kareena kapoor

Kareena Kapoor, the second daughter of Randheer Kapoor and Babita, granddaughter of Raj Kapoor is a woman of substance. and it took me a 30 second video to realise that.

congratulations kareena aunty (she is quite older to me after all!) on your marriage. i admire your dignity and self confidence even though i may not like you that much otherwise.

Kareena Kapoor has a weird way of acting very awkward when she's infront of a large crowd of normal people who are her ardest fans. she is confident dignified, but just not comfortable and has a creepy artificiality that another bollywood actress has- aishwarya rai. pardon me for not using their new surnames. i am a feminist you see.

look at the video where saifeena are coming out of the registrar's office after signing the marriage papers. kareena aunty is not all shadowed by her older partner. she acts her own way, supremely confident. she doesn't do exactly what saif does or wait for his approval to stop waving to the crazy fans and go to the car waiting for them. girls all over shouldn't be swooning over the lavish overstretched wedding celebrations but rather on how Kareena aunty has shown the world that Indian women are getting up and running, not waiting for the men.

A girl's dream but my nightmare (mohini)

It is Durga Puja time again. And i have a big job to do, arrange all the clothes that have been showered on me into proper groups which i can wear on the three days of Durga Puja. And it is proving to be an even more harrowing experience than last year.

I have four shirts with almost the same cut. And they are all long. What should i do? I am need of serious fashion advice. Anybody out there to help a girl with too many clothes? Is it even possible for a girl to have too many clothes?

My closet is bursting and to think it is made up of steel. But nevertheless the whole experience of wearing new clothes for three consecutive days is simply fantastic. all the year round Bengalis keep on going around malls looking for the best looking clothes and buying them for the best part of the year. showing off one's fashion sense is a basic human instinct for all girls. it could manifest itself in forms ranging from jewellery wardrobe, make up to shoes. the list is endless.

so whoever's ready to read about what i am going to wear, here's the list
Ist day-morning-going out with my friends-yippee!-kurta
           evening-shorts and a shirt
IInd day-morning-a ZARA jeans and a t-shirt (the duchess of Cambridge would be so happy with my choice!)
              evening-kurta and a scarf
IIIrd day-morning-a vero moda floral scirt and Marks & Spencer's t-shirt (hip and happening!)
               evening-a jeans and a t-shirt

so that is my list. and as soon as Durga puja ends, prepare to hear from me again, with some visuals.

Life in Retrospect (Rajni)

Lately I’ve been reflecting upon how I’ve grown up over the years.  And whenever revisit the memories I am either blushing at the stupidity of my actions or being surprised to know that I could have done something like that.

·      There was a time when I would desperately want everybody to have my tiffin and so that I could eat his or hers.  So embarrassing!

·      I had to speak something on the topic “My Mother”.  As I continued with what I had learnt I forgot what I had to say after that. I started speaking all nonsense about chairs and dusters and what not. (I could have died due to shame!)

·      When we’re in kindergarten, birthdays are such a festive occasion or all the children in a class. During his birthday celebration, a boy in my class needed an extra chair. I gladly offered him mine so that I could sit stylishly on the table with my right leg crossed over my left just like actresses. My teacher saw what I was trying to do and told me get up and share a sit with another kid. This was the first time my ego was hurt.

·      This incident, till today, is one of my proudest moments. In KG, I was selected for a drawing competition. During the results time, I didn’t hear my name being called out. Since it was the first time I had participated in a competition so losing didn’t matter so much to me. But my mother thought otherwise. When she came to console me, I innocently told her, “so what Mummum? At least I got an apple!” (Fine talking huh?)

·      KG-A and KG-B had two boys who were quite healthy for their age. Every morning, the kids who would come early to school would be “honoured” to see the two boys fighting. I used to be one of the spectators. We would cheer the to boys to fight and made such revelry! What a mean bunch of kids we were! It is so utterly embarrassing to realize how mean you could be as a child.

I suppose everybody’s life has been just as weird as mine. After all life is a cocktail of weird and funny, proud and embarrassing, nice and bad moments.

Maa Pishima (Sujoy)

I always fail to recall the first time I must have seen Maa Pishima. It is as if she was always an integral part of my life.

Maa pishima was my mum’s father’s sister. A distant relation I admit but she was no less than my grandmother to me. Visiting her at our ancestral home in Krishnanagar would be one of the best parts of the year. The idea that the toilet is outside the main building of the house, that there is a well in the backyard, that there is a room attached to the kitchen where all the mud pots were kept for cooking was a source of fascination for me. And obviously the way she would pamper me with the “rasogollas”, was a pure delight. Every morning there, I would wake up early so that I could sit with her during the daily prayers and ring the bell for her.

The day she decided to sell the house, all of us were deeply saddened. But we didn’t say much because we knew that she was the unhappiest about all this. She was too old to manage the house alone.

After having old the house, she came to live with me and mum. We knew she missed the old days, when she was completely independent. And so she couldn’t continue to live with us for long. She went to live with her other brother at Kolkata. I still missed her.

It has been 3 years since she left us on this earth forever and she is there only in my memories and the photographs. And since then I have never gone back to Krishnanagar. It is impossible to see that house without its lady.

i am an agony aunt (rabia)

i wish my friends weren't so complicated. i never realised when they turned from just plain simple kids to really complex teenagers!

two of my friends happen to like each other. both of them also happened to have had a brief "relationship". but the girl felt doubtful about all this and so they broke up. and now she thinks that she probably really did like him a lot. meanwhile the boy is just confused and is talking nonsense in front of me. i jokingly call him emotionally shattered. both of them know that they like each other, they are good friends, roam around together in school, yet behave so idiotically. they really get on my nerves sometimes.

and the the worst thing is, i happen to counsel the guy about his relationship problems. yeah, i am his friend. but they are simply stretching the whole thing. and i can only stretch myself so far that i don't retract and hit them on their faces!

hopefully these kids are going to return to their sense soon!

i ended my friendship (trisha)

The last few days have been really melancholic. Its like I am the solitary reaper and my life is Wordsworth. 

I had a friend, and I ended my friendship with her.  She was popular and I was probably the bee that searched for an attractive flower. But lately I felt uneasy staying with her. She had changed. Maybe I was the one who had seen the non-existent all this time. But anyways, I am no longer friend with her.

Is it queer that I feel better now that I am not with her? It’s liberating to know that you don't have to constantly act something that you aren't for someone. Even if you think that she was your friend. 

If Wordsworth had to write a poem, he would probably pen me down like this.

"I am greater now than I was ever with you.

I am better than the things that you called me

I am bigger than the heart that you showed me

I am greater now than I was ever with you

I am happier now with what I am

I am jollier now than what you made me

I am livelier now than the life I had spent with you

I am greater now than I was ever with you

I seldom miss what we had shared

I never miss what you were to me

I am stronger than the pieces that you left me in

I am greater now than I was ever with you"

"Birthdays and Exams" (Rajni)

Its my birthday next week and here i am giving competitive exams one after the other without actually doing well in any of them. How do you think am i feeling at this moment?

i sit in the examination hall and i can see many around me who are sure to do well. many would do better than me. i have decided that i will only concentrate on my exam now. thoughts are flooding my mind but they don't seem to affect me for some strange reason. other than some one or two thoughts in between i have been successful in keeping my mind clear of them. Gosh, the questions are tough!

i am going through the maths section first, as i always do. after completing a major portion i can sense the time slipping away through my fingers as i write so i go to the g.k section straight. the questions here are absolutely Greek to me. literally!  i probably know only a mere 30% of the total asked here. leaving the ones i don't know, i use my pen to answer the biology part. this one is better. i am able to answer most of the questions.

now its time for my brain to go the chemistry way. i am answering all of them but also circling many because i still have doubts in my mind regarding them. after completing chemistry i open the physics page.

i like physics a lot. it is uncomplicated and if your concepts are right you'll have no problems in it. so physics isn't so bad. with 15 minutes left out of the 90 we started with, i set myself to complete the rest of the maths portion. by now i am stressed. i need to darken the circles in the OMR sheet.. i borrow a sketch pen from one of the kids in my class and do the darkening.

i am great at colouring. my abilities have been appreciated by many and even got me admission into nursery. so filling those tiny circles with black ink was no tough job.

the invigilator comes and collects my answer sheet. with that sheet i can also see my last hope going with her. as i wait for my friends who are going to go back home with me, i can see my classmates discussing the paper. i have no wish to go near them.