Some Firsts in 2023

We don't have to repeat the same things we did. Alongside, look for new experiences. It's possible. Some new things I can remember from 2023.

Made a new friend from Argentina. Veronica is a guest faculty at Prestige University, and brings a unique flavour to the classroom with her KPMG Spain stint. She's a great conversationalist, warm and has a great sense of humour. 

Went to Nagaland-Kohima and Dimapur- for the first time. One needs to visit this area and learn about it, I think. Also went to Shillong, though it was touch and go.

Met Ananya Nandi De and family. She is an alum of IMT Nagpur, and a member of a music group I belong to. Met her again in December, last week.

That's Veronica, in the pic above, and Ananya and Abha in the one below!

Met Meghana Khadilkar, finally. At Pune. IMT student, but we hadn't met.

Made new friends among the Ph.D. students at IIM Indore. Neeti Ingole and Pratishtha Batra are two of them, (in the pic with old friends Prachi and Akansh)

Had a great time giving a keynote speech at NIFT Gandhinagar, with fashionable people, beautifully dressed, all around me. Dhanali Sandesara and Mehak even started following my blog!

Played the drummer at IIMB, and TV film director at CNBC-see the pics if you don't believe me. 

At IIMB, above, and CNBC studio, Worli, below.

Visited my niece Miskil and Kabir, at their house for the first time. Their boy Khayal is also in the pic, along with others.

Had a few new Single Malts, a couple imported directly from Scotland. Here's one- 

 Oh, and rode a pony for the first time, in Pahalgam.

Global Fashion -an Update

Fashion is the new constant-I mean change is the only constant, and fashion is about change. Don't get it? It's OK, neither do I. So I'll just get on with what I was saying.

The current fashion in these countries/states/cities seems to be-

North Korea- celebrating Diwali by firing rockets over Japan.

USA- Building walls (a fashion started by Facebook, which has since moved to Timelines)

Mexico-Shaking it up

Caribbean countries- Sending hurricanes to the U.S. coast.

China-trying Gujarati food (Dhokla-m?)

Gujarat- banning Sunny Leone ads

Mumbai- trying to become Venice

(These are not countries, but have populations bigger than some.) Fb, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp,..- trying to be like each other.

Global Fashion

A quick sum-up of the fashionable things.

In Syria, it is to migrate to Europe by boat, or bicycle.

In the U.S., it is to shoot at campuses. To find a higher purpose in life, shoot inside places of higher education.

In the Mediterranean, it is to resue the boat people mentioned above.

In Australia, it is changing Prime Ministers.

In India, it is to hold election rallies, build speed-breakers on potholed roads.

In Dubai, it is to boast about and construct tall buildings.

In Japan, it is to bow.

In North Korea, it is to make cutouts of their Leader to upstage Jayalalitha's.

In South Korea, it is to barbeque anything in sight.

Wilde Quotes

Wit and Oscar Wilde have a correlation of 1.0, that is, high correlation. Sample some of these-

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

I live in terror of not being misunderstood.

It's perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely true.

I must decline your invitation on account of an engagement I am just about to make.

I always pass on good advice- it's the only thing one can do with it.

Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played Dominoes in an open air cafe in Paris.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

Facebook, Whatsapp and Me

First there was Orkut. It stormed the world with what it enabled people to do. Share comments, pics and what not. There might have been others, but Orkut was the king. And then FB happened, sweeping away everything in its path.

Now, Whatsapp seems much more popular, particularly for smartphone users. I am a dumb user of smartphones, doing nothing much on mine except making some calls and sending SMSes (remember Short Messaging Service?)- I know, oh- so- outdated.

There's something called Tumblr too, I think, but the only one I know is the one used to have coffee from in the southern part of India.

I am on the list of endangered species like the dinosaurs once were and almost all large mammals except dictators and war-mongers today are, I fear. But I wonder how long facebook will last, particularly because I am told it's more about ads and promos of all kinds (many undesirable to the average Joe on fb) these days.

I think blogs will last forever, though, coz they are not easily noticed, unless you go out looking for them. Therefore, safe from predators. You will never ever hear of a multi-billion dollar takeover of Blogger or Wordpress, I am sure. So, blog away to glory, fellow bloggers. The only thing you need to fear is 'no readers', but fear nothing else!

Generation Gap

When we were growing up, the young men wore bell-bottoms and some also (influenced by Rajesh Khanna, superstar)  wore kurtas or guru-shirts as they were known for a while. Not sure what the difference is. I once wore a Hare-rama Hare krishna-inscribed kurta, may be inspired by the Dum-maro-dum film by Dev saab. Did not get around to imitating the lady- Zeenat, though.

Anyhow, our generation listened to Kishore kumar and his ilk, and detested K.L. Saigal or his contemps like Talat Mehmood (some also confused him with the comedian Mehmood, perhaps).

Now, I don't know what the young generation listens to any more, because it is not audible to me, being inside an Apple or a Samsung or their cousins. But one can make an intelligent guess, that it is different from what I listen to. But I do know what they are writing-at least for the large part, because it's so much in your face- not bookish at all. Some more shy types blog rather than facebook (the verb).

Also, I have discovered that there are techno-advances such as Skype, What's App and WHATNOT (that's not an app, at least as far as I know.

Now that I know what they are up to, I can sleep in peace. What a relief. Good night!