TNN 19 January 2009, 12:28am IST
Ayesha and Zaheer’s (son of noted lawyer and NCP national secretary, Majeed Memon and Saeeda) one-and-a-half-years romantic rendezvous that began in the premises of a law college (Emphasis Mine: We didn't really fall in "LOVE" in law college and our relation kick started months after my graduation.... ) culminated into a grand marriage on Saturday with blessings from both the families.
The attendance from the world of politics, the police force and Bollywood, added the glint of power and glamour in this otherwise family affair. Majeed, wife Saeeda, elder son Zulfi and his wife Suzzane along with the bride’s parents Nergish and Viraf Bilpodiwala played the perfect hosts overseeing the comfort of the guests.
Chhagan Bhujbal came in with son Pankaj and nephew Sameer. R R Patil was seen enjoying the company of Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. Others who were seen enjoying the party were former cop M N Singh, K L Prasad, Mrs Hasan Gafoor, Baba Siddiqui, Nawab Malik, Kripashankar Singh, Asif Bhamla, Mukesh Tyagi, Samir Kadam, Shatrughan Sinha, Madhur Bhandarkar, Sachin Ahir, Udit Narayan with wife Deepa, Tariq Anwar, Aneez Ahmed, Mahesh Bhatt, Anu Malik, Prakash George, Nasir Jamal, Upen Patel with his mystery lady, Feroze Nadiadwala, Naseem Siddiqui, Abraham Mathai amongst others.
Frankly, all these so called VIPS didn’t really make my wedding a grand affair; it was grand by the presence of all those people who are close to my heart. What the article missed was as follows: I want to thank Sid, Afzal, Ajaz, Tejas, Khushboo, Robin, ReemaPrachi, Pallavi, Sonali, Madhura, Rhea Arora, Sucheta, Zainab, Abhi, Gauri, Anish, Disha, Kranti, Veera, Sanaea, Parinaz, Preity, Smita, Adnan, Mashooda, Chaitaly, Jigisha, Irum, Amber... and their respective families.... These people really made me feel special. Some reached the venue before me and were there to escort me to the dais. Most of my friends attended the Nikah ceremony. I will always appreciate their gratitude. All my fond memories of that day include my extended family members who supported me in keeping up this decision and were present in their full “bawa” spirit in the wedding. I should not miss to thank Zaheer’s friends who really put in their full efforts and made my day turn into “A Great day.”
Lately this word has started having lot of meaning in my life. I categorize myself among those people who get very influenced by social awareness issues and that line of movies. I always feel like doing something, changing the world, blah blah, but I must admit almost always all that zest dies out in weeks.
Recently I visited some families... typical after being newly married but something’s really upset me... 2 such houses had Tiger skins put up as articles of attraction. I just flipped seeing them. Don't these people feel guilty that this same gorgeous beast must have been poached for his skin? Don't they realise the implications of their expensive likes. Then there was this Doctor's house that I recently visited. The Doc had a Cockatoo bird in a tiny cage. There was a party in that Docs house and the parrots cage was in the sitting area. All the people in that party were loud and so was the terrified parrot. If the Doc guy really loves birds how can he be so cruel to them. The poor guy had no way to stretch his wings or even move around. I really felt like stuffing the Doc guy in that cage. It was the height of inhuman behaviour. I really wanted to call SPCA and ask them to rescue the parrot, but my hubby explained that the SPCA guys aren’t really trained in this kind of rescue job and that the bird would most likely die if taken out of the house. Although I am not very convinced and I am still considering making that call, I personally feel how is this life any better.
Anyways not straying from my main point "Conservation," as you can see from my last post, I just saw 2 movies on Tiger and Cheetah Conservation. I was really touched by 2 Brothers. So before the zest dies I thought the least I can do is blog about it and help create some more awareness....
Let me first dwell on Conservation of the Big Cats in India:
I went through many web sites on what our government is doing about wildlife conservation. What amused me was that most of these websites have only a donation page or some tourism information. They have no information on how one can help in person. They neither have any information on the past success in rehabilitating any animal, nor any experts on the list of people handling cases of wildlife conservation. As you all will agree in such matters its best to place the least expectations on our Government to be pro-active.
All predators play an important role in keeping a balance in the environment. The carnivores keep the population of the herbivores in check. Also imagine our future generations might never get to see these animals in wild. Imagine dinosaur movies being replaced by tigers and lions going extinct movies. I hate this thought. So please everyone who reads this blog do something to conserve our forests. Don't buy cat skin, lion teeth, elephant tusks, or forest wood. I would even go a step further and ask people to stop goin to circuses which have wild animals on display as you can't imagine what goes on in their training. Their pride is crushed over and over again to tame their wildness. The old animals are slaughtered for their skins. Imagine their lives in captivity and their lustous life being painted black. Hunting is still an adventure for some rich men in India, take our film personalities for instance; I always wished I could give that gun in the beasts hand just once and see the fear on the face of these adventure seekers.
Now let me ponder on the other thing that really needs attention, our environment:
I was in London for 20 days. A few weeks before reaching London I was down with really bad throat infection and cough. Once I was back I was again down with sore throat. One thing I realised was when we were flying over London, just before landing all I could see was greenery, clouds and really clear blue skies, but as soon as I was on Mumbai skies there was something BROWN below and everywhere. Skies were not filled with anything blue… they were filled with something brown. Can seriously anyone tell me what exactly that brown thing was? Everyday when I get up in Mumbai and I see outside the window I see fog... oops its smog. Being asthmatic I was apprehensive to go to London because I suspected that the cold there would make me ill, that obviously didn’t happen. Its not Mumbai’s weather changes that causes people to fall ill, it’s the pollution and unhygienic conditions. Its our attitude thats leading us closer to the doom day.
Another thing I learned in London was how seriously they took plastic waste. Super markets asked people to carry their own bags or they would have to pay for the carry bags there. A 5 litre Mineral Water Can was priced cheap because they didn’t want people to buy small half litre bottles and add to plastic pollution. I really liked their concepts. So I have started applying a few practical ones myself - I have stopped taking plastic bags from local vendors when I can do without one. Most often if I go shopping I carry some bags from home. Also I avoid using Air-Condition when not required. I have stopped using water heater whenever I can bath in the afternoons and I try to avoid wasting water. Small changes will lead to a big change and that’s what I am hoping for. So join me in my minuscule quest of CONSERVATION.
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