Ek Alag si love story! My love story...

It’s a love story & it’s mine.

You don’t plan to fall in love you just do. I am still confused if this love story needs to be told. I am not sure if I can call it a love story in first place. Is it one sided or she loves me too? We know each other for a long time (6 years & 1 day to be precise) we have seen ups & downs of each other’s life. There are moments when I feel I owe everything to her then there are moments when I feel she is not the one for me.

I remember clearly, I first met her on Dec 5, 2005. She celebrated her 34^th birthday few days back. I was little uneasy to interact with her as I am with everything new. She almost ignored me at first. For her I was just another guy. Like anyone else, I found her glamorous & hot. It’s difficult to get the attention of someone who everyone has his eyes set on. A poet has described it beautifully ‘sab ki saqi pe nazar ho ye zaroori hai magar, sab pe saq ki nazar ho zaroori toh nahin’. Cleanliness, hygiene & fast pace were her trademark habits. Those who can’t keep pace with her will found her cruel & emotionless. She treats you nicely once you get her attention. She is not even after your money. She makes you comfortable once she likes you but demands your full attention all the time. I didn’t expect much from her, I didn’t demand anything. She introduces me to strangers many of them became friends. I must confess she is not a natural beauty but she has maintained herself well enough. She can give natural beauties run of their money (Dollar, pound or euro).

 Our relationship was supposed to be professional, just pure business. She was young, beautiful & eager to make her mark in the world. She is very conscious of her looks, she wanted to impress everyone. She was busy achieving professional successes for next three years. Everyone around seems to have their eyes set on her. Every action of her was under scanner, she loved it. Every word uttered by her was like a quote from bible. Everyone was noticing her just like she wanted. She was enjoying all the attention. Life was a long sweet dream. I witnessed the time when all the limelight was on her. She looked too high class for me. In four years, we came to know each other better but our relationship never moved to next level. Monotonous excitement is boring. We started taking each other for granted. Some decision of her & some of the others lend her dream in trouble. She was forced to put her dreams & ambitions on the back burner due to circumstances around. Things were not going as per her plan. God doesn’t follow your plan. When your downward journey starts last to join are the first to leave. They are often the new rich friends attracted to your success not your personality. Rich admirers started leaving her. It was ‘blessing in disguise’ for me. Life surprises you when you expect it the least. All of a sudden, she gave me more attention & respect. Anything which brings you closer to your love is welcome. Her failure was that anything. Failure which brings you close is not failure. She was all praise for me & my qualities many of which I developed in last four years. In last four years, I changed myself to her liking. I wanted to get her attention & her love. I did many things to impress her but failed. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Just when I was losing hope gradually things started getting better. Her treatment of mine changed drastically. It gave me a fresh hope. She started taking over me slowly, she becomes the oxygen I inhale, she becomes the flower I smell. No matter how heart-broken you might have felt for years, just a right look of her is enough to overcome everything. You are bound to fall in love with someone who treats you nicely with respect & dignity. Since last one & half year, we are getting stronger. Many of her fake admirers have left her leaving genuine one like me with her. Time acts as a damper for emotions. It absorbs extreme emotions & makes things normal. It changes things bad or good. Just like time heals the wound, it turns love into merely a habit. In our case, time acted as a catalyst. Our love (or should I say my love?) is getting surprise surprise stronger with time.

Did I tell her name yet, No? She is darling of many. Rishte mein toh wo hamari Mehbooba lagti hai, Naam Hai UAE. Yes! She is UAE (read Dubai). I have fallen in love with this city.

Happy UAE National Day!
PS- I wonder how many of you will read it again keeping Dubai in mind !!!

Rock Star : A Movie Review (***1/2)

Only a movie can undo the damage caused by another movie. Rockstar healed the scars of Ra.One, Expectations were high from Rockstar due to Ranbir Kapoor, Imtiaz Ali & Rehman. Rockstar has not disappointed me, i must say.

Plot: Janardhan (Ranbir) is a lower middle class boy of Hindu college with zero stage presence (read attitude) living in a joint family in pitamputra, diametrically opposite to him is heer (Nargis fakhri), a high class ‘neat & clean’ girl from St. Stephen who can mesmerize any boy around by her beauty & dance. They are literally class  apart. A friend explains to Janardhan, who inspire to become next Jim Morrison how suffering, tragedy & heartbreak are common things in every rockstar’s life. Innocent Janardhan approach heer (hottest & coolest girl around) hoping that she will help him become a rockstar by break his heart. ‘Neat & clean’ Heer is getting married in few months. Before that she wants to break free & do things which upmarket nice girls can only think about like watching Jungli jawani & drinking Desi Daru. Janardhan becomes his partner in crime & help her achieve her goals. They become very close friend. Without any drama, she gets married & goes to Prague. Janardhan is thrown out of home, spent two months at nizamuddin Dargah which brings him closer to his music. He is spotted by shehnai maestro Ustad Jameel Khan (Shammi Kapoor) who recommends him to a top music company. He goes to Prague for concerts, his primary motto for going there being meeting heer (who has become a bored depressed housewife by now). After frequent meetings, long bike rides they kiss.  As they are about to kiss much married Heer try to hold back saying ‘yeh galat hai’ but janardhan makes her agree saying ‘toh galat lag kyon nahin raha’.

Janardhan becomes Jordan. His popularity keep rising so does his passionate love towards heer. Heer decides to break up with Jordan against her own will to save her marriage. Post breakup in two years peroid heartbroken Jordan gets violent with media, goes to jail, do concerts everything that makes him even a bigger rockstar. Heer suffers from bone disease & comes to India, her younger sister brings Jordan back into heer’s life. Heer’s health improves as Jordan looks after her. After getting healthier she accompanies Jordan to a himachal concert, got pregnant & slips into coma. As jordan’s pain intensifies, his music gets better. Movie ends with beautiful lines by Rumi ‘Beyond all the right doings & wrong doings. There is a field, I'll meet you there’.

On the negative side, Incidents of Jordan getting violent with media are repeated many times (5-6 times I guess), some of them could have edited easily. One or two scenes are enough to make your point. Some locations looks familiar (Remember the snow clad road in the song yeh ishq hai from Jab We Met). Second half goes little monotonous. I will go with three & half star.

Performances:

Ranbir: Rockstar belongs to him. It is one of his finest performances. He made transformation of a innocent (mistaken for rudeness sometime) jat boy to a rockstar so convincing. He is not loud, he doesn’t hold back either. He is in total sync with character. He looks charming, funny, and intense at different point. He makes you feel his pain & suffering through his expressions. With Rockstar he has left his contemporaries like Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor & Ranvir Singh miles apart. Rockstar has arrived. Ranbir might get a title with the movie just like SRK got from Badshah & Big B from Shahenshan.

Nargis Fakhri : She is beautiful & a decent actress (or should I just call actor as they call now). There is nothing extra ordinary about her. Her transformation from a bubbly girl to depressed wife to suffering patient is somehow less convincing. May be due to lack of scenes to show the transformation gradually. 

Music : Apart from Ranbir, A R Rehman & Mohit chauhan are other rockstars in the movie. Music is soul of this film & rightly so. Music is just outstanding be it songs or background music. Good music is quarter a battle won (if not half). Difficult to chose a fovourite from album where almost all the songs are good. Still Sadda Haq, Kun faya kun are my favorites.

Imtiaz Ali: Imtiaz seems to have a soft corner for delhiites & Punjabis (Remember Jab We Met & Love Aaj Kal). He know psyche of middle class delhiites in general & Punjabis in particular better than any other contemporary director. He treat ordinary story with maturity without losing its charm. His dialogues have always been the positive points, so is the case with rockstar. He stuck to his favourite gene & characters. Well Done!!

Editing : Editing is good as films travels back & forth many a times & keeps you guessing. What happened to heer after that, where did Jordan go to keeps popping into your mind. Repeat monotonous scenes (like getting violent with media) could have been edited.

Shammi Kapoor: Yesteryear Rockstar is good in a short but important cameo. He is visibly full of life. Very few have such a charming smiling despite all the pain he suffered due to prolong illness.

Others: Others role (including nargis’ husband) are short. They don’t have much to do. All are just fine.


Duration : Guess Yourself (Hint: I spent as much time writing Rockstar review as i did watching it).

World Bank & IMF : Mission, Functioning & Motives !!!!

I know it feels odd when a person who doesn’t understand his own credit card statement writes about World Bank & IMF. But there are certain advantages when you write about something you don’t know much about. Firstly, as a layman you have the luxury to question the very basics of the system which experts can’t do. Secondly, there is an excitement & sense of achievement when you write something people don’t expect. Thirdly, neither does your opinion matters not will it make any difference to anyone. So you are sort of immune from its impact.

I have always been doubtful & sceptical about purpose, functioning & motives of World Bank & IMF even though I don’t know much world finance (or even word ‘finance’ for that matter). An article about possible candidates for IMF chief’s post caught my attention & encouraged me to wear my thinking cap which has been lying idle for a long time now. Little bit of Google & Wikipedia told me that a) World Bank chief has been ALWAYS an American. b) IMF is headed by a European (with one or two exceptions). Everyone knows it is not a mere coincidence & there is nothing wrong with it as such. This shows how important it is for west to have full control (read monopoly) over these institutions. Little bit of more reading & you are convinced  World Bank & IMF are too critical organisation to be left free & fair by western world.

World Bank describe its mission as 'to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors’.

Most of us have heard or seen stories how Lala (Rich Lender) in earlier times used to exploit poor farmers in rural india by lending them money (Remember Mother India?). It’s ironic & funny how you can exploit a person by helping him (i.e. lending him the money). Lala’s help was actually his exploitation. Poor farmers were virtually forced to take loan from Lala to fulfil their physical, psychological & social needs. Lala made sure that they remain in debt for rest of their lives.

World Bank (read west) is similar to that lala in more than one sense. Only difference being that Lala was projected (& correctly so) as bad guy & was hated by everyone. West is look upto & seen as role model helping the poor. To start with, I have doubt over money being real itself, it seems like an illusion of money (Virtual, soft, complex). World Bank lends money in the name of development (i.e. Help) to poor countries. Sum is huge enough for developing countries to repay easily & tiny enough for developed countries to affect then economically. Easy inflow of virtual money to developing countries increases inflation, decreases their purchasing power & hence making sure they remain poor (even after regular financial help). This has three major advantages for Rich Countries.

1). They can arm twist poor nations to virtually anything they please since poor nations owe them the money.

World Bank has developed a system where no poor country can sustain without financial help from World Bank. They are left with no choice but to borrow from World Bank to fund development, infrastructure and Social projects. Situation in some poor countries is so bad that they can only survive few months without these loans & financial help (This remind of me Epic Dialogue ‘Lala Mere bachche Bhooke hain’). Rich countries manipulate poor countries politics, policies in their favour indirectly, sometimes to an extent that they takes over national resources of poor countries, utilising their human capital as cheap labour, benefitting from poor countries’ strategic & geographical location in long run.

2). Everything is relative in this world. Ugly people make other people look beautiful. Rich is a relative term too, it has no meaning without poor, same holds true in this case too. Western countries will not be rich if other nations are not poor. Rich need poverty in this world to retain its superiority. This is precisely what World Bank seems to doing keeping poor nations poor.

3). Rich countries pretend to help poor countries & project their 'We care' image & enhance their brand.

Genuine efforts to reduce world poverty are missing. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. Can someone explain me why?

These are the things which attract me to Communism sometimes

Thoughts on book i read "A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking"

It is really strange how a single book can change your mind, your perception & challenge your own knowledge about a particular subject. Although cosmology (study of universe) is relatively unexplored branch of physics, I was convinced I know enough of it by knowing the name, density, distance, position of planets.


I was never into the hobby of reading books other than my textbooks or gossip magazines. 4 months back, when I noticed a 210 page book in A5 size at NFC community centre in Delhi. i was not planning to buy that but somehow bought that book as a plan B on my vacation. I was thinking, just in case I have plenty of time & nothing much to do, then i might end up reading few pages of this book. purpose being something to read in free time not to gain knowledge. What I didn’t realize at that time, that this very book will change my perception of universe, time, space & even physics itself. Reading a physics book 5 years after your graduation is damn boring. But this book turns out to be different, this one was without using any equation or complex mathematics. Eistein's famous E=MC2 is the only equation used in the book.


I have been reading (on & off) this Book titled “A Brief history of time” by Stephen Hawking since i bought it 4 months ago. It took so much time because of a). my non-reading habits, b). You need to read it slowly & pause to think after almost each paragraph (in order to understand it fully). Stephen hawking dispite being a world renowned scientist keep it simple to be understood by normal science graduate. whoever is curious to know.

We are yet to understand the concept of time. Time (duration) can be different depending upon its frame of reference. Time has no meaning before Big Bang (start of universe, as per hawking). We need a unified theory of physics which would consider all forces at a time. Currently when we talk about gravitational forces, we ignore other forces (electromagnetic, nuclear & others). Similarly when we talk about nuclear , we ignore other. It has something to do with our inability to workout the complex problems, which is needed if we consider all at a time. Einstein was genius, else how come someone think that Time can be virtually stop if we can travel at speed of light. Those are some issues explained there.
Another thing about the book is that you can’t summarize what you have learned. It is too complex & too vast a subject to be understood fully in small books. You can get the idea, which direct we need to think. A Book which can convince myself logically that what I presume so far, was not right at all. That Book can be called a Good book.
*******NICE READ********

Signs & Science of Growing Old.

I saw an advertisement of Beauty cream declaring “wrinkles, dark spot etc” as signs of ageing to sell their products. It makes me Question what about signs of growing old apart from looks. What can be the Signs of growing old? Here is my list of things which will help you decide if you have past your prime already. If you have than better to admit it & start behaving like grown ups. Teenage in his/her late twenties is just not cool.


You have past your youth prime if

1. Current Heartthrob of Bollywood/hollywood & Sports sensations are younger than you. (Read Ranbir Kapoor, Leo Messi, Megan Fox) (Google their Date of Birth, u will be surprised).
2. You watch movie in theater without passing comments on dialogues/acting.
3. You have made STD call from PCO at night/ sunday at half the price.
4. Your hairstyle has not changed since last 6 months.
5. You often insist & try to see things from others perspective.
6. You insist on paying bill yourself rather than forcing your friend to do the same.
7. You sometime refer to your kid brother/cousin as “Today’s generation”.
8. Luxury Cars attract you more than Fastest Bikes.
9. You are more concern about World Peace/economy than your friend’s problem.
10. Going GYM is not a Hobby but the work you are forced to do.
11. You feel uncomfortable wearing torn low waist jeans or don’t wear them at all.
12. You can watch TV without changing channel for 15 minutes.
13. Your fun is limited to weekend only.
14. You can watch “Food security debate” on NDTV or economy bulletin on BBC for 30 minutes.
15. You start wearing Branded watches (Tissot, TAG heuer, Rollex).
16. You start reading too many non-fictional books (Biographies, History, and Travel).
17. You don’t know the cheapest SMS plans or cheapest night call plans.
18. Your birthday wish to friend includes SMS or firm hands shake. (No physical violence)
19. You find “Success Quotes” motivational.
20. You do many things because “You should do it” & not because “you want to do it”.
21. Money doesn’t excite you that much anymore. You prefer respect/self esteem over money.
22. You don’t ride bike with 2 other friends sitting behind you.
23. Your best friend is someone who doesn’t even know your nickname.
24. You start behaving nicely to your neighbours & relatives.
25. You have many juniors at work (u start working, this itself is signs of growing Old in first place).
26. You had used floppy at some point of time in your life.
28. You have more nephews/nieces than cousins.
29. You can name 5 programs on DD.
30. You remember the 1992 world cup
31. You don’t find this blog boring & you agree on most of the above points.

Did you ask why this list have 31 points? let me help you, it is because my Roll No. in B.Tech was 31. This blog dedicated to my Roll No.

"Economy & Development" or Enviroment : Tough decision for World.

Almost everyone in my company & other organization with whom I interact by email, Use the Bottom line in email which says “Please don’t print this email unless you really need to”. This supposedly shows the concern sender have for environment. But apart from & probably more than environment, everyone is concern about Economy (recession & job market). Once in a while (Mostly when travelling from client meetings to office) when I have any discussion about economy, all of my colleagues support Capitalism, Free market & open economy. As they advocate these things are needs of the hour & very much necessary to pull Millions out of poverty in developing countries (Normally my European colleagues finger point towards me when they refer to Poor or developing country).


But today’s economy is driven by consumption & consumption alone. India & China have huge population (read consumers), that’s the exact reason why they are fast growing economies. More the consumption, faster the economy grows. Having said that, is not over-consumption bad, really bad for environment? It is indeed. So equation turns around to be “more consumption is better for economy & bad for environment”. If a developing nation have to choose what will it choose? Economy or environment?

Not being an expert in economy gives me luxury of questioning the very fundamentals of (open) economy. Once you are expert in a field you can’t afford to question the fundamentals of your field as you will fear making fool of yourself, if you did. There is something seriously wrong with open economy fundamentals. As a thump rule economy & environment can’t move forward together with current rules, Laws & Habits of world. We have reached a point where we can’t ignore any of them. In 17th, 18th century, when industrialisation of Europe was happening, Environment was not the issue. They make mess out of environment to became the develop nation. Now when developing nations need to so the same, it is not allowed. West has already caused enough harm to environment even our share (Quota) of harm has been done by them. Should we correct their mistake by not harming the environment anymore & hence stopping our development? Or we should first focus on development without bothering about environment. Either way there is something to lose. American’s per Capita carbon emission is 10 times more than India’s. Doesn’t it say enough what we should choose? Very basic rule of any civilised society says A have committed a crime, A should be punished not B. (A=Developed nations, B= Developing nations).

Atleast west not need to move from over-consumption. How many pair of RayBan shades are enough? How many Adidas, Nike, CAT are enough? Why we are Proved, encouraged to spend/consume more. When it is known that it is not good for harmony & balance with nature. It is one of the un-answered question in my head. Question are endless, answer are non-convincing. We can think, write what we feel but ultimately we will do whatever is expected of us (i.e. consume more).

Facebooks' "Draw the Muhammad (PBUH) " campaign : A step Backward

This has been very disappointed week after a long time. Not because of Kites but because of other issue namely “Draw Muhammad campaign on Facebook”. Pakistan’s “ban on Facebook” received the aggressive condemnation from Indian media, as expected. Everyone was using key words “freedom of speech” to justify their stand on the debates running on News Channels. Reason behind Pakistan banning the Facebook was campaign “Draw Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)” started on facebook. When everyone blames Pakistan for over reacting, none of them raise the core issue. Core issue should have been “if it is OK to Murder someone’s sentiment on the name of “Freedom of speech” rather than “whether Pakistan did the right thing”. There are so many other things that Pakistan does which affects India. Those issues are more important to us, as Indians. Pakistan banning a website is not an issue of that importance (at least not from India’s prospective).


Coming back to real issue, First of all we, as mature adults, should understand all religions are not same. Because had they call been same, they would not have called the so different in implementation, concept of GOD etc. 1 thing permissible in one might be forbidden in another. It is ok to be different. Problem occurs when we start assuming them to be same. Painting a Goddess is not a big deal in Hinduism, Infact we grow up watching Mahabharata on Doordarshan. Forget about objections about that, it was matter of pride for Hindu Brothers. Hinduism has history of using Idol, Statue, portrait & other visual medium in faith. Similarly, portrait of Guru Nanak is found in most of the Sikh Homes. Church & Christians’ homes have Jesus’ Famous crucifix (Jesus nailed to cross). But it is totally forbidden in Islam to use any visual medium (Idol, Painting, Photo, statue, cartoon, movie etc) for ALLAH or Prophets (including Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)). Infact using any visuals for ALLAH or his messengers threatens the very base of Islam. You will not see a single visual anywhere in Islamic culture (be it place of worship, home or otherwise). Those who are ignorant or not aware about Islam might see this issue as tiny. But followers of Islam will know gravity of situation. One can realize that issues like “cloths person should wear” don’t attract that much attraction from Muslim World, because their gravity is not as strong as “drawing a cartoon of Prophet”. This issue threatens the very base of Islam, & its condemnation is not only overreaction by Muslims but a natural reaction considering the importance of this issues. I have never written about Fatwa being issued daily on “whether one can listen to music, watch a movie & blah blah” as those issues are very minor in magnitude when compared to cartoon issue.

If it is OK to paint, making statue or draw cartoons in one religion, does it mean other religion should follow the same? Liberalisation is when we respect & accept the different point of view from our own. We should stop seeing others from our point of view, instead try to understand the differences very well & live peacefully thereafter. I strongly believe that campaigns like this will further widen the gulf between faiths. It is not Liberalisation, it is exactly the opposite. I know society is changing with time but I am not sure about its direction (Is it Conservative to Liberalisation or other way?), I seriously doubt it is later.