3 Idiots

What are you doing now?

Are you doing stuff you love or are you pushing yourself to love the stuff you are doing? It is time to find out the correct answer my friend. By the way, Twitter asks you the same question, introspection being the exception there. Follow me or the white rabbit.

The art of doing nothing!

How many times have you thought or dreamt of doing nothing and laze around like Garfield? I do that every day but yet don’t succeed in it. This Sunday I managed to do nothing at all :-). Well one always does something while doing nothing. I got up at about 12:30 when a friend called up to ask if I would accompany for a movie which I later politely declined. I wanted to go to bed again just to break my earlier sleeping record but then somehow dragged myself to brush and make a cup of coffee (with banana wafers and moong ki daal). Yes, I believe in healthy breakfast :D. Then I settled down again with a book in my hand ‘The 3 Mistakes of my Life’ and switched on the TV. Just 8 pages into the book I preferred to catch up a movie as Cameron Diaz was a beautiful option in the movie The Mask than the person who had tried committing suicide in the book. Plus it was dubbed in Hindi (though I don’t like dubbed movies) which actually made it hilarious with voice imitations of all Bollywood actors for Jim Carrey’s role. After that there was another in English starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in which the guys are (separately) hired to kill someone. I don’t know the movie name and watched only about 30-35 minutes of it (Google says it might be Assassins). Then I switched on the computer and dragged a couple of oldies in the player and sang merrily along with he he. I hope the neighbours don’t complain when my parents are back home. Later decided to skip lunch and got myself a good shower. It is a wonderful feeling to know for sure that no one will bother you reminding to come out of the shower in time. This is one of the few differences between Calvin and me. After that I settled down again to solve the crossword in The Sunday Express. Dad called up and asked me to meet the kitchen trolley maker and tell him to complete the work by this weekend. So had to get up and visit the person who promised to complete it by this weekend. I think it was a fake promise and he will take one more week. While returning I decided to have pizza for dinner. Going by the trend of the day I should have ordered it but then thought of baking my own cake pizza and having it as well. So did some shopping for all ingredients and went home. Later, I watched (complete) Bunty aur Babli movie on TV while cutting the veggies for the pizza topping. Till date I had watched only the 'washing machine swindling' and 'Taj Mahal marriage procession' scenes from this movie. The pizzas did turn out good. I wonder how I forgot to get a pack of ice-cream to top up the fantastically spent day :-). I did have a sound sleep after such a hectic day :D.

It is not that we get such a day now and then, so one needs to think wisely in order to spend them ;-). One of my friends had this status line on messenger:

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.

Attempted Live Blogging...

A/B styled update…

I am sitting at my company desk and frankly speaking I can go home now and check the installation scenario tomorrow morning. I can also stop scribbling this random post and put it off for some other day. But I am not in a mood to leave the office today. Might be by the time I reach the middle of this post I might just lock the computer and leave. Let’s see...

Race saanson ki song from the movie Race is playing at a blaring level in my ears in a loop. I loved this song. I generally play songs at medium volume but today is an exception. Yeah sue me! I saw National Treasure 2 and Turista movies last month. The recent kidney scam in North India reminded me of Turista.

I am removing the bulleted format, Sean. I don’t like bullets; paragraph is fine for me. But still your bulleted post looks much better.

Mom reached home now and called up to ask if I was coming home for dinner. There was a dinner party somewhere today and I skipped going there. Luckily I saw the cell display blinking otherwise I would have missed the call. Accidentally I dropped my cell on the floor a month back. The vibrator stopped functioning. Cell vibrator… you and your perverted mind. I always keep my cell on silent mode so since a month I have not been noticing incoming calls. The list of missed calls is increasing each day and people have started thinking I am avoiding them. I am too busy and bored these days to call them back. I hope I don’t have to explain the reason of my absence, to each of them.

I was talking to a friend a few days back about some incident and we both noted that a lot of time has passed since then. Time is flying a bit too fast these days it seems. I am totally confused. There seems to be no decision left to be made on instinct or time to do something out of the mundane routine.

The installation failed… yay!

My Google Reader unread posts count has reached to 560. I wanted to post a few things on Google Reader earlier. Another pending action item eh? I am also planning to start a WTF series. No, seriously WTF! But it won’t be related to the F word. I have 3 parts ready in my mind.

The developers are uploading their builds and they have thrown the bandwidth into a haywire. Blogger is throwing up an error. I will have to publish this post tomorrow. Also I don’t have a C&H strip ready for this. Some kind of live blogging this was. Ciao!

Back again today! Wow… what a bleh mood that was. I was really in a very good mood yesterday morning and something happened down the evening time. Sheesh what a depressing post this turned out to be when I read it today. Anyways I am posting this un-edited. Today I am back to my cheerful self because I am aware that tomorrow I am going to a cousin’s marriage and I will be one hell of an irritated chap by the evening. Happy weekend to all of you!

P.S.: Race song trailer link

P.P.S.: I remembered one of the good text messages I have received on 'marriage'. Old people used to annoy me at weddings, pinching my cheeks and telling me that I am the next. They stopped doing it when I did the same to them at funerals. Old people beware tomorrow… Muhahahaha!! Damn tomorrow is a wedding not funeral.

Mhen the stars bescenbeb…

Quite a long time since my last Bollywood love-hate relationship post was written on this space. Actually been busy with classes and exams on weekends so hardly had been catching up with movies. The last movie I had seen till a few days back was Jab We Met and that too forcibly. I mean watching a Kareena Kapoor movie in a theatre is blasphemous. But trust me when I say that I loved watching Kareena for the first time in a movie (and in general as well). I had gone to the movie just for the sake of accompanying and was expecting crap but what I got in return was one wonderful movie and a very melodious track which I can’t stop playing now and then. I thank the people who forced me to join them :D. Last week I saw Taare Zameen Par and I was floored. Not watching Aamir Khan’s movie in a theatre is blasphemy :D. For the second time in my life I cried in public and I was not the only one who was shedding tears because literally everyone in the theatre was sniffling. A dyslexic child of just 8 years is labeled as a duffer by his parents, teachers and peers. He fights a lone battle with each and everyone until he finds a saviour in his arts teacher. This movie doesn’t preach and doesn’t have those long boring sermons in the end and yet it convincingly delivers what it wants to. Darsheel Zafary, who plays the role of the child, is sweet and has quite an expressive face even when in one scene he is blankly staring down in the void from his school terrace. In another scene when his elder brother in the movie asks him how he dared to roam on a busy street all alone he replies Bindhaas with a grin laced with confidence and the no-worries attitude of childhood. Aamir Khan who essays the role of his arts teacher never lets his character overshadow the kid’s role. Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics score a homerun and especially the track Maa is heart touching especially while watching the movie. This movie definitely is now listed in my favourite list and one of those which can be watched over and over again. That makes Aamir’s tally 5 with Andaz Apna Apna, Sarfarosh, Dil Chahta Hai and Rang De Basanti already there.

Apart from being good, this movie brought back fond memories to me. On my right there were 2 kids (probably in their 8th-9th grade) from my school and had directly come to the theatre as they were in their uniforms. During one scene in the movie, when the English teacher was scolding the boy on top of her voice the kid next to me promptly uttered "Shirish Patil madam". She was my Science teacher in school and remembering her yelling at us like that just made me smile that day. I recollect only one day when we students had seen her smiling… though can’t recollect the incident that made her smile. The drawing competition in the movie reminded me of the numerous drawing and painting competitions I had taken part in as a kid. Those Sundays’ when dad used to drop me at the venue (mostly it was Saras Baug) and then sitting among hundreds of children I used to showcase my ‘talent’ on the blank drawing sheet. I never won any competition then but have loads of certificates of participation :D. I was (and ‘is’ as well) never good at drawing and being slightly colour blind had many a times painted trees brown (under the guise of modern painting :P). But mom and dad had always praised my scribbling and had diligently enrolled my name in all those competitions and waited in the afternoon summer heat for me to enjoy rubbing crayons or dabbling with water colours… coz every child is special and so are you. No matter how old we are there is still a child within all of us… pamper him, respect him and don’t let him out in this bad world :-).

This is the last post of the year 2007 and I would like to wish all of you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I sincerely hope that the New Year brings lot of happiness for each and everyone in this world. And like I say every year please don’t mix drinking and driving... have a great time folks.

S - O - R - R - Y

The entrance exam season for MBA courses kicked off in great style with the CAT 2007 on 18th Nov. I will write more on that in the next post but after that I gave IIFT, Delhi exam. This exam has a GK section in addition to the maths, logical and verbal sections and whoa! it was a lengthy paper. So I didn’t manage to reach the last page of my GK section, in time, on which the questions were as if drafted only for me :(. In one question I had to match the creator of Calvin & Hobbes cartoon characters (Yashita stop grinning)… yes the same characters which open all the posts on this blog. Another question asked the candidates to match Bond girls with their movies. I could match the names of the actresses with their faces in my mind but I have not seen a Bond movie yet. Yeah no need to revisit the earlier sentence.. I am yet to see a Bond movie. I know Pierce Brosnan was the previous Bond guy so when I saw The Thomas Crown Affair movie on television sometime back I was quite amused and confused seeing ‘James Bond’ stealing. Later a friend told me that it was not a Bond movie *ahem*… I hope Bond fans are not reading this post. A few other questions which I could have managed to answer just slipped out. Moral: Never read the unattempted questions after going home.

So I would like to tender heartfelt apologies to Mr. Bill Watterson and James Bond & his babes. As a punishment I have been reading my C&H books daily, for at least 1 hour before sleeping. Also I will be updating the Desktop Goddess series with a Bond girl and might watch a 007 movie in near future. Yes, I like to inflict nice punishments on myself ;-) This post is dedicated to Watterson :)

Sex, Lies and Videotapes!

The title is not misleading. :P

I was catching up with a school friend on msn over the weekend, after meeting him on orkut after school, and then the movie whose name is mentioned in the title brought back memories. It was way back in 8th grade when the internet had not spread its wings (or fangs) over us and we were totally unaware of the other meaning of the word web** other than the one the spider spins with its saliva. Frankly speaking the first time I was introduced to net was at a friend’s place much later where he had showed the whole group comparison between Pamela’s n Cindy’s bootlicious bodies. After that, had followed frantic calls to people who knew how to clear history of web pages visited.. lol. So before that the only sources of entertainment were cable television and a bunch of books some guys religiously got into school every month. The cablewallah used to show nice stuff late nights but that time we hadn’t subscribed to the cable so like many guys from my class I was left at the mercy of the guys with the books. One of them was the guy mentioned in the opening line. This dude A had a very nice dad (still might be having) and we all used to envy him that time. Now, where on earth you will find a dad who gives monthly pocket-money exclusively for buying porn books? I guess nowhere and naturally we had developed a sense of deep respect for his dad.. he he. So the books would get into the class and the big geography books were undressed from their covers and the cover page models would get draped into them for circulating in the class. During one such session we coincidentally had the geography lecture on and the teacher Mrs. K asked one guy to read a certain paragraph from the text book and till now you must have figured out that he had the other book in the covers and was stumped what to do. It was a hilarious scene but he somehow managed to get the original geography book from the nearby benches. But I still clearly remember the teacher’s face writ with surprise and the guy’s huh-what-happened look when she asked him why he had to exchange the books just to read out a paragraph. So coming back to the guy A; once he had mentioned in class that there was a movie Sex, Lies and Videotape on some channel. So the next day we were quite eager to hear his review of how the movie was and more for the hot scenes but as usual the censors had cut the hot scenes and the foul language was beeped out. A few years back again this movie was aired and this time we had cable but I don’t remember why I didn’t see it. Might be coz I already knew that it was going to be edited before screening.

The censorship is still in but I feel it has grown to a large extent than before. Late night stuff is definitely for adult viewing but the government agencies don’t think that the audience is mature enough to view it. Leave apart the things related to sex, one cannot celebrate Valentines Day fearing the moral police brigade to come and beat him/her. Pubs and discotheques can’t remain open till wee hours’ coz we don’t want any ‘western’ influence on our good culture. My company has now kept 2 separate computers for surfing the internet. Imagine an IT company where 100 people want to check mails or surf but have access to only 2 computers for that. I don’t know whether to frown or laugh at it. Today afternoon I wrote on my whiteboard ‘Restrictions and Attrition go hand-in-hand’. I really have no idea if this will be read by the management but now this is a form of protest thanks to ‘gandhigiri’.. ha ha.

** I really feel happy when I see kids as young as in 1st grade learning and knowing computers. We had been introduced to computers in say 5th or 6th grade and we used to play Packman and Dave on the school computers and used to learn DOS in curriculum. When I was active in a social group for teaching kids a few years back, we had to go to their houses to meet their parents so as to confirm that their school studies were not affected due to our extra-curricular activities. I was literally stumped when a kid aged around 7-8 years hurled some technical jargon at me and told how he was learning to build his own website. But then I feel somewhat uneasy with the access these little children have to sites after getting messages on hi5 or orkut saying that I liked your profile and when their profile is seen it reads age 14-15 and status is committed. I don’t know whether I am still being orthodox in some ways but I feel sad for the parents of a gal aged in her very early teens whose scrapbook is filled with messages such as “Hey sexy gal! Can we go on a date tomorrow?” I just click the ‘back’ button on the browser and say to myself “Which age you are in? Grow up! This is what you have to accept with the developments in technology”. Really I have to grow up or else have to accept that the scene in the lower cartoon is or can be a real thing.

Tryst with the Mahatma on Teachers’ Day!

Can there be a better way celebrating Teachers’ Day ** than wishing one’s fav teachers n then watching the movie Lage Raho Munnabhai? I would say this is perfect, just perfect. The part two of the movie Munnabhai MBBS is great.. no it is awesome! Let me first of all make it clear tht m not a fan of Mahatma Gandhi coz I haven’t read anything ‘bout him other than the few chapters of 3-4 pages we have in our history books. The movie simply conveys his preachings in such a manner tht u rarely can disagree with the characters n the director. The Father of the Nation has been reduced to either a statue around which politics is played by vandalizing it or a portrait hung in a frame in the govt offices under which corruption blossoms n comes to full bloom. The younger generation knows him as a face on the currency note n a figure lifting salt to break the shackles of English rule in colonial India. The movie without being preachy n without the ‘do-this-do-that’ dialogues cleanly conveys how we have lost the path which was shown to us by Gandhiji. I don’t remember watching a movie which has this perfect blend of reality n humour. The roles have been perfectly essayed by each n everybody. The soft-hearted don Munnabhai n his best man Circuit make sure u keep rolling with laughter. Vidya Balan looks nice as usual n does well as usual too but I hate her radio jockey character’s ‘Gooood Moooorning Mumbai’ drawl which sounds very shrill to wake up frm deep slumber. Dilip Prabhavalkar is gud playing Mahatma Gandhi while Boman Irani does his small part ok. Apart frm a few scenes which I felt went over the board the whole movie is awesome.. music is also gud. Is it an irony tht the audience is almost emotionless when the Mahatma says tht his statue is being vandalized everywhere but later u can see everyone choked with emotions n fingers reaching slowly to the eyes when the lead characters say sorry to each other? Or is it ok with the kind of world we are living in?

It is just impossible to meet all teachers who have taught till date on a single day to thank them but it is more impossible just to remember all the teachers who have taught. I just remember a handful coz they have been my fav teachers. So thnx to my parents, N.M.Kulkarni, Manjiri Shrikhande, K.M.Gokhale, Mrs. Jugade, Sanjeevani Bokil, Prof. Khake, Late B.G.Kulkarni, Anjali Patil n Girish Modak. Also, thnx to all of u out there (bloggers n non-bloggers) who have contributed in my learning at some or the other turn of my life. As a saint had said “Guru is a guru no matter what his/her age is”.

As we now remember our teachers n thank them for nurturing us how can we overlook the Ujjain incident in which students killed a professor by beating him black n blue. Wht a sorry state of education is this in which students are responsible for their own professor’s death for petty reasons such a college election.. n yes we will be happy to blame all this on the politics entering the education field but it is indeed a sad day for all of us to see a professor die at the hands of goons who run the college under the shadows of politicians. On the other hand we also have a student admitted in a critical state for being ragged by a senior under the garb of introduction. We surely need an idol for today n watching the movie surely makes me think tht Mahatma shld have been there today. Or would he have died a thousand deaths seeing wht the country is into now?

** Teachers’ day or Teacher’s Day?? Again the same question I had asked on Mother’s day .. but now I have decided tht since teachers are many, for me it will be Teachers’ Day while for mom it will be Mother’s Day. Have a gr8 weekend!

Wanted - Hot gal with cool sunglasses! :D

2 days back as I was waiting at the Sangam Bridge signal on way to office saw a few school children standing across holding placards in their hands. The boards were in marathi language n I take longer time to read marathi in devnagari script than in English script thnx to the innumerable sessions of chatting. I was trying to figure out wht was written frm a long distance but couldn’t do so apart frm noticing a few exclamation marks. The signal turned green n the curious cat in me glanced sideways to read the banner. I just finished reading half of it n THUD!! I almost fell down in a big pothole in the middle of the road.. not middle it had covered the whole road. Guess wht was written on the placard.. Pudhe khadda aahe!! Vahane hallu chalva! which translated means Pothole ahead!! Drive slowly!. I was not hurt but tht pothole sure shook some of the vertebrae down the spinal cord. Tht is just one of the innumerable potholes here n every rainy season Pune is compared to the moon drawing a comparison of the potholes and craters over there. I wont be saying again n again tht the corporation sucks but it indeed is a gr8 effort by the students of school to come forward n help citizens (not by making them bump of course). Also a few IT companies’ employees have started manning traffic signals in peak hours while the pot-bellied policemen take a siesta. It is tht time of the year when u sport ur sexy sunglasses to hang around n not to move. If at all u have to move prepare urself for a roller-coaster ride.. woooohhooooo!!!

In the previous post, many said tht it is a passing phase n also the ‘grass is greener on other side’ feeling. I agree to tht, but yet I would like to say tht blaming engineering does not mean I did not enjoy those four years. It was one of the best phases of my life. Apart frm the gud frnds I made in this time I value these four years as discovering myself. I was not shy but introvert by nature in school. But conscious efforts frm my side n a nice grp of frnds has definitely transformed me into an extrovert. Not tht I was not social earlier but there has been a distinct transformation in me in a positive way. So for some of u .. engineering is gud.. fine? Now u can sleep peacefully :P. Also, someone pointed tht I need to find a gal so tht I won’t be stressed.. lollzz. I would luv to take this advice n start searching for a gal. But being lazy I would prefer to print some ads’ n let the gal come over here instead :D Any creative lines.. not pickup lines.. for the ads’ are welcome.. he he. My tennis partner Kunal is leaving for US this weekend to pursue higher studies. So tht means ‘The Sunday Tennis’ comes to an end until I find a new partner. Also, a few frnd frm my grp already left abroad in the past two weeks or so. Now m seriously wondering wht I would be doing over the weekend n whom to hang out with. Whts the use of sexy sunglasses if u don’t have anyone to hang out with.. lol. I guess the ‘gal’ thing shld be seriously considered now. Don’t be surprised if u get to see hoardings for the gal-search all over Pune. I will keep in mind to make those in english n not in marathi otherwise I will be the first one to take a tumble again.. ha ha.

Watched ‘The Game’ movie over last 2-3 days. It features Michael Douglas, don’t know if it is new or old. But if tht thing (a prank) happens to someone in real life, I doubt he will survive till the end.. the movie’s end not his end. I got myself new headphones in office.. the earlier ones had started to function well again suddenly but again gave problems last week. For a few reasons I have fallen in luv with 2 songs right now. They have been playing in loop since a few days. One is Lucky Ali’s Tu Kaun Hai and other one Pyaar Ke Naam by Bombay Vikings. Interestingly, both songs when used in movies are more melodious. I guess m correct or it’s only me thinking tht way. A few lines of the first song are:

Kahaan se tu aati hain kahaan ko tu jaati hain
Sapnon ko sajaati hain apnon ko le jaati hain
Baagon mein jab behti hain kaanon mein kuch kehti hain
Aati hain nazar nahin saanson mein par rehti hain
Hawa hain pawan hain vayu hain purwai hain
Jeevan hain jaan hain ya parchai hain
Dene aayi hain ya kuch mere liye layi hain
Puchu na main kya tuzhse kahanse tu aayi, tu kaun hain

Tu kaun hain Tu kaun hain Tu kaun hain

The *tu kaun hain* line doesnt fail to make me think every time i hear it. The second song’s lyrics are put up in the scrolling line on header. Have a superb weekend all of u!

Hiiiiiissssssss...

It was Nagpanchami on Sunday. Nag means snake n panchami is 5th day.. don’t know wht 5th day is but ppl worship snakes on the Nagpanchami (snake being one of the creatures alongside one of the most powerful gods in Indian mythology). There were some pics in the newsppr of ladies celebrating it so I assume tht it is a more female-sided day so no wonder I don’t know anything about the festival. But snakes do evoke some memories frm the past. Dad being a zoologist, his office had (when he was in Pune) insects n animals of all size, sex, caste n creed.. okk at least the first 2 I guess. There were beautiful butterflies to ugly beetles, creepy snakes to grasshoppers, crickets, praying mantis n wht not. I have had my wonderful share of scaring gals in school during my science projects when mostly I used to take an empty box of sweets n arrange all those insects in it. Of course they were dead but not all knew tht fact n it was real fun. But, before tht as a kid I also wasn’t aware tht all those snakes were dead n kept in spirit for preservation. I always thought tht they were alive n were kept in special mineral water which kept them alive for many years. I never used to venture in tht area of the office n used to keep myself happy watching the butterflies n moths.

The first time I came across a live snake was when I was in 7th grade I guess. Tht time dad was a member of an organization WILD. Tht organization had caught some snake-charmers (don’t know wht is charming ‘bout these ppl) who sewed the mouth of snakes n then made money by either making them dance on tune of bin or skinning them. The whole lot of snakes recovered frm them was kept in an exhibition to spread awareness about snakes in the masses. I was roaming around keeping a safe distance frm the exhibits when one of dad’s frnd recognized me n said “Hey this is Dr. Sharma’s son.” Now god knows why but this statement prompted one guy frm the organization to come forward n place a huge python on my neck with the python’s neck region in my right hand. I can’t forget tht feeling till date. I was shivering n I could feel my palms going wet with sweat. Luckily tht lasted only for few seconds but in such situations the few seconds also seem like long hours. (Off record: I later boasted ‘bout handling a live python alone n tht ‘live’ word was said with due stress :D) The point is tht m in awe of ppl who can handle those poisonous n non-poisonous asps. I always take my lil cousins to the local snake park to show them how they take out venom. The snakes there are in deep pits so no problem of being scared, but yes snakes are scary n far far away from being cute. Take my word for tht.

Weekend was meant to be fun but the incessant rain did play a bit of spoilsport. Met a lot of buddies in this whole week. Two of them were in India on vacn frm France n US. Another was here frm Singapore while two frm within India frm Banglore n Hyderabad. Lotz to talk, lotz to eat n lotz to learn too. Watched Omkara movie which is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello. It was nice but Saif took away the whole movie n might sweep the awards too. Also watched (or say re-watched if permitted to use the word) Saving Private Ryan, Apaharan n half of Chronicles Of Narnia. Finished off the season one of 24 n still I have dreams of Elisha Cuthbert being kidnapped again n again n me being her sole saviour. I was wondering if I had too much on hands before Saturday evening came but now wonder how could I squeeze all this too along with getting up at 1 on Sunday. Amazes me!

Out of context.. today’s evening made me very very happy.. it is past midnight but m still smiling :)

Lows n Highs!!

Wish u all a very belated Happy Republic Day. Many of u might have read posts ranging frm ppl not sending mssgs (like they do on any other days) to ppl dumping paper flags after using it just for the day. Tht is shameful indeed but I felt worse when Pune Newsline published some excerpts of interviews they conducted across various sections in the society ‘bout Republic Day. 70% of the junta (mind u they were literate) didn’t know the importance of it. Won’t get much into the debate of culture influence n stuff like tht but it feels really sad when the young generation doesn’t know or doesn’t -care- to know the reason why we all r living happily today.

My Republic Day started the same way as it is going on for last 5-6 yrs. Went to JPP (a school.. not the one I studied in) for the flag hoisting ceremony. It is getting damn cold here since past 3-4 days. Infact Friday was the coldest day in January since last 12 yrs. Pune is known for it’s pleasant climate but right now it is BRRRR!!! So went to the ceremony almost shivering in the morning. After the flag hoisting, there is usually a speech by somebody (mostly a teacher). Slept peacefully thro’ it .. over the yrs I have improved this skill, but was suddenly woken up when the speaker’s voice caught enthu (almost at the end of his speech). His voice n style reminded me of PuLa Deshpande’s Asami Asami part when a political leader is addressing a rally:
Kashmir te Kanyakumari paryant… ekaaaaaach aawaz… ekaaaaach dhyas… ha hindu rashtra ek aahe
In the afternoon had some family frnds for lunch. I don’t have a sweet tooth but had 2 bowls of amrakhand tht day. The evening was spent hanging out. So frankly speaking I too didn’t do anything gr8 .. just the same holiday approach for the Republic Day.

Saw Rang De Basanti yesterday. Basanti is the saffron colour, symbolizes the blood our martyrs sacrificed during the freedom struggle. The storyline is not tht new… but the way it is portrayed is awesome. The story of today’s youth n drawing a parallel betn the extremists during the struggle against British forces is something which makes it a must watch. Not only it shows some historical significant events but brings forth some of today’s vital issues like the MIG plane crashes n the corruption involved in the defence ministry.

A group of frnds is making a documentary on the freedom struggle in it’s violent stage. One of their close frnd (a fighter pilot) dies in a crash n the defence minister (to save his skin) blames the pilot himself for the same. This ires the group and they seek revenge by killing the minister. Now this sounds a run-of-the-mill story, but all actors have infused life in their characters. After seeing the promos I had thought tht the movie will be only revolving around Amir Khan’s character, but it is totally opposite. Amir does stand a class apart but other actors leave their mark too. Direction is gr8, music is just superb. The whistles frm the crowd just don’t cease when the songs r played n Amir’s dance moves look funny yet cool. I don’t remember the names of the not-so-frequently seen faces, but Atul Kulkarni does a cool job n really looks like a leader of PPS or ABVS. This reminds me of Atul’s interview on Radio Mirchi. This seems to be getting long… will post it sometime ltrz. A definitely must see movie…

P.S.: Sonia Gandhi can use Sue’s Hindi teacher :p