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'."

Places and Past Memories

Whenever you travel to place you have been to before, that are not only part of your past, but have numerous memories attached to them. Being there standing there or walking through can bring memories of days gone by. Be it the Church compound where you used to attend mass and meet up with friends after it. The many Midnight Masses that you attended during Christmas, where you dosed off to sleep because the sermon wasn't to interesting or the choir just put you to sleep. Your school grounds where you had your assembly session, your P.T. periods. Standing there brings all the fun time you had. And yes it can also bring back all the memories of being punished and made to kneel on the white stone, or performing mass drill (or mass torture as we used to call it) on the school grounds in the hot and humid Mumbai afternoons. Standing outside your old parish admiring the white statute of Christ with his arms opened wide, as if to invite everyone and not just the parishioner, and the towering structure of the church behind him, can be pretty overwhelming.

Standing at Victoria Terminus or VT (I don't like calling it by its new name, CST as I feel that the name doesn't do any justice to the feeling, to the ambiance, to the locality that is VT), admiring the Municipal building from across the road, the Central Railway building, brings back memories of college days when you didn't stop to admire these structure. Always in a hurry to reach college on time. Though you are aware about the beauty of these structures but you didn't have the time to stand admire them. But now I stand there admiring the Gargoyle, the works and the other object carved in these structures, feeling like a tourist, standing clicking pictures. Distinctly remember the time I used to come to VT accompanied by grandpa or weekly ear checkup at the ENT hospital. Remember the toy train outside VT station and all the movie posters stuck outside theater.

Here I was now standing in these places with all these memories coming flooding back to me. A part of past being relived even today.

Daily Horrorscope

Ever wonder why different horrorscope in the newspapers and in website have different predictions for the day. Isn't it odd that even though they are predicting for the same Zodiac sign, a general reading, each reader (of the Zodiac sign) predicts something different?

When your in Love

A close friend once told me when you are in love with someone you can't stay a way from the person you love. You can't bear to stay away from them. Every single moment you spend with them seems like you are living in a dream. You remember every little detail about them. The way they looked, the way they dressed, the perfume they wear. Even their body odour is memorable and can be pleasant. Every moment you spend with them you want it to be spent as if it's the last you'll ever spend with them. You just can't get enough of them. When you are with them all you want to do is just hold on to them, their hands, or play wit their hair, or just give them a tight big hug. Their every touch sends these feeling into your body, that's warm and wonderful. You want to be there for them when they are down and out and need a shoulder to cry on. You don't mind travelling the distance just to be there for them. And when you can't be there you feel all helpless and worried and tensed. You know they are your support and your pillar of strength. The one you want to turn to when you down in the pits. You keeping checking your cell for messages from them, your online messenger or your mails. You want to call them a lot but afraid that you may scare them or may seem like a stalker. you want to share every little thing with time. You want to be an open book for them to read.

Loves make you do crazy things, but then that's love for you.