Food, for thought!

5

Tweet

It's not easy being a vegetarian! Ask them for a fried bird, a baked animal, a marinated limb...a breast in sauce and they'll promptly get it. Ask them for "something vegetarian" and they'll first serve you a look of surprise, then a look of "uh, now we have to figure something out specially for this one" and then... pity because they know whatever they have managed to throw on your plate isn't even appetizing to them... leave alone your vegetarian taste buds! No surprise then, that I was very excited when we decided to take the show to Chennai, where I'm told a vegetarian has enough to choose from. I love south Indian food! Its another matter altogether, that my description of south Indian food begins and ends at dosas. Anyhow... I was excited. There are things I knew about this city, even before this travel.....

Three letters and a lifetime!

7

Tweet

Its three letters that turn an advantage into a DISadvantage. Three letters that for many can become a life long struggle... but the guys I met in Manipur seem to have found the art of turning, perhaps, their biggest disadvantage into an advantage... Here are the things I was told when I first landed in Imphal. -To avoid crowded places. -To order atleast two hours before I wanted to actually eat a meal because the kitchens take too long to prepare a meal. Something I can now testify! - to deal with the fact that Manipur is a dry state (I was only to happy being a non alcoholic.... Feeling sure my colleagues would not drink! Only to my utter dismay they found of getting liquor in black from nothing less than the army itself!) - to be prepared for missing all hindi entertainment channels.....

Of Guns and Houseboats

17

Tweet

There we were. Surrounded by some seven thousand girls. In a women's college. Having challenged the girls Volleyball team for a match, Qais and me were just about beginning to realise we'd clearly bitten off more than we could chew.. The college in question, was the Govt. Women's college in Srinagar. Qais, is a friend I met on a previous trip to Srinagar. Funny how a delayed flight, some bad air hostesses and a moment when we were certain we'd die.. got us talking! Any other way to start a conversation just isn't as dramatic! Anyway, the girls were from a vollyball team, that we later realised had many feathers in their hat. Or in srinagar, I'd assume a monkey cap (ok, bad one!! ;) Funny how this team made a statement by just playing the game. And yet somehow.. what they wore while playing it.. went....

Of Jeans and burgers

25

Tweet

“But how can they be ok with not wearing Jeans to college?!” The Bombay boy in me just refused to see how, just how, the students of Christ college in Bangalore were ok with the imposition of this dress code. I mean, here I was. Not being able to imagine my peer group without their faded jeans. Not being able to imagine what they would scribble on when an unbelievably boring professor refused to shut up in class! I couldn't’t imagine, just how I’d bring myself to getting my trousers washed ever so often, if I wasn’t allowed the luxury of wearing jeans to college…that can go unwashed for weeks together. Months sometimes, if they manage not to stink! And yet somehow, there were these students from Bangalore, who couldn't’t understand what the fuss was all about. They couldn't’t get my sense of revolt.. and I....

Left , Right.. Left?

1

Tweet

Not that I wasn't warned! "Saaab, riksha waale se raasta mat poochna. bahut ghoomate hai ". The driver, clearly more well travelled than the cameraman and I put together, decided he wasn't going to be fooled by rikshawalas in pune. From what we learnt much later on our trip, there's some strange kind of pleasure the auto wallas derive from confusing travellers. And we were their chosen victims that day! It was all very amusing at first, when directions were being rattled out instantaneously. You stopped, asked a rikshawalla how to get to Khadakwasla (which my camera man insisted on renaming Khadak-salsa..part an interest in dance, part bad memory!) and they'd immediately say straight, teesra left, chautha right aur signal se gol. To me, the obvious babe in the woods here, this seemed a display of great knowledge. Especially, when in Bombay i need to give directions to....

Ignoring? Selective Hearing?!... all the same!

9

Tweet

I was in full force, trying to do a 'hindi chini bhai bhai' dance on Christmas eve in Singapore. trying to make some singapore- chinese dance to "kajrare". Of course the fact that everyone from the grandmother in the family to the teenage daughter had a fascination for the big b made my job simpler..... all but one member of the chini family remained largely unimpressed with me. Until of course i said "camera" and there i got a full blown chinese smile..... ! Somethings .. they all understand! It's amazing how kids are a lot more camera friendly today than they perhaps were. or shall i say, than WE perhaps were. I was always a conceited lil brat, even in my younger days, but i do remember some of my classmates shying away on that sacred class photo day. While some of us were engaged in....

anyone NOT on orkut?

38

Tweet

"Oh great I'll find you on orkut", i said and walked away. And two days later when i signed into my most favorite passtime, i had a new friend request on orkut. Everyone is on orkut. And for anyoone who isnt, i cant help but think of that shady PSPO pankha ad... where the guy who didnt know about the local fad was met with a simple "Yeh PSPO nahi jaata!". And it was his cue to catch up with things. Anyway, what i still find amusing is why so many people fuss over adding or not adding people on their friends list. I've friends who keep invitations pending for weeks before they decide to unwillingly click "accept". and then of course there are those who're part of the elite club where membership comes .. not very easily. My questrion of course... orkut has no perks for being....

Legally gay?

10

Tweet

Would the world really come to an end if two men got married? Would things really never be the same if two women lived happily together without ever needing a man? Or is it because this idea is so deeply threatening to masculinity...that so many just refuse to see another side to the adam and eve story. For Minus thirty this time, that deals with the issue of homosexuality.....I spoke to lots of gay activists before the show. Most who were ok as long as the camera wasnt rolling...some who saw no need to hide anymore. And others who still are deep inside the closet. The one thing they all said though, was... "how do you live everyday..knowing the country thinks your a criminal?!" "And the fact that the section (377...that declares homosexuality a criminal offence) clubs homosexuals with people who indulge in animal sex and pedophilia is....

Sex, drugs, career...on mind!

10

Tweet

It's hard being young. Trying to strike the right balance between an active sex life. a budding career. making enough money to invest. hiding hickeys. and making sure the concelaer gives way just when your in the midst of friends so they know you're getting enough action. ...the mind doesnt stop strategising! Careers, passions, vices, addictions, peer pressure. It's bizzare how anyone who's minus thirty-the youth- thinks about all these things while doing everything. you wake up in the morning. Look at urself in the mirror in your jocks. the abs need a lil more toning. you're not the like the health magazine poster boy yet. Anything less, not good enough. some more gymming perhaps. and that cheese cake in the fridge...must go. Pull out the milk carton from the refrigerator... throw in some cereal... get ready for work. Have been in the company for just....

Monsoon contingency plans... yeah right!?

10

Tweet

They had me... they had me up untill the point they said..."we're prepared....what happened last year is all in the past...the deluge is long gone. this monsoon is for the cutting chai and the bhuttas....." they had me...up untill the point that we decided to anchor from outside the studio. And then reality struck. Cars stranded. Shops in deep water. Cattle tied... and will die if no one opens them before the water rises. Children enjoying their new found swimming pools...and adults walking already with baggage on their heads...knowing perfectly well where this is all going to go. Deja Vu..... well.... Lets just call it - not learning from our mistakes. the plastic that clogged all drainage last year is still there. In brighter colors this year...if thats possible. The roads....full of puddles, open man holes, sidewalkes completely submurged... its already happened. And that's not even the worst....