Beyond the Happily Ever After!

We grew up listening to our parents and grandparents go on and on about it. We were woken up at 6 on sunday mornings so we wouldn't miss out on the wonderful show on Doordarshan. We were given all sorts of different versions of the epic. We were taken to temples weekly to pray to the idol of the god in the avataar of man. We would witness elders blessing the daughters of the family saying "May you get a husband like Rama!"
Yes, I am talking about Ramayana.
The Ramayana that ended with Rama rescuing Sita from the clutches of Ravana and them returning to Ayodhya, with Rama being crowned king. Happily ever after!
Content with the happy ending, we never bothered much to find out what happened after, did we? How ignorant were we. The story that made our beliefs what they are today is dismembered and was told to us in parts.
There was more to the happily ever after, which is a pregnant Sita being abandoned by her husband to live out in the woods. Why? Because being a righteous man was more important than being a good husband for the Mahapurush! And his righteousness lay in doubting the integrity and chasteness of a woman who left all her royal comforts for 14 years of celibacy and a life of exile!

What he should have done is not giving a rat's ass to what other people say and show some faith in his wife. Yes, that would have been good!

Sita deserved every ounce of respect as an individual, as a fellow human being. Instead she was subject to a humiliating agnipariksha, out of which she emerged triumphant. Wasn't this proof enough of her chasteness?  Sita, despite all her endurance and strength, remains a woman who must bear her fate with fortitude—an unchanging archetype. Her values of unyielding loyalty, steadfast devotion and unconditional love despite hardships hurled at her by a patriarchal system are seen as ideal attributes for the Indian woman.

She was forsaken by her husband because some common man commented on her integrity. Being in the position that he was, Rama could have shut them up in no time. Instead he chose to desert his wife. If a husband cannot stand up to his wife, I'm sorry but he can't be portryaed as the ideal husband.

I think blessing someone with a husband like Rama has become passe now, and that the girls would rather you blessed them with someone more relatable in the present, someone who'd not just make tall claims of love, but be a good husband and father!

Till death do us part! ;)

I can safely and proudly say that i'm one of those people who have not one, but a couple of ladies that hold the best friend status in my life. Lucky me :D
 So here it goes to the best people of my life, the people who have selflessly been there throughout, my chuddy-buddies, my best friends forever.
I'm gonna introduce you to three fantastic people here, my personal power puff girls. :)



I walk into my new school all scared and sweaty to see baboons in the name of kids in class. Enters mademoiselle Shivani. Walks straight up to me and tells me we could be bestfriends. Yeah right, best friends in the first go. Beat that! And there! Our friendship began.
Throughout school she was my savior. When girls would be busy chatting away their time, the two of us would be running around, playing games like wild untamed beasts.
Her enemies in school automatically became my enemies, and vice versa. It was always understood.
She saw me through my good, bad and awkward phases and stuck with me. While i was a complete introvert in my junior classes, she was 'the' dude. She had a gazillion friends and she knew almost everyone in town! We met in fourth grade. Its been fourteen years now and we've separated in terms of distance, but that changes nothing between us.
She is the girl you go to with your problems, no matter what they are, and she solves them no matter what!
She's that girl who'll chase down hot guys on the road till it reaches the point of pure stalking. :P
She's the girl who'll leave all her important jobs to sit with you and browse through endless sites to fish for you the perfect birthday dress.
She's the girl you want to tell all your embarrassing secrets to, but also not want to tell them, for she will make fun of you for the rest of your life!
She still is the love of my life :D




Next comes Shreyaa. Oh good lord! One look at her and you'll know she's the naughtiest kid of the gang. She has the complexion of a dove, wears nerdy glasses(is anything but a nerd) and has a very hot fashion sense.
She's the girl who'll introduce you to someone saying "She's so and so from so and so..bla bla bla..and btw, she has a great ass" and you just stand there red faced not knowing what to do. She'll kiss you on your lips and be ecstatic about it. She'll flatter your mother no end and totally hit on her like a roadside romeo. :P
She's the most spontaneous and random girl ever. She is also one of the silliest, most spastic, cheesiest people I've ever known. She might even seem dysfunctional to some, but her idiosyncrasies feel normal to me now :P
She's the life of our group and i love her no end. :)



My third power puff girl is Supriya. She keeps innocence intact in our group. :P
She's the homely kind. She's the kind of girl a guy looks for to marry! Totally lovable, soft and ladylike. I don't know how she puts up with us manly hooligans!
Unlike us random people, she actually plans stuff in advance. She has a steady boyfriend for ten years or so and i'm sure she'll end up marrying him only :)
She's the quiet one, the one who keeps us somewhat sane.
We would be nothing without her!





How I wish, the four of us could live together. Life would be crazy fun. If it were up to me to decide, i would make you all shift to a common neighborhood and then we all could live next door happily. :P
I miss you guys. I miss all of you. We may go weeks without talking at times, but you're still the first people i dial whenever anything important happens!
I know we have an unbreakable bond. I hope it only grows stronger with time. :)
I lurrvvvvvv you bawa log :D

Before Midnight

A dialogue from the film says-“I guess when you are young you think that you will meet a lot of people that you would connect with. As you grow older you realize that these connections are rare.”
We Indians love straightforward love stories with happy endings. Anything that is a twisty, messy,rocky romantic tale frightens us.
The spontaneous, impulsive characters Jesse and Celine of 'Before sunrise' who meet on a train, get off the train together and later fall in love, come together in 'Before Sunset' nine years later as long lost lovers. The movie ends with the unanswered spine-tingler question, 'Will they or will they not get together?'
In the third sequel 'Before Midnight' we see them as two lovers who didn't take the conventional route to get married but they are now together share a pair of beautiful twins.

This goofy couple makes you love their movies instantly. The anything-but-ordinary way they fall in love makes you believe in romance. They meet, spend a mesmerizing day together, and part making a promise that they would meet on a fixed date. Such is the faith, they do not exchange numbers or their address. In the second part however, we find that due to an unexpected turn of events they couldn't meet. Their love doesn't fail them. They meet 9 years later and have the courage to admit their love to one another. The movie ends there.
Then comes Before Midnight.
The bourgeois couple in their forties. It is anything but a happily ever after. It is melancholic if anything. The flawless love story of them both is now terribly flawed. You witness them bickering all the time. That's when the reality hits you in the face. It can't be rosy all the time. It is about the turbulence and how these prickly couples get past them.
This film definitely cannot match up to the standards of the prequels since they portrayed love the way we imagine it to be, while the third part shows the bitter reality of people in a relationship.  it covers the uncomfortable yet inevitable aspects of long term love, and does so with frightening realism. However ,the best part in the movie is that despite all the arguments, they do not give up on the their efforts of rekindling their flame.
There are several moments of levity, but this is by and large the most dramatic and dark film of this series. The film ends on not a very bright note I would say, but yes, a satisfactory ending with both of them sitting by the waters engaging in playful banter.
The movie can be summed up in this dialogue Jesse gives at the ending trying to make things fine with Celine: "If you think there is some other kind of true love out there, I hate to tell you, but that is a fairy tale. This is true love."

Get your freak on!

Okay, so there's this brilliant feminist page I follow on Facebook  which unlike most of the other pages there (created out of  sheer boredom), actually has sensible stuff to offer. Well most of the times i'd like to think. So i was scrolling down my wall feeds and I didn't give as much as a glance to stupid status updates by equally stupid people till i reached this one post shared on that page which said "Tomorrow you wake up as the opposite sex. What's the first thing you will do?" and it got me thinking.
The comments of some people were really really interesting, which is why i'm doing this post to know what my fellow bloggers would do if this were to happen to them. :D
This one female says what's the point of changing gender IF you are just going to repeat the old patterns of self-serving, profitable behaviors?
Another woman says she'd run in front of a truck(bwahaha)
All the guys seemed thrilled with the prospect of waking up as a woman while on the contrary most women wanted to commit suicide( LOL!). Apparently they didn't find anything too interesting about a man's life except for the fact that they can pee just about anywhere!
Most of the guys' comments were ridiculously insane. I just couldn't stop laughing. What's with guys obsessing over lesbian action man?
Okay okay, I'm not really looking for an answer there. :P

Now now now, what would i do if i woke up one fine morning to see a young-sturdy-flat chested man in the mirror in place of my regular tousled hair-puffed eyes self?
I would go completely berserk! I thought of a lot of things that i'd like to do. It could be fun if you come to think of it. :D

Anyway, I don't want to evoke blushes and clucks of alarm here. :P
So, people, you tell me? What's the first thing you'd do if you woke up as the opposite sex tomorrow? :D

Fashionistas. Ahem, really?

 What comes to your mind when you hear the word fashion? Is it the glossy, glamorous world you see around? Or maybe, the movie fashion springs up to your mind! Well according to me fashion is just another art...an art to represent something in its most exclusive form, and glamour is just another element of fashion!
And Fashionistas, are they icons or victims? I say both! The models, designers, actors proudly label themselves as fashionistas never once thinking that there could be more to it than just the upper silken and flashy meaning and that they are either being iconised or being victimised(mostly the latter)! Glamour has always stood for something exquisite, elegant and beautiful whereas Fashion, has become a clumsy world where people go to fill their pockets and end up dirtying their lives. If u see it as a ticket to the filmy duniya, u r VICTIMISED by default! When I talk of fashionistas being victims or icons, I mean fashion victims and so called fashion icons who think donning Chanel and Louboutins' is what makes them have "style" or "dress sense"!
Fashionistas range from the oldest possible times we can think of ... wasn't Krishnaji fashion conscious when he wore the mor-mukut with the beautiful peacock feather on it? :) And today girls clad in New York’s elegant drapes with modern twists, Paris’ classic tailoring, London’s cozy knits and India’s subtly-embellished dresses are all termed fashionistas!!
These days every second starlet who can afford a pricey foreign frock or the latest ‘it’ bag, stakes a claim to that dodgy title. Let’s accept it; Indians today are lost in this world of fashion! They lack originality and blindly follow what’s given to them! There used to be women (Nargis, Mumtaz, Madhubala) who inspired two generations of Indian women with their very distinct style statements. Today, the ball game has changed to an extent that any skinny wannabe with a stylist at her beck and call can happily and rather grandly call herself a style icon without blushing.
 Today’s women idolize the likes of Paris Hilton and posh Beckham who won't bow down to anyone but will do a free bend over! Movies these days are illogical...take, for e.g. Aisha. Calling it a movie based on Jane Austen’s novel is the worst possible comment for Jane Austen! The movie looks like a sad, pathetic version of TVC's on Gucci and Prada. These days, anything that is bizarre and unusual becomes a style statement...strangely, style is now associated with big brands and labels rather than simplicity, innovation and elegance. To me fashion and style is what you feel comfortable and confident in and not what others may want to see you in. u can look killer in a pair of denims and a plain white shirt and look hideous in a stunning red gown!!
A true fashionista doesn't need labels to define her identity – she defines the labels with her personality. She doesn't blindly imitate the so called trendy people and clone their style, instead, believes in setting trends of her own by looking HERSELF! These days we crown someone as a fashionista if the person buys couture from the latest international collections...If u establish your own sense of style that has nothing to do with someone else’s yardstick of what’s fashionable, then only you are a fashionista in the true sense! It’s got to be someone who looks gorgeous draped in a saree and manages to look pretty in a mini too, someone who manages to carry off everything in a fab way!

So, wannabe fashionistas, take a free tip, you will never be what u want to be by aping someone and following the fashion diktats like brain-dead people..!!Define yourself with what’s distinctly you. And then, boom! The world will have another fashionista with a brand new style! ;)


PS: Another one of my old write ups. These exams have sucked the life out of me. I've been such a lazy blogger off late, not writing any new posts, not reading any posts from fellow bloggers. :/
I have to do a post on the lovely awards conferred on me too. God! Bless me with some time. -_-

Lots of wine speaking, or maybe not!

Since her early teens, or even before, she was fed with stories with fairy-tale endings. She saw some similar things as she grew up. She also saw stale relationships. Everything got mixed up in her mind. And when it was time for love to bump into her, she didn't know what to think of it. She couldn't recognize it.
She, like other normal, abnormal people dreamt of love and how it would shape her life many a times. There had been so many fabulous men that she'd known and compared to the man of her DAY-dreams. They all lacked somewhere or the other. :/





It would be so magical if she just met somebody someday unplanned, like it happens in 'Before Sunrise'. She adores that movie for those two spontaneous beings in it. She would want a man whose mere presence would arouse her. Someone who'd understand her randomness. Or not. But shoot back with randomness to match her own. Someone she'd get to know not because he liked her or loved her and made a public display of it, but because of other reasons interesting and inexplicable! Someone who wouldn't have to try so hard to understand her. Somebody who could witness her moods, angelic or demonic, without a word uttered. Someone who could match her dreams, beat her in dreaming unrealistic dreams, and play by her in making them happen! She never wanted her replica, that would be much too suffocating to handle, but yes, she would certainly want him to be of her kind. By her kind, she meant not playing by the rules, getting crazy, going unconventional.Alongside, he should be real career oriented. Someone who could strike the balance chord whenever she shook it. Someone hard as a rock, yet emotional in little ways. Rhett Butler like. ;)
Someone who didn't need any explaining. Someone who'd understand her instant needs and carefree attitude. Someone who has the power to send chills down her back with just a longing glance. Someone who'd be as straightforward as a man could be, as chivalrous as a man could get! No P.R.E.T.E.N.S.E. It's the biggest put off ever.
Someone who'd understand her cynicism, her enigmatic behavior, her periodic insanity.Someone who'd make her buried-deep-in-the-ground spirits touch the skies in a matter of seconds. Someone who'd appreciate and understand the look in her eyes more than the voice which btw, she happened to lose at times!
Someone who would effortlessly have her lusting for him without himself knowing. Someone who could make her go mad with one lift of the eyebrow! Someone who would let her be morally incorrect at times without telling her to behave.Someone with whom no planning was required. Impulse was what worked. Spontaneity was what was adored.
Someone who'd reek passion. Someone who couldn't keep his feet in place when music played. ;)

Someone for whom she would be ready to quit every ounce of sanity in herself, if asked to. Someone who's sense of humor would make her's look petty. Someone who'd be as love struck by her, as she by him. Someone who would complete her. Someone who could naturally make her feel feminine, feel good about herself. Someone with intelligence she could only dream of acquiring. Someone who'd respect her without any conditions, love her without any inhibitions. Someone who could make the world look puny and a hut look majestic if he wanted to.Someone whose surprises would thrill her every single time! Someone who could make her feel at ease in the most trying situations. Someone whose hug would heal her.
Someone who'd embrace her passions as his own, whose eccentricity inspired her very own.
Someone who could be himself in front of the damn world and couldn't care less about what people had to say about it. Someone who wouldn't be afraid of the demons in her she's so afraid to unleash! Someone with whom she wouldn't give two hoots to the worldy things. Someone who'd encourage her to get high on life without a single trace of fear of losing her...

She could go on and on...Ultimately, she'd want to be with somebody with whom there would never have been this post, or such crazy stuff.

But the last wish that crosses her mind is to have a life far from regrets.

"Love is when someone will adore the air i breathe, and understand my silent arcs and my consequent lust. love will be unsaid, just in his eyes and floating freely in my heart...!"

People don't write sonnets about being compatible. Or novels about shared life goals and stimulating conversation. The great loves are the crazy ones! ;)

PS: This is an old write of mine. Just got back from a sports fest and have been sleeping day and night ever since. Will be back to writing in a while! :)

Because in the end all you got is memories!

Picture this…

One normal day. Nothing special. You and your significant other are together. Just spending the day together, doing nothing extraordinary. Just enjoying the mere presence of each other. No questions, no answers.  Just silence which is bliss for the moment. All troubles seem to evaporate; all worries seem to have evaded the both of you. You are very comfortable around each other, not conscious at all… One minute you are walking aimlessly, the next minute you’re sitting holding hands enjoying the serene beauty. The crowd all around seems to drown out. You talk, you blabber, about anything and everything…you do not hold back anything.  This day is better than the endless birthdays you've celebrated and the endless parties you've crashed. You wonder why this feels so good, so pure. But you do not bother to find the reason. You don’t want to. This feels perfect and you don’t want to spoil the beauty of the moment reasoning. You invite looks but nothing seems to bother you enough today. This is your day and you are living it to the fullest. This is one rare time when you realize the importance of the one sitting right beside you. How you need no words around him. Your eyes play the trick. You realize that you’re in love. And nothing else matters!