via guardian.co.uk
Click on the link below the quote, and go to the World section to see the live updates.
There’s a 72-hour ultimatum for Gaddafi by the opposition forces. Wonder what will happen…
Libya uprising – live updates | World news
Month: March 2011
Google Doodles on March 8, 2011
via google.com
The Google Doodle for the IWD today, Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Also, they have another one for Carnival in Brazil (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday in the USA) today.
http://www.google.com/logos/ offers a list of all their doodles over the years to celebrate and commemorate many a day and/or event.
Who's The Fairest Of Us All?
Mirror on the wall / Your beauty surpasses those / Who gaze into you!
Note on picture: A most exquisite mirror that I found in San Antonio, Texas on a recent touristy visit. Handmade in Mexico, across the border, it was one of a kind that I couldn’t help but pick up (and pay a handsome price for!), and bring home with me on a 5-hour plane trip. This lovely mirror adds to my small but growing collection of mirrors from around the world. It has found a place in our living-room, reflections of which may be seen from within the mirror itself.
No One Killed Jessica, 2011
I wasn’t living in India at the time that this horrific murder-case first made news more than a decade ago, but I did follow the story on and off over the years, and do remember the outrage at the verdict some years back. And so it was with this small background that I watched the movie. The length of the movie notwithstanding, it appeared to be quite an authentic portrayal of the characters, chief among them being the dynamic reporter-woman played by Bollywood darling Rani Mukherjee.
The movie is a testament to two powerful phenomena: the power of social activism that has grown in leaps and bounds thanks to the advancement of telecommunications and information technology; and the amazing effect of journalistic sting operations that were executed with finesse and eventually much success in bringing to the fore corrupt people and practices in all areas of government and social circles. Bravo to the men and women engaged in these endeavors– I remember reading about Tehelka when they first started out…
Beyond the integrity of the story and the authentic cinematography, I do think this might be an up-and-coming genre in Bollywood. All in all, a well-made and thoughtful production. Rani, you did well, only you have too sweet a face to be taken seriously, and Vidya, quite impressive how you shed your glamorous persona.
Kilauea Eruption; Lava Spews from Hawaiian Volcano
Half A Year; Half A Life
This is a post that was first published exactly two years ago, March 7, 2009 in my private blog. I publish it here today for its obvious significance and for yet another affirmation of the title of this blog viz. the show must go on!
So, its my half-birthday today. I actually didn’t know there was such a thing until my kids told me about it. What it is, is what you think it would be: the exact half-way mark to my next birthday, viz. September the seventh.
What a cool concept, don’t you think? Acknowledging the passage of time and marking a half-way point!
But what I was thinking was that it is actually more than a half-birthday, really. For me, at least. I think it would be fair to also think of it as a half-way point to my life. And that’s being optimistic, I know! Because who knows when my life might come to an end, but still… nice thought.
Which makes me think of a comment that Bono made this morning in an interview with ABC’s GMA with regards to the title of the new U2 album, No Line On The Horizon. When I’d first heard the name of it, I thought to myself about how that is a somewhat pessimistic frame of reference– no line, as in, no hope, no future? But no. What Bono said was that the band saw it as a very optimistic notion: just as when there is a blurring of the sky and the water on the far horizon where the two become one, so also there is no line or no distinction between the heights and the depths that one can reach in one’s lifetime. Nice. No boundaries. No compulsions to rise when its all relative, anyway. And who’s to say or see how high is high? Or how low is low. There is no line on the horizon. I can see it now. 🙂
Well, six months from now, I hope that I will be around to mark yet another birthday, and give thanks to God for the gift of another year, nay, life itself. Half a birthday today; Godwilling, half a life even. Even if not, I have much to be thankful for. May it be that I am always reminded of how precious this life is, no matter how much of it is eventually afforded to me.
This picture? I took it last summer when I was visiting my folks in their home in Bangalore. I had given it to them as a gift with my first earnings from my first real-world job in Delhi. It is a handpainted mural of a old-world folk-style Indian scene of people and animals traversing along life’s highways. I had it framed, and large piece that it is, had quite a time with it in carrying it on the three-hour train ride from Delhi to Saharanpur. But the inconvenience of all that paled in comparison to the joy that it brought to my parents. They’ve treasured it all these years, and never lose an opportunity to tell a newcomer to their home about how their daughter gave it to them!
So far, half of this year, and, dare I say it, half of this life of mine has been very good! May it be that you also take the same view about your own.
Smack Your Lips, It's Chettinadu Chicken Time!
So, if you don’t know this already, I’ll tell you one not-so-small-fact about myself: I am the queen of improvisation. In the kitchen, that is. (Among other places, of course!)
But what I’m getting at is that I made a chicken dish today that I’m going to call Chettinadu Chicken. Chettinadu because it is based on the traditional dish by that name, but has been improvised in the adding and omission of ingredients and in the technique of cooking it thereof. The key ingredients, however, remain, which are: mustard, tamarind, kari patta, and ginger.
One bite, and you’d want to say: yeh hui na baat! Oh, and the Tamils probably don’t say it quite like that, but whatever it is that they would say, the meaning would still be the same, which is, roughly translated: ‘that’s the word!’– to mean of course, something along the lines of: this is so good, I have no words to describe it!
Band Baaja Baraat, 2010
Quite refreshing an offering from Bollywood, with two newbees that do a fine job with the authentic Dilli-style and delivery of the dialogues. No-nonsense girl meets another no-nonsense boy, and all is hunky-dory in love and in war until enlightenment comes just in the nick of time. Isn’t life just like that? Well, most of the time, at least. And if it’s not, well then, you have a piece of art like this come along and remind you that it is!
Oh, and I didn’t realize what a huge industry wedding-planning has become in India until I saw this movie!
