Yet another story…

Every day I meet so many different people, with different backgrounds and stories, and one can see the difference in their personalities. Amongst the many, I’ve been lucky enough to meet some very powerful women, who have such strong likes and dislikes. They know who they are. They are strong willed and have the courage to put their foot down. They are not fooled by emotions, but are practical, smart, shrewd and even a little foxy too. Though some of their qualities can be intimidating, but then it’s important to have these- certain basic instincts in order to survive in this world of diverse faiths.

They have not compromised with their lives ever, and have not been instructed with much of do’s and don’ts. Well at least from the story you hear, you think it’s been a great life. They are perfect babes from the chick flicks, some have maddening temperament, crazy driving skills, but so much of confidence and energy, which is infectious.

It is good that parents have raised their girls like boys, not putting many restrictions on them and letting them grow like who they are meant to be. Though I wonder what challenges parenting them must have been faced then and now. So, while they had the liberty to date as many boys, I wonder... were the limits explicitly defined to them? Regular visits to spas and saloons were taken in the right stride? Were they ever taught the value of money while they went out to go for truckloads of shopping?

Of course a lot and most of it is money matter. What class your families fit into. Suddenly when you have money, you are broad minded and liberal. Which is obvious because then each individual has personal space, personal freedom to spend for indulgence in whatever they find happiness in. Little wishes become just money matters. Where as a family with little or moderate financial condition often keeps cutting their needs, deferring their wishes and at times even goes on to sacrifice them as well. But then they share love, values, respect and are very close knit.

My mentor in Journalism College, Mr Ramesh Menon often mentioned, “Every body has a story and there’s a story everywhere.”

Coming across so many different people and situations, I feel glad everyday I’m spotting a new story. Though somewhere I wait for my story to be told, because you don’t see yourself the way others see and while you are busy admiring others, you wish some one else must admire you like a star…

A skipped class… A match lost...

You skipped a class today yet again. You know same teacher is furious with you. You have least attendance in her lecture; you’ve raised your voice in her class. Yes she has ego issues, which is much in flare now because of your last argument in the class. But now things will get even worse because she has got another chance to dance up on.

In the first place you shouldn’t have missed her class, secondly you hid it from us and then you lied to your dad. Why did you ignore the voices that were hinting you that it’s not right.  Don’t ask me what voices? And you heard none of them? You knew you wouldn’t be able to convince about it to any of us, yet you did.

You missed a lecture again, for a stupid match this time, which you lost…

I know, and I can understand things that excite you easily lure you. Staying in limelight has always been your weakness since childhood. You act impulsively and like all the attention but often forget what you are losing and whatever you are deciding on, in that heat of the moment, you’re putting something else at stake.

She might be mean, but you are the needy. You are there for your course, a degree is important for you to survive some decent job. You are not mature enough to tackle her attitude, because you are immature for that. But now I tell you to take the shit from her. Go beyond bounds to impress her. Reach early in class, attend her lectures religiously, and ask her questions, stay back to talk to her. If she acts mean, act ultra sweet to her. Touch her heart and move on.

Life will test your strength as an individual by not giving you favourable people and circumstances in life. But real valour of a warrior is to keep fighting and implementing newest possible strategies to have a righteous and well-deserved victory. But come what may, never sacrifice your value system and character, else you might lose your battle to yourself.

There’s no harm in achieving your goals and taking a route that others want you to. Unless it is hurtful to the other person and damaging to your value system. When you try extra hard to earn her confidence, you are simply trying to accept her the way she is and yet appreciate her. Yes, you are doing for your marks and attendance but that’s what she is suppose to do to for you and all you are doing by these gestures of yours is, well deserve them.  You must have good intentions and that’s what should determine your acts. Put your ego aside and march ahead.

Kahaani. The review.

From London to Kolkatta, pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) is unable to understand why no one has any records of her husband Arnab Bagchi, who mysteriously went missing in the past two weeks. Determined to find him, Vidya who is professionally a software engineer and a part time hacker, is head strong to dig deep into Arnab’s past. Despite her pregnancy she travels to the most interior by lanes of Kolkatta, which is in the midst of Durga Pooja celebration. How she uncovers the truth and unfolds the unexpected will keep you hooked till the end.

A logically woven story by Director Sujoy Ghosh, this movie is a true thriller. Other remarkable characters in the movie are of Rana/Satyuki (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) playing a freshman cop, who while helping Vidya finds himself to be smitten by her. Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) as a ruthless and rude intelligence officer, who doesn’t mind sacrificing the lives of a few country men to secure the larger populace. And last but definitely not the least Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee) the soft-spoken, aged LIC Agent, inefficient as a seller of policy but is an outstanding contract killer.

Agnes D’mello, HR, National Data Centre tries helping Vidya and mentions the name of Milan Damji but is murdered the same night. Many such incidences will keep your eyes wide and keep you to your seat clinging for more…

No dancing around the trees, no forced song sequels, but expect great sound score from best of the voices in the Industry: Amitabh Bachchan, Usha Uthup, Sukhvinder Singh, Kay Kay, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani.

A must watch movie of the year, which stands a strong nominee for most of the filmfare category, giving a strong competition to all-future released. Don’t miss this brilliant flick that marks the come of age in Indian Cinema.

Immortals of Meluha

The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An absolute page turner. This book is so lucid and capturing that you'll find yourself drifting away into the story. Even when you keep it down and get involved in your other commitments, you'll be beckoned by it.


Portraying Mythological characters as people next door, the language, scene buildup and character sketches don't take much time to understand the plot and set up. Word by word details of action scenes of all, how swords, knives and body's are easily being moved whenever there's a fight is simplified and imaginable. How the legend of Neelkanth unfolds and how Shiva earns his due respect from the staunch believers and followers of Shri Ram is amazing. The story inspires us that even the legends were not spared of expectations, failures, challenges, dilemas to becoming what they were destined to be. But much like them even we must follow the path of our Karma, do the best in given situation, have faith in self and allow ourselves to be guided by one supreme power when in need.  


View all my reviews

Rape and Ridiculous Logics of Law Makers…

Wherever you go, you are stalked. Even a morning walk in the park is scary with these scavengers out for lust. They are in markets, buses; wait for an auto on the roadside and you’ll see many alike, scanning you from head to toe. Their lewd comments, lecherous stares make you uncomfortable, irritated and angry at the same time. But what more can you do than to simply ignore them? When you raise your voice, shamefully they snap back at you “madam, kya baat hai?”, “kya kiya? Batao…”(with a wry smirk). And we women shy away…what else are we taught, to stay quiet, bear with things, act decently…and if we shout back at them with a reply, it brings us more of the shame. But I say, we must shout back, raise our voices and get such rascals nabbed. Why do we wait for so long and why do people ignore such things, do we wait for their last resort-RAPES? And why is a woman so scared of being a victim more than these culprits, of being RAPISTS? Doesn’t the whole equation sound absurd? Hasn’t the society in many ways already contributed to raise its men and even the so-called juveniles with a wrong value system?

Though today we call ourselves a free country, where women are supposed to be treated as equals, basis our theories. But what about men who would fight on women being given reservations in parliaments, public transports, offices, who can’t take a female as a boss or their superior. And amongst them only deep down somewhere is that sick mentality rooted of being a chauvinist. Who look at women as commodity and subject her to their irrational temperament, behaviour and conduct. They tame their women in a way that the seeds of patriarch system and sowed, passed on and in a way women of one generation ensure that the same is passed to the next generation.

Also that’s why none of these men would ever step forward to stop any of the cracked heads with malicious intent from lurking around and stalking women. And when inefficient police officials cannot nab the culprits and teach them a lesson of their lives, women are blamed for their outfits, conduct and presence in odd hours. But why aren’t these odd hours and conduct issues subject to these nymphomaniac psychotic rapists? Does it mean women should forever be subject to burqa and ghungat days once again? Whatever time slots and areas these criminals choose to molest, grope or attack women with acid, it is the fault of women found there and must be declared a no-women’s land?

Delhi has always been categorized unsafe for women and so far nothing has been done to make it any safer. But, slowly and gradually other city, states and whole of the nation too has fallen prey to such acts of dishonour towards women. You can look at the statistics of nationals and foreign national cases, what shame they bring to our country. Or easiest to do is a random sampling- ask any girl and each of them will have a few such situations when she was molested in a busy bus, at the bus stop, in the market, at a pub…any and every place. Definitely, a girl must always walk in groups, carry pepper sprays, dress decently, have the police number handy and what not. But till when and how long? Is there an end to this forever vulnerability? Who should she really rely on in this male dominated society? Is this development? Where are we headed?

The whole system is ridiculous…

And the statement that political and religious leaders in India give, about women having Chinese food, calling it all an impact and influence of western culture for villages never had such incidences, some even quoted the abduction of Sita in Ramayana, indicating that women should not cross their limits, and for the one's who have been victim to such heinous acts were even suggested to have begged the rapists and called them brothers, so these animals would have let her go. 

So, here we are... in the country of those who worship goddesses, misbehave with their own women in houses, want complete patriarchal controls but cannot take charge of their own lustful desires. Instead they have suggestive and baseless statements to make to women whom they consider as the 'weaker sex'. No wonder why people of this country indulge in female feticide, because no girl child, no females, no rapes, no population… a planet of men…so that the men can reign, by their laws… 

Wisey-Wise!

A man is as wise and aware as his experiences in life. But there’ll always be times that will startle him, giving him scope to become wiser and go beyond.       ~ Himani

The Wise: They can assess situations, know the course of actions and understand implications of the same.

But one gets wiser by mistaking on either or all of these. And then begins learning from it for future, to avoid the goof ups.

And since the wise never settle for just one thing done right or successfully, they keep craving and proceeding towards perfection in every aspect. Challenging their limits. Stretching their capabilities. They keep doing things, making mistakes and keep getting wiser with each thing undone. They sow efforts, put their acts to work, harvest results but reap lessons. Results, which can often be mistakes.

So, if you are making mistakes in life, learning from them each time, you actually are aware- where you are heading. But, if everything around you is always and largely perfect and stable, check if you are still wise…or otherwise...

PS: Being satisfied is not unwise, but being comfortably numb is.

Visual Vision and the Comic Life

Remember how every storybook in early years of schooling and pre-schooling times had an appealing picture that fascinated us. I always loved books with more pictures and found it hard to adapt to literature books in the later classes, which were picture less, heavy text laden long stories.

Picture of course is worth a thousand words and even when reading any of the best sellers we begin to visualize and take over 50 pages to have the character images in our head. Imagination is always visual if you notice and is never textual. Even to write a copy most of the times, we first play a visual scene in our head to tell the tale in words. Memories too come in images- snapshots of our life in the past.

Images rev up thoughts and sometimes it’s the other way round. Irrespective of which comes first, the visuals definitely make the whole story telling simpler. And this is where Comics and graphics come into play. A friend (Anshul, thanks man!) recently introduced me to comics, (yes I have never read any in my childhood) and I loved reading a 75 pager Romeo and Juliet published by Campfire, cut short, crisp and visual. And another one in the list was a 68 pager Leonardo Da Vinci again published by Campfire and I was in love and awe with the great artist, completely drawn to his life and mind-bent.

Also recently there may Graphic Novels based on hindi flicks that are seeing a prospective rise in demand. Though there always existed a market for the English ones. If you still have doubts on what are graphic novels and how they differ from comics, it’s simply a descriptive novel with graphics.

The Graphic Drama Spreads, an article in today’s Delhi Times, once again triggered my interest in comics and it’s good to know that comics are catching up trend with readers in India once again. So what if I missed reading Champak and Chacha Choudhary in childhood, I can still do it and cover up for not reading comics now.

Life is good and so are you…

Just when I though I don’t have much in life. I’m not quite blessed and happy, as are other people around me. And while I envied friends and acquaintances of having a real happening life, I found a bright-new streak of jealousy flaming bright. Quickly I nipped it in the bud and stopped myself from getting into the non-reachable shell of inferiority. And pinged a friend. After the usual icebreaking-greetings of hey!, wssup? and howdy?, we actually began to talk from where we left last. The strings of conversations began to play again and we were ourselves. Remembering the good old times (which is human nature to reflect and smile at the past), we had the common grounds to begin talking about life from there on.  

We had our own set of ups and downs, though it looked pleasant from our facebook profiles, but life had played dice with each one of us. And that's how life is. 

I read this quote somewhere recently, which is originally by Jon Acuff,

“Never compare your beginning to somebody else’s middle.”

And it just set the ball rolling for me, straightened my line of thoughts, gave my confidence a new shine and my low-being some light.

We often look at others and envy. We look on the surface and begin to pity our lives. But often we forget to acknowledge the story on the inside, which we would never know. Every thing in life comes for a price. There’s sacrifice for every victory won. And pain bore for every glory. Fight behind every love story. Failure precedes every success. Dark always marks the dawn. And there’s a lot of pull back and warming-up before every launch.

You’ll find the grass on the other side always greener. And when you do so, step on the other side to envy yours own.

Life is good and so are you. Be yourself and live it on your own terms. Stop comparing. Stop judging. Give your ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ some rest. Understand and respect your situation and how you have pulled it through so long. How bright your decisions were in those heated times in your life? There’s no another you. And no better could have managed it through.

Yes, you write your own destiny, but you must also know how to go with the flow. Give your horses some rest. Take it easy and find some time to thank God.

SELF-DEFAULTERS

Unsettled souls,

Ignorant of self,

Leading the mortals to darkness,

Who bask in the grabbed glory of others,

With corrupt intentions,

Pathless actions,

Aimless ambitions,

They crave for recognition,

Scared of efforts,

They pull back others to race ahead,

Suppress the talented,

And rise in front of the bowed heads,

Unknown of the might of the Divine,

They go about killing peace in people,

Causing deep wounds,

That hurt forever,

Dirt of years, dampen the light within...

One day they may repent it all,

When life plays havoc to them,

They’ll rub their linen to do away with blots,

When their jaded soul will cry for help,

And regret won’t let them die...

They shall then ask for mercy,

And put their pride to rest,

Seek forgiveness from conscience that suffered,

And confess the misdeeds done to others,

Fear the lord, the supreme creator,

Harm no being and never ride on pride,

We all are his, but wonderful creations,

Defaulters on self, judging people,

Who do you think you are to alter dreams of others?

बह गए जो रंग...

आज इन रंगों को देख, न जाने हम क्यूँ फिर कुछ मायूस से हो गए...

बीते लम्हों कि यादों में फिर एक बार गुम हो गए...

सोचते है वक़त ने हमसे क्यूँ ऐसा मज़ाक किया...

हमारे जीवन में आते हुए रंगों को, क्यूँ समय से पहले बहा ले गया...

बदला जो वक़्त, हमने भी राह बदल दी...

भूल उस बुरे सपने को हमने फिर एक नई पहल कि...

पर आज इन रंगों ने सूने दामन को जो छुआ

बह गए जो रंग पहले, उनका फिर एहसास हुआ...

Colorful Tomorrow

Each day brings a brighter vision of what lies ahead. Come whatever may in life, never leave hope. No matter how hard the times are, never stop dreaming. What the sight can’t see, the vision can. Look up in the sky, with a heart full of faith, and you’ll spot colors even in the dullest moments of your life. Because 'in the fading moments of today, lie the foundations of a colorful tomorrow...'