Blog = Pseudo Intellectual chauvinism

This blog is triggered from a persistent thought. of wanting something or having a desire to be in somebody's shoes. let me explain.  Often the emotion 'jealousy' has so much negativity attached to it, that this word is not part of our daily vocabulary.                                        Ever heard unapologetic laughter and thought that you want to be part of that group. what's the joke they are sharing, is it a memory, are they discussing somebody else. This is the laughter that one of my most awesome friend shares with her mom. they are friends first and then defined by blood. It’s not the joke, nor a gossip piece, or a memory.... it's actually nothing sometimes. My analytical mind has to come up with some rationale, so I feel that the actual reason is that they complete each other. they don't need any one to have a party. they are not looking at anyone else to bring humor to t...

 "I want to sit with friends who dont judge and I just want to have a good time" .... this is what one friend told me. I got it....'You be you' .. 'I be me'... we find a common ground to connect, converse and respect each other.  Including my years studying, it will be 20 years in the USA this fall. 13 of the 20 were spent in one city. My formative years of making a family, making friends, increasing my friend circle to finally decreasing my friend circle. Last 5 years, i stuck with 4 other families....didn't find the need  However we changed cities..we didn't know a soul in the new place...I struggled a bit ....I felt as I did in my first year in the USA. slowly we met people...I realized that I enjoyed speaking with people who were so varied from me...I was not trying to find my tribe I focused on identifying why I like to meet the people that I meet. There may be many qualities but atleast whats the one quality that I love about them. I was clear th...

I just happened to remember that I wrote a blog in my past life and managed to remember my webpage and read some of my posts. I don't relate to that girl....last post was 13-14 years back. I want that girl back.... what has changed............ 2 bright kids have been added to my life :))) and bella... Many many pounds added ... Some baggage of relationships.... lots of memberships (netflix ...prime..sling..disney.. etc etc) what hasnt changed........... The need for my parents.... movies sports.. many friends still remain today and still talking about losing weight... cheers to that...

An Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true. Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, *Common Sense*, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: - Knowing when to come in out of the rain; - Why the early bird gets the worm; - Life isn’t always fair; - and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense ...

Give the man a break... ever since Slumdog Millionaire made it big in awards circles.. suddenly everybody has a opinion on the movie and they want to express it right through the media. I have been following debates over whether Slumdog does India any good.. is it only a gimmick.... Does it selectively highlight India's filth and backwardness.... Is it a foreigner's perspective on showcasing India.. Somehow when I saw the movie.. I loved it. Probably I saw it much earlier that it caught all the hype for bagging most of the awards.. I found it very entertaining, positive and full of great performances. As a social work student in India, I have visited the slums (Jhuggi Jhopri as they call in Delhi) for my field work. I am surprised as to how well the director captured the appropriate characterization of slums.. there was no exaggeration in depicting the slums. Isn't slums a reality in India.. Isnt child labor a reality in India.. And anyways its a movie.. Its not documentar...

Ya ya yaa.. I know its late to write about new year resolutions now, We are almost a whole month into 2009. However, I just wanted to pen down my thoughts on New Year Resolutions.. I think I must have made at least a million resolutions, may be just not New Year but you know.. like from next month... from tomorrow, from next monday and the list goes now. And its no secret that I haven't kept any of my resolutions. Losing weight and studying harder... is I guess I always resolve to do in mind.. but I am not sure how it translates into action. This year was very different. I didn't feel like having any NY resolutions. I realized that we make resolutions when we are lacking something we want to achieve. We only foresee the result that we want to obtain, and we make a resolve about achieving it. I have always said that I would like to lose 20 pounds (okay.. may be I need more, but lets stick to 20 for now). For a day I remember it and the next day its gone. I never paid attention t...

Op-Ed Contributor What They Hate About Mumbai By SUKETU MEHTA Published: November 28, 2008 MY bleeding city. My poor great bleeding heart of a city. Why do they go after Mumbai? There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness. Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim man living in a shack without indoor plumbing what kept him in the city. “Mumbai is a golden songbird,” he said. It flies quick and sly, and you’ll have to work hard to catch it, but if you do, a fabulous fortune will open up for you. The executives who congregated in the Taj Mahal hotel were chasi...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! What a night it was. History was made for the right reasons. I felt proud being associated to this election through my television, through the free flowing discussions in my college corridors, through the hush-hush conversations at my desk at office. As a commentator on CNN rightly reported "It is the triumph of FEAR over Hope" When I was new to this country I was often surprised to see the number of fear tactics used by people in power to influence the public. I in no way undermine peoples' grief and shock over devastating events 7 years ago, but living in fear and spreading fear is not the right path to take to overcome it. To have color codes for terror and attune peoples' mind by fine tuning color codes is no way to lead the country. For me the most important thing that I took away from this election, was not which ideology prevailed, BUT THAT IT WAS AN ELECTION OF THE PEOPLE. So many people voted, and they did not think "does my vote count, wh...

Very early when I started to blog, I wrote about an incident when my husband was away for an office trip (his first one) and how miserable I was the whole time alone at home, feeling as though my wings had been clipped. Well after that trip, my husband took many more and slowly my wings kept growing. I can't say that I am flying but definitely I am trying ............ Hmmmm this blog is slowing turning out to be about my wings.. It is not intended to be so.. Today I watched movie (Ya my husband is away for 4 days).. "The Jane Austen Book Club".. Ohh this movie is for you, my girl friends. A recommendation from my side to all of you. Light, yet meaningful and insightful. I am a sucker for romance and there were different shades of romance in the movie. Temptation, boredom, jealousy, lust, love and betrayal... all covered. I must admit that I haven't read any of Jane Austen's Books but I am tempted to do so. For us Indians one of the first images that must be coming...

Wow Its almost been 2 months since I wrote on this page of thoughtless ideas. A few of my friends reminded me that I haven't put anything new... that means some of you are reading my nonsense.. I have thought of jotting down some lines many times... but I guess these thoughts were not strong enough.. These 2 months of summer have been bliss (with many interrupted by strong thunder storms). I have not seen such lightening before. And there was an earthquake too. I was alone in the house and I got up too. As my PANIC threshold in very low... I panicked and the rest is history. What else.. I visited Detriot in May. It was nice, may be only for spending 2 days max. We went to the Casino and as played good amount of Blackjack. We won lots and finally left when we lost it all. In June I also attended a ballet done by the Gregory Hancock Dance theater group in which they performed on songs of Devdaas, Lagaan. It was a delight. The performers were all white but they infused bollywood a...

Jaane Tu is a very pleasant watch... Please watch it guys. I am not sure why it didn't hit the theaters in my city.... Love Story 2050 (no comments... you know what that means) is in the theaters now. I loved Jaane tu.. every one must have read the reviews so no use for detail. But its light, fresh and predictable... Romance is always a great watch especially when movies don't force other angles (action, drama, death, separation, family issues, rich poor... blah blah) in the movie. The movie focuses only on the relationship and that it its USP.

Well this is precisely the question my husband asked me " Shweta, Do you think that you can be sports psychologist?". This question was popped to me while we both were engrossed watching the "Federer-Nadal Wimbledon Finals". Now you may wonder how this question came about. Well when everyone was watching Federer struggle to match Nadal's mighty strokes, I wasn't. Truly. I was huddled in my bedroom crossing my fingers. I was pacing up and down from the living room to the bedroom and from bedroom to living room. And Poor Virendra, his job was to shout the score every time the point was played (Yaaa he is nice!!!!). I was praying, but God could not answer my prayers because Nadal deserved to win. Anyways coming back to the question, I told Virendra that "NO" I cannot ever become a sports psychologist. I will be much more emotional than the player and may be the player will land up giving me counseling instead. I am still feeling bad for Federer. A...

I have never been a fan of video games... I think we had a Atari growing up, but I was never attracted to it. In fact I always found it a waste of time. However my husband does not share my views.. (isnt that obvious, when do couples agree not to agree on something). Veeru, devoted (wasted) a lot of time playing video games in school, but somehow after marriage, my constant hammering had made a dent in the amount given to it. On his last birthday he bought a playstation and on my birthday he bought me a Wii (isn't it a wonderful idea to gift your spouse something u want). I guess as relationships grow older people start to become more of themselves... Which means that Veeru is playing more and more video games nowadays. And I think I am okay about it.... But what has happened is that I myself am spending some time with the Wii. Well whatever the story is, and how much I hate to admit, Wii is amazing. Its so easy and user friendly and easy and it makes a non-gamer feel very powerfu...

I recently watched the movie "Amu". And I loved it. This movie captured many of my experiences across different phases of my life. Before getting into that, let me just say that this movie is worth a watch. Konkana as usual, brilliant. The guy cast opposite her (Ankur khanna, ya I think thats his name) is cute too. The best part of the movie is that it is shot in actual locations and nowhere do you feel that the characters are placed in sets, they just belonged I felt. The movie dragged at places but a DVD watch never hurts. For all gals who have studied in DU, you will be effortlessly transported into the Delhi where we lived some precious years of our lives. Yes, Meenakshi (I know you read my blog) there is Miranda House, there is mention of Chacha's bhatura, Blue line buses, there is Dilli haat and on the whole the flavor of Delhi. I never thought that I will say I miss Delhi. The movie also captured many issues relevant to social work. They actually shot in Delhi slu...

Come November, and I get the november blues. I think of the next 6 months that will be spent whining about the cold, we being confined to the house, and basic restrictions on many "things to do". The gloomy weather got to me last year, and I think that I was suffering from seasonal depression. No sun, no fun. However this season was very different. It is the end of march and the winter is no where out-of-sight. We friends often discuss how long the winter has been, and how cold it is. And I dont know why my view would stick out as a sore thumb from the groups. I would say, it hasn't been that cold, its okay...... At home I asked my husband then, that has the winter been that bad this year? He said "No". I was wondering why the winter did not get to me this time. Actually this winter My husband and me decided that no matter how cold it is, we will not stay indoors. we will go out in the evenings like the way we did. And thats precisely what we did. And somehow no...

This is about my trip to Chicago during the easter break. My brother's friends had decided to meet up at a club and he said that we come along as well. My husband and me are acquainted with a few of his friends but not that well, so we were apprehensive about going. But I had a great time there. There were about 7 girls and all of us danced together, no boys. Wow... it reminded me of college times. It was a lot of fun. So I think that next time we go out here in Indy, we girls can have fun on our own. And that makes me thinking that when will have our girls' nite sleepover again. The last one was so much fun. So my friends if you are reading this lets plan on one soon. Girlfriends are indispensable. Chicago reminds me of another funny incident. We all had gone to the signature lounge in the Hancock tower for a drink. I had heard that the view from up (95th floor) there is great, and why pay to watch chicago from SEAR's Tower when you can have a drink at the signature loung...

It's been so so long since I wrote something on my blog. Its not that I didn't have ideas but I didn't think they had enough substance.... Like I wanted to write about Jodha Akbar- there were such mixed feelings. Such a long movie, but I couldn't blame the actors. I think that the director was to blame for he thought that every thing he directed was so precious that it could not be edited. I think that some scenes could have been taken off. Also there wasn't any coherent theme in the movie. It was a good buffet... but don't we always get tired of buffets. It wasn't clear if he wanted to demonstrate Akbar's greatness, Jodha's strength of character, the love between Jodha-Akbar, the political instability at those times, etc etc.... Anyways Jodha Akbar is long gone and most people I have known have liked it... Then my friend had said that she was waiting for me to write about JUNO. After I watched the movie, I didn't have enough motivation to write....

I really like Atif Aslam and I really liked the song from Race which he has sung. However this weekend my friend pointed out that the entire song has been directly lifted from a korean song..... I am so proud of Bollywood.

The idea of this article came to my mind so long back that I don’t even know if I will remember the facts clearly…. Well on our last trip to Borders I picked the GQ magazine to give me company while I slowly chipped at toffee and macadamia nut cookie (trust me, it was heavenly). I was pleasantly surprised that the GQ magazine held my interest much longer than I anticipated. Anyways getting away from the distractions, let me come to the point. I began to read an article on blogging. I don’t remember the title too well, but it spoke about blogging in a negative light. Being a budding blogger, I immediately took to the article. The article said that the blogging bubble would soon burst. When Justin Hall (yes the first blogger) started his internet diaries (as Wikipedia refers it as) in 1994 , this movement has since seen rapid and exponential growth. Justin H all soon started writing intimate details on his blogs, I am not sure if he is still actively blogging. Blogging gave the co...

I have realized that may be I have too much time, or I am utilizing too much of my time on blogging, hence my new blog name is vellagiri.blogspot.com. LOL. I think that this reflects my state of mind better than my name. what say??