Face Veil, Pitchforks and Emotional Blackmail

A couple of weeks back I got a call from a cousin of mine whom I haven't seen in a very long time. Probably 5 years now. Well she got married at an extremely young age, has a bunch of kids now and lives in Vaikaradhoo (my mom's island).

One thing I can say about my cousin is she loves a good laugh. She never tends to take things too seriously. Well all this was way back then.

Anyway she had finally gotten my number and rang me up one night and decided to catch up.

(After all the hello's, how are you's, ho hum hums...)
Cousin: So when are you going to visit?

Me: Maybe later this year when I take holiday.

Cousin: Do you wear the buruga?

Me: No hehehehe

Cousin: Really? Then how are going to come here? Everyone here wears it. I wear Moonu Buruga now.

Me: (bit shocked) Really. Why do u wear that?

Cousin: My husband told me to

Me: Oh i see. I thought you should wear these things after making the decision by yourself. Not cause someone told you to.

Cousin: Anyway are you married now?

Me: hehehe no

Cousin: Why not? You must be 20 by now

Me: 25

Cousin: (laughs really loudly) My goodness! You're getting old. You should get married before you turn into a grandma.

Me: I'm young! hehehehe I'm not old yet.

(By this time my cousin was basically rolling around on the floor i suppose, coz she was laughing so hard and i was beginning to sound whiny) :P

The next day my cousin sends me a pic of her through my mom's phone. Lo and behold stood was my cousin against a blue wall, face veil and all. A second later she calls again.

Cousin: Well? Waddaya think?

Me: I barely recognized you

Cousin: (deadpan tone) You didn't???? Why not??

Heehehe it was nice hearing from her after all a long time. And I can see her humor hasn't changed much.

Now I'm wondering whether I should visit the island. It would be an experience I suppose. Either the local folks will drive me mad or they'll chase me off the island with pitch forks. My cousin's husband helpfully said he has a speed launch ready in case...

Anyway I was also wondering about Nahula's new movie Yousuf. According to my friend, all the shows were fully booked. I haven't seen it but I've seen a bit of the trailer. So my question is...

Nahula's Yousuf:

A) A work of art

B) Emotional Blackmail

The High School

Right first and foremost I'd like to state that I regret asking a certain someone to nag me. Not only did he not nag for what i asked he nagged for the wrong article all together. So there.

OK now that we have that out of the way, back to the post. Since my recent introduction into Maldivian blogs I couldn't help but notice certain "sects" in this sphere. Certain groups. It's almost like a high school. The popular crowd, the nerds (or intellectuals if I may), the artists, the goths and of coz cheerleaders. Let me describe them with a bit more flair ...

The Frat Boyz: They have a swagger in their writing. A certain strut. A certain “I own this bit of the universe and there ain’t nothing you can do about it” blogging attitude. They have their standards, they have their ideologies (some very highly opinionated ones as well) and they have their coffees. Plus you can smell the leather and the cigarettes all the way from the monitor.

The Pop Princesses: Mostly this group consists of teens and girls in their early twenties (and a very rare breed who are a bit older). You can recognize them first off with their username, which consist of a colour followed by some sugary sweet noun that might leave you feeling a bit queasy as if you had eaten an entire carton of sugar plus honey. You can also recognize them by their "MySpace-y" lookalike blog, with wedges in every crook and cranny. And they also have a tendency to write their blogs center aligned. And oh yea loads of (sugar sweet/ bittersweet) poems.

The Gang War Zone: These come in different areas. Be it political wars or religious wars. It’s basically like watching a tennis match. Nuff said.

The Chess Club: These are the intellectuals. The older and wiser bloggers. They normally blog intelligent articles on everything and nothing. The highs and the lows. Even if you’re not big on reading, you can still recognize them by their easy on the eyes, minimalist blog decoration.

The Starving Artists: In short, the flickrs. They flickr here. They flickr there. They flickr everywhere. If it’s not a flickr account it is a creative and cool blog designs and food for thought creative, be it photos, art or even written pieces.

The Class Clowns: The satire blogs that pokes fun at everything including themselves. You can’t ever expect them to take themselves seriously. Ever.

Well I guess that’s about all I can come up with. I’m sure there are more. Maybe you can help me out in the gray area where I had become fuzzy. =)