Of Dancing and Rain.....

I went to Boston Bhangra's annual dance competition last Saturday. My roommate is the bhangra fan. I just went along for kicks...and because I have not yet learnt to say no. I fully expected to :
a). get bored
b). develop a headache

Neither happened. It was a very cool competetion. The dancing was of the highest quality. I had a great time..the sheer energy of the dancers was unbelievable. A good time was had by all. Rounded off by a fantastic falafel sandwich at the best hole-in-the-wall falafel place in Cambridge. Its called Falafel Palace. And I highly recommend it. Best 5 bucks I ever spent.

Now for the gripes:

1). The acoustics sucked..I mean majorly, majorly sucked.
2). We had terrible seats...but thats because we were cheap. I will never ever try to save money on seats again. Also, people kept getting up and walking. Why? I mean...you'll sit in your seat at the fucking ballet. Why not just extend the same courtesy here. Grrr!
3). Why can't we find decent desi Emcees? They had 2 DJs who seemed to think walking with a swagger and talking of samosas is all it takes. I haven't been to a single desi event with decent emceeing. Do we, as a nation, suck at the ancient art of Emceeing? I think we do. Sadly. I think every desi MC should be made to watch Harsha Bhogle do his quiz show.
4). The girl seated behind me had the shriekiest voice ever...which she employed to good effect. Very often.
5). It rained and rained and rained. Since I was parked a 15 minute walk away...we were soaked. Try sitting in a crowded auditorium with wet socks. Not fun.
6). A very drunk, slightly psychopathic man yelled racial slurs at us as we walked back. But if you walk through Boston Commons late Saturday night..I think you're asking for atleast a coupla drunks. So, it didn't put a crimp in my evening. More like a slight twinge of annoyance. Like a mosquite bite.

On the whole..an evening well spent. And a special shout out to the all girls team from Vancouver. They didn't win anything. But they should've. They completely rocked!

Poetic justice..

Gallo's out in the cold! That roar you hear is probably Montagnier laughing! Either that or Palin made another gaffe and Katie Couric is giggling rather loudly.

Ha!

Read and enjoy!

Needless to say, I am waiting with bated breath for today's debate. Never mind that the moderator is "already in the tank" for Obama. 

These times are fraught with excitement, they are! I'm glad I wasn't born in a different age. I wouldn't have missed the Palin-ization of us for anything.

On with the show!

Jaane tu...

I had to watch it of course. I loved the songs. And Imran Khan is cute. And considering the offerings of the last few months have been Sarkar Raj, Thoda Pyar Thoda magic and crapola of the same ilk, I HAD to watch it.

And its not too bad. Its witty and light and frothy for most part. Until the ugly boyfriend gets abusive and everything gets all angsty. Here's what got my goat. I have been humming Kabhi Kabhi Aditi for the last month or so. ..its eminently hummable. And then I find out about 5 minutes into the movie that its about getting over a dead cat. WTF? A dead cat!

I also felt like Meghna's character was straight out of Wodehouse. Madeleine Basset-she who thought stars were God's daisy chain and the like. Except she didn't have the bitchy parents that Meghna has. Rajat Kapoor and Kitu Gidwani in a dinner scene straight out of Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf.

And Jai realizing he was seeing himself and not his father in his dreams-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry realizes he was the one casting the Patronus in his dream..not his Dad. Hmm. Coincidence?

Also, whoever translated the dialogues into English is a freakin' genius. Did a pretty good job of it. Like when Arbaaz and Sohail exit the jail and thank the policeman, the translation reads Muchos gracias. Or when Jai realizes he was seeing himself in his dreams, the subtitles read epiphany. I almost fell out of my chair. Epiphany! Where have the days of " When love calls" (Maine Pyar Kiya) gone? Remember, pigeon go..go..go? Well, to be fair the original was kinda lame as well.

And the last shot...that of an old guy with a sign that says Godot. Why this piece of cleverness that has nothing to do with the movie whatsoever? We all know Godot does not exist, thank you Samuel Beckett. Is Aamir Khan flexing his intellectual muscle or what?

Anyway...I am now a fan of that silly song Pappu can't dance.

I was here...

And it was nice. In a mild, non-spectacular kind of way. The boat ride on the Maid of the Mist was very good. The long wait to get on it, coupled with the obnoxious behavior of some extremely rude travel companions was exhausting, to say the least. I think the crowd sort of killed the experience for me. In keeping with folklore, I met someone I knew at Niagara Falls. (Apparently there are so many desi tourists there that you always run into someone you know. And its true!)

Thousand Islands at Alexandria Bay was a much better experience. 
a). It was quieter and prettier.
b). The audio commentary was very, very good.
c). The stewards on board were cute.
d). Lots of interesting trivia....twin brothers married twin sisters and bought twin islands. Thousand Island dressing owes its origin to a resident of this millionaire's lair. The owners of US airways, Kellogs and the Waldorf-Astoria hotel were some of the owners of their own private islands.
e). One of the islands is on sale...for a couple of mills. Nice. If I had some small change lying around, I could buy it.
f). The Strawberry Daiquiri they served hit the spot.