Chewing it over

Eve must have had a moment or two of hesitation and indecision before she bit into the apple. A moment or two when she weighed her options, thought about what it might be like after ... hell, thought about what it tasted like and if she would like it.

I currently feel like Eve must have, with all this Twilight frenzy around. And which smart-ass decided to put an apple on the cover, I'd like to ask.

It's sort of been on my radar for a bit, it isn't really something one can ignore, what with all the posters popping up in your face as you amble in the city and enough people on buses and trains reading copies of the blighted books.

However, thus far I have resisted. I read Stephen King lampoon the writing* and what other bits I read about the book and the movie said it had an annoying whiny heroine and the acting was bad. I like my heroines to be feisty and spunky and my movies to be convincing. So that's pretty much ruled it out for me so far.

But, I find that I'm slowly being drawn to the edge. I've read enough moxed reviews by now to confuse me into this "To bite or not to bite" state. Pitu says she liked the movie. Twisted DNA's opinion intrigued me even as I gave in to hilarity. The Bride weighs its pros and cons and I do think she makes a fair point. Agent Green Glass isn't very impressed and Metrostudent, on the other hand, is recovering from a forced outing to view the new movie and doesn't feel so kindly towards it:

Verdict – Bella gets herself a new fella (YAWN – AGAIN). He’s not a drug-seller. The Title of ‘New Moon’ is yeller. Please hide this film somewhere where we can’t see it – like a coal cellar.

Sheer brilliance that, I say!

Marina Hyde, one of my favourite Guardian columnists, warns that resistance is futile. The commenters are pretty evenly divided between loving it and hating it. Oh and there's enough feminist musing in there.

"I've seen so many people, usually feminists, say the books are anti-female and promote weakness in woman and in my opinion, that is the total opposite of what they do. Bella is a very strong character, who in the end, saves everyone, including Edward. Most girls Bella's age feel insecure about themselves, but Edward never tries to make her feel that way, he thinks she is WAY too good for him. I've never been able to figure out why people hate twilight so much. You don't have to like it, but what's wrong with a love story, that also promotes abstinence before marriage and family unity. As a mother, I love it." is the response of one woman.

A few comments down someone else says "I do think the whole thing is interesting, but I lack the heart and soul of twelve year old girl." and continues with "I'd like to think the attraction was looking at boys' naked bellies, but sadly I really think it's because these days teenage girls have turned into World of Warcraft playing nerds. I don't really think encouraging abstinence among teenagers is such a good thing. There's nothing worse than awkward ageing virgins in their 20s, or God forbid, in their 30s."

There is also all this talk of Taylor Lautner's abs ("... the main attraction of the new film is Taylor Lautner's amazing abs" ) and Robert Pattison's dishy looks("I'm a 21 year old heterosexual male and I can appreciate that Robert Pattinson is indeed a very pretty fellow") (and I can see the google searches landing people on this page now ... you eye-candy hungry people, you!). Now, I don't give two hoots about Taylor Lautner's abs or Robertson whatsisname (On one of those days when my tongue was more scathing than usual, I was heard to remark 'Bite me?! I'd ask to see a dentist's certificate before I let him so much as smile at me' ... in all fairness, I just wanted to use that line :P) ... but it's making me wonder if I should. I mean, the guy looks like a boy-band member what wit his laal lipstick and too much foundation and last time I checked it was babyface wtchoocallim (Nick Carter, yeah I know his name, rite of passge and all that jazz) ... he was wearing pink lipstick (although it might've been enhanced with photoshop) point being ... I am actually paying attention to teenage sucker phase thingy.

Hell, I even checked out the Guardian's photo-narrative on the new faces in the new movie and the comments about people forgetting red-eye reduction functions on new cameras and something about "another of those blighters" cracked me up but it told me the movie has Dakota Fanning, who, other than having grown up into one helluva cute teenager, shares her name with one of my favourite songs.

I'm not exactly going about kissing posters of Robert Pattison on the underground ... but I'm very nearly sucked into this whirlpool of silliness.


Forget Twilight, place your bets. Will I bite? Will I get bitten? Fate, is it written?



*not that I have a very good opinion of Stephen King and not that his opinion matters much ... be as it may that he's considered a good writer, I find his constant allusion to his work and his belief in his greatness rather tiresome. I prefer authors who possess a modicum of humility.

The Evolution of Racoon-Man

I've been people watching a whole lot lately, on the tube.
It's astonishing how every single person there seems to have dark-circles, puffy eyes and papery bags under their eyes. Even the tourists!*
I'm just wondering, what if dark-circles and puffy eyes somehow become an element of evolution and our descendants sport ghastly bags under their eyes?!
Worse, what if people suddenly accept dark circles as a norm and the next thing you know someone's coming out with eye-bag glitter and jewellery!

*Shelly (not her real name), my housemate, says it's 'Transference' — even if you're calm as such, all the surrounding tension and stress can really get to you.

Put-downable

It occurred to me that over the years I'd heard some real gems in the way of put-downs. Some of them are downright mean but they make me laugh when I think of them and let's face it, mean-funny is something all of us have known, at some point or other.

"Ivna mukha nodidre moor dina oota seralla" (He has a face that would make you lose your appetite for three days). Courtesy a childhood friend who had started junior college then, commenting about all those road romeos found leering at girls outside her women only college.

"Yaar iva hanigi maarava?" (Who's this guy? Looks like one of those comb-sellers on the street). This one is courtesy the family. Ma happened to use it the first time she saw Hrithik Roshan and elicited a 'That's HRITHIK ROSHAN ma!' reaction from a very scandalised brother. She continued to refer to him as 'Rutvik' for a while ... I am pretty sure she did that just to annoy us :P

"Vadak tambigi" (literally 'broken tumbler'). Another family contribution. Most often used to refer to Sunil Shetty by one of my uncles.

"Humara standard itna low nahi hai ki hum tumko bhav dega". The younger sister of a friend, when some random guy tried to chat her up.

"Would you date a dinosaur then if you were mentally compatible?". The brother to some guy who'd been droning on and on and on about mental compatibility. You may be sure 'mental compatibility' is one term we never use in any relationship talk :P

"Why?" One of my cousins. A rather good looking girl, she frequently had guys approach her and do the "I know of you through so and so blah blah blah blah blah blah ... can we be friends/will you be friends with me?" routine. Unluckily for them they never had an answer to her rather simple and (fairly innocent) query.

Edited to add:

"Chatri nan magane!" Okay I don't really know the meaning of this one (help? someone? translate pliss?) and I'm not entirely sure but it might be offensive. This one cracks me up BIG TIME thanks to the scene that I associate with it, stuck in my mind indelibly.

I must have been in third standard. In my class were two kids. Rakesh and Shilpa. Shilpa was a chubby cheeked, somewhat short, usually calm and collected little girl. Rakesh was the quintessential school-boy imp ... always upto mischief, annoying other people. Rakesh and Shilpa had the misfortune of being seated next to each other that year. They seemed to get on okay most days, a skirmish here and there did nothing to make the teacher separate them.

Shilpa used to carry an umbrella to school rather religiously. And she'd tuck it in that space below the desk where we used to keep our schoolbags. One fine day, Rakesh was having a case of itchy hands more than usual and simply could not stop fiddling. After he had attempted to manhandle Shilpa's umbrella for the umpteenth time, she really lost it and yanking it out of its place brandished it over his head and scolded "Chatri nan magane!"

The normally rambunctious Rakesh was reduced to shocked disbelief and his face grew really small. To this day, "chatri nan magane" evokes that face of his, as Shilpa is brandishing her umbrella and reduces me to giggles. What was I doing all this time? Oh I was sat at a distance wathing the tableau ... evidently I was observant AND have good memory.

Knowing

"Sometimes the mystery is better than the knowing, wouldn't you say? Sometimes the journey is better than the destination"

The last thing you'd associate with such profound philosophy is swearing. Or maybe one does. I can't say for sure.

As swear words go, 'Limone' doesn't do too badly. In fact, I think I can recall the usage of 'Lemon' in some Regency book or other as abuse. It wins also due to its inability to make me laugh while swearing at someone — unlike 'Paperskull!' or even 'Hog Dandruff!'

And whilst we're on the subject of swearwords, here's to the chap who taught me beauties such as 'Anoncephalus', 'Gluteus maximus' and 'Gluteocephalus'.

Happy Birthday Treetop!

Of Firsts

It's easy enough for us present day humans — we know a dream's a dream. Or a nightmare. We can deal with those ... thrashing about, screaming, waking up drenched in sweat or continuing to sleep blissfully with only a beatific smile to punctuate the sequence. And very often being woken up rather rudely just as something pleasant is about to happen. But wake up we do, eventually, knowing whatever it was was only a temporary interlude — sometimes remembering, sometimes forgetting.

If you're me, you also wonder which really is the dream and what is reality.

But what of the very first human who had the very first dream? What did he/she react like?

Or are dreams something that have been programmed into the brain patterns of our animal ancestors such that the first human reacted the same way that we do?


P.S: For those still interested (I'm looking at you especially, Catty), I've picked up The Tale of Genji again. It's going really slow I'm afraid, it's not exactly a page turner and all the footnotes and things keep distracting me. Not to mention the fact that all Genji seems to do is sleep around and behave like a little boy. I know, this is what I signed up for but it'll take a while to finish. It's a 1100 odd page book, the last one I read this size or close to it was World Without End and Amazon tells me that was only 816 pages. But I've got pretty haikus and phrases to keep me interested. I would tell you I'm making notes as I go along but I am not. I like to read when I read, not fuss about making notes and nonsense. So in that sense the 'review' is going to be from the heart and straight off the bat, and take ages. Maybe the next ten years. If I'm not dead by then. Or lose my copy. Or something.

All that glitters ...

'Knight in shining armour' is a rather suspect expression in my very humble opinion.

A veteran knight would certainly have fought many a battle and would in all probability have well used armour. Which leads to the conclusion that it would be a rookie who'd have shiny armour. And what really are the chances of him being gifted enough to fight skilfully?

On the other hand, if it's a long-timer who has shiny armour, you may be certain that he's got someone keeping it shiny for him. In all probability a woman who is grumbling while doing aforesaid shine-maintenance.

Which leaves me to wonder, why the heck would anyone want a knight in shining armour?

Tag, Tagger, Tagged

1.What is your current obsession ?

Neil Gaiman's work. The new graphics tablet at work. And buying presents for the family.

2. What are you wearing today?

Pyjamas. It's been a long day alright, gimme a break!

3. What’s for dinner?

No, the question is, who's making it?

4. What’s the last thing you bought?

Oooooo ... erm, shower gel, conditioner, lotion, lipstick and nailpolish for mommy, art supplies, books, DVDs ...

5. What are you listening to right now?

Right NOW? The housemates talking and the canine shredding her squeaky toy. Else it's been Lata Mangeshkar and loads of Stereophonics, Oasis, Coldplay and Muse. And L. Subramaniam.

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?

Oh she certainly does interesting tags!

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

I hear Nice is very nice. Or even Geneva. Gimme a few years and I'll be all ready to move back home to my parents' house :D

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?

EH?! I don't really think of shopping in those terms, thank you very much!

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

I'd visit Catty :D

10. Which language do you want to learn?

Italiano! Era squisita!

11. What’s your favourite quote?

Zaphod: I'm a pretty dangerous dude when I'm cornered.
Ford: Yeah, you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel.

12. Who do you want to meet right now?

C, beshteshteshtesht frand and the sister I don't have. I want to hear all about her brand new married life and her PG and generally have a looooooooooooong talk.

13. What is your favourite colour?

Bleuuwww :D

14. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?

Whatever I've bought recently I guess.

15. What is your dream job?

I'm in the industry I wanted to be in. Hereon it's free territory to be explored.

16. What’s your favourite magazine?

Reader's Digest between the 60s and 80s.

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?

Books. Or more presents.

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?

Following fashion trends because they're 'in' right now. Ever heard of thinking for yourself and having a personal style? Actually, fashion be damned!

19. Who according to you is the most over-rated style icon?

Aren't they all? It's not like they have much to do with it anyway, they've almost all got stylists working for them.

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?

I'm forced to stick to the one I have because I'm yet to find something radically good that is easy to maintain. Meh

21. What are you going to do after this?

Sleep.

22. What are your favourite movies?

Stardust. Death At A Funeral. Ice Age, all three parts. Madagascar. Bridge to Terabithia. Okay I'm a cinema ignoramus. Shoot me.

23. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can't live without?

Put like that, I will adopt a high and mighty tone and tell you I can live without dependence on anything, thank you very much. I use moisturiser for my face, scrub, body lotion and the tiniest hint of lip gloss when I can be arsed to.

24. What inspires you ?

Beauty. Sadness. Truth ... mostly, reflection.

25. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:

Pass.

26. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)?

A) Call mom and tell her to parcel some gunny bags which I will cut holes out of and wear as a dress.
B) Call in sick and stay home in my pyjamas.
C) Go out in my pyjamas.

What do you think I do?! I usually have a back up ready.

27. Coffee or tea?

Depends.

28. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?

Shut myself out from the world. Retreat behind a book and bury my nose in it (it's been To Kill a Mockingbird behind whose pages I have examined my life a lot of times but of late Stardust has served the purpose just as well). Talk to someone, depending on what bothers me.

29. What is the meaning of your name?

DewdropDream? Self-explanatory I think :) I was once told my non-blogger name means 'Yet to bloom'.

30. Which other blogs do you love visiting?

Refer to list.

31. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?

Will eat almost everything except petha and jalebis.

32. Favorite Season ?

Spring

33. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?

It's bed time and you want me to cook for you? I've got pasta. Or Maggi. Or Uttapam mix.

34. What is the right way to avoid people who purposefully hurt you?

Give them the cold shoulder. I'm working on the being mean to them bit.

35. What are you afraid of the most?

Being made a fool of. I think.

36. My Question: Is it possible to be in love with two persons simultaneously??

Yeah I guess so. Possible, yes. Practical? Probably not. What was that about what you do being the thing that mattered and all the other platitudes about love one usually hears. All those.

Ya wanna da tag? Take-a da tag!

What are you looking at?

There's nothing here to see.

The party is happening at Galadriel's. And I am a guest. YOU on the other hand should hop over and wish the Lady of Lorien a Happy Birthday and join in the festivities (kick-ass sambhar to be had!). Off you go now ... Scram!

Resistance is Futile

Well what do you know.

I'm used to people looking at me like I am a new species of bacteria under the microscope. Make that a mentally deranged, smug bacteria. All because I am not doing anything IT related and did not take up engineering like most of my friends did.

What I am not used to is having this IT stuff creep into my brain stealthily such that I suddenly begin to talk fairly intelligibly about it and have people give me 'Wow! How on earth did you know that? WHY do you know that?' looks. I mean! It's nice, this near-respect I am getting but I guess the only explanation would be that I am Indian and we Indians are born with this stuff coded into our brains and in our genes. I am telling them that. I so am.

And despite making an active effort to not spend too much time on the computer, keeping my laptop in the living room and not switching it on every evening when I get home from work, not blogging half as much, guess what? I apparently still spend a lot of time with computers.

Recently, it dawned on me that heard the typical routine hum of a computer, (like when it comes on after being on stand-by?) rather regularly. One fine day it happened and there was no computer in sight. Turns out it was me.

:|

Edited to add: Okay so I don't get MATLAB even now but so what? :P

Of Great Bosses and Good-byes

My boss left the company yesterday after five years of working here, to follow his dreams.

Now I know many people can only ever complain about their bosses but I am not one of them. I have always been fortunate enough to have bosses who have been nice, patient, kind and easygoing.

DH though was something else again. It's astonishing just how much one can get used to someone in the space of just two years, even if all you're doing is seeing them for eight hours everyday when you work, sharing very little of anything of your life beyond work.

And now that the new one is here and I have to occasionally offer a little help regarding how things function here, I am surprised at just how much I seem to be speaking and behaving like the old one! I guess I am easily influenced then. But really lucky I had someone like DH to be influenced by.

So DH, here's to you. Here's to people like you and bosses like you. May your kind flourish! You really were the best boss I have ever had. Thank you for everything, you've taught me well and I hope you feel proud for having done so. It seems a little strange without you around. you will be missed a whole lot. But I hope you have a fantastic life and that all your dreams come true.

It's only been a day so it's still too early but I'm hoping to get the New Boss settle into a routine of the occasional random chat in the middle of work very soon. I'm not having some things change if I can help it ;)