Achooo

Today's fortune:
Stop searching forever, happiness is just next to you.

What crap? Lying next to me is a dirty hanky. Was down with fever for the last two days. Fever gone, this annoying cold is not budging. Have been sneezing continuosly for the past 24 hours. Am not a pretty sight. Are there any reported deaths due to common cold? Dont answer that. I'd rather not know.

Achooo!

Happiness? Cure for common cold. Right now I am searching for that.

UPDATE

There is good news, the sneezing has stopped.
Of course, one does'nt die of cold... I was just being silly. Heheh. Having a bad cold does strange things to your head. heheh. And to your hearing. I was listening to this song from Hum and I thought I heard 'Hum sub hain kale'. We are all black?? What does that mean?? Then the next line 'Tu sabki chavi'...Oh ok..that was taale not kaale. 'We are all locks. You are our key'.
Hmmm that doesnt make much sense either.

Oh if you have a cold heres what will help

• Hot coffee
• Hot soup
• Steam inhalation with vics or eucalyptus oil (Thanks John.)
• Vics as it is, doesnt. You will only end up smelling like it, if you can smell that is.
  

Austen, Chadda and Mr.Darcy

Finished reading Pride and Prejudice few days back, took longer than usual to read it. I am not really into classics, read them mostly in school but I think I am now in a better position to appreciate them. Loved reading this one, the plot is not very complicated, the charachters are identifiable and the situations they get into and get out of are very real. Elizabeth Benett, the leading lady of this book is now one of my favorite characters. Aishwarya Rai played her role in Bride and Prejudice and was ok( I am not a fan of Ms. Rai). The movie though, was not ok, I thought it was very silly and was not surprised to see it fail miserably. But reading the book, I really think it was clever of Gurinder Chadda to come up with the Indianised version of the movie. The Benetts are like any other Indian family with their mother fretting over getting her five daughters married. But then, there was nothing really Indian about the movie except for the weddings, songs and a glimpse of the Golden temple. It ended up being a plain (and boring) adaptation of the book. She also had lifeguards singing and dancing in the movie! What was she thinking? She could have done better.

Talking about favorite characters, my other all time favorite is Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones Diary. Bridget is everything Elizabeth is not. Elizabeth is senisible, intelligent and yet vulnerable. She trusts her judgement, speaks her mind and does what she wants to do. Bridget is wild, quriky and confused. She lacks judgement, if she spoke her mind she would lose her job and she does what she cant avoid doing(like falling down the firemans pole!) .I cant decide which one is funnier, the book or the movie, Rene Zellweger was perfect as Bridget but to understand the psyche of Bridget one needs to read the book.

Though poles apart, they both have something in common (apart from being British and their creators being British women), they both fall for Mr. Darcy!!!!!!

I think there is a Bridget Jones in me who wants to be Elizabeth Benett. Meanwhile I'll wait for Mr. Darcy.

Auto Deal

I got down from the bus, tired from the long journey. I was happy to be back in Bangalore and glad to see an auto driver approaching me.

Auto driver : Kaha jana hai madam?
('Where do you want to go madam?' in Hindi)
Me : *****nagar
(Thats where I live)
Auto driver : 80 rupees madam, subah meter nahi chalta hai.
('80 rupees, no meter in the morning', again in hindi)
Me : 35 rupees kodtini, bartira?
('I'll give 35 rupees, are u coming?' in Kannada)
Auto driver : nalvattu rupayi kodi.
('Give me forty', in Kannada of course)
Me : Ayitu.
('OK')

Heh, all those who come to the city are'nt necessarily outsiders!

Kangana

Addiyan ton ki paiyan jhanjara laung mare lishkare
Kagna tera ni sanu kare ishaare

Kagne de vitch lage naag sat rang ni
Kale kale aashiqan to dil ehe mange ni
Apne es kagne nu saam ke rakh mutiyaare
Kagna tera ni sanu kare ishaare

I just love the acoustic version of 'kangana' by Dr Zeus. Can listen to it over and over again. It also reminds me of chudi bazaar, charminar where you will find the most beautiful colourful bangles.

The last line translated means 'Your bangles are giving me a signal'. Time to shop for bangles ;)

Books make me happy :)

If you are a banglorean and a book lover you have got to visit Blossoms on Church Street. Its a book store that deals with both secondhand and firsthand books at amazingly low prices. I first heard about it through a non banglorean who was here on a visit. And he was surprised to know that I hadn’t heard about it. Well, I did find out today that they opened in Jan this year, considering that I was not living in Bangalore that time, its not really my fault is it?

Anyways, they seem to have books of all genre and I got everything I wanted to buy so I think they have a decent collection. The staff is also very helpful and they do seem to know where to find what book. Unlike people at Landmark, who with all their computers and smug attitude couldn’t find a book I was looking for.

I ended up buying

* Contact - Carl Sagan
* Doctors- Eric Segal
* Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
* Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
* The Monk who sold his Ferrari- Robin Sharma

And don't know what to expect from this

* Kiss the girls- James Patterson

Its a strange feeling reading second hand books. Old and tattered, knowing that it has been in somebody's hand, you already have something common with that somebody, like you share a bond with someone you haven’t met and will probably never meet. Strange, until you start reading the book and forget about everything else. But being in a place that stocks old and dusty books poses a problem if you are allergic to dust. I was just about to get my hanky out when I entered the place but everything was under control. No disasters of the respiratory kind!

Have already started reading Pride and Prejudice, though not an Austen fan I think I'll like this better than Sense and Sensibility.

Books make me happy. Shopping for it makes me happier. I am happy today. Also had a good dinner today. I think Mark twain missed out Good food when he said
' Good friends, Good books and a Sleepy conscience - this is the ideal life.

If you are wondering whether this is the only quote I know, then yes.

Potter Mania

After almost two weeks of avoiding reviews, gossips and rumours about the newly released 'Harry Potter and the half blood prince' I finally got hold of a copy and read it. It was definetly worth the wait, all the time Rowling took to come out with the book has paid off. It is darker than ever, things fall into place and Harry has grown so much, I have a new sense of admiration for his charachter. But there are still questions to be answered so cant wait for the next one.

I have always maintained that Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite, but I guess this one tops the list now. So my current order of preference is VI, III, IV, I, II, V.

I also have no idea when the next movie is coming out. Need to find out more about it.

On a slightly different note, one of my friends got it to trouble for forwarding the soft copy of this book using her office mail id on grounds of copyright infrigement. One might want to be careful.