My Inbox

There was a time when an inbox meant your email inbox - now it's all about the inbox in my cell phone. This is what it looks like right now -

From Rangita - "Idiot". This is a regular message that she sends me - all the time and any time - it's plain and simple and is usually in response to something I've said to her. Right now I notice it's been sent after midnight. Oh sometimes she variates this with "Behave!"

From Kabir - "You were to return my call a week back. Fine fcuk off". This is not a constant message in my life - but once in a while Kabir wakes up to tell me a joke or something. And this message is in response to a missed call that I didn't return.

From Suparn - "Ok". I get a lot of ok messages. When I don't get an OK acknowledgement message to a message I've sent informing someone of something - then I get worried that they may not have received it - or are not ok with it so I send another message asking them if they've received it. (Just a bit of my OCDishness) But I don't do this all the time. In fact I don't like it when 'certain' people send back Oks. Some 'other' people sending Oks is fine!

From Ugly Toad aka Rohit - "Ur losing it entirely!" This is a constant reminder from Rohit - every once in a while - he tells me I've lost it or am losing it. I usually agree with him on this count - but on all other counts we're at loggerheads.

From Suki - "Ta ta bye bye see you soon darling :)". Suki's goodbye text. She's moved to Kalyan till her wedding early next month. I'm gonna miss her.

From Subrato - "Dear sir/madam, I want to meet u, any appointment regurding Baghasree, Payal Rotoghi, Madhu(Roja fame)Chetan Hansraj(Sasa-Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki fame)and Aditi Baghat(New comer and establish classial dancer). Now I handel thease work. Pls call or sms. Thanks-Subrato(ex-secy to Esha Deol)". No those are not typos - that's the message and those are the spellings! And he's spelt most of if not all his clients' names completely wrong!

From Ajay Sharma - "Toto's father passed away today at 8pm.....". Toto's a school friend. I'll call him in a day. I knew his father. Big man with a booming voice. Poor Toto. I can't call right now because I don't know exactly what to say to him.

From Ishita - "Tiff". Nope this is not a fight we're talking about - it's a file she's referring to with a .tif extension. She doesn't believe in long elaborate texts.

From Amin - "Hey Ruch, thats fab news! Sorry bout d late reply-I was with Ashutosh. Also I've checked my chq entries-u r right,I'm sorry! I hadnt deducted TDS amts. Ur a star!" Amin's text is in reply to my text informing him about change in shoot dates and he's had to apologise for his goofup regarding his cheques. I decide to make the most of my upper hand here and send him a text telling him "He's terrible." Followed by "But you're forgiven..." in 3 mins of the first text. He replies with "Arrey I'm sayin na I'm sorry baba! Hey I had only just written this much when u sent me d rejoinder-it made me smile! I like ur style-its cool! Bless u-take care!" Hah! I got him there - made him squirm a bit!

I don't write in sms-lingo. I prefer writing in English and I resort to short forms if and only if I run out of space. That's an OCDish thing I have - spellings gotta be right!

Decadence & Independence

Saturday -

0800 hours - Wake up to the immense possibilities of a beautiful long weekend

0815 hours - Jolted out of reverie of immense possibilities of a beautiful long weekend with the realisation that there is tons of work to do - budgeting, casting, crewing of 2 films running on the same track - 2 star meetings lined up - private screening of a film on Independence Day. Looks like the weekend will definitely start late and end way too early.

1300 hours - Discover that meetings are getting lopped off left, right and centre! Looks like it's not just me who wants freedom from work!

1600 hours - Outta the office!

1900 hours - Limo service arrives in the form of a silver esteem - with Mona and her parents' chauffeur - Tapas. And we're off to Kalyan.

Kalyan's like an extension of Bombay. I've lived in Bombay for the last 13 years (minus 4 years in between) but I've never been there. So I'm quite excited!

1930 hours - Work doesn't leave me - refuses to leave me. While driving down to Kalyan Tapas the chauffeur tells me he has a story for a film! He asks me if I'd prefer it in English or Hindi? Actually I wouldn't prefer it in any language - I have way too much work - but curiosity gets the better of me. I really wanna know what kind of a story a chauffeur from Kalyan would come up with. So I get suckered into asking him to send me the story.

2100 hours - As we're entering Kalyan Mona points out 2 dance bars - Devdas and Paro - on either side of the road. Interesting - Devdas and Paro still separated - even as bars!

Sunday -

0000 hours - Mrs and Mr Singh Ahluwalia's nook is in the most peaceful part of Kalyan. Trees everywhere. Have just stuffed myself with wonderful ghar ka khaana followed by my favourite hot gulab jamuns. While chatting to Suki and listening to the quiet of the night - I fall asleep.

0800 hours - Sleeping

0900 hours - Still sleeping

1000 hours - Ummmm - sleeping

1030 to 1130 hours - Ok - I just slept through the morning! But it's the long weekend - and it's the Freedom weekend - so I'm allowed to exercise my free will!

1130 to 0000 hours - ate - slept - walked around Kalyan - ate - watched a film (Identity - with my fave actor John Cusack - but the movie was crappy!) - ate - lounged around - listened to stories - ate - read.

Pros of Kalyan -

- It's quiet!
- You can actually listen to a huge variety of birds - warblers (they were warbling so they must be warblers), tweety birds, koyals - all kinds of birds that sound so much better than the Bombay crow!
- Beautiful green trees everywhere - it's a pleasure to stand in the balcony of Suki's house right next to big mango trees
- There's no network in Suki's parents' place except in one corner of the house - this is great - I won't get harrassed by useless calls
- Walking around on the quiet roads near Ulhas River close to the Club is a treat
- There's a waterfall (ok it's only about 2 feet tall but what the heck - it goes into pros)

Cons of Kalyan -

- It's totally cut off from other parts of the world. I figure out there's no way to go to Pune - unless I go back to Dadar in Bombay and take a bus from there or if I get up at 5am and take a train - needless to add - it's too much work!
- There's no network in Suki's parents' place except in one corner of the house - this is painful - my friends can't get thru' to me!

Monday - August 15, 2005

It's Independence Day! I've slept through most of the day. Suki and Mona's parents have been to 2 flag hoistings by the time I wake up! But inspite of waking up late I still manage to squeeze in breakfast, a head massage, lunch, gift-wrapping for Suki's wedding - I know what I'm getting and I know what everyone else is getting too!! I also manage to squeeze a trip back to Bombay and a special screening of My Wife's Murder (starring Anil Kapoor of Tezaab, Saheb, Mashaal fame). Movie's ok - well just about.

Not a bad long weekend - managed to get a lot done - especially sleeping and eating! What more can one ask for!

Soup

I'm in a bit of a soup! The long weekend is here. Independence Day - August 15. I'm in a soup because I've made tons of plans - have promised to meet lots of friends and there's work that's hanging like a damocles sword over my pretty neck! There's my promised trip to Kalyan - visiting Mona and Suki's parental home. Have never been to Kalyan - or Shahad district to be precise - so it's something new. Then there's Varsha who's just moved to Bombay from Bangalore - she's invited me over for lunch tomorrow - even taken down a list of things I like to eat - and in my warped wisdom I've told her sure I'll be there when I know that I've promised Mon and Suk I'll be in Kalyan! Then there's an open invitation from Rohit to the races in Pune (I've never been to the races so that's an exciting prospect - to see what exactly happens there apart from the racing.) The only catch to the races is that one has to dress formally - now that is extremely difficult for me. One of the reasons I like working in films (behind the scenes) is because I can dress as informally and grungily as I like! Dressing up kills me - that's one of the reasons I don't like attending weddings. So that's 3 places I'm supposed to be all at the same time and in 3 very distant and different parts of Maharashtra. I have no clue how to handle this heavy social agenda of mine - I'm not like Marj who'll for sure be able to meet everyone and do everything in the next 2 days and it'll be a breeze for her. While I'll probably end up not doing anything!

And then there's work. It's gonna get soooo hectic because we've decided to start filming soon - like next-week-type!

So exactly what am I gonna end up doing over the next couple of days??

The Smell

There's a horrible smell that's looming all over Bombay. It's not the usual Bombay smell we're used to - like at the Mahim Creek - a location that you can smell out and don't need to see to know that you're on the road or in the train between Mahim and Bandra! But this is an all-pervading smell and it was manufactured in the aftermath of the Bombay Floods. It's permeated everything and it's everywhere. It's the great new equaliser - no-one can get away from it!

Item Number

So there's most of Bombay submerged in some 10 feet of water - the Indian Navy's actually using their safety rafts to rescue people - Bombay's Police Commissioner also used a raft to "survey the situation" (in layman's terms it means nothing - nothing comes of it - nothing happens with it - it's a photo-op basically). But who am I to complain about the authorities - I've had it pretty good over the last week in Bombay. I've been hanging at Mona and Suki's haven - there's good food to eat; movies to watch (Wicker Park - promised to be a sex thriller by the library-owner but as it turns out there's no sex and no thrill in the film but i recognise that it's been shot in Canada almost as soon as it comes on - ah the thrills of recognising locations; Y Tu Maman Tambien - brilliant coming-of-age film; Grosse Pointe Blank - eternal favourite; The Company - director Robert Altman - lovely film and Neve Campbell looks like she's actually learnt to dance - impressive; Billy Bathgate - can't comment 'cos I watched only 20 mins of it; Taxi - Queen Latifa and Jimmy Fallon - Jimmy I like from his Saturday Night Live days - but the movie - couldn't watch it for more than 15 mins - seems it's based on a French film called the taxi that's way better than the hollywood copy). Anyways - so I'm chilling out with friends in Bandra when talk turns to Suki's impending wedding. I have to say I'm not a wedding person - I avoid them like the plague - attending weddings makes me very uncomfortable. But this is good friend Suki's wedding - seems I'll have to put aside all my fears and gear up for 3 rocking days (rocking because it's a Punjabi wedding and Punjabi weddings rock! Altho' her fiancee is from the South of India and it's really a Punju-Southie wedding but I have a feeling the Punjabis are gonna take over!). Punju weddings usually have something called the Sangeet (Monsoon Wedding viewers will know what I'm talking about and all Karan Johar-movie watchers will know what I'm talking about). So Suki's sister - Mona - has decided to perform an ITem number for the Sangeet. She's selected Kajra Re (the latest craze). But it's very easy to decide which song to perform to - it's another story when you have to figure out which steps to do in the song. This is where I come in - in true Hollywood style (not Bollywood style which would've been a jumpcut - Hollywood style is quick cuts with smart dialogues - hey I'm not putting down Bollywood - this is my blog so I can write the way I want!). So in a cool efficient display of my vast contacts in Bollywood - I call Arvind - he's a choreographer and a brilliant dancer. (Dance Master Arvind - interesting story - he's the son of a cop who ran away from home so he could join Bollywood). And lo and and behold Arvind says he's free to teach us how to dance! (much to my surprise too!) Actually he's twiddling his thumbs at home because the rains have cancelled most shows and shoots.

It's not as easy as I thought it would be. Mona's going to be performing - I'm the cheerleader - but I learn the steps along with her to make sure she gets it right and we can rehearse on our own (and I always dreamed of being a dancer - one of my fantasy''s coming true!). In 5 minutes we're sweating. The simplest of steps look complicated and remembering them is unbelievably hard!

But it's good fun! We learn the beginning of the song and by the next day we've mastered it beautifully (at least that's what our friends say!) Mona's is a gliding rhythmic style of dancing with perfect movements (she's learnt Odissi) but she can't remember the steps while I have a more Western style of jumping around (I was a Bharatnatyam student) but I can remember the steps! So in the two days that we've been stranded indoors we've managed to master the mukhda and antara of a Hindi song! Not something to be very proud of I guess knowing what Bombay was going thru but what can I say - had to make the most of being stranded!