Hindustan Times
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Still a week to go before I actually go on leave, but I am in holiday mood.
Very difficult to concentrate on work, but I shall manage, I think. On the other hand, this period of enforced work focus will be followed by two weeks of NO work, hooray, so I guess I can spend the next six days gazing earnestly at my computer in the light of the reward that will follow.Which brings me to the subject of this post. I have a great boss who ensures that I am never phoned, messaged or disturbed on work-related matters in any way when I go on leave. (In return, we try and ensure the same when she goes on leave.) So I fully expect to have a holiday in which I will read Brunch as a reader, not as a person who picks it up with trepidation in case some disaster happened at the press and all the corrections we made were not, in fact, carried out, or in case we made an error that we didn’t spot at the time, or in case the pictures we thought fabulous at the time we went to press turn out to look dreadful in print.
In other words, I shall read Brunch for fun. If I want to. I won’t have to. I won’t even have to read the papers. I could just do the sudoku puzzles (I adore sudokus and am a big fan of Delhi’s Mail Today because it is simply PACKED with sudokus, including a GINORMOUS alphanumeric one on Sundays).
So it will be a completely non work-oriented fortnight I hope.
However, there is this blog.
This blog is work, but it isn’t work. It is work in the sense that it’s an official HT blog by an official HT editor (which, actually, I am not. I am an official HT assistant editor). It isn’t work in the sense that, if I don’t write it, there will be no big fat hole as there would be if my ramblings were published in the paper. It would make no difference in anyone’s life.
However, for some reason it’s acceptable for a columnist in a paper or magazine to go on leave and therefore not write the column for a bit. But it seems unacceptable for someone writing a blog to go on leave. Dunno why, but it just is.
So I have decided to be radical. I am not a columnist, it’s true. But this will be my last post on this blog till after October 30.
Happy Diwali, everyone!
(6 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Have a nice holiday Kushal! And just because you may have access to a laptop and internet on your holiday doesn’t mean you have the keep writing the blog… Hope to see you back soon!
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Thanks D10. Logical and reasonable argument, just as a lawyer should have at her disposal. If the bosses grumble, I shall sic you on to them.
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To be politically correct and sensitive to minorities sentiments let us just say “Happy Holidays”.
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Like the Americans, you mean, Rajeev? Hmm. I’d rather not. Festivals are festivals, time to celebrate. I’d rather wish a Happy Diwali, an Eid Mubarak, a Merry Christmas and so on. Festivals are time to party and as a nation we are rather good at partying.
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Two days before I go home too and i can totally imagine the ‘can’t-concentrate-on-work-at-all’ part!
It’s torture to go through each day and Sunday never seems to get any closer!
Will miss your blog, but you deserve a break after those Terrible Tuesdays!
Happy Diwali, Bunny!
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Thanks Pranav. And hang in there. Those 38 hours left will slowly - agonisingly slowly - ebb away. This, too, shall pass, remember?
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Happy Diwali ! Enjoy your holidays. A new Government will be inplace when you are back.
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Gosh, I had forgotten about that, Nutsure. What my contribution to this new government will be I STILL do not know.
Oh well, still a few days to think. Thanks for the wishes and happy Diwali to you.
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“So it will be a completely non work-oriented fortnight I hope.
However, there is this blog”
Yes there is this blog, of which I had become such a regular follower. For the very simple and plain language it employed to deliver interesting messages. For this is possibly the only blog on HT, after reading which, one is left with sense of lighhearted joy.
“So I have decided to be radical ” and unlike the other respondents above, request you to at least continue writing the blog, please. Lest the following two fridays would be very dull !
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Akhilesh Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 7:22 am
On second thoughts I was only joking.
Do enjoy your holidays and come back refreshed and re-vitalised. !!
Happy Diwali !!
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Led you off the stern and earnest path of political argument, have I, Akhilesh? Excellent. Frivolity is the joy of life. Thanks for your good wishes.
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Akhilesh Reply:
October 10th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Naahhh…I am too committed to the path of political earnestness to be led away, nowithstanding the extreme charm of you and your blog !!
However, I would agree with you that ” frivolity is the joy of life”. It is such frivolity that makes a personality complete and rounded, and may I say, humanly !! But I would strongly differ, if you impute that your blog or things that you write about are frivolous.
No long arguments though in this reply, as I am now getting to understand you dislke them
Enjoy the holiday. Wonder why though, a Bengali would choose to go on a holiday on Kali Pooja and not Durga Pooja !
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Kushal Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Hey, I’m originally from Calcutta, Akhilesh. so adda is in every pore I possess. I do not at all dislike lengthy arguments, I am quite capable and often more than willing to indulge in them myself.
Query: Do I HAVE to be Bengali if I’m originally from Cal?
Akhilesh Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Query: Do I HAVE to be Bengali if I’m originally from Cal?
Answer : Anybody who has spent her formative years, or sufficient part of her life, in Bengal is a Bengali. That was my only argument. One need not be racially bengali to be so considered. Infact as you yourself conceede, addagiri is one trait that is so much bengali in you !
Look at the other famous Bengal - Mother Teresa. Was she anything else but Bengali ? And I rest my case. This time with a nippy argument.
As about lengthy arguments - tell me some other forum where I can interact with “unsocial” Kushal. I am sure it would be great to mutually indulge. Especially since you will counter my arguments, not with facts but with wit and humour !!
Kushal Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I resent that “not with facts”. (*Draws self up to the fullest height of 5 feet 2 inches and snarls.*)
I argue with facts AND humour (alleged).
If anything I consider myself a Kolkatan and a Mumbaikar because both these places are what I call home. Not a Bengali or a Maharashtrian, because I am Indian.
Sure, we can argue on email: kushalgulab@hindustantimes.com. But this is also a good place because other readers can see what’s happening (if they’re interested) and contribute their own points of view as well, which is always fun - and often useful. Don’t forget, I’m a journalist. All points of view and perspectives are good, if for nothing else than to know that more than black or white exists in any issue, and on a more practical level, for possible story ideas.
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Akhilesh Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Comments in this space :
This place will certainly be the primary place for posting my comments on your blogs. It is this place that “I came across you” ; to use famous lines from somewhere !!
And agree with you completely - reading the comments on the various blogs in HT - I must admit that I have been greatly enriched and inormed over the past few months that I have been active here. Some of the contributors are enormously well read while others are very good in presenting a different perspective.
Indeed I have been a lifetime reader of TOI - but I can say without hesitation that the blog space on HT is decidedly superior.
Some other forum for discussion :
Email was for discussions which might go off tangent from the topic of blog at hand - like my right wing ideas and your centrist tendencies !!
5 feet 2 inches:
The cliche gets further emboldened. All great things come in small packets.
Kolkatan and Mumbaikar :
Do I sense some sort of political correctness in referring to your self thus and not, say, Calcuttan and Bombayite ?
Argue with facts AND humour :
What’s in a name? Humour called as fact will still make the person smile as big !!!
Kushal Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I use Mumbai, Bambai and Bombay in context, Akhilesh. Like Calcutta, Kalkata and Kolkata. All according to the rhythm and tones of the language I’m speaking. The sharpness of the English syllables sounds out of place in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi. The roundedness of Kolkata and Mumbai sounds out of place in Hindi. Bambai and Kalkata sound best when speaking in Hindi. In speaking, it’s all about sound and rhythm. In writing, since I write in English, I use Bombay and Calcutta. Though I infuriate my friends in Bangalore by calling it Bengaluru… which I used to do long before it officially became that. I really love the sound of the word, it sounds like a bird trilling. Beng-a-LOOOO-roooo. Beng-a-LOOOO-roooo.
Way back when Bombay became Mumbai, I was one of the first journalists to uncompromisingly write and say Mumbaikar in place of Bombayite. Most media people said Mumbaiiite, which sounds wrong. Besides, I LOVE the word Mumbaikar. As a Mumbaikar, I am both from the city and of the city - it’s like having a second surname. For me, it has a warm, loving and belonging sound and I love Bombay. I am what I am because I live here.
I am what I am because I was born and grew up in Cal. I must admit, calling myself a Kolkatan is a huge struggle. Mostly because like most Calcuttans of my generation and previous to it, I didn’t even call Calcutta Calcutta - I called it Cal. I’m from Cal, I used to say. I’m originally from Cal, I still say. I’m from Kol sounds very odd. I use the word Calcutta only when I’m being slightly formal, when I don’t really know the person or people I’m speaking to, as on this blog. People are friendly on this blog, we chat and joke in the comments, but I can’t say I know them, and there are more readers than those who comment. So I remain slightly formal in the posts, and am more casual in comments.
Akhilesh Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Kushal,
I agree with entirely on the Cal bit. I had my engineering education at a place very near to Cal. It was almost second nature to us to call Calcutta as Cal, for we frequently visited that place. It was the only metro in the whole of East India and thus was a frequent destination.
When Calcutta became Kolkata, we, just like you, struggled. As is wont in colleges, most things are reduced to short and nippy short forms. Kolkata however, defied our ingenuity. We could simply never find a short form which was apt without being ungainly. Kol, as you said, sounds very odd.
By the way Mumbaikar, did you vote yesterday?
Happy Diwali to you too:) Will look forward to the post that would come after the 30th..work or not this blog is quite a hit with all your readers..u can take that from a reader
Holidays come packed with excitement…the excitement of going on a holiday is more exciting than maybe the holiday itself…may your pre holiday excitement and the actual holiday be packed with loads of fun!!
Have a great time. May the festival of light make your life even more brighter, as you make each day an interesting one for all of us!!!
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Thanks a lot Sana! Don’t know if I’ve said this before, but the way you unfailingly comment on all our blogs certainly brings light to our lives. You’re a little Diwali in yourself!
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Happy holidays!!!
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Thanks Diva and the same to you.
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So what books are you taking with you?
Have a great vacation Kushal.
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Kushal Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Not taking any books, Partho. I’m going to the place where I grew up - which means I shall be re-reading the books I grew up with with great joy.
Thanks for the wishes!
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Rinky Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
You beat me to the question… I was going to ask her the same myself :-). And Kushal, I am getting a copy of “The Little Stranger” soon (in about 10 days). I know you said it is verrryy creepy but I am thrilled as I always am before getting a new book.
Hey, Happy Diwali to you and enjoy your vacation.
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Kushal Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Sarah Waters is wonderful, I think you’ll enjoy the book, Rinky. Thanks and happy Diwali to you.
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As always, wonderfully written Bunny. Happy Diwali
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Kushal Reply:
October 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Thanks Samar and the same to you.
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Have a super time on your well-deserved vacation.
Shubho Dipaboli, to you and family.
We’ll miss you!
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Kushal Reply:
October 10th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
There isn’t actually a Shubho Dipaboli, Pervin. They have Kali Puja in Bengal, not Diwali. But thanks anyway.
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Me back home too! It is good. Me planning to visit kohl-kah-ta in the new year. somebody told me they have torn down all the shacks on college street that sold books because a ‘book mall’ is coming up in the city. is this true?
Happy Happy Diwali!!
I’m going to sit on my terrace with my mum and chomp on some crunchy munchies and watch the fireworks that happen in the sky
also, my mum has taken to reading this blog and she likes the articles and she also thinks that i should stop sounding like such a goody goody in my comments because i am a certified monkey and i shouldnt try to hide that fact.
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Kushal Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Heyyy! Welcome home! (You know what I mean.)
I haven’t heard a thing about the College Street bookstalls going - there would be riots! Still, a book mall sounds very good as an extra.
Please thank your mum for me, and tell her I have a fairly good idea of what you’re like from reading your (much UN-updated) blog, goody-goodiness notwithstanding.
Happy Diwali, Abhiroop and mum!
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Abhiroop Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Mum wishes you right back. I thought so too, there would be riots. Delhi is pleasant now. Winter is here early. Want an early morning ride in an auto!
I’ll be off again in a few days. Will try to finish my project and come back in March (break in January, off Cal and Bihar) and get a real job. Reading Gitanjali. In English.
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Abhiroop Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:39 am
ei sorry for the unnecessary detailsl! was feeling chatty
Well I am Delhi-ing my holidays and yes what I can say is that I can now surf the internet for fun rather than finding e-books and project matter this fortnight
Happy holidays and happy Diwali
Hope u get into a good brunchy mood during the festive weekend
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Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.
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Enjoy your holiday………..
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Ok, today is October 30
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tell me book shacks on colege st. and freemason have not gone…..some some dreams shld not be trod on…i willl visit cal sometime again…and need to see the books!
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Hi Kushal,
trust you are back by now…
eagerly waiting for your next blog!!!
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