you know, when hyd’badis go all out they really go all out! 
the bicentennials of sec’bad are being celebrated throughout this entire week and hyd’bad’s lit up and sec’bad’s sparkling clean (even in the presence of rainfall) and the kind of performer brought down here to commemorate the occasion are stalwarts in their own fields!

thankfully they arent wasting too much time with the salutations and bakbaking by the politicos either.
oh yeah, last day-DALER MEHNDI!!!

regional stuff i keep saying ALL the time
1)jis raste jaana nahin uska pata kyoon poochhna?
2)bandar ke galey mein moti ka mala
3)kulhaadi pe paav marna
4)raam banaye jodi
5)UKP
6)mujhey sapna aayega kya…
7)mujhey pagal ke kutte ne kata hai kya?
8)ha bhogobaan!!
9)uff! baba re! parchhinaa aar
10)suuor kothaakar
11)paaji kothaakar (this being the milder version)
12)adhuro ghado chhalkaaye
13)chor ke daadi mein tinka
14)ab aaya uuth pahad ke neechey
15)ulllu ki dum!
speaking of which, i have to go meet one now so….

ma had gone to cal for a relative’s barsi and came back with this gem of information.
the puja material had all been arranged in a particular  fashion when the purohit came in and said things needed to be rearranged. here’s why-
you should do this particular puja facing the south because that side indicates death and those who have passed on.
 one shouldnt face north as that’s where the gods are and technically we arent invoking the gods on this day.
sun sets in the west which is an “apshakun” for this kind of a puja and the EAST (here comes the best of ’em)
is side which mecca lies so the puja cant be done at all!!!

mara muah! bhagwan jaaney kis gurukul se yeh padh ke aayaa hai.
UKP!!

mom woke me up today to say that the da vinci code isnt going to be released after all. it was on TOI’s front page. 
state govts are literally tripping over themselves to see who can ban it the fastest. and in the process ensure that blackmarketeers have a rip roaring good time good business.
i mean, the book has been out there for ages now. no one burnt effigies of dan brown or his publishers in that regard. western countries where christianity is THE religion, has allowed the movie to be released with the bare minimum of censorship so why does india have to be the crusader of all things “moral” and righteous?
water didnt get released because of the galata caused by the VHP, apparently benaras and our dear old hindu culture was attacked by the very existence of the movie. our deal old hindu culture upheld the sati prathaa for so long, tab saalon ko akal nahin aayi?
rushdie’s book gets banned for life all because khomeni deemed it was unislamic. how many of the scholars (read politican pundits) who brought about and enforced the ban actually read the book for themselves? i met someone who read a copy of the book while in US (this person is a muslim) and he said the things written about actually do take place. only reason for reacting so vehemently would be because a lot of islam’s dirty laundry got washed in public. i suppose that’s a good enough reason as any to ban an expression of creativity. and in one swoop india can also earn brownie points with the vatican in light of the censure that the new pope handed down recently.
ullu ke pattthey hai yeh sab!!!

i can make it out when i read the posts. been swallowing up letters or words while typing it out.
it’s usually a case of rapid thoughts which dont choose to wait up for a slightly feebler hand.
clearly the spirit (or mind here) being willing while the flesh is weak.

note to self-spell check woman!!!

how does on deter those idiotic pigeons (who seem to be tres smart while homing back to their nests/homes) from getting suidical on my bathroom window ledge.
been hissing,throwing things at them,scaring them with the weirdest noises i could think of and even spraying them with water but NOOOOOOOOOOO! they WILL lay them eggs there only! they will lose about 1/2 of those eggs while fluttering their wings. when will it sink in they just dont have enough room their. these pigeons must have some b’bay blood in them. can live in extremely cramped spaces and still carry on with life.
anyhow,took a comp off today to take care of some work at home and was generally pottering around comfortably when 2 thumps came from behind the kitchen.
came out to see a broken egg shell and a baby pigeon decorating the ground just below my bathroom window. almost got to the bird but the ash-color tabby came out of nowhere and rushed off with her breakfast! the parents kept cooing madly from atop the window like demented loonies ( or so i would imagine) but ab roney se kya fayda?
put it behind me and went about feeding the fishies…went out to the garden only to see the tip of a snake’s tale disappearing into some shrubs. i ask you, WHY ME?
it’s a day off, i should be able to get in some amount of laziness and work at my own pace. dead birds and snakes is NOT a good way to start the day off. i should get into consulting the rahu kalam before starting stuff out, works for south indians so why not make like romans while in….
incidentally the stuff playing on the comp is a bong rock song about a “saaper chhobol”…snake’s bite….getting way too much into my robert langdon mode i think…
oh mother where art thou?

the weekend started well enough. 
the prep classes ended successfully and bachchoos all know the ma’am is the dudette to come to for probs!
met a really interesting (and nice) person and gabbed for hours. (you know who you are so stop with the smuggy looks!!)
watched a spooky movie last nite and was awake for a WHILE trying to interpret sounds on a scale of eerie to i want my mommy now!!
had a noice lunch+catch up with pals from the last office. btw, going veggie every now and then is not at all a bad thing.
got wet in the rain,danced like a loon and then made a big cuppa T and read for a bit.
nice dinner at a non-pretentious indo-chinese restaurant-sasta,sundar aur tikaao…well only till tomorrow morn’
walked along hussain sagar and cleared the ol’noggin of some cobwebs and heavily indulged in nostalgia.
came home, had a cuppa joe.
ALSO,worked for a while.

as far as weekends go, this was one worth repeating soon.