Abi:original - If you aren't original, what are you?

Metallica, Metallica, Metallica. Heavy metal, Heavy metal, Heavy metal. Hard rock, Hard rock, Hard rock. Amboli, Amboli, Amboli. Women, Women, Women. Eve Teasers, Eve Teasers, Eve Teasers. Nope, I haven't gone completely batty (yet). Neither have the keys on my laptop gone haywire. I'm just pondering about something deeper and realising how impressionable we’ve all become. Does repeating certain words, create a certain impression in your head? Most people would agree. Being a mother I'm more conscious of what I say and when I say it, especially in front of the kids, whom most believe are rather impressionable. But aren't we all? Try repeating those opening lines at the top for yourself. Sooner or later you too may be forming your own impressions. Good, bad, indifferent. They are there and they will provoke your response. Micheal Jackson called it Human Nature. You certainly remember Micheal Jackson right. That guy who died a few years ago and whose death has been reduce...

Yes Bombay is my city. Mine. I may technically not be Maharashtrian by birth or ration card, but yes Bombay is also mine. At least I made it mine when I was growing up in it. It shaped my thoughts and perceptions and allowed me to breathe. It is home and its even mentioned on my passport, so geographically and emotionally it is mine. I never felt more attached to Bombay than when bomb blasts rocked the city during my tenth grade exams. The feeling heightened when riots ravaged the city like no one ever imagined they could. Many years later the same feeling came rushing back when terrorists hijacked the city and innocent every day people were held at ransom. I may have left the city, but it never left me. I guess when I left, I lost all authority of caring for the city. I'd like to think that's not true. Bombay used to wake up to a multitude of voices that sang in harmony. Now anyone who stands up to bullies is almost certainly facing a lone battle. Has the city lost its voice? ...