Glorious Sixty Year Olds

Lata Mangeshkar...in Her Own Voice: Conversations with Nasreen Munni Kabir by Kabir Munni Nasreen My rating: 5 of 5 stars Lata Mangheskar – in her own voice Conversations with Nasreen Munni Kabir What an absolutely beautiful book!! It is one of the most enjoyable ‘coffee-table’ books that I have ever read or seen. To relegate it to the level of ‘coffee-table’ books would be doing it an injustice – because it has some amazing photographs that I have seen, and it brings one of our most famous icons closer to us. The black and white image of a very young Lataji on the cove, sets the tone for a memorable book. Nasreen Munni Kabir did a six-part documentary series on Lata Mangheskar in 1991 for Channel 4, titled ‘In Her Own Voice’. In 2008, she began to update the conversations she had with Lataji and convert them into a book. Lataji is one of the most reclusive of Indian icons. She leads a sheltered life and rarely do we see her in film magazines, nor has her life been enmeshed i...

My city is a fascinating city – and I wish more people would love it rather than keep complaining about it. Oh, I do agree that it has bad traffic problems, its citizens have major attitude problems and the pollution is enough to make you want to run away. But there is so much to love in this city – there is so much to enjoy here – let me tell you some of the reasons why I feel that there are few places like it!! 1. Music everywhere – it is winter and the music season is becoming very active. Where else can you sit in the Nehru Park and listen to phenomenal musicians such as Amjad Ali Khan, L. Subramanian, Kishori Amonkar and many others for free. Which other city can boast of free Percussion festivals, where you can just sit back among amazing greenery and get lost in the sounds around you. Now they are also going to have a Food Palate festival at Nehru Park. What I love is the fact that during these concerts the audience ranges from the very young to the very old, proving that ou...

Sunitee, you were a very special and cheerful lady and we were blessed to have known you and be loved by you. You smiled whenever we met you, you smiled even after your home was robbed in 1984, you smiled when you lost your precious jewellery to scamsters and above all you smiled when we met you after you had just been diagnosed with cancer. How did you do this? In my over 40 years of friendship with you I cannot recall a single day when you looked angry and upset, when you raised your voice or when you felt that you had not been dealt a good hand by fate. You smiled even when you gently told us that you were not happy with what we were doing or saying. My last memory of you is when I met you in the ICU, even then you smiled and greeted all of us one by one. You really and truly were a very caring person. Today, everyone remembers your grace and dignity, your ability to light up a room just by walking into it, your ability to talk to anyone and everyone at every party...

It never seemed possible - it was just an idea thrown to a couple of cousins and relatives, but very soon it transformed itself into an an impromptu holiday. Going to Dalhousie with 40 people was not one thing that we had planned initially, but very soon like a rolling stone it began to gain momentum and soon we had to start saying - no more - we do not have the space ! Dalhousie has always been a very special place - maybe any place which is connected with our childhood is like that. We forget the discomfort and the bad infrastructure, we only remember the laughter and the bonhomie and the presence of our family around us. Others may wonder what we saw in Dalhousie, but we wondered why they could not see the charm and beauty of this serene hill station. This holiday had some very special memories - days that are etched in our minds and still bring a smile to our faces. The breakfast at Mama's Rasoi was a forerunner of all the noise and food that was to become...

Letters to our father, Mr. S.D.Bhasin, written by his teacher,   at Benaras Hindu University. in the year 1943 Advice that is pertinent even today!! June 6, 1943 Regarding your search, I have only one thing to say, look for a heart and not for a body. If you can get both in one, consider yourself extraordinarily lucky. But many young-men can hardly judge young women. It is a supreme test of your intuition and your intelligence. Quite often girls who are outspoken, whom people sometimes miscall forward, are very sound at heart. Girls who flirt or connive at flirtation will be found worthless, in that sense a forward girl will be no good. Sometimes, or rather quite often, girls who are otherwise quiet and look like ‘budhoos’ (only look like them) are very intelligent and they know their job. Mind you have to win a heart and it is no joke to do so. I am no believer in love at first sight. It is very, very rare. More often one or the other heart falls to the b...

Where has the saree gone? It is true - saris seem to have vanished from the dressing scene. Any parties you go to, there may be just one lady wearing a saree - probably me! Everyone else is either in a suit or in pants. Except for weddings - where the saree makes a fabulous appearance, all my friends and acquaintances seem to have locked their sarees into old stores somewhere, only to be aired on marriage occasions, and then sent into hibernation again. Personally I find a saree the most graceful national dress in the world. It looks so good, it swirls and it sways, it wraps around with such grace and shimmer, and it comes in every color and shade possible. Can we say that of a suit? Sarees should never go out of fashion, but unfortunately it seems to have happened! Is there are any other dress that can be borrowed so easily. Get a blouse and petticoat that fits you and borrow your friend or your sister's saree, and you are set to woo the world. If you have great figure -...

Holidays in the US generally follow a standard mode. There is a lot of eating out, an inordinate amount of time spent at Macy's and Target, and of course above all, just sitting around with Anu and Will. But this time there were two unique occasions, or three to be exact which left some memories behind, and made the day or night for me. Hurricane Irene - there was so much noise about it - - everyone seemed to be preparing for a total devastation of their areas. there was so much discussion about the speed of the winds, the probable lack of electricity, the problems that may occur. Maybe it was was an overload of information, but to some extent it was better than the Indian attitude of let us see what will happen, and of  "chalta hai, sab theek ho jayega". We also went out and bought a lot of ready to eat food - which would not need the microwave, a lot of torches were put in strategic places and candles and matches came out of the cupboards. At 2 am I woke up and sat ...