Unexpected

It rained yesterday....unexpectedly...just like that...aive hi...bas gira to gira...

The sky was gloomy since morning, but hadn't expected it to pour.

For a change, I left office early and planned to catch the 7:04 Thane fast local. It wasn't raining as I walked to VT station.

Fortunately I did catch the 7:04 local, also got a window seat(lucky me!!).The train started at a brisk pace and I tried to put myself to sleep.After about half an hour, my brain suddenly instructed my eyes to open due to the pain in my foot as a result of a semi-giant stepping on it; and after exhanging the usual glares and 'sorry' and 'its ok', I realised that the train was dozing too!! It had hardly crossed 2-3 stations and it was supposed to be a fast(haha) train.

It seemed the signals had failed. Expected!!

Rains unexpected...signals failing due to rains...expected or unexpected??

Seems like our guys are never prepared for anything unexpected

But then are we?? Am I? Are you?

PN: It takes 40 mins to cover the distance from VT to Thane and I was stranded for one and a complete half hour in the train, needless to say with hundreds(exagerating, who me? not at all) of sweaty, frustrated fellow travellers.

Photo courtesy : http://www.newint.org/

Back to School (Pawaskar)

The human database christened the brain amazes me to the limit. It's idiotically funny how I tend to forget a lot of things but some past impressions are so deeply engraved that the visualizations appear in a crystal clear picture, just the way they happened years ago.

My grandfather (mom's dad) expired when I was upgraded to the 8th standard. I was there in kolkata then and had to extend my usual summer holidays by 2 weeks due to the incident. If most of you remember, 8th standard is when you get to choose between your alternate language in school. Some have an option between Marathi and Sanskrit, and others have French added to this list. We had to opt between Marathi and Sanskrit, the latter being more popular as you could score maximum marks since it was an extremely rattofyable subject.
My being away when school reopened didn't allow me to choose and I was put in the Marathi class, which I somehow felt happy about then and now too.

Our class, in general had also got reshuffled. So the day I entered, I saw some pretty new faces. Some, I knew because we used to meet them on the football ground and had many matches and fights in common. Very soon, I understood that I had moved from one blacklisted class to another one, the magnitude of blackness yet to be measured.

Apart from the new faces, also were friends who were carried forward with me together. Among them was Sonia, one of my very good friends. It so happened that a seat was reserved for me, 2nd last row to the left from the door, 2nd last seat in that row. Quite unrealistic seat for me since I was relatively short then (not that I am extremely tall now). Sonia was seated behind me, the last seat verily assigned to her since she was and still is very near to a 'she giraffe'.

In 15 minutes, she introduced me to the entire class, not literally though!! Ye class D me thi, arre usko pehchaana kya, wo kaafi intelligent hai, isko kuch nahi aata, ye bahut baat karti hai, she has become my good friend...traits were defined and distributed unevenly. I said hello to them in my mind.

The bell rang. Geography text books came out of each bag. If you remember, we had those long and wide geography text books then which refused to fit in our bags.
"Good morning maaam" half standing, half sitting everybody chorused.
"Good morning", round faced, airy attitude, hugging books, chalks in hand, a roundly round bindi, slightly crumpled off white sari, crimson bordered, historically walked in Mrs. Geography (control, control, no names)
"Ye kaun hai", I whispered, talking backwards, looking forwards.
"Mrs. Geography", Sonia answered, "Thodi strict hai, lekin she teaches well"
"Hmmmmm", I said.

As the screeching chalk attacked the childly eardrums and while planets were statically revolving round on the chalkboard universe, Sonia tapped me on the back.
"Woh dekh"
"Kya", I tried to see what she was seeing.
"Udhar, 1st bench pe", she secretly smiled.
"Abe woh to so raha hai"
As we were trying very hard to suppress our tickling stomachs to tickle our esophagus, bending forward, hiding our faces to hide our smirks, we didn't notice the stopping of the chalk screeches. Only when a few innocent (oh come on, not so innocent) heads turned with gesturing eyes claiming us as guilty, did we understand that the geographical universe had closed down on us and somehow a horizontal gravity pulled our faces to face Mrs. Geography as she bore her not so chilly, yet chilly gaze into us.
"STAND UP!!” the lioness roared "What’s so funny?"
Trembling legs, weak knees attempted to stand, stood. "Nothing Mam"
"So you were smiling, laughing for nothing?" sarcasm spoke.
Fortunately or unfortunately the tall Sonia hid behind me.
"Ok out with it, why were you laughing?"
"Nothing Mam...I.err...nothing mam", my vocabulary got restricted.
"Tell me the reason, else I will not continue with the class", she thundered.
Pairs of eyes followed the invisible tennis ball between Mrs. Geography and me. Necks turned this way and then that way.
Silence prevailed indefinitely for a few minutes. My shoes, my canvases were never zoomed in as minutely as they were that very day.
"I am still waiting...the whole class is suffering because of you. LOOK UP, what are you looking down for? Come on, quick, out with it..."
I dared to look up "Maam, actually...."
"Yes I'm, we are listening", she said
"Maam, actually.....Pawas...he he ha ha ha ha", I unknowingly burst out laughing.
Shocked pairs of eyes penetrated me.
"Maam, Pawas was...he he he hey hey hey haa ha ha...” uncontrollably, I burst into fits of laughter.
Mrs. Geography couldn’t believe what was happening, but she stood silently, her raging eyes doing the speaking.
"He he ha ha ha hoo hoo" I was unstoppable and so was the class by now.
"He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha"
"He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo"
The whole class was in splits, in fits. This was getting too much for Mrs. Geography though she was also trying very hard to resist bursting into laughter.
"ENOUGH" she roared "THAT’S ENOUGH. Either you tell me the reason, and now it rather be a good one or I'll throw you out of the class and never take you in. This is the first class of mine you are attending and this is how you behave."

Her words didn't matter anymore, nor did the brutal consequence as I had no hold over myself now.
"Maam, maaam...he he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he"
Finally the lost words found me.
"Maam, actually Pawaskar was sleeping....He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo"
"He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo"
"He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo"
"Haa haa ha ha ha He he ha ha ha He he ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo"
The whole class including Mrs. Geography went berserk.

After some time when we couldn’t laugh anymore and found our voices back, Mrs. Geography spoke, boring her eyes on the now very much awake Pawaskar.
"Well it's Pawaskar who is to blame then...." she smiled "Sit down"

Pawaskar and I were good friends later!!!

Eye of the devil

This is how my right eye is looking today. Won't be long before my left eye also gets the same tinge.

Suffering from conjunctivitis. Guess must have got it from someone in office:(:(

The Entertainers

Everybody and anybody today know why MS Dhoni is so good and why he deserves to be a captain. On television, cheap comparisons are being made between why Dravid fails and why Dhoni doesn't. He's got brains, he's a great decision maker, he's young, he's a great achiever, he's got no fear, in short he's being made out to be the future GOD of Indian cricket. I have nothing against Dhoni or Dravid, but against the media who creates a hullabaloo over almost everything, especially some of the stupid Hindi news channels.

Tomorrow, we lose 2 matches, and the same great analyzers will be the first to pinch his butt.

However, this 20-20 world cup has brought me back to the game.... watching it, I mean, in fact the last 3 matches against Pakistan, Australia and Pakistan again. No matter, which players form a part of the team, or whom they are playing against; the Indian team was and will always be the best entertainers. Everyone who has watched this series must have observed that in every game we were almost winning with a ball-run difference of 30-35, then 1 bad over and we are on the verge of losing it all, then 1 wicket and we are back, then 1 six and all our faces are hung, a cheeky shot and a catch and we are holding the world cup...a person with a weak heart should never watch India's matches, particularly the one's against Pakistan. India definitely has dug out a lot of young and hidden talent in the form of Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh and Shreesanth. The best part of the matches was to see the boys all geared up and the always-missing killer instinct was evident this time around. Way to go Dhoni, Yuvraj and team.... happy winning!!!

I saw the finals in my office. Earlier in the day, below my office I saw a couple of firangs with small dhols/bongo's on their shoulders. I wanted to ask them where they bought it from coz I wanted one too for my bhanja. Luck smiled as we went down to feast on 'bhel and chai' after India's batting when a couple of guys were passing by with those dhols on their shoulders. So bought one, and my friends and me were beating it to pulp with the fall of every Pakistani wicket!! Chak de India!!!

just pissed off

"The more importance you give someone, the more you are taken for granted and the more you are given that airy attitude. You wish to choose life and it runs afar. The clue, i guess is to divert and find happiness in other means, forms and channels, especially when you know you are screwed...."

Utsab - The festival

As I watched 'Utsab' yet again, thought of writing my first movie review about this beautiful piece of art and emotions.

'Chokher Bali' was the movie that made me fall in love with Rituparno Ghosh's works. He embodies meticulous direction and portrays perfectly the panoramic nuances of characters, giving life to their emotions, gloriously shouting out the hidden, intricate feelings; the implicit readings between life's complex paragraphs.

Too many characters yet so distinguishably and admirably defined. 'Utsab' revolves round a family who have got together to celebrate 'Durga Puja', maybe for the last time in their 'pushtaani' house, which they have plans to sell out. The family has come together to enjoy the togetherness, but somehow the threads of their lives are so entangled in the complexities of life that their problems seems to weigh more than their happiness, as it almost always does. The family includes an old mother, 2 married sons with their own kids, 2 married daughters, none of them being actually happy in their lives.

Every character has their own problems, but painstakingly they move ahead and have adapted to them, or at least they try. The togetherness gives them an outlet to their individual frustrations because they know they are going to be heard, by someone at the least. The younger son has almost lost his job due to a strike and lockout in his company. He thinks his wife has no idea about it, but she is well aware of the turmoil that her husband is going through, but prefers silence in spite of she being the most straightforward person in the family. The younger daughter is going through a disturbed marriage, which is on the verge of a separation. The elder daughter too has a disturbed marriage, her old love being the reason for the weathered waters. Against her wishes, she has been married off by her family to a rich guy, her love for her poor cousin lost and embedded in her heart. Her husband taunts her regularly on the issue though she has left the episode much behind in her life. She is under the impression that her grown up son has no idea about the subject of their fights, though he very well is!! And to top it, he also is all set to tread on the same path his mother had put foot on. He is inclined towards the beautiful Shompa (his cousin and daughter of the eldest son in the movie).

The cinematography of the entire movie is just too good!! Everything in this movie presents a typical Kolkata's Bengali family, so if you wish to get a taste or small glimpse of the Bengali culture, this should movie is recommended for you.

Favourite scenes from the movie:
** The very first scene where the grandson is asking the shilpkar about the idols of ganesha and kartika.
** The brothers smoking together and the elder one asking the younger 'but you used to smoke a videshi brand, right??'
** Ashtami pooja scene
** Elder daughters confrontation with her past affair.
** Shompa's walk in the corridor with the tokri of flowers(what a beautiful girl...what a beautiful face....) and her grandma and father in general conversation.
** Shompa's song 'Amolo dhobolo'(her face is dipped in typical beautiful 'bong'ness)
** The vegetable cutting scene between the 2 daughters and elder bhabhi.

PN: If anybody has any other references of Arpita Pal (Shompa) in the movie, pleeease feel free to share. Hunted on the net, but all I could gather was 2 pics and 1-2 other movies she's acted in.

Insanity

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
I always carry an umbrella, let it or let it not rain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Coz I always complain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Coz I know how to hide my pain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
I know kids always need the cane

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Through life’s miseries, happiness I feign

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
I don’t bother to argue but still wanna fit in the ostentatious frame

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
The numb monster inside, I have learnt how to tame

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
I don’t raise my voice, I’m sure everybody else is to blame

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
I’ll lick anybody’s boots to gain fame however plain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Cornered in the crowd, I don’t feel the shame

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Tumultuous desire of love, I’m just a watcher never a player of the game

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
As I wear no soul, dressed naked in bane

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Coz I enjoy it alone on the windy parapet, as thoughts, emotions slowly drain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
In the midst of friends too, I look out for a gain

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
As heinous imaginations travel the lengths of the brain train

Yeah I’m safe, I’m sane
Can’t shed a tear on the grave, I smile, is that lame?

Mama, I’ve killed my conscience,
I’ve killed it yet again, left everybody behind on the long lost lane
Coz I wanna be safe, yeah I wanna be sane….