The 'K' mania..

Ekta Kapoor.. the lady who created the K serials.. all her serials begin with one, if not two K's [Kkusum..lol]! I stopped watching her serials ages ago.. some of them were interesting initially, but when the bitching and back-biting became unbearable, I stopped. Not only that, all her serials had similar things happening.. people dying [when they were actually alive and their family members find out only later], people losing their memory and so on..

I'm listing out a few characteristic points of her serials..

• As I mentioned, the male lead dies, his family members perform all the rites and rituals with some other dead body and plunge into a state of grief. The hero has lost his memory and hence cannot get back to his family. Everybody at home asks the hero's wife to marry someone else and on the wedding day, the hero gets his memory back and behaves like a mad man, cursing everybody at home for playing such a horrible chaal [game/plot] with him.
• Talking about losing memory, sometimes the hero loses his memory on purpose, when he actually has not, and he does this to find out who's ruining the family.
• Only here can people sign papers without even glancing at them, and they realise it only after the property is gone!
• Man1 and woman1 love each other. But man1's mom wants him to marry woman2, else she will starve herself to death. Man1 has no choice but to marry woman2 [who is usually the bitch of the serial :P]. Else man1 and woman1 get married secretly and man1's mother refuses to accept her daughter-in-law. Or even better, she accepts her in front of everyone, but has all her chaals planned out secretly so that her son leaves this woman soon and marries woman2. Lol.
• There's a surprising number of children the male and female leads have. A few from one marriage, a few from another. This applies to both the man and the woman, and they get married and the house is full of children. Sometimes, the children are older than the step-mother. Then out of the blue a son crops up from nowhere and he is the illegitimate child. It's just too complicated!
• The women have no other job but to bitch about someone in the family and do things to bring that person's name down. Isn't it really funny the way the ladies say 'Humaari pehli chaal kaamyaab hui..hahahahahaha(devilish laughter)'.. Lol!
• How much the ladies cry! I'm pretty sure that when they hold auditions to cast the female lead and also the other actresses, they are made to shed some tears to see how well they can cry and how realistic they look! :P
  
• The ladies are always dressed in beautiful sarees full of sequins and wear matching [and really heavy] jewellary and make-up. They go to bed with all this. Lol.
• Serials keep leaping 20 years ahead, and the poor young actors get white hair so soon! And the grandma's are always alive.. immortal I think. Some of the serials have been running for 6-7 years now!
  

There are loads more I know, but I'll just stop my list here. I have nothing against the lady, she's out there to make money.. But I can't believe the people of India. They watch all the crap, but I do hope they don't absorb any of it. Some of the things she shows do exist in families, I agree, but most of the things don't! People actually get to learn so many horrible things by watching all this. Adults are sensible, they will probably not absorb any of this. But children? What if they start following all this nonsense when they grow up?

People actually discuss these serials and guess what's going to happen next. Don't they have anything better to talk about? From 8:30pm to 11 pm people are glued to the television. I know that the channels have to show something, but why extend the serials for years and years? Why show unrealistic things? I loved Neena Gupta's serial Saans. She only showed things that happen in families in India and in everyday life, and even the clothes that actors wore were comparable to those we wear at home. There was hardly any make-up. A few things were exaggerated here and there, but you need that much to keep the viewers' interest and to keep the serial going. Why not make serials like that? As long as people continue watching these serials, and keep the TRP's high, they will continue being aired..What's going to happen to the people who watch all these daily soaps? Are there any answers to these questions? I just wonder..

Sapodilla Allergy!

Whenever my mom has a bite of sapodilla, she has some sort of an allergic reaction [or thats what we think] and her ears start itching! Lol! A teeny-weeny piece of the fruit is enough to irritate her ears! Have you ever heard of anything like that? If you have, do let me know, coz my mom is really worried that something is wrong with her! :P

I've heard of dust allergy, pollen allergy, nickel allergy, milk allergy, insect-bite allergy and other normal types of allergy.. but I had never heard of an allergy caused by a fruit, leave alone sapodilla!

My mom wanted to test if it was something to do with the cheeku, or it was some other sort of reaction. So we went to this place called Delifresh that sells fresh fruit ice creams with no preservatives and all that stuff. She tried out the cheeku ice cream.. and you guessed right, her ear-itching started again!!

She went to the ENT and got herself checked. The doctor said there was nothing to worry about and it was just some sort of a cheeku allergy. But she's not convinced.. coz she has never heard of such an allergy from anybody!

Sapodilla,Cheeku,Sapota,Safeda.. call it what you may, but the fact is this: my mom's ears don't like them! I know it's nothing serious, and so whenever this happens, I can't stop laughing! My dad has a different viewpoint though; he says it's all psychological, just to irritate her.. hehe..Poor mom! :P

First Anniversary :D A double anniversary too!

I can't believe this.. It's been a year since I first started blogging!I remember how it all started.. My friends Clueless and Macho girl used to blog very often, and whenever I commented on their posts, I used a pseudo name, h2O. [There's a story behind this as well.. the board in my room always had a piece of paper saying "Drink Water" and so they named me h2O! Having said this, I can't help but tell you about another related incident. I realised that I had no pink coloured tee in my wardrobe. (Now I do!) I kept telling my friends that I would get one the next time we went shopping. Once, when all of us had gone shopping together, guess what my friends found? A pink coloured adidas tee with the words 'Drink Water'! (or 'I love water'.. I can't remember which!) What a combination! They decided to buy it for me as an advance birthday gift. But when we checked the price tag, we decided against it! Haha..] I loved their posts, and I wanted to blog too, but never really got down to doing it.

My meeting Sachin a year ago [:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D] gave me a really good reason to start blogging!! The fact that he called me up and fixed an appointment to take a picture with him.. all my friends wanted to know how it happened!! I was too bored telling the same story to every person.. so I decided to write about it and tell everybody to read it.. and that's how my blog came into existence! I've not had too many posts so far, this is only my 24th post, and I guess it's because most often I don't know what to write about!

I'm really happy though, so what if the number of posts is a little less? :P I've loved it so far and I will definitely continue, I hope I haven't bored the readers of my blog too much! Thank you for putting up with my nonsense!! Beware! There's more to come :D

Venmai..

In one of my previous posts, I had said that I would write about my Venmai experience.. I’m finally going to do it now, after two whole months! What I narrate now will definitely be in some way different from what I would have written in the midst of Venmai practice or just after it got over.. It’s been a while after BC and the excitement I had then is obviously not there anymore.. Anyway, I really don’t know where to begin.. coz planning for Venmai began last semester itself.. atleast for the ex-co.. Being the Hindustani Vocal Co-ordinator, one of the very first things was to find out from the members if they were interested in performing for BC and then to select a few from them, since the number of vocalists we could accommodate on stage was limited and even the Carnatic vocalists would be there. There are so many things to write, that if I wrote it all, it would take you ages to read.. and before that, ages for me to write it! So I’ll just list out some of my memories of Venmai.. It was a wonderful experience over-all, I learnt a lot and enjoyed myself as well; and I’m glad Venmai was a huge success :D

Some of my memories with the ex-co..
• The various meetings we had where we discussed all sorts of options for various things! And me trying to crack lame elephant jokes in the middle of them :P
• Gift shopping with a few members of the ex-co.. unforgettable experience..
• Replying to Kalpana, Anuja and LP’s mails with details about this and details about that.
• Selling tickets at canteens, temples, Kent Vale, etc.. giving out flyers, getting lectures on Gods of other religions in return.. :P
• Our rule that the person who came last for any ex-co meeting would buy everybody drinks. The rule that was never executed.
• The ex-co photoshoot.. where the girls took forever to get dressed..
• The chain of mails we had after Venmai was over.. where we congratulated and thanked each other.. brought out the good and bad points of Venmai.. this chain of mails was the best part coz we really pulled each other’s legs! Someone was called a fatherly guide and someone else was being hooked up with one of the female singers by us.. lol!
• The ex-co outing that we had after Venmai.. was supposed to be a dinner outing, but turned out to be a dinner cum late night movie outing!

Some memories about Venmai in general..
• Collecting and passing on food money to the respective people in PGP.. the biggest headache of all!!
• 4-5 hour long practices and the shifting of instruments before and after practices..
• Photocopying of notes for the performers..
• Messaging/Calling Thyagu Sir before every practice to remind him about it..
• Drinking hot water before Pibare in the initial few practices so that we could reach the high notes properly!
• Messaging/Calling/Missed calling(!) performers of my group when they didn’t turn up on time for practice.
• Managing CAs and practice sessions.. and studies in general..
• Having meal-plan food outside the practice theatre with other performers..
• Starting practice late almost everyday and cribbing about it..
• The bus rides back to PGP practice.. singing songs, cracking lame jokes and getting high on plain air!
• The times we ran to catch the last bus.. the times we stood on the pavement undecided whether to take the a1 or just wait for the a2.
• The times when we walked back to PGP or simply cabbed it or when Raj Sir dropped us in his car coz we missed the last bus!
• My joy when I heard that there would be no practice on my birthday! :P
• During the practice days, singing BC songs or humming BC tunes unintentionally at various times of the day! Just an indication of how much we had praticed!
• On the day of the performance, the excitement we felt on stage 15 mins before the concert began when we heard the voices of people who had come in.
• The empty feeling on 22nd March, and even the next few days.. the feeling that something really big was missing..

Bookmarks!

I've been tagged again, and this time I have to list out all the links on my bookmarks toolbar. Here goes! I'm going to list them in the order in which they appear on my toolbar.. though I didn't really set them that way.. The newest bookmarks are put at the end, though I reposition a few.. Okay, here goes..

• IVLE, where I access my leture notes and everything related to our modules.
  
• CORS, which is used only at the beginning of each semester to bid for the modules I want.
• Google, I don't have to say anything about it, do I?
• Google Book Search, this is useful when I have to search for information for projects.
• NUS, the main page of the National University of Singapore.. when I want to search for any information pertaining to NUS, I use the search option on the site. I also use this site at home to access my NUS e-mail.
• Gmail, the most frequently visited site on my list!
• Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, no comments!
• MSN News, to keep myself updated on all that's happening around the world. I hardly visit this site though :P
  
• The Hindu, where I update myself on stuff happening in India.
• Wikipedia, very useful indeed :)
• Oxford English Dictionary, saves me the trouble of having to browse my dictionary to look for the meaning of a word I don't know. Here it's just a click away :P
• Confused Soul, my blog page!
• Orkut, I was so addicted to this at one point! Luckily for me, there's some problem with my orkut now, and it doesn't open in firefox, and so I use it less often!
• You tube, I use it when I am jobless, want to watch a movie or when I want to take a break while studying.
• Facebook, my latest addiction :)
• I can't tell you the name of this site, because my gang of friends back home and me use it to write coded messages to each other on orkut :P
• Mag4u, where I used to download old hindi songs.I haven't visited this site in ages!
• Papuyaar[fmw11], where I download all new hindi songs from.. actually I don't download songs these days, coz I get it from friends who've already downloaded them..so it saves me time and trouble :P
• DBS internet banking, a boon!
• Find Artciles, as the name suggests,but I don't think I've ever used it to find any articles for projects!
• Babel Fish Translation, it's a site where you can translate a line from a particluar language to any language in the world! I've used it a couple of times for.. ahem ahem.. if you wanna know, ask me in person, I'm too shy to say it here :P
• Hidden Emoticons from Yahoo! Messenger, I had searched for them once, and bookmarked it, but haven't used them ever!
• Amazing Photos, this is a link that of my friends once sent me, I loved the photos and so I bookmarked them!
• HyderabadiWeb, I watched an online movie here once, and it's on my list for future movie watching :P
  
• Love - Wikiquote, my friend sent me this link, and it's been there ever since.. I wonder why I bookmarked it though.. may be.. ermm.. hmm.. I don't know! :P
  
• AIESEC in Singapore, I don't know why it's on my list..I'm trying to remember why!
• Rajshri Movies, where you can watch all their movies online.. never watched any though.
• Centris, for all PGP complains,a boon again :)
• Buddha Bar, a collection of nice songs..
• I have lots of bookmarked sites containing information on stuff that I learn in my modules. If I search for something when I do an assignment or a project and find an interesting site that gives me information related to what I'm learning, I bookmark them for future reference.

That's about it.. Phew! That was a long list! I just realised that I hardly use some of the links on my list. But I guess it's ok.. I'll just let it be there.. you never know when I might need them :)

Me and poetry? May be!

I don't think I could ever write poetry, and I never will, but here are a couple of attempts at writing poems.. this was mannnnnny years ago, so don't except something that makes a lot of sense or something that was written after hours of thought!! In fact, I find them very stupid, and so I didn't get them published in my school magazine or anything of the sort. I thought I might as well put it here, before I forget that I actually wrote them or forget the lines of the poems altogether :)

I remember it was a day in June,
When it poured and poured and poured;
In fact, to such an extent,
That even the thunder roared!

Haha! This was written after it actually rained so hard one day in June, that the roads got flooded and the water reached the floor inside my house! The next poem I wrote [not exactly wrote, because both the poems were written in my mind.. :P] when I sitting on my dining table, looking at the garden outside.

The grass is so green,

The flowers are so bright,

The place is so clean,

Oh! What a wonderful sight!

I really don't know what to say next! I'll just leave it here for you guys to comment on them! :)

*Me and poetry? May be! Actually, may be not!*