Orkut spam.

Check the picture out. Now exactly what am I supposed to do with a message like that?! You’d think what with Orkut being commended a wonderful virtual plane for meeting people and reconnecting lost ties and all, they’d have done something to prevent your inbox from being filled with absolute crap. In what state of mind would someone actually think that absolute strangers would post birthday wishes to his “sweetest sweetest frnd”??
But, in all fairness, my primary question is, what exactly was he thinking when he decided to create such a community in the first place?! Sweetest friend indeed!

I used to like orkut at first. It was great for getting in touch with old friends and for meeting fun people. Slowly the irritation at having to delete anonymous friend’s requests built up, inbox being cluttered with spam didn’t do any good either. One look at some messages on my scrapbook will ordinarily convince me to delete my account forever but it has helped me keep in touch with some really old friends so I decided to let it be and silently fume at the ignoramus who figured he’d want to ‘friendship me’ (yuck!).

I’ve determinedly kept orkut only for my friends from school and let only 2 of my friends in college in on my friend’s list. I’d rather have a stranger in my list than people from college all over again. Although on second thought I’d be much better off clearing out the people I don’t know on this list. Add to the frustration the request for ‘testis’ (its not going to kill you to say testimonial) and the war for the highest scrap count and you’ve just been branded an orkut hater.

Darling. A KILLER love story.

Sam’s home for the weekend!! That gives me all the more reason to shun all the work I have now and start enjoying all over again. Not that I was up to here with work anyway. She came in at about 9 AM today and woke me up with her usual ‘HI!!!!’. I had a mild headache till about 11 AM given that I didn’t get to sleep much. The real reason behind this entry is the much awaited movie ‘Darling’ that we went to see today at ANU-EGA. The theatre was horrible enough, filled to bursting with an angry almost-complete Gujju mob. Most people “forgot” to switch off their cell phones during the movie, hence leading to snippets of “rang de basanti” right in the middle of a horror scene.

The plot.
A playboy in the making accidentally kills one of his girlfriends in a brawl and is overcome by guilt. His girlfriend’s ghost, determined to get even, decides to haunt him till the end of time, or his sanity, whichever comes first. Badly picturised scenes and an unnaturally loud sound system later, the man decides to confess and give up. There’s a wife and son somewhere in between and demonic possession towards the end.

You never really know where to start. Do I give prime importance to the ‘acting’ skills, the unnecessary and terribly predictable loud sounds (to the point at which you’d know 10 seconds in advance as to when to shut out your ears), the story in the first place, or the fact that everybody else seems to like the story when you’re the only one sitting there wondering if you’re retarded or are they? There was actually a scene in which I laughed out loud at the exact same time at which a woman in front of me screamed for a scary scene. (?). The actors were probably deaf during the shooting for nothing else can explain the redundant dialogues. Everything the guy said was repeated as a question by his wife!!! Towards the end I was glad she died.

When the movie (finally) ended, I remember walking out of the theatre hall thinking ‘what’s happened to Ram Gopal Verma?. After having seen Sarkar and Company, Aag and Darling seem inexplicable. Hopefully it’s a bad phase that he’s going through, I mean, everyone would like to see better movies come from him now, wouldn’t they?

Darling, a killer love story? Oh yes it is.

A fine balance.

*does victory dance*. I finally finished it. Turns out it was the most disgusting book I’ve ever read in my life (until now) and I managed to complete it in 1 week straight. Gifted to me last month, the book is titled “A fine balance” by Rohinton Mistry. Not for the faint hearted this one is. It’s a simple enough book that revolves around 4 people whose lives dramatically change during the Emergency called by the (then) Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Dina Dalal, the paradoxically old Parsee woman whose dramatic life forces her to age in mind and soul faster than she ought to, Ishvar and Omprakash, fighting to keep misery out of their daily schedule and learning to accept the shocks of the city life as opposed to the torments of their native village. Maneck, the young paying guest, brilliantly portraying all that an adolescent boy can. The pangs of leaving a safe home, facing torture in the name of ragging. What I felt was the icing on the cake was the subtlety with which he (the author) has sneaked in points like ‘improper’ romance, racism, untouchability, the hiatus given to money.
The reason I deemed it disgusting is for the sole fact that its disturbing. Well most of it is. Shocking for people who haven’t lived through any bit of it. I have to admit, I haven’t seen a jhopadpatti or been to the nearest village (the closest one was the semi-town where I spent 6 out of 10 days sick) either, so reading about life in them was horrendous. The atrocities each of them face is in its own way justified although being human, you find that at some points, more often than not, just putting the book down seems the best thing to do. The style is simple and powerful at the same time. Painfully descriptive is what I can leave it at.
I do remember having highlighted ‘improper’ romance earlier. How can you explain the logic behind attraction towards older women? To start it all, is there any logic behind any form of attraction in the first place? I doubt it. Then why do we question this one? Who are we to call it abnormal? Why do we unwillingly spur this one (not to mention the million others we find inappropriate too)?
But all said and done, it is still a book, which I loved and hated at the same time. Frankly, I’m glad I got it over with.
Would I recommend it to you? Nnn…nyes.

status quo - ii

Fret not. I have a lot of free time (so to speak) hence the more frequent visits to blogger. For those of you who don’t know as yet, I quit Ajuba. I’m finally free to do all the things I wanted to before, only now I don’t have the need to. News update. I’m leaving on the 26th to Delhi and on the 27th to France. There’s a conference at Delhi on the 27th after which we leave to Paris at night. Onward to Dijon for me once I reach. I shall (hopefully) be received there by someone from the school (Lycée E. J. Marey, for those of you who can understand French you can check it out at: lycee-marey-beaune.fr)
I’ve been in touch with my contact at the school, a funny sort of bloke by the name Yves Michellon. Dead helpful when it comes to even the tiniest of doubts and terribly inquisitive when it comes to India (the guy actually corrected me and said ‘Chennai’ when I said ‘Madras’!!!!!). Nice.
The only things left now are the visa formalities and the health insurance that I need. I cannot apply for the visa without getting the insurance which I hope to be done with by the end of this week. So once that’s done all I need to do is book a day at the consulate at Pondicherry and get that over with. Fortunately for me the embassy’s taking care of the whole thing, the only things I needed to take care of were to get the proof of accommodation and get a policy. Almost done.
Now the real deal. I’ve been trying to get various articles and pretty much what I can lay my hands on when it comes to the great Indian culture. It has to be interesting, in English and should be informative as well. Cook books, comic strips, photos, languages, people, radio clippings, movies, you name it. I’ve also been worried sick about the fact that I have to COOK there!!!!!!!! (Enough said).

Status quo...

Turns out blogspot doesn't automatically delete blogs if you don't post often enough. Damn. Utter shame, to have to look at your blog and suddenly realise that you're supposed to be updating it often.
5:40 AM. Staying up because I know that I won't get up in time if I go to sleep. I shall be leaving to Pondicherry in another 5 hours or so to watch the college bands performing at JIPMER. I missed the rock show, might as well watch the up and coming bands and make a day of it.
I quit Ajuba today (phew!). It sure was a nice place, but working there only made me realise that I'm not ready for work yet. I still want to be a student, crib about my books, cram the night before the exams and say that I needn't have bothered studying at all in the first place. Work is not boring, it's EXHAUSTING!! Well, that's that for now anyway and I now have a WHOLE 3 weeks to enjoy as much as possible, eat home food and be with my friends before I have to leave.
Update, I got my letter (finally!) from Dijon. Not much of a letter though, the only cinch is that I couldn't have applied for my visa without it. One down, million more things to do. The wait for the letter was irritating though, given the fact that they were sending it by snail mail, there was every chance that it'd be lost somewhere halfway through. Trust me, stuff like that happens to me. I just about managed to get to know that I'd been selected for this in the first place. We'd been sent e-mails about it back in February and had to confirm our participation by the 23rd; and I got to know that I'd been selected ON THE 23rd!!! The stupid lady at the French Embassy sent mine to the wrong e-mail address!!!
Given all that, getting the letter came as a big relief. Now I have to go through the whole process of replying to them and finding accomodation for the next 7 months. Oddly enough, I haven't begun to worry about actually being there and TEACHING 18-20 year olds. (Gulp!!)
The language and communication is not a problem. I know English well and French too (I have proof, I tell you!!), but getting through to a bunch of people who just might be terribly rebellious and end up chasing me out of class. I mean, what if they turn out to be like those students in "To Sir with Love"???? I'm sensitive...!!
What if I become home sick?? What if I feel lonely? What if I fall sick? What if I meet with an accident?? I have this recurring dream of me breaking a bone or two when I get there!!!
But the upside of it all is that learning French and mugging ALL those verbs and nouns and different grammar rules and going through ALL those exams and making all those presentations finally paid off. I'm not even remotely worried about how I'd teach the students, the only thing is WHAT will I teach them?! How are teachers patient enough? How do they deal with annoying questions and loud brash kids and irritating ones? I remember being a student at school and the friends I had. Being on this side of the table was fun and all, but what's it like over there?!!
Anyway....7 months will be up soon. I'll enjoy it as much as possible. It's France after all. I've been wanting to go there for a really really long time. So at the end of the day, I'm happy to be going, as long as I don't think about it often enough, I can't wait to have coq au vin and croissants and vin rouge, look at the Eiffel tower, walk around the Champs-Elysees and even see what the fuss over Mona Lisa is all about =).