A study in Contrasts!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6159541.stm

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Mamata
+on+rampage+in+WB+Assembly&id=97213&category=National

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6158595.stm

Spot, Sigh, Swoon!!!

Learnt a very valuable lesson on the weekend. "Never say Never again". Just for the records, what you are going to read is someone I have never met before. It is not the normal me. I don't act like this and definetly not react like this. I saw 'Casino Royale' over the weekend. SIGH, SWOON!!! I had sworn I couldn't accept any other Bond. For a Bond fanatic like me, Craig ws so unbond that I felt it would be torture to sit there. And yet when the time came, I was in the seat first day. And swoon I did. I realised that I should never say never again when I heard a collective gasp from the people in the theater when he stepped out of the water in one scene. I will not confess to gasping with the rest of 'em. The movie was absolutely wonderful. Everything you would expect a Bond to be and everything you don't. Thinking about it now, this is perhaps the true Bond. He is a real spy, a real gritty, manly, agent. Not the I am so unruffled, suit wearing type. I am so floating inside my head. The heroine for once was not an idiot too. Heh! Treat for the 'meri woh'. He was upset that she didn't last though. I didn't mind that much. This Bond had a story, a good story and it kind of sets the pace for the whole Bond series. Craig pulls it off with elegance, gusto and absolute brilliance. And I have swooned and sighed for him to satisfy my nine lives. I am shaken, stirred and acting totally drunk. So if you will excuse me, I have to go dream about the man who livd twice.

Rolling on the floor Laughing!!

"Amid these challenges, we hear voices calling for us to retreat from the world and close our doors to its opportunities." This is an actual bit of speech from President Bush in Singapore. We are in serious trouble. First God asks him to go to Iraq and now he hears voices asking him to retreat. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry.

The Stars in our eyes!!!

Is it just me or has there really been an obsession with celebrities and their lives of late. I realized how bad the situation had become when BBC news carried news about "Twinkle" Tom and "Kiss-me" Kate. They are getting married in a Oh-So-Big castle in Rome. For the news junkie in me BBC was like a God sent gift. Their no-nonsense news appealed to my just need the news senses. I didn't like the way that the local channels like CBS, NBC, et. al., made news sound like entertainment. I had to wait for them to stop greeting each other, giggle about each other's clothes, talk about the next big wedding and/or divorce, talk about some award show and then slowly giggle their way into news. No thanks I will have just the news instead. So when they started to talk about Tom and Kate and Brit and Fed, I had to just sit there and grit my teeth. Was happy that they didn't have live coverage from Rome with a reporter talking on and on about the dress, food and locals with some real misguided stars in their eyes.

I don't really remember if we were so into movie stars and their lives when I was in school and college. There is now. One look at a news channel from home assures me there is. When NDTV's "We the people" talk about Kabhie Alvida Na kehana and its really screwed up characters story, I know we are doomed. I mean we did talk movies, I was and am a huge movie fan, but I was more into the movie, the story, the actors not the real live ego's. It is crazy here. It feels like a scene out of that movie where this man's every move is filmed..Now what was it's name hmmm!!??!! Anyway, it's disgusting. There are so many things happening in the world,so many wackos in the Big seat controlling gives. Wouldn't we all have some space in our brain if we empty this junk and fill it up with actual information. I bet there wouldn't be protests about the falling math and reading grades and president's not knowing where Iraq and Afganisthan is until you drop a bomb and pinpoint it. Wouldn't India be better off with people worrying about there are criminals in the center and not worry about Aishwarya marrying Abhishek. Agreed people adulate these stars and look at their lives and feel good about themselves. But aren't they taking the adulation to dangerous heights when they fly above their homes and film them sunning in their yard. I don't know, I just feel its pathetic and far too much pressure on normal folks working for their bread by acting, too much pressure to live up to their image, lead a perfect life and always be happy. No wonder 9/10 are bonkers.
Oh BTW just for record, I am not a big fan of Aishwarya - Abhishek as a pair. Apart from the fact that watching her act causes me to throw up, they just don't fit.

Wow!! Has it really been that long?

I guess it has. When you let the exams drag you around by your collar and have you flopping like a Raggedy Ann doll, time just seems to fly. But it's okay now, I am bruised, I am aching and words like government, public policy, Iraq, democracy seem to be be dangling in front of my eyes every time I open it. But I am okay. I have learnt to look at the trees in the forest individually and found out ways in which I can tune them out too when necessary. I should have known this was going to happen. More so because the first thing that the prof warned about in his first class on the first day was "I promise you I will make you insane by the time you finish this course an I also promise you that you will start enjoying the insanity" And if he is an example to what happens to people passionate about this field, than let the good lord save you folks.

I have a folder full of papers waiting to be examined, written about, a computer full of documents waiting to be finished and yet i don't want to do anything for the next few minutes. I want to just talk without making sense ( which should be easy), not be coherent, cohesive and concise, and not have to worry about citations and definitions. Is it possible to become frustrated and feel as if you are sinking into monotony even when you are doing something you absolutely adore. I mean, I know the feeling of becoming automated, but I always presumed that it would happen only when I am not into what I am doing. I enjoy what I am in now, I crave for the time when I go sit in a class of people wanting almost the same things. And yet there are these moments when I feel irritated by drafting and redrafting and re-re drafting a stupid paper. Is that alright. I am not sure what the people who read my blogs and comment on them do for a living or if they are in fields that they have dreamt of and are loving their jobs, but the question is "Is it okay to feel trapped by the routine of everyday life , even when you wake up every morning to what you wanted to always do?'

On lighter notes, my best friend is pregnant and I am thrilled to bits about it. I was the bridesmaid at her wedding and jumped with joy when I heard the news yesterday. YEY!!! We met in 1999. I was a rebel and she the saint and we didn't really talk much or know much about each other except for the fact that I used to call her St. L and she used to call me well rebel. We hit it off when we in a funny twist of fate landed in the same class in college. Never realised the rebel and the saint could have so many things in common and here we are. Seems like yesterday when we were dashing up the stairs with test tubes, microbes and record books, making the driver wait the bus stop an extra five mins so the other could catch up, dancing to"Euphoria", gobbling tomato rice, begging her mother to make plum cake, talking late at night about Pasteur, Koch and the prof dating a student. she giggling and me grimacing at the cute guy who liked her in college, getting down from the bus and waving till she was out of sight....... it has really been that long.