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!

ARNAV - the ocean of expressions

Arnav Rohan Herwadkar – the first time I saw him was at my own wedding. I vividly remember him clad in a red kurta, small round face with an inquisitive gaze, an unimaginably cute facial expression and some kind of Mohawk hairstyle. He was always either with his mother or father. Irresistibly adorable and the center of attraction. He never failed to bring a smile on everyone’s faces every time he made an appearance. I was dying to confront the 4 month old and take him in my lap. My nephew, one of the cutest babies I had ever seen!

I hardly spent some 10-12 days with him after my wedding. Every morning he used to greet his kaki with an infectious toothless smile and his big black eyes used to observe everyone in the house with great curiosity – always trying to convey something. God knows from where he used to get all the energy to keep him full of zip all day long! Nobody was ever tired playing with him or entertaining him. One day was more than enough for this tiny 4 month old to bond with the new faces around him. He was in a way responsible for bringing all of us close.

Soon it was time for me to fly to NY and I didn’t know when I would get to see him the next – not for another 6-7 months at least.

But I got real lucky and I got to meet my 8 month old darling nephew last week. Oh my god! He had grown taller and looked even more charming. He was sleeping peacefully when I reached home. Wow – that was the most beautiful sight ever – to watch him sleep soundly. The very next morning he welcomed me with the same toothless grin and a twinkle in his eye .His big black round eyes and cuddly cheeks made him look picture-perfect. This time I found him more communicative with his goo goo gaa gaa! I fell in love with him all over again. Now he had mastered the art of crawling and had developed the skill to stand up on his two little feet with the support of a sofa, table or somebody’s legs! He also had expertise in taking his father’s spectacles away and on accomplishing this task the sense of victory reflected on his little cheerful countenance. His expressions are priceless – I mean even the multi-burst mode on the digital cameras would not suffice for capturing the array of precious expressions. He loved the nursery rhymes I used to sing to him and he listened to them attentively with a delighted look on his face – and amused!

This cutie pie is really adorable and one is enthralled by every single thing he does!

A little scared of the sound made by home appliances such as dish washer, vacuum cleaner and even a pressure cooker, he quickly ran into my arms when he heard any such noise. How dependent are these tiny, innocent beings on us – they rely on us, believe in us and trust us fully that they are safe with us and we wont do any harm to them. It makes me wonder how they simply cuddle up to you without any doubts in mind and all you can do is gently hug and caress them and provide them with the security and comfort they are seeking for! Trust me in a way, it appeases you as well. Thats the effect that babies have on us!

It gives me immense pleasure to see him crawl around the house, giggle, make an effort to speak and ask questions, sleep and hold on to you when he is scared. I just love him to bits!

BEFORE & AFTER

All the characters, incidents and places in this post are factual and certainly
bear resemblance with any person, place or incident dead or alive.

Conversation between two friends pre-nuptials:


A : hiya woman…wassup…what ya upto?

B : nothing much ya…एक translation assignment submit केली आता just chilling at home…was just about to text you…

A : same here गा…खूप bore ज़्हालय घरी बसून…चल ना काहीतरी करुया

B : what do you wanna do? Shopping? Barista? Movie? Actually चल vaishali मधे जाऊ…काल सकाळनंतर गेलेच नाहीये मी! श्या…आज जाय्लाच हव गा…

A : hehe…हो ना तुला तुज्हा daily dose of vaishali नाही मीळाला तर कसा होईल! अग्गा by the way I have to tell you this – latest gossip – X broke up with Y

B: whatt??? Weren’t they supposed to get engaged in dec? घरी पण सांगीत्लेला ना…

A: अग because she found out he was cheating on her – I mean not cheating cheating on her but yeah he never told her that he was in touch with his ex and that they frequently catch up with each other…अणी solid भांडण ज़्हाला म्हणे त्यांचा and guess where – कांचन गल्ली मधे!

B : अग काहीही काय…कसला waste ना…but have they like seriously broken up or general भांडण ज़्हालय आणी patch up करणार आहेत?

A : god knows…you know how X is ना!

B : अग that reminded me – ती परवा soho मधे काय ghalun आली होती महीती आहे का – she was wearing a white tube top – I mean imagine X wearing a tube top, एक तर she has put on so much …आणी heavy make up करून आली होती…hehe and Saturday night ला X and Y were totally into each other…when did this tiff happen?

A : अग माला तीचा काहीच कळत नाही…मग mebbe patch up पण ज़्हाला असेल त्यांचा…दोघे ही stupid आहेत तसे…आणी what she was wearing a tube top? of all the people she was wearing one? What a sight it must have been…आपण कस्ल्या gossip queens अहोत ना! पण तू Saturday night ला G च्या birthday party ला जाणार होतीस ना…मग?

B : अग G ची birthday party was in soho! and apparently G had invited Y so X had to be there! अग ए मुली आपण भेटतो अहोत ना आता…मग भेट्ल्यावर बोलू ना! मी C ला msg करून सांगते free असेल तर वैश्ला ये म्हणून…temme कीती वाजता भेटायचं? 5 ला near foodworld?

A : hehe…yeah…भेट्ल्यावर detail मधे gossiping करूया…yeah C ला तुच सांग आता..आणी अग 5 काय? Its already 4.30 माला अजुन अंघोळ करायची आहे….see you at 5.20…नीघ्ताना missed call देते मग तू नीघ..

B : जा लवकर अवर आता…see ya at 5.20.




Conversation between the same two friends post-nuptials


A: Hi..काय करते आहेस?

B : अग just finished cooking – आज मटार उसळ आणी कोबीच्या वड़्या केल्या मी…was in the kitchen for 2 hours…phewww

A : wow…तू एकदम expert ज़्हाली आहेस – रोज काहीतरी interesting बनवत अस्तेस…मी आज छोले करीन..अजुन काही नाही prep केला…अग ह्याला ऑफीस मधून यायला late होतो आजकाल आणी मग ओफ्फिसमधेच खाऊन येतो…मग मला एकटीसाठी बनवायचं कंटाळा येतो…by the way मला सांग फुल्के साठी तू सांगीत्लेला सुजाता पीठ आणलय…ते कीती आधी भीजवून घेऊ?

B : hehe..अग general experiments करते आहे on my personal guinea pig! आणी तू पण एकदम जोरदार छोले and all…nice! अग साधारण 30 mins आधी तरी भीजवून ठेव आणी थोड़सं lukewarm पाणी घाल भीजवताना मग soft होतात फुल्के.

A : ok..मी आज प्रयोग करणार आहे …lets see how they turn out to be…india मधे कधीच केला नाही ना आपण…how I miss the maid! weekend चा काय प्लान आहे तुमचा? आम्ही grocery करणार अहोत आणी might catch a movie..

B : hee hee…हो गा…भाजी चीर्ताना पण आठवण येते बाईची…weekendla आम्हाला पण grocery करायची आहे…no plans as such…ikea मधे जाऊन येऊ…sofa hunt still going on ना…laundry आणी vacuuming पण कराय्चय..

A : ok...मावशी कशी आहे? she must be missing you a lot ना…तुम्ही दोघी constantly एकत्र असायचात ना…

B : mom मजेत आहे..yeah she misses me like nobody’s business but she is trying to keep herself busy with something or the other आणी तीच्या friends बरोबर काय काय चालू असत तीचा…What about your parents?

A : they are fine…spoke to mom and सासु yesterday…आज हां लवकर घरी येईन म्हणालाय बघू आता कधी येतो…मला अजुन कांदा चिराय्चय….अग मला दाल fry कशी करायची ते सांग ना…or mail me the recipe…म्हणजे मी वीसरणार नाही…

B : oh ok…cool..येईल गा लवकर…मी तुला लगेच mail करते…खूपच easy आहे…by the way hot news – F finally proposed to R on her birthday! He gave a nice speech and all and then slipped a ring in her finger…

A : wow…finally केला का! तुला कोणी संगीतला…बाकी आपला conversation कीती पण change ज़्हाला तरी these things will never change…हे अग मला नण्देचा call येतोय…talk to you later….dont forget to mail me the recipe…टाटा

B : hehe….very true…taa!