Trip India

I am back home after 3 years, 4 months and some days. How do I feel? Did I have time to feel? Well, not really. I have been traveling to every corner/suburb of Mumbai like a crazy backpacker, staying at different places every night, meeting friends, relatives, attending weddings/social functions every day.

I feel like a stranger or tourist in my own city. The city in which I grew up, is changing rapidly. New skyscrapers, new flyovers, more crowds, and vehicles.. One thing that is still intact is the spirit of Mumbai. I still see people hurrying towards their workplaces in the morning and sprinting back home in the evenings. They develop friendships with their travel-mates, celebrate never-ending festivals with same fervor, but are conveniently numb and hapless towards the problems that Mumbai faces. For the first time, I am looking at all these things from a third-person perspective. I feel so much like Suketu Mehta in Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.

Before coming here, somebody made a remark about Mumbai that its a city of rude people everywhere. I categorically denied it then, and would do it again. It is the city that people come to fulfill their dreams, earn their bread. Its charm fascinates everybody, but not everybody can handle its rough life and maddening speed. If you live in this city once, you can live anywhere on earth.

The city can easily come across as an insolent place, where people don't care about each other. The truth is people do care, but they are so busy making a better life for themselves and for the people they care, that they tend to(have to?) become insensitive to some of the glaring indecencies around.

I think we all need some love and care, and if every soul in Mumbai makes a some conscious effort to treat every other living being nicely; life would be much more pleasent.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

This is the first time I am celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi without any festivities. For past three years, UTA Marathi Mandal, or so it was called, helped me alleviate pain of being away from home during Ganapati Utsav. Although I was not an active contributor, I loved the way people came together and tried to perform all rituals - Puja, Aarati, Modak etc. in Indian style.

Beloved Lalbaugcha Raja

I realized one thing - We take our traditions, festivities, and rituals for granted when we are in India. After coming here, these same things become threads that keep us connected to home and we all feel comforted by the fact that we have something of our own. These things become part of what we are, and what we will be no matter where or how far we go.


Source: http://india4indians.com/

25!

Yes, that is true. I am not 24 anymore. Maybe I should stop singing 18 Till I Die now :) Soon I will be 26, 27,.... Whoa! Life comes at you fast..

Happy Father's day!

Me: Dad, today is your day! Happy Father's day!!
Dad: Oh OK, today is Father's day? What do they do there on Father's day?
Me: Well, kids show their love and affection to Dads.
Dad: Ohk. Nice!

My Dad has been more than a Father to me. Fate made him my mom too. His character, values made him my idol. His openness and big heart got me a good friend in him.

A simple man that he is, I cannot remember a single day when he was resting at home sipping coffee/tea and watching TV/listening to his favorite songs. Instead he was relentlessly doing something for our family/friends/relatives or for millions of community organizations he is part of. The only thing he ever bought for himself was a car; not because he couldn't afford anything bigger, but he had big things planned for his kids..

I guess he is the only reason I still have my feet on ground. Whenever I become air-headed, a simple conversation with him brings me back to reality. When I look around, I cannot help but realize how lucky I am to be born to such a complete man!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!

3.5 miles run in central park, dinner by the waterfront

and still we manage to smile :)

How time goes by..

Today I met Pratik - great college buddy, almost after 3 years. It made me realize how fast time goes by. It feels like only yesterday when we were doing this :)



Hmmm.. Well, it makes little nostalgic..

I'm Feeling Lucky :)

There are some things money can't buy, and there are some feelings that can't be expressed in words. This definitely is one of them :)




Courtesy: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

P.S.: If you don't know what I am talking about, you have no business to know :P

Seven things people don't know about me..

About a month ago I was tagged by Saurabh, an intelligent and frank blogger from Lucknow. Apologies to Saurabh, as I didn't realize that I was tagged until the end of last month. Anyways, its better late than never! So here it goes..

1. It's easy to get me excited about something new: a new place or new music, new technology/science or new people and their interests, or new food etc. I hate getting stuck in rut and I almost always find ways to get out of it.

2. I am a bathroom singer, and quite frankly a horrible one :) My roommates will vouch for that :P I have a set of Hindi, Marathi and English songs which I hum almost everyday and I used to be a very good Antakshari player.

3. I read voraciously, when I do. I read 2-3 books simultaneously and at a given time, I pick up a book on whim. I generally read all sorts of books, but my all time favorite authors are Michael Crichton, P. L. Deshpande, J K Rowling, Paulo Coelho and Mario Puzo.

4. As a kid, I was scared of cockroaches :D I guess I learned that from my mom. Even now I don't like cockroaches flying around, although now I don't spare them. hihiHaHaHaHa (a monstrous laugh)

5. I don't know how to swim. Sometimes I find it scary that I don't know this basic survival skill. I learnt to swim :)

6. As a kid, I used to think all postboxes are connected via underground network of pipes and mail travels through these pipes to reach the destination postbox :D All postman has to do is to get mail out of these boxes and distribute'em in the neighborhood. Growing up I realized my idea of mailing system is strikingly similar to electronic mail :)

7. I am a reactive, impulsive hence ideal audience. I clap, laugh, frown, cheer or boo while watching movies or plays. I tap my feet, sing along and sway my body while listening to music, even when I don't know the lyrics or the technicality. Thats one reason I don't watch unnecessarily violent flicks (read saw series movies) and get absolutely fascinated by movies like Avatar.

Now is the good part. As the rule says, I am going to tag my old VJTI buddies. I am all ears to see how they respond :)

Siddhesh

Sneha

Meghna

Pratik