The Distance

It's a beautiful sunday morning. And something is missing. A part of me is missing. I am here, on my bed, writing this out, while experiencing a hunger which cannot be satisfied. The hunger of a homely breakfast on my dining table with my family.

Fresh Idlis , Sambhar , Coconut chatni or be it the traditionally sindhi cokie with dahi, anything would do. I have to make do with Maggi here. And yeah, the maggi that mom makes, tastes totally different!! Never valued home more. I can just remember a saying which is put up on my Nani's bedroom wall-"A house is built of bricks but a home is built of hearts"

It is the distance, that makes us value. For years, I took everything for granted. But that is really the rule of life.There is a difference between knowing the value of things and realizing their value. The realizing part is what is important, be it anything.

अंजान दलदल

एक अंजान सी घबराहट,
बेकारण, बेहिसाब
जब मैं न समझूं,
छोट्टी से छोट्टी बातें ।

क्यों रुका हूँ मैं,
क्यों नही चल रहा,
न मैं जानूं यह,
क्यों थमा हूँ मैं यहाँ.

पेट में अजीब सी गुड गुड
न पास है घर,
रास्ता भी चौडा,
और दूर है मंजिल.

रात है बड़ी घनी,
सूरज उभरेगा जल्द ही,
इन चन् पलों का गुज़रना,
ही तोह लगे जैसे एक सदी.

Lady of the moment: Zoya Akhtar

Applause. Debutante director Zoya Akhtar does magic."Luck By Chance", I would say, is a wonderful work of film making because of many reasons-

1)Great direction, fantastic screenplay and editing. Added the winning angles to Farhan's performance.

2)Farhan somehow just can't stop the whole undying connection that he has established with the audience. He carries of the script in his unique and typical 'andaaz' and connects to his viewers very well.

3)Koko! Love her.

4)The sattire in the movie was brilliant. There were so many times that the audience was mum and behaved like zombies. Trust me, i was rolling.

5)Hrithik came in time and again. It was as if he was 'glittering' the screen.


6)Shah Rukh Khan exuded power in his performance(Sorry to break this to you but just had to mention this. After seeing the movie, you will know what I am talking about)!

7)It was great to see Rishi Kapoor acting very well to fit into his role perfectly.

8)Dimple Kapadia stole the show with her 'adaayien' once again. But a crucial 2 minutes got a lot of reality of the film industry and gave solid depth to her character.

9)The hidden paradox in the movie, which makes up its theme, is depicted in a very subtle way.(Do not want to disclose the hidden paradox. Let it be hidden)

10) The music is fitting and not unnecessarily glorious as in many bollywood flicks.

11) It is an intelligent movie.

12)It leaves you thinking.

Worth a watch. Spent Rs 140 on it, plus the popcorn. Surprisingly, did not come out regretting that I could have watched it on my laptop.

Hope to see more of such movies. Expectations are rising. Bollywood is improving.
Cheers.

Lines on which I flipped !!

Below are some quotes which I found thought provoking. Read on.

On Emotions
One mad magenta moment and I have paid for it all my life-Alan Bennett

On Fashion
I like to dress egos. If you haven't got an ego today, forget it-Gianni Versace.


On Love
To be wise, and love, exceeds man's might-William Shakespeare in Troilus and Cressida.

On Marriage
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup
Whenever you're wrong admit it
Whenever you're right shut up.

Odgen Nash in 'A Word to Husbands'

On Men and Women
I think men talk to women so that they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so that they can talk to them- Jay McInerney in 'Brightness Falls'



On Conscience
Thus conscience makes cowards of us all- William Shakespeare in Hamlet

On Food
Kissing don't last: cookery do! -George Meredit.

Happy New Year

New: "Original and of a kind not seen before"
Wish all of you a very happy NEW year. Lets make 2009 a year which is unlike any of the years that we have ever lived.

A Beautiful Bliss

The one who brings a smile on my face,
With whom time flies in conversation,
Who helps me deal with the world's fast pace,
Her company is always a vacation.

Such happiness which cannot be explained,
To form landmarks in my memory lane,
I cherish the feeling, wondering if its ordained,
Because no one else makes me be this way.

I dont know what this exactly is,
I dont even want to know because,
Whatever this is, it is a beautiful bliss,
As serene as the mosque, as holy as the cross.

Seeking Heaven

There are many things that my soul seeks,
In every nook and corner of conversations it peeks,
To find speed, love, adventure or friendship,
And take me into an exhilarating trip.

I'm tired of complacency and resignation,
It has been a long process of fruitful fermentation,
I'm itching to get into high spirited action,
My hands are on my destinyation!!

A World of the Ustad.

Ordinary things and ordinary people cannot keep me up at 4:30 am and make me write a blog entry on them. Well, on what I am writing today, is in the true sense extraordinary. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab.

X&Y.The axes on the graph paper. The axes of my soul. After listening to Ustad, I realized that there exists an axis Z in my soul. Just like a string on a harp, it emerges only when struck. And for sure, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab's music truly struck mine causing some resonance!

His music, along with depth and elevation in pitch, has variation which is refreshing. When I listen to "Kinna sona tenu rab ne banaya" I feel like having a crush on somebody. And truly, "Dil kare dekhta rava"!

The Ustad is truly the maestro as far as his classically 'qawali' trained voice is concerned. He modernizes Qawali by using western instruments like the electric guitar, trumpet, electric keyboard and the drums in many of his songs. And it comes out beautifully, soulfully, in a brilliant contrast.

The fusion in his music is unlike any other in this world. The thing about his songs which touches my heart the most is that from a background of the hectic techno/modern music, emerges purity, love, melancholy and an emotion filled voice.

The following song in the video makes me happy from inside. I feel a two way itch. My sole itches to reach the floor and my soul itches to be let in heaven. This song is in the classical qawali style with classical instruments like the tabla and the harmonium.

"Dam mast kalandar"


A beautiful solo by Ustad. One of my favourite songs ever. And he does more than justice to it as the lucky audience watches a great recital.
"Sanu ek pal"


This is the song that I loved from the very first time I listened to it. A marvel created by the star lyricist Javed Akhtar Sahab and Ustad himself.

"Afreen"



A classic, OST of Dead Man Walking featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder.

"Face of Love".




I could keep embedding videos here. Its already an hour up and I realise it's just about an hour for the sun to rise. Will sleep for a hour and a half before I get back to studying, but with eternal and overwhelming music in my heart.

Enjoy the songs.
So long.

O Captain, My Captain!

It has been a while since Dhoni has been captaining India brilliantly. But I have failed to relate to him as the captain of the Indian cricket team inspite of his winning streak individually, as well as a captain. It always has been Ganguly for me. As i write,Dada wears the Indian test cap for the last time today.

It will not be so much fun to watch cricket without him. I will miss the spinners being hit for sixes from half pitch down, so clean, elegant and not to forget, out of the ground. After the way he united the Indian cricket team and got a period of glory back to Indian cricket - after he fought his way till the end in the face of injustice and politics, I bid Dada adieu.


Here is a perfectly fitting write up for his farewell.

He Played From The Heart
(Author:Boria Majumdar
Courtesy:Times of India-10th November,2008)

How will one best remember Sourav Ganguly? What will be his most enduring legacy? These are questions being asked all over the cricketing world
on a day when Ganguly will wear his India colours for one final time in Nagpur. While some say that he will be best remembered for his never-say-die spirit and perhaps as India’s best ever captain, history will also surely remember him as someone who rescued Indian cricket from its deepest low: the tribulations of match fixing.

At a time when the match fixing scandal was eating into the very edifice of Indian cricket and the national side under Sachin Tendulkar was in disarray, Ganguly assumed the mantle of leadership. Fans had started to lose interest in the game and only a handful in the cricket fraternity — one of them being Ganguly — was above suspicion. To compound problems, he was soon challenged by Steve Waugh’s record-breaking Australians seeking to conquer the “final frontier”. It was a team that came to India on the back of 15 wins on the trot.

Ganguly’s initiation into Test captaincy in 2000 could not have been more dramatic. To add to his woes, India was mauled at the Wankhede in a little under three-and-a-half days in the first Test of the series. Add to this the scoreline at the end of Day 2 at the Eden Gardens in the second Test: Australia having scored 445 and India reeling at 128-8, the situation looked set for Ganguly to lose the captaincy even before he had warmed up to it.

Reality, however, could not have been more different. India won at the Eden match thanks to a miracle partnership between V V S Laxman and Rahul Dravid and a match-winning spell by Harbhajan Singh. This was followed by a series-winning victory at Chennai. It was perhaps the best Test series ever to be played on Indian soil and suddenly to borrow the words of the man of the moment, Barack Obama, Indian cricket had a three-word mantra: “Yes we can”. Under Ganguly, nothing seemed impossible and innovation was routine.

Ganguly converted Virender Sehwag into an opener, discarding all the conventional idioms about opening the batting. It was a decision that still continues to pay dividends. Remembering the decision, Ganguly suggested in a conversation last week at the end of the Delhi Test, “In India you need quick runs at the top of the order for once the ball gets older, you can’t score fast. And if you get off to a flier the opposition will always be under pressure. Sehwag was our best bet.”

He played Dravid at number six and promoted Laxman up the order, an innovation that won India the Eden miracle, and could be something we need to resort to again to get Dravid back in form. He inspired Harbhajan to become a proven match-winner in all forms of the game and motivated the team to win in adverse overseas conditions. In doing all this, his hair may have turned grey and his batting form may have suffered but the nation surely gained.

Ganguly’s personal journey may be divided into two distinct phases — the pre- and post-Greg Chappell periods. While the first witnessed near unrivalled elegance in batsmanship, the second was a more cautious and hardened phase, one in which he valued his wicket much more. While in the first, dancing down the track and hitting spinners out of the ground was routine and caressing the ball through the offside to the boundary second habit, in the second, milking the ball for ones and twos was the norm.

The first phase resulted in comments like Sourav was god-like in his offside play; the second forced critics to acknowledge that he was more mature and solid after his stunning comeback in South Africa in the 2006-07 series.

The one link between the two periods was his aggression. Be it the over-the-top waving of his shirt at the Lord’s balcony after the Natwest victory in 2002 — something that he gets slightly embarrassed about when reminded of — or making Steve Waugh wait for him at the toss in the 2001 series or his valiant counter-attack en route to scoring a series-defining century at Brisbane in 2003, aggression and confidence have been his defining traits.

In retirement, too, Ganguly stands out. Even in his final Test match at Nagpur, Ganguly scored a flawless 85. Giving it up before critics call for his head, despite knowing full well that he could have continued for some more time given his current form, he remains someone who has always exceeded expectations and fought his way out of trouble. In fact, it is this ability that endears him most to the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

In commenting on his legacy, one is forced to acknowledge Ganguly’s ability to surprise one and all. You may not trust him with your life if you apply the parameters of reason and rationale, but you can certainly bank on him if you think with your heart. And who better to tell us than Ganguly that modern competitive sport is more often than not played from the heart and not in the mind.




As the God of the off-side walks to the pavillion for good today, I thank him for putting breath into the cricket team, cricket players, his own career and cricket in India. which was not in a state of less than paralysis, just a few years ago.
O Captain,my captain! We all will miss you!

Acting, Brilliance and Naseer.

My inspiration for lifetime. A brilliant actor, with unimaginable skills and principles.





Also guys, check out this very interesting video! http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Iakpxg6OusU&feature=related