A Time for Revival

                  The monsoons are here, bringing in the rains and a time to indulge in some revelry. We shall go out on bikes with friends, get soaked in the rain, enjoy a hot cuppa of tea and snacks like’ kaanda bhajji’. A time for merry-making indeed! During this time, we love going to places like Khadakwasla to enjoy the rains. A few years back, we used to go to Pashan Lake as well. Today, that is hardly a case.
Pashan lake is a manmade lake, built by bunding a small rivulet. The rivulet originates from Bavdhan and flows via Pashan, Sutarwadi, Baner to Someshwarwadi before flowing into the main Mula river.  The lake served as a source of water to old Pashan village, for growing crops all the year round and to nearby Governor's house. The lake and its surrounding area used to attract many migratory birds and had been a popular spot for bird-watchers over the years.
In recent years, deforestation on nearby hills has caused heavy silt formation resulting in decrease in the depth of the lake.  Ipomoea weed is also cited as a major cause of lake's deterioration as it prohibits the growth of other plants. The washing of trucks in the area contributed further to the pollution, by adding oil and petrol to the sewage. The water quality deteriorated fast as the quantity of sewage water and other effluents mixing in the water kept rising. PMC worked towards improving the filtration plant but water quality remained poor. In 1998, Pune Municipal Corporation discontinued providing drinking water from the lake.
Owing to ever so increasing level of pollution, the number of migratory birds dropped from 32 to merely 3 over a period of just ten years. The lake also suffered owing to the ignorance and apathy of the citizens, who would see and lament the condition but would not do anything concrete for its resurrection. We, in fact, contributed our share towards polluting this lake, by dumping in our garbage. Sad indeed!
However, it isn’t too late yet. A couple of years back, the Pune Municipal Corporation has undertaken a project to revive the lake, in order to be able to supply drinking water from it again. Various organizations and volunteer groups have been carrying out awareness and eco-drives to encourage more and more people to come to its rescue. Dumping of garbage and cleaning of trucks has been banned. Some of us belong to the corporate world, some have the necessary influence and reach within the concerned authorities, some have the moolah whilst other have the zeal. Together, we need to combine all these resources, combine and synergize it into a single, functional force and revive this lake. Increase the awareness, be the one to take the initiative and do not just pass on the baton. Together, we can and we will make a difference.
                 Save Pashan Lake, Save Environment, Save Earth!

That unputdownable moment!

            How often do we manage to bring ourselves to applaud someone’s success whole-heartedly and sans any malice? How frequently do we come across people who appreciate others’ achievements without any envy? The odds are very low, if not negligible and when you do come across such a situation, believe me, you have reasons to celebrate.

            I believe someone who receives such adulation is a blessed person, for he is loved in the purest of all forms. Envy, I believe is the worst of all cardinal sins, for it reflects the shallow you and yet, I find myself privy to this emotion very frequently. Lamenting the lack of something which the other person has and wishing you would rather be the one who had it, comes very naturally and easily to most of us. It is not totally our fault but that of our endless insecurities and so we end up taking the easier of the two routes.

            It is easier to hate than love, easier to loathe than appreciate. You can count yourself lucky if you have that one person in your life whom you can wish all the delights sans any hidden agendas, whom you can love without any reasons, whom you can appreciate without needing a motivation and whose success and achievements would matter to you more than your own. The realization of this feeling, the dawning of this delight is the purest and the most ecstatic of all forms of happiness, as pure as a child’s laughter and as unadulterated as the first rain drops.

            A few days back, my dear friend, your success brought me this delight and allowed the lesser mortal in me to experience this unputdownable joy and be immortalized for that one moment of time. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart and cheers to you!

Anguish of an ardent fan

Make no mistake, I am an ardent Mani Ratnam fan. And I am not even a critic. But the fact that one of the most intelligent film-makers made this movie, or shall I say, sheer torture, saddens me to no ends. For someone who has made Bombay, Roja, Mouna Raagam, Nayakan, Kannathil Muthamittal and numerous other cult movies, Raavan comes, perhaps as an indicator that Mr. Ratnam's directorial career is heading towards an unceremonius,fag end. How can someone who made Naayakan, give us Raavan? Raavan, is neither a love-hate story nor a movie depicting the reason why naxalites are what they are. Some may call it a delapitated version of modern Ramayana. I will call it as Mr. Ratnam's biggest mistake. I have a serious advice for him, please watch all the movies you had directed till now and then go about your next movie, for you shall know, better than any of your viewers, that your ardent and most loyal fans like me, did not deserve this.
I shall not delve into the storyline per say but there are a few aspects that everyone reading this should know. For those who have seen Rajnikant's hit Tamil movie 'Chandramukhi', Abhishek Bachhan seems to have watched countless re-runs of the dog scene of its hit song 'Ra Ra'..(the tamil version of Bhul Bhulaiya's Mere Dholna, nothing as exquisite as the Vidya Balan song)..his acting is not even a topic worth discussing and I don't believe myself when I write that Abhishek's acting isn't the worst part about this movie. There is no storyline. I had read somewhere ages back that Mr. Ratnam had shot four climax scenes for this movie because he was unable to decide which one to go with. Perhaps till the end, he did not know which storyline to go by. One minute you are shown a gross-looking Govinda as a caricature of Hanuman and the other minute you are made to believe that the naxalites are like that because of the atrocities of the police. This ever so topsy-turvy storyline(if you may call it that) is too much for someone who had expected another classic like Kannathil Muthamittal(albeit with subtitles) from this genius. Mani Sir, I still revere you, and come what may, I will still watch all your movies despite you holding on to the plastic-demon couple but giving us Raavan and expecting the same adulation as Naayakan and Roja fetched you, is like asking us to support Pakistan in an India-Pakistan cricket match. 
Perhaps the genius did realise that this venture shall not be well received and won't create the same magic as his previous blockbusters. For those who heard and saw it, recently there were rumours of Mrs. Plastic Bachhan and Mr. Stone Bachhan expecting their first kid. That might have been a ploy to create some much-needed publicity for this movie. Nevertheless, even if trade pundits go on to declare that Raavan is the biggest hit of all times, everyone who has watched this movie and everyone who is reading this and will still watch the movie, will know it within his heart, that it is difficult to choose the better movie out of the two, Kites and Raavan. 
I will not stop you from watching this movie but do watch that show which costs you the least. Perhaps then, you shall not face the anguish which I am facing right now.