How to get rejected.

My parents are giving me a killer time even as they only utter the 'S' word. ( Shaadi!)
I was pretty much casual about it all these days but now that they have gone 'official' - what with the bio-data crap and my relatives constantly poking me with that annoying word over and again..I'm having sleepless nights!

Not only am I totally against arranged marraiges but the unfortunate part is I haven't found anyone either. Had I been able to find someone - in all probabality I would have NOT approached my parents with my found proposal because I'm a coward and because in all probability they would have rejected :P
'Love' is a word we madus don't understand. Its equivalent to committing a crime in our community.

So my idle mind has been doing the devilish workshop and here's a list of killer twists I imagine to throw off at the guy to ensure I remain single for as long as I want to be.
And for what I've observed little statements have a huge impact.

- "I don't want kids." ( which is really true. :p but I'm guessing he wouldn't buy that!)
- Modification : "I cannot conceive. "( :p )
- "Movies every weekend. Dining out every weekend. 3 abroad trips an year" :P 
- "I want to work out of family business." ( Business family not liketh that!)
- "I want to date for at least 6 months even before engagement." A live-in demo won't be bad :p
- "I talk in my sleep. And my mood swings are pretty occassional. I'm VERY short tempered."
- "Traditional wear doesn't suit me."
- "I can cook. But I can't do it for the rest of my life."
-  "Mai apne baap ki bhi nahi sunti" ( true story. This dialogue acted as  a catalyst for a girl to get rejected by my cousin :P)
- One more that I thought of - to dress not so well. But I wouldn't do that because I like to be presentable no matter what :p

lol..I wonder if I have the guts and how many of them am I capable of practically using.
I'm definitely gonna put across the cooking and clothing part.

My parents would be quite miffed if I attempt any other approach :P They still treat me like a teen! I might as well get 'punished' for offending their choice. :|

------------------

This whole arrange marriage process is sooooooo irritating.
I mean seriously..who can be excited for it?! :\
I've been crying just by the thought of marraige to a complete stranger.

But my devilish mind also runs the idea of doing something crazy & saying yes out of that :p


God save me!

Walk the talk.

Something , and infact I'd say a lot has metamorphosed in me in the past few days.
 I feel responsible with a guilt riding over my head making me cringe.
But the difference is that I want to take and act on that responsiblity.

Now that this sapience has conceded , am desperate to makeup for the loss of the past years of what I would name as the prolonged teenage f**khead 'me' phase!

Its as if I'm only a couple of mins late on the platform when the train I had to board on - has already departed.
I will have to run. Sweat a little. And then I'll catch it. I'll do.

But its scary to think what if am unable to catchup ?
 It makes me groan out aloud. The thought makes me weep inside , for all we know - I'd take the blame over me.

Its time to take charge of everything. Its time to get onto this track. I have to and I want to make things allright. I want to take care of my family.
They are all that matters right now.

Yes , it was about me. Everything has always been about ME. Whether or not I was happy? Whether or not I was fulfilling my dreams ?  Whether I was not getting what I wanted ? Me. Me. Me!
But I forgot there was so much more to me , of me & about me.

My thoughts. I am working on my thoughts.
I'm putting efforts to heal my body mentally , spiritually and emotionally. It will take weeks , months... but I'm determined not to let anything make me slip from here.

Health has been on my list for quite a long time. The problem with me is that all my pursuance fails at a point. So I HAVE to be persistent. I can't afford any other option this time.
 I'm pursuing fitness. Giving myself Ayurvedic tonics and doing yoga and cardio.
I am expecting and aiming for a radical change in myself by November. This Diwali I'm gonna give  this wonderful gift 'fitness' which I have denied myself intermittently.

It feels good when you try to take things in your stride. When you are at least being honest to yourself. I've already wasted so much time and I'm not allowing that to undermine my enthusiasm.

Nike's mantra is for everyone - Just do it!

Hong Kong. Macau!

This is month old post lying in drafts. :| Totally unfair for it to be there. All I had to was edit , add and hit publish.

Pre-trip , I would have ideally exaggerated ( atleast NOW I will use this word ) about how this trip could be something I would trade anything in the world for.
And then when it happened..when it really did..despite all of my nightmares - it doesn't feel complete.  Like you know that feeling of euphoria or post-travel post-good-times zeal. That's missing.Its just not there.
Ok there were some fights involved. Arguments. But eventually we had fun. We enjoyed. And I was with the best people of my life. And yet..it was incomplete..?

I guess this is a different kind of travel hangover. :|  If I would be saying this to my friends  , they'd probably say " Han han Different toh rahega hi..tu apne desh se jo wapas aayi hai " :D

Confused ? Well.. In all the planning and packing , I forgot to scribble a post about all these Chini jokes made on me before we took off to Hong Kong.
China is considered to be my motherland by one and all.
My friends asked me to make sure that I find my real parents :D Because my Indian parents are so Indian and am soooo Chinese :D
I always disagree about looking Chinese which people claim only due to the fact that  I have small eyes ( how unfair! ) But I certainly have doubts about the possibility of being adopted for some family genes are just not running into me! :P
Some others jokes went about ..
" Tu apne purvajo k desh ja rahi hai "
" Don't get lost ok. Your parents will probabaly bring someone else back thinking its you!!"
" Click pictures with Chinese people. Then we'll play find 6 differences" 
lol this one's  a personal favorite :D


Post-trip post. The travelogue :

Macau

If you ever plan to go to Macau. You HAVE to stay at the Venetian Macau Hotel. Its so huge and beautiful comprising of the hotel , a mall and ofcouse-  the biggest casino! All suite rooms with king size beds and huge bathrooms fully adorned with mirrors.

Magnificent Hotel Lobby!

The hotel is so huge ..it actually took us two days to learn to move about it.

The casino was awesome. We lost everything we put in :D :| except dad who won 36 times on roulette ;)

The entire Venice theme is  alluring. ( This is the shopping zone ! )

The hotel has an Indian restaurant named Golden Peacock which serves Indian VEG food at affordable price. So thankfully we didn't face much issue with food. Moreover if you stay at the hotel - you get vouchers which you can redeem & make use of at the restaurant , buy goodies and some listed stuff , go for the Gondola ride which otherwise costs more than 100 Hk $ per person. :\
Mac D is a waste for veggies. It smells awful :| Plus its expensive.

The Italian Gondola Ride.

Our Gondolier was Lia from Italy who  impressed us with her Hindi speaking skills. Greeting us with Namaste and calling us all 'sundari' :D .She knocked us off when she sang 'Chin ta ta' while also doing its signature step ! In return we sang Senorita for her :D Lia made the Gondola ride a lot more fun and there is no doubt about the fact that Indians are loud - so yeah we got a lot of audience :D

Macau Tower.

A view of Macau from the tower.

 You can experience one of the highest bungee jumps in the world from the Macau Tower. ( 233 meters!)  We watched 4 people bungee jump. It hardly takes few seconds for the fall and its quite thrilling to watch let alone do it. ( Of course I couldn't convince my parents enough :P ) 

It costs around 3000 HK $ ; approx 24000 INR. 

Macau is a small place and a 2 day stay is more than sufficient. 

Hong Kong :

It takes about 45 mins to reach HK from Macau after you board a ferry.
We stayed for 4 days. Hong Kong is like an extension of Mumbai with wider and clean roads. Old HK looks exactly like Mumbai except for the Chinese signs and billboard. 

Day 1 : We strolled around TST ( Tsim Tsa Tsui )  which is in Kowloon ( old HK). If you wanna book a hotel , this is the ideal place to lodge at. The subway is close. And the entire shopping area in in TST. It has a lot of major brands. 
There are a couple of Indian restaurants as well. 
Note : Finding vegetarian food in HK is a tough task. There are top end Indian restaurants which are of-course expensive. The Woodland Hotel at TST is a very good option.

Ocean Park

Day 2 : Ocean Park!  I found this one hyped. I mean , yes it must have been pretty famous 2 decades back. Dolphin show must be quite a thing that time.But essentially its a place for kids to enjoy seeing penguins , polar bears and sea lion. Thankfully some of the adventure rides came as a respite for us adults. The weather sucked. It was blazing hot!! 
The light show at night was a beautiful thing to watch.
 
Day 3  : We took a day off which was a very wise decision as the entire day at ocean park combined with the scorching sun had us totally drained out. 
We went to Mong Kow which is close to TST and famous for shopping. I couldn't get what the entire hyper around it is for! We did bargain but eventually  had to pay a high price for clothes and bags. So no! HK isn't a shopping destination ( with ref to bragain-shopping) unless you want to splurge on expensive branded stuff.

Took the metro ride to Central HK. All the stunning corporate buildings welcome you to the main HK. We were too late to catch the tram ride , hence missed going to Victoria Peak! :(
The Times Square and Stanley Street are in main HK ( for extravagent shopping :D )

Day 4  : Disneyland! 
I would rate out visiting Disneyland as the 10/10 sole reason to visit HK :P Who on earth wouldn't enjoy this beguiling place! Every damn thing about this place shouts richness. The park has been so nicely designed , you feel like you've entered an  entirely different world! Each and every ride & restaurant is chockablock with fairytale elements. 
The cartoon characters take you back to your childhood. How we miss Misckey , Uncle Scrooge , Aladdin & Mermaid !
The Lion King Show ( Live by theater artists) is spectacular. 
And the best ride was Mystic Manor. Its just superb!

  
Disneyland bewitches you at night - specially with the fire-show. 

I made this trip with my family AND my two most loving sisters.So this was the first trip of its kind. I had nightmares about its success since two such planned trips previously never happened!

And even as Prats gave a goodbye speech when we departed for India about how our fights didn't matter and lets just enjoy this moment because its the first and could be the last trip together..

I whined silentely.. Why last? Why the hell it should be the last ?! Just because I was stupid and annoying ? How could you do this to me? Why last?!!

To say she read my mind and replied - "who knows what happens in the coming days and where life takes us all."

Damn. That pinches!

She made me feel so guilty about being such a jackass. 

I wanted her to scream at me. 

To scold me for being immature and whatever the hell I was being :/

But the time's gone.

And all am left with are memories..  A LOT of them..about this amazing vacation to cherish about.

Things I'd never like to forget. Things that bring instant happiness to me :)

Those Chinese conversations. 

Public embarrassment missions.

Emptying our pockets out at casino!

 Photograph-obsession.

 The day wen we missed to go to Victoria Peak & all the jokes about the same :D 

Disneyland !! 

We've resolved to go back to Macau to jump off the Tower :D

* All pictures posted here have been clicked by me :P There is some jinx attached with me and cameras. My (new) camera started acting weird.Add to it - I lost the charger!! So had to save the battery for disneyland .Sadly it was so hot even on the day we visited disneyland - that none of us had much energy or enthusiasm to click ! Talk about obsessing for clicking pictures :P

Evolve.

Its funny how things evolve. I won't say 'change' because thoughts and things and people just 'evolve' over time. They're very much the same at core. And anything that you share with them will probably remain the same too despite all tsunami the relation might have gone through.
Its just time and situations that really change.

And this evolution is ridiculous in itself.
Because all of your notions and resistance , all of your theories , judgements and so-called experiences  fail.
You come to peace with what you have to deal with ..only after you've adapted the evolution.

Lesson for  this quarter ?

Distance is very healthy. It makes you wiser.
It gives you space - to breathe , to settle , to be you.

Sometimes it makes things better. Like it brings back lost friendship.

And sometimes it helps in putting an end with few without making much effort or in other words without hurting yourself in the process.

Fast & Furious 6

Fast & furious 6 is as good as watching any other of the FnF movies. 

When you see Dominic Toretto ( Van Diesel ) & roaring cars on the screen.. its like deja vu. 

The magic is so infectious.

 If you think of the plotting & planning..Fast five  was way better , rather smarter.

However , the opposition's snazzy car-power makes the action a lot more fun balancing for the lack of novelty in the plot.

.The switching of a character and typical hostage situation is predictable. But at least that comes as a respite just when you're bewildered how easily they managed to capture the villain.

Action was awesome. Loved the climax sequence entirely which this time not only involved cars but also an aeroplane!

Don't think this would count as a spoiler -  Letty is back! She was never dead!

Only you would see her working on the other side.

And even when FnF 6 finishes off..they leave you with something more to look forward to. A teaser for the next one to come!

Dont miss it.

Is it the weather dammit ?

There's so much to say , to yell , to vent out. And yet I won't speak a word.
I'm finding no listeners. I've been muted.

I'll draw a story I believe in the most in my head. And I will keep working around it.
 I won't let others fill in their colors as they wish. I'll only allow colors to be filled in partially to justify my colors.

I'll sob like a kid for nothing which is actually a cocktail of everything.
I'll laugh on nothing , which really is nothing. I'll make it look like its everything!

I'll type words I can make of on this qwerty. And it will not change any minds. Or break any ice. But I'll still write in no hope to be read anytime.

I'll not look in the eye and talk now onwards. It will make me unwillingly smile . And I can't let that smile takeover & turn it all futile.

Its all over - I'm dead serious. I will say a hundred times. And yet turn the pages back in a while.
I've closed the book now. And nobody heard me saying "I'm dead serious - this is over at last. Dont want to hold on anymore."

Never a failure. Always a lesson.

 You can't share your best friend. 

Its like keeping half your heart with someone else.

At one point of time , treating two people special 

WILL create a mess.

Rationalizing feelings is futile.
Rationalizing events is necessary.

Moving away is better , wiser both for heart and head.

It becomes easier to squeeze the blame game.

Forgiving and forgetting is relative.

As long as it justifies everything.