The re-launch of Island Chic's Babble!

It’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged last. The reason - let’s just say some times uncontrollable forces can be held responsible for our controllable actions.

Since blogspot has been blocked in China, I’ve been unable to access this blog and like what happens with all things rough and tough, I lost the plot for this blog in the end.

Later, twitter came along and being lazy, I became more comfortable with the idea of micro-blogging, i.e. tweeting!

Anyway, I have finally started missing my own babble. Hence, I've finally decided to take the advice of wise friends and am moving my blog to Wordpress. Here's Islandchic’s new and improved babble on http://www.island-chic.com

Your comments/suggestions are most welcome & appreciated.

Thanks.

6:24 PM | Labels: , | 3 Comments  

Bollywood loses its legend Feroz Khan

Early yesterday, famous Bollywood actor and filmmaker Feroz Khan died of cancer at his home in Bangalore, India.

According to media sources, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and had been undergoing treatment in a hospital in Mumbai. However he passed away in his family farm house, surrounded by family members.


Khan is survived by his son Fardeen Khan, a Bollywood actor, a daughter Laila Khan Rajpa, and brothers Sanjay and Akbar Khan, who are both actors and filmmakers.

Feroz Khan, said to be one of the most vibrant personalities in Indian cinema, he was named to be the Clint Eastwood of east.

He had appeared in more than 50 films, with his Bollywood debut in 1960 as the co-star of Didi. He found fame in films like Oonche Log and Arzoo, both in 1965. Qurbani and Janbaaz are also some of his very succesful films. His won his first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1969 for his role in Aadmi Aur Insaan.Later, Feroz Khan got into producing and directing Bollywood films, with Bollywood film Dharmaatma, which was his first blockbuster hit as a producer, director and actor. He then introduced his son Fardeen Khan in the film Prem Agan in 1998 and returned to acting after 11 years in 2003 with Janasheen.

He was given the Life Time Achievement Award by Stardust earlier this year.

The demise of this legendary star is considered as a ‘lost gem’ to Bollywood and the Hindi film industry got together to share their memories of the star, and pay their condolences.

10:24 AM | Labels: , | 2 Comments  

Did Facebook really change our lives?

I work from 9 am to 5 pm. During my work hours, I still log on to Facebook every now and then. It keeps me connected to the friends around me. We’d arrange our after work outings with Facebook group messages or decide to go check out an event, which we’d have coordinated through Facebook Events.


We all meet for the event (an evening meal/party/gathering etc.) and meet loads of new people who are either friends of friends or random people who had the same idea. We meet, get introduced and have a fun evening.

Next day, all your photos of last night are up on Facebook. All those people you just met are tagged on the photo albums and you become Facebook friends. When you add a friend, you realise that she/he have some common friends, which become a topic of conversation and therefore gets even more comfortable in the friendship. We no longer need to ask for phone numbers of people you just meet, just ask them if they are on Facebook!

Many of your classmates, childhood friends, acquaintances and colleagues who you have completely lost contact with, are now back in touch with you. Thanks to Facebook.

You no longer have to sit hours on the phone with your friends. You either have an instant chat or just write a message on their Walls. You skip the “what have you been upto lately?” part, as you are well informed of the friends’ whereabouts through Facebook status messages and Photo Albums.

You now never forget a friend’s birthday because you have an automatic reminder on your Facebook Homepage. You don’t even need to send a real gift, you can send a free birthday gift on Free Gifts.

You never need to ask a friend about who they are dating or ate married to. It’s pretty obvious on Facebook relationship status. The very public hook-ups, break-ups and divorces are good enough to stay up-to-date on friends’ love affairs.

You know exactly who has a crush on who, because of all the cute, sexy, crude superpokes that keep appearing on your homepage. B has just spanked C, E would like to dry hump F and X has just sent an erotic wet kiss to Y.

This list seriously could take me all night long. The point I am trying to make here is that, Facebook really has changed our lives in more ways than we think. Whether we have fully realised it or not, we have embraced the online phenomenon of “Facebooking” enough to let it consume our daily lives.

Whether this technology conquering many aspects of our lives is a good change or a bad change, can only be decided on the basis of personal choice. How much information about you are you willing to share online? How much of your personal or social life do you want to share with others? How much of your communications with your friends do you want your boss or your in-laws to see? Do you want your partner to see how cute you still get with your ex? Do you want your potential employer to know that you go out and get drunk everynight?

I will let you decide whether you are positive or negative about the new era of social networking and its consequences. I am definitely grateful for the changes it has brought to my life and how it has helped me understand myself better than I ever did before! You see why...

I now know that I am meant to live in Italy because I am very exotic and I love to explore places. Apparently I have great fashion sense and am moderately friendly and I love to have fun and laugh. However where I am MEANT to live is not where I SHOULD live. I should be living in New York City. It seems that I love the busy city life. I want to be able to go out at any hour of the day or night and find an awesome place to eat. I am also very fashionable (this must be true, as it has repeated itself) and are dedicated to your job! I also don't mind extreme temperatures and humidity.

Now, here’s the best part. I will forever be grateful to Facebook for helping me figure this out. It seems that I will get married at 32. Seems like it’s a good age for me to get married, I guess I should listen to the wise advice.

I have also found out which name my parents SHOULD have given me, what vegetable I most resemble to, who I would be reborn as (I better start believing in re-incarnation), what I am born to do and whether I would fart if I was left alone in an elevator.

Here’s the cherry on top, the ultimate understanding of my entire existence. Now I know exactly how I will die! It seems like the cause of my death will be murder. I will die by being stabbed by someone I thought was my soulmate...turns out not. My body will never be seen by another living person and my death will remain a mystery to police (well, I guess now it won’t be!)

11:57 PM | Labels: , , | 12 Comments  

Are we Maldivians destroying the 'Maldives'?

It wasn’t long ago that Maldives was known to the rest of the world as perhaps the most peaceful country on this planet. The Maldivian people were known to be peace loving, friendly and hospitable. Maldives is considered the ultimate travel heaven.

For this reason everyone loves the Maldives, no one has issues with us. We have no trouble with visas and travel, no barriers to entry and we are welcome anywhere in the world. However, this notion of peaceful Maldivians is gradually changing, if not already.

I couldn’t help but be extremely concerned and saddened after going through some of the online news today. Here’s the gist of some of the news items I’ve read that got me all worried.

- On 26 March 2009, a 28 year old Maldivian seaman was arrested in Tartus, Syria due to illegal possession of drugs. According to the news, a total of 13 Maldivians who had been working for this one company alone had been arrested in various ports around the world since 2003. Due to such incidents the reputation of Maldivian sea men has been destroyed and shipping companies want send their Maldivian seamen back home.

- Human Rights Commission of Maldives in a press conference today, confirmed that a Maldivian was involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 and actually blew himself up as a so-called ‘jihadi’.

- According to the Ministry of Defence & National Security of Maldives, nine Maldivians possessing weapons were arrested in North Pakistan by Pakistani Police yesterday, who may or may not be involved in the war in Afghanistan.


Now, I’m seriously bowled over here. When did we become this? When did we become hopeless fundamentalists trying to blow themselves up in the name of God? When did we become killers and promoters of violence and war and not peace? How did the small 300,000 homogenous population of the Maldives become a highly polarised populace with westernized modern Maldivians going in one direction and religious extremists in the other? Where was that peaceful balance of lifestyle that allowed us to co-exist in homogeneity and enjoy the simple things in life?

Major trends in excessive use of drug, increase in crime rates and violence in the Maldives is now making the Maldives a domestic hell rather than a peaceful safe haven. According to the recent report of the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, on causes for increase in incidents of crime in the country, within the last year:

- 31.60% of the responders have witnessed the act of consumption of drugs being carried out
- 86.90% of the responders have seen people after they have just consumed drugs
- 38.70% of the responders have witnessed the trade of narcotics being carried out
- 59.70% of the responders have witnessed different forms of violence in progress
- 38.10% has had either their own or a relative’s possessions being stolen, robbed etc.

These statics are definitely alarming enough for our authorities and our society to realise the severe extent of social damage to our society. It is time that we take ourselves back to the peace loving nation we were before. It is time that we address the core issues creating and fuelling these escalating crimes at home and abroad.

Otherwise it is us and only us, Maldivians who will suffer the consequences. It won’t be long before our best tourist markets turn elsewhere for their relaxing holidays. It also won’t be long before our most sought after destinations refuse Maldivians entry to their countries or admission into the best academic institutes. The day when you get strip-searched at all airports just because one has the name ‘Mohamed’or ‘Ali’ is not all that far away either.

It is definitely time for a wakeup call...

11:50 PM | Labels: , , , , , | 8 Comments  

The story of Aisha

Aisha is 22 years old, got married at the beginning of last year to Ali, who was a great guy. Since I was abroad when they got married, I was so happy to see her at home last August! To my surprise, she was extremely unhappy. When I asked, she refused to tell me why. However I wouldn’t take a no for an answer and finally she spilled it.


To my absolute horror, the truth which then unveiled not only broke my heart but it lead me to such infuriating anger and helplessness that I had no idea how to even begin to console her.

Though I’ve known her for a few years, never have I imagined that she was physically abused so much, so often and by so many including her own mother!

Aisha’s father left Rugiyya and married someone else when Aisha was 4. That’s when the beating started! She was physically beaten almost every day of her life, till she was 19, which was when she came to Male’ to work for a family. Let’s hear the story of her life on the island.

She gets beaten by her mother for every little thing she did, most of which she could hardly comprehend. She did physical labour since she was as young as 7 and lived like a maid in her own home. Her mother eventually got married after a series of men who came in and out of her life. Rugiyya then had more kids. However after two kids, the second husband left Rugiyya. The beatings became worse for Aisha, not to mention that Rugiyya completely ignored the younger kids and they became Aisha’s responsibility completely, even though Aisha herself was still a child.

Aisha went to school, cooked, cleaned, looked after her siblings and tried everything possible to avoid her mother’s beatings. To her absolute dismay, it never stopped. Finally, she got accustomed to the pain. She was unusually underweight, her hair was weak from numerous jolts that she had received frequently and she was almost always nervous.

Then came Faroog! Faroog was the son of a rich, ‘beyfulhu’ family in Male. He was sent to the island for 5 years to serve a sentence which he claims was due to a ‘political’ mishap. No one really knew or cared why he was sent to the island.

Faroog lived like a king on the island. He showered the women with expensive gifts as there was no dearth of money. He slept with most of the single women and some married ones as well. One of those women happened to be Rugiyya.

Faroog goes to Rugiyya’s house often and spends most of his day at her house. Aisha was 13 then. As Rugiyya had a job at the island office as a sweeper she goes there in the afternoons and Aisha was left alone at the house with the 2 younger ones and of course Faroog! It started has Faroog simply touching parts of Aisha’s body. She was so scared and tried to run away every time, however she couldn’t leave the two kids in the house. Aisha then started avoiding staying at home and taking off with the two kids to a relative’s house. But Faroog would follow her and tell her in public that her mother wants her to be at home and to take the kids home.

Few weeks since the start and Faroog finally had his way Aisha. She was raped while the two younger kids were in the adjacent room. After that she was repeatedly raped for months and then years… Aisha tried hinting it to her mom on many occasions but couldn’t. Faroog was her mother’s ‘manfriend’! Not only will Rugiyya deny it but it will cause probably worse beatings! Aisha was right.

Nine months later, Aisha finally told her mother because she couldn’t take it anymore. By then she was already 14 years old. Rugiyya not only shout and scream but poured the mug of hot tea she was drinking when Aisha gave her the news. From then onwards, Aisha NEVER spoke a word of it to a living soul till she married Ali and to me last August!

She was abused till Farooq finally left the island when she was 18. She had never run away…she stayed and looked after the little ones, mainly for fear that they may not be spared from Faroog’s inhuman acts.

A year later, she had come to Male’ to ‘work’ for a family. As Faroog had now left, her mother needed to look for others means of income. Aisha never passed her exams at school and was expelled at in Grade 9. Her mother says she will never be able to get a job that pays well, so go work in a house in Male’.

The ‘beyfulhu’s did pay her some money every month. However, the man of the house also paid in kind! Once again Aisha had to face brutal sexual abuse. She had no way out for months. Finally she changed to a different house with a friend she met in Male’. She met Ali when she was living with her friend, they became good friends. Ali had shown the most kindness anyone had ever shown to Aisha and after a lot of pushing she finally agreed to marry him.

Now the marriage…it isn’t working. Why? Aisha has been beaten so much since her childhood that she cannot let a man touch her without cringing. She has been destroyed by years of sexual abuse and is unable to lead a normal life with a man. She is unable to sleep at night because of endless nightmares. She has finally been to a doctor and learnt that she will never be able to have a child because of irreversible damage caused due to prolonged abuse. Ali did try to be supportive at first however gradually he’s losing interest. The one thing that was good in her life, she is about to lose that too

She has no where she could turn for rehabilitation, there is no judicial system that could serve her any justice. The society will probably bring her more shame. People would probably blame her for the incidents that destroyed her life… and yeah, she needs four eye witnesses even if she begins to think about bringing Faroog to court!

When she asked me that day, do I have anything to live for, is there a reason why I should be alive now? I had no answer :-(


3:54 PM | Labels: , , | 16 Comments  

Who do you think will be the next American Idol?


My favourite way to relax after work on Wednesday and Thursday nights is to curl up on my couch with some snacks and watch American Idol Season 8. I’ve been an ardent fan of American Idol for years and thought it will be fun to play a little guessing game!


Now that we are left with the Top 10, one’s choices are narrow, but not quite! It’s too early to say and extremely tough to predict ... Quite a talented bunch we got there. However, from what we’ve seen so far, go with the gut feeling and tell us who you think is going to be the next American Idol!

I could be wrong, but I have a strong feeling that it will be Adam Lambert! Not necessarily because he’s my favourite, he’s ONE of my favourites! But from what I’ve seen so far I honestly believe that he’s got what it takes to become a star!

7:57 PM | Labels: , , | 13 Comments  

50 romantic movies worth watching!


Thanks to my 1 Terabyte hard drive which crashed a few weeks ago, I am now left with no idle entertainment, i.e. my huge collection of feel-good movies that I keep saved for myself and my couch is now officially gone! Murphy is adamant that he’ll mess with me as much as he can...


However, broken hard drive or otherwise, I will win this battle against Murphy. Thanks to broadband internet, currently I’m working on my movie collection. For efficiency purposes so as to refrain from owning a major collection of crap movies, I thought I should first sit and compile a list of movies that I’d like to own.

Here’s only one of the genre’s, I’d like to call it the romantic movies list (the ones who beg to differ, may very well call it the cheesy movies or such). This isn’t a comprehensive list, they are the ones I sat and pulled out of my head as romantic movies worth watching, which according to many are actually a ‘good watch’.

In case I might save time and trouble for some hopeless romantic’s in their venture to seek the best, I thought this might be of some help! Here are 50 out of my list of romantic movies worth watching. The thrillers, action movies, horror flicks....hmmm.....perhaps save it for another time?

1. 50 First Dates (2004)
2. A Walk to Remember (2002)
3. An Affair to Remember (1957)
4. Autumn in New York (2000
5. Before Sunrise (1995)
6. Before Sunset (2004)
7. Braveheart (1995)
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
9. Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
10. Casablanca (1943)
11. Chasing Liberty (2004)
12. Dirty Dancing (1987)
13. Ever After (1998)
14. First Daughter (2004)
15. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
16. Gone With The Wind (1941)
17. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2003)
18. If Only (2004)
19. Just Like Heaven (2005)
20. Maid in Manhattan (2002)
21. Message In a Bottle (1999)
22. My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
23. Never Been Kissed (1999)
24. Note Book (2004)
25. Notting Hill (1999)
26. P.S. I Love You (2007)
27. Pearl Harbour (2001)
28. Pretty Woman (1990)
29. Pride and Prejudice (2005)
30. Romeo and Juliet (1996)
31. Runaway Bride (1999)
32. Save the Last Dance (2001)
33. Serendipity (2001)
34. Sex and the City the Movie (2008)
35. She's All That (1999)
36. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
37. Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
38. Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
39. Sweet November (2001)
40. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
41. The Reader (2008)
42. The Way We Were (2003)
43. The Wedding Date(2005)
44. The Wedding Planner (2001)
45. The Wedding Singer (1998)
46. Titanic (1997)
47. Tristan and Isolde (2006)
48. When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
49. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
50. You’ve Got Mail (1998)


Go ahead, enjoy your idle evening after work...who knows, they might just hit the right note ;-)

9:38 PM | Labels: , , | 25 Comments  

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