Alias Grace - Book Review

Even though my promised review of Casa Rossa is not yet up (I'll put it up - cross my heart and all that), here I come with yet another review of another Atwood. Alias Grace, which took me embarassingly long to finish, given my current discontent with the world (myself included) at large. Check it out people!

Update :- I'm going to be studying again! Lève les bras, danse avec moi! Cours de traduction (Translation course) starting Monday. Twice a week only, so it's not going to be hectic...and it fits in quite well with my current class schedule - quite excited about it. Hope it doesn't turn out to be a wrong decision! And there's this one other thing that I hope falls into place...let's see. *crossing my fingers*

Current Music :- Crossroad (the album) by Bon Jovi.

Current Mood :- Implaccably ruthless. I want my pound of flesh..and I just got it.

Who Needs A Guy?

I've been known to to speak my mind when I'm with my close friends, but rarely do I bother wasting my energies with strangers (preferring instead to mentally lash out at them or havemy fun at their expense later - yeah I'm wicked) - but sometimes I can't hold my tongue and then ofcourse much fun happens :-)

I recently had much fun and gave an obnoxious relative a mini-heart attacks of sorts...thought I'd share the fun...

(Scene - I'd taken the pain to dress up after ages, so I was actually looking quite raapchik, even if I say so myself!)
Obnoxious Relative :- You know, Geetanjali bitiya is quite pretty and can look quite nice if she makes an effort.
Me :- I know. What exactly is the point being driven home here?
OR :- You would look so much better if you took care of your looks and wore contact lenses.
Me :- I think I look nice enough just as I am, thank you.
OR :- But imagine what nice boys you'd get if you made some effort!
Me :- Maybe I don't want a nice boy...
OR :- *Look of confusion and a little shock*
ME :- Seriously, why would I want a guy? What can a guy give me today that a girl can't?
OR :- *Complete shock*
(Others in room stare at me with their jaws dropping to the floor, some chortling in glee at my wickedness, knowing I'm going to have some poor souls worrying about my sexual preferences and probably concluding this is the reason why I'm still unmarried at the grand old age of 24 years!)
Me :- *Bliss* (I know she won't bother me for some time now! SCORE!!!)
(More such crazy conversations - In Paris and at Getting Gorgeous at CCD

New word discovered that I'm dying to use - tarantism (TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm) noun - An uncontrollable urge to dance.

[After Taranto, a town in southern Italy where this phenomenon was experienced during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the symptom of a spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to dodge a prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the spider tarantula are both derived from the same place.]

Current Music :- Rock On (the new version) by Def Leppard
Current Mood :- Restless. Blue. Wicked. Satisfied.

Move Along

It's a nice, bright Sunday - the skies are a clear azure after ages (hell, I don't even remember when was the last time we had a such a beautiful day!), the breeze that's blowing through the window is delightfully cool and is ruffling the curtain ever so lightly (not to mention my freshly washed, fragrant hair). All this should have set my heart skipping out a jolly tune and a smile fluttering lightly on my lips..why then is my heart sinking into the grips of fingers so icy they hurt as they tighten and squeeze around my heart?

Current Music :- Move Along by The All American Rejects
"When all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through"

Sigh...

Spent some lovely relaxed moments with a friend the past two days - and coming home today, I was hit by how short-lived, how ephemereal these moments of joy are...and I smiled almost sadly to myself. It makes me treasure these moments all the more, for I know that in the next couple of months my "social" life is going to go downhill again. The pampering is over, soon the fun, too shall be a thing of the past. Sigh.

Current Mood :- Restless. Fed-up of being walked all over and being taken for granted. Disillusioned and disappointed.

Question of the Day :- Why do people make promises they never intended to keep?

Thought Cloud

Rains. Torrents.
Wet. Disillusioned. Greens. Potholes. Pain.
Hungry. Not. Bored. Garam Chai. Fritters. Tears.
Cappuccino. Hurting. Where’s the Sun? Memories.Black.
My chest hurts. So does my back. And my head. And my heart.
Nostalgia. Bored. I need a Book. Anger. Questions. Bruised. Battered. Grumpf.
Defeated.“It Must Have Been Love”. Idle hours. Emptiness. Disgust.
Blah! “Hasta La Vista”. Cognac.Employment. Apathy. Resolutions.
Craters. Muck. Ick. “I Will Survive.” Am I Not Good Enough?
Wicked. Fangs. Plain Jane. Independence. New focus.
A New Day. Sunshine. Atlast. Busy again.
I Miss you Papa. A lot. Blue.

Floral skirt. Pink. Pretty.
Content. Peace.

Out Of Action

Temporarily out ofa ction due to unforeseen circumstances (that being voltage fluctutation which got through UPS and spike-buster which rendered useless the computer, which is essential for blogging!!) ...

Sigh, such is the life these days! Please to be the forgiving and to be the missing my lovable presence...

Aaj Kal Hassi Badi Mehengi Ho Rakhhi Hai Duniya Mein

Omkara. Vishal Bharadwaj's adaptation of the Shakesperian tragedy Othello. I've seen it twice and I'd gladly go for it a third time, without a second's hesitation, provided it's still running in cinemas after the release of that god-awful Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. No, I haven't seen the latter and neither do I have any intention of doing so - I've successfully avoided most of theYash Raj - Johar banner films since KKHH and I'm damn proud of it! Unfortunately Omkara is already making its way out of cinemas (atleast in Pune) - and once again I am appalled at how culturally ignorant and philistine we can get! I won't bother waxing lyrical about the brilliance of the film - the adaptation to a very believable north-Indian semi-urban milieu, the casting (yes even Kareena Kapoor failed to get on my nerves) and characterisation, the music (I simply can't stop humming the title track and "Bidi"), the attention to detail (did you notice Kareena's nails in the scene at the prison at the beginning of the film?), not to mention the performances (Konkana, being the best - how that lady transforms from a Bengali to an Iyer Brahmin to a hip-young-urban-journalist to an uneducated woman from a UP village is just unbelievably awesome!) are all worthy of a standing ovation.

I won't even bother lashing out at the junta that went for the movie and walked out saying they got bored and didn't understand it - can hardly blame them, if they've been fed sentimental crap like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam (gag!!!), or worse the Garam Masala genre of comedy (puke!!!) - ab unpadh ko kya samjhana Shakespeare kaun tha! What I fail to understand and forgive is the educated lot, who have read a reasonable amount of literature and who walk out saying the film was a torture, that it gave them a headache..and the worst of them all, that Shakespeare was a sadist to write tragedies!!! Mon Dieu - could we indulge in any more blasphemous sacrilege? How do you explain to these people what a wealth of knowledge about the human psychology is to be gleaned from Shakespeare's plays, that all the courses of psychology and HR management couldn't teach you what reading (and understanding the meaning behind the words) Shakespeare's plays could teach you? And pray, tell me what's this nonsense about cinema existing only to provide entertainment (and that too, the senseless variety?) - whatever happened to cinema being the Seventh Art and Art existing to represent Reality, not to mention make us stop and think? Where, where have we gone and donated our grey cells? Why, why are we insisting on turning into this mindless pulp of humanity that cannot deal with an intelligent subject?

[Read Aristera's review of the film - I couldn't agree more with him!]

Current Mood :- On the warpath since Wednesday - have been sharpening my talons and fangs and sinking them into every available (not to mention unsuspecting) victim at the slightest opportunity. Inner angst makes me shed my angelic demeanour!
Current Music :- Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World, In My Eyes, More More More
Current Book :- Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

Happy Friendship Day (ahem)

For the longest time I’ve silently rebelled at being judged by others’ parameters of what’s acceptable and what’s not. Through-out adolescence I had major issues with the whole concept of “cool” and “hep” and being “in” – having gone through a tumultuous adolescence and felt excluded and to quite an extent, marginalized and yes, judged by ridiculous standards, I developed a strong dislike for pigeon-holing of people into categories, just any Tom Dick and Harry who doesn’t even know you. Till today I react strongly at being cast into a particular image…

I thought I’d left all these things behind, but it seems not. Irrespective of how old one gets, one continues to be judged by others – what’s worse is that it’s not always the stranger or the outsider that does it. When close friends who are apparently there because they’ve accepted you for what you truly are, suddenly rear up and start judging you on the basis of appearances or hold you at gun-point for what is not acceptable to them, it feels like the worst kind of betrayal. Isn’t friendship supposed to be based on acceptance of differences? It forces me to take a step back and re-evaluate my friendships – forces me to think before I talk about something…and that to me is not real friendship. That’s a bloody farce in the name of friendship and frankly I could do without it…

…oh I almost forgot, today is Friendship Day! Right then, Happy Friendship Day to all of you out there – remember to be true to your “friends” through-out the year not just this one day. (Total kill-joy, ain’t I?) :-)

Current Mood – Wierdly pensive and dark to suit the dull, grey, watery weather.
Current Music - Walk Away – Kelly Clarkson
Current Book – NOTHING! I haven’t touched a book in what seems like aeons – I need to read something and feel good about myself again. Time to hit the cartons for books not yet read…

Those Were The Days...