The Release of "Poo"

This morning's Times of India had an interview with a local actor about the release of his latest movie, Poo. It was an interesting read. 

Here are some of the highlights from the interview-

"I've gained confidence... says actor Srikanth, whose Poo is all set to hit the screens tomorrow."

How crucial is Poo to you? Are you looking forward to its release?

       "Why only Poo? Every project is important to me and I anticipate every release with the same enthusiasm. Poo is my first release after two years and I am excited about it... I am happy 

to have been part of Poo."

      "...I was supposed to do another movie with Sasi, but we had a fall out because of some personal reasons and the project never took off. Now, I have done Poo with him and it's all set to release. Trust me, I have gained confidence after working in Poo."

All said and done, what do you expect from Poo?

       "...Poo is definitely an emotional and feel good entertainer..."

Here is a still from the movie "Poo". I wonder what is in the cup... Prune juice, perhaps?

P.S. - In case you were wondering, "Poo" means "Flower" in our local language - Tamil.

An Ideal Wife

The following is from an actual 1950's home economics book intended for secondary school girls, teaching them how to prepare for married life.

1.Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal - on time. This is way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospects of a good meal are part of the warm 

welcome needed. 

2. Prepare yourself. Take fifteen minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lof of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

3. Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, paper etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too.

4. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces if they are small, comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

5. Minimise the noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad to see him.

6. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lies down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillows and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.

7. Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

8. Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his need to be home and relax.

9. The goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax.

10. Some DONT'S. Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he's late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day. Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity. remember he is the master of the house and as such will always excercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him. A good wife always knows her place.

Funny...

I rarely get good forwards. This one made me laugh really hard. So I thought I would share it.

"Have you heard about the new psychiatric hot-line? When you phone in, you get this message - 

• If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
• If you are co-dependant, please ask someone else to press 2.
• If you have multiple personalities, please press 3,4,5 and 6.
• If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so that we can trace your call.
• If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
• If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer."

My Way, My Truth & My Life

"He knows my name; He knows my every thought; He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call."

I really love this song! It has been one of my all-time favorites since the very first time I heard it.

My friend recently put this up on her status message on Facebook and someone left a comment that said "I wish it were true!" Wow! How it must be to go through life not knowing that those words ARE true! Of course, I've been there too. But right now, I can't even remember a life minus God. He has wiped the slate clean in more ways than one! (People who know me well will understand this statement well - my memory for past events sucks!) I guess what I am saying is that I've gotten so used to leaning on Him that I cannot even imagine life any other way!

Anyways, back to that comment - no wonder so many people take drastic decisions - like suicide, murder, abortion etc. They have no hope that there is someone up there loves them and is waiting to help them. They see their option as the only way out of their problem.They don't realize that THE Way is just waiting for them to call out to Him.

Yes, I have gone through many tough times - no more than any other normal person I am sure - but I cannot claim to have the worst-ever life. But when I sit back and think about the tough times that have gone past and the problems I still face from time to time, I don't know how I would get by if I didn't believe the words of that song; if I didn't have the assurance that He sees me, He knows me, He hears me and He loves me enough to respond when I call out to Him. What an assurance!

Writing this post has strengthened my resolve to do what I need to do. People need the Lord. And I need to tell them about Him.

Hello again!

Well, I know I have been MIA for a long time now. I have been trying so hard to write here but was just not able to come up with ANYTHING! So I thought I would write something - anything - just to get the ball rolling again! So I am sorry if I just ramble on...

On the 3rd of September, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Wow! I can't believe it's been 4 whole years already! Anyways, I spent the whole day cooking a special meal for us to share that night. I made Hainanense chicken rice (complete with sauces & soup), ice lemon tea and chocolate biscuit pudding. When we lived in Singapore, chicken rice and ice lemon tea was something we ate a lot of. So this was sort of our trip down memory lane, remembering our wonderful time in Singapore. The biscuit pudding - don't ask me why I made it. I just did. But it was really good - even if I do say so myself! :o)

The folks at church had a little surprise for us that Sunday. It was really very, very sweet of them. I honestly had no clue what was going on. At the end of our service, one of them took the microphone and asked everyone to remain in their seats. Then out came a gorgeous chocolate truffle cake! After the cake-cutting time, came the gift-giving time! Yay! We received a most unusual gift - a bowl with two goldfish swimming about. Really nice! Then everyone stayed back to fellowship over cake & hot Boost. Finally, we were given a beautiful home-made card which everyone had signed! It was really sweet. For the rest of the week, we continued to receive gifts and cards from people in church. It was very thoughtful & we were really touched!

I am sad to report that both goldfish died within the week! :o( Quite tragic. They died within 24 hours of each other. We had named them (Mojo and Jojo, it seems!) and were starting to get a little attached to them. Well. That's the way it goes, I guess.

Apart from the anniversary, the rest of the month has been pretty normal. Just the usual - home, church & work. Occasionally hung out with friends and family. Oh yeah. And the WOW trip to Hyderabad for the shoot at CBN for the 1cubed episodes. It was fun. It was exhausting. Its a long story. Will save it for another time. Here is a picture though.

Well, I hope this is the start of more regular blogging for me.

The Decline...

I guess this might be old news to some, but like most news, I always find out late. This thing really gets me upset. What am I talking about? www.ashleymadison.com. That's what!

Ashley Madison is an actress who started The Ashley Madison Agency. What does The Ashley Madison Agency do? Well, their slogan says it all - "Life is short. Have an affair." If you are married and live in the USA, Canada or the UK, you are a part of their target audience. "When monogamy becomes monotony", you register with them and they set you up with another married person who is also looking to stray. And the affair begins.

They have been around for five years now. As of May 2008, they had 2 million subscribers to their services! They have billboards all over the place, TV and radio and print ads and these people are making millions of dollars.

They even have a special wing for celebs. They make sure your affairs stay under the carpet where they belong and away from the prying paparazzi. They are even offering free lifetime memberships to a select few A-list celebs. How convenient! Just what Hollywood needs right now!

For people who feel guilty about considering an affair, they even have online articles on their website to help you get over it and get on with it. Oh joy! Articles include "The Myth of Monogamy" and "Responsible non-Monogamy: A Brief Introduction to Polymory". Cheating responsibly? Are you kidding me?!

They even have a glossary available for the cheaters - "Vocabulary: A Glossary of Polymory terms". After all, we all know the importance of having a large and politically correct vocabulary when having an affair! You don't want to offend a fellow cheater by using the wrong technical terminology.

To defend themselves, they use the whole "they are consenting adults" spiel. Really? So if these two adults consent, then they can go ahead and wreck the lives of their non-consenting families? That's ok then.

It's bad enough that people cheat in their marriages. Now they have an agency? I was reading some reviews and one lady commented "If someone is going to cheat, they will cheat - with or without ashleymadison.com." That may be true to an extent, but do we want to make things so easy for them?

I couldn't go through their articles. About halfway through browsing through their site, I think their system suddenly realized that my IP address is not American. So they blocked me out. All I got from them after that was "We are unable to process your request due to your present location." Drat! Now I can't even leave a comment.

From what I read, the general public (with some exceptions, of course) doesn't seem very pleased with the site and many have even broken up with their spouses because they realized that they had accounts with the agency.

How many broken families can be credited to the wonderful work of The Ashley Madison Agency, I wonder?

Moment of Truth

We were watching this show "The Moment of Truth" last night. It is this Truth or Dare sort of game (without the dare) where a person is strapped to a lie detector and asked personal questions. All you have to do is answer every question truthfully in order to win $500,000. To make things worse, you have your family members and friends sitting in front of you listening to you answer questions that sometimes are very hurtful to them. Tough show!

There were all sorts of embarrassing questions about husbands and wives, finances and hairpieces. But the question that struck me the most was "Do you really care about starving children in Africa?" That got me thinking...

Do I care about starving children in Africa? Or do I like myself better when I care about starving children in Africa?

I thought long and hard and I guess that it is not the action that makes a person nice or not nice, it is the motive.

But then again I have to ask - if we all had to have the perfect "nice" motive for doing nice things, then would people who really needed acts of kindness get them or not? Or would the starving children just have to starve to death? Is there a genuinely nice person left in this world who will feed them?

I guess that means fake niceness is better than no niceness at all? But that doesn't sound right to me. I'm confused.

PS - Who defines who is a nice person and who isn't? Is there a World Council for Niceness? Are they the World Council because they are all nice people? What makes them nice? What did they do? Or not do? (I just had to put this part in for the benefit of those who understand.)

Disclaimer - This post has more questions than answers. I may or may not have made a lot of sense. I apologize. This is my frame of mind right now. I may actually disagree with myself later. All permissions to eat own words reserved.

Jerry - A Biography

I can't believe I have been posting about this and that and everything and I still haven't mentioned my favorite dog in the whole wide world!




Meet Jerry.



He is going through a hard time at the moment. In the last 5 months, he has had about 5 surgeries on his eye. He is now blind in his left eye. Lost his right hind leg because this quack doctor gave him a shot in the wrong place and hit a nerve. Now his hind leg is completely paralyzed.

On some days, he is quite down in the dumps and mopes around the house (can you blame him?). But most of the time he is a happy, hungry dog.

He is never full. He will eat as long as you can keep the food coming. "What does he eat?" you ask? Not dog food - that's for sure! He only eats what we eat. He enjoys dosai, bread, chapathis, puris etc. Not a big rice lover - but then again, neither am I. He loves any sort of meat, eggs and is an absolute fiend for anything sweet. He is kinda fat, as you can see!

He loves his bone. He even protects when he is asleep sometimes. He has never bitten anyone in his life but the closest he has come to snapping at someone is when I tried to pry the bone out of his paws. Even then, he would never bite anyone.

He hates it when people come to our house and don't pay any attention to him. The minute you pat him on the head and say hi, he becomes your best friend.

He hates being home alone and gets very upset the minute he hears the jingling of the house keys in my hand. He whines as we leave. The minute we walk back in the door, he is the happiest, waggiest dog! He doesn't walk, but prances and leaps for the next 5 or 10 minutes.

He understands most things we say, but chooses to pretend like he doesn't so he doesn't have to obey. I especially love the way he looks at me with his head cocked to one side when I say something he really doesn't understand. It is very, very cute. Take my word for it. I talk to him a lot - usually when there's no one else around.

He doesn't normally live with us. He lives with my in-laws. We are just taking care of him while he is being treated for his eye problems. He is almost completely fine and he will go soon.

I really don't know what I am going to do without him!




PS - Its been one month since I started blogging and I am glad I haven't already quit. Yay!!!