The written word..

This is my favorite phrase. The written word. It doesn't literally mean just one word written somewhere. It could denote anything from a treaty, to a contract, to a poem, to a story to an entire tome!

Most of my friends complain that they can never write a blog, or that even if they do start with one, they're not sure if anybody will read it. I know I used to feel the same way when I used to see really good blogs. All it took me was one bad blog to realize that Hey! I can write much better than that! Inspiration is all around us. You decide what inspires you.

My primary inspiration for keeping a blog can be best explained by Boman Irani's dialogue from Bluff Master. Roughly translated, the gist is as follows:

"How old are you? 28 years old? Out of 28 years, how many days do you remember? Birthdays, anniversaries? 50 days? Out of 28 * 365, you only remember 50 days? What about the remaining days?"

My blog, my dear friends, is a way to keep track of each and every day. Jab hosh sambhala, I had grand plans for myself. I would become a movie star, a celebrity, a great dancer, famous, well known! I didn't become all of that (yet :D), but my story is still so amazing. I had never imagined that my story would be so full of life and colors. If you think back, you'll also realize, that your story, though different from what you had imagined it would be, is breath-taking, wonderful, autobiography material! Write about it, cherish it, treasure it, you never know who might derive inspiration from your story. I urge all my readers, please start your own blogs! (That does not mean that you should stop reading mine :P) Write about stuff that you are passionate about, like to do, let your thoughts and words flow!

When you do, please add your blog links in the comments section of this post. Same goes for people who have already started their own blogs. Let's be a part of each others' stories...

Marathi Baana

If instead of writing on this page, I could simply splash it with colors, that would be the most accurate description of this dance-musical. You know, sometimes, you just can't believe your good luck? You wonder what you did to deserve such good treatment? I am not exaggerating when I say, this is exactly how I felt within the first 30 mins of watching the show.

Let me rewind a little. The show was held in Bal Gandharv theatre. Usually, this show is performed at the level of Zaanta Raja. Now anyone who has not seen Zaanta Raja, you should know that it is a grand affair which is impossible to fit into 1 tiny theatre. It is usually conducted on a big open air ground with 2 screens and adequate speaker systems. Same is the case with Marathi Baana. So you can imagine how they managed to fit their entire performance on that tiny stage of Bal Gandharv theatre!

The theme of the show is to display the various castes-subcastes in Maharasthrian culture and also to display the various festivals celebrated in Maharashtra. Each caste was shown with the help of song and dance dear to that caste and it was really amazing to see the wide variety of cultures present in Maharashtra. The best part, I believe, was the anticipation of the dances which would receive a "Once More!" They were automatically rewound and repeat performed for the hungry-eyed viewer! When that happened the first time, I couldn't believe my eyes, but sure enough the last 30 seconds of the dance which received a resounding "Once More!" was performed again! Truly a treat for the eyes and ears!

At half time, I was saying to my friends "My God, they should charge like a 1000 bux for that!" I guess the tickets would be costly when it must have been performed in the open air theatre. After interval, it was time to showcase the festivals of Maharashtra. I swear I choked up when they showed the Ganesh Utsav. Their picturisation of a family gathered lovingly around the elephant God made me see my own home! Apart from this there was also a short segment on how marriages used to be in the good old days. The show has 150 participants and at a time there were at least 50 people on stage. The costumes deserve a special mention, as they literally made the show dazzle. And of course, not to forget, excellent use of lights!

The dances were interspersed with songs that described the innocence of youth, romance, koli geet etc. which played their own part in setting the rhythm and pace of the show. The dances were mind boggling because of the beautiful choreography and the awesome synchronization. When one put his hand out, the other would catch it even without looking. That is trust, co-ordination and practice!

For the first time in my life, I seriously regretted not knowing how to whistle. I was clapping and hollering as hard as I could because I wanted them to know, I really wanted them to know, that they had made me so happy! Do not miss this show, if you get a chance, do watch it. It is a heady mixture of live catchy music, awesome choreography and most importantly, a peep into our very pretty Maharashtran culture!

2012 - movie review

I was very excited to watch this movie what with all the forwards on email and SMS coming my way predicting end of the world in December 2012. And like 90% of eagerly awaited, much-hyped movies, this one too completely failed my expectations.

The plot is as follows: John Cussack borrows his kids from his estranged wife and her boyfriend to take them camping and spend some quality time with them. As they head towards the Yellowstone national park, they see military choppers flying overhead and hear about some army operations going on in the same park. Please tell me, which father in his right mind will willingly take his children to a place where army operations are going on? But our daring hero doesn't think twice of the danger he is putting his children in and heads towards the park.

An African American scientist, (I forget his name), comes to India to visit his Indian scientist friend and soon discovers that the crust of the earth is heating up. As a result the crust is shifting, which will lead to pole changes and disastrous earthquakes. An escalation to the US President soon starts a secret mission to save the human race or at least the elite few who can afford to save themselves.

Meanwhile, mysterious cracks start appearing on the face of the earth all over the world and the estranged wife finally calls the hero and her children back when one such crack rips apart an entire supermarket. Acting on news from a crazy RJ in the YellowStone park, the hero soon figures out that the cracks are going to get bigger and worse. He urges his family along with the new boyfriend to escape with him towards a ship which will save them all from the mighty destruction.

After this, its just destruction and more destruction. The movie-makers have found a sadistic joy in showing the destruction of all famous monuments and the annihilation of the human race. It's just our hero running ahead with his family while destruction follows behind. The second half is tiresome with the same sadistic destruction taking place over and over again in different forms and at different places.

The plot pretty much follows all Hollywood movie disaster plots with the boyfriend getting kicked out and a second later with absolutely no remorse, the hero getting back with his estranged wife. The use of the word "Mayans" drove me crazy where it was repeated over and over again "The Mayans knew this all along, The Mayans predicted this years ago" and had a childish immaturity to it. If ever there was a stupid, insensitive and useless movie, it is 2012.

Haatala valan (good habits)

When it comes to cleaning the house, I was not a very big fan of cleaning it up like a maniac every minute and making sure that every second, each and every thing is in it's proper place. I used to be very lazy and I rarely bothered unless some guests were stopping by. Even then, it'd be a sweep-below-the-carpet kind of cleaning up. Here's the funny thing. Every person has his/her own grime-tolerance level. People with lower levels of grime tolerance are forever running around with brooms either behind dirt or behind higher-grime-tolerant-people (Mom: "Clean this room up or I'll hit you with my broom!")

However, for some strange reason, my grime tolerance level has reduced and I'm making sure that the house is clean and everything is pretty much in its place. Of course my high grime tolerant brother can't find most of his things now, but I'm feeling good. I feel like coming back to my place at the end of the day, and if I take care to clean up every day, then it doesn't become such a huge task that I feel like cleaning up only after a 100 days. So, thoda far, majha haatala valan lagalach shevati (I developed a good habit).

Cleaning up for the sake of it and cleaning up as a habit are 2 completely different things. There's also a lot of planning involved. Once you cover basic cleaning, you think of decoration, beautification.. Let's shift our focus to the city level. When I see well planned roads, sewage systems, transportation, I imagine a very big woman with a very orderly mind and very big hands (with good valan or habits), planning the way her "home" should be and then taking painstaking efforts to make it just so.

If we go towards developed countries, why do their cities look so well planned and structured? Doesn't it look like there is one entity, who might be feeling that the piece of land given to him/her is actually like her home and he/she has to take the utmost care to make it clean, accessible and pretty? Doesn't it look like ticha kevha tyacha haata la valan asel? If you are good at planning such a great city, making proper use of the space given to you and also making sure that any maintenance work is immediately taken up, I believe tumcha haata la changla valan ahe. I also believe, that as Indian citizens, we need to practise haatacha valan when we are out on the roads. Most importantly, I believe, in important positions in our govt (urban devpt), we NEED people jyancha haatala valan ahe. Well structed cities which work efficiently dont come with sweep-below-the-carpet cleaning. They can only come with people who have good habits to begin with. That also includes you and me.

Mumbai Part III

Before we hit the sack, some grand plans were being hatched. Key words: Juhu Beach, 6 am. Not happening! Especially after the near-passing out experience at Leopold and gappe shappe till 4 am. So I woke up at around 10 the next day only to find my dear friend all ready with breakfast! Poor thing, I doubt she hardly got any sleep. Obviously after hogging so much at night, my stomach had to put up a sign saying "Ek-Do-Teen-Char, Band Karo Yeh Atyachar!". Alas I had to give a miss to those tasty grilled sandwiches.

I sustained on Neembu Pani and finally got ready for some Mumbai style mall shopping! This series of Mumbai posts would be inadequate without a mention of some other nice places that we saw the previous day. I think the one that had the most impact on me was the Oval Ground. It was this huge oval shaped ground where lots of kids were playing cricket and other sports. It looked like the ideal spot for a nice picnic. Apart from this, we also saw a very pretty Flora Fountain which was built pre-independence and is a postal address in it's own right! A glimpse of the towering World Trade Centre was on the cards and we sipped some fruit juice at a nearby juice stall while marvelling at its height.

Coming back to Day 2, we went to Inorbit Mall. Now, I've grown up in Dubai so I'm pretty used to malls. Even then, (or maybe it was because I was seeing a mall after ages), I couldn't help looking around awe-struck. The best thing about malls is that they are so well organized. Everything has it's own place, including the food court. Its pleasurable to shop during the day coz the natural day light and the artificial light merge together to create a soothing ambeince. As we started window shopping, my friend threatened to buy me something. I was already so embarassed about the amount of pampering I was receiving. Nevertheless, she did end up buying me a pretty Staedler pink dress, for which I was gushing for like a half an hour. I also bought myself a long top from a cool shop called "AND". There was a lot that caught my fancy and I noticed that the kind of variety I saw there could not be found in the malls in Pune. Someday, when I've got a fatter purse ;)

After the successful shopping stint, we both came back home. On my special request, my friend had made veg frankies and it was killing me to think that I wouldn't be able to have them on account of my mutinous stomach. I had a chat with it and it agreed to not create further problems on the ransom demand of a Coke. Thus, without further ado, I wolfed down 2 yummy frankies and started wondering how to double cross my stomach into overlooking the delicious chocolate pudding. After the delicious lunch, it was time to start packing my bags.

I confirmed and re-confirmed with the stupid Prasanna Travels franchisee that the volvo would leave from Borivali at 3:30 pm and that it would stop near Arya Dairy at 3:45 pm. After freshening up and saying my goodbyes to her in laws, I left from her place. I soaked in every last visual, sound and smell that I could during my final drive on Mumbai roads(for some time to come at least). My friend and her husband came to drop me and we reached the bus stop around 3:40 pm. There was no sign of the bus till 4:00 pm. It was very hot and a pain to stand in the sun with no shelter. Plus my stomach wasn't exactly happy about the chocolate flavored double crossing and I was becoming increasingly cranky. Finally at 4:20 I lost all patience.

I called up the Prasanna Travels office and asked them where was the damn bus. I got their standard reply "It's on its way". I persisted and that lady gave me the driver's number. After standing for 45 mins in the terrible sun with an upset stomach guess what I got to hear? "The 3:30pm bus has been cancelled, the 4:30 bus will be leaving in 5 mins". I wouldn't have minded going to jail right then for torching and stoning a few Metro Link buses. My friend's husband suggested that I should not rely on Metro Link and should take any AC bus going towards Pune. Finally at 4:50, after standing on that bus stop for more than an hour, a Neeta Volvo came by. I got a seat all the way in the back but by then I was so tired that I was ready to sit on the roof if they agreed to take me home. I said my goodbyes and boarded the bus.

The one thing I didn't know was that Neeta Volvo has offices on the Mumbai Puna route at every 0.5 km. If while coming to Mumbai we were stuck in Pune for 1.5 hours, Neeta created a new record by keeping us stranded in mumbai for 2 hours before we actually hit the highway.  Mercifully though, this bus skipped the entire Baner Aundh stretch and went straight to Chandni Chowk. I got down at Paud Road and got a royal sawaari (my bro in our Ritz) back home. Home sweet home!

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a mention of my final revenge. When I came home, my parents called me up and I told them everything. They were yelling at me for like an hour about how I took disadvantage of my friend (the food, the staying, the dress! *blush*). So, I finally decided enough was enough. My friend had casually mentioned that she was dying for some Bakerwadi. For some reason, when I had gone to the sweets shop in Pune (before), I bought Chiwda and pedhe for her. So after coming back, I first went to the DTDC courier guy and and told him that I needed to ship out some Bakerwadi. I thought he would point at me and laugh but he just asked me to get it in a box so that it doesn't get crushed. I sent the Bakerwadi by express courier and the next day my friend was shouting at me "You bloody idiot, who couriers Bakerwadi!! What is wrong with you? My in laws are shouting at me!".

Revenge. Is. Sweet. :D

Jokes apart, thanks a lot dear friend for the wonderful and amazing experience. I will always remember it and it wouldn't have been so beautiful without you. Cheers! :D

Mumbai Trip Part II

Ok, so this must be like the cheesiest pic ever, but trust me, there were guys who were actually getting their portfolios done in front of the Gateway of India! No kidding!

Anyway, so as I sluggishly threw my body into the back seat of the car, I started looking forward to seeing the real Mumbai. My friend and her husband kept pointing out various landmarks and giving the history behind them. After driving around in the car for about an hour, our first major landmark was Worli sealink! My friend's husband graciously asked me to sit in the front seat of the car. (We had a driver along, so only one other person could sit in the front seat). The driver stopped the car just a few minutes away from the bridge and we switched places.

We all rolled down our windows and I caught the first glimpse of the sea link. It looked magnificent! A gigantic half spiderweb hung from the highest pillar and spread out to hold a part of the bridge in it's clutches. I was sitting with my eyes and mouth wide open as we entered the sea-link. At exactly that moment, it started raining lightly and "Kya karoon" from Wake up Sid started coming on the radio. I couldn't have asked for a better ambience. :D  As each string of the web swung by, first slowly and then faster and faster, I could not help but marvel at the beauty of the moment. Truly, truly etched in my mind forever.

Unfortunately, only one of the pillars has that spiderweb kinda hanging strings, the others are plain. So it was doubly special when I saw it for the first and the last time in all its glory :D Later, while coming back, it was dark and to tell you the truth, it needs a lot more lighting to make it look even half as pretty as it does during the day. Anyway, as we crossed the sea-link (my friend's husband helpfully informed me that it was a 4km long stretch :O), I caught sight of the Haji Ali Dargah. It was really far and I wouldn't have known if Jeeju hadn't told me but once I saw it, I could see 100s of pilgrims queueing (WTF is the spelling of this word!) up outside. Some day, soon hopefully *sigh*

Our next stop was Gateway of India. I had this stupid grin stuck on my face ever since I entered the Worli sea-link and now it just got wider (as you can see in the pic above :P) Here's the thing you never notice in those pretty postcards. There is a HUGE open space in front of the gateway, where millions and millions of people come everyday with their families to spend a nice evening. The sheer amount of space available made me delirious and I felt like skipping about merrily. I settled for something better though, got myself clicked in a 100 different poses! The Taj was also impressive but the whole shooting episode kind of made me sad.

After a few more crazy pix, we went behind the gateway for a lovely boat ride.

I'm generally scared of getting into boats especially since I have no confidence on my traitorous legs (yeah yeah I know exercise will help me get control :P). So it was with some hesitation that I stepped into the boat. The three of us rushed to the top of the boat for which we had to pay 5 bux extra but the view was amazing. As the Gateway-shaped lights started going farther and farther away, it became darker and more peaceful. The breeze was just lovely and we had a good time talking about this and that. I think this was the first time 3 of us sat in front of each other and spoke. We spoke about the past, about college, hostel, about the present, job, about the future, job, marriage.. It was surreal.

When it was time to get down, I was shaking in my boots. Just as I was about to take a superman leap off the boat on to firm land, the boat moved away from the steps. Thank God I did not jump. After 2-3 mins of adjusting, the boat showed promise of sticking to the rocks and I said a short prayer and jumped out. Aha! That wasn't so bad ;) Next on our entertainment list was to take a ride in a "Victoria" buggy. I hope I used the right term. At first, I was really excited about it, but just when we were about to climb one, I actually saw what a Victoria was. It was one poor horse pulling a damn big cart which was decorated like a damn throne and had a million fatsos sitting on it. I just lost heart. I feel very tender towards horses, especially after reading "Black Beauty".  So, before I burst into tears about how lonely horses were and how they had to work all day with bits in their mouths and how they had no friends, my friend and her husband whisked me away to our next tourist destination!

Till now it was pretty dark and hence the right time to see the "Queen's Necklace". The whole Marine Drive stretch is called a Queen's necklace because it's semi circular in shape and at night, if you see it from the sky, the lights on Marine Drive make it look like a Queen's Necklace. From Nariman Point, you get a perfect view of the Necklace. Even though it's not at a higher altitude, you can still make out the curve. The really wide foothpath made me really happy and we took a nice walk while enjoying the breeze and discussing how the terrorists actually came into Mumbai. Unfortunately it was low tide, so I couldnt really hear the waves but it was soothing nevertheless.

From Nariman Point we went to Leopold Cafe for dinner. I walked in expecting a really posh place but got thoroughly disappointed when I saw the interiors and the overwhelming smell of beer almost killed my appetite (that is a mean feat, fyi ;)) I guess Jeeju sensed mine and my friend's discomfort and herded us upstairs. Ah! now that was something to look at! Beaut interiors, awesome music and lovely beerless aromas floating around! That's what I was looking for! Oh and of course, there was AC :D So we settled down, ordered food and again fooled around with the camera. After some signature analysis and promises of a full blown handwriting analysis to come later, we dug into the delicious food.

Clutching my stomach and swaying like a drunk, many people must have thought that I had more than my fair share of beer at Leopold's, but truth was I was stuffed! Once I ate so much that I was about to pass out, and at Leopold's I was pretty much near that stage. So as I tottered towards the car and crashed into the backseat, I prayed to God that the end was near. The end of the night that is :D But of course, how could I forget, I had promised my friend a complete handwriting analysis and once we started talking, we couldnt stop till 4 am! Now that's real friendship according to me. You notice the time only at 3 am and then say "Damn its 3 am! We should get some sleep" Only to realize 5 mins later "Damn! It's 4 am! We should REALLY get some sleep!" I miss having slumber parties!

Anyway, so finally at 4 am we decided enough was enough and that we would discuss about the rest of our friends later (Hehe). I fell into a deep sleep dreaming about the great shopping expedition soon to come!

Part III coming soon folks! ;D

Mumbai trip Part 1

My long leave from office was about to start and I desperately wanted to go on a mini vacation to forget the extreme stress that I had faced in the last few days at office. After an unsuccessful attempt to tag along with a friend who was going home to Delhi, I got myself invited over to my college friend's place who is married and staying with her in laws.

Of course I was embarassed, but she made me feel so comfortable that I didn't think thrice about it. So I merrily went and booked my ticket to Borivali from Prasanna Travels, little knowing that very soon I would hate the very sight of that name(Prasanna, not Borivali). More about that later, don't break my story! Anyway, on the fateful day, I boarded the bus at sharp 10 am from Paud Road. Till 11:30, we had received a complete Pune Darshan and reached Rajeev Gandhi bridge (Hinjewadi flyover), waiting to make full utilisation of every penny that stupid MetroLink spent on its petrol. It was so frustrating that finally some of the passengers started complaining. I guess we hit the highway around 12:00 pm.

My friend had asked me to get down at R. A Dairy in Malad but the driver refused to admit that he would be passing from there. Finally he agreed to drop me near Oberoi Mall. So I got busy reading "Catcher in the Rye" (really funny book, review about that coming up on http://esolitmaniac.wordpress.com/ ;)), while listening to songs on the Mumbai FM. My very huge misconception that Mumbai FM plays better songs than Pune FM was complete shattered as there was more variety (like 8 channels there), but all of them were celebrating CHILDREN'S DAY! So I just bid my time till Oberoi mall showed up and kept updating my friend ("Just passed Dadar, crossed the airport.... ").

Finally, the driver called out "Oberoi MALL!" and I hurriedly got down. He had stopped the bus just where the flyover started. I stood like a fool looking in all 4 directions for any sort of mall, but all I could see was roads and cars! Just as the bus was about to leave, I caught hold of the conductor-kinda-guy-but-not-exactly, and asked him "Where is the damn mall!" He pointed a finger in some random direction, jumped into the bus and stormed off. Excellent!

Mercifully my friend had informed me that I had to get down near a signal, so I kept walking in that random direction which that conductor kinda guy had pointed me towards and I found a signal. I could see Oberoi Mall from below the flyover and heaved a sigh of relief. Then was the best part. I was carrying a small trolley bag and I had pulled out its handle with which you can drag it along on its wheels. I had to call up my friend to inform her that I had reached, so I picked up the bag, hung the handle on my arm, balanced my purse in one hand while opening the zip with my trolley bearing arm, pulled out the phone, balanced it against my ear, and started talking to my friend. I swear to you, people on the road were giving me a stare wondering "Should we admit her to the mental asylum right NOW?" Nevertheless, my dear friend showed up in 5 mins in a car and whisked me away to her home!

We reached home, freshened up and lunch was served! The poor girl had taken a lot of efforts for me and I felt really pampered :D We had chhole, paneer bhurji (which was AWESOME!), gobi ki sabzi, pooris and the best part, chocolate pudding! I went straight to heaven after taking a bite of that. It was the most delicious and satisfying lunch I ever had. :) After such an awesome lunch, I seriously considered how bad it would be if I spent the whole evening sleeping in while dreaming about the fantastic chocolate pudding and trying to digest what all I'd eaten. But of course, my fantasizing was cut short by her husband pointing to his watch and saying "15 mins!". Bed, Ac, Pillows, Blanket, I didn't want to leave any of those!!! Argh X-(

I reluctantly got dressed and went down with my friend and her husband. Thus, started the most exciting part of the trip!

Murphy's law of Driving & Radio..

Law: The best song on the radio comes when your are about to park.

So, I'm driving my car and listening to songs from FM.

94.3: "Jiska koiii nahi uska toh khudaaaa haiii " Switch!

98.3: "Prem ki nayya hai Raam he bharose... Please call me Sud, just chill... " Switch!

Switching view between the road and my music console is making me go cross eyed but I need good music to drive well!

101.00: "Aap humra sajanwaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Switch!

Narrowly missing an autorickshaw

91.1: "Aaj Din Chadeyaaaa.... Aur kahi saare gaane, stay tuned! Aji sunte hoooo!" Switch!

Now trying to go by gut instinct. Hit the wrong button instead. Get player back to FM mode with some difficulty. Finally get bored and listen to

94.3: "Ghantaaa singh"

Manage to skillfully maneuver (more like narrowly miss colliding into the wide open gates of my colony) and just as I'm about to park

98.3: "Chor Bazaari do nainon ki.. "

Sigh.. Stupid radio!

Ted(, please) talks!

Thanks to Deepak:

http://iyerdeepak.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/tedindia-begins/

I got introduced to the exciting world of ted talks. Here's the link to the original website:

http://www.ted.com/talks

I cant think of a good way to explain, so I'm just going to borrow their introduction:

http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/5

"TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize."

For the first time, "talks" were organized in India. This event got over yesterday and pretty soon the videos of the talks held here will be up on the website. Till I was waiting for those, I browsed through the website and checked out the most recommended talks. The ones in the jaw dropping section are truly mind boggling and I thoroughly enjoyed Hans Rosling's way of presentation.

A lot of the speakers have extremely innovative methods of presentation and there's a lot to learn here about new subjects and presentation skills. Apart from that, maybe the makers of Ted realized that humans are basically lazy by nature and they absorb knowledge much better if someone TELLS it to them as opposed to reading up and finding out for themselves. (Ok, that's definitely me :D) Of course, a lot depends on the presentation skills but its a really neat way of gaining knowledge. I say, Ted, Keep Talking!

Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani - movie review

First and foremost, this movie makes no sense. Absolutely no sense! After every two mins, I was saying "Kahihi!" which is the marathi equivalent of "WTF!" So much for my adventure of watching a new movie second day second last show :P But of course, my review is fresh and I have not read any other reviews to bias my thinking. So there!

Coming back to the movie, it was advertised as the mother of rom-coms in Bollywood (to be appointed so by the people who watch the movie I believe), but I wouldn't bestow that title on this film. I was expecting at least a new story but the story is the same old and it doesn't even have any twists. Very predictable. Boy meets girl, falls for the girl, girl loves somebody else.. Typical love triangle. But there are a few reasons to watch this movie (if you HAVE to invest in an adventure to prove to yourself that your life isnt extremely dull)

The first reason to watch this movie is that the chemistry is amazing between Ranbir and.. his friends! There are quite a few laugh aloud moments (if you remember to leave your gray cells at home). Most importantly, Ranbir carries off his role as small town bumpkin who barely knows English with an earnesty that is heartwarming to see. I believe he wont be able to give such a raw performance as he grows older and more seasoned. Apart from that, he dances like a dream and I thoroughly enjoyed "Prem ki nayyaa".  Katrina is surprisingly looking overweight and not at all compatible for lean, boyish Ranbir. Her acting didn't move or touch me. She should learn some Hindi so that she can get more variety of roles. I'm so tired of seeing her with a stupid accent and being in a dilemma about marrying the hero because he doenst speak English (Namastey London, and now this movie)

Having recently watched Wake up Sid, I feel that Ranbir can be placed in any setup, situation, background, role and he can make you believe that he IS that person. I'm eagerly waiting for Rocket Singh.. As for this movie, watch it only if you have a crush either on Ranbir Kapoor or Katrina Kaif.

Kaafir(s)

A very very cynical friend: "Graphology? That doenst work! I dont believe in it!"

Me: "What is there to believe? Its not a religious faith that you need to believe in it! Its a science!"

AVVCF: "To me, its similar to palmistry and mythology.."

Me: "I told you around 20 accurate traits about yourself, which I didn't hear from your mouth, and you're telling me that its equivalent to Palmistry? WTF!!"

AVVCF: "Yeah whatever, you just got lucky I guess. Its not so easy to judge me by my handwriting.."

Another in the series of graphology posts, this one I dedicate to human psychology.

Most of my friends refuse to "believe" in Graphology. They refuse to give me their handwriting. I believe they have something to hide. Maybe past affairs, maybe something else. Problem is, they don't know exactly what all I will be able to see in their handwriting. Apart from that, most people have the belief that they are extremely unique. Relying on a science whose methods of investigation include collecting samples and then categorizing people seems too much like compartmentalizing. And people hate to be told that they are like someone else.

I used to be that way too. I am unique, I am different, Graphology can't slot me into a type of person! Now I feel, hell, if I'm like everyone else, good! I'm not suffering alone! Everytime we're stuck in a problem, we take tension, we dont know how to get out of it, we feel we are the only one suffering. But if you keep this in mind, that you are no different, you are just like everybody else, there are people who've made worse mistakes than you, taken worse gaaliyan than you, you start feeling calm. Belileve me, it works. Its a pleasure to discover that you are not very different from others. You are not an island, stuck in the middle of the sea. So shut up and please give your handwriting for analysis!

The last to cross the finishing line..

I was watching the Marathi Sa Re Ga Ma Pa recently (ok my ear was in that direction while I was chatting on my DBB), and I heard this contestant singing some Marathi song. As usual, Mom's running commentary was going on side by side where she was rating each singer.

For this particular singer, her comment was "Phaarshi kahi chaangli gaat nahiye, sundar ahe mhanun azun ahe show madhe" (She didnt sing that well, they've not eliminated her yet coz she's pretty)

I finally turned slightly more than my half ear towards the show and I noticed that she sung neither too good nor too bad, just about average. I guess she looked half pretty. I wondered if what Mom was saying was true.

A few weeks later, again same scenario, I was listening with half a ear and I suddenly started hearing Maayya Maayya from Guru. At first I thought some music channel was on but when I looked up, I saw that the same female was singing this song. Apparently when there are non-Maharashtran judges, a few hindi songs are allowed. And she was singing it so well! She got all the pronounciations right, she got all the surs right. She was sounding like a Maharashtran Sunidhi! She got the highest marks possible and one of the judges promised to compose a Marathi song that only she would be able to sing. What a moment of glory!

I then wondered, why was it that she didn't perform so exceptionally well during her other performances. Was she incapable? I think she proved that wrong going by her Mayya Mayya performance. Was she lazy? Or maybe she didn't particularly like Marathi songs. Whatever the reason, with one song she justified the reason for her presence in the competition and proved herself to be capable of winning the competition. This just goes to show that no matter how much you are lagging in a race, you should keep striving. You never know when your efforts will pay off. Gives me a lot of inspiration to continue writing coz right now I believe I am way behind others. But patience and persistence does pay, it seems :)

One big..

Teething problems

+

Scratch on my car from stupid office gate

+

Overwhelming amount of work just before long leave

+

2 new homeworks from Graphology class

+

2 weeks of missed/skipped dance classes

=

one biggggggg

* sigh *

For the sake of love..

This article:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Three-youths-held-for-raping-17-yr-old/articleshow/5184824.cms

gave me the shivers. To give a gist, this girl started dating a man who promised to marry her. He then raped her along with his friends and asked her to keep mum about the incident, all the time promising to marry her. The worst part about this story is that, this happened not once, but many times. And the whole time, the girl kept mum about it and maybe gave her consent also in the following incidents of the same gruesome nature. All this for what? A matrimonial promise?

This story defied all logic for me. Of course sitting in my home with my parents who would do anything to protect me, its hard to relate to a homeless orphan girl who was supporting herself with the help of various jobs. But still, even if I try to imagine, a man who got her raped by 3 of his friends before marriage, what kind of a life would he have given her after marriage? How come this thought didn't strike her the first time she got raped? What must she have gone through to allow something like this to happen a 2nd and a 3rd time before finally realizing that the man never intended to marry her? Maybe the fact that she is only 17 years old and not yet capable of taking proper decisions was a factor. Still, there is a much deeper psychological problem here.

What all are we ready to do for the sake of love? Wives put up with beating, torture... Just for the sake of their family, their children.. But even if we don't go that far, even if we see relationships at our age, we see that we put up with a lot. Only because we're scared of being lonely and we feel that we will get no one better. Over possessiveness, lack of compatibility, over critical behvaior, we all turn a blind eye towards this because we feel that "I've got it much better than the others". Why do we sell ourselves so short? Why do we have such a low self-confidence? Each and every person on this planet DESERVES to be with a person who can treat them as well as they are capable of treating the other person. It's a God given right. And if you aren't getting that, its better to just walk out and say goodbye.

Stand for yourself, stand for your rights. Where there's true love, there needn't be any fight for rights. But all of us may not be so lucky.. At least we can ensure that we get the basic respect that we deserve...