Why lose hope? There’s a bright future ahead….

The recent spate of suicides has got me thinking. Young students are hanging themselves and others who share similar feeling are following suit. I thought about the whole thing and reflected on my own childhood- the childhood that I had is so different from what kids have today.

I was in school till just eight years back and suddenly things have changed so much. I see my cousins, nieces and nephews under tremendous pressure- pressure to perform, excel in studies and in extra-curricular activities too. Reason – fierce competition, to make to college, to get an admission to a course you want to, to meet your parents’ expectations. Such a young mind and so many tensions. And then we see weaklings who can’t take it anymore, taking extreme steps.

I think the reason could not having a proper dialogue with the parents. The not sharing of what you are feeling and what you want to be with them. When I was kid, a lot was expected out of me, but I was never pressurized. I got to do what I wanted. I could tell my parents whatever I had in mind, and I still do so. So much so that I told my mother I was seeing someone in the first month itself!

We were not used to the computers and other electronic gadgets such as playstations, video games, mobile phones etc etc. we believed in face to face interaction with friends rather than chatting online or over the phone. We played games ourselves, and not through some electronic joystick or keypads. Those were the days when we enjoyed complete freedom and made choices regarding career very late in life i.e. in the 12^th std. now kids have to decide what they want to become as early as in 5^th or 6^th.

Both parents have started working and also thanks to the growing trend of nuclear families, there are no grandparents around, also there is a trend of having only one child. All this put into one, makes the child feel lonely, pressurized and vulnerable to such acts.

The solution lies in increasing face to face contact with people, socializing, having a good family environment and not getting defeated easily. Parents should not force anything on their kids and give them a freedom of choice.

I hope in the coming days the suicides stop. All that I can say is RIP….the souls who have committed the greatest mistake of their life which has taken the gift of life away from them….halfway.

Goodbye Noughties

Okay…I admit that the headline is copied from our DNA’s special issues. But I kinda liked it. Today we are going to bid adieu to the 2000-09 decade. This decade will always be very special to me as I spend my teens, my young adult days. I passed my SSC, HSC, I graduated, post-gradated and started working in this one decade! Phew…too many things have happened in these ten years and here’s a year-wise lowdown of them all.

2000: The year when Hritik Roshan became popular thanks to Kaho Na Pyaar Hai and we got a new actor to have a crush on. This year was the last year of my school, so the whole year was spent in filling scrapbooks, performing at the last annual days and sports says and clicking photographs with classmates and teachers. Then there were of course the scary board exams that were fast approaching and the cut throat competition to stand first in school. The year was the ‘innocentest’ in this decade.

2001: Time to finish school and join Junior College. Board exams went on peacefully, without much copying and cheating and now time was to decide what stream to join. As a bright student the obvious choice was science. And also because of the fact that I liked the subject, the only hitch being Maths and Physics- but just because of Biology and Chemistry I decided to take up science. Results were out and I missed a place in the Fergusson College by 0.2%. But then aamcha Modern College was not a bad choice. The feeling of entering a college was a bit eerie for me as I used to watch too many films and colleges were portrayed very wrongly in the 1990s chaap movies. But slowly I got accustomed to the setup and started enjoying my life.

2002: A very normal year for a Junior-Collegiate. Lectures, practicals, katta, jokes, PJs- we did it all. I missed (again) a seat to the ‘scholar batch’ of my college and had to satisfy being in the F division (the second best division). This is the year when I realized my love for foreign languages as I had taken up German as a second language.

2003: I can never forget my 12th std board exams- they can be described in a word- bad! My Maths paper was very bad as I had joined a class where they didn’t teach anything! This was the year when I aspired being an architect and had appeared for all entrance exams in Pune. But after giving it a thought, changed my liking to Biotechnology. So after this decision, I landed back in Modern College doing my BSc. The year was fun as I participated in college plays and other activities. I made new friends and started liking the ‘other side’ of college.

2004: The second year of my senior college. This year is special to me because I met Amey. He was in my class in the first year too, but amongst the 200 students I had hardly noticed him. We became Chemistry practical partners and we so hated it. We used to argue with each other and hate being with each other. The year just flew away with some interesting moments such as our annual gathering where I danced and surprised all and our trip to Mahabaleshwar.

2005: The year was last year in college- which is always a senti one. The thought of leaving the college and friends always makes you shudder. This year for the first time we went for an overnight trip to Amboli- a very beautiful place in Konkan and had a great time. Of course, we hated that it was a Botany tour and we had to collect plant samples, even on the beach! The college, the parking lot, all the places we used to hang out, all the college festivals- I miss them all.

2006: Exams again….so boring. Passed, graduated, stood first. (Shabash :) now was the time to choose a profession- learning German further or joining mass communication. But when I became one of the University of Pune’s 30 short listed I decided to give it a shot. The year was full of the separation pain- my 3 magicals years in Modern doing BSc with fab friends were over- and I kinda didn’t like the Ranade (my mass comm. Dept was popularly known as Ranade Institute) setup. But the year went in making the student’s paper- Vritta Vidya, doing an internship in Maharashtra Herald and making merry with new friends from all over India. This year I went to Goa at a friends place and got a chance to ring in the New Year partying all night long.

2007: The year of growing up. We had the Bangalore trip- a very beautiful city and we visited Mysore- another beautiful city. This year I joined the Japanese classes and met a crazy bunch of people who became very good friends of mine. The Japanese song contest, which we won and our various expeditions around Pune were the highlights.

2008: The year if many things. The judaai ka gam with my Japanese friends. My not-so-good MA farewell party and campus selection in 2 companies! The excitement of doing a job in Mumbai and staying all alone and the sadness of leaving family and friends behind! They year I changed 2 places in Mumbai and learnt life’s lessons and enjoyed working in DNA.

2009: The year of changes and boredom. This year gave me a chance to meet celebrities- from Dev Anand to Leander Paes to Minissha Lamba. I went to some posh hotels- JW Marriot, Hyatt, Taj, Trident, ITC...I loved my job only at these times! ;) I stayed in the oh-so-posh area of Bandra and enjoyed jogging with stars- Nagma, Farhan Akhtar and so on (I saw them when I went to jog...thought I should clarify ;).
There was a stable period due to recession… hope that 2010 brings a lot more happiness and peace in everyone’s and my life. Hope some of my wishes are realized.

Time to say Goodbye Noughties and wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010. Ciao.

Hostel-life

I always wanted to know how it feels staying in a hostel- and mind you, its one rollercoaster of an emotion! I have currently (yesterday) shifted to a hostel in Prabhadevi from the cozy flat in Bandra.

The hostel is no doubt very neat and clean, the Catholic institutes generally are. But the discipline and the punctuality are freakingly freaking! The other day, when I went to get admission to the hostel, the sister incharge handed me a paper full of instructions. Believe it or not, at every place in the hostel premises, there are small boards full of instructions. Eg: Near the bathroom- Do not wash your jeans here. Girls, if found washing will be fined.

We get dinner from 8pm to 9pm and breakfast from 7am to 8.15am (even on Saturday and Sunday!). There are different types of rooms- namely, the hostel rooms and the guest house rooms. Thankfully, I am staying at the guest house which has better privacy, space and 24*7 electricity supply (the girls in the hostel have to charge their mobiles in another common room!).

Yesterday, being the first day of my hostel life, gave me Goosebumps. But it wasn’t that bad as I had imagined. I will take some more time adjusting to the new surroundings and write a blog later on the same!

Deutsch it is....

Guten Tag! Wie geht es ihnen? Für lange habe ich kein blogpost geschrieben. So, hier ich komme!

Confused? Or thinking that I have become mad? The latter is more possible. ;)

But I haven’t gone mad (unfortunately :P). Anyways, I have just brushed up my German after two and a half years and joined the B1 Level course at the Max Mueller Bhavan. And you know what; it feels great being a student again.

The best thing about being a student (despite the fact being that I have paid my fees from my salary…no parents’ participation) is the fresh smell of books. The colourful cover page and interesting caricatures inside it, make me feel as if I am in school again.

In college, I would keep on cribbing about the long and boring lectures. But here the class being of four hour duration is not boring at all! The way we introduced ourselves to each other on the first day was very unique. First of all, we had to speak in German, compulsory and then we had to find out five commonalities between us and the other people and introduce based on these facts.

But a thing I dread being a student again are the exams! And we have not only one but three exams. But studying, group discussions, working together again after a long time will surely help. I miss my school and college days and this is a unique chance for me to get them back, what if only for a couple of months.

Tschüs then guys! Auf wiedersehen. (FYI: Babye ;)

(Not really) Love Story 2001

She was 16 and he was 17. As a Marathi song goes, “Solava varees dhokyacha…”, same was the situation with the girl. She dreamt that her prince on a white horse will come and take her away. So did the guy dream of his Dream Girl.

One fine day, they finally saw each other. At the first sight she liked him and he fell in love with her. He knew it was love but she was apprehensive. She found him cute but didn’t know whether this was called love. They often crossed paths with each other- at shops, bus stops, Ganpati celebrations and Dahi Handi utsavs, but didn’t have the guts to speak with each other.

One day, they got introduced to each other through common friends. Their first meeting was very filmy. They met in a bus that was due to leave in 10 minutes. The bus was packed and there were many people around. They shook hands with great nervousness and discomfort. They sat but said nothing.

Later, he tried to meet her or go to her home to visit by finding any possible bahanas. Sometimes, with friends to wish Happy Diwali, sometimes he visited her college ‘just like that’ and sometimes to collect some stuff for his sister. Then there were telephonic conversations, even when he went to his home that was far away from here, where he stayed with his uncle and aunt.

Common friends were more than happy to organise trips and make them meet, as he wished to meet her every now and then. But by now, she had become a little sceptical of his motives and started avoiding him. But he was determined to ask her out…

One fine day, he sent a note to her through a friend saying, “I am going back to my hometown and I will really miss you. Will you be my best friend?” she didn’t reply and saw that he had left his email id in the note. Many days passed by and she thought that she should mail him as a long time had passed. They started conversing through mails now and he tried to give her hints that he loved her. But she was not interested.

He sent her a mail… “I ---- you.” She understood what he meant and called him. She fired him for being insensitive and taking the wrong meaning of their friendship. It all ended that day. He left the city and went to his hometown down south.

After five long years, when they had almost forgotten their teen love, they met again. This time, they spoke to each other and became friends. She had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend. He had come out of her love. Both laughed when they remembered their funny meetings at bhaaji markets and bus stops. They met at his hometown, when she went there as a tourist and did sight seeing together.

They now keep in touch through mails and phone calls. So much change in a relationship after so many years. Time is truly, the real healer.

(This story is entirely based on facts and real incidents. The characters are real and are living entities :)

Puneri lingo

You must have read about the Western lingo that college and school kids are adapting in their day to day language, but do you know anything about the Puneri lingo. If no, worry not, mi aahe na (Im always there). Some of these have been invented by me and my Madern (pronunciation for my college Modern College) friends.

So let’s start with the basic terminologies of a typical college going Puneri kid.

Katta- A place, generally in or around the college, where (idle) students sit and discuss either intellectual shit or gossip with each other. A cup of tea is an essential part of the katta. A tree nearby is also a must-have.

Eg. Lets go to the katta and chat.

Bha Po (acronym for bhavana pohochlya)- This literally means emotions received. If a friend of yours is giving you a very senti talk, to make him shut up you just need to say Bha Po mitra, aata gap bas.

Eg. Kiti badbad kartos BhaPo zala majha. (How much do you blabber. Now keep quiet, I understood what you said.)

ABCD- This is an adults’ acronym (children under 18 don’t read this ;). The full form is Aga Baee Chaddi Distey. This is generally used for the low waist jeans wearing firang or wannabe firang crowds.

Eg. Hey someone tell that girl ‘ABCD’.

Tappe takne- If you like a guy or a girl…you obviously check her/him out when he/she is around. That’s called tappe takne. Eg. Rahul la Smita avadte, to tichyawar kiti tappe takto. (Rahul likes Smita, I guess, coz he keeps on checking her out.)

Mitra and boss- Mitra or boss are used to address any and every other person. It could be your chaiwala or your rickshaw wala also.

Eg. E mitra/ boss, jara lavkar chal na ushir hotoy. (Boss, please hurry, I’m getting late.)

Mama- this terminology is fast catching up in other cities too. Mama refers to a police wala. Traffic police are the main victims of this phrase.

Eg. E tikde mama aahe, ikdunach U turn maruyat. (Hey, there’s a policeman there, lets take a U-turn from here itself.)

Bird watching- hahaha…this term reminds me of college. Whenever we would get bored, we would stand in the corridors checking out guys (there were very few worth checking out in my college though) and say lets go bird watching!

Eg. Chayla, aaj ekhi pakshi chhan navta. Bird watching madhe majaa nahi aali. (There wasn’t a single good looking guy around. No fun in bird watching.)

Fishing- Bird watching is checking out guys, so fishing is checking out girls!

Vaalit/ ghaanit takne- This being ignored by a person or a group. If someone doesn’t talk to you purposely (many a times this is done as a prank), you can safely say, “Mala vaalit/ ghaanit ka taklay tumhi?” (Why are you’ll ignoring me?)

Mandaa- In Marathi, manda means a dunce. Mandaa is actually a name, but we call dunce girls Mandaa.

Eg. Ti agdi Mandaa aahe. Tila kahich kalat nahi. (She is a dunce. She doesn’t understand anything.)

Haldi kunku- This comes from an incident that happened in my college. As you’ll know, haldi and kum kum are yellow and red in colour, respectively. Two girls Sakhu and Paru (names changed without any request) in my class had wore a yellow and red dress respectively, and they were like, “We are haldi-kunku.” We couldn’t help but fall down laughing at the dehati joke.

Khadki Dapodi- No offence to people staying in these areas, but if someone wears a gaudy outfit or accessories they are called ‘Khadki-Dapodi’.

Eg. Kiti Khadki Dapodi dress aahe ticha. (Her dress is so gaudy.)

So these are some of the great Puneri terminologies. Start using them today itself. Chala aata, kadekadene ghari ja. I will be adding new terms, as and when invented or discovered ;).

Some additions made by my dear friend Avinash Sadaphule:

TTMM - Tujhe Tu Majhe Me or Tu Tera Main Mera: which means you must contribute for whatever you ate or bought...going dutch...in short

SPDP- Shev Puri Dahi Puri

Saheee/ Ek /Kalla / Takatak/ Jabbari - Damn good

Padik- Doing Nothing/wasting time having nothing to do

Vaeet- means bad, but used as good (opposite)..eg: kai vaaeeet picchar hota to..meaning it was an awesome movie!

Dada/ Baapmanus -some1 great (often used sarcastically)

chavva/ chavvi - BF/GF

Family and friends rock!

Hey friends…I know I have become very lazy and haven’t written a blog for a very long time now. But nothing very great happened in my life in the last month, except a few great moments.

Great moment no1: My parents’ 26^th anniversary

This was much anticipated (from the last year…when they celebrated their 25^th anniversary), but we couldn’t celebrate it as I lost my granddad. But this year, I thought of having a small celebration inviting only close friends. I had already gifted my parents a microwave oven :). The celebrations took place on August 9 (the anniversary was on July 30). My mother looked gorgeous in a navwari sadi and my dad wore a normal shirt pant (you know how dads are). They both looked really good together. We had a yadnya puja, which was like marrying them again with all the rituals including the saptapadi (its like saat pheras, but only the bride walks on the seven mounds of rice and her groom holds her hand) and they also exchanged garlands. The highlight of the evening was the ukhanas (husband’s name taken in a poetic form…gosh these translations!) taken by my aai and her friends. The traditional Brahmin food consisting of lip smacking puran poli, katachi aamti and aloochi bhaji was also a hit!

Great moment no2: Ganesh Chaturthi

After many years, I got to see the bringing of Lord Ganesha and participated in the aarti. Our Avachat family Ganpati is brought and worshipped at my eldest uncle’s place in Dombivali. And believe it or not, our Ganpati resides in our house for 21 days! The visarjan happens after 21 days. Long time I must say in the era of didh diwasacha Ganpati (Ganpati which is worshipped for one and a half days). The miravnuk (procession) of my uncle’s society’s Ganpati was really very nice. It had all the traditional elements including dhol-tashe, lezim and human pyramids. The most interesting thing was the food and the modaks- lots of them! I had a great time with my brother Viraj, my mother, friend Joanna and my two cute nieces- Varada and Anushree. We played games together, went to see other Ganpatis of the area and for a long drive too. Majja aali!

Great moment no3: Sleepover with friends, movie with my mom

After a long time I got a 4 day holiday…a long enough time duration to catch up with family and friends. I met my Japanese friends and had a great time with them over a cuppa of chai at the Ranade Institute, my alma mater. Next up was a sleepover at my friend Pradnya’s place. She is getting married next month, so we all wanted to revive the old moments of meeting and staying at each other’s places before she got married. She had made pav bhaji for us and we tried to help her! We yapped in the loudest possible noise level and laughed loudly for no reason, like the way we used to do earlier. We exchanged gifts, talked and gossiped till late and also had a pillow fight. How much I miss those days.

Next up was a Yoville moment with my bro. I spent a considerable amount of time playing Yoville on Facebook with my bro. we threw soap balloons on each other, told jokes, I even kissed him to embarrass him on Yoville. He also flirted with other girls online, that too, for the first time and in front of me! Uski yeh majaal ;).

On Saturday, I saw Kaminey with friends. We had a great time (as usual) with each other. Sunday, was my favourite day as I saw a movie with my mom after ages- a very nice Marathi film called Rita. We enjoyed a lot.

Every moment of my trip was memorable. Looking forward to many such pleasant moments in my life.

Thank you all- my family and friends. :)