The city in between…

This might be my gift, but I kind of guess the nature of city very quickly. Moving to Pune was my plan B. And as expected I took plan B and moved OUT of Hyderabad to reach Pune.


Now, Pune is not totally new for me, I have spent 2 months of my training over here. My first away-from-home experience was from Pune. But for various reason I never liked that city in my couple of month’s stint. As I moved back to same city after 60 months, I found the things got worse.


Let’s see what goes wrong and what works for Pune.


When I see Mumbai, I like it for its crazy speed and when I see Hyderabad, I like for its peaceful and snaillike speed. Pune stands just somewhere in between and it’s not happy sight to see. It’s neither of it and I hate it.


There are many aspects that brings city down and to start the list – is its infrastructure.


No, the city does not have BAD roads, but the city just doesn’t have roads.


The supposed InfoTech park is THE filthiest place one can see [Ok you can blame monsoon] but you just can not have it as an excuse every time. Besides the public transports works in very strange way, for example This time, first I used to stay some 25 KMs away from my workplace and I had to change 3 autos to get there. Now I stay 12 KMs away from my workplace and I have to change 4 autos. The share autos here adds whole new meaning to word sharing, u not only share fare but also sweat, breathes, germs and everything that once can have from fellow passengers. As per norms the average 6 seater auto should not kick start unless at least 16 passengers are in it. The conditions of PMT and PCMT buses are as old as AK Hangal and as bad as Baba Sehgal, cherry on the top is the auto rickshaw drivers. They charge double for being polite.


But that goes for overall Pune nature, the inherent pride of Puneites for god knows why. The once-Oxford-of-East is lot to work on it’s hospitality. Trust me being a Marathi Manoos it gets irritating for me, so its definitely tough life out there for non-Maharashtrian.


But then what works for Pune?


Weather – oh yes, the gifted climate works bigtime for this otherwise ordinary city. Secondly it’s being touching distance to Mumbai and it’s definitely safe for the women [No pepper spray Ladies]


The Pune IPL team depicts exactly what the city is about. It has everything that the city should have but chokes when it asked to perform. I am just 10 days older now and I already getting bugged up here. However it could be the long Hyderabad stint that still hanging over me.


Hope the city works for me for it’s obvious reason [if you know what I mean ;)]

An Open Letter to MSD

This letter is long pending one, and a proof of nothing succeeds like success. 

Hi Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 

Ever since I came to know that you will be leading our cricket team, I have hated you for one reason or the another with some fair and some personal. However I want to start this letter with congratulating you on your successful campaign of IPL 4 and ICC ODI World Cup 2011. Apparently you would be the only captain who won ODI, T20 world cups, Champions league and most prestigious of all IPL twice, not to forget top ranking in test cricket, a very very rare feet to achieve.

I remember, the first distinct sign of yours in way back of my engineering days. When we used to bunk lectures to complete machine designs and listening commentary on Bhus's transistor [Yeah those days, when Lakshmipathi Balaji was new sensation in pace bowling and all MTV shows were considered as COOL] you hit those bloody 148 in Pakistan and we were all like 'wait a minute, this can be our own gillie'. Something that India never had; A wicket keeper batsman. Somehow Indian selectors were changing wicket keepers more frequently than Deepika Padukone changes her boyfriends so after a long loyal stint of Nayan Mongia we were just getting over of Vijay Dahia, MSK Prasad, Parthiv Patel and Saba Karim [the AAJ-TAK cricket expert] Then we found a hard hitting [literally] batsman cum wicket keeper from Ranchi - Jharkhand [seriously, do they have a cricket team?] someone who look like Kunal Kapoor with Tara Sharma's hair on him. Honestly we just loved the way you batted on that Pakistan tour of 2005, the HATHODA Shots of your were real treat to watch.

Meanwhile Greg Chapell happened to Indian cricket and after lots of abba dabba jabba, finally the captaincy came to your plate. It kind of did fall in your pocket, after World Cup 2007 disaster, Sachin - Sehwag was not ready to take the crown and offering Yuvraj to lead the team is offering Sherlyn Chopra a Parwati Bhabhi role. If I go back in time and try to find out logical reasoning behind why I hate you, it seems really difficult to justify myself. With the outrageous success you achieved in so short time, nothing seems to be wrong with you. 

You are manipulating, shrewd and selfish, but hey guess what, it all works for you. So this letter is nothing but to congratulate you on your success. As you continue to achieve new success milestones, I shall continue to hate you. 

With Best Wishes

MumbaiChaat.

Who is Amitabh Bhattacharya?

Well  Amitabh Bhattacharya is someone who does not have his wikipage yet, but yeah the man has absofuckinglutely awesome work under his belt.  He is lyricist and here is look at some of his creations....if someone looking for variety, your hunt stops here. Amitabh Bhattacharya take a bow.


The first striking work was of course DevD, if someone can come up as weird as below mentioned, you got to say it's different.

Yeh dil pighla ke saaz bana loon,dhadkan ko awaz bana loon,smoking smoking nikle re dhooan.Seene mein jalti hai armanon ki arthi,Arrey what to tell you darling kya hua.Arrey sapne dekhe jannat ke,par mitti mein mil jaen,phooken re ghar baar ki duniya..ko bole good bye..Chad jae haye Allah,jisko bhi yeh bukhaar,Tauba Tera Jalwa, Tauba tera pyar,Tera Emosanal Attyachaar!

A typical YashRaj chhap Band Bajaa Barat song, and still he makes his signature felt with..

Ho baalon ko main set kitta gel mal ke
Chaati chaudi dolle sholle dand pel ke
Kudiya haraya tune chaal chal ke
Baaton waali basket ball khel ke

and absolutely delightful line to describe status of sachha aashiq  as Chai mein dooba biscut ho gaya :)


But my latest favorite is the one from I Am, the Kavita Seth's rendition for Bangur song

Phirti Thi Hawaaon Mein, Par Lagte Thay Paaon MeinZindagi Band Pinjron Mein Kiyun Aaj Rehti HaiNeendon Ke Sandooqon Mein Kabhi Sone Ke Sapne ThayAaj Peetal Ke Tukrron Ko Mohtaaj Rehti Hai

The perfect depiction of uncertainty and fear of unknown in Udaan song

Aankhon ke pardon pe pyaara sa jo tha woh nazaraDhua sa ban kar udh gaya ab na rahaBaithe the hum toh khwabon ke chaon ke taleChod ke unko jaane kahan ko chaleKahani khatam hai ya shuruwaat hone ko haiSubha nayi hai yeh ya phir raat hone ko hai

The down and dusted Sabrina Lal's state of mind described superbly in No One Killed Jessica's aitbaar song

Jhulsi hui iss rooh ke, chithde padeh bikhre hueUdhdi hui ummeed hai ooRaunde jinhe kadmo tale, badi beraham raftaar yehBejaan si iss geed ke ooJal bhun ke raakh hua aitbaarGanda mazaak hua aitbaarChidhta hai, kudhta hai, sadta hai raaton mein

And just when you think he can't get any more classy, he hits you back with crassly written

Volume kam kar papa jag jayega from Housefull and Baburao Mast hain from Once Upon a time in Mumbai

Here is the list of my 3 most favorite chhapri songs in AB style.

Character Dheela Hain from Ready

Kise hai love se matlabYeh yovan sant leela haiFark padta hai kya baahon meinMunni hai ya sheela haiIshak ke namm pe karte
sabhi ab raas leela hai
Main karoon toh saala
Character dheela hai

The Mutton song from Luv ka The End

Mera jism jism
Mera badan badanArre main hoon taaza mutton muttonTu khol dilonkeTu khol dilonke button buttonMera jism jismMera badan badan

And the cherry on the cake Bhag DK Bose from Delhi Belly

Daddy Mujhse Bola , Tu Galti hai MeriTujh pe Zindgaani , Guilty hai MeriSaabun Ki Shakal Mein , Beta Tu to Nikla Keval JhaagJhaag , Jhaag , BHAAG Bhaag Bhaag D.K.BOSE D.K.BOSE D.K.BOSE

P.S. By the way he sung for my all time favorite Iktara...remember the soulful 'kise hai pata' line? That's him again.

It's So Simple, It's So Silly....

Now no matter how cool you are and you sound in your movies, Ranbir Kapoor, your TATA DOCOMO ads are one stupid thing. Please kill the writer who has written those stand up acts,
I did not even smile for one of those ads. And every time those get aired in STRATEGIC timeouts I cringe to the core.

World Cup 2011 - wrap up

Oh there are lots of happening around, and I just could not catch it all here. So thought of writing a mixed post of all the hoopla around world cup 2011....yes the same we won couple of weeks back [Looks like long past thing isn't it?] the moment Dhoni hit that last Six [the shot that he kept in his safety vault for at least 3 years now] I thought of writing an open letter to him. I have been hating Dhoni ever since he became a captain of Indian Cricket team, but on 2nd April he was awesome...or in Erik Cartman's word SOOOPER OSSUM. Let's accept for once Dhoni was great captain ON THAT DAY [LOOK, I did Sangakkara here!]
We hardly realize that Srilanka has always been our little jealous neighbors and beating them in World Cup finals was real treat. We won the world cup by winning over Australia, Pakistan and Srilanka....that's just honey to the ears,
Sadly there wasn't much out of stadium drama, however Shahid Afridi did provide our NEGATIVE MEDIA ample MATERIAL to run their special reports on "AFRIDI NE UGALA JEHAR". OK, Afridi we may not have big hearts as you people, but we have 2 world cups :P Period!
The best match for me was obviously the tie between India and England, the best finish was England Vs Ireland [Totally unexpected and the climax was real fun, proves again that how much we love underdogs winning the match], India Pak was obviously a cracker and thankfully it did not dispoint it's fans. New Zealand and RSA chocked again, England's dream run ended up as a nightmare in Srilanka, and the downfall of Australia is confirmed yet again.
It's strange but none of us felt bad when Virat Kohli said that we won this cup for Sachin, mind you! not for the country but for him. We all agree, because he is worth it. Pathan gave his best performance by lifting Sachin on his shoulder all by himself and gave a him victory lap....something that we all will remember....Thanks Kohli   for not taking off his pads and standing in pavilion for rest of the match. [Yes, we all did our tiny superstitious deeds for India to lift the cup]
On 3rd Morning it was great feeling to wake up as a world champions.....woa!!...Nothing much to say, because already a lot has been said and done. To all the Indians and Indian Cricket lovers...congratulations!