Rockstar

Finally watched Rockstar today. I would say it was a decent watch. The songs and music was superb – thanks to A R Rehman and Mohit Chouhan; they have simply put an awesome performance. Ranbir Kapoor has done a wonderful job except the initial stages where in I found him on the verge of over acting. The heroine I felt was disappointing. But overall Imtiaz Ali has done a nice job with execution of the movie. And Khatara bhai deserves a special mention.

There were certain aspects of the movie that really touched my heart. One of them was when the heroine was getting married she asks Ranbir to come to Prague. Did she really mean it? I don’t think so. But Ranbir had registered it in his mind and was ready to sign any contract to go to Prague when he got a chance. Of course he didn’t give a damn about the contract. He didn’t realize initially that he was in love. And he never said so in the entire movie. But he felt that.

Another such instance is when the girl says we shouldn’t be doing it as it isn’t the right thing to do. But she knew she wanted to do it. Ranbir has been projected as someone who doesn’t give a damn what people think. You have to be actually that crazy to be in love. Most people don’t have that courage to do what they want.

Shammi Kapoor plays a nice role in the movie. The scene where he is playing the shehnai along with Ranbir who is playing his guitar speaks a lot. Ranbir had made fun of classical music by calling it monotonous. Shammi Kapoor proves Ranbir wrong not by defending himself but by playing different tunes with shehnai which makes Ranbir realize his mistake. When Ranbir stops playing guitar he actually acknowledges Shammi Kapoor without saying anything. The execution of the movie is brilliant.

If I look back at the movie I don’t think I would mind watching it again. Putting it in my friend Manas’s words I actually liked the movie for certain reasons. And I guess what I think the movie conveys is that you should rather do what you want to rather than do what seems to be the right thing to do. You have one life and it’s better to live it the way you want rather than living it the right way. It actually resembles a line said by Mark Twain “20 years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the one’s you did do. So throw off the bow line. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream Discover”. I wish GOD gives everyone the courage to do what they want.

To quote from the movie "Kyun sach ka sabak sikhaye jab sach sun bhi na paye..."

A goldfish that disturbed my sleep

“How can the alarm ring so early” I wondered in my sleep as I tried to locate my phone. I had been woken from a deep sleep. As I grabbed my phone I realized it wasn’t the alarm but the phone was actually ringing. I rubbed my eyes and read the name of the caller. It was a friend of mine. I took the call.

“Can you hold a fish?” she asked.

I asked “What?” still trying to make sense.

“A parasite has got on my goldfish and I doubt if it will survive till morning. I need to remove the parasite from its fins and for that I need to hold the goldfish”

I was beginning to understand things.

“But I can’t hold the fish” she continued “Can you hold the fish”

Her voice was serious and concerned. I hadn’t held a fish ever and the thought of holding a fish that was alive was a little scary. But as my friend was so concerned I said “I haven’t done that ever but I can try”.

She probably sensed my anxiety and asked for any other way by which she could hold the fish without hurting it. I suggested her a few ways and she said she would call me in sometime.

I looked at the watch. It was 1:34 AM. She was still awake and googling goldfish. She was concerned for her goldfish as her other goldfish had died a few days back. What she assumed to be baby fish turned out to be parasites and were actually killing the goldfish. The goldfish had come to the bottom of the jar and stayed there mostly which made my friend try and find out why it was doing so.

While I waited for her call I was wondering how am I going to hold the goldfish. If she didn’t find a way to get rid of the parasite I would actually have to hold the goldfish. The thought was a little worrying but I couldn’t have said NO.

The phone rang. She seemed relieved. She had managed to remove the parasite. She said “I used two pencils to hold the goldfish and removed the parasite using a toothpick. Now my goldfish is swimming freely”

I said “Cool. By the way why are you awake so late?”

“Koi kaam to hota nahi hai aapse ab baat karne ki fursat hai. So jao aap” she replied

All I could say was “Ok. Good night.”

This happened last night. Today morning she said that the goldfish was swimming happily and even took feeds from her hand. She was pretty happy. And in the afternoon she bought 3 more fishes to give company to her goldfish.

For those who like keeping fishes here’s a useful link in case they face similar situation as my friend - http://factoidz.com/keeping-tropical-fish-in-an-aquarium-how-to-use-salt-in-killing-protozoan-parasites-plus-an-amazing-video/ She used this link to find out the problem and then sorted it out. In the process she befriended her goldfish. Cheers to her goldfish…

Mind games the Mind plays

The mind is so powerful and yet it keeps playing such petty games. It makes you do great things and it keeps you from doing the simple things. It makes one climb the Everest while it makes one fear cockroaches. It makes things look so simple but prevents you from doing it. It makes the same food taste different at different times. It makes you say things which it feels is necessary and makes you regret after you have said it. It makes you support a point while talking to someone and makes you go against the point while talking to someone else.

The mind makes you believe things will be fine and then makes everything look like a mess. The mind asks you to accept things as they are and then challenges you to bring change. It says you to keep your life simple and then complicates it by increasing your needs.

The mind has the power to complicate the simplest of things and to simplify the most complicated things. I seem to be saying the same thing over and over again. Well my mind seems to have decided to play with me. It is really messing around and I don’t know what to do. It starts with a question and helps me come to a conclusion. We (I and my mind) are on the same page. We decide on the next steps and when it is all settled it pops up a question – “Are you sure?” I am like “We finalized it together and now you doubt it. Come on man you can’t do this”. It doesn’t reply because it knows it already did it.

I can hear it giggling and I shout at it “What the hell are you doing man? Are we not supposed to be one? I mean you are part of me; you should help me; not confuse me.”

No answer. More smiles.

“I can do without you dude.”

More smiles.

“Shut the hell up. Will you?”

Smile continues.

“Go to hell”

It stops smiling. At least I think so. But that doesn’t ease the situation. I know as well as it does that this is going to happen again. Probably this is why wise men have said that one should try and control one’s mind. They could have given a guidebook for the same but instead they gave many guidebooks. Go figure for yourself which one to follow. I think I will patch up with my mind.

Bangalore diaries - the first weekend

My first weekend in Bangalore turned out to be quite good. After the not so good first 4 days here I was looking at the weekend with a lot of hope. Things didn’t start too well as my friends here had other plans and I was to spend the day with me with nothing to do. I didn’t want to spend the entire day in hotel so I decided to explore the nearby areas. I asked the hotel staff for some nearby place that I could visit and he told me to go to Forum mall. He gave me the directions to reach the mall. I had to change a bus at Kundalahalli Gate (might still have got the spelling wrong) to reach the mall. I had already been to the mall for lunch twice and wasn’t too excited but still decided to go there as it also had a movie hall. I wanted to watch Rockstar but that was planned with a friend for Sunday. So I bought the tickets for the next available movie which turned out to be Immortals. It was a decent movie. After the movie spent some time in the mall and came back to the hotel following the same route. I didn’t want to have dinner at the hotel but there wasn’t another option. I switched on the TV, logged in to the internet browsing some sites. Then my friend called asking about my dinner plans. Since I hadn’t had my dinner my friend came to pick me up and we went to my friend’s house. It was the first time I had a cup of home made tea – it was wonderful. Then had Palak Dal for dinner and luckily it was my favourite dal. We spoke about certain things and it was time well spent. I also came to know that my friend had already watched Rockstar with someone else ditching me. We decided to meet the next day for breakfast and go some place.

Sunday morning started as expected. I called my friend who was still asleep and said wouldn’t be joining for breakfast, but would meet around noon. We met around 12:30 and proceeded towards my friend’s friend’s house. It was around 30-40 mins drive and I was asked to drive. The car being new it took a little time to get used to the car. But I must say driving in Bangalore is not fun at all. As soon as the car picks up speed a speed-breaker greets you. We reached the friend’s place and had a wonderful lunch. Then when my friend enquired about the places to visit in Bangalore we got the response as “There are no places to visit in Bangalore. But there are lots of places around Bangalore.” That came as a shock as I expected Bangalore to have some decent places to visit. We finally decided to go to Lal Bagh. It was a nice place to spend time with friends although it had nothing spectacular about it. The drive to Lal Bagh was awesome though thanks to GPS and blocked roads.

While returning from Lal Bagh my friend wanted to have momos and samosa – a deadly combo. No one knew a place where they could get samosas but they knew a place where we could get momos. We reached the place only to find that momos were out of stock. Awesome. We had a cup of tea and some pakoras instead. We then headed to my firend’s friend’s home. On the way they found a place where they got samosas which pleased my friend. We had a game of Monopoly. The international monopoly was quite different from the game I had played in my childhood. I ended up having the most number of cards, the least amount of money and the highest rent payer. We had soupy noodles for dinner and bid goodbye to my new friends. I and my friend drove back and thankfully I wasn’t driving this time. We had a decent discussion on the way and to continue it further went to my friend’s house. We had ice tea and a long discussion.

Overall it turned out to be a decent weekend and the first time I actually liked Bangalore in my entire time here.

Bangalore diaries - the first 4 days

It’s been 4 days now in Bangalore. I am staying in a hotel in the outskirts of the city. The place really looks like a village. I haven’t been anywhere except for office and hotel and a mall for lunch. And on the way (via car) I didn’t find any place to visit. To summarize I haven’t got the slightest idea about the place and what I am going to do this weekend.

The office mates are pretty busy with work. I have a few folks from my previous project with whom I have spent some time in office which has been good for the otherwise boring days. The only saving grace has been a friend of mine who has been giving me company for lunch in 3 of the 4 days. Apparently that has been the best time spent here so far.

The weather hasn’t been too good either. Coming from Delhi at this time of the year, the Bangalore weather seems hot to me. Weather was supposed to be a plus point here but even that hasn’t been helpful. I haven’t felt charged up for one moment since leaving the airport.

This seems to be going on to being a pretty depressing blog. This shouldn’t have been this way but unfortunately this is this way and all I have stated so far is what I have felt. Maybe staying alone so far from home is taking its toll. Or maybe I am still struggling to get used to things here. Or maybe something else is wrong somewhere. After all being in a new place should make you enthusiastic at least in the initial days. In fact I was all charged up for this trip but somewhere something has gone missing.

I think I should stop writing now as it isn’t making things better. Hoping that the weekend will get things going in the right direction.

1st day away from home

There are certain things you want; you want to do/try things even when you are not sure how they would turn out. You desperately want to know how it feels but somewhere deep down you actually don’t want to do them. It’s like you want to do them and you don’t want to do them. How many times have you been in such a situation where in you have actually done it?

Today happens to be one such day for me. I have come to Bangalore on deputation and today happens to be my first day in here. As I am writing this blog sitting in a hotel room with plenty of time with absolutely nothing to do, I am wondering if I am enjoying it. Well, to be honest I don’t know. On one hand I have this complete freedom with no responsibilities once I am away from office; on the other hand I miss the things Mom used to ask me to do.

A sense of loneliness is beginning to creep in. and thinking of how long the stay might be I feel like running away from this city and go home. Come to think of this – I have never been away from home alone all my life. And now I am all alone in an unknown city. Of course I have friends here and I am sure I will settle in soon; but for now …

The stay here brings with itself a whole new bunch of things – an unknown city, an unfamiliar culture, a new atmosphere and loads of interesting opportunities. It is just like any other trip. Just thinking of the places I might go changes the mood completely. But when you come to think of the fact that you are here for official purpose, the mood changes again. I mean I could certainly have done without taking this project. But then I wanted to take the project for exactly the same reason. It looks gloomy when I think that I am away from my family, away from my home, away from the known. But it looks encouraging when I think of the challenges, the scope of seeing new places and giving me the exposure. Overall it looks like a coin – heads and tails can never be the same yet they are part of the same coin – you can’t separate them.

Things should get better as I spend more days here. Today being the first day I guess this was bound to happen. Lets’ see what the coming days bring in. As of now my first day in Bangalore is coming to an end.

100 Blogs

WOW - I have finally reached the 3 figure mark. I can't stop myself from saying "Bravo".

It all started as a tryst some 5 years ago on a friend's suggestion. It took more than 1.5 years to get in the habit of writing blogs. I got used to it and soon it became a hobby - in fact an addiction. My mind was constantly searching for things to write upon. Every night I would sleep thinking about what I would be writing the next day. Many topics got washed out in sleep but many made it to the blogs. Gradually writing slowed down. Not sure why but it took a back seat. But still I managed to sneak in a blog or two once a while. And now I stand writing my 100th blog.

The journey has been great so far. There have been many constant companions giving their opinions and views on my write-ups as well as thoughts. There have been many wonderful journeymen in the way where our paths crossed for a while. All in all it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I am sure the journey will continue.

Thanks to all my readers for your time and comments. I hope you will continue to read my blogs and leave your comments.