My space

Crying foul

2007-06-07T23:37:00.001-07:00

Saw Metro last week. Very well made movie, the effort on the part of the director Anurag Basu is commendable, he has made his characters look believable and close to life. Only if the director was gracious enough to accept that he has copied a very famous play of National School of Drama. Throughout the story of Sharmaan Joshi and Kangana, I kept clutching my fist in anger. I could not believe how a director of his stature could copy frame to frame and to top it all, accept the critical acclaim. Refer to his recent interview given after the successful release of Metro:
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/070427/24/6f2fr.html

Excerpts from the interview: “On questioning him about his earlier films that were more or less a copy of English films he says 'agar main ab copy karoonga toh Meri biwi maar degi' he further explains saying "I could not help making copies as I was asked to make them. Murder though was a copy of English film Unfaithful, I took up writing in my hand with that film and tried to make it different." – Anurag Basu in an interview.

One of my favourite plays, Shortcut directed by Ranjit Kapoor, NSD Repertory, is a better version of Sharmaan and Kangana’s story. It is a wonderful play with soulful music and amazing artists. This play can put any hindi movie to shame, in terms of songs, acting, and story. Every year, we wait for this play to be shown in the Summer Theatre Festival, NSD, Delhi. It is truly sad to see how people steal stories and bask in the glory of the success of the movie, without feeling guilty or ashamed.

The least Anurag Basu could have done was accept that he has taken the story instead of snatching the credit from the talented director of NSD, Ranjit Kapoor. Wonder what Anurag’s wife would be thinking now?

Shortcut was shown in the present Summer Theatre Festival also on May 31st, June 1st and 2nd.

Log on to http://nsd.gov.in/nsd_fesrep1.htm for more details.

2007-04-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

My recent blog template may look vibrant, but no great shakes on the side of posts. I have decided I am going to ramble and ramble more. If you have a feeling that this post is utter crap, in all likelihood it is. Ipshi, anoosha, josie...you guys better read it, it is your punishment of leaving me alone here in LB. I dnt have you guys around me to vent out, so read on.

Past one month has been hectic, crazy, back-breaking...working at a stretch for 17.30 hrs without breaks has crossed my every past record. I would have been a rocket scientist if I had studied so much in my school days. But know what, I don't regret it, I enjoyed every bit...actually that would be an unfair exaggeration, but the point is, I did enjoy myself. I liked creating the course, loved looking at the final product, had a great team and a good project manager (which is rare!!!). Hope I am not speaking too soon.

Lots of work meant less time at home and more opportunity to either make friends or lots of enemies in office. I made a few friends and one enemy. But I still don't feel close to anyone here, there is this strange vacuum and I don't feel good about it. I have got a bad habit of having grt friends around me. I miss all of them. When I am not working, I get into this self created shell and feel extremely lonely. I get hyper and lose my temper becoz there is nobody here who knows what is bothering me, who can calm me down. Lots of them to talk generally but nobody to share my feelings with. Guess I need a brk immediately…sigh!

Have decided to clean up my almirah this weekend, hopeful as ever! Got my hair coloured, globally, not very different from my natural hair colour, just added shine and slightly brown. Planning to get streaks done on my hair this weekend…hope she does a good job. A shoddy job with blonde highlights would be a nightmare, keeping my fingers crossed.

Yuv is finally going back to London. I am happy for him. He needs to get back there soon, this climate and the hard floor is not doing him any good. He keeps falling down and bumping his head, he's used to the carpeted floors and wooden walls. We are scared for him, he looked like a happy healthy kid a month back. He looks all dented and tired and cranky now. Funny for us maybe, he doesn’t know how to handle mosquito bites, he keeps scratching them.
He has scared the day lights out of me. I am too scared to even think of having a kid…no personal life, oodles of energy required to run after them, sleepless nights, untidy house (things lying all over the place) and constant crying. Himani says its all worth it…phew! I just think she has become a super mom without even realizing it.

I drew four cartoons today in off, had no work and guess I will get back to my craft and other hobbies soon. It is so relaxing and unwinds me completely. Ppl close to me please get ready to receive weird looking cards and stuff. Just a word of warning, you better appreciate whatever is presented cause I am sure to make it with lots of love and hard work.

An addition to my blog

2007-01-10T00:19:00.000-08:00

My second blog...looking forward for your comments :)
http://precious-shots.blogspot.com/

My trip to Mahabaleshwar

2007-01-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

After much delay and research, we finally zeroed on to Mahabaleshwar. Both of us wanted a break, wanted to re-live the magic of Manali, the peaceful green terrains, snow capped mountains in the backdrop and a clean, pristine river flowing through the hill station.
We decided to chuck the idea of visiting Delhi in winters, though it’s a sight in itself. We wanted to dodge everybody and just relax.
Mahabaleshwar became our obvious choice because of various reasons - already a planned trip to Goa in Feb, Mahabaleshwar's proximity to Mumbai and a lot of stories about the hill station's beauty.
After a lot of research, we decided to opt for 'Valley View', one of the best (and costliest!!) resorts.

As we neared the place, I kept waiting to see something breathtakingly beautiful, something striking and peaceful and something which could stress the fact that Mahabaleshwar was a hill station!!

Both of us were very disappointed. There was nothing to talk about, very dry mountains, no streams that I had imagined, no place to sit undisturbed with your eyes closed, no cool breeze (except in the night) and no need to wear warm clothes. I loved the chappals, the mini-chappals, walnut chocolate fudge and strawberry cream though.

Our resort was a big disappointment too. I am next to being finicky when it comes to having clean toilets and bed sheets. And when you are paying an exorbitant price for it, I think you have a right to expect. Am sorry for the following disgusting explanation, but we had a WC with a 'sanitized' band around which wasn't even flushed! Yuck!! I have already apologized see.

The food was also pretty ordinary, the indoor swimming pool was also a disappointment. I hated the service and wanted to run out of that place. We went out searching for a good hotel. Sid likes everything to be planned weeks before, so the idea of canceling our reservation and checking out in another hotel all of a sudden, baffled him. But must say, he played along well, didn't protest much. We shifted to another hotel next morning, great rooms and good service at exactly half the price.
Went out sight-seeing, shopped some, cut short the trip and booked our tickets for Bombay for the very next day.

The journey was bad, very tiring and unnecessarily long. We opted for a Neeta Volvo instead of Raj Travels as we didn't want to wait till the afternoon for the bus. We took the first bus to Bombay. A word of advice here - never - as in never - go for anything except Raj travels busses if you have to visit Mahabaleshwar. They are very organized, have a fixed schedule and take the shortest route.
Our bus took exactly 10 hours instead of normal 6 hours. It went to all possible lanes of Pune, nearly called out people from their houses to board the bus. Ok, some exaggeration there, but I have every right to crib.

The whole plan to unwind went kaput. We were exhausted by the end of our trip. I am very sure we went at the wrong time to Mahabaleshwar, it can't be famous for nothing. I know it gets the second highest rainfall in India, so it has to be beautiful... just the wrong timing I sincerely hope.

P.S. The last paragraph was added to please my friends from Bombay who would obviously be blinded by the love for the place.

Planning to make another blog just for my photographs, will inform asap.

2006-12-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

Loved the recent cartoon from DNA...

Singapore Delight

2006-12-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

Some snapshots of Singapore trip...

Life nowadays...

2006-11-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

Sid went to Singapore, found nothing great abt the place. He found it to be similar to Delhi. My sister as I mentioned in the previous post, compared Los Angeles to Gurgaon! Now I have no doubt abt the fact that I am surrounded by people who are over-obsessed with Delhi.

He loved the night safari and 4D theatre. A 4D theatre is a combination of a 3D movie with chair effects, leg ticklers, water sprinklers, lightning, fog, special smells and all. I for sure would not have enjoyed the experience, the idea of spiders crawling over my feet is certainly not my idea of fun...it's creepy and scary! The entire site seeing of four days was combined with many rounds of shopping and I am proud of him for shopping alone for the first time in his life.
I have done him proud too. I was alone at home for two consecutive nights. Though the lights were on and I read myself to sleep at 2 am on both the nights.

I have been discovering the complex near my office, thx to Ipshi. We just go out and explore the shops. I am falling in love with the place, apart from amazing food joints, there are n number shops with great clothes, many salons around (now I can catch up with my waxing and eye brows shaping - silly things that really matter) and ofcourse DMart for my grocery shopping. I wonder when I will get the time to work, side effects of having too many choices around i guess. :)

Hurray! I moved on...

2006-11-16T01:25:00.000-08:00

Have changed my job and crossing my fingers for it to turn out well.
My honeymoon period is on, no work as of now. I am not regretting being free, infact it's a well deserved break from the whirlwind of the work, the maddening deadlines and constant ill-health. Trust me, everyone should consider a change in job at least once a year :) My bosses will kill me for saying that.

Lots of things happened suddenly, I got a new job, came to a new place, somehow for the first three days, missed my last office. Guess idle mind can sometimes cook up unsuspected, crazy thoughts. My sister moved to LA...she is comparing the place with Gurgaon (a place near Delhi)!! Ha...ha...what a waste.
She didn't find it very exciting or beautiful. Though I am sure she'll discover it more in coming days and wud send some nice snaps, which I shall dutifully put up here.

My office is in a beautiful complex surrounded by amazing looking buildings, great shops and thousands of eateries. My afternoons are usually fun-filled where I head on for the market for the sheer joy of window shopping. Little restaurants to Fine dining, Chinese sizzlers to mughlai daal- everything is available. Of course my plans for dieting and losing unnecessary fat seem to shake a bit as it is hard for me to resist all of this.
My office cafeteria is pretty cool too. Great variety and decent food at very reasonable rates, a bliss considering the last place where I used to work didn't have a decent canteen. Everyday ordering from outside was taking its toll on me.

I am slowly getting used to traveling for long hours too. Just hoping things turn out fine here.
For those of you who are not from Bombay, these are the actual images of Hiranandani Complex, no phoren country.

Delhi on edge

2006-11-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

It hurts to see so many people suffering. After reservations, the sealing comes to prove the same point, our democracy is no better than dictatorship.
Is it so difficult for the government to find a solution here, to have mercy at the poor traders who earn on daily basis? I shudder to think what these people would be going through. The constant threat of snatching your right to live a decent life, the responsibility of your family, the thought of moving your kids from a private school to a pathetic government school. It is plain sick!
Encouraging mushrooming of malls, big wigs like Reliance and Bharti (Airtel) getting into retail full-on explains the government's decision to wipe out local shops. Wonder why they think that public is foolish enough to believe their concept of improving the infrastructure of the city.
Have a look at some of the captures of sealing in Delhi.

Some lovely pictures of Bombay

2006-06-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

A Riot of colours

2006-06-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

My sister's recent shopping spree encouraged me to write more abt Delhi. I am so jealous, I know u got beautiful kurtis, all for urself grr....but I am glad atleast somebody shopped :(

Delhi. Thousands of places to shop, to visit, a huge city with lots to discover. On one hand you have shopkeepers speaking in rich Punjabi accent, and on the other hand you can spot them speaking in English, French and even German!!! That's the kind of culture you get in Delhi, keeping abreast with the changing trends.
Dilli Haat (or mini India as we like to call it) is a mix bag of all states of India. U get stuff from all parts of the country at one stop, accompanied with amazing food (cuisine from various parts of the country). U'll get the best Chinese food here, yummy chicken momos! One can shop for handicraft, cotton kurtis, Lehngas, skirts, jewellery, get hair braiding and henna and every weekend witness folk dances and performances by artists called from all over India. It's a festival here everyday.

Then our very own Janpath and Sarojini Nagar. Amazing places to shop and hang around. Best clothes, great bargains, it is here that the shopkeepers speak in different languages, cause the place is flooded with tourists. Situated in the heart of the city, Janpath is close to all the major galleries, emporiums, one of the main being Cottage Emporium.
Uff, that place (Cottage Emporium) is just too good for words, a must see. God only knows how ppl can be so...creative, u get antique stuff there, obviously catering to the privileged few, exorbitant prices but all unique stuff.
Then there are n number of tombs, old palaces and other historical buildings.
Delhi is also famous for its street food, from bhale-papri to gol-gappe to alu tikki to momos to dosas and what not.
Beautifully campus of Delhi University, Chandni Chowk – a huge market for clothes, gold and electronic items, this place is also famous for its 'Parathe waali gali'- a whole lane of shops that serve only parathas! Then there is Lajpat Nagar – one of my favourite, G.K. M-block market, and Noida to shop. One is never short of choice in Delhi.

One of those days

2006-06-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

I am missing my sweetheart, my Jacky.
I swear I have never seen such a smart dog , calling him a dog is an insult. He was better than us, was a better son (if I may say so, cause he treated my mom as his own), was extremely obedient (only when it came to following what my mom and popsy had to say)! He actually understood what we said, knew out tones...when we were angry, even when we were sarcastic.
Better still he could speak, he actually used to call my mom as 'mauu...' He used to cry out loud whenever she came back from office and we hugged her leaving no space for Jacky to jump on my mom. Such a darling... everyday around six in the evening he sat near the main door and waited for my mom to come. He was completely pampered by my sis, I tried to make a balance by scolding him a little and spoiling him more, and he treated my lil bro like his pal!
We've had the best times with Jacky, from the day we got him (he looked like a cotton ball) to the day he left us. His mischief, his unconditional love, all will remain with us throughout the life.
There are so many tales, his little adventures which we can never forget.
I wish u cud live longer, I still need u Jacky and I miss u.
What a coincidence Ipshi, while I was half way thru my post, I got to know abt Bittu. I know what u r going thru sweety, but it's a part of life, no matter how hard it is, how killing it is, one has to accept it. My Jacky was in a lot of pain in his last days, all that we could think to pacify ourselves was that it was for his own good. We can't be so selfish, he had lived his life peacefully and had the right to depart peacefully also. We have to let them go, their memories are always going to be with us. My Jacky is still alive for me. Let's just pray for Bittu and Jacky.

On cloud number nine!!!

2006-05-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

Yippee...its been a year! Can't believe its been a year now. Well my friends wud know what I am talking abt. Yesterday was my first wedding anniversary! Its all so fresh in my mind, the day I got married. All the preparations, we had so much fun, me, my family, my friends. We danced till the wee hours a day before. I remember how I cried when my beautician applied too much make up - made me look like a pancake. Thank God my better senses prevailed and I actually made her remove all the make up TWICE and made her do it the way I wanted it to be - light and natural.
The beautiful arrangement, the lightings and the smell of flowers... ahh... it was lovely. One thing I always crib abt is missing all the good food in my wedding, I could hear ppl praising it, gorging on it, but could do nothing but smile. Couldn't eat much, didn't want the whole world to know what a pig I was, specially didn't want the cameras to shoot me hogging. (These camera guys have a tendency to shoot you specially when u want them to leave you alone, they love to focus on the plate and then slowly move towards the person's face, proving the fact that the person eating is not fat for nothing :) )

And also thank God for you, my sweetheart, I am very skeptical abt writing abt my family on the net, somehow. But cudn’t resist from doing it this time.
Nothing went acc to what we had planned for yesterday, I kept pestering him to come home early and when he managed to, I reached home late :(
At night, i received a lovely cake from my sister. He also got a cake, a rather sinful, creamy, full of chocolate shavings and cherries cake. He made amazing paneer cutlets, I just somehow didn’t expect such a welcome and actually cried when I saw all of this. How silly of me, plz...plz... do repeat this sweety, in case u didn’t get it, I was crying because I was very happy, touched and tired!!!
Thank you for always being there for me and loving me unconditionally. May we make a century and more! God bless you sweetheart.
Love and prayers.

Yaadein............

2006-03-28T03:20:00.000-08:00

Finally I got some time to write for my blog. There is something gravely wrong with my bosses, either they give us no work or bombard us with it, neways, guess today it's going to be slightly light. So before anyone catches me without work, I'll write something about my friends. My friends, whom I met in an all girls’ college!!
Coming from a co-ed school, I had never imagined studying in an all girls’ college. And with the reputation these colleges have, I was nearly sure I wud never end up in any one of those. But u know how it is, the farther u try to run from things, the more they follow u and one day beat u in the race and are there in ur face! All my dreams of getting into engineering were shattered by my family when I cleared this entrance for a teaching course. Full of apprehensions and anger I joined the college. My first few days were really bad, I took longer time than usual to adjust in that strange place. Though my department had the most sincere and serious (looking!) girls in the college but it was hard to ignore the general crowd there. All the girls (trust me all of them) thought that they were fighting against each other in some kind of a contest (read beauty contest :) ). Coming from the department, which was into serious stuff like teaching, we had to carry huge bags to college. I am sure people on the street believed that either we were running away from home or trying to sell agarbattis or surf or similar stuff! So as Ipshi says, the moo point is that we HAD to carry huge heavy bags. But the girls around us had these really small purses (pouches wud be apt) which cud not hold more than a few coins and a cell phone may be. We always had floaters or sneakers on, in contrast to their stilettos, we wore cotton kurtas with the most unmatched lowers and duppata (some kind of a fashion statement we thought, it gave us that theatrish, purposeful look), they wore net, silk, satin in college! It was rediculous, I mean seriously, how can one study or for that matter enjoy carelessly after wearing such things.

But it would be a lie if I say I didn't enjoy all that. It was mostly fun to look at these things, you get to meet all kinds of disillusioned, funny people. Plus the advantage of being in a colourful environment...you just have to look outside your classroom window to ward of those bouts of sleep. I found the most sweetest friends in my college. We were a group of 11 girls, Vani, Amita, Maneeta, Jasmeet, Fauzia, Priyanka, Sarita, Meenu, Sapna and Simi.
All special in their own way, all unique in their own way. We’ve had our share of fights, we have laughed together, grew up together and till date can stand up for each other at any point of time.
How we used to hate making projects and long to leave the college to start our careers as soon as possible. We were so wrong, we had the best time in college. I miss the days we used to bunk our college and go to Meenu’s place and dance till the evening, sometimes we used to go to Amita’s place and just sit and chat in her little cozy house (Oh and I still remember the way she used to cook - she always managed to scare me - the way her hands moved, it was probably the smell of spices that made her hyperactive) and our practice for dance competition at my place till 5 in the morning (My sweethearts, my family never asked us to stop, never created a fuss over loud music and very sweetly understood how important those dance trophies were for us)

Those special moments have kept all of us together, all these years. I hope it remains like this always and i hope we still hug each other whenever we cross each other's path.

Mumbai meri Jaan??

2006-03-08T03:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I was moving to Mumbai, being in a new city, meeting new people, I was going thru a variety of emotions. I was excited and at the same time extremely sad to leave my parents and move on.
26th July rain delayed our shifting to Bombay, we came in August. But what the heck, the rains were bad enough for me then as well. I am so not used to heavy rains and all. Life came to a standstill if it rained in Delhi, we used to cancel our dinners, our outings everything, but damn, nothing stops working in Bombay.
I admire this attitude of people though, they have learned to live with the fact that it will rain for months altogether. Phew! Wud be hard for me to adjust, but guess that’s life, it throws u in the most bizarre situations at the most unexpected time.

I started to explore the city, the hard way, traveling in jam-packed trains, which by the way is an experience in itself. Smartly dressed up people, full of sophistication suddenly turn into demons. They kick u, hurl abuses at u and even punch u to get on to the train. It’s also an art I think, and I fail miserably in this game.
All the stories I had heard about the traffic and crowd in Bombay came alive, Bombay isn’t called world’s 4th most populated metropolitan area for nothing!

But then the good part, when u meet people with whom u can connect. My friends, my saviors, my sweethearts Anusha, Ipshi and Josie. I have seen Bombay in a new light thanks to them. Discovered the amazing bakeries, beautiful and majestic sea, yummy vada pavs, samosa pavs (didn’t know the concept of samosa with pav! It’s amazing, must try!), delicious frankies and ofcourse Hill Road.
Wait, there is certainly more to Bombay than vada pav and sea. U meet these amazing people who just aren’t bothered about what u are wearing and if u r wearing! No questions asked, no eyebrows raised, no eve-teasing and u can actually travel at night, which by the way was new to me, we dnt travel alone in Delhi, actually ‘can’t travel alone’ would be more appropriate.

It’s so sad to see a wonderful place like Bombay becoming a dumping ground, a big slum. We surely can do with some wide roads, cleaner mithi river and better trains. Wish these politicians cud once think abt the people rather than themselves :(

Undeniably, Bombay has something magical about it. There is some kind of an unexplained attraction, for some its money and for some fame. But sincerely I still feel Bombay can't beat Delhi, u just can't compare the two in terms of wide roads, green pastures, open spaces and amazing street food. I miss Delhi, boo…..hooo….hoo :(

My Space

2006-03-07T02:40:00.000-08:00

My Space! What a cliche` title, but what the heck, cudn't think of a better name. Guess it goes well with my state of mind. My space, a place, a space where i can speak (err...write) my mind freely. To start with, I am Eisha, working in an organiation where either there is too much work or just abt no work for days altogether. So hoping to find substantial amt of free time so that I can update this space regularly.

I have shifted to Bombay a while ago, and i really miss my home-town. Wow, home-town sounds like some far-flung village, I am from Delhi.
New city, new people, had alot of new experiences. I have a lot to share, so wud write more tomorrow. Meanwhile, those of u, who come across my blog, even by fluke, plz plz post a comment.
More later........ take care!
cheers!