Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Carded at 27!

This past weekend, I was attending yet another family trip and this time we went to Atlantic City. Can I just say that AC is one of the ugliest towns in the US. I seriously felt like I was going to be gambling in the projects. Couple of streets down from the casinos were probably the projects....You know, the ones beyond the ultimate gamblers' last resort of "We buy Gold for Cash" Stores....So anyway, we got there drove around, picked Caesar's Palace as our parking lot and set out to walk towards the boardwalk. Came out of the lot and were of course lost and was trying to figure out which way was the ocean. Atlantic Ocean. Of course, the first person we asked turned out to be a Bengali, because we are freakin' EVERYWHERE! And the next person we asked turned out to be an Arab. So pretty much we covered both home countries and managed to finally to see the Atlantic Ocean, walk along the Boardwalk, and come to our final destination for the time being, Trump Palace where we were going to play and lose all our money in the cheap slot machines.

Long story short, after playing an entire hour and a half and asking hotel officials numerous times different questions, right as we were about to leave, I was stopped. Why? Can I see your id? The guy had a walkie-talkie and goes, we have a possible minor on the floor! WHATT??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I could not stop laughing my ass off, and for some reason he didn't think it was funny! Come on! How can you not????

I whipped out my id and said,"I'll gladly give you my id" he looked at me twice..."WHAT?? you're 27? I'm sorry, Miss. We have a strict policy of not allowing anyone under the age of 21." Signalled his walkie-talkie and says,"It's a negative" and appologizes and walks away!

So after losing the 20 dollars i gambled which at one point brought it up to 50 but didn't react to, I was carded!!! Woohoo....I look under 21!

Mr Trump Palace Officer, You made my day and the trip of course!

The Unavailable Stalker

Religiously, EVERYDAY, roughly around noonish and again around 8ish, I've been getting a call from an unavailable number where the phone rings for the first 2 rings and sends it to my phone as a missed call...The person in question, whoever is ringing me, has yet to leave me a voice message or a txt, or just a plain call from a regular number. Now as much as I enjoy screening calls (NOT), I need to know who this moron is that makes me run to my phone only to be a blank call...So whoever you are, will you just bother to leave me a msg or better yet, wait for me to answer the damn phone?

Thanks!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Rumors of upcoming Dancing With the Stars Season Line Up!

Here's the full list:

• Former 'N Syncer Lance Bass; pro partner Lacey Schwimmer

• Keeping Up With the Kardashians star and socialite/boutique owner Kim Kardashian; pro partner Mark Ballas

• Grammy winner Toni Braxton, who just cut her Vegas show short due to heart problems; pro partner Alec Mazo

• Retired NFL defensive lineman Warren Sapp; pro partner Kym Johnson

• Toast of Beijing and one-half of Team USA's two-time Olympic gold medalist beach volleyball team, Misty May-Treanor; pro partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy

• All My Children's resident daytime diva Susan Lucci; pro partner Tony Dovolani

• Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito; pro partner Karina Smirnoff

• Rock Star host and onetime E! personality Brooke Burke; pro partner Derek Hough

• Gold medalist sprinter for Team USA in the Athens and Sydney Olympics Maurice Greene; pro partner Cheryl Burke

• Up-and-coming Disney tween heartthrob and Hannah Montana costar Cody Linley; pro partner Julianne Hough

• Sitcom utility player Ted McGinley (Hope & Faith, Sports Night, Married…With Children); pro partner Inna Brayer

• Veteran Oscar-winning actress and recent Roast of Bob Saget scene-stealer Cloris Leachman; pro partner Corky Ballas

• Comedian Jeffrey Ross, this year's heir apparent to Adam Carolla's entertaining yet uncoordinated mantle; pro partner Edyta Sliwinska Kardashian has already handicapped herself, calling in to Good Morning America today to confirm that she was rushed to a New York emergency room Sunday night after slicing her foot open on a broken mirror in her hotel room. But she will go on with the show.


or so they say....Let's see what happens...Stay Tuned!


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Today, for a brief moment I felt really happy. I was talking to my pasty white friend from one of the boondocks of the Midwest and I was sharing with him how recently I've been listening to a lot romantic music. Romantic Hindi songs to be in particular. As he diligently listened to me yap about how Urdu poetry is above and beyond because honestly speaking, a. I'm probably the only sheer entertainment he gets other than the local bar and b. doesn't have much clue about the rest of the world let alone what happens in New York City. (How did I manage to be his friend? We both wonder from time to time!) So as I was explaining to him, the song Man ki Lagan from the movie Paap came played on my Itunes. My heart and mouth stopped...I know...quite the difficult task.

Instantly, I felt relaxed and he asked if everything was ok...I told him about the song how it calms me and moments later, I shared the song with him. The dimwit of course seconds later after hearing said the song wasn't in English...Quel suprise! As I translated the song to him, he commented on how truly deep this song was and even he started to like it and that probably there aren't that many English songs that share the poetic level. This reaction led me to send a few more tunes that were soon to be appreciated by a non desi. Although this whole incident may seem minuscule or insignificant to many others but right then there I felt a pang of satisfaction where I taught someone something about our regional culture. And of course, I couldn't help but share this moment with you...

Other songs that i shared were

Teri Ore - Singh Is Kinng
O Re Piya - Aaja Nachle
Jiya Dhadak - Kalyug
Aaoge Jab - Jab We Met
Baahon Ke Darmiyaan - Khamoshi
Kate Nahi Raat - 99.9FM
Jaan Meri Jaa Rahi - Lucky




Here is a taste of the song (i did try to find the best recording i could)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

"The Unforgettable" Concert

It all began one night when I was surfing through crap TV. The screen went black and I wondered if something happened to my satellite and nanoseconds later, the Unforgettable Tour sign came on...
Earlier that day, I heard some rumors that there was going to be a concert soon but I didn't think much of it because the summer time is big around that. Deep down, I was curious so watched along and lo and behold, it was THE AMITABH BACHCHAN! He was coming to NEW YORK! of course along with him was his clan, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwariya - the new buy one get second one 50% off and third free deal, but who cares!! AMITABH was coming! Immediately the phones started ringing the instant messages started flourishing-call it the Barso Re Megha style. Within seconds 9 of us had been set to go to the show! Sulekha.com and Mr. Bharat Jotwani himself helped us get the seats we wanted and WE WERE SET TO SEE THE MAN on the 15th of August 2008!

Weeks came by, and the gossipy dialogue amongst friends were exchanged...You know, what we were going to wear yaddi yaddi yada.. Friends from Maryland and Boston were coming so apart from the show, what we will be doing for the rest of the weekend and the whole shebang. The planning was on full shebang!

The day finally arrived, one batch arrived at 130, the next at 4pm (after battling 2 hrs of traffic), one friend was meeting us straight at Nassau Coliseum, and the final leg, my loving father were to arrive at 6pm where we would pick him from the station. And that's when it all began!

Few moments before we were going to get my father from the train station, another friend called out of concern that there was a tornado watch warning for Westchester. We were soo consumed in getting ready that neither of us noticed what was going on beyond our windows. But nonetheless without thinking anything my mother and aunt left to pick up my father at 6 on the dot. 6:15 rolled by and still no sign of my mother, aunt or my father. I called to find out what was going on because the train is only a 4-min drive from my house. Apparently, he hadn't arrived as of yet. Call Waiting Blinking! I clicked on and it was my father...The storm had smacked a tree on to train tracks and the train is waiting to the tree to be moved. Doesn't know which train station they are near. So subsequently I called my mother to let her know to just come home because it's going to be a while, which it sure was. Finally dad reached home at 6:45 and was summoned to hurry up, change, eat something so we could still leave by 7 as planned. Little did we know what we had ahead of us!


So finally we all packed in the car at 7:05pm (great timing considering we aimed to leave by 7) and off we were to Hutchinson River Parkway South. We drove about 2 miles towards where the road splits, one going towards Queens and Long Island, where we needed to go, and the other to New Jersey and Manhattan and lo and behold, there is back to back traffic on every effing highway out of Scarsdale due to Bronx River overflowing hence blocked all roads. Here I had my friend waiting for us at the concert and we were no where near the theater... We kept on going back and forth trying different routes...but everything was closed. after 2 hrs of trying hard we almost gave up of not going to the concert but for some reason we decided to try one last time... Yes watching Abhishekh dance with his dad on stage was still in the cards for us. We barely made the show at 1030pm, two and a half hours later but just on time for Amitabh to make his presence for the very first time on stage that night..

What a man!!!!! Seriously there is no actor in today's time that can even come close to him to be at par with him...Maybe Aamir can be somewhat close but not really. Shahrukh can keep on trying but he will never be as amazing as AMITABH BACHCHAN. The moment he started dancing to Jahan Teri Ye Nazar Hai, the whole crowd was dancing along with him. Every person whether it be the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles reliving their newlywed years or us kids who would dance with our parents on their toes to these dance numbers!!! Even kids today were on their toes dancing with the 64+ year old man! It was the best...

What was even better was when he read the monologue from Agneepath remembering his mother...it was one moment when everyone was dancing and the next moment crying along with him as he read the lines...Fabulous!!!

Abhishekh, Aishwariya, Preity and Ritiesh equally did a great job and were quite enjoyable but it was all of a sudden when you could literally hear everyone's heart pumping...in anticipation...it was the moment when none other than Madhuri came on stage. What a beauty...Being a straight woman, even I fell in love with her....Not only can the woman dance but she looks awesome!!! Even today. I remember seeing her on stage when i was a kid in Dubai but when I saw her that night...it was a different ball game all together...

They say Aishwariya is gorgeous..and she is no doubt but in all honesty, no one can even come near Madhuri's beauty and simplicity... I'm sorry all Ash fans! This concert made a point that old is gold and will never be unforgettable!!!

So after all these heart pumping numbers that not only reminded me of my childhood, we all came home starving yet fully satisfied with whomever we went to see the concert for, regardless of all the things we had to go through just to get there....

Gratitude

Waking up in my apt in Manhattan this morning has been no less than a full on surreal experience, only because I didn’t know if it was going...