London Calling!!!

So ‘The year-that-shall-not-be-disclosed’th year of my life has started with a bang, come Sunday I shall be travelling to the city I love to bits… LONDON. Whilst there I plan on catching atleast one event at the Olympics… hopefully I get to see the Indian athletes in actions… fingers crossed!!!

Watch out this space for more details as I plan to put up a blow-by-blow account of my two week stay :-p

Mera toh vaat lag gaya!!!

Today is when I let people sing "Happy Birthday" to me and like all good girls, though technically I'm way past the shelf life of what would be a girl, but then if the Queen can be a Bond girl at 86, why can't I be one at .... hehehe, over my dead body, sister, and this is my blog and I can call myself whatever I want, so what was I saying, ah yes, like all good girls I went to the neighborhood temple. 

As I was praying for all my sins to be converted into good deeds (no harm in trying, what??), I heard the temple poojari say to the cleaner. "Saaf karneka kapda de, kal pura tel gir gaya, mera toh vaat lag gaya!". A Translation for my international audience, this means. "Hand me a cleaning cloth, yesterday I dropped oil on the floor and I was ruined/screwed'. Honestly this is the first time I've come across a poojari who speaks Bambaiya Hindi, normally the Temple  poojari can be categorised into the Mild or the Pompous types. The mild ones who do their jobs and help sinners like me to commune with the Gods...service with a smile is their motto. The pompous ones are the kind that think they own the Gods or that they are Gods themselves and treat the devotees who come to the temple with barely concealed contempt and now I've come across a third category the Bambaiya speaking kind. This one made me laugh, I'm sure he must have been the Maria of the Mutt where he trained to be a poojari. You know, Maria, Sound of Music, Captain Von Trapp...the immortal song "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

Normally the temple environment will make you feel peaceful and calm but laugh... never... and normally I won't admit it but, I like corny... corny is good... and this year sure seems to be looking up with the corniest temple experience ever...

Velagiri on a Tuesday...

Two weeks leave with nothing to do can make you do strange things. OK, all my vacation plans went down the drain due to some unforeseen circumstances and all of last week saw me running from Mahim to Malad on some errands or the other and tying loose ends. Come this week it was too late for a long vacation and too long to just sit at home twiddling my thumbs. After spending all of yesterday cooped up at home... a forced break to make up for the hectic activity of last week, I was really looking forward to spending some quality time with myself. 

Of late I have noticed that, where at one point I was quite capable of tearing people limb from limb if they said anything against my city, I've become indifferent to the charms of Mumbai, I seem to be falling out of love with my city!!! Drastic measures were called for to get the spark back in the relationship. Also as I needed to go to Mahim for some work, it seemed but natural that I take a taxi and cruise along the shoreline toward town whizzing past all the places that made me fall in love in the first place. It seemed like a great day for a trip, the sky was overcast, there was a light breeze and even lighter drizzle.

I hailed a cab and told the driver to ply me to Taraporewala Aquarium on Marine Drive. As we neared town it began to pour and the sea was raging in full glory with the waves crashing on the breakers and for the first time in my life I saw the sea off Mumbai frothing. I've always been a sea person, put me on the beach and I can get lost in the rhythmic sounds and could spend the rest of my life just looking at the waves. Today however was different and I noticed that somehow the raging sea made me feel much calmer and my head and its insides which seems to be stretched like a rubber band 24/7 seemed to relax for a bit. Since my mind was calm I suddenly seemed more responsive to my surroundings and noticed many things that on other occasions I would just overlook, for eg., I noticed the sound made my the windscreen wipers, I noticed the sound made by the tyres on the wet roads, it almost sounded like a rainy day composition by a maestro. I noticed the Babulnath Temple which is just off the road, I noticed the beautiful architecture of Wilson College, I noticed Haji Ali which seemed like an island off the coast as the water level rose and covered the walkway leading from the shore to the ancient dargah... I noticed the beautiful houses on either side of the road that reminded me of townhouses from the Victorian era.... Oh what I would give to live in a house like that...and just like that I was back in reality...

Today being a Tuesday the Aquarium remained closed... if it had been any other day I would have been disappointed, but not today, just told the driver to turn back and bring me to the Planetarium, even though I was almost tempted to get off and walk along Marine Drive, thankfully I did not do that, as the moment we turned around and were on the seaside of the road I saw that the sea dumping rubbish all along the promenade, I can assure you, it was not a very romantic sight. However from the comforts of the car I could see the sea, feel the breeze and the raindrops on my face... Till date I enjoy the breeze on my face while driving in a car and that is something that hasn't been bested... I asked the driver to go slow so I could savor the sights and sounds of a rainy day on Marine Drive. 

Before I could say Planetarium we were bearing on it and once again I changed my mind and told the driver to bring me to Juhu Beach instead. By now the driver had done some profiling on me and slotted me under "tourist" and enthusiastically began pointing out to the various places worth looking at, as we reached Juhu, he pointed out to Amitabh's bungalow, Jalsa, I'll admit even though I'm an hard core Mumbaikar and an die hard suburbanite at that, I had never laid eyes on Jalsa, until this day, The iconic Prateeksha yes, but Jalsa never...

Eventually we arrived at Juhu Beach, the new plan was to walk along the beach for a bit and then eat some of the unhygenic treats - PANIPURI topping my list...but it was high tide and there was no beach to walk on... the sea was unbelievably close to road... so I just stood close to the waves for a bit and then sat down on a low wall, built along the footpath and tried to take the scene in... even with the raging sea, and the high tide and the light drizzle...there were other mad caps like me crowding the beach...

It was impossible to get an uninterrupted view of the sea and after waiting vainly for a few minutes for the crowds to disperse I gave up and walked to the place which may have dubious hygiene standards, but serves the best PANIPURI in the world, the stalls by the beach at Juhu, after downing six of the best, I hailed a rickshaw home thereby ending a perfect day on town. I'm sure you want to know whether the spark is still there, whether I still love her, to be honest, Mumbai has changed and so have I, we will need a little more than a day about town to re-ignite the spark and it seems inevitable that we continue to grow apart unless there is a miracle ... and soon...

Caulibappa!!!

This is a post in honor of the kids who have touched my life and who with their cute antics make my mundane life bearable. 

The first story relates to my friend S's son, all of two but with enough charisma, chutzpah and energy to put a ten year old to shame. He goes to kindergarten learns to sing and dance while learning the alphabets and has enough energy left in him after school to keep his mother on her toes. I say this from experience, as when I visited them recently I spent a fair amount of time following him around and when it was time for bed, I was dead beat and died the minute my head hit the pillow, but he was still up and could have tarred and feathered me and I wouldn't know of it till I saw the videos up on YouTube. 

He is a very clever little boy and can identify a number of colours, vegetables, fruits and can also carry on a great conversation with you, if you have the capabilities of understanding the language of his people (Baby Talk). Take for instance the time he came to me with minor scrapes on both knees and did a bit of a stiff-kneed war dance, while muttering something complete with 'googoos' and 'gaagaas' and pointed in the direction of the park. His mom followed him into the room and told me that he is informing me of the fact that while I was out shopping, he fell off his bike in the park.  He is also quite an actor as all of the next day, he walked around the house like an 80 year old with stiff knees!!!

So one day his mom was getting him acquainted with vegetables from his 'Vegetable Book' and she points out to a picture Cauliflower and asks him to repeat "Cauliflower" after her and he goes "Caulibappa". The reason for this being, they have a small temple at their place and every morning she and her husband perform a small pooja and offer flowers to the idols of the Gods (which her son calls 'Bappa'). So in his mind, flowers are for 'Bappa' so a 'Cauliflower' is also "Caulibappa".

The next story relates to my friend S's nephew who is close to three years old and since his father is a Major in the Army, a lot of discipline is drilled into him at a young age itself. She tells me the boy speaks with such respect it is a joy to hear him. Now like his cousin he too is a bundle of energy and quite often does things that make his mom want to tell him off. Whenever he has been a naughty boy his mother will look him in the eye, point to his room and say "Andar Jaao", thereby grounding him to spend some quality time pondering over what he did wrong. For my international audience I will clarify that "Andar Jaao" mean "Go inside". In his mind, "Andar Jaao" means punishment and so these days, whenever anyone does anything that displeases him, he looks them in the eye and says "Andar Jaao"!!!

The third story relates to my friend SM's daughter, she is four years old and is one clever Miss. She can not only speak Chinese and English fluently she can read English words!!!. Once they went out for dinner and stopped at a juice centre. My friend asked her what she would like to drink and she goes, 'I would like to have a Strawberry Milk" and her mother goes "You are very posh, want Strawberry Milk, eh ??". Everyone laughed and then they just happened to look around and found that Strawberry Milk was mentioned on the Menu up on the wall, she had read the item off the Menu!!!

Another time her teacher pointed to the picture of a 'Cheetah' asked her what it was in English and then asked her in Chinese who was faster Lion or Cheetah and she replied with the Chinese word for "Cheetah"!!!. 

Movie Review: Gattu

This review is my perception of the film. It was all about the single-minded dedication shown by Gattu towards his goal, viz. to reign supreme in the blue skies by defeating a kite named Kali. It is a really inspiring film in the sense that it delicately enacts the wisdom in the age old sayings of "Truth always triumphs" and "God helps those who help themselves" without becoming preachy. 

Gattu is a street smart orphan looked after by his uncle who is a kabbadi. He works for his uncle and during his time off pursues his one passion -Kite flying. His nemesis is "Kali" a kite flown by an unknown person which is dubbed as unconquerable. Gattu is most determined to defeat "Kali" and the story of how he pursues his goal and eventually succeeds is the story of "Gattu".

The pursuit of Kali, gets him to lie, steal and impersonate as a student of a school (the roof of the school has a strategic advantage in kite flying, being the tallest building in town). In spite of being illiterate, he takes on the challenge of attending the school,  just to fulfill his desire to defeat Kali, en route he makes some great friends in Honey Singh, Manuj and Minky. When caught stealing books he weaves a web of deceit by saying he is a agent sent to save the schools from terrorists, and enlist his friends as agents to help defeat the terrorists.

The film looks at childhood through the eyes of a child, a very street smart child, I might add, who is adept at thinking on his feet. If you have an hour to spare and would like to be transported to your own childhood, go watch this film, I promise you, you will not regret it!

Great thought!

I'm not a handsome guy, but I can give my HAND-TO-SOME one who needs help. Beauty is in the heart, not in the face! - Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam

Movie Review: Bol Bachchan

If you are looking for a serious soul stirring, thought provoking film you are barking up the wrong tree. This is one mad caper, a film that will put you in a good mood with all the madness that simply seems to erupt on the screen. This remake of the Amol Palekar starrer Golmaal, does justice to the original by capturing the essence of the original film while retaining its individuality.  All the characters seem to have been handpicked for their roles.

Ajay Devgn has the best comic timing and the way he spouts the mad Hinglish dialogues with a dead pan face itself is worth the price of the ticket (I paid three hundred and twenty quids for a ticket, not that I'm complaining, this is just so you know. It makes me think back of the time when I used to go to the movies while in college and thought that the thirty rupee ticket was dacoity, but I digress). My personal favourite "Boy under armpit, hypercity noise pollution", this being Ajay Devgn's translation of the hindi idiom "Bagal mein chora, sheher mein dhin dhora". A truly versatile actor who can bring to life any role by getting under the skin of the character.

Then you have Abhishek Bhachchan who moves effortlessly from being Abhishek Bhachchan (yes, the screen name of one of the characters) to Abbas Ali. Archana Puran Singh is outstanding in the bit role as an ageing mujra queen who thinks she is sweet sixteen, but agrees to portray the role of Abhishek Bhachchan's mother to prove that she is an actor par excellence. Krushna Abhishek is a surprise package. The lead actresses Asin and Prachi Desai are purely for ornamental purposes and as such have nothing much to do in this out and out Ajay Devgn starrer.

P.S.-Watch out for the pre-climax scene ala Karz with pehelwans singing, standing like girls from a convent in a singing contest!!

All in all it is a film that will put a smile on your face!!! 

Book Review: tuesdays with Morrie

What can I say about this book, just can't seem to find the right words... there are few books that touch your heart and touch your soul... tuesdays with Morrie is one such book... I will most definitely be recommending it to my friends...

The narrative is simple like an everyday conversation but the lesson that you can learn here are priceless... 

I won't say that it has changed my life but it has definitely made me stop and think about my life and the people in it...

In one chapter, Morrie quotes Auden 'Love each other or perish', come to think of it, it really is that simple...

A book that just has to be read...

Super thought...

Here are the top 10 ways people give away their power:

1. Asking others what they should do.
2. Thinking God decides who gets what.
3. Worrying about how their dream will come true.
4. Thinking they have dues to pay.
5. Attaching to unimportant details and outcomes.
6. Believing in soul mates.
7. Thinking karma or spiritual contracts are absolute.
8. Fear of anything, especially falling in love.
9. Waiting for their ducks to line up before acting.
10. Choosing to be unhappy.

Understand the truth, little bird, and you will soar.

Super thought shared by my friend, I loved it, so sharing with you too...