Sudipta's Life

I know that the actual word is " shaadi ". But as anyone who has had some experience with matrimonial websites will attest to, the word shady is a pretty accurate description of some of the people you find there. You'll find profile names like "New_Seduction", or the same person will have five different profiles. And you can easily tell which one was created by the parents ("My daughter is a homely nice convent-educated cultured girl") and which one is by the daughter herself ("I am an easy-going fun girl who loves watching cricket with friends"). This post, as you can already guess, is going to be about my experiences with people I met there. I actually had to open an account on these websites because I was asked to review others' profiles. No, not girls' profiles for me, but profiles of other guys and girls who my friends were considering. The reason being, after you have looked at 3-4 profiles, the website doesn't let you see...

"You're marrying already?" - this is a question a lot of people tend to ask, as soon as you tell them that you are planning to get married. More importantly, this is a question I have had to ask myself a lot of times before I jumped in for the whole marriage process.Also, what is marriage for that matter? I know the philosophical definitions: sharing your life and hopes and feelings and blah blah blah. But what did it mean to me? Wouldn't it first mean trusting someone with my deepest darkest secrets? Opening up and putting myself in a very vulnerable position? Everyone is my friend, yes... but what would it take in a person for me to open up that much? We all see a lot of couples around us: living lives, fighting, raising kids, enjoying each others' arms, arguing sometimes publicly and sometimes in their own homes,smiling upon seeing one another. It all qualifies as marriage. My definition of marriage is different: I call it a gamble. It is a calculated risk ab...

Yes it is true. This truly spectacular brilliant eligible bachelor has been snapped up by one lucky lady. She had to pay big bribes for the deal, of course. And had to meet all my demands of dowry (in fact she volunteered extra!). And agreed to show me one new Bharatnatyam pose every morning. Has also agreed to .... hehehe - okay okay I'm kidding: the Bharatnatyam is a lie. The story isn't.:) So all of you who were hoping to catch this ossum handsome gentleman for yourselves.. sorry honey, this one's taken. But hey, if you are still desperate, we can all still go to Dubai! :P So lets get a few obvious questions out of the way. The person I am marrying is a girl, yes - you perverts! The answer to most important gossip question: yup, it is an arranged marriage. Although, as some people prefer to call it these days, "We met through our parents". The process (as in, from the day I first seriously started looking to the day the deed was signed) took about one and a h...

I was talking to my sister recently and somehow the topic of books came up. I was telling her that I have so many nice books to read - am not finding enough time for them. Her pithy comment was, "Do you think there will ever be a time when you will not want to read a book?". I mused and I thought, naah, not really possible. I might have mentioned this on the blog before, but my love for reading books stems from two primary sources: my grandfather and my mother. At my grandfathers' place we have this huge collection of books, right from the Upanishads to the Complete Works of Rabindranath Tagore. When I was a kid, I would usually come home after every vacation spent at his place with one or two gifts from one particular almirah: it had all sorts of gifts from medical firms with promotional labels of various drugs on them. But as soon as I turned old enough to understand some of the books, somehow the charms of the gifts started fading away. One of the best things I disco...