winter blues ..

just read that there is scientific evidence to prove winter blues..
that explains the funny feeling i have been having for days now ...
feeling very stressed out ,exams in 2 days and so many things to study,no mug is the right word ..,not realised the value of time in the hols and always end up cramming in the last minute,lesson learnt every semester :-P

got loads of new topics to write about but will probably do so only after these exams which end on jan 7th (ugh !)

take care ...

provoked

Just saw 'Provoked' - directed by Jagmohan Mundra on Max..
Aishwarya Rai portrays the tole of Kiranjit Ahluwalia in this movie based on domestic violence.

The movie has a simple and straight forward narrative ,lacks a tight screenplay and is based on the true life story of Kiranjit,A woman based in the UK who unable to tolerate physical and verbal abuse meted upon her, by her husband kills him in a daze ,after they were married for ten years.
the movie is based on a book written by Kiranjit-the circle of light...

The movie shakes you up and takes a look at the darker side of marrying an NRI,being helpless in a foreign land,repeatedly being abused,the pain and endless fights .Ash has made the pain and fear of Kiran's character come to life. She displays innocence while she is being married to Deepak Ahluwalia(played byNaveen Andrews )and later her inhibitions and confused state of mind leave you feeling sorry for her.The scenes where Deepak abuses are menacing and did scare me. Kiran's life in prison is a discovery and it generates happiness when you get to see a woman being happier in prison than she was when out of it ..

The scenes which made a tear trickle down my eyes are The scene where Kiran gets to meet her children finally after an agonising wait in the prison and Kiran making to the court room for the second trial ,kiran dons up a suit,shedding her behenji image ,these two scenes totally stood out for me from the movie ...

The movie wakes you up to a dark reality-domestic violence..

We have heard of several stories among friends and relatives of x divorcing y and accusing him of physical abuse or z committing suicide but kiran chose to kill her husband ,which she does in a confused but tormented state of mind.This is a harsh truth to accept for any law though she was in an abusive relationship for a period of ten years. The truth about domestic violence is that it can exist in any strata of society.

While gender equality maybe unheard of in a lower income ,daily wage worker family where the husband ends up drinking every night and bashing up his wife,the elite who speak of equality at champagne flowing,camera dazzling fund-raisers/charity dinners are themselves subject to repeated abuse-maybe of a different kind,say verbally or financially.the most recent example that comes to mind is that of Rahul Mahajan and shweta.Tabloids report Shweta filed for divorce after being in an abusive relation for over a year.didn't she have the power/position to walk out from the relation earlier ? why did she have to tolerate it all this while? It speaks volumes of how this is not a minuscule problem...sigh...


while cases of dowry are still being reported regularly in the papers,women staying close to their parents geographically still have a chance to open up and share the pain .but for women staying abroad,the situation looks grim.Support groups do exist but do all women have access to them?

it is believed that the number of NRI's marrying just for the sake of a domestic help has increased significantly in the past year,esp from the Middle East..

In this age of mass media penetrating every inch and corner,it is impossible to not hear a woman's wails but what will you say to a woman who like kiran refuses to speak up.
In the movie,when kiran is pregnant,Deepak pushes her in a fit of rage and she comes tumbling down the steps.When they go to meet a doctor,the doc gets suspicious and asks Kiran if she would want to tell her something but kiran never opens up,maybe because there is a fog of fear surrounding her entire life .......the movie made me feel sad for the thousands of NRI wives who marry with a twinkle in their eyes,little knowing what the future holds for them ...

Go watch Provoked and if you ever see a friend/relative just needing to speak up,do take a moment out and listen to them..you never know the dark truth hiding behind those innocent eyes......

Ending this post here .i am very depressed now thinking of the sorry state of women today....

Gender equality be damned,at least women deserve to be treated humanely ....

Listen up men else doomsday shall arrive soon ...


PS: everyone's asking me why am I writing only about movies,hmm,I admit I am a movie freak but most of the times when i watch a movie,it triggers off reel vs real ,ideas begin to click in my mind which are reflected in my posts. so :-)

exam mode

hi all,

there will be no posts on my blog till 14th Dec,07 due to my exams ...

take care

some day........

yesterday i was at the post office-Yeshwanthpur RTO branch ...
the regional transport office (RTO) is a hectic scene of activity.
it houses the driving license issuing offices ,various property doc related offices ,a bangalore one center-an integrated facility that will cater to various needs .

tucked away in the second floor corner of this building is our post office.the lift goes only to the third floor,so we have to go to the 3rd floor,take the stairs down and reach our p.o .

now yesterday the lift was in perfect condition but its usual occupant-the lift operator with his creaky broken plastic chair seated inside the lift,(taking up a good amount of space in the lift) was missing .my mother refused to get into the lift citing the poor condition n blah blah.the actual reason-the lift has another lift adjacent to it which is not functioning from almost a year,they have started the repairs around a month back and it is still going on. so worried for her dear life,my mother suggested we take the stairs .

i have no problems with stairs as long as there are no rogues pushing you around the railings,driving license touts running around with documents bumping into people all the time and serpentine queues of people waiting for their license tests .add to this ,the chaos of some more people desperately looking for directions to a govt office and people looking baffled when the lift does not stop at the second/first floors but shoots up like a rocket to the third..well,the p.o is all this and much more .the staircase has been thristy for years ,forget domex/dettol/any cleaning ingredient,it looks like the stairs haven't even been washed with good old plain water for ages though there are occasional fresh marks on the "spitters hall of fame" all throughout the building right from the entrance sometimes even on the steps ! aargh.

as we entered the p.o,cobwebs greet us from all directions. a shutter settled completely with dust has a notice pasted on to it saying all posts and parcels lying at tumkur p.o,nh road ..
there is a public coin box which serves as good humour ,once a notice says "STD working ,20 seconds-1 rupee" but you look closely and the receiver is dangling and the notice below it says "not working-out of order " . the po was recently upgraded with some decent furniture which is the only plus point i can think of . some shiny black chairs and a neat wooden huge desk for interacting with customers,like a teller's at the bank have been added . though there is an antique desk smeared with glue all over reminding that things haven't yet changed completely .

as my mother got into the queue to await her turn,i could see that it was quite crowded for a Friday morning ,usually nobody withdraws money on friday's,lakshmi et al being reasons . so most of the people were there for deposits .

the p.o provides a range of financial services for the common man,ranging from savings bank accounts to kisan vikas patra among others.they provide a low amount of interest compared to any big-wig bank but the common advice among elders in the family is that investing in a p.o is extremely safe- courtesy the numerous lessons learnt from relatives by investing in xyz chit funds or fake financial companies for the greed of a higher interest . hence my regular trips to the p.o with my mother .

as i waited for my mother to finish up her work,i saw a woman,in her late thirties,helpless and confused enter the surroundings . she seemed disheartened at the length of the queue and started talking to a middle-aged woman seated next to me asking her to fill up a form for her . the middle aged woman said she had to leave and was in a hurry and said she couldnt do it .
then the woman approached one more person who pointed towards me ,i was coughing and sniffing by then and was pretty tired since was unwell.

the lady came to me and said "please form fill maadi kodi " i agreed but warned her that this form was new to me and she would have to help me out with her details,she immediately produced another filled up form and waved it in front of me and said "idu hale form,pls same fill madi,only date change maadbeku" .i was struck by her clever thinking and filled up the details in the same manner but only changed the date . she thanked me and joined the queue.by then,my mom was back and we departed home .

this set me thinking ,if the woman had ever got a chance to go to a school,learn how to read and write ,it surely wouldn't have made her helpless for the 20 min that i saw her in the p.o but also probably would have made her a successful person ,she had enough sense to get an older form for convenience sake ..it really made me wonder ,what miracles could such people achieve if given proper education ?

our country has celebrated 60 years of independence and today i got to see two sides of a coin majorly disturbing me ,
1.illiteracy
2.poor state govt organisations

now both problems are better solved in the election manifestos of various parties (simply on paper) rather than reality,i just hope that some day i can proudly show off my local p.o as a place known for its impeccable neatness ,efficiency and see a long queue of literate women handling businesses there ......

might be a far off dream but some day,maybe some day............

luck

temp status---102 at 8 am,down to 100 at 3 pm,back to normal at 8 pm grin :-)

luck ,sheer luck in the mp lab today .....


the vtu site is making me tear my hair out,its so disorganised and the searches are totally unreliable .... and u end up downloading umpteen presentations....grrr

someone make the site simpler for god's sake !




Quote for the day !

So, bad luck turned into good. I believe it can always be that way.
David Janssen

aaja nachle

Madhuri dixit’s back and this time mouthing “aaja nachle” all the way …….

She was on Nach Baliye to promote “Aaja Nachle” being touted as her come-back film but I argue why should we say “come back” , cos I feel she’s one icon who has permanently stolen all our hearts. Her Dhak-Dhaks, Jhatak-Mataks, Expressive eyes and million dollar smile have captivated us since years.

So what if she was away for 6 years, she’s got to settle down someday too..simply cos she’s human and not the divine apsara that you have mistaken her for all the time you watched her on screen.

By the way I have seen hum appke hain kaun atleast 17 times :-)

When she entered the nach baliye set,rather stage in a tonga,my heart skipped a beat .

Her radicance can stun your living daylights, I wonder what it would be like or to see her in person,close by..she’s that for me, filled with a spark of life.

Her smile, I wonder if it a talented dentists’s handiwork but I doubt it since she’s been around for too long and techno advancements/enhancements were not really the norm of the day back then,I suppose ,looking at all the beauties of that time…….

Anyways for the last 15 minutes that she was on the set,she mermerised me,I didn’t want to take my eyes off the tv set even for a nano sec ! She’s supposedly Judging the next round which is definitely great news cos nach baliye’s in terrible shape now with the so called wild card entries kashmira and Krishna putting up such a pathetically loud performance,it almost had me running for the remote,but remember the clever marketing guys made sure that didn’t happen by slating the diva madhuri’s entry for the last 15 min of the show,but kept on saying “abhi aajayengi ! “ grrrrr …

Other updates from nach----

rakhi and abhishek not at their usual best-rakhi’s syncro was surprisingly disappointing ,sanjeeda and aamir ali put up a bad show according to me but analyst vaibhavi felt it was of the “RAitha pehla diya” types though she refrained from using that term today..

And the other couples,don’t even deserve a mention. The poor show has now added a 11 th jodi to compensate for falling TRP’s but I seriously doubt if it will work . also,please pray that karan and amita get voted out next week since their standard of dancing is nowhere close to even the “tolerable” variety

Hmm,also currently playing 24/7 on all channels is promotions for goal,oops dhan dhana-dhan goal,bips is running from one set to another in her frocks ,sorry, couture wear ! (bah) that she looks like she’s promoting her stylist and giving ample display of her anatomy rather than movie .

John ‘s simply sweet to watch on screen cos he looks like he’s firmly rooted in his middle-class values which is a welcome change from the bloated egoistic khans and kapoors ! anyways I do wanna watch goal sometime before the 30^th,cos tat’s d day when aaja nachle’s gonna be out,but with the proj deadlines and lab tests and internals,it looks like ......well impossible comes close :-)

Until next time then ,

Show me ur jalwa ….show me ur jalwaaaaaaaa

It’s the latest track being aired frm aaja nacle,never mind if you haven’t heard it,its bound to be thrown at you from every single radio station,tv channel,newspaper,website and wat not baby,so just chill and enjaaaaaaaay the weekend

OSO day

Saw OSO finally today!

I have decided not to write a review about om shanti om simply bcoz we’ve been bombarded from these projectiles called oso n saawariya from the past 2 months, it’s almost like a war between the two as to who gets maximum media attention!

Though I found it all a tad bit irritating, I must say trailers, sneak peeks, music launches all send me rushing to the theatre at least to find out if the movie lives up to the hype.

The last movie that though didn’t have too many pre-movie marketing gimmicks was Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking. I wanted to watch it badly but had to give it a miss, and as trade reports tell me ,for good !the movie was deemed terribly confusing by critics and movie-goers alike but hmmm,I think I shall watch it in the semester hols and then give my opinion.

Anyway coming to OSO I shall write two blocks of statements here (aargh blocks, statements! effect of system software gibberish stuck in my head!)

Block # 1:-

If you have seen the movie:

1. Wasn’t the climax quite scary and different, a friend of mine tells me it’s not original, but a lift from our very own dilip kumar classic madhumati!

2. The akshay Kumar nomination scene was also unique, managed to break us into peals of laughter but in the papers, it was the latest scoop for the day, saying it was a lift from a Polish movie!

The papers, who are the official partners for the movie, went on to say that Farah has made a movie by patching up parts of several movies from here and there, just imagine!

Official print partner for OSO being Mid-Day…

3. Also couldn’t we have Deepika Padukone at least, if not minimally, a tad bit completely clad in the second half! She looks so divine in the first half in the 70’s look that her unnecessary exposure looks unconvincing in the second half.

Honestly, SRK does look “uncle-ish” and shorter compared to his herione, save for some clever camera angles and make-up of course to the rescue..

4. Don’t give me excuses that you were not humming ‘Main agar kazoo’ or swinging to ‘DARD-E-DISCO’ after exiting the theatre ,Vishal-Shekhar have created such catchy tunes alongside the haunting main agar kahoon ,it’s impossible to not hum them!

Must see how long the songs remain in public memory!

Block # 2:-

If you haven’t yet seen the movie:-

Reasons to watch the movie:-

1.Deepika Padukone-

She looks so good that it’s unbelievable its her first movie as all news channels have been screaming from the past 2 weeks, yes she’s great but remember she had a kannada movie “aishwarya” previously and was launched in it, and the pretty damsel has done enough home-work on her mistakes in aishwarya and thus the transformation ,..

Yet, she’s simply sweet in the first half and brilliant in the climax..

2.Arjun Rampal and Shreyas तलपडे

Their characters are well-etched in the script and they do full justice to it. Who ever said Arjun Rampal, being a model can’t act, go watch OSO, it will take you by surprise.

Now Shreyas is one actor whom I loved in Iqbal, the best part that comes across throughout his acting is simplicity, he has nothing extravagant to do in the movie but kindles your interest and keeps the spirit of the first half going!

3. Dhoom तना

This song was aired just a few days ago, believe me it shows Deepika displaying her fine dancing skills, she has a lot of grace, and excuse me all SRK fans, he just looks like a buffoon in this song, with the ear-rings and he just doesn’t dance in sync /in tandem with deepika, the result is out there for all of you to verify …

4. If you liked main hoon anthem run and watch OSO, its gonna floor you

If you hated main hoon na,still go watch it,cos I felt main hoon na was a trashy script but SRK saved the movie running behind sushmita draped in her chiffon sarees in a college set . But oso has a decent script though the second half’s overtly dramatized.

5. The photography, sets and background scores are definitely something to watch out for,

I’m saying this even though I have zero technical knowledge about these things but still if something makes u sit up and take notice, it is the sets, and if you find you just can’t take your eyes off deepika, its cos of some brilliant camera work . The OSO set as shown in the trailers --- yeh hai Hindustan ki sabse bade movie oso ka set blah blah, the set is a treat for the eyes … n the background score’s wonderfully in sync with the on goings in the movie especially the scary portions hehe !

So there ends my list, do try n watch OSO, if you give it a miss, no worries, wait for 6 months, you can watch it on sony/set max or maybe even NDTV! Considering the kind of stuff broadcasted these days on so called news channels!

PS : today I downloaded two word games from yahoo, text twist and bookworm, I loved both of them .you see, I love word games simply cos I’m dumb at number games ,have honestly given up on sudoku and the heavy duty action ones ,well let’s talk about my disaster at those some other time .

Now the problem is the downloaded games are only trial versions and last only 4 an hour, sob sob sob….so if anybody has these games, licensed pls send it across to me ,or if you know any links which have similar games, I’d be glad if you cud post them here

Till next time then,

All hot girls put your hands up and sing, OOOOOOOm Shanti OOOOOOOOOOm

All cool boys ,come on,make some noise and sing, OOOOOOOm Shanti OOOOOOOOm

Kal Ho Naa Ho

Today I am gonna write about a movie that I have watched a dozen times and still fallen in love with each frame over and over again…

Its “Kal ho naa ho”, which was aired on sony again today….

The movie revolves around the life of Naina Katherine (Preity Zinta) who stays at New York with her family comprising of Jenny (Jaya Bachchan) and a bro,sis,dadima ,Indian neighbours et all…Naina’s life is simple yet complicated cos she finds no happiness at home ever since her father committed suicide..

Enter Aman Mathur (SRK) a happy-go-lucky (completely cliché term) neighbor who comes from India, meets Naina’s family and changes her life forever….

Naina invariably falls in love with him in true bollywood style-

First she hates him

Then she begins to like him

Then she’s head over heels in love with him!

But Aman suffers from a cardiac ailment and has little time left, so when Naina decides to propose to him, he lies about already being married to Sonali Bendre and Naina’s heart shatters.

Now another main character in the movie is that of Saif Ali Khan’s (Rohit)

He is Naina’s evening MBA classmate, and also loves her... But he realizes that she loves Aman...

Aman convinces Rohit to profess his love for Naina and she accepts his proposal, only

After they get enagaged does Naina realize that Aman has kept his illness in the dark from all of them...

Still Naina marries Rohit and Aman passes away ….

Now, many people argued that the movie is a direct lift from “Anand”. I haven’t watched that movie so will not comment on that aspect…

The movie has many beautiful moments-like where SRK faces Jenny’s mum-in law with some bitter truths about her son’s life.

Where Naina transforms from an angry, arrogant and emotionless maniac to a calm, happy and sprightly woman.

The movie also has an excellent dose of humour with Kanta ben providing a few good laughs and lilette dubey does an excellent job of posing as a seductress auntie!

The music’s so good, you will feel the songs haunting you even after you are done with watching the movie.. karan johar and nikhil advani make a good screen play turn into wonderful cinema with extremely good marketing and packaging thrown in..the streets of New York have never looked so inviting!

But according to me, Preity breathes life into every frame of the movie-she looks so divine and beautiful, her dimpled smile is her best asset apart from her silky straight hair (which by the way I’ve always dreamt of having!)

In the song,aaja mahi ve,she looks like an angel ! And the title song will make sure you hum it for atleast a day.

N everyone has heard “It’s the time to disco” ,it was the party anthem the year it released.

SRK n saif have done justice to their roles but for me Preity stands out more than SRK,yes he is good at his job but still Preity takes top grades home .

Saif’s career got a new lease of life with this movie and he proved he deserved it,he has done a great job –

His lying phases –about meetin Naina in the park with his dog,

Rajpal Yadav swap –blind date,

Che din,ladki in ,

Camilla episode,

geeta aur uske do gande gande bachche..

All these are some sample hilarious moments from the movie.

I remembered all those moments once again today while watching the movie.

Also the climax does cause a lump in your throat-nobody wants Aman to die, but he steals all our hearts with that scene.

A special mention of the cinematographer – I think its Anil mehta, not too sure ,but his camera work is just amazing and like I said, priety looks a million bucks.

So if u have watched kal ho naa ho, good J and do remember the message of the movie –

Jiyo,haso,khush raho

Kya pata ,kal ho naa ho….

And for those of you who haven’t watched it,run to the nearest DVD store and rent/buy a copy. You will not regret watching this movie even if you aren’t a great Karan Johar/SRK fan .

Till next time ,

:-) keep smiling!

PS : never have too many expectations from a director after enjoying his first movie completely –

I am talking of Nikhil Advani who directed Kal Ho Naa Ho ,his next film Salaam-E-Ishq was a big dud . It was a good yawn session and totally disastrous ,except 4 some life-saving pleasant music .

Comin up next is Aaja Nachle,being promoted as Madhuri’s come-back movie- which is cinematographer Anil Mehta’s directorial venture-let’s see if he can live upto people’s expectations …….hmmmm . Anil was the cinematographer for Kal Ho naa Ho

role reversal ?

ok i just typed out something really nice and the damn autosave is simply not working

so i dunno where my writing disappeared !

but still i am gonna write it all over again sob ......


it was something like this

yawnnnnnnnnnnnn

don't blame me,its 12 am now ,and its been a long day as usual

yesterday,i saw nach baliye's role reversal episode,wherein a guy dresses up as the gal and vice versa,it looked like a spoof,but i must admit that i enjoyed this episode far more than the previous 70's theme with srk thrown in for a good measure of publicity during diwali and smartly to coincide with the release of OSO .

now this set me thinking ,just imagine role reversal at home

a sample conversation

mum:i cannot buy you any more jewellery ,i am almost broke

dad:but you don't understand gold prices crash after diwali and now is the right time to invest in a new necklace

mum: what ! a new necklace,no way !

dad:all right,let's buy a pair of bangles then

mum:bangles,no way,you have way too many bangles,i have an idea,wear the bangles as earrings,its in vogue,wearing earrings the size of bangles ,i read it in the economic times

dad:oh god,you and your ideas ! ok since u r unwilling to buy anything,let's settle down for a ring
mum: (fed up of arguing ! ) i might as well say yes! (with a heavy heart )


situation 2 :

student : pls cancel classes for the day

teacher: ok

student : pls postpone the lab tests

teacher: ok

student: pls extend the deadlines for the assignment

teacher : ok

now wouldn't that be an ideal world where we would get to say something other than ok!

scene 3 :

srk : i love you but i am scared of my father

deepika padukone : kyun,pyar kiya to darna kya! don't worry

srk: but i fear for your safety ,let's elope

deepika: no,we shall win your dad's heart ,simran errr srk ! dilwale dulha le jaayenga ssssrk


i hope this managed to at least bring a smile onto ur face

ok,time to crash ,

bye for now!

phew

too tired to type anything today,
but scary lift incident day ...


began studying mp lab progs, they are quite something,

gotta work hard :-(


chao !

PS : Gyaan for the day- ALOHA stands for LOOOOVE

ALOHA is a DC term

hip hip hurray

Day 2!

N wat a day it has been! Crazy day, crazier me brrr…

Ok well, the good news is my lappie arrived today, it’s a HP Pavilion DV-2601TX, yeah well for all those of you who think I am blowing my own trumpet yes I am!

Shru, are you listening?

Yahoo!!! My laptop’s here, happy? :-)

Now whoever said material pleasures are momentary, I don’t agree and the reasons are simply obvious!

The day started off quite normally with me waking up at my signature time -5 minutes to 8 (giggle!) and then there were classes-which we are not willing to attend since its almost the end of semester but somehow are sitting through it .classes terminate unofficially on Monday !

Well then, at one, I had to make a mad dash to my grand dad’s ceremony, reached late, had lunch and then had an interesting round of bollywood and sandalwood games with my cousins, now they were amateurs and thanks to my bench mate, I am quite an expert at these time-pass games .so got the opportunity to show off my skills, well ahem, if u could call them so …..

Landed back home right in time for this little piece of materialistic happiness to arrive home! Oh I waited for an hour for it to complete its journey from the dealer’s office to my place, and knew how majnoo n laila must have always felt –ok now that’s filmy!

Anyways I have been exploring it from 9 pm, its 12 now, call me mad, I deserve it!

So, I learnt how to click, double-click on the touch pad n after fooling around got the drag options, then hmmm well let’s see, tried out the usual stuff ,downloading stuff ,trying tc,n d likes ….

Well ok, time for me to crash, tomo’s gonna be a long day again!

Cheers!

Song of the day: - Tumse hi din hota hai – Jab we met, perfect lyrics

Na hai yeh paana,

Na khona hi hai

Tumse hi din hota hai

Surmayi shaam aati hai

Tumse hi …….

Tumse hi……..

Kis se bolo ? laptop buddhu !

First Blog

Phew !

After an agonising waiting period -good 2 months ,the BSNL Jr. Engineer finally knocked on my doors today and gave me a belated diwali gift !

So,here I am writing my first official blog ever (n the rest as they say is History ! )

Well, it was an otherwise normal day with lab and classes squeezed in after a filling lunch-8 bucks rice bath at the canteen ... Later when i was back home,appa n amma welcomed me with a huge smile depicting our victory over BSNL's torturing antics ;-)

anyways i did dust my room and make a nice space on my desk for a mean new HP Laptop arriving tomorrow . oh,my current machine is making me tear my hair out for some very obvious reasons-128 MB SD RAM with 20 GB HDD n will turn 6 soon :-)

so the right time to invest in a new laptop ,hopefully will also use it for "educative" purposes other than writing away to glory all the time .

also i had a hearty laugh as i struggled to create this post,fumbling with the simplest of buttons and making a mess,but finally all done !

Man,am i proud !

Done for the day,

Cheers !

PS : Haven't yet figured out how to check account usage on BSNL since my download limit is fixed at 1 GB,will get a good dose when the bill arrives next month,so HELP !