Marauders II

I personally love this snap...says so much...found again on www.deviantart.com ...
some of the artists are fabulous!!!!!


here are a few quotes by Sirius to go with the mood,


"If you made a better rat than a human, that's not much to boast about."


"You should have died! Died rather than betray your friends, as we would have done for you!"


"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter." 


"Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."


"Believe me. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them." 


*GO TEAM GRYFFINDOR!*

Marauders I

L-R: Severus, Sirius, Remus, James, Lily

found this on www.deviantart.com ...really cute stuff...go check it out


Here are some quotes by the above that I can never get enough of,


"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid." - Lily to James


"Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate." - Sirius to James about Lily


"D'you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?" - Sirius to Harry


"Dying? Not at all," said Sirius. "Quicker and easier than falling asleep." - Sirius to Harry


"Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor." - The Marauder's Map to Snape


"Okay, who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" - James about Snape


"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." - Snape


"Well, well, Lupin. Out for a little walk... in the moonlight are we?" - Snape


"Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit." - Remus to Harry


"I am sorry too," said Lupin. "Sorry I will never know him...but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life." - Remus to Harry about Teddy

"You'll stay with me?" [Harry] "Until the very end," said James.

Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden

Since the age of five I've been known to my acquaintances as an avid reader. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to read every book that hits the bestseller list. I haven't yet read anything by Khalid Hosseini(had to google this) or Jhumpa Lahiri, although I do enjoy the occasional Ayn Rand and Paulo Coelho. I'm one of those leisure readers. I feed on stuff like Jeffrey Archer, JKR, Dan Brown, etc. and come on, you do so learn stuff from their books too, like I would never know about the KGB(when I was about 12, I think) if it weren't for Archer or about Jesus' alleged marriage(*sniggers* no comments! All I can say is I never read the Bible, but I've read the DaVinci Code thrice...) if it weren't for Danny boy.

So getting back to my social circle's perception of my reading habits, I invariably got a couple of books on my birthday whether I'd asked for them or not. Don't get me wrong, I'd never complain if someone got me good ol' O.Henry, but there was this time when, not on my bday, just a random day, I got a bunch of books from my family physician(you got it right, even my doctor knew how much I read). She was cleaning out her book collection since both her kids had moved out and there was no one to read them anymore. I jumped at the Mallory Towers(gimme a break, i think i was nine!) but when i came to the P.G. Wodehouse I was stumped! I mean who would land a Wodehouse on an unsuspecting nine yr old!!!! Anyway, I read two pages and shoved it into the back of my book cabinet.

Five (or maybe more) summers later, whilst cleaning, I came across that darned Jeeves once again. Remembering my agony of that long gone summer night, I was close to discarding the book, when I decided to give Bertie a chance. The first story contained a wild child, angry geese, English noblesse of the early 1900s, and, in Wodehouse's own words, the ever-sagacious Jeeves all wrapped in P.G's unique style of the subtlest of humour.
I was smitten.

I remember the rapidity with which I finished that book of short stories (Very Good, Jeeves).
I also remember considering wedlock with Wodehouse (Quite impossible, for one, he's dead+his literary genius might make up for his lack of aesthetic appeal, but still, I didn't know him personally...) but settled for spending the rest of my life with his works. Now I haven't been able to get my hands on a lot of his work considering how much they seem to cost, and with me living on the pocket money of a 19 yr old. I usually adore e-books for their convenience but, in the case of Pelham Grenville, they don't quite work the magic a bunch of yellowed pages can.

Lucky for me, I recently found out that the father of my father's colleague has the collected works of Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse!!! My dad, very thrilled, gets me the Golf Omnibus as the first installment of my summer reading very generously shoved into his bag by Mr. Menon (God bless you!). My spirits rose and fell with equal velocity. Golf. And me. Right!

I read the back cover, I read the Foreword by the author and bit by bit my apprehension grew. Of all the damn books ever written, why one on golf. The only exposure I've had to golf is the cheap imitation of a computer game! I then got to the first story, then the second, and the charm of Sir Wodehouse was back, my very own Knight in Shining Armour wielding a pen (well it IS mightier than the sword you know). I am now through half the stories in the book, a mix of the experienced Oldest Member of the club giving the fledglings advice on everything from Golf etiquette to wooing young women from the upper echelons of Olde English Society, delivered warm with a seasoning of Grenville's bits of irony. Now I may still not know the difference between a Mashie and a Niblick (wait I think they're the same thing) but I sure know that Wodehouse is the best companion for a rainy afternoon and a cup of tea, oh and also, NEVER make small talk on a golf course!

Crease on my Tennis Whites

I never developed an interest in cricket as a child due to two primary reasons:
1. I am a girl.
2. The boys never let me play with them because I was better than them a girl.

Not understanding the game, I wrote it off as one of those inexplicable little things guys do, like, absolutely hating girls when they're 10 and then doing their best to woo them 5 years later, or thinking that guzzling beer and making an absolute fool of themselves is supposed to impress us :-|

So at the age of 19, when a group of not-so-young boys asked if I'd like to play, I pounced! To be frank, I didn't get my hopes up too much because

a)I was the youngest there.
and b) I was STILL prettier than them a girl.

I expected to be fielding most of the time, rarely batting and never bowling(this I'm ok with coz I suck at it anyway)
Now I don't usually admit I'm wrong(I have borderline authoritarian personality disorder...just not as much as Hitler) but boy was I wrong!
Not only did I get to bat for both teams(we were 7 people in all), i didn't have to field at all(since I was batting for both teams) and no bowling! Could a girl ASK for better!!!

Anyway by the end of it, I'd scored half the runs for both teams(those years of swimming and tennis really paid off...or the guys were just being nice...but I like to think I rock at cricket...) and basically I love playing cricket ever since(this took place about 2 weeks ago...just for the record...)
Now I still hate watching Cricket, so the IPL matches don't do much for me. Like ya i know the point is to lure the wannabe firangs(aka diehard ManU/Chelsea/Arsenal/etc supporters) who follow the EPL and go on about how football is the only real sport, blah blah(ya don't call me, I'll call u when my brain dies...)towards more desi flavour.

Now people may go on and on about how the cricket scene is getting saturated and how the good ol' Test days are now a thing of the past...but hold on! If my dad sends emails instead of letters and I send SMSes instead of emails(notice the dying longevity of the mode of communication) why can't i have my cricket matches shorter, sweeter, more convenient!

Oh and those who talk about dying national integration and all that jazz have you noticed that SRK is definitely not from Calcutta and nor is Ambani from Bombay. (I refuse to use the cities' new names... it messes with my belief system) So the IPL matches are doing anything BUT killing our spirit of nationalism. You would think I'd support Bombay having lived here all my life, but I way prefer the Knightriders(ok fine...a lil of it has to do with Shah Rukh...but still...goal achieved!)and although I don't watch the matches, they know I'm rooting for them(at least they will if they read this post...Shah Rukh, if you read this, LEAVE A COMMENT!)

Another phenomenon is that there are these surrogate IPL matches springing up...like we at AIESEC(largest student-run, not-for-profit, youth organisation of the world) Mumbai are starting the AIESEC Premiere League where we form the same teams as the IPL and play against eachother in a series of matches(I totally like!)

So basically the IPL is this major revolution. And the good sorts like the French Revolution the Industrial Revolution.

Anyway after 19 long years I've realised that cricket is THE SEX!!! So I'm gonna go practice and you can still argue about whether Sreesanth was wrong or Bhaji....I, personally, much prefer playing the sport!

Sparkling Sprite

a slip of mood into my alter ego

Playing the Youth Card

What is it with cola giants and the youth??? Every brand strategy begins and ends with us mindless overgrown children. If you did your research right you would know that we're not as intellectually deficient as you make us out to be(ok may be some of us are dumb...but stop generalizing!!!) This is the usual scenario at a cola company's brand placement meeting:

Exec 1: "The damn dentists are telling all the lil kids no more cola or your teeth will rot and that means injections. The tiny morons are now averse to our product. We've lost out to cavities."

Exec 2: "What about grown ups? People who either brush before sleeping or don't really care what happens to their teeth."

Exec 1: "Well...they used to think it was cool to always have a bottle of cola in the refrigerator. That is, until all the aunties started following stupid diets. And now the whole pesticide issue, so even the uncles have switched from rum n coke to gin n tonic."

Exec 2: "Damn farmers with degrees in chemistry! So what now?"

Exec 3: "umm...I have an idea. What about the youth? They don't give tuppence bout what anyone says anyway...and they sure don't seem to care about what goes in..."

Exec 1&2: "aaaah"

With this started the whole youth campaign. GenX= Generation Next, followed by GenY= Generation Youth(I'm guessing). I would forgive someone for thinking these were gene-altering beverages.
This brings us to Youngistaan, or rather, Dumbistaan(courtesy, M from M&M). Acknowledging our "cool" quotient isn't going to get you any consumers.

Colas are BEVERAGES!!!!! They DO NOT determine whether I'm cool or not. These ads are trying to take peer pressure to another level altogether. I like colas. I like colas because:
1. They are cold(sometimes)
2. They are sweet.
3. They are fizzy(although i know a lot of people who wait for their cola to go flat before drinking it)
and most importantly....
4. these things are LOADED with caffeine!!!!! and everyone knows Caffeine+Sucrose= major adrenaline rush
*author's note- you're just dumb if you didn't know why you're insomniac after a bottle of pepsi...they say refreshing...i say Caffeine Addiction.

I am under no illusion whatsoever that colas:
1. make me "Cooler" than Bollywood stars(ref: Uncle)
2. are more desirable than my significant other(ref: Thumbs Up TVCs)
3. make me so convincing as an extra-terrestrial that parents are no more an obstacle in my love/sex life


so seriously, the day any of my "peers" starts giving a damn about whether I drink a cola or not, I'll eat "my can", I promise!