Adventure beckons....

I have been selected for a 'Exploring real India' programme. This is a student programme organised by a Mumbai-based NGO called Initiative in the association with NAPM, National Association of Public Movements. I would be going to Mozda village in Gujarat and working with Paryavaran Surkasha Samiti (PSS) there. I am very excited about this trip. I would be staying in the village and assisting PSS. I have never been to the extreme rural parts of India and this is gonna be very exciting. It won't be easy as I am just not used to a rural life. It would be a totally new experience and for 10 whole days!!!! HAHAHAHA! I am ready for the challenge I would be leaving on 31st morning and would be back by 10th. Till then Sayonaara people! Bubyeeeee!

But before I leave, I just have to share this hilarious conversation I over heard. My neighbour's son is getting married. Their house is like a mini-chatram (marriage hall in tamil), so manyyyyyyyyy relatives. I over heard one of them telling everybody in the room,"

Nammalodu Kalayanam ellam vandootu romba SACREDLY DIVINE aakim."

Translation: "Our Tam-Bram marriages are so SACREDLY DIVINE!"

My god.......ROFLLLLLLL! ahhahahahahaaa......SACREDLY DIVINE..... heehehehheee!

Also....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIDYA

You have a great day and all the best for everything in life.



Ciao guys! Tadah!

LISTEN TO THIS

I received this music piece as an email forward. OMIGOD, I absolutely fell in love with it when I heard it. Just couldn't stop myself from posting this.

You have to listen to this (264 kb)

and

this (64kb)(Thanks Dayan!)

(Right click and save the link)


P.S. With all due respects to my National Anthem, but it was just way too cute and innocent :)

Meena Mami

Some of my earliest memories of childhood include the time spent in the creche. I was quite a social kid. When Amma thought of resuming work she was apprehensive if I would fit in a creche, in an atmosphere totally alien to me. Also the fact that I was only one and a half years old made her even the more jittery.

Lalita was probably the first friend I ever made. She was my next door neighbour. She was my play mate and she was also an only child to her parents. So we were absolute buddies. Lalitha was 3 years older to me and she used to go to a creche (yea both her parents worked too). One day Amma decided to leave me at Lalitha's creche for a few hours to see if I adjusted to the environment and one day promptly dropped me off to the creche. It was there I first met MEENA MAMI....

I loved the atmosphere there. I was quite extroverted and loved interacting with other kids. The fact that I could spend even more time with Lalitha thrilled me to bits. I had a gala time at Meena Mami's place and Amma then decided to go ahead and resumed working. Meena Mami was a superb lady. Very very affectionate, she took great pains to see I didn't miss Amma and Appa. Apart from Lalita, there was another guy too.....BABLU. Bablu was the oldest amongst the three. I was the youngest among the lot and was prohibited from going out at random. Lalita and Bablu enjoyed all the freedom. But they made it a point to spend a lot of time with me and if possible tag me along when they played. In order to prevent me from runing away, mami had put up a 'katta' (especially for me) on the door which prevented me from going outside. However Mami's house was on the ground floor, so I used to stand by the katta all the time seeing people come and go (which was my favourite passtime) and also watch Lalita and Bablu play.

Meena Mami's house was a 10 minute walk from my place. I used to relegiously wake up every mornings without fail and like a "Chamathu" kid (...as amma says now) used to dress up soon and be ready to go to Meena Mami's place. Its a wonder how I used to get up without fuss early in the mornings. This is a favourite topic of reminiscence for Amma and Appa as they often look back at the good old days when I used to be a total opposite of a sloth that I am now.

Meena Mami used to take care of me in a wonderful manner for this was not a job for her. She started a creche out of pure love for children. Meena Mami did not have kids. This creche was an outcome of her love for kids and the sad fact that she didn't have any. She loved having us around so much so that she refused to take in any more children because she wanted to shower her undivided attention on us. She thought that more children would mean more responsibilities and she wanted no compromise.

Lalita, Bablu and Meena Mami always played the game of Joining the dots. I used to call it the dot-dot game. Since I was very much a kid (2-2.5 yrs old) I never could comprehend the game properly. They used to play the game relegiously while I watched them play with a hope that I would one day be allowed to play. It used to be fun.....loads of fun!

I was extremely fond of Bablu. He was like an elder brother I never had. After a year of me joining the creche, Bablu's parents bought a house in Borivli and they shifted.....and that was the last I heard of Bablu. Amma says I missed Bablu a lot. I used to often regard every Anna I used to see as Bablu. Recently when I went to my Attai's place, my cousin introduced me to her neighbour and asked me if I remembered him. I was puzzled and shook my head. My cousin started laughing and told me," Well..he was your Bangalore Bablu." And then they told me how as a kid I refused to address him as Shyam (his real name) and only addressed him as Bablu much to the amusement of everybody.

Shortly after Bablu left, Lalita also left the creche owing to her father's transfer to Bhuvaneshwar. Now I was left alone. It used to be weird in the absense of Lalita and Bablu. But even I didn't stay there for long. Meena Mami's husband used to constantly fall ill. After sometime his illness became serious and Meena Mami could no longer take good care of me because of her increasing responsibilities towards her husband. Therefore I had to change my creche. We kept in touch with Meena Mami and used to visit her often during weekends. After sometime though, the visits lessened and we were almost out of touch. Few years later, Meena Mami's husband died and Meena Mami left for Noida to stay with her niece.

After many years, Meena Mami came to visit me when i was in my 10th Standard. I was thrilled as it was a complete surprise. I spoke to her for a long time. She told me how she met all the three of us when we were in 10th standard and she was thrilled about the fact that she could meet me too. This time I made sure I took her address and promised to write and call her regularly. I remember how she called me immediately on receiving my Diwali card and was totally overcome by emotion. Due to my boards, I couldn't be in touch with her for long. Later I sent her a letter, but I got no reply. I found it strange and so I tried calling her only to find that I couldn't get through her. I was back to square one.

There are some people whom you meet in life who despite their brief presence leave behind foot prints which are etched forever. Meena Mami was one among them. She was special to me, almost like my second mom. I was very attached to her. I sometimes feel helpless as I simply don't have a clue where she is. I have been to many creches but I met none like her. I sometimes wonder where Bablu is.......I have no clue about him either. I hate myself for being so callous in keeping touch with Meena Mami. I can be very lazy at times and it is an extremely irritating habit that I posess. Sometimes out of sheer lethargy if not anything else, other things asume prime importance and we forget to be in touch with people we have known for ages. One is just pre-occupied with other things (that's no excuse) that we forget to call up just to say a simple hello or send a mail. Fortunately I am still in touch with Lalita and we both still harbour hopes of meeting Meena Mami and Bablu one day. I hope to see you Mami....one day I sure will ...:)

P.S. I have her address in Delhi, presumably old one I think. Also have her phone number which doesn't work at all. Would I be able to trace her?

DONE DONA DUN DONE!

Yayyyy! My exams are overrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........
Freedommmmmmmmmmmm

Also My blog is the blog of the day (9th October) Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Blogstreet team

Also I saw Bride and Prejudice. Laughed so much.......ehhehehee! More on the movie later...tadah for now


YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*******Update*******

Bride and Prejudice
I loved this movie, no doubts about it. It was a perfect ending to my otherwise uneventful exam-filled week. I laughed like crazy as the scenes are such. I am no expert in movies. I see the movie as a viewer rather than a person well-versed in movie making. So my views may be amateur or wrong too. I am just putting down my observations.

I haven't read Pride and prejudice fully. I am saying this because I have tried reading the classic 3-4 times but I have been completely unsuccessful. I just can't read classics, somehow I find them very slow. I am planning to finish reading Pride and Prejudice in my vacations now.

Even though I wasn't entirely familiar with the novel, I was aware of the plot of Pride and Prejudice. Gurindher Chaddha doesn't disappoint at all. Her stamp is prevalent throughout the whole movie. AWESOME *THUMBS UP*!

Plot in brief: This movie is about the Bakshi family and their 4 daughters and how Mrs. Bakshi is obsessed with marrying them off and so on.....

Mrs. bakshi played by Nadira Babbar is a revelation. What a performance!! AMAZING! She's just so perfectly cast, plump cute Punjabi mom. Very cute ad what awesome acting. Whatever little I have read of prode and prejudice she seems the perfect Mrs. Benett. Anupam Kher is also amazingly restraint as Mr. Bakshi.

One highlight of this movie is that Chadha manages to bring put fabulous performances from the supporting cast. NITIN GANATARA......OMIGOD! He's a riot! AHAHAHAHHAHAA! I mean everytime he would be on screen, people would sure burst out laughing. He's the pick of the lot as the disgusting hypocrite NRI. Not to forget Indrayani Verma. Playing mean comes effortlessly to her and she does it very well.

This has to be THE role for Aishwarya Rai. She is in EVERY FRAME/SCENE of the movie and I am not kidding. She's got one of the best roles, that of Liz Benett aka Lalitha Bakshi. But well....I can't help but wonder how Kajol or Preity Zinta would have performedgiven a chance. I really feel, they would have performed so much more better than Rai of course. It is such a meaty role and I feel it is criminal when someone doesnt perform all that well. I think I would be in better position to comment about her performace after I have read the book. It's an average performance according to me. Rai falters while delievering her dialgoues in English. This is weird as she speaks impeccable English.

Martin Henderson is complete eye-candy. He's got that "Oh-so-cute" looks. But wasn't all that good either. There was no chemistry between Rai and Henderson. But he's just way too cute. :P

The music isn't remarkable. When I first heard the songs of the movie I wondered how could Anu Malik blunder the chance given to him. But the songs suit the movie perfectly. I was aghast listening to songs with lyrics like "No life without wife..." But it is a situational song andactually takes a dig at one of the charcter in the movie. Also the song by Ashanti is quite groovy. There is a song called Dola Dola Dola which has obnoxious lyrics and has nothing new to offer in terms of yrical value. But in the movie you realise that the song plays in the background and the main focus is on the interaction between the characters. Probably it was made a bit too simple coz they wanted to focus on the interactions rather than the song.


Gurindher Chaddha has juxtaposed all those things which are TYPICALLY filmy. almost every poignant scene in India has a cow in the background. Initially it was ok, but later I wondered what's the whole point? The film also has the newly married couple in an aelephant with a board of "Just Married" on its posterior and then the NAGIN (Cobra) DANCE. Goodness......its hilariously funny but I wonder how is it a tribute to Sridevi when others are laughing mockingly at such antics. (Ponder ponder)


.....and what's the thing about breaking into songs in ENGLISH :| I mean breaking into songs in Hindi seems perfectly fine but why English? It seems ridiculous when Rai and Henderson croon......Show me the way.......Also there is a song when all the mohalla starts singing, dancing and mouthing words in English. A halwai mouthing songs in English? Weird..hajam nahi hua. Also The lyrics are such that they seem to be a direct transaltions from hindi lyrics . There are lines like...."The blush in your cheeks reflects the heat in your blood or whatever....It seriously looks and sounds foolish. I think if Chaddha wanted to show the real India or the hindi film style, she could have had the Mohalla songs in Hindi with subtititles in English. Atleast the local flavour would have been seen. In an effort to showcase Indian movie making style to the world, Chaddha does a good job but also makes it seem very stupid at the same time. Some of the scenes seem like a dig at Hindi Cinema's cliches. But well....It is our style loved by millions, so one can't really trivialise it by thinking that they (the hollywood or Brit films) are superior enough. What seemd to be like a perfect tribute was a juxtapositon of a Prem Chopra and the fight "Dishoom Dishoom" scene in the movie.

But, you guys have to go and watch the movie, it is laugh-a-riot!

SPEECHLESS

Well...tomorrow I have an exam. A subject called journalism and public opinion. Most of the topics that we have are obviously current affairs. Iraq war also figures in it. Well I was surfing the net for some stuff when I came across this.........

Thank you tony Blair

The most incredible piece of Bullshit......AHHAHAHAHA! I thought jingoistic nonsense existed only in India. Oh well, its the same everywhere. (Well I tend to generalise at times) I am just very amused by the way people justify the disaster in Iraq.

This is just
This takes the cake!!! This is the way they justify the war. Holycrap! Dohhhhhhhh!!!!!
Bush and Blair need to be

This sucks.... These arseholes should read this. But I doubt if sense would prevail. HUH!