So it's almost been a year since I posted last. For many reasons, either I've been too underconfident to write or I don't believe anyone would want to read what I have to say; and I've just been slacking generally. Also, very rarely have I been opinionated about one particular thing. In such cases, I write about this fleeting thought but then never usually have enough to say about the same thing to fill up an entire blog post.
Well regardless, I have decided to publish this today, no matter what.
Over a while now, I've been on a spree of classic films. Oh yes, my previous blog post must have told you.
Anyway, I attended the memorial service for the late Dev Anand on the 16th of December
(The picture is proof)
I realized something: The world (atleast Mumbai) is becoming very existential, and there's nothing you or I can do about it.
What happened at the service: There was a SEPARATE entrance for the so called 'celebrities' and another one for the common man and the media.
So, this blog post is a little different from the others.

Dear Ms Waheeda Rehman,
First of all, let me just say that I know what it's like to lose someone. I absolutely understand your non-compliance with the media on 16th December. The media deserved it, for barging on you the way they did. I write in apology. Apology that we have a media that loves anything said by a celebrity. They could kill for it. I personally, ran out the moment I saw you walk out of the hall. Yes, just like any other awe-struck/ celebrity crazy commoner. But what the media did saddened me too. I saw the grief on your face. And the disappointment on seeing what the media has come to- by not even letting the bereaved's best co star express her condolences without sensationalizing it on the camera. If I were you, I'd have just wanted to rush to my car too.
I apologize, that when I came out of the venue and heard a biker on the road ask a cop (who was regulating traffic outside Mehboob Studio) what all the traffic was about, he said 'Kuch to Hai'. I apologize for the ignorance our country chooses to get away with. If I can know about Dev Anand when I wasn't even raised in India, the least a cop can do is find out what event he's been allotted to regulate.

It's a pity, I intend on being part of this very same industry. Let's hope I can change a few things.

Sincerely,
A media student

The only thing noteworthy of the service was this:
I saw a man dressed a little peculiar. I could swear he had come dressed EXACTLY like Dev Anand in one of his films, I just can't put my finger on which one, and neither can Google Images.
He was wearing: Red trousers with a golden vertical strip on the side. (It had a design within its boundaries)

And a similar thing, as an overcoat, on top of a black Tshirt/uncollared shirt.
This horrid looking Paint illustration should explain it.
Yes, sort of like those Indian wedding marching band type uniforms.

Please tell me you recognize it, I am pining to know.

Of immortality

I think NOTHING till date for me has recreated the magic Waheeda Rehman did in her time.
The hypnotizing 'Jaane Kya Tune Kahi' from Pyaasa.
The classic 'Kahin Pe Nigahein' from C.I.D (which was the first film she ever did)
Whether it was trying to hypnotize Guru Dutt into luring him to a brothel, or Dev Anand into buying a parrot.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.dvdvcdplaza.com/displaymovie.asp?rowid=476

Only then did you have stories where characters are struggling poets or when Women's Liberation had just started and they were the most empowered kind.
I judge the quality of an actress by her versatility and Waheeda Rehman did it for me after watching a bundle of films. besides the aforementioned ones, I used Khamoshi and Kaagaz Ke Phool as texts.
I loved every part of Pyaasa. The abscence of dramatic, but predominance of poetic. Not a lot of films today have that.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1083920

What still makes me wonder about the acting industry is:
Your skill never leaves you. Youth does. Technically, it's like using different skills in mould with your age.


But with her, she's immortal.

Whirls and twirls

I am a sucker for watching dance. Any sort of dance.

Contemporary- I love it for its aesthetics

Jazz- I love the grace

Tango- I love the sharp and sudden moves.

Salsa- I love the passion.

Hip Hop- I love the creativity in each move.

Bullshit Indian streetdancing- I/ love how least bit self conscious everyone is! (Okay, maybe I don't love it, but it amazes me)

Maybe its because I'm a very self-conscious person myself, and dance is one of the few things I am petrified of.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93765931@N00/2147032210/

Thats probably what made me a DJ in the first place, my affinity for liking watching people dance.
I downloaded this song I heard and liked, again, on a dance. This particular one is the one that Robert Hoffman and Briana Evigan dance the Salsa on in Step up 2.
It's called Everything I can't have by Robin Thicke.
I don't know what job suits dance enthusiasts the best.
I concluded event management.
You make it happen, essentially.

Anyway, do listen get your dancing shoes on in the process. I'd love watching.

I don't want to know your Blackberry PIN!

Does everyone who uses a Blackberry know they're a few decades late? Blackberry existed ever since Hutch was Hutch and not Vodafone.
Do you know Blackberry Messenger is NOT free? You end up paying your service provider anyway.
Do you know the entire issue about Blackberry Messenger being banned because BBM messages couldn't be tracked by any sattelite could've just been a farce, and a rumor initiated by Blackberry?
Do you know that all your talking about everywhere else is your Blackberry?
Do you know that life wont fall apart if you don't Blackberry message a 'good morning' from the loo?
Do you not find INR 1000 a bit much just for repairs, that too of something you know is gonna get screwed?
Do you know I'm not impressed even if you have 2 Blackberrys?


Oh, and just by the way- I don't want to know your Blackberry PIN. There are billion other cell phones manufactured which are just as functional and don't need standard rental charges but serve their purpose fully well.

Of crazy things.

I just thought, if people can blog about certain things, i can blog about anything.

Sometimes i wish i could write as well as these other people, but i also think i whine too much.

Here's something I wrote QUITE some time back, so please dont judge me. It was AGES and AGES ago.
I used to write a lot more than I do now, some of the stuff I laugh at today, some I don't.
This is something I had written for a friend of mine as a birthday wish.

It obviously feels better when you read it on your birthday, but :

Through the door, comes the angel
Rests in her little cupped hands, a candle

Make she a wish, and vanishes
Just a haze it is.

Slowly  appears it, in candle smoke
The words she didnt say.
The words Happy Birthday

Yahaan se right ya left?

The moment I entered Mumbai, and told myself that i had to live here, one of the largest obstacles I thought I'd have to face was the language problem.
Only later did I realize, It wasnt even half as hard as i thought!
If you've taken the time off to just listen to the kind of Hindi they speak in Mumbai,you'd realize.

Here are a few exmples that were interesting:
Yahaan ki light bandh karo(Switch of that light in Hindi)/Ti light bandh kar(Switch off that light in
 Marathi)

Photo Courtesy: Siddhartha Ganesh

were the first statements that left me on the brink of astounded. Did they just say light? Did they just replace an entire word with its English alternative and expect everyone to understand?
They did precisely that. And for people like me who's Hindi is weak anyway, it was the most comprehendable version of the language I could ask for.
Even places where I needed it the most-
'Bandra jaanewali, 12 dibbon ki Jalad local, Platform No 3 pe aa rahi hai' (The 12-coach fast train to Bandra is arriving at Platform No 3 in Hindi)
But then if you come to think of it, does anyone know the Hindi equivalent to 'platform'? Or the Hindi equivalent of right/left when instructing a taxi driver.
Hindi has been anglisized so much, we almost don't realize it.

If you've noticed,
veg is pronounced vhej
flim is actually film
and
aaksed is actually 'asked'

Sometimes I wonder what Lynne Truss or Gandhi would comment, if they'd heard it.

This atrocious heat

The heat in Mumbai is atrocious this year.
I noticed it the most when I start craving for the air conditioning the moment I reached home. And I had proof to prove it to myself too. When she was to be taken down for a walk, my dog just wouldn't BUDGE from the air conditioned room!
I never really had a problem with heat, but I do with humidity.Everywhere I've stayed, never had humidity. Dubai and Pune, both get very dry hot. Not humid hot. The thing with humidity is it gets you tired. And tired, is one thing i don't like being in a city like Mumbai.
Today i heard someone talk about global warming, and how that seriously whats causing this intense heat.
I never really gave it a thought, but the fact that there logically exists no other explanation to it, and that everyone's been ignoring it for so long made me credit the person who made the claim.
To come to think of it, I am doing my bit. I don't waste water. I even made a film for my aunt's NGO-The Cotton Bag Movement. I don't use plastic at all.
I wonder how Indians will react to climate change. Being the country that is, it'll have its few bloggers/activists/youth groups, but will it levitate the gravity the issue?
There's still a huge mass of India that isn't educated, let alone be taught how using plastic is going to kill them.

“If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer that most people would: nuclear war, global warming and Windows.”

-Dave Barry, American Writer and Humorist

Photo Coutesy: http://www.morsbags.com/html/