Salam - vidamban

Salam, bhaiyo aur beheno sabko salam

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Salam, bhaiyo aur beheno sabko salam

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paN haat fakta donach
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mhaNun Davyaa haatane salam

Salam, bhaiyo aur beheno sabko Salam!

Rent-a-John

My car should be carry the label "Sulabh Shouchalay" for crows and sparrows. This reminds me of the mobile toilets in USA, generally with a painted line "rent-a-john" and a phone number - 2805 3434 / 2805 2929. Do not call at this number. It's the contact number for Kayakalp clinic - more details on the posters in Mumbai local trains.

In one of the Hindi cinemas we have a song -
John, Janny, Janardan,
Tara rum pum pum pum....

Now a million dollar question -
What does "John" stand for in this line?

You must have thought that by answering this you would get one million dollars. No, wait. It doesn't mean that. It means you have to pay one million dollars to buy this question and only then you will be allowed to answer it.

I like to write such stupid and non-sense things. It gives me peace. Non-sense people who like to read such posts would have peace as well. Well, this way one day a compilation of my blogs would make a story for some super-duper hit masala movie - not to mention that it would be a hindi movie.

A Big B(bull?) farm in Maharashtra, a couple of Rent-a-Johns at different corners of the farm and a character named Amar Singh impatiently knocking at the John's door with a small bucket in his hand that's leaking a few drops every minute. aah, what a scene to start the movie!

घरचा गणपती

Aspirations

To aspire is to seek, to aim, to hope, to desire, to want, to wish. It’s not many times that we pursue things we aspire for. The natural tendency to give up when faced with hardships makes us lose sight of our aspirations. Then one good day we learn of a person who having followed his aspirations have reached heights, is successful – is satisfied doing things that he had opt for. It is the uncomfortable feeling that occupies us when we learn more – this person’s aspirations are or were the same as they were for us some years ago. We are left with nothing but to express grief over our past - how our efforts deviated from the then much sought after aspirations. The same moment there develops a strong desire to get into it again, but the very second moment we give up with the feeling that we no longer are keen sailing in the same ship with the similar interest as it used to be earlier. Our mind is occupied with some contemporary desire that is top on our temporary aspirations list. This temporary thing irritates me and makes me think - is it "to give up" that we aspire for?

New York Times

The day starts with the same speed as it used to be in Mumbai - getting up from the bed, mouth-wash, body-wash and I am all set to start the day – with more or less the same enthusiasm as the yesterdays - winding up things and running hard to catch the last bus in the morning from my place, Secaucus, to the New York City - the bus at 9.08 am. The bus takes her route through the Meadowlands Parkway, picking the Harmon cove residents, then through the Panasonic, it has a big office on the way, and then through the NJ Turnpike route towards the New York City (NYC). These Turnpikes are similar to the motorways - the M4 and M5 in London. Back home we have similar ones and one of those is the Mumbai - Pune expressway. As we approach the Hudson River, separating the two states New Jersey and New York, a spectacular view of the Manhattan high rises makes me stare at it. The different shades of light on those extravagantly high-rises always pumps excitement in me and it feels great to get the sight of such a pleasing landscape to start the day. I keep on thinking about the Chrysler, the Empire State buildings and the bus enters a tunnel - the Lincoln tunnel. Build under the river Hudson; it takes us all the way from NJ to the NYC. Exactly when you travel half-way through it you see vertical markings on the side walls - this is the border separating the two states. It takes forty minutes from my place for the bus to arrive at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a four storey bus terminal located at 42nd street, Times Square - right in the heart of the NYC. There are more than 400 bus terminals and it is the busiest bus terminal I have ever seen – the multi-ethnic human traffic here reminds me of the Waterloo rail station, London.





The subway from the terminal leads to the underground metro rail service also called as ‘subway’. Again it’s a long walk, getting down three floors and walking all the way through the crowded subway, not to forget the market that has evolved in the building. From the Flourist to Halmark and Radioshack(electronics store), the building encompasses a variety of shops. Alongside the subway are the musicians coming from different corners of the world, with an amicable smile, singing and playing instruments, sometimes tooled with speakers, trying to make the morning melodious and peaceful. At times the music is so soothing, believe me, that I tend to pause for a moment and listen to that melody. If you note their expressions you will see the content in their smile when they perform - they enjoy every bit of that moment – and so do I. It makes me think, “how frequent do we have the pleasure of having such a contented smile on our face?”. And how can I make a mistake by missing to take a note of our dear fellows, as are on our Mumbai local railway trains and platforms, trying to persuade the perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim that makes all the difference.

The whole drama is alike the one in other metros, the cosmopolitan metros, but with a difference of volume!

The italic line is an extract from the P G Wodehouse’s Life at Blandings.

बटाट्याची चाळ आणि आ.अत्र्यांचे कौतुक पत्र

बटाट्याची चाळ - एक बहुरूपी खेळ
लेखन, दिग्दर्शन, संगीत, अभिनय - पु.लं.देशपंडे

मुंबईत बटाट्याच्या चाळीचे प्रयोग जोरात चालू होते. लोक तीन-तीन तास रांगेत उभे राहून पुढल्या अठवड्यात होणाऱ्या प्रयोगाची आगाऊ टिकीटे घेत असत. मुंबईत प्रयोग सुरु करण्या आगोदर पु.लं. नी लंडन मधील महाराष्ट्र मंडळाच्या मदतीसाठी "बटाट्याची चाळ" या पुस्तकातील काही प्रसंगांचे वाचन करायचे प्रयोग सुद्धा केले. "बटाट्याची चाळ" या एक पात्री प्रयोगाला यशवंतराव चव्हाण, पं. रविशंकर, दुर्गा खोटे अशा अनेक दिग्गज लोकांनी हजेरी लावली. अशाच एका प्रयोगाच्या वेळीस आचार्य अत्रे श्रोतांच्य पहिल्या रांगेत बसलेले. अत्र्यांना पाहताच पु.लं. थक्क झाले आणि भीतीपायी त्यांना चक्क पोटात गोळा आला. मध्यंतरात अत्रे पु.लं.ना भेटायला आले आणि पाठीवर थाप मारली. त्याच दिवशी रात्री दोन वाजता पु.लं.ना फोन आला - "कोण बोलतंय?"
"मी पु.लं.देशपांडे बोलतोय."
"अत्रे बोलतोय. काय करताय? "
"आता रात्री दोन वाजता आमच्या सारखी सज्जन मंडळी काय करणार? आपल्या घरी झोपलो होतो. "
"उद्याचा 'मराठा' वाचा. अत्ताच बटाट्याच्या चाळीवर लेख संपवला."
"(मनात) बाप रे!"

दुसऱ्या दिवशी म्हणजे ४ जुन १९६१ च्या "मराठा" या बातमी पत्रात "बटाट्याची चाळ" ह्यावर अग्रलेख छापून अला होता.

क्या बात है!
कौतुक करायची ही "अत्रे" पद्धत.

काटा रुते कुणाला ...

"हे बंध रेशमाचे" ह्या नाटकाच्या संगीत दिग्दर्शनाच्या वेळी रणजीत देसाई, शांताबाई शेळके आणि पं.जितेंद्र अभिषेकी ह्यांची चर्चा चालू होती. त्या वेळी एका गाण्याच्या भावोत्कटतेविषयी पंडीतजींनी विचार मांडला एका शेराच्या स्वरूपात.



लोग कांटों की बातें करते है,
लोग कांटों की बातें करते है,
हमने तो फूलोंसे जख्म खाये है।

शांताबाईंच्या मर्मातल्या मनाला ती भावना क्षणार्धात उकलली आणि त्यांनी गाणं रचलं -

काटा रुते कुणाला
आक्रंदतात कोणी
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हा दैवयोग आहे...



सौजन्य: नक्षत्रांचे देणे, पं. जितेंद्र अभिषेकी यांच्यावर आधारीत कार्यक्रम