ISHAQZAADE- not a “happy ending type bolly movie”!

         Mai pareshaan- the song was an all time hit even before the movie hit the screens! And pareshaan you will be if you, like me, are a true bollywood buff, a person of “and they lived happily ever after” clan!

           The story basically is a slap on the face of those Indians who are still against inter-caste marriages and for whom their RULES and IZZAT are much more important than human emotions and happiness of their children. It is also a reminder to the women that no matter they are educated and empowered today but still there are spheres where they are rendered helpless and alone.

        The story starts from the political rivalry between two different religious clans in a small town in U.P. and explores gun shots within which,is a beautifully woven rustic love story with the main actress firing at the drop of a hat. Generally the suspense and shock in a movie comes at the end but here it’s a little different. The turning point is the interval itself. The story, if I spill out here, will be disheartening!

                          All I would say is PARINEETI CHOPRA is the star of the movie. Arjun Kapoor is good too but parineeti steals the show. The extremely appropriate locations, dialogues and background music adds to the glamour of the film. At some points the dialogues are pretty funny too. Gauhar Khan is good at her small act. “Pareshaan” is the song you hum while leaving the theatre and other songs are just average.

            Go enjoy the action packed political drama!

                     A must watch but a one time watch!

And the best of all is “hum haramzaade nai isaqzaade hain!!”

P.S. I personally couldn’t digest the “not a happy end”!

"GOOD" OLD DAYS....?                         

                           This has been one of the most debatable topics ever- 'Are we happier than are forefathers?'

                          It is a common sight nowadays and I am sure most of you must have had a first had a firsthand experience of it at least once, people grumbling about how different (rather 'in'different) modern children are today than they were during their childhood. The GEN Y is ever busy in computers (now i pads!) , they prefer angry birds to street games and much more lands up in the List Of Laments!

                               I would like to raise just one question. A seemingly simple one though. Whenever you invest in any kind of a developmental scheme always what you get is mere profit? The answer, of course is a rebounding NO!! Just because that is virtually impossible. Nature has not made things in a way that the consequences are strictly profitable always! Then I would like to ask the “lamenting people” how do you expect everything goody goody when you have already marched your children to the path of development? A mere (yes, now a mere) 80-85% in school was considered too great a performance in the “good old days” and today the highest marks go up to 98.6%!! People with 99.9 percentile in CAT get into top most IIMs with difficulty, over 12lakh children compete for 28,000 seats in AIEEE and I remember Sapan Parekh an all India rank 6 in CLAT (entrance exam for Law) that “Bangalore Law school milna mushkil hai”(it is difficult to get into Bangalore law school). With so much of cut throat competition people still expect to see children whiling away their time in gilli danda and lagori? I do not, dare not say that these games were useless but, I do strongly agree that the aptness of a thing lies in the time! Buying books were meaningful at an earlier time and not now because now a reader can download any book he wants at the click of a button!

          

                            

                                    Loads and loads of people complain about their killer jobs and how peaceful life was at an earlier time. To such people all I would say is you can conveniently go back to a peaceful village. But wait. Will they? Will I? NO! Why? Because all of us have been so accustomed to the technological comfort of the cities that the mere idea of shifting to a village itself is revolting! People in villages are happy no doubt, more satisfied than us because they have been just there forever. They are not running behind development like us all. We complain about the same advances to which on one side we are thankful for the comforts it has provided. We humans cannot have it both ways because for everything there is a price to pay.                                   

                                       Many of you might remember that not so long ago Sunday mornings were booked for vegetable market trips spending a few hours searching for fresh vegetables among the immobile cows and stuffy by lanes and returning home all drenched and exhausted. If those were the good old days then what about the comfort of fully air conditioned Reliance Fresh outlets you visit today where you get every exotic fruit and vegetable? Now I know advocates of “we are not happier than our forefathers”  will spring up and quote the earlier ‘regard’ of vendors’ livelihood and getting fresher vegetables but haven’t they heard of a much older theory by Charles Darwin “survival of the fittest”. Dominoes saw the upcoming class of techno freak, lazy brats who wouldn’t ever want to deal with a messy kitchen after chasing targets all day long in the office and hence came up the ‘dial a number order a pizza’ trend which made the owner a multi millionaire! Everything changes, only a change is constant and those who do not change cripple and fall!                         

                    I do not refuse to accept that modernization has its own drawbacks but then name the things which have absolutely no drawbacks? Not even a simple sand glass! One part of it has to empty itself in order to fill the other! I agree there has been a rise in murders, thefts, molestation and rape cases, bribes etc. but hasen’t there been a rise in GDP. literacy rate, turnover per annum and most importantly your income.

                  A grocery shop owner had a regular customer in an 80 year old man who, every time he came to buy ghee complained about its cost quoting “hamare pitaji ke zamane mein 1 sikke ka 1 kilo ghee mil jaata tha” (In my dad’s time I could buy I kilogram of ghee in 1 coin). The patient shopkeeper after a long time  respectfully told the old man- “baba. mujhe us zamane ka 1 sikka la dijiye mai apko 2 kilo ghee dunga”. (Sir, get me a coin of that time I will give you 2 kilograms of ghee) Surprised? Don’t be. The old man and the shopkeeper both knew that the coins of that time were made of silver which today costs Rs.56,210 per kg!!

                           This escapist attitude will really take us nowhere. We should learn to adjust with the drawbacks if we are so greedy about development. All I would say is if we want to develop, we have to bear the consequences too. So lets muster courage to stand up and fight back.

“Always pray for a stronger back. Not a lighter load!”                                                                           

                                                                                   Signing off.....

                                                                                       palak :)

FUNjabis,,,!!

           Khushwant Singh writes about an incident a friend narrated to him...

"During vacations some college boys from South India came to Delhi and rented a taxi for sightseeing.The taxi driver was an old sardarji and boys being boys began cracking Sardarji jokes just to tease him.To their surprise he remained unperturbed. At the end of the sightseeing they paid the cab hire charges.The Sardar returned the change and he gave each one of them a ten rupee note extra and said- Sons since morning you have been telling Sardarji jokes.I listened to them all and let me tell you,some of them were in bad taste.Still,I dont mind.But I have one request.I am giving you ten rupees each.Give it to the first Sardar beggar you come across in this or any other city.The friend continued-The ten rupee note is still lying with me.I COULD NOT FIND A SINGLE SARDAR BEGGING ANYWHERE!"

Sikh contribute

• 33% of total income tax
• 67% of total charities 
• 45% of Indian Army
• 59,000+ Gurudwaras serve 'langar' free of charge to over 60 lac people everyday

and all this when they are only 1.4% of the total Indian population!! surprising but true....!

                             

                                    The Punjabi culture is spreading all across the globe spanning all spheres be it food, dress,lifestyle or for that matter even marriage rituals!!  An executive in a multinational firm in Mumbai,Ankita Mehadiya,a marwadi married to a bengali, proudly shows off her "chuda".According to her its "cool" to wear at office making people know that you are newly married! The big fat Punjabi wedding (read ad FUNJABI!) is gaining popularity among people of all strata of society irrespective of their cultures.People are ready to spend heavily on weddings on the condition that they have a great time and what other than a Punjabi wedding could be a better guarantee. The movie 'Band Baaja Baarat' appropriately displays the wide range of applause a DHINCHAK JANAKPURI style wedding gets even in the aristocratic class.

                                           

                                    One easily notices that all the DJ parties are virtually incomplete without a Punjabi songs hour! All the popular party tracks have at least a line of Punjabi in them! Be it the mouth watering dishes or the immensely energetic rituals punjabi style weddings are so in! You have all the right to eat to your hearts content, dance till you can stand no more and the best part is you can actually give a smile wider than the socially acceptable only half an inch one!How can we forget Kareena Kapoor's famous Jab We Met harrom pants.? On a closer observation one notices that they are actually a typical Punjabi patiala salwar!

                                       

                               On a personal note,i vividly remember the night before my board exams, it was my neighbor's wedding and there were two huge "dhols" pumping up the spirit. you wonder whats surprising? Its this-my neighbor is a konkanasth brahmin,a maharashtrian!! I also remember my friend Afreen telling me that in the morning when she came to school it was the quietest around the Kamptee Road Gurudwara! Many of my friends keep asking me to take them yo a Punjabi wedding in my family! Its kind of a small joke among our non Punjabi acquaintances.When any one of them visits us they actually request us to serve coffee or tea or meals of the non Punjabi size! Nobody is unaware of the benevolence and large heartedness of the Punjabis.

                               

                                 Punjabis are famous for their great dressing and even greater eating and are the only ''species'' in my view who have the heart to crack and enjoy jokes on themselves. I have been to a church, a mosque, a buddhist temple, a hindu temple and a gurudwara but a gurudwara is the only religious place where you would never find a beggar because Punjabis believe in living off what they earn out of their hard work but at the same time are miser in no way! Also despite being a place with a great number of visitors the Golden Temple,Amritsar is a religious place where nobody pushes you or persuades you to hurry and move forward.Life is a race for people but it is a party for the Punjabis. 

                                                A Bollywood song rightly describes us-

                                                           "yaari hai jaan ainadi,

                                                         vakhri hai shaan ainadi,

                                         hasna pehchan ainadi,taiyyon ae duniya kehndi

                                                        SINGH IS KING!!!"

                                         LIVE LIFE KING SIZE WITH THE KINGS!

here's a cheer to all the Punjabis! We make the world a better place to live in! 

"SOME PEOPLE SPEND ALL THEIR LIVES TRYING TO BE PERFECT AND THE OTHERS................................................

ARE JUST BORN PUNJABIS!!" 

SINGH IS KING!!!"