Wednesday, May 11, 2005

plodding along

Date: May 10th
Time: 11.50pm

Today was a vaguely satisfying day. Called up my prospective place of work and they told me to come for a preliminary appointment tomorrow. Well, I certainly was (mis)led to believe I had already got this internship but now apparently they want an interview. This kinda sucks! Who knows what b.s might come out of my mouth during the interview? I spoke to some of my friends who have worked at this place before and they told me that I already have the internship and they just do the interview thing to keep up appearances of credibility. I certainly hope that I get this place because it really does sound like a good place to work and apparently, the dress code is quite casual. I mean it’s not casual to the point of wearing shorts (aww shucks!) but its good enough to excuse not wearing a tie. In fact, I am told that they actually encourage a slightly less formal look. It’s all very informal, familiar but still very, very professional. Sounds kinda exciting! Let us see, I’m sure I can’t really trust anyone’s opinion until I actually start work there at which point I wouldn’t have to trust anyone anymore as I would already have the necessary experience to judge for myself!! I have trust issues.

Nadeeka called today. She had apparently had a very bad time checking in at the Singapore airport. They made her take out 10kgs of stuff out of her luggage. Luckily, some of her friends had come to the airport to drop her off, so she could easily give it to them. Well yeah, she called and we had a bit of an argument. She accused me of having a bad attitude regarding leading women on. She told me that in the past I have lead women on and not really repented about it in later times. She told me that my indifference on the issue really bugged her. I told her:

it’s all in the past
it doesn’t happen anymore
and that when it did happen, I did it without the faintest idea of what I was getting myself into. There was no conscious decision to play around and fuck up people’s feelings. Hell, I’ve been in the hurt-feelings department too many times for me to actually inflict that kind of pain intentionally.

Well I couldn’t really convince her because she says it has happened too many times for it to be ignored. She said it has happened FOUR times. Haiz. I can honestly say that it has happened THREE times and really, I had no idea what I was doing. I’m ashamed about it but I don’t necessarily show it. Nadeeka just kind of blurted it out and I understand her discomfort for thinking she’s hanging around some kind of hypocritical monster but why SHOULD I show my true feelings to anyone? Actions speak louder than words and I KNOW I act responsibly these days. Anyway, I hope this just blows over because it’s really put a bad taste in my mouth. My feelings are my feelings and even though I’ve had my fair share of guilt over the above matters, I don’t care to carry this guilt throughout my life. And it’s the past… guess its kind of true when they say that past actions do come back to haunt you. [Refer to prior post: Karma]

Well anyways, today went to the mall. By mall I mean, Majestic City. It’s the Mustafa Centre of Colombo. Except it’s far more sleazier. It’s also a major pick up joint. The hallowed halls of MC (as we fondly call it) are welcome to both heterosexual and homosexual pimps, prostitutes and civilians. So why did I go there in the first place? But first, I firmly reiterate my status as a civilian. I go there because it is the closest mall to my house. It is also close to the best bookshop in Colombo. MC also has some decent shops which offer a good selection of whatever you might want: groceries, chocolates, greeting cards, perfumes, clothes (not so much), ties, boxers and pirated CD’s and DVD’s. So I go there with one of my friends and we just shop around trying to find me a pair of slippers for rough use. But no such luck! Everything was either very goday (Sinhalese term for v.v.tacky) or quite expensive.

I come home empty handed except for two blank video cassettes for mom and pack of sanitary napkins for sister. But fret not! I start reading Ken Follet’s latest: Whiteout. It seems like any other thriller capitalizing on the paranoia that sprang up during the ‘intentional’ spread of anthrax following the September 11th 2001 incident. However, Follet does have a flair for hooking the reader from the first page onwards and after reading Rohinton Mistry’s Family Matters, I do feel the need to read trashy, but deliciously good thrillers.

At around 9pm, my school friends call me to ask if I’m in the mood to go for a drive with them. Of course I said yes!!

Oh before I get any further, Ashanie came over for lunch today!!! She was on her lunch break! Yes! People! Ashanie! Is! Working! Anyway that was kind of fun and amusing. And poor girl, we aren’t a very hospitable kind of peoples but she’s very understanding. In Singapore, I hate people arriving unannounced to my room. I HATE IT. Now I know for sure where I get it from. It’s in the fricking gene pool of my family!! At home however, I don’t mind people dropping over and it was fun seeing the woman again all conservatively dressed up.

Ah yes, where was I? Oh yeah school friends. Nishanthi, Inoshi and Mindhika come by to pick me up and we went to have coffee at Barista. It was a very casual and fun kind of thing. All we did was catch up a bit on each other’s lives in the past 5 months or so and just had coffee. Sigh. I have missed them. And according to them, I’ve sent them a record two emails this semester. They were thrilled as it certainly is two more than I’ve ever written. I told you I was distracted beyond belief this past semester.

One of our sample conversations:

Nishanthi (voice dripping with disdain and very pointedly): Are your NUS friends down in Colombo too?
Me: Yeah, why?
Nishanthi: Coz they suck
Me: You’re just jealous

I’m meeting them this Friday at some club and both the girls have promised me they will get drunk. Both these women have firmly asserted their vows on abstinence of alcohol and for that matter sex, many, many times before but somehow during the past 5 months they’ve had the balls to try out drinking and they’ve had a gala time getting high and making fools of themselves while Mindhika stands on the sidelines with the disapproving look of a Sinhalese-Buddhist priest cum father. Ha ha. Clap on back for superbly executed double entendre.
Gosh. My blogs are incorrigibly long and boring. I am after all highly bored and highly depressed coz I can’t even masturbate in peace.

Anyway, I do want to leave my comments on some movies I have watched in the past few days but I am afraid this post might be a bit too long. Ah fuck it. I shall.

Coach Carter: B
This is an out and out black film. It’s full of black men (and women) doing their usual African-American thing. It’s about an inspiring coach who dedicates himself to err... coaching a down and out basketball team full of deviants with low scores. Think non-kiasu jock types. Anyway, it’s an unoriginal movie but it’s a true story so it’s kinda hard to critique the movie’s staid plot. I give this movie a solid B because of Samuel L. Jackson’s reasonably good acting, the music which is fucking awesome and the matches which are quite enjoyable to watch.

Kingdom of Heaven: B+
This is an epic film directed by Ridley Scott. It is set in 12th century Europe and it is based on the Crusades. I don’t know much about the crusades so therefore I couldn’t get the nitty gritty of this movie but I understood the larger picture (much like getting the gist of any Hindi movie without subtitles). The sets are awesome (although nothing new compared to LOTR and Troy) and the background score is pretty amazing. It’s heavily fused with Arabic music and the effect is nothing short of ethereal.

The Interpreter: A-
I’ve said this before so I won’t spend too much time on this. It’s an understated, brilliantly acted thriller much like Collateral. Watch this even before Kingdom of Heaven.

Summer Storm: B-
This movie was surprisingly quite stereotypical. It’s about two best friends. One gay, one straight. One in love with the other who is in love with a girl. They both go to Rowing Camp where they compete against a team by the name of Queerstrokes (jeez, rolling eyes). Now, this team is entirely gay. So what now? Do straight people sue for sexual discrimination? Basically the story line revolves around how both sides grow to accept each other through a process of trial and error and by living life as it is. It’s a coming of age flick. It is kinda emotional at some points but not enough to get out the tissues.

Song of the moment: Now we are free- Enya

God Bless

1 comment:

sherene said...

"My blogs are incorrigibly long and boring."

Long, yes. Boring, not. Incoherency is goooot.