Newspapers!

It's a morning ritual to read newspapers while drinking hot masala tea!! 

Sunday editions are most looked forward to because of additional offbeat articles.. 

Despite the advent of instant news at your fingertips, you still look forward to it. 

The feel of turning pages, inhaling the smell of print and paper and reading local announcements,ads and information is indispensible.  

Sometimes, you read the headlines and exclaim "hey I read it online yest!", yet you will devour the article thinking if any extra Info is listed.

Newspaper articles enriches your vocabulary as well. As a matter of fact, any reading will ensure this. 

Unfortunately, these days newspapers are more of advertisements. During festive season, you have to swim through 4 huge cover pages of latest sales ads before reaching the front page section. 

Well, describing news articles consisting of terrorism and gruesome incidents like rape shall take up the entire blogger space. When you feel you had enough scare of one event, another takes place with more ferocity.  Alas, this is how it is, I suppose.

Page 3 features the latest parties and their party animals. Sometimes i wonder, how difficult it would be for wannabes/constant people to maintain a wardrobe with different styles to attend events regularly.

Its a great medium to reach out to the users who aren't net savvy. 

Also helps in promoting the local events/exhibitions/sales to a better effect.


What are the other uses of newspapers?

• Spread it on your almirah shelf to contain dust.
• Use it to soak extra oil while trying those bhajis and puris.
  
  
• Wrap your sanitary pads for disposal.
• Cover your unused items for storage.
• Spray some Colin liquid on window panes and tables and wipe it off with it.
• Keep it in between your ironed clothes for starched look.
• Best of all -- keep collecting newspapers and sell it off to the raddiwala for a good price, after bargaining!

Sunday Ritual - Doordarshan Time..!

In the 90's, growing up was uncomplicated and active! 

We had mud on clothes, scratches worn as war  medals, anticipating cousins' visits, waiting for holidays to go to nani-house, calling from the round-dial telephones and much more. 

One vivid memory, etched for eternity, is fine tuning the old television set manually to smooth out wrinkles of Doordarshan Channel!

Elders fondly recollect shows like Hum Log, Karamchand, Mungerilal ke haseen sapne, News, Surabhi etc while we have great memories of Shaktimaan, Alif Laila, Ramayana,Shri Krishna etc.

School time discussions centered around shaktimaan and emulating his spinning action. Andhera kayam rahe! 

Discussions at home revolved around renuka shahane's hairstyle and signature namaste. 

Mythological gyaan was duly enriched by Ramanand sagar's Shri Krishna and Ramayana. 

BR Chopra's Mahabharata! 

Every 90's kid will at least have a vague outline along with protagonists names and characters of the 2 legendary works, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

A typical sunday morning scene featured gulping a glass of milk in front of the TV screen, while mom screamed "peeche baitho, aankhen kharab ho jaayegi"! 

Grandma literally used to worship Lord Rama on TV when Ramayana used to be telecasted. 

Lord Krishna seemed to be manifested in Nitish Bharadwaj ( the actor).

Mahabharata and Ramayana war scenes (arrows flying, thunderstorms etc) introduced the concept of graphics and VFX, albeit in nascent stage. 

Alif Laila took us to exotic lands of djinns,chudails and treasure hunts.  Show me a single person who isn't fascinated with such stories! 

Who can forget the multi coloured vertical lines before the start of any show or in case of "inconvenience is regretted"! 

 Such was the massive following and power of visuals.

Sacrosanct time for the entire family. Congregate on your assigned seats and watch TV. No fighting over remotes ( there weren't any!) or having a plethora of channels to choose from. Just one and only one, Doordarshan! 

This blog post is inspired from Indispire topic on Indiblogger. 

Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?

Few friends met up for a casual dinner. 
One of them bought along his cousin, who had just shifted to the city. 
Quickly the introductions took place. His epic reply  stunned everyone, eventually dissolving into peals of laughter!

" hello everyone, my name is avinash dutta. Mom and dad had named me after consulting my horoscope letter but they keep calling me beta or Sonu. 

My friends call me avi. Teachers refer to me as dutta.  My girlfriend calls me by tons of name depending on her mood. I go from mera baby, jaanu,honey, jaan till kutte. Maid and society watchmen address me as bhaiyya. Kids call out to me as uncle.I sometimes feel am avu, simple and sweet.  Hence please feel to call me whatever you wish!" 

His reply perfectly summarises what name means to various people in different contexts. 

Our brain cells guide us in selecting a name for a newborn. Many algorithms, such as the name should have a good meaning, it's short form shouldn't change the intrinsic meaning, the letter as per the
horoscope/birth chart has to be used; determines it finally. 

Indian parents love rhyming names for their children. Example : my name is anushree and my sister is addressed as tanushree! Talk about being lazy, rather than smart!

These are good for the official paperworks and Ids. Half of the time, you are called anything, but your real name! 

Nick names are called by our family and friends,lovingly. They can either be short form of the real name or something very different! 

Friends have a uncanny knack of bestowing the creepiest,funniest and whackiest of names.

Your character traits, your physical traits, social traits, sometimes no reason whatsoever etc help them to name you! 
Example : My best buddies call me teddy bear, chudail and moti murgi! 

Best ones are when little kids call you. Its like they have internal antennas to gauge you and your age. 
Looking young and smart? then its Bhaiyya! 
Having a bad day? its Uncle time! 

Its creeped me out when after my wedding, i met few kids ( the following week of wedding mind you! ) i was instantly addressed as AUNTY! 
did they see my ek chutki sindoor? I was remembering Ekta Kapoor & Hum Paanch serial. Aunty mat kaho na!! 

Household staff, waiters, parlour staff, support personnel etc always address you as bhaiyya or didi! Some enthu cutlets over do it by adding ji to the bhaiyya and bhabhiji to his wife! 

"Madam/Sir" -- Doesn't this give the feeling of sophistication? Thank your office staff and luxury hotel personnel for the sudden elevated feeling :) 

Embarrassing names are reserved for your special someone. 

Imagine, your spouse loudly yells, jaaaanuuuu where are you? in a busy mall.! 

sniggers, here and there, i tell you! 

yes! 

Jaanu, honey, munchkins, cupcake,jaaneman, puppy,shona, mera baby, mera babu etc are common lover names. 

Wait a minute, Awwwwww..... That is cho chweet! :) 


Am sure, you have heard all of the above, sometime during your yatra of life! :) 


This post is inspired by indispire on Indiblogger