Me Thinks

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Total trash

There is a movie called American Desi in which the guy and the girl watch a hindi movie together. The guy is an ABCD and gets frustrated after watching the movie and tells the girl "I've seen porn movies with a better storyline". Since then I've been keeping track of such worse-than-porn movies. And looks like Kabhi Alvida na kehna qualifies as one. I got the following as a FWD and its funny.

CHARACTERS: BOY1, BOY2, GIRL1, GIRL2, PARENTS

BOY 1 loves GIRL 1.
BOY 2 loves GIRL 2.
PARENTS MAKE THE DECISION.
BOY 1 MARRIES GIRL 2.
BOY 2 MARRIES GIRL 1.
BOY 1 ? GIRL 2 ? UNHAPPY
BOY 2 ? GIRL 1 ? UNHAPPY
BOY 1 still loves GIRL 1
BOY 2 still loves GIRL 2
PARENTS COME TO KNOW AGAIN. DECISION MADE.
BOY 1 MARRIES GIRL 1.
BOY 2 MARRIES GIRL 2.
HAPPY ENDING!!!
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NAME OF THE STORY: KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA.
BOY 1: SHAHRUKH KHAN
BOY 2: ABHISHEK BACCHAN
GIRL 1: PRIETY ZINTA
GIRL 2: RANI MUKHERJEE
Rs 150/ saved.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Mummy

Some of the side-effects of growing up in a joint family are not reversible. I know it because I grew up in one. When my e(o)ldest cousin was born, he saw all the elders calling my grandmother "Amma", so he started calling her "Amma" instead of "paatti". Then his siblings were born and they called her the same way. Wonder how they differentiated between their own mother and our grand-mother! And they all called my parents "Mama" and "Mami". When I was born, all the kids were calling my parents mama-mami and I started calling my mother mami. "Mama" was not called as often as Mami, so I stuck to Mami and Appa to address my parents, much to the disappointment of my mother. Why Appa? Well, who can ever understand kids' logic!Then one of our uncles visited us and to assuage my mother, apparently, told me that Mami is actually pronounced as Mummy and that was the right way to call my mother. And that was the day I started calling her "Mummy". My brother, as expected, followed suit.
How can a thayirsadham-eating, middle-class, all-the-time-tamil-speaking tamilian kids call their mother Mummy? Or so the people who inhabited my world thought. My world then consisted of classmates and neighbours (apart from relatives) Most people called me a "show-off" or a "bandha" type. I would never forget what one of my classmates said. She showed me a girl who was getting down from her car. The girl waved bye to the driver and her Mom, who was wearing sunglasses. This classmate told me "She is so rich, even she doesn't call her mother Mummy". From that day on, I was so ashamed to call my mother in public but I couldn't call her Amma either. Amma is my grandmother. I would scream Appa when I saw parents coming home but would say Mummy so quietly that no one would hear. I would even call my parents Ammi-Abba or Thaye-Thandhaye or Aattha-Naina and pretend I was jesting while in reality I just wanted to avoid calling Mummy in public. When I had to, it was just "Mee". Most North Indians call their parents Mummy-Papa, so they never found anything strange with the way I called my parents. Nor was I made fun of during college days.
Recently, one of my friends asked me how I would want my son to call me. "Is it gonna be Mommy as the kids here call or Amma?" she asked with a mischievous smile. The smile seemed to convey "How can you ask him to call you Amma when you don't call your mother that way?" To avoid falling into her obvious trap, I told her. "He is going to call me Aattha. After all, I am quintessential Madras". I bet she was disappointed that she couldn't finish her thought.;-)
And yesterday my son kept repeating the word Aattha and that warmed the cockles of my heart. Maybe Naina is next....

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Kannagi

Kannagi is one of the "paavam" characters of Tamil. She was so nice that she even readily accepted a husband who cheated on her. All in the name of being a "patthini". Some soul must've said "A patthini always forgives her husband, no matter how grave his mistake is". The true patthini she was, she did the same. There ends her greatness, if you ask me. After all the turn of events, she was angry with the king who killed her husband on false charges and to avenge him, she burnt the whole of Madurai with her curse. Madurai is the capital of "true" Tamil. And she burnt THAT city. This is a story.

But what exactly did Kannagi do to deserve the respect of all tamilians born anywhere in the world I don't know. She is a charcter you may or may not like. But how is that like or dislike connected to your love for tamil or tamilians? Say this loud and you'd be termed an anti-tamil person. How is her statue more important than any other statue in Marina? After Jayalalithaa decided to remove her statue, suddenly, her statue became more important than the rest. Apparently, when TN's current CM saw her statue covered with dust-bunnies, he cried.

Dear CM, there are thousands of people in TN who are dying without proper medical care, dying because of riots in the name of (political)parties and all, please spare a thought/tear for them. These people are alive unlike this statue.

Is that me that typed all this? Whats with me?