Garden State - excerpts

I thoroughly enjoyed this independent movie. It was written, directed and starred Zach Braff (J.D from Scrubs) and Natalie Portman; and was produced by Danny Di Vito.

"There are a handful of normal kid things I missed..

There are a handful of normal kid things I wish I had missed..."

(Don't we all!!)

Zach Braff to Natalie Portman


This one would ring true for most that have moved out of their (childhood) HOME

You know that point in your life when you realise the house you grew up in is no longer your home and all of a sudden even though you have a place to keep all your shit, that the idea of home is gone....

I don't feel at home in my house...

You'll see one day when you move out , it sort of happens and then its gone.... you can never get it back .. Its like you are home-sick for a place that does not even exist .. maybe its this right of passage and you won't have that feeling again until you create another home for your kids... maybe that's what family is.. a group of people who miss the same imaginary place...they call home..

Zach Braff to Natalie Portman

Watch it if you get the opportunity .. it was an official selection at the Sundance Festival ...

A Life Less Ordinary (or the musings of a tortured sole..)

A strict, frugal yet comfortable upbringing...

A copious talent, that would not heed a teachers command or a parents stern word and chidding.

A sport for which there was no love nor talent

An ambition to succeed but not to strive and succeed (or maybe I just chose the wrong path)

A vision of a life less ordinary or just the musings of a tortured sole!

Life - Now and Then

THEN - Look at those innocent little faces (I'm the lil boy with the blue shorts) ...could you guess that these little brats would grow up to be the infamous AVM batch of '96 - They reeked havoc on the teachers (locking some in toilets) destroyed school property (we had to pay a surcharge over the already steep school fees to make-up for the damages) and possibly the only class to be given a psych-eval (to see if we were a danger to others if not soceity as a whole)!

We were also the first brat-brigade to complete all 13 years at AVM Bandra (Nursery to 10th grade) and see the school grow from a one storey primary academy to one of the best ICSE schools in all of Bombay ...

A decade out of the sanctuary we called AVM, and the batch of '96 has been sprinkled all over the globe ... (visit http://avmite.org/1996studs.aspx for a full listing of how far the peebles have landed)

NOW - thats me ... (well a low calorie avtaar) ..

Life seems so much simpler taking in the views at Lake Bohinj (Slovenia) .... Reminds me of how life was at school - sheltered with few variables and excessively policed (by parents, guardians and teachers alike) which I am sure was the reason we rebelled like we were fighting a cause greater than teenage angst!

I still recollect the mixed emotions that flooded my mind after struggling through the last of the 10th grade examinations (a gruelling 3 hr Hindi Lit exam) that would seal each of our fates for the forseable 'academic' future - A smile on our faces and a cheer in our heart, we walked out of those gates - thinking we would know each other for ever!

How naive of us - or is that just the sarcasm that life breeds into each of us!

I borrow this from a friend's blog, for it seems so appropriate for an old sod who has lost a bit of zest...

'I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.'

- Jack London

Back from the void!

HI Chaps,

Seems like I have been one of the more reticent of the Batch of '96 seeing as how there is one person (KT) who seems to vaguely know what I have been up to!

Currently working in London with KPMG's Transaction Services team.... fancy name for accountants who work on the due-diligence aspect of M&A deals ... I had previously worked with Andersen and KPMG in Bombay before moving to Leeds Uni to read for a Masters in Accounting n Finance...

Along the way I met Aparna (She’s a Fashion Designer) and we have called London home for the last two yrs... She’s a Buyer at GAP's Western European HQ (she chooses designs, sources and then gets the clothes to all the European GAP stores).

Have kept in touch with a couple of chaps.. (Dr) Zain ‘Paediatrician’ Halim (I hear he has taken Gabbar Singh’s role in stories told by Moms to terrify their kids) , Meethil Momaya who has his own interesting story about moving careers from Engineering to Wild Life photography ... Was surprised to see Jassi’s name on a few movie hoardings (as a producer for Ek Ajnabee) when I was last in Mumbai .. All the very best mate!

I have a few snaps from school that I will be uploading soon… BTW, do look us up if any of u are in London - email kandarp.khanvte@gmail.com).... And as I said in school (after getting many a horrid math scheduled test marks) ‘Jaan Bachi to Phir Millenge!’

May the force be with u!
Kandarp