All the HONOURABLE men

With Life flowing from one end to the other, I feel I am growing on to be naive to the world around me. I fail to understand various concepts around me and also dont understand why there needs to be so much commotion and confusion.

Out of the many concepts I fail to undertand, honour killing is brilliantly confusing.

In the last 2 weeks I have read enough articles about the honour tales from various parts of the county to conclude, there is no honour left in people.
In the land with such diversity, the most cliched live used to describe India around the world, we still have castes ruling the lives of the people. Falling in love and to that matter expressing your feelings has become the biggest crime.
Fathers have been commiting honour murders and sitting in the police vans with their heads held high! The entire village coming to the aid of the mother who supported her husband when he killed his own daughter in cold blood! I think that's brilliant! With so called globalisation, education and freedom of expression, we are ready to walk the mile to JAIL, but not ready to accept our daughters or sons.

I fail to understand the pride and honour of the literate and sensible countrymen. Why give birth if the caste is so important. Why dont these people adopt kids from within their caste's and raise them for the pride of their caste? Accepting love and compassion, has become dangerously difficult.

The psychology behind this honourable mind is beyond my realm of understanding.

BAck.... AfTEr a ShoRT-lOng BREak

hello All

Its been ages since i last wrote my blog....

I promise i will be as regular as i can from here on.

Loads to write, loads to tell, loads to ask..

So as i gear up for a roller-coaster ride to great blogging life once again... My advice to you guys .. hang on!!!!

Ho ha InDya... Go kha Indya!!!

'Sare jahan se acha Hindustan hamara...' who ever wrote these lines was highly optimistic about the future of this country. But I guess, even he would take back these words, moment he has been given a chance to do so.
When one says, 'the country is going to the dogs', I never agreed to them. but now I guess they were right. If you ask me why.. well u just have to look around you to get the reason...

The witnesses are turning hostile every second day. To commit a murder and get away with it untouched.. all you need to do is connect yourself politically. Then it wont matter whom you killed. You can kill any one's son, daughter, wife, brother.. any one... I guess it really pays to be in politics!!!!

Apart from that it does not matter what sport you play and how good are u at that. All that matters is do you play cricket? And if the answer is NO!!!it doesn't matter.. the country will never know you. But yes they will cry over the fact.. that we do not do well in our national sport..and the Olympics.. or any other sport.

We cry everyday that we are suffering from the brain drain.. and all our talent is running away to the west for the money!!!! My question to this point is ... why wouldn't they?
What are they getting out of this country. reservations and quotas even for a masters degree? no job opportunity... and rising corruption!!!

No matter what happens.. we will continue to be Indians and just say.. 'Hum kya kar sakte hain....?'

THe GReaT inDIan TouRist sPOT!!!!!!!!!

I have been waiting to write this one for quiet some time now..... This is also based on my recent visit to AGRA.. where I saw the TAJ.....

During my stay there, there was not much I could do apart from eating, eating and eating.. as i had gone for 'the great north indian wedding!'. So whenever I had to escape the unavoidable trauma, I would pick one of my cousins and go roaming on the streets of Agra on a Scooter.

It was kind of funny as to why were we actually using the same. As we would have to break every 20 metres. There are no traffic rules what so ever in the holiday destination of India. There are random people who cross the road, with no trouble at all, even if they see a speeding truck coming towards them. the one who gets scared first, stops, is the rule. One who can drive here can drive anywhere on this earth. There are vegetable vendors, parked bikes, cows, half naked kids, dogs, kachori & samosa stalls and everything else possible avaiable for you to tackle on the road. If you can save yourself from them, then you have these wannabe Hrithik's, Abhishek's and John's who wear Rs.20 sunglasses and drive with earplugs in their ears!!!

As it is a tourist destination, every nook and corner has a hotel! All these hotels claim to be a 2 star, 4 star, etc.... who graded them i have no clue what so ever. But they claim that. The name of the hotels is not important (to the owners). Cause all the hotels have their hoarding as AC, fully air condined, best facilities and not their actuall names.
The best part is, that most of the time they donot have electricity.

Then there are the great gutters.. that are always over flowing.. the state of cleanliness is pathetic. The only place where you can find them to be good are in and around the TAJ.
Everything has its own pacein the city, it has its own MCdonalds and Pizza hut.. all the latest fashion brands... but then where is the groth for the city, with no decent colleges to study in, no infrastructure, no electricity and no rules.

But the city has sustained and the people have learned to get things done. The one word that wrks the most effectivley in the tourism town is 'Jugaad'!!!!!

The EYE Candy!

I had recently gone to Agra for my cousins wedding. I ate a lot.. danced a lot, sang a lot and...
I saw one of the most beautiful thing on this earth.

The Taj Mahal

You park your vehical and walk down for 20 minutes to reach the ticket quanter. You buy a ticket and then you wait in a long impatient line. Everyone entering the Taj is scanned and then allowed in. The process is slow and takes a long time to get through the same. but believe me the wait is worth it. When u enter the compound and walk towards the final entrance to the Taj, you have no clue what you are up for. As soon as u enter the gate you have the first sight of the magnificient structure through the tall dark gate. I saw a couple of dozen people standing near me, awed by the beauty of the structure.

You enter the complex and get the frst complete view of it and you stand there capturing the beautyi n your eyes. I stood there for almost 5 minutes, without speaking a word or trying to take a picture of the same in my camera. I dont know why, i was just bolted there.

I was pushed to move by my cousin, and then we went towards the mesmerising structure silently absorbing the beauty.

When I entered the tomb... there was this unbelievable commotion. YES!!!!

There was so much of sound in there, it was unbelievable. Scientifically it was a classic case of continuous reflection of sound. But When I was there, I felt that even after the lovers are dead, there is no peace for them. There was darkness and the constand noise, the torch bulbs reflecting the effecient art work on the tomb.

Shahjahan would have never imagined that the spledid symetrical structure he saw from the window of the jail his own son had put him in....... would be deforemed by his own grave!!!!

Coming back, I saw the new age lovers impressing their love on the moss settled in the unclean fountains of the Taj.

I came back with a lot of peace, questions and mind full of the Taj!!!!!!

Click Click!!!!

I am sure everyone must have felt this... when you are on a holiday or at home or just in your day to day life..... I can say it for sure that it has happened to me a lot of time...

The other day I was walking to my gym.. and I saw this small girl in rags.... I was watching her. like i would wath a small dried shrub or a pebble on the river bed.. but when I was passing by, I just hapened to give a small glance...... and that poor little face just froze in time...

I just so hoped I had a camera there, but then i realised it would be next to impossible to capture the same image that struck me there on the road...
I would not get the emotion, the natural view.. neither would i get the innocence that the moment had.

I so hoped that if only we had built in camera's in our eyes, that would capture an image of our choice when ever we want. So that we can share it with the world. We do have that in built camera..... but the only issue is that i cannot share that picture with you as I am writing this blog.

Maybe our scientists can work something for us. The James Bond movie's ahve already influenced them a lot!!!!

I will wait for that day.. if not me.. probably the next generation will use it in theor day to day life.

The Touchy Heart

All our lives we try and achieve a lot of things. We succeed in many and have numerous failures. We are dejected by one and over-joyed by the other. But then are we ever happy or sad. Please donot take these adjectives lightly, we may be happy about the fact that we got to go for a movie, that we were planning for a week or sad that we didbot get the best of seats. But the point is for how long do we be happy or sad after such incidences. I would say a few hours or at max a day. I am not referring to such short term feelings. What I am asking you about is some thing that stayed on with you for a longer period of time. 5 days, 2 weeks... a year...a life time.
The reason why I am asking you to think about it is that it will help you realise what registers with you and stays with you a life time. I had been thinking about this issue for a long time and I think(yes i do think sometimes) I have got the answer!

With this fast paced life of Mumbai we have become absolutely used to things around us and what ever happens around us hardly matters. The reason for which I think is that we dont have the time....
Our lives are so conviniently and completely messed up that we cant afford to bother ourselves about any thing at all. Then come the incidences that strike us straight where it hearts the most our heart( not the pockets my friends).

Anything that touches our heart is going to be with us for a life time. And nothing can remove it from there. I know this is something everyone says..but then this is something i have experienced myself and believe me its a wonderfull feeling.

On realising the fact that there are certain things that touch me.. i started analysing them and realised that all the incidences have a common link.
All of them were incidences of the triumph of the human spirit. Englands ashes win over Australia, the graduation seen of Black.., the last fight in 'the Cindrella man', the end of 'the million dollar baby'. A lot actually...... and most of them have been the the movies.. my passion...
You will argue that films arent real and hence should not effects us.. but then all our movies are derived from us. What is important is that i will never forget these events ever.. and each time watch them again... i will feel the same. I will have a tear in my eye after seeing the cindrella man and will be on a high on seeing cinema paradiso, as I would be sad as 'the black boards' comes to an end.

Man I love Cinema. It makes me what I am!