Memoirs of a lost world...

He had wanted to have a Rottweiler as his pet. After a long wait the pup had been searched for and bought, though it was still with the Vet who had helped to find a pure pedigree.

However Amit was getting restless that there had been no opportunity to leave the Head Quarter and to go to Kolkata to get his pup to his town, some 800 km from where it was now.

One of his BDO wanted a leave for two days to go to his home and offered to get the pup while coming back. Amit had agreed.

After two days, the BDO and his Sabhapati were coming back from Kolkata and Amit eagerly awaited their arrival. But they were not giving any clear message. ‘Sir, you may return the puppy if you don’t like it’, was what they communicated, nothing less nothing more.

Their jeep had just arrived in the portico and Amit couldn’t resist welcoming the new little friend, though he was anxious if everything was ok or not.

The Sabhapati and the BDO got down from the jeep without the pup. They were smiling awkwardly.

‘Where is the pup?’ Amit was anxious.

‘Gadi te Aache, Saaar’, the Sabhapati replied. He was an old man, still very active though. He had more officers like capabilities than like that of a politician. He had participated in activities ranging from ‘Road widening drive to Pulse Polio drive to an assumed magisterial duty during law and order incident involving multiple rounds of firing.

This should not happen one would say but in that block office who is the BDO and who is the Sabhapati was difficult to say as they sat on same side of the table, stayed in the same house and had same approach to life.

As Amit tried to search around the seat if the pup was there, the Sabhapati giggled, ‘Saar, driverer seater niche theke takaachhe’, pointing to a small pup peeping from beneath the driver’s seat.

That was not even close to a Rottweiler!!! Amit had felt so disappointed

But!!! ……………. Amit noticed there were two of them. From behind the first hairy and grayish pup, a jet black face was also peeping, its nose visible clearly.

As Amit moved forward, the nose disappeared while the hairy pup wagged his long tail.

As Amit tired to gently lift the pup, the pup gave a jump in the air interpreting the support as a go ahead for the jump.

Amit almost had a heart attack to see the height from the ground and the stupidity of the pup, it would have hurt itself. But it was a brave pup, which delighted Amit.

The reaction was spontaneous, ‘woooshhhh……., and caught in the air, the little fellow!’

‘Ettaa ki! Amit shouted at the BDO explaining his disappointment that there was no Rottweiler.

‘Saar, o kukur ke kaun-o Major niye geyeche. Daactaar ke taaka-o daay ni’, BDO explained that someone from Army had taken the Rott and had not even paid for it.

The pup was tumbling as it tried to straighten its legs on the ground and Amit tried to support it.

The BDO was cajoling, ‘Saar, aapni chinta korben naa. Aamraa firut feliye aasbo kukur ke. Ek poisha-o deete hobe naa. Daaktar ke aage he boliye asechi. Saahib ke bhalo naa laagle firut neete hobe’

Amit understood what might have happened. The smart BDO and his friend Sabhapati must have thought that Amit would not be able to differentiate between the breeds and they would wash off their hand by delivering anything non sense.

But the expression on the face of Amit said all, so the Sabhapati tried to do the damage control. ‘Saar, aar ek ti kukur aache gaadi te………. Kaalo ti! ………….Dekhun, otaa bhaalo laagte pare. Ekdum baachha aachhe, ek maas o hoye ni’.

Amit was upset. But still had to drag out the other fat pup who was trying to hide itself under the seat; a typical habit of the young pups, until they become confident of the outside world.

Unlike the other pup which was barely one and a half kilogram, this so called younger pup was very heavy and Amit could hardly support the fat tummy on his palm and placed the pup on the ground.

The BDO took out a box of dog biscuits. ‘Sir, eta phree diyeche daaktar’.

Some milk was poured in a pan and some biscuits were mixed to that. Even by the time the hairy pup could realize that the food was meant to be eaten, the fat black pup had gulped it all in not more than 5 seconds. That inflated its tummy like a balloon.

The hairy pup didn’t mind it but he wanted to play. When the other pup was done with the supper, he tried to catch the thick neck in his mouth and gave two jerks to his head left and right in an attempt to break the neck of the fat pup.

THAT!!! There it was, trying to assess if the ‘hunt’ was dead. A very pure bred German Shepherd!

And then- gradually- raising the head arrogantly tall over the shoulder and a sleek sloping body, its long tail, more than half the body length gracefully curling towards the ground.

‘It is an Alsatian’, Amit exclaimed, ‘the colour of its coat will change over next few months’.

‘Aar, otaa ki?’ Sabhapati asked excitedly pointing to the other pup.

‘That’s a black Labrador’, Amit knew he couldn’t stay too angry for too long, he had already started feeling proud of his acquisitions.

‘Saar, aamra ki firut diye debo, kukur guli’, BDO asked.

‘Naaaaaa!’ Amit had screamed, ‘Maara jaabe raasta e firut gele. Koto taka laagbe?’ he inquired.

‘Saar, bodor taa paanch haazaar niyeche daaktar aar, chotor daam chau hazaar taaka, Saar aapni kaunta neben?’, BDO asked.

Amit was so confused. Both the pups were so cute.

Since the Rottweiler had been booked for 10 thousand, Amit decided to pay a thousand bucks extra and keep both of them.

BDO couldn’t hide his joy and left.

That evening was so joyous. The Alsatian got friendly within minutes. Somehow he could feel Amit likes him. The Pup passed his evening biting Amit's shoes and slippers. Little pup was too exhausted by the journey, so often it would fell asleep with his face on Amit’s shoes, but there was a fear if it would get hurt sleeping like that. Whenever he would get up he tried to climb on the sofa and up Amit’s lap.

In contrast, the lab was quite aloof; it preferred to sleep in the newspaper shelf of one of the stools.

While watching TV, as Amit started to fall asleep on the sofa of the circuit house, (where he had been housed waiting for his bungalow to get ready), he realized every time he dozed the Alsatian would get up the sofa and try to settle himself around Amit’s neck and shoulder. The pup was possibly missing his family where all of them would have slept cuddled over each other.

And more often than not Amit’s sleep got disturbed when the pup gently started licking Amit’s face and mouth also.

After putting it aside several times and getting woken up with continuous efforts of small feet climbing and slipping down, Amit thought it was time they resolved the matter. He had to explain the pup slowly and assuringly that putting it aside was not meant refusal of its friendship.

‘Ok, baba, friends! But don’t tell anyone that I also kissed your forehead and that I also like you.,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Ok, not just like you- but love you’, Amit had to tell the pup.
A deal was signed between the two that Amit would put half his blanked down the sofa on which the best friend would sleep and he would not disturb Amit in return. They would not talk to the fat lab, who talked to them only when dinner was served and didn’t join for the evening walk or for play.


It was a clear signal for Amit that he would have to change his habits of animal like existence of sleeping on a sofa while watching the TV and will have to shift to his bedroom soon, where the pups wouldn’t climb the bed.

Two Years Too Late- Omkara

I’m in Bangalore for some days now and pass the evening watching the same movie again and again (having only this one here with me). So I thought about writing something on it, thought it could be a good time passing exercise.

Btw, had watched this movie with IIMA gang in Ahmedabad in the first week of its release. Then, I had wanted some time for myself- a couple of months- so didn't try to keep pace with some expectations. Win some! Lose some! Save two months and lose two years. Nothing seemed to have moved for most people in these two years.

This is not a review here, don't want to be critically reviewed for the same; just that it reminds of some school time friends so I like the movie.

‘Omkara’ is based on the drama ‘Othello’ by Shakespeare. But even if it is- there would rarely be another movie which has captured the beliefs, culture and ethos- of a small area in rural North India- as closely as this one. Excessive use of foul words in the movie might be unacceptable to some; but still, somewhere that is the way of life.

The story begins on the wedding day of the daughter of a reputed lawyer. The ‘bride to be’ elopes with the lead muscleman (Ajay Devgan playing Omkara) of a local gang.

Kareena plays the role of Dolly, the young lady from the small town that sees the man of her dreams in a local don who is brave, daring and destined to rise in power. While her engagement is being imposed upon her she narrates her condition in a love letter to her braveheart

‘Is janam mein to tumhari himmat hogi nahin bas……
so hum hi keh dete hain …………….

Apne katlon ki list mein hamara naam bhi jod lena’; complaining his caring less for her plight.

If anyone could still be restrained- Omkara is not him, and so they elope on day of Dolly's marriage.

The dejected father of the girl warns the don about the age old- ‘Triya charitra’ of women. Here, one who could cheat her father would not hesitate to betray any other man (Omkara).

Saif Ali Khan (named langda Tyagi in the movie) plays the Second-in-Command and the sharp shooter of the Omkara Gang. The position of 'Bahubali' or the head of the group gets vacated as Omkara is selected to stand in the Assembly elections. While for most it is a foregone conclusion that the ever trusted and most deserving Langda tyagi will be the ‘Bahubali’, the coronation ceremony raises a surprise. Omkara crowns a college going novice and half tried ‘Keshu Firangi’ as his successor.

The selection proves to be the turning point of the movie.

Omkara, without his knowledge, has unleashed his most potent weapon, his silent deputy Langda Tyagi, against himself. This, still, is not a war between two ‘Alpha Males’ for superiority. This is a case of blind confidence on one side and of raging hatred on the other- henceforth.

Both Omkara and Keshu play to the guile of Langda hereafter. It takes little time for Tyagi to toy with the weaknesses of Keshu Firangi and make it amply clear to Omkara how raw Keshu was to handle the role of the ‘bahubali’, the broken dream of langda tyagi. He doesn’t stop there and starts poisoning the mind of Omkara regarding the possible relations between Dolly and Keshu.

And amidst this there is innocent Dolly with her one point agenda to impress her man Omkara through her cooking skills or by learning guitar. She has no clues why she is losing Omkara every passing day.

Like any alpha male, Omkara’s insecurity is driven by his belief that he is being considered second to another man, by a woman whom he loves and is planning to marry. This he would not accept or rather would destruct the world if such a world exists.

As langda creates new wedges between Omkara and Dolly, her innocence and charm wins Omkara’s heart back in some instances but for how long could it continue?

The innocently greedy act of Konaka Sen, playing the wife of Langda Tyagi, of stealing a waistband of Dolly acts as the catalyst for langda to cast his plot. Whether in epics or in Omkara, innocent mistakes of women often draw gory battlefields for men.

The divine beauty of Dolly ceases to be sacred for Omkara as his distrust grows. For adrenalin driven male, there is a very fine line- that separates life staking escapades taking a girl amidst her wedding ceremonies and taking life of one’s beloved on the wedding night, if that line is erased.

Omkara moves towards its end with Konkana Sen admitting her act of stealing the waistband. But till then Dolly is dead, murdered by her suspecting husband on her wedding night and destiny of a lot of people has already been written. The story ends with two lead actors and the lead actresses lying dead amidst Machiavellian tricks of langda and fiery temperamental actions of Omkara.

Omkara is a tragic love story of a few brave but insecure males; and the women around their lives. The regional traditions and the ceremonies complete the plot with perfect execution and the photography in the local terrain shows that beautiful films can also be filmed in Indian villages.

The film established Saif Ali Khan in the top league of actors and won many awards and possibly a heart for him. It also separated the men from boys and Vivek Oberoy ended losing despite flexing his muscles as the Bahubali.

The mystic in Gulzaar is back in ‘Nainon ki mat suniyo, naina thag lenge’. The soft and melodious ‘O saathi re, din doobe naa’ reminds of early 70’s while ‘Omkara', 'Bidi Jalai le', 'Jubaan pe laaga' are full of excitement of the 2000’s. There are a few folk songs; those are as good to watch or to listen.

Amongst the female actors, Kareena looks so beautiful that it is difficult to decide if she is acting well or not, Konkana definitely acts wells while Bipasha performs dance steps in quick sequence in her attempt to appear like dancing and does not have much role to play.

Vivek Oberoy disappoints by his role- should have put more fire in it, Ajay Devgun keeps up to his reputation and Saif Ali Khan puts the screen on fire, every time he appears on the screen.

Vishal Bharadwaj has created a master piece.

Wandering amidst Economics, Politics and Memories

It has been a month since I wrote the last post. There has been a lot of discussion amidst friends and foes if the economic crises would continue. Initially it was about the bailout package and its value etc. Few would have believed its ability to create the magic of multiplier effect that Keynes had suggested. Obvious reason was that the money was not going to the masses. If someone had an article worth Rs10, booked it for a sale of Rs 100 and recovered only Rs 40, he could show it a profit of 30 or a loss of 60.
In a different system, it would have been advisable to ask the management to show a profit of 30 and distribute it accordingly, but not in the Greatlands. People had muscle (and money) power to extract the so called ‘loss’ of 60 from a lame economy. As the losses reflected were more due to greed and less for market factors (my belief, contrary to the picture created)- there was no scope of a multiplier effect and the money must have settled in a few coffers by now.
It reminds me of the hearing episode in the movie- Scent of a woman. In the current case the fattest kid (son of BIG DADDY) in the class, farted in the class, spoiled his trousers and the classroom too. The noble class teacher blamed the Black guy in the class for the rotten smell, spanked his bottom, asked him to clean the class and gave his shorts too to the fat guy. The mockery was diluted through diverting the attention to ON PATH TO WRITING OF A HISTORY saga. I am a disbeliever, would wait to see if the history actually gets created. Anyway a small percentage of the bailout package can be spent to keep the two parties happy.
Having been in Government for a decently long period I have seen the business-politics connection functioning from quite closely and can't resist the temptation to create some illogical and irritating mails, so am continuing with the same.
There were complaining voices from a country about lack of sensitivity of the world to their current crises (unlike the way they had been ‘kind enough’ in case of crises elsewhere in the world). Firstly, a majority of the crises like those in the SE Asia were your own creation, beginning from sudden withdrawal of capital based on internal policy changes. Secondly, the then world geo-politics did not allow you to pass your allies into the lap of the other countries. No other country has been so frantic to treat the world as its backyard and thus need not bother today. Thirdly, there was shear business value for the companies to invest in those places. The progressive response shown by your erstwhile competitor and in SE Asia is a pointer to that.
Today, what value does one get investing in a problem prone area? Firstly, tax payer’s money is being wasted in killing and maiming the world. Secondly, the job which costs 80000 $ in Greatlands costs Rs 4 lakh (nearly 8000$, though with 80% of the fineness of the job) elsewhere. Not many people would like to spend 10 times for a slightly better job done and happily hand over the market profits to a competitor thus. Once you are already non-competitive as a production nation, the intellectual property was the saving grace. But that will require an honest pegging of the salaries to those across the world.
Today, the lack of liquidity is only the result of over 80% finances being trapped with 20 % people who are insecure of the continuation of the party.
I will go back to a morning of the year 1991 when one of cousins of my mother was getting engaged and in a typical Hindu family gathering over 200 people were present and watching the news of pounding of a country by another and the intermittent responses by the 'scuds'. The world was told to believe that it was 'necessary' and a dictator who had atom bomb proof palaces and 50 story mansions under the ground (based on ‘secret intelligence reports’ of the invading country) had been challenged by a hero to prevent the making of some weapons of mass destruction.
An ailing economy and the defense industry had been saved thus (some perpetrators of warfare might have believed then). The same story looked a disgraceful lie when no WMD was ever found, UN and its officials had been disgraced (for being upright) and another war was forced. But this time the results could not revive the economy, and the defense expenditure driven economy flattened as the world could see through- that the news of more countries trying to build WMD was nothing more than trash.
The hero who had actually rebuild that economy was also shown his place when his wife could not get the nomination for the elections to the post he had held. Many things of the past can be reconstructed from the current events. The revival would have been neat and clean, without any illegal profits to any particular group or business. It would have been based on good policies and meticulous execution.
So elections funding for what, if you could not build ‘right’ contacts sitting in a black house? Who cares for your individual brilliance if that is not sellable. Funds are for those who are amenable, who know to bend and stoop and dance to the tunes of the pied pipers. The gossips about ‘matching the stature of JFK’ are stories and media campaigns alone and are meaningless. In reality someone with a bigger stature was rubbished with his wife by the owners of media and money. They have been left in cold to pay their debts.
It is amazing to see how the fate of a woman is interlinked to the man in her life. One may go to the black house if that man is able to take her there or one could be stopped at the door if people don’t want 'him' there again.
I talked of the year 1991 somewhere above. Almost 18 years since then, one span of the RAHU Mahadasha. I never knew what was forcing me to do so when I had walked out from the building of the biggest (and best) school in my hometown for having not carried the registration fee. My father was in Mathura, principal of a PG college and no one else in our home kept money with them. My mother, despite being a professor herself, never kept more than the rickshaw fare with her. It would have been meaningless to ask money from her. I had changed my school for the strangest of reasons.
Later I had learnt some amazing things about my horoscope when I had joined astrology classes while writing the IAS examination. A good student as I was, I passed the testing time with firm resolve. But it has been tiring 18 years and I wish from the depth of my heart for the Rahu Mahadasha to get over (Jan 2009) so that I may move ahead. Waiting for the benefic Jupiter to come in days ahead !!!