Aankhon hi aankhon mein kare baatein..

Bollywood restored my faith in itself by churning out the sweet dish- Barfi. After a long array of movies either advocating mindless violence or portraying non-sense dirty jokes, Barfi comes as a wonderful respite. For the director who made films such as Life in a metro, Gangster it os only deserving to make an entry for Oscar nomination.
I agree that scenes have been copied from "The notebook" or should I say inspired, but nonetheless it has been a successful attempt at portraying the same scenes within Indian cinema. Very few directors in the history have been successful at adapting a different cinema and showing it to Indian audiences.
Each scene in the movie has been inter-woven wonderfully with the characters doing perfect justice to each scene. The movie has very few dialogs, the hero can barely speak his own name and the actress just calls out his name on few occasions which the hero cannot even listen (he is born deaf and dumb), but the journey on which director takes you across and into their lives leaves you speechless and wanting for more.Unless someone points, you will not realize that you have been listening to the background score for so long. Music is the soul of this movie. The story stretched to a good 2.5 hours and the audience is left mesmerized and touched by their lives.
At so many instances in the movie, I felt overwhelmed by the fact that the actor cannot listen, and wished secretly that may be at some point he could have. The story takes the audience through the characters lives and audience cries, laughs along with them. There is sympathy, anger, love and compassion ebbing out from the audience as the characters go through varous phases in their lives. It will be worthy to mention that Ranbir and Priyanka have done a fabulous job at acting out their characters.

 There is a good feeling after the movie. It is as if you have known the characters personally. It feels that they are a part of your life and you want to know more. Anurag has strategically given the movie the mystery edge ,  the romantic bent and the comic element at the perfect timing. The movie never feels long. It just feels right. After the movie you would never say "this scene was not required" or what was the purpose of this scene.

After a long time , a MUST Watch.

Itti si hansi
Itti si khushi
Itta sa tukda chand ka
Khwabon ke tinkon se
Chal banayeinn aashiyaan ....

Mirror Mirror, tell the truth!

So often, I see posts/messages/pictures where a group of hooligans are indulging in vandalisation and arson of  public/communal property. Two thoughts instantly cross my mind : If this is true and if it is then why are they doing it? Did the person who posted the pic actually verified it or is it just a trick of photoshop.

My heart is filled with sadness to see mob participating in such hooliganism and I wonder about their intent and purpose.
What benefit of ideology does one derive in destruction, loot and killing of fellow men. How do they justify rape and killing of women in light of the "so-called" bigger purpose for which they are fighting?
Of course the leader of the group is reveling in the success of his power game and planning strategy to further loot the nation but why doesn't the "mob" realize it. Why don't they realize that they are just pawns in the hands of the others who are purely motivated by selfish prospects.

There is growing dilemma and disbelief and the heart tosses between faith and so-called facts. My humanist heart does not believe the pictures I see and try to convince that they may be morphed and some power hungry groups are indulging in dirty politics trying to play the age-old divide and rule the innocent gullible population. In the recent north-east fiasco, my doubts have been proved true when fake SMSs started doing the rounds to ignite anger and penetrate fear in the heart of north east Indians residing in other states of country. I felt further convinced when Govt blocked some 89 pages on social networking site Facebook and found that some 20% were posted by Hindu groups in name of Muslim community.

Not that I am a big of the current government but seriously, is this the only tactic left to win over votes and elections? Don't the propagators realize communal riots once initiation will start a fire which will engulf the entire population of India. Don't they realize that Secularism and diversity is the basic fabric of our nation. Whether India should have been a secular state or not, whether the decision to make India Secular at time of independence was right or wrong, irrespective of that , we are now a Secular nation with people of different religions , cast , cultures and languages. And the problems are to be dealt with this basic fact in our minds. We should stop fighting on what happened in past , but try to understand present and  try to make the best out of it. It is still not late. We are still not finished with our natural resources. We can still make the best use of it rather than wasting them in arson and vandalisation. We have limited resources left with so many mouths to feed. Government and politicians should  behave responsibly and try to find rational and logical solutions to our problems.

Who are you to decide whether I should live or die

Imagine your life suddenly taking a twist and you becoming bed ridden for the rest of your life. How will life be when you have to be dependent on others for the most basic necessities of life?
How will you feel when you are paralyzed below your neck and cannot move your legs?
The only thing which you can do is lie on the bed whole day, stare at the ceiling fan , cannot go out to see the sunshine , to feel the rain drops and to smell the air. You cannot get up for your basic ablutions and have to wait when someone will come over and carry you there.

Un-imaginable.. right?
Yes, we cannot imagine our life like this for split of a second  but think of those who are actually dragging on with such a life. What is wrong if they wish to die a peaceful death rather than die each day?
Forget the financial angle, the moral angle just think of the agony which the person goes through each day, waits on his bed and waits for his days of life to get over. With what hope do we motivate terminally ill patients to live -- with the hope that their death will come soon?
It souds tragic that only death can help them get rid of the chronic pain and suffering and it feels even more tragic when we cannot do anything about it.
I have a question to those who are of the opinion that how can you willigly let go of your loved ones -  With what definition you proclaim them to be your loved one when your love for him/her is limited to your selfish interests. With what aspirations you want to keep the loved one alive when you cannot provide a day's happiness to him/her? With what right you call yourself the loved one when the only thing you care about is yourself?


Tony Nicklinson lost his right-to-die in a british court.
Everytime someone loses such a battle in court,  the so-called ruling mocks at  the entire judicial system that promises justice to one and all.
It raises doubts and gives birth to apprehensions on humanity. Whatever happened to compassion and kindness. Did god send us for this? During nights, will our conscience give us the beauty sleep we need?
It is high time now that we revisit the laws, and make the world a better place to live, and peace to those who are dying each day in the name of life.

Back again :)

So I am writing after a long long time
I have been thinking of writing down for the past two months I suppose.. .and I have a long list of things in my mind to write about.. let’s see if I remember all that and am able to write it down

** Added later : All three blog posts are not about the topics on which i wanted to write so my list is still pending and will be completed in November ; I have promised it to myself

Open Book is not cheating

The thought of writing this blog came to my mind while I was writing my last exam today ;
There were discussions going on in class while examination was going on and the school teacher shouted back : “Cheating ke liye kitaabein de to di hai, aur kya chiaye ”(You have books ; what else do you need to cheat)
And I wanted to write on this topic at that very moment ; which is this that open book examination is not cheating ;
People have this tendency to smirk and reply back “oh Its an open book exam “ and what is the benefit of examination if you are provided with books ; and I completely fail to understand why people still live in the world where examination equals memory power ;
Examination is to examine whether you posses the knowledge or the right skill ; and whether you have understood the subject by heart ; so in life whenever you encounter any such thing ; how will you react ; and to the best of my knowledge I think books only help us in proving that yes we know it right ;
Critics of Open book forget that in practical life you are provided with best of all the resources you wish to access;
What is required is a thorough understanding of subject ; concept ; logical flow and the correct aptitude towards the subject and not how well we are able to memorize the words in book and produce it back ;
There is nothing wrong with referring to a book and mind you after giving four exams I can bet in saying that you cannot afford to study the book for the first time in exam ; you can only take advantage of an open book examination if you have thoroughly gone through the book ; know what is the flow of thoughts and contents by your own index not by the book’s .
Teachers who set the paper are not fools. They realize the difference and hence the paper;
Yes you are a bit more relaxed ; less pressurized as you know the book is with you ; and your creativity while writing long essays goes for a toss as you always think that the book has better answers :P

My first semseter again :)

So Semester ends and I am a happy happy soul today.

It’s such a relief when you realize that your exams are done and you enjoy some break ;

Today while coming back from my exam centre I thought of writing down my entire first semester experience which has been amazingly wonderful till now.

Studying after a long time has been fun and hectic. Although my close friends would not agree on the fun part because they know how much I bug them just before the exam night when I know nothing and panic bug settles inside.

So studying again after a sabbatical of exact two years has been associated with a lot of enthusiasm ; brimming excitement to meet new people ; and then I almost overflow with joy at times realizing that after the end of this course I would be awarded with an MS degree ;

Practically I don’t have much expectations from this degree as such or what this degree does to my CV but had I not been doing this course I would have crossed two more years of my life ; value adding nothing to my life so I am more than happy adding something to my life ;

First Day:

So I have missed the most fun part of my course which is that my classes are held at India Habitat Centre, Lodi road J Ye YE

Well I started writing about IHC and it seems it is material for a separate blog post which you can find here.

So I reached the place with slight nervousness ; enthusiasm brimming to meet new people and the joy of starting something new in my life; First day was just a inaugural session and my joy doubled when I realized the constitution of my class;

I think that is with any post graduation course ; my batch has people varying from different backgrounds : software engineers to civil engineers ; engineers to academia ; top class executives to one year experienced ; from Army colonels to Writers ; from Chartered Accountants to speakers;

The batch is rich in content; in experience and most of all in people :)

It becomes a lively session during the classes when there are discussions going around; people interpret things according to their experience and ask questions;

So overall I am enjoying the course; loving visiting IHC ; relishing food at Eatopia ; and basking in the glory that I am doing MS :P except that examinations get too hectic ; Have to give 4 exams in two days and at those precise moments of despair and panic I wonder why on earth did I join this course ;