j-a-b-b-E-r-W-o-c-k-y

Diwali - 2009

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Diwali was fun too. Totai, my sister came from Jaipur and we all had a very good time :)

Some pics:

Our balcony

Nothing can replace the earthen diya

Me and Totai making the rangoli

It's complete

Lakshmi Puja - 2009

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:34:00 +0000

It was fun as it was my first Laxmi Puja after marriage and I followed all rituals by fasting and preparing sweets for the puja. And finally I started giving alpona. always love to make alpona. I remember how I used to decorate the entire house with alponas and how the next day I used to spend the entire morning cleaning the floors. This year too I gave alpona and lucky they are that they got shot; thanks to my hubby; and I thought to post them here though this year I had no time alpona like earlier years. Here they are :

After Marriage

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:08:00 +0000

Things change. Here are some things that keep happening to/by me:

The shopkeepers now calls me 'baudi' and not 'didi'.

I have become 'aunty' to so many kids who otherwise would call me 'didi'!!!!!!!!!!!

I have started to wrap a saree in less than 5 minutes! Time doesn't vary with the change of texture...the time taken is same for cotton, taant, silk or chiffon!!!!!!!!!

Unknown people start talking to me in Bengali in the shops, market, roads in a city like Delhi. Thanks to my Shankha and Pola. It took me some time to figure out the correct reason though!

People don't hesitate to ask me personal questions like "hey, yours was an arranged or love marriage?" I dont remember to ever confront questions like "hey, have you got steady boyfriend?" or "hey, you're single or committed?" before!

In the shops, the shopkeeper gives the bill to my husband and not me!

Durga Puja - 2009

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:28:00 +0000

First time that I was away from my mother :(

First time after my marriage :)

Second time in Delhi :

First time that I didn't wear a single new dress :(

First time that I didn't see any puja apart from the own locality one :

First time I was so unwell that I visited doctor's house more than the Puja pandal :)

Life moves on :) :) :) .............................

Some Quick Facts

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:00 +0000

Gurgaon is changed........... so much that I found it beyond recognition! I kept searching for my old office and just didnt realize when it passed. The huge flyovers, roads, skyscrapers have made it look like a different place altogether.

So is Noida. Though the change is visible less in Noida than Gurgaon. The metro route is now near where we used to stay - in sector 19. If we were still staying in that same house, we could have seen the inside view of Atta chowk metro station just from the balcony!

DTDC is now going the BEST way. I mean, DTDC is following some facilities of the BEST bus service of Mumbai. The government is now replacing the old bust stand banners by new ones with a new addition. They are now writing down the bus numbers that would stop there. Must say, its a good step by DTDC.

And I missed Before The Rains. Quite expected it was. I had missed Tahaan also. So that makes my tally to reach two - the number of Santosh Sivan movies missed by me. Bad...I feel bad!

Durga Puja is round the corner again. But somehow I am not not feeling the heat this time. May be since I am not going home this year so there's no mad rush for train, plane or bus tickets. Though I have already started celebrating it my way by reading Anandamela - the pujabarshiki edition.

PS: I hope this time I havnt made any typo :)

A Life Not Ordinary

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Then we were in our graduation. We were excited as the classical singer duo Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra were coming to Silchar to perform. We had obtained permission to attend the concert and bought the tickets as well. The tickets were expensive but we were not listening anything as we had missed too many classical music concerts just as my father was always apprehensive to allow us to attend an all night show. But all classical shows were all night. We never wanted to go to any Kumar Sanu or Udit Narayan show. And this time our mother also decided to back us. And there we were. What a show. What a performance. So many years have passed, but still I can hear the sound in my mind. One funny thing about the show was very few people were aware of these world renowned singers. For most of the people, classical music is limited to Ustad Zakir Hussain (Thanks to his hair-do that gave him more popularity than the beats) and Pandit Ravi Shankra (Thanks to his multi-colored life and link with the Beetles). I have come across many people who claim themselves to be great aficionados of classical music, but do not even know the difference between the titles Ustad and Pandit, forget about following the art form regularly. But thanks to my mother who used to read out loud the detailed review of Dover Lane Sangeet Sammelan every year from Desh, the magazine, we were well acquainted with the world of classical music. But to both my mother and our dismay, we couldn't learn music just because of some unsolvable problems. We enjoyed a lot when we went to attend Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s concert too.

Since childhood, we grew up in a different world -a world of Tintin, Abol-Tabol, Khagrai, Gupi Gayen-Bagha Bayen, Asterix-Obelix, Kakababu, Santu, Professor Shanku, Feluda and many others who had no real existence on world expect for on the papers or in children's minds. Our house is still full with those hundreds of books that we three brothers and sisters used to fight to read first. I remember, I used to enjoy how people used to react seeing my mother's collection of books.

Though my mother came from a very cultured family (a family that was well known for it's art and culture in the region) and still maintaining her class of taste, I have never seen arrogance or sense of pride in her. She never under-estimates other's choice or ignorance. May be this is the reason my mother is the most popular person in our house. People come to our house to see her. She never imposes her decisions or choice on others. She respects all, which I find sometime impossible for a person to do. All life I have seen people asking my mother various questions like, information on a certain era's literature, the work of certain writer which is difficult to get these days, questions on religion and history, information on music as which song would suit to a certain, some relatives studying on literature coming to ask for reference books and many other queries and of course on Rabindranath Tagore. My mother actually breaths his works. On one hand when she can guide any big Puja with effortless eloquence and can tell you countless stories and anecdotes of Ramakrishna Thakur and Vivekananda, she knows a great deal about the current culture. Ask her about films, and she would describe you her most favorite scene from Rang De Basanti as excited as a teenage girl.

She is the greatest lady I have seen in my life. I have always wished to be like her. I wish I were like her.

Translated Bengali Advertisements

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:15:00 +0000

All the advertisements that are made for the national audience are either made in English or Hindi. Then those advetisements are translated in local languages and aired in the regional channels. After coming to Delhi, my ear caught some sound bits of those adveertisements. Interestingly, I noticed something. I used to think that the Bengali translations are done in Kolkata. But recntly I realized that they must be done in Mumbai itself and the voice over artistes have to be from Mumbai. This is undestood only from the child voice over artistes as they speak in a heavy non-Bengali accent. This is because that is how they speak in their mother tongue Bengali since they are growing in Mumbai and not Kolkata.

Why So Serious?

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:45:00 +0000

Why are we so serious? Life is short and the youth is even scaringly shorter. Then why bind the life in rules and regulations so hard that there's no scope to escape? But some people may be so habituated with the day-in-day-out rules and bindings, that they don't even understand or may be don't want to understand what fun they are missing. Prejudices and apprehensions play a major part in the minds of those people who consider each and everything they don't do as bad, ugly, uncultured and undoable. And with this high self esteem they fail to feel the hearts of others while they just can't respect those people who wish to live life differently.

But now a days the television and media is so strong that many people are willing to shed their stubborn nature. But what about those people who don' want to open the window of their mind?

There is an advertisement in the television that I find very much like me and inspiring. That's the new Cadbury dairy Milk advertisement with Varun Badola. That's such a wonderful advertisement that it touched my heart instantly. After seeing the second version of the ad, I am sure that it touched other's hearts as well. So, that means there are moire people in this country who think like me or want to think like me :)

I remember when I started working and earning money, my salary day used to call for a celebration of no reason. During my first job, me, my brother and my sister used to stay in Kalkaji and I used to buy lots of chocolates and snacks while coming home. And yes, my brotrher and sister also used to do the same. So we were partying for no reason. We used to go to the nearby cinema halls and restaurants just for no reason.

Then I was in Noida, where I was with my entire family including my parents and it used to be so fun buying home all those food items of everyone's taste on the salary day. And recently when I was in Mumbai, I used to get coupons worth 1000/- on the last week of the month as part of the salary. The day I used to get it, I used to fill my bag with chocolates, cookies, chips, biscuits and what not for my sister. So again, we were partying for no reason.

Do we need reasons to celebrate with our near and dear ones? The main idea is to keep our loved ones happy and try to give them what they want unless they want sonmething really ungivable.

A R Rahman - who keeps promises

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Two years back when rickshawallon ka apna hero cum music director cum singer Himesh Reshmmiya expressed his wish to sing for A R Rahman, I could sniff that there was something more in between the lines. For me it was the beginning of a real life drama where the two protagonists come from two opposite stratum of culture.

There is no common platform where these two persons can be compared apart from the fact that both are Hindi film music directors.

Some images flashing in my mind:

Himesh Reshmmiya was the judge of a popular music talent hunt show. There was a boy whom Himesh was mentoring. Every time that boy was losing out on votes from his nearest competitor, Himesh used to scream at the top of his voice and would 'promise' him 'another' song in his forthcoming film. Now the scene was that, at that time Himesh was at the peak of his career as music director and was having numerous projects in hand; whereas, that other boy's mentor was Ismail Darbar who had nothing but to smile and digest the insult as he could not 'promise' any song to his disciple as he had no project in hand. This action of Himesh brought huge applause in the set and also 'good words' for him. Eventually when that movie released where that contestant of that talent hunt show was supposed to sing three MAIN songs had only one remix song sung by his loved disciple. I know NOBODY really bothers to know who sings which song NOWADAYS but what about the promise? And that promise which is made in front of so many viewers?

Another image:

When A R Rahman composed the song Tere Bina for Mani Rathnam's Guru, he asked Qadir to sing it and he actually recorded the song with him. But Mani Ratnam wanted Rahman to sing it and he was not ready to listen to any arguments. When Rahman saw that there was no way to convince Mani Ratnam, he sang it. But he was not in peace. He broke a promise that he had made to Qadir. After that on every possible occasion whenever Guru soundtrack was mentioned, A R Rahman made it a point to mention this incident to the media, which was more like asking for the forgiveness from Qadir. Someday later Sony Music brought out an MP3 with Rahman's songs, including Qadir's Tere Bina in the CD and thus Qadir's song reached to millions. No prize to guess who might have requested the company to put that song.

Now back to present day. Suddenly one day Himesh Resmmiya makes a sensational statement in the media that he being a huge fan of A R Rahman, he would like to sing for A R Rahman. The media gets excited. They ask A R Rahman on every subsequent interviews that when he was planning to give Himesh a song. Probably here comes the cultural difference between two people. While Himesh made this comment just for some extra publicity, Rahman really believed him. Though he never promised anything to Himesh (at least via media), two years later when A R Rahman finally composes a tune for Himesh, the latter turns it down for some stupid reason.

The media must be happy with such a live drama happening through them and there must be many articles on this incident explaining many things from many perspectives. But this incident once again proves that no matter how a person lives or tries to live, his real instincts finally comes out just like Himesh's dirty nature came out.

Yuvvraaj Music Limited

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:40:00 +0000

Yuvvraaj is different. It had to be different as it’s by Subhash Ghai. And this is exactly what I had expected it to be, though I had expected it to be some different at the same time.

Yuvvraaj seems to be a perfect platform where Subhash Ghai utilized his rare chance to chop off Gulzar’s free imaginative wings and A R Rahman’s melodic romanticism with his thousand-times-repeated and as-old-as-mountain thoughts to the fullest. This man seems cannot think something beyond than what he is doing for ages. The inlay card contains visuals of the songs that vouches it to be nothing different from Taal or Yaadein (Yuckkkk!!!!) or Pardes (Yuckkkk again!!!!). How long will we see the movies with the same old story with same old stupid treatment especially now, when we have so many new people with innovative thoughts coming to make cinema?

Taal music was an unusual escape from Subhash’s usual claws. May be this was the reason behind those rumors that said that A R Rahman and Subhash Ghai had serious creative differences in the brainstorming sessions and that Subhash Ghai interferes in the music development process more than he was required. My heart asked me to believe those rumors and I was very happy with the thought that AR would not work with Subhash Ghai again. But Yuvvraaj was waiting and I am just not liking it.

Yuvvraaj comes with the same old use of instrument, the same old use of percussion, the same old use of vocals and most importantly the same old shade of Western Classical music? Had Yuvvraaj were by Mani Ratnam and not by Subhash Ghai, I would have blamed A R Rahman for this clichéd sound of Yuvvraaj. But if you take this shy man’s words seriously then you would remember that while asked ‘How come you are always at your best when you work with Mani Rathnam’, he replied ‘With Mani, sky is the limit’. So how would a creative man deliver within defined limits? This is what Yuvvraaj music is. It’s limited. It’s limited to Subhash Ghai’s clichéd thought.

But still Yuvvraaj is NOT a trash. Yuvvraaj has its moments too. There are some magical but brief moments for AR fans when his soul flashes out suddenly from under the hammered loud presence of Mr. Ghai. There are some out of the world surreal preludes and interludes that come and go only to assure you of AR’s presence. But for sure, there’s nothing left for Gulzar fans. Yuvvraaj poetry is as flat as highway.

When it is true that Subhash Ghai has nothing new to give as he can’t actually think new, it is also true that Yuvvraaj marks A R Rahman’s failure too. This time he couldn’t surpass Ghai’s yawning ideas like he did in Taal by inducing life to that lifeless movie.

Start with BANG BANG!!!!!!

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:37:00 +0000

My day today literally started with a BANG, or to be precise with a phone ring. I was deep in sleep the moment the phone rang and the next moment I was literally JUMPING with joy. It was Vidhi and she was calling from LEH!!!!!!

She mailed me somedays back that she was going for trekking to Leh and I have no idea how this grand news skipped my mind that is always contaminated with storyborad templates, graphic assets, writings standards, acronym folders, etc, etc......

So, when she called today morning and said that 'Hey, I am calling from Leh'...I started jumping :)

I remember how we used to write for travel portals and used to dream going places. Leh was always one of the five top destinations in our chart. I am so happy that she is now trekking there.

Well, as I am starting for home today (yes, after 1 long year)and as I had no time to spare as I was getting ready to come to office, I realized the next BANG only when it actually stopped me. It's squirming embarrasing situation when you see your sandal strap coming adamently out of the sandal and yes, this was the second BANG of my day. Thanks a million to God that Purba was there with me who promptly came out with a solution (read auto) and we made quite a smooth whizz considering Mumbai 9 am traffic to the cobbler.

After one super energetic and super negative BANG, now I am waiting for the time to come when we will be well settled inside the train and when I will be able to have a long nap.

So, I am off home for next 10 days and so no blogging, mailing, chatting or orkutting till I come back.

Wish all a very happy Durga Puja :)

Shooting Star

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:24:00 +0000

Who? Me!!! :D

Yesterday I was off to Juhu bwach with my sister. We were hanging around and suddenly saw balloon shoooting game some steps ahead. We immiditaley started walking towards it as it was our most favourite game when we used to visit the yearly mela (fair) in Silchar.

I took up the heavvyyy gun and asked for the charge. The guy put the bullet inside and I shot it, pointing at nowhere and obvioulsy I missed it. Then that guy gave some tips as how to aim and where to aim, etc. He wouldn't spare his valuable advice with me had he known that it was me who can never hit anything but elephant with her aim. Anyway, this time I decided to listen to him and thanks to the dense population of balloons that everytime I shot one, it hit one that was 2-3 ballons next to the one I pointed. It was fun and I managed to hit 9 out of 10 bullets. My all time best!!!! I was laughing, jumping and screaming.

Now it was my sister's turn. She happens to be the 'thinker' player of hour home. She defeats me in all games starting from chess, carom (she's great shooter in carom), ludo, memory game, etc. The only game that I manage to defeat her is scrabble :)

Anyway, as I was looking forward at her performance, she kept missing one after another and finally managed to hit only 7 out of 10! I was laughing, jumping and screaming again. It was my day :) She was also happy to see me win at some game at last. She confesses openly that she actually feels bad that she defeats me so easily.

Abhimaan Again

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Somedays back while rushing for office, I saw the news of Abhimaan being made again with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai in the newspaper. As I was in a hurry, I couldn't go through the news to know who was directing it.

But not reading the article I not only missed the director's name, which I kept guessing but also missed out with the music director's name.

Somedays later while having a chat with a friend over phone, when he suddenly came up with the news that AR is composing for Rajeev Menon's Abhimaan with Abhi-Ash, I was awestruck with two thoughts: 1)Rajeev Menon would direct it? Isn't he the guy who made that disastrous Sapney? 2) AR? This is going to be acid test for him!

Then I took the pain to dig out that old news paper and read the entire story. What I could gather from there is that Rajeev Menon is again going for another gimmick cashing on the popularity of star couple Abhi-Ash and also banking on the emotional fact that they are actually the second generation couple to the original couple of original Abhimaan. What an idea!

But only one thought that pinching me is about the music. How will be the music? By doing this AR will be put to acid test against the legendary S.D.Burman. With all my honesty, I strongly feel that only person who can be compared to senior Burman in all manner is our AR.

But what will happen when Abhimaan will hit the market? The comparision is inevitable, but one's creation is stark contrast to another. These two music legends represent two different forms of music altogether. While one is more eloquent in subtle mir and emotional aspect, the other banks on fusion and mixing. But no wonder, both are miles ahead than their contemoraries. And having said that these two music directors represent two different genres, can their music be compared?

I think they cannot be compared as they say that an apple is an apple and an orange is an ornage.

But what about the Indian media? Indian news channels and news paper now a days cannot seem to think about anything beyond Bollywood. It's quite obvisous that there'll be rims written and kilometers filmed comparing every atom of the new Abhimaan with the old one. And the Indian media has always shown its fetish for rejecting the remakes turning a deaf to the innovative ideas. I just hope that in the process the great movie knowers of our country don't write off the music of the new one completely ignoring that fact that 1) A R Rahman's music style is different from S D Burman 2) Earlier Abhiman's music was classical music based while the new one will be rock based 3) The first one came 35 years ago and the world music has changed a million times than that and most importantly 4) Rajeev Menon's way of making film is far more complex than that of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Cancer that is Incurable

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:52:00 +0000

While attending a gathering at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce on 22.08.08, the West Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen was stumped by a simple question from S B Ganguly, the Exide chief : “You are running the government. How can a handful of farmers come in the way of the project? Why don’t you speak to them and settle their grievance?” Yes, the meeting was held to address the Singur issue after Ratan Tata declared that he would rather shift his Nano plant somewhere else than putting his employees in danger in Singur.

Apparently, the Singur issue, that is worsening every moment, looks that simple from a distance. But if you pay some heed to the matter, you will get a Pandora’s box opening in front of you. There are more questions than answers that diagnose a cancer to this state’s development wing.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants to do something that his ancestor Mr. Jyoti Basu carefully escaped to deal in his tenure in the fear of losing support and vote bank. So Mr. Bhattacharjee now faces countless obstacles in his path to make West Bengal his dream West Bengal.

The first obstacle is the disgraceful lady Mamata Banerjee (I cannot forget her image of dancing in the bonnet of Jyoti Basu’s ambassador drenched in rain). Clearly she has made this her personal issue as this is her ticket to front page. A ticket that can bring some light in her darker than dark political career.

Another obstacle is the inside party politics that Mr. Bhattacharjee has to deal with every time. I couldn’t be sure of this unless the Nandigarm incident had not happened. This is the major problem that binds Mr. Bhattacharjee’s hands stronger than anything else.

In my brief stay in Kolkata, I’ve actually seen people yearning for a strike that would give them an unexpected off from work. This mentality of people can be seen in the vacant buses during strikes in spite of Government promising for safe travel. This approach is not hidden from the companies and investors. They know it very well and this is the reason that the companies are not ready to extend their branch in Kolkata; and even if they do, the clients make it a point that no big or important project goes to Kolkata branch.

I really don’t know what will happen to the Tata plant; if they will really pull out their project from the state. But one thing is for sure that more the world will develop, more the people will earn, West Bengal will slip to even more darkness of underdevelopment, poverty if the current situation doesn’t change. If you take 15 minute ride from Surat, you will see one industry after another in both sides of the road. Thankfully the land where the factories have emerged never gave birth to potatoes and tomatoes like the Singur soil, which the opposition party is trying to save. Hasn’t the land produced enough potatoes in last 61 years; has anything changed in its surrounding? And look at Surat; it is the RICHEST city of the country. But where is Kolkata? Forget about competing with other metros, Kolkata cannot even compete with other state capitals and sate-second cities for jobs options or overall lifestyle. But whom to blame? The government? The opposition? The investors? The farmers? The people? There are more questions than answers that diagnose a cancer to this state’s development wing.

Some Distant Memories

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Quite unexpectedly and accidentally I got hold of Sanchayita today. It was something I never expected when I went to talk to a fellow friend and found it on his desk wrapped in glittery paper. 'How come it's here, with you?'....was my first question to him...while I was flipping the pages to read the first poem, my all time favourite poem - Maranare Tuhu Momo Shyam Saman... 'One friend had been to Kolkata and I asked him to get it for me'....was my friend's answer. 'I'm taking it with me, I'm a bit free for some time now'...was my quick answer as I was already walking towards my bay; he didn't object though as he knows I'm not a book-snatcher.

It's such a wonderful experience to have this book on hand. While flipping the pages the old memories were gushing out from some hidden chamber of the brain, unvisited for a long time. It kind of gives me a guilt feeling that have I also abandoned it like all 'new generation' people are doing now a days. Reading a poem that also in Bengali, after all, is not an 'in' thing. Right? Or, may be I'm soundig like a nerd!

It used to be the long afternoons of summer vacations and brief evenings of winter vacations when my mother used to sit with Sanchayita in her lap, glass in her eyes and recite poems on public demand. Then those moments were very normal in our life, just like having lunch with tyangra maach or fighting with my twin sister. But now I realize how much precious moments they used to be. My mother's intense love for poetry and literature was something that always made us stay in touch with the works of Rabindranath Tagore. From the very childhood seeing the image of this snow-white-long-bearded gentleman made him a part of our family. He was ubiquitous; in the book covers, in the magazines, in the text books and more in my mother's presence. She always sings some bits or pieces while cooking or doing other works. My mother has this nightingale like voice. If sometime she was not humming anything, we used to be sure that something was wrong and she muct be upset.

Now whenever I go home I make it a point to have such a session at least once during my stay at home.

A Breed Called Shahrukh Khan Fan

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:56:00 +0000

Girls, ladies, aunties and grannies – in short women of all age seem to find something very interesting about this joker-like-superstar, which I have always failed to understood, in spite of being a ‘woman’.

In school, college, hostel, office, train, bus, wherever I have met these women, my disrespect for this plastic-faced star has become more and more deep.

In a very general situation when I come across someone new, or when I’m new in a place, very normally I always try to start conversation with them. After getting and giving the answers of the first few customary queries like “where from”, “what mother tongue”, “which college”, “which subject”, “previous work experience”, etc, etc, etc when the chit-chat session starts getting more informal and candid, I occasionally come up with some queries that I like to talk about.

As I ask my question “So what do you do in weekends?”, if the answer comes: “ Ohh, I just want to sleep after the hectic week. Sometime I go to the nearby mall and hang around”….

Me: “Ahem…”
Me: “So what do you do in free time? Do you like to read books?”
The Girl: “Yes I love to read books, but I never get time to read one.”
Me: “Ok, so what’s the last novel you read?”
The Girl: “Actually I bought ‘One Night at Call Center’ one month back, but I couldn’t even finish its first chapter yet.”
Then I ask abruptly “Are you a Shahrukh Khan fan?”
The Girl: “YES….I LLLOVE HIM. How did you know?”
Me: “Just a guess :)”...... and the conversation continues…..

Yes, just a definite guess. A girl who hangs around in a mall for time pass and prefers to sleep in free time rather than doing any constructive work, can only be fan of those brainless sugar candy romantic cheesy movies.

I have come across hundreds of such girls/women who can’t even tell when the last general election was held in India, or what is the full form of UPA, or the last Indian to receive the Nobel (forget about asking in which field), or anything that relates to society. They seem to be completely ignorant about the nation, state, society and even neighborhood except for the Page3 supplement that comes with daily newspaper. These are the people who do not even think about casting their vote during election but takes pride in saying “politicians sare chor hote hain. India ka kuchh nahi ho sakta”. These are the people who cannot tell the name of a single minister in the parliament, except for the PM’s name. These are the people who go to McDonald’s for lunch, and take pride in doing so. These are the people who never reads the first page of the newspaper or listens to TV news.

No wonder such brainless people can only enjoy the rubbish movies that this star loves to star in. It’s not that he hasn’t attempted doing something ‘meaningful’, thanks to his copy-cat nature. He did appear in Swades, which his honest fan base rejected like a toilet paper saying ‘how dare the director put our (beloved) SRK in a local train, crowded bus and rickety boat!’…what an irony!!!

But this is also fact that I know some super-intelligent girls too who love SRK! This is a mystery for me that how can a normal human brain actually tolerate him in the theatre!!!!

And the fact that what kind of boys/men are Shahrukh Khan fan calls for another debate and I better do not discuss that here.

It's Raining!

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Who says good old days never come back? It has come back for me!

It’s raining day and night in Mumbai. I feel like my days of childhood has come back. My Silchar days, when we used to go to school/tuition/college all drenched and preferred to remain that way the entire day.

My Delhi days really took me far away from this fantasy of rains and clouds. First of all it hardly rains in Delhi; and even when it rains, you just cannot afford to dowse yourself. The rain is so cold and chilled there as if has come directly from the Himalayas that I would have surely caught pneumonia had I repeated my Silchar activity there.

So, finally after a long time I’m enjoying my most favorite season – rains :)

Kahin To.....

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:03:00 +0000

People who know me, or to be precise, who know my mobile number; know what song they are going to listen when they call me. I am being a very good human being decided to have such a hello tune for my mobile so that it can actually ‘purify’ (*wink*) the ears of my callers. So, I had Kehna Hi Kya as my caller tune.

I have bagged huge appreciation for letting people listen such a wonderful song whenever they call. I have got and sometimes entertained also requests like ‘I’ll call you to listen to the song, please don’t pick it up’.

I am not complaining. I am more than happy to do that being such a good human being I am :)

Of late, I started getting some mixed responses to my caller tune.

For example ‘Hey, when will you change your caller tune? I’ve been listening to it for last two years.’ Or ‘Why have you put such an old song?’

This actually saddens me. Honestly speaking, I am very much possessive about any ARR song. So I decided to change my caller tune.

Now, when I’m in such a suspensive mood, the OST of Jane Tu Ya Jane Na hits the market just like a fresh whiff of first monsoon air and I screamed ‘bingo’….No…I don’t want the chips packet…..I screamed because I got the perfect song for my hello tune.

So, my new hello tune is Kahin To.

Ada Lyrics – A Disappointment

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:22:00 +0000

This is a very general belief that a collection of unknown/distant known/difficult known words can make a good piece of prose or poetry. But my definition of good poetry says something else. I believe that unless the readers/listeners realize that piece of poetry completely, that art does not have its salvation.

Another general belief says that lyrics have no role in making a song beautiful or lousy. A lot of people has said me that they don’t really give ear to the lyrics of a particular song. But I fail to understand this concept. If lyrics really have nothing to do with the concept of the song then can ‘Man Mohana’ be sung with the lyrics of ‘Hai Rama’ or vise versa? For me a song without proper understanding of lyrics is like savoring a dish without smelling it!

As I was listening to Ada songs and as I was getting more and more disappointed with the lyrics, I was giving the concept of lyrics in Hindi cinema a serious thought.

For me, the lyrics in Hindi cinema can be of two types – thought driven or word driven.

Let me give an example of a thought driven lyrics.

Jo gumshuda khwab tha..
…………………………
Who loha tha
Pighal gaya
Khincha Khincha
Machal gaya
Sitar Mein Badal gaya
Roobaroo roshni

Is there any word that cannot be understood easily?

This is an exemplary piece of poetry that actually makes you wonder what the writer must be thinking; that how can anybody think so beautifully and convey his thought in such pleasant manner.

On the other hand the word driven lyrics say very simple things with some unconventional words. The words that seem to play hide and seek with you while instigating you to catch their meaning. This kind of poetry can take any song to a different height. Most lyrics by Gulzar are like that. For example,

Kabhi neele asmaan pe
Chalo ghumne chale hum
Koi abra bil gaya to
Zameen pe baras le hum.

But what to do with such lyrics that neither gives you food for thought nor encourages you to get the meanings of the words. For example

Ishq ada hai, Ishq sada hai
Ishq dawa hai, Ishq dua hai
Ishq baka hai, Ishq fana hai
Ishq wafa hai, Ishq jafa hai
Ishq niha hai, Ishq aya hai
Ishq rida hai, Ishq haaya hai
Ishq asa hai, Ishq gada hai

Such a piece of poetry is a total let down for me. Why these particular words picked? Because they sound similar? Except for the sentence “Ishq baka hai, Ishq fana hai”, the others seem to be made forcibly to match the rhyme. The meanings of two words in a sentence don’t complement each other!

Ada lyrics keeps disappointing me throughout the soundtrack. For example, when I heard

‘Tu hai niha, main hoon aya’ in Meherbaan song,

the immediate thought that struck me was that I just heard the phrase of niha-aya in Ishq Ada song also. Now it’s again used in the Meherban song! This so blatantly speaks against the lyricist’s creativity. He couldn’t think of any other phrase for the second song?

Then there is another song Hai Dard. I have no idea how ‘Tapish’ can be rhymed with ‘Khalish’! Only because they sound similar? And what about the cultural difference?

I wish Ada lyrics were a little more serious, the music would be more enjoyable.

Penguin's Cold Shock

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Penguin Books recently came up with a series of books on Fiction Collection and Non-Fiction Collection to commemorate their 20 years in India.

I was in Landmark, Lokandwala last week and was amazed to see those books stacked in a very stylish manner. I could see three volumes on Non-Fiction Collection and two volumes on Fiction Collection there. All the books were huge in size and both me and my sister were tempted to have a close look at them. We picked one and started to check the index. We stopped at 'Chowringhee'. Though I have not read it, but I know very well that this is a celebrated novel by Shankar and also that it's huge in length. But in this book Chowringhee was fitted in three pages only! We both started to look at each other's face. How can it be possible?

Then we started to check for any novel in the index that I've already read. And found 'The Great Indian Novel' by Shashi Tharoor. It too had three pages alloted to its fate. I opened the page and was bewildered to find that they just picked one chapter from the novel and published it; not even the summary of the novel!

Honestly speaking, we were standing dumbstruck holding those huge books in hands, each one of which costs 250/- to 350/-. I fail to understand what made the publishers to come out with such a weird idea? Who on earth would buy these books just to read one chapter of some famous/infamous novel? Why would anyone read them? The entire concept appeared utter meaningless to me.

Cannes...Not Again !!!!!!!

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Cannes Film Festival is on again. There are some facts about the festival that I have been noticing for last few years. The Indian media will again come up with millions of prints on the dresses of bollywood stars. But you will not find any information on the film festival! Every odd and oddest people will be mentioned for their cleavage showing gowns, but there will be not a single statement on which movie has the chance to win the most prestigious Golden Palm award.

I remember a friend of mine asking me 'Is Cannes a fashion show?'. I said 'Cannes is a city in France that holds the Cannes Film Festival every year.' I don't really blame her for such a question as that is what the media has projected Cannes to be. Only thing that we get to see, read and hear about Cannes is 'which Bollywood star wore what'. The entire Indian media seems to be interested in publishing one image of Aishwarya Rai and make some titillating comment on her dress.

No where till now I've come across a single statement saying that it was the year 1956 when one Indian film made us proud in Cannes by winning 'Best Human Document'. I know no one is really interested to know the name of some dark arty kinda film. But how can I forget that it was my most favourite movie 'Pather Panchali' by Satyajit Ray?

BTW, Cannes is pronounced as Kaan and NOT as Kaynz.

Why Jaipur?

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:07:00 +0000

Now when Indian Mujahideen took the responsibility for bombing Jaipur, there’s no more confusion regarding who did it. Whatever be the name of the terrorist group, one thing is confirmed that it’s an Islamic group and is fed by two of our neighboring countries. Those two neighboring country, for the one of which, India went on war to free it from the other. This is irony that the country who took birth from the death of thousands of Indian soldiers is now supplying terrorists to ruin it. That's a different story though.

The reason for this attack? The Indian Mujahideen has come up with an innovative thought for the answer. According to them, they wanted to hit the ever growing tourism industry in India thus ruining Indian economy hard.

Now this statement takes us to do some study on Indian tourism industry.

It's a wellknown fact that India is enjoying the footfall of thousands (if not millions) thourists' every year. Ever since Indian tourism industry came up with the ‘Incredible India’ slogan, the tourism scenario is just not same anymore. The statistics says that the influx of foreign tourists has more than doubled in last five years.

Interestingly, the two places that attract tourists the most are Agra and Rajasthan, in the order. Delhi, Khajuraho, Mumbai and Kerala follow later. So, in order to destroy the tourism industry, Jaipur seemes to be an obvious choice since it is the capital of Rajasthan. But why not Agra? If Agra alone magnets more tourist than the cumulative effort of the entire Rajasthan state, then why didn’t terrorists bomb Taj Mahal?

But I guess the answer lies in the question itself. Do I really need to say why Indian Mujahideen didn’t attack Taj Mahal?

Some Snippets

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:15:00 +0000

1

Yesterday till 12 midnight I was busy with one SUDOKU puzzle. This was the first time I was handling such a stubborn SUDOKU staff. It took me almost two days to finish it off.

But finally when I solved it, there was the real peace :-)

2

Much has been said, written, filmed, documented and presnted about the phenomenal characteristics of Mumbai signals. Beggers of all age stretching their hands seems to be as aboriginal to the city as the Arabian sea is. But for last two months I noticed something different. All the beggers were selling flowers in the signal instead of asking for free money. I don't know about rest of the city, but the sight at the signal next to my house was colouful. I was truly enjoying the view of rickety kids spreading their hands with a bunch of colorful roses!

3

A person sitting just next to the entrance door of my office put a small ARR image in the soft-board next to his PC. As I noticed it on my ways to enetring and exiting from office, I got very exited. I felt like having a chat with this person as till now only I'm looked like a unicorn for having ARR smiling on my desktop.

One day I found the guy sitting there and walked straight up to him. Here follows the conversation:

Me: Excuse me....

That Guy: Yes

Me: Hi....are you a fan of A R Rahman?

(That Guy looked startled, wondering what this girl wants to say!)

Me: You have put ARR's image here (pointing to the image). So I just wanted know if yoy are his fan.

That Guy: Well, I like his music, but I am not really a 'fan' of him. Actually I have put it here as it lists all Worldspace channels and I want to subscribe Worldspace.

(Then it was my turn to get shocked. I never noticed that it was Worldspace adverstisement!)

That Guy: Are you a fan of him? Do you want this pic?

Me: No no...Thanks...Yes..I'm his fan...anyway.....nice talking to you..bye :)

Three Stories

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:10:00 +0000

Today I got a forward mail containing three wonderful stories. I am posting them here as I don't want to lose them :)

The Turtles

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich.At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.'

[Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves

The Frogs

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer replied, 'There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs - millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy!' So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said, 'Well... where are all the frogs?' The farmer said, 'I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!'

[ Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs. Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark. Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.]

The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of acussations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?'

[This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous .. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away.We keep on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony.Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river, that is after the unpleasant event is over.This will immediately remove all our agonies.There is no need to be further h urt by the unpleasant event after it is over.]

Thank you Vidya for sending me the mail :)

From Strike City to Striking City

contactdoell@gmail.com (Doell) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:07:00 +0000

All the auto drivers of Mumbai have gone for three days strike from Monday midnight. When commuting to office has become really difficult for a big section of the population in Mumbai sub-urban area, the rest population is not complaining though. The roads had never been so jam-free! So, for those who do not take their cars out but prefer to avail other alternative instead after suffering hours of motionless driving, it's time for them to celebrate.

For me the days of strike days in Kolkata are back. The roads are empty and everybody speaking about 'strike'.

But my question is, why blame Kolkata only for strikes?