the one who stole my He-Man
stole most of what was in my piggie bank
the one I fought with because I didn't want to share my cake batter with so I could eat it all by myself
the one who told me I'd get sick when I would eat it all by myself in a locked room
the one who's fashion mistakes I learnt from
and who's personal diary was my tea-time read.
the one I started all my pretend businesses with from being fisherwomen to hairstylists
with our paper cup and string telephone line that connected our 2 cubicles
the one who always gave me the right advice
before I'd go and do the exact opposite only to realise later that you were always right
the one who can find anything on google much better than I can
my tech guru
my inspiration
my motivator
my sister.
Happy Birthday Aku!
This year is a big one.
Let's just call it a milestone.
But, it didn't matter since this was a silent film.
I walked in about 10 minutes late which sort of added to the confusion.
The film was called Three Ages.
It was a comedy film about a man trying hard to win over the heart of a woman which is shown over 3 ages - the stone age, ancient Rome and the 20's which ended up looking like a mash up of the Flintstones, Ben Hur and the Artist.
What made it interesting was that a French jazz band called Ozma was playing the background score for the film. Live!
It was a bit strange but good strange.
It ended with the good guy finally winning the heart of the woman.
Love. Good winning over evil. Music.
What's not to like?
Everyone went home pleased with themselves and with life in general.
Movies like this make me believe in happy endings.
Part 2
[Don't laugh].
I went to a silent disco.
It was out of sheer curiosity.
I was more than excited to experience this but unfortunately it turned out to be a little disappointing.
Now you may wonder what kind of a nutjob goes for a silent disco. And what is a silent disco?
Well, a silent disco is one where the DJ streams the music straight to your wireless headphones.
The point of this is:
1. So there can be more than 1 DJ at a time and you can choose which one you want to tune into so everyone is dancing to different music at the same time.
2. To look like a complete moron to those who don't have headphones on.
To me all these reasons sounded good enough to go and give it a try.
I thought this could only be fun or funny so what have I got to lose?
The silent disco that I went to was in an open ground so anyone could walk in and enjoy it.
It was at an Indo-German event in the city. They had covered the ground with beautiful mini pavilions for their different events and you just didn't feel like you were in the middle of Bombay.
Unfortunately, in our case,
- there was only one dj - Ada who took a while to start playing the fun music.
- and the reception on the headphones wasn't perfect so I'd keep reseting it and had moments where I was listening to cricket match commentary, Gotye, Coldplay and Munni badnaam hui on the radio.
We even got 3d glasses to enjoy the visuals created by B.L.O.T.
Just to make sure we looked as ridiculous as possible if we didn't already look funny enough dancing with headphones on.
For some reason I felt like one of those people who were trying to contact aliens by using various devices.
I, for one, being an artist, have always loved colour. All kinds of colour.
Life would be so boring in black and white.
That's how animals see the world and yet we are the ones who discriminate.
If you watch Indian television, you will notice our obsession with light skin.
It all started with Women's fairness creams. Complete with a shade card (like the one you refer to while deciding what colour you'd like to paint your room).
Which graduated to Men's fairness creams - because a manly man can only use a manly fairness cream or he'd be a total woman.
Then there were body lotions - so the colour of your body matches your face.
Then there were facewashes - to wash out your tan?
Then they had special creams that were also sunscreens.
After which there was an underarm fairness deoderant - incase you're going in for an arranged marriage and they want a girl with only fair underarms.
And now theres even a fairness cream for 'you know what'.
I'm saying you know what because the word is as unmentionable as Voldemort.
Ok, it's vagina.
Is it so wrong to have more melanin than others?
When I go to buy lotions or makeup, they always love to tell me how I have uneven patchy skin and need to fix it.
And I thought I was that perfect tone of sepia.
And the one telling me this is the lady behind the counter who usually looks like Mimi (from the Drew Carey show) - her face being a sample palette of all the eye shadow shades (incase you miss seeing the actual product) or because she wishes to look like a rainbow.
Dear Mimi lookalikes,
Wearing white lab coats does not make you a doctor.
Sincerely,
Reality.
But, what is it with this colour obsession?
While growing up I remember watching Michael Jackson's song Black or White. And as much as I loved the song and the video, it really confused me.
Was this song really about the world or about MJ trying to be his own therapist?
I carried my Typolog and Letraset with me everyday. And they were heavy books which had nothing in them besides the pangram - The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog written in hundreds of fonts.
Looking through these books everyday turned my mind into a kind of font book.
And when I'd be out and about and look at road signs and movie posters and shop name boards, I'd browse through my own little library and look through the hundreds of fonts embossed in my mind.
And most of the time I'd be able to tell which one it was.
Now it's not a talent that I was excited about and I felt more like a machine scanning a fingerprint to find a criminal.
While daydreaming, I visualised this line and decided to draw it out.
And then I thought why not make it a little more interesting and build a story around it.
Q: Why did the quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog?
A: Maybe he was the star acrobat in a circus jumping through a hoop of fire which was positioned right above the lazy dog who just happened to be drinking a glass of beer.
Or maybe not.
Erase and Rewind.
But with the ballet shoes on. It's important for a fox to look foxy at all times.
Or maybe they were just auditioning for Rose's part in Titanic.
One is The Speaking Tree which is a newspaper full of articles about spirituality, old folk tales, a few non funny jokes and healthy living in general. Sometimes it's got too much wisdom to handle on a holiday.
But more than that I enjoy reading Devdutt Pattnaik's articles in Mid-Day which tell us how to deal with our day to day lives by giving examples from Indian mythology.
This article had nothing to do literally with disrobing so if that's what you thought please read it again. What I learnt from it was to surround myself with the positive influences in my life that help me grow and to cut out the Duryodhans. We are all able to identify them and yet we let them affect us so often.
Such simple advice told through old stories is such an interesting read.
My sister had a class in her MBA program where they were taught to apply the principles of the Bhagavad Gita to increase Managerial Effectiveness.
Now you might wonder about how what Krishna said to Arjun has anything to do with our lives in the 21st Century but to me it actually made a lot of sense.
I wouldn't call myself a religious person but I welcome advice from the most unexpected places.
Anything that helps me become a better human being.
So whether you follow a God, a Guru, Mr. Miyagi, Yoda or Oogway, all that matters is that we should grow to become the best person we possibly can be.
