Night Out

Whew... had a night out after a very long time (rather after leaving campus an year and a half ago)
It was totally unplanned and happened accidentally. Ended up watching Kindergarden Cop on TV till 3pm. Then i came across this cool puzzle called 4D Sudoku (check it out http://www.4dsudoku.net/ ) i didnt know how the time flew by on thisd website that it was 7am even before i realized... woke up after 3 hrs to go for a movie (Fashion) and spend a lazy sunday...
This weekend was worth it. Feeling nostalgic and missing the campus night outs

Keep the Spark!!! - Chetan Bhagat

While the RJs, VJs and the whole world outside is making PJs about Hello the masala filled movie version of the kool current gen book called One night at the call center by Chetan Bhagat (btw... recently finished all 3 of his books and they rock) I choose to write about (or rather attach) his Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program 2008

Note: Sincere apologies to Chetan Bhagat for being incapable enough to write anything original or/and both to simply post his speech

Its called keep the spark and goes something like this...

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.
Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.
I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So, how to save the spark?
Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.
To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn’t any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.
But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?
They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
One last thing about nurturing the spark - don’t take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.
I’ve told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.
But it’s life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that’s where you want to be.
Disappointment’s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.
Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.
In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let’s be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s ok. I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It’s ok. Don’t let unfairness kill your spark.
Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.
There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.
Thank You.

Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na

It feels very nostalgic. A well made smooth flowing love story sprinkled with a generous amount of comedy. the movie is filled with so many vivid and diverse interesting characters that everyone would feel associated with or seems to know someone similar to a character in this movie.

Every actor plays the role well enough to give audience the feel that they are living their real life characters. Be it Jai or Aditi, their friends, dates, parents, or amit or even the umpteen number of interesting cameos. they ensure that you are in splits through every scene. the director ensure there is absolutely no overdose of senti or family melodrama like in most other romantic movies. and i think that is where this movie scores even better than Jab We Met.

Surely all the actors and the director have a long long way to go...

Namesake

I felt magically gripped by this book. Even the movie didnt get me so engrossed (though it impressed me enough to make me pick this book up the next time I was at Landmark. It took me a lot of time browsing in the store before i gave up and went to the help desk and excused myself and even before mentioning the name of what i was looking for found it perched right behind the attendant)

Though a lot of people were fairly impressed with the book, a lot of people also onveyed me their dislike or the book. looking back at what really i liked in the book i found that the first thing that grabbed my attention was Ashima Ganguly. one of my friends pointed out that probably she reminds me of my own mom, and thats what is making me like this book and character. I somehow wanted to accept it as truth. Ashima happens to be a middle class housewife consistantly trying to adjust with the outside world and its culture and trying to bridge the culture gap between her and her children.

The next interesting character being the one of Gogol and his accident with his name and his continuous struggle to run away from himself and be someone different in a different world where noone recognises his older self. apparently even the character Moushumi shares the same character. I somehow couldn't resist myself assosiating myself from this character, always trying to run away from myself.

Also, the smooth way in which the story progressed was really impressive. it didnt give me an opportunity to want to put the book aside for a break

I have a kind of nice feeling at the end of it and wish it never ended and went on...

Good Story spoilt by screenplay

Halla Bol... a good story, nice dialogs and good actors... but screwed up thanks to the pathetic screenplay and direction...
In the age of bollywood where good original stories have become a rarity and killed the audiences, a good story called halla bol got butchered... the story was perfect and if not as good, it was atleast in the league of likes of rang de basanti...

there was no problem with the stars also... their performances were at their best... while ajay devgan reminded of gangajal and yuva, and pankaj kapoor of roja, vidya balan just added one more feather in her cap for her good perfecting...

the thing which set the movie berserk was the poor screenplay and dumb direction... some of the serious and emotional scenes were pathetic...

to add to the pain... the music didnt let ppl want to stay in the theatre either...

vidya balan, i feel, though has proved her talent once again, i think she needs to take a break and do a coupla glam roles also... while she screwed up her figure for a gr8 glam role in "heyy baby" she did sizzle for the few seconds she shook a leg in Om Shanti Om... audience would definitely be looking for more sizzling roles of hers...

coming back to halla bol, thanks to a couple of humorous scenes and good story i would award it 2 stars ** (people can watch it at their own risk)

Manfest 2008

Manfest 2008 was rocking... only wish the rest of the gang had also joined in to make it a more fun experience... there was silk route, parikrama and euphoria... and the manfest party... and the awesome bonding with the current oig...
It was also good (for a change) to meet some of the profs... but the whole trip was heavily nostalgic... guess, nostalgia was not a wrong word to choose for the program afterall...

The day i grew older..

yes, you are right... we actually grow every day... but i was referring to the day when the age increases in terms of years ignoring the decimals... if you still havent got it, i am referring to my birthday you dumbo...

i had a good birthday two days back...

0.00 hrs... standing on the footpath outside mainland china in andheri with skg, PP, ravi and benkoot with whom i just completed having dinner a coupla moments before...

0.30 hrs... reached home where a black forest each were waiting for me and swapnil... (btw whose bday we missed a coupla days b4)... so it was one fun nite...
after a calm and peaceful morning...

16.00 hrs... left with idea, karthi, and 2 others for a trek to the forbidden boundaries of vihar lake next to nitie... awesome trek it was... not too long to tire us out... it was some good activity that i missed doing since say 2nd oct when i went out for river rafting...
the kick about this trek was the place being a prohibited area... here goes some pics...

21.00 hrs... treated idea, karthi and swapnil at pop-tates... and called it a day...

happy that this bday being an important one turned out to be interesting... this bday being important doesnt mean i never had an interesting bday or not because it is first bday after i started earning ... but it is important cos now that i started working and i wont have a bday on a weekend again for probably for 5 yrs or so... so no more sunday bdays as a bachelor :O

ADIos

P.S: i still havent broken my promise to blog regularly