Life is not a dress rehearsal ... says William Shakespeare!

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon with two old friends Sujata and Vidhu that I hadn't met in a long time ... it was a HAPPY MEETING as was proclaimed on the delicious and creamy pineapple cake that Vidhu brought for us to treat on, which we shamelessly dug into forgetting all the calorie concerns that each of us has ... Suju got me two really cute Rajasthani paper mache musicians which have taken up place in our living room.

I felt like sharing this for two reasons - one that it made me feel so warm about the fact that we could pick up the strings from where we left off ... the common ground or bond when we befriended each other some years ago being that our children (their sons Shivam and Koustubh) studied in the same grade as Roshni a few years ago... and since we met yesterday after so long the talking was non-stop trying to catch up on all that is happening in each others lives ... kids, husbands, homes, careers, incidents, experiences etc... Vidhu' jewelry business is doing well and Praveen and her now work together, their older son Chickoo or rather Pranav is now appearing for his CA final year, while Koustubh has joined the CBSE program at Poddar. Suju' young Shivam continues his interest in music and hopes to make a career in it someday while Goldie is doing well in the television industry... yak yak yak yak yak yak we went and didn't stop even on the way to Caravan Serai and through the yummy lunch we had there ... just listening to them and sharing the small victories of their lives and challenges ahead made we feel one with them. I told them about my surprise visit to the US to meet Mapa and my sisters and they were thrilled and got goosebumps and all and then Sujata said something very interesting (the second reason of sharing this post) ... "Im so glad you did this for your sisters and your parents Priya because life is not a dress rehearsal yaar ... hum log apni zindagi plan kartey kartey hi nikal detey hain but you chose to listen to your heart". Vidhu agreed wholeheartedly and hoped to do something as exciting if not more with her family ... I am really glad that I could pass this experience onto them ...

What Suju said is indeed very true ... Most people I know treat life like a dress rehearsal and continually struggle and plan and save and wait to enjoy that one perfect moment while their life listlessly goes by dealing with the daily challenges that come its way and that moment of perfection eludes them and before you know it you are too old to let your hair down ... Worse still life could just decide to come to a close ... very recently a young friend named Sandeep aged 35 passed away suddenly with a severe heart attack (may God bless his soul) leaving behind his young wife who had completed 9 months of carrying their only unborn child ... the baby boy came into this world exactly a week after his passing and the young mother is battling with the emotions of her loss and gain. So life is to be loved for whatever it is and live it to its fullest on each day ... Farrukh, my husband is a living example of this philosophy and has virtually made it his religion in practice; he believes that life is a stage and that we should all play our parts well ... and we have no business in meddling with the life of nature as it has its own course to take, he embraces his destiny whatever may it be and lives his life for the moment ... and because he has this approach towards life he is more satisfied with his life than anyone I know and in his own little ways has a blast on each day of his life ... had he not egged me on to go to the US to share in the excitement of lil Arjun' birth into the family, I would never have taken that trip and that near perfect moment of my life (because Farrukh and the kids could not make it), that I shared with Mala, Anjalika, Mama and Papa on the 13th of October 2009 (their anniversary), would never have happened ... I had done my best to make the trip successful and nature orchestrated it to perfection.

Coming back to our endless yakking ... we continued to sit at the restaurant even after clearing the cheque ... and it was only when Roshni called that I looked at the time ... it was 4.30 in the evening ... time had indeed flown by and we parted ways with hugs and promises to stay in touch more often... check out Sujata, Vidhu and me having a laugh ... shows we sure had a great time :)

Comedy, Ravi Baswani and more ...

People who know me well say that I have an infectious laughter and that when I laugh its as if my insides are going to pop out of me ... I really let go if you know what I mean!? The next most important thing to me after loving my kids and eating is laughing ... I simply love to laugh and hence I screen through all the possible attempts at comedy may they be in films, stand up comedy shows (thankfully beginning to get popular in Mumbai), TV shows and I naturally befriend comic people ...

One really funny person in my life is my own husband and I believe that it was his ability to make me and all others around us laugh out loud is what attracted me to him. And my young Raunaq is fantastic with imitations of comic dialect ... I completely crack up with his acts of popular English and Hindi film scenes that he does with perfect expression and pitch ... we have loads of rolling laugh sessions together :)

An ex-colleague called Bomi at Barclays should switch to being a comic as opposed to being a boring banker ... he would sure do very well ...in fact Joe Coutinho and him should do an act together ... they both have excellent timing and very intelligent humor!!!

And young Shravan, Nilima/Vijay' son is so good with accent imitations and does a fantastic act of various people from across the world and their reactions to their respective team' performances at the recently concluded FIFA world cup in South Africa.

The comic films that completely crack me up are Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Barefoot in the park, Victor Victoria, Super Hero, Top Secret, Hera Pheri, Chupke Chupke, Madagascar, Top Secret, Golmaal, Chalti ka naam gadi, Angoor, Munnabhai MBBS and the best of them all Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Kundan Shah' directorial made me virtually roll on the floor with laughter ... each of the characters including naseeruddin shah, ravi baswani, pankaj kapoor, om puri, satish shah, satish kaushik, bhakti barve, neena gupta and even vidhu vinod chopra (as dushasan in the mahabharat climax scene) were fantastic ... what chracterisation kundan achieved and what display of raw humor!



This morning as I was pottering with fixing breakfast and lunch in the kitchen my husband called out -- Arrey suno ...Ravi Baswani, of your favorite film 'Jaane bhi do yaaro' passed away in Shimla yesterday due to a massive heart attack ... flashes of his comic role in the film came back to me, my throat lumped and my heart went out to him and his family... and a smile came to my face as I remembered his performances in Chashme Baddoor and Kabhi haan kabhi naa. He was 63 -- too young to have died and in death too he had brought a smile to my face ... and yet his time was done in this world of ours and he has moved on leaving behind a live wire comedy that will resonate with peels of laughter each time Jaane bhi do yaaro is watched! Wah kya baat hai ...

Is this what you call a mid-life crisis!?

My son asked me a few days ago 'Mom when are you getting a job?' I chided him as I tickled his tummy saying, 'I don't want to work anymore darling because I'm so enjoying my job of playing Mommy'. He smiled as he hugged me and moved on with something or the other but he had planted a seed into my head ... and I was conscious that he had already asked me this question twice before.

On the outside he was just being curious but his bigger unsaid question was, when he can have his PS3 and laptop -- promises that I had told him would be fulfilled when I get a job! As parents we tend to play God and believe that we can fulfill our children' wishes even if it means stretching ourselves for it sometimes. Maybe my baby was just being plain curious or just making polite conversation or was humoring me but either ways it was a hope that I had put in his head and I'm not happy that I have not yet been able to fulfill his wish! Of course one has savings but I don't want to break into my savings. Not that I need to fulfill every wish of my child, specially luxury things like these that he can definitely do well without considering he is in the 9th grade; but nevertheless, his casual question served as a reminder that I need to get on with my life.

Getting a job would undoubtedly help materialize his now silent dreams and yet the thought that has been playing ping-pong in my mind for a while now, and hence it found its way to my lips when Raunaq questioned me; is that I really do not want to do a job unless it is truly challenging and promises a career ahead ...

So, my mind has been churning with some unfulfilled dreams from yesteryear ... the things that I would have loved to do or would love to still do:
MUSIC - I would love to sing or perhaps I could be a Radio Jockey and host a show of english and hindi music from my times
FILM - Act in or maybe direct a film and if it proves successful take it up as a full time career
WRITING - I loved playing story teller from my childhood days -- this is my most favorite option!
COOKING - I love being creative with cooking and believe I am blessed with a good hand too - well yeh main nahin kehti ... log kehtey hain ji ... perhaps open a restaurant of my own!?
MARKETING - create brands or work with a company that understands the importance of having a professionally managed team to market its products or set up my own marketing consulting firm.

Yikes ... this is such a variety of thought ... the only common train being creativity! I am 44 and I'm unsure of what to make of my life ahead ... I'm in the middle of my work life and and am having thoughts of making new beginnings ... is it wrong of me to think afresh!? It's like Ive come to the crossroads of my life and I am scratching my head wondering hard, which turn do I take yaar ... and as ideas race through my mind out-doing each other my heart is weighed down by the financial security I would like to create for my children and my old age, and I am forced to think of what I am putting at stake if I take the untrodden path ... in a worst case scenario, I risk failure and in the bargain lose time and money... and yet there is a good chance that there will be success too because I have the confidence and maturity to take things through all the way ... and so my mind is playing tic-tac-toe ... what do I chose ... I need some heavenly intervention NOW! Godji ... kuch karo!!