My life in Tuscany

This the plan:

1. Go to Tuscany, Italy
2. Take Camera & laptop
3. Rent a villa in Tuscany (e.g. above)
4. Buy a bicycle or one of those Italian scooters
5. Sleep on a 4 poster bed of teak wood with pristine white covers
6. Get up
7. Have leisurely breakfast, looking out over the rolling hills
8. Go for walk, bicycle around the village/ town
9. Take B&W/Sepia photographs of the life, people, the colorful market places
10. Come back
11. Sit down at my desk by the window and write for about an hour
12. Prepare a light lunch of salad, sandwich and some local wine
13. Listen to some soft music while lunching
14. Take a nap for an hour after lunch
15. Then write for 2-3 hours more
16. Go through, and organize photographs
17. Meet up with friends
18. Go swimming in the lake
19. Have coffee in one of the small cafes under porticoes
20. Go dancing with Italian men
21. Have dinner
22. Lay down under my pristine white bed covers and read
23. Sleep
24. Also, have exhibitions all round the world of my photographs
25. The books I write are critically acclaimed as well as best sellers.
26. Oh yes, Call my fairy god mother and ask her to drop off the next installment of cash..this time ask her to send the satyr instead of the unicorn
    

P.S: This is what happens when you watch movies like "Under the Tuscan Sun"

Note to myself: Stop watching Italian fantasies

Note to friends, family and well wishers: Anybody want to sponser my life?

National Festival

I have a major problem with one of India's "leading" national dailies. For the simple reason that I don't consider it a newspaper.

For eg. A very graphic photo of a crocodile with a man's arm bitten off in its mouth...and this happened in the Taiwan city of Kaohsiung...Of course! Kaohsiung! Of course that's important to me!
This is supposed to be news for me. Gore on the front page just for selling!

Anyways, this daily tends to treat most frivolous events as if they are of national importance..front page news I say.
A photo of our cricket captain meeting his wife at the airport has earth shattering effects on the nation.
A photo of SRK/AB , etc scratching his ear is also of equal, or many a times, more importance than farmer suicides, land issues etc etc.

This morning, the mast head of the paper had the letters "T" and "H" of the word "THE" are made as images of a festival, which is a common practice and which is, i guess, fine, since the images are of a national festival.

But as I thought of what this daily normally features,
I was surprised to learn....and I quote my thought..
"You mean, the Abhi-Ash wedding is not a national festival????!!!!"

Surprised & Agape.
Tongue firmly in cheek.

I want to have trappings

I want to have trappings
And yet be able to fly...

I want to able to run
As far as I want
And wherever whenever I want
While walking back, every step will bring me closer to you

I want to climb trees
Explore branches
Pluck flowers from different bushes
And make a bouquet and bring back the fragrance for you

I'll walk around alone
I want to carry my own bags
I want to go shopping at flea markets
And bring back the gifts for you

I want to listen to music alone
Learn lyrics and practice notes
And then sing and play the song
For you

I will travel the world
Meet people and pick up an experience
Build new thoughts and take new steps
And in every thought and with every step
Will be the thought of coming back to you

I want to bungee jump
And bounce back to you.

Lag ja Gale...

"lag ja gale ki phir
ye hasin raat ho na ho
shayad phir is janam mein
mulakat ho na ho
lag jaa gale se ...

hum ko mili hai aaj
ye ghadiya naseeb se
jee bhar ke dekh leejiye
hamako kareeb se
phir apke naseeb mein
ye raat ho na ho
phir is janaam mein
mulakaat ho na ho

lag ja gale ki phir
ye hasin raat ho na ho……

pas aiye ki ham nahin
ayenge baar baar
bahen gale mein daal ke
ham ro le zaar-zaar
ankhoon se phir ye
pyaar ki barsaat ho na ho
shayad phir is janam mein
mulakat ho na ho

lag ja gale ki phir
ye hasin raat ho na ho
shayad phir is janam mein
mulakat ho na ho
lag jaa gale se ... "

{Song Title: Lag Ja Gale Ki Phir
Movie/Album Name: WOH KAUN THI
Singer(s): LATA MANGESHKAR}

They don't make them like this anymore, do they?

Lost & Found

"When I write, I get lost in the language;
B'coz I don't have to courage to find myself through words."

My 'Daak' Naam

Seriously, did I look like that.

Gogol, ma' brother, I empathize.

Though I have been told, its not that bad, coz, mine has a meaning...

Just realized...mine has a russian connection too...

i.e. its the marathi name for these russian dolls.

WOW

Ok. So You are my inspiration.
Especially looking at this. (Click on the images...)
You are fantastic!!

The swing

My aji's house in chembur has a swing outside it. This Saturday, I was waiting for my uncle outside. So to pass the time, I went to sit on it. It had been so long since i sat on that swing.
But as I sat on it and started swinging slowly, it brought back memories from when I was little.

The swing is a bright yellow in colour now. It used to be a sky blue. It also seems much smaller now. Back then 5 of us cousins used to fit on it. And my eldest cousin bro used to stand and hold the edge of the swing, pull it all the way back until it was almost vertical...at this point, all the 5 of us tiny creatures would be screaming loudly and hanging on for dear life to the swing poles. After holding us in that vertical position for what seemed like an eternity, he'd let go. And the 5 of us would fly away on that big blue swing. It swung forward, till it almost hit the wall in front. It'd swing back, at which point my cousin would give it another big push. And we'd fly again. And the screams would continue.

My aji's house also had this aawla tree in the yard. Now the branches of this tree were at the height of my aunts terrace which was above aji's house. So 2-3 of us would go to the terrace and the rest of the cousins would gather at the foot of the tree. The ones on the terrace would hit the branches of the tree with a long bamboo stick (the one that was normally used for drying clothes) and the cousins below would collect all the aawlas as they fell from the tree.

The aawlas were then dutifully handed over to aji, who'd wash them and soak them in salt water. The bowl of salt soaked aawla's was handed over to us. And we'd all gather on the swing ( All the 6 of us somehow managed to sit on it)..with the aawla bowl in the middle. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to eat as many as possible before the others gobbled them down. I think we spent most of the time trying to keep count of how many all the others had eaten.

After that it was time for pannha and rava laddoos at aji's house. Till date I haven't tasted better pannha.

Aawlas and Pannha still always remind me of those summer days.

Idyllic Summers. Idyllic Memories.

Throw a stone, and you'll hit one...

It's contagious, I say!

The Namesake - The book

I didn't read this book for very long, cause i have this fear of "literary acclaimed" books..they sometimes tend to be too profound or too crazy for my tastes. So i put off reading it for a long time.

Then they decided to go make a movie about it.
And the posters and trailors kept flying at my face...
and i inevitably became aware of the story...
And it didn't seem bizarre...it didn't seem crazy.

It seemed like a simple straightforward story.
So i decided to take the plunge...

Here's my take on it.

Its a beautiful story.
Its a simple story..
And its a fantastically well written story...
It tugs at your heart strings on every single page.

Its about a boy growing up
Its about a generation gap

Its about a new born baby,
The mother telling the father, " The fingers and toes are all there...I checked"

Its about a mother playing with her little baby
Its about learning to feed the baby and change the nappies
Its about stepping out of the house with the baby for the first time
Its about strangers smiling at you when you walk with your baby.

Its about a little boy holding his tiny baby sister for the 1st time.

Its about eating payash and sweet yogurt ( mishti dahi) as dessert when guests come over
Its about loochis and rice and potatoes

Its about when they come to India,
A younger sister holds her elder brother Gogol's hand
and says, "I'm afraid, Goggles"

Its about grandparents deaths
Its about visiting relatives houses
Its about sitting with the kids watching TV while the adults talk outside

Its about wanting space and independence
About living in 3 different houses in as many years...
but never being quite sure which home is

Its about...
No matter which country you live in
Or which school you went to or which language you think in....
Or no matter how much you grow up or how far away you live..
Some ppl will always remain Ma and Baba

Its about that guilty feeling when you live far away
And cannot do anything when someone back home falls ill or dies.

Its when your mom lives alone at home
And you are too busy to make it there on weekends

Its about realizing that many of things you mocked and made fun of while growing up
Sometimes are the only things that make sense

Its about being separate from your parents lives
Its about your mother having all your phone numbers and addresses written down in her diary.

Its about detesting your pet name
But missing it every once in a while...

Its about wanting to be a part and yet be apart

Its Gogol Ganguli's story
Its your story and mine...

Just a Clarification: The above is about the book, not the movie. Though the movie is good too. But I'm a bookslut. So that was my take on it.
Recommendation:Read the book before you watch the movie. It'll help you appreciate the movie better.