The Video close to my heart and the nation

This is one national anthem video that is really close to my heart. The shooting was done in Siachen. Having the defence forces in the backdrop is like an icing on the cake. it also shows us how selfless our indian defence forces are who endanger their lives in an unikmaginable cold weather just to protect the lives of comman man of India. A big salute to the Indian Defense Forces.

Fantasy and Feathers - Trip to Thailand

Travel with me for a non-stop entertainment all the way to Thailand.

From West End musical to Hollywood blockbuster to blend of fantasy and sensuous Latin rhythms...the hits keep on coming as only THE LADY BOYS of Bankok keep delivering without any Uffs and Ouchs.

The other day I was flipping through my scrapbook and came across my Thailand trip photos and my visit to the very famous Cabaret show. Yeah the very own videshi version of the "Piya tuuuuuuuu ab toh ajaaaa" wala cabaret. Well atleast thats what our family thought. And my mom was hell bent on keeping my dad away from this show. Must have got possessive about my dad. he he he.

Anyway kahani ab kuch aise shuru hui...

When I was vacationing in Pattaya - Thailand, I was thrilled to visit the Alcazar Show, apparently the second biggest cabaret in the world after Moulin Rouge. We took a Tuk-Tuk (thai ka auto hai) from our hotel and reached the "Alcazar Show" much before time as our family is famous for being punctually unpunctual. The venue had all the glamour and razzmatazz of a Las Vegas nightclub.

I was imagining some sexy chinky, Helen look-alike gyrating around your table to some fundoo cabaret number. We bought the tickets for the show and were ushered into the Cabaret room. We were highly excited as the Lady of Ceremonies announced - "The Lady Boys of Bankok are here to entertain you".

It was a feast to your eyes to see around 400 very pretty Thai girls performing on stage only to later realise that these stunningly beautiful Lady Bopys were people from the Third Sex (Kathoey). With flawless face, a perfect figure, silky hair, lassy legs, beautiful gait, and everything else a woman would die for and a man would desire, these Lady Boys were surely a surprise who would give the beauty queens a run for their money.

Apart from these ladyboys, the Alcazar show was a complete paisa vasool with mast muzik, costume presentations, jhakaas lighting system, studio colours and above all, the graceful dance formations.

After the show got over, the men were just going crazy to pose with these girls/ guys... ahem... a bit of confusion here. For a few hundred Bahts, you get a dream picture with these beauties.

It will be a sin to travel all the way to Thailand and miss out on this cultural extravaganza...

An Evening in Paris - Trip to Paris

Aji Aisa Mauka Phir Kahan Milega

Hamare Jaisa Dil Kahan Milega

Aao Tumko Dikhlata Hoon Paris Ki Ek Rangeen Sham

Dekho Dekho Dekho Dekho Dekho

An Evening In Paris...

You must be thinking what’s wrong with me. But no worries many people share the same feeling. But that’s not the point out here filhaal. Let me to take you through a tour to the Paris that I saw from my mind's eye.

I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Aéroport on 19th April 2008 from Germany at 10.30 pm CET and was floored by the enormously huge airport. I just had to say "khul ja sim sim" and a huge glass door led me to my Ibis Paris Charles de Gaulle Aéroport Terminal Hotel (kaafi lamba naam hai na?) where I was put up. Yes my hotel was just bang next to the airport. So convenient na?

Day 1:

Anxiousness, excitement, tension, weariness, food shortage in my stomach were some of the few companions following me through the entire way till the time I rolled my heavy suitcase into the hotel room only to be greeted by my colleagues (Lapas and Tambe) who were already in Paris before me. DAMN!!!

The scene inside my hotel room would have made the house-keeping staff go bonkers. Bed ke saare parts (pillows, blankets, bedsheets, etc.) strewn all over the matchbox-sized room. Jackets, khakras, theplas, farsan, suitcases, chaddis, toiletries, laptops, juice bottles, instant food packets, chips, and the two morons on the already kachra bed were some more additions to the already tidy room.

Since I had a pathetic sick-looking sandwich in the flight, I was practically starving and ordering from the hotel restaurant meant shelling out extra euros and racking our brain behind understanding their menu. So we decided to try our luck with the MTR ka instant Mattar Paneer packet. Par where to get the bartan and hot water from as the bar was closed. After a 15 mins brainstorming session, we decided to fill the washbasin with hot tap water and kept the MTR packet in the basin. Not sure if it was the mistake of the MTR Company or our culinary skills, the end results came out to be horrible. After our FIRST horrific dinner in Paris, we retired to bed.

Day 2:

Next morning, a mouth watering feast comprising of variety of croissants, fruits, cornflakes, butter, milk, blueberry/strawberry/mango/pineapple jams, chocolate jam (yummy!!!), Bread, orange juice… were inviting us to show the ravenous person within us and we did full justice to its expectations :). After a waxing & shower session and some photo sessions inside the room, hum apni raah par nikal pade.

First, we reached Notre Dame Cathedral church around early afternoon. The architectural masterpieces inside the church were breathtaking giving a feeling of beauty meets divinity. After this we headed towards the shopping area outside the church from where we bought some t-shirts and souvenirs. Voila!!! There was a Ben & Jerry Ice cream outlet from where we had the world’s best ice cream. Mmmmmm…….

Next we headed towards the L’Arc de Triomphe which reminded me of India Gate in Delhi thodasa. he he he. We clicked some pictures with a cute French Pandu Maama, and also saw a really cool Government procession at Vendome place. Oh btw The Place Vendome is the well known Ritz Hotel where Princess Diana dined just before leaving on her last trip by car.

They say Paris is a Mecca of fashion and new fashion trends crop up every minute here. With some of the top branded stores like Cartier, Fred, a Rolex dealer, etc around, we still ended up shopping nothing. It’s a shame for a girl to go to Paris and not buy anything but kya karein? kadki thi.

After we were done looking around L’Arc de Triomphe, we headed towards Champs-Élysées, that boasts of some of the major retail brands like Adidas, Benetton, the Disney Store, Nike, Zara, Cartier, Bel Air Fashion, Gap, Sephora, Louis Vuitton, etc. The girls did some shopping post which we moved towards Eiffel Tower in the evening.

We passed a park en route to the Eiffel Tower wherein we saw these two really cute and adorable puppies. After spending some time in the park and with the puppies, we finally reached the Eiffel Tower.

Ek muft ki advice - If you want to re-discover romance, visit the Eiffel Tower 2nd level to enjoy the panoramic view of Paris.

It was around 10.00 pm CET, we started towards our hotel. Since our hotel was at the other end from the place where Eiffel tower was we had to take a train back home.

Now the real adventure started. We boarded some train and got involved in our conversation not realizing that we had taken the wrong train. On realizing our bewakoofi, we got down at some random station only to realize that the entire platform was completely unsafe with just blacks around (no offense please). And as our worse luck would have it, we were stranded in the station for good 1 hour as there was some accident that had taken place due to which our trains got delayed. After waiting in the station till 12.00 am, we decided to take a train that would pass some major station from where we could catch another train that would take us to our destination. Extreme cold weather, hunger, fear, panic were seriusly chatofying our patience. But we braved through it somehow and reached our hotel by 1.30 am. Once inside our room, we just buried our heads into the pillow and dozed off. Thus our long, hectic and adventurous day came to an end only to give way to a new beautiful day.

Day 3:

We got up early in the morning, dropped Tambe back to the airport (as she was heading back to India), and resumed to our king-size breakfast session. After breakfast, we again headed towards Notre Dame Cathedral church again for some more souvenir shopping. On the way back we suddenly realized that the trip to France would have been incomplete without having French Fries (how stupid). But bahut hi sad tha woh French fries. Anyway we then headed towards Carrefour super market for some chocolate shopping but it was closed :( . We came back to our hotel and got ready to leave for Les Fountaines.

Around 6.00 pm evening we arrived at our Capgemini University in Les Fountaines. The place was like a heaven. Huge campus with a beautiful castle and a small lake inside it, beautiful surroundings, cozy rooms with unlimited internet access and free telephone service to any part of the world, unlimited and free availability of cold drinks were some of the attractions of this place. We explored the place for some time and readied ourselves with a beauty sleep to face the entire week of training starting next day.

Day 4 to 8:

The T-Day had come. We started early so that we could catch up on the breakfast before the class. I didn’t want to be late for the class to avoid punishment for late coming wherein it was a protocol to sing the national anthem of your country in front of the whole class. But me being a complete mess, I dropped blueberry sauce on my light colored pant just 10 minutes before the commencement of the class. God knows how I avoided the punishment after rushing back to my room which was far away from the training venue and changing. The day started really well with some interesting introduction session. Checked out lot of hunks around (including my Italian facilitator who was really hot, a singer and a guitarist and a self confessed flirt).

We were asked to form a group consisting of 6 members. And I must say they were one rocking group very much unlike a typical snobbish Europeans. With projects and presentations after every session, the brainstorming sessions, the tension, the fun was all worth it.

On Friday (day 8), we had to leave for our respective locations from the university. We came back to our IBIS hotel. I got ready for my next trip to UK and started my most memorable journey of my life which I will cherish forever...

Vishesh Tippani:

If you want to have a quick tour around Paris then watch the song Man Ko Atibhave saiyyan from the movie London Dreams. Maarna nahi huh…

Must See Places in Paris

Indian Sherlock Holmessss...

Have you ever given it a thought as to where have the classic veteran detectives disappeared from the small screen and never came back in punar janam? Where have the thrills gone? In the 90s era, detective serials like Karamchand, Byomkesh Bakshi, Tehqiqaat, Hello Inspector etc were an integral part of our growing up.

But today, except for CID who earns the major chunk of TRPs amongst other players in the same genre like special squad, DON - Detective Omkar Nath or Mr. & Mrs. MIshra (names you might have not even heard of), there aren’t any detective serials left that could match up to the Karamchand or Byomkesh Bakshi standards that ruled the roost in Indian television in the 90s. The channels are so busy warring with the saas-bahu and reality shows TRPs that it makes you think that has the detective thriller genre died?

The advantage that yesteryear’s detective serials have over the current crop of publicity hungry serials are the strongly etched characters that leave an unending impression in your mind and take you back to good ol'days with a smile on your face instantly. Be it the computer minded Pankaj Kapur pacing around hastily to solve the case in a jiffy along with his carrot munching assistant – Kitty aka Sushmita Mukherjee in the show Karamchand or Byomkesh Bakshi (the Indian Sherlock Holmes), whose mere mention brings to your mind a no nonsense, dhoti-kurta clad, strong Bengali character –immortalised by Rajat Kapur. Then there was Tehqiqaat with Vijay Anand playing the cool-headed, intelligent eccentric detective in typical black-goggles and black coat.

Then came CID with believable characters, simple narrative technique minus any camera gimmicks. Also the show was on a different track showing the role of a Government agency in solving dangerous crimes. Btw ek raaz ki baat – I find Inspector Daya played by Dayanand Shetty very cute. I have a crush on him :) Mummy ko mat batana. He he he. The serial is still continuing to thrill and entertain the audience for the past 11 years and has become a part of Friday ritual (that’s when the serial is aired).

Let’s hope that we get to see some more of these Who-dun-it!! kinds of shows. Till then happy nail-biting…