today - writing a day in the diary of life

a page from my diary, dated October 12, 2009 at 07:29pm

today.


such a short word can have so many different connotations. (today i met dee.) such a little word and the experiences, the emotions it generates! (today i went to the book bazaar with her.) the single word that captures everything done or thought of, things or thoughts long forgotten as if they never happened. (today we bought so many books and left so many more behind.) 

perhaps the very purpose of writing a diary is to record these many 'todays' that happen one after the other and suddenly you've a lifetime of them looking back at you, making you wonder where has all the time gone. (today we dared to go upstairs in a shady little restaurant that turned out to be a gloriously kitsch example of the 80s middle-class India.) perhaps the idea of writing a diary is to dare yourself, because at the ends of the day when you'll put pen to paper, you won't like to be reminded of how badly you spent your allotted time. (today we lost dee's wallet due to our foolishness.) it is said that when people are dying, they remember their life in detail, what went wrong, what was right, the agony, the ecstasy, all of it rolls by as in a flashback scene from an old Bollywood movie. (today, we laughed, we shopped, we hoped, we dreamed, we loved, we hated, we smiled, we unsmiled.)


so writing a diary entry at the end of the day, something that starts with the word 'today' is almost like being those dying individuals, reminiscing about their lives, maybe wishing for one more chance and preparing for the long night ahead, because no matter what, tomorrow will be another 'today'. (it was a wonderful day, with almost everything that life could throw at us was accepted and lived through, it was a day worthy to be remembered always.)

i don't think i'll ask for one more chance to relive this day. (may our lives be full of many such 'todays'.)

traveling back in time, notes on Raja Deen Dayal photography exhibition

images swirled around my head and i amongst them, a few moments ago i was in 2011 and when i landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole i'd traveled almost 125 years in time, to the India of the late 1800s!

medieval forts and palaces, long abandoned even 100 years ago; new cities of Bombay and Kolkata, unspoilt and uncrowded; Red Fort's Diwai-e-Khas and the Jama Masjid of Delhi, 'only' 28 years after the mutiny/revolution; the Nizams of Hyderabad, their noblemen and their families in all their royal splendor; the hunting parties; the foreigners who traveled to catch a glimpse of the exotic; the Kings and Queens and Princes lording above the poor natives who sadly still remain in more or less the same condition- all of this seen through, photographed and recorded for posterity by the keen eye of India's pioneering photographer, Raja Deen Dayal.

this Sunday, i went to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) where an exhibition of Raja Deen Dayal's extensive oeuvre is on till February. for three hours i roamed amidst these hundred of images framed on walls, images of a distant yet vaguely familiar India, because the more India changes, the more it remains same.

the Kings and Princes are long gone, but a new royalty is seated in their place; these days tigers are not sported as trophies, business deals are the sport; SUVs are the new elephants; corporate houses and political parties are the new kingdoms; and still, the common man is as common as he was a 125 years ago.

only the veneer has changed, the world Raja Deen Dayal a hundred years ago still is the same, bafflingly contradictory, sanely insane.
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created a slideshow out of the images i clicked there. do keep in mind that the image quality is quite low as there was a lot of reflection and all these were clicked by my Nokia C-6 only :) and here you can watch it full screen

 

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related links:
Raja Deen Dayal's Wikipedia page

two pages from the IGNCA digital archives, Raja Deen Dayal Collection and the legacy of Raja Deen Dayal

sometimes you are not supposed to do the things you were supposed to do!

this weekend was like that. had made a lot of plans, will do this, will do that, but nothing turned out the way it was supposed to be. and i'm surprised i'm not sulking about it! :)

hadn't planned on coming to office, but was in the office for a few hours before heading out home. there is lot of work going on at home, and had planned revamping my room and all, but it didn't happen. had planned on calling my dear friends home and having a good time fooling around. instead, went out and met them in the Kamla Nagar market and roamed around there. had planned about spending some quite time at home with my love but instead the evening found us debating and discussing a book (that apparently we both are scared of) over cups of delicious cardamom tea, at the stairs of Vishwa Vidyalya metro station.

sometimes you are not supposed to go as per the plans, sometimes you are supposed to go with the flow, sometimes, and the ever cautious me says 'only sometimes' :) you are not supposed to do the things you were supposed to do in the first place.


 

 

electrified!

last week an electric pole in front of my house caught fire. while people were busy removing their cars from beneath the flaming wires and melted plastic falling down, i thought it'll be a good opportunity to capture my first YouTube upload ;)



strangely, nobody thought of calling the NDPL (electricity) guys! somebody did call the police and fire service though and i'd a memorable video :D

weekend, health and good wishes

it is a sad commentary on my health status that i missed just one day of office and everyone around assumed that i must have been ill! morning onwards, have been warding off questions regarding my health and illness. sudden sniffles after last night's weather turnaround in Delhi also helped create an additional effect! people worried so much about my health through the day that i actually am not feeling well now :(

had an amazing three day weekend! though Monday was spent majorly in renovation work going on at home. lots of roaming around, shopping, meeting a dear friend, eating out, and most importantly- spending quality time with her and making plans about our future. there was also a fabulous electric pole fire right in front of my house that i've recorded and will share with you soon.

till the next update, wish me good health ;)

Feb 16th 2009

Last night, I was going through my old files and found this in my diary. So many things have happened in a year and yet it seems nothing has changed. It seems like a beautiful thought, but perhaps it is not.
.
.
.
21:57 Monday, February 16, 2009

(I’ve missed writing here, these 10 odd days.) Lots of things swirling in my mind. Just finished Murakami’s ‘Dance Dance Dance’. You gotta dance baby, follow the rhythm, go with the flow, the world will take care of itself. When reading a good writer or a poet, I feel connected to the world. To the soul of the world. This happened with ‘Snow’. With this one too. I was barren without words. And these writer’s, writing about their world, were like silent rain falling on my parched surface. I wanted more, to be drenched, to be alive once more. Perhaps I am. Last night, a poem came to me. And I knew it from heart. Two more, half complete, three more, yet to start.

So, am I back with, amongst words again? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not feeling quite right. Something within, I want to work, but so many things are held up at the office that working seems a distant possibility. We all are just going through the motions. There is a wait lingering in the atmosphere these days. Something is going to happen. But nothing happens. “Nothing never moves”, she says.

All the things are one, all the ones are multiple things.

Don’t know what to write, what to say, what to think.

Yesterday was Sunday. Seems so far off now. Had a very good day with her. We roamed around in Kamla Nagar, did little bit of shopping, had lunch at the new Subway, then I went to see her off near her place. After that, emptiness.

I was standing near the ground level window, beside the Media Mart outlet at the Kashmere Gate metro station. There is a window overlooking a little green patch of turf and then the metro premises boundary cuts off the mayhem of Kashmere Gate bus adda. I could see a whole world of people moving about on the other, far side of the window. Going on with their lives, buses to catch, things to sell, talks to talk, and I, with a cup of coffee in my hand observing them, from behind a window. Closer to me, on the glass surface of the window, another lot of people were going on with their lives. Trains to catch, things to buy, talks to talk. But these were ghosts, moving about on a piece of glass.

Or was I the ghost, standing there between the worlds, one real, one unreal and one very real world behind the unreal. I didn’t matter for anybody. Everybody mattered to me. Only she makes me feel alive. When she is around, nobody matters to me. The world is then, as unreal as a phantasm wandering amongst the many alternate worlds.
.
.
.
And then, she has to leave again. The cycle continues.

22:19
…

this city / ye shehar

यहाँ ऊंची-गहरी हैं इमारतें, यहाँ अंधे-कुएं हैं रास्ते
ये शहर बहुत ज़हीन है, यहाँ सर झुका कर चला करो

यहाँ दोस्त ही रकीब हैं, यहाँ सब के काँधे सलीब हैं
ग़र कोई हंस के मिले भी तो, ज़रा डरते-डरते मिला करो

यहाँ पैदल चलना गुनाह है, हर गाड़ी वाला खुदा है
जब पार करो सड़क कोई, हर कदम संभल कर रखा करो

यहाँ दौड़ती-भागती तिशनगी, कहीं थक के बैठी ज़िन्दगी
हर ख्वाब इश्तेहार है, उसे जेब में रखा करो

translation in English, courtesy this fabulous blogger :)

through the sky scrapers
and blind alleys
you must walk alike
with a bowed head as you come
and welcome to the city where culture rose

of all the smiling faces you behold
bear those smiles
like you bore the cross
with a guarded heart as you greet
and welcome to the city of friendly foes

lords spin the lofty wheels of fortune
as men travel on foot
burdened with sins
watch your step as you cross this road
and welcome to the city of deathly blows

desire desolves and sanity yearns
as it revolves never to return
harried life waits forlorn
with the pamphlets of dreams stuck within
and welcome to the city of eternal gloss

an October morning in Delhi

uploaded these and some more photos on my flickr page recently. please do visit and if they interest you, please do leave comments. criticism is welcome too :)

the link is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/delhidreams/

thanks

double dhamaka (twin offer)

have mailed to most of my contacts, but still posting it here.

"Last night while going home I became the latest unnamed victim of mobile snatching in the city of New Delhi :) Have got the SIM card disabled but as all my numbers were stored in the phone book (and not on the card), please be mindful of any crank call if it comes. Will try to get my number restarted by the afternoon. Other than that, yes, I would need your phone numbers once again." what's more damaging is that i lost my pair of specs too and would be temporarily debarred from my net duties :(

you can mail me on the id in my blogger profile. look at this way, even if we were not on each others' phone lists, its time we become phone buddies ;)

cheers,

adi

thank you

for eyes that woke up to a lovely light; for lungs full of fresh cool air; for a sky that turns gold from blue in a single moment and then red and then blue again; for a father waving goodbye to the daughter he loves; for children playing cricket at eight in the morning; for the temple bell that swings and rings and sings with the wind; for a rickety rickshaw ride that follows all the traffic rules; for a solitary student, studying on the steps of the metro station; for a master of imagery who paints pictures with words, "Later on, she and Father would discuss Grandfather as if he were one of those old unpainted wooden houses that collapsed around them almost daily"; for the strength to climb two steps at a time and still not lose your breath; for the splendid squalor that the city serves to the eyes; for filmy songs playing loud in a cramped bus ride; for a woman that smiles even when she has to run for that bus; for destitute children turning municipal dustbins into play swings; for a migrant family just arrived in the city, the woman's sindoor shining as red as the sun shined in the morning; for a ten rupee ticket that takes you across half the city; for friends who wait for you across the seven seas; for colleagues who smile when they meet; for a girl who slept at one and woke up at four 'cos she has to study for her exam; for a work that is not forced and loved instead; for music that talks as you hum a language you don't understand, yet; for a day that will be remembered for no reason at all; thank you God, for this all.

polling day

delhi goes to vote tomorrow. it'll be a public holiday, so that people at least don't have the excuse of office, to not vote. i hope that the maximum number of people exercise their choice. it's too easy to crib and comment on a government you didn't vote for, becomes a little difficult when you see what your chosen ones are doing.

16th of may is the result date. i wish my dear country the best of luck.

she can do with a little bit these days

:)

bookish

delhi is full of little pavement book shops, where you'll get good books at competitive prices (provided you know how to bargain). this one was clicked in the bungalow road area, at one of our book shopping haunts.

men at work

dig a road and another department will come and dig it out for you
...ye dilli hai mere yaar

@ North Campus, New Delhi

for Delhi's Women Drivers, Mommy Bloggers and Indian bloggers in general

hello world,

a few mails i got today from my facebook contacts. please go through them as they will definitely come in handy.

01)
For women drivers in Delhi

Here's something I thought everyone in Delhi would be interested in, especially women who want drivers, but not the lechy-belchy male ones. Saw this info in today's HT city.

The NGO Azad Foundation has made this service available to "families, NGOs, corporates etc". These women drivers are trained (also in self defence), and can be booked through: mobile : 9313844015, email: azadfoundation@gmail.com

Their only condition apparently is that there should be a woman passenger.

Do share it with fellow bloggers and your families.

Cheers
Sanjay Shrivastava

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02)
For Mommy Bloggers

Hey all,

There's a mommy days contest being organised by indusladies.com

~~What's the Contest?~~
Bloggers need to write a blog post (in their own blog) on their best parenting experience. Attach the above IL banner to your blog post and add a link to IL. (as i don't have it, please go check the website.)
Update a link to your blog entry in the comments section below.
Through two rounds of voting readers will select 3 winners. Get your friends to vote for you when voting starts!
~~Who can participate?~~
Women Bloggers (regardless of where you blog i.e. inside or outside IL)
South Asian descent and over 21 years of age.
Bloggers who blog outside IL should have a blog about six months old and have at least 30 entries
See terms and conditions for details and exceptions.
~~The prizes~~
The Winner gets $200 as prize money
The Second position gets $100
The Third position gets $50
All the top ten entries get Indusladies Tee Shirts and caps.
The first 25 entries "Jaldi 25" will be awarded with the Indusladies Letter Holder Gift
~~Deadlines~~
Participation ends April 26th
First Round Voting 27th Apr - 4th May
Final Round Voting 5th May - 9th May
Winner Announcement - 10th May, Mother's Day

More details at :
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/phoenixritu/mothers-day-competition-1717/

cheers
Priyanka
PS. pls invite ur blogger friends to join the group! :) this is what i'm doing :)

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03)
Hey all,

Blogworks.in is publishing the 1st edition of the India Bloggers Directory.

The aim is to publish a pocket guide to an ever growing list of Indian blogs, the directory aims to help users and marketers navigate the web by informing them about sites of interest, categorized by subject. The book will also have a select listing of Twitter users from India.

To submit one’s blog, he/she can fill in a simple form with all details. The online form can be viewed here -- http://tinyurl.com/indiabloggersdirectory


cheers
Priyanka
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one request, whoever participates in these, please give a link to me also :)
-adee

sweets on wheels

a mobile rasgulla shop.

a 'rasgulla' is a round, white, spongy ball of sweet, most cherished in the eastern state of West Bengal but almost equally famous in the northern parts of the country. the poor guy will be traveling from place to place in this big city of mine, bringing delicious smiles to so many amongst us, rain or sunshine.
clicked opposite the LSR college T-point on a Saturday afternoon, last month.

a picture is worth a thousand minutes

god, i need more lives *corrected*

01. anbraham maslow's 'the farther reaches of human nature'
02. 'remains of the day' by ishiguro
03. a book of essays on male sexuality and its effect on society
04. 'the hours' by michael cunningham
05. 'einstein's dreams' by alan lightman
06. an anthology of (ancient) greek plays
07. a book by marquez whose name i don't seem to remember now
this was wrong, i didn't buy any book by marquez. tried selling her the fact that i did and fought with her :( found out that my memory deceived me big time. the book i bought instead was, quite ironically, the memory keeper's daughter
:)
and my favorite,
08. journals of captain Scott on his last expedition to the antarctica.
*wink* *wink*

all of these for only Rs. 440, that is Rs. 55 per book. can you beat that?

those who live in Delhi would know what i'm boasting about. sunday afternoon found me rambling alone amongst delhi's largest collection of used / second hand books. dressed in a crumpled bermuda, even more crumpled tee and sandals and cap, i must have looked like a geeky backpacker to most of the people when i landed up at the Sunday Book Bazaar in the Daryaganj area of central Delhi. perhaps taking pity on my pestered look (it was unbearably hot) the shopkeepers gave me these fabulous prices, but i'm sure, more seasoned adventurers get better books at better discounts! me and dee have sometimes bought 20 books in around a thousand bucks! no wonder i missed her so much. i say boss, if you happen to be in delhi on a sunday, this place is a must visit.

what i am reading these days - updated
am reading The Fragrance of Guava, Marquez's take on life, books, family, love and everything under the macondo sun and boy, it is such an engrossing read. apart from that, a little sprinkling of sheharyar's poetry and the world's best copywriter's trying to instill some sense into my already-cluttered-with-advertising-mind in the much revered 'the copy book'.
well, left all of these midway and started Arthur C Clarke's trilogy. i know, it's quite late in life! have completed the first, that is 2001: A Space Odyssey. almost half way through the second one, and then there's the third one too. needless to say, even after all these years, the books are unputdownable.

what i plan to read
and believe me, there are literally a thousand must read books, that well, i must read before i die. god, i need a separate life just to read to my fill, then one to write about it all, then one to travel the world and take photographs, and one more to write blog posts about this all.

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Now playing: Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
via FoxyTunes

a day at the Pacific

no, not that Pacific! i'm talking about the Pacific Mall in the eastern part of the city. a few weeks back both of us met a friend there and did lots of masti together.

the Pacific Mall is located near the Anand Vihar, inter-state bus terminal on the eastern border of delhi. it was a saturday and Nidhi (our friend) had to shop for our birthday gifts, with we in tow! i went there directly from my home in kalkaji, south delhi and dee came from her school. Pacific is one of our frequent hangouts and we've roamed around these area so many times that nothing interests us anymore :)

anyways, while waiting for Nidhi to come, we decided to do some serious window shopping. and in the middle of our expedition came across Spencer’s food court. Located on Pacific's ground floor, Spencer Hypermarket is your usual middle-class shopping destination, full of organised chaos. We really liked its food court though. A bright ‘n cosy place or perhaps because it was early afternoon (and not a Sunday), it was more or less vacant and thus appeared to be so.

That apart, it has a nice little menu of food options from Indian snacks and mini-meals to Western snacks and desserts. We’d a Rajkachori first, spicy and really fresh. Then after Nidhi arrived, we ordered some ‘moong ki dal ke pakode’, ‘pao-bhaji’ and ‘shahi dhokla.’ All this from the Rajdhani counter within the food court. This is the same Gujarati Rajdhani which has popular eating joints in CP, Gurgaon and NOIDA. Had a light lunch and clicked some pics too. Then we went a floor above to Westside, where Nidhi got me a nice, light warm, grey and black striped tee. After that, we went over to look for a kurta for Dee. Normally Westside's Indian ethnic collection is quite appealing to the senses, but this time round the collection was a disappointment. So we went to Globus instead. And there Dee struck a goldmine. With one beautiful pea-green kurta as a gift from Nidhi, she also got two knee-length dress tops (one white and one beige) from me. Somebody was happy and grinning from ear to ear :) All this simple shopping took us about two and a half hours (god knows why girls take so much time shopping for dresses!) and as we were feeling slightly hungry again, one more time we scampered to the Spencer food court. This time we had only liquid nourishment though, juice and cold drinks. then as the curfew hours for the girls were coming into effect, we said hurried goodbyes and i came back home.

it was a nice day overall. i was apprehensive how it'll go, 'cos i was quite unwell but we'd already promised Nidhi so couldn't cancel the program. in the end, everything went well. have realized one thing, shopping does lift my mood *lol* especially, when i shop for her!

take my advice guys, the next time you are feeling blue, grab your better half, throw in a couple of good friends in the mix and go out for an impulsive shopping spree. there's no better joy than seeing your loved one smiling with all the spoils of the day. ofcourse, you'll get so much more love in return for the next few days ;)

here's my shopping queen! and till next time, stay away from the blues!

The India Gate and surrounding lawns have been taken over by the security personnel these days. The Republic Day is near (26th) and the area is being used for rehersals of the parade and sanitised for security reasons.