English is a funny language

I have seen people spew Shakespeare , debate, order food and what not after downing a couple of drinks. People who normally wouldn’t utter a word of english, when asked for their name or know how many letters in the English alphabet. Malayalam cinema has used this power of the Malayalee to use English to the full extent invoking comedy and romance. No, I am not talking about Renji Panickeresque dialogs, just simple ones, like:

“I am the answer! Kilometres and kilometres! In these days of degenerating decency of Miami beach to Washington DC when diplomacy and duplicity become interchangeable from complicated America to America!!!”

or

“BUT WHYY? BUT WHYYYY??!! The coefficient of linear expansion is the position of the haemoglobin in the atmosphere. But why? But Why?? Full many a gem of mirror serene lay underneath the unfathomed ocean unblossomed. But why?? But why??!”

or

“You are the light of my loneliness, love of my heart, dew of my desert, tune of my song, queen of my kingdom & I love you Kalyani”

Some make sense , others dont.. yet..

Queues

Queues. Its a funny word. Even more funnier that this word is used to denote a straight line. The spelling is all over the place and starts with the most funniest letter in the English alphabet Q. I found myself stuck in one, the kind you’d find in any Indian government office or embassy abroad!!
The queue was already formed by some first comers, at the counter and I joined cause with the other bi-pedals.
Theres not much to do en-queue. The obvious thing is to stare at the nape of the neck of the chap in front of you or count the moles on the back of his head. Perhaps study the beard of the person from the Bohra community or admire the intricate design work of gold and white thread on the cap he wears. Your head automatically turns to watch people moving around the queue. Curiosity can get the better of you and you carefully tune into the conversations happening around you.
Suddenly, you realize that the gap in between the person in front of yourself and you has widened, not because the queue has started moving, but because the persons in front of you have moved to the side.
Why did they do that?? They were peering over the shoulder of the person In front of them and and they just kept moving aside to get a better view of the action happening in the window ahead of them. The Qers were just curious. The same quality of curiosity that lead to the invention of the crescograph or same language subtitling; all Indian inventions.
I turned around to see if the queue was any better behind me, only to accept the fact that this was just a queue in action. Thats just how it was gong to be. Its never going to be straight.

Please remain seated

This is an animated video created by an Indian company called Rocket Science Animation. For those of us who fly, please remember this visual, when the crew asks you to remain seated till the aircraft has come to a complete halt.

Whos who

I was at the airport the other day and browsing through the book shop at the arrivals, waiting for an aircraft to land, I came across the Twitter Celebrity directory – 1st edition.

With anyone who’s anyone having a twitter account and tweeting away, and making an event out of breaking wind or even their wildest most inconsequential thoughts, this could serve as the who’s who in the celebrity world. At 6.something KD, I was just wondering if such a publication would have any takers or even make it to a second edition.

Twitter doesn’t still have a chargeable service, though they do have some kind of B2B deals. It is surprising how many ideas have sprung around it and how it has a lot of potential. Now whodathunk it..

TV Midlife Crisis

There are some new TV shows, coming on air and new seasons too of shows that are already airing.

However one thing I have been noticing is a common thread: mid life crises, and that too mostly played by actors known for their portrayal of youthful characters..for instance

Cougar town – Courtney Cox –  divorced business owner dating younger men (Theres even a role for Lisa Kudrow)

Mr. Sunshine – Matthew Perry – Sports arena manager going through a midlife crisis

Men of a certain Age – Ray Romano (exception) – Friends in mid 40’s dealing with the realities of middle age

Did the audience just get older or is this what younger audiences want? Well as long as it is comedy, I guess people will watch it.  Hope they are as good as they are made out to be. For now…back to the TV…