I was muddied and dirtied I couldn't tell
from which street
Why do these lips of mine taste just like feet
I saw my reflection in sasha's mirror I didn't know my own face
Oh helmet are you gonna leave me with bad hair
On the streets of Pune, Maharashtra
I walked on DP Road, till my whites turned brown
I heard a shopkeeper who wouldn't keep his voice down
At night I could hear them shout some more
the couple who wouldn't close their front door
on the streets of Pune, Maharashtra
Ain't no protein to nourish me,
It's just rice and chapati my friend.
my clothes don't fit me no more
I tried a thousand restaurants
just to get some fibre
The night has fallen, I can't fall asleep
I can feel the oily curry burning deep
so pray for me brother so there's no power cut
as I waste away here, bored to death
on the streets of Pune, Maharashtra
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
My "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" bit was entirely different from your "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" bit.
It's amazing watching English (Hollywood) movies on TV here. For one there's more cussing. I know what you're thinking, how is there more cussing on an Indian channel than there would be if the movie were shown on TV in the US (where presumably everyone is morally corrupt). I guess culturally certain words have different levels of offensiveness.
For example I keep hearing the word "bullsh**" and for that matter "sh**" on TV here. And then they bleep out "a**" and "bit**". (I'm bleeping them all out to avoid any controversy.) I stared at the TV the first few times I heard it and now I'm just used to it.
Almost all English movies get automatic subtitles here. It's like they figured the average Indian can't understand the dialogue which is spoken in these movies. That's fine, because it's mostly true. But yeah, what confuses me is when I'm watching the movie and hear a certain word by see a less offensive version of the word on screen. "Less offensive" is relative of course because it depends on what is considered offensive in India. Hilarious.
Last night as I was watching "The Mummy", I noticed the runtime was much shorter than I expected. As the movie was playing I started noticing that they cut out a bunch of scenes. Now you're probably thinking "There's nothing offensive in The Mummy." Well they took out almost all the scenes with the Mummy. The regeneration as Evelyn reads the words from the Book of the Dead. The absorbing of the organs from the grave robbers. Even the scene where his jaw opens really wide to swallow up Conners' plane. It's almost like the Indian airing of the movie didn't get the rights to the CGI scenes in the movie and so they just showed the scenes with real actors in them.
For example I keep hearing the word "bullsh**" and for that matter "sh**" on TV here. And then they bleep out "a**" and "bit**". (I'm bleeping them all out to avoid any controversy.) I stared at the TV the first few times I heard it and now I'm just used to it.
Almost all English movies get automatic subtitles here. It's like they figured the average Indian can't understand the dialogue which is spoken in these movies. That's fine, because it's mostly true. But yeah, what confuses me is when I'm watching the movie and hear a certain word by see a less offensive version of the word on screen. "Less offensive" is relative of course because it depends on what is considered offensive in India. Hilarious.
Last night as I was watching "The Mummy", I noticed the runtime was much shorter than I expected. As the movie was playing I started noticing that they cut out a bunch of scenes. Now you're probably thinking "There's nothing offensive in The Mummy." Well they took out almost all the scenes with the Mummy. The regeneration as Evelyn reads the words from the Book of the Dead. The absorbing of the organs from the grave robbers. Even the scene where his jaw opens really wide to swallow up Conners' plane. It's almost like the Indian airing of the movie didn't get the rights to the CGI scenes in the movie and so they just showed the scenes with real actors in them.
MTV India
Get this, Cyrus Broacha and Nikhil Chinappa are still on MTV!! These two have been on MTV for about a decade now. I'm not a person who believes that a couple of years in a hot field (modelling, VJing, etc) ages you by 10 years but come on. Cyrus is fat and looks like a creepy 30-year old who still hangs out with the undergrads at a college. And Nikhil looks scrawny. You're telling me MTV couldn't find decent talent to replace these guys? That's just sad.
Celebrating the "Indian Halloween"
Actually Diwali is more like Halloween and Christmas come together. I'd forgotten how much fun it gets to be. Starts with all the new clothes everyone wears. Our office was open so people showed up for work, including me. I had my new khadi kurta on, very stylish, if I may say so myself. Couldn't wait to go home and when my cousin rang me to let me know he was in the neighbourhood, I shot out of the office. After hitting up a few touristy places before sunset, we went home and I changed into something more diwali-comfortable. And the fun started.
I had a few sweets I'd bought which I shared with him. He brought a few firecrackers he shared with me. We lit up the non-explosive stuff on the rooftop and went out into the street for the exploding stuff. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten about the Diwali fireworks. Like for example taking a bit off the fuse for bombs before lighting them up because you don't want the bomb going off too soon after you're lit it. And there's the wide variety of things you can buy. The magnesium pencils, the "vishnu chakras", the "wires", the color matches etc. Looking from the outside, it's amusing to note the names of the various bombs that come into play. Like the Lakshmi bomb (wrapped in tons of paper with a picture of Lakshmi on the outside), the Hydrogen Bomb (green), the chain bombs of course.
We didn't have rockets to fire off but after watching something near my apt, I'm glad I didn't. There was this apt complex that is under construction. As we were looking around I saw a rocket take off and go right into the unfinished balcony of that building. Now it's pretty safe since no one was in it (I think) and it's all just concrete anyway. But made me realize that if something I set off went into someone's house, I'd kick myself.
I'd have liked to have eaten before getting my hands dirty with the fireworks but my cousin was eager to kick off the fireworks so we went out eating after the fireworks. It's crazy to drive during Diwali since at every few feet someone is setting off some explosion or the other. Most of these can't harm you, but you do get startled and that can be bad if you're driving.
Pune was quite disciplined in that the fireworks ended at a very decent hour. By the time we'd finished dinner at around 9:30pm, the streets had emptied and the last few fireworks died out in another hour at most. Except for some jackass who exploded a few in my building at midnight and woke me up - I hope he suffered some permanent damage from the explosion.
Happy Diwali everyone!
I had a few sweets I'd bought which I shared with him. He brought a few firecrackers he shared with me. We lit up the non-explosive stuff on the rooftop and went out into the street for the exploding stuff. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten about the Diwali fireworks. Like for example taking a bit off the fuse for bombs before lighting them up because you don't want the bomb going off too soon after you're lit it. And there's the wide variety of things you can buy. The magnesium pencils, the "vishnu chakras", the "wires", the color matches etc. Looking from the outside, it's amusing to note the names of the various bombs that come into play. Like the Lakshmi bomb (wrapped in tons of paper with a picture of Lakshmi on the outside), the Hydrogen Bomb (green), the chain bombs of course.
We didn't have rockets to fire off but after watching something near my apt, I'm glad I didn't. There was this apt complex that is under construction. As we were looking around I saw a rocket take off and go right into the unfinished balcony of that building. Now it's pretty safe since no one was in it (I think) and it's all just concrete anyway. But made me realize that if something I set off went into someone's house, I'd kick myself.
I'd have liked to have eaten before getting my hands dirty with the fireworks but my cousin was eager to kick off the fireworks so we went out eating after the fireworks. It's crazy to drive during Diwali since at every few feet someone is setting off some explosion or the other. Most of these can't harm you, but you do get startled and that can be bad if you're driving.
Pune was quite disciplined in that the fireworks ended at a very decent hour. By the time we'd finished dinner at around 9:30pm, the streets had emptied and the last few fireworks died out in another hour at most. Except for some jackass who exploded a few in my building at midnight and woke me up - I hope he suffered some permanent damage from the explosion.
Happy Diwali everyone!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Another one McBites the McDust
It's a big week for the franchise restaurants. After Domino's, it was the turn of McDonald's. It me quite some time after McD came to India but I finally did it.
There's this big multiplex near my place and that's a very "happening" place. Young people hang out there. There's a pool table and a bunch of restaurants. This is the same multiplex that had the Subway too.
This multiplex is becoming a regular coffee shop-esque place for me. I take a book and chill there for a few hours while watching people.
At the McD's I ordered the "McVeggie". The patty looked so much like a breaded-chicken patty that I had to ask them if they were sure this was a veggie sandwich. It was basically a vegetable cutlet in a sandwich. Honestly, I prefer the Burger King Veggie Whopper that doesn't even have a patty in it but this wasn't terrible. This McC also had a value menu, with Rs. 10 ice cream cones etc. They don't give you the cup for soda and ask you to fill it yourself, obviously that can lead to misuse in India. At the same time they didn't fill up the cup with ice either. That would have brought some furious complaints from the customers.
There's this big multiplex near my place and that's a very "happening" place. Young people hang out there. There's a pool table and a bunch of restaurants. This is the same multiplex that had the Subway too.
This multiplex is becoming a regular coffee shop-esque place for me. I take a book and chill there for a few hours while watching people.
At the McD's I ordered the "McVeggie". The patty looked so much like a breaded-chicken patty that I had to ask them if they were sure this was a veggie sandwich. It was basically a vegetable cutlet in a sandwich. Honestly, I prefer the Burger King Veggie Whopper that doesn't even have a patty in it but this wasn't terrible. This McC also had a value menu, with Rs. 10 ice cream cones etc. They don't give you the cup for soda and ask you to fill it yourself, obviously that can lead to misuse in India. At the same time they didn't fill up the cup with ice either. That would have brought some furious complaints from the customers.
Daily thoughts
- Winter is here. I wore a jacket today since my shirt is a nice shirt and I didn't want it to get dirty. But it ended up being more than cosmetic. Mom always used to say that Diwali was the trigger for winter and bang on target it's here. Diwali should also be the trigger for good seetaphals, so yeah, I'm excited about that.
- As I listen to my radio each day, I realize that I have gotten addicted to Akshay Kumar's songs. Every morning I listen to the title tracks from either "Singh is King" or "Bhool Bhulaiya" and it totally pumps me up. You can't fight the Kumar man!
- The highway leading to my home is being upgraded. The road is being repaired at a rapid pace. At first I thought I wouldn't be there by the time it's done, but at this rate I should be enjoying this smooth road as early as December. Very exciting.
- As I washed my coloreds during the weekend, the water that I pre-soaked them in was so muddy it scared me. Is this what I'm subjecting my dear clothes to?
- The water heater in my apt has been fixed but the power cuts make it useless. And the power situation is this bad during winter, I hate to think what would happen during the summer. Atleast we've been guaranteed power during Diwali, so that's a nice silver lining.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Happy Diwali to everyone!
Diwali's here. The bottlerockets have started appearing in the skies. Random firecrackers going off in small streets. Even a few sparklers here and there. Technically Diwali's not till Tuesday but you can taste the excitement in the air. It's either that or magnesium.
Earlier this week our boss got sweets and samosas for the whole office with his own money. It was a nice gesture but I would have preferred the chocolate boxes they apparently got last year.
As of now my diwali purchases include a cap gun and two packs of caps! I haven't been this excited for Diwali since I was a kid. The cap gun is an automatic eight shooter. It's so very cool and I'm such a dork.
Earlier this week our boss got sweets and samosas for the whole office with his own money. It was a nice gesture but I would have preferred the chocolate boxes they apparently got last year.
As of now my diwali purchases include a cap gun and two packs of caps! I haven't been this excited for Diwali since I was a kid. The cap gun is an automatic eight shooter. It's so very cool and I'm such a dork.
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