The ties that bind

Found it. Finally.
http://thedjinn.blogspot.com/

There is always someone

I've found that many a times life sends us exactly the people we need at the time - whether we're aware of it or not. Posting this now, because yesterday there was another such incident for me.

I recently decided to sign up for French lessons at a popular institute here. Yesterday was the first day of registrations for the new semester. I turned up at the institute at 8:40, anticipating some rush for the registration, maybe a 100-150 people, since I knew the low tuition fee made the course quite atractive. I walked in to find a queue that had already wound itself over two floors and two corridors before breaking up into a mob at the entrance of the hall where the registrations were happening. The institute had called in their biggest and most intimidating looking staff to hold back the crowd at the door. I raced to find the end of the line before I lost another dozen places. Maybe this is going to take 2-3 hours I underestimated as I joined the queue :)

Directly behind me I heard a couple speaking in English and occasionally in a language that sounded like Hindi, but was not quite Hindi. "Indians! or at least of Indian origin", I thought. In Luxembourg finding yourself right next to other Indians is quite something. The man left for work, and the woman and I started a conversation about the queue. Was the best thing that happened to me yesterday!

The wait in the queue turned into an unanticipated 8-hour marathon, the first 4 hours in the queue patiently crawling along to reach the doors, and the next 4 as part of the mob at the doors, where it was definitely each man for himself. Things heated up when the staff shut the doors for some reason and the space we were in got quite claustrophobic. By then most of the people there had been on their feet for about 5-6 hours, were hungry and thirsty and tempers were really starting to flare. Someone started yelling at the staff for not organizing things better, and a section of the crowd started chanting "Let us in" :) Every time the door opened even a crack, we would be packed in tighter by the crowd pushing in from behind. Some policemen came in, for crowd control in case things got ugly, I suppose. And someone with a very professional looking camera came up to the front and started clicking away. Maybe we'll all be in the local news in a day or two :)

If it hadn't been for my new found Parsi friend, the registration would have a horrendous experience. I get panicky when pressed in by crowds and probably would have given up and gone home hungry and tired as many people did after a while. If her husband hadn't come in at lunch time and stood in the queue in our places for a while, I wouldn't have had the respite of sitting down for a while and getting some food and drink. Incredibly when we came back, we found that he had even managed to move us up several places in the door mob. Quite a feat, considering the shoving and elbowing that was going on. And most of all if it hadn't been for our animated conversation about Luxembourg, the crazy rush for registrations, life, the universe and everything, I would have felt every minute of the 8 hours of standing in the queue.

And yes, we finally got ourselves registered at 5:30!

P.S. The award for the most cool headed people in the crowd goes to the group of Chinese students next to us who kept their smiles throughout the whole thing, didn't shove a single person, and even managed to teach some Chinese to the Cambodian girl with them :)

Suryodhayam!!

Some daybreak shots taken from my balcony, while experimenting with exposure settings (thanks to kiwi for telling me about this), and the neighbour's cat who seems to like the view too :)

Changes...

"Your hair is really quite curly!” said S.
I was in the middle of cooking dinner, and hadn’t had the time to brush out my damp hair. Since we've been married for almost 4 years now, the keen observation made me send a mock evil glare his way. Maybe it’s just a casual remark, I think, and reply (with some pride), "Yes, I get it from my Dad - my hair curls just like his".
"It's hard to tell, coz your dad is quite bald!" laughed S.
This time my evil glare and indignation were quite genuine "My dad, bald!!!, how can you say that!! He has curly hair!”. S (looking quite perplexed now) tells me that it is true that my dad is quite bald and asks if I hadn’t noticed yet. So I think about it and reluctantly agree and then redraw the picture in my head of my dad. Sigh! Sometimes the passage of time sneaks up on us quite stealthily... And I'm left wondering if I need to redraw the picture of me I have in my head as well....

"Burning an effigy"

From an article (about the latest hungama created by Deve Gowda and his vocabulary) that I just read on the NDTV news website:

"But BJP workers did what party workers the country over seem to do at the drop of a hat - burnt an effigy or two. That very phrase 'burning an effigy' is certainly used more in the Indian media than anywhere else in the world"

How true :)) and how very funny somehow :)) Still laughing :))

See http://www.ndtv.com/news/blogs/freedom_of_choice/politically_incorrect.php

Ravan in a new light and Shobana's Maya :)

Thank God for Shobana!! Was what I was thinking after watching Maya Ravan last night (on DVD :( - wish I could have watched the live performance ) Not because she is such a brilliant actress and so good at Bharatanatyam, but because she brings so much creativity and artistic freedom to a very traditional dance form. Though so much of the dance is based on Bharatanatyam, there are so many deviations from the classical form, that the DVD cover says 'musical dance ballet' :) But the combination of unconventional elements works - the English narration, the voice-over dialogues, the bollywood style dream sequences, the humour, the attempts at cuteness, the costumes, and everything else in it! Really enjoyed it!! Like my childhood dance teacher used to say - there is nothing that a dancer can't depict through Bharatanatyam.

Loved the costumes, loved the music (specially the 'Shree ramchandra kripalu bhajman' in Rama's introduction scene)

Most memorable parts for me - Rama's introduction scene, the scene where queen Kaikeyi is possessed by Ravan, Sita's wedding, and the forest scene with Soorpanaka. And also the debate on the concept of Dharma between Ravan and Mandodari.

The only issue I had with Maya Ravan was that it begins brilliantly but loses its momentum somewhere in the second half and the end though good doesn't live up to the promise of the opening scenes. And for me this was true for the dance, the music and the narration :( I've watched the DVD a couple more times since, and each time until the 'Sita's abduction' scene though. Not that the second half wasn't good, just that the first part is so good, that it leaves you expecting even better things afterwards...

But Shobana and Nasseruddin Shah together as the face and voice of Ravan are the highlights of the performance. Never has Ravan been so charismatic, charming, good looking and so very witty in any TV serial or comic book :)

A new start ....

Here's hoping that 2010 will be a wonderful year for everyone! That Ammamma will recover from her hip surgery. That those of us looking for love will find it this year. Those of us starting out on new ventures will find success. That P, S, papa, ma and I will get to spend some holidays together. That the wedding bells that we are waiting for will chime this year. And good luck and good health will be with all of us!