Trivial Pursuits

Sad that I've descended to using Swapan Seth's column name, but what to do.
Anyway a quick update on the little things

Reading: City of Djinns by William Dalrymple, excellent, though I'm reading only 50 pages at a time.
On Sunday, post-magazine, I read Parineeta; didn't realise it was such a small book - it's only 91 pages. Quite nice, but difficult to empathise with - Lalita is only 13.
Also to satisfy romantic cravings am rereading The Scarlet Pimpernel on the net. Gutenberg has most of the books in the series.

Listening: Mostly to radio at office; between RFM, a French station and Yahoo music, which has some excellent music. Have also bought a grand worth of CDs, listening to Yahaan as I write. Have Khamosh Pani, Sardari Begum/Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, and a French CD in reserve. (Also bought new earphones, so the problem of only one side working has been solved.)

Playing: Bookworm! And all of you will be glad to know that I hit a new high in the scores - made 11 lakh odd.

Watching: Sex and the City, when it shows on TV. Also Tam has the last season on DVD, so once in a while.
And hopefully today will watch The Rising finally.
Caught a bit of a bekar movie called Silsila Hai Pyaar Ka (Chandrachur Singh, Karisma Kapoor; let me hasten to add that this was because there was nothing else on TV), in which Chandrachur Singh calls her Chipkali when he doesn't like her, and then makes it chhipi kali when she transforms into a sex bomb, in front of a roomful of firangs, singing Main aagayi, while caressing various body parts. Most embarrassing - imagine my relief when Sex and the City turned up.

Paradise on earth

I watched Yahaan last weekend (while everybody was watching The Rising, but that's another story). Yahaan's set in Srinagar, the entire story, not just songs. There were exactly three shots of the Dal, none of the gardens, none of Pari Mahal. Instead they showed the city; in one shot the heroine boards a bus, it's a busy street cars all around and I was startled because it looked so much like a city. Any city.
And I realised that when I think of Srinagar it's never as a city. It's usually a beautiful shot of people dancing around the Dal, or in Shalimar or Gulmarg. I don't remember much from my two trips in '89, so Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor and Joy Mukherjee are my only points of refernce.
I've forgotten it. Or maybe I just preferred to ignore it, because I didn't want to sully its beauty by picturing all that violence.
It's a good movie to watch, it reminds you that Srinagar's our city too.

friends and other animals

Since nothing much is happening in my life except an inability to function without a window open at Bookworm, and frustration at the fact that one of my headphones is not working, this blog's about the peoples in my life.
To start with there's good news - Ali now fits into her 567s, the ones that had forsaken her two years ago. This is the most taaza khabar - as of this morning. So the gym and Azhar have obviously paid off.
Then there's M who emerged from her office on Nariman Point yesterday evening to find a crowd of people at the multiplex opposite screaming what sounded like Aamir, Aamir and went to investigate. And discovered that she was one of the people forming the hysterical crowd at the premiere of The Rising. As part of crowd frenzy, she did her bit of jumping up and down and shouting her Aamir's too, then promptly called up to share how she had plumbed the depths of mass madness.
Now for other animals - office colleagues who refuse to accept chocolates from other office colleagues who have returned from foreign lands. Bad manners, rudeness, moronic-ness... the adjectives continue to trip off my tongue.
And of course, my favourite - the two bloggers (Sabs, one of them is called Noor) who post one of their msn chats where the two of them are professing their love for each other. Extremely bilala as we would say in Hyd, not to mention begging for attention.
And then there's Zippy (our maid who zips through housework; not sure which of these sobriquets fit her) who has been told that if we don't open the door by the second bell, should leave. We are obviously not interested in having a clean house! But today, she rings the bell, waits 10 minutes, rings again. Waits another 10 minutes, rings again and repeats the same procedure again. Tam makes a point not to open the door, despite being awake. I hear one bell and sleep through the rest. House? Well... is clean enough