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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Saturday Night Fever

And AM asked me that embarrassing question: What are you doing on a Saturday night sitting and reading comments (on your blog) ? I had to defend my position saying "I have just come back from shopping with my roommate." Then the conversation shifted to safer topics like the present scenario in Pakistan and Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Presidential candidate.

It was a girls' day out and it was fun. KM (Kiran Kirti Muppalla) and I kept saying to each other those weirdly humorous lines from Om Shanti Om ( remind me to write the review later):***Yenna Shotgun, Me Murugan in peculiar tones and laughed our heads off.

While we were walking towards the T-station, she observed that "It doesn't feel that cold when you are walking with someone" I suggested that it might be 'cause you are protected on one side from the crazy breeze when you are walking side by side or it might be that talking keeps the mind off the severity of the weather. And then I plunged into a deep reverie of how tough times appear more bearable when you have a companion in your life. She, who is quite used to my sudden seizures of philosophical musings, just smiled sweetly and took care that I,lost in my thoughts, don't amble straight into a car.

The journey proved labyrinthine as the red lines are closed from Park Street Station to Kendall till Monday for some construction and we had to take a shuttle bus. The simple itinerary of J.F.K/UMASS -> Central Square(~20 mins on T) proved to be J.F.K/UMASS ->Park Street Station on T, Park Street Station-> Kendall (MIT) on shuttle, Kendall ->Central on T again. We could have gone to Galleria in Lechmere using the green line by then. But KM opined that stand alone shops are better . And anyways, I prefer Central Square to any other destination on the T anytime. Except maybe Prudential Center , which houses my favorite Barnes and Noble bookshop.

All in all, I had a bit of adventure. It was a refreshing change to be above the ground and have a look around the city. Though most of the times, my view got constricted by kissing couples. It is not a common sight in India, specially with the soi-disant moral police on the prowl. But here it's pretty normal -almost as natural as holding hands in public. However, today the frequency seemed compounded. KM and I tried to find a spot inside the T where we wouldn't be measuring the flow of human saliva . I saw an old man talking to himself , sitting right across me. And KM found a youth wearing a jeans whose one leg was black and the other was striking blue and had his hair dyed in punk green. She fervently prayed that when she has kids they shouldn't go to such extremes. (She is married and plans to have a baby soon). I said it would be ok with me as long as my son (if I ever have one) doesn't wear a nose ring. (If I have a daughter, I plan to spoil her rotten)

Honestly, I don't like staring at strangers and feel pretty uncomfortable if someone else does it. I think it's one of the most impolite things to do. So, when I had brushed my eyes inside the T , read the ads for the nth time, and talked enough to KM, I got back to my favorite activity in such situations: concentrate on my shoes or my finger nails.:D


*** Disclaimer: I don't appreciate racist jokes nor do I intend to encourage them. The humor was not in the language unfamiliar to me, ( Kiran is a South Indian) it was the way SRK delivered the dialog. So, readers please choose not be offended.

External Link: Subway maps, Boston MBTA

28 comments:

Swaroop said...

Its Murugan.
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murugan"

Aparna Ganguly said...

Thanks. Corrected :)

sandesh said...

hi there you..
nice post..Lucky you! You atleast have the luxury of watching OSM in theatre back there... To expect it here in bonn is well...too much!! :)
Today, however, they showed DHOOM2 on a german TV channel all dubbed in german!! Wow it was great to see Hrithik and Aishwarya and whole of our indian actors´clan speak so fluent german! lol
later

Arun Srinivasan said...

here i am in office and its sunday morning 5:30... even my friends asked "hey dude whts for sat night?"... i hav to tell them way bck got some work to do with our receptionist to defend myself... :-(

Occasional Brilliance said...

here's a list f wierd movies ive come across...

"duplicate sholay" (it ws made by some bhojpuri director wid bhojpuri-speaking actors - yes i actually watched it)

"bangladeshi matrix" (im nt kidding)

bt wt took d cake ws a dubbing of notting hill in assamese i gt 2 watch (thanx 2 my cousins wn i visited dem last week...)

Arun Srinivasan said...

@aparna and firewhisky

you have to watch TITANIC, no remake nothing. jus directly dubbed tamil version ha ha ha ha ha ha... we went thrice for the fun :-)

btw aparna ur post gave me 10 min to ramble for myself... may be in leisure check it at www.dolbyarun.com/blog

Da Rodent said...

Hmm., I've been workin all night. Had two bestest friends to give me company, coffee and cigarettes.

Anonymous said...

lolz..what did i do..

the saturday was pretty happening..packed up loads of week old work..cooked a not so good dinner..

irritated someone i never intended to...then found ways to pacify

browsed through orkut profiles..was so happy i quit that place..

sleep was resilient all through..
morning..and my nightmares were untrue..
she raced back..to my still open arms..
cease fire...at last ..i made her calm..

Srividya said...

Reading ur post reminds me of the subway ride to Union Square on Halloween night. The bizarre costumes(or the lack of it) that people were in... At one station, a guy (who was completely high on God knows what) ran into the train and his girl friend tried to pull him out of the train. Between all the pushing and pulling (punctuated with the worst swear words I've heard), they didn't allow the doors to close and had to be forcibly asked to get off the train at the next station. All that we could do was look away and grin at each other :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sandesh
OMG Sandy. Now that'd be weird and humor inducing to imagine those people speaking flawless German for which we had to make genuine efforts to get certificates :D I'll always be grateful to you for suggesting the idea that I join you for the language classes. You were always an ace and a natural at learning a new language- be it Deutsch, EspaƱol, or Bangla. I really hope to brush up my German which is gathering dust. Would watching a German movie with subtitles help? Lol.. dunno. It could.

Aparna Ganguly said...

@Arun
Sheesh! And I thought that having to wake up early on a Sunday morning was the worst thing to do!

Aparna Ganguly said...

@FireWhisky
That's an wild assortment. You are the hands down winner. I remember hearing some Bangladeshi versions of Bollywood songs in my childhood.
(I grew up in Tripura, a state bordering Bangladesh. Fresh water fish and Bangladeshi music was one thing that flowed freely then, unrestricted by the present laws and the international boundary. Sometimes I wonder, do good fences really make good neighbors? )

Getting back to the topic , you should have heard some of those songs Tu cheez badi hai mast mast became - Tumi jinish ta bodo rosogolla golla and Dil to Pagal hai had some nonsensical lyrics of Cheeka maare.. don't ask me what it meant literally to me. Cheeka means a mole ( animal) Can you beat that?

Aparna Ganguly said...

@da rodent
Abandon your second best pal. He's no good.

Aparna Ganguly said...

@ misti doi
Lucky you. AFAIK her, she has a terrible temper and is difficult to appease once in a rage. Your words helped I guess. More than you could have imagined :)

Anonymous said...

@aparna
Ah, OSO in Boston !!! Wish I could watch the occasional Hindi flick here, but all I get is just more winter...

@firewhisky
Good lord! You've watched Duplicate Sholay too?!! It's an unabashed laugh riot ... If you liked it you might also enjoy more Bhojpuri movies :D, not to mention the occasional Mithun-da, Rajani or Chuck Norris ...

Talking of which, which of the above three would you rank higher?

Ranjan said...

Cool. I am finally upto the last post :)
Last three days i have read over 80 posts starting wid the mirror breaking face in '05. my comment prolly doesnt fit here yet i guess thr r more chances to be heard. so lets start.

i have just two things in mind. except the appreciations kept aside which u rili don deserve ;) overrated gal :D , and those would be:

1. no reviews. pls. u r better at few more things, i see hundreds 'f ppl writing tht. mabbe u'll still write one for om shanti home NoP but yes, 2 posts a month would be better than changing this plc.

2. "In fact I have started with my domain name and server space" if u remember this, i can be of some help :) business. no charity. u can figure out the rest, u r good at reading minds.

a query, what exactly "T" means, refered in this post. i am not a literature buff. disctionary.com embarrases me. over n out. nahh! not out ;)

Ranjan said...

really waitin' to get a rep.

Keshi said...

seems like u had fun. I was out at 2 parties last Sat nite :)

Keshi.

Aparna Ganguly said...

@keshi
Lol. Don't euphemize. I was bored to near death . The savior was Kiran's company :D Hope that the Thanksgiving weekend will be better :)
Rock on girl while you still can! I haven't been to parties since .. some 100 years?

Aparna Ganguly said...

@Priya Ranjan Singh
Replied to your mail already.
Now time out. Peace!

sandesh said...

@Aparna
you are welcome!!! Herr. Dayal believed you had great potential! A pity that you couldn´t continue after the III sem! The idea with subtitles is indeed great and helps tremendously. One of my dreams was to be able to watch german TV daily (which, btw, is extremely boring most of the times!!!) and listen to radio (which is OK) to improve my language skills and indeed it has helped a lot!
P.S. My bangla sucks!!! Cos i never tried my luck with that. Ya with german i always keep getting comments like "I can´t believe that you have been less than a year" LOL (u see that I like to prate!)

Sam said...

ah!! someone ws better off.... adn der iw as at work right thru saturday evening til sunday noon.. compensated by partying out all sunday evening though!!
so how ws OSO?

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sandesh
Ya, a pity that I had to leave for Internship in CFSL, Chandigarh in March and then the final exams were approaching too. Though, I prefer multi-tasking, I couldn't afford it at that moment. You wouldn't believe but i just went out the other day and got a set of 8 cds to brush my Deutsch skills again. I love that language and won't let it die in me.

Btw, are you sure about your Bangla skills? Coz I still remember Souvik teaching you to greet girls saying "Tomar petey amaar baacha acche" and you pronouncing it so clearly that I had to wonder if you really meant it! :D

But honestly, the way you can eat a fish like a Bong, I haven't seen many bong relish it. What I mean to say is that-you are a natural in adapting buddy. :) Great talent indeed!

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sam
Aah! Makes me feel better now. That's the advantage of bitching about your life publicly. There always someone hwo had it worse than you :D
Btw, OSO is worth a watch.. just remember to keep your brains outside the audi and have a great roller coaster ride.. re-incarnation et al. :D

sandesh said...

@aparna
ha ha ha! That was by far the only (and nasty) one liner that i learnt in bangla! funny that you should still remember that....lol.
Well, I love fish no doubt! That what you said bout adapting..Well.."ich bin einverstanden"...:)
catch ya later!
P.S. Enjoy the snow! I woundn´t do that so well for i get seriously cold hands in winter. Just read that it could be more becos of one clinical condition called Reynauld´s syndrome...Here is what a website says.
What is Raynaud's syndrome?
Raynaud's syndrome is a condition where people develop spasms in the blood vessels going to the hands or feet. These spasms are most often precipitated by exposure to cold, but they can also be caused by stressful situations.

I used to wonder for years what could be the reason!! :D
Well, condidering my current situation it could be very any of the two factors that might be causing it - stree or RS itself.

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sandesh
Yeah. Strange - what things we remember, and what things we forget w/o choosing to :D
I remember the first time we got ragged in campus and I got away by singing that Titanic song and you crooned one of your self compositions and it became an instant hit. OMG I can still visualize Radhika being asked to act like Gabbar Singh, and Manash having to dance like Menaka to distract Divya who had to be Viswamitra and then Saurabh Sir asked me to go and whisper to the horse in the stable. Sheesh! I could go on forever with the tales! Those were some of the best days of my life :D

Aparna Ganguly said...

@srividya
Holy cow! I thought I had replied to you ages ago! But better late than never. I know how weird it feels to hear swear words publicly. It is one of my biggest turn offs. But some people seem hardly perturbed by it.
Maybe it works good to release frustration. You have a whole scientific analysis behind it- about gritting teeth and the syllables used to make a cuss-word releasing energy and cooling your temper! God knows !

Da Rodent said...

@aparna:

Hmm.. sometime soon. :-)