F for FOOD..... errr I mean Fitness!!!

I am a foodie.Period. But until now I was a blessed foodie. Blessed because I always had this super-fast metabolism rate, due to which the rate at which I gained weight was super-slow (if any at all). So in short life was good. Even though I was skinny, I had no serious complains or issues with the way I looked (which was awesome BTW). But I did have some issues with random aunty ji's bothered very seriously about my weight.

Well, moving ahead after coming here to Mumbai, sadly rate of my metabolism has been decreasing ( inversely in proportion) to the amount of junk food that I have (which I must say, is huge). Now I was always game for gaining a few Kilograms of weight, so that I look heathier and clothes I wear seem to fit on me rather than looking like hanging on a hanger. But sadly life is not perfect and I am gaining weight in such an unhealthy way that it sucks! Maybe because of the change in the nature of work. My job is such that I have to sit continuously for like 10 hours at a stretch!! Now in this case even a thought of any activity after coming from office just does one thing to me ~~ Induce strong sleep!! And what more I am/was never a morning kinda person.

Now I was never into any sort of fitness routine or famous for being a healthy person. The situation however now it such that it strongly demands that I get into my fitness shoes (the sooner, the better). I got inspired by a fellow blogger Tanvi 's posts about fitness and exercises that she does. And I was like, yo, finally got that much needed boost but sadly no! Since then I have tried so hard to get myself into the groove to start any sort of activity. Alas, without any success. I tried after dinner walk once (got overexcited with the thing in the first go itself) and ended up puking out the whole dinner.

Its not like I am desperate to loose weight but yea I want to be proportionate and I hate my bulging tummy!! :( The saddest thing is that I am not seriously trying to anything for it, what more.... my after dinner walks taken with my roomies (after that incident) just include us sitting on the swings and chit chatting our time away... until the lights of the garden are turned off!!


Any sort of suggestion about fitness/exercise/any thing that involves any activity would be welcome, more than welcome!!

What Did I Ever See In Him....

pssttt,, those pretty hands are mine!! :D

 I finished reading this book last week, even though I had started it a month back! There was a time when I would finish such books in a day. I have finished reading a Sidney Sheldon novel in 1.5 days! Wow, thats quite an impressive record, even for a bookworm like me. But sadly these days I hardly get any time to read, even if I try hard! And catching up with the story after long intervals of gap just freaks me out..! I have left so many books in between because of this,  they fail to hold my interest this way.

“What Did I Ever See In Him” was different! Firstly it has no story to follow up , secondly it was very interesting and lastly I could relate to it at very many places. The book basically acts like a relationship guide (for women) as the cover says. However I did not find any objectionable or private or boring content that cannot be read by men. In fact I would strongly recommend guys to read this book, they can surely learn a thing or two from it!

The best part of this book it that it just dissects a relationship between a guy and a girl and highlights every imaginable aspect of it in the best way possible.  Real life instances have been shared which will make you feel like “Damn, this is my story!!” Every problem that you will ever face in a relationship has been described in detail with solutions (well, obviously!!). That must have been the whole point of writing the book, right?!

I particularly liked this once instance of the story where the author says that a relationship is like a plant. You have to nourish and cultivate it; otherwise it will become stagnant and dead. It’s not like something will happen overnight but yea every little thing, mistake, insult, ridicule will always take “some” part away from the relation. And in the end you will realise that no one has changed, nothing has changed, it’s just that the love, the respect has left. You will suddenly realise that the person who was once so important,  holds no importance at all now. It will be so easy to move on with your day to day life that you will be shocked!

Well, I really loved the book, so I thought I should write about it, share my views and promote the book!! Well, that’s all. Thank you!

MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN – REVIEW

I was actually looking forward to see this movie because of its very fresh look and music. Dhunki and Madhubala are sure shot winners. I could hardly sit still when these foot tapping songs were playing.




So the movie basically is about Kush (Imran) who is in search for his brother Luv’s (Ali Zafar) bride. Luv stays in London and his fed up of London girls after his recent break-up, so he has decided to get married and settle down with a girl of his brother’s choice. Kush’s quest for his bhabhi ends when he re-meets Dimple (Katrina). He had met her 5 years ago during a college trip, when she was arrested for organizing her rock concert in Agra fort (Dhunki song). Wow. That was a bit too much to digest !! Huge crowds of people thronging to see/hear a girl they have never seen before.

Finally Kush selects Dimple to be his brother’s bride and somehow in between the shaadi ki shopping, card selection and Katrina’s last 48 hours of freedom (before getting married) have both of them falling in love. I did not find the love story convincing because whenever I saw Katrina and Imran in the same frame, all I could think was “They look like brother-sister”.  Really, there is an uncanny resemblance between the both of them.

 Moving on,, how they manage to get together with each other, without letting anyone in the family know of their love for each other is what the second half of the movie is all about. There is not a dull moment in the movie, which is what I like the best about this movie, well after the Madhubala song! Really, I am totally hooked on this song!

Acting wise Imran is replaying his good boy character. I am soo bored to see him play same kind of character in almost all of his movies. Sweet, sensible and faattu! Now I would have liked Imran to play a bad boy kinda character.

Katrina acts well, but yes it does get a bit over in some places. Screeching and loud expressions were a big time put off for me. Nevertheless she was not bad to watch. She has played the wild, devil-may-care attitude character quite convincingly.

Ali Zafar was the winner for me. Effortless acting by him. Understated but very very good!

Other characters play their parts well too!

My verdict : The movie is definitely worth a watch.

Are you still reading? Really! What are you waiting for? Go on and watch the movie!

How low can a man steep? Check this out!

Teen rapes, bludgeons 3-yr-old
Victim Dies Of Brain Haemorrhage At Hospital, Accused Held
Nitasha Natu TNN 

Mumbai: A three-year-old girl, who had stepped out to watch Ganpati visarjan procession at Aarey Colony, was abducted and raped by a teenager on Friday. The child died of brain haemorrhage at a suburban hospital the next day, sending shockwaves in the area. The accused, Bablu Gupta (18), has been arrested. He was involved in petty thefts in the past, officials said.
    The victim, Muskaan (name changed) stayed in a road-facing society at Aarey Colony with her family. On Friday night, her five-year-old sister took her downstairs to watch Ganpati idols headed for immersion. However, the two were separated due to the crowd. Muskaan’s sister thought she had gone home and did not try looking for her.
    Gupta, a painter, had been staying with his uncle in Goregaon (W) after he ran away from his hometown in UP. On Friday, a drunk Gupta had joined the revellers at Aarey. “He spotted Muskaan and carried her to a parking lot beneath a flyover on the Western Express Highway at Goregaon (E) around 8 pm. Nobody noticed him in the traffic and the din. Gupta raped the child near a stationary truck. But when she started crying, he panicked and bludgeoned her with a stone,” inspector Dhanaji Nalawade said.
    Meanwhile, when Muskaan didn’t return, her family grew worried and started looking for her. “Two constables were patrolling the stretch near the flyover. When residents informed them about the missing child, the cops started quizzing passersby at the flyover. A pedestrian told them that he had heard a child’s cries near a truck. The constables then found Gupta in the same area with bloodstains on his shirt,” an official said. After a search, the cops found Muskaan in a pool of blood. She was alive and was rushed to a nursing home in the vicinity.
    Later, Muskaan’s family shifted her to Kokilaben Dhirubai Ambani Hospital in Andheri where she died of brain haemorrhage on Saturday afternoon.
    The police are now trying to verify Gupta’s age. In the past, he has spent time at the Dongri remand home for his involvement in thefts at Thane. “A local court has remanded Gupta in police custody till September 12,” senior inspector Suresh Shinde said. 

And people say that it's because of the way girls dress up, that's causing such type of crimes against them. Would anyone please tell me what that disgusting fellow found in a 3 year old child that forced him to indulge in such a gruesome act? Committing a crime of this sort on a child who is not yet fully development is a sure shot sign of mental sickness! But no, go ahead and blame the girls.....

Food Court: Sunday Morning Brunch

There is something so lazy about Sunday mornings, No? Yawnnn.

Well, every Sunday I tend to sleep in as much as I can. So every week we have a brunch on Sunday mornings, err afternoons, whatever!

This Sunday on the menu were Sandwiches! The recipe of which I learned from one of my roommate!

(I remember this old riddle from school days “Which witch is not at all dangerous?” Answer ~ Sandwich. A little lame, it is but funny nevertheless!)

Ingredients:

Any cheese spread,

Finely chopped onions, tomatoes and green chillies,

Boiled corn,

Salt and red chilli powder,

Cumin,

(You can experiment with the ingredients and bring in variety by adding cucumbers, boiled spinach, eggs, boiled chicken or mashed potatoes)

Method:

In a mixing bowl, take a generous helping of cheese spread, add all the ingredients and go nuts (not literally!) What I mean is with the help of a large spoon mix all the things well, so that they blend into each other to form a mayonnaise like mixture. You may taste the mixture to suit your taste accordingly. I used the left-over corn to make Sweet Corn (by adding butter, chaat masala and amchur (dried mango powder))

Once the mixture is ready, keep it aside and toast the bread. Bread should be toasted to perfection, so that *crunch* sound comes when you take a bite. Why? Because I like it that way! Haha, no just kidding!! Actually if the bread is soft, it will become very soggy if not eaten immediately.

 Once the bread is done, butter one slice and slather the other with the mixture. You may also add cheese slices after buttering the toast or sprinkle grated cheese (Mozilla) over the mixture, if you like your sandwich cheesy! 

Cut the sandwich in your favorite shape and eat with ketchup or any other spicy chutney of your choice. Fresh fruit juice is healthier option as opposed to thumps up that I had!.

Hope you liked this very simple recipe for a very tasty sandwich! :-) 

My Regular Dose of Mushy Stuff.....

Everyone has their set of favorite movies, songs, dialogues, scenes and actors. There are some special scenes that are very close to our hearts. The kinds that touch as in a way so strong that they remain with us for time immortal. Though I am reminded of no such movies (in recent past) which have touched me like that or in any other way for that matter! Not even succeeded in hauling out a single tear from my eyes. Seriously! I fail to remember when was the last time I actually cried during a movie (Rang-de-Basanti was it? *scratches head* no 3 Idiots!).

What has happened to the standard of film making? Or is it that the movies these days are high on intelligence level and less on emotional quotient? Mostly movies these days are realistic more like what we see around us these days, so does that mean that we are slowly becoming emotion-less?! Do our hectic schedules, busy lifestyles and other things amongst them make it impossible to hold space for something as unimportant as emotions!?

A very strong statement that is! Anyhow my motive of writing this post was totally different from what I am writing now! I usually do this, or should I say it usually happens with me, I intend to write something and then go on to write something totally different and hence the size of the post increases and the number of readers decreases!! :P

Jumping straight to the point now, I wanted to share my set of favorite dialogues from various movies that I like! Without further delay and no more beating around the bush, I will just start. Just like that now! Brusquely...

1.       10 things I hate about you

          Kat:  “I hate the way you talk to me

                    And the way you cut your hair.

                    I hate the way you drive my car.

                    I hate it when you stare.

                    I hate your big dumb combat boots

                    And the way you read my mind.

                    I hate you so much it makes me sick.

                    It even makes me rhyme.

                    I hate it...

                    I hate the way you're always right.

                    I hate it when you lie.

                    I hate it when you make me laugh;

                    Even worse when you make me cry.

                    I hate it when you're not around

                    And the fact that you didn't call,

                    But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you;

                    Not even close;

                    Not even a little bit;

                    Not even at all.”

Awwww. These lines never fail to move me! I love this scene and this dialogue which obviously is the highlight to the whole film. I watch this film every time just to get to this scene. Though there are other good/funny/hilarious scenes in the movie. Some of them:

Dr. Stratford: Where's your sister going? 
Kat: She's meeting some bikers. Big ones. Full of Sperm.

Dr. Stratford: You're 18, you don't know what you want. And you won't know what you want                    till you're 45, and even if you get it, you'll be too old to use it!

 And did I mention just how much I love Heath Ledger.R.I.P

2.       P.S I Love You

I may have mentioned this lot of times that I am in love with this movie. There are so many lines and scenes in this movie that are close to my heart. Both for being funny and emotional. The character “Denise” played by “Phoebe” of FRIENDS was undoubtedly was favourite closely followed by “Gerry” (Gerald Butler). Some dialogues:

  

Denise Hennessey: [Denise is admiring Ted as he walks by] Ooohhh, he's delicious isn't he?   I'd serve coffee on that ass.
John McCarthy: Do you have to be so vulgar about men? Like they're pieces of meat?
Denise Hennessey: I'm sorry, John. I forgot you're sensitive about your flat ass.
John McCarthy: You know, Denise, that's why you're not married. Women act like men. Then they complain men don't want them.
Denise Hennessey: Oh, is that why? 'Cause I thought it was something different. I thought that it was 'cause I deserved the best and he's out there. He's just with all the wrong women. And let me be clear. After CENTURIES of men looking at my tits instead of my eyes and pinching my ass instead of shaking my hand, I now have the *DIVINE* right to stare at a man's BACKSIDE with vulgar, cheap appreciation if I want to!
Sharon McCarthy: Well said!
Denise Hennessey: Yeah, well, I thought so.

Gerry Kennedy: [holding Holly by the shoulders] What do you want? I know what I want, cause I'm holding it in my hands.

Holly Kennedy: I left without saying anything. He must think I'm an idiot.
Denise Hennessey: Well, you're an American. They expect us to be idiots.

Holly Kennedy: Oh, never mind. I'm just screwed up. I'm trouble... yeah.

William: I like trouble.

Holly Kennedy: Oh no, I don't mean "cool Pulp Fiction" trouble. I mean "mental case wacko" trouble.

Holly Kennedy: No, it's not gonna work. I feel like I'm trying on a new pair of shoes I really wanna buy, but they just don't fit. Sorry.
William: Alright then, how about going barefoot for a while?

Holly Kennedy: What if this is it, Gerry? What if this is all there is to our life? You have to have a plan. Why do I have to be the responsible grown up who worries? Why can't I be the cute, carefree Irish guy who sings all the time?
Gerry Kennedy: Because you can't sing without making dogs bark?

(I love how she hits him with the shoes after this!!)

Daniel Connelly: What do women want?
Holly Kennedy: [whispering] We have no idea what we want.
Daniel Connelly: I knew it!

(How true)

Gerry Kennedy: Kiss me arse!
Holly Kennedy: Kiss mine! In English!

(lol)

Sharon: Hey, hey, hey, don't be like that.

Holly: Like what?

Sharon: Like the only lonely widow in Gotham City.

Holly: I'm just exhausted.

Denise: Yeah, well, what are you doing, two shows a night?

(Love Denise)!

Okay that’s too much for me to bear, it’s like it’s been really long time since I re-watched the movie. All these dialogues have me yearning to see the movie. So I will go re-watch the movie and come back with other movies in the next post! (As it is this post is going to go a tad bit towards the longish side, especially after the addition of pictures).

So I ll go watch P.S I Love You for the umm what 50^th time today? No wait, I stopped counting long back (*wink!)

The Anna Hazare Saga...

The 12 day fast has finally been rewarded and taken into consideration. The whole issue was no less than a drama or lets say a typical hindi movie scenario complete with very heroic hero, the baddie villains, lot of songs (in this case mostly patriotic) and a heart churning/nail biting climax!

During the whole thing, a lot of people were in limelight for reasons both good and bad. I decided to dedicate this post to the few people whose role I liked/disliked during the whole movement. Now this list of mine will not include the main propagators because they were universal heros, like Mr Anna Hazara (well, obviously, duh) , Kiran Bedi , Arvind Kejriwal, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and others! 

Without any furthur ado let me introduce you to my list of Famous and Not-So-Famous people!

The Awardees!!

1.       Arnab Goswami:

I really really loved his coverage through out the whole episode. His debates , his dialogues and his overall behavior, everything reflected that how deeply he was attached to the cause. He was on-air most of the time during the whole movement, at times I thought he was giving Anna some company by staying on-air most of the time and skipping meals!! I always had this great admiration for Mr Goswami , but after this whole Anna thing, I must say the respect thing has doubled up!!

2.       Lalu Yadav:

Don't miss hair on ears!! **oo it rhymes**

       One very funny thing that I observed was that even after Anna’s victory everyone was heard asking “Did you listen to Lalu’s speech ?” And was it a speech or what ?! Wow. Lalu’s inevitable humour was quite evidently the star of the show!!

3.       Varun Gandhi:

Finally in news again and this time not for wrong reasons. I really liked Varun’s speech. It was apt, smart and very mature!

The not-so-famous ones!!!

4.       Rahul Gandhi:

He may be cute and all with those (super-cute!) dimples, but his speech and his suppository solution for corruption was well, quite blah!!

5.       Om Puri:

*Chuckles*. No really, what was he thinking or should I say drinking?!! *Some more chuckles*!!

Lastly I would like to say that I have a super soft corner for our PM Mr Manmohan Singh. A lot has been said about him. Many jokes made on him, many pics morphed with his face added. But what really happened to the man of such a great vision and caliber....  Sushma Swaraj (whose speech was also quite impressive, by the way!) in her speech said "waise he humare pradhan mantri bolte bahut kaam hai, jab vo bolte hai tab toh unki suno" ("As it is our prime minister speaks very less, now that he is saying something at least listen to that"). Just after she said this the camera rolled on to Mr Manmohan and the expression on his face melted my heart.
He is adorable. Period. I wish people would leave him alone!