Category: Current Affairs

What the hell!!!!

After a tiring and yet ful-fillling saturday (Wednesday- good movie!!, teaching at Eklavya Nyasa, a visit to the Ganpatis of Pune, and a 90 minutes walk from PMC to KP!!!!), I was just beginning to chill at the CCD(Devil’s Own..wowww). Suddenly I happened to glance at the Plasma TV screen, and whhaaattt… SERIAL BLASTS ROCK DELHI!!!! That was the breaking news being shown on a news channel. And I was like…..WHAT THE HELL is going on here????

Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and now our National Capital!!!! What do these terrorists think our cities are – Bomb testing grounds?? What do they think our people are – guinea pigs to their sadist fancies??? I mean, WHAT THE HELL,man!!!!

Now you must be thinking, why has this girl suddenly got agitated? Bomb-blasts are a common thing now-a-days! (Believe me, a friend actually said that to me!!) I think not…I get more and more angry with every passing attack!! C’mo guys, once can be mourned, twice can be tolerated…but how can you see such things happening to your fellows again and again and again????

As the news and the gory pics started flashing, I called up my Delhi friends to enquire about their safety.. Half of them didn’t even know that such a thing had occured! They and the rest who did, were fine, thankfully!

I was all the more enraged on knowing the locations of the bombs…Karol Bagh, Cannaught Place, Central Park, Gretaer Kailash!! Again WHAT THE HELL!!! Aimed at places that are so much frequented by commoners!!! How can you aim to kill hundreds of people, just like that?? I mean, no human can do that!! Worst of the worse, 1 bomb out of the 3 diffused was in a children’s park!! Children’s park?? CHILDREN’S PARK????  We’d seen this happening in trains, buses, temples, bus stops….. But which pathetic sadist would want to plant a bomb in a children’s park???? Isn’t there even an ounce of virtue/ humanity left in these terrorist orgs???

The irrational long mail sent by IM said that this was to avenge the bad treatment dished out to muslims…Pray how did they ensure that no Muslim got killed or even hurt during these blasts?? Just WHAT THE HELL  do these guys think they are doing??????????

Irony??

Read an article in The Times of India yesterday ( You can read it here ) . It said that Iran leads the list of countries which still allow capital punishment to children and minors. Well, horrifying, yes….. but all the more so, given the fact that Iranian children’s movies are well-known all over the world for their sensitive presentation of the world of children!!!

Irony, anyone??

My first meme!

My cousin Aditya just tagged me to this meme.. So trying my hand at it!

1) One job I’ve had:

Well, if you mean a job that pays you money, that is! Yep, I’ve had just one job for the last 2 and half years of my life(!!!). Its a typical IT industry job..do I need to say more?? 😐

2). Seven movies I could sit through repeated screenings of

  • Taare Zameen Par: Watched it thrice in the theatres, and a number of times ar other places
  • Chak De India :  Make that twice in the theatres, and rest same as above 😛
  • Independence Day: Will Smith rules!!!
  • Titanic: The mother of all grand romantic movies!
  • All the Harry Potter movies: Delightfully entertaining, no matter how many times you watch ’em
  • Parichay: The freshest old movie I’ve ever seen!
  • Mrs. Doubtfire: Sweet, funny and very touching, this movie can be the best advocate of the intensity of paternal love

Ohh and there are many others!! But these are surely at the apex!

3)Six places I’ve lived in:

  • Mapusa, Goa, India
  • Taligaon, Panaji, Goa, India
  • Trivandrum, Kerala, India
  • Kothrud, Pune, India
  • Koregao Park, Pune, India
  • Trianglen, Copenhagen, Denmark

4). Five TV shows I like:

  • Tu tu main main
  • I dream of Genie
  • Tom and Jerry
  • Friends
  • Mahabharat 🙂 Watched it a lot as a kid!

5). Four favourite “categories of” foods:

  • Chocolate, potato chips, caramel popcorn
  • Pav Bhaji, Masala dosa
  • Pizza, McVeggie(hmm..that’s on the top of my list!)
  • Coffees and pastries from CCD 🙂

6). Four places I’d rather be:

If that translates as dream holiday destinations, they’d be

  • Kashmir (esp. after having visited Kanyakumari, i really really wanna go to the Earth’s paradise)
  • Greece, sounds so exotic!
  • Niagara falls: Want to experience the vastness and force of water!
  • Konark: For many reasons, the idea of a sun temple enchants me, plus I wanna see the sun rising from the sea!

7). Four people I’m tagging:

Shahrukh!! Plz don’t do it!!!

IPL, Om Shanti Om, Zee Cine Awards, Kya aap paanchvi pass se tez hain, TV ads, movie ads, awards, ShahRukh Khan is all over it!!! All dailies and tabloids keep flashing his photographs all over their pages!!

I mean, agreed that he is the most charming ambassador any brand can ever get; I too am a bigggg fan of this guy, but……………….

 

Over-exposure can do you in, Mr. Khan!! Just like it did Amitabh Bachchan in!

Yes, SRK is the most sought-after name for any event/show; but that’s the beauty of it! If you keep making yourself available, you’ll be taken for granted, and the ‘sought-after’ factor shall diminish!!

Think about it Mr. Khan!

A tribute to the most used product of the decade!!

Guys, wondering what that is?? Yes, it indeed is: Maggi Noodles!!!!!

 Surprised?? Well, enter s/w pros, staying away from home in rented apartments/PG accos. What comes into your mind first when you think of getting a quick bite??

Ofcourse, maggi noodles!!!

What do you think of cooking after a tiring day at office, and your return to home at 10 pm?

Ofcourse, maggi noodles!!!

And yeah, esp. for the guys, what is the cuisine you are best at preparing? 😉

Ofcourse, it is maggi noodles!!!

Mannnn!! What would we do without maggi noodles!!!! 😀

Losing my views………

Was reading Sudha Murty’s ‘Wise and Otherwise’ yesterday(yeah, ok…i know its complete review is long overdue….patience guys…..). In one of those stories, Ms. Murty asks her son what he thinks are the 3 most revolutionary things of the 20th century, and he gives a really beautiful answer…..

It was then when i realized, that I would have been left speechless if I were to be asked the same question. I tried to think hardddd, but couldn’t really frame a nice answer…. 😦 The same thing happened to me at the cycle rally (about which i wrote here), when I was asked to write a slogan on the banner….I scratched my head hard, but couldn’t come up with a real bright one, and had to make do with an average, so-so one. 😦 That used to not be the case with me some time back, when I had an opinion about most of the things under the sun! and a nice quip always ready  to present it in a good way, as well!  Godd…what’s happening to me!! <talking to myself> Come back…come back!!!1

Cycling away, to health and wealth!! :-)

Last saturday, Krunal, Hemanth and the other enthusiastic and enterprising members of the Green Brigade of my office organized a cycling expedition from our Mangaldas office to TRDDC office at Hadapsar. The purpose was promoting cycling as a pollution-free and healthy way of commutation. And although I had been working till 2:30 pm the nite before, I was all set to go for it at 7 am!

Reached the Mangaldas office, searched for a cycle from among the ones that were manaed to be brought on rent by the Green Brigade, didn’t find any that were short enough, so drove Joseph away from his, and go onto the cycle! 😀

Believe me, although I was mounting(Har Har Mahadev!!! lolzzz) a cycle after many many years(and that too a Gents’ one-see the pic below); it was as though I’d been doing it everyday…. kisine sahi kaha hai, “U can never forget how to walk, cycle and swim!”

Lo!! There we were, a group of young and old cyclists, peddling away on the roads of Pune, with Tipur doing the one-hand cycling act, and happily clicking pictures of the bandwagon!

We had been warned by all the other non-enthusiasts that cycling all the way to Hadapsar is not going to be easy, and that we’ll drain ourselves, but but but!! It was NOTHING of that sort!!! Cycling for 30-35 minutes to Hadapsar and back, with a short Nimbu-Paani break in between, and a sandwich for restoring our lost calories later; didn’t tire us….instead it lifted our stamina, and our spirits! 🙂

 

In fact, I even started thinking about dropping my idea of buying a bike, and switching over to a bicycle!! That’s sucess for the mission of the cycling expedition, rite? 🙂

The world’s a small place!!

I had been to Denmark sometime back (I know, I know, a blog about that is long overdue….but alas!! Let’s take that up some other time and continue this story for the time being…), and bought a T-shirt for my father with Copenhagen and Denmark written on it, along with a cute print of a Danish riverside. He wore it, and went out to get a Pizza from Dominos. And lo!! He met a Danish tourist there, who exclaimed that he’s also from Denmark, and the two had a nice conversation there!!!

Oh my God!! The world’s such a small place!!! 🙂

Bollywood movie dialogues are getting crispier!!

That Bollywood movie dialogues are all about ‘inspired’ (read as copied) lines,is a popular notion amongst most of us, and not without a reason! There was a time, and a long one, wher bollywod dialogue never recovered from the shackles of typical romance and typical comedy and typical action and typical revenge dialogues!!

But no longer!! Of late, the dialogues in Bollywood movies are not inspired, nad sometimes even manage to be inspiring!! Hard-hitting, comic, true, satirical, all kinda genres of dialogue hav of late got a new polished look and feel!

Take for instance Aamir Khan’s explaination In ‘Taare Zameen Par’ about “Khayal rakhna kya hota hai”.  So subtle and yet on-the-mark! Or the one about Solomon islands…. really good!

Then, agreed that ‘Om Shanti Om’ is a pathetically over-the-top movie, and many of its lines are a bit too filmy for my tastes, but somehow, I am beginning to like the dialogue between SRK and Deepika, when he tells her that the whole world loves her, and she says that, “kabhi kabhi poori duniya ki chahat zaruri nahi hoti, pyaar kisi ek se mile to bhi kaafi hota hai!!” So true na!! But I guess, it’s safe in a way to be loved by all in general and not by some ONE person in particular. Atleast when the good times roll, we won’t be left with nothing…There still will be be someone who will love you after all! 🙂

 And ofcourse coming to comedy, the one wherein SRK says “Takliya” and himself exits!! Simply hilarious!!!

But yeah, in this category, Kareena’s lines in ‘Jab We Met’ are the icing on the cake! Right from her “Bahot!! Main apni favorite hun!!” statement, to “Bhatinda chal, milwaati hun“; from the speech-like “Apni to vaat lagi hai, isse bura kuchh nahi ho sakta, ab sirf achha ho sakta hai aur hoga!!” to the self-realization-like “Agar meri life aisi hai, to mujhe pata hoga ki meri wajah se hai!”, the dialogues of this movie are entertaining, crisp, funny and yet loaded with meaning!

There are a lot more dialogues like that, but so much for now! Gosh!! After such a long break I’ve finally WRITTEN about something! 🙂 Let me bask in that joy first! LOL!! More, soon!

Valentine’s Day is cominggggg!!!!

Yeah, so it’s the 13th of February, just a day to go for the Valentine’s Day!!! “So why are you bothered??”, quips my colleague at office, “Aren’t you single, and happily so????”

Goddd!! colleagues at work!!!! relatives!! friends’ mummies!!!! It seems that the only job remaining on their ‘to-do’ lists is to find a suitable match for ‘ellligible’ young girls around! Ohh, but we are deflecting away from the topic!

Hmm, so I was talking about Valentine’s Day!! Loyal readers might remember that I have already written a post about Valentine’s day sometime before; but whereas that one addressed an issue about V-day/D-day conflict, this one is on a much lighter note… While we were chit-chatting at office, we just realized that this was the silver jubilee of the Valentine’s days in our lives!! (Hahaha!) So I thought why not, ek article, Vday ke naam!!

For starters, how many of you know how Valentine’s day originated? Not the specific details, but atleast an idea?

Valentine’s day celebrates the life of Saint Valentine who during some king’s rule(amnesia!!!!), inspite of the king’s orders that soldiers in army weren’t allowed to get married; guided them towards matrimonial harmony. Got beheaded as a result!<sigh!>

So Valentine’s day came into being, as a celebration, a commemoration, a remembrance, to the the right to love, and take love forward, into marital bliss!!(That’s sad to some, is it???LOL)

Anyways, yeah, so that’s it that there is to it! Or is it?

What is Valentine’s day to us today? A day to spell out your feelings for your loved ones, a day to take out time for your ‘someone special’, a day to sit and discuss about how many shops the saffron brigade will destroy today? And ofcourse, the day for quintessential debate- are we aping the western culture?? !!&&##$$$

 Well, as I have previously said, it is just another occasion for me to celebrate LIFE!! We are so busy with our work otherwise, that we seldom get time to pamper ourselves… So do it on V day…what’s the harm?? Me and my room mates surely did so last year.. Cooked an elaborate meal of Pizza and Custard, did up our house with flowers, and enjoyed!!!! 🙂

Now, there’s so much more that I can write about all this, but, why don’t you guys chip in this time? Lemme know what you feel about Valentine’s day, and also how you celebrate it in your own way.. And then, we can have a further discussion! 🙂 What say people?

Moods!

Confused, Happy, Sad, Angry, Irritated, Anticipating, Waiting, Frustrated, Apprehensive, Curious, Excited, Fidgety, Agitated, Helpful, Helpless, Confident, Smiling, Crying, Laughing, Pleading, Badgering, Pestering, Consoling, Hopeful, Hopeless, Good, Bad, Deserted, Scared, Resigned!

The moods I have gone through, in the last 2-3 months!!!!! In no particular order. Oh what a time it was, is, and will be!!! <sigh!!>

Perspectives, perspectives……… (4)

 Hasn’t anybody heard the saying, that “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it!” ??Even if they haven’t, can’t they think about it themselves??

Is it necessary that a person who’s happy-go-lucky doesn’t feel bad?? Can’t it be that he does feel bad, and would also appreciate some kind words or deeds; but doesn’t want to publicize this and spoil his mood and that of the others around him???

Why can’t most people understand these simple things????

Knock Knock!!!! Who’s there?? It’s me, myself!! :-)

Hey all!!

First of all, please accept my most sincere apologies for not being on the blogging scene regularly. If I’d asked myself why, there wouldn’t be any particular reason I could give. I was busy, I was pre-occupied with things, I was not in the mood or the right frame of mind to write….. No excuse is really valid!! So, I said what the hell, let’s (re)start all over!! 🙂 And what better category to start with, than my take on movies n remakes??   😛

Haven’t caught many movies in the mean-time(and dont’ ask me why!!<sigh>)..<oh what a rhyme..lollzz>:-D, and haven’t written about any, too…The last one I wrote about is Die Hard 4.0!!!  So here I go!! Do read my next post 🙂

In search of the First Citizen of India………

Once every five years, our country experiences an embroglio over who should be (s)elected as the First Citizen, i.e. the President of India. This year too, a lot of bandwidth, that of print, television, internet, and human mind as well is being used up over the discussion about who should be the next President of India, and why. The 3 key names in the fray are of Pratibha Patil, BhairoSinh Shekhavat and APJ Abdul Kalam. These 3 contenders have the respective advantages of being an eminent woman politician, experience, and being the role model of the country.

I shall not dwelve into the issue of which political party shall support which candidate and what reasons. We have heard, read and spoken a lot about that already. What I would like to dwelve over is what are the qualities that we are looking at, while selecting the first citizen of India.

Well, strategically or politically, the Indian President doesn’t have very high powers of decision. So, I don’t think its necessary to have someone with great experience in the political field. I think Presidency is an honour, a token of appreciation for the path-breaking work an individual has done, and an acknowledgement that inspite of being a supremo in his/her own field, the candidate has enough knowledge about the functioning of the country.

We need to see the President as someone with a vision, a vision of betterment of a country whose first citizen he/she is. Someone who can motivate the youth, and remind the elderly of their golden youth!  He should have a clean reputation, keen civic sense, and ideally should have contributed enough to the country to bestow upon him the honour of being its first citizen. He should have enough knowledge of how the country runs( sounds as though it were a machine, but now speaking of it, isn’t it analogous to one, sans the human aspect??), no political/reginal/communal bias, and we, as a country should be proud to have him as our President.

So do any names strike your minds? NRN was in the race for some time, and yes, I feel he deserved to stay and win the race. For after all, he was second only to Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, according to me, the novel choice for the first citizen of India.

What say readers??