Kemang, Jakarta - one of the best neighbourhoods to live in

 

My last international posting was at Jakarta and I would count as one of my best memorable ones.

The office where I worked was in Southern part of Jakarta – a relatively posher part of Jakarta IMHO.  Though like I have said repeatedly, Jakarta and Indonesia always felt like they were at least 2-3 decades of India in terms of infrastructure and if Indonesians were to ever visit India they’d struggle to live here.

Anyways I was lucky this was so, because it helped me get a place in one of the best neighbourhoods of Jakarta – KEMANG.

Shawshank Redemption - What we need... the most!

 How late to a party can one get?

In my case 25 years plus.  I am watching one of the best most acclaimed movies 26 years after it was released and nominated for the best picture Oscar. 

But I am not the only one – the movie didn’t become a hit and collected less than half its budget at the box office.  Instead it became a success when people saw it through the VHS rentals.

MAD Magazines (and Moghul Library, Hyderabad)

Comics were an important part of my childhood like my first blogpost which was dedicated to ACK comics showed.

MAD called itself a ‘magazine’ and was fairly popular both in the US and India and this success in itself was a surprise.

ANNOUNCING MY BOOK - Our Quizzing Journey

Have great pleasure in announcing the launch of my book co-authored with my brothers "Our Quizzing Journey"

Available on Amazon and you can buy it here.

Also available in paperback which you can buy here.  

The wonderful wonderful world of biscuits

Possibly the most under-rated confectionary in the world is the humble biscuit.    For my generation, I think it was supremely unfair that we were deprived of a great variety of biscuits that are now available in India, but even with the limited variety they offered such great joy & happiness – they make it to one of my favourites.

The second helping…

One of my social acquaintances - a voracious consumer of books, movies, TV serials, newspapers etc  mentioned he’d seen only one TV series again as in twice.  No, He wasnt showing off - but it was purely a mindset that a lot of folks have including my better half - my wife.

“Why are you watching this again, havent we seen this before?” if I am watching a movie on TV - one that we have seen before. I sigh and move on.

The Vagina Monologues

No two shows of the Vagina Monologues are the same, and its definitely worth watching several times preferably in different cities.

I saw only the Indian version in English of the Vagina Monologues.  This was created by Mahabano Modi Kotwal a prominent theater artist and producer in Mumbai, who saw the original show in the US and got in touch with them to produce an Indian version.

National Geographic Magazines

My relationship with NatGeo is a little kinda ironic. On the rare occasion when there was a great deal on their subscription I took the plunge and subscribed to it for 2 years, and didn't read a single copy of the magazines.  But when I stopped and would get my hands on any issue of the magazine, it would be unputdownable, usually in flights, and I could read it cover to cover.

And that was the irony.

Munich, Fauda and The Bridge of Spies (& Badlapur)

There’s a common thread to these (& Badlapur too).

The movies Munich & The bridge of Spies come from Steven Spielberg, while the TV series Fauda comes from Israel.

Satyajit Ray Presents 1 & 2

Doordarshan is India’s legacy national TV channel, owned and managed by the Government.  This was the only TV station available for my generation in our childhood and we therefore had mostly limited choice and terrible stuff to watch.

Yet, sometimes they’d get it right.

One such was when the almighty Satyajit Ray, possibly India’s greatest film director, collaborated with his Son Sandip Ray, to produce a TV series aptly named… “Satyajit Ray Presents” (SPR)  They produced another sequel a few years later named SPR2.

Jana Aranya (The Middleman / Agent) by Satyajit Ray

How time makes a difference - the same movie which I disliked as a teenager was something I absolutely relished when I saw it decades later.  

When I first saw Jana Aranya (JA) - I was in college and my mind was fully occupied about future employment prospects, what I need to be doing, what options lay ahead of me, etc. etc. And when I saw the movie I was doubly depressed and I don't think I saw it fully.

Derek O'Brien - my favorite quizmaster

I wish I’d written this post before Derek became a politician, anyways it still holds true - as a quizmaster, he is a big part of the faves in my life.

Most people I know do not like Derek O’Brien as a quizmaster.  But I absolutely loved his quizzes, and he was one quizmaster whose questions were closest to what I’d have set myself.

“Freedom At Midnight” and “The Men Who Killed Gandhi”

I am lumping these two books together as they are on the same subject and I thought offered a different perspective from what I knew about or was taught about history.  Both were great reads - only I read them nearly two decades apart.

India & Indians are quite open about hypocrisy in our lives, inevitable since the system is geared up towards that.  A honest discussion is almost rare and shied upon - we are more queasy than the Brits on a lot of subject.

Wake Up Sid - the cult movie

Wake Up Sid to me was a nice wake up call of the kind of great movies being made in India that were more edgy and closer to urban reality, but done in an engaging commercial format without being arthouse.

In the case of Wake Up Sid (WUS), I can safely say that I am not the only one but nearly everyone I know saw the movie much much later after it was released, and all of them had the same reaction. They absolutely loved it - pretty much like everyone & I did. Pity it wasn't a superhit when it was released, as it rightfully should have been.

My love for cooking - Assembly Jobs

I have been unsuccessful at cooking as a kid, and young adult and only after getting married did I manage to launch into making food that usually resulted in some edible success.

But for me the joy is in the journey, the process where I visualize how I am gonna go about the dish (as much as a vegetarian can make) and then start doing it. The result is usually very far from what I had initially planned to do but all the sweat, elbow grease and passion result in making it far far more tastier than it actually is.

I like mostly making North Indian curries - the Chhole, Rajma, Dal makhni etc. but what I absolutely love making are the dishes that involve “assembly jobs”.

BAD EDUCATION by Pedro Almodovar

Bad Education by Pedro Almodovar is such a fine masterpiece, it needs a few fully dedicated sessions to fully absorb and appreciate the various textures, layers and sheer efforts that have gone into it.

But first the important disclaimer.  This movie is suitable for mature audiences and strictly not for those uncomfortable with LGTBQ or queasy discussing issues related to the Catholic church etc.

Sai Paranjpye and her “Jaadu ka Shankh”

If you belong to my generation or the prevous, there’s a good chance that you have seen and enjoyed the works of Sai Paranjpye but an equally good chance that you barely knew who she was. Since DoorDarshan was the only channel available those days, and Sai Paranjpye somehow had cracked how to deal with bureaucrats from both the films division departments as well as the Doordarshan, she did a lot of work with them which we got to see on television and boy was it good!.

ETV Marathi, ZEE Marathi and Home Minister

The language Marathi is part of my culture and something I am immensely fond of, even though I cant speak it. My mom’s from Aurangabad, and this was the lingua franca at her home, even though Konkani was our mother tongue (Konkani, which is very very very similar to Marathi)

But the influence of Marathi was everywhere. Most of the best Bhajans (IMO) are in Marathi.  I have spent a lot of time in Maharashtra, and the neighbouring Goa has similar cultures to my community of the GSBs

Michael crichton’s books and Disclosure the movie

For my generation Michael Crichton was a genius who made science and its latest developments accessible.  (Sorry couldn’t get Asimov – plus his books were not easily available).

Crichton’s genius was making Science easily understood as well as marketing this suitably.

The Golden Girls – an absolute delight

I had first seen an  episode of the Golden Girls at my colleague’s home when we were doing some project work outside office and she invited us home. The TV series used to come on daytime, and I got to see it, and loved the episode and remember all of us laughing out loud, though almost all of us were seeing this for the first time.  I promptly forgot about this as I didn’t have access to TV those days