Aaahhh...after a long time

I watched "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" yesterday with a friend...!! The plan was to watch the movie first, then do some shopping if time permits and if it doesn't, immediately rush to IHC and get the tickets for the play "Adhe Adhure" next weekend. The movie got over by 4:00 pm, we left by 5:00 and I took metro from Noida to CP. But oopsss...I had no cash I noticed...!! I thought of getting down at CP metro station and find an ATM, so...I did that. But then, I had only ICICI bank's ATM card, that too not activated...!! So, I had to find one ICICI bank's ATM to activate that.


I tried calling IHC help desk to find if I could pay by credit card...but they didn't pick up my call :(


After 10-15 mintues walk I was done, I found the ATM...withdrew some money and got back to the metro station...but aarrgghhhh...I had never seen such a long queue at any metro station, and time was running out...!!


I came out, found an auto-rickshaw to IHC...and here came my favorite part - traveling this part of Delhi by auto...on a Saturday evening. I am usually a very lazy person to lift my ass up from a couch on a weekend and go out for something. But if I manage to do that, I enjoy traveling in Delhi…specially the area around CP and Mandi House. It quenches my thirst of wandering like loners (I only sometimes behave so, otherwise I’m a company-seeker fellow). The auto-rickshaw started from CP and as we left for IHC, we crossed the India Gate hexagon. To me, its charm has not faded, it never will. It gives me a sense of coziness, for reasons unknown. Pulling at IHC, I smelled the familiar air of the surroundings. On reaching the reception counter of IHC, I was told that the tickets sale was closed till next morning. Then I started making innocent faces, pleading them with childish cajole. After 2-3 minutes, during which I told them about the hardships I went through while coming there (which I actually enjoyed), I got two balcony tickets. I thanked them, thanked them again, walked to Jor Bagh station and came back home.

Ok, so this play called Adhe Adhure is written by Mohan Rakesh. I first read this play when I was in college. The girl whom I liked very much and secretly loved too gave this to me. The play is a very mature, thoughtful and provoking piece in itself, but I think the fact that I was in love with the girl who gave it to me played a major role in making me love this play. The female protagonist is going to be played by Lillete Dubey and male protagonist by Mohan Agashe. This star cast is one more reason why I just cannot miss this event at any cost.

People have their own “turn-on” things and they are driven differently by different stimulations. For me, its theatre and “soul music” (read Sufi) concerts. I have may a times taken a detour from my usual way back home to go to places where I can get passes and tickets for such events. Last time it was in March or April for Jahan-e-Khusrau festival in Delhi, the passes for which I had to collect from Khan Market. I was just not feeling any driving force for anything for the past couple of months. Theater festivals came and passed by, but I couldn’t attend any, I had no company for any of those events. But it was after a long time that I made extra efforts to get my tickets and I’m not going to miss it this time around. I will be watching this play with my Mom, who kind of introduced me to Mohan Rakesh (she’s also a theater buff like me, she’s been an active part of her college theater).

FB World

I always knew the tremendous power of Facebook in connecting people around the world. I've realized it a lot of times...but this time it was my blog that revealed it to me. I had created my blog in 2008, and in a span of three years, its statistics were as below:

Page Hits: 283

Audience:

From India - 20

From US - 3

From Netherlands - 1

Yesterday, I shared my blog's link on my FB profile. I created my AdSense account too. Now, when I see my blog's statistics, I see:

Page Hits: 315

Audience:

From India - 38

From US - 11

From Italy - 2

From Netherlands - 1

Thanks to Facebook and my FB friends :)

"Blah" and more "Blahs"...

I had been suffering from Writer's Block! The words wouldn’t come. It’s been long, really long, since I last blogged. And even now, I am blank on what I should write about. I don’t feel armed enough to just let my fingers loose on the keyboard without much knowledge of the outcome. There is nobody to blame, but my own lethargic self. I know that’s just wordplay. But hey, isn’t that what I have always planned to do?

I’ve been thinking about my love for language since morning today. I have developed this interest of learning the etymology of certain words I come across. This all started when I was preparing for my GRE exam, thanks to Norman Lewis! His book – Word Power Made Easy, truly makes people fall in love with a “language”, any language for that matter. So it just occurred to me today while I was looking for a time-killer activity in office, and I looked for the etymology of the word “rice” over the web. I already had a little idea that the word has its root in “Tamil” language, in fact “Sanskrit”. The Wikipedia page I came across listed many more words that originate from Indian languages, mostly from Sanskrit – the most decorated and structured language (and hence its name)!

And as it must have been experienced by many, in fact all of us Wiki-users, I jumped through pages to land-up savouring “Pulav” (or pilaf, plaf, pulao etc. etc.). The word is for a rice dish, which we all know. What fascinated me was the fact that almost all major languages in the World (among many other not-so-known languages the names of which I can’t even pronounce) share this word for that dish. It is even more shared than the words “father” and “mother”.

I have always wondered how it all might have started, the variations in different languages. Why would a certain group of Neolithic homo-sapiens (or their ancestors) have to choose or develop a language different from what other group was speaking. Where did it all bifurcate. May be it was because of geographical boundaries that various communities developed their styles of verbal communication independently. But given that, how come they ultimately land up sharing some words for common references. Would they not have already developed a word for, say “father” or mother”, in their own distinguished language before they started interacting with other communities? I so want a time-machine to go back to see it all happening.

The history of languages has got to be as biased as any other history, with no concrete and neutral source of definite knowledge. People have been involved in long term debates on whether Tamil is the most primitive Indic language, or Kannada or Bangla. Whatever...!! I just relish the beauty of languages and look out for every possible chance to learn a new word in some language.