Growing a Beard

Namaste!First of all, thanks to everyone who visits the blog, I’ve seen an steady increase in traffic and it’s nice to know that friends are thinking about you, specially when so far away from everyone.
I’m flying to Mumbai tomorrow evening for a weekend trip. I was going alone to begin with but at the last minute Alex who is from Australia decided to come along.
I’ve also almost finalized the details for the trip to Kerala. There is so much to do there and it’s very difficult to decide what to see and what to skip, but I guess it’s a good problem to have. Luckily, again, I won’t have to go alone since Paula is paying a visit from Stockholm. It’s really great since she loves food as much as I do and I think we are going to eat ourselves to death. Travel stories from others usually sound similar to this:

Good seafood is available aplenty. Worth visiting is the Fort Kochi beach where you can buy fresh fish and get it cooked in the nearby food stalls. Fish fry, fish molly, fish curry and fish peera are the favourites, usually taken with rice or steamed tapioca (cassava).

In other words, Wohooo!

On a random note, I saw a very funny Persian music video which I would like to share with you. I’ve always had a soft spot for happy effortless Persian pop, it reminds me of the time when I lived Iran and puts me in a good mood. The artist Omid is not bad, if you are into that sort of things. On an interview with BBC Persian he said that in his new album he really wanted to do something original, something that has never been done before yadayada. I didn’t take his words seriously but apparently he went all in and hit the jackpot.

Basic plot:
Line dancers shaking away to Persian electro-pop-mash disaster
Headbanging musician in the background
Omid singing with the worst lip sync ever
All of the sudden, hold on now, BREAKDANCERS enter!!!

Right, maybe not my favourite video, but then again who am I to disagree with 68,017,860 Iranians!? Enjoy!

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Tonight I went to the preview of one of the most anticipated and hyped movies Don – The Chase Begins Again, a remake of the hit movie Don from 1978. I was a bit sceptic to the whole idea but with actors such as Priyanaka Chopra, Isha Koppikar and Kareena Kappor, on an IMAX screen, there wasn’t much room left for reconsideration. There was of course something for the ladies too and these lads go by the name of ShahRukh Khan and Arjun Rampal, aka the Indian honk.

The movie is of course in Hindi; however English sentences are usually used in the beginning and end of scenes. Let me demonstrate;

-scene- Doorbell rings, girl opens:
- Hi, it’s very nice to see you!
> Hello, I felt so lost without you!
- (Speaking Hindi for 15-20 minutes, sometimes accompanied by spontaneous song and dance)
- Never leave me again, oh..
-end of scene-

I really enjoyed the show and was laughing quite a lot, even though this is officially an action flick, and it turned out to be one of my best cinema experiences thanks to the many hundreds of devoted fans cheering every time The Don uttered something cheesy such as:

You must understand one simple fact… it is not difficult to catch Don, it is impossible!

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Last night I went out with my dear colleagues Sasi, Nikhil and Hari, who by the way shares the surname of the legendary sitar player who taught George Harrison how to play the instrument.

The ride to the centre of Hyderabad which is approximately 20 km from Hi-Tech city took us around 40 minutes and it was my first experience of real Indian traffic and driving. We went to a pub called 10 Downing Street which in the beginning was a surreal experience since the place looks just like any other English pub (but slightly over-AC’d) and after a couple of Kingfishers I almost forgot I was in India. The beer here is stronger then the stuff I normally drink in Dublin and drinking it at the same pace as back home makes you quite…happy! Very groovy with added special effects such as fear of collision/death together with constant honking as well as motorcycles, rickshaws, bikes and dogs swirling around the cab on the way back to the hotel.

At home, I went to bed with a smile.

-Hessam – Finally growing a beard