Category Archives: Personal

A Request


Hello reader.

This is the first such post on this blog, that I’m doing, in the 4 years that this blog has been on the web. First, let me set the premise.

Sneha Sadan is a boys orphanage in the city of Bangalore, India that houses over 30 school-going children, who are either orphaned or abandoned by their parents. The orphanage, from a visit I was fortunate to be a part of, seems to be a rather healthy place with enough emotional and material strength in it to ensure a proper upbringing for these kids. However, there is a lack of certain amenities the orphanage could do with. Among these are very basic things like first aid kits, mattresses and shoes/chappals for the children.

I’d like to make a very simple request here and invite donations to Sneha Sadan. If you can directly get in touch with them, the contact details are on the website. But if you would like to make a donation without doing that, I would encourage you to email me – jaymaniyar [at] gmail [dot] com. This way, I can personally discuss and share bank account numbers and other details. In case, you’d like me to contact you, please leave your email address in the comment below. A point of note here is that I invite donations starting from a minimum basic amount of Rs. 200. Of course, higher nominations would be more than welcome.

In general, any substantial donation or personal involvement in any form is invited. India is home to over 257 lakh orphaned children (Source: Wikipedia). It is, hence, worth imagining (and bewildering) just how many kids in this country go to sleep at night without that person(s) sitting by his/her bed with one hand caressing the little head or sing them a song like this one.

Thank you.

[Photo Credit: The PicSnapr]

Namithanomics

I have read a lot of posts on who people admire when they were growing up. And inspired by so many of those repeated ones, I thought I’d pen down some words on who I admire a lot since I have grown up (if you can put the age of 24 in the ‘grown ups’ category).

namitha

Her name is Namita Mukeshbhai Vankawala. Now, you may have not heard of this name. Hardcore fans like me have. She is known by her more popular name – NAMITHA. And, NAMITHA, mind you, IS A GOD FOR ME. Period. Why I mention her full name here (which I learned from Wikipedia instantly) is because she was born in Gujarat (which happens to be my state, by the way) and carries all the typical name-qualities of a Gujarati. For example, putting the bhai in Mukeshbhai is an archetypal Gujju technique of ensuring we match up to ‘fellow Indians in the South’ (which is a more polite term to use and will get me lesser sambhar cups thrown in my direction by the DMK) names in the Battle For Longer Full Names.

namitha2

This woman is fascinating, I must tell you. Like how Uday Chopra is the Uday Chopra of Bollywood, Namitha goes completely in the opposite direction by raising satisfaction levels to highs they’ve never seen before. She makes the creator of the term ‘Massive Mammaries’ bow all of his heads in shame. And gives me the creative space to create a new term – Ubermassive Mammaries. Yeah okay, it’s not that creative.

If the Indian middle class can’t spend a day without seeing one Bollywood movie or another or more, I’m sure Namitha fans can’t spend a night without taking a glance at her photos on Google and other websites that contain the kind of Indian masala that isn’t available in a spices market.

namitha3

Such is her diverse array of talents that she can be successful in any film industry that has better standards than Bollywood. She has starred in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam AND English films (Source: Wikipedia) and has even contested the Miss India pageant (Again source: Wikipedia). On dull Facebook days, it only takes a Namitha picture on her fan page to cheer me up. On dull Twitter days, I go to Google. She even makes Mallika Sherawat appear Mallika Sherawat-less!

The rise of Namitha is one of the most un-narrated stories in the Indian cinematic landscape. It is blasphemous that so many overrated models and actors get so much mainstream media coverage while Namitha is hardly ever there. Where she deserves to be. Whether in a saree or a police uniform or a bikini or merely taking a bath in front of the camera, Namitha is as glamorous as one can be and oozes ooze.

And some more.

Pictures Courtesy: [Google Image Search: Hot Namitha]

Mumbai Localizing

A new phase of life has dawned. A phase that involves travelling in a Mumbai Local every day of the week. And I must say it has been a roller-coaster.

mumbaitrain
For all the talk of Mumbai’s local trains, I took a step into one of these ‘beauties’ (a term generally used in connection with either a hot chick or a sports car) without any thoughts in mind. But I’m afraid they really do live up to the hype. If some boisterous Mumbaikar ever told you that you will get beaten to pulp or have your testicles pulled up from behind and tied up to your neck, then he/she is probably right.

srk2
So, let me talk about some of the zones that exist in these trains. The first and foremost one is the Clinger’s Zone i.e. taking a step into the train and ending up standing just right there. This one isn’t as risky as it sounds. Not only does it allow you to stretch your arm 15 inches outside the train ala Shah Rukh Khan and sing ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, but it also allows you to efficiently trim your body to one arm less. So understandably, this zone is good for your health. Helps you breathe clean air.

mumbaitrain2
If you successfully manage to clear that zone, you enter the Mush-Mush Zone. What happens here is basically the production of the same sound that the zone is named of. Every human being is playing tennis with both arms and the ball is the head of a fellow human. Mush-mushing is necessary because at both ends of the train, entering and exiting must happen in order for the train to maintain it’s evolutionary balance. If you happen to not be exiting for a long time, all that happens is you get mushed-mushed brutally and end up as a *puff*. Basically, you melt and you fade away. Physics, dude.

In case your journey is longer, you can enter the Queued Zone. In this particular zone, everyone is waiting in a queue. Our trains are but a reflection of our bureaucratic heritage. But this one is logical. You wait for your seat. Makes sense. And I can’t complain. Except for the one time when I got hit by FOUR UMBRELLAS IN A ROW WHILE WAITING FOR THE DAMN SEAT. Okay, cooling myself. It’s okay. This too shall pass.

mensjeans
Finally, the most comfortable (oh, did I say ‘comfortable’?) of them all – the Seating Zone. You can comfortably sit and stare away into below-the-belt areas of various folk from the Queued Zone and observe the latest fashion in men’s jeans. That is an extreme. You can always shut your eyes, and attempt breathing. And if you have a window seat, there are always the pretty women at other stations to gaze at. Or you can play Spelling Bee with Shahid Kapoor.

shahidlocal

If I’m alive the next time, you’ll read a new blog post.

[Follow me on Twitter]

Lessons from China

I recently undertook a trip to the Chinese capital of Beijing. And I have made a few observations about our ‘dear’ neighbour in connection with India and her people:

-> By nature, the Chinese appear very ignorant of the world. It doesn’t seem like they are well-informed. If you think they know India (or even care about it), you can forget that fact.

-> They are very focused on their work. Not for nothing is China progressing. The infrastructure in Beijing is worth admiring. There is no doubt about the fact that the people choose to believe in the system over faces, which is exactly the opposite our quintessential Indian habit of trusting a face over a system.

-> Everything is well-organized. The Chinese display a natural tendency to behave and obey orders pretty well. While this obviously restricts individual development (unlike in India and the United States), but it also allows chaos to move out of the way.

-> I know we can never trust China as a nation. History is enough proof for that. But there is a lot we can learn from the Chinese people as a whole.

-> On the negative side, there is poverty all around. And Beijing is also as polluted, as it is organized. The communist society in China doesn’t appear entirely classless. Moreover, educated Chinese people who have gone abroad have realized their self-worth, which has made them mildly anti-socialist. My tour guide was one such person.

Overall, it was a learning experience. And I must concede that development-wise, China is ahead of India. Even the most patriotic person in me will just have to acknowledge that fact.