Pinku-Enchanted Life

Thanks to the handy camera in mobile phones we no longer need to just experience something we can also capture images/videos to share the same with others. Am putting down here some random shots taken in and around Delhi...its a testimony to my life and times. Hope you enjoy this journey, though its hardly enchanting all the time :) The bells that chime out the change in my life. It's neither golden nor rosy, its just easy right now. Easy with a free flow of thoughts, love and naughtiness. Easy with a shared sense of camraderie. Touchwood, am praying it stays this way always. Flowers in my garden. Its not Eden but I am not complaining. On the roads. What can I say? Perhaps this is enforced, "stand and stare" time. Sometimes brought up by the heavy traffic in the city.... Sometimes by somethings far more interesting... A few pictures from the recently held Osian. Some people including us have calendars which run from Osian to Osian. And all the goof ups not withstand

I am appalled. Shocked. Humiliated. A bunch of people are spreading terror across the country and killing innocent people. And we standby mute doing nothing. At best we makes those cluck cluck noises and shake our heads. Poor unlucky guys we think and then move on to do whatever it was we were doing when the news came through. We forget that those who die immediately are actually the lucky ones. The unlucky are those writhing in pain in various hospitals or those whose family members were dismembered by the bombs and who are still trying to gather the pieces. Is there nothing we can do to help? Is there no one who could bring back those misled youth to the main stream and give them hope and a few dreams they would want to live for? Can’t someone show them their mother’s fear filled eyes when she contemplates her offspring’s fate?

State of the World : a movie we planned to catch at the Osian. The movie started, looked interesting sadly they were speaking Portuguese and most of us couldn’t follow. So we hollered for the subtitles and they finally came on….only they were in Italian. More booing and hollering followed without any consequence. Finally some folks went up to the projection room to find the tape running without anyone manning it. The description of the film had been that of six short stories by six different directors of 15 minutes each. The film running though had gone on for more than fifteen minutes and we grew suspicious that it wasn’t the right film at all. Finally the truth emerged…the volunteers came in to say that it wasn’t the right film and they were stopping it to show another one instead. Incidentally that film called Three Monkeys had already been shown the day before and most of those present had caught it. Didn’t make sense to see the same film again. So we walked out. Kept me wondering

Hi! My last post gave rise to a lot of disbelieve. People wondered how buying a camera could become such an arduous task. So I thought it would make sense to give a step by step process note on the same. Before I begin may I say “this happens only in India”? Those of my dear readers who are ensconced in first world countries do give your inputs on whether this phenomenon is at all seen on those distant shores as well. So here goes: Step 1: Swadha sees an ad by Canon for its high end SLR cameras – that also promises easy repayment schemes along with freebies. The time is mid September. Step 2: Swadha (lets call her S cant be writing her name so many times) hop skips and jumps over to the store alongwith a colleague who is also interested and enquires about the equipment. She is shown the camera and she falls promptly in love with the Thing. Step 3: S now wants to know what all she needs to do inorder to make her love her very own. The shopkeeper tells her to take out her credit card and

Dictionary meaning: to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly. This post is for Swadha , who persisted in getting exactly what she wanted inspite of silly sales people, sillier credit card people and the daily disappointment of knowing that something that comes so easily to other people, takes ages to make it to her door. Sounds like a mystery? Well all she was trying to do was buy a high end digital SLR, the harassment for which (since she wanted it within a certain scheme and on EMI’s) went on for months. Well she persevered and finally got it. These pictures she took with it in Delhi and on a recent trip. Hats off to you Madam , you did do it ….finally.

I was born late in the afternoon on a Friday in april, in a suburb of Delhi. My grandmother (dad’s mom) who barely spoke hindi and had come from Assam to be there with mom during her delivery distributed sweets to the entire neighborhood. Though the largely Haryanvi and Punjabi neighbors found it hard to believe that anyone could be happy at the birth of a girl child. Earlier grandma had stopped mom from going to her parents place for the delivery (as is the custom in most parts of the country). She insisted mom was a part of her family and therefore looking after both mom and the newborn was her job. She stayed with mom for three months, helping mom recover and then teaching her how to handle small children, their symptoms etc. You see I was my parent’s first child and mom had never handled a small child before. Three and a half years later my sister was born. My parents prayers for a healthy child was answered, the sex of the child had not been a part of those prayers. Throughout o