Wonder-lust

From National Geographic online

I wish I had wheels. Or wings. Or a private jet. Imagine how much of the world I would be able to cover.

My wanderlust is supposed to be a gift of my sun sign. But I have rarely been able to satisfy it. Reading about exotic destinations revs up the engine, but there seem to be so many things putting the proverbial spoke in my wheel. It was fun in our childhood when my father and mother would plan vacations and visits. There was nothing for my brother and I to worry our little heads about - we could traipse around with not a care in the world. Sigh. Those were the days. More often than not, growing up brings with it the worldly considerations of time and money. And decision-making. Where should you go? When can it be planned? How much of a hole in the pocket is it going to be? The sad thing is, we can forget how to have fun because we try so hard to have fun.

Blame the New York Times for making me feel like this. This is what I read, making me yearn to be in many places at once. Going through some of them made me realise this - although I could do with a pampering, Hilton-style stay at a pop-exotic destination, I would much rather be backpacking across lesser-known sisters of tourist hot-spots. Places that are not in the limelight - yet, and hence just happy being themselves. Towns just waking up to their own charm, accidental discoveries, secret hideaways known only to a few. They would make for the perfect grub for my travel-hungry soul.

What feeds my wanderlust is watching and reading seasoned travellers like Michael Palin, in lands far away, exciting and awe-inspiring people and cultures, and cuisine to tantalise any taste buds (unless they are being too adventurous and visiting communities that eat bulls and rats and the like).

For now, I satisfy myself with suggestions from the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveller and the like. I invite you to do the same. Think about how many gorgeous places you still haven't heard of and how much you're missing if you think tourism is about the Londons, New Yorks, Parises and Milans of the world. For all you know, the perfect spot could be just a two hour drive away!

Brushing off the dust.......

Another attempt at revival. Here goes.................

TLC. That's what all blogs need. Some attention. The investment of that slippery, elusive aspect of time. Something to let it feel like its creators even care! And we're not doing very well at making this page feel too well, now, are we?

Let me try (again) by sharing another TV obsession of mine, of late, in keeping with the general trend of the last few posts - Avatar, The Last Airbender. The American anime series about the most adorable monk with the power to 'bend' or use the element of air to do his bidding. It started with Emm's suggestion one evening when I felt I had nothing to watch, and my TV/ film addicted soul needed some pixels to feed off. I had seen the advert of Avatar on Nick India, and brushed it off as another badly Hindi-dubbed attempt at a children's series. I didn't know any better - not with Cartoon Network trying to appease the Indian baccha party with Johnny Quest and Swat Cats in Hindi. Didn't appease me any.

Coming from Emm was enough endorsement for me (Tee and Emm are usually my prime source of to-watch lists). Hunted online, found some episodes - oops. Talk not of the evil you do, you pirate. But addiction can make you lose some of your conscience. And once I was hooked, it was for good.

Here's what I love about the series. It has a 12 year old protagonist, with a motley of teenaged friends, but never gets childish. It depicts the oft-abused premise of supernatural abilities and fantasy, but could never be charged for imitation - I've never seen a story with such clever manipulation of the four elements. It has a story with a thread across all episodes, shrewdly ensuring every viewer returns to see what happens next. Its animation has voice-overs and lines that make Aang and his gang so endearing to non-children too. And I absolutely love the Asian influence stamped all over it. What with the title itself being a Sanskrit word!

I read up on the series a bit all over the net, and found that the creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have incorporated a lot of cultural influences from civilizations all over the world. The titles of all episodes or 'chapters' have Chinese script depicting the elemnts. I especially love the Waterbenders fluid bending movements, apparently inspired from the ancient art of Tai-Chi (I am certainly taking those classes!). Although as an element, I should be partial to my sun sign's element - fire! Firebenders aren't very nice people in this one - though there seem to be a few exceptions even there (I'll have you know - I would be one awesome Firebender if they ever recruited me). There are so many references from such interesting cultures, all seamlessly integrated using the backgrounds of characters and the places they visit. Even a quaint yogi in one of the episodes :)

It's peppered with wit, humour and emotion, just enough not to overpower. All the characters are so real, so vulnerable, with identifiable weaknesses and fears. Even Aang, the Avatar himself, needs to sort himself out, overcome his insecurities and get assurances from his loyal gang of friends. Don't we know exactly how that can be? And my favourite character, apart from Aang himself, is Toph, his blind 12 year old Earthbending friend/teacher. She's got spunk, that one. And skill to floor any man twice her size. That is not to undermine in any way how interesting Katara , the gang's waterbender and her brother Sokka are.

Go watch. I'm sure you'll be singing its praises like I do. And uncover the secrets of elemental manipulation.


Oh, talking of mystery, secrets and abilities - Emm and I realised - shamefully late - that our co-blogger has chronicled her power of food-bending (ummm) on a lovely blog herself! We knew of her golden fingers when it comes to the kitchen, but now that it's in the public domain, everyone can see for themselves!

Tee- we love your blog, your writing and all the new things you're giving us to try out ourselves. I, for one, would love attempting to recreate your mom ke haath ka taste and relive those endless days+nights of stayovers of hogging /studying. Go girl! And happy first anniversary (month) to your blog!

My Share of the Revival

This is so cool that after a long hiatus, we finally are back in action! And while we are still talking about action, let me share my thoughts on superheroes...I was never a big fan, per say, but I did not mind watching an occasional movie or a cartoon, like 'Spider man' that used to air on DD, back in the good old days. As far as reading superhero comics, uh uh, never was attracted towards them. I was more of a 'Panchatantra' type comic fan. 'Archie' comics was also a favourite. That was then, but today I actually enjoy watching movies like 'Alien Vs. Predator', 'Star wars' and their kind. Thanks to my husband, I was properly initiated into this world of complex terms and complex plots. I confess, there still are times when I don't follow a word of whats happening, but then what are husbands for ? ;) Recently, I have started watching the famous 'Dr. Who' and I am not complaining.
I also love the supernatural stuff, the current favourite being, 'Ghost Whisperer'. This list also includes 'Bewitched' and 'Sabrina- the teenage witch' and of course, 'Harry Potter'. Never really got the whole concept of 'Lord of the rings ' though...man! I must be really dumb!!
But I thoroughly enjoy my world of 'Gilmore Girls', 'Scrubs','Friends','Animated movies' and of course, 'Food network'. Its always my first choice if I have to spend my evening watching TV. But enough about me, I am just glad that this blog has been revived and I have done my part in the process. Yay!!!

Revival Post

I felt like this poor blog of mine was being treated like a stepchild - considering that my other page gets the few and far between posts. So it was a great opportunity when Emm commented on the last post on Trivial Pursuits, which in her words could "easily win the prize for the mini post-masquerading-as-a-comment of the year".

Here is your prize sweetie - the comment finally gets its due as a post, yay!

It was eons ago that I posted anything on blogger, comments even... I would love to check out the new blogger, but alas no access to anything remotely interesting from office :(

I am not too enthu about superhero stuff, esp. in movies, esp. the gooey kind. I much prefer the comic books - spiderman, superman, he-man even. remember he-man, the blunt-cut blond master of the universe? i thought the whole thing was quite silly but I read it nonetheless.

In my case it was my bro who introduced me to this genre (in return I helped him discover the Archie comics :P). Thanks to him I ended up reading a whole lot of He-man, Phantom-Mandrake-Flash Gordon (these hunky guys were my favorite), the other Indrajal comic un-supernatural heros - Rip Kirby, Mike don't-remember-his-last-name (he was another hunky, soccer star like, but kind of dimwitted foolhardy type - his stories were amazing fun though) - my bro had inherited a huge collection of Indrajal comics from an older cousin. Then there were these WW II comics and a huge collection of Dr. Who's. Dint i ever pass on any Dr. Who books to you when we were in college, Vee? I am mighty surprised if I didn't... anyways, i totally dig Dr. Who. And whats those aliens thingits that he fights with? Daleks right? ooh I would love to see the Dr. Who series. I have a very faint memory of watching something like a Dr. Who movie - was there ever a Dr. Who movie? Or maybe its just my very graphic imagination :D

And I totally dig harry potter - even though hubby and bro kid me that its meant for the kids. They prefer Lord of the Rings - my bro can give a raving-ranting sermon on the book/movies. But at the risk of sounding blasphemous, I have to say that I just don't get it - neither the book, nor the movies, nor the hullabaloo surrounding it..

As far as movies/ tv shows are concerned - wouldn't you say 'I dream of Jeannie' was a supernatural show? no? i loved that series, bewitched too. Me and bro got hooked to 'Charmed'. 'Smallville', a fave of bro, never did impress me much - I ridiculed him watching Smallville in much the same way that I ridiculed him watching 'The Gilmore Girls' - those are so not the kind of shows I expected him to watch. I did like 'Lost' tho, but its more of a thriller than a supernatural. Right now I can't get enough of 'Heroes'.

Also though I didn't think much of the movies when they were first released, I never miss them on cable - the Spideman series, Batman movies, X-men (I looove wolverine), Men in black, the Pirates (I am not a huge Johnny Depp fan, but I will watch it again and again and yet again only for captain jack sparrow) and Harry potter too. One sci-fi movie that I really don't like watching is Jurassic park - can't pin point the reason, but I just don't like the entire series. another really confusing movie is the Matrix. Ditto its sequels. I drove my bro nuts with my questions while watching the Matrix triology. I saw a supernatural flick called 'Constantine' (Keanu Reeves again) on cable recently - I thought that was quite interesting. A fun time-travel film series is 'Back to the Future'. But I think one of the best, must-watch time-travel movies is '12 monkeys' (Bruce Willis) - you must see it, if you already haven't - its one of those rare sci-fi movies with hardly any special effects and a great plot.

With this very, very long comment you might actually think that i am in fact a sci-fi/supernatural movie fan - but can one really be a true fan if they haven't ever seen any Star Wars movie or Star Trek? i haven't. Well but you know, I am a huge movie/tv fan in general - I can sped hours together in front of a screen - you already know that :)


-Emm


Well, Emm, as you can see I have faithfully reproduced your comments - just putting in some Capital letters and apostrophes. Keep musing, and keep writing :D

Whoa there!

Toooooooo much catching up to do, way too much.

Emm decided to elope and marry, Tee bought a mansion in Oregon and I landed a job that fetches me a delicious 10 lakhs INR annually. And oh, Abhishek Bacchan went down on his knees to propose marriage.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? What, a bit over the top? Emm's eloping bit gave it away, didn't it? Oh well.

Naaaah, we're still ordinary girls with some crests in the line graph. Not all is untrue, though. Emm did marry her guy, everyone was happy. Tee did shift to Oregon, can't vouch for the mansion. Me, got a job, yay! It might pay me that cool figure, not just yet. And though it wasn't Abhishek who proposed marriage, someone did anyways, and yipee! am getting married!!

I'm feeling really nostalgic today. Can't help but relive all those memories of stay-overs with Emm and Tee, those girly chats, wondering about where life's going to take us. That was so much better than now, knowing exactly where we are in our lives. And knowing that there's a +1 for each of us (dont get me wrong, they're all neat guys).

There's no warmth like the one of togetherness and the bond we share. Us clumsy souls, we transcend all distances..........................