I really enjoyed this au revoir piece on Helen. Funny, not too maudlin.
Helen had to go not because she was bad for NZ (au contraire), but because we'd gotten really bored with seeing her mug on telly for the last nine years.
And, in spite of an Aussie newspaper calling us druken slugs for having voted a former investmnent banker to power, I am still looking forward to John Key.
I was at the littlie’s school last evening to demonstrate ‘India’, as their topic for this term is India. From saris to ghagras and Diwali, we talked about all that and then talked some more to the kids about henna.
Finally came the practical session, which was also the grand finale of the evening: we had to put henna on the kids’ hands. Although I can do the southie way of henna quite well (which is more basic shapes, as opposed to the really delicate northie designs), I did my darnedest best to accommodate the kids’ requests, such as hearts, butterflies, suns etc. Till it was one little boy’s turn.
Little Boy: Can I have a shape done on my hand too?
Me: (encouragingly)'Course, u can. What shape would you like?
LB: A body?
Me: A body? (struggling a bit here)Um, sure, what sort of a body?
LB: A dead body…
(This is a true incident. Names of teachers, students and subjects have been changed for their own protection:-)
Student Brinch: Miss Maples, can we please have our philosophy assignment grades.
Miss Maples: I am sorry, but you can’t because I haven’t marked them yet.
SB: But Miss Maples, Miss Figg’s class have had their assignments back 3 days ago. Why can’t we?
MM: Well, Miss Figg may not have a life, but I do!!
Whoever said it’s only the youth of today who are goners?
Groannnnnnnnnn. Half the office has been asking me about this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4040200a1860.html
What is obscene about this? What crap!
To be perfectly honest, the idiots who are doing all this for publicity’s sake are the ones who ought to be jailed – for destroying India’s reputation as a tolerant, vibrant and wannbe modern country. They are outraging the country's sensibility.
What about Madhavan - he kissed Vidya Balan in ‘Guru’.
When will they toss Hrithik and Aish into jail for Dhoom 2? There was talk about it anyways.
And to go far far back, are we going to see Aamir and Karisma in the clinker for ‘Raja Hindustani’? Not to forget that the above kisses were mouth to mouth, not just on the cheek.
It’s very hard being Indian and having to explain all this s__t, especially to phirangis. More so when Gere didn’t do a bloody thing wrong. I want to be proud of being Indian, not embarassed.
I had one of my nicest and most interesting projects to do at work today.
Got a call from one of our managers up in Auckland. She wanted a favour from me. And guess what it was? She was to be MCing a function that evening. And she had a lot of Indian/Middle Eastern names to get through as part of the MCing. So could I help her with the correct pronunciation?
I was totally impressed with her attitude. But still I had to ask her. Why?
Well, I would hate it if anyone pronounced my name wrongly (mind you, most people won’t as her name’s quite simple and straight-forward). So I guess it’s the same for everyone, she said.
How simply and succinctly put.
Do I need to add that I put my best efforts into getting her pronunciation right? He he. She even got my name right!!!!
