aerosmith guru

You ain't that good/ Is what you said down to the letter
But you like the way I hold a microphone
Sometimes I'm good but when I'm bad I'm even better
Don't give me no lip/ I've got enough of my own...
Falling in love is so hard on the kneeeeeees!!!

Genius! Pure genius! :)

The story of your life... in 30 words or less

There's this really interesting website that posts stories written by its readers. The catch? The entire story has to be written in one sentence. A very interesting idea. Some of the stories are really good, and most of them evoke a lot in just one sentence - a whole setting, situation and mood. Here's the link: http://www.onesentence.org/

I stumbled upon the Picasso in me

hehe I was stumbling again, and it led me to a site where you can make your own picasso-esque painting using basic design elements from his work. it's fun, even though the choices are quite limited! see what I made: http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=87ebcc5&skin=original

Are we animals???

I was watching this animal rescue show on one of the nature channels on tv. It's so depressing to see in what condition house pets are sometimes kept. Why do people think they're the lords of creation? They take animals as pets when nobody is forcing them to, and then don't feed them or look after them, or worse, are cruel to them, and make them wish they'd never been born! What gives us the right to do that? Animals are made for love, the only beings in the world capable of unconditional silent devotion! They're like children that trust us and depend on us for everything! It is NOT OK to mistreat them! Thank God somebody's monitoring the situation and taking maltreated animals away from their "owners".
I loved my dog and I miss him every day. He was the most beautiful brindle boxer that was specially hiding in a hell-hole for us to rescue. He had three different kinds of worms when we got him, as well as near-starvation, asthma and slight starvation-related muscular under-development similar to rickets. Boxers don't do so well in a hot country like India. It took us nearly six months to get him completely healthy again, and he was faithfully ours for the rest of his shorter-than-usual life. Such a beautiful dog, and so naughty! He conquered our hearts and ruled our lives. He had the best blanket in the house but would only wait till Dad dozed off to jump up slyly onto his bed. If you made a strange noise that he'd never heard before, he'd cock his head around from side to side trying to figure out what the matter with you was. He was so patient that once when I didn't see him behind me and stepped back onto his toe, the poor thing went and hid but never retaliated in any way. Would you be able to do that? A darling, darling boy that left a space in our family, our lives, our hearts that we will never be able to fill again. If you think he was just an animal, you seriously need to get one yourself. Most likely you'll be talking to your pet within a month. :)
I want to get another dog, but we're here in this country only temporarily and I don't know what it would involve to take him back with us to a country with a very different climate. And if we're not able to take him/her, it would just break my heart. So I wait... But God, I miss having that interaction. It's on another level, a more basic, instinctive level, something we can't achieve with humans because they're too developed.

latest stumble

OK so i'm addicted to stumble upon! :) here's the latest: http://www.overheardinnewyork.com. it seems like in NY, everyone says the darnedest things! :) (wow darnedest is in my browser dictionary!)

To beget, or not to beget...

You know, in the world as it is today, it is becoming more and more difficult to justify making the traditional choices to your friends! If you're a big city-big school type, you'll have come across the standard feminist theories about self-realization and not having to bend to the pressure of society to fulfill traditional roles of wife and mother. But if you've been through that education system and still want to fulfill those traditional roles, out of choice heaven forbid, suddenly you're an outcast! Nowadays it's not rebellion if you wanna sleep with your boyfriend before marriage, it's rebellion if you don't!!! In my opinion, this is as much against feminism as I understand it as enforcing traditional roles was. To be truly fulfilled, it is freedom of choice I need, whatever those choices may be! Women, stop enforcing gender roles on me, no matter in which direction! 25 years of school, and I'm still succumbing to the most ancient hormonal impulses hehe...

tick tock tick tock clockwork oranges are exploding...

i never thought i'd say this, but i think the movie made more of an impact than the book!!! shockers! it's just that violence in print does not get the kind of graphic, sub-cutaneous reaction that it gets in visual. but in one way the movie missed the point completely - the book is not about violence inherent in all of us, it's not about finding out that no matter how sick this is making you feel there's a part of you that knows that urge and understands it and you're mr. hyde too ha ha ha! in fact, the book's true motive (yes i'm the messiah so shoot me!) is really revealed in its ending, in a few short lines that deliver a punch so hard you're left gasping for breath and thought - it's about youth!!! youth striving to shed shackles, youth caught in self-loathing awakening to a sick new world, violent fuck-you i-don't-give-a-damn youth!!! and THAT's why it's a book that every generation must have a copy of!!!

did e e cummings have it right?

it's so much easier to type without capitalizing. the only word i have a problem with is the single letter 'i'. i don't like the look of the small i instead of the big i when i want to say i... :)

Inkie ji ko salaam

I've been reading my friend's blog recently, right from 2004! I am in total awe that I know this woman, I mean, how brilliant is she???? You don't believe me, go check it out yourself: http://inkspillz.blogspot.com/

Jaane Tu... Par Na Jaanu Main!

spoiler alert - you have been warned...
i don't see what the fuss is about. everyone's raving about it. a friend whose taste in movies i most humbly respect told me it's better than dil chahta hai! PSHAW!!!!!!!!!!!! like hell! nothing can ever be better than dil chahta hai!!!!! i'm a die-hard fan, don't ever mess with that hehe... and no, i do NOT think this was better than taare zameen par, which was so moving, so nice, apart from one song... i thought JTYJN was a cute movie, but that's just about it. i seriously did not understand the deal with the girl's bro - sensitive is one thing, but resenting ur sis making friends is just crazy. i did not get that! get a life, dude, make ur own friends! and many things were overdone - which we do not expect from the A folk - Aamir, Apple... :P sohail and arbaaz were overdone (but they always are) (but good to see mainstream people in aamir's movie!). the evil fiance totally wrong for her was soooo totally overdone and unnatural!!! c'mon, somebody can be wrong for u just cos u love somebody else, they don't have to be mean evil bastard for u to see that. give a smart gal some credit yaar, and not punches in the eye! and the naseer-in-a-photu angle was so monumentally stupid i could not believe i was seeing that kinda lame-ass bullshit in an aamir movie! will somebody please give that super-talented actor some decent work??????? aamir, did u make this one from the heart???
that said, the first part with the lead pair's camaraderie totally rocked, Imran and Genelia are soooo cute and it was a lovely feel-good movie at the end of it all, even if it was a no-brainer! and the stylistic element of telling the story and converting the non-believer also added a nice touch, i thought... and the ever-delightful ratna pathak shah ahhhh!!!


there, i said it! phew! i am so sick of trying to smile as people rave about this movie! i don't get it! are people now praising movies just because aamir is making them? have they forgotten why he was so great after all? subtlety! content! this one is definitely below par... :( i guess that's part of the problem - super-high expectations based on past performance... looking forward to the next one, aamir, i love your work!

H.E.L.P.

nothing can turn back time. i'm very aware that the choices i'm making right now will determine what i will have to live with ten or twenty years later, but i just don't see how i could decide things any differently. i love working. i just love my job, i love using my brain, i love earning money and being able to buy things without asking anybody for them, i love all that. but if there's one thing i love more than that, it's my husband. i know that i'm giving up developing to my full potential in order to follow another person around wherever they may go, but i also sincerely believe that i would die inside if i could not be with that person. it's really a no-brainer. i wish i could have everything, but hey, who does? i hope one day i don't become so cynical that i don't realize that i really wanted to do this just now, and to hell with the consequences! i wish i don't look back and regret the choices i made and yearn to do them over. i'm really scared of that.

Californication

I am so high on Californication right now! Just saw 8 episodes back to back! It's fast-moving, it's got a completely riveting central plot, interesting sub-plots, a wonderful parent-child relationship - who needs more? Maybe a little less of the self-pity would be nice, but hey, there's hope! And it's a writer with a writer's block - I'm hooked!!!! Haven't been this way since I first saw Sex and the City!

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

I was stumbling around the web (addicted to Stumble Upon!) and found this very interesting article for legalizing drug use. Click here to read it. It makes some very good points.
I guess allowing people to make their own choice about drugs is OK, but all I'm worried about is my own (prospective) kids having free access to such life-altering chemicals without proper information on the effects such chemicals can have on their lives. I would want them to at least be adults, and completely aware before making such a decision, and not teenagers under peer pressure. I think making these things hard to get protects many borderline cases to stay this side of the line.
In light of this article though, it does seem that legalizing them is a much better and safer option than the current situation. But the solution I'd suggest is to have an age barrier for their sale, just like alcohol - make age verification compulsory before sale and restrict points of sale to chemists or pharmacies with qualified pharmicists, not just some overworked bored teenage supermarket clerk who's not even going to bother checking ID properly.
What do you think?