Drawing Challenge - Day 17 - Favourite Plant

Last year, we had a small plant grow in the little planter in our kitchen balcony. A tomato plant!

It was really a surprise, because we never planted one. Probably the kitchen waste that I keep throwing there once in a while to fertilise the planter led to it.

I have attempted drawing it, but I could not resist putting out a photo of the pretty little thing.

Drawing Challenge - Day 16 - Inspiration

Sometimes I myself wonder if I am really shallow. May be I am. But one thing that I am certain of being is honest.

So when I started wondering what inspires me, for today's drawing challenge, I thought about several famous personalities, some people who have touched my heart, memories that made me stronger, etc etc.

But to be frank, when I wake up each morning and have a few minutes of quiet, it's none of those that come to me on a daily basis. I mean, sometimes these do come to my mind, but not each day. So what is it that inspires me each morning to kick start my day with complete dedication and enthusiasm?

Money. Enough money that allows me to fulfil my little-luxurious dreams, and those of my loved ones.

Yes, money inspires me. It inspires me in so many ways. It inspires me to work harder to gain more. When I have it, it inspires me to bring smiles on the faces of those who are less fortunate. It inspires me to buy little moments, presents, and vacations, that help me weave beautiful memories!

Drawing Challenge - Day 15 - A Family Portrait

As if I had not messed up enough when I drew myself on the first day, and my friends on one of the following days... Now this challenge is taking me a step further by pissing off my family this time, after I draw non-linear faces and stick diagrams out of them. (Ugh!)

But then, family is people who you can do anything with... and perhaps, draw any way you want!

So here are the two handsome, intelligent and loving men of my life, who make for all the family that I have. I cannot thank them enough for the way they love me so dearly each day, despite my madness.

Drawing Challenge - Day 14 - Favourite Fairy Tale

The pumpkin chariot,the fairy Godmother, the tiara and...the glass shoe! :)

 

Well, I found my price...and the shoe fit just right! :)

Drawing Challenge - Day 13 - Favourite Comic

Read loads of them as kids, but who can ever forget computer se bhi tez dimaag wale... Chacha Chaudhary??

PS: I love this drawing too! :)

Drawing Challenge - Day 12 - Your Most Recent Accomplishment

In the life of a journalist, passing every single day is an achievement. Imagine waking up each morning and getting frantic phone calls, emails, etc, questioning your ability and calibre! Like they say -- A journalist is as good or bad as his/her last story!

That happens with me every single day! Sometimes I achieve and at other times I lose.

AND THEN, there are certain days, when my hardwork pays, and the founder and chairman of one of India's most successful technology company write this to me...

PS: I have attempted to draw my inbox there ;)

Drawing Challenge - Day 11 - A Turning Point In My Life

Anyone who knows me would easily be able to point to the one point in my life that turned my ship in a direction I had never imagined! While the moment when I lost her did change a lot of things  for me--inside and outside--the real turning point in my life happened long before that fateful night. About two years before.

I totally hate that my light-hearted drawing challenge is becoming such a mush-affair with this one (and nothing here is sad, it's just nostalgic), but I don't want to leave a lie drawn on my blog for my generations to read (YES, that's how long I plan to blog here, hehehe).

The real turning point in my life was when I saw my closest person struggling with her health. Doctors, hospitals, path labs, tests, reports, medicines, syringes, the works! Ughh!!!

I pray NO BODY has to EVER get into that cycle of hospitals and treatments, because it is just too painful for the one suffering and those around him. The two years when I saw my mom go in and out of treatments, meeting doctors, trying therapies, medications, etc, led me look at life in such a different way. It turned and twisted something within me each day... one day at a time.

Those two years tested my mom, my family and me to the extremes. I saw a lot of people reacting in strange ways. I was young, but I started getting exposed to a life without a shelter. No one to save me from injustice, harshness and abuse that the world inflicts on all of us. But I was really young for it all.

Just one fine day, I was not the kitten wrapped in my mommy's arms, safe from anyone and anything. I was out there, exposed for the world to throw its realities at me.. and I was too young to even build an armor. There were those who looked me in the eye and gave me strength, and there were those who looked me in the eye and gave me the shivers.

I struggled to figure out who to trust and who not to. I was a little girl.

Impressions of those two years, whether it is the memories of my last days with mom or the memories of people around me, are so fresh in my mind even today... over a decade later... that if I sit and think for 10 seconds (and allow them to haunt me), they would start flashing like a high-definition movie playing in front of my eyes.

Well, while I and everyone else thought that I was a little girl, I happen to remember every single word that anyone said to me or about me; I happen to remember just how it all made me feel; I can't forget the bruises and abuses--mental, physical and emotional. I was a chubby little girl, but I remember it all. Everything!

There's such pure joy and such crude pain trapped in the memory of those two years that I don't think I will ever be able to forget them, or even let them fade.

Drawing Challenge - Day 10 - My Favourite candy

Who can forget the taste of melting-in-the-mouth, yummilicious Cadbury Eclairs?!

So many eclairs came and went, so many companies tried to make them but failed... Cadbury nailed it just right, and I consumed tons of them to grow far-and-wide, the way I have!

I love the way I have drawn this one. Well, somethings are possible to draw!!!

Drawing Challenge - Day 9 - My Favourite TV Show

I am sure many many many of those who grew up in the '90s in India would agree that the sitcom that we watched the MOST was FRIENDS. It was mainly because we didn't have much choice; That was the one show that played over and over and over on TV.

So even while the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of my favourite TV show is "chup chaap chale yaan shor mache, jaan jaaye yaan jaan bache, roz naya ek khel rache, ye kissa hai rangeen... harr lamha behetareen, Dekh Bhai Dekh!", I have forgotten most of the TV shows that I used to enjoy as a kid (because now I watch only reality shows or biopic-history ones). FRIENDS, however, is remembered and recalled word-by-word!

Not to take away from FRIENDS, it was a brilliant series! The beauty of my relationship with FRIENDS is that I have been each of those characters at some point or the other in my life. I was Joey once, and I was Ross for a long time. I was Rachel once and I am Chandler most of the time. These days, my husband calls me Monica! Hahahaha

Drawing Challenge - Day 8 - My Favourite Animated Character

Cartoons and animation films are an integral part of my growing up like for many others, I am sure. I have watched so many of them growing up. Whether it is Tom & Jerry or Tail Spin or Dexter or Richie Rich or Mickey Mouse or Scooby Doo, I watch them all even today; Sometimes even on YouTube!

But my all time favourite has been the muscular and strong sailor who always comes running to save his stick-diagram girlfriend, Popeye!

It is only now that I realise why I loved the spinach-eating sailor Popeye so much - the romantic in me just loved watching the knight-with-a-pipe reaching out to his lady love, Olive Oil

This post becomes even more fun because I recently went for the Bangalore Comicon with friends, and I was even more convinced that cartoons are one of the best things EVER!

Before I upload my drawing for the Day 7 challenge, thank you Blessen Philip, daddy of my best friend, Cookie, for being one of the kindest, most sorted and humble person I have known in the longest time. Thank you for being so thoughtful and giving me tips for overcoming my drawing-challenges, without even my having to ask. I did try to put the tips in use, in this one. I really hope our world has more men like you, Blessen.

So now... here's my Popeye The Sailor Man... pooon pooon...

Drawing Challenge - Day 7 - My Favourite Movie

"I love the world! I'm so happy! Thank you!"

And that is how she concluded her Oscar award winning speech in 2000 when she won an Academy for Erin Brockovich.

If I had the final word on Oscars, I would give Julia Roberts the award for the Best Leading Actor-Female, every year... year after year... even if it had been several years since she did a movie! That is my love for her. And this is just a fraction of how much I love her and what her smile means to me.

Today's challenge was to draw my favourite movie. How am I supposed to choose one movie between all those I am in LOVE WITH???

I grew up on Julia Roberts. Whether it was Notting Hill or Pretty Woman, I have seen them all a 100 times over. From Monalisa Smile to Eat Pray Love, I have watched them all, or rather sat through them all just dumb-struck at Julia Robert's face, waiting for her to smile.... Ah! That bright, sunshine-like smile. How can I not love her, how can anybody not love her?

Having proved my drawing inabilities in the previous six posts, I am sure I would have killed myself if I tried to draw Julia Roberts (though I confess that I did try. What came out seemed like a witch out of some fairy tale! lol)

I LOVE YOU, JULIA ROBERTS... You are the most beautiful actor EVER!

Drawing Challenge - Day 6 - My Favourite Book

For someone who has spent very many years trying to inculcate the habit of reading (yes, it did not come to me naturally) today's challenge is quite the task. It is hard to put a finger on which book is my favourite, not because I like so many, but only because in a marathon to stretch my boundaries beyond what I knew, I forced myself into reading so much... so much of everything, that I really cannot make up my mind as to what is my favourite.

Reading was a choice I made. Something that happened to me really late in life. Unlike many of my friends who say they read their first novel at the age of 10 or 12, I read my first non-text book at 19. Yes, I was the ignorant sorts, and to add to that, there was no external motivation that would force me into reading at a younger age.

For an average punjabi girl, brought up in Delhi, you are not really expected to be well read. Back when I was growing up, reading outside of texts was not even considered a good enough hobby, forget an achievement of any sort.

It was only papa, who had himself widened his boundaries by all the reading he did during his youth, who softly but consistently reminded his kids... Read, reading makes a lot of difference.

So when I reached a place in life where I had to make the decision about what I want to be like when I grew older, I decided, I must read! Now since I took to it late, the first few books were sheer torture. But a few books down, I realised that with each novel that I read, I gained so much--so much of language, so much of thoughts, so many new ideas, so much of history, so much motivation... I started noticing how my mood and my attitude changed with the book that I was reading, and the point where the story in the novel was.

I have read MANY books over the last 8-10 years. Of them all, I have carefully kept about 50 with me safely. I have read several of them over and over again. They moved with me into my new home after marriage. They are kept on the book shelves of our home and somewhere in my mind, I feel that they are the symbol of the knowledge I brought with me into the life of my man. Every time when mundane matters try to drown me, I remind myself of some character of some book I had read, and there, my mind drifts into a more peaceful world.

So while the list of my favourite books would be long, this is one book that means a lot to me. It was bought for me by a very dear friend, who is my guarding angel and is responsible for a lot of what I am today. He had picked Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho for me, along with a bunch of other books. I nearly extorted him by force, because he had got his first salary, and I am glad I did so.

Eleven Minutes, which I keep telling everyone, is unlike any of the other (usually boring) stuff that I have read of the author. It changed something inside me, and that moment when I felt something within me changing, will stay with me always.

Here, I have tried to draw my favourite page of (one of) my favourite book... Do read.

Drawing Challenge - Day 5 - My Best Friends

Long time ago, I had read a quote that stays in my mind till date -- 'One who has many friends, has no friends'.

Well, I am sorry for whoever felt that way and wrote it, because I have LOTS of friends, and I love them all... and I am pretty sure that they love me just as much too!

As I grew older, I realised that friendship is among those things that require least efforts, just like marriage. It was quite a revelation to me, because I always found 'keeping friends' a constant effort-full job. But I believe, as I grew and made friends and lost friends, I realised that the best friendships in life are those that require no mandatory meetings, customary mid-night birthday wishes and gifts, ceremonial friendship day calls, or any such things.

My closest friends are those who I can invite at home and say, I am in no mood for cooking, so figure out for yourself! Or those, who I miss sending birthday gifts to because I forgot to order one in time! Also those who don't expect me to send them soppy forwards for Friendship Day, or keep any such absurd expectations. They are the people who I can be care free and careless around. Most of them have accepted me just the way I am, and like hanging out with me, even if we have a gazillion differences of opinions.

HOWEVER, naming anyone in this post would have proved hazardous, because I am blessed with a big bunch of such kind souls who make my life beautiful and content... And of course, I am sure I would have missed out one or the other if I sat down to list them out.

So here's a sketch of my groups/friends in the three cities that I have spread my life across (one of the Dilli waalis is now in the US, so a special mention of her in the drawing). I am DARN sure that when/if these people see this, they will know who they are... Guys, you ROCK! :) (and sorry for making stick-diagrams out of you all, but see the brighter side, in my head, you all are so lean and crisp!)

Drawing Challenge - Day 4 - Favourite Place

The one thing that this drawing challenge has started teaching me is that the lack of drawing skills can help me reach narrower, truer and crisp answers to questions.

So today's challenge was my favourite place. After a quick gush of Goa, Connoor, Sikkim... within the first few seconds of reading the challenge, I was most certain which is my favourite place in the whole wide world--My Home!!!

But well, how is one to draw one's home?!

I remember back as a kid I had taken up a few drawing classes and the teacher had taught me how rooms are drawn... narrower at the distance and broader at the closer end! But well, I was unable to draw even one, even once!

So then I got thinking, what is the place in the home that I love the most (and which I might be able to draw some how, in some shape and form!)... And well, it had to be our bed! :)

After sleeping on the floor in Mumbai for months, and on landlords' bed for another few months, and coming back to the floor for a few more weeks in Bangalore... Punit & I bought this bed. It was HUGE money for us back then and we settled for the most kifaayati option we could get (without compromising on my wish of a fluffy eight-inch mattress!).

The most masti time is spent on this piece of furniture, and the most relaxed time too. Every morning, we sit for hours cuddled up in the bed, reading newspapers, checking our emails, reading books, working, sipping on tea, etc! The most precious moments of my days!

I could be sleeping in a five star hotel in the most luxurious bed... but there's no place like our own old-wood-look bed!

Straight from the heart of a maha lazy soul.... I LOWE you my bed, you're my favourite place in the world! Mwah! :)

Drawing Challenge - Day 3 - Favourite Food

Well, if you saw me, you'd believe I'm a foodie. But the fact is that there's been a guilt attached to food for decades, which makes food one of my less favourite things!
However, the taste buds do crave for certain things, and the most I crave for is the yummy dry pasta called Aglio Olio.

So shameful has my craving for Aglio Olio been that I've been ordering it everywhere at every dinner and every meal I've eaten out in months, or maybe a couple of years!

The yummy olive oil, the parmesan, the spaghetti, the chicken, the seasoning... Just so perfect! Yummy!

All pasta lovers MUST TRY this one on my recommendation. It's just so much better than the white sauce or the tomato base that kind of kills the natural flavour of the spaghetti and make the pasta either too heavy or too pungent!

Drawing challenge - Day 2 - Favourite animal

Today's challenge, though drawing-wise easier, is hard because I am supposed to drive my favourite animal! The challenge is that I don't have any favourite animals... I am scared, petrified and put off by all animals!

I have never really understood why people drool over dogs and go 'awww, baby, cutie' over pets. In fact, I have often argued with friends that dogs should be called 'it' and not 'he'!!! Nothing against anyone, I like the fact that people love pets so much, but well I don't!

May be I should blame it to the fact that we never had pets at home while growing up. In fact, pets were considered a TABOO! Even talking about getting one was considered a taboo, because our grandparents didn't want any barking or meowing around their peaceful daily routines.

That is perhaps the reason why despite wanting to have a pet during my lonely days in Bombay, I could never bring myself to get one!

However, after thinking all day long, I concluded that there is one sort of animal that I have sometimes gone all .... Ooohhh... about.

Sorry if this does not qualify as an 'animal' to some, but well, I always wish I have one of these. It's stylish and so personal. So my favourite animal is... a Poodle! :)

Poodles and lapdogs are such fancy little beings, who look unlike anything that can bite me! Hence, my lowe for poodly-poos! :)

Drawing challenge - Day 1 - Yourself

When I started reading out to the husband what I will have to draw under this challenge, he made an 'OMG' sound at the first day challenge itself! Of course, it is quite a task when someone asks a non-artist to 'draw yourself'!

This is like double-insult happening here... (a) I cannot draw, (b) I have to draw myself with my poor drawing abilities.

But whatever... here is what I drew myself as...

How can one describe one's own appearance? There are so many things I perpetually complain about in the  way I look; BUT I don't hate myself! So here is an honest drawing of me, by myself.

I have a big round face, something that I have had a problem with always! It's something I can never stop thinking about, so the first thing I started out with was an O in the middle of the page, a BIG ROUND!

Hair was the hardest thing to draw! I mean, I have no particular hair-style that I can pen down! It's just one big pile of wild grass, growing in all directions and thinning by the hour. But I love how I drew my 'step cut' to appear so beautifully... Since childhood I had my mother go to a salon and ask the dresser to do me a 'step cut'... This is how it looks! hehehe

I have not missed out of capturing my sparkling and new nose-piercing... I waited three decades before doing it finally, and well, it shines bright each time I see myself in the mirror! *blush blush*.

If you look closely, there is also the mole on my left cheek that I have drawn there... that's something that I get from my maternal family. My mom, naani, massis, mama's daughter... we all have it! (Our kumbh ke mele mein bicharne ka backup plan!)

While there's not much to describe about my obese body, I chose to draw what I mean from within... A BIG HEART! I love to love people, share warmth, receive love and warmth, and hold no bars when I need to show my affection! There's SO MUCH love I have that I want to give to one and all! Sharing love and warmth is what I consider my motive in life is! Try me sometime, if you doubt!

The keyboard (which my office-friend thought was a remote control) depicts what I do for most part of my day... Being a journalist involves insane amount of typing... insane!

The two bubbles -- what I say most often is "Puniiiii.. I love you noooo" and what I am thinking all the time are vacation plans and hills and the ocean and sunsets and sunrises!

'The thing on the right bottom", as the husband described it, is my bag... forever overflowing! It's a pretty burgundy colour Allen Solly that lives with me day and night, and despite its HUGE size, the earphones and phone charger and my diary just keep flowing out all the bleddy time!

A lot in this picture depicts what is the most important part of me, what makes me who I am and what I wear with pride and honour--My love for the man in my life. The vermilion (which is black here, since it is a pencil sketch), the mangalsutra that I never part with and my shiny solitaire ring & eternity band (I tried making it, but, ugh!). I love being married, and I think it's the best thing to have happened to me ever... I love knowing and remembering it each day, and I love showing it off!

So that's all with the fancy-elaborate discussion about my shabby sketch! hehehe

Until tomorrow's drawing...

(Note: I shall only used waste paper, one side used, etc, for this challenge. I hate wasting paper!)

3... 2... 1... My 30 Day Drawing Challenge :)

It has been several months since I started planning a Do It Yourself challenge, but alas, I have had no success with its execution. It is quite difficult to commit to anything between my uncertain schedule (and laziness)!

So I decided that while that plan is still on hold, I shall take up a blogging-challenge, and add some fun to my days and to this blog. After browsing through several webpages and many-many ideas, I have chosen the '30 Day Drawing Challenge'!!!

*Drum Rolls*

So under the challenge, I have to draw 30 things--one for each day, as per the chart in the pic below (which was taken from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/30540103694984720/). (I shall also try putting it on the header of the blog for 30 days, to remind me of what it is that I have to draw when.)

My drawing is nothing to talk much about, and well, I am REALLY apprehensive about how I will draw things... But well, I really don't care! I just want to have some fun!

Here are the series in which my obnoxious drawings will follow:

Ode to the wallet-thief

If I was asked to prove my identity or nationality or even existence today... I would fail to do so! Ask me why?

Well, last week, I managed to lose my wallet, which along with Rs 900 of freshly withdrawn currency notes, had my drivers' license, my PAN card, my voter's ID, my office ID and my press card! I knowwww... miserable!

The strange bit is that unlike the several times earlier when I have managed to lose my wallets (and mobile phones), this is the first time when I clearly remember bringing it home... from where it seems to have vanished! I have hunted through the house, turned every cushion and emptied every drawer, but alas!

While I have sort of recovered from the loss and started re-applying for the IDs (which will take me a while now, thanks to Indian administrative systems), I have been wrestling with the thoughts of my trusted home-staff having done this act! The staff at home includes my very loyal cook (who is also the security guard of my building) and a maid (who is always silent, fairly new, but a relative of the cook-cum-security guy, and who looks pretty honest).

I have re-constructed the events of that bloody evening over and over, and then wondered how? where? when? did I manage to throw my precious belonging, and I am almost certain that I never dropped it anywhere! It did come in to the house. And then it disappeared!

During the past few days, there are phases when I get SO furious, I want to sack both the workers at home and get in new people. But then, may be, I am piling the burden of my mistake on them!

While I continue to deal with this situation, I really wish well for the one who has stolen/picked it up. I hope my wish reaches that person who is causing me so much pain and trouble, and some sanity gets drilled into his/her head to never repeat such a crime (or at least put my cards in one envelop and send them to my address, at the least). I wish social networks were strong enough to reach each and every individual in the world, so that this person could read this post and may be consider sending me back my IDs!

Just as angry I am at this person, I hope it never happens to him/her... And of course, I hope he/she has a fair answer to offer to the Powers when he/she is faced with his/her deeds after death.

The 'nothing emotion'

While human being is considered to be one of the most illustrious creation of God (or whoever made the world, etc), to me, there is one thing in particular that appears to be a wonder in its true form. Of course, it's beautiful how humans have skin to save them from physical pain and it's intriguing how the tongue is in place to speak and hands are in place to type, etc etc... it's in fact the emotions or feelings, whatever one may chose to call it, that intrigues me beyond imagination.

It's like the most complex thing ever, because you can have infinite emotions at the same time and at others, you may not have even one. Also, sometimes you (or some people)  can portray or share a gazzilion emotions with just about strangers, and at others you hold back the most obvious emotions from your closest person.

I wonder how that wiring between the head and heart would have worked, because... well... it's just so complex!

Remember that one night, long ago, when a boyfriend had first admitted he loved you? It felt like the best time in your whole life and a 'happily ever after' just in the making... But didn't you at that point also feel the emotion of 'oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?' and the obvious 'what if dad gets to know what I am thinking about?'... of course these were all thoughts, but each one enthused a new emotions... of love, of happiness, of fear and uncertainty and so many other things.

It's strange actually how we use and abuse our emotions without so much as caring to understand--what is the emotion I am feeling right now?

Most of the people my age (includes me very much) spend a huge chunk of the day feeling 'nothing', which we assume means feeling 'bored'. Over the past few days, I have come to realise how much I can cherish these moments of the 'nothing emotion', because well, it's such a relief to my senses. (Although, mostly this nothing-emotion happens when I am trying to procrastinate what I should be feeling at that time.)

We live such mad lives where we don't even have visibility of what we would be doing a couple of hours later. When we wake up in the morning, we have no idea how the day is going to end. Every few hours, work keeps evolving, along with which, feelings keep changing. And between all of this mentally, physically and emotionally tiring madness... Imagine that bit of the day when you are 'bored' (which actually is the period of the 'nothing emotion' to me) you let the senses relax and wander, however they want to.. without any pressure of performance to meet the social expectations of which emotions should show when and in what amount.

G for Generation & G for Gap

I want to ask all the generations before mine if they felt the same way we do! There's such a huge difference in perspective towards life between me and say, my 'elders'. I wish I could write my dad instead of 'elders', but my ol' man is way too young at heart to be included in the 'elderly'.

For a simple example, I heard SO MUCH of 'do it when you are older' and 'do it when you are grown up' while I was growing up. Today, if I look consider doing a certain thing, the first thing that comes to my mind is 'now or never'. I mean, I have it so clear in my head that there's no tomorrow for doing what one wants to do. (Of course one indulges in procrastination, but that's for things one doesn't like doing.) So if suppose there's a place I want to visit, I must visit it today or tomorrow or at max, this weekend. The 'elders', as I know them, would indulge in a planning process to make a visit to this neighbourhood restaurant, and brood over it for months together, waiting for an occasion to happen! By the end of it, the restaurant would have either shut or well, it would have certainly lost its new-charm.

It is not only about me. I feel that my 15-year-old cousin MUST go for a roadtrip alone with friends, if she wishes to... and I want her to do it NOW! You don't need to be 30 years of age to do that! Every time my friend, who is 25 years old, asks me if she should do this or that the other, I am like... Totally, why wait?

I remember my dad telling me that he wanted to do so many things when he was in his early 20s. (This was part of our conversation when I  told him several years ago that I want to move to Bombay, and he thought I wanted to run away from home to marry someone or something like that!) I, like my natural don't-understand-why-self, had  plainly asked him--Then why didn't you? Well, the answer he gave me was not exactly a reason; I don't remember it now, so I know it was not a solid reason.

While I talk about the 'elders' here, I am in no way trying to say that we are right and they are wrong, or anything like that. But I am simply musing over how I (and a lot of my friends) feel about this issue.

If it is the widely-accepted 'generation gap', then I am sure it happened to our parents too. Or did it not?

Loved watching Highway!

Watching the movie Highway over the weekend was absolute bliss, which of course got ruined with the other watch, Shaadi Ke Side Effects! I am so glad that despite the abrupt planning, being tired and the mild rain, we made it to watch Highway on Saturday night... It's Wednesday evening and I have heard Sooha Saha (a song from the movie) over 10 times each day (since Saturday) and Guddi Patakha equally much! I LOVED the movie, and I think it's far better than director Imtiaz Ali's last, Rockstar.

Somehow, I hate how critics went ahead and wrote average reviews about Highway though (I didn't bother reading about Shaadi Ke Side Effects, waste of time!). Why has it become a fashion to bash movies for no valid reason? Why do people measure all films by the same yardstick? I mean if you were comparing Highway to Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, or Shaadi Ke Side Effects to Three Idiots, OBVIOUSLY you are erring somewhere, right?! Or am I reading something wrong somewhere?

I remember how I had gone to watch Agent Vinod to just pass time with my boyfriend. The movie was totally trashed by reviewers, my friends had Facebook statuses claiming it was the worst movie they ever watched, and the movie was declared a flop. So bad were the sentiments about the film that the cinema hall was nearly empty! And by the time the movie ended... I was wondering, what's wrong with this??? I mean, for an audience that enjoys any crap that's served to them with absolutely no acting and no story and bad music and picturisation, Agent Vinod was a movie that had the two leading stars actually acting, and the music was FAB (Raabata is one of my all time favourite songs), and to top it all up the locations and cinematography was nothing less of breathtaking!

Wonder wtf is happening!

Music!

I wonder if there's anything else in the world that incites the kind of emotions and feelings in humans that music does. That sensation that comes when I play a song on my headphones at a really loud volume, is unparalleled. I can bet with just about anyone that once the music starts flowing through your ears, you may be upset or sad or just generally blah, at least for a moment it'll transport you into this zone of dancing and singing along... and if you're sensible, you will choose to stay there!

Strangely enough, music actually does not have any language! You might think that you won't enjoy songs if you don't understand the lyrics... here are a few links you may try... and I challenge you will fall in love with these songs, even if you don't get a word of them (they're in kannada)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zecRgZYi-kw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxIa5e8y4gk

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anisuthide%20yaako%20indu&sm=3

Feeling philosophic right now!

So what is it that you desire the most in life? Money? Power? Fame? Happiness? Good food? Great travel? Love? None of the earlier? All of the earlier? Something entirely different? ... Or wait, are you the sorts, like me, who just can't figure out what they want the most in life!

While I was trying to find an answer to this 'very philosophic' question the other day, I wondered how is it that so many people know it so naturally that they want 'a red coloured dress with a golden dupatta and copper-coloured peep-toes with it', whereas all I seem to know about my wanting is... 'I want clothes'! (Not to forget mentioning the fact that I don't think such detailed-to-the-T people do any better in looking pretty than I do!!!!)

Then I thought, may be, a simple way to decode a valid and justifiable answer for 'what do I desire most in life' would be in answering 'What is the one thing I could die or kill someone for?"... ummmm.. truth be told, there is a list of things (at least 10 that I can count in one breath right now) for which I could go to the extent of killing somebody. And, there is quite an exhaustive list things for which I could die!

Is there anybody, anybody at all, who lacks clarity on this subject like I do? Anybody who makes statements about what they desire, dream and wish for.. and then secretly wonder, 'what difference would all those things make to me anyway?'.

To me, it seems like I am a victim of ever-shifting internal goal posts! But man, it's alright... I shall tame my senses some day!

Introduction 101

I am definitely not a first time blogger, I just buried five of my previous blogs with over 500 posts combined. Hard as it was (especially to bid adios to my main blog of the past five years) I had been contemplating doing it, because I am in a new phase of my life and there's simply no need to carry skeletons, most of which don't make sense any more, along.

Well, the excitement level is top-of-the-chart today, because (I'm sure like most other active bloggers) I am can't stop thinking about how much joy and fun this new one's going to bring. I am listing out in my head what all I will write about, contemplating if photographs should be added or not, thinking if I am going to write fiction/philosophy/reality. But one thing's straight and sure - I intend to have lots of fun, and hence the "witty" in the blog url. Also, I am not going to stop myself from the "wild" child that I am.

However, it's hard to transport the over-a-dozen followers I had on my last blog, and since I don't want to connect the two, I am going to really have to start from scratch and find new blog-buddies, not to get them to comment on what I write, but to create an ecosystem that's attractive enough for me to want to come back to this space and read-write-think.

BTW, this morning I made a resolution to become absolutely non-judgemental about people. I used to be like that, but I don't know where I lost that skill. But, I am going to gain it back and I am going to become this pure soul with NO negative thoughts about anyone, at least not until they do me any physical harm. (It's gonna be terribly hard because I have flashes of people who I absolutely hate running through my head and I don't think there's anyway I can forgive them... But then, may be I should try forgetting!)