Masala Masala

The chairs were arranged in a linear fashion with so much of orderliness. People had started occupying them here and there in a scattered manner. "S"and I filled two of the seats and I kept gazing at what was in front of us with my eyes wide opened .It took a while to sink into me that we had finally made it here . "S" and I had a feeling of having taken the pains of crossing seven seas and seven mountains similar to those narrated in fairy tales to reach this place in time. It was nearly after two years that we were able to make it to this .Yipeeeeeeeeee.. finally we were in a cinema theatre to watch a movie.I can hear you say " so much of a build-up for such a simple thing?". Well, my answer is ..come and meet me after you have a baby and I bet you would call this a herculean task.

Our patience was tried for the first half an hour with the screening of crazy advertisements and trailers which seemed to continue for eternity. Finally we were able to hear the title song of the movie for which we had purchased the tickets. We were transformed to a world that existed 30 years back. Hold on!!!!..we were not watching a movie of yesteryear but one of the most recent ones, the Hindi movie "Om Shanti Om". There was my favourite hero ShahRukh khan on the screen in his best form and for the first time I regretted for having lead a futile life not even knowing how to whistle. Then came the introduction of the heroine. I was utterly gobsmacked and wondered if such flawless beauties existed even in these modern times. Of course I was constantly sussing out the reactions of "S" to the introduction of the heroine. He was putting up a bland face concealing his true response perhaps to put me at ease(or so I thought).The bucket of popcorn that we had purchased outside , slowly and steadily had found its way into our tummies already.

The first half of the movie was shot in an ambiance of the late 70s. The atmosphere in the movie was brought out with so much of perfection and with a tinge of corny comedy which is so very characteristic of Farah Khan , the director . We could easily relate the memorable events of the 70s. ShahRukh was the protagonist and his acting reassured that his stardom was a well deserved one. Nevertheless one should not question the credibility of the story. The story revolved around death ,re-incarnation and retaliation.It has the recipe for a successful movie with correct proportions of romance, action, horror, thrill ,action etc etc. But this movie lacks in depth and intensity. We are somehow not able to empathise with the characters regardless of how well the actors emote.

This movie is an entertainer and I earnestly request you to shun your reasoning capability and rationalism if you intend to watch this movie.After a solid three hours the movie ended with the appearance of the technicians and the backstage heroes on the screen . This is something that I attribute to the directorial touch of Farah who is consistently making an attempt to bring these unnoticed artists to limelight.

As soon as we came out of the theatre , I beamed with pride and commented to "S".."See ,my selection has never gone wrong..truly a great movie!!!!". "S" only smiled and replied "If you are happy , I am ". What am I to infer from this statement?.

Baby's Day Out

To begin with, for my own convenience I shall refer to my husband as "S" henceforth. The first Sunday of last month dawned with an air of surprise for me. "S" bounced up from his bed and cried "Lets all go to Wembley today ". I doubted the intention of his declaration as I have known him to be an ardent lover of his laptop during the weekends .He, on a ideal weekend would prefer to be glued to his laptop as it is one poor thing that could serve him ceaselessly the whole day and match with his seemingly endless reserves of energy levels.

Trying to figure out the credibility of his plan , I muttered "Is Wembley not within London?? .Why this sudden interest for you to visit the place???"... One word that he uttered made me speechless and it was "Chennai Dosa". We live outside London and South Indian cuisines are not in our vicinity.Within the next 40 mins time we were in Wembley car park near Chennai Dosa. I was peeping out of the car window like a "child in a candy shop" from the moment our car set its wheels into Wembley .I was genuinely baffled as to whether I had boarded a flight and disembarked in India already.I had a "peep show" of all kinds of shops starting from jewellery shops to designer wear saree shops.

We spent a solid 1 hour in Chennai Dosa and I bet we had tried every other item listed in the menu .The look on the waiter's face made it evident that he thought that we were starved refugees from areas hit by famine. To add fuel to the burning fire , "S" said "After tasting the food you cook anything else tastes like "ambrosia". If only I had a magic wand like "Harry Potter", I would have converted "S" into a "plate of pulao" that was three days old. Our bellies were "house full" and unable to stuff in any more food we made our exit out of "Chennai Dosa" and started walking towards the chain of Indian shops.

"S" naively (not aware of the implications) offered to take charge of the pram with our little one in it ,while my Mother In Law and I went shopping. We set our foot into every "chota mota" shop that had a name board . I was in cloud nine when I managed to get a "gaagra choli" for my 20 months old baby girl. It was meant to be her attire for the impending Diwali(remember this is an one month old flash back) . I imagined her to be like "Aishwarya Rai" in that choli and all her boy friends queuing up before our home to get a glimpse of her. My "daydreaming" was interrupted by my daughter's father who screamed " I cant imagine it took one hour for you to select that one metre piece of cloth". Now you know why men are deemed so different from women.

Then came the handbag shop, saree shop ,jewellery shop and what not , with a touch of Indian designs and tastes. We ventured into each one of them and "S's" purse was put to best and maximum use that it looked a little worn out by the end of the day.Before I realised , it was time for the sun to set. "S"was drained of his patience levels (thanks to our extremely co-operative off spring) and one look on his face , I understood it was time to leave. Half hearted, I boarded into our car. This trip had stirred up a feeling of nostalgia in me and I kept thinking about the days when I used to go for shopping with my family in India.

It suddenly struck to me that how lucky we are!!!..We are in this foreign land fully reaping the benefits of the opulence, advancement and the development of this country and at the same time enjoying the richness of our Indian way of life which can never be complete without the unparalleled Indian food and Indian costumes.As "S" often puts it "We have the best of both worlds".

Of course , it would not be fair to end this blog without mentioning this. Since that trip "S" has never ever offered to drive us again to Wembley . He is still in the clutches of "post traumatic stress" of going for a shopping with " TWO WOMEN" and "an adorable elf".

"Out-Of-the-World" Experience

I was stranded in the middle of no-where not having a clue of what is to befall upon me. My heart was pounding at a speed greater than those witnessed in formula-racing. I had a feeling that my body had released all the adrenaline that it could possibly let go of. All I could see around me was an arid land with mounds of sand. The sweeping sound of the wind was becoming weaker in its decibel levels as it was being overpowered slowly by some inexplicable sound that I had never heard of before. I could see a flying saucer land very close to me. Off came an “imp” out of it and embraced me with its abominable limbs. I cried out loud due to excruciating pain.

“Oh not again” exclaimed my husband. I have had a dream .An “afternoon-mare” perhaps as I was in the mid of my afternoon nap on a weekend. My screaming in the mid of my sleep has become so much of a regular feature these days that my husband pays more attention to the undecipherable rattling noise of my little one rather than listening to my “dream world “ stories. Well, my curiosity about the UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects as they are often talked about) has been the root cause for all this. I have always wondered if there are “living creatures” fondly (??!!!) recognized as aliens , thriving in worlds other than ours. If that is true how would they look, how would they communicate and would they in reality be as weird as they are being depicted in novels and movies?. Would they hear using their nostrils and breathe using their ears?.

Hindu mythology always talks about the co-existence of innumerable galaxies and life-forms. I wonder if this is just mythology or if it has any correlation with the reality. Although there have been quite a few sightings of these abnormal objects across the globe, most of the times they have been dismissed grossly as hallucinations, hoax or an “attention grabbing” attempts to hit the headlines of the newspapers. Even NASA has been very secretive about revealing what it knows. To this day, we are not able to arrive at a concrete conclusion about this supernatural phenomenon. It is my opinion that the politicians have a great role to play in deliberately attempting not to disclose the information related to this.

Isn’t it time we start digging into the authenticity of these UFO claims with a greater degree of neutrality and openly debate and discuss about them. Although the “fear of the unknown” may cause an initial unrest among the masses, is it not a good idea to get to grips with the concept of parallel existence of life-forms?. Just like how we take up study on stars and other planets, we need to consider UFOs and aliens as another ocean where we need to set out foot for unravelling the mystery.

Not to mention, during the early days of the wedding, how the partners appear as weird as aliens to each other. But as we move on, we learn to disentangle the mystery of decoding each others idiosyncrasies. Perhaps decoding the UFOs and original aliens would be a “cake walk” when compared to this .

Before I say adios ..if you are wondering what the picture in the beginning of this post has got to say..here is the answer to it:

Q. What is an alien’s favorite place to hang out?

A. The Spacebar