2007: woh kaagaz kee kashti woh baarish ka mausam

On the first of January 2007 Tasneem, a fresh entrant, went on a trip down memory lane. She is new to the wonderland of the blog and is bowled over by this technological marvel. She writes that in all the years she was in Bangalore she knew nothing about Miss Shamim, Stanely and others. It is only when she lands in Canada she comes to know about it.

A quick telecon with Miss Shamim and Tasneem gets floored by the fact that her Miss remembers her as a “bright and chubby girl.” She nostalgically recollects the doll in sister Rosalie’s office, trips to Rambha, Gopalpur and Sonepur and now for some strange reason thinks Stanely and Henry are not brothers! Yeh shuruat toe ekdum filmi hai.

Day two is a revelation. Now it is the turn of Vinita to open her heart and pen a poem. Excerpts:


The whispers of the heart had to be rudely quietened….
The fragrance of that feeling still remains afresh….
That first crush which never rushed out of my heart but still remains
Hidden like a precious pearl in a shell !

Obviously, Zindagi kay kuch gam bayaan naheen hotey, bas ahesas kiye jaaten hain.( Hey.. a case of statistician trying to become a philosopher)

Venu appears on the 5th of January and says, “Hey guys the new version is troublesome”. He has an update too, “ I can create new postings but cannot post comments”. Faiyaz too agrees. Vimal, the architect, keeps quiet.

On 7th of Jan, Alps comes in and plans for a re-union sometime after “ June, 7th ”.

There is glamour too for along with Vinita sipping a cuppa tea is Shobha De. Vinita blogs another touching poem about the flight of the ‘birds’ from the nest.

Faiyaz goes back to school and finds that the see-saw is broken, so he blogs:

See saw ho yah dil ho
Aakhir toot jataa hai.

The blog is well and truly on a roll. But wait a minute, life is not all that simple:

Kabhie khusie kabhi gam,
Kabhi yaadon ki baraat,
toe kabhi, tanhai ki gabrahaat.

After the high of January (27 blogs and a staggering 475 comments), Feb comes as a rude anti-climax.

There are only two blogs, one by Stanely (recommending the film Guru) and one by Faiyaz ( a pix of a plant) and fifteen comments. Guru had interesting comments. Faiyaz saying it meant: Glad You Responded Ultimately. Tas said it was over-rated and when Stan wanted to know from Venu on what his take was on the film he suggested that he had seen a telugu film “Desamuduru” which he can review. Stan backed out!!!!!

Tas felt that the lack of response was all due to writer’s cramps.

Of the eight blogs in March six were from Faiyaz and one each from Stan and Sarita. Stan was busy training and Sarita was down with Chicken-pox. Everyone had a remedy for her from neem leaves, green coconut water, potassium permanganate and believe it or not the recommended reading by Dr. Stanely Bhai MBBS, for a speedy recovery from chicken pox, included Anna Kareenena, War & Peace and 100 years of Solitude!!!

Seeing the poor response in March, Faiyaz blogs pix of a leafless tree and wonders where have all the bloggers gone? “Patta Nahin” he answers himself. And no prizes for guessing the number of comments this pix and its creative copy received- a grand zero.

April is marginally better with ten blogs and fifty-four comments. We get to see two Vanis courtesy Vims. One is Vani the other Shivani. Vims also blogs photos of Calcutta street life including the yummy yummy jhaal moori. Though I whish it was not just one collage but individual pictures so that one could enjoy the full glory of Calcutta.

The big news is of course the launch of Intelligent Pune (IP). Vinita says that now she is free and can regularly blog. She promises to mend the “severed” ties. Faiyaaz as usual thinks that IP stands for Irfan Pathan who has probably moved out of Baroda and re-launched himself from Pune!! A case of reverse swing?

Sarita is fit and fine. Faiyaz has an interesting remedy for her chicken pox kay daag: Surf Excel.

It is also birthday time for Nargis but she herself is not there in the blog to respond to the good wishes showered on her.

Of the 12 blogs in May, Faiyaaz had five of them while Venu chipped in with three. It was a month of birthdays and marriages. Faiyaaz Bachchan’s birthday was remembered by his bachpan key dost. While Venu, in a flashy orange shirt was seen in marriage ceremonies. He also started the mystery series by posting a lady’s pix which was immediately identified as Indira Singh. Louis announced that he is back from “Kala Pani” and so would blog more but like Vinita’s announcement earlier such promises were never backed up by action. In all there were sixty nine comments during the month.

The 8 blogs in June and the 40 comments centered around AB’s Cheene kum hai and the vote for Taj campaign. Faiyaaz had an interesting one on the 5th of June. At 2PM, 3mins and 4 seconds the time and date read as 02:03:04, 05.06.07. Luckily he got one comment for that observation. So can I now make it ek do teen chaar paanch chey saat?

Things are so bad that on 7th of June Faiyaaz not only blogs a pix of ties but also is the first one to comment on it!!!! Now that’s a unique record.

If you think that things would turn for the better then you are in for a big shock. There are 4 blogs in July and all four were from Faiyaz. It got 7 comments out which four of them were again from Faiyaaz himself. There is a cute pix of two boats on a restaurant table with Faiyaaz going nostalgic about kaagaz kee kashti, baarish ka paani and bachpan key din.

There are three blogs in August and 11 comments. And I will pick Sarita’s comment on one of the postings made by Faiyaz as the all time great comment of the year. Sarita writes, “Hey faiyaz, long time no postings…. Dina angry?”.

Someone please enlighten this humble statistician how have the numbers stacked up against Faiyaaz? I remember my favourite song from Muqqadar Ka Sikander: Wafa jo na kee toe zafaa bhee na keejay

There were a total of seven blogs and 14 comments in the month of September. Six of them were from Faiyaz and one from Venu. While October saw things slide further: 4 blogs and 9 comments. Faiyaz created a world record. Eleven consecutive blogs from September to November!!! And all the blogs in October to his credit. Dhoni bhaiyaa kaisan baaa?

Stan surfaces in November. He has just met Sister Rosalie in Paralakhemundi and also breaks the good news of Henry’s marriage. There were a total of 3 blogs and 3 comments in November.

December witnessed 4 blogs and 9 comments dedicated to wishing Henry all the very best or saying merry Christmas.

So that’s the way the 85 blogs and 475 comments went in the year 2007….

And now for the presentation ceremony:

Man of the Match: Faiyaaz Ali Bachachan.
Man of the series: Vims (For creating a blog and then disappearing for ages).
Impact players: Tasneem and Venu.
Best Pix of the Year: Faiyaaz Ali Bachachan (Two boats on a dining table)
Best poem of the year: Vinita
The One blog wonder: Dr. Alps “Re-union” Gadgil.
The best resident doctor: Stanely bhai MBBS
Best Comment of the year: Sarita on Faiyaaz’s irregular blogging habits.