KWK - Get real.

I watched Koffee with Karan yesterday with a constant frown on my face adding years to my age (damn)  -  The Anushka and Ranveer charade. Nothing gets as boring as trying hard to be funny and cool. None of it came off well. Just lame. Dude was SO not dude.

Why did I watch it in the first place? - KWK is entertaining for the most part, though season 3 was a bit dismal so far. Change the format, get better writers, do something. For example: most abused question - You wake up one morning and have turned into Rakhee Savant/Mallika Sherawat - how many times. And the reply - go back to sleep. Once - clever, but stop - no more.

Why do women (and men too!) giggle so much in this show? Aiswarya was a national humiliation. Why didn't her hubby take her to a corner and explain (perhaps in the breaks between shoot assuming it is there)  -  Darling,  remember elegance - what you are doing now is not your part in the scheme of things.

Kareena seemed to have learned a lesson or two from this episode and overdid coyness. If you google and watch the different seasons of KWK, you will be shocked at how people have changed, it is quite a talent. Check out Shahid - shy modest guy next door turns to quick-witted nonchalent Mr. uber cool - in my opinion - creepy, bordering multiple personality disorder. Same is the case with Rani Mukherjee.

Whether you are an introvert or a party animal is an inherent character trait, can it really change so much? Ask your stars.

We could have all lived happily without watching the one hour of therapy that Shah Rukh underwent on that couch. It felt more like an extension of My name is Khan (behind the scenes perhaps ? ) - extending an idea beyond human tolerance.  

But the most amusing of them all is Karan Johar's expressions - the intense ones specially (check out all the pics if you don't believe me).

At this moment I recollect an interview with Waheeda Rahman, she was elegant, down to earth and talked without being pretentious - It is possible to say something interesting in a normal way - even for movie actors.

Cinema and no Julia?

High treason. I am the biggest fan of Ms. Roberts. I am yet to see an outright boring Julia Roberts movie. I Love Trouble was bad, I accept, or maybe it's just me, I don't like Nick Nolte. Okay focus.

For me JR is equivalent to a box of chocolates, instantly lifts your spirit. Her smile and energy is absolutely contagious. I have seen almost all of her movies. I even have a greatest hits of JR DVD, which I have seen umpteen times, mainly because we had a short cable TV less period at home and there was nothing much else to keep us entertained but I could still watch all those movies again, many times over. 

Probably due to the large number of easy on eyes and brain (alongside Richard Gere, it's rather a treat) type of movies she has done, also the fact that most of her movies were huge box office hits, critics have always been quite harsh to her. To the extent that if you like Julia Roberts, you are judged not a serious movie person, I really don't care - she was great in Stepmom, Erin Brockovich besides all of the other movies.

Pretty Woman tagline : She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart.
Well, what do I say, she really did.

Monalisa Smile, apparently coproduced by her production company Red Om Films, is quite rejuvenating for any (pseudo) forward thinker (me).

My pick of Roberts movie would be The Mexican. Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts did seem an unlikely pair, the chemistry was infact nothing to write home about. But it somehow worked for me, completely. Must be the dialogs -

~ I have to ask you a question. It's a good one so think about it. If two people love each other, but they just can't seem to get it together, when do you get to that point of enough is enough?
~  Never.

~ A lot of people are under the impression that you get to choose who you love.

 The best one - she tries to escape through the window of the loo but her kidnapper is standing right outside to which she reacts:

~ I'm sensing you have trust issues.

Classic.

obtuse obsessions

I don't seem to get time for anything these days. Life is one big rush.

Few updates - my diet was a flop after the fourth day, have started eating again with a vengeance. Excess food makes me a workaholic, the kind of work where I need to do everything within this little box in front of me without moving a muscle.

In some ways it's back to childhood for me, I borrow Rui's pink clips on my way to office, wear her green nail polish, watch cartoons and love Kinder.

I have an inherent problem of obsessing about things. It is usually work (was Vyas right before we got married!) I dream of lines of code, not the green 1s and 0s of matrix fame, but just normal code, I have cracked quite a few problems in my incoherent early morning sleep.

Last month it was this blog that kept me awake late into the night; thankfully I have gotten over that now. I am now on a mission to exorcise my obsessive ways. That is one other thing I obsess about, as you would have guessed by now - new ventures in life.

More later. Back to work.

Food for thought

Literally. I need food otherwise I can't think. Cinema is out of the picture - it is food and only food, the lack of it triggered this obsession I suppose.

So here I am thinking about the different kinds of food I love. I prefer mutton to chicken when it comes to curry and vice-versa(?) in case of biriyani.

I am partial to stir fries of all vegetables, escpecially with liberal amount of grated coconut. However I don't enjoy veg food when I eat out unless it is rich north indian dishes.

I had a weakness for chinese for a while. We were regulars at Chung Wah, Rui when she was a toddler used to get along really well with the staff, the cute guys in particular. Dominoes was a favorite until a few months ago, I had a sudden change of mind attributed to nothing whatsoever, and switched over to Pizza Hut. I have an on and off relationship with Subway. Mc D is boring except for the milk shakes and the softies. Ever ready for KFC. Baskin Robbins on a cold evening after dinner. I get occasional craving for cakes and puddings. I can have endless pieces of butter plum cake with soft white icing, I recommend a visit to Sweet Chariot in the month of December.

Did I forget street food? All the paani puri vendors this side of Bangalore know just how I like my puris. It is most likely due to my jarring broken hindi with which we converse rather pitifully. 

Jilebis. Sweet, steamed and barbequed(!) corn. Caramel popcorns, they seem to be available only at exorbitant rates in expensive multiplexes - but simply awesome.

I have developed a liking for food that is very hot with a sweet twist to it. And so I always add generous amount of raisins in ghee rice and biriyani. I also am thinking of putting pineapple into a spicy chicken curry and see how that turns out, fry small pieces in the beginning or caremelize them and add as garnish towards the end, let's see.

You already know of my undying loyalty to fish, especially fish curry. I love meat cutlets and puffs that I get in the town bakery back home. Egg curry with rice. Kebabs. I also find cerelac interesting.

Coming to international food, not that I have tasted many, but shawarma tops the list followed by Lasagna.

In kerala we make a pothi when we go on long journeys, especially by train. Pothi basically is your food covered in banana leaf which is first warmed over fire. It is just so tasty - rice, a ball of coconut chutney and one omlet. Also I have seen my mom eat from tiffin box sometimes, guess your taste also has a lot to do with the memories attached to the different foods. 

Sigh. I can have a sound sleep now.

Round we go the mulberry bush

I had a fitful night of sleep(lessness). Today morning we had to be at the passport office - to get Rui her passport. I was too tired, first day of GM diet makes you weak. I did not set the alarm and kept waking up many times worried that I am late.

As I am on diet, I boiled one potato, peeled it, added salt, pepper and a drop of butter. Rui found this combination interesting and ate it all. "Rui is a good girl - full finish".

We reached the place as per schedule, waited in the queue outside for a long time, then waited in the queue inside, then waited in many more queues than I care to reminisce about. I had to come back to get more documents. As per understanding with the first officer, left Rui at home and then went back and got her on the second officer's demand. Eventually looks like we made it.

Today is my all (raw or boiled) vegetables day, as I pen this down on an empty stomach and a throbbing head, I take solace in the fact that Rui can now proudly pass ports. As and when. A lot of them I hope.

uncommon nonsense 23

I completed one full month of consistent (lets forget a few days here and there) blogging! I have no words for this heady feeling of re-establishing faith in my will power. To banish any lingering self doubt forever, I have taken up a new venture - GM diet -  a true test of integrity for a foodie like me.

I just went and checked my weight in office Gym and I refuse to believe the outcome. I need a digital weighing scale. 

 Morning I packed myself 2 strawberries, watermelon and some grapes. This should take me through the day. So far so good. 

I have to drink 10 glasses of water, time is 11:50 am and I am yet to have my first glass.

Target for the month? Lighter by 10 kg and wiser by 22 posts.