Some hula for the soul

This is by far my best weekend in a long time. Yesterday I had a great opportunity to hear/watch a traditional Hawaiian concert at the Whittier College, Beverly hills. The performers were Cazimero brothers. Honestly I have no idea how popular they were. But most of the people who were present there seemed to recognize them.

This was my first ever time that had anything to do with Hawaii. I never even had a Hawaiian shirt before, believe me. As if to make things worse for me, most of the audience, including those who were with me, were in Hawaiian costumes, like those colorful shirts, garland around neck, the single big prominent flower etc. Well, I wasn't very far, actually. I was wearing one of my Filipino T-shirts. Hehe.. That probably was the closest I have every gotten to Hawaii. And interestingly, couple of people even asked me about my T-shirt I and the place that it had on its front (Tagaytay)

Anyways, the show started with few promises/points.
1. The costumes that the performers were wearing were indeed traditional Hawaiian ones, and not touched by Hollywood.
2. The Hula dance is not really for movements, but for expressions. So, one might find the movements a little boring and repetitive if you do not understand the words being spoken/sung. *Sigh*

The show started and I didn't realize that it was more than an hour since until they broke for the interval. I thoroughly enjoyed the music as well as dance. There are few things that I must mention. In one of the dances, the men who were performing (yes, there were male dancers too! But the good thing is there equal number of girls) were wearing a very interesting piece of outfit. It was like a kind of a basket attached to their waist and gave a feeling that the dancers indeed were suspended on them. Mostly, the men were just wearing a hawiian shirt and a regular trouser. And of course a garland around the neck to remind us that we were in a Hawaiian show.

But the best thing I liked was how the dancers made me feel that their smile/grin was natural. It certainly wasn't like those Air-hostess' smile. I hate it when those on-flight-stewards show their teeth, without bothering their cheeks or eyes. It is so unnatural and kind of puts me off. But these girls and boys, to my liking, really appeared to be enjoying what they were doing. I could see those smiles on their eyes and cheeks. Very nice!

Now about music - honestly I understood nothing, for most of the songs were in Hawaiian. There were a couple of them in English as well. Someone said that people in Hawaii don't really speak Hawaiian there. The language is only for music. May be, Aloha is the only word they use in conversations and rest is English. I don't really know. The music was nicely paced and was pleasant.

Someone tells me that Hawaii is only about 200$ away from LA. Now, isn't that a good news? Alright... I gotta go now. I have some work at google now.

Aloha!

If nights can wait...

I like it when my days are longer. Now don't jump to conclusions that I am a workaholic. Not yet. What I meant is I like it when the sun sets after 8 or 9 in the evening. I know there are people who do not particularly like it when they go to a country in the northern hemisphere. But I love it. People who live in a trffic-affected city like Bangalore can probably guess why.

I really hate it to find it already dark when I reach home. What is an evening if you have no time to sit at the balcony with a cup of coffee and a book. No time to enjoy the sunset either. What a lousy life! There are two hours in a normal day that are meant to be enjoyed. The first hour is morning 6 AM to 7 AM and second just before dusk, 5.30 PM to 6.30 PM. I spend the first one best hour trying to wake up and the second one trying to close my work for the day. I know I have myself to blame for the morning laziness. But you see, when I reach home at 7.30 in the evening, I need at least 3 hours for myself, to cook, to eat, to read something and watch TV. So, it's not all my fault, don't you agree with me?

I would not mind if there are only 8 or 9 hours of darkness in a day - Just about enough to sleep. This will give us the flexibility to start and end our day whenever we want. You can hang around in the office a bit longer, because you can go home at 7.30 in the evening and still sit out in the balcony and read, without having to turn on the bulbs, of course. And that will be the perfect way to end your day!

Upside down

Nothing is going normal since yesterday. Well, it's actually day before yesterday.
Its Sunday morning 1:30 AM and Friday night should technically be called day before yesterday, right?

On Friday night, I was over-enthusiastic about finishing off some work and stayed up through the night. When I decided to close the day (!) it was 7 in the morning. Though I didn't like the idea, fell asleep. Despite a disturbing phone call from a friend of mine in the noon, I managed to sleep till 6.30 PM.

Right after finishing my morning chores, I had dinner. A good dinner. Rice, Vatha kuzhambu and curd rice with tomato pickle. (Note: Only the second time that I had Indian food in the past 10 days)
And since then all I have been doing is just eating.

Here is the list:
. As mentioned, two course rice meal.
. A glass of Orange juice
. Couple of slices of Mangoes.
. Handful of red pistachios.
. Grilled Ribs
. 3 Tortillas with tomato pickle (You can say, Mexican version of Chapatis)
. Orange juice again.
. Two donuts, one plain and one choco.

I guess that should be enough for a day, right? May be few grapes won't hurt so much? But whatever, I am going to make an effort to sleep now.

Finally...

After resisting the temptation for a long time, I give in. I have always been an old-fashioned guy in this regard. Are you saying, "In all aspects". Well, I am not going to stop you from making "Wrong assumptions" :-D

Ok.. Here is the news. I finally bought myself a digital Camera. It's a digital SLR with 6.1 mega pixels from Minolta (Maxxum5D) I must say I am in love with this camera already. Its anti-shake feature is a marvel. Now I can try out everything I want to without having wait untill the roll is finished. Yehhh...

However, I am sad that I may not be using my other camera (Minolta Maxxum5) as often any more. I am delighted and yet sad.

Here are couple of pictures from my new friend.

Hehe... Yeah, it's me on the mirror.

All perfect. Oh, wait. Where is wine? And where is the girl?