Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Dostana, Digression and... Dhupia?!

Today’s a Tuesday, meaning it’s the day for one of my favourite columns in The Hindu- Know Your English. The knowledge gained today was particularly interesting, the standout being the phrase ‘academic bulimia’. It really amazes me as to how the languages sometimes have the exact words or phrases for common things- and trust me, look up the phrase, unless you know it already, and you shall be, too! Another interesting titbit of info was about the pronunciation of ‘potpourri’. So many years of reading and using the word, and only today did I realise that there’s a silent ‘t’! That’s what I love about this column- it’s almost always got a revelation in store! In fact, the juicy quote at the bottom of this column every week is the source for my most-used quote, which can be found a few pixels to the right of what you’re viewing presently. Of course, too many variations of the same have now been used by a gamut of celebrities- including the one by Neha Dhupia, where the feet in the quote were replaced by... you should know it- I can’t mention it here- on a FilmFare cover .

 

(Digression- It’s the Dostana playlist playing right now, and the very song Lefty wanted on my playlist last time out!)

 

Anyway, chatting with a friend on Gmail the other day, I mentioned that I was obsessed with my blog these days, and that everything seems worth a post- more and more signs of shifting to the second type of bloggers. Sad for them. Oh, another digression, please.

 

(Digression- Did I forget to mention in the music post, that I totally dig Shut Up & Bounce, and it was on the playlist that night? Although I so didn’t dig the unofficial Indian ambassador to the city of London, Ms. Big Brother, in the video!)

 

A glance at my last three posts revealed that I blabbered on TV, music, movies and food- pretty much everything I’m upto in these holidays, unlike others off to the explore the wonders of the world, in Egypt and China, to be precise. Can’t wait for their excited narrations. Speaking of Egypt, I saw The Bucket List last night. Very nice movie. Another Morgan Freeman starrer on the list of movies I like- this brilliant actor might as well take over SRK, at least numbers-wise! I also happened to watch a movie called Definitely, Maybe. It’s a 2008 release, and of the actors, I only knew Rachel Weisz (pause for drool and starry-eyed sigh... and we’re back), and had kind-of heard of Ryan Reynolds. I’m not really sure which genre to club it in- romance might fit best, although rom-com isn’t too bad either. Again, I might be walking a tightrope saying this- Big B gave me a most quizzical look and said I had pathetic taste- but I really liked the movie- especially Abigail Breslin as the protagonist’s 11-year-old daughter, Maya. Plus, Isla Fisher’s really cute in the movie, playing April Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz as Summer Hartley is, as always, worth pausing and drooling. The pause-and-drool list, by the way, is ably led by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Nicole Kidman, among a host of others. I tend to make up this list whenever there’s a new addition.

 

The MTV Tickr, a fairly popular addition this year to the channel, was looking for writers, the other day. On some days, I seriously think it does need good ones, badly, although the guy/gal writing the Uday Chopra or Ghajini jokes isn’t really bad. The horoscope guy is simply pathetic- seems like just a space-filler.

 

(Digression- Dance Pe Chance has weird lyrics, but I guess with that kind of title, it’s warranted!)

 

Speaking of horoscopes, I’d like to let you in on some more about me. I simply love reading the horoscope in the papers every day. Before you add a few more points to my weird quotient, may I add that I do so only after the end of the day. I just like to measure how they accurate they turn out to be, and the days they do turn out to be even a little close to reality- after various twisting, twirling and imaginastics operations- I smile and go on to read Calvin and Hobbes, which, needless to say, is simply mind-blowing! My philosophy when it comes to astrology and horoscope, is borrowed from the beginnings of quantum mechanics- take known results and fit them into theories, or build theories around them. That way, the chance reading of my Chinese zodiac sign’s Wikipedia entry was great fun. The thing with astrology, at least in the case of sun-signs and Chinese zodiac, that most people dismiss as inaccuracy is actually quite unfortunate. Of course, it’s impossible to predict one’s characteristics when hundreds of thousands of completely distinct people are born in the same year, or the same span of weeks. But, the characteristics that these methods attempt to give are only a set of traits that may define a person, and it isn’t necessary that one fits all- one is supposed to fit only a particular subset of that set. Try looking at it this way, and you might just be able to appreciate such things. My Chinese Zodiac sign- Horse- is amazingly close to being me, especially that particular paragraph about secrets on the Wikipedia page, left me awe-struck. Mom and Big B are both Tigers, something the latter always uses in arguments involving deciding who’s more majestic.

 

(One final digression- Just finished playing the whole RNBDJ album. Not as impressive as the reviews, but Haule Haule is too charming to snub the album! And, a tip for all those with a small but growing library- just play the Rock On album when you run out of tracks; there’s a song for every mood!)

 

Before I sign off, I feel very strange ending a post without any post-script(s). No useless info to add. Sigh!

2 comments:

The Decayed Canine said...

Oi. Take my name off the link to the blog will you? I'd like discretion where possible. Never know with the people around here as to who might get senti at one of my blunt opinions...

Murty said...

@ DC

Aye aye, captain!