The Public Diary

As I mentioned in the last post, over the time span of two and a half years (almost three years) of Aarush, I’ve gathered too many clues that now I’m carrying them forward to this post as well. ( Hidden Motive: I can bait him in future to read my blog to know more about his childhood) Overall, I can say he is a smart kid and I’m not saying this because he stands in a near relation to me. But because once when I met a kid, I asked him his age generally. He ran crashing down to his mother asking what his age was. It was only after his mother told him that he’s three-and-a-half-year-old that he could answer me.  But Aarush knows it from the time when he was about to turn two. (That is a different thing that now I find it difficult to teach him that he’s going to be three ; after making him repeat several times after me when I ask him again he says, “Two”) He already knows who’s stuff it is: the blankets, the combs, the clothes; and this is when, sometimes, even I get...

It’s high time that I write about him because my clue box under this heading has been growing longer and longer. I am talking about my nephew - Aarush. The demand for writing this post came long ago by his mom. (It’s strange how equations change after the ‘tiny arrivals’; I could’ve written “demanded by my sister” but I chose ‘his mom’.) I would start from the day 1. After getting the news of his birth, we visited him in the hospital. I slightly erred in holding him for the first time; amidst all the wonder of someone being so little, I could see his eyes slightly open as if he were sending signals, we would bond well. By the time, he was in the next one's arms he had shut his eyes and went back to his sleep. But I was also a little upset for I, no more, could enjoy ‘the youngest one’ tag. In the initial months, we would constantly ask our mom “when would he start responding to us/sitting on his own/ crawling/standing/speaking.” After a few months, we realised that h...

Initially, I was going to start this post with “Half Truth is Dangerous than a complete lie” but then I googled the quote and it turned out to be something else than what I had expected. A few of the incidents fall into this category and others remotely fall into this category. Now I don’t know how to start it. Let’s leave it up to you to figure out what it is. When I was a kid, I used to have this friend of mine who would lie often. But because I was a kid and she was my ‘friend’ I didn’t want to admit the 'liar' tag; so I would believe her most of the times. Once she told me that if you take the slightly hard part of the Gulab Jamun (which is its core) and keep it in a refrigerator for 2-3 days then it converts itself into candies. I was so excited to do it. The next time when we brought Gulab Jamuns to our home, I immediately told my mom about this fact and asked her to do the same. She denied it outright. But I still had a hope in my heart; Kids are kids (No Brand Pr...

Attention: Proceed only if you can understand/read Punjabi language, but you can continue to read otherwise as well because I've written the other part of this post in English. Neither it's a parents day nor did I write it on that day. It's said to be on someday of July. (Unless you celebrate February 14 as Matri-Pitri Pujan Diwas initiated by Asaram ) The reason why I've mentioned this day is simply because this post has two poems, of course, written by me, for my parents and to show off as well . Earlier I used to find poems a little boring and 'poetess' didn't feel like music to ears but what to do if you end up being one, though occasionally. PART - I To Mummy Maa nhi kahaundi hai oh mummy, Dil ton hai oh saaf te changi. Gallan kardi hai anek, Par chhupui hai haje vi unhan vch neyaaniyaan wali khed. Gussa kade na kardi jo, Hasdi-Khirdi har pal oh. Bacheyaan naal rhi hai uljhi, Fikr vch unha de rhi hai dubbi, Kadar ...

This day part of the day, the way it has been, I have to write about it. I was comfortably seated, holding a novel that I’ve been reading for a while, occasionally closing it to absorb the thrill/suspense that it had been offering and at times I had my jaw dropped. Probably the earlier choices that I had made while selecting the novel weren’t this good, perhaps due to the genre that I chose this time. While I was reading it, from the corner of my eye I could see a little creature moving, distracted I shift my gaze to it.  I realised that it’s the same little mouse that has been living in our house for a week or so. And in this one week I saw it for the first time, the other times I just failed to spot it which led me to declare it a ghost (After all, I never saw it, even after others telling me it’s there - under the fridge, under the bed…. It would just vanish into the air) I moved immediately to open all the nearby doors to provide for an outlet. Then I fe...

There are two sides of the coin and so are of a story. Most general out of those incidents is the one where you know that the other person is lying and is trying its best to present the facts in the most convincing form. Once my friend lost some stuff. By natural, the other fellow was her prime suspect as they would usually hide each others’ stuff. She asked her numerous times and later on turned to me. I flatly refused of having done any such thing. I tried my best to suppress a smile grin and look more convincing. After few hours when it was the time to bid goodbye I handed it over to her saying look how good I am at lying to which she said, “Initially, I had no idea but afterwards I knew that you were behind all this.” Here I was thinking myself to be a real ‘conceal-er’ by acting all that smart and I get a reality check that she already knew the truth and was pretending to not know and seeing me acting/lying. Generally, this one is the most experienced two-sides-of-a-sto...

India is a country where diverse festivals are celebrated (Just go and see the calendar; it’ll be full of red and green dates.) Adding up to the number of celebrations are ‘Weddings’. They are celebrated in a manner no less than any festival is. Every Indian, on an average, gets enough wedding invitation cards; the ones with bold colours get to deck-up the show pieces of the house and the simpler ones are discarded off after a few weeks. (And this fact is not supported by any research or survey.) Overview of Indian weddings is that they are all more-or-less same (only if you see the people of only one region/zone getting married), excluding those people who have a large and diverse social circle (Given that North-South-East-West follow different rituals). Otherwise, all this stuff is usual and gradually our excitement gets limited to food only. As a kid, I used to get excited on getting such invitations.  After some years of witnessing the same rituals being followed at e...

Fear.  This word has an ability to get you goose bumps.  A lot of phobias are named after a number of fears (Just go and google phobia names and so long a list of phobias will be displayed that it’ll definitely make you feel that you are phobic - one or another.) No, I’m not going to give detail of my phobias (and I don’t even think if I have one). While phobia is a long term persistent fear, I am going to talk about the scared-for-a-moment incidents. Before starting, I must tell you that I love ‘booing' people (no matter how childish it may sound). If you read my blog consistently then you must have read a line or two about this habit of mine earlier as well.  I have managed to frighten each and everyone in my house by booing them. I admit that it was difficult to get a squeak (out of fear) from mom and dad, but I finally succeeded after making repeated attempts. I usually wake up late in the morning, consequently, I don’t fall asleep easily at nigh...

It was top 5 'pleasingly' unexpected movies last time. I have to make a list of movies which were unexpectedly poor. To warn others, to make them cautious. These completely tanked, at least in my opinion.  This list is not too long; probably because my mind doesn’t even want to remember their names. It so happens that when you have high expectations but they are not met to, you feel completely let down. Same is the case of these movies; they may not be the worst of the movies but I felt let down. 1. Aligarh It was the catchy voice of Manoj Bajpayee which moved me and later on trapped me in a mess for nearly 2 hours. I felt like I’m not watching a movie but a standstill picture placed in front of the camera and shot for minutes. It was so motionless a picture. Its length has been dragged so much to make it a 2-hour picture.  Had a short film made on the same subject with the same star cast, it would have done a great job but not in the format in which ...

One day, I was reading some interview of a film director who was saying that it is a task to cut out segments of a film to make it an eye catching and interesting trailer.It deeply affects the decision of people whether they would to go to the hall and pay for it or…. So, here is my list of 5 movies of which content and quality came as a surprise to me. I had zero hopes pinned down on them but you never know. (And they are not in chronological order but in the surprise level.) 1. Bahubali It deserves to be on top of this list. I distinctly remember whenever its trailer used to play on the T.V. how swiftly my fingers would move to the remote to change the channel to some bearable content. It was only after I got a copy of it from my cousin who strongly recommended it, besides the full-page-length articles devoted to the praise of the film that I decided to watch the movie.  (Actually, it was after when I was left with no other option but to watch it.) By the end o...

It's been few months that I considered the option of stop writing this blog as I'm going too busy (read depressed) these days. Somehow I decided otherwise. And here is the post which I talked about in the last to last post. (Life is weird! A few weeks back, I so wanted to write on this topic and now I had to convince myself to keep writing.) Basically, this post is about my experience of the student life and some of the tiny details which I might forget after years. So here is the account. I remember 7-8 years back, all I wanted was the end of my studying days. I would count the years left for my studies to get over on my fingers. It seemed like a long time. (No, I’m not going to say “and it flew like anything”. It’s clichéd as well as not so true).  While the years took a long time to get over, but I had never imagined that I would even think about my student days, leave alone missing (which I did miss but that was for a few minutes only.) Earlier it used to be,...