She was running

Note: An expression of a mental imagery that I wish to present here. Original work of expression ofcourse.

She ran barefoot. Over the pointed strands of dry grass that were more than just tickling her soles.

She ran. Even after she tripped over the thick root of a banyan tree that was above the surface of the ground.

She ran overwhelmed with excitement. With her two ribbon-tied plaits flapping against her cheeks.

She ran fast. With her knee-long skirt flying like a flag.

She had cupped her hands tightly. She only ran faster as water dripped through the gaps between her fingers.

She stopped. She was panting heavily. Before she got her breath back, she poured the water in her palm into the rusty metal tub that she had filled with water some time ago. She smiled...

She peeped into the tub... She saw the tiny red fish that she had just caught from the lake, the fish that she had held between her hands in water.

The fish was just a tiny red speck on the huge surface of water against the rusty brown floor of the tub. For her, this tiny red dot made the old tub her aquarium...

She was looking proudly at her new aquarium...

Winnie the Pooh

Disclaimer: Arbit bakwas. :-) Read at your own risk

Winnie the Pooh is this really cute-looking cartoon character. I remember watching a W-T-P cartoon and not being able to make any head or tail out of it. Primarily because it was in English and the American accent was too weird for me to understand then (not that I understand it any better now. Each time my cousin from the US calls up, I tell her the phone lines are bad and that is the reason why I am asking her to repeat every sentence nearly twice.... Aah, now I know, this is what starts all the rumours! She must be going all about the town speaking of India as a 'third world country' with telephone lines that break down each time it rains.)

Back to Winnie the Pooh. So this Pooh basically wears only a t-shirt - typically red. Cartoonland must be really poor! Mickey mouse, for a long time that I remember, had only a small shorts (with three round buttons) and Mr. Pooh has only a t-shirt! Speaks volumes about how people must share the available resources, doesn't it?!

Oh btw, the bear is not of the cheap Indian variety either. (When I hear a 'bear', I only remember Jambhuvant from the TV serial Ramayan. Jambhuvant in the serial was basically a hair-covered man who spoke like he had his mouth full of a hundred berries. (Shabri ke ber perhaps..) ) It's a nice golden brown one with no visible fur as such. The bear must be waxing regularly- the cartoonmaker was truly a visionary for he predicted the arrival of a 'metrosexual bear'!

Winnie loves honey and eats them from these neat jars and mugs. (Amrika is indeed a country where a carton gives milk, a box gives paper napkins and a jar gives honey. And while all of them do this, the cow and the honeybee go on a Europe trip with their family because they have no work to do)

Whew, thanks for 'bear'ing with the balderdash... I thought that amidst all my 'mirror's, 'window's and 'shadow's, a light-weight post was required...

Bevda maarke

Note: "Bevda maarke" is a colloquial word usage for ''heavily drunk (on alcohol)". "Bevda" is alternately an adjective for a "drunkard".

Move away bevda truckwallahs.. you must've shelled out a hundred or two to the officials after they found you alcohol-positive on the Nashik-Mumbai Ghats. But that's nothing...

Move away bevda bus-wallahs who are also often tested for alcohol level where they breathe into a device. I have heard that the bus-wallahs eat a lot of mint thinking the alcohol machine wouldn't be able to capture the smell! :-)

From article at : : http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090722/1238/tbs-pilots-on-a-high-mallya-s-kingfisher.html

Some pilots from Kingfisher airlines were found under the influence of alcohol in a test conducted on them...

Bus, autorickshaws, trucks are small, darlings... There are people who are doing it with class! You are only riding buses and trucks - these people are riding airplanes.. bevda maarke!

Aren't they taking the phrase ''drink and fly high'' too seriously?

Raining all year

I sit at my window looking at Powai that rises above Powai lake like a mighty demon in all its power. The greenery on the bank of the lake is bordered by a highway and skyscrapers that extend from the highway.

It is raining and I see the lake perturbed and rustling like a hot plate when we splatter water on it.

Monsoons are romantic and beautiful. Why doesn't it rain the entire year, I thought...

Then I realized that it does... It does.

The sun makes sure that it rains light every single day of the year. We call the sun 'scorching hot'....

The clouds only appear in the sky three months a year and it rains water in that period of time. We call them the 'romantic and pleasant rains'...

We remember the drops of water that rain on us some times but conveniently forget the drops of light that rain on us every single day of our life.

It's only 'occasional favours' that are remembered. When someone habitually does something for you, it gets forgotten...

The Power of the Rich

Disclaimer: The picture has been clicked by me. Do not use without permission. I hold the Creative commons copyright for it.

A picture says a thousand words,they say. This picture does, to me.

There is a blast of clouds - they are all rising from the tall buildings that lie cluttered in a corner of the pic. This blast of clouds rises like a gush of fire that will engulf everything that comes in its way. The clouds really look like fire to me - they are grey in the centre and shiny white towards the edges as they reflect the sunlight off them. The clouds look like they are all-powerful - and they all arise from the tall buildings.

The picture reaffirms my belief in the worldly saying that it is the rich and the powerful who are influencing the direction of the world. Or perhaps it is the rich who are amassing the clouds of the world - while the rest of the sky is empty...

Chingi says...(1)

"Chingi" is an eight-year old girl. Without giving you typical adjectives like 'innocent' and 'witty', let me allow you to find out yourself....

Chingi : "Aai * ........................"

Aai : "What happened, Chingi?"

Chingi : "When the school bus is full, we sit on the seat beside driver kaka.."

Aai: "Ok so..."

Chingi : "People also stand in the doorway and the door of local trains and go...."

Aai : "So...."

Chingi : "When you, me, Baba and dada go out, you make me sit on your lap in the autorickshaw....."

Aai : " What are you trying to tell me, Chingi..."

Chingi : "In fact Aai.. I have fun when I sit on the seat adjacent to the driver's... Cos I see the road straight .. feels great!"

Aai : "Ohh... there you go again.."

Chingi : "Aai.... what I'm trying to say is...... if all this is OK, what's wrong if three extra passengers are made to sit in the cockpit and the flight attendants' seat.. Wow... if sitting in the 'drivers' pit ' is so much fun, how amazing would sitting near the pilot would be!!!"

(Aai notices the news on the television.. smiles to herself... )

Aai : "But Chingi... the aeroplane will fall down with the weight, won't it?!"

Chingi: "Oh come on, Aai.. the aeroplane is so huge! It won't!! I mean, will a cow sit down due to the weight if a crow sits on its back...."

Aai: "But that is the rule with aeroplanes! And rules have to be followed right?!"

Chingi: "But there's a rule that there must be three passengers in autorickshaws and a similar number of limited passengers on buses and trains... In fact, nobody notices that there are seat numbers in local trains too... Why don't we follow that rule, Aai...."

Aai : (hurriedly goes inside) " I am yet to cook dinner for all of us. You change the channel, Chingi... watch some cartoon."

With reference to:

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ai-faces-criminal-charges-for-overloading-aircraft/96865-7.html

Aai * - The Marathi word for mother

Social Service Like Seeta

A Social lesson that I learnt recently. The post here is a fabricated description of the truth. The last sentence that you read is derived from the reaction that my friend P gave me after I narrated the idea of this blogpost to him.

*

When Lakshman went to the forest to search for Ram, he drew around their hut, what is called, the Lakshman Rekha. Seeta was supposed to stay within the Lakshman Rekha for it would always protect her. That is why when Ravan, disguised as a sage, came to the hut asking for alms, Seeta was initially reluctant to cross the Lakshman Rekha.

*

Rohit goes to the slums near his house every weekend to teach the adult students there. The students are all mostly construction workers or the ones who do petty jobs of plumbing and carpentry. There's obviously no fee involved. Rohit writes on facebook that it gives him unparalleled satisfaction to know that he is doing something for a social cause.

Today is Guru Pournima and his adult students decide to hold dinner for him. When he reaches the place, he is warmly invited for the dinner....

Rohit is now caught in a tight spot. "How can I go there? I mean, would the food be safe?", the thought comes to Rohit's mind.

And he is worried. He cannot help but excuse himself out of the dinner without eating anything.

*

We want to go down to the lower level of the society and work for its upliftment - but we somehow do not have the courage to go down to that lower level and work for it by staying there.

Social service many of us do, but only few manage to do it like Seeta. It was Seeta who decided to cross the Lakshman rekha to make her donation to the sage.

I do not say that social service like Seeta is not the only way to go about it. What Rohit did is a noble social service indeed.

But the Seeta-ly social service is what made Mahatma Gandhi what he is. He is a person who gave up his lifestyle and adopted a humble man's way of living... and hence, he is Gandhiji...

Ice Age 3 - Movie Review

Background: I have LOVED Ice age I and II and generally liked I more than II for the fact that it had a very human tale associated with it.

About IA3:

It's Sid, Manny, Diego and Ellie at what they do the best - long journeys for a goal, swooshing down slopes, flying and jumping around! This time Ellie's pregnant and still decides to join Manny and Diego on a journey to find Sid who has been kidnapped by the dinosaurs. What follows is a typical tale of thrilling adventure.

Kya hai pakka-pakka:

The movie has all the essential Ice Age elements - begins with Scrat, ends with Scrat's nut cracking up the earth, has Diego, Sid and Manny's interaction. For company, they have some dinosaur kids, some dinosaurs and Buck! :-)

The chase sequences - the flying dinosaur sequence, the laughing gas tunnel are the amazing edge-of-the-seat evokers. Superb work!!

The jokes are again hilarious - witty with words!

Scrat is very entertaining.. this time, he's with SOMEONE!

Kya hai kachha-kachha: (Pakka-pakka, kachha-kachha.. anyone remembers SRK's KBC? I do! :) )

Well, I missed Sid! Sid is not in his regular blabbermouth form - nevertheless very endearing.

Buck's character was a clear lift off 'Puss in the boots' ... leave the dhaapadhaapi to Bollywood, oh Hollywoodwaalon! :-)

You wish there were more heart-touching moments in the film because the movie does not try to go beyond being 'hilarious' (while on the other hand, Ice Age I was moving at many points.).

Overall verdict:

Thumbs up bhai, thumbs up!!! :-) Ice Age 3 was WORTH getting up early on a Sunday morning and going to the theatre! When the DVD's out, I'm going to queue up for it for sure...

Chor ki warning

Disclaimer: A real photograph clicked by me. Do not use without permission

You've seen advertisements outside small restaurants that read 'We also take party orders'. For the desi ones among us, we have seen advertisement boards that say 'Hamare yahan sabhi prakaar ke photo frames banaake milenge..'

The other day, I was surprised to see a advertisement-cum-intimation-cum-threat of sorts. On the outer wall of a building compound I saw written (as you see in the snap), "Bicycles are stolen from here" (which I would love to translate to Hindi as "Hamare yahan sabhi prakaar ke cycle chori kiye jayenge")

That's amusing and amazing you see!! Which chor (thief) in the world has dared to do that!!! Get the wall at the attack site painted with a warning that you are going to steal from there! One only needs courage to do something like that!

While I applauded in my mind, I later learnt that the text was put up there by the buildingwallahs to keep people away after some bicycles were stolen from here... too bad..... :-p

Signs of maturity

Note: Imaginary names. Original expression of thoughts

She asked him, "Rakesh, you are very mature... I am sure you'll have the solution to my problem." and narrated to him a six-sentence long confusion of a problem. It was about her boyfriend, his mother who wanted to marry him to his ex-girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend who was in love with her boyfriend's boss...

Rakesh had hardly understood the problem. Still he started answering, "You see Prerna.. you must understand that the person..........." and he went on. After all Prerna had called him 'mature'! :-)

Is maturity only about giving your opinion and knowing what to say? I don't agree. According to me, maturity is about - 1) being able to gather your knowledge and form an opinion/judgment, 2) being able to understand the limitation of your knowledge and deciding not to form an opinion/judgment.

By this, I mean that maturity is as much in keeping quiet (when you know that you are not good enough to speak about it) as it is to giving your mature advice.

So, to spot a 'mature' person in a discussion, do not just look for a person who is giving the most sane advices. Also look for the people who are keeping quiet.

The quiet ones are mature too - because they are the ones mature enough to accept that they are not sound enough to participate in the conversation.