Thamma!

I learnt the art of story telling from my grandmother!
Every summer holidays in my formative years was spent in my grandparents' house. I did not really enjoy it!
My grandfather had a strict disciplinarian approach in dealing with grandchildren where demonstration of grandfatherly love was probably seen as a sign of weakness. He himself was a strong man with strong views. The only place where his strength turned to jelly was in front of my grandmother, my Thamma. He loved her dearly and pampered her endlessly. I always felt that it was misplaced. If anyone had to be pampered it should be me, his grandchild ! But that did not happen and therefore I hated my annual summer sojourns.
In this gloomy atmosphere there was only one ray of light. My grandmother's stories!! It was not that my Thamma was made of any less sterner stuff than my grandfather, but it all transformed when she started telling stories. She was a voracious reader and every day, three times a day, I would sit next to her as she used words to weave a magical world for me. All the stories and sub stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata were relayed to me with proper build up of tension in each of them. By the time I was ten, I knew all the plots and sub plots of the epics. The next summers were spent reveling in the magic of Scheherazade and her 1001 nights. Even Arthur Hailey found a place in our summer trysts. The story of his novel Airport, was serialized for my benefit over a period of a few weeks. A different Arthur's creation, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to me on a balmy summer evening and kept me delightful company for many years after that. Edgar Rice Burroughs and his ape-man were also part of my growing up diet, thanks to my Thamma. Bankim Chandra and Sarat Chandra also found space in my consciousness through the stories that my Thamma told me.

She would also very successfully retell the stories of her life, my grandfather or my father's life in way, that they felt like a grand technicolor movie with Dolby sound effects. Every story she told would remain with me for days and months. The characters would be introduced with details that would provide depth to their personality. Each layer of the story would be built painstakingly and conflict introduced at the right moment and just when it would feel that nothing could be worse than what is happening to the protagonist, things would change so that happy endings were inevitable.

Thamma, your stories will not find voice anymore! On the 2nd of July at 3 am you left us to go away to live in your world of stories! I can picture you there, with a candle kept near you, telling one story after another, each more magical than the one before!!

The day of many firsts!

When I looked at Chennai for the first time through the window of the aircraft, as it circled to land, it looked like a serene village with many coconut trees. It is was a day of many firsts. It was my first plane ride. Though I tried my best to look the calm sophisticated traveler, with many air miles behind me, I don't think it worked well. My colleague Pratap, who was also flying for the first time, did a remarkable job of being nonchalant, probably because he was still in a liquor induced stupor from the wild party he had the night before. So there I was, at 5 in the morning, showered, shaved, hair slicked down and in button down formals; and there was Pratap in jeans, check sports shirt, stubble and ruffled hair.

After checking in (which of course Pratap handled like a pro), the first thing he said was" Why the fuck did we come so early? We are the first two to check in(remember this was years before web check in). I need a coffee." In my excitement and worry, I had actually hauled Pratap to airport about three hours before the flight.

So off we went for the coffee,to the restaurant on the first floor. I was naturally apprehensive, because the restaurant was an extension of a five star hotel and obviously the rates would be exorbitant. However, it seemed that Pratap had done his homework better than me. "We can charge it to the company" he said.

As we sat around, Pratap sipping his coffee and me looking around in wonder at the decor(first time, you see!), I spotted Anupam and Kiron Kher having coffee, three tables away. So with great alacrity, I gawked at them for the rest of the time, we were there. Pratap of course, like the man of the world he was, decided that it was a good time to snooze.

Suddenly, a beautiful girl in a skirt materialized in front of us asking" Is Mr. Sanyal and Mr. Pandit here?" I nearly put up my hand like in a classroom, but with supreme effort managed to nod. A frown creased her pretty face as she said "We have been announcing your names for over 20 minutes now. We have completed boarding long time back and all the passengers are waiting for you. Could you please hurry and come with me." We had completely missed the announcements in the coffee shop as it did not feature a PA system but a display board. So there we were running behind this pretty lady across the concourse having rapidly moved down the ranks from being the first ones to check in to being the last to board. Thankfully those days airlines used to wait for you if they had issued you a boarding pass.

Braving dirty looks from the other passengers we finally made it to our seats. I had a window seat while Pratap preferred the isle. I had always imagined that only beautiful stunning girls traveled in aircrafts, and I was hoping that such a creature would occupy the middle seat between Pratap and me.Instead we found a middle aged hapless British lady on her first trip to India.

By the time the air hostess finished her safety demonstration, Pratap had already started conversing with the lady or should I say the lady had started conversing with him. She was obviously full of questions about India, about Chennai, about traditions, customs, culture and bazaars. I on the other hand kept reaching across the lady to tug at Pratap's hand and was giving a running commentary on what was happening outside the window. "The plane has started moving. Now we are lining up against the runway. The wing flaps are moving. The plane has started taxing. The wheels are off the ground. We are AIRBORNE! How small does Bombay look from up here." and so on. The poor lady was stuck right in between my loquacity and the taciturn Pratap for the rest of the flight. All those who know Pratap well would agree with me that taciturn Pratap is an oxymoron!

Having spent those two and a half hours sandwiched between us, I am sure both Pratap and I are going to feature in her memoirs as "things to avoid when in India". Not too soon her ordeal came to an end as the pilot switched on the seat belt signs and we landed quite uneventfully in the beautiful city of Chennai. As we walked out of the airport to search for our vehicle, little did we know that Chennai will offer both of us a wonderful fabulous kaleidoscope of experiences which both of us will cherish forever and a bond of friendship that will be lifelong. Chennai was the city of many firsts, but that is another story altogether!

Unreal Happiness - Alik Sukh - Movie Review

Alik Sukh

Alik Sukh means unreal happiness. The movie however leaves you with real questions and meaningful thoughts without being preachy. Alik Sukh is the story of a successful gynaecologist Dr. Kinshuk Guha(played by Debshankar Haldar).

Kinshuk and his wife Ramyani( played by Rituparna Sengupta) keep January 22nd very special every year, as it is their wedding anniversary. Ramyani faithfully keeps a record of every 22nd January in her album. Kinshuk plans to gift her a flat this anniversary and goes to the builder's office along with his lawyer to sign the sale deed.

Things keeps getting delayed with the lawyer being to late to the builder going missing for some time. Meanwhile his patient Kobita Mondol ( Sohini Sengupta) starts having post operative complications. The hospital reaches out to him time and again and Kinshuk caught between his desire to sign on the flat papers on his special day and his duty towards the patient tries to resolve the problem through phone and complete the signing as well. Kobita keeps slipping into shock and by the time Kinshuk arrives at the hospital after braving a traffic jam, she is dead. This is the first patient who has died in Kinshuk's care in his career.  Kobita's husband (played brilliantly by Bishwanath Basu) and other relatives go berserk on hearing the news of death and start ransacking the hospital. From here starts the story of Alik Sukh. 

Kinshuk dismisses Kobita's death as "chance factor" while Ramyani is troubled by it and starts questioning Kinshuk's logic. How they deal with this situation and how does Kobita's husband deal with this situation of his wife's unfair death is captured in the movie.

Alik Sukh brings to fore some real issues primarily in the medical profession. It makes you think about the intense competition that we all go through as professionals and how it pushes us to justify our actions. It takes you to the other end of the economic spectrum and shows you how human life after it is gone becomes more valuable as a source of compensation and rebuilding.

Shiboprosad Mukhopadhay and Nandita Roy the director duo have built in layers within this story which makes you think without being too cerebral. The predominant use of closeup technique catches every nuance on the actor's face to create an extraordinary connection with the audience. The  screenplay manages to keep you hooked, though few of the scenes between Kobita and Ramyani could have been edited out. The story flows easily and the actors have done a brilliant job.

Rituparna sheds her glamorous image and plays the housewife with a conscience with right amount of vulnerability. Kharaj Mukhopadhay plays the lawyer brilliantly and is a delight to watch. Sohini Sengupta as Kobita is amazing with the correct mix of menace, pathos and despondency. However the movie belongs to two actors, Debshankar Haldar as Kinshuk Guha and Bishwanath Basu as Kobita's husband.  Haldar is simply brilliant as the doctor caught between his sense of duty and the mirage of happiness that he is chasing. Basu's face mirrors his anger, helplessness, bewilderment, acceptance and finally resignation through the movie without too many dialogues. Soumitra Chatterjee has a small but important role. 

Goa Diaries

Why does Goa attract you like a magnet? I am on my annual vacation to Goa. I arrived late last evening. As usual Goa was hot and sticky. After the glorious weather of Bangalore, Goa felt like a mistake. This is a feeling which I invariably get on my first evening in Goa. After a couple of beers and a quick dip in the pool the stickiness had not really gone away.When I went to sleep, I was still thinking whether I am going to enjoy Goa this time.

Chirping sounds of various kinds drifted into my consciousness. These seemed to be strange sounds. Another more strident sound kept streaming in to my auditory canals at fixed intervals. After valiantly trying to block those sounds out, I finally gave up and decided to look at the source of these sounds. So I lifted my head and looked around. It was a strange new world. As I drifted out of my hibernation, I realized the sounds that woke me up were chirping of various kinds of birds and a strident crowing of a cock. I walked out to the verandah of the room and has hit by quiet and stillness. Suddenly serendipity hit. As I sat in my verandah sipping a cup of lemon tree with my wife suroounded by Guava and chikoo trees, I knew why Goa was such a magnet. It has everything that one wants. You want beaches, babes , beer and late night partying the place to get it is Goa. You want peace quiet and good food, Goa it is. Even though it is sticky and hot, it is the best place to be. Look out for more updates along the week on my Goa sojourn in my "Goa Diaries"

The Team

Last week a young married couple visited us for dinner. They had just finished their first year of marriage, but where they should have been happy and blissful, they looked worried and off key.

By the second drink the story started coming out. The young lady was worried that her husband was drifting away. They both held responsible jobs with multinational companies. During the weekends, he did not want to help around the house and was content to just lie and watch TV the whole time while the wife kept on working. The lad only perked up when there were parties to go to and people to meet.


The young lad on the other hand thought that his wife had changed since marriage. The only time they had with each other was the weekend, when she insisted to talking and doing things like getting the house cleaned, shopping for the week and planning on their financial future and investments etc. "How unromantic!! How boring!! We have all our lives to do this, now in the early part of our marriage lets spend more time having fun, going for parties and meeting friends"he said.

If you look at it, both were right of course and the issue was quickly resolved by helping them understand that while one was task focused in her behaviour, the other was people focused and little bit of understanding of each other's behaviour would help in smoothing the relationship.

After they left, as we sat talking, Anu and I realized that, actually we have been wading through a similar relationship for the last ten years. Anu is task focused, while I am people focused.

Every weekend I would invite scores of people home, basking in the thoughts of evening. " Which songs should we sing ? Lets make it a Ghazal theme tonight. Let me find my book of Mhd. Rafi lyrics. Should we also invite the Roys? Mr. Roy sings Rafi songs really well." And all this while Anu would be undergoing waves and waves of anxiety as she could see the long list of things that needed to be done before the guests came and the long list of things which would not get done(which she had planned for weekend)because of the (out of the blue) preparations for the evening.

Come evening , Anu would be sprinting between the kitchen and the various rooms. While the fish moilee was simmering she would be running around the rooms making sure that they were neat and new bedsheets or covers were arranged( of course, Ved and I would have made sure all the sheets that she had put in the morning were crumpled and needed changing)
While the pork vindaloo bubbled she would be arranging the flowers in the vase. While the muttur pulao steamed, she would be arranging the silverware. With every passing hour the acidic strength in her comments(which she would carelessly fling over her shoulder while passing by) would steadily increase, till close to seven pm, I would be ruing the fact that I had ever invited anybody to my home and we would actually have full blown quarrel just before the first guest arrived.

How quickly things can change. The roles would reverse after the arrival of the first guest. The queen of the kitchen , the empress of the house would suddenly hand over the sceptre and the underling would become the King, greeting people in, ushering them to their places, making them comfortable and hobnobbing with the gentry. And Lo, I would become the life of the party and there would be lots of laughter, fun, singing, dancing and drinking. Anu would be there as a graceful hostess, but always in the background, making sure the food was heated before it came to the dining table, everybody got their favorite dish and nobody left without having desert. She would discreetly signal to me when she saw an empty glass or plate. The tigress who preyed on helpless mortals like Ved and me would have metamorphosed into a charming, witty doe eyed beauty.


On the face of it I really do not know how we have managed this over the last 10 years,but as we sat that evening thinking about the young couple who had just left we realized a few things. We understood that one of things which kept us going that we never grudged each other. Anu never grudged me for being the life of the party, while I never grudged her reputation as superlative cook and a fabulous homemaker. We both were clear, that our roles were different due to our temperaments, but we tried to help each other succeed in our respective roles. But most importantly we never had an entity called ego between us. Somehow we had banished this creature out of our house. All in all we are a great team!

The first blog

Life always comes around in a full circle. I will attempt to describe my part of the circle thru these blogs. Why have I named it "The sound of falling raindrops"? In our quest to achieve, most of us do not take the time to pause and appreciate all the wonderful things which are happening around us. How many times have you stopped to listen to the sound of falling raindrops; the smell of the dampness after the first rains; the sound of a child's cackle; the sound of your own heartbeat; the budding of the first flower of a plant ; the sound of silence.

I will pause once in while to listen to sound of falling raindrops and all the other wonderful things happening around us and tell you about it through this blog. Hopefully all of us will enjoy the journey of life even more