A father is born..

Child is the father of man, but you don't realise it till you are a father yourself. A father is born when he queues up at the nursery to take a peek at his own child. He sees total strangers visiting relatives at the hospital take some time out to take their children to view babies at the nursery. The kids remark about how the baby looked at them, coughed, cried, smiled. But you have to await your turn after the little ones have finished admiring your latest creation. And when your turn comes, all you get to see is that your baby is sleeping soundly. And yet, you want to stand there forever. Till you are told that it's now past visiting hour.

Honeymoon tales, Jan 2007

Shooting from the lip
Gangtok’s a paradise for honeymooners, not to forget tourists. People just won’t bother you and their frankness could unsettle any man from the plains.
A colleague and his newly married wife on honeymoon there wanted a passer-by on the street to capture them in one frame with their camera. “Not possible,” said the Gangtok lad, even as his girlfriend stifled a giggle. Our couple were clueless as to what could be the reason. Maybe photography was forbidden there. But, in a Gangtok garden? In what is easily one of the most peaceful cities in the country? Encouraged by the smile on the Gangtok man’s face, our man asked him if photography was banned there. “No,” said the man, with an apologetic look, while his companion finally giggled. “The problem is I don’t know how to handle a camera,” he added.

Hand-not-in-glove
It’s so cold at Nathula, you can’t take your hand out of your glove. And for any reason if you do, the wind is sure to blow it away. It has its advantages, though. You can come back home and tell your friends, “This glove of mine had entered Chinese territory.” There’s more you can say. “A Chinese soldier fetched it for me. He stopped by across the fence for some small talk while taking a look at my Canon camera. ‘Good camera’ he told me”. That’s enough to make you take a second look at your camera, a more careful one, until you come across a marking you had not noticed earlier — Made in China.

Seven Years in Kolkata

I never realised I would miss Kolkata. Because I always thought of different things. The dust and pace of Mumbai clouded all thoughts, smells and visions that Kolkata brings to the mind. But an email from Kolkata changed all that. A photograph of buses plying on a Kolkata street with a caption reading 'Are e conductor, bus ta jore chalate bol na...' and another of the Victoria Memorial with a caption 'E baba, Victoria te ja dekhlam na! Ishshsh....' brought alive all those familiar sounds and visions. I suddenly felt I could hear the sounds of buses racing on the Chowringhee. And smell the Pani Puri near AC Market. All other familiar sounds too..
Shayad sab kuch waisa hi hai Kolkata me..
Bas hum wahan nahi hain.
Kolkata tumi kemon acho, Ami Mumbai tey bhalo achi..

Ten/Ten for Twenty20

Twenty20 or One-Day? The divide is showing in these testing times. If you thought Twenty20 could not hold a candle to good old ODIs, then you possibly have not reckoned with womanpower yet. No, not the cheerleaders who have possibly drawn young blood and hooked them to Twenty20. But the housewife, who weathers the kitchen heat while hubby dear's eyeballs chase every ball on the boob tube. Twenty20 might offer a lot more than cricket, but women are happy their men don't end up spending One (whole) Day in front of the Idiot Box. Some are even hoping it would get further truncated to a Ten10 version.

I am still wondering what blogging is all about..

Some say a blog is a diary, some say it isn't.
Some say it should be banned, some say it should not be banned.
But what exactly is a blog? I just took a plunge, to find out.
Let's hope I surface...glug glug glug..