Auld Lang Syne

This is it folks! The last post of this year. I am glad I kept on posting as and when I felt like expressing myself. Never had I thought though that I will clock 400+ posts this year. :-)

I hope it's the same next year. I plan to write about movies I watch and books I read. Maybe some pearls of wisdom gathered while discharging official duties. There will be an odd song or poem that has caught my eye. I am sure I will not be able to resist the temptation of commenting on weird or disturbing news that has become the norm these days. Maybe something good will come out of my culinary experiments which I would like to share with a caveat ;-)

So let's wait and see what the year waiting patiently in the wings has in store for all of us. But I am hoping that it has lots of peace, happiness, health and wealth for everyone on this planet.

Happy 2010 folks! Take Care!

I never stop being amazed at the gems I stumble across every now and then on the internet. Sometimes I wonder how we used to manage before it became part of our lives.

Anyways, I came across a reference to a Christmas song called "Little Drummer Boy" recently. You can listen to it here.

Doesn't it fill you up with warmth and peace ? :-)

One of Life's all-time unanswered questions - why does work have the nasty habit of piling on when you least expect it? :-(

I will sign off for the day with 2 beautiful verses that came as SMSs:

अकेले तो हम पहलेभी जी रहे थे
क्यों तनहासे हो गए है तेरे जानेके बाद

-----

सूना है जिंदगी इम्तिहा लेती है फराझ
पर यहाँ तो इम्तिहानोने जिंदगी ले ली

Watching news is no fun these days and lately I have been wondering what's wrong with this country. The antics of the aged AP Governor and the gross injustice done to Ruchika are simply outrageous.

Hats off to her friend Aradhana for waging this seemingly-losing battle for all these years even when her friend was long gone!

Chetan Bhagat should have known better. I don't think grumbling now about the lack of recognition in the film's credit will do him any good.

I didn't have any plans to watch the movie anyways - never mind that the RJs on city's FM channels will call me Stupid for that. But now I am glad for this decision because I had liked Bhagat's Five Point Someone and One Night at a Call Center. So by not spending my hard-earned money on this movie which was touted as "loosely based" on the novel, I am exacting a small revenge on behalf of the author :-)

As I devour more and more pages of Obama's "Dreams From My Father", I cannot help but call my reaction to the news of his presidential candidancy.

At first, there was so much of hullabaloo over him and Hillary Clinton that I mistakenly thought the race is between the two of them. Even when I realized that only one of them will be nominated from the Democrat side, I was rooting for Hillary - not because she is a woman, but because she seemed to have some experience of US political scene, even if it wasn't on a first-hand basis.

Then Obama emerged as the candidate from the Democrats side. It was scary to think that if McCain became the president and passed away while in office, it would be Sarah Palin who would be at the helms. Equally scary was the prospect that if Obama became the president and got assassinated while in office, it would send the US financial markets and the rest of the wobbly world economy into a tailspin. I didn't envy the Americans over their Catch22 situation. :-)

But reading this book now, a different picture emerges of this man. Of course, I am still not 100% convinced that the book is written by him - my distrust of the politicians runs deep. :-) However, it's hard to ignore the fact that he really did work at the grassroots level to bring about a change.

And that kind of makes me sad for him. Now that he is occupying the nation's highest office, will he be able to bring about such changes? Or will he himself change, for the worse? Afterall, it is true what they say about absolute power corrupting absolutely :-(

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the Nativity Scene supposed to have infant Jesus in it? I had been to High Street Phoenix in Mumbai twice last week - the first time was before 25th. When I saw the Nativity Scene I almost ran towards it. It had Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, even the animals but there was no baby Jesus. I thought maybe they will bring Him in on 25th morning.

I couldn't go there on 25th but I went there for some shopping on 26th. I checked out the Scene again. Still, no Jesus. Curious, isn't it?

I was amply rewarded at Mulund's R Mall though. The infant Jesus there was such a cute chubby baby that for once in my life I was tempted to do some shop-lifting :-)

It's always so good to see the Almighty in human form!

I have this habit of jotting down things that I want to find out about later while reading a book. Now that the year is drawing to a close, I thought of checking some of them out. At the beginning of the list are 6 words "Eugene Field poem little boy blue". I turned to Yahoo and when I read the poem, I felt as if I couldn't breath.

Here is the poem and the wiki page. :-(

What in God's name made the Casting team choose Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Watson? Seriously now, when I first saw the posters of the movie I thought that Downey Jr. is playing the bad guy in this movie and Jude Law is Holmes. Poor Arthur Conan Doyle must be turning in his grave :-(

After last week's frantic running around to complete as many personal and professional tasks as I could, I am experiencing a curious lethargy of sorts this week. These last days of the passing year are meant for quite retrospection, soul-searching and making new year resolutions, aren't they? But somehow this year I am not so restless at not having made any resolutions so far. Guess I will wake up on 1st January and make up my mind about them. Now that's a resolution :-)

Hats off to Krishna Patil for conquering Antarctica's highest peak! Strangely enough, Yahoo and Google are still stuck on her Everest scaling feat. I had to try permutations and combinations of search words to get more information on her latest achievement. :-(

What with more work piling on during the last days of the year, I am not able to do justice to Obama's book though I had originally planned to finish it before 1st January. :-( But from whatever I have read so far, he seems like a sincere guy - if this book was really written by him, and not by some Ghost Writer ;-)

मागच्या आठवडयात टिटवाल्याच्या गणपतीला जाउन आले। अनेक वर्ष जायचं मनात होतं पण योग आत्ता आला। सुट्टी असल्याने गर्दी होती। कुठल्याही धार्मिक ठिकाणी आजकाल ती गृहीत धरूनच जायला लागतं। रांग शिस्तीत आणि चटकन पुढे सरकत होती हीच समाधानाची बाब। त्यातही काही बायका जोरजोरात भजन गाउन डोकं उठवत होत्या। :-(

गाभार्यात गेल्यावर सिध्दिविनायकाला गेल्यासारखे वाटले। पुजार्याची घाई, आरडाओरडा, धक्काबुक्की, हातातली फुलं देवापर्यत पोचवायला करावी लागणारी कसरत - जीव उबून गेला। देवाच्या दर्शनाच समाधान पदरात पडायच्या आधीच हरवल। तिथे एक विठठल-रखुमाईच मंदिर आहे हे वाचल होतं। पण तिथे जायला मन तयार होईना। शेवटी मनातच विठठल-रखुमाईला नमस्कार करून निघालो। :-(

Recently I was surfing the net for the cinema halls playing the Sherlock Holmes movie in the city. Of course, that was before I realized that the movie hasn’t been released in India yet.

Anyways, as I clicked on the name of a cinema hall at one of the sites, a dialog box popped up on screen with the message “Important: Remove this line from json.js before deployment!” I have been a developer (albeit a more careful one!) in my life and so will not mention the name of this website here. :-)

But if by some queer twist of fate, the developer concerned is reading this post, please remove that line from your Javascript file, dude!

Christmas is here! Time for my annual trek through the neighborhood looking for Nativity Scenes. :-) And I am thinking of trying my hand at the honey-mustard stuffed chicken recipe I watched on TV over the weekend!

Merry Christmas to you all :-)

Do you know where I want to go on my next vacation? The forests of Pandora :-) Boy! Haven't I fallen in love with the glowing flora, canopy of trees and delicate shimmering creatures floating through air near the magical tree!

If you said "huh?", then you haven't watched James Cameron's latest offering - Avatar - yet. A little confession is in order from my side though. When I first noticed the movie posters, I mistook it for another B-Grade Hollywood fare - featuring out-of-control vampires or werewolves rampaging through American metros - with an exotic sounding Asian title :-) Then I noticed James Cameron's name and wondered why this dude is associated with such a flick. Of course, imdb.com was just a click away so I soon knew how wrong I was.

I won't waste time on the plot because every kid in the neighborhood knows it. My verdict can be summed up like this - Amazing Graphics, an apt message (very relevant in view of what did and didn't happen at Copenhagen recently!) and good storytelling (aren't we Indians fond of good-triumphs-over-evil stories?)

On the flip side, at 162 minutes, it seems a tad too long - for a Hollywood movie that is. :-(

But as the Americans say, I ain't complaining :-) I was too happy gazing into Sam Worthington's (Jake Sully) cool grey eyes ;-)

I will sign off for the day with 2 SMSs that simply took my breath away:

तुम मुझे मौक़ा तो दो तुम्हारा ऐतबार बननेका
थक जाओगे चलते चलते मेरी वफाके साथ

वो जो औरोंको बताता है जीनेके तरीके
खुद अपनी मुठिमे मेरी जान लिए बैठा है

The other day I read that some organization has declared a reward of Rs. 1 Crore for whoever slaps Raj Thakaray. I wonder if this reward will be given to the first person who does it and lives to tell the tale. Or will they hand over the bounty to everyone who does it? :-)

I guess I must have had enough of Mary Higgins Clark finally. So I turned my back on the shelf that contained 2 more of her novels at the library.

My eyes fell on Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”. I have been seeing this book for the past couple of days at the library but never thought of picking it up. Maybe, partly because I don’t much care for people in politics. But another reason was because I wondered why I needed to know about Obama Senior’s dreams :-)

And then there was this thought – why should I pay Rs. 15 reading surcharge for reading it? I agree that the amount in itself is not much. But some silly stubborn streak in me kept me from paying it and taking the book home with me. I haven’t been able to fathom it out yet. :-(

Anyways, I guess I wanted to take a break from the crime & mystery novels that have been my bedside reading for the past few days and was looking for some meaningful content in the last days of the departing year.

So now, I am reading about the current POTUS’s early life. :-) Will let you know how I find it. Watch this space.

I Heard That Song Before – by Mary Higgins Clark

If you have read my earlier posts, you must be now be saying to yourself “oh, you got to be kidding me!” :-) But I assure you, this is the last Higgins book I will read – at least for the near future that is :-)

Ok, so now for the plot. We have Kay Lansing – daughter of the Landscaper for the wealthy Carringtons. Her dad had disappeared under mysterious circumstances 22 years ago – about 2 weeks after the Carrington heir, Peter is declared “Person of Interest” in the murder of his friend and neighbor Susan Althorp. Kay hasn’t ever been able to figure out who the couple was that she overheard arguing in the Carrington chapel the night Susan died.

In a bizarre twist of fate, almost a decade later, Kay meets Peter, falls in love and ends up walking down the aisle with him. But their married life is always under the cloud because of Peter’s suspected involvement in the death of not only Susan but also of his pregnant wife Grace a few years back. Just a few weeks into their marriage, Susan’s dying mom Gladys is hell-bent on putting Peter behind the bars. And then the bodies start turning up at the estate as if it were a cemetery.

Kay is convinced that Peter is innocent but soon learns that it is a tough job to even begin to prove it. There is no dearth of suspicious characters. To start with, there is Vince Slater, Peter’s trusted aide. There’s Peter’s stepmom Elaine and her good-for-nothing gambling son Richard. There’s Gary Barr, one of the servants. And finally, there is Susan’s dad, Ambassador Althorp, who was angry with her the night she died.

The best part about the novel is that despite racking my brains, I couldn’t even begin to guess who the killer could be because the needle of suspicion has been consistently pointed at everyone in equal measure. :-) Of course, I am never thrilled at the references of Manhattan that have appeared with unerring frequency in Clark’s earlier novels that I read. But having spent some time in New Jersey it was fun to come across mention of Englewood and Mahwah :-)

If you can tolerate the “Till death do us part” love story of Peter and Kay, then this whodunit is definitely worth a read!

Just 13 days left before 2010 rolls in and I am without any new year resolution - well, except to lose weight that is :-) But I am trying my best to clear all the tasks that I had left pending this year because I don't want to carry them with me in the new one. These range from the important ones like meeting my financial advisor to take stock of the investments down to the mundane ones like setting my drawer in order.

And as I try to wrap up all projects at work, there is a growing sense of lethargy as if I don't want to push myself any longer this year. Maybe it's a good idea to take a little break in the last lap of 2009 so I can charge ahead with full steam when 2010 dawns on us :-)

I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chatted all the way
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow
And never a word said she
But, oh! The things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me.

-- Robert Browning Hamilton

Have A Little Faith – by Mitch Albom

Someone needs to recommend this book to Osama, LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and a dozen other assorted terrorist organizations that regularly feature in History Channel’s “International Terrorism since 1945” – as a compulsory bedtime reading!

It’s not a story and yet, it’s a story. It’s not a story because it doesn’t have any beginning or end like a typical story. Yet, it is a story of a Rabbi and Priest and a guy who learns that all faiths lead to the same God. I liked this part. It was a soothing balm to the soul that is jaded and worn out reading about people killing each other in the name of religion and God.

But this novel is somewhat naïve too. I wonder how a grown-up man who claims to be a Citizen of the World can think that to accept other peoples’ different faith is to betray his own. And I wonder why he needs to ask his Rabbi what reply he should give when someone says to him “God Bless You!”

If I fold my hands in front of Jesus, will He fail to understand that I am paying my respects?

If I say “Inshallah” to hope that something good will happen, does that make me less of a Hindu?

When in a few days from nowI will roam about my neighborhood looking for the nativity scenes, will I be betraying my Hindu faith?

The answer is a resounding “NO” and I don’t even claim to be a Citizen of the World. So I felt like yelling “Grow up Mitch!”

That said, I will purchase this book someday soon. Because at the rate humanity is going about killing each other, I am sure we all will need it handy – even if to give us a false hope that these people will one day see the light :-(

While My Pretty One Sleeps - by Mary Higgins Clark

I must have liked Clark’s earlier novel somewhat because when I went to return it I asked the Assistant if they had another of her novels lying about. She remembered seeing a few but it took her some time to fish one out – While My Pretty One Sleeps.

If we were given a generous dose of the shenanigans going on in the real estate business in “Before I Say Goodbye”, this time Mary Higgins Clark has chosen the rarefied world of Fashion for her plot.

So this time we have pretty Neeve Kearny with her pretty little boutique tucked away in Manhattan. It’s not any wardrobe malfunction but a prized client’s disappearance that causes wrinkles in her pretty world. Soon, Ethel Lambston’s frozen body is discovered in the state park. And then a few suspects come tumbling out of the cupboard – Lambston’s ex-hubby who can ill-afford the lifetime alimony, her good-for-nothing nephew who also happens to be her sole heir, some of the fashion world’s bigwigs who Ethel has threatened to expose in her new article.

In the midst of all this chaos there is a contract put on Neeve’s life by Nicky Sepetti – the mafia who spent a few extra years behind bars because he was suspected in the murder of Neeve’s mother Renata 17 years back. Neeve’s dad, ex-New York City Commissioner Myles Kearny and publisher Jack Campbell complete the cast.

Alas, I could figure out the murderer halfway through this one as well. To be fair, I wasn’t bright enough to guess the motive :-( But a good read if you can tolerate the constant references to the streets of Manhattan and descriptions of high-end fashion clothing.

Before I Say Goodbye - by Mary Higgins Clark

I had never read Mary Higgins Clark's before. And somehow was under the impression that she churned out Romantic novels. So when I picked up her “Before I Say Goodbye”, it was more to confirm my impression than to find out what it was all about. However, whatever I read seemed interesting enough to take the novel with me.

The story begins when a yacht blows up in waters somewhere near the Statue of Liberty. On board are 4 people - Adam Cauliff, an architect, his assistant Winifred, his business partner Sam and one of the foremen on his sites, Jimmy Ryan. Cops figure that it was no accident. But the list of suspects is rather long. Is it another associate of Adam and Sam who conveniently got into an accident and so couldn’t make it to the meeting? Was it the enraged son of the lady who sold her land to Adam? Was Adam involved in a real estate and construction scam and so was bumped off? Or was the real target Winifred – whose knowledge of the construction business was deemed too dangerous by someone?

These are the questions that Adam’s widow Nell MacDermott is left to grapple with. The dyed-in-the-wool politician grandfather of hers – Cornelius MacDermott – and his sister who believes in peoples’ psychic powers complete the cast. Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot pediatric surgeon Dan Minor who arrives on scene to save the pretty lady from coming to any harm.

And what do I think of this novel? I must begin the answer with a “Well”. :-) It was engaging at the beginning but halfway through the narrative I knew who the killer is. And so thereafter it became a matter of either proving or disproving my theory – even if that meant wading through peoples’ darkening auras. :-)

I seem to be reading books faster than I can post about them here. Here's a lowdown on my latest 3 reads - in reverse order of course!

Let me begin with 2 wise SMSs:

Change does not happen when circumstances improve
Change happens when you decide to improve your circumstances

----

A wife will always forgive and forget
But she will never let you forget that SHE had forgiven and forgotten

Let me confess beforehand that I do not know all sides of this whole Telangana issue. However, as a common Indian, it hurts to see people asking for separate states so many years after independence. And this has set a dangerous precedent. Now any regional political force wanting a separate state can go on a hunger strike. Will the government give in every time?

And then the next disturbing question – will we finally go the USSR way?

Truly, I couldn’t have resisted this one. :-) Looks like the Tiger isn’t out of the Woods yet – because many of his ladies are still crawling out of the “Wood”work ;-)

A friend forwards absolute gems of Urdu poetry so you have him to thank if you like the following ones:

फिर इतने मायूस क्यों हो उसकी बेवफाई पर फ़राज़

तुम ख़ुद ही तो कहते थे के वो सबसे जुदा है


--------

कुछ धड़कता तो है पहलु मे मेरे रह कर

अब खुदा जाने याद है तेरी या दिल मेरा

I will sign off for today with another forwarded SMS:

क्या रखा है अपनी जिंदगीके इस अफ़सानेमे ग़ालिब
कुछ गुजरी यार बनानेमे, कुछ गुजरी यार भुलानेमे

Red Sand - by R. Karl Largent

To be perfectly honest, the list of the author's previous books was odd - Red Wind, Red Skies, Red Rain and Red Ice. In fact the author seems to have covered all the basic elements except Fire :-)

Still, I picked up Red Sand - by R. Karl Largent - because as usual the story at the back seemed very interesting. It begins with the discovery of a young woman's dead body. Then the Russian State Head who has come for his first-ever visit to the US is assassinated as soon as he steps out of the plane - in full view of the Secret Service guys. These events are somehow related to a trainload of state-of-the-art Russian nuclear ICBMs that are being shipped to Odessa for the disarmament program. And there is a strong possibility that whatever is on that train is not exactly state-of-the-art!

Commander T.C. Bogner doesn't have too much of time at his disposal. What he has, however, is a seemingly impossible task of stopping this train before it reaches its destination and to get a passenger off it.

If you are looking for action, you will get it in this novel set in the coldest part of what was once the USSR. And though I am not able to put my finger to the exact reason, I don't think I will reach out for another book of this author!

Time for some forwarded message:

जाने कैसे जी लेते है लोग यादोंके सहारे फराज
मै तो कई बार मरता हू एक याद आने पर

I watched Surat episode of "चख ले इंडिया" with great interest and then cringed when a chef put Broccoli while preparing ऊन्धिउ. Of course he claimed that he was making "Active ऊन्धिउ" - meaning it was full of anti-oxidants. But if you ask me, I would rather chew on raw Broccoli than find it in ऊन्धिउ :-(

The act of tinkering with traditional dishes to make them healthy should be made punishable by law :-)

Team India made my day today and God knows how rare that is :-) But we gave Lanka an Innings defeat again, won the series 2-0 and in the process have become #1 in Test Rankings of ICC - after playing Test Cricket for 77 years. What better way to start a Sunday than on Cloud Nine :-)

These days I tune in to news channel Russia Today in the evenings. Yesterday they were showing the results of a poll conducted in Russia over war on terrorism. There was 31% of this, 31% of that, 10% of something else and 10% of something that. Wait a minute, isn't the total supposed to be 100%? Apparently the remaining 18% was unaccounted for!

Probably their tagline explains it all - Any story can be other story altogether :-)

अर्ज किया है:

तू किसी और के लिए होगा समंदरकी मिसाल
हम तो रोज तेरे साहिलसे प्यासे गुजर जाते है

And now an SMS that a friend forwarded:

3 stages of marriage:

1. Mad for each other
2. Made for each other
3. Mad because of each other

The IDBI guys who tugged at our heartstrings with the cute ad featuring 2 boys and a mother-baby pair of elephants are back! This time it's a boy and a cuddly baby elephant who are stealing the show. Don't miss this one :-)

What do you think the acronym MP stands for? If you say Member of Parliament, think again. With 34 out of 38 members whose questions were listed being absent, the Lok Sabha session had to be adjourned yesterday. So MP stands for Missing Parliament! :-)

26/11 came and went. As promised to myself, I neither read any newspapers nor tuned in to any Indian news channel. It would have been too painful to read about the innocents who lost their lives - especially because one of the perpetrators is still alive and kicking. I would have so loved to read that kasab has been hanged till death on the same day.

It was no comfort that the bodies of the other slain terrorists are still rotting in some morgue. I wonder why the authorities are spending tax money of hard-working Indians to keep them and not dumping them instead in the No-man's-land' between Indian and Pakistan. Why should we pay for the upkeep of the remains of these cowards? Let the birds feast on them for all we care.

A friend sent an SMS yesterday which so poignantly describes the innocents who have died world over because of some fanatics who don't have anything to do but blow up people and property.

मिटटीका जिस्म लेके पानीके घरमे हू
मंजिल है मौत मेरी हर पल सफरमे हू
होना है क़त्ल ये मालुम है मुझे
लेकिन ख़बर नही की मै किसकी नज़रमे हू

Fireball XL5!

You can never say what you might stumble across as you go down the memory lane, can you? I was talking to my younger brother yesterday when suddently our conversation veered towards a show we both had watched as kids - Fireball :-) (This 60s show in the US was shown in the 70s in India) Bro was determined to hunt around the net and sure enough I found 2 mails from him in my mailbox in the morning.

One was video of the title song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXGGuqXB8h4

And the other mail contained the lyrics. We both were in a vernacular medium school then so we had never been able to figure out any lyrics beyond the single line "My heart would be a fireball" but it was fun to read and sing them now.

If you remember watching this serial, here are the lyrics for you:

I wish I was a space man.

The fastest guy alive.

I'd fly you round the universe, In Fireball XL-5.

Way out in space together, Compass of the sky,

My heart would be a fireball, A fireball,

Everytime I gazed into your starry eyes.

We'd take the path to Jupiter, And maybe very soon.

We'd cruise along the Milky Way, And land upon the moon.

To our wonderland of stardust, We'll zoom our way to Mars,

My heart would be a fireball, A fireball,

If you would be my Venus of the stars.

Here's to 2 of my childhood dolls who were named after the lead pair - Steve and Venus :-)

2012

Haven’t we seen this before? A family that is no longer together – dad has neglected wife and children, wife is living with another guy who is trying hard to win over the kids and kids have mixed feelings for their biological dad. Ring a bell? Oh yes, such a family was at center-stage when the Martians came calling on earth in Tom Cruise-starrer “War of the Worlds”. Well, we have a similar family running for its life in the latest the-world-is-gonna-end flick from Hollywood – 2012.

So we have Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) who has tried, albeit unsuccessfully, being a writer. It has cost him his family and now he works for a Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. His wife has found a new friend, Gordon, who is a plastic surgeon. The movie begins when Jackson takes his children on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park where they find a pond that has boiled off the surface of earth, radio show host Charlie Frost who is shouting himself hoarse about the impending Apocalypse and the Federal types who come crawling out of the woodwork when Jackson and family get too close for comfort.

Enter the Mayans who have predicted that the world is going to end, come 21st December, 2012. Frost tells Jackson that the government is busy building modern versions of Noah’s arks where only those with deep pockets will find a berth. Jackson finds it hard to believe him but after he drops the kids back to their mom and reports for duty, something happens that convinces him that Frost was telling the truth. By then all hell has begun to break loose - alongwith earth's crust!

If you are looking for a story in this movie, you will be in for a sore disappointment. But if you are looking for eye-popping special effects, you are in for a treat. Right from the solar flares that are boiling the earth’s crust to the cataclysmic earthquakes that tear open the very earth over which cities are built sending the skyscrapers into gaping holes – the special effects are absolutely stunning!

As far as the cast goes, Cusack seems like an unlikely choice for a protagonist in a Apocalypse-Now movie. Danny Glover manages to look clueless as the President of the US of A. Oliver Platt (White House Chief of Staff) makes you wanna throttle him for his cold logic and ruthlessness. And I have no idea what made the casting team choose Jimmy Mistry as the Indian scientist – his delivery of Hindi lines caused peals of laughter in the theatre.

I will remember this film for 2 things - the doomsday special effects and the Russian billionaire’s pilot Sasha who with his rugged good looks and Russian-accented English was simply Yum! ;-)

Currently I am reading "Red Sand" by R. Karl Largent. I was floored yesterday when I came across the Russian word for Sugar - Sakhar. Just to double check, I googled today and here's what I found - http://travellingtwo.com/resources/centralasia/russian-shoppinglist

Of course, the pronunciation could be different but this is exactly the word that we use in Marathi for sugar - "साखर". The word in Hindi is "शक्कर" and all these seem to have come from Sanskrit "शर्करा". :-)

I had been to Vashi yesterday for a client meeting. On my way back I decided to try my luck with BEST. I should have known better. 15 minutes' of wait and the bus that I needed wasn't in sight. People all around me were getting into shared cabs. But somehow I have never managed to grasp this concept of sharing a cab with total strangers.

There was a cab waiting nearby and I saw a woman and her teenaged son talk with the cabbie. But they didn't get in. I was getting late so I decided to check if the cabbie would drop me. Yes, in India, at least in Mumbai, we do have to ask the cabbie if he will be so kind as to drop us to our destination. Since the distance was quite large, the cabbie happily nodded.

Just as I was about to get in, the woman asked me where I was going. Actually I didn't mean to be rude. But somehow I heard myself saying "I am not sharing". What I had meant to say was "I cannot share". I cursed myself as I settled in and the cab drove on.

I have resolved that the next time I find myself in similar situation I will smile and say that I cannot share because I need to pick some people up. The last thing this city needs is more people speaking rudely like me! :-(

I cannot make myself watch news these days. They keep showing the horrific images of 26/11. :-( I could barely make myself read about the families of the cops who laid down their lives - afraid that they must have been left to fend for themselves. Thankfully, most of them have been taken care of very well. Of course, nothing can replace loss of a loved one but it is heartening to know that most of these families are on a sound financial footing.

Of course, the government and politicians are doing what they do best - ignoring the very people who are putting their lives on the line daily for us. Don't believe me? Check out Amul's latest hoarding. It truly is a Monumental Shame!

The Appeal - by John Grisham

I have always loved John Grisham novels. And this one reminded me of the movie Erin Brockovich. ‘The Appeal” begins when the Mississippi jury is on the verge of returning a verdict on a much-publicized fight between David and Goliath. On one side is a giant of a chemical company that has been accused of polluting a small town's water supply by its irresponsible dumping of carcinogenic waste. And on the other is a 5-people firm that is representing one woman in that town - whose husband and child have died of cancer – at the cost of half a million dollars’ debt for its 2 owners.

David wins again when the jury slaps $41-million on the chemical company. Its CEO, however, is determined not to let the company go down in a flurry of class-action suites. ‘The Appeal” tells the story of how he sets to go about it with the help of a corrupt senator.

Though the review on Amazon accuses Grisham for his one dimensional characters, I suspect that he hasn’t been very far from truth. And the truth is, as more often than not, horribly unpalatable!

The Icon - by Frederick Forsyth

Here we go again! The bad Russians are up to some mischief and so the good guys, of course, the Americans are more than determined to thwart them. This, in a nutshell, is the plot of Frederick Forsyth’s “The icon”.

Be forewarned! The cast of characters on the American, British and Russian sides at the beginning of the book does give you an idea about how difficult it is gonna be to keep track of all the “ov”s that will soon crawl out of the woodwork but it’s still difficult when you actually start reading it.

It all begins when an ultra-secret document called “Black Manifesto” is stolen out of the party headquarters of the popular Russian presidential candidate Igor Komarov. The document contains all of Komarov’s plans for the minorities of Russia when he is elected to power – in short, a blueprint for genocide and ethnic cleansing. A damning evidence, if ever brought to the world’s attention!

In a bizarre twist of events, the Manifesto does come to the attention of the Brits but they along with their CIA buddies are barred from taking any “overt” or “covert” action by their governments. Time for an ultra-subvert Operation! Enter Her Majesty’s Secret Service chief Sir Nigel Irvine and Ex-CIA operative Jason Monk. Jason has had an experience of running a spy network in Russia and so is Irvine’s only choice for this mission. Does he or does he not subvert Komarov?

First, the pluses! It’s pure enjoyment to read about how spy networks are run, documents exchanged and messages conveyed in the espionage world. It’s also engaging to read how Jason’s seemingly unrelated actions are part of his overall plan of subversion and the final drama that is played out on the streets of Moscow on New Year’s Eve. And then there are some references to the real-life Soviet mole Aldrich Ames who was burrowed deep into the CIA.

The negatives? Well, I did warn you about the huge cast that you might find difficult to keep track of – especially the Russian names. Then the narrative keeps shifting between the time Jason ran his spy network and the present – it jars at many places, especially if you have 2-3 days’ gaps between your consecutive readings.

Hey, but if you can live with these, then you gotta read “The Icon” :-)

I was reading an interview of someone from NASA yesterday. It was frightening to read that this guy receives about 20 emails a day from all parts of the globe from the people who genuinely believe that the world is going to end on 21st December, 2012 – like the woman who asked him if she should kill her 2 daughters and herself or the woman who wondered if she should kill her dog to spare him suffering later. What is the world coming to these days?

Leave aside all facts supporting and opposing this whole hoopla. At the bare minimum logic level, there are 2 possibilities – with a 50-50 chance. One is that the world will not go up with a bang in 2012. So here we are on the morning of 22nd December, 2012, all ready to party – because the day happens to be a Saturday and also because the world didn’t end. This is a Happy Day scenario and no one in his or her right mind would want to end it all now when there is at least 50% chance of us all waking up to this day.

Now on to the grim one – that the world will indeed cease to exist after 21st December. It’s not going to happen in just one or two countries. If at all it is going to happen, it will happen all over the planet. So there probably isn’t much that you, me or even the President of the United States of America can do to avoid this – except to live whatever time is left for us to the fullest extent possible. Life is no bed of roses for most of us but doesn’t it make sense to spend whatever time we all have in finding more roses than thorns? Let’s use this so-called Judgement Day for bringing about positive change in our lives – laugh more, take that long-dreamt-of vacation, eat more ice-cream, watch more sunsets, listen to more songs and sing along even if off-key, read more books and so on. If at all we are going out, let’s go out with a bang folks!

And please give some credit to the brightest ones amongst us – the scientists! Who knows, by the time 2012 rolls over they would have figured out a way to avoid it all :-)

Haven't come here since a long long time. :-( It was a hectic week. And somehow all the work manages to get piled on during the last 2 working days of the week. Amazing, isn't it? But I will be back over the weekend! :-)

The cyclone gave Mumbai a cold shoulder (!) and there was a collective sigh of relief! But that didn't stop a friend from sending me these SMSs:

The reason of sudden rain and that also in November and so heavily and constant is not a climate change as you may be thinking. It is nothing but promotion of movie "Tum Mile" :-)

Why did cyclone change its path?
Breaking News - MNS refuses to allow the cyclone to enter Mumbai - unless it is given a Marathi name.

Here we were worried sick about the cyclone that never hit us while an asteroid came within striking distance of our planet. Check out http://sify.com/news/asteroid-almost-smacked-into-earth-on-november-6-news-scitech-jllm4gbhdjh.html

Of course, the scientists say that even if it had collided with us it wouldnt have made much of an impact. But isnt that what the NASA scientists always say in the Hollywood movies before all hell breaks loose!

The rain has let up a bit in the city and the cyclone has bypassed us. But the forecasts of heavy rains still stand. A friend forwarded this SMS to me:

बेगानोसे प्यारकी गु़जारिश नही होती
मौतके बाद कोई ख्वाहिश नही होती
शायद कोई प्यारभरा दिल टूटा होगा
वरना नोव्हेम्बर मे इतनी बारिश नही होती :-)

It has been raining since yesterday in Mumbai - highly unusual for this time of the year. It's a welcome relief from the blistering heat of the past few days though - in itself an unusual experience for the coastal city in November. The only worrying thing is that this sudden change in weather is going to play havoc with peoples' health for sure :-(

This smells "phishy" :-)

I burst out laughing when I saw the following email in my mailbox the other day:

Dear India Banking Customers Upgrade

For the safety of your Online BankingAccount we have issued this Warning message.
Due to Various Online Banking Frauds going on in the country, The Reserve Bank Of India and the management of the Banks Listed came out with a solution to Secure and Upgrade Your Online Account, You are madated to Update your banking Details to enable us secure and Upgrade your Account to Match with our Latest secured server.

To update your Bank records Click Here To Select and Upgrade
Thank You.

Reserve Bank Of India(Indian's Central Bank)

Are you one of the admirers of our winged friends?
Do you drop all the work you are doing when a pigeon or a sparrow lands on the window sill?

Check this site out: http://dilawarmohammed.googlepages.com/feedersforsale

Buy one and invite the birdies in your garden, in your home, in your life! :-)

Here's something that I stumbled upon while surfing the net over the weekend:
http://www.stay-sharp.in/staysharp/liptonLogin.aspx

Must say that though I am a fan of jigsaw puzzles, solving them online is not "my cup of tea". :-)

Why is it that bad news always gets front-page publicity whereas the news that fosters peace and goodwill in the community is always tucked in some obscure area where it largely goes unnoticed? The fatwa by Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind was highlighted in the headlines but a little group of Muslims who saw no harm in singing the national anthem hardly found a mention in the press.

Here goes: http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20091109/1416/tnl-muslims-defy-fatwa-sing-vande-matara.html

Do you wonder about the traditional recipes in different countries? If so, then the Season 2 of "Food Lovers' Guide to Planet" that has started on NatGeo is a must for you. I watched part of an episode on the Korean food this weekend and it was fascinating! My jaw dropped in awe when they explained the laborious process of making "Khimchi". Incidentally, a version of this Khimchi can be found in chinese restaurants where it is served as an accompaniment along with vinegar -soaked carrots and cucumbers. My all-time favorites!

Sometimes I am amazed at the power of the internet in general and that of Wiki in particular. By the time I finished reading Forsyth's "Icon" (will post review later) I had jotted down a couple of things at the back of an envelope - things I wanted to find out about on the net.

First of course was the reference to Babi Yar as mentioned in my earlier post. Here's the rest of the collection -

- Chaika
- House of Grimaldi
- Morganatic Marriage
- Great Patriotic War

If you are as curious as I am about these, get a cup of steaming tea/coffee and hit the net. You will be amazed at what information you can find. :-)

I had not heard of Babi Yar till I came across it in Frederick Forsyth's "Icon". Check out http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar at the risk of throwing up whatever you ate for breakfast. :-(

Another stark and rude reminder that life is so fickle and should be enjoyed as much as we can while we are still here! A sister of one of my brother's acquaintances died suddenly - she was just 26 :-(

A message on someone's chat window that I had posted a few days back on this blog comes to mind and will probably remain so for the rest of the week:

हम रोज़ नशे मे होते है और शाम गुजर जाती है
एक रोज़ शाम नशे मे होगी और हम गुज़र जाएंगे

If you want to find out an interesting way to organize your week and do everything that you always wanted to do in life, check out Monika Halan's column in yesterday's Mint: http://www.livemint.com/articles/2009/11/03224712/Are-you-being-nudged-The-choi.html

It's just the middle of the working week and I am already so exhausted. Somehow things have a tendency to pile on in quick succession and that's precisely what's happened this week. I haven't found time to look after either my skin or hair - both of which are a terrible mess. :-(

So I have decided to take it slow for the rest of the week. I have convinced myself that I don't have to do everything here and now. Things can wait. It's such a relief to pare down the task-list and I have promised myself that I will read through a few more pages of that novel that has been lying about neglected on my bedside table for long. :-)

I really fail to understand these Muslim organizations which raise a hue and cry every now and then about things that put "इस्लाम खतरेमे". Will the "Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind" change its name because the "Hind" in it might remind people of the Hindu religion? Maybe, it should be called "Jamiat Ulama-e-Pak" instead!

Another message on someone's chat window at workplace:

The best thing about the stones that I encounter in my path is
When I cross them, they become my Milestones!

It's not always that I carry only the exact amount in my purse. I usually keep about 50-100 Rupees extra for purchasing things that I might remember the last minute. But I was only going to the Library and that too in the Sunday afternoon when the crowd on the streets would likely be very thin. So I just carried 2 notes of 100 - the library fee being 175.

I was within 5 minutes of walking distance of my destination when I saw the woman. She was sitting at the end of the footpath. There was a small monkey at her feet and a child in her arms. When I saw her she was just about getting up.

If there is one sight I cannot stand it is that of a child in discomfort. And I have always thought of myself as being reasonably generous within my means. But yesterday I discovered to my shock that I could not part with 100 bucks. Of course I would have been unable to pay up the library fee but I could have always come back later. The plain stark truth is that I was mean and stingy.

God! It hurts to say this but the fact is that I wouldn't have been poorer if I had given that money to her and yet I thought that I will hand over the 25 bucks that will be left over after the paying of the library fees on my way back. I also lamented that I didn't have any extra 10-20 bucks with me like I always do.

As luck would have it, that woman was nowhere in sight when I retraced my steps 10 minutes later. The corner where I saw her has streets leading from it in 4-5 directions. I stood there and kept my eyes peeled in all directions. But she simply wasn't there.

I know, some of you who read this might shake your heads and say that she wasn't a begger so I shouldn't have given money just like that. Some will say that we shouldn't encourage people to beg. Some will say that I was callous not to think about the poor monkey. And some might even wonder why I am writing about this on my blog. :-)

Maybe you are all right but the fact is that I am now left with a guilt that I could have helped her but didn't. That plus the shattered illusion that I had been nursing about myself all these years! :-(

A message that I saw in someone's chat status today:

हम रोज़ नशे मे होते है और शाम गुजर जाती है
एक रोज़ शाम नशे मे होगी और हम गुज़र जाएंगे

So now I have on my night-stand "Icon" by Frederisk Forsyth. I must confess though that it's a bit daunting to keep track of the narrative as it swings back and forth between the 80s and the 90s. Also I am having trouble with the Akopovs, Androsovs, Kuznetsovs, Boyarovs, Novikovs and many other "ovs" that seem to be roaming about the landscape :-)

But once you safely navigate your way across these, the book is pure enjoyment for its depiction of how the espionage, intelligence and counter-intelligence units work in various countries!

The title sounded interesting and so also the story in a nutshell at the back. I fell for it as usual. But "The Night Manager" by John le Carré proved too much for me. It was too slow and too descriptive for my taste. For 2-3 days I debated whether to soldier on bravely or to accept defeat and return it.

Finally, I returned it - without ever going beyond even halfway through. :-(

One of the two TV ads that are setting me shaking my head with disappointment and frustration these days is of Yahoo. I have always liked this company - and that has got nothing to do with the fact that it shares its name with Shammi Kapoor's famous shout! I mean, it always seems like a fun place to work in - and God knows they are rare. But their latest ad is so lacklustre. I especially hate the way the last jingle tries to draw out "It's you" from "Yahoo". It seems so contrived. And the whole ad has appearance that makes you wonder if they have run out of the ad budget. :-(

The other ad is Onida's. The Hindu religion knows Hell but I don't think we have any presiding officer like Satan there. :-) And if there is any, I am sure we Indians will find a way to bribe and silence him. :-( Anyways, I used to like the Onida Devil though, he seemed to so coolly rattle others. Alas! He is history and seems to be replaced by the horribly unimaginative tagline "आपको देखा तो यह डिजाईन आया" - whatever that means!

God! Please make the Onida people bring the Devil back :-)

Do you believe that meeting strangers is a coincidence or are you one of those who think that everything is pre-ordained?

I thought about it as I trekked through Matheran on a weekend few days back with my family. It was surprising to see that despite the weekend there wasn't much crowd. Just past the ticket window we saw a rickshaw pulled by 2 men - it carried an old man who was sitting clutching tightly to the handles. Must be one of the natives there, I concluded because I didn't see anyone else with him.

We stopped at Diwadkar's for lunch. Our lunch companions were a couple of young boys who were heartily discussing what to order when we walked in. As we tucked into our meal, another family walked in. After finishing our lunch as we were heading out I looked back and wondered 'will I ever see these people again? will I remember them if I see them again?".

Our destination was Monkey Point/Hart Point. Not a soul on the whole route - except for a lady and a man who were carrying some provisions and a couple of people near that bend in the road where some long-closed hotels still stand.

Just when we had given up all hopes of ever reaching the point, we saw the makeshift sign and the couple selling corn-cobs below it. As we descended, another family came up after visiting the point. I silently asked the same question to myself.

It was so peaceful at the point that I didn't feel like leaving. Little yellow flowers were in full bloom. Tiny frogs darted about in the grass and the white fluffy clouds chasing each other in the noon sky cast a shadow on one section of the silent mountains. I have always felt so awed in the presence of mountains - they were there when we weren't even born!

But we had to trek back to the car park before the sunset so I got up reluctantly. We had reached the corn-seller when I saw a couple making their way to the point, the lady munching on the corn-cob. As we bought a cob I wondered about the selling couple. They must be there every evening and probably would be blind to the beauty around. Familiarity does breed contempt :-(

The road back was equally deserted. Moments later we ran into a mother-daughter pair walking a dog. The daughter was collecting dry wood - possibly a routine every evening. We just happened to be in the neighborhood that day. As I write this, I wonder if they are right there at the moment - walking the dog and collecting the wood.

After some time, we ran into a huge family - kids, young ones and old people. Just as we passed them, one of the 2 men who were walking ahead turned and asked us how to reach the Sunset Point. I told him they will have to go all the way back till they reached a T junction ahead and turn right. Just then another road opened up at 90 degrees to the one we were walking on. The man pointed to it and asked me if that was the road. I did my best to convince him that it was dangerous to take a road that didn't have any signs for directions. After discussing with his friend, he seemed to agree and both of them walked ahead.

Soon after we ourselves came within sighting distance of the T Junction and saw the 2 guys turn right. We turned left and a young couple that was looking lost asked us about the directions to sunset point. I burst out laughing as we pointed them in the correct direction. To this day I wonder if all of them finally managed to reach Sunset Point in time.

We walked past the shops - some closed, some open, some that looked as if they could be open or closed depending on how you looked at it. There weren't many horses around so no airborne dust bothered us. I was taking in my last look at the lush green scenery and straining hard to catch an occassional elusive bird twittering away as it settled itself for the night.

Suddenly someone screamed and when I turned I saw a family of 3 walking across the railway track. The father was carrying some eatables and the monkeys had lunged at the food. Terrified, the man had screamed and tried to run away. Then he recovered and chased them away. But his wife was so amused that she looked at us and burst out laughing. We laughed too.

My final memory of that weekend is of a man who was walking ahead of us till the road bifurcated. He simply turned back and asked us which way to go. We pointed to the right, he walked on and soon disappeared from sight. How peaceful life would be if at every confusion, at every moment of indecision we could always find someone who could point us in the right direction! But then we have to discover some things on our own or we will never learn, isn't it?

You might be wondering why I am writing this. Let' s just say that it is my way of preserving some people that I ran into on one Sunday in October of 2009 and who I will never see again - irrespective of whether I met them by design or by coincidence!

Ever heard a word "Garbologist"? I hadn't till I came across it in Monica Halan's column in Mint. More can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbology

Wanna sneak a peek at the Animal Kingdom as you slog over your laptop in the office? Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wildlifefinder/

I felt odd as I passed my old school building the other day. What carefree life I once had! And as if she sensed my frame of mind, a friend forwarded this SMS:

I want to go back to the time,

When "getting high" meant "on a swing".

When "drinking" meant "bournvita"

When "dad" was the only "hero"

When "love" was "mom's hug"

When "dad's shoulder" was "the highest place on earth"

When "worst enemies" were "most caring"

When the only thing that could "hurt" were "skinned knees"

When the only things "broken" were "toys"

and when "goodbyes" only meant "till tomorrow".

Boy! The last 2 lines hurt :-(

Ever wondered if the FBI and Mossad agents that are found in pages of so many novels exist in real life? I have wondered, many times - most recently when I read up Steve Berry's "The Alexandria Link".

Here's the proof that they do exist - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Arrested-Nasa-spy-worked-on-Chandrayaan-project/articleshow/5143439.cms :-)

I was a little taken aback when I recently read on one of the internet sites that our very old Doordarshan has completed 50 years of its existence last month. No fanfare, no full page ads in newspapers, no nothing! Of course, I must admit that I rarely tune in to the channel so any mention of this milestone on it would have been missed by me.

I sat back and thought about the serials of my childhood. Strangely enough, the quality was better by leaps and bounds on this single channel than the daily soaps that are dished out on the multitude of channels that have mushroomed up these days. And I can say that without looking back at that era through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.

Of course I couldn’t help but trawl the net looking for any videos or title songs of the DD serials from the 80s. And here are 2 of them that I found:

To listen to title songs of serials like Ajnabee, Subah, Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi and Chunauti, check http://www.getalyric.com/index.php?search=title+song+of+doordarshan+serials&criteria=listen

Visit
http://passionforcinema.com/doordarshan-down-memory-lane/

and read about the serials that were integral part of childhood of many like me. I felt as if I was meeting long lost friends of mine when I saw the serials like Stone Boy, TenaliRama and Mungerilal ke Hasin Sapne mentioned.

Can the powers-that-be arrange for these serials to be telecast on DD again on the occasion of its 50 years’ of service? I would love to step back into my childhood days. :-)

The Narrows - by Michael Connelly

It’s not a book I would have picked up – not this month at least. And that’s because I have had enough of reading about psycho killers. But as I stepped into the library I got 2 consecutive calls from colleagues so I was distracted as I hunted for the book. I took a cursory glance at the back page summary storyline and got it issued - the book name, “The Narrows” – and the author, Michael Connelly.

When I turned to the book at night, I thought the characters of detective Bosch and Terry McCaleb sounded familiar. Then I remembered that I have read Connelly before.

The storyline is a bit creepy on this one, what with FBI”s worst nightmare, the killer called “The Poet” – named so for the lines of Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry that he leaves next to the bodies of his victims – resurfacing after a gap of a few years. This time he strikes in the Sin City, Las Vegas, where the disappearance of 6 men sets the wheels of investigation turning, finally. What is surprising is that this time The Poet has sent his calling card to his two protégés – Terry and Rachel. Will this spell the doom for Robert Backus – the erstwhile head of FBI’s famed Behavioral Sciences Unit? Will Bosch be able to help the widow of his friend?

If you don’t mind half a dozen or so rotting bodies in the Nevada desert and a few peeks into the deranged mind of a killer, this book is an excellent crime mystery for your night stand. Me? I could have done without it for another month at least :-(

My search for the next book on my night stand was equally frustrating this weekend. I was going out of the city for a much-needed day-long trip and thought I could exchange book at the library which happens to be located on the way.

To my chagrin and to the growing annoyance of my family I couldn’t find a single book worth reading. Ten minutes later I had almost resigned myself to returning empty-handed when I spotted one by Steve Berry – The Alexandria Link. I read the storyline at the back and it was all I could do not to jump in the air :-)

I have managed to read only a few pages so far but I can say that I am happy to be back in the company of Cotton Malone, Henrik Thorvaldsen and Stephanie Nelle. :-)

Check this out - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/Younis-quits-captaincy-after-grilling-by-MPs/articleshow/5119901.cms

Can someone please tell the Pakistanis that India has better things to do than devise plots to undermine her pint-sized neighbor? Why do we need to waste our precious time when they themselves are doing such a marvellous job of being the laughing stock of the world!

Clearly Pakistan's National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports hasn't heard the line "It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove any doubt.”

Yesterday I read about a new book that has been launched for those who wish to take up employment in SBI - How to Success in SBI Exams. And all these years I was thinking that "Success" is noun. :-)

Wanna find out if someone has been plagiarising the content that you slogged over? Check this out http://www.copyscape.com/

I came across a news item in yesterday's newspaper and realized once again, with a jolt, how little time you get in life to pursue activities that you would love to do. This announcement was about the new course on Geology that the Centre for Extra Mural Studies of Mumbai University is starting. Just check http://extramural.org/geology.html. Fascinating, isn't it? I would have sooo loved to sign up but sadly there's no टाइम.

Words from a long forgotten serial on DD come to mind:
कही सफर है, कही रास्ता है मंजिलका :-(

After 62 years and despite the 55 Crores, our poor cousins from across the border still behave like a good-for-nothing younger sibling who never stops saying that he gets sidelined because of his mighty elder brother.

The case in point is the recently concluded Champions Trophy where a wrong decision by the umpires saw Akmal march towards the pavilion, much to his chagrin. After seeing the footage, the umpire in question has admitted his mistake. But now the earlier generation Pakistani players are alleging that since Pakistan doesn't wield as much clout as India when it comes to the International cricket scene, they are being treated unfairly. They say that if an Indian player had been given out by mistake, the resulting uproar would have resulted in the dismissal of the umpire!

Wait, don't laugh your guts out yet. There's more to this saga of the Champions Trophy. It seems that an investigation is in the offing across the border because someone has alleged that the Pakistani players purposefully lost their match against the Aussies so as to edge India out of the tournament!

62 years and you are yet to grow up?

Read about another of India's brave soldiers yesterday - Shahid Manish Pitambare. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manish_Pitambare.

Years ago, it had taken me a full minute to recover when one of my Chinese colleagues suddently started singing his version of Raj Kapoor's "Awaaraa Hu". He then told me that when he was growing up, he had seen many of the Raj Kapoor's movies - in China.

The reason I remembered this incident was because yesterday I read a piece of news about Raj Kapoor's movies being screened in a place in Russia again. An old Russian woman was quoted explaining why his movies were so popular there. In the 50s Russia was just emerging from the war with Germany and the common man's life was no bed of roses. The woman said that the Russians drew a lot of inspiration from the Indian populace as depicted in Kapoor's movies - leaving a hard life but keeping alive its hopes of a better future.

चलना जीवनकी कहानी, रुकना मौतकी निशानी
सरपे लाल टोपी रुसी, फिरभी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी

A girl named Rukhsana Kausar

I had never heard of Rukhsana Kausar till yesterday. If you haven't still, here's the link that will tell you all about this frail 20-year old brave girl who killed a Lashkar-e-Toiba commander and wounded another militant.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/this-20yrold-kashmiri-killed-a-militant-shot-another/522719/#

Just finished reading Jeffrey Archer's "The Prisoner of Birth". Loved it from beginning to end! :-)

Finally I managed to finish up Clive Cussler's "The Chase" - but not before wondering whether anyone did any proof-reading for it. That's because at one place, he repeated has used the name "Carter" when he meant "Curtis" and in another, he refers to one "Stuart" as "Warren" :-)

If you are a fan of his ancient mystery novels, don't venture within a mile of this book or be ready to be hugely disappointed!

I think Shashi Tharoor got it right this time! Why, indeed, we need to have a holiday on Gandhi Jayanti? Frankly, I don't think I even thought about Gandhiji as I used the entire day to complete 2 whole weeks' pending chores. It was only in the night when I was flipping through the channels that I came across the movie "Gandhi" and remembered what the occassion was. :-(

Names and places from the pages of the long-forgotten history text book came flooding back through time - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Nehru, Maulana Azad, Sarojini Devi Naidu, Sabarmati, Dandi March, Jaliawala Bagh, Chaurichura, Non-cooperation movement. I shook my head just like 2 American Journalists did (Martin Sheen and oh, Uncle Vernon from Harry Potter Series!) when they saw unarmed Satyagrahis face the baton-wielding police. I was sad once again when the now familiar sight of Hindus and Muslims fighting in the street came up on screen. I was proud when India at last got her freedom. And as on countless other occassions, I wondered again - whether it was the non-violent struggle that made the British walk out of India or were they just keeping their end of the bargain that was struck during WWII. :-(

Tharoor is right! We will serve our country better if we work on this day rather than stay at home and spend the day lolling about checking out what's playing on TV.

There you go....another reference - Voices of Spring. Another link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8rOr8yZrEU

Somehow this one sounds familiar and for some unfathomable reason brings up memories of Charlie Chaplin. :-)

Coming from a country where "Size zero" is reverred these days, I fail to understand why this petite female has padded up her backside :-) Jokes apart, I like the music but not the singing. Seems as if it is an acquired taste like "Sushi" - one which sadly I will never develop :-(

Another word that I came across in a book was "Ongtray" - for which sadly both Yahoo and Google failed to come up with any significant leads :-(

I don't understand much of music - be it western or classical. But recently when I came across a reference to "Dill Pickles Rag" in one of the books that I read, I was curious. Fortunately, these days it's not difficult to get information on anything and so I was directed to this site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUmur7BpGCg.

Funny thing is that I paid more attention to the complex movements the players' fingers made as they danced on the piano than the music itself :-)

Now for some forwarded SMSs, one in Hindi and another in Marathi:

अर्ज है
जाते है शाख शाखको देते हुए दुआ
आंधीसे बच गए तो इसी रुतमे आयेंगे
-------

एक सांज अशी तिचा रंग ज़रा लाल
माझ्या कपाळाला तुझ्या धुळीचा गुलाल
एक रात्र अशी तुझे सीतेपरी डोळे
रुप पाहताना नभी अंधार पाजळे

Yesterday night I was watching a program on the Discovery channel "Why Ancient Egypt Fell". It was in English and right in the middle of it, the language switched to Hindi. I must have listened for 5 minutes before I realized the change. I was so taken by surprise that for a moment I wondered if I had inadvertently changed the channel. :-) And then equally inexpicably, after some time, the language changed back to English. Very weird!

The other day I was watching a program on Ice-cream parlors in the US on Discovery Travel and Living channel. There's one in Manhattan called "Serendipity 3" that sells an ice-cream containing world's costliest chocolate and edible 23 carat Gold - at $1000! If only poor King Midas knew about edible gold :-)

I had picked up Agatha Christie’s “The Mysterious Mr. Quin” thinking that it is one novel – but to my immense delight it turned out to be a collection of short stories. What a treat!

I finished it in no time but when I went back to the library to exchange it for a collection of 4 novels that I had earlier seen I found that it was already issued out. That meant I spent the next half an hour hunting for another book. Fortunately I saw one of Clive Cussler’s – The Chase – on a lower shelf. This came as a surprise because earlier I had asked one of the attendants if the library had any more of Cussler’s books and he had replied in the negative.

I checked the brief storyline printed at the back and found it interesting so I got it issued. But since then I have been wondering if I made the right choice. So far I have been reading about a thug called “Butcher Bandit” who goes on looting banks in small mining towns but I have no idea how he connects up with the 3 bodies in the locomotive fished out of some lake. Add to that, the boring descriptions of guns, bikes and other assorted stuff! Cussler has so far let me down. :-(

I am still not sure what made me choose the Nehru Science Center as the place to spend 4-5 hours at on an overcast Sunday morning with my family but that’s what I did 2-3 weeks back. It had started to drizzle by the time we made our way past the ticket counter – where we purchased the tickets for the show at the newly constructed dome (Rs. 40 per person), for the science center (Rs. 20 per person) and for the car (Rs. 10).

The place wore a deserted look save for the 2 Mumbai Darshan buses parked outside. The next show at the Dome was for groups so I had clear 2 hours at my disposal before the show for the non-group people would begin. I was done reading through the information on Chandrayaan when I caught sight of the sign for the Cafeteria. A little bit ahead was the sign for the toilets and that made me debate whether to chance a bite or not. But I was in a daring mood that day so we decided to venture inside the eatery.

Despite the chairs that looked as if the dust had got glued to them, the place looked pretty clean. There were no flies around even though it was raining outside and the windows were open. I went to the counter to take a look at the menu. The normal suspects – Idli, Batatawada and Upma – featured in all their glory. What came as a pleasant surprise was that the food was neatly kept covered in big containers. I asked for a plate of Upma and Idli each as well as a cuppa tea. Surprised again! The delicious Upma came along with an equally delicious chutney. The idlis were soft, white and fluffy. The sambar had a pleasant sour note to it. As I bit into the first mouthful, there was a loud thunder outside and I munched my way through the food on that happy note as I watched a fearless sparrow darting in and out of the chairs.

Breakfast taken care of, we turned to the various exhibits. It was fun to watch the dancing rings but difficult to believe that they were joined to each other at only one point. There was a display that gave very useful information about the food that we eat and what good it does to our body.

I had a blast as I tried to match animals with the picture of their ears – till I achieved the full score of 80! Then there was a display on colors where you had to move the basic RGB palette to match the colors in the 2 boxes displayed.

If you are ever there, make it a point to find out the booth where there are 2 boxes – one big and one small. The smaller one is actually heavier but because of the size you feel that the larger one is heavier. Another display features a giant replica of human tongue and the lights on it tell us the points at which different tastes like sweet, sour and bitter are perceived by us.

There is a new section for our body’s immune system – I couldn’t check it fully because I was running out of time and wanted to visit my most favorite area – the prehistoric one. This room features replicas of various dinosaurs and other biggies that (fortunately!) disappeared before we came into this world. Their sheer size is mind-boggling. A visit to this floor is a must!

I got out of there to be in time for the show at the Dome theatre on Serengiti. This Dome is smaller than the one at IMAX, Wadala. But the show – about the annual migration of the animals at Africa’s Serengiti National Park – was very nice.

All in all, a Sunday well spent!

Did you know that there is a Research Institute dedicated to research on camels in India? I didn't . But thanks to the food show "Highway On My Plate" (NDTV Good Times), I now know that there is one in Bikaner. If you happen to visit it anytime, don't forget to check out their Camel Milk Ice-cream Kulfi. That's one more to-do added to my already long list :-) Thank you, HOMP!

Cattle Class Minister

I am not sure why everyone is flogging poor Shashi Tharoor for referring to "Economy Class" as "Cattle Class". He just voiced out aloud what the rest of the politicians must surely be thinking in their minds.

It's no secret that the Indian politicians have always considered themselves to be a superior breed than the general populace. Why else do you think they zoom about in their important looking cars escorted by police when the rest of us are left to stew in the endless traffic jams in their wake? Why else would they be reluctant to leave their VIP suites and move into bungalows that haven't been painted recently while a significant part of the populace is staying in structures that can barely be called homes?

The best way to show who's the boss to these idiots pretending to be running our country is to refuse to accord to them the superior status:

- Say no to Hordings that show smiling ministers from every nook and cranny of our country
- Say no to their public meetings that are meant for muscle-flexing and nothing else
- Say Yes to voting only for honest people
- Say NO to "Yes, Minister"!

Babar, Humayun and Akbar must be collectively turning in their graves. They wouldn’t have thought even in their wildest dreams that they would be dragged right in the middle of a soap commercial. Don’t believe me? Go watch the new Pears ad!

This SMS is for all of you who are occasionally haunted by exam dreams though it has been years since you left schools and colleges behind:

First line to be written in exams:
All the answers written below are imaginary and work of pure fiction.Any resemblance from the book is unintentional and purely coincidental.

They say it takes fewer facial muscles to smile than to frown. But in this world that is full of hardship and injustice so few find a reason to smile. A friend forwarded an SMS that probably will bring in smiles - even when there is no reason to do so:

The best way to stay happy:
If you have cried today, just think that the smile that you deserved today has been given by God to someone else who really needed it.

Sometimes you come across some news that fills you up with anger and sadness at the same time. I was reading an article in Mint about how the collapse of Lehman affected the diamond industry in India. At the top of the article was a photo of a chubby baby – 7 months old – along with his mother. She is a widow – her husband, who was a diamond polisher, couldn’t find it in him to fight when life started him in the face with a Rs 4 lakh loan and no job. So he decided to consume pesticide and die in the arms of his wife who was pregnant with their second child.

What a loser! I wish he had died before fathering two kids and leaving his wife with a difficult if not an impossible job of bringing them up single-handedly. And I hope life treats the wife and the kids fairly from now on. Only if wishes were horses :-(

Work seems to be piling on almost at the same rate as I complete it. :-( What is it that they say about planning and failing? Oh yes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Well, my best-laid plans seem to have a knack of going awry. Why do they call it Project Management? It should be called Project Mismanagement instead :-)

A forwarded SMS:

In the PAST, Nobody Had a Watch, but Everyone Had Time.
NOW Everyone Has a Watch, but Nobody Has Time.

What is this latest gimmick that all politicians have resorted to? I am referring to the "Economy Bug" that seems to have bitten all of them. I laughed out aloud when Praful Patel mentioned how he has been taking a token salary of Re 1. Dear Minister, it was never about the "official" salary anyways :-)

Now how about a good dose of humility as well? Will ordinary mortals like us ever see the ministers waiting patiently along with the rest of us in traffic jams? :-)

Can hardly believe that Asha Bhosale just turned 76. The lady positively looks ageless! And somehow I have always found her more approachable than her elder sister. She looks as if you could just say Hello to her if you run into her any place and she will flash her dimpled smile. A classic chirpy mischievous younger sister :-)

I had a chance to listen to part of her interview on some FM channel. The RJ asked her about the dilemma that many modern women face – career or marriage. Without mincing any words, she categorically said that if a woman wants to reach the top of her career she shouldn’t get married because the giant ego of a man will hardly be able to tolerate her success thus leading to marital discord.

Three cheers for you AshaJi for telling it like it is!

Sometimes your own actions and thoughts can surprise you, isn’t it? I was reading Steve Berry’s “The Venetian Betrayal” when I came across a line on a page that described a delegation as “three women and one man, one of them the Vice President”. For some reason that I am yet to fathom, I assumed that the VP was the man. Turned out that one of the women was the VP.

Now I agree that I am not any extreme bra-burning feminist. But I find men who consider themselves superior just because they were born men simply ridiculous. And that’s the reason I am surprised – and a little angry – at myself for this.

What’s with Bhajji? It wasn’t a pretty sight watching him lash out at a hapless photographer just because in the crowd his camera touched Bhajji’s head slightly. And when are these journos going to realize that the best way to make such arrogant “celebrities” fall in line is not to chase them?

Sometimes you come across some news that makes you wonder whether you should laugh or cry.

Two days back I read that the Conservatives in the US are up in arms against the president for some speech that he made at some school extolling hard work and perseverance. According to them he is trying to indoctrinate the students in his “Socialistic” thoughts. What has hard work and perseverance got to do with Socialistic views? I don’t have a clue. I wonder if Mr. Obama is also scratching his head at the Oval office :-)

The other news that made me gasp in sheer perplexity was about some parents who made sure that their precious offspring arrived in this world on the auspicious day of 9/9/2009 – at 9:09am. I felt sad for the tiny ones who were yanked out of the comfort of their mom’s womb just because their stupid parents believed that the child would be blessed with good fortune if he/she is born on an auspicious day!

The parents didn’t even spare a thought that by this atrocious act they could be permanently harming their child’s immune system. What has this world come to? :-(

I had been to Crossword because they had a sale going on. It felt good to see the place crowded with people who wanted to buy books. While waiting for my turn at the checkout counter I noticed that Dan Brown's new novel "The Lost Symbol" is going to be out on 15th. It will be a while before I can see it in my library. But already I cannot wait to get my hands on it. :-)

I had decided to read all of Robert Ludlum's novels that are in the library but the convoluted plots of both "The Lazarus Vendetta" and "The Rhinemann Exchange" proved a bit too much to digest. So this time I brought home Steve Berry's "The Venetian Betrayal".

So far the plot looks promising what with the missing body of Alexander the Great and a Greek Fire that spreads more when doused with water. I hope it doesn's get more complicated than this. :-)

One more proof that I am not one of the average women! I had been to the Lakme saloon last weekend when I saw the following on the wall - An Average woman spends 2000 hours annually caring for her nails.

5 minutes of nail-clipping and 10 minutes of applying nail-polish - twice every month. That works out to be 30 minutes per month and 6 hours per year, as far as I am concerned. Ample proof that I am not an average one, what say? :-)

I had thought that 'The Lazarus Vendetta" by Robert Ludlum had a complicated plot. Now I realize that it was a hasty judgement on my part. "The Rhinemann Exchange" seems to have a more convoluted one :-)

You must have seen one of those movies in which parallel worlds collide. I never believed any of that until 2 days back when on my way to Pune for a client meeting I saw what must surely have been a scene from the Heaven!

The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is a sight to behold during these months – a lush green carpet everywhere the eyes can reach and the mountains standing guard over the horizon. But I was a little distracted what with new Swine Flu cases still being reported in Pune. And then at a little bend in the road the car stopped abruptly. This normally doesn’t happen on the Expressway so I craned by neck forward to check out if there was an accident. It looked like a truck was taking a U-Turn and that’s what had caused the holdup.

With nothing better to do for the next 5 minutes, I turned to my left and came across a little patch of green – emerald green, a refreshing shade that gives you a cool feeling. A number of white and yellow butterflies were prancing about in the tall grass. And in the distance, the mountain-tops were surrounded by dark rain clouds.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. I could have sat there forever in the car without a care in the world. For a moment, it really looked like my world had collided with Heaven and I was getting a glimpse into its beauty and peace.

Then, unfortunately, the car started and the spell broke। But I know in my heart of hearts that whenever I travel by the Expressway in future I will be forever on the lookout for that small bend in the road because tucked in its corner, is my very own heaven! :-)

Why do we say that “it’s not rocket science” when we have to indicate that something isn’t very difficult? God knows the things that hum and whirl and tick in a pilot’s cockpit in a commercial aircraft are way beyond the comprehension of mortal beings.

I realized it when I watched the program “May Day – Hanging by a thread” on National Geographic. This was about an accident in Hawaii in which the top portion of an aircraft got blew away by an explosion in midair. What saved the lives of the passengers and most of the crew was the 4 beams that held together the cockpit with the rest of the plane.

The original footage was something straight out of a nightmare – an aircraft with no roof over part of its section. What made the program interesting was the investigation and the testimony of the experts. Don’t miss this one if you ever get a chance to watch!

I haven’t come here for a week. And Bill Gates is responsible for that! Don’t believe it? Here’s what he has said:

Every morning get up and look through the list of richest people in the world.
If your name is not there, please go to work!

That’s why I have been going to work every morning and that’s why I haven’t been able to come here :-)

And now some forwarded food for thought:

If you stand for a reason, be prepared to stand alone like a tree।

If you fall on the ground, fall as a seed that grows back to fight again.

लोग पढ़ लेते है आखो से दिलों की हालत
अब मुझसे तेरे गम की हिफाज़त नहीं होती

I saw the following email in my mailbox today:

Dear Customer ,

ICICI Bank wishes to inform all its valued customers that we are experiencing a virus attack recently in our software. We are undergoing a system upgrade and hereby we mandate that all our customers update their Online Banking Account now so that you can be able to enjoy our full service(s) of your Online Banking Daily Transactions.

You are requested to update your passwords by following the reference below.:

Sounds fishy, doesn't it? I thought I will report it like a good samaritan. So for next 10 minutes or so I searched the legit ICICI site for any email or phone I could use to bring it to someone's notice.

The email link didn't give out any address, it was just a page to send them a message. The numbers were for phone banking which demanded some code or other which I neither had time nor patience to hunt around for.

I was on the point of giving up when I found this:
http://icicibank.com/Pfsuser/spoofs/bewareoffrauds.html


There is an email address buried at the end and I finally forwarded the above mail to that address :-) Can't you see the Halo that's framing my face now? :-)

बाप्पा, तुम्ही येणार येणार म्हणताना आता तुमचं आगमन दोन दिवसांवर आले। :-) तुमच्या मंगलचरणांच्या नुसत्या चाहुलीने स्वाईन फ्लूने काढता पाय घेतलाय. आता एक क्रृपा आणखी करा. येताना तुमच्याबरोबर वरुणराजाला घेऊन या. यंदा आमच्यावर रुसलाय तो. चूक आमचीच आहे म्हणा. झाडं तोडून पर्यावरणाची वाट आम्हीच लावली आहे. त्याला का दोष द्यायचा? तरी एव्हढी चूक पोटात घाला बाप्पा. येताना पाऊस घेऊन या. मग भले तुमच्या दर्शनाला आम्हाला छत्र्या घेऊन उभं रहायला लागू देत.

लवकर या. आम्ही सगळे आतुरतेने वाट पहातोय. :-)

And now, some food for thought! This one was sent by a friend last week:

When you rise up, your friends know who you are.

When you fall down, you know who your friends are.

English, as they say, is a funny language and it gets funnier in India. A couple of days back I was in the "Subway" for my favorite veggie salad. I was happily munching on it when 2 teenage girls walked by for a veggie sandwich. As usual, the guy at the counter asked them about their choice of vegetables.

Now, these girls wanted all the veggies but in small portions. So they started saying "less....less....more less....more less". It was all I could do not to laugh at the bewildered expression on the face of the guy behind the counter as he struggled to understand whether the girls meant "more" or "less" - without realizing that what they really meant was "lesser" :-)

It was not the first time that I was reading anything about the Nazis in general and about Auschwitz in particular. But every time I read about both, I am shaken to the core. This time it was an excerpt from a Marathi book that mentioned the concentration camp. The writer talked about how he saw rooms full of discarded baggage from the Jews - with their names marked out in chalk. There was another room which contained empty tins of the deadly poison that was used to snuff life out of the unfortunate ones. And then the place where gold was yanked out of the teeth of the corpses.

And then there is a room that is filled upto the ceiling with toys that the children must have carried with them to Auschwitz - it's just that their owners are no longer around to play with them.

It took me a while to push past this all and read on the rest of the excerpt. :-(

I have often wondered in the past as to how the world could turn a blind eye as millions were slaughtered for no fault of theirs. And then I realized that the world was busy with its "life" - just as I am "busy" with my job, my family and my petty complaints while there are many who need help right here in my country :-(

What's with these BJP guys? First it was LK Advani who was bitten by the "Jinnah" bug. And now it is Jaswant Singh. As if that wasn't enough, it seems that it was Advani who hastened Jaswant Singh's expulsion from the party on this ground.

They see it is hard to understand a woman. I guess it is even harder to understand a politician!

Two little boys, ages 8 and 10, were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew all about it. If any mischief occurred in their town, the two boys were probably involved.

The boys' mother heard that a preacher in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys.

The preacher agreed, but he asked to see them individually.. So the mother sent the 8 year old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the preacher in the afternoon.

The preacher, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, 'Do you know where God is, son?'

The boy's mouth dropped open , but he made no response, sitting there wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open.

So the preacher repeated the question in an even sterner tone, 'Where is God?'

Again, the boy made no attempt to answer. The preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, 'Where is God?'

The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.

When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, 'What happened?'
The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, 'We are in BIG trouble this time,'

'GOD is missing, and they think we did it!'

Two of the culinary shows on TV didn’t treat yesterday as just “Business as usual”. They made sure that the significance of the day was taken cognizance of during the course of their show.
The first was “Chakh Le India” (NDTV Good Times). Host Aditya Bal was in the City of Joy – Calcutta. He visited Netaji Bhavan.

I must confess that I have never been much impressed by Gandhiji’s idea of a non-violent freedom struggle – especially when it resulted in heavy casualties on the Indian side. Netaji’s “tum muze khoon do, mai tumhe azadi dunga” sounded much more practical. It was a tragedy that he died in a plane crash. If we had more firebrand leaders like him around I guess we could have put a tighter leash on our errant neighbor long time back and it wouldn’t have grown to become such a nasty headache that it is now. That said however, there is no denying that all those conspiracy theories about the possibility of his surviving the plane crash and being alive in the Himalayas make good teatime stories!

So it was amazing to see all his personal belongings preserved in the same state since the days he was residing at the premises.

I have been to Calcutta once – during the Navaratri festival. It was an experience! But I have always regretted that I couldn’t see the famous Howrah Bridge :-( Now I have one more place to visit during my next trip to the city :-)

The TV Guide said that the episode of The Foodie (Times Now) was going to be at Wagah. So I tuned in hoping that I will be able to see the Change of Guard at the border amidst cheers of “भारत माता की जय”. Host Kunal Vijayakar, however, took the viewers to the National Defense Academy.

And the dining hall there had a table that was cordoned off on all sides. It was a table meant for the POWs (Prisoners of War) and MIAs (Missing in Action) – in short, for those who could not make it back home from the battlefield!

The book that’s beside my bedside table these days is Robert Ludlum’s "The Scorpio Illusion". I can’t seem to get enough of the Agency and the Bureau :-)

The Lazarus Vendetta - by Robert Ludlum

Just finished reading “The Lazarus Vendetta” by Robert Ludlum. A few years ago the storyline would have seem outlandish. But in these days of sudden rapid outbreak of diseases like SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu, it’s not a question of“if” anymore but “when”. :-(

The storyline then, without further ado. It all begins at a remote village in the strife-torn country of Zimbabwe. The workers of the Lazarus movement who are trying to promote natural farming there are shocked to find that all the residents have been killed in the most grotesque way imaginable – their bodies reduced to a pile of slime and bones. They don’t get much time to react though as unseen snipers gun them down. The scene is repeated outside the Teller Institute – that’s housing research facilities of many Nanotechnology companies – when the members of the movement stage a protest rally there, just ahead of US President Sam Castilla’s visit.

The world watches, terrified as its worst fears about US secret weapons of mass destruction are confirmed day by day. And Lieutanant Colonel Jonathan Smith who is called upon to make sense of the situation that is rapidly sliding out of the control of Uncle Sam, finds that somewhere in this saga of death and destruction are involved two of the most prestigious US intelligence services – the Bureau (that’s FBI, for the uninitiated!) and the Agency (that’s CIA, again for the uninitiated!) - and Britain’s MI6!

I was amused at the brouhaha over Shahrukh Khan’s 2 hour detention at the Newark airport. The man has been spoilt by the fans closer home treating him like God. So I was delighted that someone decided to point out to him that he is – like the rest of us – a mere mortal. C’mon Shahrukh, as you yourself said in one of your movies – बड़े बड़े शहरोमे ऐसी छोटी छोटी बातें होती रहती है. I guess the yanks weren’t amused by the line “डॉन को पकड़ना मुश्किल ही नही नामुमकिन है” :-)

Happy Independence Day India!

Like so many Independence Days, today too I woke up listening to the same old patriotic songs from bygone Bollywood movies blaring through the loudspeakers – मेरे देश की धरती सोना उगले, वंदे मातरम and ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगो.

Then the familiar feelings and thoughts came back – as on all past Independence Days. Why do we have a day off on this date? Majority of us treat it like any other holiday – lolling about in beds, completing our pending chores from the week or visiting friends. Why cannot our offices use this day – maybe on a voluntary basis – to plan some concrete measures for the benefit of the society which we can then implement in the later half of the year? But the gloom lasted only for a while. I have decided that I will not spend the day doing normal chores.

I have started by sending the customary SMS to all my friends. The difference this time was that I didn’t send any forwarded message – I constructed my own and sent it.

Then I switched on the TV in the hopes of watching some decent footage of the 1947 Independence Day. No luck! Half the channels were airing the Prime Minister’s speech in which he was either claiming that they were ready for half the disasters currently plaguing India or claiming that they were busy making plans for the other half. And the remaining channels were airing some news about BJP’s Rajnath and Vasundhara Sindia. I guess India’s filthy politicians (now isn’t that an oxymoron?) will keep squabbling for their petty turfs even if the Apocalypse comes!

History channel looked promising enough as the TV Guide showed a program “Colours of War – Tryst with Destiny”. Unfortunately it raised my BP to dangerous levels as I watched “stiff-upper lip” Brits enjoy such luxury that they couldn’t have hoped to enjoy back home – all at the natives’ expense. The program showed very little of India’s freedom struggle and even gave an impression that the Brits left India solely to honour their promise of giving India her freedom in exchange for help in fighting 2nd World War! What a funny idea!

On top of it, the gruesome partition scenes boiled my blood and I cursed the Brits for dividing the nation in two - leaving millions to suffer. I don’t normally use any expletives but as I watched Mountbatten’s (I don’t care if this spelling is wrong and I hope to God it is. That’s my tiny revenge!) wife visiting the refugee camps, I lost my cool. What cheek!

There was a silver lining to the cloud though – it was a different feeling watching many of India’s leaders from that era apart from Nehru and Gandhi – Sardar VallabhBhai Patel, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad to name a few. I remember seeing them last in the history books and the walls of the school classrooms. :-(

I am not overly superstitious but when the program showed a rainbow that appeared across the skies the day India gained her freedom, I felt that the Gods themselves have blessed the birth of our free nation. Whatever our shortcomings and fallies – I know now we will triumph in the end. We will keep our Tryst With the Destiny :-)

काल जन्माष्टमी! देवाच्या ह्या अवताराबद्दल मला नेहमीच एक कुतूहल आणि माया वाटत आली आहे। ह्या बाळाचा जन्मच कसला विलक्षण। कंसच्या लाडक्या बहिणीचं लग्न होतं काय, 'देवकिच्या पोटी जन्म घेणारा आठवा पुत्र तुझा वध करेल" अशी आकाशवाणी होते काय आणि कंस वासुदेव देवकिला कोठडित डाम्बतो काय। लहान असताना मला आपलं वाटायचं कंस पण मुर्खच - पहिलंच मूल जिवंत ठेवलं असतं तर आठवा मुलगा जन्माला आलाच असता कशाला? पण वय वाढलं आणि समजलं की देवाने निर्दालन करण्यासाठी दुष्टाचे पापाचे घडे पण पूर्ण भरावे लागतात। सनी किंवा बोबी देओलच्या पिक्चर्स सारखा "फैसला ऑन द स्पॉट " नसतो.

पण आठवा मुलगा जन्माला आला खरा। आणि कोठडीवरच्या पहारेकर्याना झोप लागली। कमबशीबी लेकाचे! साक्षात देवाचा जन्म पहायचे भाग्य लाभले असते पण तेव्हाच झोप लागली। कोठडीचे दरवाजे आपोआप उघडले ते मुठी चोखणार्या तान्ह्या बाळ्क्रुष्णाला गोकुलात नेणारया वसुदेवासाठी। वाटेत पसरलेली यमुना आणि तूफान पावसामुळे तिला आलेला पूर, देवाचे निळेशार पाय लागावेत म्हणून उंच उंच उसळणार्या तिच्या लाटा आणि सगळ्या जगावर मायेची पाखर घालणार्या देवावर छत करणारा शेषनाग! ज्या पंचमहाभूतांच्या तांडवाला ते द्रृष्य दिसले ते भाग्यवान!

मला क्रृष्णाच्या आणि येशू ख्रिस्ताच्या जन्मात नेहमीच एक साम्य वाटत आलं आहे. तो गोठ्यात जन्माला आला आणि हा तुरुंगात. त्याला राजा हेरॉड पासून धोका होता. ह्याला कंसापासून. सगळंच अद्भुत!

एका जमिनीत रुजून दुसरीकडे वाढणार्या रोपट्यासारखं हे बाळ वाढलं ते गोकुळात. आणि मग सुरू झाल्या एकेक लीला - पूतनेचा वध, कालियामर्दन, गोवर्धन आणि लोण्याची चोरी. हातात लोण्याचा गोळा,चेहेर्यावर खेळतं मिश्किल हसू, कुरळया केसावर डुलणारं मोरपीस आणि कमरेला खोचलेली जगाला वेड लावणारी बासरी - ज्याना निर्गुणाची उपासना करायची त्याना करु देत. मला मात्र हे सगुण रूपच आवडतं.

मला स्वतःला रामावतार कधीच भावला नाही. इतकं सद्वर्तन फक्त देवाकडून होऊ शकतं, मर्त्य मानवाकडून नाही. पण माखनचोर क्रृष्ण मात्र हल्लीच्या भाषेत ज्याला "प्रॅक्टिकल" म्हणतात त्यातला. अर्जुन आणि दुर्योधन दोघेही युध्दासाठी मदत मागायला आले असताना पायाशी बसलेला अर्जुन ह्याला आधी दिसला. "अश्वत्त्थ मेला" अशी आवई उठवून द्रोणांना युध्दभूमीवरुन बाजूला केलं ते ह्याने. शिखंडीचा वापर करुन भीष्माना हटवलं. आणि ऐनवेळी गलितगात्र झालेल्या अर्जुनाला त्याच्या कर्तव्याची जाणीव करुन दिली. सत्याला पण देवाची मदत लागतेच की.

काही महिन्यांपूर्वी माऊंट अबूमध्ये एका साध्वीचं निधन झाल्याची बातमी वाचली. ही साध्वी क्रृष्णभक्त होती. त्या लेखात असंही म्हटलं होतं की अनेकांनी स्वत:च्या कानांनी तिच्या खोलीतून पैंजणांचा आवाज आणि लहान मुलाचे बोबडे बोल ऐकले होते. चार पुस्तकं (जरा जास्तच!) शिकलेल्या माझया बुध्दीने भुवया उंचावल्या. पण शतकानुशतकांचे अद्रृश्य संस्कार ल्यालेलं मन लगेच म्हणालं "असेलही कदाचित. देव भक्तासाठी काहीही करतो म्हणतात."

क्रृष्णजन्माच्या शुभेच्छा - हाथी घोडा पालखी, जय कन्हैया लालकी!