Conversion Phobia

I clearly remember our first day in foreign land. Hubs and I were waiting at Heathrow for our connecting flight to Manchester. After a exhausting flight, some water and a cup of coffee was in order. That was the first time we transacted in Pounds.

In India, there is only one type of bottled water i.e. mineral water or 'Bisleri', a generic term used for any bottled water. After having collided with a rows of neatly stacked bottles of various names and shapes at the airport lounge, I committed a faux pas by picking up a bottle labeled 'Sparkling Water'. The name suggested water and that's what we wanted. It turned out to be fizzy water and with a heavy heart we had to buy another bottle of Water. This time though the bottle was scrutinized thoroughly to avoid making another error. It was quite painful to pay a lot of money for a teeny bottle of water. I could hear my brain whir, quickly converting the amount paid in pounds to Rupees and calculating the cost of bottle in Indian Currency. It was an enormous amount and we made the water last quite a while. The cost could have fed 4 people a nice vegetarian lunch.

My family knows me as a spender and not a saver. My father would have been extremely proud to see me in a misers uniform. When you put your entire savings on moving to a foreign country, its inevitable that you take care of the pennies and also the pounds.

The first few months in UK, I was a virtual walking and talking human calculator...every expense made was converted in Indian currency without wasting a second. Every purchase was followed by astonished exclaims about the cost and a quick comparison to India.

As the days passed, this phobia lessened but has still not gone away. In spite of spending 2 years away I still cannot get over this habit.

Do any of you living outside India ever faced this phobia?

What Ho? What Ho?What Ho?

Sorry for being AWOL for a longish period. I had been undergoing Wodehouse Mania for some time. Ardent fans of this renowned author 'Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse' would have easily grasped the title of my Post.

'YouTube' has an excellent collection of 'Jeeves and Wooster' Series. For those blighters who are still unaware of what I am talking about here is a peek..



Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry have played the characters of 'Bertram Wooster' the upper class twit and 'Jeeves' his intellectually brilliant Valet with aplomb.

I have been reading P.G.Wodehouse books since my school days and they still invoke laughter in me even after having read them for the nth time. He had such a wonderfully funny language. And he named his characters with ridiculous names like 'Gussie Finknottle' , 'Tuppie Glossop' and 'Chuffy Chuffnell'.

Though Wodehouse has written about a lot of characters, 'Jeeves and Wooster' have always remained my personal favorites. Wodehouse was famous for his portrayal of aristocrats as buffoons and his books revolve around plots in which the upper class due to their negligent brain power get into scrapes and continue to worsen the situation with their dumb half-witted schemes to make the situation better.

Especially in the case of 'Bertram aka Bertie Wooster' where Jeeves pulls out Bertie from worst situations. Bertie is a rich chappie who has never worked in his life and spends his days playing the Piano or lunching at the 'Drones Club'. He is forever sent on missions to pinch things for his Aunt Dahlia from other aristocrats or is playing hookie to avoid his Aunt Agatha who makes his life miserable. His friends also blackmail him into doing things for them out of friendship.

Jeeves his valet is shown to be a man with razor sharp intelligence and an impeccable taste in clothes. He is in complete control of his rich, young employer's life. When Bertie gets into any unwanted social obligation, engagement to marry or legal trouble, Jeeves comes up with a subtle plan to save him.

My favourite has been the part in which 'Bertie' pinches the cow creamer for his Aunt Dahlia and all hell breaks loose.

Wodehouse's writing style is easy and you can actually imagine the things he describes in his books. Anyone who has read his books will agree with me that there is no other writer who has written rib tickling funny stories like Wodehouse. He is and will always be the master of FUNNY stories.

As Bertie would say 'Pip Pip or Toodle 'oo' till next time.

Fair maidens or plain slobs?

To most people, I come across as a calm, collected and level headed person. My childhood and college friends know me as a very different person . I was notorious in my neighbourhood as a gang leader of kids. I was a fair leader, broke up fights, and introduced new games. I always had the passion for directing plays and even script writing. I made all my young friends perform in the plays I wrote. Unfortunately, the only bit of direction I now do is, 'try' to make Hubs do the dishes (mostly things don't work as per my script now).

I stepped out of my hometown after my graduation and moved to another city for my post graduation. That was my first taste of freedom and I managed to have a good time in spite of my elder sister watching my every move. After graduation, I moved to another city for my first job. Soon I came back licking my wounds after having been made redundant after the dot.com crash in my first job.

Soon after, I started living in an apartment shared by six other girls. We were three girls in one bedroom; there were three in another and another girl in the third room. We all shared a kitchen, loo, and bathroom. As per rota, each of the girls was to clean the common areas once every 2 days. Four of us were diligent and proceeded to clean as per the rota. The other three always skipped their turn and never paid heed to our requests. I am a neat freak when it comes to the loo and the kitchen; their behaviour really ticked me off. One fine day, after tolerating the gruesome threesome (GT) for a few weeks, I went and purchased a huge lock and locked the loo with it. Four of us shared the key. The 'GT' were in for a shock when they found a huge padlock hanging on the loo door. It was a Kodak moment. I wish I had clicked a picture then. First they got angry, then amazed, then begged me to open the door and when I refused, they were on the verge of tears (Evil me).

They ran to the Landlord to make a complaint (He stayed in a flat just above ours). I had already roped in Mr. Landlord in our scheme and he had agreed with my idea. The result was that the girls got back on track and never tried to pull a fast one by not cleaning up.

I recall another horror story from one of my hostel living days. I shared a room with a girl from Mauritius. I became an object of pity when other girls in the hostel came to know who my roommate was. Soon enough the mystery was solved. My roommate was a pig in human clothing. In the entire 2 months I stayed in that room, I never saw her wash any clothes. Leave aside jeans and tops not even undergarments. She stank and always looked like a street person, I always wondered if she ever bathed. One fine day I come back to the hostel from work and I see her wearing a pair of my socks. I donated her that pair and arranged to move to a different room the same day.

The whole gender based assumption ‘Men in general are untidy and not too high on personal cleanliness’ actually went out of the window after staying with slobs in my hostel days. I found that women are equally untidy and unclean. Moreover, given a chance can even make men appear to be the 'epitome of cleanliness'.

Wake up Sid- A Movie Review

I saw this movie last week. It’s such a rare experience for me to watch a Hindi Movie in a cinema. Most of the times I am left with watching grainy prints on the web trying to decipher the faces of actors.

The movie revolves round a character called 'Sid' played by Ranbir Kapoor. In short, he is a spoilt brat whose father has sacrificed and worked hard and is now loaded with money. Sid is oblivious of the hardships his parents had faced and is completely pampered by his mother and father. His life revolves round his friends a geeky guy and an overweight girl. He spends his time loafing around and blowing cash. He meets a girl called 'Aisha' played by Konkona Sen-sharma at the college farewell party. They become friends in spite of having nothing in common. Aisha is new in Mumbai and is here from Kolkata to become a professional writer. She is older than Sid and is mature. She finds Sid as immature and without any aim in life. Sid is good hearted kid who has lost his way in life. He helps Aisha get settled in a new flat and they become good friends.

Sid gets a reality check, when he fails in the last year of his graduation and finds out that his friends have cleared it. In a fit of anger, over his failure some heated words are exchanged between him and his parents. Sid walks out of the house with no job, no skills and no place to stay. He ends up living in Aisha's flat. His journey of self discovery starts from there. Slowly he realizes that he needs to have his own identity and ends up getting a job as a photographer at the same Magazine where Aisha is working. Aisha starts falling in love with him whereas Sid is oblivious of it. In the end, all is well and Sid also realizes he is in love with Aisha.

This movie is refreshing without any heavy emotional drama. It’s a surprise to see Karan Johar not signing up his usual clan of friends for this movie. It’s a good movie to watch when you want a break from serious stuff. I feel it reflects the lifestyle of today's generation of youngsters very well. Ranbir fits the character of Sid to a 'T'. His performance is very good. I am a big fan of Konkona and she plays each of her roles with aplomb. This movie reminded me of 'Lakshya' a lot, wherein Hrithik wrestles with the same demons as Sid.

Some parts of the movie are debatable. I feel that Sid's parents played a major role in spoiling him. Putting the blame entirely on him was a bit unfair. Also, the pieces fit together too smoothly. Sid never saw the harshness of life. He stayed protected and dependant, first on his parents and then on Aisha. The sudden turnaround in him and the self-discovery part were too slick and candy-coated. I wish life was so easy for all the struggling souls in this world.

In nutshell, the movie is a good one-time watch. It will entertain you without jarring your senses but it will not leave any lasting impression to make you want to see it again.