Randomisms

Ah, after almost 20 hour of travel I am finally home and too tired to be coherent, which is why I shall resort to one of my favourite forms of communications: lists! They're a great way of communicating a large amount of unrelated information using few words and this is why I love them so much.

1. I have a new found insane love for German airports. They have free coffee/tea machines and places where you can plug-in electronic devices. What more could a tried traveller who has to kill three hours with a dysfunctional laptop whose battery doesn't last for more than 20 minutes want? Ok, there wasn't any free internet, but that would just be asking for too much, right?
   
2. I totally stole tea packets from the airport tea stash. I'm Indian, hoarding freebies is in our blood, and this makes my behaviour totally excusable!
3. Why hasn't anyone mentioned the awesomeness of Battlestar Galactica before? I have gone through almost three seasons in less than three weeks and I have no idea why I hadn't bothered with it for all this time.
   
4. I have a crazy lecture time table for this week and I can think of so many things I'd rather be doing than attending lectures. Why can't I stay at home and watch BSG all day?
5. After you've been out for a while, its really good to be back home. Nothing makes me happier than sleeping in my own bed after being away for long.
6. I am officially immune to jet lag and can fall asleep at any given time at any given place.
   
7. I hate unpacking more than I hate packing. I also hate putting the clean dishes away or folding up clean laundry so much more than washing dirty plates and putting wet clothes to dry out on the clothes' line.
   
8. I have been desperately craving for something fried and unhealthy for the last few days, but I shall be strong and not give in to the pressure.
   
9. I watched High School Musical 3 and Twilight on the plane. I'd like to think that it was time well spent. The guy next to me kept giving me odd looks at my hysterical laughter from time to time.
10. This swine flu pandemic is really scaring me. I used to be a crazy dystopian fiction reader when I was younger, and a disease pandemic is like the start of every decent dystopian novel. If we are all going to die, I might as well skip lectures for the week, right? Right?

Meh, I should really be working on my thesis.

Buildings

I've mentioned it before and I'm going to say it again, I love skyscrapers! This is the fabulous view of the city from the terrace of this house and the pictures barely do it any justice because of my muchly lacking photography skills.

Y HALO THAR

I know, I know, its been a while, and I haven't been updating and I have no actual excuse for my absence. I am currently in the lovely city of Hong Kong, sitting on a sunny terrace, under an sun-umbrella looking at a spectacular view, which looks even more spectacular at night by the way. Growing up in a city of more than 10 million people doesn't seem to have put my off big cities. On the contrary, I love them. I love crowded places, traffic, congestion and all the things that people normally hate. This could be because I don't drive because apparently your perceptions of traffic and cities change when you learn to drive. Plus, I've always been attracted to bright lights and tall buildings, so I do suppose that I'm being very biased in my appraisal.

Hong Kong is as fabulous as one can imagine it to be. In fact, I'd like to say that its even more amazing than one would expect it to be because the food here is simply delicious, and its full of restaurants that are filled up with people eating at all possible hours. Food has always been Pan's biggest weakness and its very easy to bribe her with good food to make her like a place. But it is actually crazy here, and there are people everywhere, at all given hours, and it makes me wonder what all these people actually do for their living because all they seem to be doing is shopping all the time. That said, the best thing about being on holiday is to see other people going to work, and I get much pleasure out of watching people going to work in stuffy suits in this humid weather while I'm happily sightseeing all day long.

I'm going to be all girly and squeal right now about all shopping the that I've done, so go ahead ignore me! I have no idea how I am going to manage to fit so much stuff into my suitcase while going back home. I love shopping for junk and other things that I am probably never going to wear more than once but that always seem like a good idea to buy at that time. Of course, the things that I actually need are long forgotten. But after living in Milan for almost seven years now, everything seems inexpensive here when things are not even that cheap and how can I possibly stop myself?

I have no idea why but I haven't been taking too many photos. I think its because now that my dad lives here I know that I'm eventually going to make it back sometime, so I'm not feeling the need to have a lot of photos. But, I should really get around to charging my camera because this city has some of the most amazing signs that I have ever seen and everyone knows how much yours truly loves those.

I am going back home on Friday and I can think of lot of other things that I'd rather be doing than returning to uni because the next two months are going to be absolutely terrible. But duty calls, and I must get back to work, right? At least its spring in Milan right now, and that is already cheering me up a bit.

PS: Ever since my previous post, the amount of people getting redirected here by google searching for the term 'A Bug's Life porn' is most disturbing. But this is the internet, nothing seems to surprise me any more.

PPS: I had gone to the hairdressers here today and I must absolutely write a post about my enduring fear for that species.

Food Porn

I'm so hungry right now, and there is nothing edible in sight. I could of course, get up from the couch and walk to the fridge and get something to eat. But that would mean having to actually get up from this couch, which much harder than it sounds because I am the laziest person in the whole world. This is why for the last 10 minutes, I've been doing the next best thing apart from eating food, which is looking at pictures of food!

Last summer I spent some time in Singapore, and I have to say that the best part of the whole trip was the food. I have no idea how this was possible but every single thing that I put in my mouth was delicious, and everything was such a novelty to me that I couldn't stop taking touristy pictures everything I ate.

Lastly, how can anyone visit Singapore and leave the city without having an authentic Singapore Sling?

And now I should really go get that apple from the fridge, shouldn't I?

and yet another post where Pan whines...

I've been so busy that I don't even have time to think how busy I am, and this is when I don't even have exams (those are still two weeks away). I know how silly that sounds, but its absolutely true. I'd like to make one of those amazing lists that I'm so fond of lining up the things I have to do, but I think looking at them might just freak me out, so I'm not going to do that.

No one ever told me university life is this difficult. Everyone always keeps mentioning how much fun it was for them, what an amazing time they hard, best days of their life and all that rubbish. Why do people forget to mention the important parts? Like standardized testing, lack of employment opportunities, impossible expectations grad schools combined with impossible fees and trying to handle your courses and exams through all this pressure. Its like the universe is trying its hardest to make your life as difficult as possible, and mind you, I'm one of the lucky ones because my life isn't even all that hard! I know I complain and whine all the time, but at the back of my head, I know that I don't have to struggle half as much as other people.

Its March already! MARCH! How did we end up in March? In fact, we are more than half way through March and I just noticed today that we were already in March and its almost spring, which is the most fabulous season of all time. I think the best time to enjoy Italy is spring. Its one of those periods where you are walking on the road and it suddenly strikes you that you are actually living in Italy. Who the hell even lives in Italy apart from the rich people and people photographed in postcards? At least that is how I imagined Europe to be when I was young. Its way past 6 in the evening and there is still daylight outside, and absolutely nothing that can make me unhappy right now. How can one possibly be unhappy in this weather? Its even making someone as grumpy me cheerful lately, even though I have absolutely no reason to be cheery.

Actually, I do have a reason to be cheery. I have exams until the 6th, but after that I'm going to go visit my dad half way across the world for two whole weeks. I'm really excited because I can't seem to remember the last time I had a vacation. I still have to work on my thesis during that period, but I shall conveniently ignore thinking about this for the time being. Two weeks in Hong Kong, what more could anyone want? Plus, I haven't seen my dad since January and I miss him! I also suspect that he misses me too, which means that he is going to pander to all of my irrational whims, and I'm really not going to be complaining about this.

Jai Ho!

When half my city was taken over by terrorists, there was not a single person who asked about what was happening or if I was doing okay, but now that Slumdog Millionaire has won a whole load of Oscars, I have random people asking me about Bombay at least once a day for the past week.

I don't want you to get me wrong, regardless of what I feel about the film, I totally wanted it to win in every category it was nominated for at Oscars. Its a weird Indian solidarity thing that we are just born with. And yes, I do know that its not actually an Indian film, but who really cares about these small details? Plus, I cannot think of anyone in the Indian film industry apart from A.R.Rahman (I love it how every person who reads the nominations out in award shows is unable to pronounce his name right. If you are called out to read the nominations of a certain award category, the least you can do is take some effort to get the names right!) who deserves this kind of recognition. The funny thing is that his soundtrack for this film isn't even one of his best works and yet, incredibly it seems to be getting crazy recognition.

All this said, I actually liked the film. I do think that it is overrated and the second half of the film was quite weak due to the inability of the two lead characters to act. This is really sad because I love Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. They're adorable in interviews, and Dev's next role is going to be as my favourite character in my favourite television series of all time, and I can't help but be ridiculously excited about this. In any case, my pleasure while viewing the film was muchly diminished because I kept getting distracted by Dev's fake Indian accent and Freida's pretty smiley face.

The first half of the film is fabulous. Its very Danny Boyle, and kind of reminded me of Trainspotting, which is an awesome film (I'm not not just saying this because Ewan McGregor has a naked scene in it!). As a side note, I'd like to say that I really do love all the Danny Boyle films that I've watched. Sunshine was amazing, and I don't care if I'm the only human being who liked it. I thought that it was really well made. Also, I know The Beach was awful, but I was going through a post-Titanic, Leonardo Di Caprio phase at that time and have fond memories of that movie. But I digress as usual, coming back to what I was saying, the first part of Slumdog Millionaire is really good. The child actors are brilliant, the colours, the imagery, the music, and the story have a great flow, and I can see why exactly the film was considered Oscar worthy. Then suddenly something happens, and I don't quite know what.

Actually I do know what happens, the kids grow up, the lead kid grows up into an awkward Dev Patel, who has this blank expression all through the film as if he doesn't quite know what he's doing there. His Indian accent kept making me cringe and distracting me from the actual film itself (Its a big budget Hollywood film, the least they could do is make sure they hire someone to help the lead actor get the accent right). Then, there is Freida Pinto, who smiles prettily all through the film. She barely has around 15 to 20 minutes of screen time in the film, so I suppose its hard to judge someone in that short a period, but she doesn't seem like a girl who has been sexually molested, almost sold off into prostitution and grown up in the most deplorable of circumstances, i.e the slums. You don't feel anything when you watch her on screen, apart from the thought at the back of your head about how way out of Dev's league this girl is in real life. The best adult actor in the whole film is the boy who plays the lead character's older brother on screen, the actor who has gotten the least publicity and recognition out of the entire film.

I know I sound really critical of a film that I claim to have actually liked, but I did like it. I'm just being knit picky about things that bothered me. There is also this whole part where the first half of the film is in Hindi with English subtitles and the actors randomly start talking in English from somewhere in the middle of the movie which I found a bit weird. But I kind of understand why they needed to have most of the film in English for international audiences.

The film tries hard to reach to the hearts of audiences and show them a kind of poverty, lifestyle and imagery that is completely different from what they have imagined or experienced. Everyone hears about poor people living with bad sanitation, children being sold off into prostitution and these kind of things, but here you get to see it first hand and are actually able to relate with the main characters even though they are so different from yourself. They are just two people who come from nothing and still end up being happy despite their lowly circumstances. What could possibly be a more heart-warming chick-flicky plot?

I suspect that I'd have enjoyed the film much more if I was a stranger to the country, rather than someone who has experienced and seen things like poverty, religious clashes and slums in Bombay. The people in India understandably haven't warmed up to the film. I think this is because the film hits on a nerve by portraying an aspect of the country that we are clearly embarrassed about. Do you know how slum viewing has become the next big tourist attraction in Bombay? Guided trips through the slums for foreigners to get a first hand experience of how poor people live. I hate this, and yet this is what is getting the slums the attention they clearly need from international organizations, charities and from the Indian government.

The Last Generation?

The other day I was talking to someone and he mentioned to me that we are one of the the last generation of people who remember growing up without the internet. Once I got over my initial flashes about the end of the world, I kind of started feeling nostalgic and old. The point is that this is kind of true, isn't it? I remember growing up without the internet, but just barely. I think we got internet in our house when I was in the 7th grade, which makes me around 12. I didn't even know what it was or what it did. I think I only started using it properly (and from properly I mean using it to send ridiculous chain forwards, to download MSN messenger to chat with friends that I met in school every day and to use Napster, where it took me about five hours to download a single song) when I became fourteen.

I'm so glad I didn't have a blog, facebook or something equivalent when I was fourteen because there is nothing more embarrassing in the world than thinking about yourself at that age. If that wasn't enough, looking at pictures and your 'meaningful' thoughts displayed all over the internet will probably be quite mortifying later on in life. My friend's little sister has a facebook page where she keeps going on and on about her love for Nirvana, AC-DC and The Jonas' Brothers. This poor girl is going to die of shame when she's older.

Right now, I don't even know what to say about my dependence on the internet. The only thing I can say is that it is quite deep to the extent that I'm not sure if I could even live with a dial-up connection. Remember how much time you have spent waiting for the dial-up modems to connect to the internet? It wasn't just waiting for your internet to connect, even going from one website to another used to take at least 5 to 10 minutes. Every thing is much easier now, I suppose. Although, if we didn't have the internet, I'd have a lot more free time to do the things I've always meant to do but never quite got around to doing. I'd also not know a whole load of things about the world and live in my blissful bubble of ignorance.

Come to think of it, there are so many things that we take for granted now that we didn't have less than a decade ago ago, like mobile phones, ipods, dvd players, wireless, broadband, etc. We have adapted to these things pretty quickly and now find it difficult to even think of surviving without them. It hard to imagine that less than 6 years ago, I used to have boxes full of home made mixed CDs that carried not more than 20 songs each. Mixed CDs felt like such a digital revolution, as did owning a portable CD player (a 'diskman' as we used to called it) at that time. Plus, my CD player didn't have a shock absorbing mechanism, so even when there was a small movement, it used to literally fall apart and stop. It wasn't very portable at all actually.

New things will keep on turning up as it has always been happening from the start of human civilization. There is a whole group of people who grew up without television, moving further back into time, there was a whole group of people who grew up without things that I can't even perceive being without. I've always been quite open to technological change. I don't like people who don't want to learn how things work. I don't understand how they can just life their lives without the desire to learn something new. It goes against fundamental human nature! If I see something new, I get pretty excited and want to mess with it until I know everything there is to know about it, regardless of whether its going to be useful to me or not.

Its like using predictive text while sending messages on your mobile. It is a ridiculously simple mechanism if you bother finding out how it works. Yet, most non-teenagers I know are unable to use it, and send messages typing every single letter of the alphabet. It is so easy if you only put in a couple of minutes of effort in understanding how it works, and even if you don't send text messges regularly it slashes your message typing time by half. Its okay to not know things, no one is born knowing everything, but its extremely silly to not want to know how things work.

Somebody told me

Someone on facebook had tagged me to do a meme called '25 random things about you'. I thought that it would be better to do it over here rather than on facebook because I'm not actually friends with even half the people on my facebook and meh, I'm not sure how I feel about having random, known people know about the irrelevant details of my life. So here it goes:

1. I don't have too many friends because I'm not a very sociable person, but the ones that I have are awesome. I don't think I could do without them, and I really should put more of an effort to keep in touch with them.
2. I'm a bit of a book snob, but I can't help it! I just judge you by the books you read, but I'm anything but a snob when it comes to films. Its just that watching something is a passive activity, so in my mind I am totally excused for sitting through bad films.
   
3. I'm mildly addicted to reading celebrity gossip websites. I do feel totally trashy when I do this, there is a strange sort of fascination in watching rich people looking pretty and making a fool of themselves.
   
4. I love television shows of all sorts, but more specifically, I love Korean and Japanese TV shows. Not many people know this and the people who do know this are either vaguely creeped out or think that I'm making it up.
   
5. I'm not very fussy about food but there are some things that I am unable to eat: I cannot eat peas in any form (just thinking about peas is making me feel ill right now), boiled carrots and cauliflower. I like meat, but I don't like eating meat or fish that looks like its original animal form.
   
6. I suspect that I might have done better growing up in the 70s.
   
7. I'm not really sure if I can live without my ipod or laptop. I know this is a contradiction of the above point, but I'd like to think that I'd have happily made it through with a gramophone and a typewriter if I had grown up in the 70s.
   
8. I'd like to think that I'm a good listener because people are always unburdening their troubles on me, and I don't mind hearing them out.
9. I don't like talking about myself. I never talk to people about the things that are really important to me. Its not because I'm modest or because I have something to hide, I'm just insanely private about my life, which is another reason why this meme is not being done on facebook but on my blog.
10. I am such a not-so-closeted-romantic. Its not like I believe in romance in real life as such, I just wholeheartedly enjoy it on television.
11. I am very confrontational when I'm annoyed with someone. I blame this on my family! We like to make scenes and argue in loud voices.
    
12. I'm an alone person. I need my space. I'm not sulking, I just like being alone.
    
13. I hate people touching my hair, ruffling it or playing with it. Its just something that irritates me to no end.
    
14. I've bullied one person in my entire life, and this was almost a decade ago. To be fair, the girl I was mean to was really terrible. Of course, that didn't give us the right to treat her like the way we did and I still get guilt pangs about this from time to time.
    
15. I had a really happy childhood. I was the only child and got practically everything I wanted, except that I was never a very demanding kid. I was a little bratty and extremely stubborn, but never in a spoilt, obnoxious manner. Whatever my shortfalls are, they are my own. I cannot blame my upbringing for any of them.
16. I love chocolate in all forms apart from ice-cream. I don't like chocolate ice-cream. I've always been more of a vanilla person.
17. I have an irrational, insane hate for Nicholas Cage.
18. I like being on time. I'm always 5 minutes early and people who are meeting me are always 10 minutes late. This is where having an ipod becomes a must!
    
19. I don't like dogs. Dogs don't like me either.
20. Reading fanfiction on the internet has been my dirty secret since I was 15.
    
21. I secretly love frilly dresses. I have no idea why. I've never owned or worn anything with frills, but I love them because they bring out my inner Scarlett O'Hara.
22. I am obsessive about this show. Go ahead, tease me, I don't really care!
23. I hate ellipses...no one uses them in the way they are meant to be used...if you get what I mean...
24. It is really easy to make me happy. You don't have to try too hard!
    
25. When I was thirteen or fourteen I decided that I wanted to be a philosopher. I liked the idea of sitting around and thinking all day long, while having other people write about my wonderfully insightful thoughts about the meaning of life. Unfortunately, this isn't as simple to do these days as it was during Socrates' times.