A few minutes from terror!

It seemed like any other day in the morning. Little did we realize that this was “A WEDNESDAY’ in the lives of Mumbaiites and the world that we will never forget for a long long time and the nightmare continued for 3 days more.
Marine drive being my favorite spot, we went that day to the queen’s necklace and were seated opposite the Oberoi-Trident for almost 1 hour 30 min listening to songs on our MP3 Player. It was 9.30 pm when we decided to leave. My friend wanted to listen to a couple of songs more, but I insisted that lets get back home. Now we know that one more song would have made all the difference.
Ironically, we passed through almost all the places where the terrorists struck – Oberoi, CST station, Vadi Bunder. It was only when we returned home and saw the news that the mixed feelings of terror and relief engulfed us. As much as we thanked our stars, we grieved for all those innocent lives that were lost in this inhuman massacre.
Everyone boasts about the spirit of Mumbai. But on my way to office, when I saw the grim, scared and sullen faces of all the office –goers, I told myself that things may never be the same again in Mumbai.

TEMPLE TALES

Ignorant and careless devotees could unknowingly carry electronic items with them, not realizing that they are about to witness the most well planned, meticulous and intelligent money making scheme in the precinct of the temple’s premises.
The Policeman at the baggage checking counter where the bags are put on conveyor belts looks at you with suspicion (or maybe a smug satisfaction) when an electronic device is detected probably thinking that “Ek aur bakra mil gaya”. You stare at him blankly when he says that cameras have to be left outside, you have no idea what to do. When you ask the policeman for a solution, he says there is a shop where these items can be kept in safe custody. However, no sooner you are contemplating options than an angel like man called Anil from Shop No. 52 comes by and offers to keep your belongings. When we trust him and also entrust him with our footwear, the lady in the shop pushes a basket in your hand and tells very confidently, go with him he will take you directly inside without standing in the queue. Before we can realize what is happening, this man is leading the way towards the temple. Being a Tuesday morning, we were prepared to stand in the queue atleast for a couple of hours. However, we followed him, partly out of curiosity, partly out of temptation for a close-up darshan. He takes us confidently past the policemen and guards, who on seeing him leading our way do not stop us even for a second. Bang! In 10 minutes, we are done with our darshan and are ready to leave. But more is yet to come. When we reached the shop to collect our belongings and our footwear and enquire about the price, they charge us a thumping amount. When we express our surprise at the amount, they add Rs. 100 more saying that they had added half kilo modaks (when we had not even asked for the same). Not wanting to create an unpleasant atmosphere in a holy place, we paid him the amount albeit expressing our displeasure and shock on how so much amount is being demanded from us. However, we didn’t want to make it a big issue since we had come for a good cause. But, when we left the temple we were disturbed , wondering how many times they must have gotten away with this clever plan because most people like us do not want to fight or argue in a temple.

Ye teddy mujhe de de Thakur !!!

"Bollywood"!! This was the theme of Rujuta's Birthday party. Incidentally, today being friendship day, it was a day of double celebration. We all office friends were racking our brains wondering what each of us should wear. We had a great time anticipating and guessing what each one would come dressed as. Kejal was Kareena Kapoor of Jab we met, while Nandinee was Aditi from Jaane tu, Amodi very conveniently called herself Twinkle Khanna from Badshah though I am still thinking HOW?? :) Sarmistha came in normal Indian wear, so we named her as one of the extras of DDLJ. Aarti and Rohini came as themselves :/.... So much for keeping a theme... But the best of all was the b'day girl herself who was dressed as Anarkali or Kashmir ki kali .. Some kali and ahem ahem.... I was Bandit Queen with a toy gun.

We all had an awesome time and we were even given return gifts. All in all an afternoon well spent and very memorable :)

Que sera sera!

It was the perfect example of how unpredictable things can be. Nothing went as planned for the Indian evening. Heavy and incessant rains ruined our plans for a grand Indian evening with an expected audience of approximately 100 people including the Consul-general of France and the Director of Alliance francaise. The roadway connecting the suburbs to central Mumbai were water-logged and the tracks were brimming with rain water. We were almost thinking of calling off the Indian evening since 60% of the host families were coming from the suburbs. However a sudden will not to give up overpowered better sense and Bijal, my friend and colleague in the committee, Mr. Karani , the Chairman and I decided that we will NOT cancel the Indian evening - We had never done it in the last 35 years. We decided to have the Indian evening - come what may. The enthusiasm and courage of our host families were commendable. Except 2 families which could not come (because the situation in their area was really worse because of the rains), all the other french guests along with their families turned up. Other friends and colleagues and member families also braved the rains and decided to come. Though the main attraction of the evening , the folk dance with 24 children couldnt happen since their parents were quite hesitant to send them, we tried our best to make the evening as fun-filled as possible. We had Brilliant performances by our friends from Samarth Vyayam Mandir of Mallakhamb, yoga pyramid and an impromptu bollywood dance by our friends, Rashmi and Ruchi. But the whole credit for the success of the soiree goes to our french group who made the evening memorable and exciting by their bubbly group songs, interactive poems and last but not the least the group dance, Chapeloise. After this dance, which almost resembles garba, they patiently taught us all the steps and believe it or not nearly EVERYONE from the audience participated and enjoyed the dance thoroughly. That was the time when Bijal and me thanked our stars that we did not cancel this most memorable Indian evening.

The group has left for Nashik today. Hope they have an equally memorable stay there. My guest Bertrand is going to sing Kal Ho Na Ho during the Indian evening there. He loves hindi songs, especially the title track of kal ho na ho, but he did not know the lyrics inspite of knowing the tune of the song very well. Dad and Bertrand practiced the song with the lyrics so many times that I can still hear it playing in my ears. I wish I was there to see him sing :).

What a day!!!

It has been quite an eventful day today. It was my graphology class exams. Everyone around told me take it easy, u will pass. But I was very passionate about this subject and I wanted to do well. Luckily I topped the class and I am very happy :).
Sir, along with our certificates gave a very thoughtful gift to all of us. A mug with our picture and our personal handwriting imprinted on it. Such a memorable and thoughtful souvenir. I then went to my friend Bijal's place. the french group of 16 people arrived yesterday and my guest Bertrand Cusson was staying last night at Bijal's place. I went to her place to pick him up but then decided to tag along with Bijal and her french guest, Christophe to Sidhivinayak Temple. After an excellent darshan at Sidhivinayak (I have never seen the temple so empty), we headed to Bandra to St andrews auditorium to watch the play, Me Kash and Cruz directed by Rahul da Cunha. It was very very impressive and enjoyable. Since Bijal knew one of the actors, we went backstage with our french guests and met all the artists. It was a great experience. It was already past 10 pm and it was pouring cats and dogs. We went to Shiv Sagar for dinner where our guests very courageously had Pav Bhaji, Mysore dosa and Idli. I am looking forward to tomorrow when we will have our cultural evening. I will be compering the function wherein we will showcase Indian talent to the french people and our own member families. Apparently the french have also prepared a dance which is a secret. Let us see how tomorrow goes. My guest Bertrand is exceptionally sweet. Thankfuully he is quite fluent in English and he and my Dad have got along quite well. That is how I got the time to come and write all this while both of them are chatting away.

DANCING in the SUN :)

Finally, after a lot of planning and plotting parvati and I could gather all our office friends (Rujuta, Amodi, Sarmishtha, Ketki, Nandinee, Kejal, Arti, Rohini and Sirisha - Arti is going to feel very fortunate to see her name on my blog, she kept requesting me to add it) for our joint birthday treat. Tired of Five Spice, Fountain Sizzlers and Mocambo, we decided to go to Sundance.

It was a journey down the memory lane when I entered sundance reminiscing and remembering all the times I had come here with my colony friends. After having an exasperated argument with the rude waiter about the water dripping on our table from the airconditioner above, he obliged us by telling us to shift on the first floor. Here we were divided in two distinct camps, of vegetarians and non-vegetarians. We enjoyed and relished both the food and the chatting to such an extent that we were glared and stared at by the neighboring tables. Before the manager could throw us out for the pandemonium, thankfully it was time to leave. Whatever said and done, it was a memorable day.

Now I have to wait a whole year! :(

I love birthdays, especially when it is mine. I get so bummed out to think that this day for which I have been waiting for so long is almost getting over.

But it was a great day. My office colleagues made it very special. At the end of the day the gift tally was 25 (after counting a pair of gifts as two!!). The most special of all was from Raghunath aunty and it was a framed photo of me giving sweets to Mom. It is a souvenir I will cherish all my life.

I went to my old office and spent a good 45 minutes with my ex-boss and all my colleagues there. In the evening, I met my family, grand mother, uncle, aunt and cousin for dinner. In all, it was a great day.

Wish I had asked for the moon!!

It was a special day today. My tamil star b'day or as Kejal corrected me, it was my Thithi b'day. Wore the new dress that Matesha , one of my closest friends had bought for me.
I keep irritating my office friends for gifts for my b'day and keep joking with them that I want a laptop. And as Providence would have it, My desktop broke down yesterday and when I least expected it, i got a laptop from my office. It was a great feeling. It has happened very very rarely that I wish for something and it has happened. This is one of those few times. I am very happy.
However, I feel sad that I deprived my friends of the opportunity to buy me a laptop. ( Just kidding :) )

Serendipity - what does it mean?

Many people who read this blog were asking me what the title of my blog "Serendipity" means. I thought I will write something about this and my connection with this word.

The word serendipity has a very beautiful meaning. It means the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. The best description of this word, I think was given by Mr. Lawrence Block as "Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for."

I guess many of the incidents in the blog refer to these kind of "fortunate accidents" in life. But frankly, the first time I came across this word was when I watched this movie with my best friend on HBO "Serendipity" starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. Because of this associative psychology that most of us have wherein we relate incidents in our lives to the circumstances around them, this movie always brings back fond memories of times spent with my colony friends esp my best friend, Pari who is now married and lives abroad.

I am glad to have 'serendipities' in my life

GRAPHOLOGY

My friend Anand had studied graphology and I was always in awe of him especially when people would huddle around him and want their handwriting to be analysed. I realised that this was a science I would love to know more about. About 7 years thereafter, now in my office , I have a few colleagues who have done this course (one of them is already an expert and is a supervisor) and once again I was tempted to know more about it. I have finally joined the class and today was my first class. The first impression of Our teacher made me realise that he is a very simple and easy going person and I wasnt wrong. We learnt so many things today in class (which by the way lasts the whole day) and at the end of the class we were told that this is not even 5% of what we will learn. Little things in our handwriting that we don't even pay attention to, we realised has so much of significance. I am so glad I became a part of this and I am really eager and looking forward to what all I will learn in the coming classes. One important thing I realised was that the terms "graphology" is not synonymous with "handwriting analysis". Though we loosely use these words, apparently, graphology is a science whereas handwriting analysis is the application of that science... it is an art.

LITTLE Pleasures :)

Its been a year since I am in this law firm and I feel I am very fortunate to be working with the seniormost partner of our firm, Mr. Dara Mehta. He is efficiency and perfection personified. He is an institution in himself.

We are currently working on a very important transaction in which I need to be out of office with him to negotiate a deal. It is such a pleasure to watch him negotiate and the utmost fairness and neutrality with which he speaks and conducts himself, noone has any doubt of whether they are in the right place at the right time.

Today, when we were about to leave, the CEO of our client company came to see us off till our car and offered us chocolates. Mr. Mehta forced us to take more than one . Though we were feeling a bit shy and embarassed, Mr. Mehta took a handful of the diary milk and toblerone chocolates. After we sat in the car, he gave them all to his driver, saying that they have given it for him and his kids. It was a small gesture, but still it touched me a lot.

I feel indeed very privileged and thankful that he involved me in this transaction and I hope I continue to be associated with him as long as possible.

However, these past few days, I have been missing my office colleagues a lot (and I am sure the feeling is mutual :)). Our lunch and gossip sessions, fashion and diet tips, tea and biscuit breaks... Waiting to get back to office from next week and resume on all these.

The french connection :)

Being a Lawyer by profession , I hardly get any time to socialize and mingle with people. Thanks to the Indo-French association of which I am a member, I get the opportunity from time to time to meet people from France and invite them home for a cultural exchange thereby giving vent to my passion for France and the French language.

2 French girls Julie and Laetitia had come to stay with me for the weekend. Though I have been inviting French guests since 2000, this is the first time that someone of my age group came to stay with me and what an experience it was. They had come here to do a project on women in India. Since they had informed me of the same earlier, I had already begun preparations by trying to get in touch with and contacting career oriented and successful women. I was lucky enough to be able to get an appointment with my Junior College professor of sociology and the city editor of Indian Express. We met them and Julie and Laeti asked them several questions. They were quite impressed with the plethora of information that they got from these 2 very different women. One was a home-maker and a part-time teacher who very ably could balance both her professional and personal life whereas the other was an independent woman who was so fiercely passionate about her job that she placed her career about everything else.

After a satisfying session of shopping at Big Bazaar, we returned home. The next day was to be equally adventurous. We visited the tribal villages at Ambadi, about 40 km from Thane. Claire Elouard, a French woman in her late 50s has been working for their welfare since last 7 years. She holds a Ph. D. in Ecology & Pathology (Plant) from the University of Tolouse, France, with specialization in tropical plants. Her doctoral studies brought her close to the tropical countries. Claire had developed a love for nature and ecology from the beginning, and dreamt of living in tropics. Her love for and actual work to help immigrants during her high school studies in France was a forerunner of her love to work with people in need of assistance. She, who has almost become a native of Maharashtra except that she did not know the language, has been working in Thane Dist. since 2001, earlier with other non-profits, and finally started her own, called Sukhbhumi India Trust with the theme “Environmental Rehabilitation”. Her dream was – and still is – to plant trees, but she realized that this could not be done without the involvement of local people. And the second realization was that dire poverty and lack of basic resources like water and fuel would never permit these people to think of ecology and afforestation. Claire has a small but dynamic team of social and education workers – all highly committed and full of enthusiasm. The beginning is small, but results are quite promising.

Her area of operation is in seventeen villages – most of them tribal – in Tansa Watershed region of Wada Taluka, Thane District, Maharashtra.

We went to 2 of these villages with no idea whatsoever of what we were going to see. In spite of the dire situations that the villagers lived in, they welcomed us with open arms. A very common resource, WATER which we take so much for granted is a luxury for them. They have to walk about 15 km just to get a bucket of water. They have dug a well about a km away which has water of barely 40 inches. The women have to wake up as early as 4 am so that they are the first ones to get the little water that is left. We were so thirsty but were embarrassed to take out our bottles of water and gulp from them. Despite the hardships and sadness in their lives each of them were so vibrant and happy. They had decorated not only the entrance but the entire path that we walked into the village with colourful rangoli. When I was sitting there and talking to these women, I was suddenly filled with this void and extreme guilt as to what am I doing with my life. When I saw the amount of work Sukh Bhumi is doing for these villagers by fighting for their rights with the forest department and also trying to provide them with how much ever capacity of water that they can, I realized I am so self-centered thinking only about MY career, MY life, MY future. The experience of the 2^nd village visit was equally enriching. They had prepared a tribal dance for us and also served us tea and farsan. Julie and Laeti were equally touched by the large-heartedness and hospitality of the families. At the end of the day, on our way back home the 3 of us didn’t speak a single word, just reminiscing and thinking back of the amazing moments that we had during this day. When it was time for Julie and Laeti to leave, they hugged me and with moist eyes expressed to me how enriching and memorable this weekend was. I in turn thanked them for, if not for them, I wouldn’t have had this life-changing experience.