The Good Old Hobby List

Hello Reader,

In this first post of the New Year, 2015, I would like to remember some of those hobbies which were important part of my life in my childhood days. Here is a list of those hobbies: 

1.        Collecting Tazos and Tattoos

Chips, Waffers and Bubble gum companies should be thankful to me for growing their business revenues for so many years, for collecting a series of Tazos and Tattoos which came free with them.  A neighbourhood shopkeeper who got to know about my love for these things often helped me in my collection by giving a few tazos or tattoos for free. 

.        Maintaining a Scrapbook

2
I used to stick up interesting pictures, articles cut out of newspapers and magazines in a landscape-type drawing book with blank white pages. It was a wonderful hobby which my friends and I used to take up especially in the summer and winter vacations and then later share our scrapbooks when our school reopened.

3.        Watching Cartoon Network

I really miss watching cartoon network. It was source of great entertainment and a bit of wisdom too. And, I agree to the fact that the CN nwhich is broadcasted nowadays is nothing compared to the classic cartoon network which had unforgettable shows like Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Popeye, Swat Cats, Looney toons, and how can I not mention Tom and Jerry. The list is endless. 

4.        Collecting Action Figures and Hot Wheels

G. I. Joes, Superhero action figures and Hot Wheels’ cars were my favourite toys and they were always on top of my shopping list whenever I had to use my pocket money. Then me and my friend used to create small movie like stories using them and doing little imagination and brainstorming,

5.        Playing Video Games 

Gaming has upgraded in terms of graphics and dimensions but that joy of playing the cassette Video Games was an era in itself. Half of the summer vacation was occupied playing games like Mario, Contra, Load Runner, Alladin, etc. Again, the list is endless. And, among friends, we exchanged the cassettes to play the games which we were deprived of.

This post is a part of #IndiSpire Prompt of last week: 

What is that old forgotten Hobby of yours, which you want share with everyone

Don't Mind. I could not post it on time.

You can  also share with me your favorites hobbies using the following poll. 

What is that old forgotten Hobby of yours, which you want share with everyone?

Collecting Tazos or Tattoos

Watching Cartoon Network

Maintaining a Scrapbook

Playing Video Games

Collecting Action Figures

Collecting Stamps or Coins

Other

Please Specify:

Poll Maker

-Ashish

Diwali: Over the years

Happy Diwali Reader,

 

Here I am, sitting in a small cubicle, staring at a screen which if I don’t, will also make no big difference to the world. So, for a tiny break, I pause to write this as I peep outside of the distant window at this time in the dusk, I already see the sky lightening up by the flowery crackers. The sky outside is different today. It is unusual unlike the ambience inside this room, which looks exactly the same every day.

 

This sky reminds me of the good times, of my halcyon days when the only major issue of this day was whether the crackers would long last till the night. It was also the time when all my family members, scattered all around the country, gathered to celebrate this in all good spirits. With all the shopping, gifts, sweets, new cloths, lights, lamps and colors, of the Rangoli and the good old family jokes, Diwali was complete. Really, I  mean, if Sooraj Barjatya witnessed those Diwalis with us, the togetherness of the family would have definitely made him write a sequel to Hum Saath Saath Hain.

 The preparation of this day always began well in advance. Of course, there are so many things to buy after all. The most important of them, lights: Chinese running lights, to decorate the whole house with, candles, clay lamplights and Crackers. Yes, crackers which came in colorful boxes with pictures of Bollywood actors or Superheroes. I miss those big Bazaars, the stalls which were put up every year. They did offer great discounts too.

 

For all day long, under the bright sun, we used to keep the crackers on the terrace to dry up. No trace of dampness was allowed to hurdle our fun on the Diwali night.

 

In all our bright new cloths, we would first perform the traditional Lakshmi Pooja. After which, the ladies placed the lamplights in every corner of the house. And, then the fireworks used to begin.  The biggest cracker was always preserved for the grand finale. The last cracker to burn would be the most unique of all, which lasts for the longest.

 

The Diwali hangover used to continue even after our schools reopened, when I met my friends after the vacation and discuss and boast how many and which all crackers each one of us burnt. Someone would say, “Oh! I burnt a chain of 1000” and someone else would say,”That’s all! Dude, I burnt a 5000”.

 

What I miss the most these days is the get-togethers, and receiving mails or greeting cards, full of good wishes.  

  

And this year, I will wish that people actually celebrate Diwali in their true spirits and may “Happy Diwali” don’t end up to be a mere facebook or whatsapp message.

 

Have a safe and an awesome Diwali.

- Ashish


GharwaliDiwali

#PepsiCo #GharwaliDiwali

Image Courtesy:
www.beginningwithi.com
canadianimmigrant.ca

When a SUKHOI flew over my head

SUKHOI-SB31 MKI

Hello Reader

I always hated the location of my college campus. Far away from the main Bangalore city, in midst of nowhere. Until, 2 years ago when I experienced my first Aero-India Show. The plus point of this location is that we have an Indian Air Force base across the road. Yes, just cross the road and jump over a boundary and you are on the Air Force grounds (of course, you might be shot for that though).

Two years ago, we found ourselves lucky to witness the Aero India Show happening right over our heads and now we are twice lucky as it has started again.

The thundering sounds reverberating the atmosphere leaves you with goosebumps and high heart-beat rate. Not once you feel like turning your head down when the brave pilots play around with aircraft, faster than the speed of sound, twisting or taking it vertically high and whoosh, they vanish into the blue sky.

The very enthusiastic first timers sprinted towards the hostel terrace, leaving their unfinished work and rooms unlocked as the engine ignited on the runway. And then to cheer the zealous crowd on our hostel terrace, the pilot took one round right over us as if he had just heard the masses lauding for him. For the first time, even the girls were allowed to climb up on the boy's hostel terrace for a better view of the air show. But even the girls failed to make the boys turn their heads when everybody was glued to the sky watching the show-stealer perform his stunts.
"It's an F-16, macha...",
"No dude, it is a Rafael, it has two engines...",
"It could be a Sukhoi too...",
"Can't be, it has two tail wings..."
Everybody was trying to be an expert.

The actual show is scheduled from 6th to 10th of Feb. But, the stir begins from the very first day of the practice session which begins about a week ago. The last day of the practice session, the final rehearsal day was a free entry for the Air Force families and with the help of one of my friend's father, who works there, I got a free entry too.
As soon as I stepped into the Air Force grounds, I somehow became too disciplined. I scanned the area around me, I was surrounded by uniformed men with their families. I walked through the security check and reached very close to the runway. People scattered according to their convince near the fence guarding the runway to get the best view. Some families had bed-sheets spread with lots of home-made food to enjoy with the show.
The vigilance team did their drill before the show began.

The show began with the display of Rafael aircraft. The pilot waved to the crowd from his cockpit before the take-off and the restless crowd waved back, whistled and applauded. And then, the engines ignited. Before I could move my eye lenses left to right to capture the whole motion, the aircraft had already took off with its lightening speed, leaving behind the roaring sound which hit my eardrums after a few seconds. As soon as he took off, the plane went straight up vertically and disappeared for a while. All heads were up, hands upon forehead to counter the sun, eyes shrunk , trying to figure out the jet's position. And then finally, he was back with a free falling motion and with a sudden throttle the plane was horizontal again. He continued to impress the crowd with amazing dare-devil stunts before finally resting.

RAFAEL 

Before the next jet plane, choppers entertained the crowd with different moves. Off all the choppers, team Sarang won hearts with their breath-taking stunts. The team of 4, flying red helicopters, leaves you open-mouthed when they fly so close to each other.

RUDRA

 SARANG TEAM performing stunts

The next jet that was displayed was Embryo used for refilling and RADAR communications, designed at HAL, not yet a part of Indian Air Force.

                         

 Other attractions that made eyes glued to the sky were F-16, Tejas and Sukhoi. Team Red Bull and others would be joining Aero India 2013 from 6th Feb Onwards.

An F-16 getting ready to take-off

Sukhoi ready for action. Can you see the pilot wave?

It was a fruitful experience for me to spend time at such an event and to see our fighter jets from so close with the families of Air Force officials, for whom it was not less than a picnic. Also, I got to learn a lot about these air crafts from very professional people (which later I boasted to my friends). By the end of the day, I was enlightened and full of patriotism.

Next morning, I woke up on my east-facing window-side bed as the sun rose. The sky was roaring again.  I rubbed my eyes to see a jet, tearing the sky, fleeting towards me. Every small thing around me was vibrating.
"It's a Sukhoi", I told myself as it flew over me. 

A hearty Salute to Indian Air Force.
And I dedicate these lines to all the brave pilots:

"Agar dekhna hai inke udne ka andaz, to aasmaan se keh do zara aur upar ho jaye..."

Blog day out

Hello Reader, 

The struggle (you can skip this part if you want)

It was a sunny morning, I woke up, stretched my arms and rubbed my eyes like any usual day. Then there was a sudden realization that there's an IndiBlogger meet today! I checked the time, it was 11 already. Then my thought process began, to go or not to go. The process took time as I am a child born in the era of early Pentium processors. So, after an hour or so, I decided, remembering the million dollar quotes like "Do not miss any opportunity, son" and started from my college hostel, which is very far (about 35-40 kms), from the venue. I somehow reached a nearby bus stop at 1:30, waited for about half an hour to board a BMTC bus to Majestic. It was already late. It was almost 2:30 when I reached Majestic. From there I took the help of an auto-wala to reach near the race course and then thanks to the auto-wala, who confused me and sent me to some other road. Then, after walking for about 5-10 minutes with the golden Sun smiling brightly on my head, I finally saw a distant board saying 'Fortune', across the road. Oh yes, I cursed my fortune for such an amazing start to the day. I crossed the road and I finally reached the venue: JP fortune park. 

The first Impression

Excited to find the venue, I sprinted through the main gate when the guard stopped me at the gate and I explained to him that I need to go to the IndiBlogger meet and that I am a blogger, not a terrorist so he can let me in. I reached the reception which was completely deserted which made me think if I was in a trap or some kind of conspiracy. It was a sigh of relief when I reached the elevator to find a direction to the 2nd floor. I climbed. I finally opened the door to find the conference hall full of people. I checked the time again, 3 it was. I was about 1.5 hours late but then comparing myself to Indian railways I found myself less guilty. I straight away walked towards the end of the hall, took the last row and sat alone. Then I realized that nobody checked my Identity. So, before someone would kick me out, I peacefully went forward and registered myself, came back and sat.

When I reached, "30 seconds to fame" was going on and was about to end. I saw the bloggers introducing themselves and imitating their favorite characters. I regret reaching late to the event only because of the reason that I didn't get a chance to introduce myself to the blogging crowd. It was really hard to find anybody to talk with as I knew nobody so I kept quite for a very long time. Then there was a small 'quote-matching' game where I never found my match. The part of my quote said "Every saint has...". I roamed around the hall, screaming "Every saint has...anybody?" but couldn't find my match. So I ended up finishing the quote myself with "Every saint has a dirty secret". I saw people getting the goodies on their win.
Like an introvert, I went back and sat in the last row as the HP person spoke about the agenda on "being original". After the speech, there was food. Free, of course. In a very civic way, people formed a queue to hog in, suppressing their desire to attack on food. (pun intended) I took my half and roamed around looking at random people, trying to eavesdrop. "Oh! I am your regular reader...", "ya, that travel blog is mine...", "Alleppy! isn't that the place with boat houses..?", "arts and literature..hmm...ya..", "is that beautiful child yours..?", "Marketing is very important..", "Harry Potter is real..." blah-blah...

After the interval

After the 20 minute break, the show resumed with another game where we had to form a group of 15 and mime act a given book title. Now, I had a chance to meet some new people. As I hunted to find a group, a voice from behind called me to join their group. We named it "Original Photocopy" and we got to enact "The Jungle Book". And in 5 minutes we decided the roles and the act. I got the role of a book reader who reads the "Jungle book" and visualizes the story as the characters, the animals and Mowgli come upon the stage and do the rest of the wild-act.
Now, that was fun until the results were announced. There was first, second and worst place. We won none.
After this act, there was a small question-answer round, where randomly selected people from the audience had to answer to random questions asked by random people in the audience. Random questions such as "why this kolaveri di?" and "What if Raavan won over Ram?"
The best answers won HP printers and big round of applause.
The end of the show was near and I was almost heart-broke as I couldn't win anything, neither goodies nor Readers when the host Mr. Anoop, blessed us with the most amazing words of the evening,"left-overs can be snatched."
Before I ran to snatch the left overs, there was a all blogger photo click. And with a positive note, a smile and lots of memories, I left the place.

So, an amazing day comes to an end. The moral for me was: Be punctual.
Nevertheless, I hope to find some known faces in the next IndiBlogger Meet.
Until then, keep blogging and inspiring.

Ashish

A big Thanks to Haper-Collins, HP and IndiBlogger team. 

Naseer Saab

Hello Reader,

The curtains were up and the lights turned off, the chattering of people suddenly stopped and then there was silence throughout the hall as a silent background symphony started. I knew I was excited as I was about to experience my first theatre, “Arms and the Man”, a Broadway play by George Bernard Shaw produced by the Motley theatre. It was a periodic-comedy that takes place in early 1885, during Serbo-Bulgarian War. The stage lights were slowly turned on to focus on and reveal the artists. And then the wait was over as the man took his spot on the centre of stage. The crowd once again came back to life and welcomed him with a big applause.  

Naseeruddin Shah, one of India’s most realistic actors ever was before us. And then, the next 2 hours were bliss to watch my favourite actor live on the stage. Playing a militant from the Bulgarian army, he never once let us disagree that he was out of character. Like the numerous roles he played in the Hindi cinema, this one too left a mark in my mind. My first impression, when I heard the title and genre of the play, was I thought that it would a boring play with elderly audience. I was present there only to watch my favourite actor live. But, I was wrong, there was elderly audience but the play was not at all boring. It kept me hung till the end and the dialogues were extremely hilarious. It was like watching an American Sit-com live. The play ended with Naseer Saab, also the director of this play, giving the credits to his fellow artists who included his own wife Ratna Pathak Shah and Randeep Hooda in the leads. End of the day, Naseer Saab was the winner as he proved the fact that a real actor is the one who needs no retakes unlike in movies. Though I wanted to run to the backstage and meet him personally, I somehow controlled myself with just praising him with applause like all others on the cheaper seats.

The first movie I watched of his was probably Masoom and from then on, I have been an ardent fan of his movies. Maybe, also because I like the kind of parallel movies he does. I started collecting his movies where ever I could get them. Some of my commercial-movie-lover friends started joking around for the kind of movies that I watched and I never bothered to explain them what they were missing. One day, a friend asked me which movie did I watch last night and I said, ‘Parzania’. Of course he had never heard of this movie.

Many such movies like Parzania, Firaaq, Mithya, Maqbool , Being Cyrus, Iqbal etc never got much attention to a bigger audience as much as they deserved it. Of course, they did get much of critical acclamation but got overshadowed by the commercialization and ‘brands’ of Indian cinema.
In his early works, the movies like paar, sparsh, nishant, jaane bhi do yaaron, etc in 1970s did get a lot of attention and he also won filmfare and national awards for them. He also played Mahatma Gandhi in Kamal Hassan's 'Hey Raam' and 'Mirza Ghalib' in Gulzar's biopic TV series.
But maybe, after the beginning of the Bacchan and the Khans-era, parallel-cinema somehow got pushed back and people started liking more of commercial, paisa-vasool, movies and remakes of Hollywood and south.

But then, Naseer Saab didn’t stop, neither did he care about awards or length of the role he was offered. Some of his recent notable cameos were in Khuda kay liye, a Pakistani film where he played a wise maulana, Zindagi na milegi dobara, in which he played an arrogant artist and rajneeti in which he played a vocal activist and many others. Apart from these, his work in ‘a Wednesday’ and ‘Ishqiya’ in recent time were praise-worthy.

Somehow, we are again coming back to the era of intelligent cinema and now audience, despite of categorizing a movie, go and watch even an off-beat flick if it is watch-worthy. I see a hope, in the coming ages, when once again, talent/quality will be counted over ‘Brand names’.

-Ashish