However, if you’ve read the beginning of the beginning [1 & 2] you’ll know that this once very active young girl, is now a very inactive 30 something.

From the healthy active school & college girl that I always was – I represented my school at inter-school hockey, always took part at sports, track & field events  etc. – I had gone down to zero exercise. Instead of walking, I preferred to take my car out, even for short distances – often due to lack of time but mostly due to laziness. While I still enjoyed taking long walks with my close girl friends, they were more about talking than walking & often our walks would end at a Barista where we’d more than erase any good we had achieved with our walk.

I’ve been told by my doctor that I need to exercise at least thrice a week. We’re talking working the treadmill for at least half an hour thrice weekly (to start with)  and then perhaps graduating to an hour or increasing the number of days.

Assuming myself to be as fit as I always was, I never realized until I actually started making the attempt, just how difficult it is to start exercising seriously when one hasn’t done it in a long time.

Not having any other choice is not acting as a big motivator either. It’s so much worse when you feel you’re forced to do something rather than when you choose to do something because you really want to.

Cal of course, thinks I should skip “all the Oprah thinking” and just get it done. And so, I’m keeping at it!

In other news in this vein, Cal’s also promised to teach me to ride a cycle! Ok, before you wonder what that’s about, I’ll let you in on the secret: I can’t ride a cycle. No really, not even a little bit.

I think I tried once on my sister’s cycle when we were young, but couldn’t balance, so didn’t bother about it ever again. And now I regret not learning then (note to any kids reading my blog – learn all you can about everything, now!)

Then this year one good Samaritan decided to help me stop regretting and start doing cycling & on my birthday, I got a shiny pink bike (yay!) complete with the pink basket in the front – and with “Miss India” painted on the side – I kid you not.

Now this form of exercise is one  I’m very psyched about and I’m hoping to make it happen soon. However it’s not worked out so far, because on the one day Cal & I finally both had time to set aside for that, I found out that the tyres needed to be pumped and I didn’t have an air pump thingie. So, I’ll hopefully get my lesson this Sunday.

Will keep y’all posted how the riding lessons go (unless of course I fall off, get a concussion and can’t blog anymore).

Thriller that leaves you hungry for more

Sri Lanka’s contender and sole hope, for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is David Blacker, who made the long-list with his exciting thriller A Cause Untrue. Listed alongside J.M. Coetzee, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zadie Smith, Amy Tan and Salman Rushdie, David has many Goliaths to contend with and we can’t help thinking that his is indeed a cause untrue.

But what a remarkable thriller this is! Blacker burst onto Sri Lanka’s literary scene with this rapidly paced action novel in manuscript form, targeting and easily hitting the short list for the Gratiaen Prize in 2005. Soon after being published, the novel went on to gather critical acclaim and won Sri Lanka’s highest form of book recognition, the State Literary Award, 2006 for Best Novel. With such an impressive track record in sucha small space of time, Blacker is poised to make his mark not only in Sri Lanka, but on the world’s writing stage.Not only is he the new face of Sri Lankan literature, with this novel,David Blacker has established himself as the definitive Sri Lankan thriller writer. His action sequences and plot don’t confine themselves to Sri Lanka’s boundaries but chase each other helter-skelter through continental Europe and North America, blurring boundaries and dissolving frontiers. Fast paced and furious, heroes and villains race through twisted plots and sub plots to reacha surprising climax which leaves us hungry for more.

In the tradition of Ernest Hemingway, Alistair Maclean and John le Carré who lived the experiences they wrote about,David Blacker saw action as an enlisted soldier with the Sri Lankan army, having a true baptism by fire as a nineteen-year-old rifleman facing LTTE troops at Elephant Pass. Much later, wounded in action, he re-joined civilian life and now spinsa credible yarn of highly trained, ruthless fighting machines on both sides of Sri Lanka’s bloody conflict.

Surprisingly mature for a first book, Blacker has no clearly defined hero or villain. Nor does he have just one story line. Similar to real life scenarios, the characters in his novel are moved by forces and situations they cannot see or control. The action takes place on several stages, in parallel, with interlinked plots, sub-plots, obscure destinies, twists and turns – often within sight but rarely coinciding with each other. Peripheral characters are developed to the point we havea clear picture of them and their role, but don’t always follow the path we expect them to; loose ends are tied up neatly with military precision, and although the backdrop is the civil war, value judgments are not made.

What comes across most strongly, is the ruthlessly fast pace of this book which is as thick as a brick. You may pick it up thinking you’ll read it over the holidays or the Poya weekend but be prepared to spend a sleepless night turning the pages desperately fast to keep up with the action within. In the morning, stop yourself from repeating insanely “All teams, Sita! Sita! Sita! Go, go, go…” but join us in saying toBlacker: more, more, more…

A Cause Untrue by David Blacker. Perera Hussein, Rs. 890 in all bookshops. Reviewed by Joseph Appuhamy

Point to be noted though, that though the article states it costs Rs. 890/-, it’s actually available in India at Rs. 395/-, which is much less than half that price! Am not sure what the difference in price is due to (perhaps a hardcover edition?) but good for us, eh?

A close friend of mine was on his way to L.A. via Mumbai’s Shivaji Chatrapati International Airport. Even as he was entering the main building he overheard the people standing behind him mention the word “bomb” and something about there being talk of a scare at the airport that day.

Shrugging it off as loose talk, he proceeded to enter the building after showing the necessary documents. Then perhaps out a sense of needing assurance more than curiosity, he proceeded to one of the uniformed security of a certain airline and asked him if indeed there was a bomb scare at the airport that night. The security guy informed him that he knew of no such thing. One would have imagined that, that would have been the end of that story.

But an hour later, though my friend was now checked in, luggage on plane et al, it all went downhill. He was pulled off the plane, his luggage offloaded – in fact the plane was delayed because of him.

He then underwent three full hours of grueling question and answer sessions with at least twenty different men, each seemingly higher in rank and nastier than the preceding one. And even then, they wouldn’t “release him” from the question room in the airport he had been locked up in for so many hours.

They threatened to put him in jail, that cases would be made against him as a terrorist, that he would be on an international watch list for the rest of his life.

My friend is high up in the ladder of a very well known MNC. He’s been educated in the US and has worked outside India most of his life. He has pretty much everything one would want. And suddenly, he saw his whole life as he knew it, flash before his eyes.

In 4 days time, it’ll be exactly 8 years since 9/11, that day no one with a television screen will ever forget. 8 years, wherein airport security has become stricter and stricter. Post the Mumbai Terror attacks in November of 2008, Mumbai airport security too has gone from strict to possibly paranoid.

While Shahrukh Khan’s lamentations in US Airports may make front page news, countless other lesser known mortals have had to suffer and endure because of heightened security. Shahrukh Khan may have had the liberty to shout out “racialism” but most other people don’t.

I remember being in Australia, catching a flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney and how an official asked me – the only colored person in the line – to be swabbed for residue of bomb explosives. Slightly nonplussed I asked him – in crisp polished English – why he chose just me. He didn’t react or move a muscle and almost convinced me with his, “it’s just random testing miss”. I of course didn’t make a big deal out of it and needless to say he found nothing, but the whole exercise was still slightly demeaning.

And yet, I side with the officials. In this post 9/11 world of ours, if it has to be one end of the spectrum, I choose paranoia over complacency. I think my friend was rather careless to mention the B-word in an airport regardless of what he had heard just outside it. If there was indeed a scare of any sort, they would have cleared the airport, one imagines. At any rate, as evident, it did no one good to speak to someone about it.

While undressing, removing shoes, background checks and “random” swab testing in airports the world over maybe demeaning, not to mention tiresome, it is still these measures that are helping keep actual B-word makers at bay.

And what of my friend? After a seemingly endless night, he was let off – but not before being severely warned not to ever use the B-word in an airport again. A sign in Sydney airport perhaps says it best, “Don’t even joke – we take all jokes seriously”

But let’s back up the bus a bit – those of you who’ve been following the blog for years, will know that I don’t watch Hindi movies. Why? From the little I would see of Hindi movies on TV, I felt they were made for less than average intelligent minds and plus, I was never inclined to spend two to three hours on a movie, especially not one filled with songs and dances.

Over the last few years, the quality of Indian filming has really changed, with excellent films being produced in apna ‘Bollywood’ – or so I’ve been told – as I’ve stubbornly still refused to go see any films (despite being begged & cajoled in every way by well meaning friends).

All that changed last night, as I finally made the plunge & watched my first ever Hindi film – Aladin.

Why did I finally change my mind and go see the film?

(a) I had been planning on breaking my ‘no Hindi movie’ rule for a while now, but didn’t know which movie was special enough to give that honor to (honor not for anyone else, but I know I’ll remember the first movie I see forever).

(b) Have been following Vishal Dadlani on twitter (@V1SH4L) and he was very vocally pro the money, even stating that he’d refund the money of anyone who didn’t like the movie! Usually I wouldn’t pay any attention to people involved in the movie’s production who make claims like these, but Cal told me that he’s never seen Vishal actually rave about any movie like he’s done with this one. And for a Hindi film music veteran like Vishal, that’s a big deal.

So, off I went with Cal last night, braving Juhu traffic until we made it to Yash Raj. I’ve been to many movie premiers before – but I’ve never been to a private screening for such a small group, including two of the main actors (Mr. Bachchan & Ritesh Deshmukh), the director (Sujoy Ghosh), music directors Vishal-Shekhar and probably so many of the others who’ve played some role in the film

It was a very close knit group with everyone very friendly and happy to see each other – on our arrival, Mr. B yelled “Caaaalllvinn” loudly in his Mr. B voice and a little later came and “introduced himself” to me. (like he needs any introduction in any part of the known world).

All the gup aside – HOW WAS THE MOVIE you ask?

Simply brilliant.

It’s a Harry Potter meets The Golden Compass meet Pirates of the Caribbean meets Bollywood.

It’s FULL of color, magic, light. I loved the storyline and how the plot revealed itself bits and pieces during the movie. The movie pretty much belongs to Mr. B; he’s simply larger than life in every shot, his wardrobe is fantastic (not sure who did the costumes, but kudos!) and he totally becomes the role.

If you’re a Mr. B fan – or if you’re a kid between the ages of 3 to 80 – then you’re going to love this film. (hah, I still can’t believe that I’ve seen a Hindi film, much less than I’m encouraging others to go see one too!)

I also can’t wait to go & rent DVDs of Hindi movies I should have watched over the last few years but haven’t (yes, I really haven’t seen any)… any suggestions?

There’s a sudden influx of murder mystery novels in the Indian market – and this lover of the genre (I’m one of those die-hard Christie & Holmes fans) cannot be happier .

So naturally I rubbed my hands in glee when I got hold of author Madhulika Liddle’s ‘The Englishman’s Cameo’.

I took the book along with me to my Diwali retreat at the lovely Hill station of Mahableshwar. Against the beautiful scenic green hills and the cool of the day and night, the 16th century Mughal land of Shahjahanabad, in which the book is set, came alive.

As a murder mystery, Liddle does well. The book starts off, builds up and maintains a good pace throughout the book. The plots winds around the place and the suspense keeps you turning the pages.

More than the mystery though, one has to appreciate the sheer energy Liddle has put into the finer details of the book. Everything from the embroidery on the men’s outfits (I should say ‘chogas’) to the embellishments on the flower vases in every room is painstakingly noted; enough for you to see the room in color but not too much to make the book laborious to get through.

I found myself feeling I was back in time & oh, how lovely it all was!

Lastly, but best of all,  I enjoyed the hero (I thought I’d write protagonist, but hero he is!) the easy to love Muzaffar Jang so much, that I can’t wait to see where Liddle takes him next.

This is Liddle’s very first novel (though she’s well known for her  Short Stories, having won the Commonwealth Short Story competition in 2003) and if authors get better with time, then we’re all in for a real treat.

The book is available in stores at Rs. 295/-

Product: Britannia’s  Slimz Milk

Packaged in a tetrapack like many other milk companies, except that this one promised to have a USP:

• Zero Fat
• Zero Cholesterol.

Other points (which I think are pretty similar to other milk tetras):

• Britannia Milk can be consumed straight from the pack. Needs no boiling.
• It has shelf life of 120 days from date of manufacture (when unopened)
• Britannia Milk has undergone the Flash Heating Process to kill all germs while maintaining its nutrient value.
• Britannia assures this Milk is completely safe and quality is 100% protection against adulteration.
• Has 6 layers of protection.
• Temper evident packaging.
• Untouched by hand.

Price:

• 1 Lit. MRP Rs.40

–
*I am in no way connected with any of these products (other than the fact than I use them myself) and this post is not an endorsement for you to buy anything. Please check with a licensed physician before making any lifestyle changes.

I’m a firm believer that a good positive attitude works wonders for one’s physical & emotional health and to that extent I not only try always stay positive, but also to surround myself with good, positive influences.

That does not extend to taxi or rickshaw (auto) drivers, as very often we’re forced to just take what we get.

Recently though I had the privileged of taking a Rickshaw with Sandeep Bachche. If you think he just drives an auto for a living then you’d be wrong. For Mr. Bachche is also a love and generosity spreader.

He uses his simple profession to be philanthropic, by offering 25% discount for handicapped people, free rides of up to Rs 50/- for the blind & even 10% discount for just married couples!

He also ignites the philanthropist in his passengers by encouraging them to help the Home for the Aged & other good causes.

His amazing auto boasts a laughing buddha above the meter (decorated with the now disused 5 paise coins), a magazine stand & so many other interesting things, that I found myself wishing I had more time to spend with him.

When I reached my destination, I asked him to pose for a picture & he happily did so, along with the Times of India article (his idea!) that featured him about 2 months ago:

I searched & found the e-article [here].

He really made my day – even thinking of him now I feel so good about life. Yes, people like Sandeep do exist in this world!

In my opinion, what’s really special about him, is how he uses what he has to spread love & joy. How often I have been content with just giving money to causes and doing nothing on a day to day basis.

Using Sandeep’s example – I wonder if there’s some way we can all make someone else happy on a daily basis, using our existing jobs?

And best of all, barring a few flus, coughs & colds; I’ve always felt PERFECTLY healthy on the outside.

How is it possible then, that I could have a Cholesterol problem?

It wasn’t so hard for my doctor to figure this one out. He sized me up in a few minutes, shook his head and told me how many people in my age group (25 – 35) don’t realize it, but also have a cholesterol problem due to:

(01) Unhealthy Eating: This is a BIG one for me. Remember all that junk food I used to down, ever so happily because I didn’t put on weight afterward? Turns out that even though I couldn’t see any effect that it was all having on me – it didn’t mean that it wasn’t affecting my insides.

I was eating waaaay too much red meat for starters. And the tons of aforementioned junk food. And too much desserts. And generally eating out way too often. Though I didn’t realize any of this then, all this was adding up.

(02) Zero Exercise: From the healthy active school & college girl that I always was – I represented my school at inter-school hockey, always took part at sports, track & field events  etc. – I had gone down to zero exercise. Instead of walking, I preferred to take my car out, even for short distances – often due to lack of time but mostly due to laziness. While I still enjoyed taking long walks with my close girl friends, they were more about talking than walking & often our walks would end at a Barista where we’d more than erase any good we had achieved with our walk.

(03) Stress: Like almost everyone in my generation, I was stressed about work and tons of other issues on a regular basis.

(04) Erratic Sleep: And another big one for me, was the problem of erratic sleep. Either due to pending work or wasting time online (must admit, more of the latter – I spend at least four hours daily online, on facebook, my blog & other websites) I often slept late, post 2am (and if I was out partying, which was often, it was a combination of almost all the above points).

Given all the above, how is it that I was surprised that I was totally damaging my body inside?

This is why – so many people I know in my age group have a similar lifestlye. We all eat unhealthy, we all hardly (if ever) exercise, we’re all stressed at work & we all sleep erratically or too little.

The beginning of beginning for me therefore, is not only to get on the right road myself – but also to help anyone else that’s willing to listen to also do so.

My friend Dave*, who’s a year younger than me went for a medical check up & found out that he had a cholesterol problem. Dave’s a non smoker, was overworked & a heavy partier. He didn’t bother about sleeping at the “right time” (what’s that?!) or what went into his stomach by way of (usually fast) food or drink. In fact, he was pretty much like most people I know in our generation.

Dave telling me he had a cholesterol problem actually made me go “whoa!” because (a) he was younger than me (still in his twenties) and (b) because he was the second friend in less than a half year to tell me there was something wrong with their health.

Ria* is a close friend whom I regularly went to movies with (i.e. read: regularly ate caramel or cheese popcorn and hotdogs with) and hung out almost daily with at one point (i.e. read: snacked almost daily at) Candies fast food / Baristas coffee & snacks/ Garcias pizza & cheese garlic bread. A few months ago Ria told me she had Diabetes.

Ria is also still in her twenties, two years younger than me.

Thinking of Ria, I at once agree to Dave’s suggestion that I get a complete medical check up. After all, I had never done one in my life and I turned 30 and not bothered about it then. I might as well do one now — if for nothing else, just to reassure myself that all was A-OK.

I made an appointment to get a basic health check up at NM Medical center, which does all the tests under one roof, in a better ambiance than most hospitals.  Even having made the decision to go get a check up, I felt better about myself and was sure that everything would show up completely normal. After all, I felt brilliantly fine.

The tests went fine – I had to fast post a certain time the previous night and the whole thing took me about half a day in toto, which wasn’t too bad.

Got my results the very next day and as I skimmed through, I saw that everything was fine. What a waste of 3000 rupees was my first thought, which I quickly replaced with a at least I’m being responsible about my health.  Which is ironic if you think about it, given the excesses of my previous two years.

Those two thoughts were all I thought about it.

Until my parents got home in the night and asked how my report was & I actually started reading them bits & portions of it.. that was when I got to the third page and saw it.

My ‘Lipid Profile’ (a group of blood tests that are taken together to determine risk of coronary heart disease – good indicators of whether someone is likely to have a heart attack or stroke) showed that both my LDL Cholesterol and my LDL/HDL ratios were both in the ‘High’ column.

I didn’t know at the time what in God’s earth HDL or LDL Cholesterol was.

All I knew suddenly, was that I, Melody Laila, had a Cholesterol problem.

And that, was the beginning – not of the end. But of a realization, a wake up call, that I had to do something different, change things fast – because I was headed down a road I didn’t want to be. It was indeed, the beginning of a new lifestlye change I had to suddenly adopt. Not by choice, because it was trendy to be holistic, but by necessity.

It was the beginning of the beginning.

–
*name changed to protect identity