Tale of the lost pencils

That's two this week ..and its only wednesday !!! I don't usually create such a big fuss about losing a puny graphite stick (I never quite understood why they are also called lead pencils) . But today I just lost it , when I could'nt find even one of the 10 odd ones I saw around my bench last week. Instead, I see black pens, blue pens, markers, highlighters and every other imaginable scribbling paraphernalia sticking out of my pen stand. Even a desperate attempt of turning over all the contents and cursing did not yield the elusive pencil ! All I had wanted was one ...just one pencil to note down something useless ...on a very useful piece of paper. Why ? ...because I did not have an equally useless post-it lying around ...thats why, I needed a pencil and nothing but a pencil at that crucial moment.

During the course of these three years, I am beginning to believe my lab bench has been morphing into one ominous and intuitive black hole, which will promptly devour anything I look for.

I could have just sneaked around and seized one from my lab mate's area . But my case was one of "once bitten twice shy " . Once I had picked up a pen casually from my lab mate's overflowing pen stand, and then promptly forgot to return it . Now the main reason I got caught red-handed with her pen was that in my enthusiasm, I did'nt notice that she had pink-taped her pen so she could GPS track it anytime some idiot like me 'borrowed' it and never gave it back. Try explaining yourself when you are caught with a very annoyed lab mate's pink-taped pen !.

After a good 15 mins of running around like a hen with its head cut, I eventually found a piece of tissue and breathed a sigh of relief.

I can imagine what the US must have gone through. "Where are those WMD ?? We could have sworn it was right there !!! "

Maximum City

Next book on my list : Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. A memior of Suketu's life and views on his city, bombay before he left , and after he came back to visit. The books got a big two thumbs up from Salman Rushdie too !! Suketu Mehta had stopped by our university, of which he is an alumni, for a book reading, and from the few excerpts he read out to us, its definately is worth a read. The city bursting at its seams, and yet finds space to include one more person. My adopted wonderful city ..yeh hein bombay meri jaan.

Confessions of an oblivious mallu

Inspite of being a "Mallu" by birth, I never really got myself interested in the art and culture of Kerala. I was totally ignorant about the history of the various dance forms, the famous "Poorams" , or the numerous prolific writers and poets that this peninsular state was known for. This could be partly due to my upbringing in another part of the country coupled to the fact that my parents themselves never displayed any keen interest in showing us the wonders of the place. Our trips to Kerala always had dad frantically running around for train tickets, boarding up the windows to avoid robbery, and sewing up cash in his pant pockets (don't ask me how !). While mom would be frantically running around making idlis, puris, curd rice for the journey and instructing the neighbours to look out for suspicious activity and taps that might be left open. When we reached kerala there could not be any other detours from home, because my mom wanted to spend as much time as possible with her mom. The poorams were too crowded and 'rowdy' for girls. By the end I could'nt wait to go back to Pune and hang out with my friends. My parents would have been really proud if I could atleast learn to read and write my mother tongue, which was an annual summer vacation boot camp my younger brother and I underwent. He learnt it eventually. While I am thankful for a husband who is literate and can take care of the occasional letters from home.
My uncle who stayed in kerala was a big fan of the kathakali dance form. On our trips back home, in the late evenings, during the 'power cuts' (that were so regular and precise, we could set our watches) I used to hear him hum on the porch...the only memory I can conjure up when I think of Kathakali...how sad it that ??? I think I am going to get some reading done on that ...why the sudden brainwave ...you ask ???
I came across this show about Theyyam and it piqued my curiosity ( its official now...it does'nt take a lot to pique my curiosity :-). So I read some more about it !!! I have a lot of catching up to do ....

Dating Dilemmas

So I snuck back home y'day for a quick late afternoon lunch and just on my way out, in between my frantic search for the flipper and getting my jacket and shoes on, I happened to catch a glimpse of this author on Oprah (I wish she had better show times than 4pm !!! ). He has been involved with script writing for "Sex and the City" and apparently came up with this book around that time. The book has been flying off the shelfs all over the country ...a big hit among the millions of 'dating' women !!.

A book called He's Just Not That Into You: The No Excuses-Truth to Understanding Guys !!!

As usual a book endorsed by Oprah, and I could not curb by curiosity. I had to google it the first thing I came back to my comp...even though I am off the dating scene (Well ...I was kinda never in ...I promptly fell hook line and sinker the moment Sri handed me that Amul chocolate bar . He still maintains he did'nt give it with any 'intentions', but thats a different story ;-).

I landed up on yahoo and read the first chapter. Gosh !!! this is one of those (few) times I am glad I tied the knot. Not to mention my desi parents who would rather have me make tea for countless 'suitable boys' before I could even dream of dating.


Just this morning , I saw the girls in my lab all huddled in front of a comp checking the book out from Amazon...the city library has one copy with 3 holds on it already ( 4th is going to be mine...now I just have to read it..the books a freakin rage)

Seems its just not the guys alone who are clueless about the girls after all !!!

Hero

One of the most visually and philosophically brilliant movies I have seen to date . And to think I was almost not going to go and see it , for reasons of sheer laziness to read subtitles off an Asian film !!!

The movie is set almost 2000 years ago , when China was not even a country but 7 different kingdoms, that fought and killed each other for years. "Nameless" (Jet Li), wants to avenge the death of his people and considers the Ruler as a tyrant like everybody else does. Only to realise in the end, after meeting up with the king (to kill him), that his only intentions were to unite all the kingdoms and stop the war and bloodshed. Don't want to give out the ending for those who just might catch the movie , after reading this ;-)

Its an artistic masterpiece in my opinion complete with vivid colors, breathtaking backdrops, and an exemplary display of martial arts.... of course if you can get past all those people being forever suspended in air and moving in slow motion. The things that bowled me over was the depiction of each characters version of an event in a different color....the swarm of arrows shot by the army ...and lastly the wall of logs that Li brings crumbling down with his swift sword !!!

Its definately worth seeing especially if you can catch it on a big screen . Although many of my asian friends do not share my fascination with the movie :-(

Trivia : The chap who directed this movie is apparently the same guy who made the teaser for Beijing Olympics , during the closing ceremony in Athens.

I just came back from lunch .

A lunch I had the honour of having with Dr Tim Hunt ...a Nobel Prize winner of 2001 in Physiology/Medicine. And as I look at his signed copy of the flyer I know I will treasure this for a long time .

There was nothing grand about him . And that is exactly what hit me . He also rolled up his sleeves and dug into his sub , and slurped on his coke just like all the 7 students seated with him on that table. He was so down to earth , as he talked about his days of graduate research and his "Nobel" experiment, the moment when he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he had discovered something new. He joked about the fact, that there are times when he has a hard time just getting the fact to sink in that he deserved the prize.

Although I appreciated the whole concept of recognising people who made a huge difference in the world by their work , I had'nt, up until today put a face on that person. The difficulties, the struggle, the triumph ...I could never associate with it. These Nobel laureates seemed to be some exceptional genuises or outer space aliens.

The whole experience was so refreshing, I sat and heard him talk, answer, and ponder about the possibilities of tomorrow. I could'nt agree more as he explained how sometimes its the simplest solutions that answer the most complex mysteries of the world.

Another Enigma of Life.

How does one know when to give up ? When is it really ok to say I cannot go on anymore ...I quit ?

Or should one never give up at all ?

The fact that some people cannot succeed at something however hard you try ...is it an indication that you probably should explore other options without wasting your time ? or is it just that you have'nt tried hard enough ?

I guess we all have our own thresholds ...and there is only so much we can take before we quit . But then is'nt success about challenging your limits ....and then some more ???

Where's the party yaar ??

The craziest two weeks of my life are behind me now . There were maddeningly busy and yet so much fun . Suddenly a career in party planning and editing movies seems very inviting ;-) It was once again time for a bridal shower ..only this time I was organizing one. And the one crazy bunch of girls that we are ...we love doing everything that is full of surprises. But the only other hitch in the whole plan was ....we also had a birthday for another friend of ours which had to be equally grand and a surprise. So it was only obvious that the planning committee had to keep two different emails ...that included one and kept the other girl out...without goofing up ...so all our emails eventually began with " remember this is for S's BS (bridal shower) don't reply to this when u want to discuss ...N's bday :-O ...it was crazy ....I went around the whole two weeks with a notebook ...noting down every tiny thing.

The planning, the execution...the works :
For the bridal shower ....there was a dance drama spoof on the bride and groom's love affair ...that needed songs and script to be written . Then the whole inviting the bride for the shower had to be grand too...We ended up having it parceled to her thru the apt office two days before. Then we decided to shoot a documentary depicting the whole backstage affair that went into preparing for the shower. We actually hit the streets and visited the bride's fav eatouts and interviewed the owners ..asked a group of goras for 'naughty games' . And then we recorded each of the friends message to the bride. Since we had planned to have it played through the projector ...friday was spent editing and assembling the movie only to realise that the whole damn thing was around 7 Gb in file size ...tooo big to move it anywhere !!!. Confusion, chaos all over ... "Did the bride get the invite ? " ...do we have confirmation for the venue....who is picking up the ice ....games , songs...after a point , I just wanted to go and sleep !!!!
But the most coolest part of the party according to me was the awesome cake we got custom made for the bride . We had the cake shaped like a book ...named it "KamaSutra: User Manual" ...had a la khajuraho pic. We spent all night designing the look ...and the result was simply spectacular.

Meanwhile ...we had to sneak out of the bday's girls radar and get her bday gift and party planned too. Friday night had real fun celebrating her bday in a salsa club. Saturday was the shower. I slept all day on Sunday !!!

I never knew ...too much partying also could exhaust me so much , that I longed to get back to work :-O