How to Travel Light : My Memories of Madness and Melancholia

I picked this book up at the Delhi airport. If you see the cover, the bit about 'My Memories of Madness and Melancholia' is in very small text and I picked it up thinking it was a book about organising your life and travelling.

What was shocking is the candour with which the writer talks about being bipolar and how it impacts his life, his family and his career. It is heartening to see how he talks about his mentors who are understanding of his condition and does not paint the corporate world as a big bad world. The book also delves on sexual abuse by close family members and talks about it without shame.

It was an engaging read, but a little self indulgent for my taste. What works for it is that you walk away feeling like its someone you know closely, or a maybe about you sometimes. 

Charandas Chor

It was during the Spic Macay season at IIT-Delhi. I had pretty much waited my whole life to have access to such music/dance/drama etc. I had never really seen a professional performance. Linus, the Spic veteran had told me of MS Subbalakshmi and her need to drink a glass of warm milk before a concert, and some others who needed to drink some other things. We heard Bismillah Khan play in our hostel garden, saw Sonal Mansingh tell the poor MC off, because he mispronounced her name. (She also did a scary "Aaj Ki Naari" thing that I didn't laugh at because I was afraid of the possible punishment).
I thought I had soaked up enough culture when Linus dragged me to a play, he said something about Habib Tanvir. I could not sound un-arty with him so I decided to tag along (I remember everyone else being busy). Seminar Hall was packed, I was relieved...it meant we could leave. But I was bullied into sitting in on the floor which could seat only one half...of the big future behind me. But the next one hour was one of the best times of my life.
Charandas Chor is one of those fantastic folk plays from Central India, with a lovely Hindi dialect , outstanding performances and lots of characters. It was funny, simple and had a moral. The cast were entirely non actors, mostly locals from Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. I was so mesmerised by what I saw that I am sure I can recognise the actor who played Charandas. I knew that this is one point in time that I will remember happily forever.
The applause for each actor at the end was brilliant, the hall was vibrating and when a frail old man walked on stage it was deafening. You knew he was a leader, without even hearing him.
Habib Tanvir was one India's greatest playwrights. He was not afraid to have an opinion. His work was known for its political & social conscience, he recently recieved an award from NDTV, his speech was, "I think electronic media is destroying language. Actors don't know how to speak anymore".
I would always tell my friends that if ever they get a chance to watch the play, nothing should stop them. I don't know if you can anymore. Habib Tanvir passed away today.

The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay

Author: Siddarth Dhanvant Sanghvi
Publisher: Penguin Viking
Zone : Trying too hard

This book was clearly was written to sell, beginning with the provocative cover with Meghna Reddy.

The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay puts together some big scandals(Jessica Lal, Salman Khan running over people etc.,), of the last 2 decades and makes one story of them.There is no hiding the fact that there is no orginality. Only the names are changed to weave the story around the characters. That makes it nothing more than a clever MBA project.

You have to be patient with this book. It suffers from some of the many problems of books written nowadays- over setting the context, too many issues, inconsistent characterisation, really bad one liners - "Character building is too much work","Mumbai is about as appealing a name for a city as Gonorrhoea."

Inspite of the above the book really grabs your interest with its sensitivity and pace.The places where it works are when the reader is allowed to to use her own brains. The characters belong to a class of people that I have never met, but seem strangely familiar. The good ones are - Rhea who is married to her childhood sweetheart who she loves but is tired of it all, Samar the brilliant pianist who gives up his career but we never know why.

Not bad.

So old..So Senti..So me

This was a mail to Linus on my last day in SBI:

Sentimental
It is what you have always called me so I dedicate what I’m writing to you.

Today March 24th 2007, Saturday was my last day at State Bank of India. I said goodbye to the LHO and I felt numb. There was a typical SBI gesture of a relieving gathering, one which I begged that they wouldn’t because of how embarrassing it could be, where all concerned would look at me with adoring eyes and bid me a gentle and loving goodbye. I know that it was me who wanted out but that didn’t stop me from feeling a little sorry.

June 24th 2006 was my first day at LHO in Hyderabad and strangely also a Saturday. I sat sitting in front of the computer twiddling my thumbs hoping for something to happen. I sat twiddling my thumbs today waiting for my DGM to come.

The first day the first thing I did was go to the Main branch to open my SB account. There was a lean 6 feet 2 inches tall man called Chowdary who opened my account that day. The last thing I did today was close my account at the main branch; ironically it was Chowdary who did it for me.

Today when the lady at the counter said there were too many customers and she wouldn’t close the account a special person helped me. It was a deaf mute messenger who stood there stubbornly till my work was done. He was someone who I saw on and off in the lift and all we did was salute each other in Hyderabadi style.

There I met 2 lady AGMs who I interacted with frequently. Both of them patted me on the cheek. My DGM said “I will miss you on a personal level”. My boss who I am most intimidated by said “No matter what I will still call you when I want to “.

At the gathering I was touched, but I’m too cynical and strangely very hurt by totally unconnected events and unrelated people, to ever believe anything kind that anyone has to say about me.

To all the really nice people of SBI and all the customers I have ever met and to every little thing I have learnt about myself these last ten months….Thank you SBI…and off to another factory.

Taxi on the Dark Side

Believe me and my ignorance when I say I had never heard of this one. I was watching the 9’o clock news on NDTV 24X7 when the ticker below kept flashing Coming up: Taxi on the Dark Side, I decided to watch this instead of Channel [V] Get Gorgeous! (Yes…guilty). There is no doubt that from the minute it starts it involves you and all your concentration.

Taxi on the Dark Side is a one hour documentary about the violent interrogation techniques used by the US forces/Bush administration on ‘suspected terrorists’ in Afghanistan

Maybe it is the subject itself-of complete disrespect of a fellow being’s dignity, or the gripping yet compassionate way that it is made, or just plain shock value - it works.

The idea that such horrors of interrogation techniques exist and especially that women can be a party to them was maybe the saddest feeling I took away from it. That there is such injustice and that it prevails without the necessary opposite reaction scares me.

It has been over 24 hours that I have seen it and I have spoken to 3 people about it and argued with one for over an hour about the need for the existence of religion. It is what great productions represent, they create such an impact that people discuss it for days after.

You must watch it. It will awaken all your sense of humanity and fairness which is now lost in your very small and selfish life.

Just found out – it is the 2008 Oscar winner for Best Documentary.

These Old Shades.

On a lazy afternoon during the summer holiday when it didn't matter what day it was , at the window of the drawing room, when Ajay was away searching for the safety pin that Prabha hid somewhere, the aunt and niece combo were sitting and discussing what to do with their lives. Then a monkey came and sat in a very Marredpally arrogant way on the other side of the window. Annapurna had as usual so many thoughts running through her mind .," Oh my god!! There is a monkey here, how do I seem brave to Prabha..abba she is never scared. " and " Did i brush this morning, I never know when I am on holiday" and "How can I want to eat Manchurian now!!!!!". Prabha had only one thought " Bah!! this girl thinks I am so brave. Now must do something to seem cooler. How to die."

Prabha very casually says " You are scared aren't you, hehe." Paapam Annapurna replies " Ille. I don't know why you would think that".

"A friend once told me that if you shake a monkey's paw then you will become pretty, smart and good at sports."

Idiot aunt says " I knew that." puts out her hand and lets just say once bitten. Prabha feels bad or what says " You don't even know how to do that right. See", and twice bitten.

And they run out of the house, never once looking back to see if their bitesmonkey has even bothered to follow.They hide behind a bench at the park when Prabha asks" You feel anything :. An always worried semi crying Annaps "No. Should I? Oh my god I am not?"

"Shut up. We are fine then".

Not admitting to each other that they are petrified, spending the rest of the day ensuring they are surrounded by adults.

Early next morning something happened that never happened before. Prabha woke up first.

(To be continued)

Video Maketh the Moojic

About time I wrote about something I watch the most and something I watch the most while watching the thing that I watch the most. I belong to a generation of couch/diwan/floor potato fries (not particular about the furniture I slaughter) and am unashamedly one of those who naturally switches to the music channel, am no fancy-nancy (didn’t draw) angrezi music (atleast video..lets salvage some pride here) aficionado. So most mornings, bridging the gap in between my early morning dhin chak and fast fast readying is MTV, Channel V and Zoom (yes…gimme half mark for honesty).

Now there are some movies that you may never remember but the videos are really interesting in that they have character about them, and eventually you end up liking the song. I have a list of these and chances are my friends will disown me after this.

1.Cash: Bunch of uncharismatic paapam flip-FLOPing actors – Zayed Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Esha Deol and Shamita Shetty ( had to pause while typing this because I forgot her name).The song has stuck in mind so now sometimes I think -SOX mere front mein, SOX mere back mein, ……..SOX on my mind doing review all the time!

2.Apna Sapna Money Money – Dil me baji guitar: I love the song and the video is also a lot of fun. There is good boy Shreyas Talpade, Her Royal Hotness Riya Sen, Why-not-to-Botox Koena Mitra and again Secondary Storage device (floppy) Ritesh Deshmukh. My mother seems to be emerging as a key character in my blog …but she is a lot of fun. She looked at the girl Ritesh and said “See how pretty this new girl is, you should stop having a complex about being dark!” He is very pretty as a girl and doesn’t do the typical guy pretending to be girl vulgar moves.

3.Jab We Met: Pretty Kareena and prettier & daintier Shahid in a song in the national language of Hindi movies- Punjabi. I can’t comprehend the lyrics (how could I …I am trained to watch Hindi movies not Punjabi)…but it has a great beat dum-lak-lak (yes Vijh…got it from you only ) only much faster song. The monkey gang and I have no idea why we start running and jumping every time this on TV.

4.Race: It is apparently a action movie…don’t bother. It will only be about the three lambu hotties and the song where the aspirational benchmarks of all Indian women (Bipasha and Katrina ) and the will never be taken seriously ever Reddy (Sameera) full to walk up and down in near doggy-ka-bachcha shame attire.

5.Rafta Rafta: This is a song from Hulchul….I know no one has seen it, but I love the movie and the song. Also I think Kareena Kapoor looks best with Akshaye Khanna.

And then there are the usual Beedi, Kajra Re types which now have become irritating but no music channel will stop playing ever.

Cringe as much as you want…I know you people also watch this stuff.