The Voice In My Head…

(Old file photograph of the Queen. Though countless recent ones are availably freely, I just loved this one as she looks so serene in it!)

One of the reasons I love my online learning project is the little things that I learn alongside when researching someone’s life - Like the fact that the the British Monarchy has an official website of their own, very cool!

All that the official website pointed out about the present Queen of England is:

The present Queen was born in London on 21 April 1926, the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York. Although when born it was unlikely that she would become Queen, events in the 1930s led to her father’s Accession and her becoming heir to the Throne.

The Accession of The Queen in 1952 was sudden, although not entirely unexpected owing to the ill-health of King George VI. The Queen’s Coronation followed on 2 June 1953.

For more than 50 years, during a period of great social change, The Queen has carried out her political duties as Head of State, the ceremonial responsibilities of the Sovereign and an unprecedented programme of visits in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and overseas.

Not much to go on, I agree. Especially when one is used to so much goss from tabloids wrt the Royal family of England. So I continued my research at other sites.

Came up with all sorts of interesting trivia:
* She is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, hence is also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand among other places!
* She is one of only two people who are simultaneously head of state of more than one independent nation. (The other being the President of France, who is ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra.) In practice, she personally exercises virtually no political executive power.
* Very interesting -> In the war in 1945, she convinced her father that she should be allowed to contribute directly to the war effort & then trained as a driver, and drove a military truck while she served!
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Ok, now I don’t usually blog about my dreams & it’s mostly since I can’t remember them - but last night I kept getting up, tossing & turning - and in the midst of it all I realized I was having a dream that would save the world!

Unfortunately, now that I’ve gotten up, have no idea what it was - or what it was going to save the world from.

I do remember this though - and it’s a weird set of three seemingly non-connected things, it had something to do with

(01) PMS
(02) Photography
and hold yer breath…
(03) Golf.

(yeah, go figure)

Suffice to say, I’m no closer to saving the world this morning than I was yesterday.

Tonight though, have decided to keep a little notepad & pen on my bedside table.

Most people acquainted with historic sites in Mumbai know that St. Peter’s Church in Bandra is a heritage structure.

While the Church continues to leave me awestruck with the peace & serenity one feels inside the beautiful structure, one place I’ve always loved is the tiny cemetery which precedes the main Church building.

Most of the headstones on the graves are elaborately done up in marble and date back to the late 1800s & early 1900s.

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Good news: It’s not bird flu.

Bad news: It is some other type of viral flu. Probably due to the change of weather. I’m not ruling out psychosomatic fever though, so it would make this all YOUR fault _____ (insert your name if you have severely hassled me in the last 24 hours)

Just plain Annoying: My dad’s tests to see if I’m really ill.
(01) If it’s 8 in the pm & Melody does not to go out, then she’s really ill.
(02) If it’s anything in the am / pm & Melody is not on the computer, then she’s really ill.

I’m already tired after sitting at my PC for just a couple of minutes. So you see dad,

PS: Instead of leaving a “Get well soon” comment here, sing me a song.

(Pic from 2005 floods)

The floods of 26 July 2005 shook up Mumbai & Mumbaites and it’s after effects were seen last year & this year in the fear that heavy rains immediately evoke.

The death toll in 4 states in India is at this moment, officially, 126.

In Mumbai, the weather office in Colaba in South Mumbai has recorded 279.4 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am, while the amount of rain in the suburbs was 200.6 mm.

The news is full of warnings to fishermen not to venture out, about the building in Grant Road that has collapsed due to the rains & landslides in North-East Chembur.

Even as the bad news seems to be getting worse - and even as the rains continue - I was impressed to see Pooja Bedi on the news, disgusted with the way things are in this city & demanding answers.

“After paying so much tax, why is there no infrastructure in this city?” she demands.

(Pooja Bedi, Indian actress & TV star, with her children at a Habitat for Humanity project)

Pooja Bedi has been actively involved with Habitat for Humanity’s ongoing efforts to provide homes for those whose lives were affected in the 2005 floods. Yes, two years later, they’re still working.

Meanwhile, what are officials doing?

I pray that the monsoons calm down & that people flare up instead - that more people with power to talk; celebrities like Pooja Bedi, open their mouths & demand answers.

(click to enlarge)

More details here.

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More details here.

I’m praying for all these guys to come home back to Mumbai safely. We’re missing y’all.

As for me, what is a Ram without a Lakhan?, I ask.

Don’t know what is it or why, but feel like sharing some “secrets”.

# 1 - Like the fact that I’m not very pretty.
No no, don’t think I’m being all modest and all. It’s true. I’m not. And if you’re going to tell me you think otherwise based on all the pics you’ve seen here on this blog, let me tell you:

# 2 - I Photoshop edit all photographs before uploading them here.
Sad, but true. If you saw me in real life, you’d think I was perfectly hideous.

# 3 - I had this major complex about the color of my skin. Two people really close to me were as fair as Snow White (somewhere thereabouts anyway) and there I was, Black Beauty. Without even the beauty part. Sigh. But that all changed when I went out with this French Guy LF. He absolutely adored me. And apparently lots of people in France think dark skins are all happening. Had to stop seeing LF though because he became way too possessive.

# 4 - I just googled him just now though. Why? Like that only. It’s been gazillion years. But he was cute. And no, didn’t find him. I got 224 results (in 0.47 seconds) for his full name & surname in quotes. Unfortunately, most of the sites were in French. Never mind, somethings are not meant to happen. I do love Google though.

# 5 - I also fear Google.
It’s like information is so great but it can also be misused, right? And here I am, with my big mouth always open, sharing my life online… And now my secrets too. I wonder about how smart I am sometimes.

# 6 - I also wonder sometimes why so many men seem to like me.
Again, this is not some sort of modesty or something. Seriously. Why, why, why? I can never understand it. And if you don’t believe me - step into any night club in Mumbai. Every girl is immaculately dressed, fabulously turned out. At least in the night clubs I go to anyway. Seriously, they all are one better than the other. It’s disgusting.

# 7 - I once went out with a guy only because every other girl I knew (& many I didn’t) wanted to go out with him.
It gave me some silly sense of power I think. He was cute too. And it was probably good for his ego that I didn’t want to see him again. I also promised myself I’d never go out with anyone I didn’t want to go with for real.

# 8 - I broke that promise.
I went out with this guy only to get him off my back - he had pestered me for over a month. He was super cute though. And he was right too, I didn’t regret going out with him. And I did want to go out with him again after the first time. I decided to google him too right now. Got 20,500 results for his name & surname in quotes. And in 0.08 seconds. I told you I love google.

# 9 - I also like men.
Ok, perhaps this is not a secret. But thought I’d mention. All sorts of them. And as cliched as it sounds, looks do not attract me to men. Sure I like good looking men as much as the next girl (assuming of course that the next girl is not gay) but what initially attracts me to men is height, humor and intelligence. And by intelligence I mean, he should know a lot of big words. Like, promulgating or declination or centripetal acceleration. Preferably not all in the same sentence though, because once in a way I’d like to understand him.

# 10 - I’ve never really gotten Math. Or the Share Market.
Not that I’ve really tried or anything. But still. I read a cartoon about a man who didn’t get the share market because “it was all bull” to him - and I thought that was hilarious. And I’m not brilliant with finance either. I can spend money though.

# 11 - I once ran up a phone bill of * (edited after Kaushal’s comment, sigh) in a period of 3 days.
This is not really a complete secret. Because certain members of my family know & won’t let me forget it. I do love talking on the phone though. And talking in general. But again, those aren’t really secrets.

Then again, I think you’ve guys have had enough secrets out of me for one day. Will go & “get some work done” (yes, perhaps you can guess what # 12 would be).

Dumb Charades? Now that’s exactly what I was talking about.

And in case you missed this bit from the first link, apparently Paris Hilton has gone on record saying that she too has “acted” dumb in the past to get her way.

I say “Paris Hilton can act”?????

Now, there’s the stunner.

More, further to this. This time from Hindustan Times.

(Click on image to read entire article)

I really enjoyed the article & I thought it captured the true essence of the Pune blog camp, including some funny excerpts from the introduction section, where one guy said:

“My blog is for guys who have no girlfriends”

And, yours truly did also get a few (more) seconds of fame with these kind words:

Sakshi meanwhile, like a true celeb, is least affected by all of this. While I am all *yayyyy* & jumping about in spirit (ok, in reality too), she’s like “What’s all the fuss about woman?”

Cannot think of a suitable comeback since I’m still yayyyy-ing & jumping about.

PS: Thank you P for telling me about this article first thing in the morning!

CNN-IBN interviewed me at the Pune Blog Camp last Saturday. Unfortunately my interview did NOT seem to make the final cut! However, you can see me in there though, next to my dear friend Sakshi whose interview thankfully did make it (congrats babe!).

You can also see screen shots of TheVoiceInMyHead flashed in the visuals!

Y’all, please, feel free to comment what a great loss it is to the world that I didn’t make my TV debut