A Stronger City

Always: A city that never sleeps. The City of Dreams. The city that famously braves floods or even attacks one day and still steps out to go to work the next day. The Maximum City- with maximum opportunities.

The year 2020: Hotspot for pandemic. Local Trains stop. Empty roads in the morning rush hour. Financial Capital wears a deserted look.

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I had read somewhere- "Each person's memories are his or her private literature". True!
So, if I have to describe Mumbai, I need to choose from my memories-

• Pav Bhaji on Juhu Beach with family
• Ragi Dosa at Madras Cafe with friends
• Two years of MBA spent mostly by strolling around fancy Hiranandani Powai
• Three months of sales training in Malvani slums of Malad
• Morning walks in crammed roads to office
• Evening walks on the Worli Seaface
• Seeing the Lower Parel skyline driving through Dadar flower market
• Avoiding chawls while searching for apartments to rent in SoBo
• Waiting 17 hours for mom who got stuck in a train near Nala Sopara during monsoon 
• Being happily stuck in lines for darshan at Lalbaug and Siddhivinayak
• First time my parents tasted Naturals' ice-creams
• Next time when my parents visited and insisted on having Natural's ice-cream
• Watching plays at Prithvi theater, St. Andrews and NCPA with friends and colleagues
• Managing with expensive and cramped limited housing options with unfriendly flatmates
• Spending 2-3 hours on Western Expressway in the infamous traffic on Fridays
• Enjoying next 2 days of weekend with my uncle, aunt and cousin

The Maximum city has provided me with maximum experiences- both good and bad. And through these, I have grown up. Like me, millions of others have lived in and loved Mumbai and become stronger through their individual experiences. 

And although the city now is facing the worst, it too will grow up through these tough times to be better place. There may not get a magical, radical makeover of the city after the lockdown, but it definitely will build some immunity for future. I don't know about the changes in processes and policies, but its people will evolve to stronger ways of life. And with that, Mumbai will be 'a stronger city'.

Mahabharat-Twitter Edition

15 tweets capturing my take and take-a-ways from the epic

Time Travel

The world now-a-days feels like Time Travel. Not just the fact that pandemics apparently occur every 100 years or so. The many changes in our lives are now mirroring big episodes from the past. 

"First passenger train runs today..."- is this from a few hours ago; or from the year 1853?

While in 2020 I am Youtube-ing "how to bake a cake without oven"; my mom was doing just that in a pressure cooker back in 1970s. 

Twice-a-day Ramayan and Mahabharat episodes have clearly transported an entire nation to the 1987-1990 Doordarshan era.

Study on weekdays and Games on weekends. I have done this in the early 2000s. I am doing it since late March of 2020 as well. 

[Back then study was like Math, English, Hindi and Social Studies, now it is learning Spanish Language and Culture😎]

[Back then the Games were cards, scrabble, carrom and Tambola. Now, same! 😄]

Speaking of Tambola: 

Have heard on numerous occasions how mom-dad, uncles-aunts and their respective families would all know each other and spend moments together to cherish. Have also heard my parents saying that our generation doesn't have these kind of bonds; all we have is WhatsApp! 

Well, in this world of social distancing, my world is social again. Proof: for last 5 weekends , every Saturday night is spent playing Tambola, on WhatsApp, with-

1. My mom and all her siblings
2. All their children
3. My aunt's cousin
4. My cousins' in-laws
5. My sister-in-law and her siblings

Don't know what Einstein was looking for from his time machine, I got my time travel alright!!

Descent

Monotony sets in

 

Favorite Section of the Newspaper

Day 1: Glad to be home. Parents relieved.

Day 2: I take the car out again. Had started learning driving from Dad last week. From training ground to actual roads, 2nd gear to 3rd. I return and mom lays out the Yoga mat. Post breakfast, I sit with newspaper cartoons and crosswords. 

Day 3: Driving Practice continues. Back home, time for Yoga with mom. A quick Sudoku session. Garfield, funny as always. Calvin & Hobbes, not so much today. Work from Home begins. In the evening, I check my Spanish course's exam date-sheet. Serious Spanish studying begins. 

Day 4: Same as day 3. I see a new Akshay Kumar- Fortune foods advertisement. Love it! Watching on loop now.

Day 5: Much the same. 3rd to 4th gear. Braking. Turning. Yoga. Work from Home. Aprendo español. 

Day 6: Same. A pattern emerges for coming days.

Day 7: All the same. Work meetings all week have been on impact and mitigation and readiness in tough times of COVID-19 era. Stay up all night to finish Spanish assignment. All done, ready to post tomorrow.

A Week of Firsts

Day 8: First weekend arrives. No driving today. Missed Yoga too. Parents blame me, I blame assignment deadline. 

Day 9: First ever nation-wide curfew day. Cleaned my dressing table today- arranged all my cosmetics and jewels in neat lines and cute stacks. Evening session of community clapping is like a never before feeling. 

Day 10: First day without newspaper. Mom tries to cheer me up by deciding to cook different dishes every day. Her first dish- Bisi Bille Huli Anna. 

Day 11: How adorable are Jimmy Fallon's daughters!! Mom's special today- sun dried microwave baked potato chips. 8 p.m.- 21 days' national lockdown announced, starting midnight.

Day 12: First day of lockdown

1. Video chat with baby niece and yoga are now morning constants. 
2. A colleague skypes to remind me that I shouldn't be working today on account of Gudi Padwa holiday for Mumbai folks. Since the word 'holiday' has lost its meaning, I continue working.
3. Have a good lunch, my favorite vegetable Tori is in the menu today. 
4. Dinner video chat with uncle & aunt who are cooking something exotic- Beetroot Tikki  & some firangi salad! 
5. Fizzy Goblet- a pretty shoes company- suggests on Instagram to use this time to do some coloring.                         

Day 13: Watching movie Super 30. It is raining tonight. Smell of geeli mitti 💚

Day 14: Vegetable Dalia's Cutlet in breakfast. Pav Bhaji in Dinner. 

[Feel the need to really say this- I'm extremely thankful to God and trying so hard from writing anything on the real sadness that the world is in].

Day 15: First episode of Mahabharat on Doordarshan 

[Also, cannot stop thinking of millions across the globe who are affected. Never lived in a constant fear. Please God, help]. 

Losing my nerves

Day 16: I text 15 of my friends and colleagues: 'hi' and 'hope you are safe'. All of them are. They ask me the same. My reply, same. Sudden bouts of "how-are-you", check.

Day 17: I see a "to-be-bride" wish-list/meme and send it to 3 friends captioning "This is so me". Turns out I texted to 2 of my friends and to my mom. #textfail, check.

My mom is happy that my mind is on "the right track". Oops🙈

Day 18: Have no memory of the day...

Day 19: Navratri's Ashtami a.k.a. Kanjak, a.k.a. Poori-Chole-Halwa day. Had multiple halwa servings throughout the day!! Binge eating, check.

Day 20: 

1. Morning- I am upset at my mom for not waking me up on time (although I never wake up on time and mock her for treating me like a school kid who needs to be woken up on time)
2. In between- Work From Home
3. Night- Mom catches a tear in my eye as I see Bharat (in a scene where Bharat doesn't know that Ram has been ordered exile) #RamayanOnDD
4. Later that night- I am completely mad that Nattu Kaka and Bagha are protesting against poor Jethalal and now stupid reporter Anarkali is running a smear campaign against Jetha (completely forgetting that Jethalal's problematic life is the very premise of Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chasma)
5. Late late night- I find out that my flatmates back in Mumbai are in even tougher situation, now that the building has reported a patient and entire society there is under quarantine. 

This I guess was my body reacting to the mental toll of global tragedies, confinement and uncertainty that I had been suppressing for many weeks now. 

This is not only about the last 20 days. For me, it all started in January, when my office canceled a work trip because our China colleagues couldn't travel due to a "flu" and we were advised to "rethink our travel plans", and when in February our European bosses started talking of business contingency plans; also when towards the start of March my parents said if I could stay back after the Holi long weekend to ultimately when I boarded that train back home, praying all through the 6 hours of that journey that I don't get infected. 

My many years of wish 'to be with my parents and work from home' had come true, and that was what gave me a sense of happiness; masking the sadness- precisely the reason for this mental descent. 

Prayers

Happy New Year!

I am not an atheist, nor am I a pious lady. Just a simple believe-in-God kind. Someone who tries to pray every morning, but misses more often than should. It is not a part-of-life like it is for my parents.

But my praying habits are not like those who mentioned in the Hindi doha "dukh mein sumiran sab karein, sukh mein kare na koy.." [everyone remembers God in sorrow, no one thinks of him in times of joy]. My prayers have been in all times- sad/happy/neutral.

Some in family pray first thing in the morning, some twice a day, others during the day (in between a commute or in the waiting rooms with praying beads), some by scribbling Lord's name in notebooks and a few towards the end of the day before lying down for sleep. Schools had morning assemblies, which means that for 12 years, I prayed every morning. Most of it was just singing, but it was consistent. A routine.

Now my prayers are less songs/hymns/mantras and more words. Words, that change with time, and which are either a request or gratitude for a request fulfilled. Words about wordly affairs like work, visa, marriage, travel etc. Occasionally about bestowing 'sadbuddhi' (loose translation=good brains) to my flatmates :P (funny but earnest request).

Elders say that praying leads to feeling positive. Never prayed so fervently to feel much but anytime I see my baby niece folding hands and flashing all of her 8 teeth when someone says 'jai jai', there is a sudden wave of positive that flows all across me. I admit I'm drawn to a gurudwara for the halwa (prasad) & to a church for the architecture and whenever I go to mandirs, jumping up to ring the bells draws maximum of my focus. But a quiet chat with God, after dressing up in the morning, is very concentrated amount of feel-good I feel.

And now, since my brain is not able to end this post in any other way, here's a true story-
Class I, age 6: my teacher had asked me if I knew what my name means. My reply was that Vinti means prayer to God!

Movie Review: The Sky is Pink

source: Google Images (duh!)

The Sky is Pink

Director: Shonali Bose

Starring: Priyanka Chopra Jonas; Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim and Rohit Saraf

Based On: a real life story of Aisha Chaudhary (the montage in the end is the actual short film)

Review:

The movie is filmed like a train of thoughts. Or a string of memories. It toggles between past and present, Delhi and London, before and after.

It is story of parents- whose child is born without an immune system, because of a genetic disorder. It is also a story of a brother-who grows up awaiting his younger sister's imminent death.

The movie touches upon so many sensitive topics- abortion, disease, transplants, psychotic break-down, death and grief. 

While the doctors recommended the child remain in isolation, to avoid any chance of infection; it is really the isolation in which her family members lead their lives that leaves a mark. In the face of it, they all were together in good and bad times. But really, each one was on their own. 

The mother (Aditi) had dedicated her day and night to looking after her girl, with a singular focus to provide her baby with every emotion and experience. 

The father (Niren) had spent all his life working harder to earn money and happiness for his family, putting the brave face that dads do; so that their families cannot see the inner crushing of soul. From someone who first thought of aborting the kid fearing a complication, to someone who would risk a transplant just so that his daughter's life can be extended by a few more years, the man changed a lot between Chandani Chowk and London  .

The brother (Ishaan) who was the kid who got separated from his mom at a young age, who grew up to being the cool big bro and finally the son who lent his lap to his grieving father when the time comes.

+ve points: 

1. The brilliance of the movie is that all the above sad story arcs are narrated humorously by the deceased girl herself; delivering grown up, heavy content in the teen, take-it-easy lingo. 

2. Some tracks from the movie that I particularly identified with include:

(i) The radio station bit, shot in Southall, where Niren gets rewarded for his faith in humanity

(ii) the instance where Aditi reproaches the house help to be extra cautious while preparing food for her daughter- the expressions of actors playing the cooks are so real, it is not just a movie scene but an actual scene from any household.

(iii) the teen pool party where Ishaan would rather jump in the pool than being nagged by his mom to play a matchmaker between his classmate and his sister.

My Verdict: A must watch.

My other movie reviews☺️

Just Because.

I wrote my first piece when I was in class 4th. That was a poem. That followed with many other poems, short stories, a play and ultimately blogging.
While my writing style evolved from poetry to blog, the content changed from fiction to anecdotes (and the occasional book/movie/tv-series reviews). My words were appreciated by some, dismissed as confusing by others and even led to a few fights back in the day (so proud!)

In the recent past, some of my posts mentioned how things weren't going my way, and then a hope that they will. Now, they have started to. But one thing I realized that has changed is not the circumstances, but my own interests.

From some-one who read so many books and wrote so many posts, I now am some-one who keeps on drafting posts in her mind but out of sheer laziness, seldom pens it down. Most of this is also attributed to the binge-watching of all the content being streamed now. I recently read 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood and earlier this year saw one of the cleverest shows on American politics- 'Veep' starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus; and have been meaning to review those two. But I haven't.

Last year, I had started learning Spanish on Duolingo (my favorite app of all times). Earlier this year, I started pursuing a Certificate course in Spanish Language and Culture. People asked me if I was doing this to get a job in a Spanish speaking land. The answer was no. This was my 'just because'. Started on really strong, but like many other interests, it took a backseat too- laziness fueled by infinite stream-able content again took over the steering wheels here.

This changes right now. I have an exam to sit for to achieve the first level of certification in Spanish. With this post, I am not going to vent out sad feelings or paint a story. What this post is for me to discipline myself to get back to the thing I started 'just because' and take it to the finish line. I decide to study all the 16 units and revise all of them, so that towards the end of this year, I ace the Spanish test, much like most tests that I have sat for. Not just that, I will publish at-least one blog-post written entirely in Spanish by the end of 2019. You know, just because.