Maharaj departs

There are a very few people on Earth whom other people can either love or hate, but can never ignore. In the world of cricket, Sourav Ganguly is one such character: one of the most controversial and colorful characters in this arena for the last 12 years.

In a game, most players are judged by their performances: how many runs, how many wickets, how many centuries made in a calendar year, how many records he broke, how many are yet to be broken- so on and so forth. But Sourav Ganguly cannot be judged by a scoreboard alone- for him, the game of cricket was not merely scoring runs or taking a couple of wickets.....it was much more than that. A combination of aggression, elegance and emotion, our beloved Dada is a complete package on the ground.

On the off side, first there is God, and then Dada.........Rahul Dravid said about him at the very early stage of his career. Such was Sourav's elegance in this shot that a conservative and perfectionist like Sir Geoffrey Boycott coined him as Prince of Calcutta. He is the most succesful captain India has ever seen, has scored maximum number of runs in the opening partnership along with the Maestro Sachin Tendulkar in the one-day internationals, has the Treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in one-dayers------all these information just add more lines in his resume. The way he led the team on the ground, the way he responded to the audacity and obnoxious behaviour of Steve Waugh and also the way he completely ignored the century-old tradition of the Lords' Cricket Ground will be always remembered in the history of cricket.

His philosophy was simple: If you bother me, you have to face the consequences. he firmly believed in what he did, and did not care about what others thought about him. It may seem like he is proud, selfish and arrogant, but that's the way he is......a lot different than the others.

He did not possess the techniques and tenacity of Rahul Dravid, the spontaneity of VVS, but he was unique in his own way. Strong determination and indomitable courage covered for his other shortcomings. His performance during the last one-and-a-half year since his comeback in South Africa speaks for his determination and character strength.

No drama, no tears, just a couple of words: I quit, it is time to go. This guy has played like a king, and is departing like a king. As Neville Cardus once said

We remember not the scores and the results in after years, it is the men who remain in our minds.

Truely, Dada will remain not only in our minds, but in our hearts as well.

Maharaja, tomarey selaam.

A piece of lost days

This year is the fifth one. Several thousands of miles away from home, each year, around this time, John Denver sings inside my mind:

Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong........

Goddess Durga will appear on Earth again within a couple of days, and the entire Bengalee community around the globe will celebrate Her arrival for the next one week, forgetting all sorrows and woes life has to offer them aplenty.

Memory is a very tricky substance- although I don't know whether it can be called a substance in the first place. But the thing is, when I try to recall something, at times memory betrays me, and at times, it floods my mind with so much incidents that it becomes difficult for me to think and organize the thoughts properly.

For me, the four days of Durga Puja were ordered in four different ways. Saptami was reserved for the family.....throughout the daytime, it was chatting and gossipping with cousins and relatives, and in the evening, it was time to get along in a group of about 20 people and walk through the lights and charms of the city. The duration of the trip used to be short, or at least it decreased as the years passed by, because my parents, uncles and aunts were getting older. But it was a very pleasant experience, and each year, Saptami was just one of the days which taught me how family should be, and what it means to be a part of a happy family, where every member cared for everybody.

Asthami used to start by offering Pushpanjali to the Goddess from the local pandal. Although initially reluctant to go (because it was an early morning affair), I gradually got interested in it, mainly because as I got older, my interest shifted towards the live Goddesses from the deity. After murmering the hymns, throwing flowers towards them was really a pleasure, and the fact is, to me, a Bengalee girl looks best in a saree rather than any other outfits. So, since my adolescence, I used to look forward towards the Asthami morning.

Going out with friends was quite enjoyable during the pujas, which I did mostly on the Nabami, and during the puja time, the upper limit of coming back home at night was relaxed to a good extent, thereby providing me ample chance to enjoy outside.

The Sharodiya numbers were another source of attraction. Even 6-7 years before, the Sharodiyas were released just before the festive season, unlike they do nowadays.....about 3 months before the puja. Leafing through the new pages of the book, and smelling the scent of it was a heavenly feeling, at least for me. When I was much younger, I was not allowed to read Desh, because it was supposed to be boroder boi! But that could not stop me from reading those anyway, and as it happens, the more you forbid, the more irrestible the desire is to break the rules.

Kolkata used to change overnight on these four days. I still remember eating Biriyani from a roadside stall at around 3 AM! Long queues in front of the Egg-roll centers, where the preparation was so fast that the parathas were half-cooked, but for us, nothing mattered. Everything was consumed at rapid speed and indomitable enthusiasm.

Life changes, and now I can understand what I used to have then which I do not have now. It is true that as long as you are not away from home, you do not get the feeling what home really is. Sometimes it is good to be dependent, or at least to be under certain rules. Breaking rules is much more exciting than having a free will to do whatever we want.

I know not when I will be able to enjoy the Durga puja again from home. It seems its being a lifetime since I had last entered inside a Mandap. But it is always good to cherish sweet memories, because this is what keeps us moving against all odds.

Just a post!

Two months have passed without much happenings. One semester ended, another started, and the same old routine of apartment-department-advisor-Budweiser/Courvoisier continues! Life of a grad student is mostly dull, except for the trips made throughout the year. In that respect also, I am running at a loss, with only one trip so far to my credit. The two-day trip to Denver was enjoyable, but too short to relish properly.

No happenings, and hence no posts as well. All happenings or feelings cannot be blogged as well, for that matter. Watching movies, reading novels is still continuing, and among the recent readings, I liked The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

In terms of weather, its a perfect Autumn in Wichita nowadays, clouds and sun are dividing the hours between themselves. All seems to be in perfect order, except my mind, which at times, rushes home-Puja is knocking at the door!

Each year, I start counting days for going home from now on, but never have I felt the urge of visiting Calcutta so deeply as I feel now. It is exactly 3 months left, and I am eagerly waiting for the winter at home.

Bidding adeiu for the time being, will catch up later, may be with some meaningfull post next time.

Bon Voyage

I have been staying in Wichita continuosly for more than 6 months now, since I came back from home on January 21st., partly due to lack of funds, and mainly due to lack of company. Things seem to change now, a very short trip to Denver has been planned between August 3rd to August 5th, in fact the shortest trip so far! Also, it took the least amount of time for planning it, a little over 2 hours during the hot afternoon of last Sunday, during which, the tickets were purchased as well, the price of which was also the cheapest so far!

The plan of another trip is germinating during the Labor Day weekend, but that is still in the primary stage. But the wheel has started to roll, and I wish the second half of the year will not be as mundane as the first half.

A momentary lapse of concentration

I arranged the purchased packet of items into my car trunk. As I laid down the last item into the trunk, I sensed a fleeting image of a person, and in order to take a better look, I closed the trunk and looked sideways. Satisfying my curiosity, I put back the trolley in its right place, and again came back in front of my car, and put hands in my pocket for the key. Surprisingly, I could not feel it, and so I made a thorough search of the four pockets - everything else was there, except the key. As I was thinking that somehow the key got dropped into the grocery store, after a moment I discarded the idea, because in that case, I would not have been able to open the trunk in the first place. Hence, the only possibility is that I have placed the key into the trunk (as the "last item" ) and closed it.

After pondering for a minute or two, the possibility changed into certainty in my mind. Fortunately, I had a duplicate key, but it was in my apartment. So I started calling my friends asking for a ride to my apartment, get the key, and return once again here.

But again, today is Friday afternoon, in fact the last Friday before the beginning of a new semester. So, I failed in the first 4 occasions. Either they were busy someplace else, or they had already started their Friday activities, or somebody else had taken their cars out! I was getting a bit tensed, because my sources were getting exhausted without any result, and hence the only possibility of calling a key-maker to get a new key was looming large. Well, this one would be both time consuming and expensive. I tried to make a last call, before switching into this option.

Surprisingly, it worked. This friend had just returned from his office, and agreed to help me. I was relieved a lot, as can be assumed. After that, it became very simple, and within 40 minutes, I was back home with my car.

But what made me absent-minded for a second? Well, to admit the truth, the fleeting image was that of a mind-blowing beautiful girl, who passed by me, lit a cigarette, got into her car and went away! Women, especially pretty women, have allured men into certain wrongdoings since time immemorial, and this case was no exception. Although the impact here was negligible, but the truth was verified yet again!

Sleeplessness

One of my qualities, which I admire myself, is my ability to sleep. Thanks to the 4 year stay here, I have turned into a hardcore night person, going to bed never before 1 AM, and during weekends, it can be anytime from 2 to 4 in the morning. But when I switch off the lights and place my head on the pillow, I fall asleep instantly, and wake up after a good 8-10 hours of tight sleep. I can sleep like a log, undaunted by every possible disturbances, and on numerous occasions, when I wake up, I see quite a number of missed calls in my cellphone.

But recently, there has been a dent in my long-lasting reputation. The night before yesterday, I went to sleep around 1:30 in the morning, but had my eyes wide open till 5. I tried all possible methods to make myself sleep during that interval, but all were in vain. When you seriously try to sleep, but end up tossing and turning over the bed instead, it becomes very frustrating and sometimes, agonizing as well. However, I somehow managed to sleep after 5 AM, and slept for quite a number of hours.

I ignored this matter as an exception, which is always nice. But today again, it is the same scenario. Trying to sleep from 2 AM, I could not bear the burden of looking at the dark room, and hence decided to write this blog while munching over puffed rice and chanachur, the clock reads 4 AM.

If exception starts to happen frequently, then it becomes a rule, and as far as this issue is concerned, I have no intention to make it a rule. The ultimate result, however, is yet unknown, and let me leave it upon the upcoming days.

Of serials and childhood memories

In my childhood days, the serials Ramayana and Mahabharata were hot favorites among people of all ages, but mostly it affected the children and the older people. I can still remember the image of my Grandmother, sitting in front of the television set with palms joined, and whenever Krishna or Rama used to appear, she used to touch the palms to her forehead, muttering silent prayers. For me, the attraction was different; I used to enjoy the fights- specially the scenes where Arjuna or Rama used to throw an arrow, the arrow multiplied itself into a dozen or more, and killed the enemy soldiers ; in other instances, two arrows came face-to-face in midair, stayed still for a while, and one of them disappeared. The fights with mace (or Gada) became so popular that plastic counterparts of the weapon were available in the market, and playing with them became a passion for the children during that period.

In the Indian television history, those two serials were the most popular among the audience, and even now, I like to think about them in some nostalgic moments. But apart from these two, I remember other serials as well, which always occupied my "must view" list in those days.

When the Metro Channel (or DD2) started its broadcasting, it was only for one hour in the evening in the weekdays, and there, I used to watch Johnny Sokko and the Flying Robot and Street Hawk. I cannot recall the stories now, but what I can remember is the passion with which I used to swallow them.

The Doordarshan channel (DD1) broadcasted some nice serials, of which I liked Guniraam, Tenali Rama, Mungerilaal ke haseen sapne and Nukkad. Here again, I have forgotten the details of the storyline, but probably each of them used to tell one story every week, and in those days, serials were a weekly event, not on a daily basis with two repeat telecasts, as it is nowadays.

Alike mystery stories, I have a fascination for detective serials as well, and among them, my favorites were Byomkesh Bakshi (Rajit Kapoor was superb) and Tehkikat, where Vijay Anand acted in the role of detective Sam D'Souza while Saurabh Shukla was his sidekick. Another serial, which was telecasted probably on Sunday afternoons, was Bikram Aur Betaal, where Arun Govil was the king, as far as I can remember.

In Bengali, Tero Parbon was the pioneer, where Sabyasachi Chakraborty played the character of Gora. He has been one of my favorite actors since then. There was another serial, directed by Tapan Sinha, titled as Hutomer Naksha, which was of the mystery genre, starring Soumitra Chatterjee as a retired Colonel and Hutom, a young boy as his combined-hand. It was Hutom who used to solve the mysteries, with guidance from Soumitra. Apart from these, there was Adarsha Hindu Hotel, where Manoj Mitra played the role of Hajari thakur, and Sabitri Chatterjee was in one of the leading roles.

On Sunday mornings, there was a program called An expidition to the animal kingdom ,which was a pleasure to watch. Although I did not like cartoons that much, but I used to watch He-Man and later, Jungle Book.

None of the above-mentioned names are recent, all of them are 12-18 years old at least, but I still can remember them. The reason may be because they were a part of my childhood and boyhood, a part of my life which is full of sweet memories, memories which I can cherish in moments of solitude.

A lifetime experience

Today I was chatting with a friend of mine, as we always do, and were talking about every possible topics , recalling incidents from the good old days and narrating incidents from the not-so-good present daily happenings. He was telling about an incident of encountering a ticket-checker in a rail station which was quite enjoyable. I could not remember my solitary experience at that moment, but now, I can remember about that incident which was not pleasant at all.

It happened in 1998, during a winter afternoon. It was before exam time, and I went to see-off a friend of mine after a "study session" - which was chatting and eating mainly - at the Bidhannagar rail station. Bidding him goodbye, as his train left the platform, I was on my way back home, when I was caught at the exit gate by a ticket checker.

Ticket checkers were rare species even then, and for a station like Bidhannagar, one could hardly expect to meet with them. But whatever it was, I was right in front of him, and the following conversations followed. For getting the right tempo, I am narrating them in Bengali:

TC : Ticket dekhi.
Me : kisher ticket? Ami ekjon ke chharte esechhilaam.
TC : tahole platform ticket dekhi.
Me : seta ki jinish abaar?
TC : platform e dhukte geleo ticket laage, seta kothay?
Me : ohh, seta jantaam na, ami -
TC : shotyi ki kauke chharte eschhen? apnaar bondhu kothay?
Me : ki aschorjo, bollam je chole gechhe? train ki etokkhon dariye thakbe naki?
TC : fine lagbe.
Me : Poysha nei! kotobar bolbo je ami berate jachhilaam na, bari theke esechhi, bari jaabo.
TC : hmm......promaan ditey parben? ki kore bujhbo je apni kothao theke aschhilen na?
Me: dekhchhen na, hawai choti pore keu kothao theke ase? tar opor ei dress, eta dekhe ki mone hochhe na e ami bari thekei aschhi?
TC : jodi boli na?
Me: tahole bari cholun, fine diye debo, amar bari ei kachhei. aar noyto ektu bade eshe diye jachhi.
TC : Hmmm. ki kora hoy?
Me : porashona.
TC : besh, ekhonkaar moton chhere dilaam, in future, erokom bhul jeno aar na hoy. Bari jao!

As soon as he said this, I walked hurriedly past him without looking back. This person must have been a teacher sometimes or a lawyer it seemed, the way he was questioning me!

This incident has left such an impact on me that from then, I have never entered any platform just for seeing off somebody, and fortunately enough, I have not encountered any TC since then while travelling too, maybe because everytime I had a ticket with me!

Shaurya- the story of Valor

I do not normally write anything about any particular movie in this blog, the reason being I do not get the technicalities and intricate details in a film with the eyes of a movie-critic. Only once, I deviated from this norm, I blogged about a movie which I did not like at all (Race). To make matters even, I have decided to jot down something about a movie which I liked very much. Another reason is purely personal. I was feeling to write something, anything in fact, today, and movie is the easiest topic which I could think of.

The movie Shaurya, directed by Samar Khan and starring Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon, Javed Jaffrey, Minnisha Lamba and Deepak Dobriyal, tells the story of a soldier in the Indian Army who has killed his commanding officer during a raid, but is silent about his crime. A court-martial has been ordered, and two lawyers, Major Akash Kapoor (Javed Jaffrey) and Major Sidhhant Chowdhury (Rahul Bose), are summoned for the legal matters. Although long-time friends, this time they are opposing each other, since Major Sidhhant is defending the accused Captain Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal).

The case appears to be an open-and-shut one, where the only thing the defence counsel needs to do is to plead guilty and then the sentence would be announced against Javed Khan for violating Army rules and commiting a murder. Here enters the journalist Kavya (Minnisha), who forces the defence counsel to think otherwise; the matter, although it looks simple, may have some depth, which needs investigation. Quite reluctantly, the defence counsel meets Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh (Kay Kay Menon), who claims himself to be the God of the Army checkpost and when the defence counsel wishes to investigate the "scene of crime", he mocks him for his audacity and sends him back. This inflames the curiosity of Major Sidhhant to such an extent that at court, he pleads "not guilty" for Javed Khan.

From this point on, the film becomes worth-watching. Gradually, it is revealed that the commanding officer whom Captain Javed murdered, used to misuse his power, he used to torture the innocent Muslims of the adjacent village in order to make them "confess about their links with the terrorist groups", and when he was about to kill a small girl- when she was crying after seeing her brother dead in front of her own eyes- Javed had no other option than to kill the evil officer. According to Javed, the true valor of the army uniform lies in protecting the innocent Indians, irrespective of their religion.

It is also revealed that the murdered commanding officer was working under the orders of Brigadier R P Singh. In the last scene, when Major Sidhhant summons the Brigadier in the court room, the Brigadier makes a venomous speech against the Indian Muslims. He wants to uproot the entire community from the country it seems, and the reason for his act lies in the fact that years ago, his wife and daughter were brutally murdered by the Muslim servant of the family. After this tragedy, Brigadier Singh has taken oath against the entire Muslim community and will carry on his job as long as he survives. The film ends in declaring Captain Javed innocent and a new investigation is started against the Brigadier.

Both Rahul Bose and Kay Kay Menon have acted superbly in the film. Rahul Bose seems to be perfectly natural and spontaneous in the role of the open-minded Army lawyer. Kay Kay has appeared only in three scenes in the entire film, but he steals the show. In the courtroom monologue, he bears an astonishing resemblance with Adolf Hitler. Javed Jaffrey did justice to his small role, as did Minnisa Lamba. The young Deepak Dobriyal mostly acted with his eyes, and full credit goes to him as well.

In the year 2008, among the movies which I have watched so far, Shaurya is the best. Although there has been comments that the film has been adapted from the Hollywood flick A Few Good Men (starring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore)- although I have not watched the Hollywood film- but the fact remains that Shaurya is brilliant in its own flavor. Salute to director Samar Khan for making this film.

My dreams

I dream often.......quite often......in my sleep, and the key thing is, I remember most of them when I wake up. Normally, as people wake up from their sleep, they don't often remember their dreams, if it is not a nightmare. But I, fortunately or unfortunately, remember them quite accurately for a good period of time.

The funny thing is, the characters which appear in my dreams do not have any apparent connection between themselves, although each one of them is known to me in different contexts and happenings of life. It is almost impossible that a professor of my department will turn up in one of our family gatherings. But in my dream, everything is possible, and even more, that professor, who rarely smiles while teaching in the class, is seen to take my 7-year old cousin brother on his lap and sing nursery rhymes to him!! In numerous occasions, I have seen my father chatting with my Department Head about Indian politics, which I know, can never happen in reality. But dreams are dreams, as people say, manifestations of our subconsious mind. But even if that is taken into consideration, I can never think of such a weird conversation between the two persons who will never, in fact, meet each other in reality.

Recently, after coming back from home, I am dreaming a lot about family picnics and get-togethers. Only yesterday, I dreamt that our entire family, along with all my cousins, aunts and uncles, have gone to a place for a Sunday picnic. The place was at the suburbs of Calcutta, about two-hours duration in the local train. Since it was a picnic, however, we went by a rented minibus. But here the situation was like a repetation. We indeed did have a picnic in 2006, when I went home during the winter, in the same place. Yesterday's dream was just an imitation of the entire chain of events which did happen two years ago. But, in the end, as far as I can remember, all of us ended up over the top of a mountain, and the road which leads to the plainland was blocked due to the falling of a giant tree because of severe storm. The dream ended there, where everyone of us were staring at each other, but the reason which resulted this event was never explained. It was as if a movie coming abruptly to an end.

Apart from these abrupt endings, normally my dreams are quite nice, which are mostly about family gatherings (the fact remains that, I miss my family very much even though I am living alone for four years), where sometimes some unexpected guets turns up. I have never dreamt that I am along with some celebrity, or myself doing some spectacular stunts like going to the moon, beating up a gang of robbers single-handedly or things of these kinds. My dreams, sadly, does not deviate much from the family genre(What a mess, dreams are also being divided into genres!!).

Only once, I was chased by a gunman in my dream. But instead of beating him up, I fled and ran as hard as I could. After running for a long time (dreams do not allow to record the duration), I was able to see the door of my house. As I was approaching the door, I heard that the gunman unlatched his revolver, and was ready to fire. I could just open the door, led myself in, and closed the door when the shot was fired. The bullet missed me for an inch, creating a hole in the door. At this point, my dream was broken. When I realized that it was just a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare, I was relieved. After that, I have tried many times to see the ending of this exciting event, but without any success. Dreams, I think, never repeat themselves.

Back to square one

Yesterday night, I went to sleep around 12:45 AM, which is my usual time to go to bed. But then, suddenly, I woke up from the deep sleep; glancing at the cell phone, I noticed that it is only 4:45 AM! Unimpressed, I again tried to go back to sleep, but after a long futile attempt of about an hour, I decided to give up. Waking up, I brushed my teeth, made myself a cup of tea, and read few pages of a story book.

In one way, this was enjoyable, because around 6:30, looking through the window, I could see the first light of the dawn. The road was getting busy, with the number of cars passing through the intersection gradually increasing. It was nice to see the night making its way for the day, watching the veil of darkness being removed by the appearence of light. The feeling was really soothing and refreshing.

I was feeling hungry, and so I decided to have a breakfast at the McDonald's. Its been a long time since I have had a proper breakfast. It was 6:45 then, and the McDonald's opens at 7. So, I went back to bed, thinking to rest for 15 minutes, and then go to McDonald's, have a nice breakfast, and then go to the department to study. I was happy that the day was going to be unusual in my standards.

When I opened my eyes after my 15 minutes rest, the outside world seemed a lot noisier than it was 15 minutes ago. Again I glanced at my cell phone, and saw it was 11:05 AM!!!!!!!!!!!

Young Democratic Socialists, Republicans and Tomatoes

A couple of days ago, as I was passing by the university Rec Center, I caught sight of a guy who was carrying two buckets full of something down the sidewalk of the Rec Center. Then, he approached a person, who gave him a handful of coins, and happily, the first guy went away.

This is quite an unusual scene I have come across in four years of my stay here. As I looked around, I noticed some guys were holding up a poster to attract people. But I was attracted by the slogan written on their T-shirts, which read "Exploitation King". Feeling curious, I took a few steps towards the poster to read through its contents. It was labelled as Young Democratic Socialists, from which I gathered that these guys are members of this party, and they were protesting against the food-shop chain Burger King.

Reading through some more posters in and around the place, I came to know about the reason of their protest. They were in favor of those farm workers in Florida, who earn 40-45 cents for every 32-pound buckets of tomatoes they pick, and to earn a descent amount of money, they are bound to pick nearly 2 tons of tomatoes! These workers have appealed to Burger King for a 1-cent per pound rise, which the BK refused. The Democratic Socialists are in support of these workers, and they have named this event as "Fast Food Slavery". The act which the guy performed in carrying the buckets was a way of protesting against the oppression and exploitation of the giant food corporations.

As usual, the Republicans are in complete disagreement with the Democratic Socialists. According to their view, if the fast food corporation like McDonalds', Burger King, Taco Bell etc agree to pay the farmers what they are demanding, then the "dollar menu" available in these shops will cost nearly 3 or 4 dollars, which would not be cheap anymore for the students. Hence, they support the corporations, and are not in favor of the wage-hike.

The entire story is really interesting. Coming back to my office, I browsed through the internet to learn some more about this aspect. The university newspaper also provided some valuable information. All the information had one thing in common: these firm workers are being treated very badly, besides paying them a bare minimum amount for their labor. I also learnt that an indictment has been issued against a farm labor corporation located a few hundred miles from Miami. It stated that the workers in that farm were locked in trucks and godowns, beaten up and were forced to work against their will. In various newspaper articles, the lives of the farm workers have been compared with the miseries of the slaves, an inhuman practice which was supposed to be nonexistent in the modern world. But it is still there, and the irony is, it is prevalent in a country which is regarded as a supreme power in the world, the country which control the fates of numerous third-world countries.

It is still unsure whether the corporations will raise the wage, or whether the living conditions of the farm workers will improve or not. But the striking fact which is obvious from this incident is that the poor people are bound to live a life in subhuman standards, irrespective of the geographical boundaries in which they belong, which we term as "countries", and label them as First World, Second World and Third World, a cunning way to hide the failure of the leaders and statesmen, and to project a wrong picture in front of the outside world.

Blame it on the Weather

It is very depressing out here. For the last 4-5 days continuosly, there is no sign of the sun, it seems that the clouds have banished him away for an indefinite span of time. No notable work has been done from my part other than procrastination and watching handful of movies. Whenever I am looking outside through the windows, the gloomy sky is making me gloomier and an urge of getting inside the warmth of the comforter is growing up. So as soon as I am getting done with my classes, I am returning home and taking naps at weird hours of the day. It is unsure as to how long this will continue, but unless and until the weather improves and the sun comes out from his exilement, my sleeping hours will be more than working hours.

After all, if Mother Nature intervenes, how can a simple human being change the inevitable?

An utterly confused RACE

Director-duo Abbas-Mastan has delivered yet another thriller named RACE! But the question is, what is this race all about? All the principal characters are presumably running after money, which was $50 million in the beginning, but ended up to $200 million! The younger brother wants to kill the elder one, not only for money, but also in order to beat him in the race of life.

Too much twists and turns in a plot make it very confusing. This is what happened here. The connections between the men and women are established so abruptly that the viewer is at his wit's end to figure out how or why should it happen. Take for example the case of Rajiv and Sophia-the younger brother and the secretary of the elder one respectively. During two-third part of the movie, they didn't exchange a single dialogue, but then suddenly it is revealed that they were married! The initial plan of Rajiv was to kill Ranvir, his elder brother, and claim the $100 million insurance money, whereas Ranvir planned to wait till Rajiv gets the money, and then kill him in order to claim $200 million!! Nobody cared about the fact that if both are dead, one really and the other as an eye-wash, who will claim the money on their behalf??

In the final scene before intermission, enters RD(Robert D'Costa), an investigating officer, and his assistant Mini. While Robert is busy in eating fruits all through , starting from banana to apple to sugarcane to strawberries, Mini tries to prove her efficiency by asking dumb questions and foolish comments on anything and everything she saw! They reminded me of Karamchand and Kitty. But Karamchand was happy consuming carrots only, while RD does not leave any fruit which comes within his reach. Johnny Lever made one brief appearence, which was supposed to be a comedy-cameo, but unfortunately, it turned out to be an attempt to make you laugh at gunpoint. There is a mercenary as well, who uses his truck as a key weapon whenever he is assigned the job of killing somebody. He fails both times, and in the second time, he gets killed, thereby relieving both himself and me from the pain of watching!

In terms of acting, Saif Ali Khan as Ranvir was cool, while Akshaye Khanna as Rajiv was okay, although he is getting stereotyped by playing the same type of villain in all of Abbas-Mastan's thriller (Naqaab, Humraaz etc). The ladies, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif respectively as Sonia and Sophia, were full of glamour and all other things except acting. Anil Kapoor as RD and Sameera Reddy as Mini do not make an impact. I felt sad for Anil Kapoor, who delivered such a strong performance in Black and White, was such a waste here.

Over and above, the thriller was so "sleak" that it lacked the required smartness and intelligence. After all, everything cannot be fitted in one pot only by brute force. Dear Abbas and Mastan, enough is enough, Ab bas bhi karo!

Life's flavor lost!

Growing up has, like every other happenings in life, its pros and cons. I remember the thrill I used to get in doing very trivial activities when I was young, many of those activities which I do no more, and looking back, very often it seems silly and pure waste of time when I ponder them over.

When I was in class II or III (also in the higher classes), book cricket was a craze. We used to pick the thickest book from our book-list and use it to score runs in plentitude. In school, as I was a back-bencher, playing this game was never a problem with friends, unless and until the teacher specifically asked me questions. But here again, my height was my saviour, because I was, and have been, the shortest person in my class, and hence, was unnoticed most of the time.

But when at home, I faced a problem. It was customary to read aloud so that my mother could hear what I was reading (she was my teacher then). On the other hand, I had already started a cricket tournament in the last period at school which I need to finish up! So my only option was to recall some poems or prose and recite them, and simultaneously turning pages of the book and keep record of the runs scored. During the entire time, I had to keep guessing my mother's movements, and getting a slightest hint of her approaching my study-table, I used to hide my "scorebook" below my "bat" (the thick book I mean), and open the thick book! Often the timing was wrong and I got caught, and scolded, sometimes beaten up , specially before exams. When I think of it, it seems very funny and childish now, but then, it was a matter of severe importance!

Swallowing a thriller, hiding it below an academic book, was very thrilling itself! Here also, I had to keep track whether or not Mother was nearby, although I had mastered the art so finely, that I hardly got caught.

As I entered college, I caught up with the vice of smoking, and I still remember the excitement I had when I smoked at home for the first time, in the presence of my parents. They were watching a Bengali serial, and on the pretence of study, I locked myself in my room and started to smoke! I had to finish the cigarette before the commercial break, because who knows, during the break, I may attract the attention of my parents, who would certainly be surprised seeing me so enthusiastic about reading, and summon me! Practice makes a man perfect, and gradually I got hold of the timing and accuracy I needed to carry on with my secret vice.

Here, being 10,000 miles away from home, I have the liberty of doing these things, and many others, freely and without worrying of being caught. But still, sometimes I miss the pure thrill, fun and the feeling of breaking a rule that were attached with these mischieves! It is like losing a certain flavor, which I had adored so much in my childhood and adulthood.

One week amongst Geisha

Imagine yourself seated inside a teahouse , and kneeling in front of you, is a woman, dressed in an exqusite kimono and whose face is painted white, lips as red as blood, and she is pouring sake or tea into your cup whenever it gets empty. From time to time, she is telling stories or performing a short piece of dance to entertain you. Your imagination will take you to the 1930's, and you'll be in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan, one of the prime Geisha districts of the country.

Truly, it is a different world altogether. Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha has casted such a spell on me that I am still wandering around the alleyways of Gion, mesmerised by the beauty of the artists there, who are known as geisha in Japanese. The novel tells the story of Chiyo, a girl from a fishing district of Japan named Yoroido, who possesses a very unusual pair of eyes, and how she transforms into Sayuri, overcoming all the barriers of hardships and meanness of the surrounding world.

Arthur Golden has depicted the lifestyle of the geisha during the period of 1930's in intricate details. The various trainings that a girl undergo from her very young age to become a geisha, such as playing various instruments, dancing, learning the tea-ceremony etc., the jealousy and rivalry between established geisha, various tricks that a geisha apply to beguile wealthy and influencial men of the society in order to gain his patronage and so on. In a world where beauty reigns supreme, a geisha loses her virginity through a man who makes the highest bidding (however, this aspect in the novel is much controversial and the author has been sued for this). But other than this, the novel has been able to portray the hidden stories and facts of an entirely different world which was unknown to the readers. This is, I think, the main success of this novel, a genuine literary piece which has interwoven fact and fiction in the correct proportion.

Reading this novel took me to a different world, and sitting in my bedroom, I was able to make a trip to Gion. Kudos to Arthur Golden for giving me this opportunity.

Vacation sans Vocation

Spring Break for this year commences from today. It is quite an astonishing fact that I am , and will be, in Wichita during this break. Last year, we had a get-together in Riverside, California for a period of 10 days (mentioned in an earlier post). This time however, I intend to do some constructive work, the works which I like to do from my heart. These include watching some movies which I brought with me from home, reading some good books and adding some more songs to my existing collection.

As it has happened before, any plans made beforehand regarding studies have never been successful, I would rather not boast about those. It would be better to blog them down, if necessary, after the end of the break.

Happy vacation !

Tare Zameen Par: some other possibilities

Situation 1 : Director : Karan Johar.
Then, Ramshankar Nikumbh would be renamed as Rahul Malhotra, portrayed by Shahrukh Khan, and unlike Aamir, he would be present from the very first scene. The first half would have a couple of melodious songs featuring Rahul and his divorced wife, shown in occasional flashbacks. The dyslexic boy would be renamed as K-k-k-k-iran and Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee would play the roles of the boy's parents.

Situation 2 : Director : Ramgopal Verma Film name : Dukhi Dyslexic
The boy would be troubled by some evil spirit who had suffered from dyslexia. Urmila Matondkar would play the role of the boy's mother, and Manoj Bajpai would be the Tantrik, who would perform some rituals to free the spirit.

Situation 3 : Director : David Dhawan Film name: Dyslexic No. 1
There would be no kids, Govinda would act in a double role......one a doctor, and the other, a man with the maturity of a ten-year old boy. The audience will discover that this man-child is the long-lost brother of the doctor, who got separated in the Kumbh Mela in childhood. Karishma Kapoor and Sushmita Sen would be the love-interests of Dr Govinda and patient Govinda respectively. Kader Khan would be Karishma's father and Shakti Kapoor would be seen as the patient's sidekick.

Situation 4 : Director : Priyadarshan
There would be lot of characters in the film, and actors like Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Mukesh Rishi, Asrani, Suniel Shetty, Sharat Saxena will have significant roles. Akshay Kumar would be in the leading role, and the climax of the film will be in a hospital, where everyone would be running helter and skelter without knowing the actual purpose. Presence of a kid???? No way....here everyone will behave like a kid!!

Situation 5: Director : Any renowned person from the South.
The film would be an one-man show of Rajnikanth, others will come just to fill in.

Situation 6: Director : Steven Spielberg
The film would be nominated for Oscar, and will finally win it.

P.S. : I got some of the above ideas from the rediff website, and expanded it.

M for Mystery

My first introduction to mystery stories was through my grandfather, who used to read a lot of story books borrowing from the local library. The book was titled Doshhu Mohan, written by Sasadhar Datta. Mohan was the Bengali version of Robinhood, and was quite famous in those days. There were 10-12 volumes in all(the exact number I cannot recollect) , each consisting of five or six novels. My grandfather read them all, and coping up with his fast pace, I also managed to read almost all of them, if not all.

The novels of Mohan were more action and thriller rather than mystery, and were not quite fit for boys of my age (I was 7-8 then), although that aspect was not able to restrain me from reading those. After the Mohan series got finished, I started reading Hemendrakumar Roy, the stories of Jayanta-Manik, which were very adventurous and full of action. The TV serial Aabar Jokher Dhan was the main source which drew me towards them.

When I was in class V or VI, I got introduced to Kiriti Roy, and after a short while, to the one and only Prodosh C Mitter. It was then that I got to know the actual taste of mystery stories, where the brain was more powerful than the muscle. I must say that I liked Feluda much better than Kiriti, the level of satisfaction on reading Feluda was much higher than that of Kiriti. The presence of Topshe and Jatayu and the characterisation of Feluda made them much more lively and attractive.

While I was swallowing Feluda and Kiriti, I had read some bengali translations of Sherlock Holmes, but did not like it. In class VIII, I got hold of the unabridged full volume of Sherlock Holmes in english from my uncle (I borrowed the book, and have not returned yet!) . That was my introduction to mystery in English literature, and the person of 221B, Baker Street completely mesmerised me. The intricate details and the way of solving the crimes from the simplest of clues astomished me to the hilt.

I got introduced to Byomkesh Bakshi much later, just after my class 10 Board exams. It is really unfortunate that I did not read Byomkesh before. But when I finally read, it was a nice experience. I got the same razor-sharp intellect and intricate logical reasoning as that in Holmes, and Byomkesh occupied my top list among the Bengali detectives, dethroning Feluda.

I had heard the name of Agatha Christie from my mother but did not quite get a chance to grab her books. The college library gave me that opportunity. During the 3 years in my college, I finished almost the entire Agatha Christie collection. No other stories had that capability of holding the mystery till the end, where you get to know the real culprit in the last page. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot both have their own unique characteristics, and according to me, Agatha Christie is the most prolific mystery writer in English.

Recently, I read a novel by P D James, featuring her protagonist Adam Dalgliesh, a commander in Scotland Yard. I liked the novel very much, and am planning to finish the works of P D James one by one.

Through this post, I would like to pay homage to all the detectives mentioned above and also to their creators, who have been overshadowed by their own creations.

Beginning of a new era?

The young brigade, under the courageous leadership of a Brigadier and a superb performance from a veteran soldier, have created havoc within a superpower. I am talking about the young Indian cricket team which defeated Australia in the first final of the CB series about 6 hours ago, leading by 1-0.

Lots of hues and cries had been raised regarding the team selection of India, especially in the one-day squad. Inclusion of young blood and exclusion of experience had made captain Dhoni a prime target of the media. I honestly admit that initially, I was also skeptical about the one-day team selection, where Dhoni was trying to win a tournament leaving out the experiences of Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman in Australia in spite of the fact that the trio performed nicely in the test series. But Dhoni stuck with his plan, including only Sachin in the final eleven, and had faith on the youngstars like Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma. We must not forget that this tour is Dhoni's first Australia tour.

The vital point in Dhoni's captaincy is that he never hesitates to take risks, knows what he is doing and firmly believes in that. Sometimes it seems that he is arrogant, may be truely he is, but otherwise, he is a very nice captain. Changing the game plan as and when needed is a good quality of a captain, and needless to say, Dhoni has that quality.

Regarding the youngstars, Rohit Sharma is the latest sensation. He delivered in the most crucial stages, and today also, his knock of 66 and the 123-run partnership between him and Tendulkar paved the path of victory for us. Ishant Sharma has bowled superbly throughout the series and today was not an exception. Praveen Kumar has played only 4 matches, but has shown lots of promises. If nurtured properly, he will be the bowling spearhead in future. Piyush Chawla, whom people claim to be the successor of Anil Kumble, got his chance in the final match, and did not disappoint at all. His spell of 10 overs had cost only 31 runs! Robin Uthappa, however, was a bit low in the series compared to his earlier performances.

Harbhajan Singh has been the cynosure of controversy for the last couple of months. But the good thing is, all of these could not distract his focus from the game. Throughout the series, he has played his part effectively. The same is true for Irfan Pathan as well. It is good that he is been allowed to concentrate solely on his bowling rather than imposing the "all rounder" label on him. Yuvraj Singh however, has been a disappointment. But hopefully he will perform pretty soon. Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, has been the best batsman of the team so far in this series with two hundreds and a couple of fifties.

It is said that one should never disturb a tiger. After losing the fourth league match against Australia, Dhoni stated the press that the openers should take more responsibillity from now on. This must have hurt the ego of Sachin, which he treated with a 54-ball 63 against Sri Lanka, and by the unbeaten 117 today. A sublime knock which had a perfect blend of aggression, authority and responsibility, this was a treat to watch for the cricket lovers.

Lastly, we still have to win one match to emerge as a champion. I believe we have the power and talent to do it. So, Chak de India !!

The Inevitables

There are certain small things in everyday life which often go wrong and irritates us. The effect is not fatal at all, but intensely irritating. From a first hand experience, let me list at least some of them .

• While coming back from grocery, with six polypacks equally distributed in both hands, I climb up the stairs and stop in front of my apartment door, gasping for breath. Then, shifting all the six packs in my right hand, when I put the left hand in the left pocket of my trousers, it happens in 95% of the cases that the keys lie in my right pocket!!
  

• There is a small pocket on the side of the driver's seat in my car, made for storing the cellphone. Before driving, normally I keep my cell phone there so that I can attend any call while driving. But I don't get any calls then. Sometimes, if the cell phone remains in my jeans pocket instead by mistake, inevitably I will get a call. Twisting and turning, as I collect the phone from the pocket, the caller disconnects from the other side !

• Whenever I try to collect my homework from a bunch of copies (back home and here as well), in most of the cases, mine will be at the very bottom if I start searching from the top, and will be in the middle somewhere if I start from the bottom !!
  

• While making tea or boiling milk, as long as I keep staring at the burner so that the milk does not spill , nothing happens. Getting tired, whenever I turn my attention to something else for 15 seconds, the milk overflows and spills all over the burner, causing the fire to extinguish in some cases!!
  

• Many times it has happened (and will happen in future as well) that while waiting for a bus to take me Saltlake, I get buses heading towards every other possible routes except Saltlake. A crowded bus will appear at last, testing my patience at the highest level of tolerance!!

Somebody rightly commented that trivial things bother us more than vital ones!

Distractions !!!!!!!!!

I was going through an online comic strip magazine, where I stumbled upon a series of strips titled Newton's Laws of Graduation. The third law was the best one, which goes like this:

For every action towards graduation, there is an equal and opposite distraction.

Well, who knows this fact better than me? From the point of entering the department to the point of exit, there are so many distractions that even if I am able to dodge a couple of them, another dozen come and disturb me! I am leaving out my apartment from the discussion, as when I am home, hardly any action towards graduation takes place.

There is a notice board in the department building just opposite the elevator. Pressing the 'up' button of the elevator, I walk towards the board to read the announcements. If I find something interesting, then no matter how many times the elevator beckons me, I go through it thoroughly, think about it for a while and then finally come back in front of the elevator.

As I enter my office, I settle myself in the chair, switch the computer on and keep a couple of journal papers from my bag on the table. Then, I feel a thirst for coffee, and getting myself a cup from the workroom (a few yards from my office) , sit back again . As I am about to read the first word of the paper, suddenly my brain reminds me that I've to check the department email. Deleting 11 spams of the dozen mails, again I try to concentrate on the journal. If I am able to go through the abstract, I turn my attention towards the computer screen to check the mails from yahoo and gmail!

Switching among the tasks of reading, checking and replying emails and sipping coffee, the coffee ends first. Then comes the urge of smoking a cigarette. So going down, I smoke hastily and rush back within 10 minutes. As I make progress through the paper (i.e., read the first paragraph of the introduction and grasp it), I try to scribble something on a sheet of paper, and luckily, if I am able to understand the very first equation, I feel that I should take a break by playing a couple of games of Tetris.

This game is my biggest distraction! If I get a good score in the first couple of attempts, I stop there and come back to the reading. But if I'm in a bad form, and get unsatisfactory scores, then I keep on trying to improve the score, and as a result, couple games turn into a few dozens, the eyes turn red and at the point where I can no longer stare at the screen, I take a break and go to wash my eyes. When I come back, my mood is bitter due to the failure, and there comes the need of another cigarette, another distraction!!

Suppose everything is fine and I am able to put off all the distractions aside. Then, inevitably, some friend of mine will call for nothing (because he is being distracted also!! ), and we start chatting. This happens in most of the weekends from both ends. Other than this, the office phone can ring, somebody can knock the door or I may feel to know about the result of the overnight cricket match, the review of the latest bollywood flick, the upcoming films of Aamir Khan - in short, both my mind and the surroundings conspire to distract me from my actual job.

All these will take place under the assumption that I am able to understand the journal article. But if that is not the case, then one can imagine what may happen! I will glance at the page for a while, then open the Tetris thinking that it may give me some idea, or go down to have a smoke in order to stimulate the brain cells and all sorts of things which I think will help me to understand the article. As a last refuge, I go to the library to fetch a book , but finally end up at the wrong rack (novels , drama, short stories, DVDs ! ), and so when I come back, I may not have the academic book I was looking for, but I will have at least two novels and two DVDs at my disposal!

So the key question is, what can I alone do against all these distractions surrounding myself? I think I have to find this first before carrying on with my academic research!

Cultural Hooliganism

Woo la la Woo la la Woo la la he
Woo la la Woo la la he

The above couplet is not from any new Hindi song, this is how the song Pagla Hawa starts in the film Bong Connection !! Even more, after this sensual humming, the song starts from the Antara Chena shonar kon bairey...... !!!!!!!!!!! In the interludes, exclamations like Oh Yeah, Yo Yo also feature in the song.

Sorry for being conservative, but I was really stunned when I heard this song for the first time a couple of hours ago. The music director Neil (son of Anjan Dutt) calls it a metamorphosis of the Rabindra Sangeet, which makes the song, according to him, more melodious, rhythmatic and at-par with the modern generation! What an utter rubbish statement!!

I think that the original Pagla Hawa, composed by Rabindranath himself, has enough melody, rhythm and appeal to the modern generation who are fond of Rabindra Sangeet. So is it really necessary to experiment with and finally murder such nice creations? Some things should be allowed to remain in the way they are. After all, masterpieces can never be re-created, and in most of the cases, they turn out to be a mockery of the original.

Who knows, some day the lyrics of Rabindra Sangeet will be changed to make it more modern in terms of language!!!

Finally, following is the link of the "awesome re-creation" of Neil :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDbQKG2HMig&feature=related

Disgustingly Essential

Living alone is really challenging. You have to take care of everything starting from Apples to Zip-loc bags. For me it is more problematic since I do not have any roommates . It is not about feeling lonely, bored or things like that (in fact, I don't get time for these), but there are certain household jobs, which I dislike to do but have no other options as they are very essential as well. Here goes my list of those jobs which occupy the lowest ranks in my preferrence order:

• Laundry : This is the most disgusting and boring task I have ever done in my life. Once in every two-three weeks, I have to carry a heavy bucket full of clothes to the nearby Laundromat and stare blankly at the rotating washing machine or the revolving dryer. Two hours seem like eternity to me. Folding the clothes after drying is another Himalayan task.

• Dish washing : It always feels good to throw the dish into the basin-sink after lunch or dinner, leave the rice cooker, pressure cooker and other cookwares uncleaned within the sink. Do this for three times (which I normally do), and the fourth time you'll be in trouble. It seems to me like I had a party the night before, and cleaning those utensils take about a quater of an hour. To trouble me more, the water refuses to go away, and my sink turns into a pool, where the spoons and plates float as if to mock me. Cleaning up the entire mess takes another 15 minutes.
  

• Cooking : In many occasions, I come home around 9-9:30 in the night, tired and hungry, and when I open the fridge , it has nothing cooked in it other than the overnight rice. With soaring temper and hunger, I start looking for a meal which can be prepared with minimum effort so that I can get away with the hunger. On the other hand, when there is food already cooked(i.e, on the next day), it feels like I am the happiest person on Earth for that moment. Cooking twice a week is more than enough for me.

Each of the above mentioned tasks are very much essential for living. So, no matter how much I try to avoid them, there is no way!

Jeene ke liye kya kuchh nahin karna parta hai !

Fan-atics

For the last one-and-a-half years, Orkut has been my prime source of timepass, through which I got in touch with a number of my school mates, with whom I had lost contact after leaving school. It has fetched me some new friends as well, and browsing through the numerous communities present there, I have learnt a lot of new things, and many unknown information about various incidents, institutions and celebrities of our society.

Well, the purpose of this post is not to highlight the positive aspects of those communities, although there are some good positive aspects. On the contrary, I would like to make a few comments on certain communities and their members. In most of the cases where the community is about a person (eg, Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sachin Tendulkar... in short, about those stalwarts who have exceled themselves in their respective fields), I have noticed a strange aspect about their members.

It is quite obvious that if I am a member of a community which is about a person, it means that I respect that person, admire him and would propagate his positive aspects if there is a debate on a certain issue. As a fan, I have the right to do this. But problem comes when I, in order to champion the superiority of my favored person, defame another person of the same field with the same calibre. Being a fan of one person does not mean you have to disrespect every other person of the same field.

A couple of examples will make the point clearer. Rahul Dravid is a very good batsman, probably one of the few greats who have appeared in the cricket arena in the last decade. Admiring Rahul is fine. But in order to do so, defaming Sourav Ganguly is not quite right. The vice-versa case is also quite common. The thing is, if you are a real lover of the game of cricket, you will respect both of them with slight difference in the degree of likeness, but you will never disrespect one in order to project another.

Recently, I am stopping by the communities of Kishore Kumar and Md Rafi quite frequently, and have learnt a lot regarding Hindi film music. But the sad part is, here also, the story is the same. I am a fan of Kishore Kumar, but when someone says that Rafi "could not at all sing", then question arises about his sanity. It is a known fact that R D Burman has worked more with Kishore than Rafi, although the handful compositions of RD-Rafi have created history and are uncomparable. But keeping this in picture, if somebody says that RD did not like Rafi, He was just a mediocre music director or Rafi did not possess enough talent to match with RD, then according to me, that person does not have any right to speak about music. He is not a fan, just a fanatic.

Before finishing, I am unable to control myself to quote a post of a KK fanatic in one of the communities:

Rafi sang a number of patriotic and devotional songs, so what? I mean, what is the difference between the two genres? Just replace Watan by Bhagwan, then patriotic becomes devotional!! Whats the big deal??

I dont think any comment is required to defend this.

Wow, Wiki.....

A few days ago, in one of our usual daily telephone conference, the topics of discussion twisted and turned and finally, we started talking about Indian History, more precisely, about the Mughal dynasty!! It is not unusual, because when we talk, the wide range of topics sometimes fall short before our enthusiasm. So that day, we decided to refresh our long-forgotten History knowledge.

One of my friends told the list of Mughal emperors starting from Babur and ending at Aurangzeb. Then, I asked, "Okay, tell me the name of Babur's father"!! Well, this was an unusual question for them, and honestly, for me too. In general, we never felt the urge to look upon Babur's forefathers, as if, the Mughal dynasty started with Babur himself!! So, quite naturally, my friends were stumped!! Then, after a few seconds, I jubiliantly told them, "Guys, you don't even know this?? Babur was the eldest son of Omar Seyh Mirza. This is class VIII stuff, everybody should know this!!" Relishing their silence, I told them about the battles of Panipat, when they were fought, their consequences - in short, a brief background of Babur's life, and also a brief history of the Mughal period.

Then, one of my friends exclaimed, " Byata fer Wiki khulechhe!!!"

Yes, I honestly admit that Wikipedia is the secret of my information. Films or actors, history or geography, mathematics or physics- Wiki knows everything about everything. I have to type the appropriate keyword in Google, and the rest is evident. If you are patient enough, you will be able to learn a variety of things in a very short time. Whenever I have some doubt about some facts, I can double check with Wiki. I rely so much on Wiki that instead of opening books for definitions, I first read them from Wikipedia. I would like to use the old adjective Unputdownable to describe this site in one word.

So via this post, I decided to thank my dear Wikipedia, saying

Wikipedia, tomarey selaam !!

Sunday

No, this post is not about the latest movie Sunday, but I must admit that after watching the movie, I felt an urge of writing something about the most auspicious day of the week, at least for me, and may be for others as well.

Sunday has some salient features, which makes it so special than the rest of the week. The following are the unique aspects of this day which I admire the most:

• Sunday is the official "no-study day" unless an exam is scheduled on Monday.
• Start the day with a delicious breakfast comprising of Luchi, Aloor dam and Jalebi. Thats Sunday.
• Spending the entire morning at the playground till noon, playing football or cricket(depends on the season) .
  
• Returning home around noon fully tired and exhausted, your nose gets the heavenly smell of cooked mutton, as the pressure cooker whistles for the third time. All tiredness goes away in a flash. Thats the flavor of Sunday.
• Having a tight lunch and getting some sleep afterwards.
  
• Sipping the evening tea and getting out for a walk or visit friend's or relatives and spend the evening gossiping. Otherwise, keep relaxing at home with parents accompanied by some music or movies or just adda.
• After dinner , heart gets gloomy again as Monday is about to arrive in a few hours.
  

That was my usual Sunday routine back home, for about 24 years. Here, of course I miss some of the features (specially second, third and fourth), but still, Sunday brings the freshness I seek and rejuvenates me which makes the next six days bearable.

(In)justice of Nature

Tomorrow its going to be Wintry Mix!! By virtue of remakes and remixes, we are aware of various types of mixes like Club Mix, Party Mix, Dance Mix and so on. But this Wintry mix has nothing to do with songs, its a whim of Nature, where the raindrops, before reaching the surface, turns into ice. So it becomes very difficult to walk on the roads,and driving also gets risky.

My officemate, a very good friend of mine, gave me this information today afternoon as I was idling in the office. Then he asked, "What is your schedule for tomorrow?" "Nothing", I replied, "I have an off day tomorrow"!! "Ohhh man, I have to teach tomorrow at 11, when the chance of precipitaion is 80%. Lucky you!!!" Since it is winter, snow and precipitation are quite common,and we have to adapt even if we don't like it.

So when I told him this, he exclaimed,"Why me??????? Why everytime me??????" Then I understood his frustration. Last week also, it snowed on Tuesday and Thursday, and both are my off days and his teaching days!! So I offered him a chuckle, patted him and was about to leave the office, when he told, "See you tomorrow".

I replied, "I don't think so, I'll work from home". Hearing this, the reaction in his face was worth-seeing, a mixture of frustration, disappointment and bewilderment. As I stepped out, I heard him saying, "Its just wintry mix man!!! Nothing much serious." I was about to burst into laughter, so I quickly closed the door behind me and continued laughing till I came down. Later, I realised that till now, it hasn't snowed on my working days, but who knows??? So I stopped laughing and came back home. But even after a couple of hours, I am unable to forget my friend's facial expression, neither can I control my laughter whenever i am thinking of it !!

Bollywood in 2007

In recent years, Bollywood has produced some excellent movies which has given the viewers ample scope to ponder over the subject addressed in the movie.Drifting away from the usual Masala-type films, the directors are showing the courage to experiment in different ways, and the emergence of a bunch of good actors is helping them to achieve their goals.

I am not at all a film expert, but I like to watch movies. So in this post, I have decided to list some of my favorite movies released in 2007.

• Tare Zameen Par, released towards the very end of last year(Dec 21) will top the list. Being Aamir Khan's directorial debut, this film is unique in many aspects. The topic is new here, the treatment and presentation is excellent and above all,the performance of young Darsheel Safari as a dyslexic child Ishaan Awasthi is superb. Tisca Chopra, in the role of the child's mother and Sachet Engineer in the role of Ishaan's brother are worth-watching. Regarding Aamir, there is nothing much to say. Being the most versatile actor of the present generation, he excels himself both in acting (yet again) and direction. Some of the scenes of the movie bring tears to the eyes. The song Maa, penned by Prasoon Joshi and sung by Shankar Mahadevan, is one of the finest songs of the year.

• Shahrukh Khan's Chak De India takes the second position in my list. Directed by Shimit Ameen, this film brings out the best of SRK as an actor. He gives his best performance after Swades as the coach of the national women's hockey team of India. “Mujhe na to states ke naam sunai de te hai, na dikhai de te hai, mujhe srif apne mulk ka naam dikhai de te hai “ is one of the various dialogs which takes the film to a separate level. Each of the 15 girls of the team performed brilliantly, and it was difficult to believe that this was the first film for all of them.

• Mani Ratnam has been one of the very few acclaimed directors of the country at present, and his film Guru takes the third spot in my list. A brilliant performance by Abhishek Bachchan, and able support from Aiswarya Rai, Mithun Chakraborty and Vidya Balan makes the film a very special one. Loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, Abhishek portrays his character superbly starting from the youth till the old age. He succeeded in bringing out the various shades of his character effortlessly and undoubtedly, this is his best performance of the year.

• I am an ardent fan of Amitabh since childhood, and the way he came back in the 2000's can be compared only with any fairy tale. The film Cheeni Kum, featuring Mr Bachchan and Tabu gave me an immense pleasure to watch. An unconventional love story between two people aged 64 and 32 respectively, this film depicts one of the finest performances of Mr Bachchan and Tabu. Zohra Sehgal as Bachhan's mother and the cute little Swini Khere simply excels themselves. Paresh Rawal is superb as usual in his small role.

• The film Dus Kahaniyan, directed by six directors, and consisting of ten short films, is already unique in its structure. Some of the stories were simply superb, and the top three stories according to me were Puranmashi, Zahir and Strangers in the night, directed respectively by Meghna Gulzar and Sanjay Gupta (the last two). They brought out the best performances from actors like Manoj Bajpai, Neha Dhupia, Minnisha Lamba, Amrita Singh, Dia Mirza and Mahesh Manjrekar. This type of anthology films is certainly a bit of fresh air in recent Bollywood industry.

Without going into the details, other films which I liked were Life in a Metro, Bhool Bhulaiya, Jab We Met, Blue Umbrella and Shootout at Lokhandwala, where each of them is different from the other.

I hope to see the same trend in 2008 also, the making of films which will not only entertain the viewers, but will also leave an impact on them.

Morning does not always show the day

Days of happiness pass away very quickly. My vacation of one month at home went away so quickly that I could not figure out what I did in the last 32 days as I was sitting on the bed surrounded by half-packed suitcases on the evening of my departure (The departing flight was scheduled at 2:50 AM). It occurred to me that a little while ago, sitting on the same bed, I was having a delicious breakfast consisting on hot kachuris and jalebis (that was on the first morning , a month ago !!) , and now, here I am, ready to stay away from home for at least one year living a dull and solitary life.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have a typical relationship with aeroplanes, irrespective of the airlines. According to my opinion, there are very few people on earth other than me who are (un)fortunate enough to pass through the series of mishappenings as I did in a very consistent manner. This time, probably, fate decided to reward me in a very unexpected way.

In long-duration flights, I always prefer the aisle seat. As it happens, whenever I got a window seat, the person sitting next to me turned out to be a very good sleeper. Normally, I cannot sleep while on board, and so, when everybody else within the plane snores, I continuously shift positions and postures to make myself more confortable so that I can get at least some sleep in order to kill the time. Staying awake for a longer period has its own setbacks, I feel like going to the bathroom once in a while, and for that, I am forced to wake up the sleeping person which I dont like to. So, nowadays, I select my own seat while booking the ticket.

This time, when I finally boarded the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, I was surprised to see a person occupying my seat . He , very politely, stated that he wants to change his seat with myself so that he can sit with his family. Since it was an aisle seat, I told him that I can do so if his seat is also of the same type. At this moment, came the unexpected statement. The person announced that he has a business seat!!!

I was completely taken aback. I have never heard of an exchange like this before. So, not quite sure about what I heard, I double-checked with him, and also verified with the air-hostess, and when she confirmed that the exchange depends only on the respective persons and has nothing to do with the class, I retreated back, and occupied my seat in the business class.

It was a very fine experience........the seat was extremely luxurious, and it can be adjusted at will - upright, half-inclined, full-inclined, fully flat - and it took me quite some time to understand the features of the chair completely. As the plane took off, an air-hostess gave all of us a Menu card to choose our meal, which had a starter and dessert as well!!! Time and again, they were offering beverages.

For my part, I was able to sleep for the first time on board. It was a solid slumber of nearly 5 hours, which thoroughly refreshed me. It also helped me in another way. As I had less than two hours of time for my next flight, I was able to get out of the plane sooner and reach the immigration desk much earlier than I expected.

The immigration, customs clearence, luggage collection............everything went so smoothly that I was really surprised. Then came the second wonder! As I was about to tranfer my luggage, I learnt that the Wichita flight has been cancelled and the next flight is after 4 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do the erudite label this type of event as poetic justice?????????? I am not sure!