aaditya and me

Dogs and cats: The farewell dilemma

2011-07-16T00:03:00.001+05:30

Tomorrow I leave the city I grew up in. There's this question which repeatedly keeps coming to me. Am I a cat or a dog?

Attachments and loyalty are said to be different in a cat and a dog. A dog loves the people of the house - the way they pet him, the way they play with him. A cat loves the house, the place - her favourite corner, her food bowl.

In these weeks of farewell, I have often wondered if I am a cat or a dog... if I love the places more or if it is just the people that makes the place so close to me.

Will I miss IIT, the place or will it be the people at IIT who made it so awesome?

When I realize that almost all my friends have now left IIT Bombay, the places that
I think, for me, it's the latter. I am a 'dog' among the 'dog-cat' options. And I won't miss Mumbai as much as I would miss the people that made me what it is to me.

'Delhi Belly' : Movie Review

2011-07-03T01:51:00.003+05:30

This belly grumbles and farts and makes you go crazy with laughter. This movie essentially has the dark, in-your-face jokes and gags which you surely need to keep your mind 'open' to understand.

So get ready for a smuggler getting a package full of faeces delivered instead of diamonds. A burqa-clad man entering a random house to quickly enter the toilet as the family squirms in their seats hearing him fart inside. Or a neighbour being blackmailed with his pictures with a prostitute - this one leaves no bars!

Imran Khan is not really the only hero of the film - for its story is more like a college one-act play (and yes, the movie has no interval too.). It is the entire cast with its characters and situations that makes this movie a total entertainer. The three friends (Imran Khan, Vir Sanghvi and the third guy) are a riot together! The two ladies have done a very good job. The dialogues are quirky, uncouth and witty most of the times. While the story moves ahead with a steady pace, the 'Chudail' track is a definite dip in the pace of the narrative and hence the impact. At the end of the movie, one gets an incomplete feeling - wanting for more! The climax surely shows promise for a sequel!

All songs are very unique. 'Nakkad-wale disko' is good - but the weakest among the lot. 'Bedardi Raja', 'DK Bose' and 'Switty' are remarkable and will make very good party songs. Aamir Khan makes a very ordinary 'I hate you like I love you' extremely enjoyable to watch.

Overall, the Delhi-set 'Pyaar ka punchnama' was awesome - this one takes up the Delhi setting again and churns out a hilarious entertainer. Bole toh, is season mein dilli hit hai bawa!!

So, look at yourself in the mirror. Are you decent? Are you offended by toilet humour? Are you disgusted with a man being pulled by his tie? Are you embarrassed watching a girl sitting on the lap of a man (the other way round)? If ALL these questions have 'no' for an answer, go watch the movie for sure!

'Ready': Movie Review

2011-06-06T22:15:00.003+05:30

Last time I said certain bad things about Salman Khan (which was about his show 'Dus ka Dum' where he got his pronunciations totally messed up. On purpose perhaps), I was harrowed by hate messages - so I better watch out this time.

Talking about 'Ready', I must say that it did NOT live up to my expectations. I expected it to be a 'rofl'worthy movie - it was not.

The movie has its fun elements where I did go laughing myself off. Only wish there had been more such gags in the movie.

Salman Khan steals the show with his histrionics. He dances, fights, laughs in his own inimitable style! He is THE reason to watch the movie for. Asin looks good and plays her part well. When you see her, you exactly know why she is different (and positively so) from the Kareenas and Katrinas. Paresh Rawal, Mahesh Manjrekar and Manoj Pahwa provide an able support.

The songs are hilarious and very well picturized. I LOVE 'Dhinka Chika'!

However, the movie is a nearly forced mix-mash of action, family drama, romance and comedy. But the elements do not really mix with each other well - a lot of things look forcefully put. The whole preachy family drama at the end is nothing more than shallow. There are also many glitches in the screenplay which adversely affect the impact of the movie.

Overall, the movie is surely very good and entertaining but surely could have been much better! It is not as good as 'No entry' or 'Dabangg' for sure!

Without you... Recommended

2011-06-04T22:09:00.012+05:30

Disclaimer: Mostly imaginary.

I wrote your name in the sand with my toe. Just the way you had written it years ago on another beach. Back then, it was your name with mine.

I heard the song playing on my phone faintly through the sound of the tide. The song you had sung for me once - looking into my eyes and filling me with the love of the world. Or perhaps a world of love.

"It's going to hurt. And it's going to hurt like hell." I exactly knew what Ranjita meant when she had said that. My trust on you had become equivalent to my trust on the fact that love exists in the world. And today I felt like my soul had been squeezed out of my body through my heart.

I cannot describe what I was feeling at that moment. Because like the hues of the sky, there were so many emotions at the same time. I was choking under the weight of the anger, the fear, the sorrow, the joy, the relief (well, yes), the desperation, the hope and the utter darkness that seemed to have blinded me for over twenty days. Ever since the door was banged shut on my face.

I saw the reflection of the sun on the wet beach. It looked like the sun was right there- like a fish out of water, wriggling its last moments away on the sand.

I looked above the horizon and the sun was still there. In all its glory. With all its light.

The reflection of the sun may have gone wet - but the sun knew that there was more to him than the reflection. The sun was bright. The sun was as powerful.

I walked on, leaving your name behind me on the sand. I heard the waves splash and move back. My feet sank slightly .. perhaps to the shock that your name had been wiped off... but I had no time to wait.

The song on the phone had come to an end. I kept walking.

Revival of the Fittest

2011-06-01T11:27:00.004+05:30

As I type this post here, I feel like a dancer who's entering the auditorium after a long time. Dressed in deep blue, she looks at the lights piercing into her eyes. She looks at the stage glowing like a glistering beach. She puts up her left hand and with her right hand, takes a spin.

With the spin, flashes come back to her. Flashes of a spoilt performance. Flashes of a sprained ankle. Flashes of a lover distanced because she had no time for him. She hardly completes one circle around herself and sits down on the stage. The lights on the stage go off. Just one spotlight on her.

Then she gets back. Stands on one leg this time with the other leg bent. She throws her hands in the air and closes her eyes. She recollects the euphoria - the thundering applause, the stage vibrating with every footstep of hers as if it were a part of her own body. She remembers her dancing self moving to every lub-dub of the heart that the stage is. The drop of sweat rising from the back of her neck makes way down her spine. She spins twice in succession and covers the entire stage. She is the queen of the stage today. She puts down her hands and throws a glance at the empty chairs.

She is short of breath and opens her mouth slightly. Without her knowledge, the sides of her lips stretch into a smile. A gush of energy fills her again. While she is ruling the stage, she is ruling the auditorium too.

You can revive a passion only if you get up even after the lights on the stage have gone off.

I get up on this stage too.

'Wild Dining': Restaurant Review

2011-01-28T12:42:00.000+05:30

To Nishant, Shobhit and PamPam, my accomplices to this place. What the hell, Shobhit, you ruined my diet plans!

In a lame gully somewhere in Andheri near Oshiwara police station is this place called 'Wild dining'. (Naam shady hai) It's on the top floor of this place called Om Heera Panna Mall. The location is quite out of the way and that works against the place to an extent.

This is a buffet-only place. You pay a cover charge and you eat around. (Mineral water is free. unlimited. Nahaa bhi sakte ho... ) Have been told people spend as many as four hours here.

The place is dimly lit and has leopards, tarzans and monkeys and artificial trees and branches all over. The music plays on in (thankfully) a low volume but suits the mood of the place. The table looks like a typical log cabin table - and thankfully, the tables are set sufficiently apart. Ambience ke liye full marks.

Now, I am one person who ALWAYS visits the loo each time I eat out. And like I tell my friends, it's not that I am eternally dysentrified. I believe that a good/well-maintained washroom is a sign of a good/well-managed restaurant. The washroom here is made up like a forest cabin with "For Lion" written on a sign outside and smelled good. Full marks on that too. (I am talking about the gents washroom here. Didn't really go to the other half which said "For Lioness")

The staff is dressed like forest officers and is almost always attentive - though our starters (which are served at the table) came quite late. No complaints overall.

Coming to the food, there was a good variety of salads here. We had the vegetarian soup (the name of which I do not remember). It was a Chinese soup but the taste was just not right. They have a live pizza/pasta/tacos counter. While all of them were strictly average, we couldn't help but have almost two servings of each. The main course consisted of four vegetarian and a couple of non-vegetarian (chicken/kheema/fish) sabzis and some biryani/fried rice stuff. The main course was fine. The fish tasted good.

The desserts were extremely tempting and I couldn't help but take half a spoon of some of it. (Swear, only half a spoon) (They had pastries, four flavours of ice cream, phirni, souffle and gulabjamuns) The souffle and the gulabjamuns were particularly nice. The ice-cream must've been good too but since they didn't make it (or so I think), you can't really give them the credit for that.

On the downside, there is nothing 'free' to drink apart from the fukat ka paani. And the mocktails and cocktails are quite overpriced.

Meal per head (inclusive of taxes): 430Rs. (This was the cover for a weekday dinner. They also have lunches)

Overall, excellent ambience, good food. Good for the treats where a group of people cannot zero in on the kind of food they want to have. (or for people who want to hog around.)

Dhobi Ghat: Movie review

2011-01-25T10:55:00.000+05:30

Dhobi Ghaat

The review is divided into two parts. Part one: My senti take on the movie. Part two: My not-so-senti take on the movie. Take your pick. I'd prefer that you read both. *grins*

Part one:

The movie has an additional title 'Mumbai diaries.' That's what the film is. The storywriter tears off a couple of pages from the diaries of these four characters and hurls them in the air. The pages sway on their way down pushing each other occasionally. But unlike other movies, each of the characters retains his/her own story - the interaction with the others is solely a matter of the diary pages rubbing against one other. As the pages settle on the ground, you know that their stories aren't over but they will perhaps take time to touch each other again.

THIS is what I think the movie is... starts abruptly, ends on an as much abrupt note.

Part two:

Move aside puraane-zamaane-ki-grey-streak-of-hair-wali-saasu-maa. Aamir Khan with a grey blot of hair (instead) is here. Nayaa hairstyle hai bhai. (He, obviously, does a super-excellent job.) And he plays a railway engine which keeps smoking throughout the movie. He is joined by a goodlooking actor Pratik Babbar (who calls himself only 'Pratiek'.. and I guess he spells his name in a funny way.) who is effortless. I personally saw several glimpses of Smita Patil from Umbarthaa (A Marathi movie of hers) in him. The firang chick looks extremely good, has a strong accent (and she speaks to a washerman in English with that accent. Too much re.) and does a very good job. The actress playing Yasmin is also very good.

The stories of these characters keep taking twists and turns but the best part of the movie is the way they open, almost like layers. The dialogues are very good - the ones in Hindi as well as English.

And a lot will be said about the camera work by everyone who talks about the movie. While a part of it is essentially arty (with a handycam staggering away), it is also visually enchanting when the camera is not shaking. The background score completely fits the mood of the movie and keeps you hooked despite the slow speed. There are visuals of fisherwomen, local trains, bhelpuri walahs, photographers at gateway, dhobis, Ganpati visarjan - all talking about a different kind of people in Mumbai.

On the downside, the movie is essentially slow. The characters are doing arbit things which may look senseless. Haath mein chappal leke beach pe chalne wala Aamir Khan, doosro ki khidkiyon mein abruptly jhaankne wala camera... can get boring if you are expecting something to constantly happen in the movie. But wait. Something is, always. Just that the director does not mind having punches unrelated to the central story.

Overall, I loved the movie. Did get bored for ten minutes but did not sleep at all. (Rare.)

Two chocolates

2011-01-19T16:03:00.001+05:30

"Two chocolates, uncle!"

A hand holding a tattered rupee note appeared from the other side of the counter.

Baniya ji (Baniya: A grocer. In the wake of shopping malls and their patrons, this species may soon join the league of dinosaurs and dodos.) walked out slowly and pulled out the bottle containing small round chocolates. The chocolates were unwrapped and had bright colours. Baniya ji began opening the lid which creaked with every turn. He pulled out two chocolates which looked particularly tiny in his huge hand.

"No! I want the yellow ones."

Baniya ji frowned and dug his hand deeper. He placed one yellow and one blue chocolate on the pale wooden counter.

"One more yellow chocolate, Baniya ji."

"You kids are pampered for choice! We never had chocolates in our times. Take them yourself." Baniya ji almost banged the bottle and went back to the chair where he had been sitting and flipped open the newspaper.

A tiny hand dug deep into the bottle. There was hardly any room but the little boy continued hunting for the chocolate he wanted. He pulled out one. The blue chocolate did not seem to impress him and he went for another chocolate.

Baniya ji did not even notice the boy jumping out of his shop - triumphant to have found two yellow chocolates - just the way he wanted them.

Some things that mean nothing to you could mean the world to someone else. Respect the differences.

You and me

2011-01-15T15:52:00.001+05:30

Disclaimer: Not a great post. But some posts have to be published

You sat on the couch leaning against the table. You looked like a hungry kitten. When the food arrived, you pulled out the fork and began eating. It was only after you had eaten a few morsels that you started talking.

You smiled and you talked. You laughed and you joked. You told me about the politics at work, about the plans that you had for the weekend. And for the years to come.

I kept staring at you. I did not touch my plate. Having seen you smile, I had had my dinner.

Mothers #5

2011-01-12T09:49:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: Very Dark. Sorry for that. I start off writing a blogpost without thinking of the way it would go and sometimes, it just turns out this way.

She had taught him English at home because they could not afford an English medium school. She had not eaten for three days when the school teacher told her that her son had copied in the examination. She cried the day he became a doctor and firmly believed that had it happened five years earlier, her dead husband would have not succumbed to an abrupt spell of fever.

She deserved to know. She deserved to know the truth that was so close to him.

The first few lines on a note in his drawer read: "Dear mom.. there is something that I need to tell you. It's not that I am guilty or wrong. It's just that I understand that it will hurt you. And I somehow cannot bring myself to doing that."

He carried her on his shoulder today. He was going to carry the burden of not telling his mother this truth for the rest of his life.

Do you have a secret, a truth that you want to tell your parents too?

Tube of light

2011-01-09T09:15:00.003+05:30

Note (for the untrained :P): Blogposts like these don't have one inference or one moral per se. They are meant to be abrupt - because they are meant to make the readers think and make their own interpretations.

I took a step towards the hut. An old wooden plank that barely covered the entrance formed the door. The plank that was hinged at only one place creaked as I pushed it open. I was scared to let go of it. I thought it may fall apart.

An old lady sat on the floor blowing into a long tube to ignite the fire. She looked at me and kept the tube down. The way she wiped her forehead with the back of her palm had something familiar about it.

A tube of light entered the hut from the center of the roof. The cyclone had torn apart her roof at several places.

"He was my son who died in the cyclone", she said handing me what looked like an old photograph. She spoke with a strange accent. But somehow, I could follow it.

I stared in silence as I saw her son. I looked at the tiny mirror hanging on the wall by a peg. I could not believe the resemblance.

I could not see more. I woke up drenched in sweat.

'No one killed Jessica' - Review

2011-01-07T23:08:00.003+05:30

Note: Some short stories in the pipeline. Keep reading the blog if you like 'my' kinda stories ;)

'No one killed Jessica' is a movie that grabbed my attention from the day I saw the first look on television. A lady-on-fire (she was smoking. literally :P) Mukherjee was all over the promos with a Vidya Balan occasionally walking around here and there wearing glasses meant for Khali. (Kaun Khali mat poochna.)

Cut to the theatre where I sit day one show two. (An early morning.. sasta wala show. Where the popcorn comes for a 'combo'.. a.k.a. the theatre s trying to make some more money. Did I, btw, hurt the multiplex's ego by calling it a theatre?! :P ) The movie opens with visuals of Delhi which 'Dilli 6' missed. The visuals during the opening credits have Delhi in its different forms - the chaat walaas, the Metro and the President's House.

And opens the first half which is in one word 'captivating'. Director Gupta keeps his tempo of 'Aamir' (which was his first movie) totally alive where drama is mixed with an element of mystery at every instant. As the story unfolds, you have no time to think (and I had no time to eat my popcorn). And while Rani Mukherjee dominated the promos, it is Vidya Balan who outshines her TOTALLY in the first half. In a very 'de-glam' role, Vidya 'acts'. And for my friends who justify Katrina by saying "Katrina cannot act. Vidya cannot dress well.", I'd like to say that the two are ACTORS first. The music complements the proceedings with 'Duaa' being the memorable track.

Rani second half mein bahut footage khaati hai.. second half is more 'Nayak'(Anil Kapoor...?)-esque - full of sting operations and "badal diya system ko"-style portions. Rani does come out very well in the second half though.

The actual murder sequence definitely tops the scenes that are the highlight of the movie. I mean, I knew ki ab Jessica maregi... par fir bhi, I could feel the blood curdling. (Mera.. Jessica ka nahi). The scene with Vikram's sting operation is also remarkable for sure. The climax with the two ladies is very Sanjay-Leela-Bhansali .. and I am talking about his good scenes.

When the song 'Mehfooz har kadam karna aee khudaa' started in 'Aamir', owing to the whole situation in the movie AND the amazing song, I had goosebumps.. there is NO goosebump moment in this one.

Vidya Balan actually exhibits a GRAPH to her character - the changing levels of confidence are expressively shown. Rani Mukherjee comes across as a strong-willed journalist and maintains that THROUGHOUT. This actually adds to the mystery of the character. (Aage ke naam are the character ke naam. I do not know the actors' names...) Vikram is VERY good. There is a criminal ki mummy who has only dialogue in the movie - who is very funny and I guess very real. (Ek maa ko apne bete ki suraksha ke alawa kya chahiye....... Ok! I'll not watch K3G again) The newcomer Myra does what Sonam Kapoor has done in all her movies: Smile around and wear skimpy clothes. (Acting ka kaam pappa ke paas rakha hai Sonam didi ne). The investigating police officer, Jessica's father are very good.

Overall, I am a fan of Director Gupta now! The second half is not half as good as the first half. The movie on the whole is DEFINITELY a good watch!! Please download karke chindi quality ki copy dekhke 'bakwaas movie hai' mat bolo.. Watch it in a theatre. I think it is worth it!

While the Kareenas and Katrinas can show off their jawaanis and whatever, Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee show that they are what their profession is called - ACTORS.

When do I remember you, God?

2010-12-14T17:35:00.004+05:30

Dear God,

Why do I remember you only when I am hurt..
Only when I sit in the soil with my knees wet.

Why do I remember you only when I cry...
Only when the tears seep through the lips into my mouth..

Dear God,

I sometimes wonder why I remember You only in the times of agony and pain.
Maybe I am just a selfish person who needs You when I am sad.

*

God smiled and said silently, "Yes, you are selfish. With the fragrance of the blood from your knees, you smell the Me within you. With the tears, you taste the Me within you.

Troubles and challenges are my way to telling you that I am.

and I am within you."

Leopard-trap

2010-12-05T22:20:00.003+05:30

Vague. And I like it. :D

Tightly locked, the leopard-trap...
Empty, the leopard-trap..
The railings of the trap shiver in the wind...
The memories of the captive that once was, still clear in their mind...

The trap is shut
with the memories trapped tight in it...

The trap wants to be open again...
and let go of the memories.
Even the leopard once trapped wanted to be - let free.

Gulzaarish: The movie review for 'Guzaarish'

2010-11-21T19:33:00.002+05:30

The title is 'Gulzaarish' because the lyrics of the songs of this movie are very 'Gulzaar'-ish. I mean... 'Sau gram zindagi' is so from the same line of thought as 'hum ne gilehari ke joothe mutter khaaye hai' (Thats a line from a song in Kaminey btw)

Coming back to the movie.. the movie is strictly ok. There is a plastic doll with the name Aishwarya Rai who wears red lipstick and shows cleavage - slightly too much for a nurse. There is a Hrithik Roshan who does a very good job as the patient. There is a Shernaz Patel who is amazing - and a Aditya (lastname?) who is an apt support. The movie has a sharp Sanjay Bhansali mark for it is visually stunning. It indeed is as beautiful as Devdas, Saawariya and Black. (I rate all three of them at the same level in that department) The visuals excite you, scare you and soothe you - just what is intended of them in each scene.

On the positive side is, of course, Hrithik's marvellous performance though some of his dialogues are not clearly spoken. The dialogues and the story does keep you engaged - though towards the end, they get predictable.

The topic of Euthanaisa that the movie handles somehow did not appeal to me. It so looks like a non-issue to me - and I am only a naive individual, a student who believes that there is a right to die for all of us as much as a right to live.

The best part of the movie is the last scene and the fact that the movie somewhere ends on a happy note. On the flip side, there is not one scene that appealed to me (unlike 'Black' which had some extraordinary sequences in parts)

Overall, I do not think the movie appealed to me as much as it appealed to many of my friends/critics online. It is entertaining - not a masterpiece or something.

So much to write

2010-11-21T19:25:00.002+05:30

I am currently playing the role of the campus placement manager at IIT Bombay. There are six of us who co-ordinate a team of about fifty. This post is not very unrelated to this fact.

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So much to speak, so much to write. There's so much that I think I've learnt in the last couple of months that I have enough supply for a year.

However, among other things, there's one thing that I've learnt which stops me from posting the others on the blog right now. And that one thing overrides and in some way explains my changed posting habits...

That one thing is that there is a right time and place for saying things. Even if they are your most genuine thoughts. Right now, the time is not right for me to express.

I don't want to be a volcano that explodes and burns. I want to be a river that emerges from a glacier.. and the glacier is yet melting.

So much to write.. and I will.

Weight

2010-10-29T12:43:00.001+05:30

We often decide what defines our joys and our sorrows. We carry the load of our worries, often self-created. Our dreams, instead of giving us wings of a bird, give us the shells of molluscs: shells that we choose to confine ourselves to.

We fail to identify what our troubles really are. We fail to identify what should really bother us...

Then, I thought of these lines. Each time I read them, I see a step deeper. Closer. To a person I have lost touch with - myself.

"my weight i carry on my shoulders..
my weight i see tied to my waist...

a weight in my heart i feel..
and i do not even know who it belongs to."

Khichdi - the movie - the review

2010-10-04T15:32:00.002+05:30

'Khichdi' sets a trend by being the first Hindi serial to be made into a movie. The movie takes the characters from the TV serial to a new level altogether.

Compliments:
One line - this is the best comedy movie I have seen in a theatre! The movie is very comparable to the Herapheris and Andaaz apna apnaas of the world.

The movie tickles you from the word 'go'. Hansa brings the house down with her amazing performance. She is effectively supported by everyone else.

The 'Bhosale market chal' song was good fun to hear/watch onscreen.

The court scene at the end makes you go rolling in laughter. Among the other scenes that one remembers are the pre-interval scenes and the scene with Farah Khan. The movie, unlike many other movies, picks up tempo in the second half and culminates in a fun climax with a TOTALLY unexpected and hilarious end.

The movie does not assume that the viewer has seen the TV serial - a friend who had not seen the serial loved the movie as much as I did.

Complaints:
There are one or two jokes which are repeated from the TV serial. As a voracious viewer, I could not help but notice.

The parodies of 'Beedi jalaaile' and 'Bheege honth tere' are BORING and in bad taste. The music, overall, does not attract my interest.

I think the movie was not publicised enough. :-( :-(

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Overall, I strongly recommend people to watch the movie.

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I watched the movie in a theatre with recliner seats and LOVED the experience!

A colour of my own - Adaptation of a Suresh Bhat Ghazal

2010-09-25T16:20:00.004+05:30

A friend Abhishek R. asked me to translate this marathi ghazal by Suresh Bhat. (www.sureshbhat.in and wikipedia entries will be the best way to read about him.) The original is called 'Ranguni rangaat saarya'.

I am no translator. I am no linguist. I am only a human being. I can feel. This song touches me and in this adaptation, I cannot help but move away from keeping it a mere translation.

The blogpost is not a word-to-word/line-to-line translation of the song. The lines are rearranged. Some lines from the original poem are not elaborated. Some lines are an original imagination. I digress from the original song in portions. (The ones who know the Marathi song will obviously notice the similarities as well as differences)

The expression in English is original but all the credit to the original poet for bringing in what the song brings to me.

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I stood facing the sky. As the evening set before my eyes, the colours of my skin changed. They were the colours of the sky.

As the night creeped in, I saw myself in the mirror and saw a colour that was different from the colours on my face in the evening. This was the colour that I was made of.

I coloured myself in every colour around me but knew that I had a different colour.. a colour of my own.

I have to admit, I was in love. But the only thing that fell in love with me was sorrow.

The lines on my forehead have, however, seldom affected the line that stretches across my lips and forms a smile.

I could never have you with me. Now, my tears and my songs are the only companions. I am happy that I at least have them for life.

...coloured myself in every colour around me. Yet had a colour.. that was mine.

I am the sun who wanders alone when half the world is fast asleep in the dark of the night.

I am the sun whose burning is called a day. My burning is a ceremony for the world which watches it all along.

..coloured myself in every colour around me. Yet had a colour.. that was mine.

Cinediner with Dabangg

2010-09-23T22:47:00.003+05:30

Writing after a long time.. feels like I am new to this world again. I cannot forget that the blog changed my life, made me happier and more confident. I cannot stop writing..

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Cinediner (a movie theatre) at R City mall, Ghatkopar is unique. It is unique because you can eat while you watch a movie. It is a restaurant inside a theatre. The 'eating' is similar to any fine-dine place.

You buy a ticket of Rs. 500 (as in Sept. 2010. :P Reliance hai bhai.. kab paisa badha de pata nahi..) and you get food coupons of Rs. 200 with it. You are escorted to a lounge - similar to a VIP lounge at an airport. The smartly dressed staff welcome you courteously. The ambience is golden, flashy and the sofas are velvetty soft.

A while later, you are escorted by one of the staff members to a hall reserved for 40 people - seven-eight tables only! The supercomfortable sofas are arranged in a manner that your table is YOUR private space and no one can interfere. Each table has a call bell in case you want to call the servers (a polished term for 'waiters'. I like the word 'servers', btw).

The movie begins and you definitely get a 'private screening' feel as the food you order begins to arrive. The servers often get reluctant when you press the call bell too many times. (I did that hastily and they stopped coming after a point.) The hall, the entrance, the loo are very 'Bollywood' premiere/red-carpetty in nature.

The menu is not elaborate - six to seven starters, coffees and three varieties of rice. There are a couple of desserts and sastaaa pizzas (a pizza at 170-190) too. They, ofcourse, serve desserts.

The entire movie-watching experience is enhanced when you know you are in a total private space - where you can scream and sing songs playing on the screen.

Overall, the service definitely needs to improve because the last pizza we ordered (in the interval) arrived only twenty minutes before the movie got over. The servers DEFINITELY need to watch the orders properly.

Apart from that, it definitely is a place to go for a date, a family/close friends get-together.

Cost for two people: 1000Rs. for tickets + Rs. 135 (the charges of the food we ordered over and above our food coupons.)

===

Dabangg was ok btw. I am not too much of a Salman Khan fan but the action is surely interesting in parts. The songs are fulltoo chhapri and enjoyable (maybe not in the ambience I was in. :P )

'We are Family' - Review

2010-09-11T15:54:00.003+05:30

Why did I watch the movie? Because I like Kajol. With all her screeching and screaming, she's quite adorable.

Why shouldn't have I watched the movie? Kajol and Arjun Rampal play a divorced couple. I somehow cannot digest Kajol being ok marrying Arjun in the first place. :-p

So... The movie 'looks' good - like all Karan Johar movies. (This one's not his directorial film) Some of the songs are good - especially the 'Let's rock' number.

Performance-wise, Kajol ROCKS. She is effortlessly natural in most of the scenes. The movie is tolerable ONLY because of Kajol's presence in the movie. She is closely followed by the three kids who are cute and do a good job. Kareena Kapoor is a confused chick here in the film - she's 'K3G ki Poo' mixed up with 'Kal ho na ho ki Preity Zinta'. (Ironically, Kareena Kapoor was apparently the first choice for the Kal ho na ho role.) She's decent in parts. By the way, Arjun Rampal is also in front of the camera in the movie. ( *wink* )

By the way, the climax is touching and Kareena Kapoor does a marvellous job there.

Anyway, so if you are a KJo-YashChopra movie lover, you will like this one. Overall, 'We are Family' is an okayish movie. You may want to see the movie if you don't get the tickets to 'Dabangg' (Which is one movie I have not seen yet)

'Peepli [Live]' - Review

2010-08-22T23:45:00.002+05:30

Coming from the Aamir Khan stable, one expects an outstanding movie. The movie is entertaining, not outstanding.

Placed in a rustic Bundelkhand that the movie calls 'Mukhya Pradesh', the movie is the story of a farmer who decides to commit suicide so that his family would get the lakh rupee compensation that the government has promised.

The movie does not make you go rolling in laughter: it is subtle and intelligent. However, the sarcasm tickles you AND pinches you at the right spots. The movie overall only entertains without making any point as such.

Nasiruddin Shah and the actress who plays the female news reporter are memorable. Raghubir Yadav is the best among the cast as Budhia. Though the story is about Natha, the character is hardly visible. It is, in fact, the point of the movie - in the pursuit of news-making, the actual victim/story is left aside.

The song 'Des mera angrez hai babu' is very good - the only one that I remember, in fact. The dialogues are slightly difficult to understand and I must admit that I did not understand the dialect in parts. Some of them are, however, hilarious. The locations chosen look perfect for the setting of the movie. The pre-interval portions of the movie are fast-paced and crisp; the climax surprises you to some extent.

Overall, I could have done without watching the movie. However, don't regret watching it either. It's a movie for the 'cultured/intelligent' audience. Maybe I am away from that as of now.

Rainforest - Review

2010-08-21T16:29:00.000+05:30

R City mall

Average meal for two: Rs. 700

Ambience:
You enter a dark place with the sound of the rain and you know that this is a place with a difference. There are trees and tigers in here. The place gets full points for the unique ambience. The call button at the tables are something unique for the places in the mall.

The loud commentary from a match certainly spoiled the 'foresty' feel of the place.

Food:
The menu is typical and offers Punjabi, Chinese and Italian cuisine. The Bruschettes were quite good. The Chinese soups are quite ordinary. The Indian cuisine on offer is decently good. The place had the worst Masala Papad I have had ever.

Service:
The waiters come only when the calling button is pressed. This did not quite fit into my definition of hospitality but may appeal to some of their guests.

Washroom:
It is surprising that this place does not have a washroom of its own.

Overall, the ambience rocks. The food is ordinary, not worth the price and the service needs to improve a lot.

The Parting

2010-08-17T09:34:00.004+05:30

Note: Loosely based on a scene in a Hindi film. An original imaginary expression of thoughts.

The horn blew and I heard the train move. I did not blink. I did not move from the entrance of the train.

I stood still. Still looking at you. Dressed in blue, you looked as beautiful as ever.

I did not want to miss even one glance from you that would suggest that you wanted me to get off the train. You took only one step towards the train but it was enough to make me believe that you wanted to stop me. I seriously thought for a moment that you wanted me to stay... For a moment, I thought you had felt what I had felt for you too. For a moment, I thought the dreams that I was running away from, were coming true....

And in a moment, you were a blue speck on the platform. The train had picked up speed.

I tried hard to haze my vision with a drop of water in my eyes.

The tear did not help.

I had to face it.

I had to see you turning your back to the train, to me and walking out of the station..

.
(Image: 'Claire Walking away')

Why should I celebrate Independence day?

2010-08-15T15:15:00.002+05:30

Note: The 'I' in the post is not specifically me in all instances.

Why should I get up at 8:00 am for the flag hoisting in the hostel when it is only a symbolism? I don't go to a temple every week - yet I believe in God.

Why should I celebrate Independence day when all it takes to make me feel patriotic is to play a few songs from Hindi movies?

Why should I celebrate Independence day when I feel restless yet helpless to see the outcome of the Jessica et al. murder cases and the Bhopal gas incident?

Why should I celebrate Independence day when I use American and international benchmarks and weigh everything in India with everything non-Indian (which means western to many.)?

Why should I celebrate Independence day when international brands of clothing make me feel nicer than what a shirt from something like 'Kirodimal dressers' would?

Why should I celebrate Independence day when all India today is about is corrupt politicians manipulating facts, situations and sentiment of a crowd which has no sentiment of its own?

Why should I celebrate Independence day when I do nothing that makes me feel like an Indian and a responsible one all year?

Born in the generation of cynics and 'rational' question-askers, I have forgotten the fact that the day 63 years ago was the answer to a country of people.

Independence day is the anniversary of the freedom of India. Independence day is the birthday of a free India.

The way I would like to be wished on my birthday, I wish India a very happy birthday!

Starting today, I vow to celebrate an Independence year. Doing one thing every day that makes me feel like an Indian.. a responsible Indian.

One 'Indian' deed every day from me and all of us will make India a better country, I am sure..

Language matters #2: Using appliances in Hindi

2010-08-14T11:48:00.001+05:30

Note: The post is in Hinglish. Thodi sachai, thoda masala. That's how life should be. Got the idea of the blogpost while talking to Ramesh G.

There are some really strange words that we use in Indian languages to suggest the action of turning appliances on and off. The way English has the word usage 'switching it on', the Indian languages that I speak (Marathi and Hindi primarily), do not seem to have any corresponding phrase. What we actually say to denote these actions in Indian languages are all approximations of the action - maybe the languages weren't made to talk about operating appliances.

Ramesh, a friend had once said, "Fan daal".('Place the fan'?) While I stared at him with a zero on my face, he said, "Are, turn the fan on!" I said, in return, "So, 'fan lagaa' bol na... 'fan daal' kya hota hai?!"

I must agree that both 'fan lagaa' and 'fan daal' don't make much sense if we consider the actual meaning of 'lagaa' and 'daal'. But the usage 'fan lagaa/daal' made perfect sense to both of us. Another variant is 'Fan chalaa'('Walk the fan') where the fan walks nowhere. (A friend obsessed with 'perfect choice of words' actually says, "Fan ke switch ko dabaake fan ka power supply on kar.") In fact, I have actually heard people say "Fan ghuma" ('Turn the fan') and imagined myself setting the fan into motion with a stick in my hand going round and round.

To me, 'chaalu kar' goes closest to the actual action.

On the other hand, switching appliances off also has a wide variety of phrases for it. Summing up, in our colloqial usage, we make do with a wide variety of approximating terms. The funny part of it is that a person who uses one such term finds all other terms misfit and funny.

***

"TV nikaal de"('Remove the TV'), said my neighbour to the TV repairman. The TV repairman began lifting the TV to takeit away. I knew what to do. I turned the TV off for my neighbour.

Language matters #1 : Look, see and watch

2010-08-10T23:36:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: I do not claim that this is an original idea. This pattern perhaps must have been explored at some point in time in the past. As far as I am concerned, this is a self-made observation. As long as the post entertains, I am fine.

Balamurali said, "I watched the movie." I retorted, (like always, half-attentive to the content of the message and concentrating on the surface words instead.) "Bala, what is the difference between 'look', 'see' and 'watch'?" We pulled out some examples one after the other.

The three words have eyes as the instrument. The sentences 'God is watching', 'God is looking', 'God is watching' (..... (1) )may make one feel that the three are almost synonymous. The sense here is of 'observing'. Is it because of the tense of the sentence which is present continuous? (To continuously see/watch/look at something means observing)

However there is a difference. One can 'watch' a movie or 'see' a movie but one rarely 'looks at' a movie. So are 'watch' and 'see' synonyms? Think again. One would say 'I saw you at the theatre' but one would rarely substitute 'saw' say 'I watched you at the theatre'. (.......... (2) ) ('I see the watch'/'I look at the watch' are fine - though the latter looks better. But 'I watch the watch' does not sound good.)

So maybe now we get the picture. 'Look at' is similar to 'glance'. 'Watch' is in the sense of 'observe'. Where does 'see' fit in? 'I saw you there' may or may not be a 'glance' per se. 'I was seeing you there' does have a sense of 'observe' for sure though.

That brings the point though.

A word does not have exactly one meaning. It can mean something different in different situations. THIS more than one meaning is what they call 'senses of a word'. SOME meanings of 'look', 'see' and 'watch' overlap and hence, one gets confused. 'Look', 'see' and 'watch' have many more meanings individually which are not the same.

Extrapolating, one may say that there is no one (common) 'sense'. There are multiple (common) 'senses' that coexist. What is my common sense need not be yours.

If you like this post, you may also like: http://aadityaandme.blogspot.com/2009/02/cognition-of-numbers-in-languages.html

Language Matters #0

2010-08-10T23:14:00.003+05:30

Credit to Pramod Balakrishnan for the title

When you wish to communicate, language matters! And when you wish to communicate well, language matters matter!!

The best time I have had at IIT has been when I have thought about language and stumbled over some interesting phenomena. One of the posts in this regard is: http://aadityaandme.blogspot.com/2009/02/cognition-of-numbers-in-languages.html

Needless to say, the fact that my studies in IIT have been in natural language processing.

'Language matters' is a series of posts that I aim to come up with (in addition to the other currently running series : 'Mothers' .. and of course the infinite movie/food places reviews that I write) about my observations about some language phenomena.

I do not claim to be the first to have noticed. As long as the posts entertain, I am ok.

Octopus Paul & Baba Bengalis

2010-08-02T00:21:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: The term 'Baba Bengali' does not aim at any regional community. It is used for the people who practise black magic and other related 'arts'.

"This is how you cook a live octopus" said the voiceover in a video on youtube. People around the world were mad at Octopus Paul, an octopus who had predicted the loss of a country in the Football world cup.

They wanted to kill him, sell him, eat him, beat him.

I wanted to kill myself for the frenzy about a creature was maddening.

Did he even know what he was doing when he picked a flag?

We as a generation of young Indians laugh and mock the Baba Bengalis who seem to cure everything from 'vivah mein pareshaani' to 'vyavasaay mein ghaata'... and don't mind downing this story of a sea creature who is hailed as an oracle predictor.

Three children

2010-07-29T15:24:00.006+05:30

To Nishant Kachawa for the basic idea. The story is, in my small way, a look at child psychology, inverted.

Note: "Purely imaginary". May appear superficial, stupid and funny.

Piramal Indranath Chandok had three children - Pyaare Mohan, Chandra Chur and Devi Prakash Chandok. Pyaare Mohan was an intelligent child - hardworking and serious about his studies. He never missed a test or skipped doing his homework. Chandra Chur was hard-working too but often did not work smartly. He often got into fights with his peers over petty issues. Piramal had to go to the Principal's office twice owing to complaints about Chandra Chur.

Devi Prakash Chandok was lethargic and disinterested in every sense. It was only because of the rule of not failing children in their examinations that Devi Prakash Chandok had made it to the fifth standard.

Piramal Indranath Chandok once went to a student counsellor and was told that the youngest two of his children were highly demotivated and needed encouragement.

So it started. Each time a guest came in, Devi Prakash Chandok was praised for the way he digs his nose. Each time they went out to the mela, Chandra Chur was given a balloon and told what a talented child he is.

Pyaare Mohan would sit in a corner doing his homework staring at his parents buying new shirts for Devi Prakash Chandok and Chandra Chur.

The parents were only trying to encourage 'the ones who needed encouragement'. Devi Prakash Chandok was happier and 'roly-poly'er than ever. Chandra Chur was playing with the awesome toy that he had got - one of the world's best toys.

Pyaare Mohan stared at the ceiling and got back to his homework. He loved his brothers and was very happy about the fact that they were motivated and happy. However, he pitied his own plight. He was perhaps paying the price for studying on time.

Mothers #4

2010-07-28T02:50:00.005+05:30

Note: As a part of the 'Mothers' stories. The last post under the title is at: http://aadityaandme.blogspot.com/2010/01/mothers-3.html

Disclaimer: Completely fictitious. Vague.

The school bell rang and a horde of kids rushed out. In the crowd, was Neeta. Neeta saw me waiting at the entrance of the school and waved out to me. I held her hand as I walked Neeta through a busy street.

I would be there at 1 sharp every single afternoon.Occasionally, I bought Neeta a chocolate or two. In fact, Neeta would get one, without fail, when she scored well in her tests.

Neeta would sit on the swing with me to hear stories from Ramayan. It was me who got a five-minute act rehearsed from Neeta for a drama competition in school. I never let anyone touch my dressing table - Neeta was, however, allowed to try my lipstick or my earrings.

I would always buy a gift a day before Neeta's examination results. That's because, Neeta was bound to come running to me with her report card and get a gift after every result of hers. When Neeta would fall ill, I would walk barefoot to the temple praying for Neeta's health.

When Neeta was happy, she would hug me and give me a peck on my cheek. The kiss from the little girl meant a world to me.

But before I could realise, Neeta had grown up.

Now I wanted to ask Neeta what her college was like, what Neeta wanted to do in her life. Neeta only returned a smile now as she crossed me in the building.

It did not matter that I considered Neeta my daughter. It did not matter that I gave Neeta the love I would have given my child if I had one.

I was just a neighbour. I was not her mother. Too bad that people like me who play the role of a mother temporarily end up feeling like and expecting what a mother would.

'Tere bin Laden' - Review

2010-07-18T00:17:00.003+05:30

Stop reading my review and book your tickets to the movie. If you have some time left till the next show, read on.

The concept of this 2 hour-long (or do I say, two hour short?) movie is so unique that the movie wins half the battle for me. Add to it the surprisingly original situations and jokes, and the movie is a fresh product of art.

Ali Zafar is not an exceptional actor, in fact below average - he looked like the male version of Katrina Kaif to me. :-p. He does a decent job however. The other characters are so well-written and interesting and so like a Chetan Bhagat book that like many CB book characters, you end up liking each one of them. The characters Gul, Noora, the RJ and the channel editor are unforgettable! The makeup lady, the American officer and the Pakistani officer are just ok. They do not impress as such.

The HERO of the movie is the story and the dialogues. The movie has some hilarious moments like a murga-baang (cock-crowing) competition, a donkey with the American army and a man being pulled down into a manhole to have the American cops waiting for him inside the sewer. The movie uses far-fetched imagination at times but right till the end, the movie continues to take control of the audience's attention. It is only the climax that looks unconvincing but by the time it happens, the movie is over and you have had a great time.

The movie proved to me that glamorous actors are just not required for a movie to be good/entertaining.

The songs are not typical S-E-L songs - nevertheless, like many of their songs, excellent. The actor playing Osama looks very Osama. The other actors are styled well too.

Overall, the movie is a riot - an absolute riot. (Ignore the climax.) I am buying a dvd when it releases!! Go ahead n watch it guys!

P.S.: I have never laughed harder in a theatre.

Amboli & Korum mall food court - Review

2010-07-12T15:09:00.002+05:30

Two eating places reviews in one

Location: Thane
===========

Amboli: Amboli is a new eating place that has opened up in Vartak Nagar, Thane. The place specializes in Malvani cuisine. I chanced upon that place sometime last week and this is what I feel about it.

A large crab on the sign outside the place grabs one's eye. The place is very small but done well. Red roofed ceiling, walls with shells and corals and furniture to match makes it a nice place.

The staff is hospitable but often keep peeping over your shoulder onto your plate - that can get unnerving.

The menu is neat with some glaring grammatical errors which, if rectified, will be very good.

The food, however, takes the cake! (and the icing and the cherry). The popular names like 'Bhendi masala' retain the authentic Malvani taste. Solkadhi was a delight - slightly pungent, in sync with the Malvani flavour of food.

The fish and prawns are cooked in amazingly yummy gravy and a complete delight.

The best part of the place is that the food is very reasonably priced. An average meal for two costs Rs. 400.

===================

Korum mall food court was a disastrous experience. The 'Soup bowl' served the worst soups I had had. The 'special' long soupsticks were stale and chewy.

The stuff from KFC there was pathetic as well. Avoid avoid avoid!

FIFA at the convo hall

2010-06-16T11:35:00.004+05:30

About my experience watching a football match screened live in Convocation Hall, IIT Bombay

Half of my friends are going to fall off their chairs at the first sentence itself - considering the fact that I am as related to sports as Rakhi Sawant is to sandpaper manufacturers of the world.

So here I was with four friends, in the auditorium where the match was being screened. Pramod exclaimed, "Oh, bahut match baaki hai!" And I murmured in his ear, "What is the duration of a football match?"

Obviously unaware of the depths of my ignorance, he looked at me like I had asked him to give away his right eye (and his CSRE identity card.) and said, "90!"

We sat down to watch the match. The scoreboard said that the match was a BRA against a PRK. While I guessed 'BRA' would be Brazil, I heard Shobhit say, "Barcelona" when I thought that's what BRA was for. For 'PRK', I kept guessing. From the players, I could make out that they were East Asians - but there was no country that I knew that had those initials.

While my guessing game as to which match I was actually watching was on, someone hit a goal and Shobhit shouted. Totally unaware, I looked around like I had been slapped by an invisible ghost - finally I could see the goal again in slow motion. The coach's and the players' expressions in slow motion were so Shahrukh-Khan-like. I almost thought they were imitating hamare-apne-King-Khan. (Notice the inverse mapping?)

Later when I noticed that there were 'ohh moments' (Missed goals, etc. in the game where the audience goes 'ohh') in the game, I shouted 'ohh' at regular intervals - with no support from the audience. I chose to keep quiet after some time.

Finally, when the ninety minutes were over, another timer appeared on the screen. I so wanted to ask Pramod how long this timer goes for - but I was genuinely scared of being knocked down. Hence, I chose to remain quiet.

The match ended. The lights of the auditorium were turned on and we walked out of the auditorium.

I was proudly singing the Wavin' flag song. So what if I had not understood much/anything, I had watched a football match today!

Bhopal

2010-06-07T23:58:00.007+05:30

Way back in 1984, thousands of innocent citizens choked to their deaths while over a lakh equally unfortunate ones lived a life of pity, of deformities and diseases.. with no fault of theirs whatsoever.

Twenty-six years later, a Rs.5,00,000 fine has been imposed on UICL. The eight convicted the case got a punishment of, hold your breath, two years which was overridden by a bail of Rs. 25,000. The chairman (notice the uncapitalized 'c') of the firm, an American citizen never presented himself in the Court.

The incident was an incident of neglect, of apathy towards security.

The price was deaths and diseases. And two years. And 25,000Rs.

The city choked in 1984. A country choked today.

However bad it is to say this, but occasions like these put a question mark on my patriotism and my belief in the country I belong to.

Raajneeti - Movie Review

2010-06-04T22:48:00.002+05:30

So much hype about Rajneeti being based on Sonia Gandhi's life - and so no truth in it. If you want to watch Rajneeti because you want to see Katrina playing Sonia, you could watch only fifteen minutes of the movie. That too when she delivers a five minute childish speech. And then so many characters in the movie die through the movie that I thought that by the end of it, the only people left would be the twenty-odd strong audience in the cinema hall.

On a serious note, the movie is a loose adaptation of Mahabharat - there's a Bheeshma (who, here, is not sleeping on a bed of arrows but is paralyzed.) and there's a Karna (the Raani maa's illegitimate child which was sent away and later raised by the family driver).

The strong point of the movie is the performances. Nana Patekar as the highly intelligent guide (the Krishna of the story) is AWESOME right from the beginning. Ajay Devgan emotes through his facial expressions - he gets the body language perfect. He is awesome. Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai are both very good as the two wicked men. Arjun Rampal gets the cocky politician very well. Ranbir and Katrina, I felt, are just about average - as compared to the other actors. And it is, of course, not very surprising. The film is shot in and around Bhopal which looks apt for the setting of the movie. It was surprising to see Shruti Sheth in the kind of role that she has in the movie - especially since I have seen her in many of her candyfloss roles on TV.

However, there are some dialogues which look slightly strange/out of place - and one thinks whether the dialogue writer actually wrote dialogues for the TV serial Mahabharat. ('Yeh mera jyeshta putra hai.' is not something I hear in my day-to-day life.) The story becomes predictable once you get the Mahabharat connection. It drags in parts in the second half. The climax is quite ordinary. Also, I do not quite remember ANY of the songs right now - the item number is there just for the sake of being there. Katrina looks very good in the song though. By the way, Nasiruddin Shah is hardly there for ten minutes in the movie. (Side note: Katrina's saris are way too low for 'Sonia Gandhi/lady politician' image that she portrays.)

So basically, don't watch the movie for Sonia Gandhi rendition of Katrina. But that shouldn't deter you from watching the movie for it has many other strong points: Great performances by the actor ensemble and entertaining plot.

Kites: Movie review

2010-05-22T11:22:00.002+05:30

'Kites' is Hrithik Roshan all the way. He looks amazing and does an excellent work. He gets the body language right - the way he did with Akbar in 'Jodha Akbar'. Barbara and Kangana are just there - running around with Hrithik wherever he goes.

The first half is very captivating. Many twists in the tale manage to hold a grip on the attention of the viewer. These twists are quite unheard of in a typical Hindi movie - a sister's boyfriend taapoing (a.k.a. line-maaroing/hitting on) the brother's girlfriend is new! :-p

The second half is about chase sequences and the story unfolding. I did yawn at times. Caught a nap or two too. The climax is nice.. somewhat predictable.

'Zindagi do pal ki' is good. 'Kyun yeh dil mera' looks beautiful on the screen. The movie, like many other movies of today's times, 'looks' very good.

I particularly would like to mention the subtitles during the English dialogues. It shows that Rakesh Roshan remembers the fact that he is making a Hindi movie. And I think it is a good thing to do.

Overall, the movie is surely an interesting watch. Rakesh Roshan does magic with Hrithik again. (Btw, I loved Kaho na Pyar hai and thought that Koi mil gaya was ok. Krish sucked.)

The Unspoken

2010-05-20T11:36:00.002+05:30

Note: Not a poem. Lyrical, perhaps.

If the sky could speak, it would describe how the dry earth looks as it gets drenched in the rain... and how the rains look just like the rays of the sun. One dries up the earth, the other brings it to life.

If the sky could speak, we would know how the rains look from thousands of miles above the surface of the earth..

If the shower in your bathroom could speak, it would narrate stories.. of the funny faces, the songs and the dance that accompanies. Of the occasional tears that you wash off with the water.

If the shower could speak, I would expect it to speak the God's words. Who else are we so ourselves in front of?

If the trash that you throw every day could speak, it would describe you completely.. the falling hair, the crumbled pieces of incomplete letters, wrappers of chocolates, old bills, old papers.

If the trash could speak, your life would be left open in front of the world.

And if the unspoken words under the spoken ones could speak...

... thank God all these don't speak.

Me the criminal

2010-05-14T03:50:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: Imaginary in parts.

The story that the people knew made me a criminal. They pelted stones at me. Some of them thought I should be thrown out. Some others thought I should resign.

I looked at you on my side. You were stern too. One look in your eyes and I knew I had done something wrong. Your voice had the confidence that only you could have in me. You assured me that I would overcome the bad phase, that the 'stone-pelters' know only the part of the story where I certainly am the criminal. And that nothing affects your belief in me.

I accepted the portion of the accusations where I was considered guilty. The grip of your hand holding mine became tighter. Nothing else mattered. I faced the stones with a smile.

'Anandi anand' - Review

2010-05-08T20:56:00.002+05:30

This post reviews 'Anandi Anand' a Marathi movie that released Friday. Even if you don't understand Marathi and/or your chances of watching the movie are dim, trust me, you should read this review to understand what impact a movie can have on a member of the audience.

The movie is written/directed by a director who came up with some unique and interesting experiments especially in Marathi theater. The movie has some very big names in Marathi filmdom (Suhas Joshi, Vikram Gokhale, Mohan Joshi, Vandana Gupte, to name a few.) The music director of the movie is one of the most celebrated Marathi music directors of today's times.

Having said all this, let me add that this is the FIRST movie that I just COULD NOT watch beyond the interval. The movie is not gripping for even a moment. I yawned, I giggled - it didn't affect how much I was bored.

I saw the movie half-way only - in other words, instead of 'Anandi Anand', I saw only 'Anandi'. That is, btw, the name of the heroine of the film. The latter is the hero.

And trust me, I seriously wish I had never seen 'Anand' - I mean the hero of the movie. Ya ya, Marathi films typically never had good-looking male leads except a very few. But the male lead actors are generally VERY good actors. The 'Anand' in the movie was neither. Highly ungroomed, highly plastic and completely dubbed. The actor was a disaster - especially with a beautiful Priya Bapat opposite him. ("Trust me, if my sister is proposed by a guy who's as dumb as the hero, I would do anything to drive him away!", I said. )

Beyond a point, I was literally looking at people in the theatre instead of the screen. Two of them looked back at me. One uncle even smiled - I am sure he shared my emotions of disinterest in the movie.

Except the 'Dete kon' song, no other song was something I would want to listen to a second a time. Songs popped in for no reason. The 'Bhoot' song was just not required.

I am someone who seldom wastes money. But here, the first half of the movie was such a disaster that I didn't want to stay back. The movie may be called 'run-of-the-mill' by some, I call it 'run-of-the-shutdown-mill'. Yawn!!!

The Last Lecture

2010-05-06T08:42:00.002+05:30

Note: Melodrama at its best. Facts have been played around with.

To Prashant for the idea. He saw me in a trance after I came from my last lecture - and suggested that I write a post on it.

I looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to five. Ten minutes to the end of an age. Ten minutes to, perhaps, freedom. Ten minutes for the last lecture of MY LIFE to get over. (The 'of my life' addition makes the event look so big and spectacular right)

The professor was expressing some final thoughts about the current trends in databases. Some of us in the class were staring at the stack of mid-semester papers kept on the desk. Some of us were typing text messages on our phones. Perhaps to each other. And oh ya, many of us were listening. (Do not ask me what the total number of students in the class is. :p)

"So, all the best. The mid-semester papers are not evaluated yet. So, I will call you all to my office after that's done."

The geeks staring at the papers looked frustrated as if they had been told the Turing machine was only a myth and the computer was modeled by an entity called God. One of them broke into tears..

As the professor started to walk out, everything seemed to go on in slow motion. I could hear heavy sighs at half their actual speed but double their volume - just the way Shahrukh Khan walks in slow motion in the climax of every movie of his. But no, I was not going to start any long senti speech here - there is obviously some difference between me and him.

I saw flashes - of 'periods' back in school... the Social studies periods where the teacher sat on the desk and read out from the textbook. Hers was a very unique 'let's read the textbook together' method of teaching. The 'period' grew into a 'lecture' in college. There was a Biology teacher who cracked a joke and laughed uncontrollably herself. I am yet to understand the joke. I also saw flashes of the teachers at Somaiya - a teacher who left no opportunity to catch hold of people not paying attention and asking them if she was talking to the walls and the benches. No one ever gathered the courage to tell her the truth. And then, some lectures here at IIT when I would only stare at the board blankly without understanding a single word. In such cases, the fact that no one else understood used to be the only relief.

I saw it all - all the lectures in fast-forward. It was over. I did not have to attend any more lectures....

They say, when you are about to die, you see a recap of your life...

Stars And clouds

2010-05-06T08:36:00.002+05:30

I fell in love with the clouds. I wanted to be on the top of one jumping around - it must be really bouncy to run around over them.

I had my eye set on a cloud. In some time, the cloud was nowhere to be seen. I realized that while I was in my thoughts about the cloud, the cloud was slowly drifting away from me.

I had failed to notice a star which had been stationary and looking at me through all of this.

******

The clouds are the momentary desires which pull you towards them. They will, one day, disappear like the clouds.

The stars are here to say...

Jump over the clouds and reach for the stars...

Sci-fi : Senses & Emotions

2010-04-26T02:05:00.001+05:30

What are senses? what are emotions? Are they the same? Is an emotion what I sense? Do senses lead to emotions? Does a sense always lead to the same emotion?

What is a picture? Captured visual senses. What is a song? Captured audio senses. What is a video? Captured audio-visual senses.

Now, let's give our sci-fi minds a tweak and imagine (After all, today's sci-fi is tomorrow's reality) a day where we can capture ALL senses in some way. So, the way a picture captured what you could 'see', you can now capture EVERYTHING you can see/feel/smell/hear. Let's call it a sense capsule. The way we see a picture, imagine that you can 'play' this sense capsule again - which means, you get 'immersed' in the same environment (where you hear/smell/feel/see the same thing that you did when the sense capsule was created) that the capsule was captured in.

A sense capsule of this form will give a truly complete conjunction of what I sense at that instant. Imagine capturing your best friend's wedding this way. Six months after the wedding, you can actually 'play it back' where all the senses are generated again. Imagine how amazing it would be to play the memorable moments of our lives again and again - to live them again.

This brings me to the line between senses and emotions. A picture of an estranged friend may not evoke the same emotions that it would have back then. A sense capsule will make you feel like you seeing the same event again - but there is no guarantee that you will feel the same way as you did when the event first happened.

Senses lead to emotions. Strangely, not the same one always.

Sania & Shoaib

2010-04-08T14:50:00.002+05:30

Should she marry him? Or should she not?

Is he a good guy? Is she a good girl?

Is he actually married? Is he breaking some law by getting married to Sania?

So many TV reports, blogs, funny and not-so-funny letters circulating on the internet. So what do I think of the whole thing?

...

I don't give a damn. Two people marrying is their personal decision and not worthy of my attention.

Letter from his grandparents

2010-03-29T23:22:00.005+05:30

To a friend who has stood by me for a time longer than I have memories of.

Disclaimer: The facts have been played around with. Mostly imaginary. VERY dark - about death.

He took his seat in the plane. In no time, he pulled out a pen and began to write. Like a gas cylinder that bursts out when opened, words spilled over on the paper - often making him strike the lines off twice and thrice.

"Can't believe you're gone", he wrote in a beautiful handwriting - an art which he had developed due to his grandmother. She would read out sentences to him and ask him to write them down. Slowly, words began to appear exactly the same size and structure - that day, his grandfather got him a chocolate bar as a prize.

He was going back to India to attend their yearly death rites. He was talking to them already through the poem he was writing...

"Can't believe you're gone..

Seems like yesterday that I took grandfather to the temple...

And just the day before that grandma made upma for me..."

The poem went on for a good fifteen lines when he felt a choke being put on his thoughts - he began to feel suffocated under it. Why wasn't he able to complete the poem? Why had, what had started to come out as a poem, stopped itself?

The plane took off. Like always, he felt his ears blocking. A strange warm feeling. There was a slight pain too. The pain grew and he heard them... talking back to him....

"Yes we're gone.. and not in the clouds like we told you as a child. When I, your grandpa, left, I looked at your grandma and your mother. And then I looked for you. I did not find you. Miles away in a country I had never seen, I tried to wake you up. You only felt sweaty that night."

The grandmother spoke, "When I joined your grandfather, I felt better. The part of my journey with all of you was so incomplete without him. However, I couldn't, just couldn't help but loiter around your books and your diaries. Your poems and the beautiful handwriting that you wrote them in. I was proud of you for being a grandson whose words never failed his emotions....

I am proud of you for being what you were and for being what you were to us. I am proud of you for wanting to write this poem.

For wanting to keep us alive in you.

For holding on to us. We can't let this go down, child. We can't let you forget us.

We are scared that you might. We can't see that happen. We can't let you complete this poem... "

The voices went down. He woke up, folded the paper and kept it in his pocket. He had realized he would never be able to complete the poem.

The flight had just begun....

'Atithi kab jaaoge' - Movie review

2010-03-10T11:14:00.002+05:30

There have been many TV serials based on 'guests who later turn not-so-welcome'. 'Knock knock kaun hai' on Zee TV was one such serial in Hindi. The movie looks like an extension of the serial - a two hour long episode of the serial.

The fart and room freshener act has been overdone - it entertains in some early occurences only. The argument with the security guard does not entertain.

The Raavan-Hanuman scene is unique and interesting to watch. The interiors of the flat have been done in an extremely tasteful manner. The 'Suhaani raat dhal chuki' remix/rehash is funny! The climax is not very funny - but tickles.

Paresh Rawal is typically him - excellent. His scenes at times can get loud but that's typical of comedy films like these. Konkona Sen Sharma has done an excellent job - it was the first time I saw her being funny! Ajay Devgan comes third in terms of standing up to the other two actors.

Overall, it's an okayish film made in a very stylish manner. The movie doesn't make you laugh - but it continuously tickles you. And that's no small thing!

377

2010-03-07T11:54:00.001+05:30

My speech at an elocution competition here. I did not win any prize but I knew I created ripples. That's all I cared for.

Vikrant and I studied in school together. He was a bright student, an amazing swimmer, got along well with people of all ages, and was very loyal to his friends. All of us wanted to be him. He was a role model.

One fine day, he came up to me and told me he was gay.

I was shocked! More so because he was too happy to notice my reaction.

He said the 377 repeal gave him the strength to come out to me.

And I remembered - 3 7 7!!

After 420 and 302 we have another number that has found mention among the general people. I had read the headline a few days ago - '377 repealed by the Delhi high court'. I knew 377 had to do something with gays and lesbians. I heard the repeal made them legal, but I did not know too much about it. I would not have bothered to find out more - had it not been for my friend.

377 was a law drafted in 1860 by the British that criminalized any sexual act which was against nature - in those days it meant an act that would not result in reproduction. This means that it was as applicable to unnatural intercourse between heterosexual couples too. While the British themselves scrapped 377 in their country a few decades ago, the law stayed on the books in India. The High court ruling regarding 377 explicitly stated that this law was against the very spirit of the constitution, and though the law still applied to any non consensual acts (read rape, sodomy, paedophilia, and bestiality), it said that the law need not look into bedrooms of adults and the acts done therein by mutual consent.

But then you'd ask me, isn't it unnatural? I mean a man and woman are together, they support each other and they take the family forward. I asked this to Vikrant too. He told me something that I'll never forget.

He reminded me about a couple we know who due to medical reasons were not able to bear a child. He asked me if I would call their marriage and physical closeness 'unnatural' just because it does not lead to reproduction.

That hit the point home - the basis of physical proximity and togetherness is not the ability to have babies but the attachment of love. And if two individuals feel that love naturally, it cannot be called 'unnatural' .

In fact, homosexuality is not considered a psychological disorder anymore and is recognized by the UNO, WHO, American Psychiatric Association and the like as natural behaviour.

Vikrant gave me references of homosexuality in Indian culture, the artworks of Khajuraho, a comprehensive mention of homosexuality in Kama Sutra and other scriptures. He told me about Indian families which have accepted their gay and lesbian children today. He told me about gay/lesbian couples living together in Mumbai for more than ten years.

I was like.. whoa! Never knew! But you know what, today, I am more compassionate towards them. At one point of time, Indian society did not accept inter-caste marriages, education for women, or widow re-marriages. Today, to a great extent it does. Similarly, our society today will make way for accepting homosexuality too.

377 is just the beginning and just as widow re-marriages must have faced back then, it is going to face public wrath.

Should I be angry at Vikrant too? Should I shut him out?

Vikrant lives among us.

Vikrant is like us.

He is a friend to me, a brother to someone, a son to someone else.

Vikrant has a family, a career, dreams.

Vikrant breathes.

Vikrant lives.

And Vikrant loves.

Just the gender that Vikrant loves and wants to spend his life with is different.

Should I hate my friend just because he loves?!

I have decided to accept my friend the way he is.

Would you do the same if someone you love told you he/she was gay/lesbian?

The Winner

2010-03-05T13:23:00.001+05:30

Note: Vague but I am trying to convey a strong emotion. Hope it reaches.

His chest was squarish and led to the flat torso chiselled like an ancient Greek sculpture. When he ran, the Adam's apple moved up and down in rhythm with his lungs. His hands had veins which became more prominent when he clenched his fist. The hair flew in the air like a lion's mane. When he crossed the ending line, he looked up at the sky. It seemed so far. He stretched his hands up high. He could feel his hands touching the fluffy surface of the sky.

The crowd at the stadium went into an uproar.

They were overwhelmed to see a man touch the sky, he thought.

Dreams and secrets: Audio blog

2010-03-04T10:14:00.003+05:30

Note: The 'I' of the post is not necessarily me alone. Is it you too?

Note(2): Audio blog

I have had dreams on certain nights when I am trying to speak. I can feel my lips moving and driving as much air out of my throat as they can. But I fail to produce a word - despite desperately trying to do so. The words simply don't come. The lips, the throat - they are all doing what they do when I speak. The difference between 'they' and 'I' is scary. It is a realization that the They that my body is, is different from the me that I am.

I have had dreams on certain nights when I go to college and people are staring at me and laughing. I am without clothes. I run to a place to hide but someone seems to be present everywhere. I wrap a towel around my waist and all of a sudden everything becomes ok. They don't mind a man in a towel.

I have had dreams on certain nights when someone knocks at my door. I open the door and go inside. I come out to see the person gone - and my door too. I see my house without my door; the furniture and the gadgets are untouched. I still feel scared. The door is gone. It hits me like a ton bricks that it was the door that was the most important part of my house.

These dreams that I see are insensible and meaningless. Or are they?

Maybe my dreams know how much I need the door to safeguard my house. Maybe my dreams know that my words are required often to hide my thoughts. Maybe my dreams know why you would laugh at me if you saw me without the veil of my towel.

Maybe my dreams know the secret that I have hidden from you.

Faces and Masks

2010-02-21T18:33:00.003+05:30

Note: One of my incoherent, random ramblings. The post is not as meaningless as it may sound after the first reading.

They were all there around me. They were the people we loved.

Thoughts hit you harder than any stick of the world. One hit me too and I thrust my hand onto their faces. I had suddenly acquired the claws of a werewolf. These people that we loved were all wearing masks and I so wanted to pull these masks off their skin.

When the first one's mask came off, I rejoiced, "Yes!!! I knew it was only a mask!" It gave me the confidence to attack the rest and to pull their masks off their cheeks.

Some time later, there were several masks on the floor. I let out a delirious laughter - for I had uncovered the evil and deceitful people who I thought I loved.

What did I get in the end?

A bunch of masks on the floor. Hands stained in blood of the people I had attacked even if they weren't wearing any masks.

I sat on the floor mourning. What was I mourning? The discovery of masks that some people wore? Or the fact that everyone there had left because I attacked them?

Love letter

2010-02-16T19:39:00.002+05:30

Note: My entry for the 'love letter writing' competition here at IIT B.

Dear Prerna,

Don't ask me why I am writing all this. Promise me you won't cry when you read this - you are quite a weakling I know. These are just some things out of the whole world of them that I wanted to tell you. Marriage changes a relationship and in my case, the responsibilities that it brought deprived me of my ability to express a feeling - a feeling which was so close to me yet I never noticed. Let it flow today...

I clearly remember the day I first saw you at your dance performance in Mumbai. I saw the grace in your arms and my breath rhythmically swayed to each move of yours. Your face glowed like a princess with the blissful ecstasy of your dance that melted on it. You were burning down like a candle and spreading the glow all around you. I could clearly see that it was your soul guiding your body into the dance. I may have never admitted it but it was at that very moment that I fell in love with you.

On our trip to Delhi, as the cycle-rickshaw took us down the narrow lanes, I looked at you, huddled up to me. My hand moved to the other side of your shoulder. Our eyes met and I felt my breath against yours. I breathed out and without my knowledge, my breath took the form of the sound, "Marry me." A drop of tear shined on your cheek. You smiled only to push it down to your chin. The world had condensed in that one point for me - the tear where you, me and our love had converged.

On our honeymoon, I remember walking on the beach barefeet, your hand on mine. I held your thumb with my hand and slowly tickled your palm. You giggled as you ran further. I saw your feet leaving those footprints behind. Something was amiss. I turned back and saw OUR footprints on the sand. I froze as I saw the waves fading away the footprints, one lash at a time. I turned back again and saw you standing there, your hands folded and a question mark on your face. I ran to you like a pilgrim craving for his God and hugged you. You rested your head on my chest and my heart felt the touch of the very person it was beating for.

Prerna, for the last one year of our marriage, I have religiously bid you goodbye with a 'love you'. Trust me, I have never felt it so strongly as I do at this moment. You are the woman who stood by me during my times good and bad. You are the woman who looks into my eyes and my lows convulge into positivity and strength. I never noticed it until now - but each time I am low, I do remember your eyes and the love in them that is my biggest strength. Today I know why a wife is a husband's better half and that is because she is that half of the man that lies under the layer of his mere body. She is closely connected to his soul.

When my body sees danger at this moment, it calls out to my soul - it calls out to you. Prerna, I am trapped here. I am trapped at the Taj. Only some time ago, I saw fire leaping out of the window of some other room here. That very moment, I saw your eyes smiling at me.

What life could not make realize, the thought of death did. The love that stayed dormant gushed out like the wave that wiped our footprints at the beach. The love that expressed itself through a tear in your eye in Delhi expressed itself through another in mine.

I don't know what's happening here. I don't care. I want to see your eyes again. I want to go back to you and tell you .. that I love you...

Natural Aversion therapy to songs

2010-02-16T11:28:00.004+05:30

I remember a song 'Bol na halke halke' that a friend had recorded in his voice. It was my ringtone for a long time. I loved it. Then, I set it as my alarm tone. Twenty days later, I began to hate that song!!

My theory is simple and straightforward (The Occam's Razor principle states that the simplest theory is the best one.) : "If you want to distaste yourself to a song, set it as your alarm tone."

Alarm tones should never be the songs you love. Because sooner or later, you are going to end up hating this tune that pulls you out of the arms of your cozy sleep. A song that we loved, all of a sudden, becomes a song that disciplines us. One naturally becomes averse to the song in some days. The effect that the song had on you no longer holds!

'Ringa ringa' from Slumdog millionaire is one of my favs of recent times. The song is not really the kinds you would want to listen to in public for the rather corny lyrics - but I love it nevertheless. This morning, this song woke me up (after I 'snooze'd five times.) and I have begun to dislike it already.... Grrr...

If there's some song your friend/husband/wife likes which you don't, try my therapy. Ilaaj nahi to paise waapas...

My Name is Khan : Movie Review

2010-02-13T21:56:00.002+05:30

I have been an ardent fan of Shahrukh and Kajol because they were THE onscreen couple in my growing-up days. I saw them jumping together over benches and steps of a filmy college in 'Kuch kuch hota hai', I saw Kajol running towards Shahrukh in a mustard field in 'DDLJ'. I have seen them doing similar cheesy things which have been memorable scenes for me as an admirer of theirs.

'My Name is Khan' is a feast for a person like me. SRK and Kajol are doing 'mature' things together this time (getting married very early in the film. Fighting. Sulking, etc.) - and Karan has not made them do the 'mature' things we have seen in KANK. (Whatever K Jo sold as 'mature' in KANK made me want to strangulate myself.) After 'My name is Khan', Shahrukh and Kajol are and will be my favourite on-screen couple! :-) Shahrukh's performance is THE highlight of the film. (Considering the fact that SRK has been the rona-dhona boy for a major portion of his career, this role is like getting a fish out of water where SRK cannot emote! :-p) Sonia Jehan and Jimmy Shergill are excellent too - Jimmy Shergill is one of the actors who have not got their due yet, in my opinion.

The music is ordinary (and had put this up on my facebook too - when two of my friends thought I was only doing 'K Jo bashing'. :P ) considering that S-E-L have come up with some remarkable numbers in the past.

The message of combating racism is only the background of the film. K Jo sticks to what he does best - a love story. The dialogues are typical K Jo style. The visuals are excellent of course. Kajol's styling is chic. SRK looks good too.

The first half keeps you glued to your seat, the second half drags in parts - especially the hurricane bit. The scene where Kajol cries in the mortuary is a typical Kajol screeching scene.. which, despite the overacting, I loved.

The movie is certainly very good and I must admit that K Jo has certainly made his most mature film to date.

Photo blog 4 : Visitors from the sky

2010-02-12T20:09:00.003+05:30

Photo blogs: Photo + blogpost. Both indispensable

Disclaimer: The photograph and the blog post both are original.

The canopy stood high on the tall wall of the magnificient Agra Fort. It was not the only one in the fort. It was also not the only one in the fort to have dozens of pigeons gathered on their tops.

The canopy is a standing witness to the history of the rulers who stayed in the fort, of the enemies who attacked the fort and later became the rules, of survivors, of queens and their servants.

When I saw the birds cluttered around the canopy and some on it, I felt I was looking at the many more witnesses of the history gathered around it. The birds, to me, were the mystical historical characters from the tales of our history who had come back to the place where they had seen it all happen...

History books

2010-02-05T10:24:00.001+05:30

On my Hyderabad and Delhi-Agra vacation, I realized how much I love museums. In Hyderabad, I walked around the galleries of Salarjung museum all by myself without getting bored for even a minute. I walked, I stopped, I stared. I went closer to the display glass to get a better look of the artifact on display.

Apart from the realization of my love for museums, I realized the ineffectivity of the history textbooks that I had been taught from in school. All I saw about Harappan civilization was two scary-looking idols printed in a dot-matrix. The lack of any gray at all made the picture of the Harappan idols similar to the map of an African country. That totally justifies the animosity while writing my history exams. One short note on 'Harappan civilization', another on 'Mohenjodaro civilization' - five points per answer - I always messed up between the two.

At the National Museum Delhi, I experienced the Harappan civilization. I remembered the short note back in school which said, "The Harappan man used modern equipment of business, weaponry and animal husbandry." Today, I saw the equipment of business - the weighing balance and the standard weights. Wow! The insight of having a standard weight to measure things relatively is a bright sign of intelligence. I saw the equipment of weaponry - complex spears. I saw the bullock cart toys that the Harappans made and realized that they were very similar to the bullock carts of today. In fact, the utensils used by Harappans to cook were VERY SIMILAR to the ones from a brand that claims to specialize in non-stick.

Also in the Harappan gallery, I saw the Gods they worshipped - these Gods looked so similar to today's interpretation of aliens.

I literally experienced the Harappan civilization come alive around me. I was overwhelmed by the kind of knowledge and expertise that these relics displayed. I LOVED history today. I wondered why a fifth standard history textbook failed to do that to me.

Photo blog 3 : From Chowmahala Palace

2010-02-04T10:09:00.003+05:30

Photo blogs are photographs accompanied with a piece of text and when I can't think of getting rid of either.

The Chowmahala palace in Hyderabad is a must-visit for a tourist. It is a palace of the Nizams which has been maintained very well by their descendents. The palace is a beautiful white that fills everything you can see when you are walking through it. 'Chowmahala', as the name suggests, has four palaces in a complex.

One is in the awe of the grandeur and beauty of the palace as one walks through its grand hallways and the royal rooms. Finally, one turns back and begins to walk towards the exit, still awe-struck.

Then one sees what this photograph of mine captures. The white palace of the rich Nizam stands before your eyes and in the background, you see the grey and earthy Mecca Masjid - looking down on the palace. [Correction from 'Jama masjid' to 'Mecca masjid' according to a comment by a reader. I was, however, told by my tourist guide that it was the Jama masjid]

One moment, you are savouring the beauty of worldly riches that you think touches the sky. The next moment, God tells you he's taller.

Zenda - Movie Review

2010-01-26T20:45:00.002+05:30

Movie review of Marathi Movie 'Zenda' (Flag)

In my opinion, Zenda does not revolve around the Thackeray family issues that led to upheaval in the politics of Maharashtra. The story includes the events (from real-life) that happened when MNS formed out of Shivsena. The focus of the film, however, is at a lower level. The film essentially talks about the smaller trees that collapse when one big tree is fell.

This is where the movie is different. It is not talking about the 'split of Shivsena' at all. It is talking about the 'split of loyalties' of the party workers, the branch heads and the others. It is here that the movie is VERY different from the political films that we have seen. The movie scores full points from me on this count.

The characters based on political leaders in Maharashtra are very interesting to watch - the actors have done a good job. The character based on Narayan Rane was called 'Sadaa Malvankar' in the promos. The last name, however, has been changed - dubbed out to something else. (For the ones who did not know, Rane's son Nitesh Rane had raised an objection) The performance by the entire cast is superb. You remember each and every character very clearly.

The story is well-taut. One does not get bored ever. The movie is unbiased - it does not assume any political inclination. The movie keeps its focus on the characters and their minds, their dreams and the change of dreams. The screenplay takes cues from the incidents related to Sena-MNS and weaves the story around them; that makes it very interesting to watch. The title song is SUPERB and repeats in parts through the film. The 'Saawdhan' song is also good and well-shot. The item number (which has strange words like 'Ababa Patil aala') looks totally out of place.

The movie kept me wanting for more and there came the spoiler - the climax. It was not even abrupt to set the audience thinking or something. When the lights of the theater lit, I asked my friend, "Is the movie over?" He smiled back at me and nodded. I thought the climax was too politically correct / ideal to look true. They did have a moral to convey but it did not appeal to me at all.

Overall, the movie is intelligently made, very interesting to watch if you are well-versed with the politics of Maharashtra, interesting otherwise as it talks about party workers and their mentality. Don't expect much from the climax and do tell me what you thought about it after you see the film.

Mothers # 3

2010-01-23T22:24:00.004+05:30

"Mom, I need my space.. Please leave me alone....", he said as he shut the door on his mom's face. The mom grimaced and went to the kitchen - to make her son's favourite pasta.

Twenty minutes later, he heard a knock on his door.

"What is it, mom?", he shouted not bothering to get up and open the door.

"I've made pasta, beta... "

He sighed.. "She just wouldn't leave me alone", he thought to himself. "Mom! Keep it on the table. I'll eat when I want to.."

His mother went back to the kitchen. She wiped her eyes with the end of her pallu only to realize that she had no tears in her eyes. Her cheeks were, however, red.

The tears finally appeared when she heard the main door of the house banged shut. She picked up the empty plate from the dining table and placed it in the sink. She remembered her son sleeping with his head on her lap when he had hurt his knees on the playground at the age of eight. She would pat him to sleep and only then go to sleep.

Today, her son was lost in his own world and every question from her was an intrusion into his space, his privacy. He had grown up and maybe she should too, she thought.

****

Five years later, the phone rang. It was her son.

"Mum.. it's so hectic to be working here. Things were so good at home... There's no one to come back to.... Mom, missing you.... I need my space. My space, my place, on your lap...."

The tears in the mother's eyes appeared sooner this time.

Natarang - Review

2010-01-11T22:55:00.005+05:30

I divide the post in two parts: A regular review and what I felt personally after watching the movie.... because there's something I took home from the movie...

'Natarang' makes me feel proud of the fact that I understand Marathi, the language of laavani, the language with enchanting maadhurya ('Sweetness' does not have the 'maadhurya' which its Marathi synonym 'maadhurya' does). The movie sweeps you off your feet as it takes you along on a journey of a mad artist.

'Natarang' belongs to Atul Kulkarni throughout. You see him as the passionate farm-help.. and just then you seethe transformation in the body language of the character; then you see him helpless, happy. I simply cannot stop applauding for him!

Other actors like Kishor Kadam, Sonalee and the actress who plays Guna's wife play characters that are different layers of this story... or perhaps different sides. The music of the film wows you with some amazing numbers - 'Khel mandala' is a beautiful slow track while 'Vaajle ki baara' and 'Apsara aali' are some amazingly picturized and sounding laavanis.

The story is an amazingly entertaining ride. However, the climax looks abrupt and feels like a forceful happy ending. The snapshots of lavani artistes as the end credits roll are superb - their eyes look empty, almost hungry.

The movie is a must-watch. The DVD/VCD will surely be a collector's delight.

*****************************

With his eyebrows neatly shaped, Guna sits wearing a white kurta and pyjama with a notebook in his hand. He is writing the script of his new play, a play where he will, yet again, portray the lead dancer's effeminate sidekick, the naachya. Guna says, "Pratyek manasaat ek baai aste. Ani pratyek baait ek maanus." (There is a man in every woman and a woman in every man.) He goes silent. But then, through his eyes, you hear him screaming. Screaming with helplessness. He is a man in every sense. A man who stuck on to his passion for tamasha (A Maharashtrian folk art), a man who was man enough to play a naachya. You see the man who sits with pride in the slender feminine body. You see the grit in his eyes - the determination to do everything that his passion demands.

Even if it means ripping his self-respect off.

You hear him scream at the thought.

And then you wonder if it was him. Or if it was you yourself who screamed... Almost horror-struck to see the strength that passion generates in a person...

Friends

2010-01-11T01:34:00.003+05:30

To Harshu, a smiling angel of a friend.

We belong to the era of virtual social networks. I know of people who have got into a competition with one another to reach a mark of friends count on their facebook/orkut profiles.

You really want to count your friends? Go ahead. Count them correctly, however.

Your friends aren't the ones in your profile listing.

Your friends aren't the ones who are in your profile listing and say 'hi, how are you' to you...

Your friends are the ones who are in your profile listing, who say 'hi, how are you' and to whom you can dare say, 'not good dude'...

Your friends are the ones who you are ready to show yourself to - sans the mask that you would wear otherwise. Even if they are only two or three of them, it is these friends that make life worthwhile.

Photo blog 2 : Bharatiya sanskriti

2010-01-08T13:34:00.005+05:30

The picture on the left is a poster of the film 'Kurbaan' - A poster that was considered inappropriate according to 'Bharatiya Sanskriti' (Indian culture).

The picture on the right is the photograph of a Before-Christ-dated carving from a Buddhist stupa kept at National Museum, Delhi. I have clicked the picture on the right.

When I saw this piece of relic at the museum, it so reminded me of the film poster. Temples and other religious places in Hinduism have depicted human forms in a very bold manner. This is because Hinduism believed that body is a temple too. It was surprising to note that the lady in the statue was shown with complete back nudity. (I cropped the picture below the waist.)

A Bharatiya sanskriti that regarded love as a divine act and depicted human figures in sensuous poses in their temples and other places of worship, today burns down Valentine's day cards and drapes a sari around Kareena.

Incomplete sentences

2010-01-06T19:34:00.004+05:30

On a piece of paper, "Dear Shashank, Please forgive me for whatever I ha". The sentence is not completed.

In an email window, "I want to talk to you mom.".. Backspace. The sentence is deleted completely.

"I want to take dad to Malaysia for a holiday. But I know he wouldn't come. He's too busy with work to spend time with me...", in someone's mind. The sentence is never expressed.

The world is complete with incompleteness - incomplete stories waiting for an apology, an initiative, an attempt to reconcile; incomplete relationships succumbing for want of expression of the depth that exists but remains unseen; incomplete journeys dying out because of tired companions..

And there are incomplete sentences like the ones above floating around too. One sentence out of these completed and the incomplete stories too will move towards completion....

You have many incomplete letters in your closet, incomplete SMS drafts in your cellphone, unspoken thoughts in your mind.

You have an apology in waiting, an initiative to develop a relationship, a compliment to show that you care. All this in the form of incomplete sentences in various forms.

Complete a relationship today. Complete a sentence today.

Photo blog 1 : Toilet

2010-01-05T22:54:00.004+05:30

Note: Fast food joints inspire giving rise to fast blogposts. Quick to write, quick to read. Photo blogs are

Picture Credit: Aditya Joshi

Colgate and Cadbury have always been the synonyms for tooth paste and chocolate for Indians. May be because they were the earliest entrants in the market. Ditto for Amul which stands for butter. Now here is a picture that I clicked at Red Fort.

Little did I know that the word 'toilet' now translates to ... not just 'shouchalaya' but 'sulabh shouchalaya'! Brand brand ki baat hai pyaare...

Little(r) did I know that there exists a company called 'Sulabh international' that is behind all the sulabh shauchalayas that we know of. And why did I think the 'sulabh' in the 'sulabh shouchalaya' was for sulabhataa (ease) of the act of downloading.

The Window

2010-01-02T23:55:00.003+05:30

Note: Returning to my favourite class of blogposts - the incomprehensible ones. :-p

A huge glass pane separated him from the running trees outside. He was looking at them with a thought on his mind. He wanted a mirror. He did not know why - but he wanted it badly.

The train came to a screeching halt at a station. He stuck his nose to the pane of the window and looked around on the platform. It was unlikely that he would find a person selling a mirror on a railway platform, he knew, but he could not stop himself from looking. The train slowly moved out of the station and before he realized it, picked up speed.

He continued to look out of the window - hoping to find what he was looking for. He soon got lost in his own thoughts. His eyes were open but he could not see.

When he got back to where he was, the day had dimmed - hence, the glass pane was dark on one side and reflected all the light on the other side. The other side was him. He was staring at his face. He had found his mirror.

It is indeed true that we get things we want when and where we are least expecting them.

3 idiots - Movie Review

2010-01-02T11:58:00.002+05:30

'3 idiots' is undoubtedly my most awaited movie of the year - one of the reasons being the fact that I have loved '5 point someone'.

I have my opinion regarding the current spat between Chetan Bhagat and the makers of 3 idiots. I write this review being impartial w.r.t. that. I have also mentioned my opinion regarding the movie - but have kept it to the end (I mean, a movie is good or not is not dependent on whether it is a copy or not. Because in that case, I should not love many Bollywood movies. :-p )

Rajkumar Hirani works on his superhit formula again - give a mantra to make people happy, have a character which is unconventional/rebellious yet spreads a lot of love and joy around him. In Munnabhai, it was the jaadoo ki jhappi, in 3 idiots it is 'Aal iz well'.

Pre-release, I was hooked to the music of the film - repeatedly heard 'Give me some sunshine' and 'Zoobi doobi'. 'Give me some sunshine' is a number which proves that a guitar and strong lyrics can make a song really successful.

Some comedy scenes in the movie make you roll on the floor laughing - the 'chamatkar' scene being one of the funniest ones. The Ranchhoddas twist takes you by surprise. The climax starts off with a non-hero Sharman running away with a to-wed Kareena from the shaadi ka mandap and that's when you know it's really not going to be very conventional. It only gets better when 'Funsuk Wangdu' comes into the picture!

Aamir Khan is constantly under focus in the film. No wonder people are loving his performance so much. I mean, when you have the limelight on you, you are going to look as fair as a fairy! Nevertheless, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan definitely stand out. Boman Irani's character looks like an extension of the angry school principal from Munnabhai 1 - just that here the 'evility' has been toned down to some extent. I have been an avid fan of Mona Singh and was pleasantly surprised to see her in the film.

The friendship between the three characters which was the soul of the book comes out well in the movie. The movie claims to make a statement about the current education system. It does so to some extent.

MANY jokes from the movie are stale. They are either from cheap SMS forwards or from '5 point someone'. So, they didn't really make me laugh. I could only smile. What were the writers thinking when they copied a joke directly from a television advertisement (where the student puts his paper in a stack of papers after an examination). Chori karo, par kam se kam pakde mat jaao yaar!

By the way, whoever said that '3 idiots' is LOOSELY based on '5 point someone' has horribly mistaken. I do not know what the contract between Chetan Bhagat and the makers of the movie is. So I would not comment on who is right. But, the makers' claim that it is only a loose adaptation is TOTALLY wrong. Several jokes and the key scenes are lifted from the book.

***********

Overall verdict : Both the Munnabhais made me laugh and cry a lot. 3 idiots did not make me cry at all, tickled me in parts. It entertained me nevertheless. Not worth the hype - definitely should make a good watch.

Hyderabad Calling #2 - Travelling

2009-12-27T20:34:00.001+05:30

I divide this post in two parts: Modes of transport and.... Roads of transport.

Modes of transport:

I proudly say that I took almost every mode of transport that people use in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad has autorickshaws (called 'autos' or 'aatoo' in the Hyderabadi accent), most of which have dysfunctional meters. If you are looking around with a confused expression, the rate quoted would often be twice the actual amount. The difference between the Mumbai autowallahs and the Hyderabad autowallahs is prominent. While a Mumbai autowallah runs only according to a meter (which are allegedly tampered.) the Hyderabadi autowallah prefers a muh-bola daam. Secondly, if you tell a Mumbai autowallah that you do not have change, he will look at you with contempt that will match only a raging bull's anger for the red colour. Ditto if you ask him to come to Irla from Andheri station they look at you as if you asked them to take you to the centre of Arabian sea. The Hyderabadi autowallah pleads and is apologetic if he cannot take you to the place you want to go to.

By the way, I sat in a share autorickshaw (meant for three people) with eight people excluding the driver with glaring Emran Hashmi songs playing! I stared at the rear-view mirror without saying anything. Quite a first for me. One pays half-return fare after 8.30 pm which took me by surprise.

There are these larger autorickshaws too which people generally use for larger distances. They would ideally accommodate ten people excluding the driver. Here too, the people actually travelling were more than the capacity. Not a very good thing to be doing.. but the drivers want to make as much money as they can - so they stop every three minutes and shout out the name of the place they are going to.

There are many rental car services that have come up in Hyderabad these days - Green car, Meru and others. They are pretty good - reliable, give you a receipt and comfortably point-to-point. One can get self-driven cars or chauffeur-driven cars for a day-long tour. That's what I did. I did not go for a 'well-known' company - but just a contact that I found on the sulekha website. The person was polite, terribly impunctual (turned up 40 minutes late on both the days) but decently safe.

Roads in Hyderabad:

The Charminar area - Laad bazaar is extremely crowded and the best way to tread these streets would be on foot. The shops are small but have an amazing variety of stuff on offer.

I observed that the speed brakers on Hyderabad roads are unusually small and high. So, if you don't wait, you are sure to feeel a bump in your bump.. oops, bum. That explains why almost all vehicles that I travelled in almost came to a halt two inches before the speed braker - as if the speed braker was a speed stopper.

The Hussain sagar road is like Talaopali of Thane on a larger scale and a Bandstand on a much smaller scale. A good place, though.

At the end, I would like to mention a funny sign that I saw on a long Hyderabad road - with a high divider separating the lanes of the street going in either directions. The sign had a 'u-turn' sign saying 'Hitech city' - as in, "If you are taking this road to Hitech city", you are going in the opposite direction dude!" And if you try to take a U-turn rectifying your mistake, there is not place to take a U-turn until fifteen minutes later. Funny indeed.

Hyderabad Calling #1 - Food

2009-12-27T20:32:00.001+05:30

I am sorry if this post makes you feel that all I have done in Hyderabad is to eat and that the work I was there for took the backseat. But I simply love food and can't stop raving about the food I had there. The mention of Hyderabad reminds one of the non-vegetarian delicacies on offer. Things weren't very different with me.

The first Hyderabadi thing I had was the samosa there. Drenched in oil, the samosa isn't pyramid-shaped like its Punjabi brother. It is flat like its Gujarati brother. The filling is, however, different from both of them. It had carrots and ... perhaps some other freshly cut and cooked vegetables - so it wasn't dry or stale. It was soft, wet and fresh to taste. I could easily forgive the oil for the taste of the samosa.

The first two days at Hyderabad, I had my lunch and dinner at Dominos and subway - making my friends pull their hair in rage: "Tu udhar jaake bhi wahi sab khayega kya?!!" While I had already decided that I would try Hyderabadi food on the last day, I thought I should start from then itself.

The name synonymous with Hyderabadi cuisine is biryani. The portions of biryani are large and certainly sufficient for two people. There are multiple versions of biryani that you see. There is a vegetarian version for the veggies, an egg version with two boiled eggs on the top of the biryani, a chicken/mutton version and finally, a mixed version which has chicken/mutton/egg. These are cooked layered with rice above it.

I had the mixed version last night - and I seriously think I do not want to eat anything today. And before you think that I am diarrhoeic, let me tell you that I am not. It was yummy but filling. Biryanis at restaurants are served with 'mirch ka salan' - which on the first look, looks like the good old Maharashtrian amti. But it is different. Mirch ka salan is thicker and has groundnut powder base in its gravy. The salan often contains a thick chilli - which you can pick up and eat easily - the chilli tastes like a mixture of tamarind sour and slight mirchi pungent. The prawns starters that I had had an interesting accompaniment consisting of chilli flakes and some green herbs.

Dosas. Dosa is what South India has given the world. Dosas are very popular in different parts of the country. So, how is the dosa of Hyderabad different from the rest of the country? Not very different - just a bit more sour than what I would eat at a Ghatkopar Udipi restaurant. What easily took the cake was the sambar and the chutney jiska taste maine sapne mein bhi nahi socha tha. The sambar was thinner than what we get in Mumbai but a tasty mixture of sweet, sour and pungent.

I also happened to taste some Hyderabadi sweet dishes whose names I do not remember. The one I liked the most was a seviyan kheer-cum-basundi which was nice pistachio green in colour. It was thin-but-not-too-thin. It was thick-but-not-too-thick.

If there is anything I have grown up on apart from Cerelac and cough medicines, it is papad. The papads in Hyderabad have a different taste - I did not like them too much. Did not suit my Mumbai taste-buds, perhaps.

Another aamti-like gravy that I tasted in Hyderabad had a rather funny name - Tomato pappu. The bad part is that it was quite ordinary - nothing mentionable apart from the name.

So, my observations about Hyderabadi food: Hyderabadi food has been adapted by restaurants throughout the country. But the authentic Hyderabadi food has the style which the Nawabi palaces of Hyderabad have too. Noticeably, the people from the country who have adopted and adapted Hyderabadi cuisine have not been able to match the standard with the accompaniments that they provide in Hyderabad - the sambar, the mirch ka salan, etc.

It was quite interesting overall - loved it!

Hyderabad calling #0

2009-12-11T08:49:00.002+05:30

Note : Random rambling

I get to know that I have to attend a conference in Hyderabad in December. I am super-excited. In the super-excitement I book the flight tickets for my return journey.

So on 17th November at around 12 in the afternoon, my phone sounds and I see a sms from the airline. I am sitting in a chair in Mumbai and the airline talks about flying me back from Hyderabad to Mumbai at 3.30pm that day. While some of my friends suggested I run to Hyderabad to manage to get that flight or book another flight to Hyderabad so that I can vasoolofy the return ticket, I realize that I have booked the tickets for a day one month before the scheduled date.

The second problem comes in the form of Telangana disputes going on in Hyderabad nearly five days before my scheduled trip. Once again, I doubt if I will be able to go to Hyderabad or not. I secretly pray that the leader ends his fast so that the condition in Hyderabad calms down and I get to go there. Luckily, things fall in place. The fast breaks with a breakfast (\cite { Sagar Murugkar } ) and I heave a sigh of relief which, I am sure, is louder than the PM's sigh.

So finally, I WILL be attending the conference in Hyderabad. I am not going unarmed though. I have asked a Telugu-speaking friend for the translation of "Bachaao, bachaao.. Mat maaro mujhe... main student hoon" - you know, in case it is required in an emergency situation.

So.. that's it. I will post my 'travelogue' from Hyderabad on my blog with some pictures. Watch the space...

Paa - Movie Review

2009-12-08T10:30:00.003+05:30

Note: Has a read-along clip like all the blogposts. Original, like all of them.

I liked many things about the movie - I disliked some. The many things that I liked have already been mentioned in the newspaper reviews. So, even if this review sounds very negative, I haven't disliked the movie as much as I make it sound in this review.

Cutting a long story short, Amitabh Bachhan has delivered a memorable performance in Paa. He is very endearing. Jaya Bachhan at the beginning is a good surprise. Though I really didn't understand why she was sharmaoing with the lihaaz of a naveli dulhan ('newly-wed' for my English medium reader friends) when she was taking names of the team members of the film. Vidya Balan also stands out as the mother. She is amazing in some scenes. The actor who plays the grandmother is very good too.

When I heard the songs for the first time, I thought the "mudi-udi-judi-kudi" series of songs were quite irritating. After watching the movie, the songs sound quite good and they are the kind of songs which you start liking after you have seen them in the context of the film. Paresh Rawal, I really did not quite notice him at all.

The first fifteen minutes are gripping - extremely entertaining. The speed drops towards the end and the climax is very predictable because it comes directly from Kal ho naa ho/Anand or many Ekta Kapoor serials. Overall, the movie is entertaining in parts.

Some dialogues that one will remember come from Auro - the ones like 'kisi ke personal emails nahi padhte...' or the dialogues between Auro and his friend Vishnu. Quite endearing. Some dialogues are outrageously funny. Btw, I thought people needed to be above 18 years of age to have an email address. Auro chats and shares his webcam on the internet - parental discretion ko pack karke maale pe rakh diya kya?

I have one question regarding the movie. Would the 'performance' and the film receive the attention it has had Auro not been a person battling progeria? Because according to me, the movie and its story would not have been any different if Auro had been a patient of some 'conventional' life threatening disease. So, do the story-makers bring in the progeria angle just to gain sympathy/attract attention because of the uniqueness? If it is either, I think it is not a very good thing to have done.

And it would not be a very good thing to happen if filmmakers keep unearthing newer/rarer physical/mental ailments just to repeat the (Bhansali's) Black-like charm.

Apart from this, I don't have any concerns about the movie. It may make a one-time good watch.

Aamhi secular jhaalot - We are secular now

2009-12-05T23:46:00.004+05:30

Dedicated to a friend Priyanka Kulkarni who encouraged me to write a post in Marathi.

This one is among my very few attempts in Marathi. I do not belong to any political party, by the way.

I have also put stanza-wise English translation. But a poem is best read in the language it is written in.

शिवाजी महाराजांनी अफझल'खाना'चा वध केला

हे आता इतिहासाच्या पुस्तकात म्हणता येत नाही,

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

( We cannot say in history books now,

that Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal'Khan'..

Because, we are secular now.. )

आम्ही भेद मानत नाही.. पण विसरून जातो..

की भेद ना 'मानण्या'तच भेदाच्या अस्तित्वाची स्वीकृती असते..

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

( We don't consider differences but forget,

That by not 'considering' differences, we are accepting their existence.

Because, we are secular now...)

मरणारा शेतकरी पाहून कंटाळून गेलोय...

राजपुत्राला cycle वरुन जाताना पाहण्यात दंग आहोत आम्ही....

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

(We are bored to see the dying farmer,

We are busy watching our prince riding a cycle.

Because, we are secular now..)

सूत-पुत्राला बाण मारण्यापासून रोखले गेले असेलही एकेकाळी..

आता आमच्या मुलांची हक्काची आयुधे हिसकावून घेतली जाऊ देतोय आम्ही..

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

(People may have stopped Soot-putra from shooting an arrow..

But now we are OK with people snatching away the arms that our children deserve,

Because, we are secular now..)

मूर्त्या आणि हाइवे-वरची होरडिंग्स पाहून आम्हाला फारसे काही वाटत नाही.

आम्हीही झुकून कुर्निसात्त करतो, तो हक्क आहे त्या परिवारचा

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

(Statues and hoardings on highway, we are fine with them,

We also bow in front of them, that family has that right on us..

Because, we are secular now)

आम्ही secular झालोत...

आम्ही फरक मानत नाही.

कारण तो फरक आता आम्हाला दिसतच नाही..

कारण.. आम्ही secular झालोत...

नव्हे, आम्ही aandhale झालोत..

(We are secular now,

We don't consider ourselves different,

Because we don't see the differences at all..

We are secular now,

Or perhaps, we are blind now.)

'Jail - Movie review'

2009-11-08T16:54:00.001+05:30

My first audio-clip-accompanied movie review

'Jail' - the movie opens with Neil Nitin Mukesh's entry in the jail. When the flashback to happier times begins, you just hope it doesn't go on till the interval like Karan Johar movies. Thankfully, it doesn't. Approximately fifteen minutes later, Neil is in the jail again sleeping in a huge group of half naked bearded men huddled together in one big room.

The movie is VERY Good - because it does not try to be over-the-top or a 'life-changing experience' for its viewers. The movie is, like Page 3 and Fashion and Traffic Signal, a drive in somebody else's car. The movie is good not because it brings before you a world you've never seen or imagined but because it highlights continously the hope and the spirit of people in jails.

Like all Madhur Bhandarkar movies, there are characters and their subplots linked to the story of the main character. AND like all Madhur Bhandarkar movies, these subplots grow as stories with a soul and all these characters gain an identity for themselves.

As a small note, this movie, like Fashion and Page 3, has a character by the name Mukesh Tyagi - played by the same person who played Mukesh Tyagi in Fashion AND Page 3. Madhur Bhandarkar has some obsession with the name, man!

And like all Madhur Bhandarkar movies, the actors have given a fine performance. Mugdha Godse is very good - you do not forget her as a glam-doll. Aarya Babbar is very nice.Neil is amazing as he conveys the choked emotions of this man whose world has turned upside down all of a sudden. I think he has emoted very well. Atul Kulkarni comes in a good surprise appearance.

The song 'Saiya ve' was unnecessary but ok to set the mood of the film. The other 'Bareily ke bazar mein' was VERY unnecessary but then it didn't go on for like more than three minutes, so I don't mind. The movie is slow - so I did catch a nap for like three-five minutes like I always do. :-p

Madhur Bhandarkar has been accused of playing it by the formula - but I surely defend him because if anything, he has a formula of excellence and success!

Each of his movies has come out with a definite human virtue. Like the lyrics of Lata Mangeshkar's song in this movie, this movie is about hope - the hope to get back to a normal life that all of them long for...

Note: I also saw 'Azab Gazab Prem Kahani' (or whatever that name is) and would prefer Neil Nitin Mukesh over Ranbir any day!

Funny job application

2009-11-04T19:36:00.002+05:30

Note: Click on 'Play' to hear the blog in my voice. It may be used as a read-along aid/addition.

Disclaimer: Original, like all my blogposts

Respected Sir,

I would like to apply for the post of a reality show contestant in your channel. I don't know which new reality show is coming up. But the rate at which they are going, I am sure there is atleast one. If not two. One of them will surely be a song/dance/music talent show. As it is, dance, song and music are the only 'talents' someone can have these days. So, I am quite untalented. So perhaps a plain show that is about a group of jobless people shouting and fighting around would do. In fact, I think I am eligible. I would like to tell you why.

Firstly, I am from a middle class family. Do I need to say more? Because from all the reality shows that I have seen so far, the Indian middle class is the most reality-show-friendly people because from what I have seen on the shows, we are indeed the most distressed section of people in the world - atleast as distressed as Rakhi Sawant's mother.

Secondly, I also have a collection of choicest abuses from English to Hindi and do a lot of yelling when I give them. In case you don't want me to abuse because you fear to loose the family audience (which let me tell you, you will get if the abuses ARE there!), I can also say "beep-beep" in a way that it sounds like the world's worst abusive word.

Thirdly, I talk to myself. This is one habit I developed when I was in the asylum. This talent of mine will surely take me a long way in the reality show that you put me in - especially after the "how do you feel now" questions that will be dropped every ten minutes.

On second thoughts, I think I will fit in the talent reality shows too. I have practised enough you see! I often give a speech on methods to reduce population of West Tanzania in front of my five year old cousin and when he gives negative feedback, I can very effectively clutch myself and fall to the ground grumbling and weeping. So, I am sure I will do that in front of the judges when they talk negatively about my performance too. In fact, you can make me a judge in one of your shows - after all, even I am considered a sidey performer in my area.

Sir, for the last one year, I have been practising my sms appeal in front of God in my evening prayer. Twice, the marigold petals fell from the God's photoframe. This should speak for the fact that I am good at it. I suggest you try this effect in one of your episodes with me.

The bottomline is that I totally understand that reality shows are as much related to reality as Abhijeet Sawant is to Rakhi Sawant. And I am now sincerely hoping that Abhijeet does not sue me for relating him to Rakhi. I understand that an imaginary Tulsi's love-triangle dilemma does not interest people as much as Rakhi Sawant's love-polygon dilemma and I will strive, as a reality show contestant, to generate this level of attention to the best of my ability.

Thanks and Regards,
Mr. X

Test of time

2009-11-02T20:21:00.004+05:30

Note: Audio blog. Press play to start the read-along audio clip.

Dedicated to a friend Sushil who had once said something similar to the message of this blog.

"Hi!"

"Uhh..hi... you back to India?"

"Ya, here for a month..."

"Cool.. so, shopping today, eh?"

"That's what people come here for!" Anita rolled her eyes.

"Chalo, take care!" Sukanya hugged her and they parted ways.

Sukanya was lost in thoughts. Anita, her best friend from school was in Mumbai but hadn't even tried to get in touch with her. Are friendships so weak that they cannot sustain a year of being physically away from each other? Around two years ago, Sukanya and Anita had shopped at the same mall for Anita's brother's wedding. Anita had told her mom clearly that she wouldn't buy anything without Sukanya's approval. Talking about approval, Sukanya had approved Shashank before Anita introduced him to her family. Sukanya had however always wondered why Anita never kept in touch after she went abroad.

Anita was now at the billing counter of the store thinking of the unexpected encounter she had just had. She sighed as she remembered the day Sukanya told her boyfriend about Shashank. She thought Sukanya would keep that a secret. After the episode, each time Anita looked at Sukanya, she could only remember that Sukanya had wronged her.

Anita never told Sukanya how she felt. She simply seemed to have lost trust in her friend. Anita nearly heaved a sigh of relief when she went to the US. She wouldn't have to talk to Sukanya now. Soon, they weren't talking to each other at all.

The friendship that was important to both of them dissolved in the all-consuming poison of lack of communication. Sukanya kept wondering what had happened - Anita did not seem to want to tell her what actually had happened. She thought she was too hurt to allow this friend of hers an entry in her life again.

And where were they today? Looking at each others' pictures on facebook feeling happy that the other person was happy. Yet not having the courage to tell each other that they cared. The block that had been created had choked out their friendship.

Relationships are indeed like plants that need to be watered. Weeds of misunderstanding must be pruned before their roots rape the soil and deprive the plant of relationships of nutrition. Talking out the issues at the moment they arise is indeed a key to friendships that survive the test of time.

Mothers #1

2009-10-31T20:45:00.009+05:30

Audio blog: Click on the play button and you will hear the blogpost in my voice. It may be used as a read-along style aid/enhancer.

Note: First part of what I plan to continue as a series of posts. VERY Loosely based on a real story. Followers of Indian politics will know who I am talking about. Completely imaginary in terms of the interpretation.

The day dad was arrested, news channels repeated the video footage over and over again. Our TV was, however, off.

Mom cooked khichdi that night and served it in four plates as usual. When me, my sister and mom sat to eat, I looked at the fourth plate and then at my mother. Her eyes gripped mine and said to me, "He'll be back."

We managed to down only a morsel or two when mom got up and walked to the basin to wash her hands.

"It's time for both of you to sleep." mom said, in a never-before assertive tone. My sister who often argued with her followed me silently to our room today.

Through the latched door of my room, I could hear my mom cry out - it was a cry of a woman horrified with what fate had brought for her. It was a cry of a wife in her house with only her children the day her husband was arrested. It was a cry of a mother who had left no stone unturned to make her children stay away from what had happened.

Through the slit of the door, I saw light kept on in the other room the whole night. I heard my mom crying out several times over - she was on the phone. I even woke up once and tried to console her. Her red eyes did not shed a tear in front of me as she almost pushed me back into my room.

My mama arrived the next morning and took us away to his place.

A few days later, while still at mama's place, I saw my mom on a news channel. She was no longer the weak housewife cut out from her in-laws because her husband had murdered his own brother. In the video, I saw a brave woman with not one sad streak on her face walking into the court - ready to face whatever was in store for her, head-on.

My mother packed the fourth plate of khichdi that she made yesterday in a tiffin. She took it for dad in jail. When he sobbed like a child, my mom placed her hand on his and told him firmly that she was with him through it all.

As we walked out of the jail, there was one drop of tear accumulated in the deep dark circles under her eyes. In an oyster in water lies the capacity to form a pearl and to keep it tightly concealed in its shell... My mom has kept every sorrow of hers deeply concealed in herself.

Meanwhile, the fourth plate still gets served for dinner every day.

Blog: Second Spell

2009-10-31T10:15:00.001+05:30

A hundred year old tree was about to die. Its bark was dry and the tree was leafless. With its convoluted branches, it actually looked like mummy with its arms stretched out.

Among the closely packed branches was one branch which was slightly green. There was a tinge of life left. This one branch wanted the tree to live. It slowly grew towards the earth and thrust itself into the root of the tree. This branch had now replanted itself. By the time the older branches started falling off, newer branches had grown from this new stem of the tree. The mummy that the tree was, had sprung to life.

************

This blog recorded my crests of joy and bouts of depression in the last two years. In my first post, I called it my mirror - a mirror that reflects everything that it sees. Even if you ignore the mirror, it still continues to show you what you are. My blog truly was a friend who stayed among the many who left.

With the dormance it saw, my blog feared if it was its time to say goodbye.

My blog wants to live. My friend does not want to die. I will save it. I will be the branch that will be its new stem. My blog will now see a second inning - a spring where it will prosper and be laden with greener leaves. My blog will overcome the fall season...

***

To my blog and to all of you who are feeling low the way my blog must have,

Autumns don't kill. They only cleanse and ready you for a spring...

-Aaditya Joshi

******

P. S. : WHAT'S NEW?

Audio clips : A narration of my blogposts in my own voice is what will mark this new spell of blog. I hope you all like listening to the audio clips as you read along.

Deaf, dumb and blind

2009-10-27T14:17:00.001+05:30

I hear none.

I see none.

I speak none.

And I realize that the reason is not my sensory organs...

...it's my mind.

Jodha's Krishna mandir

2009-10-14T11:17:00.008+05:30

Note: The inspiration of this blogpost is not Ashutosh Gowarikar's 'Jodhaa Akbar' but a scene from K. Asif's 'Mughal-e-azam' and historical findings on different websites on the internet.

Note: An original work of expression like all my blogposts. I try to explore different sides of one germ of an idea.

Disclaimer: I am no historian to make historical claims. I hope the readers appreciate the idea I am trying to put forward.

The year is 1930 - not to add the old-age charm but to plainly pacify the readers who might claim that the content of the writeup is no longer relevant.My claim, however, is that though the social setting has changed, the situation hasn't to a great extent.

The waada* was surrounded by tall stone walls - two pieces of stones sticking to each other. This twenty-feet tall boundary had a small wooden door that was so heavy that it would need two servants to close it. Less than a couple of minutes ago, the servants had closed the door.

Saraswati looked out of the window and saw the full moon sieving through the tree behind the mansion. Once in a while, memories peeped into her mind like this moonlight through the dense leaves and branches.

Saraswati remembered the waada* in the neighbouring village - the house she had grown up in. She could visualise her brother getting her tamarind for her. They would sit on the floor nearly the doorway sucking on the tamarind pod. She remembered playing with her friends in the small patch of grass outside of the mansion. She remembered sitting with her legs on either of her father's shoulders and moving around the house. She felt like a king on an elephant - to her, her father was no less than the mighty, the all-powerful elephant.

The leaves rustled in the breeze and Saraswati came back to the place where she was. She was now the eldest daughter-in-law of this house.

She now carried the name that her husband had given her and the surname of the family she was now in. Her duty, her loyalty was towards this family that she was married in. She was to look after the daily chores of the family though she had some maids for help. She was to participate in the family events like marriages and prove to be a well-behaved and a good daughter-in-law.

She was proud that she was doing all that dutifully...

But somehow, she could never stop her mind from lingering into the past. From sneaking out of this house and going back to the house she had grown up in, from being concerned about her brother's now-failing business, from being worried about her father's dwindling health.

She had heard the story of Akbar's queen Jodhaa who had a Hindu temple constructed in her palace. That corner of the palace was a Krishna mandir, Jodhaa's place of worship. Saraswati realized that the Krishna mandir was also Jodhaa's memory of the life she had left behind her, the life with her parents and their family.

The waada* stood strong and tall in the dark of the night as the moonlight sieved through the window of Saraswati's room. The time that had flown by had come back to Saraswati's mind. It had reminded her of the life that she had lived and the life she had given up the moment she got married.

There was no rebellion, there were no questions. There was no self-glorification by calling what she had done a sacrifice.

She was happy and peaceful. But she could not deny the fac that with the memories of the family and the house she grew up in, Saraswati had her Krishna mandir intact in her mind...

waada* - Marathi word for a mansion. Pronounced as "waa" as in "waah" and "da" as in "dark".

Wake up Sid- Review

2009-10-11T09:29:00.000+05:30

The film opens with a disclaimer for the audience regarding the 'Mumbai-Bombay issue' and the theatre become noisier all of a suddden. People on either sides of the line talk about the issue with the person next to them - except the ones who have come alone, I think.

The movie is young and fresh. As it would be clear to someone who has seen the promos, the movie traces the transition of Sid from being a young brat to a responsible person. Like Nagesh Kukunoor movies, the movie has a four sentence storyline but the breezy screenplay takes you through with ease. Some scenes are slow but the dialogues make up for the slow speed. Some songs are good - 'Iktara' rocks!

Konkona Sen Sharma looks good and has performed well too. She reminds you of Kajol - a subtle version as far as acting is concerned. Ranbir has done a good job. It's the first film of his that I saw and I think that except for some scenes where he overacts, he is generally good. Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak as Sid's parents are good - especially Supriya Pathak. Atisha Naik and Kashmeera Shah as the neighbours are endearing. Ranbir's friends Rishi and Laxmi are like the buddies who always stick around.

The movie is not 'amazing' per se but there are some good things about the movie (apart from the ones mentioned above.) Both Ranbir and Konkona have someone trying to get close to them or so you think. You keep guessing that there would be a love triangle and some nok-jhok due to that. It's interesting to know that that is not the case. The scene where Ranbir leaves his home is good but you don't feel bad for him at all for he has been too rude to his parents. But that's what the story starts with - a thankless, irresponsible boy. The examination hall scene where Ranbir sees people talking to him is interesting to watch. The climax is quick, predictable but candyfloss.

Overall, a good candy floss movie. Definitely entertaining..

Tears at the lakeside

2009-10-10T23:17:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: The imagery is imaginary, the situation is not. Quite vague

The stars are shining on the surface of the lake. I sit on the banks with my legs folded. My naked feet are on the moist ground - I know I am going to leave my footsteps behind when I get up. I look at the highway far away and the tiny specks of light that move as the cars do.

As I sit the lakeside, I hear silence in my eyes. I have a drop of sweat moving across my forehead. I am looking into the lake at the reflection of the brightest light on the highway. It is the brightest light perhaps that has lit up my eyes too.

I am smiling. There are times when you think everything in the world is perfect. With my sweaty brow, muddy feet and hunched back, I think the world indeed is.

A dream that I have seen for so long forms its image, it comes to life like the specks of car headlights reflecting in the lake. The dream becomes the brightest speck in the lake.

The dream now shines in my eye as a large drop of tear. Why am I crying when I see a dream realized? I close my eyes and the tear rolls down. The drop continues to shine on its way down.

I smile at the lake.

The stars shine in the sky. The reflection of the headlights shine on the lake. My tear shines too...

Changing into a tshirt

2009-10-02T17:05:00.007+05:30

The t-shirt lay on his bed, neatly folded.

Chinmay ran to the drawing room, picked up the phone and dialled his mother's number.

"Mumma, where are you.... But when will you come back.... Mumma, I have to go to the gymnastics class... I am not going now.... You know I can't wear a t-shirt myself Mumma...", a drop of tear slowly reached his lower lip.

"I am not going to the.... But Mumma, you know I am scared to wear a t-shirt. How am I going to do it without your help... Mumma, please Mumma.... my hands will get stuck inside the t-shirt... I can't do it Mumma...", a second droplet pushed the first down his chin.

"They don't allow us in a shirt... We have to wear a t-shirt only.... Mumma, why did you have to go!!" Chinmay turned red, "7 o clock?! My class is at 5! Aaji* is not well, I can't ask her to help me wear my tshirt..."

"I am not going to talk to you..", Chinmay banged the phone down and returned to his room.

He sat on his bed and wiped the tears with the lower portion of his tiny palm. He looked at the t-shirt with the name of his gymnastics academy written on it.

"Last time I tried to wear a t-shirt, it was tight and my hands got stuck inside. I felt so scared... I always ask Mumma to help me wear a t-shirt. Why did she have to go out today! I want to go to the gymnastics class....", he thought to himself.

He picked up the t-shirt by the stitch where the sleeves were connected to the body of the t-shirt.

"No, I can't miss the class today", his chubby cheeks turned red like an apple.

He closed his eyes and pulled the t-shirt over his head. He stretched out his arms. His hands frantically looked for the opening of the sleeves. He put his hands through the sleeves the moment his hands located them.

It was in three seconds that he was standing in front of the mirror with his cheeks red and his lips broken into a smile.

He had changed into a t-shirt all by himself....

He realized that what he feared was too small to be feared. This was a lesson that Chinmay learnt for life.

Aaji* - The Marathi word for a grandmother

Remembering Gandhiji

2009-10-02T16:54:00.003+05:30

Dear Gandhiji,

It's your birthday today.. we are remembering you on all news channels today with special feature segments named in the sensational manner that is typical to the news channels.

We are remembering you in schools and colleges with speeches that are repeated every year.

We smile when we read '2nd October - Gandhi Jayanti' in the holidays list of the year. We remember you with joy.

We have forgotten you otherwise.

When we get a currency note larger than the regular size, we look at the number - preferrably wanting to see a 1000 over a 500 or a 100. We do not look at your smiling face adjacent to the number.

We lie, we fight, we abuse.

We give bribes to a government employee just to get rid of the work as quick as possible.

We are so safe in our 'grihas' that we do not have time for 'satya' leave alone 'satyagraha'...

You are a revered person in the world, the face of India for many outside India.

"The land of Gandhy" is what many of us are greeted with when we say we are from India. We smile in response and say how proud we are. It is then that we remember you Gandhiji.

Regards,
Just someone

P. S. : Is it Lal Bahadur Shastriji's Jayanti today as well? Was he the one who gave the slogan 'Jai jawan, jai kisan'? Or was he the one who gave the slogan 'Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azaadi dunga'? He must be a freedom fighter, right?! Please tell me more about him, Gandhiji....

Watching Dr. Kalam speak...

2009-09-26T17:17:00.007+05:30

Note: As real as the stars and the sky. The words that are unquoted are as mine as my eyes.

The title looks strange because you generally 'hear someone speak' but trust me, it is apt. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was speaking at the silver jubilee celebration function of K J Somaiya college of engineering. I was watching him speak, awe-struck, enthused - staring at him without batting an eyelid.

**

Three years ago, I was standing outside the gate of the President's mansion - Dr. Kalam was the President then. I saw the beautiful house in all its glory through the gate standing truly like the King of the Country it was - closely guarded physically but free for everyone who wanted to be in awe of it. I had gone breathless back then...

**

And I was breathless now again. Innumerous mails are circulated on the internet about Dr. Kalam's inspiring speeches - today I was going to hear this highly revered Indian live. Dr. Kalam arrived and spoke.

I stared at the thumb-tall image of Dr. Kalam that I saw in front of my eyes against the backdrop of the carnations. He interacted with the audience - asking the students to repeat an oath that he wanted them to take on the occasion, the audience repeated in almost a trance.

His complete speech can be read at his website : http://www.abdulkalam.com/kalam/jsp/display_content.jsp?menuid=28&menuname=Speeches%20/%20Lectures&linkid=68&linkname=Recent&content=1348&columnno=0&starts=0&menu_image=7

**

The focus of his speech was clearly the youth - the young engineering students. He said that it was integrated efforts by engineers of different faculties that was essential to the nation. The contribution of these engineers together would lead to 'connectivity', he said - physical connectivity, communication connectivity, knowledge connectivity.. and hence, economic connectivity.

I observed a subtle fact that came out from his speech. It all needs to start from a united effort to lead to unity in the knowledge-divide between different parts of the country. Unity leads to Unity...

**

I still remember the way he signalled the audience to be seated when they stood up in applause when he climbed the dais. Through the silver hair, small eyes and a broad smile, I saw a great man with the expression of gratitude and humility exuding from his face along with the aura of knowledge, achievement and more importantly, purity that arises only from a noble heart.

Lightening

2009-09-23T13:24:00.004+05:30

Note: First-person account of a rainy evening

The dark sky blinked twice. A crack appeared on the surface of the sky in the form of a lightening and the sky tore into pieces as it started raining. It was as if the dark night had turned into day for a second...

... Like a dream that becomes real only to shatter into pieces few moments later.

My eyes grew larger as I saw the lightening. I looked at the sky, the skyscraper in front of me looked as lifeless as a photograph when the lightening shone on it....

The light struck my face again and I felt I was under the spotlight for two seconds.. Many of us are, as it is, waiting to be under the spotlight - even if it is for two seconds.

Love thy neighbour

2009-09-22T11:11:00.009+05:30

Note: Not completely imaginary, not completely real.

Vijaya sat on the sofa as Shalini got her some tea. Vijaya smiled and took a sip.

"Aah, it's the same taste, Patelbhabhi", Vijaya said. Shalini smiled in reply.

Ten-year old Jignesh peeped through the door from behind the curtain.

"Arre.. Jignesh, come here!!", Vijaya said.

Jignesh was only waiting for the call. He ran towards Vijaya and hugged her nearly spilling her tea on her sari...

"Jignesh!", Shalini scolded him, "Did you see what you did? Did you have to come running like that? Go inside and sit!"

Jignesh interrupted, "But Baa, I want to talk to Kulkarnikaku..."

"Go inside, I say...", Shalini shouted. Vijaya adjusted her fingers that were wrapped around the cup.

"Uhh.. sorry, Kulkarnivahini.. did he spill the tea?", Shalini mellowed down.

Vijaya nodded and took another sip. In the fumes rising from the tea, she remembered the days. Jignesh had come home one day with high fever. When he saw that his mother Shalini was out to a relative's place, he came to Vijaya. Vijaya had looked after him for nearly four hours before deciding to take him to a hospital where he was admitted.

Vijaya remembered standing in her balcony and talking to Shalini who would be in hers. They would talk for hours - about TV serials, about elections, about recipes for different types of cakes. In fact, Shalini was the first person in whom Vijaya had confided about Vishakha. Vijaya's daughter, Vishakha was in love. The love was unacceptable, if not blasphemous, for the people in the locality.

Vishakha's love was not discussed in public but hushed-hushed about in private. Vijaya's husband and her could not take the way the neighbourhood looked at them - they moved out to another place.

Vijaya came back to the present. She was staring into the cup now. The love that the neighbourhood had for her family had condensed - like the now-cold tea with a layer of condensed milk floating on the top...

Dil Bole Hadippa - Movie Review

2009-09-21T22:14:00.003+05:30

What do you get when you mix tomato sauce with strawberry jelly, add oregano seasoning and whip it adding coconut water spoon by spoon? A disaster similar to 'Dil bole hadippa'...

The screenplay heavily borrows from a lot of films making it tasteless like the recipe I just mentioned. The bad part is - the film does not convince you in any way:

Why is the movie called 'Dil bole Hadippa'? Convince me with your answer and I give you my left ear. Shouldn't titles have some context in the movie?
Shahid Kapoor's initial scenes with the cricket team remind you of Shahrukh Khan in Chak de India. Just that Shahid is way too expressionless and dumb.
Shahid conducts the team selection only because his father is the owner of the cricket team. (And Aaditya (Joshi, not Chopra, duh!) visualizes Uday Chopra conducting auditions for the film.)
Rani dressing up as a man, Shahid recognizing her just before the climax - is all 'Rab ne bana di jodi' with gender reversed.
The stressed relationship between Shahid Kapoor's parents reminds you of 'Hum Tum''s Rishi Kapoor and Rati Agnihotri.
Shahid hams. He looks ugly in the romantic scenes with Rani and like a hungry goat in the funny scenes. Dahling, waxing karwane ke saath saath thode acting lessons bhi le lete...
'Aman cup'....!!! What next?? 'Varma Saucer'???
Rani's Senti bhashan at the end is just not convincing! ( I am all for women empowerment ofcourse. But, the bhashan is ...boring!) It was highly predictable by the way - I was able to complete nearly all her sentences. Get real, get new, Chopra ji.
I raise STRONG OBJECTION to the Punjabi used in the movie. How are people trying to watch a Hindi film expected to understand so much Punjabi?

There are two things and only two things that work for the film - Rani Mukherjee and the slickly canned song as the end credits roll. The song was widely used in the promotion of the film too and I am not surprised. Rani Mukherjee is very good, extremely entertaining. There is nothing specifically noticeable about the movie, otherwise.

Overall, not just thumbs, but all five fingers of my hand down... Buhoo!!

Dhundiraj Govind

2009-09-21T12:24:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: This style of writing has been inspired from a short story I read few months ago. Real-world incidents from history are elaborated to form a story. So, this blogpost is true in terms of historical references, imaginary in terms of the descriptions.

We are in the first decade of the twentieth century - nearly hundred years back in time. He walks into a tent theatre in Germany. He is neatly dressed in a clean white shirt, white pants and shoes of the same colour. He is wearing a navy blue waistcoat made by the tailor down the street. The tailor specializes in stitching velvet clothes.

He buys a ticket for the film 'The Life of Christ'. He looks at the poster, he realizes that the lettering is not uniform. He smirks at the lack of detailing. He knows about the intricacies of typography - because that is one of the many occupations he has embraced in his life.

He has been a businessman in the true sense of the word. Born in a small village back in Maharashtra, India, He started off as a photographer, then moved to being a draftsman in a company. After he realized that the constraints of a job did not suit him, he set up a printing press of his own. Now, he was in Germany to acquire the technology to better the quality of printing his firm came up with.

As the images of the Christ's life moved on the curtain, a hundred thoughts crowd in his mind. As the Christ walks with the cross, he sees the audience in a state of enthrall. He can certainly imagine a similar situation in his country when people would see their religious figures moving before their eyes.

He returned back to India and made a major decision - he wanted to make a movie on Hindu mythological characters. This was a decision that would change not only his life but also lead to the genesis of an industry for India.

Through his first silent film, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, better known as Dadasaheb Phalke gave India its now-prosperous film industry. The silent film was truly a silent revolution in the history of India...

<>

Sheela, Pinky & Happy Birthday

2009-09-11T11:51:00.007+05:30

Shambhuji was the attendant-cum-sweeper-cum-peon-cum-nurse at the village school. He looked at the old wall clock which one of the trustees had gifted the school years ago after the trustee's son passed SSC at the district school. Shambuji got up and rang the huge brass bell kept at the centre of the foyer. There was a flood of kids of different ages that ran out of the school. The running was accompanied by jubilant cries and gushing laughter.

As Sheela walked out of the school with Pinky, she said to her, "My brother had his happy birthday yesterday. Mummy bought a cake. Then we put some candles on it. Many of my brother's friends had come. They all played cricket in the backyard while I helped mom make some spicy puris for them. It was so much fun."

Pinky said, "Hmm. My neighbour's son had his birthday last week. They had decorated the house with lights and had a party for all their relatives and us, their neighbours. There was kulfi, there was cake, they had everything!"

Sheela said, "When do you have your happy birthday?"

Pinky replied, "I... don't know."

Sheela's face had a 'I-knew-it' expression, "Aah! Even I don't have a happy birthday...Pooja and Ramya also don't have a happy birthday."

Pinky, the wiser one among the two said, "Maybe, girls don't have a happy birthday!"

Sheela exclaimed once again, "Aah!". Now she knew why Pinky topped all the exams, she was so wise!!

****

Pinky dropped out of school the next year. Sheela's parents sent her to a girls' school at the taluka level.

When Sheela went to submit her SSC form that her father had filled for her, she saw the Birthdate column... '20th July, 1987'.

She had a happy birthday! "Pinky wasn't as wise as I thought", Sheela thought as she handed the form to her teacher.

In her mind, she laughed at Pinky for being so unwise. The gender-based discrimination that had been going on in her family touched her thoughts nowhere ..

Yoko's versus Jughead's

2009-09-07T11:48:00.006+05:30

Note: A Food Review. The foodie that I am, reviewing eating places comes naturally to me. :-)

I am talking specifically about Yoko's Sizzlers, Hiranandani Powai and Jughead's, Powai. Having visited both the places several times (and spent a lot of money there), I think I have the right to give my opinion.

Disclaimer (How can I miss a disclaimer before a post): I am biased towards Jugheads. It will anyways be evident from the description.

Location:

Jughead's is located off the highway near Powai police station. Location-wise, it's rather odd to access - out of the way as such. Yoko's is right in the middle of the crowded Galleria adjacent to Mocha. Quite a cool location to have procured.

Interiors and the ambience:

Jughead's has a 'young' feel with the comic strips on the walls and the ceiling. (I have once read through them twisting my neck in all directions..) I particularly love the huge 'burger' that adorns the wall from the outside. The glass wall on one side makes the area look larger - but what you see is a crowded highway. So, hardly any 'view' there.

Yoko's does not really have an ambience that you would remember. It's a typical place with some Chinese touch to the interiors.

The Loo :

(Important factor for me. :-p)
Jughead's only has standing urinals for the men which is like OMG. The washroom at Yoko's is absolutely small - you stand and pee then simply rotate through 90 degrees to wash your hands. Another 90 degrees and you are facing the door on your way out. The rustic feel must be saving the maintenance expenses.

Service:

The attendants at Jughead's are more courteous than Yoko's. Jughead's does not have a waiting area which Yoko's does. However, I have never had to wait the ten-fifteen times that I have been to Jughead's.

Food:

1) Sizzlers: Both the places are known for sizzlers. A sizzler at Yoko's is like my room at times with piles of clothes and books on the top of each other. The sizzler has a big mound of noodles on the top of rice and then the gravy. The fries are jetting out from one corner of this mass. It's like one big mix-up you see! I fondly call Yoko's sizzlers 'Yoko's Bhel' for this very reason. A sizzler at Jughead's is less in quantity, however, the platter is arranged in a neat fashion - things aren't really lying on the top of one another. That makes it easier and more pleasant to eat than Yoko's.

2) Pizza: Both the places serve pizzas at cheap rates (as compared to the pizza joints). Pizza at Yoko's is better than Jughead's. Obviously, the pizzas are no match to the 'pizza speciality' places. I love the prawns pizza at Jughead's.

3) Side orders: Comparable. Almost equal as such.

4) Pricing: Yoko's prices its sizzlers at a rate higher than Jughead's. But they 'sizzle out' thirty seconds after they arrive on your table. Now that's such a Boo-Boo, Yoko ji. A vegetarian sizzler is priced at Rs. 315 in Yoko's while it is Rs. 200 on an average in Jughead's.

On the whole, Juggu-dada beats Yoko ji by a big margin....

Chairs in the Rain

2009-09-04T08:52:00.005+05:30

Credit: I saw a photograph in a friend, Balamurali's orkut album and got the idea of writing this post. He had taken that snap. Photographs do speak a thousand words!

The water on the floor of the terrace makes a rather slow swooshing sound as it flows to the corner of the terrace, thanks to the slope of the terrace. This sound is that of a slow snake moving over a muddy ground making a swoosh due to the moisture in the ground. The rain drops hit the floor like a thousand bullets right on the target. Their sound is the one dominating the scene.

Somewhere, a drop of water falls from the leaky tap right onto the floor making its own small sound. The tap knows it will never beat the rain in the amount of sound it is making - but it keeps trying.

Wait, there is a rat-a-tat too... It is the rain water falling on a metallic surface. Oh yes, there are two metallic chairs on the terrace. The chairs are stuck to one another as if they are holding hands and watching the rain...

An old lady appears from the dark door with an umbrella. She sits on one of the chairs not caring about the wet seat... In the dark of the night, when the moonlight touches the shiny tiles on the terrace, the water and the floor of the terrace shines like the surface of the moon itself.

Like an arrow that cuts through air, like a fish that pierces through water, a sound mounts itself over and above this medley of sounds. She is singing a Hindi song. It is a song of longing.

She has a melodious voice and when she sings, the sound of the rain, the water and the leaky tap seem to have faded. Like the clouds that fill the sky in no time, her song has now filled the air. The thin waves of water on the terrace slow down as the waves of her voice speed through the darkness of the night.

The night hears in silence the song of a lady while the rain drops hit the empty chair adjacent to her....

Kaminey - Movie Review

2009-09-01T10:59:00.002+05:30

H1N1 flu is a pakka 'suwar'. (It is only a matter of coincidence that it is caused by the suwars aka the swine.) The release of this movie got delayed due to the 'shutdown', then I was scared to go to a theatre and watch the movie and when I did, the following week I was too busy to write a review. Albeit late, here it is - the Kaminey movie review...

Question One: This question, everybody seems to be asking - Is it like a Tarantino movie? ...
Answer: Kiske baaaap ko pata hai ki Tarantino movie kya hota hai... I haven't seen any of his/her movies, so I wouldn't comment.

Question Two: Whose performance stands out?
Answer: Undoubtedly, it is among the very few movies where the collective performance by the ensemble stands out. In movies like these, the heroines are reduced to glam dolls in bikinis (or less.). Priyanka Chopra is superb in that sense. She deserves an applause for the accuracy of the Marathi accent. She, thankfully, does NOT overdo it the way other Hindi movies of the past have.

Question Three: Songs?
Answer: "Dhan te nan" is THE song. It is a treat to watch the song on the screen. "Fatak" is a very different song too... Who has heard of AIDS awareness in a Hindi film song!

Amidst all the 'Chudiyaan', 'Kangana', 'Hiriye', 'Makhnaa's that I have listened to, the songs of Kaminey are very nice.. very different.. very slickly canned.

Question Four: Fahid ke baare mein bolo yaar....
Answer: Shahid plays two characters - one of them stammers, the other has a lisp in the film and this, by now, is known to the bachha-bachha of India. So... Fahid looks very good in the movie - both as Charlie the gangster and Guddu the bholuchand. He's acted well. He is better as the gangster than the bholuchand - but that may be because the gangster is more aggressive than the bholuchand.

Question Five : Dialogues?
Answer: There are so many 'F' words in the film - by 'F' words, I mean the wordf where Fahid replacef 'f' with 'f'. :-p. There are fun to hear. There is an above-average usage of Marathi and Bengali - but both the languages are sweet to hear.

Question Six (or 'Fix'.) : Overall verdict?
Answer: Not worth the hype - not worth the craze with which people are 'lifping' on their facebook status messages. The movie is entertaining nevertheless...

The Monologue of a sissy

2009-08-26T19:44:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: Completely imaginary and original work of expression.

I wiped my tears and continued to walk as fast as I could. My legs hurt - not because I was walking fast but because the football that had hit me, had hit me hard. I don't know whether I was limping for I don't remember. All I remember is my attempts to hide the fact that I was crying. The boys laughed and sneered on the football ground as they told me what a wimp I was.

Months later, my brother said he was utterly disgusted to see me watching a daily soap on television. He thought it was really really sissy of me!! A few days later, I remembered that he was also among the group of boys who had purposefully hit me with the football some months ago.

People seemed to have a problem with the way I walked, the way I used my hands while speaking.. in fact with the way I spoke!

When I entered a classroom, there would be muffled giggles. When this happened over and over again for months together, my confidence had shattered to pieces. I could never enter a room full of people without feeling embarrassed.

The physical training classes were a nightmare for me as I could hardly complete half a lap when everyone else was close to finishing the second. The physical training instructor joined the gang of boys that laughed at me...

Each time I moved in public, I could hear people laughing - some for real, many a fiction of my mind. I started staying indoors, didn't move around with people, stayed in my room for days together.

So deep was the feeling of inferiority about myself that I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I was scared to acknowledge my own traits - my hand movements, my smile, my gait.

**

Today I stand in front of the same mirror rehearsing my speech for the film awards function tonight. I look into my eyes, hypnotized by my own charisma.

Today, the boys who hit me with their football tell their kids that I was their childhood friend.

Today, my brother asks me for the entry passes to the movie premiere of my directorial venture.

Today, I am 'manly' enough to tell the world... Yes, I am a 'sissy'!

Khandan ki izzat and sentiments

2009-08-25T18:17:00.006+05:30

On the lines of 'fast food', I have 'fast blogposts'. These blogposts come to me as small sparks of thoughts - it takes me less time to type them and you to read them! So, keep reading my blog on the go...

These days, sentiments of racial/religious groups are more fragile than what is traditionally the benchmark of fragility in the Bollywood language - 'Khandaan ki izzat'.

In 99% Bollywood movies, (the 1% comprises of Mahesh Bhatt movies where extra-marital relationships are as normal as 'doodh mein paani ki milaawat') 'Khaandan ki izzat' is the most fragile thing. Your daughter marries your driver's son and you 'wash hands off' your khandan ki izzat! (A VERY cheap translation of 'khaandan ki izzat se haath dho baithoge'. Used here for the humorous effect only). In fact, the khandan ki izzat is like a soap which every family ends up washing their hands off by the time the movie reaches the intermission portions.

The sentiments of racial/religious groups have now surpassed this gold standard of fragility. Be it the title of a SRK film creating ripples in the 'hair-stylist' community because a derogatory word 'Barber' was used for them ... or be it the wrath that the makers of 'Kaminey' faced because they used a proverb 'Apna Haath Jagannath'. (This proverb has been used for decades. In fact, it does not really represent any particular deity in Orissa - it refers to 'Jagannath' just as God, only to rhyme it with 'Haath'.)

Have the filmmakers really become insensitive - or has the tolerance level of these racial/religious groups really gone down? Till when are we going to subject creativity to this kind of moral policing?

Maati-maay

2009-08-14T16:57:00.004+05:30

I saw this Marathi film 'Maati-maay' starring Atul Kulkarni and Nandita Das. The movie took me to an unimaginable world where characters I cannot identify with are thrown into situations I could've never thought of. Such is the power of the film that despite all this, the film shook me completely. A very 'arty' film it is, complete with the 'brutal honesty' that the movies of this genre have. The strong human emotions touched me.

Here is my interpretation of a scene in the movie:

Disclaimer: Original work of expression. I describe, in my own words, a scene from a marathi movie 'Maati-maay'. Tried to cover the entire story of the movie through the description of this one scene.

She leant against the lake to drink water - she indeed looked like an animal. It was not just the way she was drinking water. There was something more that made her 'animalish'. Her distraught hair, her dirty brick-brown sari, her pale face - everything made her look so different from a human being. For the village where she lived earlier, she was in fact an animal - an animal who roamed around alone in the outskirts of the village, an animal who scared children away. A grave-keeper at one point of time, now she was allegedly a witch who killed children.

She saw the boy on the surface of the lake water. She knew he was standing behind her. Her body contracted. What would people say if they saw him with her? Would people outcast him too, she wondered?

The boy, all of ten, handed her a dry leaf that contained a piece of mutton that was cooked last night. She grabbed hold of it - it was after long that she was going to eat cooked food. She looked at it hungrily as a tear trickled down her cheek without her knowledge.

She stood up. The boy, in a white shirt and khaki shorts looked at this lady - this witch.

She was looking at him for the first time. Because she was told that she would kill any child she would look at.... She had begun to believe all the rumours that were spread about her....

Today, she was looking at him in the eye - with so much to say. The way he looked at her, she was scared. Did he get to know about her? Her eyes could not meet his. She stepped back. She walked away....

He stood there still. He felt proud. The mutton was cooked last night because he had done well at school. And he felt proud that he had shared it with his mother... The illiteracy of the village made the villagers see the 'witch' in her. It was his education that helped him see the person in the witch who was his mother.....

Kuttey

2009-08-07T19:19:00.002+05:30

Note: A very Hinglish post. Arbit rubbish. I'm learning to do that mannnn!!!

Ruko ruko... Before some of you try to sue me for abusing the netizens so openly, lemme clarify and justify and......testify the title! Arre bhai, if someone can name his movie 'Kaminey', why can't I call my blogpost 'Kuttey'?! After all, Bollywood ki dictionary mein 'Kuttey.... kaminey' are as together as 'Ram aur Shyam', 'Ram aur Lakhan' and 'Seeta aur Geeta'...!!

So why is the blogpost titled 'Kuttey'? Is it because I was once chased by a stray dog and I ran for my life for almost three minutes? ( Tacky experiences make tacky confessions, hai na?!) No no no...

It is because I see that 'Kuttey's are all over the news today...! No baba, there is no 'canine flu' on the lines of 'swine flu' in the market these days.... But somehow, today's newspaper carries ek nahi, do nahi, teen teen kuttey-wali khabrein...

News 1 is Farah Khan being sued by a Chembur-based businessman because she made a statement on the show 'Dus Ka Dum' (hosted by Salman Khan at his 'basti-ka-laadla' best behaviour.). She said things like, "Mard kuttey hi hote hain. Aur wafaadar bhi nahi hote!" Sunne mein aaya hai ki Farah is very happy about the news! After all, she needs something to come into the limelight after her bombed 'judging' in 'Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega'!

News 2 is Sunny Deol to sue BIG FM for making fun of him and his father in a radio show 'Son sunny'. Before Sunny Deol sues me too, let me clarify that the only 'Kuttey' connection here is the fact that 'Kutte Kaminey.. main tera khoon pee jaaunga" is Dharmendra's dialogue. (Us se yaad aaya... Dharmendra restaurant mein jaake 'Fresh lime soda' ki tarah 'Fresh khoon soda' maangta hoga! Aur waiter jis tarah Fresh lime soda ke liye "sweet" or "Salty" poochta hai, waiter unko "A", "B", "O" or "AB" poochta hoga.... omg. This was the worst one from me in a long long time!!)

Enough of sue-sueing. Btw, kutteys have a definite style of sue-sueing in public. And this style reminds me of the way many Bollywood heroines dance and twist and turn in those so-called raunchy numbers.... :-p

Last news 3 is about Salman Khan's personal gym being given away to his pet dogs while Salman works out at a 'public' gym! Salman Khan ne jaanwaron ke prati prem ki ek nayi missile.. oops misaal kaayam ki hai!... But going by his gloated body in the recent times, I doubt if Salman was even using that gym!!! Chalo, ghar ki jagah kuch kaam toh aayi.. Waise bhi Katrina udhar gym ki jagah ko farsaanwale ko rent pe dene ki soch rahi thi...

Never mind, Kuttey blogpost khatam hua... Phir kabhi 'Kaminey' par likhunga.... No no no, it will not be about any corrupt politicians or some cheap reality show-wallahs .. It'll be a movie review of Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Kaminey'.. So, watch out this space!!

God shopping

2009-08-04T14:33:00.004+05:30

The kid walked up to the shop, rested his palms on the counter and pulled himself upwards as his soles were lifted off the ground.

"Can I have God?", the little boy asked the shopkeeper.

"Ya, but which one?"

"As in?"

"We have Gods in colours - orange, green, blue and white.. which one do you want?", the shopkeeper replied.

"Can I have them all?"

"No! You must choose what you want! You can't have a group of Gods. In fact, if you buy the God of one colour, you have to fight with everyone who has a God of another colour."

"But why?", the kid asked inquisitively.

"That's how it is!"

"Do these Gods fight with each other too?", the kid asked, "If the colours of these Gods are different, is the colour of their followers different too?"

"Uhmmm...", the shopkeeper fumbled.

"We are all made of flesh and blood, aren't we?!", the kid asked.

"The Gods are within all of us, child", a spiritually enlightened person came there.

"Is that why more Gods are required, Sir?", the kid asked him.

"In fact, all of us have an element of God within us.", the person said.

"The number of people in the world is increasing so much. If there's God within all of us, why is the 'God'ness of the world reducing so much, Sir?", the kid asked again.

The person had no answer...

"Hey! You want God, buy God.. otherwise leave!", the shopkeeper interrupted. He couldn't have two people talking to each other at his counter.

"Give me a God that is transparent. A God that has no colour, sees no colour. If you have such a God, I'll have him. Else, I am fine...", the kid walked off the shop...

Love Aaj kal - Review

2009-08-03T11:49:00.003+05:30

This movie review starts off with being presented in the form of 'you are watching a X's movie when...'.

You are watching an Imtiaz Ali movie when...

1) The name is a twisted mix of Hindi and English words. After 'Jab we met' and 'Love aaj kal'...

2) There is a song in the courtyard of a house where the old members sit and the jawaan generation dance.. naach basanti naach... (There is a similar song in this film too.)

3) The marriages that get fixed in the course of the movie are just for timepass - just to stretch the anxiety of the audience. This happened in IA's first film 'Aahista Aahista', in 'JWM' and now in 'LAK' also...

Now, specifics about Love Aaj kal..

1) Saif and Deepika have delivered good performances.

2) The dialogues and screenplay possess a very 'contemporary' and realistic feel to them. The characters react and speak dialogues that we expect 'real' people to do and say.

3) 'Aahun aahun' is picturized very nicely - like those typical 'end credits' songs.

4) The movie is like a breeze - pleasant, fun yet there's nothing you take back, no specific scene or trait that you remember.

5) Rahul Khanna gives the expression of a tree trunk. (Don't laugh! Aishwarya Rai had to marry a tree before Abhishek Bachhan to clear some astrological issues.... Was Rahul the tree trunk they were talking about? ) But you feel pity for this tree trunk when his newly-wed wife Deepika tells him that she loves someone else. Especially with the amazingly constipated expressions that Rahul Khanna gives in this particular scene...

6) The 'Twist' song is pressed into the film for NO REASON (completely adhering to Bollywood's principles of 'blending' masala songs into the film.)

7) Beyond a point, you KNOW that finally the hero and the heroine are going to reunite. So, the proceedings don't really surprise you. Especially when the hero goes to Vikram Joshi's house to meet his wife. This is the weakness of the screenplay.

Overall, the movie is a 'MAYBE watch' as opposed to a 'must-watch'...

She was running

2009-07-25T22:05:00.007+05:30

Note: An expression of a mental imagery that I wish to present here. Original work of expression ofcourse.

She ran barefoot. Over the pointed strands of dry grass that were more than just tickling her soles.

She ran. Even after she tripped over the thick root of a banyan tree that was above the surface of the ground.

She ran overwhelmed with excitement. With her two ribbon-tied plaits flapping against her cheeks.

She ran fast. With her knee-long skirt flying like a flag.

She had cupped her hands tightly. She only ran faster as water dripped through the gaps between her fingers.

She stopped. She was panting heavily. Before she got her breath back, she poured the water in her palm into the rusty metal tub that she had filled with water some time ago. She smiled...

She peeped into the tub... She saw the tiny red fish that she had just caught from the lake, the fish that she had held between her hands in water.

The fish was just a tiny red speck on the huge surface of water against the rusty brown floor of the tub. For her, this tiny red dot made the old tub her aquarium...

She was looking proudly at her new aquarium...

Winnie the Pooh

2009-07-24T01:05:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: Arbit bakwas. :-) Read at your own risk

Winnie the Pooh is this really cute-looking cartoon character. I remember watching a W-T-P cartoon and not being able to make any head or tail out of it. Primarily because it was in English and the American accent was too weird for me to understand then (not that I understand it any better now. Each time my cousin from the US calls up, I tell her the phone lines are bad and that is the reason why I am asking her to repeat every sentence nearly twice.... Aah, now I know, this is what starts all the rumours! She must be going all about the town speaking of India as a 'third world country' with telephone lines that break down each time it rains.)

Back to Winnie the Pooh. So this Pooh basically wears only a t-shirt - typically red. Cartoonland must be really poor! Mickey mouse, for a long time that I remember, had only a small shorts (with three round buttons) and Mr. Pooh has only a t-shirt! Speaks volumes about how people must share the available resources, doesn't it?!

Oh btw, the bear is not of the cheap Indian variety either. (When I hear a 'bear', I only remember Jambhuvant from the TV serial Ramayan. Jambhuvant in the serial was basically a hair-covered man who spoke like he had his mouth full of a hundred berries. (Shabri ke ber perhaps..) ) It's a nice golden brown one with no visible fur as such. The bear must be waxing regularly- the cartoonmaker was truly a visionary for he predicted the arrival of a 'metrosexual bear'!

Winnie loves honey and eats them from these neat jars and mugs. (Amrika is indeed a country where a carton gives milk, a box gives paper napkins and a jar gives honey. And while all of them do this, the cow and the honeybee go on a Europe trip with their family because they have no work to do)

Whew, thanks for 'bear'ing with the balderdash... I thought that amidst all my 'mirror's, 'window's and 'shadow's, a light-weight post was required...

Bevda maarke

2009-07-22T13:34:00.002+05:30

Note: "Bevda maarke" is a colloquial word usage for ''heavily drunk (on alcohol)". "Bevda" is alternately an adjective for a "drunkard".

Move away bevda truckwallahs.. you must've shelled out a hundred or two to the officials after they found you alcohol-positive on the Nashik-Mumbai Ghats. But that's nothing...

Move away bevda bus-wallahs who are also often tested for alcohol level where they breathe into a device. I have heard that the bus-wallahs eat a lot of mint thinking the alcohol machine wouldn't be able to capture the smell! :-)

From article at : : http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090722/1238/tbs-pilots-on-a-high-mallya-s-kingfisher.html

Some pilots from Kingfisher airlines were found under the influence of alcohol in a test conducted on them...

Bus, autorickshaws, trucks are small, darlings... There are people who are doing it with class! You are only riding buses and trucks - these people are riding airplanes.. bevda maarke!

Aren't they taking the phrase ''drink and fly high'' too seriously?

Raining all year

2009-07-20T16:24:00.002+05:30

I sit at my window looking at Powai that rises above Powai lake like a mighty demon in all its power. The greenery on the bank of the lake is bordered by a highway and skyscrapers that extend from the highway.

It is raining and I see the lake perturbed and rustling like a hot plate when we splatter water on it.

Monsoons are romantic and beautiful. Why doesn't it rain the entire year, I thought...

Then I realized that it does... It does.

The sun makes sure that it rains light every single day of the year. We call the sun 'scorching hot'....

The clouds only appear in the sky three months a year and it rains water in that period of time. We call them the 'romantic and pleasant rains'...

We remember the drops of water that rain on us some times but conveniently forget the drops of light that rain on us every single day of our life.

It's only 'occasional favours' that are remembered. When someone habitually does something for you, it gets forgotten...

aaditya and me

Dogs and cats: The farewell dilemma

'Delhi Belly' : Movie Review

'Ready': Movie Review

Without you... *Recommended*

Revival of the Fittest

'Wild Dining': Restaurant Review

Dhobi Ghat: Movie review

Two chocolates

You and me

Mothers #5

Tube of light

'No one killed Jessica' - Review

When do I remember you, God?

Leopard-trap

Gulzaarish: The movie review for 'Guzaarish'

So much to write

Weight

Khichdi - the movie - the review

A colour of my own - Adaptation of a Suresh Bhat Ghazal

Cinediner with Dabangg

'We are Family' - Review

'Peepli [Live]' - Review

Rainforest - Review

The Parting

Why should I celebrate Independence day?

Language matters #2: Using appliances in Hindi

Language matters #1 : Look, see and watch

Language Matters #0

Octopus Paul & Baba Bengalis

Three children

Mothers #4

'Tere bin Laden' - Review

Amboli & Korum mall food court - Review

FIFA at the convo hall

Bhopal

Raajneeti - Movie Review

Kites: Movie review

The Unspoken

Me the criminal

'Anandi anand' - Review

The Last Lecture

Stars And clouds

Sci-fi : Senses & Emotions

Sania & Shoaib

Letter from his grandparents

'Atithi kab jaaoge' - Movie review

377

The Winner

Dreams and secrets: Audio blog

Faces and Masks

Love letter

Natural Aversion therapy to songs

My Name is Khan : Movie Review

Photo blog 4 : Visitors from the sky

History books

Photo blog 3 : From Chowmahala Palace

Zenda - Movie Review

Mothers # 3

Natarang - Review

Friends

Photo blog 2 : Bharatiya sanskriti

Incomplete sentences

Photo blog 1 : Toilet

The Window

3 idiots - Movie Review

Hyderabad Calling #2 - Travelling

Hyderabad Calling #1 - Food

Hyderabad calling #0

Paa - Movie Review

Aamhi secular jhaalot - We are secular now

'Jail - Movie review'

Funny job application

Test of time

Mothers #1

Blog: Second Spell

Deaf, dumb and blind

Jodha's Krishna mandir

Wake up Sid- Review

Tears at the lakeside

Without you... Recommended