Kolkatans - prepare to die young

Yes, you heard me right. For the past few days, The Telegraph has been running an awareness campaign by means of its pages to disclose how adulterated fuel (katatel) used by Kolkata autos has turned the air we breathe into sheer poison. Today, they provided the icing on the cake (somewhat!) by quoting city doctors. These doctors hold the view that young Kolkatans who are getting affected by cardiac diseases despite having no family history of these ailments have the poisonous Kolkata air to blame.

But the bigger question- is Kolkata’s transport minister reading these reports???

Belated Happy B'day Tom

This post is to wish Tom Hanks, one of my favorite actors, a belated Happy B'day (9th July, 1956). Though I have seen several movies of this actor (the first one goes back to my college days when I saw Big), here is a list of some of those that I can watch again and again (not necessarily in this order of preference though. I have randomly listed the names of the movies that I love, irrespective of the date of their release):

1. Philadelphia

2. Road to Perdition

3. The Polar Express (a cartoon film where he was the voice of the ticket collector)

4. The Terminal

5. Catch me if you can

6. Cast Away

I have excluded the hugely popular Sleepless in Seattle as I am yet to watch it. Some other films, which were critically acclaimed are also missing from my list (like Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan) as I wasn't too impressed with the overall presentation.

So, here's hoping that Tom Hanks will continue to enthrall us by his stupendous performance on screen.

Gadget free Sunday

A few days ago, I was reading an article about how the modern technology has made people overworked and anxious. As I was reading, it occurred to me that I also belonged to the category of people being talked about in the article. Apart from spending 10 hours in office staring at the computer screen, I am tempted to switch on the home PC as soon as I get back home to check my personal mails (personal mail surfing is not allowed at our office). Even on holidays, I log in 3/4 times a day to surf the net, chat with friends and check mails. Though my mobile use is pretty regulated and limited, somewhat consciously by me, I realized that I have already got net-addicted. So, I have decided to go gadget free every Sunday beginning from the coming weekend. So, friends and foes, don't try to contact me on a Sunday from now onwards. Even if you want to shower some brickbats for this decision of mine, hold it till Monday arrives.

An interesting insight

Yesterday, I heard an interesting thing on a fm channel and would like to share the same with all of you.

It so happened once that a girl, unable to cope with severe stress and adversity, approached her mother to help her out. The mother took the daughter to the kitchen. She took three containers and filled them with water. Then, she put a carrot, an egg and some coffee beans in the three containers respectively. Afterwards, she put all the three containers on the gas burner. As the water boiled, each of these three ingredients underwent some change.

The carrot gave way to its hardness and became soft. The egg hardened from inside. The coffee beans melted somewhat and gave the water a taste of coffee. The mother asked the daughter – "Of these three, which one would you like to be- the carrot, the egg or the coffee beans?"

The daughter was unable to decide and asked her mother once again to explain what she meant by this experiment.

The mother explained: Each of these three ingredients show us how some people react to stress and adverse conditions that they face in life. The heat of the burner is the adversity in this case. The carrot gave way to its natural character quite easily and became soft, referring to people who don't have the ability to cope with difficulties. The egg when facing troubles became hard, just like some people who refuse to adjust to changing circumstances and become stubborn. However, something interesting happened with the coffee beans.

The coffee beans not only underwent a change in their character but also made the water taste like coffee. In other words, some people not only adjust themselves to face the adverse situations but even change the situation in their own favor, partially if not fully. So, when faced with difficult situations, we should try to emulate the coffee beans.

The mother went on to explain further:
The happiest people are not the ones who have the best of everything. Rather, these are those people who make the best use of whatever they have. Remember that you can't escape adversities. So, rather than escaping the inevitable, make yourself strong and confident enough to face whatever situation life throws in your face boldly. To sail through the rough waters of life, all that you need is your self-belief and confidence.

The message was now clear to the daughter. She thanked her mother for explaining the things so nicely and encouraging her to face the situation boldly.

The freemale phenomenon

Freemale- I came across this word first in the t2-the supplement distributed with The Telegraph (ABP group). A few weeks later, the group’s Bengali paper, Anandabazar Patrika talked about it again. After reading these two articles, a few things cropped up in my mind.

I wondered how the scenario has evolved. First came the age of couples who were classified as SINKs (Single Income no kids). It was soon followed by DINKs (Double income no kids). However, society has rapidly undergone changes and now is the era of the SPUDs (Single Person Urban Dwelling). Many believe that the "freemale" belongs to this last category.

Coming to the definition of "freemale", it refers to those women who have chosen to be single. In other words, these women are not single by circumstances (like family burden to take care of ailing parents or siblings, unable to find a suitable match etc). Rather, it’s a choice to be single that these women have made. The characteristics of the fremales, if newspapers are to believed, are:

· They have well paid jobs.

· They love to spend on themselves, be it shopping, going to the salon for self-pampering or taking a vacation.

· They have a close knit network of friends.

In other words, it is not an exaggeration when some people say that the freemale phenomenon is where “Bridget Jones meets Sex and the City”.

I, for one, however don’t understand why the word “freemale”? These women don’t hate men and may even have some good male friends to whom they can turn to in their hour of need. Just because they have chosen not to tie the knot or co-habit with a man doesn’t give reason enough to tag them as a freemale. For me, we females are better without any tags whatsoever and should be allowed to live life as we want to, meaningless tags and societal pressures be damned.

Via Darjeeling:a thriller minus the thrills

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak, Parvin Dabbas, Rajat Kapoor, Simone Singh, Prashant Narayanan, Sandhya Mridul

Direction: Arindam Nandy

Producer: Joy Ganguly

Written by: Arindam Nandy , Atul Sabharwal

The film tells the story of a married couple Ankur and Rimli Sharma (played by KK Menon and Sonali Kurkarni respectively), who had gone to Darjeeling on their honeymoon. But on the day of their return, Ankur vanishes from the scene. Many years later, the then inspector in charge of the case (played by Vinay Pathak) who failed to solve it, recounts the events to a group of his friends. The friends come up with their own versions of what might have caused Ankur’s disappearance. However, these multiple narrations couldn’t translate into a riveting story. The open-ended stories by the friends failed to connect in a single thread, which if happened, would have made the plot a lot more meaningful.

Acting wise, Rajat and Simone are good. The others are just average. Sonali, in fact, irritates a lot with her mannerisms and over the top histrionics. The lack of a good script had little to offer to these polished actors. So, the sheen is off their performance but the director, rather than the actors, is to be blamed. Even the end of the film is abrupt and leaves the audience wanting. The bottom-line: an unsuccessful attempt to present Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” on screen.

Postscript: Came across a nice site Onyomo where you can get every detail of your city (movies, shopping, restaurant, bookstore and more). For getting more info on this film (which cinema halls are screening it and what are the show timings), click here.

Image courtesy: NFDC

Netaji Museum

Netaji Museum, 1 Woodburn Park (opposite Forum on Elgin Road)

(open everyday except Monday)

Time to visit: 11 a.m to 4.30 p.m

Cost of ticket: Adults: 5/-, Children under 12: 2/-

Ticket counter closes at: 4.15 p.m

Photography: allowed only in the ground floor (outside the museum)

As it wasn’t a planned visit, when I reached the place oblivious of the timings, the museum had already closed. Nevertheless, the ground floor has some interesting things for the visitors. There’s the Wanderer BLA 7169 enclosed in a see-through glass enclosure, which Netaji used in 1941 to flee Calcutta. The marble tablet beside the glass case reads:

"Wanderer BLA 7169

Car in which Sisir Kr. Bose drove Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from this house in Calcutta on the night of 16^th-17^th January’1941 to Gomoh on the first leg of Netaji’s great escape."

At a few steps from this glass enclosure stands the brick red colored replica of the Singapore Memorial to martyrs of the Indian National Army, the foundation stone of which was laid by Netaji on 8^th July, 1945. The original memorial was blown up by the British Armed Forces after their reoccupation of the island. This replica has three rectangular structures, the highest being the middle one marked “Itmad”. The two lower ones on either side of it are marked “Ittefaq” (the left one) and “Kurbani”.

The walls of the corridor have glass cases showing the publications of the museum, images of important dignitaries to the place, celebration of 23^rd January, and a tablet showing the plan of this house by Sisir Kr. Bose. I was thrilled to see whatever I could and vowed to return soon to visit the museum.

Image Courtesy: Jugantar