Ganpati Bappa

Having lived in Dadar for almost 30 years since my birth, I have had the privilege of viewing the Ganeshotsav year after year, each year fascinating me more and more. Attending Ganeshotsav at my friends residence, participating in the revelry accompanied with it, going for the visarjan at the Beach behind our residence, sitting on our building terrace and viewing the sea of humanity and the Idols popping the sea was my yearly ritual. During the last days of Visarjan, when most of the bigger idols were brought for visarjan was always spend sitting at the Shivaji Park Maidan “katta” and enjoying.

After shifting to Kandivali, since my residence is not on the main road, I miss the processions, the fun. I have tried and made it a point to accompany the Visarjan of my building people, but something was lacking. I was missing my friends, my Shivaji Park. This year, by Gods blessings, we managed to keep the Idol at our residence. The atmosphere for 2 days at our residence was rightly described by my grandmothers as “a wedding atmosphere”. The stream of guests, relatives, family and friends was something which kept us charged.

My heartfelt gratitude to all who made me get that one feeling which I was missing since last 6 years. I am eagerly waiting for the next year….with the words on my lips “Pudchya Varshi Lavkar Ya”(Come early next year)

Kaminey---Indian Pulp Fiction

Rarely one gets to see such a movie in Indian Cinema. There have been dark movies like Satya, or other low budget movies. But this movie takes the cake. Its a superb movie, makes you sit glued throughout, lest you miss out on something, slowly picking up on its sub-plots and finally entwining them together. Shahid Kapur has played a role of a lifetime after Jab We Met. There unfortunately he was overshadowed by the fiery Kareena Kapoor, but here he has a “double” chance to prove he can act. Dhan Tan Nan is a head banger song, and fits in the movie so nicely, its not the thrown in kind of a song we see normally in Bollywood movies. Many people would get confused with where the story is heading, but such was the case with Pulp Fiction. I would say this movie is the Indian Pulp Fiction. All in all I would say, got a see a good movie after a long time.

The unknown face

Being on the social networking for so long, I have set one rule for myself, never to add an unknown face. I dont care if my number of friends dont go up. I am quite happy with the limited people I have. This is how I am trying to protect my privacy and also my friends whom I have added.

Many a times, one receives request from people about whom you have never heard of, friends of friends, who are maybe trying to set a record of having the maximum number of friends in their account. I have always confirmed with the “mutual friends” about their identity and to my shock have discovered that even they have added only because they are sharing the same person with “mutual friends”. This trend is very dangerous and can lead to a lot of complications.

A number of times I have also mailed back these requesters asking them to indentify themselves more clearly. Some have sent back their identities, some have accepted the fact that its a case of mistaken identity. But one person whom I have lately corresponded has not only managed to raise my anger level, but has also gone to the extremes of accusing me of accepting friendship only on face value. I have refused the request, but the reply has certainly bugged me and on enquiring I have discovered that this particular person has an habit of criticizing people, coupled with the fact that that most of the persons friends have no inkling about the true identity.

Social networking is about socializing but while doing that we should not forget that we should behave in the same ways as if we are meeting in a civilized society. We do get oddballs over there also, but then we are facing a oddball with a face. Not someone who is creating trouble while keeping the face hidden. I am not ready to accept this unknown face, and will never ever do so.