Saturday, October 29, 2005

Once in a lifetime opportunity !

For the first time in my life, I was in the audience of an intenational cricket match where India actually WON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cricket Sixes
Hong Kong
October 23, 2005

Njoy the Pics :)


The ground


The cheerers


The claps


And the smiles

Monday, October 24, 2005

An obituary for my 26 years

I kept it at bay for an entire year, and then found me ensnared, yet again. My damn birthday.

This time I left town to escape. Ran away to Singapore last week. But even there it caught up with me, turning me 27 against all my prayers. Taking me unawares. Right there, on the luggage conveyor belt at Changi. Damn.

Oh yes - this is moping time. As I always mope on every occassion worth its salt. Anniversaries, festivals, anything regular... they all seem like performance appraisals - demanding to know - what I have to show, for the years gone by. Bossy creeps.

Sigh

26 gone by

I need retail therapy
:(((

Monday, October 10, 2005

You've come a long way, baby!

source: http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Virg03.11.html



Here's an ad that marked a change in the way things were marketed - when in it's campaign, Virginia Slims asked women to smoke for themselves, to celebrate their own success in climbing up the social ladder.

Of course, increasing one's lung cancer risk is not quite the way to mark the femiminist leap of the '60s. Nevertheless, it's better than choking up to please some thoughtful male with undoubtedly lecherous thoughts on a billboard. But that's a different story. And my thoughts today centre not around the smoking, but dieting.

Coz dieting too has come a long way. Goodbye cabbage soup. So long, starvation diets. Hello, Eating. And by eating I do not mean throw up after eating, but just good old eating, even hogging.

Atkins, South Beach diet, and now The Warrior are littering the landscape with glimmers of hope for meatloaf lovers. And Meatloaf lovers - 'I would do anything for love, but I won't do THAT'. THAT, with all its contempt for exercise. and all the love for skinniness.

I know, I know - all of these diets do not just recommend eating, but also exercise. and sternly too. Dr Atkins demands a work-out along with all those stakes, and stakes, and uhm, some more stakes. But I am not very sure as to how many of those who follow his mantra follow the whole of it. Do they run and weight-train as religiously as they stuff their mouth with, er, the stakes?

Now before anyone gets high-strung and leaves testimonials on this page with 'before' and 'after' snaps (not that I am stopping you guys), let me clarify, I am not trying to discredit these increasingly bizarre eating recommendations. In fact, I have been sufficiently enticed to try to try them out myself. After I witnessed a Discovery channel documentary that took up Dr Atkins work quite seriously (yes, I was jobless and there were hardly any other channels worth watching on TV) I did try out meat - meal after meal for two whole days. May sound a paltry achievement to you, these two days, but that's all my Indian, vegetable-centric palette could stomach.

Which brings me to why I am writing this column at all... any nutritionists looking for a new avenue in the semmingly over-congested dieting market? I would be glad to hear an eat-all-you-want version plan with curries and vegetables. And am sure some Mexican somewhere is looking for jalapeno and salsa laden meals. While an irishman or many are looking for Guinness-full menus. There are many more untrodden paths ahead. So Help!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

When I was new to Hong Kong - jobless, lazy and wilting away in a shoebox-sized serviced apartment that's so typical to this city - I became a TV addict for the first time. I watched anything that moved: ranging from Hitler on History channel to Chinese horror film monsters on cable to even the live camera relay from the building's entrance. And I didn't sleep through anything.

The vegetative state lasted for two months, maybe more. I became quite a potato all over except for my remote-tapping hand. But the bigger feature I am stuck with is the attraction of reality shows. Barring 'Growing up Gotti', it all works for me. I've even grown to like Simon (s)cowl. really. And I think Rockstar INXS is un-missable.

Of course, I'm hardly alone in succumbing to this genre. Zee TV (the only Hindi channel I get in my building) has polished its Saregamapa singing competition to reflect more competitivness and more rudeness (by pitching 'guru' music directors against each other, half of them coming across as fairly abrasive and one of whom is further ruder).

Of course, can't help but compare the American shows to their Indian counterparts. And the first thing that comes to my mind is not the participant quality, nor production values - it's the culture!

While the American shows treat their contendors as adults - lambasting them or praising them as potential singers, the Indian judges treat them, and even address them, as if they were kids. Imagine Paula Abdul telling Bo Bice "you are like our son" or Simon tell Carrie Underwood "I am criticizing you, but take it in the spirit of our teaching heritage... we are just teachers trying to make you children better"! Nope I am not making these dialogues up - these are straight translations from the show.

The difference just amuses me: why do Indians have children, and Americans sons and daughters? What do you think?