The Voice In My Head…

Had a good weekend. Among other things, went out with this very sweet boy:

We went to the Taj President for the Barbeque by the Poolside, which serves “Indian kebabs and Continental grills”.

The food was decent and the portions were very large compared to any place I’ve eaten at recently. Rates were as to be expected at a Taj, but considering the size of the portions, I’d say this place is very good value for money.

Surprising then that it was quite empty. Just another (phirang) couple and us. Which was of course, absolutely lovely.

(click to enlarge pic)

Imagine how romantic - candle light, alfresco dining, the moonlight & stars. And the company wasn’t bad either

Remember this place if you’re looking for a romantic dining experience in Mumbai!

Anyway, to move on, since I’m not too big on Indian desserts, we went to Waffle Co (near Kemps Corner) and had this mouth watering Chocolate filled Waffles with Chocolate poured over and Chocolate ice-cream on the side. YUM!!!

Yeah, I know, you’re thinking, it’s a while since this girl posted about chocolate, has she lost her sweet tooth? No people, as you can see, have not!

This weekend have the Open Blog Meet - for bloggers, readers of blogs & anyone else who wants to come (do spread the word people!).

There’s also blues legend Buddy Guy (who has been held up as an exemplar by Eric Clapton) playing at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra-Kurla on the 4th Feb. Haven’t gotten tickets for that yet, but am planning on going.. Edit: As of 3pm, now have tickets!

Also, am proud to let y’all know, further to this post (way back in June of 06, yelp!), I’ve finally updated the ole travel blog!

To check it out, click on the image below:

Will go now, should probably get some work between the last weekend and the next

The finals!

Both Semis were unbelievable!

First, Federer slaughtered poor Roddick. 6-4, 6-0, 6-2. The second set was pure delight- unless of course one was supporting Roddick. In which case, I’m sure it was hell. To quote Vijay Amritraj who was commentating:

“That’s not a tennis racquet in his hand - it’s a magic wand.”

Yes, pure magic.

And then, today! Let me be honest, despite his recent past amazing performances, I did not expect Fernando Gonzalez (whose names both sound like surnames!) to clear off poor Tommy Haas the way he did. Again straight sets: 6-1 6-3 6-1!

When I started watching the match, I was like, yes boys play well but either way, whoever wins, you’re gonna get killed by RFeds in the final.

Now I’m not so sure. Sure, my (figurative) money is on RFeds - but maybe, just maybe FGons is gonna work some magic of his own again.

Whichever way, it promises to be a finals like no other.

Nope, it’s not like life is exceptionally good - though it is good!

Nor is there any big news to announce (before all you one-track minds start asking).

And it’s not even the new sexy CK underwear I just got, straight out of a suitcase that even smelt like the US when you opened it. (note to self: that’s the second post in less than 10 days talking about underwear. Stop it already)

In fact, there have even been one or two things that could have stressed me out (like one of my doggies is not too well, pls. pray for her, ta) - but God is good & I’ve got His peace that surpasses understanding.

So what I’m saying is - I’m happy!

And because I’m happy, I’ve decided to give all who read this a BIG bear GORILLA E-HUG

(PS: For all my realtime friends, e-hugs cannot be exchanged for real-hugs )

François de la Rochefoucauld once said: “The only thing constant in life is change”. That being a given, it’s still reassuring to know that some things in life never change.

We were so innocent. True, we thought at the time that we were ever so naughty - but in retrospect I see that even our ‘naughtiness’ bore an inherent quality of innocence.

Like the silly M*A*S*H nicknames we gave each other. Like the time we decided to buy condoms for Ally’s bday! Like our favorite & private hangout where we’d meet everyday - “the Dungeon” (!)

And of course nothing - or no one - could keep us apart. The five of us sealed our promise to be “best friends till the end”. We bought each other five silver bracelets - each one had the owner’s name on the front and the other four names engraved behind.

And this picture, taken in April 1993, shortly after our 10th std board exams was laminated in a nice big 10 x12 size. We had 5 copies made and as we moved around the world these last 17 years, the picture moved house with us…

The frame still hangs in all our 5 homes, across three continents.

THEN

(Left-Right: N, me, R, Ally & Jan - click to enlarge)

AND NOW

(In the same order as the earlier pic, only Ally missing - click to enlarge)

The first one to get married was N. Being a Muslim, we knew she’d be the first to go (!) but what we didn’t know it’d be a love marriage! And what a lovely wedding it was indeed. R had moved out of the country by then - but Ally, Jan & I enjoyed N’s wedding - especially the Mehendi day. Have had Mehendi put on my hands several times afterwards but I’ll never forget the utter excitement of the first time.

Sunrise, sunset. N left the country after getting married. Ally left the country. N had a baby. R came back to India, then got married. Jan got married. Ally got married. Jan had a baby. R had a baby. Sunrise, sunset.

It’s been 14 years since the photograph. And we’ve been friends six (some of us more!) years before that.

20 years!

20 years and we’re still as close as ever. Closer even, if that could be possible. We still call each other regularly - spend enormous amounts on phone bills - or keep in touch via email. I wrote this about Jan - whose maid-of-honor I was - and whom I still meet sometimes as often as three or four times a week!

This month, N was down in India! Oh what joy!!

Of course we all had to meet up (see ‘now’ pic above too) - and of course we suddenly all regressed and became loud, giggling little girls again!

(click to enlarge)

We met again, this time with the “babies” (of course, two of the babies aren’t babies any more!)

Since I don’t have one, I was generously loaned one for the day

(click to enlarge)

We’re meeting again, this time to party. No husbands! No babies! Nothing but 4 old friends! (And yes, of course Ally, wish you were here, soon maybe?!)

20 years and we’ve all changed a lot.

And yet, we’ve not changed at all.

[For my foreign readers: The title of this post is from an old (1962), Waheeda Rehman cultic hit Hindi film of the same name, which is translated "20 years later"]

I should!! For this is what I’m wearing this season:

Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden

Chanel No 5

Britney Spears Fantasy

The last was ’solid’ perfume & came in a cute box with a little “carry me in your purse” pink pouch. And is encrusted with glittering stones, ala the very precious Ms. Spears herself.
Follow the arrows to see how the box opened out ->

Need I add, all three were gifts from friends from the UK & the US. Am floored, have such amazing friends!! Ty DP, ty DD, ty CS.

And while I’m dishing out thank-yous, let me thank R, for the surprise Victoria’s Secret stuff she got for me… Hey! You didn’t need to, I didn’t expect anything, so it was all the more sweet. Thx!

I have never struggled writing a review of a movie before.

It’s not because the plot of this movie is so intricate that I cannot review it. It’s just that it so profoundly affected me that I am not sure reviewing it as a movie really does it justice.

This is not a movie. It is a warning sign. It is a wake-up-and-smell-the-insanity sign.

The film is broadly about:

Blood Diamond tells of a bond between an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe (DiCaprio), who smuggles diamonds out of war-torn Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, and a poor fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) whose son is kidnapped by rebels and trained to kill.

(quote from Epoch Times review, link below)

And the film seeks to make us understand that these “conflict diamonds” are illegally mined gems whose profits buy guns and fuel wars

The Epoch Times has an article here called “‘Blood Diamond’ Has a Point, but Who Will Listen?” which highlights the conflict diamond issue which the film itself is promoting.

To call this movie excessively violent would be an understatement. Then again, the topic at hand - Civil War; Rebel Groups v/s Governments is a violent topic that needs to be seen for what is it. I for one, living in my little bubble, never really grasped the sick horror that is a reality in so many countries.

Sure I know that many countries in the world are still fighting, rebel groups against governments - but to see the refugee camps, to see the horror of it all, it’s giving me goosebumps even now, just thinking about it.

What was by far the worse thing in the movie for me, was the kidnapping of innocent children and the methods by which rebel groups use them to further their own purposes.

I saw this show late Friday night. Saturday I got up thinking about it. Sunday night & I’m thinking - how dare I say this movie affects me if I just get all shook up for a day or two and then forget all about it.

Then again, I think, what can I do?

I google kidnapped rebel children and come up with about 580,000 results.

I see that people in Sri Lanka are facing this same problem. See this BBC article, dated as close as 19th Dec 2006.

Read the horrible facts of what’s happening in Uganda here and here and I quote:

“More than 25,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA since the war began. This year, an average of 20 children have been abducted every week”

And it’s the same in as many as “50 countries throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America”. See a list of countries where child soldiers are being used here.

After finding so much information - most of which only shocked and upset me more - I finally found a link with information and a tiny ray of hope in the form of positive action against this insanity.

It’s on the website of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in a special section called “War-Affected Children“ and it offers you relevant information as well as things one can do to help.

Another similar website is Caritas Australia’s section on Child Soldiers and human trafficking

I strongly urge you to go to the 2 above links and read up. If it touches your heart that “more than 300,000 girls and boys under 18 are fighting in armed conflicts worldwide”, then I pray that you may do something about it.

In addition to doing what I can from the above link, since I always consider prayer a powerful weapon, I shall pray.

I pray thanks that almost everyone reading this has no personal experience of the horror so many innocents are forced to go through.

And I pray for peace, real peace.

The Indian critics splashed it all over the Babel posters; “If you loved Crash, you’ll love Babel”.

The thing is though, that I haven’t seen Crash. Nevertheless, I did hear all the buzz about it and thought I might as well catch Babel (on the large screen) at least.

The movie is named Babel wrt to the Biblical passage in Genesis 11: 9: “Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth” - where the word ‘Bable’ is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Balal’ meaning ‘Confuse’.

And so was the premise of this movie. In our modern, technologically saavy world, with communication at it’s peak, we are still a group of very different people who miscommunicate with each other.
*There is confusion between different cultures - Americans, Mexicans, Moroccans, Japanese miscommunicating with each other.
*There is confusion within families - fathers, daughters, sons, siblings miscommunicating with each other.
*There is confusion within the marital bond. Between the maternal bond of caretaker and child. Between those in power and those not.
*And for good measure, the film also includes a deaf-mute who has a myriad of her own problems.

The movie was long and slow. I did like the concept and the mixed-up sequencing that fit as a jig-saw, slowly piece by piece, showing us the connection between unrelated families across the globe. Yet, overall, I found it a rather a tiring film.

I went for the late late night show to Inox and this was on my mind on the way home:
* I’m so tired, yawn
* What was in the note the Japanese girl wrote to the cop?
* Why is cutey Brad Pitt looking so old and washed out?
* Are naked Japanese girls really that white?
* More yawns, I think I’ve hurt my left shoulder muscle. Ouch.
* Will I make it for morning prayer at this rate?
* I don’t think I’m seeing Crash after this.
* Given all the above, it’ll probably win an Oscar.

Ok fine, I admit I went GAGA over the man, lol! Read the gory details on Rediff News here

(Click on pic to read article & do read the msgs below the article! Promise they’ll make you lol - or if you me, they’ll feed your narcissism!
One says “Who’s Lucky? Definitely Dravid is the lucky person here “ yeah right!)

(01) Go to Chapel as often as possible (daily would be great). Read my Bible daily.
Have been neglecting my spiritual growth to a great extent and basically just miss my relationship with the Lord. Looking at (with His grace) getting back to a regular routine.

(02) Read 24 new books by authors I’ve never read before.

Chose to do this because (a) I love to read & I really want to make a conscious effort to do so and also because (b) I tend to get comfortable reading certain authors and am not usually highly adventurous in choosing a new one. Usually I may read upto two/three new authors a year, this year, it’ll be 24!

Started “The Time Travellers Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger - a gift from my darling brother Aj & Marise. Have also started a separate page here at tvimh which will chronolize my journey completing this resolution.

(03) Swim once a week. Get on the treadmill thrice a week. Watch my carbo/sugar intake.

Yes, well the once skinny Mel isn’t so skinny no more. And she ain’t wanting to get any plumper.

(04) Be more health conscious.

I know my mum is right & I’m far to casual when it comes to my health. So have decided to try to (a) eat right & minimize on the junk, (b) eat three meals a day (c) try to eat at a somewhat regular time & (d) Take all the supplements I should. I’m also planning on doing a comlpete body health check up this year.

(05) Venture into the kitchen more often

Did take a cooking class last year, but truth be told am still not so regular in the kitchen (ok fine, I hardly ever go there). Especially want to make more “ghar ka khana” (like curries / dal / chawal / sabjis) which people can eat regularly rather than just fancy cakes one makes once in a while.

(06) Write more. I haven’t been updating some of my other sites as regularly as I should and I’ve also been lazy when it came to my freelance work. Def. plan on doing more this year.

Will add to the post if I think of anything but really I think these 6 are quite a lot in themselves.