Height and depth

Picking up pieces of broken glass
Every time I stand taller, deeper I see my reflection
Reminding me of tall trees with deep roots
And rising people with deeper values !

To the legend: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

He brought the world down to his feet, in just 3 hours.

While watching the legend signing a camera lens after
collecting his man of the match award, I felt he has engraved
  the autograph on the minds of generations to come!

Long Live the Legend!

The Fame Game

A few days ago, to my surprise, I found Mr. Chetan Bhagat's editorial in Times of India, talking about educational reforms in India. But realizing that both the paper and the writer are works of fiction or working for fiction, my surprise abated. Okay, so I went ahead to see what this 'another-IITian-IIMite-Investment Banker-Non-Resident-Indian-for-11-years' had to say about reforms in  India. This guy was excited about his book being made into a movie (and everybody already knew that the movie is based on FPS well in advance and well enough to give him due credit!). He said that I am afraid that people will watch the movie, enjoy it, analyze and criticize the acting, direction, songs, etc. etc. , but soon will forget the message(??? Oww....FPS had a message? I dint know it? I found it a simple masala novel cashing in on IITs brand name and priced cheap to make a non-regrettable readable book). Ok, may be it had some hidden one which I missed while I had much more quality stuff to read. So, lets wait and watch the movie, which definitely should have something with Aamir, Raju and the kind of talented maestros involved in it.

A few days later...an overwhelmed me came out of the theater after watching this amazing attempt at making people realize the need to refine the Indian education system. The beautifully portrayed concept of running behind excellence and not success or grades was the highlight of the movie. So, the movie struck the right chords in our hearts, and Mr Chetan Bhagat should have thanked the creative geniuses behind the movie, for making something this beautiful out of an average book. He should have felt great that the so called message he was talking about was highlighted (or was the message about CB being the genius behind this success? was he really talking about that being lost? Welcome one more hypocrite on the block people!). Instead after a week of thrilling, raving success, the writer pitches in with a biiiig post on his blog, and a looong line of news hungry media people ready to make him the next hero. The fame game has taken toll and the hunger is growing exponentially. 

Just imagine had he written the book behind Slumdog Millionaire (Q&A by Vikas Swarup), he would have surely planted a bomb in the airline transporting the Slumdog team to Oscars, had they not taken him along!! But there are people like Vikas Swarup and Gulzar who faced this situation gracefully, as a truly talented artist would do.

And the irony, all this cheap fame game is burying the message deep down the controversy lane! The message which should have been strengthened after "Taare Zameen Par"  and  "Munnabhai"  :"We need to come forward to reform the education system in India. We need to chase learning, excellence and creativity and not money or success. In a simple language "We need to make ours and other people's life happy, by ending this rat race" "

I feel really restless for the pathetic role media is playing in this game by being the constant fuel supplier in this fire. I hope there are at least a few genuine people who are willing to follow the ideals to make India a better country.


PS: Planning to post more on education in India soon.

Cooking gains!

My stay at home right now is teaching me new things....like 'enjoying cooking'.
I have been able to experiment on some kinds of paranthas my mom taught, all independently now :D. Yesterday I experimented something beyond my mom's Indian kitchen :)
I tried out 'Pasta with white sauce' (I don't know the actual name), which turned out pretty much like the pastas we get in nice Italian restaurants. The recipe came from Bawa's recipes (along with my brother's directions :P)

Here are the links for my record and for anyone else willing to enjoy this:

1.Cooking the pasta (I used penne)

2. Making white sauce (refer the 'for the white sauce' section only)

3. After boiling the pasta and preparing the sauce:

- Fry some veggies (i used capsicum and peas) in adequate olive oil

- Pour the sauce in it and stir for a minute or so

- Pour the boiled pasta too and stir for about a minute while adding some oregano and basil seasoning along

And finally take it off the burner, and garnish with some more grated cheese! Its ready to be savoured now :D

And the act did not spare us a thought or a second to click a picture to flaunt it here.

The act was climaxed by a double scoop from 'Naturals'.
Just note the richness of white sauce which alarms me to think twice before making this stuff again and the combined meal of the day is making me walk slopes now......


But still the cooking has been enjoyed, relished and gained ! :D

Dream and Dreamer

Dear Dream

Resting in the restless eyes for years...
you are trying to figure your way out....to get exposed....
but please listen.....don't come out unshielded .....they will prick you....burst you....make you all shambles!
Let me build it on you...the cover to protect you....for you.....and then we'll take you to the world !

Dreamer

I don't know how much of this makes sense to many people, but i just felt like scribbling. While thinking all this also remembered one of my favorite poems I read in 9th standard "चाँद और कवि" by "दिनकर".

And the King departed...

The Aura has ascended, away from the physical world, up to the greater world which must have yearned for it since long. It belongs to the King who blessed several lives for 75 years, and will rule several hearts forever.

This King built his mighty empire of ideals, principles, genius, knowledge and loads of affection in all those great years. A month ago he left it in the hands of his 8 princesses, who took it to faraway corners of the country. And further we, the grand-kids, blessed with a tinge of his genius, continue to expand his empire.

In the calm town of 'Kolaras' near Gwalior, Nanaji grew up to be this wonderful lawyer 'Advocate Chintamani Jain'. Such was his genius, agility and impact that dawn of his 70s could not stop his practice. His growing storehouse of knowledge impressed me whenever I visited his libraries: the personal with myriad flavors ranging from PG Woodhouse and Jefferey Archer to Premchand and Maxim Gorki along with the pious Jain literature, and the Advocate's with racks and racks of books which all appeared same to me!

All the visits to nanaji's place had this in common: as soon as you enter the front graden, a loud, enthusiastic call, with that unique tone of kiddish affection was the first voice you heard; then 2 coarse, hard hands, caressed your cheeks, which was the first touch you recieved and finally the owner of this voice and hands soon planted a lovely kiss on your forehead. Irrespective of you being a teen or an adult, you could not resist the child in you! Can't help but miss it.....that feeling of assurance and protection.

I remember my latest meetings with him, as travel enthusiast Nanaji planned trips to visit his daughters and their children too! He could not feel prouder and happier looking at his grand -children ascending up their family and career ladders. As much he spoke with pride of his kids, the prouder I feel when I introduce myself as his granddaughter.

How much I write about him, his grandeur was unsurpassable. I sometimes secretly fantasized of my future family meeting him, while myself feeling proud of my own descent! But the sudden call of fate did not even let me see him for the last time. I now can just wish that our paths cross again in these cycles of life.

Though I knew it before, but still the truth has fallen upon me, and asking me to take moments out to caress the roots of your being, your self, and to take time off to get lost in the adorable lap of grandma or the experienced talks of grandpa....before they depart!

Mumbai->Bangalore, t->th

The long hands of fate have finally managed to pull me away from the '6 year old haven' and put me in this city, now called Bengaluru. Yes, I haven't been able to find any associating adjectives for this city yet. I have, knowingly or unknowingly, been trying to draw comparisons, and romanticizing about the 'enervated link'. When the link was flourishing, I sometimes just 'stood still' admiring the 'always running road' visible from the big balcony of my hall. While it kept telling me that life goes on and on....I moved on.
I no more belong to it, and now, I can empathize with all my friends and acquaintances who had had this experience.
New links are still in the process of development. A few things I could think of when I entered the new city: how careful I used to be while spelling the names of my gult friends, taking care of all the th's and a's. But now all t's are th's and I just feel lucky to have no t's in my name. It does help me escape the uncontrollable annoyance when one finds a modified version of one's most possessed identity. Silence of the night, and even the day, makes me nostalgic about the days when I wanted some peace around. I now yearn for some noise around, some more communication. Another one as expected is the weakened language links, which I have to learn to live with or to manage with.
This is all for the day 1 experiences of parting from the old and meeting the new, hoping to find the optimistic me here again!

PS: Just realized the first optimistic point. This experience helped me get back to my most satiating past time : writing :-)