Cliche Queen

Bieber comes to Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, to be precise, DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, to be even more. While his diva demands were catered to, he also checked out some of the sights. The Gateway of India and Starbucks, Vashi. Oh well, in Navi Mumbai, Inorbit's a sight. Can't have him at Gupta Chaat and Sandwich centre, no? Hey, but he went to Dharavi so why not? Delicate, firang stomach may have protested. Nevertheless, he should have also covered the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya, the Bandra-Worli sea link, the Nhava Sheva port and the Humboldt penguins. Or Salman's Galaxy, Shahrukh's Mannat, Ambani's Antila? Oh wait, they wanted to throw him a party. Nice to have parents who vie to bring teen sensations home. My own father went about methodically removing my Stardust cut-outs of stars, because the tape stained the walls. Nice to have parents with a sense of good decor. But guess what, Justin ditched that party! Ha! Turns out my Dad had more sense - he st...

I walk into the office today. Yes, a different haircut, does change you into someone else. I do double-takes every time I pass my reflection and it's still me but a different version. I've had satisfying reactions from people I see everyday and it makes me wonder whether I do seek validation from others. All my life, I've thought I don't care and never did, but the warm glow I have from positive reactions to my haircut, sort of belies that. Not that it's in any shape or form, dramatic - just offbeat enough for a staid, conservative IT world. To get your shoulder length hair cut into a bob is the equivalent of moving all your infrastructure into the cloud. Revolutionary a while ago, but everyone's doing it now. Remember when our parents or grandparents asked, "What is the world coming to?" - what were they talking about? They didn't have the Internet and apps and millions of devices to contend with! All they had to worry about was us spending t...