Category: Yesterday

  • I remember a house, like a lot of other houses, a yard…..

    From streets lined with trees, from flyover constructions, from roads whose names gave indications of a colonial past, from temples and their loudspeaker bhajans and flower fragrances, from an old theatre that played mallu movies, from rail tracks and the hoot of the occasional train. To change, and the creation of another set of memories.

    until next time, shift

  • Legacies

    Quite sometime back, i had written this, in which i had tried to fathom the confusion of a generation caught in transit. That genaration is definitely making progress, marching towards the paramaters of the next generation with ever increasing confidence, but in a sense, giving up on things that used to be sacrosanct until a few years back. Nothing wrong with that, to each his own. But there’s one thing that always makes me wonder.

    There were things we grew up with – watching potboilers of amitabh in moviehalls with uncomfortable seats and later in VCRs, listening to the nasality of Kumar Sanu on Tseries tapes, enjoying the exploits of Kapil Dev or later Sachin Tendulkar in a crowded room full of cousins, reading Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle and Indrajal, travelling in Ambassador cars and Indian railways, lazing around during summer vacations and so on.
    And while they still watch Big B movies in multiplexes, listen to Himesh on Tseries CDs while pretending to say Oh No’s, Tendulkar still rocks despite occasional calls for retirement, ACK and Tinkle will soon be available online, Indian Railways is still cool if we go by Jab We Met, and they find a few hours to laze around during summer vacations despite the karate classes, entrance tutions, salsa classes etc that enable them to survive and win in this oh-so competitive world, I wonder whether they’ll ever get nostalgic about any of the above the way we do.
    Or have they found other things that i haven’t heard of that will link them with their childhood and youth, the ones that will give them bittersweet memories which they can jot down like this, the legacy of a way of life they can pass on to the generations that follow. Or will it all be forgotten in the tumble of the life we lead today, in which everyday brings in a faster way of doing things, a quicker way of travelling, a better way to store data, an easier way to communicate and so on… Will it all be lost when things become so transient that the past won’t really matter anymore…
    until next time, remember….

  • And that leaves only

    Kolkata. Which is phenomenal by my standards, as though of you who’ve read the previous post might have realised. As for the others, all it takes is one sentence to bring you upto speed- i hate travelling.
    But this year has seen me visiting 3 of the (erstwhile only) 4 metros in the country.
    Mumbai – February – last visited 2006 April, and that was only because i had to get inducted, professionally, that is. Judging by my tenure, fat lot of good it did. I was a frequent Mumbai visitor in the 80’sthough – before the bhai stuff became popular. No, there’s no connection. Shivaji Park was the usual venue, with a bit of Peddar Road and Malabar Hill thrown in. And then i stopped going to school, and that ended the summer vacations.Sigh
    Chennai – August – last visited 1999 or was it 95? Damn, i’m really getting old. 95 is easier to remember because of the 12th Std results and the giant B&W poster of Aishwarya Rai to celebrate it. Yup, its 99 coz i boarded the Corromandel Exp from there for my first Kolkata trip.
    Delhi – September and October – last visited 1993. And a much forgettable trip.
    I dont think I’ll do Kolkata, at least that leaves my tarnished record some chances of redemption 😉
    until next time, traveller’s outlook

  • Old School

    I’m still quite unsure about the name, old n’ all, though i have to admit, it does sound a bit ‘in’. What am i talking about? It’s the new (or at least i discovered it only recently) programming on Zee Cafe. (are you listening guys, thisis kinda endorsement and stuff) Unfortunately, its only about an hour everyday, and the timings aren’t exactly what I’d call user friendly. (i thinki blew that endorsement deal)
    But what it does give, if you can get around to seeing it, is those old favourites that used to appear on Star Plus (yeah, there was a time when it was sans saans and bahus and ekkta kkapoor stuff). I’m talking about Doogie Howser MD, Ally McBeal, The X Files and my personal favourite – The Wonder Years.
    Actually it isn’t just about watching old favourite content, its about bringing back those days when i used to watch it every evening. As everyone who reads this blog would know by now, all it takes is a bit of hint for me to go onto nostalgia mode. I guess, thats why they called it ‘Old School’.
    And as Kevin would say, “I remember a place… a town… a house like a lot of houses… a yard like a lot of other yards… on a street likea lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I sill look back… with wonder.”

    until next time, back to school 🙂

  • The new magicians

    Sometime last week, saw a photo of P C Sorkar passing his magic wand to his daughter, apparently a passing on of the baton to the next generation…
    A long long time ago, i think a couple of decades back, i had gone for one of his shows, in my hometown… that was still a generation that was eager about magic.. i even had tapes of david copperfield, doing much more complicated stuff… and yes, magic did leave me wonderstruck then…
    A few months back, i saw a show on axn which revealed the tricks of the trade, they also mentioned that there were a lot of stores that sold magic kits… but i wonder how many kids would be interested in them… aren’t the days of pc sorkar and co. over?
    the new kind of magis is perhaps being created by a different kind of pc.. and thats just the bottom of the chain.. for there are much more advanced and specialist comps that are making break throughs indifferent kinds of technologies at a much faster rate than ever before…and like many other things, an innocent old art that has been entralling generations is in the process of getting relegated by the wonders of technology….
    and we become part of a world which has no time for magic… or maybe its just that even magic aint what it used to be…
    until next time, abracadabra…..