Seems like a good movie

I used to be a good listener... it was fascinating – the perspective – the world-view and the narrative.

On my way back from North campus (DU… for the uninitiated) – I traveled with a friend... and I happened to mention that I hadn’t seen Forrest Gump – so for the next hour and a half he narrated the story… frame by frame… while we considered our travel options – to hitch or not to hitch! We decided ‘not to’ … and took a bus on a circuitous route…we walked…changed buses…walked some more…while Tom Hanks fell in love…went to war…lost her…played ping-pong…found her… lost her…ran… ran some more… got a boat…made some money…invested in ‘an apple co.’ … found her… found his boy.. lost her & lived on…

It seemed like a good movie – and I thought I should try it… we even began to ‘analyse’ it – but had to drop it coz hostel lunch time ended at 3…and we were already at 2.55!

I reached by 3.05…and after almost breaking down the door of the kitchen got served food which I left untouched…one thought that did not leave me was that i wanted to watch this movie…since I hadn’t eaten – I went to Kutty’s (the TAFS canteen that has kept generations in my hostel alive… strange coz these were the same ppl who were incharge of the kitchen – but this isn’t time for conspiracy theories) Anyway, so I went to Kutty’s and placed the standard order of double anda bhurji with extra hari mirchi – was lectured by Dutt saab abt how so much chilli is not good for health… -- finally I sat down to eat and told another friend about how I was thinking about watching Forrest Gump – he corrected me “how you want to see FG again”… I corrected him “I want to see FG”… he looked at me with suspicion befitting a vamp in a K series soap… with an arched-eyebrow and said “you haven’t seen FG…even once”… “It’s the best!!! You know what happens….”

And he went on to tell me how Tom Hanks is… bt the house they threw stones at …she gets into drugs…he gets in the army… the capitol hill… the song by the byrds… his single-mindedness… the meetings with the president after the war and tt… how he runs… how he fishes…and believes in the capt… how he waits for the bus sitting on a bench…narrating his life simply (the only way he knows) to this lady…how he runs to find her… how he worries if the boy is like him… how he sits there when the bus goes by… how fantastic the movie is…

It seems like a good movie I think… it seems like a lot of things :)

Nostalgia...Scene I

One of the blogs i follow has a post called time machine... one of the posts i had written years ago was abt nostalgia... and now with christmas & new year here... i am getting nostalgic again... and am missing everyone... including the people who i meet everyday... so this is an attempt to remember a few very very heart-warming moments... with people who once were or continue to be an integral part of who I am.

Scene I (am wathcing too many movies I guess)

Set in a cold december night in Delhi... AFWWA hostel... Divya's room... 

Dibiya is out partying... and we (read - me, taru, rakhi, dhara, neha) are all in her room  -- (there were party hoppers too)... wondering what to do... so we think of having our own party... music list prolly was Chunari-Chunari on repeat... with some help from FM... on the menu - maggi!!! and we danced like there was no tomorrow... how that hostel bed survived the foot stomping will always be a mystery... why on that day the warden did not even bother to come for a round dispite the blaring music we'll never know. Sometime around dawn we all collapsed and slept off in that little room... 

cut to.... 12 hours ago... the same set of people + divya + ira + preety + gauri... make a plan to watch kabhi khushiiii kabhi gammmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... at chanakya... we have to catch the morning show... no body would ditch etc etc...

cut to... early morning... knowing us... ira comes to wake us up...with senti tht none of us is ready for after the "saturday-night-fever"... so we drag ourselves out of the room and into a foggy delhi morning;this is the time when we saw movies in the front row coz they costed less than air... which meant standing in lines for hours on end... for a ticket window that opened only an hour before the movie

sooooooo we reach and the show is sold out... so we get in the line for the next show (which means we are in the line for 4 hours)... while ira goes to her would be mother-in-law to get us food... i dont think any of us had the heart to tell the 'good ppl who stuck to the plan' that we should cancel the movie...or prolly it didnt strike anyone that we could catch the show another day...annnnnyway... we got the tickets and we saw K3G.. preety cried her eyes out...and we all lived happily ever after...

one of the days that i'll always remember... probably not vividly... but the fuzzy feeling... i liked those girls... i like those girls... i miss them. and i will remember them... all of them. 

Forwards galore...

In the past 2 days I received too many smses (is that a word?) about how the marathi manoos or Raj Thackray should go and try and defend the hostages as the NSG commandos are from the north or south
1) People have to stop confusing MNS with Marathis or Maharashtrians..
2) about the sms... quoting a friend - the 3 top cops who lost their lives and other 11 cops did not differentiate that the people at CST were waiting for trains to goto Nasik or Kanpur or Patna or banglore... they went there to defend indians and lets not bring this pettiness at a time of such tragedy

about the raj thackray remark... India has serious problems... and people like raj thackray and narendra modi are not here to solve them...they are only here to tell us who to blame for it... thackray will say each and every problem of yours is because of the north indians... modi will tell us its the muslims... this is just divisive politics and nothing else (I really dont understand how people keep being led by this...how they believe it!!!)... we have serious problems... and we need serious people to tackle them... sadly we dont have too many of them around... so I cant help but wonder - what are we going to do about it - sit at home and crib 'is desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta'? or will we be the change we want to see?

Cheering the commandos...

its 1911 hrs on 28th nov... the media and the people are going crazy cheering the commandos... and i cant help but remember this was the same media that cried abt the multi thousand crore "burden" that the sixth pay commission was going to be to the tax payer... there were polls being done about if the Armed forces were justified in asking for equivalent pay packages... nobodys on the street said how they already get enough... and the media ran its sms program...quoting a friend of mine - every profession gets bastardized and this is the bastardization of the media. they have turned now...everyone is for the sixth pay commission...every one remembers the soldier now and praises him... and i wonder how long will this last... till the time the next news story hits... or the budget deficit ticks to a higher number... i wonder how long will it take for the media to start harping about human rights... starts questioning the ways of the army... and how much it should be paid...i give the media and the public 3 months to turn against the same commando... the same army man.
and that soldier will still stand at the border...protecting us through this cheering... through the sms saying he doesnt deserve to be paid more as it might hurt my next mall trip...through the hue& cry about human rights.... through the IAS officers robbing him of his rights... because that soldier is the only one who knows what it means to be an Indian

The spirit of Bombay

I came to Bombay 4 1/2 years ago... and in this period i have seen the crisis situations like the flood, the bombings, the MNS menace - and the day-to-day struggle of a mumbaikar coz of the lack of infrastructure - sorry state of roads, no prep for the monsoons, packed local trains, traffic jams etc etc etc... and everytime all this is swept under the carpet of the "spirit of mumbai"...

in the beginning i was really amazed - i was in awe of this city and its people who bounced back the very next day after the flood in 2005...everyone applauded the spirit of mumbai - accolades to the mumbaikar... 'thats wot makes bombay' ... and that was that - nothing was done. bombay was stuck again in the next monsoon and the next and the next. The spirit of bombay keeping it afloat.

trains were bombed... the average mumbaikar descended on the roads with food and water to help the ones affected... "praise the spirit of bombay" ... and nothing was done... life went on.
MNS went on a rampage -- killed a student -- destroyed govt and pvt property -- party 'karyakartas' held the city hostage as the MNS chief went to court. "spirit of bombay blah blah blah" - life goes on

Now yesterday terrorists open fired at CST, Leopold cafe, trident, taj, cama hospital, bombed vile parle & santacruz... killing more than 125 innocent people (number increasing by the minute) injuring many more... hostages yet held at nariman house taj and trident. Mumbai has lost 3 of its top cops... encounter carries on...Army takes over the city after 15 years... now what will happen??? Will the mumbaikar again be assuaged by the praise of his/her spirit... or will bombay finally put its foot down and say enoungh is enough... Will bombay spearhead a people's movement -- will there be change or will we go back to business as usual??? Time will tell.