I *heart* Bombay (and well..Boston)

I'm urban..in the way other people are mountain-people or tunafish junkies. I love city life...something about dreary concrete blocks and grumpy people totally gets my juices flowing. Ergo, this will be a blog about me, my two favourite cities (Bombay and Boston), my addiction to Vietnamese coffee and my views on Gregorian chant and it's efficacy in curing some types of tympannic membrane rupture. Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

You-tube..No! You-tube!

Ever since Salil introduced me to the wonders of uploading video snapshots and watching other people's attempts at home movies and videos, I've been addicted to You tube. So I just spent an evening browsing through and trying to find videos of all my favourite music...most of which I haven't seen (only heard) seeing as they are all International hits not to be seen on Lowest-Common-Denominator channels like Channel V and MTV (Honestly, if it wasn't for VH-1, I think I'd be in Bollywood heaven with all the Hindi only stuff that happens on music TV in India)...

Anyway, check out some of my favourite songs and their videos.

Twiggy Twiggy - Pizzicato 5.. Twiggy is what M. used to call me..cause I was obsessed by this song and I think I made him hear it like 20 times. It's also one of the cutest songs lyrics wise I know..and Nomiya Maki is soooo cute!

One Man Guy - Rufus Wainwright..One of my favourite songs sung by one of my favourite singers in one of my favourite places in the world. Sigh.


Salama ya Salama
- Alabina..This group brings together both my loves..Arabic music and flamenco. *shudders as Himesh Reshammiya makes an Indian version*

Mistaneek - Natacha Atlas..I have a different version of this song, but seeing this video makes this the more appealing one.

Ya Tayr - Fairuz..I was on a date once in Boston where my Lebanese date sang this to me at a bar. Since then, I've loved this song.

Elo Hi - Ofra Haza.. You can keep your Barbra Streisand's and Judy Garlands and Madonnas..Ofra Haza will be MY true Diva.

I also love by Ofra Haza Im Nin Alu, the original of that horribly remixed 80's international hit, Kaddish, one of the few songs that gets me emotional...

And a couple from the love of my life, the father of my unborn kids, Tarkan...
Hup, Sikidim and Simarik..I close my eyes and imagine that kiss was just for me...

And finally, You-Tube is my source (thanks to Salil again) for cheesy South Indian movie songs..including my two favourites Tik Tik Tik and Love me or Hate me...always has me rolling in the aisles.

I'm currently trying to get a bunch of stuff the Orkutkars made up on You-Tube. I should probably have a link to it once I get OK's frmo everyone in it!

Current Music:
Simarik - Tarkan

Like I said, that kiss was just for me!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Musings and all that

This post was supposed to be about something else but I'll just put that on the back burner for a bit (Thank you blogger.com for letting me save drafts). I've been rather incommunicado eh? Well, many reasons; the rain gods have ABANDONED me! 2 days of rain and I get so excited and happy..and then nothing for the next 2 weeks? It's enough to make anyone depressed! Especially someone who longs for dull, dark, gloomy days! Plus, I've been sick (boohoo!). Though I'm supremely grateful to be still living at home and having Amma nurse me back to health from a rather nasty bout of viral fever....varan-baath, adrak chai and Crocin - my diet for the last 4 days. I'm sure I've lost some poundage (Yes!).

Anyway, I've been musing over things. And people. Ever since VisualScribe and me went on this uber-long walk/coffeeshop haunting on Sunday. We talked about a lot of things, mainly how our views and wants ahve changed around the age 30 mark. Suddenly sex isn't that important. (I use "that" to emphasize I do like a bit of it now and then - preferably accompanied with a good dinner beforehand). It's the companionship that matters. I've been hanging around with almost exclusively coupled people the last couple of months and while they bitch and moan about not being alone to do what they want, they always have someone to do it with. That's what us single people are missing really. I mean when you're 25 it's all about the next fuck, at 30 suddenly it starts looking very different. You miss the physical closeness of someone, the mental peace of sharing your deepest issues and needs with someone, the emotional stability a partner provides. (I'm guessing at 35 it moves into the cynical view that single is best) I watched this Sex and the City episode a few nights ago when Carrie turns 35 and no one shows up to her birthday party. That episode really touched me because of the morning-after conversation she has with her friends. She talks about how it suddenly hit her just how alone she was..and how sad she felt that she didn't have someone. While I understand that you don't "have" to have someone, at some point every human needs and deserves that companion. I've reached that point. So have several people my age I know. Is there something about turning 30 that makes you think like this? Suddenly I'm looking at apartments to evaluate whether a couple would like it, looking at clothes I wouldn't mind sharing, investigating dates before going on them, adding the dreaded "financial" bit to the normal qualities I look for....

Am I getting old?

I'm getting harsh with people I feel aren't contributing - friends, co-workers, family, dates. If I'm not getting what I want from you, I'm just cutting you out. Why do I do that? Is it some sub-concious need to protect myself now that I have more to lose? I've yelled at someone who just called to say hi yesterday for calling me after a long while being incommunicado and not following through on promises to have dinner/drinks/catch up. Yeah, like I don't know what that means!
"Let's do drinks sometime" = "I'm being polite but I'm not really interested in knowing you"
G-d! I'm turning into such a cynic! (From Carrie to Miranda?) No contact in a month and people are off my phone list, no contact in 2 and they're off my IM list, any more and outta my life...

In other news, I think I cut off my balls and pickled them when I spent 30 minutes helping a friend pick out lingerie at La Senza. I guess the only way I can get them back is by drinking a pitcher of beer and vomitting down the front of some girls tee while I'm freaking with her. Sigh.

Or I can wear my colours and support SERBIA for World Cup Champs 2006! Woohoo! They play Argentina tonight. I'll be the only one at Seijo on their side I bet...


Current Music:
Complainte de la butte - Rufus Wainwright

I absolutely love how 1950's French cafe this sounds. And I love Rufus' lifestyle! And waht a voice eh? (Why do I giggle when I see the name of this song?)