Adhu Ellaam Oru Kaalam - Part 1

The phone rings its monotonous, rather irritating ring at an untimely hour . My hand reaches for the receiver and brings it toward my face.The familiar, naturally loud voice that woke me up from my myriad slumbers  through college life, blares into my ear yet another time. Somewhat soothed by the fact that the voice isn't panic ridden, I ask my grandmother how she is doing, trying hard to mask the grogginess in my voice. After a hurried exchange of pleasantries like, "Were you asleep? Oho! I thought you'd be up by now", she blurts out the reason for her call:
"Today she tried to jump off the balcony!" I sit up startled and bark into the mouth piece, "What? Who?"
"Kollu Pati, who else?" she says.
Sensing that things were now under control and that she was simply relating to me the happenings of the day, I patiently wait for the rest of the story.

"She seems to have lost it these days!" she says.
"Amma, (I call my grandmother that too), its just that she's aging, I'm sure she doesn't realize what she's doing" I try to reason with her.
"Yes, but what will everyone think when they see her in the balcony screaming and wailing? The other day it was the gas incident, and today this? I am an old woman too you know, and what if no one is around when she acts up, it could endanger her life!"
Just as I open my mouth to say something, she exclaims "Aiyyo! I hear her in the kitchen,I hope she isn't up to anything new. I'll call you later". The line goes dead.
"Time and yage spare no one!" a heavily accented, prototypical tam brahm voice exclaims in my head, in an abnoxiously melodramatic tone...

"Rajalakshmi - the Goddess of all wealth....that's what my father named me and that's exactly how my childhood was - like that of a Goddess!
Basket fulls of rare fruits like the mangusteen, sweet apples like no one in India would ever have tasted...and the sour star fruit! (clicks her tongue as if tasting it). A big house filled with servants, one for each chore. I never so much as lifted a finger to do anything when I was young... I grew up like a princess!" she would say, pausing to noisily suck off some more of the cool dripping malai from her stick of elaichi kulfi.
"And then,....what else paati?" One of us in the audience would ask her, breaking her reverie. "Kulpi!" she would say, due to the inability of her toothless mouth to utter the consonant "fi" . "What you get here in this wretched country is not even close to the ones the kulpi wala used to bring us back home....those used to have so much more malai in them and I did not have to wait for anyone to bring me one as an after thought. Hmmmmmm! Adhu ellaam oru kaalam! (those were the days!).
All my friends used to envy me for my luck, and lucky I had to be, for after all, I was born with so many moles over my body" she would point out at all the tiny red and black warts/moles over her wrinkled skin. "My father married me off in much grandeur, I was given in marriage to your thatha clad in 300 souverins of gold (a number that increased every time she narrated her story and had by now doubled), three trunk fulls of silver vessels and a pair off blue jager studded vaira thodu (diamond earings) and ettu kal besari (8 diamond nose stud)" she would shout out pompously, focusing her earlobe toward the light to let her gleaming diamonds shine in all their resplendence, much like her eyes at the moment.
"Your Kollu thatha was much older than I and I was all of thirteen years old. I hadn't even come of age! At your age," she would say randomly pointing at one of us in our early teens, "I had borne Mani"..."Everything is gone now....all that gold and trunk fulls of silver..... our home and property. If only there hadn't been a war!" she would sigh with a longing, masked unsuccessfully by her resignation to fate.

Kozhikode Subramania Iyer had chosen the hard way out years ago, when he could've without protest settled for a life of mediocrity handed to him on a platter. He had insisted on making it on his own, had left to serve in the far off land of Burma that on acquest by its self proclaimed masters, had been merged with its neighbor, as part of the British colony of India. Very much like most men that belonged to his community of  educated Iyers, he had prospered under the British rule. Had created a place for himself among the Indian society of Rangoon. His parents had found him a bride, and a wise one at that. He had been blessed with everything a man could ask for, except a Varisu (offspring). A few that were born hadn't made it through. After much yearning and prayer they had been blessed with a baby girl. He had, in keeping with tradition, named her after his mother - Rajalakshmi. His little girl had brought upon the family much joy and luck. Subramania Iyer was now the owner of Street 52, Rangoon flanked on either sides with  rows of two storeyed houses. She grew up being the apple of his eye. And when she had barely turned twelve he decided to give her away in marriage. He had a boy in mind, a rather ambitious, smart lad but with a bit of a temper. Nothing my Rajam can't handle he had coaxed himself. He found the boy a job under the Raj and gave them one of his myriad homes to live in. He took immense satisfaction in the fact that they would after all live within the range of his vision. Rangoon had given him in abundance. This was him home now. He sold off all his ancestral inheritance but for the humble home he grew up in and returned to Rangoon, only to discover in a matter of months the natural course of fate bequeathed upon a colony.

"Where Pati? Where did all your gold go?", a voice would urge her to go on with her story and she invariably would oblige. We were, after all, the only set of ears that allowed her the indulgence of reliving her golden past, one of the few things that still gave her pleasure apart from her mid morning Sun TV soaps and her plastic cover collection.
Noisily smoothing out the creases off a stiff plastic cover and folding it into a neat little square, she would carefully arrange it with myriad others in her imported airbag that held what's left of her long cumbersome life - her chungdi sarees, a few silk, her white translucent hakkoba cotton blouses that she knotted up at the ends, her plastic cover collection, a tin dabba in which she kept some of her pension and her most priced possession of the lot- her tiger balm in their jewel like hexagonal glass containers. The one thing all her grandchildren conveniently brought her while visiting from abroad. "Rangoon used to be beautiful back then" she would continue...

The Ex-altation

There it was...... staring me in the face........ the image I had waited six whole years of my life to see..... yes years.......
Not exactly the epitome of beauty I had imagined, as much as dreaded, she'd end up being...... sigh of relief!
Bad teeth, I have nicer teeth ........... Decent smile but with too much show of teeth and just a hint of dimples..... or were they laugh lines... not sure

Small forehead, the kind I've always wished for, everytime I tried to make mine appear somewhat smaller, by pressing down the scanty growth of baby hair around my temples.......
my only consolation on these occasions being that, according to Sherlock Holmes,large headed people,and I mean literally,are simply smarter.... I chose to conveniently replace the "head" part with "forehead" in my case....

Ok...what next? The eyes....... very ordinary, inkeeping with the eyebrows...... they don't stand the slightest chance when compared to my intense ones, outlined by the eyeberows that have always been and will be my biggest asset.....Hers,not even close.......
But,....... silky straight hair...... ... the kind I get only when I use a straightening iron and some professional help.... the kind, he mentioned long ago, that he likes.......

Any signs of a hidden collarbone? ...........no....... multiple fat lines around the neck, or may be a double chin?... no.......sadly no...... the one secret wish I had harboured, in some deep dark corner of my heart, the minute I realized the thirty odd pounds I had gained from child birth weren't going to melt away magically, thrashed to bits........ Or not. What if, she had simply put up an older, nicer picture ..... just like I had? I do know afterall, that she has mothered two children of her own too, I have my sources, you see ..... Snuggling up to the thought, I move on.....

Complexion: the black and white picture isn't helping...... wheatish I'm assuming ........ and I couldn't care less......Inspite of, constantly hearing as a child, that drinking coffee would make my skin darker ..... that my fair cousins (bordering white), were the prettiest children my father's side of the family had had in a long time....... and seeing my mom with her faithful ally, her tube of fair n lovely, according to her, "the only thing that holds up", more out of habit now, I've somehow managed to turn out pretty unaffected by my wheatish skin. The word that conveniently ranges from the light end of the spectrum through to the dark.Infact,I personally prefer the dusky kind, the kohl rimmed eye- Nandita das look,its just very sensuous.... don't you think?....Na, she wouldn't have made the cut on this one.....not even close.

A snub nose doesn't exactly qualify as an aquiline feature - something I've been conditioned to believe is a part of the checklist for a pretty face. Though mine got off to a snubby start, it eventually emerged its fountain head out, to an inbetween safe level of not quite there but passable, except for its bulbous tip ofcourse....... and funny thing, he loves that about my face....... even if due to the fact that, it provides our offspring with the chance of ending up with a balance between his large, and my not-so-snub nose ..... a balance she would have so failed to provide.

The concensus: Pretty..... yes certainly pretty.... but the regular, run of the mill pretty..... Absolutely lacking in the "Oomph" factor.....the factor most "not so good looking " girls attribute their charm to....... the factor that usually goes undetected in a not so pretty picture ....... the factor most mothers in law-to be don't, if not pretend, not to see in a girl to the dismay of their sons..... the factor, i know for a fact, I possess.

If you're wondering what happened to other parts of her facial anatomy,I didn't quite know how to grade them since they don't qualify as criteria for prettiness,....except for high cheek bones may be, which neither of us seem to have anyways, so....that's that.

The usual fb riffraff, favourite music, movies, activities etc. unfilled. May be she's just not as opinionated as I am...... may be, none of it is worth mentioning..... or may be, she's simply not as "f"ing jobless as I am ...... nyways, who cares?
Info:Location...... thankfully a group of states seperating us..... chances of running into eachother at the grocers'- miniscule and more importantly,I can continue to put up older, sexier pics of myself without being figured out just yet.
I always knew that I was more than just a couple of years younger to her, and her birth date confirmrd it...... Which I am sure she noticed too, cuz when I looked her up a couple o' days later, her year of birth was no where to be seen..... (an evilly smile).
One more look at her face and I move on....... the next day I go back to see if there's anything else..... a newer picture perhaps...... and then I find a link,ok something finally, to an interview with Eckhart Tolle.....Why does the name ring a bell?....think, think,think...... And it all comes right back to me.......

A period that now seems far removed from my present...... a phase of life characterized by the need to be different, resulting in a reclusive yet delightful at first and eventually painful phase. When the wonder of mysticism sought me out through the sheer power of the printed word, and had me in raptures- A euphoric state of transcendence that transported me, even if momentarily to the spiritual world of mysticism...... A world so simple and clear, pulsating with life force from the present, in Tolle's words - The Power of Now.
Then the realization, of the limitations of knowledge when compared to the depth of knowing,a realization that I wasn't ready yet... that I had to Know life in its fullness and its imperfections in order to transcend it. Hence, the renouncement.... in an attempt to lead a "normal" life...... A life in which, all knowledge serves as flauntable party talk......All of this flashing before me.....
Thoroughly,enraged by the suggestion of her equalling up to me,I think,how on earth did she gain access into my world? May be,she's just showing off the only book she has, in her right senses, ever read from that genre'.... And in any case, since I had privy to it long before she did, it clearly establishes my seniority in the matter.

Still trying to digest the audacity of fate,I look her up once again....... And this time I notice something else about her........
She certainly seems happy,I think to myself......
Our new found similarity, instantly, if not completely replacing our older, more heart wrenching one. The Ex- now, a little more than just that......

"Julie and Julia" ....and happy endings.....

Back from hybernation!
It may seem hard to believe but I have been contemplating writing something up for a really long time now....... I even had a couple o' topics all figured out in my head..... only to give in to the strongest of the various alter egos that inhabit me - procrastination!
'Nyways, better late than never (whoever coined that proverb certainly did lazy geese like me a huge favour!).
One of the many things I've been wanting to blog abt is this movie- Julie and Julia ...... essentially, what about the movie touched me and why ..... (Warning!) So if you are expecting more of a critic's review , you may be disappointed.....
Saw the movie for the first time on "The Majesty of the Seas" ..... a cruise ship (if you haven't already guessed). Thanks to free pay perview -a surprise perk in the otherwise largely overrated stateroom.
It was love at first view- or lets say, partial view, owing to the fact that I missed about a third of the film during both my views. It wasn't exactly rocket science, so I kinda guessed .... and hence the audacity of writing about a movie, the beginnings of which I still, (inspite of an undaunted effort on my part) haven't been able to see.

All of this was before the awards season, so I wasn't exactly aware of the existence of the film when I saw it. I found the plot charming.... sweet. Now, if that had anything at all to do with my helpless addiction to the food network or my unfaltering fascination for everything French ,ranging from its architecture through to the toast..... I could never be sure ........
This movie is based on the book by Julie Powell ( blogger turned author)
For those that haven't already seen the film, here's a gist - Your regular girl next door, Julie Powell, having succumbed to the grind of a life, largely comprising of a depressing cubicle job, wallows in a sense of underachievement and in an effort to do something about it, chances upon the idea of cooking through the book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child while blogging about the experience at the same time.
As she embarks on her "Deranged assignment"- as she calls it, she begins to identifying with the author Child, to the point of idolizing her. A big part of the movie is about her journey through what eventually turns into her passion- (cooking through some 500 odd recipes by Child, in one year) and is a well crafted parallel play of the stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell.

I was blown over by Meryl Streep's (Julia Child in the film) performance, inspite of not knowing at the time how scaringly close to the real thing her performance was. And subsequently, seeing a video of the real Julia Child on youtube, left me helpless as I turned into a "Streep" fan.
Julie Powell's character,I could relate to. A 30something woman, 20 in my case, sulking in underachievement, seeking redemption through her blog - sounded familiar. Other couple o' details like - her love for food ......the art of cooking, a bitchy "friend" that took great pleasure in making her feel awful, a strong feeling that there had to be more to life than its life-sucking grind...... and the need to feel intensely about at least this one thing that would carry her through an otherwise luke warm life, may have rung a bell too.
And how that one thing helps her find her sense of self worth in the end (sigh!)...

Inspite of the end being blatantly, insultingly obvious, I found myself guilty of wanting her to succeed in her "project" . Well what can I say ...... I like happy endings (sigh!)...
Julie Powell's role was a challenge for Amy Adams to portray, I am sure, though she has, in my opinion done it justice to a commendable extent..... there were still places I found her getting a tad bit melodramatic. I'm not quite sure if that was intentional though......

Anyhow,......I got so excited after watching the movie, that a good friend of mine (who also liked the movie btw) and I together began wondering what a million others would've too after watching the film........ " If I were to do what Julie Powell did, cook through the recipes of some great Cook that is, who would it be?" .... and the both of us zeroed in on our favourite cook ever, Ina Garten - from the Barefoot Contessa (food network- duh!) ....... I mean, she being the most suave, elegant, accomplished cook we'd ever seen n all.... was an obvious choice....
My only glich being, I don't eat meat!....... So that trashed my chances, right there of following all of her recipes to the T (the one thing, I realized was essential for a mission of this nature to qualify as one in the first place).......
'Nyways, I continue to try my luck at grabbing a copy of the movie from the blockbuster movie dispenser at Publix ......... and I certainly hope to get lucky someday :)

PS: I had to add the following to my post for reasons you shall discover as you read on....
Date: March 6, 2010..... (a day after posting the piece above).
Well, speaking of happy endings.......
My darling husband, I shall call him "K" in the blog (more for the coolness factor than reasons of anonymity!)..... hasn't yet mastered the art of reading what girls, in this case I "actually" mean when I say something ..... For instance, when he ASKS me (which is a cardinal sin in the world of Romance!), what I would like for Valentines, and I say " Oh Honey! all I want is your love",he actually believes me!! .... I know! right? ........ As I am writing this up I find his naivety endearing ....... but that wasn't quite the case this morning, and last night.......
I shall let you in on a li'l secret about us women- we love laying guilt trips on our men..... that being said you've probably figured what followed (!)......
So as I stood there crying about how he didn't love me anymore (boohoo...), he decided to go grocery shopping -" To Publix" since we had run out of salt n all ....... and just as I finished up making lunch...... I heard Meryl Streep on our television
(Awwwwwwwww! I know!).
"Yes......at that very moment everything made sense to me......" (Its official! The movie dispenser has a great sense of timing!))
And we watched to movie together...... (all dreamy eyed....... well, at least i was!)....... needless to say , i loved it...... I noticed a couple of things I didn't when i last saw it ....... Paul Child,Julia's husband is the most adoooorable husband ever (with the exception of K of course) and is one of the best things that happened to the movie......... I loved the transition between both stories and I thought the visual difference was well brought out(am assuming they used some kinda filter)...... and other little things like... the smush of jam on a page of the cookbook..... and my husbands hands that were holding mine .......

"Women's lib" from down under

What do you associate with the term " Women's Lib"?

If I were to go ahead and list some on your behalf, I'm guessing the list will include equal pay, the glass ceiling, sexual harrasment, and reproductive rights, perhaps?  I may have wikied that up; incase you were wondering.
Although what I'm about to discuss may seem far more frivolous than the issues listed above, I do believe it symbolizes the accepetance, or non acceptance rather, of us women for the package we are. Incase you haven't already guessed, I'm about to discuss "Grooming - down under".
Seriously, don't you think every woman out there that is in a relationship, detests having to get a bikini wax every single time she decides to get it on? Of course she does! Its just that she chooses to represent it with other seemingly more important issues of gender inequality, that's all.

I was going through a copy of the Femina ( fiiiiiine! guilty!!) once, and was surprised to find an excerpt from the Kamasutra that spoke about how women back in the day, when the book was written I'm assuming, did'nt have to "groom" themselves in order to, er.. attract the opposite sex, shall we say? Yup! They had the luxury of presenting themselves just the way the were - hair n all. On the contrary it was the men that had to do their nails, their hair .... the works, in order to entice their women!
Yup! lucky dames those (sigh)!! Imagine not have to sit through painful hair removal (waxing, plucking, tweezing, painfully yanking off from the root) sessions... Ha! So much for learning from history.
I wonder what kicked off the reversal of the order of things? Like, was it this dame who decided she was totally jobless and said " now that I'm done braiding my serpentine "head"hair, how about finding more hair to groom? " I mean, seriously, ... what was it?
And for those out there that have been contemplating grooming your thingies for a while now, it is infact puzzling, don't you think? It requires a whole lot of an effort to begin with, and even if you do decide to take the plunge, there are just so many options. Do you take it all off , or keep parts of it on and trim it, shape it like a heart may be, or color it (remember that sex n the city episode where in Samantha colors her's red?), or worse still -straighten it!
I remember the time when curls were in (and I am refering to head hair here by the way). Every girl out there wanted locks... and curls...or a perm. For a while now, it has been the "straight" season, well atleast w.r.t. hair it has!! Every girl I know owns a straightening iron, and a ceramic one at that. So what makes you think that this hot dame, having painstakingly straightened her (head) hair out, all ready for the kill, would let her " downward"curls give her away? Hell no! Which in all likelihood implies that ceramic irons from now, are going to have to configure themselves into a whole new contraption! Sorry to gross you out. I am kinda grossed out, myself.
Considering that metrosexual's the word being bandied around offlate , I might be unfair in saying that this still is just the plight of us women in today's world. But where I come from, (a reasonable amount of ) chest hair is still a symbol of masculinity and most men out there still flaunt it. As a matter of fact, I find appropriatly thick chest hair kinda sexy too, and I can't stand men with shaped eye-brows..... Ewww!
Either ways, the point I'm trying to make here is - all you guys out there, don't have to go through all the torture we've been through for, let's see, centuries? now? We being the forgiving kind, are willing to overlook your extreme insensitivity toward us and are willing to spare you the brunt of your actions; provided, you to return the favor!!

The word is "Blogging"

Yaaaaaay!........ My blog has a follower! na na na na na........
Actually it's a good old childhood friend of mine......who happened to find me through my blog!......\Who better than a true friend to save my poor ol' "fit to be doomed without a single follower" blog right! so I thot.... what better occassion for a post :)? .....and decided to do the honours.......

Well...Yeah ! what ever! I still remember how it all started......
I was going thro' this "all I've done in life is reproduce - oh what a loser I am" phase ....... inspite of the fact that, in my mind I had a life plan all in place.... I would now go to school to do what most responsible adults did- an MBA.........abandoning all silly dreams of becoming a great architect (which i'm not sure i had, in the first place)!!
Anyways... the point being I really felt all wasted ....and then I chanced upon this blog....... which was pretty mediocre, for lack of a better word.... (and you thot I was bad!). And that's when the whole thing hit me....
Blogging means, not having to be grammatically perfect ....or using "author....ish" words like 'serendipity' and 'doldrums'all the time......It means being able to use a series of dots on end every time I get uncertain about how a sentence ended........ It means having a "blogger's liscence" I'd like to call it, that lets you write about anything under the sun till one fine day someone decides to get all saddistic and flag you!....omg!! did I just say write? no......that's the big no- no word here....... the word is - "BLOG"..... you blog- if you wanna make sure your bases are covered.......
And so, i blogged, for the first time...... it felt liberating and all .... and allowed me the pleasure of a casual brag about my blog in the midst of a conversation with friends ..... ok may be not all that casual ....I'm kinda known for my lack of tact.....
But all I secretly wished for in the mean time was just one comment.....or even worse .... for the number of views to go up by two instead of one every time I read my own blog. For three whole days I read , re read and edited it, taking off an extra comma here and adding an exclamation mark there..... just incase a someone I know should chance upon the blog........So much for all that talk about bloggers' liscence!!

At the end of three days, I resign to the good old way and decide to follow another blog in order to get people to follow mine......... and in the process, I find some that I could'nt care less about and then some that were really quite good....but so darn good that I was'nt sure I wanted them to read my blog !
....... and so I decide to keep looking, ..... till I chance up on my cousin's blog to realize the kid had talent,I mean , really ......and so I zero in on her's, reasoning out, that since she's related to me n all, she'd be forced to cut me some slack if at all she ended up reading mine!.......so, I go ahead and comment on one of her best posts.......only, I could'nt figure out how to do it using my blogger id!....Bummer!!....I know, u're probably thinking I am a complete idiot..... well lets just say I'm not all that tech savy......
And to reinstate the fact, the other day I stumbled upon this blog I totally loved, and decided to follow it, only to realize i could'nt figure out how to!... OK! that didn't exactly come as a complete surprise now, did it?.
Look, here's the thing ok, my blog has a "Follow me" tab in bold on the top right corner......I could'nt be more blunt about it I know ....but atleast it serves the purpose..... especially for dummies like me, right? I wonder why people have a problem keeping it plain and simple? Anyways,....at the end of it all, the fact still remains that I still have'nt figured how to follow that blog........ Is there such a thing as blogging for dummies?? I should probably try googling it sometime...... See?.... I can google!.....I'm not so bad after all !!
Ok now I've been thinking of different ways to conclude this post.....u know, something fun.... and snazzy....but couldn't come up with anything for the time being ....,so chao for now
Awright!

Stickers, Sweethearts and Stilettos

Sharing memories from childhood is something that puts both my husband and me into our respective elements. Even if that means, listening to the same story for the hundredth time, those dreamy eyes and an almost involuntary smile on the narrator's face, does help the listener keep the "yeah, yeah, i know!" attitude at bay, at least for a while. On one such nostalgic evening, out of the blue, my husband asked me if I remembered " those fudgy stickers that we used to get back then"...... and once again my eyes got all dreamy and that involuntary smile spread right across my face......

Chocolates to us as children essentially meant Cadbury's dairy milk and Five Star for the most part, interspersed with the occasional supply of "foreign chocolates" like Toblerone. "Fudgy" was a new entrant into the market at the time...... with an obviously successful and shorlived marketing strategy , of giving away stickers with every bar purchased. Stickers of the most famous children's hero of the 80's, if you will- "He Man " and all his friends and foes. I don't quite remember how the chocolate tasted, well I 'm guessing it must've tasted, like its name suggests, fudge ..y........ however, that didn't quite matter to me......the stickers were all I cared about..... specifically those of He-man and his girl, Teela. But as one might guess, the odds of running into a he-man sticker were miniscule,.... just to make sure that children continued to try their luck by buying more.......

The He-man show was what made our sundays the way they were....... I remember waiting for a whole week to see the super hero pull out his magic sword and say something like.... "by the power of the Grey Skull"........and outsmart the evil Skeletor and his gang week after week.
This was something the whole entire class was hooked onto ......We would religiously watch every episode and go play HE-Man at school....... well our own version of it, ofcourse.

Another reason for my added interest in the show was this guy....... ok now its not what you're thinking.....I was in preparatory for Christ's sake....... lets just say, I was really quite fond of him. Now , this guy that I liked.... always,......and let me repeat .... always.... played He-Man. He was a natural charmer and obviously the one who got to designate the other lesser beings with their roles. I think it would be safe to assume that he was also kinda fond of me cuz I got to play teela......always......ok, almost always.... well, except for a couple of rare instances when the silly girl gang managed to come up with games that interested me........

So here he was .....with his wooden ruler tucked in behind his shirt..... which he yanked out from time to time as he-man's all powerful sword while running around, chasing his enemies ....... and since teela, got to run around with a sword too, my wooden ruler, all of a sudden became the most important piece of stationary in my school bag! ..... His best friend, who was not quite what one might call heavily- set, got to play He-man's faithful lion - Cringer......which meant, the poor fella had to get down on all fours and bear "he-man's" weight for the most part !!....
There were other characters in the show too, which were played by other boys that did'nt have a problem letting my He-man take all the lime light........ like this little ghost that floated around without legs and wore a red pointed hat........ Orko.... and the evil Skeletor which was always played by the naughtiest, most evil kid around!....... my mom's absolute favourite from class, cuz he managed to make her otherwise superlatively naughty daughter seem docile!

So now, having successfully established the importance of those fudgy stickers in my life, at the time, the question arises as to what I did with them..... Did I like most collectors hold on to them without ever peeling the guard off and letting it go to waste? Not quite the case..... I did have something else in mind for them actually.......

I used to live in the same town as my grand parents at the time. There was this cabinet in my grand dad's bar that I was completely fascinated by. It was your typical 70's, art deco' piece of furniture, with glass sliding shutters, a wooden body with a slight taper towards the top that was covered in formica, slender truncated cones for legs which reminded me back then, of stilettos or "high heals" as we used to call them (my fascination with stilettos goes a long way..... they were used as a bribe, to make me top my class!!), and most importantly, this was the only piece of furniture around that I could reach .......
My favourite pass time was to stare at, and occasionally take out, all the different glasses the cabinet held.......glasses of all shapes and sizes, the short and stocky cut glasses for scotch, the tall slender stemmed ones for champagne, the fat stemmed ones for wine, the huge mugs with handles for beer and so on....... and not to forget my absolute favourites ..........the shot glasses :) ...... they were shaped like miniature beer mugs with propotionate handles ....and for a long time, made me think that they were infact beer mugs for us miniature adults at home ..... So when I did start collecting my stickers after all, it was almost instinctual that I use them to adorn my favourite cabinet ..... and so I did ...... and the best part of it all was that, my grand dad didn't really mind :) ............

What happened to my little "puppy love" story, you might ask.... well, we were quite sweet together actually ..... we dressed similarly to our class christmas party (which was a coincidence btw.) ...and I even fell in love with this kennel he had at home, for his golden retreiver.......it looked like a miniature house, oh i meant the kennel..... T'was all so perfect....... when, just like in the movies, this evil seductress walks in and tries to take my he-man away! ..... well....there was this new girl in class, with lovely long locks ....... and then, one fine morning, my he-man comes over and asks me if this new girl could be his teela "just this one time" Hmmmm, MEN! ........ and the rest is history........ the brave teela fought for her he-man and managed to win him back too ...... only to realise the subsequent week that........... she, with her family, had to move out of town...... for good! ....I know .....that was a bit of a bummer, frankly ! ....
And as far as the cabinet goes..... it still does exist ....... having been ripped off of all its past glory,
is now being used to store all sorts of "have to keep, though seldom used" things....... thanks to all the built-in woodwork with glass panels and fancy focus lights!

How Bizarre is Bizarre?

It is kinda funny, how almost everytime I'm not blogging, I am bursting with a zillion things in my mind to write about , and the moment I seat myself in front of the monitor, I am almost at a loss of thoughts ....if there is such an expression at all, in the first place....

Hmmmm.... let's see...... I think I am going to discuss the show "Bizarre Foods" this time.... Oh! and the host Andrew Zimmer........
The only thing I ask, every single time, I see him up there chowing down on goat scrotum or fish eyes ..... even worse fish face (with its mouth wide open), is, ....... "What in the world is he thinking!"
The show, being called what it is, it shouldn't come as a complete surprise that there be a reasonable amount of "gross" ness associated with it, but owing to the fact that it does occupy a prime slot, lasts a whole hour and gets retelecast almost every time the channel runs out of fresh ideas, one expects to see something a little more pleasant from time to time, ....don't you think?

I remeber seeing this one episode, where in, he tries out this fruit called "Durian" some where, in the Philippines, i think...
And for people who don't know.... durian is like the jack fruit, only much worse (btw, that's an understatement) in taste, texture and smell .......
I remember the king of bizarre eats not being able to get it down his throat! ......
Ok, I give it to him..... the Durian supposedly is one of the most obnoxious fruits ever...... even natives sometimes have a split take on this one..... but dude ....how bad can it get ?.....it is after all, only a fruit!!.....

Well at least it has'nt been cut off of a live, anesthetised cow in front of your eyes, like the ------- you ate last week !.... ok sorry people, didn't mean to get all graphic on you, but now you know, how much worse it would've been seeing this thing on television ........ oh and over dinner!

Hey, don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing personal against the guy, really...... on the contrary i find him quite pleasant for a man with such "not so pleasant" tastes! .......
Seriously fella! .....you do not have to go around chomping on every organism, dissected, with all its parts marked out in order to make this thing interesting ........ really....... get a hold o'er yourself!

It wouldn't be fair on my part not to mention the bright side to this whole thing though ...... Before seeing that "anesthetized cow" episode I mentioned earlier, I was blissfully unaware of people with such tastes ...... well atleast , now i know.....
But, is that really such a good thing?