Gng back to Pune after Diwali. And in the midst of all the missing-home angst, the anticipatory Monday morning blues and the worry abt the potential killer traffic build up en route from Mumbai to Pune, the passing scenery happens to catch my eye.

Not tht thrz anythng photogenic abt Mumbai at the best of times. Even a confirmed Mumbai bhakt like me can't self deceive to that extent.

But passing by the chawls facing the express highway nr Kalanagar, I see row after row of doors with identical lanterns blinking outside their doors. Cross some 5-6 such complexes bfore I hit the red lights, and the shape, size, color of the lantern changes. That's it.

All different chawl complexes have the lanterns placed across, in nr perfect symmetry. A sight so unexpected, and welcome, tht it brings a smile to my face. I imagine their manager/residents society head/bunch of enthu kids gng door to door collecting money, opinions and manpower for the task. And I wonder whether the spirit of a festival isn't more than just celebrating it with family and friends.

Somehow, neighbors have ceased to be the support group they've been always to my mind. Or is it tht affluence and a busy life comes at the cost of simple everyday non transactional human contact. Pata nahi.

All I know is tht it triggered a bout of admiration and maybe a touch of envy.

On to more frivolous thoughts, and a tiresome journey :)

Woke up to the angry pelts on the windows and AC at 5…..and for a minute thought it was an earthquake, or something bad enough! Then the sleep receded and I realized it was a summer shower…..get soooo many of those in Delhi…..
Whenever the temperature gets a few degrees above bearable, a mini storm, locally known as “aneri” (think it’s the Punju pronunciation of “andheri”) arrives…..coats everything in a couple of centimeters of dirt and lowers the temperature to a much more bearable level!.....today it was followed by a good 30-45 minutes of rain…..gorgeous gorgeous!!!
Not just me, it woke up the entire house….papa was up 15 minutes after me…..then him being him, he decided to go and wake mummy to join in the free nature show…..and with a piping hot cup of tea, it was as close to heaven as one can get on earth :)……so, great start to the day
Not piling up too many expectations though…..the cat is on the warpath….and as anyone who’s ever dealt with an animal knows, wildcats on warpaths are to be avoided ;))….since I cant avoid….will cross my fingers and wait for this storm to pass as well…..!

So, let me do a quick chat up about my trip to Hrishikesh couple of weeks back……bunch of people from work decided to try out the famed water rafting do at Hrishikesh…..and I, in keeping with my resolve of trying to find all possible good in Delhi, joined in…..plus any kind of water activity is always fun…..so was keen to try it out….
So, three female colleagues and one male colleague set out on a Friday afty arnd 4…..the decision being to drive down the 250 odd kms to Haridwar and from there onwards another 40 to Hrishikesh…..one wuld have thought a comfy 5-6 hours should do it……but thanks to all the “work” put in by the govt on the roads in this part, took us close to 8-9 hours each way…..painful!!....
So travelling with North Indians has its own adventures…..one of them being their aversion to any kind of slow, soulful music…..very bhangra, dha-dha-dha taste in music this…..all the never-heard-before-but-stored-for-party-sharty songs on my ipod came to the rescue…..good fun singing along…..:)
Reached Hrishikesh tired, exhausted and at 11-ish…..after having made frantic phone calls to the hotel (stayed at the ISKCON hotel, clean, reasonable and good food, more on tht later) to ensure tht the restaurant didn’t close before we landed up…..had dinner…..and then trooped straight up to bed for our forty winks…..literally forty, when a good night’s sleep for me is eighty odd winks :)…..after much democratic debate, we’d decided to leave the hotel at 7 am sharp…..so of course it was more like 8 by the time we finally set forth…..
River rafting adventures in next part…..adieus :)

An eventful fortnight’s fag end…..life in marketing sometimes feels like a whirlwind between one planning cycle and the next…..so, in spite of the loads of backlog on my plate, am goofing off a bit today….and mulling over random stuff

For example, how the English language has changed in my lifetime…..admittedly I am older today than I would’ve ever imagined, still am not THAT old……!
Distinctly remember a time when odor was spelt with a “u”; bling was a recognized word, and omg and lol weren’t even invented yet!! Playing a harmless game of wordtwist is like playing a game of memory instead now….have to constantly remember that some words are over and done with…..phew…..

The next point of mulling is the question of buying a kindle…..true to my Indian heritage and Gujju upbringing, am making a value-for-money case in my head for a product that every cell in my body knows is only an excuse for indulgence :)…..so have got to the point where I am doing a price comparison between the items on my wishlist on flipkart and their ebook versions on kindle store on amazon…..so far, let me tell u, there aint no case for the kindle…..most sub Rs 300/- price point books are between $ 8 to 15 on amazon…..have to dig harder and think more creatively and resourcefully now :)….

Next, have got diverted to “weight”-ier issues…..a bunch of women at the workplace have gotten together…..and as is the case when a bunch of women get together anywhere, the conversation veers sooner rather than later to “motapa”…...think it’s a bit more rampant as a concern here in Delhi……(no, am not gonna start on my eternal rant of this city’s obsession with appearances)…..so anyway, apparently a group deal works when it comes to losing weight…..so the broad idea is tht we all set weight loss targets for ourselves, and deposit money in a pool…..so the one with the max loss gets something….on paper it’s a good incentive scheme…..but I think it doesn’t account for the inherent female disposition…..and a lot of angst has already started to set in…..with one person losing weight and the other not…..lets see whether this “fund” lasts till the end of the month ;))

Too many shallow concerns on my mind today :)…..no time, energy or inclination for deep thought and feeling…..would rather dream about a whole night’s sleep (er, my definition of whole night is 9pm to 6am :))…..or finding the perfect ear rings for a dream saree…...or my upcoming weekend trip to dharamsala……or a plate of piping hot kala jamuns with deliciously cold rabri…..(yes, am in the weight group in spite of the cynic in me :D)……

A quiet day at work…..probably got something to do with the fact that the cat is away :)
So sitting and getting some thinking done….which is, for me, the most important part of the work….getting thoughts flowing is the painful barrier….once that’s crossed, work becomes easier and smoother….
Been thinking about other, personal things for a while too….reflecting on the time gone by…..on the people lost….and the friendships strengthened…..
Realizing how much I’ve changed…..and how important it has been to break out of the rut that I was dragging myself down into….
Time is indeed a great healer….the distant past doesn’t have the same power over you as the recent one…no matter how painful or debilitating the past may have been….
Don’t know whether that’s a good thing or bad….think somewhere along the way have just stopped questioning life’s changes….and some atom of my being has just started accepting them…..there’s no good change or bad change….change is just that….
It’s the only constant there is….and whether I fight it or not, its not going to go away....i am not living the life I had planned for myself….couldn’t be farther away from it, in fact….but it’s a good life nonetheless….and if I allow myself to love it, to look forward to the unexpected nature of whatever tomorrow brings, I may just have the time of my life…..who knows :)
Had lost this somewhere along the way…..or maybe I never had the ability to realize this till now….either way, it’s a rambling thought….as u can see! :)

So there….

No point really in this bit of update, except that have been “off’ my temperamental writing bit for a while…..and I guess any exercise is good for the writing “muscle”….

So here’s to more life, more pointless efforts, more selfish indulgences and a bit more writing :)

And as I log in to the blog, I see that the last post was during football season…..and this one is bang in the middle of the cricket one….sigh….here’s to some things that never change…..!

Football football everywhere, its all that anyone says,
Football football everywhere, we don’t even have a team that plays!

Hehe, and on that, admittedly harassed note, I begin today’s crib session J

Football season is upon us, and everyone, absolutely everyone I know cant talk about anything else….its worse than it was with IPL! I mean, sure it’s a cricket loving country etc etc, but even during peak mania time, one can avoid getting drawn into discussions on how X player is an utter ass, Y player deserves to be shot, and Z player is the kalki avatar of Vishnu. But not so when footie is on, no sirree…..whether I want to hear it or not, an analysis of the players, their hair styles, their shots, their wives/girlfriends is everywhere.

When the first thing my dad talks to me about every morning is last night’s match, I know it’s a bad time for sports challenged moi….

So the football crib apart, have finally found something to like about my new adopted city (joy is me!)….the use of plastic bags is banned, and actually seriously enforced….so most shops offer these wonderful cloth/paper bags….actually far more aesthetic and attractive, not to mention environment friendly J….even stores like nature’s basket and foodworld, which don’t have such concerns in any other part of the country, develop their environmentalist streak with a vengeance in the capital….a lil hypocritical, but at least it’s a small start….

And yes, after a couple of inconvenient experiences, have learned to carry a cloth bag with me whenever I need to go shopping…loving it!

Spent most of my day mediating between two quarrelling factions of my media teams….instead of picking up the phone and sorting the issue directly, the two babies insisted on squealing to mommy (aye, the roles I play and depths I sink to for paapi pet and duty) to sort the other….hilarious….drafting a mail right now to suitably put both sides in their place, now tht the issue has been sorted and tempers have cooled…..seriously, no wonder the world made no serious economic progress till women started participating in the workplace….left to guys, there would be one war after the other ;))))….

Exhausted….with a capital E :)
Setting up home and hearth in a new city….always a fun, if slightly back breaking job :)…..been up since 6, opened up some 15 cartons of assorted household stuff ( I was living in a 1BHK prior to this, and it astonishes me no end how much stuff I managed to accumulate there!)…..sort of assigned stuff to its proper place….set up my clothes almirah….got the kitchen almost up and running….cleaned the bathrooms top to bottom….and, wonder of wonders, actually cleaned the fridge in every possible nook and corner….!!!!....after 3 years of having used it I think :))….

Feeling very pleased with myself, and very much an accomplished woman ;))….now I think I can take a break for the next 3 years ;))…

And battled a few battles with the bureaucracy of maids, kachrawalis, cable wallahs, electricians and sundry….here specially, it seems they have their own unique language which no one from outside can even presume to understand….”ho jayega” means “nahin hoga, at least jab tak aap haath jod ke 50 follow ups na karo”, “bas 5 minute men aate hain madam” stands for “2 ghante ke pehle bhool jao”, and if someone says “aap bilkul chinta mat karo madam”, my BP shoots up by a few tens :)….

Grinning and bearing it I guess….its a fascinating insight into a mindset I’ve never been exposed to before….and whatever doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger ;)….

Alright…..movie backlog starts to end a bit…..saw raajneeti…..wish I had seen shrek or even satc2 instead!....buri nahi hai, but bahut achchi bhi nahin hai….prakash jha is unfortunately a filmmaker used to a smaller story telling scale….he works best when working with short, concise and gripping stories, without much emphasis on characters, or their emotional development.

Give him an upright guy, a moral dilemma, and set it in a corrupt, violent and volatile atmosphere, and he can and does work a very efficient story.

Raajneeti is, unfortunately, too ambitious a tale for a 3 hr movie, helmed by this particular director. Quite aside from the shortcomings from a couple of actors, who are grossly miscast (kuch to acting talent hona chahiye tha na), almost every character ends up getting shortchanged in this retelling of the mahabharat…..and therein lies my gripe.

On paper, it’s a perfect idea. Politics is any day an intriguing and larger than life canvas…..almost any tale of ambition and power can be told well against this…..
Then you take perhaps the greatest story ever told, the mahabharat, and marry the two….potentially explosive stuff….

But to do justice to mahabharat is not an easy job…..at the heart of it, it’s a story of real, frail people….none too good, none too bad….and a timeless struggle to stand for what they believe in….its impossible to judge them by their actions, since the motivations teeter very close to home….
Any adaptation of the story has to, first and foremost, recognize the need to make the characters strong, well fleshed out, and relatable….a tall order (its not for nothing tht its called an epic, and most versions on the market are “condensed” J)
Raajneeti falls flat on its face here….draupadi, yudhishthir, karna, duryodhan, all come across as cardboard cut outs….singularly unidimensional….inspite of my best intentions, I couldn’t feel the slightest empathy for any of them….felt much like they would have done, caught in a whirlwind of a story with so much happening that there is no time to focus on what’s important….

Lukewarm….and a waste of phenomenal potential…..

Would recommend sarkar for a better telling of a family tale set in politics, and kalyug for a modern day retelling of the mahabharat….true paisa vasools both….:)

On an aside, hate windows’ self editing….karna became karma, simply because the latter is a word they recognize…..dont need crutches to express ourselves ALL the time, do we?? J