There's something about Ash.

I think I'd spent enough time trashing Ash and loving the likes of Shobaa De, Suhasini and Russell Peters to have agreed with me about what they thought of Ash's acting skills. I still want to hold that opinion about her acting skills, but for once I have decided to look at Ash and not hate her for what she cannot do. Instead, I'll look at her and love her for what she has achieved.

Somehow light eyes do not go well with me. May be they do if the eyes in question belong to one Mr. Roshan. But light eyes and ladies with light tan complexions are a bad combo. So I looked at Ash and thought - she is washed out! I looked at her smile and thought, it is too crafted, I looked at the way she giggled and thought, it is too forced. I looked at the way she settled in the Bachchan household and thought she is way too smart. So, since resolved not to judge anyone, I took it seriously and looked at Aishwarya like I'd look at my own elder sister and Lo and behold, she actually is a woman that all women should be proud of.

When did we come across a thirty five year old actress who is not yet demoted to character roles? (discount Sridevi, she is exceptional) When was the last time we saw an Indian woman's face in a global magazine? Well, may be there are some women who won international acclaim but I failed to notice them. The last time I was in Shanghai airport, I stopped and stared at a hoarding of Ash - promoting L'oreal mascara, and felt that Indians are finally making their mark. Then suddenly I am reminded of her acting skills and I force myself to hate her. I went to Walmart one day and bought Aishwarya's lipstick called something like Aishwarya's beige. It gave an immense sense of achievement that an Indian face made mark on the side of the likes of Halley Berry and Kate Moss. I look at her international projects - The Pink Panther for instance and I forget that she is a poor actor and just focus on the long way she had come without any Godfathers in the film industry. We see and accept Shahrukh romancing leading ladies half his age, we approve Chiranjeevi shaking a leg with someone half his age and one fourths his weight. We live in a male dominated society, a male dominated industry and isn't Ash an achievement to all Indian women?

I get turned off by all the hoopla about her being the prettiest woman in the world - Like I said, I find her pretty but not strikingly or stunningly pretty. "You are straight - that's why" my kid bro offers me unwanted explanation. But may be I am just not straight (no pun intended) enough to give credit to where it belongs.

Aishwarya Rai is a role model to all Indian women. She made our country proud. She is the first international face India had produced. She has made it on her own. She is a bad actor but that is okay.
Yeah, that is really okay!

Ash, I think I liked you all these days. I was just a little hypocrite:-))

A New Beginning

Somethings about New Years is fresh, anticipating, hopeful and exciting. It is like getting promoted to a higher grade. It is like the excitement my siblings and I had on the first day of school. We would talk about the location of the class room, the view from the generous windows, our teachers and our bench mates. We would be excited about what we have on our plates and speculate about how the new Math teacher would be - strict and grumpy or friendly and easy to get along with! We would make plans to utilise our time well and resolve to top the class, brush our grammar and math and give it our best shot - strangely similar to how we look forward to live a New year and how we find ourselves a little nostalgic about the past year and how we grow up and mature in the process of living another year of our lives.

I look back to get a recap of the year that was. I think I'd evolved more in 2008 than in any other year in the recent past. I took that extra step to go and pursue a project in Advertising - something that I'd dreamed of doing all my life. I was there in the midst of a terrorist attack in Mumbai and saw what it can mean first hand and wondered what the world was going to!

My family had lost a member - my uncle Murali Krishna Mocherla (who also happens to be my dad's cousin and best friend in growing years). It stuck me how our time here is transient and how we should just live our lives and love all we can while we are here:-)

So the year itself was a mixed bag. I learnt that we are the only people that come between ourselves and our dreams and we do not do something only because we don't want to do it.

Aarti grew up - turned a year older and lost that baby fat and is blabbering a lot of sense. She is ready to be a pre-schooler and has emerged a personality of her own. I am thankful that I finally see traces of me in my baby. She seems to be a bigger bathroom singer than her mom and is very very artistically inclined. I just hope that I can get her to write as well..but that has to wait for some more years:-)0

For the year coming, I should probably and ideally say that I'll be more productive, lose all that weight I wanted to lose, keep my home "better homes and gardens" perfect, write and read every day, keep in touch with all my friends and family, vacuum my house twice a week, spend more time with Aarti, not crib about Sarat's late hours , to write the book I always wanted to write (not sure if it would fiction or non- fiction. LOL) to learn a foreign language, to travel to Europe, to take a terrific roller coaster ride and to properly learn a fine art.

But practically I just want to make the right choices. The choice of spending time praying instead of Internet browsing, the choice of eating right, living healthy, talking only things that are fair, making people around me happy and living a life that is meaningful. I resolve not to be the best person around, but to just be my personal best!

I resolve to age well and gracefully as in accepting my stray greys and piling up birthdays, I resolve to be a child at heart and a grown up in my thinking. I resolve to smile more, to crib less and to compliment others often. I also resolve to take time for myself, to go on a walk and actually stop to listen to the birds and to get a clear connection with my Heavenly father. I resolve to be more open minded, less judgemental and genuinely interested in people around me. I resolve to listen more, talk less and make people around me happy for choosing to be around me:-) I resolve to give more and make a difference in a stranger's life. To spread my love beyond my family and give a piece of my heart to people who need it.

I probably will blog more, read all the New Yorkers that are piled up in hope of being read one day and spend my time wisely.

New Years are new hopes, new avenues to explore our true potential, new chapters, new anticipations. Here's hoping 2009 will make all your dreams and resolutions come true.

God Bless you all!