k it's been a whileee. haha i simultaneously have nothing to say and too much to say.

before i begin, i have to blog about the kanchi shankaracharya case. i think vaish mentioned it already, but generally it's been annoying me for a while so:
there's this thing in india called the kanchi mutt (or math, maybe, but pronounced mutt and both english spellings just have completely weird associations). the mutt is basically a very important hindu institution, sort of temple-ish except they have lots of temples and lots of devotees and stuff, including my grandfather. the mutt has these ascetics who are like the heads of the mutt, sort of like the pope and the vatican. and currently there are two of these sanyasis, called shankaracharyas. my grandfather's very close to both of them and believes deeply in them. i don't have a problem with his belief, although i wouldn't personally put so much faith in a man or a human institution, but that's my own sort of faith/antifaith.

point: the older of the shankaracharyas was recently arrested (on the night of diwali in fact) because he's believed to be involved in the murder of one of the mutt accountants, or something like that. and basically there's been an uproar among hindu devotees because this is one of their leading religious figures, in jail, and apparently not being given the deferential treatment he deserves.
1. nobody seems to be able to accept the possibility of his guilt. i don't claim to have any conclusive proof of his guilt OR innocence, but if anyone raises the possibility that maybe he is guilty of conspiracy to murder, people like my grandfather immediately get huffy.
2. innocent until proven guilty and all, but he's suspected in a murder case so deferential treatment doesn't make sense in legal terms.
especially bail - there usually is no bail in murder cases, so i see no reason why my grandfather's displeased that the shankaracharya's been denied bail.

however, there are political forces playing here. jayalalitha the fat bitch who's chief minister of tamilnadu, is likely to have an ulterior motive with this. he doesn't seem to be likely to get a fair trial. the media is totally screwing with this, and has repeatedly reported inaccurate information. plus, politicians under arrest often get to stay in -guesthouses-. fine, so they weren't usually murder charges, but the innocent until proven guilty could kick in for an old ascetic who's heavily diabetic.

anyhow, i don't actually have a lot of interest because i have no vested interest in the shankaracharya though my grandpa'd like me to. but what pisses me off is the obvious sentimental religious bias that my grandfather refuses to admit, and his taking for granted that he should be allowed to hog the tv to watch the latest news about this thing. he claims to be so interested, but he's not writing to a newspaper or going to the tv stations to talk about these people whom he's normally so close to, and follows around the coutnry and stuff. i don't want to accuse him of hypocrisy, and i know it's for the family's sake and due to the political intertwinedness that he doesn't want to get involved in a murder case, but i'm just in general kinda peeved about the whole thing. and he's supposed to come to singapore in february, but he says that in jan when he goes to the mutt for some function, then he has to ask the shankaracharya for permission to come to singapore in case they need him to help due to this stuff going on and all. so.. it's just the importance he gives to this, gets on my nerves because the shankaracharya's only a -man-.

next week my mom's going to chennai, and my brother and i aren't going because we hate chennai (yay!) but i think it's a bit shitty cos my little cousin's been asking us to go for his birthday for the past two years and we haven't gone. his birthday's dec 7. and basically my brother hates chennai more than i do, so he absolutely refuses to go, whereas though i hate the salty water and the horrible weather which is similar to singapore's but somehow worse cos the city's so dirty, i don't mind chennai so much cos the shopping's good. but my mom says that either all three of us go or just her. anyway i guess it's just as well because she'll probably buy me some stuff, and not going means i don't have to endure endless visits to chennai relatives. and she's got to go to one place to condole my dad's cousin because my paternal grandfather's sister passed away in october. and i hate those kinda visits, where you sit and talk about dead people. god i sound so flippant.

anyway, talking about shopping! i did some marvelous shopping yesterday. finally went to united colours of benetton on brigade road - i've been meaning to see that place, because i'd heard that benetton's become really good - and it was -really- good. plus my mom was in uber-generous mood, so i got a really nice blue cord jacket. really really nice. actually my mom wanted me to get a leather jacket which was about 150 dollars more, because she's got this bee in her bonnet that i should get a leather jacket cos she saw some girl wearing one and thought it looked really cool. but i bought the cord one instead, cos it was sooo pretty and i couldn't let go of it and the leather jacket was cool but i've seen nicer leather jacket designs.

anyway after that i figured my shopping quota was like, really really really over, but then we passed by lee and there was this red shirt in the window and my mother pointed it out, and i was like hey that's nice can i go in and see and i thought she would say no, no more shopping, but she said ok. and then i tried the red shirt and it didn't look good, but then my mom picked up 5 other shirts for me to try and there was a nice blue one and i got that.

then i walk down the street and i see a shop full of bags. the day before my mom and i had scoured commercial street to find nice bags at a decent price cos i wanted to buy a couple for friends, but everywhere they were either not nice or like 200 rupees and when you're buying gifts for 15 people you can't afford to spend 8 bucks on each one. especially when they're just holiday gifts. anyway the thing is, when i bought the jacket my mom was like maybe you should forget about buying gifts for 15 people, but then when i was asking if i could go check the prices of these bags, she said ok! and the bags were actually nice -and- decently priced. it's amazing how in india, three places will have three totally different prices for the same thing. i swear, i've seen the same bags for 150 rupees, 250 rupees, and 400 rupees. along the same stretch of road even.

anyway i have decided that brigade road is -the- place to shop. when my mom goes to chennai, i will make my grandpa bring me shopping. plus i have to make him take me for ocean's twelve. has it released in singapore? it's releasing here next friday. plus vanity fair just released so if my mom's nice to me again, i might actually get to see it. poor thong, i don't think he finally did see it and he really wanted to.

oh last night! koffee with karan - saif and preity!!!!! omg saif is sooooo cute and so damn bloody hot and he was wearing really cute red sneakers and preity talks sooo much but she's also completely adorable. this ep, and the first ep with shah rukh and kajol, my favourites. although there have only been 3 so far. but the middle one with rani and kareena was such a bore. shah rukh talks so well. he should've been the host. i think if i ever met him in person i'd be completely dumbfounded, because he's so bloody intelligent and so charismatic, i'd just be awestruck. even saif is somewhat awed by him. and saif is the most adorable thing! he's lost his cute accent though. he used to have this really nice american/britishy accent. btw koffee with karan's this new talk show hosted by karan johar, the supergay director of kabhi khushi kabhi gham, and producer of kal ho na ho.

ooh i also saw veer-zaara: new shah rukh-preity movie. shah rukh's HOT. and preity's gorgeous, and her CLOTHES are gorgeous, and the jewelry's gorgeous. my mom and i just spent the movie jaw-droppedly admiring the costumes. manish malhotra, what else. (designer to the stars, and unfortunately his only store is in mumbai.)

ok now i have to go. so i did have much to blog.