Postcards From J

It’s the remix age. The time for remakes to take centrestage. Can renaming be far behind then? What do I want renamed? DIWALI . Yes, you heard it right. The ‘festival of lights’ has long been dead. So, now I propose to rename it to ‘ Awaazwali ’ – the festival of noise. Maybe I could drum up support through an online petition. It seems like the in-thing to do anyway. NOISE RULES. Period. My teenage neighbour lets arrogance get the better of him. Here I am, shouting from my third floor balcony at about 11:00 pm telling him to stop bursting those ear-splitting festival crackers. The only person going crackers is me and probably the 90-year old lady from the adjoining building. I have an article to write and my brain only works late at night, thanks to the few golden moments of silent bliss. My article is not even in outline form. First and foremost, the boy and his co-conspirators have violated the deadline set for bursting crackers (and other assorted noise). In a circular of the housin...

2006 is turning out to be a year of babies. Everywhere I look, I see someone I know expecting a baby. And recently, in the space of one week, I visited three newborn bundles of innocence :) born to first-time parents... And some more are on the way... Good Luck to all the parents and to these beautiful bachhas!

Starting today, I'm going to keep my finger on the pulse of this wonderfully weird and vibrant city called Mumbai. I will update you on anything and everything that catches my attention in posts titled "Mumbai Tadka". So be prepared to get the latest gossip and goings-on. Who knows, even you, yes YOU can be quoted or featured here! Overheard in the 8:46 AM Churchgate Slow today: Sari-clad woman bitching about a whole lotta men (possibly at work) to salwar kameez-wearing missy: "... and that Rahul nah is ultra smart." Methinks "ultra smart" is English for "maha shaana".

Yup, its my happy budday day ;) and I turn 27. Wait, should I say I complete 27? And that I'm actually 28 from now on??? Errr... too much confusion! So, I'll just say that I turn 27 on the 27th of the 8th month of 2006. You may be wondering why am I sitting in front of the computer and keying in a blogpost... Well, even I don't know why. When this year began, I decided that I would bring in my birthday in a big way. Lekin as they say, some things are never meant to be! So, what should I do now? Reminisce? Mope? Get drunk? Celebrate??? Hmm… celebrate! But what? I’m still single, still not financially independent, still overweight, still a hundred light years behind keeping up to n number of resolutions. But I will quietly celebrate because there are some things that I’m truly thankful for. Like… * The company of friends . In the last couple of years the friends have been largely online but I’ve met some of the best through social networking. * My single status , since it let...

Someone forwarded these pictures of the deluge last year! No, this is not to depress you, but to serve as a reminder of what we Mumbaikars have had to deal with - crumbling infrastructure, insensitive governance and a beaten spirit. We can't blame Nature's wrath for everything, can we? Let's be sensitive to our surroundings now. Contribute to a clean and green Mumbai for us and our children. You don't have to join politics to make a difference. Just remembering NOT to spit out of the train/bus window, teaching your child (and adults too) NOT to throw that sweet wrapper carelessly on the streets, and by NOT being blind to our fellow citizens. Live and let Mumbai live!

Sunday mornings usually mean waking up late, followed by a leisurely breakfast and devouring the newspapers. Today also started off the same way. Until the newspapers happened. Suketu Mehta ’s guest column in Sunday Mid-Day moistened my eyes. I feel like weeping uncontrollably. The past two weeks have been hard for Bombay – my city, the city of dreams. But whose dreams are we talking about? Last night, my friend Minella delivered a healthy baby boy weighing 3.5 kilos. What kind of a future are we bequeathing him? Is this the city that he can be proud of living in? Will he grow up as a carefree kid playing gully cricket without the imminent fear of terrorism looming large? We haven’t mourned for our dead. We moved on, thanks to our famed ‘spirit’. I haven’t grieved at all; that’s why I have this sick feeling in my stomach and now I want everyone to really mourn not only for the 190-odd people who have died in the serial bomb blasts but also for the city of Bombay (or Mumbai). The peopl...

I watched her as she squeezed herself between two strangers, one being me. We were sitting on the 3-seater of the bus' top deck. My tired eyes barely noticed her face when suddenly, I realized the burkha-clad woman had a child in her arms. He was tiny, frail and very very fragile. I love children. Love to hold them, to play with them, to entertain them and be entertained myself... But this child somehow held my attention in a different sort of way. I was almost afraid to even touch his chin. A conversation with the mother followed. I asked her how old he was and she held up her hand and indicated 5 months old "lekin bahut bimaar rahta hai" . That got me curious, so I probed a bit. They live in Govandi , a suburb in central Mumbai, close to Chembur. It turned out that the little fellow was physically weak since birth. "Woh tho royaa bhi nahin..." , she said with a sad face. The children’s hospital was unable to make him well and many people had asked her husban...