And I finally got my sisters to tie rakhis on saturday..Yippeee! I remember back in the school days, I was the proudest boy with a total of 6 rakhis! And the big show-off that I was, I used to wear them to school the other day ;-) and everyone used to gaze at my small, thin wrist laden with rakhis of all colours and shiny laces. Rakhi used to be a good day when all my sisters would come home and have lunch and of course tie the rakhi. Now things are totally different. While our equation with one of my cousion has gone sour, 2 of my sisters have got married and settled abroad and I have now 3 of them who visited me every year on this auspicious day. The most part of the day was that my most favourite cousin and my friend from Canada called me to wish me on Rakhi day :-)
General
Fairly Relaxed Today
A friday is a day when you actually are free from all the worries of the past week and are looking forward to spending time on the weekends. At the office though, we have been undergoing some horrific moments over the Banking website. Nevertheless, today was really a wonderful day for me. For a start, it was after a long time that I wore my favorite Provogue shirt :-)
Squirrel Mania
I would not have written this piece but for this cute little bushy tailed sweetie who comes everyday to visit us. Mom has been feeding her for sometime and I have got used to her presence now. I am talking about a squirrel who has become like a family member now. Her favourite area is the pot where we have a flowering plant standing tall amongst the other lot.
We, the People
It can’t get any auspicious than this. After 4 days of no internet, I got it back, right on our Independence Day. The problem apparently lay in some cables which might have got snapped due to the ‘Big Splash’. The cable guys at Hathway worked today to repair the cables and set my internet working again :-) Thanks a ton to them.
I had the opportunity to watch Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades on STAR Gold. Coming soon after the tremendous success of ‘Lagaan’, it must have been difficult process in making a film which would live upto the expectations of the people and Ashutosh has not disappointed. Swades is about Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan) a Project Manager on Global Precipitation Measurement at NASA. He comes to India to see his nanny in a small village in Uttar Pradesh called Charanpur where he meets his love life Gita (Gayatri Joshi making her debut on the silver screen). The story unfolds when on a trip to a neighbouring village, he sees how people are living under abject poverty and decides to do something about it. He helps in breaking the shackles of age old traditions of caste and creed which are so prevalent in rural India even today. By contructing a small hydel electric project in the village, the protaganist gives the villagers a reason to cheer. Finally his motherland beckons him to come back and the rest is history.
The highlights of the movie are just too many. The narrative itself is very simple and well tackled. The cinematography is excellent and gives one the feeling of being in a rural setting. AR Rahman & Javed Akhtar do it again after Lagaan. The Ramlila song is the highlight for me since it’s written by a non-Hindu and I am too proud about this fact.
Lastly I hope we have a Mohan Bhargava hidden somewhere inside us who can create a revolution and bring happiness to everyone’s hearts. I know that we have become too cynical about the way things have been happening about us but cynicism will only pull us back into that quicksand called hopelessness.
India, down and out?
Preceding the floods that drowned Mumbai, the favorite topic of discussion for me is the inane urban planning of this city. The politicians and the people have robbed this wonderful city of dreams of its beauty. Since I have been to Hong Kong (and Avinash happens to stay there) I can vouch for the fact that I haven’t seen a city as beautiful. The most towering influence as soon as you land in Hong Kong (HK) is the Chap Lap Kok International Airport and the superb Airport Express trains. It’s like getting off one plane and moving into another. Then comes the 3 private companies who run the excellent bus services and the 2 rail transport companies (KCR and MTR) running the overground as well as the underground rail services. The waterfront is also used for transportation from one island to the main land and so on. Every person carries a smart card which acts like a ticket on any transportation that you take. Simply said, Mumbai needs such services desperately and I am afraid that it’s already too late to even start thinking about it. We have the money and the expertise and the men who can do this job efficiently. All we need are some politicians with foresight and willpower.