Tuesday, December 28, 2010

i have seen a decade now!


i was born in the year 1991.
the time when india had started merging with west. the fashion, the style, the aura, the life of the west was pouring into india. its really depressing that i could not see this change. the other day a friend of mine who is quite elder to me was discussing about the 90s. since he had a great time experiencing and growing in that era, i found him to be the right person to speak and share about 90s.
Mc Donalds in delhi was first opened at priya and people were really crazy to get the ham. 48Rs for one burger in mid 90s. so was dominoz, i was told that it was a status symbol to work in dominoz.
now when the year has come to an end and 2011 is approaching i suddenly realized that even i have seen a decade. even though i have lived through 2, 90s and 00s.
i vaguely remember the 90s but yes i have grown up in a decade that gave beginning to a millennium.
like people discuss about 90s today, what all would be linked to 00s?
no one actually knew how distinct 90s was till the time 2000 initiated and maybe it will take time for us to relate specific colors, technology, feeling, fragrance, discussions and ideas to the decade of 00s.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

catharsis


the very first time that i stepped out of my home was after class 10th board exams and today if people say that i wander in delhi i credit it to the time when i started it.
if i look back there have been innumerable instances when i have aimlessly wandered throughout the city. this isolated voyage of mine has associated a lot of events that have been important to me.
it was in january 2010 that i decided to visit the surajkund mela in faridabad.
yes i am lazy and lethargic and that was the first reason for me to carry just 100 bucks and a some change considering the fact that i had the A.T.M. card with me.
i missed my college and called my climatology teacher to ask about the exact loctation of this mela, actually she was from haryana. i boarded the local train from sahibabad railway station, the train that was to take one and a half hour to reach faridabad but it took the double time. i was lazy and so was the train. anyhow i reached faridabad railway station at around 1 P.M.
amidst of lots locals i spotted a white couple, hippies. i understood they too were heading to the mela. in the next ten minutes we 3 were in an auto rickshaw heading to the mela. 50 bucks each. so i was left with merely Rs. 50.
but why would have i cared. i had the A.T.M. card. then began the struggle to search for the withdrawl counter. i found one inside the mela which had a que so long that i felt it wasnt just me who was lethargic. i was among a huge number of people.
but what could be worse than my ATM card not working. WTF!.
maybe i need to search for some HDFC bank nearby. hotel rajhans which was 1km away and had pnb atm. i am grateful to that gaurd who suggested me to move towards the residential society opposite to the mela. finally i wethdrew RS.2000. my atm card was operating two accounts, one was the old account and the other was the account i got transfered to the nearest branch to my house. those hdfc idiots had not shut my previous account due to which a non hdfc atm was not accepting my card. the moment i pulled the recipt i ran towards the mela across the road. i had to buy the mela ticket again. but finally i had made it. with money in my wallet. camera hanging from my neck. another two hours and then i left for delhi. and this time i took a bus which dropped me at kashmere gate. before i had entered delhi i got a call from an unknown number.
and that was when dubeat began...
another new set of experiences...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010




the last time i wrote here i was clueless about what all will i learn from the cwg 2010. the world we live in is often cited as a compact one. even though we have lesser distances to travel in lesser time we always remain in a complete ignorance about this beautiful planet of ours. people often demand a world without any territorial bifurcation or any country but i disagree. i had never heard of any island nation called 'cook islands' but now i know that people there have a tradition of wearing a crown made of flowers. every morning when i used to report for my work at the ashok hotel, i used to find this lady with that flower crown on her head and the best part was when the entire team of cook islands appeared in those crowns during the opening ceremony walk. this made me think a lot. we never even care about this 'entire' world even though we are a part of it. we never think and neither do we realize that this world is not just india,pakistan,china,U.S.A.,britain,canada,africa.russia. the world is HUGE.
the day of the openeing ceremony when all the guests were boarding the bus for the jawaharlal nehru stadium i got an oppurtunity to smile and i myself know that the smile wasnt fake. every individual was dressed in the native attire. and it was beautiful to see all of them. i realize that for many of us it would be odd to wear a red bermuda along with a black blazer with black stockings till the knees. i smiled at the gentleman and realized how lucky i was to see such a blend of cultures from across the globe. i might be focusing on clothing just because that was the only way i could understand every person around me. a tall lady wearing some traditional gown with her head wrapped in a cloth that matched the gown marched to the bus. this wasnt a usual gown. whatever it was, it was interesting. amidst all these people i did get a glimpse of people wearing something i was known to. it was when a lady from pakistan appeared in the lobby in salwaar kameez that i returned from a world of thoughts where i was lost.

st.helina. it takes around two weeks for the people of this nation to reach india. an isolated nation in the south atlantic ocean. how do they celebrate?what do they do on new years? do they all discuss about global warming?

rasta. no i am not talking about any path. its the style that bob marley carried on his head. someone who has a rasta ia a ras.

trinidad and tobago in the carribean is an island nation where 47% of the people are of indian origin.hindi is amongst the languages spoken there. my delegate was from trinidad. the first time i met mr. michael romany, i was a bit nervous. i never knew the next twelve days would be my most memorable days. i had a great time with the trinadian people. i sat on the front seat next to the drivers where my view was blocked by the cwg sticker and the trinidad flag i had pasted above it. extending my neck to the right offered me the view of the road ahead. on my way back from the airport after me delegate left india i peeled off the flag carefully from the glass and placed it in my pocket. i started missing them. my delegate who was calm and cool, president of the CGA of his counry loved to see live matches in india, from netball to velodrome to hockey and rugby on the last day.

a plenty of things can be written but the most important one is that the world which has infinite horizons, uncountable people can be dealt with just one expression and that is a smile which we indians need to learn. the only curve that sets everything straight.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

राष्ट्रीयमंडल खेल 2010


9 days to go for the commonwealth games, delhi 2010.
an year back i had applied for the volunteer program of the commmonwealth games. right from the beginning i have got to hear about the games as a world class event that my city is going to host.i was excited, i found myself lucky enough to devote myself to these games. today when i look back at the entire process of becoming a volunteer or to be more accurate a CGA ASSISTANT, LIAISON OFFICER i feel happy. happy for the work i am going to perform during the games. through some sources i recently managed to know about my interview score. i scored 16 on 20 and my source told me that i was amongst the very few people who scored above 15. maybe i got a decent score and thus i performing the job which i had actually dreamt of when i applied for the games volunteer program. numerous departments, various jobs for 30,000 volunteers and out of which 142 cga assistant, liaison officers who would assist the 142 presidents and secretary generals of the 71 participating countries (the number is expected to fall). my manager says i would be accompanying my delegate to his venues in his T1 designated vehicle and i hope everything goes as per my expectations. i am excited. last night i received my roster informing me about the country allotted to me. 'the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago'
to be frank i had never heard of this nation which is located in caribbean. thanks to wikipedia.

there is gush of criticism on all the news channels, news papers. and now i am dissapointed. earlier when organising committee was condemned i thought they were news channels but now things are actually bad. i should not mention it but "apni haalat bahut kharab hai"
12 days to go and there is a bridge collapsing at the main stadium of the games. and that is the tip of the iceberg.

i wont blame just kalmadi for this shit since a lot many basta*** are hiding behind kalmadis back withdrawing benefits from the games.

and the other thing that bothers me now is atithi devo bhava.
what cant be denied is all that we have done so far is that we have misused the term "atithi devo bhava" which is merely a kind of escapism. wherever we loose we come up with such senseless phrases which no more carry weight. we indians think that people outside our nation never welcome their guests. its well understood that when u are expecting some guest you prepare yourself, you tend to be hospitable but here we live in an illusion that hospitality lies within india. wherever we loose or we seek for support and we thus use such terms. amir khan gets a good price for supporting our incredible india!
myself as an individual know how diverse is my nation or how incredible it is but cant we think of moving ahead? i wont be able to treat my delegate equivalent to god when i know what all has been covered up before he lands up in delhi.
but as my seniors say 'do not take anything personally' even if he yells at you.
and i will make sure i enjoy the games to the utmost.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

daya! darwaaza tod do!


This all might have started with Byomkesh Bakshi. I vaguely remember the days when this brave man used to knock the t.v screens and his work was the only entertaiment for the viewers. Recently the tv series was retelecated by doordarshan and that made me wonder how this man could investigate all the matter without any labs, no electronic microscope no, alfa beta gamma operated bla bla bla scanners that our C.I.D relys upon to reach the crux of every murder,robbery, crime. This gentleman had no one to open the locked doors with merely a single bang. Its not just detective bakshi who played a major role in entertaining us in the past.
RAJA RANCHO, the gentleman accompanied by a monkey or a monkey accompanied by a gentleman. Perhaps rajas work depended on ranchos and rancho was just an ape had raja been not there. I remember an episode where rancho shot a scoundrel and that too in the absence of his companion.
And now we may have ranchos son on the footsteps of his brave daddy willing to serve the C.I.D. imagine rancho-2 examining those red blue green chemicals in the lab and ACP Pradyuman patting him for his dedication and sacrifice to humankind.
They have all those valuable equipments to trace criminals, to find out the blood group of a skeleton but why dont they work upon those dubbed voices of the ones called up for investigation or that terrible humour of Mr fredricks.? Recently they managed to sort out a case in a flying aircraft.
Today when you have some selected entertainment to watch, watching C.I.D. is not a bad option.
Maybe its the human nature that we watch atleast some mysteries getting solved, even though fictitious because the real ones rarely ever get solved.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

the road not taken


i love people who carry a point of view even though borrowed, and are daring enough to present it, and are aware of it.also i rarely ever love people.inspiring is the fact that a stream thats merely water which is not stagnant manages to cut the boulders, carves out the entire geomorph for itself but at times it does have to meander. i find some people who are somewhere burdened with a few eratic thoughts, and those very initial thoughts have given them their own school of thought. pulling yourself out of the mob and changing your course from the preset, predesigned and preoccupied parallels moving alike, does seem to be a challenge.infact it is .. the two roads that had once diverged into a yellow wood have been descibed by the supportes as a replica of indivisulaim. the roads have still not merged and are on a steady dendritic expansion and so are the parallels. i wish i start loving more and more people ..



Saturday, January 2, 2010








for you, a thousand times over !






its when it ends and you feel for those who were in trouble, for those who were at loss, and you miss being a part of the entire setup that you say "i saw the movie", "it was a great work". you do imagine a possible future for a story that has already ended. "the kite runner", i read the book almost an year back and when i ended there was a feeling of pride, as that was my first successful novel reading. i still dont understand how people follow those ugly appearing monochromic pages which would surely force the reader not to go beyond two or three chapters.? it was the kite runners end that gave me a beginnging, did give me some moral support, not how to live or lead, or follow characters in the story but to continue to read. but still if i look back since then, i would consider better not to mention about my reading experiences .. getting back to the movie by marc foster which had enough power to persuade me to sit infront of the screen till the end and made me aware of some instances that i had missed while i was on my mission to accomplish reading. watchimg the movie was more or less like recalling the incidents of the dream you saw the very last night.


well the story takes you through the intricate lanes of afghanistan, kite flying offers you a birds eye view of their own nation. well whose very own? those dogmatic eyes in the shadow of the head gear or the ones seeking answers through the mere view they have of the road ahead? will the children perspire while playing or will this dirty dance become a part of their breath?