Hey You !

This used to be quite a favorite of mine! Especially Arnold ! The word "awesome" wasn't the in word then- so he qualified as smart and cute ! I am somehow out of watching serials - except when I am on my own and discover a few season of HIMMM tucked away in some drive by Chibu . But this brought back memories of our B/W TV and the Lansdowne Rd TV room which used to have quite an audience on Thursday "Chtrahaar" evenings and weekend movies. Doordarshan nostalgia !

Strange that  I discovered this video clip while working on  education management  this afternoon , and while looking for a respite from the mundane and the monotone...The short clip was an eye opener !  It took me back to my days in our Lansdowne Road   house when the slum behind our house was a showcase of all kinds of  rituals and  superstitious beliefs.  I think the Sitala pooja coincided with the poila boisakh , or may be it was sometimes later. It was fascinating to see the tempo of fervor rising , the blind  devotion in the eyes of the people. It was probably the only time when the people forgot to fight over the rationed corporation water and collectively took part in the festivities. I distinctly remember a young girl who used to have "Mayer bhor " and went into a trance ...she was deified and worshiped and given royal treatment for quite sometime......She on her turn would bless all and sundry with her chamor and people twice her age called her 'ma ' wi

While talking to Paroma today I observed that most of the memorable love stories ended in tragedy and even the fairy tales end with .....they lived happily ever after and doesn't really talk of love ! So you live and be happy and don't  pay much attention to love! A week after the Valentine Day fervor .... I guess that's what counts -  you are happily living ..loving may not be part of the package ! And excess baggage is best left where it is ... Why am I so cynical suddenly ?

Today at the training there was a topic on freedom ...and I kept going back to this scene again and again.......Of flying free amidst the clouds, not a care in the world..sigh !

Coming home and being  treated to "The Sound of Music "was indeed a  surprise !  With the V-Day round the bend proceeded by our own Bangali Valentine , the Saraswati poojo is like a double whammy !  Today  roses were selling at 30 rupees a piece ..and at office everyone laughed at that and at the fact that I had bothered to find out !  But then love is a many splendoured thing and it's many hues and shades still stops me from being cynical with age !

Sometimes I feel so lucky- especially when I realize that life in many ways has been kind to me! I have been blessed with the little luxuries. Walking through the slum where Mongola lives I felt guilty that people are happy even in that kind of poverty while I crib about my many misgivings- and this evening as I walked amid that squalor and saw how Mongola smiled even in her illness and such conditions , I felt ashamed at being so rude to her many a times! Met an old student of mine yesterday....He came to me cos he was in dire need of money!I knew the money will never come back to me...yet I gave him !I could have said no...cos I needed that money this month...to reset my diamond bangle, for Bappa's daughter's mukhe bhaat, for a number of birthdays that are coming up! But I thought of him as class 5 kid..whom I taught and who just went haywire due to the circumstances! Sometimes I wish the ideal situation wins in the end...ahh ..wishful thinking ! And my foolish heart !

Chibu says I only have a happening life on Facebook, and the rest of me is boring ! He has a point - life on FB is make believe...the half truths and the colored lies! There have been many a occasions when I have come across people on FB who are dashing and flamboyant  and takes on the kind of persona that women would fall for like 9 pins! They are high flying and "kewl" and oh-so-desirable ! God knows how they are in their own real lives, where they go by their own names and has a real world which is not as "happening " :D!  The advantages of a virtual life ..... You can be a Diva with many a "likes" Ego pep, surrounded by cyber friends.... For some time you are  in a colored bubble  of your own.... If you believe in Fairy tales , why not Facebook?