2 States – Cute Story of Cultural Clash

I watched “2 States” in the theater couple of weeks back. We had Saibaba pooja at our home and after the pooja, my neighbor Usha told me that she & her sister Sunitha (visiting from India) are going to movie along with Aparna & they asked me to join them. I hesitated to go because I do not understand Hindi and I already read the book “2 States – Story of my marriage” by Chetan Bhagat.

 

Finally I got convinced and decided to go as it was girls only outing J. Arjun Kapoor (Actress Sridevi’s stepson) and Aliya Bhatt acted in the lead roles as Krish & Ananya. I really enjoyed the book as I feel Chetan’s language is very simple and humorous. Movie was almost same as the book format with some songs added. Aliya was very cute and was perfect for that role. Her expressions were very nice and did fit very well into that role. Arjun Kapoor was ok and looked good in few scenes. I thought that the movie was bit slow, not sure whether I felt it because it followed the same book format. It is about the story of a Punjabi guy getting married to a Tamilian girl with the consent of both of their parents – showed the struggles that they face culturally, emotionally etc. It was told in a very light hearted way. There was a scene where Krish describes how Ananya’s living room was in Mylapore – he says “Her living room looked like a stolen Punjabi house (with less furniture) and the thief left the couch because he did not like it” J. Since the story was based on Chetan Bhagat’s real life story, you could imagine how much he & his wife Anusha tried and sacrificed to get married. By the way, the movie had sub-titles and I was saved J.

 

Movie is good, but bit slow. But is surely watchable.

 

Cute Story of Cultural Clash !!!

Cuckoo – An Emotional Journey

I got to watch Raju Murugan’s directorial debut movie “Cuckoo” over the weekend. Both the lead actors Attakathi Dinesh and Malavika acted very well. It was very different. I liked the first half of the movie better than the second half. I was very surprised to see the blind people’s world of fun and feelings. We always sympathize them thinking they are missing many things in this world. But they have their own way of joking, fun talks etc. It was really good to watch their other side. There were some very good dialogues and scenes to mention. It had shown us the face of Raju Murugan as a journalist.

 

But I felt that the second half of the movie was too emotional and dramatic. For the first movie, it is good. But I expected more from Raju Murugan. I felt that the screenplay had some confusions like flashback within flashback etc.

 

But overall, Cuckoo is a good movie to watch.

 

It is an Emotional Journey !!!

SMANgs REUNION - Rejuvenating, Relaxing and Refreshing

I am very very happy. Happiness from the bottom of my heart J. I have the mixed feeling of accomplishment, pride & happiness today. I do not know whether I am explaining it well. But when you read this blog, you will get some idea.

 

Let me start from the SMANgs. SMANgs stands for Sangeetha, Maya, Annam, Nimmi, Gayathri & Sudha. We all studied together at Velammal Engineering College. We were one of the Araathu gangs in our batch and had loads and loads of fun. All of us are here in United States right now, moved for our higher studies, job and family life etc. Four of us are still in touch regularly. This whole idea of Reunion started sometime last year when I was very much stressed. I felt like we lost us (self) and started living for others all the time. It is not directly others, but my role changed so much and I felt like we live as a mom, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, sister-in-law etc. I felt like we are under constant pressure to live our everyday life and do not have time to think about ourselves. I sent an email to Annam, Maya, Shalini & Nimmi and asked them about this idea (we are not in touch with Gayathri & Sudha).  I got good responses from all of them with some hesitations. But I thought we could still make this happen if we all make up our mind. We discussed about this few times and went into hibernate mode.

 

After my India trip, Maya emailed all of us about it again. This time, everyone got serious and decided on the dates and place. We did the voting system and decided to go to Clearwater, Florida during April 4^th to 7^th 2014. Everyone booked their flight tickets. The highlight of this is, until we booked our air tickets, we did not talk to each other over phone J. The next day Annam called me and said Is this even real? We all just booked the tickets without even talking. After that I took the back seat (was switching my jobs) and the other girls took care of all the other things. We booked the condo on the Bay, car and spa package.

 

Everything was set but still we all had our own hesitations. We did not create too much hype at home, prepared our spouse/kids to some extent. I told my 2 year old in the morning that Amma will not be home when she comes back from preschool and I am going to Florida. She said bye to me and gave a big hug. In the evening when Vijay picked her up, I was at the airport & he called me and both the kids told me to have fun, enjoy your flight, bye etc. But when Vijay entered the home, the first question that Samanu asked was “Where is Amma?”. She is a cutie.

 

We all flew to Tampa, the nearest airport to Clearwater on Friday April 4^th. Annam arrived first, Maya & Nimmi arrived next eventhough their flights got delayed and I arrived last & my flight was on time J. I was so nervous initially – not sure why. I called Nimmi from the baggage counter and they all found me finally and we shared hugs J. Immediately I took my camera out and looked for a “Baliyaadu” to take a picture of us. We found one and he took couple of pictures. I was very keen on taking pictures whatever we do and wherever we go as I want to do a photobook about this trip later.

 

Then we went to rent the car. Nimmi graciously booked a car rental from Ace (no one knows whether that company exists or not J) and when we went to rental cars’ place, we could not find the company. We spent some time calling them and no one picked up the phone, finally we figured out that they are located outside the airport and their offices are closed at 11 PM. By the time, we all met it was already past 12:30 AM. We then rented a car from Hertz and left the airport. We reached our condo at around 2:30 AM. We left our luggage and went to nearby 24/7 shop to get coffee powder, bread, banana etc. We came back and talked until 6 AM on Saturday morning. We exchanged our little gifts. I got the custom made Tshirts which says SMANgs Reunion VEC on the front and Apr 4 to 7, 2014, Clearwater, Florida on the back. I thought it was cool and I think that my friends thought the same. It was in pink with white letters. I got a cute ring holder from Annam, Bracelets from Maya & Nimmi.

 

Annam & I talk so much (People who know me should really know this à Annam talks more than me J) and we interrupt Maya & Nimmi all the time. But the fun part is, Maya interrupted us few times which was a medical miracle. It was really really fun to catch up. I am not on facebook and do not know updates about anyone. We discuss about few people and when I tell them, I do not remember who it was, they would immediately open the facebook page in their page and show that person’s picture.

 

We slept at 6 AM and got up at 10 AM. I went and woke up Nimmi & told her that I am very hungry, please get up and make coffee and toast for me. You know what? She really did. She actually made my breakfast for all the three days even though she made fun of me that she thought she did not have to do all that for 3 days by not bringing kids, but had to because of me. God Bless You Nimmi!!!

 

We decided to go for lunch and we all got ready. By the time, we walked to a beach restaurant “Palm Pavilion”, it was 4 PM and we had our lunch there.  We took our first picture on the phone and immediately uploaded to facebook. Maya tagged and we started getting messages. One of our friend Chakravarthy messaged “When did this happen?”. Maya responded “It is happening right now” J. It was really fun to see the messages and responses. We then came back to condo, worn our SMANgs tshirt and went to beach. Weather was very nice and we stayed in the water for some time and walked to pier. There were lots of shops with fun stuff. We then had kettle corn and pizza and walked back to condo. It was already very late, we all got ready and started talking again J. We were talking about the all the crushes and proposals (including a shallow one) that happened during our college days. We talked until 5:30 AM again and went back to sleep. Looked like Maya & Nimmi talked until 7 AM that day. We had our spa package appointment at Michelle Bella Spa at Sunday noon. So we got up around 10 AM and got ready for the spa.

 

We lost the route and ended up going to spa at 12:35 PM. The spa was open on Sundays only for the appointments and we had that whole spa for us on that day. We all got our Manicure, Pedicure, Facial etc. with lunch. It was 5:30 PM when we all got done. Annam paid upfront for all of us and when we came out we gave a huge hug to Annam thanking how gracious she was to get such a wonderful gift. She had a small jerk first and then understood that we were kalaasifying her. We came back home and got ready for the fun dinner at an Italian restaurant. We all dressed up nicely and went to Cesare Italian restaurant. We had nice dinner and stayed until 10 PM there. We were talking non-stop and taking pictures wherever we went and whatever we did. It would be too much repetition in my post and that’s why I did not add it everywhere.

 

We came back home and packed most  of our stuff and started talking again. We decided to sleep early at 3:30 AM as we all had to catch our flights from 12:30 PM the next day. We left our condo by 10:40 and reached airport. We checked in and went to Marriott to have full-fledged breakfast. We had a very good breakfast. Nimmi was checking her flight status in Arrivals instead of Departures J. We already started talking about our next trip and they asked me to think about it. It was time for me to leave and I thought I might cry if I talk to them for a  long time. With tears in my eyes, I just said bye and left without even turning around. I felt so weird and not sure how to explain that feeling. I felt good about what we did for 3 days and at the same time I felt bad for leaving. And as an adult, I knew this was coming and I should be prepared.

 

During those 3 days, I felt like I was much more peaceful and relaxed than any other time. All of us were in the same mindset and none of us were calling their homes too much and asking too many updates or giving too many updates. I really need to give credit to our respective spouse(s) who took care of our kids and left us in peace.

 

We genuinely cared about each other – there is no judging involved in anything. We could discuss and express anything. I really felt very good about it. I feel like each of us are in the constant pressure about being judged (or at least I am) for whatever we do or talk and I am done with it and do not want to get into that trap forever. This trip really helped me to get over it and felt like I still possess the same values what I had so many years ago. We could bond well as we did so many years ago. I could ask them or tell them whatever I feel like – which itself was a big relief for me J.

 

Ultimately we stayed OURSELVES the whole time and that was the whole intention of this trip. This trip/vacation/reunion whatever we call, it was really rejuvenating, relaxing and refreshing.

 

I came back home and told Vijay that he should consider doing something like this with his friends. I hope he plan one like this soon so that I can plan my next one J. I would treasure those 3 days throughout my life and it was one of the best trips. I really want to thank Annam, Nimmi & Maya for making this happen.

 

SMANgs Reunion made all of us Rejuvenated, Relaxed and Refreshed.

 

Love you Girls !!!