2009……2010

Goodbye 2009… you were a year that brought tears, laughter and all the emotions one can have. As this year comes to an end and we are entering into another year of wonder, memories of the year gone by come flooding back to me, some good and some sad.

2009 saw an African-American take oath as President of the USA; India became the number 1 team in Test Cricket; Nadal was faced with serious injuries (yeah all Federer fans were glad!!); industries all round faced a bitter recession and individuals were left wondering what their fate would be; Mumbai is still prosecuting the surviving terrorist of the 26/11 terrorist attack in 2008 – when will justice be done??

Music and all music lovers lost The King of Pop, Michael Jackson. His death brought first disbelief and then tears to my eyes and the movie “This Is It” brought a smile to my face as I watched him do his famous moonwalk J. This year will also be know as the “Once in a Blue Moon” year with an extra full moon on 31st December 2009 and as I stood on the station awaiting my train to go home I tried getting a pic or two of the moon!!

Twitter and Facebook has taken Social Networking to whole new high and mobile phones are inching towards being your office away from the office!!

As each year slips away faster than the previous one, I am looking forward to the challenges that will come up in my way, the fun and frolic of friendships both old and new, love from my family and friends!

As I bid adieu to 2009, I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year!!

It's a New Year!!
It’s like a new Sunrise... of Hope, of Prosperity, of Happiness;
It’s like a new Beginning... of Thoughts, of Words, of Actions;
It’s like a new Day... of Energy, of strength, of Ideas;
It’s like a bunch of whole New Things... of Friends, of Prayers and of Love..

'Tis the season to be jolly; Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

This year Christmas crept up on me when I was not watching and suddenly it was arm’s distance away and I hadn’t yet bought my Christmas cards and gifts!

The merriment and excitement started coming alive as the day arrived. And suddenly there were smiles on everyone’s faces, a lift in their step and one started seeing the colours of the season, red and green around oneself.

My celebrations started out with picking up the name of my gift receiver during the Secret Santa rounds in office. We had to buy a gift for the person whose name we picked and the budget was Rs. 100/- only! This was a fun activity and it succeeded in getting everyone in the right “Christmassy” mood! We exchanged our gifts on Christmas Eve which was also celebrated as the “Red and/or Green Day” at work. As I walked through the office the colours of the season beamed back at me…

Christmas Day saw me eating a lovely lunch at my brother’s in-law’s house and as I gorged on vindaloo and sorpatel I was in heaven! Christmas dinner found me with my best friend – a tradition we have kept up for the last 8-9 years!! This year we ate at The Intercontinental Hotel at Marine Drive where our table overlooked the sea…. an awesome view!!

After dinner we walked on Marine Drive with a cool breeze enveloping us in its arms. We went to see the Christmas tree at The Hilton. Though we were thoroughly searched as we entered, there was no mistaking the electrifying atmosphere inside where children ran around the HUGE tree and parents were taking their pictures. The mood was of fun and laughter and as I sat there I realised that this was the first time since the terrorist attacks last year that I had been inside the hotel. A slight chill ran down my spine as I remembered the awful scenes that were played in this hotel but the chill disappeared as the air rang with the giggles and laughter of the little children. Hope and Peace had returned to The Hilton.

The day after Christmas saw me catching up with some of my other friends, exchanging gifts and generally just chilling out!!

As the Christmas festivities end and the New Year festivities are seen around the corner, I would like to wish everyone the very best for the future and peace to all…

The Mini Kala Ghoda Festival

Last weekend saw a mini Kala Ghoda Fest as a preview to the annual one to be held in February 2010. And I landed there armed with my camera looking forward to some fun and disappointed I was not!

Though the mini fest did not have the abstract statues around it still invited one to mull over the wares that were displayed in the stalls on both sides of the street. Some stalls were the familiar while others offered a new browsing experience. To my surprise found around 3 stalls catering to different kinds of clocks! And they were all beautiful!! Some were made of brass, others of glass and some from Nagpur were made of wood in the shape of a t-shirt!!

The cultural shows were fun to watch too. Gary Lawyer entertained us with songs from Frank Sinatra to Queen and ended with one of his own. Following him there was a jugalbandi of music with Louis Banks’ son (forgotten his name!) on the drums, and accompanying him were members on the electric guitar, tabla, sitar and flute. The music enthralled each one of the spectators.

Sunday saw the same stalls and the crowd puller that day was Jagjit Singh live!! Yes, I stood and waited for him to come for 1 hour, not budging from my place less someone comes to displace me! Jagjit Singh was in a great mood and his ghazals kept everyone asking for more.

Wake up, Inglorious Surrogates!

Yes, I caught up with all these three movies over the weekend.

Started with Surrogates, and it was interesting (for want of a better word!) to see Bruce Willis with hair!! I have become so used to seeing him bald that the hair looked totally out of place!! The movie was interesting and if you enjoy sci-fi then you will enjoy it too. The movie made me wonder if I too would like a surrogate for myself – and yes I wouldn’t mind it most of the time but definitely not all the time! I mean I would love having it around to do all the daily mundane chores!!! Who wouldn’t?? ;) The movie was well made and Bruce Willis showed bits of his Die Hard character when he went around with his gun and a bloodied face and shirt.

On Saturday evening I went to see Wake Up Sid. Though I am not much of a Hindi movie buff I went to see why it was being spoken about. The movie was ok-ok. Loved Ranbir’s t-shirts though!! They all were really cool and cute all rolled up in one!! Hehe Konkana looked good as usual. The story was ok and the end could have been mmmmmmuuuuuccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhh better!!!! So go and watch it if you have nothing to do and you would like to waste 3 hours of your life! ;)

Inglorious Bastards – the name itself makes you inquisitive and curious to know more about the movie. The movie is over 2 hours long but never seemed it. One of Quentin Tarantino’s best movies ever! Though I am not a fan of Brad Pitt I must admit he acted well in the movie as the leader of the pack. Though more than him I thought that “The Jew Hunter” aka Standartenführer Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz was the cream of the movie! His acting was fantastic and you felt he was a real Nazi soldier! The compete band of the Inglorious Bastards were interesting including the baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter – “The Bear Jew”. The movie was made more realistic by the usage of local languages like French and German besides English, so you were forced to turn your eyes to the bottom of the screen to read the subtitles. It was gory in bits but then again what Quentin Tarantino’s movie doesn’t have blood and gore in it? All in all a wonderful movie – enjoyed it immensely!!

Voice your decision – Vote!!

Over the last few days the election committee has been trying to lure citizens towards the voting booths to cast their votes for the Assembly Elections. It has been interesting to see the way in which the various party candidates are trying to woo the voters.

Some have resorted to advertisements in the newspapers the major ones being by the Congress and the Shiv Sena – BJP alliance – and I must say that whoever is dong the print advertisement for the Shiv Sena - BJP alliance is good! To see what I mean, look on the last page of yesterday's Times of India newspaper!! Through these advertisements they seem to be reaching out to the educated masses instead of the uneducated ones. The Congress ads are a little stale now and look like they are used for all the possible elections that we have in our country.

In terms of innovative ways to advertise there have been the usual smses from the MNS and Congress parties – did not receive any from the Congress though... One that truly took me by surprise was when my mobile phone rang and on answering it, I heard a man’s voice (later recognized as Raj Thackeray) speaking in Marathi and convincing me to vote for the MNS. The commuters of BEST buses were not saved and even they had to look at MNS ads on the little tv screens in the bus.

I went to cast my vote yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the number of youngsters around my area that had come out to vote too. Hope you have done the same!

I want to watch them all!!

I was surfing through YouTube a few days back and stumbled upon their Movie Trailers section and started browsing through them. I came across few movies whose trailers kept me wanting for more! Let me share them with you:

Alice in Wonderland – Johnny Depp never ceases to amaze me! From Edward Scissorhands to Pirates of the Caribbean, he is now the Mad Hatter!!

Inglorious Bastards – though I am not a huge fan of Brad Pitt (yeah!!) I kind of liked his acting in this trailer and am waiting this one to hit the big screen!!

Sherlock Holmes – the ever lovable mad detective, I have been reading his adventures right from my school days and have loved every one of them!! Even the TV serials based on his adventures have been followed by me religiously!! “It’s elementary, Dear Watson” being one of the most famous and recognizable phrases it will be fun to see the new Sherlock Holmes on the big screen! And I never knew that Sherlock wrestled!! :)

Surrogates – one of my all time favourites Bruce Willis comes in all sorts of roles!! Right from the angry cop in the Die Hard series to the ghost in Sixth Sense I have loved him in all his “hatke” roles!! And this is one more!!

The Princess and the Frog – on a lighter and funnier animated note this movie does not really follow the original story but looks like fun!!

My Web/Online Presence till today..

I visited some friends a couple of days ago and one very dear friend asked me if I was on Twitter. When I replied with an “Of Course!” he grinned and replied “Why am I not surprised!!” :)

While chatting with him I realised, Yes, I do have a presence on the World Wide Web!! And am proud of it too!! Today the whole world has congregated together on the Internet and is reaching out to people all over. As we progress, in time, each individual with access to a computer and an internet connection will be present online.

As I started getting introduced to the infiniteness of the internet, I decided to make my presence known to all around me and beyond.. :) I started off (years ago) with signing up for a yahoo mail id, a hotmail id and an Indiatimes id which then graduated to just having 2 mail ids – one on Yahoo and the other on Gmail. After this I got onto the social networking bandwagon and signed up onto Orkut. After getting bored with the site (yeah I know… u don’t understand that!!) I graduated to Facebook where I am more or less settled – for the time being at least ;) till something more fun comes up!!

On the professional networking side I signed up with the lesser known Ryze network years ago but I must confess that I didn’t find that very user friendly and now I am more active on LinkedIn!

Blogging caught my eye and the fun that I have had blogging has been awesome!!!! As you can see by this blog – have 75 posts and counting and have been around only 1.5 years – which may be less compared to those that write every day – but what the hell.. I enjoy writing and what I write!! Hehe Personal blogging aside I decided to get into blogging about my profession and started my HR Blog – it’s still only 3-4 posts old but I think I will get to 75 posts soon!!

I then wanted my own domain name and went out and bought that too which gets directed to my personal blog. I am in the midst of getting/setting up a website too wherein all the links to me will be present – cool nah?

Click! Click! Then I wanted to share my pics with my friends, so I signed up for the then popular Yahoo pictures – loved the interface and could uploading pictures was as simple as A-B-C!! After Yahoo shut down their service I went on the hunt for another online photo sharing site. Amidst all the ones out there, kind of liked Flickr but soon gave that up when I stumbled onto Picassa! This prompted me to start off my very own photo blog and I did! Though it is young too I don’t doubt that it will soon grow to be full of manyyyyyyyyyyy pictures taken from my camera and phone!

Twitter happened recently and it’s not too bad.. Have been getting the hang of it now and keep trying to tweet regularly! Spied one of my friend’s signature sporting his Google profile and now have one of my own too!

So I think for an HR person I am quite present on the Internet!! What do you think? ;)

My Best Friend’s Birthday Adventures

No, this is not like one of the Famous Five’s adventures!! This is about a night out with my best friend on her birthday last night. It all started out well, and we left her place for Juhu in her car.

With the windows rolled up, we waited for the air conditioning to kick in but to our disappointment it refused to do so and we had to roll the windows back down – not too bad as there was a cool breeze blowing. After filling up petrol we got on our way with the FM radio belting out the latest Hindi movie songs. We decided to take the Worli-Bandra Sealink and turned towards Worli seaface.

We suddenly heard a thump-thump noise and were wondering where it was coming from…. As we racked our heads to figure out the source of the noise we became aware of the car not performing the way it should. We pulled over on the side and discovered we had a flat!! Ok!! Two of us stuck on the side of the road with a flat tyre!! As we debated on how to get to the nearest petrol pump our eyes fell on couple of men changing a tyre on a car and we looked up to find that we had stopped right outside a small-time car alignment garage!! Luck was on our side!! We got the tyre changed and made our way towards the Sealink.

As we approached the Sealink the excitement grew and we were soon driving over the sea!! As we crossed the Sealink, I started taking pictures. The sights that greeted us were amazing and the journey was awesome!!

We made our way to the restaurant at Juhu without any further adventures and settled down to a yummy Italian dinner at Del Italia.

Grant us Independence today!

“Independence” a word that we take for granted at times but makes our hearts swell with pride as the tricolor flutters in the clear blue skies! As we all prepare to enjoy and celebrate our 62nd Independence Day from the British rule, I would like to ask for Independence from some other chains that bind us!

Grant us Independence from the terrorists who think it is their birthright to make our lives miserable by indulging in killing innocent people just so that they will go to heaven!! Don’t they realise there is nothing like that! Why are they getting away with all that they do?

Grant us Independence from the H1N1 virus that is making us suspicious of everyone we interact with, travelling with masks and handkerchiefs wrapped around our faces, and taking the lives of innocent children and elders.

Grant us Independence from the drought that we are facing in the country; send those rain laden clouds to us please! I recently saw the state of the fields on a TV channel and the dry, arid landscapes have been imprinted onto my mind… it is indeed a sad state of affairs…

As this year’s Independence Day passes I am thankful to be living in a free and independent nation. For whatever its quirks I love this country with all my heart!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ONE AND ALL!!

Flu – Pls fly away!!

As the H1N1 virus enters our living space there is wide spread panic among all individuals. These individuals consist of educated ones like you and me and uneducated ones like my rickshaw driver today who was wearing a handkerchief around his nose and mouth. Surprisingly the authorities are quite chilled out in their responses to the general public, their reasoning being that people die of more of other diseases every day than from the H1N1 virus. That may be true but they need to understand that for those “other” diseases there is some treatment, some vaccine and for the H1N1 virus the jury is still out on that one!

What has really upset me about this sudden biological attack is that the ones who are suffering the most are the children!! :( Which brings me to another controversy that is moving around – are closing down schools and colleges going to make a difference? Maybe yes, because of the near proximity of the children. Here authorities are playing safe and precaution is better than cure.

Indians are tolerant about a lot of things but when they are faced with something they do not understand they do tend to panic. This can be seen on every station, every bus stop in the city these days. Like someone said – it looks like everyone has turned into surgeons overnight with masks covering half their faces!! Everywhere you turn you see an assortment of masks – white ones, green ones, blue ones, even yellow ones! I too got my green ones! But got fleeced in the bargain!! The guy at the chemist charged me Rs. 20 per mask instead of the reported Rs. 5 – 7!! After I came home I realised that I was not the only one being fleeced the TV news brought it up too with the Health Minister. And kudos to him I actually liked the reply he gave the TV channel – if you are so upset with being fleeced and have proof of the same, file an FIR and the State Government will resolve the issue and take the chemist to task!

Hope that the deaths get curtailed and that everything returns back to normal soon!!

Take care everyone!!

Parsis!!

Received this mail and so wanted to share it with all of you!! :)

BusyBee on Parsis

The first Parsis I knew were statues. There were scores of them, all over Bombay (now Mumbai), most of them wearing glasses: Dadabhoy Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Jamshedji Tata, Cowasjee Jehangir, Bomanji Petit, the Khada (standing) Parsi at Byculla Bridge.

Later, I met other Parsis, at the Central Bank, Cusrow Baug, Rustom Baug, Albless Baug, Cama Baug, Godrej Company (find me a Parsi house and I will show you a Godrej steel cupboard in it), Colaba Agiary, Bombay House, piano recitals by Austrian pianists at the NCPA, Ripon Club. Most of the Parsis I know are Bombay Parsis, the older ones born at Dr Temulji's lying-in hospital for Parsi ladies, the younger ones delivered by Dr. Rusi Soonawala (Aapro Rusi). But there are also Delhi Parsis, Calcutta Parsis, Udwada Parsis, Toronto Parsis, one or two Mhow Parsis, Karachi Avaris, Minwallas, Sethna, etc. They are spread all over the world.

Whoever says that the Parsis are a dying community does not know what they are talking about. The Delhi Parsis are mainly Bombay Parsis now settled in Delhi, such as Soli Sorabjee and Fali Nariman. The Bombay Parsis themselves may be divided into further categories. There are Colaba Parsis, Tardeo Parsis and Dadar Parsi Colony Parsis. The Colaba Parsis work in advertising agencies, act in Hosi Vasunia's (now with The Indian Express Newspapers) plays and have relations in Toronto. The Tardeo Parsis would like to be Colaba Parsis. The Dadar Parsi Colony Parsis are Dadar Parsi Colony Parsis.

Their language is Gujarati, with a generous mixture of English or English with a generous mixture of Gujarati. Some people say that they borrowed the language from the Gujaratis, others that the Gujaratis learnt it from them. I have not resolved that point yet. But the Parsis have certain Gujarati words that are exclusive to their language. Putting aside the abuse words, I refer you to 'faragaat'. It is what a Parsi does when he returns home after a hard day at the office. He has a wash (Godrej or Tata soap), removes his clothes, and gets into a 'sadra' and 'lengha' and settles down in the easy chair with his legs stretched along its extended arms, sipping phudina tea. That is being 'faragaat', changing into sadra - lengha and relaxing. Say the words slowly and gently extend it: 'fara-gaaat'.

There are several other such words and phrases: kit-pit bandh ker, dahi na kar, doodh pau. Doodh pau is a somewhat goody-goody person, a bit of a sissy. I invite the members of the community to add to my collection. That takes care of the language, though most of them use English.

They are very fond of things English and particularly the English royalty, though that does not mean I am questioning their loyalty one bit. On that score they are unimpeachable. When I first visited London, a Parsi friend took me to see Buckingham Palace - from outside naturally, in those days they did not issue tickets to wander around the palace. We stood at the gates, he pointed at the palace, and said, "Aapri rani no mehel."

A lot of things are 'aapri' or 'aapro' or 'aapru'. For instance:
Apro Zubin Mehta, kevoo majehnu conduct karech.
Aapro Sam Maneckshaw.
Aapro Nani (Palkhivala), bahuj intelligent and bholo che.
Aapri Bachi Karkaria, soo lakhech, soo lakhech.
Aapro Dorabjee of Dorabjee's of Pune
Aapra Oliaji of Duke's Hotel, Devka
Aapri Princess Street ni Parsi Dairy Farm, bilkul pani nahi doodh ma, bilkul nahi.
Aapro Cyrus Broacha, ketlo comic che.
Aapro Adu (the late and lamented Adi Marzban).
Aapro Rusy (Karanjia), ehni toe soo pen.
Aapru Taj te Taj, choro Oberoi.

Every Parsi takes a proprietary interest in the Taj, in Baliwalla & Homi, Bombay's opticians since time began, and Air India when JRD Tata was the chairman. Even Rajiv Gandhi was aapro from his father's side. Aapro Rajiv aaje hote toe he would have ,,,,, (add your thought here).

On Parsi New Year, one of the 3 or 4 New Years they have in a year, in the morning, a couple of Nankhatai Bands will come over from Pydhonie to Cusrow Baug and with a great flurry play "Sare Jehan Se Acha" and Colonel Boogie's March in front of whichever flat (apartment) pays them. There will be prayers at the two major fire-temples at Dhobi Talao and vermicelli- Sev and sweet curd with rose petals, marghi na farcha and dhan dal and kolmi patia at home.

And there will be drinks, the Parsi pegs. A Parsi peg is the largest peg in the world! You may measure it by your palm - it extends over 5 fingers. The Patiala peg is also 5 fingers, but in the Patiala peg the fingers are held together, in the Parsi peg they are spread out!!

Chalo, Saheb, salamati lev.
-- Busybee.

Some definite MUST DOs every monsoon!!

Monsoons have arrived and it’s time for some fun, some frolic and some masti ;) !!! Some of my favourite must-dos in the monsoons in no particular order..

Curl up near a window with a hot mug of tea/coffee and watch the raindrops slide against the window pane

Inhale the perfume of the first rains

Dress up in shorts, an old t-shirt and sneakers and your windcheater and walk along the promenade of Marine Drive, sneakily cheating the waves which come onto the sidewalk

Curl up on the bed with a thrilling book while listening to the rain drumming on the roof

Go for a loooooooooong, never-ending drive in the rain and watch the sunset

Be a child and splash and jump into puddles – guaranteed a lot of fun!

Eat garam makai buttas in the rain

Stand under the shade of a tree to dodge the rain and sip hot cutting chai with still hotter bhajiyas.. yummmmmy!

Put out your hand to feel the raindrops on them while travelling in a train/bus/car

Curl up with your better half and …. ;) hehehe

Look up to the heavens and greet the raindrops, letting them slide down your face

Have I forgotten any of your favourite must dos? Share them with me!

Keeping us on track…

The rains lashed Mumbai city late last night and kept us company till mid morning today. The trains were understandably plying late and I for one had accepted my fate of wet compartment floors, closed windows and wet umbrellas!! Though I was prepared for all of this, what I wasn’t prepared for was the sight of the railway tracks being covered with water to the extent that one saw them enter the level of water and then disappear!

We all crib and blame the trains for running late resulting in us being late for work or wherever it is we are travelling to. We also crib about the water logging on the tracks and hold the WR/CR authorities responsible for the same. But have we really stopped and thought for a moment that at times they too have a huge responsibility on their shoulders? Aren’t we the so called “educated” classes that throw our empty wafer packets or empty bhel paper wrappers out the window after eating? Don’t we realize that in doing so we are only adding to the filth that clogs the drains on the tracks?

After seeing the almost non-existent tracks under water, I respect the train drivers’ job even more. Due to their careful and vigilant maneuvers they are able to keep the trains from derailing in the rains. Imagine them guiding the trains in the nights on tracks that are hardly visible, covered with water while rain lashes onto their windshields. Every journey that I undertake in the rains by train I have come back with awe for their expertise in making sure that we the passengers reach our destinations in one piece!

So I would like to say thanks to the men who drive our trains and keep us all on track – 24/7/365 days a year!

Tracks under water at Mumbai Central Station...

Tracks under water at Mumbai Central Station...

Tracks under water at Grant Road Station...

Tracks under water at Grant Road Station...

Monsoon Mania @ Mumbai

Mumbai was host to the much awaited monsoons last week. The monsoons heralded their arrival with dark clouds which covered the blue skies and few showers. I captured a few snapshots of the monsoons on my phone - check them out!

A small river near Andheri highway...

Raindrops falling on the road!!

Scene from the train...

A watery man and his dog...

The clouds at Bandra...

Rain clouds near Andheri Station...

Rain clouds near Andheri Station...

Rain Clouds at Marine Drive...

Rain Clouds at Marine Drive...

You will be missed, Michael...

I received the news with a numbness that spread throughout my body…. Michael Jackson had passed away last night.... tears welled in my eyes and I quickly blinked them away… never thought that I would be writing about his death… truly The King of Pop, he knew how to awe people at his live performances with all the special effects that could only be linked to an MJ show!

One of my dreams was to watch him perform live and watch him dance… his breakdancing inspired me to learn this dance form and made me more determined to watch him perform live. I thought this would never happen… then I heard that MJ was coming to Bombay to perform – I had just entered college and with only pocket money to survive started entering all the possible contests to win a ticket for the show – and win it I did!! But (yes there is a BIG but) since the concert was in Andheri and I didn’t know anyone else who had got a ticket I was not allowed to go for it! So I did the next best thing, the morning after the concert I went to Marine Drive outside the Oberoi (the Trident now) where he was staying and as he left to go to the airport he had the window of his car down and was half way out waving to everyone there! Yes I saw him nearer than I would have at the concert, I waved to him and he waved back and the feeling of elation was one that has not been overtaken as yet!!!

Bursting out on the scene with his Thriller and Beat It he moved on from a gawky teenager to a suave dancer in Smooth Criminal and The Way You Make Me Feel. He gave meaning to his songs and reached out to millions through Heal the World. He involved movie stars to be part of his videos in Remember the Time and Black & White. His dance styles varied from one form to another and kept all his fans enthralled and wanting for more – including me! For all his quirks that he had and for all the many weird things he was accused of I truly believed that he was a fighter and won against all odds – a person to admire!

My heart is heavy today… and I would like to end this post with a few words from MJ himself:

“There's A Place In Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
There's No Hurt Or Sorrow”

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Captain’s Log: Star date 15062009

Over the weekend, I took the biggest fan of Star Trek to watch the movie – My Mum!! And enjoy it we both did – immensely!!

Everyone in my family are diehard Star Trek fans but none like my mother who has followed all the possible Star Trek serials be it with William Shatner as James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise or with Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard or with Kate Mulgrew as Katherine Janeway the female captain of the Enterprise (bet you didn’t know of this captain!!). All three actors did justice to their role but when one thinks of Star Trek you can only think of James Kirk a.k.a William Shatner as captain!!

The movie was different from the previous movies on Star Trek because here all the characters are introduced and are brought together to serve as the crew of the USS Enterprise. The characterizations have been done well and I think that the producers and the directors actually managed to get actors slightly resembling the veteran crew except for Uhura! Chris Pine playing the new James T. Kirk was good though he kept getting hit a lot!! A little romance was plugged in between Spock and Uhura and was totally unexpected! The special appearance by the original Spock was the icing on the cake!! Though he looks old now his voice as he raises his hand to say “Live Long and Prosper” still carries its original punch!

All in all a good movie to watch and add it to your existing Star Trek collection. And I would like to end this post with my all-time favourite lines in Star Trek history –

Space – The Final Frontier
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, its continuing mission to explore a strange new world, to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Why do grown men cry? Especially this one!

At least why make such a show of it? I mean I know it’s good to cry and let out your emotions etc.. etc.. But why do it on such a huge stage? And ALL the time?

If you lose you cry, if you win you cry… I mean make up your mind!!

I understand that yes at times one gets overwhelmed by their emotions and they need to let it out, and I also understand that at those times there is no stopping the tears from falling. But I fail to understand why it is that win or lose tears stream out of these eyes????

Enlighten me someone!!

Sports!!

Well, though I do not count myself as a "sporty" person, I do count myself on being an active sport watcher! And the next few days will be choco-blocked with it all!!

The French Open is coming to a close today, though it ended for me the day Nadal was defeated :( by Robin Soderling. Let's see how Roger fares against him!!

On the heels (not really as it has already started!) of the French Open is the 20-20 World Cup!! Have enjoyed the two games that I have watched so far.. Chris Gayle is awesome - he hit one of the furtherest and biggest sixes ever!! The way he slaughtered Bret Lee for 56 runs was amazing!! Australia was left totally washed out on the ground.. to everyone's glee I think ;) hehe The next match was India and Bangladesh and being a total die-hard Indian cricket fan I was not disappointed to see the way we played in our first game at London. Though I think that Dhoni should have let Raina come in before him.. but then again he is the captain!

While the 20-20 keeps my adrenalin running high, the Gentleman's game being played at Wimbledon returns on the 22nd of June!! Time to see Nadal in action again!!

The tennis is once again followed by the Ashes - the time old clash between England and Australia!

So for the next couple of months me gonna be a Sporty Mystic!

The ZooZoo Cult – Love it or Leave it!

Yes, the latest craze is about the short white individuals with their egg shaped heads, their cute actions and of course their one of a kind giggle!! They are the new ambassadors for Vodafone and they are doing a good job too! I must say when I first saw them I kind of neglected them but as their popularity and their range of advertisements rose I too have been caught up in the ZooZoo frenzy.

Today one can get ZooZoo videos, ZooZoo ringtones, ZooZoo wallpapers and ZooZoo themes and animations! The ZooZoo characters thought to be animations at first shocked quite a few people including yours truly when it was known that they were actual people who were playing out the parts on the advertisements!! Hats off to the creators of this advertisement campaign!!


Everywhere I go I see someone speaking about, commenting about or showing off a picture of the ZooZoo clan. It even has over 7 groups on Facebook including 3 “official fan club groups” with over 1,40,000 fans in one of the groups!! Oh yes, and you can also download your favourite emotions, videos etc from these groups!

This is one hell of a following!! And if you are one of the few that are not part of this then do jump onto the bandwagon and check out the cool and weird world of the ZooZoos!!

A Comedy of Errors @ IPL

My fingers flew over the buttons of the remote around 8 p.m. last night and I glimpsed Chennai Super Kings take on the Deccan Chargers. Watched a few overs, saw the ball being hit all over the field and a slight boredom set on me, so my fingers found the remote and transferred my attentions onto Hallmark.

Around 9.45 I took a chance again with IPL to see what the score was… My mouth opened when I saw Deccan Chargers at 1 for 2 wickets!! My mouth further opened and a yell went out when immediately the 3rd wicket of Laxman went!! What was going on??? Are they playing International cricket?? Or some galli cricket???

And then started the Comedy of Errors… and it all came in pairs as if all players were enacting the 2-by-2 on Noah’s Arc! The first error was hilarious… 3 fielders running catch the ball in order to take the 4th wicket and all 3 leaving it so that the ball fell plum – right in the middle of the triangle!! Heehehe and I thought only the Indian team could make such bloopers!! What followed next was no less, when the fielder got the ball, but it decided to jump right out of his hands, kiss his jaw and fall to the ground!

This match was getting exciting and my mum and I sat down determined to watch it till the end. For the next few overs we were treated to some awesome batting with 6’s and 4’s being fit effortlessly by Dwayne over the boundary line.

The next weird, comic situation took place when Dwayne was to be run out, but the ball hit the stumps and went onto an overthrow, after which to make him out one of the stumps had to be removed… dunno if I have explained this well – but the cricketers out there would hopefully understand!! I managed to get a bit of the clip on my phone!! Check it out!! I could not stop laughing at the drama being played out on the field and the commentators were astounded as well!! This was really entertaining!! :)



Btw, Deccan Chargers had to reach a huge total of 178 runs and they were failing miserably!! Chennai Super Kings improved their fielding by taking wickets periodically but at 90 for 6 showed their weirdness again – 2 catches were dropped, one by Raina and the other by Badrinath… DC were then 99 for 9 and like a true Hindi movie climax they were all out for a ton (100)!!

A great match and awesome entertainment for a Monday night!! :)

Am back…

Yes, am back after a month away from blogging. I was definitely a victim of Blogger’s Block these past few weeks.

Well, let’s hope that the block has dissolved and I am back to my keyboard to take you further on My Mystical Musings Through A Journey called Life!

365 Days Old!!

As the minute hand inches to meet the hour hand at the stroke of midnight tonight, my blog will become 365 days old! Yes, my blog and I complete a year of blogging!! It has been a year full of twists and turns, of ups and downs, of weird expectations and weirder outcomes.

I remember when I started to blog and questions were raised if I could find enough material to blog about and whether or not I would continue doing so – was it just a fad thing with me? Well, I hope my completion of a year answers all those and more questions that may have come up in the course of the year.

Being technology savvy I enjoyed “playing around” with my blog, changing the colours of the theme, putting in pictures and videos on my posts, adding a stat counter, adding an RSS feed to my blog, etc which I learnt by experimenting and being taught by other seasoned bloggers. So much so that when other colleagues started their own blogs I was asked for advice too!! I learnt all about widgets and how varied they are in the things they offer! I learnt about blog rolls and how to check my blog on Google Analytics! I even ended up buying my own domain name and pointing my blog to it!

63 posts in 12 months – an average of about 5 posts a month, not bad if I say so myself! (Yes I am patting myself on the back!!) But, then again, I can’t take all the credit can I? I would not have been motivated so much to write if I didn’t have my regular readers edging me on for “one more post” every few days! So, thanks to all of you out there who do take out the 5 minutes to read each updated post on my blog!

Cheers!

My weekend at the Kala Ghoda Festival

The annual Kala Ghoda festival has been around for quite a number of years now. I used to visit it during my college times and always came away happy and impressed by the number of handicrafts on display, the number of entertaining performances by various individuals and by all the small stalls full of artifacts and little knick-knacks! Over the last few years I haven’t had a chance to visit this festival, so this year I vowed not to miss it and miss it I didn’t!!

This year’s festival started on Saturday and I reached there in the evening. As I approached the first thing that caught my eye was the number of people who had had the same idea as me on a Saturday evening! I saw mothers with their children showing them the artifacts around, there were families who were out for an enjoyable evening, young couples who had come to see the festival for the first time and quite a few foreign tourists clicking away on their cameras! I too joined them and took pictures of abstract and non-abstract art that was made of metal and other materials. The trees had some beautiful stars and a cute huge bulb!!

I was in time for the Dance Festival, and managed to wriggle my way near the barricade in front of the stage. The first act was a Bharatnatyam performance by renowned dancer Malavika Sarukkai. She enthralled me with her graceful movements and beautiful facial expressions! I think I connected more with the dance as I too have learnt this for 4 years during school!! After watching her performance I wanted to start learning Bharatnatyam once again!!

Next there was a puppet show and not being too fond of the same, I gave up my place to a couple of children and their mother to watch the show. While the puppets enthralled the children, I walked around the stalls set up by different NGOs and looked at their displays. Some of them tempted me to loosen my purse strings and I came away with a couple of necklaces, one of which was a nice brass one and the other a medley of small black beads!

The next act in the Dance Festival was a few dance performances by the team of Salsa India, one of the upcoming top Salsa teaching classes in India. It was started in Delhi and has now grown to Mumbai, Pune and Kolkatta. The dances were a medley of salsa, hip-hop, solos and a medley of other Latin dances. An awesome treat for the eyes!!



On Sunday, the air was filled with fun and excitement, as the news about the festival had spread and in response to it there were a lot more people around this Sunday evening! As I approached the entrance I saw a huge pyramid made of buckets, mugs and plastic taps - this was to send a message - Save Water! It looked awesome! Next to the bucket pyramid there was this huge umbrella which could definately shelter a family of 5 during the monsoons! ;-)


I made a beeline to the stage as I heard drums being played and I was in for a lovely surprise.. There were these 4 young guys playing an assortment of drums - even one playing a dhol! Their jugalbandi was awesome to hear and their charged up energy was felt all through the crowd near me. These guys called themselves F.A.D. the Percussion Group and they were most definately fabulous!!



After this perfomance there was a break wherein I wandered around the various stalls. I bought a lovely black t-shirt with a lion on it from the BNHS stall where the proceeds go to the well being of animals. There were great many bargains happening and it was fun to watch people shop like there was no tomorrow!! As my tummy growled I made my way towards the food stalls and had some pani-puri, some jaipur chaat and topped it up with a whiskey cream gelato! After eating my ears caught strains of music and I made my way once more to the stage to hear and watch Suneeta Rao belt out hindi movie songs. She got the crowd invloved and soon everyone was singing along with her.

After this performance, I looked at my watch and finally headed home - a lovely weekend indeed!!

Lip smacking Maharashtrian Food!!

I have lived all my life since I was born in amchi Mumbai but have never eaten a real Maharashtrian meal! Don’t get me wrong, I have eaten the usual snacks that we call Maharashtrian food – sabudana ka khichdi, puran poli, kothimbir wadis to name a few and have loved every bit of it! So a friend and I decided to try out real authentic Maharashtrian khana!

We made our way to Diva Maharashtra (at Mahim). As we approached the entrance we were greeted by a doorman dressed as a doorman in a King’s darbar, as he opened the door for us, we were further greeted by a traditional war-cry played out on a long curved trumpet like musical-instrument. The interior of the restaurant is tastefully done up with sarees hung on the two of the walls and the ceiling! Our dinner mats had the map of Maharastra and the menu card was also covered with parts of a saree (see pics)!

We settled down to a meal of Prawn Karanji which I might add was yummy! That was followed by a vegetarian dish made of Vaal – a white seed and was accompanied by a chicken gravy that was made from a particular Maharashtrian recipe!! We ordered a portion of rotis made of rice, and puris made of a mix of grains. One spice caught my eye – it was a small bowl of fried chilies – this my friend explained to me were actually green chilies that were slit and kept out in the sun to dry and are then covered with spices and when the need to eat them arises they are fried and served! Amazing!

As my eyes wandered around, they fell on a stick that had a saree and a garland and a metal vessel on it. I had seen it before as it is displayed on all Maharashtrian houses during their new year. The story behind this display was given by my friend. Apparently when Ram returned after defeating Ravana, the people waved flags from their windows, some women who did not have any flags tied their saree to a stick and waved those instead. There is a metal vessel on top of the stick so as to keep the saree from following off and there was a garland of sweets and flowers wrapped around the same.

As we finished our dinner, I was glad that we had come here to experience the true Maharashtrian cuisine!!

Jaago Re, Bell Bajao… Appreciation Guaranteed!

In today’s day and age when the media is almost 100% responsible for how we maintain our lifestyles through the media of advertising it is refreshing to see some advertisements stand out and leave an impact on the mind. Over the last few days I have encountered a number of advertisements mainly the kind showcased on TV. Out of the numerous Tata Sky plus, the Maggie noodles, the Dove and L’Oreal advertisements, three recent ones have remained engraved in my mind.

Jaago Re – this punch line has now become part of a lot of youth’s vocabulary. Though the advertisement is for Tea, all its advertisements come with a social message; the latest being aware of the voting procedures in our country. Jaago Re also enables one to register as a voter and get their voter’s identity card too! So what are you waiting for – if you are not registered or do not have a voter’s ID card then WAKE UP (Jaago Re) and register yourself today!

Bell Bajao – don’t know how many have actually seen this advertisement as those that I have spoken to have not even heard about it. This deals with bringing domestic violence to a halt! The two ads that have been aired so far have put across their concept very well, which is – it urges men to take a stand against domestic violence. Ring the bell and intervene in situations of abuse. One of the ads shows a man looking at TV and in the background he can hear a couple shouting wherein the husband is shouting at / hitting the wife. He gets up, goes to the neighbouring house, rings he bell and when the door opens asks the husband for some milk. When the husband returns with the milk the man has left… A brilliant ad campaign and a brilliant concept! Hats off to all involved!

Appreciation Guaranteed – on a lighter note this Fiat Linea advertisement is fun to watch especially the little boy’s expressions!! Right from the longing look when he looks at toys to the disappointed look when his father drags him away from the shop windows to the exasperated look when his father can’t tear his eyes away from the Fiat Linea! This ad is a real treat for the eyes and the car is not too bad too!! ;-)

Media today is becoming creative and fun to watch!

Raaz – a secret worth keeping - Forever!!

Why? Oh why do I get myself convinced to watch yet another Hindi flick?? Especially one with a name as Raaz…?? Well the movie was… umm was… some kind of a horror movie. Though there were a couple of times (only a couple though!) when it gave me a start – like when a bus simply takes the heroine along with it or when a hand comes out of an ATM machine!

Though one scene that I really liked was when Kangana Ranaut writes the magic phrase of the movie “Tum ashudh ho, sadh chuke ho” with her blood on the wall and she acted well when she turned on Emraan Hashmi like a woman possessed!! The fact that Emraan painted things of the future reminded me of the painter in “Heroes” but a very poor imitation of him! Am not a fan of any of the actors in the movie and thought that they could have acted better… and what was Jackie Shroff doing in this movie??? I mean did you actually need him there??? Couldn’t any other actor do?? Don’t get me wrong – I like Jackie, but isn’t he a bit too old (and too fat!) to act now???

Now to the story… as I said it was a secret that should have been kept!! Why let it out!! The reason why the weird things were happening was so trivial… that I totally lost my interest (whatever little there was!) in the movie! I did expect something more in the end but then true to our Bollywood istyle, the movie ended it the predictable Hindi movie istyle!!

So check out the secret at your own risk only!! :-)

Party on the 8.46 local!

Have you ever celebrated the beginning of the New Year in a train with friends? I don’t mean the bringing in of the New Year but just celebrating it? No? Well, I did just that on Monday morning with my morning train friends in the 8.46 Goregaon local from Churchgate! We all met up before the train pulled into the station with bags full of goodies and huge grinning faces! After wishing each other a Very Happy New Year we saw our train and jumped in.

A few of us had undertaken to bring along some treats and we immediately got around to making my seat (yeah – they found only my seat!!) the table for the goodies!! As the bags opened, our mouths started to water as chocolate brownies, assorted chocolates, kachori samosas, a cute heart-shaped cream cake and mango juice packets were laid out… it looked like a feast fit for a king!! :-)

We jumped right into the food and juices and ate to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content till we approached Dadar station, where the crowds would jump in and push our food away to occupy the seats… As we snacked we exchanged stories of how we had spent our 31^st nights. After that our topics varied from New Year resolutions to what we were wearing that day to when we should plan a day picnic for all of us! As Dadar approached we put away our left over goodies and settled down into our respective seats for the journey ahead. As we got down at Goregaon, all of us had smiles on our faces and we all walked with a spring in our step, all pumped up to take in the world in our stride after our wonderful morning!

So my advice to you, if you haven’t done anything as bizarre as this – go ahead and have a party with your train friends in your regular local train or join us as we celebrate another reason to smile!! :-)

Slumdog Millionaire - A Must Watch!!

The movie has been highly rated and there is a lot of buzz about this new movie that has taken the movie world by storm.. So why should I be left behind? I got onto the bandwagon and watched the movie. It was everything everyone said it was and more!


With a superb music score by Rehman and awesome direction by Danny Boyle, the movie drove you through the slums of Mumbai to the wretched "business" of children beggars to the desperation of finding the love of one's life.. At times the scenes were quite disturbing and I cringed with apprehension at the stark reality which stared out at me through the TV screen. My eyes filled with tears while my lips slowly smiled at the innocently delivered dialogues which held more meaning than ever like “I don’t know the name of the third musketeer!”

The direction and the camera angles were a treat to watch especially a shot taken from behind a dog lying down on the road showing children running through the streets to escape from rioters. Newcomer British actor Dev Patel gave a good performance all through though Freida Pinto’s performance left little more to be desired..

A movie that takes you through the stark realities of life on the streets and how if one keeps their eyes and ears open one will learn so much! All in all a movie definitely worth watching and owning!