Getting Lost in Canary Wharf (Snap Happy Picture Post!)

This week I was in Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is an area in London where a lot of financial companies have offices. It's like a whole world on its own, and it seemed that it was only understood by the people who are there on a regular basis.

For someone like me, who doesn't know it that well, it is both really big and really small. No matter where you walk, and for how long, you always seem to be in the same place. I had to go to one of the offices there so, the organised person that I am, I printed out my map and made my way. When I got out of the station, it turned out that the road name of the part of Canary Wharf that I was in on wasn't clearly written down on the map.

I walked towards one of those giant maps that tells you where you are and I was still confused. There are so many damn glass buildings, and if you're not going to one with its name in giant letters on the top you are screwed. I walked around for ages wondering where the hell I was, and ended up in exactly the same place I started.


I asked one city worker on his cigarette break, a taxi driver, and a postman where I was. It took me half an hour to find a tiny office about two minutes away from the station.



At lunch time I got lost again. Although I did find a giant pic n mix stand in the middle of an area filled with cityworkers ...

I looked for a place to eat and ended up in a giant shopping centre underground that seemed to span across the entire area. I found a place and ate half a falafel wrap (which had pickles in it and some sweet and sour sauce - blergh!) and half a brownie that tasted of oranges - I never thought I would see the day when I would force myself to eat a brownie. I always feel so bad about wasting food.

Afterwards I sat in a lovely grassy area ...

And got harrassed by a duck who was probably used to having people give him their sandwiches.

That was my day. Thank you and good evening.

Summer Time! (Allegedly)

Good Things about Summer in the UK
~ People are in better moods
~ Being outside and seeing everyone in brighter clothing
~ More energy to be outside and enjoy yourself
~ The beautiful BBQ smells when you walk down the street
~ Carnivals and funfairs!


Bad Things about Summer in the UK
~ You have to make the most of the one or two days of 20+ degree weather because you will have rain for the next two or three weeks.
~ Spiders
~ Sod's Law that states as soon as you clean your car your entire windscreen will be covered in bird poo the next day.
~ Being on the trains and buses surrounded by sweaty people (at 5ft1 I am constantly underneath the armpits of people holding onto poles and bars)


Go ahead and add to the list!

Weddings!

I was at a wedding this weekend. One thing that has always made me laugh on the topic of weddings, is that when I was younger I had been to more weddings in one year than most people had been to in their lifetime - I think there was a time when I went to five weddings in three months.

Weddings today are a lot different than I remember when I was younger. People of my generation are really going all out on their wedding day, especially if it has been a modern love marriage.

Way back when, weddings used to take place in crowded school halls with the ceremony being carried out on the stage. You would sit on those uncomfortable plastic chairs that came from the classroom and all of the guests would use the wedding as an excuse to gossip and catch up with people who they hadn't seen in a while and not really paying attention to the happy couple. One thing that I remember as a child is never sitting through an entire wedding ceremony - my cousins and I would always be around outside chatting. The food was served up in plastic plates which had sections for you to put each item of food in (sweets, curries, rice, etc) and there were only a few tables around. The unlucky ones who couldn't get a seat at a table would sit on the chair they were 'watching' the wedding ceremony from and either eat with the plate on their lap, or pull up another chair and use that as a table.

These days, things have changed so much. More money has been poured into grand occasions.

The wedding takes place in huge hotel wedding suites that have been beautifully decorated. Wedding mandaps (the structure that the ceremony takes place in made up of four pillars all joined together at the top - Google them) are more extravagant. For example, instead of wood, they would be gold coloured, or have flowers all over them, or be made from glass, or have crystal droplets hanging from the top. People of my generation, now want the wedding to take place in pin drop silence because we realise how rude it was when we were all running around and all the aunties and uncles weren't paying attention to the wedding ceremony. It is also important for the priest to give us an English translation so we know what we are doing instead of blindly following what we are told to do. We also want our non-Indian friends to understand what is happening so they don't get bored.

While some people still have the plastic plates, we now have tables to sit on! All of us! Well sometimes, because the meal takes place straight after the ceremony and there isn't time or space to turn the entire wedding hall into a banqueting suite.

We also put more effort into the registry wedding. Before, it would just be something that would have to be done, because no one was really married until the Indian ceremony. Therefore, no one thought it was important. Now, the registry weddings are a whole other ceremony in themselves. Some brides are now wearing the big white gowns like from the English weddings, or wear an Indian outfit that is similar. There are bridesmaids, best mans, ring bearers, and flower girls.

The receptions are great as well. There are proper plates, and tables with seating plans! No more running after a free table. More people are invited to the reception than the wedding, because the couple want the guests that they really want at the wedding and everyone else at the reception. It's better for them to have their gossip and catch up where it is appropriate to do so.

People of my generation want to really celebrate their wedding day. And I say, good on them!

Books ... Old or New?

I was reading through one of the many listy articles that MSN put up (procrastinating much?) and there was a topic that was titled 'Ten Things you Shouldn't Buy New.'

Number 4 was Books.

Now I am in no way taking this article seriously, but it did bring about a topic for me to blog about so who am I to complain?

The writer wrote about how you don't really need to spend all that money to buy a new book, especially if you are only going to read it once.

Now I don't know about you but I love buying brand spanking new books, even if I do read them only once.
I love going to a bookshop and walking among the shelves with all the classic, new, bargain, and special offer books surrounding me.
I could spend ages in one shop reading through the blurbs in the back and through the first pages of different books to see if it is the one for me.
I look through five copies of the same book to one the absolute perfect one ... un-used, no rips, creases or dog ears.
And apart from the sunlight changing the colours of the pages, my books are kept in that condition. Even if I read it more than once.

I am fully aware that there are reasons for buying used books, but I love new books.

How about you? Old or New?

Amazon, Writing Progress, and Weekend

Amazon!
I now exist on Amazon! Have a look. Now my book is real. It's exciting! Now I'm more in a rush to finish the thing.

Writing Progress
I think the Musical May worked in my favour for a couple of reasons. It allowed me to talk about something other than writing, and just gave me the space to just get on with the writing process. I am just under 43k words, which is a number I didn't even think I would get to all those months ago when the book started. I feel so happy with myself that I have got to this stage. I feel like such a newbie writer when I say I want to send it off to the editor already. If there's one thing I know you writers hate is revisions. At the moment I want to see someone else's take on what I wrote and what things do or don't make sense. Naive much?
And another way all the Bollywood worked in my favour? I have been getting traffic to my blog from people all over the world who are looking up Bollywood music. And you guys learned a little something too. I hope you enjoyed it.


Weekend
I had myself a fantastic weekend because on Saturday I had a Spa Day. I was at the Sanctuary in Covent Garden and it was great. Had some pampering, ate lovely food, bought stuff, got free gifts and generally just lounged around. There is something about walking around in a giant bathrobe that goes down to your ankles (yes I am that short) surrounded by giant sofas, and relaxing music that makes you want to do nothing but sleep all day. I went because it was a birthday gift for my mother (paid for by my brothers too), so I took her. Just being lazy all day really emptied out my brain from the mental block I have been suffering. It's like all of these ideas were just trying to push through the door at the same time and as a result all of them are stuck and no one is moving. Does that even make sense?

Now I have been tapping away at that keyboard, I started at about 9 this morning and hope to finish at about 12, maybe 1 (it's a beautiful day outside and I want to enjoy it). I have been getting back to scribbling away with a pencil and more sheets of paper are floating around my room with chunks of my book written all over them.

Make May Musical # 11 - Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Imagine there was a film that you saw in the cinema when you were a kid.
Now imagine going to the cinema, however many years on, and it was still showing in the theatres and it was still as popular as ever.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), or 'The Good-Hearted will take the Bride', is one of the most famous Bollywood movies there is. In Mumbai, there is a cinema that is still showing it. And yes people still go to see it.

It tells the story of two British born Indians, Raj is modern and spoilt while Simran has had a traditional upbringing.

Before Simran goes to get married, she begs her father to let her go travelling because she will no longer be able to after she is married. He is reluctant at first, but lets her go on the condition that she behaves herself. On her trip she meets Raj who, after being a bit of an idiot at first, falls in love with her. She falls in love with him after they part, and she realises that she does not want to marry the man of her father's choosing.

When Simran confesses this to her mother, her father overhears this and is furious with her. He takes her to India to marry her off as quickly as possible, because her groom is the son of a friend of his, and they promised to marry their two children to each other a long time ago. He however, is everything Raj is not, and she wants nothing to do with him.

Raj goes to India to save the woman he loves from this horrible man. He befriends the man she is about to  marry, in order to help with the wedding preparations and gain everyone's trust. Simran's mother realises who he is and tells the two of them to run away together because she sees that the two of them are in love.

Complications arise when Simran's father finds out who this Raj really is, and tells him in front of everyone to leave. Simran's fiance and his friends beat him at the train station for lying to them. They then try to beat Raj's father, but Raj intervenes and stops them.

Simran's father tells both Raj and his father to leave, so they get on the train just as the rest of the family arrives at the station. As they leave, Simran tries to follow but her father stops her. However, after some begging and pleading, he realises that Raj really loves his daughter, so he lets her go to be with the one that she loves.

This is the signature song:
Tujhe Dekha To from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

The song is longer but, for some reason, once again the channel have only put up the first part of the song.
And a note - the actress - Kajol - is famous for that unibrow!


Is there a film you would love to see from your childhood, brought back to cinemas for today's generations?

Make May Musical #10 - Mere Haath Mein from Fanaa

A few weeks ago, I told you the story of Fanaa, where blind girl Zooni, fell in love with Rehan, who faked his death in a terrorist attack.

When they saw each other again, she had gained her sight (because he helped her get the operation) and had his child. He did not tell her who he was, because he did not want her to know the reason why he had to leave her all those years ago. To do that, would mean he would have had to admit to the kind of activities that he was involved in.

When she finds out that the injured soldier (terrorist in hiding) who came to her door, was Rehan and they fall in love again and get married (he doesn't tell her about his real past), and this song is played:

Mere Haath Mein

It's a lovely song, but the lyrics don't translate well in English, in summary, their lives are complete when their hands are together, and now they have no use for anything else in life - they are content just being with each other.

Just enjoy the music.

Make May Musical #9 - Joote De Do, Paise Le Lo

An Indian wedding is a fantastic place to make money, even when you are not the bride or groom. 
Why?

Before the bride and groom enter the wedding area, they have to take off their shoes, because they will be entering a religious area. The bride's side (mostly her sisters and cousins) steal  the groom's shoes, so that he can't leave and take their sister away from the family.
And they won't give the shoes back until the groom and his family pay for them, and it's up to the bride's side to decide whether they have been given enough money (within reason)

It can happen in many ways ...

• It can be discreet, the shoes are hidden, and no-one will realise they have gone until it is too late. 
• Sometimes the groom's family notices it happening and then shoes are being thrown across the room like a giant game of piggy in the middle.
• Sometimes the groom's side will hide the shoes beforehand and another person's shoes will be put under his chair so the bride's side will take the wrong pair.
•  Even better is when the groom's side bring a spare pair and let them keep the shoes they take.
• There are times when it can turn into a stalemate and no-one will budge.
• I'm waiting for the wedding when the bride and groom are literally carried out of the wedding hall, so shoes are redundant anyway.

It is not uncommon to hear this retro Bollywood Number:
Joote De Do, Paise Le Lo   from the film Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994)
These old videos are funny to watch after a long time. And put your speakers on a lower volume, old songs sound so loud!

It literally means, 'give back the shoes, and we will give you the money.'
And the girls side are telling them to give the money first and then they will give the shoes.


How else can you make money at an Indian wedding?

• Before the newlyweds leave the wedding hall, the bride's sisters/cousins will stand in front of the car and won't budge without financial incentive.
• In some cases, when they have reached their family home, the groom's sisters will stand in front of the door to stop them from coming in and won't budge until he gives them money.
• The bride and groom are tied together during the ceremony. When they reach home, one of the groom's sisters has to untie them, and won't do so unless she is given some cash.

I love weddings!

Make May Musical #8 - Main Yahaan Hoon from Veer Zaara

The first song I uploaded here was Do Pal from the film Veer Zaara, where I told you about Veer and Zaara, two people who fell in love with each other despite Zaara being engaged to another man and being from a different country. When I wrote that post, they left each other at the train station realising just how much they really felt about each other. That was just the first half of the story, and here is another song to go with it.

Main Yahaan Hoon from Veer Zaara

After Veer and Zaara left each other at the train station, Zaara cannot get Veer out of her head and she is thinking about him constantly. That is where this song comes in.
Veer is singing (in her imagination) that he is always there (not in a creepy way), the distance between them has now gone, he is the secret that she cannot hide anymore, he is the voice in her heart, he is in all of her thoughts, her questions and her answers, and so on and so forth. He has now become every part of her.

At the end of the song, after seeing him in the grounds of her house, she runs back in and tells her friend all about him. Her friend (Shabbo), calls Veer back in India and tells him to come and get Zaara because she is in love with him and doesn't really want to get married to her fiance, she is only doing it to keep the honour of her family. Before he goes to Pakistan, Veer has to resign from his job in the Indian Air Force, then he goes to find Zaara, and he has to stay at Shabbo's house while he does so.

Their secret comes out when Veer goes to see Zaara and, in front of both families she runs to him and embraces him. This causes her father to have a heart attack and the other family to call off the marriage. It is a scandal because both families are political and it would bring shame on them that Zaara is in love with an Indian. Zaara's mother find Veer and begs him to give her daughter back to her. Veer tells her that a mother should never have to beg for her children. Veer and Zaara agree to part ways for good and carry on with their lives, despite being in love with each other, and Veer proceeds to go back to India.

However, because of the shame brought on his family, Zaara's fiance frames Veer and he is arrested before he leaves, and is accused of being an Indian spy. The fiance blackmails Veer, and tells him that if he doesn't 'confess' to being a spy, he will make Zaara's life miserable. Veer agrees to confess and spends 22 years in prison, in order to uphold Zaara's honour.

Zaara is unaware of what happened, and when she sees the bus that was carrying Veer crashed and there were no survivors, she calls off the wedding.

This film shows the sacrifices the two characters have made for the sake of love. Veer spent 22 years in prison to uphold family honour, and Zaara spent 22 years alone because she thought the love of her life was dead.

We learn about their stories because a human rights lawyer is fighting to have Veer's name cleared and have him sent back to India.

My Very First Interview!

Check out the International Chick Lit Month Website where they have posted up an interview with me!

Interview with Naina Gupta    << clickity click

Since I can't tell my family about it, I send you all virtual hugs of excitement.

To all of you who visit here from the International Chick Lit Month website ...
Hi There!


And don't forget to take a look at the Make May Musical post below. I have chosen a cheerful and colourful one today. 

Make May Musical #7 - Jogi Mahi from Bachna ae Haseeno

When I started Make May Musical, one of the categories of song that I talked about was great big musical numbers that are splashing with colour. I have been lacking in those, so here is a great one for Friday. There's some great dancing in this one.

Jogi Mahi from Bachna ae Haseeno

Unfortunately the channel only put up half of the song, but if you enjoy what you hear then I'm sure you would be able to find the full song somewhere.

Bachna ae Haseeno tells the story of Raj (the man in the video dressed in black) who has a habit of breaking women's hearts and only caring about himself.

The first woman that we meet is Mahi, who is looking to be swept off her feet and fall in love. He takes a liking to her, and pretends to miss the same train as her so he can talk to her. She falls for him, especially after he reads her a poem that he wrote just for her, and they kiss. He takes her to the airport so she does not miss her plane. She tells her family all about this great guy that she met, and when she looks for the piece of paper that he wrote the poem on, she finds that it is blank. When Mahi looks for Raj, she sees him wth his friends bragging (and lying) about all the other things that they got up to. He sees that she saw him, and leaves the airport, leaving her heartbroken and humiliated.

The next time we see Raj, he is living with another girl, until he gets the opportunity to move to Australia for work. She is willing to marry him and move to Australia, but he doesn't want this. He gets on the plane for his new life abroad on the day that he was supposed to be married.

In Australia, he meets and falls in love with a third girl. He wants to marry her, but she does not want the same thing. He is heartbroken now, and realises what he had done to the women in his life. He goes back to India to make ammends with the women he left behind.

When he finds Mahi, she sees that he is married to a man called Joginder (Jogi for short), hence the song Jogi Mahi. You see the two of them at the start of the video before the song starts. Jogi loves his wife but is upset that she cannot trust anyone, even her husband, after what Raj did to her. Raj wants to fix their marriage, to make up for what he has done in the past. In this song he is comparing their love to another famous Punjabi love story Heer and Ranjna, which is similar to the tale of Romeo and Juliet. He wants to show her that he has found the man she was looking for when he first met her all of those years ago.

Will he find forgivness from all the women in his lives?

Now I pose a question to you ....


Would you ever want someone from your past to come back and make ammends, even if you have moved on?

Writing a novel in secret is very hard when most of the people in your house (including you) are home because they are ill.

Make May Musical #6 - Teri Deewani by Kailash Kher

Teri Deewani by Kailash Kher

Ok, so I slightly cheated on this one. It's not from a Bollywood film, but the guy who sings it is a Bollywood singer.

I love this song, I can't explain why. I think Kailash Kher has a unique voice and his songs are not like any of the other Bollywood singers who, even though they sing great songs, have similar sounding voices. I also like the fact that people in this video don't look like the typically gorgeous Bollywood actors, dancers and models.

Deewani is a word that is to describe yourself when you are crazy in love with someone. Teri means 'your'.

Kher is singing about how he cannot stop loving someone, he is crazy about her and would do absolutely anything for her.

(translated from the point of the guy with the red scarf)
I will live in your name
I will die in your name
I will do anything for you
Look what you have done to me
I am crazy about you

(or thereabouts)

The video is a bit odd though. I cannot explain to you why there is a guy weilding a knife at a girl and then falls in love with her.

Make May Musical #5 - Chalte Chalte from Mohabbattein

Apologies for the lateness of this post. Well we all know what happened to Blogger on Friday, and when it came back I was already at work until late in the evening, so I was far too tired to do any kind of posting.
So please forgive me.

I was walking around my house and suddenly found myself humming this song ...

Chalte Chalte from Mohabbatein


Mohabbatein (from the year 2000), is a story that has been compared to the Dead Poet's Society. It tells the story about a laid back music teacher Raj who gets a job in a strict boarding school, and inspires three students to follow their heart, and in true Indian film style, that means to fall in love.

There are three main students that we meet. One is Vikram, a cocky confident guy who falls in love with Ishika, a girl from another school, who is big headed and thinks she is too good for him. Another is Sameer, a shy, really nice guy who falls for his best friend Sanjana, who happens to be in love with someone else. The last guy, Karan's love is a little tragic. He falls for Kiran a widowed woman who has been requested by her father in law to keep acting like a good wife and wait for her soldier husband every night at the train station, because he refuses to believe that his son is dead.

This is the song that is played when they all realise that they are falling in love.
"I walk, but then suddenly I stop*,
I sit, and then get lost in my thoughts,
I talk, but then I am silent,
Is this what love is?"


*because they are thinking about the other person.

The headteacher, Narayan, of this very strict school keeps the gates closed to ensure that his students remain studious with no distractions. However, he has suffered from his own tragedies. His very obedient daughter, Megha, fell in love with one of his students when she was younger, but he did not give his blessings for her to get married to him, and then expelled the student for falling in love with his daughter. The standard of the school is such that when you are expelled, you will never find a place at another school.
At first she carried on with her life, but then could not live without the love of her life, and eventually committed suicide. This made the headmaster more determined that love should always take second place to everything else in life.

The music teacher begins to loosen up the school rules, and tries to create situations where each of those three students can spend time with the girl that they love, and convincing Narayan that these extra-cirricular activities will make them into better students. Unfortunately, the rules bend so far that the headmaster cannot take it anymore and shuts the school gates for good, and tries to fire the music teacher. That is when Raj confronts Narayan about who he really is. He was the student who fell in love with his daughter Megha. The very student who, when Narayan banned the two of them from seeing each other, was the reason for Megha committing suicide. He is back to spread love and happiness into a school where the very thing is banned.

There is a much more heartfelt/moving song in this film, but I am trying to put videos that don't have the same people in them.

Make May Musical #4 - Laung da Lashkara from Patiala House

I've chosen this one because it's a fun, catchy song that holds great memories for me.

I'm just in this for the music, I haven't seen this film, and I had to check various websites about the film, and what the lyrics mean.

Laung da Lashkara from Patiala House  << Click the Link

The film, which came out this year, is about a second generation Punjabi family living in Southall (although I'm not sure Southall looks anything like this film). Patiala House is the name that they give their home. You wouldn't tell from this song, but actually the film deals with culture clash and racism.

The song has him singing about how beautiful she is, and she is singing that he is saying everything under the influence of his family, and he is never like this when they are alone.

Although I have to state for the record, that English lyrics in Indian songs really bug me. I personally think that, especially in this song, it is unnecessary. So if you want to skip to 16 seconds ahead into the song, then you are free to do so. If you do not, then the woman at the start is saying "something special to all the brothers and sisters-in-law" - it's a shout out to all the extended families! How Asian!
Another slightly annoying thing are the flashing words across the screen.

So why does this song hold memories for me? No it does not remind me of any love stories of mine (I'm lacking in those).

In fact, it reminds me of my recent trip to India earlier this year, where I learned that maybe some Indians do just burst into dance. There was a kite festival, second biggest festival to Diwali in some places, where my family and I were flying kites on the rooftop during the day. Everyone else in the town was doing the same - there were literally thousands of kites up in the air, it was warm, the sun was shining in the clear blue sky and it was such a beautiful sight. They do it for fun, and they have kite fights in the sky where you have to try and cut down another person's kite. Some people write messages on theirs for whoever will find their kite on the ground.

After we had dinner, we all went back to the rooftop, played loud music and started dancing into night. This was one of the songs.