I have had enough of

(1) Modi-devotion

(2) Modi-hatred

(3) That man who left his CEO job to spend more time with his daughter

(4) Lists of 10/15/25 things that for some reason always feature Deepika Padukone pics

(5) Fancy check-ins (nah just kidding...these are informative)

It's like water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink. Good luck to all you big data analytics engines for sorting out all that mess!

The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything...

is very likely nothing. It's probably like the anthropic principal says: we see things the way they are because we exist. It might just have no meaning to it, like many a Bollywood script. But that is something very hard for us to accept, isn't it? Humans always try to make a lot of life and of our role in the universe. We think every moment in our life is a big drama and neatly avoid the fact that we'll dwindle off into nothingness and a few millenia from now, there won't be any sign of our having existed at all. This is good because if we did think of all that, we would go mad like those who entered the Total Perspective Vortex in H2G2!

Infact, we try so hard to fight the futility of our lives that we are always trying to stamp the proof of our existence in some way or the other: through a legacy, a family name, a creation or an exceptional achievement that will be recorded in history. Like them dark lords, we all seek immortality in our own ways. And one of the recent tools that is being extensively used by all of us to constantly reinforce the fact of our existence to the universe is Facebook :D I sometimes feel like we are trying to hold our place in the world by reminding our friends about us constantly. And if you don't do that for a while, you feel like you're somehow slipping out of existence. It is something like the whole Bitcoin system where a transaction is valid only if atleast 50% of the miners agree on a solution to the code. Every aspect of your life seems validated only if a sufficient number of friends like your update on it. And if your wedding update is not liked by atleast 50% of your friends, then you're always going to remain a little dissatisfied with your marriage no matter how good your spouse is :D

Anyway, I think this attachment to our own significance is a major cause of the dissatisfaction that my generation especially faces. If we could just stop thinking about ourselves so much: about whether we're successful enough or well-liked by enough people or in short, whether we have a Facebook-worthy life (when I say Facebook, I mean all social media!). It's very peaceful to not think about yourself and just do your best and leave the rest. I think our parents lived this way more or less. They just went about things without the sense of entitlement we have. We, on the other hand, expect so much perfection from ourselves. It's great to strive for perfection but not in everything! Sometimes, it's ok to be mediocre and not a celebrity-like person. It's far better to accept and live in peace with yourself than try to be a super-human with the perfect job and perfect life. Isn't that what individuality is? I feel that though we are trying to move towards a culture celebrating individuality, we are actually losing our own individuality.

I think what I'm saying is I've finally understood a bit of what the Gita teaches: letting go of the ego. When we let go of the 'I' and 'me', we can be far more peaceful about ourselves and other things around us. And like the Gita interpreters say, it doesn't mean you don't do anything and just go along passively. You do try to make your life meaningful and good...but you do it without worrying if that is what the world is going to think about your life and whether you will leave a little of yourself behind and somehow continue existing.

Mutli-cereal Dosa

This is one of the best discoveries mom and me have made! It all started with us buying lots of oats and not liking it the way it is usually made. Then I remembered the wheat cheela my friend once made and thought why not add oats to it. From there, the sky was the limit and we went on to more cereals hehe

Recipe:
Mix equal quantities of wheat flour, oats and ragi (Finger Millet in English) and add water to get a dosa batter consistency. Pour on the pan, make it round, add some oil on the sides and cook like dosa. It will take longer than dosa to cook because it's thicker.

Once it is lovely brown and crispy on the sides, take it off the pan.

Spread some of Mala's Mixed Berry jam on it, roll it and eat. This jam deserves a special mention because it is deeelicious!

It is the yummiest breakfast ever! And very easy to make.

Why I'm Joey

I'm sure this happens to every Friends fan: you start wondering which character you are and start analyzing all your friends' groups to see who is which character from Friends :D

I have only recently started watching this series in proper order so I did all of the above. For a long time, I thought I was Ross: I am geeky, nice, and I like dinosaurs too (though in a non-palaeontological way). But an episode I saw the other day made me realize I'm Joey. What happens is when Joey, Chandler, and Ross are with a cop in a car, they think they hear bullets being fired at them. Now the first thing Joey tries to save is his sandwich! I'm like that too: I have never been so afraid for my laptop or mobile phone as I was for my first loot from Karachi Bakery. The entire trip home, I was so worried that someone is going to snatch the bag away from me :D In Enid Blyton style, I'll also give the entire menu: veg hot dog, veg cheeseburger, blueberry cheesecake, and chocolate pastry :)

Also, I love JAM!!

Make Your Own RomCom!

It's really simple!

Pick an actress:

Pick an actor:

(I have been unfair by leaving out Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher and Adam Sandler because I like them too well to put them here!)


Pick a career for lead girl and guy:
 Anything that is easy to understand and unobtrusive enough to be pushed into the background, leaving plenty of time for a melodramatic life (So no consulting or investment banking...unless it's a movie about someone in a relationship with their work)


Girl and guy fall in love because:
(a) Instant connection at first sight
(b) Girl makes guy want to be a better person
(c) Girl/guy seems like an angel compared to the absolute witch/ogre that the guy/girl is somehow engaged to (why you would get yourself in such a situation with someone so obviously obnoxious I don't know!)
(d) Hey it's love! Why do you need a reason?


But girl and guy can't get together because:
(a) They started out hating each other and can't go back on that
(b) They are engaged to above mentioned witch/ogre
(c) They come from two different worlds
(d) There is some misunderstanding which makes one of them think that the other does not love them


BUT guy/girl overcomes all that and finally decides to declare their feelings at:
(a) The airport
(b) The other person's wedding (or their own)
(I wish I could give you more options here but going by 99% of the romcoms I've seen, these seem to be the only ones)


Then they get together and the producers live happily ever after!


---------------------------------------- The End  ---------------------------------------------

 Disclaimer: I have happily swallowed  these romcoms by the dozen  but I guess watching them all together now is a little too much even for me :D

How times have changed!

Now that I have a lot of free time at hand, I'm watching random shows on TV, reruns of old sitcoms and also revisiting some of my favourite shows as a kid. It's funny to see how things have changed since I was a kid.

Teenagers in the 90's:

Teenagers now:

The shows back then were so innocent. It was mostly about the teen's families, sibling rivalry, school and occasionally, dates/relationships. Meanwhile, their counterparts from the second decade of the millennium are already having kids and investigating(maybe even doing) murders. What's with kids these days wanting to grow up so soon! I guess we can't blame them though..the world doesn't have much to offer them anymore. What with the increasing academic competition, all the extra classes to improve your profile and the only outlet being TV or electronics or weekends at a mall. Bleh..no natural play areas with unstructured playing or even the time/energy for it I think. Atleast not as much as my generation :( And to top that, being constantly prompted to consume zillions of products by all sorts of media...no wonder they are turning into miniature adults!

Family structures and society views too have evolved a lot. I realized that a few things that are taken very coolly in shows nowadays were considered a culture shock even in Friends!

A 'non-typical' family in the 90's:

A non-typical family now:

But this change I consider more favourably. It's great that homosexuality is accepted more readily and kids are able to better cope with their parents getting divorced/ re-married. I'm still not sure of the full consequences of the latter cuz it shouldn't reach a point of indifference either! But society on the whole can do with learning a bit more about minding its own business ;)

Holy Mother of God

This guy

played this guy?!

Respect! _/\_

When I started watching Breaking Bad, I could see that the lead actor was really good but I had thought that he must be just a slightly less depressing version of his on-screen character in real life. I expected the actor to be someone stern and sober. When I learnt it was Bryan Cranston who played Malcolm's dad in Malcolm in the Middle, I was super-shocked. What an amazing actor this guy is! Apparently, his real self is the funny, goofy type :) I think it must be easy for people like that to play serious characters but not the other way round.

Anyway, I was unable to take more than 3 episodes of Breaking Bad. Too depressing for me at this age.

I'd rather be Ricky than Ben!

When you learn what the title of this post refers to, you will see that the blog has stooped to a whole new level of low :D Yes, I'm talking about The Secret Life of American Teenagers :( You know, that show where you have 6 teenagers and all sorts of possible relations between them (very resource-efficient producers) . It's actually pretty good sometimes...even though most of the dialogues are beeped! Anyway, watching the recent episodes made me wonder again what sort of person I was and should be: Ben or Ricky.

When things are alright, Ricky seems like a selfish, villainous character and Ben seems to be the nice, gentle one. But when troubles came, Ricky faced them head on and took full responsibility. He left off fooling around with Adrian, took a job and started caring for John and helping Amy out. And since he's met his biological mother, he is trying his best to help her get her life back on track. He didn't get bogged down by what fate threw at him and didn't run away from his troubles. You gotta admire someone like that...no wonder almost every female character is in love with him :D Ben, on the other hand, likes to look like the good guy but does not know how to live up to it if circumstances aren't favourable. He claims to be in love with Amy but sleeps with Adrian and dates Grace...sheesh. He doesn't take responsibility for anything he's done or lays a claim to. He just wants his life to be smooth and easy...and when anything threatens that, he runs away to the most comfortable alternative available, all the while crying about how things are tough for him. What a sissy -_-

The point is, I've been grappling with these paradoxical personalities ever since I watched Crash (good cop-bad cop) and have been wondering if these personality types are exceptions or the general rule. If they are the rule, then I have a bad feeling I'm a Ben :'( I always gave a lot of importance to being a good person. Nothing wrong with that but I also give a lot of importance to being seen as a good person. That's where the problem lies. I think that makes me a bit of a coward and I can be really good only when I stop caring about appearances. Now, I have started to appreciate personalities like Scarlett O'Hara. I had always felt obliged to view her as a more villainous character. I think that is because my mental conditioning (developed on own + inherited as part of the human race) has taught me to view women who steal husbands and are not gentle as villains even if they have bravely and single-handedly supported families and saved lives >:(

But now I have realized that courage is the most important quality, without which the rest are incomplete (JK Rowling got that right :) ). One of my favourite profs at IIML once said "Courage is the pre-requisite to integrity". Truer words were never spoken! I don't care much about appearances of politeness and goodness if you can't stand up for yourself, and by other people, when the going gets tough. Here's to real character!

5 Reasons Why I Love Modern Family

I wanted to stick to literature in this blog but have to express this somewhere and I don't have another blog so:

(1) They are dysfunctional - I love dysfunctional families!Any other kind just cannot be fun enough ;)

(2) They are family - They are absolutely crazy but they stick by each other (except Jay's and Gloria's exes who were a whole different level of crazy). I cannot imagine living with a person like Cam who blows into pieces all the time and goes sleep-clowning :O But Mitch loves him and I feel sure Mitch will never say "that's enough" and leave him. That's what family is supposed to be! I love Gloria's Spanish quote: you should be the wing in your family's back, not the spit in their face (it supposedly sounds better in Spanish).

(3) Even the dog breaks the fourth wall :D

(4) Phil - Funniest person EVER.

(5) Gloria - She wears her heart on her sleeve. She's so frank and innocent and not at all bitchy, which breaks a big stereotype about beautiful women! And she's super cool!

I have only 4 seasons on my laptop and already on season 3. I'm going to miss them so much when I'm done :(

Phew!

It is so difficult to think of a name for the blog without getting the word 'random' in and without sounding too dreamy. But the blog is going to be about random things so I managed to work the randomness in by naming my blog and url after two things that redefine randomness: Beatles lyrics and Lewis Carroll :D Yeah yeah so I ended up sounding pretentious anyway ;)

This blog is meant for all the non-lit stuff which I can now move from my other blog! I don't know why I take the trouble since I won't be regular or have any readers...but these things give you a good laugh when you look back on them after a few years :D