanese/Chinese classical. My favorite music band of all time is Alan Parsons Project.
24. I love reading. My favorite books include Amar Chitra Katha, Asterix, Tintin, Calvin and Hobbes, Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, The Upanishads, The Mahabharatha and Ramayana, and R.K Narayan and Ruskin Bond's works. My favorite book of all time is R.K. Narayan's Swami and Friends.
25. I love listening to the Tambura.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Interactive
I thought perhaps a little interactivity would be nice, as opposed to you just passively reading what I have to say and commenting.
On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate your cowardice?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate your cowardice?
Monday, April 27, 2009
A Violent Man
An almost completely immobile life where one is greatly dependent on infinitely patient parents for simple things including visits to the loo and transport to the next street, has left me feeling quite fidgety.
This coupled with depressing thoughts such as "Will this bandage come off before Agni Nakshatram sets in?" has left me reminiscing about happier, mobile times.
This incident happened when I was 12 during my summer vacation. It was decided that we would go to a popular hill-station for a holiday. However, due to several reasons including my exams, our family had to travel separately, with one set of family and relatives going first and me and my mother coming later, accompanied by a portly family friend who was going to a place a couple of stops after ours.
Now I had never traveled by train before and this was going to be my first time and I was understandably a very excited child. This excitement manifested itself in several forms during the journey with my asking the ticket conductor a smorgasbord of annoying questions, checking the berths for dead people (pun intended) and a number of other things.
Having exhausted these venues, my attention now turned to the portly family friend, whose girth greatly fascinated me. When my mother took her nap, I took the opportunity to focus my energy on this friend. I spilled hot bournvita near his crotch (accidentally) to which he said "its alright ....just a child." I also woke him up from his nap so that I could "check" his berth for safety reasons. Then I excitedly touched his crisp shirt with oily train-food stained hands to show him some cows outside. I also gently poked his stomach and immediately apologized.
At any rate, when we reached our station, the portly gentleman politely helped my mother off the train and after I had gotten off, threw my bugs-bunny suitcase out of the compartment with what I thought was rather unnecessary violence.
A violent man indeed.
This coupled with depressing thoughts such as "Will this bandage come off before Agni Nakshatram sets in?" has left me reminiscing about happier, mobile times.
This incident happened when I was 12 during my summer vacation. It was decided that we would go to a popular hill-station for a holiday. However, due to several reasons including my exams, our family had to travel separately, with one set of family and relatives going first and me and my mother coming later, accompanied by a portly family friend who was going to a place a couple of stops after ours.
Now I had never traveled by train before and this was going to be my first time and I was understandably a very excited child. This excitement manifested itself in several forms during the journey with my asking the ticket conductor a smorgasbord of annoying questions, checking the berths for dead people (pun intended) and a number of other things.
Having exhausted these venues, my attention now turned to the portly family friend, whose girth greatly fascinated me. When my mother took her nap, I took the opportunity to focus my energy on this friend. I spilled hot bournvita near his crotch (accidentally) to which he said "its alright ....just a child." I also woke him up from his nap so that I could "check" his berth for safety reasons. Then I excitedly touched his crisp shirt with oily train-food stained hands to show him some cows outside. I also gently poked his stomach and immediately apologized.
At any rate, when we reached our station, the portly gentleman politely helped my mother off the train and after I had gotten off, threw my bugs-bunny suitcase out of the compartment with what I thought was rather unnecessary violence.
A violent man indeed.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Truth or Dare
Lets play a game, shall we?
In this game, I will dispel some myths and corroborate some facts.
In this game, I will dispel some myths and corroborate some facts.
- Iyers and Iyengars are always at loggerheads with each other.
-Myth. - We still live in a ridiculous society where women are made to feel insecure about their skin-color(or lack of it rather) and ergo their appearance.
-Fact. - There has been an increase in rowdyism in Tamilnadu in the past 2-3 years.
-Fact. - Indian men in general are more patient than American men.
-Fact. - Brits are all smarter than Americans.
-Myth. This may have something to do with the fact that Brits are more harsh and cynical, leading to the mistaken belief that they are smart. This is rubbish. eg: Simon Cowell. His remarks may sound harsh and 'clever' but under careful analysis are actually silly and irritating. - Aham Brahmasmi.
-Fact. - Jealousy and insecurity is present to a slightly greater extent in women than it is in men.
-Fact. I would like to very clearly state at this point that i do indeed believe in women's rights. - Iyengars ALWAYS make better puliyodarai than Iyers.
-Myth. - It is impossible for brains and looks to go together.
-Myth. - The Brits have given us some of the best music over the decades.
-Fact. - The Law of Karma, though inscrutable, works.
-Fact.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Humor what, ho!
While a student in the US, I suffered for a period of time from a lack of good programs to watch on telly, considering I dont enjoy most American shows (read Lost, Idol, Sex and the City, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Letterman etc etc). The fact that cable had only 2 channels that showed the sports i liked (european football and tennis, and that too at odd hours : 3.24am-what the heck!? pretty inconvenient when you have a test the next day, id say!)
There was also a lack of good comedy to unwind with during weekends, what with my finding American humor alarmingly boring, and no SunTV and Vadivelu and Vivek (popular Tamil comedians).
It was during this time of desperation that I prayed and hoped for some comedic succor.
Enter Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
Considering the fact that I grew up on British humor with classics like 'Allo 'Allo, Are you being served?, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and Yes Minister, it was perhaps only natural that I progressed to them.
Their comedy was a new type of modern British humor- downright ridiculous, sometimes even risque, and refreshingly unpretentious; thereby standing a class apart from the other types of current comedic satire that was getting so irritatingly ubiquitous.
To me, they always looked like the modern day version of Laurel and Hardy.
Some of Ricky's quotes:
As David Brent, On Pol Pot:
"Pol Pot - he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he told someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they're that clever, take them off when they see him coming!"
On Prince:
“Steve Merchant says Prince is a genius. This is Xfm, 104.9!”
And my personal favorite, in concordance with the current economic situation-
As Brent:
“What is the single most important thing for a company? ......It’s the people, investment in people. My proudest moment here wasn’t when I increased profits by 17%, or cut expenditure without losing a single member of staff. No. It was a young Greek guy, first job in the country, hardly spoke a word of English, but he came to me and he went ‘Mr. Brent, will you be the Godfather to my child?’. Didn’t happen in the end. We had to let him go, he was rubbish. He was rubbish!”
P.S-added as an afterthought-i guess you have to have a certain different type of attitude and approach towards life and comedy to get this sort of humor to work for you.
There was also a lack of good comedy to unwind with during weekends, what with my finding American humor alarmingly boring, and no SunTV and Vadivelu and Vivek (popular Tamil comedians).
It was during this time of desperation that I prayed and hoped for some comedic succor.
Enter Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
Considering the fact that I grew up on British humor with classics like 'Allo 'Allo, Are you being served?, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and Yes Minister, it was perhaps only natural that I progressed to them.
Their comedy was a new type of modern British humor- downright ridiculous, sometimes even risque, and refreshingly unpretentious; thereby standing a class apart from the other types of current comedic satire that was getting so irritatingly ubiquitous.
To me, they always looked like the modern day version of Laurel and Hardy.
Some of Ricky's quotes:
As David Brent, On Pol Pot:
"Pol Pot - he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he told someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they're that clever, take them off when they see him coming!"
On Prince:
“Steve Merchant says Prince is a genius. This is Xfm, 104.9!”
And my personal favorite, in concordance with the current economic situation-
As Brent:
“What is the single most important thing for a company? ......It’s the people, investment in people. My proudest moment here wasn’t when I increased profits by 17%, or cut expenditure without losing a single member of staff. No. It was a young Greek guy, first job in the country, hardly spoke a word of English, but he came to me and he went ‘Mr. Brent, will you be the Godfather to my child?’. Didn’t happen in the end. We had to let him go, he was rubbish. He was rubbish!”
P.S-added as an afterthought-i guess you have to have a certain different type of attitude and approach towards life and comedy to get this sort of humor to work for you.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Seriyana Ashadu
In most tam-brahm households, including mine, the word ashadu is used to refer to a silly person, because of something silly they did. It is used usually in a gently chiding way. For example in the following context:
Mami : ketelo 'na? kalyaanathula ponnoda vaira mookuthi kanaama pogumbodu paiyyan yenna pannardu nu teriyaama thalaya sorinjindu adhirsam saaptundirundaan!
Mama : appidiya? seriyana ashada irupaan pola irruke!
At any rate, why this sudden reference to ashadu one may wonder. Well, the above mentioned two-word phrase is what an elderly relative said to my 12 year old cousin when he tried to leap-frog over the vadyaar who was teaching him how to do something of religious significance yesterday.
And while we're on this topic an important cautionary note to all future tam grooms:
if your bride loses her diamond nose stud, dont continue stuffing yourself with bakshanam like an ashadu; drop that mullu murukku and rush to her side.
Mami : ketelo 'na? kalyaanathula ponnoda vaira mookuthi kanaama pogumbodu paiyyan yenna pannardu nu teriyaama thalaya sorinjindu adhirsam saaptundirundaan!
Mama : appidiya? seriyana ashada irupaan pola irruke!
At any rate, why this sudden reference to ashadu one may wonder. Well, the above mentioned two-word phrase is what an elderly relative said to my 12 year old cousin when he tried to leap-frog over the vadyaar who was teaching him how to do something of religious significance yesterday.
And while we're on this topic an important cautionary note to all future tam grooms:
if your bride loses her diamond nose stud, dont continue stuffing yourself with bakshanam like an ashadu; drop that mullu murukku and rush to her side.
