Just About Everything

It is Jamai Shashthi tomorrow; a festival that is celebrated in Bengal.This festival is essentially for the Jamai (son-in-law). On this day Jamais get invited to a feast at their in-laws place. No matter how bad the weather conditions; no matter how hot it is, nothing can stop the passion with which this festival is celebrated all over Bengal. Of course it is not the same as it used to be in the earlier days but it is still very popular. As a child I used to be very amused at the amount of attention my dad used to get whenever we visited my maternal grandparents. I think it was always Jamai Shashthi for him:) Jamai Shashthi would always happen during our summer vacations, and in our ancestral village there were elaborate ceremonies that would start with a shashthi puja. After the puja, we would all wear the yellow threads around our wrists and gorge on delicious food. Especially homemade sweets; how I loved them! It is my husband's turn to get pampered tomorrow. I wond...

Every summer especially April and May are really -really hot and sultry and every year we say gosh the summers are getting worse! In Kolkata especially, the high temperatures coupled with high humidity becomes a lethal combination. With no rain in sight, we are up against some very uncomfortable days! I was just thinking, if this heat is playing such a havoc in our lives, what is the plight of people who are not as fortunate as us? In many households there is no AC and no power back up option, SO if there is a power cut, they just have to go through the discomfort. Also, what about people who have to travel long distances in this heat to get to work ? Or be under the sun for long hours? Especially, our traffic police staff who have to be on their job, standing in the heat and helping the traffic flow, they just have to face the brutal heat no matter what, they can't say they don't want to work, and what about the people who work on construction sites? A...

Last weekend, I totally forgot that there would be a television series, Satyamev Jayate, on social concerns, anchored by Aamir Khan. I received a lot of messages from my friends who had watched the show and they were full of praise about the show. And I don’t know how it slipped my mind and I had completely missed the first episode. All through the week I kept hearing people talk about it, so I visited the site http://www.satyamevjayate.in./ and I finally got the chance to watch the whole episode. I loved Aamir Khan's introduction for the show, very-very well said and captured. Also, the beautifully composed song, O Ri Chiraiya, written and sung by Swanand Kirkire was very touching. (There is something about Aamir Khan though. He does lesser films but his films have a message and usually not the preachy kind. And almost all of his films are popular. Now that he has started these series, he is doing one hell of a job of this too!) It is high time we had this kind of a show...

I saw a very entertaining Bengali film " Bhooter Bhabishyat" yesterday. I had heard from others, that this is really a very entertaining film, and I was dying to see it. Finally saw it yesterday, and now I realize why everyone has been talking about it! The concept of the film is unique and original. It is a refreshing change. It is based on the below-mentioned concept. With the growing population the demand for flats have multiplied. Therefore most of the beautiful old houses are being taken over by promoters, who want to build apartments, malls etc. What about the ghosts who have lived on in these houses for generations? Does someone care about their future? If these houses get converted in flats, where will they go? No one wants to know what will happen to them just because they do not have voting rights? Hmm... The story line revolves around this concept. There are quite a few ghosts from different time periods who inhibit one of these beautiful houses in Kol...