Happy Wednesday! This post comes to you from a Starbucks, because we are getting our pipes fixed at the house and so will not have water for the day. So I am hiding at Starbucks.
I’ll start!
Reading: I’m about a quarter through Gone With the Wind. It’s quite quite good! Like, an actual good novel, not just romance novel trash.
Watching: I did two movies in theaters this weekend, which is very impressive for me! And I watched Mucho Mucho Amor for the 4th time in order to show it to a new person this weekend (really, everyone should see it!)
Thinking: My dang headphones are running out of power!!!! I left the house to go hide out at a coffee shop while plumbing is finished, only to discover my headphones have 20% left. So I can’t sit and nicely listen to podcasts like I was planning. Oh well. Writing blog posts is also fun.
Listening: The PS2 soundtrack is good, but I think this song from PS1 is still my favorite (Chola Chola):
Okay, question for you! It’s May the 4th tomorrow, and it just occurred to me to wonder: Is Brahmastra a ripoff of Star Wars? If so, is Alia gonna turn out to be Ranbir’s sister?
Next question, speaking of Alia, my DAD sent me this photo! Do we like it or is it too much?
dontcallitbollywood 
Alia costume is a bit too much for me
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The Met Gala entrance is joyfully a place where there is no such thing as too much. So if that photo came from the Met Gala, go Alia go, be a bridal cake topper!
The 8 year old was home sick yesterday. We binged on Mismatched while attempting to fold laundry and put stuff away after our trip. At first it was great and then turned into a typical soap opera for kids. Thus the 8 year old liked it. He LOVES teenybopper soap operas. My main beef with the series is that one of the main characters isn’t well fleshed out, and it also happens to be the character from California whose Hindi isn’t as good. It is like half Hindi = half character depth.
Recently I read The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. At first I hated the book but had to finish it because it was for a book club and was referenced in so many other works about Morocco. I thought it was Hemingwayish garbage. But half way through the book I completely changed my tune and I LOVED it! It was basically about how Morocco took these pompous western tourists and chewed them up and spit them out by simply being different. Alas I can’t act snooty and look down on this famous book because, damn, it is famous for a reason! I should be reading another book on Morocco but instead I’m reading Killers of the Flower Moon now.
I bought a portable charger for our escapades around San Diego Zoos. It is as heavy as three cell phones and is basically a brick I carry around in the grocery bag I call my purse. But I never have to worry about things running out of juice on the go now! Maybe eavesdropping in on other Starbucks patron’s conversations will be as good as a podcast?
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Oooooo, now I want a big portable charger!!!! I always think it isn’t worth it becuase my car itself is essentially a big portable charger. But then I run into these situations where I need one anyway. Or, where I need multiple to charge multiple things and I only have the one car.
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The tricky thing in the instructions is if you are charging something and it hits 100% the battery will then start taking juice FROM your item. So you can’t just leave things plugged in ,in your purse without thinking all day long.
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Pingback: Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the First Week in May? – Bollywood News
In my opinion Alia makes every outfit look boring. She is too plain, there is no fun, no personality ever in her looks no matter if it’s MET gala, airport sweatpants or coctail dress. This white dress is nice, and she looks ok, but nothing more.
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So mean! And yet, I kind of agree? I love Alia, but she is not the best at selling clothes when she wears them. Unless she is in character in a movie.
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I didn’t want to be mean, it’s just how I feel about her. I never ever had a situation that I saw Alia in something and I thought: “she looks good!” Or “I want this dress” or “Man, I wish I looked like that in my trousers”. NEVER. And she is young, and slim and rich so she should be good at selling clothes. But she is not. And the funny thing is she has a clothing line, if I remember well.
But you know who is good at selling clothes? SRK:
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Pingback: Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the First Week in May? - MAHARASHTRA.online
The craftwork on that dress is amazing, the whole thing is very pretty!
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I watched the 2 remakes of Dia, like I said in the last Wednesday Watching and I’m still thinking about those films. Telugu remake was ok, and the hindi one terrible. I thought that the hindi producers (of most of the remakes) are like people who buy Ferrari project, but instead of putting good stuff inside, they use all used and low cost parts, then put an unexperienced driver who don’t even has a driving license behind the wheel and they hope to win the race.
And just now I finally finished Das Ka Dhamki. The weakest Vishwak Sen’s film so far IMO. The plot is at the same time predicable and too full of twists. Usually the very presence of Vishwak makes me enjoy the movie but this time the plot was so stupid I couldn’t enjoy it. I don’t recommend it.
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I am on vacation, hurrah! The first weeks of the semester were so exhausting! I went out to see some music on Saturday and got decently tired and told my friends I was going to head home and they said “OK, but it’s 7:30.” That’s how it’s been. I’ve been conking out too early to read or watch anything (or think). But I’m getting back in the groove.
After teaching or when I need a brief break at work I’ve been reading ten pages of Bleak House. It’s working really well. I don’t get sucked into it like I do when I scroll the internet, but it’s completely absorbing and I feel refreshed and like I really got a work break. Also, I’ve neverr read any Dickens and I’ve always felt kind of low key guilty about that.
I watched Gulmohar yesterday. It’s a lovely warm movie about flawed people who love each other. It’s about a large family deciding to sell their family home, and how this has an impact on everyone in the home including the servants. My only complaint is that there are a few too many moving parts–each generation plus the servants gets a subplot, and you wish they had cut out one and gone deeper on the rest. But in general I really liked it, and it’ always nice to see Sharmila.
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I should try that! I’m trying to read both Ponniyn Selvam volume 1 and Gone With the Wind and I keep either reading too much or too little. I should just give myself a set number of pages and then stop.
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you liked Chola chola song , Definitely you will like Veera Raja Veera song in ps2 .
Only A R Rahman can do this magic .
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Forgot to mention–it includes a wonderful Holi song!
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I watched so many movies this past weekend and this week because of travel and I have three recommendations out of all of them. The first is an English American movie, called Ghosted. It is on Apple TV for anyone who has it. It stars Chris Evans (who will forever be Captain America) and Ana De Arams and it is Bang Bang will the roles reversed!!! It is like a DCIB fanfic come to life! Ana is a bad ass, ass kicking secret agent on a global mission while Chris is a sheltered farmer who has never left the U.S. It is absolutely ridiculous and fantastic! And of course I want there to be a Indian remake.
Second movie recommendation is Mrs. Undercover. It is on Einthusan and stars Radhika Apte and Summet Vyas (Kareena’s fiance from Veere di Wedding). It is a serial killer movie (more creepy than horror) but very much along the lines of some of films produced by Anushka Sharma. The premise is that a housewife and mother who was trained 10+ years ago as a undercover agent right out of college, but was never given a mission, and has since been long forgotten is asked to renew her identity catch a serial killer. It shows how deceptively common a serial killer can be, the terrifying nature of day to day misogyny, and finally, women supporting other women.
Spoiler alert: It also has a very satisfying ending because the husband is a jerk who eventually apologizes blah blah blah, but this time he is not forgiven at the end!!! It’s the ending we want in so many movies.
And finally, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar. I will write more in your spoiler review but the movie is so good and then ruined by the epilogue!!! And the ending could have easily been fixed to make it better. Luv ALWAYS screws up the endings. This is why I can’t watch Sonu ke Titu again! Anyways besides that, it is surprisingly charming. It’s an actual Rom Com, which I rarely see in Indian movies. Dimple is hilarious and so frickin gorgeous. Shraddha is fantastic in these types of comedy romance roles. The songs are all so catchy! Oh and I did not hate Ranbir in it (and that’s huge coming from me).
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Our friend just let us steal her Apple TV so we could Ted Lasso! So now I can see Ghosted! It sounds great. I want Mrs. Undercover to be somewhere other than Einthusan, though in truth I’m not super great at anything hinting of scary.
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Yay! Let me know your thoughts on Ghosted. And if you have seen the Marvel superhero movies, you’ll enjoy the cameos.
Mrs. Undercover is on the Zee app also but also boo Zee. So after all the Zee movies came to Einthusan, I had a hard time justifying Zee. I am a wuss when it comes to scary movies but I could handle it. The scary part is more the premise of the movie, which is the serial killer is a mediocre man who kills strong, awesome women.
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Thanks for the info on Mrs. Undercover! I was interested because of Radhika but I wasn’t sure about the plot (and the title makes it sound kind of dumb, to be honest), but it sounds like I’d enjoy it.
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I think Mrs. Undercover is on stupid Zee5.
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Yaaaaaaaaay, I was waiting for you to see Tu Joothi!!!
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I LOVED Ghosted! LOVED IT! In the same way I absolutely adore the movie Hudson Hawk that was totally panned in 1991. Just fun. Would not have found it without you. Thank you Filmikudhi!
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Yay yay yay!!! I’m so glad you loved it! As soon as I saw the movie, I thought of the DCIB community. It’s basically a fan-fic comes to life. Absolutely bonkers. And so so fun!!!
Now who do we want in the Indian remake? Katrina or Deepika for the Ana De Armas role right? We have been saying this for a while.
How about the hero? The first person that came to mind if Sid. Sheltered, shy, slightly needy boy from Delhi. I can see Vicky doing well in this role too.
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Deepika. And Ranveer. SRK could have done the role before Pathaan. But now it wouldn’t work as he is etched in the mind as a spy. But Deepika is already known as the character – and she did it well. And Ranveer of Gully Boy fame could totally do a farmer. Incidentally the film Night and Day which Bang Bang is based on, is referenced as an inspiration for Ghosted.
Sid could also do the role, but for some reason I don’t like him anymore. Am I bored of him? I’ve seen his shallow representation of heros so often it feels like he has nothing new to offer me. That sounds a bit too mean, I really liked some of his movies, but I don’t want to watch him anymore.
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I refuse to watch Sid’s serious or patriotic movies so that I can continue to see him as the hero of A Gentleman and SOTY but I can totally understand how you feel if you have seen his other movies.
Ranveer would be great!!! Oooh and just like with Ghosted, maybe the movie can have cameos of Tiger, Pathaan, and Kabir but obviously customized to a Hindi movie. It totally makes sense that Knight and Day is the inspiration for this movie. Now, I hope more people watch this so we can have a little fan club!
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Still watching New Tricks. Thinking about finding a new role at work. Reading – well listening to audio books – three in parallel – The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee, murder at the village fate by Catherine Coles and The Fix by David Baldacci.
Also daydreaming about traveling to India, maybe go to Mumbai and just feel like home in SRK’s vicinity.
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Once you finish New Tricks, I have so many other recommendations for you! Although a lot of them might only be on Acorn or Britbox, not sure. Anyway, so many lovely pleasant light BBC mystery shows!
There’s also dark BBC shows, I just watched Sherwood which is really really good. And the loud confident old man murder victim is played by the Brian actor from New Tricks! Totally different personality, I didn’t even recognize him until halfway through.
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New tricks is about to go off hulu in 8 days so I’ve been madly trying to finish it 😂. Can’t wait for all your recommendations after that
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I really dislike Alia’s dress and makeup. Maybe she is self conscious post maternity so is hiding herself like this.
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Question – do you do annual or monthly prime membership?
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I do annual. It’s partly for streaming, but also for deliveries. I got my first membership years and years ago when they had a sale for students, and now it would be too difficult to do without! I’ve gotten used to the free overnight delivery of essentials and all the rest of it.
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Oh and I also read that Serena Williams is expecting baby 2. Announced at the met gala
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I wanted to like Alia’s dress on her but I just don’t. It’s not about being too much since I think the more outrageous the better. Something about the way the top fits, specifically around her boobs. It just feel odd.
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I also watched Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar and like filmikudhi I really liked it. I should go write more on your spoiler review and be good but I’m too lazy today:) I agree that it was a delightful actual rom-com for a change. I don’t think the epilogue ruins it though and that surprises me because normally I don’t like “regressive” plots because I’m a feminist and very liberal on social issues. But, there is something to be said for joint family living if it’s done right, socially(shared responsibilities for taking care of children and the elderly), emotionally, and financially. Shraddha’s character is shown to genuinely like Ranbir’s family from the beginning but was just nervous about the situation because of her mother’s experiences. I actually thought the epilogue was kind of sweet, like the end of a romance novel. Yes, nowadays there is pushback against the married and pregnant epilogues in romance novels as well and that’s good…we need more variety and (sensitivity to infertility issues, etc) but sometimes a happy extended family with another generation on the way is what we want as well. Side note: now don’t be calling romance novels “trash”! 🙂 Romance is finally having its moment and getting the respect it deserves in the culture after decades of dismissal by the arbiters of taste and literary quality. Mostly just teasing here, because I’ve been known to describe it as a guilty pleasure myself, but in my professional life I’m seeing special collections curators finally treating the genre as one worthy to collect. Back to the movie…this is by far one of my favorite Shraddha roles/performances, but (and this is also anti-feminist of me) I don’t think she’s that pretty, especially in some of the close-ups in this one. Ranbir is fine in this (not my favorite of his roles) and is at least dressed so well throughout, especially in that black formal suit at the end. I may like his styling better. Still works overall and the production quality and the big dance numbers were so welcome after so many dreary, gritty, and sepia toned Indian films I’ve been watching lately.
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Alia looked really pretty at the Met Gala I thought. I’m going to carry on with my bad opinions today and say she looks possibly pregnant? What a high profile coup to be invited since Anna W. controls the guest list. Netflix paying a lot of money to get an invitation after RRR, Darlings, and the upcoming Heart of Stone? I’d also like to think that Priyanka put a good word in, she might surprise us and be really supportive of her co-actors that want to crossover to Hollywood, too.
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Why must you go against the DCIB tide and hope for an Alia pregnancy, and PC niceness???? We are all so happy hear in our echo chamber, and now you are forcing us to actually think about opinions, blech!
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I think I’m the only one here that doesn’t dislike Priyanka, so I just generally refrain from
commenting on most Priyanka posts. But yay! I am glad someone else is giving her a benefit of the doubt here.
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Oh dear, I sense rebellion among the ranks. Pretty soon there’s going to be a Pro-Priyanka lobby and I will lose my tyrannical control over mind and soul of all DCIBers.
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LOL!! Don’t worry, Margaret, you are our favorite tyrant and we will fall back in line soon 😉 My opinions, as you know, are pretty right down the center with most, no extreme love/hate for any one actor/actress. At least, that’s how I think I am? Except with the one possible exception of Arjun Kapoor who can really do nothing that will erase my devotion to him.
As for Alia continuing to create mini-Kapoors, it still doesn’t mean she has to stay with him forever:)
When it comes to Ranbir and Priyanka both, I definitely see their faults but they are undeniably fascinating celebrities and often really good actors (and I still will always love them together in the underrated Anjaana Anjaani). Have to get back to my rom-com listicle! Hmmm, where would Tu Jhoothi Main Kakkaar end up on my list…
Also speaking of rom-coms has someone mentioned here yet that there is a cute Telugu one coming soon that might be good. A chef and a stand-up comedian, starring Anushka Shetty, called Miss Shetty Mr. Polishetty.
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I am the same, but with Ranbir! I see all the Ranbir posts, and think of commenting, but then I think of letting people vent, I know how satisfying it can be! I won’t even call myself a fan, but he just gets so much misguided hate that it makes me sympathetic. Oh and I don’t hate Priyanka either, and I love when she stirs up the pot, intentionally or not. She’s a true-blue movie star, a dying breed nowadays, and what’s a star without scandal?
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Oh dear! Now I feel like I should write an appreciation post for Ranbir just so you feel more welcome. Only I honestly don’t think I can, I can’t think of anything nice to say about him.
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Haha I would never want you to be disingenuous! This just means I’ll take your reviews on Ranbir’s or Priyanka’s performances with a pinch of salt! Fair?
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Fair!
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Prabal Gurung who accompanied Alia wrote few days ago why he came with her. Being honest his words did a disservice to Alia. People started saying she really can’t achieve a thing without Karan. Also:
“she has surpassed anyone’s expectations and thrilled us with her creative genius. She’s a powerhouse performer. To me, she is one of the finest actors we have right now globally”
Like really? I mean , I know he must praise her because they are friends and stuff but there are limits to everything. I think that Karan and his friends should just chill a little. Alia is not bad, and she works hard. She doesn’t need all those exaggerated words because it only makes people hate her.
https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/prabal-gurung-met-alia-bhatt-through-karan-johar-details-of-her-debut-met-gala-8588713/
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Oh! This is a good time for me to say that I heard from two separate people who watched RRR, “who is that actress who played the girlfriend? I wish we got more of her”. So if you remove all the context and knowledge and everything, she’s good enough and charismatic enough to stand on her own even in a huge ensemble cast thing like RRR where she got so little screentime.
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OK, so that makes sense that it was with the designer that she attended and he is much bigger deal internationally than her! Thanks for the clarification, Angie.
I do worry that she’s being hyped too much, but it’s undeniable that she can be great given the right role (Gully Boy and Gangubhai) but she’s always watchable. I even liked her a lot in Kalank. Her worst role to date was Brahmastra for sure. I was listening to a Bollywood-focused podcast of an American white film bro that was spun off from a general cinema podcast and they were reviewing Brahmastra and the host commented that she was great in Gully Boy but that the writing did her no favors in Brahmastra. The RRR-related non-desi film bro hype for her may be building as well. All seems to be hinging on the success of Heart of Stone if she really does have crossover hopes. Now is the time to make it happen for herself. And no planned films could mean holding time for Hollywood projects or another baby? Or both! I could never see Ranbir crossing over or even wanting to split time in India and the US since he has it so good as the crown prince of Bollywood. Though he does wear that silly Yankee cap a lot because he studied in New York:) I’m a lifelong Yankee fan (born and bred in upstate NY) and this even annoys me since I’m pretty sure he isn’t a baseball fan? See, I can be mean about Ranbir, too:)
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Okay, you can stay, so long as you keep being mean to Ranbir every once in a while. I’m worried about Heart of Stone, looks like it’s mostly TV people behind it, not film. If it turns out to be a backdoor pilot for a high profile Netflix series, I think that might actually be a downgrade for Alia.
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Honestly, I can sense this happening with me. I have always liked Alia. But with Karan force-feeding Alia’s genius throughout this season of KwK and this absurd social media trend of propping Alia up at the expense of pulling down Deepika is making me tired of her. I realize maybe none of this is her doing (honestly I don’t know how PR works), but that’s how perception works and I think she is over-hyped and over-exposed.
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I also think her marriage and pregnancy and baby have made this effect worse. There was so much coverage and excitement over the whole thing that she already feels overexposed just from her personal life, and then adding on her professional appearances, it’s all too much.
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Jawan announced for 7 Sep!!!
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Wooooooooo!!!!! Ill have to schedule the day off work
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Yes!!! I’m considering going to India to watch it with a big crowd there. Align my homecoming with Jawan 😂
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Or, you could stay home and I could visit my CA friend and we could meet at a theater somewhere between the two of us! This thought just occurred to me. So glad he announced 4 months early so I have time to plan the PERFECT opening day.
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I would LOVE that!!!!!!
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Only issue is, I think my CA friend was thinking about visiting me around then. So you may have to fly to Chicago to make it happen 🙂
Anyway, next time I go to CA, I definitely want to rent a car so I can visit you and Genevieve despite the horrible horrible traffic.
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If I’m well enough to travel by then, that’s definitely an option as it won’t be cold in Chicago. Right now my health is such that I have to stay within 20 min radius of my home and am mostly home bound 😕. I was telling myself if you come here, I could blow up money on Uber and just show up for the movie that way.
Yay!! So excited to see you whenever. I am hoping srk universe would organize first day first show in California and I’ll be able to go with them. ♥️♥️
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Also means that traveling to india is kind of a daydream with this health also 😂
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Tangentially – I realised that i need to visit india this year because next year I’ll be in visa a situation that’s not conducive to overseas travel. I just miss my country, even though I don’t have anyone to visit. So I might still go but don’t need to do it for Jawan 😀😀😀
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You def need to see Mannat. I wish I’d had more time there. I saw it in a rush in the middle of a driving tour, I would have preferred to go there on my own and just sit in front nad bask for a while.
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Yes and hopefully not get trampled in a stampede of 20K people 😂
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