Piccolo Posts

The Mumbai Local           Lacs of Mumbaikars travel by the local train everyday. Mumbai local is called the Lifeline of the city. The over-crowded trains witness many stories, quarrels, debates, discussions, games, songs and  bhajans (a proper bhajan with dholak and cymbals!). They say, "Don't be a part of the crowd, lead the crowd." This does not apply in the Mumbai local. You have to be, infact you are a part of the crowd when you travel through the over-crowded trains. I got a chance to become a part of this crowd when I joined college. I found out some rules that came into being as the crowded trains went on becoming over-crowded. There are two three-seater benches facing each other between which generally three to four passengers stand. The first person from the window should be given the first priority to be seated if anyone gets up from those two benches. Fourth seat is allowed on the three-seater benches. Unless nobody is standi...

A SWEET LOVE STORY Life mein sabse bada risk hota hai kabhi koi risk na lena... Barfi is a film about the life and love of a Darjeeling born boy named Barfi. The film is set in the 1970s and runs into flashback from the beginning. Barfi (Ranbir Kapoor) is our protagonist who is dumb and deaf. He bicycles through narrow lanes, jumps quickly down a house and pinches buttocks. He charms Shruti Ghosh (Ileana D’Cruz) with his unique and naughty tactics but he finds true love in Jhilmil Chatterjee (Priyanka Chopra). Jhilmil is autistic and belongs to a rich household. Her grandfather dies and his Will says that all the money would belong to Jhilmil and it would be kept with trust called Muskan where Jhilmil grew up. Ranbir Kapoor with is inspirations from Charlie Chaplin and Mr. Bean is impressive along with Priyanka Chopra who has shed her glamorous avatar for the movie. Illeana who has given many Telugu blockbusters including Kick (2009) and Pokiri (2006) which remade in...

CINEMATIC  ECSTASY Kasam khoon ki khayee hai, sheher nahi Shanghai hai… The movie starts off with Bhagu (Pitobash) wondering about the English word for ‘mutton’! Bhagu is one of those party workers who do the dirty work for the well-dressed bureaucrats and politicians. The story, adapted from Vassilis Vassilikos’ novel Z (also made into an Oscar winning film with the same name) is set in a fictitious town in India called Bharatpur. The Bureaucrats plan to set up a business park under the project called IBP. The voice over says that its stands for India Business Project while the hoardings and pictures in the movie suggest that its International Business Project (flaw :-P). Dr. Ahmadi (Prosenjit Chatterjee) is seen in a cameo playing an activist who opposes IBP. Shalini Sahay (Kalki Koechlin) is an associate, student and lover to an already married Dr. Ahmedi. There is a scene between two where you might think that Dr. Ahmedi is killing Shalini but you soon r...

"ए झिपऱ्या, पाटील बोलावतोय तुला", मावशी ओरडली . माझं नाव सदाशिव सोनोपंत माने. मला सगळे लोक प्रेमाने किवा रागाने ' झिपऱ्या ' असं म्हणतात . मी पण प्रेमाने किवा रागाने 'होऽऽ' असं उत्तरतो. पाटल्याचा नेहमीचा असतं काहीतरी काम - ''दूध आण" - ''कुत्र्याला फिरवून आण" - "हे आण ते आण", नुसता कटकट आहे हा पाटील. मी नाही जाणार आज त्या पाटलाकडे, मारू द्या बोंबा. मावशी परत आली . तिला पाहताच पटकन बोललो, "ए मावश्या, मला नाही जायचं त्याच्याकडे. मी नाही जाणार. या पुढे त्याचं काहीही काम असेल तर मला नको बोलत जाऊ." मग काय? दोन फटके मारून पाठवलाच मला त्या पोपटाकडे. मार खातांना राधा पण होती तिकडेच. मावशी पण येडी आहे. राधा समोर का मारायचं मला? राधा आणि मी शाळेत एकत्र आहोत. नऊवीत. राधा याच वर्षी गावात आली. पुण्यात रहायची आतापर्यंत. मला राधा खूप आवडते. जितका सहजतेने हे मी तुम्हाला सांगितलं, तितकाच कठीण आणि असंभव वाटतं जेव्हा तिला हीच बात बोलायचा प्रयत्न करतो. तिला पहिल्यांदा शाळेत पाहिला तेव्हाच मी ठरवलं की लग्न करेन तर हि...

                  “You market yourself too much. You always speak only of your books” , questioned a 20 something girl to writer-banker Chetan Bhagat: A popular writer with two of his books already made into Bollywood movies and the remaining three to be made soon. Replying to the girl’s accusation the chubby writer said, “I have a booking of over Rupees Five Crore on Day 1. Why would I market my book so much?”                 The girl with curly hair and wearing glasses, apparently from an upper-middle class family with a book and a notepad in hand asked Chetan about the quality of English he uses in his books- “Why do you use so simple English? You can do much better”, she insists.  Chetan, just out of a session held at the Times Literary Carnival, 2011 in Mumbai was hauled by a handful of people while he was getting into his car. I got out of a works...

       "The moon did not look bigger. I did not smile for no reason. I did not feel that the sun is shining brighter for me. My heartbeat did not increase whenever I our eyes met. I did not dance on roads. No background music would play when I started singing. I did not develop a liking for the 'red' colour. Nothing happened as they show in the movies, but I was in Love!        She was good friends with me. I loved the way She talked. I loved Her smile, Her actions, Her expressions, Her laughter though I did not love to see Her cry. I so much wanted to express my feelings to Her but the coward-and-pessimist-me never allowed me to do so.        Then one day I decided not to tell Her anything. That was the day when I got to know that She loved someone and that 'someone' was not me. She used to mention him many times when She talked to me. I never liked that. I was sad.  She did not even know ...

मै भी अन्ना , तू भी अन्ना , अब तो सारा देश है अन्ना .. Each and every Indian may know   Anna Hazare   and his hunger strike by now. He also did some things apart from a hunger strike. I have rounded on some of those things in this blog. Anna   brought together the people of different caste, creeds, religion together on the roads, grounds protesting against the corrupt government. He showed us the non-violent way of protesting. Anna taught how to successfully organize a protest (to the likes of Baba Ramdev!). He revealed the selfish and the narrow-minded politicians. Mayawati and the like-Mayawati-minded people need to know that the fight led by Anna was not of a Lower-Caste-India or Upper-Caste-India, it was the fight of the common man-the fight of an entity called India. Anna also ridiculed the always-in-a-mood-to-ridicule politician Laloo Prasad Yadav! Anna gave the crazy bikers a reason to create havoc on the roads i...