"Selfie with Celebrity"

It is eight months since I wrote something. Recently after attending a wedding in Hyderabad, I wrote on the selfie madness that overtook me. Read on and let me know if you are good at selfies. 

I had my first brush with “selfie with celebrity” a few days ago at a wedding I attended in Hyderabad. The wedding had its fair share of celebrities right from the popular V.V.S. Lakshman, Jwala Gutta and the lesser known Pragyan OJha and yesteryear cricketer Arshad Ayub. This is the first wedding I am attending that had a few celebrities and I already had plans for selfies with them. However, I had made up my mind that I would take selfies only with Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, Sindhu and Gopichand. But they disappointed me by sending their parents as they were out playing matches. While I was meddling with my phone as to how to take a selfie without their knowing, the better half was fidgeting as to what embarrassment I might cause him by taking pics without their knowledge. I stopped that attempt much to his relief. However, I egged him to go and say hello to Arshad Ayub while I fiddled with my phone. He was appalled that I would even consider taking a photo of him and Ayub chatting that I abandoned that idea too. When Lakshman entered, the crowd went berserk. I have lost count of the number of photos that were clicked during his two-hour stay at the wedding venue. I went near the celebrity thrice and chickened out. I even asked the host to introduce me but the crowds were not as reticent, they just squeezed and pummelled their way around me that I didn’t feel like taking a pic. All the while, the spouse also dared me to go and talk to any celebrity as he had just spotted a few women talk and take selfies with Lakshman. That got to me I guess. So when I spotted Mitali Raj, the captain of the women’s cricket team who was sitting quietly in a corner with someone, I thought I would give it a go. I was thrilled that the crowds were busy with Lakshman so I further fiddled with my phone and finally her manager or friend, whoever he was, offered to take a pic that was even more blurry than my half-faced selfies. I thanked her and turned to find Jwala Gutta looking at me. I was so flummoxed that I didn’t dare ask her for pic. All this while the spouse was uncontrollably laughing at my efforts and urging me to get trained in taking selfies with our in-house “selfie with celebrity” expert Santhanam Rajan, who would have had a field day had he been in my shoes that day. I am sure he would have laughed his ass off at my attempts at selfies too. So I just put away the phone unable to look at the better half who was choking with laughter.
At the end of it all, I wonder was it worth it? I am no fan of selfies, nor am I fond of hounding celebrities, though I love spotting them in a crowd. In fact, I spotted Sania Mirza’s father and the spouse was surprised I knew him. Finally, I decided, “no more selfies for me. I will leave it to experts like Santhu! Well! I think that’s a thought till I find the next celebrity………..

Blogging about books

It is not easy to blog. I always envy those who have impeccable blogs, with eye catching pictures. They are able to draw in a lot of visitors each day and week. What does it take to be a good blogger? Apart from passion it takes a lot of work combined with good discipline, which sadly to say I lack. However, whenever I update my blog I decide to update it the next week without fail. But as I write this I am going off on vacation for a month....:) so I guess from June I should be a disciplined blogger.
In my defense I can say that I was doing other work that deterred me from blogging, like writing book reviews and content creation for other people's blogs.
Here are a few of my book reviews of Indian authors.
Neela Mala by Azha.Valliappa, is one of my favorite childhood books that I waited to read each month as this story was serialized in a monthly  Tamil magazine called "Gokulam." These were the days when the Internet had not made its gargantuan appearance in this world. I caught hold of the digital version of this book that was kindly sent to me by a friend. It can be found here.

Few of the other amazing book I read were:
I am Malala by Malala Yousufzai & Christina Lamb

Mayil will not be quiet by Niveditha Subramaniam and Soumya Rajendran

The Mystery of the Silk Umbrella by Asha Nehemiah

Hope I continue to write about the books I read as it also serves as a reminder about the story in case I forget.

The Weed

I just loved this book "The weed" by Paro Anand. You can find your review of this book here

The Honest Truth

When my ten-year old wanted to order a book online, the general rule is that I whet her choice. However, I relaxed the rule this time and allowed to maker her choice. She had ordered The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart, a first time author and one I haven’t heard of.

More than a month after both the kids had finished reading this book I picked it up. I didn’t let them know I was going to read the book lest they tell me the ending. Once bitten twice shy.

The book is about Mark a small boy who has cancer and how frustrated with his treatment he leaves his house to climb Mt. Rainier. It is a heartbreaking novel of this little boy who leaves home with his dog without informing anyone. Apart from leaving a clue for his best friend, no one has any idea of his destination. Whether Mark reaches his destination, did he climb Mt. Rainier and what happened to him and his dog Beau is what the book is all about. There are poignant moments in the book that makes the reader empathize with Mark. This unusual plot by the author and the lucid imagery of words make this a worthy read.

The Spirited

I had accompanied my mom to the clinic as she had to take an ecg. While she was inside, I spent my time watching the other patients sitting patiently and some impatiently in the uncomfortable chairs outside the doctor’s room. Five minutes after we reached the clinic an old lady entered with a comical swagger. Comical because she did not seem to be in pain of any sort, did not look terribly sick. She looked pretty happy, did a happy jig and kept chattering some nonsense. The other patients including me were looking on amused.

She first went inside and registered her name with the doctor’s assistant. Then she said she came for an ‘oosi’ (Injection) cos she couldn’t sleep at night. This clinic also provides free service to the under-privileged. The people are given free medicines and no consultation charges either. The lady went on to say that she tried all remedies she knew but couldn’t sleep.

“Seekiram koopidu kannu, oosi potta, veetula poi paduthuduven, thoonga,” (Call me quickly so that immediately after the injection I can get some sleep at home), she told the assistant. The amused assistant muttered something under her breath.

Meanwhile, another twenty-something girl with her 2-year old son walked in for a vaccination. She sat opposite the old lady. The child was making noises and the lady started copying the baby by crooning in her style. Then all of a sudden she asked the mother what was the name of her son.

Old lady: “Kolandai peru enna?” (What is your child’s name?)

Child’s mother: Sujan.

Old lady: Sujan..? Ithu oru pera? (Sujan? Is this a name?)

Child’s mother: Just looked amused and nodded.

Old Lady: “Alaga pragaasu nnu vechirukkalamilla” (Couldn’t you have named him Prakash?)

Then she muttered to herself…”vayila nolayira mari vechirukkalam” (It would have been easier on the mouth to pronounce)

Then the lady was called inside for her injection. She literally ran inside and after five minutes ran out holding and rubbing her thighs as though she was in pain, but all the while smiling and telling people that she was going to go home and sleep. She went outside and on afterthoughts, she rushed inside once again with a tumbler in her hand. She told the doctor’s assistant, can you give me some coffee, I also need to take a tablet.

“Can’t you have it with water?” asked the assistant.

“Un kaiyala kaapi kudikara mari varuma?” (Nothing to beat a cup of coffee given by you), she flattered, smiling wickedly, showing her paan stained teeth.

The assistant couldn’t contain her smile and said, “Just now u complained you couldn’t sleep, now you want coffee, how can you sleep?”

Meanwhile another assistant came and told the other one, “Just give her some coffee and get rid of her.”

The assistant then poured some coffee in the tumbler. As soon as she got it, the old lady said, “Danks” (Thanks) and as a parting shot said, “Itha ini naan aathonum!) meaning (Now I have to cool it)” which made all of us present break into laughter. The old lady finally called out a ‘danks’ after drinking the coffee and left.

Long after the old lady left, I was still smiling admiring her spirit.

(I wrote this for a post titled "People watching" for "52 weeks of 2013" started by a group of friends on fb)