A glowing tribute to one of those PYTs

Almost a year has elapsed since I was posed that stunner of a question. I was asked “Did You believe in love at first sight”. “Ahem is it as plain as it comes or is it some kind of psychometric test everyone kept trying on guinea pig of me”. I wanted to retort. But boy that was last thing on earth I could have done and all I managed to do was to attempt to play down the fuzzy question with dravidisque straight bat. Ended up muttering ol oft repeated lines(but I very much meant that)”there can only be lust at first sight. Love well is ignored in first few meetings or ego of you refuses to take any such notice. Well if you like some one in first sight he/she flies into evanescence much quicker. You ogle to your heart’s content and whoa you feel satiated with no more desire to stop that person in tracks. What deprives me makes me craving for it much more. More I feel deprived more I hanker after it and then time and nature take their own courses. “ “ha so you are one of those philosophers, who would complicate the simplest of things” came the prompt reply.”Yeah , perhaps it is not as easy as combining two chemicals under favorable conditions , go for some kind of titration and wait for faintest of pink to appear ha yeah it’s not chemistry, n if it is god save those stupids crooning dire straits numbers” Have given my unwilling soldier to many such stupids .(never believed in those picturesque Yash Chopara offerings, they were meant for SRKs and Amitabhs not for sensible common (yet special in their own right) men and women)

Ha ha guess prologue has been stretched too far , but then truth has sometimes to be taken in true spirit(s??? no comments) … Ok a week passes by unnoticed and it’s a much sought after weekend and for a change I am all alone with no one tugging me around . To just pamper myself a bit I end up at one of those trendiest shopping malls of Bangalore. And I forget that first sight funda blah blah and right there in Shopper’s stop I fall in love with a PYT. So what to do throw all cautions to winds and surge ahead or buy some time.
I am caught up in two minds. All of a sudden I am crowded by a pack of those ol friends, who come at those promising climax and turn everything into a flat balloon. Sigh if fortune really favors an idiot may be next time. So next five days are one twenty hours long with that beautiful thing hogging a part of my mind, never mind Saturday is on trail.
Next Saturday I am back again to fall prey to unknown. And do I ever try my luck at those casinos , no I didn’t but I guess I should well that beauty is still very much around and I give a longer glance and how and when a long association is set off. I can’t believe my luck. Good things happen to the best of them I believe (do I need to hammer it again n again hahaha). I am not possessive of her yet but fondness grows on me , I end up reminding myself of whether it’s a Monday Tuesday or wed/thu. For some strange reasons she could be flaunted on weekends, even on wed/thu would do but purists had last laugh I had to keep hush hush about her on pious Mondays and Tuesdays. Oh me poor me save me.


This vijayadashmi was the last our courtship could ever see. Somehow she lost a lot of sheen this puja , I groaned I wailed I whined but finally I settled for the harsh reality, it was all over yeah after dhakka khaooing for long this puja she was torn apart , my dearest of shirts had taken too much of toll on her(him would have been apt only it would have confused my orientation ha) . I shelled out hard earned bucks for that half sleeved beauty .Pious Mondays and Tuesdays prohibited it getting flaunted, wore lot of it on other days and that white n blue made my world go round. Yeah I am very possessive of my shirts and this one was no exception. This one was special and blame it on a crowded puja to snatch away my favorite one away from me. Will miss you for a long time unless a new one comes up promptly to take your place else tattered you would still be flaunted around for some time, they (insensitive human beings ha what they know) may mock us but then that is the destiny unless someone takes us apart.



Ps: well some of you may find it funny, some ludicrous, some may find it amazing, some may say it taxing on their nerves, some would show utter disdain, none of my business and it would be of little concern to me, but the truth is every word composed is the truth, truth nothing but the whole truth and nothing has been withheld, it’s no withhold, bare all truth. It has given me no pleasure but a lot of heartburn and when I think of that 2 day old tragedy I look for the culprits, me , the crowd , my overenthusiastic chums or that beast of a vehicle , or that inauspicious moment. Leave them all scot free , I am in no mood to call names, worst has just passed and I feel wrenched , nothing would bring shining glory in drapeable form , I am left to rue over lost thing . chuck it all , high time I go for capitol (punishment), yeah Delhi beckons , time to bring sleepy life back on racks , Delhi here I come , whoever said said it true” mishaps always relish company”. So shirty tale goes and Delhi dawns ahmmm it’s hard day’s night and I am itching to log off..

Bihar,Lalu and art of managergiri

I am back to Lalu’s bastion now; no longer has a bastion though, been stormed by some unsung heroes. How good these new people are …well just wait and watch …
It’s not about those people who have taken Bihar and lalu by surprise. It’s all about Bihar.
So I am back from one capital to another capital… Ok no janpath here ashok rajpath would do won’t it sir? I think in can draw many parallels here and there , but that won’t serve my purpose. Coming back to topic of Bihar , I haven’t been around for last six years so may be I can’t comment on her changing dynamics that well but still few things are as glaring as they have ever been. Patna whoa glorious vicissitudes in a fortune ever witnessed one, welcome to Patna, capital of Bihar. A city of sublime feelings and tastes in Asoka’s time today sits in perfect state of bathos. Life goes full circle for erstwhile Patliputra. It is still a city of glorious contradictions; the best of talent mingles with the nefarious ones. I am not getting biased here but the kind of limited infrastructure and scope that this confined city provides can not justify the wonderful schooling system out here. Schools of Patna(I know very few very few are excellent ones but these few are very very special ones and yours truly can vouch for that) have been wonderful, teeming with equally wonderful talents. Name any competition (acads puhleez) where these young boys n gals too haven’t come off with flying colors. So far so cool so what’s the point is it all to score few brownie points one may mutter. Nah no way , it is just to show sheer disgust the way things go here in spite of an embarrassment of riches present here. Something would never change, the easiest way for me to say and change the topic perhaps this swallow has to witness winter and ruing he has to go away (I can’t make it a summer I can’t make it a summer) .



Ok with Bihar around, can Lalu be far behind. Lalu at IIMA won all laurels and made future manager sit up and take notice of him. man came, saw and conquered(he has done that in Laluland for 15 long years feeding people all along with empty spoons). There have been rave reviews about the man and how he changed the sagging fortunes of Railways. Ooh I am impressed. So the man who kept his state on tenterhooks for quite some time(15 years for statistician’s delight), finally mends his ways and turns around the biggest employer of the world. Want me to bite into this well made dish courtesy chef in chief lalu. I refuse to be taken for a ride. Railways doing a good business I agree, but want to give credits give it to Lalu’s former in ministry see the irony man is in hot seat in Bihar and ah those so much tarnished bureaucrats (yeah even babudom can work give them some time). So IIMA applauds the man lustily and plaudits are just handed over to lalu , his rustic charm bowls over many a maiden (hmm cricket and Casanovapana both go well with lalu’s image )His chutzpah rules the roost, today they call it another trait to be possessed by future managers. I can’t decide has lalu beguiled those intellects at Ahemadabad or these future managers have some wonderful tricks up their sleeve. It’s high time you showed us the cards mates, what’s brewing this poor man is left stumped.
Long live esoteric art of managerial ship, some one help in decoding this art before it’s too late …period…

Ps: No way it was meant to demean Lalu, the man I believe is nothing short of genius , has charisma to succeed , wish he starts thinking in right direction, enchases the popularity he has bestowed upon and helps in making this place a better place.

RDB----Black statuette and biting Realities

Bleary eyed me, yeah it is 9:50 and day is about to start(Welcome to paradise ), just scour the news through Sunday newspaper. Same old trite news offering no incentive to get me up. back page is sheepishly announcing India’s nominee to this year’s oscar. OK so RDB(Rang De Basanti ) it is , I feel vindicated perhaps the easiest choice to make . A lot better compared to say paheli a silly choice indeed when the stable boasted of “Black”, but god knows what goes inside mind of these selection committeewallahs.

Anyway back to RDB, a movie which kind of became path breaker , remember those anti reservation rallies culminating into final staging of RDB amid lot of fanfare. A movie can cause so much euphoria in a country devoid of basic infrastructure amused me to no end. Well I too felt euphoric after coming out of PVR. I loved first half , quite refreshing from the regular run of mills. Second half well nice to pump up some pseudo emotion inside all in name of patriotism. Had many a heated debate with friends of mine and reaching a conclusion was as easy as say making Palestines sit along with those Israelis . But I refused to discuss the same in public domain , ah who would take chances with a generation awakening with sudden enthusiasm. Any satire on the movie would have seen me in bad light so I patiently waited for hysteria to die down before I could claim “chill out guys , it’s just another movie from big bad stable called bollywood.”However since quite a few months have passed since then, I think the time has now come to gingerly put my head on the chopping block .

Let’s face it RDB is an over hyped piece of glory(I and you made it after all a generation has to be awakened), why there was sudden spate of emotions , I failed to understand , did the youth of country never come to see better movies than that?? Can Aamir say it to be his best work till date?? The concept of the movie took four good years, holiness me, what took four years could someone pose it to Mr Mehra ?

Yeah I said it then I say it now, RDB is just another movie and if you leave aside Siddharth’s role(that green horn of forgettable Boys, did lot of alle alle in that one) may be none other role was meaty enough to be remembered one year down the line.

Let’s accept it. All of us, at some point of time, have muttered under our breath : “The only solution to India’s problems is to parade all politicians , put them in a firing line and shoot them.” It’s a desire we all share, a desire shaped out of decades of watching the ruling babus shamelessly helping themselves at the cost of the country. Yeah hapless we felt and that feeling of helplessness gives rise to such sentiments. There is nothing wrong with such feelings , one would have such feelings after repression and haplessness goes beyond a limit.

But then there is nothing wrong with any fantasy that one can have, they are limitless and they need no rationalizing. Some other directors have pandered to other so called lower forms of fantasies in trying to mint some quick money, Mehra went the other way . He has sold us a fantasy and we the generation in making have lapped it up. Except that unlike the seller of skin flicks, he has packaged his blatantly commercial exercise with a wrapper of pulp nobility--- trying to give you that jingoistic feeling , make you warm and josheela inside let your heart take control of your reasoning.(you can vouch 4 his success if you already in queue for third time to take glimpse of Sue,DJ and gang).

Yeah he has managed to do so and let him win some hard earned cash but making a messiah out of an also ran director would be a blot on some big names which ever treaded in this industry. Certainly not a landmark movie in Indian history nor a life-altering one. (I sincerely hope, it should not be a life-altering one) .


Ok so you end up saying “chill out yaar , don’t do a postmortem here it’s just another movie” . so true that’s all I want to prove in the first place and the moment awakened generation understands that I feel vindicated and should I add a bit gleeful.


Leave the intellectual pretensions aside and weigh it properly. Call me cynic , call me thanda , call me another of “those yearning to be zara hatke”, but then after shelling out cool 200 bucks to be in rat race of ‘Be the change” as mouthed by many a star of the movie exactly what change it brought in any one of us. Life remains same for me and hope for you too.

Here wishing RDB all the best for OSCARS. Well idea was not to beat the movie black and blue. Idea was to justify that whatever gimmicks did they play was for increased commercial viability and any such slogan “Be the change” or “A generation awakens” was utter crap. RDB go all the way on the red carpet and collect that black statuette, wish you don’t find any No man’s land la Lagaan….

My Tryst With TNS

Well that was my first week at hollowed campus of IIFT. I was still coming to grips with the harsh reality unleashed on me and yeah as still very much grappling with those archaic ways of entertainment for oh so esteemed seniors all in name of PDP. Euphemism at its best.. Always wanted to scream PDP PDP so many crimes committed in thy name, but who wanted to face the glare. Not that I hated ragging , ah loved it so much while in college , incentives were higher you know, get ragged for an year and keep ragging for next three years , gorging on plight of poor futtchas.

But life back here at IIFT was not all colorless and predictable. Some people gave us full value for money. Yeah I was still 5 days old at IIFT n another regular class was scheduled for 9 in morning. Ok no getting away from the date, 22nd of July and subject was POM , as always had no idea of the subject nor I wanted to put my brainy cells under any kind of undue stress. I took my seat in the class and started looking around mapping recently learnt names to their faces, another exercise a precursor to those horrible PDPs

And then came the man. An oldie, ah I discovered telling my self, won’t bother us much would mint some money from college coffers and would throw some benevolent smiles at us. But it was few of those times when my impression was there to be thrown down with utter disdain. Man known as Sindhwani, TN Sindhwani (I prefer calling him TNS) was made of sterner stuff. After initial exchange of niceties man was damn on target.

TNS comes to class with that well burnished pair of glasses and gives a hard stare to class.
Lecture on ethics, morals and values favorite bunkers for true scoundrels I tell myself.
Wilde said “One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards”, so it’s all case of convenience and ease else prize out that dirty word from your dictionary. Hmm me learnt it hard way at a company known to be citadel of virtues and ethics, leave it it’s all ‘bout lovable TNS anyways. Yeah man stole the thunder leaving a few infuriating, a few sulking and rest relishing the drama. Remember two or there names in my vicinity (not neighbors really saikat n ruhani go Scot free) they advocated those values of ethics with so passion huh their ethics lay tattered in very first few weeks. That’s ok I just went bonkers over TNS because of his forthrightness. I loved him the way he discussed those seemingly uncomfortable subjects always ensuring even murky subjects and ensuing heated debates tickled us down the line.

Is the man overweening?? Arrogant?? Well carefully weaved exteriors showed it that way, but man was extremely gentle. Never really gave a dressing down if someone got caught napping there were enough Chawlas and Pukris to take care of such small things out man was made for bigger things. All he would mutter” beta sit like a man, that’s least expected of you “or “go and wash off your face” unless you caught him in a real fowl mood you were never going to be shown the door in his class

To be honest I always took pride in observing people and have a great accuracy in this particular art but failed in assessing this particular species known as TNS, failed pathetically at assessment reassessment and all those postmortem activities, still boy did I ever complaint. I enjoyed each single argument I relished each of those emotions surfacing on dear mates’ countenance. Some feelings of disgust, some of pain and some of plain appreciation when some one has hypnotized you with the utmost ease..

“Angrezi mat bolo beta” was perhaps TNS’s patented shot. And ah how can one forget “Speak for yourself “one. All gems really so when ever I had to speak I had to consciously convert those ones into I’s really a tough ask. It deterred many from uttering nonsensical stuff and eased the pain for hapless ones who were hammered consistently in other classes. Come to think of it, in all other classes it seemed my furtive glances at the watch hardly helped , it alwayas seemed that time refused to budge , Einstein and his theory of relativity soon became my pet nemesis . But come to think of TNS and his magical classes time just flew away with some kind of wings.



Come the last class, TNS’s swansong and it was time to part. Showing chivalry as he had shown in other classes, man is as gentle as they come, He asks for our feedback on him and as expected we all surrender to his irresistible charms and just stop short of screaming “wish we could have more of you”.

Yeah sir I am not prone to speaking English at this particular moment(rather I am scribbling the same Queen’s language) and ah I am speaking all for myself , though all those affable heads(all forty-seven of em) would nod for you and your genialness . Do I need to put them in words, I am pretty bad at it , hopeless in giving compliments (even when i feel like givin it all away) and you don’t need one . Still let me proclaim it TNS I would miss you and your chic(ah style I mean).”Wish I kept running into you more n more” Amen!!!!