Glasses clinking to bid adieu, the fizz symbolizing a welcome to 2010
At the end of every year we tend to ponder over the happenings from the month of Jan that goes on to complete the twelfth.
A few such moments of which I had a vague picture, I decided to put them on paper. I don’t know where the pluses and minuses fall. Here they are…
1) Post 26/11 Mumbai: Ten people came, they killed, they got killed, and finally attained posthumous fame. Media channels hogged on more than 1000 hours covering the facts and fiction on the terror trail. A year had passed and if we try scrutinizing the current security measures taken in public places, there isn’t much in addition.
The first Anniversary of the tragedy was made grand, thanks to the 24/7 news channels. A big chunk of taxes collected from people wasted on preserving the bodies of the nine gunmen, and the lone Kasab caught alive. As the year is to end, there’s a new cartoon character called David Coleman Headley (Mr.Conspirator) who’s got his name reserved for daily headlines. I would have considered the FBI to be fake as well, had I not heard of them before or watched the X Files a decade ago.
2) Of scrapping, facebooking and tweeting: Chat facilities enabled by Yahoo and MSN, years ago, gave birth to the many “net nannies” and “cyber gypsies”. Chatrooms were instantly occupied, pseudo names created.. and went along the endless pings till late night. Then in the year 2004, came a rage of social networking sites with Orkut taking lead in India. Users could blatantly add whatever photos and reveal all background information they want to the rest of the cyber world, they’d post scraps on other anonymous profiles. Following this were the competitors Facebook, My Space. Orkut did lose some loyal fellows to these. Finally came to picture this year Twitter where one could go on tweet-tweet, twitter-twitter. Some celebrities got their blogs monetized, while others who were famous became infamous with their “controversial tweets” (take Dr.Shashi Tharoor as the finest example). All of this would be short lived. How long will the social animal be stuck to confined spaces interacting with online aliens?
3) Himesh Reshammiya – A Saga: A leading newspaper while recollecting a few nightmares spoke about him, “ .. his ill-matched baseball caps were worse than his nasal twang..” so true isn’t it?
(un)fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to speak with him on phone some time back. Then I was undergoing my training program in a hotel in its In-room dining services. Himesh had a concert on the 31st (what a start to New year!) there. He rang to place his order, “Won Blank Cafe” – he meant one black coffee. He rang up twice later, I knew the third time what his order would be – Blank Cafe. One who’s single handedly assaulted the whole concept of multi-tasking in hindi cinema, which was once graced by veterans. Year 2009 was not spared again. We can only pray, “Man ka radio band kar u zaraa!”
4) Men armed with “the first real six string”: 2009 saw some new faces in the Rock circuit in Mumbai. Aura – a resto bar which is a few blocks away from our office has been giving opportunities to upcoming bands. Also post these fortnightly concerts, I’ve got to see many guys hanging a guitar on their shoulders and walking around. I place it – half of them had it because of some momentary attraction.
If you were to visit any music store here, there’s one thing that’d behold your attention. Many young eyes are inclined to guitars, a little lesser towards drums, further less to other instruments. Many have resorted to the strings thinking that its easy to strum and succeed. A Steve Vai pose can be choreographed in 2 minutes but it takes more than that to master the instrument. What say guitarists?
5) Breaking the V-day conventions: Fearing that the moral police would create unnecessary trouble in coffee shops and other regular hangouts, many decided to choose a different way in making 14th Feb special. Coincidentally the Kala Ghoda festival was in full storm in Mumbai hosting various events, concerts, exhibitions at the same time. There were many couples who turned up for the concerts this day - by the multi-instrumentalist Raghav Sachar which was followed by the master trio – Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Five hours of pure fun!! Celebrations for many of these thus resulted in havoc free, mesmerizing moments filled with absolute romance.
6) Rise of Entrepreneurship: Recession was the one word few liked, many others hated. Some used it as a perfect rescue word to save costs, while others feared it since this could be used as a weapon to cut their jobs. Two of my friends recently quit their jobs: one from a leading Spanish chain selling sculptures, other from a leading Telecom company. They have decided to start with individual ventures. The gene of entrepreneurship is getting active in tough times! May this tribe increase…
7) Too much of Reality: Realty industry was hit to some extent as a result of recession. But the reality show industry has seen itself moving just the way north in the graph.
Last year saw reality shows eating up most of the television channels’ time. The chosen few would perform, judges would sit and give occasional comments like programmed dummies, and all this would follow with the contestant asking for audience’s votes (more than half of them perhaps who didn’t even know what the task was all about!). There’s bombarding of Smses in the air. I fear if all this would result in a time when one’s worth in the family would be known by the number of Smses he or she gets from the rest!
8) “Aal izz well”: While the older Khans were crooning along with the younger Kapoors in bollywood an antithesis could be sensed in the immediate surroundings. It seems, from a rough poll I conducted last year, that there has been a plausible rise in the number of men magnetized towards females who’re a little older than them. Reason why, hmm! I don’t know. I wish I were Sigmund Freud. To be honest I would vote for Jhumpa Lahiri to find the Celebrity With The Most Sparkling Eyes, and Shobha De for Celebrity With The Most Infectious Smile than voting for some clone of an anorexic supermodel. All is well. Na! “Aal izz well!”
Some nightmares from last year would follow this year too. Here’s wishing you a year filled with blessings and strength to make your dreams come true…
