Poochte hain wo ki Ghalib kaun hai… koi batlaye ki hum batlayein kya
December 1, 2008 3 Comments
http://www.hotklix.com/?ref=content/152704
I had to post this!! this is some stuff… I mean.. I have finally realized that people across the globe have the knack of picking the biggest lampoons for media and parliamentarian roles
December 1, 2008 Leave a comment
Definitely worth a read – first hand accounts –
Sonia Faleiro – a scary future
Serendipity – a daughter’s tale
Amit Varma – his night out – and don’t forget that he was out with Sonia.. and its a totally different perspective..
I will update these as I go along.
This morning, I was talking to someone at office who had a very narrow brush as well. She was standing halfway between Nariman House and Leopold when people started running. She ran into a lane for her life, and a nice couple helped her spend the night with them. These are moments when my faith in the basic goodness of humanity is restored.
December 1, 2008 2 Comments
Having been fed news for what feels like an eternity, I am, I must say, numb. Several people have checked on me. Several people I have checked on. Several people feel the anguish and want to do something. Nobody knows what to do. There are lots of opinions and great analysis in the air. Still higher is the amount of cynicism around whether the government and our security apparatus will wake up to this. I have my own share of views and opinions about what will work and what will not. But while thinking about all this, I realized one thing. I DON’T HAVE A SOLUTION. I can opine. Like Amit Varma, GreatBong, Arzan, NehaVish, gauravonomics, Prem, and so many others who are showing emotions ranging from wisdom, anger, anguish, fear, dejection, sadness, fear, disillusionment, cynicism, hopelessness, pathos, terror, rage, hatred, … and I run out of adjectives that describe the dark side of humanity. They are all talking about this. Zigzackly was seen trying to help. Gaurav has been talking about the impact of social media in real time journalism. Talking about flaws, faults, faulty parties, how it hurts, how something needs to be done. Some people were ripping apart Farooque Shaikh, Rahul Bose, et al for their retarded opinions. And in the process giving their own opinion. Why do we think our rage is more rational than someone else’s? Why is it that we have the liberty to blabber, when those don’t? Will this opining make a difference? Being a commoner, stuck inside my apartment/office, typing furiously at a keyboard, mobilizing public opinion, voicing my dissent and concern, are any of these going to make even a mole of a difference? 150+ people have died. Will my opining bring even one of them back? Will my thinking of tomorrow with a lot of cynicism help? I doubt so. Will my participating in a rally, or lighting candles on ibnlive help? Will my sitting silent, and not doing any of this help?
I have already joined a few “condemn the attacks”, salute the brave, mumbai’s spirit kinda groups on facebook. I saw the protest rally at Nariman Point yesterday. I am already expressing solidarity to the causes. And I don’t feel confident that if this happens again tomorrow, our system will be ready to handle this. I am looking for someone who can tell me that there is a solution. A solution that does not ask me go infiltrate another nation, kill 10 terrorists and 50 innocents there. A solution that does not remind me how intelligence has failed. Especially not when it comes from people who don’t even understand what intelligence is, and how its carried out. A solution that does not tell me that there are better and sophisticated ways of conducting rescue operations, straight from Hollywood movies. Not unless someone tells me how. And has the balls to take the bullet should something go wrong. All this coffee table solution finding, derived from individual incompetence makes me sick now. In my company, we call it Partner talk. The big guys come in, say something without ever thinking how it will be done, and expect a deliverable as quickly as possible. What I need is a method that trains me, and several others to handle such crisis. Because, if we don’t know how, then we are the ones who die. I am fine if there are no heroes out of such incidents, because they took a bullet on, died saving someone else. I, for sure, don’t want this helplessness. The moment it happens, my bosses send out a mail saying that we should work from home till the situation improves. And I comfortably sit in the drawing room devouring as much news as possible, and opining. And nothing happens after that. The last time it happened in Delhi, my sister-in-law, and my wife had gone to Chandni Chowk. I remember how frantically me, bhaiya, Dad, Mom wanted to figure out where they are, and how we can get them back home. Despite the fact that the focal point of the attacks was away from where they were, we did not have any amount of faith on what may happen next. This time, I was frantically looking for friends, and acquaintances. In my 2nd/3rd degree of separation, the count of dead is 5 now. I was personally luckier in Delhi blasts. And the blasts before that. And I have always comforted myself. And here I am, thinking about what I can do tomorrow, and the day after to make sure that next time this happens, I am prepared for it. Mentally, physically, financially, emotionally.
… (to be continued)
November 27, 2008 1 Comment
I know this impotent rage. I understand it well
I want a gun. I want to drag each of those shit-eating-terrorists out on the road, and pull the trigger on them in broad public daylight. And then go drag the next one out. and then kick their bodies around. And I want to sit with the families of those who lost someone. And tell them that even though its never going to be alright, we need to live on. And cry with them.
And then there is that cringing feeling of impotence. Of sitting in a room inside a 9th floor apartment, reading-watching-calling-texting……….. I feel like screaming right now… For my life, i cannot calm down..
November 27, 2008 Leave a comment
It has been a long night, with lots of checking on whether friends, relatives, colleagues, are safe. And checking the news over and over again for that incremental piece of information. Lots of emotions as the night crawled by. 87 people dead (so far – and how many families die as a result of that?) and several hundreds injured, some fatally so. 11 cops go down in the encounter. Its 9AM now. The traffic is sparse. Mumbai is not yet back on the roads. I am going to be working from home. The chief of ATS is dead (aren’t the india police chiefs always standing behind a few others who take the bullets on their behalf). Guests at Taj and Oberoi (many tourists and high flying corporates) would have experienced fear like never before. I just hope they dont have to face it ever again. The violence has 2 associated words this time – indiscriminate and terrorism. I think I understand the second one. Its been there in our lives for a while now. We suck at eliminating the fear from our lives. We are humanitarians. We can’t kill people. We can watch people getting killed. Indiscriminate – terrorism is always indiscriminate, isnt it? When you plant a bomb, are you sure only hindus or only muslims will get killed? no children will be killed? what does someone mean by discriminating terrorism?
latest – 3 terrorists shot. 5 tourists hostage (brazilians).
When I wake up tomorrow, will I feel safe? I had plans of being in South Bombay later this week. Will I feel safe? When I park my car, will I look around at all the other cars and people with suspicion? When I walk into the lobby of an elite upmarket restaurant, will I look around for guns, AK47s, grenades and magazines? If there are no more terrorist attacks in the next 15 days, will I still keep looking for guns? Or, will I forget everything and move on? Will someone be talking about how Mumbai bounced back within a week? Will people forget the 87 who died? Will we all forget that we haven’t bounced back…. that we have just moved on.. like ungrateful bastards… because we did not have a choice? because we never asked for a choice? because we don’t even know what our choices are?
November 12, 2007 10 Comments
What follows here is a tale of great anguish and reflects totally and completely my experiences in Mumbai. Mumbaikars, with their flats intact since 1920s – please don’t hate me!
Searching for a nice place to live in Mumbai is worse than searching for a needle in a haystack. In the case of latter, at least you know that its there. In Mumbai, there isn’t anything called a nice house to live. People pay obscene amounts to live in ocean facing stinking and rusted flats (really posh), or posh-locality kholis (not so posh), or simply put, in an n and a half bedroom house for a prohibitively huge amount (where n<3). You wonder if its rent people are asking for, or ransom. Agar keemat nahi chukai to is shehar mein tumhara rehna mushkil kar doonga.
It goes back to 2003. I was lucky then. Not lucky as in Lucky-no time for love. But lucky as in fortunate. Few of my close friends who were working with ICICI had their employer cough out the 5 lakh (half a million) required for deposits. That 5L amount brought the rent down to 20k for a 2 bedroom flat. Here, I must tell you about this novel concept of “25 ka package hai” meaning the rent can be 21k if you pay a deposit of 4L, or 25k if you are not ready to pay a deposit. Who did the maths? I have no idea!!
Now then, there were 4 of them cosying up in that 2 BHK flat. And they were definitely not with alternate preferences (despite some occasional comments like – tu mere gullu ki tarah soft nahi hai!). But I insist- I was lucky. I did not have to go witch (house) hunting. And before I realized I was off after my 3-4 month stint! For some time at least!
I came back to the city in 2007 Jan. Things had become worse. A 1 bedroom flat rentals are anywhere upwards of 25k in Bandra. And why Bandra? Because otherwise, I would have spent more than an hour just reaching the office (yeah! Bombay traffic is another long blogpost). Back to witch-hunting, better the building, better the furnishing, better the rates. Mathur took a PG for 10k, I took a kholi for 16k. And I mean a kholi – which probably is the slang for a chawl kinda house. For the uninitiated a chawl is like a slum area where lots and lots of people live in small houses cramped together (I am sure a lot of Mumbaikars would be on me for using such generalized definitions). Every kholi has a single room and has more than 5-6 inhabitants usually. At a certain point in time, the real estate revolution took its toll on the lively chawls (inspiration for many-a-movies), and many of them got converted into what are called SRS (Slum Rehabilitation Scheme) flats. Here, the builders take up the existing chawl and convert it into a dual identity modern apartment. The nicer face and the front side of such apartments is sold to the normal buyers, while the slum dwellers get a 1 room kholi each in the backside of the apartment. These are constructed in a primitive manner with basic amenities, maximum space utilization for the 1 room flats. Some enterprising dwellers decided to get the interiors done nicely and rent out the space to generate additional income which can be quite valuable in this blood-sucking city.
So, as I was saying, I took this 1 room flat in a SRS building which I found quite nice for my appetite. Just a little beyond the limit I had set for myself, fully furnished (no AC though), nicely done interiors (comfortable sleep at night). The negatives were also simple- The walk between the entrance and the flat (the minimal requirement) would be peppered with people looking at you curiously. If you say something to your landlord, most likely the whole building will know about it by the evening. And stuff like that. Now, if you are a small towner like me, it doesn’t bother you that much. But yeah, your “status” does take a hit!
Now, my relearning began earlier last month. With office all set to move from Bandra to Andheri East, there was no point me fooling around with the rent I was paying for travelling 45 minutes either way. Economically and practically, it made more sense to move to Andheri. But guess what, its not all light and shining in the dark city (Andheri=darkness). Mr. Mathur, who was ready to shell out 10k for a studio/1BHK did not get anything decent. I went in with the same budget as earlier. For 15k I have a 1BHK instead of a 1RK now. But the quality of interiors and furnishing, nowhere close. Though there is some more stuff, like an AC thrown in. But the whole process of finding a good accommodation has been a nightmare. Between me and Rajat, I think we do have the contacts of 15-20 brokers who gave up on our limitation of not being borne in a family which can just lock away a few lakhs rupees as security deposit, or that of not working in banks which are ready to park someone else’s money as security deposit.
People talk about the great quality of life in this great absorbing city. I guess when it comes to the three basic necessities – Food, Clothes and Shelter, this city sucks bigtime. My personal experience is that leaving aside Vada Pav, the food bills here run far higher than the other three original metros. Accommodation, nobody’s competing with Mumbai. Mumba Devi is in a league of her own with innovative concepts like 2.5BHK where the .5 would not be considered a B anywhere but Mumbai. But then, the city has a night life to offer. What’s the need to find a decent acco mate! You can stay out all your life and pardy.
Lest I am charged with saying that all is wrong with this city – hell, no! I do love a lot of things about this city – most importantly, its people. It’s probably the only city in this country where the concept of personal space exists. It’s one of the rare cities in India which despite having such a big organized underworld, still has its markets and restaurants open till midnight and beyond. It’s a city which is a great leveler. Every day when you board a Mumbai local, it does not matter who you are and what your upbringing is, you have to struggle for your existence. And if you don’t want luxuries, you have to make adjustments. Go to the office at 8 before anyone else, and leave after 8 (after everyone else), and such things.
But, to make life easy for the wonderful dwellers, the city needs to start thinking. It’s not just good to be a spirited sportsperson, you have to be a thinking sportsperson too if you want to win! Mumbai – you are spirited. But you aren’t thinking.
April 4, 2007 Leave a comment
A Makarand Deshpande play, Karode mein ek is a very sensitive portrayal of a patriarch who has gone insane after losing his wealth due to the betrayal by his own brothers.
The story starts at a point where Bansidhar’s (Makarand) son (Yashpal Sharma) and his daughter-in-law are struggling with the whims and split identities of Bansi, who refuses to believe that he has lost his wealth and stature. He revels in his lost glories, has forgotten his young daughter who cannot stop caring about his father, remembers small anecdotes from his yesteryears, is in love with his younger son’s (an imaginary one) wife(again, imaginary!). Yashpal, on the other hand, is trying to fight for respectable survival, keeps running around courtrooms and people who can help him. The daughter’s husband keeps coming up with ideas that never work. Yashpal’s wife keeps living and enacting multiple identities (mother, daughter, wife, daughter-in-law) to meet Makarand’s whims. Yashpal’s son and daughter are trying to make a name for themselves so that they can earn some money for their family as well. And there is the “Sarkar” angle of a friend for whom Bansi used to write speeches, and who later becomes the parallel government of Mumbai. The story ends at Bansi’s split personality killing his brothers and acting like the police inspector who is in charge of arresting Bansi. Bansi eventually kills himself, and Yashpal, with all his frustrations with his father and of being a failed son, becomes partially insane himself.
It takes a while to realize how much pain everyone is going through. The frustration of loving someone, and the difficulties in dealing with reality are the essence of this play. Makarand, Yashpal and Ayesha take this play to a higher level through their performances. The use of stage is phenomenal with the “other room” where Bansi sits, the partial illumination to give the effect of hope that never dies, and the interplay of shadows to highlight split personalities, being just a few masterstrokes. Background score is good, but could’ve been better. The story does not seem very new, but the dialogues are extremely tight and smooth. The disappointments were some of the support actors like the son-in-law and the (imaginary) daughter-in-law.
If you get a chance, do watch it. Its fairly experimental, with a lot of comic moments and some great performances!
March 18, 2007 Leave a comment
I happened to catch a performance of One Small Day at NCPA. Not quite sure if it follows the mood of watching an idyllic sunset at Marine Drive with special someones, but the play was good in some parts, and average in some.
Backdrops first – Directed by Jayant Kripalani, Produced by Anish Trivedi, and enacted by Dipika Roy and Anish Trivedi himself, the play traces the interaction between two very different, yet similar people, caught in a room together where the lady has come to kill the gentleman (in a self-redeeming effort of avenging her sister’s death).
First, about the cast and the people. Jayant is known for his wit, timing and acting, right from the days of the TV Series – “Khandaan”. Truly a man of great theatrical skills, Jayant lends his credibility and touch to this play. Anish, an ex-Investment Banker turned playwright, with his previous play “Still Single” going off the streets after an year of performances, started the Banyan Tree production company, and has a radio show on 92.5FM. Banyan Tree is one of the largest radio programming companies in India. Theatre, has been a recent foray for Anish and Banyan Tree. And for encouragement, the previous act (Still Single) did win him some good and some bad press. Dipika Roy has also been around in the theatre circuits for quite some time and has a list of impressive plays to her credit. Anish’s partner at Banyan Tree, she is Anish’s muse for sure given her role in Still Single as well as One Small Day.
Trivia: In the initial running of the play, Jayant was acting and Anish was directing. But for some reason, within a month or so, the roles were reversed.
Back to the play, which apparently is an inspired play. The original required people to take sides, define things as right or wrong, while Anish and Jayant’s effort is more on the humorous side. It’s not an intellectually challenging play, and plays for approximately 2 hours on the humorous/ satirical side of things.
Sheila (Dipika) barges into Bollywood Producer Hari Kapoor’s (Anish) office to kill him. His crime – Sheila’s sister Seema has committed suicide, after Hari failed to live up to his promise of casting her in a role. A heartbroken Seema ends up taking her life, but not before telling her sister why she is doing it. Having had a troubled childhood (after losing her mother at the age of 18, and father at the age of 22, Sheila raises her 14 year old sister all by herself. She has lived her life by the social norms of right and wrong, doing all the right things and sacrificing her “life” in return. She blames Hari for having lost the most important person in her life- Seema. Hari, over the course of a long conversation which fairly wittily tries to address the question of different personalities, insecurities, actions, motives, reality, people, emotions, individuality, sacrifices, choices, careers, and most importantly, the futility of it all, end up liking Sheila, and making out with her (not on the stage, of course! Indian audiences are not ready for that real a play as yet!). Sheila, however, having been pulled out of her shackles in the first half of the play, digs out Hari’s insecurities in the second half, and shooting him (not fatally, though) towards the end.
The play continues to hit upon the broken dreams and failed aspirations of each of the characters (Sheila, Sushma and Hari) and the roles they played in making them the kind of people they were. And the undertone used is –humor and sarcasm. The play is quite funny, with its wisecracks. However, the essence of a powerful script is that the audience should carry the play with them when they move out of the theatre. That does not happen here!
Background score used in the play is quite involved and in sync with the theme. The stage handling is very apt, and so is the use of the stage. The two actors have played their parts well. However, some of the estrangement and grief that two torn lives should have was missing in their performance.
Overall- a good effort. Can definitely be watched. Much better than spending a weekend on movies like “Just Married” or “HatTrick”
February 20, 2007 Leave a comment
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind – Mahatma Gandhi
I watched the censored version of Black Friday a couple of days back. I have been thinking of why it was banned. It was said that it will bias public opinion in favor of the charge-sheeted offenders. Will it?
Since eternity, all wars/battles have been master minded by some and executed by several others. These several others are made to believe that they are fighting for a cause. That the cause is greatest cause one can fight for. At times, its revenge for the brotherhood, at other occasions, it might be a struggle for existence and survival. But the cause is always fair. Wars shall cease to exist if people believed in Gandhigiri – someone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek for slapping. Keep doing it till he is tired, confused, and shocked out of his wits and that’s precisely when his thinking becomes clear. That’s when he would apologize and seek mercy.
Does that mean once my sanity is restored, I should justify the reasons for the fight and the motives of the offender? Hmmm… I don’t quite think so.
Black Friday is a very well researched and well made movie(?). I would rather classify it as a documentary. Or, the serialization of history as shown on History Channel. The bottomline remains – it’s a great movie.
But that does not take anything away from the star-cast full of enraged, confused, frustrated, cheated, lost common people.
Pawan comes up with a truly superlative performance. And Kay Kay comes up with another good restrained and underplayed performance. All the other supporting actors have done justice to their role.
The movie has its comic real life moments as well. Imtiyaaz Ghavate chase which goes on for a long time, and the policeman eventually saying “Ae Imtiyaaz! Yaar ruk ja yaar!” and the shot where a hungry Kay Kay peels off a banana to eat and a hungry constable walks in.
The screenplay is realistic and gripping. The editing is slick and fast paced. Cinematography is just what it should be – scratchy, real, and not with a lot of jazz. The real footage shown from the then Newstrack videos adds the element of nostalgia.
Music – Indian Ocean don’t need a mention. Bandeh is the probably the pick of the lot. But its an album you can keep for the keeps.
Vote- Watch it. Unless you are a pig headed religious captain who cannot absorb reality the way it is. It’s a must watch.
December 21, 2006 Leave a comment
3. Queuing Theory
©Sathish Krishnan
In Mumbai, people are so used to standing in queues, that they queue up for going to loo at their own homes!
Being in touch, is it? 😉
December 13, 2006 Leave a comment
1. You are as good as your deodorant
©Amit Das, Prabhat Prabhakar
Local trains – the lifeline of Mumbai, the highest form of proof Darwin could have offered for his Theory of Origin of Species and Survival of the fittest. Mumbai local follows all rules of civilizations, with every individual standing on the platform being marginally better off than a lactobacillus bacteria in a glass of milk. With innocent people from down-south (like, Phanimitra) not being able to board a churchgate local at 8:30AM from Kandivli station in first three attempts. With people like Ranga afraid of boarding one, just in case their laptop bags are not able to cope up with the peer (or, is it sheer?) pressure!
A. In this Mumbai local, when you are holding on to the metal jacks while balancing yourself in an inhumanly crowded train, the only thing that can save you is either your deodorant, or the deodorant of your neighbor. But then, the neighbor has a right to say – “kya re? bot shaana samjha kya apne ko? Apna soongh, main tere liye scent maara kya?” (What’s your problem mate! You think you’re too smart or something? Smell your own. You think I have perfumed myself for you?).
B. A related theory is that there are three kinds of people in Mumbai local – Idiots (who do not use deodorants and smell their own), Educated (who use deodorants and smell their own) and Wise-Men(who do no use deodorants, but smell the educated deodorant users). What differentiates the wise-men from the idiots is the skill of identifying educated ones!
C. And the final one – The first class and second class compartments in Mumbai Local. The only difference is in the quality of deodorants used. Not a single genius has been able to win the spot the “two” differences” contest!
“Putting your nose in other people’s matter!” isn’t right? Isn’t that what we were taught?
2. In every city I work for four months for the government. But Mumbai is different.
©Sathish Krishnan
In Mumbai, you work for four months for the government, and another four months for your landlord. The remaining four months, you work for yourself and your family.
Applicable to the 30% bracket guys, I often wonder if despite its amazingly conked workplace, all the banks in Mumbai have a low attrition rate only because these banks are ready to pay-up the 5Lakhs deposit needed to get flats in good localities in Mumbai.
There is more.. But, as Mumbaikars would have you believe – there is a charm in mumbai local. It’s the lifeline of Mumbai
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