Random Musings

Realization is a Good thing

2009-08-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday my elder son participated in a Soccer tournament. Their team of under 10 kids beat both their opponents and came in the finals which were held yesterday.
On the way to the ground the talk in the team car was on who will hold the trophy first and who will get to take it home. Listening to them it sounded like a mere formality, the team will reach the ground and they will score goals, the other team will just run around and flop down.
Well the truth as it turned out was vastly different. The opponents were bigger, fitter and way more aggressive and gave a lesson in football which our team will do well to learn. The first half was a blur and before we knew it we were 2 goals down. And both the goals were due to the fact that our kids were late in attacking the ball.
The second half was better as we fought back and created lots of chances. The final whistle saw us lose 3-0 and the team was totally deflated.
In hindsight it was good as it taught the kids a lesson that they will remember for their life.

Minor League Soccer in Delhi

2009-08-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

My son like many others in the public schools of Delhi plays Soccer more enthusiastically than cricket. He goes twice a week for soccer training with a group of friends. Coached by a Nigerian professional soccer player I have seen them gradually transform from gawky youngsters to more assured ball players. More importantly I have seen how the physical stamina and effort have been enhanced by exercise and hard work.
It seems there is a group of Nigerians who are coaching kids all over Delhi and last week they decided to organize a small tournament amongst their teams to see who has the best team. So each team had to fork out some money and the tournament was on.

Sunday was the big day when our kids went into a soccer field in one uniform and playing as one team. Some of the parents decided to forgo the sunday afternoon siesta and go and cheer their boys and we were also part of them. After an adventurous search for the ground we reached in time to see the first match which our kids won 4-

I had seen movies where American parents went to watch their kids play base ball and cheer and support their team but it was the first time that I saw parents like me coming and cheering their kids.
There was juice, cakes, sandwiches for everyone and wife was smart enough to carry 3 pints of beer and a good time was had by all. In spite of my caution to myself to not get too involved by the time of the second match i was screaming at my son to fall back or attack the ball and then I realised that irrespective of which corner of the world you are in parent hood and the feelings remain the same.

Well we are in the finals to be played next week and watch this space for more.

First rains in Delhi

2009-07-27T01:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it poured for the first time in the monsoon. This was the real McCoy and not the usual Delhi 'lets dirty the car' rain but the one where you cant see anything in front and the wipers go nuts trying to work against the water pressure.
It was fun watching the rain from the 10th floor window and see people running in or out of the rain depending on the age and the joy they felt. By the time it was time to go home there was trepidation on whether the MCD has delivered what they promised.
Well it was a good time spent on the roads of Delhi trying to find the best route home. Traffic details on the radio were of no use as they kept singing songs of jam all over and how it has finally rained.
There was water logging and I saw numerous vehicles which had given up to the fury of the monsoon but I again was left dumb by the lack of road sense in Delhi. Intersections were full of cars and buses face to face honking away as if they will blow the vehicle in front of them with the sheer power of the pressure horn.
With people getting into the incoming lane and then blocking all routes it became a nightmare. I felt sorry for the traffic cop who stood soaked to the bone trying to manage the unruly cars and buses.
With the water levels in certain areas going up till 2-3 feet I was quite happy to reach home dry and without any mishaps.
This morning the same areas were quite dry and I for one was not completely unhappy with the MCD effort. Lets face it the volume was tremendous and in the short time the water logging was bound to happen but in 3-4 hrs after the rain the water had gone away.
But one thing was clear we in Delhi are not geared to take Bombay type of rain flyover or no flyovers.

Golf at Mercara Downs

2009-04-07T02:15:00.000-07:00

Last month I traveled to Coorg. For the uninformed, this is a region in Karnataka that is famous for its coffee plantations and gentle hill stations. We stayed at a place called Madikeri.
Around a km from our resort was a Golf course called Mercara greens. It claims to be one of the oldest golf courses in South India. Looking at the Club house it seemed one of the smallest and youngest as it was not even 10 years vintage.

As Katy Paaji, the LT group Hony tour organiser, had already done the home work both of us were carrying some golf balls and our gloves we set out the next morning to see what Mercara Downs had to offer. On reaching the club house we saw that the entire staff consisted of 3 people of which one one lady was able to understand us and help us out. We fixed up a game for the next morning and left feeling like Mission half accomplished.
the next morning Katy paaji and I left for the golf course in the morning feeling like JM Singh and Tiger Woods. Paaji wanted to walk saying it is only 2 km and we do much more on the treadmill. I was sceptical but followed on and soon realised that walking on the treadmill/dreadmill is very different from walking in the hills where there are uphill and downhill. By the time we reached the club house huffing and puffing 30 mins later we felt that we have finished 9 holes already.
The fairways and the green/browns looked very inviting but there were no Caddies!!! 'Ugadi Saar, Wall Caddies gane to village Saar'. As Ugadi was still 15 days away it seemed a lame excuse and we entered into a long phase of figuring out if she could get some caddies by the time we came back from breakfast. Well she agreed and after an hour or so we were standing on the first Tee with hired golfsets that looked as if they were at the club to prove the antiquity of the club.
With us was another avid golfer from Ahmedabad who had come all the way to Coorg with his own golf set. We looked like amateurs in his presence. The first hole is a 330 yards par 4 where one has to go uphill. This was my second experience was playing in a hilly course so it was mortifying and humbling to see how the force of gravity works to bring the balls down a slope if not perched on flat greens. The greens were kerchief sized and so it required precision to hit and stay there. The second hole has jungle to the left and Katy paaji promptly decided to undo his previous par/bogey by sending a ball in the woods. In the next hole he blasted another one in the wood which his Caddie got back. Somehow we went through this up down motion of walking from one hole to another till Katy said' Enough is Enough' I need water. This was the point where he was looking down on the 7th hole where we were perched on the top of a hill looking down into a biggish lake and beyond all that was a green. On both sides of the lake and beyond were woods, dark and foreboding somehow evoking Robert Prost in saying You guys have Miles to go before you sleep.
I have hydrophobia and I promptly sent two balls one after the other in the wood on either side. katy on the other hand was threatening to drink the water in the lake sounding like one of those Monsters in a Ramanand Sagar mythological who threaten poor villagers ' mujhe Khana do warna tumko kha jaonga'. Since drinking the water was not an option he took out his anger and frustration on the bolf ball and sent it soaring 200 yards beyond the green. And next thing I knew was that Katy had vanished.
A frantic look around showed Katy sprawled in the front seat of the Innova speeding away before I could get him to play another hold.
Thus ended our 9 holes at Mercara Downs which was my third round of Golf on vacations and was definitely more enjoyable than the one at vienna.
More on that in some time.

My Son - A member of the Student Council

2009-04-06T03:20:00.000-07:00

My son who has just joined class Vth has been selected as a student council member. Since I have been a lifelong member of the back benchers club ( BBC) this was a proud moment for me. The Investiture ceremony was a serious one with proper Chief Guest delivering lectures and kids giving speeches etc. I was a little envious of my son as in our times these events were not done with so much of ean and style. Also I think the kids today are heap more confident. At his age if I had to speak 5 straight sentences I would have ran from the stage. But it was fun.

Child Bear and Coldless Phone

2008-09-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Around a decade back I was working for THE SPORTS CHANNEL and traveling all over the boondocks of Rajasthan and UP. In those travails ( oops travels )I saw lots of examples of indi-genius use of the English language. The gems being Coaching Clashes for young children in Muzzafarnagar and Child Bear at a 'English Wine and Beer Shop' on the way to Ajmer. Those days I didnt have access to digital cameras or NOKIAS and so could never take a pic for posterity. But I was always impressed and amused by this amazing ability to understand deeper aspirations. i mean what better to teach the young of Muzaffarnagar but clashes. And how best to get young users for beer but through child beer or maybe they had the Pint bottles in Ajmer .
But yesterday I saw the great Indian invention. Move Over Chinese phones, here comes the ultimate handset, the Indian phone that keeps you safe and sound. protects from sneezes and flu - The great Indian COLDLESS PHONE.Available in the heart of posh South Delhi.

Bomb Blasts and the spirit of Indians

2008-09-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

I was tempted to use Delhites in place of Indians but then thought that across the country this must be the case.
People are more interested in being a Tamashai rather than be prudent and be safe.
Around an hour back just outside our office in Barakhamba Road, N Delhi two small packets were found unclaimed on the pavement. Due to the heightened security post the bomb blasts very soon there were some policemen who came to check the stuff. Since it was sealed they called the bomb squad.
Generally that area has some 100 people mulling around but with the news of the bomb spreading like wildfire (it spread to our floor which is 10 floors up ) there was soon a crowd of 500-600 people surrounding the bomb. And on being told to move back and be safe they were behaving like football defenders being told to move back by the referee. They were so reluctant to move back that it seemed the cops were asking them to do something illegal.
Anyways even our cops are crazy, the bomb disposal squad was without any protective gear and if anything had happened I swear I at least would have felt that they deserved it.
I think this episode should have been filmed and telecast all over the media networks so that the Indian mujahideens would just give up trying to scare people by their stupid idiotic acts.

Big Bang and The world coming to an End

2008-09-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

I am generally reasonably well informed. I mean I might not know the present price of potatoes in Burkina Fasso but am aware of who Sarah Palin is and where Singur is. So it came as a big surprise to me when I reached office yesterday afternoon to be told that tomorrow is Apocalypse.
It seems there is this mega experiment happening as per Reuters which will enact the start of the universe and so there will be a black hole which will suck everything. It seemed straight out of India TV, Aaj Tak or IBN7.
That brought us all to discussing about how the standards of news has fallen. Every other day the Breaking News is about How demons have come, Chudails in a village and commissioner ka kutta gum.
In this case at least there is some scientific stuff happening and so the genesis of the story but what is the base of all these stupid stories which pass of as news. Who is responsible? who can the public look up to when the 'venerable' Rajedeep Sardesais channel carry such trash.

Fish Thali in Goa

2008-08-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

I am just back from five days in rainy Goa with friends and family. Actually with the no of times that this particular group has gone out on Vacations I should say ' With Family'.
With the week evenly spread between North and South Goa, I had the opportunity to see two different facets and sides which I had not seen on one single visit earlier.
Taj Holiday Village is a quintessential Taj experience. Great Service, Great people but very ordinary food. With the Desi Katrina hurling itself against the gauada fort as a background we were forced to stay within the confines of the Hotel and per force have food at the restaurants within the complex.
I have a healthy disrespect and distaste of buffet food and Taj did not do anything to change my opinion. the food was ordinary with even the Ala carte not doing anything to make it feel good. Even if the menu has to have the Indian Buffet fav of Paneer and Daal they can have some local variations but No that would be expecting too much I guess. The only positive was the pizzas that the kids had every evening, they were nice thin crust ones with the right amount of cheese and toppings.
Brittos at Baga was nice for lunch but I thought that the Crab Cakes had other meat also in it and it was not pure Crab. The grilled prawns were quite nice and the drought beer finally made me feel i was in Goa.
Pre Independence night saw the Taj chefs wake up from their slumber and create something nice and so had the variety of Beef Xacuti, Crab Xek Xek and grilled fish, chicken and prawns on the menu. It was quite good for me as I focussed my attention only on the sea food and like a true bengali decided to bring my fingers to the party. I really cant eat fish with Knives and forks, the la di la crowd be damned.
the next day was our trip the the intercontinental at Canacona which is the extreme south of Goa on the Karnataka border. In the time that it took us there we could have gone to Delhi and back and by 2 O'Clock my stomach was grumbling. We stopped at a small roadside eatery called Karmangla Hotel ( or something like that ). Since the choices were plentiful we orders Fish Thali and prawns. I think the secret of enjoying good food is to have it with zero expectations. The thali arrived in leaf plates and comprised of boiled rice, a bowl of spicy curry, mish mash of shrimps, a small fried fish and some mashed fish which was more fish bone than fish. The fish curry had the right blend of spice and the tangy flavour helped the rice get that feel of great accompaniment. The fried fish had a coating of Sooji which gave it a nice crunchy feel. the shrimps were done just so to give that exquisite shrim flavor that reminded me of my grandmoms bhaat bhaja with kuchi chingri. The spicy prawns were made with lots of chillies so that the prawns while melting put off a fire in your mouth.
After this heavenly meal we reached our hotel to see the rest of the gang having a buffet lunch and I was so glad that we were in different vehicles.

No Honking in Delhi

2008-05-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

I have been bit by a bug. In a city that believes in the adage that have horn will honk I have decided to drive without honking. Earlier I would have thought it difficult but now after 30 odd days of driving without the mandatory Beep beep the realisation has dawned that it aint that difficult.
It all started one fine morning while I was dropping my son of to school and he complained that i was honking too much. I thought ok let me try out driving without using the mechanical obscenity screamer.
It has been three months now and more or less I can proudly say that I am driving well now.
Now if only my fellow drivers will start following the rules.

Cheerleaders and Men

2008-05-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

India is bitten ( or is it bit) by the IPL fever. From office to cocktail discussions are all about how Shane Warne is captaining to when Rahul will get sacked. I was initially resistant to the lure of the T20 version of cricket but over the month have started following some of the matches. It might also be a by product of me being a sports freak and The Gunners will not win any silverware this year ( so nothing else to watch on TV except maybe what Khali eats and how he walks )
Alas one of the reasons I wanted to watch IPL vanished due to the need to safeguard Indian men from foreign assaults on our morality. My friends had spoken about the extraordinary ability and assets of the Washington Redskin Cheerleaders and the sundry blondes from Belarus and Ukraine but when I started watching for some reason they had donned new avatars and were covered top to bottom. I was away for some time this year and so unfortunately ( or fortunately ) did not follow the fracas and time this issue generated.
On the Reuters India site a blog had been posted on the issue and the gist was that more than the cheerleaders it was important to question our attitude towards women and how we see them. In itself the blog is innocuous and is not the subject of this post, the subject being a comment posted by someone I know which said that if women walk out at 2 they are asking to be molested.
This guy is normal eduacated & likeable. Not the typical boor from Jatland who burn their daughter because of izzat issues. He has been raised in Delhi, did his schooling here and is also a new generation MCA so one cant put him under the classification of ' the poor guy is not educated and so education is the key'. When I confronted him on his post he was quite convinced that what happens to women is bad but is brought to them by their own acts whether what they are wearing or where they are going.
This brought out in stark the issues that women face in Delhi or any Indian City ( Mumbaikars your city is just as bad so dont get sanctimonious ) . It is how the vast majority sees the fairer sex that there is a view that their place is ordained by men and it is the men who will decide what is right or wrong for women.
I dont have a solution but I dont know whether education alone can solve the issue. Till the time we as parents dont communicate these values to our kids this thing will move from one generation to the other. Maybe more and more working women is the answer as proximity might bring in more tolerance and the right value.
This friend asked me ' Tell me, will you allow your sister or wife to go out at 2??' My response was that I dont know whether I have the right to allow but I would definitely advise them against it. Not because Good girls dont go out at 2 but because there are men like you who think that anyone out at 2 is easy meat and available.
May our country get better sense and soon!

Qutub Ki Laat

2008-03-19T03:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend started very badly. My fourball called to cancel the games on sat and sunday when I had slogged through Friday to be on the good books of the wife to ensure that I will not be castigated for being out of her hair for two whole days. Women never know what is good and what is bad.
To get more brownie points which I can encash later I agreed to not follow Jeev in Jeju and take everyone to see the Qutub Minar. Everyone means friend, friends daughter, both my sons, wife and your truly ( the driver ). March in Delhi is one of the best times, though this year is slightly hotter than usual but still it is nice and ideal for a trip to a historical monument.
This last year has got me to more Delhi monuments than the last 20 years of my life thanks mainly to people coming and me showing them the sights and sounds of my city. Qutub holds the pride of place. Somehow I find Qutub to be more awe inspiring than even Taj. Taj is for me something like a picture postcard not enough emtion slightly cold, whereas Qutub is raw and the age of the place is palpably felt at the monumnet.
Thanks to the ASI the area is lush, there are less empty Lays packs around the lawns and surprise of surpriseloos are reasonably ok. The only discordant note was the eunuchs troubling young couples. The ASI should do something about this.
Once a month this kind of a trip is also great to get the bonding going again and I for one was quite happy.
Now if only the Golf could have been played post lunch!!!!!

भैया कि भाषा में ब्लाग

2008-02-11T02:46:00.000-08:00

Golf, Ernie and Indian Masters

2008-02-11T02:28:00.000-08:00

I try to play Golf. Before anyone thinks I am being my modest self let me announce that I AM NOT BEING MODEST!!
Golf is the most capricious game that I have ever played or attempted to play. There are so many variables that I am forever unsure of what I did wrong. And the rare times that I am able to send the ball where I wanted it to go I am unable to replicate that. All this above, is when the conditions are perfect, there is hardly any wind or if there is any it is always the one with a tail. On windy days it is a game of chance and you would not be blamed if you think this is as close to Vegas as you will get in your lifetime.
Anyways last week was the Indian Masters in Delhi and thanks to my friend 'Wanshu I got a chance to watch Ernie Els, Thomas Bjorn, Shiv Kapur, Arjun Atwal, Jeev, Jyoti and Digvijay Singh in action live. The funniest part was that none of us followed the eventual winner SSP Chowrasia ( one more example of the capriciosness of this game ).
Like all other star stuck fans we followed Ernie on his walk around DGC post a sumptous lunch thanks again to the fact that 'Wanshu is cute yaa ( pronounced with a d instead of t) and women just love him naturally. The 5 odd holes that we followed Ernie was a lesson on hope and the fact that no one can claim to have mastered this game. We saw Jeev going OB, Ernie going to the Bunker more than once, Atwal missing a three feet putt which in Lado we would have said 'given' and Kjeldsen doing a three putt after a glorious second shot. In between we also saw Jeev nearly doing a hole in one and two near perfect lobs from a sand and grass dunker by Ernie which was as beautiful a shot as you could possibly see.
A perfect day of Golf and the hope that if these greats can go OB or miss putts I should put my ideas and thought of how much my set s worth at bay.

2008 and Nursery Admissions

2008-01-15T03:02:00.000-08:00

The New Year has come in and it is already 15 days old and life is back to its usual humdrum existence of work, family and a little bit golf. The only new part of this year is the Nursery Admission process in Delhi. This year we are also amongst the many who are trying and praying that their progeny get into a 'good' school.

We are trying in most of the south Delhi school and with the confusion created by Mr Ganguly still not clear it is a recipe made in hell.

All schools have their own method of doing their Eenie, Meenie, Myna, Mo and we have gone through three of them. They range from interaction ( interview ) with parents to group discussions. Internet has created new groups where people suffering from post Ganguly depression and confusion can get succor by reading the travails of fellow sufferers.

Taare Zameen par was the ideal movie in these times as all parents have suddenly decided that what they want to do is allow the child to flower without putting undue pressure etc etc. Suddenly 'Pressure' is a bad word not to be used in front of kids.

Speaking of movies I promised to thank the Bijlis for single handedly changing the bollywood movie scene. From the days of one screen halls to multiplexes the movies today have changed from One size fits all to different movies for different audiences. Can you imagine movies like KKG, Bheja Fry, Life in a Metro, Cheeni Kum, TZP coming 10 years back and getting commercial release. Ten years back Dharmedra was still doing his Dog vampire bit. Now at least we have movies which target the ricksaw walah to the mercedes guy.
And Amen to that.

P.S. : My sons learning from TZP - Hostels are not good and if you sent me there ergo you dont love me

A day at the Circus

2007-11-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

'The Royal Circus is in your town till Dec 3rd only, so please tell all your friends and relatives to come and visit'. This was an attempt at Viral marketing by the Royal circus marketing department. Since I am not sure how the traditional virus is working so I am using this blog shamelessly as a marketing tool for Royal Circus.

Yesterday I took my kids and some friends of theirs with the mothers to see this circus. It was happening in East Delhi which to all South Delhi people is back of beyond and then some distance. The idea was that kids see the circus and attempt to understand what outdoor live entertainment was for their parents.

The first thing that my son was kicked about was the Elephants munching their food in their enclosures and the camels and horses tied nearby.

The show had trapeze, cycling, Dog and elephant tricks and some russian women doing gymnastics with props. I am sure some of them would have been ex Olympic gymnasts the way their bodies contorted and did impossible tricks.

It was a 3 hour show which I thought was long by 1.5 hrs. I think Circus as an art/entertainment form is slowly dying and in this fast paced and multi entertainment world of ours they face a losing battle to appeal to the minds and senses of the children.

If I ask my kids where would they like to go for a movie or circus they might still say circus but the attached parapheranalia of popcorns, burgers and other stuff was not available in the dusty circus tent. Smarter marketing would also need more color and more show, whether the quality of the audio or the fact that the seating ensured that everyone was not able to view the show , all these need to be checked and acted on.

But my children enjoyed for 2 hrs plus and I would seriously encourage every person to take their kds and show these artistes wh do all these deth defying stunts which we will not be able to do on flat earth.

So folks reading it, the show is on till Dec 3rd only and so go and show your kids what it was to live in the seventies and eighties, OSO be damned.

Festivities never end

2007-11-12T02:36:00.000-08:00

If you are an Indian in India you would have noticed how every month has some holiday or other due to our being a secular state. So in addition to the Diwalis, Ids and Christmas we have our Valmiki Diwas also. The only major religion whose festivals are not holidays is Judaism. Why I have no clue! If I was a jew it might make a good case of calling up some TV News channels, gather some goons and proceed to burn some buses. For good measure call this an exercise in Secularism and presto you will give us another holiday on Hanukkah perhaps.
But Come September the Holiday mood grips this vast country of ours as from all corners of India there is something or the other. I am counting Onam also in Sept as the lovely Mallus keep shifting the dates from Sept to August. Then the gujjus do Navratris when the best place in the world to be is in Ahmedabad ( this is true for condom makers and pvt investigators too ). Navratri is followed by Durga Pujo where all Bengalis, the resident and non resident, all go out to buy their annual quota of new clothes and come out wearing the same without ironing them. Ironing means the creases go and then how will people know that the clothes are new. Ak-dom un intelligent - I tell you.
Diwali follows soon after and that signifies the binging on sweets and getting upset stomach to breathing foul polluted air with more NO2 then O2 and becoming unwell.
In Delhi, the city I live, Diwali also means card parties. Till a decade or two back these were friendly events where a group of friends got together and played a bit of card to usher in the goddess of wealth. Now these are bonafide events which have budget of several thousand dollars and where the winner can take home some serious money. There are urban legends where people bet their cars and houses. Draupadi is just waiting in the wing to happen.
I unfortunately dont play card and also dont hknow enough whos who to get invited to such parties but the scale and size baffles me and also brings introspection.

Rains and food

2007-08-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

I am a foodie, it is an honest confession. Unfortunately, for me, I am not Kunal Vijaykar that I travel the length and breadth of India and have food all over but I am still a foodie. It also helps that I am blessed with a constitution that doesnt allow me to get seriously fat. I mean I have a paunch but thats it.
I have memories of best food ever from different phases of my life. for breakfast nothing could beat my grandmothers 'Bhaat bhaja' which is bong for Fried rice. the only difference was that this fried rice had the most minute size aloo, parwal, gobhi and shrimps and with dollops of cows milk ghee it was Yum. I am salivating right now.
The most delicious meal I ever had was in an Army mess in Pune. This was when I was going to attend the NDA passing out parade of my brother. It was simple meal of rice, chicken curry and yellow daal but after surviving on biscuits and tea for two days this was nothing less than manna from heaven. Why starving for two days is for another blog!
Mom made the best food possible but her signature dish was the dessert. And the payesh she made was something that she was justly famous for. It was just the right sweetness so that everyone could enjoy it. And the funny part was that unlike most recipes that daughters learn from their mothers this one she learnt from her mother in law. Says something about our Saas Bahu tradition.
The reason I am writing today is the sharp rains that lashed our city today. Rain for a bengali is a happy occasion. My childhood vacation memory is of 'Kal Baisakhis' thunderstorms which used to turn the day into night and wind speeds which could hurl me all across the football ground. and when these came the meal was always 'Khichudi'.
The bengali Khichudi comes in different shapes, when one is unwell then it is dal and rice boiled together till they are like the same complexion. The other is the dish cooked in all the zillions of Pujas that happen in a Bengali household. I think this khiichudi gets a special flavor due to the community nature of the cooking and it is something that is unique to the bengalis.
The last and foremost is when it rains nay pours and you cook Khichudi and have it. this is a different form of art where you need just the right proportion of Dal and rice, big chunks of vegetables like Aloo, Gobhi, peas etc. The onion should be fried to just the right color and then all of the stuff is cooked before adding the water. And this meal, though complete in itself, needs the accompaniment of ideally 'mach bhaja' i.e. fried fish or for the vegetarians baigun bhaja ' Fried Brinjals' for variety you can add omlette etc also. there should be lots of achar/chutney and the meal is complete and you have paid your obeisance to the rain gods.
Now if I could just have some Khichudi tonight.

Gwalior Travels Pvt Ltd.

2007-08-07T03:58:00.000-07:00

I was one of those who strongly believed that friends are what you make till you turn 20 and post that you have close acquaintances. Well, now I think that once you have kids then you are forced to make new friends for your kids sake.

We have been very lucky to have formed a small group of parents who have had their kids going to the same playschool. They were a group of four kids who were in the same class in the play school and because they were friends, the parents also became friends. This is the LT (learning tree ) group.

Even though two new additions have happened in the form of a brother and sister joining the group and the original four going to four diffrent schools the group has stuck together.

One of the high points of the group is the monthly dinner and the half yearly short vacation that we all take. This month we all went to Gwalior. Before anyone says Why Gwalior I will say why not. It has a good palace hotel which has a spa and a pool and there is absolutely nothing to do in that place. All in all an ideal weekend destination to relieve stress.

We stayed at the Usha Kiran palace which is a Scindia property leased out to the Taj group. The rooms were luxurious and the place was just right for our group.
The kids were busy in the pool and the adults took turns to give themselves up to the ministrations of the Spa team to get the aches and pains sorted out. In some cases it was also to feel gentle hands ( other than wives ) on our tired limbs. My big moment was when I was able to get Savir in the pool and let him paddle around for an hour.

Gwalior fort is an imposing structure and the sound and light show was very interesting aided of course by Amitabhs voice. My history ( never very strong ) got a much deserved boost and I think the kids also learnt a little bit about the heritage of the place.

We also went to a Gurdwara, I am always amazed at how the Sikhs are able to keep their religious places spick and span whereas we end up making it dirty. Is it a combination of flowers leaves and water that makes an avg Hindu temple unclean? Question that I need to ask my RSS friends.

In a group like a team, it is important to understand what everyones strength and weakness is and adjust accordingly. I think we have been lucky to have found that balance but I think it is also important that we constantly work on finetuning so that no one couple feels that they are being used.

Look forward to this group remaining the way it is and many more vacations Pvt ltd.

Blueline Menace and the road sense of Delhi

2007-07-13T03:49:00.000-07:00

If you stay in Delhi then you knew all about Bluelines and the menace they were much before the spate of accidents last week when suddenly the entire country came to know of them. Infamy has great speed. And with the Govt standing up and as usual trying to fix things ham handedly the commuting for the avg Joe has become tougher. But it is best not to trust the Govt as last time there was a similar crisis the Govt had the brain wave, they painted all the buses Blue from the existing Red and called them Blueline instead of Redline. And the tack was ' See now we have banned Redlines'. Reminded me of Yes Minister.

Nowadays every day the newspapers are full of news of how Bluelines drive rashly and how they dont obey the traffic rules etc and it seems as if just by removing these buses heaven will descend on the Delhi roads. I have some strong views on the same.
Blaming the Blueline buses and their drivers is fine if we can hold a hand on our heart and say that we all obey traffic rules.

Since the Blueline and truck drivers are damned anyway lets come down by weight category.

Large Cars and SUV weight class : Callcentre drivers over speed, young turks on the wheel zoom with blaring music to impress their non existing girlfriends. Any body who has been to West Delhi would have heard the 'dhinchak dhinchak' music from tinted glass windows roaming around the market place and parking slam bang in the middle to have 'Chickan lags' from holes in the middle of the shopping blocks called chicken corners. Do they stop at red lights? No sir, they are for lesser mortals.
Heaven forbid if you stop and allow a pedastrian to pass, they will ensure that their horn makes a hole in your ear drum.

Two Wheeler Class : They never overtake from the right side, they are all related to Valentino Rossi and nowadays the latest I see is that the guys carry their helmets, but they are generally on the shoulder instead of the head. Talk of not knowing where the imp part of their body is. Thank god they dont put it way below thinking 'that head' needs to be protected more.

Cyclists and Pedestrians: Stats say that maximum deaths are of this class. But what do you do when you see cyclists coming down busy roads on the wrong side believing that they are made of gods armour and nothing can happen to them. Pedestrians cross busy roads in traffic just believing in destiny that their time has not come yet. I was once waiting for someone in connought place and I saw this person weaving in and out of fast flowing traffic as if he was a combination of Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat. A car would come towrds him and he would sway back to allow it to go from an inch in front. A bus would come and he would take this tiny step to be within handshaking distance of the driver. Anywhere else but India this would have been in AXN most dangerous Videos but here it is part of life and growing up.

I would like to end with all those who believe Seat belts ruin their look and clothes and so dispense with them. May their tribe diminish so that if god forbid something happened

Tell me honestly how many of us fall in these above categories. Point i am trying to make is simple, till the time we all dont drive responsibly nothing is going to change. The Blueline or the call centre cab guys are uneducated etc but when will all of us, the so called 'educated' guys learn road sense.

Radio ads

2007-07-06T02:28:00.000-07:00

When Times FM was launched some 11 years back it was the rebirth of the radio as a happening medium. Till then Radio to people of my age was all about vividh bharati in the mornings with its corny ads and cornier sponsored programs. Phatte kamania ads and Modi continental programs were the order of the day not to forget Simco hair fixer for the hirsute. The trendier guys like us listened to Yuvavani and the late night English music programs like Forces request and Date with you. Those were the time when being gay was being happy.
Times FM changed all that and I was lucky to be part of that revolution. Trendy stereophonic music and peppy RJ's made the station rock. We were a group of people who were selling radio spots and were very conscious of ensuring that the quality of the ads were good. We had people like Roshan Abbas, Shamshir Luthra, Sameep Nanda and Gaurav Kapoor as the voices to ensure that the ads were 'cool'.
In between all these guys and their modulated deep voices we used to do some quick and dirty ones too. Mainly these were for the retail clients ( 'Bongerie') and the inhouse ads. I remember one time distinctly where Mr Akash Verma and your truly were asked to create a quick and dirty radio spot about some new supplement which targeted the Saadi Dilli types. And we created one spot which was true to the tradition of Phatte kamania of Vividh bharati. It was so bad that we all loved it. In that we created this punju character called Teetu. And for some weird reason Mr Ajay Arora ( a true blue son of saadi dilli and punju to the core ) got christened as Teetu. Till date ole Times FM hands will call him 'Teetu' or 'kinky'. Now you know of Teetu someday I will tell the Kinky story too.
With Radio Mirchi and One and fever and HITZ there are channels galore now but the ads are still the same. In between of course there are some real gems but mostly they are crap. I mean having a deep/sweet voice saying 'Haridwar mein Baba Ramdev ashram ke paas.. is not exactly great creative. But I guess it has recall value.
The ones I really like nowadays are the current Cadbury ads ( shero shairi ) and the Maruti Swift ad ( take off on Saadi Dilli teh ode punjus). More on Dilli and its Punjus later.

Going back to the roots

2007-07-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to Malda, this is a small town in North Bengal, famous for mangoes and ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury. The former still as sweet and fresh as my childhood and the latter dead and gone.
It was my grandmothers death anniversery and all relatives were gathering to remember one of the liveliest woman that any one of us had known. Sharp tongued and witty she was known as 'pishima' to all in that small town. Till some years back you could get off at the station and just tell the ricksaw puller ' pishimas bari' and be sure to be taken to her house.
I went after 14 years to the place where for the first 12 years of my life I had spent 2 months every year. As usual there were bitter sweet memories and people who you had played with in childhood were these different adults with their own problems and challenges.
Call me a hopeless romantic but there is something different about the air and smell of Bengal, specially in the monsoon. And the lilting language adds to the charm. In the 2 days that I was there I tried to rewalk all the memory lanes starting with getting up early ( 5.30 am is early for me !), going to the local haat with my uncle, see him haggle with the fishmongers over Rs 2 - Rs 5 and go in the evening to the river side to be bitten by mosquitoes the size of sparrows.
The first thing that struck me was that everything seemed smaller, the roads, the shops, the house and the rooms. The ground on which I had played so much of football seemed liliputian.
The second thing was the number of medicine shops. I am sure there are more medicine shops per sq Km in Malda than anywhere else in the rest of the world.
The 2 days there also showed me how simplicity and large heartedness is still there in these small towns and how the simple things of life can give so much of pleasure. I also saw how big city living can add cunning to the smallest of kids who can then play to the gallery.
All in all an interesting trip.