Wonders of My World

 I don't buy the fact that there are just 7 Wonders of the World, and that too, just monuments. My list would include people I am grateful to- just for being in my life. And that's going to run into hundreds, obviously. I have had a long life...

1. Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. We were a large family, with my mother having several sisters and a brother, and my father with two brothers and some cousins. So we had a ball, meeting in vacations or get-togethers, weddings and so on. At Nagpur a few years ago, we celebrated the 75th birthday of our seniormost maternal cousin. A great event.

2. Teachers- starting from the nuns in class 1, to high school teachers at Hyderabad, or profs. at IIM Bangalore in India, and at Clemson University, USA, they played an important role in shaping me.

3. Colleagues at work in companies, or academic institutes. They have been a source of joy, and learning. Including my non-teaching staff, teaching assistants and almost everyone who worked in various offices- even accounts!

4. Classmates in school, college (we have a group called Hum Nahi Sudhrenge), IIM Bangalore buddies, and a couple of Ph.D. seniors and mates at Clemson-Ron Green being one, Masoud Abessi another

5. Students and ex-students..mostly the second, as I have graduated to admin. roles these last two-three years again. I am amazed at having so many wonderful people just a facebook post or WhatsApp message away. We also meet when we can. You guys are amazing!

6. Food and Drink.. with people you like. You can never have enough.. just like Lays says in its ad.. so much to explore. Just having Moong bhajiya in today's rain, or a Biryani at Hyderabad (with Pratima, my biryani friend), or sipping a cocktail- Ravi and I made a few in Calicut when I lived there. Had a coffee with Prabhakar at UB city recently, and shared many stories.

7. Fun and Games- Karaoke, Golf or Antakshari ..music in any form, actually.

Ok, managed to classify them into 7, after all.. am I forgetting something?

Top Ten of RD Burman

 Ten is an arbitrary number, but maybe I will expand it another day. My personal favourites-

1. O mere dil ke chain

2. Chala jaata hoon kisi ki dhun mein

3. Yeh shaam mastani

4. Gum hai kisi ke pyar mein

5. Chingari koi bhadke

6. Musafir hoon yaaro

7. Dum maro dum

8. Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jate hain jo makaam..

9. Aaj unse pehli mulaqaat hogi

10. Kiska rasta dekhe 

My Photogenic Pals

Some of them have won my Nice DP Award several times, and some may not have. But these are some friends who look very good in pics, more often than not. As usual, it's not a complete list, and I may just be losing my memory.. with that caveat, here's the partial list. (and as I have said before, if you are not on this list, maybe you are a good-looker in real life, rather than in a pic- you can quit the Instagrams..wink, wink)

Shefali Dixit, Siri Adi, Divya Sisodiya, Harnam Kaur, Roshni Chhabra, Himani Detwani, Saanjh K, Anusha Soni, Srishti Vinamra, Animesh Jain, Kanika Mhendiratta, Jasleen Kaur Pandher, Ishan Joshi, Sayali Jagdale, Nayan Sharma, Saumya Sharma, Shafique Gajdhar, Sucharita Pradhan, Deepti Joshi Deshpande, Raghavansharma Padmanabha, Henna Vanzara, Yamini Shah, Kanika Bhatia, Sreechand Nambiar, Sindhuja Gantayet, Komal Nagdavne, Neetika Thapar, Sapna Patni, Dheeru Epuri, Surabhi Vishwakarma, Chandana Kuruganty, Vidya TC, Surbhi Tandon Verma, Vandana Kumar, Mukesh Kumar Sinha, Tanaya Kar Chaturvedi, Sampark Sachdeva, Akshat Surana, Shivaratna Kumar Patil, Sudeep Jain, Sweta Mukherjee, Kshitija Deshmukh, Pavan Tarawade, Eisha Sawhney, Anshita Abhishek Chetty, Swathika Selvam, Pritu Raghuram Shetty, Aashneet Gautam, Pooja Daniel, Savitha NK, Manasa Bharadwaj, Merwin James, Supriya Sood Kataria, Anushka Mishra, Poonam Pawar, Aishani Verma, Anjali Iyer, Nidhi Trivedi, Nidhi Sharma Chanana, Abhishek Mukherjee, Chaitra Hegde, Monika Ghosh, Avadhoot Jathar, Nandini Saxena, Sruthi Chandrasenan,......

A to Z of Kishore Kumar

I will try and list songs sung by Kishore Kumar that start with each letter or have it in the first word.

A- Are yaar meri tum bhi ho ghazab
B- Bhanwre ki gunjan hai mera dil
C- Chingari, koi bhadke..
D- Deewana leke aaya hai dil ka taraana
E- Ek main aur ek tu dono mile is tarah
F- Maaf karo o baba maaf karo
G- Guni jano re bhakt jano
H- Hum the woh thi aur sama rangeen samajh gaye na..mannu, tera hua ab mera kya hoga?
I - Is mod se jaate hain.
J- Jaane kya soch kar nahin guzra
K- Kuchh to log kahenge
L- Lekar hum deewana dil
M- Main hoon jhum jhum jhum jhum jhumroo
N- Nakhrewali, dekhne mein dekhlo yeh kaisi bholi bhali
O- O mere dil ke chain
P- Phoolon ke rang se
Q- Beqaraar dil tu gaaye ja
R- Raatkali ek khwab mein aayi aur gale ka haar hui
S- Saamne yeh kaun aaya dil mein hui hulchul
T- Teri duniya se hoke majboor chala
U- Ulfat mein zamaane ki har rasm ko thukrao
V- Vaada tera vaada..
W- Woh shaam kuchh ajeeb thee
X- (From Mr. X in Bombay)- Mere mehboob qayamat hogi..
Y- Yeh dil na hota bechara
Z- Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hai jo makaam woh phir nahin aate..

Top Films

I am approaching this top twenty (or more) from a different angle. I will try and list a few films from different genres, and see if they make sense in a list like this.

Simple Tales

Nil Battey Sannata, Rajnigandha, Chitchor

Suspense

Jewel Thief, Teesri Manzil, Ittefaq, Dial M for Murder, Shikaar, Aankhen (both Dharmendra), The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

Serious Cinema

Anand, Arth, Aakrosh, Manthan, Mere Apne, Ingmar Bergman's films, Zorba the Greek

Romance

Bobby, Aradhana, Tere Mere Sapne, Ankhiyon ke Jaharonkhon Se, Casablanca, Amar Prem, Bridges of Madison County

Comedy

Chhoti si Baat, Chashme buddoor, Gol Maal, Chupke Chupke, Namak Halaal, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Padosan, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Finding Fanny, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Silent Movie, History of the World Part 1, The Loves and Times of Scaramouche

Action

Where Eagles Dare, Mackenna's Gold, Sholay

Period Dramas

Mughal-e-azam, Bahubali,

Foreign Films

Many Iranian films like The Salesman, The Separation, Kurosawa films like Red Beard, Seven Samurai, a couple of French and Italian films, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady (this could go into the comedy list too)

Mindless Formula

Hathi Mere Sathi, Seeta aur Geeta, Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, Amar Akbar Anthony, Jugnu, Roti, Humjoli, Some Govinda films, Some Telugu films with NTR, James Bond Films with Roger Moore, Tamil films with Prabhu Deva..

List of Things To Do

No, there is no bucket in sight, so this is not a bucket list. Not even New Year in sight, so it's not a New Year list of resolutions either.

Just a list of things to do, not necessarily soon.

Visit New Zealand.

Eat biryani.

Cook something nice, tasty, zesty.

Learn to sing better.

Shop less- am already getting good at this.

Travel more, explore places old and new. Starting with my backyard.

Keep in touch with friends from the past, over the last thirty years. That includes students who are now in THE LIST.

Make new friends. This is going well.

Talk less, listen more. Difficult, but doable.

Eat less, think more. Doable?

Go to Shrivardhan- a secret getaway, no longer secret!

Independence Day

For me, this should mean independence from

1. Exploitation
2. Ignorance, Fear
3. War and war-mongering
4. Want
5. Fanaticism of any kind- ethnic, linguistic and so on.
6. False pride in anything (lacking corresponding achievement)
7. False gods (or people posing as gods).
8. Our many weaknesses.
9. Unfulfilling Pursuits
10. Crappy films/music/books