Flyaway Mind

I remember Women's Day mostly when I see the glossy ads in newspapers. But , the memories of a Womens Day during my 3rd year Btech are vividly etched in my mind.It was the time when our bossy seniors were out of the college for project work and suddenly we found ourselves as the shakers & movers of the campus. Many of our crazy ideas materialized during this time.

The idea of celebrating Women's Day in a different way sprouted from our 'qool galz' gang. Soon we had our infectious energy & enthusiasm spread to the whole gals in our college. The idea was to host a fund raising Womens Fest & donate the amount to 'Thanal' , an orphanage near to our college. The fest christened as 'Unarvu' (energy) was dedicated to Kalpana Chawla. That was the time of her demise & so feelings and emotions were running high during those days.

The Fest had all entertaining ingredients - fashion shows, cinematic dances, music, stalls, all hosted by the gals. Alltogether, there were more programs than we ever had during our Arts Fest. So for a change, the guys sat back and enjoyed (meant screaming & cat calls) while we took the reins of the Fest. The most important task was to get moral support from the guys, since for a few of them, the very idea of celebrating Womens Day was like undermining the existence of guys :) So a committee of gals were roped in from each class, to win over the guys, collect funds and make it a success. But I must say, the guys were really sporty about it and helped us amass huge amounts for our fund raising. And they were also supportive to the extend that they threw only tomatoes at us the 'qool gals' when we danced onstage. I remember the tomatoes quite matched with our red colour dance outfit. hehee

It was a feeling of being at the heart of the event, because we took all the responsibilities like booking the auditorium, arrangements for stage, audio systems & event management.

In his welcome speech, one of our popular Sir raved like this, " So I dedicate this Fest in fond remembrance of an Indian woman who made us all proud - Juhi errr.. Kalpana Chawla !!!!" The whole audience burst into laughter and a few even cheered. Grrrrr... I personally think it was deliberately done by him :) And I proudly did the introductory speech on Kalpana Chawla.

We put up various stalls during the Fest for fund raising. As usual the 'dedication counter' was a runaway hit. It's where anybody can pay 10 bucks and have a filmy song dedicated to anybody else. The songs will be played in between the events, along with the dedication message. Then there was 'face painting stall'. It was quite crowded with guys because pretty gals sat there to paint faces. Then there was 'mehndi stall' put up by some creative ones. But the toughest job at hand was for 'secret message counter' , where the unfortunate messengers had to deliver anonymous letters even to the principal.

The event was a success by all means and we were able to hand over a good proportion of money to the orphanage. That was a year when I felt worthy of having celebrated Women's Day.......

It has been quite a while since I have been bored with the routine weekend hang outs. Two weeks back a friend invited me to the 'Tri-Continent Film Fest' at Bangalore. Though many people think it crazy, I absolutely love watching contemporary parallel movies & movies with a strong sense of direction. About 20 award winning movies were screened during those two days

Alliance Franchise, where the movies were screened, is an Indo French collaboration centre. It has a terrific ambience with a tranquil garden and aesthetically furnished interiors. Most of the crowd over there were social activists, media students & a surprising number of foreigners. Felt like being transposed to a different world inside Bangalore; where people sat in groups, sipping piping hot tea & discussing social issues.

Some movies succeeded in striking a chord deep within me. One such movie was ‘Hearts and Minds’- a 1974 academy award winning documentary on Vietnam war. It captures the most powerful images of a devastating war carried out by the US.

The US war planes whizzed past, carpet bombing the Vietnamese villages and ejecting toxic gases that resulted in massive killings. Many US war veterans & pilots when interviewed, initially told how they enjoyed bombings the targets; but later on many broke down seeing the devastating effects they created . One pilot commented how he felt as if he were playing video games, when the deadly bombs hit the target. In the national cemetery an elderly woman wails and tries to jump into her son’s grave to get buried; a child pathetically weeps and falls on his father’s grave.

The movie derived it’s name from US president President Lyndon B. Johnson’s notorious speech “The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there." Glorious words used to cover up the senseless occupation of Vietnam.

US soldiers brutally harassed the civilians, set fire on their houses & dehumanized the Vietnamese prostitutes . The war footage shows children screaming and running in pandemonium. A little girl Kim Phouc, horribly burnt ran out screaming while the shells exploded against the back drop. This picture that appeared all over the world , pricked the conscience of the entire world .The movie succeded in putting forth a strong anti-war message.

There were a few other movies worth mentioning: John & Jane is an Indian movie on the woes of call centre employees, as they tries to cope up with the virtual world they live in. Shake Hands With The Devil looks through the eyes of Romeo Dallaire, the once UN Force Commander to Rwanda, when the country went through a heinous civil war & genocide. It’s the story of a nation abandoned by the world & even by UN who withdrew it’s peace keeping forces at a crucial time. Say Amen an Israeli movie, comically picturises how a gay man is being forced by his large conservative extended family to commit to the institution of marriage.

I think I have seen enough movies to last atleast a month. Cant take in any more!!!!

PS: I might not be politically correct here. These are just a chain of images drifting across my mind

January has whizzed past. This has been a month of partying - party at office, party at hostel, and one back home at our residential association..

Now the New Year party at office was a helluva one. Though the invitation revealed nothing explicitly, it soon became an open secret that it was a pub party. It was in Regalis- Cloud 9 at Lavalle Road. Now I always had this curiosity to know what really brews inside a pub. The bouncer thugs guarding the pub & the blaring music have always intensified my curiosity. "Curiosity kills the cat". But, I was not that curious a cat to waste some bucks on such stuffs and quench my curiosity. But this pub was exclusively reserved for our office and hence it turned out to be a pretty decent party with the managers hovering over us (!!). So I guess, I missed the real yo-man-yo dudes & dudettes:) in action . *** sigh*** So, instead ended up seeing the same monotonous faces of my colleagues **sigh** (incase anybody of you are reading, dont kill me..kidding)

The initial feelings on entering the pub were that of partial blindness & deafness imparted by the dazzling light & ear-splitting music. As soon as my sensories regained their functionality, I joined the gang. All around were a bevy of glasses. Now somebody informed me that soft drinks are available.Ok... So after all, I get something to drink. And I really dont know what got into me, when I went and asked the bartender "Can I have juice?" The horrified look on his face said "where the hell did you drop in from?". The moment I really wished the earth would open up and swallow me!!!! Heheee..So I ended up drinking pesticide (sprite), something which I never used to drink these days.

For some time, just stood there drinking pesticide sprite & watching the colleagues on dance floor. This soon proving to be boring. I felt like another brick in the wall. That is when I and a few pals decided to hit the dance floor. Soon we were having a whale of a time. Then out of blue, somebody in an energetic dance move, crash landed the heavy sharp heels onto my toes.Aaah..Instantly, I could feel warm blood sprouting around my toes. I thought, yo man yo ,I dont care and resumed with the activities. After some time, yo man yo didnt feel so cool about it. Toe was hurting. So went out of the room to inspect the poor mashed up toes & got it bandaged

Soon it was time for the most crucial event "dinner". Hogged the dinner & went on to collect the office T-shirts. So as usual, the unlucky me didn't get any small sized t-shirts. Only medium sizes were left, the small ones being grabbed by the early birds. I am just not destined to wear office logo t-shirts. So as usual, my t-shirts will be donated to my fathers collection. Hmmm..My father is getting real trendy these days with all the t-shirts :)

The toes got infected and after a long have healed now. But the poor toe nail still remains a deep bluish-purple. Guess I should get a purple nail polish & paint the remaining nails purple too. That would indeed be a smart way of living with it !!! yo gal yo !!!! :)