Mantyhose....ewww!!

Ok....this report is lifted straight from TOI, I circulated it among some colleagues and friends and got some very interesting responses. Just wanted some more views on this, so put it up here.

My take on this, it is plain revolting....ewww, what happened to manliness!! As Sukanya aptly puts it 'since when did guys begin to have great legs, Huhhhh???' The pictures were too revolting to put here....people have threatened to kill me for that :(

Here goes the report,

Mantyhose: A must-have for men

Men have invaded ladies' fashion domain a little further, for after 'man-bras' and 'manscara' the latest must have for men is "mantyhose." "Mantyhose"or pantyhose for men have become a popular sheer garment from truck drivers to cowboys.

A self confessed male hosiery-wearer, Harisnya is so passionate about the issue he set up e-MANcipate, a website which he says aims to "accelerate the acceptance of male pantyhose as a regular clothing item".

The website offers men a step-by-step guide on how to wear pantyhose without damaging it. Harisnya declares that the website, based in the United Kingdom, is "as serious as fashion can be". He is adamant that both males and females should be allowed to wear the sexy sheer garment.

"Men have great legs and hosiery is a great way to show them. It's quite practical in some ways. It prevents chafing, for example, when horse riding or cycling, but it's also a good alternative to bulky underwear if you need some warmth,"News.com.au quoted Harisnya, as saying.

"Going to work on a cold autumn day in regular trousers with 20 denier hose underneath helps to avoid getting cold. Plus you won't ever have to worry about loosing or matching your socks. It's fun, but no joke,"he added.

The men's pantyhose come with a "male comfort panel"that better fits a man's shape, and sometimes offers a convenient fly opening.

Harisyna's love of pantyhose is backed up by testimonials from truck drivers who swear by nylon hosiery for its circulation benefits and cowboys who don them under their Levi's for warmth.

He believes that men's pantyhose is an easy way to dress differently.

"Not all men like to hide in grey uniformed clothes. It's an easy way to dress differently, pairing the colour or pattern of your pantyhose to the rest of your clothes just like you do with the colour or pattern of your tie.

"It's relatively easy, too, as hosiery goes easily with almost every kind of shorts and shoes,"he said.

The e-MAN-cipate campaign is the push for companies to produce pantyhose made specifically for men.

"Don't buy female pantyhose at all. Don't strengthen those companies who don't produce/sell male pantyhose. Buy male pantyhose. Do help with your purchasing power to those who are on your/our side,"said the website.

The GREAT rivalry !!!

My earliest memories about the rivalry are from my school days.....so it was school vs school. My school Little Flower School (a girls school) was of course the best and all the guys wanted to be seen with LFS gals!!! We on the other hand thought that kids in the other school (DBS, KES, etc....) were big time losers....any inter-school contest had to be won by our school, more so if it was a beauty contest!!! We had to hog the limelight at all the youth festivals with with our charming/graceful/elegant hostesses, singers and potential models in the fashion show segment....it was huge fun!!!

Within school rivalries were just between the sections. So, if you were in section A, then section B gals had to be the over smart and dumb ones! Back then, it used to feel that this was the biggest thing in life, your entire life used to revolve around that.....if only we knew the truth!! In college the rivalry was of course between the students of the arts section against the students from the commerce, science sections. Everybody used to guard with a hawk's eye, one mistake and students were scarred for life....:)

When I joined the university the rivalry was between departments. Mass Communication was the most sought after department, apparently it was the most glamorous deptt..! Of course the computer science deptt was kind of an unspoken enemy......funny cause I have many good friends from that deptt. I remember once during the social week, I had a huge fight with my friend Rocky over something very very trivial!!!

After that we were not on talking terms for about 2 or 3 months!!! Now when I sit back and think about it all that comes to my mind is what an absolute waste!!! All my very good friends are either from the other section in school and college or from the other departments in university. Thats not to say that I do not have gr8 friends from my section and department....!!!!

I am sure all of have gone through all this or are still going through these rivalries, if you are a student till now!!! It is extremely emotional while it lasts, amusing when you think about it later and definitely brings the smile back on your face....:):)

Glorifying terrorism...???

The front page headline in Times of India this morning saya 'Jehadis may get nukes, warns PM'....it caught my attention no doubt! So, I read the report very carefully word by word, thrice! And I did not find the mention of the word Jehadi even once in the story....yes there was mention of how the PM was worried about the country's nukes falling to the wrong hands, read terrorists. The report says that the PM 'sounded a chilling warning about the dangers of nuclear technology falling into the "dangerous hands" of terrorists and called for greater vigil'.......

I very much endorse the PMs view and ya if it falls into wrong hands, the consequences will be disastrous, no doubt. But I have certain issues about the headline and the story. Jehad is an Arabic word that means Holy War and jehadis are those who wage the war. So, is Times of India trying to say that terrorism is a holy war, by calling the terrorists jehadis?? Did the PM actually use the word Jehadis in his speech.....I was not present there nor did I see it on TV, so I do not know what exactly was said by the PM (I have a feeling that the word was not used...) Or did the reporter think that the word Jehadi will aptly describe terrorists??

Just because some morons use the name of religion to justify their evil acts does not mean that the entire world should accept that!! Those morons can name their act as Jihad, Honour Killing and such other names, but at the end of the day if the media and the public endorse the terms used, is it not showing acceptance about the whole thing at some levels?? I really do not understand the why that word was used in the first place. Terrorism has no religion....thats what everybody says....but the use of this word in the front page of the leading English daily of the country certainly does not reflect so!!

Bundle of joy......

I am on cloud nine these days.....the next generation of my family has arrived!!! My niece (brother's daughter) came to the world on 2nd of June at about 11 in the night. Right from the moment I came to know that Bhabi was expecting, I was wishing from the bottom of my heart for a daughter....now my prayers are answered!!! Everyone in the family is extra excited these days days!!!

All of us came with with our own choice of names and now we have more than 10 names to choose from.....bhaiya will have to draw a name out of the hat....she is going to be the 1st one in the family to be named through draw of lots!!!

My choice of names are Riffat (high).....Falak (star) and Nayyab (very rare, exclusive)....will have to wait and see if any of these names come out of the hat or not. All of us were looking for names that start with S, Z, T,P...definitely not with A.....we have had enough of being the first one in the line for exams, viva, injections, practicals and many other unpleasant things....we don't want that for her!!!

Definitely not looking for a daaknaam, specially after all I had written about daaknam's in one of the postings.....but I guess she will invariably end up having one. One of my friend rightly puts it by saying daaknaam's are so much part of our culture.....somewhere or the other one is bound to spring up!!!

Welcome to the family....here is wishing her a very happy, successful and adventurous life ahead....go girl, the world out there is waiting for you, make us all very PROUD of you!!!

Getting even with a narcissist.....

Some people live under the illusion that the world owes its existence to them, I have done this.....I have done that......had it not been for me ....blah blah blah!!! I had to interview this guy (professional hazard you see!!!!) and once he started shooting from his lips, he was not stopping. Trust me even a tsunami, earthquake....nothing could have dented him. I was sitting there wondering how on earth can someone actually say something like that????

The day did not start very well for me, got a vehicle that sucked big time in the heat to reach the place. Finding out the place took a lot of time.....well if this much time needed to find out a WORLD FAMOUS location, I never even want to be famous, forget about being world famous!!! Mister Big Shot.... was not in by the time me and my colleague landed there....guess you do not qualify to be a big shot till you keep people waiting to meet you without any evident reasons.

Sample of some of the things he blabbered about......he runs an organization and on being about expansion plans to other cities, his response was 'people go to worship religious places, those places never come to people'. All people those who matter in Bollywood miraculously are associated with him, in other words owe their staggering success to him alone.....what would we ever do without Bollywood, huh!!!

He had the gall to claim that certain areas in the city were planned and developed by him.....they were just very thick jungles before he actually decided to take pity on us mortals and plan out that place. Next he started rattling 'out of the world' figures to put across his success story.......and in between all this crap talk he complemented me on my looks......so now you can guess where his concentration was all this time!!! No I am not even getting there about his crap......I have heard better compliments in my life!!!

After about a week of this disastrous interview, I was traveling with my brother. It was extremely hot and I was not feeling well, so I drank tender coconut water from one of the roadside vendors......suddenly I had a wicked idea and I did not throw the outer covering of the tender coconut water after I had finished drinking. We has to pass through the area that the man had claimed he planned and developed.........once inside the place, I asked my brother to slow down the car and I actually dumped the coconut husk just in front of his building.....yes, I did it.........ohhhhh! It felt so good, just can't tell you how much.

So, next time you are really pissed at someone and cannot do anything about it, trying doing this.....it gives you a kick, a heady feeling I must say.....just throw caution to the winds....... do it and ya do lemme know how it feels afterwards!!!

Caught off-guard....completly

The shirt with multi-coloured fishes printed all over suddenly, caught her attention, it fascinated her.......she examined it for sometime and asked me why the fishes are out of water and not moving! I told her they were printed, so doesn't make a difference anyway! 'Huh....as if printing things makes all the difference', she muttered....clearly I failed to convince her.

Now she wanted to know why was the second shelf in the cloth rack empty.! 'To let kids get inside and play', I said...... she wanted to get inside and see for herself. I warned her, if you get inside once you cannot come out. She was going out with her family, so she decided not to risk going in....

She wanted to know where was I headed, I said the same place where she was. 'I am going bowling', she declared, daring me, now what do you have to say? 'I will go with you' I said.....'do you know what it is and how is it done' was written all over her face. I had absolutely no clue about any blowing alleys in Delhi.....I bet she read my confused expressions!!!

Suddenly she had another thought, how will you go there? 'I will go with you' I said.........no chance she counters, papa is driving, mama sits next to papa, dadi, Puneet bhaiya, Rishu and I sit at the back, so there is no space for me! She has a valid point here, so I suggest she I can take her place and she can sit on my lap. No ways she says....kids do that!

I suggested that I could follow her in another car. She looked around for sometime searching for some divine intervention to keep me out of her plans with her family........... .and suddenly she had it!!!! She turned and told me why don't you get inside the clothes rack........huh, serves me right for so much of arguing and putting ideas into a kid's mind....!!!!!

Btw...never got across asking her name!!!

Boundaries across bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens

Going back home to my paternal place in Assam in the month of November/ December used to be an annual occasion that I used to relish in those days. Playing in the fields with my cousins and other kids till it becomes dark, relatives pampering you as if you have descendant from some other land, those impromptu picnics aha.....those were the days. Gone are those days now, today I hardly find time to spend with my parents as we stay in separate cities. Someday I am going to write a description about those memorable picnics that we used to have!!!

My paternal place is located very near the India - Bangladesh border. Once when I was visiting there the Commandant of the BSF battalion that was posted there came to meet us. Apparently he was my father's student when he used to teach in a college at Nagaland, he took us on a tour of the border. It was a once in a lifetime experience for many of us. So, about 15 of us consisting of cousins, aunts, uncles, brother-in-laws decided to go and see those places near the border.

I came across a very strange house during the trip. There was this house where two brothers lived with their families, and the dividing line between the two countries ran right in the middle of the house. So, you have one brother who is an Indian and the other brother who is a Bangladeshi legally living under the same roof. One family's kitchen is in India, dinning room and loo in Bangladesh, and bedroom again in India and vice versa. So, what you get to do if you stay there sometime is cook in B'desh, eat in India, sleep and shit in B'desh or it could be the other way round depending on which brother's family you are staying with!

I was awed on seeing this and it actually took some to sink in. Trust me when you are actually standing in that house, you will just be overwhelmed. There was a stump like erection in the middle of the house which is supposed to be the demarcating line between the two countries. I never got another opportunity to go back and visit that house. This time when I go back home and if I find time to visit my paternal place, I will definitely go and visit that house. It has been more than 5-7 years since I saw that house, I just want to see if anything has changed with time in that house.

Today when there is so much talk about borders, countries, division and violence in the name of country religion, cast and creed it actually feels surreal to come across something like this. I am sure both the brothers have their own share of dislikes, tiffs and fights but they live together in 1 house as citizens of two countries, it actually feels good to know about something like this!!!

The Mystery of Spices.....

Delving deep into things has this ability to throw up surprises that you never really apprehended. This happened to me while I tried probing about the mystery of spices!! Did you ever think that there could be more to garlic, than being a spice that gives you a foul breath? Definitely not the right recipe if you are about to embark on a romantic evening with your partner! If you thought so, you are mistaken.....the Greeks and Egyptians believe garlic to be aphrodisiac and whats more, even modern science has seconded that through research.

This is not the part of any research paper, rather a movie brought these things and many other things to light for me! I was watching The Mistress of Spices and came across many interesting uses and qualities of spices that I never knew before, except probably for very few of them. I simply loved the movie just because of the way the properties of various spices were described. I have tired to put down some of them in here......

Chandan: - to erase bad memories
Til :- is a nourisher
Garlic : acts as an aphrodisiac
Saffron : attracts love
Cinnamon : helps in making friends
Kalo Jeera (black cumin seeds) : protects against the evil eye
Bharmi oil : cools down the entire system
Meethi(Fenugreek) : gives strength
Ajwain(carom seeds or bishop's weed) : builds up confidence
Fennel (Saunf) : perseverence
Hing (Asefoetida) : antidote of love
Tulsi (Basil) : for remembrance
Crushed Prishniparni burnt with lotus roots in the evening could bring back someone who is estranged
Powdered almond and keasr boiled with milk : for sweet words and remembering love buried under anger
Neem leaf : it is an anti-septic
Mustard seed : to send someone away from you
Cardamon : is to bind true love
Rendi oil from castro : to massage in joint pains and arthritis
Black pepper (with lime soda) : brings out your deepest secrets in the open
Lotus root: is for a lifetime of deep loving.......

The various ingredients used in supari are due to certain qualities present in them. The supari is for intoxication, the shreeded cocount is for uttering sweet words, the fennel seeds aid in digestion and the cardamon is to make words last forever. Of course, all those mentioned spices must be taken in certain quantities in combination with certain spices and at a certain time to get these results. So, the next time you need to dig a secret out from someone you could try serving lime soda with black pepper. You might just get lucky with this not so well known secret recipe...!!!

Lethargy, cell phone, ring tones et al.....

Zzzz...Zzzz...Zzzz....feeling very sleepy today, don'y know why!!! Feeling lethargic.....may be the ascent of summer in the horizon is the cuplrit. A colleague got married last night, so half the people in office turned up by mid day today. Lost my phone two days back, I was going to the market to meet some friends. When I got out of office had the phone with me, probably dropped it while I was getting in the rickshaw....pocket trouble you see. No there was no hole in it, but sometimes things just drop from the pocket of that particular trouser.

After I reached the market, about 5 mins from my office....put a hand in my pocket and its gone!!! The first few moments I did not know what to do, couldn't go back to office, couldn't call up anybody.....felt utterly lost and alone without my phone. Had a haunch that my friends will be in the pastry shop, so just headed in that direction and fortunately found them there. Next, called up the customer care guys and told them to block my number and dispatch a new SIM card. This just made me wonder how dependent we have become on our cellphones.

It was not very long ago that all of us used to know phone numbers by heart...well there were actually very few numbers for us to remember.

Today the scene is completely different, just show me 1 person who does not have a cell phone.....anybody and everybody has it. Back in my hometown cell phones were not actually a fad say about 2 years ago. Trust me I did not know anything about operating one and had very limited knowledge about its functions. Of course I knew you could make and receive call with it from anywhere....but thats about it.

When I was first coming to Delhi I got in touch with a friend through email and she asked me to come over to her place and stay for sometimes. Most of the communication was done via emails and she gave me her phone number as well. She knew the dates when I would be travelling, but had asked me to call her when I was starting from there. So, decided to call her up.....and when I dialed her number instead of the traditional sound of a phone ring, all I got to hear hear was the song Purani Jeans aur Guitar....my first thoughts were, there was some kind of cross connection and my call had reached some other place, so disconnected immediately!!!

Tried to call again...still the same result and this happened for about 3-4 times. So not knowing what else to do, just thought will go ahead with my trip. She knew about the dates, so my guess was she will be there to receive me. Throughout the journey I was worried if I could not find her..... had some other numbers as well...so if I am in any trouble, I can easily call up some other friend. Finally, when I landed in Delhi, tried calling her again and this time decided to actually find out who picks up the call. She did pick up the call and it was then I realized that the song Purani Jeans was not due to any cross connection or something, it was the ringtone!!!

So much for my lack of knowledge about cell phones, caller tunes and ring tones!!! Got a new phone today , got back contacts of people who matter to me......but let me tell you 2 days without a phone seemed like never ending. How things have changed with mobile phones and other technology....how much I have changed from the time I landed in Delhi till now.... I have all the important contacts now with me saved in a Google document, will get a ring tone soon and probably a dial tone as well....everything is indeed changing!!!! Ezra Pound said 'there is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and forty-eight'. Change is after all the only constant thing in life.....

Bye bye hibernation, Hello blogging.......

Its been a very long time since my post.....actually can't even remember when I last posted without taking a reference. I was not buried deep with work that I did not have time for blogging, had access to internet at all times and the pc was at my disposal but don't know why I was not doing this! Seriously, I have been thinking why this was happening to me and trust me, I could not come up with any satisfactory explanation.

I have been thinking about many topics and they just remained in the 'pipeline'. In fact I had written and rewritten them endless number of times......but all in my mind. Somehow, they never materalized...but thats now gonna change. Pensativo, I have finally decided to listen to your tic tic tic and actually come out of the hibernation!!!

I am often asked questions about my blog, how I got about wirting it, why I write and don't I feel uncomfortable writing out a virtual diary online. I understand that there are strangers reading this blog, but I don't think that I'hv written anything out of this world. Stories about going live on air, a schoolday fiasco, expriences in an airport, bidding farewell to a friend who will never come back, funny and interesting incidents that keep on happening all the time.......and I am sure this happens to everbody.

So if I put these things up in my blog I do not see any harm in it. At the most what will happen is that, may be I will end up making new friends through this and I don't mind that. I also pretty much like the fact that people that I have never met, never heard of and possibly will never meet actually read my blogs and put comments too!!!! Oh...its a heady feeling and actually thats what keeps me going...:)