The Other Side of Life

Last week, I became a part of a revolt. Unknowingly, unwittingly, I became a part of a mob. It seemed like a turning point in my life of sorts. It so happened that I was driving along the famed Silk Board Junction in Bangalore during peak hour traffic.  For the unacquainted, in Bangalore, Silk Board is the equivalent of a black hole. It is forever in a jam, be it morning, evening, night, Saturday afternoon when the whole world naps, Sunday night when people retire early to bed - It doesn't matter to Silk Board traffic, it is in a perpetual jam mode. In fact, we have a famous joke here: Interviewer during job interview: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? Job Seeker: Hopefully, i would have crossed Silk Board traffic. Interviewer: Wow, you dream big. You are hired. You get the picture? That's how it is here. Anyway, so I was driving along Silk Board and one of the crossings there, was being manually managed by a Traffic Policeman. A...

Last night, the husband and I had an argument. On what would probably the most pressing issue of our times. You are thinking Black Money. Or US Elections. Or AAP. Or Corruption. Nope. None of that is as important as what we argued about. The origin of this: Pic Courtesy: Google Images That's right, world. The origin of Gujiya is what we argued about. I said the lovely Gujiya originated in North India, while Sherlock (mistakenly) believed the (not so) lovely Kajjikayi from South India, was actually Gujiya. Honest mistake, frankly. I mean, they did make a bad copy. But let's not get angry. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery and all that. The problem is not the Gujiya.  It's about the Chaat. Delhi chaat is tastier than Hyderabad Chaat. It's about the Rasgulla. Delhi rasgulla is spongier than Hyderabad rasgulla. It's about the roadside Chowmein. Delhi Chowmein is a more authentic cop...

In 1999, the biggest fad of our lives was Cable TV.  Our TV had suddenly graduated from 2 channels to a glorious 46 channels. The remotes ended their 20 year strike that year and the unused numbers finally had some utility - they had a purpose to their lives now - to show channels beyond double digits to their owners. But for that generation of teenagers, the most exciting part of Cable TV was the Cablewala Movie Channel. In typical middle class households, TV viewing till then was restricted to Doordarshan News at 9 pm and a few shows like Shriman Shrimati and Rangoli. Movies on TV meant the oft-repeated classics of Sholay, Chupke Chupke, Chamatkar on lazy Sunday afternoons. To a starved generation like that, you gift a channel like this and what you get is pure glee. The Cablewala Movie Channel was a legend in itself. On Fridays, first day first show, all the cable guys would book tickets, sneak in a cheap video camera into  single theatre shows and record the ...

If I had to pick a low point in Indian advertising, I would pick Radio ads. I spend 2 hours listening to radio everyday and this is the split of the listening content: 3% - Good songs 17% - Songs that are so bad, you would rather scratch your nails on a blackboard and wince in irritation than listen to these songs 10% - RJs talking, most of whom I don't mind at all 70% - Ads. So many ads. Random ads. Bad ads. Ads. Ads. And Ads. In fact, the ads are so bad, that I didn't even want to add my sarcastic comments to them. They are funny in themselves. (But of course, I just had to add my comments too). I collected the best samples from Bangalore radio ads. Have a look: Ad 1: Husband: Honey, do you realize how much time we spend indoors? I wake up in the bedroom - indoors, sit in a car and go to office - indoors, attend meetings - indoors, work - indoors and come home to... Wife: ..Indoors. Oh my god, yes! It's the same with the kids! Husband: An...

I don't know if most people feel like this, but Sherlock and I walk out of every movie with the feeling that our character resonates with the protagonist. By "our", I mean he thinks he is like the lead and I think I am like the lead. Only problem is that we both are diametrical opposites. So how does that work, huh? Doesn't matter to us though. Because in our heads, the movie was made on us. After watching Sully, Sherlock told me how he is exact same calm person under pressure. After watching Sully, I was thinking how many times I had think on my feet as a part of my job and how that's the exact same thing Sully did. After watching Tamasha, Sherlock told me he is stuck in the wrong job - that he was never meant for an actual office job. After watching Tamasha, in fact, while watching Tamasha, I was thinking about quitting and taking up blogging full time because that's what I was meant to do. Good thing we didn't do anything like th...