I'm in transit. Sometimes, when I'm by myself, I feel like a passenger at the airport who's been offloaded and told to wait in the lounge. I collect my baggage and sit down to wait for the announcement. Wondering when my flight will be announced, when I'll get on board and then fly away. I don't think of the destination just yet, it's the journey that I'm fixated on. Sometimes I feel my life is in that stage, a state of impermanence, of transience, of flux. There is no sense of immediacy, of getting up in the morning to go somewhere, of a deadline to catch. Each day has its own rhythm and I allow myself to succumb to it. Some days I am in control of it but some days I just give in. I feel like I had a life, a job, a sense of rush and then someone deplaned me. I got off the bus, and I sat down, I slowed down. And I waited. Now, I'm still waiting, not for an external announcement but for the voice in my head to tell me that it's OK to get back on the plane. To fly. I don't know where to, but it's the journey I'm interested in. It's not as if I'm completely lost, with no work to keep me busy. You know how you walk to the book store, pick up a couple of magazines to kill time, grab a coke... it's the same feeling. Killing time, passing time, bidding time, all in an attempt to concise the waiting. It's a temporary relief but it's not your calling. Your heart and mind and your ears are still tuned into another frequency. You're reading the book but half of you is elsewhere, waiting for that announcement.
A part of you knows this is a good life, you're at the lounge, you're reading, you're sipping a coke, and getting on the plane is only going to put you back into the rut, the same old mundane routine but you crave it somewhere deep inside. It's a part of who you are. You know your baggage just got a bit heavier but does that mean you leave the old bag behind?
You aren't even sure of what you're trying to say any more. Or what you're thinking. It's not just about the work. It's as if you've reached a point where everything is running in slow motion. Like a Hindi film you were watching at the airport lounge just froze on the telly. With no attempt to defreeze.
You feel you're in the chiller. You need to take no decision whatsoever. You will neither freeze nor remain the fridge temp, you will stay in this half freeze mode, subject to the vagaries of the electricity department.
Even your analogies are lame, at best. Time to switch off.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
The Bilkis Bano Rape Case
i just read the details of the bilkis bano rape case in the paper. don't ask me why but the details just eluded me earlier. Maybe i didn't pay attention, maybe I didn't have a daughter and therefore it didn't sound as gruseome as it does now. Imagine being pregnant, raped by your neighbour, as someone else shoves his foot in our mouth so you can't scream. Imagine seeing the same people toss your three-year-old in the air so her head will smash on imapct. Imagine being alive after all this to fight for justice. First reality eluded me, now it's my imagination I want to elude.
And, oh yeah, Happy Republic Day
And, oh yeah, Happy Republic Day
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Dus Kahaniyan
I saw Dus Kahaniyan recently. Enjoyed some of the stories, pretty thought provoking, though some could have been better simply by being longer and better etched out. The Aftab Shivdasani story, for example. It tried to put in too much into one story and couldn't therefore do justice to it. It's on the theme of serendipity, but then you can't show it in 10 minutes, that too when you want to include a dead mother, a love angle betwwen this dead mother and Aftab's father apart from the main love story etc. Even the Mandira Bedi story called Matrimony was short and sweet but could have been better played out.
The stories that I really liked were Rice Plate; interestingly it was directed by newbie director Rohit Roy (TV and now film actor). Starring Shabana Azmi and Naseerudin Shah it was a beautiful take on the sensitivities of an orthodox Tam Brahm who is loathe to even touch something which has passed though the hands of a Muslim. It is her own insecurity that makes her believe that Naseer, a Muslim she encounters in a railway station canteen, is eating out of her plate. Short on money, since she has left her wallet at home, she berates him and then driven by desperation and diabetes, ultimately snatches the plate and starts to eat before coming to the realisation that her 'dharam' has been 'bhrasht'. She runs out and only when she returns to reclaim her baggage does she realize that her plate is lying on another table uneaten and it was she who pounced on his plate. It seems to validate one of the theories expounded in The Secret, that when a thought is prevalent in your mind and you keep repeating it in your head (even if you're say let this 'not' happen to me), the universe does not hear the 'not'; instead it just sends you what you are asking for. So Shabana almost invited the situation upon herself by constantly hoping it does not happen.
The other story I liked was Zahir, between Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. Without going into the details, I'll say that though the theme was a bit hackneyed, (divine intervention or tit for tat) it was salvaged by a taut script and good acting.
Watch the film for some off beat stories too like the Apurva Lakhia directed one on Dino Morea and Meghna Gulzar's Pooran mashi with some fantastic acting by Amrita Singh. A very well written story too.
The stories that I really liked were Rice Plate; interestingly it was directed by newbie director Rohit Roy (TV and now film actor). Starring Shabana Azmi and Naseerudin Shah it was a beautiful take on the sensitivities of an orthodox Tam Brahm who is loathe to even touch something which has passed though the hands of a Muslim. It is her own insecurity that makes her believe that Naseer, a Muslim she encounters in a railway station canteen, is eating out of her plate. Short on money, since she has left her wallet at home, she berates him and then driven by desperation and diabetes, ultimately snatches the plate and starts to eat before coming to the realisation that her 'dharam' has been 'bhrasht'. She runs out and only when she returns to reclaim her baggage does she realize that her plate is lying on another table uneaten and it was she who pounced on his plate. It seems to validate one of the theories expounded in The Secret, that when a thought is prevalent in your mind and you keep repeating it in your head (even if you're say let this 'not' happen to me), the universe does not hear the 'not'; instead it just sends you what you are asking for. So Shabana almost invited the situation upon herself by constantly hoping it does not happen.
The other story I liked was Zahir, between Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. Without going into the details, I'll say that though the theme was a bit hackneyed, (divine intervention or tit for tat) it was salvaged by a taut script and good acting.
Watch the film for some off beat stories too like the Apurva Lakhia directed one on Dino Morea and Meghna Gulzar's Pooran mashi with some fantastic acting by Amrita Singh. A very well written story too.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Subtlety is lost on us
I have said this before and I must say it again. Subtlety is completely lost on the majority of Indians. Every now and then I see some brilliant piece of advertising on TV but before I know it, they've gone ahead and added explanatory lines, or a super or a voice over, something to make the ad more comprehensible, and that totally rids it of its creatvity and charm and defeats the very purpose. If I can feel so frustarted just watching the ad, I shudder to think what the writer/creator of the ad must feel. They must be having to drown themselves in alcohol.
Here are examples:
Aamir Khan as a Chinese waiter on a train serving Coke. Brilliant ad, because it plays on our great Indian habit of belching in public unapologetically. And the song too says dikhte hain sab alag alag par andar say hain sab same same. It goes on to say something to the effect of 'come out of yourself' basically implying (by showing the diversity op people on board) that whether you are a uber cool dude, a PYT, a middle class exec or a rich industrialist, some habits are inherently Indian and it's nothing to be embarrassed off. We should learn to laugh at ourselves. We all pretend to be sophisticated but at the end of the day some of these habits don't leave you. The ad was great because it used expressions and the music and managed to convey it all brillaintly but no, they had to add a voice over for Aamir questioning who drank the Coke etc which killed the ad.
My fave example is of the paints ad, the Shyam babu, badiya hai ad. That too was brilliant with the insinuation that the paint has lasted so many years even as the owner's first wife has died and he has re-married. The actors' expressions were brill but again it had to be simplified as I cringed in frustration.
There was another ad on my mind which I can't remember now but will add soon.
Here are examples:
Aamir Khan as a Chinese waiter on a train serving Coke. Brilliant ad, because it plays on our great Indian habit of belching in public unapologetically. And the song too says dikhte hain sab alag alag par andar say hain sab same same. It goes on to say something to the effect of 'come out of yourself' basically implying (by showing the diversity op people on board) that whether you are a uber cool dude, a PYT, a middle class exec or a rich industrialist, some habits are inherently Indian and it's nothing to be embarrassed off. We should learn to laugh at ourselves. We all pretend to be sophisticated but at the end of the day some of these habits don't leave you. The ad was great because it used expressions and the music and managed to convey it all brillaintly but no, they had to add a voice over for Aamir questioning who drank the Coke etc which killed the ad.
My fave example is of the paints ad, the Shyam babu, badiya hai ad. That too was brilliant with the insinuation that the paint has lasted so many years even as the owner's first wife has died and he has re-married. The actors' expressions were brill but again it had to be simplified as I cringed in frustration.
There was another ad on my mind which I can't remember now but will add soon.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Do You Hate Gurgaon?
Published in MetroNow on October 4, 2007
The other night I met up with a group of young working people who had all moved to Gurgaon only recently. And there was one thing they had in common: they all hated Gurgaon. Now being a Gurgaon stalwart, this saddened me a little. I have never lived in Delhi so I can’t really make a comparison, but I like Gurgaon. It is home. It used to be peaceful, with less people, less cars and more green. Anyway, while some of these guys agreed it was peaceful, it was not peace they were looking for. Most of them had shifted here because their workplace was here but all of them felt that apart from work there was nothing to do. ‘Life starts and ends at the malls’ grumbled one, while another recounted a horrifying tale of how a Qualis banged her car last week on NH 8 and which is why she is understandably grounded. Most of them spend very long hours at work, out of choice, because there’s nothing to do except go for a movie or eat out.
‘There isn’t even place to just hang out. At least Delhi has a Dilli Haat’, said X, while Y was reminiscing about sitting at a café in Carter Road in Mumbai overlooking the Arabian Sea. This is precisely one of the reasons I was happy that the café culture may finally be coming to Gurgaon. Not everyone’s idea of fun is to go sit at a crowded mall after a hectic week at work. In fact, it’s hardly any working person’s idea of fun.
What we do need is a culture. Something. A poetry club, a venue where off beat arty movies can be screened, a play, a concert, a picnic spot…
Worse still is that while we are neighbours of the capital we can’t benefit from the proximity because of the traffic woes. So we have to think 20 times before going off to Siri Fort for a 6.30 p.m. movie or to the India Habitat Centre to catch a recital. I have said all of this before and I can only reiterate it because it seems to have become the prevailing sentiment.
Not to forget the dissatisfaction with the lack of public transport and the mentality of the general crowd. Most women don’t feel safe here and aren’t even comfortable wearing their clothes of choice to a disco.
Now if you can’t be what you want to be, then a place will never feel like home. So we can get all the corporates of the world to set up offices here, but what we are unable to provide is quality of life.
The other night I met up with a group of young working people who had all moved to Gurgaon only recently. And there was one thing they had in common: they all hated Gurgaon. Now being a Gurgaon stalwart, this saddened me a little. I have never lived in Delhi so I can’t really make a comparison, but I like Gurgaon. It is home. It used to be peaceful, with less people, less cars and more green. Anyway, while some of these guys agreed it was peaceful, it was not peace they were looking for. Most of them had shifted here because their workplace was here but all of them felt that apart from work there was nothing to do. ‘Life starts and ends at the malls’ grumbled one, while another recounted a horrifying tale of how a Qualis banged her car last week on NH 8 and which is why she is understandably grounded. Most of them spend very long hours at work, out of choice, because there’s nothing to do except go for a movie or eat out.
‘There isn’t even place to just hang out. At least Delhi has a Dilli Haat’, said X, while Y was reminiscing about sitting at a café in Carter Road in Mumbai overlooking the Arabian Sea. This is precisely one of the reasons I was happy that the café culture may finally be coming to Gurgaon. Not everyone’s idea of fun is to go sit at a crowded mall after a hectic week at work. In fact, it’s hardly any working person’s idea of fun.
What we do need is a culture. Something. A poetry club, a venue where off beat arty movies can be screened, a play, a concert, a picnic spot…
Worse still is that while we are neighbours of the capital we can’t benefit from the proximity because of the traffic woes. So we have to think 20 times before going off to Siri Fort for a 6.30 p.m. movie or to the India Habitat Centre to catch a recital. I have said all of this before and I can only reiterate it because it seems to have become the prevailing sentiment.
Not to forget the dissatisfaction with the lack of public transport and the mentality of the general crowd. Most women don’t feel safe here and aren’t even comfortable wearing their clothes of choice to a disco.
Now if you can’t be what you want to be, then a place will never feel like home. So we can get all the corporates of the world to set up offices here, but what we are unable to provide is quality of life.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Food review: Alive, Gurgaon
A new eatery in Gurgaon is always welcome. After all, anyone who lives in Gurgaon has three abiding passions – shopping, movies and eating. Unlike Delhi, we don’t yet have options such as watching a play, going to a concert or even a day at an amusement park like Adventure Island. So we mall hop, we watch films and of course, we eat out.
Alive is our latest zing thing. A fresh new 40-seater café, Alive is VLCC’s foray into the restaurant business and judging by the fact that they’ve just won the Most Admired Retailer of The Year -- Innovative Concept award at the recently held Images Retail Awards in Mumbai, the enterprise is definitely going good.
Located in MGF Mega City, the mall that houses Spencer’s, and just a stone’s throw away from the food court, Alive immediately catches your attention. You can’t pass by without noticing the neon green and the nattily dressed waiters in bright reds. White walls give the restaurant a break from colour and trendy plastic chairs give it an airy feel. The plates are not regular shaped and the cutlery, embossed, gives it the sophisticated touch of a sit-down.
But where Alive really scores is the food. According to VLCC, the expertise of over 500 nutritionists and a dedicated team has been used to come up with the 80 dish plus menu which covers the entire gamut from soups to starters to salads to a range of grills – both Indian and Continental. Healthy cooking techniques such as baking and grilling have been employed and fresh, seasonal ingredients have been integrated into the menu to give it a delicious yet nutritious touch. So even if you’re not on a diet but would rather have a meal that looks appetizing, is absolutely yummy and not rich in fat and butter, choose Alive. The ambience is appealing and it’s great to catch up with a friend.
We started with Mint Iced Tea, Lemon Iced Tea and Ginger Mint Cooler. The Iced Tea was freshly made versus a sachet and was very refreshing. For starters, we sampled the Barbeque Cottage Cheese Shaslik and the Basil Chicken Strips. The latter was outstanding with just the right flavour of basil: not too overpowering and not overshadowed by the chicken. The tofu tikka was also surprisingly good and anyone with a heart problem should try tofu at Alive to know that it can taste this good. I’m a pucca non-veg, but I have to say the vegetarian fare at Alive was so good, I wouldn’t mind having a veg meal there. Apart from the tofu and the all green salad, what bowled me over was the Stuffed Vegetable Canneloni. But to come to the high points of my meal, they were the Grilled Prawns and the Herbed Chicken Chops. While the prawns were prepared in a creamy lemon sauce and served with fresh vegetables, the chicken was marinated in fresh thyme and grilled. Both were excellent.
Just when we thought there was no space for dessert, a sinful looking Chocolate Risotto (yes, you read it right) fetched up on the table. Made from Arborio rice which is used in risottos, plus diet chocolate, sugarfree, low fat butter and low fat cream, it’s served with a diet chocolate sauce and is unique and delicious. Never has healthy eating been so much fun. We also tried the Irish Coffee Mousse which was good too, but I give the Risotto top marks in desserts.
The menu is easy to navigate and lists the ingredients in each dish telling you what good each one does for your body or mind. The restaurant also has a Goodness Count, which helps you figure out the calorie intake and the nutritive value of each dish. All in all, a must-try.
A meal for two: Rs 500-700
Address: 2nd Floor, MGF Mega City, MG Road, Gurgaon.
Phone: 0124-4375335
Alive is our latest zing thing. A fresh new 40-seater café, Alive is VLCC’s foray into the restaurant business and judging by the fact that they’ve just won the Most Admired Retailer of The Year -- Innovative Concept award at the recently held Images Retail Awards in Mumbai, the enterprise is definitely going good.
Located in MGF Mega City, the mall that houses Spencer’s, and just a stone’s throw away from the food court, Alive immediately catches your attention. You can’t pass by without noticing the neon green and the nattily dressed waiters in bright reds. White walls give the restaurant a break from colour and trendy plastic chairs give it an airy feel. The plates are not regular shaped and the cutlery, embossed, gives it the sophisticated touch of a sit-down.
But where Alive really scores is the food. According to VLCC, the expertise of over 500 nutritionists and a dedicated team has been used to come up with the 80 dish plus menu which covers the entire gamut from soups to starters to salads to a range of grills – both Indian and Continental. Healthy cooking techniques such as baking and grilling have been employed and fresh, seasonal ingredients have been integrated into the menu to give it a delicious yet nutritious touch. So even if you’re not on a diet but would rather have a meal that looks appetizing, is absolutely yummy and not rich in fat and butter, choose Alive. The ambience is appealing and it’s great to catch up with a friend.
We started with Mint Iced Tea, Lemon Iced Tea and Ginger Mint Cooler. The Iced Tea was freshly made versus a sachet and was very refreshing. For starters, we sampled the Barbeque Cottage Cheese Shaslik and the Basil Chicken Strips. The latter was outstanding with just the right flavour of basil: not too overpowering and not overshadowed by the chicken. The tofu tikka was also surprisingly good and anyone with a heart problem should try tofu at Alive to know that it can taste this good. I’m a pucca non-veg, but I have to say the vegetarian fare at Alive was so good, I wouldn’t mind having a veg meal there. Apart from the tofu and the all green salad, what bowled me over was the Stuffed Vegetable Canneloni. But to come to the high points of my meal, they were the Grilled Prawns and the Herbed Chicken Chops. While the prawns were prepared in a creamy lemon sauce and served with fresh vegetables, the chicken was marinated in fresh thyme and grilled. Both were excellent.
Just when we thought there was no space for dessert, a sinful looking Chocolate Risotto (yes, you read it right) fetched up on the table. Made from Arborio rice which is used in risottos, plus diet chocolate, sugarfree, low fat butter and low fat cream, it’s served with a diet chocolate sauce and is unique and delicious. Never has healthy eating been so much fun. We also tried the Irish Coffee Mousse which was good too, but I give the Risotto top marks in desserts.
The menu is easy to navigate and lists the ingredients in each dish telling you what good each one does for your body or mind. The restaurant also has a Goodness Count, which helps you figure out the calorie intake and the nutritive value of each dish. All in all, a must-try.
A meal for two: Rs 500-700
Address: 2nd Floor, MGF Mega City, MG Road, Gurgaon.
Phone: 0124-4375335
Monday, September 24, 2007
call centre crowd - MetroNow column
Today I want to write about the 3Cs, or C cube or simply CCC – call centre crowd – that has become an inherent part of the Gurgaon landscape. A potent group with immense spending power, they come from different parts of the country, are subsumed by the Gurgaon culture and become part and parcel of this township. Their individual traits are
smothered by big city habits and after a while they start to look and behave like one another, so much so that when you enter a restaurant or bar you can recognize them from a mile. But things have changed.
In 2003-2005, when outsourcing was India’s biggest find, the call centre crowd was just about finding its feet. Lured by the big bucks, many of them were getting paid handsome salaries to turn into Janes and Judes by night (all this is well documented so we won’t go there) and upturn their conditioned body clocks. But somewhere this was taking a toll and attrition rates were high. So the employers figured out that the best way to keep these guys hooked was to offer them more than just the money. HR heads were told to spare no effort in ensuring that these guys had a good time. Discos were hired out and there were all-paid-for parties nearly every weekend for some call centre or the other. In those days if you went to Sahara Mall, any of the discos, be it Odyssey, Last Chance or any other were overflowing with young people from call centres. Booze was free and obviously, some of them couldn’t handle it. I have personally witnessed a fist to fist fight between two girls -- who were abusing each other in Hindi while the crowd watched and cheered – fighting over a guy. From that day on, that particular disco started asking guests to remove kadas to prevent brawls. Many people I know started avoiding this mall on Saturday nights simply because the call centre crowd would be there. I was one of them.
But things have changed in the past few years. Just last month I went to Buzz in City Centre and while I could instantly spot a call centre group – still in work wear, door passes slinging around their necks, and the odd foreign boss around – the manner was distinctly altered. No loud hooting, fighting and drawing unnecessary attention to them. They were dancing by themselves and having a good time but no one was disturbed by it. I guess, with the passage of time, they’ve sobered up. The big bucks are now passé so they don’t feel the need to blow it up every Saturday, and they’ve been accepted as part of mainstream corporate India, which wasn’t the case some years ago when any MBA worth his degree would cock a snook at a call centre employee. So there’s no need for them to be boisterous and loud and show the whole world that they’re having a ball, irrespective of what you think of them. They have now gained respect, become comfortable in their midnight skin and even had popular culture devote a docu and a bestselling book to them.
Now, they’re just like any of us.
smothered by big city habits and after a while they start to look and behave like one another, so much so that when you enter a restaurant or bar you can recognize them from a mile. But things have changed.
In 2003-2005, when outsourcing was India’s biggest find, the call centre crowd was just about finding its feet. Lured by the big bucks, many of them were getting paid handsome salaries to turn into Janes and Judes by night (all this is well documented so we won’t go there) and upturn their conditioned body clocks. But somewhere this was taking a toll and attrition rates were high. So the employers figured out that the best way to keep these guys hooked was to offer them more than just the money. HR heads were told to spare no effort in ensuring that these guys had a good time. Discos were hired out and there were all-paid-for parties nearly every weekend for some call centre or the other. In those days if you went to Sahara Mall, any of the discos, be it Odyssey, Last Chance or any other were overflowing with young people from call centres. Booze was free and obviously, some of them couldn’t handle it. I have personally witnessed a fist to fist fight between two girls -- who were abusing each other in Hindi while the crowd watched and cheered – fighting over a guy. From that day on, that particular disco started asking guests to remove kadas to prevent brawls. Many people I know started avoiding this mall on Saturday nights simply because the call centre crowd would be there. I was one of them.
But things have changed in the past few years. Just last month I went to Buzz in City Centre and while I could instantly spot a call centre group – still in work wear, door passes slinging around their necks, and the odd foreign boss around – the manner was distinctly altered. No loud hooting, fighting and drawing unnecessary attention to them. They were dancing by themselves and having a good time but no one was disturbed by it. I guess, with the passage of time, they’ve sobered up. The big bucks are now passé so they don’t feel the need to blow it up every Saturday, and they’ve been accepted as part of mainstream corporate India, which wasn’t the case some years ago when any MBA worth his degree would cock a snook at a call centre employee. So there’s no need for them to be boisterous and loud and show the whole world that they’re having a ball, irrespective of what you think of them. They have now gained respect, become comfortable in their midnight skin and even had popular culture devote a docu and a bestselling book to them.
Now, they’re just like any of us.
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