Paa

Watched this movie last week. Few things I truly liked about this movie:

1. Vidya Balan looks so beautiful in nice cotton sarees and long ear-rings

2. AB’s makeup as Auro is awesome

3. The way he runs away from his classmate, a girl, depicting shyness wins your heart

4. Abhishek Bacchan has performed very well as a young politician wanting to change India. His apt moves when opposition party leader tries to trap him, leaves you wondering why we cannot have real-life politicians like AB Jr.

5. Its heart tugging when Auro tells his “Bum” that he is a B****** because his mother has not gone round-and-round (wanting to know how and why he was born out of wedlock)

6. Last 30 minutes of the movie – really gets your eyes moist.

Auro – you rock!!!

Staying In-cognito

This hotel owner would have not realized where it would lead him when he allowed his famous guest sign up into his hotel along with 15 other guests.

This incident happened in Varanasi when Aamir Khan checked into a hotel under the name of “Akram Shah and party”.

Obviously the star wanted to stay low profile and did not want to attract attention. However, the government caught up with the hotel owner demanding how he could violate the Identity Verification Rules for guests.

Here is the entire story. The irony is that government has let Aamir go scott free by saying “It was the hotel owner’s fault for not insisting on the true name”.

Who can blame the hotel owner for not insisting? If you were a huge fan of the actor and he landed at your door step asking to remain incognito, would you not help him?

Indian or Maharashtrian?

India is a cricket-crazy nation. When 13 players get into the field, we seldom think whether Sachin is a Maharashtrian or Dravid is from Karnataka. All we see is one NATIONAL team.

We collectively celebrate wins and equally feel sad when the team loses. This time, again, we do not see any nation or region or religion coming in between. It is just one nation, one team, one cricket.

So, when I read Shiv Sena’s report or comment claiming that Sachin always plays only for India and NOT for Maharashtra, I truly felt like laughing. It is like asking “Agreed Mahatma Gandhi got India her independence. But what did he do for Gujarath?”

I think it is for this precise reason why we are always a divided nation. We always tend to listen to politicians and bounce people who are truly working to promote ONE COUNTRY culture.

A part or Apart – 2

I was catching up on Swaram’s blog after a long time and her this post moved me a lot. The story of her friend’s fight against dowry stayed with me through the evening.

I reached home in a very pensive mood when my mom called. After marriage, when mothers call on their daughters, it is typically with 2 intentions – one – to check on your (and your family’s) welfare and two – to report latest happenings in the immediate family.

And this time, she had a disturbing news for me. My cousin A was seeking a divorce from her husband of nearly 8 years.

Now, A was born and brought up in a very very tiny village in south kanara where only approx. 10 families live. She traveled to a far away town to get herself educated and completed her B.Com. A’s parents have been loyal to that village.  They really lived a difficult life – getting up around 4 a.m., milking the cows, cleaning the cow shed, preparing breakfast, sending kids to school, toiling in the fields, coming back home, cooking, cleaning etc etc. never ending work and no electricity (and now, sparse electricity). They have just 2 children – A and her brother, whom they brought up lovingly, despite all their daily struggles.

After graduation, they married her off to an engineeer guy with links into one of Mumbai’s wealthiest and well-known families. The expectation from the groom’s side was for a pompous wedding. A’s parents did their best to meet their expectations – held a grand wedding and attended grander reception and gave away the apple of their eye, the well looked after parrot into the hands of a hawk.

Within 1 year of marriage, A gave birth to a son. Only around this time, she started uncovering a different facet of her husband. This guy turns out to be a moron who continuously quit jobs and shirk from responsibilities of looking after his wife and kid.

A’s parents struggled to come to terms with this. A’s maternal uncle was overseas. They even requested him to get a job for A’s husband and he obliged by finding him not 1 but 2 jobs… but this guy did not stick to both of them… he returned back to Mumbai and stayed in Mumbai.

Frustrated A started having health issues. Her parents were shattered. They kept a brave front in front of immediate family yet showing everything was good. They tried to quitely work things out with A’s husband in the background. Nothing worked.

In the meanwhile, A moved to Bangalore and took up a job with one of Bangalore’s IT giants in their BPO division. All the while trying to resolve issues with her husband.

But when she saw no light at the end of the tunnel, it was A who took matters into her hand and took a bold decision to seek a divorce. She organized for a meeting with the groom’s family and her family and told them what she was expecting. Shamefully, the groom was NOT even willing to support their kid, who is just 5 years old and blissfully unaware of the storm in his mothers life…

So, when my mom told me this, I was truly heart broken. My heart went out for that little one who is yet to see the world and is quitely growing up with his grandparents in the tiny village – just because his mother wants to shield the child from all the pain that she is currently going through.

I called A at night and told her “A, I don’t have words to tell you how happy I am that you have taken this bold decision. Please do not grieve for what happened. Look for the future and I am sure you have a very bright one ahead. I want you to know that I am in 100% agreement with your decision and support you with all my heart. Any point in time, you need to talk, you need help, call me and talk to me. I will help you as much as I can and this is my promise”.

She had tears in her eyes as she heard me and my eyes grew moist. I felt I had done the right thing by calling her up and endorsing her decision. As her family, I want to stand by her and support her for the bravest decision she has taken in her life.

Masika

People who have heard this word might make a face thinking “what has she got to write about this?” or “oh… not again… I have read about pain and death several times on this blog… please spare me”

Before you jump into conclusions…this is not what you are thinking… just sit back and read on

Yesterday late night, about 9.30 p.m., I was up and waiting for my husband to return from a official dinner party he was attending. Both kids were sound asleep. I love this kind of personal time. I flipped through the channels and could not find anything interesting enough to watch… Saw Angry Young man playing “Kaliya” and mouthing the same dialogue for umpteenth time … And Babli gyrating with Shaahid Kapoor to the tune of Hadippa….I was bored and lost…

Suddenly, I remembered, I had not read the newspaper and thought of flipping the pages. One column that I truly HATE to read but yet end up reading is PAGE-3. (I truly don’t know why these people party all the time or do they party just to appear on the newspaper page # 3!!!)

Just when I was about to flip the page, I accidentally saw a name that read “Masika” and I was astonished… The girl’s photo was also published on Page-3.

I was dumb-founded… which Indian on earth will go and name his/her daughter as Masika, I thought.

Now, for those, who are finding this greek and latin, let me explain. “Masika” is the word given to the monthly ceremonies of the dead that we perform every month for 1 year when a close one expires.

So, my wonder was genuine. Come morning, this question was still lingering in my head. I decided to play the sleuth (well, not exactly)… and find out…. called my assistant GOOGLE and gave her the task… Within no time, she came up with the answer.

Masika in African means “Born during the season of the rains”… is it not sweet?

And my always muddled brain was thinking unidirectional…….