Out of vogue!

So this time what is it I am cribbing about, you ask?

Greeting Cards! No, I don’t mean the animated, loud, fancy flash files from 123greetings.com or ecards.com. I am talking about the paper cards from Archies, Hallmarks and the likes – Rings a bell somewhere?

Since I fortunately still remember the life before the Internet boom, I feel nostalgic (did I hear someone sneer and ask what I don’t feel nostalgic about? Well, please make an allowance for this one!) - Whenever I skim through the stock of Birthday, Get well soon, All the best, Farewell, New Year, Diwali and Christmas cards I have received and collected over the years. A huge pile remains treasured at home in Delhi, and I am on my way to a decent pile here in Chennai as well.

Given the convenience, flexibility, options, ease, reachability, surety, eco-friendliness and all the attributes one might attach to the e-cards, I’d still prefer giving and receiving a “real” card any day.

Ofcourse, this does not mean I give and receive only paper cards – As most I am also warped in my asphyxiating labyrinth that is more commonly known as life, remembering birthdays and anniversaries only when the reminder beeps on my cell phone or pops up on my FB/Orkut/Outlook calendar, remembering festivals and occasions only when the stores announce their sale, and remembering special days only when newspapers report pink chaddi campaigns and shiv sena boycotts!

Where is the time to go to a Greetings/Gift shop atleast 15 days before the d day (the joke is that I do not know of a single card shop near my area in Chennai, that’s another matter I don’t know much in Chennai anyways), exert excruciating pains to skim through the wordings of all the ranges and types available and select the most apt one, find a stamp (do they still exist?), write down the address (Oh c’mon, be honest, how many of us know our friends and relatives postal addresses – emails and usernames rule!), locate a post box/post office and finally pray for the post man to reach your card before the due date!

The only saving grace is that, atleast in India, we still do the weeding invites the traditional way!

... And I still get my fair share of the good ol’ cards - My parents, bro and Vish always make it a point to present to me actual paper cards at every occasion without fail! It makes me feel really special as it’s still touch, feel and display for me.

Not to say I do not cherish the sentiments of the e-card senders, which by the way is also getting substituted by cryptic SMSs (HBD 2 U – for Happy Birthday to you!), walls posts on Facebook (or maybe just a comment on somebody else’s wall post) and Orkut scraps.

So what is my PoA (Plan of Action ;p)? Give more to receive more (selfish, but the world has always been that). I am trying to revive my address book with house numbers, street names and PIN/ZIP codes – Hoping you are motivated to do the same and then we can take a break from the e-exchange and get down to some “real” stuff!

(P.S. All pictures here are of cards that I have received in the recent years.)

The games we play...

Remember the days when summer vacations meant hoarding board games for the long, hot afternoons, when the Christmas break was not all about video gaming and Internet surfing, when families got together and played games at the dining table rather than facebooking on their individual laptops?

I belong to the generation that got caught in the e-revolution only in their mid and late teens, and therefore, often feel nostalgic at the site of the Games section of a Landmark or a Toys R Us store.

Last year, when we came back from the States, I made it a point to stock up on my favorite board games, and secretly pledged to play them as regularly as possible. As is understandable, the latter required immense effort in terms of begging hubby dear, cajoling my brother, tempting my MIL, and luring almost every visitor to our place. I must boast that it has been quite an achievement, and hence this post is a pat on my back for the refreshed memories!

A few snapshots of the games I like; suggestions to add on are most welcome!

Scrabble - An all time favorite - also a game that I hope to win always and succeed quite a few times! Vish and I have the most interesting love-hate conversations ranging from heart-felt affectionate banter to mild profanities to the most gruesome allegations (a case in point, whoever gave you an English Lit degree with the kind of vocab you have - this comes especially when I have no alternative but to add an 's' on a 'reasonably good word made by his highness), when it comes to this game :).


Monopoly comes next in my list - The only reason this doesn't make it to the No. 1 slot (even though I am addicted to it) is because in my 26 years of existence, I have never ever won a single time -My most memorable games have been with M and S over fountains (slight exaggeration - crates, maybe?) of red wine (well, usually red :))!


Ludo and Snakes & Ladders, I agree, are the most mind-numbing games ever.
But, I still love the aimless rolling of the dice to get that '6' to start the damn game...


And I truly adore the sucker at no. 99...

Is it December already?

For the last 25 years of my life, year-end has always been coincidental with a sharp dip in the mercury, freezing temperatures, multiple layers of warm clothing, bonfires and binging sprees.

At the risk of making this blog appear more like a weather column (my last post being on the rains ;)), I want to put on record how sorely I miss the winter season.

For god’s sake, it’s December and I am in my cottons and sleeveless and pastels and all things that are summer. 365 days of summer (and that’s more boring than the flick – 500 days of summer). On this one account Delhi scores a brownie point over Chennai – always. I do not get the feeling of movement towards the closure of the year.

Though I have spent all my winters before this year in Delhi, my most memorable chill has been during my brief stint in Chicago – nothing beats the beauty of the snow - Here’s the post.

I love waking up to the cold nip in the air, the frosted windows and breaths, the foggy mornings, the smoggy afternoons, the almost zero visibility on the roads, the all-day twilight, and then the dense darkness, the groundnuts sold on the roadside along with a halo of luminous gas lamps, the excuse to indulge in gastronomical treats such as gajar ka halwa, gulab jamuns, dry fruits, chikki, and what not so that you are warm, the comfort of the thick quilts, yet the instant dismissal of the sweaters and coats at a wedding even though it’s freakin’ cold coz you want to look your best (weather notwithstanding), the frost bites on your toes that force you to wear two layers of socks (I have the record of wearing three!!!), the once-in-a-while sunshine that brings a snug feeling only because it is winter…Winter is priceless…

Most people I have met prefer other seasons instead, and I in the true spirit of being me, always beg to disagree … the following quote is dedicated to them,

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”

Wishing you all a happy and chilly year end…

One of the last generations to enjoy DD…

As Door Darshan (DD) completes 50 years, I realize that I belong to one of the last generations to enjoy this public division broadcaster of India. I am talking about the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Once the ‘cable’ invaded our televisions, DD was quickly relegated to the domain of the 9 o’clock news and the weekend movies. By the late 90’s, DD was history for most of us whose first rendezvous with the TV was through the musical “bane sur mera tumhaara to sur bane humaara”. And for kids born after the 80’s, DD was archaic, as out-dated as dinosaurs maybe!

Only yesterday was I recounting to a colleague the fascination that we had for the television screen as kids. There were fixed slots for children’s programs and we considered it a treat to be able to watch the specials for extended hours during summer vacations.

Gone are those days; now from the day the kids are born, they have a plethora of choices. If nothing on the idiot box suits their temperament, mommy and daddy instantly fetch out the huge collection of DVDs. What charm will “ek chidiya, anek chidiya” hold for such youngsters?

Here’s a list of some of my favorite DD serials that defined my viewing experience as a kid and therefore occupy a huge soft corner in my heart:

• Ramayana – No other adaptation of Ramayana comes close to this Ramanand Sagar classic
• Mahabharata – Another DD flagship that brought alive the epic in every household on Sundays at 9 AM
• Vikram aur Betaal – I am told I was initially dead scared of Betaal but couldn’t resist watching the spell-binding episodes
• Jungle Book – Aww who can forget Mowgli – 'jungle jungle baat chali hai pata chala hai, chaddi pehen ke phool khila phool khila hai'
• Flop Show – The “baap” of all comedy serials – a la Jaspal Bhatti
• Chanakya – Yes, my first source of gyan on the Mauryan empire and “chankaya niti”
• Malgudi Days – The stories of the fictional town of Malgudi created by R.K. Narayanan
• The Sword of Tipu Sultan – A magnificent portrayal of the life of Tipu Sultan
• Dekh Bhai Dekh – 'Iss rang badalti duniya mein kya tera hai kya mera hai'
• Chitrahar – Friday 7:00 PM it was!
• Fun Time (during the summer vacations) - Included Talespin, Duck Tales, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin
• I also vaguely remember watching one or two episodes of Fauji (the one with SRK), Nukkad (rustic and rogue) and Circus (the not-so-funny life behind the stage)!

Here’s a loving remembrance to the good times we shared :).

Late 20’s panic attack!

Now that the safe net the tag, “I am still in my early 20’s”, assures has been ruthlessly withdrawn by the earthly time clock as I turned 26 yesterday, I am not sure how happy I have been about this birthday go by ;).

Seriously speaking, I never thought I would cross 25. Yeah, I understand nobody is born with the innate desire to grow old, but those who have celebrated their silver jubilee know exactly what I am talking about.

Why this obsession with 26, you ask?

Here are 26 reasons why turning 26 does suck and quarter-life crisis IS a panic situation:

1. For the first time in your life you begin comparing pictures of you now and when you were 16 and you CAN spot visible differences.
2. You have graduated from a 24” waist to a 26” inch waist with little hiccups, but now will forego shopping rather than having to face the humiliation of trying the 28” pair at Levi’s.
3. You have started buying hair fall control products and extra strong conditioners, and would rather neatly tie your hair in a knot than leave them out open to be damaged by the sun and the rain.
4. Retirement planning schemes and Public Provident Fund (PPF) savings are not boring topics that only dads discuss; you have started investing in these and take advantage of other tax saving incentives.
5. You have initiated serious discussions on role progression and career objectives at work with your boss. A fatter pay check is not all that you want. You now begin to focus on long term goals.
6. Your conversations with school friends on latest crushes, movies, hangout zones and girly gossip have been hijacked by discussions on what hubby dearest cribs about, coping with in-laws, and the desperate need to have a reunion cos u haven’t been able to meet for months or even years now.
7. Bratty kids in the neighborhood call you “aunty” when they spot you wearing a salwar kameez or a sari – Oh, I hate them!
8. Your metabolism rate for burning down Mc Donald’s burgers and Dominoes pizzas has slowed down – the need to work out at the gym has become a looming reality.
9. You have still not learnt salsa and merengue and now it seems too late.
10. You have begun spending more time and money at the skin care section of the biggest department store in town.
11. Pesky relatives and nosey neighbors have started asking you if there is any “good news” yet; usually followed by a quick reproach that we youngsters should not delay taking on our responsibilities!
12. You have supposed to have gotten over the acne stage but the occasional pimple still finds its way on your face, right when u were thinking that atleast there’s one trouble off your head.
13. Your choice of music and movies, and your fashion sense seems a little removed from the reality of the 18 to 20 year olds.
14. The latest male entrants in bollywood are either younger to you or just around your age. Ranbir Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh don’t sound as exciting as Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachhan.
15. Even worse than point 14 above, the recent female sirens in bollywood are almost 6 to 10 years younger than you! (Crap, they look way older. Am sure they lie about their age!)
16. In surveys and polls, you now figure in the 25-30 age group category. That’s so middle-age.
17. You no longer party on week days cos it’s way too stressful and tiring in the middle of work.
18. You are no longer naïve enough to hope that you will strike a jackpot or hit it big and become a billionaire. If it hasn’t happened as yet, it’s very unlikely it will happen now.
19. You relate well to the word ‘nostalgia’. You feel nostalgic about childhood memories, school fun and college craziness.
20. You no longer find it cool to wear a dirty, torn or faded pair of jeans to a friend’s birthday bash.
21. You have started planning your wardrobe for work, Friday evening dinner, Saturday night out, Sunday lunch, atleast a day in advance.
22. You now feel the need to sound politically and diplomatically correct, be polite and exchange the so uncool niceties and pleasantries (Oh, that black dress looks so good on you, hey, have you lost weight, your skin’s glowing, your hair is lovely) at get-togethers and social gatherings.
23. You have all the cash now to buy all those games and toys that your parents thought were useless when you were a kid, but now you too think they are quite unnecessary.
24. There’s nothing exciting about turning 26. 13 was the start of teen-age, 16 was oh so sweet, 18 meant you were legally an adult, at 21 you could buy yourself a drink and drive (though not in that order), 24 sounded sexy, at 25 you could rent a car at the normal insurance rate. Nothing at 26 – nothing at all!
25. The most important of them all, 26 is too close to 30 (ouch, can’t think of that number).
26. And ofcourse, to put it plain and simple, you are too young to be 26. You barely got over your teens sometime back!

Bura na mano…holi hai!

Holi – The celebration of joy and colors has been one of my favorite festivals since childhood. I love the glow of gulal, the mess of the pakka rang, the splashing of pani ke gubbare, the water spouting from the pichkaris, the outrageously risqué lyrics of rang barse, the scrumptious taste of gujiyas, the fun and gossip around the presence and absence of bhang…

Till 2006, I do not remember having not painted the town red on a single instance of holi. As kids, the customary pichkari (my fav being a tank one that could be carried around as a rucksack – amazing storage capacity!) along with the usual dose of the good color (gulal etc), the real bad color (the chemical dyes etc that wouldn’t rub off for days together) and a huge stock of balloons was a must, irrespective of what the health conscious said about hazardous effects of colors and blah and blah!

A typical day would start with all the kids and cooperating adults filling balloons, followed by a reluctant breakfast of puri-aloo with kheer forced down by mom and a simultaneous word of caution from dad to remain “within limits” (that has been his trademark forewarning for anything and everything, since as long as I can remember, and that in itself could be a whole new blog, but I digress). After the almost ritualistic morning feast, we’d wear our old clothes, rub oil on our bodies and hair (to protect hair and skin from damage as much as possible), and then begin the mayhem. We always celebrate holi with the family first, so mom, dad, Priyank and I would mess each other up completely before proceeding with the neighborhood toli.

I most fondly recall my years in Noida as the best holi galas I have ever had. With a tinge of nostalgia, I remember the bonfire on the eve of holi, the craziness of dancing amidst the riot of colors and water to songs from all periods in Indian Cinema - the black and white numbers to the latest ones in technicolor, the feasting without fasting, and the endless laughter and merry making!

After the afternoon’s pandemonium, I used to spend hours scouring the color off using all the options available – mom’s indigenous preparation of ubtan to the latest scrubs and crèmes available in the cosmetic conglomerate – to make myself presentable for school/work the next day. Evenings were marked by the characteristic laziness and siesta of post-holi blues...

This is the third year that I am sorely missing not celebrating holi - 2007 holi was spent in Bangkok, 2008 in LA. This year, though closer to home (@ Chennai), I am ridden by the practical difficulties of Holi being on a week day, no holiday, inability to travel to Delhi cos of work commitments…I am hoping the next year or the one after that I am fortunate enough to relive or atleast recreate the proverbial ‘good old days’!

Till then, I console myself by listening to and humming my personal holi play list; given here just in case somebody is interested.

1. Rang Barse…bheege chunar waali…rang barse (this evergreen Amitabh-Rekha number from Silsila undoubtedly is my holi anthem)
2. Arre jaa re hat natkhat, na chhoo re mera ghoonghat , palat ke doongi aaj aisi gali re…(the rapturous melody by Rafi and Lata; Movie – Navrang)
3. Holi khele raghubeera awadh mein…holi khele raghubeera (the more recent Amitabh number from Baghban)
4. Aaj na chodenge bas humjoli… khelenge hum holi (The mischievous hit from Rajesh Khanna’s Kati Patang)
5. Ang se ang lagaana…sajan humein aise rang lagaana (a raunchy song from the Sunny Deol-SRK-Juhi Chawla starrer Darr)
6. Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain...rangon mein rang mil jaate hain (from Sholay…Big B has a lot of holi songs to his credit)
7. Holi re holi…aayi tere ghar pe maston ki toli (Movie – Paraaya Dhan)
8. More kaanhaa jo aaye palat ke…abke holi main khelungi dat ke (a semi classical number from Sardari Begum)
9. Holi aayee, holi aayee, dekho holi aayee re (thus Kishore Kumar sang in Mashaal)
10. And finally…Jai Jai Shiv Shankar (again a Rajesh Khanna number from Aap ki Kasam…strictly speaking not a holi specific number but nevertheless apt for the occasion)

Wishing everybody a very happy and colorful Holi!