Forward

Sticking the neck out..

Travel Tales, , , , ,

A wedding invitation bearing my name ‘& family’ came my way. And ofcourse, i went.

And brought to mind typical weddings and their decorations back in Madurai. The Mumbai wedding is slightly different. It retains all the glitz and is a little more racy. The eye is on the watch and the thought is with the 9.07 PM local that needs to be ‘caught’.

But the point is this. That across India, for every marriage, many converge. And each wedding is a very typical, Indian moment. For every marriage, many converge. ( usually in multiples of many hundreds). All eat. Most see. A few wish. Some other wedding ‘proposals’ exchanged.


Everybody gets photographed and videographed. And form a queue that will walk upto the bride and groom to gift or thust a cover (ofcourse with cash inside ) into a sweaty palm of a tense bride. Or groom, for that matter.

When feisty youth used to course my veins i used to abhor attending weddings. For it was the time when the other ‘uncles and aunties’ would be concerned about what i was doing.

Which was exhibited with a casual question on ‘how much do you make ‘ as though it was the number of dosas that had gone in since morning. (And in any case, the question rather had been about the dosas).

And ofcourse, that was followed by a by-the-way comment about how their son was was basking in the Mediterranean and the daughter was waxing eloquence in London or someplace else, you only saw on National Geographic.

But the point is this. That the great Indian wedding is an inescapable part of us. There is music. There is dance. There are pretty women. And handsome men. And ofcourse, some great food.

And in the midst of all the din & decoration, often less talked about is the good that it does to economy. For the wedding season spurs many businesses on. From the decorator to the dance party, everybody makes some dough. And by the way, the jeweller is not someone that i am going to talk about.

This picture landed in my in-box from a friend, who wanted to establish that the recession was far away from ‘happening’ in Kerela’s weddings. Now, this surely had my eyes perk, and the ears twitch.

What the world wears for its wedding is a matter of personal choice and consequently – none of my business.

But you know…i am just concerned. Of the neck.

Buzz Words 2007

Word Cache,

Forward of a mail from CV Ramana. I had to post this. Couldnt miss it !

Headless Chickens – (n.)
Original definition: member of parliament; revised definition: member of press; final definition: people whom Ambassador Ronen Sen holds in great esteem and admiration.

Manglik – (n.)
Astrologically doomed person who may or may not be a green-eyed member of a famous farming family, and quickly needs to marry a tree.

Growth with Equity – (n.)
Favourite hand-wringing phrase of those who cannot decide whether they are for or against economic liberalisation

Twenty20 – (n.)
Sport for the modern Indian; takes half as long, hits twice as hard, has dancing women and finally makes you feel like a winner.

Rupee Virus – n.)
A medical condition that has caused weakness and depression in IT and other export-based industries

Operationalise – (v.)
To be used in conjunction with the words 123 and Hyde http://healthsavy.com/product/accutane/ Act, to sound knowledgeable about the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Narcoanalysis – (n.)
Technique used to ‘nab’ murderers and flesh-eaters, without taking the trouble to conduct an actual police investigation . Eg: “Dacoit admits to Kennedy assassination under narcoanalysis, says DGP.” ]

Judicial overreach – (n.)
Issuing directions on street-food vendors and nursery school admissions, while the judicial backlog hits three crore cases.

Brahmin Jodo Abhiyan – (n.)
Magic formula to propel yourself into an absolute majority, thereby giving you the power to name everything in Lucknow after either Ambedkar or Kanshi Ram.

Silent voter – (n.)
Gujarati who comes to the rescue of exit pollsters who get their predictions wrong.

Chak De – (v./tr.)
Rallying battle-cry of the year for everybody, from cricketwalas to Congresswalas

Near-miss – (n.)
A “safely” averted mid-air collision; a rare occasion when you are happy to have nearly missed a flight

Its only words

Word Cache, ,

Reproducing something that i recieved in my mail box as a forward ! Thoroughly enjoyed this ! Whats with this fasicination for words and their meanings ? Beats me !

This has got to be one of the most clever E-mails I’ve received in awhile. Someone out there either has too much spare time or is deadly at Scrabble. (Wait till you see the last one)!

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE :
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES – LET’S RECOUNT

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

That was a forward ok ? I didnt make up anything here. Any connection or seeming material link is all in your mind and is purely imaginary. If blame has to be apporitioned…well, blame it on language !

Thought of ‘words’…just a topical connection.