it's only "words"!

संस्कृती वगैरे..

2012-01-28T21:18:00.000+05:30

माझा मराठीतला पहिला ब्लॉग :)

चेन्नईला येउन मला आता चार आठवडे होतील.. अर्थात कुठल्याही शहराबद्दल वक्तव्य करण्यासाठी, किंवा मत बनवण्यासाठी म्हणू हवं तर, चार आठवडे हा काही फार काळ नाही. पण कसं आहे, की तुमचा मेंदू ताजा असताना, कुठल्याही प्रकारचे संस्कार त्यावर झालेले नसताना, जे ठसे त्यावर उमटतात, ते तुम्ही जुने झाल्यावर उमटत नाहीत. नवीन शहरात गेल्यावर तुम्हाला जर लगेच नोकरी धंदा असेल, तर मग तुम्ही खूपच लवकर जुने होता, आणि रहाट गाडग्याला स्वतःला जुंपून घेता. मी सध्या सुशिक्षित बेकार या गटातली असल्याने, मला तसा स्वतःला नवं ठेवण्यासाठी पुष्कळच स्कोप आहे. :)
चेन्नईच नाव ऐकल्यावर नाकं न मुरडणारे लोक मला फार कमी सापडले. आणि केवळ महाराष्ट्रीय नव्हे तर अगदी मूळ तमिळ लोक सुद्धा. ते घाण आहे, गरम आहे, अतिभयानक उन तिथे असतं, तिथे रस्त्यावर अस्वच्छता आहे, लोक हिंदी मुळीच बोलत नाहीत, तमिळ शिवाय पर्याय नाही, त्या शहराला असा एक मेट्रो चा फील नाही, डास तुम्हाला फाडून खातील, इ इ अनेक गोष्टी मी ऐकल्या. यातल्या अनेक गोष्टी अंशतः का होईना खऱ्या आहेत देखील, पण तरीही चेन्नईला स्वतःचं म्हणून एक व्यक्तिमत्व अर्थातच आहे, आणि ते व्यक्तिमत्व शोधण्यासाठी चार आठवडे हा कमी काळ असला, तरी काही ठसे, किंवा खुणा उमटवायला तसा पुष्कळ काळ आहे. त्यातली एक सतत जाणवत राहणारी खूण इथे लिहावी यासाठी हा ब्लॉग प्रपंच!

चेन्नईत, दैनंदिन आयुष्यावर स्थानिक संस्कृतीचा जाणवेल इतका प्रभाव आहे. मला कल्पना आहे, हे वाक्य अगदीच जनरल आहे, मात्र ज्या विविध गोष्टी पहिल्या, त्याच्या सगळ्याच्या मुळाशी हे एक समान सूत्र आहे,असं जाणवतं.
तमिळला पर्याय नाही वगैरे उक्त्या काही अंशी खऱ्या आहेत. बहुसंख्यांना इंग्लिश येतं हे ही तितकाच खरं आहे. मात्र : तुम्ही कुठेही जा, समोरचा माणूस तुमच्याशी बोलताना तमिळ मध्ये बोलायला सुरु करतो. तो रिक्षा वाला असेल, बस कंडक्टर असेल, भाजीवाला असेल, डॉक्टर असेल, दुकानदार असेल, रस्त्यावर पत्ता विचारणारा माणूस असेल, वेटर असेल, किंवा अन्य कोणी. तमिळ इल्ले हे एकदा तुम्ही सांगितलत किंवा तुमच्या मक्ख चेहऱ्याने त्याच्या लक्षात आलं, कि तो इंग्लिश मध्ये बोलेल किंवा बोलण्याचा प्रयत्न करेल. (रिक्षावाला असेल तर तुम्हाला आणखी लुबाडेल!) पण सुरुवात तमिळ मध्येच. अर्थात दक्षिणेकडली राज्यं भाषेबाबत कट्टर आहेत, हे आपण ऐकून आहोत. पण बंगलोर मध्ये तरी हिंदी बोलणं बरंच सापडतं. इथे मात्र, "तुम्ही आमच्या राजधानीत आहात, आमच्या भाषेला प्राधान्य आहे", हे कोणी काही न बोलता जाणवतं. भाषा हा शेवटी अभिव्यक्तीचा मार्ग असला, तरी भाषेतून संस्कृती कितपत हाडीमाशी रुजलीय याचं दर्शन होतं. सगळ्यात आश्चर्य कुठे वाटतं, तर मेनलेंड चायना सारख्या उच्चभ्रू ठिकाणी सुद्धा, मला अभिवादन तमिळ मध्ये केलं गेलं!
हॉटेल वरून एक वेगळा मुद्दा आठवला. इडली, डोसा, पोंगल ह्या सगळ्या मूळ इथल्याच गोष्टी. त्या लोकांनी इथे खाणे यात काहीच आश्चर्य नाही. (महाराष्ट्रात किती हॉटेल्स तुम्हाला पोहे आणि मिसळ देतात? पण ते जाऊ दे ) केळीच्या पानावर हे पदार्थ अनेक ठिकाणी तुम्हाला वाढलेले पाहायला मिळतात. मुद्दा तो देखील नाही. खाऊन झालं, की हे पान दुमडतात. ते खालून वर अश्या विशिष्ट पद्धतीनेच दुमडायचं असतं,कारण श्राद्ध वगैरे गोष्टींना ते उलटं दुमडल जातं! आणि हि गोष्ट मोठ्यापासून लहानांना माहीत असते! पाहून खूप आश्चर्य वाटलं, की ही तशी सो कॉल्ड धार्मिक/सांस्कृतिक गोष्ट रोज अवलंबली जाते. आणि त्याचं कारण असं की तिच्याकडे धार्मिक गोष्ट म्हणून न बघता रोजच्या आयुष्याचा एक साधा भाग म्हणून बघितलं जातं. भातासोबत वरण खाण्या इतका साधा !

एका बाबतीत माझ्याशी बरेच लोक सहमत होतील, ते म्हणजे इंग्रजी वर्तमानपत्रं, आणि त्यातही टाइम्स, हे स्थानिक संस्कृतीला धार्जिणे कधीच नव्हते आणि नसतात. पुणे टाइम्स मध्ये तुमचा वेडिंग ड्रेस पांढरा शुभ्र कसा ठेवावा याबद्दलचे लेख, किंवा (तुरळक अपवाद वगळता), साहित्य-कला-संगीत म्हणून मराठी गोष्टींना खिजगणतीतही न घेणं हे अतिशय कॉमन आहे. मी चेन्नईला आले, तेव्हा पोंगलला १० दिवस होते, आणि मार्गळी (मार्गशीर्ष महिना) साजरा करणं जोरात चालू होतं. अनेक सुंदर शास्त्रीय गायन, अभिजात नृत्याचे कार्यक्रम, रांगोळी स्पर्धा, साड्यांचे सेल, गजरे आणि फुलांची सजावट, पोंगलच्या नवनवीन रेसिपी, दीपमाळा उजळलेली मंदिर, तमिळ फिल्म स्टार्सच्या शुभेच्छा देणं,हे सगळं चालू होतं, आणि मला हे समजण्याचा एकमेव स्रोत म्हणजे चेन्नई टाइम्स! आपण तमिळ पेपरच वाचतोय असं वाटावं इतका 'तमिळ'पणाने तो ओसंडून वाहात होता! सार्वत्रिक उत्साहाच्या बाबतीत आपल्या गणपतीशी याची तुलना करता येईल, पण ते १० दिवस सुद्धा पुणे टाइम्स इतका मराठीपणाने ओसंडून वाहताना मला कधीच दिसलेला नाही. वाचकांच्या मनात संस्कृतीच इतकं प्रेम असल्याशिवाय, भलेही ते अव्यक्त का असेना, हा पेपर नक्की हे करणार नाही याबद्दल मला खात्री आहे!
सगळ्याच गोष्टी स्तुतीजन्य आहेत असं नाही. केवळ मुलांची किंवा मुलींची शाळा कॉलेज इथे सर्वत्र आहेत. को-एड फार कमी. झालंच तर बस मध्ये पुरुषाच्या शेजारी जागा रिकामी असली तरी बाईने तिथे न बसणं हे देखील सर्वत्र! (मुंबईत राहिल्यावर हा महामूर्खपणा आहे असं वाटतं) पण हे देखील त्यांच्या संस्कृतीतल्या कर्मठ पणाला धरून आहे.
भाषा, सणवार,परंपरा आणि धर्म म्हणजे केवळ संस्कृती नाही. मग नेमकं काय?संस्कृतीच्या अनेक व्याख्या आहेत. समाजशास्त्रानुसार माणसाने निर्माण केलेलं काहीही म्हणजे संस्कृती. प्रत्येक समूहाने आपापली संस्कृती निर्माण केली. जागतिकीकरणाने कदाचित सगळ्याच संस्कृती लयाला जाताहेत. पण त्यात काही थोडं आपलं जपलं जावं अशी इच्छा असेल, तर ते दैनंदिन जीवनात आणावं लागतं. पुस्तकात ठेवून ते आणखी लवकर लयाला जातं. त्यात काही बाबतीत तमिळ लोक यशस्वी झालेत. अर्थात सगळ्याच एतद्देशीय लोकांसारखी आमची संस्कृती बुडाली अशी त्यांची ओरड असेलच, पण मुंबईसारख्या संस्कृतीशून्य शहरात राहिल्यावर मला इथे जरा बरं वाटलं. माझे निष्कर्ष चुकीचे असतीलही. किंवा अपुरे देखील असतील. पण मी आधी म्हटल्याप्रमाणे, ही फर्स्ट इम्प्रेशन्स आहेत. चेन्नईच व्यक्तिमत्व ओळख्ल्यानंतर ती बदलतीलही. तोवर यावर विचार करायला काय हरकत आहे?
काही नाही तरी विचार करणं ही मराठी संस्कृती नक्की आहे! :D

Murugan ke gun gao!

2012-01-14T15:21:00.003+05:30

Contrary to popular belief, I do cook at home :) It's been couple of weeks since I have started my housewifing in Chennai and large part of it involves cooking. Of course, my husband and more importantly my father in law are my great helps there. but we do go to these nice restaurants in Chennai, visited four until now :P

So Murugan idli , one of the most popular eateries in the whole Tamilnadu, has a branch that is in the vicinity, and we go there. In fact, I have been there twice in just two weeks. Murugan has a decent amount of space, which can accommodate about 25-30 people, not to big and flashy, but the taste of food will make up for any lacunae this place might otherwise have.OK, so let us start over.

Murugan serves only south Indian food. All you can get to eat is variety of Idlis, Dosa, uttampam, and white Paniyaram (which we call appe back in Maharashtra) In drinks, it serves tea, coffee, milk, mineral water and their own product, Jigarthanda. That's all. No Menu card is served, of course because the choice is so limited. Murugan seems to be following the principle of serve little, serve the best.

You can swear by the quality of Idli here. well, people expect that while you are in Chennai, idli is one food which ought to be served best. It is not true. It is like saying whenever you are in Maharashtra, you ought to have Pohe and Misal served best. It is a local cuisine, and a staple to most of the people here, still there are places where Idlis are rice stones, and not cakes! Murugan serves Idlis which are an epitome of being idlis. Snow-white, extra soft, fresh and hot from the cooker direct to your plate. oh no, on your leaf.

Other aspect of Murugan being a Southie hotel is emphasized by it's absence of serving plates. There are banana leaves, one for each, laid out on the table by the waiter here. the customer is supposed to take some water, and wash the banana leaf with your own hands. Then There will be boys roaming around with bowls of different kind of chutneys (or Podi). And as soon as you are given a table and banana leaf is cleaned, samples of different Podis will appear on your leaf. your order is brought to you within 5-7 minutes, and as those super soft Idlis or other stuff appears, another waiter comes and your meal is made complete with Sambar and the normal white coconut chutney.

oh and most importantly, Whatever you might have ordered, just mix everything together, most presumably, make balls and start throwing them in your mouth. This is not a place to be sophisticated and eat your idli with a fork and get a taste of sambar with a spoon. This is a place to be totally Southie, eat that oh-so-tasty food with a typical south Indian fervor, and then, if you please, complete it with a filter kaapi :). Burrrp!

more on idlis and other stuff later. till then, sing my version of the song-

Idli dosa appam khao

tum bhi murugan ke gun gao!
mind it mind it! :)

Gym pori Gym! :D

2012-01-08T22:38:00.000+05:30

one of the main attractions of my current Chennai life is by the name of pink- the 'wonnly ladies' gym which I have recently joined. It's my third gym in last 4 years, but that is because it is the third city that I am leaving in, in last four years. the previous one, named cloud nine was in Mumbai, and it was my first experience of an AC gym, operating in confined spaces. Chennai is no better with respect to AC gyms, (well, AC is the basic necessity for any gym in cities like Mumbai or Chennai!) but it fares better in lot of other areas, and it fares super amusing in couple of other things too.
To start with, it is only ladies gym. you know, it was kind of a necessary thing, or lets say it was 'in' to go to a women's gym (or health club, precisely) in the days of my mom. She herself went to one of such aerobic classes for some years. But my generation, who usually does not believe in this kind of separation of the sexes, is used to unisex gyms, with probably reserved timings for ladies. Both my earlier gyms were unisex, and hence there was a lot of population sweating around, trying to build six packs, showing their biceps in extra tight T shirts and smelling a bit like pigs! Pink is totally different. women do not do heavy machine crunching and bicep building, do not make funny sounds while lifting super heavy weights, and certainly do not smell like pigs, they go for fancy De-os and perfumes instead.

as it suggests from the name, it is an out and out female gym, with instructors wearing pink T shirts, and nicely supervising the clients, and instructing the extra heavy aunties. Oh yes, the percentage of extra heavy aunties is much more over here. and that's not a very good point so to say. I guess the aunties are probably too shy to go to a unisex gym in a unisex timing, and hence i never spotted so many of the lot in both my previous gyms.here they move around freely, have a nice conversation with the fellow dieters and also, share an elderly advice with the young instructors!

there are so many colors in the whole gym environment, with lot of pictures on the walls, the colorful charts decked in front of our treadmills, nicely patterned curtains, the pink instructors, and the multicolor costumes that clients themselves were. and you have to give it to me. how often would you find gym clients,particularly the bicep building lot, dressed in anything from florescent blue to bright golden?! women do it, and it adds to the overall brightness of the gym, resulting in probably the brighter mood of clients during and post workouts. And to top it all, probably because its a women's gym, there is also a winner recipe of the week, this weeks being batataa poha :)

of course, this gym has certain things which I am finding super amusing. (It seems that Chennai has a thing for gyms named after colors. there is a gym in the next lane which is named purple :D) well, to start with, the instructors all wear bindi( tikli), and have long locks. No offense, but i think it does not go with the track pants and bright pink t shirts that they wear. but it being in Chennai, I will probably give it to them. more interestingly, all the instructors and most of the gym clients look at me with utmost disbelief/ disapproval/anger that I do not wear a bindi, earrings, bangles, bracelet, long locks, flowers in my hair, necklace,chain or even Mangalsutra, ever. that's quite a crime in their books, but so be it. I guess they still have tough time getting used to public like me. ( i was happy when I saw a young lady, exactly like me in the gym, wearing tracks and T shirts and totally ornament less :P)
Also, they, as a rule, play only Tamil songs. the songs being played are very hip, modern and popular in the crowd. but I usually get a couple of word out of the 500 being played. the only song which I knew in one hour was kolaveri Di, and that had some Tamil words, so it qualified. I felt so soup! sigh sigh!
well, just wrote about the early days. the grass might not be so green,( and as i start understanding Tamil, the yellowness of grass will reduce! :p) but picture to abhi baki hai mere dost! Gym pori gym till then!

citee sun of shennay :D

2012-01-04T12:41:00.000+05:30

ahoy! so here I appear again after a long long gap, which was there because of lotsa things.
I have moved to chennai, as you can guess from the title above, (if you are able to make sense of it!) and will be blogging from here.
so happy new year to all, and I promise, you will read posts more often now :)

the phoren days

2011-11-14T18:51:00.000+05:30

written on 30th Oct- when I was still working :)

I miss my childhood today. And no, it’s not the gone are the days, or life was beautiful back then kind of episode. Do you remember those days when anything associated with other country used to be extremely special and very difficult to get access to? The word abroad or foreign had an extra special connotation. The land which are miles and oceans across had a mystique about itself. And all that is gone today, at least for somebody like me.

Almost everybody in my generation, when we grew up, had a relative abroad. They used to come yearly or bi- yearly and that used to be a major source of joy. They used to bring chocolates, all those marsh mellows, snickers, Toblerones and ferrero Rochers. This was something unheard of for somebody who has seen only dairy milks and kitkats. They used to get electronic goods, which ranged from electric shaver to a classic wrist watch to even early cell phone handsets. The crazy for football kids used to get a man U jersey sometimes. The cool kids got T shirts, or other goodies which had the name of the country printed on it. I remember, I had a pencil set and an eraser in shape of Australia, sent by a family friend who stayed in Brisbane. The relatives used to get battery-operated games, LEGO sets, and Barbie dolls. And well, the super fascinated ladies also asked the relatives to get foreign chi Saree!

I think telecommunication was undergoing that gradual changing process. First came the internet, then came the emails, the chats became routine (I remember ferociously typing lots of things to couple of cousins in the UK). Slowly the international calls became more of a routine (that means they did not cost much as a bomb it used to cost) then came blogs, the orkut and Skype. And it became very instrumental in reducing that whole aura of ‘foreign’. Just the other day I was remembering, my uncle who stayed in Singapore for quite a long time visited India very often. Often he would send some pictures of my cousin who was a baby then, or when he was traveling, he would get them along. That’s how we got to know how much has she grown up. And now the family in any other country happily sits in front of the PC and Skype chats with the family in India. You can have a daily dose of how much have your grand kids or cousins grown up!

And well, how good is everything in other countries and how bad things here are was a pretty common topic for discussion in the gentlemen of the house. Any topic from the government there to the discipline there to the lack of governance here to the economic polices, to the malls, to the grandeur of building in these, especially America or European countries…any topic would suffice for a discussion of couple of hours! Tyanchyakade na… or you see, the European countries would... Was a common line with which sentences would start. Well, as most of the junta had never been to a foreign country, they had a bleak knowledge of the realities, and mostly, had big attractive bubbles of notion of how a foreign country was.

Things do not hold good any more. The telecommunication revolution has changed our life as never before. It majorly brought down the Indian obsession of ‘abroad or foreign’, giving lot of access and opportunity to the layman. Foreign is still a buzzword, but whatever fantastic notions people had in the name of foreign, are pretty diluted now. Foreign, as a generic term is not much used, instead fine details are known to people. Many boys and girls go abroad due to work, education, and well, the new generation of DINKs also takes a mini vacation in these countries. Globalization has taken on modern India like never before. Thanks to liberalization, excellent quality products are available at all major cities in India. And talking about skyped communication, you get marriages fixed on Skype, and you even have Skype boyfriends. :D

I had a relatively free Sunday at work and hence was revisiting the old days. Just a thought , I can think about an entirely different time era, a huge technological change and it’s reflection onto us. – does that mean that I am getting older? :D

the dream seller

2011-08-19T09:46:00.000+05:30

And the fight/andolan/uposhan/people against govt/ drama/attention seeking behavior - whatever you want to say- continues. For last 3 days, Anna has been rocking. There is no other word. He is rocking the nation, and well, the govt hits the rock bottom. There are so many people out on the streets protesting, that it makes a really great sight to watch. Photogenic- camera-genic, for one. But no no, I am not sarcastic. So many people coming out to fight for or against something is really a wonderful thing. That too in today’s apathetic set up, great. And now, if we are done celebrating/ crying our feelings out with a great fervor, can we flip the coin?

Last three days showed us the dearth of sensible people who have their heads on their shoulders. Before the fast and the drama began, initially I thought Anna and the team was stretching in, then I thought people are blindly following it, and now I am firm that the Govt of India has lost all it’s sense and its balanced heads. It seems that the govt is not at all clear about the way they want to deal with Anna and the team. Initially, the govt is hellbent on imposing regulations on team anna, then they capture and arrest them, then the home minister justifies the act, then suddenly anna is released from jail, then our PM can’t defend the act, and now probably they all are waiting for Rahul Gandhi to rack his brains and find some solution. Well, Probably they were not expecting that it would turn into such a mass movement, probably they never paid so much of importance to Anna, probably they were too sure that nobody will challenge the way they deal with a situation. But they failed. Nobody could foresee the way common man reacted to Anna’s appeal. And now government is dumbfounded at the public hue and cry, and is wondering about a suitable way to deal with the situation. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, poor they!

But the greater and the hidden problem is different. What exactly is it that people want? What are people protesting for? Name a goal that all these protesters want to attain. Can we? Is there a single, tangible goal? People want to get rid of corruption. People want to have the jan lokpal bill. People want to have right to protest. People want to show that they love anna. People want to show that they love country. People want to die for the country. People want to become martyrs. WHAT???? What is it that you want to achieve and want govt to grant you? Unless you can name the objectives, it is very unlikely that you can act as to meet them. I understand that there is a great fervor for supporting Anna, and I also understand that mass protests always have a high emotional quotient. In fact, mass movements cannot function unless there is an emotional base attached to it. This works all over the world, and can be seen repeated oft in history. The emotional appeal ensures that people turn to it in huge numbers. The emotional appeal is what brings common man to the streets, and it is seen in this case also.

More often than not, that only defies the logical base of a movement. As I have stated, people tend to forget the aim of this movement in all the emotional outburst. If we think carefully, we have to admit that PM and the team has got the point. Please understand that passing any bill is a parliamentary process, and does not depend upon somebody’s whims and fancies. You have to carefully draft a bill after a thorough discussion, it has to be accepted and validated in the parliament and then it could be put into use. ALSO, the parliament can make amendments to the bill later on. The bill does not necessarily remain constant. Now, being adamant on your own draft of the bill, saying that it has to be accepted without making any changes whatsoever and fasting if it is not done, makes Anna look a dull boy. I accept that it is high time that govt has ruled like a dictator and is not responsible for anybody, so its time to teach them couple of things. They have to realize that it’s people’s government and people have to have a say in whatever ways possible. When the traditional ways do not work, or got is too blind to see them, the protests happen and they are justified. But protesting so that all your demands are met, I expected better, Anna!

Moreover, team Anna has two ex- civil service officers. Kiran Bedi and Arvind kejriwal used to be in civil services. It is surprising that even they continue with this weirdly adamant stand. They perfectly know how the govt set up works, they have been part of it. I respect both of them, in fact I am quite in awe of both, but this adamancy coming from people who have been a part of govt is weird. Or is it that they are so fed up with the govt that even they want to discard that set up?

I have a feeling that this all is getting converted into a dream selling machinery. It is, in fact. Why has the common man come on roads? It is because he is shown the dream that the protests can change the system. Why have so many, across classes, have joined the movement with such fervor? What does all this extra enthusiasm of people show? They have a dream, and they say it too. That it is our dream to have a corruption free country. And it is one of the nicest dreams, but still. The base of the mass movement becomes emotional, they operate on the dreams that are neing shown to them, and there we see the romanticism. The same romanticism that was present in 1950’s in India. The more you involve the commoners, the lesser is your protest logically driven. It has to have a huge emotional component. And now, doesn’t Anna come across as a dream seller, although in a different sense of the word? Well, India has had many of them. Raj kapoor, and Anna hazare, dream sellers to commoners. Although in different ways, both appreciated by common man, and both had media going crazy after them.

Happy protests anyways!

to Pee or not to Pee!

2011-06-14T21:52:00.000+05:30

is the question, which a vast majority of indians have been asking. silently though. and sadly many the officials have turned a deaf ear to all the silent cries.
ok, leaving the frill and the jazz behind, lets come straight to the point. we do not have public toilets. period. go anywhere. or rather do not. I will tell you where should you go. and no, i am not even talking about the rural bus stands and tourist spots. I am talking about normal roads, in cities like Mumbai. I am talking about railway stations, where millions dwell, about restaurants, where there is not even a smallest allocated to the function and most incredulously, I am talking about the airports!

India does not have public toilets, barring the sulabh ones. and those too, are in ridiculously small proportions. and whatever small number is there, they are dirty and perpetually unusable.Is everybody under the impression that indians do not need to pee, or they have some yogic power through which they can exercise unlimited control over their bladder? I do not see any logical reason that the government or even the private machinery should not build any public toilet.

in past few months I have travelled to various places, tourist places or even the obscure ones. I have used all modes of transport, including the airway. and I did not find the condition of public lavatories well. and as anybody an guess, the worst sufferers are women. men, lets accept it, can and do it anywhere. women, on the other hand, are constantly in search of a public restroom, with a painful expression on their faces and their bladders full. also, there is a feeling of shame associated with the idea of looking for a loo, which puzzles me. what is there to be ashamed about? but anyways, point is that women suffer. and just everywhere. on normal city streets, a woman can not go to loo, coz there do not exist many. on a railway station, she can not go coz it is eternally locked or blocked. and on airport too, she can not go! I am stressing the airport time and again coz I have been through this mission on Pune airport. out of 3 cubicles one was without a tap and other two did not have door knobs. now when you pay several thousand for the airfare and then you buy a sandwich at astronomical prices, are you not supposed to get a decent loo???? usually airport is that one place where the rift between haves and have nots is clear. but in this context, both await the same fate. no loo, no convenience. (exception would be delhi airport T3)

the scene at women's health statistics is not favorable. many indian women suffer from urinary tract infections, and medical experts sight this problem as a common cause. in a city like mumbai, how a working woman suffers coz of this issue is humiliating. indian women can not usually pee as and when they want. isn't that a horrible thing to have? there are already so many public health issues, which are bigger a concern. cant government see some sense and build public lavatories, which will be of use to people? and eventually this will definitely reduce the filth and dirt on the road!? or is that asking for too much?

I know, that in the light f corruption, religious politics, hunger,poverty,wars, world peace, nuclear powers and economic crises this does not get a priority issue. but well, at least somebody could turn their ears to it. to be or not to be is a tough philosophical one, but to pee or not to pee does constitute a part of overall well being, isnt it? :D

growing up -part deux

2011-04-21T11:27:00.000+05:30

its a phase I am in right now. well, we have always been in that phase- right from when you enter your teens till about eternity. point is these days, I have been experiencing it a lot, and in a very different way.

I have already written a post called growing up here on this blog. so I am calling this a part 2. and this time, I would say that I feel I am almost grown up now. why? I can practically remember the various nuances of myself about 5 years ago, and I compare them with today's me.I don't know how to explain. But one of these days, you can frequently see me having a long philo chat with some of my close pals, remembering the old days and having intense discussions about it.

I have always been a very social person. have lot of friends, love to make new ones, love to attend social events, love to mix and interact. There is an interesting fact here though. all my friends, who are close to me in some ways, or say with whom i have shared at least some of my heart's content are older. none of my close friends is younger than me. and the age difference ranges from 1 month to 7 years! It was probably like this because I was always more mature than my contemporaries( wah wah! :D) and people older to me could match my sensitivity, or rater understand my sensibilities and sensitivities. many a times I feel that I have the sensibilities of a generation prior to me and probably that's the reason they can understand me more! but that apart, i think I am thinking too much about life in general. And I am attaining a calm, composed point of view to look at life and all the happenings around. and that in fact in quite contrary to me age. I am turning 24, and I am supposed to be rambled in quarter life crisis. but that has not happened. I suddenly become very world- wisely. I can look at my life in retrospect and make quite a few comments on how naive i was back then.

when I say naive, i have to admit that I am pretty less naive now. the age and the city of Mumbai have caught up on me. And now I start doubting or questioning my thoughts back during 19-22. I was so headstrong and so firm on certain aspects, especially wrt relationships matter. and now, after being in a steady relationship for past 3 years, I suddenly question those earlier beliefs. I do not think what I thought back then was wrong. I am still sure about what I think, thought, do or did. but now suddenly my lens has become wider, the scope is bigger and i become more lenient. more things are acceptable to me. I am not so headstrong.

I let other people take charge of their own lives. basically I let people breathe. Of course, it was never like I had captured them hard and forcing myself on them, but now it's an unconscious way of behavior. and that is why small things do not bother me now. My mind has become clearer with growing up. no doubt, the experiences I have gathered in past few months are also partly responsible for it, but yes, all of this is shaping me. and shaping me more permanently. I suddenly feel that the 'sculpting' age is slowly fading away, and though more open and wiser I am, it is here to stay.

I take my own decisions, again like always. But I also have learnt to take the full responsibility of my own decisions. whenever I do something or behave in certain fashion, I am fully aware of what I am doing, but at the same time, I try hard not to let the 'impromptu' feel go! :) and I dare to say I have learnt to let small things go! ( this could be a relative statement though!)

accepting the grey shades of life and people and relations and behaviour has also increased. well, being a humanity student, it would have been sinful to categorize life only in black and white, I must say. but it's happening more. or probably life was always all about grey, I am watching it with a new lens. whatever said and done, I experience, understand and take greys easily these days. and that probably adds to my worldly-wise self!

not really sorted out, but wiser and thoughtful was probably a very random post, with thoughts spread all over. but it really reflects my current mood. not very stable and sorted out, but clear, at your face and mature! and the journey will continue, I am very sure. growing up part 3 will also appear on the same blog, keep watching the space. I always do. :)

entreprenuer?!

2011-03-15T23:07:00.000+05:30

I know again there was a long absence from the blog. almost a month and half, and I did not write anything. which is generally against my wish, as everyday I see 10 odd topics I want to write on. But there was either too much of happening, or moving around in my own life, that I could have posted chronicles of these 2 months. Thankfully I did not, and today when I get some time and topic afresh, here I go!

people close to me somehow refuse to end up having a typical life. I had written about breaking away from the norms, and the trend continues. well, It so happens that the concerned fellow wants to be an entrepreneur.

He has a great degree, an excellent academic record, and he might get handful of job offers in the US. still, somehow he is planning to leave all that and get to start his own company. A start up is all he is looking forward to, in the recent times. luckily, his parents or friends do not discourage him from this idea, but large amount of people kind of have a mild shock listening to all these plans. why- o- why a start up when you can have a job?

I fail to understand the logic. I suppose th vast majority always consider job as the only option, coz well, its always better to have a steady income if you can, there are lesser risks involved, and well, frankly most of them are not mentally capable of dreaming about something like that. yes, it takes immense mental courage to be able to think on the untrodden path, to develop an idea, and to actually work on that idea to execute it. not everybody has that kind of capability. the concept itself goes beyond their cup of tea. but lets get past that.

I have seen many guys(and ofcourse girls) having that mental capability, to do the above mentioned things, they have the brains, the guts and a zest to conquer the unknown. still the thought of a start up is a total no-no for them. why?

the maharashtrians mostly have been conditioned this way. working for somebody was always considered a great thing in a typical middle class maharashtrian household. IT might be so due to the need of a fixed income. But at the end of the day, it kind of killed our entrepreneurial instincts. I see many parents vehemently opposing their kids if they say that they want to start something of their own. I see a typical maharashtrian family, which very proudly tells that their son/daughter is working for some software giant in the US and earns 100,000 dollars per annum. all good. But I have seen these parents making faces, disapproving the start up that somebody's kid is having. probably it's loafing around according to them, or may be something that you do when you can not do anything else ( read-find a decent job).

I am amused at the logic. If you think carefully, you need a great set of skills for running a business. a business plan, a product to sell, constantly generating innovative ideas, a decent business sense, and most importantly, dedication and immense conviction. and not to forget, belief in self. Intelligence, updated knowledge of the concerned subject and a risk taking heart I am not even counting. For doing a decent job, you need a good CV, may be some contacts(but placements cell does that for you), and performance. That's it. some things like perseverence and knowledge of subject is needed both for job and for business. but it's a relatively super safe game, you have a fixed income every month, and be happy for next 5 years atleast. in old days it used to be forever! :D

now given all this, how can a salaried person be greater than a businessman? why is a software geek(who does nothing more than coding) admired so much when a young techie who is enterprising,, is given unwanted advices on why he should shut his business down? why is there so much of negativity attached to the idea of having something of your own, developing it and enjoying it to the fullest? why are people with typical jobs preferred in the matrimonial market over those who are fighting it out for a start up? I see the security factor. But why are the entrepreneurs discouraged, disregarded and generally spoken things about?

has our mental slavery not yet disappeared? we were great employees of the goraa saab. the tendency to listen to the superior, not to counter, and to be ruled, runs in our blood generation after generation. we were great clerks. were we great entrepreneurs? sadly, no. were we great innovators? I am not even talking about it. we were and are people who are happy living in the set pattern, not questioning, not playing with new ideas, and thinking out of the box for individual or collective good. when will be open to the idea that having a start up probably is more risky, and hence it needs more support and admiration? or even give the admiration that it deserves to a really excellent business idea?

No idea. I have not really organized my thoughts very well into this, it deserves a crisper post, in which probably innovation should also be talked about. more later.

Le gayi mera kaat kaleja DILLI DILLI...

2011-01-19T21:24:00.000+05:30

I am back from Delhi. the title quite clearly says that. and not to mention that I am unwell after my visit. my throat is so jammed that i cant utter a word. and hence net has become my saviour since past 3 days.

I just had a 2 day stay in the capital. But things i noticed in this time were genuinely sodifferent from mumbai or pune, that i really say le gayi mera kat kaleja dilli.. in whatever way. I have been to Delhi only once before, and that too not specifically to the city. I was going up north, and had a halt just for a night in Delhi. so this was the first time i went to Delhi as such. I did not do much of sightseeing, as in that of the typical places and monuments etc( there are zillions of them in delhi). I have already seen India gate, Rahtrapati bhavan, and already had a chance to travel on delhi's metro in my last visit. This time round, I was there for a wedding of a close friend, and hence had a chance to have a peek in delhi's social life as well :)

Anyway, the starrt of kaating my kalea: Delhi is regal. no doubt about it. There are obviously small lanes, the ones where you cant even walk without touching the other person, and I know Delhi has beggars just like any other city. But still, there are no two ways about it, that much of delhi is royal. Big specious roads, well devided, with plantations on both the sides, neat sidewalks, and every half a km, you see a signboard. here are buildings with the architectural varieties, the lawns are trimmed, there are monuments around you, there are structures with a history of quite a few centuries, and may be coz it was winter, there is a pleasantness in atmosphere. But apart from all this, i felt that the nature of delhi as a person is calm and regal.
you know, if you look at Mumbai as a person, you always picturise it as a bubbly, enthusiastic young person, who wants to master all the things in one life, and will strive for it, and will have a life dominated by the clock, and the calendar. the person will be wearing a Denim, A tshirt, and may be a flat sandal. Dude, there are so many things to do, who has the time to dress up and roam around?
Delhi on the other hand is some lady who is draped in an elegant silk saree, with royal diamond jewellary, dressed up, has a smooth relaxed lifestyle. taking things in their own fashion, with a sense of calmness and ease. you get what am I saying? this is a basic difference in Delhi and Mumbai. Delhi has tremendous grace, which suits only to a capital city. even Mumbai has grace, but its of different kind.

we went to chandni chowk- ad parathewali galli. why do people visit Rashtrapati Bhavan and kutubminar when they visit delhi? and why not to parathewali galli and street markets of sarojini nagar and lajpat nagar? I finally saw the famous 'Delhi-6' , the red fort next to it, the narrowest streets, the gurudwar-shiwalay-jama masjid in arms of each other. had fabulous pudina(mint) paratha, chat and fresh hot baked nankatai :)
And we pitied people who come to chandni chowk, and go to McD which is in front of parathewali gali!!!
excellent stuff. something that never tastes as good in pune or mumbai. ( well there are countless other things which taste nicer in pune :P)

well, grass is not that green anyways. i did get some moments of kaat kaleja- not in happy mood. i had been to a friends wedding, and it was the first north indian wedding that i ever attended. so you can imagine the shock that I had seeing all the bling bling! :P the bride, whom i am used to see in her trademark boy cut, a tshirt and a baggy pant, was wearing a lehenga which weighed not less than 10 KG, a thick layer of make up, and a chunni tied to her head with 100-odd pins. I know its their tradition, and rituals, and generally north Indians do have loud, and to some extent garish weddings. But this being the first one i really attended, did have its kaat kaleja moments i must say! :D

and then, the most important point, where my kaleja was not just cut, but torn apart. the sheer absence of the womankind from Delhi streets. and now i am serious. I can understand the absence of people on highways. but small streets? normal roads leading to suburbs? even on metro stations? there were practically no women seen walking, let alone unaccompanied, after the dusk fell. to someone like me, who is born and brought up in city called pune, where women freely roam around even at 11 pm, is a shock of my life! well, it is a well known fact that Delhi is NOT AT ALL SAFE for women, but it just struck me more when i actually went and observed. I, along with a girl and a boy, walking at 9 pm from the venue to hotel, (which is 500m) was stared at hard. and more I looked around, more and more it struck me that 50% population is not at all seen roaming freely on the streets.

what kind of sick dirty society are we? what happened to so called 'dilwaalonki dilli?' where does their dil go when they make the society so uncomfortable for the women? whatever happened to the saying 'yatra naryastu poojyante ramante tatra devata' ( god resides where the woman is worshipped). Is this the capital city of largest democracy of the world, where half of its population is not free enough to decide where and when do they want to go and with whom? The city where women are raped in the broad daylight, where the incidents of sexual harassment are countless, where even middle-aged married women do not feel safe to travel by an autorickshaw, where the women helplines receive average 600 distressed calls every month. wah dilli wah! and thou shalt be called as the capital of our country! I recently saw no one killed Jessica- and I liked one of the lines- "Delhi is a city with power. you need to have power to survive, and everybody is who's who in this city. "
I feel sorry for all the women in Delhi. no offense, but dilli is not dilwali. I know countless delhi lovers will argue and gimme other examples of their heart. But this is d fact which even they can not ignore and refute.and i know i haven't said anything new, but it overruled other aspects of delhi's greatness. I am sorry. a city has to be safe to live, to get to enjoy other aspects of it. and Delhi is not. so, it was the final point of mera kaat kaleja! :D

Mumbai, I suddenly like you more!!!!

26/11- the big fat tamasha of the year

2010-11-26T21:55:00.000+05:30

I am having a range of emotions at this moment. from sadness, to frustration to anger to pity! well, the reason being the tamasha that was today. my morning started with remembering the martyrs of 26/11- the biggest terror attack on country till date. I, like millions of others, still can not forget that attack, my eyes still water and the memories of those visuals which were seen on TV do come back. every time I go to taj, or gateway, I do sense goosebumps erupt at the back of my neck. I can picturise the tragedy, and the shrieks of many. I can feel the terror. every time I see pictures of the police officers who died, there is a lump in my throat. I feel pain. and still, today, 2 years after the attack, I am saying that the emotions i expressed today were mixed, and definitely NOT in a desirable way.

The government and the media, and i will still say this though I am a part of the media, ended up making this day a big fat tamasha. I do not know a better word in English, hence tamasha. Govt held countless ceremonies of shraddhanjali. and media was stuck with this topic since today morning. I mean practically stuck. showing the clips, the pictures, the interview bytes from the politicians, broadcasting the special segments made for today, grabbing people and asking them about their feelings, and so on. stop that! The tragedy that happened, happened. and please take this positively, but let the bygones be bygones. what is going to be achieved by being stuck with the same topic throughout the day? all those unfortunate people who were directly or indirectly affected by 26/11, are trying to get on with life. stop harassing them and rubbing in on their wounds. :( and moreover, If you are really a social institution, and the so called fourth pillar, stop talking! its time to act! wake up the system! stop making this day a TRP grabbing occasion!

and media was not alone. the big boy- Govt of maharashtra did quite a few ridiculous things in last couple of days . one of them was suddenly making the security measures severe. there were police in the locals, on the railway station, there were random checks on the road in last couple of days. and its not that it happens everyday. all of these fellows mushroomed in last 3- 4 days. and when you go and ask them why, the answer is '26/11 hai na! to orders hai govt ka acche checking ka!' trust me, I haven't heard a more idiotic and ridiculous reason in my entire life! somebody please explain the logic behind this. have the terrorists told you that they are going to attack on the same day again? are they too, celebrating this anniversary in their own way?(read- attacking again). and if they decide to attack on some other day( and they obviously will!), there is no need of security around?

frankly, the limitations of the security system were exposed to the world post 26-11 attacks. there was no vigilant coastal security, no updated communication devices, and shame on you India- no bulletproof jackets!!! after that there were big talks of updating the system. apparently, three submarines/shifts/naval aircraft carriers( I am not sure) were bought, and they were supposed to based at various coastal locations. today, two of them are not functioning, coz we do not have the needed technology nor technicians! no skilled personnel and hence, no use of that extravagant spending! the metal detectors on the train stations in Mumbai DO NOT work. leave the other stations, those on CST, do not work. and its rare that you can find police available all the time at the police booths on the train stations. what about that ??? there was a program launched in various cities called 'mission mrityunjay'. it was supposed to educate the youth about what to do in these disastrous situations. what happened to that???
what the hell are we going to do if the terror attack happens tomorrow? are we really prepared for it?

and then I hear that there happened peace marches across the city and they had event management team, media partners and sponsors! commercialization of the emotions!

I feel sad. I don't know what to say when I see that Kasab is still alive, our judicial system can not hold a special urgent trial for some reason, our govt is stuck with these idiotic ideas about security, people commercialize the sadness, and its become an occasion where TRP, publicity, artificiality and crocodile tears are at play. bravo! the Tamasha will continue years after years, and let all the beneficiaries prosper forever!

I fit nowhere

2010-11-15T12:16:00.001+05:30

Hello!
I do not believe that its been long again, and almost a month and half has passed without me writing anything! but this time around, i will attribute it to the life in big city ( i know, lets stop the fuss!) and lots and lots of work. anyways, here i am on a break of 2 days, thanks to my sore throat. the throat is literally in pits, and thats the worst thing for my job. even if I am without a limb or say couple of bones, nobody would bother as much if i am without a voice. see the news anchor has to speak, not dance. so sore throat is the worst thing and hence I am full on typing and minimal talking :D

well, to come to the point its been exactly 2 and half months since I took this new job, and finally feel 'into the groove!' works getting more and more, more enjoyable also, and I have started feeling 'included' in this media circle! Though as I interact with more and more people both inside and outside the media circle, I see two very strong stereotypes emerging. there are two groups in which people try to fit you. or rather, I would say people claim that they belong to one of these groups, and then the characterestics of that group are expected to be seen in all the people who might just slightly belong to the group.

I will of course, elaborate. There is group A. I work in regional media and hence get to see this group more often. I have been seeing this group right from my college days. in my university class, at my work, everywhere. this is a group of regionalists. I do not know a better word, so i use this regionalists. what do I mean? Here, people expect that you are deeply into all the regional literature( esp the one from downtrodden), deeply into the regional journalism, know lot of inner secrets of this circle, cant speak decent English AND BOAST about it, are not really familiar with the latest happenings in this globalized, tech savvy world, and again BOAST ABOUT IT. Its taken for granted here that you have a very strong political view, you hate the channels like zoom and MTV, and understand all the very prayogik abstract poetry.
Now, I do not intend to put all the regional media men in this category, but i guess 70% would agree that they have many of these qualities, ( some may have all!) and at the back of your mind, you do expect a marathi patrakar to be like this.
my question is- why?? well, now I do have certain qualities from above like deeply into regional literature, and do like the abstract art up to certain extent, and well, do dislike the zoom phenomenon to certain extent. but hey, I do not have a very very strong political view( you can say which is bad, i dunno), I am aware about lot of latest facts from around the world, and I MOST DEFINITELY have a good command over English. In fact, for past some years, I have been expressing only in English through my blogs. I do not like to pose as a typical patrakar with a kurta, and do have an ipod. and if that does not fit the bill of being a marathi patrakar, I am sorry, but I can not help it!

and then there is this other gang- 'you know, media and all'. they are the ones who have lost the touch with all their regionality, watch nothing except V, HBO, star world, Zee cafe, and sometimes zoom and some hindi GEC. they will stare at you blankly if you tell them about an old Hindi song, or a great regional work of art and literature. they will stare more if I say I do not drink, even socially, and I am engaged to the only guy I have dated. They will ask me what's marraathee news yaar? we really do not watch 'ghati' things. they almost faint when they hear me being equally fluent in both English and Marathi, in fact having a proper marathi accent so to say.
so I do not fit the bill here as well. the new age, hep media gang. will not be very inclusive of me. coz for them I might represent some of the 'passe' values, and for the regionalists, i might be out of place coz i do not have lot of those stereotypes. My only question is, why categorize? why label? why cant we treat everybody as individuals having a mixture of lot of attributes? why cant we understand the fact that any person IS a member of more than one group at the same time? and why cant we stop making stereotypes??

all my fellow media men, and all my just fellows, do tell me. Even if nobody does, i will continue writing about it, but if you do, the chances are that the future posts will have less amount of questions! :)

wheres the fun trip?!

2010-10-12T19:55:00.000+05:30

I moved to Mumbai a month and a half ago, as stated in my earlier post. and I must say that well, i am turning mumbaikar..slowly. why? well, i do not sweat as much i used to in the first week, and i have sorta understood how to push your way into a local. apart from that, i am also getting used to the fact that i am staying out of home, and have to do all the shopping all alone. ALL. the range of things that I bought in last few days in huge- right from a street side top, to grocery, to USB modems. I have also traveled home just for a day, had my schedule jam-packed, and did all those imp things that i had to do(read dentist and a haircut)

but you know what, it just struck me right now that its been ages since i had a fun trip. an outing. with family or friends. actually with friends. well, i have had a one day trip to mahabaleshwar in may with friends, and it was amazing i must say. :) but still, not all of us were present on that trip, and it was not a long 3- day outing. it's just that lot of my other friends( not my usual gang) are going to so many places. and thanks to the telecommunication revolution, you talk to them while they are on their trip, and you do see pictures instantly on FB. beautifully shot pictures. I am happy for my friends, and i know that even they do not do it very often, and i know that even they do not do these outings very often, but still- i have a craving- i want to go on a trip too!
with my usual gang, the outing scene has always been non existent. reason? nowadays our schedules do not match to the slightest. all of us work now. most of them have Sunday offs, which they usually want to spend with their families,and even if they are ready for a Sunday outing, poor creatures like me and shraddha exist. I do not have a Saturday Sunday off(and i do not live in pune anymore) and shraddha might just have some research work in her lab( like counting how many flies are there!. well, this has been only now. 3 years ago, when all of us were studying, schedules were easier, but restrictions were all the more. it really really took looooooot of time, and pestering, and buttering and crying to finally convince your parents for a night out or a one day trip. now that parents think that we are sufficientlt grown ups, they do not argue much, but our schedules are not kind. ha!
so at the end of the day, i still remain a fun trip-less. I know that probably once we all are married, we have all the control on our lives, and probably can jointly chalk out the dates for holidays. but frankly when you get married, the chances of having random things done with your friends also get pretty less.right?
well, it usually does not bother me much. i do have some amazing holidays, just like the last year's Sikkim trip with my family. but with friends, it is different. and i am so longing for that fun trip. probably it's just that i am missing them as now i do not see them often , and that's why i am longing for the holiday more. but whatever, i hope to get a fun trip soon. till then, i will keep on planning the trip and picturizing all the fun that we will have over there :)

new phase AGAIN!

2010-09-26T05:56:00.000+05:30

things happened so fast! I was about to get settled in the new house lifestyle, and i get a job offer. not one, two! after great discussions, thoughts, analysis and so on, i decide to take one of them. and then, i move out of the house! I come to the big bad city in the world- mumbai!!!!

of course, for the job. my family did not ask me to leave the house, nor did I elope :P. I work in such an industry, that every thing BIG is happening in Mumbai. the media hub is Mumbai. right from Bollywood, to ad world, to newspapers, to TV channels, to corporate communication- everything is in Mumbai. and well, the fact remains that Pune is way too close to Mumbai, so they will never build another office/branch in Pune, for the convenience's sake! So doing something considerably big in my field would mostly mean that I shift to Mumbai. which I did. I do work in this big TV channel now, (have a media card, might mean some privileges ) and generally get uber excited reactions from people.

I have not yet explored the city that much though. I mean c'mon, Mumbai is one of the most crowded, and most glamorous cities of the world. its been 25 days that I am here, and iI have not explored a single thing. the sightseeing places I am saying. well, otherwise I am exploring some things as listed below:

1. traveling through Mumbai locals is way damn cheap! although, it is injurious to health. best case scenario, you just sweat. (which you anyways do) you worst case scenario, you die. but trust me, never found anything cheaper, and faster than the fast local train in Mumbai! Of course, i am all ga-ga over it coz I dont have to travel too much. its just 3 stations for me. people who travel like 23 stations would swear that local train is the most dreadful thing that has happened to them!

2. this season- the month of September is better in Mumbai. the monsoon is slowly ending and the October heat has not yet started. you do sweat of course, that's the constant thing in Mumbai. but its better than rest of the year. you might even encounter a breeze! and i do, from the top floor of my office!

3. the sea looks awesome, even though it is filthy in reality. but you go there in the night, you get super cool breezes, and you experience the sheer vastness. you know what, many of Mumbai skylines look very beautiful because of the sea. as in, after some buildings, there is a big vast vacuum- the sky is not filled( coz sea is there!) but the emptiness of the sky adds up to the grandeur of the whole skyline. my office is quite close to sea. I directly get a glimpse from the top floor of the office. and in the night, it looks marvelous! :D

4. the grocery is priced pretty high, and the clothes, super cheap! linking road, hill road, colaba causeway, fashion street and Dadar- jai ho! esp at colaba causeway, you get a cheese tomato sandwich at 95 rs, and a white t shirt at 100 rs!! :)

5. people are helpful. they generally guide you about the routes, convenient buses or trains and other stuff. since everybody sails in the same boat where daily life is a hassle, you do help people i guess. I also suspect that many of mumbai men are sex starved ( the way they look at you) but about that, some other time.

I am sure by end of this year i will list at least 100 things. I have never been out of Pune for job/education. and i am sure it is going to teach me lot of things. my posts will continue, and i promise my blog frequency will improve! :) watch the space :P

moving to a new place- an introspection!

2010-07-23T12:49:00.000+05:30

moving from one house to another is our favorite activity. For first 12 years of my life, we stayed in a big house. I moved from that at 12, then to another house at 13, then back to the original big one at 15, then the one bought newly at 16, then one more bought newly ( no 2) at 18 then back to the newly bought-I at 21 and now finally again another one bought newly (no 3) at 23 :D.
So you get the chaos. only it wasn't that chaotic. :) all the houses that we stayed in were really good to us, as were to them :) well, there were things like occasional infestations of cockroaches, and overflowing tap resulting into a water filled bedroom! but largely, the stays were as pleasant as it could get! :)

after looking at this record, you will realize that i never spent time more than 5 years at one place. In fact, my college was the place where i spent five years in a row! Its generally observed that the more time you spend at a place, the fonder you become. you grow close to that place itself, it becomes part of your identity. My grand mom stays in old city, for last 30 years, and now for me, the old part of pune has become synonymous to her! :) But nonetheless, I feel that i am extremely close to all the houses that i stayed in. especially the last 2. And then i think why did i grow so close to these?I know. . I was 'of age' when i stayed in these two. i basically remember all my stay, i was mature to understand the world, and you know, it was an age where maximum things happen to you- your late teens and early twenties! (part-I. the part II is 24-30)

I went to college, i chose my courses, I participated in various things- right from volunteering for ugly occasions to winning magnificent trophies, I learned. I learned about how the world works, how big IS the world, how to deal with people. I closely understood human nature. I wrote. I made career choices. I made friends. I fought with some of them. I had lovely chats with parents. I had family occasions. I had family's worse moments- including surgical procedures, emotional lows and untimely deaths. I fell in love, started a happy relationship and eventually got engaged. So many things important to me happened in these 2 houses. I developed as a person. I grew up. And all these while these two houses were with me. I strongly believe that the house has an impact on you. positive-negative, whatever. I am pretty emotional person. And hence, i did grow attached to these two houses. they have a big place in my heart :)

I am moving to a different house now. Its a bit far from this house- around 8 kms. The house is ready. furnished, painted and fitted. We started putting up the piled things at their own places. bits and pieces of things are halfway through. it is estimated that i will be there from 1st august. The house is superb, BIG, nicely located and still has nice view. I am definitely looking forward to the stay there. But its true that it will take me some time get adjusted over there, and grow attached to it. Also, I will have lot of new things happening in life while at that house. career shaping and marriage- important ones perhaps. And when i leave the house to go to my husbands place, i will be equally sad, i am sure. all in good time though.

so currently I am in movers and packers shoes. wish me good luck, and a happy stay and tons of fond memories in that place as well! adios! :)

an evening in pune

2010-07-07T16:59:00.000+05:30

yesterday evening was nice. rather the day itself was nice and productive and sweet! why? couple of reasons.
one year anniversary of our engagement :D with no sign of marriage happening soon :D :D
and i made something in bits and pieces at my editing class. well, i go to my friend for it, and its not a big deal that i can do a little bit of video editing- but still, a small yay! for my efforts :D

but apart from that, i walked down FC road yesterday evening, and saw a different so to say- flavor- of the road. its usually a colorful, busy, young and screeching road, with lot of attitude, lot of westernization, and lot of bubbling bursting multilingual heterogeneous youth. yesterday the road was still colorful, very busy, people rushing, but still, no westernization, no screeching, and attitude of a different kind. there were no vehicles on the road as they were being stopped and road was being vacated. people, most of them middle aged, traditional middle class or even lower middle class maharashtrians, were standing all along the way in big mobs and bigger excitement. rather spiritual one, you could say. or, with devotion, you should say. the reason being the annual pandharichi wari has started, and the palakhi was going to pass from the road.

well, i am not a newbie in pune, i have been witnessing this phenomenon for past 23 years- that is all my life. But i must say that every year i find deeper and deeper things in there and realize something that hasn't been understood till then. i saw the aam aadmi. the one who, despite the ever growing problems, doesnt change his old idols and the feelings. I saw the rich cultural hertage. i saw how can devotion change people. i saw the most unprivileged class of society walking all along till pandharpur. i saw that some of youth IS taking active part in waari and i also saw that doing video coverage of waari has become an 'in' thing.

i saw the innocent faces of really young kids who were brought by the parents to see and if possible, touch the paalakhi. i saw people who were stuck in connecting lanes( WHO MUST HAVE NOT WATCHED THE NEWSPAPER TO KNOW THAT THE ROAD IS GONNA BE CLOSED FOR SOME TIME) murmuring how all these processions should be banned. they destroy traffic. i saw lots of 'wanna be politicians' trying to shine it off. i saw the faces of politicians glaring from various hoardings wishing waari and all the devotees.
I also saw a well known pune based young singer, who was walking on FC road, to catch a glimpse of waari, and i felt nice. i saw that at least sometimes, celebrities do act like normal humans. and once i passed this whole stretch of road, i also saw people who were oblivious to all these thing happening and burried in their coffees/ icecreams/earings shopping. well, they ofcourse do make an interesting element in all this. after all, the entire universe cannot be centred around any one thing. there gotta be some people like it.

where was I? lets say, i was not a part of the real mob, nor did i wait there to watch paalakhi. but i walked down the road in those interesting 15 mins, in which i witnessed a world of feelings, concerns, emotions, people. in short, i became a common man in R K Laxman's cartoons. the one ho is present everywhere and the one who does not talk or act, but silently observe. and probably sings- an evening in Pune!!!

you could not walk the ramp called life !

2010-06-26T23:27:00.000+05:30

another day. another model committed a suicide. why? why? why? apparently they could not cope up with the pressures life puts them under. hence they preferred to put a final full stop to it. whatever. my point is, does the name fame and money make you so weak??

model named viveka babaji hanged herself yesterday. that's third well known Indian model to have committed a suicide after nafisa joseph and kuljeet randhawa. what goes wrong? you work had to come in the industry. you start modeling from early age. from early college days preferably. you struggle hard and harder. unending shoots, ramp walks, shows, assignments, fashion coordinators, agents, hotels, parties and socializing. what nex? where does the thing go wrong?

the movie 'fashion' tried to portray the early rise to the top and then the fall and loneliness of a model. personally, i couldnt understand what exactly went wrong in all their lives. probably the director didnt show, or i couldnt grasp. anyways, thats not the point. the point is that why the hell would somebody turn so lonely, antisocial, and depressed after a hell lot of a fame and money?

i know money cant buy you happiness. well, frankly, nothing can. the ones who do not have money, crave for it, thinking they can buy everything that akes them happy. the problem is that happiness does not exist. you can not touch, feel or see it. let alone buy. your heart decides that it is happy, and then you are happy with whatever frugal things you have. and if it decides not to, the palaces cant make you happy.

now, if its this way, how will our heart feel that it is happy? no idea. no answer. it just comes from within i guess. its probably a horrible irony of life. the have nots thinking that money buys them happiness and the super haves spending money in search of happiness and still not finding it. you know what, somewhere i feel it is better to be poor and not famous in a way. why? becausee then your hope and your dreams do not leave you. when you have everything, the hope and the dreams die. when you have everything, there is no thrill, excitement and dreams in life. and life, becomes void. thats probably the only explanation of why do rich and famous do it. the lack of dreams.

folks, even if we all become super rich and famous, i wish that our hope and our dreams do not die. that's probably the only way to keep your sanity, and walk the ramp called life gracefully!

the break

2010-06-17T16:42:00.000+05:30

so! Its been a while since i wrote- i have stopped getting comments by the day..and i am very very angry about it! no interaction..no talk..no feedback!

anyways, the point is that i am on a break. It has been 3 months since i left my job, and sat at home( well not practically, but yes, for conversational terms, yes) and i have been enjoying the break. i do not remember a time in which a did not have a routine. I had internships in my University holidays, and other activities like German class in my college holidays. yes, all the entrances in my post final year holiday. so, in many ways, this was a unique break for me. this is just one of them.

secondly, and more importantly, i had a twist given to my personal and professional life. well,personal ,not so much. I am still engaged to the same guy :P but professional? whoa! a good one though. I studies for GRE till april end and appeared and got a good score. now kahaani mein twist. I have decided to stay back in India, not go to the US( which made me get frustrated over leaving my job, and mugging all those thousand horrible words for GRE). but i am happy. it is a well informed decision, anyways. i spoke to some friends, some colleagues from media and some professors. after a string of long chats, i have decided that i am staying in india ( ye mera India..i love my India) and let my career prosper!!! yay! :) the discussions, the brainstorming and other things took too much of mental space sometime, but it is OK. you have to be cool with the criss-cross lines of thoughts and occasional mood swings :P

I also swam. went swimming after a really long time. after 10 years probably. went on the tank for an entire month. regularly, without fail. and i discovered that swimming is one of the best cardio workouts. better, coz you do not sweat. the blue water actually drags you inside it..and the moment you get in water, all your worries, headaches, fatigue, tensions..gone! vanish!

i managed the house and other functions for some days..in absence of rest of the family members who were abroad. i bought new clothes. i made new discoveries about myself. i wrote letters. i went to friends' surprise bday parties. and even if i did not have anything much to do, i did not fight much..so i learned anger management :P

i got busy with the shifting of house, and now the rains are here!!! i love it!!

well, the break was really refreshing. i enjoyed it, and moreover, i have got a feeling that the break was well spent. I have started looking for new jobs( kabhi sabse bada rupaiyya) and hope my new job will be good as well. then i can positively say that the break ended on a good note :)

dental health= mental health

2010-05-15T09:20:00.002+05:30

I just carved out a maxim, didn't I ? like health is wealth or knowledge is power- (or magic is might- all Harry Potter fans :P ) dental health= mental health. and it does suit me to greatest possible extent, if nobody else. Well, i am sure most people would silently agree with me- or even openly- all those who have almost lost their sanity for this cause!!! Here is how i got on the verge of losing my mental health:

I always had bad teeth. And you know whats worse? i have beautiful teeth. (and that's why i give a thousand watt smile in every picture.!) just that they are too bad inside. That's definitely worse, right? so, from the day i remember, i always had some or the other dental issue. Well, i never had an inclination towards chocolate, even as a kid, (which is again a bit unnatural) but somehow germs were so desperate to find me, that they fought their way on through various methods, and entered my teeth successfully. since then, they use this place as their vacation house. :/

I visited my current dentist 7 years ago. before that i already had 2 root canals, and some fillings here and there. i brushed regularly, i ate very less sweets, but oh-so-persevering germs! they stayed, and enjoyed. in last 7 years, I have had 2 more root canals, and i have lost the count of the no. of fillings that i have had. I am now just so used to all that atmosphere on a dentist's chair, the tools, the drill (and the most soothing sound of it :( ) The X rays, The pills, the lotions, the nausea of eating sweets, all is very positively ingrained in my system now. The receptionist at his clinic looks at me with the most patient and sympathetic smile on her face.

we all meet some of our relatives only occasionally.the germs strike the timing so beautifully that i ALWAYS have some or the other problem going on whenever i meet some of my relatives. i meet them only after some months, and really, their has been no window of more than six months, when i did not have a dental problem. I recently had a RC to an already capped tooth! imagine putting a hole in that metal cap, and then doing all that work with an excruciating pain hitting you all the while :D. AND ON THE TOP OF IT, a week after my new RC, the gums are sensitive again :D
HURRAY!!!

do you see the maniacal laughter? :P now you see the slow but steady way to losing your mental health? after all this ordeal, i bet you would lose at least 10% of the mental health! I suggest that they obligatorily put up a counselor or a psychiatrist at every dental clinic. Poor counselors will also have a job, and moreover, poor deranged like me will have a helping hand! I also suggest that we combine the dental health day (whenever it is) with the mental health day(Oct 15). spend a lot on the advertising, and let every other kid know about it. ultimately, it is one of the solutions to better mental health, isn't it?

take care of your dental health dears! mental health will be alright all by itself! :D

The green and the green

2010-05-10T11:39:00.000+05:30

Hello Hello...its been too long since i was visible/discernible in this space. I was busy in doing a comparaitively useless task named GRE. But now i am happily outta it, resumed my fav task :)

well, the things which make me smile are not much right now. It is arid, hot, burning, sultry..whatever! Pune is *&*&^%^%$^%$%#**&^%*$# HOT! go out in the sun for ten mins and all you become is drowsy and parched. I know, the heat wave is particularly fierce in this regions of the country, but to add to the misery, Pune is losing most of its green cover. Here are some things i noticed/came across/heard in last 10 days

1. when the 'oh so prestigious' CYG happened in pune in 2008, 119 trees- Big-ghane ped- like banyan and peepal- were cut down on baner-balewadi road. Isn't this an outrageous no? have we ever thought how much of human and natural effort was wasted in several hours? How many years would a tree need to become a big one like the original? We needed just a day to cut them down. AND even that would have been ok if the trees were replanted. I perfectly understand the desire of our politicians to showcase pune's roads as the big, smooth, international standard types. so it is given that the trees have to go. How else would the road look like that? but did anyone bother to replant these trees anywhere else? well, it is not a secret that the tree can be dug out with its roots intact and then planted elsewhere..why did not they do it? We just see the roads widened..did we ever think where are all these trees?

2. i stay on FC road. I observed that in last few months- especially after the one way was implemented, road has lost some small trees- not the big ones- but there were some small trees all along the road- the are gone!!! where? who did cut them down? and when??? and what can we do about it???

3. The area which is the backside of wakdewadi- there is a major cut down happening. It was all over the newspapers a couple of weeks ago. As expected, this was done for some construction purposes. XYZ builder did it. it turns out that nobody had granted him permission to cut the trees down. still, right under everybody's nose, in open sunlight, he cut them down. nobody pays any attention, and n no of such cases keep on happening. And now i cant even look out of my balcony in the afternoon, so can't many people, as it is just so blazing! you cant look out because of the sun! WHY don't we realize that this is the result of the decreasing green? Pune used to be covered with green- if not like konkan- at least some green cover was definitely existing. Please tell me areas apart from University, model colony, koregaon park , which have thick green cover. Look at baner. balewadi, hadapsar, Satar road, Kalyaninagar, Yerawda, pune-mumbai highway- do you realize that there is so less presence of green???

WHY? WHY?? WHY??

its obviously because of the other green. The money, honey! Cut the trees down, build houses so that people who need housing eternally will buy them. Cut trees down, and widen the roads, so that some more fund from the taxpayers could be used under the pretext of improving the infrastructure of the city. Cut more of them down, and build malls, which is where the moolah rules. Oh yes, and dont ever plant them again. If we plant them again, we ourselves are wasting the efforts now, aren't we? forget about the natural green. Be happy with this brighter, shinier and more useful green. be blind to the increasing heat. be blind to the environmental change. Be blind to everything concerned with our own environment. ignore it, if possible. Show me the money- its all about money honey!
and then what next?

I perfectly agree with this mall verse i read in Singapore( which is pretty green country btw):
only after the last tree has been cut down
only after the lat river has been poisoned
only after the last fish has been caught

man will realize
MONEY CAN NOT BE EATEN.

best of luck, you all. choose the green wisely!

i contribute to this too!

2010-03-24T15:07:00.000+05:30

hey all!
do check out this one: i contribute to this as well. www.photonarratives.blogspot.com
and as one reader commented, the 'campen' combination will surely seem interesting!

the new ideas

2010-03-17T12:17:00.000+05:30

Hello Hello hello!!!!
i know its been quite quite quite a while since i wrote my last post. three months almost. i was invisible or inactive whatever...due to lack of time..i was barely living. and now once again, i am ready to blog! yay!
so..i have been realizing the changed and funny ( i find them funny) ideas about concepts. like relaxation.
firstly, I dun have those geek concepts about how to use your free time to be a better human etc. i adore people who work for NGOs in their free time, but all that i am saying is its ok if you spend your time practically doing nothing and sitting idle.
but recently i have been experiencing the ideas of relaxation totally changed. or may be i am in a company of people for whom the idea of relaxation or may be- fun at holiday is just just just boozing.I perfectly understand that there are people for whom boozing is quite a regular activity, and though i am a non-drinker i have never been against boozing. but dude, coming to a beautiful spot after journey of some hours, and what all you do there, is just booze. carry it with you if possible. if you dont have it with you, go look for places where you will find one. go roam around the entire village. dude, you can do soooo many things in that time. again, i am not preaching, but the hours which you have wheedled outta your tight schedule, may be couple of days where you can sit back and just do nothing, or may be something which you do not do in your schedule ( like sleeping and doing nothing :D)..use that precious time in that! whats with the perpetual boozing and just not doing anything else??????
whats more is people do tend to forget that one does not necessarily get a stock of drinks ready in every corner of the world that one goes. true especially with the small villages. villages usually dont have a free flowing alcohol 24/7 like a city. or they might not have drinks of your choice. or there might be something in the village due to which not all keep a stock ready. every place is not your city! there are some other ways in which the village society behaves. and then you cant crib about the lack of so called 'hospitality' just because they are unable to provide you with high end label of your choice!!
this whole outburst might be coz i am a non drinker and like to do lotsa things which i dun do otherwise. like sleepng and doin nothing! but yah..like going after a flock of sheep! or sitting near the well, or even learning how to cook a certain local variety of food or just playing in sand on beaches.. and if this sounds too bookish, typical, boring/ kiddish to people, i am ok with it! :D it does not harm being a kid you see :P

another idea i am finding changed is that of celebration. pages and tons has been written on this whole new style in which we celebrate. its such a complicated concept. really. on one hand, we have big celebrations for the minutest reasons. like we met a friend after 3 weeks. or like today s the day when h proposed to me 6 weeks back. its perfectly alright. again. its individual choice. but the occasions which we never used to celebrate are celebrated in larger than life way. sankashti chaturthi. its a fasting day every month, and most of us do keep normal fasts during the day. now, i saw a procession the other day near my house, a public pooja
and practically extorting the contribution money. really? for sankashti chaturthi? its ok to be happy that today is sankashti chaturthi. but extorting the money for public fund??? and this is just an example. i am sure this holds true with every other small reason. like today is the death anniversary of some small leader whom hardly 300 people know.. or today was the day when a king thought of having a discussion with fellow emperor- 450 years ago. taking money forcibly and putting up wall of speakers and disturbing traffic- the new idea of celebration.
and on the other hand, where did all that enthusiasm go which used to be present in celebrations some time back? like for diwali? xmas? ganpati? all these days have become the holidays for common man- without feeling much ecstatic, you do some normal rituals and then go to sleep! ( understood coz that u cant do otherwise) and its become days of having special editions and shower of ads for the media. where did that old feeling of 'today's something special' go? or is it that we have become numb towards these personal celebrations and feelings of little joy coz there is excess of the 'loud public celebrations for the minutest things?' dunno.
ideas do change. they should change. just that it hurts when they change the way u dun like it. but khair, u shud be able to see the new social ways getting shaped up. next time i inshallah will be positive about it and then will write a positive post about the same new ideas! the new ideas about the new ideas! i just hope the meaning of the word 'idea' does not change by that time and become equivalent to a cellphone operator! :D

flashy traffic signals?

2009-12-29T12:06:00.000+05:30

Working in media helps several ways. I accept the general fury amongst people about media now, (that they encroach too much in all parts of our lives making it a public) and absolutely not pleased about the fact that I get NO holidays, not even on Diwali and new years. But still, you get to talk to lot of people with flu. Nah, its not influenza, its 'influence'. be it bollywood stars and starlets, cricketers, politicians, socialites, industrialists, other celebrities and even the governing team of the city- the so called representatives of us and the execution team of theirs.

I drive to work through crowded area of city and I have been observing cameras on few signals. right above the signals(though placed pretty high)- almost in the sky. and I see them flashing every 5 seconds. after observing for 3 months,I decided to know where do these pictures go. and hence I called traffic control dept.

Me: i wanted to know about the cameras which are put on signal on tilak road.
Dept: oh.. yeah well..you should call Mr. X^&%. this is his no. he is in charge of all these put up cameras.

CALL 2
Me: hello, is this Mr. X^&%? we got your no from the traffic control dept. we wanted to know what happens to those pictures which are taken on this cameras. where do they go?
Mr X: but how the hell did you get my no? we are in charge of maintainance of signals.
Me:and what is that?
Mr X : that means we take care of signals if they break down, lights go off, polls are broken etc. this camera is not our responsibility.
Me: then who's is it?
Mr X: you should call Mr. ABC.
Me: and who is he???
Mr X: see madam, this cameras are looked after by a company which has installed them in the first place. PMC or pune police have got no connection to it. if you want to speak about cameras, he is the responsible person.

CALL 3

Mr ABC never picks his phone even though we try for 45 mins.

so now, i know the clever sensed what is happening. the cameras which flash every 5 seconds, might be taking pictures. but it seems they are sent nowhere. Pune police or the traffic control dept is not at all concerned with it. the work is outsourced to some company whose representatives are not at all approachable. the lack of communication is evident from the fact that traffic control dept confidently gave me the contact of a person who manages the broken down signals! wah re PMC! i am sure they must be putting some extra tax on us to set these cams up. and look at the use of it.

well, I think I am dumb. had these pictures were being used, I am sure half of Pune will be behind the bars, as people do break signals right under the nose (or lens) of these cams. I am sure as well that more equipments

like these must already be in place with no use. and now I am giving some free advice to PMC.

start giving out these cameras on rent. some amateur photographers would at least use them! doosronka bhala karo..usme tumhari bhalai hai!

breaking away from norms

2009-11-21T10:21:00.003+05:30

hello! writing quite frequently, i am these days. can't believe its my third post in one month, when its not even over! hmm, that itself could be breaking away with the norm.. but the thinng i am going to write is not this! :)

i am witnessing couple of breaking aways lately. first is my friend. he is getting married very soon- in about a month's time. the dude is well educated, has a MBA(oh yeah, that's it!), intelligent and is going to married to a girl who soon will be awarded her Ph.D , though there is still some time for it. Now, what will you do? you will definitely work till 15 days before your wedding, come home in stylish haste, get all your shopping done, and then marry and resume work. after all you are married now! you need to earn. the moolah is necessary, dear! now what has this man done? he left the job! yeah..when he was about to get married, he has left the job! so when somebody in acquaintances asks him what does he do, he says nothing! and moreover, is not planning to do anything for next 2 months-even after the marriage! i know this sounds foolish, but yeah, that's what it is. he of course must be having his own reasons to do that, but i like the courage, and moreover, the clear sorted out thinking and the calm attitude :)
there are couple of more friends who recently left their jobs, without having anything in hand, and are quite happy. both of them left the jobs either coz they were getting really really bored of the mundane work, or they wanted to follow their passion.and i also have a close friend of mine who rejected his offer from a multinational, having a fat package, and settled for almost 1/3rd package, which gave him an opportunity to follow his passion. this all is really an example of breaking away from the norms. and i know hundreds of people would labels these as unwise decisions, but you have to take a call on following your passion/ listening to your mind or heart versus getting behind the moolah, ignoring your inner voice, and following the supposed 'normal way'! you yourself decide what's wise and normal for you-ain't it?

god of small things

2009-11-16T11:11:00.002+05:30

that's what i have recently become. It is weird, isn't it? going for dinner at some cool place, going for an outing, or probably partying somewhere, or buying nice trendy stuff, or say a super exotic vacation at around 15000 kms from your house seems to be an excellent idea of relaxation.More to add would be getting yourself pampered at the hottest spa in your city! these really seem to be the in things for my generation. supposedly these things give you a free time all by yourself, you are relaxed, your brain is refreshed and it starts working nicely throughout the next week. even i was taken by such ideas say half an year back. and I did want to experience most of these things.

cut to today, when i am 5 months old in my office, now a part of the ' gonna get bored soon' brigade, and really really wanna spend my weekends home, or want to avoid tiring trips to far off-as i travel quite much during the week- i have realized that being god of small things helps! see, you know that you just have one day at your disposal. you want to get up late, have lazy breakfast, lazier bath, laziest lunch, wanna hang out with friends, have to put your closet in the order, have to sort out junk in your room, have to call 3 friends whom you promised you would definitely call during the week, get some new stuff for the wedding season thats approaching, probably try your hands at cooking coz you have a whim, read the next part of the fat book, skype talk with loaaadss of people, and then finally sleep! NOW, where do you get time for such kinda high class relaxations?

be the god of small things! find small things in your daily grind, and then, learn to relax with them! it took me a little long to trust that it helps. when i did these things, they worked wonders. catching up with pals over coffee at somebody's house and not outside so that at length conversations could be held. call up a long lost friend. go to a bhaji market to get bhaji. clean up your cycle/bike/car. watch finding nemo on DVD. going to tekdi. running a good distance of 4 km. writing a blog. oiling your hair and then having a good shampoo. eating kanda bhaji, batatewada, and chocolate without worrying about your weight! going to crossword or any other shop and checking out new books. and buying 5 earrings costing 10 Rs each :) these activities i have been doing and i must say that it does help me relax like no expensive dinner and exotic spa would ever do.

nor did i ever believe that expensive things meant great happiness,in most cases, its other way round. but i have been experiencing it now. and i am loving it! :) yay!

hello! ween- the introspection

2009-11-13T14:48:00.000+05:30

the particular monday was no different than others. same hesitation in getting up and going to work-why wouldn't you hesitate if you have to get up at 6 and go to work at 7 everyday? :( but still.. i reached office. opened newspapers. glanced through the last page(please note: there is the addition of last page to the 'page 3' .) spotted Halloween parties pics there!
I mean this is the first time I am spotting Halloween parties happening in Pune. and actually the props, the scary dresses, the pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns whatever- were seen in newspapers, on blogs, on facebook orkut, TV, everywhere. since when pune became so Americanized to celebrate Halloween on such a big scale? or are our media playing an important role in letting know common masses of Halloween? or do they really want to shape us in an American way of life? dunno..confused!
i like new festivals :) time to celebrate is always nice! but all the same i find it hard to digest that celebrating dasra, and sankrant and nagpanchami with mehendi is not so cool when painting your faces in stupid way is. i don't like it :(
or celebrating everything through media is the norm of the day? confused! :(

2009-09-30T21:13:00.004+05:30

I AM SORRY FOR CONFUSING THE WRITERS WITH FAULTY LINKING. SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEARER IN LINKING! ANYWAYS, THE POST IS HERE DUDES!

PUMBAI

hah..i dunno how to spell the name of my city. or..err i actually dunno how to spell maharshtra's capital. or..just that my English has gone for toss. but I have coined this new term. Pumbai is the combination of Pune and Mumbai. i know that might sound boring..gimmme a break or yikes. but that's the kind of feeling i have slowly started getting after analyzing the city more and more
let me make it very very clear in the beginning that I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO AFFECTION/SOFT CORNER for mumbai, let alone love.i kinda dislike or even loathe that city to certain extent. there is nothing, nothing in mumbai that i like except two things.
1. the excellent public transport. mumbai survives only coz of that. best and the locals!
2. and the extremes you get in Mumbai. you can find an arbit stall outside andheri station where you get ANYTHING in the world in 20 rs. and you find the places which are well beyond your reach, who don't talk less than some thousands. but yeah, there is variety! there really is.
but apart from that, i just don't like the city. i am not at all fashion-bothered, i hate the humid weather, i dislike the condition of beaches in mumbai, and i just loathe the no of people live there, and that too in pitiable conditions. And i see my beloved Pune getting more and more like mumbai everyday, and in all bad senses.
i would have loved to have an excellent public transport in pune. that solves half of pune's traffic problems. but sadly we are not lucky enuf to get it. and what do we have of mumbai?

1. the sheer No of people: i know pune is expanding hugely. and in saccharine terms, it is expanding, and growing etc , in bitter words its just being like this obese kid who just becomes rotund and looses the shape and the finer characteristics. there are around 40 lac people staying in pune. and i dun see any chance of stopping this growth coz pune has no geographical limitations. Mumbai ENDS at certain point. the sea starts. pune doesn't end like that. it will expand expand and expand more. morphing into a shapeless city. or probably being amorphous. People are probably tired of going to mumbai, and think it is better to stay in pne, comparatively slightly cheaper cost of living, good std of living, good for education, will get good jobs, safe city, and good weather. what more do you want?
2. the mixed bag of ethnicity, race, languages and others: mumbai is a BHEL. or may be tossed salad. who owns Mumbai rightfully is a extremely controversial question. but whatever it is, it is no more a Marathi city. it has lost hat image since loooooooooooooong. everybody owns mumbai and mumbai belongs to all. Pune was not like that. Pune was still a very orthodox and nice little cozy type of city. jobs came, so came people. IT boomed and so came many many more people. educational hub it was called. and under the pretext of education, may many others come here! and of course, the human migration never happens in vacuum. Man moves with his language and all his other cultural belongings. i am a humanity student and i feel this is a very interesting subject. but on practical day o day basis, i still has that layman in me who feel lost in his own city when he sees this bhel happening. the language of classes was Marathi. it is no more like that. English and Hindi came in. The celebration of festivals was done in more of non maharashtrian ways. The flavor of the language changed. the typical behavioral traits that a marathi manoos would have, changed. the sharp, on your face marathiness is lost and there is this all glossy, colorful and artificial world around you that is increasing.
3. The no of slums is increasing. and thanks to our careless government, which fails to take strong decisions, the no is gonna increase everyday. and just as Mumbai airport is like covered with slums around, pune's parvati will look covered with slums till its neck. And i know rift between the poor and the rich is increasing.

The consciousness about fashion increased. the tendency to flaunt your wealth increased. the flashing of your Ray bans, D&Gs, versaces and jimmy choos increased. The appearances of half-clad women on streets increased.the cases of rash driving increased.
the flavor of night life changed. the page 3 parties increased.
The crime rate increased. the loooong hours of wait in traffic jams increased.
slowly it is considered equal to a sin if you put your kids into a Marathi medium school. only the driver's and the maid servants kids go there you know.
just everything. things like these and many many many more.

i don't wanna put Mumbai is a bad light.but i see these things happening around me. and if Pune is going the Mumbai way, and mumbai the newyork way, Pune will soon be headed towards the new york way. we anyways have the IT guys here, and we soon will have enough no of broken family ties.

i know these things are inevitable. they are not really in anybody's hands. but yeah, the reason why it bothers me so much is that i hate it when cities lose their soul. Pune is slowly losing its soul. so did Berlin after the second world war, and so is Singapore without a soul. Mumbai has lost most of it. and so will pune in the nearer future. I hate it but i know i cant control it. i am helpless. :( i just don't want to wake up one fine morning and discover that all the cities worldwide have lost their soul so much that i cant make out which city is which and then its really a 'global village'. . And hence i wont be surprised to find that its not just Pumbai, but probably Puneyork! wow!

Pumbai

2009-09-23T22:51:00.000+05:30

my post called pumbai over here. please go thru it and let me know the comments.

The man of words

2009-08-28T10:22:00.001+05:30

I guess this is a kind of relevant post to the title of this blog- its only words. coz a post on somebody for whom 'its only words'! Gulzaar saab turned 75 recently..(or 73 whatever.. there is still a doubt!) and i just thought i would scribble how big fan am i of him..
i was zapped when i got to learn that Sampurnasingh kalra is the name the genius was born as. and well.. the image crops up in your mind after hearing that 'powerful' lamba chauda punjaabi name is definitely not of someone like Gulzaar. His looks suit a typical Bengali babu more, say I. and no offence, but his sensibilities and sensitivities make you think whether he is a bengali morphed into a punjabi name ( the opinion is purely based on the positive biases i have!) May be thats the result of being a contemporary of strong bengali directors.. Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukerjee and so on ..well you never know.
i can't imagine a man who writes dhan tana...tana tana.. and beedi jalaile looks like this! To my imagination, this man is a 35 year old semi urban man, and wears horrible pink shirts :P and yes, the one who writes goli maar bheje meinnnn... yeah definitely the pink shirt, coupled with a bright yellow scarf! and for me a man who writes paani paani re..and iss mode se jaate hain.. is a man who actually looks like gulzaar with white outfit, and those glasses.
the man who writes chaddi pehenke ful khila hai and lakdi ki kaathi-kaathi pe ghoda can not be the same man who writes hum ko man ki shakti dena and tujhse naraaz nahi jindagi. :)
Gulzaar is really absurd. is akhon se jab tune chhua..halka halka uns huan his writing. he writes hum ne dekhi hai in akhon ki mehekti khushboo. how can you see khushboo? he writes halka halka uns hua...err..what does uns mean? He confuses you with this stuff. he brings that melancholic longing with jiya jale.. and o saathi re din dube na.. he zapps you with his command over words in every single lyric.
well, its not just the lyrics. it is reflected well within his scripts, his dialogues, his screenplays, his films. Be it izazat or maachis. they are as sensitive, sensible, and powerful at the same time as his soongs. and after this, my words go away coz i just feel like just writing his brilliant songs :) I may write a part two on the sensitivities and sensibilities shocased in his songs. ahan!

Gulzaar actually is the epitome or personification of this saying it's only words! a BIG BIG APPLAUSE and a salute to him :)

That freaking swine

2009-08-14T07:45:00.000+05:30

I am not at all against/for vegetarianism/ non vegetarianism. i never like or dislike any animal on the earth ( man is a social animal, and is an exception!) the whole breed of pigs was never into my consideration except their sporadic appearances on the street once in a while. and still, couple of days back, i was forced to curse the poor animal(the swine) and justly curse the overly paranoid human animals in Mumbai.
we had been to Mumbai. the moment the news was announced that we are from Pune, one should have seen how the manners and behavior changed. we were not allowed inside the office, we were quarantined in a room which was well outside the office, and then put into Mc'donalds party hall, which was well a kilometer away from the office. what a wonderful and chivalrous treatment.
can't the virus find it's way to enter the office through the people who were with us? or is it that each and every person who comes from Pune carries a bunch of virus all over the body? are we some kind of jaleel log who are just sadistically planning to infect all of Mumbai with Swine flu? are we untouchables?? in fact, how can one have the entry denied on the basis of assumption that one ia a carrier of virus..considering that viruses cant even be seen??
my point here is not to criticize the organization. my point is to criticize the paranoia that people have in their minds. Swine flu is not fatal. it is curable, and it is being cured. the gaudy and exaggerated picture media is putting across is also to be blamed to large extent. people outside pune are unnecessarily and obsessively being scared of the supposed out of control situation in pune. i was never so damn frustrated about the performance of media!!!! huh!
p.s. this is a couple of week older post, publishing now the situation has seen many new turns since then!

switzerland of the east

2009-06-13T09:35:00.000+05:30

no, the title is not for advertising any tour operator.That is what Sikkim is called. I am just back from there and have so many threads dangling in my head which are eager to be put together in a decent post. I haven't been to Switz in spite of being to Europe (schengen didn't include switz then! sigh!) but i have seen innumerable pics of switz, and well i would say sikkim is worth the title. IOt has all the things switz is famous for- the mountains, the snow, the high peaks (khangchendzonga-the highest in india!), the specious lakes with the cool blue and emerald green waters, the cattle, the exotic biodiversity, the small amount of population, and the green. ( and ah yes, even the alpine cheese factory that sikkim houses!) sikkim is green. sikkim is hilly. sikkim is calm, quiet and BEAUTIFUL! i have rarely seen anything so beautiful. and the beauty lies in that it is still virgin to certain extent. untouched. unexplored. many of the paths are still not used to the harsh human steps, the surrounding still is silent and not disturbed by the human screechings, the air is maddeningly unpolluted and the spots and places are not cluttered with cans, tins, chips wrappers, cigarettes, polythin bags, pan masalas and the horrible junk humans create everywhere.
ofcourse, gangtok, being the capital of sikkim and the biggest city, is visited by huge amount of tourists. but one could learn from Gangtok how beautiful and well organized a capital could be. Clean and green is the motto of sikkim as every other state in India, but you could see the evidences of that succesful mission, unlike other cities and capitals.
Two thoughts occur to me when i try to figure out the 'raaz' behind this sikkim. one could be the less amount of population( and wel, that can very well be the reason). the whole population of sikkim state is close to 7 lakh. ( which is not even 20% of pune) when the population is less, its easier to exert control over them, and make the state more disciplined. its also easier to create infrastructure enough for all, which leads to stable life, less poverty, less violence and disorder.
Dr. Pawan Chamling is the CM of state since last 14 years, and he has all the seats of sikkim assembly. all 32! there is no opposition! and hence, it is a free reign to rule, but also to think, act, develop, which clearly shows in most of sikkim.
secondly, there are so many hardships the geographical location has put on the people there. the whole terrain is hilly, the roads are narrow. the kids of age 5 have to walk to the school which is around 5-7 kms from their houses, and they do. there are no posh schoolbuses and there are no Mothers dropping their kids to the class. sikkim has no airport( has a helipad ofcourse, but no commercial airport). the tempratures drop drastically in winter. but probably that has made people humble and probably content with what they have. whole sikkim has two cinema theatres, both in gangtok. and may couple of colleges for higher studies, but kids still go to school all walking. life is easier. a lot easier.
of course, i am not comparing the other indian states and cities to sikkim, every single thing is different everywhere. but still you cant help comparing somewhere in your mind when you see just another part of your country, which is extraordinarily different than yours, appreciatively ofcourse. can you?

the debate of Arty and Commercial

2009-05-24T10:33:00.000+05:30

i saw 'ek daav dhobipachchhad' the day before. the fight and hence the strike of multiplexes is still going on, and hence i have started watching movies at home on DVD. 'ek daav dhobipachchhad' is a marathi comedy starring ashok saraf and others. a complete timepass for couple of hours. i do like watching movies which are complete comedy, without much of troubled minds and disturbed consciences. not just comedies, i also like to watch kuch Kuch hota hai, HAHK and K3G kinda movies with its plush production values and absolutely feeble stories.The escape from reality function of cinema is perfectly served by these movies.
the problem arises when i meet some of my class mates. they turn extremely sour faced when i tell them that i just watched K3G. "what the hell!" they scream. "couldnt you watch anything a bit more realistic? you are actually fan of popular cinema??? whats the use of all those film appreciation classes we took?? i cant belive you are a media student and you actully say that you like ek daav dhobipachchhad!" and blah blah blah......... .............. ...............
ok! perfectly accepted that i am a media student and yes i took film appreciation course ( which contained lots of those aesthetics ad critic and social reference of relaity to the cinema lectures!) and we did watch pather panchali, manthan, wild strawberries, great dictator. Bicycle thief, chairy tale and so on. the sole purpose or say main purpose behind watching these were to appreciate how beautifully and logically these films are made, sans any typical masala, how do they really distort the perceptions of reality around us and hoe symbolically the reality is prtrayed. accepted. but my argument is very simple. how do you decide what is the right cinema to watch? how do you compare two diffrent genres of film and say thet one film is better than the other? od even fundamentally how do you keep two different bases for measuring the quality of cinemas and then try to compare???
there have always been two streams of film makers right from the beginning. the art film maker and the commercial film maker. now, it so happens that most of the times the producer naturally wants his film to do well, and hence the film maker shapes his story in a way tht would help his film to get commercial success. pressence of a big star to the inclusion of item songs are examples of this. and there is nothing wrong, because the masses are attracted to theatres with these things, and hence the chances of his film doing well increase. the story also has to be a simple narrative structure, in w way which masses can UNDERSTAND whats going on the screen. surrealism and symbolism and expressionism can find places elsewhere!
the art film maker ( i hate the word- say non commercial film maker or alternative film maker..yeah that suits better!) the alterntive film makres appear to be not so concerned about the business the film does. they want to give something else. they would not care if audience understands what the film talks about. it is never meant for the cheap masses- but for the arty classes. the symbolism is the soul of these films, depicting a true reality ( see wild strawberries- complicated film i must warn!) this has been happening since decades now. amar akbar antony and lawaris and HAHK versus ardhasatya, manthan and ankur.
The whole problem arises when the two genres of films refuse to stay together in a happy mood. or, whats worse is when a filmmaker makes a bulshit and ribbishly abstract film, which not a single head understands and then he defends that saying its not for cheap masses- my film is the true art film meant for classes! who the hell decides that a simple narrative structure is a low standard thing and an abstraction is high standard? who the hell has induced this idea of "popular is not good"?
go to a film appreciation course, and just look at the movies. at the end of workshop there is this overwhelmed crowd, without any reason. they say that "we were watching so useless and dumb films till date. now we know how these films are good, and whats the true cinema" WHY? WHY?? WHY??? and if a particular group cares so much about the general lack of 'cinema-literacy', why cant it teach people how to appreciate the popular films? HAHK or Amar Akbare Anthony is bad and cheap mass targeted movie they say. ok. why?? tell us how to read or see or appreciate these films and then decide how bad they are. WHY IS THERE AN ASSUMPTION THAT POPULAR COMMERCIAL FILMS ARE BAD AND ART FILMS ARE GOOD?

there is also a rare thing here. usually the majority tries to take hold of the 2% of minority in any field. they do not want them to be different, want them to be similar to them, to be uniform. here, the minority blames and abuses majority and says how bad and cheap they are! funny!

the matter is very simple. when there are abstract things like a persons choice, liking etc in question, there are no goods and bads. there are differences. but gauging a persons worth just because he also watches one popular or art film is not fair! i personally watch wild strwberries, manthan, till recent Dev D and gulaal. and i also watch HAHK, and lage raho munnabhai. and my choices live perfectly happy with each other, without one interfering into others domain. or is it the eternal battle between the art and the commerce which reflects in day to ay life, the education and the cinemas as well????

i blog, therefore i am

2009-05-10T16:44:00.000+05:30

quite a preposterous name..i know. this is the name of my research thesis which i submitted just a week back as my master's thesis to the university. on indian urban bloggers. and finally i am done with the writing process of a big fat 100 page dissertation. (big deal, i know i know). i had fabulous interviews with all my respondents, and they were really very co operative in this 'talk about my blog' process.
anybody of ya..interested in reading my research, write to me! i will send it across. i know thats really trivial, but i am still contemplating on where to put my research online( library shelf is not an option i wanna entertain..hmph!) i assure you it will provide you some good findings about our blogger community:-)
apart from this my own publicity, this research has given me couple of more things. one is the outlook. i know thats reallly cliched, but it has really given me an outlook to understand the media creators and the media consumers. has developed a theoretical orientation in myself. has developed an academic concern in me, a concern of analysing the media around, get deeper in that. and secondly, it has developed a professional concern in me.. to work in the field of new media. well, its kinda haphazard to say that my goal is to work in new media, just after a single thesis, but who knows, things start smaller and turn out to be 'the' things which are BIG! lets see where this blog work of mine takes me. i am eager to see
meanwhile, i am eager to get couple of mails asking for my thesis as well, eager to think about couple of more options about the area of my work, and eager to manage writing many more blogposts!

rain captured

2009-04-09T12:26:00.000+05:30

courtsey for the photo: Prateek vadgaonkar

gulaal

2009-03-19T09:40:00.000+05:30

this is a hurried post before i leave for university. yesterday morning i saw Gulaal. i know soon my blog will be more of a movie review related ;) but cant help not telling some of the aspects:
1. gulaal has brought out an excellent lyricist. piyush mishra's lyrics and music rock! his range is from political to mystefying to erotic! be it " jis raat sheher mein khun ki baarish ayi re" or " o beedo" or my favourite one liner- jaise har ik baat pe democracy mein lagne lag gayo ban! "
the lyrics suit to the whole mood of film very well. apart from great soundtrack, he has also played a rajput version of say err..john lenon?
2. it is a heavy movie. and trust me, quite dark. noir. doesnt create a happy mood in you. i wonder why is anurag kashyap so heavily obsessed with the dark side of life! the movie doesnt make you think orrelate to your surroundings like dev d. but it just.. i was numb for some time :(
3. all female charachers are into politics in some way :p kiran's character is very well written- the only female protagonist who is directly into the muddy political ground. the model teacher is more of a shadow- or say in the background. and the mujrawaali mahi gill- tabu's look alike- is more into gender politics! :p
4. KK and abhimanyu singh are the staarrs of the film! KK has a character which is overpowering, he plays it very well, a role which his acting range deserves. his role is across the length of the film. but abhimanyu singh, with his Ransa, rocks even though he doesnt survive even till the internmission! he is a must watch!
these are the short wires of thoughts hanging in my mind. more detailed version might floow soon.. till then, log in to any site and listen to gulaal songs! adios!

rain rain come again :-)

2009-03-14T08:37:00.001+05:30

i hate the poem we sang in school. rain rain go away! i live in a part of country which has rains hardly for three months, that too would not count much in inches. people in most parts eagerly wait for rains. really eagerly! no heavy rainfall there. their living is dependent on rain, my agriculture, my dams, my water systems, everything! i get power cuts and water cuts in every summer, and somewhere the surroundings are hottest by march end- 48 degree selsius already! and i still sing rain rain go away! how amazing!
well, it was the fault of our education system, or rather the education material we blindly copied. our educationists just refused to do indian adaptations of their literature. but well, i recently saw a textbook of english grade 2. it said
rain rain come again
we will play another game
rain rain do not fail
paper boats we will sail !

cool eh? i am happy! thats like a perect adaptation of a poe suiting your surroundings :-)

and to add to the joy, yesterday it rained! rained heavily, compared to teh situation in march. it was torturous wrt heat! hot hot week! (in all senses including politics and cricket :p) but it rained. first, the wind blowed heavily- everything waas hazy- i cunt drive properly. suddenly it stopped at a point. the sky above became darker and darker. . the fragrance of mud drove me mad. and then the drops came. small. bigger. bigger and bigger. and then it started pouring! poured and poured! hah! and i was half wet, but probably one of the happiest persons around! :-)

i love rains in pune. i really do. they are like romatic gesture by nature, not the aggressive one like mumbai( or even cherapoonji :p) probably coz i was born in june, the moth of romantic rainfall! and this morning i woke up, stood in balcony with a cup of tea in my hand and again the feeling of content filled me. the day has started in a better fashion! yay! :-)

dev D- my take

2009-03-01T09:24:00.001+05:30

inspiration for writing this: Mr. Aniket Mokashi and Mr. Tushar Mahule :P
both these gentlemen (?) told me that earlier post is descriptive and lacks my commenets, so here i go..
ok, i once again state it. Dev D is completely relevant film. it really is. in couple of ways i would say. first and foremost, right from the protagonists' external appearances to their thoughts, their behaviour pattern, their internal pathos and just every other aspect of their selves. Anurag kashyap has very well brought out Dev's disconnect with both the cultures, (and his i couldnt care less attitude, which generates through this disconnect in my opinion). he doesnt know where he belongs, he doesnt know how to blend both indian and western culture in a balanced way, he cant make a decision for god's sake and he is just happy in going in any direction the flow,(or the destiny or his own bad deeds) take him. i see a strong representation of todays youth in Dev's chaaracter graph. and i am sure atleast 20% of urban junta identifies with him to the core. all our urban youth doesnt roam around in BMWs, nor do they dope and dope and dope. but the aspirational values for most of the urban youth are represented through Dev and here it becomes extremely relevant. i am sure everybody who watched it could identify with it atleast for a mmoment or two.
point 2: the changing value system: lets face it. urban youngistaan in 2009 have a set of coctailed values which are not indian nor western. most of the times, it is convinence which is looked for while adhering to certain norms. i will accept only what is convinient for me , for my life style, for my acceptance in peer groups. casual smoking, casual drinking and casual sex, do not clash with value system of most of urban young indians. it could be seen in paro's desperation, in DEv's asking her for nude pics, and cornering any attarctive woman he comes across. but still, he wants her nude pics and cant stand the doubt about her virginity! complex values!
point3 : WOMEN! i know the slightly older generation would die of shock or would be outraged at the way paro acts in this ( chandramukhi too, but after all, she is a TAWAAYAF). but she trys her best to get Dev, and when he stops entertaining her, she acts similar. MOVES ON! meets him once again, and shows her acceptance and may be, her affection towards her husband. Rasika, the new character is unashamed of roaming around in cleavage showing dresses, and cornering dev , and even meeting him once he is in delhi. casual, casual! changed morales changed values, changed lifestyles.
chanda is the character which i liked the most, she comes in bazaar with a history, she has her own preferences in life, she is tactfull, she modifies herself as per client's demands, she teases him, and she is emotionally attached to him at the same time. complex, but true. relevant. i would like to write a different post on her later!

all in all i would say, Dev D is a movie which shows that we, today are not black and white, but gray! we always were, but we are grayer today, and we accept that. we dont wanna rotray us black and white. nor does Dev D. and hence relevant. makes us think. makes us predict our future, makes us care about ourselves, again!

Dev D

2009-02-12T22:29:00.000+05:30

the latest song- 'Emotional Atyachaar' actually freaked me out one day. i switched off the television, ignored the poster of Dev D which i saw on my way to university, and decided that Abhay Deol and anurag kashyap are big jerks. come one fine Tuesday morning where i find there is no class and i go to this movie with a friend ..a bit reluctantly though.
well, i havent read the original novel by sharatchandra chattopadhyay, nor do i have any wish to do so. i have watched two devdases on screen- one with dilipsaab and one with SRK. i personally feel devdas -the character is one fellow without much of brains, or rather much of decision making power. he is clueless about what he wants from others, from himself and from life. so all in all i am usually fed up with devdas's nashabaazi, paro's constant pleading and crying and chandramukhi's unsuccessful love. enter Dev D in 2009
Paro- Parminder here, not parvati, is Dev's best friend since childhood, and wishes to marry him. though they chat online, ( she under the name chhammak challo!) she sends her nude pic to him,
they actually start snogging wherever they can, and is actually inviting! though, just like any other woman in 2009, she tries to talk to him, and when he holds some stupid grudges and accusations and ego issues of his. she marries somebody else. she MOVES ON! doesnt keep crying like the old bechari parvati..
chanda(reformed Chandramukhi) is no traditional tawayaaf. she is a young girl, who has a histroty of controversial MMS clip. she practises in the night, goes to college in the morning for BSc course and she actually speaks to a client in french and tamil when he wants! like old chandramukhi, she doesnt depend entirely upon chunni to seek company of Dev.
dev is a typical rich brat- bade baap ki bigdi aulad. he casually , and physically flirts around with the girl rasika(new character!), smokes, drinks, and dopes and dopes. and but ofcourse. having alcohol was a big bad thing to do in way back 1900s. now if you dont, it seems funny! well, that apart, but now i guess the most tabooed thing is drugs. so our Mod Dev starts from high end BMWs and spending thousand of notes, has to see the bad times when his car hits and kills several people on the road, and he at the end is robbed off his money and ends up in a street haathgadi. but wait... he doesnt die! he atlast finds chandramukhi, and starts his life afresh with her!
i would say a well made, well shot, and extremely relevant movie. soundtrack is good no doubt ( emotional atyachaar is ok, but some others are better- pardesi, and dhol yaara dhol). i wouldnt say that there are no 'experimental, arty' bits involved. but you should watch it.
well, it can bore you to deeeeath if you dont follow that. buy i would say it can make you think. can disturb you, can put you in a dilemma of moral rights and wrongs and can ask you to think about our changing world in general. changing world and well,changing 'us'.

the red lounge

2009-02-02T09:29:00.000+05:30

just last night i had been to the movie in this multiplex in one of Mumbai suburbs. i was accompanied by my cousins, three of them. and our visit to that multiplex was planned (AND SPONSORED) by our eldest cousin. had it not been for him, i would have never dared to go to such a place with my own money! the red lounge of that multiplex, which costs you a good fortune. 300 Rs per head, for a movie, which is probable worth of say 75 rs.
i would definitely agree with Saurabh( the sponsoring one!) though that its not about quality of movie that you spend 300 rs for, its an experience. and it definitely is. the red lounge has seating for around 100 people. you have biiiiig red couches. all comfortable and fluffy cushions.. and the couch can get almost 180 degree flat.. almost parralel to the ground. you actually would feel like a king. or may be sitting on a beach in one of those beach chairs! too good. you also get a service by waiter who provides you with any food you want( which costs ! it is not 'on the house'.. and boy!cost much!)
of course, i have restricted my self that i probably would not be watching any other movie in the red lounge- definitely not with somebody else's money.. though the experience ..(to have it once) was definitely royal and luxury. and now a tiny thought, contradicting this is blinking- how about asking a guy to take me on date there in the red lounge? ;)

2008-12-16T17:23:00.000+05:30

smile a while and while you smile
others will smile and soon there will
be miles and miles of smile
'coz its worthwhile
only while you smile :-)

2008-12-10T12:55:00.000+05:30

yeah, we can still remain young at heart though..
i picture myself saying ..hello. i am Sneha, and i am 75 years young :-)

growing old?

2008-12-10T12:17:00.000+05:30

at least 9 of my acquaintances got engaged or got married from august 2008-December 2008 .. i got to know about some of it, saw pics on orkut, or in some cases, had invitations to attend the function and i attended. that's not the point. from nov-feb, everyday atleast 5 couples tie the knot in pune. the wedding season you see! the point is, all of these people were my classmates/ part of my group at some time! now..thats different! people who are of your age/ your friends are actually tying the knot/are planning to in near future! feels that you have become old???
somehow, for me, wedding is often attached to the idea of being mature, responsible, self sufficient and so on. i do feel old at the thought that people around me..of my age.. are preparing to get married!
not only marriages. i wrote a mail to some of my friends some days ago.
we, used to sit at savera, fighting over trivial issues like who didnt call whom...now are seriously planning about life, careers, weddings, married lives, and future plans. we have become mature and sensible . we used to keep note of the credit of Rs. 3 from someone..now we easily give out greens of 100... trivial issues dont bother us anymore..is it?

we used to call each other, fight, curse, refuse to speak, patch up after fight.... and love unconditionally. now ego comes in..the behaviour has become artificial..for many of us, even the love equations become calculated, and less straight from heart. .. we try to look at people and their actions in more political ways, doubt the intentions and start forming conspiracy theories.. if any issue bother us, we prefer to keep mum about it and let the other person suffer..
we do not cry about the things that touched our hearts.. be it a peace of music, an evening on tekdi, a fight with a dear friend, or feeling of being left out. we dont display emotions that easily.
we become less active than we were 5 yeas ago.... and there remains a little trace of how we were in 11th-12th..freer, more natural, less egoistic and less stubborn..and full of life!
.
may be, or rather this must be happening with everybody.. there are yet to be more changes in lives.. and we will surely feel life wo'nt be again the same.. there is quarter life crisis, married life crises, worklife crises, and so on.. we will feel it on every mode of our life.. just wanted to voice out the feeling..
anyways, our favourite saying holds good.. "you see..age is catchin' up.." (but from right now??!!)

the glasses of ignorance

2008-08-05T10:56:00.000+05:30

read times of India- especially pune times and mirror. you will gain fabulous insights about the recent trends in clothing, belly dancing, PYTs wearing chic dresses, relationship's mantra, who's who present at a movie premiere and big fat Indian weddings. you will be happy to know that somebody or the other is launching collection of your own choice, u can get flat 20% off on some designer accessories(3400 only you know..), there is new noodle and salad bar opened at hot spot in the city, which you always wanted to taste, and Katrina-salman relationship may still be unaffected.
now read special issues of weeklies, which deal with super successful and most paying careers. then read advertisements and brochures of various B-schools. get yourself enrolled and you can sleep in dreams of a handsome pay, world tours, chic parties, trendiest clothes, and a 'happy' life.
if you are bored to read this(the chances are rare) scan through the other newspapers, news channels, other weeklies, and some articles by "they think they are intellectuals". do you see some other world existing? now if you please remove those ultra modern and trendy and 'chic' glasses, a world is dying there to get noticed. welcome to the other world.

do you see how many blasts happened in last six months in India? do you see Indian economy suffering from double digit inflation? do you see increasing rates of petrol, gold, Euro and other household goods? did you notice that every transport has increased the tickets including the airways? do you notice the frequent power and water cuts in the city? do you notice the level of water in dams? have you ever thought how would the life be for a man who earns not more than 12 thousand rs per month? or you really cant see? or rather..don't want to?
go to a B-school, talk to the students, and all the concern they have is whether they will get a package of 11 per annum or 12. access the electronic media, and at least 9 hours in a day they talk about the pairings, break ups and parties in bollywood and Hollywood. or about the corruptions and accidents. open the sunday supplements of national dailies and you will find absolutely nothing other than the topics mentioned above. does nobody, really nobody wants to have a look at some of the very depressing realities around?
let the poverty, population, unemployment, poor std of living, debt on economy and politics be. everyone is now dead bored by chewing these topics over and over. but shouldn't recent happenings around us have some kind of cognizance in minds and thoughts (and media).?
i perfectly accept that society is always unequal and functions on various levels. the function of social processes is in fact to maintain the power equilibrium and that's how it happens. but has our every element of society gone so ignorant about the reality around? media is supposed to be the mirror of society-which society is really getting reflected?
i do not have any grudges about issues mentioned above. lifestyles, fashions, entertainments, all are very important aspects of life. they provide you innovation, change and relaxation. but their role in life should be limited somewhere. and it should keep our mind open and receptive enough to grasp the realities as well. it is very clear that everyone can't take the action about it. but let the thought and the awareness, the realization not die.
ignore the surroundings. be in your own world. who wants that bugging thought behind you? if that is the strategy and philosophy of the social elements and social processes, it needs a radical change. and for collective good. youth and media should be aware and active in such situation, but frankly chances of creation of this awareness are still dim.
readers, please let the tiniest thought enter your mind from the back door and shake you. don't take any immediate action as nobody of us can, but at least you will be a well aware citizen. be clear about your environment, and where are we heading to.
else, i see all of us limited to talks in drawing rooms and saying: "
ignorance is bliss. how very true."

2007-12-13T14:28:00.000+05:30

tya fulanchya gandhakoshi
sang tu ahes ka..
tya prakashi tarakanchya
otisi tu tej ka..
tya nabhanchya neelranngi
houni ahes ka
gaat wayuchya swaranni
sang tu ahes ka...

manavachya antaricha
pran tu ahes ka
wadalachya sagarache
ghor te tu roop ka..

jeevani ya warshanara
tu krupecha megh ka..
aasamanti nachnari
tu vijechi regh ka..

jeewani sanjeevani tu
mauliche doodh ka..
kashtanarya bandhavanchya
rangasi netrat ka..

moorta tu manavya ka re
balakanche hasya ka..
ya ithe an tya tithe re
sang tu ahes ka...?

2007-12-07T15:06:00.000+05:30

i didnt give the title as 'its only words' out of nowhere..it is a famous song i obviously know..and more than that i know that words count.words matter.words make it or break it.words cheat.words influence. words are worth a hell lot of things.. [still you can say obviously say "words..worth?"!]
words define. words build. the reality[or the illusion,whatever you want] is created by words.
if we closely introspect, we know that words define the situations for us. situations may not be complex every time..its us who make them look complex through use of deceiving words...and vice versa..
words of wisdom make the ultra complex situation look simpler and get out of it!
and still..reality is illusion! its basically a social construct..[or individual] you dont need to be a psychologist to understand that its you who decides what and how you perceive. you give that abstract concept a form of words and make it concrete. and ten you understand why cant there be anything as good and bad..its illuion!
...and..there are still some places where words fail..in spite of the great power within them..
and then what lies is..music? dance? mime? drawing? :) :)

learning -illusion?

2007-12-07T09:04:00.000+05:30

mass communication is really a mad business anyway. after the entire semester, we are still not sure what exactly we did learn. we do classical theories of communication along with the pinch of rhetorics, we learn physics and telecommunication, we got to know how to "park the satellites",
how to understand the socio-political and spatio temporal contexts of a particular things, how are development and education connected to communication, and for some unknown reason, computer networking! huh!
yet, glossy ideas about broadcast journalism[read rajdeepsardesai,barkha dutt] media planning and advertising[prahlad kakkar , aleque padamsee] media management and corporate communication, were all put to rest. our 'naive' perceptions were clarified[thanx to mr.nakhate!]
we got to know about the reality which we are going to face in the outer world. the good, the bad and the ugly in the outer world.
but... [i came to it sumhow! :P]
there is nothing as good and bad..
the reality is...
and the rest is illusions!