Deep Impact

Well, the 10-day frolic and frenzy of the much, no, desperately awaited Ganesh Festival has almost come to a fitting finale. It is finally time to say good bye to the lord with a crooked trunk and an adorable pot belly. Oh and it is ciao to lip smacking modaks too, unfortunately. Yes, good byes are always difficult and saddening but they hold a promise and hope that whoever you are bidding adieu to, will be back sometime. With our Ganpati bappa too, it is the same thing. He gives us a booster dose of hope, faith, love, reasoning and most importantly of being together, as a community, being united, till the next times he arrives. Like what legendary Bal Gangadhar Tilak had envisaged Ganeshotsav to be, a platform where people would come together and discuss teething issues faced by the society and country at large. Subsequently try and find solutions and work towards the betterment of the society and ultimately the country as a whole. There were skits, plays and random cultural perform...

As sweet as the name suggests, Barfi! did not prove  to be anything else. It is a sweet, touching and feel good film. Barfi! is the story of Murphy, who is deaf and dumb and so he barely manages to pronounce his name. But atta boy! He woos the new girl in town with his carefree heroics and absolutely no holds barred attitude towards life. Yes, despite him being differently abled. However, there is a roadblock in his love story. The girl he loves is soon to be married and unfortunately does not have the courage to go against the rules laid out for her. Things though, take a different turn and Barfi stumbles upon an autistic childhood friend. Life then becomes a roller coaster for all the three. Barfi’s lady love is drawn to him on account of some unpleasant circumstances. Barfi is now the autistic girl’s guardian and he simply cannot let go off her. At the same time, Barfi’s ex lady love has separated from her husband to be with him. In the end, both Barfi and his childhood frie...

Hmm…..This is one thing I have been wondering since quite some time now. How good or bad is it, being single. Well, depends what kind of people you are surrounded with. If you are surrounded by oh-so-much in love couples, sneaking private moments in public, you are sure to feel left out sometimes. In case you have a majority of friends who are single and ready to mingle, then life I think is a bit better.  The worst part, I feel about being single when your friends are either married or engaged is that they keep on telling you – ‘why don’t you do something?’ Haha, well? I really blow my brains off thinking what do they mean by do something? Do they mean I should carry a placard saying ‘Here! I am single, any takers there?’ or do they mean I should be on a man prowl or something by going around in discs and night clubs? Frankly, I am yet to find an answer. But one thing is for sure, when all your friends are taken, you miss out on the girl time you have spent earlier when they wer...

After I read The Immortals of Meluha, I thought I could never revere anyone but Lord Shankar or Mahadev. He swept me off my feet, and how! Mahadev became the ‘dude’ lord for me.  However, my love for this dude lord notwithstanding, I  now, have a new found love and that is, the eternal charmer and love of Radha’s life, Lord Krishna. This is a result of a multimedia dance drama-ballet ‘Krishna’, by accomplished and popular South Indian actress and dancer Shobhana. The show was held at Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Pune on September 6th at 7.30 pm. It was an evening to remember for a long time to come for me. The show started with some breathtaking snippets from Krishna’s life, the most prominent being Kansa’s death at the hands of adolescent or even younger Krishna. And then came the surprise element. Suddenly, the dancer playing Krishna and the others around started dancing on title track from the film ‘Dhoom’. From then on, it was a magical journey of major events in...

I have been getting sermons (necessary and unnecessary) about cooking and managing a household, mostly kitchen, since I have been approaching my 20s.  “You should know how to manage the kitchen”, “Career vagaira is fine, you should pursue that, but you should know how to cook”, “what will you do when you get married and go to your ‘sasuraal’? Will you give them short stories instead of ‘poli’ ‘bhaaji’?” Such statements were a regular feature of my conversations with my grandma. Sometimes even with my mother. I used to squirm and make faces at such statements and loath them, wondering what is the big deal? I mean why does it matter so much if a girl cannot make perfectly fluffy and spherical ‘phulkas’ or cannot whip up a special, succinct vegetable dish for her boyfriend’s or husband’s friends or business associates? I have been pondering over these questions and issues related to it.  I have not yet got the answer, but I think it somewhere lies in the gender based roles. Th...

The Men in Blue yet again proved their supremacy on their home pitch, beating New Zealand by 5 wickets and a whole day to spare, today in Bengaluru in the second test match. Chasing a tricky target of 261, India started well, with Sehwag and Gambhir putting together 77 for the first wicket. Sehwag was the first one to go, outsmarted by off spinner Jeetan Patel, bowled at 38. Gambhir did not last too long after that, as runs dried out after Sehwag’s dismissal. Gambhir finally succumbed to a fine delivery by Trent Boult. The runs were almost down to a trickle and Cheteshwar Pujara along with master blaster Sachin Tendulkar began a mission to steady the ship. By lunch, it was still no sign of danger for India, even though it was 88 for 2. Post lunch, Pujara and Tenbdulkar got back to work again. Both the batsmen played well, punishing the bowlers when they strayed from the line and defending when required. Both carried on, posing problems for New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor. He seemed t...

The blame game our politicians indulge in notwithstanding, sports is the last thing on the minds of our policy makers. Vijay Kumar and Mary Koms are rare species in our land of abundance. Their success stories are a result of sheer grit, hard work and never-say-die attitude. Not to forget the almost complete lack of resources, to perhaps compete even at the national level, leave alone Olympics. But still, these two, the underdogs and least known athletes, got us glory. It is another story that now Vijay Kumar has been promoted and suddenly Mary Kom is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s muse. Just the other day I read in a renowned daily newspaper that in Delhi there are many youngsters, keen on carving a career in tennis cannot do so. The reason? No tennis courts to practice and Delhi and NCR’s amazing public transport, which does not help in transporting the public at all. Metro is ofcourse an exception. The point I wonder, me being an avid sports enthusiast, is that, when a country like Jama...