London in 2014

With Vishal closer to King's cross

I am literally living this quote: ‘Travel while you are young and able. Don’t worry about the money. Just make it work. Experience is far more valuable than money ever will be’.

Fortunately, I have a rich mom who is willing to loan me some in my times of luxurious needs and for that I shall always be grateful. I am grateful to her about a lot of other things such as cooking me meals even to this day, ensuring my laundry is done et all. You can never repay this debt, unless in some cosmic circle of life and death they return as your kids. So, may be God ensures what you enjoy today, will be paid back in kind by you to the people who gave it to you, in a future life.

Last year, I decided I am going travel on every birthday of mine. This year, I am in London and disputing whether I should restrict the plan to five years because if I decide to have kid(s) then travel each year won’t always be possible. I am beginning to believe that in order to experience a selfless being, one should have kids.

Vishal, a good friend of mine, moved to London in 2010 and I decided to see him in a place he now calls home. He sent me some of his pay stubs and account statements as part of the visa ritual and I was like, “Holy Fuck!”. I am really proud of what he has achieved for himself. God bless him with all his ambitions and particularly the one where he becomes a Londoner soon so that I can visit him as often I would like to ;-).

At Green park on Sep 22, 2014

As for London, yesterday I had a revelation while walking through Green Park: London has to be one of the most romantic cities in the world. I fell in love with the city the moment I landed. I traveled for 9.5 hours with Virgin, which is definitely a wow experience, but it felt like I had taken a two hour flight to Bangalore. London didn’t feel foreign, probably because a couple of immigration officers were Indian, but I like to think there is more to it.

Given my fascination with numbers, I noticed that my flight sequence number was 29 (adds to 2 which is my life path number) and I chose 60H as my seat (adds to 5 which is my life expression number). There have been too many numbers adding to 2, 5 and another 13 that all have been linked with my life in someway as far as the entire boarding the plane journey is concerned.

Adios for now. Today, I am planning to do the Piccadilly circus, Covent garden and some impromptu decisions. London is treating me NICE. Touch wood!

The charade of nudity

So, apparently, the Facebook world has come alive over leaked photos of Jennifer Lawrence and articles have condemned the hacker's view of "women who have nude photos are sluts and whores". Rightly so. But, I wonder, if they realize they have glorified his point of view to the world even through denunciation. Who on earth would care two hoots about a hacker's POV on who sluts and whores are? Male chauvinists?

I haven't seen the pictures as yet. May be someday I will google and have an opinion such as 'okay' or 'nice' or 'absolutely delish'. Of the little bit Jennifer Lawrence that I have seen, she is absolutely ravishing and appears brilliant.

I say, as far as the human race goes, men women alike, sexual fantasy is going to excite us. Not just with celebrities but with regular people who cross our paths and invoke chemicals in our body. We also have a word, apodyopsis, the act of mentally undressing someone, to articulate that innate beginning of lust. Why otherwise would Pamela Anderson's leaked sex tapes make headlines? Some of us may have well passed that phase and some of us never will.

I support that Jennifer's private matters shouldn't be leaked online and she or any other woman is entitled to click as many nude photos of themselves as they like, even strut around naked on the streets, as long as it doesn't offend larger public sensibilities on those streets or is illegal. Also, I am with her in solidarity because it can be a traumatic experience (as revealed through Anna Scott's character in Notting Hill).

However, the first thing that bothers me of this episode is the hypocrisy. During the FIFA 2014 worldcup, nude photos of the Croatian team appeared online. Some media photographers put them there. Are we saying that the hacker and these media photographers have similar sensibilities and while we are striving for an equal world, why is the treatment of leaking out female nudity to male treated differently?

I realize that women, even today, are perceived as objects of desire but we have seen movies like disclosure where a woman can play the 'victim' to her advantage. In real life, I have met a few Indian husbands, whose wives fucked them as part of divorce settlements and also alleged that the father abused his own child to win full child custody. That is the world we will come to live in if we don't look at facts and simply favor somebody on basis of gender.

In response to all this marketing fluff that has appeared on the Facebook world, which I am not sure if is aimed to liberate the women species, I simply point out that we have actresses who have played the nudity card as a symbol of liberty and freedom: the lethal Catherine Tramell of Basic Instinct who sensationalized the screen in her skin and Gia who trotted like a naked child outside an elevator compelling her lover to stay back. Both did so in such candor, caring two hoots of worldly perception, giving some men, some women and a certain gender identities the definitive meaning of "You are somebody's reason to masturbate".

Now, after I have given two hoots to this entire charade of nudity, I am going to delve over more important things such as my Saturday and what to do with it.

p.s. I hear Jolie got married with a veil that had illustrations of her kids' drawings. That woman is PERFECT.