I left IMT Nagpur in 2013. But I have been meeting alumni from the institute ever since. I met one in Kolkata just two months ago. After 2012, when she graduated. This week, I met three alums, including one who just moved to Pune, Ananya Nandi De. Two others, Harshad Lunavat and Phalguni Bannerjee Basu, have been here longer.
A fascinating film about some talking sheep, who solve a murder mystery.
Creatively written and directed, The sheep are the real sleuths in this whodunit involving their shepherd, Hugh Jackman. The usual suspects are lined up, and a twist in the tail nails the perpetrator, just in time.
Enjoyable for its novelty of plot, it is actually based on a novel. Great photography, dialogues and sheep! With a few messages for humans too, about prejudice, casting people out of the flock, exploring new frontiers and so on.
Jamun, and Mango, summer delights. Mangoes come in infinite varieties and sizes.
Ice apple, called Tadgola - a palm fruit, in the summer.
Corn, fresh, in the monsoon? Remember eating roasted bhutta on the way to Mandu on the roadside.
Strawberries are also seasonal, probably during the rainy season or winter.
Guavas are also seasonal, in July August.
Hurda, the raw grain (usually jowar), roasted, is available in winter months. Eaten with jaggery and spice, it's delicious.
If they were made on current happenings, their titles might be-
1. Khul ja Hormuz
2. Mamata ki Kshamata
3. Hormuz- Kabhi khushi de kabhi gham
4. LPG- a Neverland
5. Hormuz ki dum Tedhi ki Tedhi
6. Iran Yuddh ka Kahufnaak Sach
7. Israel ki Giraft mein Trump
8. Vijay hi asli cheez hai
9. Keralam aur Raga- ek Prem Kahani
When you are in a job, you can be useful to friends in your network, either due to your expertise, or your position, or contacts. Maybe you can get things done. Fix a summer internship for your friend's son/daughter, or call someone to do someone a favour.
When you stop working, most of these "powers" go away almost instantly. People who knew you 'forget' you, and you are pretty useless to anyone. It's a different feeling, and can affect you negatively.
But there's also a positive. It's liberating, the feeling that you are no longer going to be approached by anybody to do things for them. You can play God no longer, you are just a human on your own.
Freedom, at last?
Saw a musical show at Balgandharva in Pune- 60s to 90s. Singing by various artistes, reasonably good. Song selection could have been better, in my view. But the show was free, so worth the three hours or so. One good idea was visuals from Youtube were flashed along with the singing, so relived a theatre experience with original actors, alongside.. my favourite was Khatuba, from Alibaba aur Chalis Chor, filmed on Zeenat Aman. Ek main aur ek tu was good too, and Kanta lagaa..
Exit polls were Ok in Bengal and Assam, also in Kerala, but off in Tamil Nadu (except one I think).
Change happened in all states except Assam.
Maybe the lesson is that everything has an expiry date. Dictator or democrat, doesn't matter. Sometimes elections displace them, sometimes a revolution, or an assassination.
Many a time, electors have limited choices. They vote for what seems most likely to benefit, or least likely to harm them.
Congress ruled at the Centre for a long, long time. So did the Communists in Bengal. But at some point, the need for a change became apparent, and it happened. So it is this time.
And yes, the name Vijay helps you win. Not just in Hindi films.
I have forgotten the number of trips I have made to Goa. Most were to Colva beach, and two to other beaches. One was to Panjim, in 1983-my ...
