message in a bottle (02.2003 - 09.2008)

While I am no Carrie Bradshaw, I am still a girl; and like all normal girls, I too love my shoes. However, being a big supporter of comfortable wear, I usually limit my heels to special occasions when there is limited walking.

Singaporean chicks, however, do not agree with me. They wear their heels everywhere, from grocery stores to shopping malls, from food courts to fancy cafés, from metro to street shopping, from work to stroll by the riverbank. Fascinated I watched, wondering how their dainty feet endured so much of high-heel walking. Then I noticed!

It is a perfect example of “where there is a will…” Besides using that comfortable gel padding available at all general stores to stuff beside your toes or under your heel, there is also an easier and inexpensive way out. You buy shoes one size bigger! Yes. So, the back of your foot never touches the edge of the shoe, which when worn with heels is the biggest trouble maker, and you never get shoe bites! Weird but marvelous.

It is time for some more embarrassing confessions. Do not judge; being judgmental is BAD. And anyway, the guy who said that "you can know a man by the books he reads" was both sexist and a liar.

Topic of the Week: Books

Tregaron's Daughter by Madeleine Brent

You don't even know who Madeleine Brent is, right?

"Tregaron's Daughter" is essentially a romantic thriller written by Peter O'Donnell, a comic strip writer. O'Donnell assumed the nom de plume Madeleine Brent to author romantic adventures. Apparently, writing this book was a guilty pleasure for him! My mother had picked it up from a railway station years before I was even born. I found this book in her old trunk when I was in class ten. I was not reading much besides my text books in those days and this was the book that brought reading back into my life. I loved the way Brent weaved a gripping tale of suspense and romance using the most fantastic characters. The elaborate descriptions and mesmerising characters of this book were what rocked the world of a fifteen year old. It remains a favorite till date.

If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon

"If you write a book every month, you write crap", I thought when a friend thrust a copy of "If Tomorrow Comes" into my hands.

I still hesitate in picking (read DO NOT pick up) books by Sheldon. With the exception of this one, of course. It was summer holidays and I was stuck in a small boring town with relatives who were not really bothered with talking to a confused teenager. With nothing better to do, I read the only book I had in my bag. It was an easy read and I continued at a leisurely pace until I reached the part where Tracy is in the prison. At first, Tracy is like any other heroine: beautiful, quick witted, bright, and young. Only, she is also a professional criminal. And a good one too. What got me hooked to the book was the ability of the protagonist to take pleasure in crime. Today, I am sure that I have read many better books about lives of criminals, but the first is always the first. It is trashy, but it is fun trash.

How to Forget by Denise Robins

I think this is from where my love for Yash Chopra brand of movies started.

I read this book during my MB days. You know, MB days? Mills and Boons days. I found it in a used books' store. I must have read other books by the author, or may be not. Can't say. But I still have a battered copy of "How to Forget" with its extremely yellow and mouldy pages falling out. I remember reading this book at least five times in one year. Simon and Helen were my heros in those days. I deemed their love the purest and truest of all kinds of love. I knew those characters. There images were crystal clear in my head. I knew how they walked, how they spoke, what they liked, what they feared. So vivid were those images that the name Simon still brings to my mind an extremely impressive and strong willed man, who always has his hair pulled back in an elegant manner.

Girl Alone by Rupa Gulab

Its a Cosmopolitan article that goes on and on. And I love it.

Rupa Gulab is actually a columnist for some women magazine and writes the whole book in the same style. What can I say, it is an Indian version of Bridget Jones and I am officially a chick book fan. It only helps when the protagonist is close to your age, lives in a city you know, and has problems you can relate to. Okay, so I am not addicted to cough syrup and I do not need to listen to rock music to gain emotional security but I know what it feels to have a super bitch for your boss, to have your parents hound you to tie the knot, to know that your dearest friend is dangerously faltering but being unable to tell her so, to be crazy about a guy who is scared of anything that remotely resembles a ring. I truly believe that in the last ten pages of the book, the protagonist gives words to my feelings.

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

When you were reading "The Fountainhead" and "Gone with the Wind," I was curled up with my copy of "The Thorn Birds."

I reckon that some call this book a classic, but I know better. Nevertheless, that does not stop "The Thorn Birds" from being my favorite tearjerker. The tale of deep, rich, and forbidden love, betrayal, tragedy, and ambition of an Irish family settled in Australia, grows sadder every time you flip a page. While reading the book for the first time, I gave up halfway; it was way to sad. However, I could not get Maggie out of my head and had no choice but to pick up the book and find out what fate held for the poor woman. Find I did, and in the process I became a fan of this book.

I hereby begin a new series of posts in which I will confess my guilty pleasures and then make embarrassed faces. Then, I will expect you to leave a comment telling me that I need not go red as you are way sillier. Next, you will describe your silliness. Thank you very much.

Topic of the Week: Movies

To commence the ritual of making a fool of myself, I pick my favorite subject - movies.

Akshay Kumar: Before you shriek and click away, let me tell you that I was only 15 when I first saw Khiladi. But yes, I adored him. Back in those days, I had already watched all movies that Aamir Khan had appeared in and I found Sanjay Dutt way too old, Anil Kapoor way to boring, Sunny Deol way to angry. In midst of all this, Kumar appeared as a pleasant surprise. He was cute, super active, and funny in a very bizarre manner. But then this man decided to wear his hair long and ask for alms on the roads in movies like Tarazoo, and broke my heart. However, the dude also unbroke my heart when he came back with a big bang in Hera Pheri. He also learnt to act somewhere in between.

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun: Four times on the big screen. In one month. I realized my sin when I caught some bits of the movie last week on the telly. However, while I was trying to figure what I found so great in the movie way back in the 90s, I ended up watching it for one-and-a-half hours again. A movie that is about nothing, has no story whatsoever, follows the clichés to the hilt, is based on the most orthodox beliefs, and has actors dressed in the most horrendous fashion; it has still provided me umpteen hours of entertainment. There must have been something that had the whole nation swaying without any solid notes.

Chasing Liberty: It’s a story of the President’s daughter anxious to experience the freedom of regular life and her trip across Europe. It has pretty scenery, funny lines, cutesy romance, delightfully English accent, and Mandy Moore. I know. I know! Mandy Moore is not acceptable. I agree. But I still love the movie to bits. Stark Sands is kind of cute but no, he still cannot negate presence of Moore. There is also a charming parallel storyline of secret agents (One of them is Jeremy Piven, and I am officially a fan.) falling in love on their way to find the first daughter. After repeated viewings, I can see that this is not great cinema but it is a breezy romance set in Europe. I love it.

Kareena Kapoor in Yuva: Anyone who has known me for more than a week knows that I cannot stand Kareena Kapoor. I have often affronted her on my journal too. Nevertheless, I find her irresistibly appealing in Yuva. I like to believe that the credit goes to the director but the fact remains that the look in the movie suited her well and she carried it off in style. The pastel colors, the fresh look, the self-sufficient attitude, all of it really worked well.

Speed: I am ashamed to admit this but the movie remains in my top ten favorites till date. When I first saw it, I was floored; I can claim that I did not watch many Hollywood flicks back then, so the awe was excusable. Despite the fact that over the years I have watched many other superbly done action films, Speed still manages to make me sit on the edge of the seat and thrill me fantastically. As if this was not enough, I also find Keanu Reeves way hotter in Speed than in The Matrix.