Author: The Metrognome

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Guest writer

How I got over my travel block

Priyanka Dalal got over her ‘travel block’ by not leaving enough time to talk herself out of a recent trip.

I have heard of ‘writer’s block’, but I have never really faced a serious one. For the last few months, however, since my Coimbatore-Mysore-Bangalore trip in February, I was not able to go on a trip despite planning five different trips! The reasons for not going were varied – viral fever, passport issues or just simply cancelling at the last minute. Even though on the face of it, it seemed that these were all genuine reasons for not going, I knew in my heart that there was something wrong. I have gone on a number of solo trips, and I had never cancelled a single one!

I recalled people mentioning writer’s block… and never having really experienced one, I figured this was some sort of ‘traveller’s block’, if something like that exists. I have never really heard of one, but I think other serious travellers may have experienced something like this, too!

I had to get over this, because travelling is really important to me. Not because of money or anything material. It is just important. As most things in life, I sat down and thought more deeply about this – what made me cancel my trips?

I realised that every time I planned a trip, it would be at least a month in advance. I would get excited for a few days, but then I would end up getting anxious…this anxiety would build up slowly until the week just before the travel date, and then I would cancel because it would get too much! How to plan, pack so anxiously for an activity that is my passion?

I realised that an impromptu trip might actually cure me of this anxiety loop-a-loop! So I just decided a day before, did some minimal packing and left for Pune. Pune being only four hours from Mumbai, I hardly needed to do any prior planning!

I had a good four days of relaxation, and being on my own in Pune at a favorite budget hotel. I know the city quite well, so I didn’t really travel much anywhere. I was considering going to some nearby places like Urli Kaanchan or Kaas Plateau, but got called back for some family reasons to Mumbai. Overall, it was a nice, relaxed trip, and most importantly, I feel that I am at least partially over my block!

What really helped me get over the block and go back on the road was,
1. Impromptu – just didn’t have much time to get anxious.
2. Proximity – Pune is near by, and yet far enough to classify as ‘travel’.
3. Closeness – I lived in Pune for many years, so I am close to the place.

I find that this block, and consequently working to get over it, has been a very interesting experience in my travel adventures! Have you experienced or heard of such a traveller’s block?

Priyanka Dalal has founded a social media marketing company, www.digiwhirl.com. Apart from this, she is a volunteer, traveller and an avid reader. She blogs at travel.priyankawriting.com.

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Event

200 participate in Transplant Games

Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney Foundation
Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney Foundation
Organ donors and recipients participate in the sporting event held in Mumbai on Sunday. A pitch report from the organisers.

The nation has seen the best of performances by Indian sportsmen in recent times. Mumbai was witness to another national sporting event, which was very different from other sporting events – this was the ‘National Transplant Games’, organised by the Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Narmada Kidney Foundation, for the fifth consecutive year. The Games were held at Goregaon.

Transplant Games 2012 by Narmada Kidney FoundationAs per estimates, about 200 patients from across the length and breadth of the country participated in the Transplant Games held on Sunday. Dr Bharat Shah, founder of the Foundation said, “This is one of the most emotionally overwhelming events for us. It is such a pride and pleasure to watch the enthusiasts coming from different parts of the country to participate in the Games. This event has been inspiring not only many potential recipients and donors, but also the Foundation to keep working in this direction relentlessly.”

The Transplant Games 2012 encapsulated outdoor and indoor games, especially organised for the transplant recipients and the organ donors. The objective of these Games is to demonstrate the success of organ transplantation and paint a big, positive and hopeful picture for the future donors and transplant patients. The Games underscore the significance of care, compassion and contribution.

Dr Shah further added, “Every year, approximately four lakh people are diagnosed with the last stage of acute kidney failures, of which only 4,000 patients are fortunate to get a kidney transplant. Approximately 10,000 patients are put at the helm of dialysis, which is an expensive modality with poor quality of life and poor long term survival. The approximate cost of dialysis is Rs 25,000 per month and the cost keeps increasing with the passing time for the patient.”

Approximately 2,000 patients on dialysis are waiting to receive kidney transplant in Mumbai alone. At the current rate, it would take 10 to 15 years for a dialysis patient on the cadaver wait list to receive a transplant. The present situation is alarming, as many patients would exhaust their resources on dialysis when they have their turn for a transplant. There are patients to tell their own stories of struggle, suffering and fighting for the life merely waiting for the day when they would be able to receive a transplant of the critical organ, like kidneys.

(Pictures courtesy Narmada Kidney Foundation)

 

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Enough said

‘Amrita Shergill threatened to seduce me’

Khushwant Singh tells Humra Quraishi about his first love affair and how he could never make a pass at women.

I need to get something off my chest. I am disturbed by the upheaval taking place in the sexual lives and attitudes of us Indians. Divorce rates are going through the roof, singletons’ clubs are seeing more memberships. And everybody’s writing books – just yesterday, a newly-divorced friend cooed that she’s all set to make the most of the divorce by penning a book on it!

So it was very refreshing to catch up with Khushwant Singh, and I asked him if he thought sex education ought to be introduced at the school level. His reply was rather surprising. “It may lead to an early indulgence in sex…but then, it’s shocking to know that many adults don’t know a thing about sex, not even the basics.”

He went on, “My friend Prem Kirpal didn’t even know that women menstruate! In his 30s, he was attracted to a woman friend and wanted to get close to her, but she wouldn’t let him near her. The next day he told me that he couldn’t go ahead with her as she was wounded!”

He said that there was “too much sexual frustration in the country, leading to rapes and gang rapes,” and that the concept of ‘love’ in India was limited to “a tiny minority that prefers to speak English rather than Indian languages, read only English books, watch only Western movies and even dream in English.” He then added, with his usual candour, what love and seduction have meant for him. “It baffles me, why do women confide in me the way they do? Total strangers have rung me up to discuss their personal problems. They tell me of their inhibitions, their love affairs, their extramarital relationships. When it comes to women, I am a patient as well as an interested listener.”

And he dwelt on seduction. “Women do seduce. I have been seduced by women all my life, right from the time I was attracted to Ghayoor (it’s she who’d held my hand). Most women have made the first pass at me, led me on, with the exception of two women, where I took the lead.

Even when I was attracted to a woman, I had little confidence to make the first move. I was terribly flattered when women made a pass at me…looking back, I wish I had the confidence to make the first move, for I could have got closer to several women, like Amrita Shergill. In fact, Amrita had threatened to seduce me just to teach my wife a lesson, but she couldn’t carry out this threat because she died a few months later.”

The thing about Khushwant is, he never holds back. I asked him about his first intense love affair, and he said, “I was in college. She was a Muslim from Hyderabad and had to come to Delhi to study at the Lady Irwin College for a degree in Home Science. I was around 17 years old and Ghayoorunissa was three years older than me, and she was my sister’s friend. On one of those occasions when she, my sister and I had gone for a movie, she’d slipped her hand in mine. That alone meant a lot to me…I really loved her. Now she is dead…she died several years ago, and I went to Hyderabad when I heard of her demise, visited her grave and have been in touch with her daughter ever since.”

“Why didn’t you marry her?” I ask.

“I went to England and she went to Hyderabad and got married. I continued to meet her even after her marriage, and I was so in love with her that I was drawn to the entire Muslim community. I believe that when you fall in love, your perception of his or her community changes, you begin to feel closer to that community.”

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story, and co-author of Simply Khushwant. 

(Khushwant Singh picture courtesy caravanmagazine.com)

Categories
Big story

Ajit Pawar returns?

Two months ago, Ajit Pawar resigned as the State’s Deputy Chief Minister after allegations of corruption. Is he returning soon?
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

A series of scams and financial irregularities committed by the State in irrigation led to the September 25 resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Yesterday, a white paper on irrigation was placed before the State Government, and it does not mention any of the irregularities committed by the Water Resources Department, that was headed by Pawar. With just days to go before the Winter Session of the State Legislature takes place in Nagpur, the big question is:

Is Ajit Pawar coming back?

Pawar, who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and is nephew to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is said to be desperate for a comeback, but the Government will have to play its cards right, especially with the Session coming up on December 11. There were talks in the NCP camp of Pawar’s comeback even before the white paper meeting took place last evening. It is also doubly suspicious that the white paper seemingly skirts all issues of corruption and merely lists the projects approved by the State in the last decade. The fact – and this was what made Pawar resign this year – that as much as Rs 35,000 crore has reportedly been siphoned off by the politician-contractor nexus in dud irrigation projects in the last 10 years, finds not the remotest mention in the white paper.

The NCP is reportedly already proclaiming that the reentry of Ajit Pawar into the State’s politics, in an official capacity, is only a matter of time, and that the timing would be decided by Sharad Pawar. However, any haste in the matter will reflect badly on the Government, say observers.

With a very ‘white’ white paper presented, and which glosses over any wrongdoing on the part of politicians and State bureaucrats, it seems that the entire exercise will only serve to bring Aijt Pawar back.

(Picture courtesy hindustantimes.com)

 

 

 

Categories
Learn

Congress will look after urban affairs

Maharasthra State Congress unit sets up an Urban Affairs Department to address issues arising out of urbanisation in the State.

It is known that Mumbai and Pune are not the only urbanised centres in the State of Maharashtra any more. But while urbanisation is slowly spreading even in hitherto mofussil areas, rising slum areas in the State’s cities are fast becoming a matter of concern. The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) proposes to address this situation.

MPCC head Manikrao Thakre has proposed the setting up of an Urban Affairs Department to study the process of urbanisation in the State, with particular reference to Mumbai. With more people migrating to the cities than ever before, primarily in search of work, the problems of housing the rising numbers of migrants, providing sanitation and transport, apart from job opportunities and a secure life in the city, are coming to the fore on a daily basis.

Says Thakre, “Keeping in mind the rising urbanisation and the issues arising out of it, the MPCC has set up the Department which will be headed by former legal counsel BA Desai. While all of India is rapidly undergoing urbanisation, the State Government needs to revisit the work and ideas put forward by the 10-member committee of experts put together by the late Rajiv Gandhi, on the matter of urbanisation.”

He adds, “About 50 per cent of Mumbai’s population lives in slums, in very bad conditions. This condition exists in the smaller cities of the State also. Hence, the Department we have set up will study the patterns of urbanisation in the State’s cities and suggest ways to make life easier for people. These suggestions will be forwarded to the State Government and followed up for faster decisions.”

The experts appointed to the new Department comprises such luminaries as former State Chief Secretary DM Sukhtankar, World Bank Advisor Vidyadhar Pathak and senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, among many others. Smaller sub-committees will be set up all across the State, Thakre says.

(Pictures courtesy indianexpress.com and web.mit.edu)

 

Categories
M

‘Gods’ behaving badly

Bollywood men are so good at talking trash, they would shame a dumpster. The talk is usually aimed at women.
by M | M@themetrognome.in

Over the years, I’ve seen the good and the bad in the Hindi film industry, but there’s an ugly side that most people don’t get to see. That women are treated as sex objects in films is a cliché that you would have missed if you were blind, but outside of the big screen, it gets worse. It’s not just about the casting couch or the forced trade of sex for a small role in a film, it’s about the actual talk, the crude language used while addressing women or speaking about them, and even the prima donnas of tinsel town are in on this.

And most women – co-workers,  actresses and costume designers – quietly take this in their stride.

The following are true stories.

Many actors are sexually involved with their female co-stars. This anecdote is about an eligible Bollywood bachelor from a legendary film family, and he makes waves with his films and his serial dating. Two years ago, he had a fling with the leading lady of his film; the leading lady in question is no fool, but a talented actor. They met on the sets of a film that was later a hit. The affair didn’t last long, but as per bystanders on the sets, they could barely keep their hands off each other. And while all this is par for the course in Bollywood, this actor indulged in kiss and tell. When nudged to divulge details of her ‘performance’ in bed to a bunch of assistant directors, makeup artists and spot boys –an all-male audience – he said, “Choosti achcha hai”.

Another gentleman who makes films that he believes strip our society naked and bring forth the ugly truth – in the bargain, contributing to the ugliness in society – gave a ‘life-changing, career-making opportunity’ to a model desperate to make it big in Bollywood. Following the break – surprise! – came the nightmare. After gruelling hours of shoots outside the city, the piss drunk director would go on a rampage unless his ‘needs’ were satisfied.

On one such night, the director got so drunk that he ended up knocking on the door of the wrong hotel room. That room’s guest, a middle-aged male accountant working with the film’s production house, was not prepared for this nocturnal visit, and opened the door to find the director leaping at him. The guest guided him out of his room into the hallway, and watched him bounce from door to door in search of her.

Finally, the director found her room and when she opened the door, he yelled, “Idhar hi khol!”. When the actress tried to pull him inside the room, he refused and bombarded her with words like ran** and saali, reminding her of the “opportunity” he had given her and that she should reward him back in sex, the way he wants it, whenever, wherever he wants it.

And there is this superstar who commands the box-office like no other and is famous for his very public break-ups, apart from his abusive relationships with women. This episode occurred when he was dating one of the most beautiful women in the world, also an actress. On a bright summer afternoon, they had a fight in the middle of the road, and he didn’t care that the abuses he was hurling at her could be heard by all. The actress sobbed endlessly, while the tough dude kept lashing out at her. This lasted a couple of hours, including his smoke breaks outside the car (drinks break was inside the car). And throughout, the girl cried in silence. A few months later, they broke up and the entire country was witness to that event as well.

And the asking of sexual favours from costume designers, make-up artists or female assistant directors is as brazen as, “Vanity van mein chalti hai kya?”

For women, the dream of being treated with respect remains just that…a dream. Many of the ‘stakeholders’ in Bollywood are misogynistic pigs. I hope that some day the tables turn and then men can be treated like dirt bags, too. Till then, the ladies can just suffer in silence.

Sharp as a tack and sitting on more hot scoops than she knows what to do with, M is a media professional with an eye on entertainment.

(Picture courtesy ragedindian.com. Picture used for representational purpose only)

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