She knew

He was so good for her they said. She should be lucky to have him. He was successful in his career , he was caring , he claimed to love her very much , he constantly kept complimenting her. Constantly. He was her caste. He was a true gentleman. He always said the right things. But beneath that seemingly perfect man was an actual asshole waiting to burst out. He however never showed it. But she could feel it in her bones. The way he said things which she wanted to hear. The way his lips curled down sometimes when he was getting bothered but chose not to show. The way he made every decisions hers and basked in the radiance of his magnanimity. The way he loved playing victim. Constantly making her the villain with his actions and not words. The signs were so subtle sometimes she thought she was imagining them. No one would believe her even if she told. Her own mom was smitten by him. But she knew.

 #abusivemen #ministories #theyknow #theyknowthatweknow #mentalhealth #meredithgrey #instastories 

NO

Dedicated to the man because of whom anonymous comments are disabled for all. And who is now commenting on a fake id now.

You asked me out 

I said I will rather die from the gout

You then claimed I wasn't clear 

and wanted me to come near 

If i could just open my ears 

and only hear

how much "I love you my dear"

You can call me a hoe 

but No means No.

I blocked you there

and to be honest 

what I thought was everywhere.

and now you have the gall to come HERE

my blog my sacred sanctuary

and comment without your name!

Have you no shame?

This is not a game. 

You may low

and lamenting full of sorrow

but a NO is still a NO

I report you to your boss

and you spew more lies

I am not Rachel

 you are definitely NO Ross &

we definitely were never friends

So please don't try to make amends.

No will always be No

and No you cannot call me a hoe. 

or a bro.

Valar Morgulis

This is the 21^st century

Flying automobiles may not be far away

Yet justice remains a distant dream

For young women in the Pollachi

Who got sucked into the blackhole

Where technology trapped their innocent minds

And cameras coveted their flesh

By predatory influential men

Who blackmailed them to no end

And silenced their horrors

with the concept of shame.

Yet!

It is the girls who are blamed

For chatting with these imposters online

And befalling shame upon their families

For risking their virginity and honor.

Because

A woman is just a sum of her body parts

And

A badge of honor

And

A Flawless flagship

All at the same time.

The boys?

They will remain boys ofcourse

Reprimanded for their glaring errors

And

Cajoled for their lighter ones

They will grow out of it yaar.

The trauma?

Will be forgotten

Swept under the bloody carpet

And the closet of skeletons

Put on a brave face

Act like nothing happened

Better yet

If they just die

And put their family out of their miseries

Because broken women

are a blot on this society

and we would much rather gossip

on how a woman must have tortured

that her husband had to stab her in the family court*

 rather than

have a real conversation about Pollachi.

This is the 21^st century

And ‘women empowerment adorns every manifesto.

Thank you so much.

See links on Pollachi rape here

and family court stabbing here

Mahanati Hangover

There is something about this movie. It has invigorated the romantic in me and stirred me so much that I have no option but pen my thoughts on it. It is not that the film is without flaws – the ‘innocent’ phase of savitri tests our patience , the film maybe guilty of being too in love with its protagonist and background score was sometimes just TOO loud and it ( perhaps understandably) hesitates to go too deep into the character’s psyche or action. However , the film soars above because of only one reason – Keerthy Suresh.

Right before I had the lucky opportunity to watch this movie (twice) , Keerthy Suresh was my least favourite actress. Maybe because she acted in Bhairavaa , Remo and Thodari – the three worst films inflicted on mankind. Maybe because she was more Loosu than ponnu in her loosu ponnu roles. She isn’t typically glamorous or stylish ( not that I particularly care) nor did she show any acting skill which would warrant her inclusion in all the latest films.

Until now.

She begun the movie with the usual bubbly , enthucutlet beats. I resigned myself for a dud. But then Gemini Ganesan A.K.A Dulquer A.K.A ‘Ammadi’ dropping Kadhal Mannan entered and the film sprang to life. We could see why she fell in love , even though there were huge warning signs everywhere. He isn’t a bad dude either. It is just life. Then comes her transition into ‘Mahanati’ / ‘ Nadigaiyar’ Thilagam’ . Although I haven’t watched any of the movies which she acted out in black and white I could see the greatness. I could see the Savitri in Keerthy. Ganga became Chandramukhi. There was something awesome about her walking elegantly to the Mahanati BGM. Like Rajini walking.

Then her heartbreak and downfall. Damn Keerthy is good. I’m assuming she used prosthetics for the heavy portions and she emoted so well. Maybe I am praising too much. But she was worth it.

Also , all this throws light on the fact that the tamil and telugu industry really need to pump out more scripts for their heroines. They used to in the 50’s, why can’t they now? When everything is apparently more advanced.

The sets and art design made me nostalgic for a time I know nothing about. Madras with trams and taxis looked so good, I wish there were more period movies made. They have a charm which we somehow are not able to capture in our ‘now’ movies.

The songs are so good. ‘Mouna Mazhayile’ is all shades of romantic and mesmerizing. Mahanati BGM is so regal and ‘ Irudiyil enna Minjum’ is just haunting…. The direction , shots were really beautiful. Telugu Cinema with Bahubali , Arjun Reddy and Mahanati now is showing how to be grand and good at the same time.

Seven Superstitions

  When I conducted a poll on my blog group for a suitable topic to write on, I was surprised that ‘superstitious beliefs’ emerged as a frontrunner. Of course there was the ever enticing ‘ How to flirt with girls: For men’ giving equal competition to it.Since I believe in Non obvious topics , I choose this one.

The poster girl of superstitions

You can find my How to not flirt with girls -> Here. You can find my ancient post on superstitions  Here. This post is a rehash of sorts of that post.

Before listing out some whacky superstitions let us ponder about the idea itself. Even the most unreligious and logical looking person sometimes hold pretty weird superstitions. The rationale seems to be  ‘why tempt fate?’. People used to the random uncontrollable pulls of life and nature try to bring some semblance of sanity with their own dose of insanity. Fear of the worst case scenario and the guilt which will definitely hit us if we proceed anyways and fail, also serve as pretty strong factors for holding superstitions.

I feel that superstitions or any habit for that matter are alright as long as they don’t impair our already dysfunctional lives. Like Harry duping Ron into believing he had drunk liquid luck , superstitions help us believe that all will be well and even if we failed it was not for want of effort on our part.  

That being said lets proceed with this semi listicle on Some Superstitions which I felt need to be mentioned.

     1)    

  Like the movie ‘chain kulii ki main kulii’ rightly showed, cricket is a fertile ground for superstitions to sprout from in our country. In this movie we have our protagonist who believes in his ‘magic’ bat only to know in the climax that it is he who is special. Cricket is a game of confidence and sledging and batting collapses, a little liquid courage did no one any harm. However, it is a different ball game for poor spectators who can sadly not control the cricketing proceedings. This leads to crazy situations when some people don’t watch the match they love for the sake of their team’s victory or banish others from watching it and sometimes make people stand in the exact positions when lady luck struck.

    2)     

Now imagine the rural scenario of agriculture dictated by the vagaries of nature. How can we be surprised that these people are the most superstitious? If I was a farmer in India I would probably wet the fields with my tears. It is no surprise that they tend to have the most ‘primitive’ superstitions like animal sacrifices and are the most vehement followers of faith and religion. You cannot survive without beliefs in these areas of activity.

   3)   

   That might explain why the most corrupt , cut a share to god in the name of faith. It is their own superstitious belief that they are making a deal with forces above. The tirupati coffers tell their own tales.

   4)      Talking of whacky superstitions , I read this book called ‘ When girls dare’ long back. One memory that stays clearly in my head when a girl really needs her violet color undie to win but it has gone for laundry! So what does she do? Of course wear a red and blue one and win the race :D

   5)     A surgeon's scrub cap

Only one purpose for this pic

    6)      Irksome ones which make no sense at all in this century :-

·         Wash hair at home after cutting hair even if they gave u a hair wash at the parlour ( borders on casteism if u ask me)       

·         Reach the house from the back door after coming back from a funeral. And bathe.

7 7)  

  Reserving the worst one for the last. Untouchability practiced in the name of menstruation in certain houses. Apparently a 3 day vacation for women from housework , it is actually very demeaning . You cannot touch anyone , the clothes and utensils you touch are impure and this practice silently continues to day in many households. While I do know some women who use it well to get out of social situations it is an absolutely disgusting superstition to still follow in the 21^st century. 

    What is the whackiest/ most ridiculous superstition you hold or have heard of?

                                                                                             

Rockstar

I Rebel

Don’t compromise

Non conform

Break Glass Ceilings

Only for it to shatter all over me

Cuts deeper than wound

I persist

Keep flying towards the star

My scars sing to the world

That I am a rockstar

And now I wave down at them

Because I dared to climb up.