Marriages are made in heaven

Watching my cousin get married was an amazing experience for me. To see them together so happy and so in love - my eyes were moist during the ceremony. Makes me want to believe in love again. Makes me want to believe that when the time is right, everyone meets that special someone and you really do then end up together, and all the past is then just that - the past. At that moment, nothing matters - no wish unfulfilled, no dream impossible - because the only thing that counts is that you are standing with a person that you will spend the rest of your life with. A person you chose. Or perhaps a person God chose for you.

Now I know why people catch the tube!

After my last trip to London I remember writing in my blog that it looks like everyone in london is on the tube and noone owns a car. I take that back! Looks like everyone in london owns TWO cars each! The traffic is crazy!

Some of my experiences on london roads:

- Taking 2 hours 15mins to get home from the airport when I was told it would take an hour!
- Being stuck for an hour in traffic because part of a tunnel was closed, following which we caught the tube with no warm clothes!
- A taxi driver trying to avoid the main road and taking an extra 40 mins on small bumpy streets to take us to the wedding hall
- Another taxi driver driving in circles around the same three streets for about 20 mins

Think i'm sworn off london roads!

Hail the tube!

An affair to remember

A family wedding in london. Expensive! 24 hours on a plane just to get there! Could it really be worth it i wondered. But then decided to go for it because I didnt want to regret it later.

And now that its over it was more than worth every penny and every minute of cramped legs! I cant believe I ever considered not coming. I have loved every minute of meeting family that I havent met in many years (owing to the fact that i live in the other corner of the world...from EVERYONE!), every minute of meeting cousins that I have never seen because they were born long after I moved away and most of all every minute of seeing the most beautiful wedding that I've seen in my life.

It lasted 3 days and they're three days I will never forget!

Big B the president - you've got to be kidding me!

Apparently a lot of politicians now want Amitabh Bachhan to become to the president of india! Excuse me?! Where'd that come from? Dont get me wrong, I'm a fan of his, but the president of India!! What has he done for the country to date? And what would his vision for India be? Where are these people getting this crap in their head from? If it actually happens, I will stop believing in people i'm sure! Its the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of! And that too following Dr Abdul Kalam! A man with amazing credentials who really has done so much for India...and who has a great vision for his country, our country!

I have more to say about this...but it probably involves language not appropriate to a public domain! But what is WRONG with people?!

Eden Park - a decision made?

The rugby world cup is coming to New Zealand they said. Yayyy we thought. Who knew it would all lead to so much nonsense. They starting with so much enthusiasm. A stunning model of a new stadium on the Auckland waterfront. Something that would one day be symbolic of Auckland, like the opera house. And it would have been great use of the waterfront which at the moment is covered with cargo boxes, since that's the port. This being shifted to another location would have been a great idea...who puts a shipping port smack bang in the middle of a CBD?! Especially when Auckland is surrounded by water!

So there was this amazing idea that everyone loved and the central government was willing to put in a lot of the money for it. But then other people starting pitching new ideas. Why not just 'redo' so-and-so stadium? Why not build a stadium in another location? A waterfront stadium would cost too much! But its the world cup! The world cup for the sport that kiwis live, eat and breathe and this is what they come up with! So numbers were crunched and every council that voted had different ideas. I'm still not exactly sure how the final decision was made, but all of a sudden the dream of a waterfront stadium was pulled away and we were told they would re-do Eden Park (which would cost them 300odd million as opposed to 800odd million for the waterfront). What kind a stupid idea is that? A stadium in the middle of a residential area which is already nearly impossible to get to thanks to lack of parking around the place. (Whenever we go to Eden Park, we have to get there a good hour early because we have to park so far away!) And its already difficult enough for the residents and now it'll be worse. And who would use a bigger Eden Park once this is done?

Well, said the central government, Eden Park is an auckland stadium so we shall not pay for it! Its the Auckland city council's responsibility! HUH? But isn't the rugby world cup a national event, something that'll bring revenue to the whole country! Anyway so a few weeks later we still didnt know what was going on, till we were told that they had realised it would cost 400mil to redo Eden Park properly, and thus they'd do a temporary arrangement costing 150mil instead. And also because they dont see the point of permanently expanding Eden Park. Temporary seating?! For the rugby world cup! Remember to bring your own chairs oh people of the world!!

Funniest part is they still dont know who will pay the money! Central govt doesnt want to. Auckland regional council thinks auckland city council should. Auckland city council doesnt want to pay for all of it. Etc Etc. Apparently they will sort it out. So they say...

And now we have to live with this decision. Because the people making the decisions had no foresight. Look what sydney did with the Olympic games...couldnt we at least learn 5% from that. Apparently when the opera house was being built, they had to deal with the same crap. Only difference was it was finally approved. And look what it is now! A waterfront stadium would have done the same for Auckland. And now all we have is the sky tower! And a temporary Eden bloody Park!

And AGAIN!!!!

The black caps did it agaaaaaaaaaain!! and they outdid their previous effort this time. (Though I'm a little bummed...wish I had gone down to Hamilton too...I can no longer say I watched the best game that NZ ever played)! hehe

I just couldnt believe it last night. Chasing 346 against Australia!! Absolutely stunning!

Was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time. The game was so so close and I do feel sorry for Michael Hussey. First time captain and this is what he has to go through. A series whitewash. Australia's first ever in God knows how many years. And now Gilchrist says 'We didnt want this tour'...is that some sort of an excuse? I'm not going to be one of those people who have started to write off australia...i'm sure they will be back with a vengence at the world cup but imagine the sort of confidence this and the previous series (which england won) has given the rest of the world. That the invincible Aussies can be beaten! I know that this series they weren't full strength. But they nearly were in the last series.

And what's with Australia failing over and over again to defend big scores?? Biggest example of that would be the South Africa game of course...i dont think anything would compare to that! Bu the last two games the kiwis played really were unbelievable!

I'm always happy when the aussies lose...but yesterday I was really rooting for New Zealand...the way they were playing they deserve to win and they deserved the whitewash! I really am becoming a fan of the black caps! :)

What a game!

Watched the best cricket match I’ve ever seen yesterday (in person!). What a game! I’m not such a huuuuge supporter of the Black Caps (the NZ cricket team)…as in I do support them of course but not a diehard fan (that status is solely for supporting the indian team!). So through the initial phases of the match yesterday against Australia, I was fairly neutral. Enjoying the batting of both sides and just happy to be watching a game I love. But probably about half way through the New Zealand innings watching the way they were batting I just got caught up in the atmosphere (and what atmosphere it was…the stadium almost full with kiwi supporters of course with a few aussies here and there) and was cheering with the best of them. My voice is a bit hoarse now from all the yelling and screaming, but Boy was it worth it! The Black Caps won…chased 337 with an over and five wickets to spare and the aussies were left to lick their wounds. A series defeat yet again! And losing their top spot in the rankings for the first time ever. Could anything be better? New Zealand wins and the Aussies lose. Just a PERFECT Sunday! Go Black Caps! :)

Eklavya

Watching the movie Eklavya reminded me of the real Eklavya (from the Mahabharat). I’ve always thought that the story was the most cruel in the entire Mahabharat. They say that Mahabharat was entirely written by Krishna even before it occurred and there was a reason behind everything. Several parts of the Mahabharat are filled with people cheating the other. Duryodhan was killed through cheating. Karna was killed through cheating (Karna is my favourite character of the Mahabharat..and so wronged!..but that for another day). But Krishna tells Arjun that he must fight against his own because it was all for the greater good.

But how about Eklavya? His sole purpose was to get rid of Arjuna’s ego. The story goes that Arjun was starting to get over confident about his abilities as an archer till Eklavya came along. But was it right for the guru to ask Eklavya for his thumb? Eklavya gave up his everything at the demand of a guru who didn’t want his favourite student to be surpassed. When I heard this story as a child I remember crying because it seemed so unfair.

Was Eklavya right in what he did? Is duty above all? What about his duty to himself and what he loved the most in the world?

And was this too for the ‘greater’ good that Krishna talked about? Is it ok to sacrifice an innocent boy’s dreams and hopes for this so-called greater good?

I guess I have no place talking about the Mahabharata as I probably don’t understand the whole philosophy behind it. Just that watching the movie reminded me of something that really disturbed me as a child. And even now I cant understand it. Perhaps I will when I grow up a bit more?

To be honest or to be nice? – that is the question!

Me the flaky one is back talking about movies and movie stars (stop rolling those eyes!) but watched an episode of ‘Koffee with Karan’ the other day with SRK, kajol and rani mukherjee. While SRK was at his comedic best with each one liner outdoing the other, the real comparison I’d like to make is between Kajol and Rani Mukherjee. While Kajol was funny, straightforward and bordering on b*tchy, Rani was the epitome of goodness – everyone’s favourite daughter or bahu. An example of this would be when Rani was asked ‘if you, srk and kajol were trapped in a plane and there were only two parachutes, what would you do’, she replied ‘I’d stay back and give it to them because everyone wants to watch them on screen together’…and this wasn’t said as a joke either! Kajol’s reaction to that was ‘please stoppp’…I mean seriously!!

In the general sense is it worth being diplomatic if you have to lie through your nose all the time. Over here I’m not talking about these actresses but people as a whole. I have met many people in life who smile on the outside and make faces behind the person’s back. Is that the way of the world? Am I the only one in the world who appreciates good old fashioned honesty? Is diplomacy (bordering on hypocrisy) the call of the day? How do people do it..its so bloody hard!!

On the show, Kajol was laughing, she was mean, she was silly while Rani through the whole show presented the picture of perfection and diplomacy. I do wonder how many people find that endearing though. I for one loved Kajol and found myself choking at Rani’s answers. To sum up I’ll use a quote from SRK – ‘Rani is trying to attain sainthood and Kajol makes people give up sainthood’…I for one would like to be the latter! Otherwise wouldn’t life be such a bore!

Opinions

What is it about opinions? Is it just me who wonders how much of my opinion is my own. Too many times I find myself rephrasing what someone else said to me just because their argument was strong enough to convince me. And whats worse is that a few days later the opposite argument made by a better speaker might change my stand on the issue. Of course there are certain things that I will always support or oppose…things that are embedded in my principles. But here I’m talking about smaller things. A current affair that I may hear about and depending on how good the radio host talking about it is I start to agree with him/her. Does that mean I have no mind of my own and can be moulded any way? *sigh* That doesn’t do a lot for my ego!

Valentines day - - who cares??

I drove past a florist yesterday that was advertising single roses for $18 and a dozen for $150!! Are you kidding me?! On any other day they’d be a fifth of the price! So why do people go through all the trouble of sending flowers and doing things on this particular day?

Ok so now this is starting to sound like the growing opinion that valentine’s day has become too commercialised and its silly to do anything on the day. Everyone seems to be saying ‘who cares about valentine’s day’? But actually I beg to differ. I care!! I know people say that when you love someone anyway why pick today to show it but its just something to remind you of that special person in your heart isn’t it? So if I had a partner of course I’d want to do something on valentine’s day with him…no matter how cheesy others may find me! Heck what’s a relationship without a bit of cheese! Hehe!

But why not think of something different. Not the standard roses or cards or chocolates but something simple, sweet and from your heart. I for one would love a silly but cute text message a lot more than a dozen red roses!

What would I do for my valentine (if I had one of course!)? Bake him a lovely cake! Delivered with a big hug..and a smile to die for! Happy Valentines! :)

KBC and SRK :) :)

I finally watched an episode of KBC with my beloved shah rukh khan (for some weird reason, though we have star plus apparently kbc is not shown in New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines…go figure!). Anyway I must say I loved it! People will call me biased and perhaps I am but to me he outdid Amitabh Bachchan completely. Amitabh Bachchan did it his way but I always thought he was way too uptight and to the contestants it probably felt like they were sitting in an examination with the host grilling them! But with SRK, it seemed like he was their best friend egging them on to win more and more money. He was funny, he was sweet, he was absolutely charming. And I know I would LOVE to be a contestant on that show…not just for the money…but for a hug from him! :)

Page 3 or Page 1?

Apparently Abhishek Bachan and Aishwarya Rai are getting married. Good for them! But why does the whole world and its uncle have to know EVERY single detail of their life?! Don’t people have ANYTHING better to do? A few days ago I switched on the tv and on a news channel saw the words ‘Breaking news’ and me the silly person that I am, inspite of watching the indian news channel for so long and knowing that their breaking news could be a cat being stuck at the top of a tree, thought something significant must have happened. And that was it! That they were engaged. And a lady (I will not insult the word journalist by calling her that) stood outside Aishwarya Rai’s parents’ apartment and was giving some sort of running commentary ‘and a little while ago we sas karan johar walk in’…who the hell cares?! But apparently people do! Because she was also asking people on the road how they were feeling at that moment and the way people were expressing their happiness you would have thought it was the 15th of august 1947 and india was getting its independence. Is the news all about celebrities? Its like page 3 exists no more because its all on page one! How absolutely ridiculous!

I have interesting relatives!

Going back to the same movie discussed below (it was salaam-e-ishq…didn’t mention that before!)…in the movie the wife loses her memory. It is amazing how many hindi movies I have seen where someone loses their memory and a while ago I said to my mum nothing like that would happen in real life!! And she narrated to me the story of a distant relative. This man (who was related to her grandfather somehow) lived with his family quite happily till one day his house was attacked by naxalites (who I guess are some sort of revolutionaries..or something!)…he fled into the jungle while being chased by naxalites and either was hit by one of them or somehow got injured. He was never found and everyone presumed him dead.

What actually happened was that he was found and nursed back to health by some villagers living in the forest but he lost his memory. After a period, he married someone else in that new village and had kids. Many years later he happened upon his hometown and started to recollect everything. He found his way to his house where his kids (now grown men) lived but his wife was away. He tried to convince his kids of who he was but no body believed him. They then called his wife who also didn’t recognise him till he started to tell her about their life etc.

I’m not quite sure whether he went back to his second family after that or stayed with his first family. But doesn’t it prove that fact really is stranger than fiction!

My idea of love

I watched a movie the other day which I loved (well I didn’t love the whole movie…it was about 6 couples and I loved this particular story)…the guy is trying to convince a woman to marry him inspite of everything that is going against them…she asks him how it is possible that their relationship can go on and how can he be sure that they would be happy in the future…and he says that he doesn’t know what tomorrow would be like, but they would make it beautiful together, because without her there is no tomorrow. I was touched to see that perhaps there are people left in the world who think about why it WOULD work rather than coming up with reasons why it wouldn’t.

No relationship is perfect and no situation is perfect. It is what you make of it. The husband in the movie is just the most amazing guy you could meet. He fights to be with her and makes the best of his life with her. Even when she loses her memory of him following an accident, he doesn’t for a moment give up. She decides to leave him because she cant see him in that state but he tells her that they would start over and make new memories. To stand up for your love inspite of everything and everyone, To want to keep a commitment inspite of your head giving you reasons that it cant go on, To only want to be with that person no matter what else happens, To not ever give up on that person – that to me is true love.

And I hope that one day I too find such love.

Moving on...

My life is changing and I feel like I’m entering a new phase in it. I am starting to realise that nothing in life is a sure thing and no matter what you do, there is no way to predict tomorrow. It can be so difficult though. Exciting in a way because you have so much to look forward to, and the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow holds. But there is the sorrow of leaving things behind. While the memories will always remain, what when you pine the warmth that familiarity gives you. When people, places, things have been a constant in your life and you now have to leave them and start afresh. It feels like a new life altogether, and while the new life holds a lot of promise, it scares me. New faces. New places. New everything. Will I fit in? Will I like it? And more importantly will it like ME?

But I guess I will never know till I step out. Life is a journey and I’m ready for the next leg.

:)