On the trail of my Editor

Yes, like most of them - my Editor is "one of a kind", dont get me wrong, this is only a fun post, partly because I'm in a benevolent mood. My Editor at the first place I freelanced with was someone I could streamroll, butress and get my way. My current Editor (at the new place I'm working) does the same- to me!! I have to, have to relive this conversation the other day

8am morning,
She: Mk, where are the pictures for the book previews??
Me (groan, is it time already?): Hmmm, I will give them in today

She: a really looong Mk, You are taking your own sweet time...this wont do
Me (in my head) : Is she talking to me or is she actually saying...Did I carry you around for 9 months for this day?
The irony being it is actually nine months that I've started working here

She: Mk, are you there
Me: Yea, you'll have the pictures by 12

She (as if I didnt speak): The photograher will be in your place in half-hour!!!

8.15, after sending me two messages, she calls again!!

Do you really wonder why I've not been blogging of late??
My work has been really strenous what with writing re-writing, drafting and re-drafting though I must give it to Su(My editor), she runs around for entire days, thinking about design and stories. It's actually fun and I get a kick out of it especially because of late they want me for full time and I've declined it twice (that would mean better money but seriously can we ever really have enough of money??) but I'm simply glad that people read what I write and there is no greater glory I seek!!

PS: I hope my only loyal reader is happy that I've finally written a blog!!

Summer memories

the summer is at it's peak (Hyderabad's sweating it out at 44.!), blistering it's path unheeded and a remarkable wry thought occured to me the other day while eating cut chilled mango (the ONLY pleasure of this dreaded heat) Summer was a time of leisure, of fooling around and of holidays...where has all of it gone? In ten years, a young generation has grown and how!! It holds true for most of us, the past decade is a completely new entity to us now, what we have grown up with is no longer existent and its new because you can rightly claim so only after much later in life... cricket is not played in the grounds but online and friends are not made in the neighborhood park but on social networking sites!!I yearn for that time when summer meant

- a proper vacation at grandma's place with cousins,endless and mindless movies, ice-cream, scrambles, chess, great food and minor tiffs.

- a pair of strong and comforting arms, I still rue the memory of

- a time when as children we ambled with no summer camps or restrictions and more importantly behaved like children. My cousins, a decade younger feel immensely grown up to me!!

- Reading the Enid Blytons and Agatha Christies over and over again and still feeling smugly satisfied each time

- listening to that one cassette of Lata Mangeshkar Live at Calcutta and a Kishore kumar album...no wonder that I still remember the lyrics of each of them!!

All of this and more seem so alien now, vacation is a weekend and fun means multiplex. The joy of a thing, I believe is less in the thing itself and more in the process of the entire experience. With that amiss, it's like chemically enhanced Alphonso, looks the same but leaves you strangely unsatisfied even after eating a bushel!!

Mix n Match

I have not written anything for three weeks now, and for a change it feels wonderfully refreshing! Been writing non stop for the past two years and it is a welcome change. After I joined my new workplace last year, it's been enormously hectic..but am taking a month long break again come next week so the few days are going to be crammed with writing and excrutiating editing!!

Am extremely glad that the ridiculous cases against Khusboo has been squashed though five years is a tad too long, but she must be relieved. All because she was tipped to be a AIADMK candidate...the weird ways of Tam-politics!! Now with the talk of her joining Congress, wonder what will happen!!

Was in Tirupati last month and there was a wonderful (though a trifle gaudy) statue of MS Subbulakshmi at the entrance. I was really happy simply because no one deserves it more than MS. In the carnatic world, there is only one Annamacharya and one MS, unrivalled. Just try and listen to her Samarpanam albums in Raaga and you'll understand her voice if not her tongue!!

In an interview with Headlines Today, Hrithik (intelligent) Roshan used the words "you know" 29 times in 2 minutes. I told you that he was the male Ash and yeah I'm completely jobless.

Eleven years

that's what it took Manu Sharma, the accused in Jessica Lal's case to be sentenced by the Supreme Court...eleven years in which her parents and sister waged a lonely battle and eleven years which her parents did not see to live the day, the killer who destroyed a family was finally put at bay. This story makes remarkable judgements on our Justice system, on one hand you feel that for once some one gets justice while on the other hand you feel that it's too little too late. I have followed Jessica's case closely, as closely as someone in Hyderabad can follow a case in Mumbai/Delhi, it first broke out when I was in school and when NDTV was actually a respected entity, I can almost visualise the first TV debate I saw on this case, Sabrina Lal, her father, Bina Ramani and a counsel for the killer Sharma and thinking that nothing's going to happen here, it finally has and is a victory of the tenacity of one brave brave lady, Sabrina Lal. What she must have endured I really do not dare know, but I'll say this, this has surely come at a very high cost- of personal space, individual freedom and of immense unyielding struggle!!For those who think that ends justifies means, it isnt always so.

This is for her and another remarkable lady, Neelam Katara. These are the stuff heroes are made of, our REAL icons.

The one which could'nt be

This article, I wanted to write for the mag I'm freelancing for, but my Editor brusqely said no, and for whatever it's worth....here it is

Ever got sick of seeing the same old faces romancing like robots, here's a choice of some eclectic and madly different actors who's pairing would surely burn that silver screen!!

SRK and Tabu: The mighty Khan and the magnificient begum came together for a minute in Saathiya and sizzled the screen. Just imagine them in an intense love story, the passion which SRK brings to romance and the devastating presence of Tabu...they'd teach people a thing or two about chemistry!!

Chitrangada and Aamir Khan: Yes, the stunningly beautiful Sen and the perfectionist Khan. Cast them in a rom-com and see what they do with it. Her elegaic pathos gives way to fun and perfection meets personality!! Chitrangada's electrifying presence and Aamir's sheer intensity and what they can do to the box office!!

Abhay Deol and Kareena Kapoor: This vivacious punjabi jodi can spring many a suprise. Imagine them in an absolute art movie, Kareena can emote through her eyes and Abhay Deol can smolder the screen with his craft. The kind which will have all the grace of love, lust and longing. Strong, gripping and passionate their pairing could be a revelation.

Nandita Das and Salman Khan: Salman khan with his unbridled energy, Nandita Das with her solemnity can be the stuff movie legends are made of. Imagine them in a coming of age story about lovers who lost and found love. A tamed Khan and a smiling, stunning Nandita. Simple grace meets raw energy and many a myth is shattered.

Arrgh!!

I cannot for the life of mine think of a name for this post, but here it goes!! Been rushing around like mad of late. The work has been hectic and the bloody blazing heat (at 41 degrees!!) has made life miserable, throw in traffic and you have a completely chaotic cocktail!! Been writing so much of late that I'm still in a daze.

Wanted to write about
- a meeting with an old old friend (Wy) which was memorable and the phone call which triggered it all. Old friends are so comforting- they know what is a taboo for you and what you dont like in your dosa(onions!!) A wave of nostalgia swept across me which included sunday evenings at second hand book shops and shopping for vegetables. The everydayness of life which was exciting then and now has become mundane. The small joys in big things which was a big deal and are currently taken for granted and that heady feeling that relationships might be hidden under a mass of feelings but cannot become extinct just like that!!

- meeting Boman Irani/Minnisha Lamba. The latter was all charm and the former surprisingly grounded. Boman Irani is amazingly patient and affable, and really really sharp which made it all the more fun!

- the grief of a dearly beloved cousin mourning an irreparable loss which has shaken all of us. Life can be so cruel at times that it can take your breath away and it did. That relationships are merely a part of life and not life itself, that a cliche like life carries on come whatever can actually be true and tear you apart.

- LSD and how path breaking it really is!!

- friends who are so wonderful that you thank god that you get to choose them!!

Done!!

No reservations

This entire hullabaloo on the Women's reservations bill is so amusing! Leave the fact that it is a shameless diversion from the glaring issue of price rise, but the sheer posturing of people is so hilarious. What's the guarantee that our desperate politico's wont do a Laloo and put a Rabri who is no more than a Rubber stamp. I'm personally against reservations of any kind, I do agree that the weaker sections need more personal care but am dead against caste/gender reservations. It is really important to know that all SC/ST's are not backward, most are but putting all of them under one category means that a well off SC is scoring over a poor OC!! If they need to be reservations let them be for the actual weaker section- they may be of any creed/caste/sex. Similarly, it should be noted that women in our Country are not powerless and this is a sop, a mere political soap opera out of which nothing substantial will ever reach that wretched women worker in Kanjeevaram or a fisherwoman in the suburbs of Bombay. The need of the hour is more representation not mere symbolism!

Interviewed the amazing Nasreen Kabir, last week and had such a ball. She documented the lives of Lata Mangeshkar, Guru Dutt and SRK and the stories she told! We were supposed to meet for 10 min and ended up chatting for two hours! No airs, no hang ups (Hear hear- konkona/ Mughda Godse) inspite of the enormous clout she has in Bollywood- that of being an expert on it!!

Rahul Mahajan marries- I give it six months tops!!