Love – The Vidyarthi

The Big Fat Marathi Wedding

March 14, 2014March 14, 2014 kv6 Comments

Chance presents itself!

I have attended quite a many weddings since I gained cognition, but all of them have been those of our own culture or at least in our own state. It was my hearty wish for a very long time to attend a wedding of one of the other cultures of the kaleidoscopic India. So, when my friend (a “He”) invited me (although he didn’t expect me to come!!) to attend his wedding in Satara,Maharashtra, I jumped at the chance!

The Dancing Horse!

I became a bit apprehensive when the groom told me that we would be staying in his village (Shivajinagar) which was quite obvious on my part as all my previous experience of villages haven’t been real good. Upon reaching the village around midnight, with all the apprehensions and imaginations in our heads, we simply weren’t prepared for the spectacle that greeted us. The scene was simply hilarious. The groom was riding a dancing horse! and surely it danced a lot better than the intoxicated men gyrating all around him. Oh and one more thing was new : live singer in a specialised band-bus (Sadly I forgot to click a pic of the bus!)

The Village!

Now let me describe the village in detail . It was a village in true sense but lacked nothing in terms of urban facilities; be it good sanitation or electricity or running water supply or a Tata Sky connection, the place had it all. But, the beauty of the place was rugged yet breathtaking with so much of open space available that you won’t know what to do with it!! And yes the air, the breeze, the cool and clean and refreshing breeze that blew almost all through the day, was perhaps the single most awesome thing that I’ll remember about the place.

All said and done, a place is only as good as the people of the place and make no mistake the people were awesome too. No one understood a word of Hindi (except the Groom’s immediate family) and we didn’t understand a word of Marathi, but we seldom faced any difficulty in getting our thoughts across or understanding the point the villagers were making(Yes it was very very very tough). My friend’s immediate family (i.e. his father, mother and sister hereafter called uncle, aunty and sis respectively) were understandably very busy but didn’t ever let us feel out of home.

The Big Fat Marathi Wedding

Well this was what I went to witness. And literally we were the only people who witnessed the whole wedding!! Jokes apart, it was a wedding quite different from those that I have seen as yet but the essence was the same. Yes, the little nitty-gritties were different, e.g. the bride and groom attended the rasma of Halad Chadavane together unlike the individual haldis in Bihari weddings etc. The Akshataropan rasma was again a spectacle. More than 1000 people were gathered in the hall to bless the couple with akshata (sacred rice). The rasma lasted for only 15 minutes and when the final mantras were chanted and the final grains of akshata were sprinkled as blessings, suddenly there was a huge commotion. Within 5 minutes the hall was empty and only 15-20 people remained. People were in such a rush to get out that they literally jammed the doorway. It was hilarious and we couldn’t stop laughing! Finally, the sacred fire was kindled and the seven vows were taken, the seven circumambulations of the sacred fire were completed, and the bride and the groom were declared Man and wife in the eyes of God and society!

The Vidai was pretty much the same: full of tears and laughter, fear mingled with hope and grief mixed with joy! Then began the tour of Temples and courtesy visits to the homes of our numerous Gods. Wherever we went, we were welcomed in the same spirit as the bride and the groom, which raised my respect and love for the local people many notches higher. Finally, Goddess Lakshmi (read the Bride) entered the house to make it a home for the groom! The entire setup was so beautifully managed and done that it seemed almost flawless and no one was complaining; this in itself is no mean achievement when it comes to Indian weddings!

The Hilarious Bathing Ceremony

We were scheduled to leave early morning the next day of the wedding but aunty would hear nothing of it and ordered us to stay at least until lunch so that we could witness the bathing ceremony of the bride and the groom (we didn’t feel like going anyway). The halad utaravane ceremony was, as I’ve already mentioned, hilarious. All the ladies of the village were gathered and amongst a lot of chatter, jokes and singsong competitions, the ceremony was concluded in all pomp. The ladies played wet holi (minus the colours of-course) and even I got to drench my friend in water; there’s nothing sweeter than to increase the embarrassment of an already embarrassed friend!! This was followed by another tour of temples of the village and those of the adjoining villages. The thing that I loved the most about these temples was their location. Each of them : Amazing!!

All in all it was an awesome treat, the wedding. If I hadn’t gone (like all my other friends) I would have missed an opportunity of a life-time. God bless the Bride and the Groom and may they have a wonderful and blissful married life!

If Only…

July 18, 2010July 19, 2010 kvLeave a comment

Things change so dramatically, sometimes in a blink of an eye, sometimes before even you could think a thing. Today its exactly a year hence and some change or another had to be there, but a change of this nature and this proportion was something that I never expected nor a thing that I ever imagined. And today, I feel so strange, so very strange.

Every year on the 18th of July, right from 2006 we went for a franctic search for a suitable gift for Chotu as his birthday would be at the brink…looked for it at so many places, so many shops, and then finally settled every time for a box of Ferrero Rocher and a book or a game CD (pirated of course!!). But it’s not the case today. This time there’s no box of Rocher, no book, no CD, no expectations of a great card, nothing at all. One single incident took away so many things from so many lives…God! Sometimes it feels like blasphemy even to think that it was the work of the almighty, ever kind, the Lord God of ours.

If things weren’t like what they are at present, i.e. if everything were normal i.e only if he had worn a helmet that day or perhaps crossed that place one minute earlier or later, he still wouldn’t have accompanied me to one of those annual frantic gift searches as he would have been basking in the summer of California at Google, but there would have been a satisfaction and conviction that he would call from halfway round the globe just to wish Chotu a Very Happy Birthday…That conviction is what I miss the most and so does Chotu and everyone else who knew you…

50 is a big number…

September 19, 2009 kv2 Comments

Papa turned 50 today…and you know what 50 is a big big number.

I mean 5 decades – 50 years, that’s roughly around 18250 days…God that’s huge. But more than the years or days its the amount of love and respect that he has earned in the past years that matters…wherever he has gone in his tenure as the Jail Superintendent he has earned a lot of both…

He is my idol, the exact thing that I want to be…not that I wanna be the prison superintendent exactly, but that I wanna be like him. I want to have love for people like him, I want to have admiration for elders like he does, I want to be the bridge between people that he has been throughout his life. I want to be the boat that he has been in helping people cross the river of troubles quite so often.

When I will be 50, I will really be proud of myself if can be anything that can be compared to my papa!

Papa you ROCK!!! 🙂

Man/Machine??

September 17, 2009September 17, 2009 kv7 Comments

Sorry for being so so so very late in posting something new here…loads were happening…so..

Anyways, why suddenly this topic??

Its that a friend and I were having quite a discussion tonight – about what man was supposed to be and what man has become. about what god intended us to be and we in the end made out of ourselves. We discussed about a lot of things, about sentiments and emotions, about relationships, about success, about winning and losing. And yet we couldn’t come to any particular solution or agreement.

We share the common view on the modern people who include me and him of course. Today, people have mostly been turned into ones who only care about winning, in any possible manner, by any possible kind of approach. They don’t think twice before asking for favors and then moving on once they get them. I mean, once the purpose from a particular person is achieved move on and never look back. All they care is about winning. Loss is something that has become exceedingly invisible from the dictionary of the modern man. Its all about working at maximum efficiency with minimum losses and minimum input. And you know what, this is what being practical has come to mean.

God created us to live our lives fully, to enjoy it to the fullest extent. But I think this enjoyment can’t ever come if we stop thinking about others. If we don’t lose a single time what is the pleasure of winning then? If someone doesn’t lose ,how will he ever experience the ecstasy of victory?

I, by nature tend to think a lot about the things that affect me in general and the world in particular. Whenever there is a single instance of mass killing, my heart bleeds out. Whenever someone around me is sad I become restless until his/her agony subsides. Why? I really don’t know. It may be due to my impractical nature…maybe. But if being practical means not even thinking twice before walking over a corpse just in order to gain the advantage in life, its well and superfine that I am impractical.

The modern man has become more of a machine, always thinking about winning while the way in which it happens is inconsequential to them. But in today’s world if you have to succeed in the conventional sense then there’s no other way than to be practical . Well for me I can’t be ever this , I am human and can’t think like the robots and machines ever in my life. I would like to be a loser of a human than a winner of a machine anytime of the day.

In the Terrace in the Night

March 9, 2009 kv10 Comments

Just now, feeling so very hot (due to the weather) and so very uneasy I went up to terrace of my hostel to find some relief in the cool night air. Relief, yes I did get some, but along with the coolness of the breeze and the darkness of the sky came suddenly rushing a tumult of gushing difficult questions. Many what-ifs, many whys, many why nots, many whats and many what nots, and when I enquired myself about the answers, well I knew none.

The questions kept on coming and I couldn’t answer a single one satisfactorily if at all! Bored of it, my mind wandered into strange realms of thoughts. like what is a thought? Why do we think? What would be a world without any thoughts? or a life without any feelings and emotions? Thankfully I knew the answer to this one : It won’t be a world worth living in, it won’t be a life worth fighting for or even worth caring about!

It has always been the case with me, whenever I am happy my mind suddenly starts remembering the sad moments and whenever I am sad, it wrenches out all the happy moments of my life infront of my eyes. Its as if life doesn’t want me to be too happy or too sad, jus balanced, just in between!Thats what it has been always like. Thats what it always will be like!

Then suddenly I thought about today and remembered that it was International Women’s Day. Well I for one am strictly against it. I mean if men and women are equals (you bet they are) then why the hell is this kind of day still there? It is these kinds of thnigs that create inequality amongst us. Its the medieval mindset of people that needs to change and merely delaring a day as women’s day isn’t gonna change anything – thats for sure!

So much said and so much thought, the flashback of my life then started in front of my eyes , which troubled me (as I associate this flashback with the end, the full stop), but reliving those moments of joy and laughter, of sorrow and tears, of friendship and love really cheered me up instead of saddening me, as I realised :

Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost! and when the movie upto this point was so damn good, the second half has to be good too!

Time to wake up…

February 23, 2009February 23, 2009 kv6 Comments

Yahoo! A.R. Rahman bagged two Oscars, and Slumdog won 8. That’s one hell of an achievement for the Indian Music and Film Industry. Finally, we made a mark in the world, in the genre of music and entertainment.

While lavishing all the praise on this success, suddenly my brother’s words crept up in my mind : What if Slumdog Millionaire were a Bollywood production? And the thing that came up to my mind the next instant was the article by the Management Guru Arindam Chaudhary : Don’t See “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks. With people like him around one thing is sure, that the bollywood Slumdog wouldn’t even have made the Filmfares let aside Oscars.

The way many people see this movie as something that describes India in a very poor light is something I find very inexplicable. I mean what the hell do you people want ? India isn’t a country of Gods anymore, that’s a fact. Be it the problem of extreme poverty, or the stigma of child prostitution or be it the beggary problem, its all very real and what wrong did Danny Boyle do if he showed the world the darker side of our country?

Yeah we have the Taj Mahal , one of the seven wonders of the world, the symbol of eternal love. But we also have the so called moral police (the likes of Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Ram Sene to name a few) who thrash and insult all the starry eyed couples on Valentines Day, and run campaigns like ‘Tie or Die‘ : Its a reality! Yes we were the earliest nation to give voting rights to women, and yet we only are the people who burn brides for dowry, who kill them after branding them witches, who thrash them publicly just because they were having a drink in the local pub. Its a reality my friends!

Yeah we have a culture thats as old as civilization itself, the sacred culture of the Aryans. And yet most of the politicians out here, the so called leaders of the world’s largest democracy exhibit their talent of amassing illegal fortunes through all kinds of scams, be it the Hawala Scam or the famous Fodder Scam! Where did the culture go? Where did it go? Isn’t this a reality?

The problem of beggary isn’t hidden from any of us. The cruelty with which innocent children have their limbs and fingers hacked, or their eyes taken out of their sockets to make them ‘eligible’ to beg is a reality that no Indian can escape from. Same is the case with child prostitution. However hard you may try to deny it, it happens and is as real as you or me.

It isn’t at all that I don’t love my country. I assure you that I am a haughty patriot and I love my country as hard as any of you do, but still I am not someone who will turn his eyes away from the weaknesses and concentrate only on the purple patches that we have out here. I am not one who will praise only the goodness, and turn a blind eye to all the defects that is present out here in India.

Its time that we appreciate that yes these evils have burned themselves in the clothing of our country. Its time to change the nations attire and not the time to spit venom on movies like this which depict whats true and whats bad.Its time we grew up. Its time we wake up.

Best Anime Characters- Part II

February 16, 2009 kvLeave a comment

6. Batman

Batman, the saviour of Gotham City, the night sentinel, the Dark Knight. How can I forget to have this on on my list.

I have seen many superhero cartoons, but till date Batman is my favourite super-hero as he is one super-hero without any superhuman powers. He has the intellect of a nerd, the valour of a soldier and the will to prevent crime of an honest police officer. Gotham was in terrible shape when Bruce Wayne took up the responsibility of doing away with all the crime that had infected the city.

Batman is a symbol of fear. Criminals and wrong-doers are terrorised to know that he is out there keeping a watch on the city. In this process Batman has to sacrifice many a things, be it his love or the dream of having a family, but he goes on relentlessly, never tiring of protecting the innocents. He is the true hero.

7. Scrooge Mcduck

Scrooge Mcduck who aptly gets his name from the famous Christmas Carrol character Ebenezar Scrooge is one of the world’s most miserly character ever created.

Though he is one hell of a billionaire, he things more than a hundred times before spending money and refrains from doing so if the expenditure isn’t going to yield him any kind of profit. His immense wealth means that he is always one of the prime targets of all the criminals around, be it the Beatle Boys or the witch Magica. He has a special affinity for his lucky $1 coin and gets so very sick and out of luck whenever it is stolen or lost.

He was initially a very rude and uncaring granduncle for his grandnephews Louie, Dewey and Huey and grandneice Webby, but slowly and steadily he starts loving them and considers them as his family, which makes him happy for the first time in his life. His favourite past time is to have a swim in huge coffer of his wealth now and then.

8. Shin Chan

Well this is one of the recent ones.

Shin Chan has been created as the world’s most naughty kid by the Yoshito Usui. He is the pain of the lifes of his parents, especially his mother who has to tolerate his idisyncracies throghout the day. Shin Chan has become one of the most popular characters of the modern day Cartoon world, due to his sheer naughtiness and rebellious nature.

Even though this boy’s activities sometimes borders vulgarity due to which he has been banned in several countires including India, yet Shin Chan has definitely won many fans wherever he has gone, thats for sure.

9. Jerry Mouse

Arguably the most famous cartoon character along with his enemy and friend Tom Cat, Jerry Mouse has been in the business of making children and adults laugh now for over 69 years.

Jerry has been shown as an extremely energetic cheese hogging and cat slogging mouse, whose favourite past time when not eating cheese is to tease Tom Cat and play Cat and Mouse with him. Jerry is independent and opportunistic and also possesses surprising strength for his size, lifting items such as anvils with relative ease and withstanding considerable impacts with them. Like Tom, Jerry often displays sadist charcteristics, taking pleasure in beating Tom or having him beaten somehow.

Jerry Mouse is one of the most refreshing of charcters even to this day.

10. Scooby Doo

Being a Cartoon Network fan means being a Scooby-Do fan.

Scooby is a Great Dane and is an integral member of the Mystery Inc. His personality has two major traits : exteme apetite and extreme cowardice although he never stays away from helping out his friends, especially Shaggy, his best friend. He has a great penchant of catching goons dressed as ghosts even though he is afraid to death by all the ghosts around.

Scooby Doo was a classic creation of Hanna Barbara, which hasn’t stopped entertaining us yet. Scooby Dooby Dooo!

More to come in the 3rd and Final Part of Best Anime Characters…

Death

February 10, 2009 kvLeave a comment

According to Wikipedia, Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. But in the practical world, death is much more than the mere termination of a body. Death is the end, the final destination of the journey of life. It breaks all the shackles that bind a person to earth, all the bonds, all relationships, all feelings, everything.

Yet death leaves behind memories, which makes those who are left behind groan in agony, and yet smile in times of great sorrow. It makes people sit-back and just remember the golden-moments shared, and those which could have been shared but weren’t.

Death makes you remember how much you loved the one who went away, how much you cared and how much you miss the absence. It is said that only the body dies, the soul is invulnerable. But, still the physical embodiment of the soul, the attire is what connects you to the people. You share jokes with the attire, you fight with the attire and even love the attire, and when the attire isn’t there anymore…well there comes in a never filling void that haunts you throughout your life.

However hard you cry, however frantically you grope…the one who goes away never ever comes back. However hard you wish you could have done more, you can’t anymore. However hard you try to remember what in light moments you used to talk to each other, you feel that there was something that was left unsaid, undone, unasked, unknown…and now it never can’t be said or done or asked or known. Its all over. Its not a comma, its a FULL STOP.

The End….

Luck By Chance

February 8, 2009February 8, 2009 kvLeave a comment

I had once listened to the songs of the then ‘Coming-soon’ movie Luck By Chance a Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen, Isha Sherwani starrer. Though the cast doesn’t seem that high quality by the names, yet belive me each one of the actors have done tremendous jobs.

Farhan Akhtar, as Vikram J. Singh has portrayed the role of a struggling actor who has a dream of making it big in the Hindi Film Industry, but is really been bogged down by the rejcetions and then by the criticisms of his best friend with such eloquence and grace that it becomes really difficult to encertain if its real or reel. Konkona Sen, as Sona Mishra another struggling actor is as sparkling as her roles in Page 3 and Life in A Metro.

The story of the film is quite simple, and yet the great performances of the actors keep you hooked on to the screen till the very last of the movie. The music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is one of the most enhancing aspects of the movie. The song Yeh Zindagi Bhi will become an insant favourite of all music lovers, its a real lifting ode to the dreams by Shekhar Ravijani and Loy Mendonsa. The folkish tune of Baaware performed by Shankar Mahadevan, givs a real variety to the overall album.

On a scale of 5 I will rate this movie 4.5! So do give it a try!

Cheers!

Ahh I forgot!

October 14, 2008October 14, 2008 kv4 Comments

Many times a person, sort of forgets some important good things that happen to him/her, yeah yeah that it slipped out of my mind thing ( no one forgets the bad things!!) . But believe me whenever it comes back it always is comforting and it almost always puts up a smile on your face. It happened to me just now, while i was having my morning tea, and was watching my two dogs play! Here is that memory :

It was Chhath pooja so I was sort of freaking it out everyday ( as it was near my 12th board exams so freaking out wasn’t much of a proposition those days!). I took my two dogs (named Caesar and Zen) for a walk and after they had done their thing and while we were returning, suddenly the ferocious dog of our neighbour pounced on me…I was like surprised! It was early morning so I couldn’t even call for help, so i loked at my two dogs with pleading eyes for help. And before I knew, one of my dogs simply darted while the other sttod, barked and clawed at the neighbour-dog! After a while of mutual clawing and barking, the neighbour-dog ran away, and mine stood wagging her tail. It was then I saw that it was Zen all around, Caesar had bolted at the sign of danger. Ha! Some faithful dog he is, but the thing is that he was quite young at the time (only 1 guess!), so I forgave him, but to Zen I am still thankful and will always be I guess!

Thats it! It brought a smile back to me!