Unplanned Journeys

Belated Happy Diwali Guys. Trust you had fun and the hangovers are over; and thanks, I had an interesting Diwali too. ‘Interesting’ is actually an understatement. It was more like, hmmm…, what’s the word, educating ; I guess. This was our first Diwali in DehraDun after almost two decades and frankly; we had almost forgotten the way it works. Also, I haven’t made as many blunders (in the ‘social’ way) in a span of 3 days, as around this Diwali and am now confident of not repeating my mistakes. Blunder number one… I didn’t realize that I had to reply to each ‘mass-sent’ SMS , with a ‘Thank You Dear…We wish you a Happy Diwali too’, neither did I send any. The logic was simple. We meet our friends and relatives often enough, and they deserve more than an SMS. I call this a blunder, because after Diwali I bumped into people who actually asked me why I didn’t reply. I wanted to say, “But you forwarded the same message that Himanshu had sent to A

I know it’s politically incorrect, but I really do not relate to our old national Heroes anymore. Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak …I’m sure they were all fine men and Heroes in their own right, but they are too old for me. Look; I understand that they may still be relevant and what they have left behind is of great value to us…but that’s not what helps me live everyday now. Let me explain. You see, if this was the 1940s and India was fighting for independence (or something) , I’m sure a lot of us would get inspired by these people, but not when my mobile ring tone changes every hour to suit my mood. I need Heroes and role models that inspire me now , in 2010, to become better, do more, seek higher…exactly what a role model should do. That too in everyday life. Let’s look at the remaining possibilities (in terms of available role models) that may inspire the current lot, in which I include everyone from age 3 till the age when one still gets inspired (choose). 1. Sports stars. Very few.

I’m not sure how many girls attend my workshop every week. 20-30 I guess. The numbers keep changing, but they all seem to know exactly what happened when they were missing. Officially; we call it the ‘Ahsaas’ club. Un-officially? Well…Prison-break! When I first approached Welham Girls School with the idea of starting a group that writes, sings, paints, composes, shoots, edits…I don’t think any of us knew what we wanted. Mrs. Brar, the principal; however, was patient and heard me out. She was curt when she said “Vineet, all this is a bit confusing…what do you want to do again?” “Well, start a group, and work with young people…” is all I could muster. “And what do the girls learn at the end?” she went further with her drill. “Well, they will learn what they want to…I can only facilitate the learning” I replied sounding philosophical. She finally agreed to let me run this workshop on one condition. “Vineet, every month, I need to see a film or a presentation, with everything you cla