Lana Del Rainy

I listen to Pink Floyd. Most of the time. If not them then something like Tool. But mostly old stuff.. But sometimes things change for a day...

It was a rainy day. The sky was really black and grey and there were drops of water and poisonous acid stuff coming from the clouds. You can't even image how painful it was stumbling out of the comfy, warm bed. The big windows just let in even more darkness.
My aunts blender was groaning in her kitchen. The daily awakening of her weird celery-apple-carrot juice.
I was cooped up in the bathroom, feeling too depressed to come out. Until my brother woke up and decided to make my life even more hell-like by yelling his lungs out and sending shock waves throbbing through the bathroom door. So I came out grudgingly.
My uncle was just leaving for work and my parents were packing suitcases. We had planned to walk along the south bank that day... in the rain. How depressing. Another reason the whole atmosphere was so weary was because it was our second last day in London and I did not want to go back home!
So I was just sitting there on the sofa with a pained look on my face and for some reason VintageTV was on. And Lana Del Rey was playing. This was when she was only just becoming famous and I had never heard of her before.
For those who haven't heard her, she has a very lazy, old american movie style voice. Some say she can't sing. I honestly don't have an opinion.

'Swinging in the backyard,
pull up in you fast car,
whistling my name...'

And similarly she drawled the whole song. And I died somewhere in the middle, enthralled.
I don't know whether it was her voice or the way she sang the song. But I think it had a  lot to do with the hint of sad reminiscence in her voice.
Every new place I go, a song defines it for me.
Though 'Video games' wasn't a song I would listen to again for a very long time it made the whole bit of leaving behind a place you have really fallen in love with a little more, 'bearable'. It sort of made it feel okay. It seems difficult to explain but if you love travelling and are passionate about music you probably understand what I'm saying.
The reason I do not have an opinion on how she sounds is that I don't listen to the song at all. I go into a world of my own.
So every time I hear 'Video games' specific memories flash by and rattle my bones. The most vivid is that feeling of being reborn on the rainy day.

Thank you Lana, for if you would have come on any other day, I would just have called you a pretty face.

Video games on YouTube

Of wedding and and all that follows (or precedes)

My grandmother has a sister. In fact she has many sisters and brother but most of them are dead, and this story revolves around only my grandma and her sister. At some point of time in their lives they fell out with each other. Not out of a window or anything but in the manner that they stopped talking to each other. I would like to say that no one knows why and make this a mystery but unfortunately my life isn't that exciting. Everyone know why but I won't mention it here because its irrelevant (and maybe also because I don't know...).

So for a long time they didn't speak to each other. My dad and his sibling were in touch with that lady's (who happens to be my grand aunt, now that I think of it.) daughters, but just barely. Yes, I realised I've used a lot of buts till now,but I think... I don't know, I can't justify using buts.

Any who slowly both families started becoming cordial again, almost friendly, but the two oldies were still aloof around each other. God, even aloof is an understatement.

Now what happens is that the lady's daughter who lives in Canada falls in love. The bad kind where they want to get married. So she and her to be hubby fly into India to get married. 

The wedding invite (and a delicious basket of brownies, baked by the to be married's sister) are hand delivered home, so we are expected to go.

They had a Sangeet the day before the big day (d day) which I expertly avoided because of my cunningness but I have to go to the wedding. Anyway just a few minutes ago I realised the wedding is today and we have to leave in 30 minutes. So I run to my aunts house because I don't keep too many 'shaadi' clothes and ask her for something to wear. And that's when I notice my grandma lying down on her swing, with her eyes shut. No she wasn't dead, you sadist. She was just getting her face pressed by an oriental woman.

So I stood hovering over her head like satan hoping she would open her eyes and get the shock of her life. But unfortunately she didn't.

My aunt was passing by and mouthed "competition" and grinned. Ahhhh I thought to myself. See, the thing is my grand mom is very beautiful. As a Hindi saying goes (in English) you won't believe we are radishes from the same field. So anyway the thing is she doesn't need a lady applying Chapstick to her lips before lipstick and she doesn't need her face  pressed, so why was she getting it done? To show her younger sister she is still more beautiful. Which I think is quite justifiable because they are both beautiful, or were. Don't tell them I said that. Or tell any of my relatives I said anything.

So the point here is that if you ever have a fall out with your sister, get fancy oriental lady to press your face and then go for her daughters wedding (your sisters daughters, not fancy oriental lady's), to win a beauty contest.

And to believe I wasted 30 mins writing this stupid shit, wrapped in a towel instead of getting ready BUT trust me it was worth it.

Spineless

                                         
India was recently swayed (and is still swaying) by the news of the rape of a girl on a bus, that took place in Delhi, the capital of our country. The details can easily be found on any news web channel.

The atrocity that took place was something that happens very often in our country, so much so that it has almost become common, and people have the audacity to joke about it.

In the two days after the rape, I have on separate occasions heard 3 people (both male and female) say that everyone is making a "big deal of nothing". Apart from the fact that these people ought to be flogged, it seems impossible to believe that anything as severe as rape; which according to me is the worst crime that can be committed, can be taken so lightly.

Yes, I'm finally glad that some one has created such a uproar about it. If no voices are raised, shameless men like the bus driver and bhajji wallas involved in the delhi rape are just going to continue doing it and fuelling their egos.

What I really want to know is what the government (which apparently means the governing body of a country) of our country is planning to do to make the country safer. My worst fear is it isn't going to do anything.

In 2006 M. F. Hussain painted 'Bharatmata' as a nude woman stretched across the map of India. Political groups, hindu groups and random, worthless people created bedlam. "Oh my god, what blasphemy, I say! Our mother India posing nude! Lets kill the man." These same spineless people need to be spat upon. A nude painting  of our country as depicted by one of the most talented people who graced our land can cause a riot, but what about the rape of our country that happens multiple times everyday? It's quite understandable that these people don't understand art, but they don't understand rape?

Every time a rape takes place our country flows heavier with streams of blood. The same disgusting people who will protest against a painting will look the other way when it come to rape. What sort of county are we living in?

The rape rate of India has gone up by 792% in the last 40 years.

We laugh when people say the world will end soon, but we are already living in hell.