Durga Puja 2016

This is for those who couldn't be in Kolkata or Bangla during the biggest celebration ever in Bangla.
I started my puja parikrama from today i.e Mahasaptami coz well, i had to pop into office on Mahasashthi. I am not a fan of roaming around at night coz people kinda get crazy at that time and it becomes super difficult to visit any of the pandals. So, we decided to go out in the morning. Here it goes.

For the first day, I chose to start with one of the oldest and most traditional of durga pujas. So we took an Uber and reached Bagbazar Sarbojonin.

Bagbazar Sarbojonin

Before we entered Bagbazar Sarbojonin, we took a little detour and visited Mayer Bari, which is one of the buildings maintained by Ramkrishna Mission. Thakur Ramkrishnadeb along with Maa Sarada had spent some time here during his illness. Here's an image of the room Thakur occupied during his stay.

We walked a little along a side lane and reached Bagbazar Sarbojonin. And as always, Maa appeared in front of us in an age old graceful form.

As we came outside the mandap to have our breakfast from one of those little roadside cafes we saw these processions, one of them from Sovabazar Rajbari, I surmised.

Kumartuli Sarbijonin

Next stop was Kumartuli Sarbojonin. This year’s theme is the inside of Lotus flower. Maa is sitting inside a Lotus flower with 3D holograms of more of the flowers floating. Here’s a pic.

The pandal needs to be visited at night, mainly because its decorated mostly with LEDs, which I am guessing when turned on at night would really give the intended look.

While coming back, we couldn’t resist visiting the place where the amazing work of arts are created, and as expected, hoards of photographers were thronging the place. We roamed around and took a few snaps of the unfinished idols at the workshops of Kumartuli.

Sovabazar Rajbari Thakurdalan

The Thakurdalan, which is opposite of the actual Rajbari has a wide courtyard and long verandas running alongside the garden leading the path upto the Thakurdalan. Maa is in traditional attire here, much like Bagbazar.

Sovabazar Rajbari

Situated just opposite of Thakurdalan, the actual Rajbari where the descendants of the royal family still reside and resides GovindJiu, has their own Durga Puja. By Maa’ grace, we were lucky enough to have reached at the exact moment Maha Saptami’s Anjali started.

Sovabajar Beniatola

Swathed in royal blue and simple white depicting Lord Ganesha driving a chariot, Maa has a sweet demeanor here.

Ahiritola Sarbojonin

As always, Ahiritola aims to create something very artistic. Following, though I’m not sure, but I think they tried to recreate the studio of a modern artist or maybe kumartuli itself. The effect was really good, I liked it though I did hear many a grumblings about the very artistic durga idol. For me, it was like one of those Durga murtis you see in ancient temples, of kostipathor. Maa is in blak and red here.

Sribhumi

By popular demand, our last stop had to be Sribhumi, which has continued its tradition of generating buzz, this year with its imitation of Jagannath Temple in Puri. Maa is always gorgeous here, more so with the real gold jewelries, as every year.

This was our Saptami tour, we covered only the must see pandals of North Kolkata. Stay tuned for more.

Taking the Reins back…

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you feel as if your life is slipping away from your hands, as if you have no control over anything anymore. As if you are on autopilot. You are there, you are doing everything, even making decisions, but somehow you feel that you are not the one to actually make them. As if, you are too lazy to decide anything on your own so have let the circumstances shape your daily existence. And you are tired. You are so freaking tired all the time that you hardly care about the consequences anymore. And the worst part is, you know all this, you feel it every day, every moment, but you are too powerless, bound in the grip of your extreme exhaustion to care. And as a result you see every good thing in your life, things you were proud of in you getting away from you gradually.

So, what do you do in such case? You either need a massive shock to wake up, or if God’s kind, he sends you home to be with people who can knock some sense into you. Fortunately, both has happened to me. And I’m still reeling. I am still trying to figure out, still trying to take the reins of life back in my hands.

How am I planning on doing it? Here are the steps I followed and recommend you follow:

1.       List down everything that went wrong.

This list has to be comprehensive, no shortcuts. Write down every single detail you felt wasn’t right. For e.g. If you stopped waking up early in the morning, write in detail about it as to why you think it happened. Maybe you went to sleep late because of partying too hard, or maybe you had insomnia.

2.       List the reasons for why it all went wrong.

Taking our previous e.g. dwell on why you went to sleep late. If you partied hard, which is uncharacteristic for you, why you did so? Did you feel lonely? Were you just trying to get a little experience? Or what if you tried hard every night to fall asleep, but your darn insomnia wouldn’t let you? Why did you have insomnia in the first place? Are you stressed? Is there ne particular thought eating away at you?

Like this, you analyze… well, I guess you get the idea.

3.       List out the areas where you wanna get your control back.

Yes, this is where you explain and try to explore your own heart and mind to see what are the things you really want. This is where you sweep away the useless ones and keep only the best habits and goals in your life. Be careful when you make this list, and make it as long as you can- priority wise. You should write down everything we wish for in our lives- even if it’s just to own a pair great heels, we will work on how to achieve those goals later.

After you are done with these 3 Lists, you start with your basic 3 D’s o’ success + 1. The 4 D’s would be:

1.       Direction- You have already started it. The moment you started to List out your goals, you gave yourself a direction or multiple, to go towards. Now we just have to work on going in those directions with the help of the other 3 D’s.

2.       Determination- Wake up every morning and remind yourself of the Lists you created, how you were feeling when you were writing them down. That feeling would remind you why you wanna go through all the hassle of waking up early in the morning.

3.       Dedication- Stick to it. Stick to the List and invent along the way as required, always remembering the Direction. If you wanna become an early riser, keep that in mind every night when you g to sleep. And remind yourself how wonderful you feel when you wake up early and go outside and soak up what the nature has to offer you, and that nothing surpasses that.

4.       Discipline- Now this is where I really suck at. Using an excuse like Aries are incapable of discipline is absolute bullshit. Would that mean, there is no Aries in the Armies of any of the countries in the world? For some, discipline comes naturally, like the Germans. For others, you have force it, for people like me. As long as their fathers were behind them with a stick, we were doing ok, the moment it stopped, we went back to bed. Do, no matter how crappy you feel, come hail or rain, wake up early.

So, that’s it for today. I am gonna start putting this in practice starting today. I am gonna keep these 4 D’s somewhere in my vicinity where I can get reminded of them all the time. Maybe my mobile phone wallpaper, or stick it over my writing table. But I’m gonna go to sleep now, remembering that I wanna wake up early tomorrow! I will be back to tell you what progress I have made later. Wish me luck!

Cheese in the Trap (2015) Review

Cheese in the Trap

Just finished watching Cheese in the Trap. It was based on a popular webtoon of the same name and was a hit with the audience while it lasted. And I must say,, though the webtoon is still going on, the drama ending was really satisfying, if not without a little disappointment to the romantic in me who believes everything should end well with the protagonists.

Our hero, Yoo Jung is, how to say, a manipulative and scary character. He doesn’t get angry, he gets even, often in a very cruel way. He is sweet and dependable to everyone but our heroine, Hong Sul, who understands him right from the first time she lays her eyes on him. Yoo Jung doesn’t like that there is someone who can see past his mask, and is irritated in the beginning, but soon he thinks that there are a lot of similarities between them. Though, once he convinces her to start dating him, he realizes exactly how very different they are from each other, it also makes him ask her earnestly, “Do I seem that strange to you?” Sul understands him, but she rightly tells him, “I understand why you did those things (hurt people by going behind their backs often because they won’t leave him alone) but if you continue doing it, someday all those hurts will come back to you.” And it does. Sul gets into an accident, and mostly because of his fault.

He is rudely awakened when he sees how people around him get hurt because of him. He understands why people think he is strange and are scared of him. He decides to find what sort of human he is and come to terms with it. He breaks up with Sul and tells her he would come back once he can love her properly.

Three years passes, Sul’s life has moved on but she still hopes for him to come back. She emails him but all of those are unread, when suddenly, one email is “Read”, right before the end.

The fact that I liked the most about the ending is that they have kept it open as to the fate of our protagonists. Do they get back together? Does he come to terms with how he is and change? Or he continues being as he was. The audience is left to make their own conclusion about these questions. The romantic in me wants to believe that whatever course is decided by Yoo Jung, it includes Hong Sul as his companion.

I would totally recommend this series, not only because of the complex characterization of the mail lead, but also because of the really hot second male lead who has excellent piano skills to increase his likeability. The only bone I have to pick with the director is I wish Yoo Jung was given more screen time and has more sweet moments with Hong Sul, especially since they are not shown to have an exactly ‘happily ever after ending’.

K Drama Reviews

So, I had promised in an earlier post that will do the review of the K-dramas I have watched. These are not new, but for viewers overseas like me, maybe it will help you decide which ones to watch when you are trying to figure out from the list of k-dramas provided to you by AsianWiki or google.

So I am going to do the following Reviews:

1. Pinocchio (2014)

2. Playful Kiss (2010)

3. The Heirs (2013)

So, let's start.

Pinocchio (2014)

Starring Lee Jong-suk and Park Shin-Hye (both of whom are generally likable by the mass) it had a convincing story and end. The USP of this show was the innovative concept of a person having Pinocchio syndrome. Its exactly as it sounds. People can't lie. Instead of their noses getting longer, in this show, people get hiccups (only the heroine is actually shown to have this hiccup issue though. Though it may be assumed that the Pinocchios has similar problems). It has an air of Lee Jong Suk's debut drama "I can hear you', where the protagonists are bound by a crime in the past and they complement each other in their future work of solving that distant crime. Park Shin is spunky in this drama, unlike in You're Beautiful and The Heirs where she seems to be helpless and too accommodating. Lee Jong Suk is resplendent as usual. 

I won't go into summarizing the show, you'd find it anywhere, instead I would give my impression of it. 

I was hooked onto this show right from the beginning by some excellent acting and convincing plot twists. The added bonus is of course a sizzling on screen chemistry between the leads (I wish, people stopped linking Park Shin Hye with every male she has ever acted with). It has a healthy dose of romance sprinkled judiciously along the tight detective story style narrative. Also, just when you start getting skeptical about demonizing a woman for every crime under the earth all along the first half of the show, her human side is finally shown in an convincing manner. 

All in all, though the pace drops a little in the middle, it picks up near the finale and overall leaves you with a feeling of time worth spent. I would recommend it of you are a fan of handsome heroes with innate sense of style and enjoy crime stories.

Playful Kiss (2010)

The image above describes perfectly the story and attitude of the show. One of my friend's recommendation made me pick up this show to watch and more importantly because I wanted a show where Kim Hyun Joong gets the girl (BOF left me wanting for more Hyun Joong). Well, he does get the girl here, but it seems only because she didn't seem to have eyes for anyone except him. In fact, so complete is her devotion towards Hyun Joong, tom Cruise himself couldn’t have wavered her. It was absurd and kind of offensive at times to all the female population. She is always one step behind him and her eyes downcast, exactly like in the image above. It evident that it is based on a manga written for women of 70s-80s. 

The story can be summarized in one line. There's this girl who isn't that great in looks or studies, falls for this genius, good looking hero adored by the entire school and continues her devotion until he breaks and deigns to marry her. Oh, and this also promotes that getting married before finishing your studies is okay. 

I felt so bad that one of my biggest crushes had to star in such a story line. But except BOF, dramas don't seem to have done much for Hyun Joong's Hallyu success. Though visually striking, I would recommend you to watch it only for Hyun Joong.

The Heirs (2013)

I would always say yes to a Lee Min Ho show- be it a drama or movie. I was kind of saving this show for later view during one of those inevitable blank periods when there seems nothing worth watching. The Heirs, though it started gloriously (despite some cringy moments when Min Ho showcases his English speaking ability), falls kind of flat at times. Min Ho's character seems to be the worst affected right after Shin Hye's. In fact, everybody else's characters seemed to have better back stories than the leads. Also, I did not dig Lee Min Ho's hairstyle plus he looked too old to play a high schooler. They just could have replaced the grand mansion to be college or university instead. It definitely would have been more convincing. 

The story strives to prove the line that "All that money, but still miserable." What the future Heirs of wealthy families have to go through. And in contrast, the middle class families are marginally better from they have their own set of issues not related to their immediate families but to do with their dreams of future. 

The guy who shone the most, in my opinion, was the CN Blue Drummer, Min Hyuk. He is by far the best actor of the band, though I have yet to see how the guitarists have fared in their respective dramas.

The story is nice and has a definite pace, though Lee Min Ho's antics seems to be a rich boy's rebellion against his rich father. The lady playing his mother had a better characterization than him.

I would recommend you to watch it, not because of Lee Min Ho and Woo Bin, but because it was worth watching. And the ending was really nice, though there were still some lose ends, but you don't care about them by the time the last scene arrives. It is a drama, and worthy of repeat watches.

So, that’s it for today. See you next time.

The Usual Whining

So, here I am, back again, with a new post. Its my usual whining my Diary is filed with, of a girl, rapidly approaching 30, halfway towards my retiring age (conventional, I mean), who stays alone in a metro and the associated frustration of not being near her parents or future husband. Add to that, the frustration of not being able to doing anything about her determined purpose of life ('dream' being a too cliched word). Not to mention going to a job which is well paid but does nothing to provide job satisfaction and the fact that the seniors in that job seem to be well satisfied with what they have been doing in their lives.

So what do you do to dispel your sense of helplessness and powerless against this compulsion for your paapi pet? You start finding new ways of satisfying your appetite and trying to convince yourself that you are doing something worth doing. To get over the fact that Mumbai has everything under the earth you may wish for, but the over pricing and travel time doesn't allow you to do anything easily unless you are actually planning for it since beforehand; I joined Guitar class. The result is I have split fingers in my left hand and I rarely get the time to practice it at home. Costly enrollment in a gym where I barely get time to go because by the time I have come back tackling the Mumbai Local, I usually have no life left in me. Consequently, I have also learned why Mumbaikars rush everywhere, even when they have reached the last station and their homes are only minutes away. I feel, very badly for everyone who are forced to stay here. I imagine this city must have been a pleasant place to live at only a few decades ago. Now, the locals hate the outsiders much as the outsiders hate to go through all the nonsense in their daily lives (I daresay that people who actually enjoy staying in Mumbai also hate the aspects I mentioned). It so ironic. So may people suffering, same sufferings, no matter who they are or what they do.

Life seems meaningless now-a-days. Don't know what is lacking. But kids, here's a lesson for you. Don't take for granted what you have today, right now. You never know when life will make you eat your words. And don't ever create dreams for yourself based on vague assumptions, instead make meticulous plans if you really want something to happen in your life. Its so true, life actually hands yo out what you really want. Because, whether consciously or not, you somehow work for it. Problem with mine is, I have had too mane vague and unplanned variables in my wants and thus am reaping what i sowed. 

A new K-POPer and an old K-Drama Fan

So, I am not new to K-Drama. Back in 2008, my dad was one of those rare species who opted for the Sarkari DTH when India was catching up on the concept of cable TV. Though DTH (Direct To Home) didn't provide most of the popular channels but fortunately for me, it aired KBS2. Indian Govt. had thankfully entered into a contract with the Korean Broadcasting Network to air their Drama Channel. This contract they did end within the next year over some fee problem (we signed lot of petitions, via Orkut to bring it back though; none of them worked of course but it did show how many fans there are in our country), but before it went off air, it opened a new horizon for me. The world of South Korean Dramas. I first fell in love with it by the sheer clarity of the picture. And also, by the beauty of the people on screen. And then came the moment when I fell in love with the concept of K-drama for the rest of my life (another similar moment in my life was when I first discovered the world of Mills n Boon).

Like millions of others, I started watching the series variously known as Hana Yori Dango or Boys Over Flowers or Boys Before Flowers. And that was the time I fell in love with Yoon Ji Hu aka Kim Hyun Joong (though I wouldn't find out his name up until very recently or unearth the fact that he is one of the Hallyu Stars).

So, BOF changed my life and suddenly I found that TV drama can be a very creative place ( Ekta Kapoor wave was going strong then) and that beautiful people existed to the east of our country (I hadn't had much exposure to that portion of the world before). K-dramas have Indian sensibility and that perfect romantic take of stuff that we girls absolutely die for and dream like crazy to happen in our own lives. And also, that the concept of Flower Boys can be actually very attractive. I am going out on a limb here and assuming that not all girls die for masculine men only. Though I consider Hrithik Roshan to be my one and only love at first sight, but I tell you, I used to spend a couple hours in front of the TV, trying desperately to ignore the vitriolic comments of my parents (I was between jobs then) just to get a glimpse of Kim Hyun Joong. And then a phase when I watched and read almost everything on Bi (Rain).

After that a lot of full moons have passed over Seoul, but my love for K-dramas hasn't diminished, nor will it ever. An avid reader of Mills n Boon for 11 years now, I can claim that. 

Recently, I have also started following the K-Pop Idols. Wish they hadn't throttled the Indian version of it in its nascent stage back in early 2000s. Would have been really cute and an alternative from the Bollywood music. I can't bear to listen to the songs now. Guess everybody is tired- the musicians, lyricists and the singers. Nothing new or worth listening to seem to come out of them now-a-days.

Anyways, I don't know if any of my FB friends are K-PoPers. But people tired of never ending and often illiogical and repetitive Indian TV dramas, I'd ask you to seriously consider switching over to K-dramas. I guarantee that you'll not be disappointed. Krom, my next post will be dedicated on the best dramas I have watched, from an Indian's point of view. And also the artists that I think are pretty cool. Till then, Anyoung Haseyo!

Here's just a teaser:

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Personal Taste (2010)

Coffee Prince (2007)

New girl in the City

I am starting this post with the title from the movie, 'Wake up Sid'. But unlike that movie, I have yet to find anything complementary about this city.
Its been four months since I have become an inhabitant of Mumbai. Starting with John Denvor's 'Leaving on a Jet plane' at Kolkata Airport, I have gone through ' Yeh kaha aa gaye hum', 'Yeh hain Mumbai meri jaan- Zara hatke, zara bachke' to now has finally settled to 'What the fuck is happening to me'. No, that is not a song I know, but there aught to be one, considering the fact that so many of us feel that way so very often.
Why can't I feel the way everybody seems to feel about Mumbai? 'Mayanagari', 'would never ever leave this city willingly'. Maybe its just early days. But I have swung from happiness to deep depression to hair splitting tantrum more times than I care to remember in this short space of time. Man! I am so tired...