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!