Perspectives and perceptions

I'm sick and tired of firecrackers! It's always the same story, whether it's Ganeshotsav, Durga Puja, Navratri, Diwali.... I don't understand when the concept of sparklers and anars changed to atom bombs, laxmi bombs and laddis... Why must a child, boys, or anybody even want to crack these crackers?! To what pleasure? To whose liking? For whom? Why must we attempt to stimulate the terror and horror that real terrorists shower upon us? Why must we tune our lives to their sounds? Why should our Diwali be shrouded with sounds and bangs of horrifyingly loud crackers? Is it that big a nexus that the Govt. cannot simply ban the crackers and the allied sound items?! What sort of a Government are we living in? In my school, 10 years ago, we were taught about how entirely harmful crackers are, not just as a product but also as a means... child labour is used to produce crackers, the crackers cause noise pollution, air pollution, land pollution, and yet we continue and allow thei

This image reminds me of each time in my life when I’ve been too busy running from pillar to post about something and my mother’s been my rock while also asking me to slow down and have fun! In a time and age when parents are increasingly becoming insecure about their children in this “big bad world” my mother has stood by my side and let me live a carefree, free life! Each time I ask her if I could go out of town with friends, her first reaction is never being upset, or disappointment but excitement for my plans. Each time when I return from those trips, however late I might be, her first question is never “Why so late?” but “How was it?” My mother is a treasure trove. She has jewels in her speech which she hands out to others generously and at the right moments. I love her when she compliments my friends frankly without being embarrassed about her statements; I loved her when she actually told my best friend that she had a sexy butt! In this photo, you can see her playfully reac

What a better way to begin your morning than to write about the movie, Wake Up, Sid! :) It's one of the most happy, feel-good rom-coms the Hindi film industry has produced in a long long time! There are a lot of things right with the movie, from the simple story, to the well etched characters, to some fantastic acting, seamlessly blended background songs, real locations, and good cinematography. For starters, I saw this movie almost immediately after I saw, "What's your raashee?" and so I was obviously highly impressed with the HUGE difference in the two... But even otherwise, this movie was a happy movie which left you with a smile on your face... A simple story about a rich father's son, Sid Mehra (Ranbir), whose only occupation is to spend his father's money on parties, time-pass, and clicking photos. He meets Aisha Banerjee (Konkana) who's just come to Bombay from Calcutta (using the old names purposely - the movie did too!) She's a mature, wanting

Well, this is going to be a short one! To begin with, I was expecting a movie worth the name it was carrying, "Ashutosh Gowariker" It did not. It failed miserably! For starters, 1. Harman Baweja - This guy is terrible. I haven't seen Love Story 2050, but I'm willing to bet, it wasn't good because of him. His acting is substandard, his expressions are non-existent and his entire screen presence is minimal. In a screen he shares with Darshan Jariwalla, one tends to notice the latter. He is also completely overshadowed by Priyanka in the movie, for starters, the movie revolves around him, but he's more like the frame in which Priyanka is set! 2. Poor screenplay - There's hardly any dialogue which evokes an emotion, no laughter, no humour, no emotional touchpoint either. I'm wondering what happened to the Ashutosh Gowariker we know! In the entire movie of 3 1/2 hours (sigh) I remember only one dialogue, where Darshan (Debu) says to these two men who're

i made a list in class today... i realised i haven't blogged about anything in ages. i thought of a small theory, probably applicable only to me... maybe because i talk a lot to friends close to me, i rarely feel the urge to blog these days as i used to earlier... earlier the blog was my outlet, today i just talk a lot! :) well, here's a list of what to watch out for on my blog... planning to blog a LOT today!! 1. Movie Review - What's your raashee? 2. Movie Review - Wake Up, Sid! 3. October Heat?! Hell No! We've got October Rains! 4. Weekend Getaway - Matheran 5. Weekend Getaway - Uran 6. Mother's Hands So read on! and wait for the blogs!! :)

It's been a little more than a month at my new college... Xavier Institute of Communications. While there are a few things that I don't like about the college, like their strict implementation of a dress code!! (imagine not being able to wear sleeveless tops, no knee length skirts, no three-fourths even!) I've literally run out of jeans and tops and kurtas by now.. but we trudge on... Apart from that I'm thoroughly enjoying the course. The kind of amazing insights that we get from our faculty members, coupled with some good competition in class is really a refreshing change from graduation! Just a couple of days back we had this amazing class by Josie Paul, who's currently running an agency in Mumbai, he actually taught us how our everyday images, conversations and scenes become inspirations for advertisements. Some of the greatest ad concepts are actually from the copywriter's real life experiences. That thought set us all thinking and soon the entire class was

Micro-blogging has come of age, especially to update people about circumstances. Today's rains in Mumbai were a 'trending topic' in Twitter. Called '#mumbairains' People began updating or rather "tweeting" their status since morning, and some people like me who were at home were the media centres collating info from across the web, the TV and updates from friends and family over the phone... It was fun! and helpful... Although there are spammers who take advantage of the fact that it's a trending topic and post spam messages about their products and their events or their websites. Another thing called as retweeting which I think is mainly to reiterate a particular post so that more people across the networks get the updates. Some people were also indulging in jokes and fooling around, which was quite irritating and irresponsible. Someone began to spread some nonsense about a typhoon alert in Vashi and when lots of people began to question his source, h