Saturday, October 28, 2006

Dor...

~ A few thoughts penned after watching Nagesh Kukunoor's new movie 'Dor'

Dor - a single rope of hope that ties the destinies of a hapless young widow and a never-say-"die" fearless widow-to-be.

The rope brings the cold mountain breezes and lush green valleys of Himachal Pradesh to meet the hot desert winds and dusty sands of Rajasthan. With this rope in your hands, you meet vagabonds on your way - strangers essentially good at heart, but who may dupe you for their own survival; and the bonding of the rope ensures that the vagabonds reach out to you in your moment of distress, thereby becoming your friends for life.

In one moment, this rope defines the boundaries of societal norms & customs that define your life; and yet in another moment, it also helps you climb over those tall orthodox walls then they question your very own existence. A solitary rope that can become the path towards freedom for a person, can also be equally effective as a noose for another - the person who holds this rope, has the right of choice between forgiveness and revenge, life and death, joy and sorrow, freedom and bondage - a right of choice that even angels would be envious of.

How this rope will change your destiny, depends on how strong you pull it, or how loose you keep it - this rope is as strong as your determination is, as flexible as your heart is, as resilient as your will power is, and as long as the reach of your friend's arms is.

That is what Dor means to me...

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Chote-chote shehro mein..."Experiencing a coal mine"

~ A mail I sent in July last year to my friends from CTS, about my experiences of visiting a coal mine @ Gadarwara, MP.

Hi everyone,

Hope this mail finds all of u in the best of your health. Good to hear from Jesse, PT, Bhavin bhai & Amit.

Things are fine at my end as well. Here's an update from my side..

Last week for my current project, I visited a coal mine at Gadarwara (MP).. just came back today.. had quite an interesting time.. had never been to a coal mine before.. pehli baar pataa chala ki not all mines are underground.. this one was a surface mine.. chaaro taraf koyla hee koyla.. coal mining is quite a different operation from the usual mfg stuff... abhi tak, I have seen automobile mfg, boiler mfg, paint mfg factories... lekin mining is totally hatke (ne one interested can get the details on
www.worldcoal.org ).. had the good fortune of watching the live "blasting" of coal using explosives, before it is extracted..

Talking abt Gadarwara - its a sleepy little town, lying between Itarsi & Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh - a 16-hour train journey from Mumbai.. was instantly reminded of the song "chote-chote shehron mein" from Bunty & Babli, as soon as we landed at the Gadarwara (pronounced as GaaDarWaaDaa) railway station..

The coal mine is located at some 25 km from the town.. so, it used to be a daily nice 30-40 min drive in a Mahindra Bolero - a panoramic view of lotsa birds of the feathered kind, sugarcane fields, lush green fields & signboards in Hindi "aage paath-shaala hai".. which really bring me to the usage of hindi in this part of india.. sample the new (or previously known but now forgotten) words used in day-to-day lingo: samay-saarini ( = "timetable" @ rlwy stn), nirgam ( ="exit" @ movie hall)..

watched 2 movies - B&B, Paheli in the "VIP" seats.. yeah, the movie hall "Alka" had 3 classes - stalls, balcony & VIP.. and u wont believe it, but there was actually a 3-wheeler tempo having 2 loudspeakers attached in front & back, playing the song "kajra re" & advertising for the movie B&B in the town - "Dekhiye, dekhiye, dekhiye - Amitabh, Aishwarya aur Abhishek ka dhamakedaar superhit gaana.. Bunty Aur Babli picture mein, aap hee ke theatre Alka mein"!

The best part was probably the food - b'fast was usually samosas, pohe, garma-garam jalebi, gulab-jamun (each of the size of a tennis ball).. lunch or dinner was roti/naan, with some paneer sabzi, daal, rice, dahi & salad.. had some really good desserts in the form of rabdi, jalebi and some good chaat as well... and if u really wanna hv some fun post dinner, try taking a tanga ride post-dinner ;-)

Life was a little different than usual.. considering tht u never got mobile range in the hotel room, but had to step out to the open chowk inside the hotel if u wanted to speak.. even at the mine, the range was available only at the top of a tower, of the coal washery.. also, one has to wait for almost 20-30 mins at a rlwy passing if a train is gonna cross ur road (or is it the other way round?).. ;-)

Getting an English newspaper was quite a Herculean task.. on Sunday, we managed to locate the local newspaper vendor, who had just 1 copy of Hindustan Times, which he let me read there itself saying "saabji, yeh kaapi to graahak ki hai.. ise hum bech nahin sakte".. on asking him why he doesnt stock any extra copies, he said "saab, poore shahar mein 20-25 copies hee bikti hain.. jyaada rakhne ki jarurat kya hai"... thankfully, managed to sell him tht last copy to myself.. n the excuse he intended to give to the "grahak" was "aaj kaapi nahin mili"

We went searching for an internet cafe to check the PNR status of our waitlisted return tickets only to find out that the cafe closes at 6pm.. then being reminded by one of the town folks tht we can get the status on our mobile phones itself!!

Next on the agenda is a visit to a place called Mithapur in Gujarat next week, where i'll be getting to see a metallurgical coke mfg plant.. hopefully, tht shud be an interesting experience as well (no worry - wudnt wanna bore u guys again) ;-)

Newys, abhi ke liye itnaa hee..
Ciao,
Ketan