Map My World

There hangs a king-size map of the world in our kitchen.
How it ended up there is a short story, but how it continues to affect our lives and conversations, is an on-going and interesting process .
The wall it now so efficiently masks bore pock marks and rendered sitting and enjoying a meal at the table, an unaesthetic experience. A thoughtful donation by an Ukranian ex-neighbor, and that is how the map found its way across the table, delicately flavoring our daily meals (the detailings in Ukranian notwithstanding!)
Anyway, we are still able to decode it.
The kitchen, is a haven for small talk, extended talks, gossip, invited friends. Inevitably we wind up looking at the Map, and either conversations flow from it, or start at a different note and end up there. It's always handy to have a visual picture of where we stand and where the nations whose politics we indulge in or people we discuss, stand. Travel dreams often stem from it and my geography has vastly improved in the process.
I see what a great asset it can be and when I imagine having a house of my own, sometime in the future a Map automatically features in it.

At the moment, we use my rolling pin to point out some of the inaccessible places on the map, getting a long stick/laser pointer would certainly make things easier !

Bidding adieu to the Year that was

Resumed traveling after a considerable pause, and here I refer to 'India Bhraman'. Even though it fared as a secondary choice owing to the active tourism season that found a direct reflection in jam packed trains, Ajmer and Pushkar turned out to be a neat alternate choice.
Rajasthan has always been a particular favourite amongst foreign tourists and this year more so with the desi junta flocking in, post the mumbai carnage.
Quite a few things impressed me about this place. The tidiness of the city for one followed by extremely pleasant road manners on display by drivers (even cars would slow down for you). The sunny weather only added to the city's lazy charm.
The delicious overview of the entire city bound on one side by the Ana Sagar lake atop Bajranggard, was akin to the view one can have of Zurich from Uetliberg (the city's highest point).
Khwajaji's Dargah and Red Jain temple at Ajmer and the Brahma temple at Pushkar enclosed by the balky Aravalli's offered spectacular experiences. Needless to say it was quite a spiritual start to the New Year.
Now back in town in the midst of unrelenting chill, am hopelessly longing for the warm winter and warmer love back home.

Warm wishes and cheer this year :-)
Happy 2009 my dears!

A Passage to Autumn

It registered slowly
the advent of Autumn
while trudging back home
through heavy rain
on a path strewn
with auburn leaves


..dead yet vivifying


Till that moment,
they were barely suspended
...the rain washed them down.

Ink, to Pen my thoughts

An ink-pen vision, transports me back to the messy years spent with ink stained hands (scrubbing them at the day’s end), spotted bags, spoiled notebooks, a non-waterproof mode of writing and basically no other choice it being a mandatory medium, and so writing and waiting for the page to dry before turning overleaf, and the constant fear of the monsoons seeping its way into school bags and washing/smudging away reams of important paperwork!
Running out of ink was the worst scenario as one never carried ink bottles for refills (a very risky practice). Ball points as an alternative (and what an attractive one) were a strict no-no and how we itched to graduate to use the hassle free ball point pen!

That was then, a long time back…That is how I felt in school.

And now I wonder how could I have ever thought like that! Ever!

In a world and time where I don’t unconsciously reach out for a pen (to talk about a fountain pen is a remote thing) each time I want to write something, rather compulsively depending on the word document/notepad instead, to get me by, I feel dependent and unnatural, even though that’s what I do each time…to reach out for the keyboard.
During these times, I get transported back to the period when I used a fountain pen to write, and then memories come rushing back. This time, flooded with positive ones, the fact that my handwriting had been at its best then which naturally proves as an instant confidence booster. Indeed if you letter things beautifully, you just come up with beautiful words to match it!

And that is when my hands ache to grip a fountain pen once again.

Now, at this very moment I am ready to forget all that a regular usage of a fountain pen entails.....ever entailed. What remains is the beauty and joy of holding one and putting it to use. An ink-pen bearing person today, is a very rare sight. But I admire the odd person who still carries it. Unfortunately I don’t possess one. One day, however I would indulge in a real expensive beauty, flaunt it and embellish my lettering with it.

'Light' up the World…. not your Cigarette please!

I hope this post doesn’t degrade to another lampoon tirade against smoking, of which I am capable of at the slightest provocation! And there is no dearth of such here in Zurich.
Wha..what!!Zurich..It’s Switzerland you are talking about, right?
That’s a shock I have been grappling with, as well since the past few years.
A true heaven in every sense of the word with everything in perfect order, from its natural resources to the functioning and governance, to the quality of living.
To preserve such a beauty is a given to the people here with respect being generously meted out to the streets, public transport system, the forests, mountains, rivers, even to each other.
And regarding the atmosphere?
While automobile pollution is almost non existent, the lack of it is made up by the amount of cigarette smoke billowed by nearly half the swiss population (foreigners included). That is a very disturbing fact, for the non-smokers (in this case passive smokers) like me who are washed in gallons of this smoke each time, waiting on the bus and tram stations or just enjoying a meal at a restaurant or sipping coffee at a cafe!

Exasperating Facts:
1) Europeans in general are very health conscious. My best guess, lung cancer apparently doesn’t bother them
2) Women are fast outnumbering the Swiss Men in this regard. Many smoke to keep their weight in check. Probably haggard looks, stained teeth, is something they are willing to accept in the trade.
3) Passive smoking can grip you more viciously than active!!(scariest one)

Feeble Excuses: Cold countries need this as a way to brace themselves against the cold..by that estimate non smokers should have been frozen to death by now!
And Style statement, my foot!

A difference I noticed in the attitude people harbor about this habit India vs. Switzerland: Whereas Indians are conscious about smoking in public places, it’s a socially acceptable trait here to the extent that non smokers would be greeted with a slight condescension.
Blowing up smoke all around you, stifling you, and not a flicker of guilt or apology crossing their faces, that defines an average environment/health conscious Swiss!


Be positive:
Hope for rectification is not lost yet. The Government is finally waking up. In phases, ban for smoking at public places is being implemented.

Funny:
Yesterday being choked while dining at a Pizzeria that was otherwise quite cozy, a friend of mine quipped that, impregnating all the female population in town would be a good idea. If nothing else, that would keep them from smoking :)

About me (Orkut!)

ऐ भटकते हुए मुसाफिर
क्या करोगे हमें जानकर
के जो थे हमारे राज़दार
वो भी गए छोड़ हारकर

thanks aks n abhi !

Umrao Jaan:Bollywood (mis)magic

After some self cajoling, and not so bad reviews by my friend and my sister, I made an attempt to watch J P Dutta’s Umrao Jaan. Having seen the legendary Rekha in the earlier version my prejudices and non-expectations from the new one were well placed!
And having seen it, I couldn’t have done without writing a semi review, an inevitable comparison (with the earlier version), and some observations about it.
The plot more or less stays faithful to the original one however there are parts where the director has experimented with the story. If the first one showed the growing closeness between Rekha the courtesan and Farooq Shaikh (Nawaab Sultan) based on their mutual love and admiration for poetry, the latter couple (Aish-Abhi) are smitten by things that don’t seem to feature much of poetry. There is too much screen time devoted to their love interactions and this is a drag on the audiences’ time. The roles essayed by Naseeruddin Shah and Raj Babbar were etched differently in the earlier version. The misunderstanding between Umrao and Nawab too has been differently handled in each version.
JP Dutta has tried hard to induce the right feel of Lucknow, through the costumes, the dialogues. But he fails in comparison to Muzzafar Ali’s epic. The dialogues are quite suitable. The costumes however fail miserably. He just doesn’t get it right here. The dressed up courtesans don’t elicit the right look, an eye to fine details is missing.
If I take a look at the actors now and their skills, it will be unjust to compare any of the original actors to the present day ones. Rekha was, simply put, super and the only one who had the natural grace to carry off that role. So anyone who steps into this role is resigned to the fact that there is no bettering the original. Under such circumstances, Aishwarya still manages to hold her own, quite well. She is tantalizingly vulnerable and uses her expressive eyes and full mouth to complete use. Some of her fine acting can be seen towards the last parts of the movie. However her dancing skills come as a disappointment. Rekha’s limited yet classical movements were very feminine. The sensitivity of perfectly formed emotions on her face, accentuated her graceful movements. Aish on the other hand is an incredible dancer but tends to border on stiffness with her arm movements being akin to geometrical arcs and curves, and a far cry from a natural flow of the body, that forms a courtesan’s natural trait of seduction.
Abhishek Bachchan is a pain to watch. He has a limited set of expressions in which the angry look dominates mostly (strangely enough even in his romantic moments)! His gait and dialogue delivery is utterly non-nawaabi.
Shabana Azmi is her usual brilliant self. She can seldom go wrong, with her natural incredible reserves of talent and that perfect Lucknowi accent. Sunil Shetty and Puru are no match to Naserrudin or Raj Babbar and are completely predictable.
The music may not be exceptional, but the lyrics stay on! Again it would be criminal to even start comparing it to Sharyar’s ‘Dil cheek kya hai’ or ‘In aankhon ki masti’ or ‘Justajoo jiski thi’,or to Khayyam’s music.
All in all, if one hasn’t seen either the old one or the new…it’s a pity that you haven’t seen the old one and it would be a shame if you’d rather pick the new one to start with!