shobho bijoya

The expanse of the flood engorged Yamuna seemed dwarfed by the sea of people on its banks today. The immersion of the Goddess Durga and Dashami celebrations today created a carnival like atmosphere on the Ghats where the Idols were being consigned to the waters.
Delhi is in the grip of festive fever and that was visible in the energy displayed by worshippers at various Puja Samitis in Delhi. More than 300 registered samitis exist in Delhi with a countless number of smaller, unregistered ones. And the local population, Bengali and otherwise, was out in full force to bid goodbye to the goddess.
At Pandals across Delhi, the idols were lifted onto trucks to the sounds of the Dhak (drums), cymbals, bells and pipes as people threw gulal and sindoor in the air and danced in front of the idol. The Chamur (decorations) on the drums swayed with the movement of the dhakis (drummers) dancing to the beat of their drumming.
Several thousand people gathered at each of the Ghats opened by the government for immersion. At the Okhla Barrage, Kalindi Kunj, people had come from as far as Dwarka and Gurgaon for the Bijoya Dashami celebrations.

truth and lies

what comes close really?
slowly your eyes left me there.. like life leaves a dying man.................
............. but as the man said.. when u've got nothing..
U've got nothing to lose...

i've read these words over and over again... written years ago by someone's hand.. when u've got nothing, You've got nothing to lose.....

I had everything... and ive lost it.. for no fault of mine..
because i couldnt see the truth behind the lies.. because i closed my eyes and let myself be tugged away beyond my own control.. because i didnt hear a cry for help where i should have..
because i refused to remember that prince charming was also a toad before the princess kissed him..

fairytales and stories.. half truths and white lies... accepting and rejection... whatever for???????
for the sake of hope.. That a happily ever after really exists...

welcome to the real world baby...

To my childhood memories

This one's for Ati n akku...
I went to Rajghat yesterday... had a bit of time to myself coz sundays a really light day at work... n my office is almost close enuf for a walk..
had wanted to go there for years.. ati do u remember... uncle had said we'd all go there again once he was better... ive wanted all of us to go since then. relive our childhood.. when three little girls woke up at 5:30 am on holiday mornings to go to rajghat and play.. balanced on a single scooter with uncle... its weird.. neither my dad nor akku's ever went there.. or maybe i just dont remember.. the only time i remember any other adults being teher was when all three mothers came too... the dads didnt though..
Rajghat is the resting place of mahatma Gandhi.. n i was there 2 days after the Independence day.. but i wasnt there to remember the father of the nation.. i was there to remember the man wo i placed in next place.. actually same place as my own father.. the one who accepted a rather rude, violent little girl into his home and family because she was his daughter's best friend..
U know whats so weir... i dont remember us EVER actully going to see Gandhi's Samadhi there.. i remember climbing up to the top of teh hillocks and rolling down again.. n playing games like taht all morning... travelling almost 10 kms each way for the fun and games.. never seemed taht long a ride somehow.. it felt like it was taking forever to reach tehre from my office yesterday.. but the childhood memories i have seem like we got there in a jiffy.. after a delayed start from teh house as us girls bickered over wo'll sit where on the scooter.. ati won the coveted front standing place ost of the time... mostly coz she's the youngest and consequently the shortest... though that doesnt exactly apply now... she's as tall as i am.. n akku's taller. Me, the oldest of the three, am the middle one height- wise...

I climbed up the hillock.. n the day was so beautiful... cloudy and cool.. stood there for a little while.. thinking bout teh hazy memories of rolling down the hill competing against each other.. wanting to be the first one to reach the bottom..
I'd taken it as a promise from uncle that we'll all go there again as soon as he was better.. god didnt quite agree with our plans i guess... ive wanted to go there since the day uncle died.. if only as a memorial to him... all three kids go there again.. n remember how we used to play there years ago.. started crying sitting on a bench.. for the father figure who was the reason for my presence there... and for the two friends, sisters who i've barely had time to meet in the last year.. we've all grown up, gone our separate ways.. even though ati n akku are in college now and in north campus most of the day, my job's such that i havent been able to meet them... studies, activities and boyfriends have left us with precious few moments to spend so much as talking to each other...
It just feels like something's one missing from life... the closeness, the madness, the happiness of childhood are gone.. now when we meet, we talk like old ppl reminiscing bout our past, or talk of serious topics, life and college and careers and families.. we're not that old though... its just taht we've grown up a bit fast... i'm the eldest.. n i'm only 20.. but we can still talk bout watever comes to our heads.. lst time all three of us were together was more tahn a month go.. an hour snatched between college admissions for ati n office for me... we sat around discussing the future.. n giving each other relationship advice.. it was sorta strange for me to talk to ati bout HER relationship.. she's like my baby sister,... n now she's dating too.. it was usch a shock for me.. i was like.. URE TOO YOUNG TO DATE! n she's a whole year n a half older than i was when I first started "going out" with someone.. she's older than i was when i had my first kiss... n yet i freaked at the idea that some guy was with my baby sis... its weird how i get all protective bout her.. start lecturing her even though ive been thru the same situations and done worse than she has...
I sometimes wish i could go back in time..
to the barbie dolls and the dress up games..
to nightspends and midnight kitchen raids..
i miss them all so much..

This one's for you guys....

MY SACRIFICE- Creed
Hello my friend, we meet again
It's been awhile, where should we begin?
Feels like forever
Within my heart are memories
Of perfect love that you gave to me
Oh, I remember
When you are with me, I'm free
I'm careless, I believe
Above all the others we'll fly
This brings tears to my eyes
My sacrifice

We've seen our share of ups and downs
Oh how quickly life can turn around
In an instant
It feels so good to reunite
Within yourself and within your mind
Let's find peace there
When you are with me, I'm free
I'm careless, I believe
Above all the others we'll fly
This brings tears to my eyes

IS THIS WHAT OCCUPIES THE COURT'S TIME?????

This story has been put in a paper and now even my paper is trying to investigate what the real story behind this idiocy of putting a pet dog on trial is... is it a way to keep land grabbers at bay and save a poor widow.. or is this simply an example of how low the justice system in India has gone....?

ive been taking pictures!

now... these are pictures ive taken in the course of the last week as i've covered various events as a reporter.. n happened to have my little digicam with me... they weren't good enuf 4 the paper... but I think they're perfectly lovely..

tell me wat u guys think..

This lot is pix i took of a fire at the Pragati maidan conference hall 7.

I even went inside the building... these are the embers falling from the first floor where the fire was... i went up to th efirst floor too.. but the heat was too much n the firefighters saw that i was all nervous so they told me to get back down... everything was still smoking though the fire was out.. and the water that had collected all over the floor was also really hot..

These are pix i took while on the bus back home.. its the Moti Masjid at the red fort with the sun setting in the background... i LOVE these pix..

The next ones are the pix of the partial solar eclipse on the 1st of August... I went to St. Columbus School to see what the kids were upto there.. n one of them very kindly lent me a filter... so i could take pix too!!

hmm.. n these are a couple i took while stuck in a traffic jam today... It took me TWO HOURS to get from college to Sirifort auditorium... was stuck at ISBT for almost 20 mins and then outside the National Science Centre for almost half an hour... i'm SO glad i wasnt driving coz i wouldve wanted to shoot myself... it was bad enuf sitting in the back of a car checking my watch every few mins...

a step out of the ordinary

hm... since i cant possibly spend so much time on the phone.. i think i'll describe the first two days of my newfound professional life on my blog for the benefit of my friends.. since i'm AT the office rt now and my contract forbids me to mention my work on the blogosphere, i think i'm gonna have to get aroud it by being slightly vague.. in any case, those who are reading this already know precisely where i'm working.. for those who stumbled upon this blog by chance.. suffice it to say that i'm in the journalism business, employed at one of India's leading newspapers, and as recently as two days ago shifted from the boredom of the editing desk to the agony of being a reporter..
love shows you the agony and ecstasy of things.. so they say.. "THEY" be damned.. so I say.. coz this job, which has been a dream for years, in reality has shown me both sides of the proverbial coin..
if i thought sitting around waiting for ppl to file enuf stories to be passed down to us lowly trainees for editing was bad.. the last two days have DRAINED me of energy..
yesterday as the MPs of India debated on the trust vote, i had to go chek out what the party workers at the head office of one of the major parties opposing the government were doing in the office... what no one told me was that the road that this said office is located at is a one way, with restriction on stopping any vehicle at any gate for more than about 30 seconds.. so while i got there comfortably in an auto, getting an auto back to the office wasnt quite so easy.. a couple of hours later, i was asked to go back to the same office.. and while i was there got a lead about a demonstration being held condemning the money- for votes scandal in the parliament. since i was only bout 2 km away from the parliament, this intrepid reporter decided to go check it out.. forgetting that the damned thing was in the WRONG direction to the traffic flow.. the upshot of it was that i ran about 700 odd metres in the blazing heat at 5 pm along a road lined with sentries, and got into an auto at the intersection.. thank god for roundabouts.. the autowallah however proved clueless regarding my destination.. and as anyone who'se ever tried to find their way around all those confusing intersecting round roads of central delhi will know, if u dont know the EXACT location and preferably a few landmarks of the place u need to go to.. u can get rather lost.. well.. thanks to a few good samaritans on the roadside, i reached my destination, took in the events, and climbed thankfully into a bus that would drop me right outside my office... after a whole month of getting home after 1 am, it was nice to reach comfortably at 9:15 and have dinner with my family..

today was a much more tiring day.. i guess i'm gonna have to toughen up a hell of a lot to continue in the job..
had to take a looooong bus ride all the way to noida, n then when i got back i saw a political rally in progress and decided to follow it... got into one of the cars participating in the rally n ended up all the way in shahadara... took me almost 30 mins and 50 bucks in the Auto to get back to my comfortable airconditioned office and collapse in a chair... worst thing.. the stories i went chasing after werent even important enuf to go into the paper.....
The day taught me what NOT to do when looking for a story.,.
1. DONT LEAVE the airconditioned confines of the office to cover an event before finding out what mode of transport is available to get to to the said event and back... yesterday i found, much to my despair that the organisers of the event i took the long bus ride to NOIDA to sent a car to pick up the journalists who were invited... running into the Radisson hotel looking like u've just tumbled out of a DTC (which IS exactly what uve just done) can make u feel extremely uncomfortable in the midst of a glitzy launch event...
2. DONT care what you look like when u get to wherever it is that u've been sent to get a story... as long as uve got clothes on your back and your hair doesnt look like a bird biult a nest in it.. its FINE... u're a REPORTER for heaven's sake.. NO ONE CARES how u're dressed... seniors at my office even told me how they just went off to party after a tiring hectic day without bothering to change.. the press card does the trick..

3. NEVER let your phone balance run out... u dont want to be stuck somewhere wondering whether its worth your while to even pursue the "story" further.. and u cant call the office n confirm whether it wouldn't be better for u to simply return.

4.NEVER just go off to see whats goin on... landing up at a major party's media cell on a day when some superemely important political event is on , without any idea of what u will ask is NOT a good idea.. u'll only end up feeling rather embarrassed..
5. and this is THE most important.... DONT expect to find a story wherever you go... u might go chasing after something for an exhaustingly long time only to realise it was really not worth the wasted time... BUt it IS.. since its teaching u what NOT to go running after..

ah well... I think i've learnt a few lessons...