It is more than three months since you have passed away. With the passing days I miss you more. There are times when I wish I should have been able to do something, to cure you, like a miracle maybe, so that you could still be around. I don’t know what is it that I want you to be around for, maybe to see me get married, play with my kids, be proud of my achievements. But you were always proud of me. I counted you among my blessings and you topped the list.

You were so unlike other fathers. You gave us those rare things that so many kids don’t get, trust, respect and freedom. We were always allowed to make our decisions, whom to befriend, what to study, how late to stay out at night. You never tried to live our lives. We never had to ask for permission to go to movies or a picnic or see a guy. Having you for a father I could never understand the restrictions other girls had to face.

You could be so naïve at times. During college when R would come to drop me home in the night, once you had asked me to ask him inside for tea. I had told you nobody is getting invited at 11.30 in the night for tea. That was your gesture, hospitality for someone who had brought your daughter back home safely. I can never forget that incident; everything was so simple and uncomplicated for you.

There is so much to do and so much to live for. Hope you will always be there with me.

Hum kis gulley jaa rahein hain, apna koi theekana nahi

Viyer wanted to know how Spiderman 3 is. Told her it is a Hollywood meet Bollywood kind of a movie. She said yeah she had read reviews, only thing missing was running around trees. No worries they are trying to rectify that in the next part.

They are looking for Bollywood-based directors. Talks are on with Himes Bhai (music composer turned singer turned actor might turn into director), but they are not too happy about his insistence on replacing Tobey Maguire and adding a cap to spidermans’ ensemble. So they had also considered YashRaj Banner, but a problem here too, they (YashRaj) insist on writing a part for Uday Chopra as a side-kick to Spiderman. They want 4 songs to be picturised on Uday, while spiderman will be fighting crime, who of course will not get any footage.

They also checked out Karan Johar who is all willing to be part of the spiderman family, after all he loves New York, but his only clause is he wants to cast Shahrukh Khan. All SRK will do is woo MJ and in the end after few profound dialogues and expressions will get the girl. KJ has some novel idea about a party song too, to be composed by Shankar, Ehsaan, and Loy of course, with guest appearance by AB Sr. and Jr., Kajol, Rani, Saif, John, er did I miss out anyone.

With Rakesh Roshan having already made his own Super hero movie, he is not interested. So they have kind of run out of options what with other directors making watchable movies.

RECIPE FOR BHEJA FRY

INGREDIENTS

1 Bheja of a regular, logical, hardworking employee
1 project specially created for frying Bhejas
Few stupid ideas of a brainless (see the irony) boss
Some silly suggestions by the same brainless boss
Irrelevant feedback by…………………………….

METHOD OF PREPARATION

1. Marinate the Bheja in the project for a day, for better results keep it air-conditioned at about 16 degrees.
2. Next day approx. after 24 hrs, check on the Bheja, it should be numb.
3. Saute the numb bheja in the few stupid ideas and let it simmer on low flame for hours.
4. When the bheja turns golden brown and is ready to explode add some silly suggestions and let it cook for some more time, this time on high flame.
5. If not satisfied with the rate at which the bheja is getting fried, keep adding silly suggestions.
6. When the bheja is completely fried––u can make out by the crackling sound––then turn the flame off and serve it garnished with irrelevant feedback.

I was standing at the bus stop.

From the house across the street, two very old and frayed people came out.
A man and a woman. Holding hands, the woman clinging to the man.
They made to cross the road, but held back for the bus to pass.
Then with hurried steps they crossed the street.
The woman started walking in my direction.
With hurried steps the man crossed to the other side and went back into the house.
It took me few seconds to realise.
The old man had come out just to see the old woman safe across the street.
How beautiful!

Economics of Marriage

Colleague: My friend is getting married.
Bhagya: Khool.
Colleague: He is getting married to one of my ex-students.
Bhagya: Great! What’s the exchange rate?
Colleague: I don’t know I don’t ask such details.
Bhagya: You should. That will help me assess my standing in the market.
Colleague: You know the two most difficult things in life are to make a house and get a girl married.


From the data that I have gathered I have come to the conclusion that my colleague is right. I don’t know about buying a house, my research has to do with marriage. A year back Spooman had told me that one of her friends was demanding a dowry of Rs. 20 lakhs. The reasoning was that he had spent so much money to study in the US and now he is working there, how can he allow his wife enjoy his fruits of labour for free. Why didn’t he become a rickshaw driver, he could have saved himself all the trouble. Then, there is Spooman’s cousin, some obscure TV actor or is that TV Star. Back then his rate was 60 lakhs, must have gone up now if he is not yet married. Why? Why? Why would anyone want to pay 60 lakhs to get themselves an anthropoid drone? Is this freakin world for real? If I had sixty lakh rupees I would be in Italy, wooing Italian men, drinking vintage wine, and gorging on Italian food. I am salivating. I hope just thinking about Italian men, Italian wine, and Italian food doesn’t amount to sin.

Coming back to the topic under discussion, two years back my bro’s bihari colleague got married for a cool sum of 8 lakh in cash, a car, assortment of jewellery and of course the dhoom-dhaam se shaadi ka expense. I had pestered my bro to marry a bihari girl, but he wouldn’t give in. He is one of those stupid people who don’t make hay when the sun shines. Especially foolish cause the market is equally good in Andhra (our native place) too. Information on other states is currently in process as soon as it is available it will be published on this blog for general reference. Kindly do not take the rates mentioned in this post as the official rates. Rate of exchange differs depending on individual parties and negotiation is possible.