Not All Good Deeds have Good Consequences

Every time we pass through those heavy traffic signals, we definitely find some street kids asking for money. Some give them money, some don’t. I don’t. I am sure all of us have there own logics. I sure do have my own. I came across this thing while working for an NGO in Noida that worked for Slum Kids. I just wanted to write this to make people aware that not all the right deeds have right consequences.

The kids that we used to teach were of age 3 – 12 years old. In the weekends we used to organize classes as all of us were working, with off on weekends. So we used to teach this bunch of 13 odd students. While interacting with them we came to know that a few of them are street beggars. Although they don’t want to beg, but their parents force them to do so to have an extra source of income. So at the time when they should be learning they are made to earn on the street. And for those who think that begging is the safest thing in the world then I would like to correct them that this is not the reality, on the street you are left all alone and there are goons who would steal money from these kids and beat them up. There are elder beggars who bully these small kids. They are also subjected to physical harassments. Begging is a very easy way of earning money and these professional beggars have found out that kids are most suited for this kind of roles and that’s where the exploitation starts from. And every time we give money we are actually strengthening the belief of those heartless people who make these kids beg.

So the next time you say no to a street kid while begging, you are doing more good than bad…

Fun At Work!!!

Its been long time since I wrote something interesting, not only that it has been really boring. So I thought to write something interesting and for that I thought of putting on my creative hat on but it didn’t fit, so I am back to my non-sense self.
Well let’s talk about my office, they have these clubs kinda thing that we used to have in our colleges where they do all sort of things, quizzes, competitions, festivities, etc. So this week they are celebrating the women’s day and for that they have this competition where you have to choose the most inspiring women in the office.
I was about to vote when I realised that there are so many women and they inspire me so much in so many different ways that I really got confused and decided not to vote. I mean I have this girl in the office, so hot looking that she inspires me to come to office everyday. Then there are girls in my bay who inspire me to work, you have girls in other bays who inspire me to take break from the work and then there are others who make me leave the office... with so many inspiring personalities around I was in a soup over the decision for the most Inspiring one of them all...

Who Am I?

I took this self administered personality test that helps you understand know who you are, what would have happened to me, I mean I would have never know who I am. These tests are as good as they are bad, I mean they are good only if they are able to tell you what you want to hear. If they tell things like you are cheesy little pervert you would down right reject the test, but if the same one tells you that you are the Prince Charming then even I would say that this is the best TEST EVER. So I took this MBTI test and the results showed that I am a promoter, don’t know what that mean, but I am a Promoter and of course it says a lot of nice things and I am damn sure that I must be a promoter, gotta start promoting something right away.

Gulaal: Powerplay

Anurag Kashyap is certainly riding high on his Dev D success, but Gulaal is a different genre altogether. It’s a story about power, politics and all that takes to make it big.
The movie starts on a truly powerful note. Kay Kay Menon, delivering a long but inspiring monologue, which sets the tone for the movie.
The movie talks about Rajputs who want to have their own share of land and rule, separate country called Rajputana. Kay Kay Menon being the flag bearer of the cause. He starts with college politics, as that’s the breeding ground for every politically awakened youth. Raja Choudhry plays the part of a simpleton who is forced into this world of powerplay after murder of his roommate Abhimanyu Singh who was contesting for the position of GS. Ayesha Menon debuts in this movie, she plays the role of a guitar strumming, blood spewing seductive vixen, for whom power means everything. Aditya Srivastav as Ayesha Mohan’s brother is the person who tries to dethrone Kay Kay Menon and tries all the tricks in the book, including getting Kay Kay Menon seduced by his sister, to get what he wants. Then there are brilliant cameos played by Jessy Randhawa, Piyush Sinha and others.
A special mention Deepak Dobriyal’s portrayal of Bhati is awesome, he is one actor to watch out for in this movie and movies to come. After a brilliant performance in Delhi 6, he backs it up with another power packed one.
The movie was made even before Dev D and probably that suggests the starcast with a high dose of Anurag Kashyap entourage with Kay Kay Menon and Aditya Srivastav again locking horns. This is a tale of political battle brewing up in Rajasthan where the Rajputs want to fight for their own country and as they feel that they are wronged by the Govt of India. It also tells the story of a young college going youth who gets entwined in this battle of power.
What we see then is a long and winding road to power and deceit. The movie is brought to life by the casts who perform their characters as if they are living out of their skins. The music is great and lyrics set the tone of the movie. Piyush SInha’s lyrics are what brings a refreshingly new feel to the movie. Even the dialogues are of high standard, and no unnecessary foul mouthing.
Anurag Kashyap is a new age director and his brilliance at handling difficult subjects is nothing new. The movie leaves with lots of images, the ragging sequence where Jessy and Raj are forced into a room, when Kay Kay addresses all Rajputs in the opening sequence or the college election speech by Raj where he acts completely clueless and controlled by others, you are made to think.
Its a brilliant movie and a must watch.

The Best Bargain....

This weekend it was great, I mean we(Thulthul, Sudo and Me) watched two movies and paid for just one. We went to see this movie GULAL, it was scheduled at 10-30 and we were there till 11 and still no doors opened nor any sign of the movie, that’s when we came to know that due to some technical snags the movie is not going to be screened. What the F?
That’s when our Thulthul got into act. He acted like out-of-engineering-college-working-in-an-IT-firm guy who screams at every single thing, but this time he was right. I mean he made sure that the PVR guys pay for their faults. So we vexed them till they gave us free tickets for Curios Case of Benjamin Button and refunded for the GULAL tickets. We won, Mission Accomplished.
The next day we went and got our movie: GULAL. It is wonderful, I loved the movie.
But THULTHUL my man you rock!

...Let's Play Holi

Holi is the festivals of colours and its one of those festivals that I love to enjoy. Probably the only festival that goes across color, gender and religion. So you have everyone looking as good or as bad as everyone else, that’s the beauty of the festival. I usually go home on Holi but this was fidderent i was not able to go.
Nirepinder had plans for Holi at his place and he had informed a long time back. So the holi-day was booked for the Anita-Nirepinder party. Anuj and Komal picked me up from my place. We reached Nirepinder,s place at 12:00. We were joined by a Richa, Sud, Monika and a few other friends of Nirep and Anita. Good food, good drinks and good people to chat around what else do you need. Of course colors, so those who didn’t want to play colours like Sud, Monika and Richa had to do away with their inhibitions for color and indulge in some holi-work. Richa was treated sparingly with colors, while Monika was doused with colors. So we had a messy house, chatty people and lots of vodka shots, and for teetotallers like me and Richa, coke and grape juices. Food is always food at Nirep’s place and today was no different.
So the holi was fun and by the time we departed, we were all completely soaked with the holi fervour.
It was a wonderful holi, thanks Nirep and Anita... Cheers!

13B - A Good Concept Going Wrong

When a director has a good script he can do two things, either screw it up completely or make beautiful movie out of it. But with 13B I think the third angle comes infront, if ever a movie has been let down by its second line of command then this is the one, by second line of command I mean Editing, Screenplay and Soundtrack. Any movie dealing with this genre of horror/thriller needs to have a soundtrack that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Shankar Eshaan Loy are a brilliant lot of music directors but then when it comes to thriller they have not been able to hold on. My personal choice for music for such genre would be Salim Suleimann.
The movie talks about a close knot family, of two brothers, a sister, a mother and their wives. They move into this new house that the two brothers buy after saving a lot of money. Like any other household, yeah pretty much the same. But then things start working differently. The milk gets spoilt everyday, the puja room is not able to be set up and then there is a daily soap that is shown only in this house. Creepy, well thats just the beginning, then there is the lift that won’t work when Madhavan tries it, the neighbour’s dog won’t be enter the house and to top it all the address is 13/B, by the way if you think B is infact 1 and 3 joined together, so double whammy. So we are set for a good thriller, well the actors don’t disappoint. Madhavan is his usual self, which is good. Neetu Chandra’s looks works well for her homly image of a bahu. Poonam Dhillon, her comeback, is good. The movie talks about role of TV in our life and how we are falling victim to this machine.
The movie goes for a toss with lack of good editing, when you are making a thriller you cannot compromise on the length and the camera angles need to have cutting edge feel to it. The D.O.P needs to take a few cues from the Ram Gopal Verma thriller BHOOT, one of my fav bollywood horror movie. The flash back could have been trimmed a bit and the song sequences could have been done away with. Screenplay is poor, thats all I need to say.

Night of Desires

It was a night of desires,
And our bodies a puzzle,
Wetness and hardness
Soft and Wild
Hair and flesh
Love and Lust.

As the moments passed by
And we climbed the new heights
We fell panting and breathless
In the arms of each other,
And as we lay there, all spent,
We discovered what keeps two people glued
No not love, but desires.

The New Me!!!

Thanks Swati for the wonderful watch, I really love it...
Hey I was thinking of buying a new mobile phone for a long time now, at last I got one. Yeppiee I have a new mobile phone Nokia 5800 Xpress music, wonderfully loaded and brilliant package of needs, wants and desires.
And whats new with the new look, well I was kinda bored with the old coffee look so this one was just to make the page look a bit jazzed up and add some spunk to the blog...

Delhi 6 - Sensible Movie

A sensible movie from a sensible director that’s what I got to say about this movie. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a new age director who knows how to convert a good movie into a commercially successful one too. The only time he went wrong was when he made AKS, he was probably carried away by this creative juices, though the movie was a good attempt but never got the recognition that it needed. Then he came up with Rang De Basanti, a superb movie. Now with Delhi 6, he again tries to reach the mass with his socially responsible message with brilliant inter-weaving Ramayana as a backdrop to the movie.
Abhishek Bachchan as Roshan enacts an ABCD with good conviction. Waheeda Rehmann and Rishi Kapoor bring the old world charm with them. Sonam Kapoor is refreshingly different in the movie and pitches in with a good performance.
The first 15 minute of the movie feels like it is all over the place, but then the movie settles down with the song Arziyaan, the whole namaaz reading sequence have been wonderfully shot. The song is choreographed beautifully.
The movie makes you think that is the country that we take pride in as the largest democratic and secular nation truly so? I think the movie starts with the dialogues which ended Rang De Basanti “Koi bhi desh perfect nahin hota, use perfect banana padta hai”. So you have a wide range of societal problems and taboos being handled in this movie. You have two brothers having a dispute over parental properties, you have hindu-muslim riot, you have caste-ism and you have the search for individual identity all woven into this brilliantly made movie. Giving a Kala Bandar angle to bring out the demon in all of us is brilliantly done by Rakeysh, he masters the act of using intelligent metaphors in the movie, which appeals to intelligent audiences. May it be the dead soul of Manoj Bajpai to depict Evil in AKS or the Bhagat Singh angle in RDB to show the need for a revolutionary in today’s India.
There are ofcourse a few glitches in the script. Amitabh Bachchan could have been spared his last minute entry which does not do any good to the movie.
But talking about the cast, the casting director needs to be given a special acknowledgement for the movie. Brilliant ensemble of casts. I thought Om Puri was unduly treated in RDB by giving him a very miniscule role, but in Delhi 6 ROM gives the veteran actor his due credit. The other cast member consists of Pawan Malhotra, Prem Chopra, Vijay Raaz, Supriya Pathak, Cyrus Sahukar, ROM regular Atul Kulkarni,et al. A special mention for the actress who portrays the character of Rama Chachi, she is just brilliant.
The movie handles some of the most contemporary topics of Indian society with acumen of a seasoned director. The music of the movie has already been climbing the charts.
And as the movie ends with everything being alright, it gives hope that everything will be fine, no matter what all we need to do is kill the evil within us.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! - Fun On the Roll

Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is not the usual run of the mill movie that you watch, but it is also not the parallel cinema that we are used to either. Oye Lucky! Is actually your very own new wave cinema that has engulfed the whole of Indian Film Industry. Indian Film Industry is infact going thru a similar phase that Hollywood went thru in early 70s and late 60s, a phase of parallel cinema, dominated by some of the path breaking movies of that time. Probably we are going to see more of such things in Indian film industry.
Abhay Deol seems to be toast of the tinsel town now-a-days, with so many off track movies that hits off well with class. But Oye Lucky! is different from his other movies, he not only woos the class but this time round manages to elicit appreciation from the front benchers also.
This is a story of a suave thief, who believes in stealing not coz he needs something but just to steal it, ala Sean Connery in ENTRAPMENT. But as always Abhay Deol convinces you as a person who might be one of us, a very real life one. Paresh Rawal, for the first time in Indian Film Industry plays three different characters in the same movie.
Dibakar Banerjee, post Khosla ka Ghosla had a repute to save and with this movies he does more good to his repute. A crisp script, smooth editing and brilliant screenplay makes this movie a treat to watch. Add to that some fine dialogue writing by Manu Rishi and you have a near perfect movie. Manu Rishi (Bangali) doubles up with a character backed role, doing complete justice with his performance. The ensemble of the cast is also good, Neetu Chandra, Archana Puran Singh and other casts are brilliant.
The movie starts in dingy lanes of Delhi, capturing the childhood days of Lucky. Manjot Singh (Lucky,young sardar) comes up with an award winning performance and shows us what we should be expecting from the movie in first few reels itself.
The movie is fast paced, and with some exemplary performances the movie holds on to your interest. Abhay and Paresh carry the movie on their able shoulders and deliver just what the doctor ordered.
So if you want to have a laugh-riot and at the same time see a sensible movie do see this movie...

The Anniversary Month

It’s been 2 years in IMRB International and one year writing the blog. So this is the anniversary month.
Know what when I came to Delhi I had this pre-conceived notion that this is not the right place to be, probably I was too prejudiced with the capital city. The city has not been too rude with me, rather I must say I have had some of the beautiful moments of my life here.
Given my easily-bored-to-death nature nobody thought that I would last more than a year in a company, I have been here for two years now. Though I think it’s time for me to move now, but has there ever been a right time, I need to figure that out. Nobody thought that I can pursue anything as close as a regular hobby other than watching movie (as that does not require any effort apart from opening your eyes and closing your minds) but hey all I have been writing this blog for a year now, beat that.
So what has these two years in IMRB been: I had some of my best experiences here in this office. Starting from the day when I joined it till day, it has always been a learning experience for me and I think there can never be a better way to learn than to learn on the job, and that’s what IMRB International has provided me with. A wonderful team that makes you feel wanted and great friends at work. Its been a very cool experience in IMRB International so far, touchwood.
Now talking about the blog; it has been a very god let out for me, it has helped me to settle down in more ways than one, I think this is a stable place for me and gives me a lot of sanity. Made some good friends and some strangers who have voiced their feelings over my blogs, some kind ones and some not so kind.
Two years in Delhi has been a long pleasing one, but I think the time to move has come. Don’t know where don’t when...

MATHERAN: An awesome place to visit

This weekend I was in Mumbai. Swati, Danisha and myself went to MATHERAN. Its a small hill station, infact the tiniest one in the world. We took a toy train from Neral, where we parked our car as no motored vehicle is allowed to MATHERAN.
The toy train ride was a great experience with all the scenic beauty of nature all around you. I think such things are better etched in your memory than capturing them in camera. The rawness of these untouched part of earth gets eroded when you see it thru the mechanised eye of an aperture. We did take a few snaps but preferred to look around and enjoy them. As the train moved at a snail pace, it seemed as if we are getting transformed to a different world slowly and steadily, away from the concrete jungle to civilised world of serenity and nature.
When we got down at MATHERAN, we found that it has not many options in mode of transportations, the only options are Horse ride and Hand-pulled cart. We chose neither, we preferred to walk. We had no bookings as it was a very spur-of-the-moment kind of decision to come over here. So went on this hotel hunting and at last we find this hotel with two rooms. It was all that we needed. We were tired after a day long masti at Saguna baug, but the spirits were still high and thats why post dinner we decided to hit the dance floor and not bed. The Hotel DJ sucked but we were no mood to give up and danced even to the Himesh Reshammiya numbers, there were quite a few Foreigners around and even they didn’t mind our HImesh Bhai crooning in his nasal tone. By the time we were done with our dance routine we were dead tired and had to sleep. The next morning, we woke up early, saw SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE walk away with glory at OSCARs. Then we started our roaming. The place is full of mountain views and you need to walk thru the city to understand how beautiful this place is.
We walked a lot from one point to another, but the fresh air in the lungs helped us not to get tired. It has something in the place that makes you feel so very fresh. We were thru with our sight seeing by afternoon. Then we had lunch and bid goodbye to nature, MATHERAN.
Its not a place that promises you with great places to visit but then I would still recommend this place to all. For this is a place that is so very different to all the places that we visit, another thing, this place does not have a mobile tower, so once you are here, you are virtually off reach. What a place to get away from the bustling cities and polluting atmosphere. Life moves at such a pace that you wish you had a life here.

A much needed break

I was not able to be there in Mumbai last weekend, so this weekend I had to be there, before the volcano exploded (read, Swati’s anger). The weekend was long and I added one comp off to that, and I had a 4 day off, jealous, well that’s my luck!
We still fight like small kids, she was late by 15 minutes and right at the airport we started shouting at each other. The same way as we do always, but then it got a slightly higher TRP than usual (airport being a public place) and that was not the only time we fought so lets not talk about it. Post the last weekend ditching, Swati decided not to plan the weekend. So we had four days and no plans. Google searches and maps came to our help. The first day was fully dedicated to planning, DAY 1: I started my Mumbai darshan with watching ‘Delhi 6’, what an irony. Next we had lunch at a restaurant in Vashi. Swati had some shopping to do and I was pulled into the ordeal. Then we had to go to a party, in fact it was Suku’s send off party. He is leaving Mumbai next month, got a job in Chennai. In my last visit to Mumbai I have been quite a good friend with Swati’s office colleagues, so I was also invited to the party. Post party we returned to Swati’s place. We decided that we would be going to SAGUNA BAUG the next day, its a resort kind of place and from whatever we had searched it seemed to be a village made into a resort, where you can live like a villager, I mean you can take a dip in river, go fishing, milking a cow and a lots of other activities, and Swati was damn excited about it. Danisha (Sawti’s flattie) was to come with us. DAY 2: So the next morning we were to leave at 7:30 and as usual we got late and left at 12:00. Post a few consultations with the google map, we found our way out of the city and then hit the road to SAGUNA BAUG. It was not an easy ride, with none of us having inkling about the way, but we somehow managed to find the place. It was a great place. From there on we went to this hill station called MATHERAN, its infact the tiniest hill station in the world. We had a night over at that place. Its a very small place and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly here. The details about this will be written in another blog. By the way no motored vehicle is allowed in MATHERAN and we had to take a toy train to the place and it is one of the best thing about the place. So do visit the place if you want to have a quite time with nature. DAY 3: The next day by afternoon we had seen all the important places that we need to see, and we returned. We reached Mumbai late in the evening. First we went home, took a warm shower and then went out for dinner. It was late by then and fav hangout had to be BADE MIYAN. After the dinner, there was the only place to hit GATEWAY of INDIA. Santanu, Vishal, Nitin, Jolly, Deepa, Mayur & his wife and Suraj joined us at marine drive. We all mere meeting after a long time. It’s great to meet friends after long time, you have so much to talk about and you wish that time should stop by. So we as we went on chatting with the cool sea breeze completing the beautiful atmosphere. We lost our tab on time, and when Suraj shouted that we are late, the clock read 3:30 am. We bid a quick good bye. Returned home and crashed. DAY 4: Swati had some meetings in the first half, so I dropped her at her office and then went to THEOBROMA with Santanu, to get brownies (read, bribe) for Pinki, Z, Chheenku, Meera, Dinki and Boss. By the time we returned home, Swati had also reached home. She had prepared lunch for all of us. This was the first time since I came to Mumbai that I was having food at home. It was good and she had also made my fav kheer. I was to leave in the evening and got started with my packing part, I packed all the stuffs. In the evening, Vishal and Santanu also came along to drop me at the airport. The flight was delayed by an hour. So we were outside the airport, when I mentioned about this place called MAHESH Lunch Home. I still don’t know what happened, but fifteen minutes post that, I was in the car, my ticket was cancelled and I was now flying next morning. That’s how impromptu plans happen when it’s Swati and me, so it was not surprising. We reached MAHESH, I had never been to this place. Its an awesome place if you like seafood. And if you are lucky, like we were that night you can run into a few celebrities, we met Boman Irani, rather saw him. And we kept looking at his table every now and then, until he felt so awkward that he had to smile back at us, the one out of desperation and we stopped bothering him with our glances. We all had to our fill and then we returned home. By the time we reached home it was 1:00am. I was to fly out at 5:00am. So I booked a cab. Since I was leaving I was not allowed to sleep, we chatted up till the time cab came. Coffee and photographs from our childhood kept us awake all thru the night.
And that’s how my weekend got over. One of the best one ever with my best friend. 14 years and nothing has changed, not even an ounce. We still fight and we still love each other so much. We still look for that shoulder to lean on to and we still have a say in each other’s life.