Ali Mothi Shahani- Marathi Film Review

 See it, you may enjoy the story.. of a little girl who wants to be a grownup, instantly.. stars two good actors in the lead roles. A tad long, at 2:36, but enjoyable for its novel plot and storytelling.

A New Bucket List in 2026

 I will be 66 in a few days. I am entitled to a bucket list. So what if it gets updated every few years?

1. I want to be free from excessive noise-anytime, anywhere. What I consider noise is entirely up to me.

2. I want to meet some of the people I have never met, but who have been my FB friends for a long time. 

3. I would like to meet a few people I have not met in a long time- like Leslie from the U.S., my colleague and friend at Lander University. Or some students from IMT. Or Kirloskar, or PES or IFIM or elsewhere. Colleagues too.

4. I want to play Golf in a few more locations if I can. If not, in the known locations like Kodaikanal, or Bangalore or Hyderabad.

5. I want to see music shows, plays and films whenever I can, no limit on numbers. Starting to do that in Pune.

6. I want to travel within India, to meet some people, even if there is no special occasion. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata maybe are a priority.. Calicut, Coimbatore, Dehradun as well.. and Roorkee, Jaipur, Amritsar if possible. Goa, once or twce a year.

7. Taste a few more Single Malts when I can. Gurgaon has a few reasonably priced ones.

8. Sing along on karaoke, with friends or family.. now that I have a speaker with Bluetooth, it's easier.

9. Minimise visits to a doctor. Working on it.

10. Be less of a pain to everyone. 

The Damayanti Damle - Marathi Play Review

 Saw an amazing performance by the lead player in this play.. a superb comedy about domestic issues. It has two daughters-in-law and their Mother-in-law (the title role player Damayanti) as the central characters, with the husbands playing a supporting role. A sort of Tu Tu Main Main twice over! And it's great fun, with some doses of sentimentality thrown in for variety, or spice!

Vishakha Subhedar is excellent in the title role. Written by Imtiaz Patel originally. Directed by Santosh Pawar. 

Mispronounced Words

 Growing up, a lot of words were mispronounced, by us and those around us. These included a few English words-

Daver or Diver for Driver

Tation for Station

Hochipal for Hospital

Pumpture or Pumpchar for puncture

Child for chilled, as in child Beer.

The purity of a language is a myth, according to Javed Akhtar. Those languages which borrow and grow live longer, as is the case with Mangled English.. it lives on. It has words from many foreign languages. Surprisingly, Hindi or Hindustani also has words from many languages like Persian, or Afghan.

One of the most-cited words of this kind in Bandicoot, from the Telugu word Pandikokku.

Stepwell in Hyderabad

 Bansilalpet has a neat stepwell, and an art gallery that has old paintings and photographs of that area and the stepwell. Near R.P. Road in Secunderabad. Worth a visit. 

Hyderabad Heritage Walk

 Mah Laqa Bai Chanda was a Courtesan, poet and warrior in the Nizam's time. Her tomb in Hyderabad was the starting point of our walk, which continued to the Moula Ali shrine nearby, dedicated to Ali, the Prophet's Son-in-law and whose followers are Shia Muslims.

She was also a possible inspiration for the book Umrao Jaan Ada, made into a film by Muzaffar Ali. A colourful personality. Pics from the tomb and Moula Ali hill.

Wedding in Chennai

 Went to Chennai for a few days, after quite a while. I used to attend a December conference at Great Lakes Institute for a long time. This trip I went to a wedding, and spent time with Vijayakumar-old friend and colleague-

On the way Pune-Chennai

Jayanti, another cousin of my wife's.

Ajai and Swethalakshmi, groom and bride.

Gayatri, wife's cousin and husband Kumar

at his place. Also met a couple of his partners in a new venture.