Have finally let go of it…had to do it. Evaluated the priorities of my life and finally took this call. At times I’m repenting my decision whereas at times I’m thinking, it was just another opportunity…when we can bear the loss of the most loved ones, what is there in a missed opportunity? Yes, it was a very lucrative one, something which was really-really nice but still I decided to let it go in a hope to fulfill some larger objectives of my life. Those objectives after which I’m running for months now but with no result! Those objectives which have made me miss some equally attractive opportunities in past few months but still I want to run after this one as somewhere I think in the long run this one is more important for life. I’ve no idea if I’m doing right or wrong, no idea if I will get similar kinda opportunities in future but still I’m missing these with a hope that my decisions will prove to be right someday & things will turn out better. “Hope for better” is all I can think of in such a state of mind. Yes I’m apprehensive, anxious, worried, confused, depressed, feeling low & negative too…you heard it right; I’m feeling negative and not positive towards things right now! I’m not sure how am I supposed to feel optimistic about life when despite all my efforts, things are just not turning the right way for years now. And for a change I don’t wanna follow the bandwagon of “pseudo-optimism”. I want to accept my real feelings and the realities they way they are right now.

The last two weeks of my decision making phase has made me more & more contemplative towards so many things. Be positive! Optimistic raho toh sab theek ho jayega! Don’t regret! Always look on the brighter side of life! Never repent your decisions in life! Whatever happens is for good, so always think positive in life! Indecisiveness and confusions are the traits of feeble minds, strong ones take a decision & move on! Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah….Every other person whom I meet these days speaks no less than any motivational guru and out of all, the crowns for the most used (or shall I say abused) buzzwords definitely go to…OPTIMISIM & DECISION MAKING. I’m also aware that there are some colleagues, relatives, formal friends and professional acquaintances who read my this blog now (thanks to Google, finding this link is quite a simple task) and somehow this realization had actually let me become conscious of topics to be posted on my blogs for past few months. Honestly speaking there are times when I’ve written a post but have not posted thinking, “oh, this post might make me sound like a negative person” or “am I the only one who is so indecisive in life, rest all seem to be so confident & positive.” But somehow today I don’t feel like restricting myself from posting this one even if I’m aware that this will project me as a confused personality who gets depressed at times in life. I don’t think there is anything wrong in that. In fact the recent mantra of “forever optimistic” or “assume a crap to be candy & it will turn into a candy” is something which I don’t buy in. I have had arguments with people on realism vs. optimism and the other side has always won saying, “positive sochne se achcha hota hai” or “go with the flow & life will be fine”…well, does it really? If you’re aware that the flow which you are going along with is going to end in pits, then why not change your course before hand, why optimistically wait for the pit to get converted in a straight road? If you’re on a crossroad where both directions seem to be equally appealing & both are sort of life changing directions for you, then how are you not supposed to be indecisive & confused about it? Positive thinking is fine but it DOES NOT & CAN NOT help you in all situations. I have so many case-in-points where I have seen my thinking getting true but somehow have not been able to voice it loudly as my concerns are generally being taken as unnecessary apprehensions. Call me cynical but I do think (& strongly so) that this term “optimism” & the theory of “prove the world that you’re confident” are just too overrated. I have enough case studies and examples to elaborate the same & I will definitely do so in one of my subsequent posts when I will have more time to write a long one for I do feel that terms like “optimism (prefix: pseudo)”, “confidence (prefix: forced)”, “decision making (prefix: irrational)” are doing more bad than good to many of us.

Just Generally · optimism · optimism is overrated

Isn't optimism overrated?

Have finally let go of it…had to do it. Evaluated the priorities of my life and finally took this call. At times I’m repenting my decision whereas at times I’m thinking, it was just another opportunity…when we can bear the loss of the most loved ones, what is there in a missed opportunity? Yes, it was a very lucrative one, something which was really-really nice but still I decided to let it go in a hope to fulfill some larger objectives of my life. Those objectives after which I’m running for months now but with no result! Those objectives which have made me miss some equally attractive opportunities in past few months but still I want to run after this one as somewhere I think in the long run this one is more important for life. I’ve no idea if I’m doing right or wrong, no idea if I will get similar kinda opportunities in future but still I’m missing these with a hope that my decisions will prove to be right someday & things will turn out better. “Hope for better” is all I can think of in such a state of mind. Yes I’m apprehensive, anxious, worried, confused, depressed, feeling low & negative too…you heard it right; I’m feeling negative and not positive towards things right now! I’m not sure how am I supposed to feel optimistic about life when despite all my efforts, things are just not turning the right way for years now. And for a change I don’t wanna follow the bandwagon of “pseudo-optimism”. I want to accept my real feelings and the realities they way they are right now.

The last two weeks of my decision making phase has made me more & more contemplative towards so many things. Be positive! Optimistic raho toh sab theek ho jayega! Don’t regret! Always look on the brighter side of life! Never repent your decisions in life! Whatever happens is for good, so always think positive in life! Indecisiveness and confusions are the traits of feeble minds, strong ones take a decision & move on! Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah….Every other person whom I meet these days speaks no less than any motivational guru and out of all, the crowns for the most used (or shall I say abused) buzzwords definitely go to…OPTIMISIM & DECISION MAKING. I’m also aware that there are some colleagues, relatives, formal friends and professional acquaintances who read my this blog now (thanks to Google, finding this link is quite a simple task) and somehow this realization had actually let me become conscious of topics to be posted on my blogs for past few months. Honestly speaking there are times when I’ve written a post but have not posted thinking, “oh, this post might make me sound like a negative person” or “am I the only one who is so indecisive in life, rest all seem to be so confident & positive.” But somehow today I don’t feel like restricting myself from posting this one even if I’m aware that this will project me as a confused personality who gets depressed at times in life. I don’t think there is anything wrong in that. In fact the recent mantra of “forever optimistic” or “assume a crap to be candy & it will turn into a candy” is something which I don’t buy in. I have had arguments with people on realism vs. optimism and the other side has always won saying, “positive sochne se achcha hota hai” or “go with the flow & life will be fine”…well, does it really? If you’re aware that the flow which you are going along with is going to end in pits, then why not change your course before hand, why optimistically wait for the pit to get converted in a straight road? If you’re on a crossroad where both directions seem to be equally appealing & both are sort of life changing directions for you, then how are you not supposed to be indecisive & confused about it? Positive thinking is fine but it DOES NOT & CAN NOT help you in all situations. I have so many case-in-points where I have seen my thinking getting true but somehow have not been able to voice it loudly as my concerns are generally being taken as unnecessary apprehensions. Call me cynical but I do think (& strongly so) that this term “optimism” & the theory of “prove the world that you’re confident” are just too overrated. I have enough case studies and examples to elaborate the same & I will definitely do so in one of my subsequent posts when I will have more time to write a long one for I do feel that terms like “optimism (prefix: pseudo)”, “confidence (prefix: forced)”, “decision making (prefix: irrational)” are doing more bad than good to many of us.

Was off on a trip to different places up north in January & what a deadly weather it was this time! Chilling cold with dense fog leading to almost zero visibility on roads, did not see sunlight for the whole of 18 days during my trip and traveling to different cities was just so painful. Either flights / trains were canceled or were running abnormally late. One such trip was my return to Delhi from Varanasi via train. Though the train was running quite late but since I was traveling by train after a long time, I was sort of excited at the prospect of eating those station foods (esp. hot omelets & boiled eggs) and buying books from the station stalls. There is something very different about train journeys & buying books from railway strand stalls, it somehow makes me nostalgic about my childhood, hostel life, vacations when I used to go home by train and definitely – definitely used to buy books from station hawkers –comics, magazines, novels (of course only those which were affordable in my very limited budget then ;)) …aha loads of them which I used to devour on whole journey. And so when the train stopped at a small station during this trip in the morning, the first thing which my eyes started to search for was a magazine stall. Even with dense fog, it was not difficult to spot a vendor just outside my window and guess what! He was having Billoo! And Pinki! And Chacha Chowdhary too! Oh wow…ultimate delight I must say. After how long, I got to see those comics. I do get to buy Archies & Tintin while book browsing on Airports or during my occasional book shopping in Bangalore but then Billoo, Pinki and that too hindi versions are almost extinct from these big city book stores. If I’m not wrong today’s generation kids must not be even aware of these iconic Indian comic characters. In fact these kids esp. the ones from bigger cities are so Archified or Tintinised that they can’t even relate to the simple existence of a character like Billoo or Pinki. I remember few months back, one of my cousin’s son reading English Billoo and saying, “ yeh kya bakwaas hai,yeh bhi koi comic hai”! When my cousin tried to explain the fun part of it, the kiddoo replied, “Mom, I can’t laugh at these stupid jokes”. Slamming the book on table, that 9 year old kid logged onto his Orkut account and started chatting with his friends.
But for me reading those comics after soooo long was great fun. Read it at a stretch & then after seeing a Billoo in my hand, even pati ji got out of his deep sleep and grabbed the book immediately :-). Even after all these years, I didn’t get bored of even one single page. Yeah, at times did get the feeling of “did we actually read all these silly stuffs” but then honestly speaking I love such silliness till now. Long live Indian comic characters – Billoo Rocks, Pinki Rules & Chacha Chowdhary ka dimag abhi bhi computer se tez chalta hai :P

Billoo · Book Review · Books · Chacha Chaudhary · Indian Comics · Just Generally · Pinki comic

Long live Indian comic characters

Was off on a trip to different places up north in January & what a deadly weather it was this time! Chilling cold with dense fog leading to almost zero visibility on roads, did not see sunlight for the whole of 18 days during my trip and traveling to different cities was just so painful. Either flights / trains were canceled or were running abnormally late. One such trip was my return to Delhi from Varanasi via train. Though the train was running quite late but since I was traveling by train after a long time, I was sort of excited at the prospect of eating those station foods (esp. hot omelets & boiled eggs) and buying books from the station stalls. There is something very different about train journeys & buying books from railway strand stalls, it somehow makes me nostalgic about my childhood, hostel life, vacations when I used to go home by train and definitely – definitely used to buy books from station hawkers –comics, magazines, novels (of course only those which were affordable in my very limited budget then ;)) …aha loads of them which I used to devour on whole journey. And so when the train stopped at a small station during this trip in the morning, the first thing which my eyes started to search for was a magazine stall. Even with dense fog, it was not difficult to spot a vendor just outside my window and guess what! He was having Billoo! And Pinki! And Chacha Chowdhary too! Oh wow…ultimate delight I must say. After how long, I got to see those comics. I do get to buy Archies & Tintin while book browsing on Airports or during my occasional book shopping in Bangalore but then Billoo, Pinki and that too hindi versions are almost extinct from these big city book stores. If I’m not wrong today’s generation kids must not be even aware of these iconic Indian comic characters. In fact these kids esp. the ones from bigger cities are so Archified or Tintinised that they can’t even relate to the simple existence of a character like Billoo or Pinki. I remember few months back, one of my cousin’s son reading English Billoo and saying, “ yeh kya bakwaas hai,yeh bhi koi comic hai”! When my cousin tried to explain the fun part of it, the kiddoo replied, “Mom, I can’t laugh at these stupid jokes”. Slamming the book on table, that 9 year old kid logged onto his Orkut account and started chatting with his friends.
But for me reading those comics after soooo long was great fun. Read it at a stretch & then after seeing a Billoo in my hand, even pati ji got out of his deep sleep and grabbed the book immediately :-). Even after all these years, I didn’t get bored of even one single page. Yeah, at times did get the feeling of “did we actually read all these silly stuffs” but then honestly speaking I love such silliness till now. Long live Indian comic characters – Billoo Rocks, Pinki Rules & Chacha Chowdhary ka dimag abhi bhi computer se tez chalta hai :P

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … 365. 365 days i.e., 1 full year without him. Its 5th February today, the fateful date when Kishu left us forever exactly an year back. Whole day today I’ve been trying to maintain my composure at work & divert my mind from thoughts of last year but as the day is drawing to an end, I can’t help myself from remembering that one phone call which came on 5th evening and changed our lives forever. I don’t think I can manage words to express my pain & angst against this day, the shock of last year and the agony since then... And what surprises me is the fact that we all are living without him, for last 27 years not even a single day used to go without talking to him and now its 365 days that I have not heard his voice but still I’m alive…life is going on...happily or unhappily, willingly or unwillingly… something which was unimaginable till last 5th, now is an accepted truth. An acceptance which has been enforced on us very brutally, how brutal it is can only be explained by the lonely eyes of my mom, the insecured eyes of Kaushik or the forever frightened and depressed heart of mine! As I write this post I feel strange, more than sadness, it’s perhaps anger against the unjust…

How selfish we human beings are, we learn to live without a person, without whom not even a single moment was imaginable. Yes, I do feel guilty whenever I have laughed in last one year, I do feel strange whenever I realize that our life is going on without Kishu but then I wonder did I have any other alternative than surviving through this? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and now one year of his absence from our lives, the absence which can never be filled by anything or anyone ever again…with each moment we miss him more & more & more...for we know that now we will never be able to see him again...

death · Kishu · Musings

Life goes on???

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … 365. 365 days i.e., 1 full year without him. Its 5th February today, the fateful date when Kishu left us forever exactly an year back. Whole day today I’ve been trying to maintain my composure at work & divert my mind from thoughts of last year but as the day is drawing to an end, I can’t help myself from remembering that one phone call which came on 5th evening and changed our lives forever. I don’t think I can manage words to express my pain & angst against this day, the shock of last year and the agony since then... And what surprises me is the fact that we all are living without him, for last 27 years not even a single day used to go without talking to him and now its 365 days that I have not heard his voice but still I’m alive…life is going on...happily or unhappily, willingly or unwillingly… something which was unimaginable till last 5th, now is an accepted truth. An acceptance which has been enforced on us very brutally, how brutal it is can only be explained by the lonely eyes of my mom, the insecured eyes of Kaushik or the forever frightened and depressed heart of mine! As I write this post I feel strange, more than sadness, it’s perhaps anger against the unjust…

How selfish we human beings are, we learn to live without a person, without whom not even a single moment was imaginable. Yes, I do feel guilty whenever I have laughed in last one year, I do feel strange whenever I realize that our life is going on without Kishu but then I wonder did I have any other alternative than surviving through this? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and now one year of his absence from our lives, the absence which can never be filled by anything or anyone ever again…with each moment we miss him more & more & more...for we know that now we will never be able to see him again...

Back after a nice weekend trip to Pondicherry. It was yet another impromptu trip which got finalized the same morning & what followed was the usual "dump clothes in car, google the directions, search for some hotel numbers & off you go". Drive was awesome but getting hotel room was awful, seemed as if the whole world had come to Pondicherry for new-year celebration. If this was the state of Pondicherry, wondering how crowded it would have been in Goa. But nevertheless, once we got the room the trip was cool. These unplanned trips have fun of their own :-). Both me & N just hogged on those yummy sea food, delicious French desserts and not to forget all the organic stuffs which you get on Auroville road. It was a good start to the year and hoping twenty-ten to be better year for all of us.
Well 2010 has definitely started with some interesting internet updates. Earlier it was all the fiasco on FPS vs 3 Idiots & now Mr. Jyoti Basu. At around 1:30 pm, I get to read a tweet which said "Jyoti Basu passed away". Shocked enough I started to browse through some news sites but none of them confirmed the news whereas on Twitter, people started flooding your timeline with RIP Jyoti Basu messages. Tweet pe tweet pe tweet and none of them based on any official confirmation; in fact some of them were quite ridiculous too. Have a look on the following snapshot.

We always speak of media irresponsibility and sensationalism but in this case aren't citizens responsible for this rumor? Yes, Mr. Basu is critical and is hospitalized too but the news of his death is not confirmed by any official sources yet. In fact as per the latest update from most of the official sources, he is still alive. But people are just going on & on with their ramblings for last 4 hours so much so that the keyword "Jyoti Basu" is already a trending topic on twitter & top search in Google today. Well, now I'm curiously waiting for any update from news sites to know if it is actually a rumor or twitter was the first platform to break this news...Till then the curious case of Mr. Basu continues…

Jyoti Basu · Jyoti Basu Dead · Media Rumor · Views on News

The curious case of Jyoti Basu

Back after a nice weekend trip to Pondicherry. It was yet another impromptu trip which got finalized the same morning & what followed was the usual "dump clothes in car, google the directions, search for some hotel numbers & off you go". Drive was awesome but getting hotel room was awful, seemed as if the whole world had come to Pondicherry for new-year celebration. If this was the state of Pondicherry, wondering how crowded it would have been in Goa. But nevertheless, once we got the room the trip was cool. These unplanned trips have fun of their own :-). Both me & N just hogged on those yummy sea food, delicious French desserts and not to forget all the organic stuffs which you get on Auroville road. It was a good start to the year and hoping twenty-ten to be better year for all of us.
Well 2010 has definitely started with some interesting internet updates. Earlier it was all the fiasco on FPS vs 3 Idiots & now Mr. Jyoti Basu. At around 1:30 pm, I get to read a tweet which said "Jyoti Basu passed away". Shocked enough I started to browse through some news sites but none of them confirmed the news whereas on Twitter, people started flooding your timeline with RIP Jyoti Basu messages. Tweet pe tweet pe tweet and none of them based on any official confirmation; in fact some of them were quite ridiculous too. Have a look on the following snapshot.

We always speak of media irresponsibility and sensationalism but in this case aren't citizens responsible for this rumor? Yes, Mr. Basu is critical and is hospitalized too but the news of his death is not confirmed by any official sources yet. In fact as per the latest update from most of the official sources, he is still alive. But people are just going on & on with their ramblings for last 4 hours so much so that the keyword "Jyoti Basu" is already a trending topic on twitter & top search in Google today. Well, now I'm curiously waiting for any update from news sites to know if it is actually a rumor or twitter was the first platform to break this news...Till then the curious case of Mr. Basu continues…

Hmmm…last day of the year and last post for my blog in 2009…I remember writing a post on 31st Dec for this blog in 2008 as well. 2008 was bad, really bad as it was the year when Amitesh Bhaiya had left us forever but then the optimistic in me thought that next year will be fine. I had wished, prayed and hoped that 2009 would be better for us never to know that 2009 would actually turn out to be the worst year of our life till now as 2009 is the fateful year when fate snatched Kishu from us very brutally and callously! They say – all that happens is for good…well not really. I don’t think there can be any good in losing Kishu and Amitesh Bhaiya from our lives forever. Life will never be same after Kishu & Bhaiya. The days are passing on but certain losses are irrevocable and some pains can never be healed. You just somehow willingly or unwillingly learn to live with it. Some incidents do make you succumb to your fate and do break your belief towards so many aspects of life…now I don’t even know whether I should hope for a better 2010. Yes, the strong optimistic in me has slowly-slowly died with time; the staunch faith has faded away. Now I only know one thing – jo hona hai woh ho ke rahega.

Had read this beautiful poem by Shri Bachchan which describes my some of the thoughts so aptly now, we keep on hoping for something better, something new but then again hota wahi hai jo hona hota hai aur din beet hi jate hai jaise-taise...

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
सूरज ढलकर पच्छिम पहुँचा,
डूबा, संध्या आई, छाई,
सौ संध्या-सी वह संध्या थी,
क्यों उठते-उठते सोचा था,
दिन में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई ।

धीमे-धीमे तारे निकले,
धीरे-धीरे नभ में फैले,
सौ रजनी-सी वह रजनी थी,
क्यों संध्या को यह सोचा था,
निशि में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई।

चिड़ियाँ चहकीं, कलियाँ महकी,
पूरब से फिर सूरज निकला,
जैसे होती थी सुबह हुई,
क्यों सोते-सोते सोचा था,
होगी प्रातः कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
- हरिवंश राय बच्चन

With these thoughts, I would end my post by wishing all my readers a very happy & prosperous new year. Hope the next year brings more sunshine to your lives, have a great year ahead! And please do pray for me and my family to have a peaceful 2010...

Happy New Year · Harivansh Rai Bachcan · Just Generally · Kishu · Musings

Wish you a very happy new year!

Hmmm…last day of the year and last post for my blog in 2009…I remember writing a post on 31st Dec for this blog in 2008 as well. 2008 was bad, really bad as it was the year when Amitesh Bhaiya had left us forever but then the optimistic in me thought that next year will be fine. I had wished, prayed and hoped that 2009 would be better for us never to know that 2009 would actually turn out to be the worst year of our life till now as 2009 is the fateful year when fate snatched Kishu from us very brutally and callously! They say – all that happens is for good…well not really. I don’t think there can be any good in losing Kishu and Amitesh Bhaiya from our lives forever. Life will never be same after Kishu & Bhaiya. The days are passing on but certain losses are irrevocable and some pains can never be healed. You just somehow willingly or unwillingly learn to live with it. Some incidents do make you succumb to your fate and do break your belief towards so many aspects of life…now I don’t even know whether I should hope for a better 2010. Yes, the strong optimistic in me has slowly-slowly died with time; the staunch faith has faded away. Now I only know one thing – jo hona hai woh ho ke rahega.

Had read this beautiful poem by Shri Bachchan which describes my some of the thoughts so aptly now, we keep on hoping for something better, something new but then again hota wahi hai jo hona hota hai aur din beet hi jate hai jaise-taise...

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
सूरज ढलकर पच्छिम पहुँचा,
डूबा, संध्या आई, छाई,
सौ संध्या-सी वह संध्या थी,
क्यों उठते-उठते सोचा था,
दिन में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई ।

धीमे-धीमे तारे निकले,
धीरे-धीरे नभ में फैले,
सौ रजनी-सी वह रजनी थी,
क्यों संध्या को यह सोचा था,
निशि में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई।

चिड़ियाँ चहकीं, कलियाँ महकी,
पूरब से फिर सूरज निकला,
जैसे होती थी सुबह हुई,
क्यों सोते-सोते सोचा था,
होगी प्रातः कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
- हरिवंश राय बच्चन

With these thoughts, I would end my post by wishing all my readers a very happy & prosperous new year. Hope the next year brings more sunshine to your lives, have a great year ahead! And please do pray for me and my family to have a peaceful 2010...

OMG, again I’ve not come back to my blog for soooo long and I only realized it when a reader emailed me that she is missing my posts. Looks like one of my resolutions for 2010 has to be about being regular on my blog. There are so many things which I wanted to blog about but blame it on twitter, farmville or busy schedule including weekends that I’ve not been able to do so. And December weekends are all the more pre-occupied, well with so many good movies releasing every Friday and some cool live concerts happening in Bangalore, how is one supposed to sit at home and spend time with laptop? The only thing which has made me spend time on my laptop over weekends is harvesting as it's just not possible for me to let my crops die at my farm in Farmville. Such a hard working farmer I’m! Apart from my kheti-baari, every weekend I've ended up watching some nice movies and I think all four movies which I watched in December were amazing - be it Scent of a Woman on DVD, or Paa, Rocket Singh and the latest one Avatar in theaters.

Hmmm one mention of Avatar and lo I'm again spell-bound. I think it would be prudent to say that I've not seen anything so magnificent and terrific in my life ever. This movie is simply outstanding and soooo....uh I'm running short of adjectives now. Story wise it was just another fantasy movie with added flavor of love story in it but visually it's a treat for your eyes. The 3D effects are mind blowing. There are scenes which have just made me jump out of my seat. It's thrilling and must must must watch for everybody. Do watch it no later than today in case you have not till now. Only a director of James Cameron caliber could have done justice to this film. And speaking of caliber, I think I need to mention the acting potential of Mr. Bachchan. With his character as Auro in Paa he once again has proved it that there is only one Amitabh Bachchan in overall cinema industry. Man, what a film and what a performance! Paa is a beautiful story of mother-son relationship (yea, I think it was more mother-son than father-son story as advertised in promo campaigns). BigB's portrayal as Auro just leaves you amazed, and the bigger surprise package is Vidya Balan as the mother of 13 year old Auro. Only an actor of Amitabh Bachchan's caliber could have done justice to this film. Once again a must watch, if you have not watched it till now. Rocket Singh was nice too but it’s definitely not a mass movie; mostly people with corporate career can relate to this movie better. I personally liked it. Scent of a woman was awesome, I don’t think I need to write anything about it; in fact I’m wondering why I never watched it earlier. Next on my "watch-list" is 3 idiots which I'm going to watch sometime soon.

So, that's all on movie front. Will be back with my year-end post in a day or two. In the meantime, here's wishing all my readers a very happy new year. Hope you're enjoying this holiday season to the fullest :-)

3idiots · Avatar · Happy New Year · Just Generally · Movies · Paa · Rocket Singh · Scent of a woman

Hello, I’m there :-)

OMG, again I’ve not come back to my blog for soooo long and I only realized it when a reader emailed me that she is missing my posts. Looks like one of my resolutions for 2010 has to be about being regular on my blog. There are so many things which I wanted to blog about but blame it on twitter, farmville or busy schedule including weekends that I’ve not been able to do so. And December weekends are all the more pre-occupied, well with so many good movies releasing every Friday and some cool live concerts happening in Bangalore, how is one supposed to sit at home and spend time with laptop? The only thing which has made me spend time on my laptop over weekends is harvesting as it's just not possible for me to let my crops die at my farm in Farmville. Such a hard working farmer I’m! Apart from my kheti-baari, every weekend I've ended up watching some nice movies and I think all four movies which I watched in December were amazing - be it Scent of a Woman on DVD, or Paa, Rocket Singh and the latest one Avatar in theaters.

Hmmm one mention of Avatar and lo I'm again spell-bound. I think it would be prudent to say that I've not seen anything so magnificent and terrific in my life ever. This movie is simply outstanding and soooo....uh I'm running short of adjectives now. Story wise it was just another fantasy movie with added flavor of love story in it but visually it's a treat for your eyes. The 3D effects are mind blowing. There are scenes which have just made me jump out of my seat. It's thrilling and must must must watch for everybody. Do watch it no later than today in case you have not till now. Only a director of James Cameron caliber could have done justice to this film. And speaking of caliber, I think I need to mention the acting potential of Mr. Bachchan. With his character as Auro in Paa he once again has proved it that there is only one Amitabh Bachchan in overall cinema industry. Man, what a film and what a performance! Paa is a beautiful story of mother-son relationship (yea, I think it was more mother-son than father-son story as advertised in promo campaigns). BigB's portrayal as Auro just leaves you amazed, and the bigger surprise package is Vidya Balan as the mother of 13 year old Auro. Only an actor of Amitabh Bachchan's caliber could have done justice to this film. Once again a must watch, if you have not watched it till now. Rocket Singh was nice too but it’s definitely not a mass movie; mostly people with corporate career can relate to this movie better. I personally liked it. Scent of a woman was awesome, I don’t think I need to write anything about it; in fact I’m wondering why I never watched it earlier. Next on my "watch-list" is 3 idiots which I'm going to watch sometime soon.

So, that's all on movie front. Will be back with my year-end post in a day or two. In the meantime, here's wishing all my readers a very happy new year. Hope you're enjoying this holiday season to the fullest :-)

I just realized that there has been a silence on my blog for quite some time now and it definitely needs to be broken soon, in fact right now. Though there are many topics on which I wanted to blog but considering my time availability, I think let me keep this post limited to the last book which I read by one of my favorite authors – Mr. Ruskin Bond.

There is something magical about him which just never lets me get bored of his writings ever. Finished reading “All Roads Lead to Ganga” recently, though I never read detailed travel books but still considering the fact that it was from Mr. Bond, I couldn’t resist picking this off the shelf. If nothing else, I was sure to enjoy the Ruskinista description of hills and valleys in the book and well the book surely came up to my expectations. This is a travel memoir, wherein Ruskin Bond captures the breathtaking beauty and splendor of this magical landscape, describing with nostalgia and affection the places and people he has lived with and encountered for over forty years. In a very engaging way he describes his different stages of lives at places like Garhwal, Mussorie, Dehradun, his simple life amongst simple people and the joy of living amidst nature and mountains of India. Here are few reasons which I think makes this book a very pleasurable read:

• It’s simply mesmerizing. The lucid way, in which he describes the beauty of nature, somehow takes you to some other world, something which you now only get either in your weekend trips or some country side breaks.
• As is the case with all Ruskin book, this one is also yet another epitome of simplicity and exquisiteness.
• It makes you relive your childhood days when life was far away from city madness and rush, it makes you nostalgic for those days when plucking fruits from trees was for real, when bathing with cold water even during winters used to be natural and when festivals’ biggest charm used to be those mom cooked special yummy dishes! It does make you yearn for those quaint little charms of life.

A good read if you’re a Ruskin fan and if you’ve not read it till now. Read it recently that now he is coming with another book “Five” which is on adult relationships and complexities of life. For a change this book is not going to be set amongst hills and mountains. Now I’m so eager to read this book as soon as it comes out. BTW I also managed to read some other books in last month like “The Undomestic Goddess” by Sophie Kinsella which was fun like all other Kinsella series and “2 States” by Chetan Bhagat which was also nice and so relatable. But I’ll leave my views on 2 states for some other post. Time to end this one, hope to come back with another one soon :-)

2 States · All Roads Lead to Ganga · Book Review · Books · Ruskin Bond · The Undomestic Goddess

All Roads Lead To Ganga

I just realized that there has been a silence on my blog for quite some time now and it definitely needs to be broken soon, in fact right now. Though there are many topics on which I wanted to blog but considering my time availability, I think let me keep this post limited to the last book which I read by one of my favorite authors – Mr. Ruskin Bond.

There is something magical about him which just never lets me get bored of his writings ever. Finished reading “All Roads Lead to Ganga” recently, though I never read detailed travel books but still considering the fact that it was from Mr. Bond, I couldn’t resist picking this off the shelf. If nothing else, I was sure to enjoy the Ruskinista description of hills and valleys in the book and well the book surely came up to my expectations. This is a travel memoir, wherein Ruskin Bond captures the breathtaking beauty and splendor of this magical landscape, describing with nostalgia and affection the places and people he has lived with and encountered for over forty years. In a very engaging way he describes his different stages of lives at places like Garhwal, Mussorie, Dehradun, his simple life amongst simple people and the joy of living amidst nature and mountains of India. Here are few reasons which I think makes this book a very pleasurable read:

• It’s simply mesmerizing. The lucid way, in which he describes the beauty of nature, somehow takes you to some other world, something which you now only get either in your weekend trips or some country side breaks.
• As is the case with all Ruskin book, this one is also yet another epitome of simplicity and exquisiteness.
• It makes you relive your childhood days when life was far away from city madness and rush, it makes you nostalgic for those days when plucking fruits from trees was for real, when bathing with cold water even during winters used to be natural and when festivals’ biggest charm used to be those mom cooked special yummy dishes! It does make you yearn for those quaint little charms of life.

A good read if you’re a Ruskin fan and if you’ve not read it till now. Read it recently that now he is coming with another book “Five” which is on adult relationships and complexities of life. For a change this book is not going to be set amongst hills and mountains. Now I’m so eager to read this book as soon as it comes out. BTW I also managed to read some other books in last month like “The Undomestic Goddess” by Sophie Kinsella which was fun like all other Kinsella series and “2 States” by Chetan Bhagat which was also nice and so relatable. But I’ll leave my views on 2 states for some other post. Time to end this one, hope to come back with another one soon :-)

It was just Sunday when I was admiring the pictures of “Wall Project, Phase -II” shared by my Mumbai friends on Facebook, Twitter etc and within a day I get to read about vandalism of those lovely walls! This was actually a joint initiative of BMC and Mumbai citizens where a number of people turned out to paint and beautify the wall running along Tulsi Pipe Road, between Mahim and Matunga in Mumbai. Wall project as a concept has definitely grown noticeably since its inception; in fact what started just as an idea by a group of few enthusiastic people to do something to one of the compound walls in Bandra has become a large scale city wide beautification project now. Not only this is an interesting way of transforming the city walls, it is also an innovative way of preventing them from turning into a spittoon or cuspidor. I have personally seen this project on walls of Lalbaug, Bangalore and it’s simply awesome. I’ve been commuting on the same road daily for many months now but after those paintings are done the whole area has got a different vibrancy & liveliness altogether.

As a part of this initiative, BMC started the second stage last weekend where whole lot of bright and lovely pictures were painted by the citizens of Mumbai, some were based on alphabets whereas some had interesting messages. My personal favorite ones were "म से माँ" or "Ghar Ja ke Kar" :-). You can check the whole collection here. But within a day, all hard-work & efforts of citizens were just scrapped by the promoters of the movies Aladin, Gair & London Dreams. They didn’t even think twice before pasting the movie posters all over those painted walls!!! If you look at before & after images of the walls, you just can’t refrain yourself from a feeling of disgust and appall towards this insensitive sabotage.

Citizens are angry and rightly so at this step of movie marketers which has resulted to an outrage all across social media against this inconsiderate act of promoters. Many people have decided to boycott these movies. Seeing the repercussion, few actors and other associated people have apologized for this act and instructed to remove the posters, but the question is will removal of pictures solve the problem? Won’t those paper posters leave paste marks on the paintings? And how about their attitude or approach towards cityscapes? Isn’t it highly insensitive to go ahead and paste them at the first place? On one hand we have such bunch of enthusiastic people who spend their weekends towards enriching their cities and on other we have such thoughtless bunch who didn’t even think twice before ruining it. And no, I do NOT think that it’s the mistake of those poor poster guys who had stuck those posters, they have just executed what was instructed to them; it was surely the mistake of the planners who would have decided on the areas for their poster campaign. Also on second thought, in an OOH & hoarding dominated city like Mumbai, do we really need to spoil any wall (be it painted or plain ones) now for movie promotion??? Well, there are definitely more interesting mediums available for movie promotion than spoiling the beauty of your own city…

Mumbai Wall Project Vandalism · Musings · The Wall Project

Vandalism of Mumbai Wall Project

It was just Sunday when I was admiring the pictures of “Wall Project, Phase -II” shared by my Mumbai friends on Facebook, Twitter etc and within a day I get to read about vandalism of those lovely walls! This was actually a joint initiative of BMC and Mumbai citizens where a number of people turned out to paint and beautify the wall running along Tulsi Pipe Road, between Mahim and Matunga in Mumbai. Wall project as a concept has definitely grown noticeably since its inception; in fact what started just as an idea by a group of few enthusiastic people to do something to one of the compound walls in Bandra has become a large scale city wide beautification project now. Not only this is an interesting way of transforming the city walls, it is also an innovative way of preventing them from turning into a spittoon or cuspidor. I have personally seen this project on walls of Lalbaug, Bangalore and it’s simply awesome. I’ve been commuting on the same road daily for many months now but after those paintings are done the whole area has got a different vibrancy & liveliness altogether.

As a part of this initiative, BMC started the second stage last weekend where whole lot of bright and lovely pictures were painted by the citizens of Mumbai, some were based on alphabets whereas some had interesting messages. My personal favorite ones were "म से माँ" or "Ghar Ja ke Kar" :-). You can check the whole collection here. But within a day, all hard-work & efforts of citizens were just scrapped by the promoters of the movies Aladin, Gair & London Dreams. They didn’t even think twice before pasting the movie posters all over those painted walls!!! If you look at before & after images of the walls, you just can’t refrain yourself from a feeling of disgust and appall towards this insensitive sabotage.

Citizens are angry and rightly so at this step of movie marketers which has resulted to an outrage all across social media against this inconsiderate act of promoters. Many people have decided to boycott these movies. Seeing the repercussion, few actors and other associated people have apologized for this act and instructed to remove the posters, but the question is will removal of pictures solve the problem? Won’t those paper posters leave paste marks on the paintings? And how about their attitude or approach towards cityscapes? Isn’t it highly insensitive to go ahead and paste them at the first place? On one hand we have such bunch of enthusiastic people who spend their weekends towards enriching their cities and on other we have such thoughtless bunch who didn’t even think twice before ruining it. And no, I do NOT think that it’s the mistake of those poor poster guys who had stuck those posters, they have just executed what was instructed to them; it was surely the mistake of the planners who would have decided on the areas for their poster campaign. Also on second thought, in an OOH & hoarding dominated city like Mumbai, do we really need to spoil any wall (be it painted or plain ones) now for movie promotion??? Well, there are definitely more interesting mediums available for movie promotion than spoiling the beauty of your own city…

OMG, I totally forgot that it’s 15th today; in fact I had already started a post for this day but then left it mid-way with an intention to wind it up on the actual day. So, here I am with my bit for this year’s Blog Action Day on Climate Change.

On this day I would like to contribute my bit with yet another movie recommendation to all my readers. Yea movie…well with movies good thing is that you can always find one to suit your mood & occasion – be it romance or break-up, glee like wedding to dread like terrorism, national issue like girl child to global one like climate change. This year’s Blog Action Day has been dedicated to Climate Change and on this day I strongly recommend all my readers to watch the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” of Al Gore. This is surely a must watch for all those who are aware or would like to be aware of the term global warming & it’s effect on our climate and surroundings.

"An Inconvenient Truth" directed by Davis Guggenheim is a 2006 released documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming and inspire them to take action…Here are 5 key reasons why you must not miss this movie at any cost:

• This is a very well presented movie which has dealt with the issue of global warming in a totally different way.
• It is not just a documentary or a story of despair but rather a real cry to protect the one earth we all share.
• Even if the movie does not disclose the root cause of this burning issue but it does reveal some interesting figures & amazing insights on global warming which hits you hard enough to think more & more.
• A cinematic food for thought, this movie is having more suspense than many thrillers and more emotion than many dramas. Most of all, it's scarier than any horror flick and what shakes you deep within is the fact that this horror is not fiction or fantasy, it’s for real!
• It is one of those movies which not only got great response from viewers & reviewers but got thumbs up from many film critics too. In words of famous film critic Roger Ebert: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

So, in case you’ve not watched it till now, I urge you to grab a copy of it soon and give it a try. I’m sure you’ll have a different perspective of environment & climate once you’ve watched this movie.

Al Gore · An Inconvenient Truth · Blog Action Day 2009 · Climate Change · Global Warming · Musings

Blog Action Day – 2009: An Inconvenient Truth

OMG, I totally forgot that it’s 15th today; in fact I had already started a post for this day but then left it mid-way with an intention to wind it up on the actual day. So, here I am with my bit for this year’s Blog Action Day on Climate Change.

On this day I would like to contribute my bit with yet another movie recommendation to all my readers. Yea movie…well with movies good thing is that you can always find one to suit your mood & occasion – be it romance or break-up, glee like wedding to dread like terrorism, national issue like girl child to global one like climate change. This year’s Blog Action Day has been dedicated to Climate Change and on this day I strongly recommend all my readers to watch the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” of Al Gore. This is surely a must watch for all those who are aware or would like to be aware of the term global warming & it’s effect on our climate and surroundings.

"An Inconvenient Truth" directed by Davis Guggenheim is a 2006 released documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming and inspire them to take action…Here are 5 key reasons why you must not miss this movie at any cost:

• This is a very well presented movie which has dealt with the issue of global warming in a totally different way.
• It is not just a documentary or a story of despair but rather a real cry to protect the one earth we all share.
• Even if the movie does not disclose the root cause of this burning issue but it does reveal some interesting figures & amazing insights on global warming which hits you hard enough to think more & more.
• A cinematic food for thought, this movie is having more suspense than many thrillers and more emotion than many dramas. Most of all, it's scarier than any horror flick and what shakes you deep within is the fact that this horror is not fiction or fantasy, it’s for real!
• It is one of those movies which not only got great response from viewers & reviewers but got thumbs up from many film critics too. In words of famous film critic Roger Ebert: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

So, in case you’ve not watched it till now, I urge you to grab a copy of it soon and give it a try. I’m sure you’ll have a different perspective of environment & climate once you’ve watched this movie.

It’s no more anger rather DISGUST on Indian reality television now. With programs like “Pati, Patni aur Woh”, “Rahul ka Swayamvar & “Bigg Boss 3” I’m wondering if there is any better reaction possible than this? Well, content wise I guess all of them are crap but the crappiest of the lot is surely “Pati, Patni aur Woh”. This program leaves me nothing less than AGHAST! I mean why on earth would people want their few months old kids to participate in such a weird program? Be it any class of the society, I’ve generally seen parents taking utmost care of their babies, but the way kids were handled in the initial few episodes of the program just makes you think again & again – what is it which would have acted as trigger enough for the parents to leave their infants in such a strange environment. Is it money or fame or both? And when you read justification like the following, all the more you start wondering if the parents really know what they are doing with their kids through all these reality programs.?As quoted by one of the parents in TOI:

"My husband and I did this purely as social work. All the celebrity couples are either married or are preparing to marry. So we are helping them for the future," said Shilpa Budhraja whose 10 month old son is one of the kids in the show.

!!!!!!!!!#######!!!!!. Ms. Budharaja, don’t you think there are zillions of better and more sensible ways to do social service than lending your kid to a reality show? Being a mother, the least you could have thought about is the distress and unease which such show can cause to your kid.

When I see the program and the way those 10-11 months old babies are handled, all I can feel is empathy for those kids and pity on their parents. Really hunger for fame can make you do anything! From the appearance of their parents I somehow don’t think it’s only money which is making them do so.

Indian reality television has been blatantly copying the western content format but with shows like Perfect Bride or Pati, Patni Aur Woh, I wonder do they even understand the impact of such shows on our society. And with almost every aspect of life becoming a reality program, what would be the next content now? Shaadi dikha diya, pregnancy ka natak bhi karwa diya, bachche bhi palwa liye, what next? “Rakhi ka suhaagraat” or “Rakhi maa kaise bani”??? Well, reality TV content has definitely hit its all time low and it does need a full stop in its flow now!

indian reality television · Musings · pati patni aur woh

Reality TV hits its all time low!

It’s no more anger rather DISGUST on Indian reality television now. With programs like “Pati, Patni aur Woh”, “Rahul ka Swayamvar & “Bigg Boss 3” I’m wondering if there is any better reaction possible than this? Well, content wise I guess all of them are crap but the crappiest of the lot is surely “Pati, Patni aur Woh”. This program leaves me nothing less than AGHAST! I mean why on earth would people want their few months old kids to participate in such a weird program? Be it any class of the society, I’ve generally seen parents taking utmost care of their babies, but the way kids were handled in the initial few episodes of the program just makes you think again & again – what is it which would have acted as trigger enough for the parents to leave their infants in such a strange environment. Is it money or fame or both? And when you read justification like the following, all the more you start wondering if the parents really know what they are doing with their kids through all these reality programs.?As quoted by one of the parents in TOI:

"My husband and I did this purely as social work. All the celebrity couples are either married or are preparing to marry. So we are helping them for the future," said Shilpa Budhraja whose 10 month old son is one of the kids in the show.

!!!!!!!!!#######!!!!!. Ms. Budharaja, don’t you think there are zillions of better and more sensible ways to do social service than lending your kid to a reality show? Being a mother, the least you could have thought about is the distress and unease which such show can cause to your kid.

When I see the program and the way those 10-11 months old babies are handled, all I can feel is empathy for those kids and pity on their parents. Really hunger for fame can make you do anything! From the appearance of their parents I somehow don’t think it’s only money which is making them do so.

Indian reality television has been blatantly copying the western content format but with shows like Perfect Bride or Pati, Patni Aur Woh, I wonder do they even understand the impact of such shows on our society. And with almost every aspect of life becoming a reality program, what would be the next content now? Shaadi dikha diya, pregnancy ka natak bhi karwa diya, bachche bhi palwa liye, what next? “Rakhi ka suhaagraat” or “Rakhi maa kaise bani”??? Well, reality TV content has definitely hit its all time low and it does need a full stop in its flow now!