No falling, no skiing !

(Just sec removing some of the cob webs formed in the past 3 weeks before I get to business)..ahha..all done..

Hello there! Three weeks into 2012 is it too late for wishes? I guess not..here goes 'Happy new year'

And what have I been upto you ask. Well lets see in a nutshell the last week of December was spent in going to Indiana, meeting V's friends, a skiing trip followed by playing host to all of them at our place and celebrating new yrs eve in Chicago. First week of January spent wasted thinking about the last week of December and the time after that generally spent pondering over life and what I'm doing about it..yes I've been in a very pensive mood lately. Anyway I'll bunk that thought for the time being. So the highlight of the past month was definitely the skiing trip.

We had gone to a resort in Wisconsin known for all snow related activities. Now this was the first time skiing for both me and V. And we were both terrible at it. Fine I'll be honest, I was terrible and V managed fine by the end of the 4 hours. But to give me some credit he fell more times than I did in the first 15min. Thankfully we were accompanied by friends who are nothing short of pros at it, treat the gym as their second home and work out religiously. That training came in super handy when they had to lift me up every 5min. 

 Having glamorized the idea way too much in my head, I was however super thrilled to be actually going skiing and had a silly grin on the entire day. The pros in our gang had scared me to death about the biting cold, falling on my bum, ice melting to become chilly water and making my fingers numb etc. So taking their advice to heart I dressed in 3 layers on the bottom, 5 layers..yes you read it right 5 LAYERS on top, 2 pairs of gloves - ski kind on top of the woolen ones, 3 pairs of socks, scarf and ear muffs. I was dressed like a ski-ninja, if there is such a word and even hummed the track of 'eye of the tiger' in my head whilst getting dressed. Now in no way can I be called a fashionista but even in my humble eyes I was surprised to look like such a total buffoon in the gear. When I looked into the mirror and a penguin looked back at me, the charm of what I'd been fantasizing about wore off a little. 

Sports and me have a love-hate relationship. While I'd like to believe I have the potential (who am I kidding!) to be athletic, the problem arises when the athletic part of me becomes the pathetic part. I have the best intentions but something just happens and all the ambitious plans go kaput! Skiing was no different. Nevertheless I waddled away to reach the slopes and put on those terrible shoes that made me feel like the big friendly giant right out of the Roald Dahl novel. V helped me put them on, nearly smashing my toe and hurting his forehead and this was when we weren't even outside. The most intelligent decision of the day however, was to finish the posing for photographs when we were pumped up to go outside and at our smiling best with the skiis. I had naturally assumed the husband would stand by me and we'll help each other out. But no sooner had we got outside we promptly fell down within few feet of each other, he then thought being with me was like blind leading blind. So we amicably split and went to our respective tutors to learn the ropes. I did get sadistic pleasure seeing V fall more times than me and I even tried to show off waving out to him whilst barely managing to balance myself. Alas this confidence was short lived as I literally and figuratively went downhill post that. 

My pro friend took me to the bunny slope (basically the easiest one there is) to show me the moves and techniques. He patiently explained everything and I diligently copied him, only to fall on my poor sore bum each time, it slowly dawned on me, the pathetic in athletic is back to haunt me. Once I leaned slightly to catch my breath,  looking at all those people whizz past made me loose focus and I felt myself starting to fall. While I scrambled to stay on my two giant feet, I held onto the first person in my vicinity. Unfortunately for him I brought him down and also his friends standing next to him...not a pretty sight. The hardest part was learning how to stop myself downhill and making the pizza slice shape with the skis. I fell in different ways, speeds, on different body parts and each time saying a different prayer to god begging him to let me come down the slope minus a fall. God of course, was too busy to pay attention to my prayers. On probably the 11th attempt down the slope I managed to somewhat come down. And them immediately after that I step on my own ski..result of that..?? Fall again, this time sideways. By this time I ended up having an audience and thought to myself, 'This cannot be a good thing'. Waiting to be hauled up each time came with its own set of embarrassments, thought bubbles of ' ohhe's finding it tough, damn I've put on weight, I should have exercised more to finally- screw it it's all because of the clothes!' flashed by each time. Seeing a friends gf who we met for the first time, ski away to glory in her petite physique did not help things. She would come by every 15min ask whether any progress and whizz past while I sat in the snow shaking my head. And I started to resent her for no reason whatsoever after that.

The cherry on the dud of a cake was going up the ski lift. I was briefed on how to get up and down and mentally practiced the sequence of events in my head and observed the few people ahead of me. I was totally charged up, got on it just fine but when it was time to get down, I couldn't stop myself and body slammed someone from behind making him fall. While I lay as a bundle of bones on the snow I couldn't get up by myself and to make matters worse the person operating this end of the lift was shouting at me to make way for the next batch of people. This was when I snapped, barely managed to get up, got out of the skis and carried them all the way down. I was just about giving up and going inside to have the hot inviting coffee when I see V. He had progressed from the bunny slope to the intermediate one. I was dumbfounded..what??? The same person who fell five times in the first 5 minutes. Not wanting to come across as a loser, I put my skis back on and decided to give it another shot. The problem being i had happily asked my pro friends to go explore the other slopes and have fun as they had wasted too much time on me anyway. So it was only left to me and the little I had learnt in the last two hours.

While I made my way through I chanced upon something magical. There was a smaller slope which I christened the squirrel slope. It was filled with kids between the ages of 5-10 along with the doting parents teaching them how to ski. My mind was filled with newer and more positive thoughts now - 'they seem to be doing just fine', 'looks more manageable','I'll just stand next to a set of the parents and practice'. Finally I decided to follow Nike's tagline of 'just do it'. And the skiing experience finally had a happy ending. I learnt how to balance and stop when coming downhill. Still fell but somehow managed to get up. I competed with the likes of 7yr olds and lost, but no regrets. Did manage to give a tip to a 10 yr old on how to get up (that was the only part I became good at!) and felt good about myself. V however, refused to come near the kiddie slope as he called it, to come get me. But I was too busy basking in the glory of having conquered managed the squirrel slope to bother. Yayyyy! All's well that ends well. Ski again? Sure,when??

Blahhhhh

Dear Boredom,

Like all the letters I've previously written (Read 3) this one is extremely important. I wanted to discuss a somewhat delicate matter with you. I'll be blunt...so here goes, wait for it.. 'I want to break up with you and i think some time apart would do us (mainly me) some good'...phew! that wasn't as tough as I thought it would be.I have my reasons so please understand.

I am 27 years old. And hey don't you roll your eyes at me. I'm not yet 30, late twenties more like it ! When we started spending time together especially in the last 6 months all I wanted was a non committal relationship. One that involved some fun flirting and hand holding, nothing heavy duty. But somewhere along the line things got serious. You started playing mind games with me and I gave in. I'm not proud of myself but hey I'm human.

Look Boredom, we've known each other and been friends for a very long time now. Actually we've been more than friends, had our shares of ups and downs. Remember the time I was with you, we played a game where I had to break a record of throwing and catching grapes in my mouth. Yeah, those weren't the good days. And do you remember there was this one instance, when I kept staring at the geese outside for half hour to understand their quacking pattern. Yeah, I agree that wasn't so much fun either.

But there have been other time when we both enjoyed each others company, enjoyed the loneliness and enjoyed rotting in dreamland. That's when we had our best time...watching endless episodes of Frasier, reading about Osama, surfing the net and listening to music. That was fun wasn't it? Hey I even got you to become a fan of Mohammed Rafi and got you hooked onto Facebook.

But lately, you have started to miff me a little bit. A lot actually. We hang out way too much now a days. You just don't seem to leave me. I mean, friendship and all is fine, I respect it. But seriously, give me some space!!!

Infact you Boredom, have started to bore me!! (I know that was a bit harsh but you leave me no choice) I mean, you have reached and encapsulated the limits of tedium and it's like we're joined at the hips. And the way you infringe yourself on me, dont even get me started on that!! And you've started to talk too much. I feel as if when you're at a loss of words, your loss is my gain. Most repair manuals are less verbose than you my dear sir ! And the way you've started to interrupt my brilliant ideas...do you have any idea how rich or famous I could have become by now had you chose not to? You know so little, yet you waste no time at all in taking over my thoughts.

You have now started to remind me of those children toys..you know the ones where you punch it and it springs back. You punch it again and you forget it ever existed. It slowly deflates in an unused corner and contaminates the entire room with its rubbery noises!  So please, I need a new companion. I want to be with much smarter people, those who do give me my space and encourage me to do things the right way. I've already spoken to Focus & Interest. They said they would be happy to give me some company and I'm looking forward to that.

And as for you Boredom, do the lost and found department a favour and get lost!!

Your ex,

Disha

P.S- Didn't mean to be this harsh :-(. If you're ok with the arrangement we can still be friends and meet weekly. Does Sunday afternoon suit you?

Sibling Love

There is absolutely nothing like have a sibling. I have an elder brother, and this is our story. When we were younger the 2 yr age difference seemed huge but now in our late 20's not so much.  Playing boardgames, attempting anything remotely to do with sports or even arguing is just not the same without him. One of the earliest memories was when I'd barely learnt to speak in English and I strung the words 'Get' and 'Lost', and directed this message to him. And that's where a lifetime bond was forged between us. It was all uphill from there (or so I'd like to think now). 


Some random memories that come to mind: 


- 'A' made me strong and tough. Being a huge fan of WWF he needed a guinea pig to practice all he learnt from the likes of Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan and who better than yours truly. Though the moves did come in handy when we got into physical fights ourselves! When these fights didn't end we resolved to our very own tie breaker. Got wet towels and made them into sort of a gadda (the kind that bhima used in maahbharata) swung them at each other and first one to fall lost. For those unfamiliar to this trust me it hurts as hell !! 
- He made childhood interesting for me. He was an imaginative child who made the most of somewhat limited resources. We used to record narrating agatha christie books in an audio player complete with different voice overs for poirot and ms marple, different sound effects and tried to make it as professional as possible. I now know what we did was merely an audio book but then it seemed like something truly revolutionary and unheard of. Seemed so brilliant that we thought to market it too, that plan was however soon discarded because of lack of funds...sigh. 
- Whenever we met up with other cousins over holidays he was always the one to invent new games to play. Plain jane hide-n-seek didn't interest us, it had to be played with higher stakes and wackier rules. I still remember his reinvention of soft ball to become this combination of charades, dog and the bone and whatnot that actually become too complicated to even play. This continued in the kitchen. He was always more interested in cooking than I was, but never in the plain dal sabzi...no siree! He dabbled in the more exotic stuff (seemed exotic enough then) spanish omlettes and mirchi maggi. It's true- Life was anything but dull !
- Taught me some key lessons of life- such as negotiation and enterprise. The different seasons brought different flavours of fun on school campus such as collecting and playing for marbles, trading stickers/trump cards etc. He used to  collect his meager possessions and think hard on who to scam and how to complete our collections. I have still not forgiven him for trading my asterix collection for the esteemed tiger marbles. 
- Not being extremely bright at studies we were subject to strict TV watching guidelines and restrictions. And when our parents stepped out was the one time we joined hands to become partners in crime. We took turns at watching TV while the other had to stand guard at the different windows to check signs of returning parents. This involved meticulous planning to leave the remote at exactly the same channel and place we had picked it up from. In retrospect this everyday antic of ours brought us closer in our warring times. 
- My dread for winters started early but for entirely the different reasons. We used to have this huge quilt put on top of us which made it barely possible to move underneath it. This was the time of the first gulf war when 'A' would fart inside the quilt squealing delightedly, 'George Bush just fired a massive missle' and try to fan the fart airs on me. Pinned under the quilt I couldn't duck and had to endure the smells. I swear this is the kind of stuff that has scarred me for life !
- He was and still is a big fan of all mythology stories especially Ramayana. What made ramayana fun for him was when Ravan came on screen, slapped his thighs and laughed his thundering laugh. He was totally awed and amused by Ravana and used to wait for him in the episode. Younger and not understanding the morale behind the story it took me a while to understand that Ravana is actually the bad guy!  
- A had got bit by a white german shepherd and this was around the time I watched my first werewolf movie. I somehow got this notion that my brother will also become a dog, now that he's been bitten by one. I started becoming cautious around him and glancing over my shoulders when he came an inch close to me. Whenever our parents were not around I refused to be in the same room as him and would go hide under the bed. Things got out of control and he went crying to our parents saying, 'Dish doesn't love me anymore and won't play with me'. It took a while for me to fathom difference between reel and real but we spent a happy weekend playing together soon after. This is probably the kind of moronic behavior that has made him the strong resilient character he is today.  
- Before you feel sorry for him, let me tell you, he got his own back in his own subtle manner. At a tender age when i was just about understanding what is happening around me he convinced me that the entire world is in my mind and everybody - him, mummy, papa are all figments of my imagination and that they disappear when I exit a room. I used to dart in and out of rooms and breathe a sigh of relief to see everyone still there. I should be given an award for not having to undergo counselling because of this !


So you see, there were great times, and times we wanted to maul each other. This is the stuff that memories are made of. And trauma. 

My 2 bits on MI- Ghost Protocol

Now I don't know what made me more happy - watching MI Ghost Protocol and seeing the awesome action or watching a movie on Thursday soon as it released. The latter has been a sore point for me as I always end up watching movies days after they release with the entire world having already watched it and it become stale news to discuss...but hey I'm digressing. Back to the movie, this one really got the 'Mission' part of Mission Impossible right!!  It gets it right from the pre title sequence and the opening titles actually preview the events to come in a clever way. 27 minutes of the movie I'm told  are in IMAX and it's been used to the fullest putting you closer to the action. The best being the title sequence and the Dubai Burj Khalifa hotel sequence. With the larger screen, your entire field of view is filled with the picture and the massive speakers make everything much louder. So by the time you come out of the movie you'll feel as though you've been in it by being so involved in the heart racing sequences and being on edge of your seat. Gadgets are super cool and have an air of James Bond about them..they are crazy yet practical and interact with the scene. On the action you have to see it to believe how awesome it is!!

While I don't understand direction much but amazing coming from someone who makes animation movies (The Incredible,Ratatouille). Tom Cruise needless to say looks amazing (and that too at 50!!). I read he's done his own stunts..if that's true then all I say is 'respect'. And no way I believe that fans needed to be bribed to greet and hoot for him in India like the media said. If you're a fan of the series L.O.S.T and loved the character Sawyer as much as I did then you may be disappointed with his blink and you missed it role in the movie...sigh..just wasn't enough of him although he did get an excellent starting scene. Small part of the movie has been shot in Mumbai and when Tom Cruise's character mentions they're going to India there were whistles and catcalls in the theatre. I was so tempted to join in and do the same but I was sure my husband would have disowned me! After waiting and waiting for Anil Kapoor to come onscreen, he finally did make his dramatic entrance to be greeted to more whistles and claps. My husband was glaring at me this time lest I break into full applause. His role was however very small and very..umm..what should I say, goofy. For a second into his scene I really thought he's going to start doing his signature step to 'My name is Lakhan'...phew that didnt happen!!  But his hair looked sooooo good that it makes up for his itsy bit role and plus I kind of have a soft corner for him and for his enthusiastic child like mannerisms in interviews etc.

My oops moment yesterday: Now I sometimes have a problem understanding the storyline of these suspense-thriller kind of hollywood movies.While the English is not the problem but with the fast pace and whatnot I somehow get lost. I remember as kids (and even now!) my brother would get very annoyed at having to sit next to me and explain the scenes. Thankfully that didn't happen in the Ghost protocol but there was an instance that I as usual got a little confused. There was a huge action scene playing itself at that time and I had to be very loud to make myself heard to V and asked him 'what is happening, why did he have to kill xxx...I didn't understand' . And my luck at just that time the scene ended and while there was pin drop silence in the theatre my voice boomed over it all. Words cannot explain how foolish I felt...sigh..
Barring that embarrassing moment total paisa vasool movie, go watch it tonight and in IMAX !! 

Dream on

Something weird (or spooky according to V) happened last night. Well sometime in the middle of night I got up laughing, and not just a random giggle or a chuckle but loud heeeeehaaaww laughter...

V: (Rudely woken up by maniacal laughter and suddenly plonks himself straight on the bed)..'D D what on earth was that? wake up will you?

Me: (trying to make sense of the rude shoving) Why what happened? Why are you so loud? 

V: Me?? loud? Did you just hear yourself, you were laughing like a hyena 30 seconds back. It was so scary.       Please don't do that again. 

Me: Really? Well if i was laughing then it was probably a nice dream and nothing to be scared about

V: Next time you try waking up to your laughter at 3am and we'll see

D: Hmm...fine 

Now I've always been teased by friends that I laugh funny (does that even sound right but you get the drift). While I never really thought so but I guess it could be alarming coming in the night. V swore he couldn't sleep the entire night after that. So today I got up wondering what could be the reason for the crazy midnight chortles.The only plausible explanation seems that I must have had a wonderful dream and something hilarious must have happened in it. Now it used to really bug me that I never remembered what I dreamt about. But then again the last time I did, turned out to be quite unpleasant. It was a couple of weeks back when I got up in the night screaming and literally jumped out of the bed because I thought a lizard is going to fall on me. Now I can take anything scary - ghost and graveyard stories, spirit stuff,  etc but even the thought of these slimy reptiles makes my hair stand up.After being comforted and pacified by V that there are no lizards in our apartment I happily went back to sleep. Next day morning wanting to interpret what it could have possibly meant I was in deep thought and relied on good ol' google to solve the mystery for me. Well it turned out that lizards in dreams are not considered to be a good omen and there was some other nasty stuff mentioned. After that I figure I'm better of not remembering anything or just laughing it off !

So have you ever had any weird/insightful dreams that you've actually remembered? And on a totally random note check out sleeptalkingman.blogspot.com in case you already haven't. It's by a woman who blogs about her sleep talking husbands funniest moments. Amusing. 

YAYY...IT's THAT TIME OF THE YEAR

I just love this time of the year. There's something magical about everything outside. It's not just about the month but this entire quarter...come September and there are festivals right after each other. While I may not be doing anything big for each but just seeing the hustle bustle outside, lights and the yummy food puts me in a great mood. Here are some of my reasons to love December

• celebrating the end of a good year 
• family time
• all the christmas decorations in the stores, streets everywhere really! 
• everyone's christmas tree..glimpses from the windows 
• the parties !! 
• drinking hot chocolate on the cold nights 
• driving around looking at the Christmas lights 
• looking at the snow 
• watching christmas episodes of my favorite shows 
• carols on the radio
• seeing children get their picture taken with Santa 
• smell of baking ...(just the thought is putting me in a different world) 
• great sales and shopping !
• winter wear - the boots, scarves, coats (how I've missed taking all this out in Mumbai) 
• rosy cheeks and nose 
• buying and opening presents 
• x-mas goodies and treats that just tempt you into buying them and crib on the holiday weight later 
• thinking of the months gone by and what I will do differently next year (I hate the word resolution...it just comes with added pressure and something I can never stick with) 
• best time to go to work (no one's really interested in working this time anyway) 

Isn't December fabulous...ho ho ho :) What are your favorite things about December?

ahhh just when I thought I will actually blog and I did a 'me' again..left something soon as I started. Well I don't know what it is with me these days but my attention span has become worse than that of a 4 yr old. My day starts with me and my beloved' ( no not V but my hot cup of T) and I switch on the laptop to check out the headlines..a minute into that I think why not just watch the news on what's happening in India...then it moves to well what news could it be Rs falls again, more debate on FDI, kapil sibbal bashing so I think better to just check twitter and see what my favorite celebs are doing...a minute into that makes me think I don't care what SRK has to say on DON 2 anymore and I think best to check facebook and see what friends and cousins are upto...I don't need to explain that 30 seconds later I get bored of the same kind of updates and just switch off everything. Now it's me sitting with my hot cuppa and thinking 'now what' only to decide that No i need to read the headlines and repeat the entire cycle again....aaarrggghhh!!!

I did the unthinkable yesterday and no I did not wear white after labour day...but i deactivated my facebook account. Now I'm not the kind of person who actually does much there as in uploading pics, status updates etc and I'm more of a lurker if you know what I mean. Snooping around and checking out random pics for sake of anything better to do..and then suddenly yesterday I thought 'bas enough!! I'm sure I can utilize this time better. Now I've thought same thing gazillion times before but yesterday the way I probably said it to myself in my head was more impactful. While I'm not missing it terribly (and hey just been 24 hrs) but you're so conditioned to just open the window when it pops up on chrome that unintentionally my fingers end up going there. Lets see how long I can last.

Been such a drab dreary day with the rain and freezing temp that getting my butt out of the house to go to the gym is a feat for which I should be suitably awarded. However it's still not as cold as I expected it to get. With the horror stories and sympathetic smiled I get from people when they get to know it's my first winter here that I really don't know what to expect. I do want to apologize to the sun for saying all the mean things I did when I came here in July...if it makes you feel any better I do miss you a lot.

I can ramble on for a while only because it delays my wrapping myself in my warmest gear to go out and exercise but shall refrain from that...ciao for now.