Heard Hrithik and Sussanne Roshan’s news

It is said that when God gives us a lot, he also keeps something away from us; perhaps the idea is not to allow perfection so easily. Great achievers had some fallacies or the others. This is why in India since childhood when we pray, we ask for apart from other things, “santosh” (content). Scriptures are full of verses which say that richest person is one who has content; poorest who is unsatisfied even after being king. But it is so hard to practice! We humans are still fighting against the vices thousands years ago our Rishis tried to fight.  All the material progress can be wiped out by one act of nature; but are we growing within? 

When I Sold Laddus

Our school used to celebrate ‘fun fair’ on every Republic Day. We used to sell its tickets in the neighborhood and then ran stalls selling sweets and games. One year our Principal also gave me the opportunity to sell. Perhaps my qualification was my personality which suited it most; so he declared “Rahul will sell laddoos”! I got a tray of laddoos to keep company for the whole day while my friends enjoyed being vagabonds as usual. It did not help either that the Bundi Laddoos were of immensely tempting color and aroma and I always had a sweet tooth. Though I found it surprising that not many came to buy so lovely laddoos which cost Re 1 each. By evening, since the sales were low, I had to eat some of those and keep the money in my collection box out of my own pocket money. With regretful heart, I returned the remaining laddoos in the tray and explained the accounting of sales to the Principal. I think it is always better to be customers than salesmen; especially if the items of sale are so delicious…

(Childhood memories...)

Supporting Narendra Modi!

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We live in a country where a young boy who once had to sell tea to passengers in trains along with his father could grow up and become the Prime Minister, using his hard work, honestly and talent; despite big empires and international forces working against him. The day Narendra Modi becomes our PM, we shall prove that "the Indian dream" works; our democratic system works (no matter how hard some leaders try to break it into pieces); and no matter how much some leaders complain and crib, we have plenty of reasons to be proud of!

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Thought about Narendra Modi coming to UP from Gujarat and an interesting observation came to mind. Lord Krishna was born in Mathura (in present day UP). Lord Krishna left UP and settled in Dwarka (in present day Gujarat) making it his capital. So the "UP-Gujarat connection" appears to be very old; Modi is only refreshing it!

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Giving and Receiving it While Debating

Someone wondered why people who are seeing putting hard truths even at the cost of hurting others personally, take it otherwise and are offended when they are at the receiving end. If they expect others to take it, why can’t they themselves take it without getting offended?  

I think it is not about "truth" per se. There are people who choose to put their opinion bluntly (not all opinions can be called true/false, so I think key is that they share their opinion which they know may not be liked). When it comes to receiving feedback, they may not agree with the other person who is trying to give blunt feedback to them; and they get angry because they take it personally and feel insulting. Their anger is understandable and I don't think it is hypocritical if you are thinking it as, since while sharing rude opinion they know that the other person will get angry. Getting angry is a common way people react to rude personal comments and in such case both parties are getting angry, so it becomes a game. Just like badminton or tennis; both players hit the other hard; and if one is not hitting hard it is considered weakness rather than being gentle.

I think comparison with games is good way to understand it. Arguing and debating is king of "game", literally and figuratively. I myself play such "game" at times :) I think when I am playing it, even if my comment may hurt the other person, I am not personal. Means it does not matter who the other person is, at the heat of argument I would still say what I wanted to say, strongly/bluntly. Just like when we are playing the game, it is not that we are "personally" trying to defeat the other person. The other player can be just anyone and we shall play at our best. And when it comes to receiving it :), we take it in the same sportsperson's attitude. After a few weeks we should ideally forget who was exactly the person, who said what. So we should be debating with a person for months/years all on different topics without agreeing much, but we seldom quit :) Because it is a game...

An Encounter

It is not regular that we encounter a policeman in our daily lives. That day was one for a change. As the policeman settled himself down on a seat of the bus I was also travelling in, I decided to have a good look at him. He had boarded the bus carrying a long barrelled heavy gun and a leather bag with some items hidden in it. His uniform indicated that he should be from the lower ranks, perhaps a hawaldar. His body was rugged but strong; skin tanned and made coarse by the elements; and his hand bore marks of several cuts and bruises from the past. Somehow that brought respect in my heart for him. His cap fitted his gradually balding head very well, which he adjusted once in a while perhaps as a little self-indulgence he could afford. Act two began when his cell-phone rang. To my surprise, it was a touch-phone which he preserved well in a leather case. As he answered his phone there was something that was not sailing smooth. He was holding and speaking in his cell-phone as if one spoke on a Walkie-talkie! With one hand he held his heavy gun tight while with the other he struggled to manoeuvre his touch-screen cell-phone like a walkie-talkie. I could notice the other two men sitting behind him busy controlling their chuckles. After a while the object of my distraction, our policeman, reached his destination and left to get down. The other two men smiled looking at each other. It was interesting that men who perhaps knew nothing about guns could laugh at one who knew how to fire and shoot but won’t know how to handle a cell-phone! Oh man! Men and their machines…

Yippee Noodles!

I used to wonder if some Indian Brand can give challenge to Maggi (from Swiss Nestle). Now I find Yippee very good. It tastes amazing and unique; noodles do not break at all and everything appears like a winning brand! I think another success from the house of ITC!

Thoughts: Financial Vs Emotional Cheating

A person cheats another one in relationship and yet people don’t judge him or brand him cheater or dishonest. On the other hand if someone cheats another one financially, the person is readily branded cheater or dishonest by society. Is it that society has become so much materialistic? Is it materialism at display in such different treatment of emotional cheating Vs financial cheating?

I think people have not become so much materialistic but they have become skeptic  Even people who are very honest and ethical in personal life, when asked to talk or share opinion about honesty and ethics, may speak negatively or may avoid talking about it, or think of other aspects (e.g. financial as you said), because of skepticism…

So I am in a bus and an old lady is fighting with the conductor, telling that she does not have money to reach the destination but please allow since she has no other means to go. I see the scene but decide not to help the lady with a 20 or 50 rupee note. One person watching this can say that this is materialism’s victory over emotions (since I did not pay and old lady) but actual reason can be different (I doubting whether she was genuinely poor or faking it). Since no one can be sure about others emotions (people fake it most of the time), we ignore giving emotional responses. As a spectator, we can never know who actually cheated in any relationship; it may be that only one side of the coin was visible to us. So we tend to ignore and not judge people by their responses to emotions. On financial matters, it is easy to judge and hence we can call people dishonest easily…

For cheating in general, from personal experiences I see seldom a person cheats another twice financially. One can take legal recourse or break the friendship with that person forever. Now on emotional cheating or personal cheating etc, we never know why the person cheated in the first place. Was it a revenge for some other cheating received? Even if the person cheated, the other person may decide neither to take legal action nor to break off the relationship forever, because of various reasons like dependency or need. So as a society or community or observing individuals, we can seldom be sure what cooked up, what led to what, and even if we are sure that A cheated B, there is high probability that A may not cheat C or D (or us) since each relationship by their nature are unique . Since it is very difficult to judge relationships, in general we don’t call people honest/dishonest by how a particular relationship turns or ends… If one cheated another financially, one, it is easy to prove and be sure about, and second since financial transactions are not really unique like each relationship, we may decide to label a person as a fraud or cheater with confidence…

E.g. a person has piled up credits in his grocery bills. If I am a medical shop owner, I would know that the person is very much likely to default on medical bills also and hence I won’t sell anything to him on credit. But a friend fighting with another friend and being insensitive towards him, does not lead me to also breaking off with him fearing the same to happen with me. I can be cautionary but since his ability to hurt me is also decided by my ability to react, or his actions are guided by other person’s actions, I may not feel threatened. Financial transactions are give OR take. Relationships are give AND take. So both are very different…

Movies and Moments

‘Queen’

The movie ‘Queen’ is a great entertainer, though we went to watch it thinking it to be a ‘family movie’ while it had so many ‘dirty’ segments that we felt let down many times. We had observed that so many people in the theatre had taken their kids and entire families to watch the movies, perhaps under the same impression seeing promos and many of them would have felt embarrassed. Nevertheless it had many touching moments; if I recall some of those:

- Rani (Kangana’s character) was depressed but when she found company of three other guys who had more unfortunate life events behind them, due to relativity she thought her life was not that miserable. It gave her strength to cope up.

- At the very beginning of the movie, its touchiest part came when Vijay told Rani that he could not marry her. Rani’s reaction to this news was a big test for Kangana Ranaut and she came out very impressive in her acting. In fact this movie should be remembered as a great show of acting skills and charisma of Kangana Ranaut. She was very good at it and this may be one of the very few Bollywood mass movies where lead actor is a female.

- Rani left for Paris and Amsterdam all alone and managed it well. But she was fortunate to have come across good people otherwise her adventure could have gone horrid. In that sense, the movie was not leaving a very good message. Though the transformation of Rani from one who obeys always to everyone (her honest statement sums it well: “tell me one person whoever in this world to whom I have not agreed and obeyed always”) to the one who is able to take her own decisions was truly liberating. In this sense, the movie was putting up a very valid case and example.

- Rani’s ultimate rejection of her fiancé and boyfriend Vijay after he tried to come back in her life was on the surface disappointing but I think Vijay deserved it. It was interesting how he was thinking Rani of not being his equal status, while in two weeks Rani had outgrown him. Near the end of the story, Rani was more forward thinking and liberated person than Vijay who was appearing as a boring damp shrub. Another interesting phenomenon was when Vijay got a high paying job how he changed colours yet at his core he had kept his previous philosophies. Rani on the other hand had truly grown up with experiences…

Return to Paradise

I watched this 1998 movie only recently on TV and was immensely touched by it. I read that this is a remake of a French film ‘Force majeure’ released in 1989. Nevertheless I think this movie; its story and all the performances remain one on the best I have ever seen.

Three boys had great fun holidaying in Malaysia and unknowingly did a small mistake of losing a rented bicycle and are caught for keeping drugs (though this part they did not do unknowingly). Two of them return to the US while one remains in the beautiful iland country which appeared like paradise to them and is to be executed for the crime in Islam dominated country. The other two went on with their lives but in a dramatic manner are told about their friend’s situation and given option to share the blame and tolerate tough prison for at least two years in order to save the life of their third colleague. Their reactions, psychology, thought processes and working of the mind is very well captured. It is irony that one of the two who agreed first to take the blame and go to prison backs out first and one who never wanted to, keeps his promise due to his own reasons.

It was also very interesting how the guy they were going to save tells them that he won’t have returned to save his friends, if he was in their place! His faith in God and his disbelief in God’s presence due to painful prison life were also very touching. It was also an irony that the guy hanged for the crime was the ‘best’ person and a good human being and responsible citizen amongst the three.

This is such an excellent movie which touches our soul and no viewer would remain unmoved watching it… 

Happy Holi to everyone!

Happy Holi to everyone!

New Delhi World Book Fair 2014

If you visit Delhi World Book Fair 2014, remember this stall for some interesting titles. My poems are included in two of their books of Hindi poetry, named "Kasturi" and "Pagdandiyan" published in last 2 years.

Movies and moments - Feb’14

Gunday


Watching the promos the movie sounded cool. After watching it I felt happy to have gone to the theatre. Gunday shows passions of friendship between Ranveer and Arjun very well. Action scenes and stunts are also mind blowing. I liked the way Ranveer loved his friend Arjun – even if Arjun would try to hurt him, he kept his cool and looked at opportunity to explain the situation to Arjun and to make things right again. I think he should have somehow made Arjun talk to Priyanka as soon as he came back from Dhanbad, or even a telephone call would have been good. Or as soon as Priyanka made her decision, they should have immediately gone to Dhanbad if feasible. But the whole confusion happened because of communication gap. (misunderstandings due to communication gaps or failure is the single theme running in all the movies for all these years – this has been repeated so much that I wonder why characters from the world of movies don’t learn any lessons!) Anyways…. I can say that after watching Gunday I realized that so far there is no Ranveen Singh movie which I have not liked!

One by Two

We thought this movie would be ‘different’ and it indeed turned out to be. I enjoyed it and the movie was fun. I loved each character in the movie. Abhay Deol’s uncle who was an IPS officer and yet wrote and read out poems in functions is my favourite character. Next comes Abhay’s father who was leading a miserable yet funny life. Then his mother who was all protective and loving, yet not understanding what her son wanted. The concept where two people were missing some common things in life and all that they lacked was connecting of dots, was very interesting.

Chennai Express

Tired of watching typical ‘masala’ Bollywood movies, we had given it a miss when it released in the theatres. I watched it on TV now. For most part of the movie, it was just for ‘time-pass’ but when it came to the end when the story got emotional, it was really good. After spending time together and having done so much adventure, the characters played by SRK and Deepika realize that they were better to remain together. At the least it was common attachment. If I have to travel, I don’t feel like leaving the house. If I travel by train and reach my destination, I don’t feel like leaving the train too! When it happens so with trains and places, definitely it is stronger with people. Though I don’t think SRK and Deepika’s characters were showing much similarities or compatibilities in the movie; they were more like opposite ends of everything; but in that way they were indeed enjoying life better. And having gone through the turmoil together, it is understandable that they did not find courage to go separate ways. As it is said that they couple which goes through tough times together, gets their mutual bond strongest. What is a partnership which has seen only good time and never a bad time? Being untested, it is unreliable… Anyways, coming back to the movie, I also loved SRK near the end of the movie. These days he is not making many movies and hence I had lost touch with him. But even in this movie like many of his others, we find so many qualities and character traits that we can’t remain without liking him. He never meant harm to anyone in the world; he only wanted to go about his ways silently; but the world won’t allow him. Everyone created troubles for him and even though he tried to be nice to others. It was heart warming to see SRK’s role. There was a scene when SRK and Deepika were together feeling helpless and the whole village is against them and snatch them away from each other, it was very a touching scene. Also loved SRK’s dialogues when he speaks for Deepika in front of her father, asking him why he wants to force his opinion and how come he cared nothing for her own personal opinion. Surely, a lot of injustice is done to children by their parents in the name of parental guidance… Overall, full marks to this movie for emotional content. For comedy, I found those overdone, and for action and fight scenes, those were nonsense and ‘bakwas’.

Besharam

In Ranbeer Kapoor’s Besharam, there is a scene where Inspector Chulbul Chautala takes side of Ranbeer and points gun at his wife. His wife asks him if that is what she gets after so many years. Definitely Chulbul Chautala loved his wife Bulbul Chautala; but he was fed up of her ways of inviting corruption and bribery and hence loses his cool and picks up his courage for the first time and points gun at her. From her perspective, it was a very touching moment. May be corruption, money making etc were just her ways to make life some more interesting than it was for them. Also in a later episode when she also dresses up to go with her husband to the gangster’s den, putting it lightly while actual reason touched the foundations of her love for her husband, appeared very touching.

Saw Monorail in Mumbai

We saw Monorail in Mumbai today and felt good about it. In Pune we are waiting for Metro Project to come up, which has been approved. Before that Metro rail in Delhi and Sea Link in Mumbai have been very good big projects. Even in our locality in Pune, two new beautiful Flyovers have been inaugurated now for which construction had started about 1.5 year back. Certainly some good work is being done by govt which is appreciable...