The soap which made me smile

'Meri momma ka purse jaise hospital ki pyaari koi nurse'....these lines still manage to bring a smile to my lips.The characters, Maya,Indu, Sahil, Monisha,Rosesh and how can we forget the quintessential lunatic son-in-law, Dushyant.What a family! Sigh

Sarabhai v/s  Sarabhai,was one of the most popular and loved sitcoms in the history of the small screen entertainment in India.There had been serials and daily soaps depicting upper – class Gujarati families with a tinge of humour and a splash of satirical gags before this, but  the response Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai got was perhaps unparalleled and unprecedented in Indian television.What exactly made it a hit with the audience? Here are a few definite reasons:

First things first, the characters were outrageously hilarious.One completely insane Gujarati family.

Be it Indravadan Sarabhai(Satish Shah), the doting father who never missed an opportunity to make digs at his wife(Maya) and nothing amuses himself by picking on his erratic son Rosesh.Next in the queue is Maya Sarabhai(wonderful portrayal by Ratna Pathak Shah), she likes only crème de la crème in every aspect of her life and family.Her confrontations with her middle class daughter in law(Monisha) are suave and sugar-coated.Voila, a sight to watch!Sophistication was the keyword for Mrs.Sarabhai.

Next  character is Sahil Sarabhai(Sumeet Raghavan), who is  Maya’s eldest son and Monisha’s husband.A cosmetic surgeon by profession, he is  a quintessential example of a husband sandwiched between his mother and wife .He too like his father loves to tease Rosesh, his elder brother.

Monisha Sarabhai(Rupali Ganguly) is the wife of Sahil Sarabhai and the daughter in law of the family.Coming from a middle class Punjabi family, she has to bear the brunt of her extra elite, extra upper class mother in law and gets bashed regularly for keeping her house untidy.’Beta, you’re so middle class’ is the refrain she hears from her mother in law.

Another important person is Rosesh Sarabhai(Rajesh Kumar) who is the youngest son of Maya and Indrvadan.He’s a theatre artist and a wannabe poet(ends up writing lines that can make Ghalib shiver).He’s a ‘momma’s boy’ and because of his eccentric antics and whimsical personality and poetry, he is teased by his brother and father.

The other reasons making it popular were the screenplay and the dialogues.It wasn’t the quintessential slapstick  humour  that is generally served to the Indian humours , but more plot oriented  intelligent humour that became extremely hilarious at times. Lastly, the support cast was equally impressive.Be it Dushyant(Deven Bhojani at his best) or Madhusudan Phupha, all added to the laugh riot on the screen.

So many ‘quintessentials’ in my article,well that’s what Sarabhai’s do to you, because everything  about the show was …quintessential.

Leave the TRP’s and the other commercial terms aside, this show generated humour from the artificiality and the shallowness in the interactions of the city’s elite and their perceived notions of the shortcomings of the middle class family.It was indeed a light and a perfect watch!

The author earnestly hopes that it returns back to the small screen(so that people start watching Star One again) and entertains us for more years to come.

Before concluding the article, let me conclude the poetry(or the lack of it) from Rosesh Sarabhai:

"momaa ka purse jaise hospital ki pyaari si koi nurse
purse mein rakha tissue paper karta hai paseene ka ilaajaur lipstick ho jaise bhookhe honton ka anaaj
momaa ke purse ka hai makhmali sa sparsh
momaa ka purse
momaa ka purse "

ONE NIGHT STAND

Before you think that I’m getting into a dangerous territory on writing about the mischievous and audacious adventures which raise eyebrows, I want to set it straight.The one night stand here is a one which has a bed but instead of a girlfriend there are books.

When one lays on a bed besides books there is hardly any sensuous feeling but there is a similarity between this one night stand and the one of popular perception and that is at the end the person involved gets screwed(by books in this case).

One night stand is apparently a one night stunt ; the dreaded night before an exam where one has to study as there is no other choice left. It is the(only) night when  an n-p-n transistor excites more than  Megan Fox in a bikini, when boolean algebra invades your mind more than the flavor of vodka  you had a night ago, when Isaan Newton beats Hugh Hefner and when the length of the transmission line has more significance than the length of Maria Sharapova’s skirt!

It is the night of extreme significance like the judgement night for engineers who like booze more than books.It is the last impetus to pull off a semester with an infinite probability of non occurrence(though I know that probability lies from[0,1])

So, how does a one night stand really span out.Based on our observations of 15 years of academic life, it goes something like this:

THE LAST AFTERNOON

12 NOON:  Wake up.

12.30 PM:  Take bath.

2.00 PM:    A hearty lunch followed by a nap.

THE LAST EVENING

4.00PM:  Waking up; opening books for the first time in the semester.

6.00PM:   zzzzzzzzz……

THE LAST NIGHT

8.00PM:   Finally Up, sms to your best friend(read geek) ’whats the syllabus, jaldi reply kar’

Half an hour later a 7000 word reply appears on your cell like a knife piercing through your chest.You hope there would be a winking smiley below that sms saying ’just kidding’, but in vain.

Another sms goes ‘bro, important waale chapters bata de’.Now there is an sms with 6900 characters below which its written in capital letters ‘waise saare chapters important hai’.

9.00PM:  So, okay you realize that you can pull it off.Though it is the height of pseudo-optimism, you feel like the one genius never born to see the light on this planet ; ready to challenge the same colossal agglomeration of perplexing text (read books) that took the prof. six months(and still couldn’t complete) and the author a decade or more perhaps apparently after which he died and we engineers have to complete it in one day, rather one night.This could blow the guts of any commerce, arts or medical student, but we engineers are made of some harder stuff.

20 minutes later:  With every half a page you exchange 100 text messages.But, even at this time you feel like taking a break.The gray cells of your cerebrum are just getting used to the white and black text books.What a contrast, the brain thinks!

12.00 midnight:  2500 messages later the 25 page chapter finally ends.You feel elated.The feeling is same as that of Barack Obama after killing Osama bin Laden.As the midnight strikes, the syllabus rises exponentially and the messages get shorter each time.Example ‘do dis dis and dis’, ‘kitna kiya’,’ lagi padhi hai yaar’ and finally ‘:o’ (sic).

1.OOAM-3.OOAM:  This is the most important phase, you can either make it or break it.As the silence spreads all over, the spirit of engineering rises from inside(literally, all those engineers who died while battling through B.Tech rise from their graves).In fact, in a baffling manner you break all the boundaries of human competency and study even more than the geeky University toppers who enjoy exams more than their birthdays and rave parties.

Now, with just 4 hours of sleep available(the bare minimum that I need before an exam), you dig into the bed. Relief and jubilance all around.The bizarre relief of succeeding in something that was a far fetched dream just a few hours back.The hibernation period of 4 hours (read zzzzzzz…) commences.The one night stunt ends but what remains is ‘D-Day’.

THE NEXT DAY

10.00AM(Examination Hall):   With unparalleled grit and undeterring resolve to score 50 marks(yes, our lunatic University has a pass % of 50), you take the question paper from the invigilator.Just one aim flashes in front of your blurry eyes:Pass.

Just when you are about to read the first question, someone shouts ‘yeh question paper hamaara hai kya’.The decorum of the room and your mind gets disturbed.These words are enough to break the pseudo-confidence that thrived your brain, enough to change the aim of your life, enough to classify you as a loser.Mission Impossible.

The cerebrum says,’Shit’.But the heart says, ‘You’re an engineer.Apply the theory of jugaad’.The theory states that,’If the question is so bizarre that you don’t know what the answer is, assume that the checker too doesn’t apply sanity while checking your copy.Hence, write anything that could end up perplexing the checker that you’re right correct’.

Using the theory all the questions are dealt with an highly engineered fashion.As you’re busy fabricating answers that could make even Einstein shriek with dismay, the guy behind says, ‘Bas kar be, Mahabharat nahi likhni’.Thus, the ordeal ends.The performance in exam is judged on the basis of the blank sheets left…..Mission Accomplished.

In this way something that was appearing to be far beyond the horizon is attained and transformed into a success story(in most cases).

Guys, a one night stand is not the ideal way of studying, it won’t make you ace the college or anything, but it certainly gives you peace for many nights ahead, so its worth the effort.All the nerds who haven’t tried it must give it a try.Though don’t blame the authors for the consequences!

Written for all engineers who sacrifice their one night of numerous exciting possibilities to study for a boring exam.

Anubhav Tyagi and Udit Bhatia

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

Swaminomics

Tell me honestly readers, how many of you would have thought that a docile, milquetoast ascetic could blow the air out of the Prime Minister of India.Not many, perhaps none.Well, Swami Ramdev has done exactly that and whats even better, this is just the beginning.
Popularly known as Baba Ramdev, the yog guru has indeed emerged as a central figure to retieve the $1.4 trillion,the  black money stored by the corrupt Indian bureaucrats and opulent government officials.The Bharat Swabhiman Movement, which he initiated about 18 months ago has been a success with the oppressed middle classes of our country, who have to bear the the brunt of the rampant corruption the most.Swami has now taken a giant stride toward his aim of a chasten and a dignified India.The saffron - robed sage has pledged a hunger strike from June 4 to protest against corruption and to pass the Lokpal Bill to full effect by August, 2011.He has also urged his legions of followers to join in this noble movement.The popularity of the sage is so high that many big bureaucrats and political honchos landed at the Delhi airport to convince him to call off the strike.
Over the past decade, Swami Ramdev has built a massive devotee base all over the country and as I write this article more than one crore people have vowed to support him in his fast.Anna Hazare, whose highly publicised fast in April struck a chord with millions of Indians has also been roped in to join this cause.
The Union HRD minister Kapil Sibbal and veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh though are busy making digs at the saint calling him a maverick and terming him as an industrialist than a yog guru.Playing politics at its best, the duo seem like delirious men unsure of what they want.Call it dirty tricks or 'Chanakya- niti', the two eminent politicos are leaving no stone unturned to halt the uprising.
Some journalists and frustrated politicians might call this hunger strike a gimmick and a way to waste resources and money of the country, but one cannot deny the cause Swami Ramdev is espousing despite the politicians giving it a spin, perpetuated by the display of prostration in front of the Swami.
The government is clearly in a quandary.After the Anna episode they are now skeptical about the antics of Baba Ramdev whose bandwidth of supporters increases by the nanosecond.Though,the news is ripe that the shrewd marauders of the constitution are trying their level best to create a civil divide by pitting Anna against the Swami.


God, save thy country!


PS:the author does not want to offend any politician or a political party through this article.If anyone feels reproached in anyway, apologies to the person concerned.




Udit Bhatia
Electronics & Communication Engineering
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University