I'm not a great fan of ads on TV, never have been. I mean there I am waiting for the crucial moment in a movie and BAM!! time for unwanted commercial. I understand it's for selling the products, but could they possibly have a worse timing. Some of them don't even make sense, like finding your long lost son using noodles(seriously??!!). But a few days ago I came across this ad for wedding jewelery from Tanishq, and it actually made me smile. It showed the facts of life.
Fact 1: Fathers aren't comfortable talking to their daughters about marriage, but they still try.
Fact 2: Mothers always know how to make us agree to something, even if we were averse to the idea at first(willingly or unwillingly).
Fact 3: Even after many years men never understand women(is there no cure??).
Of course it didn't make sense to me that you'd get married just to buy wedding jewelery, but hey, it did catch the eye.

P.S: If you don't know which ad I'm talking about here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfYLu_MhLQQ

Maa Tujhe Salaam

MOTHERS. I wonder what God was thinking when He made them. They have such opposing qualities in them, it could baffle even a psychologist. One moment they are loving, ready to give you everything you need and the next second they might deny the same things for your own good. No matter how wrong you are they will fight the whole world for you. There are times when my mom's over-protectiveness (what an understatement!!) has driven me crazy. But I can't deny it, it's because of that very quality of my mom's that I am sheltered from the evils of the world.
Mother's have a different perspective on everything. While my dad believes that I should make mistakes so that I can learn from them, my mom is a different story altogether. If I make any mistake she won't let me hear the end of it. But that's a good method too. Let's face it, mistakes are the last thing we want to remember. So your mom nagging about it 24/7 is a good way to not repeat those mistakes.

No matter how busy they are, they always put our needs first (selfish aren't they?!?). They are irreplaceable. Many times we refer to our girl friends as sisters, but never as a mother. Because no matter how many times our friends have helped us it's nothing compared to what our mother does for us everyday.

So go ahead, hug your mom and thank her for everything. They expect nothing from us, even today (for those of you who live under a rock it's Mother's day today). This doesn't mean that you say thank you to her today only or that if you forgot to tell her today you can't tell it tomorrow (although you do deserve a kick on your royal behind for forgetting). Appreciating your mom doesn't need a day or time, you can do it any time and the smile you get in return will make you forget all your worries.

Haathi Mere Saathi

I'm not an animal lover. Ask any of my friends. I'm not a cat or a dog person. It's not that I'm cold-hearted, it's just that even if I see a kitten i won't go all "aww it's so cute". There is nothing fundamentally wrong with me (I think??!), I just don't react like that. Sure, I'm all for SAVE THE TIGER, but that's mostly 'I'm a citizen of India and I should do my part in saving our national animal'. But today while watching (more like flipping through) Discovery Channel, I saw a piece on elephants. The clip showed the elephants being fed by mahouts. They stood in line, lifting their trunks,waiting for their turn. The animals looked so forlorn that my heart went out to them.
The narrator then went on to talk about the danger of poachers. That did it. I started cursing those poachers with all the bad words in my arsenal (of course my parents gave me the has-she-lost-her-mind look). And that's when it hit me like a wrecking ball. I'm an elephant lover. Maybe it was because my mom took me to feed the temple elephants in Udupi or maybe I'm not so emotionally devoid like I thought. Whatever the reasons maybe, I am forever more an elephant person.

P.S: I knew there was nothing wrong with me (most of the time).

Belling B.E.L.

Once upon a time, in a far away land lived two beautiful and intelligent girls. One day(40 days ago) they decided that their life wasn't that tough, so off they went in search of a great adventure(forget what I said about them being intelligent, making an already tough life even more impossible isn't a sign of intelligence). They traveled to a far away place(well, not they, only one of them had to travel far), where they had heard lived a monster(The B.E.L Project) that drains the energy out of a person. It's powers included sapping a person of hope and pushing them into a bottomless pit of despair. But these two girls had made up their minds, CONQUER THE MONSTER OR DIE TRYING(alright, maybe it wasn't that dramatic). Each day they set out to conquer the monster, walking in the blazing heat, and each day they got closer towards their goal(even the Taj Mahal wasn't built in a day, all great things take time). They had got their wish, their lives was now downright miserable. But these girls still had a little hope in them(guess the monster wasn't that powerful). Finally, one bright day they got very close to conquering it, but alas, they failed. But as the saying goes 'the night is darkest before dawn', they tried again with new hope and they were finally able to conquer the monster(Hurray!!!). Now they will go back to their not-so-tough(yeah right!!) life and maybe they will live happily ever after(there is not end to their gullibility).

Moral of the story:No matter how much you try to dig a grave for yourself, there is always a way out.


P.S:The poor souls will get the certificate for their hard work only after two more days.

Chaos!!

That is how I would describe the newly opened mall in Malleshwaram(called Mantri Square Mall). Absolute chaos. This is the 1st mall to be opened there, so it's something of a novelty. It's no wonder then, that all of Malleshwaram had come to see what a mall is all about. We 3 musketeers(mythili, shruthi and yours truly) had been there last Sunday, and let me give you a low-down on the place. Getting into the mall was an experience in itself(did I mention about all of Malleshwaram being there??). The throng there could put Tirupati crowd to shame. After passing through the metal detectors(new mall, so they'll make sure no one blows it up at least for a year or so. Later the metal detectors will magically disappear!!) we entered the promised land. As the advertisements suggests the place is huge, but with the number of people there it seemed very small(word of advice: don't be braniacs like us and visit a newly opened mall on a weekend).

Before I forget, let me mention how great the customer service is. We go to a shop and start browsing around, and when it became clear that we weren't buying anything, this 'nice' saleswoman gave us a condescending look(and here i thought customer service meant being sweet and polite. How wrong was I).

After exploring the entire mall(there wasn't much to explore actually, 60% of mall still had the "coming soon" sign. Well, they better come soon, or else the customers wont be coming soon) we decided it was time for food, so we headed for Taco Bell. The moment I entered the place I knew I was in for another great adventure(why can't I just fight a dragon instead??!). The system for placing the order went right up my head(2 separate lines for placing the order and collecting, seriously!!??). The tag line for Taco bell is "successfully smuggled out of Mexico". Well obviously it was successful, who would want to stop the smuggling of something horrible. We ordered the burrito, snakito and a combo meal. Personally, the burrito should be buried deep underground, the snakito was bearable and the combo meal left a horrible after taste(they even destroyed the french fries). Advice 2:Don't enter Taco Bell if you want to preserve your palate and your pocket.

I suppose it's not that bad a place to hang out, it has 6 theaters and not to forget, SCARY HOUSE(I can already hear Krithika and Archana.S screaming their lungs out). If you do want to visit, I recommend that you wait for at least a month for the number of people to decrease and number of shops to increase. Maybe your experience will be better than mine(I'll pray for your safe return).

P.S: Keep watching this place to know what happens when MSM meets my mom.

What does your name mean???

This is what I have been asked about a million times[ fine, less than 50 times. Alright, alright, about 20 times]. Imagine someone asking you this when you are a 10 year old[Like you care what your name means. You have more important things to worry about.. like, will your mother buy you ice cream today]. Why do people give so much importance to the meaning of a name?? A name is a label for a noun, normally used to distinguish one from another[copied word to word from wikipedia]. That's its purpose, to distinguish one noun from another. A name doesn't make a person. No way. Take my friend shruthi for instance, the meaning of her name is 'the smallest interval of the tuning system in Indian classical music'[God bless wikipedia!!]. She is so much more than just 'the smallest interval of the tuning system in Indian classical music'. She is intelligent, hard working and one of the nicest people I know. So I agree with Shakespeare when he says "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." [in layman terms, a name is an artificial and meaningless convention]. A person is so much more than just devoted to God[trust me, arpitha knows how to party], or a wish-granting cow[can I make more than 3 wishes nandu?? or is that the limit??] or hearts desire[yes, that's what my name means... God knows what possessed my parents when they named me]. So it's nice when your friends ignore the name given by your parents and keep different names[which doesn't mean that you should start giving me more colorful names by the way], because it doesn't define you.

P.S:After all this ranting I'm eternally grateful that my parents didn't name me based on what I am[sarcasm or cynic doesn't seem nice on the CV].

B.M.T.C

Yes folks,BMTC. It stands for Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, what it should really stand for is Beware Mortals your Time has Come- for the most excruciating, mind numbing ride. The buses are not transportation vehicles, no, they are living entities. For those of you who have traveled in these 'buses'(may your patience rest in peace) you might have noticed that we can wait for what seems like an eternity for a particular 'bus', but other than that 'bus' every other 'bus' comes. Yes, that's right, a living entity which knows how to torture us with its 'ha.. loser, you think you can win' attitude.
Once your 'bus' finally arrives(Thank God!!!) it is a rat race to make sure you get inside. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that getting into the 'bus' is more difficult than climbing Mt.Everest(hey, Mt.Everest doesn't scream in your face or punch you in the gut or.. well you get my point).
Oh, but the torture doesn't end there. No. I don't know how but most of the times these 'buses' will be carrying more than they can handle(as my friend Nandini would say, and I quote "we have to go hanging from the buses"). So, basically you are fighting to get into a 'bus' which has less space than bustling market(and much more noisier too).
So, after 4 years of traveling in BMTC, I have learned a few tricks(courtesy of my already enlightened friends):-
1. When in line for getting into the 'bus' don't be a lady/gentleman - you snooze, you loose people. You might as well wait for the next bus( oh wait, there's a one in million chance of getting another one).
2. Once inside don't deliberate, by the time you decide where to sit all the empty seats would be filled(again, you snooze, you loose).
3. If you don't get a seat then pick a spot and stand there. If you even give an inch, you will have a fate worse than a punching bag.
4. If a seat becomes free, sit, or else stand until the end of your journey(and Bangalore traffic isn't that helpful either. I think its a combined effort by traffic and 'buses' to make commuters life miserable). Again, YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOOSE.
Well now, these are few things that i have learned. I think when Darwin came up with his 'Survival of the fittest' theory he might have had a glimpse of our daily 'commute'(what a euphemism for what happens to us on a daily basis). Follow these tricks and your journey may get a little better. Happy commuting!!!

P.S: It's not that I hate BMTC, it's that I really really HATE it.

Blogging??hmmm..

It has been a while since I started following blogs.. and after a lot of thought(when I say a lot.. the Indian ocean pales in comparison..) I have decided to give blogging a try.. when I informed my friends of this great plan(yes.. yes.. I live in my own world) arpitha gave one of her 'am soo excited' shrieks... the gal was more excited than I was.. there is never a dull moment when that girl is around.. wait.. where was I again?? oh yeah .. me.. blogging.. so whats this blog gonna be about?? the usual stuff - the lemons that life gives us; I make a simple lemonade with it; not a margarita.. lets not complicate life ppl.. and the lessons that life teaches us.. when I say lessons I mean 'OMG OMG why me' experiences.. one of these lessons that I learned today was that when arun and arpitha agree on a plan it shud be spelt DISASTER.. never go along with it.. well.,more of these lessons later..
u might have noticed that I tend to exaggerate a lot.. but that's me.. exaggeration is my middle name.. keep watching this space for more fundas of the mystery called LIFE...


STATUTORY WARNING:this blog contains exaggerated, cynical, sarcastic and sometimes sugar coated take on life.. read at your own risk..