Heartache to Heartache…we are together!

Of course you got it right….it is not supposed to be one of those double meaning titles. Lately I have been watching quite a lot of romantic movies after hundreds of Sci-fi, action and periodic war movies. May be I am graduating to a better movie viewer from a crappy one, who could watch just anything under the sun in the name of a movie. I have an inelastic demand they say…my friends from economics background will agree.
Now coming to the point, they say it is all mathematics. For every ten nays you get, one ye will be there. That means that greater the number of nays you carry with yourself, better is the possibility of hitting the bull’s eye. Yeah right, it is not from my school of thought…it is borrowed. But who cares… All that matters is the truth. So all the people out there, you are getting closer…just a few more hits (read nays) man! All the best 

Dhoom Macha De !!!

For quite a few days I have been following a music show named “Dhoom macha de” at the newly launched channel NDTV Imagine. Although the name of the show lacks originality, concept is relatively better. Hit singers of yesteryears are performing live to claim the title in the contest. It is quite heartening t o see old favourites like Anaida, Sunita Rao ,Kamal Khan, Baba sehgal , Devang Patel after rubbing shoulders with each other and humming their best numbers .

Anaida singing “Unchi neechi hai dagariya…Jara dheere chalo jee”.Kamal khan singing “Teri ankhiyan kamal…teri batiyan kamal…”,Baba sehgal singing “aaja meri gaadi mein baith ja…”,Devan patel singing “duniya jay tel lene aish tu kar…”,Sunita rao with“pari hoon main…” its really mesmerizing …simply astounding!

Although it’s a two hour programme but ten odd singers make you feel paisa vasool types…so never mind trying it.It is a welcome break from run of the mill talent hunt shows. I would just say Dhoom Macha de!

Saare zameen par…

During the last cluster meet at Gurgaon, I somehow managed to spend an evening with my cousins in Delhi watching “Tare Zameen par”. For reader’s information, the last few months since May I am living a life of real rural manager after all those pledges to work for rural India in general and development sector in particular. Had heard quite a lot about the movie, also read many reviews, blogs related to that. I was curious what made people just go hung ho over the issue of child upbringing. I watched the movie and realized that I might be suffering from the same problem as the child artiste in my childhood…hehehe. Although my painting skills were limited to drawing our tricolor and a tiny house with river, trees, mountains and a rising sun (everything fighting for space in that small sheet of paper). My family objected to me painting some unfamiliar shapes and figures, therefore my painting became one time annual affair…that too in the drawing exam of school in which we got 30 minutes to draw something. Since the instructor expected us to get just a D in the exam, mandatory for passing we sulked around. Year after year we were painting tricolour, the only thing that kept on changing was the cemented platform on which it was supposed to be fixed. The colours of the platform kept on taking unique and all unheard combinations. Slowly the school life got over and so did the painting sojourn. Just one hard hitting message…why the tendency of parents pushing their children to become Doctor/Engineer is not dwindling in spite of numerous success stories around? There are unimaginable career options around in the world at this point of time and we are still stagnant on that count. Guess…parents try to play the safe game by pushing their children for one or two particular career stream. But it is not the end of world if a guy/gal is not able to manage that due to whatever reasons. Pursuing a bachelor in fine arts from a reputed institute is zillion times better than getting an Engineering degree from tier three institute. Arguments can go on from both sides. Take it or not…but there is a life beyond everything!!!

We are changing for you…

The latest ad from Canara bank has been a real refresher. It is a pleasant change, these days even public sector banks are spending and making something meaningful to retain/attract customers. The ad with lady saying “Square slice” to her Cricket addict husband is what I liked the most among the series of ads in this genre being streamed. The process and implementation part if you see is really sweet and noteworthy. Even the second ad where a south Indian mother in law learns Punjabi to leave her Punjabi “Bahu” surprised, rejoicing in the first meeting, is soothing.
The whole idea goes much beyond the simple words…
If changing ourselves a bit here and there brings smile on the face of people who matter to us…why not do so? Is it so difficult to change ourselves even that much? Is working on this flexibility too much of an burden. Frankly speaking, this should not be the case. We can adapt ourselves and that can go a long way without any major difficulty. A mix of these tiny things can go a long way in to changing our important relationships. Just make it a point to change say four – five things initially for the people who matter to us. The result will be awesome. Just attempt it as if you are doing pilot testing..Life will be better.

I wonder whether it is a sign of some future turbulence or just one of my temporary behavioural fluctuations. For the last few months, I have been changing places frequently. To top it all, the places have been quite typical and I have survived unscratched, Thanks to the training I got during my post graduation, in remotest places covering numerous states all over India. I have liked all these things for some years now. But lately I have realized that I can not sustain this for long. Time is flying like anything. Joined this job in May last year, learnt and unlearnt several things all these months. People used to say that job satisfaction counts and I used to laugh them off. Frankly speaking, The Company in which I am working has been really great till now. But, something…somewhere is missing. I tend to feel insecure at times…shrugging off thoughts immediately. I fear stagnation, want to move on but need complementary resources, which I think is missing. I still have to work out on what could be my next move both professionally and personally. May be things will fall in line and smoothen out in due course of time…and since I have already been thinking on these lines…I am game !

Surviving Christmas…

On Christmas Eve switching on the TV here in this rustic hotel at a mainland UP town surprised me with the caption “Surviving Christmas”. Yes, this was the name of a movie scheduled to be streamed on Star Movies that time. From the morning I wasn’t feeling great, both as it was a holiday with nothing to do on list and I had not seen faces of many people except waiters. Names of actors were struggling for their part on the screen to be displayed…I caught Ben Affleck and an actress whose name I can’t remember right now. It has always been difficult to watch movies on a TV channel for me, thanks to ever increasing space and time given for promotional advertisements. For a hardcore movie buff like me it feels really bad and many a times it creates funny sequences. It seems that movie has been sandwiched between multilayered advertisements. But yeah Economics is economics …who else can better understand this than me after having a tryst with this subject for the past seven years. Movie started with Ben (Hero) proposing her GF for a first class Fiji trip on Christmas. But, she refused citing the reasons that Christmas was a family festival and she got to celebrate it with her family .Surprisingly, she also advised poor Ben to do the same with his family. But had the hero got a family back home to celebrate …where was the reason to go to Fiji dude…Now on the Christmas eve he was all alone deserted by her GF thinking what to do. One of his colleagues advised him to go to the best place he enjoyed in his life till then and refresh the memories. He went to his childhood home which was now inhabited by a middle class family consisting of a father ,mom, son and a daughter…see chhota parivar khushiyan apar….but happiness was limited here as they were surviving on a tight budget for their day to day needs.
Nevertheless, he bargained with the family to let him celebrate Christmas with it for a dont know why $250,000 hehehe…apne yehan koi free mein bhi nahi aata…anyways…so the day cocluded with action packed moments, romantic twists n turns, awkward situations blah blah…. And yeah Ben got a companion for lifetime…No prize for guesses.
And this ended my christmas on a happy note..i must say the movie was really good and refreshing.
PS – Watching this movie once won’t be a bad idea…moreover I ‘m here to reinsure ;-)

D U @ Memory corner…

Recently …one of my friends’ blog had a post dissecting the newly released movie Dil Dosti etc and its Delhi University connection. Throughout the post the emotional belongingness about a life much cherished and enjoyed was overflowing. I can connect to this because I have spent my three years struggling, rejoicing, winning, faltering and coming out clean in one of the deadliest subjects of our time BA (Hons.) in Economics in not so famous college (Read off campus…curse my pathetic scores in std 12th).In spite of doing really pathetic in my senior secondary I still had some faith on my bruised shoulders. The reason for choosing the course can also be partly assigned to my elders doing exceedingly well in the same. So, bang! I was there and after attending those form filling ceremonies in a very enthusiastic manner got through in this college in the second list. I was the fifth guy to take admission there. But I knew I won’t be fifth once the annual examination results are announced. Dekhiye kitna overconfidence tha …Rassi jal gayee lekin aithan baaki thi …hehehe .Before going any further with my story I would like to point out that unlike many newbies joining DU I landed up in a golden Lap amongst best of the best seniors /College toppers of various departments, some university toppers, some US heading people to guide me through the roller coaster of three years called Graduation, courtesy my elder brother. I was well aware of all the intricacies involved in being a DU student. Kaun se brand ki Jeans acchhi hai..shirt kaun si sahi hai…SALE kehan kehan kab lagta hai, kaun sa Bus route better hai,kaun se college ki gals blueline mein “Staff” chalati hain ,Log Pepsi /Coke chhod ke Bonta kyun pite hain ,FOSLA kya hai,Rikshaw pullers ladkiyon ko baitha kar rikshaw itni tej kyon chalate hain,Readings/Notes/Tutes kehan milte hain… etc. etc.In our days attendance rules were not that strict as long as you are performing well in once held mid term exam. I took seating (Seating in DU refers to attending classes in a different college from the one you are enrolled in) in one of the better colleges in the campus. Had a good time there, made some friends and was sailing smoothly through the year. Then in January mid terms in my home college were held and I was there to take the exams with vengeance …my classmates had not seen me earlier...so not much interaction happened during the exams. Results were announced and I was the topper…not only cumulative but in each of the four papers. So…I was started getting noticed...Meanwhile I made friends with two students belonging to my home state (they are happily settling now...Economics ke baad Fashion management karna pada unhe: D).Came the final exams and results…yeah I topped the chart in the college. But alas, only 13 of the 55 students could manage to pass(number reduced to 3 after third year).Tried for migration to better colleges in north campus and succeeded in the one I took seatings and the other one (considered best college in south campus).But to my surprise my college authorities were not willing to give me “No Objection Certificate” for migration. They said they are making some changes in the old system where every year toppers moved to better colleges and all their labour (supposedly) put in to making an otherwise dull guy glitter goes waste….and here I was…dreams shattered…future full of uncertainty. Now began the roller coasters of DU ….revaluations/university ke chakkar etc etc….Finally after much struggle managed to come out clean out of the system and hanged on to take admission in a decent sectoral B school.
The preponderance of the cobwebs in every sphere of my stint at DU has really been stern and yeah a life time experience of course!!!
PS- One post is never enough to assimilate all the fun we had during our college days ….even touching all the topics in a single post is difficult. Moreover each of them demands a full post or it would be a gross injustice. So more specific posts related to Train travels from Patna to Delhi in second class sleepers, Studying late night in DU students’ union reading room, DU elections and role of BABAs ,Attitude of Rikshaw wallahs carrying gals (read chicks),DTC /Blue line buses ,Park hunting, FOSLA, Weekend night shows etc . would follow in separate dedicated posts.