Diwali...

Yesterday, i asked my mom, why she wasn't buying herself something for Diwali. She said it felt weird going Saree shopping on her own. She had a point. So we went to Kumaran Silks and picked up a couple of Sarees for her. We went to the Khadi next door and i picked up something for myself. The last time i had acknowledged Diwali (or any festive occasion for that matter) and did anything active centred around it was the last one we had in Trichy, in 1997.

When we reached home, mom busied herself making 'Diwali marundhu'. 'Marundhu' in Tamil means medicine, and 'Diwali marundhu' is usually had to aid in the digestion of the 15 kilos of random sweets an average family consumes on Diwali day (atleast in Tamilnadu). She makes very good 'marundhu', and Dad used to be a big fan of it (apparently mom learnt the recipe for it from Dad's mom). I knew she hadn't made it in a while. So i asked her when was the last time she made it. She said she hadn't made it after our last Diwali in Trichy. I can't think of an explicit reason, but i know that if the 'dress buying' act had not happened, the 'marundhu making' act wouldn't have happened either. I was glad we went through the exercise.

I had stopped doing a lot of things because they stopped appealing to me. But, you knock off a loud 'Happy New year' wish, a thoughtful 'Happy Birthday' phone call, new dresses, family dinners and 100-waalas for a Diwali, Baby-Krishna feet and 'Vella seedai' for Krishna Jayanthi, and hordes of other such stuff, there is very little magic left and life gets too drab. If your parents hadn't done anything about such occasions, you'd lose half your happy childhood memories. I am in the process of convincing myself that it is a great idea to wear new clothes and take a bite of home made Coconut burfi to celebrate Lord Krishna's killing of Naragasura...It'll take some effort but i guess i'll get there.

Anyways, if you're the celebrating kinds, wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali...Else, well, try and jump back into the bandwagon sometime...Sometimes it is nice to unlearn and do silly things, like bursting crackers with a 10 year old...

Finding love in 15 days...

Quick beautiful relationships happen only in the movies. The Holiday was depressing, in a really nice way.

Two women who are in a sad place in their respective lives swap places for a couple of weeks, and end up finding lurrve. I started watching the movie because it had Jude Law and Kate Winslet. If i were gay, Jude Law is someone i'd lust after. And you cannot not like Kate Winslet if you'd seen 'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'.

I liked the idea. Swapping homes with a random stranger from a random geography in an attempt to deal with misery. Loved the openness with which Cameron Diaz and Jude Law go about their relationship. Bizzarely enough, they start out by having sex. Diaz floats the idea with these lines to a drunk Jude - "You know Graham, I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you're insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex... If you want"...A friend once told me a theory she read somewhere. If two people start sleeping with each other, after a point an emotional connect is inevitable, though there might've been none to start with. Much like how things usually work the other way round, minus the anxiety and the awkward moments. Animals are probably much smarter than we think. When a Barking deer fancies another Barking deer, i guess it probably doesn't start with a 'Hey i know a beautiful slope there that has really good grass, do you want to come along and graze there?'. Humans have complicated things beyond repair.

Loved the sensitivity with which they dealt with the Kate Winslet - Jack Black segment. But my favourite was the 'Kate - 90 yr old screen writer' equation. Very nicely done. But i wish they didn't make Jude's daughters 5 spoonfulls of sugar sweet.

The movie ends on a happy note with everybody dancing to a happy song on New years' eve. All that is nice, but I can't seem to take happiness at face value. Don't we all manage to find unhappiness in our own unique way?. Now, that sounds terrible. I need to get out and shop for positive vibes. Mountains shall be climbed and seas shall be swum in. Literally, i mean, those were'nt corny metaphors. When you are a few hundred metres inside the sea, floating on your back, being tossed around by the waves, with a view of the evening sky and the Thiruvanmiyur skyline (which is a bunch of old yellow flats), the world does seem perfect. Until a plastic cover that has lost it's way brushes against you, and you think it is a great white shark, lose your balance, and take in a mouthful of sea water...

Also, i learnt a new word from the movie. Gumption - Fortitude and determination; Sound practical judgement. I like the sound the word makes. Gumption...