Chez Moi

Yeah, yeah, yeah, tag time again. But for once, it is a nice one. A cuddly-wuddly, squidgy one. And of course Ams tagged me on to it! So here goes:

I am to list

1. ten things I miss having in my life now
2. ten things I hope to accomplish in the next decade

Oh boy! Next decade - scary thought, that! Esp as I am staring the big 3-0 in the face and I cannot, for the life of me, envisage staring at the bigger 4-0. And, this is a big and, my itty bitty baby boy will be a teenager! GAK! Anyhoo, here’s ten things I miss having in my life just now.

1. I miss the fact that I cannot just take a rick and land on my gran’s doorstep and let her spoil me rotten. And get her to make me upma with contraband (read onions) !
2. The last time I was at college, I used to get up well after 8 AM, have a lazy coffee and grub at the right time, which miraculously appeared on demand, pocket money and a licence to roam the streets of Chennai. Things cannot be any more different this time around!
3. Hanging out with my mates - didn’t appreciate it enough when I could do it whenever. Now, when I go for days without getting the opportunity for a good chinwag, I so miss having the girlfriends around.
4. Going to the beach - there’s nothing to beat going to Elliot’s beach as the sun is setting. The English beaches always leave me with the feeling of ‘is this it?’
5. Gangothri - that delectable haven of chaat and assorted stuff, opposite Stella Maris, which was one of my favourite joint throughout my college years and where the bhaaisaab did his best to remove my stomach lining. Ahh!
6. Summer holidays from when I was a wee thing, which were spent guarding the vathal from the evil crows - which meant we get to eat the half-dry vathal and blame it on the winged beasts. BWAHAHA!
7. Sitting on the walls of the colony well in the grounds of Krupa Colony, under the shady gulmohar trees and watching the world go by.
8. Those innocent days of fun when going out with friends meant a samosa at Hot Chips and a Tamil movie at Udhayam theatre. When we graduated to Sathyam Theatre complex, boy did we feel grown up or what?
9. The auto ride to the Std X board exam centre with my gang of friends - and being chided by my once-close friend on my woefully lacking prep!
10. Sitting around vetti on an afternoon surrounded by the whole family including my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Though my granddad invariably shouted us down or hogged the remote, it was still fun!

Now for the second, arguably difficult part of the tag. Ten things I’d like to do before I hit 40! (Ye gods!) Well, I made a fundu list for the 3-0 - I think I did about 2 out of the 10. Let’s hope I have better luck with this one!

1. Bunjee - I really, really want to bunjee jump. Possibly somewhere spectacularly scenic like Switzerland or NZ.
2. Visit New Zealand. It has been my dream place to visit since Lord of the Rings. Oh and Ireland too. The West Country, to be exact.
3. Learn to play the veena. I started learning and as with everything with me, lost interest after about 3.5 seconds and that was the end of that. No, I’m lying - I lost interest when I tightened the strings a bit over zealously and the ruddy thing twanged and slashed me across my face!
4. Go trekking - which means getting decently fit first!
5. Get a driving licence. Anyone who laughs will be shot unceremoniously.Ditto for swimming. Ditto threat.
6. Get back into pre-Pratik shape. Double ditto threat.
7. See the Taj Mahal in the moonlight. Hopefully that’ll mean less hawkers and gawkers around and the joint will seem less blah and more wowee in the soft light.
8. Get a pet dog. A Labrador who comes to me as a wee pup and then grows up to tower over us all. Who scares the pants of anyone who comes near but dissolves into a puddle when I pet him
9. Have my own company - terribly successfu, of course, making us pots of money.
10. Another baby - a girl this time. sigh

Ok time to pass it around. Don’t beat me up, saddos. This is such a nice tag to do so wipe that grim look off your faces and hop to it. With that, I tag Apu, Dee, Suj and MM.

In a country like ours, where movie stars enjoy venerated status, they are in a unique position to do something positive, something immensely good to the people, to actually make a change. Some adopt a cause and use their status to do great, charitable things. In some cases, though, their A-list status is enough to publicise a deed, be it good or bad. In that regard, a ’star’ at the top of his (or her) reign, has to be ultra careful in making sure his movie choices cannot be misconstrued as anything less than stellar.

This was something that Tamil actor Ajith forgot when he signed up for the movie ‘Varalaru’ a.k.a ‘Godfather’. At that time, the man’s career was in the doldrums and since then, he has slowly regained his lost lustre in the eyes of his adoring public. But with ‘Varalaru’, he has lost whatever respect I had for him as a person.

In the movie, Ajith plays the part of the father, the son and the evil villain who also turns out to be his other son - surprise! Daddy dear is a trained bharathnatyam dancer, which for some reason, equates him to a eunuch and all he does is elaborate abhinayam in place of regular expressions. Okay, harmless I hear you say. He is - till the day he is two shakes of a duck’s tail away from being married to this luscious babe - and she dumps him. Why? Only ‘cos he comes across more girly than her! This of course enrages the hero!

So he sets of to prove his manhood. How does he do it? Oh by this easy way of raping her. In her room. With a whole household full of servants and mother hollering away, banging on the door.

Though the girl screeches it at the top of her voice, he has great trouble hearing the word ‘NO’ and calmly proceeds to ’show’ her that he is a man, after all!

What really takes the biscuit is his explanation to the girl’s mum after he was done. Apparently, he did what he did because the girl was having doubts about his manliness. How else could a bloke to prove he is a man? By raping the said woman, of course!

The cherry on top of this sick icing happens a few scenes later, when the girl’s mum pleads his case to her now pregnant daughter, with the standard “He is a good man, sweetheart” line. Of course he is, if you discount the fact the raped you to prove his manhood. He is so the man!It is movies like this that make me want to gag. Here we have organisations trying to fight crimes against women and then we have movies like this tosh, that make a whole mahatma out of the sod who commits this heinous crime. Even more gaggable fact is that, the adoring public turned up in droves to see this load of crap, shelling out their hard earned money hand over fist to make it a hit. A hit! This &%$#* of a film!

There’s no accounting for taste, is there? Women getting assaulted - well that is no filmy matter, is it? Why would one trivialize it so? What the hell was the Censor Board doing when it deemed this palpable fare?

Two things about such ventures astound me

1. how could a sane person decide portraying such roles is actually a good thing to do
2. why an intelligent person would throw good, hard earned money at such claptrap?

It also makes me wonder when the so-called ’stars’ would actually realise what amazing pull they have and use it to actually do some good, rather than to purely rake in the dosh. Looking cool and setting little girlies’ heart go pitty-pat is all fine and dandy. But to actually pass on sensible message, one that will do some good, for a change, whilst looking cool - well that’s the ult, isn’t it?Any takers? Ajith? Maddy?

ps: Any one who wants to claim ‘oh Daddy Ajith repented what he did and tried to make amends’ and thereby prove this is a worthy film, please, save your breath.