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How do you prevent all that’s happening at Mumbai right now? I for one have no answer. Not yet anyway. For now I just feel numb.
After over a hundred people have died, security officers killed and India held at gunpoint…
How does one go back to work to sell soaps or deodorants that make such little difference to the nation and our collective future?
CYA is an in-built program that runs in every professional’s lazy-ass body.
It’s short for ‘Cover Your Ass’ and it’s just the thing to employ if you’re too scared of getting into trouble. (which by the way makes you a wuss according to me)
CC is great when you want to say something to someone but think it’d be a good idea for others to overhear just so that everyone’s on the same page.
But sample this….
ME is sonal
CHA is the man Covering His Ass and CC-ing 5 people who have absolutely nothing to do with the project.
—
MAIL1: 13:02pm
me: Please confirm that this is okay. (nobody CC-ed)
MAIL2: 13:10pm
CHA: Please add these images, they’re missing. Let me know if you need anything else. (CCs 5 ppl + CEO for no reason whatsoever. Did he expect the CEO to take my case for not adding those images?!)
MAIL3: 13:11pm
me: Thanks. I’ll be taking care of the final prints and submissions tomorrow. It’ll all be within deadline. Will send you a copy. (had to CC those 5 +CEO. sigh)
MAIL4: 13:13pm
CHA: Just to check, you’ll incorporate the images in the final prints right? The ones I just sent you! (5 ppl CC-ed + CEO)
—
I’m thinking GAWD! of course I will. I just replied to your mail!
By now I was pulling my hair out because there was no way I was going to CC 5 people to just say “yes”. So I just called him up and replied.
This is a typical exmaple of CYA where you feel safer about your ass knowing that the big fish know you did your bit and did it on time. You know… lest some scumbag try to pin the fault on you.
Tch. Tch.
Wuss!
If there’s one thing that really makes my blood boil, it’s people littering city as if the world’s a garbage dump.
On a recent train journey to Pune a lovely young (seemingly educated) couple threw a whole lot of stuff out the window into the ‘universal dustbin’ that is the world around us.
I thought to myself… (even though it was bloody hard to think with my temper rising by the second)
‘Maybe I should just stare at him and he’ll get the hint.’
So I gave him the stare. But he just looked confused 
‘Maybe I should wait till he decides to chuck something else out and stop him then.’
So I sat and waited for him to start to chuck something out again. God! Those were the longest minutes of my life as he slowly munched his food on his soon-to-be-out-the-window-paper-plate.
Just as he reached out the window to chuck his plate I screamed
“WAIT-WAIT. DONT-THROW-IT-OUTSIDE!”
and I reached for his plate in an attempt to force it out of his hands and throw it in a dustbin. (totally filmy I tell you!)
So basically he apologized, and took it to the dustbin himself (I think!) and went on to tell another kid in our compartment to do the same and not chuck junk out the window.
He said to me
“Thanks for reminding me”
( which of course caused a big smug grin to surface on my face which I tried my best to hide with a book I was reading)
So I’ve decided that since I’m probably not going to be doing anything great for India, I might as well just take on the job of a cleaner.
Last evening I picked up two ticket stubs that this lady threw on the compartment floor. She noticed my clean-up-act but didn’t say anything. As for me, I was happy that 2 less ticket stubs littered mumbai last night.
“tell him I hated Bose, but loved Making of the Mahatma”
“tell him I’m looking for a good role in the movies”
“he might just offer you a film”
Sorry people. I did not tell Shyam benegal any of the stuff you asked me to.
Actually for the most part I kept my mouth shut and my ears open.
He spoke about many things, from the distasteful reality shows on TV today to the reason why ‘ramdev ka sajjanpur’ became ‘welcome to sajjanpur’.
I’ll begin with the latter.
In his own words, people want ‘evening entertainment’ and to them Shyam benegal can probably only provide ‘evening’s gyaan’ 
To escape the tag of being ‘serious’ and heavy, the marketing team at UTV decided to alter the title to the more frivolous and easy going ‘welcome to sajjanpur’.
For those who know Prof Mathew from MICA, would understand when I say that great minds think alike. The disappointment at the new generation’s lack of ‘world view’ is both depressing and very obvious in the sentiments Mr Benegal expressed.
He is so right when he says we have become information gatherers for reasons known best only to us. That we cannot ever be wise with our concept of education which does not push us to read more and understand more perspectives.
I’m not sure if I found the meeting with Shyam Benegal inspiring or depressing, knowing what my life and career is and how it’s heading in a direction as a meaningless as reality tv.
Maybe if my state of mind was more positive I’d be inspired. But right now I can’t be anything but thoroughly depressed.
I started my day very early, traveled a great distance to deliver a talk on advertising and PR in the Digital Age. The talk was for distance learning students affiliated with MICA.
I think it went off well. Especially since I had the initial jitters of having to stare into a camera for 2 hours.
Just got a mail from a someone who attended the talk. So all’s well I think.
And I just heard that an article I co-wrote with my boss got published in USP AGE. It’s about our 72 hours in second life experiment. Do check it out if you can.
A low res wonky copy is available here.
So smiles all around. Plus it’s friday. So there.
In today’s fragmented world of entertainment, I haven’t a clue about shows on the gazillion channels, much less follow their story.
With too many shows and each one watching their own, I wonder if we will ever have a cult figure like ‘Kroor Singh’ again, whose ‘yakku’s are still doing the rounds in our collective memories.
I know I sound like the elderly lady who sits in the courtyard and mourns today because yesterday was so much better.
I think I would give up ‘personalized entertainment’ for a Chandrakanta experience which still brings people together to reminisce.
So sing along for old time’s sake. Lyrics are below (I know it by heart, just in case you were wondering)
Chandrakanta ki kahaani badi lagati hai suhani
Yeh purani ho kar bhi badi lagti hai mastani
Naugadh vijaygadh mein thi takaraar
Naugadh ka tha jo raj kumar
Chandrakanta se karta tha pyar
PS: If any of you have the original soundtrack do lemme know. My obsession with it continues. Oh and a guy has sung it on youtube.
Update: Trivia by s4r4bh : Nazim and Ahmed were Kroor Singh’s sidekicks in the show
There’s this dialogue in “Shall we dance” which perhaps sums up companionship best.
Susan Sarandon says – “We need a witness to our lives. There are a billion people on the planet. What does any one life really mean? But in a marriage you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things and the mundane things. All of it. All the time. Everyday. You’re saying, your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. You’re life will not go unwitnessed, because I will be your witness.”
Before you groan at the quote, let me get straight to the point. I recently came across news that Ruslana, the gorgeous model committed suicide at the tender age of 20. The gorgeous, rich (some say she was broke), glamourous little girl of 20 decided t jump off her building.
This disturbs me. Not because she’s gorgeous or famous, but because she, like so many young people, gave up.
It is said that she was lonely. We’ve all been there at some point in life (I know I have), but luckily for us there was someone who validated our existence and agreed to be our witness…
Quick shuffling of feet. Two steps to the side. Cowering by the metal walls.
Furtive glances at the platform as the train slows down. Eyes wide with terror watching greedy faces, waiting to pounce.
A collective deep breath, almost orchestrated. A sea of arms and legs.
They find gaps by the walls, hold on tight and hope the twisted bodies entering the coach don’t sweep them off their feet and feed them to the sweaty depths of the coach.
That’s the terror of Andheri.
Okay so I’m dead serious about this. As I inch closer to turning 25 (okay so it’s still 6 months away) I don’t think I realize that quite a bit of my years on earth are done with.
Call me crazy but I think somewhere deep down I believe this is my first shot, and next time I’ll do better.
And no I don’t believe in reincarnation. And my religious inclination towards Sikhism has more to do with a sense of community than anything else.
I think too much gaming did me in.
Duke Nukem and God of War. You screwed me in the head. Now I think my life’s a practise session.
And my screen says I’ve got 2 lives left.
I saw a Raghu Rai exhibition today and I just don’t know how he does it. Each of his photographs has a story of its own. One could probably write a book about each one.
I had only just taken out my camera to click the marine drive and was adjusting the zoom and focus just to check; and I heard a woman by the roadside hurl the choicest abuses at me.
(I know they were choicest because I’ve heard my college batchmates use them to describe very serious situations.)
She had assumed that someone had come by to click a picture of the misery that was her street-life (she failed to note the skyward direction of my lens).
I did what anybody who hates confrontation would do. I ignored her. Pretended to not hear her.
It helps that I haven’t a clue what these abuses actually mean. This allows me to maintain my
cool and look distracted and lost in whatever I’m doing. (I’m very good at that)
Ofcourse my planner of a mind started to think of possible outcomes
..Would she get up and try and harm my camera?
..Would she hurl abuses that I knew the meanings of? (unlikely, they’d be too mild)
..Would other people support her?
I decided that a click of a building in the distance might prove my decent intentions, and this picture was born.
It’s hardly a picture… but now at least it has a story
