School Days

Here at Texas , the summer vacations are over and the schools are reopening. Pretty late ha.. yes in India schools reopen by 1-2 July. Yesterday while we were out for a bit of groceries, we saw the huge shopping complex buzzing with children of all ages and their parents, all buying anything and everything remotely associated with school. There were "so-called" sales and discounts on all ACADEMICAL items. The scene made me smile and the memoirs of my school days came rushing into my thoughts.

The long summer vacation was always longed and welcomed. It started with the FINAL EXAMS and then the results. Either there was a month trip to my native or simply idling out. The mornings were cool , with cycling or morning walk listening to cooing of the koel. The afternoons were mainly a heart meal , and the doordarshan afternoon shows and some DIY projects of course. Evenings were either drawing classes or a visit to a friend's place(or vice versa) or games like "Hide and seek", "Land water", "Sithouli or pittuk" or simply "Pinky pinky what color" . Days flew away merrily.

 But soon enough the countdown for July started. The eagerness to meet old friends and make new ones flooded us. With the new class syllabus new books were bought, and with them came sets of new notebooks(or copies as we called them), pen pencils, geometry box and sometimes school bag. The books and notebooks were covered with brown paper and sometime polythene sheets. Oh it was such fun to select pretty name stickers (I loved the ones with Disney characters) , stick them on the notebooks and then write my name in the best calligraphic writing possible. Sometimes there were new uniforms as well. And just before the "school reopen" day, uniform was ironed , shoes polished , all the nail polish from nails removed, the bag was packed. Tomorrow would be a long exciting day, meeting old friends and teachers, finding who our class teacher and other subject teachers would be for this year, getting the time table, looking for the games and SUPW period in the timetable, sharing our lunches and stories of vacation during recess. Another year of studies and fun to embrace.

Oh!!! How much I miss my school days and my alma mater. Will miss you always St. Paul's School Gwalior and Christ Church Girls School Jabalpur.

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The magic world of books

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.  ~Charles W. Eliot

I dont know when and how I had entered the unfathomable world of books and reads but it was quite early days. Those times it was not the so called "books and novels", but light reading of Champak, and comics "Billu", "Chacha Choudhary" and "Pinki"s. Ma wanted me to read the ones which were in Bengali or English but I always preferred the Hindi ones. Our train journeys were always consorted by Nandans and Champaks. 
My first date with English Literature was because of a dear friend who had gifted me a "Hardy Boys" novel. There was no looking back after that. The "Hardy Boys" and the "Nancy Drew" and then Charles Dickens occupied all my free times and with that came the unsatiable craving for more and more books. Those days I often dreamt of owning a library of my own, the library would have a nice cosy floor-sitting area , and would have books on ladder accessible shelfs , shelves which would touch the floor and reach the ceiling , books from all over the world, from encyclopedias to novels to poetry to comics. 
Then came the day of my rendezvous with Bengali Literature. It was just after my 10th board exams and I had no idea of how to spend the 3 months long vacation. Ma gave me the much acclaimed Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay's Pather Panchali(It was made into a film by the Oscar winning Director Satyajit Ray and was one of the greatest film ever made). After that my love for Bengali Literature too grew in leaps and bounds from Sarat Chandra Chatterji and other yesteryear writers to contemporary writers.Books are the best company I ever had(ofcourse after my parents, husband and good friends). They have made me laugh in bitter times and made me cry in good times. I get so addicted while reading a particular book that I feel like finishing the whole book at one go.
Here are some of my all time favorites, which I have read I dont know how many times:
1. Chander Pahar - the mountain of the moon (Bibhuti Bhushan Bangopadhyay)
2. Parineeta - Sarat Chandra Chatterji.
3. Diary of Anne Frank
4 The hound of the baskervilles - Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Canon Doyle)
5 The whole Harry potter series
6 Kite Runner - Khaled hosseini
7 Great Expectation - Charles Dickens
And many many more to add and add on.
With the latest technology, reading good reads is much easier and with the same "flipping and dog earing of pages" feeling of ebooks, what is only missing is the smell of the books. May be a time would come when the IT revolution would make that too possible(amen).

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Tale of Many cities

Recently I was watching "Wake up Sid" the best part I liked about the movie was the Mumbai city and love for the city. Each city or town ..small or big , cosmopolitan or provincial, modern or Victorian each have its own lifeline, a heart beat.
During my 30 years on this planet I have lived in various cities of my country and now in a foreign land. All had a deep impact on my soul and life. Heres a short account of all the major cities of my life. Sorry friends for boring you, but earnestly I cant keep it very short.
Though I was born in "The City of Joy", I never lived there for more than a month. From Calcutta to Kolkata , once I was completely in love with this city, now I am not quite sure. Kolkata reminds me of  the "Howrah Bridge", the jhal muris , the crowded electric trains and ofcourse sweet nanihal. I still remember the sheer joy of the first glimpse of the Howrah Bridge during our annual Kolkata vacation when our train approached the Howrah Station. And grandparents' pampering with loads of hogging and tons of idling oh it was pure bliss. How badly I miss those days.
Next on the list of my habitats would be Jabalpur, the place where I first came out of my Ma's and Baba's lap, the place where I made my first friends of life and the place where I took my first step towards the unfathomable ocean of knowledge and education. I can not forget till death my alma mater "Christ Church Girl's School", nor the beautiful dhuandhaar and bhedaghat, the amazing "Balancing rock"(a rock balanced on another rock) ,nor simply the 8km commutation by rickshaw to school. Small and big nostalgias of this city keep haunting me time and again.
After a decade of stay at Jabalpur we moved to Gwalior.. the land of Tansen and also the Scindias. I owe to Gwalior a lot many things.. my education, start of my career, good friends, a flair for arts and many more. My school from 7-12 standard , my engineering college, the tutions , the colony, our rented house where we had stayed for 12 long years , its sun bathed courtyard, not to forget our best landowner Aunty Uncle, the annual Trade Fair which happens every Winters, the Gwalior fort where we had picniced hundred times,the market which is at the heart of Gwalior all beckon me. At first I never liked Gwalior, on the contrary I quite hated the city. I used to tell every other person that I would never miss it. But Gwalior summons me like no other place now.
While my parents moved to Delhi, I had to join my job at Mysore, so I never literally stayed at Delhi. Apart from the weekend trips to Delhi when I was located at Chandigarh, I never lived a Delhi life. And the weekends were just cloud nine with Ma's delectable recipes and drives to CP or sarojini nagar.
My rendezvous with Mysore just lasted for 3 months but it was the most beautiful. When Baba and I reached mysore, I can vividly remember how the gulmohar trees blooming with flowers and an overcasted sky welcomed us. Mysore is famous for it palace, the palace of Woyedars. This palace lits up with some 1000s of lights every Sunday at 7pm amidst the music of band , the scene is simply spectacular. The Infosys campus, its beautiful hostels, buildings, the adept housecleaning staff(who pampered us the fullest by doing literally everything.. from making our beds to cleaning the trash to sweeping the rooms spotlessly), the rains ravishing on our room's window , the midnight studies with the steaming cream roll and coffee from the pantry, the cycling after dinner, the weekend runaways to the mysore city and ofcourse some of my best friends I made there are all part of a fantabulous time spent there. I wish to take hubby atleast for once to this beautiful small sleepy city.
From mysore my job took me to Bangalore.The city of Gardens was my dream city once. Bangalore with its Malls and showrooms, its culture , traditions and modernizations is a true cosmopolitan. You will find sabji walas speaking in English and saree donned ladies working in top MNCs. MG road, Lalbagh, Infant Jesus church , ISKON temple and not to forget the Kormangala PG where I stayed for 1 and half years and where I had got some superb roomates  bring back to my mind the splendid bygone days.
Last but never the least comes is the city of Pune. This the city where I would love to settle down. This is the city where I had lived my life the fullest, did the craziest of things with my friends and roomates, wandered on the streets of Lakshmi Road and FC road to buy nothing and everything, watched movies back to back on weekends, got my first passion for cooking, spent invaluable time with kids of Aakansha(an NGO), got down from the bus in the middle just to grab the taste of a particular infamous roadside chicken biryani, or listened to FM on  the rain smeared Mumbai Pune Highway enroute to office, spent hours playing cards, scrabble , scotland yard and "Raja mantri chor sipahi", danced to the beats without knowing how to, the tea time snacks at Infosys foodcourt.. Pune I miss you so much. I thank all my friends for making my stay at Pune the most memorable.
Unlike many I wont be able to call a particular city my own but I tried to carve a niche in all the cities I stayed
The memories identified with all these cities are the sweetest and I dream of their revival time and again. As its said: “The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city.” 

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Days of Udaans and Buniyaads

Today unknowingly (or maybe knowingly) I watched the silliest TV program. The program was all about mistrusting your spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend. Watching the program become unbearable for me only after few minutes, where hidden cameras and objectionable questions were peeking into the very personal life of a person. So this the state of shows and programs today. When at a single moment we have more than 200 channels to surf through at the click of a button , we hardly have any viewable programs.

Gone are those days, when we children waited for the Sunday to come. After all the homework and studies for the whole week, Sunday was a day of sheer TV watching and playing. The Sunday started with a steaming glass of milk and Rangoli. Then came the mom's sunday special breakfast with Ramayan/ Mahabharat followed by Junglebook or the likes. Afternoon were Regional Awarded Films with English subtitles, again in the evening a good sweet romantic movie or an art film. The dinner was definitely accompanied with the much awaited Surabhi. Who can forget the sweet Renuka Sahane and the debonair Siddharth Kak not to mention the Sawaal Jawab to top the pie. Weekday evenings were a fun too with family drama like Lifeline, Udaan , Buniyaad and many. All had a message to convey.I still remember the serial Udaan inspiring me so much that at a point I had decided to take IPS. There were educative programs like Turning point , Bharat ek Khoj , The world this week, etc and crime thrillers like Bomkesh Bakshi , Tehkikat , comedy like Ulta Pulta , Dekh Bhai Dekh,

children shows like Fairy Tales , Shaktimaan , duck tales and on and on and on ...... Who can forget the Swami of Malgudi Days, Pankaj Kapoor of Karamchand,Bhishma Pitamah, Krishna aka Nitish Bhardwaj of Mahabharata. They were the household names then. The cute ads of "Humara bajaj", the famous "Jalebi" ad of Dhara , "Kuch khas hai zindagi" cadbury ad till date bring a smile on our face. And how can we forget the small films of "Mile sur mera tumhara " , "Ek enek aur ekta"... Oh the days were so packed up with all these. Even the 15 min news was so much welcomed with newsreader like Sunil Tandon, Rinni Khanna.

Today we have loads and loads of Saas Bahu soaps where it takes no time to fall in love and no time to fall apart,where a single person gets married uncountable times, where the ladies don designer sarees and designer sindoors and cook, and where every third day the cast changes. The soaps never end and the 100 yrs old dadi never dies. We have reality shows bombing our drawing rooms and real life. People get married in shows and get divorced the next day. News is 24 hours and full of सनसनी news with no news. I sometimes wonder what will be the state of TV programs another 10 years or so. I wish (and I know all of us wish) that we could get the golden days of Doordarshan back, when there was just one channel and and just few hours of programs.

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My First blog

So here goes my first blog.. this just the penning down of my thoughts..

Today it rained the whole day.. although the mercury has not yet scored high.. still it was a wonderful relief..

and with rains came running into my thoughts sweet memories of the rainy days of India..

During my school days.. I prayed earnestly for a rainy day.. and in those rainy days I still remember making paper boats and floating them in running streams of water.. My paper boat never made the journey as it got wet.. i had once even tried to make a boat from stiff plastic sheet(to prevent my boat from wetting n sinking), but the plastic boat never took the desired shape..

With rains came the season of hot pakodas.. Ma used to fry them in the rainy evenings n we three(Ma Baba n myself) huddled near the window.. devouring pakodas n Ma n Baba sipping steaming tea(tea was a total NO No for me during my school days).

We(Ma Baba n me ) had once made a trip to Amarkantak(Chattisgarh) during a rainy season.. The beauty of the rains of Satpura is still vivid. It had rained the whole day Cats n dogs.. and by evening there was complete power failure.. We in our hotel room's balcony were drenched in pitch darkness. The quietness of the dark night was broken only by the sound of the cricket(jhingur or jhijhi poka as we call it in bengali)from the nearby jungle. Oh it was such a beautiful night. We felt as if we were a part of some different world.. very far away from civilization..

Today as we(Arnab n myself now) were walking in the soft drizzle, we admired the blooms of spring..There are lovely beautiful flowers every where. But despite all its beauty something was missing .. the sweet smell of the earth.. the sweet fragrance which mother earth spreads when she gets drenched in the first rain of the season..

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