Fun

Excerpt from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice

As I was browsing the channels during some late night TV, I ended up watching the end of BBC’s Pride and Prejudice production. I believe this is one of the best productions of Pride and Prejudice. Here is a literal copy and paste from one of the last scenes in the book. Lizzy is asking her father’s blessing for her wedding with Darcy.

Her father was walking about the room, looking grave and
anxious.  "Lizzy," said he, "what are you doing?  Are you out
of your senses, to be accepting this man?  Have not you always
hated him?"

How earnestly did she then wish that her former opinions had
been more reasonable, her expressions more moderate!  It would
have spared her from explanations and professions which it was
exceedingly awkward to give; but they were now necessary, and
she assured him, with some confusion, of her attachment to
Mr. Darcy.

"Or, in other words, you are determined to have him.  He is
rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine
carriages than Jane.  But will they make you happy?"

"Have you any other objection," said Elizabeth, "than your
belief of my indifference?"

"None at all.  We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort
of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him."

"I do, I do like him," she replied, with tears in her eyes,
"I love him.  Indeed he has no improper pride.  He is perfectly
amiable.  You do not know what he really is; then pray do not
pain me by speaking of him in such terms."

"Lizzy," said her father, "I have given him my consent.
He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare
refuse anything, which he condescended to ask.  I now give it
to _you_, if you are resolved on having him.  But let me advise
you to think better of it.  I know your disposition, Lizzy.
I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless
you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him
as a superior.  Your lively talents would place you in the
greatest danger in an unequal marriage.  You could scarcely
escape discredit and misery.  My child, let me not have the
grief of seeing _you_ unable to respect your partner in life.
You know not what you are about."

Elizabeth, still more affected, was earnest and solemn in her
reply; and at length, by repeated assurances that Mr. Darcy was
really the object of her choice, by explaining the gradual
change which her estimation of him had undergone, relating her
absolute certainty that his affection was not the work of a
day, but had stood the test of many months' suspense, and
enumerating with energy all his good qualities, she did conquer
her father's incredulity, and reconcile him to the match.

"Well, my dear," said he, when she ceased speaking, "I have no
more to say.  If this be the case, he deserves you.  I could
not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy."
February 26, 2008 by Fun Rantings Uncategorized 0

Simple pleasures in life : Getting a shave in India

If you have ever traveled to India, you would have noticed the omni present “Hair Styling” saloons. They vary from a guy sitting under the shade of a tree to pretty expensive “A/C” saloons. Most people in India (esp. the older generation) get their facial hair groomed at these saloons. I took the opportunity of my visit to India, to go to a saloon.. Here is how a shave goes 🙂

  • Rough massage on the  face with hot water mixed with some lime.
  • Slap on some shaving cream (you don’t want to know which brand) and whip up an awesome forth..
  • Open an old fashion shaving blade. In the old days, one blade was used for multiple people. Thankfully, they switch the razors for each person now :)..
  • Shave twice for an ultrasmooth finish. I don’t care what razor you use (tri blad, quad blade or the new 5 blade razors), you cannot get the same finish as an old fashioned shaving blade.
  • Slap on tons of facial cream all over your face.. I managed to glimpse at the cream and it looked like Nivea, but was spelled Nyvea.. Again, don’t pay attention to the brands 🙂
  • Nice massage of the face with the above mentioned facial cream.
  • Spray of cold water on the face.
  • Rub all the nicks (and there will be plenty 🙂 ) with some old fashioned aftershave cake.
  • Another dash of cold water on the face.
  • Wipe face with a warm towel..

The charge ranges anywhere from Rs. 20 – Rs 100 (~$2) and you come out of the saloon feeling like a million dollars :).. I will try to get some pictures next time..

February 10, 2008 by Fun Travel Uncategorized 1

Jaimaica…

My friend, Rich, went on a trip to Jaimaica recently and took a ton of pictures. Looking at the number of pictures, he took, I am wondering what he did during the vacation, other than take pictures :).. Here’s a link to the pictures.

Rich : Jamaica

January 31, 2008 by Fun Travel Uncategorized 0

Bollywood, Hollywood and copy cats..

Bollywood and the rest of the Indian cinema industry are pretty creative. Not only in coming up with original content, but also with copying :).. Back in the 70s and 80s, it was pretty norm, for most of the tunes to be copied from western tunes. I am in no way stating that all the content is copied, but quite a bit of it was. Starting from the movie plots, to the music in the songs. Here’s a good example (although the copy sounds a lot better to me 🙂 ).

ORIGINAL : “500 Miles” by Peter, Paul & Mary

COPY : “Jab Koi Baat” in the movie Jurm

January 30, 2008 by Fun Music Rantings Uncategorized 1

Insanity is…

having to watch a couple smooch over each other every two 2 minutes for 2 hours in the airport and 3 hours in the plane….And I swear, I could hear their smooches from two rows behind in the plane :). Get a room folks!!!

January 22, 2008 by Fun Rantings Uncategorized 1

Weekend of bumming around in Napa Valley

On a whim, I decided to bum around in the Napa Valley for the weekend. And it was a pretty bad time to have such a whim :), with California experiencing some of the worst weather in recent history. I persisted, and luckily I had a great time. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.. Here’s a picture trail of my weekend

My adda was the RedWodd Inn in Napa Valley. Not the most romantic place to stay, but good bang for buck. It only cost me $49 a day.

Red Wood Inn Napa Valley

Since, I didn’t have a lot of time, I was only able to visit one winery (Castello Di Amorosa) . Don’t ask my why, but this entrepreneur decides to build a winery in the form of a medieval castle for $37MM. But boy, did he build it with style. Apparently, he spent 13 years building the winery and went through the pain of building it with 100 year old brick to make it as authentic as possible. Here’s a snapshot of the Winery from outside

Castello Di Amorosa

Here are some pictures with the wine barrels and some cool interiors

And for what ever reason, there is a torture room in the Castle. Guess, how this was used!! 🙂

After the tour, being the sucker that I am, I spent ~$200 on buying wine and moved on to hike at the Bathe-Napa valley state park. One word!!, alright six words :), Best value in the Napa Valley!!. If you are into outdoors, this is the place to visit in Napa. Forget the snobby wineries :).

So I came

I conquered

And ran into this surprise at the peak

I never ran into a GeoCache before. And being the outgoing person I am (that is a joke BTW 🙂 ), I took the opportunity to put my signature on the GeoCache.


(only problem was that I messed up on the date!! 🙂 )

If you have all the time in the world, you can browse the complete list of pictures here.

January 9, 2008 by Fun Travel Uncategorized 0