My Fair Lady

I cant believe Iam actually doing this!
I've been tagged by Subbu, of all people, to come up with eight things I look for in my prospective life-partner.
Now that's the kind of topic I like to stay as far away from as possible. But me being the good sport that I am, I shall go ahead with the tag. And since I believe in making the best of a bad situation, I shall use this as an excuse to pay tribute to various women I admire for .....umm, various reasons. I shall also this as an excuse to flaunt my Wordsworth-ian skills. So dont blame me, you asked for it!


Oh fair maiden, where are you?
Why do you grieve me so?
Here's how I think you must be
For me to knock at your door.

You have the chirpiness of a Kajol
Which is indispensable to me.
You complement my natural reclusivity
And so, a fine pair we will be.

You have the integrity of a Kiran Bedi
The passion to stand up for a fight.
And each time I feel like bending the rules
I know you will set me right.

You have the smile of a Nafisa Ali
And make ageing seem like a song.
When my day is bad and you turn on that smile,
How could things possibly go wrong?

You have the innocence of a Natalie Portman
So vulnerable and strong at the same time.
I know you need me, you know I need you,
And things will go swimmingly fine.

You have the dogmas of a Brinda Karat
Strong and loud on what you think is right.
We could keep arguing over idealogies
And together we'd see the light.

You have the compassion of a Florence Nightingale
To empathise when things are unfair.
When all hope is lost on dark days, I know
The Lady with the Lamp will be there.

You have the voice of a Skeeter Davis
So honest, so rugged, so gay.
All we have to do is sing a simple duet
To drive those ol' blues away.

Oh fair maiden, where are you?
Your divine presence I seek
But now that I've made my priorities clear
I know my chances are quite bleak.


Yeah, that's only seven points, I know.....but I couldnt bear it myself anymore!

So I shall be more considerate with Anil and KK whom I tag and make this an optional exercise for them, no warnings of dire consequences... and yes, no poetic clauses too!

A Question of Answers

I have this fetish for persisting at things Iam not great at.

I play the guitar diligently though Jim Croce would turn in his grave if he heard my effort. I go through the entire CAT/GD/PI rigmarole regularly without ever getting closer to a top b-school. I optimistically keep taking the lead in making small talk with strangers, though I dry up around 20 seconds into the conversation.

And I regularly take part in quizzes, even though I get eliminated as regularly in the prelims.

Why? Why do I subject myself time and again to this ignominy? What is it that keeps dragging me back to these contests inspite of knowing that history would invariably repeat itself?


Maybe it's because you get to pretend you have an IQ of 150.

Connect an egg, Rebecca, and the battle of Arnheim.

Well, basically, the connection is Maurier. You see, the term 'curate's egg' comes from a cartoon penned by George Maurier in the magazine 'Punch' in 1851. Punch, incidentally, was the first magazine to officially include cartoons. Anyways, George's grand-daughter was none other than Daphne du Maurier who wrote the literary masterpiece 'Rebecca' in 1938. By the way, the opening lines for the book happen to be "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". Aah, but I digress! The battle of Arnheim was the setting for the movie 'A Bridge too Far' and credit for coining this phrase goes to General Frederick Browning, husband of Daphne du Maurier. Now Arnheim was a key struggle during the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II. Let me elucidate further, during September 1944,........

Zzzzzz..............


Maybe it's because you get to pretend you're all sophisticated, arty and cultured.

What is the connection between painting 1 and painting 2?

Well, basically, painting 1 was done by Edouard Manet while painting 2 was done by Claude Monet. Manet depicts Monet in painting 1 while Monet depicts Manet in painting 2. You see, Monet and Manet, more than being just peers in the mid-19th century, had a great deal of influence on each others' works, which was more of an impressionistic, neorealistic, surrealistic depiction of society. So yeah,Manet and Monet would be the connection.

Ma?..Mo?....Bah!


Maybe it's because this is more a test of creativity than anything else.

What was unique about Nazi war vehicles in WW II?

My probable answer a year ago: Err......Pass...
Today: Umm....Swastikas painted on all of them?
Next year: Lets see...they didn't have a reverse gear coz Der Fuerher didn't believe in retreat?
And......bingo!


Whatever......me being my incorrigible self, attended another prelims the other day. And it felt like a better effort than usual. Results expected shortly.
Hmm....Iam getting there. Yep, I can feel it, Iam getting there.....

I might even have Jim Croce smiling down at me some day.