You are Your Favourite !!

I seem to remember unusual things, good thing for a small time quizzer :).I remember this particular instance very well; Me and my sister sitting on the backseat of the Rickshaw (when we were small enough to be put there); she casually asked me "who is your favourite hero"(of course, hers being SRK in those heady DDLJ days :)).Though today I have a long list of favourites/likes/dislikes/pet peeves etc etc...believe me, that day that question made me think.  Those were the days when I was too busy playing LANGDI,GALLERY, reading Comics(Dhruv, Nagraj et al) and watching cartoons, I never found time to pick a favourite hero. I used to find any Mithun's movie awesome; the more the stunt the better it is, simple enough. But then I was equally fond of Amitabh Bacchan too..(imagine an 11 year old kid watching SHAAN alone on TV till 1in the night...phew...it was me again).But who had the time to classify heroes into favourites ?...you see the movie and then become the hero for a day or two(I became AJOOBA and Shanshah for a whole week once J) and it was over. 

With age I learnt that everyone seems to have their favourites in everything. Favourite Hero/Heroine, Ice cream, clothes, shoes, drink, color, book, song, movie, undergarment brand (did anyone just said ..Jockey :) )..you name it and they will have a favourite. It makes our lives a lot easier in this world which is brimming with choices. The more money you have, more choices you can have. Then some people go ahead and start picking their favourite people too ---favourite politician, teacher, painter, uncle, cousin and many others. What could be the reason of someone/something being your favourite? I will not quote any dictionary definition here and will assume that anything that captures our imagination and we find enchanting broadly constitutes our favourites. 

We root for our favourites; pay extra for them; relate to them and discover a sense of identity with them. We believe they are the best that can be. We don't like if people criticize them and defend them with determined ferocity. Though we allow concession for other people's doubt; we frankly do not care what they think. My favourite is the best; that's what we say all the time, unabashedly. 

Growing up is not easy; one moment you are your Father's little son/daughter and then suddenly you are on your own. One moment your mother combs your hair and the other moment you find yourself stranded alone on island full of stranger. We realize that Life is not a Mithun Da's movie after all; it is like all those Kalaa Movies(art movies) that you never wanted to watch when you were a Kid. People can be mean and friends do not play with you again if you have a fight, even if you say Sorry!! Papa is there no more surprising you with the toy you always wanted. You will have to fight it on your own and earn everything. Nothing comes for free and money is never enough (even when you earn in THOUSANDS !!).

But it wouldn't have been so bad if you felt good about yourself. Though everyone wants you to be positive and have a healthy self-esteem; it all seem so fake to you. You had done things and still are doing things which you are not proud of. But such is life. Sometimes you feel at top of the world, sometimes Abyss is just not deep enough.

I am not trying to paint a gloomy picture of life here; but I think every normal person goes through such phase at least once in his life(and I may be wrong).So let's do what Geet (Kareena Kapoor) said in 'Jab We Met'.....BE YOUR FAVOURITE !!!

Let's root for ourselves, understand the basic fact that every single one of us is a Masterpiece of Legendary Painter named "Destiny". She took every pain to make us what we are today, sometimes added a few brushstrokes here, smudged a few stroke there to give this sterling Masterpiece to this world called 'YOU'. Did you ever found anyone just like you? Don't just go by the Canvas's rectangular shape; look deeper in the paint and brushstrokes.... this is Master's touch. An original piece, exclusive edition forever, only for YOU.

People will doubt you; but you’ll know better, after all you are your favourite :).

They might try to put you down, but you defend with passion of your soul, you are your favourite.

You will not feel good about the things you did and are doing, but you know these are the finishing touches of the painter that made you the masterpiece you are, you are your favourite.

You know future might not be the paradise; but you won't give up hope because you are your favourite.

You will respect everyone around you for the masterpieces they all are, but you will know you are special, you are your favourite.

You know with time everything will change and will go away; you won't because you are your favourite.

Stay Beautiful,

PS: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you :)

Top 5 Bollywood Actors

Presently:

Amitabh Bacchan
Black,Sarkar, Baghban ...need I say more ?

Pankaj Kapur
See Maqbool, Saher, Dus and Blue Umbrella to know what I mean.

Aamir Khan
Look for Aamir when he cries in DCH and RDB, any questions of anyone being a better actor
than him in his generation will be put to rest forever.

Irfan Khan
See Haasil, Metro and even a ridiculous Aan-men at work to see why all the critics go bonkers over his performance

Ajay Devgan
No one can match his ability to deliver one knock out performance after another with minimum fuss.Every shot in 'Gangajal' speaks volumes about what he is capable of.


All time greats:
Amitabh Bacchan
Since no one else in Bollywood can do what he did in 'Black, Aamir can ..but maybe 10 years from now

Sanjeev Kumar
Simply for the reason that he dared to play characters more than twice his age at the peak of his career and pulled it off

Smita Patil
Just to remind you that 'actor' is a gender neutral word

Aamir Khan
He is well on his way to top of this list by the time he finishes, the best we have seen in decades.

Hrithik Roshan
He could be our best export to Hollywood, he has got the face, the body and tell u what ...he can act !!!. He is the face of the future bollywood and that is a major reason why he is on this list.

Where are you ?

Sometimes I feel that my life is going like as if I am standing on a roadside, doing nothing.People are passing me by, they all see me there..standing; some of them stop by just to chat up a little and then they start walking again, leaving me behind.Few of them stay a little longer and after a while decide to move away but they also stand on the roadside, so that I can see them, wave at them and share a few laughs if I want to.

End of the day, I am alone again waiting for someone who will stop, stand beside me and be there forever.The long lost friend, the companion of my sorrows and my happiness.The one who will listen to my musings amusingly and tell me stories.The one who will be there even when I'll be gone to keep my spot on the roadside, because I'll come there again,walking on that road to complete the circle of life.

Catch Ya Later !!

Hey there..!!

It's me !! the guy you would be in 10 years from now ..... I am not gonna tell you what am doing for living , that will simply freak you out.

I just called you to give you some pointers(you as well might use'em):

1.Keep playing cricket...these lunchtime matches are something you are going to cherish forever.
2.Goldi & Prakash are indeed your best friends and they will be for a long time to come.
3.The way you read out from english text and do english commentary just for fun, will have a lasting impact on the person you will be 10 years from now.
4.Keep dreaming ...of being the commentator, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid... philosopher... Remo fernandes .... just dream some more..they will be great help later.
5.You like that Arora girl a lot ... no matter what you believe or say right now :-).
6.Your board exams would be just fine ...but do all the problems Aggarwal Sir gave you.

Catch ya later.

• I did not loved her because it was right, I just loved her.
  

• Knowing is always the easier part, saying it aloud is the tricky one.

-Nicholas Evans in "The Horse Whisperer"

Rendering Renditions

Rendition is one of my favorite words; It doesn't means copying, it doesn't mean plagiarizing either;It doesn't mean imitating, it doesn't mean stealing either. When we talk of music; rendition is just another way of recreating an existing song from the composer's perspective. Just giving the song a little bit of his/her own soul.

You must have come across a lot of renditions yourself....remember "Leaving on a jet Plane" by John Denver? Who can forget the divine rendition of this song by "Peter, Paul & Mary". In fact because of THIS rendition the original song became famous.

What is it that makes renditions so appealing to us? I guess it is the opportunity of seeing our good old song in a new garb which is what catches our imagination. Apart from that, sometimes these renditions appeals to your own musical affinities. Personally speaking I think that though Bob Dylan's forever young is one of the most beautifully written song, I find the original cover a tad loud for my own taste, but the lyrics somehow more than makes up for itJ. Recently I just stumbled onto Joan Baez's rendition of the same song and Boy o Boy!! Wasn’t I glad to find it? I must have played it for at least 50 times on my laptop since then.

I also feel that renditions have a life and touch of their own. They sometimes make you feel the way which is so hard to explain; when the original songs fail to do so. Though, I must admit that all renditions are not so great. Just take the case of "Knocking on the heaven's door" by Bob Dylan (who BTW seems to be most 'renditioned' music artist).

There are countless renditions of this song; The Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Bryan Ferry, Mark Knopfler, Wyclef Jean, Roger Waters, Givan Tichy, Eric Clapton, The Sisters of Mercy, Warren Zevon, Seether, Cold Chisel, U2, Television, Guided By Voices, Avril Lavigne, Daniel Lioneye, Bon Jovi, The Lost Dogs, Randy Crawford, Beau Jocques, Chaozz, Zé Ramalho (Brazil)(info courtsey wikipedia) just to name a few. There are bound to be some bad one's in there simply by the law of average.

Particularly I like a rendition when it strips a song of everything that was entirely unnecessary and all I get to listen is the bare essential of the song, its very soul. Well..Isn’t it something to look forward to!!!

Here is a list of renditions I like a lot, there are not many but I will try to append this list in future:

Peter, Paul & Mary (Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver)

Sheryl Crow (Sweet Child O' Mine by G'N'R)

Joan Baez (Forever Young by Bob Dylan)

Joan Baez (Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan)

Avril Lavigne (Knokin' on Heaven' Doors by Bob Dylan)

Nirvana (Penneroyal Tea by Nirvana itself)

Time to go...

Stay Beautiful.
Amitabh

Wonder Years !!

Amidst the hectic life I am living these days, I somehow try to catch an episode or two of Wonder Years which I have downloaded on my laptop. Not surprisingly I have become a huge fan of the show. I had only heard and read about this show earlier, was finally able to catch hold of it now, thanks to broadband internet connection!!

Wonder year seems to have a huge fan following and not undeservingly so. What I liked most about it that the main characters are hardly any heroic sort, you see an episode with a very familiar situation and you expect it to end it a certain way, but it doesn't. Nothing extraordinary happens and I end putting myself in Kevin's or Paul's(and sometime Winnie's too) shoes simply because it is so easy to relate to them. Can I pay a better compliment to the director of the show?

I like Kevin and Paul the most in the show, as their friendship is something which reminds me of my school days, they are just two people living one life, which happens only when one is kid.

Not to mention, Winnie Cooper is the most adorable 12 year old I have seen, so fragile and vulnerable and yet so divine, It's difficult not to fall in love with her. Though when I was in Seventh grade, I hardly thought of girls, I was too busy with my studies, friends and the next episode of Shaktimaan (Just kidding I am not that young ;-)). In fact I thought that this 'thing' is only for IDIOTS. I mean who had money for it. In 9th grade all we cared about is our endless supplies of Samosas & Jalebies and some other things unmentionable in public space. What a fool I was :-)

It’s hard to think about those days and not smile, somehow all the spanking and scolding we got when were kids is all forgotten and all we remember is something we all will cherish throughout our lives.

Running down the boulevards of life, though we hardly find time to catch our breath, we tend to slow down sometime when life permits us and take a look back; what we see at the far end of the road we travelled once is some initial darkness and then we see the growing years, learning years and even formatting years as they have labeled them . We shake ourselves a little and try to see them for what they actually were and it suddenly hits us, though we are all grown up that we always wanted to be and have all the money wads bulging out of our pockets we somehow feel a little pang in our heart for all the years that they were, the innocent, the untouched, the unblemished and peaceful years ;as they aptly call them, they truly were our wonder years. Though we know they will never come back, we’re simply glad that once they were ours and with a wry smile we keep moving on, it’s time to catch the bus to office :-).

When I look back I see many people I’ll always be glad of meeting. Here are some of the protagonists of my "Wonder Years”: (In no particular order)

Suman: My best buddy till 5th grade, he left for Rourkela and since then we never met.He was so fast in writing he always ended up doing my home work too :).

Rana: She was my classmate in Nursery and Kinder Garten, always came first ..a reason good enough for me to remember her and mention her name. By the way I never talked to her (atleast as far I can remember :-)).

Puja: I first got to know her in 2nd grade, remember the girl who will always do her homework in impossibly neat handwriting and also will come first in the class ??....that's her for me.

Ravi Joshi: The small guy who didn't voted for me in 6th grade student council's elections,I never forgave him for that, He was such a dear friend. I stopped talking to him till eternity.(Though we were bickering as usual again after 2 days)

Bharti: He was my friend from 2nd grade and saved me from a bully in 7th grade, I owe him my life for that.

Aashish, Aaditya: The 1st, 2nd rank holders in 6,7,8 . Why are they so important ? I was the only one who came within a striking distance of 10 marks to shake their throne.Gees din't I tried hard for that ?

Aaditya now works in my company and Aashish is currently in Bangalore.

Goldi, Prakash: I had a trio better than DCH(Dil Chahta Hai for the uninitiated) way before it was released.

Goldi is now untraceable and Prakash is in Indian Army these days.

Ekta, Rajni: 2 girls I absolutely adored at school. Why ? They always scored more marks than me. Simple.

There are quite a few notable omissions here, let me keep them inside the warm blankets of my memories.They don't seem to mind.

Stay Beautiful,
Amitabh

IAQs & As

You must have seen FAQs(Frequently Asked Questions) in one place or the other.You also must have seen the Q&As published in glossy magazines -sort of a mini interview of celebrities.Well ..I thought what would I do if someone asked me such questions, and since I am no celebrity( I mean ..not yet ;-)) these questions would seldom be asked, they would be infrequently asked questions & answers(IAQs & As).

I completely agreee this is as self-indulgent as it gets but as they say ..what the HECK !!

Here I go :

Q1.You salivate when ..... ?

I see Katerina Kaif,Carmen Electra & Authentic Mughlai Food (In no particular order..)

Q2. You drool over .... ?

Intelligence, self-sufficiency and honesty and sometimes over Jessica Alba too ;-)

Q3.Life is....

Pointless

Q4.Friends are ...

neccessay evils

Q5.Love is ...

I am clueless about it.

Q6.War is ...

Occupation of perverts....

Q7.Music is...

To each his own

Q8.Books are...

my favourite escape from the real world.

Q9.Biggest threat to the world ...

Religion, Terrrorism and Global Warming(In that particular order)

Q10.You cringe when...

• Someone is denied his freedom of expression by violent means.


• People don't know what they are talking about.


• I hear of any kind of religious violence, I feel like shooting all who did that.

Q11.You feel happy when...

• I am reading a good book


• I behave like a gentleman(happens very rarely)

Q12.What you want to be ??

Nothing that I am already not.

Enough of it now , even I am tired ....now it is your turn ..go ahead ...answer these IQAs for yourself.

Signing Off
Amitabh

White Flag-Dido

Why does it happens that sometimes we listen to a song that we instantly identified with ....all the emotions and the feelings.It seems as if I were a lyricist I would have written exactly something like it.Seems like a leaf out of my own life, wonderful !! Isn't it ?I guess songs/books/poems are written for their own sake but maybe the commanality we all share make them universally appealing.

This is a song I found from a fellow blogger ( http://www.melodycalledlife.blogspot.com/ ).

So beautiful this song is ..I couldn't resist myself posting it.Dido Rocks ?? Indeed :-)

"White Flag"

I know you think that
I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it,
well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were
I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and destruction
to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over"
then I'm sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be
And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was thereWill be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on....

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be...
- Dido

The sad demise of Sachin Tendulkar

It is with great sorrow and sadness I have to tell you that Sachin Tendukar , Son of Ramesh Tendulkar , the heartthrob of millions, died yeseterday while he was playing with Bangladesh in the 2nd Test Match.Fittingly enough the last innings of the record century maker from India also was a century, though we will try not to deliberate how it was made.

He was not feeling well for quite sometime suffering from should-i-score-centuries-or play-cricket-for-the-team, and not unexpectedly failing on both the fronts.His last healthy appearance on the field was recorded when he was playing against West Indies in Malaysia in slog overs, doing what he does best to a mediocre bowling usually , teaching how not to bowl to him, which pretty much meant not bowling to him at all.

His last days have been thoroughly recorded as a real life case study of the ever interesting theme of "Death of a Genius".His last days was very much notable for the eagerness he showed for scoring centuries, and doing whatever it takes to achieve it which sometimes meant a kid growing up and learning how to say four letter words before Sachin reached to his coveted Hundred from "Nervous Ninties". There are some insane people around who are accusing him of playing a little defensive, now who can make them understand that it all depends upon team needs and the quality of bowling attack one is facing(Did someone just said it was Bangladesh or we had already scored three hundred runs for 1 wicket??).They are plain stupid people who expect him to score on every juicy half-volley or a spinner pitching the ball on half-pitch on a dead pitch.Shut Up you morons !!! If the game was so easy every Brayan Lara would have become Sachin Tendulkar.I mean you don't do easy things, do you ? You do complicated things and then give even more complicated explanation of such complicated doings if somebody bothers to ask.Yeah I know that is not cricket , but Whatever !!

Anyways this is just too much to be addressed in a obituary.Let me go ahead and tell you the cause of death so that we don't have to ask like a stupid in the funeral ...." What the hell happened " when everybody is trying so hard to decide the amount of glycerine to get the desired effect for such a socially important event.According to experts( just take my words for it, they are experts !! ), he died of ECS( Excessive-Caution-Syndrome) which got aggravated by "Make-my-place-secure- anxiety-attack" which normally succeeds an extended " I-have-got-only-5-Crore-worth- -commercial-this-year-complex" .

This world is harsh and harsher is the death of someone we love, but we have to learn to live without them and though we know it is going to be difficult, we all going to try to live wihout you.

Sachin, the one who hit the bowlers all over the park and the one whose batting was the elixir of our cricketing life(if there was such thing),

WE WILL MISS YOU !!

ADIEU !! May you rest in peace , forever.

Musings of a Melancholy Mind

• Life seems fairer in retrospect,than it actually is.

• Dreams are there to make life more bearable.

• Don't take yourself too seriously,you might become the only one to do so.

• Friends let you sing, even if you are not the best singing bird in the woods.

• Money is the greatest sedative in history of mankind.

• Life becomes a lot easier with a God handy for cursing.

• Being human is not an excuse for not being perfect.

Just Like That !

Destiny (or simply put it, Life’s trajectory) is a strange thing. You never get to know the reasons for many things that happen to you, even when you seek them with intense ferocity. Utterly inappropriate as it is, still you can't help shrieking WHYYYY at such times.

Maybe the simple answer is ...there are no reasons for anything that happens to you, it happens because it has to and you become what you are because you have to. Maybe there is no answer too...leave alone the possibility of there being a simple one. And these questions, sought reasons remain orphans much to agony of the seekers of their answers.

Destiny, kismet, luck and what not is nothing but an idea which help to keep many people sane as they should be for the greater good.(I m not sure of 'should be'....but what the heck ? then I am also not sure of 'greater good' too).

There are other ideas too, Idea of GOD, of divine intervention, of Karma, of afterlife, of heaven, and of hell etc etc. Why do we believe in all of them even when none of them seems to have a tangible existence ? (I know these were not supposed to be tangible..but I ask just for the sake of it ).Nevertheless even intangible things have some kind of tangible or demonstrable proof of existence for example Gravity, Force and many other. Well my aim here is not to question the existence of such things(pardon me for saying so..'things' ? )I m only saying that even if we don't know the truth about GOD and many other ideas ...will the truth be any better ? Will the proof that God is non-existent make life of some people any better?(leaving some idiosyncratic atheists like me aside) Will this world would become any better place to live ?

Tell me how comforting it is for a person who lost his dear ones in Tsunami that it was nothing but a mere consequence of some rumbling at the bottom of the sea thousand miles away ?If you suggest this you might be called a heartless bast*** ,never mind the fact that it IS the truth anyways. But when somebody say that it is Mother nature's way of taking revenge from humans or It all because of God’s wish, the victim despite of his irreplaceable loss finally accept this as his 'FATE'. In the extreme situation(though not very rare) as a penance for something wrong he must have done in the past or some other life.

My understanding of this phenomenon remains at best cursory, but even I understand why people use these anodyne to comfort someone. Knowledge of truth does not necessarily make a person happier. So if that is not the case, these words of comforts are all that one would expect from his fellow human being and doing so is no felony.

Meanwhile LIFE keeps on running sometimes lazily, sometimes hastily and sometimes frantically on the zigzag tracks of its own without a bigger design, without much thought about where to go. Seekers of reasons and ultimate truth, sooner or later feel disillusioned in their hopeless pursuit and give up , those who refuse to give up, DIE.

And life goes on ,JUST LIKE THAT.

Master Pieces of Bollywood -I

This is my first post in a series of posts I am planning about some hindi movies which are as they say "all the five stars" ...perfect in every way...they were the movies which swayed us beyond senses...these are the immortal classics created by our very own "Dream Merchants"..the Magnum Opuses of the Masters.....

In no particular order, irrespective of their commercial success they are movies to be watched again and again....

without any further ado.....here I go ..hope it includes some of your favourites too :-)

ANAND :
(Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bacchan .Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee)

If there could be an award for the movie which is a favorite for most number of people Hrishi Da’s Anand will have every chance of winning it. The story of a man suffering from “Lymphosacoma of Intestine” Anand was a tryly a joie de vivre- a celebration of life. Rajesh Khanna delivered in a “role of a lifetime”,never we felt so thankful to be alive as while watching Anand die onscreen. As all other Rishi da’s movies..Anand was a tale of simple people living a simple life of simple values.The surprise package of the movie being “Babu Moshai”(Amitabh Bacchan).Intense and in conflict he gave us an act so stellar we were all mesmerized, maybe he was just intending to hint at what was yet to come.

The Shakespearean conversation about Jindagi(life) being a Rangmanch(Stage) being played from a tape recorder still remain one of the most watchable scenes of Indian Cinema.
Rishikesh Da requested Salil Choudhary to compose music for Anand who at that time had gone back to Calcutta after getting disillusioned from Bollywood.He came and din’t he conquered? One has to really try hard to find a better album than Anand. Every single song went on to become an immortal classic. Manna Dey’s “Jindagi kaisi hai paheli” still haunts me even after listening to it first time around 15 years ago.

RANGEELA

(Aamir Khan,Jakie Shroff,Urmila Mantondkar. Directed by RGV)

Picture this, yellow shirt,yellow pants and shoes of unknown colour Munna wear this “Insignia” to take Mili out for a lunch to five star hotel.
Munna(to waiter):Aye Suit !! Fan on karne ka (turn on the fan)
Waiter(a little perplexed, a little haughty): AC is on Sir.(pointing his Finger towards the AC.
Munna(with the usual swagger) : To idhar ghumaane ka na !! (Turn it towards my side)

Munna the most loveable Tapori of Indian Cinema was a pathbreaking portayel of Mumbai’s Street Smart Species by Aamir Khan and what a memorable character it was.
You can watch this movie umpteen time and will never get bored of it.

Not to mention after Roja Bollywood saw a genius unraveling yet another musical masterpiece..let it be funky “Rangeela re”.or sensuous ‘Hai Rama’ or soulful pyar yeh jaane kaisa hai and the pathbreaking “mangta hai kya”…every single song was a gem and the album still remains a truly collector’s item from AR Rehman.

Urmila the “Maasoom” girl suddenly grew up and captured the imagination of ANYTHING MALE in the country. Ram Gopal Verma proved his versatility again….Aamir Khan never worked with him again.

Only God knows why.