Connected HUMTUM IndiBlogger Meet...

I connected HUMTUM

Date: 29^th May 2013, Indibloggers met for the launch of ‘Connected HUMTUM’, a Zee TV’s new series.  This blogger’s meet was my first, and launch of ‘Connected HUMTUM’ made it more special. Before going to the event I had preconceived notion that again some channel was launching some crap show and I was least interested in it. My motto was to meet the fellow bloggers, not to celebrate another launch of some reality show. But this HUMTUM, proved me wrong. It’s not just another reality show - it’s something else, something which currently what our social fabric necessitates, since in a country like India where a woman can be wife, girlfriend, daughter, mother, a prostitute, a rape victim and who knows what, but she can’t be the owner of her own will, she can’t be the driver of her own life. There is this sadistic society which decides for them, it decides aspiration for them, it drives their life, it decides what emotion they must carry, even it decides what they must eat, what they must not, and besides it decides their love. We as society want women to perform every possible sacrifice, perhaps we don’t really understand their thought process, and we don’t understand their huge heart which is always ready to sacrifice everything. However, here we have a chance to learn a little bit about them by looking directly into their complicated, full of struggle life.

‘Connected HUMTUM’ is such platform which provides society a wonderful opportunity to look in the lives of six common yet extra ordinary women’s life. Being an Indiblogger I had the privilege to meet these extraordinary women, and watch the screening episode of ‘Connected HUMTUM’

Pallavi Barman

Yet, too beautiful but still a common woman, who had started her career as System Engineer with IBM Global Services but couldn’t stay with it for long time. She had dreamed big to stand in the line of elites for which she took hard decisions and worked hard. Gave up her settled career as technologist, and got into the possible yet impossible world of Branding and Market Research. Currently, she is a Brand Manager of Diesel and I am sure she wouldn’t stop here. There are roads for her to travel a lot. We all agree that way to success can’t be easy and if it’s easy then it can’t be success. To her, also it wasn’t easy. To secure the dream she somehow couldn’t save her first marriage. But as women, she didn’t give up on dream of successful marriage and family. She decided to give life a new start, another chance, to prove that career oriented women can also make good family women and run a household. To perform such thing it takes a lot of courage and she proved that she has it. But, is it just the courage that she has, what about other things like, love, her own expectation, her own sense of life, and her own way of comprehension. Beyond this delicate looking stylish lady there is something more, something which I couldn’t see at her face, perhaps she hid it but I saw in her eyes, when she appeared at stage to introduce herself.

Mahima Chaudhary

She is an aspiring actress from Meerut, a small town which is famous for its scissors which usually cut down the wings of women’s dream. Even, still she dreamt a possible yet impossible dream of becoming a shining Star in mighty Bollywood. She aspired to become a next Madhubala, Madhuri Dixit or perhaps Meena Kumari. When she appeared at stage for introduction I saw a little bit Rakhi Sawant in her. Then I realized that she came from a harsh world to a harsher world. Meerut takes away dream but Mumbai takes away life of a dreamer and yet she dared to dream and demonstrated courage to step out from harsh to harsher world, in such a young age. Hence, a little bit of Rakhi is required for survival. And, surely she would have faced protest from her parents and relatives, perhaps all must have ridiculed her dream. Persuasion would have taken so many sleepless nights. In screening episode, I got opportunity to take a glimpse of her real life. The way she protects herself by putting a face of commitment and earnestness clearly states the level of her vulnerability. And, her story, I believe, is a story of every aspiring girl in India.

Sonal Giani

A Girl with short hairs as if boy’s hair cut. She is pretty and, a charm and honest feeling always accompanies her. The sweetest part is her smile, the cute smile as though belonged to an honest cute kid. When she appeared on stage to introduce herself I found her similar to any other women present in the hall except hair style, which was clearly recounting the strength she carries with her all the time. I found a chance to share a couple of words with her after Q&A session over a drink. Until then I was intrigued by the very question that why she is in the show, what she would bring to the table which others wouldn’t. And, the answer was hidden in her job - she works for Humsafar Trust as ‘Advocacy officer’ and an LGBT activist. She is a Lesbian and just like other most straight individuals she is also gone through heartbreak. She came to Mumbai for two reasons and none was money, isn’t it strange? First is to live with her twin sister, whom she calls evil and second, to be with her partner. Well, currently she lives with her loving sister and on daily basis fights with social prejudice. She intrigued me enough that I have done a little research on her and it made me more interested in HUMTUM.

Preeti Kochar

What should I write about her? I am confused, perhaps due to her, since she also appeared one to me. She wears a big smile but in her eyes there is a peculiar anger and complain about something. Maybe, the dissatisfaction level in her life runs higher than other. I don’t have any idea about what it is, but surely there is something. She is a dentist, who fixes the teeth of others but it seems she couldn’t fix a weak teeth in her own life. She is a belly dancer, who enchant viewers with her errorless moves and when she dances everyone feel light at their heart but she carries a strange heaviness in her heart, yet she manages to fly in her dace. At an instance she calls her husband her best friend and another instance feels sad for the husband not listening to her. What she wants, perhaps she is still looking for that answer or perhaps it’s just Love that she craves for.

Malishka Mendonca

She is a Chatter box of Mumbai. Every morning Mumbaikar’s listened to her chatter and smiles. I guess she knows Mumbai better than any other living soul. But what we know about her, I believe, nothing. Most of us don’t know the face of this chatter box. No doubt that she is full of life and people get relieved after talking to her. I always felt, until meeting her, that she talk’s nonsense, but there a sense in her talk because underneath this bubbly jolly successful Maliska there is someone who is waiting for a right man to come into her life. With age running at fast pace with her fast running career she awaits for love to happen and along with it, do as much fun as she could. She talks loud, she laughs loud, she is candid, but apart from her voice which we hear daily morning there is a voice which no one hears and perhaps through Connected HUMTUM we have a chance to listen to that voice.

‘Hey Maliska, I still await answer to the question I asked you in the Indiblogger meet.’

Madhavi Mauskar

In this photo, along with me there is this lady ‘Madhavi’. I met with her is an interesting story that I call ‘Story of Coincidence’.

After I entered the venue and silently seated on a chair in a row while my helmet and handbag rested on an adjacent chair Madhavi appeared from the back door and stood there seeking for a right place to grab a chair. I happened to ask her if she would like to sit on a chair next to me I would put aside my helmet and handbag. She smiled in consent and I placed my stuff underneath my chair. When she was seated, I asked her, “What do you write?”, since it was an Indiblogger meet but she answered that she didn’t know anything about blogging. She appeared to me an illiterate in the blogging world. Madhavi told me that her niece in the US updates status all the time on facebook which Madhavi finds weird. She asked me to explain blogging to her, like a curious kid. I started explaining the world of blogging to her. In the meantime, the event had started and soon host called everyone near the stage for some fun activity. All the time I was with her, we talked a lot; she told me she is a language expert and corporate trainer.

Then a moment came, our dear host announced that all six women of ‘Connected HUMTUM’ were seated among bloggers and the blogger who would first find all the six women and get photos with them individually and show it to host would get an exciting prize. All fellow bloggers started running in all the directions and soon clusters of people could be spotted at random places. First I couldn’t understand that how they recognized these women but then five-six people in a group ran in my direction. It intrigued me but then they began taking their pictures with Madhavi. I asked her if she was one of those six women. She smiled and said, yes. I replied, No, you must be kidding, it’s not possible. But then I noticed the crowd, and more and more people began gathering around her.  Soon a girl asked me by pointing her camera in my direction that to click a snap of her with Madhavi. When most have taken photo and already gone Madhavi asked, “Don’t you wanna take a photo?” I replied, “After chit chatting with you for an hour, do you really think I am in need of any photograph.” She said, “You have a point.” and smiled. Soon a girl with big camera appeared and asked me to pose for a photo with her. I believed she was official photographer of the event. Before knowing I was chit-chatting with her considering that she was another blogger, but she was not, and there she said, she would also start blogging as it appeared to her interesting.

Since I spent most time at the event with Madhavi, I could say she has lived an age and seen much more than anyone else there. Her story is more or less similar to the stories of women in her age. But she brought turn in her story by divorcing her first Husband after 14 years of marriage and decided to step into the cruel world on her own. Whatever she achieved, whatever she is today, points towards a story that repeats itself on a daily basis which she had captured through the Camera just to connect with HUM & TUM.

Images : Courtesy to Facebook search