things to look forward to

I'm staying with my auntie again this summer in Delhi. She has a computer and used to know how to use the internet and things but has forgotten because she so rarely needed to use it. I want to (re)teach her how to use e-mail so we can keep in touch more often and so she can also e-mail and receive photos from her daughter who's moved to Mumbai. I am also going to try to take my auntie to see the Taj Mahal. The Taj is only about an hour and a half drive, bus, or train ride away from her house in New Delhi, where she's lived for the last 20 years, but she has never been to see it. My 71 year old auntie lived in Delhi for most of her childhood and now her widowhood, but has never seen one of the most iconic images of India. My auntie is India. She was 10 in Delhi during Independence! She nearly missed singing the national anthem with her class for Jawaharlal Nehru on the day of Independence but her cousin bicycled her over just in time. I know the Taj isn't as big of a deal to Delhi-wallahs, but it's still all over and so emblematic and I think my auntie should visit. She's traveled a lot, but I also loved the Golden Temple, so if we have a longer weekend maybe we'll get to go to Amritsar, too.

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Other things to look forward to for The Future:

reading for pleasure
nimbu panni
summer movies
bucket baths
berries
songwriting
apartment decorating
fresh midwestern vegetables and fruits
clavicles
changing leaves
foggy, frosty fall days
baking
60s dance parties

bollywood summer

I'll be in Delhi this summer and that means Bollywood for the summertime! I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of new films with my auntie in loud, air conditioned theatres. I'm going to come home with so many DVDs again, too.

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic features two of my favorite Bollywood actors: Rani Mukherjee and my boy Saif Ali Khan (who looks real good as a nerdy lawyer or something...why did you have to tattoo Kareena's name on your arm, boy?). The movie itself looks really hokey and probably heartwarming. Not even in the way most Bollywood is cheesy, either. Saif adopts four orphans and is bad at being their guardian and Rani bicycles in on a rainbow road:

It looks like there probably isn't much song and dance, and it might be too hokey, but I'll probably see it anyways. I love Saif and Rani.

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This is actually heartwarming:

"Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par," a movie made primarily for children, "has been dubbed in sign language for the benefit of hearing and speech impaired children," by Indore-based NGO Anand Mook Badhir Kendra. "Its director, Gyanendra Purohit told the United News of India (UNI) that all dialogues and songs of the film would be screened in sign language so that the children could also enjoy the movie along with others. He said they have also been considering to include the film in the education syllabus. With the state police providing its cameras and other equipments, the film had been dubbed in sign language within a fortnight." (from rediff.com)

Aamir Khan also looks kind of like a Bollywood Tom Hanks, to me.

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6 June Heroes will be out. It seems pretty similar to the Rang De Besanti plot, but it has Preity so I'm happy.

11 July God Tussi Great Ho releases, though I'm dubious about it. Salman Khan is such a sleaze, and the poster and title make it seem like Amitabh will be playing God. Which is just weird.

I might see Singh is Kinng (8 August) but it actually sounds really stupid. I can only handle Akshay comedies when I'm in the right mood.

15 August I'll probably be leaving Delhi (and it's Independence Day, too...), but a Yash Raj film, Bachna Ae Haseeno, releases then. (Same with Drona.) Bummer. SRK's new movie, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, doesn't come out until 12 December, either. And Dulha Mil Gaya releases in November. Here's hoping Kambakht Ishq, Sunglass, Tasveer/Eight by Ten, Ghajini (a remake of Memento), Har Pall, and Dilli 6 release while I'm around!

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Movies already released this year (a list of DVDs/VCDs to buy):

U Me aur Hum
Race
Black & White
Jodhaa Akbar
Tashan (maybe)
The Last Lear

end of the year

It's very strange to end a year in May. Spring means beginnings, right?

These are images of things that I am done with formally but that are supposed to impact the way I think forever. That sounds much more grandiose than I meant, but in some ways learning things in an institution is all about being grandiose, right? Building foundations and making connections and living life after that in a way that is changed and impacted, even if subconsciously. I like to imagine the things I learned this year are messy little forts scattered all over in my brain. Some of them are strung together, connected with dental floss or licorice or crown braids or rope.

(Wax, cast from plaster molds of a clay shape)









(Wafer cookies)

I've realized lately that most of what I write here doesn't make sense to anyone not in my head. I think that's ok. I think that maybe I might be at least conveying something that creates an impression of what I mean. I'm pretty ok with that.

bfs

I always get along with boyfriends really well. I wonder what that means.






(What I meant by that is that I tend to get along with other peoples' boyfriends really well. Whatever that means.)

fog

I am feeling really groggy right now. I had a meeting this morning that went well but wasn't stellar and then an ending to my favorite class that was really abrupt in a way that I didn't realize until later. I took an accidental nap in the afternoon and missed a talk I was supposed to attend and then woke up and couldn't figure out if it was evening or morning. I was grumpy and barely dealt with way too many annoyances at dinnertime and now I have calmed down a bit but I still feel bad, in a different way. I feel like a bad person. I feel like I need to stretch. In high school once my gym teacher had us do all sorts of new age-y exercises that everyone groaned about but that I secretly thought were nice. At one point she had us lay on our backs and stretch. She told us to massage our underarms to get blood flowing to our lymph nodes. She said to massage our lymph nodes, they keep us healthy. I don't know if massaging your underarms actually helps your lymph nodes but I still do it anyways sometimes, especially when I'm feeling foggy like I am now. It helps something.