The DIWALI ISSHPECIAL... :)

उत्सव दीपो का है आया - दीपावली
हर दिशा है जगमग, हर ओर खुशहाली
बाज़ारों में रोनक है और सड़कों पर है धूम मची,
पटाखों से आसमान खिल उठा और धरती भी है गूँज उठी...

चौराहों, मंदिर, गलियों में, लगे हुए है मेले
नज़र पड़े जिस ओर दिखे, बस खुशियों भरे चेहरे
झिलमिल-झिलमिल बिजली की, रंग बिरंगी लडियाँ
नन्हे नन्हे हाथों में, दिल जीत लें फुलझड़ियाँ

जब रात के बारह बजते है, सब लक्ष्मी पूजन करते है
रात की कालीमा को हटाने के लिए, दीपों से उजाला करते हैं
अंतर्मन के अंधेरे को दीपों से डोर भगाएँगे
नयी आस के दीप जला कर, नैनों में स्वप्न सजाएँगे

सत्य की आग में झूट जलाकर, हर अंधकार हटाएँगे
बुराइयों का अंत करेंगे, हर शाम दीवाली मनाएँगे
हम मुस्कुरा कर मॅन ही मॅन, ये प्र्न भी लेंगे
प्रेम की ज्योत से हर दिल को ज्योतिर्मय करेंगे...

The DIWALI Deal...

When you start feeling unsatisfied and disappointed with the things you own, you must know that DIWALI is about to arrive! I say this because the only aim of newspaper and TV advertisements during this time of the year is to make you fed up with the stuff you thought was complimenting your home. When the first page of the newspaper in the morning screams "Does your AC make too much noise? Do you feel your AC is not working when its 45 degrees outside?", you suddenly realize that the answer to all these questions had been a yes since a year. The Ad agencies today work on this principle. The SALE tag outside shops and in print ads starts giving you a nausea after a few days to such an extent that your favorite past time becomes to calculate the difference between a "50+40%" and "90%" SALE.

What irks even more are the deals which surround you in a shopping mall like ghosts in a graveyard - "Buy 2 get 1 free" or some stupid and illogical ones like "Buy 2 kilograms of Meethi Sugar and get 3 bars of soap..."!!! Am I supposed to use the sugar after having a bath with those soaps!! I mean, what is the logic! At times, during my empathetic moments, I think what must be going on in the minds of poor salesmen. These docile and ever patient beings help Moms and daughters in their 'window' shopping, when they know that the probability of their buying something is 1/500. I feel, what these salesmen must really hate are the irritating kids like me who constantly force our Moms to leave early and pull them out of a showroom before they start trying one after another outfits.

But that is the magic of Diwali in cities like Jaipur that the whole city seems to be out on streets and when you plan to go for shopping you have to leave well 1 hour in advance. Meanwhile, I close with a little bit of information - when I looked up for the word "spree" in dictionary, only then I realized why is it used with shopping (as in 'shopping spree'). This was because its dictionary meaning clearly says "a wild activity". Oh yes.. For shopaholics (read: girls), shopping is no doubt the wildest activity, where it would have been better if 2-3 people were individually employed for holding bags, considering the amount of bags 6 hands can hold as compared to 2!

So, enjoy the Diwali deals which are overflowing like floods around you and get flown in the feel of this beautiful, colourful and bright festival... You never know, I might launch a "Get 1 Blog post free with every Blog post..." offer very soon... ;) :D

The DIWALI Dhamaka...

I woke up early in the morning due the hue and cry raised by the maid. No, it wasn't because she had broken mom's favorite crystal piece and nor was it because she wanted a hike of salary. It was because of her announcement of leave for a week during Diwali. Such proclamations hit you best when they are made early in the morning when you are not even out of bed. Suddenly it dawned to us that Diwali...umm, THE Diwali was approaching! Besides the wonderfully smiling lights in the house, loads of eatables, and numerous of free gifts (sometimes on purchase worth Rs. 10,000/-), there is an altogether another scenario to this otherwise gleeful festival.

Dressing up like nomads right from the morning and extending a hand of help to parents is not an easy task to be done! It includes setting up of an entire 'workshop' of things required to do the cleaning, shifting of household stuff from one place to other (which is usually expected from a 20 year old boy), and cleaning up your own personal room before anything else (after all charity begins at home..umm, room...). As soon as Mom starts going hysterical about the dilatoriness of the young generation, you rush towards your room to attempt cleaning it yourself, to save it from being raided by her. After all, she would never understand the importance of old CDs, numerous types of chargers of different kinds of devices, and the significance of entangled wires (which sometimes we ourselves forget) in our wired lives.

But such the is the magic and miracle of these beings called "Moms", that we always happen to lose this battle and at the end of the day we are happy to see the results, when the Living room actually finds its literal meaning. Diwali is definitely an eventful festival and more than just those five days, it covers almost a month of our year.  The house resembles a battlefield with all the weapons of mass 'construction' piled up in a corner right now, which would soon end up being lighted beautifully expressing the delight on the return of Lord Ram... :)

Every person in this world needs to see an Indian Diwali before dying. This is after all, just a beginning to this beautiful festival. A lot is there to come, including my blog posts on this amazingly awesome festival...

Adios! :)

The Unseen INDIA - with a tinge of humour...

DISCLAIMER - I have tried to refrain from passing racist comments and caste-based comments as much as I could. Please ignore the humorous comments as I take all countrymen as my own... ;)

I might be considered lucky that I got an opportunity to go around and live the life of four different and very major cities of our country over a span of 15 days. The best part all over is to see the diversity and variety present in our country. We are not obsessed with a single religion, language or culture. In fact, we want to explore, we want to develop relations, we want to build bridges across cultures...and that is what makes us a huge and united country. I will recount my experience in my style, but I would definitely say, not to consider this while planning your trips... ;)

BANGALORE - Ah! Bangalore is a city of ...umm... city of 'people', mainly because you get to see a lot of them. As Cosmo as it might get, but Bangalore might never be able to leave its South Indian-ness. You get a lot of Kannada, lot of 'lungi's, and lot of idli all around. The locals try to co-operate with you by speaking as much English as they can, but every now and then they elapse into their own language. The good part is with a large number of youngsters all over the big city, the metropolitan has definitely moved beyond petty things like caste, religion, discrimination and traffic sense! Traffic of Bangalore is such that after a few minutes on road you might get a feeling that by the time you get out your 12 year old neighbourhood girl might get married! But Bangalore is a lively city, where you can go for 'Go Karting' (closest to F1 that you can get), 'Bowling' and a lots of books. But beware the hangover of Bangalore, otherwise on being asked for coffee in the aircraft by the air-hostess, you might just end up saying, "Illa Coffee..." ;)

DELHI - Delhi is as crazy as it has always been. The amazing familiarity, the dangerous goon-like taxi drivers and the high density of Punjabis complete Delhi. The speed and uniformity with which Delhi has developed truly takes you by storm. Gurgaon has also caught up really fast in last few years and looks no less than a foreign country with loads of corporate offices, residential apartments and metro bridges. When you have totally crazy friends in an equally crazy city like Delhi, you are sure to have some unforgettable time!

JODHPUR - Jodhpur is like a younger sister to Jaipur, given that it seems like a few decades younger. Reason - just because its like a flat land, in the sense that neither there are any towers to look up to, nor there are any fly-overs to smoothen the traffic. In fact, let alone the fly-overs, the city does not even have traffic signals! Any ways, Jodhpur is a heart warming place because of the famous Rajasthani hospitality and of course, the scorching sun. Jodhpur always wants to feed you with both hands. If you have no instructions of diet control and no worries about gaining weight, then this city might just be world's best location. It has so many delicacies to offer, that you sometimes blame God for providing you with just two hands...

BOMBAY - This might be a biased opinion, but then Bombay has always been my love. The way the city embraces you every time is totally amazing. The moment you step our of the plane you get struck with a bolt of lightening. The air of Bombay has two components in it - one, the Bollywood and other ...of course, the 'fish'. The coastal breeze seems as welcoming as ever. Glamour resides in every nerve of this city, right from its trends to the waves of the sea, which just keeps turning more beautiful as the day passes. This city makes you want to live here and complete let go of yourself. Embrace it and it will love you back! And of course, if it does not rain when you visit Bombay, then...umm..maybe you did not visit Bombay at all... :P

The Forgotten Life...

I was quietly reading my course book in my room upstairs. There was an eerie silence apart from the cracking sound of the fan. I was pretty much immersed in my work when i heard loud shouts and yells and ecstatic screams down somewhere... I closed my book, keeping it in the shelf I went outside in the balcony. The weather, like the last few days was cloudy and rains could be expected in next few hours. I looked down to see the source of the noises and evidently it was the large group of colony kids playing the traditional game of Sitolia which had been handed down from one generation to the next in our colony. 

I was instantly transported back to some 3-4 years back and I walked down the memory lanes as i became nostalgic. I remembered how as kids, we use to ring the bells of all our "team-mates", at sharp 4 pm. Not a minute up and not a minute down. The brick was laid and the seven shining marble stones were set beautifully on the red brick. We warmed up much like the professional players, passing the ball to each other till everyone collected at the meeting place - the road! Lines were drawn, boundaries fixed and players ready... Now it was the time of team division. We divided teams by locally and personally developed ways and had a toss, not of heads or tails but generally of white or brown which used to be the color of a roadside stone!!! As the game started, there was a lot of physical, mental, technical and stressful work included. We played with all our strength and hearts and gave our best shorts for our teams each day... As the sun set leaving behind a dark and cool night, and as the calls of "mothers" started coming for dinner, we used to part with the promise to meet the next day again...We returned homes all messed up and dirty much like the warriors after a victory.


I came back to the reality and suddenly felt that the stress and pressure of the real world had actually confined all of us - my generation, to the confines of our rooms. Within the four walls, we have the internet of course, and we feel connected to the world - The global community, right? But are we really "connected"? To traditions? To our roots? To our long lost childhood? But we can definitely play games over the internet with our friends sitting thousands of miles away, we can celebrate Diwali, Holi, Rakhi, everything virtually no matter in which corner of the world we are... But my friends, we have lost that personal touch, that "life" long before and we did not even realize what we are losing.

My heavy course books, the tuition load, the study pressure won't allow me to go out and play Sitolia - My all time favorite game like my childhood days... So, i just sit here and wait EA Sports to launch a PC Sitolia game, so i can at least play it "virtually".... Kudos to Technology!

:-)


Adios!