….Apprehensions

Ever wondered how apprehensions are such fabulous ways to test ability.

Battling my own ones, I just joined a gym!! No, it’s not a small thing… it’s the BIGGEST deal. Considering how I have always shied away from the scary, machine-y place they call so coolly a “gym”, I am surprised at myself for even having thought of taking the plunge. Honestly, though, the whole experience has been a lot of fun. With this nervous energy all around me, I finally inaugurated the running shoes I had purchased a while back.

…The sweet pain of sore muscles is delightful. It makes you want to go back again for the next session.

Of course, I did take the real (read ‘joker’) me to the gym; considering how I held on to the tread mill for the love of my dear life, and how I thought I could very smartly cheat under the watchful eye of my trainer but got shamefully caught :P

…On that note, are we ready to make those New Year Resolutions yet? Got a lot of thinking to do there!!!

Meanwhile, I came across some pretty sights as an extension to Christmas, and for a beautiful year ahead!

 Wish you all an amazing New Year!!

… The Power of Domination!!

With so much already being written and spoken about the horror of the Delhi gang-rape incident (one of so very many), it still never fails to send chills up my spine. That on one hand, and several men beating up their women every given day – is male domination really undergoing some severe harassment?

Confused about the point I am trying to make? I’ll detail it – The rapists primarily were the kind who, in their villages, and societies have seen, and are used to men control their women, habituated to teaching the ladies a lesson per their whims and fancies, and constantly establishing their power (despite being unemployed, clearly not bread-earners sometimes, and/or drunkards). Not being as physically strong as their husbands/lovers/fathers/brothers/male in-laws, these women have allowed (and continue to let) men call the shots.
Now, imagine such a man who is already used to being the supremo in his territory, come to a city; any city where women are trying to be “equals” and “better”, where women have a voice, and sometimes even sandals to beat up a man or two. He must get yelled at by school children’s mums for arriving late on a particular day, or for not having cleaned his bus; the school teacher must have raised her voice at him for driving rashly perhaps. Think like this man now, and you shall know that his ego must hurt; it must pain, and die every day, and how his anger must well up every time women (and men alike) yelled at him and put him down. Get this man drunk, empower him with 5 other equally frustrated men, and you have the “mental” getting pissed at a girl who resisted his advances, yelled and probably swore back at him. He had the madness, the anger, and the weapon to establish who the boss is……

It’s not just one man’s ego; its most men in our country. The root is not this one man’s back-ground. The root is our culture. We are taught to listen to our father ‘coz he may just get angry and beat us up, we are taught to be scared that he will throw mum and us out of “his” house. Our brother has all the right to slap us if he sees us talk to a boy in class, or read our sms that sounded flirtatious to him. Our husbands can demand that glass of water, and we the slaves are supposed to cater to his needs and wants. So many mothers tell their young daughters “abhi pati ke ghar se wapas mat aana. Nibha lena”.
Really? Settle? Settle for shit? Get beaten up? Feel dependent and weak?

My point is – after years of living like that, the “equal” human being in us woke up, and women started empowering themselves. And you know what that kind of empowerment does right? It teaches you to fight back, ask for explanations, demand logical reasons – in short REBEL for a cause.
American women can do it my friend. They come from cultures where men “believe” in them and their equality. Indian women CANNOT. ‘Coz Indian men won’t LET them! Their ego gets harassed.

My mum actually warns me – she says I must not argue with the rickshaw-wala for a few bucks if his meter is tampered and I am being over-charged. Why, I ask her. You know what her response is – she says he may just attack you when you are alone. What if I am thrown acid at? What if I am raped? What if he follows me and molests me? She simple says – woh mard hain, and ye saare neechi aur anpad society ka hissa bhi hai – ye kuch bhi kar sakte hai.

Now I understand it. Now I think it is after all, possible. Now I’m not so sure if I must argue. Must I give in to whatever the men around me tell - be it my father, my brother, my uncle, my boss, the rickshaw-wala, the dhobi or the chaprasi?

Why don’t I feel safe? Why don’t I confidently tell her there is no chance anyone can harm me? Is it that security and police are an issue? Or is it the fact that most sections of society in my country are not even educated?

Who I am, what I do, how much money I make, how educated I am, is not significant? Significant is that I must not harass the male ego? Do I have to let them think they win? And that I lose, and bow to their supremacy? Let them know they have the power to dominate over me? And since my country is called “MOTHER” India, and she is a woman too, may I comfortably add that she has lost this battle too??

Everyone says “we need to make a change!”

How, I ask? What are we proposing?

I hope to have lovely children someday, bring them into a free, and joyous world. I want to teach them well, and let my daughter wear what she may like, and my son be able to fall in love with a wonderful free-thinking woman. I envision a beautiful, happy, safe world for my children, where they can enjoy their lives, smile some, and definitely take “safety” for granted. I want a world like that, where my kids respect certain men and women only because they deserve it, not because they demand it.

Cannot help but wonder – is safety such a big thing to ask for?

… Ho Ho Ho!!!.... It’s Santa Time !!

Hasn’t Santa been everyone’s favourite person at some or the other point? How can one not fall instantly in love with this happy looking, very huggable, grand-fatherly, reindeer-riding Santa?!

I found some of these very wow looking Christmas-y things so enticing that I decided to post a week in advance…

Merry Christmas already!! :)

...Splendid Websites!!

So, I racked my brain, thought of a million topics, and even re-read some of my previously written stuff (written over the years) to put up here today. Some felt too stupid, some a tad over-smart, some utterly emotional… Phew!

Finally, my hazy, but thank-god-for-it good memory came to my rescue. I suddenly remembered a few fabulous sites I had visited some eons ago, and thought “hell yes, why not?!”

Sharing some brilliance that I experienced, and now re-experienced, so I could post these here:

Enjoy!!

Site 1:Such an elegant, poised, and amazing way to explain every feature of the classic brand! This website won my heart over and I never tire of visiting it. Of course, I forgot all about it for a few years and only said my hello to it tonight, while hunting for the web url. Absolutely delightful (and insightful..! )http://www.a-to-s.co.uk/home.php

Site 2:
I came across this totally crazy site through my friend (and colleague) who was so excited about it's "so cool na" element!! Anyone who is aware of my rather amazing memory for names (well, err…..... umm :P), it took my half an hour to remember the name of the company that Race (my equally crack neighbor at work) kept laughing at. Here goes –
http://bangbang-films.com/

Site 3:
This website was a promotional campaign for axe. So amused I was with the “feather touch” effect, I vividly remembered this one. Strangely the site is currently refusing to work on my browser  K
http://www.axefeather.com/

Site 4:
It’s not as vivacious and fantastic as most other sites, but still a delight with the words inspiring the fragrances. (Also, it takes awfully long to load.) Nevertheless, it’s a pretty one.
http://www.isseymiyakeparfums.com/en/experiences

…. Good ones, aren’t they?

…The Mystery of a Murder

This one’s going to waver off the usual beat of my writing and the very purpose of this blog. Believe me, there’s nothing peach, nor lovely about what I am about to write.

Yet, today I’m writing about my lovely moments of “solving murder mysteries” with my dad. How he and I would sit together, watch news channels (several of them on the same night, covering the same story!!), and I would incessantly question him – the what, when, why how?! – about the crimes. It’s about those highly gripping, intellectually stimulating moments of my life when papa and I would make guesses, debate about and explain our differing logic to each other, and finally await verdicts – court sessions after sessions, hoping truth would triumph (but more importantly, the truth would unravel in our version of ways :P)

Some fascinating ones, some still unsolved, and so gruesome; some that keep tinkering and nagging in some corner of your head, itching for you to know the sequence of events, and the truth ~ Here’s one that I find very tragic and very, very intriguing.

Aarushi Murder Mystery:

I distinctly remember the first time I heard of Aarushi - a 14 year old girl, who was brutally murdered in her bedroom, and how the family’s domestic help, Hemraj was the prime suspect on Day Zero. From then on, how and when her father became the main accused and her mother an ally, I only watched with utter disbelief and over-whelming anger. How a smiling teenager, a victim, suddenly started being portrayed as the promiscuous “fast” girl heavily into drugs and under-age sex, (and I did get suspicious, let me add) left me with no hope in media and the judiciary. So, if a 9^th standard kid does a project on drug abuse, she becomes a user; if she uses sms lingo to write emails to her father, she is called “fast”; and God forbid, if she speaks to some boys in class, she is involved in immoral activities for sure. Who cares that Aarushi was a brilliant student, a rather nice looking popular teenager, how she was a potential contender for the post of her school’s head girl, and a normal child who loved dancing.

I agree it is juicier to believe that Dr. Rajesh Talwar walked into her room only to discover Hemraj and Aarushi in a compromising position, and in his fit of rage killed them both. Mumma, Dr. Nupur Talwar then helped her husband “dress up” the crime scene. Fantastic!! Mystery solved, ain’t it?

Well, in my various discussions with my papa on the case, its twists and turns, a few questions always left us both with various enthralling theories. Why were the prime accused Talwars so insistent on Touch DNA? How did the CBI report actually support and then later dismiss the fact that Rajesh and Nupur could have potentially slept through the crime due to the AC sounds in their daughter and their rooms respectively? How were the post mortem reports quickly dismissed and then absolutely contradictory reports drawn up later? How rape, and/or sexual intercourse was completely dismissed in the first report, and then the second (and much later) report spoke about how Aarushi was not a virgin (since her hymen was ruptured – no one thinks dance, cycling or any form of physical activity could do that, do we?), and that her private parts were cleaned after the murder?

These are just few of the very many questions one may ask.

The heart-rending tragedy is that the murderer, whoever it is, remains on the loose.

All one can hope for is that true justice will prevail, and sooner.

P.S. – While I used to, and still somewhere, somehow follow this case, I had stumbled upon this very interesting article. It raised almost all the questions even my mind did (and does till date), along with a story that I thought was showed so intimately the catastrophe and pain of the Talwar family. It took a lot of searching online for me to find this article back again. Do read it sometime if you are interested in this case.http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=hub190211THE_HOUSE.asp

P. P.S. - I know my version of this rather tragic story is a bit biased, because I cannot help but step into Aarushi and her parents’ shoes, and think like how my own and known people would. 

For the latest verdict in 2012, read http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/aarushi-murder-case-nupur-talwar-rajesh-talwar-cbi-court/1/197478.html

…. And yes, the plan is to start sitting with Dad again and watch some news!! :P

… Am a Hot Choco-holic (wink wink) !!

What’s not to love in hot chocolates? (drooool)

I was introduced to outré-yummy hot chocolate pretty late in life. Can’t blame me - tragically, every hot chocolate I tasted before my trip to Dubai was so dull, drab, and so blah, that I almost gave up hopes on its very entity. For me, back then, hot chocolate was just like having bournvita and milk. Exactly, IMAGINE?!

 …. And then Jean Galler happened.

Jean, and the introducer of Jean, changed my life into a rather gorgeous pot of hot, melting, dark chocolate! Ummmmmm….

The heart-warming drink felt so pure and gorgeous – I still remember the gush of deliciousness in my mouth when I sipped that perfect dark chocolate; its blend so delicately formed to create the most amazing hot chocolate!

I believe the ambience at Galler, Dubai, helped make that experience all the more lovely.

All I can say is Jean’s 30 years were absolutely worth it.

(Note to M: You know I’ll always thank you (among many others) for this one most specially J)

 Suzette ~

My first thought about this quaint little French Crêperie - Café was, “Oh no, I hate crepes!”

Little did I know that Suzette will entice me so and, la jeune fille va tomber en amour (in the little French I know – the girl would fall in love)

This one’s made the absolute traditional way by continuously stirring the mix of beautiful dark chocolate and milk; Suzette’s lip-smacking cup of delight is a sure shot winner.

Psst: The adorably cute owner, and his rather charming French accent only adds to pleasure :P

 Debailleul ~

It’s as enchanting as enchanting gets. Tucked in one corner, and tastefully decorated with happy lights, this very cozy, very exquisite place transports you to a different world altogether.

I usually opt for the small hot chocolate because I think it’s just enough to leave you blissfully happy, and yet keep you craving for your next visit here.

Debailleul’s hot chocolate treat is my TOP favourite, and always such a joyous experience.

** (it’s easy to pronounce Debailleul – just omit the double L J)

 San Churros ~

The Spanish Classic Hot Chocolate is as classic and as simple as it can get. In my head, I think they simply take a huggge bar of some very good chocolate, melt it, and pour it into a rather sweet looking cup, and slowly let you drown in this miracle pot. Divine thought, isn’t it? J

It’s a very very thick drink, I must warn you. The fun part is the battle between the irresistible and recurring rush to taste it and burn your tongue over and over again!

Although this is a favourite (4^th in the order), to be rather honest here, I haven’t gone to San Churros in a while now, ‘cause I think Debailleul makes it’s better version, in a drinkable size.

Any other places in Mumbai that are must try’s for this dream they call Hot Chocolate?

P.S. I feel rather delighted that all my first experiences with all my favourite hot chocolates were with M... a very big Thank You!!  

Alluring Unknown Territory…..

Thank you for coming in to read (& see) my blog. I’m a first timer in the world of internet blogging – atleast on the creating side. However, I have been reading, and am very addictively hooked on a few blogs, and thought it to be lovely to share some moments and all those amazing, beautiful things nature & man create to make us love much more. Why not, after all, take advantage of this fabulous tool to inspire, learn, and smile some?

Here goes moi first blog…

Well, in my opinion, venturing into new lands and exploring new horizons is such adrenaline dose. Although, I try doing one new thing every day, you know how sometimes it just is impossible to find so many new things and opportunities. Anyway, like blogging happened today, the last few weeks have been all about lipsticks.

This unexplored territory has been rather alluring. Seeing actresses look gorgeous in different lip colors, and models pout their peaches and pinks (lips, guys!), it always fascinated me, but never as much as it has captivated my imagination of late. (Inglot has been a favourite!)

Some gorgeous shades I thought I must share here are:

 Lip color 1:

This one is Inglot’s Slim Gel Lipstick 57, and hello hello! I own it… :D

It’s a gorgeous Hot Pink shade, perfect for oomph at work, and better even with Little Black Dresses, seduction evenings, and also Indian-wear.

It effortlessly lifts up your entire look, and makes you feel very awesome.

Recommended for fair skinned chicas!

Lip Color 2:

Rene swooned and va-va-voomed in this gorgeous glossy lip-color in The Thomas Crown Affair.

So mesmerized I was with this color, that I searched every gloss in the country (and abroad) to find a shade that looked half as enticing on me. (Note: the search still continues).

It’s so pretty, nude-ish, and supple looking; makes me love!!

Do let me know if you know where I could get this delicious creamy looking color.

 Lip Color 3:

Katrina does it so well, doesn’t she? Looks so effortlessly beautiful!

Lip surgery or not, she has the most gorgeous pout, I think. Generally in nude colors, transparent high gloss tones, or subtle pretty pinks, she looks so lovely. Don’t you think?

Dior, M.A.C, and Estee Lauder make some stunning, super glossy (& long lasting) colors.

Lip Color 4:

Ah those scrumptious deep reds!!

Such a sexy, and yet scary color to pull off!

I wear reds VERY rarely, and own only one lipstick of the color. What I would really want next is this stunning deep tone of red. It’s so intense, it makes me marvel at its beauty!!

This color would look lovelier on skins of darker, duskier tones I think. Will post the picture if I find one that does justice to the skin tone & this scorching color; but right now, I’m so dreaming of owning this!!

 Lip Color 5:

Anne Hathaway in this instant mood-lifter movie (Devil Wears Prada) inspired me so much that I actually had got the fringe and also went on to buy M.A.C’s Red – that’s what my shade is called – M.A.C Red. Isn’t that so simple for this luscious color? J

So… figuring out how to wear a red lipstick was quite the task for a newbie-in-the-lipstick-world like me. I googled, you-tubed and questioned all the M.A.C girls on how to perfectly wear it without looking like The Joker (from Dark Knight, if you are that slow :P). Another show-stopper, amongst many, was that some reds (with tinges of orange primarily) make thy teeth look yellow… Ewww, right? Anyway, I did a lot of research, didn’t want to look like Chameli (it’s a high possibility considering my skin color), and found out the correct way of wearing deep colors – you need to wear in slightly inside your lips to make them look un-cakey & un-uber fake.

I loved wearing it, and all the hard-work behind the scenes, I thought, was absolutely worth it. J

 Lip Color 6:

This is definitely on my wish list. I mean HOW?! How can lips look that lustrous, subtle, pink and so femininely beautiful at once?

I’m totally digging this color, and would love to know where I could get this precise shade.

P.S – Just got an update – I could probably hunt for: 3D Effect Lipgloss - Rose Hypothetic 05 SPF 15 and balm action. Sparkly beige pink. Or 3D Effect Lipgloss - Rose Polemic 04
Light sparkly pink. SPF 15 and balm action.

Lip Color 7:

Au natural is such a precious color, don’t you think? I got two such shades – one from M.A.C Limited Edition, and the other is an Inglot (again J).

A free tip your way: You can get this picture effect by applying lip balm in slight quantity and extending it a li’l above your lip line.

That’s it for today. Look forward to knowing your favourites, and also your comments on the blog.

Have a beautiful day ahead ! J