Kala Ghoda Festival...Will you be there?

I have lived the most part of my life in Mumbai, but I have never ever attended the ‘Kala Ghoda’ festival. Can you imagine that! Psss! Pssss! I better talk softly or else I might get extradited from Mumbai community. I have always wondered what this festival is all about, but everybody tells me it is lots of fun, and nobody has actually told me anything in details.. So here I am , going to experience this festival as much as my frail body will allow….. This year I have decided to attend as many events as possible. This is the ‘Tenth Year’ of the ‘Kala Ghoda Festival’ and it will be held in Fort area from 2nd February to 10th February 2008. Anybody willingly to accompany me for this festival can search for me there. I will surely be HERE attending some of the events or workshops... So see you there!

"six-events"event one..a ride in the bus....

Location: Mumbai streets...India Event: A ride in a bus. From the list of six-events' I decided to take part in only one event and that is a ride in a Mumbai bus. I boarded the bus at 12:45 and reached my destination after two hours. My school(I am the coordiantor of the special school for mentally challenged) is located at Belapur, which is two hours (bus journey) away from Bandra, where I live. I make this trip regularly, twice a month to get the updates from my school. I am sitting in a red BEST bus, similar to one you see across the street. There is too much noise everywhere of people talking loudly. I can hear the Sounds of horn goes pomp pomp pomp, Ticket collector goes tick tick tick.click, click as he tick on the ticket, making a small hole in the ticket and takes the changes. he goes to the each passenger's seat to hand out the tickets.Poeple pay according to the distance they travel with the minimum fare of Rs2 and it costs me Rs18 to cover this distance.(normally one dollar equal Rs40) buses and cars go beep beep,peep, peep,people have the nasty habit of using the horn of their vehicle even when it is not required.....The bus is quite slow at the normal speed of 40 km/hour. During the rush hour, morning and evening, this bus is normally packed with too many people, almost to its full capacity and there may be two columns of standees of about forty people plus fifty people sitting in a crowded bus. this shot is take inside the bus, at different bus-stops, number of standees might vary during the afternoon time There is too much traffic on the road, all times of the day...going by bus means plugging your ears with ipod/radio and going to sleep, even a book will do, to kill the time, other wise it is pretty difficult to pass the time..you will always be stuck in the traffic and you may become irritable at the end of the journey I am really fasnitated by this old lady who is sitting just in front of me..she must have been about ninety years old, but she has such a cute toothless smile..her face has millions of wrinkles, each making crinkle design on her face...and her ear lobe had such a large hole..and still her large, ring-shaped ear ring is dangling from a large hole of her ear lobe....when she turned to look out of window I was able to take the shot At evey street light, in Mumbai, I can see many poeple, some are begging and some are selling things, all kinds of things are sold at the signals like toys, newspaper, books,(if you want to know which are the popular books, you can ask them, they know it all) and food stuff..here, at this signal, I can see the street urchin selling oranges..... At the end of the trip of two hours I am quite thirsty...thank Gawd, there is a sugarcane juice vendor at the corner of the bus depot....at every bus depots we find lots of hawkers selling different things and people are always eating or drinking on the streets of Mumbai.... ...

Expression through canvas

My art world......on photoshop....

Do we need validation from outside to prove our self worth?

I don’t think so. I think only the children need to be praised from time to time and they need encouragement at every stage. But we, as adults have already formed our own opinions and we know who we are and how valuable we are, why do we need validation from others to prove our self worth? Don’t we trust our own opinions? I look into the mirror every morning and say “Mirror, mirror on the wall.. you better agree....I am the best” I feel good about myself but if people don’t agree with me during the day then I am sorry for their poor judgment that they fail to recognize the beautiful me…..it is their loss…. I am not dependent on social validation, if I don’t get invitation for a party or an outing, I am glad that I get an opportunity to spend quality time with some one whose company I truly enjoy….My normal life is never disturbed by this........if we depended on validation for our every action and failed to receive any, our self esteem would be completely crushed. It is important to have faith in one self and believe in oneself and not to walk in any ones’ shadow, we can't be wrong if we are sure what we do is right and we are willing to take full responsibility for our own actions and will face its consequences. It is the choice we make. A choice of responsibility to control our own life

Stars on the ground?

I finally saw the movie ‘Tare Zameen Par’…(tax-free.) and I loved it.. My heart reached out specially, towards the kid, who feels crushed under the weight of rejection, it is the story closer to reality and it reminded me of my own childhood, because I, too, spend most of my primary school years out of the class and was repeatedly abused by my teachers who couldn’t cope up with my dumbness and my inability to concentrate on my studies. I hated my teachers and would be more stubborn and disobedient. Still I had great respect for my teachers at secondary school and I nursed the dream of teaching in school, but not beating the children when they were not able to cope with their studies. I am glad that my dreams came true, some twenty years later and that I got opportunity to teach special children and have enjoyed the experience of reaching out to them and communicating with them to a certain extend.. A familiar cord run through those experiences…I have met many dyslexic kids and found that the child and his parents both suffer. The child, Dursheel, in this movie is so adorable, I felt like hugging him, especially when he was sad and confused. Teachers are normally drawn towards weak ones because it is a challenge for them to help a slow child. What I don’t understand is why teachers portrayed (in movies) are either very strict or they are jokers. Teachers are the role models and they are usually aware of different problems that child might have, teachers need to be respected, not laughed or ridiculed at….like a group of boys, standing behind the teacher, during drawing competition and peeping in his painting and giggling…or that moment when Amir Khan tell the kids to show the seat to their teacher and the child takes his teacher to seats him beside his caricature. I don’t think that is funny, it is disrespectful. Children who watch the movie might feel that it is okay to show disrespect to their teachers. Movies, besides being an entertainment medium, they are also educational. Therefore they should be made with more responsibility and portray a decent and appropriate behavior, both from the teachers and the kids. However, the movie was enjoyable and their emotions touched our heart. It is especially informative for parents who expect too much from their children and crush their children’s ego by comparing them with the brighter kids. Every child is unique and every parent should be sensitive of their child’s ability and help them grow to bloom independently. The childhood memories linger in their mind for many years and they help shape their personality when they grow up.