Pea Pod - A taste of everyday life

I was offered a job at Lintas as a junior visualiser when in college. The studio manager soon became a friend. Being a Christian, he was obviously into a lot of western music. The radio would be playing all day in his studio and my colleague and I spent much time there. I would often hum or sing along with the radio. The manager was quite surprised by my knowledge of all kind of music, be it rock, pop or the oldies. The studio artists were amused too as I was not only singing English numbers but also most of the Hindi ones playing on the radio - whether from 1950s or 1990s. Soon there were discussions on music taking place and I would be called from my personal cubicle to the studio if there were any nice numbers being played. I also learnt many facts about singers, genres etc. from the studio manager. Somehow, I always keep my ears open to learn whatever I can about music. In the next job that I took up at an interactive agency, there was this senior of mine who was a musician himself...

*Devnagri script begins - ॐ भूर भुवः स्वः ॐ तत् सवितूर वरेनियम भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि धियो यों - नः प्रचोदयात् ॐ *Devnagri script ends - Aum Bhoor Bhuvaha Svaha Aum Tat Savitoor Vareniyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yon-naha Prachodayaat Aum I remember my mother teaching us when we were children, this divine Mantra called Gayatri. She asked us to chant it everyday before bedtime and whenever we were scared of the dark. Since then I have been chanting the Gayatri Mantra - never knowing the exact meaning of this verse. Do it because Mom has said it's the most powerful prayer of the Universe. As I grew up, I came to believe that Gayatri was the goddess that was there in my mother's pooja mandir. It's a beautiful image with the goddess sitting on a white swan and the Gayatri Mantra printed below. But somehow, since childhood, I never could have that emotional feeling while praying to the idols. I got that feeling only when my mother or father told me stories...

Yes. Today I'm stressed because I got angry. It's very rare to see me losing my temper this way. And now I'm feeling so, so bad for being angry that I'm angry at myself. This cook has a knack of making me feel like this. He's been putting so much salt in the food everyday. I've been patiently telling him since months now to control his burning desire to put extra salt in the food. But nothing changes. He has to be suffering from low blood pressure and is adamant to give us a soaring high blood pressure! Today it was the limit. When I asked him if he had put less salt, he laughed saying he didn't know. What did he mean by that? Are we paying him to make us sick? My mercury rose and how! I screamed with all the bass and treble god has gifted me with. And this fellow has the audacity to tell me that he will make food the way he wants. And I shouted in a 'speaker burst' loud tone and shook the hell out of him. But I wonder if it would make any difference...

I knew of you since you were a child. I came to know you just some years back. And day before yesterday I came to know that you are no more in this world. You died in your sleep. Farewell, Gaurav. I pray that your soul is in peace and that you are born to parents who love you and understand you. I pray that you make something of your new life and not waste it away like this one. Hope you can rise from the dust and make towers for yourself by sheer perseverance and hard work. You were so handsome to look at. Tall, fair and extremely intelligent. Why you couldn't come out of your rich comforts, is what I fail to understand. I wish you had persued higher studies, used the money to go abroad and learn music. You even dreamed of becoming an actor but never worked hard to get work. You were too affluent to go and 'ask' for anything. You chose not to struggle for anything. You gave up too easily. Life presents you with many opportunities to make use of. If it didn't gift you w...

I guess all of us have struggled zealously for something or the other in life. I have seen people struggle in my own family. Some struggle for success, some for a name, some for love, some for progeny, some for happiness, some for companionship, some just to keep alive. One struggle. Many reasons. The outcome always bright and encouraging - if one doesn't give up. As one story told by Paramhansa Yogananda goes - Two frogs fall into a big milk container. Both keep struggling, shaking their hands and legs without stopping, trying to get out. One of them gets tired and gives up. He drowns. The other one continues only to find the milk curdled into butter much later and jumps out. What an encouraging story this is! I'd like to quote a line from The Little Prince yet again. I just can't get over this simple little book. Whenever I pick it up I read something so wonderful in it. There is a small rose in the book who is lonely where it lives and struggling to keep itself alive for...

Yes, I've been wanting to write this for quite some time. About 'Taare Zameen Par' or TZP as it's popularly called. My husband is extremely fond of movies. Especially good cinema. We experienced Aamir Khan's directorial debut in its very first week. All I can say is - What a film! My father often told me that Aamir had everything in him to become a director. Meticulous, good scripting sense and sensitivity. He had said this back in 1991! What a prediction! Amole Gupte and Aamir Khan have given Hindi Cinema one of its best movies of all time, I would say. Yes, I have cried in many a movie. But I've sobbed only in a few. Franco Zeffirelli's 'Jesus of Nazareth', an Italian Oscar winner - 'Cinema Paradiso' , an old classic, 'Goodbye Mr. Chips' and TZP. My husband kept looking at me as I was shedding continuous tears. I felt like crying my heart out in the lobby. But somehow, I controlled myself. I loved the way the whole 'art' bit...

Not anymore I will not let you turn a deaf ear to me I ask my father as a child And will not beg Not anymore You have to Give me what I ask of you I do not deserve all this Grant me what I pray for You have to I will Be ever devoted to you Thinking of you everyday I have decided to seek your blessings And I will.

Remember how freely I would flutter around here? Remember how I felt this whole world was ours? Remember how I felt that I too was a part of your being? But nothing is mine anymore. Nothing but the memories. Every meeting brings upon me a realisation That nothing belongs to me I have gone away...forever To a world that's my own.

It's Sunday today and I am feeling so very sleepy at this time of day. I am at my mom's place since a week and keep hogging like a pig! That's not all. Yesterday was a holiday too and my maasi and I slept for 2 hours in the afternoon! Blame the weather! It's so nice and cool here right now. My inlaws said it was pretty chilly their side too. My father-in-law's so cute! He can't take the cold weather and will cover himself with all the possible warm clothes there are. A monkey cap, muffler, sweater, jacket, gloves and socks! My mom-in-law teases him that he is in the Himalayas! But I'm much like him too. Just can't take the cold! I tend to sleep with a comforter all year round, except the summers! Well, that reminds me. I woke up at 9 in the morning today, had a small nap after breakfast and planning to take a wee little one after posting this! Happy sleepy sunday!

Listen. Always listen to your inner voice. There must have been times in your life when you have to make some important decision. When you listen to your inner voice, it's never so difficult. And never doubt what you listen. The effects are always known much later. Have patience. There are plenty of cases I can mention here. You have a great job coming your way which offers double of your present salary but your inner voice tells you - 'Don't get tempted. Stay where you are'. You stay put and it's only after 6 months that you realise that the place you were contemplating to join has closed down. This is how it works! A girl was being pursued by a boy in her office for almost two years but the girl's inner voice told her that this boy wasn't for her. She never responded to him. 3 years passed by and her inner voice said - 'Well, I say no, but if you still want to test me, go ahead, but I will win in the end'. She contacted the boy after a long period ...

Hi famous man, How are you? Hope you are doing fine. You have a film ready for release. All the best for your first production. That reminds me, after our grandfather, you said you were the first in the family to produce movies! How nice! I don't think you have any family beyond your parents! You and I both know what I mean! Ok, ok...I know you've mentioned in one of your interviews that your father never got along with his elder brother and that you never got along with any of your cousins! That makes your family limited to your parents, right?! So in that case you are right about being the first one after our grandfather to produce films. Anyway, for those who don't know, your uncle, that is my father produced many a successful movies. Oh yes, but most of them were Gujarati movies! So that doesn't qualify him to be a producer according to Bollywood standards! The Raos, Naidus and Ratnams and Rays of the world can't be called 'producers', phleaaase! By the ...

Last night's dream was really unworldly. "It was rainy day and I wanted to visit a temple that was almost out of the city. I was all alone. A rickshaw came to me and the Driver asked me where I wanted to go. I let him know and He told me that this wasn't the first time I had taken his rickshaw. He said he had taken me to the temple before. I failed to recognise him. This Man was old...probably in his 50's...Had I ever seen him before? I sat in the rickshaw. The rain was pouring down heavily. I couldn't even see the road ahead of me. Somehow being all alone in this weather was making me feel very uneasy. After much time, the rickshaw stopped. We had finally reached the temple. It was evening and the sky was red but cloudy and it was still raining. I paid the rickshaw driver and went inside. By the time I came out it was pitch dark and the wind was blowing hard. There was not a single soul to be seen outside. I was scared. I was very, very, very scared. How was I to ...

Oh! What a month this was! Colleagues and friends from my earlier office have got together after such a long time. Almost 7 years! It's so nice to know that everyone still cherishes the days we had spent together. Life has changed for almost all of us now...Some are married, some are searching for their soulmates, some have had children and some have migrated to greener pastures abroad. Yet, for all of us the memories of all the crazy times we've had are still fresh as dew. Cheers to old times!

Early this morning In light sleep I was When I heard someone Call out my name aloud Was it You?

I was just browsing through the web and saw a site designed by someone I thought had a superb sense of design. I was dissappointed. Actually the word is disturbed. I went through the over-crowded home page with so many different fonts used here and there and big blocks making my eyes sore! When I came back to one of the sites that I am working on presently, I felt myself feel so much at peace. There was so much balance and such beauty in the serene colours... No, I am not bragging about my work. Please do not misunderstand me. A good design, whether done my me or any other person, will never fail to please my heart.

Yes, my husband and I have been on a trip - literally! From Ooty, we returned to Coimbatore and took a train to Chennai. The climate here was in absolute contrast to that of Ooty. According to my husband, there are only 3 seasons there. Hot, hotter and hottest! Despite the heated conditions, we did visit Mahabalipuram as it was my dream since school days to do so. Here are some stunning photographs of the site.

In July, my husband and I took off for a holiday to Ooty (Udhagamund). I had seen countless Hindi film songs picturised in the Nilgiris and known of innumerable newly married couples romancing in the boats of the Ooty Lake. And this was the first time I was going there. Our flight landed at Coimbatore and we found the car we had hired, waiting to take us to Ooty. The 3 hour drive was full of dangerous turns, some charming landscape and bright green tea plantations.Was it beautiful?! Yes, it was! And with the beauty, was a chill in the strong winds that were accompanied by the scent of the eucalyptus. We reached the Taj and were warmly welcomed with fresh grape juice. A cottage, more than 150 years old was where we were led by the hotel staff. The colonial structure that stood in front of us looked very inviting. Once inside, it was as though we had been transported to the last century. Wooden flooring, a huge fireplace, watercolour paintings, antique furniture and a cozy foyer with two...

Those who haven't heard the name 'Himesh Reshammiya', go, hide your faces in the sand. His nasal tunes have been playing in the discotheques, clubs, shops, autorickshaws, cabs, buses, restaurants, hotels, homes, on the radio, streets and every nook and corner. You name the place and he is singing away somewhere or the other. Even in a state like Kerala, where Hindi is very sparcely spoken, Himesh was heard - playing at a supermarket and also at a coconut vendor's stall! I wasn't struck by wonder when I heard about Mr. Reshammiya making it to the Guiness Book. 'Oooooooooooooooooooooo huzooooooooooor Tera mera tera surooooooooooooooor' His 'ooooooooooooooooooooooo' has become his trademark. He's tooooooooooooooo big for his boooooooooooooots now. Wonder if any other music director can shoooooooooooooooooooo him away! But with A.R. Rahman voting his 'Ashiq Banaaya' as the year's best song, I think it's going to be tooooooooooooooooo...

Today* happens to be rather special. One of my best friends was lawfully wedded at the family court this morning. I signed as a witness to this much awaited occasion. Just before the legalisation, we were waiting for the judge to call out the name of my friend's to-be-hubby, Mr. Misquitta. There was a long queue of couples and their families that stretched till the outside of the court building! After waiting for almost an hour and a half, a lady came out to call us, "All the Mosquitoes get in. Come fast, all Mosquitoes." What's in a name, that which we call Misquitta! Poor Mr. Misquitta! Being a software programmer, he was afflicted with serious mosquito bytes! *This happened on the 5th of Decemeber, but my friend had requested me not to put this post up till the 'real' wedding happened!

You see it happening all around you. On the streets. Do you live in India? There's no way you haven't witnessed it yourself. SSS surely needs to stop. SSS is most disgusting! The sad part is that all of us look at it with a lot of indifference. 'I don't indulge in SSS, so why should I bother about someone who doesn't even concern me?.' With this kind of an attitude, do we see ourselves being free from the SSS? I don't think so. I guess you must be quite inquisitive now. What in the world is SSS? Spit Snot Susu Disgusted? You should be. All of us should be. But are we going to do something about it? Even if it is in our own unique way. Do you have the courage to stop a person from throwing a packet of chips on the railway tracks from the window? Do you have the courage to stop a man from spitting the red liquid from his mouth? Do you have the courage to stop a man from urinating on the road? Do you have the courage to stop a person emptying his snotty nose on...