The Perfect Woman

I will never be the perfect woman. The one with the perfect hair that looks untouched no matter how many times she moves. I will never have the perfect amount of makeup that doesn’t show when the camera flash is on, or that doesn’t cover up my dark spots. I will never get it right, the shoes that match the bag, the accessories that match, the watch that fits the outfit. I will never look like I could be on display at Prada, Chanel or Guess.

I will never be able to wear white without getting it dirty. My powder marks will always be on my clothes. My jeans will always be a little crumpled. My shoes will always have a little grime. I will never eat silently. I will somehow end up talking when there’s food in my mouth. In fact, I doubt I’d ever stop talking. My room will always be in a mess. My bag will always be a dump. I will always use the wrong words and the wrong times.

I will never be the one to hold my peace at the right time. I will always say what I feel like I need to. Of course, I will always feel like smacking myself silly the next day for not holding my peace. I will always have ugly feet and terrible toenails. I will never stop falling down accidentally. I will never stop laughing out too loud. I do drop things and sometimes they break. I do take bad pictures with fat arms, big thighs and pasty faces.

My makeup does melt. My lipstick never stays. My fingernails always break. And my roots will always show. My knees will always be bruised. I will never be able to make the omelette into a perfect circle. I burn eggs and Maggi too.

I will always dance like there’s no tomorrow. I will always overwork myself. I will never stop saying Yes. i will always bark and fight at the slightest thing. My butt will always be too big and my legs will always be too short. I will never learn to stop getting hurt.

This is me, now and this is me always. I will never stop loving myself, now and forever. I may not be perfect, but I am definitely real.

The Fem-Male Divide

I have personally always found Vasantham Central programmes a pain to watch. I do believe that there is a lot of talent and Indians have a great deal of potential. Yet, I have never understood the need for long dreary serials, talkshows that do not provide proper discourse or ideas, poorly structured shows and shallow and superficial programmes. I would much rather spend my time on an online portal watching my favorite seasons of Will and Grace or Army Wives rather than click “05″. This is not, my dear readers, because I dislike Tamil. I love my mother tongue and am incredibly proud of it.

 I also would love to support an Indian channel because if we don’t then who will? But its so terribly painful to sit through any of their programmes except maybe the variety shows which are packed with songs and dances which require little intellectual processing.

There is this one particular show that has gotten on my nerves more than anything else has in quite awhile. This show called, “Aanaa, Penaa?”. This literally translated means, “Male or Female?”.  The main idea of the show is to get 3 male celebrities and 3 female celebrities and put them through a round of challenges which some unifying theme each week. This could be to either figure out if women are better singers or if men lie more than women. This and a few jing jang songs and medley items and voila! A show!

Now why does this seemingly harmless show irritate me? Because my friends, I feel that at this day and at this age, the male and female divide is no longer as distinct as we once considered it to be. The show as my sister would say seems to be so regressive in nature. I once did a Gender Studies module and I felt many of the stereotypes and assumptions I have made about gender get thrown out of the window during the course of that module. Men and women are not as different as we make them out to be. In fact, although we can attribute some small differences such as upper body strength and genitals, most of these distinctions we have between men and women are largely SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS.

We are in fact a lot more alike than different. The categories of male and female are as arbitrary as organising us ourselves according to racial groups, hair colour, blood types, handedness and even heights. These categorisations are here to organise society, not for us to base our distinctions and differences and determine who is superior or inferior.

As such, I feel that the person/s behind this show are either very very unaware of the fact that men and women are essentially not very different or are just have a very flippant attitude towards what goes on our televisions. This is what irritates me the most. We, the audience are not stupid people. There are so many things to talk about, so many ways to structure programmes. Yet, time and time again our intelligence is undermined with shows that do nothing to enhance our way of thought or for that matter even to provide us with something bearable and at the very least humorous to watch.

Another thing that irks me about this show is the immense amount of stereotypes the celebrities featured, lean on to “support” their sex. Such as the age-old joke about the Indian girl who lies to her mum about group study and goes clubbing, who changes her clothes from a long sleeved shirt to a tube. OR the jokes about Indian men and their numerous girlfriends. And other rubbish like this. I am not saying that these things don’t happen in society, but they are just getting very very stale and incredibly tiring to watch. Enough of assumptions and stereotypes, they are so stupid and make you sound stupid and make us the audience stupid for tuning into your channel when we could have easily rented a DVD or something.

Dear Vasantham Central and Production companies,

If any one of you, just one of you ever does read this blog, please.. I beg of you. Do something about this atrocity and joke we call a channel. There are so many issues to talk about, so many programs to feature. There are many themes for variety shows yet you choose to base your shows on the dumbest of them all. Please do the rest of us, your audience a favour and either stop shooting and wasting your money on such rubbish and just import programs or start looking carefully at your society and mirror what they want to hear and see. Reflect us, the people you represent. The people who have stories to tell. Not stories like those that appear in your dramas such as abusive husbands and long lost siblings who fall in love with each other, but REAL stories of REAL Indians. I appreciate that you have a vast amount of production and media experience. I on the other hand am a humble blogger who knows zilch about producing a show. But there is so much to be said and so much to be heard. You have great actors and actresses. Your child stars never fail to amaze me with their prowess in acting. But why aren’t their potentials being unleashed? Why is it that the kind of straightforwardness and amazing conceptualisation we see at dramas put up by our own Indian groups hardly show in televisions?

Give us a reason to support you. Start hiring people who realise that society is not a given but in fact just a template for understanding the world. People who choose to investigate society and not take everything at surface level. People who produce and want to make a difference. People who aren’t afraid of controversy. People who actually represent us, your people.

The television is an incredibly powerful medium to connect with your people. If there is anyone at all who can change and reform this society, it is you. Please do something!

Aarthi.

 

Campaign the Singapore Government to Stop Producing Cluster Bombs

Got this off an email from Seelan Palay. Thanks for sharing and I hope you guys will pass the information on!

Pictures of victims - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3462.htm

Campaign the Singapore Government to Stop Producing Cluster Bombs

The Singapore government, through its government linked company, Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (ST Kinetics), manufactures, stockpiles and publicly advertises two types of cluster ammunitions for sale (Cluster Munition Coalition 200 .

They are the ‘155mm DPICM artillery projectiles (containing 63 or 49 grenades) equipped with electro- mechanical self-destruct fuzes with an advertised dud rate of 3 percent’ and ‘a 120mm mortar bomb which delivers 25 DPICM grenades’ (Singapore Technologies Engineering n.d., cited in Cluster Munition Coalition, 2008 ).

As world governmental representatives converged in Dublin on the 19th May to seek an agreement on banning cluster bombs, the absence of major producers such as United States, China and Russia have seriously undermined these efforts (Gergely 200 . The U.N. Development Programme claimed that ‘cluster munitions have caused more than 13,000 confirmed injuries and deaths around the world, the vast majority of them in Laos, Vietnam and Afghanistan’ (Gergely 2008).

In a brief online scan of Singapore’s two major newspapers, TODAY and Straits Times, dating 16 to 20 May, both well- read media in the country, have remained silent over this issue. The online blogosophere has also been muted on Singapore’s role in posessing such bombs.

Singapore has also not attended the international conferences held in Oslo, Lima, Vienna, and Wellington which seeks to prohibit the use of cluster bombs. As of April 2008, Singapore remains not having subscribed to the Wellington Declaration which ‘affirms the country’s “objective of concluding the negotiation of such an instrument prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians’. The declaration is a prerequisite to full participation in the conference in Dublin (Cluster Munition Coalition 2008).

Cluster munitions can cause excessive harm to civilians even when the conflict has been over for it ‘can remain a threat for decades’. It is primarily a weapon which contains ‘multiple explosive submunitions’ which are ‘dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground and designed to break open in midair, releasing the submunitions and saturating an area that can be the size of several football fields. Anybody within that area, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured’. Those that are not exploded, and most of them don’t, ‘are left on the ground and, like landmines, remain a fatal threat’. As such, people are prevented from using ‘their land and access schools and hospitals’. Cluster munitions have been used since the Second World War and most recently in Lebanon in 2006 (Cluster Munition Coalition Ireland 2008).

Given that the world-wide trend is towards banning cluster bombs; and that the Singapore government has remained steadfastedly committed to manufacturing and selling such munitions, Singaporeans should be duly concerned about these weapons being used against innocent civilians.

What then, can Singaporeans do, given that the media has not reported on this issue?

They can:

1.act as citizen journalists by highlighting this issue in their website or blog.
2.sign and forward the petition which is to campaign on the ban at Dublin at http://www.stopclusterbombs.ie/petition.
3.Execute a nation-wide campaign to pressurise the government into entering into negotitions with the aim to ban cluster bombs.
4.Write to their MPs and urge them to field questions about this issue during Question Time in Parliament; or to the Opposition, appealing them to take up this cause.
5.Tell everyone you know about Singapore’s involvement as a producer of cluster munitions and its detrimental effects.

Knowledge is Power

If you love your country and feel that it is your right to know what happens, you must watch this. If you always thought your country was free and there was nothing to worry about, you must watch this. If you think your country has no moles, no secret police, no tyrants, you must watch this.

Knowledge is power and the more we know, the more we are empowered to fight against this. This is not a fight against our country, its a fight FOR our country. This film was made for a private screening. Yet the film was seized by MDA.

The film is about MM Lee and how has subjugated institutions within our country, hampering any progress towards a “free” nation. Its 45 minutes long, but I suggest you watch it before its lost in its circulation online as well (don’t assume the Internet is a free community).

The film is titled One Nation under Lee and is produced by fellow Indian and social activist Seelan Palay and Martyn See, film-maker.  Go to www.sheepcitytv.com and click on the first thumbnail to your left. Here are some excerpts from news articles that have been written about this incident.

Undeterred, the organisers pressed on with the screening today. Just before it began at 2pm, officers from the Board of Film Censors showed up at the door to serve the reminder. Still, the 45 minute video was screened in its entirety, interrupted periodically by raised voices outside the hall. Apparently, plainclothes police officers were called in to seize the video as the organisers had refused to budge.

Just as the screening ended, BFC officers were ushered into the hall, given microphones and were told to explain to the audience, numbering about 80, about their intentions. They didn’t use the PA system, but were heard uttering something about wanting to seize the video, which were eventually given to them. Minutes later, another government officer came in, muttering about wanting to see the projector. After being repeatedly told that he could not, he left in a puff.

Extracted from www.singaporerebel.blogspot.com

“The film, produced by activist and artist Seelan Pillay, was a narrative of how Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew subjugated various institutions in Singapore, such as the press, under the government’s control during his time as Prime Minister. It also depicted how the social divide in Singapore is a result of the People’s Action Party’s policies. The film included interviews with former Solicitor General Francis Seow, political detainee Said Zahari, opposition politician JB Jeyaretnam and scenes of various public protests which had taken place in Singapore”

Extracted from www.theonlinecitizen.com

“If it is an offence to screen such a film, then everyone with a birthday or wedding video would be criminalised,” Mr See said, adding that artists and writers must not be afraid to document and write when they see and hear.

He said that the film would be a “fantastic learning tool” for students and anybody who is interested in learning about Singapore should watch it.

Mr Seelan added that as an artist, he cannot care so much about laws. “Otherwise, art cannot take place. I need to make films about what I see and sometimes laws don’t allow that.”

Extracted from www.yoursdp.org

 

Do watch the film and hit me back with what you thought about it!

A little lesson and some random thoughts

Hello world and its inhabitants! It must have been awhile since you last heard from me and if anyone still does occupy this space, I hope you read this. This is a little tutorial for all you earthly beings. Now, I know I am no expert on how the world works but I am sure I know a thing or two that might be of help to you, you and definitely you.

TUTORIAL

I am sure there have been times when you feel like someone’s messed up or someone is doing something the way they shouldn’t be doing it. Now lets analyse this. Why do you think they have messed up? Is it because you believe this person has messed it up and because s/he is not doing things the way YOU want them to do it?

If that’s the case then here’s a tip, get a life of your own to live. Start realising that not everyone has to follow your own rules and that we all have very very different ideals of what a “good” life is. “Good” is in fact so culturally relative. You might think that spending a night drinking different kinds of Tequila is your idea of a perfect life. I may not share that, but does that mean I get to decide that you’re a loser wasting your life away? You might be messing your liver up, but NO you are actually completely right in deciding what a good life is for yourself!

Now got that earthly beings? To the second point now. Suppose this person does think s/he is screwing up his/her life and you see what the problem is? What do you do? Do you A.Go around to all his/her friends and whine and complain B.Ignore that person because you think they aren’t worthy of your friendship or C.Talk to that person.

Now my dear friends, this might come as a shock to you but the answer is actually C. Amazing isn’t it? But its true, if you feel like someone has a problem, talking to them would actually help solve the problem or at least give you a bit of a better insight to this person’s actions. Trust me it actually works!

Now that I’ve attempted to contribute to the betterment of your lives my dear readers, let me get back to my usual self-loving self where all I want to talk about is myself and what concerns me. If you actually think I write for you, then this is where you press that little “X” on the right side of this window.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

1.Why do people do all the rubbish in the world then the moment they are attached act like absolute SAINTS?

I’ve always been irked by this concept but I have a few friends who suffer from relationshipidentitis. See when they are single, they go about doing whatever they want to do, like dance and grind in clubs, smoke, drink and sleep around. Now notice, I am not saying this is the wrong way to live (please refer to TUTORIAL here). But the moment they get attached, they seem to make a complete turnaround, often acting like they’ve never seen a cigarette before and even frown upon others who choose to live the way they used to.

Let me relate this specific person who used to actually dance with me and my girl-friends in clubs. He was always around us like such a close friend and never ever made any judgements about us. Now the moment he got attached, one of my girl-friends actually caught wind of the fact that he was telling his gf that we girls are terrible in clubs! Now, now if only I had the power to turn back time and take a video or two of the things I’ve seen you do with chics in clubs and the stories I’ve heard. But its okay, I shall live and let live.

Its fine to do whatever you want, and change however you want, but please for gods sake, stop putting yourself on a pedestal assuming you have the right to judge the rest of the world. No one died and made you God (now that sounded wrong didn’t it?)

2.Why do foreign workers pray to ATMs?

Please don’t get me wrong. I am no xenophobic and as much as the foreign workers have irked me at times, I admit I have no rights to judge them since they contribute a lot more to society than I do. BUT I cannot for the life of me understand why they take so long at ATMs. I’ve been to Tekka a few times this week and the ATM at Tekka market has been removed so I have had to walk to Little India Arcade instead. And a queue with about 5-7 foreign workers takes about 30 minutes or so to pass! I am really not kidding. Today was not too bad but yesterday I had a terrible time waiting! What do they do in front of the machine? Pray that money will magically appear? Concentrate on amounts? Calculate and convert everything to home currency? Please remind me never to draw money at Tekka again.

3.Why do I attract psychos?

Do I give out some sort of hormones that just attract psychos? If Rainbow Rose man was not weird enough here are some other experiences I have had over the last few months.

Yesterday, a random woman sees me at Tekka and asks me for directions to Jalan Besar. I point out the general direction and she asks me if I am local. I say yes, and she tells me she is too but she hasn’t come to Tekka in a long time. Then she asks me if its very scary to drink coffee alone in Tekka. I tell her to go to Ananda Bhavan since its indoor and it shouldn’t be a problem. She says oh okay and asks me whether I want to join her for coffee and asks me 2-3 times to be sure I don’t want to join her. Okay maybe she’s being polite but I don’t think I randomly ask people to join me for coffee. Hell there are people I’ve been wanting to ask out for coffee for eons and still haven’t gotten to!

Then there’s this weirdo who messages this to me on Facebook. Apparently the time for Friendster-weirdos is over and its now Facebook.

“gf, ur beauty really mesmerize me. never in my life i ever came across a beautiful indian gal here in singapore…..in the movies of course la i ever saw b4…..but here in singapore not even once…..then i read ur profile n it says tat u r into men n women….n tat really pull my trigger to ask u if u care to add me up….well btw of ur looks, u r attractive. very attractive… but i noe where im standing. so lets go for a win-win solution…..only if u r attracted to me, or looking for companionship. (i call it pleasure frens) or u r set for a multiple orgasms…hahahaha j.j….then u can accept me k. wat do u thing…….is it a win-win solution?”

I really have no idea where to start on that one.

Now there are a lot of other weirdos I’ve met like the Starbucks waiter who insists I come again tomorrow and calls me by name and certain people who don’t seem to get the hint that I really do not enjoy seeing them. What would it take? Me hitting them smack on the head with something heavy and sharp?

ANYWAY, I am done ranting and before this becomes one of those pubescent blogs where I start going into painful details about exactly everything I did today and what exactly I bought and who I met and what I ate and okay you get the point, I shall STOP here and pray something significant happens for me to talk about or I can consider closing this blog!

The Rainbow Rose Man

Before I begin I would like to confirm that I am a girl. And no this post does not speak for any other girls and men please do not stop buying them flowers because of what you read here.

I think I am starting to have an aversion towards flowers. Okay maybe not flowers but bouquets. Over the span of the last 2 years, I have received quite a number (thanks to all the romantics in my life) and I have developed an aversion towards them.

Today, someone I met rather recently though I have known of for a few years scared surprised me with a bouquet. A very sweet gesture no? Not really when I have never actually gone out with this person and even today I was not supposed to meet this someone. This person calls me asking me what I have on today and I say I have dance class. I usually don’t think twice when someone asks me where my class is because its quite a normal question and tell him where it is nearby. He works nearby so he said he needs to pass me some forms for a dance competition and wanted me to ask a few friends to participate. Sounded pretty normal and I agreed hestitantly though I had no friends who would actually participate in one but it seemed like a polite thing to at least try.

So fine, I reach dance class 30 minutes late and I really thought he had forgotten he was supposed to meet me and there he is waiting at the MRT Station and suddenly he whips out a bouquet. With roses in 7 different colours. Yes a rainbow bouquet of roses. Now most girls would be ooh-ing and aah-ing here. But first it is very freaky unsettling to take so much for a person you barely know. Secondly, I do not particularly like roses though I have to say I’ve never seen a bouquet quite as beautiful ( I always thought rainbow bouquets would look weird). Thirdly, I am just not someone who enjoys carrying a bouquet around.

Now lets get to the last point. To me, the entire idea of walking around with flowers seems very ridiculous. Especially when I do not have any way of explaining the flowers. Its not my birthday, I didn’t get proposed to and I am not Britney Spears (though that’d be interesting).

So guess what I do? I turn cold,clammy and tinker on the edge of hyperventilating. I apologise and tell him I really cannot accept the bouquet and try to disappear as fast as I can. I was freaked out. It was quite a hilarious sight seeing one person with a bouquet trying to calm a near hyperventilating person who is freaked out by the idea.

Everytime I see a bouquet now, I just freak out. I don’t know why but it just freaks me out because I just don’t know what to do with flowers anymore. I hate carrying them around and after they dry out I don’t know what to do. Yes I admit at one point in time, I gushed and swooned over flowers but right now they just leave me feeling cold,clammy and unable to breathe. I realised that guys don’t think about the aftermath of sending a girl flowers. Like one INTELLIGENT person who sent it to a school I work at teaching dance part time and left me freaking out for a bit. The thoughts behind the gestures are really so sweet but they just point at the male inability to think of consequences such as How do I explain this since I am a newbie teacher? What do I do with it at dance class? Who is going to ask me who these are from? SHIT He’s not even my boyfriend, what do I say???

So guys, a reminder, if you’re not sure if your chic digs the big bouquets, just give her a stalk of her favorite flower or something. Its a lot easier to keep in obscurity and when she runs out of things to do with it, she can make it into a bookmark or use the stem to prod and clean little crevices in her room. And if you REALLLLLLY feel like you need to impress, buy her a REAL gift, one that involves thought and more than just a good florist. A book, a margarita, a beer, a flashy car or better yet a house with a nice big garden where she can grow her OWN flowers.

 

And I mean it, the gestures and thoughts behind the action are beautiful but make sure when you do give a girl flowers she is in a position to accept them and knows exactly what she can do with them and is proud to lug them all over. And if you’re wooing me, an ice cold Heineken will be good thank you. =)

I need you.

Every year Varusha Pirappu (usually on the 14th, but this year the 13th) is celebrated with much joy. It stopped bringing me that happiness a few years back and ever since my life has changed completely when my Dad passed away on the 14th. I know you are looking down at all of us, taking care of everyone and making sure that everything goes wonderfully, but I just wish you were here sometimes. To know that there was one man in my life I always could fall back on.

You are our hero and I really just feel so alone right now. I wish you’d come back. Come back to scold me, to joke about everything, to fight with us, to annoy us with your requests for coffee, to be there when we need to know we are beautiful and that we are loved.

I feel so lonely today. There are a million people out there and I know amidst them are many who love them. But right now, I just feel like I have no one. No one but you to erase this phase I am going through with my life. The moments I just question what the hell I am doing with my life and why I chose this path, when I feel like its impossible to live up to any expectations and mostly when no one understands that I too am capable of hurting. Only you would understand that and right now I need you so much to tell me I am strong and I will pull through this.

The Land Of Contradictions

Don’t get me wrong. I love my country and I do feel a sense of pride wash over me everytime I see the flag or representatives of our country making it good somewhere. But there are just some things I can never understand.

I can never understand how our government proclaims the need for an open society (when it comes to opening Integrated Resorts) but protestors get arrested for peaceful protests, get chased away for organising their own runs and gay people aren’t allowed to have sex. (Oh and yes if you’re not gay and you want to have oral sex, please make sure it ends in intercourse or you’re screwed as well)

I can never understand how Singaporeans can complain day in day out about how this country is not fair as all opportunities go to “other people” but the moment you give them a chance, they’d be more than happy to run away to another country and be a foreign talent there.

I can never understand how the government asks for our students to be more creative and think critically when our teachers are told not to broach taboo topics and aren’t allowed to discuss anything that goes beyond your “politically correct discussions” in classes.

I can never understand why Singaporeans claim to be patrons of the Arts because when a performance is going on during a 9 course dinner, all everyone is interested in is getting that last bit of the fish or the sharks’ fin and oh yes making your toast and taking photos right smack in front of the dance performance.

I can never understand why such great efforts are made to exoticise Chingay - what was meant to be our parade for expressing ourselves and a legal substitute for firecrackers during Chinese New Year. If that’s the case, isn’t this our parade? Shouldn’t it be like Mardi Gras where everyone gets in the fun? Why the needs to make it so exotic (from the drummers who say the same local names and performing groups in “exotic tribal ways” which sound like scary shouts actually) , so controlled and mostly so much of a tourist attraction?

I can never understand why Singaporean officials feel that it is within their capacity to comment on lesser upgraded countries’ and criticise tyrannical activities of other countries when we ourselves stand at a 147th out of 160 countries in terms of freedom of speech (Reported by Reporters w/o Borders) and are in fact suspected of having links with Burma.

I can never understand why taxi prices were raised in order to help taxi drivers, who actually end up earning less now than they did before the fee hike. And oh yes then we stop them from getting passengers at CBD areas. (now wouldn’t it have made much more sense for this ruling for not picking up passengers at CBD areas just to last during peak periods so that during other times when it rains we don’t need to run to the nearest taxi stand which is bound to be really faraway that we’d probably have better luck getting to the MRT instead). And let me guess, when we start taking the trains they will hike the prices there too, then the buses…then what? Lets all walk? So who is actually benefitting from this if its not you, not me nor is it the taxi drivers?

 Indeed, we live in a beautiful country, a country that is safe after 6pm, a country where your kids can go to school and come back without being held at gunpoint. A melting pot of so many different cultures, a tourist paradise and certainly a clean and green place to be .We have economic development and I’ll go so far as to say that while there is inequality and discrimination a larger group of us minorities also manage to enjoy a fair amount of comfort here. I agree that we have every right to be proud of our country but why stop here?

If we truly love our country, how can we be so complacent to assume that everything your papers report is the whole truth? That every government works with the best intentions in mind? When our brothers and sisters in Malaysia fight for their rights, why do we see them as detached from us? Why do we understand riots and protests and things that only happen in countries that do not enjoy economic comfort that we do? Why are we so certain that there are no poor people in Singapore? That the government takes care of all of them (we are no welfare state after all). Why do we assume that its no point trying to fight for our right to know and our right to express? Why are we so afraid to speak our mind simply because we feel that the very next moment someone from the government’s gonna start a conspiracy theory on us and stop our water supplies and send our kids out of school? Why do we feel that its okay that opposition parties are not given their fair share of exposure or that its okay not to know if our CPF systems are truly transparent because the government is good to use and provides us with economic comfort that you can barely dream of in other countries?

Why is there this need to have a trade-off (between economic comfort and our freedoms as humans)?

If we truly love our country, we should stop lamenting about how this is not the ideal place to live in, and instead start working on making this the ideal place to be living in. Start by first realising that wherever else you go, you will be a foreigner, a second class citizen. If you were born here, you owe this place at least that. Singapore is a land of contradictions; that is fairly established. But if we don’t correct these, who will?

Rang De Basanti

I might be a little (or very) late about this but I absolutely absolutely love this movie. I just watched it last night and it is fantastic. For those of you who like me are a little late to jump on the bandwagon, you HAVE to catch this movie. I am still in awe at the entire beauty of how the movie manages to connect the past and the present in such a profound story. It is amazing amazing amazing!

If you’ve ever felt that historical protests and revolutions mean nothing to you.. If you’ve ever felt that History was irrelevant or that your forefathers’ sacrifices were completely beyond your comprehension, you have to watch this movie. I don’t wish to be a spoiler, but this movie really made me think. There might be many who don’t really think it’s a fantastic movie but I am in love with it.

 It doesn’t hurt that the cast are quite pleasing to the eyes by the way…

Clearing Up

In the midst of clearing out clutter (the people kind) from my life y’all. Tired of many many things right now and I need to eliminate all that negativity first. Would love to blog because there are so many things I would love to share - but everytime I start typing, I keep hitting the backspace for some reason or another. I am not dead yet, I promise.

P.S: Just to set the records straight, nope it ain’t my exams now though I am slumped under loads of pending term papers ranging from the most extreme of topics.

Be back in a few weeks.

Much Love,

Aarthi