pure hungama!

there are milestones in all our lives. u know, moments/time-spans that change u forever? there have been a few so far for me... clearing my CAT... getting thru the 2 years at MICA... surviving the madness of mumbai *there! i didn't say b'bay!*, d oman experience, joining hungama, getting married & leaving all of that behind me...

though i maintain that MICA did change me a lot. i think hungama, by far, affected me more. i am not yet sure whether all of that "effect" was positive or negative. maybe, as always, it was both.

it was here, that i realized my passion for bollywood. uptil then, i always knew i liked hindi films and cud sit thru them all. but never had i been concerned with how their music fared or whether their stars were saleable! i had favorites based on their actual acting skills instead of saleability! i would've turned up my nose at the suggestion that i might say "i like himesh" *of course, i like him!* or would've called u delusional if you'd said that "Panditji Bataayina Biyaah Kab Hoi" is a super hit movie. and ravi kishen and nagma are stars. or made you rinse ur mouth with toilet disinfectant if you'd suggested that i knew nigar khan's biodata & exactly how many slutty pics of hers were in d database. i would've disowned u if u'd told me that a mere month into the place and i'd be able to quote rakhi sawant *?!* and how she is very "profeshunal" and why!

over a year there, and how the tables had turned! i not only knew all of the above, rakhi sawant's sound bytes became lunch-time conversation! and d latest slutty star-aspirant was known to us on a first-name basis! and there was a time when i didn't need to refer to the database to know what content we had rights to! i knew all 52000 odd albums with song titles & imagery! GOSH!

but it was here that i met the most amazing people! as diverse as could be. as crazy as possible. it was here that i felt normal. normal to be completely me: quirky and insane. i had never worked with so many women before hungama happened. i didn't know it was possible for me to get along with them. but then, i had never worked in a "yellow" office earlier. neither had i followed bollywood data so keenly. i didn't realize when it moved from being a job to a way of life. and i guess that happens to anyone who is dedicated to their job in hungama.
suruchi had first mentioned d likeness to a cult, which i researched *due to ample free time!* and asserted even further!

a lot has changed there since i've left. *realization dawned when i'd gone to office in sept* but the chaos which got us all together & helped us bond, still reigns supreme. and i hope the new bunch there can learn to derive order off it! and i hope, we, who're out of it now... can learn to move on! and not evaluate movies by "ours" and "that's not ours!"

p.s.: no, i wasn't paid to do this by hungama. they don't need d publicity. also, payments and hungama are a topic we shall not get into on a public forum!