Well, folks at office are gearing up for Halloween, and there’s the word ‘spooky’ everywhere. This reminds me of the first serious spooky feeling I had.
As a kid, I was never afraid of ghosts, or the darkness, which made me quite famous at home. And I used to enjoy the fame more so because my elder brother was quite scared of darkness.
This was the first ever spooky ghostly fear I had when I was in the eighth grade. I had watched this movie Evil Dead (dont remember which part) and the same day my uncle had added more fuel to the spooky fire already raging in me. He talked of another movie in which a hand, just the fingers, the palm and the wrist would be crawling and tapping at a table. I was scared to my blood cells!
Now, I was in the habit of getting up early morning before anyone else at home did, would exercise a little and would definitely skip with a skipping rope. That movie night was a difficult night for my poor soul, I couldn't sleep well. Nevertheless, I got up and exercised a little. However, nothing was taking that hand off my mind. I started skipping, but I'd find myself stopping and looking back at the window. I felt that the hand would appear suddenly and just tug at my skipping rope. I'd come to know of it when I'd feel the rope being pulled at.
I really found myself sweating, not for skipping because I'd stop every few seconds and look back through the corners of my eyes, but out of fear. Slowly the fear gripped me so bad I could actually feel myself seeing a white wrinkled hand slowly approaching from the window! No time to think, run, just run, I told myself. I just hurled the rope on the ground, ran back to my mom's room, got into bed, covered myself from head to toe with a blanket and forced my eyes to close.
I didnt know when I had dozed off this way. Woke up startled when I found my mom trying to wake me up! I was happy to see her and more so to see sunlight outside the window. Thank God that hand had disappeared!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
'Jai Ho' A R Rahman Live Show at GMR Arena Hyderabad
A R Rahman Jai Ho Live Concert at Hyderabad.
On October 24, Saturday, there was an A R Rahman live concert held at GMR Arena near Hotel Novotel at Shamshabad Airport Hyderabad, also known as the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The live show was named 'Jai Ho' for reasons that need not be explained. Sandeep got two tickets for Rs 7,500 each, and all for free! That was more of an incentive for us to go :). Shamshabad airport is 30 kms from our home and though we had taken driving directions from Google Maps, we didn't want to drive back all the way at night. So we took the Aeroexpress bus from near our home deciding to take the Aeroexpress back again.
The show was supposed to start at 7:30 pm. Ours was a sudden decision, so we knew we'd be late by some 30 minutes or so. We were wrong in our estimate coz we had discounted the eccentricities of the Aeroexpress. The 7:30 pm Aeroexpress came in at 8pm (gosh!) and we reached the airport at 9 pm, only to know that GMR Arena was not close to the airport but a few kilometers away. God! We were stuck as to how to get through those few kilometers! How we wished we had got our vehicle. Nevertheless, there was this airport official who directed us to the airport shuttle that would take us around a kilometer to another RTC bus stop, where we would get another shuttle to the GMR Arena! So be it, we thought and took the first shuttle, and then the second shuttle. We were asked to drop off at a place, which was reeking with people, cars, noise, police, security, two wheelers, and a lot of dirty granular stony sandy land. It was the final stop beyond which no vehicles would be allowed, and you would've to walk all the way to the arena. So, you mean that wasnt the arena? Yes, you're right, that was not the arena; the arena was around 1/1.5 kilometers away. And you may ask, how did you guys get there? We walked. Yes, everyone had to walk from that point to the main arena where A R Rahman was singing! Good lord! So we walked. We saw tonnes of people coming back and feared the show may have ended. However, most of those returning were those folks who had the Rs 500 tickets with them. They had to watch the show standing. Standing? Yes, and that too from faaaar off where one could only see the lights at a distance, like we get to see tiny glimpses of lights in the dark from a train. We found lots of people standing at all possible places from where they could at least see just lights and lights and hear music.
We reached the category for the 7500 tickets and was allowed inside after a brief few seconds of what were supposed to be security checks. We entered, my legs paining after the long walk through the coarse sand. However, it was a bursting of the excitement bubble, coz even getting tickets for 7,500 category, all you could see were floating figures on the far off stage.
In addition, Rahman and troupe sang mostly in Tamil, though he has so many of the Hindi numbers. Well probably he did so considering the geographic location of his concert, however, I guess he may already have known by now that there is an equal mix of people from all regions in the job-rich Hyderabad city, and that geographies are mainly blurred lines when it comes to music. I'm sure there were lots of other people who would've expected to hear more Hindi numbers,(I think there were only 3/4 Hindi songs) considering that Hindi movies/songs reign all over the country and Tamil or Bengali or Assamese songs are mostly tied to their locations. No harsh thoughts or discrimination is hinted here, don't get me wrong.
We did enjoy some of the songs though, with all the dazzling lights and the dancing silhouettes, and the fireworks.
However, there was this character, I have no idea who he was, who popped up in the middle of the audience trying to grab attention by uttering some mumbo jumbo. He may have been an RJ, or a self-appointed rapper of sorts, but it looked like he wanted to grab the lens and the media attention, and was definitely the wet-blanket quotient of the entire show.
To top it all, when the concert ended at 10:30 pm. the place was a mess with cars trying to get out, tonnes of people running about, walking, sitting all around, and the police strewn all over with no idea of what to do and how to do the what to dos. The shuttles seemed to have been shut down and we had no idea how to get back, at least to the Aeroexpress stop, leave alone getting back home. We walked, and walked, and walked, through the granular pit-heavy sandy road, through the crowded lanes, through the parking, through snaking lines of people, and then reached the Aeroexpress stop at 11:45 only to know that the next bus would be at 12:30 am. We waited and waited and then finally reached home at 1:30 am.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz the entire of the next day, so tired were our feet.
On October 24, Saturday, there was an A R Rahman live concert held at GMR Arena near Hotel Novotel at Shamshabad Airport Hyderabad, also known as the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The live show was named 'Jai Ho' for reasons that need not be explained. Sandeep got two tickets for Rs 7,500 each, and all for free! That was more of an incentive for us to go :). Shamshabad airport is 30 kms from our home and though we had taken driving directions from Google Maps, we didn't want to drive back all the way at night. So we took the Aeroexpress bus from near our home deciding to take the Aeroexpress back again.
The show was supposed to start at 7:30 pm. Ours was a sudden decision, so we knew we'd be late by some 30 minutes or so. We were wrong in our estimate coz we had discounted the eccentricities of the Aeroexpress. The 7:30 pm Aeroexpress came in at 8pm (gosh!) and we reached the airport at 9 pm, only to know that GMR Arena was not close to the airport but a few kilometers away. God! We were stuck as to how to get through those few kilometers! How we wished we had got our vehicle. Nevertheless, there was this airport official who directed us to the airport shuttle that would take us around a kilometer to another RTC bus stop, where we would get another shuttle to the GMR Arena! So be it, we thought and took the first shuttle, and then the second shuttle. We were asked to drop off at a place, which was reeking with people, cars, noise, police, security, two wheelers, and a lot of dirty granular stony sandy land. It was the final stop beyond which no vehicles would be allowed, and you would've to walk all the way to the arena. So, you mean that wasnt the arena? Yes, you're right, that was not the arena; the arena was around 1/1.5 kilometers away. And you may ask, how did you guys get there? We walked. Yes, everyone had to walk from that point to the main arena where A R Rahman was singing! Good lord! So we walked. We saw tonnes of people coming back and feared the show may have ended. However, most of those returning were those folks who had the Rs 500 tickets with them. They had to watch the show standing. Standing? Yes, and that too from faaaar off where one could only see the lights at a distance, like we get to see tiny glimpses of lights in the dark from a train. We found lots of people standing at all possible places from where they could at least see just lights and lights and hear music.
We reached the category for the 7500 tickets and was allowed inside after a brief few seconds of what were supposed to be security checks. We entered, my legs paining after the long walk through the coarse sand. However, it was a bursting of the excitement bubble, coz even getting tickets for 7,500 category, all you could see were floating figures on the far off stage.
In addition, Rahman and troupe sang mostly in Tamil, though he has so many of the Hindi numbers. Well probably he did so considering the geographic location of his concert, however, I guess he may already have known by now that there is an equal mix of people from all regions in the job-rich Hyderabad city, and that geographies are mainly blurred lines when it comes to music. I'm sure there were lots of other people who would've expected to hear more Hindi numbers,(I think there were only 3/4 Hindi songs) considering that Hindi movies/songs reign all over the country and Tamil or Bengali or Assamese songs are mostly tied to their locations. No harsh thoughts or discrimination is hinted here, don't get me wrong.
We did enjoy some of the songs though, with all the dazzling lights and the dancing silhouettes, and the fireworks.
However, there was this character, I have no idea who he was, who popped up in the middle of the audience trying to grab attention by uttering some mumbo jumbo. He may have been an RJ, or a self-appointed rapper of sorts, but it looked like he wanted to grab the lens and the media attention, and was definitely the wet-blanket quotient of the entire show.
To top it all, when the concert ended at 10:30 pm. the place was a mess with cars trying to get out, tonnes of people running about, walking, sitting all around, and the police strewn all over with no idea of what to do and how to do the what to dos. The shuttles seemed to have been shut down and we had no idea how to get back, at least to the Aeroexpress stop, leave alone getting back home. We walked, and walked, and walked, through the granular pit-heavy sandy road, through the crowded lanes, through the parking, through snaking lines of people, and then reached the Aeroexpress stop at 11:45 only to know that the next bus would be at 12:30 am. We waited and waited and then finally reached home at 1:30 am.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz the entire of the next day, so tired were our feet.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Hubby's New Interest in the Kitchen
Sandeep has recently acquired an interest in kitchen appliances, and its nice to see his interest soaring. Last Sunday, he took me to an electronics appliances store to see some cell phones. I've been planning to change my cell phone since May of this year, and have been dilly-dallying between an iPhone, a Nokia E71, and a Google Android, but haven't really zeroed in on any. Anyways, we checked the phones in the store, remained as confused as ever and started looking at the other stuff those guys sold. When I went in to check a blender-plus-chopper (which, again, was on my mind for long), Sandeep was really impressed to see the effect to which this appliance could be used. He was up for it even before I decided on it, and he almost immediately bought it. After picking up the blender-chopper in an instant, he moved to the other appliances, seemingly very interested in the enormous ease they would bring to his wife's kitchen chores. He was excited about a microwave, a better quality mixer, grinder, juicer than the one I have, a toaster, a sophisticated blender-cum-egg-beater and what not! He insisted on a microwave then and there! Only after much convincing that I'd have to research a little on microwave ovens before buying helped me put off buying one instantly!
To add to this, he came back home, fixed the blender chopper he got me, cleaned it, peeled onions, chopped them, blended up some yummy lassi and felt victorious at the feat! I was amazed by his enthu. In addition, he searched for other modern kitchen appliances and I found him scouring through brand name sites like kitchenaid, cuisipro, cooking.com and so many more. I remembered working with these sites for quite some time, I had created account plans and optimized them a number of times.
Sandeep seemed really happy with his searches and we are planning on some new posh stuff for our kitchen! We have a microwave, a coffee maker (ha, ha)in our immediate buying list. Good gracious lord for getting such an amazing husband. Well, he understands how difficult it is for me to get to cooking and chopping at a stage when I'm still getting better with my right hand after our accident, and also how efficiently and technologically superfast these appliances can be.
Thank You Mr.Husband- From Your Wife. :)
To add to this, he came back home, fixed the blender chopper he got me, cleaned it, peeled onions, chopped them, blended up some yummy lassi and felt victorious at the feat! I was amazed by his enthu. In addition, he searched for other modern kitchen appliances and I found him scouring through brand name sites like kitchenaid, cuisipro, cooking.com and so many more. I remembered working with these sites for quite some time, I had created account plans and optimized them a number of times.
Sandeep seemed really happy with his searches and we are planning on some new posh stuff for our kitchen! We have a microwave, a coffee maker (ha, ha)in our immediate buying list. Good gracious lord for getting such an amazing husband. Well, he understands how difficult it is for me to get to cooking and chopping at a stage when I'm still getting better with my right hand after our accident, and also how efficiently and technologically superfast these appliances can be.
Thank You Mr.Husband- From Your Wife. :)
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