Saurabh Pradhan Hazir ho !

So where was I for the past few months ?

One word Natak Natak Natak .. three words actually yet just one .

My natak the one in which I acted and co-directed was a great success. I'll post the video soon till then enjoy the pictures

http://www.austinmarathimandal.org/php/photogallery.php

Look in the Avishkar 2008 directory

So whats next ?
The crystal ball says that next is a three part post on my adventures in Mexico. In other news I am looking for a car and work is starting to build up, oh well !
I sign off as thunderclouds start to rumble in Austin.

Adios

I am back

So after a long sabattical I am back.
You can expect more posts in the comming days

So how are all you doing ??

Short Story : The whole truth

Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bacchan were two students. Its 3:00pm and SRK gets a frantic phone call from Bacchan, SRK cant pick it up so it goes to the answering machine , The message is " Check your email". Bacchan sounds a bit tense, he is usually a cool customer. What can it be? SRK ponders. In his mail box is a mail from a professor saying " I have found that the assignment Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bacchan submitted is very similar please meet me after class and if it happens again I will have to report it to the university authorities.” Sent to SRK and Bacchan.

At different locations SRK and Bacchan are both thinking the same thing at the same time; no way, we did not copy the assignment!! There has to be some mistake. We did it independently!

Now both SRK and Bacchan are hardworking, honest students but sometimes teaching assistantship, three courses, cooking and inflation can be a bit overwhelming so er ... there were times when they had "jointly worked" or "helped each other" or rather "been actively involved" Oh what the heck sometimes they had COPIED yes copied, not always, never always !!!! Mostly to know that one step of the equation! To know the final answer to manipulate the solution! And yes sometimes because they did not have time! Mostly they worked in far bigger groups, anything to get the job done. Hey everybody did it! Now self-righteous people would say that it’s not fair! The answer is LIFE ISNT FAIR either!

There were some people who copied stuff all the times, they weren’t one of them. Most importantly they were honest to the bone in the examinations! They believed that was the true test and the right evaluation.

Assignments were a different issue, mostly unrealistically high amount of work with unreasonable deadlines. In their work they were artists they would Cntrl+C Cntrl-V entire assignments but they would camouflage it such that nobody would ever say that they were copies. We have heard about experts who make impressions of great works of art and nobody can tell the difference, something like that but the other way round. They were masters! Six years of work and not a single episode and in this last semester with just one course they had decided to do everything fairly cause they liked the course and this happens......

How can it be? SRK and Bacchan met outside the department. They decided to meet the professor before the class and explain the truth. The professor would not buy the truth they kept pleading “we haven’t copied sir" but he would not listen. Both of them actually wanted to shout "WE HAVENT COPIED SIR, WE HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE AND WERE NEVER SPOTTED. THIS TIME WE HAVE ACTUALLY DONE IT ON OUR OWN" But they couldn’t say so, "We haven’t copied" is half the truth but not the whole. The whole truth though logical was so much absurd at the same time that it would never work.

The old man would not budge, he handed the papers. They walked away. They compared the two. Yes they were somewhat similar. It was as if someone had purposely made them same.

Call it Karma, bad luck or whatever. SRK and Bacchan were spell bound. The Whole Truth is like a weapon you know you have but can never use. It just burns you slowly and softly as it awaits its turn to be used, a turn that’s never coming.

Namaste

Hello everyone
Long time no blog !!!

Well I have been busy at work, in moving and am doing a marathi play ( more on that later), still, being busy is no good excuse. I guess my blog must be feeling like that neglected child in the family. so lets try something new you the readers ( if any) give me a topic and i'll try to write something on that. Worth a shot ? Lets see

Saurabh

Dadachi Girlfriend, happy Birthday, Alpha TV ani Jetlag

zhala, ghooda 25 zhala !!! So I turned 25 on 11th of Jan , I wont know what the implications are untill I turn 26.

Saw Suyog nirmit Dadachi Girlfriend for free, the reason being my father is one of the actors. Excellent play , great direction from Vijay Kenkare. The play deals with the delicate issue of sex and the effects. Loved the script from Ratnakar Matkari, The main actor and the narrator is a 14 year old boy, whose performance is awesome !!!

Desh -land !!! Mumbai na bho !! Seems like everyone in Mumbai is having fun ! so many things are going on. Is it me or everyone here is fit ? The ads are better and the food has more options.

Whatever free time I get ( mostly at night) after doing the lagin tayyari/planning I have been seeing ALPHA TV Marathi, Now I know the story lines for Vadaalvaat, Adhuri Ek kahani, Vahini saheb and have an idea who may win in the next Sa Ni Dha Pa . Aah I tell you na that girl from Mumbai sings so much better than that boy from latur, pun strange mhanje those judges give ekdum kaami points to her na , what na.

Damn you Jetlag, I wake up early, am sleepy in the day and sleep early then ... the cycle continues.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Dear Friends

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
I hope that the new year is full of happiness and excitement.

Saurabh

We shall overcome - Part 2

(Continued from previous post)

The scores were out, A total of 35 questions were asked the best was 33 correct and the worst was 4 correct answers, “who has got 4 points?” Paranjape teacher roared, Anything but 4, I was praying to all the Gods I knew. With some trepidation I looked at my answer sheet , it said 4 and as if I could not read numbers some smartass wrote it in words too, I was starting to raise my hand when I saw that the barrage had already begun on somebody else... It was Chinar Samant, we were jointly on last place, looks like there is always room at the bottom. I looked at him and we managed a smile. (hey everybody else was laughing too)

Now, I will try to translate as close to possible from Marathi, Paranjape teacher said something like this “Idiots, Morons, you worthless buffoons, round stones from the bottom of the Narmada River. Look at you; shame, shame, shame, shame. Look at you. All this time and money has gone to waste. It’s a shame your parents don’t know what you are doing in class here, its pathetic, 4 right answers? How did you even get those many right, save us the trouble and tell me how you cheated. Kids like you don’t study at all, they just start going down the drain and become the scum of society. Lethargic morons like you become alcoholic and drug addicts and the ruin their lives and are never successful…. Remember my words LETHARGIC, UNSUCESSFUL ALCOHOLIC AND DRUG ADDICTS Yes you you lethargic idiots... just go home…. Leave… class dismissed”, so ended that Sunday evening, I remember is was overcast, atleast that’s how I remember it to be. Now you are probably asking one question and the answer is Yes, all this for some multiplication tables.

Now you would expect this to have caused some profound influence on both of us and we went on to secure the scholarship and became super scholars. Not really, things just went back to normal on the next weekend I was back to being the gentleman and life moved on. We never got remotely close to the scholarship. Sometimes I ask myself as to why she had to say such mean things to two little kids who did not study for a lousy test. Maybe it was just her style maybe she realized that we were really idiots or maybe she saw the potential for gross incompetence within us or maybe something else, we will never know.

After so many years, Chinar and I still fondly remember that great Paranjape teacher monologue, mostly the four key words unsuccessful, lethargic, alcoholics and drug addicts. And a smile comes to our faces when we think to ourselves that only if we can land decent jobs and if I get rid of this cocaine addiction and Chinar can cure his craving for whiskey, once and for all we can prove Paranjape teacher wrong. For deep in my heart I know that one day we shall …… we shall overcome.