Jagjit in concert!

This post was long due. But was putting it off for a long time now. We went to watch Jagjit Singh live in concert – just a week after we saw Bryan Adams.

I have never liked Jagjit Singh. I have nothing against poetry, or ghazals, but I just never liked him. I was never into ghazals and never in my life until a few years ago, was I exposed to ghazals or Urdu poetry. Yes, I never even read Ghalib back then. Well, as luck could have it, the Mister – big fan of Urdu poetry and Jagjit Singh. There was a time when all he listened to was ghazals and he read a lot of Urdu poetry too. He was the one who introduced me to Ghalib. Well, now I can say that I really like reading Ghalib. I absolutely love and devour his ghazals. But Jagjit Singh – I cannot come to appreciate.

Newho, the Mister had been trying to get me to like Jagjit for a long time. Well, I listen to him when I am forced to – and after all these years, I can even say that I like a few of his ghazals. The Mister since the past couple of years was trying to get me to agree to watch a Jagjit concert. I told him that he could always go alone and enjoy it – ‘cos I knew I wouldn’t appreciate or enjoy the concert. But he wanted me to come with him and share the experience (!) So, this time he somehow convinced me and bought the tickets, and one Friday evening we were at the Jagjit Singh concert. Well, I was surprised to see the turnout – quite a few Jagjit admirers in Chicago I must say. All the women dressed in their finest clothes – seeing all the bling around, for a minute I thought we were in the wrong place and there was a wedding going on instead – no, am not exaggerating. The Mister and I felt quite dowdy next to most of the people. Newho, it was still the beginning of spring – and was quite cold that night. Well, we entered the place where he was going to sing – and of course we had good seats – quite close to the stage. But what shocked me were the chairs. In India, the metal foldable chairs, that are usually found during marriages and functions, hard – metallic and cold – those were the kind of chairs that were there. The concert lasted for more than 4 hours. Well, for a 68 year old guy, it was great that he sang alone for about 4 hours. And also, he sounds better live than on a audio cassette :)

4 hours was a little too much for me. I was squirming in my seat – partly because they were sooo uncomfortable. But the Mister had a time of his life and he really enjoyed it. As for me, he was just happy that I did not fall asleep in my seat like the lady sitting in front of us. It was very funny, the lady dressed to the nines – bedecked with jewelry fell asleep half an hour into the concert :)

Song of the day: Sarakti jaaye (one of the few ghazals of Jagjit singh that I like)
Mood of the day: Happy!

P.S: check out http://ghazalrasik.blogspot.com – the Mister’s attempt at collecting ghazals that he likes and trying to interpret them.

Rab ne bana di jodi!

Yesterday we went to watch the movie "Rab ne bana di jodi" - this is not a review of the movie, 'cos I think the movie does not even deserve a review.

The movie was bad- we did not like it one bit and I was really bored - cliched scenes and over the top dialogues. One dialog in the movie - "Mujhe tum mein rab dikhta hai" - this is the central dialog of the movie. All the characters keep telling this to each other "Mujhe tum mein rab dikhta hai".

Well, I was maha-bored, and we were basically making fun of the movie, laughing and generally having a good time. I turn to the Mister and ask him "Kya tumko mujh mein rab dikhta hai?"
Promptly he turned to me and said "Haan dikhta hai na - mujhe tum mein Durga dikhti hai!"
Priceless!!

-Moi

This and that!

A black Bond – what next??

Now that Barack Obama has been elected the first African American President of the United States, everybody is swept in the Obamania. Daniel Craig has said that if the world’s most powerful human being is black, it is now time to make history with movies – with a Black Bond. Wow - what next?? Not that I would mind – because I am sure black or white 007 will be eye candy for me J

I am glad that this Obama chapter has reached its end. I will get to watch and catch up on the prime time tv – that I have missed for the last 6 months! Because the Mister watched, heard, read, ate, drank only Obama for the last 6 months so much that even my MIL who's been here for 3 months knows what Obama's schedule for the day is. Understandably the Mister is very sad - he is experiencing withdrawal symptoms!! One more thing I am glad about is I don’t have to watch Keith Olbermann every night – ‘cos God knows I would have puked if he would take another potshot at John McCain – talk about unbiased news channels.

Another high for me this weekend – Hamilton won the Formula One this year – and is the world champion. Me says – he should have won last year but yay!!!

On the last note – Rest in Peace Michael Crichton. The great writer passed away yesterday. The dinosaur man gave us many great science fictions.

- Moi

What can you say..??

The Mister glowing over the ipod touch I gave him for his birthday – he is all smiles and checking out the gizmo with alacrity.


Moi: (Trying to get some attention from him) I am happy you liked the gift so much

The Mister (All misty eyed and sincere) : It’s my favorite toy after you!!

Well, what can you say to that ??

Happy Birthday to you Mister!!



Mood of the day: Happy – (its going to be 73 deg today)

Song of the day: Kabhi Kabhi aditi

- Moi

Happy Diwali!!

Its 32 degrees outside and freezing – its already winter – I AM IN DENIAL!!

Its just Tuesday morning and its 3 more days to the weekend – I AM IN DENIAL!!

I have already finished my day's quota of chocolate and its not even 9:00am yet - I AM IN DENIAL!!

Ekdum Happy Diwali to everybody!!

Mood of the day: Phased out
Song of the day: Tu hi tu satrangi re

- Moi

Perfect Sunday!!

- Eventually get up by 10:00am in the morning.

- Fight over the music genre and medium (TV/CD player/Laptop) and then listen to some music

- Do some cleaning

- Cook together

- Eat together a late brunch of sandwiches and kheer

- Sit with friends and watch the F1 race

- Play cards with friends over snacks and ice cream

- Go the lake shore and watch the Chicago skyline and the sunset

- Go and play some pool

- Go to dinner with friends and eat biryani and then finish dinner with “paan”

- Come back home

- Snuggle against the Mister and go to sleep

Next day:
Face a severe attack of Monday Morning Blues.

-Moi

Mood of the day: Happy (I got back my phone)

Song of the day: Phoolon ke rang se

Marriage Diaries!

I lost my cell phone two days ago :( . It was a new phone, just bought it in march or april…. Well I am still hopeful that I will find it somehow … some kindly soul might come and return it back to me… but nobody has come forward in these past days.

So I guess will go and get a new one today from the store…

My conversation with the Mister last nite

Moi: Shall we go tomorrow after work to the store to get the cell phone or shall we go on the weekend?

Him: We can go on the weekend!!

5 minutes passed, both of us reading our books….

Moi: When should we go to get the phone – tomorrow or on sat’day?

Him: Saturday sounds fine to me.

Another 5 mins go by discussing some other topic (the topic being whether Saif and Kareena make a good pair, and that Hrithik looks great in the promos of Jodha-Akbar)

Again I ask-

Moi: When should we go and get the phone – tomorrow after work or do you think Saturday is better?

Him: Ok Ok – we will go tomorrow after work!!

All the talking a wife has to do to get her way…. Its hard work you know :)!!

-Moi

Mood of the day: Great

Song of the day: I’ve had the time of my life – Dirty Dancing

Calvin Hobbes:

Similarly different.... or differently similar!!

He likes DVD players which play VCDs, MP3s AND DVDs. for me, a DVD player which plays a DVD is a miracle if i learn to operate it.

He thinks his cell phone is a wonderful device, and should have all the bells and whistles –mp3 player, camera…. He loves the iPhone. I don’t, for me the cell fone is just a talking device.

He takes HOURS to shop for something we neither need nor want. i can go through my shopping within 30 mins. and buy everything we both would need for a month!

He loves sports and gets excited to try any new sport. I have never played anything better than chess.

When something drops to the floor, he doesn't seem to see it. i pick it up & put it back where it came from.

He showers at least twice a day. Taking a shower even once is an ordeal for me.

He takes at least 45 mins in the morning to get ready for work (cos he needs to do everything leisurely and does not rush). I can get ready for work in 10 mins.

He is a hard core vegetarian. I am not.

He is not a planner. I am a meticulous planner, I even need to roughly plan out the meals for the week.

He thinks of the TV as a media for information - he watches Discovery, PBS, news, political debates. For me, its an idiot box - I watch FRIENDS, Sex and the City and Food Network channel

we still love each other…. deeply….!!

-Moi

Mood of the day: Good!

Song for the day: Dil mein mere hai dard-e-disco!

Aaah.... the life of a wife! (sigh!!)

Chyawanprash - often called the 'elixir of life' (courtesy Wikipedia) : Somehow since morning, I have flashing thoughts about the bottle of chyawanprash lying around my kitchen counter. No I don't eat this health tonic, but the Mister does, well at least he pretends he does.

I am not for Chywanprash or any health tonic for that matter (c'mon we are two healthy ppl in our twenties) but one fine day the Mister just picked it up from Patel Brother's shelf. Well, that's one thing the Mister does - whenever we are in an Indian store (or for that matter any store), he has the habit of checking out every aisle (even if we don't need anything, and the only reason we came to the store was to buy tylenol) and looking at articles that he might want to buy. He comes up with the most absurd of items at times.... well more about that in another post. Newho, this one time he picked up chyawanprash and bought it home.

Needless to say I wasn't with him when he made the purchase. So when I saw the bottle at home, I asked him why the purchase and he said that he was going to start eating it everyday and start some health regime and eat healthy in general.
I just gave a non-committal shrug and told him that all I care about is that the bottle should not go waste and that he should finish it!
Just to prove that he would, he opened up the bottle right there and ate a big spoonful of it and flexed his imaginary biceps and said that he felt strong and healthy already. I just rolled my eyes and put away the bottle.

A week later after we get back home from work in the evening ....

Moi: Its been a week since you bought chyawanprash and you just ate a spoonful of it. You promised me you would not let it go waste!

Him: Oh I forgot. Will eat it now....

He ate a spoonful and put the bottle away in one of the cabinets.

after a couple of similar incidents as the one above, the bottle was soon forgotten.

A couple of months later - when I was cleaning the cabinets I fished out the long forgotten bottle of Chywanprash and just threw it away, as it was old and did not know what the shelf life of chyawanprash was. When I told the Mister that I threw it away, he gave me the most "I can't believe you did that" look, and I told him that he would never have finished it anyway.

Next week, again a trip to Patel Brothers and again a purchase of Chyawanprash.
Me comes home, confronts him about it and he promises not to disappoint this time and that he really wants to eat the thing. So, this time I take it upon myself to remind him to eat it.

So this is the general course of conversation... In the evening

Moi: Honey, eat your chywanprash ... now !

Him : No, will not eat it now ... will eat it after we are back from the gym

After we come back from the gym

Moi: Chywanprash!!!

Him: Not now, am really hungry and want to eat the delicious stuff you are making, eating it now will spoil my appetite. (of course the 'delicious' is used to cushion the 'no'...)

So after dinner ....

Moi : Chywanprash .....

Him: I am soooo sleepy, I already brushed for the night.... please I cannot eat it now .... will eat it from tomorrow regularly... will not forget - you don't even need to remind me.

After numerous repetitions of the above scene.... I took it upon myself to take a spoonful of chyawanprash and give it to him - at least he cannot deny to eat it then, cos that would mean throwing the spoonful away nd washing the spoon....

So now the only time he eats it is when I remember and give it to him ... sigh!! ... I never thought I would be a wife who would hand out health tonic to her husband!! Is this his second childhood, or did he never pass out of his first one?!! sigh!! Aaah... the life of a wife!!