Thank God it’s The Day before Weekend!

Friday! Favorite day of the week. Definitely better than even Saturday and Sunday because the anticipation of weekend is better than the weekend itself! The ‘working professionals’ wait for this day like their life depends on it. I don’t know how and when I became the official member of ‘I love Friday’ community; I guess shortly after my first job (in the first week, you know the first Monday :p).

Fridays have always been all about fun. I remember, as a child I used to wait for Friday because that was the only day Doordarshan would telecast a ‘Hindi feature Film’ (this was the pre-‘cable-100s of channels to select from’ era). As television meant only DD1, there was a real happiness in watching that one movie. Also the fact that Friday used to be the last day of week to put on uniform (civil cloths being allowed on Saturdays in our school) was very exciting for me as a kid.

Then in college Friday was the best for me because it meant release of one thing I am so passionately passionate about- Movies! Catching every new movie first day show was the greatest achievement for us in college. So every Friday morning, going through out newspapers to check out movie timings was kind of inevitable.

But, the actual importance of Friday was taught to me and so many others when we became ‘employees’. Friday to us is all about FREEDOM! Not that other weekdays are about captivity or anything but we love the fact that Friday gives us a chance to stay up all night if we wish to, because next day we can get up as late as we wish. There is this positive zeal in atmosphere in air on Fridays that suddenly we do not mind the workload, traffic or noise (change in perspective, if you may.) All the planning for weekends (no matter if half the plans do not pan out :p), catching up with friends, and the ‘free as a bird’ feeling are sure to make anyone fall in love with Fridays! The clock which on any other weekday seems to have stopped moves super fast on a Friday!

So that’s Friday: Perfect merger point between weekdays and weekends and the best day to come to work! Ahh…if only every weekday could be a Friday! (Ok now I am seriously high of the Friday spirit! :p)  

Confessions of a (Non)Shopaholic

Shopping: By definition it would mean buying stuff you need. But I guess that’s just too technical and impractical. As far as I can remember, shopping is and has always been about buying stuff when you are happy/ you are sad/ you got a raise/ you had a fight and want to cheer yourself up/ rainy season is approaching/ winter is approaching/ summer is approaching/ festival is approaching/… the list is of course endless. And apparently ‘shopping gene’ and ‘bargaining skills’ are a part and parcel of being a girl. But for some unknown reason I.Cannot.Stand.Shopping. I have got many ‘Oh My God!!’s, ‘You gotta be joking!’s and ‘Unbelievable!!’s from people when I told them about my shopping phobia (Those exclamations when came from girls were in a disapproving tone and when came from boys were in a happy tone :p). Even after staying in one of the most shopping-crazy cities, I still have not developed any liking for this, should I say hobby(?)! I am surrounded by love-to-shop-till-bags-drop friends and relatives but even then I cannot understand what makes girls so happy about it. Maybe I am missing something but as a strict Shopophobic (yea yea MS Word, I know it’s not an actual word, stop cribbing with a red line!), I found out reasons as to why I cannot stand the idea of going on a shopping spree.

1.      You have to get all ready and presentable to go for street shopping where you know you will be roaming in scorching sun amidst will-run-over-you-if-you-don’t-move crowd.

2.      Nobody, I repeat, nobody look for the thing which they actually want to buy. For example, if they want to buy shoes, as soon as they reach their shopping destination, they will start checking out wallets and handbags! How is that helping??

3.      I fail to understand how buying something of which you have no use, and spending you hard-earned money (well, bit of drama: p) on it will help you ‘cheer up’!!

4.       If you like something, you buy it. That is my logic. But apparently it is stupid to buy something from the very first shop you visit and it is an ‘in’ thing to check out every single shop in the locality and then going back to that first shop.

5.      Far from cheering me up, shopping leaves me tired and BORED!!

6.      No matter how hard I try, I cannot care about latest fashion trends and keeping up with them.

7.      Visiting a shop, trying on 50 different clothes, visiting other shops, repeating the same procedure, getting confused between two dresses you liked the most, settling on one, bargaining with the shop dealer as if your life depends on it, getting the cloth home and then thinking it looked different in shop lights and the returning it. Four Words- Not Amusing At All.

So after completing this small blog entry, I gotta get ready to go shopping because you see, winter/ friend’s wedding is approaching!! So that’s shopping: Like it, hate it, or curse it but you cannot escape it!! Amen.

Reasons We Enjoyed Ra.One!

What would you do if you read abysmal reviews of a movie, your friends and relatives telling you it is an absolute waste of time, not worth your money, and should be definitely avoided? Most of you would probably avoid that movie without as much as giving a second thought to it. But not us! No sir, we are a group of people who have watched movies like Maharaja and Aflatoon (yep...these are names of actual motion pictures), we have actually enjoyed an ingenious movie by the name of Saat Khoon Maaf and have chucked pop-corn at the screen while watching Ready (agreed, that was out of sheer frustration). So, just as to understand why exactly people start rambling after hearing the word Ra.One, we decided to take the matter in our own hands and go watch the movie in one of the most happening theatres in Mumbai- G7. But as bad luck would have it, we were told not to hoot and shout (even to appreciate the magnificent entry of our ‘Superhero’) in the theatre. But we somehow still managed to let our feelings be known to the public. So after watching the entire movie (oh yea…we saw the entire movie), I realized we actually enjoyed it and here is why:

1.      The actual name of the movie is Random Access Version One.

2.      As an Indian I feel so proud to see that a British firm not only has many Indian employees but in the conference full of Brits, every detail is discussed in Hindi. I think I cried out of joy and love for my nation.

3.      The actual hero of this movie (some girl named Prateik) has the coolest haircut ever! Some of my friends did not like it, I wonder why!

4.      I think there was Kareena Kapoor in the movie, do not really remember it but yes, I definitely remember that movie featured Sanju baba and Piggy Chops. I mean common people, that is more than one could have hoped for! It requires some serious thinking and efforts from the script-writer’s part to make such scenes actually happen!

5.      There are 3 levels of the game. Can.You.Believe.It- THREE!!!!!!!!

6.      Arjun Rampal does not feature in the entire movie (and this time I am not even being sarcastic, I really enjoyed Ra.One for that reason…lol)

7.      This movie and I repeat only this movie could achieve the impossible feat of burying a man and then spreading his ashes in the river. I and one of my friends were laughing but others seemed to think it was just cruel of us and we did not have H.A.R.T.

8.      Which brings me to the next LOL moment of the movie- H.A.R.T.

9.      I learned something so darn important from Ra.One- All you have to do to board a flight from UK to India is pass the metal detector test. And here I was thinking you actually need a TICKET! Silly me!

10.  Chitti (Rajnikanth).

11.  Another lesson learned- So what if husband has passed away as long as Sonia (I think this role was played by Kareena, not too sure, will double check) has a robo-replacement. Way to go chammak challo :D

12.   Chammak Challo (Again, no sarcasm this time, the song is real nice! Wow that makes 2 non-sarcastic reasons.)

13.  12 ‘dibbo wali’ local train and our ‘superhero’ takes almost 40 minutes to find his girl in it! I mean really hilarity ensured!

14.  By this point of the movie I had switched off the logic button in my brain but not one of my friend who observed that right after Dusshera, how can you have Ganesh Chaturthi Festival? To me, that was one more lesson to learn from Ra.One- Haan Farishtey Hote Hai!

15.  The deadliest, most evil, unbeatable,…(sense the sarcasm) bad, bad, bad villain of all times develops tattoos all over his body to scare his opponent! Oh the fright it gave us all!!!

16.  Ten Ra.One’s!! No am not kidding…you actually get to see 10 Arjun Rampal’s on screen with ONE single expression. You think that is an easy task?

17.  Recite poetry and BAM! You kill the bad, bad, bad villain.

18.  Oh I forgot, G.One means Good One! LOL

19.  There are special effects in the movie I think.

20.  MOVIE. ACTUALLY. ENDS.

So who says it is a waste of time to watch Ra.One? If nothing else, I assure you reason number 20 will guarantee some enjoyment.

LET THERE BE LIGHTS!!

Diwali- Festival of lights, joy, celebrations (well all this is to be written in essays, but in reality Diwali for most of us is all about delicious sweets, tasty and tangy namkeens, a long vacation, meeting with relatives and of course all kinds of crackers!). Diwali is my second most favorite festival (Holi being first) and I liked the times when I used to celebrate Diwali without having to worry about number of leaves remaining, noise and air pollution, adulterations in sweets available in market and the ever-increasing price of gold! As a kid, all I used to care about what colored sparks will the cracker emit and how many laddoos will mom allow me to eat in one go!

Celebration of Dashehra and Diwali in my town Deulgaon begins with the famous ‘Ladit Utsav’ at Balaji temple which is also known as the ‘Tirupati’ of Maharashtra. It is a very fascinating festival where an entire mandap is supported by 21 pillars made of sagwaan wood. Later on the day of Ladit, all the wooden pillars are taken down at once. As a kid the thing we used to look forward to the most during Diwali was the town fair (yatra). Giant-wheels, roller-coasters pani-puri walas and number of ‘mobile’ tent talkies were all points of attraction for all of us. Even today this fair somehow is more fascinating to me than any other amusement park.

It is really nice to see that not much has changed in my town even after so many years. People are still happy to meet their neighbors and relatives during festival time, Diwali farsaan still tastes as delicious as ever, girls still have competition as to who will draw biggest rangoli in front of their houses, and kids still dance in joy after getting new clothes for Diwali. For someone who is used to fast-paced life in Mumbai, this is a nice and much-needed change. It really does feel awesome when you are walking on the street and every second person knows you and asks you genuinely about your well-being! No social-networking can give pleasure like this, nor can any multiplex can match the fun you experience movie in open-air tent talkies.

I could go on and on about Diwali in my town and why I like it but mom is giving me looks from the kitchen, brother is asking for help to put up garlands on the door, and I have to get ready to watch Ra.One in the top-class talkies… So I will keep it short this time. Wish you all a very happy, eco-friendly and safe Diwali!   

La Première

After delaying for months and well, some more months, here I am, finally writing my own blog and this is the very first post! I thought for a while as to what I would like to write about and the first option that came to my mind was the very obvious one- Movies! (No prizes for guessing why! :p) Then I thought since this blog is place to share my random thoughts with my friends, why not write about anything I like and anything that my friends would enjoy reading about. (And as the name of blog suggests, yea we can enjoy reading and writing about absolutely ‘Nothing’ too!)

I am going to start with possibly both the easiest as well as the toughest topic: Mumbai. Easiest because there is so much to write about this city that one can just randomly pen down thoughts and toughest because there is so much to write about this city that one wonders how much is possible to be covered in one article! For me coming from a small town, Mumbai was big…just too very big! It was so huge that I didn’t get the time to be all scared and clueless like how they show in movies! I just had to start running like the rest of the city. Like any outsider in foreign land, I first did not really like being away from home (crowded local trains, buses, and 26/7 floods did not help). But I was really lucky to get some amazing friends at St. Xavier’s and later my hostel. I had heard a lot as to how it’s almost every Mumbaikar’s dream to have a sea-facing bungalow. I (and 500 other tenants of my hostel) were lucky to have stayed at the most happening place in Mumbai- Marine Drive! It was after I got place in this hostel, I started actually ‘living’ Mumbai’s life.

Long walks from CST to Colaba and from Nariman point to Tarapur Fish Aquarium after college, movies at Eros and Regal, Chaat feast at Kailash Parbat, and weekends at Girgaon Chowpatty all this amidst heavy rains or scorching heat of Mumbai were part of my student life. One thing I liked the most about Mumbai was how nobody here interfered with anybody else’s business. It would be tough to find some other city where you could just go shopping on your own without people goggling at you. Another fascinating thing of Mumbai is how colorful this city is! Be it Gateway of India, Jahangir Art Gallery, Fashion Street or the famous Khau Galli, all these places are always full of so many different kinds of people all the time!

In my 7 years in Mumbai, I have lived in different localities, worked in various areas (saki-naka being my favorite :p), and travelled to almost all the suburbs. I did not even realize when I got adjusted with the break-neck speed of this city, I don’t know how I learnt so many Mumbaiya words, I was surprised with myself to notice that suddenly vada-pav had become my favorite snack and Mumbai had become my second home! I guess that is the thing with Mumbai, it will adopt you without even letting you realize (umm.. sorry for that almost poetic sentence guys!).

For me, all these years in Mumbai have been about exploring it and its soul and in turn learning a lot from this very fascinating city. Mumbai has made me tough, independent, little less worried about ‘what others are going to say’, and most importantly, an observant. Although everyone here is busy with their own life, this city gives you an amazing opportunity to observe all kinds of people. It is like being the audience and playing the game too!  

Like every Mumbaikar, I too complain a lot about the stressful day-to-day life in this city, traffic, pollution, never-ending rains, floods, and other stuff but when I come back to my hometown, and talk to my parents about my life in Mumbai, I realize there are just so many good things to recall- the amazing people,  view of the sea at Marine Drive, adaptability of cultures, never-ceasing fun, and last but not the least- the thing that cannot be described, written down or showed but can  only be lived- spirit of Mumbai!

P.S. I was super confused and clueless as to what I am going to write in my first post. Even after reading the entire article 3-4 times I am not convinced I have written down what I really wanted to…but I guess that’s Mumbai- ever-changing, unpredictable, and a lot of time leaving you clueless!