everywhere is war...

...and what a noise they make about it!
here, mad bose with his ott installation!!

good evening!

when? just when will they ever blast off??!!

good morning!

view of the newly thriving "forest" and beyond!

old friends

mira and swati went to nursing school together some 25years ago!
Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears...

brother n sistah reunion!

when they were kids my dad would take them double-seat on his bicycle...ride out to town (nagpur/goa) and show them the sights. two years ago, anil (madman) n my sister came up here to taleigaon for the first time n feel in love with it. robbing mangoes n beros n getting pasting!...the older you get the more you reminisce... rohit didn't come coz he would get bored with us "old people"!...jim didn't make it nor did s or lin...but our hosts more than made up for them! ;)

wheeeee!

driving with my sister is to drive back in time...promptly she hooked up her ipod to the music system n we begun with "honey, you are my shining star" and wound right back to our childhood...riding the bicycle with her walkman blaring in my ears...remember "flashdance"? the unfolding swollen deccan landscape segued perfectly to scenes from teacher's colony to telenkari ...o to be able to stop up before rajmachi point n soak in the mist...something you can't do when you're whizzing past in a bus or cab...o what joy! thanks baby!

wheeee

i did it...finally! drove to pune and back on the expressway for the first time since learning to drive 2months ago! and man, it was such fun!...since the time i've been back from camp i've been aching to drive out of town n with everyone making plans for the long weekend, i didn't want to feel left-out...so quickly checked with mira n she was game...i was nervous but sooo excited i almost didn't sleep. the idea was to drive out of town, find a nice picturesque spot by a river/lake n pitch my newly acquired tent!but there wasn't need for that coz mira's friends' parents insisted on us coming to their cozy bungalow nestled in taleigaon, near pune.aunty o she made the most divine meal for us - alu leaves with kaju, stuffed capsicum, steamed rice coconut jaggery in tumeric leaves, etc...she n uncle tend this lil garden full of plants, veggies n fruit...uncleall of 80...what stories he had! how mr cambatta of cambatta aviation and eros cinema fame would step into his buick convertable, light his cigarette at four bungalows n wooosh! he's step out in front of eros n stub off the cigarette - that's how fast he drove way back then in the 1940's when there was only that much traffic! even then, he'd tip the cops along the way 5rupees to let his car zip thru!! amazing! his memory is razor sharp n i must go back for more stories...about the war, about independence, about the patils in andheri west...but it was the first drive that thrilled...my speedometer, i realised didn't go beyond 70kmph so i had no idea of the speed i was doing...but we reached in 2n half hours!! of course, i stalled once in the fast lane which made mira v nervous, but other than that it was fairly smooth! man, the car wasn't the fuel guzzler it was like it is while inching along in bombay...i did 300km n still had a quarter tank of gas left!! and whoever said lpg compromises pick-up etc...it was a breeze! i hope more n more people move to the less polluting gas option...so goa here i come ;)

yaay! our first gold in years!

cheers to abhinav bhindra! quiet, unassuming and sans emotion...he stood on top of the podium making us o so proud!...secretly i am hoping we lose cricket ;)

the dragon is king!

...if you caught even so much as a glimpse of the spectacular opening ceremony of the beijing olympics, you will agree that this century belongs to china...who tibet what tibet? while india pales into oblivion...higher faster stronger just got "bigger" added to the motto...the biggest, most expensive yet...

ranjan's forever young

...just watched ranjan palit's "forever young" - his latest film or should i say labour of love? i mean, we knew he'd been going each year to shillong for dylan's birthday celebrations and we knew ranjan's wonderful dylan act - guitar harmonica n song and we know how extraordinarily good a cinematographer he is...so when i heard it was ready, i couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy n see it...the usual suspects let me down, but thanks naresh...
...so much love!...in every frame, and tenderness...the man - lou majaw shone thru with all his imperfections and brilliance! what a character!...the narrative unfolding with just the right balance between the music and the spoken word. hardly felt the length, something ranjan seemed so concerned about when we spoke later. and some lovely transitions...of course, the end makes me want to send my daughter to that all-girls convent school in shillong where the head-mistress/principal invites the band to play for the students because exams are just over!! and what does the madman break out into? - everybody must get stoned!! :)
now to get a nice big screening going here in bombay...(and no, not a sweaty overcrowded sittingcrossleggedonthefloor screening ;)