Words that define this book:

• Witty
• Satirical
• Light

I’ll admit, I was reluctant to read this book when my friend gave it to me. She kept on saying that this book is good, read it, read it. But I didn’t, when one fine day I picked it up and fell for it.

Malati, the mother of two girls Neela and Sheela is looking to marry them off.

Avinash, an anatomy professor who doesn’t talk about anything but anatomy even if the question is not necessarily science based.

Kamaladevi, mother of Malati and grandmother of Neela and Sheela arrives at the scene when Malati asks her to come and help her marry the two girls.

Amar, a witty doctor whose dialogues would make you think of how genius he is. Vijay, almost brother-like to Amar, an engineer from IIT, well mannered, not too witty and a complete opposite of what Amar is.

Bina, at whose place Amar and Vijay are staying (they live in Pune), is a friend of Neela and Sheela.

Prakash, Malati’s brother, a story-knitter of the sorts, as witty as Amar, genius.

You think this is complicated? If yes, then this book will spin your head and if not, then there’s a possibility of the same thing happening to you is there.

A complete page-turner with witty exchange of words between the characters, a straightforward story, with no big tragedies, this is the book to read on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

This book gets inside the skin of Indian arranged marriages. You got to read this will be my final words.

Rating: 5/5

Author: Dr. Ravindra Godse

Publisher: Himalaya Books Pvt. Ltd.

Pages: 350

ISBN: 81-88718-00-9

In the sea of music bands from all sorts of backgrounds and genres, it’s hard to find what you like. Sometimes it’s something you stumbled upon, something you read in the newspaper or a small interview you read on a website. In a similar way I discovered ‘minipop’, a band from California when I bought my Nokia 5800. It had 10 bundled songs and one of them was “Like I Do” by minipop. I immediately fell in love with the song. So, I went to their Facebook page and listened to their other songs which were as subtle and as melodious as “Like I Do”.

Fortunately, I work for the FRiEnDz so I recently got to interview my favorite band (and I tell you, it’s a dream come true!).

Minipop is an indie electronic and dream pop band from Oakland, California which was formed in 2004. The band’s lineup includes: Tricia Kanne’s vocals, Matthew Swanson as the guitarist and keyboardist, Lauren Grubb on the drums and Nick Forte as the bassist. They debuted with the album “A New Hope” in 2007. Read more about them, and their views in the interview that follows!

How did you guys come up with the name ‘minipop’? Is there a story behind it?

Matthew - Minipop came to fruition like most bands, as an idea in a bedroom.  the first recordings of songs for the new project were very short and super poppy.  I had a cheap casio keyboard and I was recording these little songs that sounded like nintendo music.  I started calling them mini-pop songs.  When the project started coming together the name just kind of stuck around even though the music changed with each member’s new influence.

Tricia - Once Matt and I reconnected after a number of years, he started sending me a bunch of 2 minute pop songs written on a casio keyboard for a female-fronted project he had dubbed “minipop”. I loved the cheery, hopeful vibe of the songs and the fact that they really belonged together as a family. I experienced a wave of nostalgia listening to these songs over and over again driving around in my car. Eventually this emotion was translated to words and melody on a handful of these songs, the first of which was a song called Fingerprints.

Do you feel that music has become complicated than it was before?

Matthew - That’s an interesting question, I’ve never thought about that.  I think with the addition of protools to every musicians home, music has become more experimental and different.  I don’t know if complicated is the word but it has definitely been pushed to new frontiers.  I think musicianship has declined from the 70′s and 80’s, but writing and recording are constantly being pushed to new areas.

Tricia - Yes, in a way. With all of the recent technological advances and countless music blogs, ways of listening to and finding out about new music has really exploded. There’s no doubt that the industry is saturated, but what’s neat is that there are so many avenues to find new music based on personal preference- you just have to know where to find them. Social networking and music listening sites like Facebook, DropBox, Pandora, Spotify and cull.tv have introduced fun ways to share music and stay connected – these are exciting times.

Lauren - No, I don’t think music has become more or less complicated than before.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

Matthew – For me personally it would be a song called ‘Placebo War’, which will hopefully be on a new ep.  It’s got a very fun guitar lick to play and has a lot of energy.  It’s not very technical as well which is nice when you’re playing live to not have to worry about fucking up.  We close with it a lot as well so it’s a good fun note to go out on.

Tricia - Ask me a Question.

Lauren - Placebo War.

If you could play a show anywhere, where would it be?

Matthew - I would love to play some shows in Europe, and get to tour over there.

Tricia - Bali, we love to surf.

Lauren - China

Did your families support you guys when you were starting up?

Matthew – Absolutely.  We have had very supportive families who have been with us since the start.  We all feel fortunate to have had a good support system.

Tricia - It took a while for my parents to come around and understand my desire to play music in lieu of attending nursing school. The first mini show my parents attended was at the Noisepop festival opening for Rogue Wave. They have been more supportive since then. I think my dad likes Zach.

Lauren - Definitely, my parents love the band and we practiced in my mom’s basement for a long time

Today, teens love change in their music tastes. For example, now more teens tend to like Coldplay than Metallica. What are your thoughts?

Matthew - I wish I knew what teens wanted to hear.  I think Metallica will be alright.  To be honest I am awful at keeping up with music trends.  I usually get into bands a bit late.  Teens are minute to minute, they probably just want to hear what their friends are hearing.  With iPods and iTunes now there is so much more available that they can have a huge music collection, which wasn’t always possible.

Lauren - I think the internet has done wonders for bands and for listeners.  So many smaller bands, like us, are able to get more exposure because of websites like yours, as well as music blogs, Facebook, iTunes… There’s really endless amounts of music you can find online, so I think this has a lot to do with teens broader music tastes today.

What was the inspiration of your song “Like I Do”?

Tricia - Endless summer and a box of chocolate.

Matthew - That was a song that came together from a few different musical riffs from various members of the band.  Lauren came up with a cool pounding drum beat that helped shape the pre-chorus.

Usually we don’t see your CDs in music stores and that’s why most people are not learning about your beautiful music. Are you guys keen on marketing yourselves?

Matthew - We could probably take a marketing class for sure.  Self promotion is the name of the game in music and we definitely did our best to get our name out there for many years.  Getting CD’s into music stores, or what’s left of music stores is an expensive political ballgame that is tough when you are on a small indie label or self produced.  Our last ep and the next one will be done on our own so it’s doubtful you’ll see it on any shelves.  It seems digital is taking over anyways.

What will be your advice to today’s teens who want to chase their dreams in music (or in general)?

Matthew - If you want it you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice a lot and work harder than the next band.  Tour, record, write, promote.  Never stop being active musically and always be available, opportunities come up only so often and you’ve got to be able to say yes.  I think college is the best time to form a band because of the freedom you have with your time and the built in audience of your classmates.  Also, write good songs and have a good singer and drummer, those are the two backbones of the band.

Hope you guys liked the interview. If you want to know more about them visit Minipop’s page on our website click here: Minipop on FRiEnDz.

It was just one of those routine arguments I tend to frequently have with my parents. This time, it was about my clothes. Somehow, my ‘normal’ clothes including shorts, cut offs, strappy tees, spaghettis, and off shoulders seems offensive to my parents. They feel I’m inviting perverts to wrong me and disgrace my name or whatever they were saying which certainly means I’d just be eve teased, raped, or molested. Putting forth my revolutionary views and some high spirited statements inspired from Slutwalks around the nation, I just walked away, being relatively covered today so as to avoid any further confrontation or conflict.

After attending a musical programme as I was regularly walking and talking on my cellphone through one of the busy areas of my city, two unsuspecting guys riding on a bike sped towards me, touched my breasts in broad daylight and rode away, their faces brimming with false pride and perverse satisfaction. Disgusted, and appalled as I was, all I could do was helplessly hurl abuses and curses at those scoundrels. All of this, when I’m dressed in a fully fledged jeans, a sleeved tee with zero show of cleavage and zero levels of transparency and an appropriate length enough to cover my waist, something I would usually wear.

There are thousands of girls everyday who fall prey to such #@**+!!@#%$#%$@^%^$& and never complain or retaliate, thinking that this is how the world works, this is how guys are programmed and this is how they’re destined to live. Maybe some of them would think there’s something wrong with their clothes, behaviour or their body language, or they’re probably wearing too much makeup that attracts such f****** and make them do such monstrosities.

And well, as far as the guys and the perpetrators of these tacky things are concerned, they would be beaming with pride and would go around bragging about how they teased a girl and all she could do was get shocked and freeze. They would call up girls randomly and irritate and harass the hell out of them and be hysterically joyous about how they’ve been teasing a girl on the phone all day long. Worse, they would defame their own friends from the fairer sex of ludicrous things, obviously adding their own set of perverse fantasies to be cool enough and indulge in an indeed vindictive and destructive form of character assassination.

Or maybe, make a girl fall in love with them, get laid with her and use her as much as they can, while making those fake good for nothing promises and that ‘I’m so seriously in love with you’ drama and abandoning the poor girl one day labeling her as ‘characterless’. The poor girl ends up thinking she’s a whore, while pledging to never trust another guy again. Period!

There’s this intensely nauseating feeling of anguish, abhorrence and disgust that I have against the aforementioned. And sadly, there’s little I can do about it. ‘Cause the apathy and stigma dominates the desire to stand up and raise your voice against such injustice. There are so many questions arising out of stereotypes no one wants to answer. For some, it’s a question of their ego, while for some, the urge to comply with the double standard dogmas of society come to charge.

Why is a woman tortured and blamed when she’s raped or subjected to any kind of sexual abuse or molestation? What instigates a man to sexually harass a fully covered woman when everyone says it’s a question of provocative dressing? What right does any f****** person has to judge our characters by the way we dress up? Why does looking beautiful, sexy and attractive amount to a curse for a woman? If it was all about the clothing and skin show, why are women in burqas and amply covered ethnic outfits subjected to maximum cases of sexual abuse? It’s not about our clothing; it’s about the exceedingly perverse, cheap, chauvinistic and degraded mindsets of men today.

What most of us fail to understand is that rape is not merely an act of perversion; it’s actually an act of subjugation. People belonging to higher castes in rural areas would rape women from the lower sections of society if they’re uplifting themselves or raising their voice against any kind of injustice or inequality. Rape is an ugly form of vengeance, suppression and a mere tool to make a woman realize she’s the weaker sex who deserves to by enslaved and victimized for eternity. It’s one sure fire way to make an independent, self reliant, persevering, and innocent woman to lose her self confidence, faith, and happiness for her entire life, and leave her to be persecuted by the stigmas and obsolete doctrines of society.

Rape is not just a sexual crime, it’s a social crime. Simply because after a woman is raped, she supposedly loses her purity even if the sin is committed by a man. Because when a woman is raped, she is blamed for being raped. She is punished for being herself, she’s punished for expressing herself, for being confident enough to make a place for herself in a male dominated world, or in maximum cases, she’s punished for saying no to a savage who wants to have sex with her. And who would complain against any form of sexual abuse when the very judiciary offends a woman in the most loathsome ways possible? When everything she does in her life becomes a reason for her being raped according to the outdated, degraded beliefs of people? When in the eyes of a man, a woman is nothing but a sex object?

My point here is why should we be stereotyped and judged for our lifestyles and our individualities? Which tradition in our culture, which hypothesis in our society says that any particular category of activity or lifestyle gives a man the freedom to sexually abuse a woman? Which law in the constitution states that a woman who wears skimpy outfits, feels free to express herself, consumes alcohol, smokes or goes to late night parties, or work during the wee hours deserves to get raped? Who gets a license to act fresh with a girl who flirts around or has a lot of boyfriends? And why aren’t those men questioned who have multiple sexual partners and who keep fooling around with women and duping them all the time? Shouldn’t they be raped too?

Many of you readers must have been shocked to read the earlier part of my article, which clearly describes how a man touched my breasts. It is explicit. But that’s the way it is. Bitter realities as these shouldn’t be sugar coated in any way. And I’m not ashamed that this happened with me. Because I haven’t done anything wrong. Instead, I have been wronged. And if anyone wants to judge me for my courage and honesty and the fact that I raised up an important issue that probably every young woman in this country is facing, then be it! I’m proud to be judged and thought wrongly about. And the only person who deserves to be ashamed is the one who wronged me. I am a new age young woman and I’m not afraid to fight for my rights and raise my voice against any kind of injustice.

I am not responsible for any wrong that happens to me and neither will I blame myself for any injustice I face no matter how much the society curses me. I deserve to look good and live my life the way I want to whether it’s partying or drinking or wearing an outfit of my choice. I deserve to live with my head held high and my mind without fear even if I have been wronged. And if this is why everyone hates me, I’m lovin’ it!!

Photo credits: nenuache.

“I woke up feeling the wetness of my face. Someone had been sprinkling water on me. My eyes flew open only to be blinded by the bright light falling on my face. I could see some blurred figures moving around, more like hovering over me.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I almost passed out again recalling what exactly had happened. Was it a dream? No, definitely not. Why would everyone be panicking then? Only conclusion: I screwed up. AGAIN!

I discovered my so called ‘Stage-Fright’ when I was 4. Not so surprisingly,it was simply embarrassing back then too. Especially when you’re standing in front of a mic and u open your mouth to speak, but instead all the comes out is this weird muffled up choke that just gets magnified to a scary gag. And yeah, the 30 rows of audience staring up at you doesn’t help much,either.

Obviously, this problem of mine grew worse as I got older. And like every other kid I got all sorts of whacko advice and tips to get over it. And like every other suggestion, it just didn’t work. Well, most of the time I ran off stage, or just spaced out right there. And a few really bad times I even managed to pass out.

Gradually, the whole ‘stage fright’ thing transformed to ‘speed talking’. I managed to finish every performance with an uncertain applause. Yeah, no one understood a word that I said. Which is actually an equally messed up situation.

And eventually, believe it or not, I got over it. No kidding. I’m done with stage fright once and for all.”

So, you know when you have Stage Fright when you feel afraid of verbal communication with a big group of people.

Panic attacks, nausea, fidgeting, stammering, giggling, speed talking, dry mouth, and temper tantrums while talking on stage is what you call ‘Stage Fright’.

And you can get over it.

You could try the trad-methods of “channeling your nervous energy to positive energy”.

But sometimes, just simple Extra Practice does the trick. All you’ve got to do is rehearse your stuff to the limit where it becomes second nature to you.

And don’t compare yourself with anyone. Just stick to what you are doing and set high goals for yourself. If possible, pick a part which you can imagine yourself playing. Relate to the character you are going to portray.

Rehearsing both mentally and physically will help you to know and understand your own talent. This is important as you need to know that you are capable of performing the task at hand. Practice to gain confidence in your own abilities and try to do this is as close to the real circumstances under which you will perform. This will help to “desensitize” you to the experience.

And remember, Do Not think that you are alone in this. All performers have experienced some degree of anxiety.

Break a Leg!! :D

Photo Credits: comedy_nose, on Flickr.

The clock reads shows the time as being nine hours past noon. I receive a text message saying “sup?” I reply “cycling” If it is someone who does not know me, the invariable reply is “ you’re that jobless?” This reply is ludicrous considering the fact that the opposite party is watching TV which is considered by them not a waste of time.

Parents often yell at children for not studying. They ask them to not “waste time”playing. How is playing time a “waste” when it brings happiness when forced studying brings boredom with no significant addition to potentially usable future knowledge due to lack of interest? Is the latter not a greater waste of time?

John Lennon once said, “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted”

Let us analyse the literal and scientific elements of time-wasting separately before coming to the opinionated theory of the whole. Time is defined as “the continuum in which events occur in succession from the past to the present and on to the future”. In other words it is the flow in which we all live. It is a reference, a convenient frame for ordering the various events and stimuli that define thought and existence.  Waste is literally anything that is “unwanted, unusable and/or undesirable”. It is something purely subjective since what is useful for one may be useless to another.

So time-wasting is in essence an undesirable usage of our existence.

Now obviously, playing is something which is “desirable” to the child. Yet it is called a waste OF THE CHILD’s TIME by the parent. This is a serious logical fallacy. Time closes its doors to empathy without exception and mercy. Time is experienced in a totally different way by each and every person. The parent can at most tell that playing would be a waste of THEIR time. By telling that it is a waste of the child’s time, the parent is assuming the mental sensation of time to be the same for both. This is clearly not true. Yet in every other aspect, parents take the utmost pains to point out the difference in age and reassure (mostly to themselves the superiority of their judgement)

Now cycling is clearly an activity that has foreseeable and tangible immediate, short-term and long-term benefits. The physical exercise gained from cycling is generally linked with increased health and well-being. This is easily verifiable from official sources: According to the World Health Organization,

“Physical inactivity is second only to tobacco smoking as a health. Increasing physical activity is a public health ‘best buy’, and cycling is a ‘highly suitable activity’ for this purpose”.

On the other hand, watching the TV has many obvious ill effects on the physical, mental and (dare I say) spiritual health of an individual. According to the American Academy of Paediatrics,

“Children under age eight cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy, making them more vulnerable to learning from and adopting as reality the violence they see on TV”

Obesity is a major problem caused by TV. According to AC Nielsen, a Marketing Intelligence Service,

“People spend an average of 4 hours and 34 minutes a day”

During this time, their mind is less tuned to the amount they eat. Couch potatoes eat snacks nonstop, not even realizing when they get stuffed, but what they don’t realize the most is that they are putting on a lot of weight.

YET I would not be presumptuous enough to say that watching TV is a waste of time.

Yes, it is harmful for the health. But it does bring enjoyment, which is an increasingly scarce commodity in the high pressure world of today which revolves schedules and deadlines.

So what constitutes time-wasting? Now, taking drugs is obviously a waste of time, both at the moment and even more so, in the future. Yet it is desirable to the taker. So at what point is something undesirable even when it is desirable? I do not ascribe to any particular point of view in this argument, simply because my activities span both sides of the debate under consideration.

What I have done, I hope, is given you food for thought.

Photo by Michel Filion

The Kite Runner is a book that has accommodated almost every kind of emotions in this world. Relationships like father and son, between two friends, between two lovers and between two countries.

It is a tale of two friends – Amir and Hassan, living in the 1970s’ Afghanistan. Amir is the son of one of the wealthiest father in the whole Kabul and Hassan is the son of his servant with whom Amir’s father has grown up.

They are enjoying their childhood lives with full passion under an Afghanistan ruled by a monarchy. But the fate has something else for them. After a shocking incident that Amir saw happening with Hassan, in which he didn’t do anything to help him, made him depressed. He no longer talked to Hassan and was immersed in his dead mother’s old books and writing stories.

Then there comes a republic in Afghanistan which seeks help of Russians to help them rule Afghanistan. But the people of Afghanistan can’t tolerate living under guns of the Russian soldiers. But the Russians had more plans for Afghanistan – They overtook the government and put their own raj in Afghanistan. Gunfire and bombs were everywhere.

To get rid of all this, Amir and his father leave for Peshawar in Pakistan from where they go to America forever. There Amir gets married to an immigrant Afghan. But there is one problem – They are not able to have any children.

After some days, Amir receives a call from Peshawar from his father’s brother – Rahim Khan who asks him to come and meet him in his last days of life. Amir obeys, and reaches Peshawar where he comes to know that Hassan has died and now he has to go to Taliban ruled Afghanistan to save his one and only child. He also comes to know about a startling fact about him and Hassan from Rahim Khan there.

What happens next is truly epic and the whole story is also awesome. This part of the book really captures your heart. And if you are not the ones who have a brave heart, you are sure to shed some tears along the journey of this book.

This is truly unforgetable read. Do catch its movie to with the same title!

After reading this review, do you think you will read ‘The Kite Runner’? Have you already read it? Leave your own reviews & comments down in the comments section, and let us know how you feel about it.

If this article seems a bit long, you can skip to the main part here

Rohan lashed out at her when she called him ‘careless’ since he forgot to pick her up from work and she preferred to share a cab with one of her male colleagues. “I don’t know what gets into him at times. He just gets so furious though at times he’s at fault. Didn’t I say the truth?? He’s so damn careless! What’s wrong if I tell him the reality?” As I pacify the poor girl, I remember incidents from my friends’ and my life and our relationships. Seriously, something really gets into men when we try to tell them they’re at fault.

While discussing this with a guy friend, I get into a fierce argument. Kunal tells me that guys are entitled to be like this, as they’re the dominating species. Being a fervent feminist, I strongly oppose what he says. “Guys can get angry and girls are supposed to pacify them. We wear the trousers so we’re supposed to dominate. No girl can tell us how shabby we are, even if we are.” Get lost weirdo!! I tell myself.

I remember another friend’s case. Manasvi’s boyfriend never dared to infuriate her. He was kind of intimidated by her. She used to boast of her supremacy over him telling us how he listens to her and does all according to her whims. “Boys need us. And we should never underestimate ourselves. They shouldn’t be making an ass out of us all the time. Girls are the ones with the tantrums not guys. And the ones who have them are plain gay.” Of course she discovered afterwards that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

My childhood buddy Anisha had the same mentality. She was kind of inspired by what Manasvi believed in. she applied the same formula on her beau Ankit. Well yes it worked out in the initial stages and she got a lot of attention and stuff. But now even she has a lot of issues. People tell her to change her ways and be a girl and not a man (before I get lynched for writing this, the guys were the ones who said this to her). She used to retort, “As a girl, I don’t consider myself lesser than anyone dude! I have the right to show the attitude as I know my value. And I know how to show him my value. Had it been anyone other than my own friends saying all this, I would have kicked their butts for saying that.”She’s quick to quip.  Ankit now calls her less, sometimes talks to her properly while rest of the time, they just end up fighting. All in all, it’s a rollercoaster relationship as Ankit wants domination, but doesn’t get it, while attention hungry Anisha wears the trousers and Ankit ends up feeling pissed most of the time because of the same.

My Own Story…

Finally, I remember my own case. I break up every third day with my boyfriend. We fight like almost every day on some trifle issue or the other. And let me admit, I’m the one who instigates his anger the most. It’s my fault most of the times as I’m not ready to bend or sacrifice on my end of attention seeking despite knowing that he gives me my fair share of attention but he needs some too. He handles my PMS blues always and listens to all details of the latest fight with my family members. He deserves some attention too.

Dude, the thing is, every guy, no matter how self proclaimed macho, has a six year old child hidden inside him. He cries, whines, craves for attention, but never shows it to the world as he’s supposed to be the tougher sex- unaffected by emotions, and highly mediated by testosterone.

Women on the other hand are progesterone and estrogen mediated species stereotyped with possessing emotions. Yes they are very emotional I agree. Both the hormones are highly domineering in terms of the emotions of a woman. Yet, testosterone is one hormone that totally makes a man impulsive and passionate. Men have more intense forms of emotions but they do possess them. My boyfriend even told me once, “A girl has the upper hand in a relationship. But we guys need to be felt like we’re the ones dominating. We have huge egos characteristic to our physiological and psychological setup. We need our share of attention and care. We need to attain some extent of emotional security. If we end up bowing to a girl’s needs all the time, how would our demands be met?”

The Guy-aan

He’s fairly reasonable in his point. Girls and guys have different rights in a relationship. And a perfect balance needs to be made between both the genders. Because it’s not another Mars versus Venus war, it’s about a mutual understanding, a RELATIONSHIP that needs impeccable harmony. Here are some points I concluded from my brainstorm cum debate session:

• Never comment on a guy’s sexuality or masculinity no matter how nasty the fights get. This can be fatal to a relationship. It’s these things that a guy can never forget. They’re extremely touchy about these issues.
• Just as a guy believes that his girl is the most amazing and beautiful on this planet, even though there are millions of better girls lined up, the same situation applies for a girl. Even though you can have so many handsome and classy guys better than your beau, you stick around with him because you love him so he’s the greatest for you. Make sure you make him realize this.
• How would you feel if your man tells you about all the super hot girls he saw on the street or his sexy classmate at college?? I would boil in jealousy and rage! You feel bad. Right? The same way, a guy does too when you talk about your stinking rich super mature and nerdy and perfect guy buddy. We all get insecure. So let’s have mercy on the guys and not talk about the Mills and Boons heroes even if we have an encounter with at least ten of them every day!!
• Give your guy his share of attention. When he’s extra upset about something, just listen to him and relieve them even if you’re dying to tell them about the vixen at your college who’s bad mouthing you. Remember, guys don’t like clamor. They want a girl who’s extra understanding and caring and is all ears to them.Everyone hates an attention deprived fussy girl. And emotional security is the prime thing they look for in a relationship.
• Handle his tantrums when he’s super angry. If he says certain unpleasant things which he obviously didn’t mean, don’t stick it to your heart and have hard feelings. Most of the time when we’re angry, we don’t know what we’re saying. Just a little empathy, sensitivity and patient listening on one’s part can save the whole situation.
• Every girl goes through those ultra crappy days every month when she’s super pissed at life and has intense mood swings. Make sure you remind him that you’re going to be really mean and nasty instead of giving your poor beau a shock by your emotional outbursts. When you warn him beforehand, he gets mentally prepared to handle you and he feels really special while sharing this part of you. Trust me, guys find it a privilege to be with you during your bad times. : P
• Guys crave for admiration. Inflate his ego. Magnify all his miniscule efforts to big, great ordeals. Tell your man how sexy the white shirt looks on him, tell him how much you love him, how classy and hot and macho he is and how you’ve been waiting for him all your life. I know every girl feels this way. I do too. Even if your guy aint the handsomest he truly is very special to you.  There’s nothing wrong in expressing what you feel. Your lover boy would only be happy to hear it all!! This raises his self confidence, and every human being wants to be with a person who enhances his/her self confidence isn’t it?
• Make an extra effort to look attractive in front of your man. And make sure he realizes you’re doing it exclusively for him. Just use your charms to turn him on all the time and he won’t stop loving you for this!!
• Pamper your guy. Make him feel special. Do some of the most cliché things that make a man feel like the king of the world. One thing guys love in this world is being made to feel loved and coddled. So spoil your brat girls!!

How do you handle your man? Want to share some experience? Tips? If you are guy reading this, do you agree with what I said here? Would you like to add something?

Photo Credit: p0psicle | Erin Purcell

Rating: 4/10

Mafia II is the strangest game I have played in quite some time. It’s an open world game, but it isn’t. There isn’t anything to actually do in the meticulously constructed Empire Bay outside of the plot missions. No side missions, no mini games, just the option to buy gas, new clothes, and some guns. If you’re feeling particularly wild you can sell cars at an impound lot or knock over a store for money that you don’t really need.

It focuses so much on driving around Empire Bay that you get to the point when you loathe the end of a mission because you’ll need to drive all the way home just to go to bed so you can start the next chapter. If you removed all of the back and forth driving this game would be five hours long, and a lot of that would be spent watching cut scenes. It’s a good enough mob yarn, a bit cliché, but for a videogame it’s actually quite good. The only problem is that there just isn’t any real gameplay here.

The game focused heavily on graphics and sounds, and not so much on the story or game play. The city, characters and cars all looked good, each district felt and looked completely different, providing a nice environment for the city. Many of the nicer looking areas of the city were not essential to the story mode, leaving them unappreciated and un required really. I liked the ability to customise your character and cars, it added a nice touch to the game, even though there were not that many options, a minor problem that could easily be fixed by mods or DLC.

The Story of a young Italian going from war-hero to leading a life of crime, a story that was bursting with potential, but went no where. No “depth” given to the story left many things unanswered. The “ending” to Mafia 2 was probably the biggest disappointment the game had to offer. Looking past how the actual “story” was rushed along from chapter to chapter, the ending only showed you that little or no effort had been put into it.

A major let down was the lack of freedom that Mafia 2 offered. There are no side missions, no mini games, and no free-ride mode, offering little to no reason to replay this game. Restricting players to follow the story makes the “open world” a bit redundant. Ok you could drive around anywhere before or after the missions, but there was no reason to, nothing to do other than to take in the graphics of the city. Missing features like shooting whilst driving and melee weapons, took out some of the “realism” of the mafia world. Hand to Hand combat had been greatly improved, but was only really needed during story elements, everyone else you just shot.

Official Website: http://www.mafia2game.com/

Height: 5’8”

Eyes Color: Coal Black

Hometown: Meerut, India (Currently in Chandigarh, India)

What is the best thing about teen generation today?

I believe the best thing at anytime and anywhere is learning how to take a stand for yourself and today’s gen-force is giving the earlier generation a hard time digesting their ways of doing things.

They are casting their nets wide everywhere; one just need to keep rotating the head. Everybody wants to picture themselves with their own authentic brio in front of the world and shout out loud that they are ready to take on.

…and the worst?

There is nothing that you can call ‘worst’. Just that certain areas where we fail to see the bigger picture and impulsively act upon, that is it.

One thing, though which sometimes captivate my attention is the way teenagers start about things, rash actions leading to debacles, early failures in life again leading to ill and less desirable measures bringing about a plastic life-style and makes up for an eery character, later in life.

Do you think ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ is a lame question? Haha! Not lame… but the lam-est question.

Parents ask, “What do you want to become when you grow up?” If I would reply, “Justin Timberlake”, they will call me a dumb-headed with no brains and no sensory or motor-y nerves functioning in my body but if I would reply something like, ”Financial analyst or a lawyer”, they wouldn’t stop patting my back until it starts to get a little red and mom starts to run to get the ointment.

You become nothing when you grow up; you always become something while you are growing up. That’s what I believe in.

What is the first thing you notice in a person?

I am very particular about the person’s body language. In girls, their hair-style and their stilettos (if they are wearing) draw my attention. In boys, I look for matured decency and his intellect and wit. Wit and intellect, for me, is like an aphrodisiac, but only in the girl’s case. (laughin!)

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

A girl I met in high school. I could learn a lot about life from her.

What’s the craziest thing you did lately?

I and a bunch of friends stripped off almost everything in the middle of the road at 3 in the morning and my friends were peeing in the middle of the highway lane while a heavily loaded truck was coming towards us.

It seems that you work out a lot, any health or work-out tips for teens? What should they focus on?

I have always loved the word ‘natural’ and everything that comes in the context of the same. A healthy natural diet after a balanced workout to ebb away little mental and physical knots.

Main focus should always be on the general outlook that you portray. And i can be sure you don’t want to be trapped in Arnold Schwarzeneger’s body, giving a speech like Obama after you play like Sachin on the pitch. Don’t chase perfection. Just be natural and be real.

Boxers or Briefs?

hehe. I prefer briefs. They tell a lot about you (heheh almost grunting).

This is the ultimate war of worlds, while it is really personal stuff but we don’t mind talking about it, do we? Well most of us don’t care but consider these points which almost every one forgets. So get real and join the discussion:

Briefs

The all-time popular in tweens ain’t it? Even the popular low-waist-jockey-show off thing was related to briefs. So let’s explore it… err… we mean that in the nicest way. Ahem!

Pros

• Perfect fit, perfect protection.
• Keeps everything in place. Ahem!
• Works perfect when it hot people are around and you get a hard-on. Ahem, again.

Cons

• If you are too sweaty (read: itchy) then this is the worst option.
• No free flowing air.
• Can’t just wear em around like boxers, can you?
• Keep it clean – is the hardest part of all.
• Bad in summers.

Boxers

The ultimate short thing, wear it under or just wear it standalone works well everywhere. Most popular among teens.

Pros

• Free flowing air! Bliss!
• You can just throw your pants away and they act as stand-alone shorts.
• Works in all seasons.

Cons

• Super duper bad when you are just wearing boxers and you see a hot person around. Shit! – Bad with hard-ons.
• Never run when you are in boxers. Eekk!
• Sometimes people feel… well… we have herd… insecure and naked!
• Did we say bad with hard-ons? Even when you have jeans over it?

Well let’s conclude this with 2 things:

1. Underneath your jeans – wear what you like.
2. But when you are wearing boxers alone and you are sure that there will be hot people around – wear a brief under boxers – you can even show off the waist band.

PS: This is an experimental new section in magazine. Head to the online version of this article and let us know how you like it.