Monthly Archive

Starting April 2005, I have spent lot of money on things which I could have easily avoided. Be it lavish only Auto [No bus] daily rides to office, biweekly Hot and Crispy at KFCs, buying anything at malls (thanks to the CCs) or frequent Flight tours (could have been restricted to train), money was never a matter of consideration for me. I have enjoyed all those ventures and had fun. Seriously, no repentance for any of them.

Now many things have changed and last December (2006) had a strong impact on me. After many years of reluctance, I had to land at my ancestral village, a small village in East Champaran. Taking pride in hosting Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha and also known for birthplace of Animal Farm fame author George Orwell, East Champaran (district of Bihar) is still far away in providing basic amenities to commoners. Compared to last time (some 10 years back), many new changes have come in people’s life but still much needs to be improved. Ten years back there was no electricity supply in our village. Now it has come but only for 2 hours in night, that too with low voltage. Casteism is as strong as before. People with so called lower caste are still unfit to avail many basic facilities. The then few landlines have transformed into cheap friendly mobile phones [thanks to lifetime free offers].Majority of the things were perturbing but had in fact very little effect on me. Anyway it is their ignorance and ill habits and they rightly deserve their present condition. If other places in country can do remarkable progress why can’t they. Moreover I was not going to stay there so anyway I should be bothered. But my selfishness does have some limits and I knew that somewhere I was wrong. The condition of children really made me sick. They were still going though the old conventional upbringing. Village school has got a new building but I doubt if the quality has improved since last time. Parents still don’t give enough importance to education and nutrition wise also children live in unhygienic environment. I know majority of them are very poor without land. Problem is not with the fact that they are currently in this condition. Problem is the fact that they have accepted the so called fate and are not willing to make any effort in right direction. Many times I am confused if they know right direction. I am telling this because the few educated villagers also still consider their daughters as liability and which finally ends up with early marriages, big families. This is true with so called educated, global urban India also where many well to do people do not hesitate in asking for some 1 Crore dowry and that too as their right. But unlike cities, girls in village have no say at all. All Facts were plain and I knew them beforehand but meeting them face to face was quite painful, embarrassing and that filled me with guilt. Painful because almost everyone who was suffering belonged to My village, embarrassing because now and then I will be introduced as one who has many places in world and guilt was obvious – Have I done any single thing to make a difference in anyone’s life? When I joined my second company there was an option of monthly contribution of some Rs 500 for some Child Welfare. I did think for some moment but eventually like many of us decided not to contribute. So, if I can’t make such monthly contribution and can have thousand rupees worth Hot and Crispies per month what’s the big deal? After all it is my money. Finally it has become a big deal now. Not that I have stopped hanging out at KFC but have started diverting funds at some meaningful ventures.

Samsung India (SISO) has associated itself with Child Welfare Ashram called “Geeta Ashram”. Its monthly program of visiting ashram caught my attention in June and one fine weekend I landed there. Situated near Mysore Road, ashram hosts about 50 children. It provides them shelter, food, stationery and takes care for their studies. Meeting them and interacting with them is one of the best experiences I had. I could not understand their language but the innocence on their face, the hope in their eyes and the talent (dance, play, sketches) did say many things to me. We can make difference in few lives. No need go in a big way step by step will do. After that there is no backing out. Apart from the known sites and organizations, if you know some NGOs in Bangalore which are helping children especially girls, please let me know. Moreover we can also make small group and can venture helping them in the best possible way suited to us. So, interested people please pour in.

Last month witnessed many experimental channels and movies. Although I knew but realizing the fact that “Boredom can force you to do anything”, was quite a different experience. Let me start with the background. Our guestroom Setup Box spiders only know to search Free To Air Channels. And you know what are free channels-Either monotonic government channels or useless private channels. Here we do get DD1 and is good in fact sometimes (is broadcasting India’s Tour to England).Some new channels like ETV and Sahara are also good source of Indian news. Leave them and majority of Tamil, Telgu, Kannada and Malayalam Channels, finally I initially I used to settle for Zee Smile/Zee Music and Star Utsav. One thing that I and majority of my mates here have understood is that you cannot have as repetitive and monotonic Channel like Zee Music. Let it be its songs, promos, Eye Candies, Bol Bachhan and in fact ads also, it will continuously come so many times that you will start hating them. Thanks to this channel now I have become a big fan[:(] of Akshay Kumar(Eye candy For the Month), Roshni Chopra(the cheapest promo in recent past),Nina Manuel(Nina at Nine)[still I can’t understand what is there in this Lady],and the list goes on…

Zee smile is also most of the times coming with some Tele Shopping Show (I think GTB).Many of us have in fact strong memories of those products. Be it Ganesh brand Panchmukhi Rudrakhsh or some junk Rupayaan cream with Jaya Prada giving big lecture, all have now string impact on us. The height is the ad (I don’t know remember which Channel it is) for Om ka Ramayana Agarbatti.In this both Lord Shiva and Goddess Pravati will be passing near by earth. Parvati will say that she is finding it very difficult to visit earth as it is much polluted. In response Lord Shiva will remark “Don’t worry Devi. Om brand Ramayana Agarbatti hai na!!!”

Star Utsav was the savior for us. The most happening 8:30 to 9:30 pm slot was booked by everyone for Disney hour :).

Browsing through the channels also peeped into old Saregama shows and Kichadi and movies like “Baton Baton Mein“,”Dil Se” and “Josh“.Dil Se is the movie I thought I should have watched earlier. Maniratnam movie with lot of sense and great acting by both Shahrukh and Manisha.Ofcourse Preity was there to add glamour. “Baton Baton Mein” starring Amol Palekar and Tina Munim was another eye soother. But the movie that enjoyed most was “Josh”. Generally I am not a fan of Ash, but in this movie she definitely looks amazing and attitude no match at all.

After Zee Music, the second most repetitive [surely not boring ;)] channel was FTV.

Apart from the above mentioned Free To Air channels, we have quality Korean Channels[Thanks to Korean people for not dubbing].Many English movies, live English Premier League and well labeled channels are good time pass here.

Let me turn to the Movie section now. By movies I mean DVD /CD movies. We are blessed with DVD player in every room. Last time limit was set by “Home Delivery”. Some how I think that our guest house video library takes pride in dumping all Height movies. Many of them I have never heard off. Let me start with a relatively good movie “Good Boy, Bad Boy”. It was real fun and was best among the lot, especially Isha SharvaniJ. .Now comes two great movies which exhausted all my energy and even forced me also (people say that I have lot of toleranceJ) to keep myself away fro DVD player for ever. “Jawani Diwani” and “Naksha” back to back backfired so much that I have pledged that I will never watch any Celina Jetly or Sunny Deol movie. Though I hated them before also [Still I cannot understand how Ms Jetly become the Sexiest Bollywood Herione], my hatred and anger against them has crossed all  kind of exponential limits.

Now finally I have settled for my usual stuff. Just Sleep, Sleep and Sleep…..If by any chance wake up, not allow others to sleep ;).

In my childhood, my sisters would always fight with my mom for the fact that why I only had the nickname. Both my younger and elder sis are very close to me and they will frequently tease my mom with allegationsJ that she loved me most. But they were also aware that that was not correct. In fact my elder brother is the most preferred child and he doesn’t have a nickname. I never missed an opportunity in exploiting this coincidence and now and then make my sis and brother jealous of it.

Now coming to origin of my nickname, it was given by my eldest sister [we are five siblings] and Jijaji. Somehow they didn’t find my name coherent with meJ.Right now still it [nickname] continues to be part of daily life. Not because everyone calls me with that but it has become part of my email id and in fact all ids. My official name is too common for web portals to generate some meaningful unique id out of it.

School gave me another nicknameJ and I was called with it throughout my schooling. I don’t remember who came with that idea but it was very simple one, my initials. Still my school friends call me with the same name. College was fun but somehow luckily I escaped from any new nomenclature there. Other wise like most of the creative namesJ , it would also have to be censored outside campus.

The best coincidence with my nickname [family] came in South Korea. Korean people find it very difficult to pronounce my official name. After looking at my mail id (mail2minku), they were really pleased and told me that minku was also common nick name there and they had no problem in addressing me with that. So after that I was minku for them.

I think I should stop now. Otherwise I am going to get a new one which surely refers to some version of junk.