India Shining!

Saturday...I was reluctant to go out even for dinner. In fact, I was busy watching back to back and overlapping episodes of Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, MTV--On the Job and The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and was awestruck with the response each of these shows received. After all they provide both fame and money.

The awareness for talent search in the entertainment sector has suddenly risen to a new scale and the opportunities are flourishing. Where MTV -- on the job awards internships for the future RJs, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa provides a platform for the next-gen playback singers. When we blame the media for their news-mastication, the same media has produced numerous employments for journalists, cameramen, hosts etc. A decade back we wouldn't have even in our dream expected the jocular vein getting this amount of publicity. Laughter Challenge has set the acclivity for the comedians.

No wonder there is an exaggeration in everything. With a layman getting a chance to be a crorepati in an hour, we are being pulled away from the reality. Are we tempted towards this easy money? Is this easy money really easy? When millions apply for the Indian Idol only one achieves it. When millions call SRK, only a few get more than a million. What we see is very much the superficial layer where the funniest Raju Srivastava entertains the crowd. But can we see for how many years was he struggling to get such a platform. Yes, nothing is easy but atleast today, we can think of achieving it, which was considered as impossible a decade back.....we need to very much stay on ground though.

The IT sector is booming, the fashion arena is crawling, small-scale industry is protruding its head. There are equal chances in every field. With great diligence and perseverance, not only in the entertainment world but also elsewhere, we can definitely find new careers, new roads to success. A better life is waiting for the new generation.

Just read it!

I recall myself penning down "Books are our friends" essay during my school days. I feel writing it again.

Books bring with them love, compassion, wit, humor, hatred and what not. They take us to a new world away from our predicaments. They teach us to hope, to persevere, to sustain. I find solace, peace with books. Whenever I am depressed, I long for their company...and always get comforted with them.

Once during my summer vacations, I was at my grandfather's house. As usual, I searched his cupboard for an unread book. And I found an old tattered but hard-bound edition of The red hibiscus. I was so moved by it that eventually I burst into tears. It was a story about a bengali girl and her maid. Their lives were extremes, each one had their own impediments to cross. But they had this peculiar thing in common, they both liked to put a red hibiscus in the hair. Such a simple story but emotionally touching.

Another one worth mentioning is the eye-watering The kite runner by an american-afghan, Khaled Hosseini. I read this book on a cosy sofa in an air conditioned hall...in Crosswords! ...thanks to its unavailability at the street vendors. I really would like to extend my warm regards to these guys...who have saved a lot of money for me over these years.

And then my favorite ....Shantaram. This is the best one so far. Though the publisher has selected the minutest of the fonts, the author has claimed his supremacy on the paper. He makes you feel his torments, his passion, his apprehension. I was amazed with his observation of Mumbai city. He creates that sense of visualization....which many books lack.

There are lots of books to talk about, The sands of time, The monk who sold his ferrari, The namesake, The Afghan, Five point someone, The inscrutable americans and many many more.
How can I forget my own marathi literature. I have read dozens of english translated marathi novels too....one of them is Lajja by Taslima Nasreen. The language could vary....but the impact remains the same. Maharashtrians are fond of Pu La Deshpande. He creates an inevitable humor, but it is has a tinge of black comedy. So much was this literary genius loved that when he passed away, many of his fans including my mother actually cried.

I cannot imagine myself in a bookless world. This is the most altruistic invention of mankind for mankind.

RandomBots

My blog would have been incomplete without the mention of randombots.
Gaws, Joe, Sikki, Bond, Jammy, Naidu, Shank, Raju, Thool, Mare, Dhoke, Tapar, Ricky, Bachha and myself....we found this group in the third under-grad year.

When others were busy extolling their wingies in the BITS annual magazine writeups, we proudly did the other way. It was a derogatory affair altogether. I am quite sure that none of the randombots would ever read aloud what has been written about them in public. Having said this, some randombots would definitely come over and claim to do that. But let me tell you this i don't care about others nature is purely superficial.

Numerous incidents spur up and add to the nostalgia. That unending RHTDM show, the longest AOE match ever played, cnot-garden, batch-snaps, exam-eve gossips.....this has to be noted that we used to put a lachha only on an exam-eve. Where I ceased being a gamer just after the disastrous 2nd yr- 2nd sem, most of the randombots have spent most of their time gaming.

Why did we choose this name is a tricky question...may be because everyone is highly unpredictable. You cannot find any similarity between any two members of this group. On the contrary, till recently we did share a "single" adjective in common...here the pun is intended!

Even after the golden bitsian years, randombots are very much alive thanks to Google. Randombots also flashed a special appearance on wikipedia. But sadly and rightly, the wise-wiki guys have removed the good-for-nothing article.

Every persona here is unique. Even with such segregated behaviors, there is a string which binds us together -- the string of friendship....and I hope it continues forever.