Not without my Dopatta

*Salwar Kamiz – A traditional dress of Indian women
*Dopatta – A silk or muslin shawl worn by men or women in India, usually worn with Salwar Kamiz

Whenever I see a girl wearing Salwar Kamiz, I always feel there is something missing in the dress. The dress does not seem complete in itself. It took me a long time to find out what was missing. Well, it is the Dopatta. What are left in the dress are only Kurta and its female counterpart. Dopatta goes missing. I do not have a personal disliking for Kurtas, but this does not defeat Dopatta’s importance. Dopatta is like salt in a Barbecue. You cannot do without it. It is the spice. But Dopattas, eventually, have lost their meaning. People have completely forgotten where or by whom they were invented and for what purpose. It does not even matter now. The bottom line is that they seem to be missing from the Bazaars not lesser than they are missing from girls’ dresses. I feel they would be defunct soon. Fastest to forget them, would be females, for whom they had been of any use, if at all. Boys never liked them to be honest. How could boys, even in their dreams, like anything which shadows beautiful forms. Difficult for them, I guess. Perhaps, they would soon be available in the list of rudimentary items updated and maintained by World Protection Organizations. NGO would soon constitute some laws to protect it and fine every girl seen without a Dopatta.

In my childhood, I grew up hearing the importance of Dopatta in a female’s life. My mother used to say, “Without Dopatta, a girl’s attire is incomplete.” Girls just don’t seem right without them. She also used to say that Dopatta is a symbol of girl’s dignity. It is a veil of honor. But it was not her fault. It was also the era when girls had little choice, when it came to apparel. Saris dominated the Bazaars for a long time and were going to be outdated soon. Girls needed a change, and I think we needed it too. Readymade dresses replaced Saris. Soon, they were everywhere. Girls liked them for decades. But the happiness did not last long. Girls found better things to wrap their bodies. Tailors stopped sewing Dopattas. In no time, Dopatta-less dresses flooded the market. A girl might have a second opinion about the Dresses, but the Dopatta part had to go, and why not, it had enjoyed the bliss for quite a while. It had to leave. May be girls thought, it was too much to handle. A Dopatta is not easy to handle. It is not easy to wrap yard long linen around your torso and still walk properly. Dopatta is an obstacle to seeking catwalk. Somehow girls had managed the trick earlier, but you have no reason to push them nowadays. They have too many choices. Even a towel makes a good attire, if you have nothing else to wear. Dopattas took a lot of space and effort and served very little purpose. It was time for change. There was also another issue with vintage dresses. They did not have any pockets. I think they were made for housewives. Dress designers surely dint know that girls would do better in the future. But designers have adapted quickly. Time has changed a lot in last decades and so have Girls and their draping instruments. Ideally for me, I would prefer for History to repeat itself at least in their dressing sense if not in the way they think.

Let’s see what a Dopatta has to say: (Autobiography of a Dopatta)

I was born in a textile mill, all covered with tiny threads and pieces of cotton, when a weaver, took me in his hand. He looked at me closely. May be he wanted to check if I had any defects, or was I good enough to pull through the contemporary clothe markets. I was then tossed into a huge vessel of burning colored water. I thought, I was getting my first bath. I felt a burning sensation. It was a painful cleansing. I laid there for about two days, before I was pulled out by a different weaver this time. I realized I had turned white. I felt I was baptized. It felt great. The weaver took me in his arms, rinsed me dry. I sensed a motherly love in this guy. He kind of loved me. I was being dressed up for my journey towards my first destination.

I don’t remember exactly when, but it was crack of dawn and I had just opened my eyes. I realized only somebody picked me up. I was then creased, and placed in a box. I was not alone here. There were many other Dopatta friends. All were wrapped nicely. I guessed they had undergone a similar torturous process as I had. I made friends with the blue and the green one. The Red appeared too loud and he yelled all the time in the box so we could hardly hear each other. Pink was too soft and cozy. He preferred to sit in the corner and was lost in his charming fancies. Then we all heard a sound of screeching brakes. We heard closely and found out that it was our truck that had stopped made that sound. We had reached our destination. All the boxes in the truck were unloaded in a shop and so were ours. The shop appeared to be a storehouse as well as a big garment store. We were glad but skeptical at the same time to see what was in the store for us. Our box found a place in a dark closet. We were to spend a long time in this shady life span. It was the worst time of my life. There was no light, not a sound. I had nothing to do but to look at the faces in despair, all around me. It was saddening. I kept myself absorbed by talking to the friends I had made in the box. Sometimes rats troubled us during the midnight. I was scared of them. They enjoyed eating us. One night, I was nearly brought to death by a guerrilla rat if my green friend had not saved me. He sacrificed himself. That bastard rat ate almost half of his body. I prayed harder everyday to get out of that shabby place soon.

Eventually, my prayers were answered and one morning, I saw, it was light, It felt good. The box was opened. The mutilated body of my green friend brought a growl on the face of the guy that had unlocked me. He disappeared in the store for a while carrying my green friend away from me. I never saw my friend again. I was then wrapped and placed in a polythene case and situated in a light and rat-free closet this time. But this was not the end of good times. My hopes seemed to be responded. I expected better everyday. I wanted to go places. I wanted to see the world.

There was this golden day, when I was unpacked and displayed to a beautiful girl who came to the store. She wanted a Green Dopatta but I sensed she liked me too. But I felt a drop of tears rolling through my eyes being nostalgic about my Green friend. She insisted for the Green color. The shopkeeper presented his best offer. He offered to sell me for two hundred and fifty bucks. He said to the girl, “This white one is good madam; it will suit on any dress.” The girl accepted. I think she was affiliated with me. I loved her. She had occurred to me like an angel. It was a love at first sight. I felt anxious when I could be in her arms embracing her, but she decided to postpone the moment. She wrapped me and pushed me under her arm and left the store.

On the way, I kept dreaming about the girl. I wondered when she would hug me. I anticipated, if she really liked me. After all, Green was her first choice. I was the second option. I wondered if she went to college. I was curious to know how she would look when she will clasp me. She must look like a fairy angel, I thought. She was too fair for me. She was fair as milk. But I remembered my pride that I was fair too. This relationship will last long I believed. The best time of my life had come. I was here with this angel of my life, all free from dark stores, hungry rats and lifeless and greedy shopkeepers. I hoped, if I could stay with her forever.

Well, the blessed moment came in my life. This was everything for me. I had craved for this moment right since when I was born. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, but it was not too hot. She had decided to give me a chance today. She took me out from her personal wardrobe and unwrapped me. She took me in her arms. I felt unconscious in her presence. It was the biggest occasion of my life. A light flashed across my mind and I could not ask for more. Her face appeared brighter than ever. She looked excited. She danced a little embracing me on her shoulders. May be she was trying a walk a little, to see if I was a good bargain. I felt flabbergasted. I was on cloud nine. She walked towards the mirror. Perhaps she was dressing up for a college date. It was a pink bordered mirror hung in the corner of her cheesy room, right outside the smoky bathroom. She had just finished taking a bath. She stood in front of the mirror. It was the time, when I saw myself. It was enlightening. I was too numb to feel anything. I was startled to think how long this moment was going to last. I suddenly felt blue. This time should never end, I begged. The good thing about these moments is that they are so enchanting, so perfect, but the bad part is that they are so few in your life and they do not last longer. They are short lived. You cannot stand on these colossal peaks forever.

The expression on my girl’s face told me that she was quite pleased with me. She appeared satisfied. But I could not take my eyes off her. After all, she had given me a new life. She had bestowed me a time of my life. May be she was the cause for me to be alive. I could not live without her. I had to serve her best, it was my chance.

I do not remember, nor do I want to, how long those lovely moments lasted. I had lived my life, enough to fill my eyes with tears when I would be nostalgic about them. My life was soon going to be over and I had no regrets about it. I am talking about the day when I was tossed on the road was run over by a huge truck, which, ironically, was also my childhood transporter. Trucks, I thought, are meant to carry stuff to places and not to kill. But nothing could be undone now. It was over. I was taking my last breaths. My life flashed before my eyes, and I could see all the good and bad times.  I was not surprised to see that best moments of my life were with that angel of mine. I never knew her name. May be she draped me too less for anybody to call her name and I could have heard it. But I had no repentance. I was rewarded much more than I had imagined. I remembered that she only wore me twice, once for a college date, as I said before and secondly, it was a family function, I guess. My life was going to end soon. If I was reborn, where would I go? What would I do? A face appeared in front of my eyes half open. I tried to catch a glimpse and there she was. It was my angel. This was the last time I saw her. My eyes were going to close forever. May be she would ever wrap me again in another lifetime, perhaps. Could I be Green in my next life?

Give me a break

Yes, this is not another list of those easy going, heard everyday and found everywhere thoughts and quotes. This is a list of resolutions I have made so far ever since my dogie ran away with that short German bitch.

• All that glitters is not gold, but all that matters is Gold!
• Don’t Give Me Red! Go Green! Plant a tree and adopt some saplings!
• Look before you leap, and keep the first aid ready, just in case!
• Think before you speak, and stand up to your deeds.
• The point is not that the world is a better place to live or not, but the point is if we have options.
• Don’t chase your dreams, instead chase the reality. Dreams are mere a shadow of what is really bothering you around in bones and flesh.
• Brain is one of the best mysterious boons organisms have been gifted with. Tear open every cell and measure the frequency that every nerve is carrying to millions of places in your body every nanosecond. Explore it. Be in control.
• Think big! At least that way you have better dreams.
• It is not about the truth or the lies. It is about what you Feel and what is really important.
• Talk to yourself during a problem. It is you, who knows, how you screwed it up in the first place.
• Beauty is in the eyes of the Camera Holder.
• Silence is Golden, Science, well, not always!
• Computers are a boon. Well, depends on your RAM and processor power.
• Let’s make things better! Yes, they do need a lot of improvement.
• An idea can change your life; only if you apply for a patent at the right time.

What makes you…

What makes you smile?
Is it joy, or what you enjoy
Is it life’s color, or the real humour?
But its my pride what makes you smile!

What makes you forget pains?
Is it gains, or helping hands
The moments of laughs, or the beauty of crafts?
But its my Friendship what makes you forget pains!

What makes you glow?
Is it a dream, or some face cream,
Is it the pageants, Or beautiful ornaments?
But its my Energy what makes you glow!

What makes you laugh?
Is it Friends, or life’s crispy trends?
Is it the fun part, or nothing of that sort?
But its my words that make you laugh!

What makes you feel up?
Is it gifts, or life’s unexpected lifts?
Is it the success, or a spiritual process.
But its my presence what makes you feel up!

Hey, what makes you live life?
Is it some Aim, or some fame
Is it the money, you really can’t tell Honey
But its me living for you what makes you live!

Three Miserable Rashmis in my Life!

Despite of the fact that I do not talk about girls, I was pushed by lot of my friends to write this article; hence here it is. 

Rashmis are quite difficult to be described in few words. They have phenomenal powers and expressions. 

I had to encounter 3 Rashmis in my life, so far. Well actually, two encounters and one mock, not face to face. 

The first Rashmi had a crush on me when I had joined my first job at VCustomer, Kalyani Nagar, Pune; one of the best BPOs in Pune. We were a batch of 25 in all. Then 3 people (2 girls and 1 boy) left, and we were 22 left; which consisted of 3 girls, 18 boys and 1 Rashmi.

She was the girl of her kind. She had a loud voice, desperate expressions, tough to deal with persona, extremely sensitive nature and lively attitude. Because of the other qualities described above she was always aloof in the batch. She was the one, everybody threw comments on. Sometimes she used to cry going to the corner. 

One fine day, I went to console her and explained her that life is not that simple. “If you want people to respect you then you need to learn some affability and patience, of course.”, I said. She stopped crying but then I had to cry for quite a few months. 

She started to consider me as her best buddy and adviser (Salaahakar). Then I don’t know how many steps I raised in her heart, she began to take me for granted in almost every matter.  

I used to eat in the office canteen during breaks with colleagues on a big table and she used to come suddenly, pick up my plate from there and keep it on some corner table; wherever she felt that we too will not be disturbed by others. She used to shout in a loud voice in front of the whole office, to call me. I was the only attack for every question that came in her mind. She shared all her problems with me, even her personal stuff and all. I condoled and consoled her every time like a Friend. Things were not as smooth as I had thought, and one fine day, after a few more things (censored), when I came back from a tea break in the office on one of the working shifts, my belongings were missing. She purposely hid them under her desk, just to attract my attention and bring me back to start talking to her (I had stopped talking to her from last few days). I had to search them in an anxiety which wasted my time in the office and as well as irritated me so much that I had to teach her a lesson. Since then, I never saw that Rashmi back. 

You might be guessing about other two Rashmis. I would not be talking much about them, since one of them was never face to face (I had heard a lot about her being a typical Rashmi kind) and discussing other would hurt few more Rashmis whom I am currently working with. 

All Rashmis may not be like that however, If some Rashmi gets angry to see this article (which is highly possible), no hard feelings please.

A Diplomatic side of Diplomacy!

Yesterday evening I was sharing a chat with my friend. We were discussing about something. She was asking questions and as usual I was replying. I was the interviewee. Normally boys are always interviewee. They are supposed to answer everything in this world and they are assumed to know reasons for everything happening around. Sometimes, even for things like, why is sky blue? Why fishes cannot fly? and stuff like that. I hope you agree with me. “Stop giving diplomatic answers,” she said suddenly.

Anyways, this can go on and on. Diplomacy can be a real fun. Diplomacy can be used in various ways and it can be a real point of humour. By various dictionaries in the world, diplomacy has various meanings. Some of them include, “the conduct by government officials of negotiations and other relations between nations”, “the art or science of conducting such negotiations”, “skill in managing negotiations, handling people” and many more. However I have defined my own meaning for diplomacy. Whenever you answer Yes/No Questions in anything except and Yes and No is called Diplomacy. Whenever someone throws up some yes/no or close ended questions on you and you start answering in stories, is diplomacy. Some examples given below might be helpful. Diplomacy can be of two kinds: Direct and Indirect. Direct diplomacy is something when you know you are answering stories for something which can be answered in one word! And indirect is when you are again answering stories for something really small but you are ignorant of this (mistakenly or drunk, who knows!).

Lets us explore some examples. “Did you get drunk in the party last night?” She asked. This is a very often question fired at almost all the boys as soon as they end up enjoying a party. Now the boy is in a big trouble. This is a Yes/No Question. It can only be answered either in Yes or No. The boy had drunk, so he cannot answer “No”, He knows, he will be splashed with one hundred more questions if he answers “No”, also he does not want to admit a lie. If he says, “Yes”, she would feel bad. This time, there would not be any more questions but a deep silence as if somebody just died. It might even take months to break that silence. The poor boy has no other way except to answer in stories, i.e. being diplomatic, direct or indirect. His answers may go something like these:

“Huh…I was not at all drinking. Suddenly somebody offered me a glass. I just had a sip. Then I regretted that you might feel bad. I did not drink consciously. Even just before leaving the party, some friend’s friend again offered a glass. He was really feeling bad if I did not take his offer. So, took one more sip. That’s all. I did not drink. Trust me………..”

Or something like this:

“They were all cheering with glasses, and a friend offered me one. I had thought that I would not drink, but to company them, I had to hold one. Then, I did not realised that while talking I had sipped half of it. But as soon as I realised, I gave that back to the waiter; though he was showing an unpleasant kind of look. So, I did not drink, you know. Not at all, half a glass because I was not aware. Nothing else. I hope you understand. Hmmm, I am still feeling bad about that………”

Check out any minister speaking on any news channel. Notice how de they answer Yes/No Questions. Some minister was asked, “Did you raise the nuclear deal matter during your visit to Pakistan?”

He seems to answer everything except Yes/No.

“Pakistan is a developing country”, He says. “They really support us sometimes. But there are times when they try to take over us. Mostly I am not against their strategy. Their Nuclear developments are going great. Soon they might start competing with us in the war strategies. Nuclear deal is to be finalized soon. Lots of discussions happened, ‘nuclear deal matter’ was discussed, but I did not see any arguments from their side…Huh, They appreciated Sachin’s performance in the last Indo-Pak friendly match. They are soon coming up with more approaches to increase friendship and respect for each other.”, and he goes on and on and on ………………….

The “M. F. Husain” Fever

 If you are reading this article, I hope you have something to do with Mr. M. F. Husain. Anyways jokes apart, anybody can read this and comment too.

My M. F. Husain fever more or less started with my sketching classes. I have always been a lover of arts, sketching, painting etc. In those days (First year Engg, 2004), I was looking for some classes to tune up my hands on sketching. One fine evening while discussing with an artist friend, I came to know about a class (Kalakalpa, Nullstop, Pune) which used to give sketching materials and three workshops in the total period provided you enrol! It was more like a distance learning course with only three workshops or to be called face to face sessions. They had three types of course sets designed for sketching: Portraits, Landscape and Basic. I ran to their office and got enrolled for a Portraits course. It went well. But as per my habits, I am always deeply engrossed with anything I do. I do it full heartedly. I went too much into arts fever mismanaging most of other college works or other activities.

Class materials and workshop sessions were going on well when I found about Mr Husain. I read about him and saw his paintings. I realised lots of new things in him. I had seen lots of other paintings, but his style was different. He has his own way of painting and creating big canvases out of his master brushstrokes. I really mean you can see a painting, and find out if it belongs to Mr Husain or not. His style is clearly reflected in any of his works. This marked the beginning of the M. F. Husain fever phase. I became more and more interested in him. I started collecting news articles, stories published from and about him. A clean neat file was separated from other files just to file those articles, news stories and painting published. The fever kept on increasing. I used to sit on the internet for hours downloading his paintings and articles. The folder on my old pc at home, dedicated to him finally contained more than 200 paintings. I simply liked his style, his choice of colours, his attitude towards life and painting. I read all the reviews by different artists on his paintings. He has always been in some or the other controversy every now and then. It may be due to his affection towards Madhuri Dixit (the famous actress of Bollywood), or his movies, or walking barefoot or throwing his brush on the screen in the “Hum Apke hain kaun” show or anything like that.

The fever was not over yet. It went on. I read somewhere that there are some books about him. I also found that he has his autobiography published with co-writer as Khalid Mohammed, the famous Bollywood director. I checked it out in the Crossword. I had only seen that copy once in the Crossword, Sohrab Hall. I was very disappointed because I did not have enough coins in my pocket to buy it and that was the only single copy left. I started saving pennies, cutting down my expenses. It took a long time, since the book costed 1500 bucks. You can imagine, I was just a student and not a self-earning guy. I did not want to trouble my parents for the cost. One more reason of not troubling parents is that I liked Mr Husain, they dint. Finally after few days, I was able to save the kind of money required to buy that book. But to the biggest disappointment, I searched for that most awaited collection at every possible place but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I still checkout big bookstores for it, but no lucks so far. In the mean time when I was saving money for the book, I wrote a letter to him saying that I really love your paintings and asked for his autograph and visiting card. But sad, I never got a reply. I kept visiting art galleries during all the exhibitions, especially when it was his. One day, to locate one of the galleries where his exhibition was displayed, I kept searching for whole day. I finally reached that place after searching for almost 4 hours. It was a non famous kind of small restaurant at a place called deccan in Pune.

There is one more thing to be brought to your attention. I knew that he had created a movie called “Gajagamini” showcasing Madhuri Dixit. I was desperate to find the CD since it was the work of my admiration. I kept looking for it. However, the movie did not work so well, so even to get a copy was difficult. I checked local stores, rental stores. Then I approached some big stores. One of them had a copy (only one) and that too dint work when I asked him for a trial. Then it took me one more month to find a guy who could get me this CD from Mumbai for 200 bucks!! I saw it and I realised that movie was not worth wasting two months to find it. If you see it from an artist’s point of view, then It was really blossomed with various different styles, canvases, it was like a painting drawn on very big canvas.

Nowadays I am not so much into it, but I am still a fan of Mr. Husain. I still have the collections I did in past, still my eyes search for that book whenever I visit any bookstore. Out of these few visits, sometimes I cannot control my heart to go to the beautiful girl standing at the counter and ask her, “Ma’am, Can you get me copy of ‘Where art thou lives’, the M. F. Husain autobiography. Ma’am I had seen it here once……………………………………..”

Life is Maths and Science!!

Have you guys ever realised why we studied all those subjects in the school. Remember we used to curse people who made studies and also cursed who used to make us study. But every subject we have sooner or later has a real meaning and purpose behind it. Our life can be more or less fully described by all the subjects. Life is all maths and science as the title says. Read on. You might dig out new facts. Let me start telling you about how our subjects connect to the original world we see around us.

Let us start by Chemistry, one of the most boring subject, isn’t it (for who hate chemistry like me). Chemistry forms the base of the world. Everything you see around, living or non-living is made up of elements. The things which are minute enough not visible to human eye are also made up of elements. All are made of chemicals. Everything you feel and see can be given a formula in chemistry. So chemistry is all around. It forms the base of everything.  

Then let’s take Maths. Don’t you think if there are so many things existing in this world – living and non-living, would require some rules to be laid down for their relations to each other. That is what exactly Maths is about. Maths describes all the rules (called formulas in Maths) and regulations for all the worldly entities existing. It describes lots of formulas which help us to make calculations when we work with these entities. So chemistry forms the base and maths lays down rules and regulations to work with them. Even more: Arithmetic is about real numbers. It uses real numbers in its calculations about the rules and regulations. And to make it more general, Algebra was created. Algebra talks about variables which can take any number value anytime to let rules and regulations to become general in order to be applicable to all the entities. Geometry is a step ahead. It goes a step further and creates diagrams for those rules and regulations. I.e. Diagrammatic representation of formulas. A quick review: Arithmetic uses real numbers, algebra talks general numbers (variables) and geometry uses diagrams and pictures to explain those formulas. Lets carry on with other ones now. 

Biology – Ever felt nauseate to see those frogs and lizards? Biology however covers very important portion of the world. If we divide all the entities existing in this world into Living ones and Non-living ones, then biology is the study of all the living ones. Livings ones means entities which respire, which grow like Humans, Animals, Plants,  Birds etc. Non-living ones would mean the opposite, which neither respire nor grow. Examples include clothes, roads, buildings, plates, cups, and you can name the rest. So studying about Living Organisms is Biology. Easy now, isn’t it? If we go a bit further, then Zoology is studying about all animals and Botany is studying about all plants and trees.  

Similarly, understanding Physics would be easy now. Any guesses?Physics is studying Non-living things and their relations to each other which requires a bit of help from Maths. So Biology is studying about living things and Physics is about Non living things and their relations.  

History is all about Time. What happened when. Above mentioned entities described with their behaviour in different times. Anything happened to any worldly entity is jotted down in history along with time. Time is very important for history or let’s say History is a function of time. History’s job is to give you a list of activities and behaviours any entity went through with its time and date. One of the most boring subjects seems simple now!! 

Geography talks about where. It is about what is placed where. Showing you all sorts of maps and directions for all the entities as and when you need them is geography’s job. To help you accomplish your tasks easily when you want to relate to any of the entity, geography serves its purpose.  

How does it seem. Easy hmmm. I wish you can now relate your actual life to those complicated subjects. Every one of them serves a purpose. So subjects seem so much easy and interesting to learn, if you know the meaning. Now once you know this, don’t you think, It would have become quite fun for us to learn them when we struggled to put them into our heads if someone had told about this before. So lets convey this message to its real target audience i.e. Students. Students deal with subjects day and night. If they understand the meaning behind studying any one of them, their life would be much more simple and fun!