Mayank's Blog

Now that the FIFA World Cup is over, I finally summoned up the courage to write this article. If it offends sentiments of any of my readers, let me be clear, I was not talking about you. ;) "Who are you supporting - Spain or Netherlands?", I was inundated by numerous chat messages when I logged into my laptop on the eve of the FIFA World Cup finals. I had a tough time convincing my friends that I was not supporting anyone (gasp!) and that I do not even watch football (more gasp!). My only knowledge of football is at most limited to Paul, the octopus or  Larissa Riquelme promise . Before you fall off your chair unconscious by my brazen honesty, I will explain you my reasons. I was not born in any of these two countries (or for that matter any nation playing in the world cup) and also I have never visited them even once. I do not identify with their culture, food or language. I don't have any friends or family in those two countries. This makes it kind of hard for me to h...

(Thus is my first attempt at writing fiction. Hope you like it.) “But what if there are civilians inside the bus?” Charu hesitatingly asked. “They will be martyrs in our freedom struggle. You should not worry about them. That’s a price every one of has to pay if we are to end the years of injustice and oppression by the Indian government”, Krishnaji thundered. “Don’t you remember the day when you first joined our movement?” How could Charu forget that fateful day! Charu was the elder of the two brothers that lived in a sleepy village of West Bengal with his widowed mother. They were very poor just like everyone else in the village. However the only thing that separated them from other children in the locality was the fact that his mother made sure that they attended the neighbourhood government school every day. From childhood it became clear that Sona, his younger brother, excelled at academics while Charu struggled through even the basics. Even the school’s only pan-chewing teacher...

When I came across this poster for a new Hindi movie, the title of the movie confused me. Now I know that ‘Luv’ is clearly misspelt, but ‘Storys’ got me thinking. It took me over a minute to clarify my doubt. This brings me to the point - what were the producers/directors thinking when the named this movie? Is normal, correctly spelt English just not cool enough? Or were they having a space crunch trying to fit in all the words in 160 characters? This SMSing of English leaves me baffled as it just not stops here but has percolated into our schools and offices. We all know about email signatures – the “Thanks & Regards” ones which no one really means but writes anyways. It is just standard practice. But there is a senior manager in my office who abbreviates ‘Regards’ with just ‘R’. Now if you don’t have the courtesy to even type out the entire word, then why insult the recipient of your mail with that letter ‘R’. It’s like saying “Oh! I don’t really regard you but I am going to mak...

Have you ever got your ears, nose or throat examined through a दूरबीन (Telescope)? The more important question is whether you want to see a doctor who claims to do exactly the same! I had the pleasure of meeting such a doctor whose clinic proudly proclaimed the following: Looking at the poster, I was surprised as well as disturbed to know how little we know about our national language. Oh wait a minute, Hindi is not our national language but the official language. There is no national language of India. No wonder, we have people displaying such gems in their mastery of the language.

The transition is complete. Say hello to my not-so-little friend - Gurgaon. When I first arrived at the Delhi airport from Pune, I was about to be blown away on dust storms after being vaporized by the intense heat of Delhi, but the taxi arrived in the nick of time. Able to breathe again in the air-conditioned environment of the taxi (which also seemed to be complaining about the heat), I looked outside. All I could see were gigantic concrete and glass structures, thumbing their air-conditioned noses at the people who coined the term "greenhouse effect". Gurgaon didn't seem to be belonging to the state where Khap panchayats still rule the roost. I guess this is the price we have to pay for pretending to be democracy. Soon I arrived at the guesthouse and prepared for induction in my new company and the struggles of life ahead. Sporting an uncombed, Harry Potter like hair I was sure that I would not make a first good impression. So I decided to go for a hair cut at the...

Nothing can be a better example of "India Shining" than the fact that today I was on an airplane for the first time in my life - flying from Pune to Delhi. Low-cost airlines have made it really affordable for poor people like me to have enough moolah in the pocket to buy an air-ticket. Like first love, first job and various other firsts (which are left to the reader's fertile imagination), this was a special occassion for me. The event was made even more special by the admiring looks that people gave me when I told them I was flying to Delhi. It was like having a mobile phone in  1995. The first reaction of people when they hear about someone's flight details is like "Oh! You are flying X airline. Y airline is much better. You know when I flew,.... blah.. blah.. blah". You just want to scream out, "Look I get it. You probably own an airline. Just let me enjoy my moment." So let's get on with my story.

The only horror movie which scared me to my shits and left me disturbed for a week was " The Blair Witch Project ". The use of scenes shot through handycam throughout the movie gave it a very real feel and was its major USP for me. Then " Paranormal Activity " came along. It was a very good movie but failed to impress. But one thing that stood out again was the use of camera. When will we see such camera work in Bollywood, I wondered. Well, my wait was about to be over.