Mandu-- Historical Romances

Like the other legendary romances, there was one for which Mandu is famous. The one between a king Baz Bahadur and his queen, a local beauty called Roopmati. The palaces, one of which is named after her, are a visual delight, and one can easily spend a day roaming the ruins. Jahaz Mahal is well-preserved palace-lake complex with a water body on both sides of the building. On the way to Mandu from Indore there is a park with a million year old petrified wood and some dinosaur eggs in similar state. Here are some pics-

My manifesto for 2014 elections

No, I am not entering politics. But politicians are welcome to steal the ideas here. Free.

That the Lok sabha will be used to support aspirations of the average Joe. There will be an invited speaker to voice them, once every week. And no one will create a ruckus while he/she speaks. Like TED talks.

Roads built will be of good quality.

There will be no moral policing of any kind, until the elected reps prove that they have some.

Women (and men) will be respected. Children too.

We will not blindly ape the West. But good governance and civic sense will be aped. Spitting will attract a HUGE fine.

Healthcare will be a basic right, and anyone found corrupt in it will be shot.

PGDM will be renamed MBA, and FPM, Ph.D. The institutes will remain autonomous, and degree granting.

Outings-1983

Living life kingsized in the first, with some beer at Nandi Hills. Around 1983, with some IIM Bangalore seniors -Ramanujam Sridhar, advtg. whiz to be, is one of them.

A pic of our batch of MBA wannabes from IIMB at Golden beach, Madras/Chennai. Around 1983.

New Year Begins

It looks a lot like the old year. Yes, I am older by a few days,  and may be (this is debatable) wiser. The days are windier and foggier. I have a Videocon DTH connection instead of the cable guy with mostly the same channels. A pretty good mess (for dining) and therefore, no cooking.

I have new colleagues, and a lot more to teach. Less of PR functions that went with my earlier job. Less things to worry about, in other words.

Same old (extended) family and a lot more potential friends. A new scanner that I intend using to scan a few more pics. What carries on from the old year is blogging, reading, music and good times. And promise of new, unexpected happenings. Great, don't you think?

Resolving Resolutioning

Ok, this may not exist as a word, but it's obvious by its timing that it's about resolution-making. I have  resolutely been against making any resolution of any kind, because I have no clue at all on how to make them see the light of day. The only one I can probably keep is to read a few more books. If they happen to be of the quality of Zorba the Greek, or any of the creations of Wodehouse, all the better. I have also managed to discover a few other good authors over the last few years, through browsing at bookstores, or through 'friend'ly recommendations.

Some of these are Haruki Murakami, Bill Bryson, Sadat Hasan Manto, Alain de Botton, Umberto Eco, Devapriya Roy (The Vague Woman's Handbook), Saurav Jha (The Upside Down  Book of Nuclear Power), Fritjof Capra (Uncommon Wisdom), Subroto Bagchi, Julian Barnes (his 'Nothing to be Frightened of', an autobiography of a kind), Raju Bharatan and Ashok Ranade (on Hindi films and music). Some autobiographical stuff was also very readable, as in Leela Naidu, Michael Caine, and Kishore Biyani (the story of his starting Big Bazaar). Currently, I am reading the autobiography of Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, the heroine of one of my favourite films- Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Someone recently recommended Charlie Chaplin's autobiography, and I resolve to read it sometime soon.

Other than these, I have also read some good blogs by Harimohan, Vinod Ekbote, Diamond Head and some others like Parul Kashyap Thakur, Meghna Sinha, Gowri Kishore and a couple of IIM Indore students. Also wrote quite a few blogposts, and was happy to see the readership climb in unexpected corners of the globe.

2013 Ends at Girivan

These pics are from a year-end retreat that we cousins try and do at least once  a year. This time it was in a resort called Girivan close to Paud, near Pune. Had a relaxing time, played some cricket, took walks, enjoyed the scenery amidst some single malt and singular reminiscences, and were fully entertained by the newest kid on the block, Maya, my niece from Down Under -second pic is hers.  My brother Satish was there from Atlanta in the U.S., on a visiting 'assignment'- to have fun. Bakul, another cousin and her family made it from Peoria, Illinois too. Someone had brought Oreo cookies from the U.S., and a niece who made the recent ads for Oreo with Ranbir Kapoor was grilled on how she colour-coordinated her clothes with his! All in all, great fun. We also celebrated three-four cousins turning fifty with some jokes about their memory-can't remember those, as I already turned fifty some years ago.

Radio Days- Vividh Bharati

I used to listen to the radio a lot in my first 24 years- mainly because TV had not come to India. Now that TV has taken over most of our non-working hours, I succumbed and watched it for many years. But the last few days, having just moved and awaiting the transfer of baggage, I became less 'idiotic' and rediscovered Vividh Bharati, the entertainment channel from All India Radio.

Some of its programs and features are outstanding. The quality of the announcers is mostly good. They have also relaxed a bit from their stentorian (dull?) avatars, and smile (you can hear it) occasionally. The selection of songs is invariably good, and there is an attempt to provide a glimpse into Indian classical music through some of their programs. Chhayageet, presented by one of the RJs each night, and Bhoole bisre geet (forgotten gems) are two that I like listening to. There are interviews with film personalities too- Ujaale unki yaadon ke, interspersed with songs. One of these was an interview with Rammohan, a character artiste, who spoke very well, articulating his many experiences over decades with stars right from Prithviraj Kapoor to Manoj Kumar. In case you can't figure him out, he was the train driver in the film 'Kitaab' on whom the song "Dhanno ki aankhon mein raat ka surma" (sung by RD Burman) was picturised.