She’s got the look

An exasperated female cry, “I don’t have any clothes to wear”, after staring helplessly (for an hour or even longer) at a closet full of vibrant and varied outfits is a very familiar sight especially at the outset of the wedding season! Well dressing up is not easy, in fact dressing up right is all the more tricky. The big fat Indian wedding is a grand celebration with many a jamboree, giving the women ample opportunities to glam up and to flaunt an array of styles, ensembles and finery.

What is “in” now can easily be “out” tomorrow, trends come and go; fashion has a short shelf-life. Picking the perfect modish piece of clothing and making heads turn (without stealing the bride’s thunder!) can thus be a challenge. Nevertheless elegance can be showcased effortlessly by keeping things easy – s for simple, s for sophisticated and finally s for sari.

Sari is forever a la mode and can never be passé. Several styles can be experimented with this exquisite 5.5 yards long piece of cloth. A sari, be it cotton, silk, chiffon or crepe, exudes grace and finesse. Choosing the appropriate color and material in accord with the occasion can make you look like a million bucks by spending only a couple of thousand bucks! A pastel or even a bright chiffon sari teamed up with a shiny backless or halter neck blouse and chandelier earrings (or traditional jhumkas) can make you look simply wow! Once the attire is decided on, just fix up minimum shimmer make up with a hint of bronze/peach radiance, dark deep lipstick, well-defined eyes with smoky effect and/or matching eye color, tie up your hair or just let those long tresses bounce off your shoulders (or flutter gently with the breeze) and you are all set to dazzle the crowd!

To be a crowd-puller make sure you wear your attitude and you smell awesome; choose a perfume as per your likes but with an intense base blended with light, romantic, floral notes. To enhance your grandeur and poise stick a big round bindi on your forehead, wear a dozen (or more) bangles in your right hand and big round dial watch with modest bling on the left wrist. Don’t forget to slip on that over-sized cocktail fingering! The bindi will surely bring out the sexy diva in you and undoubtedly you will be the gorgeous goddess at those sundown revelries!

Oh so Hoot!

Disclaimer: I’m sincerely indebted to my colleague APD for this new found muse (the Owl) of mine!

No, I’m not talking about any drop-dead gorgeous starlet or a man with killer Greek god looks here. In my eyes the hottest fashion icon today is none other than the wise old “Owl”! Why - Owls are dominating not just t-shirt chest prints and jewelry but there are silk saris and ethnic ensembles with embroidered and patch-worked owls as well as owl-inspired kitchen and home linen. Very moda if you please!
The owl, in flesh and blood would have never attracted so much female attention let alone interest. Its sole runway to fame and limelight was restricted to a really small number of National Geographic photo shoots. A couple of years back party animals would have never even dreamt of (probably even ridiculed) this nocturnal species of birds making it to page 3 had the pretty women of tinsel town not donned them at all the fancy events and galas and made the bird a big hit in fashion circles.

The owl, commonly branded as the harbinger of the dark power also epitomizes wisdom and mystique. However, with the changing times (read trends) the cute little creature (or should I say a celebrity) now represents nothing else but effortless chic.
If Old McDonald actually had a farm today, all he would say is “hoot hoot here and hoot hoot there!”

The ATS chief I knew …

I still vividly remember my first meeting with my friend’s dad, the late ATS chief Mr। Hemant Karkare – Hemant Uncle for me. It was a beautiful evening in Vienna in the fall of 2005 and I along with 4 other friends was waiting for Hemant Uncle near the subway station. I could effortlessly spot him in the crowd – clad in a pastel blue shirt and black trousers a tall gentleman with a pleasant countenance, surrounded by an aura of intelligence us on the street. Hemant Uncle was so unpretentious and modest that we then had no idea that he was such a topnotch RAW officer। He escorted us to his wonderful apartment, showed us the place and ensured that we all felt comfortable. Later he took us out for a breath of the Austrian air in the breezy night and made an effort to acquaint us with the Austrian history and culture with unbridled enthusiasm. He also arranged for a special tour of the UN headquarters (where he worked at that time) exclusively for us. He gave me an extra set of keys to his apartment and advised me to enjoy every bit of my weeklong stay in Vienna without any worries - no deadlines, no restrictions imposed - he wanted us to make the most of our trip. It was one of the most memorable experiences in my life – thanks Hemant Uncle.

Hemant Uncle was a very well read and an extremely ingenious person. He was a connoisseur of unique handicrafts and liked to collect exclusive crystal items and wooden articles. He always encouraged his daughters and his son to read choicest books and biographies. The Karkare residence boasts an impressive assortment of novels and books. Hemant Uncle etched a core set of values like loyalty, justice, honesty, discipline, self-esteem, punctuality and the correlated in the minds of his children and family members and he also believed that when one takes them to heart and implements them in the smallest details of his or her life, great accomplishment and success are sure to follow. He was an uncomplicated man and could have very well opted for a white collared job instead his values motivated him to choose an atypical career and do extraordinary things. Bureaucrats like Mr. Karkare come once in a while and I believe that it is very important that they get the deserved recognition and respect in today’s world of corruption and treason. It was his strong belief in his personal principles and values that guided him and drove him to the top. He bravely took all the criticism and rebuke with a smile on his face didn’t let any such thing affect his duty or allegiance.

We are all aware of his professional achievements and great feats and I will fall short of words if I were to portray his accomplishments; hence I thought of introducing this officer as an individual on a personal level on account of his martyrdom. The entire nation is mourning the loss of this valiant national hero, who had come back to his motherland after serving the government in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for 7 years in Austria. I consider myself very privileged to have spent some time in the company of Hemant Uncle।

This is way of paying homage to him on behalf of my generation and compeers। Salute to you Hemant Uncle, we are all proud of you!

On the account of Mother’s Day

I always associate friendship with some of the most amazing people in my life – RWS, Rev, Tings, Ro, Srh and C. Nevertheless, I would like to talk about my friendship with the most beautiful woman I have ever known – Ms. L.

I can’t say Ms. L is my oldest friend ever, but she belongs to the league of the few people who matter the most to me. I don’t know how I should portray Ms.L - she is a part of me, someone who is always there for me and who stands by me, who makes me realize my wrongs and helps me to translate them into rights, who knows how to cheer me up when I’m down, who provides me with tissues when my tears come like the “summer tempest”, who I take for granted at all times and most importantly who loves me unconditionally.

Well this can be classified as a clichéd representation of the term friendship; for some it might sound schmaltzy or even idyllic. Why not? As a matter or fact, it does sound kind of gushy (so feel free to sigh/yawn or give the oh-god-not-again look). I am going to be persistent.

Ms. L and I go a long way back but the surprising friendship we found between us is only some 7 odd years old. Nothing nonconforming but somewhat unforeseen. We didn’t even realize when we’d become so close to each other. It never mattered. Was it just the being-together for so long that made us such good friends? I don’t know and I don’t want to know because it doesn’t matter - I’m glad I found my soul mate in Ms. L. I second what someone has rightly said “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” I never thought I’d go for live ghazal performances or meditation classes but I did participate in these activities with Ms. L and let me admit it wasn’t that bad. It makes me wonder how with a certain someone we not only find our feet in such states of affairs but also enjoy them!

I don’t believe age plays any significant role when it comes to amity – friendship or love. Take Ms. L for instance, she belongs to a different generation altogether but we get on like a house on fire. It is not essential for friends to have the same predilections, respecting each other’s preferences is more important. Ms.L’s and my picking is way different when we discuss clothes, cars, colors, drinks or even men; but we both cry at poignant moments – in real as well as reel life, we both enjoy similar books/movies and can’t resist ourselves from exchanging opinions about them later, we enjoy hip-hop as well as Hindustani and we can spend hours talking about anything under the sun.

For the past 7 years my mother has been one of my dearest and nearest friends। It is uncanny how we have graduated from being mother-daughter to soul mates. She has seen me in my worst and my best moments, been there for me through thick and thin not (only) as my mother but (also) as my best bud. Today when we both are thousands of miles apart, I miss her so much – I miss going to Barista and Vaishali with her, I miss listening to Ghulam Ali and Farida Khanum in the middle of the night with her, I miss going out for long drives with her, I miss arguing with her, I miss her – awfully!

A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words – Rachel Naomi Remen

Fascination with words

Language is no doubt one of the best things that have happened to us. Language is indeed one of the widely understood ways of human expression, the chemistry between different individuals, helping them to connect with one another, the sense of being bonded.

Although there is a multitude of languages, every language has its own magical beauty. Even though or may be for the reason that I am into the translation and interpretation industry, I always feel that no word has its perfect equivalent in any other language – technically yes, but aesthetically no. I find all the words so artistic and I often feel that when you translate a particular word from its source language to the target language (or any other language), its charm is defeated. The translation makes perfect sense and is accepted far and wide. Now-a-days we do come across foreign words that have been incorporated in the English language (guru, mantra, pundit, kaput, et al) possibly due to this very reason.

I don’t know how successful I have been in trying to put my thoughts into words (wink) or translate my thoughts (wink wink) but I wasn’t able to resist myself from writing this.

Every single word has its own magic but there are a few special cases for me. There are a few words which always fascinate me, rather those I simply love – they portray the particular emotion or connotation so perfectly that I can’t think of any other alternative for them. Technically there obviously is at least one equivalent in different languages for a particular word in a particular language. I only know four languages so far and I already love so many words from these four languages! I’m sure there are many more such interesting words in all the other languages of the world. But my knowledge is limited to Marathi - my mother-tongue, English – the lingua franca, Hindi – our national language and German – my first love in foreign languages. I have very little acquaintance with Konkani, which can also be called my original mother tongue, and I have to admit that it is one of the sweetest languages ever. It will also be difficult to isolate specific words from French because it is an equally delicate language. Urdu is synonymous with aesthetics and comprises fabulous expressions, which make even an ordinary sentence or remark sound resplendently elegant.

Anyway, coming back to “words”, I want to bring up a few assorted words (from my never-ending list) which I find unparalleled and I always associate them (and no other translation of their implication) with their connotation:

• ‘Rusun basne’ – this particular Marathi verb can be explained with the English equivalent – ‘to sulk’. But the whole loveliness of ‘rusane’ is unfortuanely lost! Sulking somehow sounds crude, conflicting with the sweet flavor of the original Marathi word.
• Nothing can replace the word as well as the concept of ‘ukhana’.
• ‘Kushit shirne’ – ‘cuddle up’ or ‘curl up’ or ‘snuggle’ can be the best verbatim for this Marathi phrase. But I miss the warmth of the ‘kushi’ in these words.
• ‘Idiosyncrasy’ has always attracted my attention for no specific reason (may be because it reminds me of the two words that describe me - idiot and crazy – I really don’t have any explanation for this one).
• ‘Kleinigkeit’ – I always try to use this word somewhere in my German writings. It means ‘a small thing’, ‘trifle’ or ‘littleness’. I feel it best describes anything that is small or little – right from a snack to a gesture.
• ‘Ploetzlich – English translation ‘suddenly’. The pronunciation is quick and funny; the moment I read/say this word I can sense the suddenness from within ;)
• Desire, search, quest imply what ‘Justuju’ means, the beauty of the Hindi/Urdu word is absent in the English equivalents.
• ‘Hosh’ is such a quixotic, romantic Hindi word but when you translate it in English you have the rudimentary sounding option: mind or sense.

These are just a few examples illustrating my thoughts. I’m sure everyone is fascinated by some word (/phrase) or the other in different languages and sometimes the fascination with something is beyond explanation.

Why I like the Wine

Wine and dine sessions are quite interesting and can be equally entertaining (if you know what I mean). Talking about wine, my memories go back to the year 2003 – it was when I first tasted the chilled, sparkling fermented grape juice. I was in Germany celebrating my birthday eve with my friends and at the stroke of midnight a bottle of Sekt (German sparkling wine, similar to champagne) was uncorked. They say you need to develop the taste for wine to enjoy it, but I fell in love with it the very first time I imbibed it.

In the year 2005 when I again visited Germany for academic purposes, my university used to organize weekend excursions for all the students. Castles and palaces, lakes and gardens and one day trips to nearby cities was the customary routine; but what also was a part and parcel of the weekend jaunt, was our visit to vineyards and wineries! The whole experience was really fantastic – it was explained to us how the grapes are selected, how the wines are fermented, how they are stored in the cellar and what differentiates the wine varieties from one another, the quality categories: Tafelwein (table wine), Landwein (country wine), Qualitaetswein (quality wine) and Qualitaetswein mit Praedikat (better quality wine) and there are several other criteria for classification. I don’t know and don’t remember much about the technicalities about wines, all I care about is the taste ;). I enjoyed the wine tasting experience to the hilt – not to forget everything was gratis for us (so predictably the Indian students among the group were over the moon and consumed more wine than the rest of the group altogether) - wine and cheese accompanied with some German music and dance and traditional German drinking games!

This time I got a couple of wine bottles for my dad – one of the Riesling variety (from Alsace) and the other was the Sekt (sparkling white wine). It was a one-of-the-best souvenirs from Deutschland for daddy dearest and he was obviously delighted.

The very next day after I returned from Germany, I went to Vaishali in the evening for a cup of “medium-strong sweet” (for all the non-Puneites that is coffee) and sada dosa. I returned home by dinner time and when I opened the door, the living room was dimly lit with terracotta and paper lamps, Ghulam Ali was intoning “Kal chaudhavi ki raat thi…” and the center table was primly set with homemade chicken and cheese appetizers, three wine glasses and a bottle of Alsatian wine. Dad was comfortably resting on the jhula, waiting for me to come home – the moment he saw me enter the house, he welcomed me with his charming smile and poured in wine in the three glasses, handed one glass to mom and the other to me and said “Here’s to you my lovely.” I remember I ran to him and curled up in his warm embrace like a baby.

Today I dedicate this memory, this blog to dad “Here’s to you Baba, here’s to all the precious moments we share!”

Achtung Baby

How to judge whether a movie is worth a dekho or not:

1. The production house has got nothing to do with "Yashraj" or "Dharma" productions.

2. There is no cross border (Veer Zara or Alvira Khan - Ricky Thakural) love story.

3. There are no songs shot in Switzerland, Times Square or any exotic locales.

4. Himmesh Reshammiya is not the music director.

5. Big B does not perform the song and dance routine at Waterloo station (or any other station for all I care).

6. Salman Khan does not take his shirt off or better if he doesn't make any appearance.

7. There are no Punjabi families - no balle balle, shava shava or mahive; no extravagant North Indians. I would like to draw attention to the fact that there are other many other communities in India viz. Maharashtrians, Tamilians, Mallus (yes there is a big difference between the two – all South Indians are not the same and anything below Maharashtra on the map cannot just be classified as South India), Gujrathis, Assamese (FYI they are Indians and not Chinese/Korean) et al.

8. SRK is not trying real hard to portray a 23-24 year old college guy, Rahul/Raj, clad in Tommy Hilfiger.

9. There is no Fair and Handsome (or its correlate) product placement throughout the movie.

10. It is not a miserably failed over the top remake of some Hollywood (or foreign) flick.

11. There is no unreasonable, tasteless humor (that makes you wonder am I the only one who is not laughing, what is wrong with the people) as well as there is no emotional melodrama of any kind.

12. There are no 3-4 bachelor roommates desperately trying to create humorous situations with their stupid acts and everyone hitting on the same girl

13. No weird camera angles that seem to feature exclusively on the actress's derriere.

14. The title of the movie does not include the article “The” or the director’s initials.

Achtung baby!