It's pure pleasure watching episodes of 'Jamie At Home' (weekends, Zee Cafe, 1:30pm). This is one chef who believes in sharing his secrets. It's a different matter that we in India cannot get all the veggies that he uses or cannot eat all the meat that he cooks. But watching him cook is so infectious that you want to run to the kitchen right at that moment and start cooking :-) Oh, and his vegetable garden is to die for, really!

There is no dearth of bizarre news these days. Did you just say 'huh'? Well, check this one out - US puts six-year-old Indian origin American girl on "no fly" list. A case of a mistaken identity, perhaps? Who is gonna tell the Homeland Security though.

Hats off to people of Sarwarpur!

Positive news rarely gets any publicity. That's what I thought again when I read a news item about how a Sikh community in a remote Punjab village restored a mosque that was torn down in 1947. They have handed it over to the Muslims in the area.

Hats off to these people! We need more of them around :-)

Sometimes I am amazed by the associations our brain seems to be retaining. About 2 weeks back I was reading an article about the blockade in the North-eastern state of Manipur. I was also listening to an FM channel and a song I had never heard before started playing. Its starting music didn't sound promising but lateron it somehow caught my full attention. To date I have no idea which movie it is from or what its picturisation looks like. But it evoked memories of a rain-washed landscape. I stopped reading the article and concentrated fully on the song. But as it played along my eyes remained fixed on the photo in the article. It showed a national highway which is the only link from Manipur to the rest of the country. An SUV was traveling across it. When the song finished, I again started reading that article.

The same song played on an FM channel today morning. And in my mind's eye I could see the highway and the SUV. I guess they are now irrevocably associated together as far as I am concerned. :-)

Oh, btw, that song is 'ऐसा समा ना होता, कुछ भी यहाँ ना होता, मेरे हमराही जो तुम ना होते".

मराठी नाटक पाहून किती दिवस झाले असं वाटतंय. गिरिश ओक अभिनीत "तो मी नव्हेच" ची जाहिरात वाचून मी जाम खूश झाले होते. पण एकदम ती जाहिरात गायब झाली. मग पेपरात वाचलं की ते नाटकाच्या दौर्‍यासाठी परदेशी गेलेत. आता त्यांच्या "यु टर्न" ह्या नाटकाच्या जाहिराती पुन्हा दिसू लागल्या आहेत. त्यामुळे मी आतुरतेने "तो मी नव्हेच" च्या जाहिरातींची वाट पहातेय. ह्या नाटकाबद्दल खूप ऐकलंय - अर्थात ते जुन्या नटसंचातल्या नाटकाबद्दल. पण नव्या नटसंचात पहायला मिळतंय हेही नसे थोडके. पाहू केव्हा योग येतो ते.

तुम्हीही नाटकाचे चहाते असाल तर ही बातमी तुमच्यासाठी खुशखबर. सुनील बर्वे जुनी गाजलेली नाटकं नव्या नटांना घेऊन काढतोय. पहिलं नाटक येतंय ते सूर्याची पिल्लं. अधिक माहितीसाठी लोकसत्तातली ही बातमी वाचा - जुनी नाटकं नवे कलाकार.

मुंबईतल्या झपाट्याने कमी होणार्‍या झाडांबद्द्ल नुसतं पालिकेला दोषी धरून चालणार नाही. तुमच्याआमच्यासारख्या सामान्य नागरिकांनी होईल तितकं केलं पाहिजे. तुमच्या सोसायटीच्या आवारात लावायला झाडं हवी असतील तर ती विकत घेण्याची सोय पालिकेने केली आहे - वृक्षतोडीनंतर झाडे लावण्यात येतात की नाही यावर पालिकेची नजर

वडाचं झाड लावायचंय? आता तुम्हाला रोप घरबसल्या मिळू शकेल. अधिक माहितीसाठी ही लिंक पहा - वडाचे रोप आता घरपोच!