Mann ka radio...

Mann ka radio, bajne de zara…

This is not just my caller tune. But also my motto.

Mann ka radio, bajne de zara.
Fulltoo attitude, sab ko de zara.

Lyricst Subrat Sinha has some awesome words here.

Himesh as usual has some neat original compositions. Each of them has a different flavour. And he looks nicer now. Much better than his embarrassing HR days! Can’t recall anyone vainer than him in his first film – Aap ka screw loose.

The look of the song though, is a straight lift off Savage Garden’s I want you. God alone knows what else is copied from where. But since Hindi films never prided themselves for originality, I will condone!

There used to be this place Bobby Deol owned – Some place else. I’d gone there for dinner with some friends and near the lobby was HR. Now I like the guy. Think he’s got loads of talent as far as music is concerned and tons of self confidence to plunge into acting, given he has a mirror at home. So I walked upto him and told him that I was a big fan. And I meant it. He was all coy and thrilled and mumbled something happily in Englees. When I narrated this back to the super powers in office(people who have cabins with doors), they had one wisecrack. “You spoke to Himesh? You really like him? Hahaha. You must be his only English speaking fan!”

Well, this fan waits for December 3, 2009, when Radio releases.

To the brave queen of my heart - Rani

There is no love more unconditional than that of an unloved, uncared for, grubby, hungry stray dog! Phew! And I can say this from the 8 years of loving I have been showered upon by Raja and Rani. It’s almost a morning ritual – getting a loving stroke & lick on my toes by both these wonderful creatures. They don’t care if I’m late to work coz I refused to wake up on time, or if I wore the same trouser just last week.

Raja and Rani go back many years. I don’t know if they’re girlfriend-boyfriend. Or soul mates. Or ‘just good friends’? I just know that I am a pivotal part of their life. The only time I shamelessly overestimate my existence is when I describe my importance in their life!

The guys at office have many nicknames for them. Tripod. Since Raja has 3 legs. Pradyut had one – Rickshaw & Taxi. Rick for Raja, obviously Rani was Taxi. Vicious. But I’m sure Raja, Rani wouldn’t mind. Simply because they don’t quite get the drift of English. Hanging out all day with the security guys, milk store guy and cobbler, they are more like MNS recruits.

About 6 weeks ago, the security guys from the building seemed all ruffled when I got off the cab. Apparently Rani had hurt her eye. Given that I already had 3 calls from the client on some insanely trivial job, I chose to ignore them and ran up to work. But as I turned on my comp I realized that I’d behaved like a client. (Prioritizing all the aaltu faaltu jobs and ignoring what really mattered). After half a day of frantic calls to WSD, SOS and the Animal Hospital, finally I arranged for someone to attend to her, take her to hospital.

But I hadn’t seen her myself. In the evening I went frantically looking for her. My poor, scared child was huddled under an Indica V2 (our client). Her eye dangling out! Such pain she must’ve been in. Getting her out of hiding and into the animal van was such an arduous task. She yelped as though I was this mindless bitch trying to get rid of her. And half of Nariman Point gathered to watch. I had to bribe that moronic van driver 2,500 bucks so he’d take her to hospital and not misplace her.

Cutting the 4 weeks in between…Rani lost her eye. In the time she was in hospital the security guys would enquire about her every day. And Raja was like this forlorn thing- almost like an art director separated from his copy partner. Quiet for want of words.

And when she was back, the whole place was abuzz. ‘Rani aali, Rani aali’ (‘Rani’s back, Rani’s back’, as Baba Azmi would say). Poonam’s mom brought her back. Poonam also shared Rani’s hospital bills with me. God bless her.

The doctors had done a pretty good job of her. Her left eyelid was shut. And it seemed like nature made one more attempt to make them connect better. Raja and Rani – made for each other. Raja missing a leg and Rani an eye! Not something I’m making fun of at all. Just baffled at the irony.

Who said only writers make up stuff

Many generations ago when there were stalls down in Nariman Point, 4 o’clock was to me what 12 was to Cinderella! Albeit in a little different way. It was time to step down for tea at the tapri.

Basically a few senior guys (well seniority gives one the prerogative to be absconding from work during office hours!) would step down for their evening chai. I was the lowest order – a management trainee. At my level, everyone seemed like BOSS! While I would

Also back then we didn’t have a CCD tea dispensing machine. So the tea at the tapri was the only authentic tea that we had in the day! While the guys smoked, I would quickly dip a pack of glucose biscuits into my cutting. Yea…the entire packet! I din’t become fat on cheese alone!

I’d briefly started that habit again with Aniket and Sandeep (when he’s around). Yesterday was Day 1…after a good 7 years. And it was all loads of nostalgia for me.

Today the tapris are little away. Just round the corner behind Express towers. As we slowly ambled out of the our building, one furlong away we saw this spectacled guy walking casually with ear phones plugged in, capris, and a short yellow tee. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place him immediately. Aniket however did and blurted “Isn’t that Chetan Bhagat?” and I was like “O yeaaaaaaa…lets go ask him” and I made a u-turn towards him. Aniket came along too…but hardly 10 seconds later when I turn around there was no Aniket. He chose to stand and monitor the situation with Sandeep.
But I went through.

I tapped him on his shoulder gently. He stopped. I was a bit gasping from the quick dash, a bit blushing, desperately trying to hide that ‘I feel like a fool’ look that I had plastered all over me.

“Are you Chetan Bhagat?”

“Yeah”

“What you doing around here?”

“I live here…”

‘Here? I thought you were based in Singapore?”

“No. I’m here. Infact, I’m going to see a movie at Inox”

“Cool..”

“So what do you do?”

“I’m in advertising. I work in this building on the 4th floor.”
I just loved how the conversation flowed. So what if they were just a bunch of monosyllables!! He just seemed so sensible and grounded. What made him sell out to Bollywood…that whole Hello fiasco! I thought.

I somehow didn’t want to end the blah blah. I had really loved his 5 Point Someone. I had even gifted a copy to Aniket. Since he was from engineering I thought that he would relate to some of the stuff. But I don’t think he quite got the drift. He hadn’t read it for about 2 months after I’d given it to him. Wonder if he’s finished it even now!

Not liking the moment of silence I blurted “You said on your website that you’d reply to emails. I sent you 2 mails on your book. But you didn’t reply”

I thought I had him. But he’s an author. He makes up stuff all the time. And how could I think I had him cornered!

“Haha. I said I’d read…not reply. But I will respond to you. What’s you name?”

“Sharon…Well, ill go now…enjoy your movie”

“Yesss. I will reply. Thank you”

And now the killer…my parting shot… “It was nice meeting you…I so thought you looked like Chetan Bhagat!”

And he was like “hahaha..I AM Chetan Bhagat”

And I promptly turned around, half embarrassed from my boo-boo and half happy from the rest of the conversation. Ran back towards my 2 lovely friends…one a ditcher and the other a skeptic. I narrated the entire conversation to them…and went on to tea.

Somewhere around 10 minutes later after some half conversations both the boys are sniggering about something. They dint want to tell me what it was. But I insist.

“We can’t tell you…its boy talk”

I’m thinking…you guys talk all sorts of crap around me all the time. Don’t ever get the chivalry a girl deserves and all of a sudden I’m excluded from this boy talk and besides I don’t think (screw think…I can lay a 100 bucks) Sandeep can discuss anything more graphic with Aniket than he can with me!

He blurts “Your author looks gay”

And without a thought I jump to his defense. “What crap? He’s married and has a family too, just because he’s a little fair…”

My usual behaviour. To speak first and then think.
Once I stopped spewing words, my Eureka moment came - Chetan Bhagat was the writer, but these two made up something on the spot much sooner!

Guess, I’ll never know what tickled them and more importantly why they didn’t want to tell me!

Happy Birthday

It was a usual Friday like any other. Not exactly…actually. Coz I couldn’t wear my jeans and fancy pink shoes as the client was to make his grand entry for the first time. A Diva...not to be confused with real divas

Fridays are particularly good as they signal the advent of a nice weekend. Weekends where work bothers me, but at least I’m not confined to the walls of the office. Hmmm. I happily got off the share-a-cab. Happy twice over coz I got the coveted ‘front seat’ in the cab which is normally cramped for me…given me fat!

Raja was there are usual. Happy to see me. Actually despite the fact that he’s a dog. A three-legged stray….who dosen’t have a family or any semblance of one to fall back on, one would expect him to be happy to see me. But as it stands I am more thrilled to see him every morning. In fact I feel a sense of calm and love encompass me with each stroke of his face. And when he longingly stretches out his paw telling me not to leave….I feel wanted. But today was a double scoop of happiness. I enter the building to find Poh there. Poh happens to be a very close friend. His extension 216 is like my lifeline. I reach out to him like a bawling infant reaches out to its mother. I’m sure he thinks I’m such a whiner. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be less of a pest. Too bad for him! So coming back I was happy to see him as the first office face in the morning. As opposed to anything. He was happy it was Madhuri Dixit’s birthday. He was all adorned with a happy grin and new shirt! Hmmm. So as it turns out my day is good so far. Come to the conclusion that if your day starts with the best nothing can come in your way for the rest of it!

Thank you Raja. Thank you Poh. You guys are special to me. You guys make my life awesome in your own way.

And Madhurit Dixit…Happy birthday to you…