Wonders never Cease

Dear All,

I thought that i had written the last blog of 2006 but i hadn't figured for miracles.

Please find below an article from the Times Of India wich has an article about St. Joseph's School.

I am sure it will warm your hearts and what better a way to bid adieu to this year and welcome in the next.

P.S. This is MY Alma Mater.

(Sorry for the sordid cut and paste job)

End of Year Blog

Looking Back at 2006

Dear Friends & Others,

2006 is coming to an end and we have all had a very eventful year.

Prabir & Shraddha got married. And promptly got pregnant too.
Shyam too got married. I dont know about the pregnancy bit but with the amount of time they seem to be spending on an extended honeymoon, i wouldn't rule out triplets.
Prash got a new flat and also got lucky in Nepal. (wink wink)
Cathy showed tremendous courage to attend an ex's wedding.
Dom moved to Mumbai and promptly forgot us.

And Persis got wodden giraffes!

By the way Persis wrote some comments about Ash (Miss Rai) which got me thinking.

All of you must have seen the drama with Ash & Abhi and their visit to a temple in Varanasi.

I am a religious person myself but what worries me is what kind of message the Bachchan's are sending out to the gullible indian people. To go and perform "cleansing" pujas just because Ash is (allegedly) a 'manglik'? I thought such mumbo jumbo was only in regressive movies like Baabul. To have the so-called first family of Bollywood (so-called because for me that honorofic will always belong to the Kapoors) behave in such a despicable manner just shows how hollow they are as individuals. And what of poor Ash. Can't have been easy to have her horoscope tom-tommed about with crazy 'priests' pronouncing crazier & crazier 'futures' for her. I've personally never heard of a guy dying after marrying a manglik girl. If any of you have then do let me know.

There was a nice movie recently, Lage Raho Munnabhai, and if you remember the girl in it (Dia Mirza) is also a manglik and her to-be father-in-law refuses to let her get married to his son. His son defies him and marries her stating that love is paramount. Ofcourse Munnabhai and Circuit do their part in proving how fake the superstitions are.

And do you remember who did a guest appearance as the practical son?

Abhishek Bachchan. Coincidence Huh? IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Don't Think So.

Only wish he was as strong-willed with his real parents too.

Not to diss the bachchans again, but i also get pissed off at the continuous attempts to glorify the father through the media into some kinda poet-laureate. The constant referrels and recitals of Madhushala on KBC has thankfully come to an end but the family and that pimp Amar Singh, seems to keep referring to him like he was a saint. Granted that he was a freedom fighter and a decent writer (may he rest in peace) but most definitely not GREAT.

I mean, wasn't there anything better to rhyme with Agneepath than lathpath, lathpath, lathpath?

And as far as the Sush vs. Ash comparasion goes, well.......

Sush is definitely a better actor (just hasnt got the roles) and also more classy but at the same time Ash too, hasn't gotten her due. She has been victimised too much for looking the way she does. She does falter sometimes (like everytime she opened her mouth in D2) but can act well when she wants to (I am putting myself on the line here because i managed to catch a viewing of Provoked recently and she is Good with a capital G).

Her beauty has definitely led to her being judged unfairly.

Do you think some of these actors would have been feted so if they were as pretty as Ash?

Shabana Azmi, if she wasn't buck-toothed?

Nandita Das, if she wasn't dark & oily skinned?

Nana, if he didn't look like something a dog dragged in?

I could go on but i think you get the message.

Wow, I have a training to do in half-an-hour's time and going by this post, looks like my staff have a rough day in front of them. Ha Ha :-)

Would love to know all your New Year Resolutions and will post mine when i blog again.

Have a rocking New Year's Eve Party and a great 2007.

With Warm Festive Regards,

Vish

Long Time NO Blog...

(water in sharjah or sharjah in water) \

It has been raining for the last 10 days and not little intermittent showers but long and hard.

Anyway the roads and sewage system is not equipped for this and as a result there have been floodings all over and cars have been damaged. I wonder what will happen if it rains here like it rains in India.

Before i go on i need to clarify a few things:

Shraddha seems to think that I went for the Asian Games Opening to Qatar. Naaaa! Sorry but I watched it on TV.

Any news if Shyam is back from his honeymoon? One of the possible destinations was Fiji and since there was a coup there i wonder if he is back or in the Fijian army?

Has Prabir been arrested by the anti-royal regime as yet? Can the Ranas come back to usurp power again?

Are hand-me-downs are a very third world phenomenon? My sister's friend, the very imaginatively named Persis, feels that way.

All million dollar questions?

Anyway the Dubai Shopping Festival is here again and will run from Dec 20 to Feb 04.

Very very commercial but great bargain sometimes. All of you who cant be here can read and weep.

Talking about commercialization, the UAE won a couple of golds in the recent Asiad. Some of them were by the Ruler of Dubai's sons in endurance horse racing. (I guess its the middle east countries' way of getting back at the Indian Subcontinent for introducing Kabbadi).

Anyway one of the other Gold was for body building (dont ask) won by a simple local man.

The sons of the sheikh came back in a private plane and were feted like Caesar returning to Rome.

What about the body builder?

He flew coach and had his salary deducted for taking too many days off to practice.

Phew! This in itself deserved a gold for inequality

Then there is the poor Indian lady weight lifter who is being stripped of her medal because she did not display/possess enough "characteristics of a woman". Wow! I wonder what the characteristics were?

I also got hold of this brilliant T-Shirt design and had to share it with you guys (only if Ms. Persis does not mind ofcourse).

Who was it who said, "There is a very thin line between Love & Hate"

Merry X'Mas to all (including Ms. Persis) and a Very Happy New Year Too.

Have a rocking 2007.

Ciao

Vish

P.S. : Persis:- I am just joking. :-) I promise to send you more folding chairs and floating flowers and wodden giraffes

Slippery Games

HI Again,

Just back from an extended weekend. It was the national day here so we had Sunday off as well.
And what a wet and windy weekend it was.
It has collectively rained for barely 10 hours in the last 5 years and last weekend it rained for 16 hours continuously. And that too during the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Doha.
Did any of you manage to catch it on TV? Quite spectacular.
Qatar spent quite a chunk of its oil revenue on this and made sure it was well worth the effort.
Money after all does make the world go round.


The best bit came in the end when 4 horsemen galloped into the stadium and paused in the middle. Then a huge curtain like thing seperated to show the son of he ruler of Qatar on a magnificient stallion with a torch in his hand at one end of the stadium. He then gallopped across the stadium and up a flight of stairs to light the cauldron. Rain however had made the new steel stairs slippery and the gusty winds weren't helping matters either. At 2 or 3 times during the ride it almost looked like the horse was going to slip and fall and it even stopped and hesitated once but was coaxed on by the prince who is also the captain of the Equestrian team. Inspite of all the other wonderful technical wizardy, this one spectacle of man against nature was what transfixed everyone. Guess after everything is over and done with, human struggle is what is the most interesting. Now i know why the 24 hours news channels seem to be doing so well.


Speaking of money, 2 years back during the deluge when Mumbai got flooded and filmstars walked through slush, everyone talked about the lack of resources etc and lastweek it rained for 1 day here and UAE nearly drowned. Guess money does not make the world go round after all.

Have a great day/s ahead.

OXOXOX

Vish

P.S. by the way that OX is hugs and kisses.