Life is easy kya karein

Mumbai people believe in bragging that they have no time. All over the world and in Delhi, people brag about the things they have. Mumbai is different. Here the people love saying that "They have no time." The local Marathis have an amazing sentence 'Ushir zaala' which means it has become late or I am running late or you have come late, depending on the punctuation mark after the two words. Having no time and I am busy are words of the nouveau rich. They want to show that the world runs on their shoulders or something equally ridiculous. Apart from I am busy is the biggest snub you can give someone. People can be busy some days or some hours. How can it be an everyday affair. Everyone is working and most are fulfilling their responsibilities too. But this whole thing about being busy, having no time and running late, irritate me no end. I have an over weight friend who is only running after her two children including dropping picking up from school and tuition , te...

Make up seems to be the in thing these days. Grooming has got a new meaning and that is application of make up. This fakeness which is creeping into our society is benefiting the cosmetics companies, cosmetologists, beauty salons, beauty and spa therapists, cosmetic surgeons and all the related industries. So every magazine which is a film/ beauty/ women's or business magazine has advertisements of luxury spas and beauty products. The amount of money these companies spend on media, I wish they spent on research and to cut the cost of the product. Most of the cosmetic giants who have their own counters in a lifestyle store are rude. They rattle like parrots what is taught to them. Their own make up is usually gaudy and OTT( over the top). I for sure do not want to buy anything from them. When I started working for hotels, they did not insist on make up at all. A saree was the main requirement in terms of dress code.Then I had some colleagues tell me I should wear make up when I g...

Western railways staff went on a flash strike this evening. Only if you live in Mumbai and travel within Mumbai can one understand the impact of this. Railways are Mumbai's lifeline. People use the local train transport all the time. The motormen and more went on a strike in the evening just when the office goers want to travel back home. The city came to a stand still. The buses were jam packed andso were the roads. the cabbies had started playing truant. In between all this I had gone to my saree blouse tailor at Tardeo. On the way back, I wanted to pick up Caramel custard for the family from Cafe Noorani. I walked two km to Noorani and ate the fresh caramel custard and packed a few. Did not get a cab and kept walking , blissfully unaware of the strike. Crossed a couple of Parsee colonies, Sardar Pav Bhaji shop, Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi race course, Wellington golf course. I felt as if I was getting reacquainted with Mumbai. Cabs not coming and me walking were in sync till I reached ...

Watched "Cocktail" first day first show with two of my girlfriends. The movie has no wildly explicit scenes. There was a scene where Deepika is close to Saif. They are just showing the cheeks next to each other and she is mouthing some dialogues. There is a silence in the scene and one expects Saif to buckle in and start making love. No such thing happens and in that way that was the only surprise element in the whole film. Rest was predictable as ever. When this emotional scene was on, I heard a man yawn loudly. A large part of the audience burst into giggles. Once more a little physical moment was shown and this man yawns loudly and the entire crowd giggles. One cannot hear what was said on screen and the moment is lost. When there is a rape scene or gory violence being shown in the films, no one makes any noise. there is pin drop silence in the theaters at that time. Forget a love making scene , even if there is a kiss, the audience giggles or yawns loudly or passes a comm...

Its difficult to say I love you and mean it all the time. I don't even to know when I say something, do I mean it? When I am shouting at children, I say a lot of mean things. I do not mean that to happen ever to them. I curse myself and use a lot of cuss words on myself. Do I mean that? No. So what do I really mean when I say something? If I am praising someone, I have to mean it, even if it is momentary. Or else the person will know I am lying. If I say something out of habit, I mean that as that held true for me for a long time. Sometimes when I say, I love you, do I mean Thanks for your call or Thanks for the work you did for me? Its a feeling I have and I interpret it into words. I say the words which come the easiest to me. It could be words of love or words of anger. Do I mean every word I say? When I click on Like for every friend's wall post on Facebook, do I mean it?I am not too sure. There are so many broken promises in my words. I say I will visit but I don'...

I do not follow tennis. But the Men s final at Wimbledon was hard to miss. We watched the first hour, attended a wedding reception and were back for last part of the match. The wedding reception was full of heavy weights of the political arena but the match pulled us home. The play of emotions on the players faces just as it ended was something. I could feel Andy Murray's pain. Since I do not understand much of the finer points of the game, I was watching the emotions freely. The effort gone in, the strategy, the coaching, the number of people working for the player's win and the livelihood of people dependent on that was all weighing in the air. It was not easy for both of them. Murray just could not talk and ready to burst into tears which he eventually did. The self control vanished, dejection took over. Inspite of that, he was truthful. He gave credit and it came from the heart. The coach was mighty cheesed. he refused to clap at any point. I thought that attitude was disgu...

In India, married women have this huge joy in visiting their Mother's house ie maayka in Hindi. Vacations,in earlier times, were almost always to the mother's house with the children. The girl's parents got to spend time with their child and grandchildren. The Maternal uncle or Mama was a popular man as he would be catering to all the needs of his nephews and nieces. The lady got to spend time with her parents. The grandparents pampered their child and grandchildren. Maximum joy a mother experiences when her children are well looked after. So the lady who has come to her parents' place is happy that her children are thrilled. The parents are happy that their daughter is well looked after by the son in law.Its a Win Win situation for all. Each parent in India has one main aim and that is to see their children settled. 'Settled' for a girl child is happily married and married into a family richer than theirs preferably. Career and the rest is not of much importa...

The very name “Dhanbad” got into limelight a dozen times in the last few weeks , making it the reason enough to create waves of curiosity amongst almost every native of Bihar. I had my share of inquisitive moments too.More than anxious, it made me proud…proud that my childhood state has drawn so much attention from such famed individuals as Anurag Kashyap and Manoj Bajpai,just to name a few… The D-Day arrived and my excitement saw a new high. The movie started with a bang, shot, murder, sending shock waves deep down the spine. Concentrating on the storyline I ignored all the violent gestures. Brilliant and realistic portrayal of how the Coal Mafia and their political ambitions following the gang war often made my heart skip a few beats, as the cameras rolled… it didn’t occur to me once that I was sitting along with a hundred other people including a few children ( some,who had come accidentally and regretted, as ,they couldn’t identify well with the plot). Lucky me. I felt all al...