Take a bow to Imtiaz Ali

Somewhere deep within all of us is an innate desire to transcend ourselves, to be more than what we are and what we can be, to grow beyond and merge ourselves into something all pervasive. Sometimes we do realize this wish as well, though rarely and in fleeting moments.In my life, I have had these experiences as well, those sudden bursts of brilliant fecundity (or creativity) which makes you do things which makes you wonder later, if it was only you who did that or felt that. No matter how old I become, I will remember those moments with vivid clarity, like the time when I wrote something or the time when I took that brilliant catch or the time when sang that song or the time when I read that passage.
Despite of my fairly routine existence I cherish and strive for these moments hungarily. But I guess this phase of my life, I am getting used to becoming a bore and cynical. Very few things impress me and even if they do, it fizzles out.
Hence I want to write about the movie Rockstar right away, till I am still in awe, till I am still itching to write something. Once you sleep on such things, you never know if you feel the same way when you wake up in the morning.
Rockstar is basically a love story expectedly from Imtiaz Ali. But more than that it is about an artist's journey to find within himself a part which will transcend him into a realm of his craft which every artist want but seldom reach. He would reach there eventually but through the painful route of a heartbreak. In my opinion, heartbreak is nothing but a plot device, it could have been anything, death of someone, terminal disease of the rockstar (our hero feels doomed for having none of these :) ) but then a love story is a love story. Nothing tugs our heart like love of two good looking people :D.
Nargis Fakhri is all that she needs to be, beautiful and pristine, the unblemished portrait of a woman which can inspire a Janardhan Jakhar to become a Jordan. Ranbir Kapoor is also all that he needs to be and probably much more. In a role of a lifetime, he delivers the goods and proves his worth as the touted 'next big thing'. In my humble opinion, he already is with an enviable body of work in such a short time. His contemporaries are far behind.
Though I will always believe that Swades is A R Rahman's best work, he needs no praise from someone like me. The music is superb and if there ever would be a real life "Jordan" in India, he would have some benchmark to cross. Saada haq is as good a rock track as can be and I have already listened to Kun Faaya Kun and Tum Ho for hours in loop. And then there is "Nadan Parindey". Sample these verse from the song :
कागा रे, कागा रे, मोरी इतनी अरज तोसे
कागा रे, कागा रे, मोरी इतनी अरज तोसे
चुन चुन खइयो मांस |
अरे जिया रे,
खइयो ना दो नैना मोरे,
खइयो ना दो नैना मोरे
पिया के मिलन की आस ||
But more than anyone else, this movie belongs to Imtiaz Ali, the director with the vision to create this magnum opus. He deftly moves through a non-linear timeline displaying his control of the craft and the medium. Rockstar works because it has something to say (simply put, it has a story). It may not be entirely new , but every single frame of the movie is immensely watchable and thanks to Imtiaz Ali for that.
To sum it up, I loved the movie and would recommend it very highly to anyone who like watching movies.
If you have read this note so far, put a comment below (I only humbly request), what is it, that makes you feel more ? (apart from when you stand on the weighing machine of course :P).
If you know, you will do alright. Even if you don't, you are alive and will know eventually.
All the best.
Stay Beautiful (Courtsey:Orkut)
Amitabh

Aham Uvacha

Don't work, play, be hated and many other ordinarily non-sensical things start making sense when a famous celebrity starts giving gyaan on the life. He / She will tell you precisely how your life is going to turn out (no surprises there, we are all going down the drain :P ). Nonetheless, they also know what you need to do so that it doesn't go that way (and you become what they are or achieve what they have).

Of course, they won't say it directly, they would wrap it in nice package (humour preferrably) and then deliver it to you. So , here you are graduating or whatever, when you get the newsflash. Dude (or Dudette) !!! whatever you have been doing so far, just wasn't right, you got it all wrong ( and I am talking about the normal people, who have been worrying to do well in life, for those that aforementioned event actually matters, exceptions are always there).

They will turn everything that you held dear in life so far on its head and tell you to do exactly opposite. This will be done with catchy, attention grabbing phrases (like, stay foolish or Don't work and yeda yeda). You will be intrigued at first, enthused next and confused two days after the ceremony is over. This is typically the time it takes for one get over the hangover of life changing motivational speech.

No, not for a moment I am saying it is wrong for one to chase one's dream, however as a rational being our actions needs to have a ground of sound logic beneath them. Sachin is not Sachin only because he loved to play cricket, he is what he is because of his talent, discipline, perseverance, sheer hard work, suitable guidance and let's admit it, a fair amount of luck as well.

So here is my advice to all of these cool people out there (entitled enough to give cool speeches), yes we need to do something we love doing, yes that would be the best way to succeed, yes it will bring us the true happiness that everyone yearns for and yes it would be the coolest thing to happen in life. But give us some credit, we had thought about it, even tried a little bit. First of all it was difficult to decide on one thing we love enough to sacrifice the ordinary pleasure / stability in our life, for a lot of us, the choice was between a good life or bad life (only in very materialistic terms, never had the luxury of thinking about spritual satisfaction ). Our worries were our parents' aspirations, our own financial stability in life (we don't get unemployment allowance as big as a decent salary in India, Oh..sorry we don't get any at all) and most of all to provide for our families and also have access to things which give us pleasure / satisfaction. Hence given our considerations (numerous as they were), we chose to pick a job / career which will pay enough to ensure that I can buy inspirational books about people who can given cool speeches after I have taken care of our basic needs. We know it is not our calling or destiny or whatever you cool people call it, but it works for us. It gives me time & money to appreciate the music I so love, the hobbies I wanna pursue, to take care of my loved ones and at the same time do something which I love doing. At the end of day, I choose to work because it can help me to do a lot of things I wanna do.

Who said works needs to be the whole and soul of who I am ? I am much more. I always was and I always will be.

Aise Hi

किसी को दुसरे के दर्द का अहसास नहीं होता,
ग़म होता है मगर कुछ खास नहीं होता
मशरूफ जिंदगी की जद्दोजेहद में
हमें किसी के मरने का भी लिहाज नहीं होता |

A Game of Marble

"There you go", said Amitabh triumphantly, afterall he has hit the marble and his total marble count stood at 10 now.He was a newbie in this marble business, but he was no rookie. Within a week he has almost mastered the art of hitting a marble by bending his fingers expertly and aim like (or atleast pretend like ) someone who knew his marbles.

"Have you seen Aditya", asked Sukhjeet. "Nah", said Amitabh while trying to gauge the best way to hit the marble so that his marble would end nearest to the pegging hole and help him score the 'goal'. "Abe teen din se school nahin aaya hai (he hasn't come to school since 3 days)", said Sukhjeet.

"I am also playing", said Gautam while walking towards their small marble 'playground" from the classroom. Amitabh sheepishly looked at Sukhjeet. Gautam was a master marble player and letting him play with them would mean loosing some of the marble they have collected so far."We are not playing for real, this is a jhutthi mutthi game between me and Sukhjeet", said Amitabh trying to build a background to avoid playing with Gautam. 'Oh, alright, I will also join you", said Gautam in his flambuoyant way, so typical of someone good at marbles. "But we are not playing for real, you get it right ?", said Sukhjeet, giving his last shot at shooing Gautam away and playing at peace with Amitabh, with whom he had a chance to win some more marbles."I get it, we won't play for real but we can still play for points ...right ? One hit , 10 points" said Gautam. This seemed to be the clicnher, and Amitabh & Sukhjeet (now assured of safety of their marble "wealth") abondened their game to let Gautam joined them.

Gautam stood at the small pegging hole, took 1 marble each from everyone, shook them between his closed palms and threw it away from the whole on the ground. Now the goal of the game was to reach to the pegging hole, while hitting other's marble as many times with your marble as you can. Every time you hit others marble you will have to score the goal with your marble by hitting it inside the pegging hole.

As it turns out, Sukhjeet's marble went the farthest, Amitabh's was second nearest and Gautam's, the closest. Seems like the throw wasn't so random as it seemed at first."Oye haan... Gautam do you know why Aditya hasn't come to school for so many days" , asked Sukhjeet suddenly, continuing his conversation which he started with Amitabh with Gautam now. " This guy is still stuck with Aditya", said an irritated Amitabh, " if he didn't come, he didn't come, must be having fun at home yaar, who cares".

"Nothing yaar, I was asking just like that only", said Sukhjeet, " actually, I am missing the toast he used to bring for his lunch, he told me his mom toast it with something like butter but not butter, and that is why it tastes so different and so good.

"Cheese".

"What ?"

"That thing like butter which is not butter is called cheese, Aditya told me this and you know me, once you tell me something, I don't forget", said Amitabh, cashing on the opportunity to brag about himself. Something which he has started to enjoy since very recently.

"There has been some accident on the bridge, A jeep collided with the truck, Aditya was also there in the Jeep. He is in hospital right now. That is why he is not coming, my elder brother was talking to his frind yesterday, he was talking about Aditya's sister who also in the jeep. But Aditya will not come to school for sometime now." said Gautam, feeling a tad proud of providing a information meant for grown-ups only and quoting his sources as well.

"Yes I know, Aditya & his sister will always go home in their Papa's jeep, I wish my Papa's also had a jeep like that. Once Aditya invited us to his home across the bridge, we went in that jeep to his home during the interval , it was so nice and bumpy" said Amitabh, a little lost reminscing about that glorious visit.

"Did he break any bones ?" asked Sukhjeet out of curiosity.

"I think so, his left arm I guess. But my brother was telling his friend that his head got struk with the jeep's window very badly, his head is all wrapped up in bandages right now. He was unconcious for two days."

"Like the Mummy in Duck Tales ?" asked Amitabh, who was feeling a little left out in this rather serious conversation. He was still remembering the little trip they had. Aditya was always like that, sharing his tiffin with everyone, inviting them to his home and letting us use his new new things, he thought ruefully. Aditya not coming to school was not a good news.

"he he...sort of, I can only imagine, Aditya all wrapped in bandages, running behind us for our marbles making scary mummy noises... ...wwooooooo ...woooooooo ..wooooooooooooooooooo" said Gautam and they all started laughing.

And with that Gautam hit Sukhjeet marble once before hitting the peggin hole. He was, as expected the winner of the game. They started another game but midway someone shouted from the classroom, "Oye, Neppo is here, come back to class if you don't want to be flagged once again". Nappo (aka Napoleon) was the nick name they had given to the Principle of the school who was very strict and very short. How he was named after a French war legend in a school deep down in indian hinterland was a mystery. However, thanks to this, every kid in the school knew who Napoleon Bonaparte was (a really short guy, a detail most relevant at that age). The fact that Neppo always did his inspection with a short stick in his hand like a sword, just helped his notoriety as Neppo.

So they ran back quickly to the classroom, not before collecting & counting their respective "marble wealth".