This time.. I'm truly back! :D

Hello everyone...

It's been over TWO whole years since I last blogged. Now I’m not gonna use fancy words like “writer’s block” since I am but an amateur blogger whose blog is visited by people who have either been bribed, pestered, tortured or simply pushed here with a gun to their heads :P

I was just generally busy living my simple, boring aam aadmi life… As you can guess, just like in everybody's life, many things changed/happened in my life too in these past 2 years... Let's see.... 

1.     For starters, I got married (yayyy!!) to the love of my life... my pillar of support... my best friend... finally... after many years of courting and loving and oor suthing and planning and postponing and at last, giving in to social, familial & peer pressure :D 

2.     Visited two beautiful islands (one on a spinster trip & the other on honeymoon) and learnt that somehow people living in islands are not as stressed or grumpy or generally frustrated with life as we urban folk are! I'm guessing it could be coz they live in a holiday destination and hence they're always in a festive mood... Oh, and I tried para-sailing too… And it was an awesome experience… All those amazing things you hear people say about para-sailing? All true… every bit! J  

3.     Lost three very very dear ones :( [four, if you count the unborn one] and haven't gotten through a single day without thinking about atleast one, if not all of them :'(  

4.     Made so many new friends... some of them who have absolutely vanished out of my life as fast as they came... some others who simply refuse to walk out… and the awesome few who will be cherished for all eternity J

5.     Started watching two new series (GoT & Sherlock addict here) and obsessed over the show so much that darling husband decided that the only way to score extra brownie points was to celebrate our first month anniversary by gifting me all five books the series is based on :P

6.     Watched a whole lot of movies, though not nearly as much as I wanted to. Can’t begin to explain how great or terrible the movies were… I’d need a whole new blog for that!

7.     Went trekking for the very first time and came back with so many exciting and a few scary memories too.

8.     Went to my very first concert and sang & danced around like it was nobody’s business! (picture a less cute version of Oh from the movie Home, “my hands are in the air like I just do not care” :P)

9.     Joined a new job and worked at all hours of the day like a possessed woman for about 8 months straight and then took a week long leave to detox and relax, only to join back in the same team and continue trying to survive the same hectic work schedule J (Though I gotta admit.. it has gotten a li’l less hectic and exciting lately.. hence the blog post you see :D)

10. Lastly, I have gained like 20 pounds since I last posted here. I’m not gonna lie; I didn’t just expand overnight.. it was all fat slowly accumulated due to a sedentary lifestyle combined with some serious stress eating issues over a span of more than two years. Although considering how lazy I am, losing this extra weight is definitely gonna take more than just a couple of years!

Anyway, that’s all the stuff I have to update about my life… Please tell me what all happened in your lives in the time that I was gone… Meanwhile I’m going to start publishing new posts faster than you can blink! ;)

From now on, your inboxes are gonna get bombarded with updates about my new post everyday, if you've made the blunder of subscribing to my blog :P

That’s all for now, folks! Good day to y’all!

SE (formerly SS)

It could be your love story!

Ok, first off I gotta say when I saw the trailer for NEP, I was expecting a VTV-Part 2 (as if VTV-1 was not miserable enough!) and I still went to the movie because I wanted to experience this pleasure of whining about Gautam Menon's lack of ideas and repetitive way of storytelling. But I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised :)
Not only was the story good enough, but the characters were so consistently portrayed that one could relate with them easily. And I am not just talking about the lead roles.. even the character of Santhanam and that of Jeeva's or Samantha's parents and siblings are people we see in our everyday lives.. people who live next door! Needless to say the romance sequences were truly magical, thanks to Gautam's aka Love guru's romantic expertise!! :D If you have ever experienced love in your life, you would definitely be able to relate to atleast one scene in this movie!
The transition of Varun and Nithya from school to college and later, has been portrayed so beautifully. Gautam has to be appreciated for the way he makes us relive those moments in school and college.. when you talk to a guy/girl you have a crush on.. the silly jokes you could find funny only when you are in school.. the stupid relationship advice you would get from your friends, the so-called relationship experts! :P
All the actors had done justice to their roles.. I have always admired Jeeva's acting skills and he was great as always and in some scenes he manages to look irresistibly handsome and cute too. He and Samantha have a good chemistry on screen and are convincing as Varun and Nithya, a volatile couple so madly in love. Santhanam has been portrayed a little differently in this movie.. as in.. he's not doing the usual insulting-random-people (hint: his hilarious stint in Boss engira Baskaran) kinda comedy as he did in many of his movies...  In this movie, he's a little laid back yet level headed friend of Jeeva's, and has a lovestory of his own! And those VTV-spoof scenes with Jenny(I don't know her real name) and Santhanam were hilarious! Although Santhanam has a charm of his own, that Jenny girl really steals the show with her adorable expressions and attitude. She has gotten herself a new fan now! :)
Oh yeah, before I forget, Samantha has done a great job too.. She looks as pretty as ever and extra classy, considering its a Gautam Menon movie ;) She has done some good acting in all the romantic scenes and a few dramatic scenes too, albeit a little overdone in some places. Overall her performance was applaudable and I love her even more now for the simple fact that she speaks Perfect Tamil like a proper Chennai ponnu :D (Thanks to all the directors who go to the North to find some random bimbos who can't say a word in Tamil and can't dub or even lipsync for S**T!)
Having said all that, I have to say there were 2 major negative points in the movie.. One, it is a tad too slow for the i-have-no-time-for-anything urban audience.. And two.. the music... Don't get me wrong now. I love IR's music and have been visiting Youtube atleast ten times a day listening to most of the songs in this movie..  Saaindhu saaindhu and Mudhal murai would haunt you for weeks!! But there are just too many songs in the movie.. Like almost one every ten mins.. But hey, it was marketed as "an Ilayaraja musical".. so you were warned! :P And the BGM in most places is a little too jarring for my sensitive ears! The music was more dominant than the dialogues in many parts of the movie.. and I found that a bit annoying!
Other than these two factors, I found everything else about the movie was rather above average. I went into the theater with a frown and fury.. I came out smiling from ear to ear and hanging my head in shame! The tagline of this movie is sooo true.. This really could be one of our love stories! So pleeeeeaaaase go watch this movie in a theater, with an open mind and your gf/bf, when you are in absolutely no rush to get somewhere! You would love it like I did! :)
Lastly, Gautam Vasudev Menon, you are back in business! I bow down to your amazing storytelling methods! Keep up the awesomeness \m/

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello world! It is that time of the year again.. when i am supremely jobless and killing time is my priority number one!! So here i am... after a looooooooonnngggg hiatus.. all excited to start blogging again :D I know that the only people who follow my blog are the ones who love me too much to stop this ridiculous thing I call writing... or have been subjected to various physical and mental tortures & threats by yours truly! :P But it doesn't matter how you landed here... I love you just for reading this aimless post of mine! :D

So what all happened in the time that I disappeared from here... Lets see... Apart from the many earthquakes and tsunamis suggesting that the Mayans might in fact be right... :O and the many riots and protests in every possible location from Libya to Congo to Greece... and almost simultaneously Iraq war coming to an end giving everyone some kinda hope at last... and someone almost finding a perfectly workable cure to cancer... and Sunita Williams heading to space yet again... well, I ate, slept and continued existing like everyone else on this planet! :) But with a small difference... during this time I somehow transformed myself into this irrecoverably lazy couch potato who hogs as much as one can, but doesn't try to shed a pound! :(

Which is why, I have decided that from this day forward, I am going to work out as much as I can... by that I mean atleast 5 days in a week! :-| and bring my body back to its awesome sexy shape! ;)

That's all from my end for now... Will keep you guys posted about my cardio training experience as and when it happens :P Although I know that when it comes to working out, I have little dedication and even lesser patience, this time I AM going to try and walk and jog and skip and sprint and run and what not!! :D

I'll be back here again soon... off to the gym now! B-)

NUMB!!!

Lately all i have been feeling is pain, pain and more pain... I am going through the worst phase of my life!
I'm surrounded by problems... some of them with no solution at all! And no matter how positive, hopeful or happy i try to remain, different kinds of misery seem to crawl their way into my head from all directions at the same instant!!
The only good thing about this agonizing phase is that i've learned some important lessons in life...

Everybody will hurt you at one point or the other... and the closer they're to you, more painful it is to take... and no matter how much you love them or how much they love you, the pain is just NOT worth it!

In the past few days i have been lashed by many unkind words from the few people whom i have thought of as the most important ones in my life! So the TWO important lessons i learned from this is...

Don't get too affectionate or attached to anyone... be it your family, friends or spouse... they'll all let you down someday and you'll realize all you ever had for yourself was YOU!!

and....

NEVER ever think anybody else is more important than yourself!! NOBODY deserves that kinda attention or love!!

I know this might sound like bullshit right now... but believe me! when you actually go through what i've been through in the past few days, you'll agree with me all the way! I'm actually surprised with my ability to stay sane and not become cynical or skeptical about abstract emotions like love, kindness, etc... i still believe they exist! But i guess i'm just not fortunate enough to have these abstract emotions available unconditionally in my life! :-/

I can't believe that i've been so badly hurt that i'm actually looking forward to coming to work at this seriously boring and depressing workplace that i have detested all through my time here!! Bcoz... this is the one place where i get to forget about all other problems surrounding me since i already have countless issues waiting to be solved right here at my desk! :|

Anyway i hope this pain will end soon... or atleast i wish i become numb real soon!! For all you happy and cheerful people, sorry about this post.. I just had to vent out my emotions somewhere! And where better than my own blog page? :)

I hope i have not depressed any of you with this miserable post of mine! I promise i'll try to come up with something joyful, merry, positive and worth reading in my next post.. please forgive my need to whine just this once! :)

Somebody give me a kick ;)

As soon as I revealed my plan of watching the movie Inception to my friends, each one gave me a different opinion.. some said it's like the movie Matrix, very difficult to understand.. some said it's a damn good movie never to be missed... while some others said it's utter rubbish simply bcoz they didnt get it! :P

Anyway i went to watch the movie with an open mind... and OMG i loved it!! i enjoyed every bit of the movie!! Every shot of the movie shimmers with intelligence and teases your mind.. The sheer courage of the director for making a movie with such a complex plot should be appreciated. The different levels of dreams may sound very complicated when you hear someone describe it to you.. but believe me! once you watch the movie, you'll know that it just cannot be portrayed any clearer than this... Kudos to Christopher Nolan!! :)

I'm still amazed by the plot of the movie... I mean.. even i have wondered many times what my dreams mean... and why do i get such dreams... scary or nonsensical... never got an answer! But to think a man could explore the dream world so much to actually come up with an intricate plot like this... ha!! Take a bow!! :)
And there are so many sequences in the movie that makes us relate to the story..

For example, the scene where Leo explains to Ariadne the way the dreams work... he says that you can never trace your way back to the beginning of a dream... dreams always start in the middle of something or somewhere... THAT is soooo true..  And then the scene where Leo is chased by some men and he's running away so fast... suddenly he gets stuck in between two walls... how many times have we had such dreams where we so badly wanna run but we just cant!? or.. we'll be trapped or held down by someone and no matter how hard we kick, our feet just wouldn't move?! Well, i've had millions of such dreams :D

Moving on... the performance of all the actors n actresses are very neat.. as in, everybody has done their respective parts perfectly well! But i especially found Mal's performance to be really convincing... i mean.. at one point of the movie, i really hated that woman with all my heart!! :P
Although i found that Di Caprio's character in this movie is strikingly similar to the one in Shutter Island (which is another amazing movie btw), and the end was also kinda similar leaving us wondering which was real and which was not... i have to say i enjoyed both the movies equally!

Adding more beauty to the brilliant story was the musical score... it was awesome to say the least! 
Anyway the bottom line is... watch this movie ASAP!! You would relish the experience forever!! :)

Must Watch!!

Okie.. If i write about all the movies i watched in the past 5 months or so, in ONE post, it would be way too long!! Not that this one's gonna be short post or anything.. still...

So i have decided to break it down according to the rating i gave to these movies.. B-)
Ahem.. lets start with the ones that are just way too good to be missed!! Now, not all of them are new movies.. there are a few old ones too.. Nevertheless really good ones! :D

American History X

This one is a little old, yet a classic. The story is about a guy who joins a neo-Nazi group and eventually ruins his life, realizes it was a blunder and then tries to prevent his little brother from following his footsteps. Edward Norton is as usual a genius! The BGM is damn good.. this movie will keep you hooked for 2 hours.. and the ending will simply blow you away!! :)

A Bug's Life

Now, this one is a little old too, i know. But its been on my list for too long and i finally found time to sit and watch it! And i LOVED it!! :D The story is somewhat similar to the movie Antz.. then again, since both the movies came out around the same time, i think its just a coincidence that they have a similar storyline..
Although the main characters are just "bugs", you'll still be able to relate to their feelings and emotions, thanks to the subtle sense of humour in the dialogues. I regret not seeing this movie much earlier! I'd give it an A+..

Shrek forever

Alright! I'm sure everybody knows about this one.. the final chapter of the Shrek movie series.. Portrays exactly how a man's mind works once he gets hitched ;) But in the end, he realizes what is steady and of utmost importance in his life.. Love! Awwww, right? Yeah.. absolutely! A perfectly cute happy ending to the Shrek series!

Prince of Persia

When i went to watch this movie, i have to admit i was a li'l prejudiced.. thinking it would be very similar to Clash of the Titans since i had just seen that movie the previous week! But i'm glad to say i was proved wrong.. so wrong! It was not only different from CoT.. it was much better!! The stunts were out of this world! And i wasn't even watching it in 3-D!! The BGM was so apt in every scene.. and it was just a mind blowing experience altogether!

Kick Ass

This is a story of yet another loser turned hero.. but the difference is he gets his ass kicked in the process and still remains a hero to our eyes! :D This is one of those movies that come unannounced and stun you for the next 2 hours! All the characters have been established well, but it is the Hit Girl (Chloe Mortez) who will leave a lasting impression on you.. Her pretty face and her extraordinary stunts will keep you amazed throughout the movie!!

Robin hood

This movie can be described in a single word.. Classy! The dialogues will keep ringing in your ears hours after the movie.. Though i'm not an ardent fan of Russell Crowe, i still couldn't refrain myself from going wow :O in so many scenes.. hehehe.. bcoz there's a touch of Ridley Scott in almost every scene.. And the BGM is remarkably good from the beginning till the end!

How to Train Your Dragon

This is one of the most brilliant animated movies ever!! It has such a lovely story, impressive characters, gorgeous animation and a fantastic narration! Hiccup is so funny with his sarcastic remarks about almost everything and everyone.. and Toothless is just so adorable!! :* Initially he looks scary and wild.. but gradually we fall for his cute and endearing expressions... This movie will definitely leave a smile on your face! :)

The Karate Kid

One of the best movies of Jackie Chan.. This one proves that even though you're not a hulk of a man, you can still fight anyone if you can control your mind! Needless to say, the stunts are really too good.. Jaden Smith is a pleasure to watch.. looks strikingly similar to his dad in every way! The eyes, the smile, the attitude, the tone of speech and above all, the charm! :)

Toy Story 3

There couldn't be a better ending to the Toy Story series! It has everything that its prequels had and it was released in 3-D as an added attraction! :) All characters are as funny and lovable as they always were.. especially Buzz Light Year!! He'll make you fall in love with him! :D A perfect touching end to the wonderful series!

The A-Team

This one is a great movie to watch when all you wanna do is sit in a place and yet have a blast! Its got all the elements of a good action movie.. impossible missions, explosions, betrayal, little love, good looking men without shirts, hehe.. well, not exactly in that order.. but its got them all! But it is not an out & out serious movie.. thats what makes it so much fun to watch! :)

Inception

I initially added this movie to this post bcoz i thought it was a must watch.. but i realised i've got A LOT to say about this one.. so i thought it best to dedicate a separate post for this movie.. which will be posted very soon :D

Hope you all have fun watching all these movies like i did.. And i'm sorry about the length of this post.. well, you were warned! ;)

Been nowhere.. Done a LOT!! :P

Ha! It feels so gud to be here after so many weeks.. i think its been close to 4 months since i logged into this page! Now, i wouldn't say that i've been too busy at work all these days to come online, but i've been busy doing a lot of other things.. like watching movies, reading books, going shopping and watching more movies :P

So it goes without saying that i have a LOT to say now.. especially about all those movies and books!!

Without further ado, lemme start typing everything i want to, before my mind erases all traces of these thoughts!!

P.S: My next few posts are gonna be pouring in one behind the other... beware!! :)

No comments :|

Well, where do I begin? I'm absolutely speechless!! I never thought I'd say this... but I never really even imagined that Gautam would actually come up with such a script...AGAIN!!! When I saw the trailer of the movie, I heard a voice in my head that went "Not again!!"

Nevertheless, I went to watch the movie thinking something HAS TO be different in this one... How wrong was I!

Throughout the first half of the movie, one can see many romantic scenes strikingly similar to the ones in Minnale and Varanam Aayiram... And the main criteria for the protagonist to fall for the girl still seems to be style, class and beauty... whatever happened to good old girls with character and a mind of their own! Hmph!!

And the girl is a Christian and engaged to someone or getting engaged to someone or gonna get engaged to someone... whatever! Oh wait a minute... there's a difference here... the girl is a mallu Christian! :|

About the story... If you have seen Minnale and Varanam Aayiram and all other Gautam's movies just like I did, by now you would've guessed it.. and yes your guess is right! It is yet another story about a boy who falls in love with a classy woman the minute he sees her, but the girl doesn't feel the same way at the same instant (thankfully), so he chases her everywhere and travels all the way to Kerala in pursuit of his true love! After which, she finally falls for him and what happens next? Do they really unite? Do they get married or not?? This is the one line story of VTV! Talk about creativity! :-/

And as though all this wasn't enough, we have the Great Simbu playing his role beautifully in tormenting the audience with his awkward use of English to convey his love to Trisha... I just couldn't see Simbu as the seriously committed guy for once... It sounds so artificial hearing him say things like "I'm in love with you... I'm crazy about you!" Honestly, call me biased or whatever... but Simbu does NOT and cannot show the same "truth" in his eyes like Surya or Madhavan! When he declares his undying love for his girl, I couldn't help but think "There he goes again! I hope Jessie doesn't fall for him!"... Simbu looks more desperate than in love!!

But that is not the only reason I didn't like the movie... Only through the first half, I was wondering why Gautam had to cast Simbu in this role... But frankly, Simbu kinda grows on you... I mean during the second half of the movie, you would come to terms with Simbu being in the lead role, but that's when the story starts falling apart! At one point, I actually started counting the minutes to the end of the movie!! I just couldn't wait to take off the shackles and run out of the theater! :(

But while all this was testing my patience, the only consolation was Trisha... although Trisha's character Jessie is a really annoying girl who isn't level headed enough to make a big decision in life and stick to it.. It gets seriously annoying when she says she likes him.. she always did.. and then she wants him... no she doesn't want him... then she wants to elope with him... but no wait she doesn't! Uff... make up ur bloody mind, woman!! :-/

However, she has done her part in the movie perfectly well (making you hate her)! And I gotta admit this... she does look very cute and stylish AND sexy in many scenes!! :D

One other consolation is The God, AR Rahman! :) His music is very soothing especially when you're being tortured by all other elements of the movie!! If at all, anybody happens to like the movie by some miracle, one of the main reasons would be ARR's BGM... In many scenes during the first half of the movie (when i was still expecting something good to happen), the BGM has played a huge role in making those few special moments what they are...

In spite of the great music by AR Rahman, most of the songs fail to register in your mind except Oh Sana... because of the sheer lack of creative picturisation of the songs! Every song has Trisha doing her catwalk, turning to smile at Simbu... and Simbu in the background dancing with a bunch of hip hop dancers... which again, (I'm tired of saying this) we have already seen in Varanam Aayiram..

I am a HUGE fan of Gautam Menon... and I was proud to say so... I really loved and worshipped him more with each new movie he made... But its time he stopped making movies with the same storyline! I really really expected much more out of Gautam Menon than these repeated movies about his lost love!! Seriously, Gautam... Its high time you started writing or listening to different kinds of love stories than just your own "first love"!! Move ON!!!

Lastly, there's a dialogue in the movie repeatedly said by Simbu which goes like this... "Ethanayo ponnunga irundhum naan yein Jessie ah love pannen!?!"... Roughly translated, "Of all the girls in the world, why did I have to fall in love with Jessie?!"

I keep asking myself a somewhat similar question now... Of all the movies available, why did I have to go watch this one??? :(

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have never in my life felt so sleepy... its as though everything around me is floating... and every move i make is like i'm in a dream... i'm grinning from end to end with my eyes shrunk to almost just a slit, as and when anyone walks through my door...
Ever since i stepped into my office i've had everyone ask me if i'm alright! Maybe i look a li'l goofy at the moment... but i swear i'm in my senses!! I lie i'm not swearing!! :P
I have gotten high in my life once.. and i know what it feels like.. but this is worse..
I'm very much aware of everything happening around me.. but i'm so sleepy i feel way too lazy to move even the tiniest muscle in my body! I just dont understand why though :(
Damn! I just happened to look at myself in the mirror a while ago.. and man wat a disaster!!
No wonder people have been testing my alertness (or the lack of it) in so many ways..
Look at me.. bloodshot eyes... pale face... and a white dress to make it even paler... and a half grin that people who dont know me might even mistake for a stylish attitude smile (the how u doin' types) :P
My god!! I so badly wish i were home... lying between the sheets... on a cozy pillow... dozing away happily... hmmmmm.... this is how i would define pure BLISS!!! :)

Job hunt :D

I wish i were a cricketer... or a painter... a writer.. or a dancer... or better than all this... a movie critic or a book critic.. these are without a doubt the best jobs on earth man! These guys actually get paid to do what they love! Seriously, they're the luckiest people alive!! I mean.. look at these people.. They get paid real hefty packages for doing what they enjoy doing the most.. Unlike any of us, who have a job to go to everyday.. and on time! And damn it's so exhausting to do something you don't enjoy for 5 whole days in a week!! Especially when you have a boss who doesn't have a life outside the office!! :-/ Believe me!! It's terribly depressing!

I just wish i were one of the lucky ones who could do something better than anybody else and enjoy it AND get paid real good for doing that! Ha! If only such wishes could come true...
I mean... imagine.. getting paid to get up as late as you want.. watch a movie and tell people if it was awesome or awful.. or read a book and suggest the ever increasing bibliophilic public to read it or trash it! Coming to think of it... There are many such cool jobs which may or may not exist right now, but which i wud love to do anyday! :D
Like... a shopping critic.. food critic.. perfume critic.. or oooohh.. a blog critic! ;)
Or... i could also be a costume advisor.. or a love message delivery person.. i would sneak into your gf/bf's house without their parents' knowledge and deliver ur msg personally.. can deliver to ex-bfs/gfs too.. hehehehe.. Or.. a friend tracker.. if you tell me you want to meet some dear old friend you've not been in touch with for years, i would track them down and put them on your radar again! :)

Anyway i could make up a million jobs like these... And although i'm not sure if my interest in these "jobs" would last forever, if any of you do come across any such interesting openings.. well, you know how to find me! :D

Speak in ENGLISH!!

I find it highly annoying when people pronounce words wrong... or use the wrong word at the wrong place in a sentence.. in English! I mean... my mother tongue is Tamil... i dont feel that same obsession to correct people even when they shred the language into the tiniest of pieces in the process of attempting to form a single meaningful sentence! But i just cant stop myself when the same thing happens in English.. Its not like i dont like Tamil... i LOVE Tamil as much as i like English! But I dont know why i dont get that offended when people talk in broken Tamil.. Maybe its because i'm so happy about the fact that people are interested in learning my regional language that i'm not that bothered about the small mistakes they make in the process. ;)

Basically, English is a beautiful language, if spoken right that is. But it can easily become a dangerous torture weapon when one is made to digest hearing someone confidently say "i cant able to" or "i told to him" or "he catched" or this is the best... "i goed" (apparently the new past tense of go)... Seriously, when i hear all this i feel as though a lizard is crawling its way up my skin... Yhew!! (For people who know me, you know how much i enjoy the company of lizards!)

Now i'm not saying that all people SHOULD talk perfect English... but atleast you can try and NOT screw up the language in every possible way! I totally understand that not many people are fond of the language or the teacher who taught them English... But atleast when someone tells you that you're not saying it right, one could learn from one's mistakes right? Is that too much to ask?? I don't think so. All that said, i myself am in a place where i get to hear the worst of English anybody can ever hear!! Oh, the arabs.. the filipinos.. the beauty they add to English! Priceless!! :-/ I'm simply amazed by how i have endured this torture for 3 whole years now.. I guess that's what age does to people :P

Nevertheless i'm still not able to suppress the involuntary urge to correct people when they speak incorrect English... Only now i have limited my service to just my friends and nobody else! Some day i know i'll be in a place where everybody speaks perfect English and that day i'll give a quite smile of satisfaction. Till then, all I have is a huge list of people who find this correcting habit of mine extremely irritating and i'll just continue tormenting them for now! :D

My first cruise experience!

We (my boyfriend, E and I) had just 7 days in our hands! And a million things we wanted to do!! Visit the local museum, shop in the ever increasing number of malls, take a romantic stroll down the beach or a park, dine out in a luxurious restaurant, go on a thrilling desert safari, etc., etc. The list basically didn’t have an end at all!

Anyway we attacked one item on the list at a time. First thing, we booked a table in this “luxury” cruise boat through a travel agent who said that the next day evening, a car would pick us up, drive us to our boarding point and drop us back home after the dinner. By this time, I was so delighted with her courteousness (little did I know then that the package covered the drive too) that I started to book a desert safari trip too through her. But unfortunately for us, it was the holy month of Ramadan… during which the much awaited part of the desert safari (read belly dance) was not allowed. So we decided it was a waste of time and proceeded to the next items on our list. ;)

We went to all the shopping malls that we could humanely go to in the 5 days! We spent half a day at the dubai museum, which was the only slightly boring part of the whole 7-day plan! :P Coming back, finally, the day for our romantic “luxury” dinner date arrived! And as the dinner was only in the evening, we went shopping in the afternoon with my friend, Y. Before evening all three of us were tired, sleepy and most of all, hungry as hell, not only because we wandered like crazy dogs, but also mainly because of the Ramadan factor!

The Ramadan factor is this state of mind when you’re extremely hungry, thirsty, sleepy and tired, but you cannot drink a drop of water or have a tiny bite of anything ONLY because it is the wrong time of the year to have these basic desires! In the month of Ramadan, regardless of one’s nationality, religion or sex, one is not supposed to eat or drink in public. It is against the law!! :O

Now, I’m not getting religious or anything. But coming from a country where we celebrate Eid, Christmas or Diwali all the same, this was quite a shock to me. I mean... I was NEVER asked by any of my muslim friends Not to eat or drink in front of them just because they were fasting! It is one thing that out of basic courtesy and good manners, many of us try not to eat or drink anything in front of our muslim friends. But it is a totally different issue that we were being forced to fast with our beloved Middle Eastern muslim friends here :-/

Anyway, coming back to my story, we were seriously hungry, but had no place to sit and eat. So we waited till it was time for them to break their fast and then rushed to the food court to take hold of as many sandwiches and fried chickens as possible!(no, they were not serving free food, its just that the food court gets crowded real fast during Ramadan!!) Then we rushed back home to finish our late lunch and get ready for our super special dinner date! :)

Sometime later, I got a call from that sweet spoken agent saying that the car will arrive outside my door by 7pm. So this left me with ample time to get ready, change clothes and make myself presentable! :) Suddenly E and I decided to take Y along too. So we booked dinner for three, got ready real slow (actually this part was totally by me!! :D) and still managed to be ready to leave by 7pm. Sadly, the car hadn’t arrived. We waited for a full fifteen minutes before I called them again. And then they said that the car was on its way and it should be outside my door any minute.

After waiting for a painful 30 odd minutes, the car arrived by 7.45pm. Needless to say, we were super late and after a thrilling ride for around 20 minutes, we reached the boarding point. By then the cruise boat had already left without us! :( Then the incharge of the boats got us into a speed boat and informed us that since the cruise boat had left just a few minutes ago, we could still board the boat somewhere midway. So with hope in or hearts and dreams in our eyes (or is it the other way around??) we jumped into the speed boat. :P

After a shaky and bumpy, almost-fast, i repeat, almost fast 5 minute ride on the speed boat, we spotted the cruise boat and the speed boat captain(??) stopped right next to the cruise boat so that we could board the latter (I’m tired of typing b-o-a-t).

Now, let me explain the dimensions involved here. The cruise boat was like some 5-6 meters high and the speed boat was just a little less than 1 meter tall. So the cruise captain dropped a wooden staircase for us to climb from the speed boat. This wooden staircase, strong as it was, landed with its first tread (step) exactly just above my nose!

How the hell am I supposed to climb on to the flight of stairs which starts almost nearly from my nose?? :((( Anyway, I didn’t have to worry about it much as E was the one who bravely climbed the stairs without falling or even flinching a bit for that matter! Hmmm… that’s something I hadn’t thought of until i typed it out here. ;) Then it was Y’s turn to climb and as she is just a little plump n chubbier than E, the speed boat captain and his helper struggled a little but eventually got her on to the stairs! 

And they had succeeded too. Now, it was MY turn! :((( As I slowly staggered my way near the edge of the speed boat, it started oscillating!! Mummmmmmyyyyy!!! Trust me… I had never been that scared all my life!! For a minute there, I was so sure I was gonna die!! Either drowned or frightened to death! :(

The boat man told me it was because both of our weights were on one (the same) side of the boat, and he moved a little towards the center just to nullify my weight or whatever! I was way too scared to remember!! But then after a minute, it was E who lent me a hand from the stairs… this other helper guy thrust into E’s arms and thank God! That was when I snapped out of my momentary comatose!! PHEW!!! :)

And after all this adventure, we sat at our table just in time to savour all the “delicious” dishes served. Frankly, the food wasn’t that great. Or I was probably still not out of the panicky mood. Either way, after dinner, I felt a LOT better. We clicked away as many pictures as we could, some romantic ones to note (:P) And after it was all over, the driver came on time to drop us back home! :) Albeit the adventurous, shivery feeling, I had awesome fun that day!! Clearly the most memorable dinner ever!! :)))