Khaas Indori Conversation

An Indori guy just walked past, so I thought I would find out what he was up to.

"Where are you going, my friend," I asked.

"To have a poha, come along," he said. We ended up having a kachori alongside the poha..but that's another matter. I wanted to know where he planned to go next.

"Angrezi (English) Classes hain yaar, he said. Aajkal angrezi seekhna bahut zaroori hai."
I agreed wholeheartedly, in English.

I asked him what his ambition in life was. He was pretty clear - "a government job," he said.

"What kind of a job? What do you want to do there?"I wanted to know more.

He looked surprised. "I'll do what others do in a government job."

I started having nightmares. I saw Soorma Bhopali of Sholay fame saying something like "Do rupaye mein license banwaane aaya hai? Kahaan kahaan se chale aate hain..?" to a visitor in a government office, chewing paan while he said it..luckily, I woke up before the nightmare became more graphic. This conversation actually never happened.

Lucknowi Andaaz

We have the last bastion of good behaviour, Lucknow, still standing amidst the falling standards of good behaviour in our country. This was an encounter with one of its citizens. (In Hindi/Urdu)-

Me: Aap ki taareef?

Lucknawi: Ama, hum apni tareef nahin kiya karte. Phir bhi, aapne poochha to bata hi dete hain, is nacheez ko Banda Nawaz kehte hain.

Me: Aap ko nahin lagta Nawaz sahab, ki Uttar Pradesh hud se zyada badh gaya hai, aur ise chhota karna chahiye, taaki woh tarakki kar sake?

BN: Logon ko Awadh ki biryani khane se fursat mile tab  hi to soch paenge hum iske baare mein?

Me: Aaj kal ki shaayari ke baare mein aap ka kya khayal hai?

BN: Dard wahi hai, sahab, magar shaayar nahin rahe jo use bayaan kar saken.

Me: Zubaan se to aap Nawaab lagte hain. Karte kya hain?

BN: Sahi farmaya aapne janab, magar sirf zubaan ke hain..warna aapki sahi khaatirdaari na karte?

Me: Kyun sharminda kar rahen hain mujhe? Bahut shukriya aapki zarranawazi ka,..phir mulaqaat hogi kabhi..

Faster Fene- Film Review

This Marathi film is about a childhood hero of mine, a teenaged boy who likes to solve mysteries, and gets embroiled in them. I enjoyed it immensely, and will recommend it to anyone who likes the genre. It is subtitled in English, so it should be accessible to Non-Marathi speakers.

The higher education mafia is the subject of this movie, and how Banesh " Faster" Fene gets to the bottom of it, with help from an ex-small time thief (a kid) and a female journalist on a crime beat in education!! The hero's character is very tech-savvy, and uses all available digital techniques-endearing (to me).

A master-stroke is the induction of a character who is the actual author of the Faster Fene series- Mr. B.R. Bhagwat, played brilliantly by Dilip Prabhawalkar, a veteran Marathi actor. The suspense and action mostly keep you on the edge, and the tussle between the villain and Fene is interesting and fast-paced.

Amey Wagh fits the bill for the title role. The kid and the girl are good in their supporting roles. A must-watch for anyone who know the character from, their own childhood.

My view about Marathi films is that they have changed a lot, for the better. Hope this trend continues.

Blog Crosses 450000 Views

What keeps you going may be different, but I think blogs/books/conversations keep me going. This blog has been going on for a few years now, and if the readership figures are correct, it seems to get an average of 100 hits a day.

I have also come across a few great blogs along the way, and I want to name a few of them.

Parul Kashyap Thakur's is one of them (she's a former student of IMT Nagpur). Another is a of a cartoonist, Satish Acharya, and one more is that of Vinod Ekbote, who goes book-shopping at Abids in Hyderabad every Sunday. Sowmyashree Gonibeedu also writes poetry on hers.

Harimohan is the one who introduced me to blogging, and he has a very good one. I think every one has a blog inside him/her, but only some choose to write it down. Here's to more people doing it!

Skills You Need

I am all for building skills (This is not a serious post on the subject, in case you are wondering). So the only question is, which skills do we need for survival in today's rough-and-tumble world?

No. 1 would be the Selfie-taking skill

You don't exist unless you are on some social media. Your existence (in peoples'minds) is correlated with the number of selfies you post, preferably with a pout. If you post other pics, ten of them count as equal to one selfie. Get it? There are now phones with two cammeras on each side, so you have no excuses.

No. 2 would be Linguistic Skill.

Yo, bro. Have you met your bae recently? No go? etc...it's called being in tune with the times, and not besura.

No. 3 would be the Ability to Forward

We are not talking Hockey or Football here. Whether it's WhatsApp, facebook, or Insta, you are a nobody unless you can hit the forward button a few times in a day (or night, if you prefer). Again, it is mainly to let your friends know you are alive, and not watching GoT 24x7 when you actually are.

No. 4 would be your Ability to make a Mountain out of a Molehill

Ok, I will simplify this. Say, u are at a mall and getting bored. You have to only Check in, as if in a plane, or attach an unrelated GIF, or anything that sounds like fun, and post it online. It creates the impression that you are a fun guy/gal with no worries in the world.

Ditto for airports (the most boring places on earth?), bad movies (Yayy, I am watching the latest MSG film-what a handsome hunk!)..

No. 5 is your Ability to Craft a Consistent Image

Out of all this, you must be consistent. If it means you ahve to come across as being crazy (or permanently pouted), so be it. If it is to be a supersonic traveller (here today, on the moon tomorrow, again..so be it)

Finally, you need some sense of humour, to appreciate the above, Mr/Ms. reader..

Harvey Weinstein

There has been a lot of positive spinoff from the Weinstein scandal, and we are at least more aware of the extent to which females are routinely harassed by male colleagues, friends or relatives. This could be step one. If we were under the illusion that it was an emerging market phenomenon, it now stands corrected. Some of Hollywood's most known were targeted. And in the Clinton era, the vulnerable interns who worked for him.

The reasons why women who are harassed don't complain are also generally similar. They are afraid that they will not be taken seriously in a  male-dominated society. The fight usually gets ugly if it gets to a court, with lawyers raking up unrelated issues. In a country like ours, unfortunately, the woman if single, may not be able to find a husband-again, the same patriarchal problems.

Hopefully, the opening up of near and dear ones will at least give courage to more women to oppose unwanted attention (or worse), and stop many attempts in their tracks (and men to support them when they speak up). In a Utopian world, molestation should not happen. But then, we don't live in one.

Golmaal - Not Again!

Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai, is an apt way to start this review. Story golmaal hai, script golmaal hai, actors bahut saare hain, magar roles golmaal hain.

This is what they call a potboiler. But Manmohan Desai was the Boss when it came to potboilers. Just watch Amar Akbar Anthony to see how you can knit together an unbelievable story line and still entertain for 3 hours.

This has too many actors, for one. So their screen time is divided into minuscule bits, not giving anybody a chance, really...Neil Nitin Mukesh gets the really raw deal. They try, though, and there are a few sparks. The music is horrible. Johny Lever's Hyderabadi airline safety announcement was a highlight for me.

The slapstick didn't work for me, particularly in the first half, which is way too long. One of the many questions I had in the second half was- if the ghost had the power to wring a confession out of the culprit, why did you need the rigmarole of an elaborate plan to do it any other way? Well, I don't expect an answer, because there isn't any logic..only (Rohit Shetty) magic!