The 4 lettered magic word

This is the day, this is the time.. but yet...
There are things which bother me.

The time of my life is now, the time to rejoice, the time to feel like God.
But yet, there are naggings which make me feel so slipshod.

Since a long time now, I have been thinking about what makes a perfect life?
How does one attain a life which is devoid of negativity or any other ill?
Is it really possible to dream of having such a life?

An emphatic and resounding NO is the answer from the skies.
So if some such thing like utopia doesn't exist, can we create a replica of it or atleast pretend that we live in a replica of it?

What did I just say? Pretend to live in a replica? Oh yes, definitely!
You can pretend to just about anything.
Inside, you may be the most insecure and jealous person, outside you can always potray a cool, suave and unperturbed image.
If you can be pretentious about all these things, then why can't anyone pretend to live in utopia.
But the point is, you are still pretending.
You are running away from what bites you.
You know how affected you are by something, but yet, you think by not thinking about it, the pain will subside.
The truth is, the more you try to detach yourself, the more you internally end up thinking about it.






What then, is the resolution?
It ain't that simple. It requires a lot of courage.
It requires a lot of confidence.
It actually is the simplest of things, but turns out to be the most complex thing to do in such situations.
It is 'TALK'.



It's a simple 4 letter word that has kept three big nuclear powers like India, China and Pakistan from going to war in times of adversity.
The most difficult part is to 'start' talking.
But once you do, you realize that the other person isn't all that bad, he isn't all that conniving.
Once the sun is out, the snow melts and the flowers bloom again!

But if you don't talk, you deny yourself that chance to joy.
You deny yourself that chance to mend fences and be back on track.

I have had instances in my life too, where things were assumed and then it snowed to such an extent that nobody was ready to clean up the snow.
Had I not come out and started to 'talk', who knows how much time I would've lost out and in course lost out on many other things important to me.

This situation will stare you in the face many times in your life, sometimes as frequently as everyday.
All you need to do is .. come out.. hold it by it's horns and say..
"Yeah, lets talk"
The wildest of bulls will also mellow down and listen to your side of the story.
Conflicts are inevitable, but combat is optional.
So the easy way out, however difficult it may seem initially, is to 'TALK'.

Garth Brooks said : "The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself"
This signifies that most of the conflicts are assumed and not real, the other person may afterall be only a catalyst to your own conflicting thoughts.
This makes 'TALKING' an even more sensible solution.

Wish I had the courage to always stand up and 'TALK'...
Because it can make things go from this...


to this...

Travails of a guy's life and a tribute to the ladies

Have you ever faced discrimination as a guy?
Sounds strange?
Well, you would find it less stranger by the end of this post.

For all those who maintain being a girl comes with its societal problems, please re-think.
I have been a guy for 28 years now and will continue remaining so :)

When I was a kid, I was fine till the age of maybe 6 or 7.
That's the age when you hardly realize who a guy is and who a girl is.
Frankly, for me, judging the sex by the length of the hair worked!
All short haired ppl were guys and long haired ones were girls.
Call it stupid or whatever, that was how I was till atleast I was 5.

As time passed and I grew older, I understood there are more intricacies to this guy-girl thing.
Till 6th grade, in my school, we considered talking to the girls a thing below the 'guy' thing.
Now don't ask me why, I don't remember either.
We made faces at girls. (like girls generally do).

7th grade was kind of a discovery period. It was a realization period when we were starting to reverse what we were made of, the guy attitude.
Slowly but surely, the hormones started jumping.
One by one, everyone seemed to like some girl or the other.
I was shocked... because it was the first time I was experiencing this.

There were 3 guys with whom I was friends... 2 started spending more time with the girls they started liking lately.
They even changed their positions and no more sat with me in the class.
They went to the bench behind their new 'girly' friends.

Exasperated, I looked for company of the last guy left in my gang.
Unfortunately, he thought that I liked a girl... and the problem was that he actually liked the same girl.
So, inspite of me not liking Madam X, I lost out on the last guy friend too!

Then I made newer friends.. slowly started realizing that this age does not belong to the 'guys'. Girls are what drives the guys crazy.
So this was my first lesson that girls are more equal than the guys.

Time passed, I had similar such experiences in every walk of life which reposed faith in my belief that guys don't stand a chance when it came to a face-to-face battle with the girls.
Especially in the softer aspects of everyday life.

Being favourites of the lecturers in college to getting favours from the lab instructors in the mechanical workshops to getting good marks in college internals to hogging the limelight at college festivals, the girls got it all done!
And how? Just like that!

Guys, including me, no matter how hard we tried, found it difficult to manage the same kind of attention!

Another example, have a look at your social networking profile, orkut or facebook or whatever...
If the guy is extremely popular or drop dead killer looking, then the case may be different, but for a commoner, the updates/scraps are a little far in between.
He generally keeps 'liking' others' posts.
Sample this against an above-average looking girl on facebook.
The first thing you would notice that her number of friends are double yours.
You may be a stud in some other field, but on networking sites, you don't just measure up.
The saddest part is, you post something on your profile, there would be a couple of 'likes', a few comments.
But on the other hand, any mediocre status update from the above-average girl and the humanity pours in on her profile.
If it's a happy quote, people rave about her wittiness, talk how they feel the same and everyone else is dirt.
If her status message is sad, the whole set of friends, some who even otherwise barely talk to her, would give her pep-up talks, give jadu ki jhappis and make her feel that she is 'THE CHOSEN ONE'.

All this talk and people talk of downtrodden ladies!! :(
Agreed, there is a section of the female society which still is in the previous century...
But you also have to agree that the urban go-getters of the female community are leaps and bounds ahead in the race and have their male counterparts a distant second in the race for attention.

This is not a letter of appreciation for the more-than-equal ladies of the world!
Yet, I would also concede that I am also in awe of such ladies.. afterall I am a guy who is prone to killer ladies :P

Few years back was when the 'travails' ended.
And how? Just like that! :)

8 years back, lightening struck and I was smitten for life by one such lady.
Slowly, I started doing everything that I hated my friends in school for. :)
We went from strength to strength and now we are married happily! :D

Apart from my mom, who is still 'the-one-lady' whom I look up to for everything, there are just 2 ladies who are on my list now.. the ones for all occasions.
Needless to say, they are my support system and that's how the travails which I faced in my earlier life with the girls turned to the biggest boons with these stars!!
My wife, who was my friend-turned-life partner, continues to remain my best friend and biggest asset of my life, a person who I look upto when I am down and beaten.
She gives me that charge which makes me feel larger-than-life.
She is not just 'a star', but 'the star' who keeps my solar system chugging.

Next, my sis-in-law, the name the law defines, who was my friend turning to a person who I can share anything with to a close confidant is my next biggest star!

I don't know how life would've shaped up without these stars, whether it would have been better or worse, but whatever it turned out to be, it made me love my life more... love the people in my life more.

Either ways, it's the initial travails that made me what I am today and gave me the stars which light my life now!

How to make your bird flock together with you?

The best days of my life were spent during my college days.
And I don't say this without a reason.
There is a distinctive 'aashiqui' thread that I keep talking about.

That's common everywhere as long as a guy has hormones to keep playing!
Ok.. coming back, have you ever felt that you like/love someone but are just not getting the kind of response that you'd like to?

How simple is it to decode?
Is it just that the 'bird' isn't interested? Or is the 'bird' playing around?
Well, it can be both. It's not that easy for a guy to dissect.

First up, you have to learn to decode the reaction through common expressions that she shows.
She might be smart and brilliant, but when you throw a hint at her, does she reply stupidly or just like she did not understand what you meant?
Well, if this is the case, then she isn't dumb, you are.
You are the biggest moron on the planet.

Then there are girls who just do not understand anything.. whatever you say, they just laugh it off!!
Believe me, they are the most irritating lot.
But inside, they too might be intelligent!! Beware.

There was one guy in another college whom I knew during my college days, Purab Dambekar(name changed of course).
I sometimes felt for him, because I never understood if what he did for 4 years was even worth it or not.
He tirelessly pursued Anjali Matondkar(again name changed of course).
First, I felt it was a true case of aashiqui.
I watched from the sidelines. Slowly by the end of first year, it became a kind of junoon for him and he thought he was the next SRK from Darr.
Anjali always was friendly with him... talked when it mattered or replied when talked to.

Purab took this for something else and fell deeper for her.
In the second year, took a gift and went ahead and did the unthinkable on 14th February.
Got royally snubbed, came back dejected, downed 8 bottles of beer and spent the nite in the lavatory puking.

But Purab sir, for whatever reasons, thought that Anjali was his partner, you know, like saat janam waali.
Like the ones that get manufactured in YashRaj films.
Kept pursuing and passing comments on other guys who were friendly with her.
Third year passed, proposed again, got slapped across this time.
The resolve got even firmer.
Fourth year, 'bas-abhi-nahi-toh-kabhi-nahi' syndrome took him over.
Tried all tricks in the book, never got the girl, but failed in the exams.

The result, girl happily got done with her engineering, guy sat around for another year sulking and completed his engineering in 5 years instead of 4.

Now, in my eyes, this is a classic case of uber-moronism where the guy should've fathomed in the first year itself that the 'bird' belonged to a different species.
The 'poor boy meets NRI girl-knocks the wind out of her sails-and they live happily ever after' never works in real life.

Lesson 1 : Get Real.
Lesson 2 : If your subtle hints don't work, there is good chance that they never will.
Example : If you say, you have been thinking a lot lately, and she asks about whom? Sachin Tendulkar?
You have got to get the signal.
Lesson 3 : Often, its better to be direct and get your answer. If its a yes, live happily ever after, if its a no, look for another branch and another bird.
Lesson 4 : Never under-estimate the people who may be her confidants and in-the-know of things. A smitten kitten is more easier to spot than a tiger in the yellow grass.
Lesson 5 : Always do a benchmarking exercise before beginning a voyage. Every Seal doesn't mandatorily get a Heidi Klum.
There too, Heidi was very 'high-maintenance' and Seal was perpetually rich.

This, I realized when I saw so many guys fooling around in the 4 years. It continues to show up till date, but on a lower scale.
The Junoon isn't so pronounced, it's more subtle and subdued, but the 5 lessons still hold true!

Kinship - an overrated phenomenon?

Kinship, one of the most basic building blocks of the human civilization, in my view is quite overrated.

Quite simplistically, if anyone were to be asked, who is the person closest to you,
the result set would vary from one of the parents to a sibling to a friend from college or work.
This is because there is an emotional connect between the two people in question and that is the reason of the fondness between you and him or her.

Genealogical relationships are cursory bonds that I think we pursue to show everyone around that we form a dynasty.
For example, a sibling to my father might be a person very close to him, but may not be so much to me.
This is reason enough for me not to be very aware of my father's siblings family's family.
But if I ever visit them, meeting everyone cordially and saying sugar coated "HIs" and "HELLOs" is an unwritten rule.

Here, in India, I have seen scores of people including some of my very own people carrying forward genealogical relations just because of the societal norms.
Neither of the 2 parties involved actually cares once they are out of your homes.

In my case, I live quite far away from the city where most of my relatives live.
So I go only once in a while and I only stay put with the ones I am comfortable with.
But still, the genealogical nature of the humans forces me to go visit just about everyone's home.
Father's sibling's daughter's husband's sister.
WTF!
I can only go till level-2. I find people in level-2 itself very pesky.
Any further than that, I will prefer visiting a man-hole.



There are 2 kinds of relatives. 'Pesky' and 'friendly'. True to their names, the friendly ones are the ones who mind their own business and come to meet you because they actually want to meet you. Most have very few such relatives.
I say most because my analysis is only limited to the friends and people I interact with.
And none of my inner circle people have Karan Johar style family bonhomie.

'Pesky' relatives are the ones who show up once in a while but would be infinitely interested in your personal lives. They would have an opinion about everything including the colour of the tiles in your bathroom and the shape of your dust-bin's lid.

A lot of such masala is available on platter, free-of-cost in India round the clock.
A typical such case is any Indian festival.
Scores of people will descend on your house like thirsty birds on a lake in summer.
People who you hardly know or have heard of, come and hug you.. saying : "Oh my God..you have grown so big"
Yeah, right, if you never found the time to come see me in between, that is no reason for me to stop growing!
They wait around for an hour, ask you questions about your personal life and basically pry around everywhere you are uncomfortable.
But wait, I need to keep smiling!
I do, always!
Because I love the last tradition which is followed in India, more specifically in the North.
Any relative before leaving, however pesky, gives you some amount of cash if you are a little younger than them.
I consider this as entry fee to my house and gleefully accept it!
A nice 7 inch smile, satisfies their hunger to see my face and off they go seeing my vigorously waving hand and an equally vigorously grunting face!

Now, what I mean to say here is that, this is a typical case of putting up with a familial relationship even though you don't believe in it.

There are scores of such instances...
Unmarried girls would relate with this instance I am about to give..
Any gathering, any function, if your daughter is hovering in the 25-30 age limit.. the nosy aunties get hysterical.
There is an unmistakable feeling of one-upmanship in the neighbourhood aunties as to who gets your daughter married off first.
Each one will have their own way of saying it :
There are some direct ones "Your daughter is getting to the age.. what are your thoughts on her marriage?"
Some not so direct but will approach the girl directly : "Beta, what are you doing these days?"
Girl : Smiling.. "Job, aunty"
Pest : Disguising the taunt and the curiousity to poke in everyone's life .. "So beta.. what have you thought about your marriage?? Do you like someone...? " and then a devilish... HA HA HA HA HA echoes and the uncles join in the comedy circus.
More follows :
Pest : HA HA HA HA HA .. "If you say.. shall I get you a good boy??"
Some more HA HA HA HA HA

Poor girl.. she just has to put up with this shit because of this so called kinship.
She would be close to just 4-5 people in her life.
They would never do this "HA HA HA HA HA" thing with her... "Shall we get you a good boy... HA HA HA HA HA"

Once these pests are out.. everyone whips them black and blue!
I too am a part of this circus.. but I just wonder.. how artificial everything around the civilization is and how artificial this has made each one of us.

If anyone reading this, hasn't experienced such a thing even once in his/her life, then he either is Karan Johar or aspires to be Karan Johar.

Initially I thought, there was something wrong with me because I was pretty negative about letting people in my personal space.
I am atrociously reserved and very guarded and protective about anyone close to me.
But when I saw many of my friends in similar situations, I knew it wasn't me, it was the reality of life.
All of us are artificial and we love being it. Either by choice or by force.

The reality is not Karan Johar, the reality is Ram Gopal Verma.
(a little out of context maybe. Sorry, the people not familiar with them would be cursing me).

Not very long back, I met a motor mouth, who was probably level-15 or 20 in the relationship circle with me, I touched the feet of his mom while she was leaving and she gave me 1000 Indian rupees(it's an Indian tradition to touch feet of elders).

The motor-mouth shot off "See, you gave him money and he touched your feet".. all this with the oh-so-typical "HA HA HA HA HA".
People think they can be smart and pass off any taunt with a "HA HA HA HA HA".
I was so bloody pissed off because I didn't even know who he was...I hadn't seen this guy ever in my life... i had even forgotten his name.
If he was someone at the street, I would have pulled out each single hair from his moustache with a plier.
But then, sense prevailed.. and I thought.. what the hell.. I don't even know him.. it's not bad for 1000 bucks.
So... "HA HA HA HA HA" from me too.
He felt a little embarrassed at my "HA HA HA HA HA" and beat a hasty retreat.

Kinship, like English is a very funny thing!

Hunger, thirst and Karva Chauth

Karva Chauth is undoubtedly the most 'in' and celebrated festival in the northern part of India for all married ladies.
The euphoria doubles when it comes to newly-wed brides!

Decked up like it's an early Diwali.. the young married women flock open areas and terraces of their houses to catch a glimpse of the moon.


If moon was a person, then his name would be Osama bin Laden on this day.
The moon is simply the 'most-wanted'.

But the fetish for the moon isn't all religious.
Well, let's see what the religious angle is first :
There was a mythological princess called Veeravati who had observed a fast for her husband. The deal was that she would break her fast once the moon had risen.
She was fragile and couldn't stand the rigour of not even having water through the day.
Her brothers were worried and lit a fire on a nearby hill and tricked her into believing that it was moonlight.
The lady believed, broke her fast and almost instantly received the news of her husband's death.

Now, this is only a part of the story, but it's long enough to understand the essence.

Modern Day adaptation :
Veeravati's husband had died because she broke the fast.
So the ladies observe this fast once every year to ensure that their husbands have a long life.
Now, this is a little far away from the real truth simply for the reason that Veeravati was penalized for breaking her fast without seeing the moon.. it might not mean that her husband would live longer if she observed it truthfully.
But then anyways, every adaptation has a little bit of distortion.
So giving it the benefit of doubt, moving on to the modern story...

Today's scene in my apartment complex :
Young ladies and old ladies egged on by their younger counterparts flocked the terrace of the building.
All decked up, smelling of extreme perfume and a pooja thali in their hands, they had forgotten that today they are going to worship the same husband that they had beaten black and blue yesterday.. well almost :)

The husband, forgetful of the past and gleefully smiling stands in front of his wife.
She takes the sieve out(this is again the tradition, that the wife sees the moon first through the sieve and then sees her husband through it.. whatever it means).

She sees the moon, then her husband, thanks God for marking the moon's attendance quickly and then drinks water thereby breaking the fast.
Now the husband is not needed.
Run back home.. that's where the food is waiting at the table.
Ah, bliss...
Hog, hog, hog and then just remember there is a husband angle too...
"Honey, awwww... didn't you start the dinner still?"
Husband : "Honey, how could I? U didn't allow me to"

To save myself from all this melodrama, I took an oath 4 years ago.
I have been observing the Karva Chauth fast with my wife.
On this day, I too stop eating and drinking water.
Once a year, it's worth an effort.
For me, it's more about showing solidarity to her cause.
If she can fast for my well being, why should I not for hers?

Moon, though, is my favourite target this day.
Last year, it just didn't show up.. and I was burning with acidity with all gastric acids playing foosball in my stomach.
That was when I threatened it with dire consequences if it repeated the same thing next year.
Today, my gamble paid off.
The moon like a good boy after summer vacations in school, turned up right on the dot.
I heaved a sigh of relief.
She broke her fast with water and I broke my fast with Eno.
The antacid mildly placated the acidity.
Then came the hogging time.
I hogged for 30 mins. She too did, to a lesser degree though.

We then had dessert and were smiling ear to ear with fat bellies!

Ah, Karva Chauths are fun if you want to have fun..
A modern adaptation of an ancient tale may necessarily not be boring.
The best part about it is it ends with good food!

Happy Karva Chauth 2010 everyone!

Is ayone really good or bad?

Is anybody in this world really good or bad?
I have always believed its only the situation that makes them behave in the way they do.
But then if its only the circumstances then stars should be blamed for everything that goes wrong on our planet.

There is another hidden factor called demeanour.
Demeanour is something that is going to save you from situations when you have a slight upper hand in a conflict, it

will also make you victorious when you are the victim.

What the hell is demeanour now? Is it something which is genetic or cosmic? Or can it be acquired?
I am reminded of a line from the movie Rocket Singh :
"Every person has 2 qualities. One which will take him up and one that will take him down. Whichever one he takes, his life only becomes a manifestation of that path"

I recently had one such experience.
I was in Ekaterinburg,somewhere in Russian hinterland for official work.
I was lonely because I was kind of cut off from my world and my people.
The loneliness coupled with inclement weather, irritating rains and sub zero temperatures were a bone cracking deal for me.

The people from the client organization I worked with were not favourable either.
Few of them were good and amiable, but most of them were mocking birds.
The smallest hint of an issue and their scoffing smiles coupled with the 'looking down' behaviour killed me.
The lady 'second in command' on the other side was leading the way.
Now I really don't know if that person knew much about the work done, but every small pin drop was potrayed as a rocket launch failure.
Plus as an Indian, I was deprived of any decent food for four full days.
I only had cup noodles for lunch and some ready to eat stuff in the nights.
All these were not honeymoon conditions.
They were taking a toll, but I remembered that line in Rocket Singh.
There was one occassion when I had the 'second in command' firmly under my grip and I could have chosen to twist the neck of the opponent.
But I knew that would only make things worse. I resisted and the results started showing in 1 hour flat.
The other person realized the mistake on their part, but did not apologise. I wasn't complaining either. My point had been made.
I moved on.
The last day, the 'second in command' came to my desk and thanked me for whatever I had done. The other people who I thought were my opponents too came and we clicked pictures together.

The one that made my day was something like this :
When I was leaving the building finally, a nice sweet lady in her 20s maybe smiled at me and said 'Dasvidaniya, come again'.
I was zapped, I even did not know who she was.
On my way back I was thinking who she was. Suddenly it dawned upon me... I had gone to one person from the other organization to explain something. She was sitting by her side and doing her work.
Seeing that I was helping the first person, she asked me how to solve particular problem.
I did not pay much attention to her because I had gone to do something else.
But then I realized I can help her with her problem, it was a small thing. I did and left.
Then I fogot about her completely.
The last day she was near the door when she greeted me.

That was when I started thinking that nobody is bad or good.
Circumstances also don't make you bad or good.
The way you react to a situation is what forms a perception about you in the world.
Its not that Mahatma Gandhi never lost his temper, but he knew how to react at the opprtune time and that made his image in the world.

Smiling I came back from Ekaterinburg.
I had won because I won over my ego. Not because I defeated someone.
I won because I knew the other person realized his mistake and came to my desk to talk after the stalemate.

Everytime a person reacts, he is making an image of himself which will affect someone.
This may not be significant to him, but he either makes an enemy or a friend for life.

Come to think of it, you or anyone else in this world is just a chemical which has a finite life. After that you cease to exist.
In that short life, you can either choose to do whatever makes you happy or let go and be happy and make others happy as well.
Too much of righteousness at most times causes problems for the people around you.

The choice is to each individual to choose the quality which takes him up the ladder or the one that brings the ladder crashing.

Do dooni dus!

This week I thought there was no movie to catch up with.
On a busy Thursday afternoon, I just checked bookmyshow.com to find that Do dooni chaar was running to an empty theatre.
I immediately booked 2 tickets, praying that we are not disappointed.

Do dooni chaar is a story about the Duggal family which has a papa duggal, mama duggal, bhai duggal and behen duggal.
It's about a middle middle class family based in Delhi and how they go about their everyday chores.
Their mundane lives are also complicated by the lack of money through a salary that Papa Duggal earns as a modest and honest school teacher.

The kids in the movie, played by Archit Krishna and Aditi Vasudev are astonishingly refreshing and to the point.
At no point in the movie do you get the smell of a star studded movie.

The protagonist, Santosh Duggal, played by Rishi Kapoor, who himself was a superstar in the 70s and the 80s, is a lovable character which every normally brought up Indian can relate to.
If you were born in the eighties and were middle class, that's probably how your Dad would be!
Neetu Singh, playing Kusum Duggal was endearing and had a very earthy character which she did full justice to.
All through the film you would never feel that this woman has come back to face the camera after 30 years.

The real-life couple also extend their chemistry to this movie which lends it the soul of the movie.
Much of the movie can be relished only because it was Rishi and Neetu.
Their real life charisma also rubs off on the screen to recreate magic that one would not expect, atleast out of a small budget film like this!

Archit who plays the role of Sandeep Duggal is Rishi's son, a typical Delhiite, a guy lost in translation.
He loses his way in between and when he finally admits it in front of his family, unlike Indian cinema, his dad takes him out and does an uncharacteristic thing to bring him back on track.
Watch out for the scene where the dad-son talk happens on a road side thela eating paranthas.
That's as real as it gets. There is simplicity in the scene, yet it is so refreshing that the audience gets transported back in their lives, when their dad must've given them a lesson for doing something wrong.

The sister, Payal Duggal, played by Aditi Vasudev is a very well potrayed girl brought up in urban surroundings, but wanting to break away from the mould.
She is a typical bubbly, effervescent middle class girl who is a little ashamed of her dad's salary.
She has a boyfriend, Micky, who is a son of a gun.
But when the time comes to stick by her family, she very clandestinely supports her dad towards the climax.
She is definitely better of the two siblings when it came to the role.
For a debut role, it was a more than decent performance by her.

But, again I would say, that this is a movie meant and written for Rishi and Neetu.
The sheer chemistry between them is what makes this film work.
They share a lot of witty moments between themselves.

Do dooni chaar is a story about a very normal, very earthy, very middle class family who make their ends meet with a lot of difficulties.
Yet, what is endearing is the love that they share and the eighties feeling that most born at that time would be aware of.
It is not flashy. It is not preachy. It's just a light movie which touches your heart.
You will not come out heavy from the cinema theatre because there is no melodrama.
Yet, you will be refreshed because it is your story, my story and a story which millions of my countrymen would share.
It's like a mirror of your household in the eighties, which would bring a smile to your lips.

This movie is right what it was meant to be. A middle class story.
A Hrishikesh Mujherjee kind of film, which has a message but said very subtly without preaching.

Watch it for Rishi and Neetu.
Here I would make a comment and exercise my discretion and say that Neetu Singh is still as beautiful and graceful as she was when she quit acting at the age of 18.
Time has only brought more grace to her face and she managed to pull off a very middle class role with aplomb.
No wonder Ranbir's good looks come from his mom. Rishi was handsome too, but Ranbir is Neetu's son.
The mothers don't get more beautiful than this and he should be glad for that!

I would go with 3 out of 5 for this wonderful rendition of a common man's life.



Don't miss this movie. If nothing else, then Rishi and Neetu would make your weekend worthwhile.
Also, as an after note, do check out the way, Mr Duggal picks up the phone everytime and says :
"Hellooo, Santosh Duggal this side"!

Anjaana Anjaani and the deathly hallows

Do not judge a book by it's cover.

This is the cover :


This is vindicated in the case of Anjaana Anjaani because the book is like this :


Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra play Akash and Kiara. We'll come to them a little later on.. there's a lot more to despise!

The movie starts through a pathetically shot scene with Ranbir and his business partners planning to take up a loan to buy a dead company and Ranbir eventually losing out the loan of 12 millions dollars because the stock market crashes.
The scene is so tragically shot and the camera work is so shoddy that you think even Ramayana and Mahabharata shot in the 90s had better camera techniques.
There are unwanted rays of light escaping through the frame and dust spots on the camera lens which become glaring on the big screen.
What makes me wonder is how this passed the editing table.

So much for Siddharth Anand and his poor cinema.
He has directed duds in the past.. but with Anjaana Anjaani he leaps past the limits of moronity and low calibre movie making abilities that he has defined for himself.

Coming back to the opening scene, there is a friend of Ranbir Kapoor, played by a small time actor Vishal Malhotra.
Now, i don't know why but I think Vishal Malhotra should take off his shoes and hurl them at Siddharth Anand.
Both the shoes... ah yes, one by one.
The poor guy has only one scene in the movie in which he is made to act like he is some harassed bahu from the torturous Star Plus soaps.
Don't forget to check out the first scene of the movie where he accuses Ranbir of losing everything out.
There is so much melodrama in the first scene that you are thankful at the end of it that Vishal Malhotra's body didn't burst out of his uncalled for emotions.

Ranbir and Priyanka both meet for the first time on a bridge where they want to commit suicide.
Initially, when you are not in the know of things, you are intrigued by the situation, but slowly it dawns upon you that both of them lost the golden opportunity to end their lives and end the torture of the audience as well.

In a sequence of supposedly comic events which fails to strike a chord with any intelligent movie goer, they attempt suicide through childish sounding attempts many times. But each time they are not successful.
The unbelievably stupid Priyanka Chopra likens this to destiny which she thinks has other plans for them.
Sadly their destiny was Siddharth Anand and his plans for them were nothing close to grand.

Priyanka had had a cheating partner for which she was heart broken and wanted to commit suicide.
What I also fail to understand is, that this fact is brought to the audience in bits and pieces unlike Ranbir's grouse.
Priyanka's stupid story of her partner's deceit only comes through at the interval.
Now, the bonanza.. her partner was played by the lamb-looking Zayed Khan.
I have always maintained that if any of Fardeen & Zayed Khan are even a stray character in your film, then the film has to pay.
It did royally in this case too, Zayed as usual looked lost and ugly.
His pock marked & expressionless face does not evoke any sympathy either when he apologises.

Anjaana Anjaani gets so predictable and repetitively boring that at times I just felt I should doze off.
But the thought that I have to drive back home after the show kept me awake.
The dialogues are cliched and so long.. that sometimes I shot.. "Ok guys.. done.. go ahead.. next dialogue please"

The humour is so regressive and low IQ child like, it did not make me smile even once during the 2 and half hour duration of the movie.
Scenes like Ranbir and Priyanka in Atlantic ocean with Ranbir's boxers floating around will make people pee on Siddharth Anand.

Anjaana Anjaani is a movie shot in exotic locales apparently in the most picturesque locations of the US.
But my dear Siddhartha baby.. all these have been done to death zillions of times in Yashraj films when you were a kid.
The whole movie looks like an infomercial for 'Cox and Kings' or 'Raj Travels' who are publicizing their US tourist packages.

The losers, Ranbir and Priyanka are supposed to be penniless, but they visit a nightclub almost every night, wear flashy dresses & zip around the geography of US in a gas guzzling Cadillac.
Siddhartha baby must've borrowed the money from Nadiadwala uncle's grandson to pay for their free trips.

Priyanka Chopra definitely has got something wrong with her lips.
Siddhartha baby's cameraman too was obsessed with extreme closeups which did not help Priyanka either.
I know swollen upper lips are a turn on for many in this world, but Priyanka's looked bee-stung.
Plus the extreme closeups also showed that she hadn't got her upper lips done.
Now, I am not picking on her.. but if your lips cover 35 mm of the 70 mm... tongues will wag.
Piggy chops.. you gotta be present at the editing table next time.

Ranbir, the poor guy, the fall guy in this sense.. is also to be blamed.
He made the only decent attempt to salvage the movie... but he should be blamed for accepting this movie after a superlative performance in Raajneeti.
Ranbir tries hard, but one champion sailor cannot save a sinking ship, just like Sachin Tendulkar alone cannot save India.

There is one thing about Ranbir Kapoor which I did not know earlier, but gathered from the extreme closeups from this movie.
In one scene where he scares Priyanka up from her sleep, his fingernails and tips occupy 60mm of the 70mm on platter.
He also bites his nails and fingers like me. Quite an 'ewwww' habit I must say.. but I do it too... so I felt for him :)
Ranbir, the shining star.. you rocked in whatever little scope this pathetic movie could give you.

All the best and a belated happy birthday.

I would go with a 1 out of 5 for Anjaana Anjaani.
0.5 for the exponentially brilliant "Naina laggeya baarishan" and 0.5 for Ranbir showing his bitten fingernails and tips :)



PS : Don't forget to check out the coast guard persons who save the 2 losers a couple of times in this movie.
The old man looks like the dad of a meat shop owner from India.
And the writing on the boat says : "US Coast guard".

I also thank Siddharth Anand for reaffirming the faith of the world in not judging a book by its cover.

Ranbir Kapoor and his winning sad songs!

Ranbir Kapoor doesn't need any introduction.
There is nothing in the Indian film industry which creates as big a buzz as him.
He has age on his side, a star lineage and good looks.
The country has millions of girls crazy after him.
In rudimentary terms, I can say that he is the Robert Pattinson of the east.
Both of them are young.
Both of them don't have many films to their credit.
Both of them are more than decent actors.
Both of them have crazy female fan following.
Both of them have delivered big hits commercially in their short span of careers.




Just like they keep speculating about Pattinson's love life, Ranbir is no stranger to those controversies in India as well.
His breakup with Deepika Padukone was so public that India knew about it a month before they officially broke up.
More salt on the wound.. my neighbour's dog too knew about it.



But I am guy and I am not actually interested in his love life or him.
But in the same breath, I would have to admit that he is good looking, is a more than decent actor and a refreshing change from the star kids whose only claim to fame is the beefed up meat shop body that they build.
Ranbir has kept it simple and worked only on his strengths.

But what I love the most about him is something he also would not be actually aware of.
There is a pattern in his limited number of movies that he has done.
All the sad and slow songs in his movies keep getting better and better.
Most of them have such soothing lyrics and beats that you just merge into them.

Have a look :

#4 :
Saawariya slow version (his first movie) :


#3
Gets even better. I did not listen to this song carefully, until my sis in law told me about it. Have taken to it since then :


#2
This is one of the very best songs ever. Have a look in HD here, tell me if you dont fall in a trance :


And finally, #1 on my list.
This is the latest song from his unreleased movie : Anjaana Anjaani.
I have listened to this song just 4 times, but it has created such an impact that I have been humming it since the last 6 hours.
Tip : Put your home music player/headphones on a moderately high volume, close your eyes and just listen. You don't even need to watch the video.
Vishal Shekhar have done an astounding job. Hats off. Mohit Chauhan and Shruti Pathak, take a bow... wonderful rendition

The only one I can turn to is you.

Life is what happens to you, they say, when you are busy making other plans.
There are many times when you wish you could be the hero and you end up falling with a thud.
That time, no matter whoever is with you, the one who picks you up and dusts you up, buys your heart for life.

A degree happy, a degree curious, in anticipation I waited to to see..
But the inept heart forgets, sometimes it is never meant to be.

Not worried about the consequence, a question it poses in ignorance
It is met with a response of insolence
A little shocked, a little annoyed..
It wondered how a question could have all the deserved joy denied.

Torn, the heart came to the bedroom windowsill
The windowsill was its only pill for any ill.

He wept and wept cursing himself for prying
The cold wind sweeping his face had all the tears drying
He asked God, do I have anyone here?
There was no reply.. that's when the wind said.. I am here
You can tell me all that is there..

Like a lost child who finds his parents.. the heart cried
Cried again and cried till his tears dried.
The wind, now serious, asked if everything was allright..
The heart nodded, but knew it was night and nothing was bright.

The pain was not big, but the heart was bitter
That's when he realized that all that's not gold also does glitter

But it was late..
And after a while, the tears refused to co-operate.
Sad that the tears had also left him alone to fend
He looked up again in the skies and asked, is there someone on whom I can depend?

No answer again, the heart turned back waiting for the sun to dawn..
But that was a while away, so again he asked..
this time with a resolve..
the voice inside him answered this time, yes, it is your mom..
A smile dawned on his lips with this thought which was not new
Yes truly, even when you aren't with me, the only one I can turn to is you.

Azaadi, Pakistan, curfew & stone pelting

For years, somewhere in the Pakistani psyche, etched deep within is a wound... a wound that brought up such amounts of pent up energy that it attacked it's bigger brother with hostile intentions four times, but fell to the ground all four times.
After the third round, the bigger brother too did not take it lying down and freed East Bengal(now Bangladesh) from Pakistan's control.
The final of the four, the Kargil conflict was a macabre and treacherous operation by the over ambitious Gen Mussharraf who was later desecrated and thrown off his chair.
India, the goliath, each time with it's strange fetish for peace, got up, dusted itself after each war and moved on.
But David, prepared for the next war.
Decades ahead now, India has clearly moved on, opening it's trade barriers and rubbing shoulders with the mightiest economies in the world.
A vibrant democracy with the most impressive growth rate during the recession of 2009, it was the beacon of hope for the rest of the world in terms of sustainability in the banking industry. It taught the world, how the Central banks of the world could play a crucial role in preventing such occurrences.
The world sat up and looked in amazement as India posted a 6.8% growth that year when majority of the world posted negative double digit numbers.
Pakistan, on the other hand, as some reports suggested was looking down the barrel.
It had about $6bn only left in its forex reserves, which could feed the country for a week at most.
Militancy and narrow mindedness and the regressive one-point agenda of destroying India had clearly costed Pakistan it's place in the sun.

A shining example of the above text is the following video, where the regressive Musharraf was mauled by a true Indian peace loving Muslim and deoband leader, Maulana Madani.
Musharraf was dumbfounded and could not even regain his composure!
Have a look :



But all this to no avail!
Separated at birth like Siamese twins, bitter neighbours for long, Pakistan has always eyed Kashmir from the corner of it's eye.
Kashmir is one topic which refuses to die in the Indo-Pakistan affair.
Pakistan has and will always tacitly support militancy in Kashmir, support every person, goon and rowdy sheeter politician who wants to separate Kashmir.

Behind the scenes, I cannot help but wonder, how the separatists and hardliners like Begum Mehbooba Mufti and Mr. Gilani manage to hold the state to ransom.
The government in all its earnestness only pampers the separatists in the name of democracy.
Could someone help elaborate, what democracy exists in PoK or the so called 'Azaad Kashmir'?
Ask Mr. crazy Gilani to go to PoK and foment his forces there.
Ask the mental Madam Mufti to get the separatists to free her if at all and ever at all she gets kidnapped by militants in future. It was the Indian govt which freed her after releasing 2 dreaded terrorists who later planned an attack on the Indian parliament.
The kind of peaceful and forgiving nature that India has shown over the years, I can only say that these separatists have only slept on beds of roses built on the pyres of the Kashmiris.
They talk of the liberation of Kashmiris.
I want to know which normal, common Kashmiri wants to shut his shop down for 50 days at a stretch when his family has nothing to eat.
Which normal common Kashmiri wants to stop sending his kids to a school, when elsewhere in India every progressive kid is riding the new wave of Indian economy.
Leave the bloody PoK and the China disputed part aside.
There is Jammu and Kashmir in India which can enjoy the democracy.
A lot has been put at the hands of these back-stabbing separatists who hold the state to ransom.
They pay the unemployed youth to throw stones at the forces.

India can only watch, because it will not use its military might against its own people.
It is a peace loving country whose state J&K has been ravaged by these mobsters.
They talk of some bullshit like, this is Kashmiri mindset and the government cannot supress it.
Ask them, where did this mindset of the average Kashmiri go during the bygone elections just about an year back when ALL the separatist parties were slapped across their faces?

Why were they hiding their muck-ridden faces all through and why only in the last 2 months have they started the stone pelting culture again?
They have caused millions of dollars of loss to the ex-chequer and routed the tourism industry in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I want to and sincerely want to know which Kashmiri supports these stone pelting goons?
Is this the 'azaadi' that the Kashmiri wants?

Bosszilla

The following statement is a palindrome of sorts, just that it is a statement and not a word.

"The nucleus is considered the boss of a cell".
The other way round, "Boss is considered the nucleus of the cell".
This is true in many respects, without the boss, the cell(or a business project) cannot function.
So a sensible and stable boss is what is the heart of every successful project.

But 90 out of 100 instances, the bosses that we get are insensitive, clueless about their team and grossly unreasonable.
These are what are defined in the urban dictionary as 'Bosszillas'.
A godzilla kind of boss.

It's important to understand that the boss is also an individual and hence his ablities are limited like any other mortal.
He is no superhero, so in times of distress, he would have to turn to few of his 'trusted beneficiaries'.

I have developed the following diagram which illustrates the various attributes of the boss and his team, the pros and cons of being in each spectrum.



The innermost part, the nucleus, does not need any description.
It's reserved for the boss!

Coterie :
This is what I earlier referred to as 'trusted benefciaries'.
These are the finite set of people who form the white protein layer, around the yolk.
They are super efficient, all of them. Bug busters, efficient machines who work tirelessly to deliver everything to machine level perfection.
On a scale of 100, some are 101, some are 90, but still the level of dependency that they create on a boss is totally irreplacable.
Pros :
1. Fabulous appraisals
2. Good recognition
3. You become a star at work

Cons :
1. You are overworked and overburdened.
2. Boss depends on you, so obviously you pay a price for it and that you do by sacrificing your personal life many times.
3. You get very less leaves.

EGOM :
This term caught my fancy.
This is a realtively new term which is widely used in the Indian democracy these days. It's the new 'in-word' in the corridors of power.
Whenever there is a specific 'high profile job to be done, the govt of India finds itself inept because the leaders are poor visionaries.
So the best person from the specific industry is picked up and made the head of the project. Such people are called : 'Empowered group of ministers', they are the real set of decision makers, the parliamentary minister merely signs the documents then.

Now in a project environment too, you would find many EGOMS, working behind the scenes, if the lower grade of the 'Coterie' works at 90% efficiency, you can find EGOMs delivering 90% efficiency very easily if not more.
But like the parliamentary scenario, they lack the political clout, to make it to the 'Coterie'.
It's like a situation where the boss cannot do without them(because they are the work horses and are more in number), but does not recognize them enough as well.

Pros :
1. Reasonably good appraisals.
2. You are not a star, but you are still looked upon as 'the few white collared people'
3. You get quite a bit of personal time in which you can do what you like.
4. You do not sacrifice your weekends.

Cons :
1. There always is a glass ceiling, which stops you from jumping to the 'Coterie'.
2. No matter, what you do, even when you perform better than a few coterie members, your contribution is forgotten pretty quickly.
3. You are sometimes frustrated with the happenings around.

The Waywards
These are the set of people, sometimes many in number, who come and go without impact.
The boss is not duly worried if they leave.
The mindset of the boss is pretty rigid about these people, so there would be more cons than pros being in this band.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" they say.
Bosses are not very different, multiply the agony by 2, if the boss is a woman!
The waywards are mostly the people at the 'bottom-of-the-pyramid' or people who have rubbed him the wrong way sometime or the other.

Pros :
None

Cons :
Too many to describe, and will include just about anything that can go wrong with your life.

If we equate, the office space with the game of snakes and ladders,
the ladders are always taken by the 'coterie' members.
the 'EGOMs' generally move step by step because of the glass ceiling, but get a ladder here and there, but they are far in between.
'The waywards' are alwars bitten by the snakes.

Either of these 4 bands, the one who calls the shots is the Bosszilla.
Love him, loathe him, you just can't ignore him.

A manic birthday on a manic monday!

Ah, it was my birthday and it was technically yesterday!
What a day it was... unlike any of my previous ones...
It had everything which I would normally curse, but then there were so many bright spots through it, that I feel humbled, overjoyed and satisfied at the end of it.

I am sitting alone at the RGI airport Hyderabad, all steel and glass glitzy structure, but the emotions that passed yesterday are hard to ignore.
Suddenly the vastness of the airport seems hollow and I feel that a relationship is worth millions of squarefeet.
A small human emotion is something which can make you forego some of the biggest joys on earth!
Waiting for my flight, I realize how empty the last 3 hours of my life have been.
Absolutely none to look at, to talk to, even though there are so many people around me.
All waiting for the same flight, but none familiar.
This is when I realize that all I have earned in my lifetime is a handful of people, not money.

These handful of people make me laugh, make me sad, make me weep at times.
These handful of people make me jealous, give me heartache and headache, but if it weren't for them, my life would be anything but liveable.
I sit by the side of an elderly couple right now, but I look at my screen dazed.
They stare at me, like I am an alien typing away gibberish on my laptop.

Right now, I miss everything that is mine, that I consider my space.
I am not thinking, but just writing.. the words do not stop flowing from my mind.
And do you know when this happens? When you miss someone badly or are in complete control of yourself.
I can safely say that it's nothing related to control.. so it has to be the former.

When I look back at the last day, a gentle smile dawns upon my lips.
As I smile, I remember, that I got up to wishes from my mom, dad, brother and Tina.
These are people who mean the most to me, to an extent that I take them for granted so many times..

The smile widens when I remember that my wifey gifted me a TH watch.. she had actually bought it without me knowing anything when i actually dropped her at the mall! I found out from the date on the warranty card! Astounded!

The smile widens further when I recall the 100 odd mails and messages that I received through the day. It's a rewarding feeling to know that a hundred people atleast remember you! :)

Then came the zapper... my sweetest sweetest SIL Divi put up a note on her communicator : To my superhero!! HAPPY BDAY.. You are THE BEST!
This made my day.
I didn't care if it sounded over the top, I didn't care if people were reading it and what they thought.
I just felt happy that she too didn't care :)
Thanks a lot Divi, will always remember the 'quote'.

I had a bad day at office running pillar to post, for my tickets, forex, laptop etc, answering the queries which my colleagues had in between.
But all this is vanished.
Vanished when my mom and dad made me a special dinner and cut a cake. My brother cut his training short by a couple of hrs and came to join me for dinner!
It was just 5 of us, but it seemed no lesser than the joy a party would give!

I would do myself an injustice if I forgot to mention the cream on the cake.. Tina packed up my entire stuff in a matter of 2 hours.
Now I really don't know where she gets the energy and grit to do it.
Nor do I know how she manages to do it so meticulously.
My life would have been a lot messier and very accident prone, if there was no Tina.
Like I always keep saying, Tina means'There Is No Alternative'.
Always like this, she never ceases to amaze me! Thank God for her :)

All this drama in a day! and here I am in a completely contrasting evironment now... everything so dull, so empty.
I just feel I can live my next year in the memory of the joy that all the small things gave me this birthday!
Thanks everyone for making it special.

And yes, you are hearing all this from me! Sigh, most people never thought that I too could have an emotion!
But then, however hard from the outside, a coconut is the most tender and vulnerable when its born!

PS : In the background, a song plays : "Thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai" (I have a little, I need a little more), pretty much sums up everything I am writing!

Likejacking - beware facebook users!

Facebook is 'the' most popular application in the social networking space today.
It's a hit and people are loving it!

Like all other applications, this too has pitfalls!
The modus operandi is all too simple.
All of us have heard of such things before, but some people just don't care.

An external link is posted on a profile which is rather enticing in nature.
Gone are the days when a porn inspired quote got the attention of the users.
These days, the quotes are more sublime, docile and a bit funny.

The probability of people clicking on such links is very high.

For example,
"This boy fell straight on his face after this girl slapped him"

You have to 'like' this post to view the video.

Here comes the trick.
The like button is a new feature of FB which allows a developer to build a plugin.
Then the users profile details are accessed (ofcourse with permission, nobody's complaining!)

The code on the button click can be customized to show a thumbnail of a page, a picture and title of the page. This makes the trick more authentic.

Before you know, you are transported to a rogue page with malicious content which hooks the trojans on to your machine!

And to rub more salt on the wound, since you like it, it gets posted on your wall for other to see.
And one by one everyone 'likes' it!
This is like a virus which spreads systematically and nobody suspects because so many people 'like' it!

One way to tell the 'malicious like' from the 'normal like' could be that the malicious ones always appear like a button on mouse-over.
Something like this :

The normal ones are generally just like a hyper-link.


All I can say is... just be aware and do not let unknown rogue applications access your profile data.
Forget the people you are spreading you to, you are also, in the process risking your own laptop/desktop.

Some more example pictures(now this post obviously points to malicious content because of the tag line:-) ) :

Britney Spears - one more time please!

Britney Spears has always been a teen icon!
Back when I was a teen, I followed Brian Adams and boy bands like Backstreet boys and Boyzone.. they were a rage back then.
But most people dished out similar things...
As guys.. me and my friends always wanted some young lady take the lead!
The answer came in the form of Britney Spears.

I remember, Jan 1999, when her "Baby, one more time" debuted, it became a rage in the US and the ripples were felt the world over!
She looked cute, a girl next door.. who was a great performer..
Apart from that her first song had a video where she was dressed as a new college goer! So it struck the chord immediately with us.. who were also just getting over with school. (School in India is till grade 10). Thereafter its college.

The SONY BMG music cassette costed Rupees 180... which was about 4 and half dollars then.
It was big money for me, I got about 50 rupees as pocket money then for my personal expenses.
I saved up for a couple of months, pooled in my past savings, and got the cassette finally!
I was the first among my peers.. immediately my cassette got booked for a few days.. all my friends wanted to take it home and record the songs on a blank cassette!!
That was back then...
when Britney was cute.. she was our age..



Then over albums and years, she became a cult figure... I started losing interest in her albums and songs which became more pub friendly.
Too much of mixing and beats made her voice obscure.
The times of "hit me baby one more time" and "U drive me crazy" were clearly over.
She had become like the rest of the generation and lost her youthful next-door charm. :(

Years later, I came across a song 'Toxic' The video was fun, but she had lost the charm by then.. she had grown up to be just like one of those American singers.



She did crazy things like having the shortest marriage which lasted only 55 hours.
The slide continued, with another failed marriage, Kevin Federline was at the other end this time.
She had kids, I wonder what they think of their mom!
These guys, if they go to school, must be having an equally hard time there with all the kids around knowing of all the stupid things that keep happening with their mother.
She later allegedly hooked up with some driver or something called Adnan Ghalib.
Can it get any worse??
Rumours of a sex tape flew thick and fast... the tabloids were all in anticipation, though its another story that nothing of that sort came.

Now, when I look back, I cringe to think of what the icon of millions of teens back then has done to herself.
She must be close to 30, but already looks too tired of life.
She gets most of her pictures air-brushed when appearing on covers of magazines.

I guess this is what happens when someone can't handle the fame and adulation which comes too early.
She is only a sad shadow of her past now.. I feel sad, but considering her middle class upbringing, expected her to be stronger.
There are lots of such cases out there... rehab is their second home.
But alas, that's what we have come to be.

For years, we yearn to succeed, we work hard to succeed, but when we achieve something quantifiable, we go into the self-destruct mode!

The latest I heard today, Madame Spears, plans to get married again by the end of this year. to Jason Trawick who was her manager! Phew!

Milkshakes - 1987 to Pamela to Mallika to Koena

My memory goes back to sometime when I was just 5. That was 1987.
My mom must have made me milkshakes even before that, but that's only how long back I can remember.

My mom always told me that they are a good substitute for breakfast and evening snacks, she said that they will give me enough energy to play cricket for 3 hours.
She told me they had lots of proteins and other nutrients.
I used to gulp down the tasty shakes in a matter of seconds.
Back then, in homes, the shakes were pretty plain, simpler and totally not exotic.
It was a banana shake or a mango shake or a strawberry shake!

Milkshakes were loved by kids and elders alike, because they were smooth, creamy and colourful and totally yummy!


I loved the legacy of milkshakes till I was a teen.
Not that I started hating them, but just that I had been out of home for a long while... for higher studies.

Years passed, I hadn't had milkshakes in ages.
One fine day on television, I see an attention seeking Indian actress making her own milkshake on television.
At first I thought it was some cookery show gone glam.
Then it struck that it was for 'Millions of milkshakes' at Hollywood.
Wow, the weird and bizarre trend of naming recipes around celebrities had reached the Indian shores as well!
In amazement I looked on... milkshakes were never 'oh-so-sexy'!
Have a look :

1. Taste the raspberries, unhygienic, but the populace doesn't care, when it's Mallika hissing.. oops kissing the berries.



2. Maximum eyeballs, because it's a banana!


3. Some milk finally..



4.Yup, almost done


5.Some cream to top it up!


6.And here you go!!


The shake is not the centre of attraction here, probably the girl in the frame on the back tasted it already, even her eyes are puking!

This photo shoot became a huge hit in India!
Catching the hint, another wannabe Bollywood actress, Koena Mitra who's out of work back home astonishingly got herself a milkshake!

Relatively, some uninspiring pics of the disaster and her milkshake here :



This trend has caught on.. from the wannabes in Hollywood, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Pamela Anderson, and the preposterous Kardarshian sisters : Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian & Kourtney Kardashian.

Pamela notably, looked the ugliest of them all at her milkshake photo-op.
Have a look :
The poor milkshake is a sidekick here


and OH-MY-GOD!(If you find this appealing, please click on the pic and enlarge)


Had my mum showed me the last picture of the milkshake in 1987, probably I would never have tasted milk ever nor would I shake my cough syrups before drinking!!

The journey of milkshakes has just begun in the eastern world..
The other day, I saw a school kid, waiting for his school bus with google search on his iPhone, the search string was :


Could anyone of you post the recipe of this milkshake? I don't still consider myself too old for it!

One of the cutest ads on Indian television

Yesterday me and a couple of my office buddies were partying ..
The discussions veered from morality, human nature to aliens to college life... it was all guy-talk, but then when we talked of college, we were all mushy mushy for obvious reasons and then ...
sometime around mid-night, this advertisement came up on the TV.. and 3 of us, got hooked onto the TV set.
41 seconds later, all of us, said the same thing in different languages..
"This has to be the cutest ad this year."
I just love the sitar music at the end.. it sounds so fresh!
The girl and guy have that brilliant look of their 'first-meet-vulnerability'.
All of us were actually transported back in time..
It was truly, madly and deeply a - "Blast from the past".
Have a look :




For those who don't understand Hindi, here's the transcript with the time factor.
Boy : Excuse me, could you give me a small bite of your Dairy milk chocolate? (0:02)
Girl: Do I know you (0:08)
Boy : (Nods) No
Girl: So? (0:10)
Boy : My mom tells me that before you start doing something good, you should always have something sweet. (0:12)
Girl: By the way, what's the good thing that you wanna do? (0:23)
Boy : I was thinking... I can drop you home (0:26)

The thought at 0:12 is a typical Indian tradition of having something sweet before you embark on something good.
The belief is that it will bring good luck and success in the task.

Sometimes, these small things make you happy and bring a smile on your face!

PS : The above advertisement belongs to Cadbury's. This post is just a reference to the brilliance of this advertisement which I wanted to share.

Rumblings of the mind

Rumbling(verb) - is a deep, resonant and persistent sound that often induces people into a state of trance.

How would you feel when one person whom you have nurtured, believed in, invested in, one fine day without notice start drifting away from you?

Would it evoke a reaction from you? Would you feel sad or cheated or lonely?

If I were that person, I would not feel ‘sad’ because I was the one who nurtured, believed and invested in the person. If at all anything was, it was my mistake.

I would not feel ‘cheated’ because the other person chose to walk away, and 'cheated' is a grave term and should not be used until something is proven.

I would also not feel lonely, because loneliness is only in the mind. As long as you want to feel lonely, you would, the world would seem gloomy, dark and overcast.

But if you choose to forget, then the world would seem green again.


But words are easy to pen, not follow.
Even though I would tend not to feel cheated, sad or lonely, I would feel 'wronged'.

I would feel wronged for the reason that I trusted a person who could not repose my faith.

I would feel wronged because if I held that person whenever she fell, she just walked when I fell.

I would feel wronged because if ever and whenever there was something she wanted to share, she shared it first with me and now I no longer get to see that from her side.

I would feel wronged because of being made a second fiddle.

I would feel wronged because I am a fool who made a bigger fool of myself.


Maybe I was in an 'inceptionized' state where I only dreamt and nothing actually existed.

Maybe I expected too much from her because I am a Virgo... and hence the feminine side always interferes with my 'guy attitude' and makes me feel miserable.

Maybe I should stop, think and listen to my brain.

Yeah maybe..

Maybe it's time now to stop loving everyone around.

And frankly the world seems greener now! Just by writing this.

But I am afraid, the day this person comes back, I am going to melt again.. I am going to forget all that I am writing..

Because someone has said and quite truly,

"Dil to bachcha hai ji.. thoda kachcha hai ji"
(The heart is a kid, a little inept)


And in the end, the great game of human emotions would win again and I would be reduced to being just a character who lost the game.

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This is actually a re-post of the same post posted a week earlier, the trailer is attached because a few people asked me if everything was allright!! Yeah yeah.. it's still heaven out here! These are just rumblings. Fiction sounds very true many times!
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Is happiness = M(money) ?

A very good debate question!
Is happiness proportional to money?

But what exactly is 'M' here?
In terms of physics or mathematical formulae, you could call it a 'constant'
Something like what 'K' is in the below equation for spring constant :

½mV² = ½k*x²

In our case, 'M' would stand for more. Because when it comes to money, nobody gets enough, everybody wants more.
So, the equation would stand as below :

Happiness ∝ Money.
Now, if there is a constant 'M' thrown in, we can equate the 2 sides.
Happiness = M(money).

Now M could be 2 for a street urchin.
It would be 100 for a regular job guy.
It would be 1000 for a well-to-do business guy.
For John Abraham, it could be 10000, for SRK may be 1 million.
For Brad Pitt it would be 100 million, because he has Madame Jolie to take care of and a multi-coloured army too!

3 days back, I had a discussion with one of my friends where we were discussing exactly how important is money?
This is not a straight answer, alas!
His opinion was that when you just start earning, it is THE most important thing in the world for you.
Few years down the lane, when you have just enough... when I say that, I mean you have a decent amount in your bank account and you are still left with some disposable income, then you start thinking... Ok, this is not important enough.

This is exactly what happens to many of us including me.
Typically this state approaches you when you are close to 30.
You know yourself better and are more confident about what 'else' you need from life!
When you have something apart from fulfilling your basic needs, have a decent bank balance, you start thinking about the vagaries of life.

At this juncture, just stop and think,
Is money driving you to do things you would otherwise not have done?
For most, the answer would be yes.

I am just 27, but when I rewind my life, say 15 years, when I was in fifth grade, I find a culture shock, a lifestyle shock between what I was then and what I am now.

India as a country has changed so much in the last decade, that it is almost umimaginable to think that I had a acai-berry tree in my backyard!
I was never brought up in the countryside, all these were big Indian cities which had so much space just 2 decades back.
It was my dad's company provided quarter where we had a front yard, a back yard with a small kitchen garden.
On sundays I picked up 2 brushes, an old soft rag and shoe polish.
I took my dad's shoes, my school shoes and my mom's footwear occasionally and polished them!
The shine gave me happiness.
I played cricket till I dropped. That gave me happiness.
We did not have a car, but had a scooter which was pretty old.
My dad disposed it off and got a new scooter, I used to shine it up every weekend too like an energetic kid. That gave me happiness.
Probably everything that was not money in that age, gave me happiness.

I am sad when I compare that scene with today.
There are no big open yards in houses anymore. If there are, then you gotta be neo-rich to have them.
Plus even if you have them, you would probably employ someone to take care of the garden and the farm.
That because you don't have any time left for all this.
The kids in school these days, and this is a fact, are the most frequent visitors to pubs.
Hardly 15 something, armed with cash from their Arab-like cash rich dads, come in droves and smoke life away through a hukka nozzle!

Nothing is out of reach for the X-box generation.
Their happiness lasts till the time the credit limit on their dads' add-on cards last!

Sigh, its all about money and the constant 'M'.
The money will always be the same, but life has now been reduced to a constant journey of this 'M' from 2 to maybe 100 million.
So what if Jolie is taken, there will always be some local, maybe even more attractive versions available closer home!
Everyone dreams to be a Brad Pitt someday.



PS : I am a culprit of this spending-mela too, but maybe because I am already past being a teen, I spend a lot lesser than the empowered people today!
But, three cheers to the teens! They are what it takes to keep the recession away!