Cerebral Proclivity

Numb

2009-03-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

It rained last night.
Sleep was like an unrelenting child,
Refusing her intensely as she tried to hold it.

She kept staring at the cluster of droplets forming on the windowpane.
Every now and then a drop would make its way from the top
And cut through the constellation of droplets.
Like a shot of breeze blowing through a dense forest.

She took a large sip of cold water
Letting it numb the insides of her mouth,
You’ll lose your teeth this way!
He would have said.
Don’t worry; I have plenty of them.
I won’t lose them so soon.
She had told him once.

The memory hit her like an after taste.
She tucked herself back into the sheets
And hugged him.
His breathing was steady.
As steady as the sound of the rain outside.

Without any warning a tear escaped from the corner of her right eye
And disappeared in the whites of the pillow.
She was startled by this sudden intrusion.
She turned the other side.

She felt a bulk on her chest.
Lying there motionless,
She wondered where would he be now?
Will he too be lying on his bed watching a constellation of droplets forming on the windowpane?

From then to now

2008-10-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

It’s kinda strange. But when things actually begin to fall in place, you don’t really feel the scale of it all. As Kalyani rightly pointed out, our reactions are not any different, the sun doesn’t set in the east, the world doesn’t begin to move in slow motion. No double takes happen nor are there a band of ten violinists giving background score to heighten the intensity of the moment. Basically, it doesn’t hit you.

If you dear reader should go back a few posts to see this post of mine, where I have gone hammer and tongs about my comfort zone and my lack of initiative. Now almost after a year later, things seemed to have REALLY moved. I am ready now. Ready to take the plunge. And that’s what I shall be doing a couple of weeks from now. I am leaving my cushy advertising job and entering the world of Bollywood.

I don’t know how things are going to turn out. I don’t know at this point how to play ahead. But what I do know is that I HAVE to do this and do this with my best possible efforts. I don’t have an option.

Let’s see. How far I’ll reach. How many lives I’ll touch in a positive way.

Ek aur zindagi...

2008-04-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Saamne traffic dekhne par bhi peeche se horn bajta hain
Daftar mein late sabhi aate hain, taana aap hi ko milta hain.

Gali ka hoshiyar baniya chehra dekhkar daam badhaata hain.
Boss ko aap hi ki shakal dekh ke koi mushkil sa kaam yaad aata hain.

Train mein sonewalon ko kandha aap hi ka milta hain
Tammam tele callers ke paas aap hi ka number hota hain.

Poora hafta khoon pasina ek Sunday ke liye bahaya jaata hain
Jab tak mall ki bheed mein na pees jaao Sunday ka bhi mazza kaha aata hain?

My Most Romantic Song EVER!

2008-04-08T05:14:00.001-07:00

Lata's phenomenal singing. The mood she's set for this monsoon raga is just so right. The 'harkats' that she takes add so much to the feel of the song.

Panchamda's heady music. What melody! What composition! If there was any music director who with his music had the scene come alive in not just your eyes but also your senses, it was Panchamda.

And if you have the picturization of this song in front of you then it's like a dream come true. It takes you to a different land. It doesnt have any fancy dream sets or smoke machines what's worse it shows a city like Mumbai and it shows it during the monsoon. But it feels so right. It feels so utterly blissful. The atmosphere completely envelopes you into its aura, lets you close your eyes and grows goose bumps on your skin. if you look closely you'll realize that the entire song is a guerilla picurization by Basu Chatterjee. I dont think they vacated the streets. they just had amitabh and Moushmi walk through the city in the rain and they just followed them in a cab holding the camera.

And last but not the least is the young fresh Bachchan effect. The image is more endearing than it's than its romantic.

Mumbai in the rains. It's still romantic.

You get the hugs too easily!

2007-10-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Too much of attention spoils us they say. In this case it’s a bit weird though. The receiver and the complainer both are yours truly.

It’s been a while since I have nurtured the ambition to become a screenwriter. But what have I done about it? Apart from appearing for a Film School entrance exam, discussing countless themes with my close buddies over copious amount of alcohol, buying a laptop, downloading a screenplay writing software, sulking, wearing T-shirts that read – Ek gazab ka toofan aaye, hum ko gehri neend se jagaye, making half hearted attempts at writing, scribbling one amateur short film script, showing off my embryonic knowledge about world cinema. I haven’t really moved an inch from my comfort zone. NOT EVEN A SINGLE centimeter! The outings have been the same. The going out on weekends has been the same. The coming home late from work has been the same. What happened to the clap trap of taking the extra effort of going that extra mile, sweating that drop of blood, burning the mid night oil? The bouquets about my initial writing came too easily. 5 years back I was more prolific than I am right now. What the heck, I am having troubles writing this piece coherently. Whenever I cry about the lack of opportunities, I have friends who offer their shoulders and make me feel that everything’s fine. Why don’t they just shake me up and threaten to abandon me? See? Now I have begun to blame them for my failures. What a weakling!

Till now I have believed that I am not like the rest of them. I can do what I aspire to do. But as they say, at the end of the day you get what you deserve. Probably I deserve this. Ah…not probably, I SURELY deserve this. Let’s see how far I can go on like this.

Words

2007-10-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

It’s been long since I actually wrote for myself. Felt the pangs of the words struggling to get out one by one. It’s been a while. I wonder how the words were doing without me around for so long. Like a fickle breeze whose soothing touch entices you initially and you fall for it. You think it will come again and it doesn’t.

*****************

Words now flow in torrents like the rain in the month of Ashaadh. With an urgency that makes me feel that they almost have a purpose. They want to humiliate me. Tell me how insensitive I was. How I tricked them into thinking that I cared for them. That I understood their language, shared their pain. But what pains them most now I realize. The fact that I haven’t even bothered to deceive them.

******************

Where were you when the pain that slashed through me also wiped my tears?

Where were you when I spoke to an empty room that filled my senses with your presence?

Where were you?

Kana

2007-08-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

Tum

2007-06-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

Nike Cricket TV Commercial

2007-03-07T02:06:00.001-08:00

One of the best ads to come out of India lately.Check out the amazing background score. Doesn't it look as if it's been shot in Kalbadevi? Actually it's been shot in Karjat. A whole set was created. The ad and the lyrics of the Goan song has been penned by my previous boss.(his last claim to fame was the time of india old man-grandson-getting selected in hockey team ad)

Sab chale US

2007-03-06T02:24:00.000-08:00

What’s with people around me flying to the US?

Mukta goes on a US tour today for her play. She’ll be there for a good one and a half month. On her way back she’ll be dropping by London where she’ll spend a week. Oh what fun! Not just where she’s going also with whom, adds to the fun. What with Mohan Agashe and Sandesh Kulkarni for company what else would one want? I told her to have my share of fun too over there. Told her about my plans. Her first reaction was, “Whew! At last! Sutkecha nishwaas sodla ashil tu.” There’s a special bond that I share with her. Even if we don’t catch up for months together, we always pick up from where we had left the last time, the moment we meet. Hope the friendship stays this way.

On a different and more senti note Amay leaves for the US tomorrow. How much ever he’ll deny it but I know he won’t be back so soon. Feels like an era has ended. Now Amay and very soon Mad will follow him there. My first friend from college along with my other closest college friend Mad will now be settling in the US. All said and done both of them were quite a support system. Even when they went to Poona we didn’t feel the distance so much. Times change.

Postcards Contd

2007-02-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

Looks like a dome of a temple, doesn't it?

... Turns out, it's a makeshift pandal :-)

A sea snake in Shankarpur

Fishermen taking away their nets back to the village.

Kokonda- Who helped us to get to Shankarpur

Postcards From West Bengal

2007-02-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

Fishing in Shankarpur

Back

2006-08-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Posting from my new office. Work here is goddamnfreaking hectic. I mean after the kinda laidback life I lead back in my previous office this seems as if I have been pushed into a cauldron that's constantly churning out stuff. So no time for blog updates. Not that I used to update it regularly or anything but whatever posting used to happen even that seems like a distant possibility right now.

Whats on my mind right now:

- I wanna write a play but dont have my concept in place.

- I wanna read but it's happening in sporadic bursts. Not happening;-)

- I wanna reduce weight. I doono when that will happen.

- I have a block right now.Can't come up with any creative stuff.

Khush raho ahde watan...Hum to safar karte hain

2006-06-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

It’s my last day today at LB (Although I will be comin on 30th but still). It’s been a wonderful 3 years. This place has made me whatever I am today. Over here I have experienced times when I was at the top of the world. On very few occasions I felt let down. And mind you I am not being diplomatic. Coz this is the place which gave me my first break. I owe it to these guys. Ohhhh… I am feeling sooo sentiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!

This is probably the last time here that I am typing a post. This was the desk wherein I formed my blog. This was the desk wherein I got all the info that I got…. This was the desk where I came out with my first ad…my first jingle…my first award…

K da…what can I say bout him…he has left an indelible impact on my psyche. In fact he was the one who got me here in the first place. My film guru.

P sir… who has always stood by me throughout everything…been a wonderful boss… Pa sir…always working hard…always up to some award winning campaign…an institution in himself…we had the semi-hug (a la Joey-Chandler style awkward hug) abhi sometime back…

Oh…somehow cant get over the feeling that I wont be sitting here…taking Coke briefs from M…infact someone else would be sitting in my place and typing on the keypad that I am typing on right now…opening the samwe drawer where everyday I used to keep my wallet…

Kya koi nayi baat nazar aati hai hum mein…
Aaina hume dekh ke hairan sa kyon hai…
Seene mein jalan aankhon mein toofan sa kyon hai….
Iss shehar mein har shaks pareshan sa kyon hai…

M, V n S chatting

The big P at his work desk, working late as usual

My work desk

The G gang

Nutan climbing down

Phir Hazaron...

2006-06-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

Saw Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi again yesterday. And again I quivered at the sheer passion the movie exudes. The rawness of it just slithers down your spine choking your senses while cleansing them at the same time. It’s a piece of work that never fails to inspire me. It’s a composition that shakes me up from within, slaps me across my face and then takes me in its arms and lets me cry.

It makes me feel responsible. It makes me feel irresponsible too. It makes me want to reach out. It makes me want to withdraw.

When I hear ‘Man ye bawraa…” I identify with the anguish that Vikram must have gone through.

And when I hear ‘Bawraa man’ I feel its written for me. I feel it’s written for anybody who has a heart. A heart that hasn’t yet lost touch with its own beat.

My previous post on Hazaron is here.

A Thrilling Week

2006-05-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Now…now…now this week has easily been one of the most brilliant and memorable weeks since donno when. First things first, yours truly picks up a metal at the AAAI awards followed by another metal at the Radio Mirchi Kaan awards within a span of a week!!! Now that’s what I call a perfect windfall!

I still remember the moment when they announced the name of the agency and the brand. It hit me like a rocket. For a moment I couldn’t believe it…the next thing I know I tried to shout but all that came outta my throat was a faint croak. It was fun…it was mighty fun. To add to it Kalyani was there to share those moments with me. Ah…! It was bliss.

The best part about the award show was that it was taking place on the beach, next to the sea. Now picture this –me n Kalyani lying on the cold sand looking up at the stars, with the splash of waves in the background and the breezy wind soothing our senses. At a distant Gary Lawyer crooning Clapton’s ‘Mustang Sally’ in his trademark style. While we were listening to Lata sing ‘Aisa sama na hota’. I don’t remember the last time I experienced such a perfect moment.

The journey back from Goa was howlariously sooper. Although it took us 16 freakin hours to reach Mumbai, but we made the most of it. Began with dumb charades, followed by mango buying spree at Ratnagiri(I got the worst deal amongst us) then the ghost stories session which was really freaky. A pitch dark bus going through the ghats and tales from the crypt. Easily the eeriest sessions ever!

Aerial view of the Goafest Advillage that was created in South Goa.

The gang while having the marathon lunch near Kankavli.

The beach

Nikhil n Santosh para sailing.

GOA IT IS...!!!

2006-04-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Off to Goa for the AAAI ferstival. Had great fun at Madira right now. All of us decided to ‘fuel’ ourselves before the journey. We’ll be taking a bus from Prabhadevi.

The trip promises to be all fun n all. With all the water sports and such other ‘fun’ activities.
Shall post a detailed update once there. Adios.

PS: Leo Burnett apparently has won quite a few awards. But JWT it's rumoured is the agency of the year.Kudos to Aggie!

Books

2006-04-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

The year has begun on a highly optimistic note as far as good reading was concerned.Right from Jan onwards have been getting to read quite a few impressive books.

Reading Milan Kundera's Ignorance right now. Another book which is keeping me occupied is Arthur Miller- His life & work by Martin Gottfried.While I am yet to form an opnion about the former, the latter as expected is full of nice insights into playwrighting styles and nuances.But provided one knows how to recognise a tip when one comes across one.

Picked up Burial at Sea by Khushwant Singh on saturday along with Amartya Sen's Identity and Violence - The Illusion of Destiny.Can't wait to lay my hands on them, but not before I have finished the first two books.

While I had been to pick up Saat Sakkam Trechalis by Kiran Nagarkar I stumbled upon 2 of the super movies of my favourite
director - Govind Nihalani; Drishti & Hazaar Chaurasi ki Ma. Needless to say both are fab movies. They establish Nihalani as one of those few auteur directors of India who has dared to experiment with a new and pertinant issues through his creations.Have been trying to get my hands on one of the other gems from the master - Party.The CD is not available at all.Based on a play by Mahesh Elkunchwar this one rips apart the pseudoglamourous existence of the folks in the elite circle.More on these movies probably in some other post.Have to catch up on a lot of books meanwhile.

PS:If someone has the priced DVD/CD of Party just lemme know please.

A new look

2006-04-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

So after really, really long, I have changed the template. This is the third one since I started. Nowadays am not able to find time to post. There were sooo many things to write about, my birthday, the south trip, the ad film shoot etc etc.

Lets see…

Here’s one sher to keep the blog alive...

Raftaar ki shart toh khair manzoor thi hume,
Magar girne par haarne ki baat toh nahi hui thi.

- Yours truly.

**The above sunset is clicked by me at Raja's seat in Coorg.

South Calling

2006-03-24T03:40:00.000-08:00

Off to South trip on the 1st of April.We'll be taking a train to Manglore, from there we shall be going to Ullal.A couple of days stay at the beach and then we will head for Coorg(Madikeri).Anybody having any info on any of these places please,please do enlighten me on any dope you have.Your efforts would be duly appreciated.

Rambling Post - Another one of my weekend updates

2006-03-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Note: This is one of my uber rambling posts…that means no grammar. No spell checks. Basically nonsense. Read at your own risk.

Had a wonderful weekend. For starters it began on Friday evening itself. The plan was set a couple of days back for Kandivali. We had mutually decided to meet one of these weekends but the date wasn’t fixed upon. We were waiting for Raman to come from Delhi. Sood called on Wednesday and tried fixing a night-out on Saturday. But Samir as usual had his own stack of excuses. Sunday early morning he had to go out for a family outing and Friday he had a different plan. So I called and got a bit curt with him. Probably that worked in our favour ‘cause he relented and not only that he said that Kandivli could happen. Those were the magic words. The word Kandivali brought back a rush of wonderful memories. During our institute day that’s where we spent some of our most enjoyable night-outs. Back then the whole extended gang was a part of it. Vishal,Vinay,both the Rohits, Amit, Abhishek were some of the guys who weren’t there with us now but with whom once upon a time we had rocked the place. The last time we had been there was in 2003 June for Samir’s birthday.

So Raman n Sood picked me up from Pheonix and we zoomed. The cover charge was 200 bucks and 100 bucks for the petrol. Samir met us at Mahim and Mehul at Bandra flyover.

We were sailing all along until we reached Malad. Choc-o-friggin-bloc traffic. While stuck in a bad, bad jam in Malad, Raman n me got berserk. He put on some nice dance numbers and I started dancing inside the car. And ya know when yours truly decides to get on the dance floor things get a bit..ummm..ahem…wild. So, onlookers on the road and peeping lasses from the adjacent BEST buses got to witness a raunchy n lunatic dance performance. So much so for ‘jam’ session! After much stopping in between signals we reached after an almost 3 hour journey.

So while Samir n Sood went upstairs to get the keys and stuff, I went to the grocery store to shop. I almost bought the entire store – from toothpastes to soaps to plastic glasses etc. then realized there’s no refrigerator at home, so decided to go hunting for ice. Mehul and me reached a bar and asked the man at the counter whether we could buy some ice. He refused. Now behind him I see a newspaper in Kannada. Hehehe I smile to myself and launch into tulu much to the bewildered expression on Mehul’s face. As soon as the owner comes to know that we hail from the same gaon back in Udupi he offers to give us the ice. And boy did he give us ice! Inspite of all our generous helpings it still remained till morning.

At last we start off our session at 11 pm. Raman starts showing us his Rajasthan photographs. Then Mehul takes over and shows us his Europe snaps. And on a fultu unprecedented note we launch into talking about politics and US. The main culprits were Sood n me while a visibly irritated Raman was trying to keep up ;-)Samir as usual was least interested and Mehul noncommittal.

Sood trying to act as if he’s listening while Mehul doesn’t bother.

Raman – Garibon ka Sunny Deol / Govinda take your pick.
Missing ya jaan…Samir cootchie cooing…

Psst...Snaps taken from my new toy MOTOSLVR L7.Look at the freakin clarity yaar.

Later while Sood was snoring away to glory we Raman n me started our antakshari. Next day got waken up rather violently by Mehul(who later paid the price for being violent;-) I was the only one who was gonna take a bath as I had to go to class directly. So these guys dropped me till college, where we ate vada pav.

Today the students were supposed to present their TV script ideas in the form of skits. I had asked them to let their creative juices run amok by taking any product and naming it by any existing brand name. Like what we had done during our college times – Maggi condoms for the quicky ;-) Vidushi was just done with her supervision and was looking stunning in a sari. She thought of attending the presentations. So, both of us sat together and watched the students perform. Quite a good line up it was. I especially liked Onida underwear guys – where the guy wearing it gets all the girls and his neighbour seethes with jealousy and the line comes – neighbours envy owner’s pride. I also liked the Nescafe Isabgol with their line – open up. All in all it was fun. I was surprised to see Vidushi actually sit for the feedback after that.

Anyways…later we decided to call Prachal, Karan and Surbhi too to join us. We headed for Karan’s home, which was nearby. Called Prachal and asked her to join us at infinity mall. All in all had a goodtime with them, sitting at the cafeteria. Prachal reminded me of the Jain-Shirhatti incident and we were in splits.

Ok…incase if you are interested here’s what happened. I assure you it’s as humorous as the word humourous gets. It was my second year in my management institute and we were organizing this festival. I was in the organizing committee. On that particular fateful day as I was heading the marketing department I was to rush for a sponsor meeting. As luck would have it, the printer conked off. I badly needed the printout of the proposal and I had no time to waste. I decided to call Prof.Jain who was the prof-in-charge of the fest. But…but I didn’t have his cell number. So I go to the college office and pester Shilpa who worked there. She out rightly refuses. But I persist. She points towards a file and asks me to take his number from there. I open the file. Jot down the number and rush up on the way hugging Shilpa for her generosity. I sit in our makeshift fest office and I dial the number. I hear an unfamiliar ‘hello’ on the other end. I decide not to plunge into my own tale and be polite. I ask, “Prof Jain???” there’s a pregnant pause. I get restless. Then I hear, “No. this is not Prof.Jain.”. “Oops…!then can you please give the phone to him?” “Who is this speaking?” I tell him my name by now getting impatient. I hear a distant mumble in the background, ‘Prof.Jain phone for your.’ And then I heard it…the fear struck voice of Prof.Jain…”For me?” He comes on line. By that time something inside me is telling me that something’s not right. Something’s so not right. “Hello…” he says. “Sir, the printer is not working sir…kab se try kar rahe hai hum..” “Who is this?” he interrupts me impatiently. I say my name. “Who gave you this number…? Who gave you this number…??” He is screaming as if he is stuck in an elevator for two days. I said, “ igot it from office.” “Keep the phone now…I will see you later in the office…keep the phone down.” Saying he cut the phone. I could imagine him on the other end hyperventilating. And it dawn upon me that I have blundered. I didn’t know how, but iwas sure that I have got myself into shit. It didn’t take long for the suspense to unfold. Within minutes I could hear Shilpa coming to the fest’s office screaming my name. “WHY DID YOU CALL THE DIRECTOR???” “OMG! The director of the institute! The Bal Thackeray himself!!but I had called on Prof.Jain’s cell…omg! That wasn’t his cell…that was…”

And as they say the rest is history. What happened to Prof.Jain you ask? Well he apologized profusely to the director on my behalf (you see our director wasn’t a very social person. My first crime was I had call on HIS cell…you see..its like HIS cell and the second and the most heinous of all crimes was that I called not to speak to him but to Prof.Jain and I asked the director to hand the phone over to him!! Now how bad is that?)

Ok..anyways..this post is turning out to be a loooooong rambling post. So after infinity I met Surbhi and both of us sat together at McDonald’s for sometime. Then came home. Spend time with Kalyani. It was fun. Saw Ray's 'Nayak' the next day. All in all an amazing weekend.

That's me

2006-03-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Advanced Global Personality Test Results
Extraversion

53%
Stability

43%
Orderliness

33%
Accommodation

43%
Interdependence

70%
Intellectual

63%
Mystical

56%
Artistic

90%
Religious

70%
Hedonism

56%
Materialism

63%
Narcissism

56%
Adventurousness

70%
Work ethic

36%
Self absorbed

70%
Conflict seeking

56%
Need to dominate

63%
Romantic

63%
Avoidant

43%
Anti-authority

56%
Wealth

36%
Dependency

56%
Change averse

36%
Cautiousness

56%
Individuality

63%
Sexuality

70%
Peter pan complex

50%
Physical security

76%
Physical fitness

50%
Histrionic

56%
Paranoia

36%
Vanity

70%
Hypersensitivity

70%
Female cliche

50%
Stability results were moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting. trait snapshot:
messy, disorganized, not rule conscious, rebellious, rash, weird, ambivalent about chaos, likes bizarre things, anti-authority, not good at saving money, not a perfectionist, leaves many things unfinished, low self control, strange, desires more attention, romantic daydreamer, abstract, impractical, unproductive, leisurely, likes the unknown

Just

2006-03-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

Just on an impulse now, I feel like sharing this photograph with you guys. This was clicked on Mehul's Birthday. From L to R you see Samir, Raman, Arpita,Me and Sachin. To know more about these folks you go here.

Nobody bothers

2006-02-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

Nope.

Nobody bothers if you are good at anything or not.

Nobody bothers to know the answer of, “Hey dude! How ya doin?”

Nobody bothers to play big daddy to you even though they know they can help you.

Nobody bothers about what you do for a living as long as you don’t stink of body odour.

Nobody bothers if you had topped your school in your Social Studies exams.

Nobody bothers when you cry the night to slumber and show up with puffy eyes in the morning to work.

Nobody bothers if you forgot to get your mother’s medicine as long as you don’t forget to mail the documents.

Nobody bothers if you are wearing torn underwear beneath your designer pants.

Nobody actually bothers about your birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and funerals.

Nobody bothers whether your kid suffers from asthama as long as you don’t take more than 7 casual leaves a year.

Nobody bothers if you force your wife to intercourse every night.

Really nobody bothers.

As Vikram Seth puts it, ‘The world is not against you…its just indifferent.’

Random Update

2006-02-20T01:51:00.000-08:00

Had just made up my mind that, nothing doing, come what may, today I shall post then I read Manisha’s comment…so it goaded me to put my ass to the seat n work on the keyboard. Ok..so life has been pretty much happening…and my excuse for not filling in is the same – I got too f***in lazy.

For starters lets start on an upbeat note cause that’s what I am feeling as of now. I have got a new toy for myself. And no its no kinky stuff…its actually better than that ;-)I got myself a sleek black MOTOSLVR L7…and maaaan it’s a chick piece. All thanx to Raman n Kalyani n my muma to have cajoled me into buying it…coz I was all set to buy the lesser version L6 which costs around 8000 bucks but then these guys offered to sponsor the balance amount n also gave me an inspiring pep talk. Ok enough of me goin on a tangent. Yeah so its sleek n how! It looks like this piece of ebony shining with black luster and makes you conscious of its presence by its sheer beauty. Yeah I know…I need to shut up…but you see I am smitten…so for some days Kalyani will have to kill to get my attention off my prized possession.

Also nowadays am enlightening third year BMS students on the basics of Copywriting. It felt strange the first day I walked into the class and saw those kids sitting on the benches laughing out loudly, some completing their notes, some generally fooling around and I felt as if life had come to a full circle. I couldn’t relate to the fact that I was actually teaching a bunch of students. I felt old…yeah kinda grown up. Now after around 4 sessions we have hit off well. I think they like my lecture, atleast that’s what I would like to believe.

Saw the cotton polyster play (I don’t recollect the numbers! Wonder why Ramu gave it such an obscure name) then on Saturday saw “Aas Paas” which had Chinmay in it. It was a play on 5 of Chkov’s short stories. One of the performances was outrageously hilarious. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard during a play.

Well that’s that. Nothing much. Am amidst writing a qawwali for the album. So more later.

Mumbai Theatre Utsav

2006-01-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Winter is not so chilly nowadays here in Mumbai. Infact its terribly hot in the afternoons. But things are gonna be different in some days...There's going to be a change in weather. The theatre season hits Mumbai this Jan on the13th and promises to last well upto the end of the month. So the folks who have theatre positive running in their veins are surely not gonna be bothered of this unexpectedly hot winter. At last a theatre fest happening in Mumbai apart from the Prithvi fest where with all due respect the tickets get sold out even before people come to know about the plays.

The Mumbai Theatre Utsav kick starts from Friday 13th Jan 06 at Ravindra Natya Mandir at Prabhadevi. I saw a lineup of the plays and they look awesome. Apart from the obviously good ones the plays to watch out for are: Mareez a Gujarati play about a poet called Mareez. (One of those rare gems from the otherwise thoroughly commercial and melodramatic Gujarati theatre scene.)

Deepak Rajyadhyaksha’s Sanman House. This Shyam Manohar play promises to entertain you with it witty but insightful humour. And what to say about Deepak? He is brilliant. He also happens to be my first director who made me act .

Jamini Pathak’s one man peormance of Mahadevbhai.

Noti Binodini a Bengali play.

Parnab Mukherjee remembers Ray. Hmmm…this sounds interesting.

And the students of the University Academy of Theatre perform the much acclaimed paly Zulwa by Chetan Datar.

If this ain’t enough.There is a superb line up of the folk gems too. Teejan Bai performs the Pandavani. From Gujrat they have bhavai, Natua naach from Bihar, nautanki from mathura and the works.

And last but not the least they have some wonderful workshops too by stalwarts like Salim Arif,Shfat Khan,Javed Siddique and Alyque Padamsee.

To know more about this fest go here.

Can’t wait to devour all of it. It s not always that the theatrewallahs in Mumbai get to experience so much under one roof.

A moronic faux pas

2006-01-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

Having previously written about how hopelessly pretentious and stupid Star Screen Awards are, this time around they have managed to reach another milestone to showcase their stupidity. This.

I mean how can someone be so unabashedly moronic and ignorant? No I am not expecting every Tom, Dick and Hariya to know about Jahnu Barua, but then if you are an entity who is trying to take interest in his work by interviewing him or by nominating him for an award (as is in this case) then the least you can do is carry out a basic research on the man!

Inspite of living in an era of information onslaught such kind of instances I am sure are not unheard of. Now,now now...I had decided not to give too much of importance to such kinda sham awards but then..they went too far.

A Very Happy New Year To All ya Wondeful People

2005-12-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Leaving for Pune tomorrow evening for the New Years. Will be at Amay n Madhavi's place. Hoping to have loads of fun. Will trying to make it up for those extra hours spend in office doin work...n not catching up with friends...Here's wishing ya a Very Happy n Rockin New Year filled with Lodsa excitement...muaaaah!!!

Cya on Monday.

Happy Birthday

2005-12-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

Exactly a year back on this day Cerebral Proclivity i.e. this blog was born. When I started out as usual I was damn enthusiastic. I had predicted that by the end of the year I would have posted at least 150 posts. Personal, academic, poetry etc. but as usual yeh ho na saka. As usual there were time constraints or sometimes I was plane bored. I am very lazy you see. There have been hundreds of thoughts that had come to my mind, which I had promised myself to blog. But ennui took the better of me. Heck, I don’t even complete the short stories and plays that I undertake most of times. But then that’s me. I get bored too fast. Well it’s not a virtue worth boasting about. Lets come back to the blog…yeah so…this was my first post. Arrival. Around a fortnight before I started my own blog I discovered (as in for myself) what blogging is all about. One day as I was googling for some info and I hit upon a Malaysian girl’s blog. As I went through her posts I was intrigued. I found this ‘blogging’ phenomenon rather interesting. Soon after that I went through a myriad other blogs. I used to frequent livejournal a lot then. Those days the blogs that I regularly visited were – Minnie’s blog, Anupma, Saira, Vulturo. Eventually Minnie made her blog ‘friends only’ and I had never commented on her blog. Although her’s was the only blog of which I had read each and every post, from the past archives of almost 4 odd years. I used to have this black template for a few months. But then I changed to this more vibrant one.

I made a couple of friends too in this blogsville .Tapsi (Who has shut down her blog but we sometimes catch up over sms) Chitra is a good friend now so is Nikita.

Here are a few posts that can safely represent the life n times of my blog over the past year. Some are happening. Some are well written. Some became a battleground, where words were hurled freely as swords. Some registered the maximum response.

One of my better poems.

On Songs from the nineties.

Where the battle ensued.

Just.

I still have readers who read this post over n over again.

Nostalgia

Catharsis

Honest words.

Arguably the most read post of my blog.

Happy birthday dear bloggie it’s been a pleasure to have ya. And what better occasion to extend a warm thanx to all my dear readers (I speak as if there are thousands of them…;-)hey! but how much ever they are…they matter!)

Finest Performances

2005-12-22T00:56:00.001-08:00

Then there are those performances that leave an indelible impression on your mind You see a divine connection over there. A typical case where the ‘karta’ that is the doer becomes one with the creation. Last night sitting with Bala and speaking about some performances has induced me to put my list of some of the best performances by an actor that I have ever seen on celluloid. The list is not based on any ascending or descending order of my preference nor does it claim to be a comprehensive one. It stands purely on the basis of occurrence in my mind and nothing else.

1. Pankaj Kapur as Abbaji in Maqbool – what command over characterization.

2. Nasserudin Shah as the blind principal in Sparsh – the finesse of a hard working actor. A must see for any aspiring genuine actor.

3. Marlon Brando as Don Corelone in The Godfather – I

4. Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II

5. Al Pacino as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman

6. Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver

7. Om Puri in Ardh Satya

8. Kamal Hasan in Sadma – very genuine.

9. Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay in Deewar

10. Amjad Khan as Gabbar in Sholay

11. Dilip Prabhawalkar as Chaukat Raja

12. Sulbha Deshpande in Chaukat Raja

13. Smita Patil in Bhumika

14. Amol Palekar in Bhumika

15. Dustin Hoffman in Rainman

16. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie

17. Meryl Streep in Kramer vs Kramer

18. Aamir Khan in Rangeela

19. Shah Rukh Khan in Swades

20. Judith Anderson in Rebecca

21. Naseerudin Shah as Piroj in Pestonji

22. Naseerudin Shah as Rajaram in Katha

23. Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments

24. Shabana Azmi as Pooja in Arth

25. Amitabh Bachchan as Jai in Sholay

(Thanx to rpm for reminding, am adding these two)

26. Sean Penn in I am Sam

27. Adrian Brody in The Pianist

28. Minal's addition - Rekha in Khubsoorat

I am sure I have missed out on many superlative performances. I shall keep on adding to the list as and when they come to my mind. Also you guys too let me know of the performances that I have missed out on.

Yeh Saaye hai

2005-12-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

Yeh Saaye Hain
Yeh Duniya Hai
Parchhaiyon Ki,
Bhari Bheed Mein Khaali
Tanhaaiyon Ki

Yahan Koi Saahil Sahaara Nahin Hai
Kahin Doobne Ko Kinaara Nahin Hai
Yahan Koi Saahil Sahaara Nahin Hai
Yahan Saari Raunak Hai Ruswaaiyon Ki
Yeh Saaye Hai ...

Kai Chaand Uthkar Jalaye Bujhaye
Bahut Humne Chaaha Zara Neend Aaye
Kai Chaand Uthkar Jalaye Bujhaye
Yahan Raat Hoti Hai Bedaariyon Ki
Yeh Saaye Hai ...

Yahan Saare Chehre Hain Maange Hue Se
Nigaahon Mein Aansoo Bhi Taange Hue Se
Yahan Saare Chehre Hain Maange Hue Se
Badi Neechi Raahen Hain Unchaaiyon Ki
Yeh Saaye Hai ...

This is from the film Sitaara. Lyrics by the inimitable Gulzar and music by Panchamda and sung by Asha. The pessimism gets more accentuated when you realize that the couple in the movie had sung the following song together. But then such is life.

Thodi si zameen thoda aasmaan
Tinakon kaa bas ik aashiyaan
Thodi si zameen

Maangaa hai jo tum se vo zyaadaa to nahin hai
Dene ko to jaan de de vaadaa to nahin hai
Ko_ii tere vaade pe jiitaa hai kahaan
Tinakon ka bas ik aashiyaan
Thodi si zameen

Mere ghar ke aangan mein chhotaa saa jhuulaa hoga
Sondhii sondhii mittii hogi lipa hua chulhaa hogaa
Thodi thodi aag hogi thoda saa dhuaan
Tinakon kaa bas ik aashiyaan
Thodi si zameen

Raat kat jaayegii to kaise din bitaa_e.nge
Baajare ke kheto.n mein kau_e u.Daa_e.nge
Baajare ke sitton jaise bete hon javaan
Tinakon kaa bas ik aashiyaan
Thodi si zameen

Sach Baliye!

2005-12-11T23:37:00.000-08:00

Spend the entire Sunday and I literally mean the entire day watching Nach Baliye(A celebrity dance programme on Starone channel). They were running a whole day marathon of all its past episodes till now. Since it comes at an outrageous time at 9pm every Thursday which is impossible for me to catch apart from a couple of times here n there.

This was one programme that had me hooked right since day one. I remember watching the first episode at Madhavi’s house. The whole concept is just so superb and the outcome so entertaining! After long I was captivated to an extent that I actually felt bad when I missed the episodes in between.

Last Thursday I was neck deep in work, so while my entire office (in the sense whoever was present at that time) was glued in front of the television set at 9 to watch it enthusiastically, I was busy churning out ideas for a pitch.

But Starone made it up for me by screening all the past episodes in a 10am to 12 night unheard before kind of a marathon series.

It was a pleasure to watch some of these guys gyrate to Hindi film numbers.

Here’s my take on the whole series.

The hottest moves by a female: Malini De (MAN…she looked hot!)

Had a crush on: Shilpa Saklani (Extremely eloquent and easy going. I am a sucker for both!)

Had the hots for: Neeru Bajwa
Hated the overall vibes of: Amit Sadh (Felt he was too oversmart)

Complete entertainer: Varun Badola (The ‘khaike Paan…’ was a once in a lifetime performance)

Loved the moves of: Rajeshwari Sachdeva

Most touching moments:

When Saroj Khan gave her inam to Rajeshwari and Varun

When Apoorva and Shilpa left the show.

The moment that I was sure the episode was orchestrated and fake: the way Varun and Rajeshwari got out.

Would always make me smile: Parmeet Sethi

Laughed my heart out: Parmeet aping Farhan and Shilpa gesticulating like Malaika.

Most riveting performances:

Sachin n Supriya doing the Lejhim

Archana and Parmeet: Chotte Chotte Shehron se (Bunty aur Babli)

Varun n Rajeshwari’s tango on banda yeh bindhaast.

Favourite choreographer: Varun n Rajeshwari’s choreographer Rajiv Surti.

Overrated jodi: Sachin n Supriya n Poonam n Manish

My jodi number one(The one who deserves to win) : Varun n Rajeshwari.

Antonioni's - The Passenger

2005-12-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

This one’s exclusively for cinephiles. An excellent review of Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘The Passenger’ by Robert Koehler. Antonioni’s sub text has been amazingly deciphered by him. I almost had a halo after I read the piece and my yearning to make a film multiplied. Achcha anybody from Mumbai(Any other place would also do. Fedex zindabad!!) has the DVD of his Touch of Evil (or for that matter any of his films) can you be a sweetheart and please please please lend it to me…???

Pyaasa Again

2005-12-05T03:50:00.000-08:00

Vijay(Guru Dutt) has come to his college alumni meet. Since the person who was supposed to sing as a part of the cultural program doesn't turn up Vijay is asked to come and recite some of his shayaris. An obviously bewildered Vijay gets more crestfallen when he sees Meena(Mala Sinha) his ex sitting in the audience. What follows is Sahir's phenomenally touching and stark verse, Guru Dutt’s stoic but intense look mixed with the sensitive and divine voice of Mohd.Rafi.

Tang aa chuke hai.n qash-ma-qash-e-zindagii se hum
Thukaraa na de.n jaha ko kahii.n bedilii se ham

At that instance one man from the audience gets up and says: Ajii janaab khushee ke mauqe par kyaa bedilii kaa raag chedaa huaa hai koii khushee kaa geet sunaaiye

Vijay continues:
Hum gam-zadaa hai.n laaye.n kahaa.N se Khushii ke geet
De.nge wohii jo paaye.nge is zindagii se ham

Ubhare.nge ek baar abhii dil ke walwale
Maanaa ke dab gaye hai.n game-zindagii se ham

Lo aaj hamane tod diyaa rishtaa-e-ummiid
lo ab kabhii gilaa nakare.nge kisii se hum

Listen to it here.

Ek Chauthai Aasman

2005-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

I refrain from writing my own poetry on the blog.Infact i have been forced to refrain by Kalyani. And rightfully so, mainly because we are in the process of making a collection of them and publishing it. She gets parnoid at the thought of somebody flicking it. But somehow I couldn't stop myself to post this one maninly for two reasons, one I am in a similar state of mind and two a part of this poem has already been known and published as my poem as a part of the review of my play from which the poem is derived - Ek chauthai aasman.

This poem was an after thought. I thought that it would be nice to include a part of it for the announcement before begining the play.I didn't at the last minute that's a different story but still. Nostalgia. Melancholy and fun someof the emotions I experience while re-reading this poem.

Ek Chauthai Aasman

Beh gaya kuch lamho ke saath,
Reh gayi kuch adhuri yaad,
Jaane kya dhoonde ab karwa?

Bas ek chauthai aasman...

Justajoo kare? Kyon na kare!
Bemaut mare? Kyon na mare!
Kise chahiye mukammil jaha?

Sirf ek chauthai aasman...

Aetbaar aisa khuda par na tha
Teri aankhon main usse dekha karta tha..
Gar manga bhi ho koi armaan

Bas ek chauthai aasman

Jasbad ki tehni par
Aarzoo ka phool,
Bewaqt murjhaya
Jaane kiski bhool,

Patjhad ka hai yeh baghbaan

Ek chauthai aasman.

PS: Dont know for how long this is gonna remain on my blog,probably till madam K decides to check it and gimme a piece of her mind;-)

Update: This is the second poem on the blog. Had posted this one long back.Bas do hi aur nahi;-)

Delhi: Some memorable moments - I

2005-11-17T23:35:00.000-08:00

Back from Delhi and missing every nanosecond of the sojourn. It was like a speedy whirlwind ride. Before we could come to our senses it was over and done with. It’s even more painful to come to office and work after that. This trip easily goes down in the record books as one of the best we ever had.

Murphy’s Law working overtime.

Raman not coming because of his work had already taken a toll on the overall mood. To add to it work was pouring in torrentially. The day started with me reaching office around 9.30 a.m. and that’s really, really early for me ‘cause I usually reach by around 10.30 am. As I mentioned in the previous post about the probability factor of work yeah it came true I got sucked into work as if it were a Bermuda triangle. Had a shoot and was assisting Dada, while he was directing. So arranging the shots, getting people etc etc. It was very tiring and to add to it a slight fever due to a massive bout of cold.

Sood the conman.

So we (as in Samir n me) reached Mumbai central by 4.15 pm only Jante (Sachin)was sitting there. Sood came and after that we came to know that the train is actually a Nizamuddin express leaving at 5.40 pm which Sood had never told us about. Cursed and thrashed him a bit then waited an hour for the train to come. So there we were Vikas, Samir, Sood , Jante ready to leave Mumbai n rock Delhi.

The train journey.

Our train journey was especially eventful and entertaining. Jante had got kanda poha from home, which we all had. Post which we began our spate of games. Since had recently seen Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri a few days back I had the memory game in mind where the first participant says the name of a celebrity and the second guy repeats that name followed by his own addition so on and so forth. Although this game may sound very simple its damn tough to remember that many names in the perfect order. Me, Jante n Vikas couldn’t last long, infact Jante was out in the first round itself. Samir and Sood went on and ultimately Sood won. This game was followed by 10 questions wherein one guy keeps a celebrity in mind and the rest guess asking 10 questions which he answers in yes or a no. Jante’s both the names invited controversy – APJ Abdul Kalam and Amartya Sen.

“I am naar a paar off thees!”

The line of the journey was cracked by Sood in an oblivious moment. We were preparing to play dumb charades and the team was being decided. Me n Sam and Vicky, Sood n Jante. This appeared to be a fairly one sided team because compared to anybody else in the group Samir n me are complete pros when it comes to Hindi movies and acting them out. That’s the reason whenever its played we are kept in separate teams. So after hearing the team Sood who was lying down suddenly got up and remarked in his highly accented English, “I am naar a paar off thees!” (I am not a part of this!)It took us a moment for it to hit. But once it hit we burst out laughing. We were uncontrollable. In between the bouts of laughter we were repeating what he said, “I am naar a paar off thees!” “I am naar a paar off thees!”
The line was fodder enough for us to take his case for the next some days. Apart from this we came to the conclusion that Sood also has an attention seeking disorder that compels him to do certain moronic things, which normal people refrain from. So we coined the word ASS for him A- Attention S- Seeking S- Syndrome. Since Sood was an ass anyways we officially gave him the title of an ASS.

Jante’s pedophilia and my obsession to prove a point.

Jante was having the hots for an 18-year-old girl in the next berth. Which led him to have his food in a gross way which according to him is sensuous and arousing (as in licking fingers and all) The reason behind him eating that way is his ever optimistic approach that incase if she sees him having his food that way and incase if she gets turned on by the sight then chances are that she may come up to him in the night and demand sex. Wow! So much so for optimism!

While parallely whenever I used go out of the compartment in the berth near the door there was this young chick looking aunty sitting with her husband and I was sure that she was looking at me. But the rest of the junta refused to believe it. So I took Jante and Samir one by one to prove it to them. But Samir ruled down my point again by saying that she looked at everybody who passed.

Army welcome

Reached Nizamuddin at around 11.30 am. We had Mr. Yadav waiting for us at the station with the placard ‘guests for manpreet singh’ written on it. Sat in the army gypsy to head towards the dholakuan army camp, where we were supposed to stay in an officer’s mess.
Reached. Got ready within a record time of 20 minutes. Mehul also reached the place by that time.

Bharat Milap

All of us reached the venue together. There he was looking as handsome and suave as ever, the groom to be. Felt nice. It had been quite sometime that all of us were together. Met up with uncle n aunty. Had a sumptuous lunch n topped it with my favourite dessert – gulab jamun with vanilla ice cream.

Matargashti in the evening

Came back to our mess. I took it upon myself to search for a bat and ball so that all of us could play cricket outside. So Aagu n me went in search of that. After battling for around 45 minutes around the whole campus of the mess area we couldn’t manage to get our hands on a lone wooden stick forget a cricket bat. Came back to the room. Started our memory game again. This time around Mehul and Aagu lasted till the end and finally Aagu won. Played dumb charades too. It was getting dark. We were standing outside. The chill was beginning to make its presence felt. Suddenly out of the blue somebody suggested that we play ‘langdi’. I was reluctant in the beginning, as I wasn’t wearing my shoes but relented nonetheless. Boy! It was a reality check and how! By the second round all of us were panting and gasping for breath as if caught in a gas chamber. Thoroughly tired and ashamed of ourselves that a bunch of 25 year olds getting so tired so soon we decided to call it a day and get ready for the cocktail night.

Dressed to kill

So there we were 7 samurais dressed for the soiree in the night. Sood was highly miffed with me because I shouted at him for being late. Garg was supposed to join us by next day morning, followed by Pratik. And a pleasant surprise was Raman’s call. He said that he would be taking the next day evening flight to join us for the baraat. That was real good news. We decided to keep this as a surprise for Mumpy who wasn’t expecting him.

A night to remember.

Aha! A sight to see was the bar. From red wine to Teacher’s, you name it and it was there. The sight itself got me high. Dressed in our best all of us were flitting around the whole place, chatting with people, cracking jokes with drinks in our hands. We were introduced to all the relatives by Mumpy’s mom. The three Dollys – Dolly masi, Dolly chachi and Dolly Mami. As the music picked up we jumped on to the dance floor to show off our bambaiya dance. But the real highlight of the evening arrived when the dholwallahs came. As the dholwallah called each and every person of the family by singing, “Bari barsi khatan gaya si” all of us watched with rapt attention. This was the kind of a spectacle that you don’t get to see in Mumbai especially if you are a non-Punjabi like me. And then, the moment of truth arrived. The dholwallah called the friends and we duly came into the circle to do our bit. I started off on a high note while dancing and was dancing with all my vigor. Within no time I was the only one left in the circle with the dholwallah. Before I could relies what hit me, I heard my name being cheered and the dholwallah going hammer and tongs on the dhol. And then…then I danced…I danced as if there was no tomorrow. I danced as if my life depended on it. the only thing I could make out was that there was an audience in front of me and I need to do my bit without chickening out. I got reminded of the ‘born in the USA’ scene that I had given in Cage six years back. Just let myself go berserk. After my spectacle all my buddies came up and were like – man you were wild!!! Mumpy’s Mamaji went wild too. He first put a Rs.10 not in my mouth (To give to the dholwallah. For those who are not aware. In such cases the dancer gives the dholwallah money through his mouth which the dholwallah has to collect with his mouth. And ya, no smooching allowed!) Vikas has shot a video of it. Went to the mess after that and crashed.

PS. This was my 50th Post and what better post to have as a silver jubilee post. Hoping to post pics once Mehul uploads them.Part II shall follow in a couple of days.

Delhi Calling!!!

2005-11-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

After a spate of cancellations and re bookings we finally seem to be getting ready to rock Delhi for the week end. Gosh!!High enthusiasm levels.Last minute additions in packing happening. We had met the other day to discuss about the gift n the wardrobe. These guys managed to completely freak me out when it came to choosing my apparals. They gave me a strict ultimatum that I should be buying a NEW trouser and NEW shoes and a NEW t shirt...else they wont show any sign of acknowledging my existance in the wedding party. I tried once to protest, but was duly put back into my place by the usual - below the belt maligning my profession line - " Yeh sab phate kapde aur chotte t shirt tumhari ad agency mein chal jaate hain dilli ki party mein nahi chalenge...waha chaukidaar tumhe andar ghusne hie nahi dega.Usse tujhe toh kuch fark nahi padega par hamari nak kat jayegi."

So dilligently went to shopping the next day.Which ended up burning a crater in the pocket. Now am not ina position to buy new clothes for the next few months.

Nonetheless, I am generally very excited. Not in mood to work at all. Manan subah se mere pichche ek line ke liye pada hai jo abhi dopeher tak maine use nahi di.

On the other hand by right foot is fucken massive.And to add to my woes its bigger than my left foot. Yesterday got these sooper pair of shoes. They are slightly tight tho...as in theres no room for movement inside.Kalyani was against it but i was completely in love with the design so,i thought, might as well take a chance.But now altho my left foot is ok..my right foot has started aching...hope it doesnt turn worse.

24 more hours for us to reach Mumbai Central station. Maan I cant wait...

PS. Mystic Bard's Law of Probability: The probability of you getting a new time consuming, thought provoking, attention seeking assignment is the highest when you are going on leave the next day.

My Cronies

2005-11-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

The following post has been long awaited.Infact its been delayed by almost a year.A complete photo profile of me n my buddies. Lets begin with Raman.
You see him in the pic above looking like a dork while tryin to act smart.He is sweet (only at times) fun to be with(When he's not talkin!This is my blog you see so I am gonna make an ass of everybody)ok..no kiddin..he's my beedi partner and completely lovable.But at times he does get a bit irritating making people swallow things they don't necessarily want to swallow. Next in line is Sood.

He is the living example of God's irony. (Ok so he's gonna f#&k my happiness coz of this statement!)He is sweet but he's outspoken too. He's cultured but he can get really crass. But one point that makes him completely different from us is his level of sentimentality. He can get REALLY senti and HOW? But for me personally he's the ever dependable friend of mine. The above pic was given to him by us when he got the best employee award. Samir next.
This maharashtrian delicacy of our group has girls eating outta his hands. A left branist most of the time. An Amitabh Bachchan fanatic. A non-veg freak. When both of us rattle of in Marathi the rest of our gang (A distinct Punjab domination) gets really peeved. He is my partner in drinks. Ever dependable and smiling. He was my first firend in the institute.

The guy sitting to the left is Sachin and the guy next to him is moi. Sorry for the bad light couldn’t get any other pic of his. Sachin – The quintessential CEO material. Ruthless, pragmatic and focused. Infact he can be a good politician too. Most of the times he knows where he is going. Charming and a tough negotiator, tends to get stubborn when cornered. He adds the element of street smartness to the group.

Mehul is goofiness personified. Most of the times he is the butt of our jokes. Smart, genuine and practical. He can drive you nuts when he gets paranoid about something (which he often gets). Faced with a crisis he gets his phone chain out. When he is not having his ass kicked by us he likes to catch up with his girlfriend and fiancée Aarti.(But he ends up getting his ass kicked by her too!!)

So that’s us. I know I am gonna be receiving a lot of flak for such terse and defaming comments of mine.But to sum it - all of them are real gems. Infact Raman was expecting a complete post dedicated to each one of us.Hmmm…lemme think probably some other time dude…I know you will tell me that I have a lota time on my hands but..seriously itna bhi time nahi hai life mein…

2005-10-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

A Very Very Happy Diwali to you All. Have loadsa fun.Hugs n Good Wishes.

Gulzarnama

2005-10-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

Nazm

Aao phir nazm kahen
phir kisi dard ko sehlaake sujaa len aankhen
phir kisi dukhtee huyi rag se chhuaa len nashtar
ya kisee bhooli huyi raah pe mudkar ik baar
naam lekar kisi hamnaam ko aawaaz hi den
Aao phir nazm kahen

______________________________________________

Raat

Aad se hoke ghane pedon ke peechhe se kabhi
aur kabhi shehar ki deewaar se lagte-chhupte
haath mein chaand ki chamkeeli athannee lekar
ghar se bhaagee hai kisi mele mein jaane ke liye
Aah! ye chhoti -si maasoom-si bechaari ye raat
jee mein aataa hai ke bas haath pakadkar isko
subah ke mele mein le jaaoon, khilone le doon!

Sukhan - e - Ghalib

2005-10-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

1. Har ek baat pe kehte ho tum ke 'too kya hai' ?
TumheeN kaho ke yeh andaaz-e-guftgoo kya hai ?

[ guftgoo = conversation ]

2. Na shole meiN yeh karishma na barq meiN yeh ada
Koee batao ki woh shoKH-e-tund_KHoo kya hai ?

[ barq = lightning, tund = sharp/angry, KHoo = behavior ]

3. Yeh rashk hai ki wo hota hai ham_suKHan tumse
Wagarna KHauf-e-bad_aamozi-e-adoo kya hai ?

[ rashk = jealousy, ham_suKHan = to speak together/to agree,
KHauf = fear, bad = bad/wicked, aamozee = education/teaching,
adoo = enemy ]

4. Chipak raha hai badan par lahoo se pairaahan
Hamaaree jeb ko ab haajat-e-rafoo kya hai ?

[ pairaahan = shirt/robe/cloth, haajat = need/necessity,
rafoo = mending/darning ]

5. Jalaa hai jism jahaaN dil bhee jal gaya hoga
Kuredate ho jo ab raakh, justjoo kya hai ?

[ justjoo = desire ]

6. RagoN meiN dauDte phirne ke ham naheeN qaayal
Jab aaNkh hee se na Tapka to phir lahoo kya hai ?

7. Rahee na taaqat-e-guftaar, aur agar ho bhee
To kis ummeed pe kahiye ke aarzoo kya hai ?

[ guftaar = speech/discourse ]

8. Huaa hai shaah ka musaahib, phir hai itaraata
Wagarna shehar meiN 'GHalib' kee aabroo kya hai ?

[ musaahib = comrade/associate ]

The Power of Silence

2005-09-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

Got this as a forward loved it so much that thought of putting it on the blog.

Read on...

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life when you just ran out of words and you go... s i l e n t ???

Let me assist you in recalling...

.. the moment when you left your home for the first time and you look back at your parents who are worried that their son/daughter are leaving them yet happy that their child took the first step towards
independence.

... the moment when the girl/boy you like most.. smiled back at you! You don't say anything.. you just smile back..

... the moment when you get better marks than you expected... those "numb" moments of ecstasy n surprise "is that true?"...

... the moment when you are parting with your old friend(s) and the train has just started... and you are standing on the door of the wagon.. waving "bye-bye" with your heart beating fast...

... the moment after the HR manager has just called you and told you,"You are through! Congrats!"

... the moment when you sit alone in your room after having told everyone that you cleared that exam you prepared for 6 months!!

You can go on remembering your "special" moments!

I had always wondered why I never said anything to myself at those moments.. as if it was "understood"... happiness, joy, pain.. all feelings just flowed ceaselessly in the 'years' that passed in those flash moments!

They say.. the best way to communicate is through "silence".Love. Joy. Grief. Surprise. Anger. Hope. Expectations. Support. Non-cooperation...

Can you imagine the importance of a silent moment in a song??
When Bryan Adams stops for a while along with music, before he goes on in his husky voice...
... Please forgive me. I can't stop loving you!

Ever had those moments when you thought you were tired enough that you reach for your bed after dinner.. but find yourself wide awake looking at the roof of your room silently...

But you sure are 'thinking'... those moments of self-talk are the most important in our lives. Those moments when we listen to our own hearts! Those promises... those decisions... those are the moments when we make our destinies!

Next time you go silent... listen carefully to what your heart is saying.. listen to its joy...listen to its pain.. listen to its fears.. listen to its desires..

Don't make it shut up and go off to sleep...
LISTEN TO THAT VOICE and ACCEPT EVERYTHING IT SAYS!
That voice alone can lead you to the abode of peace that your sleep lacks... peace that awaits you!

Be in touch with your true self...

Smiley's House

2005-09-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Had been to Smiley’s house yesterday post work to sit with Bala to write our next song. Had good fun. How I wish I could do this all my life! I am so in my elements when I am writing songs or discussing a script. While we were brainstorming for the concept of the song Smiley chipped in and suggested a wonderful concept. Bala suggested writing a prelude to the song in prose. A la Gulzar. Penned something down which all of them loved.

Later Mihir joined us and so did Shefali. We all sat together till almost 3 in the morning. Then when the rest went to sleep Bala and me started the next song and Kalyani joined us at 4 am. Yeah, that’s the time she came. Sat up till 5 am. Then slept at 5.30. Whew!

The Golden Era

2005-09-14T03:38:00.000-07:00

Just the other day as I was switching channels incessantly more as a habit than anything else I heard it, and it brought back a flood of memories. The familiar sound of the trumpet that used to come at the end of every episode of ‘Nukkad’. That was enough an impetus for me to skip right back in time and dwell on those golden days of Indian Television. The generation younger to me may take this as yet another case of senility tom toming about their good old days. Well, may be, but for me it really meant a world which was different and endearing.

The sound brought with it a breeze of memories that were tucked under the expanse of time that had passed in the meanwhile. I began reminiscing about all those wonderful serials and programs that used to come on DD and more importantly the prominence that it had in our lives then.

I remember ‘Nukkad’. I recall each and every character as if I were related to them. Guru, Radha, Khopadi, Ghanshu, Ganpat, Hari, Kadarbhai’s hotel. I vividly remember the episode when Hari is riding the bicycle continuously for days so that he could set a record and get some money and how each and every person in the Nukkad cheers and wheedles him to go on. And how finally as he is about to go for his last lap he collapses bringing down with him not only his dreams but also that of each and every person in the Nukkad. Why just the Nukkad? Dreams and hope of each and every one of us watching it. Truly a moment etched out in time.

Then there was Malgudi Days. A village that would have been any other village in any part of India. R.K. Narayan’s stories were sliced out of each of our lives.

Tuesday nights at nine we used to have dinner watching Girish Karnad and Vinnie Parnajpe in Sara jaha hamara or was it Hum paanch ek dal ke?

The cast and crew of Nukkad teamed up again for Intezaar (And then later for Circus which was also amazing in its nuances, but not as good as Nukkad though) which was again a wonderful series depicting the lives of people who worked on a railway station.

Then there was Shahrukh’s ‘Fauji’ where my favourite charcter was the guy who used to say, ‘ I say Buddy…’

Mohan Gokhale had us in splits as Mr. Yogi. And watching Anjan Srivastav and Bharati Achrekar in the Wagle household one couldn’t help but identify with their predicaments and their quirks. Mungerilal and his dreams had the entire nation dreaming with him. Although I don’t remember seeing it properly but I do remember that, ‘30 years ka experience hai’ dialogue of Satish Shah in Yeh jo hai Zindagi.

Kathasagar and Ek kahani were two programs that I used to swear by. Wonderful literary gems brought to life by best of the directors like – Basu Chatterjee, Gulzar etc. Stories of O. Henry, Maupassant, Chekov, Gorky, Premchand…Oh….those were the days…

Who can forget Om Puri in Tamas? Or Nasserudin Shah as Mirza Ghalib? Salim Ghouse in Chunauti?

While I was around 12 , I had this huge crush on Punam Sareen who used to come in Lekh Tandon’s “Phir wahi Talaash” also starring Neelima Azim. I used to see it religiously every Sunday at 12 noon.

While Renuka Shahane and Siddharth Kak took us to a journey across India in Surabhi, Prannoy Roy updated us with the happenings in the world in The World this Week.

Then there was Rajni and Udaan who were so progressive that when I look at these current Saas bahu sagas I feel as if I have traveled back in time. I still remember the title track of Rajni, “Ladki hai ek naam Rajni hai…. Chorus: Rajni… Rajni… Rajni… Rajni ki ek yeh kahani hai…Dekhi jaha burayi hai jaake waha takrayi hai…”

Byomkesh Bakshi was my hero. For me he was somebody who came closest to my picture of Sherlock Holmes. Then of course there was Karamchand who after every short interval used to ask Kitty for a gajar…hehehe…come to think of it now it was damn funny.

Forget Aahat or Raat Hone ko hai. These serials are paani kam chai in front of Honi Anhone or Kille ka Rahasya. To an extent that the government had to ban Honi Anhonee. For me personally I haven’t seen a more spin chilling series in my life. More so because all the stories shown were claimed to be true stories. The title track of Kille ka Rahasya was a killer! Seriously. I mean I don’t know in what frame of mind the music director must have composed the track; probably he must have been a whacko himself. I don’t know but it was earnestly eerie.

Deepti Naval’s Thoda sa Aasman was a major tearjerker. They don’t do programs like these any more.

One serial that had me completely intrigued was this science fiction series called ‘Indradhanush’. It was about a bunch of youngsters who travel back in time. There were host of other enjoyable programs for kids like Gayab, Fireball, Giant Robot, Ek, Doh , Teen , Char which I was head over heels in love with.

Sunday mornings began with Rangoli in the morning, Walt Disney cartoons at nine then of course came the mythologicals. Then Street Hawk at 11 am. Then at 1 pm was the time to see the news for the hearing impaired followed by a regional language movie. This was the time when I saw the works of Adoor, Kama Hasan, Satyajit Ray, Jabbar Patel and other Indian stalwarts (Although most of it went bouncer at that age!)
Evening was the time for your mega Hindi movie which we used to see sipping on a cup of refreshing chai with Marie biscuits.(I still remember the old Marie ad which had the jingle, ‘Brittania, Brittania, Brittania Marie…I remember this huge family having tea together…I think RajaBundela was there in the ad.)

Apart from Mahabharta and Ramayna, which were the obvious favourites in mythologicals, I was immensely fond of Bharat ek Khoj (I remember the title track of this too, “Shrishti se pehle sat nahi tha, Asat bhi nahi, Antarikha bhi nahi, Akash bhi nahi tha…”) and Chanakya. Later Chandrakanta also made it to the list.

As I sat fondly remembering those wonderful and memorable moments associated with our Indian television I was brought out of my reverie by a jarring voice singing ‘Kahani ghar ghar ki!’

Ya right!

Weekend Part II

2005-09-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

So that was about Saturday. Sunday was fun too. Inspite of reaching home at 1.30 am I got up at 7.00 next day morning to go to Prithvi to watch Roman Polanski’s Macbeth at 9 am and Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” at 11 pm. So there we were Kalyani and me meeting at Chemburnaka at 7.45 am (Such is the passion that I wasn’t late for this one inspite of the early morning time) Luckily got a 358 which dropped us near NM College.

About the movies. I especially liked Polanski’s Macbeth. His atmosphere creation was out of this world. So was his screenplay and direction. Not to mention the famous scene where the kid turns towards his mother and says, “Mother he just killed me!” That scene just hits you.

Kurosawa’s Throne of blood was impressive too but what hampered the effect of it was watching two movies in succession early in the morning. Since we had got up early we were anyways struggling to keep our eyes open to add to it watching another movie having the same story was just too much for us. We took short naps in between the movie. Ya …I know I know I slept in between a Kurosawa movie! How bad is that?

Left Prithvi at 1.30 pm. Went to Khasiyaat and had lovely parathas. Came back. Went to class. It’s getting tougher by the day. Sarosh asked me to do some exercises so that my fingers get used to stretching.
From class went to station and took a new Tata cell phone for Muma. Came back. Kalyani came over by then. Had a cup of tea made by me (It was a disaster). Felt nice sitting in your own house with just the kind of ambience, the music, (Farida Khanum), the lights everything…just what we were wishing for some years back…God’s Grace,What else?

Weekend Part I

2005-09-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

Had a fun weekend. Saturday watched Iqbal with Kalyani and loved it. The trio of Shreyas, Shweta and Naseerbhai was just mindblowing. Their chemistry was bang on and they were oozing natural energy. It was a treat. Good to see Shreyas has broken free from the Marathi mould and made his mark nationally. The road ahead will be more difficult though. He will have to choose intelligently.

In the evening we guys met up at Jante’s house for Ganpati. Had loadsa fun. Ate kanda poha that his mom had prepared. Then came down and sat near the college for sometime. We were our usual selves again after a long time. But the real interesting part began after that. Sood went back with his friends. We decided to go drinking. Raman as usual was cribbing about Mahabaleshwar so we thought we would first check Indiana out. Turned out that even tough they don’t have it as a dance bar any more they still have the same sitting arrangement with sofas and tables and a lady singing with an orchestra behind her yuck!! We squirmed and came out. I told Raman that we will take you to the filthiest of bars but we won’t take you to such places, don’t worry! As if that was any solace for him.

Anyways the highlight of the evening was the conversation that we had in Mahabaleshwar. Samir initiated it (I know it’s a bit tough to imagine) He said that lets play a game wherein every person speaks about the negatives and positives about each other.

It turned out to be a healthy and interesting discussion. There were the obvious observations and also the not so obvious ones.

For Samir the obvious remark was that he seems too aloof most of the times and that he never calls on his own. But at the same time whenever he’s with everybody he is 100% there. Also there is the genuine charm about him that makes him more likable and lovable. Samir also has this amazing perspicuity in knowing people and their nature that makes him one of the more matured persons in the group. Also Between Raman and Samir both had a conversation on why they don’t open up to each other. Both have an equal role to play. Samir on his own never discusses his personal life and Raman is not too good at probing.

With Raman everybody agreed on his innocence, which sometimes makes him look negative, but at the same time it’s that innocence that makes him so adorable. If he takes people for granted he also makes it a point to constantly stay in touch with them. I took the privilege of offending Raman to the max. I told that donno what is it but there are situations wherein I am not sure whether Raman is completely open or not which is why I don’t take that chance of actually telling or asking about somethings to him.

There was a consensus that Jante is a ‘Muhfat’. He can’t sugarcoat things. And when it comes to arguing without reason there is no one who can hold his hand. But he also has one of the more sensible heads on his shoulders. I mentioned that Jante is a complete CEO material. He has the right amount of drive, ruthlessness and ambition mixed with the ability to create a team and inspire them.

Lastly about me, people had a tough time coming out with negatives…hahaha…well ya I did come across as a stubborn person who once when convinced about his stand doesn’t move away from it come what may and will keep on arguing about it to glory even when all the people around him have a different view. Good points…well…Jante said I know the value of people that’s why I know how to adjust and adapt myself to people and their behaviour. To quote Samir: “Yeh toh yaaron ka yaar hai!” Raman: “To a certain extent he is my hero!”

Sood missed this session. When asked if an emergency strikes who would be the first person that I will call, I named two guys No.1 Sood and No.2 Jante. Which after knowing that one call and all four of them would be there.

2005-09-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

Had gone to visit TP in the evening. Had a long chat. He freaked out the moment he saw me. He was like “Whoa! You are a big man!” I said, “Hey chill I look a hell lot older for my age.” Anyways comin back to what we discussed…Ya so he said that you have to write for the masses. Don’t write for your fellow writers, that he said is the main drawback of an advertising copywriter. Most of the copywriters he said write for their fellow writers. Which I completely agree. What else? Hmmm…Quite a few things worth writing home about.

Don’t be in a hurry to make a film. Don’t set targets like I have to make a film within 2 or 3 years or so on.

Don’t make it compulsory that ‘my first film will be my best film.’

Do this when you are writing your film. As you do in advertising come out with a target audience for your film. At the end of the day even if it’s a creative product it has to be sold and we need takers for it. One thing that he told he does and recommends it to me is: Come down from your high-rise apartment. Stand on the road and look at the people passing by. The auto rickshaw walla, the aunty taking the sabzi, the kids coming out of classes, the dukandar, the salesman etc etc and ask yourselves will they be keen on seeing your movie? Will they understand your movie and appreciate it? It’s a call that needs to be taken. Whether you are making your movie for a handful of people who sit in a cocoon of their own and claim to be the connoisseurs of cinema or get down to the actual grassroot level and not use the movie as a medium to show your intense falsified pseudo-intelligence. Yes, it’s a powerful medium and it need not be just wasted on item numbers or cheap gags but what will be worse is you use it to pat your own back by show things in a complicated way,things which can very well be shown in a simple but endearing manner. Anyways I digress. The rule being – Know thy audience.

It’s easy to write an intelligent and complicated film but its damn tough to write a simple and straightforward film.
Need to watch more of Tarantino.

Enlightenment

2005-09-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Had the privilege of attending a lecture given by Shyam Benegal. A quick run through the important points covered and which left an impact on me:

Commercial or the mainstream Hindi cinema as we know it caters to a passive audience. They are the ones, which don’t disturb the accepted set of norms in the audiences mind. In short they don’t challenge the audiences beliefs, credos etc. Thus they don’t make the them think.

They can be quantified as a combination of 9 basic emotions in one product.

Therefore it’s more of a spectacle than a work of art.

It doesn’t allow residuals in characters.

Viewers feel a sense of déjà vu, which in turn is what is known as general entertainment.

Popular cinema doesn’t delve into the inner lives of their characters, but rather they dig into the inner lives of the audiences. Which is why the relevance to the external life is remote.

They are anti psychological. Its hailing the status quo.

Modern cinema has fewer paradoxes.

Alternatively meaningful cinema probes on a sensory, emotional and cerebral level.

They make the audiences active.

The above-mentioned points were covered in his lecture some points that came up while I was conversing with him were:

You need to know the rules thoroughly before breaking them. Picasso is considered great because he broke the rules but not before having a complete hold over them. You should know that you are breaking a rule and doing something different rather than breaking norms in a juvenile manner by being completely oblivious about them.

One needs to have a fair enough understanding of the techniques of film making before laying your hands on it.

Before I could ask him my final question- ‘tips to an aspiring film maker.’ A certain Mr.Pandey and his troupe whisked Mr. Benegal into the more elite circles and away from the lesser mortals! theek hai yeh bhi sahi….Tu darna mat mere dost tera number bhi aayega!!!

Me Back!!!

2005-09-06T02:02:00.000-07:00

Yipee!!! After the self imposed hiatus Me Back!!! This time around the blog promises to get more personal, more monosyllabic, more uninteresting than before. Unknowingly Prachi of Dawn inspired me to blog again. Put my thoughts down ruminate on them. Hope am able to sustain the enthusiasm this time.

Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi...

2005-05-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

“At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals, which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again...

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and the soul of a nation, long suppressed finds utterance."It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”

India circa 1969.

Almost twenty years after promises and assurances made of humanity and progressive governance. A nation is caught between the socio-political ethos of the yesteryears and the self-seeking, power hungry governance of its times. A generation that grows without idols. A generation that is disillusioned.

Hazaron speaks about those times. Rarely do we see a filmmaker taking a strong stand and mincing no words in exposing the people responsible for creating an upheaval and making the lives of millions a saga of unending misery.

This film speaks about our parent’s generation. (ie if you are of my age)A generation that was not instrumental in getting India freedom nor was it there to witness it. A generation that fed on the illusion enthusiastically perpetrated by their fathers that the glory days would be back again. The anthem in the air was, "Dukh bhare din bitey re bhaiyya,Ab such aayao re..” A generation that didn’t have heroes like Gandhi and Tilak to look up to. They had the Beetles. A generation when it grew up saw that things were worsening around them instead of getting any better. A nation lead by a woman from the Nehru dynasty was fast turning into the empire of a strong willed and stuck-up dictator.

Could revolution be brought again? Some of these disillusioned youth, without a purpose but with a cause, without a plan but with passion decided to plunge in to get revolution. The end was not as surprising as it was moving.

The movie has had a deep impact on me. I am not going to write anything about the plot, the taking, the dialogues and other such mundane and horribly superficial issues.Although I want to speak about the screenplay,the acting,the direction.Chitrangandha,Shiney and Kaykay...I shall speak about them but probably in some other blog dedicated to it.

Hazaron has made me think. It has made me question the things around me. But it has also helped me understand the sorry state of affairs that plague my nation. That reminds me of an incident related to this issue the other day. One of my groupies wanted to see Kaal. I said why Kaal? Why not Hazaron Khwahishein? He said that he has enough of issues in life to deal with. He doesn’t like to see films that make him think. Infact he stays away from anything that would make him think. I smiled. That here am I belonging to a generation that thrives on make believe adventures and candyfloss romances. But shuns from seeing the actual reality.Why?Because it makes them think.And they are in no mood to do that.Probably they think that it doesn't even concern them.

But then I thought what do I do after watching these so called movies with a message? Pontificate? Mull for sometime then forget it in the rigmarole of life? Sit in a bar and have a heated discussion on this over a drink? Yeah, all of the above. But most of all it has helped me develop the sensibilities towards some key issues around us. It has helped form an opinion on things that matter. It has helped me to take a stand.

Its foolish to think that after watching a movie on the oppression in Bihar all of us should pack our bags and go to Bihar the next day to bring a revolution. No. Even if we are sensitive towards the issues and in the long run contribute in some way or the other in making some kind of a difference in somebody’s life after reading/watching/listening to such kind of creation the purpose is solved.

After I watched it one of the many things that came to my mind was - ‘wish I had made this movie.’
After reading this you must be thinking what point is he trying to make?Is it about the movie?The times?The director?What???If this writing seems incoherent then believe me that's how its meant to be.As Siddharth (KayKay) puts it in one of the scences, "I have definitely learnt something from it.But I am yet to decipher what."

Take a bow Mr. Sudhir Mishra. You have made me think.

"Muhobbat mein fark nahi hai jeene marne ka...
Ussi ko dekhkar jeete hai jiss kafir pe dam nikale...
Bahot nikale mere armaan lekin
Phir bhi kam nikale"

Droplets

2005-04-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Melancholy envelopes me when the sky turns crimson, when the breeze whispers your name and you…you are tucked away somewhere in a galaxy far, far away from me...where neither I can see you nor feel your existence...but I know that you live…within me...

***
There seems to be no pain now. The numbness has done its part. I feel like the first flake of snow. Descending down from the womb of the skies. Traveling on the back of the wind. Feeling so light that I forget my own existence.

***

As I look at myself in the mirror, I notice the scars. I notice the dried tears. I notice some marks…red…the marks left by your lips. I notice a crease near the cheeks…the remains of a dimple, which used to reside there not so long ago. I notice the distance in the eyes…the mass of expanse that we traveled together. I notice the forehead and its cavernous web of frowns that I try in vain to hide. I look. I stare. I gaze…but I can’t see any trace of myself there…its you who seems to be breathing the air through my nostrils...

***

As the leaves fall on the ground that I walk on I notice their need to remain clustered. When the breeze comes hissing to clean up the path, those which had fallen far, come with the joyous fervor of a kid eager to hug his mother after being away for long and resemble a flock of birds soaring away towards a common destination.

***

And I lived and lived and lived. Not knowing what it is all about. Not knowing the difference between living and existing. And I lived untill I got nauseous…until it got to me. Then I started running…away, away from life. As fast as I could…farther and farther away. Faster, Faster, Faster. But it caught up with me. Followed me wherever I went. I thought it wanted to tell me something…say…I said. But it kept looking at me…I looked into her eyes. She wept. My life wept for me. I smiled. I felt better.

The Last Miracle

2005-04-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

6 balls 3 runs.

The stage was set. The actors geared up. The audience was palpitating. Inzy, the Pakistani skipper was on strike. Dada had the ball in his hands. Who was to bowl the last over? Who would be the Achiles from the Indian camp? Dada was setting the field. He calls out to somebody at the mid-on boundary. Zaheer? Sehwag? or Karthik? Nobody was surprised when they saw who was running towards the pitch. Sachin Tendulkar himself. Yes. He was the Achiles. Without batting an eyelid he started setting the field. He knew what was expected of him. He had done miracles before. But the audience was losing hope.

He bowls the first ball. Dot.

Second ball. Dot too.

People start getting up from their seats. It’s difficult to sit down.

4 balls 3 runs.

He bowls. Inzy steers it towards point. Comfortable two runs.

3 balls 1 run. Even a kid would do it.

Dejected, people begin to leave.

But Achiles is still standing. Still shouting instructions at the top of his voice.

He bowls. It’s a dot. The audience stops. Turns and gathers again.

2 balls 1 run.

And then it happens. There’s a thunderous applause after the ball is bowled. It’s a dot!

1 Ball 1 run.

It doesn’t get closer than this. They don’t have battles like these anymore. Predictably the Indian camp goes for its trademark huddle. Fielders start closing in. Achiles is leading everybody now towards a probable miracle. There’s a hush in the crowd. Most of them have started praying. Those three minutes seem like three whole ages.

And then…

The warrior moves. Marches forward to bowl, which all hope, would go down in history as the most memorable over ever.

When 1 billion people are praying for the ball to hit the stumps the ball decides to hit the bat and flee away from the fielder. Victory. Viva Pakistan.

A stunned silence envelopes the nation.

The Gods have gone against Achiles. He looks up at the sky. He closes his eyes…and so do 1 billion people who believe in him.

(For the uninitiated Achiles is a character from the movie Troy)

A ride back in time

2005-04-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

I am feeling light. Unusually light. Infact I have been humming a song for sometime now. Since I don’t know the lyrics properly I am freely adding my own words into it. Even though my foot hurts (I chipped my nail off the other day. Don’t ask how!) it hasn’t dampened my spirits a bit . “Ek Dadar TT.” I tell the bus conductor. Its afternoon and I have to visit a darned ICICI branch to pay for my past karmas (Read credit card payment which is long overdue) I am approaching an area where I spend some of the most memorable times of my life. This is where my dear old alma mater lies. I see hoards of youngsters flocking outside Chitra theatre hoping to get tickets of, ‘Lucky – No time for love’. There they are - mutually exclusive pockets of highly active hormones waiting to sit and go into a dream world for three hours, which is not much different from what they are living in right now. I was one of them not so long back. My heart yearns to go back in time. Do those things again. Sport a goatee. Wear torn jeans. Share the same cigarette. Fight for the last puff. Ask for a cutting chai with bun maska and sit for hours till the Irani hotel guy switches the fan off as a tacit but overt sign of his disapproval. Take a girl to out to a nearby restaurant only to find that the rest of your gang has suddenly realized that they too are hungry, even though you guys have just hogged lunch together. Start studying only when you get the exam timetable in hand. That too you come to know only on the day of the sitting arrangement.
You rehearse for your play with such fervent passion that will put even Lawrence Olivier to shame. Only to find that you can’t recollect what to say when you see your co artist’s eyes begging you to begin the monologue in the last scene and you feel your knees trembling beneath the trouser that you are wearing.
You fight with your friends not because they don’t listen to you but because they don’t listen to their own heart. You sit in the lawn singing hotel California to Bade achche lagte hain for hours together over and over again till the college watchman kicks you out of the premises. Then you go outside the gate and start singing. Sometimes you set up an orchestra in G8, which is the gent’s loo, and have girls standing outside and listening.
After having studied in the college library you go triple - sit on a khatara bike at three in the night to a friends place to sleep so that you can hope to pass in the paper the next day.You scrape through while your other friend gets a KT (To appear in the next term)and you both decide to celebrate it over a cup of tea. Your first love. Your first taste of success. Your first feeling of belonging. Your first rebellion. Your first heartbreak. Your first fallout. Your first performance. Your first real friendship. Your first peg. Your first smoke. Your first kiss. Your first make out. Your all firsts started here…
“Chalo Dadar TT…” the conductor called out. I come out of my reverie. I look around. Some kids from my college are sitting next to me discussing the accounts paper. I look out my stop has come. I get up. “Maine piecemeal main silly mistake kar diya yaar!” The kid next to me tells his friend as he makes way for me to go. I get down. I am feeling lighter. Unusually lighter but this time I am humming a song whose lyrics I know by heart. Bade achche lagte hain…”

Pyaasa

2005-04-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

Vijay (Guru Dutt) meets Meena (Mala Sinha) his ex-girlfirend after a gap of many years.They look at each other for sometime.She breaks the silence and asks, "Kaise rahe ab tak?"
Vijay: Zinda..."

**********************

An agitated Meena asks Vijay, "Tum phir se kyon aaye meri zindagi main?"
Vijay replies,"Main tumhari zindagi se gaya hi kab tha Meena?Tum hi toh gayi thi meri zindagi se..."

***********************

A stone drunk Vijay is climbing up the stairs supported by Gulab (Waheeda Rehman) who holds him so that he doesn't fall.Gulab worried looks at his condition and says,"Haal sambhalne ke baad chale jaana."
Vijay smiles to himself and replies, "Ab toh chale jaane ke baad hi haal sambhlega..."

************************
All this aided by the haunting harmonica played Panchamda himself in the background.

Shahryar

2005-04-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

Shahryar. The name might not mean anything to most of us. For those few others who are roughly aware of his existence know him no more than the lyricist of Umrao Jaan. He has been one of my favourite shayars for some time now. I thought the moment had come for writing an ode to him.

My introduction to Shahryar was the song “Seene main jalan aakhon main toofan sa kyon hai…”After I heard the song I got so touched by those lines that like a mad man I tried to find out who the hell was the lyricist of the song. Especially the last stanza of the song completely captivated me…
kyaa koi nayi baat nazar aatii hai ham mein
aaiinaa hamen dekh ke hairaan saa kyon hai

In this post I will share with you some of his best works.

ajeeb saanehaa mujh par guzar gayaa yaaro
main apne saaye se kal raat dar gayaa yaaro
har ek naqsh tamannaa kaa ho gayaa dhundhalaa
har ek zakm mere dil kaa bhar gayaa yaaro
bhatak rahii thii jo kashtii vo Gaqr-e-aab huii
chadhaa hua tha jo dariya utar gayaa yaaro
vo kaun thaa vo kahaan kaa tha kya hua tha use
sunaa hai aaj koi shaks mar gayaa yaaro

While the pathos of a broken man is evident in the above verses the next verse philosophies the fact of life.

kabhii kisii ko mukammal jahaan nahin miltaa
kahiin zameen to kahin aasmaan nahin miltaa

jise bhii dekhiye vo apne aap mein gum hai
zubaan milii hai magar ham_zubaan nahiin miltaa

bujhaa sakaa hai bhalaa kaun waqt ke shole
ye aisii aag hai jis mein dhuaan nahin miltaa

tere jahaan mein aisaa nahin ki pyaar na ho
jahaan ummiid ho is kii vahaan nahin miltaa

Then he uses words like…

aise hijr ke mausam ab kab aate hain
tere alavaa yaad hamen sab aate hain

jaagatii aankhon se bhii dekho duniyaa ko
Khvaabon kaa kyaa hai vo har shab aate hain

kaagaz kii kashtii mein dariyaa paar kiyaa
dekho ham ko kyaa kyaa kartab aate hain

The following sher was used in Umrao Jaan..

kis-kis tarah se mujh ko na rusvaa kiyaa gayaa
Gairo.n kaa naam mere lahuu se likhaa gayaa

kyon aaj us kaa zikr mujhe Khush na kar sakaa
kyo.n aaj us kaa naam meraa dil dukhaa gayaa

is haadase ko sun ke karegaa yaqiin koii
suraj ko ek jhonkaa havaa kaa bujhaa gayaa

He didn’t have the proficiency of a Faiz or the burning anger of a Sahir neither was his work acclaimed to the hilt but he gave us some of his simple unpretentious thoughts that don’t fail to touch a cord. No matter who you are.

And lastly couplets of his immortal song from Umrao Jaan…

justajoo jis kii thii us ko to na paya hamne
is bahane se magar dekh lii duniya ham ne

kab milii thii kahaan bichhadii thii hamen yaad nahiin
zindagii tujh ko to bas Khvaab mein dekhaa ham ne...

She...

2005-03-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

She first saw me when I was this tall lanky fellow, who was most of the times lost in his own thoughts. People considered it to be arrogance so did she.

If getting accustomed to your loneliness is what you call happiness. I was happy with my self then. I had dreams but they were too hazy. I had plans but I was too lazy.

Now she tells me that there was something special about you that compelled me to know more about you. Slowly and steadily she penetrated my defenses. I had not given her much thought then. Nor did we meet occasionally after our first few meetings.

She was tenacious. She was genuine. She was a breathe of fresh air. Slowly I realized that I enjoyed her company more than the pretentious companionship of the others around. We had many things in common. Firstly the concept of trials and tribulations was not something that was new to us. Life had left its share of scars on our once innocent faces. May be she related to the pain that she saw deep down in the depths of my eyes. May be I saw that behind her vibrant exterior was a tough and vulnerable heart. Yeah, oxymoronic. I know. But true still.

Fortunately, she had a steady boyfriend then. That prevented the world around us to interfere in our lives and dictate the terms of our relationship. I was a good-humored loner. I hardly spoke beyond the usual pleasantries. I spoke to her. For hours. Because she listened. I told her about my dreams and then I realized that while speaking to her my otherwise nebulous dreams were taking some kind of shape. I could comprehend them. She taught me how to communicate with my dreams. She taught me to talk to them.

Before I knew I was opening up. To people. To ideas. Luckily I tasted success in the endeavours that I was passionate about. She encouraged me. She fought for me. I was getting to be a better person and then…

Then I fell in love. I fell in love with a girl. No it wasn’t her. This girl belonged to a different world. A world which I had seen and heard of, but could never relate to. She fell for my charms. People said that I got a priced catch. This girl had everything. She was intelligent, beautiful, smart, sensitive, talented and rich. I flitted around everywhere, with her in my arms. I liked to induce those jealous stares. It worked wonders for my ego.

Before I knew I was drifting away from my oxymoronic girl. I was so obsessed with the new development in my life that I was oblivious to the existence of everything around me.

But she being she, she gave me time. She did get insecure, but somehow I managed to convince her out of it. I told her probably this marks the beginning of a new phase in our relationship.

And then…

Then one day the beautiful girl got up and went back to her own world. Leaving me shaken.

I sobbed. I howled. I fought. I complained. But the girl didn’t come back.

But SHE was still there. She saw me slapping myself. She gave me her hands so that I could claw on them. She let me abuse her. She let me scream at her. She let me throw tantrums at her. But most importantly she let me be…

I was hurt. My ego was hurt. My life looked aimless. My dreams changed shapes. Shapes now, which I could no longer decipher. Probably there were no shapes at all…because there was nothing there.

One by one she helped me pick up the pieces. By then she had also broken up with her long steady boyfriend. Both of us together silently gulped on the sorrow and tried to put our lives back together.

She forced me to dream again. She cajoled me. She tricked me. And there I was…back with my dreams again. Did I mention before that I liked being in my dream world? That’s a safer place to be in. Nobody comes there to hurt you. You get to be yourself there.

But she was too harsh. She kicked me out of it. On the other hand to compensate for the agony that he gave me sometime back, God decided to make some of my dreams true. Our efforts bore fruits. We shared some moments of happiness. Life seemed to be back on track.

It’s been an eventful journey so far. I met some wonderful people on the way, some of whom are still with me.

But most of all I met her. Kalyani, without you I would still be wandering in the large corridors of loneliness that I seemed to seek solace in. Without you I wouldn’t be me.

Thanks for helping me discover myself.

Sunday Afternoons

2005-03-20T13:54:00.002-08:00

Sunday afternoons.Still.Sunny.Bright.The road opposite my bedroom window is empty save a trickle of pedestrians; most of them people returning from the market with fresh broiler chicken.

A quirky sparrow chirping incessantly for want of attention.

The reverie of the Gulmohar disturbed by a gush of breeze that has probably lost its way in the heat and humidity.

Tink. Tank. Tink. Tank. Tink. Tank. The rhythmic strokes of a construction worker plummeting menacingly on an iron rod.

I smell the aroma of Garam Masala brewing from my neighbour’s window. Mutton probably.

A rich dark crimson saree walloping from the outer railing of a balcony, Wonder what it was in the empty space that it was trying so desperately to reach. The breeze likes to tease her. Tantalize her into believing that she might get successful in breaking away from the confinity of a steel rod that dominates her existence and dictates her space.

An indolent dog is stretching and yawning, safely tucked under the shadow of a bench in the compound.

There seems to be no respite for the kabadiwala who inspite of the scorching heat is shouting hopefully at the top of his voice, “Dabba, Batli, Samaan, Bhangarwalai…!!!"
The sound pierces the stillness, creates a ripple around it for sometime…Then it’s the same again. Disappointed he starts walking back out of the compound. Nobody around me seems to have anything useless to give him. With a tired and forlorn look, he makes his way out. Goes to the Gulmohar and sits on the Katta wiping the stream of sweat flooding his forehead. The heat has sapped his energy.

I can hear the vociferous noise made by a bunch of kids arguing while playing cricket somewhere. I guess someone’s out and not ready to part with the bat.

Sitting in the opposite balcony I see an old wrinkled woman staring down at the empty space. There are no expressions on the surface, I guess because there’s a vast chasm of nothingness beneath it. This was one of the few occasions where the exterior is reflecting the emptiness inside…Otherwise we are masters of disguise…we are experts in hiding our respective emptiness by our effervescent exteriors. Probably you are too tired to keep up the act at that age…

The tranquility of the burning roads is disturbed by a lone auto rickshaw. It passes leaving a trail of smoke behind.

Sunday afternoons…are still.

Sunday afternoons are still empty.

A Tale of Two Movies

2005-03-14T02:59:00.000-08:00

Saw quite a few movies this weekend. Five in all. Yup you are right, I put have even the most passionate and indolent couch potato to utter humiliation. I was infront of the idiot box for a whopping 22 hours outta 48.

It all began with Rahul Rawail’s Arjun on Saturday. I like watching movies from the eighties.Sunny Deol exuded a vulnerable innocence that made the character endearing.

The English Patient later in the evening. (I was also planning to watch American Pie The Wedding at 9pm but thought against it coz I didn’t want to part with the brooding aura of the English Patient.) Sunday was cataclysmic. My mom didn’t make any attempt at hiding her disgust and angst on seeing me sloth shapelessly in front of the TV like an amoeba stretching. She soon gave up realizing that her son had gone outta hand long back.

The list for Sunday…
Breakfast with “How to lose a guy in 10 days.” (Hey guys I know, I know but I just wanted to start the day on a lighter note.)Kate Hudson is good candy for just awakened eyes!

Followed by bits n pieces of Raj Khosla’s CID starring Dev Anand.

Afternoon was the Marathi tearjerker – “Chaukat Raja” Every time I watch this movie (This was the Fifth time I watched it) I surpass my past records of weeping inconsolably. This time too I was howling away to glory. While most might attribute that to Dilip Prabhawalkar’s true to life portrayal of a mentally challenged person, for me it’s the actress extraordinaire, Sulabha Deshpande, (she plays his mother) who penetrates my defenses and shakes me up inside out. She’s Durga Mavshi for me.My heart aches for her.Shedidn;t need to speak to convey her agony.That according to me is the success of an actor. Sanjay Surkar’s direction is very impactful in some scenes, viz when Nandu’s comes back home from Meenal’s place after his mother’s death. Sheer, raw emotions. But most of the times you get the impression that albeit the overall endeavor is extremely genuine the director is focusing more on inducing tears rather than narrating a story. But it’s a just a minor flipside. The performances more than make it up for it.Editing can described in one word – shoddy. Light design and cinematography lacked imagination. Music - wonderful. Set the tempo. Dialogues were to the point.

Two films stood out. For their sheer understanding of the medium. Their highly imaginative and though provoking subjects. Their universal and timeless appeal, inspite of belonging to completely opposite genres. And last but not the least for the conviction and passion of the respective filmmakers. The English Patient and Do Bigha Zameen.

The English Patient.

No. This is not a review. I can’t write reviews. I don’t believe in them either. This is just a cathartic moment for me. For that matter any good piece of art induces a felling of catharsis in me. And I want to just sit and stare at nothing in particular and let my thoughts take their own shape.It’s a nice romantic story was my reaction. But Kalyani put it more aptly, “It’s not a love story. It’s a story about love.” How true. The thing that stood out in the movie was the screenplay. The ease with which it moved from flash back to real time was something most screenplay writers would swear by. The direction by Anthony Minghella was first rate.(Incidentally he’s also written the screenplay)The movie won nine Oscars: Best director. Best Editing, Best Costume, and Best Supporting Actress were some of the categories that it won in. But as luck would have it Best Screenplay that year went to Billy Bob Thornton, for his adapted screenplay of ''Sling Blade.'' A nice touching movie. Not a pathbreaking one neither a visual spectacle. But still it had its own brooding charm that keeps you in its hold for before lingering away. Ralph Fiennes last seen in the cold-blooded act in The Schindler’s List was in great form. Kristin Scott Thomas was also convincing in her portrayal of Katherine. Especially when Clifton (Colin Firth) holds her and says Marzipan! I think you've got marzipan in your hair. She doesn’t know where to look. Juliet Binoche is so earnest that as the movie progresses you stop asking yourself, Why in the heavens name did she wait behind with the patient? The arid landscape is captured so effectively by John Seale that you can feel your throat going dry. (Ok,ok…I know this is stretching things a bit. But what the heck ya he did a superb job)

Do Bigha Zameen.

There are movies and there are movies and there are movies, but there’s only one Do Bigha Zameen. Only once in a while does God come down himself and makes movies (coz u see he has many other important issues to deal with like the Tsunami and Palestinian war etc etc etc) Easily one of the top five movies made in India.

Bimal Roy weaves a masterpiece, the beauty of which lies in its simplicity. Simplicity is the key word. The most difficult form of filmmaking. A territory many aspire for but very few can claim to practice. Every thing about Do Bigha is so real yet so simple. Balraj Sahni’s Shambhu is somebody with whom we can instantly relate to, his mannerisms, his story, his life, and his dreams.
While some may remember the legendary rickshaw accident scene from this movie. I would also put a couple of more landmark scenes as my favourites. The scene where Shambhu is embarking on his journey to Calcutta, how he comes back and hugs his wife again when hears her sobbing. Also the end scene where he picks up something from the ground and a guard or somebody reprimands him and asks him to open his fist to show what he’s stealing. Shambhu opens his fist and we see a handful of mud. It’s a slap across any self-respecting urbanite who is oblivious towards the plight of his brethren in the village.

The movie is considered a milestone because of the times that it was made in and the times that it spoke about. A frontal attack on the feudal system it also exposed the pusillanimity of the noveau rich urban Indian. The hypocrisy of the bourgeois and their vain ideals and existence. Especially when plotted against the simple idiosyncrasies of the village folks the severity is magnified. This film I think never got the credit it deserved. Here was a story well told. Here was the heart at the right place so was the head. But seldom do people notice a good thing, do they?

Urdu anybody???

2005-03-10T03:24:00.000-08:00

What’s with Bollywood and Urdu these days? Every next song that I get to hear on the TV set or blaring on the speakers of all the ricks in Mumbai HAS to have one word of Urdu. The raison detre being its phonetic value that adds to the meter of the song. Don’t get me wrong. I am not ignorant to the fact that Urdu has always been the boli of 80% of the Hindi film songs.
In good old days we have had the best of shayars penning down the lyrics for our movies. Stars of the sixties like Sahir, Shakeel, Jaanissar, Kaifi ruled the skies of the Indian film world. With their chaste Urdu and proficient lines they could make songs even on the mundanest (Couldn’t resist the temptation!) situations seem profound and insightful. Taking their mantle ahead were the likes of Gulzar and Javed Akhtar. The former could complicate a simple situation like lovetalk between two passionate lovers and make it sound like a description of a chapter in a geography text book viz –

“Iss mod se jaate hain,
Kuch sust kadam raste,
Kuch tez kadam rahe,
Pathar ki haveli ko
Shishe ke gharondo mein,
Tinko ke nasheman tak
Iss mod se jaate hain.”

Or give Panchamda a piece of prose and ask him to put in meter and record it viz –

Mera kuch saman
Tumhare paas pada hai
Sawan ke kuch bhege bhyeege din
Rakhe hai
Aur mere in khat mein lipti raat padi hai who raat bujha do mera who saman lauta do.

Just kidding.

Me thinks Gulzar is someone who has penned down easily some of the most simple but profound lyrics of our times.

By adding everyday words like – makan, railway, chatri etc. he has given us words which were more closer to life than just mohabbat, afsana, wafa, aah etc.

But again, I digress.

But how can I go ahead without speaking about Javed sahab, he has in actuality simplified the whole process of lyrics writing. Sagaar, Saath Saath,Tezaab,Silsila were some of his gems.

All these stalwarts time and again have taken generous helpings from the Urdu reservoir to convey the hapless condition of a lovelorn aashiq. Albeit with abundant dexterity.

But I seek your attention to introduce you to this new breed of lyrics that have taken the Hindi film industry by storm and are threatening to stay put for the near future at least.
The modus operandi of these scamstars is to browse through the Urdu to Hindi dictionary. Look out for words, which have a nice phonetic value. (Preferably words, which people have never heard of before) Use the word repeatedly and jot some peripheral lines to disguise it and make it look like a song. Have some jazzy beats in the background and voila you gotta chartbuster over there. Ever done something simpler than this?
Well let me cite some examples.

Nikkamma kiya is dil ne (The word was first made famous by Ghalib. Now he must be turning in his grave on the beats of this song!)
Kambakht ishq (Ghalib again!!)
Khubakhu mujhe tu nazar aaye
Gumshuda
Talatum talatum (And you thought it was one of those oley oley kindda senseless shit. It means a storm)
Lahaulvila
Janab-e-ali

Do guys know of anymore to add to the list?

This will go on until one day they will run outta words in Urdu.Then they will start taking each regional language one by one and rape it repeatedly and thoroughly till its reduced to a lifeless pulp. Then they will search for greener pastures abroad and use Spanish,German,Lebanese,Swahili and the likes.

Anything to make a hit song!

PS. Coming soon is my venting out session on all the remixes. But for that lemme take a break and listen to some songs…;-)

A night of old memories

2005-03-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

Had been to my Mgmt Inst alumni party on Saturday. Had a swell time. Met up with professors and old friends.Prof.Shrinivas instantly recognized me (which surprised me a bit)and when I said that I am in advertising he replied by saying, “But ofcourse!I knew you would reach your aim.” Then turning towards Prof.Pitale he said,"Back then, he was one of those star performers in the class. I am sure he's the same in work also. “The embarrassment on my face was evident.

Post the pleasantries were the time to hit the bar and get sloshed. Had loadsa fun. Flirted outrageously with the junior gals.

PS.Was given the microphone to wax eloquent about our days in college. But I need a script before I face my audience. Impromptu speaking is definitely not my forte. So gauche as I was blurted out a monosyllabic and highly repetitive rambling as my discourse for the evening.

Funny

2005-02-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

This was sooooooooo funny couldnt resist the temptation of posting it on the blog.

Hold on to your chairs coz you r gonna roll out laughing....

SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PUNCH LINE........ IF ALL THE BIG MULTINATIONALS
START SELLING CONDOMS................

COLGATE CONDOM -- YEH HAI HAMARA SURAKSHA CHAKRA

NOKIA CONDOMS -- > CONNECTING PEOPLE

MRF CONDOMS -- EXTRA RUBBER EXTRA MILEAGE

MOOV CONDOMS -- AAH SE AHAAA TAK

MIRINDA CONDOM -- ZOR KA JHATKA DHIRE SE LAGE

LUX CONDOMS -- FILMI SITARON KI PASAND

PHILIPS CONDOM -- LETS MAKE THINGS BETTER

ONIDA CONDOM -- NEIGHBOURS ENVY OWNERS PRIDE

THUMPS UP CONDOM -- TASTE THE THUNDER

COCA COLA CONDOM -- EAT CONDOM,SLEEP CONDOM WEAR ONLY COCA COLA CONDOM

ROTOMAC CONDOM -- SABKUCH DIKHTA HAI

AMUL CONDOM -- A GIFT FOR SOMEONE YOU LOVE

BAGPIPER CONDOM -- KHUB JAMEGA RANG JAB MILENGE TEEN YAAR MAI AAP AUR
BAGPIPIER CONDOM

POLO CONDOM -- A CONDOM WITH A HOLE !!!!

PANAMA CONDOM -- NOTHING BETWEEN YOU AND ME

SEIMENS CONDOM -- COMMUNICATION UNLIMITED.

CADBURY(FLAVOURED) CONDOM -- ASLI SWAD JINDAGI KA ..aur paise bhi pappu
degaa!!!!

PRESTIGE COOKER CONDOM -- JO BIWI SE KARE PYARE WOH CONDOM SE KAISE KARE
INKAAR.

Koi Yeh Kaise Bataye...

2005-02-25T02:45:00.000-08:00

koi ye kaise bataaye ke woh tanaha kyon hai
wo jo apna tha, wahi aur kisi ka kyon hai
yehi duniyaan hain to fir, aisi yeh duniyaan kyon hai
yehi hota hain to, aakhir yehi hota kyon hai?

ik zaraa haath badhaa de to, pakad le daaman
us ke seene mein samaa jaaye, hamaree dhadakan
itane kurbat hain to fir faasla itanaa kyon hai?

dila-e-barbaad se nikala naheen ab tak koi
ik loote ghar pe diyaa karataa hain dastak koi
aas jo toot gayi hain fir se bandhaataa kyon hai?

tum masarrat ka kaho ya ise gam ka rishta
kehate hain pyaar ka rishta hain janam ka rishta
hai janam ka jo ye rishta to badalata kyon hai?

Update to Reality

2005-02-24T06:45:00.000-08:00

Was terribly busy the past week.The Tata Pitch made sure that we stayed over in the office for the weekend.But it was good fun.Lotta learnings.The best part being I was there for the final presentation.It was a major morale booster.Presented two radio spots.Started the narration with a faux paus."Spot opens with the sound of a doorbell.Next we see a somebody opening the door."Gawd!!!Everybody was in splits...the client was like,"We see?????In a radio spot????"But that was the only pitfall.Rest of the narration was bang on.After the presentation Ban came up to me and said, "My God what voice you have got!If not advertising dubbing seems like an apt career option for you."I rolled my eyes and smiled.

I got this forward on a sunday night while we were trying to crack the creative.Found it too realistic.

REALITY.........

21st CENTURY LIFELESSNESS..!!

Our communication - Wireless

Our telephone - Cordless

Our cooking - Fireless

Our youth - Jobless

Our religion - Creedless

Our food - Fatless

Our faith - Godless

Our labour - Effortless

Our conduct - Worthless

Our relation - Loveless

Our attitude - Careless

Our feelings - Heartless

Our politics - Shameless

Our education - Valueless

Our follies - Countless

Our arguments - Baseless

Our bosses - hopeless

Finally,

Our Salary - Very less

Hmm..couldnt agree with it more...Wot say?

P.S.Didnt get time to complete Escapade Part II and now I am feeling toooooo bored.Only if there's public demand I am gonna take the trouble of putting it up..guyz anybody?

Which Author's Fiction are You?

2005-02-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

William Faulkner wrote you. Yes, you're a genius,
you drunken old coot.

The Escapade Part I

2005-02-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Sachin had just mentioned that “We guys(that is Sachin,Raman and Mumpy) are gonna go to Chandigarh from here and maybe also to Simla, why don’t you join in?” I was like “Are you crazy? Coming all the way from Mumbai to Delhi then Simla just for a weekend…You must be nuts!” But Sachin persisted, “C’mon man it will be fun…we haven’t been out for quite sometime now.” “Oh..Yeah…but sir I don’t posses the good fortune of being born into a Birla or an Ambani family and what I get at the end of every month for doodling a few lines, doesn’t permit me to indulge into such lavish acts of hedonistic behavior.”But my taunt seemed to have had no effect on Sachin, he hurled a senti remark to combat my sarcasm which was something like, “Since when has money come in between friendship?”Hmmm…

I pondered Mr.Jante you think you can lure me into puffing 5 grands just on a weekend, which involves 36 hours of ruthless traveling?

Well actually he had.

The crafty politician that he is. He knows what bait to give to whom. Promise me a never-ever-heard-of-an-adventure and you have got me.

Hung up on Sachin (after vociferously denying all possibilities of being privy to his proposal) I call Samir. I try selling the idea to him. Surprisingly he who is known to be the rational and sensible person of the group hasn’t completely run down the idea yet. Hmm…blame it on my convincing skills or Samir’s practical side going for a siesta; he decides to sleep over it. As far as Sood was concerned, I just called him and told him that Thursday evening we are leaving for Delhi and we will come back on Monday. Keep your bag ready and meet us at Mumbai Central station on Thursday. That’s it. As usual he said, “Chalo! May I know the reason why we are doing this.” I said, “No.” “Theek hai…”he quiped.

Since then things picked momentum. Next day morning to my surprise Samir agreed. Called Sachin. Asked him to book the tickets. The excitement was palpable. We love doing such things don’t we?

We came to office on Thursday with our bags packed. But we were still 86th on waiting list. Everybody had almost given up. Then Sachin and Mumpy tried to use some of their 'pull'. (Dilliwallahs at the end of the day!)Train was of 4.55 p.m. and till 3.30 we were still waiting for the seat confirmation. At last at 3.40 we got the confirmation. The approach had worked. Long live corruption!

We boarded the train and ya..Sood dropped out coz last minute he had to wait back for a family friend who was to fly to Denmark from Mumbai and was supposed to stay with Sood.
The journey was good. Nothing much to write home about. Except that since we were on the corner 2 seats I slept up and it was like sleeping in a cupboard. They don’t care much for tall people like me.

Reached New Delhi at 10.Sachin apparently had lost his wallet at his place so he couldn’t leave home on time. By the time he left we had already reached the station. Came out. Sachin had told us that the auto fare would be around 50-60 bucks. Phir kya tha. Armed with the actual rate I set out to outwit the intellect of the Dilli auto wala who is much much smarter and craftier than his counterpart in Mumbai.

Reached Sachin’s place. Had a Ram-Bharat milap in the middle of the road outside his place. Got ready. Met Raman at Gola while having lunch. Left to meet Mumpy in his office at Nehru place. While coming back. I was gonna meet a chat friend of mind who ditched me.
And that was fodder enough for the junta to take my case during the whole trip.
Samir was very keen on seeing the monuments in Delhi. Drove to the Rashtrapati bhavan. Clicked some snaps. Reached minutes after the Mogul Garden closed for the day, so couldn’t see it. Went to India Gate. Raman had taken it upon himself to rush things up, whenever he used to see us settled at one place. “C’Mon dudes make it fast!!Come what may we must be on the road to Chandigarh by dusk!”

Mumpy and me left together to go to his place and the rest of the gang was to follow in Raman’s car and catch us at some bypass. Reached Mumpy’s place at 6.45pm.

Met up with aunty (ie Mumpy’s mom) The last time I had met her was two years back when we had been to Udhampur and Akhnoor.Teamed up with aunty and teased Mumpy a bit on his fiancée. Ate the spiciest cheese patties ever.

Left with Mumpy to join the gang at the bypass. Those assholes made us wait for 45 minutes before showing up.

Fastened the seat belts. Pumped up the volume. Felt the adrenaline rush.And the car was zooming towards Chandigarh. Vroooooom…..

Serendipity

2005-02-08T00:38:00.000-08:00

Its 12.30 a.m. I am sittng at my desk. Serendipity. The Radio at Ajit’s table has started playing, “Jaane kya baat hai…”from Sunny. I get up as if in trance. Walk to his table. Pull a chair and sit. I sit and I listen. In my own reverie. Eyes close. I experience tranquility and upheaval at the same time. I do have that song in my comp, but the serendipity of the radio is too pleasant. When you least expect …

I like radio.

One man standing…..

2005-02-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: These thoughts are my personal thoughts of which I feel very strongly about. These are not meant to preach or demean anybody’s feelings. This was there in my system for quite some time. I had to take it out.

It set me thinking. One man returning is going to change nothing. Is it really so?Is it really stupid to think otherwise?

If observed carefully the story of Mohan Bhargava in Swades spun by Ashutosh Gowariker will remind us about the life of a person we know. The situations may differ. The predicaments may have a different background. The disparity in the outcome might not be the same. But one thing ties both stories - The Reaction.

I am speaking about the story of none other than Mr.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Call it coincidence or deliberation that both are Mohan.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A barrister from England. Starts a legal career in Bombay. Doesn’t make much of headway. Goes back to Rajkot. While living modestly in Rajkot takes up this contract to go to South Africa. The contract is for a year; the remuneration is £ 105, a first class return fare, and actual expenses. The fee is modest, and it is not quite clear whether he is being engaged as counsel or a clerk, but Gandhi wants to get away from Rajkot and accepts the offer with alacrity.
But fate has something else in stored for him. In a Durban court he is ordered by the European magistrate to take off his turban. He is unceremoniously thrown out of the first-class carriage at Maritzburg station.

The other Indians there pocket these humiliations as they pocketed their earnings.But not Mr.Gandhi. He initiates a protest. He initiates a protest against racial discrimination. Against using Identity cards by Indians to set them apart from the Goras and refuses them basic human rights. And the protest is not a, ”Inquilab Zindabaad” or a “Vande Mataram”. The protest is just burning of these identity cards in the town square. A gathering of around 20-25 odd people. Most of who had just come curiously to witness the histrionics of this over smart man called Gandhi. Buss. That’s it. With this modest beginning he gives shape to a philosophy. A philosophy, which had to be endorsed by the west for us to take cognizance. The philosophy of Satyagraha and Ahimsa. After having tasted blood by this humble beginning this man went on to make the South African government bow down to him and sign the Gandhi – Smuts agreement.

There Gandhi realized that one passionate man can make an impact. So he returned. Not with the intention of freeing India from the clutches of the British but to just go back and do something for the motherland. What happened in South Africa for this callow, diffident young man was inner transformation.

An intelligent Indian NASA scientist. A brilliant future ahead of him. Comes to India to meet his nanny. Takes notice of an India that he had just read and heard about but never seen and felt. The experience tugs his heart. He tries to do make a difference. He gets them out of darkness although in a literal sense. He goes back to his bright future. But the lure of the brightness doesn’t seem to entice him anymore. He returns. He returns to make a difference. He returns above all for himself. He wouldn’t have been able to live with it otherwise.

For those who think that Mohan Bhargava came back to India for the people in the village, then my dear friends you are sadly mistaken. He comes back for himself. That’s because there still exists the phenomenon called conscience in him, which compels him to come back. You know why? Because he realizes the difference that he can make in those villagers life. By bringing electricity to the village, he has tasted blood. Unless one actually does it, one would never know the difference that can be created. That’s exactly what happened with Mohan Bhargava. If he would have returned in a couple of days without doing anything much apart from jumping like a jack on 'yeh tara woh tara' he wouldn’t have come back. He would have cried for the country and its sorry state of affairs for a couple of months and then moved on with his bright future. That’s exactly why his Indian colleague can’t relate to him and advises him to stay back. Because he hasn’t seen and done something himself he can make a statement like, ”You think just by lighting a bulb you are going to change the system in India?” He can’t. Mohan knows it. So do we.

And realistically speaking he comes back not to become a schoolteacher or a social reformer. He toys with the idea of joining the Sarabhai Research center, which is enough to describe the profound maturity of the director.

I think there is enough merit in drawing a parallel of the reactions of Mohandas Gandhi and Mohan Bhargava. Injustice, poverty,disparity in lifestyles; all of it we see everyday. But what sets some people apart is their reaction to it. If politics and bureaucracy control the country now, it was far worse then, when Gandhi came into the picture.

And yes my friend if this would have been a Hollywood movie it definitely would have ended at the caravan driving out of the village. You know why? Because they are still new to this concept of conscience and its pangs. That’s exactly the reason we have a Gandhi and they don’t.

Its time we realized the power of ONE.

Sleepy...

2005-02-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Still not back from slumber land. Slept at 3.45 in office. Was woken up at 4.30a.m. by a security guard.Who was on a special mission of mailing some stuff to the Australia office urgently and that poor soul was having problems logging in and in a fit of panic thought I was his best bait to bail him outta the mess. Groggy and irritated I try to open my eyes piqued by the thought that how come its morning I just slept 15 mins back! And I see this masked man clad in black attire breathing down on me. For a moment I think I am a character from Van Helsing and this is the vampire ready to suck my blood. With a jolt I get up. Realization dawns and I hear the pleading tone of the security guard urging me to wake up. I am both amused and irked at the audacity of the guy who has mercilessly woken me up after a hard night’s toil.
Like a zombie I go down with him. Fix the comp. Sneak back in the sleeping bag. But sleep has decided to play flirty with me. After being pleased with herself about her efforts at teasing me she gets bored and chooses to depart. Leaving me stranded.

Roxette...

2005-02-03T02:37:00.000-08:00

Lay a whisper on my pillow
Leave the winter on the ground
I wake up lonely, is there a silence
In the bedroom and all around
Touch me now, I close my eyes
And dream away...

It must have been love, but it's over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now
From the moment we touched till the time had run out

Make believing we're together
That I'm sheltered by your heart
But in and outside I turn to water
Like a teardrop in your palm
And it's a hard winter's day I dream away...

It must have been love, but it's over now
It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been love, but it's over now
It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows

It must have been love, but it's over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now
From the moment we touched till the time had run out

Even now after so long a tear drop still finds its way down my cheek.Hmmmmm...somethings go with you to the grave...

Night Shift

2005-02-03T01:04:00.000-08:00

Its 1 a.m. in the night and I am still in the office. Trying to crack the creative for a campaign. A la Jhankar Beats. My art partner and me are struggling to think of something whackily creative to shove down the clients’ throat.Have just thought of something which according to us (after two drinks,Creativity needs fueling you see ;-))fits the strategy.Ab sab uparwale ke haath mein hai.

Reviews

2005-02-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

For those who have already seen the movie.Here's a review of Bhumika the movie.I hit upon some of the sub text of the movie that I had missed while watching it. This is how a review is to be written.Something that makes the reader think and wonder.
But we have to appease ourselves by the piece of s%^& that the Jitesh Pillais and the Nikhat Kazmi’s of the world churn out for us. Not to mention about the moron called Khalid Mohamed who thinks he knows it all but have a look at his movies and I think K.C.Bokadia makes better films than him. Mayank Shekhar in Mid-day has this aura of I am gonna run down any movie coming my way so you better watch out. But out of all these bunch of clowns I find him making a bit of sense.

Now if you are going to argue that there are no longer any movies like Bhumika to find the sub texts and present it to you gift wrapped, then I’d say go read the reviews of Maqbool, Choker Bali,Company,
Chandini Bar,Lagaan,Swades.

They are written just like they would write about a Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gam and similar other awful movies. Same criteria of judging. No reading between the lines. No emphasis on nuances and a zero credence given to the art of layering.

You can find another good review of Umrao Jaan by our blogger friend The Letterhead who has really given an honest account of her reactions which make you ponder.

So many things...

2005-02-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

So many things to write about and soooo little time!Whew...

Saw Page 3 on saturday.

On sunday - Went for Natyotsav

Waman Kendre's "Madhyam Vyayog" on sunday.Not to mention the discussion session with Nasser bhai(Nasserudin Shah) after the play followed by the grand finale "Ismat aapa ke naam"

Monday - Atlast caught Choker Bali and luuuuved it!

To begin with...

Page 3.

Good Movie.Must see once for:
1.Boman Irani's gritty portrayal of the editor. He’s really got into the skin of this one. Very controlled yet sooo very effective.
2.Madhur’s honest effort at exposing the gliteratti’s and the chatteratti’s rotten side.
3.Konkana Sen’s genuine Madhavi Sharma.She looks the character.
4.Last but not the least.The ever reliable Atul Kulkarni. He conveys the angst and frustration of fighting a putrifying system oh so beautifully. He mouths one of my favourite lines,”You have to be a part of the system to change the sytem!”So true.
In the beginning albeit I was losing my patience because of the lack luster acting skills of most of the people cramming the frame initially. All of them being non-actors didn’t give me any solace. I wish Madhur could have relied on actors rather than the so called socialites that he had taken to convey his point. Only Soni Razdan stands out. Buss. Period. The rest of them suck. Nasser (NOT Nasserudin Shah!) is anything but an actor. Equipped with a squeaky voice and a macho personality the concoction is unintentionally hilarious. Dolly Thakur is awkward. (with all due respect ma’am. After knowing you as a teacher I couldn’t help but notice your uneasiness on screen.)
Sandhya Mridul rules. Good job. Tara Sharma sucks. She’s good to run around the trees but don’t you dare ask her to open her mouth. You will repent till you spit your guts out and your ears cant bear the brunt of the cacophony of her whiny voice.

Sunday was the orgasm for my theatremind. 4.00pm.Madhyam Vyayog.Dir-Waman Kendre.Me,Vineet,Parag and Kallu.
Mahakavi Bhas’s mythological drama. Waman Kendre’s skilful direction and the brilliant performance by Bhim and Ghatotkach. The orchestration and choreography was just mind blowing. The play proved to be a welcome change in genre. It was a full house and we had the audience sitting on the stairs. But full marks should also be given to the audience who encouraged the actors from time to time with their generous applause, infact there was a standing ovation at the end of the play.

Discussion with Nasserbhai. A dampner. The only thing worth writing home about - “Inspiration hits a person only when he’s prepared.”Profound.

The felicitation of Naseerbhai with Shyam babu and Satish Kaushik.
This thing went on and on. Finally Parag got fed up and left for home. Apparently he had a function to attend. Anyway we had subjected him to an overdose of theatre that day. Thank God he didn’t faint. Satish Kaushik’s speech was a riot. Like when he was narrating the incidences of his struggling days when, he had a small role to play in a film whose main lead was Nasser, Naseer had asked him then (Both were from NSD and knew each other quite well since the beginning), “Shooting dekhne aaye ho?”Satish had replied,”Nahi,acting karne aaya hoon!”
At last the play started at 9.45(It was about to start at 8.00)
Heeba did a fine job with Chuimui. (Although she hesitated a bit in between.)
Ratna Pathak with Mugal bachcha was effective. Nasser himself with lajo rocked. The story inherently is so well written that it gives an actor a lot of impetus to perform. Ismat aapa really is an amazing writer. She through her words manages to create such vivid images in our mind complete with their idiosyncrasies and nuances that we start feeling that we are actually witnessing the happenings of the tale firsthand on location! All in all a fitting end to a lovely day of theatre. Some other celebrities apart from us ;-)were,Milind Soman,Ashutosh Rana,Govind Namdeo etc.Also caught up with Kunal Khemu.Seems he’s pumped iron diligently. Apparently he’s all set to get into the hero mould.

Hush…. Now about choker Bali. What a wonderful movie. The atmosphere creation by Rituparno is brlliant.Takes us back to the Bengal of the 1940s.First of all I am biased about bong movies because I have this strong fascination towards anything bong…Bong writers have always had a deep impact on my psyche and style of wrting. Be it Sarat Chandra or Rabindranath both hold high positions in my realm of superior writers. Sometimes I find myself longing to be apart of the Bengal of the past. To live in that kind of a world. To be surrounded by diehard fanatics and downright romantics. Hmmmmm…anyways… Aishwarya as Binodini seems so perfect. I loved the way her character is established. The smallest of nuance didn’t escape my eye. She opened the heart of Binodini for us. Her longing. Her loneliness. Her wickedness. Her intelligent mind’s yearning. Her sarcasm. Everything is soo beautiful about her. Like when Mahendra is kissing her,with drowsy eyes she says that her husband died of TB and after looking at a terrified Mahendra the bout of laughter was such a sting. Wow! Special mention must be made of Raima Sen who exudes vulnerability to such an extent that you just wanna hold her close and protect her. My favourite is the scene when while drying clothes she sees the red mark on Binodini’s chest. What expressions!

Winter Mornings

2005-01-31T21:54:00.000-08:00

Winter Mornings.So pleasant.So nice.So calm.So therapeutic.Winter mornings.They bring out the best in me.I luv winters.

Blues...Part II

2005-01-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

Ok....it wasnt that bad....I was like...hi howya doin..?With a I-know-u-fuckin-hate-my-guts-&-cant-stand-my-sight-but-here-i-come-to-kiss-your-ass kindda look...I m sure S told you about that thing?

And he goes...ya baby(YA HE CALLED ME BABY!!)I know...we will sort it out...blah...blah...blah...baby...(He calls everybody baby!)

I leave him giving a false-than-a-friggin-denture kindda smile and get my ass outta there....

husssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wot a relief.....It was akine to relieving your filled to the brim bladder after waiting for hours squirming in agony....

Hate to admit it but it was worth it...feelin much lighter now.....

___________________________________________________

Ok...now that the fuckall part is over...looking forward to have some fun with my gang...gonna catch up with the Aamir 11 vs Kapil 11 match at Wankhede..(being in the media has its own advantages....)Got an offical reason to booze tonight...have been put on Kinley Soda...Have to crack the creative by monday morning.Will need to experience the product first hand..teehee :-)Have a nice week end to all & sundry...

Blues...

2005-01-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

Its lowtime folks!!!A melancholic…gloomy me. Things at the shop are not so encouraging too. Sometimes I wonder why confrontation is so much of an issue for me? Is it a sign of being a sissy? But then it varies from situation to situation. Sometimes I want to confront. Take life head on…but there are times when I avoid going all upfront…I know in the case of XF I am to be blamed too…I feel like going up to him and saying it…but I cannot make myself to do just that…He being a senior is not helping things much…I think its my ego…whatever it is it doesn’t make my life any easier. So here I am sulking away to glory.

The restlessness is too much. Also the Modhulika episode has given my piece of mind a pounding. Can’t get that darn thing outta my mind too.

You know what?Enuf is just enuf!!I am going to XF right now…What’s the worse that will happen? My ego will have motherf$*%& thrashing…so be it…Mr.Megalomaniac you haven’t yet reached that level in life where you can afford to have such kindda ego and get away with bloody murder…till then learn to keep your SOB swollen head in check..coz its not making life simpler…

If I survive this thrashing will post the rest…till then…so long….(Sulk)

From Run in the morning to Song from the Nineties..

2005-01-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

Call me a weirdo or whatever but in the morning if I listen to the songs from Run it makes my day.I luvvvv those songs.My friendz think that I have gone beserk.On one side I worship Rafi,R.D.,Kishore,Shobha Gurtu,Kishori Amonkar,Sultan Khan and on the other side I like listening to sidey rickshaw songs like "Sarki chunariya re..Zaara zaara".Moi thinks I was a taxidriver in my last incarnation.My past is trying to catch up with me.;-)

List of songs I love to listen to in the morning before leaving for work:

1.Tere aane se aaye,Tere jaane se jaye....(Run)(complete dance number...)
2.Chain ho chain ho...(Run)
3.Dil Mein Jo Baat - (Run)
4.Sarki Chunariya Re Zara Zara (Run)
5.Saathiya tune kya kiya(Love)Gets me nostalgic.
6.Jaane kya baat hai (sunny)The melody of this song gets u into a different world.
7.Bachna aye haseeno lo mein aa gaya.Energitic.
8.O maiya kero kero kero mama(Arjun)Rebel's song
9.Aye mere humsafar (QSQT) Inspiring
10.Pehla nasha & Yaha ke hum sikandar (Lively)

Also now that this topic has come up I also patronise most of the songs from the nineties which the purist side of me would rather ignore.They being..(The list is on the basis of memory occurence and not on the basis of preferance)

1.Aye mere humsafar (Baazigar)
2.Chaha toh bahut (Imtihaan)
3.Yeh raat yeh tanhaiyaan (Gunaah) Nice longing melody.
4.Dil hai ke maanta nahi
5.Paagalpan cha gay,dil tumpe aagaya(Janam)This is one helluva rare song.M sure nobody must have ever heard of it.But still its very romantic.
6.Dil kyun dhadkata hai Another gem of a song from Janam.
7.Dil hai mera diwana & kehti hai dil ki lagi (Raju ban gaya gentleman)
8.Aye kash ke hum(Kabhi haan Kabhi naa)I worship this song.This moves me whenever i hear it.When Kavita & moi were breakingup this song was playing in the background.What an irony!
9.Lagne laga hai mujhe aaj kal(Chor aur chand)I used to sing this for Kavita.
10.Sapnon mein aana (Chor aur Chand)
11.Tere dar par sanam (PTKYA)both male and female versions.
12.Sheher ki pariyon ke peeche(JJWS)Nothing spectacular about this song,but reminiscent of those days.
13.Vaada raha sanam & Khud ko kya samajhti hai (Khiladi)
14.All the songs of Aashiqui(they rock man.M sure hindi song buffs wud agree with me.)
15.Lagi aaj sawan ki(Chandni)
16.Chappa chappa & Chod aaye hum (Machis)
17.O mere sapno ke saudagar (Dil hai ke manta nahi)
18.Sun sun barsaat ki dhun & Yeh ujli chandni jab (Sir)
19.Khate hai hum kasam(Aatish)
20.Yeh mera dil (Gardish)(M sure not many people know that the music director of this song is R.D.)
21.Sambhala hai maine (Naraaz)

The list wud go on and on...I m sure I have missed gallons(Coz i think songs are liquid.They drench you.Sometimes you like it sometimes you dont) of songs...Will keep on adding more as and when I remember.

Sulk and Grrr...

2005-01-24T22:46:00.000-08:00

Didnt expect this at all.....House Full.The black guys were selling tickets for 200 bucks.Impulsively took a rick from Sion to Bandra to check out Globus.Same status.(Sulk)Finally ate in Pizza Hut and came back.

While eating thought about this funny concept for an hour episode.But as usual sounds strikingly similar to some of those funny teenage hollywood movies..(Sulk!Sulk!!)Why is it happening nowadays that any concept I come up with HAS to have a resemblance to something thats already done????(Grrr...)

Bankrupt!!!Dearth!!!Famine!!

God...pls bless me with some originality!!

Absent minded wandering...

2005-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

Was going thru myriad blogs the whole day.I have always been keenly intersted about the day to day life of ppl who shared traits similar to me.So many people.So many experiences.It humbles you.No,infact it reassures you to know that its not just you who has had a bad day at work or a melacholic evening.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Called Kalyani to fix up a time to watch Page 3.I m really looking forward to watch it.Madhur is a very sensible film maker.Whenever he takes up a theme or a background for his movies he researches it to the hilt.While on my trip to Kamathipura and the other Red light areas (Ok..before our fickle mind wanders...we were researching for the short film on the plight of minor CSWs) during discussions when the topic steered towards the film,all the CSWs who were there unanimously thought that it was the most realistic film made on this issue.One of them who was a bar girl exclaimed,"Aisa lagta hai yeh apnaich life ka story bolta hai."(the english words are not added by me.)I am sure if Madhur would have been there he would have felt touched and humbled...Way to go dude...hope you have worked the same magic in Page 3...(Dont worry I have forgotten the bad dream called Aan)Ok..gotta go now..Kalyani is waiting at the reception....Byeeeeeeeee

What crap!!

2005-01-19T05:40:00.000-08:00

Had been to the Star Screen Awards yesterday at BKC. Either there was something seriously wrong with the jury or my judgment is as good as (rather as bad as) Anil Kumble’s resplendent batting.
The awards sucked…imagine Ritiesh Deshmukh getting an award for the best comedian when the other nominees were Arshad the next-comedy-God-after-Paresh-Rawal Warsi for Hulchul.Paresh himself for Hulchul, Rajpal Yadav for Mujhse shaadi Karogi and Vijay raaz for Run. The best contender amongst these was Arshad. His timing was sooo brilliant in Hulchul that he almost overshadows Paresh.Seldom has any actor managed to give life to even the most mundane dialogues and has got the audience in splits. After a certain point you laugh at anything it need not even be remotely funny.

If this was not enough, Shahrukh Khan’s ahem…performance in Swades was not even a part of the nominations for the Best Actor’s award. All said and done the Khan came of age in this movie. As a tabloid had aptly put, ‘A star has become an actor.’ His restrained act was one of the most beautiful parts of the movie. Honestly, with a tight leash around him he oozes an earnestness, which is convincing. That’s the reason your heart reaches out to Mohan Bhargava and his predicament. And guess who got the Best Actor Trophy????? Shahrukh Khan for Veer Zaara.
We love clichés don’t we? Infact I think mediocre is therapeutic, as good as an orgasm for some people. Coz that way they feel secure that there are many other people like them.

And horror of all horrors Priyanka Chopra won against Irfan Khan for Maqbool in the best performance in negative role category. The poor thing herself couldn’t believe it. The way these morons were giving awards I was glad that Irfan didn’t get one.

First of all it was difficult for me to comprehend why Pankaj Kapoor was slotted in the supporting actor category and Irfan in negative role, it should have been the other way round.

With due respect to Abhishek who was splendid in Yuva, was not the right choice when you have Pankaj Kapoor from Maqbool as competition. But nonetheless he won.

This list will be evidence enough to prove the debauchery of the jury.

Best Story – Veer Zaara (Couldn’t bear to see Ashu’s face!! Did the jury ever hear about the movie called Swades.)

Best Editing – Dhoom (Ek Hasina thi,Ab tak Chappan,Maqbool are not from the Chopra clan so they have no right to ask for awards.)

Best Director – hold your breath…Kunal Kohli for Hum tum.(Ashu…its ok dude you deserve something better than this piddly Star screen)

The fillers in between were fairly entertaining. Sajid Khan as the main host for the evening did manage to provoke a chuckle here and there. Especially in the end session when the main awards were about to be announced. He pretended to read the thoughts of the nominees. The most hilarious one was when he said, ‘the thoughts that must be going on in Shahrukh’s mind would be, “I would like to thank the jury, Star, Screen..” before he could complete the audience was in splits.

Shahid hosted a part of the evening with Soha Ali Khan. Both were not natural and one could make out the desperate but awkward attempts at making people laugh. But they were far better than Amrita Rao and Zayed Khan who could give lessons in gaucherie.

Some nice moments were when Atul Kulkarni spoke in Marathi after receiving the Best Actor Award for Devrai in the Marathi Film category. Pooja Soorthy walked away with Best Screenplay for Ek Hasina Thi.Jaya Bachchan’s reaction when announcing the best supporting actor award, which was ..yes Abhishek. Abhishek’s reaction when Sajid was targeting him for the thoughts in his mind.

All in all evaluation of good cinema is yet to come of age in India. Till then happy sulking.

An ode to the great Sahir...

2005-01-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

Na To Caarvaan Ki Talaash Hai, Na To Humsafar Ki Talaash Hai
Mere Shauq-E-Khaana Kharaab Ko, Teri Rehguzar Ki Talaash Hai

Mere Naamuraad Junoon Ka Hai Ilaaj Koi To Maut Hai
Jo Dava Ke Naam Pe Zehar De Usi Chaaraagar Ki Talaash Hai

Tera Ishq Hai Meri Aarzoo, Tera Ishq Hai Meri Aabroo
Dil Ishq Jism Ishq Hai Aur Jaan Ishq Hai
Imaan Ki Jo Poochho To Imaan Ishq Hai
Tera Ishq Hai Meri Aarzoo, Tera Ishq Hai Meri Aabroo,
Tera Ishq Maein Kaise Chhod Doon, Meri Umra Bhar Ki Talaash Hai

Jaansoz Ki Haalat Ko Jaansoz Hi Samjhega
Maein Shamaa Se Kehta Hoon Mehfil Se Nahin Kehta Kyonki
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Sahar Tak Sabka Hai Anjaam Jal Kar Khaak Ho Jaana,
Bhari Mehfil Mein Koi Shammaa Ya Parvaana Ho Jaye Kyonki
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Vehshat-E-Dil Rasm-O-Deedaar Se Roki Na Gayi
Kisi Khanjar, Kisi Talvaar Se Roki Na Gayi
Ishq Majnu Ki Vo Aavaz Hai Jiske Aage
Koi Laila Kisi Deewaar Se Roki Na Gayi, Kyonki
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Vo Hanske Agar Maangen To Hum Jaan Bhi Deden,
Haan Ye Jaan To Kya Cheez Hai Imaan Bhi Deden Kyonki
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Naaz-O-Andaaz Se Kehte Hain Ki Jeena Hoga,
Zehar Bhi Dete Hain To Kehte Hain Ki Peena Hoga
Jab Maein Peeta Hoon To Kehten Hai Ki Marta Bhi Nahin,
Jab Maein Marta Hoon To Kehte Hain Ki Jeena Hoga
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Mazhab-E-Ishq Ki Har Rasm Kadi Hoti Hai,
Har Kadam Par Koi Deewaar Khadi Hoti Hai
Ishq Aazad Hai, Hindu Na Musalmaan Hai Ishq,
Aap Hi Dharm Hai Aur Aap Hi Imaan Hai Ishq
Jis Se Aagaah Nahi Shekh-O-Barahaaman Dono,
Us Haqeeqat Ka Garajtaa Hua Ailaan Hai Ishq

Ishq Na Puchhe Deen Dharm Nu, Ishq Na Puchhe Jaataan
Ishq De Haathon Garam Lahu Vich, Doobiyaan Lakh Baraataan Ke
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Raah Ulfat Ki Kathin Hai Ise Aasaan Na Samajh
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Bahut Kathin Hai Dagar Panghat Ki
Ab Kya Bhar Laun Maein Jamuna Se Matki
Maein Jo Chali Jal Jamuna Bharan Ko
Dekho Sakhi Ji Maein Jo Chali Jal Jamuna Bharan Ko
Nandkishor Mohe Roke Jhaadon To
Kya Bhar Laun Maein Jamuna Se Matki
Ab Laaj Raakho More Ghoonghat Pat Ki

Jab Jab Krishn Ki Bansi Baaji, Nikali Raadha Saj Ke
Jaan Ajaan Ka Maan Bhula Ke, Lok Laaj Ko Taj Ke
Janak Dulaari Ban Ban Doli, Pahan Ke Prem Ki Maala
Darshan Jal Ki Pyaasi Meera Pi Gai Vishh Ka Pyaala
Aur Phir Araj Kari Ke
Laaj Raakho Raakho Raakho, Laaj Raakho Dekho Dekho,
Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq, Ye Ishq Ishq Hai Ishq Ishq

Allah Rasool Ka Farmaan Ishq Hai
Yaane Hafeez Ishq Hai, Quraan Ishq Hai
Gautam Kaa Aur Maseeh Ka Armaan Ishq Hai
Ye Kaaynaat Jism Hai Aur Jaan Ishq Hai
Ishq Sarmad, Ishq Hi Mansoor Hai
Ishq Moosa, Ishq Koh-E-Noor Hai
Khaaq Ko But, Aur But Ko Devta Karta Hai Ishq
Intaha Ye Hai Ke Bande Ko Khuda Karta Hai Ishq

Haan Ishq Ishq Tera Ishq Ishq
Tera Ishq Ishq, Ishq Ishq

Naaz-O-Andaaz Se Kehte Hain verse is just a small fragment of the fire that emanated from this revolutionery poet's writings.I still get goosebumps whenever I read this whole quawwali aloud...

Here's another one..

Fanakaar.(Artist)

mai.n ne jo geet tere pyaar kii Khaatir likkhe
aaj un geeto.n ko baazaar me.n le aayaa huu.N

aaj dukaan pe niilaam uThegaa un kaa
tuune jin geeto.n pe rakkhii thii muhabbat kii asaas
aaj chaa.Ndii kii taraazuu me.n tulegii har chiiz
mere afakaar merii shaayarii meraa ehasaas

[asaas=foundation; afakaar=creations (writings)]

jo terii zaat se manasuub the un giito.n ko
muflisii jins banaane pe utar aa_ii hai
bhuuk tere ruKh-e-rangii.n ke fasaano.n ke ivaz
cha.nd aashiyaa-e-zaruurat kii tamannaa_ii hai

[zaat=personality; manasuub=related to; muflisii=poverty]
[jins=article/things; ivaz=in exchange]

dekh is arsaagah-e-mehanat-o-sarmaayaa me.n
mere naGme.n bhii mere paas nahii.n rah sakate
tere jalve kisii zaradaar kii miiraas sahii
tere Khaake bhii mere paas nahii.n rah sakate

[arsaagah-e-mehanat-o-sarmaayaa=in the battlefield of labour and wealth]
[zaradaar=rich man; miiraas=estate/legacy; Khaake=sketches]

aaj un geeto.n ko baazaar me.n le aayaa huu.N
mai.n ne jo geeit tere pyaar kii Khaatir likkhe

One may find his tone a tad bit masochistic..but hey he belonged to an era of distress and political turmoil...not to mention the constant ups and downs in his own personal life...These lines of his may give us a better perspective about him...

maiN pal do pal ka shayar hooN
pal do pal meri kahaani hai

kal aur aayenge nagHmoN ki khilti kaliyaaN chun ne waale
mujh se behtar kahne waale tum se behtar sun ne waale

None and i mean NONE of his verses even in surrender of the utmost form ever became wussy...for eg..

Pyaar par bas to nahin hai mera lekin phir bhi
Tu bataade main tujhe pyaar karun ya na karun

One can see the touch of arrogance in this kind of surrender too.
OR..

Tum mujhe bhool bhi jaao to ye haq hai tumko
Meri baat aur hai maine to mohabbat ki hai..

While most of his poetry spoke about revolution,angst and lost love..It would be mistake to think that romance would not be his strong point.Infact romanticism was his forte and this romanticism was not restricted to man-woman relationships alone,but it was seen in everythhing he wrote including patriotic or political verses.

Pesh - e - khidmat hain...

hum aapakee aankho me, is dil ko basaa de to
hum moond ke palakon ko, is dil ko sajaa de to

hum aapako khwaabon me, laa laa ke sataayenge
hum aapakee aakhon se ninde hee udaa de to

Can you beat this?And again..
abhee naa jaao chhodakar, ke dil abhee bharaa nahee

abhee abhee to aayee ho, bahaar ban ke chhaayee ho
hawaa jaraa mahak to le, najar jaraa bahak to le
ye shaam dhal to le jaraa, ye dil sanbhal to le jaraa
mai thodee der jee to loo, nashe ke ghoont pee to loo
abhee to kuchh kahaa nahee, abhee to kuchh sunaa naheen ..

Pathos..

Ashkon me jo paya hai, woh geeton me diya hai...

Secularism..

Tu na hindu banega na musalman banega..
Insaan ki aulad hai insaan banega...

and..
Allah Tero Naam Ishwar Tero Naam Sabko Sanmati de Bhagwan

Today's candy floss yarn spinners who make sachrine sweet romantic films far from reality could learn a lesson or two from..

Zindagi Sirf Mohabbat Nahin Kuch Aur Bhi Hai
Zulf-o-Rukhsaar ki Jannat Nahi Kuch Aur Bhi Hai
Bhookh Aur Pyaas ki Maari Hui Is Duniya Mein
Ishq Hi Ek Haqeeqat Nahin Kuch Aur Bhi Hai.

Profound philosophy...

Khali Botal Le Le Mere Yaar Khali se Mat Nafrat Karna, Khali Sab Sansar.

and of course..

Man re tu kahe na dheer dhare..
utna hi upkaar samajh koi
jitna saath nibhaa de
janam maran ka mel hai sapna
yeh sapna bisraa de
koi na sang mare
man re tu kaahe na dheer dhare
o nirmohi moh na jaane jinka moh kare
ho man re tu kaahe na dheer dhare..

Such was the brillance of this man.Calling him just a poet would be undermining the magnitude of his contribution to the thinking of the people of this nation.

To end..
Nafraton ke jahan mein humko pyaar ki bastiyaan basaani hain
Door rehna koi kamaal nahin, paas aao to koi baat bane

Mama

2005-01-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

Became a Mama(uncle) of cutie pie girl yesterday...yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Kambal

2005-01-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

Woh chandni raat na thi,
Uss shab mein aisi koi baat na thi.

Hawa par udta ek tarana,
Jab mere hoton ke sirhane aa baith,
Zahen ki kiwad par dastak de raha tha.
Uski aawaz se dhool ki parat mein lipta ek khayal,
Apni adhkhuli neendbhari aankhen khole mujhe ghoor raha tha.

Maine aasman ki taraf dekha.
Chand kahi gum tha,badal bhi bikharese the.
Jaisa ki maine kaha..
Woh chandni raat na thi,
Uss shab mein aisi koi baat na thi.

Phir uss khayal se nazar bachate hue,
Tarane ko hoton par se hatate hue,
Kisi doosre khayal ke ghar mein maine ghusna chaha,
Par uss khayal mein qayamat ka junoon tha,
Apne saath bahut se logon ko le aaya,
Aur mai samjha ki woh akela tha.

Mai aangan mein aakar baith gaya,
Hawa sard thi,Buss ek kambal ki kami thi.
Par woh thodi na chandni raat thi,
Na ke uss shab mein koi baat thi.

Khauf ka saaya dil mein mandraya,
Jab muh ke zayke ko bhi badalasa paaya,
Aakhon ne bhi choda saath jab,
Dikhai pada ek jana - pehchaana sa saaya,
Ek chehra silwaton bhara,ek chehra masoom,
Ek ki aankh behti hui aur ek ki naak.

Hawa ki shararat par imli ke ped ne sihran bhari,
Andhere ka rang patton mein sama gaya...
Par woh chandni raat na thi,
Uss shab mein aisi koi baat na thi.

Khayal ke saath aaye log samne aakar baith gaye,
Kuch chehron ko bhule arsa hua tha,
Kuch chehron ko yaad karne ki jurrat na thi..
Shayad naraazgi se mujhe taak rahe the..
Anginat sawal apni khamosh nigahon se puch rahe the..
Aur main?
Main aankhen moonde us waqt ke naam se kosne bhar raha tha,
Jis waqt mai uss khayal se ja takaraya tha...
Accha hai ki woh chandni raat na thi..
Uss shab mein aisi koi baat na thi..

Phir ek lambi saas bharkar aankhen kholi,

Na aangan tha..
Na woh log the..
Na koi imli ka ped..

Seena kuch bhari tha,
Galon par bhi khushki thi,
Karwat badali toh pata chala...
Mere badan par ek kambal tha...
Zehen ki sandukchi mein tatola,
Khayal wohi pada so raha tha,
Par usse lipta dhool ka kambal ab waha nahi tha..

Whatever...

2004-12-29T04:41:00.000-08:00

Some jawans in Kargil,
Fight a losing battle,
While we sit and chatter
In our drawing rooms.
Whatever...

India loses the world cup final,
What angst, heartbreak and colossal anger.
While everyday one of five girls
Gets raped by a horny scavenger,
Whatever...

A smooch is a smooch after all,
But it turns into a national issue for all,
And pray if i may ask,
About the Indian who won the Olympic silver this fall.
Whatever...

Shake a leg and gush a drink,
A new years bash for all to zing,
A new year which sees thousands homeless,
Facing the wrath of nature's mood swing.
Whatever..

Peanut butter on a Mcdonalds burger,
Yeh Pyaas hai badi for the party monger,
Swanky cars and the page 3 gals,
A world that we live in and a world that’s theirs...
Theirs is a world where misery ends with death,
But a world that doesn’t lose its faith.
Whatever...

Mind Fucked!!!

2004-12-29T02:04:00.000-08:00

9.03 Virar,
Pocket maar,
Mind Fucked!!

Catch the muster,
Buck up buster,
Mind Fucked!!

Kiss his ass,
Praise the trash,
Mind Fucked!!

Later Friend,
Friendship ends,
Mind Fucked!!

Scavengers' galore,
Couldnt ask for more,
Mind Fucked!!

Dream of a car,
Cant get far,
Mind Fucked!!

Love is lost,
A too high cost,
Mind Fucked!!

Angst and pain,
Crying in vain,
Mind Fucked!!

Endless fights,
Sleepless nights,
Mind Fucked!!

Memory lane,
NO gain,ALL pain,
Mind Fucked!!

Keep hope,
Try dope,
Mind Fucked!!

One day you marry,
Some dreams you bury,
Mind Fucked!!

Then life whizzes by,
And you are left to die
Mind Fucked!!

Arrival

2004-12-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

A drop.A step.A breath.A constant.
A tear.A joy.A feeling.A constant.
A look.A touch.A smell.A constant.
A chance.An occasion.A prospect.A constant.
A gift.A smile.A frown.A constant.
A picture.A memory.A reminder.A constant.
A spite.A conclusion.An act.A constant.

Welcome to the world of constant.