The X Men

Was talking to a few friends about their relationship hassles and they each had a different say about their ex's....So is it just me or can you actually categorize Ex boyfriends?? If i were to make categories, the list would read something like this:

The BFF - Boyfriend Forever. These are ex's that still behave like they are your boyfriend. They will still chauffeur you around, pay for your movies and dinners, still call thrice a month to check on you. They still prefer taking you out for a friends nite out than their own girlfriend coz "you are more fun". They may be over you but they still think you are an important part of their life and treat you just the same way as their current girlfriend.

The Jerk boyfriend - These are men you look back in retrospect and tell yourself 'He was such a jerk!' - hence the name. They are boyfriends who have this irresistible charm, always pleasing you with their words and jokes. They will impress all your friends while you're dating them. And though you see signs of their 'jerkism' within a few months of dating, you pretend to wear tinted glasses and ignore them. Its only the day when they call it quits and you sequence back the last few months that you realize you were played up royally. You can identify them easily too as they are the ones who never bother calling up once THEY call it splits! And the reasons for the split will be a toss up between wanting 'more space' and 'committment phobia'.

The Stopover boyfriend - These are those kinds that you played girlfriends to but for a brief stint. They are mostly your rebound boyfriend. Before you get to know their second name, your relationship has already gone kaput. There isn't any malice or anger when these don't work out coz essentially they were just playing the role of a pacifier. You don't miss them and neither do they!

The Obsessive boyfriend - They are the ones that just don't read the writings on the wall. You have told them in 3 different languages that its over, yet they still flirt with you and believe you still have a thing for them. They just cannot accept that you don't see any romance with them anymore. They are different from BFF's as they keep flirting with you and saying things which are not approved by the moral police. Everytime they are having a 'good time' or are at a 'happening' party, they message you and let you know the same in a bid to make you feel what you've lost out on.

The 2am boyfriend - Welcome the ex boyfriend who is now more in your 'friend in need is a friend indeed' category. He is your ex who you can call without blinking an eyelid at anytime of the day or night. They are guys who you can count on to tag along with you when you want to go shopping to colaba causeway on a hot sunny afternoon. You can talk to them about everything, from how painful waxing is to the latest guy crush you have in office. They will even tell you what clothes you should avoid wearing on dates and what you should avoid saying/doing in case you want to impress a guy. He is like your girlfriend but in a male body and they are NOT gay!

The Committed yet Confused boyfriend - They love you, they really do. But they are so confused in their head about what they want out of the relationship that they invariably break up with you for reasons like 'I'm not good enough for you'. You are too much of a trophy girlfriend for them. You can't really count them in your list of friends or foes.

I am sure i can make many more categories but i want to restrict myself to these many bunch of lunatics! I have realized that NO guy is serious and committed enough unless he proposes to you with a solitaire in one hand and a Vera Wang gown in the other. And if any guy does this, say Yes to him before i hunt him down for myself!

Twenty something and still Being!

Being twenty is an 'awakening' phase for most of us. You think you know where you're going till you reach a crossroad and then wonder did you travel the right road. Its not really a mid life crisis scenario but i'd rather call it the most 'confused yet fulfilling' phase of everyones lives. All your goof ups, stupidities and mistakes can be blamed twenty years from now as 'I was just in my twenties'. We all go through similar episodes in life. The actors may differ, but everyone has shared a similar screenplay at some point in their twenties.

Things you will learn/experience when you’re 20 something:

• Everybody is somebody’s jerk and no matter how much you try, you can’t avoid jerks or being one!
• You will end up with a broken heart and if you are lucky, you would have broken someones heart too.
• Getting over heartbreaks become more difficult than understanding a Chinese person talk in English.
• No matter how much you try, you will end up having some lethal verbal session with your parents. Lets just blame it on the ‘Generation Gap’
• By law, at one point ALL of us will hate our boss and hate our jobs. I call it the 'law of the professional land'.
• Staying in love seems more complicated than understanding E = mc2.
• Relationship is a two letter word and means ‘Its complicated’.
• No matter how much you save, at the end of the month your account balance can never look as big as the Airbus A380.
• You will do at least 2-3 things in your 20's that you will regret later (like throwing up at an office party coz u were drinking like a fish)
• Hangovers become more difficult to get over than Himesh Reshammiya's acting.
• There’s only so much you can puke, clean and repent. (Tip – avoid egg bhurji after a 5 pints of beer)
• Loosing weight becomes tougher than Obama's speeches!
• You realize there are only so many stupid, slapstick and mindless Akshay Kumar movies you can watch in a year.
• You will look back at pictures taken 5 years ago and think you dressed like a dork then and think you are a fashion icon now!
• There will be someone in your friends group whose life you wish you could swap with (I wish I was Frieda Pinto minus her boytoy bf!)
• One of the annoying three letter words to hear will be – 'Where are you?' and mostly asked by your gf/bf.
• 12 is the new 2 AM and you don't have that much patience to talk to your 2 AM friends anymore.
• You will be hanging out more near the office coffee machine than in Poison and Enigma (or any other niteclub).
• When you're below 25, everything you do is either fun or exciting or both. When you're 25 and above, everything you do is either right or wrong or can't say!

If you've been through 10 or more similar experiences, then we should catch up soon for an evening of expresso. If you've had 5-6 such experiences then you're living a very safe life. Meet me for a crash course in living life on the edge. If you've not had a single experience then don't kid yourself, you're definitely not 20 something. Go back to school and stop reading my blog!

Not together…it’s 'Two'gether!

I say roses, you say guns. I say blue, you say grey. I say Simpsons, you say South Park. I say shopping, you say ESPN. I say “Miss you”, you say “Kiss you?”

Almost One lakh and twenty three books down and still no definite answer. Five thousand and sixty three debates and talk shows and it’s still a mystery. Twenty three thousand shrinks have still not managed to solve this problem. Well, Why are men from mars and women from venus?

No, I am not going to be the expert and answer this now almost revered question. I’m merely going to attempt what can be called the ‘Dency version’ of why men and women come from different planets, make that galaxies actually.

I think whoever said ‘Man is a thinking animal’ was just kidding with us. Coz i don't believe that Man (read male) can think or feel (except when hit at their crotch). And what most females do is just that – Think, think and think some more (Paris Hilton exempted).

Even if I give the male species the benefit of a thinking mind, I still doubt they will ever think like females. Scientifically too it has been proven that not only do men and women think differently in a given situation, but the way they use their brains differs significantly too. Women have larger connections and more frequent interaction between their brain's left and right hemispheres. This makes women better at verbal skills and intuition. Thats why we can talk, talk and talk some more (yeah, Iam part of it too). And thats also why everytime you cheat, your girl somehow knows about it. Its the infamous 'female intuition'!

Men, on the other hand, have greater brain hemisphere separation which explains their skills for abstract reasoning and visual intelligence. Hence, they rather follow vague maps than ask for directions. This is also why just a poster of Salma Hayek is enough to turn on a guy while a female needs more coffee conversations to keep her smitten.

Also, its true isn't it when you say men think from their brains while females think from their heart. And yes men and women also DO come from different chromosomes which may also be the primary reason for their differences. But can men and women never think alike? Can men ever use their heart for things more than a bypass surgery? Can they feel emotions without a show of tears? Can women ever think only from their mind? Can they ever be smarter at matters of the heart and accounts? Can man and woman ever come together as one thinking mind and not two minds? Can a guy ever say 'Lets paint the walls pink' and can a girl ever say 'Lets play PS3 on a sunday and put the wet towels on the bed'?

Frankly, I don’t know the answer. If those 'Understand your man or woman better' and Shobha De books havent helped, who am I? But maybe, just maybe in some corner of the world a woman is understanding her man better and vice versa. And maybe there actually IS a guy somewhere right now who doesn't run in fear or hide his face and instead looks up with pride when his girl says the most adorable, romantic and lovely three words - 'Hold my purse'.

Confessions of a facebook-holic!

Let me start with some observations I made on Facebook:
'Random' is the most commonly used album title in FB.
'Just Chillin' is the most commonly used photo caption.
Most people upload pics of a trip within 24 hours of returning from that trip.
Most people consider themselves "travellers" if they a Goa Trip in their albums and if they have a Ladakh album then they are a "killer" traveller.
Everyone who has got any sort of tattoo done on their body would have put that up as their profile pic at some point.
Honeymoon pics are put up Only if it has been to a foreign land.

Ok now to my Farmville addicts
Howdy friends! If you’ve understood this style of greeting then you MUST be a Farmville addict. So you can now do online kheti and become a farmer in no time. I don’t own a farm (though my online Farmville status says otherwise and I don’t remember accepting any Farmville requests) but I still get at least one sheep, 2 goats, one avocada plant and one ugly ducking on my farm everyday. And I am a farmist neighbour to many of my facebook friends. Now farming is difficult, my grandfather was a farmer and I have actually been on the field and seen the sweat and toil of farmers. But then why go through so much pain and get that unnecessary tan working on the field when I can sit in my AC room, in the privacy of my cubicle and whip the shit out of my cattle for not moving fast enough and giving me good crops. And with so many of my friends on Farmville, I now know why farming is the primary occupation of this country and why 60% of Indians are employed in this sector.

To my Mafia wars addicts
Then there are my other sets of friends, the more volatile ones by nature who are addicted to mafia wars. They shoot others, make a criminal empire and try to be the Godfather of the mafia world. And they also have nicknames for each other. Kinda like 'Bloody Bosco' and 'Kamina Karl'. My question is 'Is Mafia wars bringing out the passive aggression of people out in the open?'

To my status update addicts
So you burnt your toast today, got stuck in traffic jam and reached late for an office meeting and then spilled coffee over your new shirt. Is this something that has NEVER happened before to anyone? When it is as common as Sania Mirza losing in the first round of a grand slam, why do you need the world to know about your disastrous day? There are some friends who need to update every living/moving moment of their life. I don’t want to know your wearing mismatched socks today or you forgot to floss today or that you haven’t had a bath since a week coz you were on a wild safari expedition! So don't be a Kareena and tell everybody about what diet you follow or how much you earned for your last ad or where your going for romatic vacation or if Saif thinks your ass is great or what. If you have to say something as a status message then might as well tell me how desperate housewives series is going to end, if Federrer is going to win the next match against Nadal or when the sensex will fall again so that i can save some money!

To my quiz addicts
Yes you look like Mickey Mouse if you have taken the ‘Which Disney character do you look like’ quiz. But why did you want Facebook to tell you this. You should have just come to me...i would have also told you this!! Obviously the quiz won't say you look like Aiswarya Rai. That these quizzes are meant for nothing but entertainment is confirmed, but some of the quizzes that people take are just bizarre. Like a friend of mine took this quiz on ‘what alphabet will you’re soon to be husbands name start with’ and she got X! Now unless she is marrying a Xerox machine or some fool adds X in the beginning of his name to impress the numerology gods, I think she just wasted 5 mins of online time!

To my fortune cookie/mystic meg addicts
‘Your day today will be exactly like the last 9479 days of your life’. That’s what the real fortune cookie should say. But then when has the fortune cookie ever said the truth? And the only bad and good news you can get on the same day is ' You will get fired today but they will compensate by giving you 3 months salary in advance! So travel for the next 3 months and then come back to an unemployed and jobless life'.

So the solution to all my whines is that I should quit facebook or make new online friends. But like all of you reading this, even I am a sucker for all this. So till the day my farm grows bigger than Mexico and my fortune cookie says ‘You will marry Prince William one day and become the Queen of England’, I think I am gonna continue being a facebook addict.

And the cookie crumbles!

Let me hold you for the last time
It's the last chance to feel again
But you broke me, now I can't feel anything.

Passing through a railway station never felt this lonely. So many faces yet not one my memory traces. I wonder what is the story behind each of these faces. Someone who has just been fired, someone who is waiting for get home to their children, someone who is angry with their boss, someone who is looking forward to meeting their loved one. Yet, not one face shows off its true story. Just as my face today.

Oh, it tears me up
I tried to hold on but it hurts too much
I tried to forgive but it's not enough
To make it all okay.

So many places where my happiness is capsuled. Places of love, laughter and joy. These places will always be close to me. But I have to move on. Been driving in reverse gear for too long. Its time to accelerate and speed past those places. These places will remain. But only in my memory as a postcard.

You can't play on broken strings
You can't feel anything
That your heart don't want to feel
I can't tell you something that ain't real

Can a failed romance ever be an open and shut case? I highly doubt that. Because no matter what, how many days and months pass by, memories will catch up with you. The chance of them remotely fading away completely is, well, remote! Exist they do and they will, but no more in glossed and coloured format but in faded sepai shade.

Oh, the truth hurts and lies worse
How can I give anymore
When I love you a little less than before.

Lyrics: James Morrison

Sach ka Samna...for who..the contestants or audiences??

So i was watching this show called 'Sach ka Samna' on Star Plus and was quiet flabbergasted. I mean i wonder why someone in their right frame of mind would go on that show???

To begin with i DON'T think its a big bravery act to come out and sit on that chair and talk about your lies and come clean. I mean if u have so many hidden skeletons in your closet, you should be disclosing this information to the concerned person and not on national TV. If you come on this show to come out clean, you are doing it at the cost of what? A few lakhs won, but a number of feelings hurt too. I mean why do you want to be the butt of jokes and the ridicule your family on a national platform?

In such situations i think one must always go by the rule of weighing the pros and cons. If winning money is your sole objective, then no truth revealed on the show should cause you to break into any sweat. However when i cringe in my seat at some of the questions asked, i wonder how is it for the family/friends? I am sure many confrontations might take place when the episode is over and many of them must be ugly. Some days back i saw an episode where an uncle was asked if he had sex with someone younger than his daugther's age? He answered Yes. I mean c'mon. Why should i know that! And why on earth should his daugther know that??

Also i think Indian audiences have a major issue accepting the kind of truth spilled on the show. I mean a wife accepting that she has thoughts of killing her husband, doesnt that just break the notion of pati vrata patni?? This indian woman is just unacceptable to the indian audience (read men) who have grown up to watch tulsi's and parvati's. Also, the indian male committing adultry wont go down too well with the ladies who consider their husbands as their ideal Ram's and Mihir's(though mihir has had several liaisons, he is still considered ideal husband and i dont knwo why???) That i think is why this show is hard to digest.

However having given my opinion on the show, i dont advocate banning the show at all. Well, simply because i think viewer discreation should be exercised here. C'mon, dont you think our audience is smart enough to judge what should be watched and what not. Afterall T.V comes with a remote. So if you dont like something switch on to the next best reality show on another channel (but please make sure its not Fast and the Gorgeous on MTV or Iss Jungle se mujhe bacchao on Sony). The censors/moral police cannot and should not tell me what i should watch, eat, drink, wear. Leave it to me to know or learn whats good, bad and ugly!

Things i fail to understand...

For all the free time on my hand i had to do some soul searching and meditation and understanding the world around me better...Oh who am i kidding...i was busy playing 'plain lazy'..and thats when i thought i shud atleast try and attempt one of the three mentioned above...and being me i chose the last option first.

So here i am with a list of things i fail to comprehend/understand/figure out...i hope you get the drift

- I dont get it when people say i hate kids...i recommend only 2 hours with my niece and you will feel 10 years lighter...sure they are cute and tiny but beyond that they are also pure entertainment till the time they drop that act and cry...Then you may want to move on to something more entertaining like watching rakhi sawant's swayamwar show.

- And when people say they LOVE potato..like really who are we kidding here...potato is the most pale looking and tasting vegetable. So ya i dont like that fatty substance too much.

- People who dont like pizza shud be excommunicated. They are a breed that should get extinct like the dinosaurs. I mean what is there to not like in a pizza! Chicken good, vegetables good, pizza bread good, cheese gooooooooood.

- Men and their shopping nightmares...ya ya...i know shopping can be quite boring at times..but so can watchin two oversized men fight like kids in a knicker!

- The rains...i cant say i hate them or love them...they always get me all confused. Love them when i am sitting with someone special and sipping hot tea and hate them when i am travelling in a second class compartment of an overcrowded local train.

- Luck...I think it is the most overatted and overused word...it is used when something good happens to you and even bad...so is it a good thing or bad? Are you better off without it or with it?

- Sci-Fi movies...sure they have great visual appeal but if u ask me i think thats all they have. Sometimes the I robot or alien does better acting in these movies than the person who is supposed to save human race from these monsters. And they probably run out of budget for a storywriter, having spend their last penny on special effects and animation which is why none of them have a good script. Its the same ol' plot. Its not like i am a sucker for the mush movies, but sometimes you do need that totally unadulterated nonsence movie.

- Shah Rukh Khan...the question is - Is he homo or hetro or bi or alien???

Thats all! (a la Meryl Streep from Devil wears Prada)

Things about me I dont think you know

1) I hate tablets....for the longest time I would ask a doctor to give me medicines only in the syrup form (wish I could still do it!)
2) I have shoplifted once...and not been caught..no i am not proud of it or ashamed...I blame "teenage hormones"!
3) When i enter a restaurant for snacks, i always order sada dosa (since age 9!)
4) Nothing cheers me up like strolling in a mall (yeah i know it may be very uncool to some but not for me) I think i am a shopoholic...sigh!
5) When Titanic was released, I was madly in love with Leonardo (who wasnt!!). For a whole year I kept buying notebooks that had Leo on its front page and he is the only actor whose poster I ever brought. (yeah..ok, judge me)
6) I have a doll that is almost 20 yrs old which would be my 1st gift to my child (boy or girl)
7) I hate cats...i think they are manipulative and greedy (maybe its the way they look)
8) I LOVE driving...even in traffic jams
9) I had a huge crush on Sean Paul (Baby boy fame) during my college years
10) I analyse and over analyse too much...and i hate 'Me' time coz i will use that time to analyse some more
11) I love bugging my mom...and i can talk to her for hours...she Loves me..i am sure..:)
12) I am writing a novel called GALS since the last 10 yrs...started it in my 10th std but yet to finish it.
13) I have too many close friends...rest assured i will have a big entourage of bridesmaids on my wedding day
14) I used to love kids of all ages..now after a niece i like them when they are older than 6 months becoz all i see my 4 month niece do is sleep...and watching her sleep all day is NO fun!
15) I love gifts and love gifting and i do believe you dont need an occasion to gift (i hope i have hinted enough)
16) FRIENDS is a show I can watch nonstop for days
17) I can't remember lyrics of any song, hence I make up my own lyrics, almost always. For the same reason I am not included in Antaksharis anymore..:(
18) I hate Maths
19) When in doubt, i mentally still play the 'oh god please tell me' game
20) I still have a stamp collection, wrapper collection, coin collection, doll collection and even thread collection!
21) I have travelled in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Sikkim, Calcutta and Himachal Pradesh till date. Evidently..i LOVE travelling
22) I like the smell of nail polish and hate the smell of paint
23) I am totally a winter person and not at all a morning person
24) I knew you were expecting another point only becoz you think it should end at 25...but stick a fork in me coz I'm done!!

3…2….1….and Rolling

The media is useless…media should be banned…media is causing all this trauma….media is acting irresponsible….media this media that…..

In the last few months I have heard a LOT of media bashing…so much so, some people have even tagged me as "the mediaperson" to be beware of. Everytime a crisis situation arises in our country, the media and politicians are the first targets. While it is the latter that should be held more responsible for problems in our country, I don't realize why some people cry foul at the media.

For starters, Media is just a medium. It is not the authority. So whatever is said and suggested by the media, it is just the voice of a number of people. Everyone enjoys pointing a finger at the media, but has anyone ever wondered the hardship that media goes through?? To talk about the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks, people were all out blaming media. If we were so bad and irresponsible, why were millions of Indians glued to news channels for all 3 days. Couldn't they have switched their channel to saas bahu serials. If you don't like what you see, u have the choice to change it by the click of a button. The truth is you wanted the news but it needed to be according to your taste. In a country with millions its very difficult to serve news according to each individual taste.

I am not glorifying media but I am fed up of this media bashing. I do agree that there are times where media has faltered, but then there are many times were media's interference has caused a lot of help than harm. Like the Jessica Lal murder case. Had it not been for media blowing the case out of proportion maybe her real killers would be sitting in another bar today and shooting some more innocent girls. Even to talk about the recent attacks, had it not been for media adding pressure on the politician's, maybe even today RR Patil and Deshmukh would still be in their respective positions and allowing the blasted sites as locations for some movie.

I personally hate it when people look at me and say "you media people" like i am some sort of alien from another planet. We are people just like you. We report for people. Not many understand the dynamics of this job. On one hand you may not want to stick the mike on the face of someone who has just lost their husband in an attack but on the other hand you have 20 other channels who are doing the same thing. And if you don't do it then you have you senior editor telling you why you dint get that "exclusive". The truth is even you like to hear these stories. Stories of survivors, stories of people who have lost near and dear ones. But when we do interview them you call us "insensitive". They say media is a double edged sword and I do agree with that. What media needs to know is which side of the sword to use and when.

Love – That beautiful and ugly feeling!!!

Before you think here we go again…another article on Love…hold that thought…coz this not a preachy article but a first hand report of a person who WAS in love….and NO that person is not Me!!!

Well…this is the story of one of my very close friends…a person who people looked up to as someone with a steady mind, someone who was a practical and balanced person, someone who always had her head on her shoulders, someone who people could count when they lost control of their life, someone who never wore her heart on the sleeve, someone sensible….till Love struck her.

Someone said ‘the best poems are written when in pain, and the best poets are the ones who have experienced heartbreak.’ How true that someone was. Because if you go by what my friend say’s she experienced in love, you will believe every word said in this phase.

When she watched people in love and saying I’ll do anything for you, she would laugh!....”bullshit I’ll do anything for him” was her reply….till she met her boyfriend. Having had boyfriends before, it’s not like she had not experienced the whole romantic feeling. But like they say ‘the intensity of love is best felt when in Love’. Here was a guy totally mismatched for her. Nothing in him or abt him wud have fit into her “typical” boyfriend category. He was a flirt, sweet talker, charmer from the word go, dishonest and of a diff religion to add to the list. Yet, knowing well before getting into the relationship that she is only gonna burn her hands in this relationship, she cudnt help but say YES to him. He slowly grew on her. And she felt that she needed him more than he needed her. Suddenly she was possessive abt him more than he was. The usual couple fights also added to the charm in the relationship. Her callertunes wud reveal her state of mind. A ‘Ya Rabba’ wud mean that she just had a fight and a ‘Your still the One’ wud mean that things are lovey-dovey.

And then the separation period started. Despite her best attempts, distance was something she cudnt cover up. Gradually they separated. But not before the unbearable pain and trauma that she under went that took her one yr to get over with. The nights were never ending and the tears just kept flowing like alcohol in an open bar. Life she thought cud never be the same…she cud never be the same.

So why do I write about love u ask….well simply to let people know that love is that heady feeling that gives you all the ecstasy you want to take you to a height you’ve never thought existed and also drop you so low that the only things surviving over there would be the decayed and rotten creatures of the earth. "But at the end of the day it is better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all… Love is the feeling of reaching the doors of heaven….a hunger that is more difficult to conquer than the hunger of bread"… These are not my words, this is what my friend says….and I say Amen to that!!

Hmmmmm.......

Some like it big, some like it small. Some like it hard, some like it soft. Some like it coloured, some like it dotted. Well….....I like it in ALL shapes and sizes!!!

I must make one true confession before I die and that is I LOVE BAGS AND SHOES…I have a passion for fashion... I am a sucker for them and have a huge soft corner for bags of all sizes, textures and colours. And I love shoes also in all types of heels, variety and colours…I know all the men reading this must be yawning by now and goin ‘wat is the big deal about shoes and bags’. That is precisely why I thought I shud dedicate a post on them. I don’t understand how men don’t understand that bags and shoes are as important as skin is to the human body! If I don’t have them with me, I feel naked…and it is not the mere thing of wearing them, they need to be sophisticated and stylish too.

I am so obsessed with them that I removed all my footwear from the rack recently to click a snap of them so that it is easier to know if a pair is missing. And while I was marveling and admiring at my wonderful and humongous collection I heard my dad in the background say “You have too many footwear lady. See you have 6 of them in black and two of the same kind.” Now what my innocent dad did not notice or bother to notice was that those 6 pairs in black were of different heels, cuts and fabric. And also the 2 pair of sneakers that he said were same where actually of Different colours!!! I was appalled at my dad’s lack of observation. But then again I thought maybe any guy would probably say this. Why is it difficult for a man to understand that most women also come with an excess baggage of accessories that includes bags, shoes, belts, earrings and the like??? Is it that bad to invest some of your hard earned money on a nice pair of footwear and/or bags? And what abt the stupid things that men buy like playstation, hair gels, and of course the amount of money they spend on beer!!!

Well for all the women in the world who have a similar sickness (I don’t knw if that word puts me in a gud light) like me, here’s wat I have to say….go splurge girl…coz money can cum and go and so will boys but a bag/shoe that u like today will go out of fashion tomorrow, so pick it up rite now! Life is too long to ponder and fashion changes before you blink.

I think my tombstone should read, ‘Dency Mathew - Died in Pursuit of Happiness…..in Pursuit of MORE bags and shoes’

Man! I feel like a woMAN

So you just saw the guy standing beside you wearing Nike shoes, a Dolce Gabbana shirt with Calvin Klein belt on the latest Levi jeans. Well, you think he’s gay. But hold that thought. He isn’t gay because you just saw him kiss a beautiful girl. A guy who’s not gay yet so stylish. How is that possible?

Metrosexual is thy name. A metrosexual man always looks perfectly put together. He can be in a t-shirt and jeans or heading out to a black tie event. His hair never has a bad day. His nails are always clean. His clothes are perfectly pressed and neatly coordinated. He smells like flowers. He is a normal straight male who possesses qualities of a gay male without being attracted to men.

I found it hard to understand the term metrosexual. But it wasn’t too hard as I had a living example of a metrosexual man in my house. It all began when I noticed that every week my face cream was vanishing more than I was using it. Hence one day I questioned my mom about it. But she flatly denied ever using my cream. It was only a few weeks later that I noticed my brother sitting with his laptop (a typical sign of masculinity- man with his gadget) with his face covered in my cream (a typical sign of femininity – women and her cream) that I uncovered the mystery behind my vanishing face cream. I wanted to laugh at this pretty sight, but it was then that I realized that it was foolish on my part to think that men cannot groom themselves. I would often find my brother applying moisturizers and lotions to his face. He even had a hand and feet cream to help keep them soft and smelling good always – something that I never had or bothered to buy. It was only on the day that he brought himself a ‘pink’ shirt that I was convinced that there was more to my brother’s feminine taste than what meets the eye. He had not only crossed the line of masculinity but also surpassed the line of femininity!

I was getting more and more intrigued by this sudden development of feminine tastes in my brother’s choices. So I decided to do a little investigation into his life. One day as I was on my way back home from college, I saw my brother walk into a Lakme salon. In normal circumstances, I would have not even raised an eyebrow. But the fact that this was my brother’s second visit to the salon in one month got me a little curious. I walked right in too, in the pretext of finding the rates of the salon for a haircut. And Voila! What do I see? My brother sitting with a female attendant doing his eyebrows. This sight was enough for me to fall flat on the floor. But the sight of three other men in the salon in similar situation and one man waxing his hands made me want to run from the place to a place where men are still men and are still hairy!!!

The term metrosexual was coined by British journalist Mark Simpson in 1994 to refer to a new breed of young metropolitan males who had a strong aesthetic sense and spent a great deal of time and money on their appearance and lifestyle. Not surprisingly, magazines eagerly pounced on it and used the expression. The word became more popular after Simpson wrote an article in 2002 projecting the soccer star David Beckham as a metrosexual man. David Beckham soon became the epitome of this new cult of males- a man who wasn’t afraid to show off his feminine side without losing his masculinity. Metrosexuality was considered a western phenomenon and was thought to be existent only in America. However, it was not too long ago that the Indian markets also capitalized on this phenomenon and made heterosexual males like Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan into metrosexual males. In fact, recently Shah Rukh Khan even appeared in a soap advertisement with rose petals surrounding him in a bath tub and now he is considered the icon of Indian metrosexual.

In today’s world, a physically attractive personality is very important. Men don’t want to be far behind in this race and want to walk with women if not overtake them. There are more salons opened for men today than before. There are also more men visiting them and having a pedicure, manicure and facial than before and they don’t have any qualms admitting it. These are the guys with whom you shop till you drop. They can discuss fashion, will notice your great new shoes and buy their grooming products from the same places you do. You can actually ‘talk’ to these guys about something other than sports, cars and other traditional male interests. Being metrosexual is almost synonymous to being stylish.

Some of the things that clearly distinguish a metrosexual male from a heterosexual are:
They own 20 pairs of shoes, half a dozen pairs of sunglasses, just as many watches and they carry a man-purse. They see a stylist instead of barbers because barbers don’t do highlights. They shave more than just their face. They also exfoliate and moisturize. They can’t imagine a day without hair styling products and would rather drink wine than beer.

Metrosexual men are a phenomenon that we cant run away from. These men are here to stay. Whether it is a strategic tactic used by the fashion and media industry is still debatable. Yet these men are all around us. In our college, offices, locality etc as our friend, boyfriend or even maybe your Brother!

So next time you bump into a guy who is cool, smart, attractive, stylish and cultured, don’t be afraid to ask him out for a date. Take my word. He’s not gay, but just ‘METROSEXUAL’.

My Mumbai or Yours??

Well...i dont need to explain too much into why i write this post...i hope i can be the voice of every true MUMBAIKAR.....

With all this hooplah-hoo about whose mumbai is it anyway...i wud just like to say both Raj Thackarey and Amar Singh are idiots....this is neither the land of maharashtrians nor of UP-Biharis...this is the land of the Koli's...the original inhabitants of Mumbai...wen they have no issue with the influx of non koli's into the city who the hell is raj thackarey to object...

People shud stop claiming Mumbai as their own..this city is the melting point of a lot of cultures,religions,languages and traditions....and i think that is the USP of the city...it accomadates every person and braces them as their own....

I have lived in Delhi for nearly a year and i cudnt feel more out of place...though a highly cosmopolitant city with an amazing infrastruture to its credit, i cudnt feel more homeless....i guess being born and brought up in mumbai u fall in love with the city and its people...My native land is Kerala and i cant connect with tht state either...i will probably never feel connected to it except for the fact tht it is my native land...

It pinches wen you see morons on the roads playing a thug of war for my city....it does not belong to an individual or religion or caste or language...it belongs to anyone who wants to fall in Love with the city...anyone who is willing to absorb himself/herself into the city's culture and pace...
if not ur not welcome to my city.....be it north indians, south inidans ,west indians or east indians...

If only the city could talk....its exact words wud be 'BUG OFF!'