Good bye 2023

The year 2023 was a weird year for me which was like none before. Still, overall, I was okay with it and I won't call it bad or anything like that since it could have gone much worse. 

At the beginning of the year, I witnessed a extreme roller-coaster 3 days. The best 2 days of many years were when I bonded with my kids. And then on the third day, a mini-disaster struck. Since childhood, as I was always a "good boy", I never got into physical altercations with anyone, not even during sports and games. Even college life in engineering college went 'eventless' though many friends plunged into so many kind of adventures. I never imagined I would witness a mini physical fight at this age and in such a situation. 

For some years I have been telling youngsters that the most important decision in their life under their control was to choose their marriage partner. One wrong decision and a magic can transform your paradise into hell or throw you down a dark endless rabbit hole. Anyways, coming back to the event, I came out of it unregretful because I did not compromise on principles. But my leg was injured and due to my safe, "good boy" life, I had never been in such a situation. There was no broken part but there was pain which was to take time to heal. After this experience, I am more empathetic towards others who have undergone accidents or injuries or are in medical care. I see young boys rashly driving on the road, or news of youngsters fighting over petty issues, and I remember my injured leg and feel sorry for them. Something like the verse, "God, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Subsequently I got fully recovered, and the episode remained just a memory. 

More than the physical injury, it was the emotional one which hurt. I realized that there is no limit to which some evil people can stoop, and they won't even stop harming the minds of small children. The term "evil" suits some people and we can't deny it no matter how we try. This is why I have always kept a distance from such people, but due to certain life situations, we can't avoid them always. 

After a while, another interesting situation came. I had lodged a case against a builder in 'RERA' and I was fighting my own case without a lawyer. This year, I won the case. The victory was not a surprise since truth was on my side. But I felt very happy that I was able to fight the case without any lawyer's help and I was able to win it. The monthly hearings and travel to attend it in state capital were hardships, but I enjoyed it. And when the builder came to know that he lost the case, he turned more aggressive and abusive and declined to obey the court order. Hence, the court victory was short-lived and I have to file another complaint to get the order implemented. Here, I learnt an important lesson: others may not work the way we work. 

Since we are good, law abiding or rational, we expect others to behave in a certain manner after putting ourselves in their place. But the other person may not be a same kind of person and hence may not behave as we expected! It seems evil people's minds work in different way, and it is difficult for others to understand it. 

Our finance minister said that children should be educated about basics of "financial management" right in schools for better success in their life. How about teaching basics of "how to deal with corrupt, evil and dishonest people" in schools, for the better success in our lives? Our parents teach us about only the good side of the society. Our schools and colleges give us an "idealistic" view of this world. Our workplaces tell us to follow policy and live by the rules. But when we encounter evil or bad people, all our previous education and training do not come handy and many of us we are not able to deal with them effectively. In such situations, more than financial literacy or technical skills, life skills for survival and ways of dealing with bad people would help us more. 

In the later part of the year there was a medical condition in family which consumed much time and efforts. It was a learning experience. I was in touch with the medical field due to family reasons, but in a different manner. And this year, I had to visit hospitals and get very practical understanding of medical field due to illness of a family member. I also interacted with so many doctors and medical field members and I liked the experience. Since medical field is a specialized field, outsiders are not equipped to their way of thinking and it is always a learning experience to interact with them.  

The year also brought news related to a long-standing issue, which I have to manage in the next year. 

I am fully prepared to deal with all the good and not good things in store next year. I am always watchful of how I am changing with age, and I try to understand how our understanding of this world updates with time. I feel like this world is balanced on a very thin rope. And often what we consider not important is important and the vice versa. To summarize all my life lessons so far, if I have to speak of one thing which I consider most precious, magical, and which brings meaning to everything, I will call it 'innocence'. It may sound like anticlimax and anti-wisdom, but I will bet on it any day. 

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2024!

- 

Travelogue: Indira Gandhi Park, Bhubaneswar

 

(C) Rahul 

Travelogue: Some Places in Bhubaneswar

 

(C) Rahul 

Travelogue: Rose Garden, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Pune

 

- Rahul 

A Weird Case of Godrej Appliances Customer Care

I have been a great fan of Godrej. First of all, I take pride in big Bharatiya (Indian) conglomerates since I want to see many Bharatiya companies of global scale operating in businesses. Why should everything in our house be American, Korean, Japanese or Chinese? And as Bharatiyas, it is our first moral responsibility to buy items made in Bharat (India). Second reason was that one of my best friends and classmate from B-school got his job in Godrej. He won't know it, but after that my affection for Godrej went stronger than earlier. 

In one of my earliest childhood memories, I have this photograph of my mother standing in front of White Godrej Refrigerator. In those days, every refrigerator used to be Godrej. Thereafter came Korean brands which started dominating the market with cheaper and more colorful models. I still bought my first refrigerator as Godrej. When it came time to upgrade it, I bought another Godrej refrigerator I liked. I bought it from Tata Cliq. 

After the refrigerator was installed by a technician free of cost, he told me that the door-key of the refrigerator was missing. Still, he promised to find one key from the service center and give it to me next day. I followed up in a few days and he said he could not find any spare key. 

Now, had he not told me about the missing key, I won't have paid attention to it, since I have never locked the door of my refrigerator. But he had told about its utility - when small kids are in the house, they often open the door to find items from inside and in those times, a key is useful. I imagined my kids doing this for fun and I thought a key would be useful in future. Hence, I called up the Godrej customer care number and registered my complaint. Little did I know what was in store for me next. 

I got a phone call from an unknown mobile number, claiming to be from local Godrej service center and he asked whether the refrigerator was defective. He said he would help me replace the refrigerator if it was defective, by talking to the company. First, I did not like the idea of parting with a new beautiful Godrej Refrigerator which had become part of my house. Secondly, he enquired in such a manner as if he was so happy finding a defective piece of appliance and it felt something was wrong; perhaps he was trying to exploit the situation for his own benefit. He asked to take a picture of the sticker inside the refrigerator which mentioned all details about it including serial number etc and send it to him on Whatsapp. Now this was something I was not comfortable with. 

I told the person that he should send a technician who can check all the details he wanted to check. He insisted on getting a photograph of label first. I said I did not trust an unknown person calling from a personal mobile number and I won't send details of my refrigerator to an unknown person. The guy sounded offended, and he cut the call. After that, there was no response from Godrej for several days. 

I called up the customer care number again and enquired why no one visited or sent me the missing key. The customer care executive tried to avoid telling it but after questioning a bit, she said that there was some problem with the local service center, and they have mentioned something in the logs due to which Godrej will not be able to help me any further on my refrigerator. I was shocked!

I asked to raise a new complaint, but the customer care executive told me that they won't be able to open any new complaint ticket for me now onwards. It was like I was being "shadow banned". I thought about what could have happened. When I declined to send photograph of my refrigerator serial number to the guy, he was offended, and he perhaps wrote something in the records that this customer was abusive and hence I was "banned". But should not someone from Godrej contact me to investigate further? First of all, I was not rude, but I had data-privacy concerns due to which I had declined to share the details on Whataspp of an unknown person. Or was it that Godrej did not have a key to the refrigerator, and they did not want to admit it? The key was not a big problem and had they mentioned that the key had got missing in transit, I would have accepted it and closed my complaint. In their records they would find that I had bought two more appliances before this new purchase and hence I was a repeat customer. 

I thought about telling this incident to my friend, but I thought not to make a huge fuss about it. I tried to forget about this incident which happened a few years ago. Still, it remains a puzzle about what happened and why and how could the company do this to any customer. 

PS: I have thought about whether I should name the company or not and have gone ahead with mentioning the same, without any motives. I will still buy my next refrigerator from Godrej, because one bad man or incident can't spoil my relationship with a brand. 

- Rahul 

Movie Review: 'Animal' (2023) Showcased in Seven Pictures; Among the Best of Indian Cinema; and Ranbeer as India's Al Pacino

Animal (2023) starring Ranbeer Kapoor, Rashmika Mandana, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Tripti Dimri and others, is a classic adult action-drama film. The film is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga. This film will go down in the history of Indian cinema and Bollywood as one of the cult classic films. 

Here, I would like to mention some observations about it. 

First of all, the movie has many vulgar dialogues all through it, and few excessive violence scenes. It also shows smoking and drinking, which perhaps is essential ingredient of every gangster film. If all these were cut out or toned down, the movie could have achieved similar cult status without being objected against. We need to ignore these, in order to do justice with the film. 

The introductory scene when Ranbeer Kapoor arrives on the screen is stunning. Ranbeer looks so young and dashing at this age, and it is unbelievable. Ranbeer's charisma is a million times Shahruh + Salman + Hrithik combined. You have to watch this portion to believe it. This is where Hollywood or so called 'South Cinema' can never match Bollywood. Someone should make another movie with this style of Ranbeer again:

There is another iconic scene when Ranbeer's character marries Rashmika Mandana's character. When the movie released, I did not think she was a good match with Ranbeer to form a pair, but in this part where she and Ranbeer are playing a newly married couple, she has come out to be stunning. Her expressions and body language have matched the role of a mesmerized bride so well as if she was born to play this role. The airplane ride was a classic scene: 

The big fight scene with an Atmanirbhar Bharat "Made in India" machinegun is another iconic scene which is going to be remembered in the history of Indian cinema:  

It reminded me of the movie Scarface and Ranbeer has done a job of the standard of Al Pacino. In fact, if more film-makers launch Ranbeer in such roles, Ranbeer can become India's Al Pacino:  

Below scene where Ranbeer is lying down after the epic fight scene, is of a standard where perhaps every gangster in India would dream to have an epic death like this: 

The movie has captured nuances of father-son relationships in Indian society so very well. Anil Kapoor has done one of the finest jobs possible in such a role. Anil Kapoor defies all expectations and he gets 10/10 role and Mr. Perfectionist's title in my opinion:

Bobby Deol has given such an excellent performance that he almost eclipsed all other characters till the time he was on the screen. He has taken his role to such great heights that we feel as if we are watching Game of Thrones or a Hollywood production in the portions filmed around him. The scene when he is introduced, or the last epic fight scene are dreadful and cult classic. Hats off to this epic never-seen-before role by Bobby: 

If there were so many strong characters in this film, what was left to be done by another actress Tripti Dimri? There is another surprise in store and after watching 'Animal', everyone wondered, "Who is this girl?" Her face has such an innocence which is rare, and she played her role so very well that audiences could not stop but take notice: 

As I said before, this film 'Animal' is going to be a cult classic movie in the history of Indian cinema. Not only because of excellent performances by all actors, but also because of its story, smaller details so very well captured, and doing "justice" with every aspect of film making. This is a moment when we can all be proud of Bollywood and Indian cinema. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Travelogue: Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar (Part-4)

 

Arjuna's archery test - 13th century

Hanuman ji - 12th century

Bhagwan Brahma - 8th century

Goddess Parvati - 13th century

- Rahul 

Travelogue: Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar (Part-3)

 

Bhagwan Ganesha - 8th century

Kartikeya ji

Ma Durga - 10th century

Ma Parvati - 9th century

- Rahul 

Travelogue: Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar (Part-2)

 

Part of Ashokan Pillar - 3rd century BC

- Rahul 

Travelogue: Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar (Part-1)

- Rahul

Travelogue: Some Places in Bangalore

 

- Rahul 

Travelogue: Biju Patnaik Park, Bhubaneswar

 

- Rahul

Travelogue/Hindu Temples: Mai Sthan Mandir, Chandmari, Motihari

 

(C) Rahul 

Travelogue: Double decker Train

I came across a double-decker passenger train for the first time in Bengaluru. 

I think the train was 22625/MGR Chennai Central - KSR Bengaluru AC Double Decker Express

- Rahul

Book Review: '99 Moon Avenue' by Anumita Sharma

 

'99 Moon Avenue' is a novel in English written by Anumita Sharma. It was published by Redgrab books in year 2020. Here are the online shopping links to get it: 

99 Moon Avenue: Buy 99 Moon Avenue by Sharma Anumita at Low Price in India | Flipkart.com

Buy 99 Moon Avenue Book Online at Low Prices in India | 99 Moon Avenue Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in

99 Moon Avenue by Anumita Sharma - Redgrab books

The novel tells two parallel stories. One of the stories moves in the current time, set in year 2001, where a girl (Sarojini) comes to Delhi to study in a newly established private university. The university has not yet got its academics settled, and her department has got a tyrant as its director who picks on Sarojini to vent his anger, compounding her challenges. There is another character called Jalaj (interesting name), a journalist, and their paths cross and friendship develops. Then, near the end of the novel, there is a shocking tragedy which changes the course of their lives. 

The second parallel story is around the life of a woman named Cornelia and is set in the colonial era when the British used to control India. It is a "ghost story". Both stories converge because of the venue, which is "99, Moon Avenue", a locality with colonial era bungalows situated in Delhi. 

Story of Brave Sarojini 

Now, if I speak about the stories without revealing any "spoilers", I loved the first of the parallel stories very much. Story of Sarojini could have very well been a separate novel in itself. It is a powerful story of coming of age, rising against all odds, realism, tragedy, a girl fighting against a hostile society, and many more. The writer gets 10/10 in this. 

I don't know why feminist or women-centric platforms have not yet identified this author despite her showing extreme talent in weaving unique women-centric stories one after the other. This is her fourth book that I have read. In all her books, she brings up such strong female characters. At the same time, she is not a typical male-hating intellectual either. If you read this book, she has not done injustice with the second lead Jalaj who was a male character trying to compete with the main character in the matter of space. The author has this brilliant balance of mind.

Superb Sense of Humor

Although this novel is about struggle, ghosts, history, and tragedy, I could not miss the author's astute sense of humor especially in the first half of the book. Have a look yourself: 

On page 59, she describes a "flea attracting" pet dog in the most hilarious way possible:

Notice the hilarious way insects encircled the dog's "surprisingly healthy body" like "comets"; or that the dog looked like a cross between "dog and donkey". It is the most comic page I have read in a long time. 

On page-25, she describes a newspaper where Jalaj worked in this wonderful manner. Notice how she "names" the paper or the party too. 

I had a great time going through these pages. If you notice, the author is god in the appropriate use of "adjectives"; which gives the sentences a completely unique sense of feel. 

I have also noted down a few of her sentences from the initial pages of the book:

*** 

The interviewer was the iron-grey haired, wrinkled senile Ashwin Singh, Director of the Advertising department. No doubt, a retired specimen picked from an erstwhile reputed firm. He seemed to be suffering from age-related amnesia for he jolted down everything in a small pocketbook…

Mr. Singh consulted the pocketbook when Sarojini entered his chamber and grinned as if a playful pixie had traversed through his jottings and entered his sunken mouth to bid her welcome, “So, you are Mr. Upadhyay’s ward?” (P-36)

***

“… …”, informed the clerk Mr. Venkatasundaram of Equity Professional University, a young man quite in variance with the pre-historic Director, a lad of breeding steeped in the ignorance of youth, overly excited to be holding a position of importance for the first time in his life.” (P-36-37)

***

In the tantalizing hour just after sunset, Mrs. Rai’s guests began appearing one after the other through the darkening foliage of the stately trees haphazardly dispersed in the front yard. The homing birds were whistling their evening ditties and the flowers were cooling off in the tepid breeze. Sarojini was given the task of opening he door and welcoming seven talcumed and perfumed ladies. They poured in the sea of blues, reds, greens, yellows, exchanging greetings and effusively complimenting each other for the applique work, zari work, kantha work in their friends’ sarees, alluring shapes of heir dainty sandals, ethnic make of the kundan jewelleries, as if they only saw beauty… (P-38)

***

Ending

I liked the ending of the story which was open to the way things could have gone in future. 

Historical Content

The "historical" content in the book was also nice. We get to know many new things about Delhi and its history including things like Mughals, eunuchs, British men and women from the colonial era, or the construction and development works. It makes the book enriching and gives it depth. At the same time, it tells the richness and profoundness of the writer's knowledge and research too.

Criticism

When it comes to constructive criticism, I wish this book came in the form of two separate books. Although, the author gets full credit for her experimentation and boldness of merging two stories into one. I also wish the pages with "adult" content were "censored" in next edition or made more subtle. It won't make much difference to the plot but will make the book accessible to readers of all age and encouraging for readers who do not like such content.   

Recommendation 

Overall, '99 Moon Avenue' is a brilliant tale you are not going to forget forever after reading it. If you like reading novels, go for it. 

- Rahul