Mundane Musings

 I can't start 2021 without paying obeisance to my father in law, who passed away on December 28th 2020 due to kidney failure. He passed away at a ripe old age of 90, almost 91. I knew him only in his twilight years, as I married S only when Uncle was 81. He was a distinguished man with his precise words and genial attitude which acted like a magnet to the people around him.  I remember him narrating interesting stories about their family during the 1900s and about the city with its myriad transformations. What made chatting with him so enduring is his remarkable memory and his choice of words. One could get a picture of the city or of his life at that time without the poetic exuberance. Every word spoken was measured yet descriptive.  When my own father passed away in 2008 rather unexpectedly, my grief was limited to myself with no knowledge of what was happening to my once alive father. My brothers and other male relatives conducted the last rites as per our customs and...

One minute into episode 1 of the bold and brash Four More Shots Please that is right now streaming on Amazon Prime, and I was hooked. The reason: an extremely sexy Milind Soman features in one of the protagonist's dream. Seriously, it has been ages since I have seen a role do justice to his innate sexiness. He appears in pristine white briefs, looking absolutely delicious, rocking a salt and pepper look. Oh...keep still my heart. I am instantly hooked. Hot Milind Soman in Four More Shots Please But just like how he disappears after the very promising scene where he ravishes Damini right on top of her office conference room table, the series nose dives as it wants to do so many things in 10 episodes, very much like the four hip heroines. What a pity that the makers of the show didn't think of milking workaholic Damini and sexy stranger/boss/ board of director angle (which was done pretty well in Rani Mukherjee's Aiyyaa) during the course of the series. He is none of ...

I'm quite bugged by the new Swiggy ad that has swept over our TV in the past few weeks. Swiggy is a food ordering and delivery app, for the unthinkable few who haven't got a clue about it. While the previous Swiggy  ads have concentrated on no minimum order value (which is a superb idea actually) the recent ones have touched the pulse of an emerging economy with its happy to spend population. Earlier if they had looked to target the smart young generation with dispensable cash at the ready and retired people who wanted to hide their sweet cravings from well meaning Hitler-ish spouses, now they have decided to enter the haloed space of the thrifty Indian home-maker. It is no rocket science that in India, the home maker is a WOMAN. With so many opportunities to milk issues of feminism and/or women's liberation - issues that won't be recognized by an average Indian male or female even if it came up to them and smacked them right across their faces, it is no wonder tha...

Heyyy folks! I'm fresh out of my big birthday weekend. And I'm officially forty now. Forty and rocking - that's how I feel in my head. Heck! I don't even feel older than my twenties in my heart. Forty and looking hopeful - is what I expect of this coming decade. I feel this decade will be a make or break one for me. There are so many hopes and aspirations struggling to find a foot hold in my head, but how far on a limb I may go to grab them will be the thing to see. Don't kill me just yet, but I have been feeling forty for over a year now (yep, I know people run a mile before they'll accept this number)...in a good way that is. If time is relative then growing old wouldn't conform to calendar months now would it? So it was too for me. At 39 I felt very forty. So now when I did turn forty how did it feel? Well for one, it was just another day and my friends, the ones who obligingly turned forty earlier than me, were kind and absolutely sweet and ma...

That’s it. The spare time on my hands of the past few months has gone completely. With training starting in full swing after a brief lull, whatever little posting I was doing seems to be in danger of getting done at all. Even without work picking up, the past few months have sped away like hard earned money in a mall. Have you ever felt like you were working away at a mad pace, like the proverbial rat in a wheel, with nothing to show at the end of the day? Yes? I feel for you. Days are speeding past, weekends flash by and the year is already four months old. What have I done? What in the world do I have to show for all the days past? Let me see. A few useless pictures and postings on FB or vetti Whatsapp chats aside, I have  had updated this blog pretty decently. There have been the usual round of weddings and get togethers to hobnob with near and dear one though that does take some energy you know. It is not all that easy to smile and act nice under a heavy silk saree with...

A very happy Women's Day folks! Marriage and parenthood made me truly understand the importance of celebrating my womanhood; I  was proud to be a woman and all that it represented. It gratified me to see strong, empowered women paving the way to make this day count and to make our gender count. Most often Women's Day celebrates an empowered, successful woman and that can sometimes detract from everything else a non-successful, ordinary woman represents. Mostly the focus is on the two extremes - celebrating a successful, strong woman or empowering an embittered/abused/poverty-stricken woman, whereas there are millions of women who simply keep the wheels of the house moving smoothly and are taken for granted because it doesn't count for anything. The ordinary extraordinary hands that bind the family together. Pic: The Oz Safari I'm happy that Hindi movies have slowly begun to portray such women and their stories in a realistic, mature manner. In fact, 2017 had to...

A courier guy who glanced past me into my house wanted to know if her body had been brought back. Without even asking who "her" was I replied with that slight clenching of my stomach muscles that she would be probably brought back in the afternoon (which because of sudden findings has now got delayed further more). Beautiful Sridevi.     Pic courtesy: Santabanta I have been strangely affected by Sridevi's untimely death. Since hearing about it yesterday there has been a sick feeling in my stomach. There have been very few deaths of celebrities that has disturbed me this way. When S had informed me about it early Sunday morning, I just didn't accept it. He had received a forward and I discouraged him from doing so himself without verifying the source. The news of course was all over the internet and on TV we soon learnt. Questions were buzzing about in my head. How could she die in her early 50s? How could she go when this talented actor with such an expres...

A few years ago, during my first visit to Europe , I admonished S for harping on about India whenever he got conversing with the locals. He was unashamedly singing praises of our country and at every opportunity he let people know what his country had to offer; never once falling on the poor country spool that I have generally heard people talk about really. I was the one feeling embarrassed I realized. The foreigners or locals in this case, were lapping it up genuinely and in some cases like our host in Brussels, were also vehemently agreeing with S.  And by the time we made our way from Paris to Belgium (Brussels and Bruges) I admired this genuine love for his country and his desire to keep up his faith in it. He was not willing to put down or malign our country without any basis and there was never a certain casual dismissal of  our country's achievements or our rich culture. Our expressive National Flag There are many reasons why I love S, but that trip reminded ...

Ho ho ho! Seasons greetings to everyone! What can I say? This is my favourite month of the year and it has delivered well this time too. Pretty ironic that is, considering I don't celebrate Christmas. The Western culture has permeated our simple Indian mindsets so much, one can't turn left or right without a red star hanging in front of our face or a skinny, plastic masked Santa prancing about in ill fitting clothes. But all is well and jolly because it is Christmas. The timing of this festival is so perfect, coinciding with New Year which incidentally the whole world celebrates with gusto. I can't see as much enthusiasm growing for our very own Tamil or Telugu New Year or the local ones in the country. They pass by in a blur of new clothes and home made treats. There is no count down say on 13th April to welcome the Tamil New Year nor is there a host of bank breaking activities planned for the Tamil New Year's eve. I have said this before too, I think the ...

This particular ‘month that was post’ is quite unlike the previous few happy, filled to the brim with engagements that I have to write a post kinds. The irony is not lost on me. September was my birthday month. And many things were supposed to have happened – the very air should have tingled a bit, the flowers to bloom a bit more and you know and the earth should have tilted in its axis a bit. In dread of faltering  But I started the month with a melancholy state of mind that just wouldn’t pass. Try as I might, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of uselessness and over-ratedness of the very act of living a life. The questions juts kept coming, unchecked, unwarranted...what have I achieved so far, what is there to show of 39 years on this earth, have I utilized my intelligence and smartness to the fullest, where does this motley group of friends with their idiosyncrasies and uniqueness figure in the larger picture of my life, am I setting the right goals for Anakutti, am I too...

Rather unexpectedly I came upon this dampening observation that I couldn’t share my e-books with my friends. Of course when I had read ‘Below’ by Ryan Lockwood on Google play books and had wanted to immediately share it with my reading partner P, I was deeply disappointed to know that though I had purchased the ebook, I had no copy of it on my drive. I had promptly forgotten that deep disappointment as we continued our shared passion to read by lending each other hard copies of the books we purchased. It resurfaced recently while I was trying to watch my downloaded Amazon Prime movie on my TV. I realized that I needed a really smart TV to watch the movie with S. He hates seeing it on the mobile or lap top.  Recently, I believe Kindle has allowed its users to sharebooks with their families albeit for only 14 days, which is death for a slow reader like me. The borrower I believe would not require a Kindle or Fire Tablet, instead they could read it on the Kindle app. But of ...

With Christmas last year, we have come to the end of a delectable line of festivals that come in the latter part of the year. I associate festivals with food, the making and serving of it and the indulging of the various delicacies that is synonymous with these celebrations. It’s easy to live this dream in a multi cultural, multi ethnic country like ours. There are so many festivals to celebrate; so many excuses to eat...unapologetic-ally if you please.   For Eid ul Fitr or for Ramzan, I get asked if I would invite people over for mutton biriyani ; I remember asking my Hindu friends for kozhukattais during Vinayaka Chatturthi and sweet pongal for Pongal; I have forgotten the number of times I have asked my mother to make her trade mark paruppu payasam for Onam. You see, it had to be prepared during the said festivals, even in a non-participating household or else it never really got made.   A small Onasadhya, with my favourite dal payasam I credit my d...