Thursday 7 May 2015

Romedy Now- Ruining Rom-Coms!

I can say that I was the happiest person to know that Romedy Now - a TV channel dedicated to airing movies from the genre "Romantic Comedy or Rom-Coms"- was finally available on Tata Sky!!

And I don't even watch TV. I only watch it for news, sports events and one or two shows that I like to record and watch with my mother. That's about it.



But when I finally saw Romedy Now on the Tata Sky dashboard, I was ecstatic. During the past few days, I discovered that whenever I put the channel, there is a good movie coming which I instantly start watching and then put the next 3-4 on record. Because honestly, Rom-Coms are the best! I totally adore them - they leave me feeling good about friendships, cute relationships and emotions and sometimes bad such as "oh I wish I had such a friend/relationship in my life". But overall, I just connect to them and flow with these kind of movies.

HOWEVER, welcome to Romedy Now - an Indian channel- which has ruined the experience for me! This is what I observed:

1) I am watching this movie, it's going really well. The lead pair is forming a good friendship, there's chemistry and it is all building up to something. Really eager to see how they come together. The scene is going well and BAM. Cut to a random scene. What just happened? Where are we? Oh, they kissed. AND our dear Indian TV Censor Board cut that out entirely! I felt like whaaaaat? And I know this is lame but they were not even anywhere near a bed! They were just kissing- and it was all cut off. No No No, we can't watch two humans in love, kissing each other! What are you saying?

2) Again, another day: Watching a movie. Into the plot. Following the story, ok great. Suddenly there is this woman and there is some hazy thing over her breasts. I wasn't even looking at that and now I have forgotten what was happening and I am focusing on this censored cleavage, wondering what could it be that it had to be censored off like that? Lot of cleavage? Boobs were too big? Boobs weren't the same size? Like WHAT was the problem? And then I am like shit missed what happened there. I wouldn't even have noticed that or thought about it for that long had they not censored it?!! (Oops I have written about Boobs=Breasts on a public platform. Yikes, bye bye blog, I will miss you)



What does this mean? We can watch women in Bollywood jiggle their everything, sing weird double meaning songs with a bunch of leching guys around and some movies which project sick views of how women be treated in society - blame the victim, beti pariyi hoti hai, all that bullshit. But we cannot, no cannot, watch two humans expressing a kiss? Wait, that has to do something with us being Indians and having double standards?

I just cannot understand the reason behind censoring stuff on Romedy Now. Is it because they think if people will watch it, they'll try replicating it? Just like replicating other things shown in Indian movies- how to rob a bank, cheat people, back bitch, rape, murder, become a gangstar, get high on drugs. Those are not censored or no disclaimers are run - is consensual kissing by two adults in love, so horrible that it can corrupt the minds of Indians??

Or do they think by not showing these things, people will never know of kissing, boobs, love, sex..? What you don't see, you don't know?

All humans have done
what they have to do
at the right age and time
irrespective of their geographic location
and across centuries! Should I really be bringing up the Kamasutra point here?

Talk about things- make people learn and understand - banning will not achieve whatever these censorship people are trying to achieve (I have no idea). Ban this/Censor that, someone will find a way to it.  Please focus on banning stupid speeches by some daft Indian politicians or discrimination on the basis of one's skin colour? This video by Hollyshit - a Youtube channel-sums up what we should really be banning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dChNC-ob4


*Sigh* To watch or not to watch, that is the question. Watching each scene with the FEAR OF MISSING OUT. #FOMO.


Thursday 23 April 2015

Styling it up with Chanderi Tiramisu

2015: the year of weddings for me! So many of my friends got married this year and it was great attending the weddings. Mainly for two reasons:

1. I love dancing
2. I love dressing up!

I got the opportunity to choreograph a couple of my friends' sangeets. That was super fun- choosing songs, choreographing and then teaching it to all the friends! I met so many people and made new friends. :)

I am super excited about dressing up for weddings- I believe in going all for it! Where else do all the pretty and fancy Indian clothes come to use? My pillar of support was mine and my mom's venture: Chanderi Tiramisu www.facebook.com/chanderitiramisu. We create sarees and kurtas-both formal/wedding wear and casual chic. Following are the looks I adorned:

1. Anarkali Style Suit

I wore this neon orange anarkali for different functions- went with Mehandi and Sangeet as well. I liked the vibrant feel and the good fit. I teamed it with a 'passa' (head jewellery mainly used in sufi style).

                                                    That is me second from left, dancing with the girl gang




















2. Lehenga with Brocade and Velvet. 

The best part about this lehenga is its light weight. It looks royal according to me and is easy to wear. Moreover, I love how I feel in it :D


3. White Net Saree

This is the coolest saree I have worn. I felt so comfortable in it. It is my perfect companion for day weddings. I wore it for a beach wedding as well as a night function. 



Hope you enjoyed the post!

Monday 23 March 2015

Click For Convenience

How life has changed.

I remember when we went for movies as kids, there were no multiplexes. Single hall cinemas with a long queue for tickets. Tickets in yellow, green or pink paper- I so remember that! There was also a scrambling for the seats once the gates opened.

We then moved to the multiplex culture- and the options were suddenly so many. There were more movies at one go and more choices for a splendid movie watching experience. But the queue for tickets just got worse somehow! To watch a movie, one had to plan pretty early on- calculating the time that would be spent on that queue to just buy the ticket and then to just enter the hall. Also after waiting out in the queue one would reach the counter only to get 'housefull'- one too many times!

Can I imagine doing that to watch a movie in a hall today? Probably not!

With time, came the option of advance booking so we'd visit the cinema hall earlier to purchase the ticket and then come on the day of the show to watch it. In retrospect, I have done a lot to watch movies- haha quite a movie buff I am.

Never could I imagine the convenience of the click of a button on the internet today! With Book My Show, life changed in a jiffy. At first I could call up and book my movie tickets and later it could just be done online with the choice of my seat. What could be any better?

27 Coupons! (http://www.27coupons.com/) We all like our dose of online coupons which makes purchasing online more attractive and favourable! With nearly 25 offers for Book My Show, including getting a free ticket, discounts on ticket price and cash back options, 27 coupons has offers you can't refuse!

The best part is the transparency in the written text- what the offer is, whom is it applicable for, till when it lasts- all there in one sentence. That's quite convenient! For a direct link to the offers, one can visit http://www.27coupons.com/stores/bookmyshow.com/.


These services today have made things less complicated and more in our hands. What we want to do, when we do it and how we want to do it. Leaving time for more things to do! Haha.

With Make My Trip, I can check flights for anywhere, make my bookings and pay online. They even have turned into a travel agent, where you can not only check out various places but also book packages with Make My Trip. 27 Coupons has offers for this site as well. Usually, a purchase on this website is a big ticket item like flight tickets or hotel bookings- and discounts on these is the icing on the cake a consumer is looking for! I personally liked the 6% cash back on minimum purchase of Rs. 5,000 which 27 Coupons has here: http://www.27coupons.com/stores/makemytrip.com/. And again, the terms and conditions are laid out clearly.



I like technology and I like how everything can be simplified further. While we are happy with a website for making bookings online, we also want some incentive to. 27 Coupons provides just that!

I just followed them on Twitter to keep myself updated on the offers to not miss any opportunity for a good deal :D



Thursday 19 March 2015

Lucknow Food Trail


Lucknow. I was intrigued to visit this city which is known for its amalgamation of different cultures. Got a chance to visit thanks to a good friend's wedding! It was an exciting trip with a dash of heritage and lots of yummy food!



In this post, I want to mainly focus on the food aspect, because OMG, each meal was finger licking good (yes, KFC's tagline but 10 times better than KFC :P)

First of all, the foodie in me got a taste of yummy vegetarian (read Baniya/Jain) food at my friend's house: jeera aloo, kadi, rice, roti, paneer and what not! Each dish had its own flavour and was a delight to savour!


We then had an agenda to taste the famous Tunday Kebab of Lucknow. Got to Aminabad and reached Tunday Kebabi. The prices! Rs. 32 for 4 beef kebabs, at this day and age! Highly under priced..haha we never get such prices in Delhi.. Well, prices apart, the kebabs were delicious. Perfectly melt-in-the-mouth and spiced yummily (if that's a word!). We also had mutton galauti kebabs, sheermal and mughlai parantha. Satisfied, we left to try the next dish.





Finding a "Ram ji" food shop was not tough in the same lane. We stopped for our vegetarian friend, who tried kachauri with chole and veg kebabs. Honestly, I dug into that too and it had amazing flavour. In Lucknow, food is delicious, whatever you have!

We then tried the famous Prakash Kulfi, which was phenomenal- great taste and just the right quantity!



I always have "mineral water golgappas" in Delhi. In Lucknow, I made an exception. Looking at an awesome street-side golgappa wala who was serving paanch paani golgappas- I flipped! I eagerly tried all of them and sooo glad I did! Each had its own mouth-watering flavour!



Finally, at Chowk, I tried the famous Idris Biryani. Finding it was fun, we kept walking along the street and asking people where it was. It had no name board!




When we reached, we confirmed around us that this was it. Well, the mutton biryani was wonderfully spiced with soft mutton pieces- melt in the mouth experience! What's biryani without digging in your hands?



Paired this up with some delicious lassi from Sri Lassi!







In all, I learnt that in Lucknow:

1. There are only 2-3 items in the menu
2. These items are totally delicious
3. The prices of these items are amazing
4. Service will only take 2 minutes and you'll be well taken care of
5. There are no taxes
6. You leave full, happy and wanting more!


Thank you Vardhman and Akanksha for giving us a chance to savour Lucknow's delicacies!


Monday 9 February 2015

The Murakami Experience

My alma mater never fails to impress me. It is enchanting that I can still learn from my alma mater after four years of graduating. Recently, the Lady Shri Ram College Alumni Association has become quite active and I have volunteered as a Batch Representative for the 2011 batch. I contributed in the organisation of a couple of events- some big scale and others small- and it was a wonderful experience- going back to college and connecting with alumna who graduated anywhere between 1 year to 40 years back!

We started a Book Club recently. (All ELSAs invited to join! http://www.lsralumna.org/become-a-member.php).

The first book was Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. I had never read a Murakami book so first I read up about the author online and found that he is an intriguing author. This book contains short stories - which is an unusual format for me- I prefer novels.

I started reading the first story on a flight. I read the first story and while completely engrossed, by the end of it, I was zapped. It had a meaning, but I couldn't get it. I thought I'll move over to the second one and felt the same again! How I missed Google Search at that moment!! I decided to keep the book aside- what did the connotations mean? Why couldn't I interpret them? Why had the author provided such vague details?



That is the sense of Murakami. Later, I read up online on those stories and found other people who felt like me. I usually need interpretations of ambiguous things- just for my satisfaction. But these stories made me realise that sometimes life has no answers. Murakami picks up instances, experiences and thoughts from daily life of people and gets you so involved in the story. Then, would give you lot of detail but leave out some part on which you would reflect later and keep wondering what could have been! This was my first experience of reading Murakami. I had mixed feelings. But now having read half of the book, I am enjoying this! And not all the stories are that vague, for some, I have found my meaning :D 

He compels people to think of things they might not have paid attention to but are essential parts of their lives. For instance, in "The Mirror", he makes you realize that the biggest fear you can have is yourself. If one tells you that, you wouldn't take it. But when you read this story, it is impressed upon you that how much you control your thoughts and mind- which can influence you! 

That was just one example, but I have had fun reading Birthday Girl, A Perfect Day for Kangaroos, and A Folklore for My Generation too. 

Definitely going to read more by the author! 

Friday 6 February 2015

Pour some "saree" on me, baby!

Sarees look fabulous. In my opinion, sarees really make a woman look and feel great! Also, there are so many fabrics, colours and styles in which one can drape a saree- never a dull moment!

My mother is so passionate about Indian textiles that she visualizes a saree out of any type of material. She transformed this talent to start her fashion design studio called Chanderi Tiramisu- quirky name to keep up with her personality!

Here are 4 looks out of Chanderi Tiramisu's collection of sarees-

Look 1: White chanderi saree with lady motif embroidered- a Stunning statement piece


Look 2: White chanderi saree with red border- Sophisticated traditional



Look 3: Pink neon saree with funky print- Create a splash!


Look 4: Pink saree with bird motif - to keep you cool!

These sarees are available for purchase at www.facebook.com/chanderitiramisu! 
Would love if you visited the page and shared what you thought about our looks!