Of hope, change and the future

Had a blast on New Years Eve! Went to the shore to drown my worries and returned high on a cocktail of hope and anticipation.

I finally got the coveted job offer and this new step in my professional career promises to be better than I had ever imagined. Having officially said good-bye to my old job, I have now been catapulted into day-dreaming of a new apartment, a new car and shopping for career outfits. And of course… the fun stuff - paper work, drug testing and immigration issues. What’s worse is that my mom has also landed in dream-world and calls me from across the world every few minutes to advise me on what kind of refrigerator to purchase. No, I am not complaining. I couldn’t have asked for a better beginning to the year.

I started the year with 2 movies – ‘The Butterfly Effect’ and ‘Children of Men’. Both of which revolve around future and change – working towards making things better in life and living in the anxiety that they might not.

The Butterfly Effect – born out of Chaos theory deals with Ashton Kutcher’s celluloid life where he has the power to change little details of his past. He tries over and over to aim these precise changes at making his life ‘normal’ and repeats his early 20s in an assortment of scenarios. If only he had tried as many times to improve his acting skills, I wouldn’t feel like I was watching re-runs of ‘That 70s Show’. Every life he lives only gets worse, teaching a meddler his lesson. A great point is made – albeit a little late. On the DVD – Don’t forget to watch the Director’s cut!

Children of Men displays a future when humans, plagued by infertility, have stopped procreating and the youngest human (a celebrity simply by virtue of his birth) is murdered. Riots break out in the world that’s already in a state of dystopia. Clive Owen is now in charge of protecting a recently discovered pregnant immigrant in fascist Britain. His performance moves you as his indifference meanders into belief and he hopes to see the silver lining among the smog-laden clouds. The attention to detail and the excellent cinematography will make you run for cover in a bullet-strewn world waiting to combust. As a story, it might leave a few questions unanswered. Approach it as a ‘cautionary tale’ and it will have you riveted.

Let’s hope it’s a happy new year and an optimistic future ahead! :)

Entry-level Insanity

After months of tailoring my resume, cover letters (and other quintessential career related writing) to carry all the appropriate 'key-words', 'action verbs', 'transferable job skills' (as if coming up with a list of regular skills wasn't stressful enough) and walking the thin line between high self-esteem and vanity; I've finally been getting the calls for interviews. It kinda sounds like getting an interview is my goal in life – but I assure you I have bigger things in mind!

I have gotten compliments on my confidence. But I think my desperate attempts at 'action-o-fying my verbs' to present the right 'working image' mask my nervousness. (Interview tip here people!). And I've been on so many interviews now that before my interviewer has even formed the question, I have started to babble on about how I analyzed, clarified, determined, evaluated, formulated, gathered, investigated, located, measured, organized, researched, solved, summarized and tested - and alphabetically at that! (At times I throw in 'beseeched', 'knelt' and 'wept' for good measure).

Also, I can never tell if my interview was good or bad. I guess the fact that no one has called with any rejects is good. Or maybe it was so bad that they're too busy laughing at me to call back!

Balancing all the interviewing (preparations, traveling, dressing up, going-to-the-loo-20-million-times-out-of-nervousness included) along with my current work definitely takes its toll on my 12-hour days (I don't have the time to change the fused light bulb in my room and I have no choice but to sleep when it's dark). And not to mention all the time I spend day-dreaming about the jobs, thinking of new answers to "So, how's the job search going?" and waiting indefinitely by the phone for call-backs!

How will I ever fit lackluster tasks like cooking and cleaning into my schedule? Thank god for my south-indian roots that I can enjoy eating curd and rice every single day and spare my neighbor's garbage bins. As for the cleaning, I count jumping over clothes and books and empty yogurt containers as my daily exercise. Also, I shower with my eyes closed 'cuz the walls in my bathroom are turning black from the mold and the mildew. If those walls could talk, I'm sure they'd rap! Anyway, if it isn't going on my resume, I'm not wasting my time doing it!

Life is a roller coaster

Life is a roller coaster!! One minute I'm up… and the next I come plummeting down to the ground at speeds deemed impossible by physicists.

I have always been thrilled at not knowing what's around the next corner. The thrill of not knowing what I'm gonna knock into - maybe a closed door, maybe a broom or maybe just fall into a bush with thorns for good measure. And I've had the same outlook for larger things in life – school courses, career, love-life, a larger bush.

In research experiments, I was always told – change one variable at a time. That's what makes the change easy to understand and control. But at this point in my life, suddenly EVERYTHING is changing and all of these aspects HAVE to work out just right. I'm taking all the tests at the same time - and this time around I didn't get any preparatory leave and no one's offering grace marks!

I claim to be busy. And, I am. But, I think my mind is busier than my brain. I analyze, brood, dream, repent, anticipate and blame myself. When I'm done with that, I find someone else to blame.

Be brave is what they say. Remain Seated. Keep arms and legs inside the car at all times. And that's what I'm gonna do. Hoping that patience and perseverance are in for the ride too!

Dating a Star Wars fan

Warning: Requires a certain quantity of familiarity with the Star Wars 4, 5 & 6. If it’s just entirely perplexing – I hope you’ll see my point and empathize.

• Dinner dates often include McDonald’s happy meals in order to collect the Star Wars figurines.

• When you ask him to pass the salt, he closes his eyes, breathes deeply, and tries to 'force pull' it across the table.

• Don’t order food that’s too spicy. There might be a great disturbance in the Force.

• Watching the sunset is often accompanied by him humming the Imperial March.
  

• Every casual conversation has comparisons drawn to Star Wars.

• ROTJ, ROTS are commonly used abbreviations. Educate yourself.

• You are often referred to as Commander and Master and are always complimented as “Impressive. Very Impressive”

• He takes you watch the trilogies and the spin-offs and nit-picks more than George Lucas ever could.

• He takes you to Toys “R” Us to shop for his baby nephew. But, actually buys the Star Wars toys for himself.

• He opens automatic doors for you by waving his hand and claims to use the force. Well, at least chivalry isn’t dead.

• Planning long trips often have references to ‘a galaxy far, far away...’

• Let him know if you’re having an asthma attack. He might think you’re being Darth Vader.

• Every magazine you own is rolled up and used as a light saber.

• He’d love it if you wore cinnamon buns on the sides of your head

• He ends every date with “May the Force be with you.” And yeah - Don’t underestimate the Force!

• When you say “I love you”, he replies “I know”. (Harrison Ford has ruined this for me!!)

• If you don’t know the POWER of the dark side – Pretend.

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Haze

The rain falls in tender drops -
The ones that barely show
As if the clouds can't commit
To holding back or letting flow

Tulips look up in disdain
Petals in partial bloom
Judging the worth of the wait
Doubting a vision will ever loom

Will it remain an endless pause
To estimate and to assess
Will it lure a full-grown storm
Or continue to be nothingness

Oft I walk these gloomy streets
In the misty cold
Hosting suspicions
Not knowing what is to unfold

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Mummies and Blogthings

Deadlines lurk. I'm now an Egyptian Mummy i.e. I'm pressed for time!

Also a Blogthing says:

You are both very knowledgeable and creative.
You tend to be full of new ideas and potential - big potential.
Ideas like yours could change the world, if you build them.
As long as you don't stop working on your dreams, you'll get there.

So, I now need to focus these creative writings of mine towards some knowledgable reports, portfolios and business correspondence. And hope that people other than those at blogthings also notice my big potential and world-changing ideas!

Of course, amidst all the work if my pen decided to pour out a poem... I'll be right here to share it. But, these would have to be few and far-between. Also, my beta-blogger doesn't behave all the time and doesn't like me commenting on other non-beta blogs - biting a large chunk of pleasure right out of blogging!

Need to get back to working on my dreams and my sense of humor (refer egyptian mummy comment above). Let's hope I get there - wherever there might be - very soon!

_

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane: Hype over matter served with extra cheese!

*Spoiler warning* Yeah... like I could spoil it further!

The title pretty much explains the movie. Okay, we have a plane. We have snakes. How the snakes get on the plane involves an inane plot thinner than Raveena Tandon’s chiffon saree in the rain!

11 Things I learnt about Snakes (and Planes):

1. Snake-vision is green, twisted and totally wicked!! Even National Geographic never gave you this perspective!
2. Non-poisonous snakes suddenly manufacture venom when on a plane in the sky.
3. Snakes prefer traveling coach. They can’t seem to slither into first class.
4. A ménage-a-trio with a snake might sound interestingly kinky. But it might end up leaving you green and full of pustules and o yes... dead!
5. Look before you leap pee. Snakes lounge around in the toilet lavatories and your unmentionables could be snake-snack.
6. After a Chihuahua as an appetizer, pythons prefer swallowing sarcastic bald men for main-course. Can't help it if you're balding... I’d suggest working on your personality before confronting pythons.
7. The rest of the snakes believe in equal opportunity. M/F/D/V/cat/dog
8. Snakes like to coil up with the oxygen masks. Would you like some venom to go with that O₂?
9. You don’t have to worry too much about snake bites on the arm. They only cause popeye-arm-a-litis – easily taken care of by an earring and olive oil.
10. Snakes can be destroyed by gun-shot, by electrocution, by blow-torch, by fire-extinguisher and by microwave. Uttering “who’s your daddy?” hasn’t proven as effective.
11. X-box experience and a sense of humor is all you need to land a plane.

Apart from its highly educational matter (as mentioned above)... there is everything the movie-lover craves –

Romance: Samuel L. Jackson and Julianna Margulies in a steamy cockpit – discovering their common pyromaniac characteristics.

Suspense: Tracking down the multitude of anti-venoms for the rapidly dying passengers.
If only Mr. Jackson could tell the difference between greenish-blue snakes, bluish-green snakes and the ones that are colored teal, the search would’ve been so much faster!

Horror: Provided by pythons, rattle-snakes, cobras, gruesome looking dead bodies and Samuel Jackson’s kick-ass expressions.

Memorable dialogues:
“AAAAAAAHH”
“Help! Help!”
“Is he going to die?”

And of course, the mother of all dialogues –
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these ******-****in’ snakes on this ******-****in’ plane!”

Tear-jerking moments: Snake-bitten, Keith Dallas poignantly exclaims “My ass. My ass, man!”
The paramedics rushed to the scene just in time. *sigh of relief*

Thrills: Snakes attack. People scream. Repeat. Repeat again. And again.
And don’t let the so-called banal dialogues mislead you. Get the Hubble Telescope. You just might discover the thrill factor!

My $0.02:

Go with rowdy friends capable of witty comments.
Fasten your seatbelts and take off with snakes of every breed known and digitally-designed.
If the movie gets to be too much to take... don’t fret. As the air-hostess would say – Exits are to the right and left of the theatre.

_