The Calm before the Musical Storm! Blumerq's Fashion Show

Before settling into the music event, Blumerq had organised a fashion show. The designs that were displayed had Blumerq's shirts, tees, chinos, and denims on display. The brand while it portrayed fashion, showed a connection to the Indian way of fashion, with wrap arounds adding to the flavour.

The backdrop of the concert was very colourful, once the evening set, and the fashion show, hogged a lot of attention from the 10,000 strong crowd, that was waiting at the event. The concert was  a fine melange of style focussed music afficianados, Spring summer 14 was colorful like never before with flashes of yellows and lime green, cooled by the blues. I quite liked the digital aesthetics & sensuous nature that was on display
 with interplay of colors.

Blumerq's casual bottoms are also getting colorful this summer from flaming brick red to the ever
aqua green. Its quite a new thing to get used to, seeing men in colourful shades of 256, instead of the usual 16 that we men see. Its not only that  the colors  are new, Blumerq is also introducing some new trendy fits
that will give an edge to one's look.

They  also have summer cargos in light weight slub cottons and blotch cottons.

Some of Blumerq's Woven shirts come in Pastel bright from solid oxfords to space dye stripes. Mediumcheck with bright accent colors, Printed shirts in light weight cotton are balanced with linens and 

pinpoint oxford in neutrals colors. What's also working for Blumerq's designs is that they have color blocked shirts in tonal colors which can be worn both at work and on a weekend.

Weekend Trip to Sawantvadi and Vengurla

There has always been this romance associated with unreserved and unplanned travel in terms of meeting new people, understanding their life story, and exploring lands already explored by well known travellers.. I set off on this trip alone, after office on last friday. At 7 15 pm, I decided to call it a day and head to Dadar Railway station for buying a ‘unreserved’ ticket from Dadar to Pernem. Now the best train to catch, to head to the konkan coast, would be Train number 6335, from the outskirts of Mumbai. When buying unreserved tickets in Mumbai, for travel north or south, the best place to buy it would be at the bigger railway terminuses like Dadar/VT/Bombay Central/Bandra Terminus/Borivali/Panvel. I tried buyinga a ticket from Lower Parel, but that is seemingly not possible and if you do head to the Dadar, you need to get it only from the counter on Dadar East.

Dadar-Pernem- 137 rs

Now after purchasing my tickets and realising that the 10 pm train at Panvel was a better option than the Konkan Kanya express, I decided to head to Mani’s lunch home at Matunga and explore the combo that keeps every Tam guy worth existing- Ghee roast and filter coffee. After a short tiffen, I managed to find a taxi to Wadala Road station and took the local train to Panvel, which eased and ambled to Panvel by 9 30 pm, with the crowd being 1/1000th of what it was when I bullied people to head butt my way at Wadala road.

Once at Panvel, I removed the heavy bag I was carrying and allowed my shoulders to be free. The last 2 day’s work out sessions had obviously made every sinew of my shoulder writhe in pain. I was feeling weak all of a sudden, whether I would have the energy to last the night braving the crowd in the unreserved compartment. But Today was Gudi Padwa, Maharashtrian new year, so every Mumbaikar was at home celebrating with family and if he was a travel freak, he would have left on Thursday night and not on Friday night, when I was leaving.

Just when my shoulders were groaning, I came across a short, dark man who seemed to be glancing into reams of paper. I guessed, he must be the TTE, and went and asked him if there was a possibility of getting a reserved seat. Today was my day, and given that quite a few states celebrated new year on Friday, nobody was competing with me on the train to Sawantwadi. The TTE charged me 200 rs extra for accomadating me in a middle berth, for me to lay me shoulders to rest.

Fine to the TTE- 200 Rs

I must have woken up every half an hour after 2 30 am, and finally decided to get up at 5 am, as the train was scheduled to arrive at Sawantwadi at 5 15 am. With everyone sleeping in the compartment, I couldnt rely on ‘wisdom of the crowds’ to get off, so I decided to take the plaunge of connecting the mobile phone GPS on my N-81, on Roaming(this combo guzzles the charge on your mobile). I was still a few kilometres from my destination, and so I decided to abandon my 2 foot space of the middle birth and stand at the footboard, allowing the morning chill winds to hit my face. After staring aimlessly at darkness, I saw that next to the toilet, there was a charging point and decided to charge my mobile phone. My friend Vinay, was to pick me up at the station. He had arrived the previous night after a sales visit to central Maharashtra. Vinay had brought an auto along and we drove to Sawantwadi town, which was 9 km’s from the station. I hear that there is only 1 hotel near the sawant wadi railway station, and if you are caught up at the station, there’s atleast a paid home to go to unlike stations in Goa( Pernem/Thivim/Karmali/Cancona).

We had breakfast in an udupi hotel, where the sun’s rays had just pierced in at around 7 15 am. We tried to ask the hotel proprietor for breakfast at 6 20 am, but he was least interested in serving us, as words like ‘customer’, ‘dhandha’ are alien terms in this slow moving,bovine and peaceful town.

Its not that you have too many options within a few minutes of the hotel opening. Whatever we asked for resulted in 3 items being suggested/reccomended. Upma,Sheera and Poha. We were in a mood for any thing, as long as it facilitated bowel movement and gave us a pleasant taste to make us feel good, while we saunter around the town.

The plate on the left is mine, which has Sheera(Yellow sweet) and Upma. Vinay is seen having Poha, which has become his favourite dish after he relocated to Mumbai.

The town reminded me of the faint little town of Malgudi, which had a sense of calm written all over it.

People are early to rise and discuss news with other people in the promenade of the lake.

We went to the Sawantwadi bus stand to find a sleepy little mini-town that was in no hurry to head to the coast. The coastal buses here go to either Vengurla, Kudal or Terekhol. We decided on Vengurla and sat in the bus to find a certain calm that was not present in the big cities.

The bus never had a fixed time of leaving, nor did the conductor seemed to have any fixed target on number of commuters. It was a happy little world that fortunately had no one with a dagger saying DEADLINES! People could stop the bus by just plonking their foot 2 steps on the road and that would be a bus stop. We were asking around a farmer on some observations we had on the fields as to why Hay was kept in stacks all over the fields. We heard from him that, it was food for his horses and animals, who were working on the fields. Nothing super duper, just that corporate life dulls your common sense!

One needs to climb a small ascent to get to a ruined stone fort. Shot this from there. Alluring views of the azure waters and the palm/coconut trees.

How much must that be? 20 metres long and walkable in 20 seconds? NO… It was far longer than we expected and the water was close to 6-7 feet deep, during the high tide. Vinay decided to get inside and try out how quickly we could cross, as we had a laptop bag to ferry across. When he came back bleeding from the swim, we realised that the water was deep and had gorges and rocks inside, so we hired a small boat for 50 Rs to help us cross to UTOPIA.

While on the boat, during the 10 minute ride, we played the oarsman, learning how to use the oars in the lake, with the fisherman also giving an insight into his life. The fisherman,during the monsoon, also doubles up as a mechanic to supplement the income, which goes on a downward spiral with rough seas and weather conditions. during such impulse trips, conversations with the local people reveals a lot about the place, people, their customs, their lives, their motivations and then finally you are able to connect the dots between geography and history that lies dormant in your brain.

GOA??? Wasn’t I in Maharashtra during sunset? After we discovered at around 5 30 pm, that food might be a problem at Vengurla, We decided to explore the next beach, so a state transport bus from Vengurla market, took us to a town called Shiroda, and from Shiroda we reached Terekhol (border of Maharashtra). We took an evening(make that twilight) ferry and reached the other side, and had no other option but to take a taxi to civilization – Arambol

Damage- 400 Rs

Next, we settled into German Bakery(Damage- 300 Rs), a room good enough just to park your electronic luggage. We then headed out for a dinner at “21 Coconuts Inn’ for a candle lit dinner, which was briefly interrupted by the romantic tele-presence of Vinay’s boss. By the time we finished, both of us were tired, and we hit the sack by about 12 am, after a brief walk through the Arambol market, hunting for medicines (for my headache).

Next morning, we were up by 5 30 am, and I had a bath in the Arabian Sea, while I waited for Vinay to get ready. We started to cross arambol and came to the Sweet Water Lake beach. The sweet water lake was dry and it wasn’t worth taking a dip there.

We saw a couple of nice portable boats cum tents. Looks like the Russians are all over(Little Zizou ishtyle). Only the Russians can be that adventurous, and after day dreaming about what a beautiful life those people must be having, and bitching about Indian corporate life, we set on to climb a huge hill, to reach Keri

While we were trekking, Vinay decided to take rest at a huge rock, and dozed of for a while, while gazing at the blue sky. It was a lovely feeling, dozing off and then waking up to the blue sky above as vision comes after a period of darkness. Try it some day!
The mountain had a bunch of bushes and thorns that we had to make way through to reach the other part of the mountain. Vinay, then decided that we follow the footsteps of the dogs that were rambling, as they knew the terrain much better than us. Better to rely on dogs than our mutilated intelligence (thanks to the Corporate world).

At an Arijit Singh and Aakruti Kakkar Concert By BlumerQ

This was a concert sponsored by Blumerq Official. During the event, Blumerq (a casual clothing brand for men) launched their Spring Summer 14 collection. The concert featured Kishore Sodha who opened the event with mellifluos renditions of Kishore Da’s songs. Kishore Sodha, had palyed the trumpet for “Badtameez Dil” in the movie “Yeh Jawaani Hain Deewani”. Arijit Singh and Aakruti Kakkar, entertained the audience with 45 minute performances. Some of the songs that Arijit sang where a unplugged medley of songs from Ashiqui-2, Agent Vinod and a few other recent Bollywood flicks. Aakruti Kakkar entertained and lifted the tempo of the evening, by singing some yester-year classics like “Aye Huzoor Tumko” and “Dama Dam Mast Kalandar(A Runa Laila Classic).

The Road to Hana

That Road to Hana and Haleakala!

Not having much time on a 3 day break in the US, I decided I would take the plunge and do a road trip instead of signing up with a tour operator in the city. The challenge, however, was to drive on the right as they do in the US, in contrast to driving on the left in India.

I rented a Lucerne Buick, a luxury sedan and slowly set off from the airport, rambling about slowly for about 20 minutes, trying to din it in my head about driving on the right. As the rubber met the road and the GPS were starting to make me feel comfortable, I started to turn the music on to the yesteryear Kishore da road trip number ‘Chala Jaata Hoon’, humming my way along the expanse of the 60 mile ride to my hotel. 

Once I went to the hotel, I decided to keep only what was essential for the road trip, and kept the rest of my baggage at the hotel. The drive restarted with some wonderful vistas of the Pacific ocean by the side.. The agenda for the drive was a 300 mile stretch to Hana, through mountains and a rain forest, and back, followed by another drive to a 10,000 feet-above sea level volcano, before sunrise.

The drive started with the contrast of the grey roads, and the ensuing scenery of the blues of the Pacific Ocean in the background, which changed to a green and grey contrast, as soon as I entered the rainforest region. I stopped over a quick lunch, in a ramshackle caravan that was serving lunch in the rainforest, and proceeded on my drive to Hana. The interesting part during the drive at a point was to sea sunshine on side with the sea on the left and sees rains on the other side with clouds and mist building up, and I was driving exactly between these 2 weather patterns. I found time to explore Hana,trek to a nearby volcanic red sand beach and have some lovely ‘me’ time peace, that I had not found in the chaos of work. 

I had time to drive by a beautiful ‘Greekish’ sunset by the beach, and now proceeded to drive to the best part of the journey after a short rest and dinner- The drive to Haleakala crater was a 150 mile distance again, and this started at 1 30 in the morning, driving on the mountain roads with no street lights. As you meander along the curves of the mountains overlooking the clouds, the chill in the air went up every curve until you reached the summit at 10,000 feet. It was beautiful looking at the how the clouds go orange from dark blue, as the sun comes up to take over from the moon, on its celestial duties! What started off as ‘Chala Jaata Hoon’ ended with a Bryan Adams number-‘ Those were the best days of my life’ as the morning sun rays became stronger!

Pictures from the Trip

The Lucerne Buick that I rented.

The contrast of the grey roads, with the Blues and Greens



Caravan Lunch by the Road!

 
Contrasting Weather Patterns on 2 sides of the same road.

Exploring Hana's coast and a trek to a Red Sand Beach!

Sunset Drive!

 
Pausing the Sunset!

The Meandering Roads to the Volcano Summit


Yoohoo! "I survived the Road Trip to Hana"




 Those were the best days of my life, and This was the Best Drive of My Life! The complete pictureset can be viewed here

2013- Year in Review-Cricket

The year 2013 was quite a year for the institution of Cricket. It had its nadirs and zeniths, but a few of them stand out in the brain’s primary memory when I reflect the year gone by.

The ‘Tigers’ at Home Theory: World cricket is slowly getting to a stage when most teams are becoming tigers at home, and lambs abroad. You would associate this phenomenon with India over the 90’s, but globally this year, has epitomized that. England, won the Ashes at home, and expected to make it 4 in a row, and no one would have predicted anything different. Allan Border believed before the first test at ‘The Gabba’ that Australia’s fast bowlers would ambush England, and most of us mistook it for the empty boasts/sledges that come from Australian media before a series. How wrong were we! Mitchell Johnson ran through Australia, like a knife through butter, and yet another home series, was one by the hosts. There must be something in the air, which made test teams in 2013, get the trump card in the home advantage (Mukul Kesavan wrote a piece on the same) The IPL too, showed similar signs, where Harsha observed a similar pattern, where the hosts made their home grounds as their fortresses.  The Bangladeshis carried some of that theory in ODI cricket, by near flawless performances in the ODI series against New Zealand.

Ghost of Match Fixing

IPL: When Sreesanth’s name flashed one fine morning, I thought it was one of those gimmicks, until the repeated coverage told me that something more sinister and serious had happened. To add to the drama, when IPL owners were betting, and when Srini’s son told of how his father’s connections in Dubai were not just with the ICC, but also with suspicious characters, world cricket’s skeletons were being opened. The IPL, was attracting all the wrong set of people.

Then it was Ashraful who admitted that he had attempted in corrupt practices during the BPL, it did send a few signals to the world, that all of the money and the glitz of the T20 leagues may have a lot lying beneath, which may not be all that pleasant to stomach.

ICC being bullied by BCCI

The BCCI’s has always been known to arm-twist cricket boards into not playing international cricket, or playing with second-string sides, during an IPL (thereby guaranteeing the best talent in the IPL). The BCCI went to a new low, by changing the Future Tours Program, to accommodate a grand farewell to Sachin at home, and also hitting the ego of Haroon Lorgat, which it saw as a thorn in their flesh (during Haroon’s reign as the former head of ICC). Two battles won in 1 move, but cricket lost in the end! The world got to see Sammy bowling to Sachin, instead of Sachin playing Steyn and Morkel. Anyways, maybe that was better than watching Sachin taking on some hapless Sri Lankan bowlers.

Cricket First, Monies and Careers Next!

In the era of big bucks pervading cricket, its quite rare to find cricketers playing just for the love of the game, ignoring remunerative career options. The Zimbabweans played the best cricket of their life in a decade, humbling Pakistan at home, in a series where the ZCU did not have enough money to fly players to another city, and put them in hotel rooms!

Afghanistan rise in world cricket has been meteoric since they qualified for the World T20 in the Caribbean (2010), and their fairy tale story went a notch further when they sustained their excellence by qualifying for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Rise of Indian Cricket

Indian Cricket started the year gloomily by losing the Airtel ODI series against Pakistan, and ended the year badly with a series loss against South Africa. In between they recovered well, to win tests against Australia and West Indies at home, and a stellar performance away at the Wanderers against South Africa. They also struck gold in winning ODI series against England and Australia at home, winning a tri-series in the Caribbean, played their B side to win in Zimbabwe, and the icing on the cake being their victory in the Champions Trophy. In that period, they unearthed yet another swing bowler from the by lanes of Meerut, in Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who impressed fans, with his swing. India discovered a new and hungry Rohit Sharma in Tests, just in time to coincide with Sachin’s retirement in tests, and found Cheteshwar Pujara an ideal foil to replace Rahul’s absence in the middle. At the top of the order, India’s selectors discovered a successor to the fatigued, but warhorse opening combination of Sehwag and Gambhir, in Vijay and Dhawan who made impressive centuries to cement their place in the side.  Mahender Singh Dhoni, found more reason to underline his immense importance to the side with crucial knocks, like the one in the Celkon Tri-series final cup in the Caribbean. The T20 domestic leagues, too found some blood going through their veins, with Mumbai Indians dominating the IPL, as well as the Champions League! Enough reasons to believe that “Happy Days are back again”

Farewell

Childhood had become a habit, and could never disconnect with the adult self that the 80’s generation had grown up with, thanks to Sachin playing. His retirement and final series, reached a mass crescendo, pretty much to the tune of a national tragedy. The man who had given joy to millions of Indians, with the way his wood treated leather, had decided to hang up his boots. The BCCI and Star Sports decided to cash in on the Super bowl like opportunity to make it the longest farewell. The rest of the world did not quite treat their heroes with so much pomp, except for a few articles in print about their heroics. Swann and Kallis wouldn’t quite mind their silent journey into the sunset of their careers, as they seemed to truly pause when the law of diminishing marginal returns hit their cricket. Not quite, the same reason that Sachin chose to go, but Sachin would always be my hero!

Retirements in Formats

There is so much of cricket on the television that I am starting to think like cricketers, if I should retire from watching one of the formats. I am already so fatigued, that I am not able to employ my primary memory to pull any more memories of the year. Maybe I will think about it, if Twitter makes #ThankYoutWEETOLOGER hash tags to trend for a day :-)

The Armor of God-By Ram Mishra- Book Review!

The Armour of God- By Ram Mishra- Book Review

I was part of a generation that grew up in the 80’s thinking that it was fashionable to have Hanuman’s mace and Ram’s quiver, more than G.I.Joe toys. In a country that knew nothing else than Doordarshan’s solitary TV Channel, one had little options than to watch Ramayan and Mahabharat. Naturally, I entered the 90’s armed with mythology trivia, also complemented by Amar Chitra Katha’s series of books on Indian Gods. All of that evaporated with STAR Television entering India in the early 90’s. The mythology I knew seemed all the more  silly as I grew up, starting with statements like “King Dasharatha lived for a thousand years”. I was becoming a drop out on the subject of mythology, before I read Ram’s bookon “The Armor of God’. The book has helped me look at mythology with a little more respect, since it has kindled my curiosity levels to seek for the hidden gems that’s were not told as part of our history text books.

The book is a good read, where characters from the past, and the present are mixed, in a fantasy tale, that aims to through light theories or viewpoints not known before.  The book starts well with the fantasy tale, setting the tone for the further chapters, before an interesting theory of the Aryan Invasion is discussed. This is the point where I wondered where the blurring line between mythology and the ignored Indian history could have been. It is at this point within the first 30 pages, that lets you feel at ease, that the book is probably going to unravel more such stories.

Whether it’s the part where the body aches after time travel, or the  powers of the Saligrama stone, the book enthralls you by opening up your mind, to think about the experience.  The narrative of this cross era fantasy, never for once, lets your mind think that all of this could be made up, thereby making the reader put faith in the narrative, to read further to explore mysteries that were probably not told. While it does draw into the otherwise western notion, that India is a land of many mystics, the story remains relevant to the reader. 

To briefly talk about the story, its about how the normal lives of 2 beings on planet Earth, suddenly changes when they realize that they are incarnations of 2 popular characters from the Mahabharata, one of whom is Karna. The story does well to move back and forth between the present and the connection to the ages of the Mahabharata, and keeps the reader gripped on.

In short, the book is a great investment in understanding our culture, through the spirit of enquiry, and sets your mind thinking on what the history of India was, and what was the history we were actually given in our text books. That delta is exactly your gain from reading the book. 

Do get your copy, by buying the book here on Flipkart.

One Unforgettable Bus Journey!

One Unforgettable Bus Journey

8 am April 13- 2011

As I was browsing through the newspaper, I took a closer look at the date. I was 48 hours from my wife's birthday, and it totally skipped my mind, since I was busy pursuing my alternate career as  a cricket correspondent for a radio station(Chennai LIVE 104.8 FM) in Chennai. Before my wife found out, that I had no surprises lined up on her birthday, I had to figure a place, mode of commute and a nice room[ apart from a gift that makes her go WOW]

I went to my bathroom with my laptop, and within a few Google searches,honed in on Gokarna, a place diametrically opposite to Chennai, on the west coast. I booked bus tickets on KSRTC, for a 1330 bus ( or so I thought ), and booked a beach facing room on OM beach.

I told my wife,that there was a surprise waiting for her,and she should pack her bags for a quick 5 day trip. I did not mention the name of the place though, and used the time she was dressing up to buy her a fastrack watch.

45 minutes early or 15 minutes late?

We biked our way to the CMBT bus stand, reached there 45 minutes early, so that I could blindfold her in the bus, and not tell her the location. It turned out that, I had seen the 1330 bus,but had booked the 1230 bus instead, and here I was at the bus stand,15 minutes after the bus had left. 1 part of the surprise broke, when she realised that we had to board another Bangalore bus. We took the 1330 bus, and found our way to Bangalore.

Bangalore Darshan

 I realized that we had to reach Navrang Theatre ( North Bangalore) to board another private bus to Gokarna at 2130. Our bus to Bangalore was late(2010)and it reached Silk Board, on the southern periphery of the city, and I decided to get down here, and rush in auto to the northern end of the city. After agreeing to the auto-drivers random number quote, and frantic calls to my wife's cousin in Bangalore,we realised that we may not make it to the 2130 bus,being stuck in one of the many traffic jams. My relatives sensed that we had not had any food, so packed some rotis for us, and drove to the bus stand,to ask the bus to wait for us. Luckily for us, the bus was delayed by 30 minutes and waited 5 more minutes for us, after our 3 wheel mad goose chase across the ends of the city. The conductor called out loud and clear, for passengers to Gokarna, and the final surprise element evaporated in thin air, as my wife heard his shrieks.

Celebritydom in Bhatkal

Some more adventure followed next morning. It was my turn to report on last night's IPL match for the radio station back home, which I had completely forgotten. I had no clue about the game in last night's mad chase,and had very little battery charge left on my mobile. I called up a friend, and he mailed me the Cricinfo scorecards, which I read in 2 minutes, and then the call came from the radio station asking me to stay on line, while they introduce me in the show. I could not do this in a moving bus with wind blowing from both sides,so asked the driver to stop on the road for 2 minutes, which was in the outskirts of a town called Bhatkal. I got down from the bus and got on with my match report, on phone with a lot of gesticulations with my hands and face, to drive home the impact of Pune beating Kochi in last night’s match. As I finished, I saw some 20 people around me, listening and watching intently, including the bus driver. They thought I was some celebrity who was doing Live reporting, since I also had my SLR camera dangling across my neck(which I had kept to take moving shots from the bus) My wife was clearly amused by the turn of events, and had quite a start to her birthday eve! We had more adrenalin than we had bargained for, and hoped we'd get some more on our trip, as the bus made its way to the rickety Gokarna Bus stand.