Ferrari ki Sawaari... :( :(

First day first show.....thats how I like to see movies. So today we set out for a zipping experience in the Ferrari. But wtf.......Safar tha ya suffering.....ah, ooh, ouchhh!!!

Arey story nahin hai toh picture kyon banate ho yaar.....?????? Ferrari bechaari....that could have been an apt title. (for a good story, contact me)

Ferrariiiiiiiiiiiii kiiiiiiiiiiiiii Sawaariiiiiiiiiiiiii.........The movie could have got over in less than 30 films and was better made into a short film. Barely 20 minutes into the super slow movie a child sitting behind me said,"Arey yaar yeh Ferrari kab khatm hogi?"

Ferrarri has no relevance or significance in the movie. It could have been any car and and anyone's. The pace of the movie is so slow that even director got the Ferarri pulled by a 'Baelgaadi'..bullock cart in one of the scenes.

Sharman Joshi...tried acting out the best out of the given lousy script. Boman played himself???? Old Parsi.

Those of you, like me, don't go by the reviews and like testing things themselves must go and check out this dud. Don't complain then......because you were warned, hugh!! :(

:(  Was that Vidya Balan trying out sexy Lavani number??? Waste...tch! Sorry, Wrong number in every way. ^ ^

Elephanta Festival at Gateway..for the first time!

The three-day Elephanta Festival was celebrated after a gap of two years. And for the first time, it  was not held at the Elephanta island near Mumbai, but at the Gateway of India, with an inferior adaption of the famous Trimurti Sadashiva on stage to create the ambience of Elephanta. The three-day event, organised by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, which was opened on Friday, March 23, with a recital of Marathi sugam sangeet (light music), was followed by a performance by Hindustani classical vocalist Parveen Sultana, and a collaborative one by singer Runa Rizvi and percussionist Sivamani, who played Sufi rhythms. Unfortunately the event was poorly advertised and not many people know about these cultural events which are actually supposed to be annual festivals. 

On Saturday, March 24, sundari player Bhimanna Jadhav and Hindustani classical singer Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar  performed solo recitals in the spiritual morning session, which began at 6.15am. I and my daughter cycled our way to reach Gateway of India to enjoy a part of Tikekar's performance. There were a handful of people in the first few rows and it practically looked like the organizers and media personnel. There were few foreigners of course but thats about it. Nonetheless it did not affect the singer or the accompanists who were completely enjoying performing for a minuscule few. One did feel that had it been advertised on social media as well it would have got a much bigger and discerning audience for the performers. Thankfully on Sunday the crowds were a respectable size of music connoisseurs. I was again there in the morning.

There were four classical and folk dances being performed in the evening, which I could not attend but I landed up to hear my favorite voice, of Hariharan. He sang Gazals like 'Tere kaandhe pe mera sar hota'......'Marz e ishq'....which had a mesmerizing effect. The beautiful sea breeze on a hot summer evening added to the romance of the gazals. The attendance that night was better but still not enough to occupy the huge number of chairs which were lying vacant. Resources wasted, that's how I felt. Speaking to some people one came to know that they had no clue about the festival. It was a mere coincident that they heard the music while they were strolling around Gateway and they came to check it out. Thank God...

 I am glad I was there for bits and pieces. I missed listening to Parveen Sultana but I was enthralled by 'Tu hi re' from the iconic movie BOMBAY......... a mellifluous composition by Hariharan, which was also an audience choice and incidentally the concluding piece of that evening and the festival. I came all the way back home singing the song....It was a an evening to remember!

Better than an Audi!!

I don't own an Audi, not as yet, but I am very fond of my 'Merc'…that's my cycle and I have been riding it for many years now. Going to the local market for fruits and veggies or shopping, going to the club for a game or library, going to the swimming pool, taking kids (when small) out for a ride, going to the bank…its with me everywhere. My friends whom I refused to, when they offered me a lift, often ask me, "How have you come?" I say 'My Merc' just like I answered the first time, and watched the bewildered lot while waving at them, pedaling my 'Merc'.

So many friends have expressed their desire to ride one after seeing me, including the ones who have never done it before. Actually we women lose touch with many people and activities that we were so familiar with in our maiden days. Life is truly demarcated into two worlds…before marriage and after marriage. I have seldom seen a man not doing what he did as a bachelor, that includes chasing women (now may be with eyes alone??) and playing all the sports he loved. Speaking about men is like opening a debate….so I leave it for the time now.

Ah…cycling is fun, always, but earlier I combined it with purpose and now the sole purpose is pleasure… on weekend mornings. Thanks to my cyclist friends in Bandra who came all the way to Afghan Church, where I joined them for the shortest ride from home, I am beginning to enjoy SoBo rides to begin with. I have begun cycling on holiday mornings on Bombay roads exploring places like you can never do in your swanky AC four wheelers. Its an added delight as my daughters have gained height (and now also the confidence) to follow me through the sparse morning traffic. 

My younger daughter has to be dragged out of the bed with the angry bird face but once we hit the road she tweets "Its fun". She still is scared but given the fact that she has recently graduated from her kiddy bike to a 26" and started negotiating the traffic (BEST buses and BMC trucks) makes me look at her with pride. My elder daughter who otherwise fights with her all the time becomes hugely protective towards her on the road and urges me to take the lead while she follows her behind, keeping and eye on her sister, at times stopping and helping her on a turn or a signal. Its a great way to see them bonding even if you come back home to witness them fight like cats for the title 'Ring ki Queen'…both girls you see!

Yesterday it was just my elder one and me. We cycled to Gateway of India and attended the concluding part of the musical morning of Elephanta Festival. Today it was all three of us and it was fun because on our way back we went to the BPT Garden. Bombay Port Trust garden is an oasis of greenery and very popular with health freaks. So just when we were leaving the place on our bicycles a gentleman smiled at us and waved. I liked it. I guess my Merc and kids' SUVs with low carbon footprint impressed him too. And guess what, he was in an Audi….!!

PS: Kids just requested me to mention their beauties; younger one's 'Bentley' and elder one's 'Ferrari'!…LOL

Pre Marital Sex ???? OMG, OMG !!!!

Preity Zinta is back in town and busy chatting up with tweeple about the hackneyed PMS..pre marital sex. Oolala! That was my the lead story in Deccan Chronicle's Sunday Page co authored with a friend. A well researched article that was published in 1994 in DC sizzled the ground I walked on. The heat was unbearable. The responses ranged from this extreme to that. Many chose to believe our researched facts in the story and others just chose to abuse me and look at me with suspicion and contempt because I was a young unmarried woman writing about it. What people did not understand that I was not endorsing or supporting PMS. 

I had not known the story was already in print for the Sunday edition when I walked into the DC office on a Thursday evening that time and the reactions and the glances of some people were just too much to handle. Uff!!!

As a woman writer I always feel  sensitive to whatever gets written about sex...pre or post marriage. And how the spoken word goes around. From an innocuous SEX column where each one of us have been ticking Male/Female to announce who we are to SEX as a three letter forbidden word the whole perspective changes. 

Read this:

"Navneet Chaurasia ‏ @c_navneet

@realpreityzinta i think it's completely OK as sex is an emotion more out of love than marriage & love does not wait for marriage to happen.

Retweeted by Preity zinta

I would say that there is no point in getting judgmental about it but yes while men communicate to get that sex, women give sex to get that communication right. Somewhere along the line if its only about good sex and not about bonding then it is devoid of emotions. And that can turn a relationship into a nerve breaking stressful one which has a very short shelf life.

There is nothing wrong about sex if it happens to be a building block in a healthy, respectable and a loving relationship without a negative space of guilt!!!

Women Changing India...Symposium

Attended a symposium organized by Barnard College. Listening to the various women panelist was like recharging, rebooting and reinventing myself. It was a day well spent educating myself, reaffirming and reinforcing my belief about my role as an individual. We women keep grooming ourselves with regular spas and parlor visits but it is when you hear women achievers, their words clear the dust off your brains, clean your ignition plug and polish your mind for that brilliance which was always there. They are not any different from you and I. It is like visiting a MIND PARLOR.

The only thing that took them to break the ceiling was that they kept on going where as some of us slowed down or rested....perhaps longer than we should have. There is so much that my nosey, spongy journalist-writer brain has soaked up from there that I could write series of articles on HOW WOMEN CAN CHANGE THE SOCIETY.  Nah, darlings I might keep writing nuggets about it in my future quickies but I need to first apply this knowledge to my life.

Panelists, of course were the celebrated and emancipated Indian women from nearly every profession, (you can check the details in the link given below). Nonetheless the women in audience weren't any less interesting. Met some wonderful women across ages and bonded with some for some great karmic connect in future :)....coz nothing is without a purpose. I strongly feel that we women really need to collaborate to paint a much bigger canvas.

After all that food for thought, we indulged in some gourmet delights and deserts without feeling guilty about it. Yes, guilt was the point of discussion and it was a great way to break that stereotype and enjoy and live the moment.

Good days are generally followed by good nights. So right now, I am relishing a good dinner cooked by my darling husband.... exotic stir fried vegetables and Cottage Cheese in Hoi Sin Sauce. See thats how Good women are changing their world and making things work for them. Ah, time for thanksgiving.....to him of course. :)

I got a feeling......tonight's gonna be a good night!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barnard-College-Global-Symposia-Series/142792982508260?sk=wall

Cool Japan Festival....Mumbai Mein!! (Biggest)

Sometimes I just land at the right place, like today when I was at the Phoenix Mills I did not know that I actually would be attending the opening ceremony of Cool Japan Festival celebrating 60 years of Indo Japan relations. As the tag line read "Feel Japan like never before"...well, the opening set the tone right by bringing in some traditional things for the first time in India.

Ah, not another Sushi darlings, that is available everywhere now. They brought a Robot, made like a woman and something that could  move and shake hands. Robots is again a synonym with Japanese so no big deal if they brought a machine like that. The big deal was that they brought in a Maiko in flesh and blood...the Japanese doll like. Okay, you would know a Maiko if you had read 'Memoirs of Geisha.' Well she is a trainee to become a Geisha, the traditional entertainer and dancer. I had read the book twice over because the detailing is so vivid that you can actually visualize the whole life of a Geisha.  When Maiko later performed traditional Kimono dance it felt so beautiful living a page from the life of a Geisha to be.

How could I not tell you about Wadaiko Drum performance that was before the Maiko's. That was an electrifying performance by young drummers lead by a girl. Oooh.....it was certainly not to be missed as I was told by the back stage guy. Thanks to him I was hooked on to the event till the end.

Did I say end?? What an end! Oh, that was quite a surprise. Have you ever seen a Japanese Sardar? I did, today night. Check out the flicks to believe and to feel like Japan. Chadda came on the stage attired like traditional Japanese and a turban on the head crooning saki O..the sad, sombre song which he explained were similar to our Gazals. Then his own rendition in Hindi but sung like a pure Saki O floored the audience. The MC was half Indian half Japanese and Chadda was 100% Japanese, at heart for sure as he said "WE JAPANESE"....

Well, thats a great way to celebrate a great bond....!!!      Great evening for me and AB....            Sayonara!!

Check all the flicks on fb too , I will upload Chadda's Video link too.

Dirty girl gets pregnant...and wow!

Dirty girl Vidya Balan got pregnant and delivered a breathtaking performance. Watched Kahaani yesterday. Its a gripping mystery that keeps you glued without giving much time to think. She is natural yet intense and sporadic laughter moments that she lives at some points in her characterization makes you love her some more.

Move over Khans we have a new HERO!! and as far as the items and the item numbers of a masala film are concerned....this KAHAANI is a hit without any.... as I would say...'cut the crap'. Vidya has rewritten history and boy who is the writer...........got to grant it to her too. Oh yes, it is a woman. Advaita Kala!

Advaita, Kahaani itself is so good that it could not have been told in any other way. Shokti!!