On a Republic Day...

This year I was fortunate enough to be in India on our Republic Day (26th of January). Ever since I can remember, I used to enjoy watching the Republic Day parade. Republic Day for me, as a child, was always a sad day because I knew there would be no more holidays till after the final exams (in March). I also used to love watching the military hardware on display.

This year the parade was equally impressive, especially the military part with the smartly dressed marching regiments. I felt proud of being an Indian, I my heart felt heavy with emotion thinking about all the people who have sacrificed so many things so that we as a nation can exist.

We Indians are really not proud of our heritage, I think most are not even aware of it. When someone asks we yell at the top of our voice that we are proud to be Indians. But all this patriotism is gone when people accept bribes, scream and fight at the top of their voice over minor issues and build illegally over reserved forest land. No one gives a damn then for what will happen to the future of India.

Funny enough that India is famous for religion and spiritualism. Some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of all time have had their roots here. All that wisdom is lost to us.

On an unrelated note:
This year the Chief Guest at the Parade was the Russian President Vladimir Putin. I wonder if he felt any kind of satisfaction seeing India proudly display its military hardware, most of which was bought from Russia?

Another unrelated note:
Had recently gone to the Domestic Airport in Delhi. Was really surprised to see the way it has been done up. It is looking really nice! It almost made me want to travel around India by plane. Then I saw the cabin crew for a few airlines entering the airport (I was standing there waiting for someone) and, well, lets just say I was feeling sorry that I was not going to board a flight!

Taxi No. 9211 (a.k.a. Taxi No. 420)

Just finished watching Taxi No. 9211.
I liked the movie. But there was something going on at the back of my mind while I was watching it. I knew this movie has to be a copy of some Hollywood flick. Mainstream Bollywood is just not that creative!

Yet I couldn't figure out which one. Initially when I had seen the trailers of the movie I thought (wrongly) that perhaps its a copy of Collateral.
As the plot unfolded, it suddenly struck me which Hollywood flick Taxi No.9211 was a copy of.
Taxi No. 9211 was copied from a movie called Changing Lanes (released 2002) starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck.
The story is exactly the same except in case of Changing Lanes Samuel L. Jackson (played by Nana Paterkar in 9211) is not a taxi driver and Ben Affleck (played by John Abraham) is a lawyer. The circumstances are the same, Ben Affleck has to submit some papers in court involving a multi-million dollar trust suit.

The full story of Changing Lanes can be found here.

Too bad mainstream Bollywood can only copy stuff or dish out re-heated crap.

Desert of Love

When someone tells me how they just broke up with their gf/bf I say to them:

Time to move on to the next oasis in the desert of love.

I think finding love (true love) is the hardest thing to do in this life. People have become too conditional and practical.

In the old days when trading caravans used to cross huge desserts they used to cling to the support provided by various oases along the route. A dried oasis or a slight divergence from the route could result in a long drawn out life and death struggle which was more often than not won by the desert.

The same way in life if we wish to cross this great desert we need to find some comfort or love along the route. In the beginning we have our parents/siblings to provide us with that comfort.
As we move along into the deep desert (start making our own way in the world) we come across various pools of comfort and love.

But sometimes things go terribly wrong and we end up hating the word 'love'. It taints us for life but we have no choice except to move on. To keep searching for the next oasis hoping that we are not lost in the ever-shifting sands of despair. Because to stay still means giving up on 'love' and loosing all hope.

Snapshots of Life

Picture Title: 'Cheers with a B52'

Picture Title: 'Mother India'

Unconditional Love....

Was discussing 'unconditional love' with a friend of mine.

I think 'unconditional love' doesn't exist. You love someone because of who/what they are.

For example if you love X you love them because that person is X. That in itself is a condition for love. Would you show the same love to Y or Z?
While you may not be in love for materialistic reasons, you cannot call it unconditional.

My friend defines 'unconditional love' as:

TK: but if u love that one person irrespective of the way they are... like for better or for worse... then that is unconditional

Thus the condition becomes:

IF person = X THEN
love them irrespective of the way they are
ELSE
do not love them irrespective of the way they are
END IF

To give unconditional love you need to evolve beyond a human being.
I think only two people that I know off were ever capable of giving that:
1) Mahatma Gandhi
2) Mother Teresa

No wonder they were given the title of 'Mahatma' and 'Mother'

Snapshots of Life

Picture Title: 'The Proposal a.k.a. Lehmann Brothers'

Snapshots of Life

Picture Title: 'Happy New Year!'

Picture Title: 'Balveen Kaur'

Irony of Marriage...

Picture Title: 'Irony'Mental problems: specially marriage and family problems.
Amazing... didn't know marriage was seen as a mental problem!

Snapshots of Life

Picture Title: 'Modesty'

Snapshots of Life

Picture Title: 'Where is the whiskey'
Picture title: 'Love'

Why am I still single?

Well I ask myself this question all the time.

Why am I single?

Hahahahaha well, the problem is whenever women deal with me they end up looking like this...
Yes... This is an actual photo of a girl out on a lunch date with me.

Maintaining a relationship...

After having studied women from all over the world... I can say one thing with a great deal of confidence...

ALL WOMEN SEEK SECURITY IN A RELATIONSHIP

The key to maintaining a successful relationship lies in identifying what kind of security the woman is seeking and to not get into the relation if you feel that you cannot provide that kind of security.

The nature of security being sought changes from woman to woman. Some women may need security of finances where as some women may just be seeking security for their freedom.

If u think about it, love is nothing but a series of questions answered in the right way.

tumne kya diya iss ghar ko.. chaar chaar betiyan

"tumne kya diya iss ghar ko.. chaar chaar betiyan"
Translation: 'what have you given this house except four daughters'

This stunner of a statement is from a serial called 'Ghar ki lakshmi: Betiyan' (Translation: 'The Goddess of a Home: Its daughters').

I wonder do people still speak like that?
What kind of people still believe/think such things?
Do people really ENJOY watching such things? Or maybe they just enjoy watching the people who have such thoughts being defeated by the hero/heroines in the serial?

The triumph of good over evil?

Man, when will we have some intelligent programmes on TV... that's what people complain!
I am all for such serials 'desi saas bahu' serials. They require much less brain power to watch. Something you can relax with. ;)

Personal Quotes..

Yesterday I was going through my old diaries and I came across some things which I had written way back in 2002. I am quoting them here...

If you are wise and you know what you are searching for, you will find 'it'... eventually.
If you are not wise and do not understand what you are searching for, then 'it' will find you.
-30th October 2002

If you are not serious no one takes you seriously.
-4th November 2002

Too much death spoils your appetite for life
-20th November 2002

Being an intelligent man in a stupid world is the same as being a stupid man in an intelligent world, useless.
-23rd December 2002

Sometimes you need darkness to see the light, thus never be afraid of the dark.
-8th January 2003

14-6th under surveillance

Me with the police car in the background (taken outside our house!)


Police car in front of our house.. it stayed there all night long and is still there (Sunday 26th Nov. 10 AM).


Police car behind our house.. it stayed there all night long and is still there (Sunday 26th Nov. 10 AM). You can't see it clearly but you can just make out the fluorescent green paint and the tail light thru the fence.


Our house has been under surveillance by the Police since yesterday night.

Why? Well I am not at the liberty to say.

This is my fourth encounter with the police, in UK, since I moved into 14-6th. Each time I have been impressed at the efficiency and professionalism of the local police.
They will come to your house for anything that they might need (such as a statement or a fingerprint). They are well spoken and polite. All in all very impressive.

Back in India everything good and bad about the police is well known by the local people. The local people know the whole 'system' and how to make it work for them.

Here it is the opposite. Nothing is revealed and no one actually knows what's happening in the police system. I am sure they must be having similar problems here as well, especially related to corruption and rascism (which is quite well documented actually!). But somehow it doesn't translate into their dealings with common, honest people.

Unfortunately its not the same back home. Where the police I think takes more pleasure in troubling honest folk than catching criminals.

Dhoom 2: The movie without a story

Dhoom 2

On my Heart Attack <---> Coma review scale (Heart Attack = 10 and Coma = 0) I would rate Dhoom 2 as a: Faint (3 out of 10).

Once again, just like in Don, this movie proves that Bollywood has learnt (though not mastered) the art of special effects and stunt sequences (or atleast learnt to hire the right people from outside India!).
This movie ALSO proves another important point: special effects alone do not make a movie a pleasure to watch. If in Don they copied the story, in Dhoom 2 they thought let s pick up scraps of a story from any Hollywood movie (in this case Entrapment) and stitch them together to fool the public into believing that this movie HAS a story! Come on guys we KNOW you can do good special effects... now just prove to us that you can come up with a story to support it too! Stunt sequences without a story to back them up feels like your watching basketball being played with a football!

Dhoom2 for me was a combination of:
1) A hip-hop video
2) Some glitzy special effects
3) Some cool desi-comedy sequences

The Good stuff:
Locations are as usual excellent and Uday Chopra played his role well.
The special effects are good.
Bipasha as Shonali.
Hritik Roshan's dancing and overall screen presence.
The choreography is good (especially in 'Crazy kia re'.
The extra babes are SEXY especially the ones wanting their beachball back ;)

The Bad stuff:
Aishwarya as a 'cool and normal girl'. She just is not able to pull it off! Even her accent is weird! Bad casting or bad role I am yet to decide.
Bipasha as Monali, a weird weird role!
The story (just doesn't add up!).
The music is just not as good as Dhoom. All the songs seem similar.
Hritik Roshan trying to give the 'Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean' look.

In closing I will just say this... Dhoom 2 is the ONLY movie till date where after watching the first 15 minutes, I was READY to switch screens (we had gone to a multi-plex). Just that the movie (Borat) I wanted to switch to with my friend had already started!

Love and Submarine Warfare...

Often Love can be like Submarine Warfare in the old days.

In the old days when the submarines had diesel engines and technology was not as 'hi-tech' as what we have now, submarine warfare was a combination of skill and patience.
During World War II the German submarines used to stalk their targets, often in groups, like wolves before dealing that killing blow. That is why they are were called 'The Wolf Pack'.
But there was no guarantee of success. The submarines while having surprise on their side, had several disadvantages. Therefore often a submarine captain just got one chance to strike effectively. Once detected the submarine was always under threat from several sources such as bombers (armed with torpedos) and destroyers (armed with depth charges).
The standard procedure used to be to identify and track the target, get the 'firing solution' for the torpedo and finally to launch the torpedo and wait to see if it hits the target or not. Launched torpedoes are refered to as 'fish' and to indicate torpedo launch the phrase 'fish are in the water' is used.

Love is like this. Especially when you are trying to woo a girl, at the same time you don't want to tell her plainly that 'I love you' (whatever the reason for that may be). So basically you are the submarine, you have identified the target and now you are tracking it.

While you are tracking it you have a finite window (with respect to time) to launch the attack before the target either obtains friendly air/naval cover or reaches its destination (in other words till the girl finds someone else or it is no longer possible for you to woo her).

How do you tell her you are interested? Well there are 101 ways of expressing your interest. To choose the right way is like obtaining the firing solution on the target and therefore the actual attempt is like launching a torpedo.

Once you make the attempt, all you can do is wait and watch. Once the fish are in the water they will either miss or hit.
If it hits then your problems are solved.
If it misses then too there can be three possible outcomes:
a) you remain un-detected (i.e. girl doesn't understand your attempt and remains un-aware of your feelings)

b) you are detected but no action is taken (i.e. girl is still undecided).

c) you are detected and blown out of the water (i.e. girl REJECTS you).


In case of (a) you might get a few more attempts to re-calculate the firing solution (plan a different method of expressing) and launching a second or third torpedo (i.e. you may get a second or third chance to express yourself).

In case of (b) you need to find out why no action was taken. Maybe you have been tracking the wrong target or something wrong with your attempt. Thus you need to analyse the situation, re-calculate the firing solution (plan a different method of expressing) and then re-fire!

In case of (c) blow main ballast tanks and perform an emergency surfacing manouver and once surfaced perform repairs(in other words bail out, retreat and go lick your wounds). If you are not able to surface (i.e. you become a Romeo without a Juliet) then pray to God that you are bit luckier in your next lifetime!

:)
A.

Why do I drink?

Conversation with a friend...

TK: i've heard some ppl say that the reason they smoke or drink is to forget some things... but when one comes back to ones senses the problem also returns
only way to solve a problem is to solve it... not forget it

Kyuzo: who says i drink to forget problems
i stay sober to forget them

TK: then why do u have to drink?

Kyuzo: to achieve clarity

AN ANONYMOUS COMMENT

i totally agree with ur friend TK. :p
and ur dialogue about clarity is not at all clear to me. it was just OHT. :D

I think the above comment was posted BY MY FRIEND TK in support of her confusion :D

Anyway what I meant was... sometimes when you drink you relax enough to reduce the confusion which allows the emotions to flow freely. You allow your emotions a free access. This free access, you may say, 'clears the air'... thus bringing clarity.

What the hell is that!

Can anyone tell me what this is?