Gypsynan

http://manjunathshanmugam.blogspot.com/

Please visit and leave a note. If possible write to the govt. The E mail addresses are given. If you don't do the least you can do, people who can do their worst, will do exactly that.

And also, VOTE. Its a big deal - yes it is.

A huge number of people visit me while searching for "Vikram Seth gay" on google. hmmm...why so many?

Dubious by Seth - (with apologies for calling him gay)

Some men like Jack And some like Jill/
I'm glad I like Them both/
but still,
I wonder if This freewheeling
Really is an Enlightened thing/--
Or is its greater Scope a sign Of deviance from Some party line?/
In the strict ranks Of Gay and Straight/
What is my status:/
Stray?
or Great?

Two sets of families coming over for the Thanksgving weekend. With 3 bacchas. We are desperately trying to accessorise and oterwise "finish" the home decor by then. So major trip to IKEA happened today, but what I really love is Pier 1 Imports. The latter specialises in sort of "ethnic" home decor, sourced from around the world and I have picked up really interesing things - some apparently from India! A beautiful curved Tibetan mirror, a wrought iron and wood jaali door, add the Madhubani painting from Dilli haat and pata chitra. My place almost has the global traveller post modern look that I wanted. I have to do major cooking before they come as well. Thinking of turkey with the traditional trimmings ie. pumpkin pie and cranberry chutney for the kids!

No that is not the point. The point is that the husband man has diligently spent the entire evening putting a TV cabinet and a bathroom cabinet together. He has bought a electric powered tool and has hammered and screwed and assembled and opened up various furniture body parts all evening - I couldn't possibly plow through with such grim determination. While the wife woman is fiddling away at the computer.

IKEA stores are great but never again! When in India you never imagine the hard hands on work you have to do in this country. Definitely there is a post in there somewhere...

So I will reward da man by embarrassing him excrutiatingly through this post...I wuvv you!!!

Totally obessively listening to Shamshad begum. For some reason the song "reshmi salwar, kurta jaali ka" got stuck in my head. I bought this awesome 2 CD set from India, which has her best songs and a bonus leaflet which describes her voice as a tall glass of lassi...kya baat hai. Listening to saiyaan dil me aana re, mere piya gaye rangoon,chana chor garam, ek do teen ...
Here's a link to a page of her songs

Listen to kajra mohabbat wala or kahin pe nigaahen and read my old blogs, or drink lassi :)

What is interesting is how naughty Hindi lyrics were from the early days - they had fun, a sense of humour and a certain class!

I have been reading random blogs about how people relate to language - em and Thalassa and even rimi. And I have been thinking about it too. Every time I go back to Kolkata I notice huge changes - one of the big changes I noticed is how casually people slip in Hindi in the conversation. Mind you, I am a probaashi Bengali too and grew up in places like Lucknow and Bombay and Hyderabad and Dad spent his formative years in Allahabad - each of which have their own take on the language - Kolkaata I moved to for college - dad was in between transfers and I stayed with my grand mom, in North Calcutta (yes! and I think South Calcutta pride is ridiculous too) - studying in Presi was a huge ... I won't say culture shock but culture shift - certainly. I loved the exaggerated Bengaliness of the people - how it was not considered polite to speak in English in Public places like buses or even stores, unless they were "Marwari" or "nonbengali" stores.

I happen to be ridiculously well read in bengali - complete works of Bankimchandra at 9 anyone?-taught to read by my thamma in the summer vacations, since I was a toddler. I was a book not a worm but a baby bookpython. I read the Chheleder Ramayan at 6 and remember sobbing away at the fate of Sita and hating Ram - the gormless hero. And why chheleder I ask you. Graduating to Sarat Chandra and eventually Tagore, with passionate flings with Sukanto and Jibonanando Das along the way. Shakti Chattopadhyay too but, that was timepass I think.
My summer holidays are remembered by the books I read, Robinson Crusoe in Class 4, Pride and Prejudice in class 5. There was this lovely book called Banglaar Dakaat. And Syed Mujtaba oh Stop!OK can I mention Anandamela, way, better than Target!

Bengali kids have the privilege of reading fiction written by the finest writers in the language. Worlds away from the babyfied, age specific vocabulary, of most children's fiction. I do not know of any other Indian language that has such a strong tradition in Children's fiction. One of my favorites is Shirshendu's Jheeler Dhaarey Baari - and he is such a pessimist in his adult avatar.

My thamma was the principal of a school in the hills and there are beautiful memories of quaint wooden bunglows with flowers - shiuli phool and gandharaj and huge dahlias asbig as your head, and reading in the garden. And later after she retired, moving to a baagan baari in a little village closer to Kolkata. It was a fantasy retirement, which my grandparents enjoyed hugely for about 10 years - before old age and CPM goons forced them out to the evil city, where they exiat as shells of their former selves, stripped of dignity by decrepitude and alzheimers.

So anyway Bangla is special to me in a very unique way. At Presi, none of the girls I knew read Bangla. Loreto house and La Marts students, very incestuous, everyone knows everybody who are somebodies in a very Kolkata kind of way. Fascinating. All very Bengali.

So it was either English (BBC, not CNN) with friends and Bengali with non friends or parents of friends. Speaking English in the wrong place was just not done. And what, Bengali teen agers speak Hindi now! Shiva Shiva! That's a Southie thing by the way. NOt to mention that I saw kids preparing for a Bollywood dance competition-at Presi. Promode da goes - bujhlay na .... aaj kaal ja hochhey!

I guess the notion that speaking unmixed Bengali is a sign of good manners is a stiff pretension that is disappearing along with much else. But hey, you have malls and money instead and its all good and I am over the hill. Let me tell you in my days....cackle cackle!

I never write rambling blogs like this.... feel free to criticise.

Bhaalo theko, shobaai.

7 things I plan to do
Ø dance all night at the carnival in Rio and explore South America
Ø read a book every week
o start reading poetry again – explore bangla poetry –
o explore the various strands of Indian philosophical thought
Ø cook something exotic each week
Ø raise a happy baby - my little drummer girl
Ø write a gossipy book on Indian history – non fiction
Ø dive in the Bahamas – (I can dive)
Ø learn to belly dance and restart yoga
Ø

seven things i can't do:
Ø ride a bicycle
Ø stay alone
Ø speak French or learn a new language
Ø tolerate snobs
Ø socialise with people I don’t really like -
Ø settle down
Ø be satisfied


7 things i say most often:

• Its all good
  Ø Take it easy, people
  Ø What do you really want?
  Ø It ain’t happening, baby
  Ø Freakin’ idiots
  Ø Shona moni
  Ø Dhoor chhai kawla biskoot!
• will tag the lovely Teleute of the random teenage/ now young adult angst fame, the Manipur Blogger , (isn't it nice to know there is one? spread the word ) and the Good Doctor (she is smart, she's sensitive and she can Party!)

Plus I am thinking of adding another tag: tell us the names of at least 3 but may be 7? bloggers

• you read but do not personally know
• who are not connected with the media
• your random discovery blog!

Mine are:

Awesome dictator princess

River

List of bangla Blogs at Blog spot : including a HOW TO guide. The Bangladeshis are taking over people : join 'em or fight 'em - in Bangla, ki bolen Kobi Thakur?

And who hasn't read Salaam pax? I was in Cairo when I started and were one of the few who read him from the start - getting frantic when he stopped without notice for sometime. Historical interest.

ciao!

I watched “born into the brothels last night, on TV. I would like to exclude the angle of - third world poverty exploitation – glorification of the white savior issue, and focus on how it felt. May be poor Indians will only find a voice in white run media – middle class Indian media has divorced themselves and retreated to Neverland.

Most of all it seemed so utterly familiar – college street after all is a few steps away from Haarkaata goli.

And how heartbreakingly familiar the children were, how normal. If they were interviewed for a news channel and asked about their views on something random, like Durga puja – they would sound like any normal lower/middle class kid in Bengali medium school. That is the one thing that strikes me about street kids – how bright they all seem to be. There was this kid who sold newspapers at Worli naaka. He had asked me for a lift in the car one rainy afternoon, in Dadar. I don’t think he expected me to say yes. And he told me an elaborate, articulate, self important story about how he goes to school and takes care of his sisters. He was 8 or 9 and I knew he was lying. And that was heartbreaking too. But I respected him.

When people use big words and NGO jargon and talk about child rights and what not – we often forget how smart and good kids nice are left to fend for themselves in our streets. And if you see the North American kids - whiny, moronic, dissatisfied, slutty looking – the unfairness of life seems like a fresh new insight.

Its important to see one's own world from a fresh new angle. Get out of the comfort zone.
It wasn’t a depressing movie – watch it.

I wuvv the internet! Stolen maal though!

We had a fantastic time on our trip to India - I am going to milk this for blog stories till the end of the year for sure. But sometimes a little something happens...

We were in Leh, and after having spent the whole day exploring we ended up at Mall road. There were 2 Scorpio loads of us, and since the guys were taking forever, getting the digital cards downloaded, I asked dad if us women could just take a vehicle and return. He said no. we had to wait.

As you can see, Leh is the smallest of towns and at night pretty dark. As we were all returning to the camp, there was this narrow little bridge type of place and we could see that an army jeep had gone off the road a little. Our Scorpios were civillian, hired vehicles. Suddenly we heard some yelling. We had in any case slowed down, to negotiate the narrow gap. We ignored the yelling, and it grew more insistent and abusive. The driver stopped looking scared, and rolled down his window. A JCO stuck his head in and asked in filthy Hindi, why we had not stopped , "abbey m*** roka kyo nahin? " And then demanded that we take the passengers in his jeep and drop them somewhere pretty far.

My dad then, in his most freezing voice said " suno, main XXRank YY name hoon aur abhi hamein us raasta nahin jaana". The volte face ws something to watch. The soldier immediately saluted, theek hai sir.

We were all a little stunned. And I timidly ventured, "he was not exactly asking for a lift was he?" Dad said," beta, this place is under army occupation. Ladakh tow thik hai, friendly territory, nothing like Kashmir" My dad, I migt add, despite a distinguished career has reatained both his judgement and his conscience, or may be because... but I am a daddy's girl.

And I thought about it- I mean if you can commandeer a private vehicle without a qualm in Ladakh, there is a lot more one can do in Kashmir. He was in the North East and he told me once that the government is creating another Kashmir there.

So who's watching?

Dad has been away from home since the earthquake, overseeing relief ops near Srinagar. And he will be away for a few weeks more at least. As are many of my good buddies in the army. I know they are doing great work. And I also know that army supervision breeds resentment in many different ways. Power corrupts - absolutely.

My office is a very sleek and formal place that is probably one of the tightest run ships in Montreal. However for reasons that are another long story, there is one IT support team in my office is populated by musicians - alarming looking long haired band members who are very conscientious about the hours they put in - but not a minute extra. Their team head, thinks that they are much misunderstood and unappreciated. I actually did ask one of them to apply for a senior level position and she put in my place by telling me she is writing a book and can't really commit to longer hours. So anyways...

There is this cute as a button blonde, goth ish chick. She is extremely bright, tattooed all over and has a few alarming piercings. Just not corporate... some of you know what I mean. Soon after I joined we went out for a business lunch - and she proceeded to tell me the story of her life, over 2 beers. It went like this " So I met him in a bar y' know... he was an American marine, really hot and made me laugh... and so we have been together for the past 5 years... we got married real soon, cause he wanted a Canadian visa, he likes it here" (I am guessing he deserted.) "So we had a small apartment and he really can't hold a job for more than a few weeks... so I paid all the bills, y'know? its good that I managed to keep mine... they really are not going to give me a promotion , eh, y'know I could be a really good manager... so anyway, I am 32 y'know, so I decided to buy a house, really good deal y'know I got lucky" "And can you believe this guy, 2 months after we move in, he tells me man, I can't deal with the responsibility, mortgage and all. And I say that is crap, what the hell you talkin' about, man, you never pay nothing. But he whines and whines and he says he is not ready for a house and he wants to party, meet new people, you know what that means? right? and man I want to move on, I have 2 dogs I gotta take care of, grow up y'know? So we got divorced, a month back, but he lands up every evening to watch TV, and I got adate tonight, y'know? What do I do?" MOI "uh, tell him to stay away?"
He does not listen, and I am guessing he is not getting as much action as he thought he would, but he will, girls just want a guy , y'know, as long as they can move, not even...i don't know what to do, I want to meet people"

Today I get this e mail

Hi,

Could I take tomorrow off?My ex has a double hernia operation and he needs some one because he won't be able to walk. And its our wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I can't say no either

I send this

Sure, go ahead.

I am feeling mean, so I hope you won't mind my saying that its an entirely appropriate way for him to spend the wedding anniversary - not sure about you though!

I get

Hehe :) I feel sorry for him y'know?

Moral of the story 1: be nice to the woman in your life - she may nurse you through hernia operations!

Moral of the story 2 : Sati savitris come in all packages_including goth

Neil Gaiman is doing the screenplay for Beowulf, starring Angelina Jolie...several esoteric groups must be following, the nerdy history of lit fans, the fantasy fans and the Jolie fans.