SPIRIT OF MUMBAI

The Crowning Glory of the rising Sun makes my eyes happy. The early morning orchestra of assorted birds' chirping makes my ears happy. The king of fruits, Mango makes my tongue heavenly happy. The Jasmine-perfume makes my nose happy and touching the cool dew on fresh flowers make my finger-tips happy.   I return home, all tired, hungry and sweating from the suffocating, crowded train-journey, everything seems dark, futile and useless. At that crushing moment, the one and only eager, expectant, welcoming face of my mother makes me Happy, Happier ... Happiest of all.  Childhood is the most happiest of all. We are happy cause we are pampered by the parents at home and by teachers at school. We are happy because we play a lot and study a little. We are sheltered, we are cared, we are loved by our  relatives as well as by the neighbors. Everybody loves Children and children respond to that love abundantly. Love makes us all happy. So Childhood =  Happiness...

Moto E ... Moto E ... Moto E ... screamed the newspapers , TVs, radios and even my 13 year old nephew Aamen, plus my 39 year old Electronics-Engineer brother , when I was searching for a latest, high-tech smart phone to buy. I was doing my own R and D about Moto E with friend, philosopher, guide, the omniscient Google. Lo and behold ... the verdict was unanimous ... Moto E ... Go ... Get it.  May I confess?. My final decision was based on the elegant, aerodynamic looks of the ritzy Moto-E. After all this hoopla , I am sure all of you are eager to have a look at my snazzy Moto-E, which I purchased on March 18, 2015 from Flipkart .As usual Flipkart's delivery was prompt and perfect. Well, we the ladies have oodles of 6th sense and we do use it ostentatiously.  I wanted to buy a smart phone, and my first choice was Nokia. As an Indian , I am a brand loyalist, whether it's Colgate, Godrej, Surf, Vico or Parle-G, I buy whatever my parents have bought.  I ha...

"Oops, I have forgotten the keys , we have to return Home and collect it" - Sandhya, my cousin-friend declared with alarming hurry. We were already late due to the office-rush hour and to top that lateness, we had to return home. Our mobiles were constantly buzzing with friends, threatening to call 100 , 101 , 102 ,... if we didn't reach the venue within a second. As if we possessed couple of time-machines. Now that's typical of school-friends. They take you for granted. They think of you as Omnipotent and Useless in the same instance.  We pacified them with the coolest promise of Magnum Chocolate Infinity Ice-candies, if they didn't kill us on arrival. They bargained for 2 candies each, we cursed Foreign Direct Investment in retail but our taste-buds were already in raptures.  At last, we reached the venue for the get-#together / reunion of school-friends, exactly an hour after the scheduled time. We were fashionably late but still received the warmes...

Every Indian student must pass, actually with flying colors through that horrible hurdle called S.S.C. results. Not only the student but also the whole family is on tenterhooks on that D-day. I am an Indian in general and Mumbaikar in particular, so that D-day was particularly more horrible than usual. I wanted to join Arts stream and my father was adamant on Science. In a patriarchal society , mothers have no say in important matters such as the career and well being of her child. My mother wanted me to pursue my dream, but she was a silently-suffering spectator on that fateful day, when I had to adjust and take admission for the commerce stream even after gaining 82%. The 2 years of commerce college were like a nightmare. I studied hard, but it was an aimless journey. I started taking solace in science fictions. My favorite author was Jayant Narlikar. He had written awesome stories about Super-computers and their gigantic power, which was a rare-novelty in...

A , B , C ... T ... I checked that list twice, thrice but my name was missing. There was no 'Sujata Tawde' in the passing list of Para Social work-entrance exam.  I don't remember how I returned  home   and collapsed in the arms of Aai, how she comforted me and made me sleep. I did not want to get up ever and face the cruel world. I wanted to die and that's that. But life is not that easy. It demands living, death can not be ordered on Flipkart. I had studied like a zombie for that exam. Every day I got up at 4 in the morning, so that I could study and reach office at 10 a.m. As soon as I returned  home  at 6.30 p.m., I would eat Varan-Bhaat and continue studying till 11.30 p.m. I had lost the sense of the world. It hardly mattered to me what's happening around, while I was preparing for the exam.  Next morning, after that horrible results, Aai handed me the news-paper and asked me to read a SC ( Single Column news ). It was about the ...