TURQUOISE CHILL

Last night on my way back home from office while waiting at a traffic signal on the E.M. Bypass, this strange scene caught my eye. Actually stared me in the face is more like it, as I was parked right next to this man sleeping in the Traffic Police Man’s Pedestal in peak hour traffic. I don’t know what was more hilarious; the use he had put the pedestal to or the fact that he was fast a sleep in the midst of that cacophony. As I clicked this picture on my mobile and drove off, several thoughts started to go through my mind; is this the state of our Police Department, sleeping while crimes go unabated, or is this how callous they are with the resources provided to them, is this the reason citizens have lost faith in those that have the responsibility to serve and protect… As the mounting thoughts about the apathy of the Police Department started making me dizzy, I changed the train of thought to things more exciting and meaningful. I thought of reaching home in a couple of minutes t...

Our office and I guess every other office in Kolkata is still buzzing with opinions and debates about the fire at Stephen Court on Park Street; finger pointing et al. I say it's a tragedy and let’s accept it. What could have been and should have been is all left to speculation. Let’s just accept that this is the tragedy that has occurred and how such tragedies can be averted in the future. I say while everyone is pointing fingers at the Administration, what do us citizens do to avoid such tragedies. We are the one's trying to bend the rules to suit our own selfish needs; flouting building norms; saving every penny by not installing even basic firefighting equipment; so scared for our lives that we lock our selves into our little pigeon hole apartments, that when disaster does strike, we're locked in our own fiery graves; no basic knowledge of do’s and don’ts when caught in disaster situation. When I look back in retrospect, imagining the thoughts going through the minds...

I had gone down the road from my office to an ATM to draw money. As I approached the ATM, I noticed black smoke billowing out from the adjacent street into the sky above Park Street just above Music World. I quickly rushed to the corner and saw a sea of people gathering around witnessing smoke engulf the top three floors of Stephen Court. What followed was simply tragic and inspiring. The entire crossroads of Park Street, Free School Street and Middleton Row was like a sea of humanity, each witnessing the fire spreading through the top floors of the building. Policemen were at a complete loss trying to control the public which also hindered movement of Fire tenders, well at least the 2-3 of which had arrived at the scene. The tenders could only be put to use, once the people, several of whom were out on the ledge of the building were rescued. Witnessing the rescue operations commence just made me realise how selfless people in Kolkata are. What we call lowly street people were ...

Well I’m sure all of us married people get this question asked of us and we ask our better halves the same at the end of the day “How was your day today?” Well on this particular day I had a hilarious story to narrate to my wife. Well I don’t know if it’s something one should blog about, but I just think it deserves a place in the recorded history of my life. So I got into office in a hurry today and had to go to the loo there. So I went to the loo and locked it from inside, obviously!!! Finished with sitting on the pot and when the time came to get out, the lock handle went free and I couldn't open the door. I was locked in. I had very little time to act, my mobile phone battery was dying on me and I had been hearing the constant beep all the way driving to office. So I immediately called Kabir (office Admin person) on my mobile and told him of the situation and told him to send the electrician with a screw driver. So he sent him, well not before he told the entire office that I...

Well I'm not talking about the singing 'men at work', but the actual labourers sweating it out on a sweltering afternoon on Park Street laying electricity cables. Well this particular scene caught my fancy as I stood on the pavement devouring an Egg Chicken Roll. I noticed how people who were walking briskly with purpose would suddenly stop join the group observing intently these guys working on and electricity junction box. Each one looking carefully as though they doubted those thick cables could be bent and attached to the terminals in the junction box and so had to see if it was possible for themselves. Some stood for a couple of minutes and then moved on, some stood there all the while that I spent on the roll which was followed by a coke. So I finally clicked a few pictures on my mobile phone before I left. Somewhere I thought to myself as I walked back to my office building, its not possible for any city in the world to say its all done; there will always be digging ...

After spending the entire day at home, watching TV and building my paper models, we decided to head out for dinner. After several options, we decided to head to Piccadilly Square near Minto Park. Parking would be a problem and joy of all joy, my wife as suggested we bike it there. The Kazi rides again. Well the Kazi has been out quite a bit of late, but every time I get to ride my Hero Honda Karizma, its sheer joy. So off we rode into the city. As we approached Piccadilly Square, my wife threw the option of French Loaf which we were passing on our side of the road, but a plan was a plan and so we stuck to it and headed to Piccadilly Square. Once we were there and I had parked the bike, we realised that the little eatery must do really well because it was packed and over-flowing. So I headed in and asked how long it would be before we got a table and was told about 5 minutes. Good thing that it didn’t even take 5, else we’d have gone to plan B, which was French Loaf across the ro...

After I spent the day out, I got back and my wife and I decided to go out since she had been home all day. We decided to take a stroll down to the shopping complex just outside our apartment complex and try out the new ‘Gossip’, aptly named “More Gossip”. Well new in the sense that it was opened as an extension to the existing place just opposite to the existing one, though it has been around for a while. So after watching the Kolkata Knight Riders losing their second match in a row we headed to More Gossip. It’s a decently done up place with very basic tables and chairs and more tuned for a dining experience than the one opposite which more like a pub. Of course the stairway inside leads to a floor above, this has a lounge with sofas and low tables. Well we settled for the table on the lower deck because we had dinner in mind. A couple of beers and some great side dishes kept us company as we watched the second IPL match of the day between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers...

I was so looking forward to attending this workshop by Mr. Raghu Rai. Thanks to Canon and my friend Mr. Anup Kanodia of Capital Photo Service, I managed to get an invite for this once in a lifetime opportunity to get some tips on Photography from the man who has captured India through his lenses like no other. Being an avid traveller I wanted to understand what it was that one was supposed to capture in a frame that would make a good photograph and great photograph. Through the session, Mr. Rai humoured us with his anecdotes and a lot of humorous photographs. As he went through the session and showed us one photograph after another, the audiences wowed by each, just made me realise why there was such a packed hall. People were sitting in the isles trying to get a glimpse of the master’s portraits. Later I heard people had queued up since 8:00 AM to get front row seats for this workshop and it was definitely worth the effort. I finally got the answer to a question that was nagg...

KARTHIK CALLING KARTHIK Cast: Farhan Akhtar: Karthik Narayan Deepika Padukone: Shonali Mukherjee Ram Kapoor: Mr. Kamath Shifaali Shah: Mrs. Kapadia This is an interesting film delving into the subject of schizophrenia. Our protagonist Farhan (Karthik) is brilliant in portraying the character. His bong bombshell love interest Deepika (Shonali) is slowly coming of her own as an actress. Ram Kapoor (Mr. Kamath) his cheating, swindling real estate company owner boss plays the character to the tee. Shifali Shah (Dr. Mrs. Kapadia) does a decent job too in her endeavour to uncover the truth behind Karthik’s condition. All in all the plot is decent, acting is also fine, just that I felt the end could have been made much more interesting rather than the typical Bollywood run-of-the-mill “they all live happily ever after”.