Train journeys-some nostalgic childhood memories

A journey by train has always fascinated me since my childhood. It was something that I always looked forward to. Apart from being a comfortable and cheap option to reach your destination, trains also offered a chance of social bonding-that too with complete strangers.

Today I read an article in a magazine about how a journey via train remains special to the older generation (yeah, I too belong to this category now!) against GenY's fascination for cheap air travel. That made me nostalgic as images of many enjoyable train journeys came rushing back to me.

I have always loved traveling long distances by train, especially the ones that gave me a chance to spend a night or two in the train compartments. I loved the lower bunks (I still do) during the daylight as the scenic and rustic beauty of India always vowed me (after so many years, it still does...). The seemingly endless fields with their lush greenery, distant huts breezing by, the farmers toiling in their fields with bullocks, brick kilns...the list will go on. Each of these charmed me in my childhood days. Though I don't get to travel long distances much now a days, these and some other scenic views still hold an unspoken charm to me, a charm that's hard to describe and should be felt to know what I mean.

Though the window seat was something to die for during the day, I preferred the upper bunk as daylight gave way to dusk. I loved climbing the 3 steps to reach the bunk, made my cozy little space and settled with comics or books (in the initial phases, these were mainly Amar Chitra Kathas, Chacha Chaudhary, Nandan and Champak though they gradually gave way to more serious novels as I grew up) that I would pick up from the railway book stalls. The dinner served by the railways in packed aluminium foils was another thing that I loved very much though my family often preferred to carry cooked food items from home or chucked the rail-food for some delicacies picked from the bigger junctions.

I was so much in love with these journeys via train that I felt sad every time we were about to de-board. In fact, my love for the Indian railways hasn't diminished till date and I still look forward to the same whenever an opportunity comes my way.

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