Quiet wedding! Indeed!

If people wish to have a low profile wedding then the best way is to go to a quiet resort with some selected guest and enjoy the wedding with close family and friends and come back to your home town and hold a grand party to celebrate the occasion. But our film stars have a quiet wedding in a noisy way. The media was asked to keep out from all the details of the marriage. They were not allowed to tell the dates, the timings and the venue. They were not allowed to disclose the invitee list, nor announce the name of the designers and the decorators and the Mehandiwallahs, transport providers, band groups, photographers, choreographers, caterers, etc. And fortunately, all have become famous. The number of uninvited people that have actually attended the wedding exceeds the invited list! Thank Goodness, there is a bus strike and many of them are helplessly sitting at home and watching the live excerpts on TV. But still, there are people everywhere, on the roads, on the foot-paths, some of them perched on the lamp-posts, some on the shoulders of their buddy, taking turn, while others are in the balconies surrounding the bride/groom houses. Some of those people are paying for a balcony view, with snacks and drink included. But people on the road are crowded in the hot sun without food and drink, just craning their necks for a glimpse of the lucky guest. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to get a casual leave to attend such occasions, or is it a sick leave? And what is the thrill? Do they really have so much time to waste? While the big B pretends to show his contempt at the outrageous media, we have young B happily waving out. This is what I would call a publicity stunt!

In Mumbai we have interesting people

and the best ones you get to see when you are traveling by bus. In Mumbai we have public buses which are very comfortable and they have six seats reserved for ladies, two seats reserved for senior citizens and three seats reserved for physically challenged. This makes the ride comfortable for the privileged lot, especially during a rush hour, at the end of the day, when you are too tired to hang on to the overhand handles or to the seats. This is the time when the lucky ones are seen counting their blessing as they see a seat emptied just for them. On Saturday, while I was enjoyed my ‘only ladies’ seat, a senior citizen entered the bus from the front door (Senior citizens, pregnant ladies and handicapped enjoy the privilege of entering the bus from front exit) he looked for empty seat, but the bus was too crowded. He came to the seat that was reserved for senior citizens. There was an old lady sitting next to a young lady. The old man demanded that the young lady arise and give him the seat. But this lady refused, saying that she was a lady and he should not ever ask a lady to get up and offer a seat to a man, however old he may be. The old man got angry and he confronted the woman saying that when he sat on a ladies seat, he was asked to vacate it, and why can’t he ask her to vacate when she was occupying a senior citizen seat. The young woman refused to comply. The old man got angrier and summoned the bus conductor to solve the issue and the lady was forced to get up and offer her seat to the deserving candidate. The man, fully satisfied at his victory, enjoyed the ride, but I think he was not used to winning too many battles, so time and again he looked around and saw more uncomfortable passengers. He saw a lady with three small children, trying to balance herself and her three children, but not succeeding. Her one child leaned against his back and other fell when bus took a sharp turn. This old man finally got up and passed on his precious seat to the lady with three children, while he, himself, traveled the rest of the journey as a standee. On both counts, he was a winner!

Visit to health care centre in Wagni

Wagni is a small village near Karjat. Dr Vijaya Venkat arraged for us a visit to her farm at Wagni yesterday. At 6 a.m.(I had to break my slumber at 5a.m..yawn..so difficult actually) and set on our journey to Wagni in a special two buses with 50 more companions to enjoy this field trip. on our way to Wagni, after two hours journey, we ask the locals for direction. We then crossed the rail tracks to reach the other side.... and reached a village of wagni...can you see those buffaloes..? we reached the health center where we were welcomed warmly...... we were hungry, naturally and we were expecting soem snacks of batatawadas, samosas or pav bhaji..but oops, its a health center and junk food is NO*NO. so we were served mixed fruits which we ate listening to the experiences of other health proffessors.... after initial introduction and lots of smiles to people and to the plants that surrounded us from all direction, we were led to a meditation room where we learnt to talk to ourselves and to be with ourself. we closed our eyes (I slept, coz I wanted to catch up with the early morning sleep that I had missed because of this trip) but the room was cool and had large windows sans panes and the meditaion was done chanting out to a long OHM in a musical rhythm..... after the meditaion, we walked in the field that surrounded the meditation hall, talking to the plants, later during the day, we had to do some activity like collecting big stones and transporting them to other place and also watering the plant. I enjoyed watering the plants, it had cooling effect and I loved the smell of the earth..... after meditation we had our breakfast of saboo dhana Khichri and steamed corn which we were asked to eat in silence to be in complete company of plants and our body and to eat as slowly as we could (for full 30 minutes to eat just corn....yum, yum, yummy..) and then we went back to medition hall where we, now, did not meditate but spoke of health and many related questions were asked and were expertly answered by Dr Vijaya Venkat. at 3 pm we had our lunch, a complete organic lunch sans oil and after a group photograph we headed toward the polluted city where we continue to live against all odds.....

want to fry your brains....

When my friend suggested we go for a 'Bheeja fry', I was wondering whether it was worth it. There are no block buster stars. No heart rendering song and not even an item number. But couldn’t refuse my friend, so I decided to go. And I never expected it to be so funny. From the first scene to the last scene, it was very funny. I am glad I went.. a two hours well spent. the movie had terrific performance and crackling script.. Behja Fry, inspired by a French film, is mostly about one night in the life of an arrogant music company executive Ranjit, played by Rajat Kapoor. Every Friday night, Ranjit and his friends invite an unsuspecting wannabe for dinner. The idiot becomes the evening's entertainment. One evening, Ranjit invites a man who works in the Income Tax department but also desperately wants to be a singer. His name is Bharat Bhushan because his father was a fan of the actor. In his always locked briefcase, Bharat carries a scrapbook, that documents his own story in songs, Bhushan ki kahani, geeton ki zubani which he proudly shows to everyone whom he meets. This is the type of guy who knows that the word Aayega is used 28 times in the song, Ayega Ayega and the word chalet is used 44 time in Pakeezah's Chalte Chalte. This is the idiot to beat all idiots or so we think. Unfortunately Ranjit knocks his back out and his wife leaves him on the same night that Bharat Bhushan arrives. Naturally, he gets involved and what follows is a series of superbly funny events, which fry out Ranjit's brains and mine too. Worth a visit. Don’t miss it.

Sindhis in Uganda under great stress!

Sindhis are very enterprising and they take great risk and plunge in to foreign lands and make a bright future for themselves and their families. But some times they are not so lucky. Specially, if they go to those places where there is lack of security. Our Sindhi community friends are under great stress nowadays with the riots that broke out in Uganda. An Asian man in Uganda yesterday and two other people were killed during a protest over a plan to cut down nearly a third of a rainforest reserve to grow sugarcane, Police chiefs had approved yesterday 's march, called to protest plans to cut down tens of thousands of acres of Mabira Forest to expand the estate of the local Sugar Company, Scoul. Protest organizer Frank Muramuzi said the march began peacefully, before a "misunderstanding" with the police. All of a sudden everybody scattered and police opened fire with tear gas and live ammunition. As scores of demonstrators hurled rocks at police in the pouring rain, officers rescued more than 100 Asian men, that included Sindhis, besieged in a Hindu temple and elsewhere, and rushed them to a police station. Dozens were arrested. Some of them were inside the temple and the protesters started attacking them from outside. The scenes were similar to those of 1972, when the late former dictator Idi Amin expelled Uganda's Asians. Thousands have returned, but are viewed with suspicion by some Ugandans who resent their domination of many businesses. One Indian supermarket owner who gave his name as Kumar said rioters pulled him from his motorbike then beat him. The controversy began last year when President Yoweri Museveni ordered a study into whether to ax 17,000 acres or nearly a third of Mabira. Mabira -- which has been a nature reserve since 1932 -- is one of Uganda's last remaining patches of natural forest. The government's proposal angered some parliamentarians and residents. They argued that the environmental costs of slashing the rainforest would far exceed the economic benefits of the plantation