Some Mumbai links...

Maybe I should read more on Mumbai, but I just can't read about it. It makes me sick! Everything makes me sick. So many people writing on their blogs, some holding meaningful discussions while other accusing. But I just can't read. Anyway I did read a few this morning and am posting both the links. There are many more and I may update the post later, but I have no motivation of doing that.

http://emptiness-forever.blogspot.com/2008/11/mumbai-attacks-pakistan-i-dont-think-so.html

http://boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html

Amit Dongre's Dead Dog - murdered by a loving neighbor!

He doesn't have a name, never had one. And he died this Thursday; a slow and agonizing death. After repeated attempts at forced suicide, it was finally smashed on the floor - the move expected to be the final blow. It still moves its legs, but I would like to believe that its dead already.




Some facts:

Owner: Amit Dongre
Home (or used-to-be-home): IDEA Product Design (A 304)
Food habits: MacD Burgers (Aalo Tikki)
Blood type: Well its unidentified as yet...
Sexual preferences: Well even that is unidentified as yet!

More facts can be added by others...

Convocation series - General

Convocation is fast approaching and this is one of the last few videos that I can post. Nothing specific about the content except the fact that its rather stupid and mad!

Mumbai Meri Jaan (again)!

Am reading O Jerusalem! right now and there is something that connected inside me when I heard about the Mumbai blasts. The news right in the morning completely spoiled my day. I kept thinking about it, random thoughts and now I cant even remember any of those...

Poor Mumbai...there is so much the city has to bear. It certainly is an amazing place to have lived through so much. I always loved the Taj Hotel...anyway am quite sure they will reconstruct it immediately after this. But what about the 100+ dead? How can anybody rebuild their lives?

By the way even BJP managed to say something sensible today. Thank God for that...

Convocation series - Rebublic Day 2006

Our first Republic Day in NID (26th January 2006) was a lot of fun. It was also the day of one of the first mass photo sessions that our class became famous for. Here are a couple of videos from that day. The first post in this series has one more video from that eventful day. After a hectic day, I had gone to Mocha for some good coffee (ya, Mocha used to be open then) and masti with some friends. I was quite surprised when I saw these videos, life looks so sunny and beautiful then, and I sound like such a fool!

These videos were taken when my camera was still in good condition. However, soon afterwards it almost died out.

Apsaras on Earth...

Jannat has come down to NID right now. We already have a Meneka (and her daughter Shakuntala), a Rambha and of course a brand new Urvashi (Nidhi Dang has graciously decided to take Urvashi's form). With these pretty ladies there are of course a lot of other unwanted elements (including the current Dushyant).

Apart from that I would like to put it in writing that I detest Tea Kettles as of today. And harassment of mankind using this inappropriate product should be immediately banned! I know its a little out of context here, but I just wanted to pour my heart out...

Love Story in Jungle follows us in the mess!

There are two stories I would like to recount before they fade into oblivion...

Story I - Meneka & me

Yesterday was the first day in mess and I had dinner with Bhavin and Dang (Nidhi Dang and not Dr. Dang). And surprise, surprise...she comes and sits with us (not Dang who is already there but Snowhite) and Bhavin's heart skips a beat (many beats actually, but nevertheless) and my story became more interesting (was it because of the Meneka-Meghna confusion). The only one who appeared to be happy and interested in my story was Dang, or at least she appeared to be! Bhavin was of course already visibly palpitating with the distraction but trying to show that all was well with him!

So this is how the first story goes. Meneka came down from heavens and seduces Vishwamitri and as result of this sin (baby born to an unmarried woman) our heroine Shakuntala is born. At this crucial juncture in the narrative Dang is confused between Meneka (Indra's muse) and Meghna (who was eating dinner with us), and it took some effort to iron out our differences. By this time Bhavin had also visibly become uncomfortable because we were screaming 'Meneka' and 'Meghna' rather openly!

Anyway, Shakuntala likes to go to the jungle to collect berries and feed her baby goat and on one such excursion she meets King Dushyant (who was there to kill an antelope, but kills a rishimuni instead as there were no antelopes and obviously gets cursed). They (not the dead rishimuni and King Dushyant) fall in love and she gets pregnant (I guess it runs in the family and also society at that time used to be much more open in responding to such acts). However, due to the curse our King forgets her and goes back to his harem.

Shakuntala has a ring which belongs to King Dushyant and she feeds it to a hungry fish (rohu actually) and with that fishes out the last hope of our King ever recognizing her (apparently the ring was the sole connection between them, sex notwithstanding). She gives birth to Bharath who counts the teeth of a live lion and gives our country its ancient name. He (Bharath, not the dead rishimuni) also loves fishing and kills a big river shark (who had eaten a small baby shark who in turn had eaten an even smaller rohu). And when mama Shakuntala opens it up for cooking she finds the now infamous ring. She takes the ring and Bharath and off she goes to meet our King Dushyant.

The harem is demolished and a new Queen's palace is constructed. Defying family tradition, Shakuntala even marries the King (it seems Meneka goes back to the heavens to improve her dancing skills). Of course, they live happily ever after (maybe) till Shakuntala is reborn in 1980s and comes to study in an (in)famous college in Ahmedabad. The rest of the story shall follow in later posts...

We finished our dinner and still waited for the new age Shakuntala, but she never came. Out of despair we shifted our attention to mundane things like the Hindi word for floating/ gliding in air! The night passed on peacefully thereafter...

Convocation series - PD Babes

PD babes have traditionally been a rather dry category of students, strictly for the post-graduate course, though. The UG batches are a different story though, well quite different. However, our batch actually had some amazing PD 'females' (well there are many more names which should be held secret) and often they dominated with males with ease.

This is an attempt to cover them in some of their colors. One is married, and two are about to take the plunge. What has this world come to! The mother-daughter combination still flaunts their single status. Anyway their worlds would also come crashing down soon. But everyone is doing well in their careers – designing cars, furniture for hospitals, products for India and abroad and product interface (and more). One has even gone further and attending classes (as the oldest student in her class and possibly in her college as well) in videsh. Such is fate...

Convocation series - Alias

Well this was the first and the only 3D learning software taught in NID to us, and all we did was this. Pavan broke numerous chairs, Rani's phone got stolen (aha) and people faught over the silliest of things :) Truly a perfect PD course!

The video quality is terrible and movements abrupt and uncomfortable to the eye...completely my style :)

Convocation series - Bhavana & Aakash jury!

If not PD, I would've been in FVC! So it was natural for me to attend their classes (for a while in first semester), watch some interesting movies with them and attend their jury! This one is particularly interesting...this is Bhavana with hair and Akash as usual!

Both these people are very dear to me, espcially Bhavana...who became one of my closest friend in NID, somebody with whom I could really talk crap without really thinking much.

HATE CASTS ITS SHADOW - After threat, 500 Marathi families get cover in Haryana

Something very unfortunate in the newspaper today and I hope it does not set any precedent for anyone. I guess right now its only a few miscreants who are responsible, much like Mumbai. 

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=CAP/2008/11/08&ViewMode=GIF&GZ=T&PageLabel=9&EntityId=Ar00901&AppName=1

Convocation series - Mousumi, Pavan & Kiran

Its Mousumi, Pavan and Kiran this time. Two automibile people and the last one confused! brilliant interpersonal relationships, however, I shall not dwell into that. It may result in too many fire crackers post Diwali!

Mousumi

She is the first girl on campus I tried hitting on, and this was during the Studio tests. I got no bhaav and went back to Bangalore dejected. But we immediately became friends after college started, even took walks in the back-field back then and had long talks. Got to know a lot about Auroville and its night life from her during this phase. I was also a witness to the blossoming young romance between Mosh and Lov in the months to follow, again in the back-fields. We used to pull her leg a lot over her habit of collecting things and keeping them in her room. Guwahati and North-East Yatra was one of the most satisfying trips for me. I made her life difficult by insisting on eating vegetarian food at her place! However, it was the daaru we (mosh, muz and me) had in my room after 4^th semester jury that I would remember the most (Bhavana actually caught us drunk also). We still remember and laugh about it. But with Mosh there is lots which is gray, things we don’t know…

Pavan

The first time I saw him, all I wished for was that he shouldn’t be my room-mate! And bingo, I find him in my room a few days later. Mahesh and me were already there and had taken the side beds. However, things changed dramatically over the next few months and we became much closer, quite literally and publicly as well! Hahaha! I remember getting phone calls about heavy-weight championships in my common room between Mahesh and Pavan (and I would be called to mediate) and that kept a lot of fun in our listless lives. Pavan was also the only official DJ for the now defunct 'Mess Parties' from our batch. BIG PD junta used to be always there for his protection from the unruly crowd (oh maybe not the right subject to broach upon over here). Pavan is one tough looking guy, with a very soft heart. He is one person who would really go out of his way to help you out!

Kiran

Where do I start with Kiran? We were always cordial to each other, but never really great friends especially in the first semester. He was also quite busy with some interesting women at that point of time. I guess his hospitalization during DCC bought a lot of us together, especially Sanjeev, Divya and me. There is a lot about him that I don’t know, and can’t think of asking as well (some rumours, some facts and some outright lies). Kiran also became an active class photographer once he got his camera (the one seen in his hands) along with Bhavin, by then I had almost stopped using my camera completely. Anyway, by the time we finished our final semester on campus, he had become one of my best friends, if not the closest. He gives a lot to a relationship and that puts him par with a lot of people. I can easily depend on him and ask him for favours (something I hate to do otherwise).

Convocation series - Singing Kiran

Kiran has never been a singer, which makes this a must-watch. But he is singing from his heart and that makes a lot of difference, especially with Muzayun giving me all the help he needs. And later even Snehal joins in (and by the way Shenal is a great singer).

Kiran looks happy but is actually depressed to the core, Muzayun seems to be eating food but is actually starving, Snehal seems to be helping Kiran but is actually solidifying her position as the best singer in the class and Rani seems to be upset but is extremely touched with so much love being showered from us all!

As usual the video quality is bad and it was recorded towards the end of January 2007.

Shobha De with Karan Thapar & others

Lots of blogs have this interview, I pick the following because it kind of represents what's in my mind as well, especially the last line. The question of identity for us Indians...what are we first - a Maharashtrian, a Tamilian, a Gujarati, a Behari or an Indian first. Perhaps most of us take the India for granted (maybe including me), and so we keep getting into this debate. But I guess a debate is way healthier than what we otherwise see. And perhaps this is the only way forward...

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/devils-advocate-shobhaa-de-on-mumbai-vs-bombay/76806-3-single.html

Karan Thapar: Isn’t that cutting the very roots of cosmopolitanism, the broad-mindedness that Mumbai represents?

Shobhaa De: It’s happening across the board, not just Mumbai but we like to make Mumbai a prime example of this ghettoisation of our minds. It’s a question of identity, a question of stepped-up regionalism. It’s happening everywhere but Mumbai seems to attract a lot of media attention on the account of this. It’s happening because the question of identity, deep down, is what is troubling all of us as Indians.

Another interesting article by Rajdeep Sardesai in Hindustan Times:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=60cfd3cb-8223-415c-8418-91945ce8232e

Loss

It was heartbreaking to see the cover story on today's 'The Times of India'; especially because only yesterday I spent my morning reading about Ibn Battua's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta & http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/ibn_battuta/) stay in Delhi and his account of the life in the city.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=CAP/2008/11/01&ViewMode=GIF&GZ=T&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00100&AppName=1

How careless we've become to our past. Maybe India isn't rich and doesn't have money to save its architectural legacy, but this is still unpardonable.