The Walking Plaza

The Working Plaza is the initiative of the Pune Cantoment Board. Every Saturday and Sundays MG road is closed for the traffic and the road is thrown open for the general public. Here peole from all stratas of society mingle with each other. Checking the various shops and their wares and the sales. At the same time tasting the food available at the various food stalls on either side of the road. To add to the atmosphere you have a live band belting songs.
Yesterday a band called Lambada Live was playing. They managed to get a huge crowd to witness their performance. The Singers belted out Pink Floyd and Deep Purple with the same ease as they were belting out the latest Hindi songs. Whipping a frenzy among the songs. Obviously the Beedi Jaliyle and Sajnaa je Vaari and the Punjabi pop songs got the crowd on their feet and dancing in gay abandon. Here people not caring whether they are rich or poor. Just enjoying and dancing as if there was no care for them in the world. They didn't care if they danced like fools or made fools about themselves, they just enjoyed the music and danced the hearts away. IT was actually fun to see them dance and be part of the merriment.

Enchanted

Enchanted is quite an enchanting movie. In a way I was enchanted coming out of Inox. The movie reminded me why I come to the theater to watch movies. It reminds you of why we love Fairytales and why we believe in Happily Ever Afters. All of us secretly hope that one day we'll find our Prince Charming or Giselles. And why a true loves' kiss is always special. Reminds you all the old Hollywood Musical. The Singing and Dancing. In all it's a movie that entertains :)

The Aptara Carinval 2008

Friday the 15th of Febrauary marked the day we offically kicked off the Aptara Canrival celebration, which would culminate into the annual day on the 1st March. To get people into the carnival mood we sang the La Bamba all dressed in colourful clothes. the guys wearing dinchach red, gold, black and silver shirts with frills in front while the girls wore skirts and blouse accompanied with the mask.
This could have been a bit of an embarassing because not all were keen to do it on a Friday. The date of the performance went back and forth but finally it was done with. But one thing we sang and danced like we never cared if we were good or bad. Just had a blast.
It was fun seeing the expression on the face of the guys entering the men loo (that's where we guys were dressing up). I thought we would feel embarassed being dressed with all the frills and all. But the surprise on the guyts face was worth laughing. This was anyway supposed to be a surpise for the office.

What's Love got to do with it...

"What's love got to do with it...what's a love but a second hand emmotion...who needs a heart when a heart can be broken..." so sang Tina Turner in her hit single "What's love got to do with it?" How does love affect our lives. We have a day dedicated to love coming up on the 14th of Feb. So what's love really got to do with it, that is with us and our lives. Do we really need love????

Well love is a many spelendid thing, love lifts us up where we belong, or so sang Ewan Mcgregor to Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge. But do we need love to do that. There maybe other splendid things that could lift us. The Beatles sang "all you need is love", but is love truely all you need??

One thing I can say thought you need air, food and water, you also need love. Love is important part, a necessity of life. We need to love and be loved throughout our lives otherwise our lives are incomeplete.

Yes love may make us do crazy things. You may travel between cities, time zones countries and continent just to be with your loved one, so they don't feel lonely. Though you wish the time spent with them would be an eternity, it is actually the time spent away from them that seems like eternity. You notice every litle detail about them. What they wore, how there smelt, what they like saying or doing the most, what they say or how they talk or behave. You'll go out of your way to make them happy (which in a way I don't think is right) but you want to see a smile on their face. You want to be there to wipe away the tears. Be there as a support during trying times.

Loves make you do crazy things. you don't care if you a making out with your loved one in a public place or ina public mode of transport. All you care is that you have the one you love with you. Not only would just stealing a kiss, but a full embrace, a full kiss. You don't give a damn if someone is noticing what you doing. You care about your lover alot and want to make the best of every minute you have with them.

Love is not addiction, it's a way of life. It can help you climb mountains or push your down into trenches. you can look around and you'll see love in your very homes and neighbouhood.

Loves got everything to do with it :)

Whose Mumbai is it???

Recently the members of the Shiv Sena once again went after the Biharis and North Indians in Mumbai. Their major grouse is that these people should go back to their own state. They are just adding to the population problem the city is facing. And because of them the crime rate in the city is going up. And yes the Mahrashtrian are not getting enough jobs for their people.

A friend of mine was trying to justify the Sainiks action as a way of protesting. The Sainiks complain that because of these people the crime rate is going up, but are they justified in damaging property that does not belong them? Isn't it a crime to cause a harm to one's life and property? The last time I remember the fundamental right for a citizen to live anywhere within the country still existed. Then who are we to deny someone this right?

My friend complained that there not many Marathis speaking people in Mumbai. But who is to be blamed for this. Do we blame the Biharis and North Indians for this? Should we blame Western Culture (the Shiv Sena favourite whipping horse) for diluting the Maratha cutlure???

I know that Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city opened to everyone from whichever state, race, nationality. And doesn't belong to one particular culture.

Mumbai, as Suketu Mehta puts it in his book Maximum City, belongs to the Vada Pav eaters :)

Lives

Many time in life we come across lines, saying, dialogues, that are really meaningful or sums what we feel on a particular points. This could be as simple as a verse from the Bible or Gita or the Quran. Or it could be a dialogue from your favourite movie.

The folowing dialogue from the movie Shall We Dance sums up a lot of thing what I mean for my life partner. Something thatreflects what it means to be married and care for each other.

We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."