Fa La La La La...

I was supposed to post this before I left town for the Christmas weekened...

Many many months ago, I saw this show by an illusionist called Criss Angel... I'm sure most of y'all have heard of it... it's called Mindfreak. Comes on AXN or some similar channel. Anyway the show closed with an illusion he did at a swimming pool in one of Vegas's fancy hotels. The trick was Walking on Water and yes the man walked on water and cut right through the pool with people who were swimming around him and even underneath him as he walked right on...
I knew it was just an illusion and while Criss had walked on something it sure wasn't water.

Last night I saw another illusion-based show. Only this one dealt with revealing how these tricks and illusions were pulled off by the illusionist. And ironically this show too closed with the reveal of the Walking on Water illusion. I got to see that I was right after all. Yes there was a method to the illusion. And its kinda funny how that made me feel a little sad.

Over the years that little wide eyed kid that's there in all of us grows up a little more. With the passing of time, it seems to even disappear in most of us. But its when I see things like these magic shows with their corny tricks that I remember that younger me. I scoff at these tricks now but there was once a part of me that used to be amazed at them. I miss that guy. It's easy to lose yourself in the ratrace of this city. It can be frustrating and even cruel. I auditioned last week for a major gig and they called back earlier in this week to let me know I didn't get it. So been in this freakin' blue funk for the past couple of days. Doesn't help that I've had an awful sore throat and I miss my smokes... sigh!
Anyway I saw this show and I realise that I can't afford to let go of that little guy in me. In some ways I'm happy to say I haven't. For instance I still tend to believe the best of the people I meet (till they give me a reason not to). Frankly this particular trait hasn't really done me too much good through my life. People who I thought were worth it just fucked that notion into the ground.

And yet I persist... For those few I met and who kept the faith. For the those few who justify their positions as very important people in my life. For family who're like friends and for friends who've become like family.

I'm not quite sure what this ramble is all about right now but it did start out with me wanting to write a Christmassy post. That somehow morphed with the thought of not letting go of that inner child within all of us. Maybe it was just a lil mental tap to myself to give that inner cynic the day or month off...

Speaking of which, a personal pet peeve - It's "Merry Christmas".
Not Happy Christmas... not Merry X'mas... and for the love of Christ not Happy X'Mas ever!

Best of the season folks!




Here's one of those Mindfreek shows which scared the crap out of a former colleague when I showed it to her

Of Status Updates, B(a)i Love & Bombay Rain

So the gang was out last night for drinks and dinner at Masala Craft in Bandra. By the way, this place is probably gonna turn out to be a regular haunt for a number of reasons - fairly good ambiance, decent selection of alcohol (they do need to stock up on all the beers mentioned in the menu but they had the basics covered), pretty good food not to mention their healthy portions, all of which were very reasonably priced. And... and... AND the clincher - they allow smoking in the outdoor section!

So we were talking about how people are getting crazy with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like who provide the Status Update function. Its getting to be a little more than ridiculous now... People seem to want to divulge every little bit of information about themselves and their lives. I mean get a life dude! No one wants to know about your current dilemma of which toilet paper you want to buy. Buy freakin' sandpaper and well go to town you idiot!

I guess women really have the worst of it when it comes to sites like Facebook. My friend ShutterBug was mentioning how when she had no profile pic, there never used to be any Friend Requests but now that she has put up her pic, she receives at least 10-15 requests a week. And she was certainly in a mood to vent about the same. And thus she presented Exhibit A - a Friend Request with a personal note - "Hello its J___... I wrk 4 international diamond jewelry firm as Marketing Manager, can I b on ur list, I think Angels from heaven never reject invitation from dukes of earth. Hope to have a word soon…"
(Hysterics ensue on the table)
BF (loudly): Hahahaha... This guy is unreal... how do people like this exist... dude's a total nutjob!
BF (mentally): Must find out how to become a Duke of Earth!

Speaking of 'Dukes', this Shiney Ahuja case is just annoying the crap out of me. I guess world & domestic news aren't exciting enough given the coverage that this story has garnered. The funniest thing is the way people have gotten behind the man. His wife and family defending him is understandable. And of course Bollywood usually looks after their own. Although once news of him having admitted to having sex with his bai (that's maid for my international readers) probably had those people distancing themselves from him as well.
Can't really say this is surprising after hearing stories (from friends in the film industry) of the man and his questionable choices of female company (makeup artists, hairdressers etc).
I guess the final word belonged to my brother who after hearing the afore-mentioned stories goes, "So he's a lover of the working class eh?!"

Finally I end this post with a fervent plea to the Rain Gods. Its been a brutal summer and I know once the rains (which we're soooo desperately craving now) truly set in, there'll be a lot of cribbing about the muck and the slush and the travelling in the resultant miserable weather, but it needs to come down right now! And none of that annoying drizzle neither...
For people who've been educated in Bombay and learnt Marathi, here's that ole verse from your and mine school days:-
Ye re Ye re pausa (Come on down, Rain)
Paisa tula deta (You shall be compensated monetarily)
Paisa zhala khota (Oops the cash turned out to be counterfeit)
Paus ala mota (Big mofo Rain came slammin' down on your cheatin' ass)

Or.... maybe you'd prefer Warren's spin on it...



Here's to those rainy afternoons when you didn't mind being cooped in... of wet windy gusts and the prettiness of Nature's greenery in all its wet glory... of adrakwali chai and kaanda bhajiya... Naaah the rains ain't so bad...

57%

Couple of weeks back, I'm waiting at one of those ridiculously long you'll-be-rotting-here-till-the-end-of-time signals, when I see a woman, by the side of the road chatting away on her mobile, walking towards my general direction.

She walks past my rick and eventually goes out of sight. But I'd stopped watching midway... more interested in seeing my fellow wait-ers at the signal gawking at this woman. Pretty much every dude including the 2 guys on a bike next to me and my own rickshaw-wala had their eyes fixed on her. Couple of reasons for this - A) She was good looking. Not a spectacular, drop dead gorgeous specimen but a decent looker nonetheless. B) She had the kind of clothes and makeup on that suggested she might be a model/actress heading to/from a shoot.

The moment she passed us and was reasonably out of earshot, the pillion rider whispers something to the biker and they both let out a smirky laugh. Just got me thinking of how juvenile Indian men can really be. I mean its kinda pathetic but the majority (and I'm talking strictly about the urban and reasonably well educated category) of these men just don't have it in them to be classy about such matters.
Some weird Pavlovian thing I guess... Woman walks by... Tongues hang out.. and you don't have the ability to do anything nor the willingness to remain quiet, so you pass nasty comments.
I like my women as much as the next guy but I just can't stand just how crude some guys get when it comes to women and describing them.

Speaking of juvenile, back in school, and you know how hormonally raging teens can get, breasts were a matter of serious and utter (udder?!) fascination for all of us. So in typical teen-sian words, one would compare sizes and in descriptives which ranged from, "Arre dekh uske 3 litre ke..." to "Usko AMC bulatey hain... Aarey Milk Colony... hahaha..." to the most inane one (with the requisite hand gestures) I've heard in all my years, "Dekhe kya uske?!! Kya mast ball-beel hai!"
Someone please enlighten me as to what the fuck a Beel is. Also is it only me or do others find it cringe-weird when Indian men refer to breasts as balls???

After doing a quick read thru on the above post, its a little more obvious why this website believes what it does... Bah!