it takes
two to tango

one to sing

You just don't know how the week goes from Monday to Saturday these days! Which is good ... means we're all busy.

So - it was the father after all who killed little Aarushi. Like you needed to be bludy Sherlock to figure that out. Was gonna say in a post couple of days ago that it was quite clear the old man did it. What sealed it was when the servant was found murdered in a similar fashion. And with no signs of a forced entry, nothing valuable missing from the house and with no apparent motive for an outsider, the blood trail led straight to the good doctor. But the cops in Noida obviously like to take their time.

And all because Doc there was shagging his lady associate. Idiot!

***

Which brings me to the main subject of my post -- Extra marital relations/affections. At work, and indeed elsewhere, I follow a strict policy of minimal interaction with married women. But my colleague 'the kid' seemed to think it was ok to get all pally with them. Until yesterday that is. When over what was expected to be a harmless cup of coffee one of the dames on the floor poured out to him all the troubles she was having at home with her old man and the in-laws; how she felt 'trapped' and the usual bla bla blu. Which is when our man began to get, well - uncomfortable. Because the question that started to swirl in his head was why is she telling ME all this. And more importantly - What next? Now as you can imagine this was all a bit too much for his young 24-year-old brain to handle, so after a couple of drinks he spills the beans to me. Even though she swore him to secrecy. (Ladies please note here: when you swear a guy to secrecy first make sure he is a teetotaller.)

Anyway, my advice to the boy was not to get involved. Listen if you must but don't offer a solution. Because if the solution ends up with the two of you in bed, you're screwed! Or maybe not. Sometimes all a girl needs is a little lovin' and she can go back to her old man quite content. But if it doesn't stop there, then you really are screwed!

But given that the girl in question is such a sweet thing always so bubbly, it's hard to imagine someone like her not having a happy marriage. Which leaves us with the obvious conclusion - she married a choot!

Now why women do that to themselves is another topic altogether.

***

What did I tell you about Preity being one lucky girl - Winning by one run the other day and snatching another victory yesterday! Quite amused to see a whole page of photographs in the local papers today showing her apparent 'affection' for her boys. There's Yuvi, Piyush Chawla, Sangakarra all getting the hugs ... hell, even Irfan Pathan looks quite a happy recipient! I hope someone in Team India is making notes. (Lots of good IPL pics here)

***

Jeffrey Archer was in town earlier this week. I never read any of his books, so pretty much a non-event for me. Interesting to read that our girl AB found him quite a weirdo. Well A, great writers, like great bloggers, are almost always weirdos.

Sheryl Crow with Natalie & the Chicks. For AB.

O.K. Tis one of those Monday mornings when I feel like singing aloud!

Such a long lazy weekend. Preity's boys won again ... is she a lucky girl or what. No wonder Ness has stuck with her. And say what you must, I love how she's there at every game cheering her boys along like the little rich girl at the races cheering on the thoroughbred her daddy bought her. Did you see how she even did comfort Shreesanth after he got that rap on the face from Bhajji ... Cho chweet! Yeah, I wouldn't mind hitting a few out of the park for Preity.

Unlucky for SRK's Knight Riders though. Another walloping. The cigarettes won't do it for him any more ... he'll need to bring out the heavy stuff now. Hope he ain't takin' it out on poor Gauri!

Huzoor, come to have dinner no.

Just leave me alone dammit!! Did you see how that bastard Sourav got out! Madarchod ko itna paisa kis liye de raha hoon! ... I knew I should have gone with Punjab instead of those fucking Bongs!

LOL!

Yes, yes, no offense intended and all that shit.

Right then, have a good week y'all, whichever part of our great big world y'all are in.

Robbie "bad boy" Williams. Yeah, I like to listen to stuff like this sometimes. Try singing it loud ... No really, it's fun!

Bludy hilarious that Aamirs got a dog called Shahrukh! Should have had a bitch called Karan too! ... Or is Shahrukh a bitch, I'm not sure.

Talking of Shahrukh, his Knight Riders sure did get a licking at the hands of the Indians last night. Maybe they should get that damn car (what was it called - Kitt?) from the TV series to run over the opposition for them!

Stumbled upon this one just now. After years! Four of the all time greats of country music singing The Highwayman. For my mate Zypsy ... belated birthday wishes!

Made a dash to the big bad city to fetch Bren from the shitport, which is what I call C.S. Intl. And guess who I saw - Kenny G! Even though the DNA thugs (and lots of pretties!) were trying to keep him as far away from us aam janta as possible, I did get pretty close. But here's the thing - I had no idea our man Kenny would be performing in Mumbai today. When I saw all the DNA blueshirts I kinda guessed some cleleb had come. And then a puny dude with all the hair who looked like Kenny G was whisked past us like he was Michael Jackson; but I still wasn't sure it was him. Until I went onto the DNA site today and saw the promo. Yep, it was him alright.

Guess who I also saw - Sushmita Sen. Man, how did she get so fat! I didn't know it was her either until I heard someone behind me say it. And she had on the ugliest pair of huge D&G sunglasses. Probably to hide herself from the riff-raff. As if anybody cares for Sush these days.

Mumbai airport is always such a hive of activity. So different from other airports I've been to recently, like Vienna and Zurich. Zurich especially. When I arrived at the Flughafen on a cold September morning there was not a damn soul outside; just a few cabbies and the hotel buses. Vienna too was pretty empty; just the odd security guard and airport employee. But Bombay is something else. In a way every person arriving in Bombay feels like a celeb. Because there are always so many people waiting outside ... even if they're not waiting for you. And that being the case many of our NRI's feel the need to put on a show. You see, they gotta show us where they're coming from. Like you'll see this nerdy looking college dude with the Texas A&M T-shirt, so you know he's from College Station. Funny is when you see some clown wearing a Phillies tee and baseball hat, firing away in his nakli accent. Bet he never saw a Phillies game in his life, but yeah, now you know he's from Philadelphia.

And the Gujju dames with the tight jeans. You gotta have them on a flight arriving from Newark. I've noticed there are usually two kinds of Gujju chicks you'll see - One the happily married rich as hell kinds with the spoilt brat and the henpecked husband in tow, the other the pencil-slim hot-bod with the dark circles under the eyes covered by too much make-up, who in all likelihood is on the lookout for a guy who's rich as hell!

But Bren hasn't changed one bit. Still the spunky girl she always was, with no hint of an accent of any kind. We even had chai at a roadside place where I would be very scared to put the cup to my lips if I was coming to India after 7 years. Yep, it's 7 not 6. And she tells me she's just dying to have chaat! LOL ... to think I haven't eaten chaat in bludy years.

This is kind of an anniversay post you know. 5 years to the day since the Blues first started. Been a lot of fun, it has, pouring my mind out here. Cheers to you all!

It's just gotta be CCR .... You didn't think I was gonna play Kenny G, did you :) Take it away John.

When I started I wrote about a struggle. It's funny how so much has changed and yet so much remains the same. I think the best thing about this whole adventure (yes I like to call it an adventure because that's what it's been, just like life itself) is all the brilliant, wonderful minds I have encountered along the way ... too many to mention, and so many of them I have lost touch with, but whom I can never forget.

The struggle will go on, that I know for sure. But if at the end of the day you can honestly say that it's all been worth it, and the number of people who love you are more than those that want to see you dead, then I guess there should be no reason to complain.

This song ... this songs for me.

New girl at work is drop dead gorgeous. Play your cards right and you'll go all the way to the top, honey! is what I wanted to say to her. No need to turn into an old slog-dog like me.

Cousin Bren arrives from New Joisey this weekend. How many years has it been since I saw her ... 6 maybe. She was one of those girls who always wanted to do something different - travel, see the world. But she ended up being run of the mill.

But somewhere in there the dream always stays alive I guess.

***

All across the highway on my way to work everyday I see these so-called 'dream home' hoardings and I wonder when I will ever own one of them. But more often I ask myself if I even want to own one of them. Imagine shelling out 30 and 35 lakhs, being ridden with debt the rest of your working life, and getting what at the end of it - bricks and mortar and a place to rue a life not lived.

It's kinda crazy not knowing what you're gonna be doing or where you'll be one year from now. But right now that's the only thing that keeps me going.

Give me a beer and a 29" plasma TV anyday! Now this changes the equation totally, if you know what I'm sayin'.

***

The Yanks think we're eating too much. Something that as per the natural scheme of things (as they know it) perhaps we're not supposed to be doing. Someone way back must have told them we Indians are happy with daal-roti. Which we were, if it wasn't for them outsourcing all their jobs to us, and turning thousands upon thousands of our brightest engineering minds into testers and coders earning big fat salaries (albeit a pittance compared to what they pay back home) which somewhat ironically (or not) we up spending on their damn products; and now they're blaming us for increasing world food prices. Talk about wanting it all!


***


M Night Shyamalan's back to spook us they're saying. Hopefully it won't be anything as demented as The Village, which was a load of bludy crap. The Sixth Sense I didn't see, and his Lady in the Water drowned before most of us could see her. But I think he should take a cue from Bollywood and come up with a 'romantic-comic-thriller'. One of the three should work.


He's been awarded the Padma Shri for cinema it seems. Hell, how about a Padma Shri for bloggers! All the time and effort we bludy put in. I'm not implying that I should get it, if that's what you're thinking.


CCR ... to me the greatest 'real' rock band of all time. Run through the Jungle. Shyamalan should have this one in the soundtrack to his next movie ... his characters do a lot of running.

So tell me - Why do people get all worked up over what is not their fight. Like it wouldn't bother me one bit if Bhajji had beaten Sreesanth to a pulp. Or if the Big B is dragged through the streets of Bombay tomorrow for not 'doing enough' for Maharashtra. It ain't your fight, brother. I think it's important to know what is and is not your fight.

***

Saw Sonia "the girl" Faleiro on the tele last night. Along with Shobhaa De and that crackpot Padamsee on a show called Glamour Bazaar on IBN where the topic being discussed was the New face of changing India (done to death, I know!). I was too sleepy to follow every bit but I did go huh? when Madam De went:

"I would say it is a different India but the kids of this generation have to work less than their parents did. We grew up in a different India and we pushed ourselves."

Is she serious - We work less than our parents did?? ... And if getting married to some rich fart and inheriting two of his children is what she means by pushing herself, I don't know what to say.

There was also this blogger chick Jhoomur who apparently likes to talk about sex and such. Her blog traffic must surely have gone up many times since last night. But I find women who talk about sex all the time quite boring, to be very honest .

***

First time I heard this man's music I was totally blown away. Purely because it was so different from anything I'd heard before. So sweet, so haunting, so exhilarating, all at the same time.

From his 1967 debut album Blowin' your mind (aptly titled cuz like I said that's just what it did to me), this is the classic TB Sheets.

If I had known they had scattered his ashes there I'd have said hello. It was around dusk on a chilly September evening when we took the boat across Lake Geneva. I stood out at the front staring into the vast expanse of blue ahead, the breeze tearing into my face. With only one thought on my mind - the nothingness of it all.

***

Thanks for all your comments on the previous post. 5 years really is a long time to be at it. But the Blues to me is more than just a blog, it's like a friend I can talk to any time.

And so to celebrate our association I'm gonna be playing here, time permitting, some of my favourite songs this week. Songs that to me are more than just songs ... anthems if you will.

This one by a man who from such ordinary beginnings rose to leave his mark on the world forever. His music (and his electrifying stage presence) always leaves me spellbound, marvelling at the sheer brilliance that was Freddie Mercury.

Like he once said: You either have the magic or you don't!