Crazy Stupid Love… Or Is it?

So that day of the year is here again. I have a love-hate relationship with the Valentine’s Day. I love the fact that a special day is dedicated to that special feeling called ‘Love’ (despite what many cynics have to say against it). I hate it for a simple reason – there is a dearth of ‘human touch’ in love and relationships of the 21st century and this day has turned into just another commercial pot-boiler. These days, my grievances are increasing because of a week-long celebration of ‘special days’ leading to 14th February. I have discovered the existence of days ranging from ‘Propose Day’ to ‘Promise Day’! Wow, I feel so out-dated. In my days, there were just good old Rose day and Valentine’s Day (as far as I can remember!).


Those were the silliest yet sweetest days! There was anticipation… lots of brainstorming and planning was involved to deliver the perfect V-Day surprise. It was not anything extravagant. It was always simple and personal. Like a hand-made scrapbook with photos, poems (self-composed) and hours of effort invested to design that ‘personalised gift’.


At the risk of sounding like an admonishing ‘aunty’, I genuinely feel there is less of heart-power and more of money-power involved in today’s relationships. Those splurging on materialistic stuffs appear more an effort to win some kind of unofficial competition between all the couples in the world. I, fortunately, belong to a generation which has seen best of all the worlds – from love letters to paper greeting cards, from email to social-networking sites and from SMS to Whatsapp or BBM. So I know to appreciate the best and the worst of everything. I rue the fact that there is simply no human touch in those ‘LOL’s and ‘smiley’s. The warmth of a hand-written, self-composed love letter can’t even be compared to those mundane online chats. The very idea of romancing someone through SMS, chats etc. is such a turn-off!


The beauty of romance, the concept of wooing that special someone has somehow become too mechanical and commercial. Of course, true love still exists. But too much ‘Branding’ of love, a pure emotion, is objectionable (at least from my point of view). Can the magic of romance take place through mere exchange of expensive gifts and wireless messages? I still view romance with little bit of rose-tint on my dark glares! Even though I can laugh at those fairy-tale climaxes of chick films, I love to watch them and wander into a make-believe world occasionally. For me, Simplicity is the magic word. Simple… go for KISS… Keep It Simple Silly! Let love be crazy and stupid…


Being a girl, I can’t give up on those mushy chick flicks. So today I wrap up with a dialogue by the spunky Emma Stone from the film ‘Easy A’. Take a hint guys…


“Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boom-box outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number, for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnBAqcFBLXw


Wish John Hughes or even Karan Johar would have directed my life!!!

Karma, Ego & All That Jazz

My recent Facebook update read something like this, “Those who hurt you will eventually screw themselves up. And if you are bloody lucky, Karma will let you WATCH!” I know it sounds mean and invites bad Karma in all probability. But after the likes and kind comments, retweets on Twitter and even a few comments in person later, I realized that I was not talking nonsense at all. Human beings are inherently vengeful and everyone wishes deep down something ‘not nice’ to happen to those who hurt him or her real bad. Since we are too lazy to take the revenge ourselves, well… let Karma take care of everything!

“Why this Kolaveri??” Hmmph!!! I meant, why such murderous rage? Are we genuinely hurt or is this a classic case of hurt ego? I guess to each his own.

I will cite a chapter from my own life. I decided to ‘unfriend’ someone from my friend list on Facebook. Simple reason being since we never spoke and there is hardly any chance we will ever talk as ‘friends’. I was not interested to know about any updates from his life and similarly, I was not keen to provide him the window to my life. Here I admit that my ego pushed me to do something like that. But this person seriously must be having greater issues with me. May be he never imagined I could remove him from my friend list. So he ‘blocked’ me on Facebook so that I can’t ever access his profile. Wow! Talk about ego, or should I say, the case of Inflated Ego. How wise is this person?!? Trust me when I say I laughed for a good measure of around 5 minutes imagining what thoughts and curses might have run through his mind for me. I am still smiling… (wicked smile). So in this case, who do you think was more childish, me or him?

Someone once funnily quoted, “Some people have such inflated ego that it probably has stretch marks!” Touché.

I too value my ego. But I am yet to reach the extreme peak. I am too laid-back to think about something ‘not nice’ happening in the lives of those who hurt me. For me two things matter – (a) It happened because it was destined to happen and (b) Whatever happens, happens for the best and since I am still alive and kicking, I must be God’s favourite child to be out of it. Rest I assign to Karma. I feel I must have earned real bad Karma to have experienced those hurtful moments. But so have those who hurt me. So let me enjoy my life while Karma takes care of all. For the record, I will consider myself fortunate if Karma allows me witness a few moments of ‘getting back’.

Till then…

I Love Stories

A new year has started. Till date, nothing extra-ordinary has taken place. But life is not mundane also. Except a recurring cold, I am pretty much enjoying 2012. There have been really nice experiences, some good fodder for creating and preserving a few wonderful memories.

But (there is always a ‘But’, isn’t it?)… I am ready to ponder over lots of things again. Can’t help it, it’s ME! Someone quoted on Facebook that the status updates and photos uploaded by friends on social networking sites can often make one wonder about the happiness of others and the deficit of such happiness in one’s own life. Let’s see…

My 2011 saw many updates on ‘relationship statuses’, ranging from engaged to married. Now I am feeling paranoid thinking if 2012 will see lots of babies photos uploaded!

Come on, I am thinking just like a girl… nothing wrong with that. We girls have our sets of apprehension and big ‘Ifs and Whens’.

Girls being girls, we are such emotional wrecks. Most of the time confused about our own wishes and heart’s desires.

Case 1: Girl is one of the prettiest and smartest ladies around. The proverbial beauty with brains, she has most of the boys eating out of her palms. By the way, she also belongs to that mythical class of girls who has a near Mr. Perfect in her life. It’s actually too much of a fairytale, isn’t it? Well, the twist is… the Mr. Perfect had to move out of town for good. Girl, who is doing really well in her field of job, is in confusion. If she moves out of this town, she will have to bid goodbye to her career. What should be her priority – Love or Career? She can date the best of the men but she knows it too well… her heart belongs to Mr. Perfect only. Huge dilemma!!!

Case 2: They have been together since almost a decade. She has always loved him unconditionally. However, he has never committed himself completely, always stating clearly that marriage is not an option. As long as it lasts, it is cool with him. So she has to take some difficult but final decisions. In order to initiate the process of ‘moving on’, she starts exploring other ‘avenues’. Reason? She has never been single. She ponders… is she jumping into the fire from the frying pan?!?

Case 3: Amalgamation of the above two cases. She can’t sacrifice her career. But she knows there is a huge dearth of Mr. Perfects or even Mr. Near Perfects. Emotionally gullible, she believes she can’t stay alone. Thus she starts depending on Mr. Rebound, not able to separate a fling from love. Result? She is still trying to dance on shaky grounds!

We girls love ‘Love Stories’. So we keep on looking for one in our own lives. Generally it is said that women are difficult to understand. Honestly, I think we girls are confused about our desires ourselves. We really don’t understand what we really want… except the fact we want to be loved. In these three cases, most often the girls might end up succumbing to hearts’ pressure of ‘being in love’. There might be exceptions, but most often heart wins at this tug-of-war.

Call it the moral of the story or the bottom line, we are, consciously or sub-consciously, into love stories and happy endings. So we love to see those happy status updates on Facebook and look forward to our own love stories (even if we don’t want to admit it openly!).  

So “Happy Status Updates” ladies!

A Last Note… Prelude to Something New

It’s that time of the year. The tick tock on the clock is distinctly audible. The last few hours are here… to end 2011 with an optimistic high; or at least with a hope to begin 2012 on a jolly note.

I am not that much into New Year resolutions. If you really want to do something (or stop doing something in some cases), why do you need any special occasion for that? But just for the sake of a new ‘yearly’ tradition, I also try to list down a few resolutions and simultaneously, come up with counter-attacking points. So here it goes:

1. No junk food.  But 31^st December night always leads to binging on all the unhealthy yummy food. So 1^st January usually begins with gluttony, heralded by scrumptious cake. Let’s see how much I can resist pani-puris from 2^nd January!
2. Find a decent house… ‘my space’… in crowded Mumbai. Very difficult task. Monetary limitation, attachment to the expensive locality Lokhandwala, tricky property rules and regulations and above all, my laziness to go for house-hunting, all make it difficult to stick to this vital resolve. Moreover, these days whenever my parents start talking marriage, well the laziness engulfs me more. I mean, if I get married, again the mammoth job of shifting will arise… won’t it? Who wants to repeat the bothersome hard work called ‘packing and unpacking’? Yawn!!!
3. Get that tattoo. This tattoo design has been in my mind since four years now. Only my phobia of needles has been preventing me till date. The new year might see me overcome this phobia. I will give it my best shot (I hope so!).
4. Read more and more books. This is one resolution which I will definitely keep. It’s true, “So many books, so little time!” I will have to reserve time.
5. Find the guy who is loved by my folks and most importantly, loved by me. Hmmm… this appears to be the most difficult. The less said the better!

2011 has been one roller-coaster ride. A year that has been unlike any other years of my life. There have been good, bad and even worst experiences. But that’s life. So why not take it with a pinch of salt… along with lime and vodka shots! Love it!!! Ohkkk… looks like I still believe in ‘Love’. A good omen! Cheers to 2012!!!

Let’s not fret about all those Doomsday predictions. And if worried, then let’s plan our individual ‘Noah’s Ark’. My own 'Namrata's Ark' sounds good already with the best specimens on board... What an amazing fantasy it is (wink)! 

Happy 2012 people!

A Mumbai Year… My Musings

No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses.

17 December is special for me. It’s daddy dearest’s birthday. Then in 2010, I shifted to Mumbai. A long cherished dream, thus, was fulfilled. No offence meant for Delhi or Kolkata (where I resided previously) and definitely not for my homeland, Assam, but I always wanted to come to Mumbai. I don’t know the reason… don’t ask me why, but I love this city.

So, it’s been a year. Wow! Well, people are right! “Time does own the fastest wings”! The 17 December morning of 2010 appears to be just yesterday. Even 2011 is nearing the edge of the end. How did this year end so fast?! And what lessons did I learn from the whirlwind of a year?!?

New place, new people, new experiences. Now I never imagined myself to be Tess McGill from Working Girl. I have stayed away from the safe cocoon created by my family long enough not to live as the wide-eyed sweet girl. I am not at all sugar or honey-coated sweetheart who will take bitter pills smiling. Despite all these ‘philosophy of my life’, Mumbai did teach me a few lessons within a year.

For me, Mumbai is like a woman who has regular mood-swings… just like me. One day the city exposes you to certain ruthlessness and the very next day, it embraces you with loving warmth. It lets you stumble and then it picks you up! I discovered many facets of human behavior as well as a few aspects of my own, both unknown to me before the Mumbai chapter began.

I won’t dissect someone else’s life or nature. Let’s talk about ME. I discovered that I can be really sarcastic if and when I need to be. And this can be either positive or very bad for my reputation. Some people become very wary of me being rude and muphat. Hey… it definitely keeps unwanted people at bay and brings genuine friends closer. On the other hand, I have also learnt not to react to things which I would like to ignore. I can behave like a real b#$*h if I wish to and I enjoy doing that. You see, Mumbai taught me that you got to be ‘the vamp with a good heart’ if I want to breathe in the sea air of the city. Just keep the shield on with no evil plan if you want to survive the potholes of life’s roads, ironically, imitating the city roads! One more thing… I also emerged really good at the art of lying. I will tell you from experience, sometimes one lie helps in evaluating another person and his worth in your life. His reaction to that lie can help you to take major decision. Try it!

So many things have been said, written and depicted on celluloid about Mumbai. I have stumbled on more than one occasion during this one year. Living here is insanely expensive. To top that, I am adamant enough to struggle and survive on my own. Some people are really good while a few are heartlessly mean. Many times I end up cursing so many things. But when someone asks me, “Do you still like it in Mumbai?!?”… well, my prompt answer is, “Hell yeah! I love Mumbai!!!”

Mumbai teaches you what LIFE is…It teaches you what I quoted in the beginning of this note. I guess it is true… “Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan… Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan”.

Party Abhi Baki Hai??!!

I think age is catching up with me or my thought-process at least. Since last few weekends, I am avoiding going out to night-spots. My preference these days usually is a good book with great music playing at a medium volume and a very strong cup of coffee! Might be sounding old and boring. But honestly, I am tired of the so-called good dance music and the pub or lounge ambiance. 

These days I end up remembering and comprehending the opinions of my folks and elders regarding the music and music videos of my generation. And I genuinely don’t feel like dancing every Saturday night. The 'party' songs – countless versions of David Guetta, Pitbull, Ludachris, Taio Cruz and LMFAO compositions – all sound same to me after one point. Of course, when in the right mood, I still love to groove. But that mood is set rarely these days and I am not sure why!

A recent satirical article I read somehow cleared my confusion to an extent. According to this, the nightlife crowd consists of three types of people – (1) People who go out to genuinely have a good time, (2) the all decked-up wannabes whose IQ is limited to the page 3 in newspaper supplements, and (3) the brainless rich spoilt kids for whom ‘nightlife is life’. I can safely assume I belong to category 1. But to genuinely have a good time, I need genuinely good company of like-minded people and here I am missing my dearest friends, all of them being in Delhi. Well, company matters! So give me a great book or movie anytime over an all-nighter of partying with people whose vibes don’t match mine and then, waking up in the morning (if sleeping is a provision at all!) with bad hangover. I would prefer to flock with birds of same feather!

But seriously, why all the ‘party songs’ sound similar these days? All the music videos look similar with scantily clad women with very suggestive dance moves. It’s not that I don’t enjoy these songs. But I honestly can’t differentiate one song from another many of the times. The exclamation ‘melodious song’ doesn’t pop out in my mind when I listen to these numbers. Of course, when in the right mood, I too love to dance on them. But no, they never feature on my list of top favourites. They are always ‘flavours of the season’.

I wish there would be more melodious singers like Christina Perri, Adele, Rumer, Maroon 5 and of course, my obsession… Bruno Mars. I have never been in love with any singer until I heard the divine voice of Bruno Mars. Even the music videos of these singers are very creative and have a storyline which makes them worth remembering.

Recently, I listened to this amazing song called “If I die young” by The Band Perry. The lyrics and the music video prove that poetry can be experienced and lived. Songs need not be about relationships, heart-breaks and love-making. There are so many stories to be told and interpreted by artistic minds and a song like “If I die young” just gives flight to that imagination. The final adieu as depicted in the song… wow… even I would love to leave the world with a book of Tennyson’s poetry!!! I recommend this one to all true 'Music' lovers.

(P.S. All my pals… I still love to recall my farewell party night in Delhi… will never forget that all-nighter J !!!)

Burger Off!!!

Whatever others might say, I loved Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar!

Many thought the film was not up to the expectations. Why? Arrey, it was not at all about the rise and fall of a rockstar! It was a love story!!!

Come on, if the plot would have been so predictable then there would never be anything called ‘the magic of movies’! Isn’t life beautiful because it is so unpredictable? I went for Rockstar with no pre-conceived notions except for two facts – I love Imtiaz Ali’s style of story-telling and I think Ranbir Kapoor is a power-house of acting prowess. And yeah, for a chance to relive my memories of Delhi and North Campus (I love to do that through all the wonderful Delhi-based films like Band Baaja Baaraat)!

And I was not disappointed. The abstract montage of various events in the life of Jordan, the protagonist, is something that’s a novelty in Indian cinema. Many in the theatre couldn’t grasp it and simply opined, “Poor screenplay”. But I thought it was very intelligent modern art… the audience is compelled to think... to wonder.

The basic theme of the story is the love story between Jordan and Heer. Now I would admit, although Nargis Fakri is ethereally beautiful, I wished she was even an inch of an actor! But Ranbir is a treat to watch. It’s apparent that he put in his heart and soul in the character and as a consequence, he turned into one of the essences of the soul of Rockstar; the other essences being the music by A. R. Rahman and the voice of Mohit Chauhan. I have never been a fan of Mohit Chauhan although his songs are always good. But for the first time, I simply loved his voice. The best aspect is the aura of live concert that’s been created on-screen. The songs, the music grows on you although you have heard the entire album beforehand.

But I am not playing the role of a movie critic here. I loved the complicated, the poetic way of painting a cute love story and an unusual heart-break. I loved the fact that the skeleton of the movie owes its origin to Rumi’s poetry. I loved that there was no expected and usual depiction of rockstar whose life was infested by over-dose of sex, booze and drugs. I simply loved the little little symbolic representations like the key on the guitar strap. And I loved that there was no attempt to make any pseudo-intellectual statement. Just a beautiful reference to innocent birds in two songs and a fleeting support to the Tibet movement... it was more than enough. It's not a movie about politically correct or incorrect statements and thankfully, it remained that way!

Not for a single second I wondered why there was no expected portrayal of the rise and fall of Jordan as Rockstar. I admire the fact that Imtiaz Ali dreamed and dared to tell his story in his own way. May be, as stated in the movie, creative people do think and act in crazy and unexpected way!!!

Of course, cinematically Rockstar is no 8 Mile. But the film-maker must really have been inspired by Rumi… “I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” He had a vision and he sang it out beautifully on celluloid. There was no deviation from the basic plot of the subtle love story; the story of rise and rise of the rockstar was intertwined with the main plot. There was no forceful tone of tragic blues. The movie was a melodious song or an eye-catching sketch for me.

So one question that has been on my mind is -- “Do you really have to go through heartbreak to produce something creative, something that will jolt others hearts to sighs and cries??” Well, that’s a matter which may be I will think about some other time.

For now, well, those who didn’t like Rockstar, please move onto something predictable like Murder 2. And “Burger off”!!! (You know what I mean… wink!)