The discovery of India??? by Vasco Da Gama???Huh...

So I was playing basketball last week,  got a little too carried away and the result, am in cast for a month for a ligament tear. So right now you can call me a potato or a ladies finger or whatever your fave veggie is cause that's what I am doing right now, vegetating. The upside am catching up on my reading, movies on youtube I have always wanted to watch, those little things as home that have always been there on my to do list which I never got around to doing.Sorry am fibbing about the last one, still been procrastinating them:). Anyways, the first week went by like a breeze, I thought wow, another feather to my cap, my first sports wound, shouldn't I be proud. Truth be told, I was hoping, the doctor would take it off at the end of the week which was the reason for my elated mood. Imagine my horror when the doctor announced that it would stay on for three more weeks.

 The first day of the second week me got myself a mindless chick-lit. The high of the book lasted for exactly one and a half days after which the ants started building their hills on me with all the overdosing of sweet and mush and everything nice. Decided enough is enough, if I am going to entertain myself, might as well watch something more intelligent. The only intelligent movies in India are made in malayalam and bengali, (I know this statement is going to make me very unpopular) and thankfully, I know both the languages, so overdosed on those for a couple of days.

Saw this amazing malayalam movie called URUMI, a nt so recent movie but a must watch, beautiful movie, certainly on my next best films list. Prithviraj is certainly one of the most talented and good looking guys in India. The movie is about a warrior named Kelu who avenges his father's death by killing yes, Vasco Da Gama,

10 interesting things you should know about this guy who "Discovered"  Indians...

1. Vasco Da Gama was a merciless pirate, an expert at torturing prisoners.
2. Their ""discovery"" ship first landed in Mozambique, Africa. On the way from Africa to India, DaGama and his crew of convicted killers with commuted sentences, robbed and looted several Arab ships and killed the merchants aboard them. It was a Gujarathi aboard one of those ships who led them to India.
3.  On their first trip they were received with much fanfare on the shores of Calicut which was ruled by one of the richest, most powerful kings in India then, the Zamorin.
4. They proudly declared they came to India in search of spices and Indian Christians. But what they got with them for bartering were pieces of striped cloth, scarlet hoods, hats, strings of coral, basins for washing hands, oil and honey. To the king of the most richest land in the world who wore diamonds the size of thumbs and was bedecked in rubies and golds, these gifts seemed ridiculous. DaGama soon lost his respect and standing in front of the Zamorin and their crew was reduced to bartering these stuff on the shore for money for their return journey.
5. However, he went back to Portugal and claimed to have discovered India and got the kings support for a second fleet to come back.
6. This time they came back with cannons and guns. Their first victim was a Muslim ship returning from Mecca with 400 people aboard including women and children. After looting the ship, he set fire to the ship burning to death all aboard.
7. He then sent an ultimatum to the Zamorin, the hindu king ordering him to kill all muslims in his city or face retaliation. Meanwhile he started capturing the fishermen and chopping off their hands, feet and then heads after which he bombarded the city aiming to kill as many civilians as possible, thus bringing the thriving economy of the port city to a standstill.
8. The Zamorin send the palace priest to negotiate with DaGama, the same guy who had received him with such royal treatment on his first trip. Dagama chopped off his tongue and ears and send them as souvenirs to the palace.
9. With such peaceful methods, it wasn't difficult for them to set up their colonies all the way to Goa.
10. The first mutiny as we all assume was not in 1857, but in 1503 by Calicut warriors known as the Urumi led by the brave Kelu whose father was killed by DaGama. Though they were not successful in completely wiping out the Portuguese rule, legend has it that the brave Kelu killed DaGama (he did not die of malaria as the history books would claim) and his warriors managed to create enough havoc to the Portuguese army before being subdued.

So the next time your kid comes home with mumbo jumbo about the discovery of India, please tell him/her the reality about Vasco DaGama. He was a pirate who looted India and murdered Indians. Please don't credit the violent buffoon with discovering our 5000 year old culture.

(The author of the blog has written the above blog based on folklore, hearsay, the movie Urumi and facts gathered from around the internet and does not vouch for the authenticity of the information produced above)

Lipstick jungle

Just finished a chicklit called Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. Should say am not a big fan of chicklits  They bore the hell out of me. Can't get past the 10th page in most cases. But this book was different. Unlike most chicklits that have a mediocre woman struggling with her daily existence until she meets a man way beyond her means who is  unbelievably rich, has the women of the of the world swooning over him, and to top it all is the most kindest understanding guy that you will ever meet and for some strange unfathomable reason has decided to fall for the female equivalent of the average joe who is our protagonist.

Anyhow, this is not that book. This is the story of three highly ambitious women who are at the top of their careers. A refreshingly honest, brilliant and unpretentious book about how women's attitudes have changed from the nineties onto the present day. The story is based in the city of New York (duh) which is the backdrop for ninety percent of all American stories. These are women who will question age old norms of womanly existence, why shouldn't a woman be a billionaire, why is the baby always the woman's responsibility.

Women who are not on the defensive but on the offensive for a change, the men around them better watch out. All the games they would play to get ahead without an ounce of guilt. How they dream about ruling the world. When it comes to ambition nothing is too much for them. 

It takes a long time for one to realize that humans are complicated beings. You would imagine that life would have been easy had people been nice and friendly and uncomplicated but at some point it becomes necessary to start playing games if not for achieving anything at least to survive and dodge various bullets coming our way. That is the law of the lipstick jungle. The book has reiterated what women have known for years but couldn't quite admit to themselves. That they are no different than men when it comes to ruthlessness and ambition.

Good Looks

What makes a person good-looking, attractive, and appealing to the opposite sex. Me thinks you need a lot more than just the face and the body. Don’t get me wrong in the next few sentences; I think Indians are extremely good-looking. But unfortunately for those who do pass the super stud category and reach a god-like status, there is one thing which is sorely lacking. Humility, of course, that goes without saying, but more importantly the ability to wear their good-looks on their sleeves and be casual about it and accept themselves as they are. THEY ARE JUST SO FULL OF THEMSELVES. And why wouldn't they be? We have set low standards for ourselves when it comes to entertainment and are obsessed with the lifestyle and affairs of a dozen people.

What is the definition of attraction? Appealing, interesting, mysterious, friendly looking, alluring, enigmatic, likable, engaging, charming or one or more of these qualities and most importantly the acceptance of their good looks and being cool and casual about it and not being conscious of it every living moment. How many of our icons have even one of these traits. Now think George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, MS Dhoni, Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar to name a few . You look at these people and you get the feeling that they are just going about their normal daily lives doing their jobs, “So I look like God, so what’s the big deal.” But either these guys have mastered the art of public relations and the image they portray to the public or they actually must have an amazing attitude. Sorry to say, our heroes still have a long way to go. You guys had it but people put you up on a pedestal so high you started thinking you were born there. You guys are just putting it out there and crying so badly for attention it is plain obvious. When people describe somebody as charismatic (by the way there is no such word in the dictionary, there is only charism), it is more the proliferation of an idea in their brains fed through the media than one’s personal opinion. In India especially, you need one or more of the following to be described charismatic….

- White, yes white white skin with a balding plate that reflects the sunlight better than a prism.

- Or you are a woman who is not exactly pretty but has a lemon sized bindi and are vociferous enough to attract attention.

- Or you wear saffron robes and a weird hairdo and again vociferous enough to attract attention

- Or you have spent a small fortune on dental cosmetology and have managed to get yourself a fortune smile that makes up for your average face.

- And of course you have the right media contacts to make sure you are imprinted in public memory forever.

If there is one person who has the icy cool component in him, it's Farhan Akhtar. It was his understated performance playing the joker without making a fool of himself in Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara that made the movie so appealing to me . And to top it all, finally we have a hero who has the brains to match his brawns. Well, there is a thin line anyway between the two. There is no way you can look sexy without the brains.........after all brain is the biggest sexual organ. 

I certainly like our heroines better. In spite of being given a raw deal, being made the eye-candy in movies, they carry themselves so much better and have the intelligence to match their looks. Otherwise they couldn’t have made it to the most desirable list in a country where there are millions of good looking women. Let’s face it and don’t consider me cheeky, the ratio of good looking women to men is highly skewed in our country. And thence I conclude my thesis on this very important topic of err… Good Looks. Would luuuv to know your take on this……