Sitcom Sitters Chat Club #3 - Page 97

Originally posted by: Wisian

Twinkle Khanna has written a book. Here is an excerpt:

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/twinkle-khanna/post_9947_b_8002004.html

My thoughts: kaisey-kaisey log kitaabein likh detey hain aaj-kal... I really don't see the "wit" or the "delicious observations"... at least not in this excerpt. But what would I know? In the land where Chetan Bhagat is a bestselling author, I should know better than to sneer at Twinkle Khanna's literary prowess. For all I know, she's the next Virginia Woolf... 😳

Originally posted by: Wisian

Sounds promising... I want to watch it too...

Perhaps they'll even make an IF section for it... and we can post there if the show is any good. 😃

Originally posted by: Wisian

Haan... complete entertainment package hai IF... There is a thread in the LFDR section in which a newbie is unsure of whether she is pregnant with her boyfriend's baby, or his brother's?

If I have to guess, I'd say it is probably a teenager asking the question. If I have to guess, I'd also say that it is probably mostly teenagers who are answering the question. Everybody exudes stupidity, but it is entertaining nonetheless. 😆😆

Originally posted by: Wisian

I've been to the Lodhi Road temple only a couple of times... but if it was on a Thursday, I'd certainly not buy anything from the hole-in-the-wall kind of place. I remember, the one Thursday that I did go there, there were so many people distributing food that even the thought of looking for food would not have crossed my mind... People were practically forcefully handing it to me... "Yeh lijiye, Baba ka prasad... Jai Sai Ram!"...

You know, we had a neighbour - and these are affluent baniyas we are talking about - he used to take his entire family to that temple on Thursdays for dinner. Such a shameless character he was... 😛😆😆

One thing that I can never quite understand is why the Sai bhakts reserve their charity only for Thursdays... Certainly, they can invoke Baba's blessings also by distributing food on other days, nahin? 'Coz Thursday is not the ONLY day of the week when the poor need food, and if you are going to go about with an air of superior piety, surely you should consider that the destitute need food from Friday to Wednesday as well...

If you ask me, almost the entire Hindu faith is driven by such impracticality. For instance, take the example of Makar sankranti... The worst of winter is almost over when Makar Sankranti passes by; but on that day, to fulfill the order of some scripture, everybody goes out to donate blankets to the poor. We had a neighbour who once told my mother that she saw the chowkidaar shivering during the night, that she has bought blankets to give away for Makar Sankranti, and that it is a good thing too that a few weeks later she will give a blanket to the poor man. This woman seemed to be perfectly contented in knowing that a man is shivering in the cold, that she has a blanket that she has bought only to give to him, but she will let him shiver for another few weeks before handing it to him (at a time, when he may well be not in as much need of the blanket).

And then, I've heard of astrologers who advise people that to remove the buri nazar of some planet or the other, they should donate books to poor children, serve their aged parents, take care of sick animals in a shelter, or some other random nuskhaa... And when I hear of such people, who are motivated by their self-interest, as they go ahead and indulge in that charity, I can't help but feel sorry for them. These people had to be advised by some quack to take care of their parents, or to help poor students? Where is their natural empathy/kindness? Is it any wonder that these people are suffering from whatever the quack calls a buri nazar... [I am also suffereing from buri nazar, but that is in spite of *wanting* to do all the good that I can... 😆]

Originally posted by: Kwerky

@bold: Sahi kaha!

😆I saw this news last week. In fact, just yesterday evening I read an article which listed the 10 funniest things from this book and I was thinking about posting about this book here...when I saw you have already done that.😆😆

After reading all the excerpts, I fail to find anything funny. It is overreaching and trying too hard to be funny. I found it surprising that Penguin has published this...but maybe I shouldn't be surprised since she comes from a well-heeled background 🤔 and a marketing blitzkrieg can make any book the talk of the town.

Sample this (from the Top 10 funniest things):

The prodigal son (as he is packing for a trip r something): Mom, hand me my Swiss army knife

Me: Are you planning to go to war with a country like Afghanistan?

The prodigal son: Mom, your jokes such.

😲

Hain? If this is one of the funniest things there...then lord help those who are picking up this book. Bollywood and its pompous, ingratiating, fawning attitude for their (averagely talented) royalty just puts me off.

Originally posted by: Kwerky

Yeah, it does sound promising. Every now and then, there does come a show which tries to break the clutter on Indian television and this seems to be one of them. I hope it turns out to be good.

Arrre haan...IF par HAR show ka section banta hai...so if it turns out to be nice, we could post there sometimes.

Originally posted by: Kwerky

Must be a teenager. I saw a sticky thread yesterday on the "Chat Clubs Forum Important topics"...I think it was a member introduction thread or something like that. I just went through a few pages but the overwhelming majority of users here are between the age groups of 14-19. Makes me feel so old.😆😆

Originally posted by: Wisian

@Bold: Haan, that must be the reason. 🤔

@Red: Yeah, average readers of TOI can now boast of the distinction of knowing that if there was one woman that KJo fell in love with, it was Twinkle Khanna. THAT, and a daily round-up of what Twinkle said, and what Akshay said... Mediocrity ka zamaana hai, Kwerky... To an objective outsider, it would appear as though this is the best that India has to offer in the name of literature.

Now, also - I may not have a degree in literature, but I certainly do have an understanding of what a prodigal son would be...

Isn't her son very young? Isn't this what happens when people try too hard to appear literary and cultivated?

Originally posted by: Wisian

When you get to know the date it starts, mujhe bhi bataanaa please... 😃

Originally posted by: Wisian

We didn't have computer at home... Once in a while, we'd go to a neighbourhood cyber cafe to check our e-mails, and to look up stuff related to school or college work. It was only when I was applying for positions abroad that I would go to the cyber cafe with some regularity... and even then, I didn't know of IF-like sites to waste away my time...

So, when I see these people - capable of unbelievably stupid chatter, expressing their mock outrage and trying to round off their pretenses of maturity - I only just feel sorry for them. 😛 [Just like I feel sorry for Twinkle Khanna - trying so hard to be taken seriously as a writer... 😛😛... but never mind...]

I don't know how I would have been on IF had I also shown up here in my teenage years... and it is a good thing too that I can never become that young to figure that out... 😆