https://youtu.be/jV1zUO7EoeY

A satirical take (by yours truly) on Urban Poor of the so called Silicon Valley of India!

Bengaluru Bangalore Bengaluru (A tribute)

Bangalore is this moody, artistic youngster who is extremely happy and hyper at one moment and completely laid-back and chilled out the next!

It is the yellow Gulmohar flowers strewn on the wet, clean, calm 'Palace Road' after a short spell of evening showers in the city.

The city’s character is like Sampige road where a KFC faces, right across the road, a Shanti Sagar. A Hallimane and a McDonalds coexist happily. And a Reliance Fresh store and road side vegetable vendor both do brisk business.

This is the place where a fourteen year old Marvari kid, helping his uncle in a textile showroom somewhere in Cubbonpet, stuns you with his fluent Kannada within three months of his arrival in the city. But, one would also find an IT guy from Gurgaon barely managing to say ‘Kannad Gotilla anna’, even after 6 years of stay here!

This is where a 200 year old cathedral (St. Marks) shares (well, almost) its boundary wall with a happening pub in the city.

It is here, that a teenage girl in designer clothes would touch the steering and then her forehead a couple of times before starting her expensive car to go out and meet her friends at the newest café in town.

It is the place where you would find the largest number of liquor shops and well, the highest number of Medical shops (consequently?) too, compared to any other city in the nation.

If this city has world class institutes such as IIMs and IISCs then it also has the world record for largest number of cinema halls situated on a single road (Kempe Gowda Road, Sandalwood’s tribute to the architect of the city).

 It is here, that for every vanishing Plaza, Symphony and Lido (Cinema halls, dating per-independence) there is an ‘Everest’, surviving the onslaught of the Urbanization, Malls and Multiplexes.

The city means the numerous art galleries and dance & theater spaces. Rangashankara has managed to get a play staged every single day for past 10 years!

On surface, one gets the notion that life is hectic here, but enter the ‘India Coffee House’ on Church Street on a Wednesday afternoon and 'life' seems to be lazing around on cold wooden benches, strewn with nine different newspapers and local magazines. One Rose-Milk please! for old times’ sake..

 A Pioneer of Cafes and Pubs, this city gave the world's teenyboppers, their biggest gift, ‘Cafe coffee Day’!

The city to me is represented by that picture of Shankar Nag on every other auto in the city.

This is where, at one moment, few hooligans, in a dingy bar, would be gulping down Raja Whiskey while watching a cricket match and abusing ‘the outsiders’ in the city for spoiling its culture but the very next moment, they would be screaming their hearts out with ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ as Yuvraj Singh hits a Pakistani bowler out of the park!

This is the place where grandfather and grand kids still take morning walks in neighborhood parks, together! Former, listening to devotional songs on his mobile on speaker mode and the latter hooked on to his iPod, enjoying a Pharrell Williams’.

This is where for every Avare santhe there is a Soul santhe and for every Karga there is an Oktoberfest!

It is the perfect blend of the old and new, traditional and Modern, orthodox and adventurous, maturity and youth.

This city for me is a perfect mix of sweet and ‘kaara’... Bangalore for me is, Chow Chow Bath!

My thoughts, after meditating on 'Ship Of Theseus'

(No spoilers)

There is a scene in Ship Of Theseus (SOT) where the bottom-cleavage of the lead character is visible to the audience (Unintentionally though), when he is tending to his ailing grandmother. Yet the filmmaker and the actor (also the producer of the film) decided to keep it, as if letting the mainstream Bollywood know what they really think of it. This is how irreverent and honest this film is.

The film is a seamless combination of three different stories of three characters, living in the same city and connected ideologically, philosophically and almost literally!

The first story starts off with the irony of artists unable to access their own art and moves onto the larger questions of aesthetics, beauty(and human tendency to arrest it), and making sense of the ‘senses’.

Aida El-Kashef, as the blind photographer Aaliya and DOP Pankaj Kumar’ visuals, both are a delight to watch in this beautiful story with an enlightening and sobering climax.

The second narrative deals with the conflicting thoughts (body and soul, good and bad, right and wrong, violence and non-violence) of a monk (Neeraj Kabi, who has an aura of a real sadhu) on deathbed, suffering from liver cirrhosis and unwilling to take medicines which have been tested on animals.

Cinematography is stunning and dialogues are mesmerizing. At times I felt like ‘Aaliya’ of the first story, not knowing whether to watch or just listen!

In terms of treatment, the third installment is a fresh departure from the first two. On surface, it might even be a comic thriller… but look closely and you find the director is bang on mark with the central theme of paradox of Theseus’ Ship. It’s the story of a money grubbing stockbroker, who, in the process of helping a poor man find his stolen kidney, finds himself.

Here, the director proves that he is equally capable of brilliant humour (orthodox, dry, quirky and even dark at times) as he is, of weaving the fundamental, existential, cognitive questions into interesting narratives.

There is a hilariously-sad sequence of realizing how difficult it is to find the so-called ‘common man’ even in this era of technology and communication!

Sohum Shah is a revelation as an actor and according to the Director of SOT, he is a ‘find’ of life. The mannerism, the accent, the dialogue delivery… he just soaks in the character of a small town Marwari stockbroker.

It’s very rare that a film is so thought provoking (it is listed as one of the 15 life changing films of all time by UK Film Critic Circle) and leaves all other dumbing down, pretentious cinema completely redundant.

Ship Of Theseus, a totally sincere, honest piece of intelligent art about ethical and cognitive questions, beauty, aesthetics, faith, pain, self-realization and celestial harmony and mystery… is completely in-sync with the ‘Swabhaav’ of its Writer, Director and the man who has taken the art and purpose of cinema to a completely new level, Anand Gandhi.

Wo Software Engineer Ban-na Chahta Tha! (Chaar Panktiyaan)

Hindustaan ke kisi bhi kone se koi bhi engineer jo hua Pass Out

Foren pakadta hai agli hee gaadi aur pahunch jaata hai (kahaan?)… BTM layout!! 

Aisi hee ichcha rakhte hain hamaare samastipur ke BN Tiwari

Inhe bhi sabki tarah lagi hai software engineer ban ne ki bimaari 

To janaab paaon jyun hii BTM ki sar jameen pe pade

unke kadam deewar pe lagey ek kannada film ke poster ki aur badhe 

unhe poster yun ghurta dekh ek kannada mahashay bole “enno enn nodtaidiya”?

tiwari had done his homework well, so bole “kannad gotilla bhaiyaa” 

“Poster mein aisa goor goor ke kya dekk raa bayaa?Heroine-aa??”

“nahin nahin.. uske chehre pe lagey PG accommodation ka Ad dekh raha hun .. Anna” 

“Ohh.. tumko PG hona.. mera ek prendd.. fayaaz.. uska ek mast PG… with andhra style Food

“tiwari ji bole arrey phir to sahi hai.. it sounds very good” 

Kannada dost ne phone lagaya , udhar se awaaz aayi.. “kya re Soma?? Kidhar mar ra re tu?”

Soma bola.. “aey fayaaz .. ek mera prendd ko PG hona.. usko thoda dekh le re tu..”

 “Bayaa tumko Udupi garden maloom??” soma ne pucha tiwari se

Tiwari ji ne naa mein garden hilaayi aur soma ko dekha lachaari se

 Koi baat nahin bayaa, straighttt gaye to left mein petrol bunks

Aur Road ka dusra side mein Hot Girls and Hunks 

Waisa tumhara naam kya bola tum?

Ji.. bhaiyya D N Tiwari hain hum

Hmm.. DN tiwari.. bole to Damn Northie Tiwari.. soma bola… of course,  mann mein

To tiwari ji ne vida li, petrol bunk pahunche aur fayaaz ko phone lagaaya

Wo bola “Udupi garden ke paas mein khad lele ko chorr.. main 5 nimut mein aaya”

Tiwari ne chaaron aur dekha aur bole “bhai fayaaz yahan ek sharaab ka theka hai, ek restaurant hai.. par kahin koi garden nazar nahin aaya”

 Kuch isi tarah ki shuruaati zaddo zahad ke baad apne hero ko PG mein asara mil gaya

Aur ye sunte hee ki saamne hee girls PG hai, gharwalon ki yaad se jo chera udaas tha.. Khiil gaya!

PG tha to sasta.. par utni hee uski haalat khastaa.. par marta kya na karta

Ek to itne saare log, upar se rules aise ki ekdamm Jail

Room mates mein ek MCA dropout aur dusra BSC fail

 Bistaron  pe raaj tha khatmalon ka

Gandgee se bura haal tha kambalon ka. 

Par phir bhi sabke paas ek ek laptop aur usme kamse kam 20 GB pondi

Sorry iske liye koi rhyming wali line nahin mili.

Tiwari ji ko sabne pehle hii din chetawani de di.. “bangalore mein naukari usiki lagti hai..

Jiske man mein java ho basa, saanson mein C aur ragon mein C++ behti hai..

Ladke ne mehnat ki aur dhanadhan calls aane lagey

Written to clear ho jaaye par interview mein vaat lagey!!

Interviews dete rehna fitrat ho gayi..

Aur sab mein reject hona.. aadat ho gayi.

Aur ek sawaal “tell me something about yourself”  se nafrat si ho gayi

 “Arrey why only something I will tell you everything about myself.. par tab bhi kaunsa tum mujhe ye naukari de dogey”

Adhaa ghanta chaatogey, phir.. “we will get back to you” bolke wapas kalti kar dogey

Isi tarh kayi mahino tak frustiaane ke baad tehraven interview mein khuda mehrbaan hua

Aur 3.2 ka starting package leke smastipur ka launda… pahalwaan hua

Shuru ke kuch mahiney bench pe honeymoon manaya

Uske baad project mein, paani ki tarah apna pasina aur khoon bahaaya

Yeh khoon bahaane wali line meri nahin hai.. meri sense of déjà vu ne mujhse thoda exaggerate karwaya

Roz subaha wo office ki bus ke pichey bhagte log, roz dikhne waale par bezabaan log

Office mein roz milne waale log, saath mein aath-nau ghante bitaayen, phir bhi anjaan log

Inn sheeshe ki chamkti  imaaraton ke andar kaam karne waale yeh bejaan log haay!

Jaise Gobar mein dettol mix kiya ho, aise taste ki wo machine wali chaai

Wo toilet mein dus logon ke ..visarjan ko ek saath sunghana

Wo canteen ke khaane ko pet mein thus kar dopahar mein system ke saamne unghana

Sham ko apne studio apartment ki chat pe khade hone ka akelapan

Socialize hone ki hodd mein har weekend pe daaru peene ka pagalpan

Kya wakaai quality of life change hui hai?

Kataar to  wahi hai.. pehle ration ki thi abb ATM ki hui hai

  

Weekend pe Sham ko chai peeney ghar se bahar niklo to ek se ek nazaare dekhne ko milte hain

Jinn logon ke baap ne kabhi sitar tak nahin dekha.. wo kandhon pe guitar laad ke ghumte hain

Ek kkissa suniye,

BTM ki ek so called music school ke saamne ek sham do ladke baatein kar rahe they

Ek bola “yaar chal hum bhi guitar sekhenge” dusra bola “ abe pehle body to bana le.. tabí to guitaar ke ssath ache bhi lagenge”

Maano guitar guitar nahinpehlwaan hai aur inko uske saath kushti karni hai..

Sangeet wangeet gaya tel lene inhe to sham ko ek aadh ghanta masti kani hai

Sab ek hi thaile ke chatte batte, sab chal rahe hai ek hii bhed chaal,

Pehli salaray mein kapde badalte inke aur dusri mein set karwaaye jaate baal

“kya iss dal dal mein kahin main apna astitva to nahin kho raha hun?”

“kahin iss andhi daud mein main apna vajood, apna vyaktitva to nahin kho raha hun?”

hoke pareshaan inhi sawalo se, tiwari ji ja pahunche “Art of Living”, aur bana liya Sri sri ko apna guru

Bass isi ki kammi thi bhaiyaa…ussi dein se ho gaya unka ‘quarter life crisis” shuru

Pehle tha confusion, phir illusion, phir hua delusion

 aur abb wo ho gaye hain Life se completely dis illusioned

raat ko 2 baje uthe, mann mein thaana ki abb mujhe nahin hai koi bhi khauff

lappy khola, outlook, new mail… aur type kiya Dera rajesh (PM) .. F3* Off!

Mail Send kiya aur ghode bech ke so gaye

Abb jivan mein kuch naya hoga.. inhi sapno mein kho gaye 

Subah roomie ne daanata to bole..” nahin yaar bass bahut ho gaya..

I have been there , done that”

Now I want to do something different in life like writing CAT, XAT or GMAT!

Choti moti cheezen bahut ho gayi.. abb main game changer ban na chahta hun

Isiliye tay kiya hai ki software engineer nahin..abb main  manager ban na chahta hun!! Manager ban na chahta hun!!

ROTI aur C++

The Place : Catering counter, Terrace Cafeteria of an IT Firm, Bangalore

The Time : Lunch Hour

The Characters : Four-Foul-Food-Frustrated-Friends

  Acts I, II and III             

                                   

Ratish (Looking at the counter and lined up food items) : “Yaar hamaare yahan ye khaana Ghoddon ko khilaya jaata hai..” (At our place this food is served to horses)

Peeyush :  “ Kya baat kar raha hai, hamaare yahan to Ghaddon ko khilaya jaata hai” (What are you saying? we throw it to donkeys)

Jai : “Yaar yeh khaana dekh ke to lagta hai shaadi kar hii lun” (This food is making me contemplate marriage)

Peeyush : “Beta, these are the times where there is no surety of great food even after  you get married. Gone are those days bhai,  when husband would come home, tired, and by the time he changes and freshens up, wife would prepare hot Ginger-Cardamom tea, then both of them would sip it, chatting about the day which would make his tiredness vanish like hair from Sehwag’s head! Then they go for a walk in a nearby park and while coming back buy some vegetables and fruits. Back home, they put on their favorite music, talk about domestic affairs, parents and about those in the family who are next in line to get married. (Don’t know why but all married couples want everybody around them to get married as soon as possible) ya and then wife prepares delicious home cooked food…well… with help from him, of course”

Ratish: Haan yaar Jai, take my case. My wife and I run to catch the office bus at 7.45 am after having a breakfast which reminds me of Military Hospital (Dry, hard bread with jam and boiled eggs). We talk twice on phone during our 9 hours in office. Once at 11 am break and then when in bus on our way back home.

Jai: Not during lunch??

Ratish: I knew you would ask that. No dude, not at lunch. We are surrounded by our colleagues and project mates and it would feel awkward.. also, we need to socialize a bit yaar!! Evenings, either she gets home first and then waits for me or vice versa.
Now, usually around 7.45 pm when am watching IPL and she is on the phone talking to her parents, and brother, and neighbor and neighbour’s dog, comes our annadataa, our Cook.

Peeyush: Cook? Oriya hai?

Ratish: Haan yaar. How did you know?

Peeyush : Cycle pe aata hai??

Ratish : Yes man!!… saaley.. Are you stalking me?

Peeyush : No man! Don’t you know that Oriya and Bihari cooks have signed a contract with BMC that only they would have the rights to cook for all the IT engineers (especially single men and women) in Bangalore.. .And as lord Ganesh’s official vehicle was Mouse, their's is a Bicycle.

Ratish: Thik hai thik hai.. haan after that our cook prepares his favorite dishes. Kindly note ‘HIS’. Even though we don’t know what he is preparing and how the end product would be and what did he prepare yesterday… both of us would keep shooting dialogues (from our respective locations and positions) : “arry Deb! kal rotiyaan kachchi reh gayi thi yaar”, “dekho tail kamm daala karo bhaiyaa”.. just to keep him on his toes.9.00 PM. Dinner ready. And with that, its Her turn to have TV Remote. So We have dinner together, watching Yeh Rishta kya kehlaata hai and Bade Achche Lagte Hain… now deciding which was worst, the Dinner or the serials, is like deciding between getting murdered or committing suicide.  After dinner its time for a couple of reality shows and by 11.00 PM… Crash!!

Jai  : When I was a kid, everybody elder to me used to tell me that ‘A man should eat to live and not live to eat’.. Am doing exactly that… I eat only that much which would keep me alive. Otherwise I don’t feel like eating anything… I still remember those days when we, as kids, would watch TV sitting on the mat in our drawing and Mom would prepare delicious Sabzi.. that very sound of chopped onions and tomatoes falling into the hot cooking oil in kadaai.. it was my favourite sound. And then the aroma of tadka with all those masalas, jeera, dhaniya, heeng… that was my favorite essence….hmmmm.

Ratish: Yeah Man!! .. Am not sure whether our kids’ generation will have that privilege. Am seeing this trend, more and more girls are shying away from cooking.

Peeyush  : True.. And more and more guys are cooking nowadays.

Jai  : Ya… they don’t have any option. May be they miss their mother’s food so much that they take things.. or rather utensils in their own hands.I know a few guys who didn’t know the ‘C’ of cooking till an year ago and now they are experts in preparing staple diet of single IT guys.. that is, Dal and Chaawal!

Peeyush  : I will tell you something, three IT girls stay near my place. And you know…

Jai and Ratish : Saaley !! you didn’t tell us!!

Peeyush  : Ok ok don’t get hyper.. listen first. So I see these girls, on weekends at around 10.00, they go to a nearby bakery in their pajamas and get a ‘Full Tea’ in plastic cups, come back home, have it, go through the Morning routine then again go to a restaurant (around 200 mts away), have idllis with previous day’s chutney (which was stored in a common freezer and so smelling of onions, mangoes and curry leaves at the same time!!)Come back again to the same restaurant in afternoon to have North Indian Meals cooked in pure South Indian Style! (curd rice included). Back to home. sleep. In the evening again ‘full tea’ in pajamas. Around 7.30  its time for pani puri and other such stuff (sometimes I think there wouldn’t be any ‘purpose of existence’ for these girls if there were no Mobiles and No Pani puri in this world). At 9.00 back to same restaurant where they had lunch, stand in a queue for 15 min to get the coupon, have Veg Biryani with Gobi Manchurian and while going home take a DVD on rent. (once I was there in the DVD shop and was asking for ‘BANARAS’, just then entered two of these girls and asked for ‘BI2’.. after a week I came to know that it stands for Basic Instinct – Part 2)

Jai: Abe woh to theek hai.. but why are you telling us their time table… unka itna khayaal to unki maa bhi nahin rakhti hogi

Peeyush  : No.. did you notice one thing here. Three girls. Weekend. Lots of time…. But no cooking at home. They are ready to eat the ‘ghadon ka khana’ but wont cook. Why? Is it because they are pure lazy, tired…. Or is it because ‘I cook at home’ sounds so village-ish, so Behen-ji types, so Ghareloo (which is considered as a derogatory term, nowadays).

Ratish: arrey yaar, but why are you taking so much tension. It’s their wish, their life.

Peeyush  : No I don’t have to do anything with them.. but I feel strongly about the cooking part in general. Be it guys or girls. Arrey yaar Me and My roommate, we cook even on weekdays.. and I feel it’s a nice stress-buster. Come home, put on some nice music, talk to your roommates, cook together, experiment, try something new every time and then relish it… the best part is that you can never get bored with home cooked food and most importantly its healthy too!! The whole process so beautiful … subconsciously, it teaches you so many things… and as Big B says in a movie ‘cooking is the only art where you have to use four senses to appreciate it’

Ratish : I absolutely agree with you on health part… yeh log pehle to bahar ka ulta seedha khaate hai. every evening I see so many of them pouncing on those gol-gappaas as soon as they get down from their company buses… aur phir..they become like those very gol-gappaas and develop ‘All Round’ (round from all angles) personalities and then all those conversations during lunch hour about  how they want to hit a Gym, join Yoga classes, Play Badminton and are forced to have fruit salad as lunch when everybody else is gorging on Puris and channa masala!

Jai :  Having good, tasty, hygienic and healthy food is one of the best way to celebrate this great gift of GOD to us, The Life. But by ignoring it and considering it as insignificant in order to earn more, we are missing the true enjoyment of being alive in a healthy body.

Ratish : I agree.

Peeyush : Absolutely!

ME (yes! yours truly) : Guys! Am not sure of this but if we don’t move ahead now… these guys in this long queue behind us would definitely not allow us to live anymore. So throw some of this colorful rice in your plates and move. Also……

Ratish, Peeyush and Jai : yes yes we know.

ME : What?

Ratish, Peeyush and Jai (Moving their heads 180 degree) : We really need to look very hard for a place to sit!!!

Byomkesh Bakshi and Jaspal Bhatti!

You Beep. Beep You. Beep Off. Beep. Beep. Beep

Guess what is it? No its not an ECG beep in the climax of a hindi movie. No it is not a detonator just minutes before it explodes… Its one of our young generation’s most popular reality TV shows, where a bunch of immature kids would abuse, bad mouth, fight and conspire to have their 15 seconds of fame and some cash. Mind you, this is just one of the shows in that category and its success (what an irony!) has made sure that all the channels would be flooded with similar shows in the coming months.

What are these shows trying to preach? ‘Dog bite Dog’ philosophy? Teach our generation all the four, five, six…. And don’t know how many letter words? How NOT to make friends and how to betray if you have one?

Some Girl on the show has biggest nos. of Beeps when she speaks. She doesn’t win the show. She is rudest of them all. But… and it’s a Big But… She is selected as a VJ on the same channel… so what message are they sending to our Gimmick stricken young friends?? Be as cheap as possible, go as down as possible, kick the conscience out of your heart and mind and Lo! You are a winner!!!

When our school going kids would watch all these Pravachan coming from the Judges (what a blasphemy, JUDGE used to be a respectable word) and contestants day in and day out, what would be the impact on them? They would start believing that all this is very normal and this is how a cool (or is it Keeeewl!) life is lead.

I have had a small stint with Media Industry and I know (I guess most of us know) reality part in these shows is only 2% and rest all is absolute Script… the dialogues, the attitude of contestants, their emotions, elimination, return; everything is a part of script.

Change the channel and you will be bombarded with, latest offering from our so very original TV producers, Dance and Music talent shows.  It seems as whole of India is dancing, singing, fighting, abusing, flirting and of course…judging. Even news channels are airing clippings from these shows all the time. Looks like Glamour, dance, Movies, songs, news about bollywood stars, these are the only important events happening around the world.

We are shown the marriage of a Pseudo Hero’s star son and a former beauty pageant (Love Me or Hate Me but I find every girl in My Village Beautiful than Her) live on TV, when on the same day one of our Real Heroes, an Indian Army Major, dies fighting terrorists and which, ironically, was being reported on BBC, at the same, a foreign news channel!!

There are hazaar 24 hrs news channels… but how can there be significant news round the clock? So they have to resort to cheap stuff like ‘Aliens are taking away our buffaloes’, ‘Donkeys are committing suicide in Uganda’ (Yes, no prizes for guessing the channel – India TV. Wouldn’t it be better if they changed it to India comedy TV?)

And things they do In the race to report first, Sample this, there was a story on one of the news channels where they showed a terrorist molesting one of the tourists trapped in The Taj during 26/11, later it turned out to be a Mumbai film maker who was just trying to console one of his production team members while coming out of the hotel.   

                                                                                                          

 In another case Principal of a school in Noida was falsely trapped and framed (for taking unfair advantage from Girl students) by the sting operator (reporter) himself!! The day is not far when in the race to get the news first, the media will create news, Bad news! because in Media, bad news is always good news.

Leave alone ethics and ideals of media I will give you something to think about the basic responsibility of media towards its nation… All of us might have seen 911 tragedy on TV. They showed us everything. The Planes hitting the towers, the explosion, the fire, people running and crying, fire-fighters, police, etc. But can you recall a single picture where they showed completely charred bodies, blood soaked limbs of different people separated from the torsos, people carrying blood oozing dead bodies and putting them in vans, thick red blood flowing on the road and sprinkled with small papers, wallets, nails, stones???

Am sure the answer would be a resounding NO! ever thought why? It was a perfect example of the ideals, ethics and responsibilities of Media in such difficult times for a nation. Grief stricken people might have panicked by seeing the gory pictures of dead bodies being carried; it might have destroyed the self esteem and confidence of the nation as whole. They did not want the whole world to see ‘THE US of A’ in such a helpless state.

And now just compare this with what they show here, whenever a tragedy strikes. Be it Gujrat riots, earthquake, Tsunami, 2008 Blasts in different cities, 7/11 Mumbai and many others. Our sensitive media would compete with each other in getting their hands on to the most shocking, gruesome, gory, disturbing pictures and videos, so that the whole world will know that we are a country marred by terror, natural calamities and there is no value for human life.

Vaardaat, haqeeqat, ACP Arjun, India’s Most Wanted show twisted crime stories with lots of masaala thrown in… they create so much of negative energy and have very adverse affect on young, sensitive minds. I thought the era of Manohar kahaaniyan, apraadh kathayen is over but no, they have now entered in our households in the form of these prime time crime shows (there’s a show called CRIME TIME too, ripley’s belive it or not but it is true!!)

There was a time when the word Television used to be synonymous with healthy, light, pure, fun, educational, idealistic Entertainment along with some authentic, simple, precise news. And look at it now…it’s a complete caricature of its past.

Where have my Doordarshan days gone ? (I used to be an absolute keeda of TV watching those days) Where are all the shows, which the whole family used to sit and watch together?

Where have ek Kahani, Mr Yogi, Lekhu, Kakka ji kaheen, Talash, Indrdhanush, stone Boy, Super six, ank ajoobe, turning point, , Byomkesh Bakshi, quiley ka rahasya, tarang, laal bhujakkad chacha, Ulta Pulta  gone??

Flop Show remains the best comedy serial in indian TV history, not even a single double meaning or vulgar dialogue, no artificial laugh in background and whole family used to roll on the floor with laughter. Today can you imagine a comedy show without the toilet humour?

No detective series could match intensity of Byomkesh Bakshi, till date. Had tears in my eyes when saw the final episode of Stone Boy and It were shows like Turning point and Ank ajoobe which drew me towards science and maths in a fun way! ‘Bharat ek Khoj’ taught me more about my country’s history and its significance than any other history textbook.

Well Abdul Kalaam is right when he says that we should ignite young minds because they are the future of the nation. Absolutely! Ignite their minds with Roadies, with splitsvilla, with dance india dance, jhalak dikh laaja, Bigg Boss, ignite, ignite, ignite!!!

Once upon a time…there was only one channel. Limited transmission time. (I miss that theme tone with DD logo slowly spiraling in, 6.00 in the morning) Yet it had something for everybody… chitrahaar, the Sunday evening movie, the mythological serials, the regional movies on Sunday afternoos, those social messages just before the news, those national integration songs… remember ‘Mile sur mera tumhaara’ ?

 But what’s the whole point?… you may say its all about business and there are sub standard shows because there is a market for them… people want to watch them so they make them. TRUE. But that is happening because these kids have not tasted The Real Creativity,real Passion, real intensity. They don’t have anything to compare with. Give them something really Good and they will watch it. Its like people having notion that only Karan Johar movies with mushy romance and emotions are hit in india but I believe that if you really make something passionately and with your heart then a ‘Bheja Fry’, a ‘Chak-De ’, a Lagaan, a Khosla ka ghosla would definitely be a Hit!!

But as far as TV is concerned, I don’t see anything of that sort happening in near future… and that is why I decided something… two years ago… yes, I sold My TV and it has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Am so much at peace with myself, my books, discussions with friends and family, writing, creating, learning…

Its always more fun being a ‘Part of the Game’ than just being a ‘Spectator’.

Joy-less Bollywood

The news of his passing away was lost somewhere in the tributes and memoirs of biggies (quite a few of them) from that golden era of Hindi Cinema, who left us last year... A tribute...

Though he addressed I S Johar as the ‘Bade Miyaan’ in Shagird, (Not Tigmanshu Dhulia’s take on Delhi crime but the old classic) he himself was the original Bade miyaan of Bollywood, standing at above 6 ft. Yes the name cannot be more apt. Joy.. Joy Mukherjee, one of the first ‘Chocolate heroes’ of Bollywood left the industry Joyless on 9^th March 2012. 

One of the first hunks of Hindi film industry who was tall, clean shaven, with well groomed long hair and a disarming smile. His was the image of an ideal, happy -go-lucky handsome guy and never really tried too hard to deviate from that. He knew his USPs and his limitations. And that’s why never tried either to be lovable, innocent joker (Raj Kapoor) or the intense, brooding (Dilp kumar) like his immediate seniors in the industry. Most of the films he acted in were boy-meet-girl when both of them are facing pretty strange and awkward situations in their lives, they fall in love and then the usual problems created by our good old… oops! bad old villains (Most of the times the onus would fall on Pran, who could have given any  hero, even of present generation, a run for his money both in looks as well as acting department!).

Though the films in which Joy Mukherjee worked were no path breaking cinema but he had an ear for music and an eye for the leading ladies (I mean the talent!… considering his spotless image) He had a good on screen chemistry with some of the best actresses of that era, Sadhna (both of them made their debut in Love in Shimla), Asha Parekh (gave most no. of hits with her which includes Love in Tokyo) and Saira Banu (Though Only Shagird clicked at the box office, they worked in a lot of movies together). Joy also had this knack of getting some of the most melodies romantic songs from that golden period of Hindi cinema (O meri shah-e-khuma, aaja re aa zara, phir wahi dil laya hun, le gayi dil gudiya Japan ki and of course bade miyaan deewane aise na bano). Okay now if you are thinking of putting Joy Mukherjee and Emraan Hashmi in the same bracket, don’t even go there…  And I guess you know why!

After his short and successful stint as an actor (cut short by a younger lot of actors of likes of Rajesh Khanna), he tried his hand at production and direction but failed. And he accepted it with grace. He never tried to make desperate attempts to come back as character artiste or the father of the hero or heroine (as was the trend those days) and never stooped down to the levels of selling cheap-joints-pain-removal herbal oil on teleshopping (As is the present trend).

 Last but not the least; I will have to provide a vague connection for today’s young generation to relate to him. Okay guys and girls, so Joy Mukherjee was none other than the Uncle of our very own Kajol! Now you know who am I talking about…Well, he might not have been as popular as Dev Sahab to have a flurry of articles, tributes, memoirs and news reports from all streams of media for weeks, after his death. Sometimes, I wonder if it is the clean and absolutely non-controversial careers of celebrities like Joy that they tend not to remain in public memory for too long. But for true Bollywood lovers he will always have a special place in the warm corners of their hearts… true to his name he brought us a lot of Joy and would continue to do so…forever! RIP Mr Mukherjee… listening to your songs and watching your movies would always be that… A Sheer Joy!