Madyday Madday May

mY inlaws came over as my parents went for their vacation. Dad in law stayed for 10days and MIL for more than a month - durin which she cooked solely for her son's very spicy palate!!(:P)

Took these pix with my LG 990KU mobile - am impressed!!
@ the Avenues Mall


@ scientific centre-Aquarium

All in all it went peaceful !!

aPril's Foolishness

Have always loved quizzes, right from Bournvita quiz, ESPN school quiz to mastermind and so forth. But there's a huge difference between participatin and being an audience - So, I was understandably in denial even after takin stage for the Quiz show.

Firstly, I didn’t even attend the selection round. So they(whoever put my name in) rang me up, since i was the only other female candidate to volunteer & gave both me & my hubby tele quiz & I through some cheatin, top scored with 8/30 :D

The TRISHNA quiz was held by my dad's engineering Alumni & the quizmaster Mr. Ochintya Sharma (CLICK click))was a newcomer to us, but his questions were tricky, smart and right at the tip of your tongue.

I was in the Family round, with Daniel, an All in all guy - man of the match, series of name it & he's that person and a 10th std kid - Rohit - who's quick to jump the gun. Needless to say, this is the round which determines who gets the rolling trophy which we never got to close to in the past.

Here are some excerpts from the quiz show :




Q1 - Because of my lens & screen placed at a good distance, I mistook it for a parrot - so Daniel wrote - PINJAR - which i knew was wrong anyway!!




Q2:

Q3:

Q4: (check the shape of the street lights) - V got this one!!

somethin in common - Buzzer Round

Q5: Daniel - Queen Elizabeth & ME - Prince William’s girlfriend - Kate Middleton!! Minus 5

Q6:

Q7 - Whose daughter is this first time actress from BLACK?

Round 5 - Theme based round - set of questions, guess the theme - points from max for the 1st hint & so forth.

Q8 - Guess who is this?

I wrote down the theme on seein the pix & underlined it twice - highlighted - what not!!

Q9 - Our direct - missed

Q10 - Identify the group



Q11 - Again our direct - Got it

As soon as Rohit said the answer, I jumped up, almost grabbin the mike to scream out the answer & the quizmaster hurried up sayin, press the buzzer & write down the theme.
But I was shoutin it out
APPLE

WOOOOhooooooooo - it was so damn exhilaratin!!
WE were in the lead with that

Round 6 - Buzzer with the answer from a word formin a sentence
Q12 - Starting with T, which place in Kerala is well known for its tourism with artificial lake & periyar National Park?
Q13- H
Q14- A
Q15- N
Q16- K
Q17- Y - Voted the best song of 20th century and record for highest no of cover versions, which song is this of Beatles?
Q18- O
Q19- U
WINNERS - US - wowowow - it was unbelievable & I was called the APPLE girl for long afterwards!!
Answers are as below :

Ans 1 - Ellipathayam (mallu movie)
Ans 2 - Arundhati Roy
Ans 3 - National Geographic Channel
Ans 4 - Hershey's Street(check the shape of the street lights) - V got it!!
Ans 5 - Queen Elizabeth & Queen Rania :D
Ans 6 - Amitabh Bachan
Ans 7 - Amartya Sen
Ans 8 - Gwenyth paltrow's daughter's name - APPLE
Ans 9 - Newyork - Big APPLE
Ans 10 - The Beatles - APPLE Records
Ans 11 - Isaac newton
Ans 12- Thekady - We got it
Ans 13 - ME - YESTERDAY

Went Sober, Royally Messed up, Returned Dead Sober!!

mY swan dance with the Bailey's on the run!!

Irish Coffee is the perfect breakfast because it contains all four adult food groups: fat, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

I had to face one of my worst fears/terrors when I had to go to mumbai to attend my couisn brother's weddin in feb '09!! not just anywhere - colaba - right next door to taj!!

oh wow - it was like visitin the Jalianwala Bagh or the Concentration camp!! the Taj, the Leopold cafe & the Nariman house - - to relive those intense moments of despair, hoplessness - which I seemed to obsses over for over 6 months.

So with all these emotional baggages - I really really needed my drink!!

There IT was - in all its glory at the Doha airport - duty free, waiting for me to claim it as mine with qatar riyals, proper dinars or visa/master card, neither of which I had!! I spent the next 6 hrs with a new obsession!



IT then wasnt available on my flight to mumbai, although the steward tried to make up by givin me 2 types of red wine - which kinda backfired on both of us!! He (or his twin??) ended up bringin me 3 glasses of water.


Mumbai, after 13 yrs, was a slow chaos of traffic, signals, what not!!

I went to my very 1st disco club after being promised the Olive Club, a crowd of celebs & lots of baileys!! All I got was a teeeny glass with less than 1/4 pint of IT(cant find the pic) - that was the last straw !!

With 1 day remainin, my cousin sys found me a bottle of Bailey's syster -some amrulate...a heady fruity mix, at the reception venue(as seen in pic). I had my uncles & their daughters IT under the table!!

Next day, v travelled from Colaba to Bandra, bandra to worli & back to Bandra where v just narrowly missed John Abraham, who spent the whole night holed up in his parent's apt right next door to where v were stayin!!
Alas!! 2 more sips, a sinkin heart, I bid farewell to my 3/4th full bottle & left mumbai(hopefully for the last time)Its truly awesome - the place is so alive, glorious, enthusiastic and a damn brave survivor !!
But somebody please make headway on their traffic problem!!

To Baileys with Love - part 1

Introduction of my Induction :
tHe first I had - was from my dad's stock of johnny walker scotch - dry - my cousin & I coughed a lot & then went on to create our very first chat id - chat2scotch@Y
tHe 2nd was when Anju either decided v were mature enough or when she gave up on that idea ever becomin a reality!! sHe took kavitha & myself to her terace & gave us 20-80% - 7up, vodka, much to my protest!! But come to think of it - to get down, v had to climb down the very narrow metal ring ladder & below were the 2 german sheperds(copper & pepper) kennels after havin my 1st serious taste of liq..!!

aNyhoo, years later when she told me of Bailey's Irish crème, I was sceptical bcause of its coffee flavour. But fell in love with from the very first sip.

bOught my very first drink - Bailey's from dubai airport in jan'07 on my way to India to attend my sister's weddin!! tHere - due to lack of privacy, no room & kidies company, I had to refrain. But after the weddin, when I finally went to get it, it was gone - vanished & I'd had just 2 sips so far - it had accidently gone wit my driver who then mistook it for a cream. Rushed to ngl & was so grateful to get it bac, that I didn’t mind the ants crawlin all around it !! Took two more sips, then gifted it to kavitha - I kno - how generous of me!! It was actually her gift in the 1st place!!
Turns out - I was expectin my baby by then - so God helped me in his twisted ways!!
along with that baileys, I had gotten anju a sherry - which I couldn’t give her & what happened to it? My dad & uncle drank it all sayin at each sip that it tasted bad!!

& thats how my luck goes with these stuffs!! sO close, yet always far!!!!

& All fall down!!

Recession - in simpler terms!!

That Stoopid Inner Voice!!

I was blissfully on my way to being 'Laziness personified' (if thats a real sentence) in my company, as there wasnt any boss around, except for the big guy who couldnt understand my job profile(designer) & with my desk safely tucked away into a corner, I was in a world of my own!!

& I took complete advantage of that - used to read online, watch movies(@home) till after 4am, then go to office & sleep it off.

A li'l voice in the back of my head reared its really really stoopid head & just got louder & demandin!!

& now, Voila - am in a new company!! same field wit li'l difference!! Went for the interview on sept 24th '08, joined on feb'09, recession havin interfered!!

wit many thanx to a colleague who I particulary didnt like when he was in my previous company(he actually helped me inspite of knowin that he bugs me & still does)!! cause now, am obliged to him. I recently threw up in his car(into a bag), so the obligations gone up a notch!!

I somehow always manage to stand out wherever I go!! 3/4th of the people here are malus & am the only one who doesnt talk malayalam!! My only orkut ebuddy works here coincidentally & he's actin like we never met before!!

I still question the wisdom of makin that jump & that stoopid voice is pipin up again slowly askin me

"What exactly is my purpose in this world?? What do I hope to achieve in my time?"

If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer.

Due to time constraints, am certifiably laggin behind on the movies, which bugs the hell out of me!! So, I go on late night movie marathon sprees off & on!! Roughly translated - I watch movies after midnight, sleep by dawn & catch up on my sleep at work. Awesome right?
If I were a critic( I hate Beyonce's "If I were a boy" - no relation to this at all), here's how my review would be --
Didnt like Amy adams in Enchanted ...James mardsen's animated character's always the loosin the girls!!
Jodha Akbar - hrithik's romantic smile is infectious, ignored the girl, one awesome song...
Knocked up - absolute crap - I have never been glued to a seat by the disgust & revulsion I felt for this movie - if I'd moved, I'd have thrown up!!
Madagascar 2 & Ratatouille are so cute!! Kung Fu panda & Horton Hears a who comin up over the weekend!!
Jane tu Ya jane Na & Dostana had me in splits even at 3am!! Abhishek Bachan is too spontaneous an actor!!
Tare zameen par - dragged over the emotions quite a bit - that dad statement was realistic- So, my son's got dyslexia...what do i do? cant afford the expensive skools, let him suffer it out there only!!!"??
SlumDog Millionaire - didnt like the part where the brothers break up over a girl, especially after what they'd been through - doesnt happen often wit Indians - which goes to show the foriegn angle!!
Eklavya, Kabul Express, Taxi no 9211 - Grippin & fascinatin movies. Chucked Chak De India half way through & liked only the celebrity song in Om Shanti Om, Ranbir kapoor's cute cute - but with attitude!! Will not c Dark Knight, sad that I saw Brokeback Mountain (even though it was the last bit) but I did c again 10 things I hate about U...Heath Ledger's so cute!!
Came across Persuit of Happyness by chance & loved it

Artificial Intelligence is NO match for Natural Stoopidity!!

There's been only One cute guy that anju, kavitha & myself have agreed upon, though mayb, KK was another too...the guy certainly was really good lookin & he had 2/3 votes!!

Cute pix- though i dont much like James Mardsen & Jonathan jackson's ok...

My Two Tennis Cuties - Goran Ivanisevic & Mark Philippoussis

Me: it was innocent suggestion -- He(Dhoni)'s nice...u r nice-- 2 great ppl together-what more could v ask for!!
Anju: do you know him that well personally? i could murder him with his cricket bat
Karen: Anju... that is sad
Anju: or stake him with a wicket … hahaha
Karen: poor dhoni.... be nice to him, don't marry him, but be nice-- he deserves it-- admire his resilience and spirit and courage
Me: well, I’ll suggest him to my pal- she's a tennis player!!
Karen: you can be rude to the neta of the nation... all the political blockheads... but dhoni is a true son of the soil... albeit all the face cream ads...
Anju: let dhoni be a true son or whatever- may he do good for his country- and may he make us proud- but if all he plays is cricket then he's useless
Karen: for that reason, I admire sonia gandhi...
me: he's only 26...ouch
Anju: yes good for her
Karen: I mean if it was me, I would have left long back...
Anju: i wish our stupid indians would support people like them instead of rooting for obama
stupid people here... no wonder we're still "developing"!
Karen: obama is good too...
me: c my display title – “Anju – Stop Bashin my Dhoni”!!
Karen: he he... you guys are funny....
Anju: see mine “U, my secretary of State & Dhoni, my Court Jester”
Karen: anju, court jester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! even funnier!!!!!man, I can't stop laughing-my boss is goin to kick me out
Anju: it's okay, i'll hire you as book club minister and philosophical aid
me: anju, if he's on your team...then I’ll b on board
Karen: I'd like to be foreign affairs minister
Anju: yeah i'll have the foreign affairs
Karen: then I'd get to meet your william.... and plan a secret marriage for you
me: & dhoni can make them laugh off the awkwardness
Anju: what awkwardness?
me: on his side!!
u'll b on a roll but ofcourse!! u know whose israel's foreign minister?
Anju: no..
me: a female & she'll probably b the new prime minister after the feb elections!!sexy right- females are shootin into power