“Your time is way too valuable to be wasting on people that can’t accept who you are.”
― Turcois Ominek
I am glad I had come to this conclusion long time back :-)
― Turcois Ominek
I am glad I had come to this conclusion long time back :-)
Saturday, February 7, 2015
54th Annual Flower, Fruits, Vegetables exhibition by National Society of The Friends Of The Trees
Where: VJTI, Matunga
When: 7th and 8th February
I was reading the article ‘Achieving A Green Agenda For Delhi’ when a paragraph caught my attention.
A bold chief minister of Delhi could learn from the mayor of Bogota. He threw out the city’s expensive highway expansion plan, poured his budget into a maze of cycling paths, hiked fuel taxes and banned drivers from commuting by car more than three times a week. In the third year of his term, cars were banned and thousands of people took to the street, cycling, walking and rollerblading their way to work or school. His extreme measures paid off and the toxic haze over the city thinned, hospital admissions fell by a third and for the first time in four years no one was killed by traffic. Can Delhi undertake such a bold initiative?
How I wish the same can be done in Mumbai. A sizeable part of the Mumbaikars would collectively heave a big, not to mention clean, sigh of relief!
A bold chief minister of Delhi could learn from the mayor of Bogota. He threw out the city’s expensive highway expansion plan, poured his budget into a maze of cycling paths, hiked fuel taxes and banned drivers from commuting by car more than three times a week. In the third year of his term, cars were banned and thousands of people took to the street, cycling, walking and rollerblading their way to work or school. His extreme measures paid off and the toxic haze over the city thinned, hospital admissions fell by a third and for the first time in four years no one was killed by traffic. Can Delhi undertake such a bold initiative?
How I wish the same can be done in Mumbai. A sizeable part of the Mumbaikars would collectively heave a big, not to mention clean, sigh of relief!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Daanav Hunters, Epic Channel, Wednesdays 9 p.m.
To be frank, the promos of this show had me convinced that it is meant for kids. But the promo for this week’s episode made the show sound like the Indian version of the Supernatural – with references to hunters and demons etc. No harm in checking out one episode – all that I would be missing out on would be a few anecdotes from the show - the Golden Era With Annu Kapoor (Masti Channel, 9 pm, everyday) that I otherwise watch, or rather listen to.
It was close to 9:10 when I managed to tune in to the show. So I couldn’t quite figure out what the Daayan (a form of a female demon) was doing to the kids. When I first saw the Daayan with the tacky makeup terrorizing the people in the residential complex I thought ‘whoa! This cannot be a demon, this is surely a human’. Then the chirpy college kid, Riya, made an appearance and I was sure she was essaying the role of Daayan at night to further her research on her college project. But in one of the following scenes the Daayan was looking out a window while Riya was busy talking to the ‘hunters’. What’s the deal? That got sorted when the hunters, seemingly casually, narrated a story of two daayans to Riya and she remarked that she cannot see the remaining kids of the society.
Horror movies and shows have become a dime a dozen these days. So it is hard to find a story that hasn’t been told before. What can set a story apart from its previous narrations is the execution of the plot and what twists or turns you can manage to put in to throw the jaded audience off track. Yesterday’s episode, in my humble opinion, managed to do a little bit of the latter but couldn’t quite achieve the former. The acting appeared amateurish and the dialogues definitely need more polishing. The whole episode had the look of the yesteryear’s telefilms that used to be screened on DD.
I guess I will watch another episode or two – just because I am a total fan of many other programs on this channel and so don’t want to give up too easily on it :-)
It was close to 9:10 when I managed to tune in to the show. So I couldn’t quite figure out what the Daayan (a form of a female demon) was doing to the kids. When I first saw the Daayan with the tacky makeup terrorizing the people in the residential complex I thought ‘whoa! This cannot be a demon, this is surely a human’. Then the chirpy college kid, Riya, made an appearance and I was sure she was essaying the role of Daayan at night to further her research on her college project. But in one of the following scenes the Daayan was looking out a window while Riya was busy talking to the ‘hunters’. What’s the deal? That got sorted when the hunters, seemingly casually, narrated a story of two daayans to Riya and she remarked that she cannot see the remaining kids of the society.
Horror movies and shows have become a dime a dozen these days. So it is hard to find a story that hasn’t been told before. What can set a story apart from its previous narrations is the execution of the plot and what twists or turns you can manage to put in to throw the jaded audience off track. Yesterday’s episode, in my humble opinion, managed to do a little bit of the latter but couldn’t quite achieve the former. The acting appeared amateurish and the dialogues definitely need more polishing. The whole episode had the look of the yesteryear’s telefilms that used to be screened on DD.
I guess I will watch another episode or two – just because I am a total fan of many other programs on this channel and so don’t want to give up too easily on it :-)
I am surprised that RBI has asked banks to publish on their websites names and addresses of people who have dormant bank accounts or unclaimed deposits. I could only laugh when I read that for security reasons account numbers are not going to be published – as if people cannot forge documents based on mere names and addresses. You read about frauds being committed with much less information. I bet there must be a lot of happy scamsters just waiting to get their hands on this data. And if appropriate processes haven’t been set into place (I have no reason to believe that they have been!), they will be laughing all the way to the bank – literally and figuratively.
I was reading a TOI article on Delhi elections today. Couldn't help but laugh at the following:
Manoj Verma, who owns a shop in the cantonment area catering largely to services personnel, sprung a surprise by saying Modi shouldn't have called Obama for the Republic Day parade and showed him our guns and tanks. But why, we asked. "Arre, yeh toh Audi wale ko Alto dikhana hai," he said and laughed.
Manoj Verma, who owns a shop in the cantonment area catering largely to services personnel, sprung a surprise by saying Modi shouldn't have called Obama for the Republic Day parade and showed him our guns and tanks. But why, we asked. "Arre, yeh toh Audi wale ko Alto dikhana hai," he said and laughed.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Jimmy Boy, Fort
This place has been on my ‘Must Eat Here’ list for far too long. So last weekend we decided to just go despite not knowing where exactly it is located. We managed to reach Horniman Circle but were unsure of how to proceed from there when I noticed a gentleman who appeared to be a Parsi walking along the road. Hoping that he would know the eatery’s exact location we asked him for directions. Our hunch was proved right as he told us precisely where it was located – at the back of Bade Miya’s. :)
I did a double take when I walked in as my eyes rested upon a group of Parsi senior citizens polishing off what appeared to be Thali meals served in – Banana Leaves. Thali in a Parsi restaurant? That too served in banana leaves? This was unheard of, at least as far as I am concerned.
Though the thought of the Thali was uppermost in my mind while ordering food, I decided not to go for it without first sampling the a la carte. Jardaloo Salli Chicken was a must as we had eaten the same at Britannia. I couldn’t recall whether I had eaten Dhansak there. So we ordered Mutton Dhansak. Dhansak is served here with brown rice and 2 kebabs (depending on whether you have ordered mutton or chicken Dhansak).
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| Jardaloo Salli Chicken and Mutton Dhansak |
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| Apple Pie with vanilla ice-cream. |
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| Lagan Nu Custard |
P.S. In case you are wondering about the above painting, it depicts the story of the community’s landing at Sanjan. You can read it here.
Supernatural – There’s no place like home
To be very frank, I ignored the TV screen for first few minutes of the show. I am living in mortal fear of Crowley’s mother hastening Dean’s descent into the darkness before Sam and Castiel get a chance to find a way to prevent it.
Then I saw a man being beaten up and realized that this episode might instead be about a case. I was surprised, however, when Charlie, who I vaguely remember walking through a door into the Land of The Oz (in God knows which season!), turned out to be the culprit. Of course, being a seasoned (!) follower of the series now, it didn’t long to figure out that this must be her dark side.
Relieved that Crowley’s mom was unlikely to be this episode’s focal point (BTW, I find her way too creepy to be a mom!), I happily dropped whatever I was doing and watched the rest of the episode. Nothing exciting there but at the risk of sounding repetitive, I would say that it was a mighty relief to not have to worry about what The Witch would be upto next. I hope to God that Crowley is only pretending to be clueless.
Then I saw a man being beaten up and realized that this episode might instead be about a case. I was surprised, however, when Charlie, who I vaguely remember walking through a door into the Land of The Oz (in God knows which season!), turned out to be the culprit. Of course, being a seasoned (!) follower of the series now, it didn’t long to figure out that this must be her dark side.
Relieved that Crowley’s mom was unlikely to be this episode’s focal point (BTW, I find her way too creepy to be a mom!), I happily dropped whatever I was doing and watched the rest of the episode. Nothing exciting there but at the risk of sounding repetitive, I would say that it was a mighty relief to not have to worry about what The Witch would be upto next. I hope to God that Crowley is only pretending to be clueless.
Spanish – Written Exam
The more I studied (and I really didn’t study that much!) the more I became ‘un poco nerviosa’. :) I knew that I am doomed by the ‘Audio’ part of the exam. Though I was able to make sense of the transcriptions of the ‘Audio’ samples meant for the DELE A1 exam preparation, they were like Greek and Latin to me (!) when I just heard them. :(
So I went into the classroom with more than a little bit of trepidation. During my student days, I could be seen going through the troublesome sections of the notes in the exam hall. But these days I prefer not to look at them. Still, the sight of so many people poring through their notes has an effect on you so I fished out my notebook and went through the irregular verbs section one more time.
The exam started a bit later than 9am. The first part was of course ‘Audio’. The teacher forgot to attach the speakers to the music system and as a result had to play the recordings thrice before she realized her mistake. Only the first section – that dealt with the numbers – was audible to me. The 2nd section talked about timings and I could get some parts. The last section was a total washout. It talked about people, their places and occupation. The teacher had told us to familiarize ourselves with the cities in Latin American countries but I had forgotten all about it till the time I was standing at the bus stop on the day of the exam! :) I wrote what I could and left the rest to God!
The written part of the exam was okay, I guess though prudence (and experience!) tells me to wait till the results are out. There was reading comprehension, grammar and a couple of images that we were asked to describe. Let’s see.
We have Orals on coming Sunday. Judging by the fact that the teacher has allocated one hour for a group of 8-9 students, each of us cannot be grilled for more than 10 minutes :) My judgement hour starts at 10am. Hope I don’t get all tongue-tied.
We were also told that the second part of the course is going to start in March – Saturday 7pm-9pm and Sunday 9am-11am. Total 40 hours i.e. 10 weeks = 2.5 months. Totally not possible for me and that’s a shame. The teacher said that there isn’t much grammar left to be taught but emphasis will be on vocabulary and practicing for the ‘audio’ part. After this, we should be able to face DELE A1 level. That means I need to figure out how I can prepare for the same on my own.
As I handed my paper to the teacher, I realized that I won’t be seeing majority of these faces again. That’s sad. Here’s wishing them luck – for the oral as well as for the rest of their lives. Buena Suerte :)
So I went into the classroom with more than a little bit of trepidation. During my student days, I could be seen going through the troublesome sections of the notes in the exam hall. But these days I prefer not to look at them. Still, the sight of so many people poring through their notes has an effect on you so I fished out my notebook and went through the irregular verbs section one more time.
The exam started a bit later than 9am. The first part was of course ‘Audio’. The teacher forgot to attach the speakers to the music system and as a result had to play the recordings thrice before she realized her mistake. Only the first section – that dealt with the numbers – was audible to me. The 2nd section talked about timings and I could get some parts. The last section was a total washout. It talked about people, their places and occupation. The teacher had told us to familiarize ourselves with the cities in Latin American countries but I had forgotten all about it till the time I was standing at the bus stop on the day of the exam! :) I wrote what I could and left the rest to God!
The written part of the exam was okay, I guess though prudence (and experience!) tells me to wait till the results are out. There was reading comprehension, grammar and a couple of images that we were asked to describe. Let’s see.
We have Orals on coming Sunday. Judging by the fact that the teacher has allocated one hour for a group of 8-9 students, each of us cannot be grilled for more than 10 minutes :) My judgement hour starts at 10am. Hope I don’t get all tongue-tied.
We were also told that the second part of the course is going to start in March – Saturday 7pm-9pm and Sunday 9am-11am. Total 40 hours i.e. 10 weeks = 2.5 months. Totally not possible for me and that’s a shame. The teacher said that there isn’t much grammar left to be taught but emphasis will be on vocabulary and practicing for the ‘audio’ part. After this, we should be able to face DELE A1 level. That means I need to figure out how I can prepare for the same on my own.
As I handed my paper to the teacher, I realized that I won’t be seeing majority of these faces again. That’s sad. Here’s wishing them luck – for the oral as well as for the rest of their lives. Buena Suerte :)
Elementary
One didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes or even Dr. Watson for that matter to figure out that the person who the team had been pursuing as the culprit wasn’t really the one who had tortured Kitty. It all looked too easy to be true. But the possibility that Watson’s new boss could instead be that person was startling. Come to think of it, it shouldn’t have been. All the signs pointed to this being someone who was every time one step ahead of the team and thus privy to what was going on. It couldn’t have been anyone else. It would be interested to see what Watson would do now. I hope she brings him to justice and teams up with Sherlock and Kitty again. They make a good team. :)
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