Country living

Yet another journey of a 1000 pieces was complete on 1/1/2010 despite my really wanting to complete it by 12/31/2009 and its taken only all of two months to put up a picture!

There isn't really a story this time around, only just one significant common denominator in both these completed projects. The half assembled piece went through a move this time around and more precariously this time I might have to add as I didn't bother to pack it up. I was surprised when I put the last puzzle piece in as I was pretty sure I'd lost at least one piece in some car along the way or in the grass! or that someone had stolen it!

This puzzle is a part of the Thomas Kinkade's Country Living Series and unlike the last time I own this through and through in every sense of the word and it was completed with zero help.

Jab we met

There she was scratching her head and furrowing her brows. The question was simple, ‘Do you remember the first time we met? Even if her life depended on it, she could not!

I’ve been asked this question a few times in the past few months from acquaintances, friends with varying degrees of friendship and I must admit most often than not I draw up a blank.

I mean unless you dropped wine on me or were dressed up as Frankenstein or we met me on the top of the Tower of Americas or we met in an airport or you rode on a horse all full in knight in shining armor style, when we met first, I will probably not remember our first meeting.

Of course, if you were the first person I met on my first day at a new work location or you were that client manager who was in a leg cast when I first met you or you were that co-worker who wore a rather distinct orange shirt or that lab partner who turned up for carpentry class in sunglasses or you were the hunk I gave wrong directions to the restroom, only to later realize that I’d be working with you … then yes, I will remember our first meeting.

So does it matter? So what if I can’t remember the color of your dress or the season of the year or the position of the sun jab me first met. I’ve thought back to the first moments with my best friends and can’t remember most. Most of my better than ‘hi, bye’ friends would probably say that I came off as snobbish or prudish (for reasons unascertained to me) before they even spoke to me! I particularly remember this girl, from when we were in the first standard, there was a well … a sorta unspoken mutual hostility and then we became the bestest of friends and continue to be.

Can you remember the first time we met?

From KKKKiran to Marry Me, Marry Me

Neither a fan of ShahRukh Khan nor of typical Bollywood movies, My Name is Khan ended up being the second hindi I've watched in the US and this years after Khosla ka Ghosla!

Before the credits even began rolling in, we got a taste of the true Indian spirit. You eye those perfectly placed seats which look like they are available and head out there all quietly happy that you decided to walk in 15 mins early only to be stopped by the person at the end of the row with something like 'I'm holding these seats for my saas aur bhabi aur uski behen aur uski behen ki friend'! It happens on every row until you decide to cover your losses and head down!

Why would you be researching on the erstwhile US President George Bush's itinerary and scribbling notes if you weren't a terrorist, right? Wrong, you might want to meet him in person to tell him just that and in the movie's timeline he's not yet erstwhile!

Coming right on the heels of watching Khuda ke liye, the racial profiling theme seemed repetitive. It's certainly not your typical Karan Johar movie until about the last half an hour. It skips the melodrama, the constant breaking into song, the lavish parties in locales that either resemble the Mysore palace in all its grandeur or some swiss mountains, soaked handkerchiefs full of tears of the heroine or her mother or her future/current/ex mil, her sister, her best friend ... you get the picture.

I get that this movie wants to convey a message - there's only good or bad people in this world, there's no middle ground, there's no varying degrees of good either or bad for that matter. I don't agree, but I'll probably not dwell on that now! And guys if you say Marry Me long enough and show her the San Francisco skyline on a foggy morning she will start singing the same tune back to you! How cornily Win-Win!

Kajol is as resplendent as ever but I feel like there wasn't anything in her role, her portrayal as a mother and as a lover and a wife were really lacking. It's probably going with her character's theme of resilience. Some little attempted humor with the intercourse for dummies scene is blatanly ignored but again probably going with the movie theme this time.

There definitely are some truly moving moments, like when Kajol's character keeps repeating time of death, the we shall overcome/ham honge kamiyab singing but the last half an hour ruins it all. Crisscrossing from west to east while the military and FEMA is cooling their heels seems possible only for bollywood, and that too in a bus!

And then we got conveniently stuck in traffic, so that made a total driving time of 6 hours for a 2.5 hour movie. Well, I shouldn't really be complaining although I'd have written a better review if they decided to cut that last half an hour!

What is the meaning?

I came across this word document I had running into about a dozen pages with random tidbits, almost like one of my old diaries with cut-outs, poems, quotes, notes, recipes and other stuff!

This post will pen-down one of those pages, skipping some important words!
1. greatest
2. ruler's counselor
3. pearl
4. flowering/in bloom
5. messenger/messenger of God
6. light/saintly woman
7. star of the sea
8. will helmet/protection
9. fame and happiness/slender and fair
10. helmet of God
11. radiance
12. alive and well
13. new village
14. famous warrior