April's Fool

Looking back and moving forward.

2011-12-31T21:06:00.000+05:30

Usually come the end of an year I tend to evaluate where I am and generally feel shit about it. If you recall my post last year I did a quick recap of my life status (money, job, love life, etc) and felt like I had made no progress. But what a ridiculously awful way to evaluate an year past. I don't want to do that today, because I don't want to go down that road. And the truth is, despite disappointments and hardships and all that stuff life tends to deal you anyway, I've done some pretty awesome things this year and it's those that I want to remember and rejoice on this day, the last of 2011.

We all have those "Things to do before you die" list and I can happily say I've ticked a few of those off in my list this year. Here's me counting the fulfilled dreams for a change.

Visit Paris. Check.

Visit the Shakespeare & Company bookshop. Check.

Watch a Shakespeare play at The Globe theater. Check.

Watch The Phantom of the Opera in London. Check.

Go to a Noah and the Whale gig. Check.

Work in the Penguin office (so what if it was just as an intern for two weeks). Check.

Go on a proper hardcore roller coaster. Hell yeah, check!

See/meet J.K. Rowling in the flesh. Check. Attend Hollywood red carpet event. Check. Two birds in one stone, yo!

See a real Banksy on the street. Check. In fact, I saw two. The second was one of his more well-known ones but didn't have my camera to photograph it.

So here's to 2012 and whatever life throws at you, may you always find the strength and will to get up and keep fighting. Dream. Discover. Dare. Have a fantastic new year everyone.

Londonning: Christmas on Oxford Street

2011-12-24T01:01:00.001+05:30

Come November/December, the commercial giants on Oxford Street come out with bulbs and bling full on. There's also the lights on the street themselves which are always an attraction of its own. Walking down the street is generally a test of patience but during this time of the year, it requires extra mental stamina.

We're almost there. :)

My Christmas playlist

2011-12-19T04:02:00.000+05:30

I realized I've never really compiled myself a Christmas playlist, mostly because the radio tends to go overkill on the tunes anyway but I feel like one tonight. My Christmas playlist folks is quite eclectic to say the least. I wanted a few of the cliche Christmas tunes like Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas', Shaken Stevens 'Snow is falling', classics by the likes of Dean Martin (whose voice in my opinion IS Christmas) and Elvis (check out his 'Merry Christmas Baby' - I can't get enough of it!), and of course some Michael Buble (that voice is the epitome of a warm fire on a cold winter night)and some choice faves from the Home Alone soundtrack (what would the holidays be without a Home Alone re-viewing). I also wanted to infuse some "currentness" so I threw in the likes of Coldplay's 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', Florence + The Machine doing 'Last Christmas', Amy Winehouse singing 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause', John Mayer covering 'I'll be Home for Christmas' and Jack Johnson's 'Someday at Christmas'. Interested?

Happy listening. :)

In the pursuit of inspiration

2011-12-10T19:24:00.000+05:30

Lately I've been desperately searching the interwebs for inspiration. By which I mean inspiration to do all the things you start getting very cynical about as you get older and older, particularly in this credit-crunched, global warming, politically apathetic world we live in today.
Be happy.
Continue to have dreams.
Make them happen.
Live in the moment.
Pay it forward.
See that the glass is half-full.
Stay true to yourself.
Give thanks.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
Have peace-of-mind.
Take care of Earth.
See the best in every person.

We all want to ultimately live our life to the fullest despite the circumstances. Inspired living. It's so easy to retreat in to cynicism and apathy instead. I've done that one too many times. We all go through "the dark days" but if we don't keep our sights set on light, darkness is perhaps all we'll ever encounter. It helps to know there are people out there beating their circumstances and if there is one thing I wish, it is that I will be able to have at least half of that inner-strength and personal conviction that they have to fall down, get back up, fall down, get back up and to keep going. Amy Purdy is one of them.

Why private?

2011-12-04T21:11:00.001+05:30

I wanted to privatize this blog because I was planning on doing some major whining and venting on this space. But then I slapped myself and told myself to get over it. Really, I need to get over it. And I have. Sort of.

I keep wondering and worrying about the future and it quite honestly is a little ridiculous. I know I have come a long way as a person and yes I'm not where a lot of my peers are but I must accept this as my journey. I'm still on that journey and I know I will get there.

The other day I was watching Oprah (yeah yeah spare me the cynicism) and one of the guest speakers was talking about having an attitude of gratitude. Of course we are all grateful but maintaining that sense of gratitude as an attitude is not easy. It means not only being grateful but feeling grateful. I am grateful for my parents and what they've done for me to make this journey. Honestly I can't say how much I am grateful for them to have willingly invested in millions for me to do a postgrad degree in this country and in a subject that I am passionate about but with a very little clear-cut ROI. But here's where my gratitude went wrong. Over this past year I've been carrying that gratitude like somone who's in a lot of debt. Instead of it making me feel good, I let it make me feel bad. Like I've gotten out this massive student loan that I need to pay back in the next two to three years. Of course I know and I want to repay them and bygod I will do everything I can to do so. But I want that to be a blessing and to look at it as an inspiration than as a long-term debt. I know for them what really matters ultimately is that I am happy and perhaps that above all is the most important way to repay them.

Come what may, I know I will be ok. In fact, more than OK. I've got family, great friends and dare I say it, even a little talent. But above all, I have things that I'm passionate about that get me excited to wake up and still be alive. I will continue to love, live and fight for them.

p.s. I declare this blog un-privatized.

privatization

2011-11-24T00:05:00.001+05:30

...I think it's time. So e-mail me before the end of this week or DM me if I'm following you on Twitter and I'll send an invite if I like you enough. :P Thanks for sticking around so far.

10 things that made me happy

2011-11-06T20:05:00.001+05:30

A lot of stuff has been getting me down lately, hence why I haven't felt like blogging much here. Also I've been so busy with interning 9 to 5 and working on job apps that I've not had much spare time at hand. Contrary to what I thought, haven't been doing much Londoning either. Most weekend's I've opted to nest in my room reading (I'm SO behind with my reading challenge) and watching tv, listening to music and sleeping.

I'm once again at a place in my life where the road ahead is very unclear. Yes, story of my life. Trying to keep my spirits up, stay positive and keep fighting. But I thought a little 10 Things TMnY-style post would do me some good just about now. So here goes.

10 Things that managed to put a smile on my face...

1. Fireworks

Last night was Bonfire/Guy Fawkes night. Any special day that involves fireworks is a happy day. I caught the fireworks at Southwark Park. Found ourselves standing right under it. It was magical.

2. Romance

Flash mob/singalong style. Gets me all warm, fuzzy and hopeful.

3. 90s music

Sugar Ray. Remember them? Massive nostalgic hit.

4. That being said, discovering new groovy tunes like this

and this!

5. Books that 'get' me

You know those books are rare but when you find yourself between the pages of one, it's like finding a soulmate.

6. Postcards

from travelling friends.

7. Foamy graphics on my lattes

8. Autumn leaves

9. Amazing song covers

I've been finding so many fantastic cover songs which I will share in another 10 Rad cover songs post. In the meantime let me share with you this cover of Rhianna's Please Don't Stop the Music by one of the contestants who came on The X Factor USA. It made me smile.

10. Markets

Sunday Song: All These Things That I've Done {The Killers}

2011-09-25T17:10:00.000+05:30

Sunday Song: Some You Give Away {La Rocca}

2011-09-18T16:01:00.001+05:30

Sometimes you feel like you've lost a lot of time. Yesterday I was talking to a good friend of mine and we both realized that in a way we've lost some of the best years of our youth to relationships that ultimately consumed us and the prime of our youth. At this stage, looking back, I really wish I had a couple of those years back...

Today's song is about that kind of regret.

What ever happened
to the promises you made
Those little notions
of your breakthrough day
My one mistake was
in making some room
Leaving doors unlocked
that you pushed through
And taking too much time

Some you lose and some you give away

Have a good week.

sunday song: No Rain {Blind Melon}

2011-09-11T15:38:00.001+05:30

This Sunday I woke up with a massive yearning for the 90s. And if there's one song that takes me back it's got to be this one by Blind Melon. It's one of my favourite music videos of all time and the song has such an instant pick-me-up vibe. 90s FTW!

Have a lovely week people!

Yorkshire Getaway

2011-09-06T20:59:00.000+05:30

Due to barely having enough money in my bank account to pay rent and feed myself, I'm unfortunately unable to do much traveling outside London. Luckily this past weekend my housemates and their parents invited me to join them on a trip to York by car. I was greatful for the opportunity and didn't need much convincing.

Yorkshire is a beautiful, scenic county, where historically the Vikings and Celtic tribes settled and were later captured by the Romans. En route to York we stopped by at Leeds for a quick bite and once we were in York we also made quick day trips to Whitby (a small sleepy little port town) and Knaresborough (a market town in the borough of Harrogate and an hour away from York). Landscape wise, Yorkshire is all about the hills, dales and moors. Check it out!

The drive to Whitby in particular was a sight for sore eyes with the endless heather-covered North York Moors stretching on to infinity along the two sides of the highway and sheep grazing lazily. The North York Moors, is unlike anything I've ever seen. Unfortunately the light conditions weren't ideal and my poor camera just could not capture the landscape properly. But I tried.

One of the main highlights of my trip was where I stayed: my housemates' uncle's place. He is married to an English lady and the interior of their house couldn't get more Victorian if it tried. I felt like I was living inside a Jane Austen novel! I managed to sneakily click a few photos when no one was looking.

Other favourite moments included walking down this hilly alleyway along the River Nidd in Knaresborough and seeing picture perfect houses rising up on one side. It's very Old English meets Greek Island like don't you think?

Apart from that there was the delight of eating fruits fresh off a tree/vine...

more walks along picturesque lakes...

a somewhat trecherous boat ride along the River Nidd...

and seeing some interesting folks perching on vehicle tops!

So there wasn't really much touristing involved and we didn't really cover the sites and attractions. It was mostly long drives, random walks and stuffing ourselves silly with all kinds of food. Alas, no photos of the food.

So that folks was my Yorkshire getaway. Back to London. And now that I'm ~~unemployed~~ free I can squeeze in some more Londonning. So stay tuned.

sunday song: You Give Love A Bad Name {Bon Jovi}

2011-08-14T19:35:00.000+05:30

Felt like some old skool Bon Jovi today.

London Lootings: The kids are getting their "taxes" back

2011-08-11T01:36:00.002+05:30

When it comes to establishments clashing with people, I always tend to veer towards the people. Talk to me about the JVP youth insurrections in the 70s and 80s and you will find my sympathies with the youth. Talk to me about university student protests for jobs and my sympathies would be with them. I am all for V for Vendetta style civil unrest given that there is thought behind it and hopefully something worth fighting for.

But these London ~~riots~~ lootings that unfolded in the past few days leaves me with very little sympathy for the rioters/looters. I read this excellently written blog post and while I can't argue against it and in any other scenario I would be very much wholeheartedly in agreement with it, I still can't completely see eye to eye about the "causes".

I am struggling to not sound all right-wing about the affair but to draw parallels between the youth riots in Tahrir Sqaure in June and this is a ludicrous noiton to me. And if people want to sit down and "figure out" why these kids did what they did the question they need to be asking is "why an iPhone? why a flatscreen TV from Currys?" Central to these riots was the looting and burning down of shops and the looting was on the High Street. It was like a giant free-for-all shopping day, with opportunity for arson and playing out your frustrations thrown in! Listening to that infamous recording of those two girls parroting some kind of propaganda about "showing the police we can do what we want" and getting back at "the rich people" seems to have been something they overheard around the corner. The video above where that girl is saying that they're getting their taxes back is no different. It's more like they just joined one big rave and went with the flow of the carnage. It was "free stuff" and "good fun"; a chance to act out their Nintendo/Xbox games in real life.

To lump the entire mob into one would be unfair and I'm sure there must be individuals with their own personal reasons; but then again, how else can you respond to a 'mob' besides collectively? Mob mentality is that of the herd and we must MUST (for the sake of future protests) make a distinction between standing up for something and behaving like cows let loose on the street.

If we're to say that this has any connection with the "cuts" and poverty we're just fishing for noble causes and slapping them on as we like. If there is a cause anywhere, I can't help but think it's plain and simple materialism. Blu Ray DVDs, Sat Navs, iPhones, flatscrenn TVs, sneakers from JD, clothes from Miss Selfridges...these were the stuff that was getting looted. It goes right at the heart of the kind of materialist environment kids today (in the West in particular) are growing up in. The celebrity culture, the Keeping up with th Kardashians, the fashion labeles...if we're talking about cause and context let's talk abuot that shall we? Kids are growing up being constantly reminded by popular media that the stuff they have, the brands they surround themselves with are the things that define you. I've noticed this so much in London. Shopping at Lidl or Tesco has its stigma attached, just as much as buying your clothes from Primark. So if we talk about the gap between the have's and the have-nots a different question needs to be asked. What kind of 'having' are we talking about?

A much better blog post on the nuances and implications of the London riots can be read here. I know mine sounds a bit ranty and I come across like a sixty year old lady.

The good news is things have calmed down. Maybe their parents grounded them or soemthing.

sunday song: A Thing for Me {Metronomy}

2011-08-07T16:26:00.001+05:30

Infectious!

A 5 year affair

2011-08-06T01:03:00.000+05:30

So yesterday I happen to realize that I've been blogging since May 2006, which makes this year a 5th anniversary of sort. I started a blog because I wanted a place to just put out what was in my head that I couldn't talk about with friends at the time. This basically had a lot to do with being in my very first relationship, and a complicated one at that.

I was browsing back to the early days on Dilly-dallying and it kind of makes me blush. The first post, is not anything original, thank heavens! It's a quote from Adrienne Rich and quite a 'typical me' one at that. From then on though there's a cheesy-poetry-to-my-boyfriend phase I've gone through where I've produced some pure gems of mush. Like this for instance. Or this. Goodlord, WHAT ON EARTH! I am sorry to have subjected the world to that. But I'd like to think, towards the latter stage of things, going by the reception of some of you, that the poetry did improve. Maybe it was once I stopped trying to be a poet and just wrote in the moment. A lot of what I wrote on that blog as far as poetry went really was in the heat of the moment. I'd just open a new post and type it in, then and there. Rarely, if ever, have I gone back and edited them. So in a way, my early adult years are all there in those posts. From being in love to being out of love, going through the motions of some pretty tough times in my life, to talking about war and peace; I'm all there. I have put myself out there to a web of strangers, some now turned friends. But we'll get to you guys later.

As my interests and my sense of self has evolved so has my blogging. This blog, as some of you know started as a way for me to be a bit more open with my life and interest, in a journal style straightforward way than I did with the poetry on Dilly-dallying. It was also a response to some of my friends who'd read the poetry on Dilly-dallying who told me that it seemed like I was a massively depressed dark person. :D So April's Fool was also my way of showing that there's more sides to me and I wasn't necessarily crying myself to sleep every night or popping pills.

I never have cared for popularity and making the charts on Kottu or anywhere. I used to blog mostly to myself. I'd rarely interact on the comment sections. Blogging at the start was a one-way affair for me. I send. You receive. End of conversation. But that changed with time. I have now come to be more and more acknowledging of an audience, whether it be one or one hundred (no I'm yet to acquire that number). Dilly-dallying, as it stands now is kind of unrecognizable from it's early days and this for me is a good thing; because I am unrecongizable now compared to the young woman that started that blog back in 2006. At the core I am the same, but I have grown up, come out of my own head, and so has Dilly-dallying. It is currently a litteray blog because I want it to now NOT be about me. I want to use it as a platform to have conversations about books and writing; over the years I'm sure it will evolve into whatever it is on its way to being.

I can't say what direction this blog itself is going. You might notice that it is a bit under the radar: it's not on Kottu, I don't always announce new posts on Twitter like I do with the other one nor do I even have it listed under my blogger profile. I can't precisely say why I did that but I did want this to be less "out there" so to speak. I have debated making this blog private but I've come to understand the content doesn't necessarily at this stage warrant that. I am a lot more mature about where and how I air my feelings on the web and I think the purpose of Web 2.0 for me has changed from personal-cleansing to sharing (enter all my Tumblrs!). It's now more just me documenting (within boundaries) and sharing my life and interests with a bunch of people I feel like are my friends. I've recently even gotten rid of my earlier pseudonym and go by my nickname that most of my friends refer to me with.

Friends. It's a strange thing but I do feel like even though I haven't met some of you, that I can call you guys friends. Being on Twitter makes this all the more the case. So when I sit back and write these posts I am writing as though I'm writing an e-mail to a friend. I really am. I've had the fortune of meeting some of you, I've been to school but lost touch along the way with some of you, I'm just Twitter/Facebook friends with some of you, but whatever our degree of friendship, I am thankful to have gotten to know you. Blogging has led the way to not only finding myself a little bit more, but also finding new friends. And that I think is what makes 5 years of blogging pretty damn worth it.

Someone asked for cake right?! ;D

Un-dissertation me please

2011-08-04T17:44:00.001+05:30

Next time I begin to moan about how I'm going to miss being a 'student' remind me about 'dissertations' ok? Half a day is gone and I have nothing, I mean NOTHING down on ~~paper~~ word doc and I've barely got 4 weeks! GULP. Of which technically I have only two weekdays and weekends to work on it because I've started another internship stint. Anyway, that's where life is right now. Got loads more Londonning posts to put up, which I will; also want to actually do more Londonning and traveling about but alas, where's the money? where's the time?

Ok, back to work. But first a quick musical interlude: Getting Nowhere (seems apt right about now).

Love the video. Don't you?

sunday song: Consolation Prizes {Phoenix}

2011-07-31T14:23:00.000+05:30

I am loving, LOVING, the sound of these guys.

Have a Happy Sunday and a good week ahead all!

Londonning: Columbia Road Flower Market

2011-07-31T00:17:00.004+05:30

On Sundays Columbia Road, which is this small street with very cool indie, vintage shops, cafes and galleries is the venue for what is considered to be a very popular flower market in London. It's mostly rewarding if you go with the intention of actually buying flowers because fighting the crowds would then feel worth it. Especially on a hot sunny day. But the flowers people. Good god, THE FLOWERS!!!

postcard from home: How the face like Galle Face only

2011-07-29T14:42:00.000+05:30

Galle Face Green, Colombo

Can't believe they're going to be putting up a hotel here. The cityscape will never be the same again.

Anxiety Attack

2011-07-29T03:02:00.000+05:30

Saw this on Old Street. How random.

Anxiety is beginning to set in friends. Again. There is the dissertation and how I continue to procrastinate my way to self-destruction. Then there is the lack of any kind of clear future in sight post-dissertation. I feel the old fears of not sitting comfy under the 'student' label setting in again. What do I define myself as now? As I leave 'student' I suppose I will enter the dreaded 'unemployed'. Scary times ahead folks. Scary times. Bear with me.

sunday song: Take the Box {Amy Winehouse}

2011-07-24T20:49:00.000+05:30

Feels only right that today's Sunday Song is a Winehouse classic.

Mourning Amy

2011-07-24T01:14:00.000+05:30

A little loss for words at the news of Amy Winehouse's death. Right now I'm just sat here in my bed listening to her music. I'm sure she had so much more to give us. Rest in peace, Amy.

Londonning: St. Paul's Cathedral

2011-07-21T03:16:00.001+05:30

Now, St. Paul's Cathedral is no Notre Dame but there's something to be admired about it. For one thing, it sits on top of Ludgate Hill (the highest point in the City of London, I'm told) and the present structure dates back to the 17th Century. I love the inside of these big cathedrals, sometimes more so than the outside. When I went to St. Paul's I sat in for one of their evensong services and got the chance to hear the famous St Paul's choir boys sing. It was beautiful!

One of the best views of St. Paul's is while crossing the Millennium Bridge.

And I love these little glimpses you catch through alleyways and sandwiched between buildings.

The structure is built in a Late Renaissance style and the dome is said to be inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Don't you just LOVE Renaissance architecture?!

Londonning: Tate Modern

2011-07-18T21:56:00.005+05:30

You might remember an earlier rant of mine about Modern Art and how I sometimes find it to be bullshit. So I was debating whether I should bother to go to Tate Modern, an entire building that houses Modern and Post-modern Art, at all. But I'm glad I ultimately decided to go. I still do find some of it bullshit but I must say I quite enjoyed my visit there and was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of cool, intriguing stuff. There was also this running AV in this loungey area. The AV kind of gives a narrative of the whole Modern Art movement and key artists and contextualizes their work, which really helps in "getting" and appreciating the work itself. So yeah, all in all it was a well-spent rainy afternoon in London.

You might've seen replicas of this all over. It's apparently quite famous, if I remember right.

I'm afraid this is a very bad photo. But I loved this one. It was so haunting.

Another cool one. This is a response piece to classical Nude paintings. It's attempting to de-romanticize the body or something like that.

This piece is cooler as a photograph than it is in reality.

It says: SANTA CLAUS IS NOT EVIL. THERE IS NO NEED TO DEFEND MYSELF AGAINST HIM. heh.

I just love the words. This kind of star is rare.

Jackson Pollock. I'm sorry I still don't get him.

I <3 this sculpture. I really really do. It's like a three-dimensional profile.

I just find it amazing how sculptors can mold feelings into faces like this. Especially such complex expressions.

So according to the description under it, these are developments of a set of negatives that were retrieved. Apparently the husband of the woman in the photos had scratched the negatives out of objection to she having posed for them. Hence the scratch marks.

This is a cool photo project where the photographer has tried to re-create the body language of the subjects of a particular painting by photographing gallery visitors. They aren't posing. It's random. Cool noh?

This was something interesting. I can't remember the back story unfortunately.

Yeah, my reaction too.

What do you know, I'm a piece of art too! It's a mirror, that's it. I assumed that's what I'm supposed to interpret from it.

So she's really behind with her laundry huh?

Isn't it just wonderful that all this is free? That's one thing I really like about London. Like, in Paris for instance, you have to pay for almost all the major galleries and museums. So it's kind of nice that here you can go and see some great world renowned art for absolutely nothing. Donations are welcome but not mandatory. I hope it stays that way.

sunday song: Giving up the Gun {Vampire Weekend}

2011-07-17T05:14:00.001+05:30

"And though it's been a long time, you're right back where you started from." Yeah, it's been that kind of weekend. Also, in case you haven't seen the video...Jake Gyllenhall. Wait for it.

Londonning: M&M's World

2011-07-16T20:24:00.002+05:30

This post goes out to Gutterflower. I did make a trip to the M&M's World (last Saturday in fact). I only managed to take a few (crummy) photos though. Sorry.

I've been making little excursions like that whenever I get the chance to go into the City but come to think of it, I've missed out on posting quite a few of them here. I promise to catch up. Eventually.

sunday song: Farewell to the Fairground {White Lies}

2011-07-10T20:10:00.002+05:30

10 rad song covers

2011-07-09T16:36:00.001+05:30

Lots of talk about the Linking Park cover of Adele's Rolling in the Deep going on today. I like it but here are 10 covers that I find especially rad, just for their sheer balsey re-interpretations of the original:

1. Come Together by The Beatles: covered by Michael Jackson

I personally love The Beatles original but MJ totally makes this his own to the point that you kind of almost forget that it's a cover.

2. Toxic by Britney Spears: covered by Yael Naim

To be honest, Toxic is not a bad song. It's actually probably one of her better singles and the lyrics are pretty good. This cover by Yael Naim however, takes it to a whole new level and gives it a darker more haunting vibe which really brings out the lyrics. The last bit with the flute I found a bit disconcerting but maybe it adds to the haunting quality of the whole cover?

3. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley: covered by Ray LaMontagne

What a brilliant song! Everybody from Beyonce, Maroon 5, One Republic to Nelly Furtado have covered it but for me Ray LaMontagne's cover is the only one that really took a leap with it, turning it from the soulful anthem that it is in to a bluesy rock ballad that is fantastic in its own right.

4. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga: covered by 30 Seconds to Mars

Covering Lady Gaga is a bit mad but full marks to 30 Seconds to Mars for really giving this song some depth and saving it from the bad electronic disco-esque mess that it originally is.

5. Yesterday by The Beatles: covered by Marvin Gaye

I love this cover. Marvin Gaye brings a beautiful soulful R&B vibe to this iconic song, which makes it bravely stand on its own two feet.

6. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson: covered by Chris Cornell

I get chills every time I listen to this cover of Billie Jean. I also really like David Cook's version but I prefer the hardness of this one.

7. Single Ladies by Beyonce: covered by Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles' really transformed this song and it's almost impossible to trace its R&B roots! I'm kinda loving it.

8. Lose Yourself by Eminem: covered by The Script

Like COME ON! If this isn't gutsy I don't know what is. It could've been a complete train wreck but instead it's genius.

9. One Love by Bob Marley: covered by Jason Mraz

This cover has Jason Mraz written all over it!

10. Lovestoned by Justin Timberlake: covered by The Hoosiers

I really like this soft atmospheric cover. The piano and violin (?) score transforms this song into something quite unlike its original.

Bonus: This Love by Maroon 5: covered by Natasha Bedingfield

I'm such a fan of Natasha Bedinfield's voice and covering this Maroon 5 track is probably the best use she's put it to. I like how she brings a subtle vulnerability to it and all the awesome stuff she does to the melody with that raspy voice of hers. And that guitarist? Love!

my kitchen essentials

2011-07-06T04:48:00.001+05:30

I haven't gone grocery shopping in weeks, out of sheer lethargy! I've even gone without dinner on occassion or at the most, resorting to a bowl of cereal or museli for lack of anything around. Hopefully I can drag myself to Tesco's tomorrow! Anyway it got me thinking of my shopping list and how I have come to rely on a few key essentials that have been utter saviours on days when I'm knackered or just not in the mood for any heavy-duty cooking. Here are a few of those:

1. Couscous

It's an obvious one but especially for the likes of us who've grown up with rice as a staple, couscous is like the next best thing. I can not begin to tell you how many times it's come to the rescue after a long and exhausting day or as a quick lazy lunch. For anyone who is wondering how couscous is made, here's how:

step 1: Add hot water

That's literally it! I like to season with salt, saffron and some chilli powder sometimes. Also a little olive oil or some butter wouldn't hurt. After that it's just a case of what you want to accompany it with. I have mixed sausages into it, and once I even threw in some deep fried haalmasso (sprats) and it was a-mazing!

2. Fresh Coriander leaves

I swear, if someone sprinkles coriander on monkey brain soup I'd probably eat it! I am a firm believer in the power of freshly chopped coriander and how it can make an ordinary chicken curry, into phenomenal. It also works well in sandwiches and anything you want some extra flavour. I pretty much add it into everything, as you will eventually notice with the photos posted here.

3. Ready-made Pasta Sauce

There would've been many a bland dinner if not for a jar of pasta sauce. I tend to go for the cheapest, which is usually a Tesco's one, but a little chilli powder thrown in and I am a happy camper. Add pasta sauce in to rice, with some cheese grated over and popped into the oven, and you've got yourself a lazy spanish rice. Bon apetite!

4.Cheese slices

I know you must be thinking, like DUH. But honestly, cheddar cheese slices are just so versatile! I use them on pasta, in sandwiches and salads. I especially love grilled cheese sandwiches, which are easy peasy as far as putting together and is a meal in itself

5. Dhal

I don't think any Sri Lankan needs much explanation on this. A simple dhal curry goes a long way for me. Some days I like making it a little spicy and tempering it with mustard seeds. Whether it's with rice or bread, I rarely need anything else, save maybe some polsambol or whatever I care to put together really.

6. Tortillas

You know the frozen tortilla packs? I use them as a pizza base! A really thin pizza at that but does quite nicely for me. I use the ready-made pasta sauce as my tomato base, throw over other stuff, like ham or leftover chicken or whatever and sprinkle cheese (cheddar, cos it's what I have lying around most of the time; mozzarella if I'm lucky) and pop it in the oven for a bit. Done! Also, I make something of a panini with them, adding cheese and whatever else in. On occassion, with an indian-ish curry, it's a great substitute for chapati.

Those are just a few things I find really useful to have a regular stock of around the kitchen, just for their versatility and oomph factor. Because I eat out very rarely considering that it's so expensive to do so in London I find it important to eat fairly decently at home. There are the occasional disaster days, like the past few weeks. But on the whole I take my food quite seriously, as you can see!

sunday song: Shadows of the City {Marcus Foster}

2011-07-03T23:21:00.002+05:30

Londonning: My first Banksy

2011-06-27T04:26:00.002+05:30

...wasn't on the street. I saw it inside a gallery.

While it was exciting to see something that he actually physically had created (as opposed to the countless reproductions and postcards available everywhere), obviously it's not quite like seeing it on the street. I mean it's great that street artists like Banksy are getting their due recognition in the "art world" but seeing a street artist's work in a gallery to me feels like (for lack of a more apt simile) seeing wild animals in a zoo. Which is why I was really really hoping I will get to see the real deal at some point while I'm here in London. So can you believe the sheer JOY of literally walking past rather randomly on one of Banksy's works on the street?

I almost did a happy dance! There it was on a brick wall, on Alden Street looking rather obscure and almost blending in to the wall. It wasn't one of his controversial ones, in fact it seemed rather understated. But it definitely is a work of Banksy. If it's an impostor, he's a pretty damn convincing one! But I'm sure this is the real deal.

Yes right? (Please don't burst my bubble).

For anyone new to Banksy, here's an intro on Wiki and you can go here to see some of his work on the streets. Also I highly recommend Exit through the Gift Shop, a documentary (that some call a mocumentary and a hoax) produced by the man himself for any Street Art enthusiast. Trailer here.

Hello Summer?

2011-06-22T04:22:00.001+05:30

Google informed us with one of their legendary doodles that today is the first day of summer. So far it's felt more like the Monsoon season back home than Summer but I'm really hoping the weather improves. Spring was good while it lasted! It's been such a thrill to see apple and cherry blossoms, wild flowers blooming from every nook and cranny in the garden and parks abundant with all kinds of gorgeous flowers. I think one last look back is in order.
After all this may very well have been my first and last Spring.

DIY.

2011-06-11T01:23:00.001+05:30

One of the biggest dilemmas I have with my accommodation is the lack of space and storage. All I've got and can fit into my room here is a desk and chair, cupboard for clothes, a ground level shelf for shoes, and my bed which is a queen sized one (great when I'm having a guest over) which takes up pretty much the entire floor space of the room leaving just a little sliver of walking space between it and the wall. But of course I still am quite content with it and have tried to make it as cosy as possible.

It's amazing how much stuff gets accumulated over a relatively small length of time as eight odd months and with my desk having to triple up as a bookshelf, study table and vanity table, you can imagine what a struggle it can be. Most days there's stuff scattered all over the table top. Living a poor student life means shelves and storage are luxuries I can't afford. But I found a quick-fix solution. It's green, cheap and a real no-brainer!

What I did is, I had this medium-sized thick cardboard box that I was going to discard and instead covered it up with newsprint paper, folded and taped the flaps in on one side, so there's an opening...

and all I did next was keep it on my desk, the open-side facing out and voila I got myself something sort of like a shelf.

I used the top as a small vanity table...

Not bad ay? It's important you don't load up the top too much and also that the board is sufficiently thick to bear the weight.

It's not much but it'll do. :)

London luvs: literary ghosts

2011-06-07T04:20:00.002+05:30

I was compelled to go into the City today for a meeting with my dissertation supervisor in the morning. Having finished the meeting and the weather improving slightly so that it was dry albeit chilly I felt like I must resist the urge to go home and snuggle under my duvet and be active and do something. So I decided on something I've been meaning to do for awhile but have always put off; which is to walk around the Bloomsbury area and chase down some literary ghosts.

Found at Tavistock Square Garden

Mahatma Ghandi statue at Tavistock Square Garden

Found at Bloomsbury Square Garden

Ok, so he isn't exactly 'literary'

Built in the 18th Century. Once the meeting place of The Bloomsbury Group

The Reading Room at The British Museum. Famous visitors to the Reading Room have included Lenin and Marx.

The Senate House, now part of UCL. The inspiration for Orwell's Ministry of Truth in 1984.

It's lovely that the council puts little memorial plaques to mark houses where famous figures had lived. I find it quite fun to walk past a building only to see that it's where a famous suffregette, Charles Dickens or for that matter the guy who discovered some medical marvel lived! It gives whole new character to a facade and I'm such a sucker for buildings and places that has some history of the sort. I shall be chasing down more such ghosts whenever I can. Watch this space.

Lady like?

2011-06-05T02:37:00.000+05:30

I just told one of my guy friends to 'fuck off' and he immediately retorts back with 'WOAH! language...lady'. I mean really, if that isn't a sexist response I don't know what is. Is it me or are (Lankan?) men, generally speaking, quite affronted when a woman swears? It's not the swearing that's really the problem. It's the fact that it's a woman doing it. Honestly it's sexist double standards like this that drive me mad! Which ironically was exactly what I was talking about with today's poem. Funny that.

It also reminded me of this song.

30 songs not 30 days

2011-06-04T22:47:00.003+05:30

The problem with having (partially) done that 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook is that when you want to kind of revisit your list, it's so annoying because I have to scroll through reams and reams of stuff on my page to get to them. I've also not really finished it, having only about four days of it left to complete. So I'm just posting it all here, including the last four to five days I had to do to complete the damn thing. I have way too many projects going on and I'm behind in all of them. I'm three books behind the reading challenge, I have over a month's photos to upload for my 365 and well the poetry challenge is lagging along in its own pace. The 30 day part of it has gone to the dogs. It's now 30 Days of when you have the time. So anyway the bottom line is I feel utterly useless and so this is me trying to find some closure to at least one thing I've started.
Yeah I know what you're thinking, I need a life, a job and probably a relationship. :P

day 1: your favourite song

Hate picking favourites (oh shush G, some of us just have a LOT of favourites. just how it is. :P ) ... here's ONE of my favourites. This song will never age!

day 02 - your least favorite song

(in this case 'least favourite' is an understatement)

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Day 4: A song that makes you sad

"If you've ever seen a one trick pony, you've seen me." It's not just the song but combined with the film that breaks my heart every time I listen to it.

day 5: A song that reminds you of someone

I had a friend who did a particularly entertaining rendition of this. :D

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

School (committee) 2001. Netball ground, to be even more precise! So the story is that we used to have this annual event in school which was called a Teachers vs Prefects netball match. The prefects AND the teachers would dress up to some theme and after some parading around face-off eachother in what is usually a rather hilarious game with a lot of cheating involved. So the year that I was in the committee we the prefects did a mafia (I know and we were actually allowed!) theme and even had a choreographed dance for this song which we performed right in the middle of the netball court. Awesome memories.

And by the way, isn't this one of the best music videos ever?!

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

I initially chose 'We are the Champions' when I posted this on FB but I was listening to The Cranberries and this song immediately took me back to an amazing school production we did together with Ruwanthi de Chickera. She's such a genius and I don't think I've ever seen a production quite like it really. The song formed part of the soundtrack for it. It's such a gem.

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

I suppose who doesn't? :D

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

Do they even play these songs in clubs today anymore?

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

I mean this in a good, comforting way of course. Always found her music a nice soundtrack for a chilled out afternoon or siesta. :)

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Like I said, I'm not one for declaring a favourite, but these guys are definitely up there on the list and ~~I haven't tired of them just yet~~ I'll never tired of them! Which means they're pretty damn awesome!

I shared Blue Skies on Facebook but I'm going to post a song from their new album here instead. I think they're new album, Last Night on Earth is just exactly the kind of album they should've done at this point. I've read some comments where people are complaining that they've gone 'poppy' and aren't sounding as 'folksy' as they did initially but I don't see it that way. I love the existential positivism, the upbeat and memorable beats, and yet you'd know it's one of their songs because there is that ring to it. Anyways, moving on...

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

I really couldn't think of a band i HATE per se. Chose S Club 7 because as far as pop groups go they just take cliche and cheesy to new levels!

Day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

So I'm interpreting "guilty pleasure" as the junk food equivalent of music. In which case I KNOW this song is that greasy Double Cheese Burger and fries. So spare me the judgment! :P

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

day 15 - a song that describes you

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

So once upon a time I used to love this song. Some years and certain 'life events' later, let's just say it's leaves a pretty bad after taste.

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

I'm more a singles kind of person to be honest. But I think tthis album on the whole is just epic! Epic, in the same vein as Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities' is. Big themes and grand narratives/melodies. Political and personal, all in one. :)

I'd add NATW's new album as a current fave.

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

this was easy. for years i've been convinced it's an entirely new language he was singing in until i checked the lyrics. it seems, ladies and gentlemen to be English!

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

I swear I could play this on the...organ. If I look for the sheet music I could probably give it a go again!

"somethings look better baby, passing through." sigh. old is gold.

p.s. who else had a crush on the guy?

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

always wished I could play the guitar riffs in this one. the opening is just magic.

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

day 29 - a song from your childhood

I WAS one of those kids in the 90s that was actually into these guys. This song is probably the only one I can bare to listen to even now. Just for the beat. Lyrics... "am I original? am I sexual?"...not really. -__-

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

This one really annoys me. How am I supposed to remember that??? I'm just going to post a song I am certain I heard last year and liked.

And now let's call this challenge done and dusted.

Two week's update

2011-06-01T04:29:00.003+05:30

I'm not dead, if anyone cared. But I have had a hectic couple of weeks. You know how my last post was a moan about wishing I had a postcard from home, well something even better came along. My sister! She was here for two weeks and despite having had to sit for a dreaded exam, I had to be a full-on tour guide. I think I ended being more of a tourist than a tour guide but all in all it was two weeks of splurging on theater tickets, roller coaster rides and a Noah and the Whale gig and wandering all over London. She hated the weather, hated the commuting, but shopped like she was shopping in freaking Bangkok and is now safely back home, albeit with an alarmingly low bank balance and a few good pounds in debt to me. My own bank balance too has shrunk and it seems that if I don't find some sort of part time work I am going to have to eat one meal a day or something to get by. But I will cross that bridge when I get there. For now I would much rather reminisce on some of the awesome things we did the past two weeks.

Sightseeing...

Going to the theatre...

Shakespeare's Globe for Much Ado About Nothing

Vaudeville Theatre for In a Forest Dark and Deep starring Mathew Fox (yes the one in Lost)


Her Majesty's Theatre for The Phantom of the Opera (it was Epic!)

Watching a 3D movie for the first time (totally over rated!)...

Eating out...

Madame Taussads (a bit creepy and ridiculously overpriced!)...

Primrose Hill

and the highlight ... NOAH AND THE WHALE live!!!

That's all folks.

Oh and also considering making this blog private. For no particular reason except maybe to document stuff a bit more openly perhaps. But still thinking about it. Let's see. Due notice shall be given.

I've also got a lot of catching up to do. With the reading challenge, poetry challenge and Project 365 photos to upload! I've also got a report to write about my internship which is due in a few days. Yikes, I've fallen off the wagon a bit haven't I? Ok, back to reality. Adios.

postcard from home: home (literally)

2011-05-07T23:42:00.000+05:30

Needed a little pick-me-up of the non-alcoholic kind today. Like a postcard from home, would've been nice. So I thought I'd send one myself.

A little love, sunshine and real postcards are always welcome. x

New low even for me

2011-05-02T23:39:00.000+05:30

Trying to cough up 2500 words over night. Quite literally! I didn't think it right, if this miracle that may or may not take place in the wee hours of tonight was not documented here. As if things couldn't get worse, there is work to wake up to and arrive by 9.30am tomorrow as well. So yeah, there you are, in case I don't live to tell about it.

the royal wedding post

2011-04-30T23:48:00.001+05:30

Of course there's got to be a Royal Wedding post although my interest with the Royal Wedding was from the sidelines until its very day. I would casually hover through an article about Kate Middleton's ancestry in the Metro or pause on some Royal Wedding related gossip on E. But that's as much as I cared about it really. I did of course plan on watching it, possibly snuggled on our sofa in my pajamas. But come Thursday, Friday, the Royal Wedding Day seemed to sound like NYE, a kind of holiday that you want to do something fun with. And from a purely touristy pov it would seem like a fun thing to get in on. I was also curious, overhearing people on the bus talking about what they're going to be doing on RW day and where they will be. To cut a long story short, I got carried away come Friday with all the excitement and found myself at Hyde Park at 9.45 in the morning with 120,000 other people, in front of three giant screens all set to watch the event unfold.
In high definition mind you! I'm glad I did go though. It was pure entertainment to watch how people were like full-on into it, some dressed as brides, some in suits and tux, and plastered in red and blue wherever possible. Hyde Park was crowded but chilled out, as people popped open wine and champagne and some even had red and blue cupcakes, clearly made specially for the occasion! There was much squealing and cheering and awws and ahhhs when they exchanged rings and laughs when it got stuck, but all in all everyone was merry, on the champagne or on royalty, it matters not. Of course I'm glad I got to witness the occasion and most importantly for actually having had a day off work! I'm also glad it wasn't my tax money that was going into it because today I read that it cost a 100 million dollars! But politics and economics aside, I had a jolly good day! But if you're interested in the politics check this out. And now for some photos...

I can HAZ English?

2011-04-25T04:39:00.001+05:30

T's post about 'writing' got me thinking about the dilemma of writing in today's day and age. One of the biggest conundrums is this whole linguistic morphing that has been taking place with the English language. Slang and profanities have become part and parcel of the 21st Century Syntax, only to be taken a further step or two forward with the appropriate insertion of emoticons in just the right place. I confess, this English graduate herself, has found it impossible to avoid resorting to a liberal sprinkling of smiley faces in every e-mail in an effort to communicate an affable and this-is-all-said-in-good-spirit tone.
I have had to physically hold myself back once from inserting a smiley face at the end of a cover letter! A tongue-out -smiley has taken away any interest I have of fine-tuning my delivery of sarcasm. A sad face or -_- or :/ seems to pretty much have the rest of the feelings I want to express covered. Then there is OMG, FFS, FML and WTF and the rest of these new-age acronyms that have infiltrated written communication and this of course is largely due to good old Twitter. Have our ability to express, to write been reduced to emoticons and hashtags? I commented on T's post that my writing is dictated by its intended purpose, form, medium, etc. And yet, now that I come to think of it, the influence and convergence of all these forms and mediums has led to a kind of linguistic dilemma hasn't it? I know I've found myself infuriated by people who 'write' like they sms. Countless status updates on Facebook and e-mails where people are not confined AT ALL by 140 characters or having to use one's cellphone keypad, still writing the likes of 'waz up? gr8 2 hear frm u'.

But then is this twisting and morphing of the English language by what is now recognized as 'the Google generation' any different to how the world over has twisted and morphed English to fit their own culture and locale. One of the courses in my BA (which I never bothered to take. I preferred Lit to Linguistics you see) was called English Around the World, and indeed English, now a global language has its variants. Indian English, Pidgin English, American English and even our very own Sri Lankan English to name a few. And these variations aren't just in vocabulary but also in pronunciation and accent. In fact, English varieties are ever present in UK itself. You'd think that all English people spoke and sounded like Colin Firth right but they don't. There's all kinds of accents and influences that are varied on the basis of geography, class, age, education background, etc. English itself, never was a purebred anyway, and that's something I learned from The Evolving English Exhibition at The British Library. So perhaps, this new 21st Century English, which has been appropriated to fit the culture and lifestyle of a new breed of young users is no different to a particular country, and its appropriation of English to fit its people's own everyday usage. It is evolution. And Evolution, as we all know is inevitable. At the end of the day, language is just a tool for communication. So the question is, does it matter HOW we communicate so long as we DO continue to communicate? Thoughts?

Book rave: We Need to Talk About Kevin (by Lionel Shriver)

2011-04-24T16:38:00.000+05:30

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How can I even begin to talk about We Need to Talk About Kevin and how can I not! I took longer than this book deserved in reading it but that's mostly because life got in the way. But yesterday I just went full steam-ahead and read from last night straight into 5am this morning fighting sleep and very well ready to shove off pretty much anything else that may have come in the way. As I read the last line of the last chapter I felt very very much awake. When I finally switched off the light and set my head on my pillow to sleep, it was the feeling of having been a part of a somewhat outer body experience. It wasn't just a good book. It was like sitting through someone's deepest and most honest confessional, one you wished you weren't a part of because it was horrific and ugly and you knew was heading towards catastrophic pain and heartache.

Shriver's characters are too real for comfort, painted in strokes of black and gray and edged with some kind of tenderness. I felt personally invested in every single character and just as hungry as Eva Katchadourian was to 'know' her son Kevin, I was hungry page after page to 'know' more, about these people, but mostly about Kevin. But knowledge is what this book denies. You can never fully 'know' anything with certainty in this book. Whether it is the characters themselves, their thoughts, their actions, their motives...the certainty that I have fully understood them is something that I can not boast of. And I think that is something that the writer purposefully denies us. We can only assume. But I am convinced of my own assumptions, which I can not get in to without giving everything way, so I won't go into it.

So what's it about? Set in America, during a time of volatile politics and a series of high school shootings the novel is a series of letters, confessional and brutally honest, by Eva to her now estranged husband, Franklin. 3 days before his 16th B'day, Kevin, her son, had killed 9 people, including a teacher and a cafeteria worker in a calculated high school homicide. He now sits in a juvenile facility. The world blames his mother, the question is does he and does she?

Going back in time, the letters recall their marriage and family life together. Eva and Franklin were a couple that seemed normal, healthy and happy. In a state of what can only be called boredom and a need for 'change' and 'something new' they have a child. Eva, is the one who first insists on it but it is because she knows Franklin wants one badly enough and she was up for a visit to 'a foreign country', which is pretty much what having a baby was equated to. But as the nine month 'ordeal' begins, and that's exactly what it was for her, she finds her sense of self and worse, their relationship evolving into something unrecognizable and unwarranted. Eva wants her life back. Eva wants her lover back. But it's too late. She is now a 'mother' of a baby boy. Kevin. She had changed her mind about 'wanting' him when he was inside her, and unlike what is generally expected, for a 'mother's unconditional love' to kick in the moment her baby is laid on her hands for the first time, Eva feels nothing.

The novel talks about motherhood, parenting, the whole nature vs nurture theme, about children and our unquestionable acceptance of their 'innocence' through the lives of these characters. But as dubious as Eva's one-sided narrative of her experiences are, and as impossible as it is to accept her implications that her son was nothing but malicious right from the moment he was born, the more and more she takes us into her thoughts, and shows us Kevin through her eyes, you begin to wonder if Kevin really is an evil little thing?

I don't want to say anymore because I would be giving away what is perhaps something that is clear all along and yet hits you in the gut as if you never saw it coming.

This is a book I will quite possibly canvass for the rest of my life, just so I have enough people to talk about it with. It's that kind of book. One you just HAVE to talk about. So for the loveofgod FIND IT, READ IT and let's TALK ABOUT IT!

View all my reviews

the reluctant nationalist

2011-04-17T18:34:00.003+05:30

I don't know if this is the case for everyone but sometimes being away from home calls for me to be an automatic, albeit reluctant ambassador for our country. It's easy to be an individual when you're in your country but when one is outside its borders, especially as an international student, you always carry with you the label and all it's implications, symbolic and otherwise. I've always subscribed to Bennedict Anderson's view of nationhood, i.e. it is an "imagine community". Yet, as much as I'd like to just shed all the baggage of citizenship and nationality and imagine that there's no country, it's really really hard in today's world.
And what's harder is being seen as representative of all that is that country. From its weather, and food to the politics, you are inadvertently at times speaking for a people, a place, a country. In the eyes of the foreigner, it doesn't matter if all other 8 (?) million people in that country are nothing like you or hold the same opinions as you do, because he/she has only met you--the one "Sri Lankan". He/she will know Sri Lanka through you. It's a rather daunting predicament isn't it? Thankfully I haven't had to give a "Sri Lankan" POV on things too many times. But I have had to "represent" us on many an occasion, from talking about our publishing industry, to our cricket, to our bloodyfucking politicians. Especially the man on the top. When I say "I'm from Sri Lanka", I get reactions like "Oh Wow!" (I have no idea if that's a good reaction or bad) and "Things are getting pretty interesting there right?" (in reference to our lovely man on the top and UN probes, etc.).

But at the risk of sounding trivial, the biggest challenge for me wasn't talking about our politics and the war but cooking "our" food to non-Sri Lankans! Last weekend I had some non-Sri Lankan friends over for dinner and I made chicken and a dhal curry. I wasn't stressed because I know how to cook and 8 out of 10 times my food comes out pretty darn well, if I may say so myself. But this time there was the reputation of a whole nation at stake here. They'd never had Sri Lankan food before and so I felt like I'd be letting down our whole bloody country if I didn't get my chicken curry tasting just right! I also wanted to make it palatable for them because the last thing I want to do is give them heartburn from an over-spiced curry; thereby successfully reducing our food to an anecdotal reference they will make in conversations about world food and how they'll NEVER eat Sri Lankan because the first and last time they ate it they nearly died! Imagine that, a nation's representation, resting on how much salt and spice I add into a chicken curry! Sounds positively ridiculous!

So I went really easy on the chilli powder and made up for it by using lots of the roasted curry powder I got sent from home. Anyway to cut a long story short, it worked out well and they LOVED the chicken. The dhal was almost over so I guess they liked that too. My mother (country) would be proud. ;D

The Hills are a lie

2011-04-14T03:41:00.000+05:30

All dressed up with nothing much to do.

Internships are never meant to be glamorous unless of course you're in an episode of The Hills. Although admittedly some have been luckier than others. I'm currently on day 2 of of a 5 week internship so I guess it's too early to make a call on it. So far I have mastered the art of spiral binding and in the process have acquired a backache and feet I can barely stand on. I've also learned that modern technology, like schmancy gynormous duplex printers can make a simple job like printing a bunch of A5 flyers a bloody complicated process! That's it really.

How are you lot with real jobs doing? All good I hope. x

Just for the record.

2011-04-04T20:48:00.003+05:30

You know how last year I turned 26 and took it quite well? Well this time round 27 didn't digest too well. In fact I want to throw up at the thought of it. It's a freaking MAMMOTH number. When I am being spoken of, I will now go as "oh you know D----, short, curly hair, in her LATE TWENTIES/ALMOST THIRTY! And I won't even go into what and where I expected to be by this point in my life! So expect posts induced by anxiety attacks and massive bouts of depression in the future. You have been sufficiently warned.

Despite the temptation to crawl into bed with two piritons and hope I never wake up, I did fix my smile and spent the day out "celebrating" this godforsaken day.
I was also a little homesick obviously. I missed the usual early morning ritual of going to temple with my parents, my sister giving me a card because I threatened her she won't get jack for her b'day if she didn't, kiribath in the morning, cake and my aunts and little cousin visiting us in the evening, and just being home basically. But when some of you see the photos, that I will invariably have to put up on Facebook, you wouldn't even have guessed that I am anything but a deliriously happy b'day girl. I didn't see the point really in dragging everyone down with me and my ageing woes.

But in all fairness I did have some lovely people around to spend the day and night with. Starting with a lunch-time picnic with some (ok so just three) of my classmates. We went to Hampstead Heath (I totally reccommend the place if you're in London by the way) and sat by a big patch of green overlooking a pond with swans and ducks and strange duck-swan hybrids. We had bread, and salads, and H got a divine cake from Peyton & Byrne and all in all we had a lovely afternoon catching whatever sun came out. I also got this Taschen book from J. I've always wanted to buy myself a Taschen book at some point so it was awesome to get one! And M got me a box of Chocolates from Thorntons that I know will be coming very handy in the days to come.

In the night along with my other bunch of friends, the Sri Lankan lot, which includes my housemate and one of my best friends, we went out to Jewel. They had booked a table, complete with balloons and all. Also this was essentially my very first London clubbing experience. The place was shmancy and all that but the music was not really my thing.

However the gang made up for it by providing laughs and humiliation in almost equal dosage, doing baila and kandyan dance steps for Lady Gaga, IN ADDITION to forming a train and going around the club! We won't be going to Jewel anytime soon.

The night ended with one of us (strangely it wasn't me. although it would've been fitting) being hit by an egg on Leicester Square. Yeah so, so much for a smooth initiation into London's nightlife and what a way to end the night!

And that folks is pretty much how the fateful day that I turned 27 went.

learning to lose ungraciously

2011-04-03T19:11:00.003+05:30

It is the day after the World Cup Final and while everyone is gutted about having lost, going by Facebook and Twitter updates, it also seems quite clear that everyone's also being very "gracious" and "magnanimous" and "better-luck-next-time" about it. While I admire this about us Lankans, I sometimes wonder if that's why we end up "always the bridesmaid and never the bride" like so many politely word this loss.

Even if it means sounding a little "ungracious" and the blue-blooded would say "unpatriotic" even, I will much rather point out that we didn't play a good second innings at that Final. The fielding was downright sloppy and Sanga,
who I have much admiration for his cool and calm demeanor (reminiscent of Arjuna, in ways), made some very very bad calls as a captain. In the field, they simply played as though they didn't want it bad enough. They weren't hurling their bodies and trying to stop boundaries and jumping at catches as if their lives depended on it. In fact all that depended on it were a few million hearts at home and scattered in various parts of the world. I guess that's not much for stakes. The contrast was all the more evident when you compare it with the Indians and how they played on the field. How they built pressure, almost to the point where we all wondered if getting a 200 total would even be remotely possible, until Kulasekera and Mahela breathed life into what would have been a quick death for us.

But cricket is a team sport and the 'team-ness' is nowhere better reflected than on the field. I wanted to see some synergistic team-work like when Sanath bowled through the legs of Waugh and Kalu followed it up with lightening speed behind the wicket, grabbing the ball and swiping the stumps clean, just as Waugh decides he'd made a mistake attempting a run. I wanted to see something like Murali bowling, Kalu yelling "allanna" and Aravinda's sure and steady hands scooping out a well-timed catch. We didn't see any magic or fire of the sort on that field. And that has got to be admitted. Sanga did not deliver at some crucial decision points of the game. Especially that ludicrous call getting Kulasekera, the guy the Indians whacked to bits, come and bowl a deciding over. It just didn't make sense except perhaps the only logic being that he hoped that they could make the Indians go for some big shots and possibly one right into one of their hands. But Kulasekera definitely was not the way to go even with that and our hands had been anything but steady through out that match.

So while we must indeed be welcoming and gracious to our boys, we must also ask them some tough questions. Surely we are big enough to face our failures and address them bang on. We're all saying we'll "get their asses next time" and making bravado statements of the sort but to be honest it's not going to do a fat lot of good for the future of cricket in this country.

I remember back in the 90s I used to feel really sad for our team because they would lose so much that when they returned home no one was even there to receive them. So when they fought for the World Cup in 96, they weren't just fighting for a Cup, they were fighting for RESPECT, home and abroad. They were saying, "look, we can do this for you. we are hungry to prove all of you wrong." Perhaps it is this magic formula of hunger, pressure and the persevering will of an underdog that worked for us in '96. A formula that can not be replicated in our post-96 era of cricket. I am in no way saying that we should abandon our team when it loses, the point I am trying to make is that we must support our team by pushing them to learn from mistakes. The poor display of fielding was pretty much the case in the match against NZ but we were so high on the victory it was of no concern. Perhaps, if we won the Final, it would still be the case. But we didn't and we were, for the first time in the tournament, up against a really strong opponent and so the holes in our game shone like abysses. But we didn't lose because India played better, we lost because we just didn't bring it on that field. Even at the eleventh hour of that match we could've turned it around, IF ONLY. 'If only', that's what's difficult to get over.

We are no longer underdogs. We are a leading team in international cricket. Now when we don't perform, there is just no excuse. The resources, the patronage, the support, the offers for TV commercials and photos in the Hi magazine, it's all there. Now when they miss a catch or look lazy on the field, questions will and should be asked. Eyebrows should be raised.

If the World Cup was just an excuse to have a good time and put a party, well, win or lose, we've got that. If the World Cup was just a chance to watch some nail-biting cricket, even if it was at the stake of losing at the end, we sure got our fare share. But surely at some point, we've got to admit it was also about victory. It was in '96. And thankfully they fought hard for it.

So as this World Cup has drawn to an end, and my interest in Cricket takes the back seat again (oh like some of you all's wont!) I do hope that the next time our team takes this journey again, they will be hungry for nothing short of victory. And only then can we settle for second best.

Life gives us too many heartbreaks. A little less, at least in cricket would be nice.

The Force that is Rebecca Black

2011-03-29T00:39:00.002+05:30

Although Rebecca Black has plunged some of you into a dark abyss of hopelessness where you have begun to question if there ever was anything good and pure in the world, and even driven some to such a point of despair that they must now ponder on the imminent death of music, I prefer to celebrate this rare and wondrous gift. Yes, you heard right. Celebrate, my friend C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E. I, after having initially had suicidal thoughts at my first encounter with the THE FORCE that is Rebecca Black, am now only filled with love and gratitude for that musical ~~virus~~ genius of her's titled Friday. Ok, so this gratitude has little to do with her per se but the fact is where would all the following be if not for our Ms Black.

Let's start with my favourite shall we?

And then of course all great successes MUST have a sequel, right?

No one can argue the deapth and sheer prfoundness of the lyrics of Friday. Someone's got to break down the intricate and deep wisdom inherent in those powerful words.

And then if you still need a little extra help, never fear...

Now all this is well and fine but for those of you who hate this lovely song, imagine living in Nazi Germany and Gobels takes a liking to it. Torture much?!

There you have it people. Reasons worth celebrating Friday! The world of entertainment is a better place thanks to THE FORCE that is Rebecca Black!

to me you're strange and you're beautiful

2011-03-28T02:42:00.002+05:30

"To me, you're strange and you're beautiful
You'd be so perfect with me
But you just can't see
You turn every head but you don't see me"

-I'll put a spell on you by Aqualang-

Sometimes I feel completely safe in this country, but some days, like today, something that maybe an ordinary occurrence on Colombo's streets, like heckling and rowdiness unnerved me in a way that i can't really describe. I mean it is an unnerving experience for a woman any way but today I felt like like there was another layer to this behavior that made me feel something more than frustration. I can't put my finger on it exactly. I know I definitely felt alone and powerless. Started thinking who's going to look out for me here? In case of an emergency I don't have my dad to call up for help. Or a car to hop in and speed off. I may not eve have the same rights. This is all paranoia and feelings of the moment I know.
I will however admit, although London's a lovely cosmopolitan and friendly city, full of people from diverse backgrounds, on occasion I do feel very out of place. Like I am pretty much living on somebody else's property, which technically I guess I am. :D But you get the point right?!

Any of you guys who've lived/living outside Sri Lanka (or anywhere that is home) felt like that, even for a moment?Also I've been wondering about what the difference is between "immigrants" and "expatriates"? Are there British or American immigrants in our country? Or are they all "expatriates"? The wikipedia definition of expatriate leads me to wonder if there is a kind of prejudice in the two and how they are used.

Temporary unpleasantnesses aside, it's now officially Spring here and the trees are blooming, the days are sunny and the light goes on till around 7.30-8pm! London in Spring is a sight for sore eyes.

See what i mean! :)

Hope you are all well. Have a good week! x

For Poetry

2011-03-21T06:29:00.003+05:30

It is World Poetry Day today. This is another 'day' I don't mind shouting out about from the roof tops (or well, more like my Twitter and Facebook and this blog) and get people excited about. I love poetry. I love it so much that sometimes, as some of you know, I even dare to potter around with it myself, often to just find a way to let out something that I can't let out in any other way but in verse. For me poetry is in the moment. And I don't mean it in some pseudo-Romantic way. I mean, it in the sense that it's like someone slapping you suddenly, out of nowhere. My favourite poems are like such slaps.

But the fact is, poetry is dying. I hate to say it, let alone acknowledge it. But I fear it is. Lesser and lesser people are willing to invest in poetry. Readers don't want to invest their time or money and publishers aren't willing to take the risk because readers don't want to invest.
Poetry books are increasingly expensive because the market size is small and so inorder to get some kind of a decent return from their investment into a poetry publication, the price inevitably gets jacked up. And then very few of us can really afford to actually BUY a poetry book. It's a vicious cycle. If living as a full time author is hard, I would assume living as a full-time poet is even harder. I am hoping that the move to digital and the web will breathe some new life into poetry publishing.

Facts and figures aside, I also have this deep Romantic notion that poetry is inside all of us. It's just a question of finding the ones that get under your skin. I am glad there's such a day as today. And I do hope it makes some of you, who've never really given a poem chance, give it a second look today. Start with some of the obvious names. Shakespeare for instance. Read one of his sonnets, or this very famous soliloquy in Hamlet and see what that feels like. You don't have to understand every single word. Poetry isn't about a right or wrong answer. Never approach a poem as though you're appraoching some code or puzzle you need to break down and solve. Just read it. Feel it. It isn't abot GETTING it. It is about letting it in. It is about that little moment of clarity, that feeling of being held and let go. So don't be afraid of a poem. It's not meant to make you feel stupid. Or middle class. Or uneducated. It's not exclusive. If anything, it is inclusive. So read a poem today. Just one. If Shakespeare is too "English" for you. Try Neruda. Try Rumi. Try Vivimarie Vanderpoorten. Try Whitman. Try Imtiaz Dharker. If you'd rather they be read to you, if you'd rather they be performed, check out Def Poetry Jam on YouTube. There's fantastic poetry out there. You just need to give it a chance.

Happy World Poetry Day guys!

p.s. I'll be tweeting lines from some of my favourite poems all day today so check in that way!

p.p.s It also happens to be the 5th Anniversary of Twitter. There's an interesting article on this happy coincidence here.

Today is a tragedy.

2011-03-19T21:22:00.002+05:30

The sun is shining bright today, pouring in through my window and instead of sitting in some park and making use of this lovely day outdoors, I am sat here, at my desk, staring at a Word document titled Open Access Essay (1st draft). I hope this weather is here to stay. I am excited about spring and spotting the signs already. I can't wait to get into my touristy shoes again and do some solitary wanderings. Provided I survive this round of assignments that is.

Book rave: Starter for Ten

2011-03-19T01:21:00.000+05:30

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I actually laughed.out.loud while reading. I think the last time I did that was while reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole some time last year. Starter for Ten had me trying ever so hard to stifle a chuckle while on the train or on the tube where I've been doing most of my reading lately. Now, I haven't watched the movie adaptation of it so I went in blind, which I think is a good thing. As usual I am not going to get into a synopsis here (please google it yourselves) but I do want to urge you to read this delightful delightful book. I'm going to add in some quotes from the book in my quotes section so do check them out for a taster.

David Nicholl's wit is pure genius, and the timing is spot on and if you don't find yourself laughing at least for a moment, my god you're a rock!! That, or you just don't GET good English wit! :P The novel unfolds from the point of view of Brain Jackson, who is also the narrator. From his many attempts at re-inventing himself to the hilarious episodes of his numerous alcohol induced misadventures and foot-in-mouth moments, every minute spent inside Brian Jackson's head was like re-living my own most awkward moment in life a hundred times over, and over again. There's a predictability to the story overall, and you know when the next giant fuck-up is coming but the point is, Brian doesn't. I also thought it was quite clever how well-placed trivia heads off each chapter. I found the end a bit unsatisfying though. Mainly because I wished he hadn't written that damn letter to Alice effing Harbinson! But I had way too much of a good time reading this book to really punish it for this. So 5 stars and thumbs up all the way!

P.s. Did I mention that in Spencer Lewis, I think I've found my new fictional love interest?

View all my reviews

project 365

2011-03-14T07:01:00.000+05:30

I have decided to finally get on the Project 365 bandwagon. I don't know how I'll keep it going and I am not promising anything half as interesting as what PR is doing with her's. In fact mine will be mildly narcisistic and quite possibly repetitive and uninspired. But I will take a picture. Every. single. freaking. day.

At the risk of seeming like a serious blog whore or a blog junkie for that matter, I decided to get this going on Tumblr. I like compartmentalizing my life and I don't see any reason not to extend that to my online life.

So here you go. My project 365 page: http://1handinmypocket.tumblr.com

Book rave: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

2011-03-14T01:31:00.000+05:30

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What is truth, what is history, and how can we understand it in the context of faith, God and religion. This is what Pullman tries to address in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. All in all it was clever, controversial and subversive. What I did expect it to do however was knock my socks off in giving something new to think about. My socks, unfortunately were very much on my feet, at the end of it. Perhaps this is because my socks and I are agnostic in any case.

View all my reviews

Women's Day thoughts

2011-03-08T17:49:00.000+05:30

My 10 wishes for womankind...

1. That we can one day be bachelorettes and not spinsters.
2. That men can bear children one day.
3. That we won't be bitches or sluts or gold-diggers or heaven forbid, bad mothers just because we put our needs before our mothers, fathers, husbands, brothers, children or for that matter the bloody world.
4. That it would be as NATURAL to NOT be a mother as it is to be one.
5. That househusbands become as common as housewives.
6. That our daughters will have better role models one day than some sexed-up sixteen year old pop singer.
7. That our daughters will dream of a Fitzwilliam Darcy much rather than an Edward Cullen.
8. That we can give up as less as men to make our way up the corporate ladder.
9. That we can one day say I am a feminist without having to qualify it with a BUT.
10. That we can one day respect each other.

To conclude I want to share this song. It's a cliche but I still love it because everything in this song is contradictory. And that's what being human means. Sometimes, the world seems to forget that women are human. If we are not its villains, harlots or temptresses we must become its saints, saviours or goddesses. But the fact is we are not one or the other. We are both. We are none. We are everything.

Have a lovely day ladies. x

Book rave: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

2011-03-07T00:52:00.000+05:30

It was an easy read and I really liked it for the most part. A weekend was all it took and I am glad for that. See my thoughts on it below:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the books I got through the World Book Night book giveaway and I am so glad to have been gifted with it. While the debates on 9/11 have by now been discussed at length and the dilemma of muslims living in the U.S. during this point in time is also no longer a fresh topic, the narrator of The Reluctant Funadamentalist, Changez, had a way of pulling me into the story from the very first chapter.

I don't know if it is my present identity as immigrant and in-betweener that made me identify with Changez and his insider-outsider life in America. The narrator is intimate and revealing and yet the narrative on the whole is shrouded in mystery and doubt. The biggest mystery of all is who the "American" that this story is being told to is. Is he a CIA officer? A person from Changez's past? A long-lost somebody of Erica's? Then there's also the question of Changez's identity. We learn fully and completely his past but when it comes to his present, the details are lacking. This is a novel that is political as it is emotional. Both a thriller and a fine piece of literary fiction. It questions and challenges the West, and is almost Anti-American in its thrust and the first-person narrative allows for this kind of bias. A pager turner that is both thrilling as it is intelligent. As for how it ends, never saw that coming!

Apparently Mira Nair is in the process of making this into a film. It will be interesting to see how it's going to get translated to film. In a way it is ideal for film but on the other hand it will be challenging to capture what makes this book such a compelling one: it's one-dimensional pov and narrative voice. The film will have to give the sense that everything that we are witnessing is from a singular point-of-view. Every thought, every action, every bit of politics, of the narrative is from and only from Changez's eyes. The politics, especially the politics.

View all my reviews

What's a book?

2011-03-03T22:34:00.001+05:30

So first of all, appologies for the schizophrenic behaviour of this blog. It can't seem to decide what mood it wants to be in, much like it's author! Hopefully, it settles down to this 'Angry at the Gods' header for some time. But there's no guarentee. Escpecially when the author has assignments pending and also simultaneously has the need to channel her creative energies some place. Funny how these creative energies never bubble up when they are actually, truly needed. Ok, so let me get to the point of this post.

It's World Book Day here in England (and Ireland). Yes, that's a funny sentence because apparently "world" book day for the rest of the world is 23rd of April. But well, I guess calling the day Only England and Ireleand's Book Day just doesn't have the same ring. So there are lots of bookish banter going around and any excuse to talk about books is always something I am happy to revel in. So in lieu of today, World Book Day, I want to talk about what a book means. As some one studying the book business, let me just say it's a lot more complicated than saying it's a bunch of pages sewn together and a cover. In fact, today, in the world of the iPad, Kindle and smart phones the coversation about books and the very answer to my question, WHAT IS A BOOK? has become a lot more complex. So what's your take on books? Is it just a vessel for stories, ideas and thoughts and can be anything really. Not necessarily paper bound together with a cover. Or is it just that and you couldn't possibly imagine a book being any other way?

Happy World Book Day! :)

Quick recap

2011-02-28T03:31:00.001+05:30

Hello blog mates,

This is going to be a rushed quick update sort of post, just because I know I've been very neglectful of this blog. So here's what I've been up to in bullet points (bullet points and I have become very well acquainted lately).

First the big news. I spent a week in Paris. It was amazing and just as I imagined it to be. That city is picture perfect as you will note from the pictures below. But what I was surprised about Paris was that it's really quite dirty and smells of dog poo. I mean seriously! Who would've thought! And there's also a lot of beggars and homeless people, which was something I didn't expect at that scale from a big European city like Paris. But forever dispel the myth that Parisians are snobbish because they are far from that. At least not the ones I met anyway. They were lovely. You DO have to know French to survive. I was pretty much speaking with my hands and fingers and pointing at the map to get by, whenever I had to find my way around alone (when my somewhat French fluent friend was not around or met a fellow English speaking tourist that is). I would pretty much go, 'excuse moi' and point at the map. That's as much French as I could string together in a sentence. I am back however with a whole host of useful French words (pretty much all to do with food, considering ALL the menus were in French) like poulet (chicken), formulae (formula. in the context we used it, it was for 'set menu'. very cheap and yum!) and Café au lait (coffee with milk) apart from names of metro stations!

I have final assignments due in four weeks and in true Dili fashion I have yet to start on any of them. Prepare for some regular blog posts on random topics when I actually get into it.

I had such big plans of research for this weekend but instead I spent the whole of Saturday editing my Paris photos and now after doing my share of the household chores and going grocery shopping, I watched Catfish and been writing to people telling they HAVE to watch it, which was really what made me want to write this blog post in the first place. Ha! :D Guys you have to watch Catfish. Trailer below. But it's so much better than what the trailer insinuates. I don't want to spoil it by going into it. If you have watched it already, would love to hear your thoughts.

Hope everyone's been doing well. I do drop in to your blogs every now and then. T, I have meant to comment about your post on the University of Colombo but never had the time. As someone who's studies AND worked there I'm afraid the picture is far more complex than just lazy people. In fact, it's at the crux of our government and the way it runs these institutions in general. And then there's the whole thing, this is Free Education (although postgrad programs aren't and at the very least they could get them working well enough to actually get the university generating money) and their attitude is 'take whatever we give you' cos you're getting it free. As for the quality of the Degree, I've actually studied under some pretty damn fine lecturers. My Dissertation supervisor spent a whole semester as a visiting lecturer at Yale on invitation, just to give you a sense of the kind of people that are involved. But then there's also the lecturer that turns up in class smelling of alcohol and the one that doesn't turn up at all. The structures, the rewards, the discipline everything is different in a government-run organisation as opposed to a private one. It's the same for universities. There are no fee-paying customers so quality can be whatever they want it to be. I notice the contrast especially now that I'm here in UCL, where we are pretty much treated like customers. Customer satisfaction, i.e. student satisfaction. When I was in Paris, I went to the University of Paris 13 (as you know France has welfare education. i.e. Free education) and in their case actually even the Masters degrees are free, and I again immediately notices the difference in terms of infrastructure and layout and classrooms and people, as opposed to UCL. It's a million times better equipped than UOC but the contrast when compared to my uni here was apparent. Not to say I disagree with you, all you're points are valid and well made and your frustration all too familiar and justified. I guess I just want you to know that there's more to the pie than meets the eye. :D P.S. I wouldn't recommend the Masters programs there though, except the Economics Department ones. The others aren't managed very well. India, might be a better choice for Humanities related subjects in any case. Good luck!

Have a good week everyone!

London luvs: art on window sills

2011-01-25T04:23:00.000+05:30

aren't they the cutest thing? i randomly walked past these the other day on the way to work. it's someone's house but i obviously couldn't help sneaking a few snapshots. :)

London anecdote: the pervert

2011-01-23T21:02:00.001+05:30

yesterday i got out of the victoria line train at oxoford circus i think and as i made my way through the crowd, a woman yells,

"PERVERT! you rubbed on me didn't you??? YOU FUCKING PERVERT! do you even know me! PERVERT... (insert more profanities)"

i was in a rush or i'd love to have seen how that went down. :)

of contemporary art and bullshitting

2011-01-14T04:34:00.000+05:30

New Contemporaries via http://www.ica.org.uk

modern art, particularly abstract art, baffles me most of the time. i stand in front of it feeling extremely stupid or extremely irritated. i would much rather feel extremely stupid because at least i know that there is something there to get, an idea or a message that i just can't seem to put a finger at. i am rarely the type to not give anything a chance. even if it is a bloody sausage in a frying pan i would try my hardest to understand it. to attempt to understand what it is that the artists is trying to say. but sometimes it's impossible isn't it? like today, i went to the ICA (Institute of Contempoarary Arts) here in London where they were holding an exhibition called New Contemporaries. it was a free exhibition and it was supposed to be work by young artists from various fine art programs in London or something to that affect. they were mostly installations or mixed media work of which there were maybe a total of 2 or 3 that i actually got and the rest pretty much left me going WTF! the ones that really annoyed the shit out of me were ones where for instance a whole bunch of screen prints of basically the same thing, just a smudged up block of colour, were put up on a wall and was called, wait for it... "untitled"! it's bad enough that it's a bunch of bloody print outs stuck on a wall but it's almost as if the artist decided you know what i'm not even going to bother to work at a title! as a matter of fact, most of the work was "untitled"! maybe i'm being unfair and maybe there is something deep and profound that someone else got and i just couldn't. like with poetry. some get it, some don't. but i don't know about you guys but for me interpretation requires some kind of framework. i can't make interpretations out of the blue. without a context or something. at the very least a title. as someone who occassionally writes poetry, while i may write at the heat of the moment and mostly for personal reasons i write because i have something to say or something to put out there. regardless of whether that poem is going to be made public or meant to be read by no one and instead stored away in a box under my bed, i do write to someone. who that maybe i do not know. but i am communicating something, i am sharing a feeling. i would think it is more or less the case for artists as well. so it was frustrating as an audience, because here i was trying my hardest to give your work, your art a chance, to be your audience, but you're not giving me anything...anything by which to read your work. but maybe that's just me and i am merely a commoner with no intellectual capacity for abstract art. or maybe it's just bullshit parading as art. i did like one piece there and that had a title. now this is one piece of art that could very well have gone "untitled" and it still gave enough to read it with. it was called Narcissus 2010 and was basically one of those classical iron sculptures of Narcissus, head bent down with one of his hands directed at his nose and in that hand there was a prosthetic nose. it was a bust and was placed on a glass and so it basically evoked the image in the myth, of Narcissus looking at his reflection in the water. lined along the edges of the mirror were noses of various sizes and proportions. get it? think of 21st Century vanity. think nose jobs.

yup, that's art. the kind i get.

must-watch movie list #1

2011-01-12T03:53:00.000+05:30

there are so many good movies coming out and i feel like i've lost track and i MUST get back on the wagon. so lists as always are a good way of getting around to things, yes?! so here's my list of MUST WATCH movies in the coming months.

1. Easy A

2. The King's Speech

3. Catfish

4. Another Year

5. Black Swan

6. 127 Hours

7. Never Let Me Go

8. The Tree of Life

9. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

10. It's kind of a Funny Story

for starters. :)

ex-emplary

2011-01-07T23:58:00.000+05:30

if only all our exes let go of us this magnanimously...

we could be happy.

London luvs: poetry where you least expect it

2011-01-06T02:30:00.000+05:30

i've been meaning to share this for sometime. there's nothing i like more than finding poetry in the most un-poetic of places. like inside London's dreary subway trains!

book rave: Room

2011-01-05T04:38:00.003+05:30

it's been awhile since i read a book that gave me a real nightmare. Room by Emma Donaghue got me hooked from the very first page but because of assignments and being generally busy i couldn't really get into it until last night. i couldn't keep the book down all night and it was past four am and i had to force myself to go to sleep. so deeply did the story of Room-about a young boy and his mother who are imprisoned in a room, only the young boy, Jack, does not know there is a world outside it-affect me that i literally had nightmares the rest of the night. although a little disturbed and unnerved by what was a very bad night's sleep, i couldn't resist opening Room as soon as i woke up, and read through the rest of the day, leaving the bed only to grab a cup of tea. that was how enthralling a read it is! the story itself is inspired by real events but in no way based on them or about them perse but you do get a sense of bad dejavu about similar stories that made headlines in the past. what makes Room such a wonderful book is not just because of the story itself but because of how well it's written. the story manages to be disturbing and yet deeply heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. the writer makes the narrative so believable, coming from 5 year old Jack's perspective and maybe it is this fact, that all the action and experience of Room is from the perspective of a little boy that makes the reader feel all these contradictory emotions within the course of the novel.

it's often the case that novels tend to be sweeping, with multiple plots and multiple narrative voices, etc. the genius of emma donaghue lies in the fact that although being so narrow in her focus, with the first one and a half of the novel more or less positioned inside a 11 by 11 room, and just the three human (i make this distinction because Jack's perspective of the room involves personifying pretty much most things in Room, including Room) characters and their actions (or lack thereof) inside it, she still manages to keep the reader so involved, so interested, albeit sharing in the claustrophobic confinement of the characters themselves. we are trapped as much as they are, inside a confined narrative space, but for us the reader this confinement is what makes Room such an immersive piece of fiction.

this post is not a review of Room, rather a rave of it. Room is quite possibly one of the best books i've read in my whole life and i highly recommend it. don't just take my word for it, it was also one of the six shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010, so i'm obviously not the only one psyched about it. the book is so much more than a good story. it's quite possibly one of the great modern works of fiction to come out this decade. it does what most great books do. it questions life as we know it, it makes us see the world a little if not a lot differently than we did before opening its pages, it's at once endearing and unnverving, and most importantly when you finally get to the end you feel like you've made an incredible journey, with people you've got to know so well, and you're if not for a day, a week or a month, at the very least, for a moment, changed by the experience. if you have read it already i'd love to know your thoughts and if you haven't, well...if there is any book you should make a point to read this year...Room sure should be right up there on the list. ok, rave over.

unfinished business

2010-12-31T17:16:00.000+05:30

last year by this time (i.e. 31st December) i was certain that 2009 was a memorable one. i felt like i had crossed significant milestones in my life and almost felt like i knew where i was headed (what a false impression that turned out to be!).

this year, same time, same day, i am not sure of any the above. yes, i've finally crossed to the other side of the world, one i had longed to see for quite some time. i've managed to get into a pretty impressive Masters programme at a pretty impressive university. i am on a path i set out to be on. and yet as this blog has been a testament to in the past months, i am perpetually afflicted with a gnawing sense of uncertainty. where is all this headed? a few weeks back i was in the train, when it hit me: i will be 27 next year! that is a frightening thought. i am just 3 years away from 30 (!) and i am still finding my way in life. somewhere down the line, something has gone very wrong and very very late.

so let me flag my life status as of 31st December 2010:

civil status: single (with no hope in sight of any prospects!)

career: bang smack in the middle of a hopelessly slowly recovering global economy and anti-immigration policies. no sight of hope at home either. and therefore unnerving thoughts include, how on earth do i earn back the cost of this Masters???

bank balance: dwindling my savings and parents'. brilliant!

friendships: old still in tact. albeit, scattered across the globe. new ones, tougher to form.

the past: nostalgic for.

the present: taking it as it comes.

the future:

family: appreciative of every waking day

home: missing it more than i bargained for. for the record, there's something about that warm sunny island, despite all the crappy politics that makes it a wonderful wonderful place i tell you!

general well being: satisfactory

inspiration levels: low

so as you all can see, there's a lot of unfinished business for next year. and hopefully with a little luck and good wishes i will have a better year end report same time 2011.


Tree of Life at The Bloomsbury Festival

thank you to everyone who still visits this blog, despite it having turned very ranty.

here's hoping the new year holds great things for you all! have a happy one! x

caught in a web

2010-12-12T18:55:00.002+05:30

source: Google images

I never cease to surprise myself with the amount of new and rather questionable ways I find to procrastinate doing anything BUT work on my assignments. Like wasting time with this blog post that serves no particular pupose but to procrastinate by writing about procrastination. It not like I am super brainy or I feel like I have the time because I started a little ahead. NO. In fact I am more behind as behind can get with serious cause for panic! But perhaps it is the masochist in me that takes delight in self-induced sleepless nights and heart palpitations. Whatever the reason, I have spent a considerable amount of time doing an inane number of things that I would never have considered doing if in fact I did have the time to do it. Like editing my "new" Facebook profile, browsing Twitter profiles of celebrities and organising my desktop!

I blame Tim Berners-Lee really for the most part. If not for the worldwide web perhaps it would not be so easy to procrastinate. Many would agree that the temptation for procrastination is much higher thanks to the internet and the many many options out there. Here are my top 10 usual suspects:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Google (it all starts here!)
4. Wikipedia (have you ever found yourself starting a search that's related to your assignment only to find yourself getting completely sidetracked with the hyperlinks?)
5. PostSecret (I could spend hours just browsing on this.)
6. Stumbleupon (this is the procrastinator's equivalent to cocaine and that little green button on your tool bar may as well be Satan!)
7. Youtube
8. Blogs
9. Last.fm
10. Flickr

The internet is indeed a web of distractions and has elevated procrastination to new heights. But perhaps when it comes to that inner-calling to procrastinate internet or no internet one can't help but give in. ;D

If however you want some help and advice on overcoming procrastination, this might be a good place to start. Or you could always just give yourself a cold hard slap and hope you get over it!

update of sorts.

2010-11-21T05:48:00.001+05:30

looking through my window

i promised i would get back to my old blogging routine but turns out living and fending for one's self leaves very little time for this. most nights i'm just hacked and can barely get myself to make that final 5-6 minute walk down my road from the bust stand without collapsing on the pavement. the dreaded cold is all that keeps my feet moving. as of now i have only two days of class and the rest of my days are spent trying to find SOME kind of part-time work and getting through preparing for projects and presentations and what-not. finding work, part-time work or even just a temp thing is proving to be increasingly hard. i have sent out many many applications with no result save this one offering only a travel and food "allowance". desperation has driven me to accept this dreaded job and now on two days a week i will be doing some very unpleasant ungratifying work with a brave face on. mercy me! it's awful awful work and day one left me wanting to pack up and run back home all the way to our little sunny island. but i will be a grown up and try to be independent and all that shiz. we grow up so nurtured and secure back in Sri Lanka in a way we take that for granted. it's tough out here. yes there are big brands, the big buildings, the high tech infrastructure, the excitement and all that but it really is a city where survival really comes down to the richest, least of all the fittest.

last week while taking a walk at the wee hours of the night with some friends down high street where a friend lives i came across a homeless man sleeping by a shop window, sheltered only by that little bit of awning seeping out. it was a numbingly cold night, with occassional rain and i felt my self gutted with fear. to be homeless at night here is scary because you really are at the mercy of the elements.

talking about a more pleasant serendipity i love the subway singers that play every evening in the underground station near where my uni is. a couple of nights back there was this A-mazing singer who did a really good cover of "she will be loved" by Maroon 5. he had such an awesome voice and played the electric guitar. i wanted to hear more and more so while standing on the platform i purposefully let myself miss three to four trains just so i could stay back and here more. wish i'd recorded it to share with you all. perhaps he'll re-visit. i hope the dude gets discovered!

in other news this country is OBSESSED with The X Factor! open the dailies and that's headline news most of the time. although as of last week Britain's Dailies have found a brand new obsession - William and Kate's impending nuptials. i now know the A to Z of how the two met, how William proposed, Kate Middleton's ancestry, what her parents do, and that her mother was censured by the Great British Public for being "vulgur" by using the words "toilette" and "pardon"... yes, "toilette" and "pardon".

the weather as expected is getting worse and worse and getting out of the bed every morning is a herculean task. we don't overuse our heating so it's quite cold inside the house too. between hot humid colombo nights and numbingly cold london ones...guess which one i'd opt for???

so that's about it from me right now. i think i might just write a common blog post instead of having to write seperate e-mails to all my friends and then send them the link instead from now on. because keeping in touch and keeping family and friends posted and informed is time consuming work i tell you. thank heavens for facebook. you can slap on a few pictures in an album and atleast you've communicated to an extent what you've been up to. speaking of Facebook, wasn't The Social Network an amusing watch? and Mark Zuckerburg...is that really how the guy is? and like i tweeted it's funny how one of the 21st Century's greatest creations was a result of guys just wanting to get laid. where would the world be without women! ;D

cheerio everyone. i will drop in here whenever time permits. i actually wanted to start a seperate blog called L Files but all that seemed too much of an effort and so instead i settled for changing my blog header to something more relevant to my current geographical positioning. maybe i will change it as the seasons progress. an april's fool in wintry cold london. what an irony!

have a good one all. for those at home, do send some sunshine and love my way please. :)

i can explain.

2010-11-04T06:47:00.004+05:30

this post is long overdue. as some of you may already know, i am now in London. i'm here to do my postgrad degree and it all happened quite fast. you see i am an extremely superstitious person and didn't want to reveal my plans to anyone till i actually was sure of them myself. and that certainty i received only at the very end. the visa process was a nightmare and i had more or less given up on the whole idea. i was already late for my programme and week 1 of lectures was well on its way. my university gave me till week 2. by some freak of fate i made it just in time. i left in such a rush so much so that i was calling people from the airport to break the news and bid them adieu. they didn't know what had hit them! even my closest friends had only a day's notice and i'm surprised they still want to be my friend! :D but it was a tough journey getting here and as all things in life would have it, there's still a long and even tougher journey ahead.

but i plan on documenting as much of it as i can. the good, the bad and the awful. so watch this space.

Tolkien read my thoughts tonight

2010-10-04T23:13:00.005+05:30

via deviantart.com

i sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that i shall never know

but all the while i sit and think
of times there were before,
i listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

it's the last two verses of a poem titled I Sit and Think by J.R.R. Tolkien. you can read the whole poem here.

hope you all have a good week. four days left.

life as i know it as of now

2010-10-01T15:02:00.004+05:30

life, as far as i can understand it never seems to work out the way you planned. if you're really lucky it does and if you're really really lucky it turns out even better than your plans.

my life as of now is like a river that is flowing but most days i wake up and wonder where on earth it is headed. nothing i do seems to change its course, it seems to more or less have a mind of its own. so when i think of the future, as much as i try hard not to, i really can't imagine what it will be like for me. all i know is that my present is scattered with half-made promises, unfulfilled ambitions, long distant friendships and soul-killing sameness. change is a funny thing in my life. it's just a condition that happens to me. life never seems to let me make it happen on my terms.

life, in short, is a dirty little asshole.

from evil step mother to...

2010-09-25T19:06:00.005+05:30

(The Greedy Mother-in-Law: spotted on a shelf at the Book Fair)

did the fact exist before the fiction or was it the other way around? hmmm...

a book, a movie, and a bad mood that refuses to go away.

2010-09-17T19:58:00.010+05:30

"I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three-piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, to the day you die."

yeah i finally watched Trainspotting. and i fucking love it! it also made me realize where Mark Wilde (that's his pseudonym) found inspiration for his book Chucking the Dragon (a gripping book by one of our local authors) and his own pseudonym i might add. this is not to say, Chucking the Dragon is unoriginal. in fact it is a refreshing and gripping read that has a voice that's young, edgy, gritty and jaded (all my favourite adjectives). and as far as a narrative about heroin addiction goes, it hold it's own ground and comes from an honest seemingly autobiographical place. anyways i recommend both. movie (which in fact is an adaptation of the book of the same name by writer Irvine Welsh) and book (Mark Wilde's book that is. although i presume Irvine Welsh's must be rather fantastic as well. i am yet to get my hands on it.) but since the book fair is tomorrow i recommend scouting out Chucking the Dragon. as a matter of fact, i recommend giving our local authors a chance. it's a gamble, like with any book i guess but sometimes you find yourself pleasantly surprised. but i maybe biased with that piece of advice. ;D

in other news, i've been swinging in and out of a serious existential mood. so much so i could give Camus a run for his money. hence why this blog's been silent and the other one's been a little more active than usual. another best friend left the island and now i'm left with a handful of good ones. getting left behind. it's the story of my life.

hope life's been kinder to you lately.

i don't think we are in stepford anymore.

2010-09-02T15:15:00.004+05:30

can someone tell these people that.

pack fettish

2010-08-16T21:15:00.006+05:30

i used to be in advertising so maybe that's why good packaging still gets me excited. since i know first hand how difficult it is to get anything aesthetically pleasing approved by our clients i can appreciate all the more when a good idea actually makes it to the production room. so as an homage to my old fraternity and as a way of scratching an old itch (heh) i want to showcase good packaging when (perhaps IF is more likely) i see it!

to start off with, i can't say enough about the China Doll takeaway packs. the logo is adorable and i love the bold and bright yellow contrasted with black.

but what really got me excited about packaging to the point that i wanted to blog about it was this packaging idea for choco beans. it's imported so i suppose kudos can't go to any one here but it's available in supermarkets and i'll take that as sufficient. the idea is simple (like a tablet card) plus i bet it was ridiculously cost-effective.

will i buy this candy again? no. why? because the chocolate wasn't all good. well actually it wasn't good at all. goes to show that even the best packaging won't make a customer buy a product if it ain't good. ad friends take note.

everyone having a good week i hope. as for me, see what i distract myself with to get by. :D such is my life.

self-pity sunday.

2010-08-15T13:28:00.003+05:30

perhaps what matters in life for miley cyrus is "the climb". but as far as i'm concerned i've been doing it for far too long and i am tired of it. just when you think you've come to a resting point you find out that it's just a pitstop. i can't climb anymore and yet when (my) life is more or less a 90 degrees slope there's one but two choices- keep climbing. or fall down.

and some days, like today, my fingers ache to let go. i know this is self-pity. i know that every other person has it rough. i know that guys like these didn't give up, when they very easily could and no one would fault them for it. i know.

i know.

gladiator premaya

2010-08-09T12:03:00.004+05:30

over the weekend i went to watch Gladiator Premaya . it is one i had heard of before and missed it the first time it was staged. i'm glad i went this time. it was well performed and the issue of love (notice how i used "issue" of love :D), the gender politics of heterosexual relationships and the institution of marriage was the main point of discussion. on a general scale it was about how we carry on with our lives consciously unconscious to our inner selves. the script approached these themes through a certain kind of gothic realism by setting the narrative in a hotel room that overlooks a haunted mountain top called Kurulu Pawwa where it is rumoured that the face of a young woman occasionally appears. who ever sees this face is cursed with an acute sense of loneliness and a compulsion to look deep within. So the play is basically four mini-plays where we see four kinds of couples and their stories unfolding in that room when they see this face.

structurally and stylistically it was very interesting. the performances were all fantastic. the only problem was with the last mini-play which didn't fit in with the overall narrative. i felt it broke the thematic and structural consistency although with a little effort you can see the overall linkages; but minus this scene it would've been a rather powerful production.

i know most of the few of you who do read this blog are not in the country but if they do show it again and you're around be sure to catch it. behind this production is a very inspired young theatre group called Play House Kotte. You can keep tabs on their work and if and when Gladiator Premaya might grace the stage again by visiting their FB page.

like a vegan.

2010-08-06T19:10:00.007+05:30

ever since i drove past the milk & honey cafe on barnes place i've always wanted to stop by. a friend of mine even did an article on the place in last month's LT magazine and reading that made me want to go there and check it out even more.

the milk & honey cafe is a place that serves up organic vegan/vegetarian/raw food. basically it's about food that is produced and prepared in as healthy a way as possible. food for the soul , is what they call it. check out their facebook page which will tell you in detail what their all about. the bottomline is it's a rare find and a welcome one in a colombo filled with fast food outlet after fast food outlet, only out numbered by the chinese restaurants and kottu joints.

anyway i dropped in there for lunch today because i didn't bring my usual rice and curry fare from home. plus the past two weekends have involved alcohol and i've developed these massive carnivorous cravings for burgers and i've indulged in quite a few lately (speaking of which, do try the mexicana burgher at The Sandwich Factory. it's very very good!). and add to that my recent introduction to China Doll's delivery hotline; so you could say going vegan for a meal was just what i needed to let me feel like i'm not a walking bin of lard and toxic.

maybe it was the fact that it was a weekday or maybe very little people know of this place so far-either way the place was more or less empty and this suited me well. you basically have to order from what's available on their daily menu because being organic and fresh and all that means that the menu depends upon the produce they get for the day. so browsing through their general menu is of no use. i asked for an avocado juice but they said they don't have any and i was pointed out a blackboard with the menu for the day. so off the list i opted for a detox juice (not bad ay?) of apple, cucumber and mint. for lunch i ordered a salad of grilled veges (which mostly consisted of aubergine-luckily i'm a fan!), baby spinach, lettuce and a light , veeeery light vinaigrette (talk about hardcore health food!) along with four small pieces of toasted wheat bread with pesto paste on top.
the juice was disappointing. it was too watery and could very well have been named cucumber juice with green colouring because i didn't get any apple taste nor mint. the salad was a lot better. the portion is pretty decent and actually very filling. who knew a light salad that's so low in any kind of fatty carb stuff could be so filling. so thumbs up for the salad. but the fact is, eating raw, eating vegan style, is more or less an acquired taste. so don't go expecting what McDonald's calls a salad at milk & honey cafe.

pricing wise, i think it's a bit overpriced. both juice and salad cost me Rs.700/=.

the place has limited ad hoc kind of seating. but i think that's kind of the point of the place. and there is also a children's books and goodies store. the collection of children's books they have is quite impressive.
apart from salads and juices they also have wraps, smoothies and combos like youghurt, banana and museli, etc. they also have cakes, cookies, etc. made from organic healthy produce. and if you're craving a good glass of organic fresh milk they seem to offer that too. so all in all, a very cool place that is most likey to be very much up Dee's alley. :D

i suppose one bad juice is not enough to write a place off completely. i think it's worth a second visit and a few more samplings. i must admit though i DO feel lighter and my skin which has been feeling very oily and heaty over the past weeks actually feels like its breathing today. coincidence? i think not.

so i thought why not give the toxic and fatty foods a rest this weekend and go light. i've stocked up on fresh fruit, museli, wheatbix, yoghurt, and stuff to get me by for the next two days. let's see how that goes, shall we? :)

if nothing else, the milk & honey cafe has stirred the vegan in me. it's a teeny tiny vegan but a vegan none-the-less. :D

enough of this rambling! have a good weekend everyone!

judging a book by its...

2010-08-03T22:28:00.005+05:30

i'm one of those people that judge a book by it's first line. it's not necessarily a guarantee that it will be a good read but it's enough to give me a hint if i should stay on the path or not. so when i came across this article it got me reminiscing about some of my personal favourite first lines.

"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. "

- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens -

"it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -

"it was inevitable:the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."

- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

"you like to have some cup of tea?-July bent at the doorway and began that day for them as his kind has always done for their kind."

- July's People by Nadine Gordimer -

"mrs.dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

- Mrs.Dalloway by Virginia Woolf -

"it was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

-1984 by George Orwell-

"ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."

-Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston-

"124 was spiteful."

-Beloved by Toni Morrison-

"it's a funny thing about mothers and fathers."

- Matilda by Roald Dhal -

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. "

- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K.Rowling -

that's jut off the top of the head. what are some of your favourite first lines? :)

goodbye my 9 to 5

2010-07-30T21:40:00.004+05:30

today was the last day of my 9 to 5 job- you know the one that i've been prone to complaining of for the past year, with many many posts as evidence of this. i'm glad to take a new path, ease the burden so i don't have to juggle as much as i've done before. at the same time, it's going to be missed, mostly because of a few good friends i made there. the kind who have the best hearts in the whole world. i will miss them dearly.

i'm going to be on a new and yet not-so-new road from next week on. at least it's one i want to really be on. so fingers crossed. heart is hopeful. and my eyes are looking forward.

have a good weekend my friends.

monday blues control

2010-07-20T18:15:00.006+05:30

well, sort of.

in a previous post i mentioned what a huge reality tv junkie i am. most of the time on monday i come home looking forward to a hot shower, getting into my pjs and settling with a quick snack in front of the tv by 5pm to watch So You Think You Can Dance. that is, sadly, but truly, as of late, been the highlight of more or less all my mondays. but then again, i'm not complaining. i love the show and even though i myself have two left feet, i've been an ardent admirer of dance from ballroom and hip hop to bollywood numbers.

there are some amazing performances every week on SYTYCD and i've been following several seasons. but this piece just made my day yesterday so much so that i HAD to write this post amidst all the hustle and bustle that my life has been of late.

and since we are on the topic anyway i can't resist posting a few more videos of some of my favorite performances on some of the other seasons i've watched before. there's heaps more on youtube for anyone interested.

that's it i'm stopping myself now! maybe more in another post. :D

this blog and i

2010-07-16T11:19:00.003+05:30

i've been neglecting this blog for quite some time. in a way it is a reflection of the neglect i have been imposing upon my own self. i am like this blog, uninspired. i am like this blog, same-old same-old. i have been like this blog has lately, just existing.

every day for the past month i've woken up wishing i could go back to sleep. not because i want to cosy back into a blissful slumber but because i am just exhausted. exhausted. that's been the general feeling for some time now. yes, i put on a brave face. turn up for friends' gatherings with a smile and overall quite amiable. i do my work with all the energy and (enthusiasm?) i can muster and get it done. i say my hellos and goodbyes. i answer calls. i remember b'days. i meet deadlines. i do what has to be done. but inside, i feel like i'm all burnt out.

the dreams i dream, sit on the shelf. every morning i see them. they see me. and that's as far as that relationship seems to go. so i get dressed and just go on with the life that is. the life that has been. and everyday i wish i could wake up, and see an empty shelf. at least that way, i can move on. and settle.

if i have not already alienated the few friends that do still read this blog, all i can ask is, please bear with me.

upheaval

2010-07-14T23:16:00.003+05:30

http://lunati-que.deviantart.com/art/people-always-leave-83231974

it's another goodbye. to another closest and dearest. i have very few friends i consider nearest to my heart and now another one crosses the ocean. how many more goodbyes can this heart of mine take? soul mates that take a little bit of my soul with them. i am worried about the corpse i might become one day.

i was once a man.

2010-06-26T00:15:00.003+05:30

so every now and then whenever i get bored i like to get online and stumble. i'm going through a bit of an insomnia spell tonight so during my latest stumbling i came across this site where you type in your birthdate and it tells you who you were in your past life. as a buddhist i suppose past lives is something that i should firmly be convinced of. and it makes perfect sense that we do have these life cycles but i've never really been all that concerned by it. i don't care actually. i mean, i'm still trying to figure this life out as is and barely getting that right.

but i ofcourse did type in my b'day code. and here's what turned up.

and no, i don't remember. ;D

Alice inspired

2010-06-13T19:50:00.012+05:30

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2009/06/24/the-best-dirty-comics-by-great-artists/

www.fashionwindows.net/tag/fallwinter-2009/

http://fungur.blogspot.com/2010/03/amazing-25-mad-alice-in-wonderland.html

http://www.scoutiegirl.com/2010/02/inspired-by-alice-in-wonderland-photography-by-brandon-c-warren.html

http://ladolcemoda7.blogspot.com/2010/03/yet-another-alice-in-wonderland-fashion.html

http://www.monstermarketplace.com/Apparel/Landing6518a3772.html

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/...//9212.html

belindaschneider.wordpress.com/2008/10/

http://wonderland.paperstreetsupplies.com/

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs20/i/2007/309/c/a/Alice_in_Wonderland_by_sandysandy1993.jp
g

that's just the tip of the ice berg one can find on cyberspace when you google Alice in Wonderland. i love seeing how literature gets translated to art and popular culture and Lewis Carrol's classic is one that has captured the imagination of many. the layers of innocence, darkness, and downright bizarreness in the Alice stories makes them all the more fun because you can interpret it in so many ways. so when they said Tim Burton was making an Alice in Wonderland i was so excited. but unfortunately when i watched it, it was kind of disappointing. maybe it was better on 3D. the story could've gone places but Burton seemed to take it half way. if you haven't already gone to see it, i recommend lowering your expectations. maybe you'll come out less disappointed then. apart from the pictures i've put up in this post, if you're as much a procrastinator as i am then check out these links for some A-mazing art and fashion inspired by Alice and her Wonderland.

http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2010/02/curioser-curioser-art-works-inspired-by.html

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/03/01/art-inspired-by-alice-in-wonderland/

http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/16-unusual-alice-in-wonderland-inspired-designs/

http://lavenderandlilies.blogspot.com/2009/07/alice-in-wonderland.html

and there's even a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/inspire1#!/inspire1?v=photos

the give and take commercial.

2010-06-10T18:04:00.005+05:30

i am intrigued by the paradoxical nature of this ad. it is at once dismantling and re-constructing stereotypes. a bit lazy to elaborate my thoughts on it though. read this and this. they are somewhere along the lines of my thought process. i wonder what my friend A has to say about this? the last e-mail i was tormented with was about the Indonesian government distributing long skirts to women! her crusade continues. :) oh but i haven't told you all about A or her crusades have I? perhaps another day. this ad also could have benefited from a better copywriter. "sexiness for everyone"??? COME ON!

In an aside; as you all may or may not have noticed I no longer have my Monday Blues Control posts. I hate Mondays still. but i've run out of ways to deal with the damn day.

Hope everyone's having a good week. i for one can't wait as always to get to the end of it.

deers in starlight

2010-06-06T12:00:00.009+05:30

via http://gossiplanka.blogspot.com

the iifa weekend came, it conquered and is almost gone. as someone who grew up watching hindi films since the good old days when hindi films were well...hindi films-complete with running around trees and rain dances and lines like "muje bachao" ("save me!"), i, like more or less most average sri lankans, was a tad excited. this isn't the first time bollywood stars have graced the shores but for an award show to be held, an award show like iifa, was promising of seeing most, if not all of one's favourite stars. whilst this was exciting, the sheer amount of public funds doled out in the name of this affair, and with the knowledge of previous Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion bureau mishaps that eventually cost us (like the Small Miracles campaign and the Akon fiasco - which may i remind you was partially organized by SLTPB), i was apprehensive that the shit might hit the ceiling.

and the shit did. the tamil nadu film makers protests were evidently loud enough to scare away the big names. i have no sympathy for these protesters. nor for the superstars that felt threatened enough to not turn up. i find the whole thing actually extremely insulting and baseless. surely the iifa venue selection committee or board or whatever it is would have taken in to account the possibility of the politics surrounding the selection of sri lanka as a venue? the bachchan family, who, in the past have been synonymous with the iifa awards, to the point that one time, it was said it's almost like it is a bachchan family affair, would have had a say in the matter of venue selection i presume. i can only assume that we didn't go begging for this to be held here and it was a free and fair bid as a result of which a collective decision was made to hold the event in colombo. in which case, at the very least, amitabh bachchan should have stood by it; released a statement that consists of some kind of hogwash about being aware of the sensitivities but that he will stand by it or something. i find this kind of cowardice and lack of accountability on the part of iifa and particularly its brand amabassador, a rather arrogant and dismissive gesture. they could also very well have said 'no' at the onset and chosen another venue. the very fact that the boycott took place after the venue was finalized and just a few days away indicates that obviously the point of the boycott was tactical humiliation rather than anything else that might have deemed productive. these views by J.P. Dutta as per http://inmyopinion-amonavis.blogspot.com puts it best:

JP Dutta in a TV Interview said, "Boycott demand should have been made earlier. Demanding a boycott now is like asking a batsman not to play after the bowler has delivered the ball. IIFA has to play the shot now that the ball is delivered."

the sl government dished out everything in the miscalculated hope of getting back some good press and publicity for the island (god knows we need it!) and what we get instead is more of the same shit. when we get discussed in relation to the iifa's it's going to be about how none of the A grade bollywoodians turned up. it's a slap in the face, for the government and by extension we the people, who put it all out there full frontal, with over 500 million public funds spent on a private event that didn't deliver on its expectations. save hrithik roshan, two of the khans (of which Salman Khan has gone on record saying "We are here to help the people who are in crisis. Building walls serves no purpose. We should build bridges." kudos for that!), and as far as the big heroines went, kareena kapoor and bipasha basu turning up it was struggling actors like Vivek Oberoi and Dia Mirza , who usually go unnoticed amidst bigger stars, that got to bask in the limelight of star-struck fans who had to finally settle for something better than nothing.

at the same time all this controversy boils down to something our government and our majority public have failed to do. acknowledge history. acknowledge the war, for the bloodiness it was, void of the mask of nationalism and heroism. there is much speculations that there were war crimes committed on both sides, but unless and until this be acknowledged and accounted for, you just can't roll over your back and expect the world to forget it. truth and reconciliation. we need to take these two words seriously. for our own sake.

the step-brotherly treatment that the indian superstars dished out isn't the be all and end all of it. flip through today's Sunday Times, read the Editorial and a few of the other front page pieces, and you'll see what kind of a cesspit is brewing underneath, which the iifa is merely, the tip of the shit berg. bi-lateral relations with india, particularly on economic and socio-political grounds is one to be entered with caution and foresight. when the tamil nadu politicians and the holier-than-thou film makers get on their high horse about tamil grievances in Sri Lanka, they are all conveniently over-sighting the fuel that the Indian central government and the IPKF added to our island fire. tamil nadu's concern for the north has its own agenda and is not necessarily a reflection of their concern for sri lankan tamils. on the contrary i've heard that sri lanakn tamils that sail as refugees to the south indian coast are met with hostilities by residents. so india's concern for our tamil brothers and sisters is little to do with humanity and more to do with power politics and votes.

indian imperialism is the last thing this country needs. especially after having told the west to fuck off. is MR going to have the same balls to keep our big indian brother in his place? what's important is that there be transparency from the MR government on impending agreements and relations with india. in the past governments entering mytery deals has only cost the people. the CEPA, if speculations in the papers are anything to go by, might quite possibly turn into a one-sided deal, with india holding all the strings. there is also news that our benevolent government has offered india a Deputy High Commission in Jaffna and Hambanthota. these are moves we should keep an eye on.

as the bright lights of the stars begin to fade in the weeks to come, and we are no longer blinded by the brilliance of bipasha basu's golden mini dress, the realities of what just happened begins to descend. and it might turn out that all that glittered was just a ruse. and we were all but deers caught blind in starlight.

making a vesak kuduwa...

2010-05-26T12:18:00.002+05:30

...is a serious test of patience.

but there you go, i did it. my very first self-made vesak lantern. hopefully it looks better when lit up than it is on that picture. :)

hope you all have a great vesak weekend. heading out of the city this time. i hope the rains won't be too much of a downer to our long weekend plans.