Silence ! It’s a blast (again!)

... and it happened again here – in the so called calm & safe city – Pune! 

It was February 13, 2010, when it happened for the first time on such big & serious scale at German Bakery and it’s August 1, 2012, almost a couple & half year after that & not at all serious though, but it happened ! A series of bomb blasts took place on one of the most crowded streets of the town – J.M.Road. People suddenly realised that the mobile networks were disconnected. They started sharing the news with relatives, friends & I was really surprised to get messages from people who have hardly been in touch since past 3-4 years. What is that one cause that makes people so panic about whatever happened & that too without knowing the details?

One of my colleagues happened to be a witness (yess – I mean witness!) of the this so called series of blasts yesterday as he was passing by at Garware Bridge & heard some tyre burst on his left. Being a ‘biker in Pune’, he literally ignored it & went ahead. In a few minutes he came to know that it was a ‘blast’. Damn!

A thought always comes to my mind about mob psychology especially when it comes to any such incident - be it any protest, or a calamity, or a local train accident, or a mishap like a blast. ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ is something that is always appreciated by people (who know what Mumbai city is all about). I honestly feel that a city like Mumbai & now Pune never has any option but to show the spirit. People, who normally are victims of such accidents or blasts, are the ones who work to eat & eat to live. On 1^st August, fortunately no damage happened - mainly no human died. I’ve seen relatives of victims screaming ‘why us?’ whereas actually the scream should sound ‘why blasts?’

I wonder who the hell has time to gather detonators & inflammables & connect them with pencil cells or whatever, and keep it in some plastic bags & throw in dustbins to take blast a place. The one who does it all, I’m sure he does it for money. But there are many other better ways to earn money but to spread fear or kill people. I know it’s so easy to say this or to write this on a virtual paper & post it on internet; but it honestly disturbs me when I hear any news of such damage anywhere in the world. Moreover it further disturbs me to know the fact that I’m extremely unable to do anything about it but say ‘Alas! Again!! :(’.

They say the investigation is going on & the suspects have been identified & what not! There is a saying in English – ‘prevention is better than cure’. We all are so habitual of finding cure for everything… wherein ideally we should go for preventive measures. I don’t know when we all will understand the meaning of it. Hope there will be a day when we would say ‘it is safe to live here!’

Till then friends, take care of your own selves!

Abhijit

Baby here, baby there, baby baby everywhere !

It’s been more than 20 days that I’m thinking of writing on this topic. Finally I think I’m able to manage it tonight!

It’s been about past 4-5 months that I’ve been hearing all news of various ‘would be moms’ from here & there from my relatives or friends. My own sister delivered a baby boy on June 14^th. Immediately on the next day, i.e., on June 15^th, another friend of mine who was in Vashi for her delivery got a baby boy. About a month before she had her prince, one of my friends, who stays in the same building where I stay, delivered a twin – a boy & a girl. My sister’s friend since school days got a baby boy too. Some of the relative’s son became a father of a sweet girl sometime in May, one of my colleagues became a mama too in 1^st week of June, a couple of news I heard from my parents was about the same. I heard/saw not less than about 12-13 babies born in last couple of months. Baby here… baby there…. Baby baby everywhere!

I’m sure people must be feeling more than happy to have a cute baby at home… especially those who become parents for the first time in their lives alongwith their ‘proud’ parents as grandparents. Observing the new born prince or princess doing all innocent acts is fun in itself. One hardly notices how much time ­­is spent watching those funny acts. The overall process of having milk, trying to understand things that people keep on saying, warm massage, bath & above all the dramatic/melodramatic expressions during ‘pee & potty’ scenes and diapers changing activity.

I always wonder what babies must be thinking when they stare at some person. I don’t think any scientist or psychologist will be able to invent any such machine or device that would measure the intensity of thoughts in a baby’s mind.

I still remember seeing my sister growing up about 25 years ago & now it’s time to see her son growing up. Accepting wishes from relatives & friends for being ‘Mama’ is fun… as it comes without any efforts. But I feel happy about it. I’ll be even happier to know that all babies mentioned above will someday have their babies… and I’m sure today’s new parents will give me the news of becoming grandparents when I’ll be in my late 70’s. I will certainly wait for those moments!

- Abhijit

3 C’s for many R’s

We always hear about vitamin ‘M’, we learn about 2 P’s to achieve success, 3 A’s to achieve certain goals etc…. or something like that! I don’t know how far these alphabets turned abbreviations matter, but I found 3 C’s in the same line of thought.

3 C’s - Conversation. Communication. Connection. to maintain many R’s, i.e., Relations (Relationships) in life.

Conversation conveys thoughts, Communication confirms the intake of the same at the other end; and Connection turns out to be a result of proper give & take of thoughts. It’s not a very great philosophy as such, but I get surprised that people are moving away from these C’s.

I feel sad about it when a friend tells me that she doesn’t get time to even talk to her husband throughout the day. They don’t have dinner together… they don’t spend a few minutes with each other. The reason can be anything. In spite of having kids, in-laws or many other errands to finish; no human can be so busy to have no time for a few words with the ones whom he/she is living! People are getting habitual of pretending to be always busy. Busy with what? Work? It’s good to earn money, but not at the cost of your own family, friends and your loved ones. Today world has become so fast that it’s practically not possible to meet people physically… but that doesn’t mean one can’t stay connected with others.

The earlier generation (folks who are in their late 60’s now), many couples were working & still were able to manage things. Kids of my generation grew up & doing well today! Stress level wasn’t the same those days though; they were running behind basic necessities for their family. Today, the stress level is quite high… but most of us are running for extra-comforts – rather luxuries! Earlier the fight was for survival, now-a-days it has become a fight for better & even better life… which is a never-ending fight! It will be just passed to the next generation & that’s it!

As they say – money can buy you a bed but not sleep, we (that includes me too !) should try more to get good sleep & not just huge costly bed !! So let's go ahead with good Conversation, better Communication to stay in Connection & keep many R's through these 3 C's !

Cheers!

Abhijit

Winter Collection (of memories)

The days after diwali never reminded me about sweaters, jackets, hand-gloves, shawls, fur-caps etc. till I started touring regularly. Mumbai was never a city of ‘cold’. There are only 2 seasons in Mumbai – summer & rains… winter is not meant for Mumbai.

Visiting places like Delhi, Shimla, Manali, Jaipur, Udiapur, Mount Abu, Jammu, Darjeeling etc. made me think about sweaters & jackets and later Pune made me have a few more of them. I really find it funny when my friends from Mumbai say ‘13 degrees! It’s quite cold here this year!!’ Of course, I was one of such people some years ago!

Swimming in ice-cold water of dam in Dahanu during the military camp, enjoying the flowing chilled water of Biyas river & playing in snow at rohtang pass - Manali, luggage transfer & room allotment of over 70 passengers in Mount Abu with 0 degree temperature around, passengers shouting for not getting hot water for bath & myself with my senior tour escort providing the buckets on 4th floor of the hotel at Panchmadhi, boiling hot milk (malai maar ke) in bada kullad (a bowl made of clay) at Gwalior railway station, heavy rains during the 14 km walk to Kedarnath temple with just 1 sweater, a set of hand-gloves & a cap; or post-diwali days spent in Dubai a few years ago & the pre-christmas days in Singapore last year; are some of my lifetime experiences. They effortlessly start screening when it comes to ‘winter’. Unfortunately I never got a chance to visit Shimla in December-January… when there is just snow allover.

I still remember the sunrise seen at Tiger Hill in Darjeeling where we used to reach at 3.30-3.45 am, and temperature used to be around 2 degrees. Freezing cold, hot cup of coffee & sunrise! What a combination!! Though I’ve been there for more than 9-10 times, I would never ever forget the beautiful view of Kanchanjunga peak which looked golden!

For me, winter is freshness, enthusiasm, life! This is a season with 6-7 degrees temperature is one of the very few things that ties me with this so-called city of knowledge where I reside. The world is quite big, rather huge to be everywhere & to enjoy everything in just one small life.

As of now… I prefer welcoming the season that brings sheer joy & energy. It affects almost everything – of course in a good sense! So friends... welcome the season... enjoy the winter... Cheers!

- Abhijit

Then & now – it’s still the same feeling!

Normally people celebrate 1^st January as the day of new year… a new start… a new ray of light… a new hope of life! It was the same day – 1^st January of year 2002 when we had our competition show at Kamgaar Kalyan Theatre, Vikhroli. It was December 27-28 when I had packed my bags from my hometown Thane & had shifted to Pune.

It was august of 2001 when my writer friend came with a script asking me to read it & give my opinion. That was the first time I was obsessed by that script. It was a play of 40-45 minutes then & he wanted it to be performed in some one-act competition. The discussion later ended up on a note that it had to be a complete play of over 2 hours. It of course had that potential.

After a lot of discussions, conflicts, re-writing, efforts for collecting money from all possible sources (those were days when nobody in the group was working & earning a single penny), struggling to find props and regular rehearsals for over 4 months; finally we had a good show on 1^st January 2002. The play won almost 5 prizes. Later, it was august 2003 when I had started working with a new publication in Pune, the play made a history.. same year we performed in the state level competition & bagged a few more! Ranked 1^st amongst 23 participants & was selected for the finals at Ahmednagar. The claps, standing ovation & appreciation continued at Gadkari Rangayatan Thane.

This all came to my mind when I saw the same play some days back at Balgandharva Theatre Pune. The feeling while seeing a well-known actor Pradip Patwardhan playing Dr. Kotnis (the role which I used to play) – the dean of the hospital, is beyond words. He was given maximum movements & actions that I had worked out during the initial phase. I was seeing myself on stage & was enjoying it sitting in the audience at the same time! That was January 2002 & this was January 2012 – the feeling was still the same!!

Scripts are born successful or born dead. ‘Dhan-vantari’ is an example of former. Well… I’m glad that the story of ‘Dhan-vantari’ didn’t end there. It’s still doing well commercially irrespective of the problems it faced at the time of its birth. Wishes to the new professional team.

Cheers!

- Abhijit