Taare Zameen Par- Music Show by Children

 It was an endearing show of Bollywood songs across decades. The orchestra was superb, and so were the kids who performed. A novel idea, to present a kids' performance instead of one by grownups, and well-handled. Some songs rendered were done professionally. Two that stood out for me were Husn ke lakhon rang from Johnny Mera Naam and Ek chatur naar from Padosan. Happened at Yeshwantrao Hall in Kothrud yesterday.

Vedanshi Modha was a great compere and her dad was on the keyboard, as well as the organiser. Some good guys on the guitar, tabla and drums. Makrand Patankar and Radhika Atre were in the audience, both good singers themselves.. 

A rocking performance!

 

Makeover From Cute Professionals

 My niece's kids are in town from the U.S., so it was time for a makeover plus massage session for me and my daughter- it was great fun!

Overvaluation and Undervaluation

 Some things we undervalue (my list- you can beat me up if you don't agree)

1. A smile.. or humour, in general. 

2. Children, by imposing our ideas on them

3. A cup of coffee or tea from the neighbourhood cafe/darshini/vendor

4. Beautiful people (not skin) from our immediate connects- friends, cousins, colleagues, other non-celebrities

To complete the piece, we overvalue

1. Speeches, most of which are insincere.

2. Adults

3. Fancy stuff, branded goods of whatever category..

4. Cricketers, film stars, celebs of whatever field (except academia? just kidding!)

I will stop here for now, for fear of being badly beaten up!

The Ideal World

 The ideal world will never exist, if history is an indication. There will always be warmongers, demagogues, megalomaniacs somewhere in the world who will manipulate circumstances to try and perpetuate themselves by means foul. Also scamsters, criminals, corrupt officials and so on.

So, what does an average Jane (or Joe) do?

Stop wishing for an ideal world. Instead, improve yourself if you can. Do your job well. In a small way, get into doing some good for others, through an organisation, or a group of friends.

If you can even teach your kids some values and ethics, it may not change the world, but it may make a difference to their lives.

Also, enjoy what you have. There are many blessings we all have in terms of family, friends, career, or whatever. Enjoy these to the fullest. Get into creative pursuits- read, write or create music. Or play Golf.

You may still get through it unscathed.

Kids I Used to Know

 One of the benefits of getting old (I am not old-just getting there slowly) is to look at the dramatic changes in how many of the kids you know (including your own, if any) look after a decade or more.

So many kids I can remember, among them my cousins' kids from India and abroad, and some who migrated abroad from India. We don't meet as often, but pics are good enough to figure out.

Another age group is my students in their early twenties who are now young parents in many cases, with their own cute kids. There are hundreds in this category, and I have met a few of their kids too. Some I have only seen on facebook, but it gives you a great feeling to know someone for so long, more than a generation. 

An Indian parent used to have only two wishes in the earlier generation- to see their kids "settled" (meaning married) and then, to see them have kids. I don't insist on any of these, maybe because I feel like a grandpa by proxy to all these kids!

Not to forget, kids make some of the best models, so you can also indulge your passion for this hobby, with your camera.

Mother's Day 2021

 Celebrating with pics of mothers I know or have clicked. 

My sister, her daughter and my Mom. 

They are playing cricket in the pic below.

Two of my students Anshita (above) and Manjari (below) and their daughters.

Friends gathering, with a daughter Rimjhim, and her Mom Rajni behind.

Cousins Sheelu and Pramila, with their daughters behind them.

Shonika and her Mom, Kailash Gupta at their home. 

Shweta Kushal on karaoke, with her sister and two kids.

With My Mother-in-law at Charleston, SC.

Air Force Golf Club, with Madhuri Helchel and her son.

A young lady learns Golf as her Mom watches, Kodaikanal.

Shubha Gokhale, my cousin, with her daughter Maya.

Guide to Throwing a Tantrum

 Tantrums come naturally to kids..at least that's what we are taught to believe. But what about adult tantrums?

Husbands throw tantrums, wives do too. Sometimes the latter are silent ones, but unmistakable. 

Politicians are prone to throwing some, particularly when elections are close, or they are close to being thrown out of their ministerial portfolios.

Older people may be afraid to throw one, lest they get bundled off into an Old Home by the same kid whose tantrums they were forced to tolerate in his childhood.

Celebrities are always throwing one- otherwise they wouldn't be a celebrity.

The key to throwing a good tantrum- or an effective one, is that the audience should be the right one. If an Indian celebrity throws a tantrum in Japan, for instance, it won't work. They may just bow, and move on. Phir kya ukhaad loge aap?

Review of Marathi Film Half Ticket (Tikit)

This is an amazing film about two kids in a poverty-stricken family who live in a slum. Yet, they smile a lot, enjoy life eating Crow's eggs (and naming themselves after them too) and making small money from collecting coal dropped by wagons. They also have a friend, Tutti Frutti, who is older, but understands them perfectly.

Their life changes when a pizza shop opens in the neighbourhood. They have a Don Quixotic desire to eat a pizza, and try many failed shenanigans. Finally, an unexpected turn of events gets them what they wanted.

Very interestingly conceived, directed, and acted in, all three main actors- the mother, and the two boys- deserve an award. They may have got them too, as this is a 2016 film. The director deserves one too, for an excellent film. See it on Netflix/Amazon. It's on one of them, I forget which.

My Avatars on Earth- 6

And then there is the team player avatar- as a team player at IMT (below)- an outing with faculty colleagues.

 As Director-Lighting the lamp at a Convocation, IMT Nagpur. With Esheeta Ghosh and Mr. Kamal Nath, Chairman.

 Mentor to some cute kids-above, mine, and below, from IMT Nagpur (Jasleen and Pragya from the right)

Kidding Around

 Kids of various ages- 8 months to 10 years. Fun, though exhausting.

 Trying to be Japanese

Malling it.

Deloitted

Just went and attended on behalf of IIM Indore, an event called the Deans' Summit organised very well by Deloitte. It was a multi-media sensory experience (can't help it, I teach/taught Services Marketing, so bear with me).

A dancing (OK, waving) robot on screen with a voice (over) would introduce each session's speaker, and see her/him off, and in one session, we actually met a robot who walked on to the stage and even spoke contextually.

The sessions addressed issues like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber-everything including cyber-security, and many more current buzzwords like Big Data, Predictive Analytics and other kinds of it. Interspersed with examples from their consulting practice, it was a good mix of jargon and real application. One of the great attractions was speakers from social spheres-and sports. The founder of Teach for India, for example, was a passionate communicator, who spoke about transforming lives through education, and opportunity. Every kid deserves one! True that.

And of course, there was a fun evening too, with activities like cooking and karaoke-music and food go together, right?

Well done, from conception to execution. You are not a run-of-the-mill consultant, that's for sure!

Positive People

These, by my definition, are people who spread a positive vibe, most of the time. It has little to do with their condition at the time, or their financial status, or age etc..may be, kids are a great example, because most of them will give you positive vibes.

Not so adults. Why? Maybe we are obsessed with our work or home pressures, career progression, or an unsatisfying job (assuming we work for someone). But then, you see lots of people who are generally able to smile through anything, and even laugh at themselves and life.

No idea how they do it, but these kinds of people are a joy to behold and be with. In films too, my favourites were the happy-go-lucky people (yes, I know they were acting) who exhibited a devil-may-care attitude, or a mischievous demeanour, in a nice way. Dev Anand comes to mind (his autobiography is titled Romancing with Life), and so do Shammi Kapoor and Kishore Kumar. And Madhubala in many of her roles.

Things Which Keep Us Awake

Things which keep us awake -in my view, after extensive research- are the following.

Kids

Will I get batting tomorrow in the game we play every day?

Will my teacher ask for the home work or forget it?

Teens

How many Likes will my selfie get?

Women

What do I wear?

Housewives

What do I cook tomorrow?

Gentlemen (gentle is just a figure of speech)

Where will my next beer come from?

Will I get to watch India play XYZ undisturbed?

Anopheles Makes a Surprise Visit

Anopheles and Me

For those who have lost the plot ..err, haven't been following the plot, Anopheles is a female mosquito who drops in on me to have a chat once in a while. We have had conversations on every topic in the world- theirs and ours. I had not seen her in a while, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear her buzz into my room.

"What is a war?" she asked without a preamble.
"Well, it is a situation in which we kill each other." I tried.
"But why do you kill each other?" she wasn't satisfied, as I was afraid she wouldn't.

"Some of us want to expand our kingdoms" I said, thinking of Alexander the Great.
"Are large kingdoms necessary for a king to be happy?"she innocently asked.
"I can't say, I never had one" I told her.

"So what's your poison?" she queried.
"Mine, I guess, is the ego. Without the achievements to accompany the desire, I want people to tell me I am great. This is a failing of the human race, not mine alone." I rationalised.
"And that makes you happy?"
"Temporarily, yes. But not for too long. I want a new toy after a while, because the old one ceases to tickle."I tried explaining.

"Could this ego, as you call it, also be the cause of some of the wars that I hear you keep having regularly?"she persisted.
I thought about Bush and his random wars on terror, Iraq versus Kuwait, Iran-Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, and all the others.
"I suppose so, at least many of the wars were ego-based," I had to conclude.
"But tell me, why are you in a war-like mood today?"I tried levity, in a bid to lighten the conversation.
"Because my kid whom I raised so lovingly, fought with me over a trivial issue and flew away from home,"she confided.

"Oh, my," I thought. Their world is not so different after all. And tried consoling her with some soothing words that helped her calm down. She promised to wait a day or two hoping he would return, and bid goodbye.

Naming Kids and More

How do people name kids? Kings had it easy, as in just repeat the name with a roman numeral to prove that you could count, until a coup removed the last-mentioned numeral from the throne.

Why I was called Rajendra is that a great man turned into our first President, and his name was Rajendra Prasad. We had a brainwave about Prarthana (our first) and were influenced by film stars Pooja (Bhatt and Batra) for our second.

Many surnames emerged from professions- worldwide. What inspires people to still retain a name like Smith I cannot fathom. I like Wodehouse's Psmith idea, for its use of the differentiation strategy. I also like the U.P. style of renaming your surnames or not using them (sometimes to hide your caste)- free-for-all, in other words, like the state itself seems to be.

The feminist version of not changing surnames after marriage is fine, but may lead to confusion about the family tree. Though if there are no trees, families may vanish in due course, so it might not be that important in the longish run.

The weirdest (sur)name I have encountered is 'Cabinetmaker' ; combined with the first name Armaity, even more so.

Alarmists

Let us try and clear the mist- I mean, from the alarmists. They are the ones who keep posting alarmist messages like-

Don't read the newspaper, it'll make your mind weak.
Don't eat pizza, it contains hidden micro-organisms that will cripple you.
Drinking Coke makes you impotent.
Morning walks/jogs can displace your arteries.
Ogling at guys/girls can make you blind.

You get the drift, right? So I decided if I can't beat them, I shall join them. Here I go-

Stay away from Arnab Goswami. He is too serious.
Stay away from Salman's films or you'll lose your shirt!
Stay away from investment bankers. If you don't, you'll lose your pants.
Stay away from parents. They tell you what to do.
Stay away from your teachers. Or you will start believing you are a nitwit.
Don't have kids. They make you cry.
Don't marry. Prevent Chapter 11/bankruptcy.

That's all for now. Back with more if you aren't 100% Satisfied with these.

Learnings

Learnings from Photography- It's the angle that matters. How you see life, or want to see it, depends on which angle you choose. Pessimism versus optimism, joy versus despair, etc. etc. You can also throw light on the 'objects' of your interest, focus, and forget the rest.

Learnings from teaching- You cannot teach a person that does not want to learn. If you create love for learning, you don't have to teach. And, you can't stop someone from learning, if he wants to.

Learnings from Jobs- Your happiness depends on what you do, not what others get/make. You can always do better.

Learnings from Movies: Indian-good used to triumph over evil. Now we don't know which is which.
Hollywood- We are intruders in a world of aliens, vampires, and comic book characters.

Learnings from kids- Be happy, nothing matters in the end.

My Cracker is Louder than Yours

The different ways in which man competes with another! Examples abound, of this competitive spirit. Some of these are-

My car is bigger, more luxurious, more expensive than yours.

My house is bigger, better located than yours.

My wife is better-looking than yours.

My shirt/trousers were made in a better country (Italy/France) than yours (India/Bangladesh).

My guru writes/teaches yoga/discourses better than yours.

Kids' version of the same spirit- "My daddy strongest."

Maybe these days, it would extend into territories like 'My hospital is better than yours.' Or, 'my bypass surgery took longer than yours.'