Glory!

Movies can be a great source of inspiration. Here are a few lines from Troy that inspire me.

If they ever tell my story, let them say
I walked with giants.

Men rise and fall like the winter wheat
but these names will never die.

Let them say
I lived in the time of Hector

tamer of horses.

Let them say
I lived in the time of Achilles.


Achilles. An embodiment of grief and a warrior everyone idolized.
If Achilles was anything, he was a man who believed his own press releases - Roger Ebert

I'm wondering if we will ever have lines like these to write about.
I lived in the the time of _____

Tiger Brawl! :D

I gritted my teeth when a teacher in school blasted me for no reason, when I got beatings for back-answering at home, I felt like throwing things away but Come on, The situation here is much much intense.People are not expected to grit their teeth when subjected to public humiliation of being dragged out of cars. But while you face all this humiliation do not be disappointed because in the coming days you will reach limitless heights of popularity with these clippings being shown on news channels at a minimum frequency of five minutes. Yes, it is indeed the Mumbai taxi driver I am talking about!

Raj Thackrey is on a crusade against vada pav and pani puris! He and his party MNS's workers intend to revolutionize the whole scene in Maharashtra. The migrants are the invaders eating up the state resources, are a burden on the infrastructure, are occupying spaces meant for the non-migrants, and are casting a spell on the Marathi culture. Only the true sons of the soil can reside without being harassed. If cultures do not mingle with each other, they lead to stagnation and finally wither away is a thought that you and I may understand but the man who claims to take Mumbai to new heights unfortunately does not! His supporters might justify it by calling it his 'possessiveness' towards the nativeland. The land is all his by the way!! The Sena regardless of the laws it infringes attempts to keep its culture pure and undiluted. Why is Amitabh Bachchan the brand ambassador for UP and not the state where he made his living? Why does he not open schools in Maharashtra? Well, UP asked him to be their ambassador and Maharashtra apparently did not consider him worthy enough or suffered from bad timing.

When Raj thackrey's Non north Indian campaign is the breaking news for all news channels, I wonder at petty things happening around me. The word 'bhaiyya' has become offensive. It is ghastly to see such indifference around. Is it just provocative or does it really bother people? Ok, I really don't get it. The MNS wants to get rid of the labour from Bihar and UP. By doing so, Mumbai won't have any taxis plying and no vada pav or pani puri stalls but more importantly the culture shall remain intact! If anything, I would argue that Thackeray did not go far enough. I've just about had it with the delicious fish I buy from my Goan fisherwoman. Each time I savor the delicious fish fry, I am just angered at the fact that I didn't buy this fish from a Maharashtrian. If we're taking all this trouble to get rid of the North Indians, can we please also get the rid of the Goans too. Why should Colaba alone enjoy the cool sea breeze of Mumbai ? Have we not suffered enough. Last time I checked, I have not seen Colabans open any schools in Andheri. I swear my next door neighbor is 1/8th North Indian. Can we at least send her to north Mumbai? The basic theme is - if you start dividing india into regions why not mumbai into regions and since the latter is ridiculous, so is the former.

Mumbai is facing an acute shortage of students, since as many as 53,000 new schools have been opened up by patriotic North Indians after Mr. Thackeray's campaign "The government should ensure a steady supply of students for our schools", complained Mr. Gupta, a businessman-turned-principal. "If there aren't enough students, then maybe we can import some from other neighboring areas" Some innovative solutions to this shortage have been proposed, such as extending the school hours and making students attend multiple schools. One irate woman from UP said "what do these kids do after 4pm anyway ? Why cant they attend my school from 4pm to 9pm after their regular school?

When all this hue and cry happens around the country, people like you and I sit in front of television screens with our dinner plates and pick our favourite news channels for our share of entertainment. My TV screen suddenly goes hyperactive when Uma bharati comes in with all the vigour she has and says "I will go to Mumbai with a train full of followers from Uttar Pradesh to celebrate Chhath, and I challenge him (Raj Thackeray) to stop me from doing so". Thats the news for the day. We expect better. Being a maharashtrian myself this blatant discrimination saddens me deeply.

I miss!

I miss those mornings when we used to sneak into dad's room and take turns to wake him up. The way he used to emerge out and scare the wits out of us littlies! Wooh! The who-will-wake-him-up-today ceremony used to take up a lot of time of the morning hustle bustle! Ta and I used to look forward to the 5 minute scooter ride to school. One of us used to take the, now embarrassing, spot in the front with the chin resting on the front part of the scooter and hands tightly clutching the handle!

Oh I miss that scooter ride!

Now, I wake up with utmost reluctance to go to college. While I manage a quick shower and run to the bus stop, friends SMS regular updates about the bus's whereabouts. This was the first step towards losing that sense of security that I had on the scooter ride with every second person waving out cheerfully at dad. I remember asking him in awe 'Baba, Does half the city know you?' He would shrug and say 'No beta'.

Ma used to spend hours coaxing us to drink milk before we left for school. The fuss that followed usually got very unpleasant. She sometimes threatened to come to school with the mug and trust me she was quite capable of doing so. 

Oh I miss that glass of milk!

Things change and I've always been taught to adapt to these unprecedented changes! Probably the reason why I can now gulp down piping hot tea scalding my throat. For most of us school and memories are like the perfect dose of nostalgia. We remember the tiniest of details. Usually, the last hour at school used to be History. Ta was most definitely not one of Sister Georgina's favorites. S and I used to wait for times when she'd get into trouble. Sister couldn't bear mischief of any sorts and much later did we realize that she was oversensitive about 'slip of tongues'. Minutes after I was giggling at one of those laughter inducing errors, she came panting down to my seat, looked me in the eye with her big nostrils flared up and walked back. I was like 'Heh? What was that for?' The lady went storming back to the blackboard and wrote in big bold letters ‘A SLIP OF TONGUE IS NOT A MISTAKE AND THE ONE WHO LAUGHS AT IT IS A FOOL'. Ta was just glad that she wasn't mistaken for me.

Oh I miss those classes!

Ta and I used to get home from school with many a stories to tell. But it wasn't the stories that we looked forward to the most, it was Tiger. He used to jump on us with his heart pounding, running towards us with his tail wagging vigorously. Trust me on this, that is the loveliest feeling in this world. Both of us used to cuddle him up, pamper him, run around the entire house with him. He had a bark for each emotion. The choosiness and greediness with food, the furious tail wagging to greet each member of the family was most endearing. None of us could stop ourselves from feeding him from our plates during lunch. THAT is the puppy dog look one just cannot refuse anything to. I miss feeding him, miss petting his forehead gently pulling his ears back, miss running around the whole place like crazy lunatics. All this frenzy and frolic that he created for all of us always felt like an assurance and his way of saying ‘Hey I’m laughing out loud with you!’ After college when I get back there’s usually nothing that I am excited about.

Oh I miss him! :'(

Every second, every minute spent with Tiger is going to be cherished and remembered forever. He has been the most special part of my life and shall always be.

The clueless me didn't know that being away from home could turn out to be THIS difficult. It sure is very exciting at the beginning but things just keep getting worse. The only and only way to deal with homesickness is to keep yourself busy. Listening to music helped me immensely. Family and friends have been of great support as well. Thanks to everyone who has always tried to make it easier for me.

Oh how badly I miss home!

There’s a lot to more to what I miss. Lets keep that for the next post. It took me quite long to come up with the first post but here it comes for people who matter the most to me.

Love
Nandini