June 24, 2009

Life's like that

These police constables were on duty also making sure they dont fail in their duties as women of the house...i found this very amusing....was lucky enough to be with camera at the right time...

June 22, 2009

Saina shining.....

I wasn’t a big fan of badminton anytime down the line but somehow I have always liked saina nehwal...am always on lookout for any news of her in newspaper whenever I see news related to badminton…she does have a spark….she is special…no doubt about that….but when I opened the paper today…there she was again on the front page…smiling back triumphantly for what was a well deserved…..well achieved…tremendous victory… and I fell in love with her…right at that moment….here was a girl just turned 18…making india proud at the world stage…in a sport which is not much appreciated in cricket fanatic country of ours…..it was definitely a welcome respite after huge disappointment in T20 world cup…

On that note…I sometimes wonder what makes me fall in love with these people….i definitely do not seek the best in business…’cos I have always loved dada more than sachin…but then I love fedex as well who is undoubtedly the best….i tried to think of the personalities I not only admire but blindly love…dada, fedex, becker, steffi, gilchrist, lara, murali…and now saina nehwal joins that list…some are best in their field, some are entertainers, some are controversial, some have attitude…there’s variety of reasons…its not just limited to sports field either….there’s always madhuri…I like kajol, rani & many others but there’s no comparison with original diva of bollywood…but recently I have started liking kareena kapoor for pure attitude she displays…so you see…it isn’t that I don’t like other people…but these are all special…and its very hard to pinpoint a single common factor between all these personalities…

Anyways…this one was for saina nehwal…I hope she doesn’t go sania way in future...….well played gal…u did us proud today….and u deserved this thoroughly.

June 19, 2009

living without the soul

Yes…this one is also about harry potter…one of the most intelligent and scariest concepts I have come across in HP is dementors…never heard of them before…and what’s surprising dictionary doesn’t have this exact word…closest word I could find was dementia…which is a mental disorder in which person suffers from memory loss, personality changes and impaired reasoning……the word dementor have been used in a much wider sense….so basically there is a prison in the magical world too…name is Azkaban…these guys guard the prison and the prisoners in it….all the culprits, all the defaulters are kept in this prison with no hopes whatsoever of escaping from it…and for the highest magnitude of crime…there’s a special punishment…’Dementors kiss’…so when you r guilty of a crime that warrants highest form of punishment….these guys will kiss you…and with that they will take out your soul…you will live but without company of your soul…there’s no capital punishment in Azkaban….whats waiting for the criminals is much worse…just imagine being left to live without your soul…

June 18, 2009

Life is nothing but contradictions....

they say....'no risk...no gain'....and then they say....'look before you leap'... then they say...'opposite poles attract each other' and then finish with 'birds of same feather flock together..'....life is so full of contradictions....but again somebody has said...'contradictions doesnt exist...if you do find one...check your premises...one thing has got to be wrong'....funny isnt it?

June 13, 2009

Marathi mansa jaga ho...


That’s what ‘Mi shivajiraje bhosale boltoy’ is all about…We went to cinema theatre after a gap of 3 years today...and we obviously chose a movie which had got great reviews all over…I mean my husband never accompanies me to a movie before making sure the reviews are good…he does not have slightest faith in my choice of movies…so we zeroed on this movie with mutual consent (that’s a rare thing I tell you…)…

frankly…I didn’t have any expectations from this movie…The theme goes something like this...city Mumbai…marathi people are routinely getting hammered, insulted, humiliated in their own backyard…in their own area…in their own state….and they are so used to it that they withstand it without ever complaining….one such marathi man represents this whole marathi community…he is a protagonist of the movie...Shivajimaharaj couldn’t bear to see this cowardice, this humiliation of his own people and decides to step in…he helps the protagonist to identify himself…to rediscover himself…and to feel proud to be a maharashtrian...so basically this is a fantasy film to some extent…to portray Shivajimaharaj successfully is a huge task….and to bring him in real world with real people and carry this theme well is another impossible target….a step here and there…and the film could have become a farce….

To some extent….what I thought I was true….it was a fantasy film…..it does get filmy in parts (this one funda I have never understood…people including yours truly routinely describe some films as ‘filmy’…)…anyways…so the film is also a bit preachy….but the message is loud and clear…overall effect of film is awesome…hats off to Mahesh Manjrekar for taking a currently running hot topic….and striking a chord with all the marathi hearts…Sachin Khedekar is wonderful…so is Mahesh Manjrekar himself…he does carry Shivajimaharaj well…. overall its a well made film..

And for once, we both agreed on the fact that it’s a well made film…and we both liked it…..

HP mania.....

Just a few days back, I met a 10-12 year old girl in the lift…she was carrying a ‘harry potter’ book…a book lover that I professed to be one…I immediately asked her what book she was reading…and the conversation went something like this…I have to write the lines in marathi to do full justice…

'काय काय वाचत आहेस ?
'हैरी पॉटर'
'हैरी पॉटर?'
'हो 'हैरी पॉटर' चे ६ वे पुस्तक ....'
'हो का ?'
'काकू , तुम्ही 'हैरी पॉटर' वाचले नाहीये ???? ह्यावर सिनेमा पण निघाला आहे ....'
'हो मी वाचले पेपर मध्ये'
'म्हणजे तुम्ही हा सिनेमा पण नाही पाहिला?'

Fullstop…end of the conversation….she went to her home .... that was like a wake up call for me….did the ‘kaku’ hurt more or ‘ignorance about the famous harry potter is a different matter altogether…..absolutely not open for discussion..:)

i mean I have heard about the harry potter alright…how he has taken the world by storm right from the outset…how J.K. Rowling has sold a million copies of each book….how the HP mania has no barrier either of age or language or country or religion….how the books are being translated and made into movies…how the movies are at par with books…and on and on….but for some mysterious reason…I never tried to read those books…I simply ignored them as children books….

But that 12 year old girl made me feel like I belong to some third world country….that spurred me on…and I started on the mission Harry Potter or HP as this generation calls it (there’s another reason to get hurt…are we now ‘past generation’?????)…a GK enthusiast I am…I started with Wikipedia…furnished myself with all the details I could lay my hands on….and then I learnt there are total 7 books of which 5 have been made into movies…I went with the flow and started from the 1st book itself…harry potter and the philosophers stone….well that was it…one book was enough to get me addicted to this character….i was hooked…from then on in last 1 month I have completed 7 books and 4 movies….and believe me….its worth going through at least once whatever age you are in…

to put it in a few words…it’s a fantasy series of which main character is of course harry potter…he is a wizard and studies in the Hogwarts school for wizards….success of HP lies in the fact that even though the story takes place mostly in magical world….it is never cut off from the real world…the way in which Rowling has kept the magic world and real world interconnected is what makes the theme work…of course I cant tell you the whole plot in a few words here….I mean…there’s no easy way to it…you have to experience HP world all by yourself…

P.S. Don’t try to do what I did….i mean reading HP Books and watching HP Movies all in a span of 1 month have resulted in having dreams of harry potter….so…enter….but at your own risk….

June 2, 2009

Flying in the air....



Finally i managed to do paragliding...one of the n number of things i wish to do in life has come true...i know...its not a big deal ...still i feel exhilarated to be part of that 'selected few' who know how it feels to fly in the air.... when I took off from the ground...it took away my breath for a fraction of a second..a knot tightened in the stomach...and then I am in the air...feeling quite liberated...leaving behind all the people on the ground...for a moment i thought i dont even want the company of the instructor..conveniently forgetting the fact that he is the one who is helping me realise my dream....

Once in the air...the surrounding mountains, the hills, the vast sky stretching back to horizon all seem to intimidate you....they kind of tell you the fact that you are nobody when u come face to face with the nature....but i was wondering what would Howard Roark say...i am sure he wont feel threatened...rather he will feel empowered...that he as a part of the mankind has the capacity to invent this sport....and fly in the air...just like that.....how you look at it is entirely your perception....