Amethyst..

Amethyst is a nice quaint (now forgotten, thanks to Mocha, Coffee Day, Barista and all the other jazzy coffee pubs which have sprung up in Chennai over the past 5 years) eat out.

This is yet another post on food, so non-foodians look away.

The eternally hungry 8 of us found ourselves in a dilemma, about where to go and stuff our faces today. We kept name swapping restaurants, bunked college after the 1st hour, played a game of our very own YOU KNOW (UNO name modified - it's a group thing, the rest of you can continue calling it UNO), gluged down watermelon juice and finally it hit us - Amethyst. Close in distance (1 minute walk from friends' house) and open at 11.30 am to feed the hungry and famished.

We joined 3 small round tables, plonked ourselves on the nice steel/jute chairs and looked in awe at the amount of greenery around us and the nice shade it provided us, from the intense heat outside. Heaven was right there, i tell you.

The next 1 hour was an insane hogathon. We started with dessert and drinks. I was sharing my dessert (a chocolate brownie with chocolate sause) with Ms Ritu Chaudhary -- the barbarian chocoholic. She grabbed the fork from me and dug it into my hand, each time i tried to eat a bite.

Next, three starters were served to us. Potato wedges with a nice pink dip (too sexy, i could'nt stop licking the little steel bowl, long after the dip was over) , a cheesy strange shaped golden yellow blob with tomato sauce (heaven again) and lastly toasted square slices of bread with mushroom and cheese topping.

Starters done, we clutched our tummies and looked at each other with sheepish grins. No sooner had we done that, our main course was served - 3 varieties of pasta - one with white sauce, one with a green sauce and one with tomato sauce. Yummy in our tummies!

We were now officially stuffed, to the brink. If tribal folk caught us right there and decided to make us their meal, they would've had a ball.

But of course, we did not give up. Overeating is the name of the game children -- read and learn. We ordered dessert again - two pieces of chocolate cake and one plate of brownie with chocolate sauce.

Food has a magical power - It bonds people. You suddenly get all gooey inside and mentally thank the Good Lord for giving you such excellent friends.

Burp and double burp. I dedicate this post to my lovely gang of foodians anonymous (alcoholics anonymous re-named because we are shameless eaters, alcohol is not an addiction for us -- yet!)

Nerdville..

After 21 years, 25 days and a few minutes here and there (i suck at math, so kindly adjust) later, I'm guilty as charged. I'm a nerd!

I just wrote a paper which I presumed, I hadn't crammed much for. But the minute the question paper was handed to me, my hand shot out like a missile and I finished dot on time. I underlined all the key words, scratched out the wrong words neatly with a pencil, erased all the unnecessary lines out etc. I walked out of the exam hall, with a very elated feeling.

Now, that doesn't make me a nerd. Yes? No? Maybe the next few lines, would change your mind.

I have a Lion King pencil box, (rectangular shaped and light blue) with a small scale, eraser, sharper and 1 small dark green pencil the size of my little finger. My college gear, I'd like to call them. While most people sleep during a lecture, or pretend to listen and space out, I actually listen to every word that comes out of the lecturer's mouth, I take down notes in my school note book (yes, thats right, I still have 25 of my school note books left) and I underline everything with my pencil and my little scale.

"Gayatri, you're such a nerd man. " quoted my friends with sad, disgusted shakes of their heads. I agree. Guilty as charged ladies, guilty as charged.

On the plus side though, I'd make a hot nerd eh? (Yes, I'm fishing for compliments, I'm from fish land after all, if I don't fish, who will?)

Jodhaa Akbar..

I've been hearing Jashn-e-Baharaa for too long now and after watching the flick yesterday (which was a harebrained last minute plan set to motion, which paid off, so cheers to harebrained schemes, screw advance booking of tickets!) i cant stop singing it, or rather it refuses to leave my mouth. I'm singing it in the shower, while brushing my teeth, riding my bike, mid-way through conversations and through mouthfuls of food.. somebody STOP ME!

Jodhaa Akbar, has SUPER cinematography and excellent camera work. The war sequences were mind-blowing. Hrithik Roshan stole the show as usual, with his larger than life performance and his Greek God looks. Aishwarya (can't stand the woman) surprisingly, did a darn good job playing the role of Jodhaa. There was absolutely zilch over-acting (remember Dhoom 2, Bride and Prejudice *barf and double barf*)

The costumes, the jewellery and the sets were magnificent, i felt i was actually stepping back into the Mughal era. It was absolutely amazing, would be an understatement.

The story though, is okie-okie types. If you're the 'i cant get enough of Mills and Boons' kind of person, Jodhaa Akbar is YOUR flick. For the rest of us semi-sops, drooling at Hrithik and praying that we'd someday marry a dude, who looks just like him will make the flick watchable.

Message to Mayajaal a/c controlling people : 19 Degrees Celsius, are you out of your FREAKIN' MINDS?! Grrr!

Arjun Bhadran

I haven’t mentioned anything about this man anywhere in this blog, partly because I’m a little scared of him and partly because if I write something not up to his taste, I fear that "Donate your music and movies to adorable younger sister" will stop.

Arjun Bhadran is my brother. I’m alive and kicking today, all thanks to this man. When he was about 7 years old, he asked his mom and dad why their household had only one child, while all the other households had two and three. And lo and behold a handful of months later, a fat kid rolled out of mommy dearest's tum tum.

Growing up with Arjun Bhadran was fun, I have vague memories of going to a pool with him, I’d float around with that ridiculous tube thing around me whilst he splashed around in the deep end with his friends. He was, like all boys his age, restless and eternally playing outside with all the other small boys. One evening, I heard loud bawling and screaming in our living room, I ran as fast as my podgy, fat legs could carry me. I saw the most horrific sight – my brother bleeding profusely and crying his guts out, he was surrounded by all his friends, mom and dad.

For 4 years after that, i’m drawing a complete blank, because I grew up with my grandparents, while he grew up with mom and dad. By the end of the 4th year, he finally came home. Home for me back then was, land of grandparents. I had no clue who my parents were, I just saw a few pictures of them around the house.

His room was a treasure chest for me, whenever he was not around, I’d run up and explore it. His room always smelt nice and even to date, all the rooms that he has inhabited always smell nice, all thanks to the most expensive perfumes he uses. That’s another thing, the man is very classy. He uses only the most expensive products.

Movies and music, are like the back of his hand. He knows who is hot and who is not at the moment. I grew out of my awkward Backstreet Boys phase (yes, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a HUGE Nick Carter fan and even had an e-mail ID on hotmail - gayatrilovesnicky@hotmail.com, I was a child, and it was the age making me do random appalling things!) and into a metal diva (hehe, or so I want to believe) all thanks to this man.

Growing up, we didn’t squabble much or have fist fights, like most siblings do. Our relationship was built on authority and respect. Or in other words, I had to drop everything and tend to his 'get me a bottle of water from the fridge’, ‘change the channel’, ‘bring me the last piece of the cake’, ‘don’t go through my stuff’ and finally ‘go fetch that cricket ball from the bushes’

Arjun Bhadran is now 28 years old and having the time of his life in Dubai. He came home 2 weeks back and time just flew, literally. Every single day that he was around was filled with some activity or the other. And by activity I mean, not physical (unless of course you consider picking up forks and chewing food with your mouth as physical activity).

I have run out of words now. I have nothing more to say, besides, I don’t want my Dubai goodie distribution to come to an abrupt halt. So, I’ll end this post with three words -- YOU ROCK BRO! \m/

Lunch at Vasavis'..

Lunch at Vasavis' is no novelty. I'm welcomed into her humble abode, once a month at least, to gorge on her cook Ramu's amazing stuffed parathas, dum aloo, muttar-paneer et al. But this afternoon was a little different.

The gang and i, bunked the last hour of college and rode upto Vasavi's place with salivating mouths and food deprived bellies. (5 hours of no food, IS food deprivation) We climbed up the stairs, rang the door bell and was welcomed by her adorable dog, Simba. He led us to his mistresses' bedroom. On reaching it, we plonked ourselves on bed and chatted up each other over some raw vegetables sprinkled with chilli powder and few squirts of lemon ( I felt like a cow chewing on grass, but as they say, when in Rome be Roman, so when in Cowland be a Cow -- no offence to vegans!).

Salad done, we sat ourselves down, around the table and looked on with anticipation and hungry eyes over the lovely spread before us and within the blink of an eye, the dishes were polished clean. Dessert was served next -- Cookie crumble icecream, with Hide and Seek sprinkles on it.

Few burps and praising our perfect hostess for the lovely spread later, we played a few games of UNO, a fun card game, which I learnt to play today.

Being the slow learner that i am, i goofed up whenever my turn came around to throw a card. A lot of giggling, sweetened popcorn, a pack of Hide and Seek cookies and Ritu's YOU KNOW (instead of UNO) later, the show had finally come to an end.

Oh, how could i forget, we danced along with Bipasha Basu on MTV for her Beedi Jaleile number (we managed to entertain the maid, and piss off the neighbours with all the screaming and jumping) and THEN the show came to an end.

Lunch at Vasavis' shall be cherished for a long long time to come. Ramu bhaiyya, you rock! Keep that stove nice and hot for many more parathas! =)

Transformers..

Stupid boys and their stupid toys, was the first thing that came into my mind, when my brother picked up the VCD from Odyssey.

Transformers is a crazy 143 minute ratatatatatata, bang bang bang movie which has its share of funny moments. But for the most part, you'd be increasing or decreasing the volume on your DVD player and biting your nails off, hoping that the good guys -- Bumbleebee, Optimus Prime (heroic leader of the Autobots), Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet win over the bad guys -- Megatron (the evil Decepticon leader) ,Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Devastator and Bonecrusher.

I'm not sure, what genre to categorize this flick into -- sci-fi? stupid boys and their stupid toys walking around and squashing things? (THIS should be a genre you know).

The machine thingies were quite nicely done though, i liked them. Very cute indeed! Transformers -- watch it just before a very tough exam, your brain goes into ALERT mode and sleep of course is not an option because you'd be wide awake with all the robotic voices still lingering in your head. *arrr arrrr ARRRR*

Within Temptation..

"Evanescence who?!" was the first phrase that popped into my brain when i heard The Heart of Everything, the latest album by Within Temptation.

Within Temptation is a symphonic rock band from the Netherlands. The band was founded in 1996 by, dig THIS - vocalist Sharon Del Adel, who by the way, has THE most amazing voice on this planet!! She made me kick myself mentally a few times and reminded me of my glory singing days when mom kept telling me to go for my music classes, but i paid no heed to her, stayed at home instead and ate like a pig all day long.

Respect woman, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I bow to thee and your lovely throat. Lage raho Sharon babe, lage raho! I am undoubtedly your newest humble fan.

You've Got Mail..

You've got mail is a movie which was made during the "Internet is amaaaaazing" era, when people had no idea what an E-mail was, what chatting was all about, it was also the time when connecting to the Internet took a little while and a very cute "bzzz uuuuu krrr krrr krrr" noise was produced by our modems. This 10 second noise found people holding their breaths in anticipation and thanking the good lord of technology,when they finally got through.

Finding love online was a novelty then. Now my 10 year old cousin is orkutting so voraciously and chatting up every random girl he meets online, that he puts my 15,000 odd scraps to shame. (Yes, he is a chip of the old block, that little dog!)

Anyway, back to the movie. It is a classic Meg Ryan - Tom Hanks starrer. They send each other uber cheesy e-mails, whilst in real life they cant see eye to eye. Eventually Tom Hanks, discovers that Shopgirl (Meg Ryan's online id) is infact the woman he loathes through and through. He then, takes matters into his hands, befriends her and slowly breaks into her facade and learns that they have a lot in common.

My favorite line in the movie goes something like this -- "The strange thing about communicating like this,is that we eventually end up speaking about nothing. But, all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings in my life." I could picture myself saying that one liner to someone special.

I hope i find my NY152 (Tom Hanks' online id) as well. The internet is the only medium where I'm completely myself, uninhibited, fearless and bold.

In real life, I'm almost invisible! I have to scream and jump around to get my point across.

The Making Of I'm Alright Ma..

I'm a director once again, for the 3rd time in a row, all thanks to my wonderful course, Bsc Electronic Media. 3 weeks of anticipation, sweat, blood and writing away furiously has all boiled down to almost a whole day of shooting.

I could'nt sleep last night, exactly like all my previous shooting eves. I tossed and turned and thought about each shot, the costumes and re-checked all the dialouges. I woke up dot at 6.40 am, rushed around nervously, had a huge tongue lashing with mom, managed to drag dad out of the shower and drive me to college. On reaching college, i rushed to my video studio, looked around for my sir -- who was'nt around. I begin to sweat profusely now and imagined the worst case scenario - he has forgotten about my shoot, he met with an accident, he's pissed off with me because i'm 9 minutes and 35 seconds late. I paced up and down the studio like a woman possessed and then, lo and behold, in comes sir, with a huge grin on his face.

Me : Siiirrr, i'm soooooooo sorry, how long have you been waiting?
Sir : Wokay wokay ma, no tension, it ees wokay.
Me : Sorry sorry sorry
Sir : Wokay wokay

We (sir and i) begin to load all the equipment in the car's boot. 10 minutes later my hero Mr. Varun Sharma aka Barani and heroine Mrs Rita Sharma aka Sandhya Iyer stride in confidently. Without further ado, we sardined ourselves into the car.

The rest of the day was a blurry haze of dialouge and scene rehearsals, checking and re-checking each frame, screaming at people when needed et al.

Mrs Rita Sharma is a character who is 9 months pregnant, so stuffing a cushion underneath her outfit and tying it with a belt was absolutely hilarious. We giggled for 10 whole minutes, and finally managaed to pull of the "swollen bellied anxious mother" look.

Direction is out and out fun, every moment is an absolute treat for the senses. All the hardwork of weeks and weeks pays off really well at the end of the day.