Unorganised to an Organised Diva

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Obtaining genes from my mom who loves to live life as it comes - I would hate to plan and organize things. It was easier to pack in stuff based on the "Just in case" phenomenon. If anything is planned to the tee it loses its charm for me. I like the idea of not knowing, the thrill of the last moment decisions. And just as they say, your spouse should complement you - I landed up with a super organized hubby. And not only hubby but a super super organized family.

So where I dont even know which place I want to dine tonight, they even know which route to be taken to reach the restaurant! "Today is Monday and at 7:30, the BRT corridor would be packed, so we would take the...." and so it goes on. Bags are packed 3 days in advance so that everything is taken care of. Lunches, dinners, outings, shopping - everything has a lead time of 1-2 days.

Over the years I have laughed and humored about the need to organise things before hand. And all this while, unknowingly I have been emulating the same! I was amazed when this year I have managed to pre-plan all the parties and dinners at home. We have already decided on the party date and venue for this Diwali! And to top it all I have even started looking for Diwali gifts which I normally do not start till the week before the distribution! I collect stuff for a new house we have bought and would shift into maybe 2 years time?!

Another thing I kept fighting with my mom was that she would stock anything new - till it was at least a couple of years old. From crockery to bedsheets to decor stuff, everything would be stored to be displayed at the right time and this would annoy me to no end. I want instant gratification - buy it and display it. To my astonishment, my hubby says the same things I told my mom - to me! I have become a hoarder who loves to hoard good stuff for my new home. And well everything that's new is good. So there you go, the story continues.

Is it just me or it happens with everyone? You have certain views in life and hope to follow them all the while. And along the way, you change into exactly what you laughed at a couple of years back. Without notice and without a warning, I changed from being unorganised to an "organised" diva! (Well I like to think I am organised now! People may have different views)

This post is inspired by MySpace's Travel Light post. When I was going through the post, I felt as if it was meant for me and not her "darling hubby".

Reality Bites - have one have all

One great success gives birth to many wannabes. Yes, I am talking about the umpteen reality shows on Indian Television. Each channel has its own competition on:

• singing
• dancing
• game show
• laughter challenge

Last night I was watching a show called Kabhie Kabhie Pyaar Kabhie Kabhie Yaar...and couldn't help but wonder what made them start the show? The same TV stars appear in all reality shows (except for music shows). In fact there haven't been many successful shows without celebrities. So now you find Kashmira Shah on every dance show. Seems she has become a pro reality show participant!

Another thing that makes me think is - how do these judges come up with a different comments on each performance! They surely need to be expressive and creative to be able to ramble out opinions without hurting anyone as such.

The formula for a great program lies in the right balance between entertainment value, originality and authenticity. While entertainment value and originality depend on the concept, the authenticity relies a lot on how genuine and honest the developers are in promoting the right people. Another big asset for such a show are its judges. The more they know about their field, the more consturctive the feedback and the more accurate their readings. Laughter Challenge on Star is losing its authenticity because Siddhu is laughing his ass off every joke! There is no constructive feedback being given and there is no threshold for a performance. The level of content on this show has gone down rather than picking up with every season. I mean move on from the same condescending tone of talking between couples, the same double meaning jokes which have less originality and more vulgarity! Today's generation doesn't even identify with their humor. They need to get out of their 70's and 80's style of talking about less clad women, and troubling housewives!

It's high time we get to see some good shows with some serious content - liked by the modern, educated audience.

Independence Day Celebration

My first blog is about a recent ceremony I attended to celebrate the Indian Independence Day.

It was organized by one of the most respected and well established groups in Dubai. The Counsul General was the chief guest and the highlight of the event was a show by Hema Malini and her daughters.

Much to our embarassment, the speaker from the group went on to ramble about how great India was and how good we were. But alas, the speech was not well prepared, the tone and words used were normal English, there was no pathos, emotions or thought used while writing it - and all this showed very clearly while he spoke unimpressively. He went on to introduce Hema Malini as a famous bollywood actress! I mean an accomplished guest to your function deserves a better introduction. Is that all she ever did in her life? Be a Bollywood heroine?

What made us proud was the beautiful speech by the Counsul General who spoke with a lot of emotion and genuine pride in the nation. No shallow talks - but pure belief in what he spoke. And what sounded good was that he said I do not agree with the introduction given by the speaker and would like to make corrections. He went on to describe the accomplishments of the artiste and tocuh on various issues. A great show of leadership and responsibility.

The cake cutting ceremony took place where no one could view it. We were all forced to watch it on the big screens (which were going off every now and then) - and again to our amusement - it said " Happy Independence Anniversary"!! I mean I alsways thought that it was happy independence day!

All in all the event did not start till 1.30 hrs of its scheduled time, so we decided to leave without watching the performance.

First One

I have been thinking of starting a blog but somehow been very lazy to do so. Well, I am finally here with my thoughts and ideas and ramblings about my daily life, about work and about things I fee strongly about.

Needless to say all feedback is more than welcome. So bring it on!