Yearly Archives: 2005

It’s yesterday once more

This entry was posted in nostalgia on by (updated 1977 days ago)

Amul chocolates – a gift for someone you love, Thums up – happy days are here again, Goldspot – the zing thing, sipso – soya milk, Uncle Chips, Gems, Maggi, Krishi Darshan, Sugam Sangeet, Afternoon transmission, UGC, Chauraha, Hum Log, Tamas, Trishna, Ek do teen chaar, chitrahaar, rangoli, Discovery of India, Mile Sur mera Tumhara, Molu, Swimmy, Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya, He-man (I have the power of the universe), Spiderman, Mickey mouse, Donald duck, Uncle Scrooge, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and dale, Tom & Jerry, Superman, Ye jo hai zindagi, Idhar Udhar, Star Trek, Persis Khambata, Rishi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachhan, Parveen babi, Neetu Singh, Jayaprada, Sridevi, QSQT, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Boy George, Sam Fox, Wham, Boney M, Beatles, Carpenters, “Those were the days”, “Summer wine”, “Que sera sera”, piano, sitar, needlework, clay modelling, Delhi, Jhansi, Chandigarh, Siliguri, Kho-Kho, Dog and the bone, Dodge ball, Treasure hunt, akkad bakkad bambe bo, chuppan chupaaee, pakdan pakdayee, lock and key, chidiya ud, inky pinky ponkey, “Tumhee ho maata, pita tumhee ho”, “Hum honge Kaamyab”, “Vande Mataram”, “Chishti ne jis zameen par”, “Kadam Kadam Badaye Jaa”, “Jana gana mana”, Shivaji house, Nehru house, Nalanda house, Vikramshila house, Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Nandan, Target, Misha, Reader’s Digest, Archie, Richie Rich, Tintin, Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, measles, chicken pox, jaundice, “Bakra Kishton pe”, “Buddha ghar pe hai“, VHS, VCR, Digjam, Vicco Vajradanti, Tata ka OK, Godrej hair dye, Bombay Dyeing, Onida, Texla, Binatone, Binaca geet mala, Forces request

That was a snapshot of my childhood. How was yours?


Page 3

This entry was posted in movie/play/event/book review on by

Spoiler warning – plot revealed

It was just by chance that I went to watch this movie. I was really not interested in watching P3 even though it had been given a good rating by the papers (journos really identified with it or what?)

Anyhow, my reservations had to take a backseat when we decided to draw a lot and select the movie for a team outing from office. The best I could do was to draw the lot myself, which I did. Few hours later, I was watching Page 3 at PVR Gurgaon.

The movie has no crisp storyline as such. The first half is just about a snapshot of the life of a P3 journo. Young and ambitious as they come, Madhavi (enacted by Konkona Sen Sharma), goes to all P3 dos, fashion shows, gliteratti parties, you name it. People are nice to her. Of course, they want good press. The movie shows life the way it is. Madhavi has 2 roommates – Pearl (enacted by Sandhya Mridul) who is no non-sense, practical and knows the way Mumbai works, and Gayatri (enacted by Tara Sharma) – a lost lass from Delhi, in Bombay to try her hand at movies. The plot reveals the superficial lives that social butterflies lead, flitting from one party to another, bitching about each other, screwing anyone and everyone who they could manage to “lay” their hands on (age no bar, gender no bar), air kissing, name dropping… the works. One can make out a lot of characters shaped out of known P3 regulars, be it the police office who’s more at parties and at filmsets than at his own thana or area of jurisdiction, the lady who writes novels on what else – sex, the gay fashion designer, the director with the casting couch, the hero sleeping with young, nubile, wanna be’s. But there are a few other people in this otherwise “artificial” mix, who are genuine, like the honest Inspector Bhonsle (Upyendra Limaye) who tries putting an end to crime in his own way, the journo Vinayak (Atul Kulkarni) who works in the same paper as Madhavi, but on real stories rather than superficial party dos, the odd socialite who does social work whether or not there are journos to write on her. The movie gradually proceeds with Madhavi’s love life blooming with the struggling model Tarun, pragmatic Pearl hitching a millionaire, so that she is served to rather than *she* serving ppl (as an air hostess) and Gayatri finding love in a successful hero who impregnates her as nonchalantly as he would swat a fly. Madhavi is gradually disgusted with all that has been happening.

Post interval, she decides to do meaningful journalism like crime reporting, instead of smiling plastic smiles whilst watching the plastic lives of social butterflies. She gets trained under Vinayak. Just when she thinks that things are becoming more meaningful, she discovers that her model boyfriend has been screwing a gay ‘makeup man’ friend of hers. She takes this in her stride along with all the other things which disgust her. One fine day she witnesses a blast. The misery, helplessness, blood, gore, bhaichara, all affect her deeply. She realises that life is not a party and blurts the same to the police officer who she encounters as a cover up journo in a P3 party. One night when Vinayak is out covering other cities, she gets a tip from an informer. She ropes in the inspector and goes on to expose a child abuse scandal involving a major tycoon, who happens to sponsor her paper. Needless to say, the news never makes it to the paper, the proof gets destroyed and she gets sacked. Life moves on, and she learns that one must “try to change the system while being a part of it”.

The acting is generally good. But the actor I like most is Sandhya Mridul. I found her better than Konkona Sen. Atul kulkarni is also good. Boman Irani (as Madhavi’s editor) is wasted. Soni Raazdaan looks awfully old. There are lot of P3 types who play themselves like Suchitra Pillay, Dolly Thakore etc. Upyendra Limaye is also good and there were times when the audience started clapping/cheering. I also liked the driver bunch who keep talking about their saab/memsaabs.

The soundtrack is good. I registered only 3 songs out of which one was pure torture to the ears, referred to as “truck driver” song in the movie. A deep, thought provoking “Kitne ajeeb rishtey yahan par” – has been sung by Lata Mangeshkar and an utterly melodious “Maar daala, Huzoor-e-aala” – has been sung by Asha Bhonsle.
The movie can make you cry and make you laugh. Basically shows what life can be all about. Overall rating – eminently watchable.

Death of a house

This entry was posted in creative writing delhi on by

Another one bites the dust. Literally. I witnessed the death of yet another house. This was the third one in a week. It’s a depressing sight. Seeing the carcass of what was once someone’s home. In some time, the skeleton also becomes visible. One can see each and every intimate detail of the house, without ever having visited the place. The bedrooms, where the residents would have slept or shared a private moment. The almirahs which would have cased clothes, jewellery, nick nacks and what not. Only this time, they have a deserted, ‘final’ look about them. Some posters on the walls are still there. The walls have dust patterns depicting rectangles which shows where the family would have hung paintings or maybe portraits of an ancestor. The kitchen looks naked, devoid of its usual utensils, jars, gas burner and the like. The lady of the family would have cooked here. The bathrooms lie bare. It becomes almost embarassing to watch as the ‘private parts’ or rather the sancta sanctorum of the house get exposed to the world. The terrace and the staircase where the children would have gamboled about is almost about to collapse. The occasional tree and the plants if any, are almost gone and forgotten. They bear the look of orphans left behind by their parents. In a few days all this is reduced to dust.

But this isn’t all. Unlike human lives, houses live forever. They rise like a phoenix from the ashes. No soon has the house ‘bitten the dust’ than another one resurrects. This time with a better look about it. A modern architecture. More capacity. Stylish facades, porches and arches. Portruding terraces and balconies. Modern mousetraps, all. Soon it will be inhabited like nothing happened.


Love All

This entry was posted in sports on by (updated 1976 days ago)

I didn’t realise it. Not even when I saw it as a headline in the papers instead of the normal news slot assigned to this piece of news. It was only when I saw the desktops of my colleagues, did I realise it. Instead of wallpapers with sultry forms, I saw a face full of innocence. Sania Mirza had found a place in many a heart! Not only were the fed-on-cricket-generation interested in the outcome of the match, they had even replaced the likes of Anna Kournikova and J Lo from their desktops! Even Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi matches didn’t evoke this much interest in tennis. So what if she lost the match, she’s won a lot of hearts :). Atta girl!


The Tsunami within

This entry was posted in humanity on by (updated 6252 days ago)

With a disaster of the scale of tsunami, new aspects of tragedy are being exposed. While some people are going out of their way to help victims, some have stooped to the inhumane level of selling the dead bodies to relatives, in return for dollars!! One would think that at a time like this, tragedy unites people. But I dont have words for this kind of a thing.

New problems are cropping up each day. Things like child trafficking are expected to reach an all time high. Due to this the government has stopped adoption of tsunami orphans. There are also reports of dogs turning into maneaters and attacking people. It really is the survival of the fittest.

Besides this, I dont understand just how someone can name new born babies after a disaster! Till date I used to think that the worst name possible in this world would be ‘Osama Bin Laden”. This name has been replaced by ‘Tsunami’. Just how in the world can parents or ‘lucky-to-be-alive-relatives’ think of naming a child as something which continuously reminds them of their sorrow! AFA the child is concerned, the baby has already been doomed since birth with a name like that.

But what can one say about the “brand name” that Tsunami is now becoming. Right from Tsunami matches to Tsunami sales, Tsunami concerts and what not. Everything seems to have the Tsunami tag with it. With the kind of corruption witnessed in the relief process, I surely hope that the organisers of such things are honest and the participants in such events who think they are doing a good turn to the mankind are not let down.

There’s a big setback to the nations hit by the Tsunami and it would take a long time rehabilitating. On the other hand, the Tsunami disaster has had some benefits, ironically. There were some reports of how the states struck by the Tsunami are now richer by crores because of the huge titanium deposits which have landed from the ocean floor onto the beaches. Titanium is one of the rarest and costliest element used in hi-tech things like aircrafts, rockets, cellphones etc.
Another trend, kind of similar to ‘the survival of the fittest’, was seen recently. It can be expected that the huge monetary funds in Tsunami relief would not reach the right recipients. Corruption is one taker. The other one is the common man. There would be many ppl who have not been affected by the Tsunami at all, and would have lost nothing. But they would be there to take help from the relief rich states. In fact they might be getting more than they ever had. A shelter, food, clothes, some belongings! Reports in papers mention that beggars from Karnataka have gone over to TamilNadu to the Tsunami struck areas, to cash in on the benefit. Nature has its way of taking food from one mouth and putting it in another.