Guilty Pleasures!!

I can be at some instances a little addicted to the Tube (Not youtube silly!!) I mean I watch about 4-5 shows that come on the TV regularly. Unfortunately for me, they cancelled one of the best shows out there. I guess it is good in some ways. I am in Grad school. But these sitcoms and dramas are what keeps me sane at times. I mean you can watch BBC and read news only so much. These are some my regulars:

Monday Night Two and a half men:
It is not rib tickling fun, but it is funny enough to be a comedy. It does get a little adult at times though. I mean some things there make me cringe and redden, but I enjoy watching it to lighten up an otherwise dreary Monday. It is about these two brothers, one a twice divorced father of one (basically the loser) and the other the playboy. So it about these two men and the son who is the half man. It is about the craziness that is their life.

Wednesday Night Friday Night Lights:
If there was a reason to watch one hour dramas, this is it. One of the most under appreciated drama of this season, it just holds you by your collar and never lets go. It is a take off one the Movie. It is about a small Texas town football team the Dillon Panthers and their lives. it is more about their lives than football, but boy is it scintillating. The actors, the story lines, the camera action, lights everything is just perfect to make it the best show I watch. It is definitely must watch. It makes you think, feel, cry and stand up and cheer every time the boys do well. It makes you heart warm and makes you see how so many lives can revolve around one elongated soccer ball. It is about Jason street the QB who becomes a quadriplegic in a freak accident at one game, it is about the shy sophomore who takes care of his grandma who is pushed to lead his team, it is about the friendship between street and star player riggins that is tested, it is about how smash and his big talk and ego and how he deals with racism, it is about how the coach deals with the pressure and still manages to bring his passion to the field with the help of his wife a guidance counselor. Just watch it, you will know.

Thursday Ugly Betty:
Like there is a need to explain this show. It has achieved critical acclaim. The actress who plays Betty makes us look beyond her braces, her glasses and everything else and makes us look for the goodness within each of us.

So there it is a fell 2 and half hour worth of drama, comedy, romance and good TV time. Makes me enjoy life a little bit more.

Friday Word: Dance

She looked at the giant mirror near her bed
She twirled and looked again. Her back, her front
She brushed her hair again not that it mattered
But she did want to look her best.

She looked at the shimmery frock she had
It was all fluffed up shiny and pretty
Her friend thought it looked rad
She knew it looked prettier than that

She wore her silvery shoes with a little star
She took a deep breath and sang a little song.
She was travelling and going real far
To do a little dance and perhaps do some more

Her father kissed her forehead and looked all proud
He smoothed her hair and gave her his love
Go on, little dancers spread some joy to the crowd
He opened the gates and saw them laugh and then fly

She leaped and twirled around. She did a gentle somersault
and flew upside down. Her friends laughed and joked
They executed a triple jump with nary a fault
They held hands with her and danced into town

The wind was slow and silent. He loved seeing them come
Sometimes he blew a little, just to see them dance around
Sometimes he'd lead them to a cottage, sometimes to the slum
They danced all the way, tapping their little feet and nodding their little heads

I stepped out to enjoy the fun, the little snow girl fell
just on the tip of my nose, she made me smile and made me laugh
I did a little step on the crunchy snow, I couldn't tell
what made me dance, but I did and I danced all day

I made people around me dance, people I touched danced too
The snow flake shed her fluffy dress and went her way
She took a stopover on my nose and then she flew
She danced away into the spring and fall and then home she flew

She sits there all year waiting all day and all night
To dress in her shimmery frock and
wear her starlit shoes and paint the town white
I wait in my room to see her come and dance my way into town.

Bonkers about Bong!!

It was one of those "HUH!!! ooh!! Wait let me go back and check....wow!! that's weird!" moments. Things have added up over the years and I have just realized, I have a thing for all things 'bengalish' (Is that a word?!?). How all of a sudden. I was listening to "Feluda" on BBC world service. The voice for feluda was given by Rahul bose and I was reminiscing about how much the voice suited the feluda in my mind and how much I liked both of them and in my wierd world things started linking and I sat up and realized I do have a thing for all things Bengali. I am not one myself, in fact I am from a place as far from Bengal as it could be and I don't even speak the language. I speak a language from the south and I have visited the place 2-3 times. There are places I have visited more but not found my rhythm with them. Visiting Calcutta was like getting comfortable with this old, worn out chair in which I remember sitting once, and am still happy and warm inside after all these years. So here is a roster of the people, places, food and things I love about the poetic place.

Ganguly - GOD. No that's not an exclamation, that is just how I feel about him :-) I have been obsessed with him since I was about 15. From talking to him over the phone to letters, he has been one solid favourite. Never mind what Chappell thinks or what other people think. For me he was the best cricketer ever and he has proved that over and over again.

Bengali - the language. When I was a kid and visited my cousin there for the first time, bengali sounded like hindi with a rosgulla in your mouth. But there is something melodious about the language.

Feluda - My aunt introduced me to the detective. Written by Satyajit ray, he was India's Sherlock. I have read most of his books and they never fail to impress me. Rahul Bose was excellent when it came to depicting him on the radio.

The Book shops of Calcutta - During my vacation there, one the favourite things to do with my cousin was to comb the place for books, preferably old and having the smell of pages read, turned and loved. From AC market to old book shops in rickety wooden shops on the street, the place was overflowing with them.

Lake Garden - Early morning walks with cousins, uncle and aunt. Rowers practising, the intense humidity and stickiness after just 5 mins. counting the number of people whispering sweet nothings to each other, the breathtaking beauty of the lake early morning.

The food - My memories of the place are tinged with the sweet aroma of rosgulla floating like little white clouds in the mud pot. The orange sticky Jalebi, the ridiculous joy that I got from eating Mishti doi. There used to a sweet shop near my cousins place. We used to go there morning about 7.00 and get these piping hot, fresh and absolutely tasty treats fro breakfast. It was the holidays and we had nothing else to do in life. So in the heat of the morning, with the ceiling fan droning we used to sit around the pot on the floor and laugh out loud afor no reason and stuff ourselves in the goodness.

I also remember the evening brisk walks to the puchka character. He used to hand us plates made from leaves. There used to be one scrawny assistant as dirty as the other fellow. But the puchkas were oh God heaven. He used to be around for only half and hour and the rush was bad on weekends, but the waits were worth their wait in puchka, I don't remember the names of the places but there used to be one famous shop selling rasmalai and sandesh which were real awesome and one fellow opposite Jadavpur university selling rolls and manchurian. I guess the dirtier they are the better the taste of the food.

The Public library - Just the vastness of the place and its history is enough to make me ridiculously happy every time I hear about it.

the slow moving trams, the rickshaw wallas, the ladies with their huge red bindi on their forehead. They look pretty and ravishing no matter what. Kishore Kumar, rani mukerjee, tagore, Rahul Bose, Konkona sen, Tea in little matkis, the rain, The life sapping heat and the incredible ways to cool off, and last but not least the way time seems to slow down there. People always seem to have time to put their head out and say hello or how everything seems full of life. That is true of any place in India. Perhaps things are not what they were, perhaps things have changed so much that these things are just memories and dear diary moments. Maybe the Pucka walla has faded along with the rolls fellow giving way to sanitised tasteless food and people live their lives over computers and cell phones. For me there is an old world feel to the place I knew from my childhood that remains unchanged, and brings back some of the best days of my life.

High Tea.

Would you care for a cup 'o' tea?
She said. Trying her best to sound
As royal and as English as she could
Would you like some tea?

She tilted her little pink pot
and poured some tea in one little cup
She made sure she didn't slosh and spill
She had made it and made it hot

She offered her royal guests some sandwiches
She thought they might fancy the little bites
She had put cream cheese and strawberry jelly on it
And topped it with a tiny cherry she thought looked rich.

Thank you, I made the tea myself
My mum taught me to brew them right
My dad taught me to choose the best, smiling she said
once again I did make them myself

She talked about the gardens and the royal pets
She talked at length about the changing weather
She admired the pretty sweater they wore
And the delicate hats with little nets

And soon it was time to bid adieu
It was such an honor ma'm she said
I hope you can stop once again for tea
She smiled and did a graceful bow

She got up, and cleaned the tiny pot of tea
She wiped the table and put everything away
She grabbed her dolls with flowing gown and netted hats
She put them away till 'morrow's high tea.

The Big 50

Whoo...50 posts. This is the one thing that I have stuck to for a while, and boy am I glad I did. It is a nice small achievement I guess. Something I never thought I could do and yet I did. It is kind of nice to discover things about oneself as time goes and realise there is more to us than what is perceived.

It is difficult for me to stick through with things. It is painful in fact for me to continue down a certain road for a long time. It is good in certain ways, but makes me feel real miserable in other ways. I always feel a tickle in my mind if I have been on a task for a while. It makes me want to put it down and run, run as fast as I can. it is perhaps the need to achieve everything that I possible can within my lifetime and yet the moment I run, I look back to see shattered half done visages lying behind. I have a double bonus in the fact that I don't often turn back and regret the things left half done. I do turn back, but it is more to see what was done and what is left to be done than to regret what was not. This half baking tendencies of mine do have negative consequences. I am invariably never around to see what good things could have come. I derive my life from the restless soul that I am. I see the things I can, I dreams the dreams at night and imagine the possibilities because of the fleet footed mind of mine. But there are times when I wish I could sit still within myself. I am incredibly patient, in the physical world. I can sit for hours without disturbances, but in the world within me, I run in quest of a world unknown, to seek treasures buried in the deep recesses of the world I imagine, to hide, to seek and to derive pleasure in the numerous non-constants in life.

There are times when I want to control the impulse to flee, when I want to silence the sounds and yet hear just what is happening now, here. I want to stick to things and take them to their destined ends, to be accountable for what I do and colour the whole picture and stick inside the lines. This, here is one attempt to be in the present and yet with 50 posts, there is a stir within me, I am unable to sit still, my hands go all across the keyboard and my thought trip and fall over themselves. I just have to learn to channel them elsewhere and keep leaving my footprints here.