Fun is never planned

Another week, another list of events ...some good some average, most not worth mentioning. Mumbai celebrated Diwali with much gusto, despite the fall in the sensex... I guess nothing affects the spirit of festivities here.
On Diwali eve, the office was all decked up and so were we... we had traditional wear day and there was a lot of giggling and festivities...as expected I was completely turned off with all the unnecessary giggling even though I had made an effort to dress up in what I hoped to pass off as traditional wear...nobody bothered or noticed anyways.
I was out shooting on Diwali night and was really glad for the opportunity as I had never ventured out on Diwali night in Mumbai and never really knew how amchi Mumbai celebrates it...well, it is the same way as in Delhi, Bangalore or any other place...people burst crackers and create a din, there is a lot of smoke and unnecessary happiness... the fireworks look nice ...but only if you can shake off the smoke that surrounds it and the niggling doubt that kids have been subjected to work in sub-human conditions in these factories.
We were in the middle of the shoot and in the middle of an almost choking attack (courtesy the smoke) when a stray bit of fire from some fire cracker hit my cameraperson bang on his left cheek and burnt his face. The crowd all eager to talk to the camera dispersed in an instant, the shoot was cancelled and we started hunting for a chemist shop... Sunil (cameraperson) meanwhile is hitched on to the compact mirror which Reema (intern) has kindly lent him...it’s a legitimate reason for him to preen in front of a mirror... and like a kid with a new toy, wouldn’t let go of the compact mirror, we had to finally trick him to get it back. For some reason, I came alive (with all my bad jokes) only when Sunil was injured... strange... I am a sadist after all. I kind of enjoyed describing in detail how the burn spread, how the colour and texture of the burn looked, etc disgusting Reema and hopefully scaring Sunil.
The day following Diwali was kind of slow as the hangover of the festivities was still in the air like the smell of fire crackers... there was not much accomplished work wise but we did play truth n dare (without the dare part) and some other game... in office... and managed to embarrass few colleagues and shock others with my wicked mind apparently.
Just realised that fun moments are never planned.

Stress, Riots and Jhankar Beats

When I had started this blog, it was meant to be a disciplined blogger not writing about stray incidents... but I hadn't reckoned on the fact that blogging is a full time occupation...I haven't found the time to pen down so many important events that have happened in the last couple of weeks.

However, since today is kinda a landmark day ....hence can't ignore it ...but like a true Mumbaikar (ahem ...can visualize the Thackerays getting permanent frown lines) I chose to club other issues with it and finish off the backlog!

Well these days is kinda hectic... with the impending launch of the channel, most of my waking hours are at the office, I just go home to crash and shower. I've had my moments of self doubt and the feeling of failure has become a permanent fixture in my mind... I don't seem to motivate my team enough to make them work to the best of their ability and achieve their deliverables. My boss keeps on reassuring me that they don't have the bandwidth to understand the word deliverables, leave alone execute the same...but the fact remains that I am not a good team leader.

With so much stress going on... Raj Thackeray has gone and gotten arrested... His MNS had beaten up non-maharastrains who were applying for railway jobs and since this vigilante behaviour has been going on for some time, the authorities decided to show their power and arrested Raj, thus enabling him to become a bigger hero in the eyes of the public. But amchi Mumbai has a strange way of showing support ...here people start rioting, burning taxis and autos with the rapid action force out with their lathis.

Hapless office-goers think ten times before venturing out...the client presentation is important so is their own safety... what if the rioters chose them to express their anger...do they also display their smattering of Marathi to safeguard themselves or do they beg and plead to get some semblance of sympathy.

That’s an individual choice and I wish all of them good luck to endure one more day like this... as for me, when I left my house I was lucky to find a taxi and auto. However, the auto wallah insisted on playing "Aisi Dewangi, Dekhi Nahin Kabhi, Maine-Tumne" with jhankar beats... I couldn't help laughing at God's sense of humour...the lyrics were appropriate to the situation and the jhankar beats (tudum-tudum....dhinchak...dhinchak...tudum dhish) adding the right tone.

Here's to another day in Mumbai and cudgels to the guy who invented Jhankar Beats!

Puppy Love

As much as I detest kids (I find them to be pesky creatures who are always needy...they either need food, somebody to change their diapers, play with them, talk to them...or simply give them tons of attention), I can’t help being amused by few kiddie things that they do.
I have guests in the house right now; they are my landlady’s daughter and grandson who have stopped over in Mumbai, on their way from a vacation in the US to Australia where they reside. The grandson (Shaan) is like any other kid of his age (3-4 years) who wants to watch Cartoon Network all day and not eat anything and wants everybody to buy him toys.
Couple of days ago, I came back from work all exhausted around midnight, had my dinner, watched the customary idiot box for some time and passed out on my bed. I was woken up by my landlady screaming “what the hell are you doing here”...I woke up all confused and hazy ... “what am I doing in my bed in my room, at this hour??”.... “Playing football”... what did you expect....of course I am sleeping... these words were about to find my voice box but for the simple fact that at that point of time my nerves were not responding to my tired brain... and thank god for that... coz the next second I realized that the little bundle of mischief was sleeping next to me!!!
I didn’t even know he was sleeping next to me... I didn’t hear him open my door, enter my room, close the door and climb into my bed...either he was a pro in climbing into other peoples bed without making any noise or I really am a sound sleeper.
Well, I was apologetic to my landlady who picked up the kid and went out of my room giving me the looks... the next day when the kid was questioned on why had he walked in the middle of the night to my room he said “I wanted to sleep on her body”...mind you...it’s not sleep with her, next to her, with her...its sleep “on” her body. His mom explained that he likes me a lot since we share a similar passion for Cartoon Network...Needless to say I was quite freaked out... maybe the kid knows this is the way to freak me out... as a punishment for not buying him toys... I shall buy him toys today...definitely... I don’t want any kids climbing into my bed... now if that was John Abraham or Brad Pitt ...well ;)

Eid Mubarak

The other day I went to Md. Ali Road with Eliaz, an ex-colleague of mine from Turner... we have been planning to go every year during Ramzan, but were finally successful this year.
The food was delicious... there was chicken (roasted, fried, curried), liver, trotters, tongue, bater(game bird), naan, rotis, mutton, beef chops, seviyaan, malpua, aflatoons, paan, etc... The trick was to eat at the roadside stalls inside of the restaurants.
The frenzy, the fervour that one can witness at Md Ali Road can only be surpassed by the Ganpati Visarjan in Mumbai.
This is a very unique thing about Mumbai and Mumbaikars... every festival takes on a passion that is hard to ignore. Everyone irrespective of religion, caste, creed, race, sex has active participation in all the happenings.
This is truly a cosmopolitan city. However, I was not able to keep all my Roza’s due to a trip to Sindhudurg to shoot a travel show... but no worries, I shall be even more particular next year and will make it up then. But as for now, I shall quickly order some biryani and Haleem...yum!

Btw EID MUBARAK to all!!!

Official Trip

On the eve of World Tourism Day, MTDC took a bunch of journalists to Sindhudurg district to see the beauty of the place. The incentive was a alleged press conference with the revenue minister Mr. Narayan Rane.
Being from the programming side of the channel and waiting to shoot a travel show with the minimum amount of expenditure, I jumped on to the bandwagon with as much gusto as the journalists, armed with 5 bags of equipment (camera, lights, et al) and 2 more bags with personal effects.
The rest of the team gave me suspicious looks, they were armed only with a pen and a note book (the weapon of a true journalist) and an occasional camera or so... I ignored the looks and the language (predominantly Marathi...I only knew a smattering of it) and started briefing my cameraperson on the kind of visuals and treatment that we would need to do.
Seeing our enthusiasm, the others also decided to shoot a small feature or documentary to impress their top brass... more often than not, I found the other camera persons shooting from the same angle as we were.
Unfortunately, the organizers hadn’t counted on trigger happy camera crew like us and most of the 2 day trip was spent on the bus travelling from one place to the other with 5 min stops to see the beauty of the district.
Our first stop was on a roadside restaurant for dinner, where I took out my Handycam to shoot the group in an effort to break the ice and overcome the language barrier, but I wasn’t quite successful.
Early Friday morning found us at a MTDC resort called Madhuvan where we stopped to freshen up and continue our journey towards Vijaydurg. The resort was one dilapidated one where the towels had two big holes as its USP!
Vijaydurg was a fort where few local politicians had gotten together to light the Maashal which was to be carried by a group of runners for the Meet on World Tourism day at Sawantwadi. The fort was surrounded by the Arabian Sea and as part of the run up to the event; there were folk dancers in green skirts (all men!!) and dhol beaters (trance at its best!) and school kids in Shivaji costumes. Unfortunately we could only stay there for few minutes as we had to rush to the next location - Kunkeswar Temple; But not before some 'Ghawne & alu sabzi with Thalipeeth" as breakfast. So what if breakfast was at 1230 hrs in the afternoon, it gave us the energy to play Antakshari in the bus.
We reached Kunkeswar all charged up and shot as much as we could in those 5 min that were allocated to us as we had to rush to the next location Tarkali Beach... I did get the feeling that we were playing the "Amazing Race - Sindhudurg" although there was no prize money at the end of this marathon!
We hit Tarkali Beach around 1700 hrs and headed straight for a sumptuous lunch of "Surmai fry, Bangda curry, rice and Sol Kadi" and post lunch we did manage to shoot some more footage.
Then we were on the road again ... on our way to Amboli resort... we reached the MTDC guest house (thankfully no more towels with holes, although there was no hot water in the shower....actually the shower didn’t work...we had bathe the old fashioned way of bucket and mug) around 2130 hrs. After freshening up, we headed straight to the dining room...there was a lavish spread of chicken tikkas, fried prawns, chicken biryani, chicken curry, rice, chappatis, salad, mango srikhand, etc albeit all cold...since we were running four hours late on schedule.
After dinner, everyone went for a walk, but Sunil (my cameraperson) and me got into battle mode and made plans to get up early to shoot... we reasoned that since the rest of the group would sleep till late, we will get some advantage over them as well as get the morning light.
Saturday Morning at 0600 hrs, we were ready with our camera and tripod in place and shot whatever we could manage till the others got up and joined us.... it was at that point that I just realized what the word “Competitiveness” means... none of the other journalists had a brief from their seniors on making a feature, they were supposed to cover the press conference only, but when they saw us shooting a feature, they wanted to do the same and earn brownie points!
Then we were on the road again to Sawantwadi for the press conference stopping for 5 min en-route to shoot some waterfalls.
Sawantwadi was a small bustling town all ready to welcome the high profile Revenue Minister ... the seminar went as planned (although I struggled to understand the language...I also dozed off in-between) and as soon as Mr. Narayan Rane left the podium all journalists breezed off after him to “Shilpagram” – the art & craft village where the minister answered questions to the eager journalists and where all of us feasted on a lavish spread of Malvani cuisine. There were crabs, different varieties of fishes, prawns, modaks, rice, ghawne, solkadi, etc.
As the day drew to an end, I realized that I had not got enough footage to make a travel show, I pulled all the strings that I could (the producer in me rose to the occasion) and I managed to convince a municipal officer to arrange for our stay and facilitate our shoot. From here onwards the shoot went on smoothly since we were not dependent on a third party.
We left early on Sunday morning to Sindhudurg fort ... to reach the fort we had to take a boat ride and once inside the fort, we lost ourselves in the serene surroundings and beautiful ruins.
After pack up we returned back to Sawantwadi to catch a bus back to Mumbai ...since I was dead tired from the shoot, I slept like a log in the bus till we reached Mumbai... however, that was not the end of the day for me... I got a call from the office for yet another shoot... this time it was to capture the fastest singer in India (or should I say the world?) Shankar “breathless” Mahadevan for the recording of our channel ID...but that as they say is another story...err another blog post ;)